Healing Milton

four

"You ready?"

Milton nods slowly, sitting on the bathmat, listening as the bath is filled with water and bubbles, the sweet smell of strawberries filling the air. His broken leg is wrapped in cling-wrap, a plastic bag secured over the top with tape as an extra precaution. It looked a bit silly, the giant blue cast now  cocooned in plastic, 'Bellbrook's finest fruit and veg' plastered on the side in bright red text.

Aldric sits opposite him, legs spread out in the small room, his sleeves scrunched up to his elbows and a soft smile on his face. He reaches over slowly, careful not to move too fast as he reaches for the straps keeping Milton's arm pinned to his chest and begins to loosen it, supporting the arm while he does so.

Milton lets out a small whimper when his arm moves, but Aldric is quick to adjust, his large hands practically enveloping Milton's entire torso.

"Okay," Aldric moves the strap aside, his other hand still supporting his arm and shoulder. "This is the tricky bit. Callum will be here in a sec, and then we can get you out of these clothes and into the nice warm bath, sound good?"

Milton blinks, the words a little too fast for him to process but he still nods, sucking on his bottom lip in worry.

"I'm here!" Cal enters the tiny ensuite bathroom, a small handful of clothes in his arms.

He steps over Aldric's legs, places the clothes on the sink and squats down next to Milton, a smile on his face. "Sorry, I couldn't decide which clothes you'd prefer so I brought a few different options."

Milton doesn't really react, his eyes focused on the bathmat. Having both of them in the same room was a little overwhelming.

"Here we go." Callum gently begins to help Milton move out of his shirt, gently guiding his good arm through the hole before getting it over his head.

The next step was to get his injured arm through the hole, and with one look at Aldric, together they move in a blink of an eye, removing the shirt and tossing it away. They both pause when its done, looking at Milton to gauge his reaction.

His lip wobbles, and he sniffs, but he doesn't cry and he doesn't start screaming, which Aldric expected.

"That went alright! Now it's just the pants, that's the easy part." Cal gently rubs Milton's back.

A knock on the bathroom doorway has all three heads turning at the noise. Alpha Henry stands there, his hulking frame taking up most of the view. Milton lets out a squeak of terror, and Callum is quick to jump up, moving out of the bathroom and closing the door behind him.

"Alpha, you- you scared him."

"I'm sorry, but I need to talk to Aldric about something."

Callum frowns. "No."

Henry blinks, shock written across his face as he stares down at the small man. He didn't think he'd ever heard Callum say that before.

"What?"

Callum takes a deep breath, both he and his wolf prepared to stand up against their alpha if it meant keeping Milton safe and comfortable. "I said no. He's busy. In the future, if you want to speak to him, please contact him first or wait until someone can let you into our apartment. We have a buzzer for a reason."

Alpha Henry stands in absolute shock, not knowing how to respond as the little man ushers him away, shutting the apartment door behind him and letting the audible sound of the lock clicking into place cement into his brain that he was not welcome.

"What just happened?"

Cal, on the other hand, shakily walks back to the bathroom, gingerly knocking on the bathroom door before opening it up a crack. "It's just me, he's gone."