Doctor Dash

Chapter 24

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"Uh, well, I guess since the boys are asleep," Danny said as he followed Dash back down the stairs, trying to be quiet so that no creaks of the steps would wake the boys, "I should probably head out now."

"It's already pretty late," Dash said, shaking his head. "You should just stay over. I mean, I've got an open room. I always offer it to Kwan and Paulina when they come over, though Kwan usually refuses and just heads home." Chuckling, he rubbed at the back of his neck as he reached the bottom of the stairs. "But I mean, well," he rolled his dark blue eyes as he sighed, "I have to admit I was a bit nervous about leaving Xander on his first sleepover. And it's not because of you," Dash added quickly before Danny could even work up a grumpy response. "Xander's never had a sleepover before. And whenever he wakes up from something in the middle of the night, I've always been there for him. So I was worried about how he would react if he had a nightmare and I wasn't there."

Danny frowned, because now that Dash mentioned it, the worry crept into him. The night that Xander slept over at his house, Lex suffered a nightmare, and Danny didn't even need to ask to know what haunted his son's dreams, beyond the occasional ghost clown with and one of those water squirting flowers that instead shot out a green goo that could melt stuff like acid. He never cared much for clowns, but even he was completely turned off them after that ghost clown attacked. Clowns weren't the reason that Lex woke up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night and needed to seek comfort from his father before he could fall asleep again. Lowering his gaze, Danny knew because he had those nightmares too. He couldn't imagine how badly things could go if Lex woke up from that and couldn't find his father anywhere to chase away the things that scared him.

"I guess I should probably stay," Danny admitted with a wince. "Uh, let me just grab something from my car."

After Dash opened the door for him, Danny headed toward where his car was parked out front. When he popped open the trunk, Danny grabbed the laptop that sat there. He hadn't anticipated sleeping over as well, but he brought it along with him, thinking maybe after he dropped off Lex, he would head to some small coffee house to do some writing. He could hole himself up at home for days when he was writing, but sometimes it was nice to get out and put himself in new surroundings. Sometimes it could really help with inspiration. With the laptop tucked on his arm, he slammed the trunk shut before heading back into the house. Dash remained standing in the open doorway waiting on his return before he closed the door behind them.

"I hope you don't mind if I do a little work while I'm here." Danny scratched awkwardly at the back of his head as they walked into the front room where they could sit comfortably on the couch. He realized that could maybe seem a little rude, focusing on his work when he was a guest in someone's home. But he had a scene in mind that he wanted to get written down before he forgot it.

"I'm a little surprised you're still awake enough to even think about work." Dash shook his head as he lounged back on the couch. "But if you're going to work," he leaned over the side of the couch to pick something up, "I might as well use the quiet time to get some of my own reading done."

After toeing out of his , Danny drew his legs up under him as he rested the computer in his lap. When he heard the comment, he glanced over at the man, already lifting to top of the computer to work on his writing. He froze as a warm blush crept onto his cheeks when his eyes landed on the very familiar cover of the book in Dash's hands. "You're, uh," words suddenly failed him as he stared at Dash, who blinked back curiously at him, "reading my book?"

Dash turned the book, glancing at the cover like only now realizing the author's name was the same as the man sitting next to him on the couch. "Yeah, Paulina had a copy of it so she let me borrow it." He tilted his head, scratching behind an ear as an embarrassed flush lightly colored his cheeks. "She wanted me to ask if you would sign it for her."