Portal to Hell

Eleven

Another week passed before Bobby was discharged, just like he'd suspected would happen the Day he regained consciousness from that mini-coma. He wasn't quite as sore as he was, although his neck, upper back, and chest still caused him the most pain over anything else. Luckily, he hadn't fucked up those discs that were already giving him problems with all his fighting and struggling during the exorcism, so that was one more piece of good news.

Once he'd been discharged, Bret and Rikki worked together to get him loaded up into the rental truck they'd taken back to the airport long enough to extend the rental agreement on during one of their trips to Salt Lake City. Aisling–whom he still called Dragonfly more often than not–and Richie were back at his vacation house, working on doing some cleaning up since it'd sat empty for so long. Howie was working with his neighbor, Dave, and the guy's son to chop more firewood since he'd a Wood stove and Wood-burning fireplace he used up here more often than the furnace. He was just glad to hear that they hadn't burnt the place down while he was in the hospital, which he was more than glad to get away from.

Upon arriving at the vacation house, the bassist was surprised to see another car in the driveway, but chalked it up to one of the others getting another rental for running errands. His bigger focus was getting outta the Tahoe they'd brought him to his home-away-from-home in without breaking or otherwise hurting anything else since the driveway was a bit slippery.

"Daddy!"

Surprised by the sudden squeal the minute the pair of blondes got him through the front door, he couldn't help a wince as something plowed right into his leg and hugged it tightly. "What the–"

"Hey now, Zach–what'd I tell chu about being gentle with Daddy?"

Looking down toward his feet, Bobby saw it was his young son, who pouted up at the one to speak to him in a half-admonishing tone.

"But me missed Daddy," the toddler said, which made him chuckle.

"And I'm sure Daddy missed chu, too," Dragonfly told him. "But Daddy's still got a lotta owwies, so chu gosta be careful with him."

"Sowwy, Daddy," Zach mumbled.

"Hey, it's okay, buddy," he chuckled, wincing again as he managed to kneel down so he could hug him. "But Miss Dragonfly's right about Daddy still being sore."

"How chu gets hurted?" his son asked, eyes wide as he looked up at him.

"Well, the easiest way to put it's that something Daddy couldn't see or hear was doing it," Bobby answered. "It's kinda hard to explain, buddy."

Gasping, the little boy gave him another hug before letting go and darting into the living room, where he could hear him chattering a mile a minute to someone else.

"Hope ya don't mind getting Mishy to bring Zach up here," Dragonfly said as his blonde bandmates helped him back up. "I figured he'd wanna see ya, 'cuz he didn't exactly believe me when I said ya were doing better, but had to stay in the hospital for a while longer earlier this week."

"Hey, I'm not about to turn down a chance to see my little man," the bassist chuckled. "We're just gonna have to keep him from pouncing on me like he's known for doing."

Laughing, the young Witch quickly led the musical trio into the living room, where Mishy was settled on one End of the couch while Richie was curled up on the other with a book. He couldn't help wincing as the blondes got him settled in his recliner, which his son promptly crawled up into with him. A smile curved his mouth as the boy snuggled against him, seeming almost like he thought he'd disappear again, if he so much as blinked.