Daddy's Love

CHAPTER 13 - THE CHECKUP

I am a jerk. Jay told me again and again and I did not listen to him. If I would have taken Ana to the

doctors it would all have been over and done by now. She would have been on the path of recovering

from the trauma too, but I did not.

And today is the last day.

If I don't take Ana today, two officials will take her and make her get the shots which can be the only

possible worse situation than taking her to the Doctors myself.

It's six in the morning, I wake Ana up.

"Come on baby, we got to get up early today." I shake her slightly and then pick her up in my arms.

She whines.

I dress her up while she is still half asleep, and then quickly pack a bag with everything that we are

going to need, while she is sitting on the couch hugging her elephant.

"You want to take the stuffie along baby?" I ask her, picking her up.

She nods and yawns.

"Would you like to have some milk?"

She ignores me.

"Maybe some chocolate milkshake?"

She looks at me. That got her attention.

The doorbell rings.

"That must be uncle Jay." I say and go to open the door with Ana in my arms.

"Hey, come on in."

"Hey. Morning Ana. Rise and shine!" He greets Ana. She smiles at him.

"Where Carol?" Ana asks Jay.

"Would you like to meet her after we come back from the doctors?" Jay asks her as I hand Ana over to

Jay and rush to make her a bottle of milkshake. I don't want to get late.

When I come back five minutes later, all ready to leave Ana looks more awake and a little chirpy too.

"Let's go!" I call and the three of us leave.

I am driving and Jay is sitting with Ana on the back seat. I am so thankful for his presence right now. He

is answering all the difficult questions that Ana is asking and the bloke is doing a darn good job of it. I

think of when we took Carol and flinch.

Ana looks at me.

I should calm down. I will freak Ana out! I take deep breaths to calm the fuck down. I look at Ana. She

is again engaged with Jay.

"You promise?" she asks Jay.

"I promise." Jay answers solemnly. "But only if you be a good and a brave girl today."

"I be best." Ana smiles.

"And remember it's okay to feel scared, right? Your daddy and I are going to be right there with you. All

the time."

We go inside and are made to sit in the bleak waiting room where I am quickly filling forms and Ana is

sitting on Jay's lap with her elephant, looking at me every now and then. I smile back at her

reassuringly, much more in control of my emotions now.

We are soon called in for the ordeal to begin!

Four hours later, I open the door to my house with Ana asleep, in my arms, whining every now and

then in her sleep. Jay follows us, with Ana's bag and our lunch in his hands.

Jay spoke to Carol while we were coming back in the car. She is fine and her babysitter will be

dropping her here after she wakes up from her nap.

"Hey man, thanks for today. I wouldn't have been able to do that alone." I tell him. Property of Nô)(velDr(a)ma.Org.

"No problem. I am famished. You want to eat yet?" He asks.

"Sure, I will just put Ana to bed and come back."

I go upstairs and lay Ana down. She flinches and sleeps on her tummy.

"Ana, hon, are you hungry? Would you like to eat something?" I ask her, when she opens her eyes to

look at me.

Tears starts falling, she turns her face and mumbles something.

"You want something love?" I ask.

"My elephant"

I pick up her elephant and hand it to her. She turns around, hugs the elephant and closes her eyes,

almost as if she is unable to bear the sight of me.

I kiss her head, ignoring her flinching, dim the lights and go downstairs.

Jay has already opened the pizza boxes and beers we picked on our way home.

"How's Ana?" he asks as we sit down to eat.

"horribly upset." I mutter, picking on my pizza.

"Hey, Chris, it's okay. That had to be done. We had no other option." Jay holds my hand on the table.

He is saying all the right things but that doesn't make me feel any better.

"Hey, hey, look at me." He stands up and comes close to me.

"She'll be fine. Give her some time, she'll come around, I promise." Jay tells me and kisses me.

I melt into his kiss. I want him to make love to me, so that I forget about today, about the possibility of

Ana hating me that has been gnawing at me. I deepen the kiss but Jay pulls back.

"No. Not here, not now. She'll be fine okay?" He asks me once again.

I get a grip on myself and nod. We sit back to have our lunch.