Dani

Untitled Part 17

Hank had been on medical leave for a week now, the first few days he didn't mind it he got to spend time with Dani. He managed to get some house work done around the house that normally couldn't be done. He's wanted to go back to work but the doctor hadn't cleared him yet and the CPD is asking him to do a psych eval to see if he's ready to return mentally. He didn't need to see any shrink to prove if he was mentally stable or not. He was fine but nobody listened to him.

One morning he had to get Dani up for school and when he went to check on her instead of running around and getting her school stuff together, she was laying in bed whimpering with her blanket pulled up close to her chest. Wasting no time he rushed over and bent down to her level.

"Dani, honey what's wrong?" Hank asked, scanning her over.

"I don't feel good," She whimpered. "It's really hot"

He put the back of his hand to her forehead and felt the small amount of body heat that came off of her. Standing to his full height he went to the bathroom and grabbed the thermometer and put it in her mouth, she held it under her tongue to register her temperature. After a couple of moments it beeped finally registering.

When Hank took it and saw it read 101.3, he had a feeling she caught a bug from a kid at school. He carefully picked her up and took her downstairs. He was gonna be doing most of the house work downstairs and he didn't want her to be too far out of his reach or sight in case she needed something or if something else happened.

The older man had her set up on the couch, he put a pillow on one of the ends and laid her down covering her up with her blanket. Her eyes half closed. He set her stuffed bear in her arm and went to get her medicine, since getting her he always kept some handy and stocked up. Grabbing the bottle of children's cold medicine he went to the kitchen and got a small bottle of orange juice for her.

He returned to the living room and quickly poured the right amount of cold medicine in the small plastic cup he sat on the end of the couch holding the cup and bottle.

"Dani, I need you to wake up honey" Hank shook her gently, not wanting her to get sick.

"Hmm what?" She mumbled, her eyes cracked open some.

"I need you to take some medicine and then you can go back to sleep"

The six-year-old was too out of it but gave a simple nod as Hank helped her sit up and take the medicine when she managed to take the medication Hank had opened the bottle of juice and put a straw in it for her to drink out of she slowly put the straw in her mouth between her chapped lips and slowly sipped the ice cold juice letting it go down her dry throat. When she had enough she spit the straw out.

"Alright try and rest now sweetheart. I'll be doing some house work if you need me ok"

The sick six-year-old gave another weak nod and snuggled back down onto the couch covering up with her blanket and bear falling asleep, snoring softly. He put a small fan near her to keep her cool and went about doing the housework that needed to be done.

Within a half hour he managed to straighten up the kitchen, he put a load of dirty laundry in the wash. While that was washing he checked the time and saw that Dani hadn't eaten anything and she needs to try and at least have something. He quietly went to the kitchen and grabbed a can of chicken noodle soup and dumped it in a pot then heated it up on the stove. While that had been warming up he put some bread in the toaster. He remembered when Justin was little and times when he had gotten sick he or Camille always made him chicken noodle soup with dry toast, it was one of his favorites when he was sick.

He wanted to try and continue that for Dani, he still had no idea how he would ever tell her the actual truth. That he was her grandfather and that his son was her biological father. He knew right now she'd be too young to fully understand so he was going to wait till she was older but even then he didn't know how he was going to tell her. He knew deep down if he told her she was going to hate him for lying to her.

When Olive left and took Daniel he thought he had lost the last of his family but finding out about Dani had given him a new hope he didn't want to let it go and lose it. He had nearly gone off the rails after his son's death. Most days he felt like going over the edge and something was holding him back. That something came in the form of a small little six-year-old that now relied on him and he didn't wanna screw that up.

He couldn't cross the lines he was used to crossing to get the job done, he wanted to be better than that now that he has Dani to think about. She'd already lost her parents, Marco abused her, if she lost Hank who knows what could happen. He didn't even wanna begin to think of the possibilities of what could happen.

The older man was broken out of his thoughts by hearing the toaster pop out the two slices of bread he set those on a plate and went to stir the soup. Once it was hot he turned it off and poured it into a bowl and put a spoon in it he had taken it out to her. Carefully he sat the bowl and plate onto the table and reopened the bottle of juice for her. He gently tapped her shoulder.

"Dani, time to wake up honey"

The little girl let out a soft groan from under the blanket as she peeled her eyes open some and looked at her father. Hank had a small smile, he remembered very well how much his son did that when he was sick, burying himself under the covers leaving just his nose sticking out for air.

"Yes daddy?" She croaked out.

"Time to eat something. I made you some chicken noodle soup and toast"

He helped her sit up and not move too fast so she wouldn't get dizzy. She sat on the floor in front of the food picking up the spoon. She took a small helping of soup and ate some. Hank had turned the tv on for her and put some cartoons on. He bent down and kissed her head as he went to make himself something to eat.

He didn't do anything big, just grilled cheese and some soup, once they were finished he put the remaining dirty dishes in the dishwasher and left it until he and his daughter were finished. The older man took his food out to eat with his daughter. When he saw how much of the food she had eaten he was impressed. Dani had managed to eat half the bowl of soup and at least one of the pieces of toast and more of her juice.

Hank had managed to eat just about half his food before putting it down on the table. Dani took her place back on the couch and snuggled into her father's side, without hesitation the older father wrapped an arm around her and pulled her close. She looked up at him.

"Daddy, aren't you afraid you'll get sick?"

"Not at all"

If he got sick the hell with it, if his little girl needed him then he'd be there. He wasn't going to let a small cold stop him. Normally he hated being out of work and put on the side lines. Being off with Dani, it wasn't so bad after all.