The Presidents Daughter

Right Here

Aaliyah

Patrick has surgery on his collar bone the day after he broke it. There's no way he would last another night trying to sleep with it broken and the sooner he gets it fixed the sooner he can get back to the ice. Since the surgery he's been laid up at the house doing his exercises and watching all different kinds of things on Netflix. As much as I hate that this happened to him, I love having him around. He's still a pretty upbeat guy. He's trying so hard not to let this get to him but it's hard. Hockey is his life and it just kicked him in the balls pretty good. You can't blame him if he's down. The best thing I can do is cheer him up. Take the best care of him and hope he gets better soon.

"You don't have to take care of me like in a child. I'm a grown man" he reminds me as I hold his plate of food in my hand.

"So do you want me to pack this food up and take it to work" I ask making his eyes go big.

"No" he begs and I laugh.

"That's what I thought" I smile as I set the food down. He sits up on the couch and lets out a groan until he gets his arm was in a comfortable position. I set up his pillow he's supposed to rest his arm on and scoot the table closer so he doesn't spill the food on the carpet. Again.

"I feel like a kid" he mumbles.

"Well right one you're acting like one" I accuse and he smiles.

"I love that you tell me how it is. I don't know what I would have said if you were to tell me that I'm not acting like a child right now" he claims.

"We're in a serious relationship, you're not my child. If you were my kid I would have said that you're fine because you would be a child so acting like one is expected. But you're 26 so I have no problem letting you know you're acting like a baby. But still my baby" I assure him.

"Good" he smiles.

He eats his lunch while I clean up the mess I made in the kitchen. I eventually join him on the couch and toss my feet in his lap.

"I seriously feel awful. You worked your ass off to start this organization and you finally get it off and running and you are stuck here watching over me" he insists.

"That organization is the most self sustaining place in Chicago. All I had to do was get it started and the people took care of the rest. Yes I love being there and yes I over see it. But they don't need me. You don't either but I feel a lot better being here with you knowing that you're going to be okay" I say.

"And I love that about you. But I still feel bad because I know what it's like when you're not around and it's dark. You light that place up and you should be there" he claims.

"When you go back for your one week check up and if they say you're free to roam around then I'll bring you to work with me and we can stay there as long as you want. But for now I'm staying here with you and I don't care what you think. I'm supposed to be here, with you" I assure him.

"It's hard for me to argue with you when you're always right" he jokes and I smile at him.

"Yeah yeah. Now shut up and watch the movie" I insist.

"We've seen this a million times" he reminds me.

"We have. And we will watch it a million more" I claim.

He ends up falling asleep because his pain meds make him drowsy. But the one time he claimed he didn't need them he almost passed out from the pain. So I adjust his arm so that it won't hurt his collar bone and I leave him be. I pick up around the house a little before going downstairs.

I look at the picture of us together up on the wall and smile. He wanted to put the picture of all of us up on opening night cutting the ribbon, but I wanted to keep this one up. While MAC was a big part of me, he was the biggest part of me. I wouldn't want to do this without him. I think it would have been impossible for me to even think up something like this if I didn't fall in love with the person he is. And I saw in him what I see in all the people who wanted help but don't know to ask for it. All he needed to see was his worth and that he didn't need all those gimmicks to have worth. He was a incredible man and he chose who he showed it to. But no there's no denying how great he is. I look at this picture of us and it's all I can see. And because he's great I can be great too.

So I sit down at my desk and I start to work on some stuff for the organization. Even if I'm not there I gotta answer some emails and make sure everything is okay. Naturally we are going to have issues because the people on the streets often times get caught up in the wrong crowd and I don't want this to become a place of hashing out issues. It's moving past our issues and into a better future. That's all.

"I knew you were down here" a voice says and I look up from my laptop. I see Patrick sitting there with his arm in a sling and his hair a mess on top of his head.

"You told me to get to work" I smirk.

"Oh now you listen to me" he teases as he walks over to me. He resets his good hand on my shoulder as he looks at what I'm working on.

"I always listen. Whether or not I actually do anything about it is a different story" I defend as he laughs with me.

"What are you working on" he wonders.

"These are actually all emails to MAC telling you to get well soon" I say as I show I'm the folder I was working on.

"Man, I swear I am the luckiest man in the world... with a snapped collar bone" he says.

"No, it's repaired now" I smirk.

"Wow, you're the worst" he claims and I laugh.

"You know I love you" I defend as he smiles back.

"Yes, yes I do."