John Dory wakes up groggily, pain radiating all over his body. He opens his eyes just slightly and sees the hospital lights and ceiling, the brightness making him grunt in pain.
Eye. His right eye is free but his left is bandaged and he can't see anything on that side.
"John?" Peppy's voice comes from his right and John looks at him as the older troll comes to his bedside. "You're finally awake. Thank the Muses."
John swallows and coughs. "Water please?" Peppy helps him sit up a bit and holds up a glass of water, the straw in front of his mouth. Taking a drink makes John's throat immediately feel much better. He sits back after taking a few sips. "Thank you, Peppy. What the hell happened?"
"It's no trouble, my boy." Peppy sits back down. "From what Branch explained, you both had a run in with a Sparkle Hound this morning."
John's eyebrows furrow. "I kind of remember. All I could think about was keeping Branch safe. How long was I out?"
"A few hours." Peppy smiles. "You fought valiantly, my boy."
"Where is Branch?" Peppy points to John's left. Turning to look, Branch is curled up on the chair next to his bed, one of her paws supporting her head as she sleeps. It looks like she got taken care of at some point too, her cheek now sporting some butterfly bandages and her right arm is wrapped up. Her coloring is still duller than usual, her navy hair even darker as it falls loosely around her shoulders. She looks exhausted.
John smiles sadly. One of her paws is on the bed next to his and he grabs it. Branch suddenly wakes up, looking around frantically before seeing John smiling at her. "Hey, kid," he whispers.
"Daddy!" She sobs and gently tackles him, hugging him as he pats her back with his non bandaged hand. "I'm so sorry, I'm sorry," she cries into his chest.
John sits stunned for a second, Branch calling him 'daddy' catching him off guard. He hugs her closer. "You have nothing to apologize for, baby." He sees Peppy stand up and quietly walk out of the room, which John feels grateful for.
Branch pulls away, rubbing at her tears with her fists. "This is all my fault! If I hadn't run away like that you- you wouldn't be hurt! I'm sorry!" Her colors are flaring wildly with her emotions.
John pulls her back in and kisses her head. "Babygirl, you had every right to be upset. If anyone should feel sorry right now, it's me," he says, cupping her cheek. "I'm so sorry I never said something to you sooner, sweetheart. I'm so so sorry."
Branch knocks foreheads with him, sniffling as she looks up at him. "Why did you lie?"
"I didn't want to, trust me sweetheart," John says. "I found out about you just before Trollstice when I was fifteen, bug. I was so young. Your-" John tears up a bit. "Your other dad was my boyfriend and he got taken."
Branch hugs him. "I'm sorry," she whispers.
John hugs her back, letting her lay on his chest where he wasn't injured. "Rosiepuff found out about you and she was... really upset with me. Told me to figure it out but I couldn't raise you as my kid because it would 'ruin our family image'." John quotes her, Branch stiffening against him. "I refused to send you away, so I did the only thing I could think of to keep you. I pretended to find you on the front stoop. Our parents had done the exact same thing with your uncles and me. It wasn't surprising that they'd leave another one." John sighs heavily. "I've regretted so many things in my life, but you've never been one of them, Bitty. I love you so much, kid, you have no idea."
Branch snuggles into his chest, tail wrapping around his waist. "I love you too, Dad," she whispers, looking up at him.
He cups her cheek again and kisses her nose. "My little girl. You're so beautiful, you know? You look just like I did when I was tiny, it's freaky."
Branch blushes and hides in his chest. "Shut uuuup, I look like a mess right now," she complains.
"A cute mess," John says, noticing the white pants she'd changed into at some point. "Love the white. It looks good with your vest."
She blushes again. "Th-Thanks. Poppy helped me pick some clothes a few days ago and she's been keeping them. I like the leggings and shorts. The skirts are meh." She wrinkles her nose. "Shirts are still stupid."
John snorts. Branch has hated shirts since she was a toddler, always finding some way to take them off at some point. John had kind of given up making her wear one, nobody really cared anyway. "You'll have to do a little fashion show for me so I can see what you got."
Branch rolls her eyes. "Just a few bottoms and a vest. I drew the line at an actual dress." She sits back down in her chair.
John relaxes back into his pillow as she grabs his paw. "Sorry about your birthday, sweetheart," John apologizes, his ears drooping slightly.
"Dad, I don't care about my birthday, I care about you," Branch replies, leaning over and kissing his cheek. "I'd rather you be okay than ever have a birthday party again, honestly." He wraps his arm around her.
The doctor walks into the room, Peppy right behind him. "John Dory! Good to see you're awake," the doctor says, his name tag says 'Dr Spring' and he's purple with bright yellow to blue ombré hair. "How are you feeling, John Dory?"
"Just John is fine, sir. Or JD," John says. Branch pulls away from their hug, sitting back in the chair while still gripping his hand. "I'm... alright, I think. Got a killer headache."
Dr Spring smiles. "Well, that's to be expected. You suffered quite a few injuries this morning."
"I noticed. What the hell is up with my face?" John touches the bandage over his eye.
"When the Sparkle Hound attacked you, it managed to slash at your eye with its claws. And there's not much we can do but wait to see the full extent of the damage." Dr Spring looks at his chart. "There is a decent chance of you losing sight in that eye but there's also a chance you'll make a full recovery. It's just up to time at the moment, I'm afraid."
Branch pats his arm as John sighs. "Not your fault, doc, you're cool." He looks at his daughter, "Don't you go feeling guilty, you hear me?"
Branch looks at him surprised. "How did you-?"
"Oh please, you're related to me, of course you're blaming yourself right now. I know I would be." John pulls her into another hug, whispering, "You're my daughter, I'd do it all over again to keep you safe." Branch hugs him back tightly.
"Now, about your legs," Dr Spring says, getting their attention again. He points to John's left leg, that he now notices is wrapped in bandages and feels weirdly numb. So does his right now that he's thinking about it... "Do you mind if I take a quick look?"
John gulps. "Sure, go ahead." Branch tightens her grip on his hand.
"I'll be gentle," Dr Spring says. He softly unwraps John's leg and lays it back down on the pillow it's propped on. It looks awful. There's a deep bite wound on his lower leg that looks swollen, and the skin around it is dark and discolored. There's also a gash on his thigh just above his knee, clearly from a claw, that's also really deep. Enough John swears he can almost see bone.
He covers Branch's eyes making her squeak. "Dude!"
"You don't need to see that, kid." John says, not letting her go. "What have you got me on that I can't feel that? That's impressive."
Dr Spring pauses and looks at him in confusion. "I'm surprised you aren't still in a lot of pain, actually. You should be just on morphine or lidocaine. You can't feel it?" He gently taps John's ankle with his pen. "Did you feel that?"
"No?" JD's confusion slowly starts turning into fear.
Green's eyebrows furrow. "Can you try to move your foot for me? Or try to wiggle your toes?"
Concentrating, John Dory tries to move his leg in any way, but he can only really move his upper leg. His lower leg is just not responding. John pales a little. "I-I can't..."
Branch peaks over his hand. "What does that mean?"
Dr Spring looks closer at his wounds and swears. He quickly but gently unwraps John's right leg and it looks almost worse than his left, the bite wounds much deeper as it was the leg the hound grabbed to throw him. "It looks like the wounds are infected with a venom of some kind. It's causing the numbness and killing off the tissue and nerves." Dr Spring gets up quickly. "I'm going to get Dr Moonbloom, she's the head of all doctors." He leaves, running down the hallway.
"What the hell?" Branch says, sounding really scared. "What does that mean? Are you dying?!"
John rubs her back and tries to reassure her. "No, bug, I'm not dying. I'll be okay, babyg-" He stops, remembering Peppy is in the room.
Branch looks up at him softly. "I told him, Poppy and Cooper earlier, it's cool, dad."
Peppy smiles. "I'm so glad you finally talked to her, son," he says, patting John's shoulder.
"You knew already?" Branch asks, raising an eyebrow.
"He figured it out before we got here." John averts his eyes in embarrassment. "Promised not to say anything until I told you myself. The only other person I told was Green." John winces. "He has been hounding me about telling you since you were six."
Branch rolls her eyes. She lightly punches his good shoulder and hugs him. "Took you long enough."
Dr Spring and Dr Moonbloom rush in, the lavender and blue troll immediately walking over and looking at John's wounds. "Hey, Johnny, how are you feeling?" she asks.
John smiles as best he can. "Fucking peachy, Moon. Congrats on the promotion, by the way."
She snorts at his response. Inspecting his wounds closer, she gets a grim look on her face. Moon grabs the pen from Spring's clipboard and lightly pokes John's big toe. "Can you feel that?" She presses slightly harder as she asks.
John shakes his head slowly. He looks at her with wide eyes. "What does that mean?"
"Nothing good." Moon looks at his mangled legs, the wounds a deep purple color and his skin around it is turning black. "I'm sorry, but we have to get these legs off of you. Your wounds are deeply infected with Sparkle Hound venom and you could get really sick if we don't amputate."
John pales considerably and Branch gasps next to him. "You- you can't take my legs! I need them!"
"John, I'm sorry, but we can't-"
"No, I refuse!" John yells, pulling away from her.
"Dad, please listen to them!" Branch says, grabbing his hand and keeping him down. "Please listen to her, Dad. She's a doctor, if she says she has to, please listen to her," she begs. Dr Moonbloom looks at her startled before smiling softly.
John huffs, squeezing his daughter's hand. "You're sure there's nothing else you can do?" he asks tentatively.
Moon gives him an apologetic look. "I'm sorry, kid, I wish there was. We'll fix you up and get you up and about again before you know it, I swear." She nods over at Branch. "Maybe she could build you a couple of prosthetics, the little mechanic she is."
Branch blushes, her ears wiggling happily at the compliment. "I'll build you the coolest legs ever."
John sighs and smiles weakly at her. He pulls Branch down to kiss her forehead. "Okay... okay," he whispers.
Moonbloom pats his shoulder. "Let's get you fixed up."
~•~
I'm so fuckin excited abt this idea y'all got no clue lol
Till tomorrow, enjoy!