Chapter Six

Play Therapy

“Good evening, sweetie pie, why the sad face?”

Ollie placed his tray on the table at the end of Daisy’s bed the following night shift and snapped on his disposable gloves. Daisy shook her head and sniffed. Her mother, sitting next to her on the bed, had her arms around her daughter, comforting her as best she could. Ollie pouted at the pitiful look in the girl’s eyes, and Daisy reacted with a brief smile.

Ollie had multiple reactions to seeing Becky and not the man he’d been expecting in room one. Slight relief washed over him, immediately interrupted by disappointment, leading on to concern and guilt. Overwhelming guilt that he had caused this girl’s father to fear coming back onto the ward.

“She’s upset about the scar,” Becky explained.

Although she kept her voice light, Ollie could hear the hesitation and bitterness in it. Or was he overthinking things? He doubted she would know what had happened between him and her ex-partner earlier that morning.

“She was allowed to take a bath today and saw it in the mirror.”

Ollie scooted around the bed and perched down in front of Daisy, startled to notice the similarities she bore to her father. Her long, thick dark hair draped over her shoulders and those piercing blue eyes sparkled through her otherwise dark features.

“You mean your superhero zipper?” Ollie asked, pointing to Daisy’s chest. “That’s your superpower, girl. You do know how all those superheroes change into their costumes so quickly, don’t you?”

Daisy shook her head, wiping her hand under her nose.

“They all have a zipper. Like yours. Except underneath your zipper might not be a Lycra costume you can use to fight crime, but there’s a miracle underneath that.”

Daisy seemed unconvinced. The itchy, burning red stitches traveling down from below her throat to her sternum certainly weren’t going to feel like a miracle to her right then, and the incision would seem grotesque, not matching the beautiful images of Disney Princesses and pop stars displaying their perfectly sleek skin on the pages of the magazines spread out on her bed. But Ollie knew that underneath that scar a miracle had been performed. Even if it had been Dr. Rawlings who had performed it.

“And you know what else, sweet cheeks?” Ollie continued. “That’s your trophy. How many other kids you know have a trophy they get to keep forever on their body, huh?”

Daisy shook her bowed head. The small smile curving her lips told Ollie he might be getting somewhere.

“You be proud of that.” Ollie prodded her nose. “You’re now special. So…” Ollie slapped his legs and stood. “You turn that frown upside down, and I’ll have a look-see if we have any extra special treats for a real-life Supergirl, huh?”

Daisy grinned and nodded. Becky offered a grateful smile in return, but it disappeared as her gaze slid over Ollie’s shoulder. Ollie spun around and met Jacob’s awed expression. Jacob clutched a plastic bag in one gloved hand, and snowflakes glittered on the shoulders of his black coat. His woolly hat covered most of his hair, but strands flicked out from underneath, and Ollie sucked in a breath when Jacob’s blue eyes gleamed across the room.

“Daddy!” Daisy’s smile grew wider.

“Hey, pumpkin.”

Jacob’s low voice made Ollie’s stomach flip. It fluttered ever so much more when Jacob switched his gaze from his daughter to him.

“Hi.”

“Hi.” Ollie couldn’t seem to make his legs move.

“Ollie says I’m a superhero.” Daisy wriggled in the bed away from her mother’s clutches.

“I heard,” Jacob replied, and the gratitude in his eyes made Ollie shift his focus to the floor.

“Are you staying with me?” Daisy asked, oblivious to any unrest in the room.

“Sure am.” Jacob stepped farther into the room.

Ollie cleared his throat and finally made his jelly legs walk back to the foot of the bed. He avoided any further eye contact by rechecking the items on his tray, pressing buttons on the obs machine, and anything else that would show his dedication to the job.

“Right.” Becky stood. She leaned in and gave Daisy a quick hug and kiss. Gathering up her coat and bag from the sofa, she addressed Jacob. “I’ll be back at eight.”

Jacob nodded. “Anything I should know?”

“Other than you’re an arsehole?”

“Becky.” Jacob sighed, his eyelids fluttering to a frustrated close.

“Mummy!”

Becky glanced down at her daughter and softened her toughened exterior.

“Sorry, honey.” She gave her another quick peck on the forehead. “Be good. I’ll see you in the morning. Get some sleep.”

“Okay, Mummy.” Daisy sank back to rest on the mounds of pillows.

Becky glided past Ollie and approached Jacob hovering by the door. Ollie couldn’t help but watch out of the corners of his eyes.

“We need to talk,” Becky demanded.

“Okay,” Jacob replied. “Right now?”

“No.” Becky glanced back to Daisy idly flicking through the magazines littering her bed. “Not when she’s around. I’ll call you.”

Becky brushed passed him with her sharp, clomping shoes, the sound disappearing as the doors to the ward flapped shut. Jacob remained rooted to the spot. Ollie felt the awkwardness. So he did what he could only do and got on with his job. After a few moments of collecting Daisy’s obs and checking the bedsheets, Ollie finally acknowledged Jacob’s presence with a reassuring smile. Jacob didn’t return it, instead sauntering over to perch in Ollie’s vacated seat.

“How’re you feeling?” he asked his daughter.

“Okay,” Daisy replied. “I’m not tired. Can we play?”

“Sure. Have you been sick today?”

Daisy shook her head, her long hair flapping around her shoulders.

“Can she eat?” Jacob asked.

Even though Jacob hadn’t taken his eyes off his daughter, Ollie knew the question had been fired at him. His daughter’s nurse.

“Yep.” Ollie nodded. “Dinner’s been and gone, though.”

“Oh, right, no, I mean—” Jacob lifted up his plastic bag filled with the varieties of colorful foil and paper wrapping that indicated a child’s dream was held within. “I brought her favorite snacks but wasn’t sure if she could eat them.”

“I see.” Ollie winked at Daisy. “Well, I hear she’s been a nurses’ delight today, so I’m sure she deserves the odd snack or two.”

Daisy cheered and Jacob gave a grateful smile. He rustled around in his bag and pulled out a share pack of chocolate-covered malted-milk balls, making Daisy bounce up and down. Jacob chuckled, and Daisy held out her hands for him to pour some of the chocolate balls in. She immediately popped four into her mouth, and Ollie chuckled at her puffed-out cheeks.

“Do you want some, Ollie?” she asked through her stuffed-full mouth.

“Oh, no. Thank you, though,” Ollie said. “I have to get back to work, as all is in super order in here.” He winked, and Daisy grinned with chocolate seeping through her teeth.

Jacob dropped the packet to his side, and Ollie swallowed down the guilt. He might have shared pizza in here last night, but he had to step back and reevaluate this situation before it got way out of hand. He hadn’t been able to sleep properly, thinking about Jacob, the kiss, and how he’d felt about it. He never had gotten the full eight hours’ recommended sleep in the day, anyway, but he’d barely made four consecutive and was dog-tired standing on his feet with a full night shift to get through.

“I’ll be back in four hours.” Ollie wasn’t sure which one he was addressing the statement to. “She’s gone to four-hourly obs now. But if you need me—”

“Press the dress,” Jacob finished for him.

Ollie breathed out a laugh. “Yeah,” he agreed. “Take care of my little Supergirl here.”

She waved and grabbed another handful of chocolates from the open packet in Jacob’s hand. Outside, Ollie inhaled an anxious lungful of air and tucked himself firmly behind the nurses’ station. This whole not-feeling-anything was harder than he’d first thought.

* * * *

“I did it.” Taya grinned. “I actually did it. I did the friend-cull thing. Like everyone does in January, then by March, they’ve already started to friend-request you back.”

“I always notice that,” Ollie remarked. “You get a request from someone who you’re totally sure you were already friends with. Turns out they cut your arse sometime back and now realize their Facebook feed doesn’t take as long to procrastinate over and so come sneaking back with a thumbs-up at your new profile pic in the hope you won’t notice they binned you.”

“Exactly. So I cut about fifty people whose dinners I’m not interested in seeing and those who tag themselves at the gym or have their Runkeeper on their newsfeed, and those who write stuff like ‘I’m so angry right now’ and then when their friends ask ‘why what’s up, hun?’, they say ‘in-box you, don’t want nosey parkers on here LOL.’”

Ollie snorted in amusement.

“Leaves me with less, but, hey.” Taya shrugged.

“Quality not quantity,” Ollie agreed and threw her a box of meds to add to the cabinet they were refilling.

“Exactly.” Taya went back to sorting through the medication on the shelf. Night shifts meant more time to check the cupboards for supplies, and this one was turning out to be particularly quiet. No major upsets; most of the children on the ward were sleeping and having a night off medication and on four-hourly obs, meaning Ollie wasn’t able to keep his mind off everything like he usually could. Thank heavens for Taya and her incessant chatter.

“I didn’t cut you,” she added, with a wink over her shoulder. “I have to say I like looking at your profile pic. Very sexy.”

“Cheers.” He handed over another box from the crate. “That selfie at the beach took at least eight goes to get right, and I still had to touch it up on the photo-editor app.”

“Bullcrap.”

“Seriously. I had this spot on my chin at the time, and nothing was getting rid of it. Turns out, you don’t have to get rid of it in real life, because photo editor does it for you. Oh, and my hair is not that blond, and my body is definitely four shades lighter.”

“Not got on the sun beds recently?” Taya twisted around to close the cupboard now all the medical stock had been verified and refilled.

“Not over Christmas,” Ollie said. “But I got a voucher for Sun Angel I plan to use ASAP because, seriously, I could be camouflaged by the frost outside with how pale I am. No one likes a pasty bod, and seeing as I’ve waxed all my hair off, it’s on full view. You’d go blind from the reflective rays alone.”

Taya laughed. “Give over,” she said, hands on hips.

“Seriously.” Ollie pushed the trolley crate to the side of the wall.

“Lemme see, then.” Taya stepped forward to lift up the bottom of Ollie’s scrubs top.

“Oi, gerroff,” Ollie groused. He tried to push her away, but she ducked under his outstretched arm and pulled his top farther up, revealing his slender, toned stomach. She gave a wolf whistle, and Ollie nearly whacked her upside the head, until he froze to the spot on noticing Jacob peering down the corridor, clutching hold of Daisy’s hand.

Ollie shoved Taya away and ruffled his top back down over the elastic waistband of his scrubs trousers. Taya stepped back, hand over her mouth, desperately trying to hold in her witch’s cackle. Ollie subtly nudged her with his elbow before jogging up to Jacob and his patient. He smiled as if he hadn’t just been caught with his top shoved up by a female nurse next to the secluded supply cupboard.

Jacob clearly tried to return the greeting, but no words came out. Ollie cocked his head and waited a little longer. It almost seemed Jacob was having a bit of a reaction to the scene he had witnessed? Ollie hoped it was a good reaction and not one that Jacob would dwell on at length on his parent feedback form or send him to the Patient Advice and Liaison Service to declare that the nurses tending to his daughter’s care were juvenile cretins.

“I can’t sleep,” Daisy said, giving her father time to snap to and remove his stare from Ollie. Not that Ollie minded. With those piercing blues, Jacob could eye-fuck him as long as he wanted. Ollie immediately realized the total inappropriateness of that thought, shook his head to wave away anything further, and turned his attention to the little girl.

“Oh dear.” Ollie placed his hands on his hips. “We can’t have that.”

“She wanted to see if she could get into the playroom,” Jacob said, having to clear his throat to do it. “It was locked.”

Jacob still looked a little frazzled, and Ollie was having all sorts of reactions to his blatant staring. One reaction he was going to have trouble covering up with the thin material of his scrubs alone. So he kneeled in front of Daisy and took her hand. Focus on her and the job. Not her father and his eyes.

“We have to lock the playroom at night as all the children are trying to sleep.”

Daisy pouted, her bottom lip protruding out so far Ollie couldn’t help but prod it with his finger.

“Can you not let her in there for a little while?” Jacob asked. “We’ll be quiet.”

Ollie swallowed. Saying no to Jacob, whatever his demands, seemed to be something he was finding impossible to do. “I’m so sorry.” Ollie quickly turned back to Daisy. Refusing her access was so much easier. “If I let you in there, then everyone will ask me, and by the time we know it, there’ll be a party going on.”

Daisy pouted again and looked up to her father, swinging his arm. Ollie checked his fob watch and ruffled a hand through his hair. “All right, look,” he said. “I’m on my break in twenty. I have a pack of playing cards in my locker. How about, if I beat you at snap, you have to go to sleep? And if you beat me, I’ll open the playroom.”

“Okay!” Daisy nodded enthusiastically.

“Well, go on then,” Ollie ushered her forward. “I’ll meet you in your room.”

Daisy twisted on her socked feet, and Ollie could tell she wanted to skip off back through the ward, but the little energy she had and the pain from her chest stitches meant she could only cautiously amble away.

“Thanks,” Jacob said over his shoulder.

Daisy yanked his arm, and Jacob stumbled to follow. Ollie waved him off, then turned to Taya, who stood some way behind him. She chewed on her thumbnail with wide, all-knowing eyes.

“What?” Ollie flared.

“Nothing.”

“Good,” Ollie countered and straightened out his scrubs before heading off to the break room.

* * * *

“So, are we all clear on the rules?” Ollie asked, eyeing Daisy, who sat propped up by pillows on her bed covered by the mounds of blankets, and Jacob perched forward in the comfy seat beside her. Ollie, one leg curled under the other, sat on the edge of her bed, the three of them making a perfect triangle of players. He shuffled the deck, expertly flicking the cards in each hand, and the breeze made Jacob’s hair fly away from his face.

“Yes.” Daisy giggled.

“Good.” Ollie narrowed his eyes at her father. “Jacob?”

“Yes,” he said with a smile that lit up his face.

“Great.” Ollie dealt the cards, using the mattress as a table. “Now, I don’t want to get you all worried, here, but I’ll have you know I am the snap champion of Bear Ward.”

“Really?” Daisy sat forward with interest.

“Oh, yes,” Ollie replied. “I have a trophy, too, y’know.”

Daisy slapped a hand over her mouth, and Jacob chuckled, shaking his head. Ollie took his share of the cards and shuffled farther up the bed. Daisy focused her attention on sorting her deck neatly in her dainty hand, so Ollie took the opportunity to wink at Jacob. Jacob blushing beneath his dark stubble made Ollie smile. He straightened out his own cards with a minuscule sense of renewed triumph.

“Ladies first,” Ollie offered. Daisy smiled and slid out her top card, but before she could turn it over on the mattress, Ollie held up his palm to stop her. “I’m giving you the opportunity to back out, now knowing you are playing against a champion.”

Daisy snickered and shook her head. “No, I have my Daddy on my side, so you’re playing against both of us.”

“Oh, really, now?” Ollie cocked his head. “Well, I’d best be getting all my good moves out, if I’m to impress your father, here.”

Jacob’s eyes couldn’t get any wider, or at least Ollie didn’t think they could, and the fluttering in Ollie’s stomach made it all the more worthwhile. He chuckled and waved for Daisy to continue. She shuffled forward and flipped over her card, placing it down on the mattress, revealing the ace of hearts. Ollie smiled.

“That’s you, princess,” he said and nodded to the pack. Daisy grinned, and Ollie turned to Jacob. “Give it your best shot, Jacob Monroe.”

Jacob licked his lips. Eyes remaining on Ollie, he flipped over his card and slapped it on top. Eight of clubs.

“Ooooo,” Ollie blew out between rounded lips. “Too bad.” He threw his card on top and hovered his hand over it. Four of spades. He huffed and slumped back. Daisy giggled.

Ollie didn’t let up his comedic narration of the game as it steadily continued. He couldn’t believe how much fun he was having, closed off in the room with Daisy and, he had to admit it, Jacob. He completely lost track of time, forgetting he was spending his break playing snap rather than eating like he should be. He didn’t care—he could argue this was all part of the job. Daisy was smiling and giggling, and that was the best recovery medicine. The other nurses were all outside and would notify him of any alarms from his other patients. So he decided to finish the game, especially when he saw the yawn from Daisy. His plan was working. Nearing one in the morning, and the girl was finally succumbing to her weariness. Playing snap with a deck of cards wasn’t exactly the fast-paced noisy game it was when using the image cards in the playroom. The likelihood of matching a pair from a deck of playing cards was infinitely more difficult; therefore Daisy was losing interest.

She flipped over her card and sank back onto the pillows, eyes drooping. The six of clubs sat on top of the six of hearts, and Ollie immediately whacked his hand on the pile. Jacob’s slapped down on top. Ollie met his gaze, and the crushing on his hand loosened for an imperceptible moment. Ollie was momentarily dumbstruck by the depths to Jacob’s deep blue eyes, and he struggled to swallow the increased saliva in his mouth.

Stunned further, Ollie sucked in a light breath as Jacob glided his thumb along Ollie’s hand, ghosting it across his skin. Without the thick gloves to mask it this time, electricity struck from the delicate touch alone. Ollie’s heart hammered so hard his ears pumped with the flow. The room’s surroundings blurred until Ollie could only see Jacob. His eyes. His lips.

Jacob continued to slide his thumb over Ollie’s skin in tender strokes, and Ollie tingled with every sweet caress. His skin numbed, along with his mind. Ollie didn’t take his gaze from Jacob’s, and his lips parted to make way for something to say, or do. The increasing heat from Jacob’s palm formed a sheen of moisture over the back of Ollie’s hand, and Jacob’s fingertips trembled. All sense and reason left the room when Ollie slid his own thumb up to curl over Jacob’s knuckle, an instinctive and involuntary movement Ollie couldn’t control. He wanted to touch Jacob. He needed to. His beating heart was telling him to. Jacob’s thumb hit parts of Ollie that had been suppressed for so long—his feelings.

“I think Ollie won that one, Daddy,” Daisy said with a yawn and rub of her eyes.

Ollie had forgotten she was even in the room. Jacob snatched his hand away from Ollie’s and bowed his head. Ollie’s heart thumped, letting him know he was alive. Jacob had let him know he could still be alive.

“Ollie?”

Ollie whipped around at the sound of his name. Taya stood at the entrance to the room, having opened the door without him noticing. He widened his eyes in question and desperately tried to even out his elevated heart rate whose echo had traveled up to his throat and wedged itself there. How much did she see?

“Room four.” Taya’s gaze flickered from Ollie to Jacob. “Baby’s NG tube has been ripped out. You have to come reinsert.”

Ollie nodded at double speed. Jumping from the bed, he wiped his clammy hand down his scrubs and scampered to the door. Taya vacated the room without anything more said. Ollie glanced back at Jacob. He had his head bowed, twisting his hands in his lap.

“Snap,” Ollie murmured.