Found: A Father For Her Child Part 8

Carrie cherished the happy hug Dana bestowed on her as she made for the treatment room.

'Ah, here she is, my little Sleeping Beauty.'

Dana giggled at Charlie and Carrie felt warm all over at how naturally her daughter responded to him. She only hoped Dana felt the same way after Charlie had injected local anaesthetic into her wound site!

'h.e.l.lo, Charlie,' Dana chirped.

'h.e.l.lo, Sleeping Beauty. What have you been doing to yourself?'

'I felled over. Susie says I never look where I'm going.'

Carrie's laugh was joined by Charlie's warm chuckle. 'Grown-ups are such spoilsports. Not looking where you're going is so much more fun.'

Dana giggled again and Carrie was pleased Susie had already departed. Her daughter looked so small sitting on the big bench, her legs dangling over the edge, her white sandals with red b.u.t.terflies swinging back and forth. Her blonde hair was pulled up into two bunches sitting high on her head, a yellow ribbon around each one.

She looked at Charlie, at the world, with such trust in those big blue eyes and Carrie felt irrational mother's guilt rear its ugly head. If she'd had been there maybe this wouldn't have happened.

'OK, now, I need to have a look at your chin. Do you want Mummy or me to pull the plaster off?'

Dana looked solemnly from one to the other. 'Mummy,' she announced.

Carrie smiled and kissed Dana on the head. 'Fast or slow, baby?'

'Fast,' Dana replied.

Carrie peeled up a corner of the plaster. 'OK, ready...steady...'

'Go!' Dana p.r.o.nounced.

Carrie ripped it off quickly without a peep from Dana. 'Ugh,' she said, looking at the gaping hole beneath. 'That definitely needs fixing.'

Dana nodded. 'Naughty pot plant.'

Charlie chuckled and sat on a mobile stool in front of Carrie's daughter and snapped some gloves on. 'Can I have a look, Sleeping Beauty?'

Dana giggled. 'You can fix it, can't you, Charlie?'

Charlie felt his heart melt at Dana's four-year-old innocence. Her big blue eyes were irresistibly gorgeous. So this was how it would be to have your own child, your own flesh and blood, looking at you like you were Superman. Could he fix it? At the moment he could have slain a dragon for her.

He tilted her chin up and examined the damage. The cut wasn't very deep and only about a centimetre long, but gaped in the middle. It had stopped bleeding. 'I reckon I can fix that as good as new.' The wound edges were straight, which would make for a neat scar.

'Susie says that you sew it up just like Grandma does when she sews my b.u.t.tons back on.'

'Susie is very smart,' Charlie confirmed. 'Open your mouth, sweetie.' Charlie smiled as Dana obeyed instantly, opening it as wide as it could go. Her neat white teeth all appeared to be intact. 'Now, bite down, like this.' Charlie demonstrated. 'Like you're eating a great big steak.'

Dana followed suit. Her bite seemed even enough. He felt along her jaw up to the angle both sides. 'Well, I don't think you did any more damage.'

He glanced at up at Carrie to confirm it. She was looking at him with such an intense stare that he momentarily forgot about Dana sitting in front of him. He momentarily forgot to breathe.

'Charlie.'

Charlie could hear Dana's high voice but Carrie's stare was distracting in the extreme.

'Charlie!' Dana tugged at his sleeve.

'Sorry, sweetie,' he said, breaking eye contact with Carrie. 'Let's get you sewn up.' He stood up and walked over to the tray of instruments he'd prepared earlier, taking deep cleansing breaths. What the h.e.l.l had that look been about? He didn't know what it meant but he did know that he hadn't been able to look away.

When he'd turned around again, Carrie had helped Dana lie back, her head right at the end of the table, and was fussing around, getting her in position.

'OK, Dana,' he said, rolling a trolley towards the bed and dragging the stool around to the head, 'what's your favourite thing in the whole world?' He snapped the light on above her head. It was attached to the wall via a long angled arm.

Dana giggled. 'That's easy. It's my mummy.'

Good choice, kid. 'What else?'

Dana looked at her mother for an answer. Carrie smiled and shrugged. 'Hmm...I think...oh, ding rolls.'

Charlie raised an eyebrow at Carrie.

'Spring rolls. She loves Chinese takeaway.'

'Ah.' He nodded. 'My favourite, too. What do you want to be when you grow up?'

'A ballerina.'

'Ah.' Charlie winked at Carrie. 'So you like to dance?'

Dana nodded vigorously and sighed. 'I love it.'

Charlie double-gloved and Carrie raised a quizzical eyebrow. 'Second nature around here,' he said dismissively.

Carrie nodded. She supposed it would be in a place where drug addicts with who knew what needed regular resuscitation.

'Now.' He returned his attention to Dana. 'I'll do you a deal,' he said, flicking the bubbles out of the syringe full of local anaesthetic. 'If you can lie nice and still for me while I fix your chin, I'll let you dance to my jukebox.'

'What's a dukebox?' Dana asked.

'Jukebox. Like in Happy Days,' Carrie explained.

Dana's eyes lit up. 'You have your very own dukebox, Charlie? Really?'

Charlie smiled. 'Really.'

'I promise I'll keep very still, Charlie, really I will.'

Carrie laughed at her daughter's wide-eyed exuberance. 'Charlie's going to put some stuff into your cut to make it go all numb so you can't feel it when he sews it up. It'll sting a bit.'

'Like what the dentist put in Emmett's mouth?'

Charlie raised an eyebrow at Carrie and then looked back down at his patient. 'Who's Emmett? Is he your boyfriend?'

Dana giggled again. 'No, silly. He's my cousin. He's twelve and he had to have a filling 'cos he doesn't floss.'

Charlie smiled at Carrie again. 'Oh, dear. Do you floss?'

Dana nodded solemnly. 'Every night. Mummy makes me.'

Charlie laughed, totally charmed by Dana. 'That's what mummies are for.' He glanced at Carrie again and felt warm all over at the love and pleasure he saw in her eyes.

Carrie swallowed hard. Charlie was being so good with Dana. Their rapport had been instant from the night of the accident. She didn't need this man in her life. Making her crazy. Making her daughter laugh. Kissing her.

'OK, now, enough chatter. Hold my hand, Dana, and shut your eyes. Remember to stay very, very still. Squeeze Mummy's hand when it starts to sting. Squeeze it really hard. It'll be over soon and then you can go and have a dance.'

'OK, Mummy,' Dana said, shutting her eyes and s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g up her face.

Charlie smiled as he adjusted the position of Dana's chin. He nodded at Carrie. 'Ready?' he mouthed. Carrie nodded back and he could tell from the way she was holding Dana that she was ready to use her body to keep Dana still if she bucked.

Charlie inserted the fine needle into the edge of the wound. Dana flinched slightly but stayed still. But that was the easy part. Lignocaine stung like mad and he sent up a silent prayer that Dana would continue to be good. He slowly injected the local anaesthetic agent.

'Mummy?' Dana's eyes opened. 'It's hurting, Mummy.'

'It's OK, darling, squeeze my hand hard. It won't hurt for long,' Carrie said, rising and lying gently across Dana's body in case she tried to kick or twist. She could see tears s.h.i.+ning in Dana's eyes and felt guilt and pride in equal measure. 'Mummy's giving you a special hug, see? You're being so brave, isn't she, Charlie?'

'Absolutely,' Charlie agreed. 'You're braver than a hundred boys. There...I've finished now.' He placed the syringe back on the trolley.

Dana sniffled. 'Really? You think I'm braver than a boy?'

Charlie chuckled. 'Definitely. Now we'll wait a couple of minutes for the local to make you numb then I'll sew you up, OK?'

'Then I get to dance?'

'I promise.'

Carrie listened absently to the lively conversation between Charlie and her daughter while they waited for the local to take effect. Charlie's regulation three-day growth and s.h.a.ggy hair seemed even more endearing when he was talking to her child as if she was the most important thing in the world to him.

'Can you feel this?' Charlie asked Dana, giving her a light p.r.i.c.k on the wound margin with the curved suture blade.

'No.'

'This?' Charlie asked again as he prodded several places.

'No.'

'OK, then. What colour b.u.t.ton do you want me to use?'

Dana giggled. 'Charlie!'

Carrie smiled, too. 'OK, hold my hand again, darling. Won't be long now.'

Charlie maintained a patter of conversation as he placed four sutures in the wound, bringing the edges together. Dana was perfectly still, making his job much easier.

Carrie watched Charlie snip the last suture close to the skin. 'That looks great. Thank you, Charlie. Maybe your father is right?'

Charlie screwed up his nose. He doubted it. 'I'd rather watch paint dry. OK, Sleeping Beauty. Up you get. Your jukebox awaits.'

Charlie helped Dana up into a sitting position, her legs dangling over the edge again.

'What do you say to Charlie?' Carrie prompted.

'Thank you, thank you, thank you.' Dana grinned and then threw her arms around Charlie's neck and kissed him on the cheek.

Charlie sat stock still in the little girl's embrace. He glanced at Carrie, who was looking as stunned as he felt. For a moment he didn't know what he was supposed to do. He was shocked to register how good Dana's little arms felt clinging to his neck. And how sweet her skin smelt-like lollipops and suns.h.i.+ne.

'Sorry,' Carrie mouthed, remembering his fast exit from her house. He hadn't seemed particularly interested in kids then and he was looking at her with a look of apprehension and something else she couldn't quite make out.

'It's fine,' he mouthed back. How could anyone hold such sweet innocence in their arms and remain emotionally distant? Like his father had?

'Can I dance now?' Dana asked, dropping her arms.

'Sure,' he said, helping her down off the couch. He watched her walk out, her bunches bobbing, followed closely by Carrie, her pinstriped hips swaying. What the h.e.l.l was with these two females that in one week they had totally consumed him? One charmed him, the other exasperated him. Where the h.e.l.l was his focus these days? He turned away from the doorway in disgust.

Ten minutes later he emerged to find Dana charming everyone in the waiting room with her jiggle. Not even the bloodstained T-s.h.i.+rt detracted from her cuteness. Even two big gruff male teenagers were grinning stupidly at her.

'She's a hit,' Charlie said, claiming the seat next to Carrie's on the double sofa.

Carrie laughed, trying to hide the sudden leap in her pulse as his thigh brushed against hers. 'Yes, quite the performer.'

They watched her for a few minutes in silence. 'I'd better get her home,' Carrie said, stirring. 'Could you keep an eye on her while I get my stuff together?'

'Sure,' Charlie agreed, not daring to look up at her and exceedingly grateful when she left.

Dana pirouetted and waved at Charlie. 'Can you dance with me, Charlie?'

Charlie groaned inwardly. Between the two Douglas women he didn't know whether he was Arthur or Martha. 'Sure, sweetie,' he said, rising from the couch and sweeping her off her feet, swinging her round while she giggled in delight.

'Here, step on my shoes,' he directed.

Dana did as she was told and he swirled her around the floor as she clung to his legs and laughed. She looked up at him with those big blue eyes and Charlie was utterly captivated.

Carrie came out and discovered them dancing and laughing together and felt her pulse slow, the music fade away and her vision telescope. They could have been father and daughter. Wasn't that what fathers did with their daughters? Let them stand on their feet and dance with them? That's what her father had done. d.a.m.n Rupert, d.a.m.n him for denying Dana such simple pleasures. Such precious memories.

'Mummy! I'm dancing with Charlie.'

Charlie stumbled slightly when he realised they were being watched by Carrie. Their gazes locked and he could see the yearning in Carrie's gaze.

'So you are, darling,' Carrie said, finding her voice.

'Your turn to dance with Charlie,' Dana p.r.o.nounced, breaking away and running over to clutch at her mother's hand and drag her towards Charlie.