The Peirce's

Chapter 15 - Rilee's Toothache

Ellie's POV:

Jake has just finished making dinner and I place a plate of spaghetti and meatballs in front of Rilee, but she immediately pushes it away and crosses her arms crankily. I crouch next to her chair, "what's wrong sweetie?" I ask confused, "it's gonna hurt" she says angrily. I briefly look at Maxi and see that he is already getting up to come see what's wrong. "What's gonna hurt my love?" I ask, "my tooth, the food will hurt my tooth" Rilee clarifies. I glance around the table and see all the boy's faces turn sympathetic as they realise what is going on. Maxi crouches next to me, "which tooth hurts baby?" he asks. "This one" she answers, pointing to one of her front bottom teeth. "Can I see sweetheart?" he asks, receiving a stern shake of the head from Rilee indicating that he most certainly cannot see. "Can I have a look please Riles?" I ask carefully and she shakes her head again, this time nervously. "Why not Riles?" I ask, "I don't want you to" she replies quietly, bringing her hands to her mouth to prevent us from seeing. "It's ok darling, we aren't going to hurt you, we just want to see how we can help" Maxi whispers calmly. Rliee once again, shakes her head as tears begin to form in her eyes. "Calm down baby, how about I make you a smoothie because I need you to eat something, and we can talk about this a bit later hey?" I ask, she hesitantly nods, "I'll get you something to help with the pain" Maxi says, getting up to get some medication.

I soon come back with a banana and honey smoothie and Maxi follows with the pain meds. "Here you go baby" I say, placing the smoothie on the table in front of her. She takes the cup and starts carefully sipping at the smoothie. "Take this sweetheart, it should make you feel a bit better" Maxi says, placing a tablet in her hand. She looks at the tablet sceptically, "it's alright my love, it's just like swallowing an m&m whole" I say, and she nods before taking the tablet. "Good girl" Maxi praises as we go back to our dinner.

After dinner, we all go sit in the living room and as we are choosing a show to watch, Rilee suddenly lets out a yelp and brings her hands up to her mouth. Maxi and I immediately make our way over to her. Maxi picks her up and places her on the couch and we crouch in front of her. "What happened sweetie?" I ask, "I was feeling my tooth with my tongue, and it hurt" she pouts, her hands still covering her mouth. Maxi slowly brings his hands up to her and gently removes her hands from her mouth. She whimpers and shuts her mouth firmly, "Rilee honey, I need to see your sore tooth" he says. Again, he receives a firm shake of the head, "yes sweetie, I need to see" he says firmly. "Just open your mouth love, you'll be fine" I say, and she shakes her head again and brings her hands back up to her mouth nervously. "Rilee, you need to let me see, open your mouth" Max instructs sternly, holding her hands away from her face. I sit myself on the couch next to her and wrap my arm around her and she whimpers as she slowly opens her tiny mouth, "good girl lovey" I whisper as Maxi pulls her bottom lip down and looks at her teeth. "Ok sweetie, Ellie and I can fix that really easy for you" he says happily. I look to him, and he shows me 2 fingers signalling to me that her adult tooth has started growing behind her baby one, which is causing her discomfort. "Alright sweetheart, do you think you can wait until morning and then we can fix it for you?" I ask and she nods, "alright, what show do you want to watch my love?" I ask. She picks a show, and we all watch with her before we go up to bed.

I walk up to Maxi's door and contemplate knocking but decide against because it'll make him think something's wrong. I open the door and he instantly looks up from his phone and glares at me, "oh stop being such a baby, I need to talk to you about work tomorrow" I say, seeing his irritation with me interrupting his peace. "fine" he sighs, "you may speak" he finishes, "why thank you for giving me permission to speak to such a prestigious individual" I say sarcastically. He groans and gestures for me to get to the point, "ok, I have patients all morning, are you ok to help Rilee?" I ask, "yeah, my first patient is at 10, I was gonna do paperwork till then but I'll get one of the boys to help and I'll come in a bit later so she isn't too cranky" he answers, "ok thanks, you can get back to your phone now" I say as I turn and shut the door on my way out.