Recovery Period

Chapter 31

Auggie realized his mistake too late and he looked helplessly at Raina, who was frozen and speechless. He shifted his gaze to Kylie, who seemed like she was about 5 seconds away from getting up off the couch to go find Nico herself. Or fight Raina, he couldn't tell. Before he could stop it, words were spilling out, "It wasn't like...over her knee or anything. She was holding Nico and Nico said something smart and Raina just tapped her a little while they walked."

"That...doesn't make it any better. Why were you carrying her?" Kylie asked Raina.

How was Raina supposed to say "because she wanted me to" without divulging all of Nico's secrets? "It was the easiest way to get her to the car," Raina replied simply.

"Oh, they don't have wheelchairs at the urgent care?" Kylie asked with a snort.

"Kylie, she tried to crawl into my arms while I was trying to give her an exam. What do you want from me?" Raina snapped.

Kylie's eyebrow rose. "I would expect a doctor to act professionally regardless of what their patient is doing. I don't know how you're sitting there acting like it's not crazy that you carried a grown patient. That's weird." She folded her arms over her chest and frowned at Raina, who was bristling at being challenged in her own house.

Raina frowned right back and glared. Clearly Kylie didn't know about Nico's little side and she could see why Nico had kept it to herself. "Listen, before you jump to conclusions about anything, talk to Nico. I'm willing to bet she'll tell you she's okay with everything that's happened so far," Raina said through clenched teeth. Kylie was setting her on edge.

"I can assure you I will be asking her that very thing," Kylie replied with a clipped tone.

Auggie looked between the two women anxiously. What in the world had he started? He felt guilty for opening his big mouth.

Raina wanted to ask Kylie to leave, but she knew that'd just make the situation worse. Ultimately she wanted Kylie to be in support of what she had going on with Nico, which required them to talk. She was nervous, though, as they'd set something in motion that Nico would now get saddled with. Maybe she should give Nico a head's up.

"Why don't I go wake her up and then you guys can talk?" Raina said as she stood up from the couch.

"Good luck, she wakes up like a rabid animal," Kylie said, unable to keep herself from laughing a bit. Nico hated being woken up, especially from an afternoon nap. Kylie couldn't wait to see how this blew up in the doctor's face.

Raina walked out of the room and slipped into her bedroom, letting herself linger near the bed to watch Nico sleeping. She looked so peaceful that Raina honestly hated to disturb her, but she couldn't hold Kylie off for long. The last thing they needed was Kylie deciding to wake Nico up herself and finding her sleeping like a toddler in someone else's bed.

She went to the bed, reached down, and gently brushed some hair off of Nico's forehead. "Nico, it's time to wake up," Raina cooed, pressing a gentle kiss to Nico's temple. The girl stirred but didn't wake fully, groaning and curling up into the fetal position. Raina chuckled and picked Nico up, sitting down with her cradled in her lap.

Nico uncurled a little when she felt Raina's warmth and nuzzled Raina's jawline, once again sending goosebumps down her back. "Mmsleepy," Nico mumbled around her pacifier, snuggling in closer to Raina. She was really tired, but it didn't suck to be woken up with a snuggle. She took a large inhale of Raina's scent and yawned, barely catching the pacifier in her mouth.

"I know you are, my love. I promise we can go back to sleep in a little while for the whole night, but right now you need to wake up for me," Raina told her softly, running a hand through Nico's messy bed head to lay it down before they went out to see Kylie and Auggie. "There's someone here to see you and I thought you might want a few minutes to gather yourself."