Chapter Five: Not Exactly Tender Loving Care

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"Ow! Ow! Ow! OW!" Danny groaned as Delinda dabbed at his now damp mid-section with a towel.

"I'm so sorry." Delinda apologized profusely, "I should have made sure that I had a better grip on that soup bowl."

"Second-degree burns aren't helping the situation." Danny nodded, flinching.

"Don't be such a baby." Delinda rolled her eyes, "Thanks to the blankets, you probably only have first-degree if anything." She picked up a nearby TV tray and set it near a small, blue armchair in the corner of Danny's room. "Why don't you eat lunch over here, while I change those blankets for you? Still keep spares in the linen closet?"

"Yep." Danny replied, throwing the covers off of himself. He shivered violently as his bare feet touched the floor.

"Need any help walking?" a curious Delinda asked.

"I've just got a fever, Delinda. I'm not paralyzed. " Danny shook his head, making his way over to the chair. His aching joints gave him some more hell for moving. As he sat down and began eating, Delinda took his terry-cloth robe down from a hook on the wall and threw it over him. "This soup does taste better than it feels."

"I should hope so." Delinda smiled as she started changing the blankets on the bed. "Before you ask, when I left, the inspection was going rather well."

"I wasn't going to ask about the inspection." Danny commented between bites of toast.

"Liar." Delinda replied, glancing back. "You know, Daddy doesn't want you worrying about it."

"Yeah? Well, I'm sure that if Ed was in my shoes, he'd be worried about it too." Danny said as Delinda finished up. She walked over to the brown-haired man.

"Are you kidding?" Delinda giggled, "Mom would have to tie him to the bed."

"She might enjoy that." Danny pointed out with a grin.

"UGH!" Delinda shuddered, "Thanks, Danny!"

"It's what you get for dropping hot soup on me." Danny laughed, pushing his still half-full bowl away from him. "Anyway, I think that I've done all of the damage I can do here."

"I'll take this back down to your kitchen then." Delinda said, gathering the dishes. "You should probably try to get some more rest. Just let me know if you need anything."

"Okay." Danny agreed with a nod.
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"Delinda?" Danny sleepily asked, sensing that someone else was in the bedroom with him. However, seeing as how he still felt sluggish, warm, and pained, his eyes remained happily closed, so he couldn't confirm his suspicions.

"Seeing as how she was just here," a gruff yet calm voice that definitely did not belong to Delinda answered, "I'm going to let that one slide." Danny's eyes snapped instantly open to see Ed Deline sitting at his bedside. "How are you feeling, kid?"

"Other than waking up to find you…" a joking Danny teased before his mind remembered about the inspection. The Ed Deline he knew would never leave the Montecito while it was being inspected! Curiosity appeared in his dark eyes. "What are you doing here though? What about the inspection?"

"Brunson wants to see how the Montecito runs without me." Ed casually replied as he studied the notepad where Nessa had written Danny's temperature and the time that she took it.

"Bet that's driving you crazy," a grinning Danny commented, knowing that Ed was most comfortable when he was in control of a situation.

Glaring at his protégé, the silent Ed's only reply was to roughly shove the thermometer in Danny's mouth.

"OW!" a wincing Danny exclaimed with the thermometer hanging out of his mouth. He raised a hand to his cheek. "I think you punctured something!"

"Shut up so the thermometer can do its thing!" Ed ordered, silencing Danny immediately. "Besides, idiot, if I had done that, you'd be bleeding."

Keeping silent, Danny simply looked at his feet and decided to remember this little incident, should Ed need him in a similar situation. As the thermometer went off, Ed pulled it out of Danny's mouth.

"A hundred and four?" Ed remarked, writing it down on the notepad. "Damn! It's only going up!"

"My temperature's not the only thing going up." Danny realized, feeling nauseous once more. Hugging his stomach, the tall, above-average looking man got up and ran for the nearby bathroom.

"Why in the hell am I the lucky one?" Ed wondered as the sound of Danny retching quickly followed the sound of the bathroom door closing.

To be continued...