Hey, there, reader! It's been awhile!

This story - particularly bits and pieces of this chapter - kept coming to mind, and I've known that I've wanted to complete this. So, here it is!

Enjoy!

...

Bull looked over at Cable, who was still glaring at him from over the back of the sofa, gripping her phone, which was not going to be working anytime soon as he had removed the battery before giving back to her. Granted, it was the glassy, sleepy glare of someone who had just woken up from a very long nap that they had insisted was not necessary but had been proven wrong, but it was intended to be a fierce glare, so he ignored it instead of asking how she was feeling. He knew Cable well enough to know that if she were in pain or actually needed anything other than showing her displeasure at his current insisted involvement in her healing process, that she would speak up. As it currently was, she was just a grumpy, tired kid who was still upset by what she saw as being grounded from her devices, even though it was intended for her own good.

"It'll be supper in about ten minutes," he told her. He had prepared most of it while she was having her long, 'unnecessary' nap.

"Hmmph," she grumbled against her arms folded on the back of the sofa, discretely rubbing her forehead a minute later.

"Do you need another painkiller?" Bull asked, checking the clock. She shook her head emphatically, once again wincing once she thought that he was looking away. Poor kid - she really did need one, but was probably trying to tough it out to 'prove' that she was feeling better and could return to her typical work and leisure. She would need one within the next hour and a half. He would give her choice now. If she ignored it, he would probably persuade her to take one later, before the full dose wore off. He did not want her to suffer needlessly, even if it might teach her a lesson about listening to his wisdom when it was first offered.

"Okay," he just said, not battling her on it now. He could see that she was waking up a little more anyway, and perhaps some of the attitude would disappear as she fully returned to the world. She was eyeing what he was making with interest.

"What's for supper?"

"Spaghetti with meat sauce. That sound okay to you?" he asked.

"Yes."

She was skipping out on nodding now. Good. No need for her to be torturing her brain anymore. It was hurting his own head, watching her deal with this.

He kept cooking, smiling a little to himself as Cable got up and joined him at the counter. She still was not talkative, but at least she was engaging a little without wanting to turn it into an argument or more subtle battle of wills.

Or ... maybe not.

He noticed that her eyes kept flickering to where his phone was on the cupboard.

Hmmm. What's the plan here, Cable? he thought to himself.

She kept positioning herself slowly a little bit more toward it, trying her best to be subtle. He had to bit his lip and turn over the pot of bubbling sauce simmering on the stove top to hide his suppressed amusement in the steam. She might think that she had a chance to fool him, but ... that was a false hope.

As he drained most of the pasta water off of the noodles, he saw Cable make her move. She grabbed his phone and slipped it into the pocket of her hoodie, where he could see the quieted movements of her trying to open it to get to the battery.

"Cable!" he said sharply, going to her side quickly.

"What?!" she protested with faux innocence.

"Give me back my phone!"

She widened her eyes and held up her hands. "Did you misplace it? Because I didn't take it!"

Bull raised an eyebrow at her. "Cable Nicole McCrory, give me the phone."

There was a moment where he could not tell if her lip was going to start trembling from being scolded or from laughter. He could see her trying to read the situation to find a way to interpret it so that she would not be ending up in trouble.

And then she started laughing.

Bull raised an eyebrow and something else along with it. Surprising even himself, he tapped Cable's bottom with the wooden spoon that was still in his hand, giving her a small swat.

Cable's eyes got bigger and rounder than Bull had thought was possible. She put her hands back over her bottom, a bit like a toddler.

"You just spanked me!" she gasped in surprised.

"I gave you a single swat, and it wasn't entirely on purpose. Sorry," Bull said, looking at her with concern. He was not intending to make her hurt worse.

He was relieved when Cable looked at him with eyes, although tired and a bit dulled by pain, were still filled with fun as she began giggling a little.

"Fiiiine. I'll give you back your phone," she grumbled, although with good humour, even as she looked back at the seat of her pants. "Did you get spaghetti sauce on me?"

"A little," Bull said, his face twitching with both amusement and apologies. "I didn't mean to actually give you a smack."

Cable shrugged, rubbing the couple drops of sauce off with a napkin, not caring about the small stain left behind on the dark sweats. "I guess I was stealing your phone, so I probably deserved more," she said, with her typical bouncy attitude.

"Be good," he scolded lightly as she reluctantly handed him back his phone.

"But that's hard," she whined dramatically.

"Harder than an actual spanking?" he asked, raising an eyebrow at her again, building on the moment.

She tilted her head at him. "You don't mean that...?" she asked hesitantly.

He did not, but he would let her try to figure it out on her own.

"You don't, do you?" she asked, a little more nervously.

"No, I don't," he said, not wanting to actually worry her. He put the spoon to the side and instead opened the bottle of her painkillers and measured out her current dosage. He put them in front of her and she made a face, but he got her a glass of water, silently insisting that she was going to take the pills at some point during dinner.

"You probably should mean it," she admitted, although she gave the spoon another slightly wary look.

This was not the conversation he had expected with Cable. "What do you mean?" he asked calmly.

She shrugged. "Sometimes I do wild things. I probably deserve to be disciplined for them."

"You don't need a spanking to learn things. I know that from personal experience in disciplining you for a lot of other things," he said, referring to the many times she had ended up being scolded, grounded from video games, assigned dish duty, kept at work a bit later than her regular shift to make up for the time she had been goofing off, made to do her work in a quiet corner of his own office, and many other small, improvised reminders that she had responsibilities that he was not going to sit back and let her shirk.

She shrugged again. "I guess."

"You guess?" He could tell there was more going on in her mind. He added the sauce to the pasta, preparing it while they continued this wildly intimate conversation that he could have never predicted when Cable had been glaring at him over the back of the sofa five minutes previously.

"Sometimes I feel like I'm a little kid, just playing pretend at being grown up, and sometimes I wish people would just take care of me, even if it were in disciplining me more like a kid. Spankings just hurt for a minute, and it's a lot more personal than having to do extra work. I guess that's what I mean. It just ... can be hard being alone doing all of this." She gestured around herself wildly, as if indicating all of life. This time the slight trembling in her face was definitely not going to be a precursor to laughter.

Bull walked over and gently patted her shoulder, not minding when she suddenly turned toward him and wrapping her arms around his chest in a tight hug.

"You're not alone, Cable. I've got you. And the whole team does too." But from the slight tightening of the hug when he had said that he had her, he could guess that was what was touching her heart most.

He patted her back, letting her choose when to let go. She held on a lot longer than he thought she would, and when she disengaged, it was with moist eyes.

"I'll be keeping my eyes on you," he said calmly, giving her back a final pat before clearing his throat and turning his attention back to the dinner. "Let's get some food in our stomachs. You must be hungry," he said.

"Yeah, I'm hungry. Do you have parmesan cheese?"

"In the fridge. Want to get it out? It's in the drawer."

Cable got out the cheese and settled down at the table, pretending to squirm a little as she sat down while making a silly face at Bull, who laughed freely.

"Be good, kiddo," he said, tossing her a napkin.

They ate quietly for a few minutes, then Cable broached the conversation.

"So ... when can I have my phone back?"

"How about I promise that the moment I think you're ready, I'll give it back, and you'll stop nagging until then?" he suggested.

Cable shook her head, then winced a little.

"See?"

She rolled her eyes. "Fine." She then smiled hopefully. "So, when I am feeling better, I'll obviously be allowed to spend a bit of extra time playing video games..."

He rolled his eyes right back at her. "Nope, kiddo."

She sighed, but instead of fighting him on it, took another forkful of spaghetti, twirling it before taking a savoury bite.

"Do you want me to read to you for a bit tonight?"

"Sure. But could we at least try watching tv? I promise I'll let you know if it bothers my eyes."

Bull thought it over, then nodded. "Okay, if you promise to tell me if you are in any pain."

"I promise."

He smiled a little. "You'll be better in no time, Cable."

She smiled. "I know."

And although it would still take a little longer for Cable to recover, by the time she was ready to go back to her room on campus - or more accurately, by the time Bull was ready to let her go back - her mind was healed more, and her heart was a little too.

And although he might not have expressed it with the same surface-level emotions as Cable, Bull was feeling a bit better too. He had told her the truth when he promised to keep an eye on her and knowing that she was not upset about him doing so was a great help. He knew that, although she might not always like it in the moment, she did not even mind the little bits of discipline that he gave her.

He would always be by her side, keeping an eye on her, watching out for her health and healing. She was his kiddo.

...

Thanks to anyone who came back after all this time to finish reading. I hope it was a satisfactory ending!

MM