"Ahh, fuck!" James grasped the side of his jaw in the middle of dinner followed by loud whimpering, as he ran his tongue then fingers across his teeth and his eyes went wide, Greg looked at him with concern and James spat out most of a tooth into his hand and a bit of blood dripped down his lip.
"How old are you?" Tyson asked in a disgusted tone and pushed his plate away while James stood up and went to rush to the bathroom. Greg followed him upstairs where James was rinsing his mouth out with mouthwash and wincing.
"Fuck!" he clasped his hand around his jaw and whimpered loudly, "the nerve must be exposed, or something! I need to see a dentist, now!"
"I'll book you an appointment in the morning, babe, okay? It's nearly 8pm… there's not going to be a dentist open at the moment," Greg tried to comfort him, "I'll get you a bag of peas from the freezer and give you a couple of Vicodin and we'll ring up and get you an emergency dental appointment in the morning. They can rip out the rest of the tooth in the morning. But nowhere is going to be open now,"
"Can't you at least check online, and see?" James whimpered, clutching at his face, Greg sighed and pulled out his phone before shaking his head, as James groaned loudly and rolled his head back.
"Take the Vicodin, babe, and I'll book a dentist appointment now online for first thing in the morning… how about 8:20am? It's on the other side of the city, but most places are booked out a couple of days in advance. We'll have to leave early because there's going to be a lot of traffic; otherwise, they have an appointment at… 3:00pm?" Greg added.
"8:20!" James cried, "the sooner that they can put a filling in this, the better!"
"Okay, well let's go down to the basement and I'll get you some Vicodin, and knowing you, hopefully two Vicodin will knock you out for the rest of the night," as Greg helped him downstairs.
"I'm sorry that I don't think that I'm going to be able to have you in my mouth or cum inside of you tonight," James slurred loudly down in the basement while Greg tucked him into bed and the Vicodin and disinhibition James experienced on it was rapidly taking affect.
"Shut up, James, the kids will hear," Greg grumbled, "I'm certain we have more sex than 99% of middle-aged men, gay or straight, as it stands, a night or two isn't going to make a difference to that," and James giggled like a little girl, then grasped the side of his face.
"I'm going upstairs to watch a movie with Rob and the kids, call me if you need anything, there's a bottle of water on your nightstand, you don't even have to talk into the phone, just ring it, and I'll come running… or limp walking… in here straight away, okay?"
The next morning at the dental surgery, Greg was sitting in the waiting room, with the universal smell of every dentist surgery in the world filling his nostrils- a combination between the smell of mouthwash, a semi chemical type smell he couldn't quite place, and some slight twang of sweetness, almost like that of overripe fruit, but not quite, while he sat on the waiting room chairs. "Are you Greg?" the dentist approached him, and Greg glanced around the room to see an older lady, and a mother with a little girl whose eyes were glued to the television, sitting on the other chairs in the waiting room, and frowned at the obvious question and answer.
"Yes, that'd be me," Greg nodded, "is everything okay?"
The dentist shook his head, "your partner is extremely upset and agitated… we're on the verge of having to refuse any further treatment. We thought we'd come and see if you can… placate the situation because the dental hygienist isn't going to go back in that room until everything is settled," to which Greg nodded his head getting up, appearing to have half expected this outcome.
"If he's angry at you, there's no use in you trying to talk some sense into him- he needs to talk to someone who he's not actively upset at," Greg explained.
The dentist nodded his head as they walked through the corridor, "I figured as much, I might be overstepping my boundaries here, but my eighteen year old daughter has a borderline personality, she's exactly the same when she splits… obviously I'm not inferring that this is the case for your partner, but I figured that he's so stressed that he needs someone who he trusts to talk him through it,"
"No, you're pretty well on the money," Greg sighed, "BPD loved one here as well. I can empathise with how much of a roller-coaster it is,"
"What do you mean you can't save the tooth? I'm getting married in less than two months! I already had two teeth punched out of my head by my father-in-law back in South Dakota!" James yelled at the dentist as he walked in the doorway, yanking the sunglasses off his head and throwing them at him.
Greg grabbed the rolling stool and wheeled himself over to James, "what's going on? Try and keep your voice down if you can, there's a little girl about Tyson's age in the waiting room who is probably scared of the dentist already,"
"He," James pointed angrily, "said that he can't fix the tooth! We're about to get married! And he said that the enamel on my teeth is nearly completely disintegrated! What the hell! He's just trying to rip us off,"
"James. He's a doctor, like you and like me, he specialises in teeth just as much as you specialise in cancer… and I specialise in rare diseases… it's not his fault that it costs so much to see a dentist, just like its not your fault and you don't see the money when uninsured patients have to remortgage their homes for chemo and treatment. The enamel on your teeth has worn away because of the bulimia. You know the same thing happens to people who go through lots of chemo? Their teeth get ruined and fragile from the vomiting from bile and stomach acid burning away the enamel of their teeth? The same thing happened with you from the bulimia. It's a tooth further back, it's not going to be visible in our wedding photos, and while I know that it was awful what my dad did and your canine and the next tooth back are visibly missing, that's why we've got a photographer who can do photoshop," Greg comforted.
James broke down in tears and Greg held him, "you're in a lot of pain, Jimmy, you need to get this tooth taken out. It's broken. We can just deal with getting that taken out today, and then we can come back later, after the wedding, and get the rest of your teeth sorted,"
"He said that they'll keep breaking! That I'll end up needing them ripped out by the time I'm sixty!" James yelled, and Greg hushed him again.
"That's a long time away from now, you're only 43, and believe me, I'll love you if you had no teeth, no eyes, no nose, no arms and legs, because it is you, I love Jimmy. You, as a person, nothing else, okay?" Greg promised and James looked back at him with tear filled eyes, "now, this won't take too long, do you want me to stay here in the room while they pull it out?" Greg glanced at the dentist who nodded, and James nodded desperately, grasping Greg's hand, begging through his slurred speech from the local anaesthetic to never let go, "I promise," Greg smiled back.
Clambering back into the Chevy, Greg had to nearly lift James' sedated and floppy body into the truck, "God, we should've brought the F-150, at least it isn't so high up," Greg grunted, before shutting the door and limping around to the other side to see James, staring back at him through very stoned, sedated eyes, "anyone would've thought you'd just had a general anaesthetic, or at least a twilight sedation. Either sedation hits you a lot harder than I expected… or it's just that they had to give you so much anaesthetic because you were so worked up, and now your adrenaline has come down, it's starting to take its full effect. Anyway, first stop, pharmacy to fill your script, and then straight home,"
"I love you, my Greggy boy. I can't wait until our wedding night, and I can fuck Greg Gallagher all night long. Fuck my Greggy boy all night," James grinned with only half his mouth smiling from the numbness and effects of the local anaesthetic. Greg sighed feeling emotion bubble up but quashed it down and forced himself to not react, knowing that James wasn't fully in the right headspace nor was he fully aware of what he was saying, as Greg reversed out of the driveway of the dentist.
"What's wrong with him?" Tyson asked, as Greg practically dragged the semi-conscious James through the front door.
"Dentist. Rob, a hand please!" Greg muttered under James' weight who rushed over and took most of James' dead weight, "I'll put him on the couch for now to lie down, I'm not about to risk dragging his half-conscious ass down that steep flight of stairs into the basement," as they flopped James as gently as possible down onto the couch.
"I drew you a picture, papa," Charlie walked over, "to make your face feel better, it's you, and me, and daddy, and granddad, and Tyson," as she gently placed the crayon drawing on James' chest, who was now sleeping.
"That's very sweet, Charlie Bear, he's going to love it. Why don't I take you and Ty to the park so that papa can get some sleep?" Greg suggested to which the kids nodded excitedly, "okay, well go and get your coats and boots, because it's cold outside. And don't forget your gloves, or you can't play on the playground!" Greg added as they scampered off.
Once they returned, Greg leant down and kissed James gently on the forehead, "I love you, baby, I'm taking the kids to the park, Rob will be here if you need anything, otherwise we'll be back soon," to which James groggily mumbled incoherently something back, but it sounded agreeable to Greg.