Page 34 of Colby (Tucker’s Pride #5)

Molly looked up when the nurse came into the room.

They’d not seen the doctor in a couple of days, but she wasn’t worried.

They’d been told that he had to take a few days off from being hurt, and she knew firsthand that he’d been popped in the nose.

She felt sort of bad about how she’d treated him when he’d been in to see her Pop-Pop.

“You thinking on that doctor again? I told you that he’s the best there is and he ain’t gonna hold it against you for being upset with him.

” She said she’d been rude to him. “He won’t see it that way.

He’ll just say you’d been worried, and he didn’t help matters any by being hurt like he was.

You just stop that thinking like you are before you’re in the bed next to me.

Not that I’d mind all that much, but I’d have you right there with me. ”

She patted him on the hand like she did when he was right. Which, to her way of thinking, he usually was. Just as she was going to tell him that she was going to tell the man she was sorry for being such a bitch, her father walked in and slapped her off the chair.

“Why would you go and do that for? She’s done nothing wrong, William Toby.

You help her up.” He said he wasn’t going to do no such thing and was pissed off at her.

“Whatever for? She’s been sitting right here by my side since I took that tumble five days ago.

I’m going home today, and she’s already made arrangements for me to get there. ”

Molly got herself up off the floor with enough distance between her and her father so he’d not be able to hit her again.

As it was now, she had a bloody mouth, and there was blood coming from her nose.

It would be just like her father to have no reason at all for knocking her around.

He just liked to show people that he was the one in charge. Even if he wasn’t.

“She didn’t tell me where you were. I should have been the first person she called before the police, even.

” Pop-Pop said that she’d called him an ambulance just like she should have done.

“No, you’re my father, and I should have been in on the decision whether or not you went to the hospital. That’s the way it should have been.”

“You fool, and what kind of words of wisdom would you have had with me banged up the way I was? And I told her to call the ambulance on account of me hurting like I’d broken my leg or something.

Not to mention hitting my head on that rail that I asked you to fix for me several times.

” Dad said he’d been busy. “Too busy to help out your old man. Did you ever think that I might not have wanted you around me when I was in so much pain? You never see the whole picture when it’s right there in your face, do you, son?

Where are those boys of yours? They in jail again? ”

“One of them is.” Dad eyed her. “You got blood on your face. You should clean it up.” She was afraid to turn her back on him for fear of what he’d do to her when she did.

She knew better than to show him her back so that he could stick a knife in it sometimes.

“Wash your face, damn it, before I give you something else to wash off.”

That was another thing about her dad. He wasn’t the least bit smart.

Not clever, nor was he very kind. She doubted every time she saw him that he’d be alive the next day.

He didn’t suffer fools well, and he was the biggest one that she knew.

And for the most part, she hated him with every fiber of her being.

He’d never been there for her. When she’d been living at home with him and her brothers, she was the cook, cleaning lady, and laundry person.

Also, she was a slave to whatever kind of shit they got themselves into.

So when she turned eighteen, with the advice of her grandfather, she joined the service and never came home when they would know about it.

All her time was spent with her Pop-Pop and no one else.

“You got any money on you?” She told him that all she had was a few bucks to get herself something to eat later. “Well, hand it over. I’ve not had anything to eat today worth shit, and you’ll just have to do for yourself.”

“No.” She’d been getting really good at telling him no, too. Since the last time she’d seen him, he’d been taking her money, and she wasn’t going to have it. “I said that it’s for me. You have a job, don’t you? Or have you pissed that one away, too?”

He lunged at her, and she didn’t move. If he could have heard her heart beating, he would have known that she was terrified out of her skin, but so far all he’d done was to make a fool of himself in front of his father.

Pop-Pop wouldn’t allow him to hit her the second time without him hurting her dad.

Slipping into the bathroom that held her purse, she took out all the cash she had on her, about one hundred and seventy dollars, and put it in one of the rolls of toilet tissue.

She kept the two ones she had on herself.

It wouldn’t do for him to catch her lying to him, but if she had money on her, he’d take every penny of it and knock her around because it wasn’t more.

Coming out of the bathroom, she heard Pop-Pop yelling at her dad.

She knew that her dad had asked him for money by the way the conversation was going.

He’d asked his son if he thought that he had money in his underwear, as that was all that he had on besides the hospital gown.

She might well have laughed if she weren’t afraid of drawing attention to herself.

It was then that the doctor from the other day came into the room.

“What the ever-loving hell is going on in here? I can hear you arguing all the way down to the nurses’ station.

You there, who are you?” Dad told Doctor Tucker he was William Toby, son of the man in the bed.

“I’ll not have you upsetting my patient, so you either keep it down or I’ll have you escorted out of here. ”

“You go ahead and try that fancy boy, and I’ll knock you on your ass.” Dad was yelling again, so Doc just punched him in the face, knocking him to the floor. “You can’t hit me. It’s against the Geneva Convention for you to do something like that.”

“The what?” Dad tried to explain that he’d taken an oath about not hurting anyone else while he was a doctor. “I see. It’s called the Hippocratic Oath, nothing to do with Geneva or any conventions. You don’t read much, do you?”

“I read the sports page in the paper, and it’s served me well.” Doc just ignored him in favor of Pop-Pop. “What’s wrong with him? And if there are any decisions to be made about him going to a nursing home, I’m going to be the one to sign him in. He should have died off a long time ago.”

Again, he was ignored, and Molly thought it was just what he deserved.

As Doc was asking her grandfather how he was doing, she noticed her dad was looking for something.

More than likely, her purse but it was still in the bathroom.

Not that he would go in there, something else about her father is that he was a germophobic when it came to bathrooms and the germs that might be in them, especially in a hospital setting.

“He ain’t going home today. I got plans for his house now that I know he ain’t there.” The doc said he’d be the one making that decision, and he was going home today. “Well, it’ll have to be tonight. I have me some searching to do, and it’s better when he ain’t there distracting me all the time.”

“If you’re looking for money, I’ve done cashed my check and paid my bills with it.

You want something more than money, I ain’t got that either.

You just keep your hands off my stuff, you idiot, or I’ll make what the doc here did to you look like a swat with a fly swatter.

” Dad said he couldn’t talk to him like that.

“Yet here I am talking to you like that. You’re a fool.

Besides, don’t think I didn’t notice that you didn’t say anything about your job. You lost another one, didn’t you?”

“They didn’t care for me sleeping on the job.

Idiots should know that when a man works the night shift, he’s going to have to take a nap now and again.

They didn’t pay me enough to do that job anyway.

Who needs to have security when it’s just dog food I’m protecting?

” Pop-Pop said it might have been for the people working there.

“Nah, they’re not smart enough to have nobody chasing after them for the little bit they paid me. ”

“You never did make any sense when you were talking out the side of your mouth, did you, son? I swear to Christ, your momma must have had her babies switched out when you were born. There is no way that you are a part of us.” Dad said he wasn’t no baby no more.

“See? That’s just what I’m talking about.

Dumber than a sack of rocks you are. Go on home and leave me to my stay here.

I got better things to do than to listen to you spout off about how you ain’t supposed to nap on a job.

Nobody naps on the job, you old fool. It’s not what they’re paying you for. ”

“Whatever, Dad. You just go on thinking what you want. I know better.” Dad looked at her. “Where is that couple of bucks you’re going to give over to me?”

“I told you no. I’m keeping it to myself.

” He said for her to show him, and she knew that trick from him.

He’d just take it. “I don’t need to show you what I have or don’t have.

I have a couple of bucks for my dinner, and that’s all you’re going to have to know.

And you ever hit me again, and I’ll be all over your ass.

I’m not a kid anymore. I’ve been trained on how to protect myself. ”