Page 24 of Daddy's Little Patient

“What was the second thing, sweetheart?” he murmured into the top of her head.

He felt her heave a sigh. What would be so awful to ask for that she was all twisted up about it?

“I don’t want to bother you,” she muttered.

“You know it will bother me more if you need something and don’t let me help you.”

“That’s what you keep telling me,” she said, her tone making it clear she didn’t believe that for a second. She would, he’d make sure of it.

“Then why don’t you do me a favor and just let me have it?”

“Fine. Could you…check on me? Overnight? And if one of the monitors fell off or something, wake me up so I can put it back on?”

“I’ll do even better than that,” he told her. “You see up in that corner?”

“Uh-huh,” she said, her gaze following the in the direction his finger was pointing.

“That’s a camera for a baby monitor. I haven’t turned it on since you’ve been here, but I will before I leave. So I’ll be able to hear you and see you. And I’ll set a couple alarms to check on you overnight. If something comes off or comes loose I’ll try to fix it without waking you up.”

“Thank you, Daddy.”

“Anything for you.” He kissed her forehead and gave her a squeeze. “Those were not big requests, Cricket. You need to recalibrate your understanding of what it’s okay to ask for, and what’s reasonable to expect. I’m not sure who made you think the bar was so low but you should raise it. You deserve the world, and wanting someone to help with a medical thing—which can kick up anxiety even if it’s routine—that you’ve never done before and is kind of finicky is more than reasonable. Anyone who can’t be bothered to do something so basic doesn’t deserve you. And I want to prove myself worthy of being your Daddy. Got it?”

His babygirl looked near tears. Had he fucked something up? Had he been too stern? He wasn’t trying to scold her but trying to get her to see how serious he was about providing anything she needed.

“Why the tears, Little girl?”

“I— I never… No one ever…”

She covered her face with her hands and started to cry for real. Despite her lack of a complete answer, he thought he knew where she’d been headed.

Owen held his Little girl tighter. “I’m sorry no one’s ever cared for you like they should but that’s over. Daddy’s going to look after you now, promise.”

It took longer than usual but eventually Cricket fell asleep in his arms.

* * *

Despite feeling like some kind of cyborg as she’d gone to bed and having a meltdown when her Daddy told her she deserved the world, Cricket slept surprisingly well. As well as she ever did anyway—which to be fair left her feeling stretched thin like gum blown into a bubble so big it was about to pop.

But after taking all the electronics off her and pressing a few buttons, Daddy told her the test had worked perfectly. Which weirdly made her feel accomplished, especially with the way he said it; with a smile and a tone that made it sound like he was proud of her. What had she done? Slept? It still made her feel good.

Then he’d fed her breakfast and gotten her dressed and ready for their big project of the day: moving her things to Daddy’s house.

It was weird to let her Daddy into her apartment. After just a couple days it didn’t feel so much like hers anymore. She felt more at home with Daddy.

All of her things were still there, just the way she’d left them which felt like a million years ago. And despite her Daddy knowing gosh darn well that she was a Little, it still made her insides twisty for him to see her place. There was a big difference between people who just got off from calling their partner Daddy during sexy times and a full-on Little whose living space could be mistaken for a kindergarten classroom.

Her studio was pretty much wall to wall color and she had a dozen stuffies on her bed, another dozen in a net she’d mounted in a corner, and another few on her couch. Plus there was the whole bookshelf of coloring books—not the grown-up ones which made her want to cry because the spaces were so tiny and there were so many of them!—and another of picture books.

She dared a glance at her Daddy to see if this was way more than he’d been expecting and he was going to change his mind, but he closed the gap between them with a few steps and slid an arm around her waist.

“This is exactly what I thought your apartment would be like. I love it.”

“Really?”

Here she’d been hoping for tolerance and what Daddy gave her was far better.

“Yeah. I mean, I know not everyone can have the Little part of themselves out in their homes like this, but I’m glad you’ve been able to. Is there anything you want to show me before we get to work?”

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