Page 96 of Daddy’s Fortitude

“What is in your hair?” Dr. Melton asked, sounding alarmed.

“It’s okay,” she said. “That’s Kevin.”

“Kevin? What the hell is Kevin? Oh God. Please tell me that’s a pretend rat in your hair.”

She opened one eye and gave Dr. Melton a look. “Hmm.” He seemed a bit pale and unsure. “Do you not like rats, Dr. Melton?”

“No, I really don’t like rats,” he said. “Who would like rats?”

“I like rats,” she told him. “You’re being very mean toward rats, and, in particular, toward Kevin. He wasn’t doing anything up there. He’s just worried about me because he can hear how upset I am. He’s my emotional support rat, you know?”

“A rat should not be in a doctor’s office,” Dr. Melton told her firmly. “I’m going to have to ask you to extract him.”

Extract him? That was a weird term to use. It wasn’t like he was stuck anywhere.

“You can’t kick out an emotional support animal, though, Dr. Melton. I need him.”

Dr. Melton grimaced. “He’s not going to just walk out of there, is he?”

It was kind of odd that a grown man seemed so afraid of a little rat. But she was also scared of a little needle, wasn’t she? So she couldn’t really say anything.

“I promise he’ll behave himself, Dr. Melton. You didn’t even know he was in there before, did you? He’s not going to suddenly run out at you. Kevin is a very well-behaved rat, and he’s very emotionally in tune with me. He only popped out now because he could feel how upset I was at the idea of getting blood taken from me.”

“Right. Sure.”

“Let’s get on with this,” Ammo said. “Enough talking about Kevin.”

Thankfully, the doctor did get on with the things he needed to do, and she was really super brave about it all.

She couldn’t believe how brave she was as she sat there not moving, not making a noise, and just let the doctor do what he had to do.

A doctor’s visit had honestly never gone this smoothly before.

29

Ammo couldn’t believe how much she’d wriggled around while sitting on his lap. He’d had to pin her down in the end because there had been no other choice. The doctor wouldn’t have been able to get the needle into her arm.

And the noises she’d made . . . you’d have thought that the doctor was carving up her stomach to extract her organs. At one stage, he’d been worried that people outside the building might hear her and call the police. Finally, the doctor managed to get the needle into her arm and take some blood, but it had been touch and go for a while whether they were going to manage it.

Both he and Dr. Melton had ended up giving each other exhausted looks of commiseration.

As they exited the clinic ten minutes later, she held out her arm, looking down at her plaster admiringly.

The doctor had let her choose what sort of plaster she wanted, and she’d chosen one with little cats on it.

Once more, Ammo thought that the doctor could be a Daddy Dom, which meant he might be good for her. Maybe he could help bring out her Little side . . . although that didn’t sit well with Ammo.

Not that she was sticking around this town.

It wasn’t healthy for her here.

“Wow, that was so much easier than I thought. I’m sorry for making such a fuss.”

“Yeah, you made a huge fuss,” he told her as they walked to his truck.

“Well, I didn’t think I did too bad of a job once I was in there. Sure, I made a bit of a fuss about going to the doctor, but I was really brave when it came to having the blood test done, wasn’t I?”

He came to a stop and stared down at her in shock.