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“Ian” Mickey’s voice was hoarse on his side of the phone.
The seriousness of Mickey’s voice caught Ian completely off guard. “What’s wrong?”
“Ruby. She uh,” There was a slight pause as Mickey took a deep breath, sniffling. “She fell, busted her lip pretty bad. We’re in the emergency room right now” Ian didn’t have to be in the room to see his husband's mannerisms. He could tell he was pacing around in whatever disease-crawling waiting room he was in. Probably rubbing his temple or nose as he usually did when he got nervous.
“I’m on Ashland, I can be there in like ten minutes” Ian had done the runs for work that day. It was rare that either of the men did pickups anymore, they had a few employees that did the grunt work. Ian and Mickey tended to stay focused on the business aspect of their company. That particular day Ian had to deliver the redrawn contracts up with a few of their vendors, talk nice, and make sure the routes were fixed. Mickey hated all of that shit and Ruby has the day off for some dumb holiday or teacher workday. He took the opportunity to ditch Ian and work obligations to stay on dad duty.
“Ok.” There was silence on the line for a second. Ian could hear Mickey try to take a deep breath in as his voice lowered, “Just. Just hurry, please. I’m kinda freaking the fuck out”.
Ian got to the ER in record time. Perhaps a concerningly fast time. They didn’t have the ambulance anymore, ditched it years ago before their parole was even up. Ian missed the rig sometime, moments like this where he could switch the sirens on and everyone would get out of the way. Instead, he was stuck dealing with the SUV weaving in and out of the traffic.
Ian practically busted into the waiting room, his eyes on a straight path, ignoring all the other sick or bloody people waiting to be seen. He spotted Mickey immediately. He sat in one of the ugly blue chairs situated in the corner next to the mounted TVs.
“Hey” Ian placed a hand on Mickey’s shoulder, making his way in front of his husband. “Where’s Ruby?”.
Mickey stood up, wrapping his arms around Ian. His face hid in Ian’s large grey jacket. The act took Ian a-back. The initial shock of hearing his kid was in the ER took the best of him. His reaction time was unforgivably slow as he eventually wrapped his arms around his husband.
“I fucked up” Mickey pulled away, swallowing the lump gathering in the middle of his throat.
They pulled away, Ian’s hands stayed on Mickey’s shoulders as he looked down at his husband. Ian’s heart panged in his chest as he realised how distraught Mickey looked. He had seen Mickey cry this harshly only once before: the day his dad died. But now it was even worse. His blue eyes were bloodshot, fresh tears still falling. His whole face was red and hot, his nose looked chap from no-doubly being rubbed by his sleeve so many times.
“What happened?” One of Ian’s hands migrated down onto Mickey’s back, rubbing his palm in small circles to bring the man some comfort.
“I- we, we were at the park and she was playing and shit. I looked away for one minute because this stupid fucking duck kept trying to steal her lunch and then I just heard screaming-“ He swallowed a lump in his throat, “I ran over and she was crying and there was so much fucking blood everywhere”.
Mickey stared forward. He wasn’t looking at anything in particular. It was more like he was staring at nothing- still trying to process what happened.
“Mickey-'' Ian just sighed, pulling him in a little closer. “She’s a kid. She’s gonna get hurt, it’s not your fault”
“You weren’t there, man. You didn’t have to deal with the crying and the mess and seeing her like that” Mickey grimiest.
Ian’s eyes briefly glanced back at the chair Mickey was previously sitting in. He noticed that Mickey’s flannel - which Ian was pretty sure was his at some point- was covered in blood. Ian figured he had given it to her to maintain the bleeding. Mickey’s shirt also had blood on it, looking like the world’s smallest crime scene. Just a small puddle of blood on the left of his chest. Ruby no doubt had rested her head there as Mickey carried her in.
“You know how many times you or me- or hell anyone who grew up in the south side- got punched or fucked up? We’re ok, Mick. No permanent brain damage or disfigurement,” He kneaded his fingers against the fabric of Mickey’s shirt. “She’s going to be ok, I promise”
Mickey stayed quiet. He couldn’t help but think about his dad and all the times he had beaten him and his siblings back in the day. Mickey felt like his heart was about to give out seeing a little blood coming from his daughter- his baby’s- face. It made him sick to his stomach thinking about how his dad got a kick out of seeing his kids like that.
The more he thought it over, the worse he felt. It wasn’t like he inflicted Ruby’s pain onto her but he was still there when it happened and didn’t stop it.
“I’m a shitty fucking dad” Mickey finally spoke up. His eyes were still dead focused on the tile in front of him.
“Hey, no. Mick, you are not a shitty dad” Ian immediately shot back. “Shit like this happens. Stop being so hard on yourself”
Mickey’s head shook; he finally looked away from his spot and into Ian’s eyes. “I should have been paying attention. Or caught her. Or made sure she was wearing more protective clothes or-“
Mickey was interrupted by lips against his.
“You need to shut the fuck up and relax” Ian’s hand went up to the base of Mickey’s neck, scrunching his hair. “And stop crying, it's kinda freaking me out”.
“Yeah man, I would also like to not be fucking crying like a little bitch right now but it’s a little hard when I’m fucking worrying about our kid,” He said sharply. He took a moment, wiping his eyes again. “ fuck ” he inhaled the word.
“Where is she now?”
“Um back there” He pointed towards one of the closed offices. “The cunty nurses won’t let me in. Even though I’m her fuckin dad! Her caretaker? Legal guardian? Ya know the one that keeps her fucking alive”
Mickey’s voice was loud as he looked back at the receptionist behind the desk. Ian couldn’t imagine the hissy-fit he must have pulled before he got there.
“Like I said many times before Mr Milkovich, Ruby needs stitches. You aren’t allowed to be back there while the doctor works because you’re too emotional-”
Mickey eyed the receptionist at the word ‘emotional’ and Ian couldn’t help but stifle a chuckle, thinking about what his husband must have done.
“You were asked to wait out here while you waited for your husband and so you could calm down- which I see you haven’t”
Mickey’s mouth opened, no doubt to tell the poor woman off but Ian was quicker. He placed a hand over Mickey’s mouth so he couldn’t speak.
“your daughter will be out soon, sirs. For now please just stay seated”.
“Thank you” Ian was quick to wave her off before Mickey could take his feelings out on the woman again. Mickey did give a quick bird before Ian could push his hand down, to his own small victory.
The two sat back down. Staying in the room for what felt like hours- which in reality was less than fifteen minutes-. Mickey didn’t drop Ian’s hand. He picked at his wedding band absent-mindedly trying to keep himself calm. His knee bounced up and down, his mind racing too much to hear whatever shitty HGTV reruns were playing above him.
“Milkovich-Gallagher?” A voice from the back finally came. Both men immediately stood to their feet to go greet their daughter.
“Daddies!” Ruby ran the second she saw her two parents.
Mickey immediately bent down to her height. He squeezed her so hard that Ian was glad they were in a hospital, just in case he popped one of her organs.
“I’m so sorry, Bee. Baby,” Mickey stumbled over his words. He held her tighter, placing a kiss on her messy hair. He rarely called Ruby, baby. So when he did, Ian could tell how much Mickey thought he fucked up.
“Not your fault,” Ruby simply shrugged. “I just fell off the monkey bars silly, it happens all the time”. Mickey had pulled away, resting his palms against her cheek.
“But it's okay because look how cool I look!” She pointed to her busted lip. “Dadda don’t I look cool?” Her eyes averted up to Ian.
The man gave her an over enthusiastic smile, his hand reaching down to ruffle her already messy hair. “Hell yeah you do, darling”.
She didn’t look horrible but Ian still flinched when he saw her: paternal instincts. His eyes darted to Mickey. He had gotten much paler if that was possible. His heart looked like it was about to fall out of his ass.
Ruby’s lip was red. The left side of her mouth was puffy, some small black thread stuck up from the upper lip. There was a little bit of dried blood on her chin and dress but other than that, she was a smiley little four-year-old.
“Do you think I’ll get a cool scar like you daddy?”.
Mickey remained stunned. He didn’t expect her to be this happy and okay but he figured that would be less time he had to spend hating himself for what happened. “I dunno rugrat, maybe?”
Ruby frowned slightly at this. “You do look like a badass though, kid” He placed a kiss on her forehead, lingering a little longer than he should have.
The doctor- Linda Hartwellis as her name tag read- turned her attention to Ian, Mickey too occupied showering Ruby with love. “She’s fine. Her injury wasn’t bad at all. She should recover in about a weekish- maybe sooner. As long as you treat the injury correctly she’s A-okay”
“I was an EMT Ma’am, I should know what I’m doing”
“Perfect! Just keep an eye on her today to make sure she doesn’t have a reaction of any kind to the medicine we gave her. Your husband said she wasn’t allergic to anything so we’re not expecting a reaction. We also went ahead and sent a topical anaesthetic for pain management to the pharmacy on file” She looked down at Ruby with a smile.
The two gave a nod, collecting their things before getting checked out. Ruby was out cold by the time they made it to the car. Ian guessed the adrenaline of the whole situation must have finally worn off. Mickey spent the entire car ride staring at her at the rear-view, making sure she was okay.
When they got home, Mickey b-lined for the couch. He situated Ruby on his lap, mumbling some bullshit excuse like: “just making sure she’s not getting hot or anything” or “Making sure she’s breathing ok” to Ian whenever he passed the two in the living room.
Ian eventually sat down on the opposite side of the couch. Every time Ian looked over at the pair Mickey’s eyes focused on Ruby instead of whatever shitty daytime tv show reruns played on cable. He would be stroking her hair or applying ice or gauze on her lip.
He understood though. It had been a scary situation on an already stressful day. Ian couldn’t imagine how torn up Mickey was on the inside because of all of this.
Ian also knew how insecure Mickey was about his parenting. He tried his absolute hardest to be the complete opposite of his dad - harder than he had ever tried in anything-. Mickey was genuinely terrified of messing Ruby up. Having her have the same shitty parenting models they had.
Ian also knew Mickey was a great dad and had nothing to worry about no matter how much he overreacted to things like this. He meant well even if his execution was overdramatic.
As Mickey moved her to their bed that night, insisting she needed to sleep in their bed her entire recovery time, he swore to himself he would always protect her. Never let anything like this happen to her ever again.