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There was no better way to explain what was going through Rowan over the past hour except embarrassment . And maybe annoyance towards the damned dog.
He knew he was the third wheel in the relationship, and he had accepted it. Fleetfoot had been a puppy when Dorian had gifted her to Aelin, and Rowan came into Aelin’s life much later on, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t harbor some lingering grudges against her.
Gods above, he was annoyed at a dog .
And yes, it wasn’t even entirely Fleetfoot’s fault what had happened, but if she had been calmer or maybe had followed him like she was supposed to, it wouldn’t have happened. Rowan wouldn’t be sitting in the ER, bleary and on a lot of painkillers, waiting for a doctor to come see him about his ankle…that he was pretty sure he had fractured, if not broken.
How was he even supposed to explain what happened to the doctor? It wasn’t like he was doing some strenuous exercise or anything of the sort. Rowan audibly groaned as he banged his head against the pillow underneath his head, willing for anything that would take the memory of the last hour away.
His day had started out normally, albeit a bit sad, but only because his wife was at work today while he was off. It was rare that they were off together, so he was used to it, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t upset about the entire situation. Since he was off, though, he had taken up the job of doing some of the house chores that the two had been neglecting to do after getting home from work, such as picking up the random clothing articles that had been strewn across their apartment. He knew he was missing a shirt, and Aelin was most definitely missing a bra or two, which he had found underneath the furniture in the living room, and he had made the mental note to maybe slow down next time.
But he was also sure that he was never going to remember the mental note.
When it came time to take Fleetfoot on her first walk of the day (yes, first), she was already practically bouncing off the walls with the excitement running through her body. Her tail was wagging, and she had pounced on him four times just while he was trying to get her leash around her body. Soon enough, but still not soon enough, Rowan had Fleetfoot all ready to go, and he was ready to go enjoy the sunshine and the pleasantly cool weather of mid-September while doing his best to wrangle a wild dog.
Honestly, he was somewhat jealous of the fact that while he was able to calm his wild wife, nothing could be done from his side to calm the wild dog. That was Aelin’s job.
And of course, with a wild dog came the hazards of having to keep a constant eye to make sure she didn’t eat anything she wasn’t supposed to or accidentally run into the middle of the road. Rowan knew that she was incredibly well trained and would listen to his commands, but he didn’t want to take the risk of other nearby dogs or Fleetfoot getting momentarily distracted by something across the road. And so there he was, a man with his dog, until he tried to cross the road because said dog was being ansty. Then, he was a man in incredible pain with his dog barkly loudly and trying to soothe him with her tongue.
The curb. He had walked off the curb on top of a sewer grate, and the uneven footing twisted his ankle far enough that he let out a grunt of pain before crumpling down as he lost the ability to hold his weight up. Fleetfoot had tried to help in the best way she could - with a lot of barking and nudges and licks to soothe him, and he had appreciated it at the time, but it’s not like the dog was going to help him up and get him to the hospital.
Unfortunately, that meant calling the one person he knew without a doubt would be free at noon on a weekday.
Fenrys.
At first, Fenrys had been concerned, like the good friend he should’ve been. Until he saw Rowan sitting on the side of the curb with Fleetfoot’s head hanging off of his thigh, her tongue out of her mouth as she panted. And then, Fenrys was doubled over laughing his head off as he leaned against the closest pole. It took them a few minutes to get Rowan into Fenrys’ car because the asshole kept stopping to laugh, and it definitely didn’t help that any movement sent a searing jolt of pain up Rowan’s leg. Eventually, they did make it to the hospital where he was put on painkillers and had X-rays taken while Fenrys was dog-sitting for him.
Which brought him to the moment when Yrene Towers Westfall walked into the room with a small smile on her face.
“Hey, Rowan,” she greeted as she picked up the patient chart that was clipped to the side of his bed.
“Hi, Yrene,” he attempted to smile back but it only turned into a grimace as he tried to shift his foot.
“So, it does look like you have a fracture running through your ankle, and you need to be on bed rest for three days and wear a boot for three weeks."
Rowan snorted at that. "A pediatrician on bed rest. Imagine how fun that’ll be when all the kids see the boot.”
"It would've been longer if Aelin had her way, though," Yrene gently teased. "She was supposed to take you until she saw your name on the patient X-ray."
"She’s listening outside, isn't she?"
"Yes, I am!" He heard her voice from outside the door. Yrene softly laughed before leaving a set of prescriptions on his bedside.
“I’ll see you later, Rowan. Take care,” she said as she left the room, and it was seconds before Aelin came in with a smirk on her face. Immediately, Rowan knew this wasn’t going to be good, and he groaned.
“You heard?” he asked, not even bothering to explain.
“You honestly scared the crap out of me when I saw your name when I was taking my next ER patient, Buzzard,” she teased as she sat down next to him in the bed and grabbed his hand, twining their fingers together. Her face was steady but her voice gave away the amusement. “But then I saw Fenrys brought you in, so while Yrene was looking at your X-rays, I called him. He gave me the gist of the situation.”
“I blame that dog of yours,” Rowan protested, albeit a bit weakly.
“That dog of mine was worried about you.”
“If the dog wasn’t so anxious to cross the road, I would’ve seen the grates.”
That brought out a loud laugh from Aelin, and Rowan wanted to smother himself with the pillow. “God, you’re never living this down.”
“Trust me, I know.”