Daughter of a Dixon ✔️

64: Strict Bed Rest

The next day, via my dad, I was on strict bed rest. Bailey agreed as well, and said that my body desperately needed to recuperate from the trauma it had faced. So, she gave me some of her medical books and quiz worksheets to work on while I was lying around. I was actually getting a hang of the medical terminology fairly easily, but of course, that was just prefixes, suffixes, and root words. The actual nurse work, like stitching, correcting bones, and even surgery, would be much, much more difficult.

As the long, droning day stretched on into the early afternoon, there was a soft knock at my door. Before I could even say, "come in," Carl allowed himself entry, smiling at me softly as he meandered over to my bedside.

"How's it going?" he asked, gently taking a seat on the edge of the bed. I gave him a shrug, blowing out a sigh.

"Slowly, boringly. What about you? Is anythin' happenin' out there?"

He shook his head lowly. "No, nothing too much. Rick went out with the new guy, Morgan, to bury Pete somewhere. They didn't want him buried inside the walls."

I nodded slowly, brushing a piece of my brown hair away from my eyes. "The Morgan guy; he okay?"

Carl nodded adamantly. "Yeah, he's okay. That one supply run I went on, way back at the prison, the one where we found all those guns; that was Morgan. Dad knew him, at the very beginning. He's one of the good guys."

I smiled quaintly, and sighed once again. It had only been a few hours, and I was already tired of laying around. I needed to be out in the community; it was agonizing not knowing what was happening around me.

"I heard what you said last night- or, what you started to say."

I looked up to Carl, as his voice had broken me out of my day-daze. "I said a lot last night, Carl; what part are you talking about?" I asked, a shy laugh escaping me.

He smirked, the kind of smirk that made me cheeks gently flush pink, and his eyes lit up. "The part where you almost called me your boyfriend."

I sighed heavily, trying to cover the redness creeping up my face. "After everything that I said last night, everything that happened, that's the detail you remember?"

His smirk grew, and he shrugged. "Caught me by surprise is all."

"Good surprise or bad?" I asked, my heart rate increasing with nervousness.

He flat-out grinned. Carefully, he brought a gentle hand beneath my chin, and lifted it to him. He kissed me, a short sweet kiss, and then retreated, pulling apart just enough to look me in the eyes. His eyes were shining like the sun, and I'm sure my cheeks were as hot as it.

"Do you wanna be my girlfriend, Sidney?" he asked me, and my grin, if possible, grew in an instant.

"Do you wanna be my boyfriend, Carl?" I teased, laughter in my voice.

"You know, I'd like that a lot," he said, nodding his head.

"Yeah, I would, too," I said, copying his gesture of agreement.

He laughed quietly, and leaned in to kiss me gently once more. When we pulled apart a moment later, he let me lay back down on the bed, and he carefully stood. I looked up to him with admiration as he smiled down at me, and gave his head a final nod.