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“What happened to your knee, Turbo?” Sydney asked around her thumb having gathered the blanket she’d left in the car to her chest.
“My car bit me,” she said, the weight of the little girl backtracking on her self-soothe methods made Porsche’s failure alarm blare. “Guess I need to take it to Baldy’s and get gas.”
“It looks bad,” she said, the words garbled and Porsche had to agree.
The gash was at least an inch, but the blood had mostly dried. Sadly it was all the way down her leg and over the top of her foot. Since she’d been at the Roadside, she was in cutoff shorts and spiked heels accentuating the spread of red.
“It looks worse than it feels,” she said even if the cool spring air hitting the gash sent stings of pain across her knee. “But, that being said, what do you think about going to the clinic to have Red look at my knee and you could go play up in Doc’s office?”
“Okay.” Sydney said through her thumb in her mouth.
Closing the passenger door, Porsche pulled her phone from her back pocket and dialed up the clinic.
“SMC Clinic,” Zoe’s familiar voice answered.
“Hey Zoe, is Doc open for an appointment, like now for Sydney, I fucked up and she—” covering her stomach with her hand Porsche did her best to tamp down the feeling of failure so thick and rich it coated her tongue with bile.
Sydney wasn’t a project and most importantly she couldn’t be a failure. Not this time. She refused to be her parents or Sydney’s mother focusing on their wants before the needs of their child. The little girl had to come first for someone and sadly, the one most qualified was behind bars because he’d done exactly what the little girl needed.
“Can I get Sydney in with Doc, ASAP?”
“She was going to go home after this appointment wrapped up, but you know she’ll stay if you can make it up here in the next ten minutes.”
“Yes, we’ll be there.”
Porsche slid into the driver’s seat and hauled ass out of the parking lot back to the clinic. Maybe she was obsessing, if so Doc would send her merry ass on the way, but the little girl was alone right now.
When they walked in Zoe gave her a smile then offered her hand to Sydney. “Any chance you want to go with me up to Doc’s?”
“Turbo needs to see Red,” she said in protest around her thumb.
“Who’s Turbo?” Zoe asked and Porsche meekly held her hand up earning a raised eyebrow.
“Turbo first,” Sydney said then turned her eyes back to Porsche. “Is your heart really warm now?”
Heart, face, back of her neck, yeah, Porsche or Turbo was getting mighty toasty in the office.
“Yeah, Sydie Bean, it is,” she said. “That’s why Zoe asked to take you, so Red could take care of my knee.”
“Your knee?” Zoe asked almost ruining the mirage of a preplanned and well thought out mommy moment. “Oh, damn, yeah, head into exam two and flip the flags so he knows you’re there.”
Once alone in the room Porsche began digging through the cupboards in search of first aid supplies to clean up her wound.
“Good drugs are locked up,” Red said. “But if you really want the choice barf bags, second drawer down on the right.”
“Trying to take care of myself, that’s all Red.”
“I get it,” he said pointing to the exam table. “I get paid either way, might as well get a once over.”
“You’re gonna give me a shot aren’t you?” she asked, narrowing her eyes at him.
“Turnabout being more than the town name, but fair play and all it only seems right,” he said as he gloved up and moved her knee from side to side. “I’ll have Roadkill come in and get you all ready, sorry Porsche, you need stitches.”
“Are you kidding me?” she scoffed. “It’s just a flesh wound.”
“Says the knight with no arms or legs,” he countered. “Let me check your chart since one wasn’t left out there.”
“Zoe took Syd upstairs,” Porsche explained. “I flipped the flags.”
