“No, but I talked to him a while ago, and he should be along.” I had my own bag, an old-fashioned doctor’s bag that someone had given me when I graduated medical school, likely expecting me to do house calls. It was perfect for this application, loaded with bandages and lollipops.
The little room lay along a hallway shared with the pet room and other special use areas. Private themed rooms for the most part, popular enough that they were generally reserved by members weeks in advance. There were all sorts of kink-friendly setups in there, I’d been told. But I hadn’t been in because as a daddy, the little room was where I enjoyed most of my time at Chained.
Tonight, we had been given a section of the little room for our hospital, and I was tickled to see how much effort had been put into it by the club staff. Ms. Lily loved a night with a theme, and she had gone above and beyond tonight. We carried our things to the corner where three miniature exam tables stood, one with a curtain that could be pulled around it for “surgery.” A light was directed toward each table and a sideboard held jars of colorful candies to reward good patients.
As we set up our things, I noticed that the reading corner was featuring stories about doctors and nurses as well as some brightly colored picture books about eating your vegetables and such. There was an Operation game set up, and all the other stations were in harmony with the rest.
“Look at that.” Clark elbowed me and pointed. “You can build your own food pyramid. The original version.”
“And they set up the kitchen so you can fake cook all those things.” The play kitchen came out from time to time and was always a hit.
“This is going to be so much fun.” I set my bag on the sideboard and opened it. “Look at the Band-Aids I found.”
“All the baby animals. No wonder the littles love you so much.”
I had a whole collection of Band-Aids, buying up any that I thought littles would like. Cartoons, animals, balloons, bright colors…but for our stuffie hospital, only the animals would do.
“I hope I’m not late.” Bridger came in, followed by his little. Of the three of us, he was the only one in a relationship at the moment, and he and Hudson were the kind of couple I could only dream of being. They shared both a daddy/little and a spousal relationship and seemed to go from one to the other with such ease and affection, it made my heart squeeze. “I stopped to pick up a box of stuffies we can give away.”
Hudson held up a little crocheted duck only a few inches high. “This one is yellow, but we have blue, pink, purple, green…all the colors!”
“How nice of you both. Your signature duck, but tiny. So cute! Okay, let’s get serious. Pick your exam tables, daddies. I think, Clark, you get the one with the curtain. Which one do you want, Bridger?”
“Either are fine, so I guess the one on the other end? It’s near a chair, so I can sit down and do some fixes more easily.”
We bustled around getting ready, and I tried to push the thoughts of Ernie, my former patient and owner of Pup-Pup, out of my mind. Fortunately, Zoe hadn’t harmed his stuffie, so there was that. Knowing how much the stuffie meant to him, I was very grateful she had not.
Chapter Seven
Ernie
I hadn’t been to a lot of events at Chained, but the ones I went to were all in a separate, multipurpose room. It even had a divider where it could be made larger for popular activities like their Christmas with Santa. It was great because if we made messes, and we did make messes, it was easy to clean up. And from what I saw on the event board, it was used for everything from classes to meetings to private rentals.
When I walked into Chained, I’d expected the stuffie hospital to be set up in the main area. I was surprised to learn that the event was actually in the little room. I didn’t mind; it just caught me off guard.
At first, I didn’t understand why they didn’t stick with what they usually did. Rearranging an entire playroom for a “hospital” felt like a lot of extra work. But as I took each step closer to my destination, I understood the decision.
I was nervous. I was bringing Pup-Pup to see the doctor. Things could go wrong.
And yes, I had medical trauma. I’d be lying to say I didn’t. And I probably wasn’t the only little who did. Not wanting to be in a new environment when role-playing something that had such big feelings attached would be normal.
It took a long time for me to be okay with the fact that everyone who looked at me thought something was slightly off about me physically. I had to remind myself that I was alive and doing as well as I was, thanks to my surgeries, and that my scars were signs my body had healed. People weren’t always able to place what it was that had me looking off, but it often made them uncomfortable.
Tonight’s nerves weren’t about me being scared for myself, though. I was nervous for Pup-Pup. What if they didn’t do it right? What if the thread was the wrong color? What if all they could do was put a Band-Aid on it and tell me to deal with it?
So many scenarios were going through my head. It took only two seconds for me to realize I didn’t need to be scared or worried. I was the one in control.
That probably wasn’t true for all the littles. Someone could be full-on scared of doctors, whether they were the patient or not, or terrified of something happening to their “babies.” Having this in a space we could watch for a while, playing in the distance, was genius.
I checked in at the table at the front of the room. The woman gave me a form on a clipboard to fill out with my stuffie’s name on it and why we were at the hospital. I got a little bracelet for Pup-Pup to wear, too, only I put it on as a collar so it wouldn’t fall of.
“If you are really good for the doctor, there will be a treat when you are done.” She pointed to a bucket of suckers.
I didn’t recognize her, but her name tag said Camile, and she was really sweet. Her job was twofold, I was sure, partly getting us ready for the vibe inside, and also to keep out daddies who didn’t belong in this space.
The little room here wasn’t a place for daddies and mommies to pick up littles. It was a place for littles to feel safe. They could bring playmates with them, of course. All the power belonged to us. It was one of the reasons I felt comfortable coming here alone tonight.
I walked inside to discover it had changed a lot in the months since I’d been there. There were new stations set up, including a chart where you could put veggies and fruits up to make a healthy diet. They also had a little kitchen area set up there. But as I looked at the books and saw they were allnurse-and-doctor related, I realized a lot of this was for tonight. Possibly all of it.
