Dr. Jones struggled to open his eyes and found himself in the ER of Oak Community Hospital. He tried to call out to his daughter, Clancy, but he was unable to talk.

"Daddy? Daddy? Are you awake?" his young daughter asked.

As Clancy stood over the gurney her father was lying on, he didn't look much like the controlling disciplinarian he had become during the past two years. Dr. Jones was a handsome man with slightly red hair, green eyes, and an Irish temper to match. He was in pain now and she knew he would be unable to care for himself. She also knew he must have many questions which she set out to answer.

"Daddy, do you remember anything?" she asked.

He looked at her rather puzzled.

"We were in the car, on our way to the new ‘finishing' school you enrolled me in. Just on the outside of town a deer jumped across the highway and you were going too fast to stop. We veered off the road and ended up in a ditch. Some other drivers stopped and called an ambulance for us."

Her father struggled to work out understandable tones, much like a third rate ventriloquist.

"R U OK?" he managed to eek out.

"Am I OK? Yes, Daddy I'm fine, just a few scratches from the broken glass."

"M?", he asked.

"You? Well, just about every doctor on staff has been in here to check you out. It's really wonderful they way they are offering to help. The consensus is you have a broken jaw, two broken ribs, sprained wrists on both hands, and your right ankle is broken."

"They're going to admit you. You're getting such special treatment. One of the nurses has gone to the burn unit to fetch a Rotabed. Someone said you would be in traction for a week or two and the Rotabed would make it easier to turn you. Dr. D is going to take you upstairs and wire your jaws shut. He explained it all to me Daddy but he'll be back in once he knows you're awake."

Just then Dr. D pulled back the curtain surrounding the gurney Dr. Jones was on and he stepped in.

"Dr. Jones, I thought I heard Clancy talking to you. Glad to hear you came too. I bet you want to know what is going on, don't you?"

Dr. Jones blinked.

"Well, you've got a grade III sprain on your right ankle, probably from trying to apply the brake when you saw the deer. Normally for a sprain we don't set it in a cast but we were unable to set the reduction in the ER. The rest of your medical team agreed we would take care of the ankle when I take you upstairs to wire your jaws shut, " Dr. D explained.

"MMM? " Dr. Jones grimaced.

"You've got a broken mandible but it should heal in about six weeks. You'll be happy to know there is no pulmonary contusion, spleen, or liver damage from the broken ribs. We've got you in a rib belt now and you're wearing wrist wraps. You might lose a little weight when you get wired, what with liquid foods and all. Some people have a drooling problem also. I recommend that anyone having their jaws wired shut keep a pair of wire cutters on hand in case of any emergency. Will that be a problem?" Dr. D. asked.

"No sir, I can get the wire cutters." Clancy interjected.

"sckol?", Dr. Jones muttered.

"School? Well Daddy someone has to help take care of you and things around the house. I can go back to Oak High and finish out the year and take care of everything." Clancy announced.

Mumbling of all types, pitches, and tones came from good Doctor Jones. His young daughter in charge! Oh my gosh!!!!!!

Two very cute interns came to roll Dr. Jones up to the operating room where a first class team of doctors were waiting to help him. Clancy blushed when one of them looked at her.

"Just let me say good bye to him, please?" she begged.

Standing over his gurney, Clancy said, "Now Daddy don't worry about anything. Everything is going to be OK."

"M, ugh, M" came from the good doctors mouth as he vainly attempted to get off of the gurney.

"Doctors make the worst patients", the young intern said as they wheeled him out.

Clancy loved her father, even the mean ogar he had become recently. But she also recognized an opportunity to live life to it's fullest! Two weeks in traction – and six weeks with his jaws wired shut! Hum? She began to speculate.

For the two weeks he's in traction, she thought, he wouldn't even be able to write a note, sign his name, or anything. Once he's out of traction, even with his jaws wired shut, he's a force to be reckoned with so if I want to do anything, it's got to be in the next two weeks, she decided.

Clancy inquired at the nurse's station about her father's hospital admission. He would be brought to room 303 after repairs in the OR. Clancy strolled up to the third floor to look things over. There in room 303 was the "Rotabed". She knew it was usually reserved for burn patients but sometimes people in traction got to use them. It reminded her of a barbecue on the grill. With the push of a button, the nurse could lower the top mattress on the patient and then the bed would rotate around, the bottom mattress would then lift up and WALA! You have a patient on his stomach without moving him.

Clancy walked up to the nurse's station. The woman behind the desk looked very familiar. It was Nurse Kratchette! She was the charge nurse on this unit. Daddy hadn't had much interaction with her since their "falling out" over a year ago. Nurse Kratchette was short and stocky but she and Dr. Jones had enjoyed more than one or two candlelight dinners together. According to Dr. Jones, she had the "hots" for him. Clancy remembers the many conversations she had with her Dad about this and laughs to herself. She always felt bad about lying to Miss Kratchette when she would call the house for Clancy's father and Clancy was instructed to lie and say he wasn't home.

"Perhaps, I should bare my soul to the good nurse." Clancy thought.

"Clancy Jones?'" asked Nurse Kratchette.

"Yes," she responded.

"I saw where your Dad was going to be admitted on this ward. Does he know that I work here now?" asked the nurse.

"Oh, I'm sure he'll be fine with it. I wouldn't worry if I were you. Daddy's the one that messed up your chances of a relationship by being so over involved in his work. He and I have had a rocky two years since Mom died. When we had the accident, he was driving me to a finishing school upstate. I told him just before they rolled him off to surgery that I would re-enroll in Oak High and finish the year here and that I would take care of things." Clancy related.

"I'm sure this will be hard on him; he's always been so involved in this hospital. If only there was some way he could contribute to running this hospital." A light bulb went off for Nurse Kratchette as she uttered those works.

"Clancy, do you think your Dad would mind being a test patient for the next covey of nursing and medical students coming through next week?" asked the good nurse.

"I'm sure he'd love to help out. Oak Community Hospital and teaching young medical students has always been his first love. What kind of things would he have to do?" asked Clancy.

"Well, these gals and a couple of guys need some real hands on experience in taking vital signs of unconscious patients, giving enemas and IM injections. Clancy, you know what I mean by taking the temp on an unconscious person don't you? Let's put it this way, if your Dad wants to help, we only need his rear end!" quipped the nurse.

"SIGN HIM UP FOR IT!" said Clancy gleefully.

Nurse Kratchete insisted that Clancy call her Martha and they spent the next two hours plotting and devising an appropriate care plan for Dr. Jones.

Every morning, noon, and night his bed would be rotated so the good doctor could have his temperature taken rectally. Every morning he would be given a standard one-quart tap water enema. Every afternoon he would be inoculated against something. By the time he would leave the hospital he would be immunized against every disease known to man.

Clancy beamed with retribution but Martha warned her that this was "their secret" and must remain that way or she would lose her job. Clancy agreed.

Later in the evening they rolled Dr. Jones back from surgery and placed him in the Rotabed in room 303. He was barely conscious and he moaned has they placed him in bed.

Clancy was there for him. She took his hand and said, "Daddy, don't worry. Everything going to be OK. Once you drift back to sleep, I'm going to head home and get things sorted out. I should be back in school by Monday."

Dr. Jones blinked twice at his daughter and then let the medication and residual anesthesia take him to dreamland.

Clancy came back to her father's side the next evening after his first day of what she and Martha Kratchette referred to as "rear end maximization care". Which was just a nice way of saying everyone in training got to try something on Daddy's ass.

Clancy smiled at her Father. His Rotabed had been flipped so he was lying on his back and he gave her one of those cold, deadly stares. Trying to talk he uttered a few unintelligible sounds,

"Do U NO? U DO this?" He asked.

"Do I know what, Daddy? I just know this hospital is going to give you the same loving care you've always given me", she said as she smiled back at him.

"I gt U" he mouthed without sound.

"Here, drink this", said Clancy as she shoved a straw in his mouth. She knew he hated hospital food so she had picked up his favorite meal at Olive Garden and ran it through a blender at home for him.

As he drank his liquid lasagna he started up at Clancy with smiling eyes and she lovingly glared back at him and started to giggle, but she quickly regained her composure. Clancy was determined to show her Father what he put her through and she was determined to get their father-daughter relationship back in a normal mode. And, if Martha Kratchette wanted to come along for the ride, so be it.

The good doctor endured his ‘rear end maximization" program for two weeks before he was sent home with his jaws still wired shut. Martha Kratchette spent her days at the Jones residence assisting the remaining servants with attending to the doctors needs. She would leave for the hospital when Clancy came home from school. In the evening Clancy would help with everything. She fed her father, helped him walk on crutches around the house, she ran errands for him, got the mail, wrote the checks, she did what ever it took.

In time the wires were removed, the cast was off, the ribs were healed, and everything was back to normal. Dr. Patrick Jones realized that his daughter was a responsible young adult and he had grown very used to having Martha Kratchette around in the daytime.