37 – Tender Care

"Are you ok?" Kate asked Dave worriedly.

"Never better," he managed to get out and chuckled. It quickly turned into a painful coughing though.

Kate looked concerned. "Let me help you," she said.

He grunted in agreement putting his arm over the shoulder she offered.

She helped him stand up and brought him to her home.

It seemed her parents weren't home yet as the house was empty.

She slowly helped him up the stairs.

"First we need to get you cleaned up," she said.

He merely grunted in agreement.

She shuttled him into the bathroom where she carefully stripped his clothes off him. This caused him to hiss a few times as the fabric brushed along his raw cuts and bruises.

She was entirely focused on taking care of him, only distracted for a moment when his underwear came off.

After getting him ready, she stripped herself until she was naked revealing more of herself than she had to anyone including Dave. She was revealing everything to him without shame. Unfortunately he wasn't in any shape to enjoy the show exhausted and wracked by pain as he was.

She had taken control of the entire situation, she made sure the water wasn't too hot nor cold before putting him under the shower. He just let the warm water run down his body.

Kate joined him with a wash cloth. First she washed the dirt out of his hair before she started carefully cleaning his entire body. She made sure to only cautiously dab at the worst injuries. She wanted him to hurt as little as possible, but it was important to get the dirt off and out of his injuries. He had rolled around on the ground a lot in the fight and was covered by all kinds of dirt. If she left him as is some of the injuries might get infected.

He sucked in his breath whenever she dabbed at some of the cuts, but let her do what she needed to do trying to distract himself from the burning sensation the cuts were giving him by focusing on the soothing sensation the warm water was giving his bruises. It only barely helped though. They had really given him a good beating and part of him deep inside raged. He wanted his revenge already, but he knew he had to temper himself.

Given just a while longer he would be able to easily crush someone like Jeffrey. It was already to the point where Jeffrey had to use his social influence to suppress him and still came out of the interaction just as bad if not worse. At least Dave hadn't taken a savage blow to his manhood.

He wasn't too worried about Jeffrey's future retaliation. His family might have some influence, but they could do nothing to him since he didn't really care about his father so he would welcome any repercussions that hit his father. Not that that would happen since his father was rather wealthy and influential himself due to his fame. The only people that he cared about were Jackie and Kate.

Jackie was safe because it wasn't known they were a thing and until that came out she would be protected due to being known as his father's wife.

Kate was the only one he needed to keep an eye on to make she remained safe. She didn't have popularity to protect herself. Her family was only a middle-class to maybe upper middle-class household, which didn't mean much in a school like theirs. If Jeffrey tried to push things too far though Dave had no trouble raising the stakes even higher in return.

Jeffrey and Mara might try to use his former feelings for her that they still thought he had to hurt him as a form of revenge. Those had already been snuffed out though so they could try all they wanted from that angle. He might actually prefer if they did since if they focused on that rather than physically or financially attacking him it would just give him more time to grow.

After Kate made sure she had cleaned every bit of him, probably twice she helped him dry off and lead him into her bedroom where she carefully laid him down on her bed.

He grunted as he laid down on some of his bruises.

"Wait right there," she told him.

Shortly after leaving she returned with some towels, disinfectant and bandaids. Unfortunately she had also taken the time to put on a fresh pair of panties and a bra.

She sat down on the bed beside him, careful to not disturb him too much.

"This is probably going to hurt a little," she said nervously.

"It's ok. Go ahead," he said eventually, already anticipating this wasn't going to be very pleasant.

She used the towels soaked in disinfectant to disinfect his wounds. He managed to hold in his reaction to the burning sensations until she reached the cut on his lip and eyebrow which caused him to flinch.

She paused. "Sorry, just bear with it for a little," she said. Her eyes filled with tenderness as she tried to be as careful as possible.

"Hnnn," he grunted. He breathed in deeply to prepare himself. He couldn't really do anything other than letting her continue. He felt warm on the inside receiving this care from her. Though he had liked her for her personality before this was the first time for him to see this side of hers.

Although it took a while she was patient and focused throughout the whole ordeal. Thankfully the worst of it seemed to be the few cuts on his face, but they were small enough for some bandaids to be enough to hold them clothes rather than needing stitches. At least she hoped so.

She was finally done and released a sigh in relief. She even took the time to run her eyes over his body that was already starting to become quite impressive a light blush spreading across her cheeks.

Now that all the stress and adrenaline had worn off, the exhaustion and beating was taking its toll on Dave causing him to pass out.