“You are doing agreatjob,” Willow told him. “You’re making sure your hands are nice and clean so the magic spray can work.”
Jensen rubbed his thumbs over Henry’s little palms very gently.
“That’s fine,” Willow told him. “Let’s rinse with nice, cool water. Hold your hands up for me, Henry.”
Henry stopped whimpering when his hands were out of the water and eyed the water bottle with interest.
“This water is nice and cool,” Willow told him, removing the lid and tilting the bottle over his hands. “Ready?”
He nodded, and she poured the water very slowly and gently onto his little hands.
He wiggled and whined a little, but didn’t cry.
“You are very brave,” Willow told him, placing the bottle down. “Now it’s time for magic spray.”
She grabbed the bottle of antibacterial spray used for burns and scrapes. It had a mild analgesic that would numb the pain in Henry’s little hands.
“Here we go,” she said, misting a little over one hand so he could see it didn’t hurt. “And a little more.”
Henry watched her spray both hands without complaint.
“Now we dance,” she told him, demonstrating by waving her own hands around. “That helps the magic spray to dry.”
Henry smiled at her, but didn’t wave his hands around, he was content just to watch her. That was fine though, because she was so relieved to see him starting to smile a little.
“Okay,” she told him after a minute. “Now you get to choose some Band-Aids.”
The Band-Aids were really mostly for fun. The real work had been making sure there was nothing embedded in his hands, and getting him cleaned up and some antibiotic on him. But even if the Band-Aids only gave a temporary opportunity to keep the abrasions clean, she was pretty sure they would distract him.
She pulled out the small bin of cool Band-Aids she had been collecting for just such an occasion. Henry grinned and watched as she spread out a handful of the bigger ones on her table. When she put down one that was covered in a pattern of bears, he let out a huff of delight and pointed to it.
“Oh, Dusty will like that one, won’t he?” she asked him. “Okay, let’s pick one more, and then we can put them on.”
She kept laying out Band-Aids until he chose another one with cowboys.
“Great choice, Henry,” she told him cheerfully as she put the others back in her little bin. “Now, which hand gets the bears?”
He thrust out his right hand and watched with great interest as she carefully removed the Band-Aid from its backing and smoothed it onto his little palm.
“And which one gets cowboys?” she asked.
He held out the other hand, giving her a real smile for the first time today.
“Excellent,” she told him, putting the other bandage in place.
When she was finished he held out his own hands, palms up, and studied them.
“Great job, Henry,” she told him. “Now if you want, I can get you some cold water bottles to hold. Would that feel better?”
“Nah, nah,” he said, his eyes sparkling.
“No water bottles?” Willow asked.
“I think Henry wants a knock-knock joke,” Jensen said.
“Oh,” she said, smiling at her little friend.“Knock, knock.”
Henry beamed up at her.
