Mother Knows Best:
A/N: Hello my loves! I want to begin by acknowledging something I forgot to in the A/N for chapter 4 of 'How to Say: I Love You'. Remember the blonde thief that beat Ezekiel to the Hope Diamond? PARKER! I'm talking about Parker. How awesome would it be if she and Hardison trained Ezekiel? Now, onto this story. It's an ordinary whump with some extraordinary circumstances in it. Thank the "John Kim Nerd Herd" for this one.
Disclaimer: I own nothing but the angst/ whump. Those are mine.
How does one define a mother? The dictionary would say a woman in relation to a child or children to whom she has given birth. That's a load of bullshit. A mother can be anyone, even, and especially someone who didn't give birth to the child at all. A mother is someone warm and caring who gives their time to their "children" and nurtures them when necessary, and at this moment, it was necessary.
"Take it easy man! Just let him go, we can all walk away from this." Eve held up her hands in surrender, anger sparking in her core. The reason? Someone had messed with one of her cubs. The man had one arm wrapped around Ezekiel's neck, drawing him close and holding him there. The other hand held a gun that was pointed directly at the thief's head.
"Let him go? Oh no, we're far beyond that, this little shit tried to steal from me, he gets what's comin' to him." The man laughed as he pulled him closer. "You still have a chance to get out of here, Toots. Don't wait too long and lose it."
"I'm not leaving him. You understand that Ezekiel? I'm not going to leave you. I just wish I had some sort of Stone to knock him out." Eve tried to hint and Ezekiel understood. Jake was silently sneaking up behind him and was going to try to take the dude out. It happened very quickly. Jake jumped on the guys back, knocking both him and Ezekiel to the ground. The man picked his gun and began firing but Jake knocked it from his hand and wrestled the man until he had won the fight and knocked him out.
"What were you eve thinking man? Stealing from-" Jake turned to Ezekiel who was still laying on the ground. It took him a moment to notice the red streak before Ezekiel surged forward. That's when time unfroze and he sprung into action. "Ezekiel! Are you alright?" Jake rushed to his side, catching Baird's attention.
"Apply pressure but don't move him. If he goes into shock keep him laying down and warm." She ordered before pulling her phone out. "Cassandra? Hi, can you get Jenkins as fast as you can. Tell him to open a door to us. Thanks." Eve hung up before Cassandra even had a chance to reply. She ran back to where Jake had covered Ezekiel with his jacket.
"He's going into shock. I checked his pulse it's pretty slow and he's pretty shaky. Look at his pupils." Jake pointed to his eyes that had dilated. "Come on Ezekiel, you gotta try to stay awake." He told the younger man when his eyes started to flutter. Ezekiel had been shot by one of the bullets in his chest. He was lucky that it wasn't near his heart because he'd be a goner if it was. Suddenly there was a flash of light and the door to the office opened, revealing Jenkins and Cassandra. Jake scooped Ezekiel up in his arms and brought him into the Annex.
"Good heavens! What happened?" Jenkins moved out of the way quickly while Cassandra rushed forward toward her fallen friend.
"He stole from the wrong guy and had a gun pulled on him. Needless to say, he got shot." Jake turned to Jenkins. "Do we have anything that can heal him?"
"Nothing that will work fast enough. He'll bleed out before it works." Jenkins sighed as he turned the globe slightly. "This is not a magical wound, therefore it doesn't need to be treated magically. You have the Liberty Street hospital just a few miles away. I'll open a door near the waiting room. He'll have to heal like a normal person."
"If that's the case, we should go. Jake, you stay here, get yourself cleaned up, then go get some clothes and stuff from his apartment." Eve ordered Jake as she fished inside Ezekiel's pocket for his house key before tossing it to him. "Bring him something to keep him occupied if possible. He hates hospitals." With that the group left the blood covered Jake to do as he was told.
Baird was very correct. Ezekiel did indeed hate hospitals. That's why he panicked so much when he awoke feeling numb and groggy. It was the combo that got to him. The combination of being restrained to the bed and having a tube down his throat. He kicked and thrashed with as much strength as he had, which was not much, as the world blurred around him in an odd silence. Suddenly Colonel Eve Baird loomed into view and she didn't look happy. He couldn't what she was saying but she was yelling at someone.
"You restrained him?! What's wrong with you people? He hasn't done anything wrong." Eve shouted at the nurse when she walked in to find Ezekiel weakly struggling against the restraints.
"Ma'am we had to. He kept fighting the anesthetic." The nurse tried to explain.
"Really? You lost a fight against a kid with a gunshot through his chest that was too weak to stand? That seems likely." Eve deadpanned.
"And on that note, thank you. He should be good to rest now for a while, right?" Cassandra piped in between the women.
"Yes. We'll let him heal up for awhile then we'll start physical therapy." The nurse explained. The term awhile was a bit of an understatement. In total Ezekiel spent 4 weeks at the hospital. The first three was simply healing, the last was more physical therapy. It had taken longer for the healing process because the actual wound became infected but they had it cleaned up and fixed up. The worst part for Ezekiel was both the pain and the boredom.
"What can you do about the pain?" Jake pulled a nurse aside as he watched the thief grimace from simply moving over in the bed.
"Well since he's going home tomorrow, I can speak with the doctors about a prescription for Dilaudid. It's a pretty intense painkiller that should help get him back on his feet. Would that work?" She asked.
"That would probably do the trick. Thank you." Jake smiled at her.
"Absolutely, I'll go write it up for you now." She went back to her desk and began to fill out a yellow slip. The next day, while Eve and Cassandra drove Ezekiel back to the Annex, Jake went to pick up his prescription.
They decided to make him take it easy and not allow him to go on any missions for a few weeks, but when it came down to it, they needed a thief.
"Alright, Jones. We need you for this mission," Eve began. Ezekiel sat up quickly, pain crossed his excited expression. He was bored of being bored. "But we have one condition… you have to take your meds." Ezekiel groaned.
"I don't want to! They make the world go all wibbly wobbly!" He sighed.
"How would you know? You haven't even taken any yet." She argued.
"I have." He replied indignantly.
"The seal hasn't been broken yet. You're not going to win this argument. Either you take the meds and help us or you stay here and we find a new thief." Eve bluffed. There was no thief they could hire that would replace him.
"Fine." He groaned like a teenager.
"A full one. I'm not kidding Jones. You need to worry about yourself first." She opened the bottle and handed him one and a glass of water. She watched him take it just to be sure before the team gathered their bearings and left for their mission. It was simple but they definitely needed Ezekiel. There was a ring, inside a glass case, locked with magical locks, surrounded by the highest tech security system that they had to break into. He had been relatively quiet during the mission because not a lot had to do with him. However he seemed odd when it came to his time to shine. He had cracked the security systems and was working on the locks when the team began to notice.
"He's a lot slower than usual." Cassandra commented.
"He's been out of practice." Jake compensated.
"No this is different. Look at his hands, they're all stumbly." She pointed. Ezekiel himself wasn't looking so good. He kept having to shake his head to wake himself up. He had somehow managed to get the locks off and grabbed the glass case. Suddenly alarms blared, causing him to jump. He grabbed the ring and turned to leave but was overwhelmingly dizzy. He stumbled through the door where the others waited for him.
"Look! I got it." He gave an exhausted sigh before almost falling over. He would've had Jake not jumped forward to catch him.
"Maybe not our best plan." He scooped him up and held him bridal style. "We should get him back."
"No. I don't wanna go back. I like it here!" Ezekiel called out suddenly, voice slurred.
"Correction! We should definitely get him back. That painkiller hit him hard." Jake repositioned him in his arms and then proceeded to carry him back towards the door. "Here, Ezekiel, I'm gonna set you down but you can lean on Baird if you need to." He turned to Baird who nodded in approval. "I'm going to run ahead and get the door ready." When he set Ezekiel down he stared at the ground for a minute.
"You know what's weird? We can sit on the floor and yet we're still floating in space! That's nuts! It's like we're sitting on air!" Ezekiel exclaimed, delirious.
"Yeah... That's absolutely crazy." Eve laughed lightly as she pulled him into a standing position. She was worried, this was the youngest of her charges completely high off of painkillers because he got shot. What kind of guardian was she? He leaned on her heavily while he asked Cassandra about space. When they finally arrived back at the Annex, he was stumbling very badly and was barely awake. He was mumbling little things to himself about aliens.
"Alright, you should get some sleep." Eve helped him down onto the bed and began to pull the cover up over him.
"No I don't wanna go to bed yet Mom!" Ezekiel called out. Eve froze and made a quick glance at the others, including Flynn who had returned to the Annex just in time to see the show. Jake was looking up at the ceiling, trying to conceal his laughter. Cassandra was looking down, smiled spread wide across her face. Flynn was the only one who looked thoroughly perplexed, brow furrowed.
"I know buddy but you have to. Maybe you'll dream of UFOs." I'm not his Mom! I am not his mom! I am NOT his mom! She had to remind herself, even though her actions contradicted her thoughts. She pulled the blanket over his skinny body and kissed his forehead as his eyes fluttered shut.
"So…?" Jake whispered.
"Shut up." Eve walked past him into the Annex's bathroom and closed the door behind her. It was there that she released all of her emotions. She clutched the sink as she looked into the drain of the sink. He called me mom. He's completely delirious, that's the only explanation. She thought before she heard a light knock on the door. Before she could even tell the person to go away, he popped his head in.
"Eve are you alright?" Flynn asked her, giving her the look that caused her to melt everytime. Including this instance. He looked at her with those deep brown eyes and she felt tears well in the corners of her eyes. He sighed and drew her into a hug with his chin on top of her head. He remained silent, waiting for her to speak.
"He called me mom." She whispered.
"I know." Flynn sighed again, not knowing what to say.
"I mean, have you ever thought about it? Their childhoods I mean. Did Ezekiel's parents care about him? He told us he has no ties to anyone. Something had to have happened there." Eve mumbled into his chest.
"Well, we won't know until he wants us to, but at least he's comfortable with us, at least subconsciously. The best we can do for him is be there. I know very little about his past but from what I do know, it's full of abandonment and loneliness." Flynn told her. She pulled away from his hug.
"Alright, I'm done, I don't need to be coddled anymore, I should be fine." She waved a hand at her face to dry her moist eyes. "And Flynn? If I'm Mom that makes you Dad." She smiled at the thought. "Jake, Ezekiel, and Cassandra are sort of like our kids."
"Then we have some pretty spectacular kids." Eve smiled as he kissed the side of her head. Then he held the door open for her as she left the bathroom. Jake and Cassandra were reading from two large tomes that sat on the table but they could barely keep their eyes open.
"Guys, feel free to go home. We had a busy day, get some rest." She told them. "You too Flynn. You had a mission of your own today, you must be exhausted."
"Who's going to stay with him?" Flynn asked before realizing.
"Who do you think." She smiled.
"Call me if you need help okay?" He ordered.
"I have Jenkins, but I'll keep you in the loop." She glanced back at the cot on which the youngest librarian lay. "Besides, he's asleep, what could happen." The answer to that question? A lot. Baird sat beside the cot, almost asleep herself, when she heard him. It was soft whimpers and it was coming from the bed.
"Hey, Ezekiel, it's alright. You're alright." She shook him awake, taking note of his unusual warmth. He opened his foggy eyes and attempted to make sense of his situation.
"What's going on?" His groggy voice was slightly less slurred but it wasn't fully there yet. "Why are there two of you?"
"You had some pretty intense side effects from those meds. They're not quite out of your system yet but it shouldn't take more than a few more hours." She turned her concern towards his rosy cheeks and felt his forehead. "You have a fever."
"Yeah scratch that thought about them being in system for much longer, because I feel like I might defy that." He groaned, sitting up.
"What do you… Oh!" Baird thought for a moment before grabbing a trashcan from nearby and handed it to him just in time. He retched and vomited what little food he had left into the can. What concerned her was the bit of blood that was mixed in. He sat back miserably and pulled his sweatshirt closer to himself as he laid a hand across his abdomen.
"That is one hell of a painkiller. It kills you with side effects just so you forget you're in pain." His face paled once more but this time he stood and stumbled his way to the bathroom, Eve following closely behind him. He fell in front of the toilet and went for a round two. This was the more rough part of the night because it lasted many hours where he sat, vomiting every 20 minutes until there was nothing left to throw up except his own blood. He was currently resting his head against the wall in exhaustion, breathing heavily. Eve pulled out her phone.
"Jenkins?" She asked when he picked up.
"Colonel? Why are you calling me? We're in the same building." Jenkins answered gruffly.
"I'm calling you on the phone because you wouldn't have heard me unless I left the Annex, and I am not prepared to leave him alone. Can you just come down to the main Annex bathroom? I'm a little worried." She told him as she glanced over at the extremely pale thief.
"I'm on my way, but I'm sure you're worrying about nothing." Jenkins sighed before hanging up. Eve shook her head in annoyance when Ezekiel went another round against the toilet, losing, just like he did every other time. Jenkins entered mid vomit and saw the man's weak form hunched over the toilet in exhaustion and misery. He also saw the blood that he had vomited.
"Maybe it's a little more than nothing." Jenkins kneeled beside him and pulled out a thermometer. "Mr. Jones, I can't even imagine how awful you must be feeling right now, but I need you to look at me so I can take your temperature." Ezekiel turned to face him, eyes fogged from fever, and gingerly opened his mouth when he was told to. When the thermometer beeped Jenkins removed it and frowned at the temperature. "103.4. You have quite the fever my fine young friend. I'll see if we have anything that could help with vomiting." Jenkins left to find some sort of medicine. Ezekiel sighed heavily and leaned against Eve's shoulder.
You're not his mom. You're not his mom. You're not his mom, rang in her ears but this time, she chose to ignore it. She drew him close and began running her fingers through his hair with one hand and rubbing his back with the other. They stayed like that for awhile until Jenkins returned with the medicine and brought his back to the bed. Eve sat by his bedside even after he fell asleep, just in case. He didn't wake again until the next evening.
"Morning Sleeping Beauty. How are you feeling?" Jake asked as he watched the man sit up groggily from across the room.
"Like I was run over by like 19 trucks." Ezekiel groaned. "What the hell happened?"
"Those painkillers they gave you were pretty intense. You got all loopy, then came the vomiting of your own blood. Ready to take one today?" Jake asked seriously.
"Not really." Ezekiel whispered, clearly freaked out.
"Good because we got you a different prescription. One without all the super side effects. We made sure it wasn't an opioid. The only thing is that it won't work quite as well so you'll feel more pain." He smiled as he punched the younger man lightly in the shoulder.
"Thank you." Ezekiel sighed as he layed back. "Where's Baird?"
"Do you mean Mom?" Jake smirked.
"What do you- Oh no. I called her Mom, didn't I?" Ezekiel groaned as he shut his eyes.
"Yup." Jake smiled as he thought back on it.
"I should probably go find her." Ezekiel stood slowly before going to find the Colonel. He found her in the reading room.
"Soo…" Ezekiel started as she laid down her book. "I just… I wanted to thank you for yesterday. I don't remember much, but of what I do, you were there the whole time."
"Of course! I'm just a Guardian, it's what I do." She smiled before picking the book back up. Ezekiel turned around to leave, but something was bothering him.
"Colonel Baird, Eve, you're so much more than just a Guardian. I don't call just anyone Mom and there is a reason behind that. My mother hated me my entire life. I stole her youth and beauty, her marriage, her money, her time, and her dreams. She told me that I was a waste of space and that the world would be better if I wasn't in it. The worst bit about that is that I believed that was how a mother treated her child because that was all I knew. I've grown up quite a bit since then, whether I've liked it or not, and I've learned some things. Some women were made to be mothers, while others are not. I believe you were made to be a motherly figure. Thank you for being my true mother, even if we aren't related." He smiled as he left. She let the book fall against her lap gently as tears welled in her eyes.
You are not his mom. The voice in her head told her. "Yeah but I'm as close as it gets."
A/N: And that's it! It's super cute and maybe slightly unrealistic but the fact is, I enjoyed writing it. I hope you guys liked it! I love you all more than the eye emoji (Groupchat knows what's up.) ~FGaT XOXOXOXOXOX