Dick is slumping over passed out on his deck chair when Mac found him. She had been sent over on an errand. Logan asked Veronica to check up on him, but her dad had a doctor's appointment, so Mac drew the short straw. Her instructions were to bring over coffee and a breakfast burrito and to make sure that Dick hadn't hurt himself last night. Mac pretended that she didn't remember what last night was, but she had spent the night with half of a bottle of scotch herself. It was Cassidy's birthday. He would have been 28.

She always sent flowers to his grave, the one she could never bring herself to visit. Needless to say, she was very surprised to see the same bouquet that was delivered there laying in Dick's arms as he lay curled around them, trying to protect them. By this point they looked hopelessly wilted, but then again so did Dick. It still brings a small smile to her face.

Mac goes to the door and unlocks it with Veronica's key (really Logan's, but he was out somewhere that no one was supposed to know). Putting the burrito and the two cups of coffee on the island she grabs two large glasses and fills them both half way with water. She snags a blanket on her way back out to the deck. She places both glasses on the table next to Dick and covers him up with the blanket. Mac pulls the flowers out of Dick's arms and places them in one of the glasses of water. Dick whimpers softly, but just pulls the blanket closer around him and continues to sleep.

"Well, it looks like I'll be here for a while." Mac whispers to herself, then goes to her car to grab her laptop. After getting her cup of coffee from the kitchen and putting Dick's into the microwave to try and keep it warm she settles on the deck chair next to Dick and sets up to spend some time on her laptop.

A few hours, and 3 cups of coffee later, Dick starts to stir. The first thing he notices when he opens his eyes was the bouquet of flowers in the water glass.

"I don't remember doing that." Dick tastes his mouth for a moment. "Ugh, gross. I think I need the water more than the flowers." He goes to reach for the glass of water and then notices the blanket covering him. "Wait, what's going on?"

Mac gets up and hands Dick the second glass of water. "Try this glass. No pesky flowers in this one." He looks up confused at her.

"I think I'm still drunk. But thanks, imaginary Ghostworld." Her grabs the water and chugs in down in one go.

"Not drunk, probably really hungover though. There is coffee and a breakfast burrito inside. Let me get them for you. And a refill of water." Mac reached down and snagged the glass from his limp fingers as she quickly moved inside.

Dick looks around really confused. He moves to sit up more comfortably on the chair, and then immediately puts his head into his hands, moaning. It takes Mac a few minutes to come back out, but when she does she has a tray with the coffee, burrito, water and a bottle of aspirin on it.

She slides it onto the table next to him and then pulls her chair up closer to his.

"How are you feeling today?"

Dick grunts in response, then peering through his hands, sees the food and aspirin. He grabs the bottle and shakes a few pills into his hand before using the coffee to swallow it. He lays back down and closes his eyes again.

Mac settles back into her chair and pulls up her laptop, sending a quick email to Veronica.

Bond,

Dick is alive, awake and making nonintelligible grunts as of now.

I'm only staying until his first dick joke, or until he eats the gross food you made me bring him.

-Q

Almost immediately she gets an email back.

Q,

Thanks, from me and Logan. I owe you one.

-Bond

"So, you are really here." Dick doesn't open his eyes as he speaks, but he does reach towards the tray for the coffee.

"I am really here. Sent on assignment to make sure you were alive and planning on staying that way." Mac closes her laptop and sets it aside, cradling her cup of coffee in her hands. "So, are you?"

"Alive or planning on staying that way?" Dick smirks as he sips at his coffee. "I think I'm alive. Maybe. Although I don't know that your treatment of me this morning is making me think that I'm really awake."

"Hey, it's a job. I'm getting paid in candy and Italian food for this job, but it's still a job."

"Well, thanks. You're the first girl to bring me breakfast that wasn't trying to get into my pants. Unless you are?" One of Dick's eyes opens as he smirks towards Mac, looking for her reaction.

"Ha. In your dreams."

"That's why I'm not all that sure I'm awake. Although, there is definitely less clothing featured in those dreams. Not that I don't like that dress, but less clothes are always better." Dick waves his hand lazily towards Mac.

"Ok, eat your burrito and then my job is done. I had to make sure you were alive, awake and get something into your stomach that wasn't alcohol. Then I can leave." Mac puts down her coffee to put her laptop back into it's case and leans forward slightly, looking like she is ready to leave.

Dick takes another slow sip of his coffee, then opens his eyes and takes a look around. He is covered with a blanket, and Cassidy's flowers are in a vase. Well, the closest thing he has to a vase in this house. He takes a deep breath and sits fully upright.

"Thank you Mac. For the blanket and for taking care of my flowers. Normally I wake up with them all over me, and it takes a long shower to get rid of them." He reaches up to them and fingers one of the leaves.

"You could just leave them on his grave, you know. That's where they were left." Mac looks down to her hands as she says that.

Dick's eyes fly up to Mac's face as he hears that. He notices the way her hands are fidgiting and how she won't look at him.

"How do you know where the flowers are from?" Mac raises her head to him at hearing this, meeting his eyes.

"That is the same bouquet of flowers that he gave me. I have them delivered every year. Twice a year. Yesterday and..." Mac stops talking but hasn't broken eye contact with Dick yet. He watches as a single tear falls down her face and reaches a hand up to wipe it off, but it stops halfway there.

"Graduation Day." Dick brings his hand down and grabs the napkin off the tray, passing it to Mac. "Those evenings are the ones that I find the flowers there. The next mornings are the ones that I find them all over me."

"I can't go there. It's just a stone, and it's not enough. It's not right. So I have the flowers delivered and stay home alone." Mac wipes the tear off her cheek as another one falls. "They are supposed to stay there for him. So he somehow knows that I think of him."

Dick sits there for a long moment. "I didn't know they were from you. I never knew who they were from. I just knew that they meant that someone else was thinking of him too. That someone else didn't think he was a completely horrible murderer. So I take them with me. They come drinking with me, and they wake up with me. The flowers mean that for that one moment, someone else is mourning him too." His eyes drop down to his hands as he talks, and then he sees one of Mac's hand reach over and grab ahold of his. They sit like that for a long few moments. Dick transfers Mac's hand to just the one of his and starts to eat the burrito she had brought for him. They sit silently, holding hands as he finishes it and drinks the rest of his coffee. Mac's eyes stay on the bouquet of flowers while Dick's gaze keeps going back to her face, trying to burn the image of her silently and slowly crying over his little brother into his mind so it would never fade. Someone else cared. She still cared.

"I'm done eating. I'm awake and aware. I think I'll stay this way for a while yet. Thanks for the food. And the flowers." Dick's hand tightens on Mac's and then loosens, but doesn't quite let go. "I'll leave the flowers there next time."

"You can do what you want with the flowers. It doesn't really matter all that much." Mac slowly draws her hand back into her own lap. "I think they mean more to you now than they do to him."

"They are your flowers. I'll leave them there. Now, I am going to take a shower, and not have to wash them off of me this time. Your job here is done. Unless you want to join me?" Dick waggles his eyebrows as he says the last line. Mac gives him a small smile and a short laugh.

"Still, only in your dreams. I'm glad you are still alive, Dick. I'll see you around." Mac gets up and walks around the house to get to her car.

"See you." Dick stays out back, watching the ocean for a while before getting up. He rearranges the tray so the flowers will fit on it as well and brings it inside.