Michael's Little Problem: Part 4

Chapter 1

Miami, FL

"Hey, Lily!" My boss Steve called from the front of the shop. I stopped working on the strawberry I was cutting and leaned over towards the front of the shop, raising my eyebrows at my boss. "Finish cutting those strawberries and then take your break, you've been back there for quite a while."

"Okay." I called. I turned back to my work area and surveyed my progress. I had spent the last few hours cutting fruit into tiny pieces and placing it into the large containers we served them in. Working at the frozen yogurt shop for just over a month, I had become an expert at cutting up various types of fruit like kiwis, bananas, pineapple, and strawberries. You name it I cut it.

I continued to plow through the pile of strawberries I had left to cut, and before I knew it I had finally finished all the fruit prep. I covered the containers with plastic wrap and shoved them in the fridge, and then I was out the door to take my break.

Harvey's Creamery was located right across from a popular beach in Miami, so I often liked to take a walk over to the beach and get some fresh air during my breaks. Knowing I only had fifteen minutes, I walked a short ways down and found a section of the beach that wasn't as crowded to sit down. After I had plopped down on the sand, I pulled out my phone and read a text from my boyfriend, Pete. Hey fruit ninja, wanna come over to my house tonight?

I laughed and rolled my eyes. Pete had taken to calling me fruit ninja ever since I started my job at the shop; he seemed to think it was funny that I spent most of my time chopping fruit. I quickly composed a response. Sure, I'll be over after my shift, I get off at 7:00. I sent the message and put my phone back in my pocket.

I spent a couple minutes just enjoying the quiet before I started thinking about Michael, as was my normal routine. I tried to keep myself busy 24/7 so I didn't have time to think about him, but my mind always found little places to sneak in the endless questions I had. Where was Michael? When was he coming back? What the hell happened two months ago? And the worst…was he even alive? I shook that thought out of my head right away and told myself over and over again that I knew he was still alive until I felt like I believed it.

The last two months since Michael had disappeared had been some of the worst of my life. After that horrible day at the police station when Michael told me he had to leave, I had slowly retreated into a robotic version of myself. I went to school, cross country practice, did homework, went through my normal routine, and tried my best to act like my normal self, but I was on autopilot. I knew my friends and family were worried about me, but I assured them I was fine. I tried to keep myself busy and even got the job at the frozen yogurt shop when I felt like I had too much time to myself. Alone time led to terrible thoughts that I preferred not to think about.

One of the worst things about Michael being gone was having to worry even more about Larry. I was terrified that Larry would find out Michael was gone and use that opportunity to get to me. That's why I always tried to make sure I was around people so there would be a witness if he decided to make an appearance.

"Lily, you're doing too much, honey!" Grandma had admonished when I'd come home at ten at night after going to school, practice and then working a shift at the shop. "You barely sleep and I know you aren't eating enough. I'm worried about you." She said, pulling me towards her for a hug.

"Grandma, I need to stay busy, it helps me not to think about it…" I had trailed off, staring at the floor.

Of course Grandma had immediately known what I was talking about. "Honey, Michael would hate to see you like this. All I'm asking is for you to take care of yourself."

I nodded. "I promise I will, Grandma." She nodded but I could tell she didn't believe me.

Pete of course had said the same things to me at first, but he had grown so used to my constant need to be busy that he almost never said anything to me anymore about it and that was the way I liked it. Fi and Sam also tried their best to keep my spirits up, but I just couldn't make myself move on, no matter how hard I tried. Michael and I had become so close that it was almost like I had lost my dad when he disappeared.

I found myself looking for him at the oddest moments; sometimes after I finished a cross country race, I looked for him in the crowd at the finish line. After school, I always scanned the parking lot for the black Charger, but I never saw it. Even now while I was sitting at the beach, I found myself scanning the crowds of people, looking for his dark hair and sunglasses.

I shook my head; I had to snap out of it. I stood up and dusted myself off, making my way back to the shop since my break was now almost over.

I was surprised to see Sam sitting at one of the tables when I walked in. He stood up when I walked in and smiled at me. "There's my favorite fro-yo slinger!"

I rolled my eyes and gave him a hug. "Hey, Sam, how are things?"

Sam shrugged. "Oh, you know, little of this, little of that. How 'bout you? I hear you're keeping busy lately." He raised his eyebrows and I instantly knew grandma had talked to him. I walked behind the counter and threw my apron on, washing my hands before I picked up a rag to clean off the work area.

"I like being busy, Sam. Don't let Grandma scare you, I'm doing just fine." I hated that Grandma was so worried about me. She must have told Fi too because she had called me the other day asking me the same questions I knew Sam was preparing to ask.

Sam threw his hands up defensively. "Listen kid, you're a smart cookie so I know you'll take care of yourself. Maddie's just concerned is all and to be honest, so am I. You look like you aren't getting enough sleep and you're so thin I can almost see through you. Get me a bowl of the mango passion yogurt with strawberries so I have a reason to be standing here, would ya?"

I nodded and grabbed a bowl to get the yogurt. Apparently Sam had noticed my clothes were looking a little baggy and the huge bags under my eyes. I wasn't trying to lose weight, I guess it was just the stress. I couldn't help it. "So what else is new?" I asked, changing the subject.

I handed Sam his yogurt and he passed me a five dollar bill. "Nothing much. Fi and I are on a job right now, figured we needed to get back on the horse. We're dealing with a nasty biker gang; bet you can guess whose idea it was." Sam chuckled and I had to smile. I handed him his change and he threw it in the tip jar, grinning at me.

"That does have Fiona's name written all over it." I said, leaning against the cash register. Sam and I talked for a few more minutes before a large group of kids came in and I could tell it was about to get busy.

He stopped as he was walking out the door. "What are you up to tonight? Fi and I could swing by and pick you up after and we could go to dinner."

I smiled at the invite. "I'm going over to Pete's after work, we're just gonna hang out."

Sam huffed, "Oh, that's right, I forgot about the boyfriend! You spending the night over there yet?"

I could feel my face get hot and I ran my hands through my hair. "Get out of here! You're embarrassing me!" Sam gave me a sly smile and exited the shop with a wave. I sighed and turned to the first kid in line. "What can I get for you?"

…

Grandma was waiting for me by the door when I got home from Pete's. She always seemed to know I was home before I even walked up the steps. "Hey, Grandma," I said, giving her a hug when I walked in.

"Hi Sweetie, how was your day?"

I shrugged. "Busy. I had a visit from Sam at work today."

Grandma raised her eyebrows like she didn't know Sam had talked to me. "Oh, really? What did he have to say?"

"Not much." I said, evading her question. I went to the kitchen and pulled the pitcher of iced tea out. After I poured myself a glass, I leaned against the counter. "What did you do today?"

"The usual, honey. I tried my new exercise video, you know, the jazzercise one?" I nodded, trying not to snicker. "It was way too much for me, all that swinging around; I almost broke my favorite lamp!"

I drained my iced tea and put the glass in the sink. "That's too bad Grandma, you'll have to find a video that's more your pace."

"I'll keep looking, sweetie. Did you eat dinner? I made your favorite ranch chicken; I put it in the fridge for you." Grandma moved towards the fridge to pull it out, but I stopped her.

"I had a lot to eat at Pete's, grandma. I think I'll just go take a shower and head to bed."

"Oh, okay." Grandma put the chicken back in the fridge and smiled at me, but I could tell she was worried. I really had eaten at Pete's, but I had only had a small helping of salad. I was just never hungry anymore. The thought of eating the ranch chicken almost made my stomach turn.

I made my way into the bathroom and shut the door. I undressed and threw my dirty clothes in the corner and before I stepped into the shower I caught a look at myself. Besides the fact that my brown hair looked wild in the messy bun I had on top of my head, my eyes had huge bags under them and I could see my ribs stick out a little more than I remembered them showing even a week ago. I looked almost sick. I need to get my shit together, I berated myself as I stepped in the shower.

I gave myself a pep talk while I showered, resolving to start eating more and going to bed earlier. I had let myself fall apart a lot more than I had thought and that needed to stop immediately. Just because Michael was gone, it didn't mean I needed to walk around looking like a sick puppy.

…

Michael Westen's POV

The last forty-eight hours had been a whirlwind of activity for me and I was ready for everything to slow down. I had gotten back to Miami just a little over 3 hours ago, and in that span of time, I'd been to see my mother, had a brief reunion with Fi and then jumped in the car only to get right in the middle of a job Sam and Fi were doing. Getting involved with a dangerous biker gang had not been on my list of priorities, but I guess being a spy, sometimes life just gives you lemons.

We had just gotten back to my loft five minutes ago and I was currently leaning against the side of Sam's car, trying to wrap my head around things. "Michael!" Fi's voice quickly brought me out of my trance.

"What?" I said, looking up at her. She was descending the stairs at a rapid pace with her arms full of explosives.

"Have you been listening to anything I've been telling you the last few minutes?" Fi rolled her eyes at me while she set the explosives on my work bench.

"Fi, I'm a little distracted right now," I sighed, walking over to her.

Fi huffed and turned her full attention towards me. "Are you pouting?" She asked, putting her hands on her hips.

"I'm not pouting! It's just this job and everything else that's going on, like I was never gone." I yelled, frustrated.

Fi shook her head. "Sam and I kicked down every door we could think of. We took a client out of respect for you because that's what we knew you would have wanted!"

I put my hands up. "Alright, alright, I get it. Go back to whatever you were working on and I'll just pout over here." I walked over to the hood of the car and leaned against it while Fi worked on whatever explosive she was building. I pulled my phone out and checked it for the hundredth time, hoping Lily had responded to my four calls and six texts, telling her I was back. Why the hell wasn't I getting a response from her? I looked up at Fi, exasperated. "Hey, Fi," I called.

She turned to me while stirring some sort of nasty concoction. "Yes, Michael?"

"Do you think it's a little strange I haven't heard anything from Lily? I've called and texted her multiple times." I put my phone back in my pocket.

"Michael, I'm not surprised at all with how busy and stressed she's been. Lily's had a rough time the past few months." Fi finished stirring and put the mixture down, coming to sit next to me.

My stomach plummeted. "Tell me, Fi."

Fi sighed. "There's not much to tell, Michael. Lily has been busy nonstop since you left, that's why she didn't answer when you called and texted, she's too busy running around like a crazy person. She's stressed and she tries not to let anyone see it, but we can all tell. She got a part time job at one of those frozen yogurt shops on the strip so she works a lot, and that's on top of all her school and cross country stuff. She barely sleeps and I know she's not eating well, she's a bag of bones." Fi looked up at me and smiled. "Let's just say it's a good thing you're back now. She needs you, she's been so worried."

I nodded, not knowing what to say. I felt terrible about what Lily had gone through, and I could only hope it would get better now that I was back. "Well, I better go find her and straighten her out then." I said, getting up from the car.

After a lot of debating, I decided to just wait for Lily at my mom's house. The one thing I could count on was that eventually Lily would come home, and I would be there waiting for her.

…

Lily Sizemore's POV

It was almost full dark by the time I rounded the corner, about a block away from our house. It had been another long day and I was ready to crawl into bed. The worst part of the day was that my phone had died early in the morning because I had forgotten to charge it. Going the whole day without a phone had been annoying, but I had really been too busy to worry about it. Right after school I had rushed off to work, and work had been so busy I hadn't really had time to take a break.

As I walked up the walkway that lead to our house, I noticed the lights were off on the front porch which probably meant that Grandma had gone out for the evening. I sighed in relief as I grabbed my keys from my bag, fumbling through my key ring for the right one. I was looking forward to spending the evening by myself without Grandma looking over my shoulder with her worried expressions. I turned the key in the lock and opened the door, stepping into the dark entranceway.

I threw my bag on the bottom of the steps and made my way to the kitchen, navigating through the darkness. It was so dark I didn't see the dark shadow in front of me until I ran right into it, or him. Startled, I immediately threw my hands out, shoving the intruder away before turning to run in the other direction. A hand grabbed my arm from behind and I screamed, whirling around, throwing my fist at his face. His other hand grabbed my fist right before it struck his face. We continued to struggle and it took me a few seconds to realize the man was shouting my name and his voice was familiar. "Lily! Lily, stop! It's me, Michael!"

I immediately stopped and Michael let me go, moving to the kitchen to turn the light on. My chest burned and I was breathing hard from the struggle. "Michael?"

He smiled and held his arms out. "In the flesh." I shook my head and ran towards him, jumping into his arms. Michael hugged me hard, lifting me off the ground, just like he always did when I was a kid. I pulled away and looked him over, not believing he was really there.

"I can't believe it." I mumbled, tears falling. I put my arms around him again and we just stood there, me not wanting to let go.

Michael rubbed my back and I felt him place a kiss on the top of my head. "It's okay, kiddo." We stood like that for a while and Michael let me get all my tears out before he pulled me away from him, putting his hands on my shoulders. I could tell he was looking me over and I looked down at my feet. "Let's sit down for a little while and you can fill me in on what's going on with you."

I nodded and sat down at the kitchen table, Michael grabbing the seat next to me. "Why were you walking around the house in the dark? That was not exactly the reunion I expected, Michael."

Michael laughed. "I walked in the back door just as you opened the front door, Lil. I was walking towards the light switch myself. Sorry if I scared you."

I rolled my eyes. "You could say that again! I thought you were a burglar. When did you get back?"

Michael leaned back in his chair. "This morning, I must have called and texted you about twenty times, Lil."

I grimaced. "Sorry, I forgot to charge my phone last night and it died this morning."

"Sounds like you've been having a lot of late nights lately." Michael observed. I knew then that he had talked to Grandma and probably Fi and Sam about me and I could feel myself getting angry. "You're looking a little skinny too –"

I cut him off before he could go further. "Why does everyone keep saying that to me? I'm sick of it and I certainly don't need to hear it from you, Michael."

Michael looked taken aback. "Lily, we're all worried about you."

I shook my head, running my hands through my hair. "You're worried about me? And you never thought that I might be this way because I'm worried about you? You vanished from that police station and I had no idea what happened to you! None of us did! You don't think that might stress me out?"

"I told you I'd be back…" Michael began, but I cut him off again.

"I know, and I wanted to believe you but I had no idea where you were or when you would be back. It could have been years. You told me I needed to be strong so that's what I've been doing." I stared at Michael, waiting for his response.

"Lily, I'm happy you've done well with coping with all this, but I worry you're doing too much. Between school, cross country, and this new job, I can't imagine you have much time for yourself." Michael stood up and walked to the kitchen, opening the fridge. I followed him, leaning against the counter.

"That's the goal, Michael. It's easier for me to be busy than to be by myself. When I'm by myself, I always seem to have bad thoughts, not to mention I'm safer around people." Michael grabbed the pitcher of iced tea and set it on the counter.

"Safer around people?" He questioned as he grabbed a couple glasses from the cabinet.

"It's not just you I've been worried about these past few months, Michael. I was sure Larry would find out you were gone and come and get me…" I trailed off, staring at the counter.

"Oh, Lil, I'm so sorry." Michael said, putting his hand on my shoulder.

"It's fine, Michael. I just want you to understand why I'm doing all this. It's better for me to be busy." Michael handed me my iced tea and we stood for a couple minutes in silence before he spoke again.

"So I guess I should assume you won't be cutting back on your extracurricular activities any time soon?" He said it with a grimace and I rolled my eyes.

"That's right." I said, trying to keep the stubbornness out of my voice.

Michael nodded. "I guess I can accept all this, but there is one condition, Lil and I'm serious about this. You need to start taking better care of yourself. You look like you don't sleep enough and I know you're losing weight which is not good considering you were already too skinny in the first place."

"Michael, you don't –" I started, but he cut me off.

"Let me finish. I better not see you looking like this again, Lil, because if I do you can be sure I'll make you cut back on all these activities. Sound fair?" I nodded, grinning.

"You got it, dad." I joked.

Michael ruffled my hair and I ducked away, laughing. "Someone's gotta set you straight every once in a while, kiddo. Now what's for dinner?"

…

A/N: Hello Readers! So I finally got around to writing the first chapter of part 4. I must admit that this is all I have so far, so I might be a little slow with updates. I debated waiting to post this until I had some more of the story written, but in the end decided to post what I have so far so I could be sure I still had some people who were interested in reading. That being said, please shoot me a review and let me know you're still reading and I will try my best to post regularly!