Michael's Little Problem: Chapter One

Czech Republic, 1992

Michael Westen POV

Ring Ring! Ring Ring! I sprang out of bed and knocked over my yogurt cup from last night in the process. This would surely be the phone call from my handler, Dan Siebels, that I had been waiting for.

"Hello?"

"Hey Michael, it's Dan…"

"Oh, hey Dan, did you get my message about being transferred?"

"Yeah Mike, I did. I gotta tell you, I never thought you would request to stop working with Larry. We have an assignment in Ireland, and we would need you there in three days if you want to go through with this for sure."

"Thanks Dan, I think this is truly for the best. Things have been getting a little strange with Larry the last couple months, and I think it's time for a change."

"Whatever you say Mike, I'm just glad I'm not the one who has to break the news to Larry. He seems to have a strange obsession with you." Dan laughed.

"Must be my good looks. Well, I should be getting to Larry's place now to break the news. Thanks for this Dan, I owe you a Sprite." I knew that Dan was a Sprite junkie.

"Alright, good luck Michael, and stay safe."

Satisfied with the news that I would be leaving in just a few days time, I started to pack my duffel, and while packing up the various weapons I had with me, I started to think about my downward spiral with Larry.

What I didn't tell Dan was that things with Larry Sizemore had been getting weird for the past year. When I first started working with Larry, I liked the aspect of danger that always seemed to follow in his wake. I turned into a different person when I worked with Larry, and for a while I liked the person I was turning into. For two years, Larry and I ran around Europe together wreaking havoc, and doing good spy work for America. Other than the annoying nickname Larry had given me, "kid" things were going great between us. That is, until Larry found out about Lily.

About a year ago, when Larry and I had first arrived in the Czech Republic, Larry broke the news to me that he had a five year old daughter. Larry explained that Lily was living with her mother, who had retired from being a spy, but her mother had recently been killed in a car accident.

"You're never gonna believe this kid, the mother just went and got herself killed, and now I'm stuck with the girl!" Larry had fumed.

At first, Larry was upset that he would have Lily with him, and he told me not to tell anyone about her. Larry said he didn't want his kid to be the reason he had to get out of the spy game. Then, Larry had a "brilliant" idea. Lily would become part of Larry's cover ID. I immediately saw this as a red flag. I would never do something as stupid as involve a kid in the spy world, and Larry seemed to think this was a good idea. I told Larry my concerns, but Larry shook me off.

"She's my daughter and I'll do what I want with her! Stay out of this one kid." I knew not to question Larry any further from past experience. His mood could change on a dime, and although I could handle Larry's wrath, an innocent bystander caught in the wake of his explosion would not.

This was the point that I saw as the beginning of the end of my partnership with Larry. If Larry would go as far as to involve his daughter in his spy life to enhance his career, I could not be a part of it.

For the better part of the next year, Larry started to bring Lily along on his missions, as I continued to disapprove of this. Larry would use Lily for things like getting into buildings. He would make Lily say she had to use the bathroom, while Larry would play the anxious father who desperately needed to find a bathroom for his daughter in the building. While this worked like a charm for getting Larry into these buildings, I still saw this as dangerous. I saw that Lily needed attention that Larry was not giving her, so I tried to entertain her whenever I had some time to spare, which I'm sorry to say was not very often. A couple weeks ago, I finally decided I could not stand by and watch Larry put his daughter in danger, and that was when I decided to call Dan, and set up the transfer.

Lost in thought, I walked out of my apartment, and went on my way to Larry's hideout. I had decided that I would try to convince Larry to give Lily up for adoption, because I had grown attached to her, and did not want to see her suffer with Larry any longer.

Soon enough, I had arrived at Larry's hideout, and just as I was about to open the door, it flew open.

"Thank God you're here Mike; I need you to watch the kid. I have to go run an errand." Larry explained hastily.

"Larry we really need to talk, I need to tell you something important."

"It's gonna have to wait Mike, this is more important. If you don't wanna stay with the girl, I'm leaving her here alone."

I agreed, obviously not wanting to leave Lily to fend for herself. I passed the time by allowing Lily to play with my sunglasses. One of her favorite things to do was to take my sunglasses from me and hide them, and then make me search for them. When I found them, Lily would take them away again and say:

"Again, again!" And she would proceed to hide the glasses again. I wondered how this could possibly be so entertaining for Lily, but then she probably spent a lot of her time doing nothing when Larry was around. He wasn't too keen on entertaining her, as he was so involved in his own life.

Lily and I were at it for about an hour when she finally tired herself out, and laid down for a nap. I was really starting to worry about Larry at this point, but I decided to give him another few hours. Having nothing to do with myself, I started to get bored, and drifted off to sleep.

Ring Ring! Ring Ring!

I shot up for the second time that day and answered my cell.

"Larry?" I said sleepily.

"No Mike, it's Sam!" Sam Axe was a good friend of mine who was serving with the Navy Seals.

"What's up Sam?"

"Did you hear about Larry, Mike?"

"No what happened?" I already had a bad feeling about this.

"He got killed! My buddy said he went into a building, and never came out, and fifteen minutes later the whole thing blew up!"

"Oh my god Sam, I have his kid, Lily!"

"I didn't even know he had a daughter! Wow that's Larry for you. That jack ass even put kids in danger to get what he wanted. That's some heavy stuff, I wish I could tell you what to do here, but I just don't know. I know the kid is better off without him, but good luck Mikey you're gonna need it."

"Thanks Sam." I said.

"Anytime brother, I just thought you should know about Larry."

I sat back down on the couch and took a look at Lily. She was still sound asleep.

"What am I going to do with you?" I wondered out loud.

…

As Lily slept on the couch, oblivious to the fact that her father was dead and I was now responsible for her well-being, I was frantically trying to figure out what I was going to do with her. There really weren't that many options available to me. Unlike Larry, I knew as a spy travelling around the world I could not be responsible for a child.

I pulled Larry's last yogurt out of the refrigerator, and thought out the options as I ate it. Option one: take Lily to the nearest adoption center, and never look back. This was not a road that I wanted to take, although I knew it would be by far the easiest. I had grown very attached to Lily, even if I had trouble admitting it to myself. Throwing her in an orphanage would just make me feel guilty, and guilt is something a spy does not want to live with. Definite no for option one.

Option two: pay for Lily to attend boarding school, and try to make the occasional visit during the year. This seemed like a decent option for me to take, but upon further thought, I decided it might be too expensive. I was really just starting out as a spy, and financially I was far from stable. Not to mention the fact that Lily was just too young to be off on her own, even if she would be at a boarding school. And even though Larry was a horrible father, the fact of the matter was he was her father and it would be hard on Lily to grow up with no family in her life. Wait a second…

"Family…"

Could I really be crazy enough to ask my parents to take care of Lily? I knew my mother would be fairly easy to convince, but my father on the other hand was a whole different story. I couldn't think of one time in my life where he had actually done me a favor. It was always the other way around, but if I could somehow convince my parents to take Lily in, it would be the best possible solution for her. She would have my mother to look after her, and maybe even my brother Nate would lend a hand. He wasn't the most stable person, but I knew he could care for a child, especially if I asked him to help. I glanced at the sleeping Lily.

"Well, it's worth a try…"

Lily woke up about twenty minutes later. I had been packing a bag of her stuff when I heard her stirring on the couch.

"Michael where's daddy?" She asked.

I had no clue what to say to her. All I could come up with was, "Your daddy's not coming back Lily, you're going to come on a trip with me to Miami to meet my parents."

"Okay Michael."

Is that it? Wow, I hadn't realized Lily was so unattached to Larry. It was amazing to me that a little girl could have absolutely no connection with her father, but then again I thought of myself and my father. No connections there…

Now that Lily knew that Larry was not coming back, I felt much better. I finished packing Lily's things, and made her a quick sandwich before we left for the airport. I chose a flight that was scheduled to land in Miami around 10:00am the next morning, and as Lily and I waited to board the flight, I prepared to make the dreaded phone call to my mother.

I almost wished she didn't pick up the phone, so I could just leave a message, but of course, she did.

"Hello?" My mother's voice sounded like gravel after years of chain smoking.

"Hi mom, it's Michael."

"Oh, Michael! It's so wonderful to hear from you! Your father will be thrilled! Frank! Your son is on the phone!" She shouted into the receiver. I was practically listening to the phone at an arm's length.

I could almost hear my father grumbling from the other room. If I had to guess, it was probably something along the lines of "who cares."

"That's great, mom. I just wanted to let you know that I will be in town tomorrow morning, and I'm coming by the house with someone I want you and dad to meet. I'm hoping you will be able to do me a huge favor." I tried to say this as fast as possible, because I wanted to limit this conversation as much as I could.

"Okay great, honey! Who is this person you want us to meet? Do you have a girlfriend? Are you getting married? How come you never call me?" Oh great. Here come the questions.

"No mom it's nothing like that, I have to tell you what's going on in person. I have to go. I'll see you tomorrow around 12." I replied, hoping this conversation would just come to an end.

"Okay honey, have a safe trip!"

"Bye, mom." I could already feel a headache coming on just from that short conversation. I bought a bottle of aspirin at the airport just for insurance for the next day. In all honesty, though, I could only hope my conversation with my parents in person would go as smoothly as it did on the phone. I hoped this for Lily's sake, but I knew that whenever my father was involved, situations tended to escalate into major conflicts.

As I settled into my seat in the waiting area at the airport, I could only think of Lily, and what I would do with her if my parents refused to help out. I would never be able to take her with me to Ireland. As I opened my magazine, I suddenly had a mental picture of me running through the Irish countryside with Lily in one arm, and a gun in the other. I chuckled to myself at the image I was creating in my head, and started turning through the pages, all the while keeping an eye on the quiet little girl sitting next to me with her head on my shoulder.