"Good Morning Sunshine." Levi, rather Mike Warren, had stated to Charlie as she squinted away the morning California sun from the safety of her plastic sunglasses.
She groaned in response as he ran by in that ridiculously blue t-shirt and seemed to be listening to music. No, Spanish. She reminded herself, poor white boy needs to learn the language or he'll get shot. Charlie didn't dwell on the intimacies of her imaginations when the dangerous words like "shot" "kill" or "mob" appeared before her; she pushed the thoughts of Donny away. She pushed the thoughts of all her friends away. She wondered if they were still her friends or if this was just another job, a hybrid version of a sick reality TV show mixed with government work.
However, Charlie viewed Graceland as her home and the agents as a makeshift family. They understood each other and they understood the risks of their jobs. The people, family and past life friends mostly, didn't understand and they never could. So, Charlie never tried to become too attached to people, they were like puppies your parents were coerced into buying by wide eyes and sticky fingers. The parents who had second thoughts of the responsibility eventually took the puppies away. People were puppies, someone, or something always pulled them away or abandoned them. That's why Charlie tried not to get too attached with people but with Mike Warren, the personification of a puppy, she couldn't help but give him a name and in return he gave her one as well.
"Good Morning, Charlie." Mike practically yelled but in all reality, he had spoken in a normal tone.
"God, you're so loud." Charlie muttered, her sunglasses still plastered to her face, her hand on the bridge of the plastic frames nursing a headache that was either too real or too fake. The sequins of her black dress made scratching noises against the chair as she adjusted her position and she ever wondered why people wore dresses like this.
Briggs interrupted her thoughts.
"Yeah, I wish we could say her walks of shame were rare." He gave a disapproving tone and a slight purse of his lips. The dishtowel lay across his broad shoulder.
"I'm not a wake of shame." Charlie protested, eyebrows raised, forehead wrinkled, lips pursed as she tried to swallow her food that needed to be re-heated. She pointed to herself with raised hands, wavy brown hair a mess, "This pathetic thing you see before you is the price of cultivating CI who lives jagermeister and dubstep."
"You knew the risk when you joined the bureau, woman." Paul stated with a knowing smile as he returned to the pancakes, eventually putting two on a plate and waiting them to be snatched up by the sneaky Jakes or the all-suspecting Johnny. He wasn't expecting Mike's eager hands to be grabbing at the plate. Briggs smacked the boy's hand away with the spatula, shooting him a scornful look.
"Yo, Briggs," Johnny interrupted, placing a yellow package on the crowded kitchen table, "Message from the bureau."
"Thank you." Briggs emphasized the latter word. Potentially another hit against Mike Charlie suspected. There was something weird going on with the whole mentor/ sensei thing with them but she didn't want to dwell on it. She wanted to finish her food and get out of her clothes. God, I need a shower. She thought.
"Where's Lauren?" Johnny asked, realizing one of the room-mates wasn't downstairs.
"Upstairs being boring." Charlie stated with a small shrug of her shoulders.
"Briggs, you should talk to him." She whispered as the mentor caught her eyes. She hoped he wasn't too rough on Mike.
The talk descended into the fact that Johnny brought home some awful smelling food that probably tasted delicious but wasn't worth the ultimate happy taste bud and later upset stomach.
"Go eat by the window." Charlie murmured before returning to look at Mike and Briggs as he finally gave Mike a pancake, but only to hand them to Johnny.
Charlie thought, though her roommates were dysfunctional they were a family. She knew she'd be expecting and hoping that Mike would say Good Morning. Maybe it'd be their ritual.