Amy picked up the ringing phone at her desk in the office. "Amy Allen."
"Hey kid," Hannibal's voice came through the line. "You up to a babysitting job tonight?"
Amy groaned. Occasionally her help with the team included babysitting a sick or injured team member when it wasn't a life threatening emergency and they needed to lie low. "Depends on if your're talking an angry mudsucker, a whiny second in command, or a crazy pilot" she quipped.
She could hear Hannibal's smirk through the phone. "It would be door number two, Miss Allen. I'm supposed to be filming 'Revenge of the Aquamaniac Again' tonight and was hoping I could drop him off at your place."
"Sure, bring him by after I get off work here in a bit," Amy sighed. So much for her date by herself in front of a movie tonight, she thought. "What's wrong with him?"
"A couple things, actually. He's got a shiny new hole in his shoulder being held together with stitches and while field surgery fixed the hole, it wasn't exactly a sterile environment. So he's high on pain meds, has a fever, and is on antibiotics. He's been a real treat to live with these last few days," Hannibal chuckled.
"Great," Amy groaned. "Looking forward to it, I guess."
Hannibal laughed. "See you later, kid."
Amy opened the apartment door for Hannibal as he helped Face in and to the couch. She helped the Colonel get Face settled, then listened as Hannibal went over Face's treatment with her.
"No matter how much he begs, no more pain meds for another two hours," Hannibal instructed her as he set the bottles on the counter. "His right shoulder was hit, dressing shouldn't need to be changed. Just gave him the antibiotics, he's good on those until his next dose in the morning. Keep him as cool as you can and comfortable, fever is high but not dangerous. This will probably be a long night for me, so see you in the morning, kid," Hannibal grinned widely at her around his cigar.
"Hannibal!" But it was too late, he had turned and left. Amy sighed. Dr Amy it was, then. She knelt down on the floor beside the couch and softly touched Face's forehead. The touch caused him to flutter his eyes open.
"Heeey Ammmy," Face tried his best to sound normal, but between the fever and the pain meds, it was all he could do to get semi-coherant words to form.
"Face," Amy brushed the hair off his forehead with her hand. "You're hot."
That got an evil grin out of him. "I knew you'd come around," he slurred.
Amy laughed. "Not that way, bozo. You're burning up." She left his side for a moment, then returned with a bowl of ice water and a washcloth. She dipped it in the water and smoothed the cold, wet rag against his head. "How you feeling, soldier?"
Face grinned at her with a goofy smile. "You're a cute nurse!"
Amy sighed. "Face, you're higher than a kite right now, Hannibal's got you drugged to the gills and you're running a fever. Just go to sleep so I don't have to listen to you."
Face was fading into sleep fast, she noticed. But before he was out again, he looked at her. "Stay?"
She smiled as she gave him a mostly platonic kiss on the cheek. "You know I will," she whispered. Since Face was stretched out the length on her couch, she sat on the floor in front of him, keeping watch over his temperature as he slept. As she watched over him, she had to just shake her head and chuckle. This tough guy truly seemed to need someone to look after him when he was down for the count. Amy pondered the reasoning behind that fact for a while, then gradually fell asleep with her head resting on the couch cushion beside Face.
Amy woke a short time later to find Face tossing and turning in his sleep. She dipped the washcloth in the cold water again and applied it to his head. Still hot, she realized, but not quite as bad. "How you doing?" she quietly asked him.
Face managed to open his eyes and look at her. "Do I get a full body cold sponge bath and not just my forehead?"
"Nice try, soldier. Do you always flirt with the help?" Amy shot back at him, but did start wiping down his hot face, neck, and bare arms with the cold cloth.
"Ahh...thanks..." Face mumbled. "Can I get more happy pills now? Shoulder really hurts," he hissed.
Amy glanced at the clock and was pleased to see that he had held off until right at the appropriate time. "Sure. Why don't you let me check it first, though." Face nodded his agreement and Amy started to unbutton the first few buttons of his shirt and slipped her hand under the material so she could check the shoulder dressing. Face caught her eyes with his, smirked at her, and brushed his hand through her hair, trying his best to look like the suave charmer he was.
"Face," Amy took his hand and set it back down on the couch. "You're a friend, and delirious. And that makes this a very bad decision." She fully enjoyed using the same line on him that he had used on her just a few weeks ago.
She couldn't tell if Face's feelings were really hurt, if it was a tease, or if it was because of his injuries, but hurt did cross his eyes and linger longer than normal. Needing another dose of pain medicine and then the susbsequential side effects left his true feelings nearer to the surface than normal, and even though he didn't voice them, she was learning to read between the lines and catch glimpses of the true Templeton Peck and not just the Faceman.
A quick check of the shoulder dressing looked ok to Amy's untrained eyes, nothing obviously wrong with it. "Stay here, Face, I'll get some medicine for you," Amy brushed the hair off his forehead.
Face caught her hand with his good arm and stared her in the eyes. "Thanks for doing this, Amy. You're an angel."
Amy blushed as she suddenly realized how close they were to each other. "And you're the one who isn't right in the head tonight," she kidded him lightly, more to change the subject than anything. She stood up from her spot on the floor and headed to the kitchen, returning a minute later with pain meds and a glass of water. "Here," she helped him sit up a bit, "Drink up."
Face gratefully took what Amy offered and watched her set the glass in the kitchen sink. He wasn't sure if it was the meds, the pain, the fever, or none of the them, but he was suddenly certain that she was a beautiful angel.
After no answer to the light knock on Amy's door the next morning, Hannibal used the spare key he had and opened her door. He suddenly stopped in the doorway, leaned against it, and just observed for a minute. There was Face, passed out cold on the couch. His color looked better than it had the night before and the sheen of sweat appeared to be gone. Amy sat on the floor in front of the couch, her head on the couch cushion resting beside Face's head, Face's good arm flopped down off the couch around her awkwardly. Perhaps, he realized, there was something more to their friendship than either one of them realized.