The drive to the address they'd been given was filled with friendly banter. Both agents were trying to re-establish normalcy in their friendship. Bobby griped about an agent of his caliber being wasted on this assignment and Darien griped about the assignment in general. They pulled up to a brick house that matched the address they'd been given and got out and were greeted by two other Agency guys leaving.
"Fawkes, Hobbes. She's still kinda outta of it but the discharge nurse said it was for the best. She should be coherent in a couple of hours at the most."
"Thanks Richards." Darien walked past the exiting agents and quietly entered the house. He heard Hobbes close the door behind him. Fawkes decided to snoop. The living room was open to the kitchen and dining room. There were three doors branching off from the one open room. One door was closed, one was pulled partially closed and one was open. The open door was to an office. Darien peaked around the partially closed door and found a bedroom with someone curled up in the bed. 'The other door must be the bathroom,' Darien thought and headed back to the living room. "Find anything interesting?" He whispered to his partner.
"Yeah, take a look." Hobbes held out a picture. The taller agent took the picture and studied it. It was a picture of the woman they were guarding and the Official all hugged up. The woman was wearing a cap and gown.
"So this is why Charlie has us guarding this chick. Looks like he's cozying up to somebody." Darien sat the picture back on the mantle.
"Never seen her before. This is gonna be interesting." Bobby mused and Darien shrugged. He kept snooping until he opened the TV cabinet and found the TV. Atleast they had something to keep them occupied until Ms. Campbell woke up.
*******************
Three hours and a movie and television version of The Invisible Man later had the real life Invisible Man shaking his head.
"If only it was that simple…"Darien mused.
"Life is never that simple my friend."
"Amen to that," a groggy feminine voice said from behind the couch where the two men were sitting. Both of them jumped up and turned around.
"Ms. Campbell?" Bobby asked.
"Call me Lara. Who are you and where did the guys who brought me home go?" She shuffled to a char and sat down softly.
"I'm Agent Hobbes, this is Agent Fawkes." Hobbes flashed his badge and Darien gave him an incredulous look.
"Oh, you're more of Uncle Charlie's agents. Cool. Why are you guys here?" Lara pulled her robe even tighter around her.
"Uncle Charlie?" Darien's eyebrows raised and Lara nodded. "Uh, yeah. We're here to, well…"
"Baby-sit me?"
"For lack of a better word. You just got outta the hospital right?" She nodded again. "Well, we're here to make sure you take it easy I guess…" Darien's voice trailed off. Bobby mumbled something about babysitting detail and paced by the front door. Lara curled up in her chair and tried to get comfortable but she couldn't. "Do you need anything?" Darien perched on the chair of the sofa next to her. A quiet but persistent alarm sounded. Lara pulled up the sleeve of her robber to shut off her watch alarm and Darien noticed a bruise on her watch hand.
"Nasty looking bruise huh?" Lara caught him looking. He gave her a slightly embarrassed smile. "The nurses tried to be as gentle as possible with the I.V. but I just bruise easily." Lara pulled her sleeve back down and struggled to get up. Darien slid off the arm of the couch and helped her up. She walked to the closed bathroom door and stopped. "Help yourself to anything in the fridge although I warn ya, it's all low fat and low calorie health stuff." Lara headed into the bathroom as Darien headed for the kitchen.
'She wasn't kidding,' Darien thought, looking in the fridge. He was still surveying the contents when he heard Lara come out of the bathroom and walk up behind him.
"Could you hand me a water please?" She was out of breath. Darien grabbed to bottles of water, closed the fridge and turned around.
"Sure. You okay?" He was concerned.
"Yeah, just a little tired. Had a rough coupla days is all." She sat down at the bar across from the fridge and pulled out two pill bottles.
"If you don't mind me askin', what were you in the hospital for?" Darien sat down on the closest stool to her's.