Here we go...
Disclaimer: If I owned 24, Tony would be back.
Chloe watched Nadia's eyes flick towards the side of his bed and back towards his face. The room was small, sanitized… but at least he had one to himself.
Chloe cleared her voice first. "Um… Agent Doyle?"
"Chloe?"
"And Nadia."
"Hi." Nadia said, feeling sheepish that she hadn't said anything first.
"Morris wanted to come too" Chloe said again hastily which left Doyle with a smirk on his face.
"I'll bet he did."
Nadia stepped in again, mentally cursing herself for her shaky voice. "You've been released right?"
"Yeah, as soon as they get these bandages off me." He replied as if he'd been trying to get out of there with no success for quite some time, Why?"
Chloe indicated silently to Nadia that she should be the one to tell him.
"There's a memorial tomorrow. For Milo… and Curtis and everyone else."
He ran his tongue over his bottom lip quickly, processing the information, but didn't say anything, his next movement being to prop himself up on the bed.
"Do you think you'll be able to…?" she trailed off, but he knew what she was getting at.
On one hand, it wasn't mandatory, and it wouldn't matter now to earn points with office politics to show up to a memorial to a bunch of people he didn't know… and Milo.
One the other hand, she was asking. And maybe it would earn some points with her. He felt like an idiot for thinking that. It was the least he could do.
"What time is it?"
"About ten."
"I'll ask the nurses."
"I think Bill would really appreciate that." Nadia said, emotionless.
But would you appreciate that? Was yet another thought that crossed his mind that felt he had to shake immediately off.
"Where is it?" he asked.
Chloe exchanged a look with Nadia – as if he'd forgotten he couldn't see and could barely navigate himself to the location. Nadia took a deep breath.
"I could take you."
"Yeah… ok." He waited a second, and feeling that this wasn't a social visit, decided to cut it short, even though he desperately would have wanted company, he wasn't going to beg co-workers for it. "Anything else?"
Chloe looked to Nadia again for confirmation, she just gave her a helpless look – what was she to say? "Guess not." Chloe responded and then corrected herself by adding something. "People are really worried about you."
Doyle was slightly amused at this. People... Who? He spent few hours working for L.A CTU and it's not like he got vast amounts of respect and concern even out at Denver.
"Yeah?" he said, unable to keep the amusement away from showing.
"The other field ops. Division. Everyone feels really bad about it." Chloe continued, making Nadia feel even guiltier for not coming and visiting him. It was making it sound like everyone was talking about it but no one was doing anything. She tried to be active – whether in her position or in any interaction with others. This time it just seemed too personal, especially after the phone call she made to him.
"Tell them I'm fine" he said, voice low and gravelly.
Nadia took a step forward, her first movement since they were meters apart in visiting him, the girls standing somewhere in the middle of the room. "You're not, Mike." She sounded sad to him, but it just made him even more defensive. "I checked your medical records. You're not ready for surgery. There was a lot of damage."
"Thanks" he replied with a sarcastic snap, "but I've got people coming in and out of here telling me the bad news every day." He wished he could take it back as soon as he said it, but with Chloe there it was hardly the time for a heart to heart.
She quieted immediately, her voice barely above a whisper. "I'm sorry."
He turned on his side. "I'll see you tomorrow."
That was enough of a hint to Chloe and Nadia. "Yeah…" Nadia said, as she gave another meaningfully look to Chloe and both of them turned to leave, a deep feeling of guilt settling somewhere in Nadia's lower stomach that she knew she could barely discuss with Chloe – she didn't know how many times she could say that she was sorry and feel made up for what happened.
Perhaps it was time for another phone call… this time to someone else.
That's it, I finally wrote a generic, Nadia visiting him in the hospital thing... but it didn't go all as planned... but hopefully they can make things up again at the memorial. :D
