The Things They Carried
Summary: The agents of Graceland are masters of keeping secrets. But sometimes, secrets have a way of coming back to haunt you.
Disclaimer: I own nothing; Graceland belongs to Jeff Eastin and USA.
A/n: I'm honestly not sure why I didn't post this last night when I finished writing it… but anyway, here's a lovely new chapter for you all! Mostly filler – but the idea of having the other residents of Graceland trying to take care of Mike while he's sick was just too cute.
Charlie smiled as she walked into Mike's hospital room, glad to see that the man was sleeping fairly peacefully. She knew he had to be sick of the hospital – it had been a few days since he'd nearly drowned, and something told Charlie that he wasn't the type to enjoy being a patient. But he didn't look too pale, and he wasn't being given oxygen. But Charlie couldn't help thinking that the man looked a little like a kid tucked into the hospital bed. She put the cooler she'd brought down on the table, opening it up and pulling out a container of her grandmother's homemade chicken soup and a spoon.
"They do feed me here, you know…" Charlie smiled, putting the cooler on the floor before moving the table so that it was sitting over his lap.
"But they don't feed you like this… that's processed crap, this is real food. My grandmother's recipe." Charlie watched as Mike smiled, adjusting the bed so that he was sitting up.
"You really didn't have to do this…" Charlie watched as Mike started coughing again, clearly exhausted from being sick.
"I know. But it's kind of a tradition. Whenever someone gets sick, I make them my grandmother's magic soup. Now you're going to eat up, even if I have to feed you myself." Charlie watched as Mike smiled, shaking his head and picking up the spoon.
"I think I can feed myself… Thanks, Charlie." Charlie sat down on the side of the bed as Mike started eating, watching the way he seemed to pick at the vegetables.
"Something wrong with my grandmother's recipe?"
"No… it's great. I'm just tired. Not that hungry…" Charlie watched as the spoon slipped out of his hand into the bowl, leaning back into the bed.
"You've barely eaten any of it…" Charlie began.
"I know. I just need a minute." Charlie winced as the man began coughing again.
"That really doesn't sound good…"
"It's getting better…" Mike began. Charlie watched as the man picked the spoon back up, taking a few more bites of the soup. "I'm just ready to get out of here. I'd rather be in my own bed back at the house…"
"And I'm sure you will be, as soon as you're well enough… now eat." Charlie watched as Mike ate a few more spoonfuls.
"Why are you so concerned about how much I'm eating?"
"Because you need to get your strength back. I know you aren't feeling well and that you're probably not going to be very hungry, but you need to eat." Mike closed his eyes. "You okay?"
"Yeah…" Charlie reached out, pushing the hair out of Mike's face. The palm of her hand brushed against his skin, prompting her to actually press her palm against his forehead.
"You're still really warm… they took you off the IV already?"
"This morning… they switched me onto oral antibiotics. I think they're trying to get me out of here…"
"C'mon… eat some more of the soup. It's going to get cold, and it won't be as good," Charlie replied, picking up the spoon and handing it back to the man. "It'll make you feel better to have something good in your stomach."
"Distract me. Please. What's going on back at the house?" Charlie smirked, shaking her head.
"Eat." Charlie watched as the man started eating again before she started telling him what was going on. "Briggs has been making Johnny do your chores… be forewarned, he's probably going to use that against you when you're feeling better."
"Yeah, I figured." Charlie couldn't help being concerned as Mike started coughing again. "Anything else going on?"
"They're trying to figure out how to get those cop killers you need to get Bello… it's not easy, but Jakes is trying to get undercover with the people he thinks the Jamaicans got them from."
"There isn't a time limit…"
"Bello may say there's no deadline, Mike… but there's a deadline. Whether you're aware of it or not, you have to get him those bullets as soon as possible or you'll be the next Eddie…" Charlie watched as Mike put down the spoon, clearly not okay with that particular reference. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't bring that up…"
"It's okay… I think I just want to go back to sleep." Charlie watched as Mike closed his eyes again, glancing at the bowl of soup and realizing he'd only eaten about half of it.
"I'll put the rest of the soup in the fridge back at the house for you."
"Thanks, Charlie."
As much as Mike was glad to be out of the hospital and headed back to Graceland, he was a little worried about having to climb all of the stairs. But he did his best not to show that he was concerned as Gerry pulled up into the driveway.
"Thanks for the ride, Gerry…"
"You going to be okay?" Mike nodded, getting out of the car slowly. He was halfway to the door when he heard Gerry honk at him. "Mike… your medicine…"
"I got it!" Mike smiled as Johnny hurried past the open car window, grabbing the shopping bag from the pharmacy and bringing it up to him.
"Thanks Johnny…"
"No problem. How you feeling, man?" Mike smiled as Johnny clapped a hand on his shoulder, nearly knocking Mike off his feet. "Shit… sorry…"
"It's okay… I'm just tired." Mike stopped just outside the front door, leaning against the wall as he began coughing again.
"Yeah… I'm not buying that one. Let's get you up to bed." Mike shook his head as Johnny put an arm around his waist, putting Mike's arm around his own shoulders.
"Johnny… I can walk."
"You really think you're going to make it up all those stairs on your own right now? Because you look about ready to pass out…" Mike smiled, shaking his head.
"I was thinking the couch, actually… just for a little while." Mike wasn't all that surprised when Johnny laughed, shaking his head.
"You really think you're going to get any rest sitting there?" Johnny asked.
"More like that's about as far as I think I'm going to make it right now. Besides, if I go all the way upstairs to my bed, I probably won't make it back down until some time tomorrow…" Mike let Johnny help him inside, crashing on the couch closest to the front door so that he would be out of the sun coming in from the wall of windows.
"You want me to wake you up for dinner, man?" Johnny asked.
"Pretty sure even if I said no, someone would insist on waking me up to eat." Mike watched as Johnny shook his head and started to head upstairs. "Hey, Johnny…"
"What?"
"Would you mind leaving my prescriptions here? I kind of need those…"
"Right." Mike took the bag from the man, pulling out the pill bottles and doing his best to interpret what he was supposed to do. He vaguely knew when he was supposed to take the pain pills, but the antibiotics were significantly more important and a bit more of a mystery to him.
Mike didn't even realize he'd fallen asleep until he heard people banging around in the kitchen. "Johnny… go get Mike up for dinner."
"'m up…" Mike called, before the coughing started again. He groaned, sitting up slowly and picking up the two pill bottles that had fallen into the floor before making his way to the kitchen.
"Sit your ass down at the table, Levi." Mike shook his head, doing as he was told. He wasn't really surprised to see a bowl of Charlie's soup put down in front of him, along with a glass of water.
"Thanks." Mike took a drink of water, swallowing down his pills before starting in on the bowl of soup. It wasn't quite as good reheated, but it was still definitely better than anything he'd had in the hospital.
"So what did the doctor say about when you can come back to work?" Briggs asked, sitting down across the table from Mike.
"He wants me to take at least a week. I'm supposed to take it easy until my head stops hurting."
"I'm guessing he didn't know what you do for a living…"
"Of course not." Mike ate a bit more of his soup, before he had to turn away from the conversation to deal with another episode of coughing.
"Yeah… you can't go out there like that. Until you're back in fighting form, you're going to stay in the house and stay in bed," Briggs replied. "We put ourselves in enough danger as it is… I'm not letting you anywhere near Bello if you aren't ready for anything he might throw at you."
"You really think Bello is going to go that long without having me at least check in with him?"
"We'll figure out a way to keep you off his radar until you're well enough to deal with him. Don't worry about Bello right now."
"Yes, sir."
"And Mike… I'd better not ever catch you surfing out there on your own again. Not until you've had more experience."
"Yes, sir."
