"It's gonna be good seeing Full Metal again." Clay said as he let his head fall back to rest on the net behind him.
Sonny nodded, "Wonder how he's holding up…"
"You know the man, probably going stir crazy by now." Ray shrugged, "About ready to climb the walls."
"No, he's probably in too much pain still to climb any walls." Trent truth-bombed, "But he's probably tired of being on injured reserve."
Sonny nodded, "Yeah, probably.
"I feel bad, I haven't talked with him as much as I should've…" Brock sighed.
"Don't beat yourself up about it…" Trent shook his head, "He doesn't like the extra reminder that he's not here with us. He'd much rather have us as visitors now that we get home."
"Yeah?"
Trent nodded, "Yeah, he's not comfortable with his teammates being on deployment without him. Never has been."
"We should arrange something fun for him." Clay shot in, "Something to brighten up his recovery time."
"Like what?" Sonny asked, "Our favorite silver fox isn't going to be up for anything. I don't even think he'd be up for a night at the bar."
"You know he'd beat you up if he heard you refer to him as a silver fox, right?" Trent asked and cocked an eyebrow at Sonny.
"Pretty sure I could outrun him right now…"
"Can you outrun bullets as well?" Clay mused, "Cause he's a damn good shot as well."
"I said favorite silver fox,.." Sonny shrugged.
"You still called out that he's got grey hair…" Jason smirked, "He wouldn't like that."
"You're probably right about that…" Clay chuckled.
Half a day later, they were back home. An hour and thirty minutes after that, they were all filing into the room where Full Metal was resting.
He wasn't in the hospital anymore, but he was some sort of nursing home which took care of traumatic injuries. He had stayed at the hospital for a couple of weeks, and then he had spent about a month at the nursing home so far.
"Look at that handsome son of a gun…" Jason teased as soon as they started entering the door.
"Well, do my eyes deceive me?" Metal beamed back as he saw that ALL of his teammates were back home with him, "You managed to find your way back home without me?"
"Sure did, brother…" Ray smirked.
"You look a little better today than the last time we all saw ya…" Sonny smiled, "Less see-through, more of your regular skin color."
Full Metal couldn't help the twitch of the corner of his lips, "Thank you."
"How are they treating you here?" Trent asked, gesturing vaguely to the anonymous looking room.
"Well, the PT is a descendant of Satan…." Metal shrugged, "Other than that, they're all cool."
"He making you do exercises?"
"Call it what you want…" Full Metal shrugged, "Mostly just attempt wiggling my toes and standing up next to my bed. But it's brutal."
"But you've been standing up?"
"Even hobbled over to the bathroom." He nodded, "With one of those walkers you rest your elbows on."
"Hey, that's great!" Trent grinned, knowing just how big those small victories really were.
"Needed help getting back through." Metal shrugged, "All five times."
Trent shrugged a little, "Give it a little time."
Metal nodded, not exactly enthusiastic looking, "Yeah, give it a little time…"
"So, are you going to show off and wiggle your toes for us or not?" Brock shot in.
"I said attempt to wiggle my toes." Full Metal frowned, "Didn't claim I was in a position to actually make it."
"Well, will you attempt for us then?" Brock corrected himself. "100 percent, 100 percent of the time… You know."
"Well, my 100 percent was reached an hour ago. PT finished me off by making me hobble over to that chair, and back." Full Metal shook his head.
Trent nodded, "I get it."
"I know…" Full Metal dipped his head in Trent's direction, he had been there as a spectator to the elbow rehab of times gone by.
"Another day…" Jason winked,
"Maybe…" Full Metal shrugged.
"Definitely…" Jason smirked and delivered a solid pat to Metal's shoulder.