The text next morning wasn't what woke him up. No, his leg had made sure of that right along 5 a.m. His ankle inparticular felt like it was about to split apart, and the 40 milligrams of whatever he had taken almost five hours ago didn't seem to be doing crap to ease the throbbing and cutting pain in in his leg. Nor did the five pillows he had propped his leg up on.

'Hey, hope last night isn't
kicking your butt. I've been
baking breakfast rolls. Was
wondering if you want to come
over to my place, or if you
want a visitor for a breakfast
date…'

He smiled as he read the text, then he frowned as he realized he would have to admit to his leg acting up. Taking a deep breath to steel himself, he pressed the dial icon in the top corner.

"Good morning…" Emily almost sang as she answered, and he got a warm fuzzy feeling in his chest.

"Good morning yourself…" he grinned into the phone.

"You're awake?"

"Yeah, been so a while…" he shrugged.

"So? Breakfast date?"

He scowled down towards his elevated leg, "That would be great."

"My place or your place?"

"Last night is kinda kicking my butt…" he chuckled humorlessly, "My place, I'll text you the address…"

"Oh no… Are you in pain?"

He stalled a bit, not really wanting to admit to it, but he knew he would have to anyway. "Yeah, but don't worry about it."

"How bad is it?"

He stalled once again, "Been awake a couple of hours. Still in bed."

"Anything you need?"

"No… Your company is plenty." He reached down and tried to rub some soreness and ache out of his thigh.

"Okay. I'm coming over. With food." She paused, "Want me to bring some jam, cheese, stuff to put on the rolls as well? Or is your fridge stocked?"

He chuckled a bit, "My fridge is not stocked at the moment. The wife of one of my teammates stops by with meals to just throw in the microwave oven."

"Okay, anything in particular you'd like?"

"Nah, I'm an omnivore…" he chuckled.

"Okay. Good." She paused a beat, "Anything you can't have?"

"Nope. Not that I know of…"

"Okay, good…" her voice was warm and caring, "I'll just pack everything up here at home, and I'll be over."

"Alright, I'll make sure that I'm vertical and ready to let you in when you get here…"

"Yeah, good."