Happy March, everyone! Let's start the month right! :D

Thanks to Sarai, Luvreading67, Suzy Q1068, and DS2010 for reviewing on the last chapter, and that's to all the readers who stopped by. It is appreciated. :)

This is sooner than anticipated, but I was doing some stress writing and watching Bull a lot over the last few days and ... here you go! (Also, I'm working on a short story based on Cable after her time in prison and her return to the team. Oooh, I'm loving it. It kept me up SO late last night but it was WORTH IT! Hopefully I'll be able to finish out the next chapter or two soon. I'm wanting to have it completely written before posting, but know there is something else in the works too.)

Anyway, enjoy!

...

The next time Cable spoke it was a sharp demand that startled Bull from his ruminations over the newspaper.

"Where's my phone?"

"Hey to you too," he said with good humour.

She carefully sat up and rolled her eyes, then winced a little.

"Are you feeling okay?" he asked, truly concerned.

"Feel like I got run over by a truck, but the painkillers seem to be helping. Where's my phone? Did I lose it when I fell?"

"No. I have it. They gave it to me for you at the hospital."

"I want it."

Bull took a deep breath before delivering the bad news. "Not happening tonight."

She frowned a little. "It's ... my ... phone," she said slowly, as if that was the most effective argument he would have ever heard.

"And you ... had ... a concussion," he said with the same exaggerated slowness, before shaking his head. "You need to spend the next twenty-four hours getting as much rest as possible. Overstimulating yourself with blue light is a bad idea. You can have it back for some short periods when we see how you're doing after some rest."

She looked at him as if expecting him to follow up that statement with "I'm kidding!" When he did not, shock slowly transformed her features.

"You ... you can't do that!"

"For your own good, I can and will," he said. "My house, my rules - you're not having it tonight."

"It's not like I chose to stay here. I had to because ... because..." She seemed a little confused about why she could not be alone.

"Because it's not safe for a concussion patient to be by themselves for 24 hours after, and I wasn't going to risk your brain health on Mei - an overworked and exhausted student - being able to wake up every few hours through the night. I took at least partial responsibility for you when you moved to New York and I'm trying to uphold my end of that responsibility, which means in part that I'm not going to let you suffer further avoidable brain injury if possible."

Cable seemed to ignore everything he just said as she crossed her arms and glared at him with the tenacity of a toddler. "I want my phone. I hit my head, I didn't lose a computer chip from it. My phone won't hurt me!"

"Disagree. You're not getting it."

"That's ... unconstitutional!" she argued, seeming pleased with that statement. Surely a trial scientist had to respect the constitution!

"Didn't know cell phones were included in the constitution," he mused aloud, returning to his newspaper and turning the page unperturbed by the storm cloud seated on his sofa.

"I want it. It's my phone and I want it," she argued, looking close to tears. After the day she had experienced, Bull could not blame her for the overreactive response to his withholding her favourite item despite the logic of his side. He softened a little as he saw how upset she was.

He did not soften enough to give it to her, but he softened enough to talk it through a little more than his preferred "I said it, that settles it" approach.

"I'm not looking at it. It's in a safe place, Cable, where it and your privacy will be protected. Now that's all I'm saying about it for tonight. If you want to talk about it again in the morning, we can, but for now, get ready for bed. Marissa sent Danny to pack you a bag and I put it in the bedroom. I changed the sheets and got out everything I need for the night."

"Where will you sleep?" Cable muttered, reluctantly distracted from the subject of her phone. Her flashing eyes were indication enough of the fact she planned to return to that topic imminently, but the mention of sleep was sounding more and more attractive the longer she was trying to sit up.

"Out here in the living room on an air mattress."

"I can do that," she said with a yawn. "I don't want to kick you out of your own room."

He smiled a little. "If my old back can't handle it after a night or two, I'll take you up on that, but tonight I think you need a real bed and some real sleep. It's 9:00 pm. Go get changed and get to bed. I'll be checking in on you quite a lot tonight. I'll try not to startle you, but I will need to wake you up. I just want you to know that beforehand so that you won't be scared."

She nodded.

"Tapping my shoulder works."

"For what? Waking you up?"

She nodded slowly with great effort. Her head was feeling like concrete again.

"Noise doesn't quite as much. I can sleep through just about anything. That's why my phone has vibration alarms instead of sound."

Bull nodded. "Tapping your shoulder it is. Now go."

"And I need my phone for music while I'm sleeping."

"You don't, but you do need to brush your teeth."

"But I can't fall asleep without music!" she whined, even as she made her way to the bedroom.

"I just saw you fall asleep twice without it. I'm sure you'll be fine," Bull said drily.

"But...!" she began to protest.

He got up and closed the bedroom door behind her. Besides an indignant "hey!" he was able to reclaim some peace.

If she's being this difficult within the first twelve hours, what are two weeks going to look like?!

...

I hope that you enjoyed! Hopefully another chapter will follow fairly soon. ;)