Chapter 97: Checking Up (Which is not a "Check-up")

"That's the secret to life... replace one worry with another." – Charles M. Schulz

"No matter how old a mother is, she watches her middle-aged children for signs of improvement." – Florida Scott-Maxwell

"The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother." – Author Unknown

"The best thing to give to your enemy is forgiveness; to an opponent, tolerance; to a friend, your heart; to your child, a good example; to a father, deference; to your mother, conduct that will make her proud of you; to yourself, respect; to all men, charity." – Francis Maitland Balfour


Sydney woke Sunday morning to a soft knocking on her bedroom door. She looked at the clock; it was 9:30. She hated to move, fearing that it would wake a restful Vaughn, but she had to answer the door.

She eased off of him as gently as possible, and miraculously, although he shifted slightly, Vaughn did not wake.

She grabbed her robe and unlocked the door, opening it slowly.

Will was on the other side.

She looked at him strangely and came out into the hall. He held out the phone that she hadn't seen him holding. He had his hand over the receiver, "It's Mike's mom..."

"Amélie's on the phone?" Sydney asked exasperatedly.

Will nodded, handing the phone to her.

Sydney took it and walked further down the hall. "Amélie?" she said.

"Sydney...hello...how are you?"

"Oh, I'm good – you?"

"Fine...even though my lazy, injured son doesn't call and then has his mother worrying...I left Wednesday night...and it's Sunday – I hate to be overprotective, but after knowing what happened to him, I'm sort of paranoid..."

Sydney chuckled, "Well, actually it's been a bad few days..."

"Oh?"

"Yeah – very bad – lots of pain and he started therapy. It's been a whirlwind really – and honestly he hasn't been well enough to call. I'm sorry Amélie, it's my fault – I should have called..."

"No, no...you need to take care of him. I apologize for jumping to conclusions. Complete lack of tact."

"No Amélie really, you deserve to know what's going on with your son and when he can't tell you himself, I should."

"What happened?"

"Well...I guess the first thing was one of his wounds got infected. It sort of all spiraled from there. It started bleeding then another day, we sort of over-exerted again, and he's been really tired. He was in just excruciating pain a couple nights ago, which Dr. Tom thought was probably a combination of the over-exertion and his nervousness over the therapy."

"Oh poor Michael."

"It's been rough on him."

"And you as well..."

"Well, it's been a few long nights for all of us here..."

"I would have come to help, you should have called..."

"I honesty didn't even think of it, I'm sorry Amélie."

"Of course you didn't! You just need to take care of him. Tell you what; I'll just call from now on, and check-up. That way, you can concentrate on him, ok?"

"That sounds wonderful."

"Good...is he available to talk?"

"Actually, he's still sleeping."

"Oh, I hope I didn't wake him."

"No, he was asleep when I left him."

"Oh, I woke you up. I'm sorry, I'm sure you need your rest just as much as he does."

Sydney smiled, Amélie was such a wonderful mother, "It's fine, really..."

"Next time, I'll make sure to call in the afternoon. Of course, then you'll be taking a nap!"

They shared a laugh.

"Say, would you mind if I came down again this week to see him? Do you think he'll be up for that?"

"I wouldn't see why not. What day?"

"Is there one that works best?"

"Any day is fine really, but he has therapy now for an hour every Monday, Wednesday and Friday."

"Ok...well, how about Thursday then?"

"That sounds great Amélie."

"Ok, I'll call later this week then to set up a time and everything."

"Ok."

"You take care now...both of you."

"I will."

"Tell Michael I called and that I love him."

"I'll do that."

"Ok, goodbye dear."

"Bye Amélie."

Sydney hung up the phone and went into the kitchen to put it back in its cradle.

Will and Francie looked up at her, "Everything ok?" Will asked.

"Oh yeah, she just wanted an update...making sure he's ok."

"That's a mom's job..."

"Uh huh," Sydney said.

"How is he?" Francie asked.

"He was still sleeping when I came out to answer the phone...but he was pretty good last night. Tired, but pretty good."

"You didn't come to get me to help you turn him over...how'd he sleep?"

"Very well actually. We just moved him down a little bit more on the pillows, so his back wasn't on the bed or anything...and he slept all night and everything, no nightmares."

"That's great Syd," Francie said.

There was a momentary pause before Will asked, "So, what do you wanna do today after he gets up? Assuming he's ok and everything."

"Well...we have to make sure to change his bandages today, I let him off the hook yesterday...and well...we have to exercise too...deep breathing...that fun stuff..." Sydney looked at Will, "Oh! You meant like what "fun" stuff we should do?"

Will smiled, "Well...bandages are a blast."

Sydney smiled back, "Well, I don't know. I think he should still take it easy. He's gonna have therapy tomorrow too, so I don't want him to be all wiped out...let's see how he is..."

"Sure," Will said.

"Of course," Francie echoed.

Sydney excused herself a few minutes later to go check on Vaughn. He was still sleeping soundly, his visage calm and his breathing peaceful. Sydney spent a few minutes watching him, if he could only be that serene all the time. If his body could only be this calm and painless every night and morning. If only his mind would still its thoughts so he wouldn't be plagued with memories that haunted him. If only...Sydney smiled, why do we always say that? The answer was quite simple: it was so much easier to think of the way things could be, the easier way, the way free of pain and suffering then it was to think of things as they really were. Reality was a much more dismal picture.

She approached the bed but noticed that Vaughn was already stirring. She put her hand on his chest as he opened his eyes and looked at her sleepily, but very happy. He smiled when he saw her, "Hey..."

"Hey there..." she said leaning down and placing a sweet kiss on his lips.

"You know...this is the second time that I've went to bed inside you and woke up without you..."

She smiled, "I know...and do you want to know why?"

He nodded.

"Because your mother called..."

"She did?"

"Yeah – she called you lazy until I told her that you've been in a huge amount of pain. I wanted to ask her if she would have rather you called while in the midst of a pain attack, but I thought that was too mean. She's worried, she said to tell you she loved you and that you're off the hook for the calling thing."

"Thanks..." he said.

"You're welcome...how are you feeling this morning?"

"I feel pretty good actually..."

"Well, I'll ask again when we've changed your bandages."

He groaned.

"I know...but I let you off the hook yesterday...and we must..." she said with a sigh.

"I know..." he whined.

She smiled, grabbing the bandage material off of the nightstand. She took the rib wrap off and then eased him back to the pillow again and began to change the bandages on his chest and ribs. The one with the tape irritation was doing much better she noticed, but a few of the other ones were showing early signs of irritation. She wasted no time putting the Cavilon on those, and then redressed them.

"Ok...now..." she looked at him, "The back..."

"Dun dun dun!" Vaughn quipped and Sydney smiled helping him sit.

She re-bandaged all of the small burns first and checked all the other ones before moving to the infected wound.

"Ok," she warned, "I'm gonna start on it now..."

He nodded.

"Maybe I should get the cloth just in case," she said bounding off to the bathroom. She came back and retook her position behind him, prodding the edge of the bandage with the cloth. It seemed that without the pressure from the pillow, the tape didn't stick as hard, and she was able to get one side off really easily.

She stopped, "Ok...that was all together too easy – I have the first side off...so I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop – be prepared..."

"That's my motto..." he said.

She burst out laughing, happy that he seemed to be in such a good mood this morning.

She slowly peeled the bandage back, and it stuck to the wound somewhat, but not a lot. She went slowly so it wouldn't bleed again and had it off in a rather small time frame.

"Ok...it's off..." she said amazed.

"How's it look?" he asked.

She studied the wound. There was a small amount of blood on the bandage and the usual ooze, but the wound itself seemed to be rather dry. "Well...I'm no expert, but I'd say it looks pretty good...it's not bleeding anymore...and it looks kinda like it's not oozing at the moment. That's a vast improvement."

"Damn straight."

She smiled, "Yeah...looks pretty good..." She put more Cavilon anyway, wanting it to stay in its recuperative phase and then covered it with the TAD, using as little tape as needed. "Ok...that was strangely easy and painless, huh?"

"So where's the other shoe?"

"I don't know – hopefully, they're on our feet and we don't have to worry anymore about more dropping."

"I hope so..."

"Me too honey...me too...so, how do you feel?" she asked moving around to the front of him and easing him back into the pillow.

"Pretty good..." he smiled.

"Good...now we get to do deep breathing..."

"Come on Sydney, you're asking for that other shoe here..." he said with a smile.

"I know...but after this, we get exercises...so..."

He groaned but then settled into the pillow, "Breathe with me?" he asked.

She smiled widely and sat down with him, placing her hand on his chest and completing the breathing exercise with him.

Once they were done she asked, "How are you feeling?"

He smiled, "Pretty good..."

"Ok...we only have one more task, then we're home free..."

"Good..."

"Ok...crunches...let's start with two..."

"Two?"

"Yeah...two..."

He smiled, "I think I can do more than two...I was up to eight before the s hit the fan last time."

"TWO," she said firmly and he nodded in compliance.

She sat on his legs and grabbed his hand and the sling and pulled him up. They did two and then she lay him back, "How'd those go?"

"Good..."

"You think you can do more?"

"Yeah..."

"Ok, two more..."

He complied and they did two more, "Ok?" she asked.

"Yeah."

"Two more?"

"Yup."

They did two more, "Ok...that was eight...good..."

"Two more?" he asked.

She smiled, "You sure?"

"Yeah, I can do two more..."

"Ok," she said helping him do two more, but he surprised her when he did one after those without her help. She was still holding on to him, but she was totally taken by surprise and only caught the tail end of the crunch.

She eased him back, "That was kind of rash and...well...stupid...I mean...I know you want to push yourself, but you can't do that kind of stuff without me knowing...what if you would have hurt yourself. Did you?"

"No...I'm good...I just wanted to see if I could do it. It wouldn't have worked if you'd known..."

"It was good Vaughn," she said leaning down and kissing him fully.

"Thank you."

"Ok...how are you? I know I sound like a broken record, but I have to keep asking."

"I'm pretty good..."

"Ok...standing...last test..."

"I know..."

She helped him sit, then got off and swung his legs off of the bed, "You know...I should check the sheet Tom gave us. I don't even know anymore what you're supposed to be doing this week..."

He smiled, "What you're doing is fine..."

She smiled back, "You remember what you're supposed to do?"

"Yeah, it's only been a few days Syd."

"Right...seems like longer though..."

"I know."

She grabbed onto his hand and sling and helped pull him up to stand in front of her. Her arms moved to his waist to steady him as he wavered slightly.

"You ok?"

"Yeah...little dizzy..."

"You wanna sit?"

"No, I'm good...just give me a sec."

She stood motionless, grounding him as he got his bearings. She suddenly realized that he was naked and she was only wearing her robe.

"Vaughn?"

"Yeah?"

"You know that neither one of us have clothes on?"

"Well, you're better dressed then I am."

She chuckled, "Should we try something?"

"What?"

"If I let go, do you think you can stay standing?"

He looked at her unsurely, "Uh...I don't know..."

"Let's try...I'll stand here and just let go for a second."

"Ok," he said apprehensively.

"I'll hang onto your hand, ok?" she added when she saw his lack of confidence with the matter.

"Ok," he said more relieved.

She let go of his waist and backed up a step or two, holding onto his hand. She smiled; there stood Michael Vaughn in all his Michelangelo's David glory.

"What?" he asked, "You like what you see?"

"Very much," she said. "I'm going to let go..."

His eyes bore into hers, his smile faltering.

"It's ok Vaughn..." She let her grip lessen, and left it up to him when to let go. He let her hand go and stood by the bed. She stayed close, in case she needed to grab him, but he stayed in the one spot.

After a few seconds she asked, "Can you stand there while I get your clothes?"

He nodded, "I think so."

"Ok..." She moved then, grabbing boxers, a shirt, and a pair of comfortable pants and came back to him. He had watched for a second, but had to look away because all her movement made him feel dizzy again.

When she came back he looked back at her, "Still ok?" she asked.

"Yeah...you make me dizzy though."

"Well, that I knew," she said smiling.

He smiled back, "Well, of course...but watching you...made me feel dizzy."

"Ok," she said, "here, sit down..." she eased him down and helped him into the boxers. Once she had them on his legs, she reached for the pants. He didn't question what she was doing, having an idea anyway.

"Ok...now let's stand up," she said, helping him to stand again. Then she grabbed the boxers and pulled them up, doing the same with the pants. Then she helped him sit again, reaching for the shirt. She took off the sling and put the shirt on, replacing the sling after.

"You know what Vaughn?"

"What?" he asked as he watched her finish with the buttons on his shirt.

"I love buttons..."

"Why is that?" he asked smiling, "Because you bite them off of my shirts?"

"I only did that once..." she said returning his smile, "No, I just think they're really sexy for some reason...I think it's highly erotic to button someone's shirt or unbutton it..." she said with a raised eyebrow.

"I don't much care for them at the moment, so it's a good thing you do..."

She kissed him, "Soon honey – look, you've already surpassed your crunch quota, one on your own. You've stood more than you've ever before today...you're doing great." She kissed his forehead.

"I'm doing great today..."

She smiled, "I know..." she kissed him one more time on the lips, "I'm gonna get dressed. You wanna stay sitting or you wanna lay down?"

"I think I'll try to sit..."

"Ok..." she said moving away and getting her own items ready for the day. She dressed and then grabbed the last item for him. She was just beginning to put his socks on when the doorbell rang.

She looked up at him, "It's not even lunch yet, who'd be here this early?"