A thin shaft of sunlight found its way through the heavy drapes in Agent Briggs' bed room and the ray crept across Charlie's face gently waking her. For a moment she was disorientated before the events of last night came flooding back and she quickly reached over to touch the man sleeping beside her. He stirred a little when she placed her hand on him but didn't wake up. Quietly as she could, she slipped off the bed and padded out of the room leaving Briggs to sleep. Rest was probably the best thing for him right now.
Food smells drifted up from the kitchen and after a bathroom restoration break she wandered downstairs finding the rest of her roommates in the kitchen.
"How is he?" Paige asked looking up from the eggs she was scrambling.
"Asleep," Charlie replied snagging a piece of toast off the plate in front of Mike.
"It sounded intense up there last night," Johnny mumbled around a mouthful of cereal.
Pouring herself a mug of coffee, Charlie perched on one of the counter stools and ran a hand through her sleep-tousled hair. "It was."
Johnny vocalized what they all were thinking. "Why do you suppose Briggs fought us so hard about getting help?"
"Who knows? Probably afraid of compromising Graceland. You know how seriously Paul takes this houses' safety," Paige suggested scraping the eggs from the pan onto three plates.
"Yeah and Paul is kind of a private guy," Jakes added from over by the windows where he was perusing the paper. "Maybe he didn't want to take a chance of others finding out about this, Bureau or bad guys. Bad for his reputation."
"Wanted to maintain his 'legendary' status," Mike added jokingly accepting a plate from Paige.
"Oh yeah. Man of steel. Legend of the FBI. Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound," Johnny quipped. "It's an astronaut, it's a drug dealer..."
"It's a Tae Bo instructor, it's a Zen master," Paige chimed in.
"It's a movie star," Mike added grinning mischievously.
"It's Agent Paul Briggs!" Johnny and Paige finished simultaneously giving each other high-fives.
Charlie remained silent, poking at her eggs during the exuberant exchange, but not participating. She was thinking about the promise she made to Paul last night wondering why it was so important to him.
Ever-observant, Mike noticed Charlie's silence. "Something wrong Charlie?" he asked as he scooped up a fork full of eggs.
"Its…nothing," she slowly replied. "Just a tough night." She slid off the stool and headed back upstairs, leaving her food unfinished. Paige, Mike and Johnny looked questioningly at each other.
"She's just tired," Jakes said folding the paper and placing it on the table. "Joking aside, it was rough last night; on all of us. It is hard seeing a person you know suffering." Jakes ran a hand over his face. "Those were some nasty wounds to be treating without the aid of pain killers. Not sure I could have handled it."
Johnny, trying to lighten the tension in the room joked, "Yeah but you are just Customs. We are the #ucking Bureau on Invincibility!"
Mike laughed and went back to eating his eggs. No matter what the others said, he still had a nagging feeling that there was more to Briggs' reaction than meets the eye. He'd definitely be keeping an eye on this one.