**No Fun, The Stooges**
Danny woke with a start. The darkened room looked like some kind of bizarre sleepover. Beside him, Cruz snored slightly. Wolf was sprawled over a couch, his feet hanging off the end. Miller and Mason occupied the floor. The light was on in the hall but he didn't see any shadows of people up and about so he carefully slid out of the covers.
"What's up mate?" Wolf muttered sleepily.
Danny slid his arms into the sleeves of his thermal shirt. "Something woke me up. I'm going to make a round and check on everything."
"Need company?"
"No, but keep a radio close just in case." He picked up his boots and headed for the door. "Hopefully I'll be back in a few minutes.
He tiptoed past the room occupied by the women on the trip and the one for the Army team. Both were quiet. The bathroom was empty too. He slowly made his way down the stairs. The wood floors gleamed and the he used the pattern on the plush carpet runner to know where to skip the creaky step he'd noted on the way up. The lights were dimmed in the reception room and the kitchen. Only the hall outside the master suite, currently housing the President, were on.
"Everything ok Sir?" Specialist Goodwin asked from her post outside the door. Burk just raised a questioning eyebrow.
"Yeah, something woke me up. Thought I'd just take a look around.
"Been quiet." Burk nodded toward the door behind him. "Once Tex talked Mittens out of going for a walk, they all settled down pretty quick." Burk had dark circles around his eyes and his posture was pretty slouchy but Danny knew he wouldn't let any suspicious activity get by him.
"Alright, must have just been in my head."
"I hear that reporter got in your head a bit." Now Burk had a twinkle in his eye. "Got you to threaten to shoot him."
"Yeah, a real interfering jerk. You know that if something had happened while he was pulling our attention away from Mittens he would have written all about our incompetence. Nothing good ever comes from talking to reporters."
Burk winked at Goodwin. "Good thing Commander Green is better at public relations than you are."
"Har har. I'm gonna make a circle outside."
Burk tapped his ear. "Look alive out there. Green is coming around."
Danny let himself out the front door as quietly as he could. The guard at the door nodded. The air had the strange slightly too warm and heavy feeling it got before a snow storm and large, fat, wet flakes were slowly drifting down from the dark sky. He stepped off the path into the lawn, leaving bright green marks where his boots crushed and melted the two inches of accumulation. "This is stupid." He said to himself as he trudged around the side of the house. There was Granderson giving him a thumbs up from her post by the kitchen door. Around the next corner he nodded to Yates. They must think he was either a micromanager, unable to trust his people with simple guard duty, or losing it. But around the next corner he stopped in his tracks. There were two sets of footprints leading away from a small back terrace. He tried the doorknob and sure enough, it was unlocked.
Silently cursing, he quietly crossed the President's room. The bed was still unmade. The man's coat and boots were missing. It appeared their President had gone for a walk after all. Fuck, fuck, fuck. Chandler had warned him that Michener was harder to babysit than he looked, but he hadn't listened to the subtext, had he?
He opened the hall door. "Burk." He whispered. "We need to talk to you in here."
Carlton came in and Danny shut the door behind him. "Where is Michener?" Carlton looked around confused, his eyes staring at the open bathroom door before realizing that he really wasn't in there.
"Shhh, it's probably best if everyone else doesn't know that he's gone for a walk. Who was guarding him?"
"Shit." Burk slammed one fist into the other. "I should have known. Tex. He asked for the first shift too that goddamned, reckless, son of a.."
"Alright, alright, chill out." Danny cut him off. "At least he's with someone who knows what they are doing. "I'm going to follow and retrieve our wayward sheep. You got your phone on you?
"Yeah, we keep this quiet unless you need backup?"
"Exactly."
The tracks weren't disguised in any way and it appeared that Michener had headed somewhere purposefully. Danny set off at a light jog. Fortunately the temperatures were hovering near freezing so the snow wasn't icing on the walk ways. He followed the trail across the street into a neighborhood with small apartment blocks, restaurants, and university buildings mixed together. Chandler would have his head if the something happened to the President. They needed him to bring a sense of hope and recovery. Especially now that there was some kind of separatist movement going on in the Southwest.
About five minutes later he turned a corner and saw the tracks leading up to the front of a large multicolored house. The red columns and mint green panels probably looked festive when people were around, but now in the dark winter night it had a creepy fun-house vibe instead. The footsteps passed between a stone porch railing to the large front door but it didn't look like they went inside. Instead, they continued around the side to a large tree and disappeared. He looked up into the spreading branches of the large maple. "Holy shit, I don't believe this." He muttered to himself. Seriously. What the hell was Tex thinking letting the President climb a tree in the middle of winter? They weren't in the tree now so they must have used it to go over the wall.
Sighing, he grasped an overhead branch and braced his feet against the trunk. Once he'd hauled himself up about six feet off the ground he could see over the fence. It was some kind of beer garden or something. Picnic tables were stacked and shielded with tarps at one end of the patio. The snow was mussed in front of a fountain where Michener must have paced back and forth. The footsteps led around the corner of one of the large lower porches. He swung down from an overhanging branch and continued following.
Sure enough, it looked like the President and Tex had used a few lawn chairs to climb over the privacy fence on the other side. "It's the middle of the fucking night." He grumbled as he carefully continued his pursuit. He couldn't believe that the President, whom he still half blamed for all the destruction caused by the Ramsey's, for Rachel's death, and even for allowing Amy Granderson and Dr. Hamada to take advantage of the Washington power vacuum, had gone so far on his own The man hardly seemed able to find his way out of a paper bag.
In another five minutes he found the trail weaving through backyards in a neighborhood of three story Victorians. Based on the cheap cars in the back lots and the small management company signs on the porches, he assumed they were mostly student apartments. The trail went up another front porch but this time the front door was left wide open, the light spilling out into the snowy yard. Danny gulped. Seven red X's marred the heavy wooden front door. The foul smell hit him like a splash of raw sewage before he even entered the building. "Damn it Tex. You know better than this!" He grimaced as he stepped over the threshold.
He could see Tex off to the side, standing guard. What the hell was going on? They had made no effort to hide their trail from the university president's house to here. The house likely contained at least seven bodies in some state of decomposition, and yet here they were, standing in the foyer.
"Ah, I figured it was either you or Burk tailing me." Tex was holding a brightly patterned handkerchief over his nose but based on the pained look in his eyes, Danny doubted it was helping much.
He fished in his breast pocket as he answered. "What the fuck is going on here Tex? Where the hell is Michener? We need eyes on him at all times." His fingers closed around the small pot of Vick's Vaporub and he quickly dipped his little finger in as he took in the place. Behind Tex the living room was littered with red plastic cups and pizza boxes. The ratty couch was covered with a blanket, one damp looking sneaker peaking out beneath.
The bodies were still in here! He sucked in a sharp breath. The menthol smell making his eyes water. His heart flip flopped as he remembered Kara handing him the container as they prepped equipment for the trip in to the lab in Florida. "You worried about kissing me with chapped lips? It may be winter but it is Florida after all." He'd attempted to hand it back to her.
But she'd closed his hand over the little jar. "Put it on your upper lip, if the smells of, well you know, get too strong." Her nose wrinkled. "We used to use it when we were mucking out the barns." He'd known she was worried that it would be like that Italian cruise ship again and he'd come back shaken, or worse so he'd taken it. And later, when they did encounter the remains in the lab he'd been grateful that she'd prepared him.
"Suck it up Green." Tex gave Danny a stern look, increasing his confusion. "His son lived here."
A strange sort of grief swept over him then. His own child wasn't even born yet and still he thought the pain would break him if they lost Flutter. How would it be to raise a child only to lose them on the cusp of adulthood? "Jesus."
"Yeah, I know. Tried to talk him out of it but he said he was going whether I came or not. And he made a good case for letting the rest of you sleep. Big day tomorrow and all."
"Then why trek over to that restaurant?"
Tex hung his head. "Apparently that's where the kid heard about the Red Flu. Was so spooked he called the Pres and begged him to bring him home."
There was a creak at the top of the stairs and Danny looked up to see Michener. He looked gaunt and fragile, unlike the man who had triumphantly raised his fist as he sung along with the crowd a few hours ago. "You all set here sir?" Tex reached out for the small bag the President was carrying but he held it close to his body and shook his head. Tex withdrew his arm with a muted. "Ok."
"Lieutenant Green, I am sorry to have drawn you from your rest but I had to come."
Danny wondered what was in the bag. Mementos of his son? Family heirlooms? He certainly didn't have the heart to ask. Instead he opened the door and lead the way out into the blessedly fresh night air. "I just want to be sure you are safe, Sir." What he really wanted to do was stomp down the porch steps and demand the President tell him what was so important that he risked his own safety to obtain it. He had a feeling Tom Chandler would do the exact opposite though so he just marched away. "Now that this is done, we need to get you back."
"One more stop. Just one more." Michener's voice was low but firm and Danny knew in his gut that he wasn't asking.
He turned and walked the other way, back to following. "Sir, where are we going? I can have Burk bring the car, get you out of the open."
"No need. We'll be there before he can get there." Michener was walking surprisingly fast for a man who didn't work out and had already trekked a few miles that night. Tex was unusually quiet as they puffed along in the snow. The fat flakes had stopped and the sky was clearing a little. With it, the air was taking on a colder nip. Danny noticed that the stretch of houses they were walking along were all X'd. Although it appeared the city had removed trash and cleaned up what they could, the overgrown lawns and dark windows gave the area a desolate feel. Michener crossed the street and set off between several fenced athletic fields, the neat precision of the artificial turf was a stark contrast to the unkempt properties on the other side of the street. Up ahead, several large concrete buildings loomed over them. After a few more minutes they were close enough to see that they were headed for the football stadium.
Michener marched right up to the gate and pushed it open. "A couple of the locals asked me if I wanted to speak here tomorrow. So I had a good idea that I could get in." He led them through a tunnel and emerged on the walkway overlooking the field below. Blue and maize plastic seats and aluminum benches stretched all around them. Trinkets, photos, wilted flowers, old shirts, and all sorts of memorabilia littered the seats, especially a large section that Danny was guessing belonged to student season ticket holders. People had pulled Navy, maize, and gray shirts over the backs of the seats making the stadium look half occupied. There were no bodies here, but the smell indicated that there had been recently, so someone had been doing some upkeep. The President began muttering about sections and seat numbers as they worked their way around to the 50 yard line and down several rows. "Aha, here it is." He began to shuffle into a long row of seats.
Tex looked over his shoulder at Danny and shrugged, following Michener into the row. In the dark Danny could barely see across to the other side of the oval but a guy with a laser scope would have no problem. Large sky boxes hung over them as well. "Sir, this position offers no cover."
"I command you to let it go Green. Can I do that? Yeah, I can do that." Michener's voice broke as he said it.
Frustration mounting, Danny offered protest even though he didn't expect it to change anything. "But Sir, my job is.."
The President twisted away from the field to face him squarely. "Your job is following my orders Lieutenant. Now sit."
Danny sat with a huff of displeasure. He would toe the line, but he didn't feel the need to be Mr. Sunshine about it. At first they just sat there, looking out into the shadows, listening to the echos of dripping water and the creaking seats. With a heavy sigh, Michener drew a Navy blue sweatshirt from the backpack. He hugged it to his face, inhaling deeply. Then for a long moment he sat, face covered with the shirt, just breathing heavily through it.
Michener's shoulders shuddered and Danny was pretty sure the President was crying. He caught Tex's eye, unsure of what to do. Should they try to comfort him? He would have preferred to stand guard and let the President have a private moment instead. Tex shook his head slightly and slumped in his seat a little further so Danny huddled into his jacket and tried to keep an eye on the entrances and exits. After a few minutes of labored breathing, Michener finally laid the shirt across his lap. His face was once again composed.
He stuck his hand in again and withdrew a tin of small candies. They clinked against the metal box as he opened them an held them out to Tex and Danny. "Here, these were his favorite." It was the first he'd spoken in almost 10 minutes. "Discovered them when he was quitting smoking and the habit stuck." Danny put the little tablet in his mouth. His lips immediately started to burn with the fiery taste of capsacin and cinnamon.
"Whoooo! Gonna have to wash my mouth out with snow! Your kid had good taste!" Tex grinned as he accepted a second piece from Michener.
"He did. He was an exceptional young man. He.." Michener paused as he drew another object out of the bag and laid it on the sweatshirt. "He had some problems but he was working through them. He was going to be alright." Michener set the bag on the ground and Danny could see what else he'd taken out. It was a high precision competition air pistol, a pretty nice one from the looks of it.
"Do we need to be concerned now?" Danny was glad Tex asked so he didn't have to. He didn't know the entire story but he knew the tape on the President's wrists hadn't been for carpal tunnel.
Michener's head jerked up in alarm. "No! No! Nothing like that! But I have to get rid of this… I can't move forward If I.." It seemed that Michener couldn't quite find the words for what he wanted to say. Danny thought about the leaders he knew..Chandler, Slattery, Master Chief, his father. They all seemed to plan out what they would say before they started. It was a skill he envied, but couldn't quite seem to master himself. Usually he was halfway through blurting something out before he realized what he was saying. In that moment he realized what it was he truly respected about the President. They both had the same problem with impulsive outbursts. And yet unlike himself, whom Kara often claimed had the emotional IQ of a cereal box, Michener somehow used his gut feelings to inform his strategy, not war with logic.
"He had stayed for the summer so he could spread out his schedule and have more time for training. He called me from that beer garden we were just at. He was scared and confused and asked me to bring him home. I told him to suck it up. Gave him a pep talk about getting ahead in summer school and how much his coaches believed in his talent." As he talked, Michener bled the cartridge and removed the rounds. "He bucked up. Or at least I thought he did. But a day later he called again. He was at the practice range, crying. Told me he'd seen news reports from New York on TV. That he didn't want to die that way. That he wouldn't let it happen. He'd go out on his own terms." The desperate terror of Michener's voice shook him. "To get that call as a parent, too far away to do anything other than talk? "I knew he had the gun. Might even have had it in his hand. So I caved and told him to get on a plane and come home." Michener wiped his eyes with the hood of the sweatshirt. "But in doing so I might as well come to a football game and held this gun to the head of each and every person here." He held the now empty pistol up to his own head and pantomimed pulling the trigger.
Danny winced, remembering the horror of Frankie putting his sidearm to his head on the Italian cruise ship. Tex's voice was gruff and low. "People were moving all over in those early days. You know better than anyone that we were all too stunned to enforce the quarantines the way we should of."
Michener patted Tex's shoulder. "I know. I know. I was so naive at that point. You always think that when the time comes you'll do the right thing. I could have saved so many by letting him go. But he was my son and I wasn't strong enough to do it."
Tex grasped Michener's hand. "You were strong enough to be his father instead." Danny wondered when father's developed that wise voice? He would have a baby soon, and all he felt was clueless and worried, but Tex? Tex just calmly said exactly the right thing. "Love isn't a numbers game. There is no burden to bear for choosing him."
Michener set the gun back on his lap and didn't say anything for a long while. "That's why I had to come here and do this, tonight." He pointed at the city skyline, dark against the scudding clouds of the slowly clearing sky. "You see that building over on the right? That's part of the hospital where my son was born. The first time I brought him here, he was so small we didn't even get him his own seat. Well, that and we were still in our poor grad student days." Danny looked out at the rows and rows of seats, hundreds probably, covered in clothing or other trinkets. He supposed a good number of the people memorialized had been born, and maybe died, in the same place. Unbidden, a question of where Flutter would be born came to mind. Where would he or she live? Would Flutter even grow up with a connection to a special place like Michener was describing now?
"His plan had always been to come here for college. He said it was his favorite place out of all the places we'd lived." Michener fingered the collar of the sweatshirt, hiccuping on new sobs. "I can't lead the way the country needs me to with my shame hanging over my head. I've already let fear of the future, and the past, steer me on the wrong course more than once. I'm done letting guilt cower me into the corner. If I can't trust my decisions anymore, if all I can think about it the sorrow that cuts me down when I look at all these seats and know that with that one decision I doomed this many, over 100,000 people, maybe more, well I'm of no use then." He sighed and fidgeted the small metal bb rounds, draining them from one hand into to the another and back again with a soft swoosh. "Because deep down, I know that I would do it again." His voice was barely over a whisper but Danny heard it loud and clear. "Every time. I would do it knowing that horrible death was coming. I would do it because I was his father and I couldn't let him die thinking I's abandoned him." Tex nodded, clearly understanding the struggle the president was admitting too. Danny wanted to say something, anything, to ease the terrible ache in his chest. Was that what it was going to be like the rest of his life, after Flutter? "Now I have to look past that shame and do what I can as a leader. Not to make amends, but because that's what a leader does for his people. If I can't get past this. We will fail as a nation."
Tex took Michener's hand and drained the bb's into his own. They rattled as he placed them in the pocket of his leather jacket. "No more trying to leave us now?" He asked, his voice low and hoarse. Danny gripped the arm of his seat, awaiting the answer, finally understanding a bit of what motivated the President.
Michener sat up straighter. "No more. I'm done with that." His voice was growing more firm, his mind made up. "My son would have been my biggest supporter. He.." His voice broke momentarily but he just took a deep breath and continued on through it. "He believed in me like only your own child can. So I'm going to go out, and do what I can to bring it back, to make the world at least as good as it was before." He pushed himself to his feet and Tex and Danny stood as well, watching as Michener fussed about, arranging the shirt of the back of the seat. He laid the mints on one arm and the gun on the other.
"I'm not sure I am ready to go. But I have to so it now, before I lose my resolve." Michener pressed a kiss to his shaking fingers and then pressed them to yellow M on the breast of the shirt. Then he straightened, and nodded to Tex who proceeded them out to the stairs. They passed quickly out under the arch and Danny swore he heard him whispering under his breath. "With might and main we cheer."
