Of course the first reaction was to wrap her arms around him. Coddle. But she didn't.
She loved him. Loved him when he was stubborn and when he was sweet. And when he was hurt it broke her heart
wide open in her chest and made it ache.
"Your body's gotten used to lying down." She stated softly. Moving to stand in front of him but not too close. So he
could stand on his own without her getting in the way but she'd be there if he reached for her. "You have to give it
time to remember what standing feels like. Be patient and go slow and it will do what you ask it to do."
Hector, even if it killed him afterwards, was probably going to force himself to do whatever he felt needed doing.
Luckily for both of them, today that was simply standing up and perhaps, if he pushed, going for a very short walk.
She truly didn't know what she was ever going to do if he decided to push his body as hard as she knew he
stubbornly could.
"The infirmary looks kinda cool when it spins. Y'all should try it." He said with a chuckle as he took a breath, not used
to his body betraying him and siding with Cara and Andi this way. Wasn't it supposed to do what he wanted?
"Try not listening to me again and you'll see how our ceiling looks from the floor." Cara said, turning a page in the
chart, which earned her a glare from Hector as he stood up....slowly this time...and got his bearings.
"There are forty seven support beams in the ceiling." Hector said, he knew. He'd counted them at one point.
"Good to know." Cara said.
Andi watched him with a smile at the edges of her lips. Looking relaxed and in fact paying attention to every minute
shift of color across his face and blink of his eyes. All the little things that gave what a body was really doing away.
"See?" She asked softly, pretending she wasn't doing any of that. "Listening to what your body's telling you isn't such
a bad idea, yeah?" It’s what she'd made him promise to do after all. In lieu of the more unfair promise she hadn't
asked for that he just not get shot anymore. She watched him get his balance and adjust to the way his body wasn't
going to let him run a sprint in the next three minutes. Watching the 'stubborn' move back into his face.
"I know." She teased gently. More than willing to let him take this at any speed he and his body could agree on.
"You're not used to seeing the room from this angle. Upright without most of your view being blocked by people trying
to wrestle you down."
He had to laugh at that. Even if it were mostly true. He of course had been here before, not under duress or
wrestling. That had been to visit other friends who were unfortunate to end up here. The stomach flu epidemic came
to mind. And Andi's first tour of the facility.
But man he was stiff as he took a couple of slow steps, hating that speed he was condemned to as he unconsciously
held his side a bit.
"Yeah, yeah I know. And it's a nice infirmary I'm sure." He said with a grin.
His smile made her own smile widen as she moved backward in front of him. Always, just barely, within arms' reach.
"It is." She agreed. "Very nice. Just look at all the personal attention you've received. And they gave you, not just a
room, but an entire building all to yourself." She shot him a grin. "And I haven't once heard anyone threaten you with
a protein bar."
"What do you know - the dead really do walk." Mike commented from where he'd just let himself into the room with a
couple boxes under his arm.
"Maybe not with a protein bar." Hector said under his breath. He'd been threatened with other things, after all. Then
Mike came in. "Good god what do you have?"
"More restraints. In case you managed to chew threw the last set." Mike dead panned. "Good to see you up and
about." That would certainly mean a calmer more agreeable Andi.
"We're playing tag." Andi informed Mike with a laugh.
"Fast and furious I see." He agreed, walking over to drop the boxes in the secondary chair the MP wasn't taking up. "I
brought some stuff for the invalid. And apples for everyone that has to put up with him." He lifted the plastic bag and
set it on Cara's desk, telling her: "Didn't have anything to numb the pain of it but thought you could always bean him
and knock him out if he got too cantankerous."
"Cantankerous?" Andi asked.
"Stroppy." Mike explained.
"You make it sound as if I've been a holy terror." He said. and Cara raised an eyebrow at that.
"Oh no. Not you." Cara said. "I have no idea who took down two techs, gave Dr Martinez a goose egg on his chest..."
"So what did you bring me?" Hector asked as he and Andi slowly walked around the infirmary.
Andi was watching Hector without obviously doing so. And she had a sneaking suspicion he was feeling out just how
far and fast his body was willing to go without pushing it quite that far and giving away both what his limits really were
and that that was what he was doing in the first place. She couldn't swear to it but...
"Well, not that I think you even got anywhere in the same room as Santa's 'good boy' list - " Mike shot Hector a look
and opened the box. "But - CD player. With headphones." Mike stated as he went through the box and set them on
the bed. "A questionable collection of CDs Swan and Mark both assured me were actually yours. I threw in a couple
comedy collections with guys like Robin Williams, Eddie Murphy, some Aussie comedian..." he tossed those on the
bed too. "So you can laugh like an idiot at things only you can hear. Nothing new there. Game of Risk so either Andi
or I can kick your ass AND annex your countries. Coupla books of various and questionable quality. And a crossword
puzzle because I couldn't find a coloring book. Is he allowed to have a pencil?" Mike looked over at Cara. "Isn't that
kind of dangerous? Oh yeah, and some mail." Mike had saved it for last on purpose and waved the three letters at
Hector. "Though I can toss those if you want. Probably just bills anyway."
"I'm good at Risk." Hector said with a chuckle. "But I'm better at chutes and ladders." He made his way slowly over to
the box and started going through the CDs, an eclectic mix of just about everything imaginable. "Yup these are mine."
He said with a grin. "No coloring book? Well, what kind of friend are you?"
"I guess we can let him have a pencil." Cara said, doubtfully.
"Hey, Andi didn't even count the silver ware." Hector said.
Andi shot Hector a look for 'telling' on her, edges up her lips hooking upward.
"I have complete and utter faith in him." She stated, meeting Hector's eyes with her own, eyes laughing.
"She's threatened to leave him if he moves from the infirmary." Cara told Mike with a smile, polishing one of the little
red apples he'd brought.
"He's never leaving then." Mike stated, sitting down in the now empty chair and stretching his legs out.
"Or at least not today." Andi agreed, looking over Hector's shoulder as he sorted through his CDs. "I have, after all,
been promised a tour of some missile range of some sort."
"Huh. Romantic." Mike commented dryly.
"Hey, beats the supply tent at the Red Cross." Hector said, sorting through the mail Mike brought, throwing one in the
garbage and setting aside the other two. "But just barely." He said with a wink.
"I think romantic has to do more with the guy and the situation than the location." Cara said. Not that Hector Garrett
struck her as the overly romantic guy. Then again, he'd never struck her as anything she'd seen so far since he'd
been with his Dr White.
"Just as well." Mike commented, picking up the cross word puzzle. "Not a lot of chances for walks along the beach or a
nice candlelight dinner at a Italian place around here. Not unless you're trapped over in the Italian compound when
they lose electricity and then, frankly, not the kind of situation you want to find yourself romantic in."
Andi gestured and Cara tossed her a couple of apples. She handed one to Mike and the new MP, than caught two
more. Long hands surprisingly quick.
"She's right." She agreed, sitting on the edge of the bed and held an apple up for Hector. "It does depend on the
man." She gave him a bright smile with laughing eyes but didn't say anything else.
"Ever notice how the room just closes down around those two?" Mike asked Cara.
Cara sighed. "If it wasn't so annoying it would almost be cute." She said with a roll of her eyes. "Believe me, I know his
whole demeanor is temporary. The minute she leaves he'll be back to growling at the rest of us."
Swanson came in and saw the apples. "Food!" he said and took one and looked at Mike. "Please tell me the hell
spawn you usually travel with was left behind?" He still couldn't get over how she had managed to convince him to
break in to his friend's foot locker, and got him paranoid over a ring.
"Don't discount the missile range yet." Hector said with a grin.
“It would be quieter." Andi agreed. Glad to see that grin. He wasn't out of the infirmary yet. But he could feel it was
closer. He really wasn't going to be trapped here forever despite what it had probably felt like to him. Being able to
stand wasn't much freedom compared. But it was more than he'd had.
Besides, him padding around in bare feet changed his whole demeanor somehow. She liked it even if she couldn't
have put her finger on why.
Mike turned his head and his eyebrow raised at Swanson. He didn't know what had happened last night. But he knew
it had upset Suzette. Badly. And that usually took quite a bit. Unless you happened to hit her in one of her rare
vulnerable points. He suspected Swanson had something to do with it simply because he couldn't see anyone else
who fit the profile.
"Suzette needed to stay behind to catch up on some paperwork. So you're lucky today and today only." Suzette's
refusal to come back to the camp today had worried him. A worry that had been slightly mollified when she'd confided
that she was going to have a very long talk with her tailor over clothing for the lean English doctor so busy ignoring
them right now. Why she needed to talk to her tailor about Andi's clothes was beyond Mike, but he'd learned a long
time ago that some female mysteries were simply best left as mysteries.
Andi was suddenly paying attention, eye brows dipping into worry.
"Suz stayed behind?"
Mike gave her a reassuring smile.
"We got some new nurses in." He told her. Changing the actual arrival date to suit the story better. "You know Suz
likes to be there to break them. In, I mean."
Which just had Andi laughing. The way he'd meant it to. So she missed the warning look he sent Swanson.
"Probably going to have some people quitting over that one." Swanson grumbled as he ate his apple. Hector caught
the warning look and glanced at Swanson and Mike. Gleeful only because it meant a distraction from himself. Which
was never a bad thing.
"Uh oh, did you two have a bit of a tiff?" Hector asked, mockingly, finally sitting down, surprised that he was so tired
from a walk of only a dozen or so feet.
"Dude, everything is a fight with that one." Swanson said with a roll of his eyes. Like he was going to confess to
breaking, entering and rifling through some one else's belongings.
"Only because someone picks them." Mike pointed out mildly.