Rating: PG

Summary: Visiting hours...have just started.

Spoilers: Nah.
 

I wake up again later, and Dad's awake this time, somebody must have brought him the laptop because he's working on it.

He hears me and asks me how I'm doing.

I think I actually feel better. I can breathe some and I don't hurt so bad.

Wonder what they put in my IV.

I'm just so fucking tired. It's like everything's an effort.

Maybe it's the dreams. I had the weirdest dreams. I kept hearing this Paul Simon song 'American Tune' over and over in my dreams.

"I don't know a soul that's not been battered
I don't have a friend who feels at ease
I don't know a dream that's not been shattered
Or driven to its knees
But it's all right, it's all right..."

And then I hear the last line, "I'm just trying to get some rest." This is while I dream I'm upside down and far out of my body, which right now is not a bad place to be.

Being back in it sucks.

How did this get stuck in there? I'm not much for Paul Simon. My dad likes him, though, and sometimes he plays his albums. Vinyl, not CD. Dad may be a technogeek, but when it comes to music, he's never upgraded his vinyl collection.

What day is it? Dad says it's Sunday. I came here...Friday. From the Hanukkah celebration at Chateau Langly.

Dad asks me if I need anything.

What a joke. I need everything.

Right now, though, I'd settle for having this tube out of my nose and the drip out of my hand. I thought it was in my arm, maybe they moved it. I can tell my one arm has this huge bruise and my other hand's all puffy. It feels about a hundred times its normal size.

I want to go home. I want my own bed.

Dad says I've got presents. He hands me a few packages. Presents. For what? Dad says they're get well presents. Juliet and Byers send me more sweats, and while that doesn't sound all that cool, it looks like I'm gonna be spending a lot of time in them and mine are all ratted out except for the one they gave me last time I was in the hospital. Ally and Langly gave me a portable CD player and three CD's, which is really cool. I bet the CD player is awesome. Langly can be a real jerk, but he does know quality audio. I get a funny card from Miranda and Shelby, one with a hot babe on the front telling me to hurry and get well so she can get my  emperature up. I get cards from the Mulders, the Sternbergs, and Jo, and Jo also sends me a gift certificate to Strawberries so I can get more CD's. Who'd have thought Jo could be cool? There's a card from Joan, Langly's big sis. It's the only card I get that doesn't have sex in it.

And there's a card from Kelly. Unfortunately, I'm hooked up to this monitor so my dad can probably tell my heart rate just jumped to about lethal levels. I'm scared to open it.

But I do. And it's funny, but it's sweet, too. She tells me thanks for being so helpful to her last semester and that she considers me a good friend.

Well, I suppose that's better than saying I'm an asshole.

I want to put on the sweats from Byers and Juliet. I hate these smocks. I'm freezing in it, and it's not like it provides a whole lot of privacy when I get out of bed. Not that I'm doing a lot of that, but every now and then, it's sort of necessary. I can get the pants on okay, but with the drip in my hand, I end up just tying the sleeves from the shirt over my shoulders.

And I'm tired already. Jesus!

I'm about to head back to dreamsville when my dad says something to me.

"I called your mother."

I'm not sure I'm hearing things right. I mean, I've had a lot of drugs and I've been sick for so long I'm not sure my brain works anymore.

"You said what?"

"I said, I called your mother."

What?!

Why the fuck did he call THAT bitch?!

"Dad! No!"

He shrugs at me. "She had a right to know."

"She's got no right to know shit!" I can't yell, but I wish I could. I sound pathetic.

"Michael, she's your mother."

"And she could've remembered that when she kicked my ass out!"

He doesn't say anything for a while. Then he tells me, "She and Leslie will be here in about six hours."

And Leslie?!

Oh fuck!!!

Why the hell is he doing this to me?

I turn my face away from him. I can feel my face is getting wet. Normally I'd want him to come over and comfort me, but right now, I'd like him to get as far away as possible.

I sob until I'm asleep again. I don't know how long this takes. I've lost all my time perception.

Bastard.
 

I wake up and I hear a girl's voice.

Fortunately, it's a nice surprise.

It's Kelly. She's there and she's got a cup of something for me to drink. This is good, because I'm real thirsty.

I am so happy to see her. She must've come from work. She's still got her hair in a ponytail and she's got this black apron with pockets in it, the kind waitresses wear.

She is so adorable, I could eat her up.

That is, if I could eat anything right now.

It's tea. It's Lipton, which is what Dad makes at home. Byers is the tea god. You can get any kind of funky tea you want from Byers, but everyone else seems to stick with basic Lipton.

She asks me how I'm doing. I'm not doing that great right now, but I tell her, okay. I tell her I want to go home. Right now.

Like before my mom shows up. I don't want to see her.

I don't know what to say to her, so I ask her how work is. She says it sucks, but she's gonna work a lot this vacation so she can have money for her tuition and books. She really hopes Dr. Scully can do something for her.

I hope so, too. She looks depressed when she talks about work.

She tells me when I'm better I should come by and see her at work, since that's where she always seems to be. I tell her I will, but first I have to get by the palace guard-namely, my dad. I bet he's gonna lock me up and throw away the keys. She says I need to rest a lot, he's only trying to do what's best for me.

Yeah. If he was trying to do that, he shouldn't have called my mom. But I don't tell her this.

Maybe it'll snow and my mom won't be able to make it. I hope so.

She's talking about how she might as well work, it's not like she has this great social life or anything. Her one best bud from high school is doing the mom thing, and she doesn't feel very close to her. She was close to her teachers in high school, but it's not like they're like friends or anything. She says she was always real lonely, like she never had friends much. Everybody thought she was such a snot, always trying to be better than everyone else. So she studied even more. She was her class valedictorian, she tells me. Which is real cool.

I don't want to talk about high school. That was a real bad patch in my life, and I'm not about to go into it again.

She says it's really nice to have somebody she can talk to and somebody who takes her seriously and knows how hard she has to work. I wonder who she's talking about, then I realize she means me.

I get all kind of warm and butterfly-y inside.

She takes hold of the bracelet I'm wearing, with my name and stuff on it. This is almost more than I can stand. Thank God I've got blankets and sweats on.

"Frohike, Michael A. What's the A for?"

"Andrew."

"I like it. DOB 3-2-76...that means you're 24?" She sounds surprised.

"Yeah. I'm ancient."

"I thought you were a lot younger."

"That's 'cause I'm small."

"You're not that small!"

"For a guy, I'm small. I hate it. Langly's a head taller than me."

"He's too gangly. I think you're fine."

I don't blush, being brunette, but I could right now. She's sitting on my bed, she's like six inches away, and I could just take her in my arms...

If I could move my fucking arm!

Better not. She'll probably scream rape or something.

Maybe it's good I'm sort of restrained.

At least my dad's not here right now.

The chickenshit knows my mom is supposed to come, so he probably bailed. Doesn't want to face the wrath of Janet Frohike.

Don't blame him. I'm not much in the mood for her myself.

But he's still a chickenshit. I mean, I'm supposed to deal with that bitch all by myself?

He is such a bastard.

I'm thinking these evil thoughts when a tall sort of guy-well, most guys look tall to me-with hair that's going south in a hurry comes strolling in. He's got on jeans but he's got a lab coat over it.

"Michael, how are you?" The guy is friendly enough, not overly so, but he's not rude, either. "I see you have company."

"Do I know you?"

"Well, maybe not," he's laughing a bit. "I'm Dr. Bergman, and I've been taking care of you, although you probably haven't noticed."

Guy's tag reads Daryl Bergman, M.D. Wonder if I won him in the HMO lottery or what. Hey, I've got Blue Cross now.

"So how'd you get stuck with me?" I ask him.

"Friend of Dana Scully-Mulder's. And fortunately, on your HMO." Okay, so I sort of won him in the HMO lottery. He doesn't seem like a real bad guy. "I've got to go see her. I hear she's expecting child number two and I haven't even gone to see child number one."

"She's cute," I tell him. "They're gonna have another girl."

"Well, I wonder if they'll keep trying till they get a mix. Anyway, miss-" He looks at Kelly, "you wouldn't mind stepping out for a moment, would you, while I look this guy over?"

"She can stay," this comes out of my mouth before I even know it. "She wants to be a doc."

"Really?" He looks at her. "Premed?"

"Uh-huh," she's grinning big now.

"Where at?"

"Well, I'm at ACC because I want to save my scholarship money for upper division, then I want to go to Johns Hopkins."

"My alma mater. Great place to go. What kind of work are you doing right now?"

She looks embarrassed. "Well, I'm working in my mom's diner, but I'm trying to get a lab job so I can get some experience."

"That's real important for your med school apps. I might be able to help you get some interviews."

"Could you? I mean, Dr. Scully's checking for me, too-"

"Tell you what. I'll get in touch with Dana and see what we can work out. I have some friends on faculty at Georgetown and GWU, and I bet we can get you in somewhere. How are your grades?"

She smiles big at me. "4.0 for last semester."

"Way to go. Keep that up. You'll need it. Anyway, Michael, let's see how you're doing. Breathe in." He looks satisfied. "Sounds better. Any pain still?" He presses my ribs and it hurts a little, but not too bad. "You've still got some fever, but not bad, and anyway, your HMO won't let you stay forever, so probably in a couple days you'll be home. But-" he holds up a palm like stop right there-"you have to rest up. Seriously. You can't run around like you were for a while. Just plan to spend your winter break relaxing and you should be fine for spring semester. And Michael? When you're prescribed antibiotics, you need to finish ALL of them. You can't
stop after you feel better."

"They made me sick."

"Then you're supposed to let us know and see if we can prescribe something else. I'm going to try and get you off IV antibiotics tomorrow. I think one more night should do it, then you can go on oral meds. And I don't think you need the Demerol anymore."

"What's that?"

"Narcotics. Pain killers. I think you're okay now to stop those."

Too bad. I should have played that one up.

This guy looks like he'd be hip to it, though.

Too bad. It was weird, but kind of interesting, being strung out on Demerol.

And I slept a lot and I didn't give a fuck about anything.

At least until my dad said my mom was coming.

With my sister.

Fuck.

Bergman says he'll be back to see me tomorrow and then we can talk about my getting out of here. My feeling is, the sooner the better.

Right now would be fine.

But no sign of mom or dad or sis yet. And I've got Kelly to myself. It's nice. I keep wishing she'd rub my shoulders or something, but when we got interrupted, she pulled her hand away from my bracelet and she's keeping her distance. I mean, not a huge distance, but the only distance I could stand...

I couldn't stand any. Rotten as I still feel, I have this mad urge to just put no distance between us. I want her skin on mine. I want to know what she feels like inside, wrapped around me...

Jesus, Frohike, down already!

In the midst of having thoughts that aren't available for public consumption, it looks like it's visiting hours. Ally and Langly bang on the door, then walk in before I even answer.

Right now, I might just tell them to go the fuck away, but too late for that.

Ally's not doing black and sexy today-she's back to the usual denim mini-skirt-large sweater-turtleneck and leggings thing, which is okay for showing off her legs, but doesn't do justice to the rest of her. Langly lost the jacket, but he's still got the goddamn hairdo from the other night.

Somebody should tell this guy it makes his receding hairline all the more obvious.

I am sorely tempted.

However, Ally will kill me if I do. She says Langly's hair is his one vanity, leave it alone. And she loves his hair. I see her play with it all the time. She's always got her face in it.

Jesus, the guy can't smell THAT good.

Anyway, whatever dry spell they were in must be over, they're both wearing shit-eating grins that they always have whenever they've had really good sex.

They could be a little more subtle about it, don't you think?

Ally comes over and gives me a big hug. She's such a mom. Give her a sick person and out comes the chicken soup and the tea and sympathy and she fusses over you like the Jewish mother she is. She hugs Kelly, too, asks how she is. Kelly's all excited, she got another doctor's attention and an offer of assistance.

"Bergman's okay. For a physician," Langly says.

"You know him?" I ask him.

"Yeah, Ally makes me go and see him if she thinks I'm dying, which is like every time I sneeze."

"Hey, after last winter, I'm not screwing around," she tells him.

"At least he's reasonable. More or less," Langly shrugs. "I can deal with him. He seems like a real guy."

"Well, Dana told me he was her dissecting partner in gross anatomy, and he's a poor boy from Baltimore, dad was a bricklayer or something," Ally says. "I guess they were comfortable with one another because Dana doesn't exactly hail from the upper echelons of wealth and power, either."

Not like you, Ally. But at least you don't rub it in people's faces.

"So dead boy," Langly's talking to me, "fallen in the mud lately?"

I could kill him. "Fuck you, Langly."

"Hey, at least you didn't puke all over the place." He's having fun with me. Way too much fun.

I am dying here.

He is going to pay.

Big time.

I need to think of something.

"Hey, if I hadn't barfed on your wedding shoes, you'd probably be crippled by now," I remind him. "You oughta thank me."

"I did. But what about the car and the mattress?"

Right in front of Kelly.

Ally tells him to play nice, but it's too late. He's already gotten it out, and he's loving it. And he never listens when Ally tells him to play nice, anyway.

Kelly's all ears, of course.

This should give her plenty of ammunition for telling me what a loser I am and to leave her the fuck alone.

"What car and mattress?" she asks Langly.

"Ally's old Sentra-"

"Which got totalled, by the way-"

"He barfed in it the night-"

"LANGLY!" Ally's had enough. She thinks he's a funny guy, but at least she knows when he's not funny to other people anymore. "SHUT UP!"

This gets his attention, but he gives her this who, me? Look.

I wonder if she'll cut him off tonight.

I hope so. It would serve him right.

When I was growing up, and my dad was gone, and my mom was always working, and my sister was such a bitch, I used to think how cool it would be to have an older brother.

I was like so wrong.

If this is what having an older brother is like, I got spared one form of misery in my life.

At least for the first 24 years.

Looks like it's payback time.

And paybacks are such a bitch.

They don't stay long, Ally says they were just wondering how I was and they wanted to say hi.

I tell her thanks, but tell her next time, leave Blonde Boy at home.

His response is to stick his tongue out at her.

She tells him to keep it in if he's not gonna use it.

He tells her he can find plenty of uses for it.

I'd like them to leave NOW.
 

I'm alone with Kelly again, who, strangely enough, has decided not to scream and run.

"He is such a bastard."

"Oh, he's just teasing you," she says. "You can tell he cares about you."

"Oh yeah. He cares about me. If giving me shit is his way of caring about me, then he must care about me a LOT, because that's all he does!"

"I don't know. He seems like he'd do anything for you, I bet."

"Only if he can give me shit about it later."

"I don't know. When I was growing up, I always wanted an older brother. He seems like he'd be a fun older brother to have."

"Oh yeah. Hassles me all the time, never lets me forget ANYTHING! I make one mistake and I hear about it FOREVER!"

"He's always there for you, isn't he?"

I think about this. "Yeah, I guess he always turns up when I need him for something."

"So? He's not so bad."

"Yes he is. I don't know how Ally puts up with him."

"How does any woman put up with any man?"

I don't know.

I'm tired.

I want Kelly to come and lie down next to me. I want to go back to sleep and I want to do it in her arms...

Forget it.

Dad's back.

And who should be with him but Mommie and Sister Dearest.

END OF PART 22