Baseball (Graceland TV, M) Mike Warren

[Dingalingkling]

Hey! I'm a longtime lurker, but this is my first time posting a story to the forum. It's for Graceland which is basically a dead fandom but i will never be over it so here's this thing that's been sitting in my WIPs for over a year. Hope you like it! (side note for anyone who's not familiar with the series: Levi is Mike's nickname.)

Baseball: 1740 words.

 

 

 

 

They’re in the top of the second inning of the Yankees game when Charlie returns from running errands. It’s one of Mike's favorite old pastimes from growing up in New York, and Paul used to play in high school, so it’s not uncommon to find the two of them avidly arguing statistics and shouting over the commentators as the day’s game displays on the screen. Charlie has made it past them with two separate loads of groceries before either of them even notice her presence in the house.

“Hey Chuck,” Paul calls as the game goes to commercial, finally acknowledging that she’s back. Charlie makes a detour on her way back to the garage, stopping behind the couch to drop a kiss on Paul’s forehead and to ruffle Mike’s hair. Mike smiles hazily at the affection.

“Hey guys. How’s the game?” She asks, knowing they won’t be good conversation on any other subject at the moment. Mike opens his mouth to answer, but before he has time to speak a dazed look comes over his face. He holds up a shaky finger in the universal symbol of hang on, before quickly redirecting a harsh sneeze into his elbow.

“Hup’tschuh!” Mike looks surprised by the explosion, but he doesn’t have long to process before the tickle in his nostrils flares up again.

“Bless y--”

“Iptschh!” Mike sniffles harshly and rubs a fist against his nose, offering Charlie a sheepish smile. “Sorry, I don’t know where that came from.”

“Bless you, Levi,” Paul chuckles, clapping a hand on the rookie’s shoulder before turning around to answer Charlie. “And the game’s just getting started, but we’re up. Lineup’s looking sharp.”

“What he said,” Mike contributes, smiling a little as a blush colors his cheeks. The tickle is still fluttering in his sinuses, but he smothers it with a firm tongue against the back of his upper teeth. Charlie smiles warmly at her boys and pushes off the couch.

“Well, I’ve got more groceries to bring in, so I’m gonna go get those. You guys enjoy the game.” The commentators are already back on screen by the time she says this, so all Charlie receives in response are two little hums of agreement as she wanders outside to grab the rest of the bags.

Paul is engrossed in the bottom of the second inning when Charlie sits down with a book across the way in the kitchen, so he doesn’t see her. But Mike does, and she smiles when their eyes meet. Mike looks every bit like an all-american college kid, reclined on the couch in his hoodie and sweats, nursing a beer as he watches the game.

It’s moments like this that remind Charlie how young the kid still is, and how green. Sure, maybe there are moments when she wishes that Mike had the perspective to understand the admittedly questionable calls that they sometimes have to make in the field, but she finds his loyalty to right and wrong incredibly endearing. She hopes he can keep that innocence, that he never gets too deeply entrenched in the day to day traumas of life as an undercover agent.

...

It’s the middle of the fourth inning and Mike’s having trouble paying attention to the screen. A vague throb has settled behind his eyes and his breath keeps catching on the congestion that’s lingering at the back of his throat. He sniffles quietly hoping not to disturb Paul, but the action does little to keep a bit of wetness from leaking down onto his upper lip. Mike swipes at his nose with the back of his wrist, wincing when the movement aggravates the itch that’s taken up residence in his nostrils.

It’s gentle at first, just a buzzing that he thinks he can squash, but within moments he can feel the tickle intensifying. His eyes fall to half lids, and his breath quickens in anticipation of what’s to come.

“heh...eh...Uptschhuh!” Mike catches the sneeze in cupped hands, reaching for a tissue to blow his nose once he’s gotten control back over his sinuses. Briggs eyes him warily, but then Sanchez hits a home run and the cheering on-screen distracts him from his housemate. Within moments, the two have settled back into the game, as if nothing happened at all.

As the innings come and go, Mike’s headache worsens. Every time he sniffles the pressure in his head increases, and his runny nose is growing more and more congested. He’s tempted to just call it quits for the night, go to bed and see if he feels better tomorrow, but the game is almost over. He can power through and then make an excuse about having casework to do upstairs. Mike sinks lower into the couch, resting his pounding head against the back of the cushions and doing his best to stay awake.

Paul would be lying if he said he hadn’t noticed how withdrawn Mike had gotten in the past hour or so. Frankly, it would have been pathetic for a man of his profession to miss just how out of character his housemate’s behavior was. On a normal night, the rookie would be debating the refs’ calls and giving his own clever commentary about the players, but tonight he was suspiciously quiet. Well, except for the sniffling and sneezing. He waits for a commercial break before the top of the seventh inning to say anything about it.

“Hey Mikey?” He starts, turning his upper body so he’s facing towards his housemate. The question seems to startle the younger agent out of a daze, and Paul catches Mike weakly scrub at his nose as he sits up straighter.

“Yeah?” The kid asks, blinking his eyes to readjust to the light, unsure as to when they fell closed.

“You feeling okay? You seem kind of out of it.” Mike pauses for a minute before letting out a slow sigh and lowering back down into the cushions.

“I’m okay,” he mumbles, pressing a thumb into the space between his eye and nose, “Just got a bit of a headache.” He punctuates the statement with a wet sniff, letting his eyes fall closed and crossing his arms over his chest. Paul hums in sympathy, gradually lowering the volume on the speakers as the game returns from commercials. For some reason, though, the game isn’t really holding his attention anymore, and he finds himself constantly assessing his rookie out of the corner of his eye.

The seventh inning stretch finds Mike almost asleep. He’s on the fence between sleep and awareness when he feels a slight itch in the top of his nose. He wrinkles his nose in an attempt to squash the tickle, but to his dismay the irritation is crawling slowly down the inside of his nostrils. Mike rubs his hand back and forth over the tip of his reddening nose and gives a small sniff, and when the tickle fizzles away he sighs in relief.

For five, wonderful, seconds.

The tickle returns so fiercely and so suddenly that he barely has time to cover his nose with his wrist.

“hhhPTSHUUH! iptSCHUUh!”

“Bless you,” The words die on Paul’s lips as Mike shakes his head, holding up a shaky finger to let him know he’s not done.

The last tickle teases him, intensifying one moment only to taper off the next. The cycle repeats as Mike’s breath hitches, before he squints at the light to coax the sneeze out.

“Eh… ih…huh’PTSchhhh!”

Mike sniffs wetly as he leans forward to grab a handful of tissues. The trio of sneezes had left a mess of clear mucus on his hand, the thick fluid spanning the gap between his knuckles and his wrist. He cleans himself up a little bit and quietly blows his nose, trying hard to ignore the concerned gaze of his mentor.

When he can’t bear one more pathetic sniffle, pained wince, or harsh sneeze, Paul stands up in the middle of the inning and strides into the kitchen. Mike assumes he’s grabbing another beer, but the older agent returns with a bottle of water and a pair of blue gel capsules. He sets them down on the table in front of Mike, settling back into the couch without so much as a second glance at his rookie. They’re up in the top of the ninth, after all, and he’s doing his best to appear as uninterested in Mike’s health as he can. He has to focus hard on not smiling when Mike leans forward to grab the meds.

The game ends as the Yankees swiftly strike out three opposing batters, but when Paul goes to give Mike a high five, the rookie is already fast asleep. Paul smiles warmly as he looks down at the younger agent, glad he’s getting the rest he seems to sorely need, but he’d be lying if he said he wasn’t concerned that Mike was so out of sorts. He’d have to wake Mike up soon so he could sleep in his bed, but Paul wanted to let the kid sleep for as long as possible to try and kick whatever he was coming down with before it took full hold.

Paul grabs a blanket from the basket under the coffee table and stands to drape it over his rookie. Mike doesn’t so much as twitch as the fabric makes contact, so Paul reaches down to pull it up over his shoulders. As he stands back up, a quick glance to his right reveals Charlie leaning against the fireplace.

“And you call me the mama bear,” she smiles, speaking softly as she crosses the room to meet him. Paul wraps her in an embrace, snaking his arms around her waist from behind.

“Well, mama, one of our cubs is sick,” Paul explains, his voice a low rumble in her ear. “Paternal instinct. It couldn’t be helped.”

Charlie hushes out a laugh, turning slightly in his arms to look up at Paul as she speaks. 

“Well then, papa bear, he’s very lucky you were here.” She presses a quick peck to his lips before pulling away slightly with a sigh. “You know we’ve gotta wake him up and get him to an actual bed, right?”

“Let him sleep a while, Chuck. He needs it,” Paul mumbled with a kiss to her shoulder. “But if you’re really looking to take someone to bed, I happen to know of an excellent candidate.”

 

 

 

[phoenix]

Yay, Graceland! I miss having Aaron Tveit on my tv screen... and hey, even if no one else remembers, we can be circa-2013-fandom buddies. 🙂  The progression of the illness along with the game was very nice... and the caretaking from Charlie and Briggs, of course. Just a nice, relaxed vibe, with lots of room to imagine how the rest of the cold will play out. (If you ever wanted to write it, I'd happily read it!) 

 

[Dingalingkling]

@phoenix Yes! Someone else who can appreciate how great Graceland was 😊 And thank you! When I was writing this out, I tried different ways to continue the story but none of them ever really seemed to fit naturally, but who's to say I wouldn't pick it up again

[queenie]

I didn’t watch this show to completion but I did watch enough of it to appreciate sick Mike and the found-family feels. Thanks for this! It’s nice to see something rare every now and again. 

[IveGotRedHair]

You’ve reminded me how much I love Mikey 😘 This is really sweet I love the family in Graceland. 

[dragonko]

Never actually seen the show, but looked up Mike (holy dreamboat) and love the writing! Hope to see this continue!

[Rook]

GRACELAND GRACELAND GRAAAAAAAACELLLAAAAAND AHHHHHHHHHHH