3 Years

79 - Prolong

It was finally time for Mike to come home. Ricky was the most anxious, already trying to work out every detail in his head. He and Big Red have already rearranged the house to put all of his essentials on the ground floor instead of upstairs. The cabinets in the downstairs bathroom were a perfect copy and paste of what the master bathroom looked like; Ricky wanted to make sure that if he couldn't see the bottles correctly, his dad could hopefully use muscle memory. (They also put sticky notes on everything.)

Ricky moved just about everything from the master bedroom to the downstairs guest room. It didn't have as much space compared to the master, but it was at least easier to access.

His test results came back, and there wasn't much new information. Mike was prescribed new medicines, and the doctor instructed him when to take each. It was only three pills, but he obviously still might have a hard time remembering.

They were at the hospital now, signing all of the discharge papers. Nini and Big Red had to go over and approve of everything, which took forever; after that tedious process, they all headed to Mike's house.

When they arrived, Ricky helped his dad out of the car and gradually up to the front door. Nini held the door open while Big Red walked behind the father and son in case something went wrong.

Once they were inside, Big Red made a big show of the living room. "Ta-da!" he exclaimed. "We have the perfect setup. Football is already going."

"Plenty of blankets and pillows," Nini said, pointing out the makeshift bed on the couch. Ricky had argued that the physical bed would be more comfortable, but Nini and Big Red had convinced him that the living room might be the better option because of the TV and its closeness to the kitchen.

"And you've got everything you need in the downstairs bathroom," Ricky added, gently helping his father onto the couch.

"I don't know what to say," the older man said. "Thank you."

"Oh, and before I forget..." Ricky picked up a case that was sitting on the coffee table. "You need to wear these." He opened the case and presented his father's hearing aids.

"Son, I don't-"

"Come on!" he whined like a child. "What are you going to do if someone calls and you accidentally miss it?"

Mike looked at the other two, and they had similar looks on their face as Ricky. After a moment of silence, he finally conceded. "Fine." He took them out of the case and put them in. He found the little button to turn them on and adjusted the volume.

"How's that?" Nini asked.

The older man shrugged. "Better."

"Great!" Ricky cheered.

The three friends stuck around for a while, making sure Mike was comfortable and had all that he needed in arms' reach.

After a couple more hours, Nini's phone buzzed. It was a text from the twins asking about Mike; she quickly typed a response. "I should probably get going," she said, standing up. "The kids are probably hungry."

"Yeah, Ashlyn hasn't been feeling great recently too," Big Red said.

"Thank you guys for all the help," Mike said, sitting up.

"Of course," Nini said, bending down to hug him; Big Red did the same.

"See you soon, Mike," Big Red said.

"I'll walk you guys to the door," Ricky offered.

The trio went to the door and onto the porch. Ricky shut the door behind him as they stood there. "I hope he's ok," Nini said.