Work Text:
“Albert” Truman says with a nod as Albert walks through the police vehicles parked haphazardly in the morning haze.
“Sheriff.”
“Good to see you.”
Albert gives him a skeptical look. It had been a long night, for all of them. He'd gotten the call in the early hours of the morning and had driven like a bat out of hell to get here, to get back... back to the last place he wanted to be and the last thing he wanted to see, the murder of another young woman.
Truman sighs heavily. “Yeah... under bad circumstances, I know, I know.” The dark circles under his eyes are prominent. “...breakfast should be delivered soon. If you want something, Lucy's bringing a bunch of stuff out.”
Albert isn't interested in food right now. “Where's...”
“Our boy.” Truman looks knowingly at Albert. Albert doesn't know what the Sheriff thinks he knows and doesn't really care. “I sent him to go catch twenty in the truck.”
Albert looks back in the direction of the Sheriff's truck. Truman shakes his head. “He said he didn't need sleep just needed to take a walk and get some fresh air. Last I saw him he was over by that rock...” Harry nods behind Albert.
Albert turns and looks and doesn't find what he would describe as a rock, more like a bolder.
“He went that way.” Albert asks and Harry confirms with another swift nod. “Great...” Albert remarks dryly.
As he walks determinedly towards the last place Truman saw Cooper Albert wonders how far Cooper could have gotten into the woods.
He walks past the big ass rock and stops at the tree line. He wonders if he could call him back so they could get moving with their briefing.
Albert huffs, thoughts running through his head. 'How long could Cooper be? What's fifteen more minutes to a dead girl? Fifteen minutes could mean something to the next girl. Where in the world could Cooper have gotten to?'
“Albert” Cooper's voice with recognition in its tone seems to come out of nowhere. Albert turns one way and then the other scanning the woods, He doesn't see anything, then it dawns on Albert and he turns back to the rock and looks down.
There's Cooper on the ground, back to the boulder. Eyes closed. Legs bent up in front of him, as if he's just casually sitting in the dirt.
“Is the air fresher down there or something? What in the world are you doing on the ground?” Cooper tends to do some strange things, Albert has learned to roll with it, the question is what kind of strange is this.
Cooper blinks up at the other agent. “Honestly Albert I don't know how I came to be here, I wanted to go for a walk but once I found myself down here I figured I would make the best of it and use the time to regroup.”
Though Cooper seems calm his words Alarm Albert. He scans Dale over for signs of injury or distress. It sounds like Cooper had either blacked out or possibly fallen asleep while standing up.
He moves in to get a closer look. He doesn't see anything out of the ordinary, ordinary for Cooper. “You're lucky you didn't take a nose dive into the mountain you're leaning against.”
“I think you're probably right Albert.” His voice is soft but not slurred. That's a good sign.
“I know you've been living on coffee, have you eaten anything today?” That seemed like a likely cause for why Cooper was on the ground and the one easiest to remedy, currently.
Cooper closes his eyes and sounds wistful as he remembers “I saw the sunrise, Albert it was beautiful even against the somber backdrop of a tragic murder.”
“I'll take that as a no. The Sheriff said food was on the way.” Albert looks around, some of the men are standing around the trucks with what looks like new cups of coffee. Maybe the food had been delivered. It would be good to get some real food into Cooper. “Can you stand Coop?”
Albert holds out his hand. Cooper cracks an eye open and takes the offered help up.
Albert hauls him up off the ground. Cooper raises, he's not able to stifle a groan and a sharp inhale as he does.
Albert looks on with understanding. “How're the ribs?” He gets close to sounding sympathetic.
Cooper opens his mouth to reply but before he can say he's fine his knees wobble dangerously underneath him.
“Whoa.” Albert takes hold of his arm to steady him.
Cooper looks as surprised as Albert. He clasps the other man's shoulder.
“Sit” Albert instructs. Cooper moves back a step to sit on a level part of the big rock. He grimaces as Albert helps eases him down.
Albert looks around to see who's close by. Of course it's Andy. Albert flags him over. He lopes over with donut sugar coating his mouth. Albert wonders how with all the donut consumption around here the police officers weren't all in sugar comas.
“What can I do for you Agent Rosenfielt? Agent Cooper?” Andy looks back and forth between the two men.
“Is the food the Sheriff said was being delivered here yet?” Albert talks quickly and to the point.
“Yes and coffee, a bunch of stuff from the Double R, can I bring you something Agent Cooper?” Andy passive aggressively addresses Cooper instead of Albert.
Albert clears his throat. “Andy, is there anything that's not fried and covered in sugar?”
“I think there's some bananas and maybe... muffins.” His voice goes up at the end as if he's not sure.
“Fantastic...” Albert says sarcastically because he can't help himself but it was better than nothing. “Could you grab Agent Cooper a banana and a muffin if there are any.”
“And coffee?” Andy asks thinking he knows the answer.
Cooper smiles and starts to agree but Albert cuts him off “Orange juice, for now.”
Cooper looks disappointed for a split second but schools his expression and nods.
“Oh, ok.” Andy looks slightly confused as he turns to head back to the trucks, he looks back over his shoulder a couple times as if he's trying to figure out what's going on.
“Thank you Andy.” Cooper calls after him before shifting on the rock as if he's going to try and get up.
“Uh uh, stay where you are.”
“I'm alright Albert.” Albert can see the tension at the corners of his eyes and the tightness around his mouth and the way he's holding his arms that practically screams the opposite.
“You might be...” Albert humors his friend. You catch more flies with honey and all that. Albert could do that if he wanted. He would play nice because it's Cooper. “But right now you're going to sit here, eat something, and take some pain medication.” Albert doesn't have anything but extra strength Tylenol with him. He brought it with him to stave off the splitting headache he gets from all the fresh air and rubes.
Cooper shakes his head and insists “Meditation's been working fine.” Albert doesn't acknowledge this with anything more then a hum. He pulls out a light and shines it in Cooper's eyes. He wants to check and make sure Cooper didn't hit his head when he more than likely passed out earlier.
“Maybe under normal circumstances you meditating eases pain, I'll except that, mind over matter and all that, but right now you're not on any kind of normal schedule, sleeping or eating. I know you've not gotten a good night's sleep. I just don't know for how long. And I know that at least so far today you've not had any time to meditate. So there's no way you're not hurting right now.”
Albert puts his light away and puts his hand to Cooper's forehead. He doesn't have a theromoiter fit for anything up a corpse with him so he'd have to take his temperature the old fashioned way.
“Have you been taking care of your stitches?”
“Yes.” Cooper says softly and simply.
Albert concentrates on the assessment he's doing and not the funny look Cooper has on his face. His forehead feels clammy but not hot so there's no infection which is good.
Albert takes hold of Cooper's wrist next to check his pulse.
It seems good, steady, still Cooper is looking paler than usual. His lips and cheeks in particular look pallid.
When Albert looks up from his watch Sheriff Truman is standing with them. He's got a concerned look on his face which only deepens when he sees Albert holding Cooper's wrist. “Is everything alright?”
“Fine, Harry. Fine.” Cooper smiles trying to look reassuring. Albert thinks the expression looks more tired than anything.
“Coop's lack of sleep and poor pain management is catching up to him.” Albert explains.
Harry looks at Cooper as if to ask if it's true.
Cooper defends himself. “I've been managing. Quite well I'd say.”
Harry nods. “We've all been under a strain these past couple of weeks.”
Albert hitches his eyebrow at the sheriff. “You weren't all shot.”
Truman looks at Albert for a long second, then understanding passes behind his eyes.
Albert knows it's easy to forget that Cooper isn't superhuman. He puts on a good front and with all he talks about 'the will' and 'mystic practices' people forget he needs time to heal like anyone else.
Albert had forgotten that once and had played a part in letting Cooper nearly work himself into the ground. He wasn't going to do that again.
“Andy said you wanted this.” Harry hands Cooper a paper cup with juice. Albert detects the slight tremor in Cooper's hand as he quickly lifts it too his lips.
“Andy's on his way he was just grabbing a few more things.”
Cooper nods his thanks.
Albert looks past the sheriff and sees Andy, his hands full of muffins and bananas sticking out of his pockets. Albert shakes his head.
Andy steps around the sheriff and right up to Cooper. “I've got blueberry, there's banana nut, hum... bran and cranberry orange I think.” He holds them all out to Cooper like a bouquet of muffins.
“Thank you Andy.” Cooper says with a small smile.
“He'll take the blueberry.” Albert starts to grab it.
Andy pulls back. “Nooo Agent Cooper gets to choose.”
“It's alright Andy, Albert's right. I'd like the blueberry. Thank you.”
Andy shuffles the muffins in his hands so he's able to present the blueberry triumphantly to Agent Cooper.
Cooper takes it but with his hands now full he can't unwrap the muffin to eat it. Albert notices that Cooper who's usually so confident seems unsure what to do.
If he was feeling better Cooper would be lecturing on the superiority of the donut.
Albert rolls his eyes, he takes the muffin from Cooper, unwraps it, like he was going to in the first place. He makes quick work of it and give the wrapper-less muffin back.
Andy hands the bananas to Truman and drifts off. Cooper eats quietly and the color starts to come back into his cheeks.
Harry peels a banana and hands it to Cooper when he's done with the muffin.
Albert is itching to get going and this standing around is making him antsy.
Hawk joins them carrying a red plastic jug with a spout in the lid. “Would anyone like some water?”
“He would.” Albert points to Cooper, who had had the same idea and downed the last of his orange juice. He holds the empty cup out to Hawk who fills it. After saying thank you, Cooper drinks like a man just out of the desert and holds the cup out again for more.
Albert adds dehydration to his list of things to watch for.
Pulling the bottle out of his bag Albert hands Cooper more than the recommended dose of Tylenol.
Cooper accepts the pills but only takes the recommended amount, he pockets the others incase he needs them later. Albert doesn't say anything, he isn't surprised. As long as Cooper doesn't do something like pass out again he'll let him be.
Truman still looks concerned. “Do you want to head back to the Great Northern Coop? I mean if you're not feeling well we can always fill you in later.”
Cooper finishes the last of the water in his cup. “No Harry that won't be necessary. I'm feeling much better and I'm ready to go.”
“You sure Cooper?” Albert questions on reflex. He cringes internally for questioning another agent, questioning Cooper in front of locals.
“I'm good Albert, thank you for your help.”
'that's why I'm here.' Albert thinks but only nods. He doesn't need to show any more sentiment than he already has.
“Well lets get a move on.” Cooper pushes off his rock perch and stands slowly. He looks stiff and sore as he straightens. Three hands reach out to help. Harry, Hawk and Albert all move to give him a hand up.
Cooper holds up his own hand to halt them. “I'm alright gentlemen. I'm fine.” He stands up fully, straight as an arrow, in his usual way. He blinks a few times and breaths out slowly before speaking again. “There's work to be done.”
To Albert's relief Cooper doesn't look like he's going to fall over. He gives Truman a subtle look that say it's ok to let Cooper get on with it.
They all walk to the site where the body was discovered. Albert follows a pace behind Copper while Truman and Hawk flank him on his left. Truman glances at Cooper just to check that he's ok once more
They need to get to work. Cooper needs to get to work. This has to end.