OK, I said that this chapter would feature a lot of new material. Due to me coming up with a few new ideas, the ENTIRE chapter is completely new material (including what I hope is some high quality Charah), and most of Chapter 11 will be as well. Please feel free to comment. I'm flying blind right now trying to figure out if the characters are acting the way they should. Please leave lots of feedback. Good/bad/ugly, it all works for me. I might even throw a little bone to the Casey/Ellie 'shippers next chapter. :-D

On the good side, I'm well into writing the next chapter. Given what happens in this one, it won't surprise you to see why.

Enjoy!

Westside Medical Center
October 22, 2009
8:00 PM

Chuck and Sarah sat outside of an examination room, waiting for an update from Devon about Jimmy. After the ambulance dropped him off at the hospital, Chuck and Sarah went to Jimmy's hotel to collect some clothes and a few other items for him, just in case he had to stay in the hospital. Chuck thought flowers would be a good idea, but they settled for getting him a copy of the paper and a couple of magazines instead.

Both were exhausted from the day's events. Chuck looked over his shoulder at the door to the examination room every 10 seconds.

"Chuck, he'll be fine. He walked into the ambulance himself. I think it's pretty obvious he can take quite a lot of punishment."

"I know. I just get nervous these days being in a hospital. I have a sister and a brother-in-law who are both doctors, but that still doesn't help. Ellie was in here once, then you, and now Jimmy. That's a few too many people ending up in here because of me."

"Not because of you. The Ring was after Jimmy. They don't know any more about you than they already did. More importantly, we escaped."

"Only because we befriended someone who must have been a stuntman in a previous life."

Sarah smiled at that. "Well, that's not exactly how the plan was supposed to work. The 'if you get a chance' part could have been explained a little better."

Chuck looked at her with a wide grin on his face. "When you were sticking your tongue down your boyfriend's throat, right?"

Sarah started cracking up. "I did NOT have my tongue down your throat. OK, if the kiss went on any longer, maybe." She laughed even harder when Chuck gave her an eyebrow dance.

The door to the examination room opened and Devon came out. Chuck and Sarah stood up.

"How is he, Devon?" Chuck asked nervously.

"He should be fine. It took a while to get him stitched up, and we want to keep him here for a day or two, just to be on the safe side. We have a neurologist coming tomorrow to give him a CT scan and a few other tests to make sure there is no permanent head trauma. I also want to put him through a cardio scan or two. The nurse said his blood pressure was pretty high. Probably a combination of age, stress, and weight. I want to make sure he gets something for that."

Chuck exhaled in relief. "Can we talk to him?"

"Only for a few minutes. He has a lot of pain from both the injuries and all the suturing I had to do. I gave him something to help him sleep, so he's about ready to call it a night. They'll be moving him upstairs to a room in a little while."

"Thanks, Devon. I really appreciate all of your help."

"Anytime, bro. Anybody who meets the Chuck and Sarah standard is OK in my book."

Chuck knocked lightly on the door and opened it slowly. He looked in to see Jimmy on the examination table. His eyes were half-open, and his head was partly-shaven on the left side where Devon stitched him back together. He had several bandages down his left arm and one on his wrist. His right hand was also bandaged. He was fumbling about with the hospital-issue gown, which was clearly too small for him. He tried to cover himself as best as he can. Chuck pushed the door the rest of the way open and walked in.

"Hey there. Just wanted to check in with you and see how you're doing."

Jimmy's speech was slow and slurred. "Hi, Chuck. Awesome wants to bring back the punk rock look and thought I'd be a good place to start. Just trying to…" Jimmy saw Sarah enter the room. He tried to grab the sheets on the table to cover himself. "Aaah, hell. I don't want you to see me like this, Sarah. Shoo! Wait outside."

"Oh, come on, Jimmy. You don't have anything I haven't seen a hundred times."

"I know that. I just have a helluva lot more of it! Cut me some slack. Even I don't want to see me naked. I can't even lie on the beach. People keep trying to push me back into the water."

Chuck couldn't stop laughing. Banged up as Jimmy was, and he was still cracking jokes. You had to love the guy.

"What about Devon? You had no problem with him being in here," Chuck asked him.

"He's a heart surgeon. He's probably had to cut open people who would make Jabba the Hutt look like a hottie. I had to throw out a gray suit once because someone painted Goodyear on my ass."

Chuck doubled over laughing, but Sarah gave Jimmy the evil eye.

"If you don't stop doing that, I won't give you this. I figured you'd want some of your own clothes while you were here." She held up the duffel bag with Jimmy's clothes in it.

"OK, OK. You win. You are a total sweetheart for doing that. Thank you. These hospital gowns are so much fun, aren't they? One size fits all, my ass." Sarah placed the bag next to Jimmy on the table.

"Probably best not to mention hospital gown and ass in the same sentence," Chuck quipped. Now Jimmy started laughing hard. He tried to cut himself off quickly.

"OK, probably not a good idea for stand-up night. I'm guessing Awesome will rip me a new one if any of these stitches come out. That is, if he can find a part of me that isn't ripped up already."

Jimmy sat back on the table. His eyelids kept getting heavier, but he continued to talk. "So are you two OK? I kind of forgot to ask earlier."

"We're fine, Jimmy," Chuck replied, not believing that Jimmy was more worried about them than he was about himself. "Just get some rest tonight, will you?"

"I don't think I have much of a say in that. Awesome stuck me with so many needles, I have this sudden desire to do the twist with Uma Thurman at Jack Rabbit Slim's. Thanks again for the change of clothes."

"We'll stop by tomorrow when they have you back in your room." Chuck went to shake his hand, but neither of Jimmy's hands was in any condition for that. He gave Jimmy a gentle hug.

"Thanks for today. I owe you big time."

"You don't owe me anything, man."

Sarah spoke up. "Ellie might check on you in the morning before your tests. Remember, it was a road rage incident with the guy in the van, as far as she is concerned."

Jimmy nodded with considerable effort. "I'll remember that. That is, if these drugs will let me."

Sarah gave a quick smile and kissed Jimmy on the cheek. "Get a good night's sleep."

Jimmy smiled weakly. "I will try. And probably succeed."

Chuck and Sarah exited the room as a nurse and two orderlies entered with a gurney.

Echo Park
October 22, 2009
10:00 PM

Chuck was tired earlier in the evening, but seeing Jimmy in a relatively good mood considering what happened today boosted his spirits. For whatever reason, he wasn't even freaked out at the day's events. That was a significant change from two years ago. He was afraid of his own shadow when all of this first started. He was still trying to get used to having a cache of government secrets in his head and tended to tuck tail between his legs and hide whenever terrorists or killers got near him. Sarah and Casey bailed him out of so many situations when he thought nobody could. Perhaps he grew accustomed to it. Perhaps he was influenced by how brave Sarah and Casey were. But somewhere down the line, he became more confident, even before upgrading to this new Intersect.

No, it was one thing. He loved Sarah, and he knew he had to do whatever it took to be with her. That task had become far more difficult than he ever realized. He thought he had to get rid of the Intersect. He thought he had to create some distance between the two of them so she could protect him to the best of her ability. He thought he had to do anything and everything the missions called for to keep the three one of the most successful teams the CIA and NSA had, thereby keeping them together.

But in the end he just needed to be patient. He just had to wait for her. He had to be caring and supportive. It was simply a matter of waiting for Sarah to realize what she truly wanted in life. And what she truly wanted in life was him.

Chuck walked to the bathroom, where Sarah was brushing her teeth in preparation for bed. He watched her silently for a moment, still not believing this woman was the one he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. He didn't even know she was his type at first, although he imagined she'd be every guy's type, as beautiful as she was. His own track record with women was limited to Jill. The way that ended…and was renewed…left him wondering if he was any good at relationships. Trying to pretend Sarah and he were dating was a torturous nightmare at the outset, mainly because he couldn't believe anyone that gorgeous would ever be with a guy like him. As it turned out, he was the only one who didn't believe it. Almost everybody else, at least the people who mattered, thought they made a great couple. Even Sarah's act was not entirely an act. Like any other couple, they had their ups and downs. The passionate kiss they shared right before they thought they would be killed by a bomb put him through emotions he never felt in his life, not even with Jill. The fallout that followedt…the return of Bryce, the incident on the boat, the night when Longshore almost took him away…put him through a hell he never wanted to feel again. But in the end, none of that mattered. He was here now, and so was she.

Sarah was brushing her teeth with a little more intensity than usual. Her posture seemed a little rigid as well. Chuck walked up behind her, and caressed her arms. He gently massaged her shoulders.

"How are you doing, baby?"

Sarah spit out the remaining water and dried her mouth off with a towel. "I'm good." Her head dropped from Chuck's ministrations on her shoulders. "Mmmmm, keep doing that. That feels so good."

"That's what I'm here for. I'm at your service."

Sarah enjoyed the massage for several moments. Suddenly she turned around. She took Chuck's face in her hands and roughly drew his lips to hers. She was caught up in a kiss from a location inside her she thought was under her control. It was a possessive place, a place that wanted to grab Chuck and never let him go. A place that pressed her body up against his and held him with all of her strength. It was a place that never wanted any moment for the rest of her life to be different than the moment she was in now.

Chuck was starting to feel some pain from how intensely Sarah was holding him. "Baby, baby. Are you OK?" He grabbed her face to hold it in place. He saw something in Sarah's eyes he hadn't seen in a long time: fear.

Sarah came back to the present. Her mind caught up to stop what her emotions were feeling. She buried her head in Chuck's chest, trying to stifle a tear she didn't want him to see.

"I'm sorry, Chuck. A little part of me is having a hard time of getting over what happened today. I almost lost you. It was complete luck you weren't captured. I guess that's difficult for me to accept."

Chuck held her face gently in his hands and gazed into those deep blue eyes. "Sarah, it wasn't luck at all. It was just bad luck The Ring found us. But you helped get us out of it. I don't know why I was ever worried. I never should have been. You knew to get us the phone, and you knew to clue Jimmy and me on what to do. Maybe it didn't go exactly the way it should have, but I knew you'd get us out of it. That's who you are, and that's what you can do."

Sarah ran her fingers through his hair and smiled. "Well, I don't think I did everything today. It's safe to say Jimmy was a big help."

"Uh-huh. And I said last night you just had to let him do what he does best. You did, and the two of you saved my life today." Chuck gently caressed her face. "Actually, you saved his life today, too. He would have been killed if it weren't for you. And I don't doubt he'll tell you that in the morning once he's feeling better."

She looked up at him with a tear in her eye again. But this time, it was a tear of joy. "If you're trying to make me feel better…it's working great."

Sarah held on tightly to Chuck. Being a good friend was never a weak spot for Chuck, not from day one. She had few friends in her life, and most of them were through the CIA. Not a single one of them treated her in the same way Chuck did. He always made her feel like much more than an agent. He always made her feel comfortable; more like who she was supposed to be. It was a side of her she didn't have much experience with, and it was a side that wasn't perfect, not by a mile. But it was a part of her that made her happy; one that let her enjoy life a lot more than she used to. And it was that side of her that gave her the courage to tell Chuck she loved him.

Sarah wrapped her arms around Chuck's neck and pulled herself up on him so their faces were level. She kissed him hard, hungry to taste his lips. Her fear was gone, and all that was left was her passion for the man in her arms.

"I love you so much." She stopped in between kisses to tell him what was in her heart.

Chuck's kisses increased in their passion as well. "I love you, Sarah." He held her at the waist while running his fingers through her hair. The passion of their kissing grew beyond control.

Chuck looked down at his attire in embarrassment, which was still dirty from their adventure on the freeway. "Sorry, I should have put on different clothes when I got home."

Sarah looked at him with barely-contained heat. "That won't be a problem in a minute."

She grabbed the back of his head to press his lips against hers again. She felt nothing else but his skin under her hands as her tongue explored his inside of their joined mouths. She didn't even notice him sweep her up in his arms and carry her to the bed. He almost never did that. Perhaps he was afraid a CIA agent would find that highly undignified and she would get offended. However, Agent Walker was gone for the night, and only Sarah remained. And Sarah wanted him to do that much more often. Sarah felt the bed press up behind her, and she wanted nothing more to roll on top of him. She was eager to remove those annoying clothes on him and feel his body against hers. She wanted this to last as long as possible. She kissed him with an out-of-control hunger as she ripped his shirt off and tossed her robe away.

Westside Medical Center
October 23, 2009
8:15 AM

Dr. Ellie Woodcomb was making her rounds on the 8th floor. She made it a point to visit Anthony today. She was very surprised when Devon mentioned treating him in the hospital, but he didn't give her many details. She knew he was in an auto accident but that was all. Given Chuck and Sarah had nothing but positive things to say about him, she thought it would be a good idea to make sure he had everything he needed.

She knocked on his hospital room door and entered. "Good morning, Anthony."

Jimmy looked up in surprise. Thankfully, he had been up for a couple of hours. It was more than enough time to eat some of the cereal and juice left for him. He wasn't particularly hungry, but it beat arguing with some of the prison guards cleverly disguised as nurses this hospital had. It also gave him enough time to get showered and into his own clothes. Although that took him much longer than he expected, thanks to all the bandages. Still, it was better than the nurses trying to bathe him. He still had the tiniest modicum of dignity, after all. And nurses don't get paid enough to endure a naked Jimmy Slade. Even he was grossed out by the image.

"Good morning, Doc."

"How are we feeling this morning?"

"Probably better than I look. Although I admit that's not saying much."

"Uh-huh. Sarah warned me about that." Ellie gave Jimmy a look that shut him up immediately. God only knows what she could write on his chart that the nurses would inject him with.

"Anyway, yeah. I'm doing better than I was last night."

Ellie looked at the information. "Any discomfort from the stitches? If they hurt or you're having trouble with them, we can apply a topical analgesic to help."

"Oh, they're fine. Thanks for offering."

Ellie hit a button behind the bed to summon a nurse. She took Jimmy's arm and inspected it. "Well, we should change the bandages. You look like you put the bandages through hell last night."

Jimmy took a look himself. The bandages did look torn in some places. Did he do that? He wasn't sure. He didn't get a full night of sleep. The drugs Devon gave him only lasted a few hours. The rest of the night's sleep was his usual restless self. He didn't want to share this information with Ellie, however.

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe I tossed and turned last night. I do that a lot."

"Well, you're pretty lucky. I don't know what you could have done to tick that driver off."

"Me neither. I'm a pretty good driver. I'm used to traffic like that growing up in Chicago. I can't think of a thing I did that would have upset him." He decided it would be best not to elaborate further. She certainly didn't need to know what happened to that driver.

"Dr. Mendoza should be here soon to conduct your CT scan. He's a friend of Devon's, but I'm surprised Devon was able to get him. He's one of the best neurologists in the city. He's either treating the ultra-rich or high school kids who get injured on the football field and can't afford it otherwise."

Jimmy shrugged. "I don't know, Doc. I'm certainly nobody special."

"That's not what Chuck and Sarah told me. They can't say enough nice things about you."

"Ah, and they say you can't bribe people anymore." He said it with a bit of a smirk so Ellie didn't think he was being serious.

"OK, I'll check in on you after you get back from the 3rd floor."

"Thanks, Doc."

Ellie headed out of the room as the nurse entered. "Make sure he gets the VIP treatment. He's a good friend of my brother's."

"Will do, Dr. Woodcomb," the nurse replied.

Echo Park
October 23, 2009
8:15 AM

Never in their entire relationship, cover or real, did Chuck and Sarah not want to move an inch. They were exhausted from the evening…and the night…and the early morning…of being together. Sarah was half-asleep at this point, not wanting to move from lying on Chuck, their bodies still bathed in sweat from such an incredible night. She nestled her face in the crook of his neck, her hand lazily caressing his chest. Unfortunately, Chuck picked that moment to slide out of bed.

No, no don't do that. Stay here with me for a few minutes. This feels so wonderf…dammit, he got up. She watched him walk out to the kitchen.

She lay back in the bed, remembering fondly in her head the night she finally admitted to Chuck she was in love with him. The look in his eyes when she told him was something she wanted to treasure forever. She could still feel his warm embrace when they stopped pretending. The six months between then and now were the happiest of her life. Granted, the events of her life would not make that standard difficult to surpass. You couldn't know until you were out in the field just how difficult being a CIA agent was. Some of the things she had to do to protect the country, which she wouldn't have given a second thought a few years ago, made her shudder now. Writing it off to "the greater good" could only work for so long before you looked in the mirror and not recognize the face you saw. But for 11 years, since that day in the woods when she hid from the police while her father was arrested, she thought that was the only life to which she was entitled. Certainly nobody in school felt she deserved better.

What seemed like a routine mission, retrieve the files Bryce Larkin stole, ended up being the greatest thing to ever happen to her. She found out what it was like to have friends; to have people she could rely on as much as they relied on her. Most importantly, she fell in love with someone who truly loved her. That same cute, sweet guy who was probably preparing to serve her breakfast in bed right now.

She looked up when she heard him return, and her prediction was right on the money. Chuck really went all-out on this breakfast. Several varieties of fruit, fresh-squeezed orange juice, and four chocolate croissants were brought in on a tray. Even the tray didn't look like an Ikea special. She had never seen it before. It looked like one from the Williams-Sonoma catalogue. Chuck must have been saving the tray for a special occasion. Had she known he would do that, she would have given him a few more specials last night.

"Mmmmm, that looks wonderful sweetie," Sarah said as she stretched and eyed the spread on the tray. Chuck gently placed the tray on the bed and climbed in next to her. She chose a section of orange to start.

"I wish we could stay here all day, but we probably have to go in soon," Chuck replied. "The consulting office isn't safe if only Morgan is there, and we have to see Jimmy as well. We shouldn't be late."

"Oh, trust me. He'll understand," Sarah said in a sultry voice, not really wanting to leave the bedroom yet.

"That's true. He made that romantic dinner for us last Saturday night. I don't think we'll be fooling him anytime soon." Chuck took one of the chocolate croissants and held it up for Sarah, who took a bite.

"Ohhhh, this is too good." Sarah slid up to Chuck and started kissing and nibbling his neck.

"Mmmmmm, no fair. You know what that does to me."

Sarah took his earlobe in her mouth and flicked at his ear with the tip of her tongue. "That's the idea, baby." Her hand started to slide down under the sheets.

"Uhhh, tempting, tempting. I gotta get up. I should get a shower. Besides, how would it look on your report if you didn't go in today? 'Exhausted from making love all night long?' That'd go over really well with the bosses." He pulled himself out of the bed, in spite of his entire being arguing against it, and headed to the bathroom

"You know I just hate it when you're being practical," Sarah playfully pouted.

"Sorry."

Sarah sampled an apple slice and had some of the orange juice. Sorry, huh? Nobody Sarah was in love with brings her breakfast in bed and gets away with it. She headed to the bathroom. After all, she needed a shower, too. Shouldn't she try her best to conserve water? Make the planet nice and green?

Westside Medical Center
October 23, 2009
11:30 AM

Jimmy was back in his room. The tests with Dr. Mendoza went a little faster than he anticipated. He had been in the hospital twice in his life. Once was to remove his tonsils when he was 5, but he was too scared by the whole experience to remember anything. He remembered having to wait a while when he was in the hospital to get his broken arm fixed. At the time, he didn't know any better, so he gave the doctors a false name but wrote his correct insurance information on it so it took them longer before they questioned it. He snuck out of that hospital after the cast was put on to stay ahead of the authorities. Today, however, there was no waiting. Every test was ready to go. The whole process took just under an hour. No doubt Dr. Mendoza was well-known at this facility and was able to get through the red tape quickly. Of course, now Jimmy was worried about who was going to pay for all this. Did this hospital still accept HMO's?

Sarah knocked on the door and entered. "Good morning. You look a lot better than you did last night, your eyes notwithstanding."

"My eyes?"

"Oh. You haven't seen them yet?" Sarah sat down on the bed next to Jimmy. She opened her wallet to the mirror inside of it and handed it to Jimmy. He got a good look at the second black eye he now had, courtesy of Grant hitting him with a gun yesterday.

"Good God. Well, it's time we called Ralph Kramden. I'm ready for my Raccoon Lodge initiation."

"Who's Ralph Kramden?"

"Oh, God." Jimmy fell back onto the bed and watched a few more gray hairs sprout. Jimmy's voice morphed into a grandpa. "I tell ya, you young kids these days. Ya think ya know everything."

"Knock it off, gramps," Sarah said playfully, starting to crack up. "Whatever happened to '40 is the new 30'?"

"The moron who said that was probably trying to talk himself off the ledge when he turned 40. And the idiot who said '50 is the new 40' said that up in a bell tower while holding a machine gun."

"And I'm not THAT young!"

"Oh, please. I'm old enough to remember Vietnam. You probably weren't even alive when MTV still played music videos."

"I was too!" Sarah was a tiny bit hurt, but she had the same smile on her face when she first "flirted" with Jimmy. Only now the smile was authentic.

"Really? What was Joan Collins' most famous role? Name three songs off of the Thriller album. What was Madonna's first movie before everybody realized she couldn't act?"

"Oh, stop it. I'll tell Ellie to slip something into your medications to drive you crazy."

"Really? Like what, Doctor Walker?"

"Maybe she'll slip some estrogen into your meds."

"Too late; I've already seen every episode of Sex and the City."

Sarah laughed hysterically. This was the side of Jimmy she had been waiting to see. For all she knew, it might have been a side of Jimmy he didn't even know about. It didn't matter. It was here, and she wanted it to stay.

"How did the tests go?"

"Pretty quick, actually. Dr. Mendoza had them done in an hour. I thought I'd still be up there right now. I guess he has some pull in this hospital." Jimmy looked at Sarah for a moment. "Actually, I was expecting you to be here a little earlier today. At least, that's the impression you and Chuck left when you were here last night."

Sarah looked down at a spot on her shoe. "Well, we got a little busy this morning, and then traffic…" Sarah was beginning to blush, and Jimmy spotted it right away.

"Why, Miss Walker, I had no idea," Jimmy teased her with a dead-on southern accent straight out of Gone With the Wind.

She smiled. "Is it that obvious?"

"You could put Stevie Wonder in a dark room with a blindfold on, and he'd still see it."

She could barely hold Jimmy's gaze. Such a pain in the ass, he was. "Well, after everything that happened yesterday…"

"Come on. You don't need to explain anything. The man you're head over heels in love with almost gets taken from you and you get him back? A little busy? If I was in your shoes, I'd be getting REALLY busy right now. And who could blame you? Christ, I was certainly no help yesterday, yelling at you like I did." He shook his head. "I am so sorry about that. I suffer from foot-in-mouth disease when I'm stressed out. I must have been all the way to the heel yesterday."

Sarah looked at him in disbelief. "Do you actually think I'm mad at you for that? I was starting to lose my mind when I was driving towards the two of you. The van was out of control, you were hanging on for your life, and I feared the worst. Your yelling brought me back and got me focused on the task at hand. Oh, and by the way, did you forget you leaped onto an out-of-control van going 60 miles an hour for the purpose of saving my boyfriend's life? And then you decided that wasn't courageous enough, so you drove the van off of a ramp so it wouldn't hit anybody else?"

"It was a team effort yesterday. I'd be all over the 210 right now if you hadn't caught me. You saved my life so I could help you save Chuck's. And that was wonderful of you. Thank you for doing that."

Sarah looked down and smiled, a small tear coming to her eye. She wiped it away. Her voice was a bit softer. "Chuck said you would thank me today for saving your life. And all I did was move the car up. He kept saying you're a sweet and wonderful person. God love him, he was right."

Jimmy smiled at her. "Well, that's one thing we have in common. We both like Chuck." His voice gained a bit of lilt and his eyes had a look of mischief. "Although I'm guessing it's in MUCH different ways. I mean, I'm sure he's a great kisser and wonderful in bed, but I'm content just to take your word for it."

Sarah laughed and hugged him tightly. She looked at him and brushed some hair off of his face. "You know, you're a thousand times cuter when you're not making fun of yourself."

"Oh, please. Now you're just being patronizing."

"I am not! I know several women that would want to be with you right now." Sarah gently patted Jimmy's stomach. "And after the CIA gets you ready, you're going to make Brad Pitt look like he got beaten with an ugly stick."

"Yeah, and some women would say now he's living with that ugly stick."

Sarah laughed at that. She grabbed the package she carried with her to the hospital. "I brought you a little souvenir. This was dropped off at the Orange Orange this morning. It's from the NSA office in Chicago."

"For me? Why would they be sending me something?"

"I don't know. Maybe Casey has a few old friends there and they got wind of what you did for him at the hotel."

"Well, I think Chuck did most of the heavy lifting there. Wow, Casey has friends out there? That's almost as disturbing as me having friends."

Sarah put a cautionary finger in Jimmy's face. "Uh-uh. Don't start that. You have friends, and you know it. And you're never going to shake us. If you don't like it, then stop doing things friends do, like cooking them dinner, buying them drinks, and saving their lives."

"Yes, ma'am," Jimmy replied in a mockingly respectful tone. He opened the and his eyes lit up when he saw what it was. He pulled out a Chicago Bears jersey with the number 34 on it. It was in his size as well.

"Wow, now this is a gift. There's a card in here."

Jimmy opened the card. " 'Thanks for nothing, you bastard.' Gee, maybe I shouldn't read this deeply personal stuff out loud. But at least we know it was somebody who found out about Casey."

"34? That was Walter Payton, right? Was he your favorite Bear?"

"Hell, he was everybody's favorite Bear. Still is. They didn't name the Man of the Year trophy after him because of his looks. Wow, I still remember that day in 1999. I never cried before at finding out anybody had died."

Sarah was a little confused by that statement. "What about your mom and your sister?"

Jimmy looked up as if was caught doing something wrong. "Well, I did cry, yeah. But I…I don't know. I was eight. I don't know what happened. Maybe my emotions shut down on me or something. It felt like…like…I don't know."

Sarah looked at him. It was obvious Jimmy was trying to cover up. He wasn't going to fool someone who was such an expert on doing it herself. She knew so few things about his past, and what she did know did not paint a rosy picture of a perfect childhood. Jimmy didn't look like he wanted to talk about it. Sarah started to wonder if anybody ever talked to him about the things that happened in his life. She let it pass for now, but she had no intention of letting it stay that way. Jimmy came too far in the last 10 days to regress to what he used to be. She knew at least some of what he could do, and she was determined not to let that slip away.

There was a knock on the door. A tall, husky man in his 50s entered wearing a doctor's lab coat. He walked over to Jimmy.

"Jimmy, hi. I'm Dr. Joe Dolan. They sent me up here to check on you." Dr. Dolan looked at Jimmy's chart. Sarah suspiciously checked the doctor's lab coat and ID. However, they had the correct information.

"I see they have you scheduled for some cardio testing today. I can bring you downstairs to it."

Jimmy looked at Dr. Dolan and began to flash. He saw Dolan in army fatigues, an image of a dishonorable discharge document, and a picture of Dolan cutting the throat of a young soldier. Jimmy closed his eyes from the pain.

"Everything OK, Jimmy?" Dr. Dolan asked.

"Oh, it's fine. It's just a little headache." He turned towards Sarah. "The kind of headache I get from time to time."

Sarah started to get up, eyeing Dr. Dolan, and Jimmy's flash was confirmed by the outline of the gun underneath Dolan's lab coat.

"Well, you two have a lot to do. I'll see you when you get back, Jimmy." Sarah started to walk to the door but placed two fingers behind her back. Jimmy spotted it. The count went to one finger. Dr. Dolan continued to look at the chart.

Jimmy dove off the bed. Sarah spun in the air and landed a boot to the back of Dr. Dolan's head. He fell face down on the bed and tried to get up, reaching for his gun in the process. Jimmy got up quickly and gave him a smash to the back of the head, knocking him out. He retrieved the gun from Dolan while Sarah got hers out.

"Nothing good ever happens in this hospital," she said in barely-contained anger.

"Yeah, I'm not a big fan of this place, either," Jimmy replied.

"Let's go."

"I'll come back for the jersey later." Jimmy looked up. "Sorry, Sweetness."

Sarah and Jimmy went to the door. Opening it slowly, Sarah peeked out to see if anybody was outside. Nobody was waiting for them. She moved out into the hall and carefully concealed her gun. Jimmy did the same. They turned the corner towards the elevator. Two Ring agents were standing in the hall. All four people pointed their weapons.

Jimmy tried to keep his voice calm. "There's no way in hell you're taking me with you. The only option you have is to shoot me dead. And you know that won't do you one bit of good. I suggest you back off before this turns into the O.K. Corral."

A standoff like the one Sarah and Jimmy were in would be the absolute worst time for someone to wander past. Unfortunately, the person who just exited a patient's room did exactly that. One of the agents grabbed her and put a gun to her chin.

"Drop the guns or she dies," the agent said in a flat, menacing voice.

Sarah had a look of shock and horror. She quickly hid her gun. Jimmy stared with rage boiling under the surface.

"Son of a bitch," he muttered under his breath.

"Sarah? Anthony? What's going on?"

The sounds from Ellie were muffled because of the gun under her chin. The fear in her eyes, however, was unmistakable.