Don't own Chuck

Ellie was monitoring their patient in the hyperbaric oxygen therapy chamber. His vitals were improving and there was a marked increase in brain activity. It looked like Devon's hunch was paying off. It seemed they had a little time to breath so after she called home and talked with Clara she called Chuck but his phone was off so she called Sarah.

"I'm sorry for calling now if it's a bad time. I really have no idea what time it is over there but this was the first chance I had," said Ellie. "Hold up I need to put this call on speaker so I can monitor our patient. I tried to call Chuck but his phone was off and I didn't want to leave a message..."

"That's okay," said Sarah. Ellie heard what sounded like people cheering in the back ground. "Chuck is a little busy at the moment. So how is your patient? You had to extract him... hum doesn't sound like the cake walk the General promised."

"You can say that again. I don't really want to think about what happened but it was a good thing we went along or this guy wouldn't have made it," said Ellie as she heard the people around Sarah cheer. "It sounds like you're in the middle of a stadium."

"Something like that we're at the circus. We're watching a clown act right now that surprisingly isn't bad considering..." Sarah started to say considering it was Casey but she caught herself.

"I know about clowns. I've never trusted them who knows what they're thinking behind that painted face. They kind of give me the creeps."

"Me too. I'm here because two little girls wanted to come and if it weren't for them you couldn't pay me to be here. However, I can see we're going to have a problem that Pepto-Bismol will have to treat…"

"Too much cotton candy I bet but they don't sell Pepto-Bismol in France at least not since the '70s. However, you might try club soda and lime that will help with dyspepsia. You want about eight ounces of soda per lime then drink in slow sips. The carbonation in the soda will encourage burping which will relieve stomach pressure."

"Thanks I'll keep that in mind. Do they teach you that in medical school?" asked Sarah half-laughing as she watched Casey take his bow then walk off stage.

"No, that one I learned from Devon. He doesn't like to use chemicals as he calls 'pharmaceuticals' unless he has too. So when Clara ate too much ice cream that's what he gave her and it seemed to work."

"Well, there's a good reason he's called Captain Awesome. Where is he anyway? I thought he'd be there with you and the patient."

"Actually we're taking turns so one of us can get some rest. The hyperbaric chamber is a delicate thing to operate. You have to measure the atmospheric pressure inside and the level of oxygen. That's why I've got you on speaker. I don't want anything that can cause a spark anywhere near the chamber. That much oxygen and a one spark… well we'll be scooping our patient up in an ash tray afterwards." As Ellie was speaking she heard the Ringmaster announce the next act from Sarah's phone.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, Mesdames et Messieurs, Meine Damen und Herren may I draw your attention to high above the center ring. You will see the Flying Zorros and for his début under the big top Chuck…"

"Chuck! Did he just say Chuck?" said Ellie as she suddenly realized why Chuck's phone was turned off. "Chuck can't even ride a Ferris wheel he's so afraid of heights…"

"Calm down Ellie he used to be afraid of heights. When he flashes the intersect takes over and all he sees is what he has to do to finish whatever it is he's doing. I'm not tickled with this either," Sarah started to say but as she was talking the man in the chamber opened his eyes turned his head and looked at Ellie.

"Geez he's awake," said Ellie. "Just lie there and relax. You're being treated in a hospital for a stroke. If you stay still everything will be all right. Just relax and stay calm."

"No… no it won't," said the old man as he gasped and choked. "Doctor… where's the other doctor? Doesn't matter… Just he was nice to me."

"I don't understand," said Ellie. "Is there something you want to tell me?" She didn't like the readings she was getting. His blood pressure shot up and his heart was beating like a race horse. "I'm going to have to administer a sedative to help you go back to sleep. You need to rest."

"My brother did this to me… my own brother," said the old man as his voice got thinner until he was back in his medically induced coma. As suddenly as it rose his blood pressure dropped and his heart rate slowed down.

"I need to get off the phone for now just please tell me I've nothing to worry about Chuck," said Ellie. Sarah looked up and watch him walk half-way across the wire then did a hand stand which turned into a cartwheel.

"No Chuck's got everything under control but I might kill him afterwards," said Sarah. Ellie's silence said more than words. "No, there's nothing to worry about you're just being a good sister and I'm being… well his wife but everyone seems to be enjoying the routine. If it's any consolation their act is almost over."

"A little… yes please tell me this was a one night stand and he'll have his feet on the ground for the rest of your vacation before I have to go."

"I don't know if I can promise that but I certainly will try and the first thing I'm going to start with is putting an end to the flying Bartowski."

"Then I can go. Tell everyone I called and we're thinking of them," said Ellie before she hung up. Sarah looked at the phone.

"My brother did this to me… my own brother," she heard in the old man's thin voice as she played it over and over in her head. Did he really mean his brother did that to him or was that the drugs he'd been given? Whatever it was her train of thought was broken when she saw Chuck and the Zorro's finale.

"I'm going to kill him if he survives," she whispered as Emma squeezed her hand. She looked over and Bunny held her hands out to her for her to hold her.

"Come here," said Sarah. "You're never going to do that are you."

"No I want to," said Sam. "It looks like fun."

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In an interrogation bunker not too far away the General escorted Devon into a room. She switched on a light then held the door for him. Reluctantly he entered the room wondering what was going on. He walked inside and the first thing that hit him was how stark and bare the room was. In the middle of the room was a table with three chairs. One on one side and two on the other.

"Have a seat then we'll be able to get to it," said the General then she turned to talk to one of her men.

"General what's going on here and more importantly what do you have in mind," said Devon as he automatically sat down in the lone chair facing the two empty ones.

"I need your help in this but you're sitting on the wrong side of the table unless you want to be interrogated."

"That's what you want me here for? I hope you're not asking me here to participate in torturing someone because I won't. That goes against everything I believe in and the oath I took."

"I think you've got this all wrong. Torture… pain is ineffective as a means to obtain Intel. People will tell you anything to get the pain to stop and in the end they just tell you what you want to hear whether it's true or not. A good interrogator can get into the head of the detainee which is what I'm hoping you can help me do…"

"Me? Who me? I don't understand," said Devon as the General motioned for him to sit down on the other side of the table.

"Okay bring in the detainee," said the General to her Major who was standing at the door. He repeated the order waving to someone down the hallway. Devon was still puzzled and was a little shocked when two men in black escorted a man dressed in orange with a black hood over his head inside.

"I want to talk to whoever's in charge. You can't do this to me I'm an American citizen. I demand to know what's going on…"

"Dr. Merriweather? What the heck General? This man is a physician," said Devon looking startled over at Beckman. But the General just motioned for her Major to remove the man's hood.

"Geez what's going on? Where am I and who are you guys? Hey, wait a minute I know you. You're that doctor I met at that medical conference. Crap, you are a doctor, right? Not like that other doctor in the elevator."

"Yes I'm a doctor," said Devon. But as he was speaking the General opened a folder and inside Devon could see it was a dossier on Merriweather.

"You are? How can you go along with this? What kind of doctor are you? Doesn't your oath mean anything to you… do no harm."

"It's interesting you should mention that," said the General. "We'd like a little clarification about your treatment of Mr. Zorro or Mr. John Doe which was on his medical chart."

"I don't know what his last name is we just call him grandpa. He was brought into the ER after suffering from a stroke. The FBI sent men with him saying he was some sort of super witness and they posted a guard outside the door as well as restricting access. I wanted to move him where I thought he could get better care but the FBI shot me down…"

"Since when do we allow agencies to dictate the quality of the treatment we give our patients. You told me to remember our oath well what about you? Your patient was on a slow road to an early grave. I've got him in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber and now he's not only stable but he is actually improving."

"That's what I wanted to do but like I said the FBI wouldn't let me," said Merriweather. "All I could do was keep him calm and sedated…"

"It sounds like to me you gave up and turned your medical responsibilities to people you thought were the FBI," said Devon with a note of distain in his voice.

"Says the man on the side of the table next to another government agency. You can't tell me you've never been in my position."

"I'm not here to decide Doctor Woodcomb's fate," said the General bringing the interrogation back on track. "So you say agents from FBI told you what you could or couldn't do for your patient. What I want to know is how did you know they were special agents? Did they show you badges like this man did?" The General showed him photos of Jones dead.

"That's Jones… He was one of the men who showed me his badge. Is he really dead," asked Merriweather as he picked up the photo. "You killed him?"

"He fired on us first almost killing the agent with me and he would've killed me if the agent with me hadn't taken him out first even though he was wounded."

"Hold up a minute I'm getting confused. Who are you people?" said Merriweather as he held the photo up.

"You ask who I am. Well, let me clarify Doctor. I'm the person who's going to decide if you go to work tomorrow morning or wake up in a dark hole and stay in that dark hole for… Well let's just say a very long time."

"You can't do that to me. I don't know who you think you are but I know my rights," said Merriweather looking at Devon.

"Don't look at him look at me. If you look around you and see where you are right now it seems to say she can. So you need to convince her you're not in on this and help her identify the people responsible. You do that and it will go a long way in convincing her she can release you back into society."

"I don't know anything," said Merriweather but as he was speaking Devon's phone began to ring. The General frowned at him.

"It's Ellie," said Devon as he answered. "I'm kind of busy hon… What? When? … Okay what did you do? … I'll be right up."

"What's just happened?" asked Beckman. She realized something significant had just happened and she want to know what it was.

"Our patient regained consciousness for a few minutes. I need to go back to check on him," said Devon as he hung up and put away his phone.

"Please take me with you I want to see how grandpa's doing. I might not have given him the best medical care he could've had but I did care."

"General please. I'd like you to let the Doctor come with us. I'll take responsibility for him."

"Doctor Merriweather, this doesn't mean your interrogation is over."

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In the Walter Reed National Military Medical center, a dark late model sedan pulled into the patient/visitor parking garage with three men inside. They drove up to an upper deck then pulled into a dark corner away from the trafficked part of the garage to guarantee seclusion and privacy. Inside the vehicle the driver was going over the mission one last time.

"Okay you know the mission. Since our wet team failed it's up to you two to go in and take out the target. We traced the chopper's flight plan to here..."

"How can we be sure that the old man is here," said the one man as they both checked their weapons then screwing on suppressors.

"This is the closest facility with that diving chamber that fool Merriweather babbled on about. You go in take out the target then get back here and we leave. Here's a map to the area of the hospital with the hyperbaric oxygen chamber. If you get turned around look for HBOT on the hospital signs. We need you two to wrap this up in a hurry before the target opens his mouth."

"You know this isn't going to be as easy as it was getting into that other hospital. Here there's real security and the Cap'n Crunch badges you gave us won't pass the muster. If anything we won't make it past the front doors."

"Well, I would think with what we're paying you guys you can be bright lads and come up with some ingenious method," said the driver as he looked over at them.

"Ingenious you say and with what you're paying us no less. Well tell that to Jones he's going to have a hard time spending his money where he's at."

"And we're worth every dime you pay us," said the man in the back. He pointed his weapon at the driver and dry fired. "You don't want to double-cross us by leaving us here to rot. Believe me you don't want to piss us off. Come on special agent Mulder I've got an idea on how to get us in."

"Like Scully said don't double-cross us and you might want to change your pants," said Mulder as they got out of the car then walked to the elevator.

"Why do I have to be Scully anyway? I don't look anything like her," said the man as they doors to the elevator opened up and they got on.

"Names are not important and besides Scully fits because you don't look anything like her. People will look over it as being a funny quirk and go on. So what's your plan?"

"I'm not buying it. You just made it up to make fun of me like you did with Tom Jones. I guess I'm lucky you didn't come up with Black Betty for me," said Scully. His partner looked at him. "Don't get any ideas. It's easy we grab a couple of white coats from a vehicle in the staff parking garage then we go in through the E.R. We wait for an ambulance to pull in the staff inside comes out for the patient then we trail them back inside and into the hospital then we disappear in a sea of white coats."

"That's not a half bad plan. See now you know why I called you Scully because she was the brains of the team. Might I just make one small change so we don't have to wait around all day for an ambulance to show up."

"Okay thanks I think... you want to change my plan how?"

"It'll be better if I show you. Come on let's go over to the staff parking garage I'll show you there."

[A little while later in the staff parking garage]

A silver BMW Alpina B6 pulled into the garage then drove over to a numbered parking spot where the driver pulled in. The driver popped the trunk then got out talking on his phone.

"I just picked it up from the dealer and had to go for a spin. Geez, it was worth the wait. I can't wait to get this shift over with so I can swing by and pick you up. Make reservations out of town so we can get some driving in. ... Yes, yes but you play your cards right and I might even let you drive. I've got to run now."

The man hung up then opened his trunk and pulled out a white coat. He turned around and found Mulder and Scully standing behind him.

"Excuse us but we were looking for the visitor's parking garage?" said Mulder as he winked at Scully. "I guess we got turned around."

"This is for staff only so you're not even supposed to be in here. You need to take the elevator down to the ground floor then go out and you want to go over to the next building," said the doctor as he made the mistake of giving Scully his back. There was a loud crack and the doctor went down hard on the deck. Scully had pistol whipped him from behind.

"Okay hold him up," said Mulder. Scully hauled him up grunting. He was heavier than he looked. "That's fine. Sorry Doc but you're our ticket in," said Mulder as he worked him over.

"That's good enough," said Scully as he checked the doctor out. "We don't want to kill him. Now what? I suppose you want to call the police and get and ambulance here?"

"Something like that," said Mulder as he cleaned his hands on the doctor's shirt. "Inside are a couple of white coats. Let's hustle over to the E.R. and call this in to hospital security that way we're sure where the ambulance will take the good doctor. Doc, I have to admit you did get a good set of wheels too bad you won't be driving it anytime soon."

"Come on enough screwing around we've got a job to do," said Scully as they made their way over to elevator. "Personally, I don't like beating up doctors. You never know when you might need one then when you do what then?"

"Whine, whine, whine... that's all you do is whine. First it was your name now this. You know what your problem is..."

"Know? You perhaps but I'm afraid I'm about to find out.

"Funny Mr. Wise Guy but you're never happy with what you have. You need to learn to make do and smell the roses."

"As long as they aren't daises and I smelling them from six feet under. But I guess you're right we are a couple of wise guys," said Scully as they got off the elevator then headed over to the E.R. "You should go ahead and make that anonymous call before someone asks why we're hanging around the outside of the E.R."

"I'm already on it," said Mulder as he pulled out his phone.

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Up on the high wire everything was going according to plan until they came to their last piece. The routine was the same as they'd practiced before the show and the crowd below was enjoying it. There were applause and cheers then they reached their finale. Raul wanted to change the act. He wanted to do something different... something they hadn't rehearsed and to do this he called for a chair to be heaved up.

"We haven't rehearsed this," said Chuck as he looked over at Marco for support but he just shrugged his shoulders.

"You wanted to be one of us and sometimes we improvise," was all that Marco said as he helped Raul pulled up the chair.

"If you're scared you can stay here and watch," said Raul as he untied the rope from the chair. "We can do this on our own... just if anything happens... well you realize it will be more dangerous in two."

"Okay I'm in. I don't like this but I'm in but you're going to have to answer to my wife if things go wrong," said Chuck as he tried to smile as he looked down.

"Yeah I hear from Alfredo she's got quite a temper," said Raul as he glanced back at Marco then he tried the wire.

"Don't mention that you talked to Alfredo about her. If she could she'd put a knife through his face. The only thing she's told me was he got a little fresh and she made him the sad clown as well as raising his vocal range a few octaves."

"That's something I wish I could've seen," said Raul. "Okay let's do this. It's relatively easy just wait a few then follow me out."

Chuck didn't like this and he had a bad feeling.