Morgan waited patiently while Sarah and Ellie finished their breakfasts and Ellie left for her shift before enacting his plans. "So, Sarah, you ready to do this?" He asked, rummaging in his bag, and pulling out his various grooming tools. Lining up the trimmer, guards from largest to smallest, scissors, a new disposable razor, shaving cream, and a comb along with a few bottle and tubes of various products on the rolling bedside table as if he were performing surgical prep.
"Yeah, let me just go wash my hands really quick," She gave him a soft smile, "I got a little bit of cantaloupe juice on my fingers."
Morgan nodded and continued his set up, moving the rolling table over so that the table portion hovered just over where Chuck's blanket-covered legs rested. He met Ellie's eyes and gestured toward the cannula that rested between Chuck's upper lip and nose to check that it was still okay to remove it. When she gave him the affirmative nod, he lowered the clear tube until it rested on Chuck's chest.
"Thank you for doing this," Sarah returned, carrying a couple clean towels from the restroom.
"No problem, if there's one thing the Beard One knows, it's how to trip and shape facial hair," Morgan gave her a proud smile, "Oh good, you have towels, that will help from any hair falling down his collar."
It only took a moment for Morgan to instruct Sarah how to wrap the towel around Chuck's shoulders to be able to catch the beard trimmings that would fall during the process of trimming his beard. Once he was satisfied that Chuck was properly wrapped up, he began to instruct Sarah on the proper way to maintain a beard.
"I'm going to do most of the hard work getting this mess under control," He advised as Sarah watched every step of the process carefully. "All you need to do is spot checks and shaving around the beard to keep it looking neat." Sarah nodded.
"So, I take it you have a plan for his beard?" Sarah inquired.
"Yes, while you and Ellie were enjoying your breakfast, I was formulating the best way to shape and manicure my main man's beard," Morgan confirmed, "I think I came up with one of the easiest for you to maintain. What do you think about mutton chops or a porn 'stache?"
The mischievous grin he gave her made her laugh and let her relax a little bit.
"Well considering it's not 1895, nor is he a 1970's cop, I'd say he probably wouldn't appreciate you making that particular choice for his facial hair," Sarah snickered.
"Fair point, fair point," Morgan nodded, "Here's what we're really going to do here," He picked up the clippers, snapping on one of the guards, and a comb. "I'm going to give him a bit of a tight trim, that will last him a while before he'll need more than a touch up here and there. Although, I hope that he wakes up before we have to do all of this over again."
"Me too," Sarah nodded as she watched Morgan comb out his friend's beard before using the comb as a guide for the clippers as he trimmed off sections of Chuck's beard.
Once Morgan had gotten the bulk of the beard cleared away, he switched out to a smaller guard and went back over Chuck's jaw and neck, repeating the process with successively smaller guards until he was satisfied with the length.
"Now this is the tricky part," Morgan advised, removing the guard, and carefully using the bare clippers to create a defined trim along his friend's neck, careful to not accidentally nick Chuck with the blades.
Setting aside the clippers, Morgan picked up the scissors and trimmed off the stray hairs that weren't caught by the clippers as well as trimmed his friend's mustache, making sure that Sarah was paying attention as this was one of the parts of maintenance she would need to take care of until Chuck woke up to take care of it himself. "Alright," He sighed, setting the scissors down, "One last thing to do is to shave along the edge of his beard, have you ever shaved a guy's face before?" He looked up at her.
"Um, no," She shook her head.
"Then you're going to learn," Morgan stated firmly and beckoned her closer. Handing her the razor, he picked up the small can of shaving cream, gave it a shake, and squirted out a small dollop of foam into his palm. He made quick work of distributing the foam on Chuck's cheeks and neck along the edges of his beard, before patently instructing Sarah in the best way to shave a man's face. A few minutes later, he was satisfied with the work he and Sarah had done and gave his friend's girlfriend a smile.
"Good work," Morgan complimented Sarah, who had ducked into the bathroom to retrieve a wet washcloth to clean away the excess foam from Chuck's face. "The last thing we need to do is rub in a bit of beard oil balm, just to keep the hair soft and protect his skin. From now on, you'd make sure to wash his face and beard first then add the balm." He spoke as he scooped out a small portion of the balm into his hands and began to massage it into the hair along his friend's jaw and neck. "I'll leave the balm and the wash here. The scissors and comb are for him too, I took the liberty of grabbing Chuck's dopp kit from his apartment, so I'll put all of this into there for you so it's all in one place.
"Thank you, Morgan," Sarah gave the man a hug, "You're a good friend. Ellie had told me about your dad's accident, so I know coming here was hard on you."
"Yeah, well, I had to get over it sometime," Morgan shrugged, walking over to the bathroom to wash the excess balm from his hands, "Ellie was right, it wasn't nearly as bad as I was imagining it to be. I guess that's the difference between seeing your dad die from injuries sustained from an accident when you were seven, and being 28, seeing your best friend in a coma."
"Still, it took a lot of guts to come here after what happened," Sarah gave him a soft smile.
"Thanks," Morgan smiled sheepishly as he returned to his friend's bedside and gently lifted Chuck's cannula back into position just below the man's nose. As he packed up his things in his bag, he noticed his watch, and his eyes widened, "This took longer than I thought it would, I have to head out. I have a shift at the BuyMore."
"Alright," Sarah nodded, taking her seat again next to Chuck's bed, "Pedal safe."
"I will," Morgan nodded and squeezed Sarah's shoulder, "Take care of our guy."
"I will," Sarah patted his hand before turning back to Chuck as Morgan made his way out of the room and down to the bike lock up.
Sarah had sat with Chuck another few hours after Morgan left before heading back to her studio apartment at Maison 23 to take a shower and get some sleep. Just before she had gotten into the room, she'd received a call from Casey following up on his report from last night. As it had turned out, Beckman had already been one step ahead of them and, even if Chuck hadn't been shot, was going to suggest reading Ellie in so that she could at the very least help with the Intersect from a neurological standpoint.
Ellie was due to be home by 5pm and Casey reported that he'd already reached out to her to see if they could come over to talk with her. Ellie, of course, agreed and offered to make them dinner, so the plan was for Sarah and Casey to meet up at Casey's around five to figure out the best way to approach everything with Ellie before heading over to the Bartowski apartment around six for dinner and the far overdue talk.
As Sarah laid down in her bed to get some sleep, she hoped that Ellie wouldn't freak out when she found out everything that had been going on with her brother, and that what her father had told her was actually true. Her last thought before drifting off was to make sure that they hid the kitchen knives before telling Ellie anything, because she had a feeling that they were going to be poking a very angry mama bear that evening.