Author's Note: I am so sorry this chapter is getting posted so late after Chapter 2. I know I said postings would be sporadic, but I never realized that they would be this far apart. Please bear with me.
Thank you to all of those who have read this story, I do hope you are enjoying it. I want to especially thank those of you that have left reviews. I always love to hear how you feel about this story.
Anyway, enough of that, here is Chapter 3!
Some interesting information about Load Balancers.
One of the most important tools within the computing environment is load balancing. A load balancer is a device that spreads network or application traffic across multiple servers or computers. This helps take the strain – or the load – off of certain servers. This means that the servers don't get overworked, which in turn promotes application health in the long run.
- From the Pinnacle website about load balancing
An Emergency September 19
~~Previously~~
With that Sarah held out her hand to shake Chuck's hand, Chuck smiled back at the blonde not believing he would ever see her again. At the moment their hands touched, both of their eyes rolled to the back of their heads and they passed out. Luckily for Chuck that meant landing on the desk, and luckily for Sarah that meant Morgan was able to let his inner-hero shine as he grabbed her and gently started to lower her to the floor, except that her hand was still gripping Chuck's hand, causing Morgan to hold on to her not having the coordination to pull the clasped hands apart without dropping the blonde.
"Help, I need some help over here!" Morgan called. Looking at the two people who were still clasping one another's hand but both were in a dead faint!
~~Now~~
"I don't know what happened Ell! Chuck and I were just talking to a young lady who needed help with her phone, and she and Chuck shook hands and then this!"
"Yeah, the EMTs said they had strong vitals…"
"No, no, they couldn't separate their hands though… I'm not sure why though…"
"No, I couldn't fit in the ambulance…"
"Yeah, Lou picked me up and we're right behind the ambulance…"
"Geez Ellie, I don't know what to say. Is Devon on shift?"
"Good, good… so you'll both meet them there?"
"Ok, we will see you there…"
~~Elsewhere~~
"Agent, what's the situation?"
"Package was delivered and opened."
"Good, any visible issues with 2.0?"
"No."
"Hmm, ok. What about the Balancer?
"The Balancer was initiated."
"Good, any negative affects?"
"Well maybe…"
"Explain."
"Both of them are on the way to Westside Medical as we speak."
"Damn! You need to follow them and monitor the situation immediately."
"I am tailing the ambulance right now."
"Do I need to get down there?"
"Negative. Let me find out what the situation is and I will fill you in ASAP."
"OK, keep me apprised Agent."
"Understood Sir."
~~Still Elsewhere~~
The images came again, quicker and more random (if that was even possible she thought) than ever before. Then they began to slow down before…
She was back on the beach. It was the same beach that she had been visiting for the last few years – sometimes she met the mysterious faceless man with the warm eyes and sometimes she was alone with nothing but the seven palm trees standing sentry behind her. She is standing by the farthest one, her hand up on the rough tree trunk. She feels the wind blowing in from the ocean. The sky and ocean are so blue that it makes the horizon difficult to distinguish. The few white cumulus clouds appear to be lazily making their way toward land. But the only thing she sees is the back of the man. She knows without a doubt it is him.
He is sitting with his knees drawn up to his chin, and his arms clasped around his legs. While she is unable to fully recognize him, something about him reminds her of someone, someone close. She stays by the tree watching him. She gets the feeling he is nervous about something, and that if she approaches it may make the feeling intensify, so she stayed by the tree just watching him. She recognized the connection they had, and somewhere in her psyche she felt that there was something that she could do to help him, something no one else had the capability to do. As she stood there by the tree something began to happen to her, she knew that this man was close by physically in the non-dream world, she knew that her aid would be required soon and that with that realization came the desire to do anything in her power to help. Her eyes widened at this self-realization, and her mouth began to turn upwards in a smile. Yes, yes, she would move heaven and hell to help him. She stood straight and began walking toward him, approaching from his left side.
CBSWCBSWCBSW
He knew this place well. He had been here on many occasions. But this time it was different. He could feel it deep down. There was a significance to this time that had been absent in all of the previous visits, but while he knew something was going to happen he didn't know what exactly. As he sat watching the waves, he realized something – this was the first time he was here before her. The beautiful blonde woman had always been here first, but he didn't see her as he sat. This caused his anxiety to grow a little, did that mean she was gone? He hoped not. In all of his previous times here he had grown close to the woman, whoever she was. They would sometimes talk about things, small inconsequential things, deep philosophical subjects, and random thoughts that seemed to enter one of their heads. Through all of it though, he slowly realized that whoever the woman was she was his ideal. Maybe that is why the dreams left him feeling happy and sad – happy to have someone that felt so close to him, but sad that she was only a dream. He chuckled to himself – only his overactive nerd-brain would come up with the impossibly perfect woman.
CBSWCBSWCBSW
He heard the footsteps in the sand as they got nearer to where he was sitting. He didn't dare look up - his luck just couldn't be that good. Then he heard someone sit down on his left side, and in his peripheral vision he saw what could only be a woman's foot with red nail polish on the toes.
"Hey", a voice said and everything clicked. It was her.
Chuck looked up still daring not to believe this could be happening. And this time instead of the dreamlike vision of a woman's face he saw her. A mouth that was slowly curving into a smile that led to a straight nose that continued on to two of the bluest eyes. Chuck's breath caught, those startling beautiful eyes were somehow sparkling in the sunlight. It really was her.
Chuck's small tenuous grin grew slowly until it split his face and wrinkled his brow.
~~Westside Medical ER Ambulance Bay~~
"We have two patients. Both of their vitals are strong, but they appear to be in a coma or something. Also, we tried to unclasp their hands but we were unable to do so and we didn't want to break fingers or anything."
Ellie stared at the two people on hospital beds in front of her. She marveled that they had been able to get them into and out of the ambulance and onto the beds. Ellie had done her due diligence, rechecking vitals and ordering the standard lab tests. Her eyes continued to be drawn to the two hands that were tightly clasped together trying to determine what may have caused this bizarre medical… she wasn't even sure what to call it.
As she stood between the two people, one being her brother and the other a strikingly beautiful blonde woman, Ellie jumped a little when a hand grasped her shoulder.
"Whoa there Babe, I'm sorry I startled you. So what's going on with Chuck, and who is that woman he is holding hands with?"
"Morgan told me what had happened."
"I saw the little bearded man out in the waiting room hanging out with Lou – I hate to say it but I ducked in here as fast as I could so I could avoid talking with him."
"Ha! Well he was the only one there when it happened."
"So?" Devon tried hard not to laugh as his girlfriend's face once again appeared to blank out as she started to think.
"Hmm? What? Oh. Sorry, yeah, yeah… So this is what Morgan told me."
Ellie related everything that Morgan had seen and experienced from the time the beautiful woman, her name was Sarah Morgan had informed Ellie in a very dreamy voice when he had said the name, walked in to when she and Chuck had shaken hands to the faint. Of course Morgan had to go into great detail of how wonderfully beautiful Sarah was, but Ellie had stopped him from waxing too eloquent when he started comparing her eyes to a tranquil ocean cove.
"I am just not sure what is going on Devon. Both of them appear fine, besides the hand clasping – which is interesting. Morgan said they shook hands when they collapsed, but not their hands have entwined like they were a couple on a walk on the beach. And neither of the EMTs even noticed when it changed."
"Well Ellie, what are you thinking?"
"I have an EEG on its way – I can only think that there must be something neurological about this. Cause everything else appears one hundred percent healthy. I just don't understand what is going on Devon, and that scares me. Chuck is all that I have left."
Devon leaned over and pulled his girlfriend into a one-armed hug and whispered in her ear, "It'll be OK Babe, Chuck is made of strong stuff. Besides maybe he was shocked by the gorgeous woman who just wanted to shake his hand in gratitude for helping out."
Ellie just shook her head at Devon's comments knowing that he was attempting to put some humor into the stressful situation that they both found themselves in at the moment.
"Devon, honey", Ellie asked in her sweetest voice. "Can you do me a huge favor?"
Before realizing that he was being set up, Devon smiled and replied, "Anything Babe, you name it." And he flashed his winning grin at Ellie.
"Well, I feel terrible that Morgan and Lou have been sitting in the waiting room without any word. Would you go and let them know what's going on? Until I can get an EEG test done I don't have a whole lot to tell them."
"Sure thing Ellie, I will let Lou and the Bearded One know." He gave Ellie the grin again, gave a quick peck on the cheek and left to deliver what little news they had to Morgan and Lou.
~~Somewhere Else in Westside Medical~~
The orderly quietly moved to what he hoped was an unused room, and stepped inside when he saw that it was indeed void of any occupants. He pulled out a cell phone, hit a button and held it up to his ear.
"Hello Agent."
"Here is the situation. After opening the package, both the Prime and the Balancer collapsed into some kind of coma-like state."
"OK, it is probably the 2.0 resetting itself. Do you know anything else?"
"There doesn't appear to be any problems other than what I just stated. Your daughter took charge of them upon arrival. Her boyfriend just showed up a few minutes ago but has gone to inform the civilians that followed the ambulance. I did hear your daughter say that she was waiting for an EEG to test anything."
"Hmm, all right – if Ellie is able to get an EEG test done try and get a copy of the results that may be helpful to know what's going on and possibly avoid a complete reset in future iterations."
"Copy."
"Any word from the Alphabets yet?"
"General Beckman has an inkling of what is going on, and I assume CIA does too. I think it is just a matter of time before they send additional agents to find out what's going on. Unless we can move the Prime and the Balancer soon we may have to figure something out."
"Understood, I can head off any suspicion for now at least long enough for 2.0 to finish the reset. Once that happens we can determine our next steps."
"OK, how long do you think it will take?"
"Anywhere from 1 to 3 more hours – the Prime had a standard refresh six months ago, but the Balancer hasn't had a refresh in two years, Graham never let her off a mission."
"All right, I will stay close in case an Alphabet shows up."
"I'm more worried about our other problem – they can be rather indiscriminate in their violence."
"Agree, but I'm kinda itching for a little gunfight… it's been too long."
"Not in your current location and not with Intersect down like it is. I haven't seen any indication that they know something is going on though, so maybe we slipped under their radar this time."
"Only until the CIA mole gets a whiff of something…"
"Understood. OK, I will run any necessary interference on the Alphabets, please keep an eye on the Prime and the Balancer."
"You know I will Orion… with my life."
"I know you will Agent Vida, I know you will."
Author's Second Note: If you know who some of the characters are, PLEASE don't post it. I promise the next Chapter will be more focused on Chuck and Sarah. I had to get everything set up first. Thanks again for reading, and please post a review.