A/N: Chapter 6 is ready. Enjoy!
Monday came and the girls were back at school, so Sarah had the day to devote her attention to Chuck, except of course whenever Gabriel needed her. She had one week to help Chuck in his recovery as much as she could before she had to return to work. Knowing she would need all the time she could get Sarah got started right away.
Breakfast was first on the schedule. After helping Chuck to his feet Sarah decided to let Chuck try to get the kitchen on his own without her help. He had been wandering around on autopilot from the start, so walking shouldn't be too big of an issue for him.
Staying close just in case he needed any help, or someone to catch him if he started to fall Sarah walked alongside Chuck as he slowly moved one foot in front of the other using an intense focus to do so. It was slow-going, but Chuck reached the table completely under his own power. He even sat down in the chair. All of that was the easy stuff though. The hard stuff wouldn't come until later.
At the table Sarah sat with Chuck just as she always did, but instead of feeding him, Sarah was going to help him to feed himself. Sarah had already cut the pancake into small pieces to make things a little easier. She helped Chuck grip and hold the fork as he tried to stab the pancake. As much as Chuck's arm was shaking he nearly pulverized the pancake as he tried to stab it with his fork. In the end he wound up creating pancake flakes as they flew off the main piece of pancake he was trying so desperately to get onto his fork.
Before he could destroy any more of the pancake or become too frustrated Sarah aided Chuck in picking up a piece of the pancake with his fork, and while she helped Chuck with his grip she left it to him to lift the fork to his mouth. With great effort and intense concentration, Chuck slowly moved his shaky arm toward his lips. His arm continued to tremble as he tried to slide the fork into his mouth. Instead he ended up knocking his teeth.
It became clear that feeding himself wasn't something that Chuck was ready for. He didn't have enough control over his body to have the coordination needed for the task. Sarah was going to have to continue to feed Chuck, but that didn't mean that he couldn't practice for when he might be able to do so on his own.
Sarah didn't take the fork from Chuck, but instead moved his arm for him in hopes of getting his body used to the movement. Maybe in time he wouldn't be dependent on her anymore for his meals. Getting him to that point was just one of the many goals she had for her husband.
After breakfast Sarah moved on to helping Chuck with his grooming. As bad as his hands and arms shook she knew shaving was out of the question, he would cut himself to ribbons. But maybe he could try showering, or taking a bath if he wasn't able to stand for very long.
Sarah soon learned that Chuck was still a bit unsteady on his feet, especially if he was just standing still. There was no way she would be able to hold him up, so Chuck wouldn't be taking showers again yet. It was going to have to be a bath. She hadn't given up on this possibility of him washing his hair though.
Normally that was something she had to do for him, but that was before he started gaining some control over his body. Sarah did put the shampoo in Chuck's hair and helped him move his arm toward the top of his head, but then she stepped back to let him try to take it from there.
It was slow and awkward and he only managed to wash one side of his hair before his arm gave out, but that was still more than he had done before. As he tried washing his hair Sarah noticed that Chuck never tried moving his left arm. His left arm still hung lifeless at his side.
She hadn't really paid much attention to it before because he was right-handed, and he hadn't really done anything that required the use of both of his hands. But now his dormant left side was weighing heavily on her mind. As Sarah helped Chuck wash the rest of his hair she kept thinking about his left arm and trying to think of ways to help his left side catch up to his right.
When lunch time came around Sarah prepared a sandwich stuffed with an abundance of all of her husband's favorite components, for the ultimate Chuck sandwich, one which he would need two hands to eat. Sarah hoped seeing a double dose of his favorite sandwich would encourage Chuck to try to move his left arm.
Sarah could practically see Chuck's mouth water as she set the plate on the table in front of him. Hopefully his taste buds would send a message to his brain to tell him to move both of his arms and pick up that delicious-looking sandwich. At first Chuck only lifted his right arm, but when he found he couldn't pick up the sandwich with one hand, not without having everything fall out, his left arm started to twitch. He really wanted that sandwich.
Chuck continued to try his absolute hardest to move his left arm, but because he hadn't moved it before it was a lot more difficult. Chuck's face turned red as he strained every muscle he could to try to move his arm. All of his effort eventually paid off and his left arm moved just a fraction of an inch, but then Sarah could see that he was starting to give up.
"Chuck," Sarah said lifting his left arm to the table. "You can't give up. You can't stop fighting. Ever. You have to keep going. You've come such a long way already. You can't quit now. So don't give up. Fight for the kids. Fight for me. Fight for yourself. For your life."
For several moments after Sarah finished her motivational speech Chuck stared into her tearful eyes. He then turned his attention back to the mouth-watering sandwich sitting in front of him. Resuming his quest Chuck worked to pick his sandwich up.
He didn't have to move far and after a bit more intense effort he was able to wrap his hands around the sandwich and lift it off the plate. Now he just had to get it to his mouth and take a bite. Unlike the pancake he had for breakfast he wouldn't have to worry about silverware smacking against his teeth. If he could get the sandwich up to his mouth, no matter how bad he was shaking he should still be able to take a bite.
Sarah provided encouragement to Chuck as he brought the succulent sandwich ever closer to his lips. Her words gave him the push he needed to get the sandwich into his mouth to taste that very first bite. Just as it looked the sandwich Sarah made for him was indeed delicious and Chuck became even more determined to eat his lunch.
Lunch took up at lot of time and before Chuck was able to finish eating Sarah had to turn her attention to Gabriel. He was hungry too and in addition to his rumbling tummy it had been far too long since he last felt the magic of his mother's loving touch.
Leaving Chuck alone at the table Sarah went into Mommy Mode and stepped away from her nursing duties. The two boys in her life were going to have to share her attention. Chuck had his time with her and now it was Gabriel's turn to have her for a while.
While Sarah was busy feeding Gabriel Chuck finished his sandwich and surprised her by getting up from the table on his own and started a slow stumbling walk toward the couch. It took him several minutes to travel the short distance, but he did it without any help. Sarah was both proud and encouraged by his accomplishment. He wasn't giving up and he was fighting to get his life back on track.
There were no more major strides that day, but Sarah was pleased with the small measure of progress he did achieve. Chuck had managed to feed himself at lunch today. He did have to dig his hands into the sandwich and nearly crushed it, in order to keep from dropping it, but he had eaten on his own. He still had trouble with silverware, but if he could get past all of the shaking he could do a lot better. Chuck had even been able to travel short distances today and go where he chose and not just wherever someone made him walk. That was enough for Sarah to consider today a success.
The afternoon and evening hours were spent with the children. Abigail came home from school wearing a paper top hat, which she had made as a part of a craft project for President's Day. Immediately upon walking through the door after being dropped off by Grandma Abigail started showing off her creation and telling her about the president who wore the hat.
"Mommy. Daddy. Look at the hat I made today at school," the kindergartner said, pointing to the paper creation on her head. "It's like Abraham Lincoln's hat. He was a president. They put his picture on money. Do you have money Mommy? I want to show you."
Sarah went to go grab her purse so that her daughter could show her a picture of the president. After returning she pulled a five dollar bill out and handed it to Abigail. After that Sarah dug around for a penny after her daughter informed her that his picture was on one of them too.
"That's him! Abigail exclaimed, pointing at the pictures of Abraham Lincoln on both pieces of currency. He's not wearing his hat though. They couldn't fit it on the pictures because he's too tall."
At her daughter's reasoning for why Lincoln wasn't wearing his top hat in his pictures on the money Sarah couldn't help but to smile and chuckle to herself. Chuck too was amused by the idea of the hat not being able 'fit on the money' and he managed the beginnings of a smile. That moment marked the first time that Chuck had been able to control his facial muscles enough to form a smile since this whole terrible ordeal had begun.
The next couple of days were basically the same as Monday had been. There were no major leaps in Chuck's recovery, but he did show minor improvements in the areas where he had shown previous progress. On Thursday afternoon however things were a little different.
Sarah was busy preparing dinner and the girls were in their room playing, even baby Gabriel was in his room sleeping, so Chuck had been left on the couch alone. When he suddenly stood up and walked out of the room his wanderings went unnoticed by the rest of the family who was preoccupied with other activities, except for Felicity, who in the last second caught a glimpse of him walking into the computer room.
Loving computers just as much as her father did the three-year-old ran after him. When she ran into the room Felicity saw her father sitting in the spinning chair, staring at his closed laptop. She knew how to fix that problem.
"I know how to do it Daddy," Felicity said as she climbed into his lap.
Once she got settled Felicity opened the laptop and turned it on. "Are we going to play Daddy?"
After the laptop booted up Chuck pointed to one of the icons on the screen. Understanding that the icon her father was pointing at was the program he wanted to open Felicity clicked on it and soon a blank word document appeared on the screen.
Chuck slowly moved his hand over the keyboard. Then using just a single finger he began typing something on the screen.
As he punched the keys and letters appeared on the screen Felicity named them, and after several letters called out to her mother. "Mommy! Mommy! Come here!"
Hearing her daughter call for her so urgently Sarah dropped everything she was doing and ran toward her.
"In here Mommy," Felicity said after Sarah checked her room and didn't find her.
Before she could ask her daughter what she was doing in her father's computer room Felicity was pointing at the screen. When she looked over at the laptop there were three words on the screen.
'i missed you'
"Did you type that Felicity?"
"No. Daddy did."
"Chuck?!" Sarah said turning away from the screen to look at him and then back to the screen again.
"Write something else Daddy."
Chuck moved his hand back over the keyboard and continued his one-finger typing. Adding onto his previous words Chuck typed the names of every member of his family, including Gabriel.
Sarah's eyes welled with tears as she said, "We missed you too Chuck."
"We missed you a lot Daddy," Felicity said laying her head against his chest and looking up at him.
When Abigail came into the room to see what was going on and asked her mother what she was making for dinner Sarah remembered the food she had left on the stove and hurried back to the kitchen before it could burn. Abigail and Felicity stayed with their father while he continued to slowly type out messages to them. Abigail read the words her little sister didn't know and after each message or question they would respond.
All too soon dinner was ready and the daddy, daughter computer conversation was over. Without his computer Chuck was silent, making it all the more obvious that Chuck still hadn't been able to speak since being rescued. His voice was still locked somewhere deep inside the prison of his body.
After the kids were put to bed that evening Sarah brought Chuck's laptop out to the living room. Sitting next to him on the couch she patiently watched the screen to see what he would type.
About a minute later Sarah had her first message.
'i love you'
"I love you too Chuck. So much."
The next message took a lot longer to type, but Sarah was finally getting to communicate with her husband, so she didn't really care.
"I know," Sarah said responding to the latest message on the screen. "In three days."
Chuck continued to talk to Sarah through the night and into the wee morning hours when they both became too exhausted to continue on. Closing the computer and setting it on the coffee table Sarah helped Chuck to his feet and after checking on Gabriel and the girls one last time they headed to bed. Once Sarah removed Chuck's shoes for him and helped him get under the covers she lay down next to him and within minutes they were both sound asleep.
The next morning Sarah awoke to find Chuck's arm loosely wrapped around her. She didn't want to move, but glancing at the clock Sarah knew she had to get up and start getting her girls ready for the school day and she also knew that Gabriel would be hungry and start crying soon. So even though she wanted to continue to lie in bed with Chuck's arm around her and get more sleep because she was still exhausted after staying up half the night, Sarah crawled out of bed to take care of her children.
Before Sarah could get her girls out of bed Gabriel started crying. Sarah couldn't go to him right away though because she needed to get her daughters up and get them dressed first or they would be late for school. While Sarah was trying to get Abigail and Felicity ready as quickly as she could she heard something clatter to the floor in her bedroom.
At the point where her girls could finish dressing themselves Sarah hurried to her bedroom to see what had happened. There she found that Chuck had slid over to her side of the bed and apparently knocked the baby monitor off the bedside table probably thinking it was an alarm clock, which wasn't completely inaccurate. The baby monitor did act like an alarm clock. Whenever Sarah heard crying come through the speaker she jumped out of bed.
Hearing Gabriel's continued cries, which were coming through the fallen monitor Sarah left the bedroom and headed for the nursery. "I'm sorry baby," Sarah said as she picked her son up. "Mommy got a late start this morning. I was trying to get your sisters ready for school before grandma comes to pick them up."
Gabriel continued to fuss even after being picked up and while Sarah talked to him. "I know you're hungry and want your milk, not to listen to Mommy tell you why I didn't come get you right away. It's okay. You can stop fussing now. I'm going to feed you."
Sarah was still feeding Gabriel when Mary showed up to take the kids to school, so she told her daughters to answer the door and let Grandma in. Mary only came in for a minute to see how everyone was doing before she loaded the girls into her car to get them to school.
When Sarah wasn't taking care of Gabriel or helping Chuck they sat discussing plans for Sunday. They had a lot to figure out and only a short time in which to do it, just a couple of hours in fact. Once the plans had been made Sarah and Gabriel had to go out for a while to see that the arrangements were made so that their plans could come to fruition.
Sunday, February 24 soon came along and everything was ready. Felicity woke up early that morning excited for the day. She immediately sought out her parents and upon finding them proudly proclaimed, "Mommy. Daddy. I'm four today," while holding up the appropriate number of fingers.
"I know sweetie," Sarah answered. "You're becoming such a big girl. Happy Birthday Felicity."
"Is there cake and presents?"
"Of course. We're going to have a little party for you, but not until this afternoon."
It was a very long morning for the now four-year-old Felicity. She was ready for her party and to eat cake and open presents. But finally it was time for all the fun to begin.
The living room and kitchen had been decorated with banners and colorful balloons. A cake featuring mini plastic pony figurines sat on the table and a shiny present with a big pink bow on top sat beside it. Seeing everything Felicity squealed in delight. Today was going to be a fun day.
Everyone gathered around the table while Sarah lit four candles. When all of the candles were lit she and Abigail started singing 'Happy Birthday.'
"Make a wish and blow out your candles," Sarah told her little birthday girl once the song was over.
Felicity closed her eyes and made the biggest wish she could think of. She then filled her little lungs with air and blew her candles out to make her special wish come true. It was her birthday, so Felicity knew that she was going to get her wish. Birthday wishes were magic.
Now it was time to eat some birthday cake. Sarah cut up slices of cake for everyone, giving Felicity the first pick. Gabriel even got a taste of cake when Sarah gathered a tiny dab of frosting on her finger and put it on his tongue. The sweet treat caused the nearly five-month-old baby's face to light up and he gave one his adorable toothless grins.
"Did that taste good baby?" Sarah asked tickling his cheek.
Sarah's amusement continued when she looked up to see Abigail, Felicity and Chuck all with cake on their faces. She didn't have to guess how the messy faces happened. Clearly the girls dug into the cake, making messes of their faces as they always did. And Chuck was still struggling with silverware. Despite the somewhat sad circumstances which led to her husband's messy face, the sight of her family sporting matching cake-covered faces was adorable.
Five minutes later after Felicity finished eating her cake she asked, "Can I open my present now?"
Looking at the frosting that covered her daughter's face and hands Sarah laughed and said, "How about we get you cleaned up first? In fact, how about we clean everyone one up?"
Sarah led the trio of messy Bartowskis to the sink and one-by-one washed the cake off their faces and hands. Once everyone was cleaned up they returned the table so that Felicity could finally open her present.
Felicity sat up on her knees and pulled her present to the edge of the table. After pulling the pretty pink bow off and putting it on her head, she started tearing at the shiny wrapping covering her birthday present. Little-by-little the gift hidden underneath was revealed. When all of the wrapping was removed Felicity found a brand new doll that had blonde hair like hers and who was wearing a pretty pink dress.
"She's so beautiful! Thank you Mommy. I love her."
Jumping down off the chair Felicity ran over to her mother and gave her a big hug. "Thank for my present Mommy," she said a second time showing her appreciation.
After thanking her mother with a hug Felicity turned her attention to her father. Wrapping her arms around her father Felicity said, "Thank you for my dolly Daddy."
Chuck slowly started to return the hug, trying to hold his daughter in his arms. Chuck's arms wrapped around Felicity more and more until he was giving her a real Daddy hug. Chuck held onto Felicity for a long while, not wanting to let her go now that he had finally been able to hug her for the first time.
When the hug ended Chuck looked into his daughter's beautiful blue eyes that looked so much like Sarah's and slowly lifted his hand toward her face. His hand shook as he gently touched her cheek.
It was then that something amazing happened.
"Hap... py... Birth... day… Fe... lic... i... ty. I... l-l-love y-y-you."
His words were slow and stilted, but the words were coming. Chuck had said his first real words and there wasn't one person in the room who wasn't crying.
A/N: I hope you all enjoyed this latest chapter.