Chapter 8
Chuck was not very excited to see Sarah leave, but he was still in somewhat of a haze from their kiss as the doctors performed an array of tests.
The doctor finally broke him out of it as they were packing up to leave Chuck's room, "We will be back shortly to go through the results of your tests with you and your family. In the meantime try to get some sleep."
"Actually now that I am awake, I would kind of like to stay that way for a while." Chuck's response earned an understanding smile from his doctor.
The rest of his family came in to join him, and each took their turn joyously welcoming him "back to the land of the living," as Morgan put it. They spent the next hour laughing and feeling very relieved. The conversation was upbeat and lively. Casey was careful to make sure that Chuck didn't let the cat out of the bag about his night job, though he did take the opportunity to have some fun with Chuck.
"Chuck that reminds me, how did things go when you told Ellie that you broke that lamp she bought?" Casey looked from Chuck to his sister as he asked this, seeing the shocked expression on Ellie's face.
"I didn't tell her that I broke it. She assumed that Morgan broke it while playing games. You know how crazy he gets. I just never corrected her." Chuck said in a matter of fact way.
"Wait, is that what you were talking about when you hit me last week saying I needed to show more respect for you things. I thought you were talking about the bottle of perfume that I took from the bathroom." Morgan realized that he had said too much as soon as he said it.
"You took my perfume?"
"Yes, but I was distraught. Anna had just dumped me for the third time in two weeks. I thought that I was going to be alone forever, so I took it to spray the stuffed bear that I sleep with occasionally. I was going to put it back." Morgan then looked at Anna. "I even put the bear in a box in storage as soon as you took me back."
Casey smiled to himself as he leaned in to Chuck, "the next time you go on and on over some thing stupid like what sandwich you would take to a deserted island, I want you to remember this."
Chuck looked at the smiling Casey and shrugged his shoulders, "fair enough."
The upbeat feeling in the room had faded for everyone except, of course, Casey. The tension was just becoming unbearable when the door to the room opened and the doctor walked in.
"Mr. Bartowski, the results of your tests are in. Maybe we could speak alone." The doctor looked around the room remembering the earlier confrontations. "Or we can just go through the results together." Chuck nodded in reply. A serious look came across the doctor's face.
Sarah didn't remember much of her drive home. She felt as if she had floated there. She could not remember being in a better mood. The despair she had felt the day before now replaced with the excitement of knowing that her whole life could be changing in just a few hours. She had every intention of telling Chuck how she felt. She was going to ask him for the chance to make a relationship work. She couldn't help but smile to herself as she was pretty sure she knew what his response would be. It was an amazing feeling to know that the she had fallen for someone who wanted nothing more than to be with her and make her happy. She had just gotten out of the shower and gotten dressed for bed when her phone rang.
"Walker, have you talked to Washington yet?" Casey had not even said hello.
"And hello to you too Casey."
"Just answer the question!"
"No I haven't. You are kind of creeping me out. Is everything alright? Oh god, is Chuck ok?" Sarah was suddenly becoming very nervous.
"Yes…well no…he will be. I'll explain when you get here. Just get back to the hospital and don't contact Washington in the meantime."
Sarah's heart was racing with a million scenarios running through her mind. She didn't bother changing before leaving her room, though she was sure to grab her gun.
The drive back to the hospital was much different than her drive home had been. The sleek black Porsche remained well into the triple digits for a majority of the trip, screaming down the highway. The car came sliding to a stop in front of the hospital. Sarah did not even bother to shut the driver's side door before she ran into the hospital. She nearly ran over three older ladies and hurdled a man in a wheel chair on her way to the elevator.
Fortunately the doors were already open with only one man in the elevator. "Going up?" The middle age man asked in a friendly voice.
"Yes, 11th floor please." Sarah was a little out of breath as she leaned over with her hands on her knees.
The man reached over and pressed the button for both the 5th and the 11th floors. Sarah collected herself as the elevator slowly made its way up to the 5th floor. When the doors opened the man began to step out of the elevator but stopped with a confused look on his face. Oh, that's right she was on 5th before her delivery. It is hard to keep track of everything when you have a new baby. Everything is so aahh." He was shaking his head back and forth and waving his hands as he laughed. Sarah tried to be patient and just smiled. The man stepped back onto the elevator, and pressed the number for the 7th floor. "Oh wait I think it was the 8th." He went to push the button for the 8th floor when Sarah lost her patience. In a motion so quick that man had failed to even see her move, Sarah had grabbed the man's finger and bent it backwards. The man had an expression somewhere between shock and excruciating pain on his face. Sarah quickly realized that she may have over-reacted to the man pressing a few extra buttons, and released her grip on his finger. "Sorry, I am in a really big hurry," she said with a sheepish grin. The man repeatedly pressed the door open button. Once the door opened he ran away with a panicked look on his face. Sarah, feeling bad, called after him, "good luck with the new baby."
When Sarah finally reached Chuck's room she was relieved to find him still lying in his bed. "Is everything okay," Chuck asked as he looked up at Sarah as she came jogging into the room.
"I was about to ask you the same thing," throwing a very nasty look at Casey. "I was under the impression that something was wrong." Sarah realized that the room had been swept with an odd silence. "What is it? What's wrong?"
"Well…the doctor found something on the CT scan." Chuck was hesitant as he spoke. Sarah moved to his side and took his hand, giving him the encouragement he needed. "It turns out that I have an aneurysm in my brain."
"You have a what? I mean…how?" Sarah looked at Ellie as she asked the second question.
"Well Sarah, it is very unusual but he has an aneurysm near the amygdala area of his brain. It isn't clear if it was related to the effects of the drugs or not. It is an unusual area of the brain to have an aneurysm."
"Well…," Sarah was struggling to grasp the situation as she was still flying high on adrenaline from the trip to the hospital. "What is an Amygdala?"
"It is the area of the brain that decides what memories get stored. The mind is exposed to a lot through the course of the day. Most things are not important enough to be stored in your memories. The amygdala decides what is important enough." Ellie was in doctor mode so she was able to suppress her emotions and explain the situation.
"So the drugs might not have done this?" Sarah continued to have a confused look on her face.
"We have never seen anything like this. Not even in the others that have had a reaction to the drug. It may be a new side-effect of the drug, or it could be something that is specific to Chuck." Devon jumped in to help explain.
Realizing that Chuck had some very unique characteristics about his "memories," Sarah highly doubted that this was merely a new side-effect of the drug reaction. The flashes must have a hand in this.
"How serious is it, and what do we do about it?" Sarah was very concerned and it was very evident in her voice. Chuck couldn't help but notice both her concern and the use of "we." She was really acting like his girlfriend. He felt a warm feeling slowly work its way though his body, offsetting the chill that had over taken him ever since the doctor had broken the news.
"It is serious, but Chuck only has a grade two aneurysm. They are going to put a small coil that looks kind of like a spring into the blood vessel to keep it safe." Ellie's cool exterior faded just a bit as she spoke, leaving the rest of the group less than convinced that it was going to be that simple.
"So surgery?" Though her question was to Ellie Sarah had turned to look at Chuck, running her hand softly through his hair.
Ellie looked to Devon for help as her resolve was nearly gone, "not exactly, they are going to be able to put the coil in by going through the blood vessel in Chuck's leg."
"Wait, I saw something about that on tv the other day. I was flipping through the channels and it looked like some doctor was playing a video game so I stopped to check it out. Turns out they were doing some kind of procedure by remote control. It was awesome." Morgan was able to lighten the mood in the room a little.
"It is pretty awesome, and it is not that invasive. You are going to do great Chuckster." Devon lightly slapped Chuck on the leg.
When the rest of the group resumed comforting and reassuring Chuck, Casey pulled Sarah just outside of the room. "This situation makes you wonder what would happen to your brain when you constantly have incredible amounts of information forced though your memories, especially when some one has slipped you some kind of drug."
Sarah nodded in agreement. "Thanks for calling me. I wish I could have been here when they told him." Sarah was looking through the window at Chuck. She paused before turning back to Casey. "So why were you so adamant in me not contacting Washington? This seems like something they would want to know."
"I am sure they would, but you know as well as I do that Chuck's well-being is not always their top priority. They had contacted me right after you left earlier with something that required Chuck's help." When Casey noticed the perturbed look on Sarah's Face he quickly added, "They told me that they did not expect Chuck to go anywhere or do anything but they wanted his help as the intersect. They gave me some information to run past him and see what he thought. Before I got the chance the doctor gave us the results of the test." Casey seemed to struggle with his words as he continued. "I…I just don't think that it would be a good idea to go messing around with the kid's melon when we don't know if a flash could cause anymore damage."
Sarah's face was white and expressionless. Though she had already started to speculate that the flashes may have had a hand in causing the aneurysm, she had failed to think that another flash may cause a hemorrhage and possibly cost Chuck his life. She had no words to respond so she merely nodded allowing Casey to continue.
"I told Washington that Chuck was not fully awake yet and that I would contact them as soon as there was a change. I say we wait a few hours and then tell them that the kid didn't have anything to add to the info they provided."
"That sounds like a good plan." Sarah was starting to find her words.
"I thought you would go for that, but before you agree I think you ought to know what the mission is." Casey paused taking a breath allowing Sarah to jump in.
"What could be worth risking Chuck's life?"
"Fulcrum has recently converted some higher ups. These new recruits gave them some names of a few of our deep cover agents…Walker they have Bryce." Casey looked at a very shocked Sarah as he finished with a sigh.
A/N Sorry if some of this was a little heavy in medical lingo. I am not a neurosurgeon so I have no idea how likely an aneurysm like that is or if it would progress as described. Really it is just for the story and is important for future chapters, so either way I hope you like the chapter.