"Wow…"
Del had once again outdone himself. He'd turned a room in the north-east corner of the house in a real OR with a hospital bed surrounded by lots of machines and bright lights on top, plus a workbench with his tools in a corner.
Chase and Alec went quiet when we entered the room. I haven't seen Chase wearing green scrubs in a while, but I was more surprised to find Alec there too.
"Do you know who I am?" Alec positioned himself in front of Gabriel. Their eyes were almost at the same level.
After a momentary pause, during which I imagined him querying IMDB for a match, Gabriel nodded. "Yes."
"Then we agree I'm younger, fitter, and have better fighting skill than you do?" Alec asked.
Gabriel tilted his head, a smile curling up the corners of his lips as there was no aggression vibe coming off Alec. "We do?"
"Don't forget that." Alec patted his shoulder and retreated in a corner occupied by two chairs with a pile of magazines lying on one of them. He sat down with a magazine in his lap, lifted his feet on the other chair and ignored us completely. At least he knew how to read.
"Wash your hands with this and put some gloves on." Chase pointed at a plastic bottle waiting on the table next to a stack of latex gloves and a complete set of surgical instruments. "I don't expect to need your help, but we need to be prepared." To Gabriel, he said, "Lay on the bed. Shirt off in case I need to resuscitate you."
My heart beat a little faster at the realization of how dangerous the procedure was. Gabriel's naked torso passed unnoticed, but Del's hands were shaking when he took the shirt as if he'd been entrusted to hold the Holy Grail.
Gabriel lay down with a groan, and Chase brought a scanner close to his head. "Don't move, please."
The image of a brain with a chip implanted on the side appeared on one of the screens. Both Chase and Del studied it for several long seconds.
"I can get to it," Chase said.
"I can't work on it while it's in there." Del shook his head. "It's too close to the brain."
"I can take it out," Chase said. "I don't know if I can put it back in, but I'll know it after I open him. The question is, if the repair takes time, what do I do? Do I close him up and wake him up, or do I keep him sedated?"
"Keep me sedated," Gabriel said.
"And if it can't be fixed? Do I put it back in?" Chase asked.
"Yes," Gabriel said. "That's exactly what you'll do. And then you'll wait until I wake up regardless of how long it takes."
Chase locked eyes with me, and I nodded. It was Gabriel's call.
We watched from a few steps away while Chase set up an IV line and placed a mask on Gabriel's face. Soon the readings on the monitors showed that he was asleep. Chase picked up a scalpel. "The things I do for love…"
"Please don't quote Jaime Lannister," I said tersely, annoyed mostly because he didn't mean it.
"I thought you liked Jaime Lannister." The scalpel cut the skin, leaving a red trace behind.
I rolled my eyes at Chase's back and kept my mouth shut so I wouldn't distract him as this wasn't a good time for an argument.
"Isn't he beautiful?" Del sighed.
I would have agreed despite being constantly annoyed by his behavior, only that Del was looking at Gabriel and not at Chase.
"Arms too big," I said.
"And that face … look at that face."
"Plastic surgery."
"He did not have plastic surgery!" Del glared at me.
"Will you two shut up?" Chase asked, a hint of annoyance slipping in his calm, detached voice.
Alec chuckled in his corner.
Seconds passed. Chase opened the incision made in Gabriel's scalp and poked around with tweezers. I winced at each move, hoping he didn't go too deep.
"I've got it," Chase said some time later. He placed the chip with great care on the tray held up by Del. "Your turn now."
I moved on the other side of the bed to supervise Del's work. He handled the chip with steady hands as if he was working with his own brain.
"How long do you estimate it will take?" Chase asked. "I don't want to keep him open too long and risk an infection."
"It's a clean room," Del said, bent over his workbench.
"No, it's not," I said quietly. "Not with us in here."
Del glanced back over his shoulder. "Give me fifteen minutes, and I'll be able to make a proper estimation."
We stood around him while he worked, keeping a healthy distance so we didn't get in the way. Alec tossed the magazine down and picked up the second one from the pile.
"Two hours and twenty-three minutes," Del said.
"Sorry?" Chase asked.
"That's how much time I need to fix it. I found a faulty connector."
"Is that what caused the glitch?" I asked.
"It can be. If there's more, I haven't found it yet. I'll keep looking."
"I can wait. But try to keep it under two hours. I don't like the way the brain activity looks. It could be because the absence of the chip unsettled the brain, but it can also be that it needs the chip for some reason. It's impossible to tell at this point." Chase nodded at me to help him lower the surgeon mask from his face.
I felt clumsy with the latex gloves on and I especially didn't like the way they felt on my skin so I took them off first. Then I reached up, trying not to let my hesitation show, and pulled down his mask. I was welcomed by a grateful smile.
After checking the monitors, Chase straddled a chair, his arms resting on the back of it.
I went back to Del, who it turned out didn't need any help. His metal fingers moved with agility between parts and tools.
"I know, I know, I'm not breaking him," he said when I came too close to peer down at his work from over his shoulder.
"It," I corrected.
"It," Del murmured, lost in his work.
Two hours passed rather fast. Del worked without a break other than to let the parts cool off. I had no idea what he was doing, so I hoped at least he did. When he returned the chip to Chase, his optic eyes glowed brighter than ever. "Done."
By the time Chase finished inserting the chip, closed the incision, and added the last stitch, it had gotten dark outside.
"And we're done," Chase said and let out a deep sigh. He removed his gloves and tossed them in the trash bin. "Two hours for the anesthesia to wear off and then I guess we'll see what happens…"
"Oh, goodie…" Del clasped his hands together. "You two go and have dinner." He waved both hands at Chase and I. "We'll be fine here."
"Yeah, go," Alec said. "I'll make sure the android doesn't do anything inappropriate to his idol."
Del huffed and retreated into his corner.
I led Chase out of the room and to the kitchen. "Do you think he'll be okay?" I asked while we were chewing on hot sandwiches.
"I don't know." Chase raised a shoulder. "I did the best I could. I'm sure Del did too. It's out of our hands now."
"I feel useless," I confessed. "I couldn't do anything to help."
"You delegated responsibility. You brought us all together and made it happen. That's quite an accomplishment."
I arched an eyebrow at him. "Are you saying that just to be nice?"
"When was I ever nice to you? You keep accusing me of being mean." Chase bit on his sandwich and nodded. "You should make up your mind."
That wasn't entirely true. He was nice when he let his guard down, only that it seldom happened. I smiled recalling the New Year's Eve tear-stained kiss. "You and I need to have a serious conversation someday."
"But not tonight."
"Not tonight," I echoed.
Demetrius entered the kitchen, carrying an empty glass. "How's the hush-hush operation going?" he asked on his way to the fridge.
"So far, so good," I answered. "We're waiting for the end result."
"Good." Demetrius refilled his glass and stopped by the table to give me a quick kiss. "I'm working late tonight so no need to hurry up to bed."
Chase's fingers twitched on the table.
Two padded armchairs had been brought into the patient's room in our absence. We settled down, a little puzzled to find only one blanket. The other one covered Gabriel.
"What? You can't share?" Alec asked without raising his eyes from the papers he was studying.
So we did after Chase checked the monitors one more time.
"What are you reading there?" I asked, intrigued to see he'd abandoned the car magazines.
"Gabriel's profile," Alec said.
"Where did you get that?" I asked.
"I had the guys watch one episode each during the afternoon and take notes. At least there were only seven episodes and not eight seasons," Alec said with a side glance at Chase, who pretended not hear him.
"I'll take a look in the morning," I said and lifted my feet up on the armchair. There was plenty of space.
For now I didn't want to move from that armchair that was so close to Chase. We spoke quietly until late into the night while Alec returned to his magazines and Del plugged himself in to charge his batteries. At some point, I fell asleep, but I felt Chase getting up and checking on Gabriel several times. No change.