ST. PATRICKS MEMORIAL HOSPITAL

Greg and Ed went into the room Spike was in. They were only allowed two at a time since it was past normal visiting hours. Spike woke up to be checked out while the team was at dinner, but had gone back to sleep, Dr. Caraway said he would rouse again any minute though.

"So who should we get to replace Spike while he's out?" Greg asked, knowing their decision would have to be made before their next shift, which was fortunately a few days away.

"I don't know, but he picked a dang time to bang himself up. Right before the Olympics." Ed replied with a mirthless chuckle, then asked. "What about Kenny from team 5? His skills aren't Spike's caliber, but he can do computers and Samo can handle any bomb situation with Spike on comms."

With some question in his voice, Greg replied. "Kenny can do some good computer work but he's only been with SRU for half a year and on the lowest team. Could he handle a big jump?" Ed thought for quite moment than said, "Yea you're right we're mostly going to be doing security and patrols for the next few weeks, so geek skills aren't as much a priority as is field work."

Greg thought than suggested, "You wanna call Rolie in? He recently quit his sergeant position in Ottawa."

"Rolie is an option, everyone's worked with him before except Sam. I'm thinking Donna though, she works well with us and has team one potential." Ed responded, he always liked Donna as a co-worker and was like a mentor to her. If she was still in it when he retired, he would suggest her name for the team lead role.

Both men sat in silence for a second thinking of more options, not noticing Spike had woken up and was listening in. He jokingly chimed in, "Man I can't believe you guys are thinking of firing me, this is my first injury in forever!"

All of them laughed before Greg said, "Doctor said you're out for at least two weeks before you can come back."

"Aw come on Sarge, you only get to work head of security at the Olympics ONCE in your life." Spike, starting to sit up, rebuttled and stressed the last few words. Ed jumped right in siding with Greg, "Nope, two weeks, Doctor's orders. If you make a quick recovery than we will get you back to do some working."

Spike scrunched his face for a second while he thought, then brightened up asking, "What if I went AMA?" He was brought back to moody spirits when Greg quickly replied, "Not happening, SRU protocol will have you out for at least ten days with your injuries. Besides, the doctor says you can leave the hospital tomorrow, why go AMA." Ed quickly added in, "Unless you had plans with Winnie." Spike threw his pillow at the other two who were laughing.

The nurse came in a few minutes later to get Ed and Greg while she did another check on Spike. After he took some meds, Sam and Jules came to visit him. "What is this you didn't bring me any normal food? C'mon guys I'm starving." Spike said keeping his humorous tone, he was in a lot of pain but did not want the team to know. Sam replied in a tone of mock pride, "I've been hospitalized for weeks at a time with no outside food. You can stand one day of hospital delicacies." Jules could tell Spike was hurting, but didn't bring it up since he was keeping a happy tone. She instead stated, "The food here is actually good for hospital meals. Not normal stuff but it won't kill you."

"Oh yea how crazy would that be. Police officer survives blast only to be killed by hospital dinner." Spike joked which caused a wave of laughter. He then grew really quiet and unresponsive.

"Spike what's wrong?" Jules asked with a caring voice, she knew something more serious was on his mind. She was about to ask again when Sam put his hand on her shoulder and said, "He's in deep thought about something, don't interrupt it."

Spike didn't hear a word they said, yet only thought about an old case.

HALLIWELLL TECHNICAL COLLEGE

"Ok I'm on scene Spike." Lou said as he laid his gear bag down.

"Ok Lou you said three garbage bags? Anything rigged if they move?" Spike asked as he was working his way around the wires on the bomb.

Lou extended a mirror to look for any traps. "Ok, no visible booby traps, no wiring." He said as he breathed heavily.

"Ok good, you take those garbage bags off, take it real slow alright?" Spike stated in an encouraging tone.

One by one, Lou pulled each garbage bag away from the bomb. "Ok, got 360ยบ access to the device. It's a shaped charge, it's big man." Lou took a step to his left and heard something click. "Guys." He said in a worried tone.

"What is it?" Spike asked.

ST. PATRICK'S MEMORIAL HOSPITAL

Dr. Caraway came in after Sam called for a nurse, he had a suspicion Spike's flashback was something serious because it was long. The doctor only confirmed Sam's guess. "Yea it appears to be a flashback. It's best not to disrupt it or he may confuse the two worlds. Were you guys talking about anything before?"

"We were just joking about food and talked about his injury" Jules replied, she started to think what caused it when Sam said her thought. "Lou's death." Seeing the confusion in Dr. Caraway's face, Jules quickly explained to her about Lou and his death.

"I see, well just let it play out and have a nurse page me when he comes around so that I can examine him." She said, heading to the door.

"Ok thank you Doctor." Jules said, now being just her and Sam in the room. She could tell he was feeling empathy with Spike. Both had a best friend die, different circumstances but they both blamed themselves for it. Spike grew closer to Sam after the landmine and he helped Spike get through the pain.

"You ok, Sam?" Jules asked knowing he was feeling what Spike was.

"I'm just thinking of Matt and what life would've been like if I didn't pull the trigger so soon." Sam plainly replied, he always had nightmares of that day. They became less frequent but incidents like these caused them to haunt him a lot more.

"Well you probably would still be in special forces and would be living in another place." Jules replied trying to redirect his attention.

"Plus I wouldn't have you." He gave her a grin as they snuggled up together. Meanwhile, Spike was still in his flashback.

HALLIWELL TECHNICAL COLLEGE

"Why are you all just standing there? Let's go, I said we need a shield, we need water, ok? We're going to throw a weight transfer." Spike said in frustration as he walked towards the team with a bag in his hands.

"Spike." Lou called out with tears and sweat rolling down his face.

"Yea bud, Lou?" Spike asked as he kept on walking.

"It's gonna be ok." Lou responded in a calm and peaceful voice, knowing the decision he was about to make.

"Lou?" Spike asked again as he stopped in his tracks.

Lou picked up his foot which was on the mine, in less than a second later, the mine blew up killing him instantly.

ST. PATRICK'S MEMORIAL HOSPITAL

"It's gonna be ok." Spike simply stated as he snapped out of his flashback. "It's gonna be ok, then TELL ME WHY HE'S NOT HERE!" He shouted out, oblivious to where he was and who was around. Sam stood up and walked over to Spike as he told Jules to find a nurse.

"Hey Spike, look at me! He made the right decision, he didn't want you to die too." Sam was trying to de-escalate Spike.

"Yea well tell me that when your best friend is the one who you could've saved!" Spike kept shouting as a nurse and Dr. Caraway returned while Jules went to go see if Ed and Greg were still in the waiting room.

"Yea well you don't need to wait cause he already died! Remember what I told you? Matt was killed!" Sam's voice was starting to raise with anger at himself.

"Ok, Officer Braddock?" Dr. Caraway asked, "You need to be going now. Visiting hours are over and officer Scarlatti needs to be examined." Calming down again, Sam agreed and told Spike he would be back tomorrow.

As he was walking down the hall, he ran into the other three from the team. Worried, Ed asked, "What happened back there Samo?"

"I don't know, one minute we're talking and joking the next minute he's stone cold silent. Doctor said they needed to check him and we can't see him until tomorrow."

"Ok well it's been a rough day. Why don't we go home, rest tomorrow, and we can and check on him sometime." Greg said, knowing all four of them were worried.

"I'm game, come on soldier let's go." Jules said to Sam, wanting to keep a positive output.

Meanwhile, Spike was being checked out by a neurologist named Dr. Townsend. "Mr. Scarlatti, how often have you been having these flashbacks?"

"They started recently, I'd say about a week ago. It only happened a couple times though."

"And these occurances, were they for long periods of time?"

"I don't know, and I don't know what causes them to occur."

"Can you remember what happens and if so, what would they be?" Dr. Townsend asked.

"They're just random things from the past. To name a few: one was when I was a kid, another of a late friend. The only connection is that they were all big events in my life." Spike responded in a confused tone.

"Well I'm sure it's just some sort of midlife crisis, but if it's ok with you and Dr. Caraway, I would like to run a scan just to make sure." The doctor asked in a concerned tone.

"Thank you for your concern Dr. but I think my brain is ok." Spike replied, "Now if I could, I would like to go to my room. I'm feeling a bit tired."

AN: Sorry for taking a while. I had some family come in town for this week and was spending a lot of time with them, I will try to get the next chapter out quicker. And all of the descriptions and conversations at Halliwell technical college were pulled straight from the episode 'One Wrong Move'. I do not own any of that script.