A/N: We all hold Chuck in our hearts, but that does not equate to ownership.
A/N2: Part of the fun of writing these stories for me is to be detailed and accurate in my descriptions of what our friends are up to so as to add a tiny bit of realism to the story. In this case, though, that's more of a challenge for me. I'm not a medical professional and I don't hang around in hospitals to pick up the lingo. I don't even watch the medical shows on TV. Therefore, please forgive me any mistakes I make in describing medical conditions, technology or procedures. Some basic science and common sense can get us a long way, but if any of you out there are toxicologists you will no doubt take issue with what I will be doing here. The only thing I can promise is that it's going to be more realistic than canon. Low bar.
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Chuck was up early the next morning and spent a fruitless hour trying to get a handle on Whitney's actions before they had encountered him last night in front of O'Malley's. Whitney had been driven to the area in a late model sedan, but the license plate had been stolen and didn't match the car it was mounted on. Electronically, Chuck alerted the LAPD to watch for it, but wasn't optimistic that the alert would lead anywhere. Traffic cams also gave him only a vague outline of a man driving Whitney, but no more than that.
Meanwhile, Sarah was in touch with Agent Liam Fitzpatrick, the big redheaded agent known as "Fitz". At Graham's direction, Fitz was running the security detail on Whitney at Westside and had arrived at the hospital last night. Fitz told Sarah that Whitney was still alive, but it was touch and go and the doctors, including a certain Dr. Bartowski, were quietly pessimistic. He was breathing with the assistance of a ventilator and had slipped into a coma. There was no way he was stable enough to be moved to a CIA facility at this time.
The medical team had concluded that he had been poisoned. Rather than flush the IV catheter in Whitney's arm and reuse it, they had removed it (replacing it with one of their own) and run an analysis of the substance inside the tube, the last chemicals injected into Whitney's bloodstream in that manner.
What they found was sodium thiopental, commonly known as sodium pentothal, or, more accurately, a dangerous derivative of that drug. Whatever variety had been used on Whitney was proving toxic. In normal doses, the common version was not a dangerous drug, routinely being used as an anesthetic. Although why someone had been injecting Whitney with an anesthetic was not readily apparent to the medical team. Overnight, they had attempted hemodialysis, running Whitney's blood through a machine to scrub it clean, but that procedure had proven useless.
Upon physical examination, the doctors had also found a listening device planted on Whitney which they turned over to Fitz and his team. It proved that Whitney had been under surveillance by someone. The working assumption by the security team was that the person on the other end of the bug was looking for the Sanctuary Report. The bug's battery had died by the time it got to Fitz. As sodium pentothal was also sometimes used as a so-called truth serum, Fitz and his men were working off the assumption that he had been injected to get him to reveal the location of the Report. That was not an assumption they shared with the Whitney's doctors, who had not been made aware of the missing Report.
In addition to looking out for Whitney (and preventing him from fleeing again, had he been able to do so), Fitz's team was also looking for the Sanctuary Report themselves, which had been downloaded by Whitney into a computer chip. Unfortunately, someone in the emergency room the night before had carelessly thrown away Whitney's clothing before it could be searched. An agent was going through the emergency room trash looking for it, but as it was medical waste, that was neither a pleasant nor easy process. So far, no joy.
Chuck, Casey and Sarah spent their breakfast meeting together in Chuck's apartment working through all the information coming to them about Whitney and the missing Sanctuary Report. For the moment, it seemed that all they could do was wait until the LAPD found the car he had been driven in or he recovered from the poisoning. If he recovered from the poisoning.
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As Chuck arrived at the Buy More later that morning, Morgan approached him in a high state of excitement. "Did you fix Lou's phone? It is good?"
"And a good morning to you too, Morg," said Chuck pleasantly.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Good morning. Did you sleep well? What am I saying? You're sleeping with the hottest girl I've ever seen. Of course, you slept well...unless you didn't sleep at all. Oh, wow. But never mind about that. Did you fix Lou's phone?"
Chuck had finished the phone repair before leaving work the night before. "Yup. All fixed up."
Morgan hovered near him, "So it works? You fixed it?"
"Yeah, Morg, it's good to go. Could you do me a favor and call her? Tell her her phone is ready to be picked up?" Chuck asked, knowing that is exactly what his friend wanted to do anyway.
"That's just what I'm going to do. I'm going to call her. We had a great conversation after you left me with her yesterday...before you graduated from Stanford. Lou and I, we really clicked. You know, she gave me her number," said Morgan.
"Of course she did, buddy. You took that information down for the Nerd Herd forms ..so I could fix her phone," said Chuck, patiently but with amusement.
"Yeah, but it was more than that. I think she really wanted me to have her number, you know? I think she's into me. Did you see her hair? It looks like licorice. All night all I kept thinking about was how much I'd like to chew on it," he said.
"What the hell are you talking about?" asked Chuck, surprised.
"Oh, like you don't know. You have great hair to chew on. I'll bet Sarah's hair is great for chewing. It would be vanilla...maybe lemon."
"You'd like to chew on Lou's hair? I mean...ok...isn't that … I don't know...kind of yucky? You know, chewing on hair?"
"No, Dude."
"Are you really hungry or something?"
"No. Of course not. That's got nothing to do with it," said Morgan.
"Lou's hair isn't even black, like licorice. It's more brownish."
"Doesn't matter. It would be delicious," insisted Morgan. Smiling, Chuck just shook his head at his best friend's oddity. "I'm going to call her" said Morgan, as he rushed off to call Lou and tell her about her repaired phone.
Chuck took his place at the Nerd Herd desk and began to re-read Whitney's file.
Lou came in early, so she'd be back before the lunchtime rush at her store. She was carrying a brown paper bag as she came through the doors to the store. Morgan met her there with a huge smile and walked her over to the Nerd Herd desk, chattering a mile a minute. As they approached, though, there came the bellowing roar of Big Mike. "GRIMES."
Morgan said to Lou, "I'll be right back, Lou. You are in good hands with my buddy Chuck. I'll be right back." Morgan hurried away to attend to whatever Big Mike had on his mind.
"Hey," said Chuck with a smile. Lou gave him a little wave.
"Okay. Just give me the verdict, Chuck. I can take it," she said, as if braced for a disaster.
"You sure you want to hear?" he asked with a little smile.
"If you're teasing me, please stop. If you're not teasing me, don't lie to me," she said.
He held up her repaired phone and said, "Good as new-ish," he said.
Taking her phone back from Chuck, she said, "I don't believe you."
"You know, you can learn a lot about a person from their cell phone, by the way. For example, I noticed you listed your Nana under 'A Nana'."
Lou said, "Thank you, Chuck," and reached out to hug him. In mid hug, Sarah arrived next to him. He said, "Hi," and leaned over to give her a little kiss hello as Lou let him go.
"Hi," Sarah responded with a smile.
"Lou, I'd like you to meet my girlfriend Sarah. Sarah, this is Lou. She's your competition," said Chuck with a goofy smile.
Smiling with a raised questioning eyebrow, while shaking Lou's hand, Sarah said, "Oh?"
"Yeah, for the lunch business," said Chuck. "If you're hungry at lunchtime you can get a sandwich from Lou's Gourmet Italian Deli or a deep-fried corn dog from the Wienerlicious. Can't do both. Not the same day anyway. You'd get fat."
Sarah laughed and said, "Oh, you're that Lou. From the deli. Can you keep a secret?"
"Sure," Lou said.
"I go to your deli all the time. The roasted veggie wrap is my favorite. How do you do that with the eggplant? It's so good."
Lou grinned and said, "Ginger. That's the secret ingredient. Oh, and the olive oil...can you keep a secret too?"
"Sure," said Sarah.
"I get special olive oil from Italy. I have to have it smuggled past Customs. It's to die for," she said.
"Oh, it is so good," said Sarah. "Totally worth it."
"Why is your love for our veggie wrap secret?" asked Lou.
"Well, I can't very well hang out there in my stupid Wienerlicious outfit, now can I? Frequent the competition? I have to hide it. Like a guilty pleasure." They both laughed.
Morgan arrived back and said, "Hi, everybody. All good? Phone ok?"
"It is. Your buddy fixed it up, just like you promised he would. You guys were so helpful. So, Morgan, I brought you this." She handed him a brown paper bag.
He shook it and said, "Sandwich?"
"Yup. Turkey and muenster on grilled egg bread. I call it the Morgan."
"Oh my God. I have a sandwich named after me. I'm famous. And, I get to eat the Morgan for lunch. This is just the coolest thing ever. Thank you so much, Lou. You're the best."
"You know," said Lou to Morgan, "you should really come by the shop and try the Morgan fresh." Somehow, she made an invitation to eat a sandwich sound sexy.
"You know I will," he said. Lou smiled sweetly at Morgan. She said good-bye to Chuck and Sarah and left the Buy More.
"Oh, my God. Did you see that? She's totally into me."
Sarah said, laughing, "For once, I think you're absolutely right, Morgan. I think she likes you."
"You do? Really? Oh my God, this is great." He paused, suddenly nervous. "Cause you guys are a couple and I'm a third wheel. So ...but what do I do now? If you're right, that means I have to...I have to..."
"You have to ask her out, buddy. Ask her on a date," said Chuck.
"But I don't know how to do that. What do I say? Sarah, you have to help me. What should I say to her? What do gorgeous women find charming? You know...like a really good pick up line?"
"Just relax, Morgan. Forget pick-up lines, they never work. And anyway, she already likes you. I know everybody says it, but just be yourself.." she told him.
"No, no, no. That's a terrible idea. Have you met me? Being myself is the worst idea ever. I have to be somebody else. Anybody else. Anybody who isn't me."
"Think about it, Morg. She seems to like you...you...not anybody else. Just take a deep breath and ask her if she wants to get coffee with you sometime. Or dinner. Or a movie, or something. This is like a zen thing. The harder you try, the less well you do," said Chuck.
"Chuck is right," said Sarah. "Just relax."
"I can't face this...Double date, that's the answer. Will you guys come with me? Can we do a double date? I haven't been on a date in...well, I don't remember the last one," said Morgan.
"Well, there was that girl you hooked up with at the Star Wars convention. The one dressed like a Wookie," said Chuck.
"No. She was an actual Wookie," said Morgan seriously.
Chuck's phone rang and, seeing it was Awesome, he answered it.
"Hey, Devon. What's up?"
"Chuck, you need to come to the hospital right away. Something has happened to Ellie. The guy last night was poisoned. The poison that got to him...somehow it got to Ellie too."
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Sarah and Chuck arrived first. Casey's Crown Vic couldn't keep up with the Porsche. 'Hell,' thought Chuck, 'the way she drove just now an F-111 wouldn't have been able to keep up with her.. at least until take off.'
Chuck and Sarah ran through the hospital to Ellie's room. On the way, Chuck bumped into doctors, nurses, a janitor and several family members, but he managed to avoid hitting any patients.
Ellie was in a hospital gown and lying in the bed in a private room. Tubes came out of her arm and monitors displayed all manner of information. Devon was sitting next to her in the visitor's chair, holding her hand. She was talking, sort of babbling, with a bit of a half-smile "If everything is awesome, then it just means mediocre. But I love you so much, Devon...I love you...Chuck is here... Hi, Chuck...you need a haircut, your hair is making funny animal shapes. Flamingos...White...Pink...Tall like you...You came from work. You should tuck in your shirt, you know. Quiet...But you're a big boy now, you can figure that stuff out on your own. You're a big boy and you're with a big girl. Hi, Sarah. I love you too, girlfriend. I have diminished cortical function. You know that right? Supermodel beautiful and college professor smart. Hot dogs are bullshit. You're the one. You know that, right? The one for my brother... Porsche. You two... are the best. I know things...Things I'm not supposed to know...I know..." A nurse came into the room and Ellie said to her, "Maggie, I lied to you. I don't like your hair that way. You should cut it like you used to. You look too old." A janitor could be seen through the glass window to the corridor. He was slowly polishing the floor with a buffing machine. "Janitor...Fitzpatrick, nice man, big man, ..Oh, boy..I don't even know what it is...stop asking... Everyone is looking at me. I don't like that. Don't look at me...Where's John? Chuck, you and Sarah need John. He's so sweet. Semper Fi. Sweet. Hmmmm...Words taste like peaches." Her attention seemed to drift for a few moments. Without a lot of prior warning, she passed out as if a switch had been flipped.
"Oh, Babe," groaned Devon.
Chuck couldn't remember ever being more upset or scared. This was Ellie after all. He held Devon's arm. "Devon, is she going to be ok?"
Devon took a deep breath and spoke calmly and seriously, in a quiet voice so as not to disturb her. "I don't know, Chuck. It depends on the dosage she got. We don't even know how it happened, much less the dose. I wish we could find Whitney's clothes. I guess something he had on him poisoned her. A needle prick or something like that, something that she didn't notice. There's no other explanation. Try not to worry. They're doing everything they can for her. This is our place. The doctors and staff here would do anything for her. They consider her family."
"Are you worried?" Chuck asked him.
"Hell, yeah," said Devon, nodding seriously.
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Casey watched the family through the glass from the corridor. Goddammit.
Fitz came up next to him, "What are you doing here, Major? I heard that your team ID'ed Whitney last night, but I would have figured he was our problem now."
"Complications, Fitz." His dread for Ellie was like a heavy cold stone sitting in his guts. Casey watched through the window as Devon and Chuck tried to comfort each other with Sarah's help, and he made a decision. "Doctor Bartowski is Carmichael's sister."
Fitz looked into the room at the unconscious doctor lying on her own hospital bed and said quietly, but with feeling, "Oh, fuck."
"Yeah," said Casey.
"Then you need to know this, Major. I think Dr. Bartowski was deliberately poisoned. I think whoever is doing this is trying to use the sodium pentothal as a truth serum..."
"Idiot," said Casey.
"Yeah, I know."
"Why do you say deliberately, Fitz?" asked Casey.
"Because the ambulance that brought in Whitney never went off duty last night. It's missing, together with the two EMTs that picked up Whitney and Dr. Bartowski. LAPD is on high alert trying to find it. Cops work with the EMTs all the time. They're treating it like an attack on their own family. We figure that the sonofabitch is looking for the Sanctuary Report and dosing anyone who had contact with Whitney."
Casey was silent for a few moments and said, "That's pretty insane. The rest of the emergency room personnel..."
"Already taken care of it, Major. They are all covered. LAPD has got it. They have the local manpower. Nobody else will get poisoned by this bastard."
"Good work, Fitz," said Casey wearily.
Looking at Ellie and her family through the window Fitz said, "Shit. This really sucks."
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A/N3: Ok. If this were real life they would have the entire hospital on a lock down and everyone would be wandering around in haz mat suits with ventilators on their backs until they found the source of the poison.
A/N4: From what I've read about sodium pentothal, this is the way it really works. At low doses it makes the subject sort of babble. Their higher brain functions are impaired so they can't pre-plan or stick to lies, but that doesn't mean they are necessarily going to tell the truth or talk about what you want them to. At higher doses the subject is rendered unconscious (hence its use as an anaesthetic).
A/N5: So, it never made any sense in canon that the bad guy focused 100% on Ellie. He happened to be right, but it was totally illogical. Even if he knew that Whitney had the chip on his person when he collapsed, there was no reason to expect that he gave it to Ellie. The guy was putting all his eggs in the Ellie basket. My bad guy doesn't make that mistake.
A/N6: Hey, crazzywally. I don't know how to do the PM's from my phone either. But, if you go onto the site from your computer instead of your phone, you should be all set.