Chuck vs. The Courtyard Bench
Well, here's what happened in the previous chapter: Chuck recalled the moment he went and confronted Lizzie at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles. He wasn't alone. Bryce was with him and so was Detective Lau and his attorney Justin Sullivan. Lizzie's attorney, Mohammed Zamir, was there as well. All 4 individual watched and listened from a distance as Chuck confronted and confessed to the woman who not only attacked him but nearly paralyzed him. Chuck confessed that somewhere along the line that he forgot who he was and quit. However, he remembered that he was a Bartowski and instilled a Spider-Man 2 mindset to quite literally get back on his feet. It worked as he felt a twitch in his right leg. It led him to try to stand and for a brief moment he did. Unfortunately, his knees buckled and dropped to the ground. So, what happens in this chapter? Here are the who, what, where, when, why, how's? Who are the owners of kickboxing fitness center that Hannah called her Avalon? What nickname did on of the trainers go by that Hannah was talking to? Where did the topic of conversation lead to when Hannah approached Chuck, Morgan, and Bryce? When did Chuck meet with Joshua Rush? Why did Chuck have to prove himself worthy again to Hannah in order to get back into physical therapy? How did Chuck do in regard to Hannah's challenge? Read and find out! I hope you enjoyed the read and leave a comment to share your own thoughts on this particular chapters. As always, reviews are awesome.
Again, if you enjoyed reading my stories and left a comment, I truly appreciate it. Please continue to do so as it gives me the incentive to write more chapters.
I don't own Chuck.
For Me It Was Tuesday
XXX
Westside Medical Center
Outside Courtyard
Present
XXX
"What was your initial reaction when Chuck came to you to apologize for basically quitting on you," questioned Bentley, sitting across from the person being interviewed. "Canceling his physical therapy appointments."
"I didn't want to speak to him," Hannah answered, shaking her head. The look of disappointment expressed on her face recalling that particular moment in time. "He made a commitment and instead of sticking with it," A tinge of anger and disbelief was heard in the physical therapist's voice as she crossed her arms. "He called and made excuse after excuse for not being able to make it until he stopped calling altogether."
"I bet you took that personally." Bentley retorted.
"Very personally." she firmly acknowledged. Afterwards, she shrugged her shoulders. "At first when he tried to call me, I ignored them and were all sent straight to voicemail." she further shared.
A faint smile was expressed by Bentley after she heard that. A few seconds later, she furrowed her eyebrows and resumed speaking. "I take it he ended up coming to speak to you in person. Correct?"
In response, Hannah nodded. "It got annoying with the endless calls. I finally agreed to meet up with him because the calls were driving me crazy."
At that point, Bentley didn't waste any time in continuing to investigate as a veteran journalist.
"So, you talked with him at the hospital?" Hannah shook her head. Bentley did waste any time and pressed on with her line of questioning. "Chuck stopped by your house. If so, did Sarah know about this?"
Hannah cracked an amused grin. In her mind, Bentley was possibly trying to insinuate that there wasn't any trust between Chuck and Sarah. How there was a personal relationship before he ever met his now wife. That and the award-winning documentarian was mainly throwing out the bait by creating some much-needed drama for her show. Of course, Hannah was smart enough to not bite at all.
"I told him to meet me at a play of my choosing," Hannah shared. "A place I considered my version of Chuck's Avalon." she firmly noted.
"Avalon?" repeated Bentley, in a questioning manner.
"It's a place where I go to think and unwind," replied Hannah. "But most of all relieve stress." she freely revealed.
A look of curiosity was expressed on Bentley's face. "And where would that be?"
XXX
9Round Kickboxing Fitness
Thursday Afternoon
Los, Angeles, CA
Hannah Lang truly enjoyed coming to 9Round Kickboxing Fitness. It was a place where she gradually felt at home as she was able to learn from professional trainers who helped and guided her through 9 different rounds of 30-minute, full-body circuit training workouts. When she first initially arrived there, she didn't know anyone but that significantly changed as time passed on. During her time at 9Round, she was able to become friends with the people who were at first complete strangers but eventually formed a long lasting, family-like bond. Of course, she was truly thankful for Chuck who basically planted the seed to change zip codes moving from her hometown of Smallville, Kansas to the City of Angels otherwise known as Los Angeles California. Essentially, it was a chance meeting between the two of them on an airplane headed to Paris, France that ended up changing their lives for the better. Although a relationship of the romantic kid was never really in the cards, the bond that was primarily plutonic formed between the two of them remained and continued to stay strong.
In any case, a very sweaty Hannah was locked in and focused on Round 5 where she was in the middle of kickboxing a heavy bag. More specifically, she was doing side leg kicks. Her side leg kicks vastly improved from how she started off relatively weak in the beginning to how she was able to gain a tremendous amount of strength not only behind her side leg kicks but spinning back kicks as well. It was something she prided herself on, especially when her kicks made a specific sound after each impact on the heavy bag itself. In any case, the focus she had in her workout was suddenly interrupted by the sound of someone's voice getting her attention.
"Hey Chun-Li."
A look of absolute annoyance was expressed on Hannah's face after suddenly stopping her side leg kick mid stride that was about to strike the heavy bag. Fortunately, the annoyance she was experiencing was brief when she found out who was getting her attention. Afterwards, the expression on her face softened as she reached up and wiped away the sweat off her forehead with the back of her boxing glove. It wasn't long before she cracked a slight grin towards the individual in question.
"Karl," she responded, considerably out of breath from her workout.
The individual in question that Hannah acknowledged was Karl Sneijder. He was the co-manager of 9Round Kickboxing Fitness while his brother, Wesley, was the franchise owner/manager. When it came to Karl, he exuded the stereotypical tall, blonde haired, blue-eyed California guy with good looks who was tremendously fit. A guy, according to Sarah, sort of resembled one of her favorite characters from the CW series Smallville that lasted for ten years, Oliver Queen. Of course, he offered to show Hannah around since she was practically the new girl in town. However, a dating relationship never really happened between the two of them because of a few reasons.
One of those reasons was she wasn't really looking to date, especially after getting out of a serious relationship. Also, the fact she was trying to figure things out with Chuck at the time. Plus, she had a talk with Karl's older brother Wesley beforehand and felt the need to be very protective and watch out for her as if she was his younger sister. Speaking of Wesley, he was the more focused of the Sneijder brothers and ran the business side of things while Karl helped members with their fitness training. One of the most distinguishable aspects about Wesley was that he sported a seemingly well-manicured goatee.
"You've got some visitors." Karl responded. "One of them is named Clark."
Karl pointed over his right shoulder with his right thumb in the direction of the front desk area. Afterwards, Hannah leaned over and took a step over to her left to see who the visitors in question were. Who she saw was Chuck sitting in his wheelchair with Morgan and Bryce standing on either side of him. All 3 men were expressing looks of disbelief because they probably witnessed her doing a number on the heavy bag. A few seconds later, she noticed out of her peripheral vision someone approaching them. That someone was Wesley. While she stood there for a moment watching the interaction, she suddenly saw Morgan attempting to show a couple of sidekicks of his own to Bryce, Chuck, and Wesley. Unfortunately, he quickly stopped because it looked as if he had hurt himself. That warranted a soft chuckle on her part. It wasn't long before her attention on the trio returned to Karl.
"Chuck."
"What?"
"His name is Chuck," corrected Hannah. "Not Clark." she firmly uttered.
Karl shrugged his shoulders. "He looks like a boy scout compared to the other guy." he stated, shaking his head.
"Which one?
"The one that isn't bent over and," Karl retorted, briefly glancing behind him. "Doesn't look like he just pulled his groin." he mused. "If the other guy had a nickname, it would be…"
Hannah chimed in. "Emerald Archer."
"What," responded Karl, shaking his head. "No. That's my nickname." He leaned forward a bit towards Hannah and expressed a smirk. "Do you want to know how I got it?" he added, pulling back an invisible bow and arrow.
"Not really," answered Hannah, shaking her head. "Besides, you've told me hundreds of times before."
Instead of getting all bent out of shape with Hannah's response, Karl shrugged his shoulders and brushed it off. "Anyways, he said you know him."
"Yeah," breathed out Hannah. She took a moment and removed her left kickboxing glove by tearing away the Velcro with her teeth. Once she did, Hannah resumed speaking. "I do. Is the cool down room open?"
Karl nodded. "Always." Hannah didn't say anything after that. Instead, she removed the remaining kickboxing glove that was on her right hand. That led to the so-called Emerald Archer speaking up in a sarcastic way. "You're welcome."
Once again, Hannah didn't respond. Fortunately, Karl didn't take it personally or dwell on it for that matter. Why? He noticed a really attractive woman who needed assistance and headed over to her. As for Hannah, she stood there momentarily before she made her way over to the main front desk area.
XXX
***
9Round Kickboxing Fitness
Main Front Desk Area
Los, Angeles, CA
As Hannah approached the main front desk area of 9Round, Wesley was apparently on the tail end of sharing an embarrassing story about her with Chuck, Morgan, and Bryce. From what she was able to hear, it was about accidentally kneeing her trainer Lex in the family jewels when they sparred with pads, which was right around the start of her kickboxing fitness training. The number of times she profusely apologized to Lex out of pure embarrassment because he wanted to be more aggressive, and he certainly got what he wanted; she thought to herself. Her aggression became the reason why Lex jokingly shared with everybody that the reason he was bald was because of her.
Thinking back, she was so timid and unsure of herself. However, she gradually changed over the course of her kickboxing fitness training all thanks to one of the trainers who still worked there named Lex. He helped her not only gain a tremendous amount of self-confidence and inner strength but was instrumental in helping her pass on what she had learned in her own unique way as a physical therapist.
"And there was a hunched over Lex, kneeling before Chun-Li in pain." Wesley caught Hannah in his peripheral and pointed over to her. "Her standing over him."
"In my defense, Lex was making fun of me because my kicks looked like they were from the street fighter video game. It's how I ended up with the nickname Chun-Li." she revealed.
"Awesome," responded Morgan. "The live action movie version was so bad it was good, especially with all that was going on behind the scenes." he shared. "That and Van Damme." he added, reaching up and tapping his nose a couple times. It warranted some stifled laughter amongst the group.
"Don't forget," Bryce chimed in. "It also gave Raul Julia, who played M. Bison, a chance to star in his final movie before he died."
Chuck nodded. "He was battling stomach cancer while they filmed the movie. It makes you think that despite all the pain he was in, it was going to be worth it knowing the sole reason he did it was because his kids loved the games." It was that particular thought of how the late actor didn't let stomach cancer stop him from proudly accomplishing what he set out to do, which deeply resonated with him.
After Chuck shared that piece of information, Morgan momentarily lowered his head and reached up to hit his chest a couple times. It wasn't long before Chuck's bearded best friend looked up and pointed to the heavens. "R.I.P."
"For me it was Tuesday." softly breathed out Chuck.
At that point, Wesley leaned over to Hannah. "What's going on?" he whispered.
"I've learned it's best not to ask when it comes to them nerding out." she whispered back. "Just let it play out."
Instead of responding to what Hannah shared, Wesley simply nodded his head and continued listening to the conversation that was going on.
"You know, it makes me want to dust off the old Sega Genesis and go tournament style like we used to back in the day." Morgan uttered, glancing over Chuck. There was a moment of shared nostalgia with the childhood best friends as they briefly reminisced about their childhood. Afterwards, the bearded best friend of Chuck Bartowski pointed over to Hannah. "And I can actually see you as one of my favorite street fighter characters."
"What about the 90's movie version of Street Fighter?" questioned Chuck, expressing his trademark toothy smile.
"Oh yeah," Bryce breathed out. Afterwards, he flashed his charming smile. "Ming-Na Wen's version of Chun-Li. Add Kylie Minogue as Cammy…" The Olympian stopped and reached up with his right hand to give a chef's kiss when it came casting those two female characters for the movie.
At that moment, the trio of nerds stood there thinking about the two females who played the title characters of a widely popular street fighter game turned movie. Unfortunately, the moment all 3 guys were having was begrudgingly interrupted by Hannah.
"I hate to break up this Fast Times At Ridgemont High moment you three are having," she uttered, oozing with sarcasm. Her attention on all 3, was focused on one particular man. "You wanted to talk, Chuck?" Chuck nodded. "Fine. Let's go." she added, staring at him.
Hannah turned around and started walking down the middle of the room. All 4 men were watching her when it suddenly dawned on Chuck that he should be going with her. The youngest Bartowski rolled himself forward following her when he abruptly stopped. Why? The reason was Hannah.
"Hey Wes!"
Wesley responded. "What's up?"
"When are you going to pay up on the bet you lost?" A sly smirk on her lips. "My backyard isn't going to cut itself."
In response, Wesley rolled his eyes in amusement. "Who do I look like," He briefly threw up his hands in the air. "The lawnmower man?"
Morgan's eyes widened a bit after that. Why? For some reason, he had a feeling he somehow knew Wesley. Unfortunately, he didn't know how or why. That's when he finally realized why he seemingly looked so familiar. He slowly turned to look at the 9Round owner for a brief moment before he leaned over and whispered to Bryce. "Dude, is it me or does Wes look a little like Jeff Fahey? Lawnmower man, Jeff Fahey."
Bryce faintly scoffed at Morgan's observation. A few seconds later, he turned his head to check for himself out of curiosity. When he did, he squinted and titled his head a bit. It took a second or two before he acknowledged his bearded counterpart with a nod.
XXX
Westside Medical Center
Outside Courtyard
Present
"Hold on," interjected Bentley, rubbing her forehead. A seemingly pained expression on her face. Afterwards, she leaned forward and looked directly at the person who she was focusing on. It was Morgan. He was seated next to Chuck with Bryce who was sitting next to the tall, lanky nerd. "How is any of that relevant for this interview?"
Morgan had a deer in headlights look. He had that same expression before when he abruptly left the interview because of the death glare that was directed towards. He didn't know what to do or say then and still doesn't now. It was at that very moment, he quickly turned to Chuck and Morgan for any help whatsoever. Fortunately, they had his back instead of hanging him out to dry.
"You just had to be there," responded Chuck. "Wes did look a little like Jeff Fahey from the movie Lawnmower man."
"Plus," Bryce chimed in. "People have come up to him all the time thinking he's Jeff Fahey. He's done other movies too. Darkman, Machete…" He paused, doing his best to recall the movies the actor was in. "I think he was in a Psycho movie but I'm not sure."
"Wyatt Earp," blurted out, the nerdy business owner adding to the list.
A few seconds later, Morgan suddenly jumped up from his chair with his phone in hand. "He was also in the movie Silverado! It was an 80's western that also starred Kevin Costner, Danny Glover, and Kevin Kline and Scott Glenn."
"That was an awesome movie." Bryce uttered. "Jeff Goldbloom was in it too. Man," He briefly shook his head. "It's been years since I watched it."
"We should do a western marathon," Chuck eagerly suggested. "Tombstone is definitely making it on the list."
By that point, Bentley lost control of the interview. As much as she wanted to step in, she ended up just tossing her notecards aside and slumped back in her interview chair expressing annoyed defeat. It wasn't long before she turned to and signaled the camera operator to just go to cut.
XXX
***
Westside Medical Center
Outside Courtyard
Present
"I heard the boys were giving you some trouble," Hannah mused. She did her best in sounding sympathetic after hearing what she went through with all three men. "Once they start nerding out, it's hard for them to stop."
Bentley rolled eyes and sounded off a frustrated sigh. "It was like wrangling a bunch of hyperactive 4-year-olds." she recalled, shaking her head. "At least I know my interview with you won't turn out crazy as theirs did."
"I'll make it easy for you." smiled Hannah, with reassurance. In her mind, Bentley wasn't really prepared or ill equipped for that matter in handling the sheer chaotic and disruptive magnitude of how nerds get worked up when they're together. A lesson learned for the award-winning documentarian, Hannah thought to herself.
"That would be greatly appreciated." responded Bentley, sounding very thankful. Before she started her interview, she took a deep breath and held it for a moment. Afterwards, she slowly exhaled in a calm, soothing way as if she was releasing all the pent-up emotion experienced from the chaotic last moments of her previous interview with Chuck, Morgan, and Bryce. Once she got in the right frame of mind and body, she directed her attention to Hannah. "So, Chuck was finally able to talk to you after ignoring your calls. What was the conversation between the two of you like?"
"As I recall," responded Hannah. She thought back to that particular moment between the two of them. In her mind, it was a confrontation she considered long overdue. "It didn't start off very pleasantly. I…"
XXX
9Round Kickboxing Fitness
Cool Down Room
Los, Angeles, CA
"What you did was absolutely bullshit, Chuck" she angrily stated. A towel hanging around her neck that she got before entering the cool down room.
Speaking of the cool down room of 9 Rounds, it was where members took breaks, if needed, from their kickboxing fitness workout. Nothing fancy. A well air-conditioned room with chairs, one rectangular length table and a mini fridge stocked full of bottled water. Plus, one of the advantages of being in that room was it didn't have any windows, which gave anyone inside a considerable amount of privacy.
"I'm sorry. I know you're mad," Chuck responded. The sound of absolute painful regret in his voice. While sitting there in his wheelchair by the rectangular end of the cool down table, he had both hands pressed together as a way of apologizing. "You have every right to be with me."
Hannah was facing the other way. She stood in front of the mini fridge and was drinking a bottle of water she took out from the mini fridge. It was quite refreshing, evident by the way she was taking her time in savoring it until she stopped drinking. The bottle was half full when she stopped. Afterwards, she used the right end of the towel that was hanging around her neck and wiped her face. It wasn't long before she finally turned around, faced Chuck, and responded to what he said to her while she was drinking her bottle of water.
"Mad? No," Hannah shook her head. "I'm not mad at you. I'm not even disappointed." She took a step to her left and started walking up towards the far end of the rectangular table. While doing so, she took a few more sips of her bottled water before she turned around. Afterwards, she placed her now empty water down on the table and looked at Chuck down at the other end from where she was standing. "What have you been up to if you haven't been going to physical therapy?"
Hannah fully expected Chuck to respond openly and honestly with her. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case.
"All I can say to you is," Chuck momentarily broke eye contact with Hannah before he looked back up at her. "I'm sorry." he softly uttered.
Although Chuck's apology sounded genuinely heartfelt to Hannah, she felt she needed more than just an apology. "That's not good enough, Chuck," Hannah responded. "You basically ghosted me and didn't have the decency to call or text. It's hard for me to say this because of how long we've known each other but," She paused knowing how difficult her next words were going to be for her to say. "I've actually lost respect for you after you just no showed your last appointment," There was a momentary pause before she resumed speaking. "Again."
XXX
Westside Medical Center
Outside Courtyard
Present
"She lost respect for me." uttered Chuck, thinking back on it in disbelief.
"What she said," Bentley leaned forward, looking directly at Chuck. This time, she was interviewing by himself. "How did it make you feel?" she asked.
"Not so awesome." responded Chuck, shaking his head.
When he heard that Hannah lost respect for him it had such an incredibly significant impact. An impact that felt like a total gut punch. In his mind, if Hannah somehow had the ability to use a Sega controller to control Chun Li in the real world, she would have done the lightning kick attack repeatedly and just targeted his gut with no mercy whatsoever. An attack so relentlessly savage that he wouldn't know what day of the week it was, he thought to himself. Ironically, that last call he made to reschedule his physical therapy appointment was on a Tuesday before he ended up not showing up at all.
What made Hannah's lightning kick gut punch even more painful was the reason why he remembered it was Tuesday. It was because he was playing video games with Joshua Rush, which was a tradition between the two of them. However, what was different about their video game tradition was they usually played together on Wednesday or what was referred to as their "Hump Day Hang Out". Unfortunately, since the attack they weren't able to play until he surprised the young man when he unexpectedly showed up. Of course, they had an absolute blast playing together.
In any case, as much as he wanted to confess to Hannah in that room what he was really doing, he decided not to. The reason was because he knew he would never live it down knowing that he was acting selfishly because wanted a sense of normalcy from all the insanity. Ultimately, he made the decision to not only face the consequences of his actions but deal with it like a man as well.
"I knew I had to prove to Hannah that he was going to be fully committed to physical therapy," he stated.
"How and in what way?" questioned Bentley.
XXX
9Round Kickboxing Fitness
Cool Down Room
Los, Angeles, CA
"What's it going to take for me to win back my respect with you?" asked Chuck. He looked directly at Hannah standing on the other end of the rectangular cool down room table. Afterwards, he pushed himself in his wheelchair and made his way towards her. He stopped when he was about 2 feet away from her. "I promise you I won't quit." Hannah continued standing there not saying a word. Undaunted, Chuck pressed on in trying to convince her he was going to make it right with her no matter what. "I'll do anything," he further pleaded.
Chuck sat there waiting for a response from her. In his mind, he knew when it came to the word "anything" it opened Pandora's box of endless possibilities in regard to what sort of punishment he would have to go through. Also, whether the punishment in question involved embarrassing himself in public was most likely to happen. He took that into serious consideration as well. His thoughts concerning what was going to have to do in order to gain back the respect he once had with Hannah were suddenly broken when he saw a faint smile expressed on her face. At that moment Chuck realized whatever she had planned for him was something that he was not going to like but at the same time he truly deserved.
XXX
***
9Round Kickboxing Fitness
Main Fitness Area
Los, Angeles, CA
Chuck was dead set on gaining Hannah's by any means necessary. True, after finding out what she had planned for him, Morgan and Bryce made sure Chuck really wanted to go through it. For one thing, he wasn't properly dressed. Of course, whenever the nerdy business firmly set his mind on something, he was going to see it through to the end or die trying. The latter part of his mindset was coming to fruition as Hannah's plan for him was more of trying to see if Chuck was able to survive the workout routine. A workout routine that was best suited specifically for him since he was in a wheelchair. Fortunately, there were several members of 9Round who were in wheelchairs and despite being hindered in being able to physically stand, they've successfully achieved an alternative workout experience.
In any case, for the last hour Hannah had Chuck doing a number of exercises with a 30-pound dual grip medicine ball with the 9Round logo on it. The exercises that Chuck started with were 2 sets of 50 each of right and left side bends along with sets of 50 side tosses. Afterwards, she had him go right into 2 sets of 50 each of Halos. Once those exercises were finished, she had the nerdy business owner doing 2 sets each of 50 chest presses to overheads and 2 sets each of 50 clockwise, as well as counterclockwise circles. Unfortunately, there weren't any rest periods in between the exercises, which Hannah purposefully didn't give. However, Chuck wasn't going to stop and as much as he was feeling the burning sensation over his entire upper body, he wasn't going to let Hannah win knowing what was at stake. Fortunately, after doing 2 sets each of 50 overhead triceps extensions and 2 sets each of Figure 8's, a much-needed break was finally given to him. Afterwards, Hannah stepped forward and kneeled down next to Chuck.
"That was just the warmup," smirked Hannah. She was holding a towel in her right hand and a bottle of water in her left. "There's more to come after that." she added, waiting in anticipation for Chuck's response.
"Seriously!?" Chuck breathed out, slumping back in his wheelchair. He was sweating heavily through the white t-shirt, which was underneath the button-down shirt that he removed to do the workout.
"You can quit any time." she suggested, Hannah offering him a way out.
The nerdy business owner didn't respond right away. He was breathing heavily and trying not to actually die, especially in front of the crowd of 9Round members. They ended up gathering to watch him "suffer" at the diabolical hands of a fellow member. Instead of responding verbally, Chuck shook his head refusing to give up. In that instance, Hannah gave an impressive nod. A few seconds later, Hannah handed him a bottle of water and the towel before she spoke up again.
"We'll go again in 10 minutes, Bartowski." she announced, sounding devilishly eager.
A tired and clearly out of breath Chuck watched as Hannah stood straight up. Afterwards, she walked off towards Wesley who was standing next to his brother Karl. His attention on Hannah was suddenly broken when he saw Bryce and Morgan in his field of vision.
"How are you doing dude?" wondered Morgan. He reached down, took the towel that was given to Chuck by Hannah and started fanning him with it.
"Cut me, Morg." Chuck uttered, breathing out heavily.
After Chuck uttered those 3 words, Morgan and Bryce immediately looked at each other. At that point, Bryce reached over and took the bottled water that Chuck was holding in his left hand. It wasn't long before Bryce opened the bottle of water. Afterwards, the Olympian reached up with his left hand and tilted his head back a bit to help him drink it. For both men, they were acting like his corner men as Chuck was in the middle of a very brutal boxing match going toe to toe with Hannah or in this particular the female version of Ivan Drago. However, the only difference is Hannah was far shorter than Drago but considerably cuter than the Russian brute.
"Hey Rocky Balboa," Bryce paused and stared at his former roommate from Stanford. It took a second, but he was able to get Chuck's attention. One of the things he knew about Chuck Bartowski was the strength in his resiliency and to never underestimate him. In his mind, it's considered a strength for him but at the same time a weakness as well. As much as he wanted to throw in the towel for him for his own sake before ending up "dying" in somewhat similar fashion to Apollo Creed at the hands of Ivan Drago, Bryce chose to do something else instead. "Listen and repeat after me," He made sure he locked his eyes with Chuck. "No pain."
"No pain," he softly repeated back.
"No pain," Bryce uttered again. This time it was a bit more pronounced and louder as he poured what remained of the bottled water over Chuck's head.
"No pain!" Chuck hollered, blowing out the water running down his face.
One more time, buddy," Morgan chimed in, with supportive encouragement. "No pain!"
"NO PAIN!" he loudly screamed. At that point, Chuck was absolutely fired up. That led the crowd of 9Round members who were gathered around watching was going on to get fired up as well. They even started repeatedly chanting Chuck's name.
XXX
Westside Medical Center
Outside Courtyard
Present
"I was impressed that you wanted to keep going," Hannah recalled, sitting next to Chuck. "You really weren't giving up until you gained my respect back." she further added, recalling how impressed she was.
Chuck shrugged his shoulders. "Hey, what can I say? I'm a glutton for punishment." He and Hannah shared a laugh together before Chuck spoke up again. "I did tell her about the twitch in my right leg that I experienced." he shared, turning his attention to Bentley. "That became my focused incentive. To feel that twitch again."
Hannah nodded. "It was certainly a good sign. Although it didn't exactly turn out the way he wanted it to go, it was quite literally a positive step in the right direction." she noted.
"If I may ask," chimed in Bentley. She looked back and forth at both individuals who were sitting across from her. "How far did Chuck push himself?"
Hannah smiled in amusement and answered Bentley's question. "He took it far beyond what he was capable of doing. He shocked and surprised me."
"I shocked and surprised myself," Chuck shook his head in disbelief. "I felt completely exhausted and numb after my workout. The next day I was in so much pain that I couldn't lift my arms or move my entire upper body." he shared, thinking back on that moment. "It was all worth it though." He expressed an amused chuckle afterwards. "I was so sweaty afterwards that Morgan and Bryce suggested they were going to get me washed up by sending me through a car wash to get rid of the stink."
All 3 individuals shared a laugh after what Chuck shared. After the laughter subsided between all three of them, it was Hannah who spoke up.
"Anyways, Chuck filled me in on what he was planning," revealed Hannah. "And the rest was history." she added. "I'm so glad I took part in it."
Chuck nodded. "Everybody who I told was glad they did except one person." There was a momentary pause before the youngest Bartowski sibling resumed speaking. "Before I told those who were going to be involved in my plan, I was going to make an important announcement on the Nerfherder and Fuzzball YouTube channel."
"Which was?" wondered Bentley.
"I was making my triumphant return as host of Bash At The Bench," he shared, expressing his trademark toothy smile. "And it was going to be in three weeks. During those three weeks, I made preparations with those who were involved, which turned out to be something truly special." he added, knowing how true those words were at the time. "However, I needed to get back into physical therapy with Hannah first to get back on my feet.
XXX
NOTE: HOPE YOU ENJOYED THIS CHAPTER. THERE IS AT LEAST A COUPLE CHAPTERS LEFT BEFORE THIS ARC ENDS. AS ALWAYS LEAVE A REVIEW BECAUSE IT'S CONSIDERED AN INCENTIVE FOR FANFIC WRITERS LIKE MYSELF TO CONTINUE WRITING. ANY ERRORS OR MISTAKES ARE MY OWN. TIP OF THE HAT TO YOU ALL AND THANKS FOR READING!
