Chuck vs. The Courtyard Bench
Well, in the previous chapter: Sarah and Cole have their face-to-face confrontation to where she immediately brings up Amy. It leads Chuck to quickly intervene and in turn introduces himself to his girlfriend's infamous ex. Cole tries to throw him off and intimidate the nerd but is able to stay strong to the point where he turns the tables on him, completely surprising the British Orthopedic Surgeon. Afterwards, the former best friends and Stanford roommates have their face-to-face confrontation with Bryce revealing that Jill wasn't the woman who Chuck saw with his own eyes. Bryce would also reveal that he knew that Chuck knew he hacked his phone and left a file for him to view that will show him everything that he's been telling him is the truth. Chuck doesn't agree or disagree to check it out, but as he's leaving with Sarah someone bursts into the room. That someone is none other than Jill shocking not only Chuck, but Sarah as well. She also drops a bombshell and that she and Bryce are married. So, what happens in this chapter? Here are the who, what, where, when why, how's? Who does Chuck compare Sarah to when she starts pointing at Jill? What movies happens to Chuck that leads him to suddenly run out of the room? Where does Chuck end up finding himself in that causes him to become increasingly overwhelmed? When does Chuck finally able to feel better after going through such a painfully tortuous experience? Why does Cole want to have dinner with Sarah? How is a series reference from the 1st season help Sarah as a way to avoid sharing what really happened to Chuck with Cole? Read and find out! I hope you enjoy 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.
3 3 3 Rule
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Chuck continues to stand there in momentary stunned silence totally glued on the lively discussion going on between Jill and Bryce. He's not really focused on what they're both talking about because they sound more like Charlie Brown's teacher, especially after hearing the shocking announcement from his dark haired ex that Bryce is her husband. In that moment, he feels that same weird tingling sensation returning causing him to peer down at his hands and at same time experiences a slight pain in his upper left chest cause him to wince in pain. However, he doesn't reach up to clutch at it because something that's said catches his attention.
"What…" he breathed out, somewhat winded. "…what did you say? She's not your what?" he added, shaking his head in order to refocus. The latter part of what he said is spoken considerably louder getting the attention of the two individuals who were more focused on the drama unfolding between the two of them than who is in the room with them right now.
Bryce's turns his wheelchair to his right then directs his attention to Chuck while Sarah is standing next to Casey. "She's not my wife. We're not married!" he vehemently declared out loud, with conviction in his voice.
"That's hurtful to say?" responded Jill, placing her hands one over the other on her chest. She looks genuinely hurt while standing behind Bryce.
At this point Casey is smirking because he truly enjoying the show and how incredibly out of sorts his blonde partner's nerdy boyfriends is right now. If he had a box of popcorn he'd grab a seat and enjoy the absolute discomfort he considers is far better than a stupid soap opera or a cheesy, over the top Spanish telenovela that's on late at night. Unfortunately, his twisted pleasure is ruined by a painful jab of an elbow to his side causing him to peer down to the source…Sarah.
"What?" he softly grunted.
Sarah simply points up with her right finger while glaring at him then turns her attention back to the two individuals in order to sort out the confusion. She takes a step towards Chuck inevitably standing by his side and makes her presence as the Chief Operating Officer of Westside Medical because the situation is quite frankly getting out of hand as the lively discussion rages on between the two of them. In doing so, she briefly checks on the man standing beside her who gives her a slight nonverbal nod then places two of her fingers in between her lips. A high pitched whistle sound causes the lively discussion between Jill and Bryce to immediately stop getting their attention. The echo of the loud whistle quickly fading away within the confines of Bryce's private hospital room.
"Wow…" responded Chuck, wiggling his left pinky in his inner left ear. "…that was loud." he added, raising both eyebrows.
"Sorry." she softly responded back. The softness in her voice and on her face would quickly fade returning to the no nonsense persona of the Chief Operating Officer of Westside Medical center with a hint of the Wildcard Enforcer mixed in as well. "So, who wants to talk first?" Sarah sees Jill about to raise her hand but quick points at her. "Not you. We'll get to you momentarily." Her attention is then averted to Bryce. "Explain." she stated, intensely furrowing her eyebrows at him.
"Thank you." he replied, breathing out a sigh of relief. After briefly glancing behind him to shoot what looks like a nasty stink eye towards Jill, he turns his head forward and speaks up. "First off, could you please contact Tommy and get him up here." he requested, in hopes of getting it approved.
The momentary silence is deafening as Bryce is sitting there waiting what seems like forever until Sarah finally gives her response. She simply turns her hulking partner and gives Casey a nod leading to the hospital's head of security to retrieve his IPhone as he steps out of the room to contact Bryce's manager Tommy. Meanwhile, Sarah returns her attention back to Bryce who she is about to let continue, when Jill rudely chimes in.
"That's not necessary." she insisted, shaking her head.
Sarah instantly points her right finger at her but doesn't say anything. All she does, is just express her Wildcard Enforcer glare rather than glaring face of the Chief Operating Officer of Westside Medical Center. For Chuck, the moment she did that all he could think about are the times that Harrison Ford has angrily pointed in a number of his movies. The interrogation scene in The Fugitive, talking to Sean Connery's character Henry Jones Sr. in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, an intense face to face confrontation in Patriot Games, and most notably Star Wars, he thinks to himself.
Of course, there are other movies in which the man who will forever be known as Han Solo has firmly pointed his finger at another character, but that's too long of a list to go over. In his mind, he's fallen in love with Sarah even more by simply doing something that considered to be relatively normal. It's a thought that causes him to express a faint smile but not noticeable enough for anyone to notice as he returns his attention to his blonde girlfriend motioning for Bryce to continue on.
"It happened in Vegas…"
The second the word "Vegas" left Bryce's mouth Chuck immediately wanted to back up and just lay down on the hospital bed to sleep this nightmare off. He would wake and find out it was all just a dream. Unfortunately, it isn't as he thinking nothing ever good when someone starts off an explanation with "it happened in Vegas". He fights the urge to do so and while continuing to stand there he doesn't know whether to laugh or cry out of pity for Bryce on how he ended in a Vegas marriage with Jill of all people. Instead, he forces himself to continue listening to how his marriage to his ex all came about that apparently happened 4 years ago.
"Like I said, I had a couple days off from training and as luck would have it we were in Vegas. I ended up bumping into Jill while she was attending a conference for work." he shared, clearly frustrated, annoyed, and angry.
"Let me guess…" Sarah interrupted, briefly holding up her right hand. "…that's when you two got drunk and got married at a Vegas chapel." she added, trying so hard not to roll her eyes.
"Yes." nodded Bryce.
"So, it was more The Hangover than What Happens in Vegas?" responded Chuck. He's still in disbelief as he continues trying to wrap his brain around this shockingly surprising development that's been unfolding.
Bryce nodded. "I would have much rather woken up next to Mike Tyson's tiger or Cameron Diaz for that matter than Jill. Well…" he shared, shaking his head. "…the next morning, she was gone. Money missing from my wallet. Credit and debit cards taken as well." he reiterated, nearly coming out of wheelchair. After taking a moment to calm down he continues on. "I immediately called Tommy and he told me he'd handle it. Luckily, he was able to obtain video proof from the Vegas Chapel. Anyways, he tried contacting her and left voicemails suggesting that Jill do the right thing. "
"Threatened is more like it." she breathed out.
Sarah immediately points at Jill again. "Wait your turn." she sternly admonished.
"It was a mess and it caused me to lose my focus. Affected my training." he revealed. "It was like she disappeared off the face of the earth. Tommy hired a private investigator to talk to her co-workers who said she took a leave of absence, which made it extremely difficult for us. Fortunately, after 2 weeks of not being seen she came out of hiding and was eventually served. Needless to say, the marriage was annulled and my giant headache was finally gone. No longer a distraction…" Bryce further shared. "…or so I thought. Filed a restraining order to keep away from me and she filed one on me."
For Chuck and Sarah, there was a tremendous amount of information to digest when it came to Bryce's side of the story. While letting what Bryce shared sink in, the weird tingling sensation in his hands he felt earlier returns causing him to ball them into a fist in order to control whatever he's experiencing right now. Plus, the slight pain he felt earlier in the upper left part of his chest returns as well. It causes him to briefly close his eyes and take a deep breath while trying not show any visible pain, which he doesn't know if he 100% successful in doing.
In any case, he opens his eyes once again to see Sarah motioning over to Jill so that she can give her side of the story. Before that happens, Casey reappears and stands behind his blonde partner ready for what Chuck's infamous ex could possibly say or reveal that contradicts how Bryce believes what happened between the two of them.
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"Okay, now your turn."
Jill was chomping at the bit for her turn to give her side of the story. While Bryce was giving his side, she wanted so badly to cuss him out and refute his perception of what happened on the night of and the morning after Vegas. Plus, her supposed disappearance in question afterwards in her mind can be perfectly explained. After taking a moment to gather her thoughts, she's ready and is about to say something when Bryce's manager suddenly enters nearly crashing into room with Cole eventually appearing in the doorway. There's one other person there as well who escorted them to the 5th floor since that individual is considered a senior staff member or administrator.
"Shit." Tommy spitted out, completely out of breath.
Cole doesn't say a word as he takes note of the dark haired woman in the room. However, the individual who escorted the two men does speak up. "It's true."
"Tommy." acknowledged Jill. "Ellie." she said, with a halfhearted wave to her. Her attention then falls on Cole who she doesn't know. "Hmm. Who might you be?" Unfortunately, she wouldn't get to find out when the eldest Bartowski speaks her name.
"Jill. You have the nerve to show up here. Bryce I can understand…" Ellie glances at the aforementioned man in the wheelchair then turns her attention back to her. "…but you." she added, pointing to her in disgust.
It's at the point, Sarah interjects focusing on Ellie. "Casey called you?"
Ellie shakes her head. "Bryce's manager nearly knocked me down leaving the cafeteria. He told me what was going on and I told him I'd be taking him up here. I wasn't taking no for an answer. I wanted to see and actually believe it for myself." she replied back, inevitably glaring at Jill.
Bryce's private hospital room is now filled up with additional people and the one person in the room is feeling absolutely uncomfortable. For him, the weird tingling sensation he felt earlier in his hands combined with the upper left chest pain that's growing increasingly painful causes him to have difficulty breathing. Plus, even though the private room they're all in is rather large it feels like from his point of view a considerably confined space to where it leads him to immediately react.
"I gotta get out of here." Chuck suddenly announced, out loud.
The youngest Bartowski sibling quickly backs up bumping into his older sister, Cole, and Casey. After stammering out a somewhat coherent apology he frantically darts out the door into the hallway, passed concerned nurses, and straight towards the elevator. Sarah hastily emerges from out of Bryce's private room and briefly stands there to see a sprinting Chuck reaching the elevators. Once Ellie emerges out, both women head directly for Chuck clearly concerned for his safety and well-being. Unfortunately, they don't get to him in time as the elevator door opens and Chuck scrambles inside but not before nearly knocking down 2 senior medical staff stepping out into the 5th floor.
"Chuck!" Sarah and Ellie cry out in unison.
He doesn't hear them as the doors close shut with both woman failing to reach and keep the elevators doors from closing in time. While the two highly concerned and worried women briefly hit the façade of the outer elevator doors, Casey appears locking his eyes on the floor numbers and immediately gets on his own hospital issued walkie talkie instead of his IPhone. Ellie and Sarah would do the same but use their IPhones because it's considered an emergency situation involving Chuck.
Speaking of Chuck, he's inside the elevator having no idea what is happening to him and because of that he's completely freaking out. He's pacing back and forth trying to make sense of what is going on. For him, it's an overwhelming feeling that he can't really put into words right now, but he knows for sure that one of the feelings he's experiencing is absolute restlessness. It also doesn't help that his phone is going off adding to the already chaotic nature of the situation that he's going through right now.
As his phone continues to ring, he knows it's either Sarah or Ellie trying desperately to reach him, but is too freaked out too answer it. After a few seconds go by, his phone stops ringing giving him a brief sense of relief even though he doesn't understand what's going on. He couldn't help but feel on edge and it wouldn't go away so much so it caused him to have this uncomfortable urge to move that he couldn't quite shake. It's because of that uncomfortable urgency to move that caused him to suddenly instinctively react in a fearful way verbally and physically as well.
It's during his instinctive reaction of wanting to move out of fear, he knew his flight or fight response was triggered and he had to just leave. Go somewhere. Anywhere. The main goal that kept repeating over and over in his head was to go outside. The thought of being outside will most definitely solve his breathing problem because right now. It doesn't help matters any knowing where is right now. Unfortunately, he mistakenly placed himself in an enclosed and confined space that is now just magnifying the problem even more.
The problem is magnified in such a high degree, he's starts to take deeper and deeper breathes, but they seem to not be helping at all. It ends up causing to now find it harder to breathe to where it's freaking him out even more. In that moment, he doesn't know if he's going crazy, dying, or both. What he does know is that he needs to get outside and the elevator is taking its sweet ass time to get down to the 1st floor. In order to keep his mind busy the best he can, he closes them and tries to imagine mentally figuring out a Sudoku number puzzle, but something is distracting him.
What's distracting him is he can feel himself trembling and when he opens his eyes the first thing he sees are his hands, which are shaking uncontrollably. He tries to control them by placing them tightly against his chest but no matter how hard he tries to keep them from shaking they just can't stop. A feeling that is absolutely terrifying. A terrifying feeling where tears begin forming in his eyes that end up sliding down both sides of his cheeks. As they do, he's grabbing the area of his upper left chest and hisses out in pain.
While doing so, he peers up at the illuminated floor numbers above the elevator doors and suddenly notices that they are gradually becoming blurry. It's not just the blurry vision he's dealing with as he's also noticing the illuminated floor numbers, as well as the elevator ceiling lights glowing in such a way that he's quite possibly going through some kind of drug induced hallucination. He doesn't know for sure as he's trying to focus the best he can, but the more he tries to it makes him feel light headed or dizzy.
It's at that point, Chuck's finds himself losing his concentration and sense of balance as well causing him to sway in a circular motion. At the same time, his legs feel weak to the point where they'll go out from under him and collapse down to the floor. So, he tries to avoid that by backing up inevitably hugging the back of the elevator then slides towards the right hand corner of the elevator, reaches out with both hands, and then clutches tightly the metal hand rails that jut out. For the most part, it's alleviating the weakness he's feeling in his legs but he doesn't know how long he'll be able to last supporting himself in the right corner of the elevator.
After what seems like forever "trapped" inside the elevator, it finally comes to a slow stop and then Chuck hears the ding sound leading to the elevator doors to open. Once they do, someone immediately enters causing the nerd to momentary startled. The person in question is head nurse Alex Forrest.
"Bartowski, come with me." she carefully instructed.
"Forrest?" Chuck breathed out, clearly disoriented. "Are you a Terminator?" he groggily asked, being helped out of the elevator.
For Chuck, he's unsure of what is happening because Forrest is the total opposite of how she usually is. Why? It's because she cautiously approached him with her hands up and showing her palms to show that she's not there to harm him. As for Forrest, she fortunate it's the weekend and the hallway corridor she's been waiting in isn't busy or filled with tremendous amounts of foot traffic. The head nurse isn't alone as Tang and Greta are with her standing guard outside the elevator but not bringing attention to what's going on inside. It's as if they were given orders to help Forest locate, extract, and take him somewhere safe, which is exactly what is being done.
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"Chuck, do you know what the 3-3-3 rule is?" asked Forrest, kneeling beside him. In response, he shakes his head.
The head nurse of Westside Medical Center is assessing Chuck's health by checking his vitals then flashing her pen light in his eyes in order to see if his pupils are responding. After extracting Chuck from the 1st floor elevator, she quickly led him to part of the hospital that not too many people know about as it's located outside in a secluded area near the ambulance bay that's been fenced off. It's an area where there is a medium sized pond surrounded by trees with a gazebo situated by it.
It took a moment but with some considerable amount of patience, Forrest was able to calm Chuck down with encouraging assurance and at the same time give him as much space as he needs to recover. Although he was experiencing a mental haze and physically discombobulated, Forrest helped and continues to help him through his insanely crazy ordeal. As things gradually start to become clearer for him while sitting down and breathing in the fresh outside air, she is about to explain to him what the 3-3-3 rules is when the nerd's name is called out.
"Chuck!"
Chuck and Forrest turn their attention to see Sarah sprinting towards their location with Ellie following closely behind her. Casey, on the other hand, is in the distance apparently talking things over with Tang and Greta by the opening they came through to get to the gazebo. It's not long before Chuck is engulfed in a frantic bear hug by not only Sarah, but Ellie as well. Both women clearly an emotional wreck and close to tears not knowing how or where he is until now.
After taking turns both women finally let go of the tight bear hug, they suddenly bombard Chuck with a mixture of questions causing the man's eyes to widen leading him to be rendered speechless. However, it's Forrest who quickly intervenes on his behalf by placing herself between Chuck and the two women who are most important in his life. After taking a moment to calm the both of them down, she speaks up.
"Ladies…" Forrest holds up both her hands in front of her. "…I got this handled. We don't want him freaking out and running off again." she softy said, briefly glancing behind her. "I was about to explain to him about the 3-3-3 rule. How it's a simple way to change your focus after suffering from an anxiety attack."
"Anxiety attack?" chimed in Chuck, getting the attention of all 3 women.
Forrest turns around and inevitably kneels down in front of him. Beforehand, she nonverbally signaled for Sarah and Ellie to back up a bit to give him space. They were hesitant at first to do so, but ended up mutually complied for Chuck's sake.
"Do you remember the 1st thing I asked you to do?" she asked, in hopes that it will help him refocus.
Chuck nods and takes a moment to mentally recall the best he could what Forrest asked him to do. Granted, it was immensely confusing at first but he was able to take his time and then respond to what she asked him to do.
"Name 3 things I see."
"And they were?" inquired Forrest.
"The pond, pine cones…" Chuck pauses briefly then continues on. "…and ducks." he added, taking deep breathe then slowly exhaling.
Forrest nods expressing a soft tight lipped smile that Chuck sees and is thrown off by. Why? He's never really seen her smile in all the years they've known and interacted with each other in some capacity at the hospital. Of course, the interactions were considerably brief and resembled a rather terrifying version of John Casey with a somewhat similar mindset when it comes to work ethic, he thinks to himself. His thoughts concerning what he considers a very scary mirror image of Westside Medical Center's hulking Head of Security are broken when she speaks up again.
"The 3 sounds you heard?"
"Ducks quacking, wind rustling through the trees and the cars off in the distance."
"Good." Forrest softly responded back. "Finally, I asked you to move 3 body parts. What were they?"
"Fingers…" responded Chuck, wiggling all 10 digits. "My arms…" He spreads both arms out to the side briefly doing a clockwise motion then stops. "…and my feet." he added, peering down at both feet. He takes a moment to flex them up and down at the same time.
"Great. How do you feel now?" wondered Forrest, closely observing Chuck.
"Better…" answered Chuck. He reaches up and rubs the back of his neck with his right hand. "…and embarrassed." he added, ducking his head a bit.
"Don't be." Forrest retorted. "There's 2 reasons that may trigger an anxiety attack. The first being…" she shared, holding up her right index finger. "…a big event. The 2nd is a buildup of smaller stressful life situations."
For Sarah, her concerns about her nerdy boyfriend's well-being since the arrival of his former best friend and Stanford roommate have been truly validated under unfortunate circumstances. She mentally noted what she was able to observe and most notably was the situation she noticed yesterday at Bash At the Bench where Chuck had a moment during his conversation the Hayes twins. She had hoped he would open up to her about how he's been feeling as of late while they were alone in the courtyard, but ended up giving the excuse that he was just tired. In her mind, she should have pressed further instead of taking his word for it.
"Bryce." pointed out Sarah.
"Jill." Ellie added, shaking her head.
Chuck sits there for a moment letting what Forrest just shared sink in. For him, he possibly considers what he experienced a combination of both that triggered his anxiety attack. Essentially, what put him over the edge was the sudden appearance of his ex, combined with Bryce's side of the story, and then being interrupted when Jill was about to share her side of things. In his mind, it was just too much for him to take and his body just took as if it was set on auto pilot with one goal in mind, he thinks to himself. After shaking his head, his thoughts turn to the woman kneeling in front of him leading him to bring up a very intriguing question.
"How do you know so much about anxiety attacks?"
"I'm a head nurse, Bartowski." she replied back. "I've seen and dealt with patients who have gone through it. A few of my nurses too."
"Right." responded Chuck, shaking his head. "Stupid question." he remarked, breathing out an embarrassed chuckle.
"Plus…" Forrest briefly lowers her head and returns her focus back to Chuck. "…I suffer from it." she revealed. A look of surprise is expressed on Chuck, Sarah, and Ellie's face after hearing that piece of information coming for Westside Medical Center's head nurse.
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"Are you sure you're okay to drive?" questioned the eldest Bartowski. She, Chuck, Ellie and Casey are back inside hospital standing in front of the 1st floor main nurses' station after leaving the Forrest's secluded spot.
After finding out Forrest suffers from anxiety attacks, he along with Sarah and Ellie would learn that the head nurse had been dealing with it since she was a teenager. She would further share with them that it would be considered a personal victory whenever an attack happened she'd be able to take control and manage it by doing some relaxation and correct breathing techniques. Add to that dietary adjustments, exercise, cognitive therapy structured problem solving, etc. He told her he would take how she's been able to manage under consideration.
In any case, Chuck would most definitely see Forrest differently to the point where he now has a new found respect for her after what she did for him. Ellie and Sarah as well, he thinks to himself. Before, parting ways she advised him to not tell anyone about what she did because she has a reputation to uphold amongst her nurses, which the nerd agreed to.
"I'm fine, Mom." Chuck groaned, rolling his eyes. It would lead to Ellie giving her little brother a jab to the stomach for his response and giving her quite a scare. "Hey, that hurt." whined the youngest Bartowski sibling.
"You're lucky it's was just a jab to the stomach." stated Sarah, quirking her right brow up to Chuck. "She could have slapped you."
"Are you going to slap me?" wondered Chuck, preparing to be hit or kicked. Sarah is briefly silent causing the nerd to just stare at her. "Well?"
"I'm thinking about it." responded Sarah, expressing a gradual grin. "You deserve more than one, you know." she added, shaking her head.
"I know." He replied, ducking his head a bit. "If it's more than one is it going to be like the slap bet from the show How I Met Your Mother?"
"What are you lip smacking about Bartowski?" grunted Casey.
"The slap bet. In the episode Barney Stinson, played by Neil Patrick Harris, lost a bet about a secret Robin was keeping. Marshall was granted the right to 5 slaps that would be carried out in a number of episodes in season 2 I believe. He ends up gaining 3 more slaps in one episode." he shared. "Anyways, Lily served as slap bet commissioner and…" Chuck suddenly stops after noticing all 3 individuals quietly staring at him. "…I may have said too much."
"No…" responded Sarah, crossing her arms. "…keep going. I'm sure Casey would love to be slap bet commissioner." she added, glancing over to her hulking partner.
Casey responds with a smirking grunt causing Chuck's eyes to widen. In the nerd's mind, the big guy would most definitely have some sort of twist pleasure in doling out slap opportunities to Ellie, Sarah, or even himself knowing they'd be carried out when he'd least expect it. A painful thought that causes him to reach up placing his right hand on his right cheek. A few seconds later, he snaps out of it and speaks up.
"I should go."
"Go get some rest, little brother." Ellie suggested, stepping forward to embrace him.
After Ellie finishes up embracing her younger brother, Sarah would wrap her arms around him in a tight embrace. The couple is momentarily silent as Chuck embraces her back knowing how grateful he is to have not only her, but everyone else in his life who truly cares about him. It's that particular thought in which he whispers two words into her right ear.
"Thank you."
Sarah leans back and expresses a soft smile. "You're welcome." she whispered back. Afterwards, the nerdy couple press their lips together inevitably sharing a meaningful kiss.
Unfortunately, the meaningful moment between the two of them would be interrupted by the sound of a clearing throat. The source of the clearing throat wasn't Casey or Ellie. It would be Carina with Zondra standing beside her.
"I thought you two left?" questioned Sarah. She steps back from Chuck then faces her fellow C.A.T. squad members.
"We were…" responded Zondra, chiming in. "…but Carina insisted we come see you again before heading off." she added, shrugging her shoulder. She shakes her head with a quick eye roll to show Sarah how much a child the red headed vixen is. It gets a chuckle out of Sarah and Ellie. Speaking of Ellie, the experienced photographer acknowledges her with a wave and Casey as well.
"I always get my way." mischievously grinned Carina. Her attention on Sarah is turned to Casey. "You can get your way too. How about it? Pants optional." she added. Her smile turning from mischievous to absolutely devilish.
As much as Casey wants to take out his taser and tase Carina, he ends up just expressing a grunt of displeasure and walks off without saying a word. Afterwards, Ellie is being summoned over the hospital's speaker system leading her to excuse herself leaving Chuck, Sarah, Carina and Zondra. Ellie's exit would lead Chuck to do the same as well.
"That's my cue. I'll call you later." he nodded, reaching down to take Sarah's right hand. He gently gives it a squeeze with his right hand.
It's at that point, Sarah mentions something or in this case someone to him before leaving. "Dr. Dreyfus."
Chuck is momentarily silent before responding with a nod, which Sarah truly appreciates. Once he leaves, the 3 C.A.T. squad members remain to talk amongst themselves.
"All right…" Zondra said, looking at Carina. "…time to go."
In that instance, a certain individual makes his presence known. "Sarah, love. Where's your boyfriend? I hope my presence didn't intimidate him." Cole smugly said.
"No it's not." Carina blurted out, responding to Carina. "As matter of fact, we're staying a little longer." she added, clearly sensing juicy drama and mischievous fun as well.
"What are you doing here!?" wondered Zondra, surprised by his appearance.
"Unfortunately, he's Bryce's surgeon." Her attention on Carina and Zondra inevitably turns to Cole. "Not at all. His spastic colon was acting up."
Spastic colon!? It's the first thing Sarah could think of that's considered to be actually plausible for Chuck's abrupt departure from Bryce's private room on the 5th floor. As much as she wants to kick herself for saying it out loud, she has to run with it knowing it may very well be brought up by Cole if he ever talks to Chuck again, which she hopes to God he doesn't.
"That's grim. Sorry to hear that. It can certainly be problematic internally to the point where surgery is necessary if not treated properly." Cole medically shared.
"He's fine." Sarah retorted, in a reassuring manner.
"Fine?" questioned Cole.
"Yeah…fine." firmly repeated Sarah. There's a bit of awkward silence happening as all 4 individuals stand there before the beautiful blonde speaks up. "Don't let us keep you? You must have somewhere to be?"
Cole shakes his head. "Not really. I was planning on have dinner tonight. Care to join me?" he asked, with an air of arrogance on his part.
Zondra quickly steps in. "She's spoken for."
"I'm not." Carina chimed in, raising her hand.
"Whose side are you on?" questioned Zondra, reaching over to elbow Carina.
Cole shakes his head expressing an amused chuckle witness the two women having a lively discussion between the two of them. His attention is then directed to Sarah. "I think you misread my intentions. I already have a date for dinner. By the way, do you recommendations for any excellent restaurants? You and Chuck are more than welcome to join."
"What are you up to, Cole?" questioned Sarah, who is highly suspicious of Cole's motives.
In response, Cole holds up both hands in front of him exuding absolute innocence on his part. "Nothing. I swear." he stated. "I just want to enjoy the company of old and new friends. That's all. Dinner tonight? You name the place. So what do you say?"
Sarah stands there contemplating a big decision to make on whether or not to accept the invitation to dinner where Chuck is also invited. A dinner where Cole apparently has a date causing her to question his motives. Fortunately for her, she has sorority sisters by her side who are now no longer leaving so they'll be able to help with her dilemma. However, if Carina is involved she may cause rather than help with a solution to her unfortunate dilemma.
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NOTE: I was actually going to have Chuck experience a panic attack until I researched the difference between a panic and anxiety attack. Plus, Chuck is known in the series for dealing with anxiety issues. Anyways, the relationship between Bryce and Jill isn't quite what it seems leading to Chuck's anxiety attack. Plus, Ellie and Jill come face to face. Anyone enjoy the spastic colon reference from the Chuck episode where they were celebrating Mother's Day? Share your thoughts on what you think of this chapter? As always, tip of the hat to NEVR for doing the beta!