Don't own Chuck

It was late evening in Burbank, the Buy More had just closed and team Bartowski was ready to call it a night. This had been a long week already with three evenings of late night surveillance, two drop offs and one diplomat who was detained for trying to pass himself off as a missing Kardashian - what nerve.

"Hey Chuck, what have you and Sarah got planned," asked Morgan.

"Tonight is movie night. We download a movie from Netflix and eat popcorn."

"What are you and Alex doing?"

"We have Casey, Kathleen and Gertrude coming over."

"How does that work?" Chuck was imagining Kathleen carrying in a pie and Gertrude pulling out her father's black knife from her boot to slice it up and not the pie.

"So far no gun or knife fights, yet."

"Will you girls get a move on it? I've got to get home and get cleaned up so I can pick both women up."

"Hey Casey what's biting at you?"

"Chuck," said Morgan, "Alex has been asking about coming out on a mission so the Big Guy is a little confused."

"Listen Oh Bearded One, I'm not confused or perplexed or anything else. Kathleen really doesn't want her daughter to become a spy and I can't say I blame her."

"But Casey, aren't you a little proud that she wants to follow in your footsteps?"

"I don't mind the footsteps I just don't want her to pass through the E.R. like I have. Then I've got this genius telling her she can be a spy-in-training."

"What's a spy-in-training?"

"Exactly, just because dimwit did his training on the job he thinks it's good for Alex."

"Oh Morgan remember walk before running and do you recall all the times you fell down?"

"You two just don't want to give Alex a chance. Listen Sarah's going to be going on maternity leave soon which means the team is going to down a member. I just think it would be good for Alex to work close with Sarah before so she can train her like she did you Chuck and then afterwards she can help take up some of the slack."

"You know Casey, Morgan does have a point."

"I hate to admit it but it does make sense. But two things first, number one baby steps and lastly Chuck you need to talk to Sarah."

"I can do that."

Then all of a sudden the lights flickered in Castle as the computers went off line then came on again as the emergency generator started to whine before it kicked in. Castle was built as a safe house so in situations like this it automatically went into lock down.

"Crap not again," said Chuck.

"See this is an omen," said Casey.

"No Casey it's no omen it's another rolling blackout. Guys you might as well pull up a chair we're not going anywhere for an hour. It'll take that long for everything to reset."

"Guys, you know what this means that if we're on the emergency generator then outside everyone is in the dark."

"So that's why God created flashlights and night googles."

"Casey, is satellite control back up? I want to try out the new neighborhood watch system. We can't go anywhere so we might as well be productive."

"Anything so I don't have to listen to you girls go on about your female emotions. Yeah, there back up what do you want?"

"Let's try the infrared imaging. I want to see if we can tell where all this power is going to. I can't believe everyone in southern California is drying their hair at the same time."

"Okay, there you go I've got it."

"Casey can you boost the gain a little it needs to measure between 800 nm to 1000mm." The image was strange and a little out of focus at first but easily corrected with a few tweaks. "Good hold it there and let me save it. I want to send this back to Langley and tell the General, she'll need to get her experts to have a look at it."

"What'd you see Chuck?"

"Here guys have a look," said Chuck as he turned the monitor around. "See how all those lines in red converge into one big bright red line going out to sea. That's all our power going out to the trunk line under the Pacific Ocean towards Hawaiian island chain but in order to see that far out Langley will have to reposition some of the spy satellites in the Neighborhood watch. I can't see which island is sucking up all that juice but who or whatever it is it has to be massive.

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BACK AT ECHO PARK

A mysterious figure makes its way through the courtyard now darkened because of the power outage. Sarah is working at home moving about wearing night goggles when she hears a noise coming from outside she grabs her trusty Smith and Wesson the only two guys besides Chuck that have never let her down. Standing at the ready she waits besides the door. Slowly it opens and Sarah grabs the intruder pushing her in to the floor.

"If you move you're dead," said Sarah with gun aimed.

"Hey, Sarah it's me," said Alex. "I tried your doorbell."

"Sorry but with the electricity off it doesn't work." Then the lights flickered again and they came back on so Sarah removed her googles.

"Don't be sorry that was way too cool."

"Casey or Morgan never told you not to sneak up on a spy. We don't like surprises because they usually end in a firefight case in point."

"See that's what I'm talking about. Has Chuck talked to you about me?"

"What do you mean? I wrote you the recommendation. Is there something else you need from me?" Yes, Sarah wrote Alex a recommendation but Casey still wasn't too happy with her over it because he thought her recommendation was too strong.

"Well, I talked with Morgan he told me about trying to become a spy-in-training. You know how he was trained by Casey and you trained Chuck. He suggested that I talk with you and ask if you would train me at least until my application is accepted."

"Wait, first Chuck went to a black site for training. Although he didn't pass, he got some basic training knowledge that I was able to build on that plus he has some innate talent."

"I know both his parents were spies so he was born field ready." Sarah wasn't talking about his family connection but about the intersect. "But my Dad is NSA so that's got to count for something and I've got an A in my self-defense class."

"So what are you asking? You want me to train you?" Sarah realized that Alex had already told her this but she wanted to make sure she was hearing right.

"Yes, I think you'd be great. I can't ask my father because he won't take me serious and I figure I should get to know this job from a female agent. I don't know how to contact Zondra or Carina."

"I don't think Carina would be a good choice." Sarah was thinking back to Casey being handcuffed to a bed in Carina's room with nothing on but his underwear. "Have you asked your father about this? He's my partner and I can't go against his wishes even if I want too. It's not professional."

Just then Chuck came walking in with a pizza in his hand. "Evening ladies, where were you when the lights went out? Sounds like an old Doris Day movie, doesn't it? I got pizza I thought with all the power being down it would be better."

"Chuck, we were just talking about Sarah training me. Did my father mention anything?"

"Well, as a matter of fact Morgan argued your case and John in the end didn't think it was such a bad idea." Chuck missed Sarah's signal to say no.

"Thank you dear for clearing that up."

"So Sarah, when can we start? What do you want me do?"

"Well, you'll have to wait until we get a mission. You know as a spy you have to learn to be patient and wait for long boring periods of time before anything comes up."

"Actually Love we might have something soon. I sent a report off to Beckman this evening about the power outages and I expect to hear back from her soon. I was thinking about going to the Burbank substation tomorrow to check it out. This would be a reconnaissance mission so it could be something easy to get Alex's feet wet with."

"Great! What time should I be at Castle?"

"Just ride in with Morgan and we'll go from there. Aren't you supposed to be at a dinner tonight at your house?"

"That's right I need to run." They said their goodbyes at the door and Alex disappeared in the night.

"Chuck, what was that?" Sarah was a little upset that Chuck had missed her signals.

"What was what? Have you picked a movie?"

"Don't try and change the subject. Didn't you see I was trying to get out of training Alex? I thought my signals were clear."

"Well, no I'm sorry but if you didn't want to train her why didn't you just say so?'"

"It's not that easy. I mean she's still my partner's daughter."

"I'm your life partner so you should've just said no. I would've covered for you but I really don't see the problem."

"The problem is you just don't work with your friends, they can get you killed or you can get them killed."

"And what are Casey and Morgan?"

"I threw Casey out of a window and almost killed him. Morgan shot you or don't you remember."

"Okay, so our friendships have had their ups and downs. But is it better that Alex waits until they send her to the farm and she's trained by God knows who and is given a handler like Kieran Ryker."

"Well put like that maybe you're right but she's going to have to jump when I say jump. This is not some video game where you can hit replay when game over comes up. The nation and people's lives are at risk."

"Yes ma'am. Have you picked out a movie?"

"How about Spies Like Us?"

"Sounds appropriate."

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NEXT DAY AT CASLTE

The team loaded into a surveillance van and drove out of a subterranean parking lot then out on the street making its way through town. Casey was driving and Chuck was riding shotgun while Sarah, Alex and Morgan were in the back.

"Okay Alex what has Morgan told you about the equipment back here?"

"He told me that you always told him not to touch anything." Casey ad Chuck looked at each other and smiled.

"Well, that's Morgan. Okay these are our communications equipment. This goes in your ear." Sarah put Alex's earpiece in. "Now put this on."

"It looks like a watch."

"That's right but if you speak into it we can hear you. Just keep it on and after a while you'll forget about having it." Sarah looked at Morgan, "Alex the one mistake that you must never make when you're out watching a target is to continually touch your ear."

"I have sensitive ears," said Morgan.

"Semi-automatic fire tends to alleviate that," interjected Casey.

"You make one mistake and no one lets you forget it."

"First of all it wasn't your only mistake and secondly you almost got yourself killed as well as ruining a perfectly good Kevlar vest."

"I mean really what bad luck," said Casey as they pulled in front of the substation.

"Thanks Casey for taking up for me."

"Morgan I was saying it was bad luck they missed."

"Funny, very funny what is this mobile comedy central."

"Okay boys and girls we're here time to but on game faces. Let's look alive back there and for you Morgan that could be temporary."

The team got out and Sarah handed Alex a white lab coat with Sandra Wilson written across the pocket along with a hard hat. The rest of the team put on their coats and hats then proceeded into the plant.

"Excuse me," said Chuck to one of the workers. "My name is Charles Carmichael and we're here from Burbank Water and Power to conduct a surprise inspection. Can you direct me to your plant manager?"

"That would be me, Arnold Adams. But I don't recall being told about any inspection."

"Mr. Adams, it wouldn't be much of a surprise inspection if you'd been warned now would it," said Sarah. "Excuse me but I'm Sarah Carmichael and this is our squad."

"Yes, what my wife is trying to say is she and I would like to go with you to your office while my colleagues conduct the inspection. But if you don't want to cooperate that's okay too I'll just call up Diane and tell her you don't want to cooperate and let her handle you I mean it."

"No, no go right ahead. Please follow me. Charles who is this Diane she sounds like someone you don't want to cross."

"You have no idea. Let's just say you made the right decision." Chuck, Sarah and Adams walked off leaving the others behind.

"Dad what do we do now?"

"You and Morgan hang close to me. Use that thing that looks like a meter and move it around while you press the red button. It's an instant video recorder. The images are sent directly to a lab in Langley where it is decrypted and experts look it over for anomalies."

"I thought that we were going to find out what the problem is?"

"Spies can't be experts in everything with the exception being Chuck. That's why we work in teams no one person is as strong as the whole this is an important lesson for both of you to remember. You always got to watch out for your partner's back. Lesson number two you try never to let your partner go off on his or her own that's why Sarah spoke up and went with Chuck."

"I just thought it was because they loved each other," said Morgan.

"That too," grunted Casey seeing that Morgan missed the point.

Back in the office, "Would you like some coffee, tea or water?" asked Adams. "When my wife was pregnant with our twins she stopped drinking caffeinated beverages and even after when she was breast feeding she did the same. We read that caffeine could be transmitted through her milk and they didn't sleep as it was."

"Really."

"Chuck, not now!"

"Right, we need a read out of your power in take and output for the last week or so."

"Is there a problem?"

"Well there seems to have been a spike and we're trying to rundown the reasons so the head office can see if there is a true problem or if it was just transitory. You know with all the brownouts and blackouts our lawyers are getting nervous about possible lawsuits because of all the electronic devices that are getting fried because of them."

"But that isn't our problem or fault sounds like bad wiring."

"I know but we have to be able to prove that in a court of law, right Sarah?"

"That's right and your full cooperation will be properly noted. I wouldn't be surprised if Diane wouldn't give you a raise or promotion or both."

"Wow Diane can do that? She must have some pull. I'll bring our log books in for you right away just please wait here."

"If it's not too much trouble could you please make us a copy so we can take them with us? They'll help support our findings and I think make management very happy with you."

"Sure no problem just wait," Adams left happy as a lark.

"Well, way to go I could see a little Jack Burton there Love."

"You weren't so bad yourself Sweetie. But do you think this is going to lead somewhere?"

"I hope-"Chuck stopped in mid-sentence as he was looking out the window and flashed.

"Chuck, what is it? Did you just flash?"

"Yeah, come here see that man over there in the black suit. His name is Oscar Baines. He's a former Fulcrum cyber terrorist and an associate of Ted Roark."

"Casey," said Sarah into her watch. "See that man in the black suit at your ten o'clock. Take his picture Chuck flashed on him."

"I could do an extraction."

"Negative, there are too many civilians around we can take him afterwards."

"Sarah, follow my lead." Adams came in with the logs and photocopies in hand.

"Here you go just like you asked."

"Thanks, just one other question who is that gentleman over there in the black suit. He doesn't look like a Power and Water employee?"

"That's because he's not. You see we've been having problems with our computers so we got permission for you, I mean the home office to contract out locally to get them fixed. Mr. George Mikes is a tech for Cyber Fix the company that comes and repairs them."

"How long have you had this problem with your computers?"

"About a couple of months now, but since he came everything seems to be working fine."

"I'm sure it has. Do you have his card?"

"I can do better than that I can introduce you."

"No thanks we really don't have the time right now maybe another time but if you can find that card for me I'd appreciate it."

"I'll get it from my secretary right now." Adams stepped out again.

"Sweetie, Jack would be proud to call you his son-in-law."

"Love, I don't know if that's a compliment but thanks." When Adams returned he gave Chuck the card. Then Chuck announced they were done and that they were ready to go. Thanking Adams for his cooperation the team regrouped at the van.

"I say let's bag and tag," said Casey.

"No, I got another idea," said Chuck. "Baines doesn't know we're on to him so Sarah and I can stay here with the van and follow him. He can't be the mastermind behind this but he might lead us to someone who might know something. You three can call in to get another vehicle and relieve us later on."

"I should stay with Sarah too," said Alex. "I'm supposed to be under training."

"She's right," said Sarah. "Besides each squad should have a senior agent in charge. That's what protocol calls for."

"Don't remind me, Troll you're with me. Keep comms open in case anything goes down and report in all your movements."

"John, I think I know what I'm doing?"

"That was for the nerd as kind of a reminder before he pulls his usual crap. If we don't hear from you we'll relieve you at midnight."

"Twelve on, twelve off."

"Okay."