A/N: Something a little different…this is a chapter of Bryce Larkin - Douche Bag At Large…just not a chapter that will be happening soon…I had the idea and a few great suggestions from readers and this just wouldn't let me go…let me know what you think…as always, reviews are greatly appreciated…don't own Chuck…don't make money at this…no beta…all mistakes are my own…thanks to everyone for the ideas I may have borrowed for this little scribble…still having fun…thanks for the nudge, Jim. JT

BLDBAL - Ellie 'Mamma Bear' Bartowski Vs. The Intersect

Dr. Eleanor Faye Bartowski looked down at the hand that she had tightly gripped between her own hands, noting the way it dwarfed hers but seemed to be a perfect fit. Looking back up she couldn't help a little shiver when she cataloged, once again, all of the bruises that covered his face and the tiny bruise on his neck. Whoever had attacked him had given him a vicious beating before they'd injected some type of paralytic substance into his neck that had left him unconscious for almost 36 hours. She'd just gotten home from a shift at the hospital when she'd discovered him, stretched out in the remains of their living room. She'd been about to call the police when John Casey had walked through the front door and then rushed to her side with a concerned look on his face.

"Ellie, is he alright?" Casey asked as he knelt beside her, doing his own inventory of the damage around him. Pulling his phone from his pocket, he held up a finger to stall Ellie's answer while he started speaking to someone, giving the address and ordering a 'cleaning crew' after instructing whoever was on the other end of the call to get a medical team there as soon as possible. Finishing the call, he looked at the brunette who seemed to be on the edge of hysteria. "Ellie?" he asked again with a gentle but firm tone.

"He…uh, his pulse is strong, John, but we need to get him to the hospital as soon as possible" she replied as she bent back down and gently touched the bruised and bloody face. "John, when is Chuck supposed to be back from that 'trip' he had to take with Sarah?"

"Ellie, I promise that as soon as we have Devon looked after, I'll make a call and find out when Chuck will be back" the big man said before looking back to the front door as a pair of paramedics entered the apartment with a stretcher between them. "Ellie, you'll have to step back so they do their job" He said while placing a hand on her shoulder and trying to guide her out of the way.

Within five minutes, Devon had been loaded onto the stretcher and the paramedics were ready to move him to the unmarked ambulance that was parked outside the apartment complex. Ellie had been impressed by the professionalism she'd seen witnessed and her questioning look to John Casey had been answered with a nod that seemed to tell her that Devon was in the hands of highly trained agency medics.

"I'm going with them, John. I need you to get in touch with me as soon as you've talked to Chuck" Ellie said as she moved to follow her boyfriends stretcher. "You also need to find out why this happened…I need to know why this happened because, if this has something to do with that douche bag, I'm going to rip his balls off!"

"Ellie, I promise you that if Bryce had anything to do with this, I'll hold him down for you" he answered while he pulled his phone back out of his pocket and, after tapping at the display screen, lifted the device to his ear. "Go…I'll find you as soon as I know something."

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Ellie looked up when she 'felt' someone standing in doorway of the hospital room that she'd refused to leave for the past 24 hours. Glancing down at her boyfriend's bruised face, she rubbed her eyes and struggled to keep her anger in check. Getting slowly to her feet, she took the time to stretch out the kinks in her neck before walking towards John Casey who seemed to shrink, just a little, as he watched her approach.

"How's he doing?" Casey asked while he stepped backwards, allowing Ellie to step out into the hallway.

"He's going to make a full recovery, John. Have you found out anything? Do you know who did this to him? Does this have anything to do with that shit Bryce gave my little brother?" the brunette asked, seeming to get closer to the big man with each question while she made very little effort to hide the anger that she was feeling. "What about Chuck and Sarah? When are they supposed to be back from whatever 'trip' they just had to take? Talk to me John!" she finished as she used her finger, which was planted in the center of his chest, to push him back up against the wall.

"Ellie, I honestly don't know if the attack on Devon is connected to the Intersect but I have to admit that it is a possibility. As far as Chuck and Sarah are concerned, I, uh, I don't know when they'll be back."

"What do you mean, you don't know when they'll be back? Get on the phone and call them. I need Chuck here, now."

"That's the problem, Ellie. It appears that Chuck and Sarah have been taken…"

"What do you mean, taken?"

After gently taking Ellie's arm and guiding her back into the room and pulling the door shut behind them, he took a deep breath, unsure how the news he was about to relay would be received. "Chuck and Sarah haven't checked in since sometime yesterday. Both of their phones were found in the motel room they were checked into along with the travel bags. There was no sign of a struggle but we're assuming that they didn't leave voluntarily."

"John, what the hell is going on? I thought the Intersect made Chuck some sort of 'super agent' or something."

"Ellie, the Intersect makes Chuck a force to be reckoned with, that's true, but it doesn't make him a 'super agent', as you put it. We don't even know, for sure, that he and Sarah have been taken but, it is beginning to look like that is what happened. We think that whoever is behind this may have come for Chuck at the apartment and found Devon instead."

"So, what you're saying, John, is that my boyfriend took a beating because of the shit that's in my little brother's head? And that my brother and his 'girlfriend' may have been snatched by someone who's after that same 'stuff'? Do I have that about right?"

"Well, basically, yeah" Casey answered, waiting for the explosion that he was sure would happen. Hoping to at least stall the inevitable, he decided to try a different track…honesty. "Ellie, it's not just 'stuff', the Intersect is the sum total of all the information that all of the U.S. government intelligence agencies have gathered and consider to be of vital importance. Your brother is of vital importance and if any group that is opposed to the status quo were to find out about him, they would throw all of their resources into 'obtaining' his services."

"So, you're telling me that some group that's opposed to the government has kidnapped Chuck?"

"We don't know that for sure. He and Sarah may just be on the run and ditched their phones so they couldn't be tracked and they're just laying low until they feel it's safe to make contact…or"

"Or what, John?"

"They may have gone off grid, run away…"

"John, my brother may be a lot of things but he would never leave without talking to me. You can trust me on that. Has anyone talked to the douche bag, asked him if he knows anything? Maybe Bryce had something to do with all of this?"

"Believe me, there are a lot of people who would like to talk with Mr. Larkin but he has made himself really scarce. I think that the only person who might have been able to find him is your brother and the only person who might be able to help us find your brother is, how did your brother once refer to him, oh yeah…Bryce Larkin…"

"…douche bag at large" Ellie finished for the NSA agent, a smile appearing briefly on her face. "So, what you're saying John, is that the Intersect is the key to finding Bryce, who might be the key to finding my little brother?"

"Yes, a real catch-22" Casey answered and then wondered about the sudden speculative look in her eyes. Before he could figure out what question he should ask, Ellie had walked back around the bed and picked up her boyfriend's hand before sitting back down.

"John, I expect you to keep me up to date."

"I will" the big man said, realizing that he'd been invited to leave and not wanting to say or ask anything that might upset the surprisingly calm woman. Turning quickly, John Casey was out of the room and half way to the elevator before pulling his phone from his pocket and hitting the speed dial that would connect him with General Diane Beckman so he could check in, hoping that something had turned up because he really didn't want to face Ellie Bartowski, again, without some good news.

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Ellie waited until she was sure that John Casey was out of hearing range before she gave her boyfriend's hand a brief squeeze and smiled when the gesture was returned. "How much of that did you hear?"

"Um…all of it?" Devon answered, his scratchy voice prompting Ellie to let go of his hand and reach for the cup of ice water she'd brought into the room earlier, guiding the straw to his lips and encouraging him to drink slowly.

"Can you tell me what happened? Who did this to you?"

"I don't know who they were, El. I walked into the apartment and there were four guys who wanted to know where Bryce Larkin was."

"I knew it! God damn Bryce Larkin! What happened after that?"

"When I told them that I didn't know what they were talking about, they got pissed and that's about all I can remember. How bad is it, El? Why can't I open my eyes?"

"They gave you a beating, Devon. Your eyes are swollen shut but the swelling has already gone down and I think you should be able to open your eyes by the time I take you home tomorrow."

"Ellie, I don't want you going back to the apartment if there's any chance that it's not safe."

"Of course" Ellie answered, not bothering to tell her boyfriend that she planned to take some steps to make sure they were safe. "I'm going to go and take care of a few things. I'll be back soon" she said before placing a gentle kiss on Devon's forehead before giving his hand another squeeze and then leaving, telling herself that she had to get out of the room before she lost the courage to go through with what she had planned.

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It had been almost 48 hours since his neighbors had returned home and Ellie had come rushing over, wondering how their apartment had been transformed from the disaster area it had been after the attack on Devon to the perfectly arranged apartment they'd found when they'd come home from the hospital. He remembered the look of gratitude he'd received when he'd explained that a group of NSA cleaners had worked overtime to make sure that the couple had found no signs of the attack when they'd gotten home. Ellie had thanked him and he believed that would be that after he'd told her that the government had simply wanted to take care of them and that there were no strings attached.

At the sound of someone knocking at his front door, John Casey looked up from the reports he'd been going over and, after tapping a quick sequence on his keyboard and seeing who was standing outside, he made his way to the door and pulled it open. "Ellie, come on in. What can I do for you?" he asked as he watched his guest walked over to his desk and picked up a knife he had laying there. He wondered what was going on and then felt his mouth drop open when Ellie Bartowski flipped open the 'butterfly' blade and then, like a seasoned pro, ran through a series of motions that made the knife seem alive in her hand. Before he could say a word, she gave her hand a deft flip and the knife sailed towards him, nicking his ear before burying itself in doorframe behind him.

"What the hell, Ellie?" he almost shouted, his hand going to his ear. "You almost cut my ear off."

"John Casey, trust me when I say that if I wanted to cut your ear off, I would have. Now, close the door and come over here. We need to have a talk."

Stunned into silence, Casey did as instructed and just as he got close to the brunette, her hand moved towards him and he had a horrible sense of déjà vu, remembering when another Bartowski had moved his hand in a similar motion…and then the lights went out.

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John Casey opened his eyes and wondered how he'd ended up in his recliner because the last thing he remembered was standing on the other side of the room with Ellie Bartowski reaching her hand towards him. Shaking his head, he looked around and caught sight of his neighbor, sitting at his desk, talking to someone through a video link.. Looking closer, he was shocked to see General Diane Beckman and Director Langstom Graham were the people that Ellie was apparently speaking with. Before he could figure out what to say, the images on the monitor disappeared and Ellie turned to look at him, a satisfied smile on her face.

"What the hell is going on, Ellie? What did you do to me…wait, did your brother teach you that nerve pinch thing? Why were you talking to the General and the Director? How? What…" John finally shut his mouth when an impossible thought crossed his mind. "Ellie, did you…"

"John, you said you needed the Intersect to find the only man who might be able to find my little brother…well, lets get moving. We've got an Intersect now and the sooner we find that douche bag, the sooner we can find Chuck."

"Oh crap!" John Casey whispered when he realized what the woman sitting across the room from him had just said because he knew he didn't have an Intersect and that could only mean…"just my luck, double the Bartowski's, double the fun" the agent mumbled as he slowly got to his feet, surprised at how old he suddenly felt.

A/N: 2 Coming real soon...'Mr. Grumpy Pants Says I Do...Just In Time!'