A/N I own nothing that even remotely belongs to "Chuck". Honestly, they don't even ship Chuck T-shirts to where am I now. How's that for sad ?
Chuck VS The Alternate Beginning
part I
He wasn't ready to admit that it was a good idea.
The trip.
Not even to himself.
The thing was, that's simply not the way he spent his birthday. Alone, far from his family, with nothing but glimpses of his rather peculiar life to occupy his thoughts.
But it worked.
Time away from people who served as constant distraction from not so pleasant thoughts had been a blessing. He felt more composed now, stable, and certain of his feelings regarding his Stanford days. And her.
Slowly but surely the tears and heartache he felt every time his mind brought her up were transformed into experience, and it hurt less and less with every passing day. The Chuck Bartowski who walked out of Greyhound bus was a new man, ready for new challenges.
If only he knew.
Neither Ellie nor Awesome showed up to collect him, but it wasn't like he could blame them. His sister and her boyfriend both had crazy schedules and more often than not were called to the hospital in the middle of the night. Plus they both had to take care of him, which was more than any sister and future brother in law should ever bear and endure.
This trip was their idea as well. Ellie's actually, but it took a lot of convincing from both of them to finally make him do it.
He made his way towards cab station, mentally role-playing the conversation he'll have with both people that were too awesome for words, when he felt a presence of somebody behind him. Before he managed to force his lanky build to turn around, a silent hiss reached his ears and after a slight pinch in the back of his neck, he knew no more.
Some time later
After about 45 minutes of a heated debate with himself, Chuck finally came to conclusion that the place he was locked in was not a basement, or a cellar but most definitely an underground bunker. The moment exhaustion overpowered adrenaline surge from the kidnapping, Chuck's mind started drifting to truly scary places. To repress fear and paranoia, he had to occupy his mind somehow, till exhaustion took it's toll and finally allowed him to pass out. An apt description of the place he was being held in seemed to do the trick.
The room was large and irregular - that much he figured out judging by the way the sound of his whimpers was carried. When lights finally came on, Chuck's heart once again jumped into his throat, and as he could no longer pretend to be unconscious, it was the time to open his eyes.
He was right about the room – it was large, with stacks of shelves taking up most of the space, and possibly making for the whole irregular thing. It was dimly lit, but even so he was able to recognise a lone figure sitting on the other end of a corridor made from neighbouring shelves. He, whoever he was , looked oddly familiar.
"Dad ?" Chuck's mouth ran away from him as soon as he saw more of the profile of his kidnapper. Steven Bartowski was just like his only son remembered him to be. A loner, so the place suited him just fine, with his mind always in thousand different places but hardly ever in the room his body was currently occupying. And not a talker – Chuck added to his mental characteristics of his father, after waiting a minute for an answer.
Instead of giving one, the elder Bartowski just clicked the remote control in his hand, and giant screen behind him came to life, showing the courtyard of his home in a beautiful, high def black and white security feed. Nothing happened at first, but soon he saw Ellie, along with the Captain and Morgan being dragged out of their home. Bounded, and with their heads kept low they were being dragged away by a group of seven people, out of which only two were not wearing a mask.
" Major John Casey of the NSA" Steven said, freezing the feed that currently showed a burly man in his early 40's, in full tactical gear and a mean look on his face. Before Chuck could ask what was going on the picture changed, showing a beautiful blonde, wearing similar attire
"and Agent Sarah Walker. Casey's counterpart directly from the CIA"
"What happened ? " Chuck asked, unable to tear his eyes away from the screen.
"Two days ago, precisely on your birthday, and old friend of yours sent you an email. Inside this email was a computer program with thousands of government secrets inside. Those two went after it and since you weren't home at the time, they took the next best thing" Chuck could hear a sudden, but subtle change in his fathers voice. Granted, it's been years since the last time he heard the elder Bartowski speak and he didn't pride himself as the most astute individual, but the pain was there, clear as day. The picture on the screen changed once again
"Meet said friend of yours"
Chuck took only a fleeting look, recognising the face immediately. "We've met" he said stiffly, surprised with himself that he could somehow look Bryce Larkin straight in the face, so to speak, without overwhelming urge to look elsewhere.
"I don't think you have" Steven Bartowski said, and pushed another button on the remote. The screen displaying Larkin's visage was cut in half and the CIA part of his former best friends life stood right in front of his eyes.
From what he could recall, this whole evil kidnapper thing wasn't his father's usual MO. He always had answers, and was always eager to provide them, no matter the questions Chuck asked. The man facing him now was different. Tight clipped, focused and organised, not allowing anything to disrupt his thoughts. It was Steven Bartowski Chuck never had a chance to experience. Even when he distanced himself emotionally after his wife left, he still made it look like he cared. Now – it was anything but.
He didn't remember his father being a violent man, but it was impossible not to notice 3-point straps attached to his arms and legs. It quickly became obvious that his father believed in the nonsense he was spewing, and when Bartowski believed in something, there was no way of stopping one.
"Why am I tied up ?"
There was no response at all. His father seemed to be in one of his alternate states, like he used to describe them when he was younger. That meant he was totally unresponsive, and all you could do was wait.
"Have you ever heard of intersect ? " Chuck only shook his head no, afraid to brake whatever balance both Bartowskis managed to stumble upon.
"It's an organic computer, adaptable to be implemented inside human brain. That's what Bryce sent you"
Okay, that's getting ridiculous Chuck thought, squirming in his seat. The video he was shown made this whole story slightly more believable, but the human computer, come on ..
"Why am I tied up ? " Chuck asked once again, cutting into his fathers further explanation
"I need to finish what Larkin started. I need you to upload the Intersect and help me save Ellie" Chuck gulped. His father tied him up because it could be dangerous. Wait, who the hell was he kidding, uploading a computer directly into the brain, of course it was dangerous.
"Is it dangerous ?" his own voice sounded timid to his ears.
"No, there's no danger. I tested it myself" Steve answered, checking something up in the background machines
"If you don't want to hurt me, then why did you tie me up !"
"I haven't seen you in years Chuck. I had no idea how you would react and besides, your opinion doesn't matter" the last part was muttered quietly, but Chuck still heard the most of it.
If he didn't know how I'd react, and gave me no choice in the matter, how he could expect me to do what he wanted after upload, unless...
"I'd change me" Chuck breathed, coming to realisation. "I'm not going to be myself after that " Steven smiled, it was proud but slightly bitter smile
"What are you doing to me ?" he was way past caring about aggravating his own delusional father. From the look of things, it was as bad as it could get.
"We're saving Ellie" his father answered, straightening up and looking straight into his son's eyes. Yeah, right Chuck thought, gathering what remained of his courage.
"We ? " the younger Bartowski snarled "and how exactly are we doing that ?" his father took his time hooking up the last of the wires before answering
"The CIA and NSA was led to believe that agent Larkin died, destroying the Intersect and sending it to you. That's not entirely correct" the elder Bartowski took one last quick glace at all the wires, before turning back towards his son
"From what I know, he was apprehended by a rogue group of agents who call themselves Fulcrum. I'll be the first one trying to get him back."
"Who'll be the second one" It was worth asking, even though Chuck probably already knew the answer
"You" Oh, Of course
"If I succeed, I'll bring Bryce back here, get him to health and upload him with the Intersect. Once the agency will have their precious toy back, they'll hopefully release Ellie and the rest"
"Hopefully ?" that didn't sound like a sound plan
Steven shrugged "You can only predict so much"
"If you won't hear from me in the next 6 days, come back here and follow the instruction I left you. Are you ready ?"
Like I have a choice, but he nodded nonetheless.
"This Intersect is different than the one we're going to upload into Bryce. More specialised " Chuck didn't manage to ask what his father meant by that exactly, all of his attention was instantly turned towards two flickering screens.
About an hour later, Orion unhooked his son from the chair, and after closing Chuck's eyes, gently lied him down of the cot inside his lab.
"Aces Charles, your aces " after he ruffled his son's hair, he left, leaving a single note on the bedside table.
A/N Thanks for reading, hope to see you soon...