Disclaimer: I don't own either Jake 2.0 or Chuck. If I did, I'd have tried harder to continue Jake 2.0, a series that came to a conclusion MUCH too soon…
Timeframe: Jake 2.0 – Post series. Chuck – Between 1x08 (Chuck Versus the Truth) and 1x09 (Chuck Versus the Imported Hard Salami)
Author Notes: Thanks so much to my betas, Rick and Elizabeth! You've made this story SO much better with your criticism & direction!
Ding!
The sound simultaneously caused the man in front of the counter to wince and the man behind the counter to look up.
"Welcome to Buy More, home of the Nerd Herd. Can I help you?" the man behind the counter asked.
"Yes. I'm looking for a Charles Bartowski," the customer said.
"That's me," returned Chuck as he stuck out his hand to shake. He quickly sized the man up. He was rather lanky with unkempt hair. He was roughly Chuck's height. He also had the air of a computer technician about him. Chuck immediately decided he was going to like this guy. "And you are?"
"My name's Jake Foley," he stated.
With this little piece of information, Chuck's eyes dilated. Images quickly flashed through his mind: An NSA photo ID; nanobot research for Project Free Target; a notated schematic of a nanite; an image of Jake jumping an alley from one rooftop to another; and a painting of a dirt road past some woods with mountains in the background.
"Wow. That was interesting to watch" said Jake when Chuck's eyes returned to normal.
"Agent Foley! It's so good to meet you!" Chuck exclaimed, barely able to contain his excitement.
"Shh, not so loud. Don't you think we should go somewhere a little more private to talk," Jake questioned.
"Oh, yeah, of course. Follow me," Chuck instructed. He quickly led Jake into the home theater room.
"Sorry, I'm still kind of new to this whole spy thing," Chuck admitted.
"It's OK," Jake chuckled. "I've been there before. You must be the human Intersect I've heard so much about."
"My friends just call me Chuck."
Just then, John Casey came bounding into the room. "Chuck! I heard you yell for an Agent … Oh."
"Casey! What are you doing here?" Jake asked, obviously surprised to see him doing sales in an electronics store.
"Oh, just protecting someone with even more government secrets in his body than you," Casey replied acerbically.
Jake turned to Chuck at that comment. "See, you aren't the only unwilling piece of government hardware. Though, I must say, it does have its benefits."
"I'll say! You're like the Six Million Dollar Man," Chuck answered.
"And you're a real-life Neo," Jake rejoined.
"Oh, great," Casey groaned. "Now there are two of them to spout off nerd culture at me!"
He was greeted by matching dopey grins.
"So, how do you know Casey?" Chuck asked Jake.
"We've worked together before a couple times," Jake answered. "Jakarta, wasn't it?"
"And Timbuktu," Casey added. "By the way, how well did you heal from that?"
"Not even a scar," Jake said dismissively.
"I know I only winged you, but I DID shoot you at close range," Casey commented.
At that moment, a very attractive blonde dressed in lederhosen rushed through the door.
"Casey! What's the situation?" she asked.
"False alarm. I thought Chuck was in trouble, but I guess he just flashed on Agent Foley here," Casey growled. With that, he turned and went back to prowling the store.
"Agent Foley?" the woman asked, with a disbelieving emphasis on the word "agent."
"My friends call me Jake," he said.
"Sarah Walker, CIA," she responded. "Wait, Jake Foley, NSA. THE Jake Foley?"
"You know of me? Is that a good thing or a bad thing?" Jake cracked.
"It's a good thing. A VERY good thing," Sarah replied quickly. "I've practically memorized your dossier. I've studied all the files on you. I've been wanting to meet you for a long time. How you helped Prince Malik Namir was so … inspiring."
"Well, thank you, but it was the least I could do. Anyone would have done the same," Jake responded humbly.
"Why do I feel like I'm only getting half of these stories?" Chuck asked rhetorically.
"No, they wouldn't, and you know it," Sarah said to Jake, ignoring Chuck's comment. "What you did was incredibly selfless. I feel honored just to have met you." With her last comment, Sarah smiled coyly and batted her eyes at Jake.
Jake, of course, didn't notice.
Chuck, however, did. He was surprised to realize he felt a little jealous. He knew he didn't have any reason to, since Sarah wasn't his girlfriend. She wasn't even his fake girlfriend any more. He had broken up with her so he could get to know Lou. Sarah could be interested in anyone she wanted, right?
Shaking off that train of thought, Chuck decided to rejoin the conversation. "So, Jake, what are you doing here in town?"
"I'm here to bring an upgrade for the intersect," Jake answered matter-of-factly as he got down to business. "My superiors would like to monitor your brain activity as you process the new images."
"But why did they send you?" Chuck couldn't help but ask.
"They would also like me to view the images at the same time. They want to take measurements of both my brain wave activity and my nanite activity. They're hoping that this diagnostic information can be used to improve the process to make it viable for the training of agents, both normal and nanite-enhanced."
"When do they want to do the upgrade?" Chuck asked.
"As soon as possible," Jake replied. "We can set it all up here in the home theater room after the store closes."
"Great!" Sarah exclaimed. "That gives us plenty of time to have a nice dinner and get to know each other better!"
"Count me in!" Chuck asserted quickly, not liking the idea of leaving Sarah alone with Jake. "My shift's done, so I can leave whenever you two are ready."
A quick look of disappointment flitted across Sarah's face. She decided to cover it with a question. "Chuck, wouldn't you rather go out with Lou?"
"Nah, she's working. And since we won't have too long together, I'd like to hang out with Jake. I have a feeling that we've got a lot in common," he replied. "Should we invite Casey?"
"No thanks," came a reply from right behind Chuck, making him jump. The other two had noticed his approach and weren't surprised. "I'd rather eat something from the break room fridge than listen to you two carrying on."
"Alrighty, then. Let's go. I'm starved!" Jake interposed. As they reached the exit, Jake said excitedly, "You guys have to check this out!"
A few moments later, a red Cadillac backed out of its parking spot and drove up to the front door. As the doors unlocked and popped open, Chuck and Sarah noticed that no one was driving. As they both turned to Jake, he couldn't contain his excitement any longer. His face burst into a giant grin. "Isn't that awesome? The rental they gave me at the airport is all computer controlled, so I can interface with it remotely."
"Sweet! Shotgun!" Chuck called out, jumping into the car before anyone could object.
Halfway through dinner, Sarah was about ready to shoot herself. Or Chuck and Jake. She hadn't decided which was a better option yet. Things had NOT gone as she'd hoped. Instead of having a beautiful dinner and sparkling conversation with Jake, she felt more like she'd been subjected to an episode of "Geeks Gone Wild." While the conversation had ranged across many subjects, she was unable to participate in any of them. Computer hardware repair, a dissection of the Wachowski brothers' cinematic and storytelling techniques, World of Warcraft strategies, and highlights from the original Star Trek TV series were all subjects that Sarah had absolutely no interest in.
Chuck, on the other hand, was totally in his element. Rarely did he find someone with a comprehensive knowledge of some of his favorite subjects in geekdom to match his own. He couldn't remember feeling this relaxed since he'd been downloaded with the Intersect. It was nice to know that he really wasn't alone. Of course he knew Sarah and Casey were always there to protect him, but it was comforting to know that there were others in similar situations as well. It was also obvious that Jake was a really nice guy. He wasn't responding to any of Sarah's attempts to flirt. Chuck wasn't sure if it was because he didn't notice or if he just wasn't interested. He was giving polite replies, but nothing more.
"OK, so who would win in a fight: Samus Aran or Master Chief?" Chuck asked.
"Ooh, tough one," Jake replied, pausing a moment to think. "I think Samus with her power suit could beat Master Chief. I bet some of her beam weapons could fry his suit. If she's in her Zero Suit, though, she doesn't stand a chance, especially if Master Chief is using a Needler and chucking sticky grenades."
"I bet a Jedi could defeat either of them," Chuck added.
"Well, it could probably cut through either suit," Jake admitted. "And we know lightsabers are really good against energy weapons. However, we don't really know how they'd do against projectile weapons."
"That's easy," Chuck interjected. "The Jedi could use the force to just stop the bullets. They wouldn't even need the lightsaber for that."
Sarah dropped her head into her arms on the table. She couldn't understand why she was attracted to EITHER of these two guys! Not only was Jake completely oblivious, Chuck seemed to be ignoring her continued attempts to flirt with Jake, too.
While Chuck and Jake moved on to a comparison of the Star Wars movies, Sarah tried to work out in her mind why was she so entranced by these two men. They were so different from the type of guys that usually enticed her. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that they were normal. Or relatively normal, at least. The borderline obsession shown by someone who had memorized every moment and could (and did) quote a TV series that had only lasted a handful of episodes couldn't be considered quite normal...
Suddenly, Jake's cell phone went off. Without even looking at it, he said "It's Casey. I'm guessing they're ready for us back at the Buy More." With that, he proceeded to start talking, still without opening his phone.
"Hey, Casey. What's up?" he asked.
"You geeks all ready for your little brain-frying upgrade?" came the voice over the phone.
"Yeah. We'll be back there in 20 minutes," Jake replied, severing the connection. He headed up to the front to pay the bill, waiting there after he finished while Chuck and Sarah gathered their things and joined him.
"Well, that was the most fun dinner conversation I've had in a long time," Jake said as they headed back to his rental car.
"Me too," Chuck echoed.
"Well, I'm glad SOMEONE enjoyed it," Sarah mumbled to herself.
Jake stopped suddenly and turned, causing Chuck to crash into him. Sarah barely avoided the pair. "I'm sorry, Sarah. I don't suppose that was exactly up your alley, was it?"
She looked shocked for a moment before she realized he had picked up what she'd said with his nano-hearing. "No," she acknowledged, "but I'm starting to get used to geekspeak after protecting Chuck."
"Hey, I resemble that remark," Chuck quipped
"We should have tried to include you more in the conversation. I promise, if there is a next time, I'll do better," Jake honestly stated, turning his big brown puppy dog eyes to look at Sarah.
"Here, let me get the door for you," he offered as they got to his car.
With one look into his eyes, combined with his sincere face and his chivalrous action, Sarah realized again why she was so captivated by him.
"Diane!" Jake yelled as he reached the home theater room at the Buy More. He quickly crossed the room and gave the petite, auburn-haired woman in a lab coat an enormous hug.
"Ow! Jake, you're crushing me!" she cried after a few moments.
"Oh! Sorry," he apologized, relaxing his hold but still keeping his arms around her. "What are you doing here?"
"I'm your doctor, silly. Who else do you think they would have observe this procedure?" she asked rhetorically.
"Of course. Why didn't Lou say anything to me?" Jake wondered out loud.
"Lou?" a startled Chuck asked.
"My boss, not your girlfriend," Jake clarified.
Chuck started to correct him, since they weren't officially dating yet, but decided against it.
Diane did NOT fail to notice the looks that Sarah had been shooting in their direction since Jake had hugged her, and she saw that it had only intensified when Jake had mentioned Chuck's girlfriend. Since she wasn't sure what Sarah was more upset about, she decided it was best to ignore it.
"You must be Chuck," she stated. "I'm Diane Hughes."
Chuck's eyes went wide again as he flashed on Diane.
"Nice to meet you, Dr. Hughes," Chuck answered. "And let me say, I'm glad that you're the one taking care of my new buddy Jake here. It seems like you've had your fair share of excitement in your time with the NSA, too. It's nice to have someone with your expertise here to supervise this upgrade."
"Well, I've been looking forward to getting my hands on you for a while," Diane blurted out.
A very startled Chuck started choking.
"Excuse me?" Sarah said disdainfully.
When Diane realized what she'd just said, she started to blush furiously. "That's not what I meant! I mean, I've been really wanting to examine you!"
Both Jake and Casey were wearing large smirks. Chuck's jaw was flopping around. Sarah was shooting daggers at her.
"Your mind!" Diane clarified. "I've been dying to find out what makes you tick. Oh, never mind. So, are we ready to start?"
"What, no popcorn?" Jake cheekily replied.
Diane disentangled herself from Jake and gave him a playful swat on the shoulder.
"Yeah, let's do it," Chuck said. When he noticed Diane start to blush, Jake and Casey grinning and Sarah looking ready to kill again, he rewound his last statement in his head. "That didn't come out right."
"I think we all knew what you meant," Jake appeased. "Time's a wasting, so let's get this party started."
After Diane hooked up an EEG to Chuck and made sure the nanite diagnostics were functioning properly for Jake, she led Sarah and Casey out of the room, closing the curtains on their way out. After a minute, Diane's voice came over the stereo to tell them the image sequence was about to commence.
"So, what should I expect?" Jake quizzed Chuck.
"Honestly? I don't remember," Chuck stated, keeping his eyes focused on the screen in front of them. "The last time, I opened an e-mail, and the next thing I knew, it was 7:00 the next morning."
"Oh," was all Jake could say. Before he could ask another question, the images started to flash on the screen.
"Alright, we're done," Diane's voice came again over the stereo, startling both Jake and Chuck.
"What?" they chorused in unison.
"Are we done already?" Jake inquired.
"What time is it?" Chuck asked at the same time.
"It's been an hour," Diane calmly stated. "I'm now going to test each of you individually to check your memory retention. Jake, would you please come out here while I test Chuck?"
As Jake left the room, Chuck made himself more comfortable by moving to the middle of the couch and began his test. Jake took a restroom break, and by the time he returned, it was his turn.
After Jake finished, Diane revealed the results. "Chuck, your retention rate was consistent with your previous experience at about 98%. Jake, I saw no nanite activity during the memory loading process. During the retrieval process, your retention was 100%. About half the time, you answered without any nanite activity. The other half of the time, your replies were a little slower in coming because you required nanite enhancement to recall the information. In every case, though, you were able to load the correct information. Jake, do you realize what this means?"
"I know kung fu?" Jake quoted, causing Chuck to snort and Sarah and Casey to roll their eyes.
Diane could hardly contain her excitement. "No, but you could learn it in just a matter of moments! Well, at least all the moves. Training your body to use them would probably take some work, but you'd have all the techniques stored in your memory, ready for you when you needed to access them."
"Well, I guess that's what we needed to know. Time to go back to Fort Meade and do some number crunching?" Jake queried her. He got an energetic answering nod.
While Diane packed up her gear, Jake made his goodbyes. "Sarah, Chuck, nice meeting you. Casey, good to see you again. We look forward to working with you all in the future." After a handshake with Sarah, a salute to Casey, and the sign of the Klingon to Chuck, Jake wrapped an arm around Diane's shoulder and headed back out the exit to their home in Maryland. His car, seemingly of its own accord, came to meet them at the door to carry them off into the sunset.