I don't own Chuck, or any of its characters. I also don't own a giraffe.

This is a bit of a 180 from the other story I did, but I thought I'd try something different. I hope everybody will bear with me on this.

This is a bit of an A/U story, deviating from around midway through Season 2 (and about 6 months in the future).

Chapter 1

"Morgan!"

I had been staring intently at the wall, and hadn't heard her come in. I turned to her, somewhat reluctantly, and studied her face. At one time, I had seen something I had thought could have been love there. Maybe I was fooling myself at the time. I'd misread women before. Whatever it was, it wasn't there now. All I could see was frustration, impatience, and a little bit of pity.

"Anna." I held my arm out to her. She studied it, as if it was radioactive.

"We were supposed to meet for dinner two hours ago."

I winced. "Sorry. I was just checking up on something, and…"

"Morgan," she glared at me. "I don't want to hear about it. You left me waiting at that restaurant…"

"I said I'm sorry. But I've got to tell you. I figured out…"

"I told you, I don't want to hear about it." She looked at me for a while, and her face softened slightly. "Don't you think it's time you gave this up?"

"Anna, I can't give this up. I owe it to Chuck…"

"Chuck's dead, Morgan!"

Anna's eyes were blazing at me. I wanted to return her gaze, but couldn't. Finally, I heard her sigh. Neither of us wanted to have this conversation again. I looked back up at the wall, and studied the various pictures and notes tacked up there. Finally, my eyes found the newspaper clipping, and the headline that always turned my blood to ice. "Local man dies in automobile accident."

"I can't do this anymore."

I looked back up at Anna. Her hands were on her hips, and she was studying me intently.

"You have to move on with your life, Morgan. Chuck is gone. I hope you can move on with me. But only if you give all of this up," she said as she gestured towards the wall.

I want to. I really do. I've always cared about Anna. I've always wished the best for her.

Which is why I shake my head, and say, "I'm sorry. I have to keep going. I think I've finally had a breakthrough."

Anna looks at me for a moment, nods her head, and says, "Goodbye, Morgan." She turns around and walks out the door.

She'll be better off without me. I'd known that this day would be coming for quite a while. I almost wish she'd forced the issue sooner.

I looked back at the wall, and examine the crime scene report I'd tacked onto it. It hadn't been easy getting it, but fortunately one of the younger Buy More employees had some rudimentary hacking skills. I'd had to take several of his shifts in return for the favor. In the end, I'm not sure it was worth it. There wasn't much to see. A single witness had been found, and she had testified that the Nerd Herder had been in the middle of the intersection when the truck had plowed into it. Chuck hadn't stood a chance.

The investigation had been quick. According to the witness, the light had been green for the truck as it drove through. Chuck had been at fault. At least that's what everybody said.

Everybody but me. I knew Chuck too well. He drove like my grandmother, if my grandmother didn't have glaucoma and could actually see over the steering wheel. I tried to find the witness later on to see if she could have been mistaken, but she had moved away. The truck driver also had disappeared shortly after the accident.

I couldn't bear to look at the crime scene photos, and instead turned up to look at another photograph, this one taken a few months earlier, during happier times. Chuck was flashing his trademark goofy smile, with his arm around the woman next to him.

Sarah.

I knew she was the key.

"So, just like that?" Lester asked me between bites of his sandwich. He wiped a bit of mustard from his face with a napkin, then crumpled it up and tossed it into the Buy More break room's wastebasket.

"Yup. Just like that."

After a night alone with my thoughts, even Lester and Jeff felt like great company. I didn't really share their lunchtime enthusiasm though, as my sandwich lay untouched on the table. Man, I was sick of Subway.

"And you didn't try to win her back? No flowers, no boxes of chocolates? No heartfelt freestyle raps of devotion?"

"I think she's seen everything from the Morgan bag of romantic tricks by now. Besides, it's better this way."

"So she's fair game now, then?"

I turned from Lester to Jeff. He'd scarfed down his lunch already, and had been watching me through this conversation, the wheel clearly turning in his head. It's nice to know that some things never change. Though I have to admit the look on his face was one I hadn't seen before. I guess the prospect of a single Anna Wu will do that to him.

"Yes Jeff, Anna is single and available now."

Jeff grinned. "And after two years with you, her standards are promisingly low."

"You're an idiot, you know that?"

It took a moment for me to realize that Lester had addressed that to me and not Jeff.

"You had one thing in your life to keep you grounded. So now you're just going to spend all of your time going all Angela Lansbury, sniffing for clues that don't even exist."

"But that's what I came here to tell you! I finally found a lead!"

"And what's that?"

"Sarah."

Lester stood up and walked to the vending machine. "Sarah's gone, Morgan. She's been gone since the accident." He shoved his dollar into the machine, and grabbed the candy bar out of the bottom door.

"Exactly."

Lester looked at me in confusion. "Not seeing the point here, man. She moved away after her boyfriend died. Nothing weird about that. Besides, the Orange Orange was closing."

"And the timing of that doesn't seem weird to you?"

"Not really. It's not like the place did any business."

"Right. Would did that place get, two customers a day? And yet, it stayed open for a year and a half." I could see that I had Lester's attention now, as he put the candy bar down on the table. "Before that, it was a Weinerlicious, and that did even worse."

"Well, that wasn't a surprise. Why would anybody open up a hot dog place in Southern California anyway?"

"True. But after, what, two days, the Orange Orange opened up in its place. And now that it shut down, that place has stayed closed for the last six months. Why wouldn't anybody else move in? This is a big shopping center." Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jeff snatch Lester's candy bar.

Lester looked at me intently. "Ok, I see what you're getting at," Lester nodded. "Sarah secretly opened up her own restaurant, just so she could be close to Chuck. And then, she decided to kill him. Seriously dude, that's brilliant! Dude!" he turned to Jeff, and snatched the candy bar from his hand.

"Well, something isn't right about it. It seems like something's being covered up. For all we know, Chuck may not even be dead."

Both Lester and Jeff were now looking at me sadly. "I thought I was supposed to be the conspiracy theorist," Jeff remarked. "Are you going to eat that?" he gestured at my sandwich.

I shrugged. Lester had a point, but I knew that something wasn't right about the whole situation. I just had to figure out what it was. Somehow, I doubted that Lester and Jeff would be much help with that. I glanced at my watch. "1 PM. I'd better get out of here."

"Eh, you're probably safe. The manager hasn't showed up so far today."

"Really? That doesn't sound like the esteemed Emmett Milbarge."

"Yeah well, I've learned not to ask. Still, if he sees you here on Buy More property, well, you remember what happened last time."

"Well, I don't particularly want to see him either." I stood up. "Well, you gentlemen enjoy the day in Buymoria." The name still brought a smile to my face, if only for a fleeting moment.

"Yeah, and you try listening to yourself. We've got a sale on tape recorders. Buy one, and record yourself talking. You'll see how insane you sound."

As I carefully stepped out of the Buy More back entrance, I shook my head. My best friend was gone, I was out of a job, and my girl friend had dumped me, but you don't realize how bad things get until Lester Patel becomes the voice of reason in your life. Still, I had to keep going. Chuck had meant too much in my life for me to give up now.