AN: I'm have been interning in DC all summer for the Senate, so I decided to continue Team Bartowski's story and through in some DC tidbits at the same time. :)
Chapter One
'Cause you can shoot me straight
Straight to the heart 'cause you already have it
Say what you wanna say, we're coming out of the gray
What goes around now is coming back down today.
Straight Away – Mat Kearney
--
Marriage had, in many ways, had a calming affect on Ellie. In other ways, it had only served to make her more ferocious. While she happily settled into being Mrs. Awesome (though she smacked Chuck whenever he called her that), the subject of Chuck's future and where Sarah fit into it now seemed to be something she wouldn't let slip.
"Oh my God, Ellie, will you drop it? I am not going on a trip with Sarah to propose to her!" Chuck lifted a box full of pictures and scrapbooks and began to walk, trying to ignore his hound-like sister who was at his heels.
"Why else would you two take a long trip to Washington DC?" she countered, popping around him to stand in his path. Chuck stopped and sighed. "Why else, hm? You two have been going out for almost two years, Chuck! It's time to make a move or call it quits."
He sidled past her, out towards where Awesome's car was parked by the curb, crammed with boxes and suitcases. "Remember how well everything turned out the last time I took your advice on that particular course of action?" he quipped dryly, making Ellie frown.
"Well, admittedly, that…wasn't the right thing to do at the time. But seriously, Chuck, you're obviously serious about the girl! She's moving in here in two days and you're about to take a trip across the country together! Why else are you going to DC, if not to propose?"
Why were they going to Washington DC? Well, the answer was simple, and as Chuck placed the box into Awesome's car, he mulled it over. He'd been free of the Intersect, he'd done something brave and stupid, he was now stuck with Intersect 2.0, and the government wasn't so happy about this new and improved Intersect. Or, rather, they were plenty pleased with the new Intersect, just not so much that it was now housed (yet again) in Chuck's head.
"Just…a vacation," he said wearily. "We just need a vacation." How true those words were. Chuck thought back to when he had asked Sarah to do him the honor of going on vacation with him. There was nothing he would like better than to lie on a beach somewhere with only sun and sand and Sarah. No Intersect, no guilt over Bryce, no government interference. Just Sarah.
Ellie made that face she made when she knew Chuck wasn't telling her the whole truth (which was pretty often these days) but she knew if she pushed it would just be worse. "Well, you two have been stressed out lately." Suddenly a bright smile broke across her face and she leaned up to press a quick kiss to his cheek. "Get away from California, brother. The BuyMore, the wedding, all of that is staying back here. You just get away for a while, okay?"
Chuck's heart swelled with adoration for his sister. "Thanks, El." He hugged her tightly. "I'll call you when we get there."
Awesome came up and clapped his hand on Chuck's shoulder. "Later, bro. Have an awesome flight." He leaned in and whispered in Chuck's ear. "I've got your back, bro. No worries." With a wink and a firm shoulder squeeze, Awesome backed off. Chuck waved to his sister and his…his brother, and then climbed in the car.
He spent most of the drive to Sarah's thinking about the trip ahead of them. He didn't really know what was in store for him, which was mildly terrifying, but he assumed that Beckman would want to question him…maybe there would be tests…God, he hoped there weren't tests.
But really, he'd kind of like to know what was going on with him. Because, you know, he was Chuck Bartowski. And while he'd sort of (not really) gotten used to being the human Intersect, he wasn't really used to being Neo. Sure, it was cool…but kind of weird. And he'd been so sore afterward he could hardly move. His muscles were not used to moving like that.
And then there was the Sarah issue. Part of Chuck had been (very secretly) hoping that she would find it…hot – or something – that he could all of a sudden turn into a ninja. But no, she had been shocked, then angry at him, and then completely shut off. For God's sake, Casey had to tell him a couple quick remedies for fighting injuries because she wouldn't talk to him.
In fact, most of his contact with their little team in the past week had been with Casey. The Colonel seemed almost…proud that Chuck was now carrying the Intersect 2.0. He couldn't go join his special forces team now, but Chuck kind of thought that Casey was finally starting to like their little ragtag team. Every time he saw Chuck, he sort of puffed up and actually smiled a tiny bit. Sarah just avoided his eyes.
With a sigh, he pulled up in front of her hotel and called her on his cell.
"Hello?" she said, her voice blank.
"I'm here. You want help with your bag?"
"No. I'm fine. I'll be down in a minute."
Chuck sighed again, frustrated that his newly enhanced brain didn't tell him what was going on in the minds of women. Then, guiltily, he looked down at his hands as they gripped the steering wheel. She was probably feeling upset and guilty about Bryce…though she had no reason to. It was all Chuck, this time. It was all on him.
A sharp knock on his window broke him out of his reverie. Sarah was standing outside, her hair back in a tight ponytail, bangs falling across her forehead. She nodded towards the trunk, and he jumped to open it. A few seconds later, she was sliding into the seat next to him.
"Hi," he said.
"Good morning," she replied shortly, staring straight ahead.
As they drove, Chuck thought of twelve different ways to start a conversation. All of them sucked. Since when had it been so hard to talk to Sarah?
"So is it just the two of us on this trip?" he said, trying to sound casual. He wouldn't quite tell if he really wanted it to be just the two of them or if that would be slightly horrific.
"No, Casey's meeting us at the airport."
"This ought to be fun," he muttered. For a tiny moment he expected Sarah to give him a look and tell him to get over it, but she just stared ahead of them. He sighed.
The flight was not a terribly pleasant one. Sarah was the smallest, so she had been allocated to the middle seat, where she sat stoically reading something in German that Chuck didn't recognize. Not that, you know, he knew German anyway. Chuck was pressed against the window, somehow feeling like the thing to do was to give her space. So he listened to his iPod, watched some crappy in-flight movie and bickered with Casey of Sarah's head.
"The CIA or NSA couldn't get us an upgrade to first class or anything?" he said snarkily as he made the two agents stand up to let him get out of his window seat.
"Shut up," Casey snapped, but he seemed a little annoyed by the same fact.
As they approached DC, he craned his neck to peer out of the tiny window. Down below, he could see the river, the National Mall, the Washington Monument, the Capitol Building…he stared at it avidly, but the other two ignored the view. Chuck, however, had never been to Washington DC before and so was more than a little awed to see the nation's capitol in person. Then the plane began to circle into National Airport and his view changed from the capitol to a bright stretch of sky.
"So, you two have been really vague about this whole thing," said Chuck as they waited for their bags. "Now that I've put everything on hold and followed you here to DC with barely any explanation, I think I deserve one. I know that Beckman wants to talk to me about the whole Intersect 2.0 thing, but couldn't we just do a video chat or something?"
"The NSA wants to perform some tests on you," Sarah said shortly.
"Tests?" Chuck said, mild panic creeping into his voice. "What kind of tests? Not the kind with needles, right, because you guys know how I feel about needles." They didn't answer. "Guys? Needles?"
"There are our bags," said Casey blithely, walking to the carousel to grab their three bags. Chuck could only watch and pray that they were just winding him up.
Again, Chuck was the only one staring out the window as they drove. With Casey at the wheel and Sarah sitting silently in the passenger seat, Chuck was free to ignore them and just look at the beautiful city as they wound their way through it. "Guys, there's the Jefferson Memorial! And the Washington Monument! And the Smithsonian Castle! And the Air and Space Museum!"
"Chuck, shut it or I will shut it for you," growled Casey. The tension radiating off of Sarah had begun to affect him, and while he seemed almost excited to show Chuck off to the NSA, he didn't like the team being broken up. Why was the most agonizing romance of his life not even his own? He shoved that train of thought to the back of his mind and kept on driving.
"Why do people even live on the east coast? It's so freaking humid here," Chuck complained, vaguely reminiscent of a five-year-old child.
Casey's hands tightened on the steering wheel. "We both lived here for a good portion of our lives, and didn't I tell you to shut up?"
"Right. Shutting up."
Chuck was too busy looking at all of the buildings that were fairly hideous (why oh why had the government decided to build a bunch of buildings in the early 80's?) but housed important entities. Politics weren't really his thing, but he got a kick out of seeing the Department of Labor and the Environmental Protection Agency.
They drove up to yet another ugly building, Casey flashed a badge at the guard and they drove down into an underground parking garage. As they climbed out of the car, Chuck couldn't help but ask more questions.
"So is this where the NSA headquarters are? Is this where the tests are going to happen? You guys totally didn't answer my question about the needles, either."
"This is a secure meeting location," Casey said cryptically. One extremely tense and awkward elevator ride later, Chuck was lead into a conference room with no windows and a one-way mirror taking up one wall. Chuck was starting to get a very bad feeling about this.
They waited for what felt like an eternity. Sarah tried her best to look like she wasn't pacing, Casey stood completely still with his hands clasped behind his back and Chuck sat facing the one-way mirror, staring at it and trying to quell the nervous tingling that was rising in his stomach.
Finally, the door opened. An older man with horned glasses entered the room, flanked by a middle-aged woman and a younger man who looked younger thank Chuck.
"Dr. Hastings?" asked Sarah quickly.
"Yes, I'm Dr. Hastings," said the older man. "And these are my colleagues, Dr.s Juneau," the woman nodded and gave a tiny smile, "and Kent." The younger man didn't smile, just nodded in a firm manner. "And I'm assuming that you two are the handlers and you," he turned towards Chuck, "are Chuck Bartowski. The Human Intersect."
"Version 2.0," said Chuck in an awkward attempt to make a joke. Dr. Juneau smiled like she thought it was funny but Hastings and Kent didn't even blink.
"I've already received the testimony of both Walker and Casey, so you two may leave."
For a moment it looked like Casey and Sarah were going to protest, but then they kept their heads down and left the room. Chuck watched them go and swallowed. This couldn't be good.
"Now, Mr. Bartowski, we – "
"Chuck's fine."
The doctor paused as he was sitting down, blinking at Chuck. "Ah. Alright. Chuck. We are very curious as to how the new Intersect has been changed and how the new flashes work."
"Shouldn't you guys, I don't know, already know that?" Chuck clasped his hands on the table, looking from one doctor to another to another. Only Juneau seemed remotely human to him.
"You are the first human subject for this updated version of the Intersect. And, of course, we only know so much about the human brain. Yours, Mr. Bartowski, is very, very special, as I'm sure you've figured out by now." Chuck gave a breathy laugh and refrained from making a snarky comment. "This Intersect was meant for a trained agent, an agent who knew how to control every aspect of his humanity, who had the previous training to handle the more…intense parts of this Intersect."
"It was meant for Bryce Larkin," Chuck said quietly, swallowing back the guilt rising in his throat.
"Yes," Hastings continued unsympathetically. "And though you have done astonishingly well under the circumstances, we honestly don't know all of the ramifications of your actions that day regarding the upload of the new Intersect."
"Let's cut to the chase," said Chuck, leaning forward on his elbows. "The tests you want to perform. What are they? You want to test how the new Intersects acts? How I flash? What happens when I flash?"
"Yes," said Hastings. "We will put you in a number of situations that require you to flash, and we will record what happens."
They fell silent, waiting for his response. Chuck looked towards the one-way mirror, took a deep breath, and nodded.
"Alright. Let's get this over with."
--
On the other side of the mirror, Sarah was gripping her arms so tightly it almost hurt. Casey glanced at her a couple of times, but then figured that it was probably better if, as usual, the two of them didn't get into the whole emotional stuff. So Sarah just stood there and watched those doctors not even pretend to care about Chuck. They only cared about the supercomputer housed in his head. Which, at this moment in time, she really, really loathed.
She watched as a huge screen was lowered down one wall, and Chuck was seating facing it, facing away from them. She ached to be in there with him, just to put her hand on the back of his neck, to let him know they were there. That she was there.
"He'll be okay," Casey said gruffly, but she heard the worry in his voice. This whole time they hadn't told Chuck about the tests the NSA wanted to perform because they honestly didn't know what the tests were going to be either. Now, as the doctors began explaining the process, she felt nothing but dread and anger.
"We will run a series of images across the screen." The doctor's voice floated to them through the speaker. "You will flash, and we will employ several methods to test what abilities your are given with each flash, and how longs those abilities last. Would I be correct in assuming that your fighting skills disappeared after some time?"
"Yeah," said Chuck. Sarah could hear the unease in his voice.
"How long did they last?"
"I don't know." At the look the doctor gave him, Chuck retaliated. "I was kind of busy with everything else that was going on to catalogue my kung fu skills. Plus, it didn't really occur to me that they would…fade."
The doctor made some sort of disapproving humming noise and she saw Chuck's shoulders tense. Her own did as well, her hackles bristling. No one treated Chuck Bartowski like he was stupid on her watch.
Then the tests began. Sarah paced back and forth in front of the mirror as image after image shot across the screen and Chuck shifted in the chair. The three doctors sat to the side and recorded…doctorly things. Every so often the images would stop and Hastings would ask Chuck what he had flashed on and if he sensed any new abilities. Sometimes nothing new came with the flash, just information. Other times, Chuck would say in a semi-amazed voice that he suddenly knew how to do things like tie and Eye Splice Knot or hotwire a '67 Mustang or speak Xhosa.
This went on for hours. And hours. It was obvious that the constant flashing was exhausting and quite possibly painful for Chuck. He slumped in his chair and his voice became flat and tired, but the doctors kept on going. Sarah wanted to bang her fist on the one-way mirror and yell at them for being so insensitive towards another human being. Towards Chuck Bartowski, who deserved so much better than this from the government he had been serving.
"Are they going to finish soon?" she said angrily to Casey. "He's obviously exhausted." Casey shrugged like he didn't care, but she could tell by his stance that he was anything but calm. Frustration seething beneath her skin, Sarah turned away. She couldn't even watch anymore, couldn't keep feeling so helpless. When it came to protecting Chuck – from anything, anyone – she did not like feeling helpless.
Then, sometime near three in the morning, the doctors finally decided they had enough information to begin (Begin? Sarah seethed in her mind) their research. They left the room, left Chuck in the chair, and didn't look back. Sarah's first impulse was to run to Chuck and make sure he was okay, but as she took a step towards the door, something held her back. A lump rose in her throat.
By that time, Casey was already past her and through the door, dragging Chuck to his feet and helping him to the door. Sarah hovered awkwardly, but Chuck was close to passing out with exhaustion, so she slung and arm around him to help Casey.
He smelled like a sterile airplane, but underneath that he smelled like Chuck. It was like a kick to the stomach as she inhaled it, so she held her breath.
--
Chuck woke in a strange hotel room, a beam of sunlight sneaking through the curtains to hit him directly in the eyes. Blinking and sitting up, he stretched his incredibly sore muscles and rubbed a hand across his face. He felt kind of like someone had taken a hammer and hit him over the head with it. Repeatedly. And he wasn't even hungover. Life just wasn't fair.
At that moment, the door opened and Casey stuck his head in. Chuck was too tired to be surprised. "Good, you're awake," Casey said briskly. "Meeting in half an hour."
"Meeting with who? And what are you doing in my room?" Chuck asked blearily, running a hand through his hair and making it stand on end.
"We rented a suite. The meeting's with the new director of the CIA, Benjamin Saunders." With that, he shut the door.
Chuck let loose a deep-seated sigh. This was going to be some trip.
--
TBC!
