A/N: I thought I'd wrap a short one-shot (ok, a two-shot now) around the characters having three different conversations. The story takes place in current time (or the large gap of time between Seasons 2 and 3), and kind of focuses on where things have left off post-finale.

Hope everybody enjoys this, and please review!

And of course, I don't own "Chuck." I couldn't afford it. If NBC ever decides to do a spinoff called "Lester" then maybe I could. But not "Chuck."

Conversations on a Saturday

One thing Sarah didn't like about her current assignment was the lack of anything resembling seasons. The possibility that a Saturday morning in January would feel just a little bit different from a Saturday morning in August was something she had taken for granted most of her life, and now she really missed it.

So, the breath of cool air was a bit of a surprise as she stepped outside. Her new jogging buddy seemed to barely notice, however. "C'mon Sarah," she heard him say. "The path off to the right is my favorite jogging route. Trust me, it's awesome."

Sarah smiled at the other's enthusiasm. Only Devon Woodcombe could get so excited about jogging. She picked up her pace and was soon right beside him. "So, why'd you ask me to join you?"

"Well, Ellie has never been big on the workouts, and Chuck, well, he's never shown any interest. So I thought it might be nice to have a workout buddy."

Devon hadn't said much to Sarah about what he had discovered a few weeks ago. Devon and Ellie had only just returned from their honeymoon, while Sarah had spent her time with Chuck and Casey trying to learn everything they could about the new intersect. Sarah had been struggling with that as well, as she no longer knew what to expect from Chuck. This was partly because of the new "talents" that seemed to be appearing out of nowhere, and partly for other reasons. She always liked working out, because it helped her clear her mind of such situations. However, Devon seemed to prefer to spend his workouts talking.

"So next week some I'm going rock climbing with some buddies of mine from the hospital. I bet you and Chuck would have a lot of fun if you came along."

"To be honest, spending my time off seeking danger isn't really my thing."

"How dumb of me," Devon replied. "Why would you need to look for danger? It just comes right to you."

Sarah was reluctant to talk about her job, though she wasn't surprised Devon was bringing it up. "You know I can't talk to you about that, Devon. You aren't even supposed to know what we do."

"Oh, I understand. Believe me. I'm still trying to wrap my head around the whole thing. Chuck, a spy. I never would have guessed. You, I guess I can see that. And John Casey, definitely. But Chuck…"

"You should give him more credit. Chuck can surprise you." Sarah couldn't go into details, but she didn't want to see her asset insulted either.

"Oh, no doubt. I just never realized he was such a good actor. The whole bumbling, Nerd Herd thing. He really pulls it off." Sarah smiled.

The path was now leading into a small park. Devon motioned to a small newsstand by the side of the road. "C'mon. Let's get some water. And then we can head around the park, before we head back. I want to see Ellie when she gets home from her shift."

Ellie sighed happily. These overnight shifts were always bad, but they were especially rough when one had only just returned from her honeymoon. Thankfully, she had been able to leave a little bit early, since apparently it was too nice a day for anybody in the greater Burbank area to be sick. As she entered the house, she found two notes on the kitchen table. One from Devon, saying he was out jogging with Sarah, and the second from Chuck saying he was spending the day with John Casey.

Ellie smiled. This was good news for several reasons. It was great that Devon had found somebody to jog with, and he could stop bugging her about it. It was great that Chuck had found somebody to hang out with now that Morgan was gone. And it was great that the house was deserted, so she could enjoy some quality "Ellie" time without interruption.

Unfortunately, "Ellie" time was quickly interrupted by the ringing of the telephone. She grudgingly picked up the phone. "Hello?"

"Chuck?"

"Chuck's not here right now. Morgan, is that you?"

"Ellie, where's Chuck? I need him."

"I'm sorry Morgan. He's out for the day. Have you tried his cell?"

"He's not picking up! That's why I called here. This is an emergency!"

"What's going on? Aren't you in Hawaii?"

"Yeah. I'm supposed to interview for the Benihana school today. And I'm freaking out. I need Chuck to talk me through it."

"Well, what about Anna?"

"My Anna Banana is great at a lot of things. Pep talks aren't one of them. I need the patented Chuck Bartowski psyching up!"

Ellie sighed. This wasn't going to be a short call. "Morgan, I don't know what to tell you. Chuck is out with John Casey. I don't know when he'll be back."

"Wait, you mean he's already replaced me with a new best friend? And it's John Casey? That is wrong in so many ways!"

"I'm sure he's not replacing you, Morgan. I know he misses you." Still, Ellie thought, it was nice that Chuck had found somebody to hang out with that would involve a little less fooling around playing silly games.

The explosion was louder than Chuck had expected. He didn't know why; in the last couple of years he'd witnessed more explosions than anyone would ever want to.

"Not bad." Casey handed the binoculars over to Chuck. There was a glitter in Casey's eyes and a small smile had escaped from his usual stony gaze. The man liked his explosions. "I call that a thing of beauty."

"So that's what you find beautiful, Casey? Exploding school buses?"

Casey shrugged. "It was an old bus I found abandoned. Hadn't been used in years. One of those short buses, like you used to ride."

"Oh, ha ha. Well, I guess we can add explosives to the intersect's skill set list."

Casey's frown surprised Chuck. He would have thought that having an asset that could handle explosives would have pleased the NSA agent. Not that he could explain what he had done, or even exactly remember what he had done. It was as if he had been a marionette whose strings were being pulled by some demolition-savvy puppeteer.

Casey was still glowering. "What gives?" Chuck asked. "I thought you'd be thrilled I could do all this stuff now. You could go off on some non-babysitting missions."

Casey grunted. "You think you can protect yourself now?"

"Well, you saw the kung fu moves, right? And, all the firearms you had me try. If I'm remembering right, I believe I outshot you."

Casey's eyes narrowed. "I see. You think you're some superspy now, huh? You know, some of us worked hard to be able to do what we do. Years of training. Hours of drilling, repeating the same things, over and over. It took all that for me to be as good at all of this as I am today. And you think you're better than that, just because you plugged a toaster into your brain?"

Chuck stared at him silently, before muttering, "I'm, uh…"

"Come on, moron!" Casey growled. "Time to see what other skills you've 'earned.'" Chuck winced as Casey grabbed his arm and dragged him back to the car.

"So can I ask you questions if I don't bring up National Security or anything?"

Sarah eyed Devon warily as she swallowed a gulp of water from the bottle. She was starting to worry that her 'jogging buddy' was turning into Barbara Walters. "I don't know. What are you asking?"

"You guys must be able to do about anything, right?"

"Well, I don't know about that."

"You probably can, say, break into any locked door, right?"

Sarah shrugged. It was a simple enough questions, so she figured she could answer. "Usually, yes."

"That must be awesome. You'll have to show me how next time so I can be ready next time I lock myself out of the house."

"Well, there's always the Morgan door."

"True. But I'd be worried if I was sneaking into Chuck's room. I might be interrupting you two."

Sarah saw Devon give her a pointed look, and realized she was blushing.

"And you can probably fight off men twice your size."

"Yes, if I have to."

"Awesome." Devon took a big gulp of his water, and dropped the bottle into the plastic recycle bin. "How many languages do you speak?"

"Nine."

"Wow. I can barely even order takeout Thai."

Sarah swallowed the last of her water, and they started heading down the pathway through the park. Once her strides were even with Devon's he spoke again.

"Ever been shot?"

"Yes," she said somewhat reluctantly, not eager to get into the dangerous aspects of her job.

"Huh. I'll bet John has been shot a lot too."

"You mean on the job or in his personal life."

Devon chuckled. "And Chuck?"

Sarah stopped running. "Devon, you can ask about me, but I can't talk to you about Chuck. If it gets back to Ellie…"

"I understand." He continued on down the path. Sarah watched him for a moment, then moved to follow him.

"Ellie, you've got to be Chuck for me today. Tell me what to do."

"Well, I assume the answer to that is to go to your interview."

"That can't be all you've got! What if I go to the interview and they hate me?"

"They won't…hate you. You'll be fine."

"But what if they ask me questions?"

"It's an interview, Morgan. Of course they're going to ask you questions."

"And I'll have to answer them? That's barbaric!"

"Didn't you have to interview when you applied to Buy More?"

"Are you kidding? I handed a half-filled application to Big Mike, he stared at me for about five minutes, and then threw a green shirt at me. This other way is just…wrong to me."

Ellie sighed and sat down on the couch. The warm bath was going to have to wait.

The Crown Vic was notably silent as they drove back towards town. Chuck finally decided that he couldn't take any more of the awkward silence. "Look, I'm sorry I offended you."

When the usual grunt didn't come, he continued. "And when the thing goes off, I don't feel like I'm really the one doing it, so I know it's not me that's fighting off the bad guys, or blowing up school buses, or anything. So, I know it's not something that I can take …pride in."

Finally, a noncommittal grunt came in response.

"It's not like I can even control it. The other day, Awesome got me to play catch as some sort of brotherly bonding thing. And I threw what he called some 'knee-buckling 12-to-6 curve ball.' He looked at me with such amazement. And I didn't even know what it was. Why would the intersect even have that in there?"

Casey drove silently for a moment. "Undercover work."

"Really? They think I'd need to go undercover with the Dodgers?"

"Never know what you need to know when you're undercover. There's probably all sorts of random stuff in there for various undercover assignments."

"Good to know I won't be expected to try to kill an enemy agent with my blazing fastball."

"Actually, if you hit just the right spot of the head…"

Chuck raised up his hand. "Don't need to know, but thanks anyway Casey." He reflected for a little while, as the car headed into town. "So what kind of other skills do I have that I wouldn't know about?"

Casey shrugged. "I've been on all sorts of undercover assignments, and I've needed to be able to do all sorts of things to look the part. I know more about fixing roofs than I ever wanted to."

"Great, I can't wait to show off my brand-new roofing skills."

"I'm sure there's all sorts of other things too." Casey turned his head, and flashed Chuck a quick smirk. "Seduction, perhaps. We know you haven't come by any natural skills in that department, but maybe the machine gave you some. But don't try anything on me. Save that for your dwarf friend."

Chuck took a moment to try to decide if Morgan was more of a "Disney" dwarf or a Tolkien dwarf. Then he took a longer moment imagining using the intersect's seduction skills on somebody that wasn't Morgan.

He sighed. "So I guess the next time a sexy Russian double agent visits, it'll be my job to find out what she knows."

"Let's hope not. Unless it's a sexy male Russian double agent."

Chuck was about to retort, but he recognized a storefront off to the right. "Casey, stop here!"

"What's your problem now?"

"Nothing. I just want to test this thing out."