CHAPTER ONE
Family and friends are important to Chuck Bartowski. After his mother left they only become more important, which made watching his father slip away from them and disappear one day while they waited for pancakes even harder.
After his mother left Chuck was utterly distraught. It was his fault and he knew it. He broke her necklace. She had to be so angry at him for it she couldn't stand to even be near him anymore so she left everyone. His mother made his father cry in his office when he didn't know Chuck had sneaked out of his room, she made Ellie cry all day when Mother's Day came until they decided to make their own Mother's Day, and it was all because of him. But they didn't blame him.
Ellie had consoled him for days after she left. It had been the first time they slept in the same bed since he was too little to remember, but she'd spent a week with him, each taking turns consoling the other, exchanging assurances that they would be okay. It seemed so obvious that their father leaving was inevitable, but they had been too caught up in their own sorrows to realize how distant he'd become.
During school Morgan had become his pillar as Ellie was at home. The one time someone laughed and asked if he wanted his mommy, Morgan had stopped Chuck from going and punching him. "Ellie will be mad!" He'd reminded him, and Chuck couldn't do that to Ellie. If he made her mad at him now she'd start blaming him for Mom and would hate him, and he needed Ellie.
Chuck had spent an hour holding his pencil so tight he was worried it might snap if he had to cross something out, but by the end of class he'd decided to get a bit of revenge. He spent the day chewing bits of gum and piling small bits of food into his lunchbox before rushing to class. When everyone else was busy with lunch he sneaked over and stuck the bits of gum under Jake's desk, each with a piece of food attached to it. By the end of the week everyone around Jake had pulled their desks away saying he stunk like rotting food. Though he'd felt a bit bad when the older kids started calling him Jake the Stank, Chuck just thought back and shrugged it off. He bullied a bunch of people, so maybe now this would teach him how much it hurt.
When their father left it had been Chuck's turn to console Ellie. After their mother left Ellie took over most of her responsibilities, but whenever he wasn't busy with his work their father would handle things. He was her relief, a savior from too much responsibility too young, and then he was gone. Ellie was crushed but Chuck was there as much as she would let him.
She bounced back quick though. Maybe it was because she was heading off to college soon, or maybe it was the therapy she basically forced him to take with her but it almost felt like everything would be okay. At times it was like the only thing that changed was that their father's office was empty. They still watched movies together at least once a week, she still cooked their dinners apart from whenever they had enough spare cash to order out.
The first change came when she started college. Thankfully their father sent them occasional cards which came with checks to help them with bills or her tuition. At first Ellie had said they wouldn't cash them, but they already had enough stress with both of them working whenever they weren't in school. They needed the help.
It had been almost a year since their father left when Chuck came home from school, laughing along with Morgan until both saw the front door open. Morgan scratched his newly bearded chin. "You think Ellie came home early? She's supposed to have her Chem class today."
"Why do you know her-" Chuck stopped himself with a shake of his head, holding up a hand to quiet Morgan as he made his way to the door and peeked inside. His eyes widened upon seeing the house torn apart. The pictures on the wall were now laying in piles of glass on the floor, tables lay in pieces, their couch flipped over and torn apart.
"The TV's gone!" Morgan said as he looked in the living room. "Games are still here at least."
Chuck walked through the hall before seeing the door to his father's office hanging off the hinge. They'd left it locked after he left, a tomb for the man who abandoned them. Looking inside now he saw the desk laying in pieces, the few monitors left behind smashed, the desk chair toppled and the cushion ripped open. Why would they rip open the seat?
When the police arrived they took the two outside and took their fingerprints. When Ellie arrived she launched herself at Chuck, wrapping him in a hug for three minutes before the police convinced her they needed to log her prints as well so they could isolate the burglar's. They wouldn't know that the moment the Bartowski's fingerprints entered their system a program activated to erase them and any matching them. As far as the records showed the only fingerprints found on scene belonged to Morgan Grimes.
Ellie started searching for a new place that night, bringing home a dozen newspapers the next day and every day after, arranging weekend trips to go look at apartments. They'd considered getting another dog, but both agreed it was already hard enough looking out for themselves, they couldn't handle a pet.
Echo Park seemed a bastion to the siblings. Even with the neighbors only a few feet away at the house, the apartment complex felt less lonely thanks to the shared courtyard. Ellie was sure it would be perfect, and Chuck figured it would be her home after he left for college so agreed to it without a word. Once they moved they'd sell their parent's house, the house they grew up in, and put the money toward their futures. Chuck was going to need it if he managed to get into Stanford like he hoped.
With both of them busy at school and work moving was a slow process. Every weekend they'd spend a day moving boxes in Ellie's car, leaving the big things for the last day when they would rent a van or give in and call a service.
It was their last week in the old house when Morgan noticed Chuck's melancholy returning shortly before Halloween. There was only one solution. "Let's head to the arcade." When Chuck flashed him a dubious expression Morgan grinned, "First round of X-Men is on me."
That earned a smirk from Chuck. "Give me Cyclops and that's all I'll need."
After stopping by a phone to send a message to Ellie's pager letting her know he'd be out with Morgan, they spent the day at the pier. Chuck got Cyclops while Morgan took Wolverine, and then Nightcrawler as two younger boys joined them. By the time they'd arrived to Magneto, Morgan and Chuck exclaimed along with the game, "Welcome to die!" The boys at their side laughed at the display, but marveled when they beat the game, a first for the younger boys.
With Corndogs and slushes fueling them, Chuck and Morgan spent the day flying X-Wings, beating M. Bison, failing to find Reptile, even attempting to get Pauline from Donkey Kong. By sunset Chuck was sure this would be one of those days he looked back on for the rest of his life.
When it was time to start leaving Morgan talked him into a game of House of the Dead, which of course led to a discussion about zombies. "It has to be magic. The brain isn't enough."
"I don't know, Buddy." Chuck shrugged. "Think about it. The bodies basically just this machine of flesh, and our brains are like the computer driving it."
"If that was true then why was I locked out of my AOL last week?"
Chuck laughed. "Because you keep going to weird food porn sites."
"It's not food porn, it's women who think food is sexy. I mean there's this Serbian one, Irene Demova, she's so hot. I think she's going to be big."
"Yeah, I bet-" Chuck stopped when he felt something stick into his side and turned to find a man in a suit standing right at his side. He looked like one of those nameless agents walking around in the back of an X-Files episode, the type who worked with the Smoking Man. A quick glance down had his eyes widening as he saw a gun pressed into his side.
A second later he heard Morgan exclaim, "Hey! What are you-Oh shit."
"You'll want to come with us," the G-Man before him said as Chuck's eyes rose to meet his. "If you don't my friend will put a bullet in your friend's side, let him bleed out here while we drag you away."
Morgan looked from the men holding them at gunpoint to Chuck. "W-What's going on?"
"What do you want?" Chuck asked quietly, the tremble in his voice seeming unavoidable as his entire body was shaking.
The G-Man smiled. "Orion. It seems you're important to him."
Chuck glanced to Morgan, who was absentmindedly pulling the trigger for the light gun in his hand, causing zombies to yell as they died on screen. That was mostly dumb luck as Morgan's hand was trembling, pulling the trigger by accident. However Chuck noticed Morgan eyeing the men with guns in a way that made his stomach turn.
"Orion?" asked Chuck. "Look I don't know what you're talking about. I don't know who or what Orion is apart from some Greek guy."
The G-Man sighed. "If you don't want to come with us that's fine. We can always get to your family."
Both teenagers' eyes widened. Chuck's shaking hands felt like they were flailing until one balled into a fist and seemed to fly out on tits own, slamming into the jaw of the G-Man in front of him. Chuck used the motion of swinging to stumble to the side while Morgan had stopped his shaking by grabbing the plastic gun in his hand and swinging it into the jaw of the man beside him, shattering it across his right eye.
Clutching his bleeding cheek the man beside Morgan yelled and pulled the trigger, his bullet passing Morgan to hit the arcade cabinet, ricocheting into the G-Man's side. He'd already been raising his gun when Chuck turned in time to watch the muzzle flash. The man behind Morgan gasped, his gun falling to the floor as his hand left his cheek to clutch the hole in his chest.
For a brief moment Chuck felt himself start to smirk thinking the men had shot each other, but then he saw Morgan clutching the growing red spot on his chest. The bullet had passed through him to hit the man beside him. Chuck barely noticed the G-Man running off, leaving Chuck to grab Morgan before he fell to the ground.
People were screaming and yelling and it took Chuck a moment to realize he was one of them. "HELP! PLEASE HELP! HELP! Morgan!" He pressed his hand to Morgan's chest, kneeling to lay his buddy against his legs, feeling the blood pouring from his back soak Chuck's pants. "Morgan it'll be okay." He turned and yelled at the crowd, "CALL AN AMBULANCE! PLEASE!"
"Chuck," Morgan muttered, blood spraying across his face as he coughed.
"It'll be fine," Chuck said turning back to him. "Don't talk. You'll be fine." He turned again, his throat hurting as he yelled, "SOMEONE PLEASE!"
"Guess I wasn't… Chewy," Morgan's laugh turned into a cough. "I was Goose."
"You're not Goose, Buddy," Chuck assured with a wet laugh as tears streamed down his cheeks. "You're Luke. We just need to get you in a Bacta Tank."
"Just not… A Tauntaun," Morgan gasped, putting his hand over Chuck's as the slowing beat of his heart pushed blood between their fingers. "I hear… they smell bad on…"
His voice trailed and suddenly everything seemed cold. The tears that had burned his cheeks felt like ice as he watched Morgan still. With no idea what to do he pulled his shirt off and put it under Morgan's back where he felt the blood and laid him on the ground, pressing his hands into his chest and trying CPR as best he could.
That was how the EMTs found him covered in blood pumping his dead friend's chest and breathing into his mouth for the sixteenth time. It took both of them to pull him of Morgan, forcing him aside so they could check him though they already knew he was gone. Chuck had sat against a pinball machine watching them put Morgan on the gurney until one of the EMTs helped him get to his feet and he was a zombie following them back to the ambulance.
Chuck could feel himself talking but wasn't sure what he was saying, realizing afterward he'd been answering the EMT's questions about who they were and who they should call. He felt awful for the relief he felt realizing he didn't have to be the one to tell Morgan's mother. It was heard enough hearing her scream and cry as she came to the hospital, finding Chuck sat in the hall with a scrub shirt on, the one he'd put under Morgan balled up on his lap.
"CHUCK!" Ellie's voice cut through the hollow buzz that seemed to fill his mind, forcing him to look up to see his sister running down the hall toward him. Tears streaked her cheeks as she came to a stop, falling into the seat beside him and wrapping him in her arms.
For a moment he felt like a kid crying in her arms again. It was all his fault again. They hadn't been caught in a drive-by or mugged, those men had come for Chuck. All he could do was sit and watch as they killed his best friend and hold him as he bled out. Just like his mother left because he broke her necklace and his father left because he couldn't bare to suffer another day with the boy who drove his wife away, his friend had died because he didn't know whatever it was those men wanted.
He'd been through enough therapy to know logically that wasn't true, but it was how he felt. It was what echoed through the back of his mind as he sat at the funeral trying not to look at Morgan's mother in case she thought the same. Ellie sat at his side through the whole thing, at least until it was Chuck's turn to go up and talk about him.
The stack of cards Chuck had brought with him felt so light as he pulled them from his pocket. He had so much he wanted to say but knew he couldn't and shouldn't. The day wasn't about him, these people didn't need to know how awful he felt, how much he blamed himself, all the things he wished he'd done different. All that mattered was they knew that Morgan was his best friend, the Chewy to his Han, only now he was going off on his own adventure in the stars like the Skywalker he was. When the time came Chuck put the Han and Chewy figures they saved up for in the casket with him. "Can't be Luke with Han and Chewy."
Watching the movers pack the truck days later, Chuck stood outside the house he grew up in feeling a bit relieved for the first time since he'd felt the gun pressed into his side. He knew it was dumb but it felt like he had a chance to break away from some curse that had been tormenting him since he broke his mother's necklace. At times it felt like everyone he loved was destined to leave or be taken from him, but he wasn't alone. He still had Ellie, and they were moving away from this place, starting a new life away from the Bartowski Curse. Maybe things would be different when he made it to Stanford.
AN:
Despite starting with a tragedy and having a fair bit of angst, I wouldn't categorize the story as either because of where it's going. Things will be a bit darker than canon in places, but ultimately be about Chuck and Sarah and the adventure and action of their spy life. Things will definitely go faster with them than canon, but it won't easy street for them either.
Original Characters are going to be kept to a minimum and only show up when necessary and in small roles. I'll always choose using a known character in a new role over making a new character if I can.
Thanks for reading!