Disclaimer: Unfortunately I don't own nor am I involved with the production of Chuck. On the plus side, I work cheap so if Chris or Josh is reading this - call me.
Synopsis: This isn't a normal story, more like a collection of scenes that have run through my mind while writing other fics. The first of these occurs about two years from when the Chuck gets the Intersect, in this timeline Chuck has been a CIA Field Agent for seven months. At this point I'm thinking five chapters and an epilogue, unless I decide to write a lot more..
A/N: Adult language and situations apply.
Chuck versus Scenes from a Movie - Chapter 1 - Worst Case Scenario
This was the worst case scenario, the one that Chuck had always feared. In two years on the job he'd been in plenty of bad situations: he'd been beaten, tortured, shot, stabbed, electrocuted, and endured a variety of hardships that made him question why he kept doing what he did, but this was the one thing he feared the most. He was trapped on a crowded cross town bus being used as a human shield by a madman. That was bad. Chuck could feel the point of a hunting knife as it dug into the flesh below his jaw, and he watched with a mild panic as that same madman waved a gun at Sarah with his other hand. That was very bad. Sarah stood fifteen feet away, her pistol trained on them both, unable to get a clear shot at the man hiding behind Chuck. Still worse, but not quite worst case. Of course there were two mitigating factors that pushed this from the merely very bad into worst case territory. First Chuck's sister was on the bus, seated just a few feet from him. Second, there was a bomb.
"Sarah, do you love me?" Chuck saw the turmoil in her face, he hoped she was watching as he motioned downward with his eyes.
"Yes Chuck, I love you." What the hell was this about, and what was up with his eyes?
"Sarah, do you trust me?" Chuck continued to motion downward with his eyes, he prayed she could figure out what he was about to do.
"Yes baby, I trust you." Sarah could feel the tears rolling down her cheeks. She knew what it meant now. He was a brave, brave idiot and if they survived this she was going to kick his ass.
"Then take the shot."
Saying those words Chuck jerked his knees toward his chest in a single fluid motion, and instantly dropped straight down toward the floor of the bus. He yelped as the madman's knife cut into his neck, jaw and cheek but he hit the floor alive. The madman wasn't as lucky as Chuck watched Sarah's gun discharge once, striking the target right in the forehead. Sarah and Ellie both leapt to Chuck's side as he held a hand to his neck to stem the flow of blood.
"Chuck! Oh my God Chuck your bleeding!" Ellie was nearly in a panic until Sarah grabbed her forcefully by the shoulder.
"Check his wound, make sure he'll be ok and get him out of here." Sarah instructed.
"No! No time. We've got one minute forty-three seconds before the bomb blows and twenty blocks are covered with radioactive debris. Just let me up." Chuck tried to push them both away so he could get to the beeping device that spelled doom for everyone he loved.
"It's not that bad, the knife missed the major arteries...it's deep below the jaw but the rest is superficial." Ellie had retreated into her professional persona.
"Can you do it Chuck?" Sarah ignored Ellie who was working to bandage Chuck.
Chuck's eyes glazed over for a second. "It's a Serbian design similar to the ones built by Georgic Barcia. I need a can of hairspray or any kind of flammable propellant and a lighter."
"Chuck come on, let's go. You need stitches, these people can handle it."
Ellie had fashioned a crude bandage for his cut and was trying to pull him toward the bus exit as members of the LAPD bomb squad came onboard the bus. She'd managed to pull him backwards half a step even as he was holding onto the side of a seat for balance.
"We're looking for 'Agent Carmichael', is he in charge?"
"Over here." Chuck shouted as he shrugged Ellie off, dislodging the bandage. "Sarah?"
Sara saw the look in his eyes as he jerked his head back toward his sister. Moving quickly she grabbed Ellie by the shoulders and forced her away from Chuck toward the back of the bus. "Ellie, come with me. Chuck knows what he's doing but he can't do it if we're bothering him." Sarah continued to talk soothingly but Ellie's clinically detached facade was long gone, and she let out a scream as she reached for Chuck. Sarah grimaced as she forced the wildcat in her arms backward. The level headed doctor was now just another terrified woman fighting valiantly to reach for the only family she had left. "Come on, we'll wait outside for him to finish up." But Ellie grabbed onto the handrail near the rear exit and refused to let go. Her eyes glued to Chuck as he worked. Sarah relented and knelt beside her.
"Any luck on the hairspray?!"
"We've got ether!"
"Great, I need a lighter."
"Buddy I hope to hell you know what you're doing, cause we got less than a minute to go." A man with lieutenant's bars was speaking.
Chuck pointed the can of ether and the lighter at the central control unit and turned them into a mini flamethrower that began cooking the metal casing. As the flames licked around the unit he watched the digital counter begin to flicker and finally die. Satisfied he tossed the can of ether back to one of the men in the bomb squad and looked up at the Lieutenant who'd spoken to him.
"Serbian manufacture. Sixty-two pounds of Semtex with two redundant ignition circuits and a mercury anti-tampering failsafe. All of that is routed through a shielded central control unit which runs everything off a proprietary CPU. Fortunately the main processor fails at temperatures above three hundred degrees. Only way to stop it was to bake the unit without cooking off the Semtex. Oh, and be careful, I'd lay even money there's a pressure control dead man switch somewhere on it. Barcia didn't use it in all of his designs, so it's hard to tell but if you could wait until I'm gone to find out..." Chuck smiled at the crowd of demolitions experts who were staring dumbfounded.
"So I guess you know a little something about munitions disposal Agent Carmichael?" the Lieutenant finally said smiling.
"Only what I read." Chuck grinned back at him, then winced. "Sarah, I think I need stitches."
"Lady, get this man out of here." The Lieutenant smiled up at Sarah, "Heroes don't bleed more than they have to."
"Come on 'Agent Carmichael' let's get you patched up." Sarah led him toward the back exit where Ellie still held the hand rail. "Ellie, we're taking Chuck to the hospital now. Let's go."
"I have him." Ellie came to life finally and she grabbed Chuck's arm away from Sarah, placing her body between the two.
"Ellie..." Sarah stopped, she could tell that Ellie was in shock.
"Ellie, Sarah's coming with us." Chuck patted her arm. "She'll ride with me in the back, okay?"
"Chuck, she killed a man." Ellie looked at Sarah with fear in her eyes.
"Ellie, we'll talk about this at the hospital." Chuck looked at Sarah who nodded back to him.
"Casey, bomb's defused. LAPD is doing cleanup. Carmichael got cut and we're taking him in for stitches. And tell Beckman we're adding one to the team. Dr Ellie Woodcombe."
*---*---*---*---*---*---*---*---*---*---*---*---*
The ride to the hospital was uneventful. The paramedics both sat in the front since neither Ellie nor Sarah would leave Chuck's side. Ellie ignored Sarah the entire ride, and instead focused on Chuck's wound. At the hospital Ellie tried to have Sarah barred from the examination room but Sarah refused to move and after a quickly placed phone call Security refused to move her. Chuck tried talking to Ellie but she refused to say anything to him that wasn't related to his condition. Finally he just focused on Sarah.
"Sarah, I'm sorry about this."
"I understand Chuck, you did what you had to do. In your mind it was an acceptable risk." Sarah's tone was flat, professional, and cold. Chuck flinched at it and Ellie looked at her like she was alien.
"And from your tone I can tell you don't agree." Chuck tried a half hearted smile.
Sarah stood still for several seconds, crossing then uncrossing her arms before she launched a verbal tirade that caused Ellie to jump back. Chuck seemed unfazed.
"He had a knife at your throat idiot! Just what the hell were you thinking?!" Sarah took a step forward and leaned in as she continued to yell. "Are you trying to drive me to an early grave? Is that what you want Chuck? We went through hell to get where we are and you just go and risk it all like that?! What the hell were you thinking?!"
"I think you already asked that." Chuck's smile faded when he realized the joke failed.
"Oh don't try that cutesy joking crap on me mister. Your ass is in so deep right now you don't want to keep digging." Sarah turned he back to him and tried to regain her composure.
"Sarah, I know it was a risky maneuver but I had to do it." He continued to talk to her back. "We had less than two minutes before the bomb was set to detonate, the tactical team was still three minutes out, Casey wasn't responding. Look the way that guy was holding the knife I knew the odds were that he'd miss the jugular and..."
"Odds?! You're talking odds?!" Sarah had spun so quickly that this time both Chuck and Ellie recoiled. "You want to talk odds to me Chuck Bartowski how about this one, what are the odds you're getting any the rest of this month? Here's a clue, ZERO!"
Ellie watched in strange fascination as the drama played out between her brother and his girlfriend. She wasn't sure what to think. Police, Federal agents, even Sarah calling her brother 'Agent Carmichael'. Her brother knowing how to disarm a bomb, and how coolly he acted during the whole insane situation, and Sarah. Oh my God, Sarah, lovely sweet beautiful Sarah standing there with a gun, telling her brother she loved him, shooting that man in cold blood. She'd been so in control, like Chuck, so focused it unnerved her, and now she was so angry. What was going on? Just then the door opened and John Casey walked in looking a little disheveled but otherwise healthy – why was he here?
"Jeez would you put a cork in it Walker? I can hear you half way down the hall." Casey smiled at Ellie, "How's the patient Doc? Will it leave a scar?"
"John? What's going on?" Ellie couldn't take his casual attitude, it bothered her even more than Sarah's.
"What the hell? You didn't give her the short and sweet Walker?"
"Ellie didn't seem to want to talk to me, besides I can only handle one Bartowski at a time. Hey, here's an idea – trade you." Sarah gave Chuck a cold and evil look.
"Whoa, whoa Sarah, let's not go crazy here." Chuck knew how bad it was now, Defcon 4. He had to do damage control. "You know Casey's not my type."
"Got to agree with Bartowski there Walker." Casey smirked, "I'm not going to start sleeping with your boyfriend just because you're ready to move on to greener pastures."
"Casey, my sister is in the room."
"Sorry Ellie, just a stupid joke."
"Someone tell me what the hell is going on NOW." Ellie put her hands to her mouth and started crying, "I just need to know what's going on."
Casey looked at Chuck and Sarah and realized they'd picked him for the job. He cursed softly to himself then turned to look back at Ellie .
"Ellie, sit down because this is going to take a minute." Casey guided her into the nearest chair. "Sarah, Chuck, and I work for the US Government. I work for the NSA. Sarah works for the CIA, and so does Chuck. We're part of a...team, an interagency team, stationed here in LA. We handle special threats to national security. That's what we've been doing now for the last two years."
"So you're all spies?" Ellie started to giggle. "And Chuck is a spy? Really? This has to be some kind of sick joke." Ellie's giggle had turned to manic anger. "Sarah a spy? She works at a yogurt store for Christ's sake! And Chuck's my baby brother, I've known him is whole life, when did he have time to become a spy?"
"Ellie, it happened a couple of years ago, right after my twenty-seventh birthday. Right around the time Sarah came into my life." Chuck saw the look in her eyes. "Didn't you think it was odd that a guy like me could get a girl like Sarah? I mean, we're not even remotely in the same league but she's suddenly there, in love with me."
"Nice try Chuck, but your still on the couch." Sarah's expression softened, and her hand gently caressed his forearm. "And I'm the one that's not in your league."
"Then you two aren't really...?"
"No, they're really together Ellie." Casey snorted. "Took Bartowski long enough to close the deal, but they've been the real thing for the past seven months or so."
"Nine months this Wednesday Casey." Chuck grinned up at Sarah as he gently rested his hand on hers.
"You remembered?" Sarah's eyes started to well up.
"Oh crap. Here come the water works." Casey looked at Ellie who was still trying to take it all in. "Here's the short and sweet version Ellie. Your brother came into possession of some sensitive information a couple of years ago. We were sent out here to find out who he was and deal with the situation. Sarah found him first and discovered he wasn't such a bad guy, also he has a unique gift when it comes to processing intelligence data. Since that time the NSA and CIA have worked together to utilize his gift and protect the nation. He's done a lot of good in that time Ellie, believe me when I say that your brother is a real hero."
"So why are you telling me this now? I mean, you've been keeping it from me for so long. Why not keep lying to me about it?" Ellie glared at Chuck.
"Because we had to Ellie. Because you saw him in action, and you heard someone addressing him by his cover identity. The minute you didn't get off that bus like he asked you to, you became a threat to Chuck, to us, and to National Security." Casey watched as the light in Ellie's eyes died. "This isn't a game Ellie. We had two options, bring you on board or deal with the threat you represented. Chuck made sure a long time ago that General Beckman and Director Harriman knew that if it ever happened, option two wasn't on the table."
"You're saying...you're saying you would have killed me?" Ellie was in shock, "Chuck, what's going on? Why is he saying these things? How could this be happening?"
"Relax Sis, no one is going to hurt you, ever. I won't let them, and neither will Sarah or Casey." He put his hand on her shoulder and as she collapsed into him he hugged his sister. "It's going to be Okay Ellie. Nothing really changes for you, Sarah can explain the rest to you, she's really the one who thought this through."
Ellie looked at Sarah with tear swollen eyes, "You're to blame for all this? You?!"
"Ellie, I realize I'm not your favorite person right now and I'm sorry." Sarah let her go, her voice softened. "But this is the best thing for everyone. When Chuck came on board as a fulltime analyst seven months ago I realized that eventually you or Devon would find out what was going on. That's when I suggested to Casey that we contact our bosses and arrange for you to be brought into the fold if that happened."
"What if we don't want to be a part of this? What if Chuck wants to leave, will you kill us? Kill him?"
"Casey's right Ellie, this isn't a game. There are people out there that want to hurt your brother, and they'll go through you to get at him. Casey and I work with Chuck but in different capacities. I am his handler – that means I'm directly responsible for him at all times. Casey is the security detail, he handles threats to Chuck and our mission. If you were seen as a threat to Chuck there would be only two things that could happen, you could be relocated to a secured facility for the duration of his employment or you'd just disappear."
"Sarah, stop it. You're scaring her." Chuck's voice was pleading and he saw Ellie look at him in shock.
"I hope so Chuck, God I hope so because this isn't a joke." Sarah turned back to Ellie and locked eyes with the stunned woman. "Ellie, the people we deal with are brutal, and they don't care who gets hurt as long as they get what they need. As bad as you think we are, as much as you hate me righ now, the only reason we're talking is because we aren't like them. Ellie, losing you would devastate Chuck and me, and I've already said that protecting him is my priority – I won't let them get to him or you, you have my word on that. They'd have to kill me first."
"What do you need me to do?" Ellie sounded defeated.
"When we leave here we're going to a secured facility, you'll get a chance to rest. Chuck and I will go back to your house get Devon. The two of you will be formally debriefed, you'll get to meet General Beckman and Director Harriman. There'll be a lot of paperwork to sign and it's over. The two of you will be assigned an agent to act as your handler and life will go on as normal as possible."
"Will we be expected to do...like Chuck? I mean, I don't know what he does, what will we have to do?"
"You're doctors, you'll be expected to be doctors." Sarah smiled and patted Ellie on the arm. "Relax El, we're not going to have you going on missions, but next time Chuck decides he really is Charles Carmichael, super spy, you'll be there to patch him up and he won't have to lie about what happened."
Ellie looked at Sarah and could feel her world slipping away, "I need some air." And she slipped out of the room.
"Casey?"
"I'm on it Walker." Casey followed Ellie out of the room.
"So how do you think that went?" Sarah reached for Chuck's hand.
"Could have been better," Chuck smiled up at her. "But I imagined much worse. I'd say it's a wash, but Ellie's strong. She'll come around."
"I hope so. I just don't want her to hate me." Sarah's eyes began to well up with tears. "I really love her Chuck and I know she hates me now."
"Shh. It'll be okay Sarah. I love you and Ellie will realize what you've done for her and you'll be back together as thick as thieves in no time." He chucked her chin with his finger.
"Ok, you're off the couch but you're still cut off mister." Sarah kissed him on the forehead and hugged him tightly.
"Really? I think the odds are better than fifty-fifty you're wrong." He pulled her face down to his own and kissed her passionately. It was worth the pain of every pulled stitch.
*---*---*---*---*---*---*---*---*---*---*---*---*
Ellie looked at them through the observation window. Was she his girlfriend or his handler? Was this real or another lie? What should she believe? She studiously ignored Casey as he came over to her.
"You know what you're looking at there Ellie?"
"No. What?"
"The worst kept secret in the whole intelligence community. The great love affair between Sarah Walker and Chuck Bartowski. It's so damn sweet it'll give you diabetes if you're around it too long."
"Not much of a romantic are you John?"
"Not much point in this business Ellie. Agents are taught that emotions are a weakness and personal entanglements are a liability. You compartmentalize, shutdown, avoid things like this. We're taught to sever all personal connections, no friends, no family, just the mission."
"That sounds like a lonely life." Ellie looked at him with sadness in her eyes. "Why do you do it?"
"To be part of something bigger than yourself, to serve the greater good." Casey spoke to Ellie like an adult explaining something to a small child. "Ellie, we choose this life, a life of sacrifice, long hours, and mortal danger, to make sure that good and decent people don't have to."
"What about Chuck? He's a good and decent man. Why him?"
"Chuck didn't start out wanting this, but he found a reason to stay." Casey nodded toward the window, "You know that seven months ago he was given the option of leaving? No questions asked, Director Harriman was going to let him walk away from it all. He chose to stay in this life."
"Its all about her isn't it? She's got her claws into him and he's going to get killed someday because of her." The venom dripped off Ellie's voice.
"Wouldn't be the first time."
"What do you mean it wouldn't be the first time?"
"I can't tell you everything, but about eight and a half months ago we went up against some anarcho-terrorists. The leader of the gang was someone we'd tangled with before and he had a personal grudge against Chuck. At one point I was incapacitated and Sarah was captured...the leader used her phone to send Chuck a video of Sarah being beaten and tortured."
"My God! What did he do?"
"He went in after her himself." Casey watched the blood drain from Ellie's face.
"That's why he had those bruises, the cuts, the concussion, the bruised kidneys!" The look of shock turned to anger, "I'm going to kill him."
"That's what Walker said when he showed up to rescue her. But you know something Ellie? He did it. He took them down and got her out of there all by himself. He died on the way to the hospital though, we lost him for 33 seconds."
"Why are you telling me this?" Ellie could barely choke out the words through her tears.
"Because I want you to understand what you are seeing Ellie. Chuck didn't stay in the CIA because Sarah wanted him to, just the opposite. She wanted him to leave and have a chance at a normal life. Sarah loves him Ellie, unconditionally and utterly. No, Chuck stayed with the CIA because he's found that once you have someone worth dying for, you can't wait to live the rest of your life with them."
Ellie stood their in silence with John Casey standing quietly beside her. She looked again through the observation window. Chuck and Sarah are standing closely, holding hands, soft kisses and lingering touches spoke of their passion for one another. Ellie processes what she had learned that day. about the life Chuck has chosen, about the woman she thought of as a sister. It frightens her, they frighten her. Then she thinks Sarah and realizes for the first time that if she forced Chuck to choose between them she would lose. Ellie is at once happy and afraid. This is not the life she would have chosen for him, but she'd said all along that he and Sarah were meant to be together. Guess she was right after all, she looks at them again and smiles, perhaps this was meant to be.
A/N Feedback always welcome.