I just found out that today is my friend MySoapBox's birthday. So here we go – a birthday fic just for her.
CHUCK VERSUS ELLIE'S BIRTHDAY
"Chuck, bro, you've got to help me out. I'm in serious trouble, dude." Chuck raised an eyebrow. It wasn't often that Awesome came to him, hat in hand. To be honest, it wasn't often that Awesome needed help of any kind. After all, when you were an awesome doctor, an awesome mountain climber, an awesome brother-in-law and an awesome flosser, what help did you need?
"Hey, Devon, you know I'm there for you, man. Name it."
"Tomorrow is Ellie's birthday."
"No," Chuck said. "Her birthday's not until May 15. We've got…" he looked at his watch and his eyes went wide… "less than 16 hours! Devon, tomorrow is Ellie's birthday!"
"I know, bro. And with the wedding, and the honeymoon, and… well, everything else that's been going on, I totally zoned out on her birthday. And now I've got a twelve hour shift at the hospital and no time to plan."
"I've got to get her something," Chuck said, panicking. "What am I going to get? I need to get to the store. What should I…"
"Chuck, dude, focus. You're like, James Bond, dude. You're supposed to be calm and collected in a crisis."
"Saving the world, yeah, but this is Ellie's birthday we're talking about. How could I have forgotten?"
"How could I have forgotten?" Devon asked. "After all, I'm her husband now and this is her first birthday as husband and wife. If I don't do something she's going to kill me. Listen, I know it's a lot to ask, bro, but after the way you pulled the wedding and reception together after that whole Jeffster fiasco…"
"I had a complete Special Forces team to do that!" Chuck said. "Okay. Calm. We can do this. Go to work, Devon. I'll take care of everything. Somehow."
Devon slapped Chuck on the arm, causing Chuck to stagger a little bit to the side. "I know I could count on you, Chuck. Don't worry about her gift. I'll take care of that part. I've got just enough time to stop by Frederick's of Hollywood…"
"Uh, uh, uh, uh, uh!" Chuck said, holding up a hand. "T.M.I., Devon. That's a good place to stop that image, right there."
"Awesome, Chuckster. You the man!" With that, Devon headed down the hall to get ready for his shift at work.
"Yeah. The man. The man with a plan. Except I don't have a plan. What am I going to do?" He pulled out his iPhone and hit number one on his speed dial. "Sarah? Hi. How are you?"
"Hey, Chuck. What's up?"
"We have a code red. Serious emergency. A matter of life or death."
"What is it, Chuck?" Sarah asked, alarmed. "Did you flash? Is someone there?"
"Tomorrow is Ellie's birthday!" Chuck replied.
Sarah didn't sound happy. "Chuck, that's not funny. I thought you said this was an emergency?"
"Sarah, you don't understand, this is Ellie! Holidays are big deals to her and birthdays are the biggest. Awesome and I completely forgot and now it's almost her birthday and we don't have anything planned."
"Chuck, calm down. We'll come up with something."
"You think we could get a CIA team to come in and…"
"Chuck, that's not what the CIA is for. They're not party planners and they don't do birthdays."
"Okay, okay, just a thought," Chuck said.
"It'll be fine, Chuck. I'll be right over. Get Casey. We'll need his help."
"Casey? But… Casey?"
"Just do it, Chuck. I'll see you in twenty minutes."
"Okay, Sarah. Thanks. I'll see you in a bit."
"It'll be fine," Sarah repeated, knowing Chuck's penchant for overreaction. "We'll get it done."
Chuck slid his cell phone into his pocket and took a deep breath. Okay. He had Sarah's help. Sarah, CIA super-spy. If anyone could pull this off, it would be Sarah.
Devon came out of his bedroom dressed in his scrubs. "Sarah's on her way over," Chuck said. "She's going to help me come up with something."
"You've got no idea how much I appreciate this, bro. I can't believe I screwed up like this and forgot Ellie's birthday. After the whole bachelor party thing, I need to be walking the straight and narrow, you know?"
"Don't worry. We'll get it taken care of," Chuck replied.
"Dude, you're awesome."
As soon as Captain Awesome was out the door, Chuck headed over to Casey's. He knocked on the door and waited. Finally, Casey opened the door. He was dressed in a Japanese yukata robe. Chuck just look at him.
"What?" Casey barked.
"Nice robe," Chuck said. Before Casey could even get out the inevitable growl, Chuck forged ahead. "Casey, we need your help. We have to put together a birthday party by tomorrow."
"You got me up for that?" Casey growled. "Listen, Bartowski, just because I helped put together the wedding and reception doesn't make me your personal party planner. I…"
"Tomorrow is Ellie's birthday!" Chuck blurted out.
"Ellie?" Casey said. "Why didn't you say so? Come on. We've got work to do."
He started to step out the door.
"Ah, Casey, don't you think you should put on some pants?"
Casey looked down. "Oh. Right. I'll be back." He slammed the door.
Two hours later, Chuck, Sarah and Casey were seated around the dining room table in Casa Woodcomb (after the wedding, it didn't seem right to keep calling it Casa Bartowski). Casey had a large piece of paper spread before them with a complex diagram drawn on it.
"In any operation, planning is the key," he was saying. "Without a plan, you're up a creek without the proverbial paddle. So here's our plan of attack."
"Casey," Chuck cut in. "This is a birthday party, not the Normandy Invasion."
Casey glared at him. "You want my help or not, Bartowski? This is Ellie we're talking about. You want some half-assed job, then I'm happy to leave you to it."
Chuck held up his hands. "Okay, okay. Far be it from me to question Marvin Stewart when he's in party planning mode."
Casey growled and Sarah stood up and put a hand between them. "We're wasting time," she said. "So Chuck, quit baiting Casey. Casey, quit threatening Chuck. Now, let's get to it."
***
Doctor Eleanor Faye Bartowski Woodcomb looked resplendent in her blue silk dress, a glass of champagne in her hand and a broad smile on her face. She was surrounded by well-wishers all basking in the glow of the birthday girl. Her husband, Devon, stood behind her, his huge grin showing off his perfect white teeth.
On the other end of the courtyard, Anna was pulling Morgan away from the punch-bowl, trying to convince him that pouring a flask of everclear into the punch was not a good idea, no matter how many times he had done it for Chuck's birthday parties.
Jeff Barnes and Lester Patel stood watching the small trio playing near the fountain with wistful expressions on their faces. No one was quite sure how they heard about the party, but when they showed up in their Jeffster t-shirts and announced they were ready to play, Devon gently but firmly reminded them that Ellie still was a little perturbed by their 'Mr. Roboto' number at the church and maybe it wouldn't be a good idea to push it. They reluctantly agreed to put their gear back in the van, but stayed for the free booze.
In the far corner of the courtyard, John Casey was lecturing the wait staff on the proper way to arrange the chicken cordon blue with asparagus tips on the plates.
And in the center of the courtyard, Chuck Bartowski was enjoying the slow dance he never got to finish with his date to the Woodcomb wedding, Sarah Walker.
"I can't believe we pulled it off," Chuck whispered to her.
"Well, I don't think we could have done it without Casey," she replied.
They were interrupted by Ellie gliding up to them, her face beaming. "Thank you, both, for my party."
"It, ah, was all Devon's doing," Chuck said. "He…"
"Chuck, I love my husband, but party planning isn't exactly in his awesome repertoire. Besides, I heard you two talking this morning before he left for work."
"Listen, Ellie, about that. You know that with the wedding…"
"Chuck, it's okay. To be honest, I had half-forgotten about my birthday myself. But it was wonderful the way that you two stepped in to help Devon out. It's a wonderful party. Thank you."
"Well, you'll have to thank Casey," Sarah said. "He's quite the party planner."
"I'll have to keep that in mind," Ellie said. She looked at her brother standing there, so obviously in love and so happy to have Sarah by his side and her smile grew just a little wider. Suddenly a thought crossed her mind.
"You know, Sarah," she said, "we've never had a party for you. When is your birthday?"
"Oh boy," Chuck muttered.
***
For those who don't know her, MySoapBox is a terrific author here on fanfiction. She finished her Awesome-nominated story Revelations today and it is definitely worth a read. She is also one of the instigators of The Authors Intersect, a Chuck Round Robin project involving several authors here on fanfiction[dot]net. She has also been kind and generous enough to help me on several of my stories.
She is definitely an 'Ellie' and thus, this story just for her. So drop her a PM and wish her a happy birthday today.