Disclaimer: I don't own any of the following characters, games, movies, cars, and whatever else I may mention that is protected by copyright. The only material part of this story I own, other than the story itself, is Cassie, the rest of the credit goes where it is deserved.

Chuck vs The Resident Alien

Morgan was frantically trying to get Chuck's attention from across the Buymore. He was signaling towards an attractive brunette heading towards the Nerd Herd desk, a Dell XPS notebook tucked under her arm. "Welcome to The Buymore, How can I help you?" he asked, as she set down her laptop.

She smiled shyly. "I just moved up here, and I got this computer for school, but it doesn't want to work for me. Every time I try to get on the Internet, I get syntax or script errors. Normally, I'd fix it myself, but it is brand new and I don't want to void the warranty."

He took the computer from her and booted it up. "So what brings you to Los Angeles?" he asked.

"I'm doing my Grad school at UCLA."

"Oh, where'd you get your undergrad degree?"

"New Mexico State"

"So your really new to the area."

"Yes, and I need a job. I saw up front that your hiring, who do I need to talk to about getting a job here? "

Chuck smiled at her, and noticed her vaguely familiar blue eyes. "Me, actually. Yeah, I'm assistant manager. I could probably get you an interview tomorrow, if you want."

"Sounds good to me"

"Oh, and your computer will be ready by then... I'm sorry, I never did get your name?"

She offered him her hand."Cassie. And your...Chuck?"

"Yeah.Yeah I'm Chuck," he said, messing with his name tag. "Is Cassie short for Cassandra or something?"

"Yeah, actually, it is, but don't call me it." She smiled at him again, and turned to leave, almost running headlong into Morgan. "Uh, Hi."

"Hello, I couldn't't help but overhear that your new to the area. I could show you around, if you want?" Cassie half-glanced back at Chuck. "Morgan, man, don't scare away my customers."

"Sorry, man." He turned back to Cassie. "So, what do you say? I'm Morgan, Chuck's best friend. And you, are one beautiful alien."

"Alien?" she asked, skeptically. "Well, you said your from New Mexico. Area 51, Roswell? You get the drift."

"Unfortunately, yeah, I do. Anyway, I'm Cassie, but I already have the general idea, so I don't need a tour, but thank you anyway."

He walked her out of the store. "Well, if you ever feel you need that tour, you know where to find me."

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Cassie entered the Buymore after lunch, and headed directly for the Nerd Herd desk, for her first day of work. She felt herself being watched by two sets of eyes: those of Morgan, and those of John Casey. She adjusted her shirt collar uncomfortably, avoiding the gazes of both men. She carried on her first day of work as routinely as Chuck told her it would be, and never got any job bad enough for her Bachelors in Computer Sciences to be of any use to her. The day was long and tedious, and the constant menacing stare of John Casey was enough to make her want to crawl out of her skin. Around one, Morgan hawked down on her to get to know her.

"Hey, Cassie. What's up? How's it feel to be a Nerd?" She sighed. "Not bad, I guess."

"So tell me about yourself." He jumped up to sit on the counter. "Well, I'm from Roswell, New Mexico. I went to New Mexico State for Computer Sciences, and I'm going the go to UCLA for Programming. Your turn."

"Well, I'm from Encino, California, and I've never gone to college, but I'm an avid gamer."

"What games?" she asked, trying to ignore the fact that she was becoming increasingly repulsed by Morgan, and her growing curiosity of the Buymore's human resources policies. "Well, anything for Xbox Live, really. Halo, Call of Duty, oh and Guitar Hero.You?"

"I'm pretty good at Guitar Hero, I guess. I like the Final Fantasy Series, Medal of Honor, Metal Gear Solid, stuff like that. Alot of first-person shooters, but I do kinda get caught up in RPGs." She was relived that they had some common ground, because she figured the best way to become friends with Chuck would be to be as much like this guy as she could stomach.

"You should try Call of Duty. Me and Chuck play all the time, I could set you up an Xbox Live account, or you could play with us at Chuck's house, if he doesn't mind."

"I guess that sounds good. Yeah, if Chuck's...cool...with it, then I'll play with you guys sometime." Chuck had come back from lunch. "If I'm cool with what?"

"We were just talking, and she's never played Call of Duty, but she's into that kind of game, so I was thinking she could hang with us tonight, at your place, and play?"

"Yeah, I guess so. Sarah's...visiting family, so I should be free."

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Morgan succeeded in getting Cassie hooked on Call of Duty, unfortunately Chuck's Xbox payed the price. He sat back on his bed, watching the intense game of manhunt she and Morgan were engaged in, when Ellie knocked on his door. "Chuck, John's here," she told him when he opened the door.

"Thanks, sis. Um, could you tell him just to come on back?" she nodded and left, then was replaced by Casey in the doorway.

"Out here, Bartowski," he said, half pulling Chuck into the hallway. "Who's your new friend?"

"Cassie Creasey." he told him. "Uh-huh, and tell me Chuck, what do you know about her?"

"Well, she's 22, a graduate of New Mexico State University with a degree in Computer Sciences, she's living in LA because she got a scholarship to UCLA, and me and her get along quite well. Wait, why do you care?"

"Your supposed to run any new people you meet by me or Agent Walker. You're too valuable to fall into the wrong hands."

"Sorry, I forgot that you control my life. She's no harm, anyway Casey. I haven't flashed on her or anything. Anyway, I'm trying to be a friend, and you keeping me out here isn't helping me make that impression. However, you could join us if you really wanted to," Chuck offered, knowing he'd refuse. To his surprise, Casey showed himself into Chuck's room and sat down at his computer desk. Cassie and Morgan barely glanced up when he entered the room, but Cassie's back visibly stiffened.

When she and Morgan finished their round (Morgan won by one), Chuck introduced Cassie and Casey. " Cassie Creasey, John Casey. Um... you guys work together... Wow, I'm bad at this..." he trailed off. They shook hands, never breaking eye contact and barely smiling.

"Awkward" said Morgan, under his breath. Chuck looked around for some desperate way to get everyone out of the awkward situation they were in. Instead, Morgan's phone rang. He checked his messages, and jumped up from in front of the TV. "My lady is calling. Peace Chuckster, See ya, Cass. John... Never mind. " He showed himself out, leaving Cassie, Chuck, and Casey in an increasingly awkward situation.

"So I'm gonna go. I still have some moving in to do. It was...nice to meet you John, and I guess I'll see you both at work. Tell Ellie I'm sorry I couldn't stay for dinner." She practically fled from the room. Casey followed her after he heard the front door close. He caught her at her car, a black Ford Expedition, and pinned her against it before she heard him coming.

"Well that's rude," she said, forcing his arm off her throat.

"Beckman never told me you were going to be assigned to this case. So far as I'm concerned, your a threat, Cassandra," he told her, keeping her pinned to the car.

"I'm covert, and Chuck and Agent Walker aren't supposed to know who I am, and me and you aren't supposed to have established contact, except for casual in passing at the Buymore and whatnot. That way, Agent Walker or Chuck don't get suspicious, given your lack of charisma and social skills."

"That still doesn't explain why General Beckman didn't inform me." He pulled her into a makeshift choke hold and drug her to his apartment. In his apartment he wretched her arm around behind her back and contacted General Beckman. "Is Cassandra supposed to be on this case, General? No one informed me, and she's awfully close to the intersect for me to not care, so I don't know if she's to be trusted until you clear her." Casey snapped at the general, before she got a chance to say anything.

"Ow...Major, your breaking my arm. Let go." Cassie was trying to work her way free of Casey's grasp.

"General?" Casey asked. Beckman nodded and Casey let go of Cassie. "Yes, Agent Casey is there on my orders, with Agent Walker's current absence, I thought it was best to have an extra agent on the case."

"And when she returns?"

"Then, depending on the situation, she might stay, or she might be reassigned. The only record of her is in the Intersect, so while Agent Walker doesn't know who she is, Bartowski might recognize her, eventually. Let's try and prevent that from happening." General Beckman signed off.

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Chuck had noticed that Cassie had an unusually high tolerance for Morgan, but today he seemed to be getting to her. He had spent the entire afternoon ranting to her about his 7 and a half hour long Halo 3 round last night, and the fact that he was running on 6 Red Bulls and a full Throttle. "Morgan," she warned. Chuck did a double take at all to familiar threatening look on her face. Morgan noticed it too. ." Wow, dude...sorry dudette. When your pissed off, you look just like Casey."

"I'm going to hurt you," she finished her warning, unscathed by Morgan's comment.

"Creasey. Go help Lester and Jeff in the storage cage with those computers," called Big Mike, ruining any chance she had of actually hurting Morgan.

She went back to the storage cage, happy to escape from what may have turned into another awkward situation between her, Casey, Chuck, and Morgan. She worked well under pressure, but the nature of that pressure may have ended up breaking her demeanor. She knew it meant hours of tedious, mindless work in the cage, but it gave her a chance to get in close to Chuck's other friends. Jeff turned out to be an aging alcoholic; even now, during work hours, the scent of hard liquor and cheap beer hung over him. Lester, on the other hand was young, and sober by the look of him. He showed potential for the temporary friendship she was looking for. Jeff was half passed out over one of the desks, so she joined Lester at the other one. She had the charisma that Casey was lacking, and she smiled at Lester as she sat next to him amid the stack of mid-90 Compaq's. He swallowed hard and tried several times to say hi.

"Your Lester, right? I'm Cassie. Big Mike told me to come help you out with the computers."

"Lester? Oh yeah that's...that's me. I'd love the help, but if you don't want to help, I'll cover for you," he offered, choking over his words.

"No it's fine. I really don't mind. These are pretty easy.They just kind of smell funny."

"That? Oh no, thats Jeff," he laughed nervously. "So, what brings you to the Nerd Herd? I mean, like why do you work here, of all places?"

Cassie laughed back, and answered him, the same as she had told Chuck. This was all like high school. Say what you need to say to be liked, and only that. Fitting in was too easy.

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Chuck ended up working overtime to help Cassie with the overwhelming amount of computers left to fix. Every month or so they'd get a load like this to fix, and it's normally no big deal. Unfortunately, Big Mike made the mistake this month of sending a new girl back to work on them with Lester, so the only work that got done was what Cassie had done while Lester ogled her. Casey, although off himself, insisted on staying to watch over Chuck and Cassie. He hung in the shadows, so Chuck and Cassie pretty much ignored him. After hours of pointless conversation and many computers mended, they called it a night. It was almost 10, and Morgan had called Chuck like ten times, looking for a Call of Duty tournament. Cassie had a tower taken apart, and she was putting it away on a higher shelf, but she misbalanced it and it fell, slicing her right arm open. Chuck looked away, avoiding the urge to puke, while she and Casey cleaned it up and stopped the bleeding with her sleeve.

"It's okay Chuck, you can look now, no more blood" Cassie told him, clutching her torn sleeve to her wound.

Chuck turned to look back at her hesitantly. "Oh wow, thats a nasty..."

"Chuck..." warned Casey, recognizing the glazed over look in his eyes. Dozens of pictures flashed before his eyes. A file with Cassie's picture on it; a matching one for Casey; a set of blueprints for a B-2 spirit stealth bomber; a GPS tracker radar; penguins in the Arctic; Cassie, younger, passed out on dark dank concrete with a bloody gash up her right arm and her neck, with her left arm bent at an unnatural angle, and blood running from her nose and mouth, bruises welling all over her body; transcripts from New Mexico State, labeled NSA; transcripts from Berrendo Middle School, labeled CIA; a picture of Casey, a woman, and a young baby; jars of strange specimens; electrified fences topped with barbed wire in the desert; a fleet of stealth bombers, grounded in the Arctic; and a child's depiction of aliens, along with a self drawn family portrait, and a picture of men in black suits and sunglasses, paper clipped together with a post-it note that read Cassandra Casey, age 6, in a CIA file.

"...scar" he finished his earlier statement. "You...wow...your a covert NSA agent since you were 15 when..." Casey grabbed Chuck and covered his mouth, dragging him to the home theater room. He contacted General Beckman. "General, Cassandra's been compromised. Bartowski flashed on her."

"How much does he know?" she asked

Casey let go of him. "Um..She's a covert agent for the NSA. Has been since she was 15, when she was kidnapped and tortured, by the CIA, it seems, after refusing to use knowledge she picked up in her childhood to help them. Her real name is Cassandra Casey, and with how much I saw Casey in that flash, I'd assume she's his daughter, or something. I saw something about, um, Area 51, and Hangar 18, at the, uh, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, um, I think she has something to do with Stealth Bombers in the Arctic, cause I got that kind of vibe from the flash, too...I don't know," he finished. General Beckman, Cassie, and Casey all looked at him incredulously.

"Wow, you saw practically my life story, in just a few seconds. That's freaky," Cassie said, completely monotone, not sure how she should react.

"Keep it quiet, Bartowski," Casey warned.

"As long as her cover is not blown to anyone else, she should be fine staying there. Just keep her cover as tightly woven as possible. Director Graham tells me Agent Walker should be back within the week." General Beckman signed off, and Casey and Cassie both rounded on Chuck.

"Whoa. Just the messenger, don't hurt me," he cowered. Cassie got to him first. She grabbed him by the front of his shirt. "I'm not going to hurt you now, but if you compromise me to the CIA I will kill you. There's a reason I'm covert." She let go off him and he backed away, discovering that he now had to deal with the temper of Casey twofold.

It was Casey's turned with Chuck. " I swear Bartowski, if you compromise her,you'll die a slow and painful death."

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"Hey Cassie, can I ask you something?" Chuck asked her, while they were stuck at a red light on there way to work. They carpooled, mostly because Chuck's car was bugged, so they could only have private conversations in hers.

"Not if it's stupid" she responded. She still was friends with Chuck, but since he flashed on her, she's been letting alittle more of her father's bitterness and sarcasm show through to her old demeanor.

"Not stupid, more personal. What did all those pictures mean when I flashed on you? I've seen alot of weird things before in my flashes, but it never mattered. It was never someone I knew personally, really. There was one thing with Sarah, but that was different. What was with all the Area 51 stuff I saw?"

She sighed reminiscently. "Well, when I was 5, I was abducted by aliens," she told him in complete seriousness. "They took me up in there aircraft, which crashed in Roswell. Alot of the things on board, alien embryos, life support systems, the aliens themselves, and, well, me, were taken to Area 51 for studies."

After a few minutes of silence, she burst out laughing. "Wow, Chuck. Did you actually believe me? You know I can't actually tell you that stuff."