Notes: This story is a follow up to The Classified Information Conundrum I wrote some time ago for The Big Bang Theory. Reading that story is highly recommended, though all you need to know is that Penny used to be a CIA agent (I borrowed a little bit from Agent Cody Banks); anything else from that story that is needed for this one is explained here. It was because of that story (more accurately, a review for that story) that pointed me toward Chuck, and I felt it would be a fun match for a crossover.
This story is a one-shot and deals with Penny interviewing for Carmichael Industries, though there's a little bump along the way that has to be dealt with first. If enough people enjoy it, I will see what stories I can come up with.
"Sarah, we know absolutely nothing about her! What if she's after you?"
The tall blonde rolled her eyes. "Chuck, will you relax. I've talked with her briefly and I know why she wanted out. She doesn't trust the CIA, and given the circumstances, I can't say I blame her. But she does want to do this kind of work again."
"I hate to say it, Walker, but Bartowski has a point. We can't just trust her based on what she told you."
Sarah turned toward the big, gruff man, raising her eyebrows. "Come on, Casey, give me some credit here. I'm not saying we should trust her completely. She'll be blindfolded as soon as we hit Burbank and I'll drive around a bit so she'll lose any sense of direction."
She turned back to her husband. "Chuck, you agreed we could use another agent now that business is picking up. I'm not asking you to hire her on the spot, just that we bring her in and check out her skills. I'm sure she'd even agree to a lie detector test."
Chuck sighed. "I'm not having a problem with her coming here. I just don't like the idea of you going alone."
Sarah moved closer to her husband, grabbing his hand. "I understand that, but it's a bit overkill for all of us to drive to Pasadena. Tell you what, though. I'll wear my earpiece and will be sure to be at the meeting point I set with her at least an hour early."
"The girl does check out, Chuck."
Sarah turned toward the large monitor to see Chuck's best friend, Morgan Grimes, sitting at his desk of their public office. Moments later the image was replaced with some information about their potential new colleague.
"Besides a dozen or so speeding tickets and a tendency to get behind on her bills, most likely due to her obsessive shoe shopping, there's nothing on her that would be considered dangerous."
Sarah looked at Chuck again, hoping he would understand this wasn't as big of a risk as he was thinking it was. "I also talked to her former handler and partner, Ronica Miles. In her own words, the agency lost a very valuable agent when she decided to quit."
Chuck sighed again. "Alright, you can pick her up tomorrow, but we'll be listening in through the earpiece you'll be wearing. The car's signal booster should be adequate enough to reach us."
"Penny, you know practically nothing about them! What if they're after you?"
The blonde smiled sympathetically at her fiancé, understanding and touched by his worry for her safety. "Sweetie, I seriously doubt they're after me. Sarah, the tall blonde, even helped us when Franklin captured you and our friends." Penny still felt guilty about the whole ordeal. Initially it had seemed someone had targeted Leonard, but in the end it had turned out she had been targeted by former CIA agent Franklin. It had forced her to use her CIA training, after deliberately putting it all behind her a decade before. But it had proved to her she still had it in her, and that she still enjoyed it. "I'm pretty sure things are as they seem, but even if they're not, I still have my CIA training."
"They've had the same training you've had."
"Yeah, well, so did the dozen former agents I battled to try and save you!" She raised her hand. "Sorry, I didn't mean to..." Penny sighed. "Look, I know there is always a chance there are better agents than me. But part of my training involved reading people. Ronica also assured me Sarah is a good agent." Penny sighed again, and took the few steps needed for her to be able to wrap her arms around his neck. "Honey, you know I told you if things got too intense for you, I would quit, but please let me at least try this out for a little while?"
Leonard smiled. "I guess I should trust you on this."
Penny pressed her lips against his. "Sweetie, I promise I'll be careful." She noticed the time and realized she needed to go. She kissed Leonard again. "I love you." She smiled at him, grabbed her phone and walked out of her apartment. As she drove out of the small parking lot behind the building, she noticed another car on the street. Penny couldn't tell why it caught her attention, but after seeing the car join the light traffic behind her, she kept glancing in her rearview mirror. The beige Lexus remained about thirty feet behind her, the standard tail cushen. Even when Penny took small detours, the car kept following, making it unlikely the car behind her had the same destination as her.
Penny smiled as the light up ahead turned yellow, lightly pushing down on her break, giving the impression she was going to stop. When the light had turned red, she saw a city bus on her right accelerating as it obviously got green. With no cars in front of her or approaching from the left, she pressed down on the accelerator, cutting in front of the bus, and immediately turned right to enter the narrow street just past the crossing, out of sight of her pursuers.
She turned right again and decided to avoid the main streets as much as possible until she got to the mall. She glanced at her phone as it rang, grinning when the caller ID informed her it was Sarah. "Lost me already, didn't ya," Penny answered the call.
Sarah frowned at the unexpected greeting. "Lost you?"
"You were following me, right? Beige Lexus?"
"Penny, believe me, if someone is following you, it's not us." When no answer came, Sarah added, "Do you need my help?"
"Nah. Like I said, I lost them, and I was deliberately driving in the wrong direction from the start, figuring you guys wouldn't have checked all of Pasadena. I'm cutting through the subdivisions, avoiding the main streets. I'll be a little late, though."
Sarah nodded and smiled. Penny had handled the situation pretty much the way she would have. "I understand. Call me when you're almost here?"
"Sure. Give me about ten more minutes. Bye Sarah."
Sarah sat back in her seat, her eyes once again tracking every movement on the mostly deserted parking lot. In her mind she was trying to figure out who could've been following Penny. She'd been out of the spy life for over a decade until former agent Franklin resurfaced and had targeted her. Sarah had been there during the final stand-off and knew nobody had escaped. Then again, in the past Franklin had had some help from someone high up the agency's hierarchy. Was it possible he still had someone helping him? "Chuck, can you check the current status of agent Franklin?"
"Already on it," her husband replied immediately, mere seconds later following it up with "as far as I can tell, he's still securely held at the CIA base in Omaha."
Sarah nodded. "Good, but unfortunately we know it doesn't mean he's not behind it." She didn't need to remind him of Daniel Shaw; Chuck knew how he'd orchestrated everything to discredit Chuck and simultaneously work on his escape plan. When Shaw did escape, he had tried to kill Chuck with her watching, just to get back at her for killing Shaw's wife, completely ignoring the fact she had been assigned to do so, without knowing who her target had been.
"True. But let's not forget Penny might have made a couple of more enemies, some of whom might have escaped. There's also the possibility they are using her to get to us."
"I would bet it's one of her enemies. If they'd wanted us, they'd have tailed us. Besides, that would indicate they knew we were going to pick up Penny." Sarah glanced at her phone and frowned when the caller ID indicated it was Penny. "Hold on Chuck. Penny's calling." She hit accept on her phone. "You can't be that close already."
"I'm not," Penny responded, a touch of annoyance in her voice. "The Lexus is tailing me again. I must have a tracker either on me or, more likely, the car. No way they could've found me that quickly."
"How do you want to proceed?"
"Until we know for certain they can't follow me, I suggest you guys stay away from me. Just in case they'll follow us to your secret base."
"I have some equipment with me to sniff out any trackers."
"Great. In the mean time, I think I have a plan to deal my stalkers before we leave Pasadena."
Penny parked her car in the agreed upon spot on the mall parking lot. As she got out she pretended her keys fell on the ground. Bending to retrieve them, she quickly grabbed the miniature communication device Sarah had left there for her. Her tail had just turned onto the lot as she locked her car and walked casually toward the mall entrance.
As soon as Penny was inside and, at least for the moment, out of view of her follower or followers, she put the communication device in her ear, activating it. "I'm in the mall now," Penny said, not bothering with pleasantries or tests. "I'll be at the old factory in two minutes." She immediately began running toward the south entrance of the mall.
"I'm in position," Sarah responded.
Penny was glad she'd kept up with her overall fitness, still going for five mile runs every single day, throwing in a ten mile run at least once a week. The two minute run was hardly going to exhaust her. Exiting the mall she sprinted full out across the parking lot, easily jumping the low barrier separating the parking lot from the street behind it. With the still light traffic she managed to cross the normally busy street without needing to slow down.
Ducking into the alley, she paused near the entry and looked toward the mall exit. "Don't see anyone following," Penny informed Sarah. "Oh, wait, someone exited the mall and is looking around." Penny observed the man as he looked in every direction, speaking into his sleeve; undoubtedly he had a microphone there. "Looks like the tracker is actually on my car," Penny replied. "They don't seem to have any idea where I am." Penny glanced to the left. "Hey, there's the Lexus." She narrowed her eyes. "I've seen that car before."
"They've probably been staking out for a while near your place."
Penny's eyes went wide when she realized why that car was so familiar. "No, they haven't. You know, it always bothered me that Franklin told Leonard I managed to escape and was probably on the way. He couldn't have possibly known, unless..."
"... Unless he had someone there giving him information."
Penny nodded. "Exactly. Now, guess where and when I saw a beige Lexus."
"I have a pretty good idea," Sarah replied. "Have they spotted you yet?"
"No," Penny said. "I'll try to get their attention," she added, stepping out of the alley, moving along the building, pretending to try to not get noticed. As soon as the Lexus turned onto the street, they obviously noticed her and Penny ducked back into the alley, this time following it all the way to the end where the old copper processing factory was located. The alley was too narrow for a car to follow her, so they'd have to follow her on foot. It didn't take her more than twenty seconds to arrive at the factory, immediately going to the left.
"I see them. Three men, no, four men following."
"Shouldn't be much of a problem," Penny said. She entered the factory through the wide open gap that in the past must have been a large door. Having scouted the area and the factory, she knew exactly where she needed to go to have the best vantage point and reached it in seconds. "In position," she whispered, trusting the device would pick up her voice regardless.
"The first three just arrived," Sarah whispered back from her vantage point, across from Penny. It didn't take long before Penny saw the men entering. She rolled her eyes when she saw the apparent leader, recognizing him immediately.
"Alright, bitch. This time I'm gonna take you down."
"Still mad at me," Penny asked, knowing the echoes in the building would make it nearly impossible for anyone to figure out where she was. "You do realize you and your partner were in the wrong, right?" Penny grinned slightly as the leader looked around in hopes of finding her.
"My partner can no longer be on active duty, thanks to you and what you did to his knee. In addition, we've both been reprimanded for attacking a civilian, and to top it off, I got reprimanded again for threatening you and subsequently allowing you to escape."
"I guess that answers my question," Penny said. "How long have you been working for Franklin?"
Sarah kept track of all four men as she listened to the conversation between the leader and Penny. As Sarah had noticed before with agents gone bad, they had a tendency to boast about what they were going to do or explain their motivation; it didn't necessarily mean they weren't still capable agents, but in general they seem to lose their edge, assuming they had one to begin with.
Tactically speaking, the current situation wasn't one you'd like to be in; with no idea where your target is exactly, it's just not very wise to engage them verbally. The chances of drawing them out are slim, and if the target is actually responding - especially a former CIA agent - it usually means they know they are in no real immediate danger.
Another mistake was that only one of the men was actively attempting to locate their target; the leader remained more or less in the center, the other two near the windowed walls.
"One's coming your way," Penny's whispered warning came through the earpiece, but Sarah had already seen him. Soundlessly she moved closer to the stairs leading to the platform she was on. As soon as the man got to the top, she stood up straight and swung her leg hard into his midsection, causing him to fall backwards down the stairs.
"Get her!"
Sarah watched the two other henchmen approach the stairs. "Ready for the next step," Sarah quietly asked Penny through the communications device.
"Yeah, I'm already on the move."
Sarah quickly moved to the far end, where she could slide down the round bar holding up the walkway she was on, to reach the ground floor. From there she could simply squeeze through the crack in the far corner, out of sight from the one guy still standing in the center. Penny had informed her about the escape options while still en route to the mall, although Sarah had taken the time to check for herself.
Ducking low she passed the broken windows silently, making her way to stop right next to the door opening. She grinned slightly at Penny as she approached the other side. To Sarah it was clear the shorter blonde was as much looking forward to the confrontation as Sarah was herself. Most of the recent cases for Carmichael Industries hadn't involved much action, but Morgan and Chuck had both said they had some cases lined up that would involve a lot more of that. Not soon enough, as far as Sarah was concerned. She missed the action and danger far more than she had expected.
"I think she escaped."
Penny grinned at Sarah at the shouted conclusion from the henchman.
"Then follow her, idiot!"
"I can't fit through this crack and stop calling me an idiot!"
Sarah rolled her eyes at the unprofessional attitude, once again coming to the conclusion that agents gone bad tend to forget a lot from their CIA training. Nonetheless she readied herself, as did Penny, knowing someone would run out of the building soon. Sarah decided she was going to leave the leader to Penny, deciding it was a great opportunity to see how she would let personal issues influence her performance as an agent.
The first guy exiting wasn't the leader and Sarah grabbed him by the arm, pivoting around to force the man to arc around her and come intimately acquainted with the stone wall. She turned around quickly and was faced with the leader, aiming a gun directly at her.
"You're not that bitch," he said upon seeing her face. "Who the fuck are you?"
Sarah smiled, knowing Penny was still there. "I think you're asking the wrong question."
"Oh yeah? What would be right question, then?"
"Where's the bitch," Penny replied, her foot connecting to the inside of his knee, forcing him down. As the two men beside him started to turn, Penny spun around quickly, stretching her leg to connect to the guy closest to the wall, forcing him to stumble hard against it. When Penny turned around further, she saw Sarah dealing with the other guy.
She turned back and hit the guy again, knowing he'd be unconscious for a while, and turned back to the leader of the pack, who was just starting to stand up again. Penny grabbed him, pulled him up, swung him around and forced him against the wall, her hand tightly around his throat. "So," Penny said, tilting her head slightly. "I wonder what would happen if I called Ronica and told her you followed me again. You know, having been reprimanded twice in short order, I doubt you'd get off with a third."
Penny lashed out with her foot as the guy Sarah had initially thrown against the wall decided he was actually going to help his boss. Her foot connected with his crotch hard and he doubled over in pain, falling to the ground. Penny's foot was back on the ground almost instantaneously. "Of course, if they find out you've been working for Franklin, you might not even be allowed to stay on." She turned her head around. "Stay," she told the guy she'd just hit in the crotch when he tried to stand up, "or you'll get hurt a lot worse."
"I got him," Sarah said, yanking the guy to his feet and pushing him against the wall, along with the other guy she'd briefly battled. "You know, if he's working for Franklin, we really should turn him in to the CIA."
"We are," Penny said. "I just want to make it very clear to my 'friend' here, that if I ever see him near me or my friends, he's going to wish he'd never been born. You got that?" Penny leaned in, tightening her grip slightly when he didn't immediately react. "Got that?" She eased up a little when he nodded. "Oh, and where did you put that tracker?"
"Above right back wheel," the leader ground out, having trouble breathing.
Sarah had been looking forward to this part of the day. Up till now they had subjected Penny to psychological and intelligence tests, leaving only the physical test. Of course she'd seen Penny in action twice, but this sparring match would tell her exactly how good the other blonde was. "I'm not gonna go easy on you," Sarah warned.
Penny grinned. "Neither will I. I mean, I won't go for a kill hit, but I'm not going to hold back any punches or kicks."
Sarah nodded, satisfied Penny was of the same mind. Of course neither had held their punches during sparring matches during their CIA training sessions, with the exception of potentially killing blows. "Great," Sarah said, walking into the exercise and training room. "Do you need to stretch?"
Penny shook her head. "No, I'll be fine. Besides, bad guys wouldn't ask me if I wanted some time to stretch."
Sarah immediately tried to hit Penny, but the shorter woman managed to block it and Sarah had to step back to prevent Penny's leg from sweeping hers. After these initial probing attacks, they started to circle each other, both of them trying to find a weakness. Even though Penny had been out of the spy world for a decade, Sarah couldn't find an immediate weakness. Not that she expected to find one, given the times she'd seen Penny in action. Sarah could tell Penny was slightly disappointed at not finding an immediate weakness either, and Sarah smirked as they made eye contact briefly.
Sarah barely avoided being hit by Penny's sudden attack and tried to follow it up with her own attack, but failed to even touch her. "So, what happened between you and that guy," Sarah asked as they circled again. Penny lashed out again, and Sarah was nearly too late to block it.
"His partner and him were picking on Leonard," Penny said, again placing an attack that Sarah wasn't able to block completely. "They thought he was a data analyst who had an eye on me. They decided to help improve his basic fight skills they thought he possessed."
Sarah found herself on her back as Penny hit her again, blocking the fist that followed her, and used her leg to sweep Penny's. She immediately rolled over to hover over the blonde. Before she could even place an attack, Penny's arm connected to her shoulder and Sarah found out just how strong the woman was, as she seemingly effortlessly pushed Sarah away to roll back where she'd just come from.
"I had the guy pinned against the wall and asked him what he thought he was doing," Penny resumed her narrative. She rolled slightly away and was up on her feet in a flash. "Then his partner," she continued, hitting Sarah before she even got to her feet, "decided to attack me." Penny stepped back to avoid Sarah's counter attack, allowing Sarah to regain her balance. "So I kicked his partner's knee," Penny said, adding a backflip to avoid Sarah's next attack.
Sarah immediately followed through on her initial attack, this time managing to fully connect to Penny, who found herself slightly out of balance because of it. "I see," Sarah said, attempting another attack but found herself on the mat, cursing herself for not seeing through Penny's little charade. She clearly hadn't been out of balance, just given the impression she was momentarily vulnerable.
"Later," Penny said, straddling Sarah as she had just turned around. "Ronica put him in charge of keeping me away from Franklin but I got away."
Sarah relaxed her body, indicating to Penny she admitted defeat and the woman rolled away and was on her feet in a second. "Wasn't he supposed to let you go?" Sarah immediately attacked Penny again, forcing the shorter blonde to move to avoid being hit, leaving her open to the actual attack Sarah was going for.
"Yeah," Penny said as she hit the mat and rolled on. "But he wanted to avenge his partner first."
Sarah flipped herself over Penny, then kicked back to hit Penny in the side. She followed that up by turning around and drop on top of Penny, her fist stopping a fraction of an inch above Penny's head. "I guess he didn't get a chance?" Sarah saw Penny grin and relax her body in surrender.
"Hit his knee with my liberated fist, knocked him out cold and got the hell out of the apartment."
"Walker. Beckman's on. She has a mission for us."
Sarah nodded as she helped Penny to her feet. "Be right there," she answered.
"You want me to stay here," Penny asked. "You know, confidential stuff."
"No," Casey answered. "Bartowski drafted your contract. If you still want the job, it's yours and you can sit in on the mission briefing."
Sarah grinned when Penny gave a brief squeal and Casey's answering disapproving grunt. "He'll grow on you," Sarah whispered to Penny when she noticed the expression on the shorter womans face at Casey's non-verbal response.
"General Beckman, I'd like to introduce you to our new team member."
Penny smiled as Sarah introduced her to the general, interjecting that she'd prefer not to be called by her last name. She looked pointedly at the big gruff man, who she'd noticed seemed to refer to people by their last names exclusively. She then took a seat in between Morgan and John before the general started the brief.
"Team, this man is your target," the general began, her image moving into a small box in the upper right corner to provide room for a photo of a man in a dark suit, sun glasses and almost white hair. The bio stated he was almost forty, and had a slew of crimes that seemed connected to him, though there was virtually no proof. "He's currently in your area, and we have no other personnel available."
"I notice there's no information on where he lives. Where can we find him," Sarah asked.
The image was replaced by a list of four locations. "Your best chance will be one of these four clubs. We have virtually no other information, other than he's very likely to visit one of these almost every night." The list disappeared and the general once again filled the entire screen. "He has some very specific tastes when it comes to women."
"Perhaps we can target him that way," Sarah said. "If Penny or I can hook up with him, we have a better chance of finding out where he currently lives, possibly obtaining evidence. Do you have more information about that, General?"
The general was again moved to the upper right corner as a series of photo's were shown. It clearly showed him leaving various clubs around the country, always accompanied by two blonde women. "He prefers blonde couples," the general said. "Witnesses have mentioned the couples that were chosen, weren't shy about public displays of affection."
"Witnesses," Penny asked, immediately wondering why witnesses needed to provide such information. "What happened to the couples themselves?"
The general once again filled the entire frame. "Recently we found the dead bodies of his first two couples. However, they were killed recently. We assume he has started to get rid of his earlier victims, to make room for new ones, or perhaps the two couples were causing too much difficulty. We find ourselves in a unique situation, in that it appears the target has settled here, at least momentarily. Upto recently he seemed to have relocated almost every couple of days."
Penny nodded. "Right, I guess that means Sarah and I are going on a date tonight?" She turned toward Sarah, who smiled and gave a small nod.
"You will need to be very convincing," the general warned. "I know agent Walker can, but can you, Penny?"
In response, Penny stood up and walked toward Sarah, seated right beside Morgan. "Hey, baby," she said in a sensual voice, caressing Sarah's arms. "You're so hot," she continued, moving to sit sideways in Sarah's lap. "Do you have any idea how turned on I get by you?" Penny moved her head closer to Sarah's, until their lips almost touched. Penny briefly looked into Sarah's eyes, seeking and receiving permission to complete the charade.
Penny moved her head further, kissing the blonde woman fully on the lips. Feeling Sarah respond by parting her lips, Penny gently let her tongue slip in between them. When Sarah didn't indicate having any trouble with the move, Penny let her tongue go a little deeper, and used one hand to move along the side of Sarah's body.
After a couple more seconds, Penny pulled back and moved back to her seat. "Convincing enough," she asked, slightly grinning as she noticed the looks on the faces of the men in the room.
"Going by the mens reactions, I think this will work perfectly," the General replied. "Notify me once you have detained your target and I will arrange for a pick-up."
Some final details were discussed before the conference call was ended, and Penny was handed her contract. It hadn't even dawned on her they had allowed her to be part of the mission brief before she had actually signed anything. To Penny it showed trust, and after a once over she signed the contract, deciding to trust them to not have put anything in there that she would regret.
"Well, Penny," Chuck said. "Welcome to team Bartowski."
"Thanks," Penny said, beaming. She felt good about this career move, especially since she'd come to the conclusion a few weeks ago that she just wasn't going to make it big in the acting industry. "If Sarah wouldn't mind getting me back to Pasadena, I'll have enough time to get my hair cut short." At the raised eyebrows she elaborated, "You saw the pictures, always one woman with a really short, stylish hairdo. No way we can get that look with a wig when both Sarah and I would have to hide a lot of hair underneath. Besides, I feel this change warrants a new style and I think I will totally rock the look."