AN: So...Good news bad news situation. Bad news is I got writers block for United By Red Tests. Good news is that this idea popped into my head. This is just an alternative take to the pilot. Like all my other works like this, if it's bad, I'll delete it. Please review.

Chuck vs The Old Friend

The sound of the zipper was the only sound in the dark room.

"Morgan, this is a bad idea," Chuck said.

"Well we can't stay here, Chuck."

"I'm uncomfortable with the plan."

"Plan? What plan? This is survival." Both men heard a knock pounding at the door.

"That's her! We've been compromised. I'm a ghost," Morgan said, as he proceeded to climb out the window.

"No Morgan, you can't do this, you can't leave me like this, Morgan-"

Light filled the room and Chuck looked at his sister, Ellie Bartowski, standing at the door frame with one hand on her hip, observing the actions between her brother and his best friend.

"Chuck. What are you doing?"

"Um, escaping."

"From your own birthday party?" she furrowed her brow.

"Hey Ellie!" Morgan called, from the window. "Wow, you look fan..." he slipped for a moment outside the window, before regaining his footing. "...tastic."

"You know sis," Chuck's eyes drifted to the floor. "The thing is that Morgan and I don't really feel like we're fitting in...at my birthday party. Cause we don't know anybody. Cause they're all your friends. And they all happen to be doctors." Chuck explained.

"Doctors who don't really get our jokes," Morgan said, still struggling to keep his grip on the window frame.

"Well, your jokes," Chuck admitted.

"Okay. My jokes."

"Chuck." Ellie insisted. "I have invited real, live, women, for you. Okay? So please, let's go," her eyes shot to the bearded man hanging by the window. "Morgan, you stay here," she said before leaving and closing the door behind her.

Chuck sighed and reluctantly stood up. "Need a hand, buddy?" he offered his friend.

"No thanks, I'm okay, Chuck."

Outside the apartment, in the Echo Park complex, Ellie began pushing her little brother forward.

"You are going to be social, you are smart, you are funny, you are handsome."

After yet another unsuccessful attempt from Ellie, to get him to get over Jill and meet new people, Chuck returned to his room, where Morgan, of course was waiting for him. He just didn't know what it was. He couldn't get over Jill, Bryce and Stanford. He always ended up talking about it.

Meanwhile in the courtyard a tall blonde made her way through the people at the party until she found a familiar face.

"Ellie," she called out.

"Sarah?" she questioned, making her way towards the blonde. "Oh my God! It's you!" she squealed pulling her into a hug. "How've you been?"

"Good, good. I'm back in town for about a week. How are you doing?"

"Great. I Wish I could say the same about Chuck," Ellie smiled a little sadly.

"Sarah! You're here, awesome!" Devon boomed, approaching the two women.

"Devon, always nice to see you," Sarah smiled. "Hey, where's Chuck? I can't seem to find him."

"Probably in his room, with Morgan," Ellie replied. "Come on, let's go get him."

Sarah Walker had been one of Chuck's best friends at Stanford and other than Ellie and Morgan, was the only person to believe that he hadn't stolen test answers. She had urged him to go in front of the board again and plead his case, but Chuck had felt too depressed at the time and didn't do it. Ellie had always liked Sarah. She was sweet and smart and beautiful, and unlike Jill, was actually loyal to Chuck and kept tabs on how he was doing after he was kicked out.

Ellie could always tell that Sarah had liked Chuck as more than a friend. But since Chuck was with Jill, she always kept her feelings to herself. After graduation, Sarah had moved to DC for a job and they didn't talk as much, but she tried to touch base every so often.

Chuck and Morgan were discussing what type of sandwiches they would bring to a deserted island. Morgan insisted that roast beef was a bad idea and also argued that technically anything between bread was a sandwich. They were in a heated discussion when Ellie knocked on the door.

"Chuck. Someone's here to see you," she called from the other side.

"Sure, come in," Chuck replied, praying that it wasn't someone else she was trying to set him up with. When he caught sight of the beautiful blonde in front of his sister, his mood instantly brightened. "Sarah?"

"Hey Chuck. Happy Birthday."

He stood up and gave her a hug. He'd missed her. They'd talked on the phone a few times, but Sarah was so busy with work, he hadn't seen her in a long time. Chuck had to admit that. She was one of the few people that had stuck by him after Stanford.

"Hi Sarah," Morgan called, sitting on Chuck's bed.

"Morgan, good to see you again."

"You too."

Morgan showed no sign of planning to excuse himself, in fact, he stretched lying down on Chuck's bed.

"Morgan!" Ellie, shot her eyes to him, towards the door leading out of Chuck's room.

"What?" he asked, totally oblivious.

"Don't you think, we should give them some privacy?"

"Why?"

"Morgan," she said sternly. "Let's go."

The bearded man, sensing an angry Ellie Bartowski, got up from the bed, mumbled something and followed her out the door.

Chuck had been sitting on the wall next to the window and Sarah took a seat next to him.

"So how've you been?" she asked.

"Good, good. Great, actually," he replied.

"Care to try that again?" Sarah responded. "Besides, Ellie begs to differ."

"Sorry, sorry. It's just...I'm really happy to see you again and I don't wanna get sad again by talking about my job and my life."

"Come on, Chuck. Look, you are smart and you can do anything you want. You don't have to stay in the Buy More forever," she smiled.

"Have you been taking lessons from Ellie?" Sarah laughed a little, causing him to smile. "So, come on, tell me about your life, tell me what you've been up to."

"Oh, nothing, really. Meetings, deals, lots of work to take home...Oh, I almost forgot," she handed him the wrapped bow in her hands. "Here, I got you this."

"What is it?"

"A birthday present. It's kind of a given when you show you to someone's birthday party."

"Well, I kinda thought you being here was my present...That or Ellie's trying to push me in a certain direction," he joked the last part.

"Well the the first thing was very sweet. And Ellie didn't know I'd be here till I showed up. Open it."

As a little boy on Christmas morning, Chuck would tear apart the wrapping paper of his presents to get to what would (hopefully) be Star Wars action figures or some other nerdy toy. Lots of things had changed in twenty years, that was not one of them. After he got the bow off, he opened the wrapping paper, quickly getting to a something that looked like a shoe box.

Lifting the lid off, the first thing he saw was a picture of the two of them back in college. One of Chuck's frat brothers had hosted a party about a month before Chuck was expelled. He smiled, glancing at the photo.

"Thank you," he smiled at her. "I love it."

"Well, that's not all I got you," Sarah said.

Chuck opened the lid again, revealing a black case. Opening it and seeing on the words on the disc his eyes went wide.

"Oh...My...God. Is this...Is this for real?" he felt like he was hallucinating.

"Yes, Chuck. It's for real," Sarah replied with a smile, glad that he'd liked it.

"You got me the advanced copy of the new Call of Duty!" he said jumping to his feet like an excited young child. "How did you...How did you even get this?"

"Through a long line of connections," she replied. "I called Morgan to ask what games you were into, but since you pretty much have every game that you want that's out already, I thought I'd surprise you."

"I-I can't believe you did this for me," Chuck said, coming out of his daze. "Thank you, Sarah. Not just for the gifts, but for being here. It means a lot to me that you flew over from DC," he spoke earnestly.

"Anytime, Chuck."

"So how long are you in town for?" he asked, an idea suddenly popping into his head. '

"A little over a week, why?"

"Well, I'd like to take you out to dinner, tonight," Chuck asked. "If, if that's okay with you."

Sarah smiled. "I'd like that."

"Great," he smiled his Bartowski grin. "So...I'll pick you up say...seven?"

"Seven sounds good."

Sarah left to go back to her hotel, shortly afterwards to rest up. Chuck, then proceeded to log on to his computer and check his emails. He frowned, seeing the name at the top of his inbox.

"Bryce?" he furrowed his brow. "What the..."

Chuck opened the email, only to have a black screen show a simple line of white text.

'The terrible troll raises his sword.'

This was from the version of Zork that he and Bryce had created using TRS-80.

"What was in my hero's satchel?" he muttered to himself, staring at the screen. After a few moments of thinking, he tapped at the keyboard and hit the enter key.

Attack troll with nasty knife...

AN: Well, I'm gonna pull a bit of a Fedak here and leave what happens in the end up to you. I hope you enjoyed that. If not, say so in a review and this will have never existed. Thanks for reading and please, please review.