Author's Note: The second chapter of my Chuck or rather JELLIE fic! I apologise for it taking a little longer, I have not been well. I had the flu (regular not swine!) and then I had a chest infection and that kept me from work for two weeks. I'm back at work barely a week later and now I have an ear infection. IT SUCKS! But…I'm on the mend!
WARNING: This chapter is not at all light hearted or pretty! Something bad really happens that could upset people.
The Colonel versus The Sister
"I Promise."
"What do you want with Chuck?!"
Ellie couldn't stay silent as she and Devon edged back into her living room. She was scared, but this wasn't hers or Devon's first time at being held at gun point. A couple of druggies had come into the ER once and had threatened to start shooting everyone if they weren't given treatment. There was even a time when a distraught man who had just lost his wife had held a gun at Ellie's chest demanding that she bring his wife back to life. Each time Ellie had been scared but she had remained professional, she had kept her cool and thankfully no one got shot. This man however was completely different from grieving husbands and whacked out junkies.
He was glaring at them with the cold eyes of a killer, yet his smile was beaming at them as if there was nothing wrong. He was loving the control he had over them both and as she looked closer at him, she could see that it was more than just a simple love for being in power. It was twisted perversion.
The man forced them over to the couch, jabbing the gun at Devon's back. They slumped down together, holding onto each other for support, but Ellie still looked defiant, waiting for a reply to her question. Why did this bastard want Chuck?!
The intruder noticed her looks, noticed how both she and her husband were keeping so calm and composed. He nodded, certainly impressed and then walked round the back of sofa. He then began to hum, as if anticipating something. Slowly, he paced back and forth behind the sofa, brushing the end of the gun on the back. Then he bent down next to Ellie and sniffed at her long silky brown hair, groaning at her scent. He used the barrel of the gun to lift up her hair and traced it around her neck. Ellie shuddered at the cold feel of the metal, her stomach tightened in disgust that this man was taking some sickening pleasure in doing this to her. She shrugged her shoulders to get the gun away, forgetting that he could easily have shot her in that very instant.
Devon snarled; his muscled arms tensed and Ellie knew full well that he wanted to lash out, but instead he just held Ellie closer to him. There was a something a little odd with Devon, Ellie couldn't pin point what it was, yet for the time being she ignored it. Now was not the time to be worry over such trivial and small things. He was doing what she desperately needed, supporting her, giving her strength. This guy holding the gun was no "Ned" keeping them hostage in the Buy More.
"What are you waiting for?!" Ellie asked, her hand gripping harder onto Devon's arm.
"I'm just waiting for the Intersect and Agent Walker to come in here." said the man, in a eerie cheerful manner. His hand reached out to touch the crown of her head, but again she flinched. "They know I'm here and that I have you two. If they don't come out right now, I will make a nice little hole in the head of your husband." The agent winked happily at Devon and gave him the thumbs up. Ellie frowned, anger at such casual flippancy towards Devon's life that she turned round and scowled at him. He blew her kiss and licked his lips. "You and I have something special planned, sweet lady. Your hair is so soft, silky and oh! I bet the rest of you is too….I could have such fun."
Her fist clenched but before she could get up and punch that smug grin off his face, Devon shot to his feet. His usual "awesome" and dude calm manner was gone, replaced by a dark threatening intent to hurt the guy for making such threats against his wife. The gun shoved right against his forehead.
"You've got no chance in stopping me." There was no smile on his face now, in fact there was no emotion at all. "If I want my way with your lady…then I will. I would suggest you sit down or else your red is going be re-decorating this living room!"
"NO!"
Ellie heard the scream, the sound of a door crashing open before her brother came rushing into the lounge from his bedroom. To Ellie's horror, he was holding a gun and holding it with surprising accuracy towards the man behind her.
"Chuck?!"
Immediately after him, brandishing a gun of her own, was Sarah. Unlike Chuck, she was not afraid, she was focused and unwavering. The two of them stood side by side, Chuck now squinting and straining as he looked at the intruder.
"Anything?" The way Sarah said spoke confounded Ellie, in fact their behaviours were outright weird and troubling. Chuck shook his head.
"No flash." he said. "I've got nothing on him."
"Agent Walker…Mr Bartowski. I'm glad you could make it." The Fulcrum agent smirked a horrible leer. "Of course the government doesn't have a thing on me, so you wouldn't flash."
Chuck and Sarah stepped closer forward, Ellie could see her brother still shaking, worrying awfully about her safety.
"I want to see my sister and her husband safe." he said, his voice croaking a little. "You hurt them and this lovely lady next to me, and myself, will pay you back and I'm not talking money or gift vouchers either."
"Thanks for the threat, Mr Bartowski. As for hurting your family, I still may do. That would be entirely up to you. Though I have to admit, I never thought that the Intersect would reside in your nerdy little brain, Charles. All those secrets…hush hush! Right?"
"I…I don't understand!" Ellie, looked from Chuck to Sarah, hoping they would give her some kind of answer, to tell her why the both of them were being held at gunpoint, but neither of them responded.
"Mrs Woodcombe…" The Fulcrum agent knelt down directly behind her, stroking the gun across her cheek. Her disgusted flinching angered both Devon and Chuck. "Your brother, thanks to the deeds of Bryce Larkin, has had the Intersect; a computer containing every single government secret, lodged in his head for the past three years. A computer that your father actually helped to create, by the way! Which is nice, isn't it?"
"Dad?" Ellie's face screwed up in confusion. "Our dad?"
"Dear old, dad! Yeah. Anyway, your dad helped create it and now your little bother keeps it in his head. I am here to retrieve him, for my people. They want what is inside that squishy head of his and I'm going to be the one to get it for them so they can extract it. I'm thinking maybe they'll try with a spoon. It's fun to gouge things out with spoons."
"You're insane." sneered Ellie.
"I could be certified insane." the man chuckled, but then he shot an fierce gaze towards Sarah, keeping his gun firmly against Ellie's neck. "The things that roam in my head aren't pretty. I'm not a nice man…but I'm not here to talk to you, or your dolt of a husband."
"Ellie, Devon….just stay absolutely still." said Sarah, moving cautiously across the lounge, keeping her sights locked on the intruder. However, she wasn't going to take a shot, not yet. The risks were still too high. "Let them go. They have nothing to do with this."
"But on the contrary they have everything to do with it. How else will I get Mr Bartowski to come with me, if I don't threaten their lives? I was thinking about torturing them…nice and slowly…maybe play with the delectable Eleanor's virtue."
"NO! Don't! Please, don't harm her…." Chuck said, gently easing off on the hold of his gun. He opened his palms and placed the gun on the table. "I'll come with you. Peacefully, quietly….just don't hurt them."
"Chuck!" Sarah looked at him, desperation in her eyes calling out for him not to do this. She had objected to his need to come here, his own safety being the priority; but she couldn't stop him from doing what came instinctively.
"It's all right, Sarah. I'll go with him."
Ellie couldn't even begin to come to grips with the information she received. Government secrets, computers, guns and spies? Her brother was at the centre of it, a target. What sort of people wanted these secrets? They wanted to kill her brother; that was the only point that really stayed clear in her mind. But no one was going to hurt Chuck. Ever since their Dad split she had been the one to keep him safe and she wasn't about to stop now.
Ellie didn't realise it, but now was not her turn.
"Let them go and I will accompany you." said Chuck stepping forward. The agent nodded in approval and then rose up from behind Ellie. His hand stroked at her hair before he cautiously made his way over to Chuck, the two of them facing each other in the middle of the lounge.
"Sensible decision, Mr Bartowski." the agent said. "I'm pleased. Well, sort of. I would have liked a little shooting, a fight…the involvement of blood. But I think Agent Casey gave me a little too much of that."
John? Ellie saw Sarah and Chuck's face widen in horror at John Casey's name. He was involved in all this as well?
"Where is Casey?" Chuck asked as they went over to the door. The agent smiled.
"I'm not sure to be honest." the agent laughed, it was not a pleasant sound. He leaned in close to Chuck's ear and snarled with menace. "He's either lying dead in a puddle of his own blood or……he's dying in a puddle of his own blood and hasn't quite snuffed it yet. He's a tough cookie that guy, but he was no match for me."
That was supposed to be a warning for Chuck.
Yet in his desperation to now protect his own identity once more and that of Sarah's cover, Chuck waited until he opened the front door before making his move.
Ducking down suddenly, Chuck's leg whipped out and kicked the fulcrum's agent's feet out from underneath him. As the man fell, Chuck got back up and was going to slam the door against his opponent's head to knock him out but he received a sharp horrible blow to his chest. He collapsed down just to see the agent flip back up.
Sarah held up her gun for a shot; Chuck was out of the way on the floor, she had a clear unobstructed path to fire, but the man was too quick. The gun was knocked out of her hand with a hard chop to her wrist and then a fist to her face sent her reeling back into the lounge wall.
"That was damned foolish, Mr Bartowski." the agent growled. "Now I'm going to have to kill the lot of you."
Ellie couldn't keep herself composed as she saw the man take aim towards her. Through all the confusion in her mind, she felt the fear cover over her in a cold sweat, she was shaking so much that she didn't notice her brother getting back up.
She only registered the destruction of her lounge as Chuck and his girlfriend battled with the man, in a blur of limbs, punching and kicking with a dance like grace that shocked her. Devon had to drag her away as the fight intensified, she felt his arms pull her off the sofa and wrap his arms around her shoulders to move her away from the carnage. She resisted at first, but Devon kept a hold, tight and safe as the three combatants tore apart the living room.
What happened to the guns, Ellie didn't know, but their hands and legs were now the weapons, striking blow after blow; she heard the cracking, she saw the blood, still unable to register that her brother and his girlfriend were doing this. Chuck never knew martial arts, he never even liked to fight. This wasn't her brother! It couldn't be.
"Stay here, Ellie…" Devon whispered into her ear.
"Devon? What…?"
"Ssssh…we gotta keep out of this, babe. They know what they're doing."
She didn't see, for all she could focus on was how the intruder was defending himself against Chuck and Sarah. He was laughing. It seemed no matter what move they did, he could block the majority of their strikes. Chuck and Sarah were trying hard, the effort on their faces, the grunts and gasps, they were strained, forced. They couldn't keep up with the speed of the man; although Chuck was thrown to the ground, he kept getting back up, each time he was more dazed. He still fought, Ellie couldn't believe the sheer determination he showed or the fierceness in his face. It wasn't like him to be doing this.
A couple of times, Ellie thought that Sarah and Chuck could have taken this man down. It was two against one after all, but they were no match at all for this tiny blonde man. He was vicious with his retaliations, relentless and it was absolutely effortless to him. He barely had a scratch on him, he was hardly even trying.
So when she saw her brother thrown across the coffee table; when Sarah followed, the wood and glass shattering beneath them, Ellie bucked against the kitchen wall. She wanted to run and get help but her mind was confused. Devon tried to keep her still, but she was squirming and struggling to get free. Ellie, affronted with a completely different side to her sibling, was breaking apart and she hated it.
"I thought you would come willingly, Mr Bartowski." said the man, looking round at the wrecked chaos he had wrought. He walked over to the broken debris on the floor and picked Chuck's battered body up by the scruff of his ripped shirt. Chuck looked up at him through barely opened eyes. "You don't mess with me. None of you can…you don't have the training to compete with me…intersect or not! Your CIA woman was about as useful as the Colonel was."
Ellie saw Chuck look down towards Sarah, she was moving but only just. Her blonde hair had come loose from its single plat and was now tainted with some of the blood from the cuts on her face. She was as beaten as he was, Ellie could see by the way Sarah held her wrist, that it was broken. Sarah ignored the pain and reached for something hidden beneath her leg of her pants, but the intruder stomped on her hand. Sarah gasped.
"It looks as if I'm not making myself clear." he said, dragging Chuck over to the door. He bent down and picked up the gun, cocking it and pressing it against his forehead. "You can't take me. So why don't we leave now and I won't have to kill anyone."
Chuck groaned.
"It's a shame. I know….I would have liked to have killed, but I can't have my own way all the time." The man started laughing. "What am I saying? I always get my own way!"
Dragging Chuck along the broken floor, he approached Devon and Ellie. The barrel of the gun pressed against Devon's face, yet the twisted leer looked straight into Ellie's tearing grey eyes.
"No….please…" Chuck was dropped to the floor, wincing at the pain of his injuries but there was no stopping the man. He smiled and then pulled the trigger.
Ellie screamed, waiting for the blood of her husband to cover her. Her arms covered up over her eyes, but she never felt anything. There was the sound of a thud right next to her, but when a loving hand squeezed at her shoulder, she managed to open her eyes and to her surprise, Devon was still there.
However it was the man standing in the doorway that caught her attention.
Dressed only in his boxers and covered in blood from head to toe, was John Casey. The giant man looked as if he crawled up from hell; one of his arms was broken and hanging down loosely at his side and he was barely able to stand, leaning against the door frame. The gun he was holding in his good hand was shaking, but that was the only thing that was wavering about Casey. His eyes through the blood and sweat on his face were all she could see, just a pierce blue through the red. A coldness just as harsh as the intruder's had been.
Her heart was racing. Ellie gazed down and saw the little man on the ground before her with a bullet wound bleeding from his leg. He was dazed, but Chuck managed to get up onto his knees and crack a punch to the man's face.
"Good shot, Casey." Chuck gasped.
"I was aiming for his head." growled the man. Ellie then gazed on, still stunned from the events that had transpired, as John Casey fell flat on his face. Dutifully Ellie rushed to go and help him, but Devon reached Casey instead, giving him the aid that he so desperately needed. Instead, as the shock of what had just occurred in her living room finally sunk in, Ellie slunk down to the floor next to her brother. She could only gape at him with an open mouth, speechless.
"Sis…its all right." She felt Chuck's hands lightly clasp at her face. Yet she couldn't register what exactly was going on. She had a vague recollection of a battered Sarah Walker leaning over the man. "We're all okay…its safe now."
She wanted to protest, because nothing was all right. Her whole world had turned upside down. The evening had been pleasant, a dinner with family and friends, light hearted and joyful; but now there was nothing but shock and blood. It was nothing like the ER. Her brother, his girlfriend, her neighbour…what was going on?
"Rest here, John." said Devon, placing the dazed and bloodied Casey upon the couch. The injured man only murmured despite the severity of his wounds, but Awesome continued to tend to him. "We need to call for an ambo, he ain't too good. I can only do so much."
"I've got it covered." said Sarah, pulling from her pocket her mobile phone. Devon noted a look upon the battered woman's face that it wouldn't be just an ordinary ambulance. Although their covers had been blown to Ellie, he could tell that the CIA agent wouldn't risk any more civilians questioning what went on here.
Ellie vaguely heard the woman as she spoke into her mobile, urgently yet professionally, like a soldier, calling for immediate aid. Ellie swayed, Chuck's hold on her as she began to shake barely made an impact to calm her, even though he had said they were safe. It was all too much, she couldn't fathom or understand what had gone on.
"Dad? Chuck?" Her voice gasped and croaked with the information battering her mind. "I…I…"
"Don't try to speak." Chuck's soothing voice breathed warmly at her face as he held her close. "It will be okay."
He could never have been more wrong.
Chuck may have punched the incapacitated fulcrum agent, thinking he had been knocked out, but the small blonde man stirred, un-noticed by all, with a luring grin upon his face. His hand sneaked within his bloodied clothes and pulled out a small gun that had been hidden. As Ellie was comforted by her younger brother; as Awesome tried to stop Casey's bleeding; as Sarah still talked on her phone…their guard was down and unsuspecting. He sat up. He didn't quite know where to point, but he knew as soon as he pulled the trigger, as the loud bang rang out through the room, hearing the cries, death was certain.
And it wasn't just his own when Sarah Walker shot the bullet through his head.
"NO!!"
Ellie's world ended.
Doctor Devon Woodcombe looked down at his chest. Blood was seeping through his shirt. There was strange numbness and everywhere around him, things and the people he loved became a blur. Devon landed to his knees with a thud, gazing widely into the shocked expression of John Casey. The Colonel reached out for him, but Devon just flopped against his bare chest, choking and coughing.
He could hear Ellie's screams. He felt her terror and her pain as she howled in terrifying despair; he heard Chuck and Sarah calling out to him, but it all sounded unreal. As the horrible numbness in his stomach grew, as his vision became dark, all he could see was John Casey.
"Colonel Casey…Sir…." he coughed and spluttered up blood on the older man's already stained chest. "Please….look after Ellie….promise me, you won't let anything….."
"Devon." Casey's weak voice sounded muffled in Devon's ears as he began to loose conciousness.
"Promise me you'll protect her. Keep her safe."
"I…." Devon felt Casey's arm wrap around his shoulders and his face press against his head. "I promise."
Upon hearing those words, Devon smiled a weak grin and then everything became dark. Forever.
TBC
I would just like to point out here, that I don't dislike Devon. I think he is brilliant. Please Devon lovers, don't hate me.
Also, sorry 'bout the obvious reference to another certain TV show in this….I couldn't help it. I do hope it fit in okay. ;)
I'm such a cow...ain't I?
