Chapter 2
Analysis & Compilation:
The terrorist geeks finally hit the beds in the early morning hours. When the agents were confident the geeks were asleep, Sarah made a quick trip to the hotel kitchen for Team Chuck. They ate breakfast in their room while sorting and organizing the important data obtained overnight in preparation for a report to HQ.
As Chuck was deemed to be the most experienced with handling computers and data, he spent most of his time separating and deleting the pornographic material, which now comprised the majority of the collected information. As he pulled relevant information, he would forward it to one of the other computers for Casey and Sarah to review and catalogue in order of importance.
Upon reviewing the data, it was obvious that the 'terrorists' were either really stupid or not at all concerned about security. From the looks of things, it was probably a little of both. Not counting their teen-like behaviour during the night, they had reported in using the tapped laptops. It was obvious that they had no field training.
The laptops had multiple files on them, containing detailed information on illicit weapons and armaments complete with shipping schedules, equipment lists, architectural plans and weapons schematics. It looked like the laptop users weren't even aware of what most of the files contained.
While the amount of information obtained was a fantastic find, Casey pointed out that it was an extremely lucky coincidence to stumble across a pack of terrorists with a busload of their organization's critical intel in an uncontrolled and insecure environment. He raised the possibility that the geeks were actually part of an elaborate trap.
A good chunk of time was spent discussing the topic. While Sarah had agreed it was feasible, she was leaning towards very unlikely, based on their other actions. Casey was adamant that they spend more time looking for a trap. It was apparent that the agents were slowly becoming angry, as the tone of their words was slowly deteriorating into something a little more 'heated'.
Chuck was able to ignore it for the most part, until Casey started making what could only be described as personal attacks against Sarah. It started with suggestions about Sarah's 'impaired' abilities. Things sort of went off the deep end at that point.
At the Buy More, Chuck's peers actually looked up to him, although it wasn't always apparent. In the spy world, he was looked down upon. His saving grace was whenever he was around Sarah. She always seemed to bring out more of his hidden strengths when 'under fire'. Well, this was one of those times he felt it would be a good idea to step into the line of fire, figuratively speaking. If anything, it would give them a new target. The things he does for the team.
He took a deep breath and spun his chair to face them.
Upon finishing his rotation, he saw them almost face to face arguing. He immediately thought of Jeff and Lester. That brought a large grin to his face.
Apparently he didn't need to say anything. They had noticed him spin towards them and in their current state of mind, they had interpreted the grin as an aggressive action unto itself. The implication being that he thought them arguing was humorous. Oh well, he thought. It achieves the same affect. Their attention is now on him.
Casey was the first to respond with a snap. "What is it Bartowski?
Sarah glared at Casey.
Chucks made his response direct and to the point. "It is not a trap."
Casey's reaction was quick and acidic, "And you know this how, Bartowski? It come up in a midnight meeting of the porn starved geeks while I slept?"
Ignoring Casey's comments, Sarah was a little more forgiving in her response to his statement. "What proof do you have of this Chuck?"
Chuck glanced at her before sliding his chair over to their computer. It held all the important data extracted. He proceeded to pull up the stored data and explain what he found.
"All the files are stored in directories. Every time you create a file or directory it is dated with the current date unless you tell it otherwise. But if you do a direct copy of an existing file or directory it keeps the original date as last modified or created. All the laptops contained the same directories with the same files. Albeit some of the directories are in different locations on each laptop, but they were still there."
"So that means what, Bartowski?", growled Casey.
Chuck took a deep breath and began, "The fact that they have so much information stored in what appear to be copies of the original directories is a giveaway they just copied directories for the trip rather than the individual files they needed. Obviously they don't have a structured IT department to organize data for transport. If they are like every other overworked and underpaid nerd, they would've copied the entire directory where their files were. It saves time. Better a directory of crap you don't need than a couple of critical files missing."
Casey's eyes squinted slightly, as he assimilated the information. He began to cool slightly as he worked through what Chuck said. Calming down had the beneficial trait of increasing attentiveness and triggering a simple realization. Chuck was not afraid of him. At least not right now. Dammit! That usually meant Chuck was very confident in himself, which almost always ended up with Chuck being correct.
Sarah sensed Casey relaxing, but was still unconvinced that he would stay that way. Besides if she let this slide, even if Chuck was backing up her, Casey would just twist it into an 'emotional' decision affecting her performance. She decided it would be better to play devil's advocate and take Casey's side to help shut down this argument. "How you can be sure Chuck? Maybe it was all a plant."
Chuck mentally sighed. They don't give up easily. "Doubtful. When they first arrived in the room and before Casey took the first sleep shift, you can see the files they accessed. We also have their discussions detailing the files they opened. All the files used, have been resaved with the updated info and match the topics of discussion. All of the other files in the directories are untouched and either password protected or encrypted to some extent. We were able to crack those files and passwords using the government backdoors installed in the programs. They had no access to the backdoors used nor were any similar password cracking tools found on their laptops."
Sarah seemed to accept this explanation as satisfactory. She looked at Casey asking, "Satisfied yet?"
Casey frowned and spit out, "Fine, but you could've said something sooner Bartowski."
Chuck was tired of being the target of abuse. Even when he was 100 right and playing as a 'team' member, Casey found something to bitch about. Sarah couldn't always defend him either. If anything, the rooftop extraction proved that she wouldn't be able to save him all the time. He was going to have to learn to take care of himself.
Chuck steeled himself, took a deep breath, looked Casey dead in the eyes and replied in a calm but slightly snide voice, "I would've, but you were so emotional I thought it was impairing your ability to function as an agent and didn't think you would welcome any new facts or information."
While he was speaking Casey's eyes began to bug out of his head and he started balling his hands into fists. Chuck had casually slid his chair back over to his computer while he was talking. As he spun to face his computer he finished by speaking over his shoulder, "Maybe if you were thinking a little more clearly you would've asked Team Chucks resident nerd his thoughts on the situation instead of being a drama queen."
Sarah was looking at Chuck like he had grown horns out of his head. She had tensed at Chucks verbal lashing. She didn't even need to look at Casey to know he was ready to explode. To her amazement he held back. At least until Chuck called him a drama queen. That was the proverbial straw that broke his back or in this case, his restraint.
Casey lunged at Chucks back but Sarah was prepared for it. She stepped in front of Casey, grasped both his arms and yelled, "Casey! Enough! Why don't you take a break and get something from downstairs." Casey scowled at Chucks back before easing up and, with a loud growl, turned and left the room.
Earnest Discussions:
Sarah watched Casey leave the room. When she was sure he was not coming back into the room, she set the security bolt and stormed over to Chuck's chair, grabbing it and spinning him around to face her. "What the hell was that?"
Chuck looked at her calmly. It was doubtful she was going to choke him to death, so he was more confident in confiding in her. "Which part?"
"Which, part! How about all of it! Why were you antagonizing him? "
Chuck's eyes displayed anger, "Sarah, I sat here listening to you two argue over that crap for almost an hour. You were both so busy arguing that neither of you did anything with the data I was sent you."
Sarah began to defend their actions, "Chuck, that's not..."
Chuck cut her off, "No excuses Sarah. Neither of you bothered to ask me what I thought, but Casey was more than happy to make some kind of derogatory 'geek' comment every sentence or two the whole night. The only time he didn't was when he was too busy making 'emotional' comments about us or quietly to me.
A cold chill grabs Sarah's chest. She tilts her head slightly at his mention of 'emotional comments' and has to ask, "What exactly has he been saying to you Chuck?"
His response is somewhat curt, "Does it really matter? Everyone seems to know there are feelings between us. They're just trying to clarify it. Ellie wants to know how deep the feelings go. Morgan alternates between threatened and happy. Casey is trying to figure out how it will affect him. The list goes on..."
Sarah is having trouble processing what he said. She knows it's true on some level. As an agent she works hard repress her emotions. Is it possible she has been unconsciously ignoring others around her because they acknowledge what she does not?
She tries to clear her mind and get back on topic with Chuck. "Chuck, it's still only cover..." Her voice trails off. Suddenly her own voice doesn't even sound believable to her anymore.
Chuck's look says it all. He doesn't believe her either.
His response is slower and quieter. "Believe me when I say, I am fully aware what our 'cover' is. I am also acutely aware of our feelings and the apparent inability to express them due to the 'job'. I told you as much on the rooftop."
Sarah is shocked that he is so forward with his feelings, but the agent in her does notice a flaw in his tirade. She licks her lips and takes the chance that mentioning it will redirect him from talking about their feelings. "Chuck, how does pissing Casey off help get work done?"
His eyes soften a little. He is knows she is redirecting the conversation and he knows why. His voice is surprisingly soft and gentle, "It doesn't. I never said I was perfect." He looks directly at her and continues, "I guess I'm just tired of being treated like a computer instead of a person."
Chuck spun his chair back to face the computer. "Now if you'll excuse me, I would like to get my part of the work finished before we have report to HQ."
Sarah said nothing. What could she say?
He was right...again.
He made a mistake and admitted it...again.
He told her he has feelings for her...again.
She shifted the topic away from those feelings...again.
Her emotional restraint seemed to be causing hardships for both agents and civilians alike. Chuck knew she was not very good at handling relationships and by implication, the feelings in them. She looked at Chucks back for a moment not even knowing if or how to respond. Breathing a small sigh of defeat, she turned towards the other computer, not noticing that Chuck had tilted his head slightly at her sigh.
After a moment Chuck stopped what he was doing and glanced over his shoulder to look at Sarah out of the corner of his eye. He spoke a low but clear voice, "Sarah?"
She hesitantly looked at him not knowing what to expect next, "Yes Chuck?"
"From now on, I'm going to do more of what I feel. I thought you should know."
Sarah's only reply was an astonished look. Chuck gave her a small tired smile and turned back to work on his data sorting. Sarah felt overwhelming warmth in her chest and a constricting fear at the same time. How is she going to handle this new development?
