Five Weeks Later 5:30 in the morning
"I'm up" Chuck mumbled at the knock on his door.
"Five Minutes, Solider!" Yelled Casey back, and was rewarded with a thump of 115 pounds of teenage boy falling out of bed. Hmm that reminded him they still needed to get Chuck's weight up. Kid was fifteen and nearly six feet tall already, and still skinny as a board.
Chuck managed to get his sleepy self out the back door and in running shoes in just under five minutes, only to be greeted by a the scowling face of his guardian already waiting for him.
"Hmmph, slower than yesterday kid."
"It was under 5 minutes." Chuck protested, as they set off running."
"And it'll stay that way if you want to start defense training today."
"I'm starting defense training! What're we gonna start with? A little kung-fu? Maybe some, ka-ra-te? This is gonna be awesome." Chuck hopped in excitement.
It was not awesome, and Chuck ended up planted on the couch with an ice pack across his face.
"Adorable." Snorted Casey as he walked by, eating yogurt.
"That hurt, you know." Chuck sulked.
"So duck next time." Chuck did, but that didn't stop Mrs. Grimes from seeing the huge bruise on his face when she took him and Morgan school shopping two days later. Or to take him aside privately and ask if Mr. Casey was treating him alright.
"Yeah just fine, Mrs. Grimes."
"Are you sure, mi nino? That looks and awful lot like it's from a fist."
"It is, but not from Mr. Casey. Um, don't tell Morgan but I got in a fight."
"A fight, I knew that neighborhood was no good. I don't know why you had to sell that house. Well no matter, in a few days you'll be back at school and away from those boys. Everything will be better then"
"Yeah, it should be better by then."
"Alright, but if Mr. Casey ever gives you any trouble, you call me right away. Comprende?"
"Yes, Mrs. Grimes."
School was not as Mrs. Grimes predicted, in fact it was a little strange. He hadn't had to change schools despite the move, and although it was a long drive on the 5 when traffic was bad, he was grateful to stay at the same school. Maybe it was just that he'd grown a few inches and bulked up a little bit, but it all just seemed off somehow. It was so strange to get up early, even earlier than he got up in the summer, and run, and train, only to get to school and be so worried about stupid little things. He and Morgan still hung out all the time, and he definitely wasn't given video games up, and there were a dozen computer projects he was working on, but it all seemed kind of dumb to have your life's sole ambition be to make video games when people were out saving lives. His sister wanted to save lives for a living. The Captain as he called Casey, usually out of Casey's earshot was already saving lives for a living at the risk of his own.
In fact Casey had given up everything in that service. Usually they didn't talk much, mostly just insults, but Casey wasn't opposed to shooting a few Zombies or Nazis every once in a while, and while doing so had some pretty snarly war stories, which put the zombies to shame, and made Chuck's high school problems pretty petty.
Then there was the one time Casey had come home drunk from a mission, which required it, and Chuck had heard the story of how Casey's fiancé thought he was dead. That had shifted Chuck's opinion of the man about a dozen paradigms over, and though he had wanted to pry and push in the hope of a happy ending he hadn't and in fact never brought the story up again. He wasn't entirely sure Casey even remembered telling him it.
Chuck also watched what Casey did a great deal. Casey preferred to keep Chuck in his sights, and just because he was guarding Chuck, didn't mean he stopped working on other things. Chuck watched Casey save the world, and then one day he helped. It turned out his computer skills weren't completely useless.
"Hiya Casey, watcha working on." Chuck said with his usual unrelenting optimism. His backpack found its way to the usual spot on the kitchen table, and Chuck stuck his head into the fridge fishing for orange juice.
"Nothing that concerns you, dipstick." Casey continued, eyes fixed on his computer. As this was Casey's usual answer, Chuck just shrugged and went back to his usual snack, and Captain watching.
Except something was wrong with the Captain. He was sweating, and he wasn't grumbling. The Captain always grumbled when he worked, and now he was deadly silent. Then things got loud, alarms started going off, and there was shouting, mostly into his phone. Shouting that Chuck understood. Computer language shouting, and so when the shouting carried into the other room, where the other computer was, Chuck got up and walked around the table to the laptop.
"Holly Shit!" This was serious. National security serious, someone was trying to hack a database. Chuck cracked his fingers and got to work.
"What in the hell do you think your doing Bartowski?" Uh-oh, Chuck only got called Bartowski when he was in serious trouble.
"Fixing the problem." Chuck commented, not even glancing up from his keyboard.
"Get away from there." Casey, growled grabbing the back of Chuck's t-shirt.
"Wait, wait, wait." Chuck kept typing as he was pulled up in the way. "There it's almost- DONE! There it's done." Chuck looked up proudly into Casey's growling face. Still suspended by his collar.
"It's what?"
"Done, um, it's finished, I fixed it, I kicked them out?"
"Kicked who out?"
"The people who were trying to break into the system, I kicked them out." Slowly Casey released the back of Chuck's shirt.
"Wait, right here, don't move." With the stink eye Casey was giving out Chuck wasn't moving an inch. Slowly Casey typed in a number on the phone, and lifted it to his ear.
"General, Are you experiencing any problems, or were the intruders locked out." He listened for a moment nodding. Then continued. "I see, problem solved then." And hung up the phone, turning once again the full force of his gaze on Chuck. "You will tell me what you did. Exactly. Right now."
After the explanation, mission operations were added to Chuck's training, and Chuck started observing more actively. And by actively observing Chuck meant spying and hacking to see what Casey was doing. Which was how Chuck found Sarah Walker. Sixteen years old and already a recruit. Her file was buried so deep, he only found her most basic information. He didn't even know where she was being kept for training, but he could send her a message when she was logged onto a computer. Wherever that was.
-Hi Sarah-
-What is this-
-It's an instant messenger-
-I know that. I meant who are you. Tell me before I call security.-
-Sorry! Don't do that please. My names Chuck. I'm like you I guess.-
-What do you mean like me? What's your last name. How do I know this isn't some psych test?-
-To answer your questions in order. I mean I'm young like you. I'm fifteen. I live alone except for my bodyguard or trainer or handler person, whatevs. His names Casey, I call him the Captain. My last name's Bartowski. And you don't know its not a test. But if it was you should keep typing to pass right?-
-User has logged off-
Damn. Thought Chuck, he'd been so close to- close to what? Meeting some one like him maybe. Some one he could talk to.
The next day when he and Morgan were playing video games his computer binged. It was Sarah.
-I looked you up-
"Dude, who messaged, you?"
"Um this girl, I met her at space camp."
"Oh, a girl. Is she hot."
"I met her at space camp what do you think?"
"That would be a no."
"Yup."
Morgan shrugged at that and went back to the game. Chuck focused on the message.
-What did you find about me?-
-You are who you say you are.-
-Yuppers, always am.-
-What do you want?- What did Chuck want.
-Nothing really. Just to talk. –
-Talk about what.-
-Whatevers. I mean we both have the same level of security clearance, so we can actually talk. I can't talk to my handler, he's crazy, and no way am I talking to my sister. She'd flip.-
- Wait I thought your sister was like you too. –
- She is sort of. She's under protection too, but if she knew half the stuff that went on around here she'd go crazy. –
-Why what goes on?-
-Well…
It turns out Sarah and Chuck did have a lot to talk about. If they could they usually logged on at nine o'clock every evening and talked for a few minutes about their days. Neither of them ever said where they were but it was nice to have some sympathy for a just few minutes at least.
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