That darned Poa is catching my mistakes again, for which I am grateful.

Thanks to all who reviewed Chapter 1 and encouraged me to continue, as if I had a choice…

CHUCK VERSUS A NORMAL LIFE

Chapter 2

A Normal Day at the Buy More

The alarm flashed over from 6:59 to 7:00 and Huey Lewis and the News' "I Want a New Drug," began blasting out of the speaker. Chuck looked down at the long, slender arm draped across his chest and smiled. Worried about him, Sarah had spent the night last night. Although nothing more than cuddling had gone on, the cuddling alone was enough to bring a smile to Chuck's face.

"Well," Sarah's sleepy voice asked. "Are you going to turn that off?"

Chuck reached over and hit the snooze button. Another few minutes in bed with Sarah was worth the potential chewing out from Emmitt if he was a couple minutes late. Sarah patted him on the chest. "Come on, sleepy head," she said. "Time to get up."

"But I'm pretty comfortable right here," he said.

Sarah propped herself up on one elbow and looked at him. "How are you feeling?" she asked.

"I'm fine," he said.

"That's what you kept saying yesterday, but some of the things you were saying…"

"It must have been some bad Vietnamese," he said.

"So I'm not a spy?" she asked, her look serious.

"I don't know, Sarah Walker," he said, playfully. "Are you a spy?"

"Get in the shower," she said and slapped him on the butt.

Chuck got up and went into the shower. At least he didn't have to take quite as cold a shower today as yesterday, although he did keep having rather lewd thoughts about the woman in his bed. He toweled off and shaved, then went back in his bedroom. Sarah was out of bed and he could hear her and Ellie talking in the kitchen, though he couldn't make out what they were saying. Probably talking about him, he decided. Or was that too egotistical?

He shrugged and put on his Nerd Herd outfit. His window, the "Morgan Door" opened and his little bearded friend stuck his head in. "Is the coast clear?" he asked.

"What?" Chuck asked.

"I mean, is Sarah decent. Well, I mean she's always decent. Better than decent. A smoking hot angel, actually, although don't tell Anna I said that." He looked around the room. "Last time I came in and Sarah wasn't dressed, her scream was enough to wake the dead over in North Hollywood."

Chuck frowned. It was hard to imagine Sarah screaming at the sight of an intruder, rather than skewering him with a well-thrown knife. "Anyway," Morgan said, climbing in the window. "I was hoping for a ride into work."

"Sure, Morgan," Chuck said. "I was just about to get some breakfast."

He walked into the kitchen, where Ellie, dressed in a fuzzy pink bathrobe, was talking with Sarah in one of Chuck's t-shirts. "Morgan!" Ellie cried. "We're not dressed."

"Sorry," Morgan said as he reached into the fridge to grab the orange juice. "I'll keep my eyes closed."

"Chuck," Sarah said, threateningly.

"Morgan, why don't you wait out in the courtyard," Chuck said.

Chuck grabbed a bagel and gave Sarah a quick peck on the cheek. "Morgan needs a ride," he said. "See you later, Sarah?" She smiled and nodded.

"So what was the deal yesterday, dude?" Morgan asked as they rode in the Nerd Herder to work. "You were acting like you were into Jeff's stash."

"Um, bad Vietnamese," Chuck said, continuing the lie. "Morgan, have you noticed anything weird lately? I mean, other than the way I was acting yesterday."

"Now that you mention it," Morgan said, stroking his beard, "I noticed that Anna has been wearing pink panties on Wednesdays. Now normally, she holds the pinks out of the rotation until Saturday, but I think…"

"Whoa, there buddy," Chuck said. "T. M. I."

"So things are going well with you and Sarah?" Morgan asked. "I noticed she spent the night again last night. You know, considering you guys were taking it slow at the beginning, you're really picking up a head of steam, if you know what I mean. Do you think that's wise?"

"What do you mean?" Chuck asked.

"I mean, what do you really know about this girl?" Morgan asked. "I mean, she drives a Porsche that she got from her ex-boyfriend…"

"She got the car from an ex-boyfriend?" Chuck asked.

"Don't you remember, that Bruce dude from back in D.C.?" Morgan asked. "And, she goes from working at the Wienerlicious to running her own Orange Orange. She lives in a hotel that costs more per month than you and I make put together. And she's like, super hot."

"So what are you saying, Morgan?" Chuck asked.

"I think," Morgan said, "that she's the lead scout for an invasion by beautiful Amazons that are coming to enslave the entire male population of Earth."

"Interesting theory, Morgan," Chuck said.

"Not that that sounds so bad, now that I think about it," Morgan opined.

"Real helpful there, buddy."

"Always there for you, man."

Chuck clocked in at the Buy More and took up his normal position behind the Nerd Herder desk.

He was just pulling the work orders when the phone rang. "Hello. Nerd Herd Tech Support Desk, this is Chuck, how can I help you?... Yes, ma'am, I can help you set up your computer… Okay, it should have come with a big sheet on the top when you opened the box, do you have that sheet?... You threw it away… No, no, not a problem. What brand of computer is it?... Well can you look at the box?... You threw the box away, too… Okay, is there a little tag on the front of the tower?… The big boxy thing… Yes, that's right… So is there a tag?... Good, and what does the tag say?... No, Intel usually doesn't make computers; that's the chip inside… No, no, having chips is good… Yes, I do like potato chips… Okay is there another tag?... Microsoft Windows is the operating system… Operating… No, it's okay. It's not just for doctors… Okay, good. You have an HP… That stands for Hewlett Packard… Yes, you made a very fine choice… First we need to set up the tower… Right, the big boxy thing… Yes, yes, put that where you're going to want it… No, putting it behind the desk is not generally a good idea… Well, you have to be able to get to the front of it to put in disks and such… No, ma'am, I'm sorry it clashes with your office décor… No, I don't think that HP makes a computer in pink… Good… Uh, huh…. Now, there should be a power cord… Yes, one end should look like what you usually plug in the wall… Yes, like your toaster… The other end plugs into the back of the tower… Yes, it usually has three slots in it that correspond to three prongs on the back of the case… Yes, very good, you guessed that one, you do plug it in right there… Yes, you really are getting the hang of computers… Now, we need to plug in the monitor… The think that looks kind of like a television… Well, they use LCD's instead of CRT's so they're a lot flatter now… Yes, that was a good idea… Now there is a cable coming out of the back of the monitor… Good…. Yes, there's usually only one place it will fit to plug it into the back of the computer… Yes, you are brilliant, ma'am. A regular computer prodigy… Now there is a power cord for the monitor, too… Now we are going to plug in the mouse… No, it's just called that because it looks a little like a mouse… Uh huh… Now you plug it into the back of the tower… Right, the big boxy thing… Well, what color is the end of the cord for the mouse… No, the other end that has a plug looking thing on it… You see the green round thing on the back of the tower? Plug it in there… Now the keyboard… Well, what color is the end of the cord for the keyboard… Black. Uh huh, the other end of the cord, ma'am… Well you plug that into the purple spot… Yes… Okay… Now the speakers… Well what color is the end of the cord?… Now you plug it in there… Yes, I know the screen is still blank ma'am, you have to plug it into the wall… Yes, thank you. You have a nice voice, too… Now you have to hit the power button on the front of the computer… The round circle with the slash in the middle… Now the same for the monitor… Yes, you did a very nice job… Oh, well I'm glad you got such a good deal on it at Large Mart… And have a good day, yourself, ma'am."

Chuck hung up the phone and dropped his head on his desk.

The bell next to him rang and he looked up. A man was holding a camcorder, or rather, about five different pieces of a camcorder. Chuck sighed. "How can I help you today, sir?"

The rest of the morning did not get any better. Jeff and Lester had a scuffle over who was going to put out the new Tomb Raider: Underworld standee and ended up ripping Laura Croft in half. Morgan had a fight with Anna and was sulking in the home theater room and refused to come out. Emmett grilled him over his mileage logs for the Herder, trying to find out who had put on an extra 2,400 miles on Herder 3 over the weekend. In other words, a pretty typical Buy More day.

He kept a close eye on John Casey to see if he did anything that gave away that he was really a spy, like talking into this wristwatch, but didn't see anything.

Lunchtime rolled around and he headed over to the Orange Orange. Sarah gave him a kiss when he walked in. "I'm sorry," she said. "Bridget called in sick today so I can't leave the shop."

"Just close up like you usually do," Chuck shrugged.

"I can't just close the shop whenever I feel like it," Sarah said, aghast. "I'll drive way all my customers."

Chuck started to argue, but thought better of it.

Sarah ran a hand up and down his chest. "Tell you what?" she said. "Come over to my place tonight and we'll watch a movie and I'll make it up to you?"

He shivered with pleasure at her touch and smiled. "Sure."

"Okay, sweetie, I'll see you at seven," she said.

"Okay, sweetie," he said. 'Okay,' he thought. 'Maybe this isn't so bad. I have Sarah as my real girlfriend. Since Casey's not talking to me he's not threatening me with bodily harm. No one is shooting at me or dangling me off a building. I could get used to this.'

He grabbed a quick bite at the hamburger place next to Lou's Deli and went back to work. He had just gotten back behind the Nerd Herder desk when he looked up to see a man walk in the store. He was bald, dark-skinned and wearing a leather jacket. Chuck's eyes went wide. It was Farrokh Bulsara, global terrorist. What was he doing out of jail? Sarah had arrested him!

Chuck ducked behind the Nerd Herd counter and scrambled behind the DVD rack. He made his way over to where John Casey was polishing a Beast Master. "Casey, Casey, Casey," Chuck said. "Over there. That bad looking dude in the leather jacket. That's Farrokh Bulsara, international terrorist. I don't know how he got out of prison, but he's here!"

Casey looked at him like he was something found on the bottom of his show. "Look, Bartowski. I don't want to be involved in one of your silly little games. Go play with Morgan or one of your nerdlets."

"This is not a game," Chuck hissed. "That is a very dangerous dude."

"Can it, Bartowski. Not interested." He turned and walked off.

Chuck glanced around. Farrokh was headed toward the back of the store. "I have to get Jeff," Chuck cried.

He dashed across the store, ducking between the shelves to stay out of Farrokh's line of sight. When he got to the back of the store, he saw Jeff and Farrokh talking. Jeff was showing him a blu-ray drive upgrade kit and Farrokh was smiling and laughing. He took the kit, thanked Jeff, and left.

Chuck walked over to Jeff. "Jeff, just out of curiosity, he didn't ask you anything about Missile Command, did he?"

Jeff's face clouded over. "Ah, Missile Command. The game of champions." He turned back to Chuck. "No. Why? You think he was one of my fans? Oops. I don't like to mention that. Forget I said anything. I need some cheese curls." He staggered off toward the break room.

Chuck watched him go, then turned back to see Farrokh leaving the store. "Maybe I am losing my mind," he muttered.

Five o'clock couldn't come too soon. He went home and changed, played a little Call of Duty online, but it didn't seem to hold his interest. Finally, he headed over to Sarah's.

He knocked on her door and she opened it dressed in tight jeans and a powder blue top. She looked fantastic, so he told her, "You look fantastic."

"You don't look so bad yourself," she said, putting her arms around his neck and kissing him. This, he decided, he could definitely get used to.

They snuggled on the couch and watched 'Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist' on Pay Per View and ate some take-out Chinese. After the movie ended, Chuck was laying on the couch with Sarah stretched out on top of him, playing with one of his curls. "You know," she said. "I'm so glad I had a broken phone."

He smiled at her. "So am I."

She kissed him tenderly. "Unfortunately," she said. "I have an early meeting with the Orange Orange franchise office to go over some new promotions, so I need to turn in early. You don't mind, do you sweetie?"

Chuck was a little crestfallen. Dream, Twilight Zone, Alternate Universe, or Crazed Delusion, this Sarah Walker was really his girlfriend and he yearned to take advantage of that fact. But, he was still Chuck Bartowski, so he said, "Of course not, Sarah. I probably need to be getting home anyway.

She gave him a long, slow kiss at the door and wished him pleasant dreams. He practically floated down her hallway.

*****************************************

Chuck unlocked the door and dropped his keys on the table. Ellie and Devon were on the couch, watching the Food Network. "Hey, bro," Devon said, looking terribly beat.

"Hi Chuck," Ellie said. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine, Ellie," Chuck said. "Sarah says 'hi.'"

Tell her 'hi' for me," Ellie said. "Don't forget we're all supposed to go out for sushi place for dinner tomorrow night."

"I won't."

He went into his room and sat down at his computer. He sat there looking at the blank screen for a moment and then made a decision. He booted it up google the National Security Agency. Sure enough, the Director of the National Security Agency was General Diane Beckman. He looked at his watch. It was a little late to be calling her now.

He shut down the computer and, feeling a little tired, he got ready for bed.

**************************************

**************************************

John Casey sat by Chuck's bedside. Sure, he could have simply monitored Bartowski via one of the numerous surveillance cameras he had surreptitiously mounted through the room and the hall outside. But it wasn't the same. When one of your own went down, you stayed until the rescue chopper arrived or you ran out of fuel. That was simply the way it was.

Getting rid of Walker hadn't been easy. He finally had to make a phone call and get Beckman to order her to get some rest at her hotel. "Major Casey informs me that you are physically exhausted, Agent Walker. You cannot protect the Intersect if you are unable to perform at the necessary level of efficiency. Go get some sleep," Beckman had told her. That had earned him a royal chewing out from Walker, but Casey was used to being yelled at. Although he had to admit, Walker's choice of words would have made his drill sergeant envious. But in the end, she followed orders and went to get a few hours of shut-eye, with a vow that she would be back soon.

Bartowski's other friends had reacted with surprise when Casey said that he was going to sit with Chuck next. Morgan, for one, had tried to object. But a glare and a simple opening and closing of his fist had been enough to silence all opposition. Surprisingly, Bartowski's sister, Ellie, had not seemed surprised at all. "I think he would like to have you sitting with him, John," she had told him. "I know I do." Perhaps that, more than the flexing of his muscles, had been enough to give Casey the first shift after Walker's. Ellie had promised that everyone would get their turn sitting with Chuck.

Casey actually hated hospitals. Well, not particularly hospitals – he had not been in that many of them. Usually it was an aid station or a MASH unit or a clearing in the brush where he would sit with a wounded or dying teammate while the doctors or nurses or corpsmen bustled around doing that voodoo that doctors called medicine. Actually, he had not met a doctor he actually liked – well all right, tolerated – until Ellie Bartowksi. The jury was still out on that Devon character.

Now that he was alone with Bartowski, Casey leaned over and spoke to him very softly, so that none of the passing doctors, nurses or hospital visitors could hear. "You're an idiot, Bartowski, you know that? How are Walker and I supposed to keep you out of a bunker if you go stepping in front of bullets?"

There was a catch in his voice. "You need to buck it up, soldier." His eyes fell for a moment, and then he looked back up at Chuck. "When the times comes for you to check out, I'll tell you when. Hell, I'll be happy to be the one pulling the trigger. But dammit, you will not die on me now. You hear me, Bartowski? You are going to pull through this so I can kick your ass for being such a goddam moron."

He ran a hand over his face. He hadn't slept in almost 72 hours and it was all this idiot's fault. Why was it that he could plug a bad guy and sleep like a baby, but this insignificant little snot gets himself knocked out and Casey couldn't close his eyes without seeing the bullets impacting Chuck's body and Chuck pitching over the wall and hearing Walker's piercing scream?

He looked at Chuck lying there, motionless on the bed, the tube down his throat and the IV's in his arms. "Dammit, Bartowski, I'm supposed to be there to catch you when you fall."

He felt the tears welling up in his eyes, but he wouldn't give Bartowski the satisfaction, so he blinked them away. "Just wake up, Chuck," he breathed. Then sat back to continue his tortured vigil.