Published 20 Dec 2010

Here're a few things you should know, in case you forgot.

"Casey, why am I in one of Castle's holding cells?"

-X-

"I was thinking," Morgan continued, "if the Intersect could turn you from a stagnate, love-sick underachiever into the greatest hope of the free world, thereby making you worthy of one Sarah Walker…"

Chuck stopped his work. Here it comes.

"…a little Intersect might help win the heart of the lovely Alex McHugh. Seriously, it's not like there can be only one. You are not the Highlander, Chuck. I'm sure the CIA and NSA would love to have another Intersect."

-X-

Casey grunted. "Don't tell me Morgan uploaded it."

Sarah interrupted. "He's pulse is steady and his eyes are equal and reactive. He probably just took a harder fall when he looked at the test images."

"No it's worse than that. It looks like he didn't downpload the test images. He downloaded the full Ring Intersect database."

Casey drew his weapon.

"Casey! What are you doing?" Chuck cried out.

Casey focused his sights on Morgan. "We don't know what programming might be in that Ring Intersect. He can't be trusted."

Chapter 2 – Sarah vs. the Intersect
The Walkertowski-Grimes Home

The next morning.

Sarah glared at the toaster. Maybe if she gave a really hard stare, it would toast faster. Not that the toaster had done anything wrong, but it was the best target for her frustration which she could find at the moment. She just needed the toast to cook faster so she could get to work faster. A minute ago, this seemed like a faster breakfast than waiting in line at the Buy More plaza muffin shop. She wasn't in a cheery mood that went along with a muffin anyway. Now, the toaster was prolonging her agony. She almost left it a half a minute ago, but it would do no good to accidentally burn down the apartment.

Finally the toast was released, after which it went straight into the disposal. Sarah had lost her appetite. Maybe Chuck would take her for an early lunch. With that hopeful thought, Sarah grabbed her purse, keys, and gun and headed out to her car. The sooner she was out of the apartment, the better.

Sarah had thought she had moved in to her new home. Her suitcase was even unpacked. The problem she discovered last night was while she was often in the apartment alone, she had never spent an entire night there alone. Yes, it seemed pathetic. She almost knocked on Ellie and Awesome's door around midnight. Fortunately, common sense took hold before she woke her pregnant friend.

It's not like Sarah couldn't handle a night alone anymore. Recently, she had been alone more often than not. First, searching for Volkoff and Chuck's mom. Then hunting for Chuck. However, those were on missions. For almost three years, she had been alone at the hotel. The key difference was every place around the hotel room didn't remind her of Chuck. Every scent didn't smell like Chuck. While she lived at the apartment, Chuck was her home. If her surroundings were going to remind her of Chuck, then he should be there too!

It was ridiculous, Sarah knew. Eventually, she would get used to this. Another small step in their relationship: learning to be apart without the helpful distraction of a mission.

The small steps were not the real problem. All of this focus on her first night at the apartment alone was just an excuse. The real problem was the night alone gave her time to think about the Next Big Step. The one that seemed to be hanging over her now for over a month. Sarah didn't know what she had done wrong. She thought she had sent all the right signals. But now it was the new year, and Chuck still had not proposed.

2011 was supposed to be a great year. No threats of bunkers or 49Bs. No evil exes. Just Chuck and Sarah, engaged to be married. Sarah would be a wife! And that didn't scare her. The thought thrilled her! As a bonus she would even become an aunt to Baby Awesomette. Chuck would be the favorite uncle and she would be the cool, but slightly overprotective aunt. She could be the cool aunt, couldn't she? She'd have Chuck's help with that. Being an aunt would be a much preferred, safer, and smaller step than that other misunderstanding which inspired "the chat".

Unfortunately, none of this was the case—at least not yet. Maybe Sarah had misread the signs. First there was the almost proposal. Ok, maybe not the proposal, because it was an accident with a $15 ring. Their mutual reactions after it were definitely a sign. Then there was the book with the wedding rings and the speech in Costa Gravas. Yes, that had been scary, but it made Sarah realize she was actually ready. After all, she knew she was going to always love Chuck, so why not be married? Next Chuck lost the Intersect and everything was side-tracked because they weren't around each other as much. Then she discovered the proposal plan, and more importantly Chuck knew she knew about the proposal plan. She told Chuck she wanted to marry him in the lab. Chuck admitted he remembered what she said. Why weren't they engaged?

Chuck had insisted on coming up with a new plan—something Sarah didn't need. She just wanted to be his fiancée now! With the new Intersect and now this project with the Ring's Intersect computer, everything seemed to have been side-tracked again.

She occasionally picked up hints. Typically they were hushed conversations with Morgan as she entered the room. Sometimes it scared her that Morgan was in the loop about the plan. Hopefully Chuck was just using Morgan for confidence boosting, not ideas. By now, Chuck should know that if Morgan thought it was a good idea, the idea should be scrapped.

Not that the plan actually mattered anymore. After getting through Christmas and the dozens of holiday jewelry TV commercials about "who went where" and "how kisses begin", she just wanted him to propose! She'd almost proposed to him on New Year's, but decided he might be devastated if he didn't get a chance to carry out his new plan. Now with Morgan downloading the Intersect, who knew how long it would be.

Why was she dwelling? She was almost as bad as that Thai attaché said she was. No. This was all because she was home alone without Chuck and had too much time to think. Fortunately, she would see Chuck in a few minutes, so she could stop obsessing. Maybe she would go to the range today because she really needed to shoot something. Of course that would be after distracting Chuck with a little make-out session to make up for last night.

Casey locked the MP5A2 back onto the gun rack. With the last gun on the rack clean, there was no point in stalling any longer. The only reason to stall at all was to make a point that Sarah couldn't push him around…much.

Sarah had really gone off on Casey last night. Yes, Casey shouldn't have tranq'ed Morgan three times. He had forgotten to account for Morgan's smaller body mass, but he still was certain Morgan should have been tranq'ed twice. Of course Sarah hadn't seen it that way. It was bad enough when she was always sticking up for Chuck. That protection seemed to have expanded to the best friend as well. Casey hoped not. Maybe Sarah was being protective this time because Chuck was so worried about him.

Yeah right.

This was all about Sarah's lady feelings again. Chuck still hadn't grown a pair and proposed. Now Casey was getting caught in the cross fire. Sarah had been this way a lot since Christmas. Not that Casey was scared of Sarah. Never. He had just learned over the last three and a half years when he could give her a hard time and when it was wisest to give her a wide berth. Last night, Sarah had that "don't mess with me" look of determination. Wide berth.

So instead of keeping Morgan sedated and locked up until Chuck figured out how to de-intersect him (or maybe waiting until Alex lost interest), Casey was going to be letting him go. Heaven help everyone in the Buy More when Morgan goes all Kung Fu.

When the Buy More cover was completely blown because of an inappropriate demonstration of Intersect skills, Casey just hoped they realized it was all Morgan's fault for not keeping his hands to himself. He just had to touch the Intersect control panel, and before that he just had to touch…

No. Not going there.

This was the lovebirds' faults too. Casey used to think the unresolved sexual tension between Chuck and Sarah was detrimental to the team. When they finally got their act together, the team worked pretty well. They took down the Ring in no time flat. However with the proposal plan hanging overhead, it was almost like before. The sooner they got married, the better. Married couples didn't go all mushy on each other. With a quick marriage, maybe things would return to normal, and they could be an efficient spy team again. As a side benefit, wives usually direct their anger at their husbands, leaving Casey in the clear.

That would only leave the question about Morgan with the Intersect. Chuck wanted to remove it. Casey thought maybe that was not a good idea. The Magnet had a way of attracting trouble, so maybe the Intersect would help him protect himself. Yes, he'd be harder to train than Chuck. However Chuck spent almost two years trying to get rid of the first Intersect. Morgan was a willing volunteer like the Chuck 2.0. With no insane Shaw training plan and without an unnecessary Red Test (Casey and Sarah could handle the killing), Morgan could be properly trained up in a couple of months.

The training and subsequent missions would also keep Morgan away from Alex more.

Casey thumbed open the holding cell which contained Morgan. The saline drip connected to Morgan was part of his compromise with Sarah. Casey was "permitted" to hold off on the tranq countermeasure until this morning. It had been late, and no one wanted to deal with a hyped-up Morgan excited about the Intersect. However, the IV would help with the next day hangover.

Morgan had moved since Sarah had hooked him up last night. Maybe he was starting to come out of his almost coma. Was he faking it? As he opened the valve for the counter-agent already hung on the IV stand, Casey thought a friendly approach might cause Morgan to respond. He never could keep his mouth shut. "Rise and shine. We have a lot to do today. Dumb and Dumber have a shift at the Buy More today, and it's your job to watch them. Also, we need to start testing that new Intersect of yours. Let's just pretend our previous conversation didn't happen so we can get some work done today."

Morgan didn't respond. Casey noticed Morgan's eyes moving behind his closed lids. Just like a dream. Or like a flash. Oh no!

Suddenly, Morgan flipped up to his feet on the bed. Springing over Casey's outreaching hands, Morgan completed a flip with a half twist. A forceful kick into Casey's back sent him bouncing off the side of the bed and crashing to the floor with the IV stand. Morgan quickly backed through the cell door, punched in a code, and thumbed the lock.

"Morgan! When I get out of here—"

"Don't worry Casey. I just wanted to try this thing out, and let me just say. WOW! I'll let you out before your shift starts at ten. Until then, you have an hour to contemplate why it might not be a good idea to lock me up or use me as bait anymore." Morgan grinned and gave Casey a cheeky salute before turning down the hallway.

"Morgan!"

A few minutes later.

Morgan couldn't believe what he had just done. Chuck made the Intersect sound so cool, but this was so beyond what he had imagined. Now he would really be part of the team!

"Hey, Morgan. Glad to see you are up and about." Morgan jumped and spun around. Apparently, the Intersect did not include stealth detection as a skill.

"Oh. Hi, Sarah. You startled me. You really are sneaky."

Sarah shrugged. "Occupational hazard. I see Casey upheld his end of the deal and woke you up this morning. Have you seen Chuck yet?"

"Casey…what…uh…Chuck? No I haven't seen him. Casey just let me out." Or he was going to, until I kicked his ass!

"Morgan, what is it? Have you flashed already?"

Morgan wondered how Chuck ever expected to keep a proposal plan secret from this woman. "Yeah, Sarah. I flashed on Casey."

"Really? Chuck has only flashed on Casey twice: once for his old Coburn alias and once for Ilsa's love letters. He only flashed on me once for a ring I wore on a mission. What did you flash on?"

Morgan had to think fast so Sarah wouldn't find out what he had done to Casey. Maybe something Chuck told him would work. "Oh, nothing important. Some old mission reports from early last year. Casey really didn't think much of Shaw." Too late, Morgan realized that might not have been the best deflection approach for Sarah.

"I think Chuck, you, and I are the only non-military agents that Casey tolerates." Fortunately Sarah didn't want to continue this line of conversation. Bullet dodged. "I'm going to find Chuck. I'll let him know you are ok. We'll send for you when he is ready to run some tests. Please be careful around customers. We don't want you scaring them away with Mandarin swear words or Tae Kwon Do." Sarah smiled, pivoted, and started down the hallway towards the Intersect room.

Morgan wondered at the tests, but at least with Chuck running them, they would not be as ridiculous as YouTube videos and buckets of water.

"Chuck, what are you wearing?"

Chuck turned from his crouched position by the Intersect stand towards Sarah who was leaning casually against the door frame. "If you were on the phone, that would have been really suggestive."

"Oh, so you would rather me leave and call you?" Sarah flirted back.

"Never."

"So what's with the goggles?"

"Ah. Yes. A few months ago I modified a heat vision pair with this side switch for normal shades with these mini LED flashlights around the rim. I know they look even goofier than before. But they are useful when I have my head stuck upside down through a floor panel while I inspect the wiring."

"What's wrong with the wiring? I thought you finished that yesterday before your test."

"I don't know for certain. I just have a suspicion."

Sarah frowned. "Well, I like seeing your eyes. They would tell me if you got any sleep last night."

"I didn't. I can't sleep. Did you know Morgan still hasn't woken up? He's in a coma and on an IV. I have to figure why he reacted so badly to the Intersect." Chuck had started gesticulating widely.

Sarah was surprised. "Casey didn't tell you? Oh I'm sorry, Chuck. Morgan is fine. In fact I saw him a minute ago and he is heading up to work. He woke up yesterday too. He just made the mistake of mentioning to Casey about his extra-curricular activities with Alex, and of course—"

Chuck let out a sign of relief. "Let me guess. Casey tranq'ed him."

"Three times."

"That explains it. I wish he told me last night. I would have gone home to get some sleep."

"You should sleep now. I'll set up a cot for you." Sarah started to turn to leave.

"No. Wait, Sarah." Chuck up and caught Sarah at the door. "I've had three red bulls. I'm not crashing for at least another four hours." Chuck tugged lightly on her arm. "I might not be able to sleep, but I could use a break. Come on in and sit with me."

"Ok, but lose the goggles."

"I need them to shield me from the beautiful glow of your eyes and the brilliance of your smile."

"Nice line."

"I thought so."

"Chuck."

"You don't think they are stylish?"

Sarah gave him her I'm-not-going-to-humor-you-this-time look.

"Nope. They stay on. We'll see how good you are at reading my mind when you can't see my eyes."

Sarah over-exaggerated a pout, but joined Chuck on the floor, against the wall anyway. Chuck grasped her hand firmly and playfully bumped her outstretched foot with leg.

"So how was your first night home alone?" Chuck questioned casually.

"That was my first night? I hadn't realized." Sarah replied absently.

"Right. Of course not."

"Chuck, are you using the heat vision mode as a lie detector?"

"No. I just let you confirm your lie with your last question."

"Hmphh. Fine. Yes, I noticed. But no, it was no big deal," Sarah defended.

"If you say so. So what is bothering you then?"

"Who says something is bothering me?"

Chuck cocked his head. "I do."

"I was thinking about our personal-time agreement," Sarah mused.

"What is wrong with the Costa Gravas Accord? Are you trying to reduce Morgan's CoD time? If so, we probably need to include him in the discussion to ensure he honors any deal we make here."

Sarah smiled. "No, I was thinking about the other parts of the 'Accord'." Chuck pouted slightly. "No, I think you'll like this change. Instead of cuddling and quiet time every other night, I was thinking we could have your normal talkative cuddling one night and quiet cuddling the next. This is for off-duty time at home only, and exceptions would include injury recovery time."

Chuck sprung into a huge grin. "Missed some Chuck snuggle time last night, huh?"

"Of course," Sarah whispered, leaning into his shoulder and hanging on rather desperately.

"I like this new plan very much." Chuck kissed the top of her head. "However this still does not explain what is bothering you."

"Nothing is—"

"Sarah, you are cutting off the circulation to my right arm."

"Oh. Sorry." Sarah released Chuck's right side, but still held his hand loosely.

"And the problem?"

Sarah hesitated. She really didn't want to talk about this with Chuck. Maybe Chuck did. And maybe getting it out if the open would make it happen, thereby eliminating the problem. Sarah abruptly stood, releasing Chuck completely and went over to lock the door with her thumb scan. Sarah stared at Chuck a few seconds and then started pacing. Throughout this show, Chuck waited patiently while Sarah worked through the argument in her head. After couple back-and-forths, she stopped and faced Chuck again.

"Chuck, why aren't we engaged?" Chuck's jaw dropped. "I told you I want to marry you. I've seen the proposal plan, or the old draft, or whatever it was. You told me over a month ago you were working on another. But the holidays have passed, and you still haven't proposed. I know for a while it was your mom's fault for removing the Intersect. Then it was Morgan's fault for revealing the plan. Whose fault is it now? Do I need to eliminate someone? You know I don't expect you to ask my dad's permission, right? Oh God, I'm pathetic. Do you even still want to marry me?"

Chuck recovered from his shock and smiled. Standing up, he pulled Sarah into his arms, hugging her tightly. "Of course I still want to marry you."

Sarah responded into Chuck's shoulder. "You want to marry me. I want to marry you. That sounds like we are engaged to me."

"One problem. I haven't proposed, and you haven't accepted said proposal."

"Semantics."

"An important one. To answer your other questions… It is no one's fault. Although Ellie might just go into premature labor from the excitement. That's not an obstacle, though, because I know we both could keep a secret. No, I'm not trying to find your dad for the proposal. He told me to watch out for you, and that is good enough for me. Maybe we could find him for the wedding, though. Finally, I didn't use the holidays because that would not be much of a surprise."

"Not getting a ring for Christmas was a surprise."

"See, I told you all kinds of surprises are coming your way. Consider that the first."

Sarah groaned as Chuck lightly rubbed her back.

"I don't need a fancy proposal. I just don't like this limbo."

"Of course you need a fancy proposal. The Bartowski proposal bar is really, really high. Look at the story behind Ellie's proposal."

"They don't even know that story. The details are classified."

"It's still a great story. Maybe we can tell them in thirty years. And you deserve something even better. I do plan on leaving out the pita girl and the dumpster. I'm making no promises about the fish."

"I've already checked. No ring in Morgan's little fish plaque. You better not plan a wedding to top Ellie's first ceremony." They both laughed.

"So I'm guessing this was all brought on because you couldn't find the ring at home last night."

Sarah pulled back and looked at Chuck. "You're kidding, right? I've been sweeping our place once a week since Thanksgiving. I swept the Woodcomb's at Christmas and Casey's at New Year's. I'll be rechecking them soon."

Chuck smirked. "Then I'm sure you know there has not been any unusual bank or credit card activity on my accounts recently. Hmmm, sounds like there is no ring to me."

Sarah thumped Chuck's shoulder. "Are you trying to drive me nuts?"

"You're the one that wanted small and slow steps."

Sarah blinked seductively. "Fine. I'm going to have to find ways to incentivize you." She pecked Chuck on the lips.

"Sarah, the camera. This is not as private as the storage closet."

"I turned off the camera on my way here."

"No camera and a locked door. See, you even set the standard for planning really high."

Sarah silenced Chuck with a long, soft kiss. Her lips trailed away, and she whispered into Chuck's ear, "I think we need to work off some of that Red Bull energy so you can get some sleep."

Chuck pulled Sarah into much more passionate kiss and slowly backed her again the wall. Sarah started pulling at buttons on Chuck's shirt while never breaking free of their mutual attack on each other's lips.

Just as Sarah pulled loose his tie, she was distracted by a high-pitched whirl from behind Chuck. Looking around him as he worked his kisses down her neck, Sarah tried to figure out what was going on. It was just difficult to concentrate when Chuck was doing…that… to the spot behind her ear.

"Chuck, I think something is wrong."

"Huh? What?"

"Chuck, the Intersect computer, it's—"

Suddenly the screen wall flashed with a continuous stream of images.

A/N: Coming next… Chapter 3 – Ellie and Awesome vs. the Intersect

(No, it can't be that! Can it?)