Author's note: links to youtube are being stripped and not working which sucks, but just add in front of the links. If you use the links to the music, you can get a bit of a picture of what I am thinking while writing.
Disclaimer: I don't own Chuck. All of the characters belong to whomever. I own the plot and theme in this story though. Enjoy it I hope! Just ask if you want to use any part of it, with a simple acknowledgement given somewhere. )
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As the man pulled up the files, he started to look them over. As he was reading the woman's background, a picture came up.
"Oh Crap!" he mutters. This is going to be a problem. He was looking at Crystal. This was going to be much harder than he thought.
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As Sarah was working her way to Guatemala, Crystal was still waiting for the phone call. It had been 2 days and still nothing! She was starting to think she would have to do this on her own.
She had been out of the game for a few years and did not want to go back! Resigned to her fate, she could not stop this nagging feeling that Chuck was in serious trouble.
Crystal heads for her closet and reaches for something on the wall. As she finds the small notch in the wall, she opens it and slides her finger into the hole. There is a faint light in the hole. After a few seconds, the back of the closet shifts and a panel slides down.
As she steps into the closet, she punches in some numbers into her alarm system activating a lockdown on her house. If anyone gets within 100 yards the alarm will sound giving her enough time to act.
Moving to the panel, there is an array of computers and LCD viewing screens. She places her thumb on a scanner and then has to place her eye on a retinal scanner, before the equipment becomes active.
The monitors take a bit to come to life. The system looks like it has not been used in for quite some time.
Crystal sees the login screen finally appear with a symbol of Earth with a circling satellite. There is a shiver going up her spine, while looking at the three letters NRO. She knows that by access the system, they will be looking to have her work for them again.
She cannot help it, there was no turning back now. She felt that she was alone and hollow, but Chuck helped to make her feel like a person again.
It was a small price to pay for a friend! The logo was something that very few people know even exist, but every intelligence agency used in one way or another.
She starts to put in her search patterns, when a screen pops up.
"Hi C! This is a pleasant surprise. I though that you were done working. )" The words flashed across the screen.
She starts typing her reply, "I am, but I have a friend in need! I had no choice but to access the SIGNIT system. I don't plan on staying on long."
"You know that they wont allow that C! Either your in for a while or your out completely. I am surprised that you would think otherwise. This must be some friend, someone new?" came back across the screen.
"Yes, we hit it off and became good friends. He just up and disappeared while we were in Mazatlan Mexico! I need to locate him, to make sure he is ok. I could not live with myself if I didn't", Crystal summed up her plight.
"This is why you have to leave the last time C. You know how much it messed up your head the last time. I just don't want to see you go through that again", the screen blinked!
"I know", Crystal responded with a very sad look on her face. " I have to do it or I would be worse than last time. Do you think you can help, please?"
"Okay, I will help you with this one, but don't be surprised if they ask you to do a few Favors for the information. What is the name of the person your looking for? I will see what I can dig up."
Crystal types in, " His name is Chuck Bartowski. I will hang on while you look it up."
"I am checking it out now. Should not take long", the curser spit out.
"C, this is not good! You need to log out now and leave this one alone! Whatever happened to him is highly classified. This goes way over my pay grade and you know what that means! Have to go..", and the window disappears.
Crystal is a bit shocked at this new information. Since her old employer provided information to the intelligence agencies, there is a good possibility that Chuck was abducted.
She knows that if her friend could not access the info, then there was only one safe way forward. She would have to wait for the contact from her Senator friend.
There was one other option, but she was not ready to even think about that yet. The last time had almost cost her everything.
Without warning her phone rang. It startled her for a second, as she was deep in thought. Crystal picks up the phone," Hello?"
Voice on the line says, " I hear your in need of my services. What is it that you need done?" The man is hoping that he is wrong, but he knows what is coming next.
"I am looking for a friend of mine. He disappeared down in Mazatlan Mexico. I need you to help me find him. I need to make sure he is okay", she explains.
Cursing under his breath, he has to ask," And what is the name of the person?"
"His name is Chuck Bartowski and he is a very good friend. I will pay half your fee now and the rest once we find him", she continues. She feels like there is something familiar about this voice.
She hears a "Son of a B--..." coming through the phone, before the voice on the other line catches themselves. There is a long silence and Crystal knows better than to say anything more just yet.
Finally the man spoke,"I will take the case but I will do this on my terms! When I find him, I will send you a photo and the info. I don't know how this will turn out, but at least you will know your answers."
"Wait a minute, I am coming along! The Senator said that you would help me and if not then I will do it myself!", but she knew what that would mean. There would be serious consequences to that path.
Again there was silence for several minutes. She was sure that he would not help, when he finally spoke.
"I will help you, but you will do what I say. If you get in my way, then it will be over so fast that you cannot even comprehend it! This is going to be dangerous enough by myself, but taking you along will up the odds. How soon can you get to Mazatlan. It seems that is where we will have to start."
Breathing faster than she realized, "I will be on the first plane out tomorrow. Where will we meet at and how will I know you?"
"I will meet you at the airport. Don't worry, you will know", is all the voice will say.
The phone goes dead and Crystal hangs it up. She is sure that the voice is someone she has meet, but who and when? No since worrying about it now, she will find out soon enough tomorrow.
The man on the other end is looking through his file on Crystal. There is something odd about it. There is some missing data on her and it was just too clean. He knows that there has to be more to this woman and he intends to find out what.
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The scene opens with Sarah in a Cessna 310 heading for Guatemala. She knows that she needs to get there before they leave. Hoping that Bryce has not figured out that she is after them, as she knows he will change his normal
patterns.
She has been going over what happened in Mazatlan and the pieces are starting to fit together. The fire fight in the bar had distracted her enough to not noticed who came in and helped out. The other person had taken care of the two behind the bar.
That was the problem with her and Chuck. He caused her to forget parts of her training and she would have investigated who the other person was otherwise.
Sarah had assumed that it was either one of the bouncers or one of Cathernia's bodyguards.
When Chuck had gotten hurt, she did not even think to filter out all of the details. Normally she would have made sure she knew every detail, before moving on.
If Bryce is involved, then Chuck is not safe. He will use Chuck and as long as things go he way, then Chuck will be safe.
Problem is that since Chuck is no agent, there was bound to be trouble.
There was also the issue of him doing whatever is necessary for his mission. That obviously included using Chuck to find his foes.
She was 2 hours out of La Aurora Airport for Guatemala City. It was hard to hold back her mood. She was really starting to hate this assignment, even though she was the one that asked for it really.
Sarah was tired and needed to find them soon. She did not know how long it would be till the NSA found out. She was sure that they would send someone like Casey after him then.
Casey was already in Mexico and would be the logical choice, she thinks. That could play to her advantage, as she knows he knows that Chuck would not do anything wrong. There was also the fact that Chuck had something as backup to keep the Agencies off his back.
A break in the landscape finally appears and Sarah realizes that she is about 30 minutes out from the airport. She begins checking in with the tower to get her permission to land.
After getting her instructions to land, she taxi's to the holding area and proceeds to park the plane.
There is a boy there to help her tie down the plane. She hand him a 20 dollar bill and tells him to clean the exterior of the plane and have it fueled up for her.
Asking if there was any Americans that landed recently, the boy responds that he was not aware of any.
She looks around at the planes on the field and finds what she had been looking for. There is a smile on her face and she is about to go looking for her pray.
As tired as Sarah was, she went out front and hailed a taxi. She was tired, hungry and needed a shower, but not just yet. They were here and she intended to find them.
It was due to the tiredness, that She did not realize there were people watching her. As she drove off, two men stepped out of the shadows and watch her drive away.
There was a sad look on the tall one, but the smaller one was smiling with an evil grin, the boy noticed. He was about done with the pretty ladies plane and would need to be ready for the next plane to land.
The two men hurried to their plane and put all of their baggage in and did the walkthrough. The plane was fully fueled and ready to go.
One of the men walks over to Sarah's plane and opens the cowling and starts poking around. Soon the man heads back to his plane.
He had the pleads from the engines. There was no way that Sarah was going to use that plane any time soon. It should only take her a few days to get them in, but that was plenty of time to get lost again.
Bryce knew that he would have to deviate from his original plans. He would have to move up the training with Chuck as well. He just hoped that Chuck would be able to handle it.
"I don't like this at all Bryce. I don't like leaving Sarah stranded at all", Chuck fumed!
"What o dyou want then Chuck? Do you want her to find us? If she does then she will either want to tag along or end up taking you back. You have not even begun to scratch the surface of the potential in that big brain of yours", shoots back Bryce.
"Besides, I would be willing to bet that she is just here for the job anyway", studying Chucks expression. "There is no way to even know what she is really feeling. Last time we were together, she was going to come with me. She did tell you that right Chuck? Problem is that I had to leave her behind last time, but I am not sure that I could do that again!"
Bryce knew that he was lying to him again, just like at Stanford.
Bryce knew that it would make Chuck doubt how Sarah really felt about him. He needed Chuck and he would do whatever is necessary to keep him off guard. If Sarah were to actually find them, he would have to do the same to her.
"Let's just get out of here", Chuck almost shouted. He felt that Bryce was lying to him, but she was very good at switching on and off her emotions. That would also explain why she was so upset after Bryce left last time.
It sure felt like she cared for him back in Mazatlan, but was she just trying to get him back as her asset?
He did not know how agents move up the ranks, but having the intersect as an assignment had to help it along.
Then again Bryce had already screwed him over a few times now. But he had to trust that he was not doing it this time!
Chuck had always wanted to understand Sarah. He knew that the agent side of her was cold and unmoving. He wanted to know more about it, but he was in for a very rude awakening.
By choosing to do what is necessary to protect Sarah, he was going to find out just how and why agents are the way they are.
Just as he had drawn some humanity back to Sarah, his love for her was about to take away his from him.
Chuck was about to find out why they had decided on the name for the project. After all Mephistopheles was the devil or at least his second in command.
Chuck was about to descend into the very Hell that great stories are made of. The problem is will he be able to come back out of it.
Chuck and Bryce are off and flying to whom knows where again. Chuck just sits back and lets him mind wonder.
How will he live without Sarah, he thinks? She had done so much to protect him, how can he not do the same for her!
As that last thought leaves Chuck's mine, he is reminded of a poem.
"Hell is a place, a time, a consciousness, in which there is no love."
He believes it was written by Richard Bach or was it Johnathan Livingston Seagull, he could not recall. What really bothered him was, how will Sarah feel about him after it was all done!
Why those words came to him was a bit unsettling. He puts him headphones on. His Ipod is set to random when the song /watch?vYjLgbHKVrn0 come on.
Well, now that is a good question. Ingram Hill sure had the right question. Now it was Chucks turn as he also wondered, Will I ever make it home!
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