Hi! OK, Anon and my wife worked overtime on improving this one. Thanks!
I'm grateful that folks are reading and reviewing. Please keep it up!
I don't own any of the characters of Chuck.
I'm sure it is quite obvious; the movie Panic Room was one of my references for this section.
He couldn't hear a thing. The steel door that protected Ellie and him must have been quite thick. He thought that was good. For a second. Until Devon Woodcomb realized that his wife had suffered a head injury that had rendered her unconscious, and he had violently moved her, potentially aggravating the harm.
Carefully holding Ellie's head and neck steady, Devon gently laid her out on the floor of this room he had never known existed. He looked around. There wasn't much room, but what there was of space was used to the maximum efficiency. There were bunks along one wall with blankets and other bedding. There were shelves of supplies: canned goods, what looked like foil vacuum wrapped army rations, books, and boxes that he didn't have time to investigate. In the back corner was a latrine and sink with a shower curtain for privacy. In the other corner was a fridge with a first aid kit over it. What he couldn't see was a phone, and his cellular was far out of reach. Naturally, there was no other means of egress. He had heard that Panic Rooms had monitors and intercoms to the outside (as well as phones), but not this one. Nothing.
Devon checked Ellie's vitals. She was breathing and had a steady, strong pulse. He examined her skull. There was a huge bump on the back of her head and a very small amount of blood, but he couldn't detect a fracture. Small comforts. Very small. Head injuries could be internal and were serious. If Ellie was only out for five minutes or less, then hopefully this was only a mild concussion, but if it lasted longer than that…. He called her name, trying to rouse her. When that didn't work, he lightly pushed on her extremities. Then he checked under her eyelids. Pupils seemed normal. But she hadn't woken up. How long since she fell? He had shown up just as it happened, but he had no idea how much time had passed. It couldn't have been more than a minute, surely, but it seemed so much longer than that.
He pulled one of the blankets off the bunk to place under her legs and another to go over her body. The floor was cold but he wasn't going to risk moving her again. He went over to the fridge and found some ice and took down the first aid kit. He put ice on the swelling and looked through the kit to evaluate what he might need once she woke up. If she woke up.
He had to get an ambulance for her. Devon couldn't hear what was on the other side of the door, but he couldn't wait around regardless while Ellie's condition worsened, no matter who was out there. If nothing else, maybe he could at least crack the door. If the two with guns were out there, he could close it shut again fast before they shot him. Maybe. Or maybe he could offer himself in as a hostage if they would get Ellie an ambulance. He realized what a ridiculous idea that was, but his wife was in danger and it was the only option he could think of. Devon went to the door and pulled the lever. The door wouldn't open. The lever wouldn't budge. Devon was wrong. He had no options at all. He turned back to Ellie, pushing aside thoughts of what might be happening outside the door.
Outside the steel door, Vincent Smith had just been shot with some kind of dart, and Jill Roberts was screaming. Neither had seen where the projectile had come from - this was a library for God's sake – but suddenly the dart was jutting out of Vincent's neck. The next minute, he had thrown his body into Jill and brought them both crashing down onto the floor. That had momentarily knocked the air out of Jill, but in spite of that, she was able to perceive the multiple darts shooting over their heads to stick into books on the left hand wall. Some were as low as waist level. They dared not rise.
Jill looked at Vincent, and saw that he was foaming at the mouth. That's when she began to scream. Vincent groaned, and said, "Please Doctor." He breathed with effort. "You're giving me a headache." Eyeing the darts above him, Vincent carefully rolled his body off of Jill, and began to drag himself toward the hall door, ignoring the image of Orion glaring down at him. Jill army crawled after him, trying to keep her terror under wraps.
They made it out the door into the hallway. No darts here, at least not yet. That was good. Orion's face was now watching them from the hallway walls and ceiling. That was bad. The floor was tiled so no face was there, at least. Jill and Vincent exchanged glances. Safer to stay to the ground. She put one hand in front of the other, and continued to crawl. Out of the corner of her eye though, she saw Orion start to tap his arm device again. The result took but a moment to register for her. "Oh no," she whispered.
"What?" said Vincent. He had told her about how his senses had been dulled over the years. Apparently that included touch. He'd be able to tell soon though.
"Electrical current through the floor. The grey tiles must be metal. He's increasing it. Move!"
That may have been too much to ask of Vincent. He wasn't the quickest of men to begin with, and the drug, poison, or whatever it was probably slowed him down further. Jill couldn't think about that though. All of her thoughts were directed toward the increasing painful voltage that was entering her. She was trying to crawl fast. The hall wasn't that long, but…. It was no good. The fate of Vincent, the danger of standing up… None of it mattered. She had to get away from this pain. Crying out, Jill stood up and rushed toward the door.
Jill vaguely heard Vincent calling after her, but she was almost at the hall exit to the foyer. Another steel panel was coming down. If she didn't get through she'd be stuck there in the hall, and she'd be electrocuted along with her partner. She slid through feet first, and barely saved her fingers from being cut off.
The door shut. She stood up on her feet, and turned around and looked at the steel door. She heard nothing on the other side. Vincent was out. To confirm this a second later, the face flashed up on the door's LCD screen. "Someone else you've betrayed. You have no loyalty to anyone save yourself." His voice was stern, as if he were giving her a lecture.
"Orion, please," Jill said desperately, "We just want to talk to you. We didn't want anybody to get hurt!"
Orion shook his head. "Tell that to my children." He started on his arm device again. Jill sensed it a split second before it happened, and threw herself backwards. A trap door had opened where she had just been standing.
"Orion, will you listen to me?" she cried. Orion stared at her. Then he pushed another button. His image disappeared.
Was that… good? Was he still watching her, listening? Perhaps this was Orion's signal that he was ceasing the attack. Maybe he was giving her the opportunity to surrender. Or, maybe he was coming right then to kill her personally. Vincent was possibly dead, incapacitated at the very least. The trouble was, she just didn't know. All she knew of Orion was the third-hand reports from Chuck, Vincent, and others. Chuck clearly had been the most off-base. His father was nothing like Chuck. Orion had a reputation as a killer. He'd destroyed entire buildings to take down his prey. Sometimes innocents had been killed. And Jill knew very well that she wasn't an innocent.
Jill realized that the house was completely silent. She might have been in a horror film, the killer ready to spring out at her any second now.
Screw it. Vincent had provided her protection and leadership, but if he was out of commission, her first responsibility was to herself. Bracing herself for more springing traps, Jill walked quickly to the front door and turned the handle. Nothing. She was locked in here. Cursing, she ran toward the kitchen through the living room.
Please, let the gun still be there. Please. It was. She let her breath out and grabbed it.
It was only after the metal net fell from the ceiling, fully smashing her body into the floor that Jill realized the gun hadn't been in the same place it had originally fallen.
As consciousness seeped away, Jill thought she saw a pair of shoes approaching toward her through the mesh of the net.
He had to work fast. Devon was waiting, and Ellie…
She's been hurt.
He'd messed up. He'd seen the readings, but assumed it was just more of Beckman's people in the area. He'd gotten careless, that was it. Settling down after years on the run had made him clumsy. That, and he was upset because of the argument with Chuck. Ellie was paying for that now.
After pulling off the net, Stephen administered the drug. They'd be out for as long as he needed. He had used an extra dose for Vincent. He knew that Smith could take a lot more than the average man. If Stephen had overcompensated, and given Vincent too much; well, that would just be a sorry shame, wouldn't it?
From there, it was a simple matter to open another trap door and shove both Roberts and the net through it. He wasn't tying her up. There wasn't time for that.
Always proficient at multitasking, Stephen made the call, while resetting the metal doors, then removing the evidence of the darts in the library. When the person on the other end answered, Stephen didn't bother engaging in pleasantries. "We've had intruders at the house. I took care of it, but Ellie's hurt. Send the usual cop and medical cover crew and then meet Devon at the hospital. I'll tell Beckman about it later. Right now, I've got to clean this situation." He paused, then added, "Break it to him gently, Agent Walker."
Stephen clicked off.
He couldn't believe that he had thought Chuck being a spy was awesome.
Devon's problem was that he always saw the positive, romantic side of things. He should have considered the ramifications of what it meant to have an actual spy as your brother-in-law. Why hadn't he? How could he have just thrown aside the fact that John Casey had threatened him with a gun? That some kind of spy-related mission had destroyed his first wedding? But both of those incidents had worked out, ultimately. Casey hadn't shot him (thanks to some great timing from Chuck and Sarah), and it was understood that they were all on the same side. Chuck had made up for the ruined wedding with an even better one. Ultimately, it had all seemed fairly harmless.
But now Ellie was injured. Somebody had broken into their house, which had some features his father-in-law had never told him about. And Stephen Bartowski was involved, up to his eyebrows. If Steve was a spy as well as Chuck…. Was there anybody in this family that wasn't a spy?
He looked down at his wife. She was so beautiful and smart and active and cool. So incredibly awesome. She had taken care of her brother. She deserved the world. She didn't deserve to be hurt, or lied to by her family. Things needed to change.
"Ellie," Devon said softly, "Babe, I love you. Wake up, OK?" He leaned down and brushed his lips against hers. When he raised his head up again, Ellie slowly opened her eyes.
Devon blinked. Wow, didn't expect that to work. Damn, I'm good!
Ellie looked at him, then groaned. "Honey, I think I hit my head."
Devon nodded. "Yeah Babe, you did. Its going to be OK now, though. I-"
He stopped because the door suddenly opened, and Steve was there. The man looked disheveled and worried. "Is she all right, Devon?"
Devon flushed for a moment in anger, but pushed it down. Now wasn't the time. "I think she's going to be. We need to get her to a hospital."
"Good, I've already called an ambulance and the police."
"Oh God," Ellie said. "I remember now. I got into a fistfight with a woman burglar, and she looked like-" Her face twisted into confusion. Then her eyes darted to different parts of the room. "Um?"
"Ah," Stephen said, "Ellie I didn't tell you about this panic room in your house, because I thought you'd be turned off by it and might not take the home because of it."
"What?" Ellie appeared utterly perplexed. "There's an extra room in my house I don't know about?"
Devon looked at his father-in-law angrily. He didn't want to keep lying to his wife. He wasn't going to. But he didn't want to upset her, not right now. She needed treatment. There'd be time for the truth later.
"Let's get you out front. The ambulance should be her any minute."
The cover crews were actually from the local hospital and police department. These particular professionals simply had more than one supervisor, and the official bosses didn't know about the covert ones. That came in handy.
Devon stood by Ellie's side as they checked her over, but while they were prepping her to be transferred into the ambulance, Stephen came and asked Ellie if he could borrow Devon just for a second. She complied.
Stephen took his son-in-law aside, and said, "You knew about Chuck, but you didn't know about me. You're upset."
"Are you a spy?" Devon asked. His voice was cold.
Stephen smiled grimly but didn't respond.
Devon said, "I'm telling Ellie the truth, Steve. You can't stop me."
Of course this would be Devon's reaction. The young doctor had been content to keep Chuck's secrets as long as nobody had been harmed. This was different, however. Even so….
"I understand, Devon, but now isn't the time. Ellie shouldn't be upset right now, as I'm sure you know. And," Stephen leaned in and lowered his voice, "You'll have to think long and hard about if you're ready to have both of you relocated to a witness protection program, effectively ending your lives as you know them. Because if you tell Ellie, that will be the outcome."
He leaned back. Devon's expression was one of utter shock. Stephen felt sympathetic, but this was the way of things. He said, "I promise that I will keep Ellie safe, Devon."
Devon looked at him strangely, but Stephen thought he understood the expression. He's trying to understand who and what I am. Join the club, Son. Stephen patted Devon on the shoulder and said, "Sarah and Chuck will meet you both at the hospital. I'll be there as soon as I can. Now, go to her."
Looking uncomfortably at Stephen one more time, Devon turned around and walked back to Ellie.
The ambulance drove away a minute later, and Orion watched it go.
