CHUCK VS. THE BAD & ABNORMAL & HORRIBLE LIFE
SUMMARY: Once again, Chuck wakes up into that normal life he craves so much and it includes a loving wife and daughter and a home. But that life is anything but normal. Sequel to "Chuck Vs. The Good & Normal & Wonderful Life."
DISCLAIMER: I don't own "Chuck."
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CHAPTER 3 – GOTCHA!
"We have two new recruits. They need your help with them," a technician told Jill.
Jill sighed, took off her glasses and rubbed her eyes. More brainwashing; it might be a long night, she thought. "Where are they?" she asked out loud.
"Cell B5," the technician replied. "They work together, so they've kept them together for now. One, the female, is a CIA agent. She is an agent that has given us lot of trouble. They really want to convert her bad. If the conversion is successful, she'd be really valuable to us. The other is…well, we're not sure what he is. We thought at first that he was her partner. But he doesn't seem the type for an agent. He sure as hell doesn't act like an agent. Nor does he seem to have any skills like an agent should. Then we thought he was an asset. But what exactly he could do or have that could be valuable to the CIA, we're not…well, you'll just have to see him to believe it."
Jill nodded and walked down the hallway to the stairs to get to the basement and check out cell B5. She was certainly intrigued by what the man said. A CIA agent and a mystery man. That sounded strange. They didn't just snatch anybody for these conversions. They went after high level personnel, agents and assets who could help Fulcrum if successfully converted. And here they had grabbed someone who they didn't know. Probably just some civilian or pedestrian in the wrong place at the wrong time, Jill thought. It had happened before. She had seen as much ever since she was brought to this island months ago.
She sighed again as she opened the stairway door and walked down the stairs to the basement. She had noticed that she sighed a lot nowadays. Had it been just months since she was busted out of prison and brought to this fake island community? It seemed like years. Even though the island was better than prison, she hated it. She couldn't leave, she had to stay here and help with the conversions and pretend to be a director at the fake corporation that Fulcrum had going on in their fake city on the island.
She took the last step, opened the door to the basement, and turned left down the hallway toward the cells.
Back in the simpler days, her college days, she never, EVER, imagined her life would end up like this. Everything seemed to have been going her way then. She loved college. She excelled in all of her courses. She was a highly regarded student with top grades. And she had been in love with a great guy, a guy who would have done anything and everything for her. It all had been going her way, she thought as she stopped at a door, punched in a code on the keypad and opened the door to the cell area.
If only I…if only I what? Jill thought bitterly. Well for starters, if only I had never joined Fulcrum. That's where it all began, didn't it? That's what started the whole downfall for me.
If only I had never joined Fulcrum. If only I had stayed in a normal life. And if only I had never broken up with Chuck.
Chuck! The tall, brown-haired nerd had been in her thoughts a lot for the past few months. Of all of the mistakes and missteps I made, that was the biggest of them all, she mused. If only I had never broken up with Chuck.
Everything, this island, this work, this life, this situation would be more tolerable, more livable if she just had Chuck with her. Those days at Stanford had been good days. But she had to throw it all away, dump and leave him because Fulcrum had ordered it.
What a mistake that had been, what a mistake, she thought. I wish I had never done that. I'd give anything to go back and change that. To have a normal life.
There had been a chance to get him back. That time she had bumped into him at that conference and they started dating again. But it all went to hell, all because of Sarah Walker, Jill thought angrily.
She had suspected that there was something between Chuck and Sarah right from the start. It was the way Chuck talked about her and that certain look he got in his eyes when he did. He said they were just friends and co-workers. But there was no mistaking the way Sarah looked at Chuck. And there was no mistaking what was between the lines when Sarah told me not to hurt Chuck again, Jill recalled. That CIA agent was in love with Chuck. And Jill's suspicions that Chuck was in love with Sarah were confirmed at the end. What Chuck said and did to her when he locked her in that Nerd Herd vehicle played over and over in Jill's mind like a YouTube video.
"You should know I wanted to help you. I was going to let you get away. But when you were about to kill Sarah made the decision for me. You're under arrest Jill and I'm breaking up with you!" Chuck said when he imprisoned her.
It was a wound that never healed. In spite of what he did, she wished that she could change the way things happened with them. She wished she could get him back, get another chance with him without Sarah Walker around to mess things up.
I'd give anything for another chance with Chuck, ANYTHING! She thought as she turned around a corner and arrived at cell B5. She lifted up her head to look at the recently arrived occupants and she couldn't believe it.
"CHUCK!" she screamed.
The man in the cell jumped. His jaw dropped and he stared in shock.
"Jill?" Chuck said incredulously.
"Chuck!" Jill said again, this time softer, as she stared in disbelief at the sight of her former lover in the cell. Chuck was one of the new "recruits"? The one they had recently brought in to be converted, the one that they couldn't figure out whether he was an agent or an asset? That meant that the agent, the one Fulcrum really wanted to convert must be….
"Hello Jill," a calm voice said.
Jill turned her head slightly away from Chuck and looked toward the back of the cell. There was no mistaking that voice.
"Sarah, Sarah Walker," Jill muttered with disgust as their eyes met.
The blonde CIA agent sat on a bench in the back of the cell and stared back at Jill. She said nothing but her expression definitely had malevolence in it. Jill's mind filled with a whirlwind of emotions. If it hadn't been for Sarah, I wouldn't have been caught or put in prison, Jill thought bitterly. Sarah was why Chuck stopped me, caught me and broke up with me. Sarah got my Chuck. Now's my chance, now's my chance to get Chuck back.
Jill summoned the guards. "Separate them. I want her in another cell," she said with a nod toward Sarah.
Chuck's head whipped around and he looked at Sarah with concern. Sarah's face darkened and she looked enraged as she stared at Jill.
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"What are you doing Jill? What's going to happen to Sarah?" Chuck demanded.
The guards had just taken Sarah away to another cell and now Jill had Chuck alone. She looked at him and smiled.
"Jill!" Chuck pleaded. "Please, don't hurt her! Please! I'll do anything. Just don't hurt her."
She continued smiling as she gazed at Chuck. "I know you will Chuck, I know you will. Don't worry. Everything is going to be OK. We're going to be together. We're going to be very happy. And Sarah won't come between us. She won't ever come between us again. You and I are going to be together and very happy."
"Jill! What do you mean? What's going on?"
Jill didn't answer. She just kept smiling.
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Jill stood in front of the cell that held Sarah who glared angrily at Jill.
"Jill! If you hurt Chuck, I swear…." the blonde CIA agent warned. As she spoke, her eyes promised many threats.
Jill smiled at Sarah. "Oh don't worry Sarah, I can assure you that I won't harm Chuck. I have no intention of hurting Chuck…unless he asks me to." Jill giggled. "After all, when we were together at Stanford, I did get very excited sometimes and accidently scratch him. So I can't promise I won't do that again." And then she winked at Sarah.
Sarah's eyes widened and she looked furious. Jill could definitely see that Sarah Walker would use a gun right now if she had one. Gotcha bitch, Jill thought.
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"Chuck is going to be paired with me," Jill insisted.
"Mr. Bartowski is not the issue here. Agent Walker is. The others agree that the conversion will go better if she is paired with him," the scientist argued.
"I don't want her anywhere near Chuck. Chuck is to be with me," Jill argued.
"Agent Walker has a tremendous amount of tolerance and resistance to the preparatory drugs. That, along with her concerns, her feelings toward Mr. Bartowski, are making the conversion very difficult. We all agree that if we are able to convert her then her seeing him with someone else may strengthen those feelings subconsciously and enable her to beat the conversion. Pairing her with Mr. Bartowski may create a sort of calming effect and help the conversion to stick. We can see that she has strong feelings for him. So that could be used to our advantage."
"Pairing her with Chuck is not going to weaken her. It's going to strengthen her. You need to keep her away from him," Jill said.
"As I said, we're having problems with the conversion on her—"
"Then get rid of her!" Jill said.
"She's too valuable. If we can convert her, she'll be a tremendous asset. She—"
"Chuck is going to be with me," Jill insisted.
"After we're successful with Agent Walker. Then you can have Mr. Bartowski."
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Jill made as much noise as she could when she heard activity outside of the closet. Someone was in the house, she realized. She had come to the house, Chuck and Sarah's fake home, when she realized that Chuck had beaten the brainwashing again. But Sarah had knocked her out, tied her up, gagged her, and locked her in the closet.
She tried to yell for help. All she could manage was a muffled "MMMMMMMMMM."
But that was apparently enough as she heard the knob on the closet door turning. Then the door opened and she could see Derek Cavanagh, one of the scientists who worked with the conversions.
"I thought I'd find you here," he said as he undid Jill's gag and then started on the ropes that bound her.
"How?" Jill asked.
"Never mind. We've got to get out of here. Walker and Bartowski escaped and they alerted the CIA and NSA. They're on their way. So come on. I need your help."
"Help with what?" Jill asked as she rubbed some circulation back into her wrists while stepping out of the closet.
"The conversion technology. We need to take it with us."
"We can't possibly transport that. The machinery is way too big."
"No, I'm talking about the portable versions. We have several portable units. You'll be taking one," Cavanagh said.
That could be useful, very useful, Jill thought.
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Sarah knew that the whole missing children thing was a longshot. But that didn't lessen her frustrations any. After getting the composite photos of what a son or daughter from Chuck and Jill might look like at various ages, Sarah had gone through every missing child report that had been filed in the Los Angeles and surrounding communities for the last two weeks in search of missing kids that resembled the composite photo.
She had found three possibilities – two missing girls, one three-year-old and one two-year-old, and a missing boy, three-years-old. In looking at the composite photos and the photos of the actual missing kids that had resemblances to Chuck and Jill, Sarah couldn't help feel – well, feel what she asked herself? Jealousy? Envy? Wanting? Longing?
Chuck and Jill would have had a beautiful child, she admitted. She wondered how such a child would turn out. She had no doubt about Chuck's abilities as a parent. She could easily picture him as a dad. No matter what task or what problem with a child, Chuck would face it and handle it. Sarah gazed at the photos again. What if she and Chuck had a child? What would their child look like? she wondered.
She shook her head as she spotted the right address for the next parents. So far today, she had visited two of the three parents. With each, she flashed her credentials, explained that there was a slim – very slim – possibility that their child's disappearance may have something to do with another case and wanted them to go over the details and facts of their child's disappearance and look at a photo of Jill.
And so far nothing. The first possibility, the missing three-year-old boy, had been snatched by the divorced father. Witnesses had confirmed that. And the mother and step-father didn't recognize the photo of Jill. "Never seen her," they said immediately.
Sarah thanked them for their time, wished them luck in finding their missing son and left to go to the second possibility, the two-year-old girl. The mother and father were willing to help, to do anything that might help find their daughter. They went over the circumstances of their daughter's disappearance and they studied the photograph of Jill. They didn't recognize her. This daughter may have been taken by Jill but there wasn't anything solid to prove it or go on. So, once again, Sarah thanked the parents for their time, wished them good luck and traveled to the third possibility, the three-year-old daughter.
The mother, a thirtyish single parent, took Sarah into the living room after Sarah explained why she was there. A next door neighbor, another thirtyish single parent, was in the kitchen fixing some food as the mother told what happened to her daughter.
"I had just laid her down for a nap in her room. I started some laundry, sat down here to watch some TV. After about an hour, it was lunchtime. So I fixed some sandwiches, called Cindy but nothing. No answer. So I walked down the hallway, looked into her room and she was gone. The window was open and she was gone," the mother explained as she bent her head down.
"And you and the neighbors didn't see anyone?"
"Nobody."
"Could you please look at this photo? Have you ever seen this woman?" Sarah asked.
The mother took the photo of Jill and studied it for a few seconds. "No I haven't," she said with her eyes still on the picture. She looked up at Sarah. "Do you think this woman took my Cindy?"
"As I said before, all of this is a longshot. It was just speculation that your daughter's disappearance had something to do with another case and I was sent out to check. This woman is definitely involved with the other case. So I'm just showing you her photo to check," Sarah replied.
"I'm sorry. I've never seen her before. I wish I had so that there would be some clue or lead to finding my Cindy," the mother said sadly.
"Me too, me too," Sarah said softly.
The neighbor came out of the kitchen carrying a plate with a sandwich and some chips on it. She leaned over and set the plate down on the coffee table in front of the mother. "I'm sorry," she said as she looked at Sarah. "It was rude of me to not ask you. Are you hungry? Could I make you a sandwich?"
"Oh no, no thank you. I'm fine," Sarah replied. She reached over to the table to take back the photo but then noticed that the neighbor frowned while staring at the photo of Jill.
"Do you recognize this woman? Have you seen her recently?" Sarah asked.
"Yeah. That's the social worker," the neighbor said.
"Social worker?" both Sarah and the mother said.
"Yeah, she came by to my house."
"When?" Sarah asked eagerly.
"Well, it was…it was the day before Cindy disappeared."
Gotcha bitch, Sarah thought triumphantly.
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Casey stared at the photo of Cindy, the girl that Jill had kidnapped.
"Why would she kidnap a kid along with Bartowski? Has she really gone off the deep end?" he muttered.
"The normal life," Sarah replied.
"Huh?"
"When Chuck and I were on that island, brainwashed into believing that we were married, at one point Jill told Chuck that he was supposed to be paired with her, they were supposed to be a couple instead of him and me. Fulcrum changed it, paired Chuck with me and Jill didn't like it, she didn't like it one bit. She wanted Chuck with her. I'm thinking that she's trying to get that normal life with Chuck, what she wanted on that island."
Casey shook his head. "She actually wants a life with Bartowski? She has gone insane." He handed the photo back to Sarah. Then he looked thoughtful, as if he remembered something. "I wonder," he said.
"What?" Sarah asked.
"When our people studied that brainwashing technology that Fulcrum developed for that island, they found plans for a smaller version of the gizmo. I was told that it looked like a portable version, one that they could transport easily. But the actual machine was never found. Could Jill have that portable brainwashing machine?" he said.
"Well, if she wants it to be like a normal family with Chuck, she would have to somehow brainwash Chuck. And that would certainly enable her to do that," Sarah noted.
Casey nodded. "Good work Walker. So far, we've gotten nowhere. So at this stage, anything will help. Let's get this info out there."
And let's get Chuck home, Sarah added silently.
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The day was perfect. The sky was cloudless and bright. The temperature was pleasant. And a nice breeze was always present. The day was perfect, perfect to go outside and do whatever you wanted. And Victoria most definitely wanted to go outside and play.
Chuck used the perfect day, the perfect weather as an excuse for him to take Victoria out to play on the nearby playground. Jill protested, saying that he shouldn't be outside on his own, that he was still too weak, that he might get injured – again. Chuck disagreed, pointing out that he was weak but not helpless, that the playground was a 100 yards or less from their cabin not a hundred miles, that it was within eyesight and that he and Victoria would go there and come straight back and not wander off anywhere else. And he pointed out that Victoria badly wanted to go outside and play.
And to himself, he thought that it would do both him and Jill to be apart for a little while. Jill had not been happy when they got up this morning. While Jill said nothing, Chuck had a feeling that she was upset with him for falling asleep during her love-making attempts. She still seemed upset making Chuck think all the more that it would be a good idea for some space between them for a little while. He tried to come with some other arguments but then Victoria helped.
"Please mommy?" she begged and smiled.
Jill looked at their daughter and then at Chuck. "Can't you two wait until I take care of things? I can't go right now. You know I need to do some work," Jill said.
"And you'll be able to get things done quicker with the two of us gone and not making noise or interfering. Come on, it will be good for us to get out of here and be out of your hair while you work," Chuck said.
"Please mommy?" Victoria begged and smiled again.
Jill sighed. "All right. But you go straight to the playground over there," she ordered as she pointed at the structure in view from the window. "Nowhere else. Do not wander off away from there. And when you're done, you come straight back. Understand?"
"Yes dear," Chuck said.
"Any problems and you come back immediately, understand?" Jill ordered.
"Yes dear."
"Victoria, you keep an eye on your father. Any problems, you get him to come back or you come running back here and get me immediately. Understand?"
"Yes dear," the child imitated. Chuck smirked.
"VICTORIA! CHUCK!"
"Come on Victoria. Let's get out of here before we get into any more trouble," Chuck said as he guided the young girl out of the cabin.
The pair slowly walked the distance to the playground. Chuck didn't try to rush or push things. He knew he wasn't walking his normal pace. But at least I'm walking, he thought. Halfway there, he started to tire. By the time they reached the playground which consisted of some benches, picnic tables, a slide, saddle spinners, swingset and little houses with a bridge, he was definitely tired.
Chuck immediately went to one of the benches and sat while Victoria rushed to the playhouses and bridge structure and rushed back and forth in it. It felt good to sit down but he still felt frustrated. When am I going to feel normal?
It angered him that he felt so weak and tired so easily and didn't seem to improve at all. He had gotten so frustrated that he suggested this morning that Jill take him to the doctor and try to find out more. But Jill was insistent that they not do that. Not necessary, not necessary at all, she maintained. They argued about it for a few minutes but Jill wouldn't budge. No doctors!
"Daddy!"
Victoria's call pulled Chuck out of his thoughts. He looked at his daughter. She sat in a swing which did not move.
"Push me?" she asked.
He stood up and walked over to the swing set. He stood behind her, grasped the cables that held her swing, pulled back and let her go. As she sailed forward, he instructed her on how to keep moving, telling her to swing her legs up and then back. After a few times, she got the hang of it and then didn't need Chuck to push her. Chuck moved away and sat down in the swing next to hers and rested as Victoria swung back and forth.
"Daddy?" she said as she swung by.
"Yes honey."
"Who's Sarah?" she asked.
An image of a woman appeared in his mind. A beautiful blonde with blue eyes. It was that woman that he kept seeing in his thoughts. She still looked familiar but Chuck still couldn't figure out why. He shook his head to clear it.
"I give up Victoria, who's Sarah?"
"Daddy!" she whined.
"What?"
"Who's Sarah?" she insisted.
"I don't know," he said. Then he added, "Why do you ask? Where did you hear that name?"
"From you," she said simply as she continued swinging back and forth.
Chuck was puzzled. When did he say that name? He asked the same question to his daughter.
"When you were sleeping this morning. I heard you say 'Sarah,'" Victoria said.
Sarah? he said silently. And once again, the image of that blue-eyed blonde appeared in his mind. Is that Sarah? he wondered. Do I know her?
"Hello," a voice said from behind them.
"WHOA!" Chuck exclaimed, startled. He nearly jumped out of the swing set but stopped himself. Instead, he turned his head to look behind him.
A tall, tanned brunette, in her late 20s, wearing a park ranger uniform looked at Chuck with an amused expression.
"Sorry, I was walking along the trail there and stopped to say hello," she said.
Chuck shook his head. "No, it's all right. I'm sorry. I was deep in thought and off on another planet when you said hello."
The woman still looked amused as she strolled to the swing set next to Chuck and sat down. She stuck out her hand. "Linda Wiley," she said.
Chuck took the hand and shook it. "Chuck Bartowski." He pointed at Victoria, still swinging back and forth. "And that's my daughter, Vicky -- Victoria."
"Hi Victoria," Linda yelled.
"Hi!"
"How old is she?" Linda asked Chuck.
"Uhh…three, three years old."
"The two of you vacationing in the park?" she asked.
"The three of us actually…my wife Jill, me and Victoria," Chuck explained.
Linda glanced around. "Your wife kick the two of you out of the cabin or something?"
"Yeah, 'or something.' She needed to do some work and needed things to be quiet in the cabin. And Victoria was going stir crazy. So the two of us came here to play."
Linda looked puzzled. "Your wife needed to do some work? People come to this park to get away from work and everything else. What would be so important to work on?" she asked.
Such a question had crossed Chuck's mind. But he didn't have an answer. Jill worked in pharmaceuticals and he had no idea what work was keeping her in the cabin.
Linda noticed Chuck's hesitation and apologized. "I'm just being nosy. Bad habit of mine. Sorry. It's none of my business."
"No, no, no," Chuck replied. "It's not that. It's just that I don't know the answer to your question. She didn't tell me what she was working on." And silently, he wondered why. Suspicions filled his mind. Wait a minute, what am I thinking? This is my wife. It's not like she's an enemy spy or anything like that, Chuck chastised himself.
"Daddy?" Victoria called.
"Yes sweetheart," Chuck answered as Victoria drew him out of his thoughts.
"Can you stop me?"
"Sure." He stood up and then lost his balance. He quickly grabbed one of the chains holding up the swing to stop himself from falling. Linda instantly jumped up and grabbed hold of Chuck to steady him.
"Are you OK?" she asked, her voice filled with concern.
"Yeah," Chuck answered and shook his head in frustration. Once steady, he moved over toward Victoria's swing and slowed her down to a stop. Victoria leaped out of the swing and ran toward the slide. Chuck sat back down on the swing.
Linda stood over him, looking at him. "Are you sure you're OK? You seem kind of weak."
"Well, I'm OK. But I am weak," he responded.
He explained about the car accident he had been in a while ago and how he was still weak from it and still on medication. Linda listened to it all. When Chuck finished, she didn't say anything as she looked him over carefully, as if examining him for something. She also looked suspiciously at him, Chuck noticed.
"Are you sure you shouldn't go see the doctor again? Are you sure things are OK?" she said.
"Uhhhh…well, my wife keeps assuring me that the way I feel is normal and…I guess…well, I guess it's normal."
Linda looked closely at him. "How long has it been since you've seen the doctor? Are you sure this is normal?"
"I saw the doctor—" He hesitated. How long had it been since he saw the doctor? he wondered to himself. He tried to remember. Nothing came up. No date, no day. He couldn't even remember being examined by a doctor. Nor did even the name of the doctor come to mind. He shook his head, perplexed by this. And then he noticed that Linda was staring at him intently. He didn't know what to say to her.
"Sorry that I'm being so nosy. I should just mind my own business," she said.
"No, no…it's OK. I just can't…I can't remember anything. That's…that's so strange." He shook his head again.
"Hey, it's OK. Accidents do all sorts of things," Linda said reassuringly as she touched his shoulder. "Don't let my nosiness upset you."
Chuck was about to reply that he didn't think she was being nosy when off in the distance, he heard his and Victoria's names called. He turned his head toward the cabin and could see Jill waving at them.
"Well, I guess we had better get back to the cabin Vick -- Victoria. Mommy is waving for us to come back," Chuck said.
"Can we come back later daddy?" Victoria asked.
"I don't know…."
"Tomorrow?" the young girl pleaded.
Chuck laughed. "We'll try to come back tomorrow. OK Victoria?"
"Yay!" Victoria cheered.
"Now come on Victoria, we have to get back. Mommy is waiting for us," Chuck said as he stood up from the swingset.
The pair said goodbye to the park ranger and walked back to the cabin. He felt a little better but still couldn't walk at a very fast pace. He still had to take things slowly. Linda watched Chuck the whole way. Something doesn't seem right, she thought.
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Jill stood in front of the cabin by the door waiting for Chuck and Victoria. When the pair got close, Victoria broke into a run and dashed up to Jill who crouched down and hugged the little girl.
"Did you have fun?" Jill asked her. Victoria nodded vigorously. "OK, inside now. You go wash your hands for lunch. I want to talk to daddy."
Victoria ran into the cabin. Chuck saw and heard the whole exchange as he walked up to the cabin. "What's up?" he asked.
Jill stood up and her expression darkened. "Who was that woman?" she asked.
"The woman on the playground with us?"
"Yes, the women you were talking to on the playground."
Chuck shrugged. "Just a park ranger who stopped there to rest."
Jill said nothing. She looked toward the playground, some distance away. She seemed to be studying or assessing something but what exactly, Chuck couldn't determine. After a few moments, she turned back to Chuck and smiled.
"Come on. Lunch is ready. You need to eat and build your strength back up," she said as she looped one arm through his and guided him into the cabin.
END CHAPTER 3