Published 2 Jan 2011
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Here're a few things you should know, in case you forgot.
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 and punched in a code, and thumbed the lock.
-X-
"Chuck, why aren't we engaged?"
-X-
"Chuck, I think something is wrong."
"Huh? What?"
"Chuck, the Intersect computer, its—"
Suddenly the screen wall flashed with a continuous stream of images.
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Chapter 3 – Ellie and Awesome vs. the Intersect
The Burbank Buy More
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Early afternoon.
Ellie marched through the entrance of the Buy More. Ok, "marched" might not be the right term, but no one taking a look at the angry and determined look on her face would ever say she had just waddled in.
A quick glare at the Nerd Herd station showed Chuck was not there. No surprise for her there. Admittedly, he could be in the cage, the break room, Morgan's office, or even the restroom. However, Ellie knew the truth. Chuck was not in the Buy More. A scan of the store did not reveal John Casey either. While he could be sneaky, she didn't expect to see him either. After her reconnaissance of the parking lot, she knew Chuck, John, and Sarah were all nearby. She just didn't expect them in the store.
At present, Ellie was regretting her promise to Devon. She promised to remain just inside the doorway while he parked the car. She supposed that was for the best. She really shouldn't be traipsing around an electronics superstore in her condition. Adjusting the rectangular metal box in her grip, Ellie reflected on how she got here.
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Echo Park
Thirty minutes earlier.
Ellie knew she was supposed to be resting on the couch. But Honey Woodcomb was coming in a few weeks, and there was no way she was finding anything to clean in the kitchen this time.
Glancing through the window, she saw her husband walking through the courtyard. His double shift was finally over. He must be really out of it, going over to their old apartment. Ellie knocked on the window, but Devon didn't hear. Quickly scooting over to the door, she opened it just in time to see Devon stop fumbling with his keys and unlock the door.
"Hey, husband! I hope you remember we live over here now."
Devon visibly jumped and dropped the keys he was holding. "Hi... Ellie… I know. Chuck asked me to pick up something after my shift and take it to the Buy More for him. I should be back and ready to crash in about an hour."
Devon was flustered, so Ellie was suspicious. "What did he forget?"
Before he could stop himself, "His watch."
"Dad's old watch? He never goes anywhere without it. I'm surprised he forgot it."
"Yeah? He really wears it all the time? I hadn't noticed. Maybe Sarah distracted him this morning."
"Ewww and no. She left really early this morning, and Chuck was already gone. Chuck must have left even earlier." Only on maternity leave a week, Ellie really was becoming the complex busy body.
"Maybe he had a lot of work to catch up on."
"Probably, I bet he couldn't find the watch. I'll help look."
"No that's ok. I got it." Devon quickly disappeared inside.
Ellie was barely in the apartment herself when Devon was coming back to the front door.
She blocked his escape. "Stop. What's that?"
"This? This is Chuck's watch case."
"That is not a watch case."
"Sure it is." Devon quickly opened the latch and flipped open the rectangular silver case. "See. Watches."
Something didn't sit right with Ellie. "That is two watches. Why does Chuck need both?"
"I don't know. He just asked me to bring the case." Devon was flustered again.
"There is an empty spot, too."
"Maybe he broke the first one?"
Ellie ignored the obvious cover story. "And since when did Dad give him three watches."
"Uhhh..." Devon. Deer. Headlights.
Ellie clasped Devon on the shoulders. "Spill it. Is Chuck spying again?"
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Burbank Buy More
Early afternoon.
Devon had cracked like a Gallagher watermelon—all over the place. Of course he knew even less this time, so it wasn't that helpful. Chuck had said he was spying again. Her mom's "handler" was really some kind of bad guy. And Devon had handed her Dad's laptop over to Chuck.
Ellie thought she figured out the rest. Casey was working at the Buy More as a cover. With Chuck and Morgan working there, their base of operations must be very nearby. In fact those oddly over-competent workers she saw when she returned the extra baby monitors must somehow be involved. Seeing Sarah's Porsche in the Buy More parking lot confirmed her suspicions. Devon said the old base was under the Orange Orange and Buy More. The new one must be the same.
"Elizabeth. How can we service you this fine day?"
Ellie rolled her eyes and turned to see where Lester and Jeff had slithered over. Lester was fluffing his mop hair while Jeff's was blatantly staring at what Ellie's pregnancy had done to her chest.
"Have either of you seen Chuck?"
"I think he went on an early service call. Didn't he, Jeff?"
Jeff was too busy staring to respond.
"What about Casey?"
"He's probably hitting the good stuff. He'll be gone for hours until we get a call to pick him up at some dumpster."
"Ok." Why Casey would think public indecency and drunkenness was a good cover, Ellie had no idea. "Have you seen Sarah then?"
"Who?"
"Sarah Walker?"
Lester scratched his head. Jeff continued his staring, but was licking his lips now.
"Chuck's girlfriend."
"Oh! You mean Super Hot Blondie. She was around before we opened, but is gone now. Sometimes she hangs out in the home theatre room or the break room. Personally, I think Morgan has been irresponsible in his managerial duties by letting a civilian have free roam–"
Ellie was ready for this useless conversation to be over. "Fine. I assume Morgan is in his office?"
Fortunately, Big Mike walked up. "Shoo, you losers. Shoo. Ellie! May I say you are just positively glowing? There is nothing like a beautiful pregnant woman."
What a crock, Ellie thought. Sometimes, Big Mike could be almost as creepy as Jeff and Lester, but at least he was polite about it and kept his eyes in a respectful place—most of the time.
"Morgan was here catching up this morning, but he asked me to hold down the fort for the next hour or so. Now if you will excuse me, he left a toasty foot of sandwichy goodness in his office for me. I am duty bound to get there before it cools." With that cheery comment, Big Mike pivoted and strolled towards the manager's office, leaving Ellie alone, still waiting for Devon.
Ellie repeated her previous scan of the store and spotted what, or rather who, she was looking for: a woman who looked like she should be holding a suitcase in a Howie Mandel game show. As a small smirk crossed her lips, her husband finally joined her.
"Sorry, babe. I got stuck behind one of those parking lot idiots who blocks everyone while waiting for someone to load, start, and back out there car, even though a half dozen other spots are open. Have you found Chuck, yet?"
"No. Chuck, Casey, Morgan, and Sarah are nowhere to be found. However, I think I found our target." Ellie started off with a determined... waddle. Bypassing an ear-budded Skip at the front of the Nerd Herd desk, she timed her walk perfectly to cut off the other nerd herder crossing on the far side of the desk.
"Excuse me, Ma'am. Can I get someone to help you?"
"Get someone? Not fully qualified for your cover assignment?" Ellie smiled sweetly, "Greta?"
"Greta? I thought Greta was a tall, fresh-smelling, African American gentleman with a winning smile." Devon had not caught up with Ellie's reasoning.
"So this is not the first 'Greta', Devon? Thanks for confirming I picked out the agent." Greta's eyes visibly widened. "Oops. Cover blown by the pregnant lady. Don't worry. I'm here to deliver a package to Chuck. Or what was that name, Devon? I remember. Agent Carmichael."
Greta appeared to have recovered. "I'm sorry. I do not know this Agent Carmichael. Is that a video game character? Although, Chuck Bartowski is the Nerd Herd supervisor. If your package is for him, I will make certain he receives it when he returns from his install."
"You can drop the act, Agent Greta. No one who looks like you would work at Weinerlicious, Orange Orange, or Buy More. The first two never made sense for Agent Walker either, but I try not to judge. I'm Chuck's sister. If you've seen anything from that file I assume you government types have on me, you know I'm not about to be fooled again by anyone who I don't know. For all I know you might be working part time for some rogue branch of the government and would lose the package. If Chuck is not available, you can take me to Colonel Carter or Agent Walker. I assume they are in 'Castle' with Chuck and Morgan."
Greta sighed. "I'm sorry Dr. Bartowski-Woodcomb. I had not been notified that you had been read in on our operation. However, you are not authorized for admittance to Castle."
"I think the fact that Chuck called us and said the delivery of this package was urgent is all of the authorization we need."
Greta fixed her jaw and thought for a second. Ellie could tell her argument was starting to win. "Ok. Give me a minute. I should confirm with Colonel Casey. He's in charge of security–"
"We don't have time for this. Maybe you heard about that whole Ring situation last year… the little coup that was stopped by Agent Carmichael, Agent Walker, and Colonel Casey. Those people were only free to stop the coup because I tracked them and because my husband shot a missile to free them. I think maybe you should let us into Castle now before Chuck wonders where his package is. Maybe you should guide us to the home theatre entrance that Agent Walker uses."
Greta paused, assessing the couple for a few seconds. Even Devon was impressed by his wife's firm stance and strong arming of a CIA agent. Finally, "Ok. However, I cannot take you downstairs myself. I am required to maintain the Buy More perimeter for now."
Greta stalked off in her spike heels to the home theatre room, Ellie and Devon in step behind. Once inside, Greta pulled out her iPhone and punched a code closing the curtain. Sliding a wall panel she opened the elevator door. Devon looked surprised by all of this, but Ellie was unfazed. She thought Greta mumbled something about tight-knit team and not being in the loop.
After a few more presses on the wall panel, Greta turned with a pleasant, but obviously fake, smile. "I've programmed the elevator to let you off at the bottom. I've disabled the hand-print security for the next five minutes, so you can get up and out if you go into premature labor. Please don't. My last experience with a delivery was in an insurgent camp in Nicaragua, and I don't need to relive the experience. When you get to the lower level, the wall panels will light up and guide you to the room in which Agent Carmichael has been working on his latest project. Don't ask. I don't have clearance to know. Just knock on the door for room 42, when you get there. Have one of the agents escort you out. Colonel Casey and Agent Grimes are supposed to be duty on the floor most of the afternoon, so one of them should be able to return with you soon. I'll keep this room secure until you return. Please don't take too long as I don't want the customers to get suspicious."
"Uh, thank you, Agent Greta. Your cover may need some work, but you are definitely… thorough. Come on, dear. We have a package to deliver." Even Ellie couldn't believe she pulled off breaking into a CIA base.
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Lester and Jeff peaked up from behind MP3 accessories aisle to see the newest Greta leave the home theatre room alone.
"Lester, it looks like the doctors are getting a little freaky, pregnancy style."
"What does that even mean?"
"I think it means we need to check the security feed for the home theatre room."
"Good call. Follow me."
Fortunately, the ever-efficient Greta had disabled the security feed.
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Castle Conference Room
Chuck and Sarah sat at the middle of the conference table, her left hand in his right. Morgan nervously tapped away on the table from his spot on the far right.
Chuck gave Sarah a squeeze. "Sarah, I just wanted you to know... even though you've downloaded an Intersect, I still want to marry you."
"That's sweet to say, Chuck. You want to know how you can prove it?" Sarah deadpanned. "Go ahead and propose to me already!"
Morgan abruptly stopped. After a couple seconds, Sarah grinned.
"I'm going to. However, it's going to be even harder to surprise you, now that you are a superspy and have an Intersect."
"Nice try. It's not like the Intersect has your latest proposal plan, super hearing, or even super ring finding skills."
"I don't know. It is the Ring's Intersect," Chuck quipped.
Sarah turned to Morgan, "Where's the ring?"
"Sorry, Sarah. As scared of you as I always am when you want me to be, Chuck won't trust me with that one. Something about being on my sixth strike."
"You've actually betrayed Chuck five times? You're going to be easier to crack than I thought."
"Seriously, I know nothing."
"That's right, Sarah. He knows nothing, except to recite his various acts of betrayal on command. Right, Morgan? Like now, Morgan."
"Fine. First time was because of the shock of finding out about Jill. I let Emmett hear me."
"Chuck, was that during the mission or after?"
"During."
"Ok, that was a security problem. However, I would have totally backed you, Morgan, if it had been after. Let me guess, two of them are the proposal plan and the Intersect dreams. Chuck, you have to forgive him for those. Morgan was telling me. He didn't have a chance."
"It's not the individual times; it's the aggregate of all of them. Morgan, continue."
"Chuck! Not the other two."
"She knows about one of them already."
"Right. Your European vacation. Although in my defense, you should have updated your Facebook status so I would have known not to help Casey."
"Facebook updates are unsecured and can be traced."
"They already knew you were in Paris. You could have updated from the hotel. Which reminds me… we need some sort of secret twin code so we can pass private messages through Facebook."
"You're stalling, Morgan."
"Please, Chuck. Don't make me do it. She's scary enough after Thailand. Now she's all Intersected, and I'm certain her Intersect is bigger than mine. And you even gave her your watch."
Sarah was amused at the byplay. "Come on Morgan, it can't be that bad."
"I am not telling."
"Fine, I'll tell Sarah. It has to do with our first trip to Barstow–"
"Really? That was so long ago, it's no big deal. Did Morgan accidently send Fulcrum or Casey after us?"
"Neither. Do you remember our other problem?"
"What? Running out of bullets in my standoff with Casey?"
"No, before that."
"Huh? OH!"
"Morgan left an IOU in my wallet."
"THAT WAS YOU!"
Morgan dove under the table. "Chuck, please help me!"
Chuck and Sarah were both in laughing hysterics. Sarah managed to control herself first. "Get up, Morgan. You're safe. Chuck told me on the train in Europe–before you found us and reported us to Casey."
"He really is a cock blocker sometimes." Chuck looked under the table. "Get up, buddy. You're forgiven for all of them. Hopefully you've learned your lesson and don't need dry pants. Next time, think before revealing my new proposal plans." Chuck pulled out and turned to Sarah. "Sarah, he really doesn't know where the ring is. Also, he's only serving as a sounding board for the new plans, but he doesn't know which parts I'm using and which parts I'm throwing out." Chuck lightly kissed the ring finger on Sarah's left hand when he was interrupted.
"Eh hem!"
All three of them frozen and slowing turned to the central monitor.
Sarah spoke first. "General! Uh, how long have you been–"
"Long enough to see one of my new Intersects diving for cover." At least she didn't comment about the proposal plan or the IOU.
"Sorry, General, Ma'am." Morgan was relieved his beard would cover most of the blush.
"That was understandable, Grimes. I've read several of foreign reports from allies about the new rouge militant threat in the jungles of Thailand. I strongly recommend you find other procurement avenues in the future." And there was the IOU comment.
"Yes, Ma'am."
Sarah and Chuck looked at each other, with a mix of strong embarrassment and shock in hearing an actual joke from the General. At least it could have been a joke.
"Where is Colonel Casey?" The General was back to business.
Sarah replied, "He is securing the Intersect room. He should've been here by now."
"Fine. You can brief him later as this is basically a status report for me. What is the project status, Agent Bartowski?"
Chuck cleared his throat. "We originally thought Morgan had activated a download, and through a tranq mishap, kept him sedated overnight. It turns out the download was by accident. I have determined that the Ring's Intersect has gone into a feedback loop, periodically dumping its database on the screens at random intervals."
"I assume this is how Agent Walker downloaded as well."
"Yes, General. I was in the room during her download, but was wearing protective glasses at the time. We had no idea what was coming until it was too late."
"Is there any way to shut it down?"
"Sure, I could simply cut power to the room and force a reboot. However, I would like to run a diagnostic while the computer is in this state before I reboot. Then I can compare with a post-restart diagnostic. I was planning on running the diagnostics after this meeting."
"I see. So how are the new Intersects functioning? Have you begun any tests?"
"Morgan was able to elude Casey and escape a holding cell." Beckman was impressed and smiled slightly. "Albeit, that test was not scientific as Casey was releasing Morgan anyway."
Morgan cut in, "Yeah, but he wasn't planning on getting trapped in the cell himself. I totally kicked his–"
"The point is all we have confirmed is that Morgan has flashed once on Intersect 2.0-type skills," Chuck stated.
"When do you plan on running further tests?" Beckman asked.
"Casey will be overseeing tests with Morgan and Sarah that I have provided, while I work on the computer. First, we are waiting for my back-up governors to arrive. I'm concerned that the Ring Intersect's high image download speed might increase the rate of brain deterioration. It would explain why the Ring was so desperate to get my dad's governor."
"That would be interesting information to learn."
"While that might be, General, I'm not running brain heat tests on my best friend, my girlfriend–"
Sarah quietly mumbled under her breath, "almost fiancée."
"–or anyone else. Besides, I also have a theory that my sister's work with my dad's laptop may have solved the brain/heat problem. I plan on running those tests myself at a later date. If my theory holds and if I can get the Ring's computer working properly, I may be able to incorporate the necessary adjustments into their design. Please keep in mind, there are many conditionals in that plan, and many other things I need to figure out before we get there, such as fixing this endless loop bug."
"I understand. I was impressed with your original written plan and look forward your updates based on these recent developments. They seem more thought out that what some of our other Intersect scientists have proposed. Let me say, Agent Bartowski, you are proving to be a valuable agency scientist as well as an agent. Fortunately, we may soon have two more Intersects we can deploy to lighten your load some."
Sarah beamed with pride for her boyfriend, almost fiancé. Meanwhile, Chuck frowned. It seemed like the last few months had been filled with too many, albeit legitimate, excuses that resulted in Sarah and he going on different missions, half way around the world from each other. First, there was still another issue. "General, I was wondering if you reviewed my request to give my sister clearance about the Intersect. It would help to know exactly what she did on my dad's laptop. Of course this would be after the baby is born."
"That's no longer an issue." Everyone at the table turned to see Casey pushing a wheelchair containing a dazed Ellie, with a groggy Captain Awesome stumbling behind. "The informing is not an issue I mean. The baby is still in the oven."
Chuck jumped to his feet. "Oh my God! Ellie, Sis, what are you doing here? What happened? Are you ok?"
Casey ignored the questions and addressed the General. "Ma'am, I believe this was a status meeting, and the status has obviously changed. While the situation is dynamic, it is not an emergency. I recommend you give us an hour to build a comprehensive understanding and to sort out the lady feelings here. We can give you a sit rep later this afternoon, at your convenience."
"I see that, Colonel. Fine. We'll reconvene at 1500." The screen went blank.
Casey pushed the wheelchair up to the conference table, while Awesome collapsed in Chuck's seat, not looking very awesome.
"Casey, what the hell is going on?"
Casey grunted. "Don't get your panties in a bunch. Here's what I know. Your sister caught frat boy getting the backup governors, and he spilled the beans. Somehow, she talked her way past the new Greta and managed to get to the Intersect room. The two of them looked through the window right as another Intersect image cycle started. I walked up just in time to catch Ellie at the end of the download. They can fill you in on the rest. Now if you excuse me, I have a couple people to chew out, including Greta and the acquisitions officer in charge of that windowless door we ordered. Also, I still have to lock down that damn room. Oh yeah, here's your watch case." Casey tossed the case on the table, turned and left.
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A/N: Coming next… Chapter 4 – Casey vs. the Intersect
(Team Chuck's fat kid gets a chance and the Ellie fallout)
