I love you guys and your reviews! Thanks so much, please keep them coming! This should be the last filler chapter before we get into the main body of the story.
Chuck stumbled back into his room, his muscles screaming out in pure agony from the day's activities. The past six weeks of spy training had involved a level of physical exertion he'd never put in, and his body, while improving, had not yet managed to adjust completely. He'd thought he might start feeling better after he'd finally managed to return all of the equipment he had 'borrowed' to get Rommie out of his head, thus allowing him to cut down on the tense need to keep his guard up at all times, but it had been four days since he'd put the last device back and his tension was, if anything, increasing. Although he couldn't say he didn't know why, he reflected ruefully as he stumbled into the bathroom.
As soon as the door was shut an unusually modulated but still clearly mechanical voice broke out from the cabinet under the sink where he had hidden the wrist device in a toiletry bag.
"So, still no luck, huh?"
Chuck gave a deep sigh as he sat his aching body down on the closed lid of the toilet and put his head in his hand. He almost regretted not taking Rommie up on his offer to loop the cameras in the bedroom rather than the bathroom so he could lay down while they talked, but his rational side knew it was a lot easier to notice that kind of thing on visual than on a monitor which only had audio, and while he didn't doubt Rommie's ability to pull it off, it simply wasn't worth the risk.
"Nope. Still can't flash. I don't understand what's wrong with me. You told me the problems I was having were because your presence was interfering with the 2.0, but it's been a week since we got you out and I still can't flash!"
"Yeah, I know. I looked in on your training session today."
Chuck sat up in surprise. "I thought you were still circulating through cyberspace to spread your raw data out and keep from overloading the wrist device."
"I am, but I used the facility's data network instead of the wrist device's functions to get into the security cameras."
"Are you out of your mind!? They could see you!"
"Chuck, you know very well that even if they had the skills to spot a living computer program that doesn't want to be found, there's no outgoing data for them to notice. I'm not transmitting anything, just absorbing it for myself."
Chuck slumped back rubbing his eyes, argued into submission. "Right. Sorry. I'm a little out of it."
"I'm sure. Adams was pretty brutal on you today." Agent Adams (Chuck's impression of the man left him unable to be surprised if his first name actually was agent) was Chuck's physical trainer. Basically his job was to beat the heck out of Chuck on a daily basis. At least that's how it appeared. Chuck had more than once wondered idly how jealous Casey would be of the man if he knew of him.
"Yeah, he seems to be getting fed up with me. I don't think I'm going to last not flashing much longer before they decide to pull the plug on the training."
"Well, I may have some good news on that. I may have an idea why you're not flashing."
Chuck sat up straight and winced at the pain the movement shot through his body, but the hope coursing through his veins at the pronouncement was too strong to care just then.
"Are you waiting for an engraved invitation?"
"Alright alright, calm down. Adams has been taking you through meditation exercises to try and get you to flash, right?"
"Yeah, it's all about helping me force down my emotions to keep them from interfering with the Intersect. You think the meditation isn't enough?"
"No, I think the man is a spy who is used to thinking the way spies are taught to and isn't aware of the fact that the way spies are taught is moronic."
Chuck snorted at the comment before clearing his throat and replying. "Care to explain that one?"
"Spies are taught to think of emotions as weakness. They're trained to put them aside, to basically work around their presence entirely. This is an "ok" method for using the new Intersect, but it's not the best, and it's ten times worse for you."
"Why?"
"All of the other new Intersects had the spy training on restraining their emotions already. They can use it to access their Intersects. But quite frankly they're lucky this works consistently; well, luck plus years of training. Trying to train you for that from scratch now is a colossal waste of time, and unlikely to be effective anyway. You're not the kind of person to function on a lack of emotion. In fact, just the opposite. You rely on your emotions as part of your thought-process. And this, I think is the crux of the problem."
"I don't follow."
"The original Intersect based its activation on visual and auditory cues. You'd see or hear something and that would cause you to flash. This new one is far more reliant on your intentions. But you determine much of your intentions based on your emotions, and the Intersect is still a computer, used to instructions with a binary choice, do this or don't do it. By attempting to block out your emotions, you are creating a paradox the Intersect can't deal with. It is, for want of a better term, getting dizzy because it can't determine if you want it to obey what you're feeling or not."
Chuck sat in contemplative silence for several moments before speaking again.
"So what do I do about it?"
"When he tells you to push down your emotions, just nod your head like a good little doggie while you completely ignore him. Use your emotions the way you normally do to help you determine what you want to happen and the Intersect will simply determine if it needs to kick in to help or not."
"And then I'll be able to flash?"
"Well, you're still going to need some practice to get used to the new flashing, but from what I saw of the new 2.0 whilst I shared your mind with it, I strongly suspect it will make all the difference."
Chuck sat thinking over what he had been told for a moment longer before smiling warmly.
"Thank you, Rommie. I don't know what I would've done if you weren't here."
"Probably learn a little of the control they're trying to teach you and then go walking around with an Intersect that was stuttering while you tried desperately to control your emotions. Until at some point something would happen to get you so emotional that the Intersect would essentially conk out until you started opening yourself up to them again."
"Delightful thought. Well, I better get some sleep if I want to have any chance of getting up for my morning run."
"Shower first. It'll help your muscles."
"Yes, Mom."
"I really need to find a virtual tongue to stick out at you or recruit someone to slap you upside the head when you make comments like that."
Chuck huffed in amusement as he stood up and began to get ready for the shower.
Sarah paced her room like a caged tiger (albeit a caged tiger wearing pajamas), occasionally shooting glares at her phone in accusation for its lack of a new message. The blond agent knew she ought to get some sleep for the mission tomorrow, but it was afternoon in Burbank and Chuck would be getting home today. She knew there was no way she'd be able to close her eyes until she got the message she was waiting for about how he was doing.
G-D, how she missed him. Her heart ached at his absence. All of the tiny things each day that would have been different with his presence pierced her like one of her blades. Last night while she and Bryce had been staking out their target he'd ordered them a vegetarian pizza. The olives on top had almost had her crying. During Beckman's mission briefing she had counted half a dozen times where she could almost hear Chuck's voice piping in with some adorably nerdy comment that would've had the general glaring at him. She wanted so badly to see him. So very badly.
Her pacing ruminations were interrupted at long last by the chime of her phone. She sprang for the nightstand and had the message open in half a second.
'He's back. He's not dead.'
Sarah snorted as she read the message. From anyone else this would've had her howling in frustration, given the lack of information. But in this case, there was enough contained in that message to assuage her fear a little. She quickly wrote a short return message as she got into bed, even though she wondered idly (maybe even a little hopefully) how the recipient would react to her phraseology.
'Thanks for the heads up, partner.'
Her mind a bit more at ease given the expert evaluation of his condition, Sarah fell into a better sleep than she'd gotten in the last three months. Despite the intended recipient receiving and seeing the message almost immediately, it was several minutes later after she'd already drifted off that her phone chimed with the message that would put a smile on her face the next morning.
'Anytime.'
For the first time in three months, Chuck walked into Castle. He'd stopped off briefly at Ellie's to drop off his luggage, but as neither she nor Awesome had been home there had been no reason to linger, so he'd decided to come straight here.
The last five weeks of his training had passed in stark contrast to the seven beforehand. With Rommie's advice on the way to handle the new Intersect, Chuck had come to training the next day and flash-beaten Agent Adams into the mat. It had been a little dicey from time to time over the first week as he learned to regulate the Intersect properly, but as time went on and he'd been able to practice he'd gotten more and more in tune with the 2.0. At this point he could basically call on the programmable skills on command, something General Beckman had been quite pleased with. Well; she had looked at him and hadn't been glaring, so he assumed she was quite pleased.
As he walked in he spotted a familiar burly figure rising out of his seat at the main table, and he couldn't help the grin that split his face.
"Casey!" He shouted happily.
"Moron." Casey returned with a nod.
"Did you miss me?"
"Like a bullet in the gut."
"Knowing you I gotta ask, is that a good thing or not?"
Chuck swore he saw the smallest smirk appear on Casey's face, but it was gone before he could really be sure. The big man turned back to the paperwork on the table, but didn't sit down, giving the impression that he was finishing up, leaving Chuck to bring up a far less pleasant topic.
"So… the team?"
Casey turned his head back toward Chuck slightly, letting Chuck get a glimpse of an eyebrow raised as if to say, 'yes….?' But he never actually took his eyes off his paperwork.
Chuck huffed and then sighed. "Alright, Casey you're going to make me ask, I'll ask. What's happening with the team?"
Casey put his pen down after a final flourish and turned back to the still-speaking Chuck, folding his arms over his chest.
"I mean, you're still here, Castle is obviously still up and running. The CIA and NSA are being restructured to bring in agents vetted by the Intersect to form teams around the dozen or so new Intersects. Well, I'm one of them. What's going on? Who's the team?"
"Well, the higher ups decided to keep it small until they've decided if your screw-ups are going to be minimal enough to warrant keeping this team around. As of now, it's just you, me and a CIA skirt."
"C-CIA s-skirt?" Chuck stuttered out, his heart suddenly in his throat as he took in Casey's words. Yet again Chuck was sure for the barest moment that he saw a visible reaction from Casey, this time a wince, before he responded, but there was just no way to tell for certain."
"No, a different skirt."
Chuck's heart plummeted back through his chest and kept on going down to his feet.
"Gotta tell you though," Casey went on, picking up a file from the table and handing it off to Chuck, "looking at her and Walker you wonder how bad guys don't just spot these CIA anytime they so much as catch a glimpse from behind."
Chuck opened the file and took a look. His eyes rolled up into his head as a flash overtook him. Once he came out of it he exclaimed out the first thing that had struck him from the data he'd seen.
"She worked with Sarah!"
"Yeah, and that's the only reason I haven't shot the little yapper yet, she's almost as annoying as you."
Chuck covered up the pain in his heart at the multiple reminders of the love of his life with a snicker and quick retort.
"Well then, at least the two of us will have something to bond over; maybe even practice together."
Casey's answering growl was interrupted by a voice cutting in from behind him.
"I'm hoping that's not the only thing you and I have to bond over Agent Carmichael."
Chuck turned to see a woman emerging from the door leading deeper into Castle. It was simple at first glance to see what Casey had meant with his earlier comment. The similarities to Sarah were striking. Blond hair, almost as tall, built to appeal to the average man (although Chuck had to admit, the appeal to him was… muted at best). Chuck gave his trademark grin and reached out to meet her outstretched hand.
"Likewise, Agent Cowell."
"So I hear you worked with Sarah too?"
Hearing her name left another dizzying degree of emotions flooding Chuck's being, so he did his best to change the subject without being obvious about it.
"Yeah, just like you. And who came up with a name like the CAT squad anyway? Oh! I'm sorry, where are my manners. Please, call me Chuck."
"Yeah we talked about hunting that guy down but we never got around to it. And you can call me Amy."
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