A/N I don't own chuck.

I am finally posting this chapter. It was pretty much done the same time as the last chapter, however season 5 has been messing with my mind. In this story Morgan plays a larger role than in most stories, however watching Morgan as the douchersect has made me like the story quite a bit less. I never realized how hard it is for all you writers to keep your characters in character, as the show is changing the characters and the way we feel about them.

So a reminder, this is pre season 4. Chuck is out of the spy business (officially) and Morgan is his trusty Alfred so to speak. And I will be trying to rework some (but not all) of my future chapters out of Morgan's POV and into someone else's. Read on, MacDuff. (yes I know. thats a misquote of a misquote. I also don't own Billy Shakespeare)

A Dangerous Business

Chapter 3: Keep It Safe

"Why didn't we follow Chuck again?"

The heavier of the two black clad figures huddling by the Morgan door was agitated. It had been well over forty five minutes now since he had introduced any foreign substance into his body and, frankly, his body felt neglected.

"While I agree that Chuck is certainly the more... pleasant individual to stalk, believe me I do, there is something more sinister here that demands our … expertise." Lester, stroking his chin, turned back to look through the window again. "Late night meetings with Big Mike at that creepy new Matel Factory they called a Buy More. Smuggling suspicious packages to his personal residence.

" Morgan, Morgan, what are you up to?"

"And he did hide the albino hedgehog under his bed sheet before turning out the lights."

"I'm pretty sure that didn't happen. He's been in bed long enough to fall asleep, its our civic duty to get in there and figure out what he's hiding."

"And to free any pigmentationally challenged wildlife he might be holding hostage."

Ignoring Jeff should have come natural by now, but Lester still took a moment's pause to consider the accusation before working the Morgan door open and slipping into Chuck and Morgan's apartment. Jeff stared a bit at what appeared to be a scrabble piece on the ground under a bush and followed Lester inside mumbling. "I guess sometimes it really is unavoidable."

Moving with more stealth than one would have thought him capable of, Lester crept into Morgan's room, up to his bed, and began to slip the laptop out from under the pillow that was half covering it.

Morgan's head dropped a bit when gravity and natural law filled the space the laptop had been occupying underneath him, and Lester paused. When Morgan's snoring continued uninterrupted, Lester tiptoed over to the desk and plugged in the laptop, turning it on.

Jeff stumbled into the bedroom as the screen lit up, staggered over to the bed and ripped the sheet from Morgan's bed. "Be free!"

Whipping his head over at the commotion Lester cried out, "Jeff! What are you... AGH my eyes!" and swung his eyes back to the computer screen.

Jeff only nodded approvingly. His voice was bewildered though, as he murmured, "Free indeed. Where do you think it could have hidden?"

A knock at the door killed whatever response Jeff might have been hoping for. Jeff and Lester froze. The knock sounded again, louder this time, and finally managed to pierce Morgan's near comatose state and bring him back to something almost resembling consciousness. Bleary eyed he choked out something that sounded suspiciously like "a minute!" pulled on a pair of pants and made his way past Jeff, out the bedroom, to the front door.

Something was out of place here, Morgan's subconscious tried to to tell him as he started to open the door. Whatever that something was, when Morgan peered his head through the partially opened door, it was instantly filed in the "things that don't matter" bin along with subjects like, "the need to breathe as a means of sustaining life".

"Alex? What are you doing here? Not that I mind! I just.. I mean..What are you doing here?"

"Um. You promised me breakfast before your early shift this morning? You didn't forget again did you, Morgan Grimes?" Even Morgan couldn't miss the danger in that voice.

"Oh! Right! No, of course not. Just a long night and I'm still waking up, and... um... come on in." He slammed the door closed in front of her as his brain finally woke up. He remembered. He remembered he was supposed to meet with Alex for an early breakfast. He remembered he was supposed to be hiding something for Chuck, and worst of all he remembered what was out of place in his room.

He bolted into his room shouting, "Lester!" just in time to see the Canindiewish* nerdherder pressing the mysterious button on the side of the R7. He grabbed the laptop and glanced down in time to see text appear. "Installing Gaming Enhancement Mode".

Lester watched in awe as Morgan's face reflected the five minutes of rapid flashing light and color bursting from the screen, followed by a baffled scrunching of said face, and a graceless collapse onto the floor.

Jeff mumbled an excited "Awesome", and Morgan's phone began to vibrate angrily on the stand as Chuck's face filled the caller ID screen.

A confused Alex poked her head into the chaos with a concerned, "Morgan, what's going on?"

It took him a few seconds to recover. At least he thought it was a few seconds. At least he thought he had recovered. As he got to his feet Morgan couldn't help but think that everything seemed – off?

Alex's head was talking through the open door. "Morgan... what's... going... on?" Why was she talking so slowly. He blinked at her. He turned his head to watch as Lester seemed to creep over to Morgan's phone and pick it up "Hey... Chuck..."

He tuned out Lester. It was hard enough to pay attention to him when he was talking normal. When he was drawing out each world like this it was near impossible. Morgan looked around his room again. Alex was through the door and approaching him with a concerned look on her face. Was something wrong with him, why was she walking so slowly towards him? Jeff didn't seem to have moved but there was nothing odd there. He could stand in one place staring vacantly for almost an entire shift at Buymore, or at least until lunch. Morgan spotted the laptop again, its iconic orb pulsing brightly. That's right, he was trying to keep it safe for Chuck. Chuck! Lester was on the phone with Chuck! He was currently saying something about Bennigan's being open at this hour. Why Chuck would be interested in an open bar this early in the morning escaped him.

He reached over to grab the phone from Lester but he felt like he was dragging his limbs through molasses. Why was he moving so slow? Fortunately, it appeared he wasn't the only one. Lester tried to pull the phone out of his reach but he telegraphed every move. Morgan watched Lester tense, watched his body prepare to turn away but he felt like he had a million years to react. Even with his molasses limbs he easily snatched the phone away and brought it to his ear. "Chuck?"

"Morgan!... Listen... to... me"

Seriously? Chuck too, now? His friend's voice on the phone was perplexing. His tone spoke of urgency, but, like Alex and Lester, he dragged out every syllable, taking forever to get out a sentence.

"Chuck, out with it, man. What's going on?" Weird. Apparently he had developed the same speech impediment.

"Shut down the laptop, Morgan," The panic in Chuck's voice made listening to his slow speech all the more infuriating. " And get out of there right now."

Morgan was confused. Morgan didn't know why his world moved in slow motion. Morgan didn't know why Chuck was panicked. But one thing Morgan did know was that he trusted Chuck. Chuck was panicked and Chuck needed Morgan to act. Morgan acted. He slammed the lid on the laptop closed and his world rushed back to real time. He heard Chuck's voice speed up on the other end of the phone as Morgan tossed the laptop into its case, delighted to see his arms moving at their normal pace.

"Morgan, there are some bad people coming after you for turning on that laptop. You need to get out of Echo Park as fast as you can. Go with Jeff and Lester to Bennie's, and I will meet you there as soon as I can. And no matter what, do NOT turn that laptop back on again, OK? As long as it is off ..." Chuck's voice trailed of unexpectedly When he spoke again Morgan would swear it had raised a half octave. "Um.. Morgan. I've got to go."

Morgan didn't waste anymore time. There would be plenty of time to sort things out at Bennie's. He grabbed the laptop and, looking at Alex apologetically, said "C'mon guys we've got to get to Bennie's."

Jeff grinned at him knowingly as the foursome ran out the door, piled into Lorretta, and fled Echo Park.

"Um Morgan. I've got to go." Chuck tensed as he recognized the cold of gunmetal touch the back of his neck. What did this say about his life, he wondered briefly, that he was familiar enough with that cold, to recognize almost instantly that it was a handgun barrel on skin? And now, he thought, comes the cliché looky what we've got here.

"What have we here?"

Chuck rolled his eyes. Close enough.

"Want to tell me what your doing snooping around a closed facility eavesdropping on private conversations?"

That seemed like a dumb question. Clearly what he was doing was snooping around a closed facility eavesdropping on private conversations, Chuck thought as his eyelids fluttered and images flashed through his mind. Hands raised he slowly turned around and assessed the situation. One goon had slipped through the door from the room Chuck had been spying on and was currently pointing a pistol at Chuck's head.

"Looks like we've got a spy outside our door." The voice holding the gun called back over his shoulder to the room behind him. His eyes flickered briefly in the direction he was calling and Chuck jumped into action. He dropped his hand to the man's gun pushing it out of line with his body while pressing the pin through to release the slide. Naturally it moved only a quarter inch and hung as the gun discharged the first round into the wall to his left.

"Why does that never work in real life?" Chuck briefly thought as he rolled his hand gripping the man's wrist and rotated it palm up. Stepping inside he brought his other hand across striking the elbow and the man dropped the gun in pain. Sweeping his foot behind the man's leg he planted his elbow in the man's sternum. Picking up the fallen gun as the man hit the floor he sprinted down the hallway hearing the door open behind him.

Chuck ducked left into the intersecting hallway as gunshots filled the hall he'd just vacated. Sprinting into the lobby he saw the glass in front of him spiderweb as another shot rung out behind him. He cut left toward the entrance, taking in the cracked window even as he realized there was no way he would get the doors open in time. Suddenly glad that he'd failed to disassemble the gun he pointed it at the glass doors and emptied the clip at a full sprint. Chuck lowered his shoulder and heaved himself at the weakened glass. The glass gave way under his inertia and he rolled into the parking lot with the tinkle of falling glass.

Rolling to his feet he darted passed the few parked cars as he felt a familiar buzz in his pocket. His thumb automatically found the 'accept' icon while his legs strained to make the first corner, at an angle that kept as much of the parked vehicles between himself and his pursuers as possible.

"Morgan now is really not a good time, buddy!"

"Well hello, Chuck. It's great to hear your voice as well."

The voice on the other end sounded more amused than he would have expected Morgan's to be in the current circumstances. It was also decidedly both more feminine and pleasant than Morgan's usually was; and it made his heart race in a way that Morgan's never did.

"Sarah?"

A/N I fulfilled my promises. Chuck fought someone. And Sarah was mentioned. Thank you very much. OK the fight seen was brief, I admit. I originally had him going into the room and fighting everyone but I wrote through the scene several times that way and each time Chuck ended up dead. I couldn't figure out a way to get him through that scenario alive even with the intersect 2.0. The bad guys were just too well spaced apart and armed. So in the end, discrection and valor and all that jazz.

I still don't have a beta. One would be nice. I am about to stumble into unexplored territory for me so it may take me a while to write Charah in a way that makes me happy.

I also would very much appreciate any advice or criticism that can make this story better, more readable, entertaining, etc.

* What do you call a Canadian Indian Hindu Jewish person?