A/N : ** hide from angry readers behind frying pans ** Hum.. sorry ? I know I was suppose to update this story on Sunday but.. a lot of things can happen in a week. So I guess my excuse is that school's almost out therefore, I've got a lot of exams and homeworks.. So, yeah! But anyway I'm back with an all-new chapter and a lot of people to thank :
Thanks to Em Phantom, Spirock, fireflower297, Amitris,Fanofallthingsdarkandmagical, Ayumu Narumi, ismo23, wolfeschatten, kendog52361, rarasisboomba and shinigami02master for following/favouriting (is that even a real word? Whatever :P) this story :D
Thanks to crazy diva, Lilly, Kaya, 21JumpStreetMcQuaids, wolfeschatten, AlexisFlare and Kejae for the marvelous reviews, which I took time to reply to:
crazy diva : thank you so much (again, grinning like a crazy woman. My mother just compared me to Alice in Wonderland's Cheschire Cat ! XD Anyway, thank you, thank you, thank you !)
Kaya : Thanks ! Hope that you'll like this chapter !
Lilly : Thanks and I think that anyone in Chuck or Sarah or even Casey's situation would have been furious ! This story is taking place in a White Collar/Chuck canon verse, let's just say that I changed some details : I think you'll understand in this chapter why Bryce didn't know anything about Neal Caffrey or Peter Burke before taking Neal Caffrey's identity. About Chuck and Bryce's firts encounter, I wanted to make them have some things in common before even becoming friends, even though they seemed very differents. I HAD COMPLETELY FORGOT PETER'S SUPERIOR NAME ! Thanks for correcting this huge mistake. Oh god, when I wrote it, I passed hours and hours trying to remember his freaking name. Since I didn't, I made one up. Also , I know that Neal has a 2 mile radius : sorry for the typo ^^"
Anyway (wow, long reply!XD), I hope this answered to your questions and interrogations.
21JumpStreetMcQuaids : Thanks and I hope that you'll like this chapter :)
KeJae : Sorry but it would be too simple if there weren't a few cliffhangers ^^" ! Anyway, thanks for the review and I'm glad you liked it ! Enjoy your reading :)
Guest : thank you so much ! You don't how much your review means to me ! :)
AlexisFlare : Please don't, here's a new chapter! :) Thx for the review!
wolfeschatten : Here you go :D !
Back to the story, now!
DISCLAIMER : I don't own the TV show 'Chuck' nor its characters. If I did, it would had never ended. It belongs to NBC and to the duet Fedak/Schwartz. I don't own the TV show 'White Collar' nor its characters. It belongs to Jeff Eastin and tot USA NETWORKS.
NEW YORK DOWNTOWN HOSPITAL, NEW YORK.
6:30 PM.
Chuck's eyes opened as the young man woke up, breathing heavily. He abruptly sat - thing he immediatly regretted - then lay back, closing his eyes to fight the headache. He could feel a small pain in his right arm. He turned to see a needle stuck in his arm, an IV next to him. He sighed and straightened slowly in his bed.
A small snore attracted his attention to the left side of the bed. Chuck turned his head and could help but smile when he saw Ellie asleep, her mouth slighty opened. He cracked his neck and raised from the bed before kneeling in front of his sister's chair. He softly pushed some brown locks falling on her forehead and tucked them behind her ear, sighing : same old Ellie, always worrying. Always taking care of others. And he wouldn't change her for anything, but he just wished she would stop worrying for everything.
He watched her sleep during a few more minutes, asking himself if he should wake her up or not, doing a pro and con list in his head. Pro : she looked so peaceful like this, so innocent, so oblivious to the outside world. Con : her all body will be sore when she'll wake up if she stay in that position. He pursed his lips, thinking and finally made a choice. He carefully wrapped her arms around his neck and put an arm around her waist and the other under her knees before carrying her to his bed. He slowly put her head in the pillow and removed her arms from his neck and covered her with the blankets.
Suddenly, he heard a small knock at the door. Chuck turned away from his sister and went to open the door to find Sarah, Casey and Neal/Bryce behind it. Seeing her fiancée up, Sarah immediatly rushed to him, wrapping her arms around him. A little surprised, the nerd still hugged her back, kissing the top of her hand. When he let go of her, Casey awkwardly patted the tall brunette's shoulder, saying:
"Well, that was one hell of first day in New York, wasn't it?"
Chuck nodded, amused by Casey'discomfort. Sarah crossed her arms and said, frowning her eyebrows:
"Shouldn't you be in a bed, right now?"
"I'm fine" he replied, rubbing his eyes "'Just a little tired and dizzy."
"That's why you should be in a bed!" his fiancé retorted a little too loud, causing Chuck to put his hand on her mouth. She cocked an eyebrow at him, and he pointed to Ellie who was breathing quietly in her sleep. Chuck slowly took his hand off of the blonde's mouth, afraid of her reaction. She gave him a dark glare before leaving the room, followed by Casey and Chuck, who quietly closed the door behind him.
Once Chuck was out, Morgan, Alex and Neal rushed to him. The ex-CIA agent had his arm in a sling and his bloody and broken nose had been bandaged. Chuck snorted at the sight and spat:
"You look terrible."
Neal rolled his eyes and retorted in a sarcastic tone:
"Geez, thanks, Chuck! Always a delight to hear you compliment me"
Chuck shook his hand and crossed his arm. Morgan walked to him and asked:
"You sure you okay, buddy? You shouldn't be up."
"Yes, I am; don't worry. And even if I wanted to, my bed is already occupied by Ellie." he replied, getting a few confused looks. He sighed, rubbed his forehead and explained "She fell asleep on the chair next to me but she didn't look comfortable, so I put her in my bed."
"I don't think you're allowed to that" Neal said, frowing his eyebrows.
"I don't think I was talking to you, Neal." Chuck retorted in a harsh tone.
Although Chuck covered Neal's back earlier and obeyed the General's orders by lying, he was still mad at the ex-CIA agent. Okay, that's an understatement : he was furious. I mean, anyone would be in that much rage if your supposed dead best friend was in fact alive and living the life of someone else. As the silence became longer and increasingly uncomfortable, Peter, Diana and Jones walked toward the small group, followed by Beckman and Devon. The tall blonde man cocked an eyebrow and asked, crossing his arms:
"What the hell are you doing up?"
"Awesome, I'm fine, do-" Chuck started to reply, slighlty annoyed by everyone's anxiety.
"You've got a concussion, you shouldn't be wandering those hospitals halls but lying in your bed" Devon cut him, annoyed by his attitude "If your sister finds out that I let you get out of bed, and may God helps me if that ever happens, she'll kill me. You do realize you make me look like a amateur here?"
"Relax, Captain: Ellie'll find out only if either of us tell- Wait, you're my doctor?"
"Yep."
"How?"
"I have relations." Devon answered, shrugging his shoulders.
"Awesome!" he chuckled, raising one of his hands
"Right?" Devon said, smiling and hive-fiving Chuck, ignoring the others persons. Casey cleared his throat, having both of Chuck and Devon to look at him. The colonel cocked an eyebrow at them and asked:
"So, doc' : what caused Bartowski to faint earlier?"
"Oh, right!" he said as he had just remember why they were all here. He took the medical file tucked under his armpit, opened it and explained without looking up:
"Apparently, your brain received an excess of informations in a small amount of time, which caused the fainting and a massive headache that's going to follow you for several days."
"Great." The brunette muttered under his breath.
"We did multiples tests to see if there were any others things we should be worried about but we found none."
"Great" he repeated, more joyful "That means I'm fine and I can get out of here."
"I thought we were bro's, Chuck."
"We are and-"
"So, if we are, why did I do to you that deserve death?"
Chuck sighed and closed his eyes. Devon frowned his eyebrows, looked around him and wondered:
"Where's Ellie, by the way?"
"Sleeping in my bed." Chuck answered, rubbing his forehead.
Devon rolled his eyes and said before entering the room:
"Forget what I said about her killing me : when she'll wake up, she'll want your blood."
Chuck opened his eyes and saw Peter and Neal walking toward him. Peter cleared his throat before saying:
"Mr Woodcomb, you-"
"Ever heard of Theodore Roark?" He interrupted.
All heads abruptly turned to him. Peter frowned his eyebrows and asked:
"Pardon me?"
"Theodore Roark, also known as Ted Roark, some crazy billionaire who was the CEO of Roarks Instruments and who worked in collaboration with Stephen Bartowski, supposed dead until now. He was noticed by the authorities when several burglaries and robberies occured in New York. He stole over a million dollar of painting and other artistic things, I really don't understand that part since well, he's a billionaire, why is he stealing stupid art objects? Whatever. He started forgering. Federal agents have been at his trail for a year now and didn't catch me or even locate him one time" Chuck stopped talking when he remembered to breath, then continued "So, ever heard of him?"
Chuck stuffed his hands in his pockets and watched, slighly amused, the confused and amazed faces of the White Collar team. Neal broke the silence by asking, suspicious:
"How do you know that?"
"Classified." Chuck answered in a cold tone, smirking.
"Agent" Jones started, taking a few steps toward the young brunette "If you know anything about this Theodore Roark, you must tell us."
"Why would he do that?" Casey retorted, crossing his arms.
"This is our investigation" Diana replied "We've been tracking for a year, it's one of our most important cases! We owe us to-"
"Woah, woah, woah, I'm going to stop you right there." he interrupted, taking a few steps toward the FBI agent "I don't owe you, anything, hell, I don't even know you! Plus, we" he said, gesturing between Casey and he, then between he and Sarah "aren't that fond of working with suits."
Casey snorted as Chuck faked a smile at Diana, who shot him a death glare before turning to her boss. Peter turned to the General who hadn't move from her position, her arms crossed and her eyes on her team. She let her arms fall to the side and said:
"Agent Burke, I'd like to have a talk with both of our teams, if you don't mind."
"Of course, General." He nodded before turning to Diana, Jones and Caffrey.
"Actually, General" Neal intervened as they all started to walk away "I'd like to talk to Agent Bartowski for a few minutes."
"Sure."
He nodded as a 'thanks' and as the others started walking opposite way, Chuck turned to Neal, crossed his arms on his chest and said, cocking an eyebrow:
"Aren't we suppose to be strangers?"
"How did you really all of this stuff about Roark, earlier?" Neal asked, ignoring his question.
"Told you : it's classified" Chuck retorted.
"You had a flash." He affirmed, still ignoring the other man.
"Pardon me?"
"You flashed on something, otherwise you wouldn't know that Roark was alive."
"Didn't need to flash to know that you weren't dead" he muttered.
"Ha!"
"What?"
"You did flash! How could you flashed on something if the last Intersect was destroyed?"
Chuck didn't reply, still looking at the man in front of him. Neal's eyes widened in realization. He shouted, pointing to the nerd:
"YOU FUCKING DOWNLOADED IT!"
"No need to shout."
" 'No need to shout?!' You're not even denying it!"
"Why would I?" Chuck retorted in a complete neutral tone.
"For Godness' sake, CHUCK!" He calmed himself down a bit and slowly put a hand on Chuck's shoulder, afraid he would shake it off. Surprinsgly, he didn't "There's a reason you wanted this" he pointed to his ex-best friend's head "out of your brain. There's a- no, there are so many reasons why I should have destroyed it. It killed people, it nearly killed you : are you stupid or just insane?!"
"Why are you insulting me?"
"I fucking die because of this fucking INTERSECRET!" he shouted, still ignoring Chuck.
The nerd looked at Neal, dumbfounded. He shot him a cold glare, walked closer to Neal and spat:
"Well, apparently, you didn't."
Without waiting for an answer, Chuck turned around and walked away, leaving the young man alone.
**FLASH-BACK**
NEW YORK, 2009.
"Who is Neal Caffrey?" Bryce asked, confused.
"Neal George Benett, more commonly known under the name of Neal Caffrey, He is the son of James Benett, a dirty cop. He's also an art thief, conman and a world class forger. He was arrested around 2006, convicted of Bond forgery by federal agent Peter Burke. He was sentenced to a four year prison pain, only to escape four month before his liberation, to go and find his girlfriend."
"O..kay, still don't see why any of this have something to do with me." Bryce interrupted, causing the older woman to glare at him. He raised his hands in defense and allowed her to continue her tirade. Beckamn sighed then continued:
"His escape occured three months ago, and he caught our attention a month ago."
"Why?"
"He get killed by Vincent Adler, a famous CEO conned by Nicholas Halden, one of Caffrey many aliases. Caffrey was helped by two other thieves and conmen, Mozzie and Alexandra Hunter."
"What does a CEO have to do with CIA?"
"He worked in collaboration with Theodore Roark and we suspected him to be one of Fulcrum's founder"
At those words, Bryce's face paled : nothing good could come out of this. He gulped, hoping that the General wasn't noticing his discomfort- who was he kidding? Of course, she noticed his discomfort! He put the file on the table and stuffed his hand in his pockets before asking:
"What do you want me to do?"
"I want you to impersonate Neal Caffrey."
"How am I suppose to impersonate him? People know he died, nobody would buy it."
"Mr Adler is a bussinessman : he wouldn't want everybody to know that he killed a man, he's not that stupid. Even he doesn't know for sure if he's dead. Plus, you have an asset"
"Which is?"
Without answering, the small redhead walked toward the table, took the file in her hands and took a photo out of it, before handing it to Bryce. The spy cocked an eyebrow, cleared his throat and hesistantly took the picture. The second he looked at it, he couldn't take his eyes off of it : it was like looking in a mirror.
Noticing his change of attitude, Beckman slightly smirked and answered:
"You're his perfect replica."
**BACK TO THE PRESENT DAY**
RIVERSIDE DRIVE, MANHATTAN, NEW YORK.
8.45 PM.
Bryce was standing in front of a mirror, completing his reflection 'You're his perfect replica' Those few words hadn't meant much to him at the time, but now that he was thinking about it, it was true. Neal Benett and him were like twin brothers, they were one and the same.
The ex-spy, sighed, shook his head, his eyes closed. He reopened his eyes, checking his injuries. He did look horrible. He grimaced at the sight, before running his fingers through his hair. He hesistanly brought a hand to his nose and winced at the sudden pain when he touched the pansement. He looked at his arm and carefully took it off of the sling, letting a small moan of pain escape his lips. He threw the sling on the floor and brought his harmed arm close to his chest before undoing his tie with his good hand, muttering to himself:
"Way to go, Caffrey."
He threw the tie on the couch and began undoing the button of his shirt. He let out a loud swear when he took the shirt over his head, brushing his shoulder. He let out a small sigh of relief to the fact that he had the idea to wear a jersey under his shirt. He slowly took off his pants before putting on the sweatpant who was waiting for him on his bed, beside his hoodie. He put one arm in a sleeve and put the other through the picked up sling. He sighed, content of hiself.
He walked toward the kitchen, took a wine glass and a water bottle out of the fridge. He stuck the bottle under his arm and unscrewed it. He threw the bottle cap across the room and poured water in the glass before putting it on the table. Bryce opened a drawer and took his pills out of it. He took off the cap with his teeth before spitting it away and putting two pills in his mouth. He drank the water and swallowed the medicine. As he was going to pour himself another glass of water, he heard someone knock at the door.
He cocked an eyebrow, and started walking toward the door thinking 'It must be June.' The older woman seemed pretty worried when Bryce came back, all beat up and she had say that she was going to come and check on him. He undid the lock before opening the door and was faced by a familiar blonde woman. He raised his eyebrows and stuttered:
"S-sarah, h-hi."
Sarah let out a small laugh before crossing her arms and tilting her head to the side. She cocked an eyebrow and teased:
"Did the great Bryce Larkin just stuttered?"
"You're intimidating and I wasn't expecting to see you here." he shrugged.
She laughed again and asked:
"Can I come in?" Seeing the young man's hesitation, she raised her hands in surrender and continued "I'm not armed, I swear. I just want to talk to you."
Bryce pursed his lips, thinking then moved to the side, letting her through. Sarah smiled, tucked a lock of hair behind her ear and entered the mansion. Bryce closed the door and turned to his ex-girlfriend, who wasn't facing him.
As she was suddenly remembering something, she abruptly turned around and pointed to the door, saying:
"I've met the owner of this place. June, right?" When he nodded, she smiled and continued, stuffing her hands in her pockets "She's really nice."
"Yes, she is." he sighed, smiling back. He stuffed his hand in his pocket and asked "So, Sarah Walkersoon-to-be-Bartowski - Congralutions, by the way!"
"You already said that this morning, Bryce."
"It's worth saying twice, Sarah" he retorted, still smiling. "I'm truly happy for you, guys."
Sarah chuckled, sat on the couch, shot him a genuine smile and said:
"Thank you."
Bryce nodded as to say 'you're welcome' before sitting on the opposite armchair and bringing his glass of water to his lips. He took a large gulp of his drink before asking:
"So, Agent Walker : what did I do to deserve mercy from you?"
"Do you really think everyone else wants to kill you?" she asked back, rolling her eyes.
"Oh, definitely. Well, maybe not Devon, didn't really know him before. Not Morgan, not his kind, and not that other brunette girl who was with him, who is she by the way? His girlfriend or something?"
"Oh, yeah. Yes, she is. Her name is Alex McHugh, she also is Casey's daughter."
"You're kidding, right?" Sarah shook her head and smiled as Bryce's eyes widened. He scoffed "Colonel John Casey : the perfect patriot, weapon adorater, coldblood killer, has a daughter? And she's dating Morgan Grimes? Huh! How is he still alive?"
"Casey changed." she shrugged. "People changed in two years. You, of all the people, should know that."
Bryce chuckled without humor, then put his glass on the table next to him. He looked back at Sarah, eyes full of curiousity and wonder, tilted his head to the side and asked:
"Why aren't you mad? You should hate me, for what I did, like everyone else."
"Not everybody ha-"
"Ellie probably wants to struggle me right now." He interrupted in a cold tone. "Or maybe, she'll ask Casey to shoot me - again - and then disamble my body. He won't mind, I'm sure he's been cleaning his favourite gun just in case"
"Stop being so dramatic" Sarah said, rolling her eyes "Chuck doesn't hate you, you guys were best friends. You were brothers."
Looking straight into the blonde's blue eyes, Bryce faked a smile and retorted:
"Chuck won't hesitate to shoot a bullet between my eyes if he had the chance."
Sarah didn't miss the pain in his eyes and he said those words. Her expression saddened a little, she was feeling bad for him. Sarah slowly raised from the couch and started walking toward him. She kneeled before of him and took his good in hers. He looked at her, confused, which she ignored. She cleared her throat and said:
"To your previous question, I tried to hate you. So hard. When I see you in that alley and when I really realized that it was.. really you, I saw red. I was so furious after you and Beckman for lying to all of us, after me for believing everything I was said, after Chuck for running after you. But then, when we're in the FBI building, I realized that if I was at your place, if there wasn't Chuck, I would have done the same thing. Then my rage started to vanish to be replaced with joy." she chuckled, a few tears in her eyes. She blinked and some fell on her cheek. Bryce wiped it with the sleeve of his hoodie. She took a deep breath then continued, her eyes locked with his "I mean, we lived so much adventures together when we were partners, come on, we even were married!" That comment made Neal laughed "We dated, that's not nothing either. What I want to say to you is that.. You're probably one of my best friends, Bryce and I missed you so much.."
Bryce raised from the arm chair, helping Sarah up on her feet, and wrapped his good arm around her waist. Sarah immediatly hugged him back, crying on his shoulder. She tightened her embrace around his harmed shoulder, which caused him to wince in pain. Sarah chuckled:
"Sorry, I forgot. You're not that tuff anymore."
"Shut up, Walker, you're ruining the mood." he teased, hearing her laugh.
Bryce rested his chin on top of her head and whispered softly, while strocking her long blonde hair:
"I missed you too, Sarah." he kissed her forehead, closing his eyes "More than you could ever know." he said a little louder.
A/N 2 : Hoping that you'll like this chapter! I didn't really like Sarah and Bryce as a couple, but I like them as friends :) Coming next : Drama, Ellie confronting Neal/Bryce, a nicer Chuck probably and revelations(?)
REVIEWS ARE ALMOST AS AWESOME AS COOKIES (Seriously, cookies are just perfect : if I'd end up on a desert island, the only thing I'd want would be a box of homemade cookies)
See you next Sunday(?)
KadiCriss