Yeah, they're gone, unless I feel the need to kick the dog, in which case I'll drag them back in, kicking and screaming ;^)
Slight amendment in Changes, Sarah DOES get the Porsche that Chuck had for her, but it's normally kept stored away. Her 'normal' car is actually a 2005 Lancer Wagon that has a full up-specced Evo IX drivetrain under it (the Evo IX Wagon WAS made actually, but only for a limited run in Japan) to fit in with the rest of them. As so many fics have pointed out, having Sarah driving a Porsche Carrera Cabriolet does NOT fit into their cover at all.
Once more for the Anonymous Cowards from FTA, if you want to say something about me or my stories, man up and do it as yourself. Whining at me via 'anonymous reviews' because I wrote something you don't like will just be deleted. You're obviously masochists as well as cowards anyway as you clearly hate everything I write, so you only read it to find some excuse to whine about it. That's rather pathetic when you think about it.
Usual disclaimers, no rights to any characters portrayed, this isn't the real world, and it ain't no Disney Princess story neither.
Chuck tried to avoid thinking about what was going on back at the office, but the service calls he was sent on weren't challenging enough to hold his attention. He conceded that there was some justification in Sarah's viewpoint that Anna had been interfering with what was her's, but he just hoped that Anna wouldn't challenge her and that Sarah would keep her temper in check. Love her as he did, he wasn't blind to the fact that she had one hell of a temper.
When he finished his jobs, he was still worried, he'd gone to call to find out what happened over a dozen times but stopped himself each time because that would make Sarah think that he didn't trust her to keep her word. As he got back into the Summit though he said 'Fuck it!' and punched in the code to unlock the full performance of the engine, he DID trust her, but he also knew how Anna liked to push until she got a reaction. If she did that when Sarah was as angry as she'd been under her facade last night, it'd be on like Donkey Kong!
He didn't have any trouble outrunning the cop cars that saw him on the way back as the Summit was faster than any of the cop cars, but more to the point his training and that Summer of Touge he'd spent in Japan meant that they had no hope. He was having fun, actually, as he rarely had the opportunity to let loose like this. He'd really enjoyed that month he'd spent with the touge racers when he went over to pick up the Summit from the shop that built it for him back in ninety six. The racers there had been surprisingly accepting of the lanky American kid who'd been brought into their world by the son of the owner of one of the speed shops.
Walking back into the office, Chuck was relieved to see that there were no signs of mayhem. He was also more than a little surprised that they actually seemed to be having fun together. When the police scanner on Sarah's desk squawked, he had a good idea of what they were laughing about though, and that was confirmed when Sarah got up and came over to kiss him, asking. "Hi Honey, did you happen to see that little car that's been leading the cops on a wild chase over half of Los Angeles for the last half hour?"
"Um, no, I didn't see anything like that, no."
She slapped him on the chest. "Are you really trying to pretend it wasn't you? Didn't you think that Ellie would have told me about how you spent a month over there touge racing after you got that Japanese speed shop to build the Summit for you in ninety six? Or how you were flying into Korea on missions while you were over there?"
Looking him in the eye she added. "But more to the point, do you REALLY think that I didn't know how worried you'd be about what was going on back here? As soon as Anna and I had had our talk, I pulled out the scanner to see just how long you could hold out. I have to admit, you held out a lot longer than I expected."
"What do you mean? I just finished my jobs and… OK yes, I was worried. I DO trust you, but you, my love, have one hell of a temper, and this little minx just loves to push people's buttons. With how angry you were last night, I didn't think it would have taken much prodding from her to make you lose your temper, so I expected to come back to find the place, and one or both of you, wrecked."
Her eyes narrowed. "Do you really think that she could take me?"
He smiled and kissed her on the forehead. "No, but she's good, Anna gives Ellie and I a serious workout. She would have given you a run for your money and that would have probably led to one or both of you getting hurt. I didn't want to see that so I tried to get back here to smooth over the situation before that happened, though I'm glad to see that I wasn't needed."
Sarah turned to look at Anna. "I think he just insulted both of us."
Anna shook her head with a smile. "Nope, maybe you, but he has me pegged. I normally would have poked and prodded until I got a bite from you, but you were pretty scary, the way you were sitting there ready to blow and you had a right to be angry. I shouldn't have kept doing what I did but I, well we talked about why I did. I knew that I was in the wrong so I just told you the truth. And I've been doing martial arts since I could walk, I'm pretty good."
Sarah shook her head ruefully. "No, he's got me pegged too, Charlie knows my temper, I just didn't think he saw through the facade last night. It sounds like our sparring sessions may be more interesting than I thought they'd be though. Just so you know, I've been doing martial arts since I could walk too, Auntie Mary taught me."
The look on her face as she pulled Chuck down for a kiss said that he was forgiven.
A week after that, the new Intersect Team had their first mission. Part of the daily intel that Chuck was going through to see whether the Intersect offered anything of use was a string of pictures of suspicious deaths that had come from European Intelligence agencies. The word on the grapevine was that these deaths were connected to some sort of serious arms deal, but no-one knew what it was. That was why the powers that be were hoping that Chuck would come up with something from the pictures.
Chuck wasn't getting from them, but when he turned to respond to a crack Jeff made as he passed on the way out to the break room for his coffee break, the article about an art auction on the front page of the paper he had under his arm triggered a flash from the intersect and that gave them the connection between the deaths. His question about La Ciudad certainly got Sarah and Casey's attention, as the elusive arms dealer had been on everyone's most wanted lists for a while.
As it was urgent, Sarah officially sent the 'civilian employees' out on service calls and she and Casey went out to the break room to have a video conference with Langston and Diane. After fifteen minutes of the expected debate over whether the asset was really ready to go into the field, they came back out to tell Chuck that he had his first official mission with the Intersect team.
With limited government resources available for operations of this nature, being in Los Angeles was a godsend, as it didn't take long to organise for the dress, tuxedo and bar tender's outfits that they'd be need for the function, and it was even simpler matter to 'rent' the stretch Towncar that they'd be using. They had a collection of cars to cater for most occasions in the warehouse where Sarah's Porsche was kept, but the government couldn't officially know about them. What they did to get around that was create a shadow rental company that they 'rented' the cars from whenever they officially needed them, they'd been doing this for over ten years now, and the setup worked well for them.
The collection at the warehouse included the first of their sleepers, the ninety three Subaru Impreza Wagon with the ninety four grille and ninety three works rally spec WRX drivetrain that had preceded the ninety six Summit Wagon as Ellie and Chuck's transport and Ellie's two thousand and two Lancer Hatchback, as she 'traded it in' on the two thousand and seven Subaru Forester XT Sports with a potent rally spec WRX STI drive train under it after Sarah moved in with the two thousand and two Lancer Wagon because they decided that the two Lancers were too similar and people might take notice if they were parked together out front of the apartments all the time. Besides, Ellie was a doctor and as such was expected to keep up appearances, a doctor with a plain old car is liable to attract too much attention from people gossiping. Chuck had had the Forester built as part of his normal practice to add a new understated performance car to the herd every few years so that they'd have an array of cars to drive that wouldn't stand out.
Sarah and Chuck actually had fun going clothes shopping for the mission, as this was the most freedom they've had on the job since this started. They could act like a couple, helping each other choose their outfits for the night, and in the back of their heads was the thought 'this is how it could be'. All too soon though, they had what they needed and headed back to the HST office in Silver Lake.
The need to wear a robe to prevent NSA or CIA pencil pushers getting their rocks off at the sight of her naked or almost naked as she moved to and from the bathroom while she was getting ready on the surveillance footage annoyed Sarah, all the more because it was only now that she really understood why Chuck had been angry about the surveillance. While Chuck was in the bathroom she sent an email to Director Graham requesting the removal, or at the very least downgrading, of the internal surveillance in the Bartowski apartment on the basis of her Agent's rights to privacy. She cited the now enhanced security controls of the apartment, extensive external surveillance and constant monitoring of all doors and windows as factors that rendered the internal surveillance unnecessary.
As they were walking out to get into the Towncar, Sarah was asking herself why she'd insisted on wearing the eye catching red dress tonight. She wasn't happy when she realised that she was angry at Chuck because, while he'd been verbally rejecting her when he thought she was Anna, he'd kept holding her like a lover would as she lay naked in his arms, and his body had certainly been reacting to what he thought was Anna's ministrations. Realising that she'd been unconsciously planning to lash out at Chuck by trying to make him jealous of the attention she received from other men made her extremely clingy and weepy as she tried to explain it to him.
She hadn't pulled herself together by the time they reached the venue for the auction, so Chuck asked Uncle Bry to go around the block again (Casey was already inside, and Anna and Ellie were waiting for Bry in the van with Jeff). The next time they came around, Chuck had Sarah calmed down. She'd accepted that he'd just been unconsciously physically going through the motions as if it were a mission, so they could both understand the other's position and were OK, and she'd had time to hastily fix her makeup, so they went on in.
The drama in the Towncar seemed to set the tone for the night though, because before they even got into the auction, some klutz bumped into Chuck and dumped his hors d'oeuvre onto Chuck's shirt. The fact that the arrogant bastard didn't even apologise made Chuck want to give him a nudge down the stairs, but he refrained and ducked into the men's room to try and remove the evidence of the encounter from his shirt.
While he was in there trying to clean up the mess, a man came up to wash his hands at the basin next to him and Chuck flashed on his face. The extended flash brought up many images that were related to the ones to do with La Ciudad that he'd seen earlier, so the obvious connection to be made was that this man was La Ciudad. Chuck was blankly staring at the mirror when the man tersely asked. "Do I know you?"
Deciding to play on his obvious distraction, Chuck's response was. "What? Oh no, sorry. I was just trying to decide whether to pull the plug on the night, you see my shirt's ruined because some fool was waving food about and…..."
The man just looked annoyed, so hopefully the ruse worked. "Sorry, not your problem. I guess I was just miles away. Have a good night." With that, Chuck hastily exited the men's room and went to notify Sarah that he may have located La Ciudad.
When the man came out, Chuck pointed him out to Sarah, but they were both too tied up in trying to reassure each other as Sarah explained, almost in tears, that she was going to have to work him for information to note that the man had been scanning the foyer for Chuck. When he spotted him, he of course noted the beautiful blonde in that red dress he was talking to, which created a problem.
Sarah told Chuck to go wait at the bar with Casey while she engaged the man he saw and he did as he was told. When he saw her walking up to the man, he turned away, knowing that it would be harder for both of them if he was watching her work the man. That was why it was Casey who saw the two large men turn up and quietly hustle Sarah out at gunpoint.
When Casey said that Sarah had been taken at gunpoint, Chuck told him to get after them. Casey took off at a run, because the way he said. "Make sure you get her back safe!" chilled him, he didn't want to think about what might happen to him if anything happened to Walker.
The men who took Sarah started talking after they left the auction, and from what she heard over Sarah's mic, Ellie quickly determined that they were headed for the roof, so she, Bry and Anna rushed to get up there ahead of them (they were already inside the hotel, geared up to move in as support). What they saw when the men got Sarah up there enraged them, but they followed her lead and held off as she tried to learn who these men were and what they were there for.
Back at the auction, Chuck heard the clicks that indicated the Ellie, Bry and Anna were on the roof ahead of Sarah and her captors, but he also knew from Sarah's breathing and her sharp exclamation of. "Stop that!" that she was being thoroughly and inappropriately searched. To stop himself rushing up there and taking the men apart, he decided to see whether he could find the painting that had come up in the flashes that had led them here, so he downed his drink and started wandering around the auction.
It didn't take long for him to locate the painting, but it had a different frame now, and that triggered images and drawings of the other frame which showed how it had been made to conceal a number of containers for small amounts of plutonium and enriched uranium, which together would be enough to build a small nuclear bomb. The fact that it had originally been created by a 'friendly' government organisation to get past nuclear restrictions was something to be dealt with elsewhere, but it might explain the English accent of the guy on the roof. He surreptitiously whispered into his mic. "They may be British SIS, also the picture frame's been changed but it was being used to smuggle plutonium."
He went back to looking at the painting, trying to see whether he could get anything else from it, but he was interrupted by a soft voice. "Beautiful painting, no?" He smiled at the Latina beauty who'd spoke and engaged in the expected banter with her, until the music of the Tango began.
Malena's face flushed with an almost sexual excitement as she moaned. "I LOVE to Tango!"
Chuck smiled and said. "Who doesn't?" but was caught out when she looked at him with interest and asked. "Do you?"
He started to say 'No' when he picked up on what she was asking but stopped himself. Standing around listening to what was going on up on the roof would drive him crazy, and he was supposed to be locating La Ciudad. Being out on the dance floor with everyone looking at them could be the perfect opportunity to do that, so he smiled and said. "Of course." as he took her hand to lead her onto the dance floor.
Malena was a good partner to attract the attention he wanted, as she was beautiful, as well as being a capable and impassioned dancer, even though he wished that he was dancing with Sarah. She was certainly putting on a good show though, and her actions made it clear to everyone watching what her intentions were for after the dance. The problem came when he dipped her at the end of the dance, and her hair fell away from her neck to reveal a nasty scar that he flashed on. The flash told him that Malena was, in fact, La Ciudad. He whispered into his mic. "Guys? I've found La Ciudad!"
He brought her up for the expected kiss, well not the one she was expecting but enough to fit the circumstances, and led her off the dance floor to the applause of their audience. He just had to keep her occupied until the others got back to arrest her.
They started talking, and he was diverting her obvious hints about coming up to her room, when it all went to shit. A loathed voice from the past that he'd never wanted to hear again piped up behind him. "What are you doing here Bartowski? Were you too stupid to get the message that you don't belong in our world when Jill dumped your sorry arse?"
When he turned to look at Shari Walters, Jill's bitchy room mate back at Stanford, he snorted. The last six years hadn't been at all kind to her, and from the way her face was flushed, she'd been one of the women he'd heard moaning because they were turned on by the display that he and Malena had put on out on the dance floor. He also flashed on her and her police record, and as stomach turning as it was, that incident could give him a way to get rid of her in a hurry. "Hello Shari, I heard about the dog incident, kudos to you for being brave enough to come out in public again after that!"
Shari looked absolutely horrified that anyone could know about THAT and tried to say something, but no words came out. After opening her mouth to speak a few times, she just turned and ran off, pushing people out of the way as she tried to get out the door in a hurry.
Malena raised an eyebrow, and Chuck didn't need to fake looking embarrassed as he said. "An unfortunate incident with her neighbour's German Shepherd." her eyes widened at that but she shook her head.
"As….. interesting as that is, I actually wanted to know why you lied to me and told me your name was Carmichael, Mister Bartowski?"
At that, Chuck felt a pistol being pressed into his back, she must have signalled her men while he was dealing with Shari. He ground his teeth, as he was fairly sure that he could get out of this with minimal, if any, damage to himself, but he couldn't guarantee that there'd be no collateral damage when they started shooting and he'd also be blowing his cover as a bumbling civilian if he did anything in here.
That was why he just went along with it when Malena nodded to the door and he was prodded to get moving by the gun at his back.
Up on the roof, the man that Chuck had talked to in the men's room was demanding to know who Sarah was and what she was doing here. She was trying to get information out of him but he kept playing the 'I'm asking the questions here!' card. This wasn't getting them anywhere, so when Bry indicated that they were facing away from the roof access door, Casey burst out, shouting. "Federal agent! Drop your weapons now!"
The three men obviously liked their chances, being three on one, until they were all lit up with laser sights and Bry, Ellie and Anna moved far enough forward to be seen as masked paramilitary figures in full tactical gear. The Brits dropped their weapons and put their hands up quite promptly then. The one Chuck had talked to still tried to assert his authority, saying that they were British SIS and this was an international operation that had been their's from the start. They were using a shipment to trap an international arms dealer….
Casey cut him off. "Yes, we know, you were illegally moving plutonium in a picture frame as bait to catch La Ciudad."
The man's eyes widened at that, as no-one was supposed to know about either of those two things, but Casey wasn't finished.
"I wouldn't try to claim any authority here if I was you. You've smuggled plutonium across the world and into the United States in breach of all of the Nuclear Agreements, you're operating on U.S. Soil with no authority to do so, and you have kidnapped, threatened and manhandled a United States Federal Agent very inappropriately. We have video proof of that! So it would be in your best interests to shut the hell up before we do what we want to do to you!"
At that moment Sarah, who'd been searching the three of them and removing all of their weapons, phones, identification etc, kicked the one who'd 'searched' her in the family jewels hard enough to leave him curled up and whimpering on the deck, then kicked him again so that they heard his ribs cracking.
The SIS agent in charge of the Brit team shouted. "Here, you can't do that!" but he shut up when he saw her expression as she turned on him.
Sarah obviously wanted to do the same to him as she hissed. "You just fucking stood there and smirked while that bastard groped my breasts and shoved his hand in my pants to get his jollies off! You didn't do a fucking thing to stop him! I'm going to see you, and him, and that other tool go down for this!"
"We didn't know that you were a Federal Agent!"
"So it's alright for you to come into our country and kidnap and sexually assault random women as long as they're not Federal Agents is it? NO! You're going down you bastard! All of you!"
As they'd heard both Chuck say that he'd found La Ciudad and the fact that La Ciudad had made him, they hurried to secure the prisoners and get after them. Sarah went to take one of the SIS Agents' guns as she only had the small pistol that had been hidden under her dress, but Ellie stopped her, handing over the long barrelled Glock 20 that she was carrying with a few spare magazines. "Chuck and Uncle Bry carry these for a reason, I have a bad feeling about this, you might need all the fire power you can get!"
Sarah flashed her a smile as she said 'Thanks' and stuffed them with difficulty into her clutch as she and Casey ran back downstairs. The SIS agent in charge kept trying to insist that they let them go until Bry stepped up and cracked him in the head with the butt stock of his AS VAL. It was much more pleasant with the Brit unconscious. The one who'd handled Sarah complained that he was having trouble breathing, but shut up aside from moaning when Ellie also stepped up and kicked him where Sarah had, carefully as they didn't want the hassle of having him die on them.
As Malena and her men were taking him out of the Auction, Chuck swore to himself, as he'd just realised that he couldn't afford to let THEM see that he was anything but a bumbling civilian either. That would blow his cover as soon as they talked in captivity, and La Ciudad at least needed to be captured alive. That was why he started babbling like the frightened civilian he was supposed to be, slipping enough clues into his babble to lead the others to him.
In her room, La Ciudad was taunting and threatening Chuck while he kept up his frightened civilian act, admitting that his name was Bartowski and saying that he'd just been putting on an act to try and impress his date. He looked suitably dejected when he said that she'd given upon him and latched onto some rich guy as soon as she caught him out in the lie.
When she decided that he didn't have anything else to tell her, she started slowly screwing a suppressor onto a pistol with a grin and he was thinking that he'd have to expose himself for what he really was, but thumps outside the door caught her and the guards' attention. They called out to the guard who'd been posted outside the door, and when he didn't answer, they started bringing their pistols up so Chuck hissed "Get down!" into his mic.
He called "Guards at one and three o'clock from the door!" as they started firing and he kicked the chair he was tied to over. He'd broken the chair apart and freed himself within fifteen seconds, and he rose up just far enough to use the chair arm that was still tied to his arm knock out La Ciudad.
By then Sarah and Casey taken out the guards in the room using the aiming instructions he'd given them, so he called out to stop firing, crossing the room to let them in when they did so. With the official story for the Intersect team, Casey and Sarah had to be the ones to handle matters with the authorities, so Chuck got out of the way while Sarah called for FBI teams to take La Ciudad and the Brits into custody and clean up the mess, and Casey went to sell the hotel on the story that it had been a drug bust.
Bry, Ellie and Anna remained masked during the handover of the prisoners, and the FBI teams just presumed that they were SOG support that the CIA Agent had on hand for the operation, no-one said anything to disabuse them of that idea. Some of the more experienced ones on the FBI teams started whispering the names 'Bagheera', 'Raksha' and 'Rikki', as they recognised Bry, Ellie and Anna's forms, mannerisms and weapons. When Bry looked at them and shook his head without a word, they got the message and shut up.
As soon as they got back to the apartments, Casey initiated the links to Langston and Diane, as they'd been waiting to hear the outcome of the mission. Langston and Diane were more outraged about how Sarah had been handled than the other aspects of what the Brits had done, but it was the other aspects that were more important in the bigger scheme of things, so they dragged the DNI out of bed and showed him the video evidence of the Brits admitting to illegally smuggling nuclear material into the United States and running an operation on U.S. Soil without clearing it with U.S. authorities. They also showed the video of how they'd been mistreating a United States Federal Agent and the admission that the illegal nuclear material was currently located in the British Consulate-General in Los Angeles.
The DNI in turn dragged the President out of bed and had Sarah and Casey run through the videos and admissions with him as well. The President dropped off the link to call the British Prime Minister and tear him a new one, leaving the DNI to wind things up. As he was thanking Sarah and Casey for their efforts, the DNI said. "The only thing that could have made this operation any more successful would have been if you managed to capture La Ciudad..."
Sarah took a risk and cut him off. "I'm sorry, didn't we mention that Sir? Our asset identified La Ciudad, at considerable risk to himself as we were tied up with the SIS agents at the time, and we captured her as well."
"Her, don't you mean him?"
"No Sir, it's her, La Ciudad is a woman, that may be why no-one's ever identified her before, as they've all been looking for a man."
The DNI grinned at that. "Well I believe that we must thank you for truly going above and beyond on this operation Agent Walker and Major Casey."
She thought she'd take advantage of his good mood to make another dig. "Thank you Sir, but we couldn't have done any of this without the asset, he was the one who flagged the SIS agents, identified how the nuclear material had been smuggled and identified La Ciudad as well."
The DNI nodded. "Yes, you are correct, we have to do something to properly express our gratitude to that young man."
With that he dropped off the link, Diane gave Sarah a look to say that she was playing with fire, but she was glad that she'd got that in with the DNI, then they wound up the video-conference and disconnected the links.
Chuck was ready for bed but sitting at the desk working on something when she walked in. Sarah kissed him briefly, but pulled back and said that she wanted to have a long shower to wash the feel of that other bastard off of her before they did anything, so she grabbed her pyjamas and headed for the bathroom.
The next day, Sarah and Casey were advised that they would be overseeing the handover of the nuclear material to the United States Army at the British Consulate-General that afternoon. While they were there, the Consul-General would also be making a formal apology to Sarah on behalf of the British Government for her treatment at the hands of their Agents. She got a small degree of satisfaction from seeing those arrogant politicians having to kowtow to the people who had exposed their activities, but wished that Chuck could have gotten his fair share of the glory.
Chuck did get something out of this, as they used the DNI's comments to action Sarah's request to remove the internal surveillance from the Bartowski apartment, so he, Sarah and Ellie could do what they wanted without perverts in Washington watching them. There were other things in play for Chuck, but they'd take longer to be actioned. One thing's for sure, that was one hell of a first mission for the team, it would be a hard one to top but they'd certainly put themselves on the map with that one.
Identify the illegal smuggling of nuclear material for making a bomb, locate said nuclear material and force it's surrender to the proper authorities, check. Prove that foreign operatives are operating illegally on U.S. Soil, force them to identify themselves and organise their expulsion and subsequent banning from U.S. Soil, check. Identify and capture one of, if not the, most elusive illegal arms dealers in the world, check. Yeah, it wasn't a bad first mission.
A/N: While trying to confirm Jill's nasty room mate from The Ex's name, I came across a disturbing reference to an incident in 2014, so that gave me a fitting surname for Shari.