Morgan vs The White Picket Fence Future Note: This is part 4 in what's turned out to be a whole White Picket Fence Series. It's my attempt to fix Chuck S3's fixation on Chuck/Sarah.
If you don't like m/m relationships, if you're underage, if it's illegal where you are, if you're a die-hard Chuck/Sarah shipper, this story isn't for you. Don't read it; life's too short to get upset by things you read on the internet.
None of the characters are mine, I'm just playing. Thanks to the amazing actors and writers who make the show such fun to watch.
Morgan's been waiting to live with Chuck ever since they hooked up in school. That kind of chemistry is undeniable and irreplaceable, in his opinion. Of course, he's been waiting for Ellie to realise she's madly in love with him for almost as long, but he can concede that's probably not going to happen. Maybe when they're both old and grey and wrinkly, when Devon's untimely demise has proved that much exercise really isn't good for you, maybe then they can come together in their twilight years and-
Well, maybe. But that doesn't matter nearly as much as the fact that he lives with Chuck now! Who's a spy! A real James Bond, Mission Impossible, save the world, all-American hero! And Morgan gets to be on his team! Morgan gets to help save the day! Morgan gets to-
Morgan gets to wander into Chuck's room at three in the morning and collapse on the bed beside Chuck, with a groan for the lateness of the hour and the need to get up early for the day job, and another groan for the nightmare Chuck's currently thrashing his way through.
'Hey, buddy? Chuck? C'mon, snap out of it,' he mumbles, managing to steal some of the pillow. 'It's okay, you're safe, you're home.' Clumsily, he pats Chuck's shoulder and Chuck sighs, stilling. Then Chuck's reaching out, pulling him close, slinging a leg over Morgan's hips. He whimpers once, frowning in the low light that filters in from the courtyard, fingers tightening on Morgan's arm.
'Casey?'
'No, it's me, Morgan,' Morgan says, suddenly more alert. 'John's not here, buddy.'
With a sound that's suspiciously close to a sob, Chuck buries his face in the curve of Morgan's shoulder. 'Can't find John. Got to find him.'
'Hey, hey, I'm here, it's okay. John's okay, he's fine. He's probably fast asleep in his bed right now,' Morgan says reassuringly, petting Chuck's unruly curls.
Chuck sighs and calms down, but doesn't let Morgan go. After a few minutes, Chuck snuffles, and it's so cute, so five, that Morgan wishes he had a camcorder, but then Chuck mumbles, and it's muffled and almost unintelligible, but the loss in his voice is unmistakable. Morgan lies awake for a while, but Chuck doesn't say anything more. And it might be the lateness of the hour and the lack of sleep, but Morgan could swear what Chuck said was I miss him, and that's just crazy.
In the light of day, after Chuck ribs him gently about climbing into his bed like they're still nine and spent the evening watching horror movies, Morgan pushes the whole thing to the back of his mind. After all, there's breakfast to think about, and work, and missions, and Call of Duty and Sarah breezes in and out again with an enigmatic smile and a hint of perfume. But night rolls around and Morgan hears Chuck, still searching, still failing to find John Casey.
Morgan's used to letting things go, used to letting them wash over his head, but he's not stupid, and now he knows there's so much more to his best friend than he ever thought, some part of him is aware there's more again, there has to be more, that Chuck hasn't told him about, hasn't shown him. So he does what he's spent most of his life doing: he watches Chuck and gathers evidence.
He watches Chuck when Casey's around, watches him with Sarah. He sees the way Casey watches Chuck, the way Casey watches Chuck with Sarah. He listens to Chuck's dreams night after night and he listens to Chuck talk about his dreams for life with Sarah during the day. And in the end, he can't make them add up.
Chuck's conscious mind, his daytime hopes and dreams definitely do not equal his subconscious mind, his nighttime dreams in which all hope is long gone.
By day, Chuck's a mild-mannered Nerd Herder and spy, in love with his beautiful fellow-spy, Sarah. By night, Chuck's still a mild-mannered Nerd Herder and spy, but he's also lost, heartbroken. If he's in love, it isn't with Sarah, it's with John.
Uncharacteristically, Morgan doesn't know what to do about it, doesn't know how to help Chuck, or even if he should. He doesn't know why Chuck's in love with one person when he's awake and another when he's asleep. How is that even possible?
And then Chuck's dad dies and the world ends, or at least the Buy More explodes, and suddenly everything's different. Suddenly everything falls into place.
Morgan sees photos of Lester and Jeff on the TV, wanted for questioning by the police, and something clicks. Lester's behavior, how he tried his best to break Morgan, but in the end was the one who broke. How he gave up his rebellion, gave up Jeff, so he could follow Morgan around like a puppy, wanting to please, wanting to be stroked. And while Morgan doesn't know exactly how John did it, he knows what John did, knows he did that to Chuck.
It's after midnight when Morgan sits in Castle and waits for Casey to arrive. His heart's beating double-time; he knows there's no way he could get away from the older man if he chose to snap his neck and hide the body. He knows no one would ever find him. But this is Chuck, his best friend forever, his buddy, his bro, and he knows that if anyone ever pulled one of those Jedi mind tricks on him, Chuck would be first in line to fix it.
So when Casey arrives, he nods coolly. 'Colonel.'
'Grimes.' Casey studies him with a mix of disdain and curiosity. 'A little late for you, isn't it?'
Morgan ignores the comment. 'There's something I thought you should know about,' he says. 'Something I thought you should hear. Because I've heard it almost every night for the past few months.' He stretches out a hand, casually taps a key, and the feed from Chuck's bedroom pops up on the screens.
Chuck's restless, reaching out, wriggling across the bed.
'So?' Casey shrugs, his expression one of bored irritation, but Morgan can sense his discomfort.
'Listen,' he says, and turns up the sound.
Chuck moans and whimpers, tiny sounds that fill Castle's silence with so much pain that by the time he cries John!, Casey snarls, striding forward to cut the feed with a stab.
Morgan watches the tall man, gauges how close he is to breaking. He stands, pulls on his jacket, puts a hand on Casey's arm hoping he won't end up with broken fingers. 'Every night,' he says softly. 'Fix it.'
He leaves Casey standing there in the middle of their secret spy base and goes home to sit beside his best friend and tell him it'll be okay, it'll all be okay, so maybe for a few hours, Chuck will stop searching for the man who mind-whammied him, the man he loves.
Living with Chuck hasn't turned out to be much like Morgan imagined it would be back when they were kids just trying to make it through high school. It isn't an endless round of watching movies and playing computer games. But in the end, Morgan knows nobody else could guard Chuck's heart while he sleeps. If living with Chuck means broken sleep for a hundred years, it's worth it.