CHUCK VS A NEW BEGINNING

EPISODE 7: CALM BEFORE THE STORM (PART 1)

ECHO PARK / LOS ANGELES, CA

John Casey wasn't a happy camper when he noticed Chuck's Herder wasn't in its usual parking spot. He went over to Casa Bartowski and knocked on the door, seconds later the door was opened by a bathrobe wearing Ellie.

Casey: "Sorry to bother you Ellie, have you seen or heard from Chuck? We're supposed to car pool together this morning."

Ellie: "I'm sorry John, he didn't come home at all last night. Should I be worried or do you think he spent the night with Sarah?"

Casey: "Most likely that's probably what happened, he should've called to let us know. He probably didn't want to be inconsiderate for calling late at night. I wouldn't worry too much if that's the case, please enjoy your day Ellie and say hi to Devon for me."

Casey returned to his apartment and pulled up his asset's tracking data. The Nerd Herder's GPS system pinpointed the location in Mission Beach outside of San Diego. It didn't matter that Chuck's wearing his government issued GPS tracker watch, Casey was seething that Chuck broke protocol because he left the area without letting anybody know. He needed to inform Beckman and Graham of the situation, but decided to wait until he informed his partner. Picking up his phone, he immediately called Sarah to let her know about their missing asset.

Sarah: "Walker secure. What's going on Casey?"

Casey: "I spoke with Ellie this morning, the moron never called or came home last night Walker. She thinks he spent the night with you."

Sarah: "Well it's obvious he's not here Casey! Do you know where he is?"

Casey: "Yeah, for some reason the moron's down at Mission Beach outside of San Diego."

Sarah: "San Diego? What's he doing down there without either of us?"

Casey: "That's exactly what I want to know. Have you tried calling the moron?"

Sarah: "I called him four times last night, he ignored me everytime. That's not like Chuck at all, we've got bigger issues though."

Casey: "What could possibly be a bigger issue than Bartowski not being here?"

Sarah: "He finally answered on the fifth call, but it was only to ask what I needed. I started to read him the riot act for breaking protocol and for not letting us know where he was. Instead of answering back with whiny excuses and apologizing for his stupidity, some stupid skank he picked up was on the phone! She clearly told me that he's not going to be available, especially to me for the rest of the night."

Casey: "Are you serious Walker? The bigger issue why Bartowski's not here is some female wants Chuck to dip his chocolate into her peanut butter? Since we've been assigned here, that's twice in the past month that your lady feelings got worked up and that's with Carina on the diamond mission. Are you sure this is just for the cover? Because you're sounding like a possessive and jealous girlfriend, are you sure the geek didn't comprise you?"

Sarah: "Rest assured Agent Casey, my priority is the safety of the asset and protection of the Intersect. My lady feelings as you put it are not an issue, feelings are a sign of weakness and they get in the way of our job. It's duty first and foremost, the protection of the 'greater good' must prevail Major! Now that we're on the same page, do you suspect he was kidnapped?"

Casey: "That's tough to say Walker. If he was kidnapped, why would they take the Herder with them? We need to alert the General and hop a flight from LAX to San Diego, we can be at the Herder's location in 90 minutes."

Sarah: "I'm on my way Casey. This is something I never expected from Chuck, I just hope they don't think he is running. Taking an unsanctioned trip without us isn't smart on his part, he should know better than pulling a foolish stunt like this!"

MISSION BEACH / SAN DIEGO, CA

Chuck felt like a new person relaxing in his room, the shower was a tremendous help relieving the tension from his muscles and stress from the previous day's events. He was stretched out on the bed in a white t-shirt and gray sweat pants in deep thought, thinking back to that moment on the beach. His first reaction was to run after getting to his feet when he first saw the two men mostly due to his past experiences with bullies. So why didn't he? He remembered they were immediately apologetic and checked him over to make sure he was okay, much like Ellie and Devon would do after a clumsy spill. His gut instinct was telling him to trust them.

He was glad he did. They remembered him once he introduced himself, even joked with him about the day Hailey tackled him at the Santa Monica Pier back in March. Not only were they able to talk him into coming down to not only forget his troubles, but a job since Casino needed computer work done for the resorts. Anna had originally submitted a request for the day off because of plans made a month in advance, the request was granted and as usual there was a mix-up in the communication. Once she noticed that week's schedule had her working that day, Anna asked Chuck if he could switch with her after she explained the situation. She offered to take the early morning shifts for the rest of the week, if he took her place as the on-call Nerd Herder that night. Knowing that Anna never asked for this before and how hard she worked, especially knowing she was notified the request was granted and for some reason never made it to Big Mike when he made the schedule. He agreed to the switch immediately, which was something he never mentioned to Casey.

That little schedule change allowed him to be dispatched to fix their computer issues because the main people who kept it updated were tied up with projects across the country, which was one of the reasons Casino graciously handled his room and board. Shortly after his arrival there, Casino had Chuck accompany him to the communication room to check everything and write up a very detailed work order. What needed to be done and the equipment required to complete the job task. The order was filed and sent to the Buy More Corporate office for proof of records, Casino had copies for himself and Chuck as a backup in case the order was lost.

Chuck's mind was currently occupied with the reunion with Hailey, he was shocked to see her again and after being dragged away to talk about what happened. It became clear that she wasn't letting him go, especially if she had anything to say about it. She accompanied him to the room and stayed for a while as they continued to talk while the usual cuddling and kissing, in his mind it was genuinely real. He could actually tell a difference between Sarah and Hailey, even though he wasn't big on PDA's like he told Sarah at the beginning of their cover relationship. Not only because of his terrible history the past few years, but with Hailey's personality and the way she carried herself around him everything seemed to come so natural that his body just went instinctively with the flow before he realized it. She told him that as much as she wanted to spend the night, she had to go home since they're going shopping in the morning with her mother and sister. She assured him that Hollywood wouldn't be tagging along, because she would make sure things didn't get out of hand with her family.

The sound of someone knocking on the door Chuck brought out of his musings, his first thought was Casey and Sarah found him to drag him back to L.A. and throw him into a bunker. Then again he also remembered that's not their style, they would've picked the lock or kicked the door open or worse dress up as staff to sneak in claiming to be house keeping. He slowly got up from the bed and cautiously looked through the peep hole, he breathed a sigh of relief seeing Victor. Taking a calming breath to get his heart rate under control, he opened the door to him standing there with a smirk plastered on his face.

Victor: "Good morning Mr. Bartowski, I take it you're pleased with your accomodations so far?"

Chuck: "Extremely pleased thank you Victor, what brings you by before your shift?"

Victor: "Two reasons really. First, I wanted to make sure everything's okay after you settled in and the other reason is Mr. Casino wanted to meet with you. Don't worry about your state of dress, after all this is a beach resort so just relax."

Chuck: "Well in that case we shouldn't keep him waiting."

Victor: "Not unless you want to enjoy your time here that much sooner, I'm positive that you're going to enjoy the meeting and the rest of the time here Chuck."

Chuck followed Victor down the hallway and proceeded down the elevator to the ground floor heading towards the beachside bar where other guests were lounging around until they stopped at a small table where A.J. Casino was sitting, he rose to his feet seeing the two men approach before formally greeting Chuck.

Casino: "Good morning Chuck, even though we met spent little time together yesterday. Mostly get the whole 'business before pleasure' crap out of the way. I wanted to let you get acclimated to meeting more members of our group. Now I can formally say welcome to the New Millennium Paradise Resort, are you enjoying yourself so far?"

Chuck: "Yes sir I am, thank you very much."

Casino: "Please call me A.J. or Casino, no need to be formal with me despite our backgrounds."

Chuck: "Backgrounds?"

Casino: "Yes, backgrounds within the government. Victor here doesn't stand on formal ceremonies with me, despite his years of service to our country. Isn't that right Gunny?"

Victor: "Sir, you're right as usual."

Chuck could see the ever-present smirk on Victor's face as a mildly amused Casino raised an eyebrow in the former Marine's direction.

Casino: "As you can see Chuck, he tends to be a smart ass every now and then. You pick up those type of bad habits in our group, comes with the territory I'm afraid. I could always order him to drop down and give me 20 for a laugh."

Victor approaches Casino pulling out his wallet before dropping to his knee, he looks over to Chuck with a wink before handing over a $20 bill to Casino. Chuck's not sure want to think about this until Casino breaks out in laughter.

Casino: "You see Chuck, this is the type of bad habit I was talking about. Normally, he would've just belted out 20 push-ups with no problem or some other smart ass way. Besides, I rather take this 20 from him in a much more enjoyable manner."

Casino handed the money back to Victor while Chuck was curiously asked Casino.

Chuck: "I'm almost afraid to ask what manner would that be A.J.?"

Victor: "Straight out of my pocket Chuck, and I'm not talking about deducting it from my paycheck. You see Casino loves to play cards like most of us, especially Texas Hold 'Em to be more precise. If there's a card game around you would find him there, didn't matter if it was in a bar or a big time casino and location was a non-factor. The man has a nose for good business investments and has more connections throughout the world than possibly the government."

Casino: "For instance, Chuck let me break this down for you. I know you're working for the government. Relax my friend, let me explain this to you and put you at ease. You're currently employed by the Buy More, which is a corporation correct?"

Chuck: "Yes sir, it's founded by Moses Finklestein."

Chuck was curious to where this was going, leaned forward to hear Casino's explaination.

Casino: "Let's break this down to the foundation and start it out. Tell me Chuck, what's the chain of command structure at Buy More according to rules and regulations?"

Chuck: "Employees report to Management, who in turn report to Corporate. Next step up the ladder is Corporate reports to the Board of Directors and CEO."

Casino: "The CEO reports to the Shareholders, who in turn have to report to the SEC. Now tell me Chuck, who is the SEC affiliated with?"

Chuck immediately sees the connection and remembers the infamous 'Tango' mission with La Ciudad. When he ran into his former Stanford classmate Alan Waterman, who was involved with insider trading with accounts in the Caymans thanks to the Intersect data. He remembered seeing the look of horror in Alan's eyes after spitting out the information before he asked Chuck if he was with the SEC.

Chuck: "SEC is a branch of the United States Government, very impressed with your logic."

Casino: "Which is why I see you're an extremely smart man Chuck. You came here to not only do a computer job, but to enjoy yourself which is what you're going to do. From what I heard that you're scheduled for a shopping trip with Elizabeth and her daughters, we have a tailor on site here to get your measurements done. Once he has the information gathered, he can begin working on a custom-made suit and delivered to your suite. Now I wanted to finish discussing business details with you, for this job you're going to be doing here. You're going to be getting paid not just from Buy More, but I'm going to pay you as well.

Chuck: "Mr. Casino, I don't know what to say. You're paying me to do the work?"

Casino: "There's a reason why I am Chuck. First, I've had a contract drawn up to make things official for one month, you've told me about the amount of work you're going to be putting in especially here. We both know that working in retail and electronics type stores don't pay their workers as well for everything they do. Are you with me so far?"

Chuck: "Yes sir, I'm following. Still confused about this contract."

Casino: "It's going to be straight and to the point Chuck, you're part of the family now and we always look out for one another. I spoke with David this morning before he left for Stanford and told me about what happened in your past. To put bluntly, they nailed your ass dry and didn't bother with any KY or vaseline! We checked your record at Buy More, your work ethic and customer service skills are top-rated across the board. Face it son, your talents are being wasted at a place that's paying just over broke. If you factor in the cost of living to what you're making, there's absolutely no way you can survive on your own because of the poor pay. Now I know you read contracts before and such, the main point of having you sign is the benefits and perks will kick in immediately. While you're working on our systems for the next month, you'll be provided with room and board at all locations. You're going to be paid $100,000 and an added bonus, you'll have a brand new personal car of your own that you choose. Any questions?"

Chuck: "Just one sir, where do I sign?"

Casino slid the contract over and watched as Chuck read everything over, it was short and straight to the point. Everything that was mentioned was stated in there, Chuck signed the contract and slid it back over to Casino and double checked everything before he signed off on it then handed it to Victor to enter it into the records of the resort.

Casino: "Welcome aboard Chuck, it's going to be great for all of us. I checked with my suppliers and the equipment has been ordered for the locations, they'll be delivered on Monday morning. So you have the rest of the weekend to rest up and enjoy, now I believe Victor has something to say and requires some things from you."

Victor: "First, welcome aboard to our crew Chuck. There's something else we need to discuss, it's about our security here. Speaking of which, I need your phone, wallet, and watch please."

Chuck was stunned by Victor's request for his items, he realized after last night's meeting with everyone else about how well they know the CIA among other agencies. He handed over the items to Victor albeit reluctantly, Victor noticed the hesitation and explained the request.

Victor: "Don't worry Chuck, it's just a major security protocol with us. Since government issued trackers were found inside them. Your vehicle was discovered to be fully equipped with government issued toys. You see unlike most resorts, we take security extremely serious. We have powerful scanners that can do a complete swipe of you with infrared thermal imagery without the task of actively searching you like you going through airports or federal buildings."

Casino: "He's right Chuck, given how the rise of terrorism has been especially after 9/11 happened and the fighting still continues in the Middle East. More and more cells are coming out and reports of more bombings and what not from radicals. Everybody gets scanned once they arrive on the property, your car was the first scanned when you arrived. With us, it's a way to provide security and safety to our guests and staff while being unintrusive."

Chuck: "Doesn't the government do that stuff too? Like with the monitoring and all?"

Victor: "The difference between us and the alphabet soup is simple, they can peep on you anytime day or night just because their mindset is they're untouchable. Whereas for us, once you arrive on our property you have all the cameras in the area zoomed on you scanning for everything including the inside of your vehicle without being subjected to a search. All of that has been done and checked before you park to check-in, at that point if everything's green and clean then it's all kosher and you never get bothered by any searches."

Chuck: "Does the government even know you have those types of toys? How did you come by all of that technology?"

Casino: "Oh Chuck my boy, ever the curious one. Always thinking and always wanting to find out more, I appreciate your enthusiasm with the technology aspect of things. The government themselves definitely doesn't have the need to know our business, because of my connections and I have friends that constantly work on 'Next-Gen Tech'. They're constantly doing R & D type stuff and they wanted to try this out, I know what you're thinking and that it's part of the system here that you worked on. That system's not handled here, it's monitored by a different security type who's classification level is higher than any intelligent director's paygrade."

At this moment, Chuck saw Elizabeth, Hailey, and another woman he assumed was the other daughter were heading towards them. Before the women came to the table, the men showed their manners by standing up to greet them.

Casino: "Good morning ladies, it's great to see you. Since Jen wasn't here last night, I'd like to introduce you to the newest member of our flock. Jennifer Smith, meet Chuck Bartowski."

Jennifer: "Nice to meet you Chuck, are you ready for this shopping excursion?"

Chuck: "As ready I will ever be, never been much on shopping."

Casino: "Jen, your parents and others met him last night. On the other hand, from what I heard it seems that Hailey knows more about him than all of us. Care to share?"

Hailey: "Yes I do know more about Chuck then everyone else, that information is what Spider would say 'classified' and nobody else has the need to know. Sorry to tell you Uncle A.J. but this is one time you're not getting the answers to your questions."

Hailey came over to stand next to Chuck, gently patting his cheek as Victor and Casino were trying hard not to laugh at the adorable scene before them with Chuck trying not to blush.

Hailey: "As for you my sweet Chuck, don't worry about this shopping trip. I promise that you're gonna enjoy it, maybe if you like I can get something you would like even more."

Hailey reached up and kissed his cheek leaving a mark of lipstick there causing everyone to laugh, Chuck couldn't stop blushing while Hailey tenderly removed the mark.

Casino: "With that in mind, here's my card Liz. I assume you're giving Chuck a full wardrobe upgrade. I notified the tailor to have an appointment setup for Chuck to be measured for the custom suits, nothing's off limits for you and the girls. Now go have fun and don't lose Chuck."

Soon after Chuck left on the excursion, Casino contacted Buy More Corporate. Not only to rave about Chuck, but he signed him to a month long job contract for a complete upgrade of every system in the four resorts that was owned by New Millennium Paradise chain in the San Diego area. He would be paid $100,000 for the total job and be provided with a brand new vehicle of his own choice. Casino clearly stated that if Chuck exceeds any expectations of the work done before end of contract, he would sign Chuck exclusively to work full-time for him. Buy More Corporate was very pleased for the review, not only by a new customer but an extremely well known resort chain. They logged it into their system on the spot and confirmed to Casino that everything's in there as he wanted for the work orders to be carried out, they said doing it this way would save everyone time from making multiple work orders.