A/N: I've got some free time so I'm finishing up everything that's not marked 'complete'. Enjoy.
APR
Part G
Beckman conferenced with the team and congratulated them on their successful mission. She didn't ask for any details and the team members kept their mouths shut about their 'contractor'.
"I'm coming out for a meeting in a few weeks to settle some pending matters. I will see you then. Colonel, please remain for some housekeeping matters."
Chuck and Sarah went back up to the office leaving Casey and Beckman alone.
"Colonel, last night's mission required 'outside assistance' according to your report. Please explain why you permitted Bartowski to bring in an outsider on a critical mission?"
"You said so yourself, it was a critical mission. She's a thief and thinks we're 'industrial spies'. She won't betray us. She has more to lose if she does. We should probably recruit her as a contractor. She's an incredibly talented thief."
"Explanation accepted. Now, I'm coming out there with a team of neuro-programmers. I want Bartowski to accept the 2.0 download. Wallace says he's mentally stable and 'incredibly adaptable' and can handle it. What do you think?"
21st Century Security
Sarah looked up from her spreadsheets and smiled at the tall woman who walked into the office.
"Can I help you?" She scanned the woman professionally for weapons (2 36C's) and personally as a potential threat to Chuck. It was subconscious. The personal part.
"Yes, good morning. I'm here to see Mr. Smith?" The woman was tall, close to 6 feet tall, wearing designer jeans and a shirt Sarah figured cost at least $300 and sneakers. She had wavy red, really red, hair and freckles. If she'd been a foot shorter she'd be considered 'cute'.
"Um, I'm sorry, there's no Mr. Smith here; maybe I can help you?"
"Well, is Chuck here? He said Mr. Smith was his boss and maybe he can give him a message for me? I met him last night and...he didn't leave me his number." She blushed as only a redhead can.
"Oh! You're Billie! Hi, I'm Chuck's lives-with-works-with-wants-to-marry-him girlfriend - you skank!"
Actually, she didn't say that but she thought it really loudly.
"Chuck's not here and I'm not sure when he'll be back, Miss...? She needed a name so she could hunt her down and kill her for having sex with her Chuck for a whole weekend. She'd heard every word over the communications net. It didn't matter that she was with Bryce at the time.
"Just tell Chuck that Wilhelmina O'Doyle would like Mr. Smith's cell number. I'd like to make him dinner this weekend."
"You want to make Chuck dinner?" She was thinking of body disposal and cleanup before the guys returned from Casey's chiropractor appointment.
"Chuck? Oh, Saints preserve us, no! He's lost to some woman who broke his heart and then came back and is going to do it all over again. He's so dumb about us - us women, I mean. Once a heartbreaker, always a heartbreaker. It's in the blood. She really tore him up. He's a really nice guy once you peel off the protective layers...and what he can do with his..."
"That's enough! I'll give him your message. Do you want to leave your number?"
Sarah watched Billie O'Doyle leave and leaned back and rubbed her eyes.
'I am not a heartbreaker. I saved him, doesn't he know that? And yes, I came back but not to break his heart again but to fix it - to fix us.'
Billie was just getting on her treasured Kawasaki 750 when Chuck and Casey pulled up. Chuck saw her and nudged Casey.
"Colonel, I think you have a visitor. Be careful with her. She's fragile." He dodged a head swipe and waved to Billie and walked into the office leaving Casey to deal with his new acquaintance. The chiropractor had worked wonders and his back felt normal.
She pulled off her helmet and got off the bike and walked over and shyly smiled and said "Hi, Big John."
"Billie. I didn't expect to see you here. Anything wrong?" He noted the lack of makeup, the startling blue eyes and the dusting of freckles across her nose and cheeks and how she was a few inches shorter than he was when she wore flats. Those boots and heels added inches. He noted everything.
"Ah, well, I just, um, I wanted to know if you had plans for the weekend, John. I'd like to cook you dinner and maybe catch a movie or something?" She was suddenly shy and he felt drawn to this 'new' Billie just as much as he'd been to the Amazon version.
"Or something. Yeah, I'm free. Is that your bike? An antique. Didn't figure you for a Kawasaki girl. Figured you'd be more the BMW type."
"It was my dad's and when he died I got it. It's my baby. So, seven o'clock sound alright? I live in Topanga Canyon. It's quiet. I just keep an apartment for business. If you give me your cell, I'll text you directions."
"Seven's fine. Billie, I had a really good time last night and I'm glad you stopped by. I really wasn't looking forward to asking Chuck for your number."
"The blonde in there, the one with the killer's eyes, that's his Sarah, the one who crushed him?"
"Yeah but there's more to it than that. She's in witness protection, Billie, and you can't say anything about it or she'll disappear again. They're my friends so you better not make a problem for them." He figured it was a good cover and explanation.
She wasn't dumb. She made Casey, er, Smith, as a cop right away. She already knew that Chuck was some kind of undercover cop. He talked in his sleep and had had a horrible nightmare when she finally let him sleep that weekend.
Maybe dating a cop wasn't the smartest thing for a thief to do but she was really attracted to him and it wasn't just the sex. He liked her and most guys were put off by her size and wildness but not him.
"Not for the world, Big John." She kissed the corner of his mouth and smiled and waved and left Casey standing in the lot with a big smile on his face.
Chuck walked in to the office and figured he was in deep doo-doo. Sarah was sitting at her desk with her face in her hands and he knew that Billie had been to the office and something had happened that upset her.
"Her name's Wilhelmina O'Doyle, Billie for short. I met her at a Star Trek convention in San Diego shortly after you left. We spent the weekend together and last night was the first time I've seen or talked to her since. She and Casey...well, you and I never talked about it last night so that's it."
"I'm not mad at you, Chuck, I'm mad at me, this job, this...this crap! I just want to love my guy and be loved in return and have a normal life. I'm so tired of covers and back stories and pointless missions and the constant fear that one of us won't come back some day and...and..."
She broke down and cried and he helped her up and led her down to the Castle to have a long and overdue talk about them, this life and 'normal'. She was displaying more 'normal' emotions and having problems handling them.
Walker-Bartowski Apartment
3 Weeks Later
Sarah was out doing some girly thing at the health spa and Chuck was making a special dinner for the two of them. He had everything set up and he was finally prepared to do what he should have done a long time ago. He'd slain his demon and was ready to move on.
She was leaving soon for a few weeks to work with the DC US Attorney's office on her testimony before a Grand Jury and then, assuming an indictment was handed down, a trial . Before she'd shown up at the Buy More and dropped into his life, she and Bryce had taken down a small cell of domestic terrorists and the trial for the cell leader was finally on the docket after countless procedural delays. Beckman had 'granted' Chuck permission to spend the weekends with Sarah in her Arlington apartment since she wouldn't be needed on weekends. Apparently the US Attorney handling the trial didn't do weekends.
Chuck thought it was ironic that the 'cover' he'd manufactured for her to cover her absences would be used to explain her sudden and lengthy departure. How lengthy?
"Chuck, these things take time. Sometimes a very long time. The good thing is that you're coming out for the weekends and we can be together just like 'normal people'. The trial could take months but I only have to be there for my actual testimony once the preliminaries are over. The US Attorney handling the case is pushing hard for a plea bargain but no luck so far. It would mean avoiding a trial and all the crap that goes with it."
He wasn't looking forward to being alone again. Billie and Casey were spending a lot of time together. Casey liked the brazen Amazon but he really liked the freckle-faced redhead who wore no makeup and rode a vintage cycle like a pro and liked war movies, cooking and spending time at home watching TV and fooling around on the couch. Casey was changing and he liked this version better than the last.
Sarah unlocked the door and threw her keys into the bowl on the little table they'd bought at a flea market. They'd started spending Saturday mornings walking through the flea markets and picking up things to make the apartment seem more like a permanent home.
"Chuck, I'm home and something smells good, baby. You cooked?" She loved it when he surprised her and this was an example of the little things that showed he loved her.
She picked up the mail and sorted through it. It was her job. They'd decided early on that she'd do the bills for the company and the couple. It worked out fine that way. Neither of them were spendthrifts and other than eating out a lot, the flea markets were their only vice.
"Hey, you cut your hair! It's...nice. I like it." He really did. He'd have told her if he didn't.
"No, I got a perm. It makes it easier to handle and it looks nice and I always want to look nice for that guy down the block." It was their private joke. The guy down the block was 80 and used a walker. He flirted shamelessly with Sarah at every opportunity.
"So what's the occasion? Are we having Casey and Billie over?" In the weeks since Casey had met Billie O'Doyle they'd had dinner at each other's places. Sarah loved the house in Topanga Canyon. Some day...
"Nope. You're leaving in a few days and I wanted to remind you what you have to come back to, that's all. No biggie. I know you'll be back and I do get approved 'conjugal' visits."
"How about a 'conjugal visit' preview? C'mere, big boy. I haven't had a kiss all damned day."
Dinner was excellent and Sarah was impressed. "I'm going to get fat, Chuck Bartowski and then you'll probably take up with someone like Billie for solace." She was kidding and giggled and started cleaning up the dishes but he told her 'Sarah, we have to talk.'
Those words sent an unsettling jolt through her. He looked so serious and she wondered if something was wrong.
"OK. Talk. What's wrong?"
"I can't give you normal, Sarah. This is the best we can do for now. Is that good enough for you?"
"Yes, of course. We're together and we're pulling off missions without fail and..."
"It's not good enough for me. I need a change, Sarah, we need a change."
"But I thought this was what you wanted! Don't you want to stay here with me? Isn't being together enough? Isn't it enough that I love you and you love me?"
"No. I want more. I want something normal." He saw her eyebrows pinching together and knew it was a prelude to tears and he didn't want to upset her. He never thought she'd take his words the wrong way so he cut to the chase.
"Sarah, look at me, Sarah. I love you and just as importantly, I trust you. Will you please put me out of my misery and marry me?" He held up the ring she'd hidden in his shirt drawer.
"YES! Oh, yes, I'll marry you, Chuck. I want something normal and permanent in life too, so yes, I'll marry you, baby. Just say when." He slipped the ring on her finger and held her hand and his eyes bored into hers.
"Not until things settle down and we're a full team again. I don't want to have you planning a wedding while you're in DC. Nope. Let's wait until the trial is over and then we'll plan our wedding. And the honeymoon."
"Chuck, can we...I mean...could I ask Ellie to help with the wedding? I'd like her back in our lives, well, not in our lives but a part and the wedding is the perfect opportunity to bring the family back together. And I'd like Billie to help, too. She's pretty awesome and she's good for Casey. He's a lot less 'grunty'."
"If that's what makes you happy, Sarah, then sure, fine." She knew that was the only answer she was getting. Damn it but she was marrying the most stubborn man on Earth!
"It does. Now, how about a more in-depth preview of these promised 'conjugal visits'?"
21st Century Security
Chuck and Sarah always drove to work separately since Chuck's schedule was not set in stone and Sarah always seemed to finish up earlier than he did. Casey came and went as he pleased depending on work and 'cover work'.
Sarah arrived first and went down to the Castle to find Casey and advise him of her 'change of status' and to ask him and Billie to go to dinner with them to celebrate. Casey was in the conference room with the door open and he was speaking with General Beckman.
"...and you feel as does Agent Wallace that Bartowski is the ideal subject? No reservations? It will mean separating him and Agent Walker..."
Sarah turned and ran back up the stairs horrified by what she'd heard. Those ungrateful bastards were going to separate them and do something to Chuck! NO! No frikkin' way was it going to happen. She'd take him off the grid.
Chuck walked in saw his future bride standing motionless, her back to him, obviously deep in thought. He slipped his arms around her and whispered "Good morning again, future Mrs. Bartowski." He was unprepared when she turned in his arms and buried her face in his shirt, crying.
"Hey, what's wrong? Sarah? Talk to me. I can't help you if you won't tell me what's wrong." He was really worried. She never displayed these kinds of emotions in public.
He had to strain to hear her. "They w - want to separate us. You're the 'ideal subject' for something and they need to separate us, Chuck. What are we going to do? I won't leave you, baby!" Another round of blubbering sobs and now he was really worried.
"I'll ask Casey. He'll tell me what's up and we'll make our plans once we know their plans. OK? Hey, c'mon, don't cry. You're killing me here, Sarah."
He held her until she'd calmed down and said she was going to the restroom to 'fix her face'. "Sarah, give me your weapon and go repair your makeup. It'll be alright, you'll see."
He tucked her pistol into his pants at the small of his back and went down to the Castle to confront Casey.
Casey was still in the conference room speaking with Beckman's ugliness on the wall monitor. He took a deep breath to center himself and then walked in and sat down beside Casey.
"Mr. Bartowski, you're interrupting a confidential briefing. Please leave."
"What am I the ideal subject for and what's this shit about separating Sarah and I?" His tone and posture reeked of defiance and rebellion. He eased the pistol from behind his back under the guise of shifting his position in the chair and set it in his lap. He would not go down quietly.
"Where did you get that information! It's classified!" Beckman was livid and her face was bright red with anger at Chuck's declaration and at his attitude.
"Chuck, it's not what you think. The General and I both agree that you are the ideal candidate for the modified version 2.0 intersect download. If you agreed to the download, you'd have to stay at FT Meade while the staff evaluated the impacts. No one wants another Larkin running around shooting the wrong people and acting like an idiot."
"And Sarah? What about Sarah? We're engaged, John, getting married someday. That's what she came down to tell you when she heard your comments. I've got her pistol in my lap because I really thought she was pissed enough to use it."
Beckman cleared her throat loudly to regain the attention of the two men.
"Agent Walker is already scheduled to be in DC working with the US attorneys. That's the separation we mentioned. Now, if you will excuse us, we need to continue."
Chuck stood up and looked at Casey and then the image of the General.
"No. I won't do it. You see what's happening to Larkin and all you see is an inconvenience to be dealt with. I won't be another." He turned and left and went upstairs to talk to Sarah.
"Here." He handed Sarah her pistol and then gestured for them to leave. He wouldn't put it past Casey to have some remote door lock to keep them from leaving.
"Chuck, what's wrong? What did you find out?" He was gripping her arm tightly and she sensed his fear and anxiety.
"They want me to take a 'modified 2.0' and I'd have to stay at Meade for 'evaluation' and you will already be conveniently working in DC."
"What did you say?
"'No'. I told them 'no'. Casey's in support of it so we can't trust him."
"What do you want to do, Chuck? Whatever it is, I'm with you."
"I have no idea how to handle this situation, none whatsoever. I daydreamed about 'going off the grid' but I wouldn't have a chance and I'd just drag you down with me, Sarah, and that's not acceptable."
"And it's totally unnecessary." Casey's voice jerked them out of their 'bubble' and Sarah whirled around, a hand on her weapon.
"Chuck, the General's coming to you. She wants to talk with you, face to face, with a team of what she calls 'neuro-programmers' who will explain the changes to 2.1 and how it differs from the download that Larkin got. She'll be here tomorrow. She needs your cooperation, Chuck. Sarah, you will also attend the briefing. It's a 'full access' briefing."
"Casey, you haven't seen Bryce, talked with him, watched him function on a low-stress mission. He's erratic and jerky. Chuck's eye flutter when he flashes is not at all as noticeable as when Bryce uses the intersect. Some times he freezes up and he's totally vulnerable."
Her comments got Chuck thinking about the 'duration' of his flashes and just how he perceived his surroundings when he flashed. His flashes were for information and identification only. Bryce was experiencing the assimilation of 'body actions' like Kung Fu or demolitions or handling esoteric equipment. Sometimes his flashes involved courses of action and their physical involvement.
He knew what was wrong with Bryce. There was no way in hell he was going to allow 2.0 or any of its variants to be dumped into his head.
"Casey, if Chuck doesn't want to take the download, she can't force him to. It's not right. This country doesn't do things that way."
"Chuck, you and Sarah need to be here by 9AM tomorrow morning. I suggest the two of you do a lot of soul searching this afternoon and evening and prepare your arguments. I think the General is desperate. She normally just summons you to appear. This is a rarity."
Casey was giving them time to run if they felt it was necessary.
The couple left and Casey locked down 21st Century Security and called Billie.
"Hey, Big John, to what do I owe the honor of this call?" She was driving her old MG down through the canyon on her way to her 'office' in town.
"I just wanted to hear a voice that didn't think I was either incompetent or a backstabber. What's on your agenda for today?"
She sensed something in her voice and told him she'd call him right back after she made some calls. She had a 'client' meeting but he was more important. He needed her.
She called him back just as he was leaving the office. "Hey, John, I'm free for the next couple of days. I've got a bag in the trunk with clothes for all occasions and nothing to do. I'm all yours."
"Can you meet me at my apartment? I'm on my way there now." John Casey had rediscovered his long-lost conscience.
He was sitting on his couch mulling over the situation when Billie arrived. He swept her up into a hug and then sighed and she knew something major was going on in the mind of her - what? - boyfriend? Such an immature term for two people their age. Lover?
"I like your 'hellos', John. Now, point me to the kitchen and I'll make coffee and then we'll talk, OK? Or we'll just sit and you can stew and deal with your own demons. Either way, I'll be right here."
Casey made a snap decision and grabbed her by the hand and together they left the apartment and walked to his car. "Billie, I want to tell you some things that are going on. Some things I can just make reference to but others I can be specific. But you can never tell anyone, not Chuck, Sarah or anyone else, that I've broken faith. Can you do that?"
There wasn't much she wouldn't do for John and keeping her mouth shut was easy. "Yes. You can trust me, John. I won't say a word."
They pulled into the parking lot thirty minutes later at 'Chuck's Beach' as Casey called this one spot.
"The beach? You're wearing a suit and I'm in heels and a skirt. We should have changed at your apartment."
"This is where Bartowski comes to do his 'thinking'. It just seemed the appropriate place. We can sit out on a bench or walk or whatever." He took off his tie and threw his suit coat on the back seat. She noticed his 9mm in the cut-away holster on his belt but wisely didn't say anything. She learned a lot from her daddy and one of them was 'let the man talk when he's ready'.
Walker-Bartowski Apartment
Sarah sat at their kitchen table looking at a list of destination options if they decided to go off the grid. She had two pages of options but almost all of them had lines drawn through them. Every time she came up with a really good option her mind also supplied a really good reason why it wouldn't work.
She was frustrated and angry and worried. John Casey had called her and asked if she and Chuck wanted to go up the 'the Canyon house' and have a cook out but she'd declined coldly.
"I want to spend time with Chuck before the bitch gets here and I don't think Chuck will be very good company. There's no sense alerting Billie to our situation. I'm sure you'll come up with a really good explanation about how Chuck and I died." She hung up her cell. She no longer considered Casey her partner.
Casey winced at both the tone and substance of Walker's refusal and almost threw his cell phone off into the ravine the deck spanned. Billie saw how the hurt crossed over his face until he shrugged back on his mantle of Colonel John Casey, NSA. The long talk at the beach had frightened her at first until she realized he'd let her into someplace no one had ventured in a long time.
"She said 'No', didn't she?" He assumed he'd called Sarah and not Chuck.
"Yeah. I'm supposed to make up a good excuse to tell you when they die."
She crossed the deck and put her arms around him and spoke into his chest. "You wouldn't really kill Sarah or Chuck, would you, John?"
"A year ago, yeah, without a second thought but not now. They're my friends and I couldn't do it. I've changed, seen more than I care to, gotten older, a lot has happened since we teamed with Bartowski."
"Good. I couldn't feel about you like I do if you would have said 'yes'. So, let's burn meat, drink beer and have wild monkey sex and let tomorrow take care of itself."
Diane Beckman sat in the cabin of the GS-IV executive jet and tried to shut out the babble that was emanating from her select group of neuro-programmers. She needed Bartowski to accept the download of the heavily modified 2.1 variant of the advanced intersect interface.
She had to have leverage to make him 'volunteer' for the implantation. She needed to develop or discover a real threat to his team that could only be overcome by someone with the skills of Bryce Larkin and the intellectual abilities of Bartowski.
Beckman had her back to the wall. The Combine wanted Fulcrum and this new threat, the Ring, destroyed. The Western intelligence chiefs were all converging on London for a meeting to plan a joint strategy and Beckman wanted to have something to offer them other than the usual BS. She saw herself reaching a level of influence and power that she'd never achieve as the intel community's representative to the Combine.
