A/N: There was a very clear response to my question about whether people would prefer one or two chapters a week, so to quote Mayor Quimby from The Simpsons, "Very well. If that is the way the winds are blowing, let no one say that I don't also blow." I give you a Thursday update.

I seem to be losing my mind. The skank references in the last chapter (and a few more upcoming somewhere) were a nod to the truly hysterical Adorable Psycho universe. I should have mentioned that, but it slipped my mind! I also forgot to mention that chapter 8 as well as this chapter wouldn't be anywhere near ready for human consumption without Mali Bear's Buddy and Grey Alchemist and their beta awesomeness; as well as jaytoyz and luvgreen19 handling pre-reading for the big picture view.

This chapter mentions a real-world event, but any resemblance to any real people involved is entirely coincidental and unintentional.

Chapter 9 spans Chuck Versus the Cougars and Chuck Versus Tom Sawyer, although the only canon events mentioned deal with Cougars.

I'm not making any money from this story, because I don't own the show, the network, Dominoes, or...much of anything, really.


Chapter 9

You earned it, Chuck. Make a wish. It's yours.


Carina's short black hair swirled around her head as she furiously packed everything she could cram into her duffel while listening out of one ear for any telltale noises of an intruder. Evan's presence in her villa meant that Fulcrum probably knew she was a spy and probably had a picture of her as well. That meant she had to move and fast. Once the cleaning crew left, the first thing she did was change her hair, taking the time to color and cut it so it looked completely different. It wasn't perfect, but it would change her appearance from afar and blend her in with locals as well as tourists. Any more complex changes to her appearance would have to wait until she got to her next stop.

The Intersect tech told her Puerto Vallarta would be the best target to strike next, so that's where she was headed once the packing was done. How to escape? Fulcrum would be watching all transit. Buses and trains would be too easily isolated. Airports would be too exposed. That leaves a car over dusty Mexican roads or…the Shamrock's Promise. No contest. Only Director Maxwell knew Carina specially requested it to supplement her cover in Mexico as a backup. This was one item Carina intended to keep when this mission was over. It would take longer than the other means of escape, but it was more secure and it would still keep her in communications via the onboard satellite link.

Her clothes taken care of, she ransacked the bathroom for her toiletries. She slipped the thumb drive with the cloned data from Saxton's server into her toiletries case, slipping it into a dummy lipstick container. That piece of equipment gave her a soft grin. That's a bit of DEA nerd genius, she thought to herself. She finished throwing her bathroom supplies into the case and went back into the bedroom.

Her laptop backpack was already packed and ready to go; she'd review more of the data off Saxton's computer once she was at sea. Carina took one last glance around her room, but since she hadn't arrived with much, she didn't need to leave with much. She made sure her Sig was tucked safely into the waistband of her khaki shorts before shouldering her backpack. Grabbing her duffel, she scanned the room one last time before carefully descending the hidden stairway cut into the rocky cliff. Her tall hiking boots – the left of which hid a holstered hunting knife – served her well on the way down.

The Shamrock's Promise was waiting for her. With full fuel bunkers and a stocked galley, she could set the autopilot once she was far enough out to sea and finally catch her breath. She smiled in the twilight. Her favorite green bikini – a twin of the black one she wore on a certain beach in Malibu – was waiting in her duffel for the hours she would have to sunbathe the next day while scanning her laptop.

Black – dresses, lingerie, and bikinis – was for missions when she needed to be seductive. Green was her favorite color; she wore it when she could just be herself. Green was soft and earthy; it stood for luck and growth. Green was the color of the country her parents had emigrated from shortly after their marriage in 1972. She stifled a tear at the memory of her parents' tale of Bloody Sunday and an uncle she would never meet in this lifetime. Her parents headed west to America after that terrible day.

Focus! Carina snapped back to the present. Reminiscing would do her no good right now. She had to get out to sea. She cast off the lines and started up the inboard motors before heading out of the hidden cove. Once she was a few miles out, she set the autopilot, which told her she had at least a full day of cruising before Puerto Vallarta. Thus assured, went below, unpacked her laptop and took the thumb drive from its hiding place. With the computer plugged in and booted up, she connected the USB drive and started running the decryption software again. The status bar told her she had three hours before it was done, so she had literally nothing to do at this point but take a cat nap – which is exactly what she did.


Carina's cell phone beeped an alarm much too soon. She groggily shut it off before stumbling – aided partially by the sea's swells – to the galley and starting a pot of coffee. While the coffee maker ran through its operations, she stretched her tired muscles and watched the sea. Boating was something she'd discovered in college and vowed never to give up completely. Even if it was just a day trip out onto Lake Michigan the isolation she felt on the water helped clear her mind and focus her concentration.

Accepting this assignment and leaving Chuck behind had been the right decision – she was still convinced of that. Her carelessness had gotten him shot and almost killed, so she had to go. Sarah would protect him; keeping him safe was her job and Carina knew better than most how dedicated Walker was to her missions. She still wasn't sure how Chuck had ended up in the spy world. His lack of training was as obvious as the curls on his head, so whatever he was doing in the field with a joint team of protectors had to be huge.

Carina just hoped he made it out of the life still maintaining his optimism. Just because leaving whatever friendship we were developing was the right decision doesn't mean I have to be happy about it, Carina thought with a frown and a growing depression.

The laptop finished its decryption while the coffee brewed, so after she poured a mug, she took the computer over to a lounge chair and sipped the liquid caffeine while she scanned through the recovered documents. One thing no one could ever say about Saxton was that he had been disorganized. His drive had subfolders for each of the sites her Intersect contact had mentioned – Acapulco, Puerto Vallarta, Cozumel, Cabo, and Tijuana. Acapulco was small potatoes; starting there had been the right decision, because Saxton and his data was the only really valuable thing she could have taken away. Puerto Vallarta housed another processing site, but the facility also had extensive computer technology and a money operation as well.

Carina set her course for Boca de Tomatlán, a small town a stone's throw down the coast from Puerto Vallarta, just in case Fulcrum was watching the harbor. Finished with everything she could do now, she checked her fuel state, the wind and weather, and found nothing amiss. With time to fill, she changed into her green bikini, spread a towel on the deck, and finally relaxed.


Sarah stormed out of the suite's living room, livid at how Chuck was pressing for more information again. He never knows when to stop! She stifled a small smile at how his face contorted in fear when the pencil perforated the picture frame. He definitely got that message. Her past was off-limits beyond what he absolutely needed to know for the reunion.

She huffed into the bathroom to fix her hair and makeup, just to be positive it was perfect for the evening. As she looked into the mirror, Sarah remembered the night Chuck met Carina, when the two of them and Morgan played Know Ya! with Ellie and Devon. She had more fun that evening as she got to know bits and pieces of Chuck's past.

A few weeks later, the trip to Stanford drove home the biggest event in Chuck's pre-Intersect life. He showed a confidence in himself on his old campus that she'd only seen hints of since then. Not for the first time did she curse her old partner for taking that away from him.

As she made eye contact with her reflection, she saw herself through Chuck's eyes. The anger in her face marred her normal expression. The woman who asked him to trust her had just thrown a pencil through a photo of him because he wanted to know how one of her old aliases spelled her name.

Sarah blew out a frustrated breath, now more angry at herself than Chuck. Why was she so mad at him? All he wanted was to get to know her a little bit better, like she knew him, and in fear, she threatened him. Maybe because if he got to know the real you, like he wants, he would run screaming from the room? Her reflection stared back at her.


Carina sighed explosively as she sank back into the plush chair in her new safe house. The trip up to Puerto Vallarta had taken longer than she expected, but she was finally in her apartment. The DEA safe houses were off-limits after her encounter with Saxton. She had to assume they were all either compromised or under surveillance, so she picked up an off-the-books apartment in an area of town off the tourist path. The place actually looked worse from the outside than it did on the inside, but it had two key features that appealed to her: they accepted cash and short-term leases, in that order.

She brought her laptop over and brought up the cloned files. Carina still could scarcely believe her luck at the data take: Saxton kept folders separate for individual sources of drugs, storage and processing locations, shipping schedules, and bank accounts.

There was one folder in particular marked PV which contained a single document. When she opened up the file, it showed a rough map with one building marked. Unfortunately, none of the streets were labeled, nor were any of the buildings, a fact which had her grunting in exasperation. Either she had to get a highly detailed map of the city and go over it block by block or…Carina grabbed her Intersect phone and punched in the number for her support.


Chuck was sharing snacks in the crowd with Ratner and really getting into Sarah's 10-year high school reunion when his tech support phone rang. He searched the crowd, but Sarah was nowhere to be seen. Casey was still DJ-ing the party – a thought which made him want to pick up some brain bleach on the way home that evening – so he had time to slip over to a quiet corner of the gym to answer the call.

"Intersect support. How are you this evening?" He said in a hushed tone, looking around for anyone who might have wandered closer.

Carina cocked her head. Why was the tech almost whispering? "I'm fine, thanks. Why are you whispering?"

Chuck thought quickly for an excuse. "I, uh, didn't want to wake my...coworker. She was working so hard she fell asleep on the desk. What did you need help with tonight?"

She shook her head. His tone didn't matter as much as the information he gave her. "I'm in Puerto Vallarta, and I have a small portion of an unmarked map that I took off Saxton's hard drive. I have no idea where it is in the city, and I'm hoping there's a way for me to send it to you for the Intersect to scan and tell me where in the city it is."

Chuck shook his head in consternation. "Seriously? There isn't really a good way for me to…handle…an image right now. Is there any way this can wait?"

As tired as she was from the travel, Carina couldn't bite back the sarcastic reply, "Oh sure. Let me just take a nap and not worry about the subversive group trying to take over the government while you do whatever it is you have to do to be ready to help!"

Chucks head fell. After pushing Sarah too far for information about her past resulted in a punctured picture of the two of them, he had to go and piss off another field agent. "Sorry. You didn't deserve that. It's been kind of a long few days here. I have an idea. Try to take a picture of the site with your phone and text it to mine. I'll see if I can fl…rig something up."

His defeated tone took Carina aback. She heard pain and frustration, and for some reason she couldn't quite figure out, she felt the need to reach out to this anonymous technician. "Is everything ok? You sound pretty rough," she put a little smile in her voice to try to cheer the man – at least the computerized male voice – up, "and here I thought you were so eager to hear from me." As she said this her eyes trailed to the row of apartment buildings visible outside her window.

"It's…it's my girlfriend. Things haven't been very solid between us lately," Chuck answered with generic enough information that it could apply to anyone.

"Your girlfriend," Carina replied with the slow, flat tone of someone who doesn't believe a word they were just told, before remembering she needed this guy to help her. "Well, what's been wrong? I'm a girl, maybe I can help."

Chuck laughed mirthlessly as he scanned the gym. Still no Sarah to be found and Casey was still controlling the music. "I wish you could, but it's…complicated. My girlfriend isn't exactly the sharing type, and I tried to get her to open up a little bit more than she's used to, and it didn't work out very well."

Carina sighed. Why in the world am I trying to help this guy out when I need to know about Fulcrum's operational base? "I'm really sorry, but, can I send you this picture so we can figure out where I need to go before we talk about girlfriend issues?"

He shook his head to regain focus. "Oh, yeah. Go ahead and shoot it over. Sorry about that, I just kinda get lost when I can't figure her out." He heard nothing for a few seconds before his phone beeped to let him know he had a new picture message. Chuck pulled the phone away from his ear and looked at the screen. The shape of the building and the immediate streets around triggered a flash. "Oh wow, yeah, this building is important. It's a cover office in the Las Palmas area of the city, on the Paeso de Las Palmas. There's one floor above ground that acts as the legitimate front company, but the two floors underground have the drug operations and a server bank for their data." He shook his head in an attempt to clear it, and saw Ratner waving to him over the crowd.

Carina looked back down at the image. She had a starting point now, but she needed more equipment. "Is there any way you can arrange to send me a new jump drive? My last one is just about full after taking the data off Saxton's computer."

Chuck pulled the phone away from his head to give it an annoyed glance. "Didn't you just give me a load of crap for saying I needed an hour or two to be able to see a picture and now you want me to ship you some equipment?"

She shook her head, even though he couldn't see the gesture. "Yeah, I'm sorry about that. The trip from Acapulco kind of wore me down. I shouldn't have snapped at you. I really need the equipment to get at the data in the Fulcrum servers. What can you help me with?"

He sighed, mollified. "Look, I can see if I can…FedEx…something to you overnight. Can you text me your address?"

Carina quirked her head to one side at the strange emphasis he put on the word 'FedEx'. Somehow that sounded familiar, but she couldn't put her finger on why. "I'm not totally comfortable with sending my location in a communication I'm not sure is secure."

He laughed. "Trust me, this is secure. The only people in the world who can see or hear our conversations are the two of us – these phones are totally unique. You'll be fine, I promise."

She sighed as she stood, unhappy with the situation, but with no way around it. She had to trust him. "Ok, I'll send you my address. You can send me the right kind of drive?"

Chuck snorted. "Please, I do this for a living! I'll even throw in a few extras you might need."

She stopped pacing at the apartment's small kitchen. "Thanks, I owe you one. Now, do you want to talk about your girlfriend problems?"

Chuck scanned the gym again before answering. "No, but thanks anyway. My girlfriend can't be figured out by normal humans. Sometimes I think she's from a different planet, sent here to confuse and tantalize Earthling men."

Carina stared at her phone. "Um, ok. Well, as soon as we hang up I'll text you my location, and I'll be on the lookout for that package tomorrow. Thanks again."

"No problem," Chuck said as he heard the reunion host announce that Jennifer Burton had won Reunion Queen, "Oh, crap, I really have to go now, though. I'll send that out tonight, promise." He killed the call and stood up with Casey to look for Sarah, before she emerged from a hallway, barefoot, soaked to the skin, and bleeding from her lip. When she had the crown on her head, his face broke out into a huge grin.


That night at Castle, after Heather and her goons had been processed, Chuck told Casey and Sarah to head on home so he could handle something for his night job. He looked through the base's technology stores, before finding what he needed. Taking a large Buy More shipping box, he loaded it with a not-yet-commercially-available jump drive capable of storing ten full terabytes of data, an external hard drive with two pieces of malware – including the Bartowski Special – for her to upload, an electronic lock pick, a dummy cell phone that was actually a universal explosives detonator, a magnetic GPS tracking device and its receiver, and finally, a prototype bulletproof vest made so that it appeared to be part of a woman's wardrobe which also had several strategically-placed blood bags. Chuck was about to close it when a thought struck him. He searched quickly, marveling at the variety of things Castle had for different missions. Dropping a few last things in, he sealed the box, addressed it with the location his contact gave him and dropped it off at an all-night FedEx store.


Carina was just settling down to eat a small meal of enchiladas when her apartment's buzzer went off. Cursing under her breath, she strode over to the door and pressed the intercom, "Quien es?"

"FedEx, ma'am," came the reply, "I have a package for a Cassandra Williamson."

"Be right down," she said curtly.

Carina slipped her Sig in the back of her waistband before grabbing her keys and heading down the stairs. When she got to the bottom floor, she looked in the lobby's mirror before turning the corner to the front door. Sure enough, there was a man in a FedEx uniform waiting with a much larger box than she'd expected based on what she requested from her Intersect tech. She just asked for a jump drive, so at the most she thought it would come in a padded envelope, but this box was a good three feet on each side. What the hell did he send me?

She opened the door with her left hand, keeping her right hand by her hip to draw her weapon as fast as possible if needed.

The delivery guy held out a scanner and said "Sign here, please."

Carina scrawled her alias' name before handing the device back. The driver nodded before squatting down and lifting the box with some effort. "Um, if you want, I can heft this upstairs for you. It's pretty heavy and I wouldn't want you to strain anything," he grunted as he looked her up and down.

She didn't even bother fighting the urge to roll her eyes. She took the box from him effortlessly and replied "No thanks, I've got it." His eyes widened before looking defeated at his dismissal.

After the truck drove off, she got into the elevator and rode upstairs. When she got back to her apartment, she put the box down and gasped out a breath. As she bent over with her hands on her knees, her eyes fell on the 'Buy More' logo running in a stripe around the outside of the box.


Carina walked through the doors feeling distinctly ridiculous. Her missions required any number of unusual disguises in the past, but this was something entirely new. If I ever meet that Intersect nerd in person I'm going to shove his face through a pizza for this. She tugged the brim of her Domino's cap down further over her eyes so the security cameras couldn't get a good look at her face. The doors closed behind her, and the security guards in front of her looked her up and down appreciatively. She successfully fought the urge to shudder, but it was a struggle.

"Hi boys! I have a pizza delivery," she said with a flirtatious smile. The guard looked dubious. She hefted her bag for emphasis. "Pizza?"

The guards shared a glance before looking her up and down again. Deciding the thin, attractive brunette was not a threat, the man behind the center of the desk handed her a visitor's badge and pointed her down the hall. "Make sure to bring this back when you're done."

She smiled her thanks and walked through a set of swinging doors. Once those closed behind her, she started looking for either an elevator or a stairwell. Off to her left, past a row of cubicles was a door marked 'stairs'. She headed off that way, and once she was by the door, did a quick scan of the surrounding halls to make sure no one saw her, then pushed the door open and pulled it closed quickly.

Not seeing any cameras trained on the stairwell, Carina ran down the stairs jumping two at a time. She skipped the first level and went as low as possible. The Intersect tech who cursed her with the pizza delivery uniform told her the lowest floor was the drug packaging area, while the immediate floor below ground was the server bank. She kept her eye open for guard patrols as she descended, but saw no one.

She opened the door to the lowest floor and looked around. She saw a huge room, hollowed out of the earth far beyond the boundaries of the above-ground facility. The array of cocaine-processing equipment was huge, beyond anything she'd seen in any of the other cartel sites thus far. She didn't have anything close to what she would need to take out this facility. Closing the door, she tried to think. Disabling the amount of equipment she saw was far beyond the meager array of explosives in her pizza delivery box.

The only way she could destroy that amount of machinery would be to fry the computers controlling it, and…she had to admit…the Intersect guy had given her just what she needed.

She went back up a floor, ever alert for guards, but seeing none. Carina entered the floor with the severs and looked around. She saw three men looking at a terminal a few computer banks down. Slowly and quietly she lowered her bag to the floor. She reached behind her and pulled her silenced Sig, before slowly advancing on the balls of her feet. "Freeze!" she shouted.

All three men jumped and reached for their weapons. Carina squeezed off three quick shots, hitting each in the head before advancing on the terminal previously occupied by her three victims. The dummy terminal luckily had a USB port, so she hurriedly opened the delivery bag and pulled out the USB drive she'd been sent with the rest of the equipment. Quickly connecting it to the terminal, she searched for as many folders as possible and downloaded those to the drive, before opening the executable file marked "BS". Once that file had transferred to the terminal, she made sure it had started to run before unplugging the drive and moving to the exit.

Opening the door, she saw five guards waiting for her. Carina quickly closed the door and tried to figure out her next move. She ran down a bank of computers and ducked behind a solid row. She drew her silenced pistol as she heard the door open behind her. Carina turned down the other side of the computers and saw two men advancing toward her. Almost reflexively, she fired two shots under the visors of their helmets and dropped them. The three others ran over to that aisle, but she ducked around the corner, avoiding their rush.

Carina took a position on the corner of one of the banks of computers. One of the men came around the side nearest the door while the remaining two went further into the server room. She huffed out a breath, blowing errant strands of hair out of her eyes. As the men approached from one side, she turned and said in a deliberately coquettish voice, "Now, boys, don't you know it's rude to sneak up on a lady?"

The men turned to each other and that split second of indecision was enough for Carina to make her move. She closed the gap between them and dropped one with a flying kick. The other managed to get in a lucky punch to her midsection, but as she doubled over, it gave her the excuse to drop and do a spin kick to knock the guard on his back. In a flash, she was upright with her foot on his throat. Carina pointed her gun at his face and growled, "Give me your radio or you'll never see sunlight again."

The guard – eyes wide with fear, quickly handed over his earpiece and transmitter. Carina looked him in the eye, and after very quickly thanking him, pistol-whipped the guard into unconsciousness. She slipped the earpiece into her ear and clipped the receiver to her belt. The remaining two guards were moving further and further down the rows, away from her. Thinking quickly, she slipped out the door she came in and shot the electronic lock, sealing the two guards in.

Carina ran down the hallway to the stairwell, but as she opened the door, a short man with receding dark brown hair and a huge Desert Eagle pistol stopped her. "Agent Miller! It's such a pleasure to meet you! My name is Nathan Rhyerson, but you can call me Ned. Saxton told us about your unfortunate arrival before he…ended his involvement with Fulcrum. Unfortunately for you…" his voice trailed off as the butt of Carina's pistol encountered his jaw. The pathetic-looking man collapsed to the ground, and Carina stepped over his body and moved back up to the main floor. She could hear the creak, shriek, and grind of machinery seizing up behind her as she ascended the stairs.

From there, it was nothing at all to drop her visitor badge off at the desk and waltz out the front door, swaying her hips as she went to distract the guards from her face.


"Agent Miller has escaped," Fulcrum's head of Mexican operations said into the phone, "and she must be stopped. You are authorized to take whatever measures are necessary to deal with her so that she never poses a threat to Fulcrum again." The brunette on the other end of the call nodded and terminated the communication. She had a new assignment and Sidney Prince never failed.


A/N 2: Yup. In this universe, Sidney Prince was Fulcrum before she joined the Ring.

Next time on Chuck Versus the Night Shift:

Unbeknownst to Carina, at that moment Fulcrum agents disguised as housekeeping staff were entering the room number Cooper reported to them and, finding the cell phone she left on her dresser, implanted a very tiny bug with a GPS transponder. They slipped back out with no one taking any note of their entry.