Disclaimer: Do you own Chuck? Please, Please say you're the ones that own Chuck. I'd really like to meet you. Clearly I'm not the one that owns Chuck. That's why this is posted on the internet and I'm not rich. Oh how I wish I was rich…
Ellie and Devon weren't up yet when Chuck left for work. Mercifully, Chuck and Sarah had breakfast alone before heading over to meet Casey and going to work. Casey however was late. Casey was never late…ever. After knocking twice Sarah got a concerned look on her face and pulled out her lock picks.
"He's okay, right?" Chuck asked.
"I'm not su…"
"I'm fine," Casey grunted as he opened the door. "You two have fun last night?"
Chuck thought back to his and Sarah's conversation the previous night and he blushed, but Sarah kicked him and shook her head. "It was a good party," she said. "You should have come out and joined us."
Casey rolled his eyes as they started towards the car. "Please, those cretins are the last people I want to socialize with."
"What do you mean Casey?"
"Democrats," Casey said dangerously.
"Hey, I'm a…" Casey glared at Chuck and Chuck stopped talking. "Right."
The ride in the car was quiet and uncomfortable as none of the inhabitants seemed to be willing to actually talk. Luckily the trip to the Buy More wasn't particularly long and Chuck gave Sarah a peck goodbye before he and Casey walked inside. "Everything okay with you?" Chuck asked him.
Casey gave him an annoyed look. "What do you mean?"
"It's just…well you haven't been around much."
"Have you had a flash yet?" Casey asked.
"No…no. I just wanted to make sure you're okay. Even your snide comments have been less…biting."
"Believe it or not Bartowski I didn't become an agent to work at the Buy More. So stop screwing around and flash already."
"Casey, I can't…"
"You didn't even read the daily report yesterday. Don't think I don't know that you spent the day screwing around with Agent Walker instead of doing your duty."
"Casey, it was just busy…" Casey gave him a murderous look and Chuck knew he'd better be getting caught up today. Chuck unlocked the doors and punched in the code to open the security curtain.
Casey stormed away into the store as soon as the curtain was high enough for him to get under. Chuck went about the morning routine. Eventually unlocking the registers and getting the handful of greenshirts to setup the product displays. Chuck walked over and started flipping on all the TV's. Then he settled in at the Nerd Herd desk and started organizing the work orders.
Jeff and Lester walked in and Chuck handed them a work order immediately. "Plasma TV install in Encino, be back in ninety minutes."
"I'm too hung over to install TVs," Jeff moaned.
"Yeah and I'm too pretty for that much manual labor," Lester added.
"Not in the mood guys, it was a long night," Chuck warned.
"Why can't you do it?" Lester asked.
"I have a different one."
"Two plasma's in the same morning?" Lester asked.
"Three, and its college football's big day. Don't you guys follow sports?"
"I enjoy cricket," Lester replied.
"Beer pong," Jeff nodded.
"Well today everybody wants to watch college football on their new TVs and it's going to be a long day. You should know that by now, it happens every New Year. We'll get at least three more orders before the day is out."
"I knew there was a reason I could never remember New Years," Lester whined. "I block it out."
"There's Jake, I'm taking him with me to help on my install. Remember I need you back here in ninety minutes!" Chuck called over his shoulder.
"That man, has too much worth ethic," Lester muttered as Chuck walked away.
***
"Chuck! Where have you been?" Emmett demanded when Chuck returned from his third TV install of the day.
"Installing big screen TVs."
"Why are you going?"
"Everybody's going, the whole Nerd Herd is on high alert accept Anna, she can't lift half a big screen."
Emmett eyed Chuck suspiciously. "I don't want you going out on anymore offsite work calls."
"What? Why?"
"Nobody knows where you go on those offsite calls. You could be doing anything . You're spending far too little time inside the Buy More where I can keep an eye on you."
"Emmett, the Nerd Herd professionals help people. It's what we do; it's in the Buy More manual."
"Don't quote the Buy More manual to me. I have it memorized, unlike some of you. You bring great dishonor to the Buy More name with your slacker conduct and disrespect for authority."
"Emmett, I'm just trying to do my job."
"No, you always seem to be trying to do everyone else's job. Big Mike doesn't see it, but I know the truth. No more off sites for you until you clear them with me. Now if you'll excuse me." Emmett turned his back and stalked away.
"Wow, that dude is seriously crazy," Morgan shook his head.
"I don't get it. Why do assistant managers always hate me?"
Morgan shook his head. "They can't live up to your standards. You make everyone here look bad. It would be darn annoying if you weren't such a great guy." Morgan punched him in gently in the shoulder.
"Thanks buddy. My back is pretty much killing me, so I can use a break anyway."
"Don't worry man, I've had to make Emmett back off before. I'll figure something out."
"You're a good friend, Morgan."
"You kidding? I'm your best friend."
Chuck patted Morgan on the back. "Well since I'm grounded I think I'll take lunch. You wanna come visit Sarah with me?"
"Nah you guys need your private time. Were still on for the arcade tomorrow though, right?"
"Oh, the arcade…"
"Come on, man, I've hung out with you like once in the last month."
"I know, I know, I'll be there."
Chuck made his way to the LargeMart and ordered a couple of chicken caesar salads. LargeMart had surprisingly good food at extremely reasonably prices. The only problem was, he felt kind of cheap taking a LargeMart salad to Sarah. There wasn't anything for it though. She was the one with the stipend, not him.
"Hi," Chuck greeted her merrily as he walked in. "I brought you lunch."
"You didn't have to do that," Sarah admonished him slightly.
"I know, but I wanted to. I enjoy spending my lunch breaks with you." Sarah gave him a toothy grin. "Besides its good for the cover if people think I can't stay away from you."
Sarah wiggled her eyebrows. "Bonus Chuck time for me."
"Well at least you get a free lunch out of it."
Sarah frowned at him. "Don't talk like that, my thirty minutes with you are the highlight of my work day."
"That's quite possibly the most backhanded compliment you've ever given me."
Sarah threw her cleaning rag at him. "What did you bring me?"
"LargeMart salad," Chuck replied as he put the bag on the counter.
"Good choice." Despite her enthusiasm she only picked the chicken and tomatoes off of her salad. They ate in a comfortable silence, while Chuck surreptitiously watched her. If Sarah noticed Chuck checking her out, she didn't give any indication of it. He wondered sometimes if she didn't mind Chuck looking, or if she was just so used to people looking she didn't really notice. It bugged him that he enjoyed just looking at her so much. It seemed shallow and hurtful, Sarah was so much more than just a pretty face.
"What?" she finally asked.
"What, what?" Chuck replied.
"You're looking at me."
"Sorry," Chuck replied blushing. Apparently she did notice.
"You don't have to be sorry," Sarah replied with an odd expression. What was that expression, was it shyness? "I just want to know why you're looking at me like that."
"It's nothing."
"Right," Sarah nodded. "I knew that." She watched him for a moment. "Are you okay about last night? I know I embarrassed you. I'm sorry about that. That's not why I did what I did and it's especially not why I said what I said."
"Yeah, I'm fine." Chuck fought the blush that was creeping up his body.
"I probably should have found a different way to deal with my aggravation."
"You didn't shoot him, so that's probably excellent restraint." Chuck shared a small evil grin with Sarah. "Well I better get back to work before Emmett has a conniption. I need to get out of the Buy More on time. I didn't get the daily report done yesterday and I think Casey's going to start removing my body parts, if I don't get caught up as soon as I get off work."
"I'll check on Dan Baines DMV record after work and then, if you get done early enough maybe we can have dinner or something. We haven't just hung out in a long time. I miss that."
"That sounds really nice. Awesome will no doubt have commandeered Casa Bartowski's giant TV for watching football games all day. I'd rather not have to go home to that." Chuck gave Sarah a small smile and a wave and headed back to the Buy More.
***
Chuck was scheduled to work until four but at three thirty and emergency call came in to the Nerd Herd desk. The system that ran Pasadena's Typhoon Dragon restaurant's order, delivery and billing system had gone down. Chuck grabbed his kit and looked around the store. He finally spotted Emmett berating Cliff, a rather hapless green shirt over in home electronics and headed that way.
"Emmett, I've got an emergency service call."
"Oh, no you don't." Emmett turned away from Cliff who shot Chuck a grateful look before slinking away.
"The Typhoon Dragon's computer system is down. It's their busiest day of the year, I've got to get over there as soon as possible."
"I told you, you're benched. Get one of the other Nerds to do it."
"I can't, Jeff and Lester have been doing TV installs all day. They can barely move, and Anna's on a call in Santa Monica, she couldn't get over there until like six thirty the game ends at six, if they don't get things back up by then they'll lose a ton of business."
"Send the new guy," Emmett argued.
"Jake isn't ready for this yet, he's only been here two weeks, this is a critical call. I might take him with me, but I don't need him and he gets off in twenty minutes."
"No, Chuck, if you can't find someone else, it will have to wait for someone tomorrow."
"Emmett, it's an emergency!"
"Then, they can call someone else!"
Chuck glared at Emmett. "This is the Nerd Herd, we help people in need. I'm going."
"If you go, don't bother coming into work tomorrow, you're fired."
"You know what, Emmett? I've had enough of you, you do what you have to, I'll be at the Typhoon Dragon." Chuck turned and walked away.
"You're making a big mistake, Bartowski!" Emmett yelled after him. "I'm warning you, I'm not kidding!"
Chuck stormed out of the Buy More and slammed the door of Nerd Herder 3 as he got in. He slalomed through the parking lot and raced for the freeway on ramp. Chuck took the tight clover leaf onramp at close to forty miles per hour. He was halfway to Glendale before the anger started to abate and Chuck realized he was driving like an imbecile. Sarah and Casey might be trained to drive like this, but he wasn't and Sarah would be mad at him for driving so recklessly.
As the anger at Emmett drained away, dread set in. Emmett had fired him. He didn't have a job anymore. General Beckman…was going to be mad, probably even madder than normal. Chuck shook his head, it was probably better not to dwell on it, there would be plenty of time for that when Casey and Sarah found out. Chuck plugged his I-Pod into the car's sound system and tried to forget about Emmett for the rest of his long drive to Pasadena.
The computer problem was more severe that Chuck figured. The raid array on the restaurant's server was corrupt. The drives were intact but the file system was getting errors. Chuck worked for a solid hour to get it online and since the company didn't have backups he took one to his USB hard drive. He was able to get the restaurant back online, but he'd need parts and since it was after hours today, they wouldn't be able to get parts. Chuck would have to install it on a different piece of hardware tomorrow, for tonight, he was happy just to be able to get it up for the dinner crowd after the game. It proved unstable and Chuck found himself sitting on a crate in next to the dishwashers just in case it went down again. The Typhoon Dragon was more than happy to pay for his time if they could minimize any further outages. They even gave him dinner.
He was almost finished with noodles when his phone rang and Sarah's face appeared on his display. It wasn't until that moment he remembered he was supposed to be having dinner with her tonight. "Hi, Sarah."
"Hi. I thought you were coming over tonight?"
"I got called out on an emergency."
"Casey said there was some trouble at the Buy More."
"Yeah…" Chuck trained off.
"Something bad?" Sarah asked.
"Casey didn't say?"
"He said you'd had an argument with Emmett about something and stormed out. Apparently things got ugly."
"You could say that," Chuck sighed.
"Are you okay?"
"I'm fine… Look can we talk about this later? I've been on this service call all evening and I still have a lot of stuff to do before I turn in my herder."
"Are we going to have dinner?"
"Sorry. But, the restaurant isn't closing until midnight." Chuck heard Sarah give a heavy sigh over the phone.
"I ran the DMV check on Dan Baines," she finally said.
Chuck perked up at that. "What'd you find?"
"Dan Baines has never owned a truck of any kind."
"That's impossible!" Chuck objected.
"I know what you saw, Chuck, but the truck isn't registered to him. That tread pattern might be the same as one found at a crime scene, but it doesn't mean he was driving that truck. It could have been from a different truck or the truck could have belonged to someone else…"
"I know it was that truck!" Chuck insisted.
"Chuck…" Sarah said pleadingly.
"Look I'll go by and get the plate number before I head home."
"Chuck it's all the way in Pasadena!"
"I'm in Pasadena."
"You're in Pasadena!" Sarah exclaimed.
"Yeah…"
"Chuck you aren't to go anywhere near that guy's house."
"Sarah, I'm not a baby."
"Chuck." Sarah said warningly.
"I'm just going to get the license plate."
"No you're not, promise me you won't go anywhere near that truck."
"Sarah, I've got to go, the managers waving at me."
"Chuck, promise me!" Sarah insisted.
"I have to go."
"Promise me, or I'm driving there right now!" Sarah ordered.
"Look, I promise, I'll talk to you later, okay?"
"Okay, call me when you're done there."
Chuck hung up his phone and headed back into the store room to fix the server again.
***
It was ten after midnight when Chuck's phone rang again. "Hi, Sarah."
"Why are you still in Pasadena?" Sarah asked.
"I'm just packing up."
"Well get home, already. I want to go to bed."
Chuck laughed. "You don't have to baby sit me."
"Yes I do. It's my job."
"Hey, I want to get the plate number before I go back to Burbank."
"Chuck, you promised."
"Listen, I'll stay on the phone with you, while I drive by and I'll just read the number to you, I won't even stop."
"I don't want…"
"Sarah, please, just let me do this. I'll be fine, I promise."
"You promise you won't stop?"
"Promise."
"Make it quick, you need to get to bed."
"Yeah…"
Chuck called Sarah when he got to the neighborhood and crept by the house, but the truck wasn't there. "I'll drive around a bit, see if I can find it. It's probably just on another block."
"No, Chuck, get home now!"
"Sarah, it'll take ten minutes."
"Chuck, I'm getting in my car right now."
"Okay, Okay, I'm heading out. "
"I'm watching."
"I'll talk to you tomorrow."
Chuck headed back to the Buy More. He used his key to unlock the store. Chuck wrote out the work order for the server parts. He left his backup of the hard drive with the work order and his work kit at the Nerd Herd desk. Chuck walked slowly into Big Mike's office. He got a lump in his throat as he took the store key off his key ring and then the keys to his Nerd Herder. Chuck took off his tie and left it with his keys on Big Mike's desk. Chuck closed his eyes as he walked back to the break room and emptied his locker. He sighed as he took down the picture of him and Morgan on his first day. That was a long time ago. Chuck took down the pictures of Sarah and pulled out his video game preview disks. He slowly packed everything into and old VCR box. He didn't actually have a way to get home and he still needed to do the daily report, so Chuck used the secret entrance to the Castle and walked noisily down the stairs. It felt just like leaving Stanford again.
