Don't own Chuck

Vladimir Mikhail left work one late evening and walked back to his small apartment not far from work. Tired he decided to stop off at his favourite watering hole and have a couple of drinks before going home. After the bar he stopped off at a blini stand and got three with cabbage and eggs, one he ate as he walked and two he took home for dinner. But as he walked he couldn't help but feel someone was following him. He looked back around and saw no one then all of a sudden everything went black.

"Wake up sunshine," Vladimir heard as he felt a slap. Then slowly he came to and looked around the room. He was tied to a chair with a table in front of him and two men stood on each side of him that looked like junior mountains with tattoos that he could see coming out from under their sleeves.

"Bratva," he murmured as fear gripped him. "But I paid my bills."

"Yes, you did," said the elderly man sitting across from him eating one of his blini.

"Very good," the man said, "Sasha, love would you like one. They are very good. You got them from that new American stand what's it called I can't remember it's got a Hawaiian name."

"No thank you, cabbage and pig don't go together well," Carina said as she slapped Vladimir.

"You have to excuse my Sasha but she's a little upset with you. Vladimir you've been a very naughty boy. Those warheads you sold weren't yours to sell. I know about your gambling debts and how you paid them off but did you really think no one would notice?"

"Who are you? What do you want from me?"

"My name is Juri Sheshenko and what I am I think is clear as for what I want from you well let's start with information."

"Listen I don't know anything. I didn't do anything. This is all a big misunderstanding."

"Now you insult my intelligence. Do you like playing cards? Of course you do or else you wouldn't have accumulated all those debts that needed to be paid." Chuck took out a deck of cards. "I'll deal seeing as you're indisposed." Chuck shuffled the deck then dealt Vladimir a hand, four up and one down. "Tell me Mr. Mikhail what cards do you have?"

"Two pair, two aces and two eights."

"Good, do you know what the Americans call that?" The man shook his head. "It's called the dead man's hand. That was the hand that Wild Bill Hickok had when he was shot to death. Let me see if I can put this in perspective for you," said Chuck as he laid a Colt peacemaker on the table.

"Hey wait a minute," said Vladimir as he looked around the room for help.

"The gun that won the American west, now let's have a look at your hole card?" Chuck turned over the card which turned out to be a picture of Stavros.

"Who's that? I don't know him. Come on you've got to let me go."

"Still holding out, okay we're now going to move from America to Russia," said Chuck as he took out a bullet from his pocket and held it up in front of Vladimir. "In we go," he said then spun the tumbler, "round it goes and where it stops no one knows."

"Hey, what are you going to do with that?"

"You know we're going to play a little game call truth or dare. I ask a question and you tell me the truth. If you lie to me and I will know you lied to me then we go with the dare." Carina put her hand on Chuck's shoulder.

"Vladimir my daughter is trying to tell me that I shouldn't do this and truthfully I don't want to so if you answer my questions then you will walk out of here. But as she knows, as do my two associates that are standing next to you if you don't you'll be carried out. So tell me about Stavros."

"I don't know anything," he said and Chuck picked up the gun pointed at his head and pulled the trigger. Chuck could hear Carina gasp and the two FSB agents looked at each other but the gun make a click the chamber was empty.

"You might need new trousers after this. Well one down and five more to go. Shall we try again? Do you feel lucky but you know sooner or later you're going to find the prize. Does Stavros mean that much to you that you're willing to die for him?"

"I can't he'll kill me."

"Now an honest answer we're making progress. I'll make you another deal. If you tell me everything I'll take you to the FSB and you can confess to them. They will take you into custody. You will have to serve some prison time but under a new identity and in a minimum security facility." Chuck looked up at the two men next to Vladimir and they both nodded their heads.

"You promise to keep me safe if I talk?"

"Vladimir, if the Bratva and the FSB can't keep you safe in Russia who else can? Besides what choice do you have," said Chuck as he picked up the gun.

"Okay what do you want to know?"

"I want you to tell me everything. I want to know how you stole the warheads. I want to know what you did with them and on what ships you loaded them on. I want to know everything you know about Stavros. Then I want you to send Stavros this file," Chuck said as he handed Vladimir a flash drive.

"What's on the drive?"

"It has all my information and tells Stavros I'm coming for him. He's taken something of mine and I want it back."

"You know he's crazy. He'll kill you."

"Thank you for your concern but I'm poking the goat."

"Don't you mean bear?"

"No, I'm the bear that's going to eat the goat."

They got everything down on tape then waited for two other FSB agents to arrive to take Vladimir away to jail.

"You know I've seen crazy crap before but you take the cake," said one of the FSB men.

"I wouldn't take that as a compliment," said the other. "We've been in some pretty scary stuff but we've never gone that far."

"Chuck they're right. I would've never thought you'd have risked a man's life let alone a mole for information. Has the old Sarah rubbed off on you or something?"

"Guys, what are you all talking about?" Chuck said as he opened his hand and held out the bullet. "If there's one thing I learned from Jack is that the ball is never under the cup. I let him see what I wanted him to see."

"Remind us we never want to play poker with you," said one of the men as the other nodded.

"Unless it's strip poker," said Carina.

"Right game, wrong person," said Chuck. "Where did that other blini end up at anyway? They were actually very good."

"We can stop and get more on our way down to the piers. The Yasen is waiting for us.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Mary was in the air on Stavros' private jet going over the details of their assault on Lou's Italian Gourmet deli. She took ten of her best men on this mission because she knew that when Chuck took her team out that would leave Stavros helpless and more likely to give her the final access she needed to find the locations of the missing warheads and closer to finishing her mission. But even if she found the warheads she had to deactivate his dead man's switch. She was going over the final preparations with Demetri when she received a frantic call from her boss.

"Ms. Frost," said the co-pilot, "we've a call for you in the cabin. Can you please follow me?" Mary followed the man up into the cabin where the pilot was making adjustments to their course.

"How long before we're in Los Angeles? She asked looking at her watch.

"Couple of hours now that we've topped off there shouldn't be any reason to stop. The Boss wants to speak to you let me put him on speaker."

"Stavros, you wanted to talk, remember we're on an unsecure channel."

"Things have gone to crap here. I just got word from our man in Russia that some guy from the Bratva is gunning for me. I'm sending you his file as we speak they should have it in the plane."

"Don't panic on me now. Let's get this problem fixed in L.A. and then I'll turn around and head home. I should have things tied up here in about six or eight hours then I can take care of your other problem. If your problem is in Russia it will take them time to get to you so don't panic. I'll be able to handle it when I get back like I handled your other problems. If I have to go to Russia to eliminate the problem I will."

"Thanks, I feel better talking to you. Just get back as soon as possible."

"If you gave me full access this would be easier for me to handle."

"I'm not ready to do that yet but we can talk about it when you get back. Just hurry up. I want to go to my club and I can't. This thing is cramping my style."

Cramping his style she thought at least he's still alive. "You're right and like I said give me some time I'll make it go away. Stavros I need to go." As Mary signed off she wanted to tell him to man up but she knew that was impossible for him.

"Do you have that file he sent?" asked Mary.

"Here," said the co-pilot as he handed her a flash drive, "you can take it back and look at it from your seat." She walked back to and inserted the pen into the console in front of her chair.

"Crap," she said out loud.

"What is it?" asked Demetri as he came to inquire as to what Stavros wanted.

"Nothing, he's worried about this man asking about him."

"Who is it? I don't recognize the face."

"Juri Sheshenko, a cold blooded killer and one you'd best stay clear of. The terror of Moscow and a high ranking member of the Bratva, it seems he's gunning for Stavros over something he stole that belonged to the brotherhood."

"Sounds scary, should we turn around?"

"No, we'll see this mission through then take care of Juri. We can't be batting back and forth so get the men geared up we need to hit the tarmac running," she said and sent Demetri off.

"What have you go planned Chuck?" she said to herself as she looked at Chuck in his disguise. She didn't like it and there was no one to ask or was there. Her mind started turning but she'd have to act and improvise a little but it could be done if she played her cards right. Looking around she took out a burner phone and sent a pic she had previously uploaded. However, she got notification that the message could not be sent.

"Crap," she said as she looked down at the screen then glanced back at Demetri who was still with the men. She typed in another number and pressed send this time the message went through and just in time as Demetri made his way back to her.

"Everything is set. I also phoned ahead and arranged for ground transportation. There will be two Escalades waiting for us."

"Very good and make sure the drivers know where we're supposed to go. I know that sounds stupid but the last thing we want is to go to the wrong place and take out the wrong deli." Demetri laughed. "And by the way lay off the drink until we finish."

"Yes ma'am," he said stopping laughing.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Sarah was in Castle with Casey and Cole monitoring the situation that was unfolding in Mykonos via satellite. They had seen Mary depart the island the day before with a squad of men and realized the hit was in play. Then all of a sudden they saw all sorts of ground activity as if they were gearing up for war and couldn't help but think that Chuck had somehow stirred up the pot. Sarah's phone rang telling her she had just received a message when General Beckman came on the monitor.

"General," said Casey, "it something wrong?"

"You tell me. Where is Agent Bartowski?"

"I'm here," said Sarah. Knowing it wasn't her she was looking for.

"No and don't be coy with me. All of you know I mean Chuck. I just received a telephone call from NORAD and the Joint Chiefs asking me why a Russian submarine was using our access codes to link to NSA satellites. I told them we had a joint operation going on with SVR linked to the recovery of those lost warheads. You can imagine the position I'm in with the director."

"Well yes Ma'am but you see we really don't know Chuck's entire plan," said Sarah. "But I just received a coded message from Mary. I'll need a little time to decipher it but as soon as I do I'll be able to get you some answers."

"So I can tell the director that the two are working together?"

"Well I wouldn't say together more like headed in the same direction with the same goals."

"Don't tell me anything else. I think it's better if I don't know but Chuck had better have a good excuse or Supermax will have another guest."

"I'm sure he does General."

"Beckman out."

"Roger out," said Casey as he turned to Sarah. "Listen Beckman isn't kidding around. Chuck had better know what he's doing or you're going to have to ask for conjugal visits."

"Let's focus on what we can take care of at hand," Sarah said. "Mary sent this picture of Lou's dinner."

"What does it mean?" asked Cole.

"Chuck said that this was how Mary told him the time and place to meet."

"So the place is Lou's," said Casey, "we know she's leading a kill squad so the location is obvious but when?"

"What would Chuck do," asked Cole.

"He'd up load it to a computer like this then he'd zoom in refreshing the pixel rate and sharpening the contrast to clear the picture then look around for hints. Here there's a man in line with a newspaper. Can you make out the date?"

"It's today's date. See if you can zoom in on his watch," said Cole. "Six p.m., so we know she's in the air and should be landing soon. The newspaper has today's date and if that's right then we can assume the hit will go down at six."

"That doesn't give us much time to get into place," said Casey. "I'm calling Alex at Lou's."

"Then let's roll," said Sarah as they went into the armory and geared up. "Casey, call in a tactical support team but they need to know Mary is a friendly and not to harm her."

"Why, that takes all the fun out of it."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

After boarding the Yasen, Juri Sheshenko and Sasha were taken down below to their berthing. Room on the submarine was limited so they had to bunk together. Shortly afterward, the boat departed and once outside the break waters they submerged to their running depth as they headed towards the straits then into the Mediterranean.

"Mr. and Miss Sheshenko can you follow me," said the Executive officer our two Captains want to meet you." They followed the officer to the Captain's cabin where they met the two men reliving glory days over a chart. Once inside the officer closed the door behind him and left.

"Captain Gorgey Ivanoff, the elderly man said and this is Captain Boris Alekesi, the real captain of the Yasen."

"Old friend you are ever much the Captain as this man is," said Chuck.

The man looked at Chuck for a long time as if he was trying to find something then he laughed and hugged him. Carina and Alekesi looked at each other and shrugged.

"Yes, yes Sheshenko, Juri it has been a long time. You have to forgive me you know my age and everything. This is who?"

"My daughter, Sasha, Sasha this is Captain Gorgey Ivanoff the sea wolf of the Baltic and an old friend."

"Sea wolf that was a long time ago."

"Nonsense," said Alekesi, "they still talk about you at the academy and your exploits. I am happy that I've gotten a chance to meet you. So Juri I was told that this was some sort of secret mission and that I was to follow your and Captain Ivanoff's instructions. There are certain parts of the submarine that are off limits to you two."

"I realize that and I respect it. I will have to make some modifications to your war room but nothing permanent and any modification I do to your programming with be self-eliminating."

"Good. Then I'll have to cover something in the war room while you are there and Captain Ivanoff will be your guarantee."

"Excellent, have you heard from the FSB are they on standby?"

"Yes, they're in the air and ready to deploy at your order. Let me go so I can get you into the war room as soon as possible." Captain Alekesi left. Ivanoff went to the door opened and looked up then down the passageway before came back in and closed it.

"So Agent Bartowski, you call yourself Juri Sheshenko these days," Ivanoff said in English. Carina's jaw dropped her reaction was to reach for her gun but Chuck stopped her.

"Yes, Gregory and not so long ago that you should forget me. How is your grandchild?"

"He's very well as are all my men you helped. I assumed there is a reason you wanted me for this mission."

"Yes, I need someone who knows how to sail a submarine and one I can trust. You are a man of honor and what we have to do is for the good of both our countries as well as our children."

"So you and Sarah have a child now? Good, good, family is all that matters but you know that and who is your lovely friend? She can't be your daughter." They all laughed.

In a few minutes Captain Alekesi came back and took them to the war room where Chuck began his modifications over Ivanoff's watchful eye.

"Chuck," asked Carina since they were alone with Ivanoff, "why did you pick this submarine for this mission?"

"The Yasen is new and technologically advanced so I'll have fewer problems connecting her systems with ours. This boat cost the Russians three and half billion dollars that's a lot of rubles. And here we go," said Chuck bringing up a view from the internal cameras in Castle.

"Can they hear and see us," asked Carina.

"No, we don't have the bandwidth and for now it's just visual. Look there," said Chuck. "What are they doing?"

"Looks like they're examining something on a computer can you zoom in?"

"Let me try," he said as he brought the picture in close. "That's Lou's deli and now they're gearing up. Carina, the hit's today."