A/N1 One chapter to go after this. As I said last time, the final chapter is epilogue-ish. I appreciate folks who took the leap with this little story and have stayed around. I know it's been...odd. It's been a different sort of writer's problematic for me, and although at times I grew frustrated with it, on the whole, I am glad I followed out my impulse.

Thanks for the reviews and PMs.

Don't own Chuck.

Too Old For This

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Repairing the Web

Sarah had bathed in a tub in one of the rooms of the house. Frost sat with Chuck and Rider while she was out of their room. Rider's condition was steadily improving. They expected him to wake up soon; the fever had not returned. He was sleeping off his exhaustion.

Sarah was now seated at the foot of Chuck's cot. She was looking at the files she had found when she was washing him off after her own bath. He had not stirred as she tended to him. Sarah couldn't make much of the files, except the notations, written in Stephen's small, careful hand.

He had clearly observed Chuck carefully after his boyhood download. But he had not seen anything in Chuck's condition or behavior that suggested that the Intersect was harming Chuck.

Frost was standing beside Sarah. As Sarah finished with each page, they had been in dated order, she handed the page to Frost. Sarah had been so engrossed in the pages that she had not noticed that Frost was weeping silently as she looked at them. Finally, she heard Frost mutter to herself.

"Oh, Stephen. Stephen! I left you alone with this. Maybe if I had been there...Maybe." She smiled ruefully to herself through her tears and Sarah turned away, leaving her to grief. Finally, she handed the last page over and Frost finished it. Frost dabbed at her eyes and gave Sarah a hopeful look. "If it didn't hurt Chuck, why would it hurt Rider? They are alike, so alike." Frost's voice was very quiet as she spoke. She walked to the other side of the room and slipped the folder into Casey's backpack, the one with the laptop. "We'll make sure these get to Ellie."

Sarah nodded. She got up and walked to the window, the one Rider had used to escape and follow her and Casey. She looked out at the sun as it finally crested the tree line. She turned back around after a moment; Frost was staring at her. Sarah shrugged. "I just wish Chuck would do something. It's like he's here and gone. I can't stand it."

At that moment, the door opened and Beckman led a man in. "This is Dr. Guyer. He's come by helicopter. He works with the NSA from time to time. He will examine them both."

Frost left the room, but Sarah returned to her seat. She watched the doctor examine Chuck and then Rider. He was a small man, neatly dressed, with an unfortunate mustache. He seemed to know what he was doing otherwise. His hand moved quickly and surely. After a while, he stepped to her. "You are the wife and mother?"

"Yes."

"Your son looks fine to me. He's weak and tired, but the danger from the fever is gone. I believe he will awaken soon. About your husband: I don't know. He's not...ill. But he is unresponsive. You know that though." He gave her a sheepish look. "Do you know what was done to him?" She told the doctor the little she knew about the Revoltium, but she did not mention the Intersect. The doctor listened, making notes on a small pad. He looked up at her after a moment's scribbling.

"The worry really is that he will weaken. I don't know when he last ate. I will hook him up to an IV, get some fluids and nourishment into him. But I fear there's little we can do beyond that. Keep his strength up, and wait."

Sarah thanked the doctor and he went out. She heard him start the same report to Beckman and the others as she closed the door. She leaned against it when she closed it, gazing at her family. She willed herself into action and walked over, grabbed the chair, and pulled it up to the head of Chuck's cot.

She sat down and leaned close to his ear. She etched each word in a determined whisper. "You are not lost, Chuck Bartowski. I find you. I always find you. I found you. You always find me. Now, find me. You are my home and I am yours. Come home, Chuck, come back to me. I want to keep trying to get pregnant. I want to have another child with you. We aren't beat yet. We've beaten longer odds. But you have to find me now. I can't find you where you are. I can only," her voice broke, "...I can only call you to me now. Come home, Chuck."

Chuck did not respond. She put her head down and his chest and she let the tears come at last, let the week of panic and worry and stress run from her eyes and onto her husband.

When Sarah looked up later, she realized Beckman had come in. Beckman did not react to Sarah's tears. She wasn't going to intrude. Sarah wiped her eyes.

"Sarah, we should be ready soon to go back to the city. A plane is there. We'll fly to LA and Ellie will be waiting for us. She's already assembling a team and the necessary equipment. Dr. Guyer thinks we can safely move them both. The other helicopter will be here soon."

Sarah smiled in thanks. Beckman left the room. Dr. Guyer returned with the needed IV and hooked it up. He watched over Chuck for a few minutes. He was about to leave when Rider spoke.

"Mom?"

Rider opened his eyes and looked around. Sarah moved quickly to him and took his hands in hers. "I'm here, Rider. You are back in the village. You are ok, you're safe, Rider."

Rider smiled at her, but weakly. "I'm hungry."

Sarah looked up at Dr. Guyer. He gave her and Rider a big smile. "Rider, I'm Dr. Guyer. Like your mom said, you are going to be ok. I'll see about food." He left the room.

Rider settled back on his cot. He gazed up into Sarah's eyes. His eyes lost focus for a moment. Sarah grew alarmed but then Rider focused on her. "Mom, I talked to Dad."

Sarah rubbed one of Rider's hands. "No, honey, that was a dream. Your Dad is...still unconscious."

Rider lifted his head and located Chuck beside him. He settled back again. "No, Mom. Not a dream. I talked to him...in my head. In his head. Dad said that it was because of my fever, and the Intersect in my head."

Sarah breathed in sharply. "You know about the Intersect?"

Rider nodded and gave her a weak version of his trademark grin. "Yeah. Dad thinks you love the Intersect."

And then Sarah knew it was true, although she had no idea how it could be. Rider's face became more serious. "I told him it wasn't true. I showed him it wasn't true…"

"Showed? What do you mean, Rider?"

"I shared memories of you with Dad. Memories of how you look at him when he doesn't see. I didn't hear him say it, but the last thing I felt was that he thought he was...an idiot."

Sarah laughed in spite of the bizarre situation. Chuck. "Can you still...talk to him, Rider?"

Rider concentrated his gaze. He sat still for a moment but then shook his head. "No, it doesn't work anymore. Is my fever gone? I feel better."

"Yes, Rider."

"Well, then if Dad was right, the link between us must have...broken. I thought so. But he's coming back, Mom. I know. I could feel it as the link broke." Rider was wholly serious. Sarah believed him.

"And you feel ok?"

"Yeah. Hungry, like I said, and tired. But not sick anymore."

"Good. Don't say anything about the...link, ok. Let's keep that our secret until we get to LA and to Aunt Ellie, alright?"

Rider gave her one nod then closed his eyes. He was not asleep though, just resting. Dr. Guyer came in with some food and Rider sat up and ate a little, then he went back to sleep.

Sarah left the room with the doctor. "So, he seems like he's ok, right?"

"Yes, I think he'll be fine. You need to rest some too. Let him sleep. Maybe he'll even sleep through the ride back to the airport."

Sarah felt Beckman's hands on her shoulder. "Go and stretch out for a few minutes in that room. My cot is in there," Beckman said, gently turning Sarah in the direction of the door.

Frost came in from outside at just that moment, her radio in her hand. "Cunnings lived. Not sure I feel about that. But they took her to our base on the other side of the jungle. She'll be seen to there and then transferred back to prison. This time, I will make sure the key gets thrown away for good."

Sarah looked around the room. "Where's Carina?"

"She went with a couple of the villagers to retrieve the Land Rover." Beckman looked at her watch. "They should be back any minute."

ooOoo

Carina was back. She had just arrived. She was outside the house, on the phone with Simon and Bryan. They were planning to fly to Bozeman in a few days to meet up with Carina and to see if there was any way they could help. Simon wanted to visit with Rider.

Carina talked with Simon for a few minutes, then Bryan got back on the phone.

"Carina?"

"Yes? What is it?"

"When I see you, I have a question to ask you." Bryan paused, waiting to see if Carina would react. She was silent for a moment.

"What question, Bryan?"

"I think you know, Carina. I was hoping maybe we could talk about having a…"

Carina saw a movement out of the corner of her eye. "Bryan, I'll have to call you back."

"Wait, Car-" She ended the call and put the phone in her pocket. She saw the movement again, off at the edge of the jungle, but still near the house. She thought she saw...a man? Carina had no weapon on her. She ducked down near the car and waited. After a few minutes, she saw the hunched figure of a man emerge from the jungle. He was walking, stumbling...dancing? His face was lopsided and swollen, purple and splotched. He was humming a tune. Then he began to sing softly.

You've got to accentuate the positive,
eliminate the negative...don't mess with Mister In-Between...

You've got to spread joy up to the maximum…

Bing Crosby? Carina was almost sure that was a Bing Crosby tune. She'd gotten to know it once on a stakeout, when she had nothing to do, and she'd watched a movie on tv to pass the time, The Singing Detective. Bing Crosby seemed wholly out of place in the jungle.

The figure kept coming. Carina could see something in its...his...hand. A canister. He was heading for the window of the house, the one to the room Chuck and Rider were in. Carina did a quick visual calculation. She could beat him there. But she needed to let him get a little closer so that he could not beat her back into the jungle if he retreated.

He was still singing, but even more quietly. Carina could see that his hands were swollen and blotched. He was covered in mud and slime. A few more steps…

Carina sprinted from her hiding place. The man was too focused on the window to notice. He was almost there. He held up the canister, twisted the top. Carina was a step away. She hit him and the canister fell to the ground, spewing gas into the air. Carina knocked it away as she tackled him to the ground. He was so weak that she had no trouble subduing him. The rolled off a distance away, still spewing its contents, but she and the man had rolled far enough away that she that the gas did not reach them.

He was thrashing weakly beneath her. Wheelwright. It had to be Wheelwright. He looked like a monster. He had evidently chewed his own lips. They were ragged and bloody. His mouth was foaming. After another twist or two, he went still. Carina thought he might be dead. She checked. She could feel a pulse, stringy and irregular, but there.

She hoisted him on her back and carried him to the house, banging on the door with her foot. Frost opened it and immediately realized what was happening. She called for Dr. Guyer and he rushed to them, Casey behind him. Casey took Wheelwright from Carina and stretched him out on the floor. Carina grabbed a cloth that was on the table and went back outside. She retrieved the now-inert canister. She took it inside and handed it, still wrapped in the towel, to Beckman.

Then she went outside. She had a phone call to finish.

ooOoo

By the time they all reached LA, Rider seemed nearly himself. His color had returned and he was teasing Carina, telling her to accentuate the positive. Carina put up with it. She knew it was partly the result of Rider's worry about his dad.

Chuck remained as he had been. Sarah was getting more and more worried. The IV kept him stable, but there was just no change. It was like Chuck's body had come back to her, but Chuck himself was still missing.

They'd been able to get nothing out of Wheelwright except old songs. Dr. Guyer had stabilized him, but he also told them that he thought Wheelwright had permanently left sanity behind. The venom and the Revoltium and the strain of that forced march through the jungle (no one was really quite sure how it was physically possible for anyone, much less a man full of spider venom) had snapped whatever guidewires had kept him in any contact with rational thought. They'd left him behind for further treatment, but Sarah was sure when she'd last seen him. He was singing White Christmas. Wheelwright would threaten no one again.

Ellie and her team were waiting at an LA hospital near the airport. She'd hugged Sarah and Rider and then went to work immediately on Chuck. She'd then spent several hours poring over Stephen's notes. The canister of Revoltium had traces enough in it to allow Ellie's team to get a least a quick, general idea about it. It was still being tested.

Sarah was pacing the hallways, wringing her hands. Clara had come to keep Rider company, and they were in his room, playing video games. Beckman had gone to the NSA office in the city but she would return soon. Carina had been keeping Sarah company for a while, but then she went to get them both coffee.

When Carina returned, she had two cups in her hands. She gave one to Sarah and sat down with her own. Sarah noticed that Carina's bag was full. She glanced at it and saw a couple of issues of Fit Pregnancy and Baby magazine.

"So, did you find anything besides coffee downstairs?"

Carina gave her a funny look. "No, just coffee. Why, blondie? Something else you wanted?"

Sarah suppressed a smile and played dumb. "No, no, I'm ok."

ooOoo

Just as Sarah finished her coffee, Ellie came out to her. The look on Ellie's face was unreadable. She motioned for Sarah to sit. Carina got up.

"I'm going to go find Casey. I think he was in the gift shop, reading the latest issue of Garden and Gun. He said he was going to buy it for Gertrude." She slipped away, pulling a magazine from her bag as she did.

"Hey, Carina!" Sarah called out. Carina turned, hiding the magazine behind her back. "Don't mess with Mr. In-Between…" Carina's face turned red and she narrowed her eyes. She turned and walked away.

"What was that about?"

"Girl talk. Tell you later." Ellie nodded slowly. "So? How's my family?" Sarah tried to keep the anxiety in her voice to a minimum.

"Ok, Sarah. Here's my preliminary report. Keep in mind that this could change. First, the file you found has given me so much insight into what Dad was doing, what he was thinking in those early years. Do you realize that he used Chuck as the model for the Intersect?"

"What do you mean, Ellie? He made it for Chuck?"

"No," Ellie said, her face scrunching a bit as she searched for the right way to explain herself, "no, it's the other way around. He was fascinated by Chuck, by how retentive he was, by how kind he was, even as a boy, the way his mind never got out in front of his heart. Dad wanted the Intersect to make people...well, more like Chuck. Quick, retentive. But it was also supposed to enhance the relationship between the mind and the heart. I don't mean the physical organ, of course, I mean the sense of empathy, the ability to imagine how things are with others, that kind of thing. You know, emotions, feelings.

"But when the government agencies got hold of it, they began to twist it around. I believe that after Hartley, and after Mom left, Dad lost touch with his early vision, allowed the Intersect to get twisted into a weapon. But it was meant to be a teaching tool.

"The Intersect Dad originally envisioned would have been the last thing to make someone a super-spy. It was supposed to make anyone who had it more human, not less human." Ellie gave Sarah a slightly apologetic glance, "But I also think that Dad's early vision was always there, was always the infrastructure, of the later Intersects, and that that's the reason even the ones that hadn't been wholly distorted by Fulcrum or the Ring wouldn't work well in anyone but Chuck. In a way, the Intersect is...at home in Chuck. Certainly, the early one, the one he first downloaded was, and I suspect it 'corrected' the later ones to some extent, helped Chuck to bear them. The long and short of it is that the Intersect Chuck has isn't alien to him." She stopped. She went on. "Put it like this: the Intersect didn't change Chuck, unless…"

Sarah picked up the thread, understanding suddenly but also in wonder. "...Unless it made him more like himself, made Chuck more Chuck."

Ellie shook her head and smiled. "But that's obviously not the problem we are up against now. Wheelwright figured out a way to control Chuck's Intersect. Dad never thought to provide any...well, firewalls or security for the system. Using Dad's notes, Wheelwright found that he could coerce Chuck."

"The pizza ads."

"Right. But then he realized that his Revoltium has a strange effect on the spiders, and he began to wonder if perhaps it could be used to...link...an Intersected mind to the mind of the spiders. The Intersect...how to put this?...sits so deeply in Chuck's mind that it connects to levels that are...analogous...to more primitive minds. I guess that's the way to put it. Anyway, Wheelwright guessed right, from what you've told me. Chuck was able to control the spiders, but in the same clumsy, general way that Wheelwright had been able to control Chuck. All he really could do, I suspect, was get them to respond to his strongest desires."

"Ok, Ellie. I mean I'd never believe it unless I'd seen it. But I did. Still, where does this leave Chuck." She stopped and swallowed hard. "Am I ever going to get him back, Ellie?"

Elle sat back in her chair and sighed. "I don't know. I was able to run blood tests. Since we had the canister, I could identify the presence of the Revoltium. It has almost all left his system. Once it's gone, maybe in a few hours, we should know more."

Sarah laced her fingers together and stared down into her palms for a long while. Ellie waited.

"What about Rider?"

Ellie brightened. "There I have good news. I think with Dad's notes and Wheelwright's computer, I can remove the Intersect from him. I don't think it will hurt him. But there's no reason to take any chance. I can have things ready to do that as early as tomorrow. And we shouldn't delay long. The longer it is in there, the harder it will become to remove, since Rider's mind may grow into it as Chuck's has his."

"What do you make of Rider...talking to Chuck." Ellie shrugged. "'There's more in heaven and earth, Horatio…' My guess is that Chuck's right. The fever allowed for the link, some kind of weird, organic Bluetooth-like connection. I suspect, given what Rider told you, that when he went 'on-line' it broke Chuck's link to the spiders." Ellie shrugged. "Only Chuck Bartowski…"

Sarah nodded. "I know. I know. He's like a lanky Bermuda Triangle." They both grinned. "So, tomorrow for Rider?"

"Yes."

"And Ellie, I just want you to know. I'm not mad at you about keeping Chuck's secret. I have a hard time saying no to him too. I wish he had told me, but I don't blame you for keeping his secret."

"Even so, Sarah," Ellie said earnestly, "I owe you an apology. I was angry with you years ago for keeping secrets from me, and I know you did it then for Chuck's sake. Same shoe, different foot, I guess. Forgive me?"

"Done." They stood and hugged again.

ooOoo

The next day, they removed the Intersect from Rider. It all went smoothly and took only a few minutes after the preparations. He blinked a couple of times when it was over, and that was that. After Ellie ran a few tests, he joined Clara again in playing video games.

Beckman had been there for the procedure. When it was over, and Rider left, she pulled Sarah aside. "Sarah, you told me what Rider saw in the jungle. I took the liberty of calling Dr. Dreyfus and telling him about it. He seemed to think it would be a good idea for him to visit and talk with Rider, perhaps to spend a few days with you in Montana. Would you that be ok with you?"

"Really? Dr. Dreyfus? Yes, I'd be grateful. I will be honest. As much as I sort of hate the Intersect in general, I've been more worried about the long-term effects of what Rider saw me do. And it would be...nice to see Dr. Dreyfus again. Tell him he is welcome."

ooOoo

At the end of that day, Chuck was still in the same condition. Sarah was beginning to lose her battle with fear. She was sitting by Chuck's bed. She had taken out her wallet and was looking at a picture of her and Chuck from back in their days in Burbank, back when she'd dressed up as Princess Leia for the Halloween party. She was smiling to herself when she heard his voice.

"I never thought anyone could make that outfit look better than it did in the movie…I was so wrong."

Sarah turned. Chuck was awake. There was a trace of a smile on his face. She threw herself on his chest, hugging him, unable to contain her joy. She couldn't speak. She felt his hand stroke her hair lightly. "Did you mean it?"

She lifted her head enough to see him. "Mean what, Chuck?"

"That we could keep trying to get pregnant." He gave her a slow, waltz-time version of the eyebrow dance. She'd never seen anything that made her happier.

"Do you by any chance still have that outfit? It might inspire me to yet unclimbed heights…"

"Or yet unplumbed depths?"

Chuck flushed and looked around the room, making sure no one had heard them. "You know how I feel about PDA, Mrs. Bartowski."

Sarah was puzzled. "PDA, Mr. Bartowski?"

"Public Declarations of Affection."

She leaned up and whispered in his ear. "Shhh. Don't let anyone hear, Chuck, but I still have the outfit." She kissed him.

Chuck was still trying to re-compose himself as the door opened, and Frost and Rider and Ellie and Clara came in, followed by Casey and Carina and Beckman.

A/N2 Tune in for the finale, Chapter 12 "Yarn's End". Rider meets Dr. Dreyfus. Chuck and Sarah get a little more unexpected couples' counseling. And there may be a spider or two.