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As of ANZAC Day 2012, I don't own Chuck et al.

And apparently, some tweeps feel that I owe them for shooting Chuck in the head during "Enjoy The Rest Of Your Life, Chuck."

Well, this was the best I could come up with.

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Simprim (n.) – The little movement of false modesty by which a woman with a cavernous visible cleavage pulls her skirt down over her knees.

Douglas Adams & John Lloyd – The Deeper Meaning of Liff

Published by Pan Books and Faber & Faber,1990.

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Following on from their little adventure earlier in the morning, it was too late to go home, so two super spies and a nerd slept in the Perspex walled holding cells over in the north wing (the holding cells, pharmaceuticals and explosives storage wing) of Castle. Chuck felt like a hamster in his one. Perhaps it was the one inch air holes that slightly took the edge off the whole 'bullet proof' and 'explosives resistant' -ness of the cells.

Chuck was woken up by Sarah shaking him awake. He was pleased to note that the door to the holding cell was still open. He was less pleased to note that he was in a single cot.

Also, he was less than pleased to notice how stiff he was, the graze to his elbow was starting to wake up too, and his fingertips were still numb.

Breakfast at chez Castle was a simple and quiet affair. Because, food wise, it was mainly MREs, toast and or black, no sugar instant coffee – The espresso machine was still a no show – and silent because Casey had joined Chuck and Sarah for breakfast.

A first. And possibly a last, judging by Casey's expression.

The boys went over to the Buy More to go to work. Chuck wondered at what else Castle had hidden in storage. He was wearing one of his uniforms, but as far as he knew, all of his uniforms were at home in various stages of decay and or laundry needs.

Chuck had a mental image of like a whole bunch of varying clothes on hangers on a massive long dry-cleaner's rack. Need a Nerd Herd uniform? Push the button Max, and Voila! There it is. Need a wedding dress? Push the button – whirrrr, hummm – Bingo! One white, lacy wedding dress with a sweetheart neckl...

Yeah, right... Sarah had probably pinched some of his clothes, just in case.

The day at the desk dragged. The dragging was made worse by the fact that Lester and Jeff seemed none the worse for wear.

On the other hand, they'd had the advantage of a couple of hours extra sleep more than Chuck, thanks to the tranq dart(s). At least they didn't seem to remember anything. Which was probably normal, really. Chuck decided that Lester complaining about Gordon Ramsey's belittling his gefillte fish curry was due to the mixing of alcohol and tranq dart. Either that, or that was an episode of Kitchen Nightmares worth actually watching for once.

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After the trio had trudged back to base, patched up the nerd from his hood surfing episode, and discovered he'd managed to add a tracker to the car he'd fallen off of, along with semi forgiving him for surfing and falling off said hood. Casey advised HQ about the events of the morning.

The tech watched the video of Chuck's feet drift along the ramp, being loosely attached to the vehicle also on the ramp at the time. The tech muttered something, and disappeared.

To be replaced by a short redhead wearing a quilted dressing gown, some sort of blue-green face goop with neat holes around her eyes, where presumably the cucumber slices had been, and bed-head.

"Major Casey, do mean to inform me, at might I add, an ungodly hour in the morning, that a team of Fulcrum agents, the same agents you've been hunting for what feels like longer than a year now, have had a clear view of the Intersect's face?"

"Yes General."

"I think they also saw Sarah's face," Chuck tried to spread the joy.

Casey glared at his asset for a split second, and muttered with his face as still as he could make it, "They weren't looking at her face."

Chuck stood facing the screen, between Casey and Sarah, standing at attention as best he could, and mentally reviewed the actions of earlier in the evening. Strip club, pole dancing ninja, gold bikini...

Oh... Right.

General Beckman sighed, assuming that Airforce generals could actually sigh before lesser mortals, "Very well major, we will review this information, and reconvene at a later time. Good morning."

Stab the button just out of view.

"We will reconvene," mimicked Chuck, adding, "We are not amused."

Sarah cut-off whatever comment Casey was about to make by leading Chuck away from danger saying, "Come on Chuck, you'll be at work in under three hours. Get some sleep."

-o0o-

The reviewing, regathering or regrouping – honestly, Chuck couldn't recall which 're' it was that wasn't amusing – took three days.

During those three days, Chuck slept like a log the first night. A log that had a blonde goddess fall soundly asleep across the top of him. Which didn't totally help his sore ribs.

Day two was marked by Sarah moving back to her hotel room. That morning, they lay entwined in his bed, "I don't want to go," she admitted.

"I'm not sure I want you to go either. Do you have to?"

She studied him for a moment, "I do if you ever want to, you know, again. Are you saying you don't want to, you know, with me?"

"Let's get you out of here!" he enthused.

She studied him harder, which made him squirm, then she said, "I don't know how to take that... are you saying..."

She ruined his squirmage with a grin. He tried to clobber her with his pillow.

The key phrase there is 'tried to.'

The important lesson Chuck learned that morning was: 'Never attack a ninja with a pillow, because they cheat.'

It was a lesson he was doomed to fail again and again.

And again.

But then, that was probably because he played to lose.

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On the third day, Chuck was invited over to Castle by Sarah ringing him and asking him over, and also by Casey grabbing him by the scruff of the neck since he, Casey, was on his way over to Castle as well.

It was allegedly all General Beckman's idea. As they now had a track on the Fulcrum operatives as well as the rogue cell that had the smart bullets, they could apply the Bartowski Special, a name that General Beckman pointedly avoided using, referring to it instead as the electronics surveillance system currently employed on the first rogue cell.

This would entail isolating the Fulcrum agents, and hacking their phones while the agents were distracted in some manner. Once their phones were hacked, their home base could be determined and any computers also electronically surveilled using the same hack, while ensuring the safety of the team by confirming the location of both rogue cells by monitoring their phone locations.

See? Simple.

She left the minor working out of details for the team to deal with.

-o0o-

At seven o'clock in the morning, the plaza square was cool. Chuck was cool enough to regret leaving the light jacket in the Suburban. He hoped Sarah was okay, since she was wearing noticeably less than he was.

While they were thrashing out the minor details, that is to say, everything, Chuck had pondered at the suggested distraction.

At that point, Casey looked pointedly at Sarah. Sarah sighed, and patted the back of Chuck's hand, saying, "I think I've got an idea about that."

When Chuck saw what her idea was, he was lucky he wasn't carrying anything expensive and fragile. Like say, the laptops on his way to load up the Suburban.

Chuck was currently sitting, not quite freezing anything off, as he sipped his cafe coffee at the outdoor table while he pretended to read the news on his laptop. This job would need the processor speed and RAM that the newish Rorke7 provided.

His marks were disguised as workmen, also having coffee, and presumably a break before they started their day's nefarious work. The Fulcrum guys were across the little plaza, sitting on the concrete blocks near the pedestrian tunnel that lead from across the road.

Chuck sensed movement in the tunnel. That was when he saw her.

If she'd have had a sound track, it would have been 'Mustang Sally.' From Chuck's vantage, she was even stepping in time with his mental bass guitar riff. The venturi effect of the tunnel added the necessary invisible wind machine special effect quite nicely.

The woman he was in love with, was advancing towards him, cunningly disguised as a brunette, putting Chuck in mind of a CGI character from a relatively popular game.

Mental note: Never mention that to Sarah. Ever. In fact, burn the cardboard cut-outs of Miranda that the Buy More had stacked out the back. Or let Jeff and Lester find... no, burning was a cleaner option.

She was proudly doing the Walk Of Shame, since the strappy after five little black dress was blatantly not quite appropriate for seven in the morning. After all, there could be children present. Even including her gold bikini from the other morning, this was the most revealing number Chuck had ever seen Sarah wear. And Chuck had paid attention to everything she'd ever worn.

The little black dress was heavily emphasised on the little. The hem line was only a hair width past the lowest point her panties reached. Below that, it was bare leg all the way down to the ballet slippers she wore.

Her voice came over the coms, 'Chuck? Breath.' Her face was neutral, but her voice smiled for him.

"Uh.."

And as she neared the middle of the square, even though he knew it was coming, he still goggled when she bent right over as she faced him to adjust the heel of her left slipper, and asked sotto voice, 'Are they still watching?' Referring to the marks currently behind her.

"Are who still watching?"

'Chuck!'

Technically, she shouldn't be able to hiss a whisper like that. Or a name that doesn't have any 'esses' in it. But then, as Chuck knew, Sarah was special.

"Oh, right... um, gimme a second."

This time the name 'Chuck' was said differently. Exasperated, but proudly. 'If you don't tell me exactly what's happening, right now, our next movie night is going to include The Notebook, and Two Weeks Notice.'

"You horrible, evil woman..." he said after a slight pause.

From the electrical service closet he was using as cover, Casey pointed out, 'You do realise that those first two words were redundant. And for God's sake tell her, I don't want to listen to those films over the mikes either.'

When she stood up, she adjusted the hem of the dress back down. There was only a quarter inch of play in the movement. After that, she walked almost demurely out of the square, muttering into her hidden mike, 'Huh, you drag me to the movies, a full theatre by the way. Full of single men, all in their forties, and all fresh from their mother's basements. To watch some stupid sci fi movie...' She thought to herself, for a supposed 'classic,' it had made absolutely no sense what so ever. And what was the unicorn even doing in there in the first place? It was like it had come from an entirely different movie.

Chuck smiled fondly at the memory, "Yeah..." He'd have to do that again. The looks they'd both gotten was totally worth it...

'Well!' demanded the large spy pretending to fix the electrics.

"Well, they're both still sitting there, neither of them have notice that they've both poured their coffees onto the ground. I don't think either of them have blinked for like five minutes, and if they aren't careful, sparrows will start making nests in their open mouths."

Sarah was level with him now and he saw the smirk around her eyes, as she pointedly didn't make eye contact.

'I meant about their phones, idiot!'

"Their phones? Geez, I did that before Sarah came down the tunnel."

'Chu-uuuu-ck!'

'Walker? D'you wanna add the lonnng version of the BBCs Pride And Prejudice to that movie night.'

"Aw, c'mon guys! Geez, why not add Titanic to the list too?"

'Oooh, I haven't seen that in ages...'

Chuck and Casey desperately hoped she was being sarcastic.

When the weekend came around, that faint hope died a whimpering, lonely death.

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A.N. This chapter is dedicated to the anonymous young lady who created whiplash and coffee spillage all over the square in front of Sydney Central Station back in February or March early one morning.

Opinions expressed regarding the movie Bladerunner are not those of the author. Even if the 'ugly one horned mule' scene did actually come from another movie.