Chuck vs. the Future Redux, Chapter 11 – "Sarah vs. the Mechanic"
CAST (in order of appearance):
Chuck Bartowski: Zachary Levi
Kaylee Frye: Jewel Staite
Malcolm Reynolds: Nathan Fillion
unseen Catholic Priest: Alan Tudyk
Jayne Cobb: Adam Baldwin
Zoe Washburne: Gina Torres
Inara Serra: Morena Baccarin
River Tam: Summer Glau
Simon Tam: Sean Maher
Captain Mike Tweedum: Jason Bateman
Major Rick Lorenz: Michael Biehn
Sarah Walker: Yvonne Strahovski
John Casey: Adam Baldwin
Bryce Larkin: Matthew Bomer
7:30 AM, Alliance Mean Time
January 17th, 2519
Holiday Inn by BLUE SUN, Eavesdown, Persephone
Room 702 of the Eavesdown Holiday Inn was occupied by a solitary man. His head was covered in brown curls, an empty wine bottle sat on the table, and he was dead to the world.
It was a strange story of how he had come to be in this place, too.
The night before, he had been sitting in a car – his car – kissing a beautiful girl, when she told him that she thought she was falling in love. At that point, he freaked out slightly.
Ten minutes later, Kaylee Frye had been left standing, stunned, outside of Serenity, as Chuck Bartowski sped away in his Buy More-issued Toyota Yaris. Her eyes began filling with tears as the Toyota disappeared from sight, but Chuck didn't look back.
Half an hour later, he found a hotel that didn't reek of crime and prostitution, and using the credits remaining from his sale of the Herder's GPS unit to the museum curator, Chuck was able to secure a room for the night.
Little did Chuck know that a tearful Hurricane Kaylee had torn her way through Serenity the night before, leaving a disturbed crew – and a VERY angry captain – in her path. And so it was that at 7:30 AM on an overcast Tuesday morning, Chuck's iPhone began ringing.
When Chuck answered, he was still half-asleep and most definitely hungover. In fact, at first, it didn't even register with him that he was in the year 2519 and on a planet other than Earth – as far as he knew, he was in Los Angeles, and it was January of 2009.
That illusion lasted right up until the word "Hello" had exited his mouth
"Good morning, Chuck," the voice of Malcolm Reynolds replied, and boy did Mal sound pissed.
"Oh dear God," Chuck said, sitting bolt upright and nearly dropping the phone. "Uh, good morning, uh, Captain Reynolds."
Chuck swore he heard a wordless growl come through the phone. "Listen very closely, bucko," Mal said. "You have approximately sixty seconds to explain something to me before I take off and leave your ass on this godforsaken rock."
Chuck's eyes went wide and his stomach tightened. "Uh, yes sir, what's that?"
"You can tell me exactly why my mechanic stormed through my ship last night in tears, locked herself in her cabin, and hasn't talked to anybody for over ten hours." Mal paused, the silence ominous. "If I don't like your answer, I'll be sending Jayne to find you, and… well…"
"No, no, there's no need for that!" Chuck hastily exclaimed. "Uh, I can definitely tell you what happened, Mal. We were at this Earth antiquities shop, and Kaylee told me she thought she was falling in love with me. I sort of freaked out, and I swear, I didn't mean to hurt her, really I didn't, because I really do like her a whole lot." He paused for breath and swallowed. "It's just that, when she said she was falling in love with me – well, I just wasn't ready for that."
The other end of the line was silent for so long that Chuck was afraid Mal had disconnected. Finally, Mal said, "Well… I guess I can understand that. But you still need to apologize, make nice with her somehow."
Chuck breathed a sigh of relief. "You know, Mal, you're probably right," he replied. "I'm open to suggestions."
"Welllll," Mal drawled, "Kaylee's partial to sunflowers and strawberries. You might wanna rustle some up for her."
"Will do," Chuck started, and then he interrupted himself. "Wait a second. Where the hell am I supposed to find those?"
Mal started laughing. "Not my problem, Chuck," he said. "I would say that… maybe you should go to confession."
With that, Mal disconnected. "What the hell?" Chuck asked, looking at his phone.
The iPhone gave him no wisdom – and despite River's modification to it to allow him to talk on it, its 3G connectivity still didn't allow him to connect to the Cortex. So using that to follow Mal's suggestion wasn't an option.
Ten minutes later, Chuck departed the Holiday Inn, driving slowly through Eavesdown. About a mile from the hotel, he noticed a church. Mal's words rang through his head, and he brought the Herder to a screeching halt at the curb.
St. John Vianney Church of God in Christ, the sign by the door read as Chuck walked in. It felt a little weird to be walking into a church – he hadn't done so since he was twelve years old.
Chuck stood outside the confession booth for a moment, looking at it like a trap. This was just too weird – but then again, he WAS five hundred years in the future, so what was a confessional booth in a church?
Taking a breath, Chuck opened the door and stepped into the booth. Sitting down, he crossed himself, and then slid open the window between himself and the priest. "Bless me, Father, for I have sinned," he said, retrieving the words from the rusty recesses of his mind. "It has been… uh… well, the time since my last confession is sort of a matter of temporal mechanics."
If what he said fazed the priest, it didn't show when he replied. "My son, in your personal experience, how long has it been since your last confession?"
Chuck sighed and thought about it for a moment. Good Friday 1993… April 9th, 1993… add on a day because I moved backward a day on the calendar when I came forward…
"Fifteen years, nine months, and nine days," Chuck muttered, feeling defeated.
"That is some time, my son," the priest said, a note of shock registering in his voice this time. "What brings you before the Lord?"
Chuck laughed quietly. "I'm not going to go into the full litany of everything I've done in the last decade and a half," he replied. "However, I recently hurt somebody I care for a great deal, and it was recommended that I go to confession in order to fix the matter."
"I… see," the priest replied. "And what about confession is supposed to fix this for you?"
"I have no idea, Father," Chuck said. "I was told that I should collect sunflowers and strawberries for her by the captain of the ship I'm on."
"What is your captain's name, my son?"
"Malcolm Reynolds, Father," Chuck answered. "Are you familiar with him?"
The priest was silent for a moment. Finally, he said, "You knew Derrial Book, then?"
"Know of him," Chuck corrected the priest. "He died nearly a year before I came onboard."
"Very well," the priest said. "When you leave this place, go east fifteen kilometers, exiting the city. You will come to a monastery on the left, where both sunflowers and strawberries are grown. Tell them that you are friends of friends of Derrial Book, and they will be happy to help you."
Chuck smiled and started to stand. "Awesome," he said. "Thank you, Father."
"Oh, don't be goin' anywhere TOO fast," the priest said. "Nearly sixteen years without confession? Before you walk out the doors of this church, you're gonna do fifty Hail Marys and twenty Our Fathers, capisce?"
Chuck groaned. "Dammit," he muttered.
"Make that fifty-five Hail Marys. Oh, and pray the rosary a few times as well. It sounds like you need it."
It was nearly forty minutes before Chuck left the church. Getting in the Herder, he turned it around and made a beeline for the monastery east of town.
When he left the monastery, he had a dozen sunflowers and a box of the reddest, ripest strawberries he had ever seen. He had also been subjected to an additional Hail Mary for EVERY SINGLE SUNFLOWER HE TOOK.
"I'm never going to church again," he muttered under his breath as he sped back toward Serenity's berth at the docks.
When Chuck reached the old Firefly, the ramp into the cargo bay was open, and he drove straight in. Jayne was working out on the weight bench in the corner of the bay, and as Chuck disembarked from the Herder, Jayne sat up and actually GROWLED at Chuck.
Chuck shuddered as he thought of what Casey's doppelganger might be able to do to him, and departed the cargo bay quickly. He had to pass through the common room in the center of the ship to reach Kaylee's quarters, and much to his dismay, Zoe, Simon, River, and Inara had all chosen to be in the common room just at that moment.
Chuck decided it was in his best interests to simply ignore the four, and swept through the common room unmolested. However, as he was passing into the corridor heading toward the crew quarters, River spoke up.
"Chuck?" she said.
Chuck stopped and turned around. "I can kill you with my mind."
Chuck's eyes widened and he shuddered. Turning around, he walked away from the common room as rapidly as he could. When he reached Kaylee's quarters, he knocked on the door. No answer. Cracking the door open, he poked his head inside – no Kaylee.
With a sigh, Chuck pulled the door back shut and headed for the control room. "Well, well, hello Chuck!" Mal Reynolds said as Chuck entered.
Chuck gave Mal a dirty look. "You didn't explain to the crew what happened, did you?"
Mal grinned. "Hell no!" he replied. "Where's the fun in that?"
Chuck sighed and looked at the deck. "Where's Kaylee?"
"Workin' on the engines," Mal replied. "And I'd be careful if I were you. She's liable to go monkeyshit on you."
"Super," Chuck grumbled, heading back toward engineering. He passed through the common room as quickly as he could, ignoring the muttered, under-the-breath imprecations hurled at him by the four Serenity crew sitting there.
Just before Chuck reached the engineering room, he ran into Jayne Cobb. Jayne was holding a rather nasty looking machine gun. "Have you met Vera, Chuck?" he asked, a menacing glint in his eyes.
Chuck just shuddered and stepped into the machine room. He didn't see anybody in there.
"Kaylee?" he asked.
There was a metallic clang, and something flew out from behind the drivetrain. Chuck saw light reflect off of something – and realized that that something was a very large wrench, headed on a ballistic trajectory for his head.
"Whoa!" Chuck shouted, ducking out of the wrench's path. "Come on, now!"
"YOU DROVE AWAY WITHOUT EVEN SAYING GOOD-BYE!"
The very angry voice of a very angry Kaywinnit Lee Frye bounced off the walls of the engine room and echoed out into the ship. In the common room, four sets of ears perked up, and they began to gravitate toward the engine room, Jayne Cobb joining them on the way.
Chuck heard a metallic thud. Something else would be coming very shortly.
"NOT ONLY DID YOU DRIVE AWAY, BUT YOU DID IT IN THE CAR THAT I SPENT TWO WEEKS FIXING FOR YOU!"
The ball-peen hammer came whipping end-over-end out from under the drive. Chuck was expecting this ballistic object, and side-stepped it easily. Nonetheless, the noise it made as it crashed into the wall still rattled him.
"Kaylee," he pleaded, "look, I know, I'm an ass. I shouldn't have done what I did."
"Heh," he heard from behind him. Turning around, Chuck saw the entire crew of Serenity gathered in the doorway behind him.
"No shit you're an ass, Sherlock," Jayne snarked.
Chuck sighed and shook his head. Setting the sunflowers and strawberries on Kaylee's hammock, he crossed to the door control panel and pressed the large red button that closed the door. "Hasta la vista," he muttered darkly as the door slid shut.
As he turned around, a hand smacked into the left side of his face, stunning him. "I'm gonna go ahead and agree with Jayne on this one," Kaylee said angrily, hands on her hips.
"I'm sorry," Chuck said quietly, holding a hand to his face.
"Sorry barely begins to cut it!" Kaylee exclaimed. "I tell you I'm fallin' in love, and you kick me to the curb? What the hell?!"
"You're right," Chuck admitted, his gaze falling to the deck. "It was a horrible thing for me to do. I just – I don't do well with this kind of thing. I freak out when somebody I like tells me they like me back. In your case, I freaked out a LOT because I like you a LOT, and I was afraid that I was going to screw it up somehow. Which…"
He looked up and shrugged. "I seem to have done anyway."
Kaylee's glare softened a little. "So you didn't kick me out and drive me away because you don't like me?"
Chuck shook his head.
"You kicked me out and drove away because you really DO like me and you were scared of screwing it up?"
"Pretty much."
A small smile appeared on Kaylee's mouth. "Chuck Bartowski, that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard."
Chuck laughed quietly. "I know, and I'm sorry," he said. Gesturing toward the sunflowers on Kaylee's hammock, he added, "Those are for you."
"Well, I didn't figure they were for Jayne," Kaylee said. "They are pretty, though." Picking up the sunflowers, she turned toward Chuck. "Now, how'd you know I like these?"
"Uh, a little birdie told me."
"Sure," Kaylee replied sarcastically. "The rare tight-pants'd Reynolds bird?"
Chuck laughed again. "That might be the one," he replied. "But… I think you should open that box, too."
Kaylee narrowed her eyes, and then tugged the lid off the box. As its contents were revealed, her eyes widened. "Oh… my… God…"
"Heard you liked those too," Chuck said.
Kaylee turned toward him, a smile on her face. "You apologize VERY well, Chuck Bartowski."
Chuck looked at the ceiling. "Thanks, I think."
Kaylee closed the distance between the two, and flung her arms around Chuck hugging him so tightly that for a moment, he thought she was trying to suffocate him. Then, that moment passed, and he wrapped his arms around her. "I am so sorry," he whispered. "I never meant to hurt you."
"I know," she whispered back. "And I love you all the more for it."
She pulled back, kissed Chuck lightly, and then looked him right in the eyes. "But if you ever do something like that again, I'm going to find my biggest pair of pliers, and crush your balls."
12:30 PM, Alliance Mean Time
January 21st, 2519
United States Shuttle Enterprise
Mike Tweedum was the only one really paying attention to the controls of the shuttle. Rick Lorenz was taking a nap, Sarah Walker was working on something on her laptop, and John Casey and Bryce Larkin were engaged in what appeared to be a high-stakes game of Gin Rummy.
However, all four of the conscious crew looked up when a shudder ran through the shuttle. A moment later, an incessant beeping erupted from Enterprise's control console.
"Uh-oh," Mike Tweedum muttered. Pushing the button to activate the P/A, he said, "Uh, we've got a problem. I need all crew on deck."
A moment later, the three intelligence agents appeared on deck. "What's going on?" Sarah asked.
"That's an excellent question," Rick Lorenz grumbled, pushing past her toward his station. His hair was mussed, and it was clear that he had just woken up. "Tweedum, report."
"Uh, sir, the impulse drive has suffered a serious failure," Tweedum said quietly. "There's an inhabited moon approximately one thousand miles away – the computer says it's called Higgins Moon. It's supposedly an industrial moon – we should be able to repair the drive there."
"Christ," Lorenz muttered. "Alright, change heading toward this moon and prepare to fire the retros."
"Yes, sir," Tweedum replied. Thrusters brought Enterprise around toward the moon. "Preparing to fire retro rockets," Tweedum declared.
"Fire."
The twin rockets on Enterprise's tail, normally used to change the shuttle's attitude to prepare to enter Earth's atmosphere, instead changed the shuttle's attitude to prepare to enter Higgins Moon's atmosphere. They burned for about thirty seconds, and then cut out. "That's all we got," Tweedum said worriedly. "We don't have any more fuel for those."
"Then we need a fill-up when we get our repairs done," Lorenz replied. "The rest of you, buckle up and hang on – we've got a bad descent angle, and this is gonna be bumpy."
Fifteen minutes and a bone-rattling descent later, Enterprise glided toward the runway at the Canton Spaceport. Anybody on the ground would've seen that her belly was blackened and scarred, far more so than it had been after the landing on Persephone or Sihnon.
"I hope we can find adequate materials to properly patch her up," Tweedum said quietly as Enterprise rolled to a stop. "I knew people on Columbia. I don't want to end up like that."
When the shuttle's hatch opened, a particularly foul stench filled the cabin. "Oh, ew," Sarah said, wrinkling her nose.
"Yeah, that's, uh, unpleasant," Casey added.
"Smells like fun!" Bryce replied.
Sarah gave Bryce a weird look, and then just shook her head. Ever since Casey had injected her with the hormone balancing drug on Sihnon, Sarah had been much closer to normal. Bryce, on the other hand, had developed a rather severe case of cabin fever and seemed to have turned permanently silly.
"He's gonna crash sooner or later, and I can't wait to see it," Casey muttered to Sarah as he departed the shuttle.
They were walking into town when Bryce froze, staring at something on the side of the road. "What in the HELL is that?" he asked, an astonished note in his voice.
"What the hell is what?" Sarah asked, turning around to face him. Bryce didn't say anything, just pointed up and behind Sarah.
Sarah turned around, following Bryce's finger – "Oh dear God," she gasped, looking up at what appeared to be a statue of John Casey. "Casey…"
"Well, it's not me," Casey said with a shrug, although he did look disturbed. "I don't have a goatee or a mustache. It's also not pretty enough."
Sarah looked at Casey in disbelief. "Rather high opinion of yourself, bucko."
"Hey, never let it be said that I think I'm ugly," Casey replied with a grin. "That dude, though? Ugly with a capital Ug."
As the trio progressed further into town, a growing number of people stared and pointed at Casey, whispering to one another. A couple of them were actually so bold as to walk up to Casey and ask him if he was Jayne Cobb.
"Sorry, no," Casey replied. "I think you have me confused with somebody else." He turned to Sarah. "Who the hell is Jayne?"
"I'm gonna guess he's the statue," Sarah replied.
"Oh, fantastic." Casey grunted and looked straight ahead. Then he turned to Bryce. "Larkin, gimme your ballcap and your sunglasses."
Bryce looked back at Casey. "What? No!"
"LARKIN!"
"Bryce, just do it," Sarah said quietly.
"Fine," Bryce grumbled.
The hat and sunglasses kept people from approaching Casey, but it didn't stop the whispers.
Casey clenched his fists. "I may have to hurt somebody."
Serenity
It turned out that when Kaylee was hiding under the engines and feeling sorry for herself, she had discovered a problem with one of the drive converters. As such, she had spent the next five days slaving away, attempting to fix it. By the time nightfall came, she was too exhausted to do anything more than kiss Chuck good night, curl up next to him, and fall asleep.
Chuck was okay with that. He was perfectly happy to fall asleep each night holding Kaylee.
Well, happy until the night of the 21st.
For some reason, Chuck's sleep was troubled that night. Nightmares ran through his head at breakneck pace. They had various themes – Ellie and Awesome fighting, Morgan turning his back on him, the Buy More being invaded by Fulcrum again – but they all had a common ending.
Sarah putting a bullet into the head of a Fulcrum operative in a Christmas tree lot.
When Chuck's eyes finally flew open, he was drenched in a cold sweat. He realized that the bed was cold – Kaylee wasn't there.
Chuck reached out and turned on the lights. The brightness hurt his eyes, but also made it evident that Kaylee was nowhere to be seen.
That's when the door opened. Chuck looked toward the door –
"Oh my God," he gasped as Sarah Walker came through the door. "Sarah?! What – how –"
Sarah looked at Chuck, a smile on her face. "Chuck, I told you in my letter – we were going to come for you. Did you think we wouldn't?"
"Well, no, of course not!" Chuck protested. "I knew you would – but when did you come onboard Serenity?"
Sarah shrugged. "Does it matter?" she asked softly. "Aren't you happy to see me?"
"Of course I am!" Chuck exclaimed. "I just don't und-"
His words died in his throat as Sarah's lips pressed against his. His eyes closed – it felt so right – but it felt so wrong, so very WRONG –
Shut up, Chuck instructed his conscience as he wrapped his arms around Sarah's back, drawing her closer.
That's when the door opened again. Chuck heard a gasp. Pulling away from Sarah, he saw Kaylee in the doorway, her face draining of color, her eyes filling with tears.
"Oh, shit," he whispered. "Kaylee…"
"You total, utter bastard," she sobbed. "I can't believe I thought I loved you."
Kaylee turned away, slamming the door behind her. Chuck let go of Sarah and rushed to the door. Pulling the door open, he looked out into the corridor – Kaylee was nowhere to be seen.
"Chuck?" he heard Sarah say behind him. "What's going on? I thought you were happy to see me!"
Chuck ignored Sarah, calling Kaylee's name. He called her name again. And again. No response.
"KAYLEE!"
And that's when Chuck snapped awake. He sat bolt upright in his bed, gasping for breath.
His quarters were dark, and Kaylee had woken up when he screamed her name. "Chuck?" she asked, her voice filled with concern. "Are you alright?"
Chuck didn't say anything. He pulled Kaylee to him and wrapped his arms around her. She responded in kind, wrapping her arms around his back. "I can hear your heart beating," she said after a moment. "It's goin' about a hundred miles an hour. Are you okay?"
Chuck pulled back a little and looked Kaylee in the eye. "Kaylee, please don't ever let me do anything to hurt you again. Okay?"
Kaylee looked up at Chuck and smiled. "Chuck, you're not going to," she said softly. Boosting herself up a little, she kissed him gently. "Now go back to sleep. It's the middle of the night."
Chuck's dreams were pleasant for the rest of the night.
7:45 AM, Alliance Mean Time
January 22nd, 2519
Canton, Higgins Moon
John Casey had spent most of the night fighting off people who thought that he was Jayne Cobb. However, just before midnight, he discovered that Jayne Cobb apparently traveled on the same ship as Inara Serra, and he immediately became far more interested in the man he looked like. It seemed that Serenity had just recently departed the planet Persephone, bound for the ocean moon Bellerephon.
Upon return to the shuttle, Sarah told Major Lorenz that they needed to get to Bellerephon as quickly as possible. "I'm not sure how much stress the drive can take," he replied worriedly.
"Don't care," Sarah replied shortly. "Persephone's between here and there. If things go wrong, we can always land there and have them fix us up."
"Oookay," Lorenz sighed.
Sarah's sleep that night was troubled. She kept dreaming that she saw Chuck, but when she tried to call his name, she either couldn't make any noise, or he didn't hear her, or he was too far away. In the worst dream of all, Sarah called his name. Chuck turned and looked directly at her – right before putting his arm around a red-headed girl and walking away.
The next morning, Sarah was rather quiet. After the shuttle had lifted off, she went down to the lower deck, where the treadmill was located. Bryce found her there, two hours later, still running.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
"Nothing's wrong," Sarah replied shortly.
"Yeah, crap," Bryce replied. "I know you too well for that. You only run this much when something's going on. Your knee's got to be killing you."
In truth, Sarah's left knee felt like it was on fire. However, when she felt as stressed as she was at that moment, she ran until she didn't feel stressed anymore.
In short, Bryce was right. Sarah sighed in frustration. "Have you ever been basically crazy about somebody, and known that it wasn't a good idea, but were on the verge of letting your heart overrule your brain?"
Bryce grinned. "You've got it that bad for Chuck, huh?"
Sarah narrowed her eyes. "Just answer the question, Bryce."
"Yeah," Bryce replied. "I've been there, and I did let my heart take over. With you."
Sarah's eyes widened, and she slammed her hand down on the treadmill's stop button. "I wasn't a good idea?!"
"Oh, hell no," Bryce said. "Don't get me wrong, you as a person were great, but us as a couple was quite possibly the worst idea ever. It was an accident waiting to happen, and if I hadn't had to fake my death, God only knows what might have happened."
"What the hell?!" Sarah practically yelled. "What could possibly have made you think that?"
"Don't know," Bryce replied. "It was just a feeling. But… why exactly are we talking about me? This is about Chuck, not me. Which means that you didn't listen to a WORD I said back in October, did you?"
Sarah glared at Bryce. "Since I have successfully fended off Chuck's advances since then, I would say you're wrong."
Bryce snorted. "First of all, Chuck's advances have been limited, because he actually DID listen to the advice I gave him. Secondly, that charm bracelet on your wrist tells me that your personal defenses are, shall we say, rather weak."
"You know what?!" Sarah shot back, feeling even more frustrated. "This is not helping. I had a horrible night, and now this."
Sarah proceeded to tell Bryce about her dreams, including the last one. "Red-headed girl?" Bryce asked, trying and failing to keep the sarcasm out of his voice. "Last time I checked, his name was Chuck Bartowski, not Charlie Brown." Bryce shook his head. "And anyway, even if she was real, what would you do? Shoot her?"
"The thought has crossed my mind," Sarah replied darkly, the image of a traitorous and very dead LAPD hostage negotiator entering her mind's eye unbidden.
"Well, there you go," Bryce said. "This is part of why I thought we were a bad idea. You try to control everything – and you can't."
Sarah opened her mouth to protest, but Bryce cut her off. "You're a good person, Sarah," he said. "So is Chuck. I know how you feel about him. I know you want, somehow, for it to work. But you can't control him. You have to let him live his life."
With that, Bryce floated through the door, and Sarah was alone once more.
