I continue to appreciate each and every review. It is so tough not to just jump in and start chatting you guys up! Thank you so very much. Angus MacNab is my fantabulous beta - he probably won't appreciate being referred to as fantabulous but I'm sure he'll live because that's one of many things that he is. ;)
CHAPTER ELEVEN
xXx
In Chuck's opinion, morning was an alright time of day. It was fresh, anything could happen, and there was something special about that first cup of morning coffee. He'd had plenty of really great mornings, but this one… this one was beyond compare.
It had started out with a beautiful, sleepy and very naked woman lying half on top of him, and it had continued with deep, unhurried kisses and sex – really incredible, slow and deliberate sex.
"You know what would make this morning more perfect?" he asked, breathless as he pulled her up against his side.
"Mmm, pastries?" she murmured, nuzzling into his neck and kissing the underside of his jaw.
"Pastries? Really?" he laughed. "You really are perpetually hungry. I was going to say nothing." He kissed her forehead and wrapped his arms around her a little tighter. He groaned. "I don't want to move… but if you're hungry, I guess –"
A loud knocking at the door interrupted him and both of them sat up quickly, first looking at the door, then at each other before scrambling out of bed and hustling into some clothes. Jenny darted for the door, still doing up the button of her jeans and Chuck scrambled after her, still shirtless.
He reached for the doorknob but she stopped him with a hand on his arm. He looked back at her with a questioning frown and she stared back with a commanding one of her own. He watched as she sidled up to the peephole before looking out.
"It's the police," she whispered very softly.
"Oh God, someone else is dead," he replied, not even questioning it. His stomach dropped.
"Be careful what you say," she warned, placing her hand on his arm again. He looked at her face, studying her, his head filling up with more questions but he just nodded in response and she slid her fingers into his hand and gave it a squeeze.
There was another insistent knock and he unlocked the door, pulling it open to reveal the stern face of Detective Pierre.
"Mr. Bartowski."
Chuck steeled himself, swallowing quickly. "Detective Pierre!" he said. "What are you… what's going on?"
The detective tipped his head to the side, giving Chuck an intent look before he opened his mouth to speak. He closed it immediately when Jenny poked her head out.
"Yeah, is everything alright?" she asked, and Chuck couldn't stop himself from staring at her when he heard her speak. She'd adopted a younger sounding, girlish affectation. It wasn't over done but it still threw him completely.
Detective Pierre looked at her with his eyes narrowed slightly. "In fact, no," he said, "I'm afraid there's been another murder."
Chuck didn't really have to fake his reaction, even though he'd suspected it, it was still a shock to have his suspicions confirmed.
"May I ask where either of you were last night?"
"Well, we went out for dinner… Mafia Pizza… then, um, here?" Chuck said, and he felt Jenny pat his back gently. She started making soft circles and he felt himself relax a little.
"Here, where? Here in your room?"
"Yeah."
"Both of you?"
Chuck nodded. He could feel a slight blush creeping over his shoulders, but at the same time he wasn't embarrassed, at least not about what he'd spent the night doing, or who he'd been doing it with. He just wasn't a big fan of announcing his personal life to other people.
"All night?" Pierre asked, stressing the 'all.'
"Yes, officer," Jenny said. Chuck watched as she bit her lip and looked down at the ground shyly. He frowned a little; she was most definitely not shy.
"Who… who died?" Chuck asked. There were two people at the top of his suspected list, but there were even worse possibilities.
"The guy in room 205," Pierre said. "A man who showed up at your girlfriend's funeral." As he said girlfriend, his eyes flicked to Jenny and back again. "Another one from the funeral. Tell me, Mr. Bartowski, do you remember anything unusual about last night? See or hear anything unusual?"
"No, no, we didn't really see anything…" Chuck said, rubbing the back of his neck. He'd had his lips, and as much of the rest of him as possible, attached to Jenny.
The detective took another long look at Jenny and then turned back to Chuck. "I'd like to speak to you a moment in private," he said. Chuck looked down at Jenny and she smiled up at him. It would probably fool most people but to him it was a completely empty smile. The walls were up. She doesn't want to leave me alone with him. The thought worried him, but before he had a chance to dwell on it she was kissing his cheek and whispering in his ear.
"I'll be right next door."
He stepped back and let Detective Pierre into his hotel room. They both watched as Jenny slipped through the connecting doors, and Chuck took the opportunity to slip on a t-shirt.
Pierre turned to Chuck. "I'm starting to be a little concerned about your safety, son," he croaked, the rasp of his voice more pronounce in the early hours of the morning.
"What do you mean?" Chuck asked, crossing his arms over his chest.
Pierre stood, hands on hips and gave him a penetrating look. "You think you have this all under control, but how long do you really think that's going to last?" he queried. "Alexis White, was murdered. Autopsy showed the water she drowned in was too low in chlorine to be pool water. Now, there's this guy, tied to the bed with a bag over his head. The other woman who was staying here, the other one that was at Jill's funeral? She's gone. So, what's going on here, Chuck? I gave you slack last time because I like you, and I genuinely believe you didn't kill your girlfriend, but if you don't tell me what's going on, I may have to take you in for obstructing my investigation."
Chuck gaped back at him and then swallowed. What would be enough to get this guy off his back without getting him killed or sent to prison for treason? "Look, detective… I wish I could help you, but the truth is, I don't really have any idea what's going on. Those people, they wanted something of Jill's, something that I don't have. Just like I told you last time, that's all I know."
"What was it they think you have again?"
Chuck's mind went blank for the briefest of moments and then it came to him like a pinpoint of light in the darkness. "The money," he lied. "The money from everything that Jill sold. They say she owed it to them."
There was a flicker of something that passed over Pierre's face but it was gone before Chuck had even fully registered it. "The 250,000?"
Chuck nodded. "But I have no idea what Jill did with the money. I wish I did."
Pierre sighed and his posture relaxed a little. "Well, then, I'll have my guys keep an eye out for the third one. You be careful, Kid, and call me if things get sticky." Chuck nodded in response, though he had no intention of calling the man, and shook his offered hand.
Once Pierre was gone, Jenny came into the room. "Edgar," he spouted the moment he saw her. In spite of the horror of it and the anxiety over the immediate future, Chuck felt a guilty sense of relief. "Edgar's the one who's dead so it's Lizzie… Lizzie has the Intersect."
"It looks that way," Jenny said. "And I checked her room; she's long gone. Damn it."
"Worried about your vacation plans?" he asked, disapproval sneaking into his voice.
"No!" She turned away and exhaled a long slow breath. "Okay, yeah, but I'm more worried about the bad guys having potentially dangerous information," she whispered emphatically when she'd turned back.
Chuck looked at her seriously. "God, I wish I could believe you."
The anger left her eyes and her mouth twisted up into a sad, half smile. "Me too."
The phone in her pocket let out a shrill ring and Chuck noted it was just the default ring. No special ditty or custom tone, she hadn't even picked a different one from the options that had come with the phone.
"Where are you?" she demanded of the caller.
"Who is it?" Chuck whispered and she looked at him, her eyes full of worry and anger. She focused on him for a brief moment and then she pulled her phone from her ear and punched the speaker button.
"…think that I'm a fool?" Lizzie Shafai's laugh rang, delicate, feminine and slightly unhinged, through the phone line. "I have dedicated five years of my life to this mission, and I'm not going to disappear until I complete it. So, if you want to find me, Franco, you just keep looking over your shoulder because I'm coming for you. You and the nerd."
Chuck and Jenny stood looking at each other as the call disconnected. "She's still desperate, she doesn't have it," Jenny said.
"But I don't understand," Chuck muttered, his mind trying to gather and import all the new information one simple phone call had brought.
"Killing Edgar didn't get it for her; that means you've got it."
"I don't. Jenny, you know I don't."
"You have to, Chuck," she insisted. "You're the only option left." Her eyes were hungry and he didn't like it. Besides, she was wrong. Regardless of what Bartholomew had said, he still thought this Anderson person could have the damn thing. Problem was he couldn't tell her that.
Frustrated, he stalked over to the desk, yanked open a drawer and tossed Jill's purse to her. "Here you go, KatRebJen." He walked over and slumped onto the edge of the bed. "Have at it. I've been through it a million times, but whatever."
She looked at him oddly as she caught the bag, and he thought maybe there was hurt there, but she turned away, moving behind him to empty the contents onto the bed.
Chuck sighed and turned around toward her. He looked at the things spread out on the bed. "Okay, so somewhere in here is a cache of top secret government information." He held up a hair clip and waved it around. "Micro dots embedded in the plastic? I wouldn't've thought she'd had time…"
"No," Jenny said as she looked over each item carefully. "It was far too much information to be stored in that way. Also, you're right, she wouldn't've had time."
Chuck gawped at her. "So you're saying the only thing preventing her from hiding this Intersect thing on a microdot inside a hair clip is time and storage space?"
She looked up at him, completely serious. "Well, it's not really a microdot, but… yeah. Why?"
"No reason at all," Chuck responded flatly. Just suddenly feeling like I've been sucked into a Bond movie. He sifted through the items, studying each of them, but he had no idea what to look for. He picked up the letter Jill had written him and pulled it from the envelope. Reading it over, he found it just as baffling as the first time. He tossed it back into the pile and picked up the cheap, pink tooth brush, turning it in his fingers. He looked up as Jenny opened Jill's wallet, pulling out the 4000$ in cash still hidden there. She looked at him questioningly and he shrugged, picking up the pen and taking it apart to look inside. Next, she lifted one of the condoms.
"Is this the brand you usually use?" she asked holding it up.
Chuck blinked and looked from the condom to her and back again. "Um…"
"This isn't the kind we used last night," she said, looking at it closely, checking the edges. "Or is it just that Jill bought a different brand than you?"
"Ah… ha… um…" Forget his ears burning; he was pretty sure he was full on red. "No, I don't buy that brand and… uh… Jill usually left it to me, but," he swallowed. "It had been awhile…"
She frowned. "What?" She looked over at him. "What do you… Oh. Oh!" Then she smiled, laughing softly. "Well, you certainly wouldn't know you were out of practice." Chuck continued to sit and gape at her and she swooped in, her hand cupping his cheek as she kissed him soundly. "You're really cute you know that? It's okay, I know you were in this relationship, Chuck, you lived with her, so I pretty much assumed you'd had sex."
Chuck took a deep breath. "Alright, yeah, it's just… awkward."
"I probably would have realized that if I wasn't in 'work mode,'" she said, turning back to the condoms. She tore each one open and checked them over before tossing them in the trash. After she'd emptied out the toothpaste even she was convinced it wasn't there.
"What about the phone?" Chuck asked picking it up. "I mean, how small do you think they could shrink the info? Could they fit in or on the phone somehow?"
"I don't know," she said. "Can you find out, can you hook it up to the computer or something?"
Chuck crossed to the desk and picked up his keys. "First we could just look inside, then I'll see if I can hook it up." Using his ever present screwdriver, he deftly took the phone apart piece by piece. There were no extra parts so Chuck moved over to the computers, still hooked together, on the desk. "Hey, my program finished running," he commented as he shut things down between the laptops and prepared to hook up the phone.
Jenny came over to stand next to him and he looked up at her with a half-smile. "I'm sorry about being mad… before."
She smiled and caressed the back of his neck and the sensation sent a thrill through him. "It's okay."
He turned back to the computer and ran all the usual diagnostics. Nothing indicated storage was being taken up by anything other than the phone's operating system. "Nada," he said straightening up and shaking his head. "It's just a phone and I'm all out of ideas."
Jenny stood to her feet and started pacing. "This doesn't make any sense, it has to be here." She continued silently for a few moments before looking up at him. "What about the apartment?" she asked. "Have you searched it?"
"Yeah, when I first got home and found the place empty," he said. "I searched every room, I looked through all the drawers, the closets, the cabinets… everywhere."
"Yes, but Jill was a spy," Jenny insisted. "It's most likely she had a safe installed, or at the very least a hiding place for things she needed to keep on hand."
"I… I guess I didn't want to think about it," he said. "I just hope the landlord hasn't changed the locks."
xXx
Walking into the apartment again, after everything that had happened, was even more unsettling than it had been that afternoon he'd come back to find it empty. Even though it had been less than a week, the smell had grown stale and it was no longer the familiar scent of home.
Chuck flipped on the light as Jenny stepped inside and shut the door. "So," he sighed. "Where do we start?"
Jenny slipped her hand into his and gave it a squeeze and he felt himself relax. She looked around a moment and then turned back to him. "Give me the five cent tour and we'll go from there."
He obliged, walking her through the place room by room, skimming past the master bedroom as quickly as he could. She chuckled at his reluctance but he couldn't help it. Talking about the bedroom you shared with your dead, not quite 'ex' girlfriend, with the woman you hoped was your new girlfriend, (but weren't quite sure because you didn't even know her real name) was just really awkward.
When they got to the guest room at the end of the hall, Jenny slipped past him and looked around the room.
"Did anyone ever actually sleep in here?"
"No, actually," Chuck said, leaning a shoulder against the door frame and slipping his hands into his pockets. "It always kind of bugged me actually, because she insisted on keeping it as a guest room but she'd never let Morgan stay over. Would've been handy after a few of our late night Rock Band competitions."
She looked back over her shoulder at him questioningly and then a grin curled at the corner of her mouth. "You're talking about a video game aren't you?"
His smile was a mile wide. "I am. You are learning grasshopper." She laughed and turned back to the wall, smoothing the palms of her hands over the surface. "So, uh, what can I do to help?"
"Look around, think of any places you might've over looked last time," she said, still studying the wall intently.
"Okay," Chuck said nodding his agreement, but he stayed and watched her a moment longer, her graceful movements and the way her long, sunny hair brushed across her back. Her black shirt had a row of butterflies down the back, reminiscent of a spinal column, which accentuated her slender form and drew his eye down to her hips and long legs. He could easily recall having those legs wrapped around him just a few hours ago and he decided he should probably get to work before he got himself into trouble.
Being in the apartment when it was so empty was a haunting feeling, and as he carefully looked in and under drawers, checked vents and looked through cabinets, he couldn't help but think about the life he had tried to make there.
Hind sight being what it was, he could see now that things had been far from perfect from the beginning, that he had let himself settle into an unfulfilling relationship with Jill because he had been so sure he couldn't do any better. Not only had she been beautiful, she had been nerdy like him, making up math codes to get things past other members of their group, playing EverQuest until the wee hours of the morning. Once they'd moved in together, she'd never complained about his nights out with Morgan or his extended hours of video gaming, though she never really hung around to watch either.
The thing was, he had known something was missing. There was a lack of connection that he had found himself wishing for. He'd tried to talk to Jill about it several times, once even bringing up the idea of moving out, but she had always begged him to stay. And for a while things would be really good, she'd be home more, they'd hang out together and they'd have sex, a lot of sex, but eventually things always settled back into the same, frustrating pattern.
He wondered if it was telling that he had finally found that connection with someone who was even more mysterious, keeping even more secrets than Jill ever had, who didn't know the difference between a Wookie and an Ewok, and had probably never so much as thought about playing a video game. A wry smile turned his lips as he looked back down the hall. He was in way over his head with this woman, but if he was ever going to figure anything out concerning her, he needed to sort out the mess that Jill had left him. Then, maybe he could tell her that he was completely in love with her. And maybe she'd tell him her real name.
As he continued his search, one of the drawers actually yielded a small, leather bound calendar and his eyes lit up with hope as he flipped it open. He looked through the pages carefully but found nothing. It was completely blank. His thumb stopped on December 20th and he remembered the letter from Jill. Considering everything that he had learned since that day at the police station, Chuck still found the letter the most odd. Why did she write it, why did she have it? She had cleaned out their apartment, sold his clothes, his business, but she was going to send him this letter and… what? Obviously she had been going on the lamb because of the Intersect theft but she had wanted him to join her? He pinched the bridge of his nose to ward off the headache that had started to throb at the front of his skull.
"Chuck!" Jenny called and his head snapped up. "I think I found something."
He ran down the hall at full speed, grabbing the door jamb to swing himself into the room and come to a stumbling halt. Jenny was kneeling on the floor next to a pulled up section of carpet. In the section of floor the carpet would've covered was a sunken, flat faced safe. It looked a little like something out of a science fiction movie.
"I've never seen a safe like this before," she was saying as he joined her on the floor. "I'm usually pretty good at cracking them," the nonchalant way she announced that caused Chuck to do a double take, "but this one is beyond me."
He looked back at the high-tech looking display, studying it with intent curiosity. His eyes caught on the logo at the bottom corner and he felt that tingling sensation trickle through his brain. His eyelids fluttered ever so slightly as his mind flooded with information about the safe and the company that made it.
"Oh," he said, surprised. He had almost forgotten about the previous incidents. How could he possibly know this? He ran his fingers over the face, finding the subtly raised edges of the keyboard buttons. He held one of them down for a count of twenty and the display blinked to life. "It takes an eight digit, numerical code." What. The. Hell?
Jenny frowned at him for a moment and then sighed. "We're gonna have to pull it out and cut it open."
"With this reinforced steel body…? unless you have access to a laser, that's not gonna work."
"I can get it to a laser," she said darkly, her mouth set in a grim line.
"Jenny…"
"Chuck, we need to get inside this safe," she insisted. "You don't install a safe like this in your house unless you have something important to keep in it. We're not only talking about the information Jill stole. Remember, there was something else she was keeping for Fulcrum as well. If we get our hands on it, it could be invaluable."
Chuck frowned. "Jenny, look, I don't think…"
"Where's the closest hardware store?" she demanded, standing to her feet and pushing her hair behind her ears.
"Jenny, wait, just stop okay? I…" he looked back at the digital display and a very odd thought came to him. "Let me try something…"
It was almost as if a digital display inside his head was rolling the numbers into place. He reached out and started punching them in according to the sequence flashing in his mind. 12,20,01… no that wasn't enough numbers… 12,20, 1300…
There was a click and the door to the safe released with a hiss. He looked up at her with wide eyes and she fell back to her knees beside him.
"What? Chuck, how did you…"
"I… it was in the letter… the dentist appointment I didn't have."
They looked at each other in silence for a moment and when Jenny reached for the door Chuck shot out his hand to stop her.
"Wait, I need to tell you something," he said and she made a face, impatient as she looked at him.
"What? Look, if this is about –"
"I know that Jenny isn't your real name," he blurted and her eyes flew open wide, "And, I don't care. I mean, I do care, but it doesn't change anything, and even though I know that you are probably only doing this for the money it could make you and that it's possible I'm just a part of that game, I want you to know that for me… it's real. I love you, Katie-Rebecca-Jenny-whoever, and I hope that, no matter what happens with all of this, that afterward, we can try to get to know each other for real."
"Chuck." The sadness he saw in her eyes was overwhelming and he felt his stomach sink to the floor as she looked away for a moment before coming back. "That's… that might not be possible."
That was it. He could tell that was all he was going to get from her and it felt a whole lot like being socked in the gut by one of Captain Awesome's fraternity brothers. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly in hopes that his voice would sound normal when he spoke. "Just… just think about it?"
It was a long moment before she responded, and the grip she had on his hand increased in pressure for each increment of that moment until it was actually painful. Then she nodded, looking down at their clasped fingers. When she released his hand, he let her go.
She lifted open the safe door and looked inside. Chuck held back, still reeling from his hasty confession, but it didn't fully quell his curiosity. The answers to everything that was going on could be in this safe, so he moved in next to Jenny to peer inside. They both stared.
Jenny reached in, pulled out a stack of hundred dollar bills and looked them over in the light. "They're real," she said, running her thumb over the banded pile.
"How – how much?"
She pulled the stacks out one by one, setting them on the floor between them. "Twenty-five, stacks of 10,000 – if they're standard – that's –"
"Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars," Chuck breathed. "That's the money she got for selling everything… so, this is what she did with it? But why?"
"There's something else." She pulled out an envelope and held it out to him. He looked at her worriedly before taking it from her hand and sliding his finger beneath the seal. A hastily folded letter slipped out into his hand.
Jill's handwriting was as familiar as always, but there was something different about it, something rushed and nervous, making the edges of her usually carefully formed letters sharp and ragged. He read the words out loud.
Chuck - I'm sorry. I'm so very sorry for everything and I wish I could explain to you what I mean by that, but if you are reading this it means they've found me out and I wasn't able to get to you in time. So don't ask a lot of questions, please, trust me this one last time, even though I don't deserve it. You are in very, terrible danger. For the last eight years I have been working for some very bad people, and they want you, Chuck. I don't have time to explain why, just listen. In this safe is two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. It's hardly enough and I'm sorry about what I had to do to get it but I did what I had to. There's also a packet…
He looked up as Jenny pulled the item from the safe and settled it into her lap.
It has all the things you will need to take on a new identity and disappear. Please, Chuck, run. Just run and don't look back. – Jill.
His eyes were wide as he looked up at Jenny. She pulled open the Velcro flap and tipped the package onto the carpet next to the money. A passport, driver's license, birth certificate and several other items slid out.
"Oh my God," Chuck said, lifting the passport and opening it. There was his picture next to the name Charles VanWinkle.
Jenny looked everything over, her brow furrowed thoughtfully as she looked over each item, then her head snapped up and she stared at Chuck in horror.
He didn't see her reaction, too caught up in the insane thoughts tripping through his head. He held a stack of ten thousand dollars in one hand and Charles VanWinkle's driver's license in the other, looking back and forth between them as his mind assembled all the pieces to this particular puzzle.
"It's me," he said, his voice flat, empty of all emotion. "I'm the thing Jill was keeping for Fulcrum. Everything about us was a lie… it was…" he stopped mid-sentence and clamped his lips together. "I'm gonna throw up," he mumbled as he scrambled to his feet and hurried out into the hallway.
Jenny sat in the middle of the floor, her eyes following him intently.