A/N: Well, we've reached the final chapter of Sarah vs. the FBI. I believe this is the part where I thank all my loyal readers and reviewers. You guys are the best!

If you enjoyed this story and want to know the real story behind Chuck's "death," keep an eye out for the upcoming prequel, Chuck vs. Dunder Mifflin. Yes, it's a Chuck-Office crossover. Even if you're not a fan of the Office (and if you aren't, why not?), I'd appreciate you giving the story a chance.

12 chapters and 30,000 words in, nothing has changed. I still own no part of Chuck or Veronica Mars.


Chapter 12: Revelation

It was one month to the day after General Beckman had been killed.

The two agents who were currently standing by their cars and eying each other cautiously had spent a majority of that month working together to clean up the unbelievable snafu that had developed from that assassination. Despite the unusual circumstances, they had performed their jobs with exceptional efficiency. Now, only 30 days later, there was only one task left. That task brought them to a house that they had each visited exactly one time.

"You sure this is a good idea?" the female agent asked, walking across the street toward her counterpart's Crown Victoria.

He snorted. "Not remotely."

"But we're going through with it."

"Yeah." He drew in a thoughtful breath, and his hand wandered instinctively toward his hip, patting the package as if to reassure himself of its presence. "I've learned to trust his judgment on the topic of security risks – which is something I never expected to say."

She shot him a questioning glance. "Still, this doesn't seem necessary for the mission. I'm not sure how I feel about that."

He shrugged. "I can handle this on my own if you'd rather stay out of it."

"I'm here, aren't I?" she challenged him harshly.

"Just saying," he replied with uncharacteristic gentleness. "You don't have to be."

She paused momentarily, then shook her head decisively. "I should be. He's earned that much."

They walked to the door of the house and knocked.


Dr. Ellen Woodbridge was exhausted. This was understandable, considering her recently finished double shift in the ER. She was very much looking forward to settling down for several hours of peaceful, dreamless sleep.

That's why the persistent knock on the door was so irritating. She stormed down the stairs and into the house's entryway, flinging the door open to reveal two visitors. Either one of them would have been startling individually. Their presence together left Ellie utterly befuddled.

"John? And Agent…"

"Mars," the small blonde helpfully supplied.

Ellie nodded dazedly. "What, uhh, what are you both doing here?"

Casey stepped forward, reaching into his jacket pocket with his left hand. "We came to give you this," he replied, offering the elder Bartowski sibling a cheap CD case. "You're supposed to watch it in private. We'll be here when you're done in case you have any questions."

Still confused, Ellie waved the government agents into her living room, then retreated to the den and slid the disc into her laptop. It contained only one file, which ran automatically. On the screen appeared the face of Sarah Walker.

"Hi, Ellie," the face said cautiously. "I'm sure this is a surprise."

She was right.

"I need you to stay calm, all right? There are some things you should know."

"Like maybe what happened to my baby brother? Or why I haven't seen you in over a year, and even after that much time you still don't have the guts to face me in person?" Ellie wasn't sure why she'd decided to vent at the unresponsive face on her monitor, but it was satisfyingly cathartic.

"But before we get to that, I need to make sure that you're really Ellie. So I'm going to ask a security question. Before Chuck and I had our first date, Chuck joked with you about how he met me. What did he say?"

Ellie was utterly flummoxed. She tried to think back over three years. It was two days after Chuck's birthday… he came home from work and announced that he had a date…

"So, Sarah… she's nice? Pretty?"

"Yeah. Actually, Morgan met her in this sort of online chat room."

She wasn't sure how Sarah had heard that story, but at least she remembered the answer.

"Type the answer in," the blonde instructed. "Don't worry about the exact form, just get the general idea."

Morgan met you online, Ellie tried.

Sarah's head nodded. "Good. Now that we've confirmed who you are, let me just zoom out a little here so someone else can join me…"

October 24 had been an exceptionally surprising day for Ellie. So when Sarah said that someone else would be appearing on the screen, she'd steeled herself to expect absolutely anything.

The appearance of her little brother's face still left her in a breathless state of shock.

"Hey, Ell."

She stared, completely stupefied. She was extremely grateful that the faces on her computer couldn't see her – she probably looked about like a fish lying on the deck of a boat, fruitlessly gasping for air.

"So, umm, I'm not dead."

Ellie could see that.

"Or at least, I wasn't when we made this recording… I guess you never know in this business."

That was comforting.

"See, the thing is… a little over year ago, Sarah and I ran into some trouble with our employers, and we kind of needed to disappear. And while Sarah is roughly the best spy in the world, for some reason, these people still think I'm more important."

Sarah interrupted. "Because you are."

"Agree to disagree," Chuck replied with a cheeky grin. "Anyway, the opportunity presented itself, so… we killed me. Not really, obviously. But we faked my death. See, if I was dead, the government wouldn't chase Sarah nearly as vigorously."

That made as much sense as anything Ellie had heard since getting home. Which meant slightly less than nothing.

"They stopped looking after a while, although they'll probably pick it up again soon – at least, I would if I were them. So we still have to hide out until that blows over. Plus, there's another project we're working on." The couple appeared to squabble briefly, with Chuck muttering an indistinct "I wasn't going to tell her any more."

Sarah picked things up from that point. "The thing is… for all of this to blow over, Chuck needs to stay dead. We'll be off the grid for a long time. Until he's able to come out, you cannot tell anyone about this. Nobody. Understand?"

Ellie nodded.

Chuck talked again. "Ellie, I promise, we will come back someday. Until then, Veronica and Casey will keep an eye on you for us – two eyes, as often as they can spare them." Ellie joined Sarah in a fond eye roll at the reference. "And we'll be watching out for you ourselves, albeit from a distance. You'll be about as safe as anyone who doesn't have a personal Secret Service detail."

Chuck and Sarah spoke together. "We love you, Ellie. We miss you. We'll see you again."

The picture on the screen faded, leaving Chuck's voice coming through the speakers. "This disc will self destruct in 10 seconds. No, seriously. Consider it Dad saying hello."

As the acrid white smoke that emerged from the CD tray of her laptop wafted throughout the room, Ellie managed a weak laugh in between her tears.


Casey and Veronica sat patiently in the living room, waiting for the doctor to reemerge.

"You think she's all right?" the FBI agent finally asked after half an hour had gone by.

"She's a tough kid," Casey replied. "She'll be fine."

"I'm not sure," Veronica argued. "I mean, it was pretty startling for me when I found out the guy was alive, and I only knew him from that picture." She gestured toward the mantel. "She knew him his whole life."

"She's a doctor. She's used to dealing with death."

Veronica snorted in disdain. "Sure. Seeing people you barely know die as part of your professional life is the ideal way to prepare for a suddenly undead family member." She stood from the couch. "I'm going to check on her."

The discussion was interrupted by the sound of the door to the den creaking open. Veronica could immediately see that Ellie had been crying. She walked quickly over to the other woman, wrapped a comforting arm around her, and led her toward the love seat in the living room.

"So I'm supposed to ask you guys questions now, right?" Ellie murmured.

"Yeah. Whenever you're ready," Veronica replied.

The doctor appeared to start talking twice, only to stop before making any actual noise. Finally, she managed to force out, "He's really alive?"

"Really," both agents answered.

"And he faked his death? How did that work?"

Casey grunted. "Short version? Walker tricked me."

Ellie caught the residual irritation in the NSA agent's voice, and wisely decided not to ask for the long version. "I guess you can't tell me what he's doing now."

Veronica shook her head apologetically. "Nope. Even we only know in the vaguest terms."

"How long will it take?"

"We don't-"

Ellie cut them off sharply. "I know you don't have an exact date. Weeks, months, or years?"

The agents traded glances. "Years," Casey finally answered.

"How dangerous is it? I mean, I realize that your jobs are dangerous all the time…"

"It's riskier than our jobs," Veronica replied. "But if anyone can handle it, it's Chuck and Sarah."

The doctor nodded quietly. "I won't say that's exactly reassuring. Probably because I'm always going to see him as my baby brother. But if you say they can do it… I think I believe you."

"They can do it," Casey said with conviction.

The three occupants of the living room lapsed into silence for several minutes as the agents allowed Ellie to process what she'd learned. Eventually, she turned to face Veronica. "You were here a couple weeks ago never having met Chuck. How do you know so much about him all of a sudden?"

The FBI agent hesitated before answering. "We, uh, worked together on a case."

"The one you were here for?" Ellie queried.

"Yes."

"Can you tell me about it?" the brunette pressed.

Veronica looked at Casey, who shrugged slightly. "A little, I guess. It was the assassination of General Beckman, who was Casey's boss and the supervisor of Chuck's operation."

"Did you solve it?"

"We did," Veronica said proudly.

"Who did it?"

"Don't you watch the news?" the blonde asked with a slightly teasing lilt to her voice.

"The news said that the Director of the CIA conspired with a rogue agent to plan the murder," Ellie replied calmly. "Since Sarah is a rogue agent, and the message said that they're expecting her to get more attention now, I'm guessing she's who they were referring to. And since Chuck helped you solve the case, I'm also guessing that story may not be entirely accurate."

Casey chuckled. "Your whole family is too smart for its own damn good."

"The official account may have one or two slight discrepancies with what really happened," Veronica confessed.

"Can you tell me what those are?"

"They're connected with what Chuck and Sarah are working on."

"So no," Casey accentuated.

"Can you at least reassure me that Sarah didn't actually kill a high-ranking government official?"

"Sarah didn't kill Beckman," Casey responded. "I have no idea who she's whacked in the rest of her career." Veronica shot him a dirty look.

Ellie changed topics. "Chuck said I can't tell anyone."

Both agents nodded.

"Does that include Devon?"

Casey thought that over. "That's really your call. If you think he can be trusted, and you'd like him to know, we can't stop you."

Ellie took a long pause. "They said you two would look out for me."

Veronica nodded. "There's been a bit of a shakeup in the FBI recently, thanks to the demise of Director Sax. Because I ended up doing a giant chunk of the work on the Beckman case, and because my old boss in LA is the new Director and he likes me, I've got my pick of assignments. You're looking at the new second-in-command at the FBI's Seattle field office. And I've requested Casey as the NSA liaison to the Bureau for the Pacific Northwest."

"It's an unusual assignment for someone of my rank," Casey continued, "but my bosses aren't especially fond of me at this point, and frankly, the feeling is mutual. So the official explanation is that I'm happy to accept a relatively boring desk job."

"What's the unofficial one?" Ellie asked perceptively.

"I'm sworn to defend the United States of America," he responded quietly. "And at this point, I can do a much better job of that by helping Bartowski than I can by working for the NSA." Both women looked up at him in surprise, and he chuckled darkly. "And my superiors thought I was burned out before that assignment."

Ellie smiled. "Thank you both. You have no idea how much this means to me."

After receiving warm Bartowski hugs, both agents stepped outside. As soon as the door closed, they each removed tiny electronic devices from their ears, dropped them onto the porch, and crushed them. Casey held out his hand.

"Mars."

"Casey," Veronica replied with a subdued grin as she accepted the handshake. "See you at work on Monday." She walked over to her FBI-issue SUV, slid into the driver's seat, and kissed her passenger on the cheek.

"How'd it go?" Logan asked.

"Fine," she replied. "Sorry we made you wait out here."

"Oh, no problem," Logan reassured her. "I'm sure it was a lot of information for her to take in even without having someone you've never met there."

"I'm sure you'll meet her sometime soon. She's a good kid."

"You realize she's like 10 years older than you, right?" Logan grinned.

Veronica giggled softly. "Spending too much time around Casey. But still."

"It must run in the family," Logan mused.

"Yeah. I guess it's not too surprising; she practically raised him."

They settled into a comfortable silence as Veronica backed out of the driveway. Logan finally spoke again once they'd merged onto I-5.

"You sure about this?"

"Our 'epic romance,' you mean?" she asked mockingly.

Logan smiled. "Honestly, I'm not quite sure we qualify as epic any more. I mean, our relationship has been pretty crazy, but…"

"Yeah," Veronica answered. "I think we've seen what a real legendary couple looks like, haven't we?"

"They'd be pretty tough to compete with," he confirmed. "If it's all right with you, I'd be perfectly content to settle for something a little more mundane at this point."

"Much as I'd like that, I'm not sure we'll ever quite manage to be boring," she replied.

Logan's smile faded after a lengthy pause. "You still haven't answered my question."

Veronica looked at him contemplatively. "Yeah." Logan fixed her with an inquisitive stare, waiting for her to elaborate. She obliged. "Yeah, I'm sure. You know, you used to scare me a little with your intensity. But seeing Chuck and Sarah… they're both just as crazy protective as you are. And it works for them."

"It doesn't just work for them," Logan countered. "They're absolutely incredible together."

Veronica nodded. "So, I figure, maybe we can have the same kind of dynamic. Just in case we have any more epic moments." She slid her hand into his and they both smiled at the road.


"Was it really necessary for them to destroy the cameras?"

Chuck nodded. "You know the drill. If they keep them, there's a good chance the government will get them at some point; if the government gets them, then the Ring gets them. We'll need every advantage we can get."

Sarah conceded with a nod of her own. "And you're sure you're ready for this?"

"If I'm not mistaken, it was my idea."

"Chuck, it's one thing to be ready when it's some theoretical mission that we don't really know how to start. It's another matter entirely when we're really ready to get down to business."

Chuck responded with a baleful look. "I was thinking we'd start with the Colorado Springs operation, since it's closest to our current base. From what I can tell, their main vulnerability should be…"

"Chuck," Sarah interrupted. "Hang on."

"Sarah, I'm ready, okay? No issues here. We're taking them down."

She smiled and leaned casually across the table. "I got that, believe me. I was just thinking we could postpone the planning session until tomorrow."

Chuck sighed. "If you insist. But only because I love you." He leaped from his chair and sprinted toward the bedroom with Sarah hot on his heels.