A/N: If you have a preference to the shorter or longer chapters, please let me know. It won't necessarily make a difference in this story, but for future ones. Casey will not be approaching Kathleen or Alex in this story, in case anybody was looking forward to that; as we all know a Casey stalks its prey. There is a lot of talking in this chapter; it is a necessary 'evil' to work through the where and why Stephen left. Thanks to all those that continue to read and review this story. I do not recall last time I added this caveat, but I do not own Chuck.

A Different Kind of Couple

Chapter 14

"Oh boy."

When Sarah heard those words, a gulp and panic quickly set in as Chuck's eyes fluttered shut again. "Chuck, you cannot do this to me… without you I'm just a spy."

Sarah's eyes cast down and away in a forlorn look. Her highly tuned spy instincts must have turned off as well judging from the gasp of surprise as she felt a familiar pair of arms wrap around her. The warmth so all encompassing she wanted to melt into them like butter on toast. She looked up into Chuck's worried eyes and both got lost for a moment, until Chuck blinked.

"I'm sorry to scare you like that Sarah. Where are we and why am I in a hospital? Is something wrong? Well actually I don't want to alarm you anymore than I already have, but I might be suffering from hallucination because I could have sworn my dad was standing at the foot of my bed, but with you saying you were a spy means there's no way he could be there." Chuck turns slightly to look and once again views his father staring at him with the smile that meant everything to him when he was little; the one full of pride.

"Sarah, there may be something seriously wrong because I still see him." Chuck merely pointed to the end of the bed.

"Charles, it's ok. I am here; everything is going to be all right."

Chuck looks at him wide eyed and remembering what Sarah had uttered tries to explain, "Really? Well you should know Sarah is not what she had said earlier… it's kind of a game we like to play that takes the monotony from our plain old, average, humdrum lives of working retail at an electronics and food store respectively…"

Sarah shushed Chuck; smiling as she placed a finger on his lips. Stephen reached back and scratched the back of his head before stating, "The rambling definitely comes from me. Charles, it is fine I have something that I have to tell you as well, but I want to make sure that you get a medical check because your heart rate seems rather high right now."

To Chuck's pout Sarah pulled away from Chuck and the three had slightly different reactions as they watched the monitor show his rate slowing down dramatically. Chuck was slightly embarrassed, Sarah a tad sheepish, but proud, and Stephen slightly amused as they watched it return to a resting state that was slightly below the general norm, but was in fact where Chuck's rate usually stayed.

Stephen ended the silence with, "Chuck it is my fault that you are here." Chuck's reaction was to look at him like he was still that slightly off man the last time he had seen him as a child. While Sarah looked at him wondering how he arrived at that conclusion. "I know before I left that I was acting erratically, which was one of the reasons I knew I had to leave. What you didn't know was the reason why. Initially I was recruited along with two other top minds: Hartley and Mitch as a think tank to try and bring things to reality that were barely considered plausible in science fiction. The one that was foremost in all of our minds after our first meeting was imprinting data on the human brain in a non-organic manner."

Stephen paused to make sure he hadn't lost Chuck. He could tell when the realization hit his son as he began to speak his concern about saying anything more, but Stephen held up a pen and waggled it to a smile from Sarah before finishing, "We will have to find a more secure place to talk as our time is limited here as the range of my device has most likely halted your telemetry from sending out its data to the nurse's office."

As he said that Stephen clicked the pen for everybody to see just as a nurse strode into the room in a hurried manner. He stopped as he realized the patient was awake and by all immediate accounts; fine. A quick vitals check correlated with the info on the screen. A look at the connections was not able to find an immediate reason for the glitch as the walkie-talkie part of the phone he carried answered that the info was now coming in perfectly fine. The nurse asked if there was anything Chuck wanted and laughingly shook his head as 'Pizza' was the response. The nurse explained the last thing you wanted was the cafeteria's pizza and bringing in outside food was a no-no. He ended with a wink as he said, "Especially if that pizza didn't have pepperoni on it."

Chuck shocked the other two by trying to start a pool on how long it would take Ellie to get here now that he is awake. That did not stop either from placing their guesses and left Ellie confused as to why Chuck and Sarah yelled 'Time' when she opened the door. All three earned the 'Mother's Glare' until Ellie learned Sarah won with her time of two minutes, which was the longest; Ellie's actual time was five minutes forty-five seconds to which she mumbled something about 'slow elevators'. Ellie then shooed the other two out of the room to where Devon was glancing at his watch.

"I'm on a five minute break, so I should head back, but other than a contusion on his posterior Morgan should be released later today. Chuck's fine?" Both Sarah and Stephen smiled brightly and nodded which grew into a small amount of laughter with Devon's reply of "Awesome".

Not wanting to return to the waiting room they tried to stand as unobtrusively as possible while Ellie was doing whatever she was doing in the room. A few minutes later Ellie came out, but neither could quite identify her mood; there was obvious happiness which led them to believe Chuck was in good shape. They both missed what could be characterized as doubtful curiosity. Ellie began to describe that from all appearances Chuck was perfectly fine. She did schedule another MRI to compare with the one from Walter Reed, but that was going to happen regardless. Ellie turned and stared at Sarah intently and asking in a no-nonsense tone, "Where were you two when this happened?"

Sarah looked shocked, initially and quickly determined that Chuck, if pressured with no back story to fall back on will go with as much truth as he can; especially to Ellie. "We were at my old boss's house. He recently passed away, but there were some things he owed me and we were looking through some of his paperwork to find it."

Ellie's eyes widened, "Wow, I'm sorry I don't know why, but when Chuck said that it seemed like he was making it up as he went along. His memory seems fully intact; his large and small motor skills are functioning. Have you noticed any headaches recently?"

Sarah paused and was starting to say 'Yes' when she saw Stephen subtly shake his head which caused Sarah to complete it by stating, "I cannot be completely sure because I'll kiss his forehead and rub his temples for a few seconds and he'll say he's all better."

"Ok, so I've learned my brother has a move… not exactly what I wanted to know, but you two are ridiculously cute together. While I'm inclined to keep him overnight for precautionary reasons; I know he's going to want to go home ASAP." Ellie looked at Sarah facetiously, "I know you must have better things to do with your time, but if I release my younger brother I would only be able to concentrate on work, if he is being watched constantly. Can you do that, Sarah?" Sarah shyly nodded which gave Ellie an opportunity to wrap the blonde in a hug. "Ok, I don't know if you have anything to do immediately, but the best case scenario is Chuck would be ready to go in about six hours. If we cannot find any trace of an embolism or brain trauma it would be difficult to justify keeping him here another night. I know you both want to stay here." She looked at her father, "Was he happy to see you?" At Stephen's nod he was brought into a hug. Sarah turned her head as she could see both were becoming emotional over their physical connection. After they separated and both wiped their eyes Ellie finished with, "As I said I know you both want to stay here, but if he is going to be released Devon and I are both on call here until early tomorrow morning. Sarah; Dad can take you to get your 'baby' and you two can organize what you are going to do for tonight. Chuck is going to be in for some different tests over the next few hours and there's really nothing to do but sit in the waiting room."

Sarah looked to Stephen who nodded that he would happily do what Ellie had just said and they both were in agreement that it would be best to set up what was happening tonight as they both had a feeling this night was going to change everything.

While virtually everyone who knew her, whose numbers included Graham and Larkin, would claim Sarah Walker was addicted to action. She, prior to Chuck, would also have included herself with that trait as well. Currently she was weaning herself off of the 'living for the next adrenaline rush' as envisioning a future with Chuck, as farfetched as it appeared at times, was what her soul was craving. That being said the six hours with an agenda flew by for the spy; she knew that a large part of her growing relaxation was that the time was drawing nearer for Chuck to be able to leave the hospital.

The consensus was to go to Sarah's apartment, as it would provide the privacy for the necessary conversation. Stephen agreed as well to the choice of pizza instead of his Chicken Pepperoni for dinner for expediencies sake, and that they need to stop at an office supply store as another trait father and son seemingly share is they both find it easier to explain things if they are laid out in a flow chart.

They had just gotten back to the hospital lobby when Ellie called to let them know that Chuck had 'passed with flying colors' and was set to be released shortly. Sarah stayed in the lobby for a second as she placed the order for the pizzas as Stephen went up to check on Chuck. When Sarah opened the door there was a bit of tension in the room as Stephen's face showed guilt and Chuck's one of frustration. Sarah quickly came over and kissed Chuck on the forehead which left him slightly confused.

"Chuck with your aversion to PDA, I would have to think kissing in front of your dad would be…" Sarah didn't have to continue as Chuck showed his 'I just sucked fifteen lemon's face'; finally nodding thankfully at her.

He gave a contrite look to his dad, who shook his head, "No, you deserve all the answers and more Charles. I don't expect to be forgiven, but I hope you can understand why after."

Stephen left to get the pizzas and Sarah explained the basic details that they would be going to her place and watch Tron. Chuck understood this to be code just in case there was somebody listening. Soon Chuck was discharged and the two were headed back to Maison 23.

When they got to her room, Sarah shuffled Chuck into her bathroom with a change of clothes demanding he take a shower. He laughingly obliged and was a little choked up that there were travel size bottles of his shampoo and body wash amongst her shower items. When he emerged from his shower, he admittedly felt one hundred times better and when the smell of tomato sauce, mozzarella, and assorted toppings overwhelmed his sense of smell he couldn't control the size of the smile on his face. Both his father and Sarah chose not to hold back their amusement of his reaction and Chuck ambled to the table. The three ate voraciously finishing off two large pizzas easily and Stephen suggested to a pleased audience maybe getting some ice cream after the discussion.

Chuck and Sarah sat on her bed as Stephen dragged a chair to sit in front of them. He paused for a second and closed his eyes. He reopened them as they showed a flicker of hope, "Charles, I am Orion. While I can't take credit for the entirety of creating the Intersect, I will insist that I created all the cool parts. Perhaps thankfully, they have not tested out certain capabilities that should be in this version as it may have caused an additional strain. You should be able to get past any electronic lock and spot any surveillance in a room. I am working on a method to extract the Intersect completely and am pretty close. There's just one more trial I want to put it through before I would submit you to it. I do have a device that can impede any flashes, but the Intersect would still exist in your brain and would not preclude anybody from trying to force a flash."

The last sentence stopped Sarah from stating to get that device and use it on Chuck immediately. With Fulcrum edging closer to Chuck; his having a blocked Intersect would be much worse. He couldn't spot the potential danger until it was too late and if he did fall into their hands she had a decent idea of the torture they would put him through to destroy that barrier. Chuck looked over to Sarah and noting her worried look placed his hand on her subtly twitching one which seemed to instantly relax it.

Stephen looked at the two and allowed himself to reminisce for a moment before continuing, "I think we are all in agreement that we need to stop Fulcrum before it will be safe to extract the Intersect from Chuck." Sarah reluctantly nodded. "Now I think it is best to go back and answer at least some of the questions I know Chuck has been waiting to ask. There is a reason that I left and why I am so adamant about making sure this extraction works properly because there is one other person who uploaded an Intersect which for all practical purposes destroyed the family that we had."

This time Sarah was the one who instigated the touch by intertwining her fingers with Chuck's. "I told you there were three scientists. I matriculated from Stanford, Mitch from MIT, and Hartley from Oxford. Surprisingly enough when they locked us in a room we connected instantly and not only sprouted ideas, but our combined expertise allowed us to stretch our limits and one of the items that came from the initial meeting was the Intersect. Initially it was designed to be a tool to allow for a complete immersion of knowledge that could be installed and then removed. We grew to believe both mental applications like foreign language and expert knowledge like a metallurgist or diamond expert could be implanted as well as branching out to physical skills like dancing, playing a musical instrument, or even advanced martial arts. While there were other projects we worked on and accomplished; the Intersect was our main goal. While we were still working out how to incorporate the physical skills an imposing person came down to the lab and demanded to know if we could install a personality into somebody. There was a limited time for his plan to be activated. The last thing he insisted upon was that there be a doomsday timer which was to destroy the Intersect by itself. Mitch insisted it could be done and started coding. When Hartley heard the parameters of the knowledge they lined up perfectly with him and while very much an introvert; he did have a weakness for always wanting to be James Bond twice. Twice, because he wasn't sure if the first time would scare the Living Daylights out of him and having a second chance would have those peccadilloes worked out. With those two locked in their own worlds it left me to question who this person was and why he was allowed to deal with us directly. Previously there were only two people who were allowed to have contact with us. The first, Charles, was your mother."

While Chuck's conscious mind was aware that Orion and Frost were considered a pair, he hadn't made the connection that with Orion as his dad, Frost would be his mom. Stephen looked to Sarah as Chuck was adamantly shaking his head. Sarah clung to Chuck which brought him back and looked to Stephen before asking, "The Bartowski Curse?" Stephen nodded his head as Chuck mulishly looked to Sarah as to how the two of them could have an inside joke. "Apparently Bartowski men like their women to be beautiful and deadly, but somehow these women find the Bartowski men irresistible." Sarah smilingly explained to a now blushing Chuck.

Chuck bit the inside of his cheek to hold back the smile as he looked to confirm what Sarah had just said; finally uttering, "Oh, ok… please continue dad."

"I may have jumped around, but going through the channels I was supposed to; only led to that person bumping me up further up the chain until the Secretary of Defense was on the phone and said to do as he asked and did not want to know any of the details. The man came around the next day scowling at me for wasting time checking up on him and not working on his project. Hartley then volunteered and at Mitch's insistence that they could 'program' him with a personality completely different from his normal self and it would be a complete immersion until the clock ran out. The man then took Hartley to be fitted for an assortment of suits and other items to help him fulfill the requirements of the mission. While Mitch was the de facto computer expert I watched, listened, and studied enough so by that time I was almost as proficient as him. I would double check his coding because he would work so fast sometimes his fingers could not keep up with his mind. The man before he left insisted that nobody else needed to be made aware of this op. Now, of course I had told Mary about this and when she learned of the latest episode agreed that things weren't adding up and so she volunteered to watch over Hartley. The next morning I was called into a subcommittee meeting that left me in an otherwise empty room for five hours. After a half-hearted apology that it was rescheduled for the following week; I walk into the lab to find Hartley's office packed with Mitch and the man sharing a brandy and smoking a cigar. Mitch exclaimed the installation worked perfectly and the plan was underway. When I asked how Frost was going to be able work her way into Project X's trust; that was the name of the op. Don't even try to flash, as that has been completely scrubbed from almost all records." In the midst of his monologue Stephen rose from the chair and began to pace.

Chuck sheepishly looked to his dad and shrugged his shoulders, which Stephen took as he already tried to flash on it and came up empty. "Well, I thought it might be another trap Graham could have set up, but I don't think he ever discovered there was a link between Orion, Frost, and you." He took a breath, "Have you had any problems? I've tried to keep an eye on you once I found out what Larkin had done…" Stephen's face turned red and appeared to be lost in thought.

Sarah looked to Chuck with some concern who responded by moving slowly to his father who was mumbling apologies to Chuck, Ellie, Hartley, Mary simultaneously which amounted to gibberish. Chuck wrapped his father in a hug, "Dad, don't quit on me now. We all need you."

Sarah's eyes may have moistened, but the father and son were now on an emotional precipice. Chuck released a breath he hadn't realized he was holding when his father took a deep breath and shook his head and muttered, "I'm sorry."

Sarah wanted to get Stephen back to talking again, but was concerned that the event he was describing was the trigger for his abrupt halt stated, "Stephen, I know you wanted to explain why you left. Perhaps we should skip the Project X talk and state why you would leave your teenage daughter to raise both herself and her younger brother." She added her Enforcer tone to the last part hoping that it would kick start him talking again.

It seemed to work as he separated from Chuck and quickly sat down and looked to Chuck waiting for him to do the same. He gave a haunted look to Sarah before starting up again, "I'm sorry I got carried away in all these details that I do have to get out, but…" He took a deep breath, "You're right Sarah I can get into that later. First to somewhat finish it as Project X started just about everything that has led to where we are. Mitch's countdown clock failed completely, but I have a serious doubt one was ever put in as I have never been able to look at the code. Mitch soon disappeared with a number of patents, many of which were my creations, but… that can be for later too. Our second 'handler' who was a CIA lawyer disappeared in the time frame of waiting out Hartley's clock. In less than a month the department I had been a part of for over ten years went from five to just me with no clue as to the whereabouts of the other four. Any inquiries I made for information were placed in a shredder before they were finished reading. The ones I tried to do on my own ended with me getting a new computer after they confiscated my old one. Our house was now filled with cameras. I thank all that is Holy that I had just removed the camera from my den before Chuck uploaded the beta Intersect off my Mac."

Sarah stared at Chuck with a flat look and Chuck was looking between the other two with his mouth agape. Stephen started again, "It was a very minor upload. Actually the only info on it was the schematics of the Mac and the reboot program. I ran as many tests on you as I could without alerting the CIA, but that also was the impetus for me that I had to leave the two of you. If the CIA had known your brain benefitted from the upload; they would have snatched you up as a guinea pig long before that test at Stanford." Chuck's face was full of confusion at this point, "I wasn't there physically and I can easily assume now knowing that I was keeping tabs on you and your sister may make you feel worse, but if I didn't stay away the CIA would have used you as leverage against me or even tried to recruit you. Especially after I discovered your college best friend and roommate was a recruit. After discovering your score on the test I came out of hiding to contact Larkin and threatened outing him by posting his photo and description to every foreign organization to keep you out of the CIA. I then gave him a number to contact me if he had done a good job I would owe him a favor."

Chuck looked like he was about to vomit, but Sarah was also curious about why he had given the Brycetard a phone, "While I never wanted your life devastated, I hope you understand however bad those five years you lost in your self-imposed purgatory were; they pale in comparison to being the guinea pig to the hell you would have gone through with the Intersect program under that butcher Perseus. His first year in charge after I left he literally burned through twenty of the brightest agents before he implemented any of the safety protocols I had issued concerning upload speed. When absorbing all the information the brain needs time to create new neural pathways or override previously discarded ones… Sorry drifting away once again. I'm not sure what I have skipped over."

Stephen finished with a devastated look, thinking he has unloaded a lot of information, but in looking at his son the truth has not set him free, but positioned him as a monster in the same vein as Bryce Larkin. Sarah could easily sense the growing tension in the room; Stephen fully awaiting a deserved explosion and Chuck battling himself as to what or even if he is feeling anything at the moment. The two Bartowski men soon found a yogurt and spoon in their hands. At their combined confused gaze to the spy she shrugged her shoulders before stating, "I doubt either of you are ready to step outside for ice cream and this is all I have."

She looked to Chuck with a gentleness in her eyes that almost made him drop the yogurt and pull her in for a hug. Sarah spotted this and with a raised eyebrow halted his movement, "I know you need more than a few minutes to absorb all of this, but if the CIA had taken you the only scenario where I may have even come across your name was if Ellie and Devon, or Morgan were asking around too much. Which, knowing them, I can easily see happening." Sarah stopped as the haunted look in her eyes told everyone in the room exactly what her mission would entail and neither wanted her to vocalize it for her benefit. This snapped Chuck out of the doldrums as he brought Sarah into his arms and rocked her for a few seconds.

Chuck then looked at his guilt ridden father and swallowed the animosity that would do no good, "So, you are saying by abandoning us you kept the government from using us as pawns to control you."

Stephen looked at his son and tried to imbue the pride he felt for him, "That was a part of it, but if I let them take you and/or your sister they would have devastated your lives. I steered your mother's pay into the master account until the CIA declared her a traitor. I tried to find ways to get money to you two, but they kept passive surveillance on you until you moved out of the house. Once they were convinced I had nothing to do with getting that apartment they left you two alone until your birthday last year."

"Ok and Mom disappeared because of Project X."

"Alexei Volkoff." Sarah's eyes grew wide and after Chuck's mind went to an old wrestler before it settled on the infamous Russian arms dealer his eyes widened as well. "I have spent almost two decades trying to track down all of my past partners. I have finally done so with a number of bumps along the way. I had cracked a number of rogue operations before I happened to luck into finding footage of the man who instigated Project X interrogating a man named Yuri the Gobbler. For a cannibal he actually is quite the portrait artist as the man, whose name I then found out is Decker brought out Yuri's sketchbook and vehemently told him he was never to draw Volkoff's portrait again. Otherwise he would be given a paralytic drug and buried with leeches, worms, and maggots. Before Decker destroyed the drawings I caught a good look and it was Hartley. My initial thought I had been working through all this time was that they had set Hartley up as the head of Fulcrum as that group only started making noticeable moves shortly after he left. Hartley… Volkoff… he has set up an impressive organization that is so convoluted your mother is still trying to identify all the pieces before suppressing Hartley; if she doesn't a number of them are capable of doing horrible things as Volkoff sets them up to be self funding."

"Have you been in touch with her?"

Stephen's face faltered and he quickly looked at both Chuck and Sarah before closing his eyes and shaking his head. The two soon found their hands gripped tightly on the other imagining twenty years apart without a word between them. Stephen opened his eyes and saw the two staring into each other's eyes. He gave them a few moments before he cleared his throat and garnering their attention he continued, "No, but I know she would not leave him or risk contacting the two of you for fear of the Volkoff wrath." Sarah nodded as Volkoff's reputation certainly preceded him. "He has his entire network on a closed system…"

"So, you cannot access it from the outside." Chuck intervened.

"Correct, he has an audio password which I know, but I'd need to access his servers or at the least install the virus I created which will empty out his database."

Something said earlier had stuck with Sarah and with the sudden silence spoke up, "You said you thought Hartley was possibly the head of Fulcrum… do you know who that is?"

"I was coming to that. After the discovery about Volkoff I restarted; tracing his links and not surprisingly knowing his fondness for the Godfather he had a consigliore, who was both his confidante and lawyer. He was kept out of the everyday business, but brokered a number of deals with the person whom I am convinced is the head of Fulcrum. The lawyer also appears to be the other person who was assigned to the Three Amigos; that was a nickname your mother had come up with for our lab group. Riley, as he is known now has also undergone some plastic surgery. Initially I could not find a reason for why Volkoff would need to be dealing with this other person; until I looked at the plans of his new headquarters and research facility." Stephen stopped for a moment and grabbed a folder handing a couple of pieces of paper to both Chuck and Sarah as they scoured them together they both came to the conclusion that they were at least similar if not identical.

"Chuck you have the plans for the Fulcrum Intersect and Sarah you are holding the plans of Ted Roarke's new headquarters." Chuck shook his head mumbling 'no' until Sarah grasped his hand.

"I dreamt of working for Roarke. Coming out of college that was the dream job I always hoped for… you're telling me now that he works for Fulcrum?"

Stephen's eyes drifted down after hearing this last news; with a pat on his knee from Sarah the thing that brought him back however the frown never left his face as he said, "No Chuck. Ted Roarke is Fulcrum. Actually, he was Mitch Kumsteen before an abundance of plastic surgery and hair removal from his head allowed him to become Ted Roarke. Thankfully he still hasn't figured out the most important coding sequence that makes implantation possible without the key otherwise Fulcrum agents would be loaded with their Intersect."

"Key?" Chuck and Sarah asked simultaneously.

"The key acts as a regulator that helps buffer the implant. It was broken down into three pieces that each one of us kept a piece as a sort of safeguard against the CIA or other organization from stealing the Intersect. It was designed to work with a pair of specialized glasses. The glasses were still in the design stage when I left, but they have been created. Without using the key any upload is more dangerous. This brings me to something really important; Chuck you haven't had any headaches or lost time or disturbing dreams, have you?"

Chuck gave it considerable thought before answering, "If there's a long flash, or if I have to do it a few times in a row I will get a bad headache… ow!" Chuck rubbed his arm as he offered a quick look to the pissed off Valkyrie knowing he kept this information from her. The puppy dog eyes were met with the Enforcer's glare and Chuck turned to his dad to continue, "I have not lost time and my dreams have been as equally disturbing as my life, so I don't know how to answer that." Another look to Sarah had her asking without words if his dreams had been bad. Chuck shook his head and Stephen was caught up in his thoughts staring at his watch he did not notice the moment his son and Sarah shared.

Sarah knew that they all needed a break at this moment, if not for the rest of the evening so she got up and placed the DVD she had picked up earlier in the player after tossing the case to Chuck who was on the verge of asking what she was putting in. Chuck choked up a little as did Stephen as he handed the case to his father as suddenly the main screen for TRON was showing on the screen.

Chuck and Sarah relaxed on the bed as Stephen sat next to it. She tried to maintain an interest, but about an hour in the blue hue irritated her enough that she was happier concentrating on watching the awe readily apparent on the faces of both Bartowski men. As it finished the matching grins forced Sarah to have one as well. Turning off the television dampened the mood of the entire room for a few minutes before Chuck decided to speak up, "Dad, I cannot fully forgive you just yet, but from spending this past year as an 'asset' depending on the government's whims," Sarah and Stephen easily noticed the harsh, icy tone his voice took and neither liked it, "If they had control of me without Sarah… you're completely right my life would be considered such only in the broadest biologic terms. That doesn't explain why you were so erratic… unless you were building up your cover, but it seemed so real." Chuck's look broke Stephen's heart which surprised him as he thought it couldn't break anymore.

Stephen put his hands on Chuck's shoulders and stared down at him, "There is a reason I was erratic… and it wasn't to build up the excuse for leaving. Granted it was something that could explain it partially, because there were times when I was a danger to anybody." He paused and decided it was too late to turn back now, "After your successful upload I assumed I was on the right track and since there was no way in hell I was going to run experiments on you… I had to find the right guinea pig."

A silence overtook the room and Sarah's patience was waning stated what neither Bartowski man wanted to, "You uploaded the Intersect on yourself?"

Stephen nodded his head, "I could run simulations, but without a practical application I would not know if it would work… and it needed to as I have assumed since I started this I would only get one crack at getting Hartley back. If it didn't work…"

Sarah visualized the scenario as Stephen vaguely described it and realized Frost would be set up as Volkoff's personal protector, it would be the most appropriate function her skill set would dictate. After an unsuccessful extraction and the whole charade of whatever business was supposed to include be blown up Frost would be stuck with having to shoot one of them. She recognized the doubt on Stephen's face as one Chuck would have when she was placed in a decision of mission or Chuck. Choosing to veer away from this topic that would do nobody in the room any good, "You said you thought you were a danger to anybody?"

Stephen appeared thankful for getting out of his own thoughts, "Right… after uploading I started to work on blocking the Intersect. There was a lot of trial and error; I sometimes lost time, other times memories, but when I reuploaded they returned. However, after a few months I started having some physical effects as well: tremors, migraine headaches, sleepwalking. There were a few times when I made breakfast for you and Eleanor and I have absolutely no recollection of it. I taped it once and it scared the hell out of me; if I had put the wrong thing on the stove the house could have gone up. Without any semblance of controlling it, I could not risk that which ended in a self fulfilling prophecy of sorts as it caused me to work that much harder to try and quicken the amount of time I started to grow a little more reckless which in turn made the symptoms happen more often."

Chuck looked at his father and tried to come up with something to ease the guilt of all the times after he left of calling him a crackpot or since he had noticed the occasional shake, a junkie. "Dad, do you still have the Intersect?" Stephen nodded, "Why not go ahead with the suppression device for Hartley instead of the extraction?"

"The problem comes into not being exactly sure what Mitch did to the program before he installed it into Hartley. I tried to guess what changes he could have made, but without knowing what he did there is a possibility of an embolism or a malfunction. There still exists the remote chance that Mitch did put in a doomsday clock and that it just didn't work. That's why I needed to go with a fullout extraction; especially when I was able to find what my successors were attempting with the Intersect; creating a living computer. The process initially was simpler, but after my first test run resulted in losing my memory for a week I knew I had to proceed cautiously."

"You said that you almost had it completed. What are you missing?" Sarah asked doing her best to hide the concern of Chuck losing his memory.

"The implementation device; while a monitor can accomplish it. Those glasses I had talked about earlier would actually work the best. The problem is DARPA has them and I have to believe they would place some sort of tracking device on them as letting any Scottish hooligan get their hands on them would be problematic as well because somebody could possibly reverse engineer the glasses to begin their own Intersect. The other thing that would make me feel safe with it is a look at Mitch's program. I have to think he used what he created for Hartley as the basis for his Intersect and what went wrong is a reason why Fulcrum still hasn't created a fully functioning Intersect. I know he spent a large portion of that time establishing himself as Ted Roarke…" Stephen drifted away again leaving Chuck sadly looking at his father wondering how much of his brain he destroyed in this quest.

It didn't take long for Sarah to realize the backstory while not complete, was probably as filled in as it was going to get. So she began to formulate some thoughts on accomplishing the endgame that would alleviate the Intersect not only from Chuck, but for two other people as well, bringing down Fulcrum and Volkoff in one fell swoop, reuniting Chuck's parents, and getting this all done before Ellie and Devon's wedding. One idea presented itself front and center to Sarah, "Chuck, Stephen I think there may be a way to get everything done at once, but it's not going to be easy."

When both Bartowski's looked at her in a similar fashion she gave a little smirk, "Neither of you is going to like this first part as we have to reunite Mitch with Orion and have them leave together with Mitch thinking he is in control."

The initial frowns slowly turned into nodding heads as the plan Sarah put out started to get fleshed out by both men. When Sarah's alarm clock blinked out 3:00 AM the three had finished with their final plan strewn across the floor. Stephen was sleeping on the hide-away in the couch while Chuck and Sarah were snuggled together with happy smiles on their faces.

A/N: As always thanks to those who read and review as well as those that just read while I do like to get feedback I get those that don't because I don't leave nearly enough feedback myself. There are at least a few movie references in here as well as a 70's R&B song. The story has strayed from my original plan, but I do think this change is for the better. There could easily be a few mistakes as I only skimmed through to get this posted and start up on... perhaps the last chapter. Happy holidays.