A/N: Hello people! Things are back to normal, so a return to the regular update schedule is possible. This chapter is more of a filler in preparation for the more exciting stuff that will come up later.

As always, glad to see you're still enjoying this. Without further ado…

"Guten Morgen, Herr Doktor," Hugo Panzer said, entering Zarnow's office in the Lichtenstein Enterprises building.

"Ah. Hugo, take a seat. There are some matters I would like to discuss with you," the older man said.

"I'm listening."

"Perhaps you remember the email Hans sent me the other day, about a new informer that approached him, claiming to be from the CIA."

"We should warn Herr Lichtenstein if he didn't check out," Panzer pointed out.

"He checked out, all right. Hans' hunch was right on the money. I even went so far as to contact Herr Gaez, with whom we have had certain business dealings as you may remember, and he confirmed everything."

Panzer looked relieved. "It won't hurt to have an extra pair of eyes and ears on the payroll."

"That's what Hans thought when he informed me of the developments and told me to look into the matter and get confirmation from Gaez if possible."

"Speaking of the boss, how is he doing?"

"He mentioned in his latest email that he's doing very well. The doctor he went to for his surgery knows his business and uses only the best and latest techniques. He's also been reviewing the day to day reports I've been sending him and offering his input. Some of his strategies have become quite bolder than even I was used to, but they work. I think we can safely say that he's almost completely recovered."

"And what about his newest conquest, did he mention anything about her?"

"You know, I too was uncomfortable with what he wanted to do. It's totally out of character for him, but I guess a near death experience can cause someone to change their perspective on a lot of things. He didn't go into details, but it seems he's making progress in romancing Frau Anderson."

"I can't blame him. The lady is one hot piece of ass," Panzer said crassly.

"Just don't let Hans hear you speak like that about her," Zarnow cautioned Panzer. "You know how territorial he gets every time he has a new lady friend."

The two men chuckled, reminiscing about an incident a few years previously when Hans Lichtenstein had severely berated one of his underlings for blatantly leering at one of his many flings. If either of them had any inkling as to what their 'boss' had in store for them, they would most definitely not be laughing. Packing to flee to some non-extradition country perhaps, but not laughing.

-o-

"What are those, Larkin?" Casey asked, seeing Bryce take a few sheets of paper out of a folder.

Bryce smiled. "These are just a few photos Chuck took just before he had to fly to the US. I waited until we had the new high resolution printer before making hard copies," he replied. "You gotta give Sarah and my buddy his props, Casey. He just made our job immeasurably easier."

"Lemme take a look at them."

The photos were handed over wordlessly and Bryce waited until Casey had a chance to properly examine them.

"Well?"

"That's the vault?"

"That's the outside of the vault," Bryce confirmed. "Chuck went to the floor above his office and took them with his phone. Tell me what you see."

"It looks just like a normal heavy duty air conditioning unit, Larkin. We already knew that."

"Sarah had a reason for asking Chuck to take them. Look again."

It dawned on Casey just then. There were no visible wires leading to or from the huge metal box structure. "It's not wired with alarms."

"No, it's not. At least it doesn't look like it is. Chuck said there are internal alarms, covering the secret passageway, since it's the only access point to the vault."

"Then we can go ahead and make the contingency plans." They fully intended to get into the vault through its normal entrance, but were also considering other possibilities, just in case. One of them was to find a way to open it from the outside. Removing a panel big enough for someone to squeeze through was the only way it could be done, since they would have to leave no trace. Casey looked carefully at the photos Chuck had taken. "It doesn't look like they made the vault look like an air conditioning unit," he concluded. "Most likely they took the shell of one and converted it into a vault."

"By fitting a blanking plate below the fan and cutting the secret entryway," Bryce finished the phrase for Casey. "There is one problem though. Chuck said it's filled wall to wall with filing cabinets and shelves. There is barely enough room for a single person to move around. Even if we were able to go in undetected and remove a side panel we'd still be blocked."

"And the top panel is not an option because of the blanking plate, which is almost certainly welded on. You're absolutely right, Larkin. We have to get in through Lichtenstein's office."

"Then all we have to do is find a way to get past the building's security. Once we get to the office, Chuck will make sure we get to do the job undisturbed."

"OK. We'll have to wait until Carmichael and Walker get back from LA. Until then, you have the corporate stuff to keep busy."

"What about you, Casey?"

"I'm still trying to figure out a way to get the intel out without Lichtenstein's people realizing they've been robbed."

"We can always photograph everything, but I guess it would take too long and perhaps require multiple visits. Not the best case scenario," Bryce remarked ruefully.

"Let me know if you come up with anything."

"Sure thing." He left Casey alone and went to review some transcripts. They had set it up so that every time Zarnow or another executive sent Chuck an email, a blind copy was forwarded to Bryce. Of course, they also had the support of an entire team of analysts, accountants and people specializing in business administration and marketing back in Langley. If necessary, they could consult with them in a pinch.

-o-

Sarah thanked the caller and hung up. She glanced over at Chuck, who was looking expectantly at her. He still had the remote in his hand, having paused the movie they'd been watching when her phone rang. "Good news," she said. "We don't have to stay cooped up in here any longer."

"Shaw's out of town?"

"Hunt just called," she replied, nodding in the affirmative. "Shaw boarded a flight to Boston."

"Boston?" Chuck echoed. "Well, I guess it doesn't matter. He's out of our way."

"Yeah… probably went to blow another op," she said angrily.

"Hey, hey," Chuck put the remote down on the coffee table, took her hands in his and looked into her eyes. "He's got Internal Affairs on his ass now and Graham won't let him compromise anything else. He now knows who the leak is and will take appropriate measures."

"You're right. I shouldn't be worrying about it."

"Let's focus back on the job. Did you hear anything from the others?"

"Bryce sent me an email. He and Casey went over some pictures you took back in Munich."

"He must mean the pictures of the outside of the vault," he interjected.

"I gathered that much. Anyway, they both agree it's going to have to be done through the secret entrance by default. There is simply no other way to access it."

"Annoying, but we'll figure something out. You guys are the best agents out there and I'm a qualified Nerd. I'm sure we can pull a solution out of our collective hats."

She nodded and yawned, relaxing back on the plush couch. "Did you call your sister today?"

"Yes, and I got to talk to her instead of leaving her a voice mail. In fact I talked to Devon and Morgan as well. They are doing fine and still think I've got this nice cushy well paying job with a major corporation. I don't like lying to them, but I know it's for the best."

"Start the movie again."

He picked up the remote again and pressed play. With nothing else to do, they'd ordered Greek takeout and sat down in their PJs to watch a Jackie Chan movie. Chuck silently vowed to ask Morgan about the best Italian restaurant in Santa Monica, under the pretext of recommending it to an associate. He wanted to take Sarah there the following day, their last before returning to Munich.

That night Chuck was tossing and turning in bed, unable to shut his brain down. Sarah's account of the information on the exterior of the vault was bouncing around in his head and he realized that he couldn't rest until he had something figured out. And then it hit him. He could do everything by himself, although admittedly it would be much faster if he could get someone inside to assist. He bounded out of bed and ran to Sarah's room. He found her curled up under the covers, peacefully asleep and he almost turned back to go to his own room, not having the heart to wake her up. In the end, excitement won.

"Sarah, wake up," he whispered in her ear, gently shaking her shoulder.

By virtue of training and years of experience, she was up immediately. "Chuck? Is there anything wrong?"

"No, nothing is wrong."

"Then why are you waking me up at nine past three in the morning?"

He stole a look at the alarm clock and it was indeed 0309 hours. "Damn, I lost all track of time. Well, I couldn't sleep because I was thinking of ways to get the intel from the vault. And I figured something out."

"You did?" She was suddenly very much interested. "Let's go get some water and you can tell me everything." She threw the covers aside and pushed past him towards the kitchen downstairs.

As he followed, he didn't fail to notice her sleep attire: a pearl grey tank top and blue and white striped boxer shorts. The garments were snug fitting and showed off her perfect figure nicely. By the time he caught up with her, she'd already filled two glasses with cold water from the dispenser on the fridge and handed him one. "Now tell me what was so important and warranted interrupting my beauty sleep."

"The copier," he said simply.

"You're not making any sense. What about the damn copier? And what copier are you talking about?"

"The copier in Lichtenstein's office," he clarified. "I recognized it the moment I saw it. My dad was commissioned to design it for a major company and…"

"Cut to the chase, Chuck," she interrupted him, the impatience practically oozing from her.

"Right. In a nutshell, we can take the files from the vault to the copier, turn the scan mode on and save the scans to a portable hard drive."

She saw what he was getting at. "This way we won't have to steal anything, so there is no need to plan on how to get the files out, the entire job will be done from start to finish in the office, where you can make sure no one will bother us, and if push comes to shove, you can do a lot of the work by yourself."

"I think it'll be easier to get someone inside to help. By my calculations, I'll need two people: one to sort through the files, getting the most, um, interesting ones out first, one to man the copier and the third to keep watch."

She thought it over for a minute. "Supposing we find a way to sneak in undetected," she reminded him.

"That's kind of your thing. I came up with the nerd stuff."

"I think it's going to work if we do it right. Good thinking, Chuck."

"Thank you." He checked his watch. "It's still evening in Europe. Shall we give the others a call?"

"The sooner the better," she agreed. They had the teleconference setup running in minutes.

"Hey guys," Bryce and Jill greeted them.

Casey's greeting came in the form of a standard grunt. And then he spoke. "Isn't it like three in the morning over there?"

"It is, but Chuck had an idea," Sarah replied.

"I bet he did," Casey snarked.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Chuck cut in.

"Look," Sarah stepped in to defuse the situation. "We're tired, Chuck didn't get any sleep at all and he just woke me up to tell me about his idea."

"So you two weren't…" Casey needn't finish the phrase. The comical effect of both Chuck and Sarah's eyes widening and then the way the two turned to look at each other was enough to set him off laughing.

"Like I said, he woke me up," she said, coming to realize that she was still in her sleepwear.

"Just tell us about your brainstorm, Chuck," Jill tried to steer the conversation back to the intended subject.

"I just thought that we can use the state of the art copier in Lichtenstein's office to make digital copies of the files in the vault. I can do it on my own, but it'll be much faster if we can sneak one or two of you in to help."

"Can't you get Sarah in? She's supposed to be Lichtenstein's new girlfriend," Jill said.

"Good luck with that," Casey remarked.

"He's right," Chuck agreed. "Getting Sarah in, past Frau Apfelbaum won't be easy. Also, Lichtenstein has never fooled around with his paramours in his office."

"Guys, you're forgetting one thing," Bryce butted in. "Sarah's an acknowledged expert in breaking and entering. She can certainly figure something out, especially since Chuck can get us details on the security arrangements."

Chuck turned to Sarah. "Can you do it? The security is pretty tight. Panzer and Mauser made sure of that."

"We already have an idea of what we'll be up against," she replied. "It will take time and a lot of planning, but I may be able to figure something out."

"This has been going on too long for my taste already," Casey said. "Despite what Graham and General Beckman said about potentially having to keep up the charade for months, this was never intended to be a long term mission. I don't want to see it turn into one, either. Thanks to Carmichael here we have free access to the internal networks of Lichtenstein Enterprises and once we get our hands on his secret files we will be able to put together the entire picture very quickly."

"I agree," Bryce said. "The longer we keep this up, the greater the chances for accidental exposure become… not to mention the risks to Chuck's safety."

Chuck looked up sharply. "What risks, Bryce?"

"Between Lichtenstein's own people and us, we can provide you with good security. But Lichtenstein is bound to have made enemies, and this means we can't relax our vigilance for a second. Truth be told, I'm a little uncomfortable with you being over there and us being stuck here. At least you have Sarah providing close protection and Hunt watching over you two."

"We'll be back soon. Hopefully, the day after tomorrow at the latest," Chuck reminded his friend.

"You two try and get some rest," Casey told Chuck and Sarah. "It was nice of you to call, and we can make new plans taking into account the information you provided."

"OK. See you soon, guys," Sarah said. Chuck waved goodbye and signed off.

She collapsed back on the couch and yawned.

"I say we follow Casey's advice and go back to bed," Chuck suggested after quickly checking his Lichtenstein email inbox and turning off the laptop. There was no answer. "Sarah?" He saw that she was fast asleep, her head resting against the armrest. This time, he really didn't want to wake her up, but she didn't look like she was very comfortable with her body bent sideways and her feet on the floor. So he did the next best thing. She didn't even stir as he picked her up carefully and carried her upstairs to her room. Somehow, her left hand fisted around his t-shirt on the way up. He gently placed her on the bed and attempted to straighten up, but she wasn't letting go. He tried to pry her hand away without waking her up, but she wasn't letting go. Instead, she pulled him even closer.

"Mmmm, s'nice," she mumbled without waking up.

I'm not getting any sleep tonight, he thought and, resigned to the inevitable, got in bed with her. She immediately snuggled close, resting her head on his chest and holding on to him as one would hold on to an oversized teddy bear. He was stock still, but in the end her even breathing and the rhythmic beat of her heart lulled him into a deep sleep.

-o-

Sarah woke up feeling refreshed, despite having had her sleep interrupted for the teleconference with the rest of the team. And then she noticed Chuck asleep next to her and realized that his presence had a lot to do with the pleasant feeling she had. In fact, this had happened every other time she'd slept next to him. She smiled and went to the bathroom for her morning routine, letting him sleep a little longer. She planned on waking him up when she was done.

They spent most of the morning working on the more mundane tasks the mission required, namely approving Zarnow's handling of the day to day stuff in Lichtenstein Enterprises and reviewing in detail the security they would have to overcome in order to get Sarah and Bryce or Casey inside the office building in Munich.

Finally, Chuck got up and stretched to relieve the kinks on his neck and shoulders. "We've done enough for now," he said.

"Uh-huh," she agreed. "We really got into it. Time flies when you're busy, I guess."

"Come on, I'm taking you out to lunch. It'll be nice to get out of the house for a change. It's safe now."

"Where are we going?"

"I texted Morgan and asked him about places to go in Santa Monica, ostensibly to recommend them to an associate of your, um, firm. Do you like Italian?"

"I love it."

"Good. Let's go."

He drove their rental car and took her to Vito's. It was a family run restaurant offering a great variety of dishes from all over Italy as well as Italian-American cuisine. The atmosphere was traditional and the setting so intimate, it was almost like a romantic date instead of a meal between two colleagues.

"Chuck, this place is amazing!" Sarah remarked excitedly. "I'm so recommending it to my parents for their upcoming anniversary!"

"That's funny, I had the same thought," he laughed.

"I'll have to thank Morgan, too."

They were so absorbed in the deliciousness of their meal and the lighthearted conversation that they didn't notice someone approaching their table.

"Chuck? Sarah?"

"Morgan?" Sarah looked up in shock at Chuck's best friend.

Fortunately, Chuck was sitting with his back to Morgan and this gave him a few precious seconds, enough to rip the latex makeup prosthesis with the voice modulator chip off of his throat. "Buddy, what are you doing here?"

"I just made a delivery. What are you two doing here? Aren't you supposed to be in DC?"

"Change of plans," he said as casually as he could manage. "Something came up at work and we had to fly here to sort things out. I didn't forget about your glowing recommendation of this place, so I took Sarah here to unwind before getting back to the thick of things."

"Oh well, I'll leave you two in peace. Are you going to see Ellie and Devon before you leave again?"

"I don't know if I'll have the time. I'm on a tight schedule here. I can't say much, but I'll have to fly to Europe again soon."

"Next time you're back in town call me, OK?"

"Sure thing, buddy."

"That was close," Sarah said after Morgan left to go back to the Buy More, which had reopened following renovation work.

"Yeah…" He held up the voice modulator and its disguise. "Good thing I was given spares," he said.

"We'll take care of it back at the condo. Right now, we have to expedite our plans to return to Germany."

"Understood." He cocked his head at her and smiled. "You know, we don't have to leave right away. Morgan said the panna cotta here is sinful."

She felt her mouth water at the very mention of one of her favorite desserts. "Then I believe we should sample it," she said seriously.

TO BE CONTINUED