NOTES: I want to thank Another Guest for introducing me to Zettel's stories, which I had not read, and esp. to The Miseducation of Sarah Walker. Zettel's thinking actually parallels mine on some levels, though I disagree with some points. I want to make a point that I never meant to imply that in my world Sarah enjoyed killing or seduction work for their own sake. My version of Sarah never entirely forgot who she was, and was never entirely lost to the alphabet soup. On the other hand, she could not do the things she did for them without it changing her. Langston Graham and the CIA changed Sarah in one direction, and Chuck helped her change in the opposite direction.

Remember what Jill says to Chuck in 2x20, when she admitted to Chuck that Fulcrum had succeeded in changing her, and pleads with Chuck not to let the alphabet soup change him the same way? Sarah went through something like that herself. Whether Sarah was 'morally compromised' before she met Chuck depends on what you mean by that phrase. She certainly did things that the Chuck of S1 would call immoral. But that Chuck was a naïve and sheltered person, too. He didn't have a clue about so many things back then. So maybe he'd be wrong, or not entirely right.

Yeah, Chuck began to affect her almost from the day they met, but it was not just a matter of freeing her to be herself. She had to relearn how to be herself, to some degree, and her relationship with Chuck took her farther, because before she was CIA, Sarah was Jenny Burton, con artist's daughter and assistant. Sarah never had a normal life or background, remember. So her definition of 'normal life' and her moral code were never normal. So her frame of reference is not what most people would use. She had a moral code, but it was not the same as most people's. By the time we saw the relaxed, relatively free and happy Sarah of S4 and pre-Quinn S5...she had never been that person before. She had never had the opportunity to be that before, and in fact she had to admit to herself first that she wanted to be that, and then it took her time to learn how to be that.

That's why Quinn's tactics against her were so effective. The Sarah of five years before simply had no frame of reference to be New Sarah, or even to understand who New Sarah was. She had never been New Sarah, she didn't even fully know that she wanted that.

If Sarah had never met Chuck...well, we'll get into that. Nothing stays the same, if she had not met Chuck she'd have changed anyway, but probably in a different direction.

As for 'wanting the ending to suck', well, if by 'suck' you mean the particular happy ending Chuck and Sarah were working out for years was wrecked...yeah. It's hard to believe that didn't happen, given what Quinn did. To make the original happy ending still work, we have to gloss over the huge psychological and emotional issues Quinnzilla left behind. But that doesn't mean that their future after that has to suck, it only means that they have to build a different happy ending of some kind.

Another Guest also said: I will warn you of one thing: if you place the option of 'that life' (family, house with a red door, etc.) in front of Sarah and have her choose no, you have gone into territory the show never explored even remotely.

Well, that's the thing...is that option still open to Sarah post episode 5x12? It's a not a question of what she wants, it's a question of what's possible. As I plan to examine later, Quinn left enormous damage behind him. I think Sarah's dream of the little house with the red door is actually a dream of her mother's house. In episode 5x08 we see Sarah's childhood home, and it looks a lot like what she describes to Chuck as her dream house in 5x01, the little white house with the picket fence and so forth. Sarah might not have even realized she was describing Emma's house to Chuck that night, but she was. If she was trying to recapture anything in that, it was her early childhood.

Craspon says: Chuck really does seem to be attracted to women who put their jobs ahead of their families, doesn't he? Neither mother of his daughters wants to be with him and her own child as a family. Psychiatrists could have a field day with him.

Well, it's true that Chuck is the primary parent of his daughters, the one doing the day-to-day raising of them (with help from his extended family). But as for their mothers not wanting to be a family with them...what if they both would prefer to be a family with their respective daughter and Chuck? But in that case, they're blocking each other's traffic, aren't they? Notice that in Chapter 4 that Sarah was watching Chuck and the girls sailing and wishing she could be with them on the boat. It's not that that she doesn't want to be with them, or that Wild Card doesn't want to be with Chuck and her daughter, it's that things are...complicated...to use Emma's least favorite word.

Guest commented: Can't wait to see who Wild Card is now that Jack Burton knows and is working with her and wonder who could make Sarah that crazy.

It won't be long before we find out who Stephanie's mother is, and she turns up. But actually, since it's a woman from the show, there are really only two or three plausible possibilities, and one of them is far more likely than the others. And yeah, she and Sarah do have a talent for driving each other insane, and it's only partly jealousy, though jealousy is certainly in play for both of them.

So...onward!

Note that conversation framed by [] indicates Italian.

CHUCK vs. THE NO-WIN QUESTION CHAPTER 9: Business and Pleasure 7...

The countryside outside Naples, Italy, 3:35 a.m. local time...

Several people were gathered around a small table in a metal room. The metal room, as it happened, was in the back of a large van, parked out of sight of the road and covered by camouflage netting making it almost invisible from the air or even from a distance on the ground. The light was harsh, florescent tubes on the ceiling providing a glow that did little to soften anything, including emotions. Everyone present was tired, the group was on their third pitcher of hot coffee, and there had already been some heated arguments, smoothed over after a few minutes each time.

"We've all heard the recording," Ellie said. She had returned to the van hours before, and once the computer in the van had processed the noise off the recording she had made with the microrecorder in her pocket, everyone else was able to hear the same conversation that she herself had heard earlier in the evening. The discussion amid the Carmichael Industries team had turned to what their next move should be, in light of the now confirmed murder plot against their client, and the identity of one of the plotters.

"Mr. Nachera is safe, for the moment, we've got him on the move supposedly visiting his offices under guard. But we can't keep him that way for long, without revealing what we know."

"We could go ahead and take out Mrs. Nachera now," Casey said. "Sweat what we need to know out of her."

"We don't have a lick of proof of anything that we could take to the Italian authorities," Morgan Grimes pointed out. "We'd have to 'disappear' her, and that's dangerous. Plus we'd be tipping ourselves off to whoever she's working with."

"This 'Beppe' could easily be one of three men who have access to the safehouse," Mary Bartowski commented. "I'm sure that's not his real name either, whatever Mrs. Nachera might believe, but it was well-chosen. If we snatch her now, he knows that we're onto him and he'll either vanish or escalate."

"What about this drug?" Morgan asked. "Any idea what it might be?"

"Not for sure," Devon said. "There are lots of drugs that will screw up cardiac function, that's true. Cocaine, Demerol, it's a long list, actually. But this needs to be something more specific. It has to be reliable enough to be a useful murder weapon, and it has to be subtle enough to not be detectable. And it has to have a delayed effect, too. We need to see if we can capture a sample of this stuff, people. It sounds like somebody has come up with something that is not awesome."

"Were they right when they talked about Nachera's heart condition?" Morgan asked.

"Yes," Devon said with a nod. "I did the work up on him when he hired us, and I double-checked his doctors' work. Two years ago he had a heart attack, it was a classic case. He was working too hard, under too much stress, not eating right, not getting enough sleep, almost the perfect setup for a classic stress-related heart attack. It runs in his family, too.

"From what we've been told, Mr. Nachera's father probably died of a heart attack. To make it worse, his oldest son has also had an incident," Devon went on. "His oldest son Alfeo is Mr. Nachera's right hand running the family business, and when his father was incapacitated he took on double the workload and I'm sure he was stressed out with worry about his father, too. He had a heart attack just three months after his father did, and Alfeo is only in his middle forties."

Devon paused, taking another drink of his lukewarm coffee, and went on, "But they've both listened to their doctors and have been taking very good care of themselves since," Devon went on. "His son should be fine if he keeps it up and even his father has recovered well. Mr. Nachera could easily live another ten years or more...always assuming of course that we can keep him alive for the next week."

Silence fell.

"We need to get Mrs. Nachera to cooperate with us," Morgan said. "Because we need to know what's going on here that's escalated this from infiltration to murder. It's obvious that all this is way bigger than we thought, and that brings up something else. I heard from Chuck, just before we met here. Chuck says that he has reason to believe that the Russian government, or at least the SVR, may be involved directly in all this."

"Did he name a source?" Casey asked.

"Who else?" Morgan said with a smile. "Sarah. She's reporting rumors, but it's Sarah."

"We can take it that it's a good chance of being right, then," Casey said. "Walker knows how to sort serious rumors from the random garbage."

"One more reason we have to have more information," Ellie said with a sigh. "If only so we can accurately advise Mr. Nachera whether he should stand or fold."

Everyone present understood. There were limits to what could reasonably be done when a large intelligence or security organization, funded by a major government, was attempting to enforce its will against a private group. The best course of action for the Nachera family might actually be to withdraw and walk away with their wealth and their lives, as galling as it might be to let their family's work and heritage be stolen.

But there was still a chance that this was a rogue operation, or that it was incidental and the SVR might back off if whatever they were seeking was too difficult. They had to know and the only person who could tell them what they needed to know was Mrs. Nachera.

The discussion about what to do went on for some time. The first rosy light of dawn was appearing in the east by the time Morgan Grimes said, "Devon, you said his son had a heart attack too, didn't you?"

"Yes," Devon nodded, obviously near exhaustion.

"This mystery drug is supposed to work on people who have already had heart attacks, from what 'Beppe' seems to have said. Whether that's true or not, it's what Mrs. Nachera will probably believe."

"So?" Casey asked.

"We need Mrs. Nachera to be willing to work with us," Morgan said slowly. "I had a thought. What if we-"

As Morgan explained his idea, a smile appeared on Casey's face, and Ellie brightened slightly as she considered the possibilities. The group talked out the details, and the mood lightened.

"It could work," Mary said. "Worst case, we can still try the hard option with Mrs. Nachera if it fails, but it might just work. If it did work at all, it ought to work really well."

Ellie nodded. "We're going to try it, anyway. It's the best option we've got."

Then she sighed. "Start making the preparations, I'll talk to the Nachera's. Now all I have to do is find the gentlest possible way to tell Mr. Nachera and his son that his wife means to murder him."

Casey muttered, so low that only Morgan heard it, "Love is for suckers."

Carmichael Estates, CA, 9:00 p.m. local time...

"Hear anything?" Charlotte-Mary asked quietly.

"Not a thing!" Stephanie replied, from where she was peeking out the cracked door of their bedroom. "See anything?"

"Looks like they've all gone inside," Charlotte-Mary said from her post by the window. "They'll watchin' the news'n stuff now, Foxes and CNN, whatever that is. So let's do it!"

Stephanie nodded, and Charlotte-Mary ran over and the two girls emerged from their bedroom and began to creep down the hallway.

The Bartowski/Woodcomb home was laid out ranch-style, and was actually two residences in one. Located toward the western end of the small peninsula that was Carmichael Estates, the structure was a long low building, oriented north-south. It had two large wings, one of which was occupied by the Woodcomb family, the other by Chuck Bartowski and his daughters. Linking the two wings was an enclosed courtyard with a large fountain, a larger and more elaborate version of the courtyard of the old apartment complex at Echo Park, though neither girl knew that.

Charlotte-Mary and Stephanie Bartowski shared a bedroom on the southern end of the Bartowski wing. A long corridor ran the length of their home, from the courtyard to the end of the building. Down this corridor the two pajama-clad girls crept, careful to make as little noise as they could. They were, after all, up and about well past their bedtime.

The passed their father's study on their right, then the game room likewise on their right, and then they passed the formal dining room on their left. At last, they came to the door to the living room on their right, which was on the opposite side of the corridor from the kitchen on their left. The kitchen adjoined the dining room, but it had a small table of its own, and that was in fact where father and daughters usually took their meals, leaving the main dining room for when others were joining them.

Now they had a little problem: the open door to the living room would reveal them passing it, if one of the adults occupying the living room happened to look their way. They were paying attention to the television, but all it took was one quick glance in their direction and the girls knew they were in trouble.

Stephanie peeked, very carefully, around the doorframe and saw that they were not being watched. She nodded to her half-sister, who ran quickly into the kitchen. Stephanie followed, and both girls breathed a sigh of relief once they were in the kitchen and out of the line of sight from the living room.

"Whew!" Stephanie said. "This is scary!"

"Yeah, Daddy'll make us go to bed early forever, or until next week, if we get caught!" Charlotte-Mary agreed. "We gotta not get caught, Stephie!"

"Yeah, so quit makin' so much noise, Char!"

"Me?! I-"

"Shhh!"

In spite of their nervousness, both girls were fighting smiles, there was something definitely exciting and fun about breaking the rules, especially when they managed it without getting caught!

"I'll watch, you get the chair!" Stephanie said, as she stationed herself to watch for movement from the living room.

"Okay," Charlotte-Mary said, as she dragged a kitchen chair away from the table and across the room. As she did, the chair legs scraped on the linoleum, and the sound seemed to echo like an explosion, at least to the two six year olds.

"Shhh!" Stephanie said severely, finger to her lips. The little brunette peaked around the door frame again, but there was no sign that the occupants of the living room had heard anything over the sound of the television.

Having maneuvered the chair into position near the wall, Charlotte-Mary climbed up to stand on it, and discovered that she still could not quite reach the top-level cabinet that was her goal. She was high enough, but the cabinet door handle was just a bit beyond the reach of her arm. As she leaned toward it, the chair began to tip, and Charlotte-Mary pulled back. The chair legs slammed into the floor all too loudly, and in spite of herself Charlotte-Mary let out a little squeak of fright as she grabbed the back of the chair.

Stephanie looked panicked, but a quick peek showed her that Aunt Molly, Aunt Emma, and Aunt Alex were all still absorbed in whatever boring thing they were watching on the TV. Stephanie had no idea what so fascinating about shows where it was just people talking all the time, or why Aunt Molly had lately started paying attention to them. But she was relieved that whatever it was that was so interesting was covering for her and her sister.

"Are you okay, Char?" Stephanie asked in a whisper, running over to the chair.

"Yeah," the blonde replied, "but I can't reach the cabinet! The chair'll fall over and I don't wanna fall off!"

Stephanie looked around, there had to be something they could use!

"How close didha get? How far is it?" Stephanie asked.

Charlotte-Mary looked back over at the cabinet, and said, "Not much, just...like if my hand was twice as long..."

"The magnet!" Stephanie exclaimed, and ran from the kitchen, leaving her half-sister standing on the chair in puzzlement. She had no idea what Stephanie was talking about. She was left nervously standing in a chair in the kitchen, hoping nobody came in from the living room to catch her out of bed.

A moment later, Stephanie came running back in, pausing to make sure nobody was watching through the living room door, and came up to the chair.

"Here!" the brunette said, handing an object to her half-sister. "It's a big magnet! My Mom gave it to me the last time I visited her, it makes metal fly to it, like magic! The knob on the cab'net is metal, I think, so it oughta move if'n you point the magnet at it!"

Charlotte-Mary doubtfully held out the object toward the cabinet.

"No, get it closer to the handle!" Stephanie urged.

Charlotte-Mary obeyed, and to her amazement and delight, the door to the cabinet suddenly moved! It swung toward her, and she found that she could pull it along as long as she held the magnet close to the metal handle. If she pointed it anywhere else, nothing, but it could pull on the metal handle. For a delighted moment, the blonde forgot why they were doing what they were doing, entranced by being able to move the cabinet door without touching it.

"Char!" Stephanie hissed in a whisper, and the little blonde remembered that they were 'on mission', as they had overheard the grownups in their family say. No time to play with the magic thingie, they could do that when they were safely back in their bedroom!

The cabinet door was open, and now the blonde's eyes widened as she looked at the contents. There were many interesting things there, and for a moment she was lost in thinking of the possibilities, but then her eyes fell on the goal of their mission: a big bag of chocolate chips. Her mouth watered at the thought of the semi-sweet morsels. It was on the nearer side of the cabinet, so it was easy to reach the bag and hand it down to Stephanie, who looked greedily at their prize as she took it. Stephanie had worn a little belt over her pajamas, and now she tied the bag to it so as to keep her hands free.

"Hold the chair legs so I can get down," Charlotte-Mary commanded. Stephanie obeyed, and the blonde climbed down from the chair. They were about to move it back into position, when they heard the voice of their Aunt Alex saying, "I'll be right back, I'm just going to get some coffee!"

"Get me a lemonade, too, would you?" they heard Molly ask.

Charlotte-Mary and Stephanie exchanged panicked glances, and they raced to get the chair back into its proper place. They almost managed it, but now they heard the sound of a recliner moving, they knew Alex would appear around the corner in moments! They glanced around, it was already too late to get back down the hallway without being spotted!

Charlotte-Mary's eyes fell on a ground-level cabinet, and she pulled it open and gestured frantically for her half-sister to join her inside. It was a bit of a tight fit, surrounded by canned good and bottles of various sorts, but the tiny children just about managed to fit inside with the door shut.

Just in time! Peeking through a crack in between the cabinet door and the frame, they saw Alex Grimes come into the kitchen, pausing to notice that one of the chairs around the kitchen table looked to be slightly out of place. She apparently decided it was nothing, and went over to the coffee maker, blissfully unaware of two pairs of eyes watching her from concealment. She filled the coffee cup, and went over to the refrigerator, removing a bottle of cold lemonade, and headed back toward the living room. The half-sisters breathed a sigh of relief, and exchanged happy glances.

Moments later, their happiness was dashed, as they saw Emma and Molly appear at the door, and some kind of conversation start between the three of them. They did not seem upset or bothered, apparently they had no idea of what was going on, but they were now all standing right there in the corridor, making getting back to their bedroom without being seen entirely impossible!

"Now what?" Charlotte-Mary whispered to her partner-in-everything. "We're stuck!"

"Maybe not!" Stephanie replied in an equally low whisper. "This is all one big space in these low cab'nets, right?"

"Yeah, so?"

"So maybe we can crawl around behind the doors, and come out around the corner by the sink! They couldna see us if'n we did that!"

"But we'd still be caught in the kitchen!"

"But we'd be by the back door! We could prob'ly slip outside and maybe get in around the front door or somethin!"

Charlotte-Mary thought about it. It was worth a try, because she knew it was only a matter of time before somebody checked their bedroom to make sure she and Stephanie were in bed with the lights out as they were supposed to be. They had to be back in there by then, or they were in Trouble!

"Okay, let's try it!" Charlotte-Mary whispered. "But we gotta be quiet!"

Charlotte-Mary was the one facing in the direction they needed to go, and so she turned, as quietly as she could, and moved some cans of food out of the way, one at a time, until she had enough space to crawl through. The area beneath the countertop was indeed one large open space, with several cabinet doors, and the two girls made their slow, careful way out of the food area, past some part pots and pans, and finally they were under the kitchen sink. Working their way past the plumbing for that was not easy, but they managed it, and peeking through the doors under the sink, they saw that they were indeed blocked off from the line of sight to the hallway and their family.

They emerged, and ran to the back door. It was locked, but Charlotte-Mary was able to work the catch easily, and they came out into the quiet evening air. As soon as they were down the steps, they ran to take cover behind some shrubbery, in case someone looked out a window.

"There ain't no place to hide in the yard," Stephanie observed. "You can see almost everything from inside!"

Neither girl had any idea how carefully planned the landscape was to provide just that effect. Just then, all they knew was that they themselves did not wish to be seen.

"Come on, if we get around to the other side we might could get in that way!" Charlotte-Mary urged, and she and her brunette sister took off running. There was little cover, so they were counting on moving fast to avoid being seen. Past the courtyard, and to the nearest door into the Woodcomb wing. Just as they were about to go inside, though, they heard movement inside, and looked at each other in panic, someone was coming out that door!

Charlotte-Mary looked around in a near-panic, and in a flash, she saw something that might help. There was an ivy-covered trellis near the wall of the house. It was too close to the wall to hide behind, but she found that she could slip her bare feet and fingers into the gaps in the structure, and climb it. Charlotte-Mary was good at climbing, she always had been as long as she could remember. Moments later, she was on the roof!

"Come on, Stephie!" she urged.

"I can't, Char!" the brunette whined, looking up at her sister safely on the roof. "I'm scared!"

"Yes, you can, Stephie! Just lookit me! Put your fingers in the holes and climb, you know you can! Don't look down, don't look sideways, just lookit me!"

Stephanie nervously obeyed, and more clumsily than her sister, she made her way up the trellis and pulled herself onto the roof, just in time to avoid being seen by Clara Woodcomb as she came out the back door!

"Toldja you could do it!" Charlotte-Mary whispered to her sister.

"I-I'm...kinda...I mean..." Stephanie was shaking a little.

Charlotte-Mary nodded. She knew her half-sister had a problem with high places. Charlotte-Mary actually kind of liked heights, but she knew that her half-sister and best friend needed reassurance. She took Stephanie's hand and squeezed.

"It's 'kay. Ya did great! As soon as the coast is clear, we'll get down!"

"Think she'd tell on us?" Stephanie whispered.

"Yep!" Charlotte-Mary replied. "She's still mad at us for laughing at her when she messed up her hair on the boat!"

"What's she doin?" Stephanie asked, daring to look down at her cousin on the ground. "Why's she still there!"

Indeed, Clara showed little sign of intending to go anywhere. Instead, to the dismay of the girls watching her from above, she took out her phone and sat down on the steps, and started talking to someone. They heard the name, 'Keith', and Charlotte-Mary and Stephanie looked at each other in dismay. They knew from experience that whenever Clara was on the phone with her friend Keith, the call could go on...and on...and on.

"Darn it!" Stephanie said, "It's like a curse! Nothin's goin right!"

"Maybe we could call Clara and get her to go somewhere?" Charlotte-Mary speculated.

"How? We left our phones in our bedroom!"

"Yeah," the blonde said dispiritedly. "Darn it there's gotta be a way!"

A sudden thought struck the brunette. "Char! The courtyard!"

"What about it?"

"They're havin' the gutters fixed!"

"So what?"

"Don't'cha remember? There are ladders leaning against the wall in the courtyard! If we could get over there, we could climb down right into the court yard, and get into our side of the house through the service door!"

Charlotte-Mary's eyes lit up. "And that way we could use the other hallway, the little one with all the wires 'n stuff, and get right back to that end! We could get back into our bedroom that way and nobody'd see us!"

"Yeah, but-"

"What?"

It was her idea, but Stephanie saw one big issue with it.

"We-we'd have to go down there up here on the roof! I don't know if I can!"

Charlotte-Mary looked over toward the court yard. The roof was slightly tilted, but not badly, there was little risk of falling...but she knew her sister would have problems.

"We can do it!" Charlotte-Mary said. "You get on the other side 'a me, I'll be closer to the edge! We'll crawl down there, and all you gotta do is watch me! Don't look at anything else but me!"

Stephanie drew a deep breath, and nodded. If there was one thing she knew, it was that she could always, always, count on Charlotte-Mary...and she was not going to let her sister down, either.

"Okay," Stephanie said. She took a deep breath, and the two girls began to make their slow, steady way down the rooftop toward the courtyard between the two wings. Stephanie kept her eyes resolutely focused either on the sloped surface in front of her, or her sister inches away in the near-darkness. The sun was below the Pacific now, but there was enough light to see by from the artificial lights around the Estate. She knew the sudden drop to the ground was not far away, but Charlotte-Mary was between her and it, and she could not see it.

At last, they reached the blessedly-empty courtyard, and sure enough, the ladder was right where Stephanie had remembered seeing it. Even better, Charlotte-Mary saw that it was secured to the wall, so there was no risk of it moving under them! The blonde parked her sister next to it, and climbed onto it, and once she was a few rungs down, she said, "Okay, Stephie! Now all ya gotta do is get on the ladder, and we're home free!"

Guided by Charlotte-Mary's instructions, the trembling brunette carefully managed to maneuver her way onto the ladder. She paused, shuddered, and heard Charlotte-Mary say, "Okay, you're doin' great, Sis! Now we'll climb down, one step at a time! Close yer eyes and feel for the next step with your foot, that's the way!"

It took a few minutes, but at last the two girls were back on the ground, Stephanie shaking a little and gasping. Charlotte-Mary drew her into a long hug.

"You're aces, Stephie!" she said, echoing something she had often heard her father and aunt say in moments like that. "Ya did great!"

"T-thanks, Char!"

"And ya still got it!" Charlotte-Mary pointed out. It was true, the bag of chocolate chips that had tempted them into this little adventure was still securely tied to Stephanie's waist!

Stephanie grinned. "Let's get back to our bedroom, Char!"

They crossed the courtyard, past the fancy fountain, and reached the door to the Bartowski Wing. A peek down the corridor revealed that the grownups (and Aunt Molly) were still standing there talking. It was a mystery to both girls what grownups could talk about so much and so long. But there was another door a few yard away, that opened onto another hallway that ran beside the main one. It was this hallway, full of wires and glowing glass threads and other mysterious things, that the two girls now used to run the length of the house. Emerging at the far end, they were in a T-hallway at the south end of the house, and their bedroom was right around a corner.

They came to the corner, and peeked down the corridor to see the chatting adults (and Aunt Molly, who neither of the Bartowski Girls would acknowledge as a grownup) still in place. They were only about six feet from the safety of their bedroom, but crossing that gap meant crossing the main hallways, leaving them visible.

"We gotta chance it!" Stephanie said. "You're a little faster 'n me. I'll watch for when they're all lookin' away, when I say 'now' run for it, right then! Then ya can spot for me!"

Charlotte-Mary nodded.

Stephanie watched...and watched...and watched...and after what seemed like three eternities (and was in actual fact about three minutes), there came a moment when Emma, Molly, and Alex were all looking away at once.

"Now!" Stephanie whispered, and Charlotte-Mary ran for it. A moment later, the blonde was safely in their bedroom, and now there was only one left to make the perilous crossing.

Charlotte-Mary looked down the hallway, peeking around the bedroom door. Again the endless, timeless wait, for that moment when they were all looking away...not yet...not yet...not...yet...come on, Aunt Molly, look away already! ...not yet...not yet..."Now!"

Stephanie bolted and ran, and for a moment it seemed to Charlotte-Mary like she was watching one of those movies where everything slowed down when the hero was just about to make it, it seemed like time stood still as her sister crossed the hallway...but then Stephanie was in the bedroom and the door swung shut, and the two girls collapsed on the floor in a fit of relieved gasps and giggles.

"We made it!" Stephanie gasped. "Char, we made it!"

"Yeah," Charlotte-Mary replied from where she sat a few inches away, "but we gotta be quiet! If they hear us they'll know we're not in bed!"

"Yeah, right!" Stephanie agreed. "But-oh no!"

"What?!"

"Char! Look at us!"

Charlotte-Mary looked down at herself, and at her half-sister, and back at herself, and groaned.

They had been so focused on their escapade, and avoiding being caught, that they had completely forgotten about the fact that they were both clad in their cotton pajamas! Now, they had run barefoot through the grass, climbed a vine-covered trellis, crawled on the roof, and climbed down a work-ladder. They were filthy with dirt, leaves, whatever it was the roof tiles were made of, and other things Charlotte-Mary was not sure she wanted to identify. She ran a hand through her thick blonde hair, and it came back with green stuff and bits of dirt. The soles of their feet were wet and dirty.

The Bartowski Girls looked at each other in dismay.

"We can't get 'n bed like this!" Stephanie said.

Charlotte-Mary thought hard. "We're in luck, Stephie! Tomorrow is laundry day anyway! We've got clean pjs in the drawer, we can change into 'em, comb out our hair and wipe our feet and we oughta be all right. We'll get up a little earlier in the mornin', and take our showers, and the bedsheets'll be cleaned anyway! We can put our dirty pajamas into the laundry before anybody see's 'em!"

Both girls had recently graduated from baths to big girl showers.

"That oughta work," Stephanie admitted. "But we'd better get to it, Daddy always checks on us and he could be home any time! Or Aunt Emma might check on us!"

They changed clothes as quickly and quietly as they could, and used the dirty pajamas to clean their feet and anything else that looked as if it needed it. They combed out each other's long hair, and finally slid into bed with a sigh of relief, after concealing the precious chocolate chips under Stephanie's bed and the soiled pajamas under Charlotte-Mary's. Then Stephanie grabbed her favorite teddy bear, Rupert, and Charlotte-Mary picked up the stuffed dog Grandma Emma had given her and snuggled it close as they slipped into bed. Grandma Emma had told Charlotte-Mary that the stuffed dog was named 'Bunny', and had once belonged to her mother.

Neither girl thought she would be able to sleep, so excited and nervous and scared were they, but it was now very late, exhaustion was catching up to them, and as the adrenaline of their adventure drained away both girls were swiftly asleep and dead to the world.

So tired were the Bartowski Girls that neither stirred when a tall male figure entered their bedroom, looking at the twin beds, each with a sleeping occupant, with a fond smile. Chuck Bartowski tucked the covers a bit more snugly around Stephanie, and did the same for Charlotte-Mary. Then he reached under the bed of the former, withdrawing a bag of chocolate chips, and looking from the baking candy to the girls with a smile and a calculating expression. Then he placed the chips back under Stephanie's bed, kissed each girl on the forehead, causing them both to stir but neither to awaken, and left the bedroom for the night.

A modest time earlier that same evening at Carmichael Estates...

Chuck was blinking back exhaustion as he finally passed through the main gates, and into the confines of the Carmichael Estates proper. He had been awake since before dawn, and it was now well past ten p.m. He had reviewed the day's reports, conferred by phone with Ellie over the Nachera business in Italy, and checked with Security for the evening. He was worried about Ellie, the Italian business was looking steadily uglier, but he knew she was as able to handle it as he, there was nothing to be gained by trying to micromanage matters from halfway around the planet.

Chuck drove along the road that ran on the north side of the 1000 foot peninsula that had been his home for several years now. He pulled around the corner of the long, low ranch-style double-wing that he shared with his sister's family...and saw a sight that froze his blood!

In an instant, Chuck went from exhausted to wide-awake, as adrenaline flooded his body. A terror like nothing he had ever imagined feeling prior to six years before took him, as he saw two small children on the roof of the Woodcomb wing of the house.

DON'T FREAK OUT! Chuck commanded himself, biting back an impulse to scream.

Charlotte-Mary and Stephanie were crawling along the western side of the building, and it was obvious that they were intentionally going about something or other. His cell phone appeared in his hand and he was on the phone with Emma in an instant, and Emma confirmed that the bedroom was empty, the girls had snuck out!

Chuck parked his car, still well away from the house, and was running toward it as fast as he could, his heart hammering in his chest, as he saw the girls reach the ladder, and saw the blonde begin her descent. He slowed, as he saw that the situation was not actually as horrible as his first panic had believed, he could see that Charlotte-Mary was coaching her half-sister down the ladder.

What the crap happened?! They've snuck out past bedtime before but how in the name of crap did they end up on the freaking roof?!

Chuck's heart slowed down to something like its normal rate as he saw the girls reach the ground safely. The image of his girls on that rooftop, crawling along, seemed to have been seared into his mind.

That's it! You two are both grounded until you are fifty! Assuming good behavior! And no more cartoons. And confined to your room until college! No, forget that, I'll bring the professors here and you two can go to college in your room! And I'm preemptively taking away your drivers' licenses until further notice! Dessert? What's that? And...and...

Chuck drew a long, deep, shaky breath. He brought the phone back to his ear and conferred with Emma, who sounded just about as angry and scared as he was. Part of him wanted to blame Emma and Alex for letting it happen, but he knew better. He knew Charlotte-Mary and Stephanie too well.

"No, don't let them know we're on to them," Chuck said, as he approached the house. "I want to see what they do if they think they're getting away with something!"

The blonde and the brunette proceeded to sneak into the Bartowski wing of the house through the narrow system service corridor that ran down one side of the house, it was too small for an adult to walk through but the girls were short enough to run through it. They did so, blissfully unaware that the corridor had internal sensors and that every move they were making was now being monitored by Chuck, Emma, and Alex. They watched as the girls did their final run into the bedroom, and Chuck shook his head in disbelief.

Their mothers' daughters. No question about it. They're six years old and they're both already agents in the making. If they knew what they were doing, knew about the sensors, I'll bet they'd find ways around them.

Chuck laughed to himself, without much humor. Their mothers' daughters, Bartowski?! They're both Bartowski's, they're part of a whole family of spies! Their grandfather evaded the entire U.S. government, foreign governments, and secret societies for years on end, and only finally got caught because he allowed it. Their grandmother worked deep cover in Russia for over a decade and was never touched. Char's Mom is the CIA's best field operative, Stephie's mother is Wild Card herself. Their aunt and I run Carmichael Industries. Heck, they both get it from both sides! If I don't reign them in they'll probably be stealing files from Langley and extracting assets from Meade by the time they're 12!

Once Chuck was sure they were safely asleep in their bedroom, he invited Emma, Alex, and Molly to join him in hi study, and punched up the video surveillance system. They watched them as they ran around the back of the house, climbed the trellis, watched them crawling along the roof, and Chuck zoomed in to see that Stephanie had a bag of something tied to a little belt around her waist. He could not quite make out what it was, in the darkness and through a telephoto image, but he was sure that whatever it was had been the prize on his daughters' clandestine operation.

"I'll bet I know what it is," Alex said. "Or at least where it came from. I went into the kitchen for some coffee, and there was a chair out of place in the kitchen, or I thought there was. At the time I thought I must be imagining it, but now I'll bet those brats used it to get into the cabinets above the counter!"

"Chocolate chips," Chuck said, blushing.

"What makes you so sure?"

"Just a sec," Chuck replied, heading for the kitchen, the women following. Sure enough, he found the big bag of chocolate chips gone from the cabinet.

"You were right, 'Lex," Chuck said. He laughed. "I had a bag of chocolate chips up there, I was going to make some cookies this weekend. The girls must have seen them when I snuck them in."

"You snuck them in?" Molly asked.

"It's a family weakness," Chuck admitted. "If Mom or Ellie were here, they'd be laughing themselves sick. Not about the girls on the roof but at what they after. When I was very small, Mom couldn't keep chocolate chips around, because I'd sneak in and eat them, back when I was about the girls' age. Not the milk chocolate ones, the semi-sweet kind. I was entirely capable of eating an entire bag of them, if Mom didn't catch me first.

"And I've already found out that both my girls inherited the weakness," Chuck went on, his blush fading as he laughed. He was actually almost giddy now, in the relief of knowing that his daughters were safe. "I have to conceal the presence of the things, or Char and Stephie will sneak in and gorge themselves on them. Just like me when I was six.

"That's what happened here tonight," Chuck went on, laughing again. "Two addicts found out their drug was available and decided to go for a fix."

"I still feel like I screwed up," Emma admitted. "I should have known better, too. Sarah used to get into mischief pretty much like what the girls got into tonight, and Char is so much like her it's scary."

"You put them to bed on time," Chuck pointed out, "and checked on them, I know you. I also know they can fake sleep pretty well when they want to. Heck, they've fooled me occasionally with fake sleep. I'm not upset with you, Em. I'm going to make Char and Stephie very unhappy about this, though."

"You gonna let 'em keep the chocolate chips?" Molly asked.

"I-that's a good question," Chuck laughed. "I really shouldn't. But now that they're safe and sound, part of me thinks they ought to have some payoff for all that work!

"But I can deal with that tomorrow," Chuck said with a sigh.

Later that evening...

Chuck looked down at his girls as he left their bedroom, and smiled. He was going to have to punish them, of course, and though he was feeling indulgent just then, he knew all it would take to bring back the anger was to remember the sight of them on that roof. He would use that in the morning, and he would take away the chocolate chips...after they had a few of them. He had no wish to reward bad behavior...but watching them work together on those security tapes had not been entirely unpleasant. His daughters were a team, and Chuck definitely wanted to reward that.

"Good night, girls," Chuck said in a whisper as he left them to their rest. "I love you."

TO BE CONTINUED...