Disclaimer: I don't own Chuck.
I was out sick and finally decided to watch this show, I immediately fell in love with the dynamic between Sarah and Chuck, the way they moved from protector and protectee to true partners was well done. I wanted to take the opportunity to move the characters around a bit, here Chuck isn't as beaten down by life, he's not the mess that he was in the first season which means he can become Sarah's equal that much quicker.
I don't care for the Intersect, Chuck will not have it.
"Mr. Bartowski, my name is Rob Joyce, I work for a group that is interested in your talents. If you're interested in a meeting and potentially completing your Stanford education, please let us know when and where."
Chuck played the message back again, "Mr. Bartowski –" quickly snapping the phone shut as Ellie walked in.
"Chuck, I know it's been a few weeks, but little brother, you need to get off the couch. Also, please shave," she said wrinkling her nose in slight irritation.
"I'll get to it tonight, I promise," he said quietly.
"I left some food in the fridge, love you," she said with a smile as she ruffled his hair on the way out the door.
Chuck lay back on the couch and stared at the ceiling and considered his options; he didn't have the money to fight the expulsion, since that would likely require lawyers and it wasn't like he could get a job with "most" of a Stanford Education. If all else failed, he could go back to the BuyMore.
He picked up the phone and dialed the number and waited when he heard the line connect, he gathered what was left of his courage and quickly spit out, "Mr. Joyce, this is Chuck Bartowski, I'm interested in meeting you, does the Starbucks at Glendale and Montana at 2 pm work for you?"
"Yes Mr. Bartowski it does, I and a colleague will be meeting you there." the call ended.
Chuck quickly got up, he ran into the shower and started to think over what this meeting could be about, but if it presented an opportunity to get his degree, what did he have to lose?
After drying himself off and stepping out of the shower he looked into the still foggy mirror and grabbed his razor and started shaving, with his defeated posture, slightly gaunt face now exposed without a beard to hide it, and an overall air of despair he hardly recognized himself. 8 years of arduous work, never taking a moment to himself, never stopping for fear he would lose the one chance he was given at a better life and Bryce-frigging-Larkin blew it all up in an hour. There was no hearing, there was no investigation, just a stone-faced Professor Fleming confirming that Chuck had stolen the key with the intent to sell it and the Dean expelling him.
How was this Rob Joyce going to fix that?
He looked over his array of clothes, between the button-downs and slacks he could cobble together something suitable for a business meeting. Navy slacks and a grey shirt looked the most professional out of the meager options he had available to him, quickly putting them on along with a simple blue tie he ran out the door. He quickly grabbed the keys to Ellie's Toyota since Ellie and Awesome had ridden into work together, life as two residents was so hectic, they reveled in every moment they could share, he hopped in and drove off.
After arriving at the Starbucks Chuck realized he had no idea what the man he was supposed to meet looked like. He quickly ordered a coffee and looked around to see if anyone was looking for him, two men in navy suits were sitting at a table in the corner one of the men met his eye and waved him over.
"Mr. Bartowski, I presume?" the older of the two gentlemen said with a smirk, he gestured for Chuck to sit down. One of the gentlemen was Brown-haired and Blue-eyed and looked to be in his 40s the other man looked to be a few years older than Chuck with Black hair.
The younger man held out his hand and introduced himself as Rob,
"Let's get down to it, shall we? You were expelled from Stanford for cheating, there was no hearing, and no formal report was submitted to the State of California. One of these would have piqued our interest, all three, however? We were very intrigued -"
"I'm sorry." Chuck said cutting him off, "Are you guys lawyers?"
The older man looked over with an amused expression, "Nah kid, we're not lawyers."
Rob cut back in, "Chuck had you gone back to Stanford this term, Professor Greenbacker would have approached you with an offer to join our organization after graduation."
"So exactly who are you guys then?"
"We're the National Security Agency."
Chuck's eyes opened wide, "I'm sorry and you want me to work for you?" Chuck realized his voice sounded a bit breathless and tinged with fear.
"Look Chuck, had things gone according to plan, yes, we'd have made a formal offer and we would hope that you would have joined us, but I'll be honest, I'm not above using this situation to get what we both want. You want your degree; we need your skills."
"So, what I -" a voice cut over the crowd, "Chuck Bartowski? Your order is ready."
Chuck looked over and saw Rob nod, "Go get your drink, we can pick this up in a second."
Chuck grabbed his drink and took a sip to steady and recenter himself and his thoughts. He walked back and sat down. "So, I agree to work for you and at the end, I get my degree?"
"Not quite, we'll make sure you get your degree before this year ends, I think after we reveal this tragic miscarriage of justice Stanford will happily waive the remaining classes and get it to you. We have two options open to us here, we can have you sign a contract and make you a Federal Employee, or we can have MITRE take you into their employ, and then we'll bring you into our group as a Contractor.
Federal employment has more benefits, but less pay. MITRE gives you more options to work on projects with them if you feel like you no longer wish to work for us.
I have both contracts here with me."
"I'll take the Federal contract; I don't think I'll ever get tired of the NSA," Chuck said with a slightly sarcastic laugh. He signed the paperwork quietly.
Rob paused him before he got to the last page, "You'll have to move to Maryland, we have offices around the US, but you'll be in Maryland with me and the rest of the team. Please don't discuss the nature of your work with anyone, if your family asks, you've been employed by the US Forest Service working on remote monitoring solutions for non-connected environments."
Chuck nodded, "Okay, just to be clear I can see my family again right, there's no one way bunker or something?"
Rob laughed, "Chuck, you're a Federal Employee, you can see your family, just remember the cover story."
Chuck signed the last paper.
The older man nodded, "Welcome to Government work kid."
They stood up, Rob looked at him and said, "You've got two weeks, pack everything you need and head on East, call my number, let me know what your official Maryland address is going to be, and I'll have your onboarding packet sent there. I'll meet you there and we'll discuss the process."
Hands were shaken and goodbyes were said.
Now Chuck thought, "What am I going to tell Ellie?"
5 Years later
September 18, 2007
Bryce was running.
Kick, turn, run. Keep running, these guards were persistent. It was almost like a video game; would it be poor form to keep score? Maybe jump on a head like the guy was a Goomba.
Jump, roll, and keep sprinting, he started scrolling through the list of names until he hit the one.
Suddenly a piercing pain, fall, can't recover.
"Don't move" A smug voice.
"You're too late Casey."
Victory
Chuck walked into his apartment, "Hey Ellie how are you and Awesome doing, sorry I missed your call earlier we were out in a remote area."
"I know the Forest Service isn't Roark, but I'm proud of you for making it work this long, little brother, Devon is doing well, he's at the hospital right now so I'm just home cooking. You're still coming back for Thanksgiving and Christmas, right?"
"Yep, can't wait, hey listen I've got a call coming in can I call you back later?"
Chuck quickly changed the calls before Ellie could reply, "Mark what's up?"
"Chuck, Rob wants you here ASAP, we need all hands on deck. Something happened"
Chuck ran into the entrance and badged in, the mantraps unlocked and let him proceed. He saw Mark waiting for him.
"Glad you got here so fast, Rob wants all leads with him"
Both men badged into their SCIF and walked up to where Joyce was conducting the briefing.
"As of 2030 local, a rogue agent accessed one of our remote facilities and was able to destroy it, due to the proximity to several of our main Fiber trunks we've been cut off from the outside world, we are effectively blind right now, General Alexander is on his way to the fallback at Ft Gordon and GCHQ is taking over what operations they can.
Major John Casey was dispatched to the facility to secure the area with ACS personnel. No one can leave the building tonight.
Here are your assignments:
CyberNetworks, Net Tech, and Telecom see if you can head over and give a hand to the folks trying to restore connectivity. Not your usual job, I know but see what help you can give, even if it's holding a tissue for the guys trying to repair the lines, do it.
Remote Ops, get your people to note what may have been lost when the connections were killed and we'll be putting as many of you on a plane out to Gordon as soon as we can, so tell your team they aren't going home anytime soon. Mark, you're taking Chuck's place as group lead for CTD, get going and get your people to help anywhere they can.
Chuck, follow me."
Chuck watched as the shock faded from the room, and the various men and women ran off to get their staff in order.
Rob pulled chuck into one of the quiet rooms and sat him down, "Chuck, I need you to be honest with me right now, has Bryce Larkin ever attempted to contact you?"
"What? No, he hasn't." Chuck vehemently exclaimed
"Okay, relax, I figured that would be the case, but I needed to hear it from you. Tonight, Bryce Larkin was the rogue agent -"
Chuck cut him off, "So blowing up my life wasn't enough, he's decided to blow up my job?" there was a tinge of hysteria in his voice.
Rob chuckled, "Yeah, something like that, the facility that he blew up was a secret research project run by us with the support of the CIA. What it is doesn't matter now, what we need to do is find out why he turned. You know him, so you're coming with me to the ODNI meeting, they're bringing his former partner in for questioning right now. Major Casey will join us when he can."
Rob started walking to the door and he looked back, Chuck was staring at the wall.
"Chuck" Rob walked back and gently shook the younger man.
"I can't believe Bryce from Connecticut is a spy"
"Why not? Chuck from Burbank is kind of one too."
"I'll find that funny tomorrow Rob."
Chuck got up and followed Rob out, they took the elevator and walked to their meeting room, everywhere they looked there was staff running in and out of offices. The "All Seeing Eye" of the US Intelligence Community was blind. Rob badged them into a meeting room.
"Okay let's get the introductions out of the way, we have little time, I'm Chris Inglis Deputy Director NSA, General Beckman is here as the Project Owner for Constellation from the NSA side, Mr. Bartowski is here as someone very familiar with Agent Larkin, his supervisor is Mr. Joyce, thank you for joining us gentlemen" Chris sat down.
A tall African American man stood up, "I'm Langston Graham Deputy Director of Operations, I've brought Agent Sarah Walker with me as she was Larkin's former partner. She's been vetted by our Counterintelligence people. She's as clean as I am." He said with a small smile.
There were a few scattered chuckles around the room. Chuck looked over to the CIA "side" of the table, Sarah Walker was stunning, she surveyed the room with an icy detachment. He didn't move until Rob pushed him gently and told him to pay attention.
"- and I'm the Director of CIFA, I've brought along 3 of my analysts, Andrew, Keith, and Ashley."
Chris stood up again, "Now that we're all friends here, let's get down to business. Bryce Larkin has managed to pull off one of the biggest intelligence coups in the last decade, we're effectively down an entire agency. The NSA will be in recovering from this attack for weeks. General Alexander is furious.
A burn notice has been issued against Larkin and all his known aliases. Agent Walker, if you could go over the list and see if we missed anything that'd be appreciated." A page was passed over to the stunning blonde.
"Mr. Bartowski, we're happy you're here, if there's anywhere Larkin liked to go, friends he knew before he -" Chris was cut off by the entry light suddenly flashing red and the door opening. In walked Major John Casey, "Larkin is dead, shot him through the heart, before he died he told me I was too late, and he'd sent the Intersect to someone, we're working on getting a trace right now." Casey sat down next to Chuck. Chris started speaking again, "Thank you, Major Casey, we'll get a team to the morgue right away. Walker, Bartowski, and Casey, you're to work with the CIFA team, find out why and when Larkin turned, and find out where he sent the Constellation to."
As he stood up General Beckman cleared her throat, "Bartowski, Walker, and CIFA team stay behind I'll read you into what you need to know for Constellation."
An hour later they all left the briefing in shock, the CIFA team looked over at the others, "You guys knew him best, right? Here's what we'll do, we'll go through the list of relevant places he's been, compare them to the official ops." The lead speaker, Chuck thought his name was Andrew, gestured at Sarah, "And you and Mr. Bartowski can sit down and make a list of behaviors and habits that would have made him susceptible to turning. Compare behavioral notes. We need to build a full profile on Bryce the man, not just Bryce the spy."
Rob walked up to Chuck, "Hey, I've got to head back, call down if you need me." He looked at Casey, "Keep an eye on the kid, yeah?"
Chuck just mutely nodded, still overwhelmed.
Casey grunted an affirmative.
The three set off to another smaller breakout room.
Chuck was the first to sit down, and Sarah sat across the table.
"So, I was his partner -"
Chuck cut her off, "And his girlfriend/lover or spies with benefits, whatever you call it."
"Excuse me?" A note of anger entered her voice, Major Casey tensed in reaction.
"I know Bryce, and the fact that he's here blowing up bits of my Agency instead of sitting in a never-ending sexual harassment seminar or a cautionary tale means that you dated him."
"Look its none -"
"It is my business!" Chuck practically shouted the words back at her, "It's all our business! We're all here because of this, so yes, confirm it or I'm walking to Beckman right now."
"Yeah, he was convenient, I don't want to give our time more value than it's worth. But we did sleep together. It ended before this."
Chuck scoffed, "I'm sure it ended, and of course you did, and because you were Bryce frigging Larkin's bedwarmer we're all here trying to rebuild -" A knife flashed into her hands. A gun popped into Casey's.
Chuck looked at her and froze, she was tense, and her stare bored into him. He couldn't make out the expression on her face.
Chuck started again, "Look, I'm sorry you're paying for his actions, this isn't the first time he's fucked up my life. We're both under suspended suspicion, aren't we?"
Chuck gave a weak smile and held up a hand in a gesture of peace.
"I really had no right to say that, can we start over?"
Sarah examined him, his brown eyes were warm, apologetic, and there was a depth to them that caught her attention. His expression was rapidly changing, from the ranting rage he'd been in to abashed and embarrassed.
She stood up, put away the knife, walked over, and held out her hand. "I'm Sarah Walker, nice to meet you.
Chuck gave a small smile, "I'm Chuck Bartowski, it's a pleasure."
Casey reholstered his weapon.
Sarah looked at him again, "So tell me, what did he do to you? Because that is some deep anger you're carrying around."
"He framed me for cheating, destroyed 8 years of hard work in an afternoon, and then to top it all off, the woman I thought was going to be my fiancé slept with him. I guess they were just waiting until I was gone."
Sarah stared at him her eyes were opened wide and her mouth slightly open, she remembered to school her features.
Casey just grunted.
Chuck continued, "If Major Casey back there and Rob hadn't reached out, I'd be working at the BuyMore. Turns out the work that's actually legal our there for "People kicked out of Stanford for cheating" isn't as lucrative as you'd think.
I'm sorry I took it out on you, I really am, it just feels like I'm in a good place and here's comes Bryce frigging Larkin again to blow it all up, quite literally this time."
Sarah felt her heart soften a bit, "Definitely reason for you to hunt him down huh?" her weak joke broke the tension that had built up.
Chuck shook his head and said, "Sorry back in the game, let's talk about what Bryce Larkin might have been into that let him get turned."
Sarah nodded, "He was a bit vain, petty, fondness for women, noth-"
The door opened and in ran, Keith?, Chuck really needed to learn their names. "We just checked the facility where Larkin's body was supposed to arrive, he wasn't there and the crew of the vehicle that was carrying him has been killed.
This is no longer a Counter Intel review and reconstruction; this is an active hunt."
He ran off.
Sarah gave Casey a teasing look, "Missing in your old age?"
Casey grunted and said, "Really Wildcard, you want to go there?"
Sarah froze, Chuck could swear he saw a flash of hurt in her eyes.
Chuck jumped in, "Okay enough, we need to focus, Bryce may still be alive, or someone may want his body, we don't know why, and we don't know how they pulled this off."
Chris badged into the room, "You're all on detached duty with CIFA for this duration of this hunt, your objectives are to hunt down Larkin or his body and bring it home. If he is alive, keep him that way, we need to know where he sent Constellation to."
The CIFA team walked in, "Okay, we're going to all head home and reconvene tomorrow, right now we have everyone scanning for any mention of Bryce Larkin and his aliases. You guys go home and get some sleep we'll meet at the CIFA HQ tomorrow morning to get your access sorted out. This is going to be a long one, hunting deep cover operatives usually is."
Casey just grunted and before he walked out said, "Walker, don't hurt the kid, he's damn good, we need him in one piece." with his piece said, Casey left the room.
Chuck looked over at Sarah, "I'm sorry about earlier, I really am, I was just so angry, and you were right there and I -"
Sarah gave him a half-smile,
"Relax, I would have said the same things had the positions been reversed, I get why you lashed out.
I didn't earn it, but I can't say I don't understand, I've got to say though, the sex was not nearly good enough to be worth any of this." Chuck just stared at her in shock, and she started laughing, "Okay, now consider us even?"
Chuck just nodded, "I'll walk you out?"
Sarah agreed and followed him, "So how long have you been with the NSA? You didn't mention earlier."
"Almost 5 years now, joined TAO when Rob and John found me wallowing in Burbank."
"5 years and you never learned to hide where you're from? Bad spy" she teased lightly bumping his shoulder with hers.
"I also can't really picture you wallowing, you seem too nice for that, when you're not yelling at innocent CIA agents." She batted her eyes at him.
"Never needed to, and not a spy, definitely not a good one, and I can wallow with the best of them." came his reply with an easy grin.
Sarah smiled at that.
"The way I see it, we're both under suspicion, yeah we've been cleared, but we know with something of this scale that only goes so far," Chuck said as he pressed the elevator button.
"So, Chuck, how do I earn your trust?"
He stumbled a bit and he verbally started and stopped a few times until he finally settled on,
"Earn my trust? Aren't you supposed to be able to manipulate me into believing that I can trust you?"
She shrugged, "I mean, if you view everything through that lens, then we'll never get anywhere. I don't do that to teammates and while I can seduce and frankly I am good at it, I was never really a seductress, maintaining that kind of cover long term is hard and can cause issues. I need to know if we can trust each other, like you said we're both under suspicion, just because we've been cleared by CIC and Q group doesn't mean that we're not being watched."
Chuck and Sarah stepped into the elevator, "I'll trust you until I have no reason to."
Sarah smiled at him, "You really are a terrible spy."
"Not a spy. Computer nerd with teeth."
They passed the ride and the walk out of the building in silence, Sarah looked over at Chuck as he was walking to his car. He really was unsuited for the life of a spy, he trusted too easily, and shared information with only the slightest of inquiries. She compared it to the hyper machismo and jockeying that could be found all over the NCS and specifically the SAD. His eyes were captivating and his smile was infectious, Chuck Bartowski was a welcome diversion from the usual James Bond wannabes that she was stuck with.
Chuck walked away from Sarah, going through every interaction in his head, once the awkwardness of his accusation had been dismissed and they'd done the reintroduction. He found she laughed easily, smiled a bit, and just seemed way more cheerful than a CIA Agent should be.
Chuck looked at the copy of Bryce's burn notice in his hand, he'd heard of them, but never actually seen one before:
"Cold Sunshine - 21344:ZC213435
ATTN: Bryce Larkin is no longer a reliable asset.
He is hereby removed from the list of approved contractors, effective immediately. All entities associated with the United States government and its allies are to have no contact with Larkin. This includes, but is not limited to, all government officials and contractors with a top-secret security clearance and above. Any violation of this order is punishable with a revocation of security status as well as any criminal penalties applicable under U.S. Law
Any interactions with Larkin must be reported immediately to Supervisory Personnel, CIFA will be handling all debriefing necessary."
And a page of aliases and photos from various angles.
John Casey knocked on General Beckman's door, "So far neither of them seem to be anything other than motivated to hunt Larkin down."
Beckman looked at him, "Good, sit down we have a lot to discuss about your assignment."
Appendix – Generalized:
ACS – NSA Access Control Specialists angry people who tell you where you shouldn't be.
CIC – CIA Internal CounterIntelligence (CIC has since been renamed), A bad day for anyone in Langley.
CIFA – CounterIntelligence Field Activity, dedicated counterintel group that was formed under the DoD for the purpose of a unified counterintel command. This would later be dismantled after scandals with the TALON database and parts were sent over to DIA
MITRE – The MITRE Corporation is a company that operates FFRDCs on behalf of the federal government. They primarily operate in the cyber security, command and control, and enterprise modernization spaces.
NCS – National Clandestine Service, sneaky people doing sneaky things
Q Group/Q Div – NSA Internal CounterIntelligence Arm, A bad day for anyone in Maryland
ROC – A group within the TAO that actually conducted offensive attacks on adversaries of the US
SAD – Special Activities Division, angry people doing things to keep sneaky people safe, or make problems irrelevant.
SCIF – Secure Compartmentalized Information Facility, room/rooms/section of building where you talk about very secret things.
TAO – The Office of Tailored Access Operations, NSA offensive arm (aka. The bad thing that happens to bad people) split between research and operations