Disclaimer: Don't own Chuck
"Denotes speech"
'Denotes thoughts'
This chapter is a bit of a departure, most of it is from Sarah's PoV.
I enjoyed writing the fluffy scenes way too much. I got carried away, I apologize. I'll keep make it less overt next chapter.
Sorry for the multiple alerts, One day I'll be better at the formatting.
October 18, 2007
Chuck went for his fifth cup of coffee, printouts of conversations were scattered around the table. The CIFA team had done a remarkable job organizing them based on subject, there were conversations with a Volkoff coordinator, conversations with 3 unknown individuals who had since stopped using their phones, and a very interesting conversation where La Ciudad was being asked to smuggle a package into the United States. Based on the conversation with Gobrienko, Volkoff was using La Ciudad to draw out whoever might be hunting her, though it was clear he hadn't intended for Yuri to be caught in the trap as well.
The few numbers they'd captured had proven to be somewhat fruitful, it gave the CIA a start to mapping out the Volkoff communication network before they were shut down. Profiles were being built and analysis was being conducted.
Chuck winced at the acrid taste of the coffee. Someone entered the SCIF quietly, they walked up right behind Chuck and the scent of vanilla filled his nose.
"Hey Sarah, what are you doing here?"
"Casey told me you were working late, I brought sushi," she said far too cheerfully for this hour. He turned around, one hand was holding a bag with sushi containers the other was hidden behind her back.
Chuck looked at the other arm questioningly, "Oh annddd I brought Starbucks," she presented the coffee with an enthusiastic flourish.
"I don't know which I'm happier to see, you or the coffee," he said with a smile.
"It better be me, or I get to drink your coffee," her tone was light and teasing.
"So it looks like Volkoff was trying to set a trap for us, but he wasn't able to move all his assets into place in time. La Ciudad was getting restless, Yuri was trying to pacify her."
"So the only reason we caught on was due to her impatience and lack of OPSEC?"
"Yep, mistakes get made when people rush," Chuck took a sip of the Starbucks and let out a contented sigh. "Thank you, I really appreciate this."
"Can't let my nerd suffer through government coffee," she took a sip of the coffee Chuck set aside and gave a small noise of discontent.
Chuck laughed, "We should feed that stuff to Yuri, we might get answers out of him faster."
"The British haven't made progress then?"
"None at all."
Sarah sat down at the chair, "Sushi is still fresh, the work will keep for a few minutes."
Chuck sat across from her and they started eating, after a few minutes Chuck asked, "So how many languages do you know?"
She looked thoughtful for a moment, "Professionally capable in 9, I can read 12, and I can insult someone in quite a few more."
"That's incredible," his voice was tinged with awe.
"My degree from Harvard was in Linguistics and International Relations," she said with a shrug.
The two ate and quietly chatted, Chuck enjoyed these moments with Sarah. She was more open and less guarded when it was just the two of them.
Sarah grabbed their empty containers and threw them away.
"Thanks," before she could continue the door opened and Andrew walked in, "Hey Casey left a message and said you were still at it, I only need a few hours of sleep."
He noticed Sarah, "Oh, sorry didn't see you there, hey."
"No problem, I was just helping out with some of the translation work."
Chuck finished off the last of the Starbucks and looked back at the analysis board, he filled Andrew in on the work that he'd done and the information he found.
"Damn, too much to hope that Volkoff's people would have kept using their phones isn't it?"
"I handed it off to CIA, they're mapping out as much of the Volkoff communication network as they can with our data. It looks like there's way more there than we expected."
Sarah watched as Chuck and Andrew kept working through the data they'd collected. Chuck was marking data to be sent to other agencies for follow-up.
She checked her watch, it was almost 5 am. Casey and the rest of the team would be getting in soon.
The SCIF phone rang, Sarah answered it, "Walker."
"Walker, it's Casey, what's the sitrep?"
Sarah nodded at Chuck and took the phone into one of the other rooms.
Chuck let out a yawn, Andrew noticed, "How can you yawn after all that caffeine?"
"Sorry, I guess I need to get more," as he stood up he saw Sarah come out, "Hey I'm going on a coffee run, can I interest you in terrible government coffee?"
"Nope, if you're still yawning after 5 cups, time for bed."
"Andrew just got her-"
"And Andrew is perfectly capable of continuing your work. The rest of the team will be in shortly, you on the other hand will be of no use to anyone if you don't sleep."
She silenced any further objections with a look.
"Okay I'll head home," Chuck agreed.
"Nope, you're too tired to drive. I'll take you home and give you a ride in later today, come on."
"Andrew, if you need anything call my cell first," Sarah's expression made it clear that this was not an optional request.
They exited the building and climbed into Sarah's 911, "Well I can take you to my place, or we could go to yours."
"Mine is closer, I'm guessing yours is near Langley?"
By the time they arrived at Chuck's place, Chuck was nearly asleep. Sarah helped him out of the car and up the elevator to his apartment.
When she walked in she saw a bunch of game consoles hooked up to a TV, the couch looked comfortable and the kitchen was tidy. She walked into the bedroom and noted a Tron poster on a wall, "Get changed and get into bed okay?"
Chuck sleepily nodded, Sarah contemplated the long drive back to her place and made a decision "Chuck, do you mind if I get something to sleep in?"
Chuck's head poked through the door, "My place is at least 45 minutes away," she said by way of explanation.
"Oh, umm, sure, I…" He handed her a long t-shirt, "I'm not sure what else I can give you, none of my PJ pants will fit you, and my sweats are dirty..." he finished awkwardly.
"Clean boxers are fine."
He handed her a pair and lay down in his bed, he jumped up and ran back out to the living room. Sarah was in the bathroom getting changed, she walked out dressed in his clothes and the sight took his breath away, it took him a few moments before he could talk. She quirked an eyebrow in amusement, she decided to indulge her playful side and twirled in place. "What do you think?"
He heard himself say, "Beautiful." Sarah blushed at the near-reverent tone that he had used.
Chuck shook himself, "Oh sorry, my bed, you should take it."
"What?"
"I can't let you sleep on my couch, I'll take it."
"No, you actually did work, all I did was shuffle paperwork and bring you food."
She saw based on his expression he wasn't going to give in.
"You've got a Queen bed, let's split it."
"Umm."
"We're adults, Chuck, we can share a bed, I promise not to take advantage of you."
"Shouldn't I be promising that?"
"Chuck, we both know that out of the two of us, I'm the one who needs to make that promise," she said with a teasing grin. "Now come on, I can see you're dead on your feet. Bed. Now."
Chuck went back to bed, too tired to argue and lay back down, he felt Sarah get into bed beside him.
"Night Chuck"
"Night Sarah," he murmured before he fell asleep.
Sarah fell asleep, putting her cellphone on vibrate and held it in her hand.
October 19, 2007
She woke to the phone vibrating and felt an unusual pressure keeping her in bed, Chuck's arm was wrapping her in a hug and his feet were tangled in hers.
She allowed herself to indulge in the warmth a few more moments before extricating herself from his embrace.
She quietly went into his living room. "Walker"
"Sorry to bother you, it's Andrew, we found something unusual and need Chuck to look into it, nothing urgent, but sooner would be better." Sarah checked the time, they'd gotten 4 hours of sleep.
"Okay, it'll take me a bit to get to Chuck's place and get him."
"Sure, we're standing by," he said and hung up. Sarah saw there was a message from Graham to come in later that day.
Sarah looked around at the kitchen, she could let Chuck sleep for 30 more minutes, she went to make coffee.
She padded quietly into the room Chuck was in the same position she left him in. She slipped back into bed and worked his arm back over her. She luxuriated in the warmth, the movement made Chuck start stirring, she rolled over so she was facing him. His brown eyes opened and looked into hers, she smiled gently as his face ran through every expression a human was capable of, from contentment to fear.
"Sarah I am so so sorry, I was asleep and…"
"Chuck, don't worry, do I look mad?"
"No-"
"Okay, then don't worry, I was very comfortable, unfortunately, they need you back at the office, they found something. I started coffee."
"Oh, okay thanks. Let me grab a quick shower."
Chuck came out, "Sarah, it's yours. If you want one."
"I'm good, I'll drop you off at the office, I need to head into Langley today to get some stuff done. I'll meet you back at the office later, okay?"
She dropped Chuck off at the CIFA office and went back to her apartment to shower and change, she walked straight into Graham's office.
"Sir, you wanted to meet with me?"
"A request came in from DEA, your old friend Miller needs help retrieving some diamond that's being used to finance narco-terrorism south of the border. They asked for you specifically."
"Sir, there's plenty of other agents who have cartel experience, I haven't been involved in that since CATS was disbanded."
"You're turning down an opportunity to work with Miller?"
"Sir, we're making a lot of progress, we've put away La Ciudad and Yuri the Gobbler."
Graham held up a hand, "I completely agree, but DEA insisted, I told them I'd make the offer to you and if you declined, I wouldn't order you to do it."
"Thank you, sir."
"On a personal note, how are you doing with your new team?"
"We've accomplished a lot."
"Sarah, this assignment was supposed to be just hunting Larkin's body down and gathering the data, it's grown beyond that. Far beyond that. Just the fact that La Ciudad may be at the edge of whatever this thing is means that it's a big undertaking, that's before we include Volkoff. The data is still out there and so is Larkin's body."
Sarah kept her guarded expression, 'I don't want to leave this team, I like it here, and I really don't want to leave Chuck.'
She felt an echo of the warmth she experienced this morning, it was the kind of warmth that soothed the soul and warmed the entire body.
When Graham saw that no statement was forthcoming he continued,
"All that being said, I'm giving you an option. If you want to leave, you can do so now. I can give them an emergency that needs your specific skillset, alternatively, I have the paperwork here to assign you to the team for an extended period. If you feel its right, I'll have you detailed there long term."
"I… I would appreciate that, sir, we've done great work."
Graham signed the paper on his desk. "Done, only the President or the Director himself can pull you at this point. Now I have to go break some planner's heart." Graham stood up and shook her hand, "We're going to miss your success rate around here. Let me know if you need anything."
Sarah walked out of the office and went back to her car, when she looked in the mirror she was shocked to see a smile on her face. It was afternoon by the time she made it to CIFA, when she went into the SCIF she found controlled pandemonium. The CIFA team was running around with papers and Chuck was orchestrating it all like a deranged conductor.
She could see Casey taking refuge in the room that they took calls in. Chuck's face lit up when he saw her walk in.
"Sarah, we found something interesting! It appears as if Volkoff has his own gap-separated network that he uses for communicating with assets around the world, it looks like it's based on how we structure some of our intelligence networks here. It appears as if it's called "Hydra" I already passed this on to Rob and he's tasking some people to look into it. This could bring down his entire enterprise if we can find an ingress point."
Chuck gestured over at the papers that were being prepared, "Unfortunately they realized that we were watching, or maybe they just rotate phones regularly. We've lost our foothold, but the data we got was invaluable. We're prepping it to go out to everyone, CIA has promised to get the info out to their JSOC liaisons so if they come across anything in the field it'll be sent our way."
Chuck walked over to another board, "It looks like La Ciudad was bringing in that package in the week of Thanksgiving. She paid off Yari Demetrios to bring it into Port of LA, we're going to be there to welcome them. CIA has loaned us a GRS team for the operation. We're trying to figure out who paid her, but they were a bit more competent so we're having a tough time."
"Wow, I should go into Langley more often. Clearly, you get more done," she teased him.
"Way I hear it, Walker, you won't be going into Langley for a while. Unless we need you there."
Chuck looked over at her, "What do you mean?"
"Since Casey decided to spoil it," She shot an irritated glare at Casey.
"I asked Graham to assign me to this team for the duration, short of the President himself ordering me out, I'm here until you guys get sick of me. The planners are being notified today, and I'm guessing Casey got the call before I arrived."
Casey grunted an affirmative.
By the end of the day, the team had put together the packets to be sent to the other agencies.
Casey caught her before she could leave, "Heads up, Miller is looking for you. Heard that she's been asking around."
"Thanks, I'll deal with it, Graham told me she wants me for one of her wild ideas, let me get a hold of her. I want to stop this before she ends up causing real issues." She turned to walk out of the SCIF.
Chuck noticed her leaving and waved goodbye.
As Sarah walked out her thoughts ran wild, chief among them was 'I don't need the chaos that Carina brings, people always end up being hurt.'
After a brief phone call Sarah and at Carina's insistence she met Carina at a bar,
"Blondie, you're looking good, what's this I hear about you turning me down? We could have a lot of fun," her voice trailed off suggestively.
Sarah's face showed no excitement, just frustration.
"Carina, let's just skip this, okay? I'm doing good work on a good team with people I like working with."
"Really? You're turning down the opportunity to reunite the better half of the CATS against a narco terror financier? He's working with the Afghani opium producers and the cartels."
"There's plenty of good people that were on the list that Graham gave you who are just as capable."
"I don't want them, I want you, I want the Wildcard, the Ice Queen, we co-"
Sarah drained her drink, "So here's how this is going to go, I'm saying no, you're going to try and find out why I'm turning you down. You'll pull as much information about my team as your clearance allows you to. You will then try and throw a live grenade into that so that working with you seems like the better option."
Sarah's eyes turned to ice, "Let me make one thing clear, cause any problems for me or my team. Friend or not, you will see the Ice Queen again. Good talk." Sarah stood up and turned to walk out.
Carina's expression hardened, "Walker, on Monday you're going to get an order from your Director, he's going to tell you to, "Render all assistance necessary," to recover this diamond. It'll cripple both the cartels and the Afghani opium trade for years, and be a big feather in the cap for POTUS."
"Carina, unless POTUS himself is signing that order, you and whomever you've got pulling the strings are too late."
"I've never seen you like this, normally you'd jump at the chance to cause some old-fashioned mayhem. Break the bad guys and score a win for the good guys." Carina studied Sarah's face.
"Which is it, one of the Counter-Intel boys… No, neither of them are your type…" Carina looked thoughtful.
"It's not the dweeb, is it? Tell me does he know you? Maybe I should visit him, tell him all about you… just the good stuff of course."
"Carina, as I said, you'll decide what you'll do. My threat stands, and its nerd not dweeb."
Sarah walked out of the bar and got into her car, she drove to Chuck's apartment and slipped past the "secure" entrance. She knocked on his apartment door.
'This is stupid, he's probably working late, even if he's home he's not going to want to see me, why am I here?' her thoughts were whirling.
The door opened and Chuck looked at her with confusion, "Oh Sarah, hi come in, come in." Chuck waved her inside.
"I know it's late, but would you like to get dinner? We can call it a pre-date or…"
"Oh! Sure, I'd love to," he said, his face breaking into a massive smile. He looked closely at her face, "Sarah, is everything okay?"
"No it's not, is there any chance we can go to the office? It's bug-free."
"Sure, you want to eat before or after?"
"After."
They drove to the office in silence, Sarah unlocked the SCIF door and they went in.
Chuck sat down at a chair and Sarah started pacing,
"Sarah, I'm getting nervous just looking at you, what's going on?"
"So you asked what I do, I told you I was a garden variety sneak, I lied a bit. I do that work too, but my specialty is "removal" of HPTs, when the analysts find a valuable target, I get sent in to eliminate them."
Chuck just stared quietly, contrary to her usual confident posture, she was withdrawn and hesitant. Each word came out with a struggle.
"I'm a killer, Chuck, an assassin, if the NSC and NCA agree, I'm sent out and if I determine that their intel is correct. I remove the target, you've heard Casey call me 'Wildcard' before, that's one of my monikers, the others are 'The Enforcer' or 'Ice Queen'"
'And this is where he leaves, he'll close himself off and that'll be the end of this... I love our time together...'
"Okay, I'm going to need a moment to process that, that's… a lot to digest. I figured you weren't a "garden variety" sneak when you stormed a building alongside the SAS and Casey."
He looked up at her and saw she was nearly frantic with worry, he stood up and wrapped her in a hug.
"Look, I need some time to process this, but you're clearly worried I'm going to run off, that is not happening. Okay?"
He pulled back to look her in the eye, "Why are you telling me this now?"
"I have a teammate, Carina Miller, from an old squad that reached out to get my help taking someone down, I refused her and she's going to tear through my life until she can find whatever is holding me back and get rid of it. She knows that you're on my team, she won't go after the Counter-Intel guys, they'll tear her apart. So that leaves you, and she'll push your buttons, she'll try everything from sleeping with you to bringing up Bryce. I just wanted you to be prepared, and if you changed your mind on the date…" Sarah was almost out of breath.
"No!" His shout caught them both off guard, "No, I haven't changed my mind, now. If I recall correctly we have a pre-date to get to don't we?" Chuck said with a gentle smile on his face.
'I'm not this lucky, there's no way I'm this lucky.' Sarah froze before asking, "You're sure?"
"I've never been more certain of anything in my life. Now I was promised dinner." He pulled her towards the exit, they closed the SCIF, and went outside. Sarah almost seemed giddy with relief.
"So where are you thinking?"
It was almost eleven when the two finally made it back to Chuck's apartment.
"Chuck, thank you for a wonderful time tonight. I really couldn't have asked for a better pre-date. Especially after everything we talked about." Her smile was full of affection for the man standing next to her.
Chuck looked at her, "You know, tomorrow is Saturday…"
"So it is," her voice was innocent.
"What I mean is I know it's not really been our first date, it was just a pre-date date which-" Sarah cut off his spiraling with a soft kiss to his cheek. Sarah smiled as she saw the impact her kiss had, "I wanted to do that all night, you know?"
She took his keys out of his hand and opened his apartment door. Chuck looked at her and said, "I know you're feeling fragile, I just really enjoyed sleeping with you. It was the best night's rest I've ever had."
"Good, I'm too drained to do anything other than sleep, and honestly I loved waking up next to you and I felt…" she struggled to articulate her feeling. "I felt warm. I never feel warm."
October 20, 2007 - 0700
Chuck's phone went off at 7 am, he felt Sarah stir awake and her brilliant blue eyes stared at him.
"Is it work?"
Chuck craned his head to look at the phone, "No, it's my friend Morgan. He's probably up late gaming and needs help."
"Then get back to cuddling me, I like feeling warm," she said as she burrowed against him.
The phone went off again and Chuck sighed, he picked it up, "What is it, Morgan?"
"I just got my hands on a copy of the Orange box, YOU NEED TO GET TF2," Chuck held the phone away from his ear as his friend yelled.
"Buddy, it's 7 am. I'm tired, can we talk about this later?"
"No, you don't understand this game is-"
Sarah gave an impish smile and started stretching, she watched as Chuck's eyes were riveted on her. She enjoyed his attention when her phone went off. She grabbed it and walked out of the room.
"Walker, I thought you had Miller handled?"
"I warned her off Casey, she said she was going to go above Graham's head to get me reassigned, I told her that wasn't going to happen."
"Well, you were right. She didn't pull you off the team, she pulled the team over to her op."
"She doesn't have-"
"Yeah, her boss threatened to make noise that CIA wasn't interested in supporting the removal of two major threats to the nation. Kickstarted a whole shitstorm, she made herself no friends with this stunt neither has DEA."
"I'm guessing that we need to head in today?"
"Yeah we're going to be briefed on this at 09, be here by 0830 so we can plan how we're going to handle this."
"What about Chuck?"
"Yeah, I was going to call him next."
Sarah rushed to grab her clothes and put on her pants. She poked her head into Chuck's bedroom and waved for him to hang up.
"I need to rush home, Casey is going to call you in a few minutes, don't tell him I told you. I had fun last night," she gave him a quick kiss near his mouth and ran out to her car. Hopefully, he didn't notice she was still wearing his shirt.
She folded his shirt and put it on her bed, smiled a little at the cartoon of a guy in a mask saying, "Come to the Dark Side, we have cookies."
She quickly showered and let herself get lost in thoughts of the handsome nerd she'd spent the night with. She was looking forward to the date tonight, but given that Carina had her team pulled in on a weekend… at that less than cheerful thought she sighed and got dressed.
She barely made it into the office by Casey's deadline, Andrew nodded to her as he badged into the SCIF, swiping her badge she entered behind him.
"Okay, now that we're all here, we're being co-opted by Agent Miller of the DEA to help with some op she's got planned. I was able to talk them into just letting Bartowski, Walker, and me head over," he pointed at the CIFA team, "You three will have to keep working on the new data we're getting. We can't lose focus on this. We'll try and wrap this up quickly."
"We're going over to DEA for the briefing. I don't want Miller anywhere near here."
He fixed Chuck with a hard stare, "Bartowski, if there is anything in your toolkit that can wrap this up quickly, use it!"
"We'll take my car, we leave in 15."
As they pulled into the DEA office, Sarah couldn't shake the tension she was feeling.
Carina was always unpredictable, trying to manage her was an art unto itself, Zondra had always… her thoughts derailed as soon as Zondra crossed them. Even though she had been cleared, the hurt had run too deep and the accusations too strong, Zondra had been sidelined and stuck in some backwater assignment, they hadn't spoken since.
She looked over at Casey, he was practically radiating frustration at being pulled off of their investigation to deal with this. Chuck just looked apprehensive, she thought about how she had described Carina and couldn't blame him.
As they walked in, they were given visitor passes and led to a conference room. Carina and another man were sitting there waiting for them.
The man smirked, "Well, thank you for giving up your weekend to help the DEA. I'm Agent Harris, this is Agent Miller. Let's get started."
Carina got up and the PowerPoint started, "This is our target, Payman Alahi, he's been working with the Afghani opium producers and the Gulf cartel for distribution. We've tied the Afghani production to the funding of several terror groups in the region, with things heating up in Kandahar we need to take him out of play before things get worse."
The slide changed and a brilliant diamond was displayed. "At the center of his financial empire is the Nadan-I-Noor, it's worth $26 million and he uses it as collateral for major transactions."
The slide changed to a long tube-like object.
"Right now he's using it to front the Afghani group the cash, and they're using it to buy Igla-S MANPADs from the Russians, this would be disastrous if they were able to get their hands on these."
"Alahi is hosting a party at a house in Cabo, Walker and I will secure invites and 'convince' him that we'd like a look at the diamond. Evaluate the security and then we steal it."
"Won't he be suspicious, I'm not doubting anyone's ability here, but it seems like a high-risk plan just to evaluate the securit-"
"Walker and I were running seduction missions on harder marks way before you were kicked out of Stanford. We can handle it."
Chuck froze, Sarah's expression turned cold. Casey waited for the fireworks.
"How did you know I was kicked out?"
"What does it matter? Frankly, Miller and I didn't even want you on the team, a cheater is too much of a liabili-," Harris interjected.
"Agent Miller, exactly how did you know I was kicked out?"
Harris tried to backpedal, "Look, that's all in the past and it doesn't matter, Agent Miller was out of line bringing it up, but we need to move on now."
Chuck raised a finger, "No, see there are only a few ways she could have known that, she asked Stanford and would have been told that I was the victim of a false accusation and graduated with Distinction."
Chuck raised another, "Or, she got a copy of my original adjudication report from my first SSBI, the adjudicator would have noted I was kicked out, and the NSA would have acknowledged it before Rob sorted out the degree issue, that's a crime."
Chuck raised a third finger, "Lastly, she could have known someone from Stanford and asked them. Why she would do that, I have no idea, but it's still a possibility, even if it is extremely unprofessional to use that information to make a judgment on my abilities."
"So Agent Miller, which is it? Did you break the law, or do I get to make a formal complaint? Make no mistake, this complaint will be to the NSA, not to your Chain of Command."
Harris stood up, "Enough! Alahi is our target, that's where we'll focus our attention. The infiltration is our best option to get eyes on the diamond and determine the security around it."
"Do we have cooperation from the Mexican Government?" Chuck asked.
"Yes, they know that we'll be running a team to capture Alahi."
"Then it's safe to assume that the Gulf Cartel knows, and thus Alahi knows and will be ready for us at the party. We have to avoid it."
"Well, then Mr. Bartowski, with your extensive experience what would you recommend that we do. Hack his phone and make him give us the diamond?" Harris's voice was filled with derision. Chuck ignored him and asked, "Can we get a map of the house that Alahi is at?"
The PowerPoint shifted until they arrived at a map.
Casey looked at the screen, "If we know that it's just him and his guards there, why haven't they just hit him with a Predator?"
"The risk of civilian casualties is too great," Carina said.
"It's isolated and far away, if we have the approval of Mexico, we could have a Predator overhead in no time and we can get breakfast, I'm thinking pancakes. We can recover the diamond with a team. Less risk for us." Casey looked annoyed as he spoke.
"We don't have the time to request and get approval for a lethal strike," Harris was looking more irritated with the questioning.
"But we have the time to send two agents to be captured?"
Sarah looked at Chuck who was studying the map with a quiet intensity. She needed to talk with him, he hadn't looked her way since Carina had made her comment.
"Can't we hack their phones as you did before, and get a better idea of the security that way?" Casey asked.
"We can, but that'll only help if they discuss it over the phone or text… If we had a bit more time we could attack their network, maybe compromise the computers controlling the security systems… Heck if we had one of the Air Force's Rivet Joint planes we could gather a majority of the info we need that way."
"We thought of that, their computers are local network only, completely cut off from the internet, and I think the Agent who asked the 55th for a plane is still afraid to go near a phone after their reaction."
Chuck looked unimpressed, "And that's where you gave up? I can see why you needed help. If you can get me within a few miles of the place I have a few solutions that can get us the information that we need."
Casey patted him on the back, "Excellent Bartowski."
Carina looked Chuck over, "Well, we can do that easily enough. Agent Walker and Major Casey, why don't you go over your details with Agent Harris, I'll work with Mr. Bartowski here," she turned to look at Chuck, "I'll walk you down to our tech guys, so you can see what we have."
"I'm sorry for what I said earlier, I was way out of line. Forgive me?" She sounded contrite and batted her eyelashes at him.
Chuck sighed, "I really don't, but in the interest of a good working relationship, let's just move on."
"I'll take it! Thanks, Chuckles," she said with a playful smile.
"Please don't call me Chuckles, Chuck is fine."
"But Chuck is soooo boringgg," she said with a teasing tone.
"Here's where our TechInt people are, I really look forward to seeing you in action." Chuck didn't miss her suggestive wink at the end of the sentence.
Chuck entered the room, "Here's Alex, he's our lead TechInt guy."
"Alex, Chuck, nice to meet you. What do we have on Alahi's compound?"
"His network is completely offline, they have wireless cameras around the perimeter using 802.11g. He has 3 extenders on the side facing the ocean."
"Any boosters, or limited to 150 feet?"
"So far we can tell, no boosters."
"Good, are the extenders wired in or-"
"They're wired in."
"Great, that's what I wanted to hear."
"That's… an odd reaction," Alex said with a laugh.
"Sorry, can't let you guys have all my secrets, but this is what I needed, thank you."
Chuck looked over at Carina, "I've got what I need, can we go?"
"Sure Chuck, they'll still be working with Harris discussing tactical options, let's hit the break room."
Chuck grabbed a table and watched as she grabbed two sodas and set one down in front of him.
"So Chuckie?" she wrinkled her nose, "Not good enough, you sure I can't talk you into Chuckles?"
"What do you want Carina?"
"I'm seeing why Walker keeps you around, I'm sure whatever technical magic you're going to pull off is truly going to be majestic." she shrugged, "A girl could feel obsolete," she said as she stared out the window. "What use will us Agents be when you can sneak into a computer and get everything you need?"
"There's a lot I can't do, trust me, you'll always be needed. Bad guys are going to catch on to this pretty soon. We'll see how relevant we are when they stop using computers and start using typewriters again, not much I can do against those."
"You're definitely not like the other Tech guys we have around here, you're way taller for one."
"Thanks, you're different than I expected."
"Let me guess, I'm not immediately hitting on you and talking about how Walker is just using you?"
"Well…"
"I get it, but the way I see it, you're not ready to hear that and you won't be for a while. I've seen it before you know? During our CAT Squad days, she was a master seductress, ask her where in the class she was ranked when she graduated "Infiltration and Inducement of Enemy Personnel," she had it down to an art, she could make a man feel invincible while dismantling his whole world under him. There's a reason she was our leader, she could out shoot, out seduce, and out plan everyone. Some bad guys are probably still in love with whoever she was pretending to be for that op."
Carina stared off again, "I know how I come across, the raging bitch, right?"
She laughed at the look on his face, "Oh I know, you'll never agree, but you're thinking it.
Look, Chuck, you're a nice guy, and I love to take what Sarah wants, trust me we used to steal men from each other all the time. She doesn't want you, so I'm not going to steal you. I'll be your friend if you'll let me, but I won't steal you."
Carina drained her soda, "Come on, they should be done by now."
Chuck got up and followed her. Sarah and Casey were waiting with Harris, Chuck put on a fake smile and walked towards them.
Harris saw their approach, "Okay we'll meet back here tomorrow to finalize our plans and head out on Monday."
Chuck, Sarah, and Casey rode back in silence to CIFA. Chuck got into his car and Sarah prevented him from closing his door.
"Hey, are we on for dinner tonight?"
"Oh, sorry, I've got to head into Meade, I need to talk with Rob and grab some equipment for this op. Could we raincheck?"
"What did she say to you?"
"Sarah, your friend is a master manipulator. She's far far more effective than I remotely gave her credit for."
Sarah's tone was laced with hurt, "What did she say Chuck." Sarah climbed into the passenger seat and closed the door.
Chuck gave her all the details of their discussion, "As I said, she's good, she's really good."
"Chuck… do you believe her?"
"What does Infiltration and Inducement-"
"We call it Seduction School, it's where we learn to seduce marks," she could feel the world opening up underneath her, no matter how much she'd warned Chuck, Carina had found a way in. Damn her.
"How did you do in Seduction School?"
"I was the best…" Sarah looked to be nearly in tears.
"You can see where I'd be a bit apprehensive you know? I mean you literally look like a supermodel and apparently, you led a squad of badasses in smacking down bad guys so effectively that your friend says that it was an art form.
You are basically Jane Bond they could cast you as her and have no issues. Me on the other hand? Well, they don't cast guys like me to play… well guys like me."
He let out a sigh and sank into his chair, "I mean, ultimately, how do I know-"
"I stole your shirt to sleep in it."
His eyes cut over to her, "What?"
"I like the way you make me feel, I don't want to feel alone when I'm not with you, so I stole your shirt to sleep in. I was upset that it didn't smell like you, but it was yours and I wanted it. I don't have words, because I'm not good with them, I mean... I can talk a mark into anything, but this?" she pointed between them. "I don't know how to express this in a way that makes sense to you. I'd just have to ask you to trust me Chuck, trust that I'm being honest with you."
Chuck stared at her in silence gathering his thoughts, she finally said in a small voice, "Can I at least keep the shir-" Chuck kissed her.
Sarah felt her whole world move, that warmth she felt when she was wrapped in his arms filled her, that chill that she didn't realize had sunk in vanished from her bones.
Oxygen finally became an issue and she reluctantly pulled back. Sarah looked at him and smiled softly. "I know you have to go back to NSA, but do you mind if I stay with you tonight? Please?"
She had never felt this vulnerable before, with Bryce it was simple, neither of them dared be vulnerable, with any of her one-night stands, they didn't even know her name.
With a start she realized, Chuck didn't know her name, he only knew Sarah.
"Sure, yeah, I'd like that a lot."
"How about I grab dinner and we meet at your place, we have our date and we can go to DEA together tomorrow?"
"Don't you need clothes?"
Sarah felt herself blush slightly, "I have an overnight bag…"
Chuck's eyes got wide. "Oh. Wow, that's… Umm."
"Go to NSA, Chuck, I'll see you at your place."
With that she kissed him quickly again and hopped out of the car, she quickly walked over to her Porsche and drove off contemplating what she'd get them for dinner.
'I kissed her, I kissed Sarah Freaking Walker, she didn't slap me.' Chuck's mind was a whirl.
'She asked me to trust her, I guess I do, I mean if I wanted to date her I'd have to trust her anyways.'
Chuck sighed mentally, and walked into his old office, he found Rob in his office, "What are you doing here on a Saturday?"
Rob smirked, "I could ask you the same thing, good to see you, Chuck." He stood up and shook Chuck's hand. "What brings you around here?"
"I need a NIGHTSTAND, longest range we have available."
"Sure! That can't be the only reason you're here, or I'll feel hurt," he said with a laugh.
"I need you to look into DEA Agent Carina Miller, she knew I was kicked out of Stanford."
Rob's voice lost the warmth, "Really?"
"Yeah, she knew it was for cheating."
"Well, that's definitely worth a visit, I'll have some folks look into it, now how that's taskforce of yours doing? I saw you're generating work for us against Volkoff, as if we didn't have enough to do already." his voice regained the friendly tone it had earlier.
"We're doing well, have a lead in on something coming into LA, we're going to be heading out there with some GRS resources."
"I'll make sure you get the best team possible."
"Bribe the assignment officer with donuts again?"
"He's on a diet, Sugarless cookies," Rob said with a shudder.
He handed Chuck the NIGHTSTAND case, the two men said their goodbyes, and Chuck dropped off the device in CIFA HQ before heading home.
He saw Sarah's car in the guest parking, but he couldn't find Sarah anywhere. He tried her phone and she didn't pick up. He used his key to enter the building and unlocked his door and was suddenly pushed against the wall and a searing kiss was planted on him.
He moved to push the attacker away when his arms were pinned, he saw a pair of bright blue eyes looking at him and he relaxed, she was dressed in a pair of his sweatpants and a Stanford t-shirt.
"Sarah," he was breathless.
"I missed you and I wanted a kiss. Your fault for taking so long."
"Sorry I had to stop by CIFA, I should have-," he was cut off by a kiss again, their kiss deepened, his arms found themselves wrapped around her when he broke the kiss, "Wait how did you get in here?"
Sarah leaned up by his ear, she nipped at the lobe, and with a sultry voice said, "Spy remember?"
"That is strangely sexy," Chuck stilled, "Did I say that out loud?"
Sarah smiled, "Yes, you did."
"Okay foods getting cold, we need to eat then sleep, we have a full day tomorrow. But once this is done…" her voice was filled with desire.
October 22, 2007. 0530
Chuck's alarm went off, Sarah stirred next to him. He'd made an interesting discovery over the weekend, Sarah Walker was not a morning person.
"I'm comfy, go away."
"Sarah we have to get to the plane, we're on our way to Cabo."
"Only in this job would that be a bad thing," she grumbled as she got up.
They got ready and drove off to the airport, Sarah drove quickly. They loaded the gear aboard the DEA plane and took off. She made sure to keep her distance from Chuck, the last thing she needed was Carina seeing him as more of a target or Casey to make a biting comment.
Thankfully Carina and Harris had gone ahead and were meeting them at the airport, at Casey's insistence the change in the plan had been kept from the Mexican Government.
The flight was quiet and fast, Sarah found herself wishing she'd be allowed to fly for an op. Chuck was fiddling with the equipment in the case and Casey was reading a folio on Alahi.
They landed and Harris met them at the airport, they drove off to a spot that Chuck had found on the map, it was fairly isolated with a line of sight on the Alahi compound.
Carina was waiting there with a set of binoculars. "Well Chuckles, we're about two miles out. Let's see you make me obsolete," she said with a quiet smile.
Chuck grabbed the box and started his work, using the NIGHTSTAND he identified the SSID of the compound and laughed, "They named it "Camera Network" this is kind of amazing." Chuck quickly compromised the network and started deploying his software implants on all the workstations he could find.
"If we had the right tools we could plant some hardware implants and gathering more information after we leave."
Carina looked at the compound, "I don't think this place will be all that relevant after we steal the diamond."
Chuck looked over at the stunning blonde and quickly turned away, Sarah was dressed in her mission outfit, due to the heat she hadn't put on the balaclava yet. She noticed him pretending not to look at her and smiled.
Carina was ready to infiltrate the party if needed, but so far Chuck was moving through the network easily. He stopped to think and started fidgeting when Sarah pressed a pen into his hand, he continued to play with it.
He used another laptop to take notes and after a moment had sketched out a rough map of the network. "Okay, I have one of the security controllers and I have the workstation watching the cameras, I can feed it a loop when you're ready to enter."
The team watched the party through the cameras, as Alahi walked out in his bathing suit, Chuck couldn't help himself. "I guess we don't always let the Wookie win."
Everyone stared at him.
"Star Wars…? Never mind."
Casey grunted.
After night fell the party was over, most of the guests were passed out drunk, those that could still function had departed. The majority of the guards had been checking all the guests, Casey looked over at Harris. "Guess it's a good thing we changed the plan isn't it?"
Chuck captured enough video to make a loop and nodded to Sarah, she quietly moved near the compound. Chuck fed the loop to the monitors and Sarah slipped in, Chuck had disabled all of the security systems he could find, he found a reference to something called a "High voltage security system."
Sarah slipped into the compound like a ghost, they watched on another laptop via the camera in her mission outfit. Twelve of the guards were patrolling, the rest were watching the guests that were passed out. Chuck talked her through the gaps in the patrol windows, the guard at the vault door was quickly knocked out by Sarah, and she quickly bypassed the lock on the vault door and slipped inside.
"It's like nothing slows her down…She just moves through the security that's there." Chuck was in awe at the skill displayed.
"There's a reason she's the best there is kid, you just made it easy for her," Casey patted him on the back.
Sarah looked at the case containing the diamond. Chuck had turned off everything he could find, she quietly used a spray to see if there were any lasers, thankfully there weren't any, that just left the, "High voltage system" that they'd found references to.
She studied the display and pedestal, flipped down her thermal camera, and found the electrical wires in question. Sarah traced them to a box in the wall, she quickly opened it, the lock posed no challenge to her at all. There was a fingerprint scanner and an interrupt switch, she took out a bypass tool and manipulated the scanner, the button lit up and she quickly pressed it.
Removing the cover she grabbed the diamond and placed it in her bag, she quickly replaced the cover and slipped back out the way she came in passing the unconscious guard.
Chuck cleaned up the software implants and removed any evidence of his presence from their network. The team quietly removed any trace of their physical presence and egressed back to the airport. The DEA plane took off into the night.
Carina sat down opposite Sarah and pitched her voice just right, "Was it as much fun as the last time you were here?"
Chuck looked over, "Oh were you here for a mission before? You didn't mention it."
"Oh no Chuckles, sorry, Chuck," she said at his expression, "She was here with Larkin on vacation. I've never heard anyone be that loud before. I couldn't sleep in the room next door."
"Oh. I… see why you didn't…" Chuck looked anywhere, but at her, his voice trailed off. He leaned back in his chair.
They landed a few hours later, Chuck had fallen asleep.
Sarah pulled Carina aside, "Carina, we're going to spar tomorrow."
"Oh no can do Blondie, I'v-"
"Carina, we're going to spar tomorrow, you can meet me at the gym and we can do it there with gloves and safety gear. Or I will find you, and we will spar. Am I clear?"
Carina looked at Sarah's expression, "I went too far over the line, didn't I?"
"You went so far over the line we're in territory that's unexplored."
Carina winced, "This is going to hurt, isn't it?"
Sarah ignored her question, and looked over, Casey was quietly talking with Chuck and Harris. She and Carina walked over, "The diamond belongs to the DEA."
Sarah looked him in the eye, "If you did any of the work, you'd have a claim to it, since it was being used to finance terrorism, CIA is keeping it. NSA would have a claim to it, but they don't care about diamonds. So. CIA will be keeping it. Carina, I'll see you tomorrow."
She noticed Chuck backing away as she talked with Harris.
Harris looked her in the eye, he quickly backed down, Carina said, "Okay Blondie, keep the diamond, we'll take the credit for Alahi being out of play."
Casey grunted in amusement, "See you all in the morning."
Sarah walked over to Chuck, "Thanks for waiting."
"Well, you drove… also I wanted to give you room, you looked like you were about to smack him with his own arm."
Sarah ignored the quip, "Carina was just exaggerating, she wasn't even in Cabo, I don't know why she keeps…"
They got into Sarah's 911, "I know Bryce shouldn't be a sensitive topic for me, but he is, I hate that he is because it means he's living in my head and just won't go away," Chuck sighed.
"Carina was just pushing my buttons, I know that I reacted exactly how she wanted me to, I hate that I feel this way. I should see our shrink, I wonder how that'll go, "I have a jackass living in my head rent-free, please evict him,"" Chuck finished with a bit of a laugh.
"I just don't know how to let go of the guy who tried to ruin my life. I mean objectively, I'm in a good place, I have a career, a pension-"
"A girlfriend"
Chuck's head turned so fast she was afraid he'd hurt something.
"What?"
"I said, you have a girlfriend, me."
"You still want to be… I mean I'm a bit of a mess. I'm literally being jealous over a probably dead guy."
"Chuck, I promise you, I'm even more of a mess. So yes, I'm your girlfriend, I know it's only been one date, well kind of a date and a pre-date."
"Then that makes me your boyfriend," there was a bit of wonder in his voice.
"My first boyfriend really, you'll have to teach me this relationship stuff."
"Wait, really?"
"I mean… I've had partners before, it's not like I'm a nun, and you know I was with Bryce, but that was as you said, "Spies with benefits" more than anything else. When we ate out it was on a mission, Cabo was our one attempt to do something normal and we were together, but we didn't… there wasn't the warmth that I get with you. I never stole his shirt or made him coffee in the morning."
"Okay, I understand."
"Want me to drop you off at home?"
"Could you stay?" He said hesitantly, "I know I was just a jealous idiot, and I probably-"
She gave a smile at that, "Sure, I'd love to."
She quietly made a sandwich for herself while Chuck was returning the gear at NSA, when a balaclava-clad figured scaled up the wall and slipped into the apartment, silently she moved towards the kitchen until a knife found itself embedded 3 inches from her foot.
"Sandwich, Carina?"
Carina took off her balaclava, "I wanted to try and catch you off guard Blondie, that could have hurt," she pointed at the knife in the ground.
She looked at Sarah, "What in all that is good are you wearing?"
"Chuck's Stanford shirt, and sweats, why?"
"Blondie, that is just disgusting."
"You're here to apologize?"
"No, I'm here to gloat really, you like him," there was a smug tone to her voice.
"Yes, we've established that."
"I mean, you love Chuckles."
"Carina, it's been at most one date, love is a bit premature don't you think?"
"If you say so, I'll take a sandwich if you're offering. Don't use the murder knives to cut the food, please. I'd apologize for testing him, but we both know I don't mean it."
"That's why I didn't ask you to."
"He really cares about you"
"I know, and I care about him."
"If it means anything, I like him better than Larkin."
"Larkin should be glad he's dead, or I'd make him wish he was."
Sarah handed Carina a sandwich.
"Damn, last time I heard that tone of voice I think the guy pissed himself in interrogation."
The door unlocked and Chuck walked in, "Hey Sara-" his voice trailed off at the sight of Carina eating a sandwich in his kitchen dressed like a ninja.
He looked over at his bedroom and found a throwing knife embedded in the floor.
"Hey Chuckles, good turkey, fresh."
"Sorry Chuck, Carina just stopped by to say hi and apologize for playing mind games with you."
"Just had to make sure you were good for my bestie, but you know… If you want a real good time… what say you and me"
Chuck froze at the look in Sarah's eye, "Chuck, go into the room and close the door, I need to threaten her, and I don't want you to hear it," her tone was sweet.
Carina looked back at Sarah, "Crossed the line again?"
"Yes, he's mine." Chuck would later swear that the ice in her voice actually made the room feel colder.
"Sorry Chuckles missed your chance. Mind if I use the door?"
With that Hurricane Carina left.
Appendix:
OPSEC – OPerational SECurity, hide from people looking for you. Bad OPSEC kills, Guccifer was caught by USCYBERCOM when his VPN failed for a few moments.
NCA – National Command Authority (President)
NIGHTSTAND – Part of the ANT catalogue, wireless penetration tool. Used to access wired computers in denied environments like the Alahi compound. Supposedly it could work up to 8 miles out with the right antenna and environment.
NSC – National Security Council
Carina is very hard to write, especially in the first season. Having to balance her antics and keep them in the realm of realism is pretty hard. To be honest anyone acting the way she did, putting Federal Agents in danger and needing to be convinced by a civilian to rescue them…
Well, let's just say the Lessons Learned analyst would have a field day with that after action report.
Here Carina is just the focal point for Chuck and Sarah to define their relationship. The mission itself was pretty simple. No offense, but "High Voltage Security System" made me laugh a lot, whenever I see those in movies and TV, I always have to wonder how the glass gets cleaned.
I muddied up the process here a bit, NCA doesn't sign off on every order, there's a whole process before lethal action is determined to be viable. And you've all heard about the "Kill Chain" once it's authorized, going through and detailed the steps of a termination doesn't seem all that relevant, or frankly all that fun.
As I'm rewatching the show to get detail for this story. I realize that Beckman isn't fit to run a fruit stand. Had she actually been in the NSA during this time period, I can confidently say that Gen. Alexander would have fired her, with enthusiasm. Also poor Chuck's operating cadence is kind of insane. The timeline from Chuck vs the Intersect (9/18) to Chuck vs the Nemesis (11/22) he went on 10 missions (including nemesis) roughly 1/week.
Also RC-135 "Rivet Joint" is cool, I want to find a reason to use it in this story. I can't imagine anyone at the 55th approving the use of it to support a DEA mission sadly.
Next mission will be Chuck vs the Alma Mater.
Shrimp and Sandworm only occur by opportunity, since he's not in LA, none of that happens. With the enhanced security around the theft of the Intersect, no need for Sandworm since Laszlo's bunker would be more secure as for Shrimp? Because Chuck isn't there, the brother is rescued and they both fly home no one the wiser.