Disclaimer: Don't own Chuck
So my sabbatical from work ends next week, I'll probably be posting less frequently, I apologize.
(I'm guessing when my boss told me to get a hobby during my break he didn't expect me to pick up writing, sadly I picked it up right at the end, but here we are. I'm enjoying it, and I hope everyone is enjoying reading it.)
October 24, 2007 - 0530
Chuck walked into his old office at the NSA and found Rob already there.
"Do you ever go home?"
"I could ask you the same thing, plus technically you don't work here right now."
Rob smiled, "So, I can see you're hiding coffee, what's the bribe for?"
"What happens if I enter a relationship with someone from the CIA?"
"You're dead to me." Rob said with a quiet laugh as he took the coffee, "I'm kidding, nothing serious, we just have to fill out paperwork, make sure it's a non-coercive relationship and we file it with the respective agencies."
He studied Chuck, "Its Walker, isn't it?"
"Yeah, it is."
"She makes you happy?"
"Yeah, she does. It's early, but I wanted to make sure there were no procedural issues that would stop us from dating."
"Not that I can think of. You're a far braver man than I, she's… very… Well let's just say, you're braver than I am and leave it at that."
He printed off two pages and handed them to Chuck, "Here you go, she'll have to get the CIA version, but the two of you should fill it out and get it filed."
He looked thoughtful for a moment before he spoke, "Have you thought about the implications of dating her? Not just the fact that she's a deep cover operative, but that she's Sarah Walker… Her reputation is well earned, not just as an assassin."
"What do you mean?"
"She'll be gone and unable to communicate for long periods of time, she's… not the most open person, frankly she makes me look like I overshare. She's ruthless and brutally efficient, she's been a lone wolf for a long time. Part of her job is getting information from marks, the US Government would never order her to sleep with a mark, but that doesn't mean she won't flirt and make them feel like she's interested in them. That's a lot of emotional weight to carry around."
Rob took a breath and paused before his next statement, "I worked with her, she's a phenomenal agent, all the good things they say about her are true, "Her presence on the field emboldens our allies and cows our enemies, etc. etc. etc." But that comes at a cost, I'm not sure if she can be what you… look, you're a friend and an integral part of our team here. I don't want to steer you away from her if she does make you happy, but I want you to consider the risks of dating her and make sure they're worth it."
Rob looked awkward as he finished. "Sorry, I'm excited for you two, honestly, I just wanted to make sure you thought everything through and weren't caught up in the "new relationship" fugue. She's a remarkable person, and she's getting to date extraordinary individual."
Chuck looked a bit overwhelmed, "Thanks Rob, I appreciate it… I know you're just looking out for me."
"I promise, I'm happy for you."
Rob shook Chuck's hand and walked him out, the two chatted until Chuck left the building.
Chuck drove home and left the folder on his table and looked around the apartment. He moved into the bedroom silently and found Sarah awake and staring at him, he pretended not to notice that a knife found its way back under the pillow she was using. "Where did you go, your side got cold."
"Sorry, I… went to see Rob."
She sat up and rubbed the sleep from her eyes, "It's… 530… what was so urgent?"
Chuck started rambling, "Since you called yourself my girlfriend, I wanted to get the forms to officially notify the NSA that you were in fact going to be my girlfriend, I'm sorry that I didn't tell you I just…wanted to get it done before we got into to work."
She patted the bed next to her, he got the hint and changed out of his jeans into a pair of PJ pants and the shirt he was sleeping in and slipped into bed next to her. She moved to burrow against him and let out a contented noise.
"Good idea, I'll get the CIA forms today, we'll fill them out tonight, now sleep. I want cuddles."
Chuck woke up and showered, Sarah had already left, and he found himself missing her. He pulled into CIFA, as he walked into the SCIF he saw that Casey was already working at a computer. The CIFA team was going through the last of the data, CIA was working overtime to try and find out what that package coming into LA was, and NSA was trying to learn more about Hydra, Yari's organization was too compartmentalized, only the people who loaded the package, possibly Yari himself, and La Ciudad knew what it was.
"Bartowski, side room, now."
As they entered, Casey closed the door.
"You want to explain to me, why Walker is at Langley, getting a relationship disclosure form?"
"Because I have one, and we're going to fill them out tonight?"
"I'll give you the standard statements, don't let it interfere with your work, don't let it cause more issues, and don't let-"
"What issues have we caused?"
"You're in a relationship now, we're going to have to structure how we handle infiltration and seduction missions, we've been lucky so far, but there's no guarantee that luck will hold."
"What does that mean?"
"It means I need to have a good think about the team composition and capabilities, because we both know you'll go over the edge if you see Walker putting the moves on a mark, and frankly speaking Rob will make sure I suffer if I break one of his lead analysts."
"I can handle-"
"Bartowski, let me speak to you, man to man. You are not wired to "Handle" this well, any more than I am wired to hack things. Are you going to look me in the eye and tell me if you see Walker go full seductress at a guy, that the next time she's whispering whatever she whispers to get your geeky brain going, that you won't think about it? You can't compartmentalize that well."
Chuck tried to object then quietly said, "You know, Rob warned me about this same thing, he said that would be a lot of emotional weight."
"Look, I'm going to work the problem, the issue is, due to the Constellation data, we can't just read anyone into the project, and asking to vet someone because you and Walker are dating is a hard sell."
"Agent Walker, I'm sorry, it sounded like you asked for a relationship disclosure form."
"I did sir, I'm entering into a relationship with a teammate, Chuck Bartowski of the NSA."
"I…" Langston Graham was at a loss for words.
"Sir…?"
"You realize this will limit your utilization on the team, right? I don't know how Casey is going to take it."
"Sir, he has no say in this, we can enter relationships based on our Agency guidelines, not John Casey's."
"I know, I know, I just… am surprised is all, I'll consider myself notified of your change in relationship status, and Cheryl will have the forms outside waiting for you."
"Now I was going to brief your team later, but I'll send the packet with you and brief you now."
"Sir?"
"We have a recruiter at Stanford, one of the Constellation Scientists, George Fleming codenamed Aquarius. He was working on the theory behind the project itself, he calls it "Encoded Images," it has to do with retention and comprehension of the dataset. He just called in an emergency alert, he copied some data that he shouldn't have, we don't know what it is. Given your team's involvement, we're going to dispatch you three to recover Aquarius and the data he supposedly copied, we're trying to get him to a safe house. There's a plane waiting for you at Andrews, get there now."
Sarah nodded and walked out, she grabbed the forms and put them next to the packet and drove as fast as she could to CIFA. She spent the drive contemplating how to talk with Chuck about going back to Stanford, and how to deal with Fleming. She parked and walked into the SCIF, "We got a new mission from Graham himself, Constellation Scientist Aquarius copied data he shouldn't have and is being hunted by this man, Magnus Einerson, our primary objectives are to retrieve the scientist and the data. Secondary is to take Einerson out of play, he's been a thorn in our side for too long."
She looked around the room, "We need to depart in less than an hour, there's a plane at Andrews waiting to take us to our location."
Casey's eyes narrowed a bit at her evasion, "Where is the destination Walker."
Sarah sighed, "Stanford."
Chuck looked sick. She wanted to hug him but refrained from moving.
"Okay we need to get moving, Aquarius has gone to ground, and we need to find him. While we're in the air, Ashley, I want you to run a dragnet. Find all his friends and family, get all his credit cards, and get his phone. The CIA is trying to contact him and get him to a safe house."
Casey pushed Chuck towards the door, "I'll drive, let's go."
As soon as they walked out of the door, Sarah took Chuck's hand as they walked.
Chuck finally spoke, "You know, I'm beginning to think I should ask Rob for our team shrink's number. I don't want to go back, but if one of the Constellation team is in danger, we need to recover them. What's his name?"
"Fleming," the word left her mouth, and she felt the weight of it settle on Chuck.
He took a deep breath, "Okay, its official, I will ask Rob, when we get back. I just need to keep it together for this mission."
They boarded the plane and Chuck couldn't stop fidgeting; his movements were anxious. Casey looked at her and then looked at Chuck. She nodded and walked over to where Chuck was sitting.
Chuck felt her sit down next to him, he looked over at her and she gently pulled his head down into her lap and started running her fingers through his hair. He felt some of the tension leave his body, Chuck was drifting off, he could still hear Bryce's last words to him echoing, "You brought this on yourself."
Sarah's hand stilled and Chuck looked up at her, "What did you say Chuck?"
He felt confused and sat up, "Sorry did I say that out loud?" She nodded.
He ran his hand through his hair and said, "Those were Bryce's last words to me, "You brought this on yourself." I still have no idea what he meant by that. I was his friend, I mean we were best friends, we played Gotcha! In the library. We… joked about the jobs we'd have and girls we'd marry, he used to tease me about Jill…"
Chuck stood up, "Sorry, I need a minute, please?" he walked to the back of the plane an stepped into the lavatory.
Sarah watched him walk away, "Casey if we find Larkin alive, I'm going to hurt him. You need to make sure that I stop before he can't give us answers," she said as she got up to check on Chuck.
Casey muttered, "If he's alive, he better hope I find him."
Chuck quietly sat down, he took a deep breath and let it out, he heard a knock on the door, "Chuck, you okay?"
"Yeah, sorry, one second. I just needed to take a moment."
He opened the door and found himself enveloped in a comforting hug. "I don't have the words that will help you feel better, so I'm just going to hug you until you do."
Chuck pulled himself together by the time the plane landed. Casey gave them they burners they'd use for the mission and took all of Chuck's standard ID. They found a message waiting for them, the CIA had notified the local police to find and secure Fleming, he was in a safe house with two officers.
They grabbed a rental and drove off to meet him. They drove past the safe house and identified both officers, Casey turned back around, and they presented their IDs to the police. They were ushered inside and found Fleming sitting on the couch. He looked up at Chuck in shock, "Mr. Bartowski, they sent you?"
"Professor, it's been a while," Chuck's voice was emotionless. "We're here to retrieve you and bring you back to the office."
"We need to get the data first, I've hidden it in the library, I used one of Agent Larkin's old hiding spots. Here I wrote it down," he handed Chuck a piece of paper.
Chuck nodded, "I think I know where you're talking about, we'll get you on the plane and then we'll go and retrieve the data, Einseron has no idea where to get it, so we're in good shape."
With their police escort the four set off to the airport, the CIA crew rushed Fleming aboard and notified Graham. The plane and crew would return after their delivery.
Before they departed, Fleming grabbed Chuck, "Mr. Bartowski, for what it's worth, I truly am sorry. Please look at the interview under your name. It appears as if I owe you my life, that's no small thing. Please if you can find it in yourself, I'd like to see you again if I can."
Chuck simply nodded for lack of anything to say.
They got off the plane and went back to the rental car.
They drove back to the campus, "Walker, two cards behind us, red sedan."
She glanced in the mirror, "I see it, Chuck look in the side mirror, don't turn your head. You see it? It's behind the blue Mazda."
"I'm going to ditch him," Casey swerved the car down a side street, "What's this crowd here for?"
Chuck looked over, "Those are some tailgaters here for the UCLA v Stanford game, there'll be more coming in until the game starts."
"Walker, you and Bartowski hop out while he tries to reacquire us. I'll meet up with you later."
They quickly got out of the car and merged into the crowd.
"So, I guess your frat came out to these while you were here?"
"Yeah, we did, it was… honestly it was a great time." Chuck looked lost in his memories, "I remember this one incident, we were all out here, it was the night before a game, and we were just having fun. Someone brought a ton of Nerf guns and darts and we just… unloaded on each other. It was like the Nerf Somme. Darts everywhere. Someone had one of those battery-operated belt fed Nerf machine-guns" He had a soft smile as he thought about it.
Sarah took his hand in hers and lay her head against his shoulder as he quietly reminisced.
"This was the first time I felt really free you know. I finally accomplished everything I wanted, and I got a Full Ride to Stanford. A full ride, 4 years of doing nothing but working my ass off, pushing for every opportunity to pad my application. I took the bus for hours just to get from event to event because we couldn't afford a car. Then…"
He shook himself, "I'm sorry, I'm in a better place now. Part of me wishes I'd been able to Walk, see Ellie in the crowd as I accepted my diploma… Anyways. We should get going the library is this way."
They started walking, Sarah wondered what other memories this was bringing up, she noticed every so often Chuck would pause and look at something and then drift off. As they walked, Chuck turned to look at her, "I know it's a mission, and you have to be here, but thank you. I'd be a basket case without you."
Sarah took out a Student ID and handed it to Chuck, "Here's your ID, we activated it so we can get around campus."
"Wait, did we insert ourselves into their database just to have an active ID?"
"No, they said they just cloned an existing valid ID and put our pictures on the cards," she said with a shrug.
They swiped into the library and went to the location Fleming indicated. Chuck looked around and found the hidden compartment, they retrieved the disk and left.
Magnus watched as the pair exited the library, the car had pulled a clever trick by dodging and getting the passengers out, if one of his men hadn't spotted them, the mission would be a failure. They were good, he was better.
The blonde was running counter surveillance effectively while steering the tall man, his men had to be careful, or they would be caught. He motioned for one of his men to steer them towards the science lab, the man started towards them, the blonde immediately noticed the risk and pulled the tall man towards the building. Standard drill, get to cover and wait for reinforcements. So predictable.
It was a pity he missed the Professor, watching them load him on the plane had been frustrating. Delgado would have paid good money for him, but the data was still valuable enough to risk exposure.
Two agents, this was almost too easy. He ran his hand down the crossbow's shaft and smirked. They advanced on the building and surrounded it, only one entrance and exit, this was really like taking candy from a baby.
Two of his men stayed outside to watch the exits, he took the other five in with him. Five against two, this was almost unfair.
The agents were missing, they'd clearly hidden somewhere. Magnus saw his men draw their weapons and fan out, the layout of the building made it hard to keep line of sight on each other. He saw a flash of blonde and heard a scream. One of his men was down, damn, the rest fired in the direction the scream came from, they only had a matter of time before campus police came to investigate.
Magnus turned a corner, the room was a lab room, there were workstations set up in a grid in the center. Solid wood. He would have a hard time penetrating that with his bow. He saw the tall male agent's shoe sticking out and he advanced slowly towards him, the male agent darted to a new cover position. He fired; the bolt grazed the male agent's leg. The agent crawled to the new position while Magnus reloaded.
He heard another scream; the blonde had claimed another one of his men. It was time to regroup, she couldn't take them if they were together. He called out and realized his mistake, exposing his position to the female agent would have been lethal, thankfully he saw the three remaining men moving towards him.
Where was the blonde?
One of his men turned and started firing, Magnus raised his bow and looked for the female agent and saw that his man was shooting at a shadow. Magnus chastised him, the blonde had them all spooked.
He saw her out of the corner of his eye, she grabbed the injured male agent, and they took cover behind a desk. Perfect, they were trapped, there was no way out of the room other than through him and his men. The male agent's movement was restricted due to the injury. That was what he needed.
"Drop your weapons and come out, you're out gunned and outnumbered. Give us the data and we'll let you go. Or you can bleed out on your own here. Makes no difference to me."
He smirked and waited for the movement; his men were tense when he heard a shotgun being cocked behind him. He immediately dove for cover when the noise deafened him. He turned and saw another agent firing at them. He fired the crossbow before the agent could move to shoot at him.
The agent dodged the bolt, Magnus reloaded. His men still had the two behind him pinned down, he heard one gun go silent.
Was his man reloading or a victim of the blonde?
The scream answered the question.
Damn the blonde, how was she that effective? She should have been pinned down. He looked at the man, there was a throwing knife sticking out of his chest, he was bleeding out.
He was too preoccupied with the shotgun wielding agent, he needed to take out the blonde.
He felt the barrel of a gun against his back. How did she get behind him? He looked over, the man covering his back was unconscious.
He and his last man surrendered, they were mercenaries, there was no need to sell their lives, his Icelandic affiliation would give them some cover. They'd be ransomed back when the US needed something, he may not have been here officially, but he knew enough secrets that his government wanted him in their control.
He turned to look at the blonde, when he met her eyes, he felt the cold of the Arctic blow through him. She calmly took the crossbow and smashed it.
Magnus waited, where was campus security? They should have been here by now. The irony of relying on their salvation was not lost to him.
The blonde walked back to him; she used the handcuffs he was going to use on Fleming to restrain him.
He looked into her eyes again, her face was stone and deep in his mind, the buried instinct that once protected his ancestors from predators came alive. He felt fear.
The shotgun wielding agent called out, "Ambulance and extraction team are on their way, ETA 10 minutes."
10 minutes then, he could do a lot with that. The blonde had reversed his position in less time. He'd gone from numerical superiority to prisoner in that time. He could escape. The shotgun wielding agent restrained the two remaining men. The blonde went over to tend to the injured agent, she was checking him over professionally and murmuring quietly to him.
He started to work on his handcuffs, if he could reach the shim, he kept in his back pocket he could escape while the blonde nightmare was occupied.
The shotgun wielding man laughed and looked at him, "Oh please, try and escape, I want to see what she does to you."
At that mention he looked over, she was looking at him with a feral smile. He had never understood animals that simply lay down and died when they were trapped, as long as you fought you could escape.
Looking at her, he understood that thought. Her smile was that of a predator, she enjoyed the chase, she would enjoy every minute of his freedom until she grew tired of him. He stopped moving, maybe his information could buy him freedom, he was used to bartering, he could make this work. Maybe whoever cut the deal would be kinder than this nightmare.
Armed men in uniforms stormed the building, they bundled him and his remaining men into a van and restrained them further.
Chuck was hurt, Chuck had gotten hurt on her watch, Sarah was supposed to keep him safe, and he was hurt. Her thoughts kept replaying the moment she saw him taking cover, trying to cover the bleeding wound with his hand.
The CIA team masquerading as the Ambulance crew looked Chuck over, a few stitches he would be good as new.
Sarah alternated between worry and a cold rage. Magnus would spill every secret, he would give it all up, then she would let him die.
She knew she was possessive, growing up the way she did, she didn't have much to call her own. It was wrong to think of possessing someone that way, but Chuck was the first man she'd felt this way about and Magnus had hurt him. She cared about Chuck, she liked him, she…, her thoughts refused to go further in that direction, it was too soon. A date, a mission, and a "kind of" date was way too soon to be thinking beyond that.
She argued with herself as she held Chuck's hand and muttered sweet words to him. Didn't the dinners she'd bring to him in the SCIF count? Were those dates? She wanted to ask Chuck badly.
"I can't believe I got hurt because of a crossbow, I can't decide if this gives me more nerd cred, or less." He grunted in pain as the wound was disinfected, "I am officially the worst spy ever."
She said quietly, "You're not a spy, you're a computer nerd with teeth."
He laughed, "Yeah, that's true. Good memory. You were incredible in there, like a super kick-ass ninja."
They quickly got out, Chuck was stitched up quickly, they'd get him checked out properly at the Ft. Meade Medical Center.
Casey walked in, "Hey, we're sending them on a prison transport, they'll be waiting for us at the detention center for interrogation." Casey steeled himself before delivering the next line.
"Magnus told me he wants to cut a deal; he knows who hired him and he wants freedom if he gives that up and some additional information. It's likely Graham will go for it."
Her rage was palpable, he stepped back, he'd known Walker a long time. There was a reason she was the "Wildcard," but this volatility was new.
"He'll be fine, you know that."
"I know, I'm just angry he was hurt, he shouldn't have been there, he doesn't know how to hide properly."
"Then we'll teach him how to hide."
With her help Chuck climbed aboard the plane and they were taking off. She leaned into him and took solace in his warmth.
He looked at her, "You know it wasn't your fault, right?"
She sighed, "It wasn't, but we're going to talk about this. Casey and I are going to put you through self-defense training. We're going to cover positioning, movement under cover, and situational awareness."
"Oh, so I get to learn how to shoot? Because I'm no-"
"No! No, you won't, we're going to cover moving away from the bad guys, call it "The fine art of running away" rather than self-defense."
Sarah took a breath, "Look Chuck when you got hurt… I don't... I knew that you'd be fine, but I was scared. I need to make sure you can get yourself out if this ever happens again. I could take them all down on my own, but I can't do that if I'm worried about you okay?" she kissed him softly. Casey was studiously ignoring them.
"So please, do this for me? Casey and I will work with you on this, or if you want, I can get some instructors who owe me a favor to drill you, if you don't feel comfortable working with me."
"I'll work with you guys, I'm sorry I worried you."
"Good, get some rest."
When they landed a medical team took Chuck to Ft Meade's Medical Center.
Casey grabbed her before she could join him, "Walker, we need to debrief, then you can visit Bartowski."
"He was there, rather than run two debriefings, let's just wait for him. Can you have Graham meet us at CIFA?"
Casey drove her to her car, and she drove to the Medical Center, she slipped inside and asked the receptionist where Chuck's room was.
She found Chuck chatting with Rob.
"Casey told me you got shot by… a crossbow…?" there was a note of confusion in his voice.
"Yeah, Icelandic assassin, I zigged when I should have zagged."
"Why were you… fighting an Icelan-"
"We had to grab something that he was trying to steal."
"Oh. Well. That makes it okay, we did explain that your job does not involve fighting assassins, right? I'll have to double check the hiring paperwork, but I'm 99% sure that's not in there," Rob's voice was heavy with sarcasm.
Sarah giggled, watching them interact was amusing.
"Oh, Agent Walker, sorry."
"Just checking in, we need to get to debriefing."
"We'll I'm feeling good, they gave me some painkillers and are just X-raying me to make sure I'm okay."
Sarah's phone went off, "Graham is almost at the office, do you know whe-"
The doctor walked in as she was asking, "Mr. Bartowski, we can confirm you'll heal up fine, the shot was deep, whoever stitched you up did a good enough job."
"Come on Chuck," Sarah helped him stand, "Let's get to the office, have a good night, Rob."
They drove back to CIFA and went into the SCIF and Andrew took the disk from Sarah and loaded the disk into the computer for untrusted media, she connected it to a projector and the team looked at the data as it scrolled by.
Graham slipped into the room as the data was being displayed.
Sarah said, "Wait I know her, she's a CIA analyst now, I think she's on the Turkey team."
Casey grunted and pointed at a name, "I know him, he's CIA too."
Andrew looked at it in horror, "Is this a list of everyone Fleming recruited…?"
"We need to know now if that's the only copy of that list. We've got him secured with the rest of the Constellation team right now. I'll have him brought up. We have agents that he recruited in the field with NOCs." Graham was furious.
Sarah looked at the screen, "While we wait, look for Bartowski."
She looked at Chuck, "Remember, he told us to look for you in the disk?"
Chuck nodded
The recording started.
A voice said, "This is Interview for Candidate: Charles Bartowski. Project Omaha"
They heard a knock on the door, the voice said, "Enter"
In walked a man, Keith said, "Isn't that-"
Casey's growl cut him off, "Larkin"
The team watched as Bryce and Professor Fleming conspired to frame Chuck for selling answers.
The recording ended.
"That guy is an ass." Andrew gave voice to their thoughts.
Casey grunted in amusement.
"So, they framed me to keep me out of… Project Omaha, because I was a serious candidate for the Constellation Data? That doesn't even make any sense..." He stood up and walked out of the room, "I need to get some water, one moment."
Sarah looked at the still image of Bryce on the screen, "This is why Joyce had such an easy time getting Chuck's degree. There was no proof, just the attempted administrative destruction of a good man and a valuable contributor to our national security."
Graham looked pensive, "I'll need to get Diane, this is going to take a moment longer. I'm sorry." He dialed a number from the SCIF phone, "Diane, I need you in the CIFA office, now."
Sarah slipped out and went to look for Chuck, she found him at the vending machines. "I'm definitely going to call Rob and get the shrink; this is too much." He hit his head against the glass of the machine, "I want to feel charitable to him because he did this to help-"
Sarah's voice was cold as she cut him off, "There was nothing good with what he did there. He made a decision, he acted on it, and let you live with the consequences. Like you said last night, you're in a good place right now, that is entirely because someone else saw through the lies and brought you on board. Larkin's plan would have you wasting away at a BuyMore or some other menial job that you are stupidly overqualified for, we'd have never met." She hugged him as she finished the sentence.
Casey came out, "Fleming and Beckman are here." Chuck nodded and walked back inside.
Sarah followed him into the SCIF.
Graham spoke and pointed at the screen, "Doctor Fleming, is this the only copy?"
"Yes, it is, I know I shouldn't have kept it, but it was too useful for my research."
"We'll discuss the consequences of your actions later, suffice to say you will not be going back to Stanford."
"We just watched the video of you and Agent Larkin conspiring to frame Mr. Bartowski, could you please explain your rationale to us?" There was an undercurrent of menace in Graham's voice.
"Agent Larkin thought that Mr. Bartowski would be unsuited for the life of Project Omaha, he felt that Mr. Bartowski would be emotionally destroyed by the rigors of the program."
Chuck looked irritated.
"That was not your call to make! We have psychologists for that, they would have evaluated Mr. Bartowski, had they found him wanting, then we would have had a position for him that would have utilized him effectively, you and Agent Larkin conspired to deprive the CIA and the United States of a valuable resource. It is only thanks to Mr. Joyce and his actions that we have the skilled individual we have today," Graham voiced boomed off the walls.
"He was brilliant but-"
Sarah couldn't help herself, "But nothing, he's been phenomenal at everything that he's done, all you and Larkin managed to accomplish was to cause him problems."
Beckman finally spoke, "Given the position we are in, wouldn't it be better if Mr. Bartowski were given the Constellation Data? We're playing catch up with a group that was able to abscond with Agent Larkin's body after Agent Larkin went rogue and destroyed our facility. Traditional methods aren't getting us the answers we need, maybe we should discuss having him host the data."
"Perseus says that the data isn't remotely ready to be hosted in a human mind, we're still in testing."
"But if Mr. Bartowski is the ideal candidate, can we not have him be the "Test Subject" as it were?"
Fleming interjected, "I'm sorry, but the risk is too great, while he might be the ideal candidate for a human trial, we still are not near that phase of testing yet. Agent Larkin's destruction of the facility has set us back significantly. Sandia is constructing the new Cipher as fast as they can, but we need to be careful."
"I'll discuss this with DNI, it may come down to using Mr. Bartowski as a test."
Sarah looked mutinous, Graham cut her off before she could speak, "Diane, no matter how dire, we're not subjecting one of our own to an untested risky procedure."
Beckman looked like she wanted to disagree but realized the futility and stopped.
"Professor, can we talk in private, after this?" Chuck finally spoke up.
"Of course."
"This is a disaster, your actions have put our agents at further risk, you deprived us of a critical resource. Omaha never even proceeded, not for a lack of candidates, but because we determined the rewards didn't outweigh the risks. Your irresponsibility." Graham collected himself and lowered his voice. "Suffice to say Dr. Fleming, you will be making up for this lapse in judgement for a long time. Has Perseus filled you in?"
"We were talking, the data set and encoding process was leaked by Agent Larkin, we don't know to who yet, correct?"
"Correct, with Pisces a traitor we find ourselves short a visual encoding specialist. You will canvas the top universities, find us candidates who can take over Pisces's work and others who can be useful. We need more people. Also, you will work to adapt your test, we'll give it to all of our staff, we'll need to identify other candidates who can host the Constellation data set.
Diane, we'll need to go to my office and coordinate the rest of this. This is starting to spiral out of control." He took the disk with him as he they left the SCIF.
Chuck looked over at Fleming, "Professor, can we talk outside please?" They walked to the same break room Chuck had been in before.
"Did you and Bryce ever stop to think about the impact that this would have on me? In your high-handed approach to "keep me safe" did you ever think about what I would do with no degree and an accusation of selling answers?"
Fleming sighed and ran his hand over his face, "We knew it wouldn't be easy for you, but we… We thought we were doing what was best. You've thrived here in a special niche, that doesn't mean you would have thrived in Omaha. You are a kind man, a truly kind man, Omaha in its original form would not have treated you as well as your current position has. I take no pride in the decisions that we made, nor do I ask your forgiveness. But I am deeply in your debt, whatever I can do to make us close to even I will."
He patted Chuck on the shoulder, "Now I need to meet with the Directors, it seems as though we'll be expanding, we have one chance to get this right. Mr. Bartowski, I can take no credit, but you are an impressive young man."
Chuck walked into the SCIF, Sarah watched as he slumped into the chair and held his head in his hands. "Chuck let's get you home. Come on." She steered him out of the SCIF down the hallway and into her car.
Chuck let them into his apartment, he looked at the blonde standing next to him.
"Hey Sarah…?"
"Yeah?"
"Spend the night?"
"Of course."
She stepped out of the living room and changed into his Stanford shirt and sweats.
"I'm never getting that shirt back, am I?"
"Do you really want it back?"
"No."
Before he walked into the bedroom, Sarah grabbed a manila folder and opened it. "Chuck, can you sign this please?"
"What is it?"
"My relationship form."
Chuck happily signed it, "I'll fill mine out right now, sorry it's been…a day."
He moved to grab a folder that was on his table and started filling out the form. "I want this day to end on a good note. I refuse to let the bad overwhelm it."
His form was shorter, she signed her name to the bottom of it and kissed him. The kiss deepened and she felt herself react to him. He stood up and they were frantically kissing as they moved to the bedroom. She moaned quietly into his mouth. As they entered the room, she pushed him on the bed, he hissed in pain and she froze. "Chuck, are you okay?"
"Sorry, my leg," he said with a wince. She felt horrible, "I'm so sorry, I didn't mea-" she was silenced by his kiss. "Trust me I wasn't complaining at the time."
"Let's wait until you feel a bit better," she said softly.
She snuggled against him.
"Sarah, you don't have to say yes, I know it's early… but I usually do Thanksgiving at my sister's and, I mean, would you like to come?"
"Sure, she's in LA right?"
"Burbank, but close enough."
"Sounds wonderful," the thought slipped into her head, "Oh, I meant to ask, I have a girlfriend question, do we count the SCIF dinners as dates?"
"Do you want to?"
"Yes."
"Then they're dates."
She kissed him. "Good. It means we're way beyond our third date." her voice trailed off suggestively.
Rob walked into the office, 'Crossbow assassins, what the hell.'
One of the Q Group members that he'd talked with earlier came up to him, "We followed up as you asked, Miller requested the adjudication file based on her taskforce, she didn't have the authorization to do that. She just got lucky that this archivist wasn't following process. Miller will have a warning for misuse of information entered into her file.
Upon further investigation, we have a problem, one of our analysts pulled the archivist's history. It looks like this archivist was handing off files for at-risk individuals to another party. We're following up on that now. We've notified the Chief of Staff about this, and the Office of General Counsel."
"You think this is going to be a bigger issue?"
"I think it already is and we're just being made aware of it, we're going to enhance our processes, but you should be prepared, this may get busy. We've notified CIA and other agencies; we're going to begin a full review."
October 27, 2007
Sarah slid out of bed and got ready, she took their forms and left. Chuck was going to spend the day resting, she had a few errands to run and then if the team didn't need her, she'd spend the day taking care of him. She left a note on his table and giving into her playful side she drew a small heart and planted a kiss on it.
She dropped off her form at Langley, Graham looked like he hadn't gone home last night. She drove to Meade and asked the security if Rob Joyce could meet her. The guard looked unamused, but called down, he was surprised when Rob agreed to come up.
"Here's Chuck's form."
"He's still resting then?"
"Yeah, he is."
"You know Agent Walker, it's a nice day outside, why don't we take a walk."
They walked out of the building onto the grounds.
"What's going on?"
Rob gathered this thoughts, "Tell Agent Miller she's very lucky she's only getting away with an official reprimand, if we had the time I'd make sure she never touches sensitive information again. We don't, so she's getting her one-time pass."
He looked into the distance, "Our counterintelligence people found something worrying, our list of at-risk cleared resources may have been leaked. We're beginning our investigation now. We've notified the rest of the IC; everyone is starting to move on this. I'm letting you know because whatever it is, it has the potential to be big."
He had a smirk, "If I can't trust Sarah Walker, who can I trust? You're as reliable as they get."
Sarah walked away from the conversation worried, her phone rang, "Walker, it's Casey. Get here. Now."
When Sarah walked in, Andrew and Keith were standing in front of the board.
Casey saw her, "Glad you're here, come on, Einerson wants to cut his deal. I want you there as a reminder of what happens if he's not forthcoming."
He was in his cell, the US Government would cut a deal, he knew they would. The key to winning this fight was to hold back the relevant information and bury them in irrelevant information. Delgado would not want his name known; therefore, the key was to bury them in names and wait for them to let him go.
He remembered the blonde, she was an Apex predator if there was one, her eyes held no passion. They were just chips of ice. What did someone like her do in their off time? Was she just moving from mission to mission, killing her way through America's enemies?
The door beeped, the shotgun wielding agent walked in, good he could, his thoughts derailed as the blonde walked in. She looked even more terrifying than the last time he'd seen her.
She sat across from him and stared into his soul; her blue eyes stripped away his thoughts of sophistry. He knew, if he lied to her, there would be none of the usual games that interrogators play. He would die, he wondered idly. Would the male agent protect him?
The male agent growled, "Who hired you?"
His response was immediate. "Tommy Delgado of the Central Intelligence Agency. My mission was to retrieve George Fleming and the data he hid. You can trace how I was paid; this is the account number."
He could bargain with Delgado. The blonde would make him welcome death.
Appendix:
No fancy tech stuff today. We had a crossbow assassin facing off against Sarah Walker and losing.
Agency Stuff:
At-Risk – Bad place to be if you're cleared, they've determined that you're at risk for losing your clearance, if your behavior is egregious enough, (Gambling, infidelity, financial hardship, etc.) you lose it immediately.
Q Group/Q Div – NSA Counter Intel.
Chief of Staff – Important person at NSA, reports to Gen Alexander during this time period.
Office of General Counsel – Important Legal position at NSA.
Constellation Scientists:
Orion: Stephen Bartowski
Perseus: Howard Busgang
Aquarius: George Fleming
Pisces: Jonas Zarnow (Arrested)
The relationship disclosure form is a real thing at a few agencies, (I think it's something like, Disclosure of Entry into a Non-Coercive romantic relationship, but its been years, so forgive my memory.) I've only ever seen it at Department of State, but it's too funny not to include here.
Frankly, it's the second most "Government" thing I've ever seen. But they do have value.
Fulcrum was criminally underutilized in the show. A cabal of rogue intelligence officers? That should have been much more interesting than it was. The actual plot of this episode was fascinating from a Chuck perspective, but the villain sucked. I had to make a crossbow dangerous, so this is where we're at. He would've made my life easier if he'd used a Glock, or something invented after the industrial revolution. But then Chuck would have been in more danger.
The medical center at Ft Meade is actually small and pretty terrible. But I needed Chuck somewhere safe and out of the way. So there we go. Also I will be honest, the thought of someone telling Rob Joyce that one of his employees was in the hospital after attacked by a crossbow wielding maniac made me giggle far far more than it should have.
I really am looking forward to writing Hard Salami+Nemesis, but first Chuck vs the Truth. We finally get to do some fun CounterIntelligence stuff! We go to Knoxville, Tennessee to the Oak Ridge National Labs and the Y12 national security complex. DoE and NNSA, (Nuclear National Security Agency, no relation to Casey's NSA) shenanigans abound.