The previous night for the human Intersect wasn't much better than our blonde super spy. Yet here we find him brushing his teeth in his room with no bags under his eyes or worry lines around his face. And the only reason for this unlikely phenomenon?
Well, that'd be because Charles Irving Bartowski is essentially an airhead.
Certainly he does have his own episodes and he might even throw a hissy fit every now and then, worrying about this and that, or whether this or that will happen to him, but his usual chipper attitude would always return eventually. That's a sort of coping mechanism he had been born with. Allowing him to move on through even the most stressful and mind numbing days of his life with nothing but a bright smile on his face and spring to his step...
Once he was done with his routine workout and stretches, he stepped out from the sanctuary of his room. With so much work to do on the research side and Sarah insisting to train him for an hour and half , there was no other way for him apart from having two sessions in a day. The aches, pains and almost never ending soreness he received from the series of grueling drills and challenges his spy friend put him through made sure of that. It seemed she was absolutely through when it came to teaching him how to defend himself. That's why he had been forced to shift intensity between morning and evening sessions, opting for easy exercising in the morning to allow the muscles to recover quickly.
Usually, he'd look for Sarah first thing in the morning. However it didn't feel like a great idea to do so , especially considering everything that transpired on the dinner table last night. She was still screaming twenty minutes after he came downstairs, though Carina didn't seem the least bit resentful for what she'd done. In the end he finished the food as quickly as he possibly could and went back to Casey's place immediately with Sarah somewhat regaining her composure, though the displeasure on her face had been clear. And he nearly had his head bitten off for merely passing the water bottle to Carina.
Exhaling a heavy breath, he shook his head and started walking towards the room where Casey was supposed to be at. He knocked at his door but received no answer. He decided to open the door, seeing if he was still asleep . He opened up but Casey clearly wasn't there. He raised his eyebrow in confusion. Wondering if he somehow picked the wrong room. But that seemed highly unlikely since the bed did have evidence of someone sleeping in. And there were a bunch of cigars lying nearby. Chuck thought about going back to the living room, perhaps Casey already woke up and he was somewhere else in the house. However just as he was about to turn around, the person in question emerged standing in the middle of the doorway, causing him to nearly jump out of his skin.
"HOLY C- you almost gave me a heart attack!" Chuck cursed under his breath.
"Hn, I was tending to my plants." Casey grunted in response, carrying a small Bonsai plant in his hand, which apparently had its leaves (projecting below the branches) removed with military precision.
"Oh..okay then." Chuck caught his breath, finding a bit hard to believe that a hard-headed NSA operative like Casey preferred indulging in such grounded stuff in his free time , "I was just checking on you. We need to talk with the others about we are doing next ." He told him casually.
"Fine." Casey nodded. Chuck was about to walk past him, before Casey blocked the door with his arm. Chuck confused at this, looked back at him, "But before that, I have to ask." Case said with his eyes shadowed, "What's your relationship with Walker?"
"...eh?" Chuck wasn't expecting a question like that from Casey of all people.
"I can understand that she holds you in high esteem." Casey looked at him with a curious expression as his cheeks heat up slightly, "But I do want to know , what is she to you and what do you think you are to her?"
"I can't really answer that." Chuck replied contemplatively, gazing outside the window, "I don't know what you call our type of relationship. I try to learn more about her everyday, since we are practically staying under the same roof. To be friends with her. But she doesn't really talk about herself, and keeps asking me all sorts of questions instead." Chuck took in a breath before letting it out, "But I guess she wants to keep me safe and have a good life. May be it's because we knew each other before she joined CIA , I don't know." He added a little white lie towards the end. Despite working on the same team, Chuck didn't trust Casey to the point where he could trust him about his secret romance with Sarah . Besides, he had a feeling Beckman wouldn't think twice before whacking her rival agency's spook if she learned about them getting involved with each other. The competition between CIA and NSA was quite fierce after all, at least as far as the Intersect was concerned.
And both their bosses didn't mind getting their hands dirty. So he had to be very careful about not offending either one of them, at the same not allow these people to walk all over him as if he was some sort of pushover.
Perhaps he might not have to worry about that in the future, once real friendship flourished between the three of them. However, such close bonds required some time to form, maybe a lot more in the case of pragmatic individuals like those two.
Until then, he had no other choice but to walk on eggshells regarding this topic around Casey.
"Well, I suppose it's not really a big deal." Casey seemed to be thinking for a moment, pondering about what next to say, "But for your own good, try not to get involved with her any more than this assignment requires you to. That woman is a ghost, Bartowski. No one knows for certain what kind of missions she has pulled in past. All we have in the NSA database about her is the mission reports which keep adding to her legendary status in CIA, but nothing to really verify any of it. The only thing I know for sure is, she is even better than Carina when it comes the old school seduction. Adjusting to her mark's taste, then just up and burn them without a moment's notice once they served their purpose in her agency's eyes. You need to watch your back all the time around such dangerous and wily individual like her, otherwise you are going to end up in huge trouble " He forewarned in a stern tone,
"Trust me, Major. I am careful all the time. Both around her and you " Chuck sighed, muttering the last part to him inwardly, "It's true that I have placed a lot of faith in Sarah. But to do what is best for the job, the mission. I really doubt she is being a hundred percent truthful or honest with me regarding everything. However, since she is assigned to watch over me and we are stuck with each other for better or worse, I can't risk ruining the work atmosphere by second-guessing her or even yours each and every move. So right now, I am only following your favorite president Reagan's policy to trust, but make sure to verify everything you guys tell me. And she hasn't tried to do anything suspicious." He defended, hoping to put the Major's doubts regarding Sarah at ease through his perfectly rational explanation. "At least, not yet." He spoke under his breath.
"So you haven't tried putting the moves on her yet?" Casey lowered his arms and he was sporting a surprised look. Chuck wanted to move past this topic, but Casey insisted on keeping him thereby grabbing onto his shoulders.
"No, nothing like that happened between us so far." Chuck said in an obvious manner, though he was starting to feel a little bit hot under the collar thanks to Casey's impromptu interrogation, "Look, she is a very beautiful woman, alright? But her ex-boyfriend was none other than Bryce "the superspy" Larkin . I might be a sort of scary smart genius when it comes to computer and tech related stuff but I doubt I will ever be able to measure up to someone who used to be one of the CIA's best freaking agent in the field . Besides, NGA supposed to be the neutral party here, so starting a sort of fling with a special CIA operative like her might put me in a rather difficult spot, as far as my standing goes regarding this whole inter agency joint task force thing we have here. We are better off as good friends and respectful co-workers anyways." Chuck tried his best to counter.
"Hmm..." Casey hummed and nodded, seemingly satisfied by his response.
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"Can we go now, Major Buzzkill?" Chuck asked in an annoyed fashion, his eyebrows twitching in irritation.
"Eh? Oh, right." Casey removed his arm.
"What's gotten into you this morning?" Chuck shook his head with a sigh.
"Well, I thought...Graham would have had a measly nerd like you by hook line and sinker by putting someone like Walker on this team. But it seems she surely has her work cut out with you. "Casey snickered, his voice taking a happy note that it usually contained only when he was picking on him . Chuck could already see a smirk beginning to creep in on his stone like face. "You certainly have honor and integrity, Moronski! Even though you have been kind of lonely and miserable after getting kicked out of Stanford." He crossed his arms and looked very smug.
"What damn business is it yours anyways, jerk ass?" Chuck scoffed as he walked by.
"Nothing. Let me show you where I keep my hot pockets!" Casey patted on his shoulder in friendly manner and started leading him towards the kitchen.
Unbeknownst to the duo, a red-haired head peeked out from the nearby window.
"So, he is working on something important enough for all three agencies to go all out in order to protect him. And it looks like both Blondie and the big guy are secretly trying to sway him to their respective sides. I can totally work with this." The red-haired woman thought to herself while narrowing down her eyes. She quickly faded out of view.
"May be getting that diamond won't be so difficult at all!"
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It took the team sometime before they finally arrived at their destination. Sarah didn't seem to be in a good mood at all, a terrible aura of hostility surrounding her. Even Carina, who enjoyed messing with the blonde so much seemed like she wanted to scamper away to a safe place, well as safe as she could be while riding the same car with her.
She was still nice enough to exchange pleasantries with him with a sickeningly sweet smile. Which didn't quite reach her eyes. Chuck had no idea what had upset her so much, today. However he didn't feel brave enough to socialize with her any more than that , afraid even a smallest mistake from him might cause her to drop the hammer of god on him right now. Though, at the same time, a part of him couldn't help but sympathize with her current predicament somewhat. He had no idea how his spy friend managed to put up with the crazy red head for as long as she did, he would have gone insane in no time. His spy friend had the patience of a saint, if he said so!
Moreover, if her behavior could Carina at an arm's length from him, it was definitely a welcome bonus in his book, at least as far a this mission was concerned. Of course, Carina's provocations weren't the only reason behind Sarah's surly attitude but Chuck absolutely had no way of knowing that.
"I hope things go back to normal real soon. It's a bit too hectic for my taste right now."
Taking a moment to center himself and find his composure, he began focusing on scouting the massive summer home which clearly appeared to be quite massive for a single story place and more guarded than he initially anticipated. It was a very posh place , and one that wasn't afraid to show off its glamour.
Sitting just a hair's breadth away from the beach, the building was nothing short of modern day palace of sorts, with a gorgeous paint job, arches , balconies , walkways and all sorts of high-class stuff littering all over the place, which spoke wonders about how inflated the slimy bastard's ego truly was, irking the Intersect host off quite a bit. It always felt mind numbing to him how such white collar criminals lived in their own little world and continued damaging fabric of society without fearing any sort of repercussions from the real world.
Chuck began scrambling around the place, taking his time in getting a feel for the environment, also attempting to scout out the number of security cameras monitoring the area and every individual sentry moving within the vicinity.
While these cameras were harder to breach in general, He did know about backdoor command line of code, a holdover from the testing phase, which the developers (one of them being his old friend from Stanford who kept in touch with him till date) neglected to remove before the launch. And whether that was his sheer luck or God's dark will at play, Chuck was the one he turned to help with writing a program patch to fix this flaw before this became common knowledge and the company's reputation suffered due to that. However they haven't managed to include it in their subsequent firmware updates yet, leaving him with for all its security cameras plenty of time to exploit this vulnerability only known to a select few to obtain admin level access in the system.
But the cameras were being monitored in the security booth, so he could only loop the feeds of those his team absolutely couldn't avoid during their heist, otherwise the guards might figure out something was amiss.
He was about to continue indulging in the self tour of this establishment , get a better a view at high society's who's who that had gathered here, but all of a sudden a pair of feminine hands grabbed him out of nowhere and yanked him around the corner. Trapping him to the wall suddenly was none other than his sassy spy girlfriend, Sarah Walker.
Chuck sighed in relief, letting out a puff of air. He thought he was about get jumped by one of those not so socially acceptable guards marching around outside. Her wall slamming greeting was a bit excessive.
"Are you okay, Chuck?" The blonde spoke with some concern , a bit perplexed about the fidgety state he was in, "You have been awfully quiet since the mission started and you didn't even show up for our sparring session today." She looked pensive as she waited for his response.
He scratched his head sheepishly, "Sorry, I guess you had your hands full dealing with Carina, so I thought I should turn to our other team-mate...for help- just this once." He assured her with a smile.
"Hmm, well as long as that's it." Sarah frowned deeply, a hint of disapproval in her tone
"What? What's up with you today?" Chuck looked completely nonplussed upon sensing the serious atmosphere, recalling how Casey offered him some serious words of caution regarding Sarah as well. He didn't think Sarah and Casey had that many reasons to despise each other, except Bryce's involvement in the whole Intersect debacle. He knew it kind of looked bad on Sarah's part that Bryce was Sarah's partner and lover all the way up till he went rogue, but she was cleared any offense soon after he disappeared. And knowing Sarah, he really doubted she blamed Casey for killing a rogue spy in the line of his duty, either.
Honestly, he thought both of them were dutiful and honorable individuals who had made a lot of sacrifices in the name of greater good, so they shouldn't be having that much trouble getting along with each other.
Given they were willing to look past the whole bitter rivalry between their agencies. And it clearly seemed that wasn't going to happen any time soon.
"Nothing. I just don't want you to get overly familiar with him." She looked down at the glass in her hands, rotating it slowly while speaking , "You might not know about this, but Doctor Zarnow, NSA's top scientist and the only surviving member of the core team which built the old Intersect alongside Orion and Hatley, had been reported missing for quite some time. Last night, our investigators found his body, which showed obvious signs of torture, along with poison traces in his bloodstream. I spoke with Graham earlier and he agrees that the same group which sent Bryce after the Intersect was likely responsible for the incident as well. He also fears that with her most eminent Intersect expert gone, General will leave no stone unturned trying to get you under thumb and cut out the CIA from the equation." She voiced her concern with a serious stare
"I am not that easy to fool, Agent Wal-"
"Sarah." She glared, poking his chest.
"Sarah." His eyebrows twitched in irritation. It seemed all the spies he had been working with were hell bent on driving him up to the wall, both literally and figuratively, "I am not the one to judge people based on their past actions, but I am not stupid enough to let them screw me over either."
"Prove it to me then." She intoned musically, tapping her foot on the ground
The bewildered Intersect host scratched his cheek and sighed, "How the hell am I supposed to do that?"
"Kiss me."
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"Come again?" Chuck's face flushed a bit upon hearing her strange demand.
"I want some incentive that you won't be swayed by anyone that easily." She pointed out in a haughty manner as she slowly began leaning towards him, "Some PDA wouldn't hurt, given our special relationship. Plus, it would really help with putting up a good front for my new assignment." She added with a sly grin
"What kind of assignment?" Chuck blinked in confusion.
Now was when she turned around to make sure she wasn't being overheard by anyone, her piercing blue eyes met his brown ones in consternation, " I told my boss that we have been getting rather chummy with other recently, and given some time, I will surely be able to convince you to join CIA." She replied anxiously in a hushed tone.
"But why would you want to establish that sort of thing in the first place?" Chuck frantically demanded an explanation for this scary new chain of developments in his life
"Because, if I did not agree to help him with this, he might have begun looking for other ways to convince you to work for him. " She pointed out quietly, making sure to keep her voice down.
"Look Sarah, I don't think you needed to go that fa-"
However before he could finish his sentence, she quickly grabbed his collar with one hand and pulled him towards her, kissing him very slowly. Her lips pressed together eventually she took them with amazing passion. Her arms then wrapped around his head tightly.
After hesitating for a moment, Chuck let go of himself entirely as well and began kissing her back with the same intensity. As the two were locked in a moment of their passionate rage, Sarah pulled away and kissed him once again, except this time she began nibbling on his neck before she let go of him. A lustful expression was seen of his face before he looked at the ground in a bid to regain his self control.
"I don't think we have gone far enough yet, hon! " Sarah gave him a mischievous smile, while enjoying the embarrassed look on his face, "That wasn't so bad now, was it?"
"Don't do things like that so suddenly, it would have been disastrous, if Casey or Carina were keeping an eye on you right now." He growled, clenching his chest while grasping for air.
He sure is a little different compared to others. He is trying to be considerate, at the same time, struggling not to give in...make me kinda want to mess with him a little.
"You know , I like it when you get this heated, I love that passionate side of yours." Sarah said with a twinkle in her eyes , looking a bit too pleased with herself, " Don't panic, Chuck. Regardless of what Graham may have ordered me to do, I promise the rewards will be greatest for you. And as your girlfriend, you can trust me on that." She whispered in his ears with a devilish smile.
Chuck wiped his lips, trying to get his breathing back under his control. He couldn't help but be conscious of everything that just transpired between two of them. If his gorgeous girlfriend wanted to be affectionate around him , he would have been the happiest guy ever!
However when he figured out what her real objective was in getting into his personal place, he looked away momentarily to let out a frustrated sigh.
"I am sorry, Sarah." He responded flatly, "But I just remembered I had to take a good look at the cameras around north and west wall. They provide guards with several different angles of this mansion, all of which seem extremely advantageous. I have to run and figure out what I can do about them." He turned and almost began dashing in opposite direction, scattering guests and servers who all tried to get out of his way as fast as they possibly could. The blonde could only look helplessly while his figure rapidly dwindled from her sight.
"Why are you avoiding me, Chuck?" She thought to herself worryingly
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Moving with the speed that was all his, Chuck made his way towards men's room without missing a beat. He briefly studied the building plans last night so he didn't have any trouble finding one in the first place.
He splashed his face with cold water multiple times and stared into mirror at himself. Oblivious to the out of order sign miraculously appearing at the door, right after he went in.
"How was that for simply putting up a front? Did her boss ask her to seduce me or something like that? " He was having a hard time understanding what was going on with Sarah. One moment she was nagging him about his open and trusting nature, next she seemed anxious about getting reassigned and now she acted all flirtatious around him, but it was merely to assure her boss that she could bring him to their side.
The way these spies could switch between their facades was truly Oscar worthy.
He shook his head. He believed her when she told him about wanting to have something real with him. He also believed when she explained her reasoning behind making such promise to Graham and that deep down she only did it to make sure that CIA didn't send someone more wily after him. And it wasn't a sort of personal betrayal on her part.
However, her insistence about joining CIA might get him dragged into so much more trouble than he could handle . Especially if Graham somehow managed to learn about his true parentage, he might simply use Chuck and Ellie as means to draw out his father from whatever hole he had disappeared into all those years ago and force him to work for them, again. While Chuck never thought highly of Stephen Bartowski as his parent, he didn't want to be the root cause behind putting him under such compromising situation with the government either.
Not to mention that one slip about the other Intersect inside his head- the one that his father supposedly destroyed before pulling off his disappearing act, it would spell nothing but disaster for his natural way of living.
"What if I am the one being unreasonable to her? She has no idea why am so adamant about not joining CIA or NSA in the first place".
"Well, she still can't use our friendship as means to convince me to pick their side. That sounds totally wrong!" He muttered to himself unintentionally.
"I hate to burst your bubble , cutie pie! But that's exactly what Walker does for a living. " A feminine voice broke into his contemplative reverie.
The startled Intersect host swiftly whipped his head around, only to be greeted by a familiar sheen of red hair , and a beautiful face. He immediately turned pale as a ghost. "Out of all people in this entire frigging party, I had to run into her! That too in the Men's room!" Chuck was completely baffled by the powers of the universe to force this confrontation on him shortly after his momentary , passionate moment with his sassy spy girlfriend.
"Hello Carina!" Chuck greeted her with an awkward smile, "What a coincidence running into you...around this particular place."
"I was waiting for that clingy "bodyguard" of yours to leave you alone before approaching you." She said rather joyfully, slowly walking over to him in a seductive manner
"That was very nonchalant for someone who is stalking me, Miss Miller. But I will let it slide." Chuck felt a bead of sweat roll down the back of his head . He just couldn't believe how easy going and relaxed Carina seemingly appeared despite being alone with him in the Men's room.
"You are in bad mood, I take it? And it's because of Blondie, not me? Isn't it? " She gave him a knowing wink, getting close to him to the point where their bodies almost touched. Chuck turned his head away from her. But the menacing red head placed a hand on the wall inches away from the right side of his head, cutting of his escape.
Chuck was exasperated now, he was getting fed up with Carina's antics, "Why are you here, Miss Miller? What do you want with me?" He deadpanned, tensing up slightly
"What is this merciless tease planning on doing right now?" Was the blaring question in his mind which desperately needed to be answered.
"How about taking a little stroll with me? I could use a friend." She moved her mouth inches away from his ear, "I think we both could. Right, cutie pie~?" Smiling widely, she then switched to grabbing onto his left arm and entwining both her arms with it.
Chuck sighed and hung his head in defeat, "I have no choice, do I?"
"Not even on a desert island." She sported a victorious smirk.
"Fine, I can't really promise anything exciting will come out of this so-called walk." Chuck made sure to point out as they started heading out. He could already hear Sarah's constant scolding blistering his ears.
"Oh, I am pretty sure something will show up eventually!" A frisky Carina bit her lip, her finger had already touched his jacket and was describing a lazy circle counterclockwise, "I guarantee it!" She whispered sweetly, giving him a quick peck on the cheek.
Chuck wasn't really sure if he could trust Carina. And he knew she was up to no good. But really, what was the worst she could possibly do to him? If he could take on likes of Ciudad and Mauser, and still emerge mostly unscathed from his past misadventures, what could be the harm in associating a little with Sarah's old friend.
Moreover, if he didn't play along for time being, she might come up with some other underhanded means to take what she wanted , at least this way he could easily figure out a way to out-think her in time.
"But...Why does it feel like I keep forgetting about something very important...or rather someone?"
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Sorry about extended wait, guys. It's been one thing after another. Long story short...life sucks nowadays...so stay safe and take care of yourselves :)