Time and space stretch out before you
And the universe implores you
To take your place
Amongst all things
And to see what the morning brings
To your own self be true
There's nothing more to do
"Time and Space"
The Accidental
October 10, 1980
Somerset, England
"I can't do it, Mary. I can't. I'm not James Bond, you know? I'm a nuclear physicist. MI6 wanted me as a subject matter expert for nuclear weapons. Radioactivity. Not undercover missions," Hartley fretted. "I know I told them I need to go, and I do, I'm just terrified that I'm going to get her killed."
He sat on the settee in his mother's parlor, watching as the drizzling rain fogged the picture window.
Standing and pacing in circles in front of him, her arms folded, one hand against her mouth in thought, was a young woman, her sky blue eyes unfocused as her mind twisted around the problem.
"You're having second thoughts? Hartley, I am more than capable of getting her out-" Mary was cut off.
"You have a small child at home, Mary. You've been trying to get out of this for a long time. I won't be the reason why that little girl loses her mother, because I was too afraid." He covered his mouth with his hand. "But I can't lie to you, Mary. I am afraid."
"Stephen is with Eleanor. We haven't been together on a mission since she was born. We had to make sacrifices," she explained.
"This mission has been dragging both of you back in for three years, when you both just wanted out. You deserve that life, the one you want. I owe Stephen at least that, for how many times he's saved my life," Hartley said.
He looked up at Mary, and her disbelieving face. She's disappointed in you, he thought. He wished he was more, enough somehow. "Stephen is a spy. He used to be a scientist. But now he's a spy," Mary insisted.
"He's a spy because he loved you, Mary. He changed the entire trajectory of his life, to be with you. But he can't get out of this, be free to live his life, unless I do this. Don't you understand? I'm the only one who can get in there credibly and get her out."
"You know she didn't turn, Hartley, right?" Mary asked. "They must have suspected something, or found out who she really was. She loves you, you know. She would never have done something like this."
Hartley himself had never been in love, not completely understanding Stephen's motivations, until the day he met her. A psy-ops operative for MI6, Corrine MacArthur was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. She was Mary's friend, and she was tasked with preparing him for his first mission. She reminded him of pictures he had seen of his grandmother, Vivian, only Corrine had a smile that melted his insides.
He worked with Corrine for six months, falling in love with her after six days. She had a tough as nails exterior, concealing a tender and gentle soul. Only then did he begin to understand why Stephen chose the life he did—because being without Mary was as inconceivable as him ever being without Corrine.
But three years removed from all of that, he sat in his mother's house, afraid to do what needed to be done to finish that mission handed to him by the love of his life. A woman whose very survival now depended on his action and intervention.
He didn't tell Mary that he was going to Stephen, to ask him for help.
July 12, 2012
Oak Park, Illinois
Alone in her room, Sarah paced anxiously beside the bed. She knew it was the middle of the night in Romania, and understood why she probably hadn't heard from Chuck. Not used to feeling nervous, she was unsure of how she was ever going to fall asleep. Despite the fact that her mind was at last full, she still felt the emptiness inside her ringing like a bell. Saying she missed him did not do justice to how she actually felt. A gnawing ache behind her breastbone threatened to consume her, the hole inside her unfillable. A feeling akin to an itch seemed to fill every nerve.
She sat on the bed, then leaned her head down onto her pillow. It was only then that she realized in actuality how tired she truly was. She was asleep almost instantly, the room around her slowly dissolving into a scene from the past.
January 25, 2011
Burbank, California
Sarah's heels hit the stairs awkwardly, as she struggled to steady her trembling legs. Part of it was from fatigue after excessive physical exertion, hand to hand combat with Casey. The other contributing factor was a maelstrom of emotions that raged inside her. Volkoff and his men were in front of her and Mary trailed behind. Down and down they hurried in a zigzagging, square-edged spiral as the stairs rose to meet her feet. She felt with each step that she was falling farther away from her life, like a slow descent into hell.
Was Casey dead? Had she actually killed him, after their makeshift plan had gone awry and the platform broke under the strain his falling weight had added? Worse, as the thought screamed in her head, had Chuck watched her kill him?
Chuck, she thought anxiously. She felt she would be haunted for the rest of her life, remembering the horror on his face as she'd turned around from the smashed window. It had been doubly devastating-thinking he had seen his friend killed, but by the woman he loved. She had internally hoped that he understood she had a role to play and was still in the process of insinuating herself into Volkoff Industries, but that she had been trying to figure out a way to do that without actually hurting someone she cared about. But even inside herself, she couldn't quite understand how she had come to this, and the gap between what he believed and what he had seen were too dichotomous to make sense.
Watching Chuck fall unconscious to the ground after Volkoff had clubbed the back of his head with the butt of his gun, she had slipped slightly, almost whimpering as she stood by while he crumpled to the ground. Only one touch, briefly, and Volkoff had called her away. Standing up and leaving him there, so helpless, had torn a hole inside her that even now as she ran she felt bleeding, taking more of her strength with every beat of her heart.
There was only a split second for her to talk to Mary without anyone else seeing, and Sarah motioned with her eyes for Mary to come closer. "He fell onto a platform first, but it broke. He may still be alive," she whispered urgently.
"Chuck will find him, get him help. You know he will," Mary said, offering comfort, even as Sarah balked at the sentiment.
She knew Chuck would find him. If John really was dead, she feared, could Chuck ever forgive her?
July 13, 2012
Oak Park, Illinois
Ellie's dream, filled with the sound of phone ringing, faded into the darkness of her bedroom, as she slowly realized the sound was not from her dream, but the phone on her nightstand. She saw the time, two o'clock in the morning, and the adrenaline started rushing into her veins, waking her up. She turned the screen to her face, seeing Chuck's encrypted line on the screen. Immediately relieved, she answered the phone. "Hello?" she said, her voice scratchy from sleep.
"Ellie, I'm sorry, I know it must be the middle of the night there, but I wanted to let you know things are alright," Chuck said quickly.
"What's going on?" she asked, whispering, afraid she would wake Devon. The news about Sarah blazed across her mind, and she almost had trouble focusing on what he was saying.
"We found her. She is not compromised, not like you thought. She has Dad's file on her. She ran it to copy it and remove it from the computer," he told her quickly.
"So then why is she there?" Ellie asked.
"It's a long story, and I don't have time to explain it all. We have to go destroy the last remnants of that file. It's that file that's been creating all these monsters we've been left to deal with. Kill that, and the Intersect is dead. Once and for all," he said flatly. "I'm hoping it will only take another day or two. Then we should be back. How're things there?" he asked.
"Fine," she said, feeling the urge to just blurt everything she had learned in the past couple of days in one long sentence, but knew it was too much. So she decided to tell him the most important thing. "Chuck, I was right. It was the drawing that you made on the train. I found it in your bag. When Sarah saw that, she remembered everything."
The phone sounded dead, like there was no one on the other end, until Ellie heard what she knew was John Casey, sounding like he was very far away from the phone, "Chuck, what is it?"
"Chuck?" Ellie yelled into the silence.
"I'm here," she heard, his voice sounding like he had just run a mile and couldn't catch his breath. "Oh my God, Ellie...I...I can't believe it. She does? Everything?" Ellie could hear his voice shaking, and the strangled sound as he fought tears.
"Yes," Ellie said, tears obscuring her view of the lighted numbers in the dark. "She was going crazy here, waiting to talk to you. I would go get her now, but she's asleep, finally. She had a really long day."
"No, no, Ellie, let her sleep," she heard, knowing he was crying. "I'll, uh, talk to her soon. Just tell her that I love her, Ellie, and I'll be back as soon as I can."
"I will," Ellie said hoarsely.
"Thank you," he said deeply, meaningfully. "I love you, sis."
"I love you, too, Chuck."
July 13, 2012
Bucharest, Romania
"Chuck, what the hell's the matter?" Casey yelled, standing in front of him as his cellphone clattered onto the tabletop in their hotel room. Chuck could feel Morgan standing behind him, waiting expectantly.
"She remembered," he said slowly, still dazed.
"Remembered what?" Morgan asked.
"Everything," he said in a rush of breath, containing both a sob and a laugh. "Ellie figured it out," he said with wonder, the tears still fresh but with a smile that brightened his entire face.
Casey's eyes grew huge, but he was silent.
"Chuck, are you serious?" Morgan yelled, rushing to stand next to Casey. "This is unbelievable! Oh my God, Chuck, everything is ok now! Chuck!" he yelled, smiling widely, grabbing Chuck in a tight embrace and squeezing him hard.
Corrine stood back slightly, not certain what she was witnessing, but knowing it was obviously good news. Something suddenly occurred to her, she asked, "Wait. Ellie. As in Eleanor? Your sister?"
Still so giddy he felt like he would float off his seat, he turned to her and said, "Yeah. My sister."
"I was there, you know, the day your sister was born. They thought they were finished spying, but it didn't work out that way," she said softly. "But that was good news from home?"
"I, uh, I told you about the memory loss. My wife. My sister figured it out. She'd been trying for six months, little by little, trying to recover her memories. But she had a theory, and she tried it, and it worked," he said, smiling still.
"Then we need to finish this up, get you back to the little woman, Bartowski. That way Grimes can propose, like he's been wanting to," Casey said, eyeing them both, the lightest of smirks on his face.
Morgan's mouth opened in shock. "Casey, what the hell? You were out of commission in Dresden for six months. How could you have known that?"
"Uh, duh, spy? Remember?" Casey said, pinching his lips together. "I appreciate you making the effort to officially ask for her hand. But you know you have my blessing, Morgan," he said, the use of his given name a rarity. "You've always put my daughter first, always, Grimes. She could do much worse."
From Casey, it was a glowing endorsement. "Thank you, John." he said sincerely, reaching out his hand. Casey growled, and grabbed him quickly in a fierce hug before letting him go.
"That stays here," Casey said as he let Morgan go.
"Uh, Casey, should I call you Dad, you know?" Morgan said, a twitching smirk on his face.
"Do and I'll break every bone in your body," Casey grumbled.
"Ok, good, that's a good place to start," Morgan laughed.
Chuck laughed as well, deeply, for the first time in over six months. The iron clamps around his heart finally fell away, the burden he had been carrying evaporating into thin air.
"Now there's something I haven't seen in a while, Chuck. Man, that is nice to see," Morgan said, clapping him on his back.
"Then we should get this rolling, don't you think? We've got a lot of people waiting for us," Corrine said with a smile.
July 13, 2012
Oak Park, Illinois
"Ellie, who was that?" she heard from beside her, in a sleepy voice.
"Chuck. He said he should be home soon. They're almost done. I told him about Sarah," she said.
"I bet he was relieved," Devon said, rubbing her back as he lay next to her.
She nodded. "Once he gets back everything will be fine," she said.
"Why do I sense the hesitation there. What's up, Babe?" he asked.
"Is the middle of the night really a time to talk about something? Something important?" she asked.
"If you're awake because it's bothering you, then yes, it is the right time," he said.
She hesitated only a little more. "I'm just going to say it. I want to go back to California."
"You do?" he asked.
"It sounds ridiculous, when I say it. After all that it took to move us here. We've only been here for six months. We haven't even unpacked all of our boxes. And you'd have to start all over, give up your position. I'd have to start all over in another position. It's crazy, right?" she asked, sighing. "But I do. I hated being away from Chuck all that time. I hated the snow and the ice and the sub zero temperatures. Pretty soon Chuck's going to have a baby. Clara's cousin. Only she's never going to see him. I don't want that for my family. Our family."
"Now that Chuck has Sarah again, it almost makes it worse instead of better, right?" he asked.
"Our family is really small, Devon, not like yours. Chuck and I were always all we had, for a really long time. The big house and the job and everything seemed worth it at the time, but it isn't. I was happier in that tiny apartment being a stone's throw from my brother. I know it's not just about what I want. But I didn't think it was fair to not tell you that I was feeling this way," she concluded.
She could see his dashing smile, even in the dark. "You know, if we're both being honest, I can tell you that I hate the winter just as much. I was sticking it out for you. But you accomplished what you were trying to do, El. In a few days, it'll all be over."
"So we can sell the house, even though we haven't even finished unpacking?" she asked, covering her mouth with her hands.
"I don't want Clara to spend one day without her baby cousin. I don't. Ever since I found out Sarah and Chuck are having a baby I've been thinking the same thing," he said gently.
Ellie stretched out her arms, wrapping them around her husband's neck and hugging him tightly. "Thank you, Honey," she said.
She lay back down to try and sleep, but her racing mind kept interfering.
July 13, 2012
Bucharest, Romania
From the computer Chuck had available in their hotel suite, he had begun programming the virus he needed to destroy his father's file. It was almost exactly the same as the virus he had built to destroy the last Intersect computer at DARPA, the one Sarah had switched out on him, then destroyed with a bomb. He sat waiting at the computer for the program to run completely.
He felt Corrine walk up beside him. "Charles, I wanted to ask you something. If that's all right," she asked. Her face was unreadable, but he sensed a halting sadness in her voice.
"Sure," he answered.
"You knew my daughter, didn't you?" she asked softly.
Sighing heavily, knowing how complex the truth really was, he replied, "Yes, I did."
"Why would she need a new identity, or have to run away and disappear? I understand Alexei Volkoff. But my daughter? What happened to her, Charles?" she asked.
"A lot of our interactions were misinterpreted by her, or manipulated by the powers that be, if you will. We found out she was marked by a killer, because she was the proposed successor to head Volkoff Industries, and Volkoff's associates were trying to eliminate her. But she told me she never knew her father at all. That they barely conversed. She helped us quite a bit, found out information, and got us access to Volkoff's bank account. She never knew what he really did, though, how terrible he really was. It was very hard for her," Chuck explained.
"Were you developing her as an asset?" Corrine asked.
"The CIA thought I was, I'll tell you that. I was always honest with her, although the CIA above me was not. I got caught in the middle, and ended up looking like I was trying to manipulate her when I never really did. We connected, sort of, talking about how we had grown up without our fathers. Although at the time, I had no idea that it was for literally the same reason. She thought she could trust me, and then she felt betrayed," he finished.
Corrine's face reflected back the dread, as she realized what was coming next. Chuck continued, "Riley got involved, and convinced her that I was to blame for everything, that I was the one who put her father in jail and then not letting her see him. Technically I was, but it wasn't unjustly, as I'm sure you know. He shielded her from that life until he needed her to take over. She double-crossed him too afterward, and took the Norseman for herself."
Corrine's porcelain skin faded to alabaster at the mention. "Good God, she assembled the Norseman?" she asked, aghast.
"She felt lost, betrayed, confused. Everything she knew about herself she questioned. All of that twisted reasoning worked its way in, and she couldn't find a way out of it. I felt responsible, even though I was just as much a victim of the system that manipulated her. They lied to me too. In the end I had to just pray that I could pull her back from going over that cliff, stop her from crossing the line that she could never uncross if she did." His inner disturbance, speaking about what had driven Vivian to attack and almost kill his wife, was visible under his composure.
"What did she do, Charles?" Corrine asked plainly.
Hating the words as they came out, he said slowly, "She tried to kill me, more than once, using third parties, you know, hired killers. Then she shot my wife with the Norseman two days before our wedding."
Her eyes wide with horror, Corrine gasped. "And she survived? How is that possible? I saw that weapon work once. Death was instantaneous." The lingering discomfiture stayed, as she contemplated the path that had turned her daughter to an attempted murderer.
"It was a miracle. And I couldn't have saved her without your husband's help. He got me the antidote. In return, I let them go. There was nothing else I could do," he said, a weak smile flashing at the end.
"I can't imagine what her life must have been like. He sent her all over the world to keep me from finding her. I doubt she remembers me at all. She was only three when Volkoff sent her away," she sighed dolefully.
"It's never too late. She still needs her mother. Trust me, I know."