A/N: After all this time, I still don't own Chuck. Go figure.
A/N2: Welcome to the twenty-first arc of New Day. It's called the Von Hayes arc and is based (roughly, as usual) off Chuck vs. The Break-Up (Season 2, Episode 3).
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Ellie knocked on the door to her brother and soon-to-be-sister's apartment and waited for someone to let her in.
Chuck opened the door and gave her a big smile, "Hey, El. What's up?"
She stepped into the apartment and gave her little brother a quick kiss on the cheek. Sarah was sitting on the couch and intently studying a YouTube video on the TV about insects.
Ellie said, "Bad news. The Intersect Data Drive was stolen from the lab at Fort Meade."
Chuck said, "Isn't that the thing you stopped Colt from getting a couple of months ago?"
Sarah stopped the video and turned off the television.
"Yeah, it is," Ellie said. "It's loaded with the algorithms for the image conversion."
Coming over to the others, Sarah said, "Smash and grab? Like last time?"
"No. Just went missing overnight. We knew something was wrong inside the NSA. Thought we'd weeded out the bad apples, but I guess not," said Ellie, wrinkling her lips with frustration.
Chuck went to bring over an open bottle of wine and some glasses as the women sat at the dining room table.
"Backed up?" Chuck asked.
"Oh, yes," said Ellie. "So, that's not an issue at least."
"Guess Fulcrum is still trying to create their own Intersect," he said, sitting down. "How'd you hear?"
He began to pour the wine.
"One of the team called me. The same news is probably getting to Langston and Beckman right about now, I guess."
"New mission for us?" pondered Chuck.
"Maybe," said Sarah, with a shrug, "but only if they have an idea where it is. We're not the right people to look for it. Not really our skillset."
"Yeah, I guess not," said Chuck.
"If there's any good news, it's that the information is encrypted. They'll need to find someone to decrypt it," said Ellie.
"Well, Von Vogel and his husband are too well protected now, so they won't go to him. We can keep an eye on most of the known cyber-encryption folks, I guess. The ones not already working for the NSA, I mean. See if Fulcrum tries to get one of them to do something with it," said Chuck.
"Yeah, that sounds about right," said Sarah. "Well, nothing to be done about it now, I guess. We can wait for the bosses to call us."
"Makes sense," said Ellie. "Just thought you should know."
"Thanks, El," said Sarah. "You want to stay for dinner? We were going to order Thai."
"Sure, I'll just get Devon," she said, standing.
Chuck touched his watch. "Case, Ellie and Devon are coming over and we're ordering Thai food for dinner. You and Eileen in?"
Casey said, "Sure, kid. We'll be right over."
"Cool," said Chuck. "Bring beer"
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A few days later, Capri Hotel, South Hampton, New York
"I wish we had more to go on," griped Chuck.
"I know, but we'll make good with what we have. Whoever the Fulcrum people are, if they think they can recruit an encryption specialist at the party, we get in there and keep an eye out."
"I know. I'd just be more comfortable with more information than was in the intercept. I think we'd be safer," he said, putting the studs in his tuxedo shirt. "The whole team would be. We don't even know who's throwing the party."
The beachside South Hampton mansion had been rented for the summer by an event planning business which, frustratingly, seemed to keep most of its files in paper form. Whoever their customer was was, if not a secret, at least unknown to Team B. Once they got closer they could snag the plate numbers of some of the cars for the guests and at least get some intel that way.
Chuck and Sarah were dressing up for the party thrown by the unknown person. Sarah had not yet put on her dress, but Chuck was almost done. With a knock at the door, Amy stuck her head in.
"Hey, Sar, you ready for me to help you with your hair?"
"Yeah, thanks," said Sarah.
Chuck excused himself to the living room of the suite. Bryce was already there in his waiter's vest, tying his bow tie. Chuck and Sarah were going in as the Carmichaels, a happily married couple. Bryce was going in as a waiter and Casey as a bartender. Amy had the van and would watch from a distance and monitor the communications.
Bryce's body language had made it clear that he wasn't thrilled with the waiter cover, but he hadn't said anything to complain. Everyone, including Bryce, understood that the Andersons were dead and buried, never again to see the light of day.
"Hey, pal," said Chuck.
"Hey," said Bryce. From the tone of his voice, he sounded like he had something on his mind. Chuck was standing next to him while tying his own bow tie in the mirror and waited for the other man to unburden himself. "Can I talk to you for a moment? Spy to spy?"
"Of course, buddy," said Chuck.
"I've been around the team for a while now and I need to talk to you about something. It's about your mindset heading into missions. The way you're approaching things including your relationship with Sarah."
"Ok," said Chuck, looking at his friend and honestly puzzled.
"This is a tough line of work, Chuck. We have to be all business with what we do or people die. I worry that your relationship can muddy your thinking when you need to be really clear. Really calculating. I think in the lead-up to a mission you have to divorce yourself from your feelings for Sarah...not just Sarah, but for the others on the team too. You have to learn to compartmentalize those feelings. Put them away. You can't let those things interfere with the mission. The mission comes first. Be sort of Vulcan in the way you are approaching things...temporarily, you know? You can get back to being her boyfriend when the mission is over."
Sarah chose that moment to step out of the bedroom in the most spectacular salmon dress. It had thin spaghetti straps with an open back and shoulders, hooking around to her sides. She wore her hair up, accentuating her long graceful neck. She was smiling at Chuck. The sight was literally breathtaking. She said to Chuck, "How do I look?"
Chuck looked at her with awe and all his love, his face split in a huge grin. The sight of her looking so spectacular never failed to make him pause with appreciation that she would be his wife. With a quick glance to his side, from the corner of his mouth he said to Bryce, "Blow me." To Sarah he said, "Like the most beautiful woman in the entire world." He took her in his arms and hugged her, kissing her lightly on the cheek, being careful not to mess up her hair or makeup. He caught sight of Amy coming out of the room and said, "No offense."
Amy laughed and said over her shoulder, "None taken. I'm used to it with you two," while crossing the suite into her room on the far side.
Bryce just stood there looking frustrated.
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Team B was taking three vehicles to the party. The van, driven and staffed by Amy, and two other cars. Bryce asked Chuck to drive with him, presumably to continue the conversation from the hotel room. They would switch when they got closer, so Chuck could arrive with Sarah.
As they pulled away from the hotel, Chuck said, "Gonna try again?"
"Yeah, I am. I think it's sort of important," said Bryce.
"Ok, shoot. You deserve a fair hearing," said Chuck. He really had every intention of doing exactly that. Giving Bryce a fair hearing. After all, Bryce was a great spy.
Bryce was driving them through the small hamlet South Hampton. The windows of the car were down in the pleasant early evening air. Chuck had one tuxedo-clad arm out the window and could smell the ocean on the light breeze.
"Ok. Here goes. I've been doing this a long time and have the training you don't have and experience you haven't gotten yet," said Bryce.
"Agreed on both counts," said Chuck.
"This business is deadly serious, Chuck. Sometimes we have to do things we don't want to do. Things that make us uncomfortable."
"Ah, that's what this is about. You're still bent out of shape about my refusal to let Beckman tell us how to run the mission against the Ratners," said Chuck.
"Exactly. You were immediately protective of Sarah and that could have affected the mission," said Bryce.
"Could have?...Ok, yeah, I guess it could have, but the fact is though it didn't affect the mission. So that's not a hypothetical that I'm ready to engage with you on. Give me a time when my feelings for Sarah have endangered a mission," said Chuck. He twisted in his seat to face the other man and grinned. "I'll wait."
"I'm not fixated on your relationship with Sarah, don't get me wrong. It's just your approach to this job is...well, it's not professional. You have to be a real bastard to do this. Ruthless. Fulcrum is nothing but. If we want to beat them, and we have to beat them, we have to be bastards too. Completely cold blooded to get the mission accomplished. Remember that I've been living with these assholes for a year. They are the worst."
"Bryce, that's not a newsflash to me. I've read the files on every single member of Fulcrum that we've identified. I know all about them. And you are right, and they are horrible. Ok. But we've been effective doing things our way so far. Even against these horrible people."
"You have too much concern for the feelings of your team. Of the people we work with. We are all disposable, including me," said Bryce.
Chuck frowned and spoke sharply, on the verge of getting angry. "Bullshit. My friends are not disposable, Bryce. They are not. Not even you. And the fact that you think so is flat out wrong. And I don't give a shit what your training and experience taught you." Chuck sighed and ran a hand over his face, calming himself down. "Look, Bryce, you and I both know that your opinion, unsupported by facts, isn't going to convince me to change course. Give me specific examples of where my concern for my teammates has imperiled the mission. And the Ratner thing doesn't count because that mission worked out just fine doing it my way."
"Well, I can't, Chuck. But what I've learned..."
"You do understand that Sarah has had all the training you've had and at least as much experience? Right? And Casey has had both more training and more experience. How could they be going so wrong in your eyes?"
"Because they are both, Amy too, they are all following your lead. That's the thing, Chuck. You are the leader and they have ...adjusted themselves to that. It's why I'm talking to you and not to them. I'm not fully integrated yet and can see things like an outsider. Impartial, as it were."
They were driving past one huge mansion after another, all behind hedgerows and gates. As they got closer to the water, the mansions got bigger and farther from the road. The hedges taller, the gates more elaborate.
As befits homes fronting the ocean, the road to their destination was a dead end. They turned down the street and headed towards the water at the far end. At the end of the road, right up by the beach, they could see a number of cars parked on the verge of the roadway. There were flashlights moving around in the distance, probably belonging to parking valets taking care of the guests' cars.
As Bryce finished, Chuck sighed and said, "Ok, Bryce. I get where you are coming from. Don't be too surprised to hear that I disagree, though. I think we are better spies...a better team because we think of each other like family. In addition to being their teammate, I am very close friends with Casey and Amy. I can predict what they will do in any given situation. I would do anything to protect them. That's not the detriment that you see, it's a strength. Not to mention Sarah, she's a part of my soul.
"We've been doing pretty well against Fulcrum before you joined the team. I understand that you disagree with how we've been operating. Ok, you are entitled to. It's ok. We've been doing things our own way. Not the normal spy way? Yeah, I guess not. And maybe that's not right for you. I don't know. Your call. No hard feelings if it's not, buddy. There's the door and it ain't locked. No one is forcing you to stay on this team if you are uncomfortable with us. You can head on back to Langley and tell Graham it didn't work out. No problemo. I'll even make sure you get a great reference for your personnel file."
As Chuck continued, Bryce looked like he had an upset stomach in the glow from the dashboard lights.
"But please don't come on to the team and start feeding me crap about how things are going wrong when we've had nothing but success since you've been here. Hell, since before you've been here. I just don't want to hear it, ok? I see no need at all to mess with something that works fine already. We are going to do things the way we are comfortable doing them. So, either get on board or get off the train...wow, I just fucked up that metaphor, didn't I?" He gave a short bark of laughter.
They pulled up on the street near the mansion. Bryce was still silent and seemed to be thinking hard. So that they would arrive together, Chuck got out to walk up to the car with Sarah and Casey in front of them. He left the door open for Casey to take his seat in the car with Bryce.
Before walking away, Chuck bent to look back into the car at his old friend. Speaking softly, he said, "After Thanksgiving you told Langston that you sent me the Intersect to save you from becoming a total asshole. Well, here I am and I'm doing things my way. I hope you stick around, Bryce. I really do."
He patted the roof of the car once and walked to the car in front, passing Casey on his way Sarah's car.
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A/N3: So, in Break-up, Bryce relied on his superior spy experience to influence Chuck to break-up with Sarah. But that Chuck isn't my Chuck. In canon, notwithstanding Chuck's brilliance, the writers kept him from growing significantly from his time as a spy. It's the second season and he's still the naïve, bumbling civilian playing catch-up with the "real" spies. Not in New Day. And while my Chuck will listen to that crap from Bryce politely, it won't convince him and he won't budge an iota from how he is operating. The debatable question unanswered by canon, though, is whether Bryce was honestly concerned for Sarah and the team or whether he was merely trying, selfishly, to cause a split between Chuck and Sarah. I don't know. My Bryce, here in New Day, was honestly concerned for the team. He was wrong, but there was absolutely no ulterior motive to mess with Charah.
A/N4: By the way, Ms. Strahovski's acting at the end of Break Up was as good as I've seen anywhere from anyone. She was putting on a brave face for Ellie and Devon, but her soul was thoroughly crushed by Chuck's decision to break-up with her for real. In order to write this arc, I watched that episode a few times and that ending hits me hard every time I see her face display such anguish. No surprise to anyone here that you do not have to worry about that in New Day in the slightest.
A/N5: Now that that's out of the way, we can get on with the spy plot. What do you guys think? We're going to a party in South Hampton and don't even know who's throwing it. (Well, you and I sort of do, but Team B doesn't.) That sounds like our friends are walking into a situation fraught with peril. (Wow, I've always wanted to say "fraught with peril." It sounds so melodramatic.)
