Path of Decision: Part 2
The next day Chuck woke up with no alarm clock buzzing. He shifted forward to his new desk drawer besides his bed and looked at the time. It read 6:30 AM. He was thirty minutes early from his usual wake up point. He groaned and looked at the ceiling. There was no way he could go back to sleep right now.
I don't know why but I really miss my alarm clock ringing.
He sighed inwardly, stretching his arms with a yawn.
Ever since he had been summoned to Ft Meade to work on the stolen PDA, nothing really seemed to go to plan anymore. Even his biological clock was a bit unpredictable nowadays. When he so desperately wanted to sleep, he couldn't. And now he wanted to stay awake and finish reading the newly published medical journals on vision research and cognitive neuroscience before catching up to the latest issues of neural computations. Being the worrywart she was, Sarah quickly voiced her concerns, given he had been busy going through a battery of psychological and medical tests including MRIs, fMRIs, EEG and MEG. Heck, he even had to go through a cognitive function scanner. While she was still none too pleased about it for the most part, she understood when he explained that he needed to study and prepare a lot of things before he could get started on the Intersect AI, leaving him to his own devices once he made a promise not to overexert himself.
Thankfully it never really came to that. Processing all the extremely complicated and mind boggling medical jargon related to the human brain left him dead tired and mentally exhausted. He ended up falling asleep a couple of hours earlier than he usually did .
As per his daily routine, he began his day by meditating for about twenty minutes and started taking deep calming breaths, going through all the happy moments of his life to suppress his unwanted memories. It was a technique taught to him by his sister when he was almost eleven. That process had worked wonders during his childhood days, when he had somehow acquired the ability to see a vivid depiction of what happened to him on a particular day inside his head, just by seeing a random date. That too without hesitation or conscious effort. As if he was watching a high definition movie of sorts. He always had exceptional memory and incredible grasping power but this was something different altogether. This just happened to him non stop and he had no way of controlling what he remembered or when. And more often than not he tended to get lost in the remembering process. Something which made it difficult for him to attend to the present or future, as he was constantly reliving his disturbingly vivid past memories.
He was lucky his sister talked to him after he spent nearly a week reliving the day his parents left him over and over again. She was truly brilliant even at the mere age of seventeen and came up with various methods of suppressing unwanted memory recalls through meditation and some mnemonic techniques, which somehow worked for him.
It all started when he sneaked into his father's strictly off limits basement lab at their residence in Encino. Just like everyone else around that age, Chuck had been a curious child and one day, while playing hide and seek with his sister he ended up in his dad's workplace, when his dad wasn't around to oversee them. The 'accident' had actually been his young brain being exposed to a series of images on his dad's computer and it was disturbingly similar to the events on that fateful evening when he found the watch which contained the last prototype of the original Intersect. No wonder his Mom had been royally pissed at his Dad. He and Ellie had witnessed their parents' first ever fight in the presence of their children. His Mom had left them barely a month later.
Chuck was sure that what he saw back then was part of the original subliminal data retention project his father and Hartley were working on. He wondered if his mother somehow knew about the dangers involved. Why else would she have been so downright pissed at his dad? Ellie always mentioned how they used to be so lovey dovey and barely got upset at each other.
Not for the first time since he found that watch, he wished his father hadn't been so hush hush about his activities and had given him or at least Ellie some indication about the actual nature of his work. But this still didn't tell him what exactly his mother's role was in the whole Orion-Intersect affair. Her file stated that she was an orphan but from what he could recall she would always get so emotional at family gatherings, she even talked about wanting to see what her brother had been up to.
Was she lying to them just to make herself feel better, or was there more to her background than initially appeared to him?
There was no way to know unless Stephen and Mary Bartowski decided to come out of whatever hole he had disappeared into nearly seventeen years ago. Frankly, a part of him was still curious in knowing the truth. However, at the same time he didn't really know if he was actually looking forward to meeting his dad somewhere down the road.
After all, they made the choice to walk out on him and Ellie a long time ago, leaving them to fend for themselves.
Should he even bother waiting for his father to show up and help him with the Intersect?
Well, it isn't like I can do anything else at this point.
Once he came out of his trance, he was sweating a little bit. Chuck was a little surprised to see Sarah sitting in the nearby chair. She was mostly clad in her workout attire, a light blue T-shirt and grey sweatpants, and if he guessed correctly she had been siting there for a while.
Sarah wore a concerned look as she kneeled next to his bed. "Penny for your thoughts?"
Chuck gave her a lopsided half smile and answered, "Nothing much. Just a bit stressed keeping up with all these curveballs my life keeps throwing at me one after another. It feels like everything I did up to this moment has been leading inexorably towards this event and all I have been doing after I got expelled from Stanford was merely an attempt to run away from it. And yet, despite all my efforts to put my painful and humiliating past behind me, it has now finally caught up with me thanks to a silly video game I created five years ago."
Sarah's eyes were apologetic as she shrugged helplessly. "I don't really have any answer to that. I really wish there was something I could do to make all this go away, Chuck. You never should have been put in this position but your life is turned upside down because of the meddling from government agencies. Things are the way they are and we can't change much about that. However, regardless of whatever happens you can always count on me to support you and be there for you. Trust me, Chuck."
Chuck gave her a blinding smile and reached out to squeeze her hand warmly. "Thank you, Sarah. I appreciate that a lot. But you don't have to worry too much about my well being. I am made of sterner stuff than most people give me credit for, and you should trust me on that," he finished with a cheeky grin, which seemed so unlike the man she once knew. At first glance, he might have seemed a bit lax and unrefined but she could clearly notice the firmness and confidence in him where discomfort and anxiety used to be.
Sarah found herself getting curious about what made him so optimistic despite going through the chaotic situation his life was in right now, but a part of her felt that it was none of her business and she let the matter drop, at least for the time being. Giving him a small yet earnest smile, she continued further.
"Not yet. I will train you first. To fight. To calculate a person's moves. You may know some areas of fighting but learning new things from me can make you even better."
I already know how to do all that and a LOT more, thank you. A part of him vehemently protested at the notion of receiving extra training given the number of boot camps he had gone through these past couple of years. Not to mention his torturous SERE training; even the mere mention of it was more than enough to give him nightmares for weeks. But that didn't seem like a wise thing to say when Sarah was sincerely offering to help him – a promising sign where he was concerned. Besides, he wanted to play an active part in this operation instead of being cooped up in the safe-house all day. This was his chance to prove himself to his handlers without giving away his true identity.
"You want me to do this... now?"
"You think you are ready? Then prove it," she responded with a mischievous glint in her eyes.
Chuck narrowed his eyes for a moment, unsure whether she was actually taking this seriously or not.
I guess there is only one way to find out.
"Oh, you are on, Miss Walker," he replied with an enigmatic smile.
Soon he was led to the basement, which looked like a fully functioning dojo right now. A wide mat covered the floor they stood on, accompanied by all sorts of sparring equipment. Heck, he could even see what appeared to be some sort of makeshift shooting range.
Slightly amazed, Chuck turned to Sarah with a bit of awe. "Just how much can you do undetected, Agent Walker?"
Even though Sarah was smiling, her response seemed a bit dry, "Too much."
"Where do we start?" Chuck asked, his eyes still scanning over the remodeled games room.
"First things first – we must analyze you physically. You seem decently fit but I need to know what I am working with," she explained with a friendly smile.
"What do you want me to do?"
"The test consists on five parts – a run, a dead hang, push ups, pull ups and crunches," she stated, leaving out the specifics intentionally.
"How many?"
"No limit. Just make sure not to hurt yourself."
Chuck sighed. It clearly reminded him of a test issued by his drill sergeant back at Camp McCall. He was beginning to worry that Sarah was taking this a little too seriously. But was it not what he wanted? To be taken seriously by her and everyone else instead of being treated like a helpless civilian? He quickly took a deep calming breath and diligently began going through the series of workouts Sarah instructed him to do.
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While Chuck had done very well as far as all five disciplines were concerned, he was simply phenomenal when it came to the dead hang, pull ups and running. He performed twenty six consecutive reps with little to no difficulty and clocked an average of somewhat under six minutes per mile. Sarah already knew that Chuck wasn't an everyday average geek but she never expected him to be such a die-hard fitness enthusiast.
And he certainly knew how to work up a sweat. Something which further raised her opinion of him – she certainly didn't mind seeing him all sweaty and dripping at all.
Afterwards, they began sparring with each other and she took the opportunity to gauge his hand to hand skills. Not wanting his spy friend to feel the full blast of his Intersect-enhanced reflexes, Chuck kept himself limited to some basic to intermediate stances, textbook throws, kicks and punches. Even if he was allowed to use the Intersect, there was not point going all out in a friendly spar which basically meant nothing. So he focused mostly on making full use of the reach provided by his longer limbs alongside his stamina and endurance. He deliberately took a few hits without making it look obvious, though there was an occasion where Sarah exploited an opening in his stance and swept his feet from below him, landing him on his ass. That particular blow was a hard one because he hadn't seen it coming.
Chuck quickly realized what made Sarah such a deadly fighter, even compared to his former mentor. Her ability to read and analyze her opponent's moves near-instantaneously, combined with her absurdly powerful strikes and lightning-fast reflexes allowed her to knock anyone out with just a single debilitating blow.
Life just wasn't fair sometimes. Or in the case of Charles Irving Bartowski, pretty much all the time.
As such, he was often left taking a beating from the very same women who took an interest in him. He consoled himself with the knowledge that at least this was for the sake of his own betterment.
"Try and empty your mind of decisions," she told him as he quickly got back on his feet, dusting off his clothes. "It can make anticipating your actions harder during a fight."
You have to be unpredictable, basically. Chuck knew it, but found it hard to implement in his regular fighting style. Initially, he never really bothered with it during his training because the Intersect handled it for the most part. Perhaps, if he focused a bit more on his training, he might have been able to take out Mauser in one swoop. Better late than never, I guess.
"Make only one choice and disguise it with another so nobody can see you coming," Sarah said while absently dodging a high kick to the neck, quickly moving under its follow up. Snapping out a palm, Chuck felt the heel of his hand barely missing its target, the blonde managing to move out of the way before he could hit her for once. She tightly grabbed his arm with an ironclad grip; however to her surprise Chuck pushed himself forward, rather than back, throwing Sarah off balance. Planting his feet and re-shifting, Chuck used his strength to hurl her over his shoulder, only for her to land on her feet with the grace of a ballerina.
Not stopping at that, she tried to land a power-packed haymaker to the Intersect host's chin, but he barely managed to duck under it at the last moment, retaliating with a vicious headbutt. Though that turned out to be a big mistake on his part as he saw a million stars and felt an equal amount of stings.
Damn! That woman has one hell of a skull!
Cursing under his breath, Chuck slightly rubbed his forehead; thankfully there was no blood spilled on either side. He had enough bruises coming from this fight already. He wasn't about to let Sarah land a cheap shot on his face that easily.
Muscles flexed, coiled and uncoiled as both of them threw themselves back into the spar, each looking for little to nonexistent openings in each other's guards. Sarah, so far, was thoroughly pleased with the encounter. While she never really went all out against Chuck, she could tell he was quite adept at defending himself and the way he effortlessly took down Mauser's crew wasn't a fluke at all.
Dancing out of the way from Sarah's follow up kick, he sprang forward with all of his might, focusing the entire strength of his body into his outstretched elbow. He couldn't help but grin slightly as Sarah was only able to redirect the blow. The elbow caught her in the right shoulder, spinning her around. Unfortunately, Chuck's happiness didn't last for much longer as Sarah, despite reeling from his attack, charged low towards him. He was clearly unprepared for her sudden bum rush maneuver, and had the wind knocked out of him as he hit the ground hard, once again. Though he could say he acquitted himself nicely by landing a solid knee strike to her solar plexus.
"So in your esteemed opinion, how did I do?" Chuck asked, grabbing a nearby water bottle and upending the whole thing over his head, soaking his shirt.
"Not bad," Sarah admitted, "I saw a couple of minor openings in your attacks, but I doubt even a highly experienced fighter would be able to take advantage of them. Still, make sure to stay doubly alert during a fight. Any moment of distraction can get you killed on a mission."
"Gotcha." Chuck collapsed on the nearby couch, catching his breath. Sarah joined him moments later, a nervous yet determined look appearing on her face as she touched his cheek, turning his whole face to her.
"Do you still mean it?" she asked, slightly out of breath.
Chuck couldn't help but raise his eyebrows in confusion. "Wh... What?" he asked, suddenly losing most of his self-confidence.
Sarah smiled and rolled her eyes before repeating slowly, "Do you still mean it?"
His frown deepened. "What are you talking about?"
He saw a flash of worry strike her face but it disappeared as fast as it had appeared. "What you told me that other night... after we came here... a week ago. Do you still mean it?" she said calmly.
The surprised look on Chuck's face, as it dawned on him what she was referring to, would have been absolutely hilarious if she wasn't a bit worried about his actual reply.
"Of course," he stated, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "I still mean every single word..." Chuck couldn't finish his sentence as she got close to him and finally kissed him. Once past his shock, he took her by the waist and brought her closer to him, replying to her kiss. And Sarah thought the return was just as wonderful as she imagined. She felt herself melt against his body, fireworks exploding at the mere touch of their skin.
She was the one to break it, but didn't let him get very far from her, leaning her forehead against his, breathing the same air as him.
"Wow... What was that for?" Chuck asked breathlessly.
Sarah let out a nervous chuckle. "You are the one I want and need, Chuck." Her voice was raspy and a bit shaky. "And I just want you to know that I really want us to have something real... I am still not ready and we need to be extremely careful about all this thanks to the the whole government secrets locked in your brain thing... but I am trying... and I don't want you to get sick of waiting for me." She was too nervous to look him in the eyes, so she thought her feet would be way more interesting right now.
"Hey." Chuck cupped her cheeks and lifted her face so she could look at him again. His deep brown eyes got lost in hers. "You won't get rid of me that easily, Agent Walker."
Sarah let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding, letting her nervous energy leave her body. She leaned against him, pressing her lips cautiously against his. She let him decide how he wanted the kiss to go instead of taking the lead, like she did in the beginning.
Chuck's heart jumped in happiness when she pressed further against him, one of her hands clutching at his shirt, the other going up to play with his unruly hair at the back of his neck. Gripping her waist with more force, he teased her lips with his tongue, asking for entrance, which she gave him very eagerly with a moan.
That was when her phone rang. Both of them sighed in frustration.
"Just ignore it," Sarah said as she tried to kiss him again on his cheeks and mouth.
"It's still ringing," Chuck pointed out.
"Come on, Chuck. Seriously?" Sarah whined and continued to plant kisses on his cheeks and collarbone.
"It's important. It's important because it's still ringing," Chuck pointed out once again. "You better answer it. That might be your boss." He sat her back up gently
"You are disappointing me, Mister Bartowski." Sarah pouted, still angry at the interruption as she sat on the couch properly, taking her phone in her hands.
"Eh, I will make it up to you." He smiled at her reassuringly before leaving to take a shower.
"What do you want, Casey?" Sarah demanded, trying her best not to yell at her NSA counterpart.
"Walker, you and Bartowski need to be ready in half an hour. The General is going to give us a new mission today."
"They want to send him on a mission already?" Sarah sighed and gulped, struggling not to lose her Ice Queen facade.
"What's wrong, Walker? Starting to have feelings for the Golden Boy?" Casey taunted with a smirk, clearly an attempt to get a rise out of her.
Sarah furrowed her brows, drawing herself into full agent mode. "No."
"Really? You've been getting chummy with him for quite some time. Long before our respective agencies required his special expertise."
The blonde frowned at that as the indignation stormed through her; however she somehow managed to remain calm and composed, not wanting her anger to get the better of her.
"No. It's just that Chuck lacks any field experience or actual military training. Sure, it would have been a different case altogether if I had a few weeks to train him up and bring him up to par with us. But right now... it's just too risky. And if anything happens to him, all the secrets of the government go with him," she concluded in a matter-of-fact tone, perfectly masking her concern for Chuck from her NSA counterpart.
"Whatever. Save your suggestions for the higher ups." An irritated grunt escaped him when he considered abusing the smartass through training him. His ego and competitive spirit certainly felt excited at the prospect but wasn't sure if he was really willing to waste his time and efforts on training him. Still, beating the Golden Boy senseless during a spar sounded like his kind of fun. Though he doubted his Completely Incompetent Ass 'girlfriend' would feel the same way. Besides, within a few months or so, Bartowski would turn obsolete as the Intersect and would be assigned to some fancy position in the government once the new one went live.
"Don't be late for the meeting," he muttered dryly.
And just like that, the line went dead.
It was foolish to think she could have had him for even a little moment before her world, the world of shadows, darkness and deceit attempted to firmly pull him in. Apart from being the new Architect of the Intersect AI, their superiors also meant to use him as an intelligence resource of sorts, which meant getting directly involved with the their agencies' actual operational needs. A possibility she hadn't fully considered yet. She realized she was kidding herself for the past several days. As much as she didn't like it, Chuck would have to show that he could operate in some capacity in the field if... when it became necessary. That was the only compromise which could allow him to retain at least some semblance of freedom rather than being confined in some bunker at a remote location. She wanted to keep him safe and sound but the only way for her to stick around him was to constantly show the willingness to put him in harm's way, for the sake of the greater good.
She didn't like it. She didn't like it at all. However she also didn't want to get yanked away on some assignment to Jakarta faster than Carina could find porn on the Internet. She knew very well that Beckman and her burnout assassin weren't messing around. They were likely looking for a reason to get her kicked out of the mission so they could replace her with one of the infamous valentine operatives. Opting for control over safety, mostly to use as a trump card over the CIA and NGA. She felt so disgusted and angry, even at the mere thought of such a person being in charge of Chuck's protection, that it made her stomach turn and her skin feel burn hot in sheer rage.
It all sounded so fucked up to her.
Of course, they weren't expecting Chuck to do what she and Casey were capable of as trained agents but instead just hoped he could utilize the Intersect in the field and stay out of trouble.
She couldn't help but grin ironically at that notion because she had to admit, based on what they had seen from him so far, staying out of trouble was probably setting the bar a little too high.
I am so completely screwed.
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