Posted August 21, 2019

A/N: Hope the band stays off the field when the game clock is still running.

November 2, 2007

Sarah pulled her Porsche in front of the Buy More to pick up Chuck. After he got in, she asked, "Did you have problems leaving on short notice, now that you are assistant manager instead of working in the Nerd Herd? You can't claim to be going on a support call."

"I think they'll want me helping with those for a while. A couple people in the Nerd Herd are picky about the jobs they do, and it's easier to not make it an issue. No problems this time, though. I left my right hand man in charge."

"Your right hand man? Don't tell me. Morgan. Isn't Big Mike there?" Sarah asked as pulling out of the parking lot. "He is the manager, which means he should be in charge."

"Yes, I mean Morgan. Big Mike is happier if he's eating in his office and not having to deal with the sales floor. Morgan will be fine. He's actually been hyper-motivated the past week. He's really pulled himself together since he got a girlfriend. Since Harry Tang rage-quit, I wouldn't be surprised if Morgan has a shot at sales supervisor. Since everyone knows he works when I say something and he's calling himself my lieutenant, a lot of people are treating him as the leader of the green shirts."

"Morgan's still seeing Alex? He hasn't blown it? Good for him—for both of them. At the party, Alex seemed like a really nice person. I'd like having her around more. She's a lot more down-to-earth than Devon's frat buddies and the doctors from the hospital. Alex and Morgan were clearly in to each other, but that night Ellie told me Morgan would blow it in a day or two."

"Amazingly enough, he hasn't. Alex came by to pick him up for lunch yesterday. When she dropped him off after lunch, they were talking about when Morgan's mom would be out so the house would be empty." Chuck wiggled his eyebrows.

Sarah smiled. "Good for them. Ellie will be happy she was wrong." The Porsche hit the freeway, and Sarah started easily weaving through traffic.

Sarah said, "I was thinking we should have Ellie, Devon, Morgan, and Alex over for dinner sometime next week. We can get food delivered so neither of us have to try to live up to Ellie's level."

"Sure. I would be nice to have company instead of relying on Ellie and Devon to be hosts simply because that used to be our home and Ellie is such a good cook. Our housewarming party ended up as dinner at their place."

"We should invite Casey, too," Sarah said. "Ellie always includes him, so she'll notice if he's left out. Also, if Alex is going to be hanging around, you know he'll want to do a dig into her background to look for red flags. He might as well meet her."

Chuck agreed, "Sounds good. What could he find wrong in a twenty-year old college student working part time as a waitress? The NSA can't have that many details about her yet. It's not like then have a decade of her old calls recorded. Even if they did, she's about as normal as you can get."

Chuck stopped talking for a few seconds, then asked, "Where are we racing?"

Sarah gave Chuck an eye roll before she returned her attention to the road, downshifted, and took the next exit. "You know I told you that George Flemming was interrogated for his role in designing the Intersect before he was let go?"

"Yes. Counter-intelligence determined his most dangerous contacts were his students. You said he was bait in case Bryce tried to get in contact with him."

"Right. It happened the other way around. Flemming recently tried to contact Bryce, thinking he was still working with the CIA. That seems to indicate he knew nothing about the attack the night of your birthday, the night Bryce was declared rogue. The professor called for help because he screwed up and feared for his life."

"Does that mean they are going to arrest him, again?"

"Yes, but we left quickly so we can get a crack at him first. Flemming copied some classified intel and didn't keep it secure. Now a freelance spy, Magnus Einerson from Iceland, is after him, and the guy who betrayed you is on the run. We picked Flemming on a traffic camera and tracked his car to this neighborhood we're entering. Casey said we'd all fit in his Crown Vic, but when I said it's personal, he said, 'Happy hunting.' He'll be a few minutes behind us."

"We're not going to actually—"

"Of course not. We'll just make sure we get first dibs at interrogating him. I'm not planning on shooting him. At least that isn't in today's plan. I'm pretty sure Casey isn't either."

"What should we do? A little good cop/bad cop?" Chuck asked.

"That'll work. You're the good cop, of course. I feel like being a bad cop to the guy who kicked my husband out of Stanford because of something a sleazebag traitor certainly did. If you want to be the bad cop, I understand. I'll be worse cop."

Chuck gave off a forced laugh as they pulled in front of a suburban house. Right as they approached the front door, a man in a baseball cap and sunglasses started to exit. Sarah immediately reacted, shoving the man hard back against the door he had opened so he hit the back of his head. That knocked him out and caused him to fall to the floor inside the house.

"I didn't mean to push him that hard," Sarah said. "Now we have to wait for him to wake up."

After a few minutes, George Flemming returned to consciousness, sitting in a dining room chair they had moved to the living room area. Sarah sat to the side, spinning a throwing knife flat on her open palm. Chuck stood in front of his former college professor.

Flemming's eyes went wide. "Chuck Bartowski. I never expected you find you working with the people I've been running from."

"Oh, we're not with them. You called for Bryce. We came instead."

"Wait, you're with the agency? You should've used a code phrase."

"Code phrase. That's good. I'll ask her for one later." Chuck pointed his thumb back back to Sarah, who seemed disinterested. She pulled out a couple more knives. Chuck continued, "We're the good guys. We didn't even bother to tie you up, though I vehemently recommend you just sit there and answer all of our questions. I'm sure she'd wouldn't take kindly to you trying anything." Sarah agreed by slowly shaking her head no.

Flemming squirmed a little, but didn't start to get up. "How did you find me?"

"You called Bryce. Remember how you were brought in about six weeks ago? Bryce had just blown up a government facility. There was some suspicion that you were working with him, after what happened to me at Stanford."

"You figured that out? I'm sorry about that. Bryce was adamant that we hide your test scores from the CIA so they wouldn't know how well you did. I just went along."

"Just went along?" Chuck made air quotes. "You 'went along?' I aced your test, and you must not have liked that. The year before, I had a professor that liked using the entire bell curve from 0 to the mid-80s. No one did better than that. The average was in the forties and a few got single digits. It was some kind of perverse kick. That wasn't enough for you. You didn't just fail me from your class for something I didn't do because I messed up your bell curve. You got me kicked out of school completely."

"Well, you're with the agency now, so it doesn't matter."

"I'm with the agency because Bryce went crazy and tried to frame me a second time. This time it didn't work because—" Chuck looked back to Sarah who was actually juggling three of her throwing knives. He wasn't sure if it was impressive, scary, or over the top. Chuck pointed with his thumb at Sarah again. "—because she's on my side. I strongly recommend you tell me everything that caused this mess you're now in, because otherwise, it's her turn. I completely trust her juggling skills, but I also know that she wouldn't mind if she 'slipped.'"

The professor gulped.

At that moment, the front door flew open. Sarah pointed a gun at the doorway, but there was no need. Casey dropped an unconscious bald man wearing all black to the floor of the entrance area. "Look what I found." He tossed a crossbow onto the floor in an open space in the room to his right where the interrogation was taking place. "This idiot actually thought a crossbow was a good idea. Not only is it an inefficient weapon, it must be a pain to get through customs."

Casey looked up to the interrogation scene. "Has he wet his pants, yet? Looks like he is about to." Casey pulled up the unconscious Icelandic archer by grabbing him from the back, under the armpits. "Carry on. I'll take care of the trash. Let me know what you find." He left dragging the freelance spy out the door. The broken crossbow remained on the floor.

Sarah put away her gun and pulled back out her knives. Somehow, they had been safely put away when she drew her gun. Whatever she had done, it was fast.

Turning his attention back to the professor, Chuck said, "The immediate threat from the foreign agent is gone. The guy on our side who likes shooting people is gone. However, trust me. The woman in the room should be your biggest concern even if he was still in the room. Your message on Bryce's service said you copied some files you shouldn't have."

Flemming's voice was filled with fear as he said, "Yes, I burned them on a disk and put the disk in a drop point."

"What was in the files?"

"Videos of interviews with CIA recruits. Your interview is on the disk, too."

Sarah stopped playing with the knives, leaned in, and focused all of her attention on the professor.

Chuck said, "But I was never recruited by the CIA."

"The interview never happened. Bryce intercepted your invite and came in your place. That's when we came up with the stolen test answer key plan. You're in the CIA anyway, so what we did back then didn't matter."

Before Chuck could follow-up with another question, Sarah said, "You compromised the identities of all CIA agents who went to Stanford. You also compromised Chuck, who was never recruited by the CIA and whose involvement is beyond top secret. You're the fifth person who knows of his involvement, and frankly, that is too many for me. Chuck's only been working with the CIA for six weeks, ever since Bryce tried to frame him a second time. Be thankful he is here. My concern for his sensibilities might be the only reason you are still breathing after putting all of those agent's lives and his life in danger. Your only chance is to tell us where the disk is."

The professor gulped again.

"That paper you took off of me." Flemming pointed to a white piece of paper on the coffee table where the things he had been caring were piled.

Chuck held the paper, and Sarah demanded he tell them what the code on the paper meant.

Flemming said, "It's a library book code."

Chuck said, "Oh, I know where that is. Bryce had a spot he used to hide ammunition in when we played Gotcha, this plastic dart shooting game, back in college."

"We know where to go next. Good." Sarah pulled out her phone. "Casey, we know the location of the intel Flemming illegally copied from CIA servers. It has the identities of multiple current and future agents and video evidence of what he did to Chuck five years ago. I'm going to tie him up, but you'll need to come back and get him because Chuck and I are going up to Stanford, immediately."

Chuck said, "The library will be closed by the time we get there." Sarah gave him a look. "Right. Locks aren't a problem."

Sarah said into the phone, "I still think Flemming doesn't know anything about what Bryce did recently, but an interrogation specialist should make sure. Even if he didn't know anything about that, the disk should show he stole from the CIA, withheld vital information, and conspired with Bryce to get Chuck kicked out of school. The Federal government doesn't need three strikes. One is enough. Chuck and I just need to secure the files first. We'll report-in when we have them." She hung up.

She then spent a minute tying up Flemming, She'd wasn't taking chances, using some zip ties she carried, a bed sheet, and an electrical cord. She also gagged and blindfolded the prisoner. Then she stuck his neck with a tranquilizer dart.

"Is that a little much?" Chuck asked.

"I feel a little bad about leaving him here, but we have to get that list right away. We can't wait for Casey to get back because he has to process the guy he caught earlier, which might take a while. We're not taking any chances by staying here. He didn't just copy a disk and withhold those test results you told me about from the CIA. He could have simply failed you for cheating. You were kicked out because of the accusation that you sold the answer key. That's vindictive and difficult to prove when it's not true. If you had contested it, that ruse put at risk the entire recruitment program, potentially dozens of lives. Even if we find the disk first, we have to make sure he didn't risk anyone's safety in some other way."

"You're the boss."

Sarah smiled and gave Chuck a quick kiss. "When it comes to dealing with someone who disparages my husband, yes I am."

Sarah led them through the kitchen to the garage. Chuck said, "About the interrogation earlier… I hadn't done that before. Was it ok?"

"Yes. I thought that went well. Flemming incriminated himself fairly easily. People like to talk to you."

"Your knife routine. Was part of your bad cop routine? Or was that you backing off because you can kill people with your glare?"

Sarah gave Chuck a knowing smile and raised and lowered her eyebrows a couple times. "I needed to keep myself busy. Casey would probably clean his guns." Sarah started slashing the tires of the car Flemming had in the garage.

"And you never slip?"

"Of course not. The closest I came was I almost flipped a knife at Casey's prisoner when he was thrown through the door." Sarah finished with the tires and walked by Chuck, giving her hips a little wiggle at she went from the garage back into the house.

Chuck said, "Please don't ever do knife trick to threaten me. I couldn't handle it."

"Your safe as long as you follow orders on missions. I want my Chuck in tip-top shape. This guy, however…" Sarah pointed to the unconscious and tied-up prisoner that they walked past on their way to the front door. "He smells like he needs a new pair of pants."

A/N: In the show's "Chuck vs the Alma Mater," I don't know for certain whether Flemming died or survived. I assumed one for a long time, then realized they didn't say. If he survived, I have a hard time imagining he wouldn't be fired by both of his employers. The CIA wouldn't trust him, having put agents lives at risk. Stanford would want a fall-guy for getting hood-winked into expelling someone the CIA told them they should give a diploma. Even if the Stanford didn't know Flemming was complicit, it would be pretty obvious when the CIA asked for special consideration of someone Stanford had kicked out without a valid investigation.

Songs:
"All Right Now" by Free—the Stanford Cardinal Marching Band's de facto fight song (along with "Come Join the Band.")
"Shout" by Otis Day & The Knights from Animal House