A/N: Just a reminder of something I noted in an earlier A/N: This is a highly stylized, cartoonish sort of tale, as its title suggests. (Assuming you know the Mad Magazine cartoon reference.) The action, especially, is stylized, cartoonish — as are some of the characters. If you want everything to be realistic (on one meaning of that tortured term), this ain't your tale.

Spy vs. Spy vs. Spy vs. Spy

Chapter 13: Homeless

Ellie calmed down enough for Sarah to talk to her as they finished the trip.

They talked about Chuck, about Sarah's confrontation with him at the beach and Chuck's strange, mixed-meanings talk with Sarah.

They talked more about Meadow Branch and Chuck's resistance to the Fulcrum Intersect, Chuck's time with the Intersect. They talked about Orion and his reticent behavior.

And, last, they talked about…

"Amy? Amy?" Ellie asked. "Wait, is she a smaller, ditzy version of you?"

Sarah shrugged. "I wouldn't put it that way but I suppose…"

"She's CIA?"

"Yes, Casey never explained her?" Ellie shook her head. "Well, she was tasked to watch over Chuck, but she wasn't...inserted into his life like I was. So, you know her?"

"No, I've seen her a couple of times, around the Buy More. Not at the apartment complex. At first, I was excited: I thought Chuck had moved on...from you. Even if it was with mini-you. They were leaving the Buy More together at closing time. She was dressed-undressed for clubbing, you know…"

Sarah gritted her teeth and nodded.

"...And Chuck was dressed up. I had stopped at Large Mart and saw them from across the parking lot. Another time I saw them eating at that place that used to be Lou's diner, remember?"

Sarah did, and gritted her teeth again, recalling Chuck sitting there having coffee with Lou, and then replacing Lou with Amy.

Casey had denied there was anything between Chuck and Amy, but Sarah knew Amy. She was not exactly Carina, all weaponized sexuality, but she...got around. And Casey said she wanted Chuck.

"Do you think they were...together?"

Ellie looked at Sarah. "As I said, at first I thought so. I hoped so." She shrugged at Sarah when Sarah glanced at her, "But then I began to doubt that Chuck felt anything for her. His depression never lifted. She never came up in conversation. He never brought her to the house. I was pretty sure he saw her other than the times I saw them together, but, no I don't think they were...together."

Sarah nodded, blinking back tears.

Ellie gave Sarah a long look, partly sympathetic. "Hard to talk with the wind whipping in, isn't it?"

"Yes," Sarah replied, not thinking about the wind. "So…?"

"So, that's all. Except I guess I should add that Chuck was acting strange, especially the last weeks before he disappeared. I can't rule out that it — that she — had something to do with the strangeness, you know, cause or...effect…"

It took Sarah a moment. "You mean that Chuck might have slept with her...just on the rebound, to get back at me for Bryce...what he thought I'd done, was doing, with Bryce?"

Ellie's lips compressed in a line. "It wouldn't have been in-character for my brother, but, God, neither are high-speed, motorcycle gunfights...You left — and you changed him, Sarah. You're going to have to understand that, accept that. He loved you, in the best and hardest way possible, and you walked. With Bryce. — As Thomas Wolfe said, you can't go home again."

Sarah parked the car, images of Chuck entwined with Amy dancing in her head as she took the key from the ignition. Sarah kept hearing Ellie's word: loved, as the dance in her head continued. Loved. Past tense. Past. She'd gone to DC and added the damn 'd'.

They met Bryce at a small park in the suburbs, Hickory Dickory Park.

Sarah gave Bryce credit as she and Ellie walked through the wooden gate: it seemed about as unlikely a place for spies to meet as she could imagine.

Small kids were running, shouting, laughing. A massive, intricate wooden play-structure, a castle, dominated the large grassy park. Couples, parents, sat at picnic tables in the shade or were chasing little ones intent on remaining wild. Sarah noticed Ellie watching the kids.

"How's Devon?"

Ellie looked up, as if from a momentary trance. She smiled. "He's good. I miss him. I want to fly home, climb in our bed, mount…" Ellie reddened. "Sorry, I didn't intend to start that last bit aloud."

"It's okay," Sarah said. I know what you mean. Sarah was still warmly breathless, and that condition — and Ellie's words — made the images of Chuck and Amy sharper, Sarah's jealousy rawer.

"Are you and Devon...thinking about starting a family?"

Ellie nodded. But she said nothing.

It was surreal: strolling in the sunny park, ringed by kids in playful flux, asking Ellie about a family, when only moments ago they had been in a car chase on the freeway, while the rear window of Sarah's Porsche was broken, shattered. Spy life — mine, at least.

Sarah watched the kids as she and Ellie walked farther into the park, past the castle.

Ellie stiffened. Sarah looked. Ahead, under a tree, Bryce was seated at a picnic table. Orion was seated beside him.

Bryce looked frightened; so did Stephen, Orion. Sarah whipped her head around to look for Shaw and then realized both men were frightened of...Ellie. I know what you mean.

"Dad," Ellie offered in hard monosyllable as she arrived at the table. Both men stood. "Bryce," — another, harder monosyllable. "We just played bumper-tag with Frankenstein's monster."

Sarah quickly related what happened on the freeway but left the identity of the rider out of the story. She gave Ellie a look as she avoided that information. Ellie could make that call.

Bryce whistled. "Who the hell could that have been?"

Ellie ignored Bryce. "Dad, you have some explaining to do, years of it. But we don't have time. So start here: what the hell is going on with Shaw? What did you do to him today?"

Orion looked at Ellie and then at Sarah. He had always been a strange man, addled, almost comic, but he looked tragic to Sarah now. And tired. Exhausted.

"There's no time for long explanations, even if I owe them, but here's the short one. Someone tampered with the upload I gave Shaw today. It was supposed to be a refresh, an updating of information, as per Beckman's mandated schedule.

"I had the program on my laptop, and the laptop had been with me. But what Shaw got was not what I intended. The upload consisted of video footage — of you, Sarah — of your Red Test in Paris. Graham had set up the scene so that it could be taped — and it shows you...terminating...Evelyn Shaw, Daniel's wife."

Bryce turned to Sarah, as did Ellie, both with their mouths agape. "That was your Red Test?" Bryce murmured.

Ellie looked at Sarah. She had heard the story in brief back at Sarah's apartment.

"Yes, but I didn't know. Graham never gave me the name of the...target. Just a description and a location. I never thought about it, it was such a horrific day, the worst of my life, but he did insist on the location. It never occurred to me that he would...tape it."

"So, Shaw got that video in the upload?" Bryce asked. "But what caused him to flash on it?"

"Nothing." Orion looked at Sarah and Ellie. "I was checking the upload here, waiting for you. It contains nothing but the...shooting...on a loop, clearly, it's Evelyn Shaw, clearly, unfortunately, it's Sarah with the gun, pulling the trigger. But the upload also came with a bit of extra programming. It was set to start looping as soon as Shaw uploaded it. I don't know that it will stop or that he can do anything to stop it."

They sat there for a moment. "Wait, Ellie," Ellie put up her hand, "so you're saying that his consciousness is wholly focused on this looping...execution?"

"Yes and no. Think about when you are preoccupied with something," Orion was focused on Ellie, "you can think about other things, do other things, but that thing is just there, anytime you slow down, stop focusing on the other things, that becomes your involuntary focus. Obsession, computerized in origin and so more...virulent, lurid, intrusive."

Ellie stared at the top of the picnic table. Another long silence.

"Orion," Sarah started, "how did you know the woman was Evelyn Shaw?"

Orion took a breath. Everyone turned to face him. "Ah...I've known about...the fate of Shaw's wife all along. I didn't know it was Sarah who...you know...but I knew. Beckman gave me Shaw's unredacted file. I knew. I also knew he already had a personality given to obsession, perfectionism."

"So why the hell did you go along with the choice of him for the Intersect?" Ellie.

"I didn't have much choice. You see, after I got the Intersect out of Chuck, Beckman came to me and demanded that I join the Intersect Project in DC. I said no. Absolutely not. And then she reminded me that she knew of one person who could be successfully Intersected...She let the threat hang, but it was clear she was willing to use Chuck again. So, I agreed. I fought with her about Shaw, but she insisted that the very things I took to make him problematic made him more suitable. 'He's functioned at a high level for a long time despite his history,' she said. 'His obsessiveness and perfectionism would make him able to chain his emotions, channel them when he couldn't chain them.' "

"That's stupid," Ellie noted bluntly.

"I know, but she's committed to this mythology of spying, to this idea that a spy is someone with no emotions or with complete control of his or her emotions. But, as I've told her again and again, no human being lacks emotions, not even a sociopath, however twisted, and no one can completely control emotions, because anything that could be completely controlled could not count as an emotion. Emotions are a way of being attuned to the world — in important respects, they are like our senses. They are part of our passive life. We do not control them. When they are healthy, they reveal the world, they don't distort it, but Shaw's emotions are not…"

Ellie broke in. "I agree, Dad, but we don't have time for all that now. The short version is that Beckman was the one who chose Shaw because she wanted to Intersect the perfect spy?"

"Yes, but I tried to tell her that Chuck could be Intersected, function with the Intersect, because of his relationship to his emotions, not despite it. There may be other factors too...But she wouldn't listen. I think her personal history, in part, is blinding her…She dreams of a spy who would not make her...mistakes."

"Roan?" Bryce asked.

Orion nodded. "Yes, but that story's complicated."

"And not our concern now," Sarah added. "So, you did all of this, joined the Project, agreed to Intersect Shaw, all to keep Chuck safe? To keep him from having the Intersect again?"

"Yes."

"Does he know that?"

"He does now."

"Dad," Ellie said, trying to understand the exchange between Orion and Sarah, "Sarah thinks Chuck is Intersected again, and I'm virtually certain she's right, because…" Ellie glanced at Sarah and Sarah nodded, "Chuck was the rider on the motorcycle. So, unless he's become Johnny Blaze and been granted supernatural powers by Mephisto, Chuck's been Intersected again."

"Hey," Bryce exclaimed, "Ghost Rider!"

"I read some of Chuck's comics," Ellie admitted to Bryce haughtily. Everyone turned to Orion again and Ellie repeated: "Chuck's been Intersected again."

"I know," Orion said dolefully, slowly shaking his head. "I know."

A/N: So, one canon change here, sort of hinted at by the discussion at the picnic table, is that Orion does not have the Intersect. Never has had it.

From my point of view, setting aside whatever limited symbolic value his having it may have had — like father, like son, Orion's being Intersected was a wheel that turned nothing in the mechanism of Chuck. And much in the show would have made better sense without it. But I won't go on about that. Suffice it to say he does not have it in this story.

This chapter takes us just past the midway point of our tale. Thanks for reading! Comments?