A/N: Story is completely A/U, no Intersect. Enjoy.
Disclaimer: I don't own Chuck
The scene opens to a rather upscale living area with a bookcase carved out of the wall and a fireplace with a roaring fire. A camera slowly pulls in as we see a large man in a robe and slippers, in a high back chair, reading a book, a pipe in his mouth. He closes the book, grunts happily, and removes the pipe from his mouth. He turns and "sees" the camera.
"Oh, hi! I didn't see you there." He holds up the book he was reading. "I was just caught up in my favorite story of America's favorite couple." He gets a look of surprise on his face. "What? You don't know the story?"
He stands up, and begins to slowly pace in front of the roaring fireplace. "I'm so sorry, I've made assumptions. First, let me introduce myself. I am John Casey, documentary film maker. Perhaps that's what we need to do," he said, tapping the stem of the pipe on his lip. "Yes, that's it!" He turns to the bookshelf beside the fireplace, rummages for a moment, and pulls out a sheet of paper. "This is it."
The camera pulls in tight on the document. "It's so clever," Casey says, chuckling. The document reads as follows
For Immediate Release:
We at the Carmichael Innovative Audio Network are thrilled to announce, Zondra "Z" Rizzo, co-host of the hit podcast C to Z and Everything in Between has agreed to terms to be the lead female role in the new in-development, streaming comedy, Life After Thirty-Five (Z stresses, she is not yet thirty, but her acting abilities allow her to play a much more mature woman.)
Life After Thirty-Five is produced by Paussie Productions, led by Australian star Sarah Walker. Miss Walker is best known for her work in The Expendables: Ladies Night and The Expendables: Ladies Night 2. Preproduction is still ongoing with the hopes of filming to begin in the fall.
Never fear, the C to Z and Everything in Between podcast will continue to air. Some episodes will be without Z, but Carina has assured us that she can work with anybody…we all shudder as to what that could mean. As always, thank you for listening to the CIA Network, where we're not listening to you…you're listening to us.
The camera pans to Casey who is chuckling. "So clever." He shook his head grinning. "Won't you join us in our tale, about America's favorite couple? Lights, Camera, Action…one of the greatest love stories."
The camera fades to black.
}o{
The camera comes back on to a room set up to interview someone. It is a very spartan set-up, something like you would see someone be interviewed for VH1's I Love the 80s. A man sits down.
The producer speaks. "Tell us your name, and how you know the couple."
The man grins and looks into the camera. "My name is Bryce Larkin, and I've known Chuck Bartowski since my freshman year at college. We were roommates, and I introduced him to his then, girlfriend, Jill Roberts."
The producer speaks again. "Given the nature of this documentary, I'm assuming when you say, then, girlfriend, they are no longer together."
Bryce chuckles. "No, they sure aren't…which leads me to how I met Zondra."
}o{
The screen fades to black and when it comes back, we see a studio with two women in a room together, one raven-haired, the other a red head. In the control room we see a tall, lanky brunette man, bouncing his head along to the music. The man pushes the button and a voice over begins.
"Welcome back to the C to Z and Everything in Between podcast," the male voice says.
"Listen, I'm not kink-shaming you," one female voice begins.
"I think you are, but the thing is, I have no shame," another female voice replied.
"We all know that, Carina," the earlier male voice said. "Everyone who has ever listened to this show knows that." The three in the studio chuckle hearing the pre-recorded banter from a previous show.
"Ladies and Gentlemen," the man in the control says into the mike. "Welcome to C to Z and Everything in Between, a part of the Carmichael Innovative Audio Network. I am your producer, Chuck Bartowski, the man charged with trying to keep these two on topic…whatever the hell it might be."
"I'm in a mood," the red head said into the mike making the other woman role her eyes as she smiled at her. "So there is no telling what I might talk about today."
"May God have mercy on our souls," Chuck muttered, making both women laugh. "You know that first voice, the former-model, now talk show icon, film and TV star, and half of the matinée, Carina Miller, don't call me Hansen."
"Is your real last name Hansen, or Miller?" the other woman asked Carina.
"Like I'm telling you," Carina retorted, making everyone laugh.
"And our other co-host, the bad-ass of all bad-asses," Chuck began.
"Not quite," Zondra corrected him.
"Quit sucking up to Blondie to get on her new TV show," Carina cut in. Zondra stuck her tongue out at Carina.
"Fine, the biggest bad-ass I know," Chuck corrected.
"You don't know that many people," Zondra told him, a smile on her face.
"And one of my best friends," he continued in a flat voice.
"You need better friends," Carina deadpanned.
"Zondra, 'Z' Rizzo," Chuck finished, shaking his head.
"Thank you for that wonderful introduction, Chuck, and you are one of my best friends." Chuck grinned at her. Zondra looked over at Carina. "You know it's been ten years."
"What's been ten years?" Carina asked.
"Since I met Captain Curls over there," Zondra told her.
"What?" both Chuck and Carina asked at the same time.
"Yep," Zondra chirped. "Freshman year at Stanford." Carina let out a low whistle. "That's right fellas, you can't handle the body and the brain."
"And the barbs," Chuck added. "Don't forget the barbs."
"I only barb with those I like," Zondra told him.
"You must have an unhealthy love and infatuation with me then," Chuck said. The other two laughed. "Do you remember the first time we met?"
"Oh, God. Do I? We were at that party, right? So I had seen your girlfriend around campus a lot, but I had never seen you." She turned to Carina. "So, Curls here, shows up with his girlfriend, except, I don't know she's his girlfriend."
"Huh?" Carina asked, confusion on her face, and then it hits her. "No."
"Yes," Zondra replied. "I've seen her all around campus with this other guy, and here she is with Curls. Now I know the other guy a little, and he seemed cool, so I'm thinking Curls is Cheaty McCheater."
"It's obvious you didn't know him at the time," Carina added.
"Oh, so obvious looking back," Zondra agreed. "He walked over to get them a drink and I walked up to Curls, gave him a glare and said, 'I think you should know she has a boyfriend and I just saw him walk in.'"
"Oh my God, what did Chuck do?" Carina asked.
"I replied the most eloquently I knew how," Chuck told her, shaking his head at the old memory, but not really bothered by it.
"Let me guess," Carina said, winking at Chuck. " 'Huh?'" she did in her best Chuck voice.
"Yup," Zondra said as she shook her head. "Poor guy, he finally figured it out, and said, 'I thought I was her boyfriend.'"
"Oh, Chuckles," Carina said, turning and looking out the window to Chuck, a pout on her face. "She didn't deserve you."
"Again, I'm sorry," a male voice called out from behind Chuck. Sitting a row behind Chuck, was another man.
"Bryce, Dude, you said you didn't know she was dating me and someone else at the same time," Chuck told him.
"I mean, I have dated two guys at once, but I told them." Carina offered. Zondra put her head in her hands. "Is that not how you do it?" Carina asked Chuck. Chuck just shook his head as Carina turned back to Zondra. "So what did you do?"
"I did something that is not normally in my nature," Zondra began. Carina gave her a skeptical look. "I went after him to try and comfort him."
"Wait, you tried to hit it?" Carina asked, looking from Chuck to Zondra.
"What is it with you and thinking a guy can't be friends with a girl?" Zondra asked, shaking her head. "For the millionth time, we are friends, we've never had sex. Did we kiss a few times because we wondered? Yeah. Was it life changing? No. We both knew we weren't the one for each other."
"You're the two that get married at seventy or some crazy thing because no one else can stand you," Carina cut in.
"Now who's projecting?" Chuck asked Carina, making Zondra laugh as she clapped her hands together. "Anyway, I left the frat and headed back toward my dorm, just leaving my now, ex-girlfriend…if she ever was my girlfriend. What do you call a girlfriend where you thought she was your girlfriend but she has multiple boyfriends?"
"While we can say it on air, I'd rather not," Carina answered.
"You know, usually I would disagree with Carina, but this time I do not," Zondra agreed. "So I head out after Chuck, and start walking beside him, and I give the best words of comfort I know how."
" 'She really sucks', is what she said," Chuck said, laughing. "She just walked beside me back to my dorm. There were pool tables downstairs, and we played until two o'clock in the morning."
"She smoked you didn't she?"
"Of course she did," Chuck answered Carina. "It's Zondra, what else would she do? I mean, at one point she asked me if I was trying to play the worst game of pool ever."
"I mean, I suck at that kind of thing, but you might be the worse," Carina admitted.
"She smoked me as well," Bryce added.
"Wait, Zondra wiped the floor with both of you?" Carina asked.
"Are you talking pool or fighting?" Chuck asked. "Nevermind, it's the same answer either way."
All four of them were laughing as they recorded the session for both Youtube and the other podcast streamers.
In a conference room across town, the episode was streaming on a huge screen. A tall blond woman was standing off to the side, watching. After the segment was over, she hit the pause button on her remote and turned to everyone else. "That," Sarah said to the writers she had assembled in the room. "That woman right there, Zondra Rizzo, is the one who is going to star in our show. You heard her, how funny she was, how real she was. I want her to be a freaking star, and we're going to do it."
"Miss Walker, do you have a male lead in mind?" one of the writers asked.
"I don't," Sarah admitted. "But if we have her, that's the key. Okay, you know the basis of the story we want to tell, get back to me with scripts and we'll go from there." The writing room broke up, and Sarah headed back to her office. She sat down in her chair, buried her face in her hands, and blew out a rough breath.
She looked over at the picture of her, her mom, and her dad, taken with the Twelve Apostles behind them. It was years ago, before she had moved from Australia to LA, and then later brought her parents over. She loved her parents so much. They had given so much for her to have her dream and now, there was one more thing she wanted, one more thing, for them…and for her, but mostly for them. If this was a success…it had to be. It had to be. "Bugger," she muttered.
}o{
The scene switches back to Bryce, sitting for the interview. The producer asks another question. "What do you do?"
"I'm a senior producer at CIA Network, and I'm one of the co-hosts of The Omaha Project podcast." Bryce grins. "It's an intersection of sports and medicine. It started out with me and Chuck's brother-in-law talking football. Chuck's sister, Ellie, overheard us, and demanded to be a part of it, since she's a neurosurgeon, so now it's all three of us."
Bryce shifted in his chair, smiling. "We talk about everything in sports. Plays, physical health, hell, even mental health. I love my job, and I love working with Chuck."
The producer asks one last question. "Were you surprised at what happened?"
Bryce grins. "No," Bryce replied, the grin growing. "It's who he is. He's now one of the biggest stars in America, and it's all because he was himself." He looks straight into the camera. "It couldn't of happened to a better guy."
A/N: This fic will be slowly published. I am trying to finish up a few other fics. Take Care.
David