A/N: I appreciate those of you who've read with care and patience. We now head into the final chapters.
Someplace Else
Mismatch
Sarah shook her head, trying to clear the auditory illusion.
But it was no illusion. The sound of the engine grew louder.
She ran to Chuck's room, grabbed the robe, and put it on. She ran back toward the front door, past the unconscious Clarke. She stooped and picked up a loose chair leg, one from a destroyed chair. She brandished it like a club. Chuck's note was still in her other hand.
She stood at the door, unsure what to do. The engine was close now, almost to the cabin. She stepped to the side of the door so that she would be behind it when it opened. She pressed her back to the interior wall.
"Chuck?"
Sarah heard a voice when the engine stopped.
"Chuck?"
It took Sarah a moment, but she finally understood that she knew the voice, as she had known Chuck's behind her in Seattle.
Ellie.
Sarah yanked the door open and stepped onto the porch.
A large, dusty SUV was parked near the cabin porch. Ellie was standing in the open driver's door. Someone else was inside, but at first, Sarah could only see a silhouette.
"Sarah," Ellie said quietly, "where's Chuck?"
Before Sarah could answer the passenger door opened. Morgan got out.
"Hey, Sarah," he said, careful to keep his eyes averted. Sarah realized that she had not belted the robe, that it was hanging open. She dropped the chair leg and as it clattered on the porch she belted the robe, the tying made difficult by the note in her hand.
"Sarah," Ellie said again, her tone flat, aggressive, "where's Chuck?"
Sarah waved the note. "I don't know. He's gone. He left me a note."
"Gone?" Ellie and Morgan asked the question at the same time. Ellie shut the SUV door and stepped quickly onto the porch. She eyed Sarah carefully.
"Where did he go?"
"It doesn't say. He drugged me and I woke up just a few minutes ago. I found this," she waved the paper, "and there's an unconscious Fulcrum agent tied up inside."
Ellie took another step. Sarah saw the exhaustion on Ellie's face, the bags beneath her eyes, the frown lines that seemed etched into her skin, vertically, under the lines on her forehead. She had on a dark sweatshirt, dark jeans, and heavy shoes.
As she stepped onto the porch, Sarah noticed Ellie was wearing one pink sock and one blue one.
"May I?" Ellie asked, reaching out, the politeness of her words clashing with the pressure in her tone.
Sarah handed her the note. As Ellie read it, Morgan joined them. He gave Sarah a quick, weak smile then started reading the note himself. He looked exhausted too, his face thinner, longer than Sarah remembered.
He was dressed much as Ellie was dressed.
Ellie shifted her hands so that Morgan could see the note better.
Ellie finished and Sarah saw tears form in her eyes. She looked at Morgan. He finished and looked at Ellie: "Fuck."
"Do you know where he's gone, Morgan?" Ellie asked, now oblivious to Sarah.
Morgan shook his head. "No idea. But this...ain't good."
Ellie let her hand fall, the note in it falling with it. She looked at Sarah, for the first time seeming to really see her. Sarah knew her hair was a mess from the bed. She had on only the robe, and she was barefoot. She felt as vulnerable as she had ever been, and she knew she looked it.
Understanding then dawned in Ellie's eyes. Her expression softened and her voice softened. "How are you feeling? Has the drug worn off?"
Sarah nodded. "Mostly. I'm still feeling dizzy. My vision's clearer — but still fuzzy, especially the periphery."
Ellie nodded. "Let's go inside. You should sit down and let me check you."
They went inside. Neither Ellie nor Morgan paid attention to Clarke. Morgan turned over a toppled armchair and Sarah sat down.
Ellie began a quick examination of Sarah, took her pulse, asked her to follow her finger as she moved it up and down, side to side. She seemed satisfied with Sarah's responses.
As Sarah was being examined by Ellie, Morgan went into Sarah's bedroom. He came out and looked at the women. "Sarah's clothes — the ones from Seattle — are on the bed, her gun, her knives. Chuck must've put them there."
Ellie nodded. "We can't lose much more time. I'll check Clarke. Sarah, please go and get dressed."
Ellie walked to Clarke and began to check him, careful not to untie him.
Sarah went into her room. As Morgan said, her clothes were there, her weapons. She dressed fast, the drug no longer bothering her, strapping her knives to her leg and shoving her pistol into the waistband of her pants.
Morgan saw Sarah come out of her room and he turned to Ellie. "What now, Ellie?"
She stared at Morgan; her whole posture was eloquent with the fear of defeat. His face threatened to crumble.
"He's just...gone?" Morgan asked in a soft tone of disbelief.
"He fooled us," Ellie said. "He couldn't take the chance that any of us would demand to go with him." Ellie's eyes settled significantly on Sarah. "He's not planning on coming back."
"What are you two talking about? What does that Dante stuff mean at the end of the letter?"
Morgan waited for Ellie to answer but she did not. He finally composed himself, spoke. "Chuck's gone on his last mission."
Sarah felt lost. "On one last mission?"
Ellie answered, her voice choked. "No, on his last mission. He's not planning on coming back. He drugged you so that you couldn't try to stop him or try to go with him. He fooled us, the goddamn hero..."
"What? What do you mean?"
Ellie sighed then spoke with dispatch. "He wanted Clarke," she nodded at the unconscious man, "because Clarke knew where the Fulcrum leaders were meeting; they are due to test a Fulcrum Intersect at a secret location.
"Chuck's gone to stop them." Ellie paused. "And to end Fulcrum."
Sarah felt a blaze of terror in her confusion. "Fulcrum? But Chuck is Fulcrum, right?"
Morgan shook his head. "No. Yes. It's complicated. Chuck's CIA and he's Fulcrum, but really he's Team Bartowski. He's us."
Ellie's head sank as Morgan talked, but then it came up. " — Wait, wait." She said, insistently, "Where was Jack going, Morgan? He was in an awful hurry to leave."
"Jack? My dad?" Sarah asked at the same time as Morgan shook his head.
Ellie gave Sarah a sympathetic look. "You're way behind, aren't you? Jack was with us. We've been in a cabin across the valley. This whole scheme was Chuck's — and Jack's. Chuck needed to keep you from terminating Clarke. Jack wanted you out of the spy life. He and Chuck agreed on that, on getting you out, if they could. They thought you might leave if they could just get you away from DC, Langley, away from missions, get you someplace else, get you to take a breath. You were planning a vacation. The two of them took that as a sign. And Chuck wanted to see you so bad."
Ellie's face pinched in realization and she swung her fist, hit herself hard in the thigh. "Goddamn it! That was the tip-off. He wanted to see you so bad!"
Sarah felt like her mind was collapsing. "You mean Jack wasn't kidnapped? Held captive?"
Morgan shook his head and smiled flatly. "No, but I did make him watch lots of I Dream of Jeannie and eat cheap frozen pizzas. It felt a little like we were trapped in Jeannie's bottle. I thought that's why he left so fast."
Sarah threw up her hands. "Help me understand!"
"It's in the note, Sarah, although Chuck's altered state's obvious there too. — Dante, Jesus, Chuck!" Ellie threw up her hands as if imitating Sarah, but she was not. "He had to stop you from terminating Clarke, and he wanted to get Clarke to a...neutral site, this cabin of Dad's, a place Clarke would have to come to alone — or at any rate, one to which it would be hard to bring reinforcements. This is some serious high ground...
"Chuck found out about your orders a couple of days before you were due to finish Clarke. He had to stop you — and then Jack suggested the con: fake your death, bring you here, — offer you a chance at another life."
"Why would Chuck listen to Jack?"
"Those two have been thick as thieves — sorry, Sarah — for months," Morgan said, ducking his head a little as he apologized. "They've become close, ever since Chuck saved Jack's life."
"He what?"
"Chuck does that, you know," Ellie said, giving Sarah a frank, corrective stare, "he's been doing it for a while. We have..."
"What are you talking about?"
"São Paulo?" Morgan responded — his question an answer to Sarah's question.
Sarah was stunned. "São Paulo?... I was...on a mission there...a few months ago. I almost got captured, tortured, killed. It was a near-run thing. The two Fulcrum men chasing me both went the wrong direction."
Morgan shook his head decisively. "The two Fulcrum men chasing you are both dead. Chuck killed them. I heard him do it on the com, then I helped with clean-up."
Sarah dropped her face in her hands.
Ellie spoke to Morgan. "Morgan, get my bag from the car. We need to wake Clarke. He's our only chance of finding Chuck in time. And Jack."
Morgan stalled, his forehead clenched in thought. "You really believe Jack went after him?"
"I do."
"Ok, Ellie," Morgan ran from the cabin. Ellie bent down and gently pulled Sarah's hands from her face, Ellie's own face close to Sarah's.
"I'm sorry, Sarah. Let me start over, and explain this. I can talk while I wake that bastard. Judging from the note, and from what you were wearing — or not wearing — I assume you and my brother finally...made a match...before he left? That you stand to lose him too?"
