A/N I had this ready to go yesterday, but I thought yesterday was busy enough for a lot of us.
Bryce Larkin lay in bed, checking in with is boss while Alex took a shower. Over the phone he could hear music playing loudly while Graham spoke softly. "I counted six at the airport, sir, so there were probably at least eight. Probably Shaw's whole ops team. Even Decker's not all that stupid."
"Stupid enough for our purposes," said Graham, whose purposes were Larkin's almost by definition. "He just loves to build traps around any piece of cheese that gets laid out for him."
"He's also known for blaming the cheese when he's the one who gets caught."
"Conscience troubling you?"
"No, sir," said Larkin. "You sent me here to pick someone-" someone, unchosen for any purposes but their own, who at this moment was naked in his bath "-and Chuck just literally fell into my arms. I chose no one." In some weird way, that made him feel even more responsible.
"Then I'll let you get back to watching over your innocent lamb before he gets slaughtered."
Bryce disconnected, and called Agent Wu for an update.
"Yes, sir," said Decker. "A meet-and-greet with the handler." He put up a picture of Ellie, so he wouldn't have to look at his boss on the screen.
"You said they'd already met," said Shaw.
"Just enough to say 'hello'," said Decker. "She drove back while Bartowski did the initial round of questioning. That will change tonight. According to their legend, she's supposed to be his sister as well as his almost his mother. Raised him from a boy."
"Hmm, yes. Good point," said Shaw. "Protective and controlling, like a handler, but able to be inquisitive about any random stranger who might come into her guy's orbit. I almost feel sorry for this woman...?"
"Walker, sir, Sarah Walker." A different picture went up, for the same reason. Blowing it up large enough to cover most of the screen made it grainier than usual. She was blonde and female, that was about all either of them could see of her.
"The name doesn't sound familiar, but I'll run it anyway."
"We already did, sir. Not in our files."
"Your point being?"
"No point, sir, none at all."
"I didn't think so," said Shaw, taking control of the monitor between them, taking down all the images between them. "The good thing is that this handler will want to spend time with the Walker woman. That gives us an opportunity. I have a penthouse in LA, don't ask why because I really don't know myself, but we might as well get some use out of it. Girly it up for Sasha, and have your best e-man gimmick the electronics, so she'll have a reason to call the Nerd Herd and of course demand their best. Make it something subtle, hard to find. Give her time to do her thing, have her pump him hard."
"For information, of course."
"Of course for information," said Shaw, "What else would she be pumping him for?"
"I can think of a few things," muttered Sasha, far away from any microphone.
"It'll be done, sir," said Decker a little more loudly than usual, just in case.
"I'll text you the address," said Shaw. "There's a security office you can monitor from, as well."
"Very good, sir."
"Be sure to restore the masculine aesthetic when you're done, and remember to change the sheets."
"Of course, sir."
"'Masculine aesthetic'?" said Gruber, after Shaw disconnected. "More masculine than Sasha?"
"Perhaps he was talking about himself," said Sasha, with an admirably straight face.
"A true professional," said Vincent.
"He was talking about whoever was perv enough to install security monitoring in his own bedroom," said Decker. His phone chimed with Shaw's promised text. "Alright, we have very little time. We need to make Shaw's love nest both girly and geek."
Ellie sat in her living room, a glass of wine in hand, contemplating the future. Her brother's future, and Sarah Walker's place in it. Their conversation in the back seat of the car on their way home from the airport had shown more enthusiasm than common sense, with Sarah in particular seeming very distracted. While her conversation was pretty straightforward, she was often looking in the mirrors. It pulled at Ellie's attention annoyingly, but it didn't seem like Sarah was looking at her.
Unfortunately she was committed to making a pot roast dinner, and Chuck took advantage of that to go gallivanting off with Miss Walker. To Poppy's, which was at least an intelligent choice, but far too close to that great sucker of souls, the Buy More. After a multi-hour absence, they'd finally returned, with Morgan in tow, so they must have stopped off there at some point.
And Sarah was still with him, after all that, and God knows what else 'all' might have been. Hadn't gone running. Hard to believe, but there it was.
She really wanted to know this woman better. She'd thought she'd known her friends, but when Alex walked away with Bryce she had to wonder if she really knew any of them at all. Miss Walker may have stepped into their lives out of the blue, but that didn't mean it couldn't be a good blue.
It certainly sounded like a good day, listening to her fiancé and all of them crossing the courtyard to their door. Something was 'awesome', but something was always awesome around Devon. She leaned forward to put the glass down as the knob rattled and the door swung open. "Our casa es su casa."
She stood as they came in, Devon holding the door, Chuck and Sarah holding hands again. Still? And Morgan, of course. "Hi, guys! Come on in."
"Chuck!" Hug.
"Sarah!" Hug.
"Morgan."
The younger man made a show of sniffing the air. "Smells good, Ellie."
"Such a charmer. So," she said more enthusiastically to the others, "How was your date?"
Chuck blushed. "I wouldn't call it a date, El..."
"That's because you're a boy, Chuck." A boy who liked to plan, and if he didn't plan a date he had trouble seeing it for what it was. "Sarah?"
"It was wonderful. So much fun."
"You went to Poppy's?" Ellie's voice invited them to elaborate. "Come, sit. Not there, Morgan." She and Devon took the loveseat he'd been aiming for, while Chuck and Sarah claimed two chairs and moved them closer to each other.
"But all the other chairs are in another room," Morgan whined.
"Okay," said Ellie. "So, Poppy's."
"Really good," said Sarah, as Morgan left the room, "Deserves to be world-famous but I can see why you guys are glad it's not. We ordered food, we talked, we ate, we talked, we went to the Buy More, we talked, we got Morgan and went to the Pier, and we talked-"
Ellie smiled. "I'm sensing a theme here."
"The trip back was all about sandwiches and desert islands, though."
"He lost again, huh?" said Ellie with a smile and a glance toward the kitchen door. "And you let it happen? Chuck?" Her voice was heavily laced with tones of 'what the hell is wrong with you?'
"I didn't mind, I had my unicorn to distract me," said Sarah. "I had to think of a name for her. Or him. It's so hard to tell with fictional creatures."
"That's my line," said Chuck, surprised to find it stolen but not exactly upset.
"And it's such a good one," said Sarah.
Ellie could feel the cavities forming, even at a distance. "You got the unicorn?"
Sarah nodded happily. "Thanks to Chuck." She kissed him on the cheek.
Ellie frowned at him. "What did you do, little brother?"
"Yeah, Chuck," said Devon. "You've been playing that thing since forever."
"I've been studying it since forever," corrected Chuck. "Only started playing it recently." He turned to see Sarah's beaming smile. "I'll probably quit while I'm ahead."
"You seem to have had quite an effect on him, Sarah," said Ellie. "Thank you."
"He's had quite an effect on me," said Sarah. "Thank you.'
"What are you thanking me for?" asked Ellie.
"He told me about your parents, that you were his mother as much as you were his sister, if not more. You made him the man he is and I very much like the man he is, so...thank you."
Ellie cleared her throat. "Um, you're welcome." Looking around for any other topic, she saw her glass on the table between them. "Wine, anybody? I'm drinking Malbec."
She accepted all their YEAs, no NAYs, as Morgan struggle through the door with a dining room chair. "Morgan, bring us out some wine glasses, please."
He sighed out, "Fine," and put the chair down by the gathering before going back into the kitchen.
"You had to take her into the Buy More, Chuck?" said Ellie in an annoyed tone.
"You remember how Morgan thought I was making her up? Well, since we were there I figured why not prove it to him."
"You couldn't have found someplace less toxic, like a dumpster fire?"
"It was fine, Ellie. Really. We were in and out, like...like..."
"Like a duck mating," said Chuck.
"Like what?"
"That's the line you were thinking of, right?" asked Chuck. "Remo Williams?"
"Um, no," said Sarah. "I was thinking of how we went in one end and out the other, and trying to avoid the most common metaphors, which are pretty graphic but not very family-friendly. Ducks doing it is a whole different visual."
"You studied the mating habits of waterfowl?" asked Chuck, in tones of wonder.
"Not exactly," said Sarah. "In my misspent youth I had long opportunities to discover all sorts of information on a variety of useless topics."
"Really?" said Chuck, "That's so cool. How do ducks do it?"
"Later for the ducks, okay," said Ellie firmly. "Nerd out with your girlfriend on your own time. I want to hear more about the misspent youth."
"I want to hear more about the girlfriend," said Chuck, his entire body curling toward Sarah, like a flower toward the sun. "Is that what this is?"
"You had one in college, didn't you?" asked Devon, and Ellie elbowed him sharply in the ribs.
Chuck didn't seem to notice. "You mean the 'bitch harpy from hell'?" he said, as the kitchen door opened again. "That never felt like this."
"Not Jill again," said Morgan, carrying a tray with four wineglasses.
"Who?" said Chuck.
"Nothing, Chuck," said Ellie quickly, giving both of the other males in the room the evil eye. "Nothing and no one." She took the bottle of wine and poured three more glasses, emptying it.
"Uh, Ellie," said Morgan, tapping the glass nearest him, still empty.
"Not after last time."
"You're still holding that against me?"
"Have you done a single damn thing to redeem yourself in all the time since?"
"No," said Morgan, with an embarrassed shrug. "I sort of keep hoping you'll forgive and forget."
"I know you do," said Ellie, sipping her wine. "That's why I don't. You know where your grape lives."
"Yeah, I know," groaned Morgan, standing again. "In the kitchen."
Boy, is she strict, thought Laszlo, catching it all from the microphone trained on the big window. Glad she's not my handler.
Sarah turned to Chuck as Ellie began to pour. "Who's Jill?" she asked quietly, since Ellie clearly want that topic off the table. Fortunately she was having words with Morgan and not paying attention.
"just a girl," said Chuck. When Sarah's face showed she wasn't buying it, he elaborated. "Former girlfriend. Broke my heart, slept with my roommate in college."
"She hurt you?" Sarah hated her instantly, shocking herself with the intensity of it. To do that to anyone, but especially to this man, this kind, wonderful, gentle, clever, witty man...
Chuck touched her clenched fist, soothed it open again. "Not anymore."
Ellie turned back to the room as Morgan got up and walked away again. "Sorry about that."
Sarah looked at her. "Sorry about what?"
Ellie looked at Devon, and he made a little circle in the air. Their own little world. "Nothing important," she said, picking up her wine. "So, Sarah, tell us a little about yourself. You said before that you had nothing besides your name, but somehow I have trouble believing that."
Laszlo tightened his focus, turned up the gain.
Sarah re-oriented herself in the chair, picking up her glass of wine and taking a sip as she considered the question. Finally she put it down and looked at Ellie squarely. "Do you have any tape?"
For a second Ellie was totally at a loss to respond, unprepared for such a question. "Uh..."
"I'll get it, sis," said Chuck. When he got up he failed to notice that Sarah was holding his phone in one hand and his earbuds in the other. She unrolled them as he came back with the tape. "What-?"
Sarah reached, grabbed his shirt, and pulled him down by her. She handed him the phone while whispering in his ear. He took it and started fiddling with something as the kitchen door opened yet again. "Morgan."
"What now?"
"Come here." Sarah put pieces of tape on each bud. Chuck handed her his phone and she plugged them in, handing the whole to Morgan as she whispered in his ear. He looked at the big window, confused but what the hell. He set his can of grape soda down and took the phone across the room, sneaking up on the window as if a responsible job was waiting outside. He reached out with one hand and pressed the bud against the window while smoothing down the tape. He crawled under the window and repeated the action on the other side. He put the phone on the floor and came back to the table.
"What was that all about?" asked Ellie, looking doubtful. She'd looked so normal at the beginning.
"There's a rogue spy outside, listening to us with a laser microphone aimed at your window, picking up the vibrations of everything we say," said Sarah in a soft voice. "I asked Chuck to pull up his longest playlist and set the volume on high. Hopefully they'll think we're just listening to music."
"A rogue-" Morgan 's excited shout died with Sarah's finger on his lips. "A rogue spy?" he whispered.
"Not awesome," muttered Devon.
Ellie cleared her throat, and decided to play along. "Why would there be a rogue spy listening at our window? How do you know this?"
"Because I'm a spy too," said Sarah. "I'm on a top secret mission to thwart a conspiracy in our own government and save a child's life." She looked at Chuck. "I need your help."
A/N2 I was wondering when she was going to come clean. A little bit less silly this time around. For the Charah fans, I hope you like. Today I'll be ready for the flood of comments, so never fear on that score.
The Malbec comes from some other fiction, since I know nothing about wines.
