Posted September 14, 2021

Last year, I did an AU story from Ellie's POV, "Ellie vs the Ninja". This AU story is from Morgan's POV. It's set a month after the season 1 finale ("Chuck vs the Marlin"), several months before the season 2 premier ("Chuck vs the First Date"), during the 2008 Writers Guild of America strike, when we don't know what happened. It assumes everything from canon season 1 happened, but something else had to have happened with Chuck, the Buy More, and the spies in the half-year gap between seasons 1 and 2. There were real spies in the Buy More. I'm not talking about Tang's minions, because at this point, he's managing a pineapple plantation in Hawaii, or he's a forensics analyst in Miami. How's Morgan going to handle it? Since I don't have to worry about renewals, this story goes AU. Instead of being a "parallel AU" or a "quick fork AU", like many of my stories this story has a couple original missions.

Great news! davida6 is back as beta!

Disclaimer: Nobody else owns anything here, so why would I?

Burbank Buy More
February 26, 2008

Morgan walked back to the Buy More break room feeling satisfied. Once again, his mad work-avoidance skills had paid off. This time, he figured out that he could go to the restroom fifteen minutes before the store closed. He'd be back by five before, so people would see him on the floor when the store closed for the day. However, he wouldn't get stuck with a new sale for a big-ticket item in the last five minutes. With no last minute, big sale, he wasn't stuck filling out a delivery order, trying to sell an extended warranty, and helping load a car when he should be done working. Those new plasma TVs were nice, but it's not like he was getting one. There wasn't an official supervisor for the Green Shirts who was monitoring his sales totals, and Big Mike never noticed, so why stay late?

For some reason, neither of Harry Tang's positions as Sales Supervisor nor Assistant Manager had been replaced. It was proof that the job wasn't necessary. Morgan's best bud, Chuck, had been making the work schedules for both Sales and the Nerd Herd. Some of the guys in the Herd did need Chuck's responsible presence to keep them in line, but the Green Shirts didn't need someone overbearing like Tang. Easy-going Chuck was enough.

A couple months ago, Morgan was worried that Casey would go after the position, but he didn't seem to want it. He even seemed to miss work a lot, which made Morgan think that Casey had a secret, but whatever it was it meant that scary man wouldn't get it.. The most important thing was they didn't end up with an overbearing, obnoxious boss. No boss worked, too. Someone like Chuck would be icing on the cake.

As Morgan entered the break room, a few others were leaving their lockers at the end of the day. The one person still there was the assistant-manager-in-all-but-name, Chuck. Since Morgan's bike had a flat tire, he needed a ride home. Anna brought him to work, but she had a short shift and had been gone for a few hours. Morgan had forgotten to ask Chuck.

"Hey, Chuck!"

"What do you want, Morg?" Chuck asked in a serious tone.

Uh, oh. Morgan knew that Chuck knew that his little buddy wanted something. He knew that his big best friend deserved to be treated like more than a chauffeur. A diversion topic was needed.

No one else was there, so it was as good of a time as any to ask him. "Chuck, why aren't you the Assistant Manager?" Morgan thought Chuck deserved it on Halloween when Tang got it. Now there was no one else. Chuck was practically doing the work anyway.

Chuck sighed, and Morgan explained, "I know last fall that Sarah had that car problem, and you saved her. As a result, we were stuck with Harry Tang, but no one blames you. If you had been there to oppose him in the interview, Harry might have slashed the interviewer's tires and blamed it on you. Same result."

Morgan pulled his yellow messenger bag from his locker. Inside was a device to re-shrink wrap videos. He only had one movie for it: Terminator 3, which was released on video that day. When that movie was in the theaters, he didn't see how it would be any good without Linda Hamilton. Having a warrior-woman like that for a mom would be great. Too bad they killed her off before T3. The new movie wasn't as good as the original or as T2, but that didn't mean he didn't want to see it again. Maybe it would be better on re-watch. He needed to watch it that night and get it back tomorrow, looking like it was new. Then it would be like he never had it.

Morgan had to work tomorrow morning, so he could stay up and watch only one movie. Otherwise, he'd end up sleeping past lunch and would miss the bus to work. Things were easier before the bus had stopped for the day.

Chuck said, "I had to go. Thank you for talking to the interviewer on my behalf. It didn't work, but still…"

"What are hetero-life partners for?" Morgan waved him off. "Of course, you had to go help your girlfriend. When someone like Sarah needs you to be a hero—you gotta be a hero—whatever the consequences. The timing was horrible for the rest of us who work here, but sometimes those things can't be helped. We were stuck with the 'Reign of Tang,' but you shouldn't be blamed for that."

Chuck put his hand on Moran's shoulder and said, "It's good to know you don't blame me."

Was that sarcasm? It couldn't be. Chuck knew the truth, so Morgan went on. "It sure was a relief when Tang left for that job in Hawaii. I thought that meant you'd be the new AM. I don't know why it didn't happen. Everyone already considers you to be in charge. Big Mike has you doing the work schedules for both the Nerd Herd and Sales. It's like he got you to be the AM without giving you the official promotion."

Chuck shrugged, once again showing he was going to keep letting Big Mike walk all over him, taking advantage of the fact he had such a hard-working employee. Chuck and Morgan closed their lockers and started down the hall, back to the store.

Morgan had a thought about what was going on—why Chuck was used and why they didn't have a new assistant manager. Maybe the store no longer was getting an assistant manager. Or maybe it was because of what happened a couple months ago. "Is this because of what happened when the Buy More was robbed?" Was Chuck blamed for that?

Chuck stopped, looked at Morgan, and said, "What? Why would not having an assistant manager have anything to do with that?"

Morgan wasn't sure what to think. If Chuck said it wasn't related, it couldn't be related. Still, Morgan didn't think that entire day made sense. Not only was the store emptied, but everything was put back exactly like it was. Almost. Big Mike's marlin, Norman, was put back, but it had been broken in half and reconnected with duct tape. That difference was the part Morgan understood, at least well enough. Jeff and Lester had hidden Norman at Chuck's place. Later, it was moved to the Wienerlicious freezer with Ellie's ring. Chuck tracked down the ring. The marlin wasn't with everything else.

Morgan thought that it would have been nice if his best friend had come through for him and had not found the engagement ring inside it, so Devon and Ellie wouldn't have gotten engaged. On the other hand, since Morgan was with Anna, it was just as well. Morgan didn't want to get into trouble with her again. Ellie being "off the market" helped. He always seemed to have to walk around on eggshells with Anna. No need to push it.

Casey helped Chuck find the marlin, so when they found it, they found the ring, and Casey must have broken it in half to get the ring. Morgan still wasn't sure how the Marlin got back, but it wasn't his job to know everything. While that made sense enough, none of it explained where the Buy More merchandise, even the shelves, disappeared to. That couldn't have been Chuck by himself or even him working with Casey. There was too much to move.

Morgan responded to Chuck's question. "I don't know about the assistant manager-ship. But what do I know? Big Mike should have put you in charge officially, instead of just expecting you to do all the work without paying you for it." The two of them resumed walking out the front.

Sarah was waiting for Chuck, but she wasn't in her Wienerlicious outfit. Once again, Morgan thought Chuck was lucky. She was there to go home with him, even though from how she was dressed, it looked like she wasn't at the end of her shift. She probably made a special trip just to see him. Chuck's car hadn't broken down like Morgan's bike, but Sarah was there to drive her boyfriend home. Anna didn't do things like that. Morgan hoped Sarah would let him ride in the back seat of her car. That car was so sweet, even its almost non-existent backseat would probably be better than his bike (even when it didn't have a flat).

Chuck and Sarah said hi to each other. Chuck looked a little dazed, like he sometimes did when he saw Sarah. She had the biggest smile on her face. Then her smile dropped when she looked at Morgan. Looking back to Chuck, she said something softly to him, and they kissed briefly in greeting. When they separated, Morgan could see the blush creeping up Chuck's neck, even in the dark. With someone like Sarah as his girlfriend, Chuck needed to get over his aversion to PDA.

Suddenly, Sarah grabbed Chuck's tie and pulled him closer, into a deep kiss. "Wow, Chuck's so lucky."

Morgan slapped his hand over his mouth when he realized he said that out loud. Even though what he said was true, he didn't need to throw a bucket on the plaza's power couple by embarrassing Chuck. After that first week, the only time Anna kissed Morgan like that in front of other people was when it was a ruse to keep Jeff away.

A scary memory crossed Morgan's mind. He had heard the rumors about Lester hitting on Sarah. That was a couple months ago when Chuck had broken up with Sarah to date licorice-hair—that deli pro, Lou. Lester's run at Sarah was unsuccessful, of course. She put him in his place, making him run away, afraid for his life. Sarah wasn't over Chuck. From what Chuck said a few days later, he wasn't over her either. They got back together within a week, just in time for Thanksgiving.

That was scary because of what it might mean for him. Sarah didn't think Morgan was like Lester, did she? Maybe she was putting on a show in front of him so he'd stay back and not make his own run at Sarah. Chuck's sister wasn't off-limits because Morgan knew her since before they were teenagers, but his best friend's girlfriend was definitely off-limits, no matter how hot she was. Sarah was too much woman for him. At least he knew Ellie from before he grew his first beard, making her attainable. But she was off the market. He would never intentionally betray his best friend by hitting on his girl.

When Sarah released Chuck's tie and ended their kiss, he was practically catatonic, with a goofy grin on his face. When he had broken up with Sarah, Chuck said he thought they didn't have a future. When they started dating again, he said the fire was back. That kiss was so hot, how could Chuck ever have doubted it? Sarah looked down quickly, wiped the corners of her mouth, then looked at Morgan. "Hi, Morgan."

"Hey, Sarah." Morgan didn't want to ask for a ride now. He was already concerned that Sarah might have the wrong impression of his intentions. After that kiss, Chuck and Sarah probably wanted some privacy without him third-wheeling them. The problem was finding another way to get home.

Morgan saw salvation with a Herder pulling out from behind the building. It was Skip. He must be on-call, so he had a Herder for the night. Morgan went up to the curb and waved him over. As Skip was driving closer to see what Morgan wanted, the bearded man told Chuck and Sarah, "My bike has a flat, so I don't have a ride home. I was going to ask for one, but you two kids obviously have better things to do. Have fun. Bye!"

Chuck and Sarah offered him a ride anyway, but he brushed them off. Skip came to a stop in front of the store, and Morgan asked him for a ride. Chuck and Sarah didn't need him serving as a fire extinguisher. Since Morgan was working until close tomorrow, he thought he'd have to plan ahead better to make sure he had a ride home.

A/N: Right now, Chuck was thinking it was good that Morgan was there. He always benefited from Sarah doing things for the cover. Right now, Sarah was thinking the same thing. Both of them thought it was a good thing when they had to "fake it" for the cover. Meanwhile, Morgan was trying to give "the lovebirds" some privacy and not give Sarah the wrong idea, not knowing it was useful for them to have the Beard around.

Next chapter: more of Morgan's mad work-avoidance skills.