Published September 18, 2021

A/N: Morgan knows something. He thinks he had the right to know everything about Chuck. It's time for him to force the issue.

Once again, davida6 came through as beta! He did not prevent what is about to happen or how this chapter ends.

Burbank Buy More
The next day
Thursday, February 28, 2008

Morgan spent most of the day at work staring at Chuck. He was trying for his look of disapproval. No one would buy that he ever disapproved of Chuck. He didn't even buy it. Maybe he needed a look of distaste. No, he couldn't pull that off either. He had no skills in controlling and projecting his emotions.

Whatever was going on, he was confused that Chuck didn't trust him with the secret. What was this weird FDA alliance between Chuck, Sarah, and Casey? Why wasn't he included?

The previous night, Morgan ended up sleeping all night on the home theater room's sofa. The Buy More sold alarm clocks, so he used one of those. Fortunately, he had a morning shift, and he was already wearing his green shirt and matching shoes for work. No need for a ride from home in the morning. This evening required a little more planning because Chuck wasn't going to be there to ask for help. Morgan had other plans to find out what Chuck was doing. Fortunately, Chuck and Morgan weren't the only people getting off work at dinner time.

Chuck had lunch at the Wienerlicious with Sarah. Since it was Thursday, Chuck didn't even have to cancel surf-n-turf with him, which was a Wednesday/Friday tradition. Last night's revelation made Morgan wonder about all of the other cancellations since Tang's assistant manager-ship ended. Were they all for these FDA "missions" with Sarah? It was hard enough to stomach when Morgan thought Chuck simply wanted to have lunch with his woman, no matter how gorgeous she was. Who was he kidding? If all of the cancellations were a ruse, but Chuck was spending time with Sarah, he couldn't blame him. Morgan still felt he had the right to know the truth.

Tonight, Morgan was determined to learn the rest of the truth. Tonight's plan would take some subtly, another thing he wasn't good at, but he knew he could figure it out.

Late afternoon, Chuck was finishing up some paperwork at the Nerd Herd desk, so Morgan went to talk to him. Hopefully, Chuck hadn't noticed Morgan's attitude of displeasure throughout the day. "Hey there, Chuck."

"Hey, Morgan." He looked up without any sign of resentment, so he hadn't noticed. Or Morgan wasn't doing a good job of looking at his best friend with disappointment. It didn't matter, for this part of the plan, he needed Chuck to not think Morgan had an agenda.

Chuck said, "I bet you're ready to get out of here. Maybe Anna will be back in time to give you a ride home. Or you two could go out for dinner."

Anna wasn't part of the plan he had been formulating in his head. Morgan knew he wasn't subtle, but Anna was even less subtle. He really didn't trust her for something like this. Anna would likely say something to Chuck. Instead, Morgan needed oblivious help. Back to the plan…

"I don't think so," Morgan said. He admitted, "I still don't know what I did wrong this time. I'm not sure I did anything. Maybe she's just messing with me and wants an excuse to not spend time with me. I'll be ok. What are you and your woman doing tonight? Ellie's working the evening shift, so she's not cooking."

Chuck sighed, "I'm going to choose to not be disturbed that you know Ellie's work schedule better than I do. Even not knowing it, it worked out. Sarah and I are going out to dinner."

"Ooooo, a date?" Morgan asked in an exaggerated way.

Chuck said, "I suppose you could call it that."

As opposed to a "mission"? "Where are you going?" Morgan asked. This was the key point of Morgan talking to Chuck. He needed to know where they were going. XY Corp, wherever that was, but they might have more than one office. Chuck wouldn't say that. He'd say a restaurant nearby. Wherever it was, it would be near where they were meeting Casey for the mission.

Chuck hesitated. Morgan could read the look on Chuck's face. It wasn't that he didn't want to tell Morgan. He honestly didn't know. That was bad. Last night, the people on the TV talked around Chuck. Now, he didn't even know where he was taking Sarah for dinner. How was Morgan supposed to confront Chuck there if he didn't know where to find him? It's not like he could follow them in a car or a bike. Morgan didn't have a car, and the bike had a flat tire that he really needed to get fixed someday.

Morgan decided the best he could do was suggest some places to get an approximate location. Chuck said no to the first few suggestions. Then he asked Morgan if he knew anyplace in Little Armenia. That question made no sense unless the destination was more important than the food. That must be where the mission was going to be. He suggested Corona's Mexican Grill, and Chuck liked the suggestion.

"Don't want to know about the price?" Morgan asked.

"You wouldn't suggest it unless it was in your budget. The Nerd Herd supervisor doesn't make much more than a non-supervisor. I'm sure it'll be fine."

"Ok. What about how to dress? Do you need to let Sarah know?" Once, Morgan got in trouble with Anna because she dressed up before they went someplace that wasn't dressy. Part of him might be mad with Chuck for keeping him out of the loop, but he didn't want him to get in trouble with Sarah.

"I'm sure we'll be fine. I want to surprise Sarah. Thanks for the recommendation."

Suuuure. Knowing there might be something else going on, Morgan saw through that. He wondered how many times Chuck had been feeding stories that Morgan completely bought, covering up the truth. Oh. Cover. That could be what Chuck and Sarah were talking about. They weren't lying that they were a couple. Everyone could see that. Even so, he bet that Chuck and Sarah weren't even going to his restaurant recommendation tonight. That was ok with him. It'd work for part two of the plan.

Later that day, Morgan finished his shift at the same time as several others. He said bye to Chuck. Anna was nowhere to be seen—no surprise there. The Herder she always used when on-call was back, her car was gone, and she never said anything to him, so he guessed he was still in the doghouse. It was just as well, since he didn't need the complication of her asking questions. Instead, he caught the two people that he could use: Jeff and Lester.

Chuck had been pulling the wool over Morgan's eyes for months. The people he could easily fool were Jeff and Lester. It wasn't like he was going to fool them. He just needed to convince them to try happy hour at a different place than Bennigan's. It was going to be too late for afternoon happy hour, but with the promise of drinks, they didn't even really care. Morgan just needed a ride to the place Chuck was going. The restaurant was near this 'mission,' and Chuck wasn't going to be there. That place happened to be a good place to leave the two weirdo Nerd Herders to get drunk. His plan was coming together perfectly.

About an hour later
Almost empty parking lot near Corona's

Knowing to look in Little Armenia, finding XY Corp's office was easy enough. When searching on the Internet, he found out they had only one office, so the restaurant plan wasn't needed to find out where to go, but it was useful as a place to drop off the two people he didn't want around.

Right outside the "van" Morgan had heard about last night, Morgan took a deep breath to clear his head. It all came down to this. His hetero-life-partner had been hiding things from him. It was time to confront him. He opened the passenger-side front door and stepped inside.

"What? Morgan? What are you doing here? You're not supposed to be here!"

"I could say the same thing about you, Chuck. What are you doing here? You're not supposed to be here. You're supposed to be having dinner at Corona's with Sarah, but instead of filling your stomach on chips and spending the evening with a beautiful angel, you're sitting alone in this van."

Chuck didn't answer why he was there. Instead, he asked Morgan another question. "How are you even here? I thought your bike's out of commission."

"I got a ride in Jeff's van."

"Jeff and Lester are here?"

"No course not. This afternoon, I guessed you and Sarah weren't actually going to dinner, so I asked them for a ride and suggested happy hour at Corona's, so that's where they are."

"But it's not happy hour."

"I don't think they care as long as there's beer. I was worried that they might ask me to cover the tab, but they only asked that I bail them out if they are arrested. That shouldn't happen. They'll be thrown out or will pass out first. That shouldn't be for an hour or two, so we have time."

Chuck was still concerned. "They dropped you off here, so they know this place?"

"No. It's only a ten-minute walk up the road. I recommended that place so it would be close to where you were really. The idiots didn't care that I wasn't going in to get drunk."

"How did you know I'd be here, in this van?"

"I saw this 'Custom Eats' van pull out from the Buy More. It had to be you. Sarah's Porsche and Casey's Crown Vic were still in the parking lot at the Buy More, but none of you are still there."

"Why did you think I was going someplace else?" Chuck asked.

"Last night, I heard you."

"Heard what? How?" Chuck was as "shocked" as ever. Chuck was acting like he was in high school when he invited Morgan over to dinner, instead of him just showing up. Ellie didn't like it, but Chuck was acting like he didn't know how Morgan knew. Morgan knew he had him this time.

"I heard you, Sarah, and Casey talking to those people on the TV in the home theater room."

"I don't understand. You weren't there."

"Yes, I was," Morgan said proudly. If his work avoidance plan had to backfire, at least there was one benefit to be proud of.

"Where were you? The room was empty. You left earlier."

At that moment, Morgan was extremely proud of his screw-up because that meant he stopped being the fool and learned something was up. "Actually, I never left the store last night. I was stuck underneath the home theater room couch."

"Why were you there? You know what. I don't want to know. You heard the video call about this mission?"

Morgan revealed he knew the truth. "Yeah, I know you all are undercover agents."

Confusion vanished from Chuck's face. He just looked worried. "You know?"

"Yes, I know you three are undercover agents for the FDA."

Chuck cautiously said, "You know we're agents for the F…D…A."

"Right. I want to know why you were hiding something like this from me. We share everything."

Chuck sighed. "I'm not allowed to tell you about this."

Morgan was exasperated. "Is this because of Sarah? She has you wrapped around your finger so tightly that you aren't allowed to tell the people who have always put your needs first, like Ellie and me."

"This isn't Sarah's fault," Chuck said, defending his girl's honor. "If Sarah left, I'd still be doing this. I don't have a choice. I'm not doing this because I'm dating Sarah. It's Sarah's job, but she cares about more than what I can do. She cares about me. I'm happier doing it with her."

The bearded man didn't buy that. "You're trying to tell me that you aren't doing this because your girlfriend asked?"

"No." Chuck sighed and paused, looking like he was making a decision about coming clean. "Sarah isn't really my girlfriend. That's just a 'cover' that serves as an excuse for me to work with her when… That doesn't matter. The point is, we aren't really a couple."

Morgan scoffed, "First, you don't tell me about these secret missions. Now, you're trying to tell me that not only you're not doing this because Sarah asked but that you and Sarah aren't an item. That sounds even less likely than you working on secret missions for the FDA. You two are so into each other that I sometimes think I might need a fire extinguisher. In fact, I need to read the sign in the break room that says how to use one. I've never used an extinguisher, so the first time could go bad. I'd shoot white stuff all over the place."

Chuck leveled a look at him. Chuck leveled a look at him. That's when Morgan realized what he just said and corrected himself. "I'd stoot white powder from the fire extinguisher all over the place. I need to be prepared. That's how much steam is everywhere when you two are around."

Chuck laughed at that description. "Seriously, Sarah and I aren't really an item. You just think that because she is so good at faking it."

"Nope. Not buying it. You're just trying to lessen the blow before you really buy her an engagement ring. You don't want a repeat of the fiasco with Ellie's ring."

"That's not it. Why would I get her a ring when we aren't really dating? This is the complete truth, Sarah and I—" Chuck was interrupted by Sarah's voice coming out of the car speakers.

"Chuck, you need to get out of here. Casey has tripped a security sensor, and I'm going after him. If I get him, we'll be able to leave on foot and will meet you at that restaurant you told Morgan we were going to. If things go south, your safety is the most important thing. I don't want to be worried about you, so please go."

Another voice came through the speakers. It sounded like someone yelling at a distance. "Don't move!" Then there was the sound of someone falling down.

Chuck looked completely panicked, more so then when Morgan had entered the van. Then, Chuck's face became determined. "Sarah's in trouble. I have to do something."

A/N: Corona's Mexican Grill is not in Little Armenia in Los Angeles. There's one in Colorado that I know nothing about. There was one in Illinois that closed in 2019. I don't know if the Illinois one was connected to the Colorado one in any way. I used the name because it was ironic for several reasons. The first is the pandemic. Running a restaurant in a pandemic is hard, but imagine having a name like that. (Even though the Illinois one had already closed before the pandemic, the concept is mind-blowing) Second, in 2010, the Illinois one moved into a location that used to be a Bennigan's. That seemed appropriate for Jeff and Lester. Third, the name sounds like that'd have a happy hour, even though it wasn't the right time of day. Some places have specials on Thursdays, though.

Enough of where Jeff and Lester are getting drunk. What about Sarah? Will Chuck stay in the van when Morgan's there, leaving him unsupervised? Will Morgan stay in the van when Chuck doesn't?