A/N: Time to head to the Buy More for a chapter or two. Morgan, Lester and Jeff are all working a shift, so as things grow serious there may be some silliness as well.

xxxXXXxxx

Sarah felt a chill run down her back.

Wheels squealed and the driver of the car she cut off leaned on his horn, but she hardly noticed as she crossed lanes abruptly, changing her route. Her destination now was the Buy More. I have to save Chuck.

~o~o~O~o~o~

The Porsche came to a stop and Sarah killed the engine, parked about a hundred feet from the Buy More entrance. She was confident Casey would not be at the store yet. Even if his rendezvous with General Beckman at the air base was brief, it should take him another hour at least to get back to Burbank under the best traffic conditions. Still, she scanned the parking lot and the storefronts of the Buy More and Orange Orange looking for anything that seemed out of place. Her estimation was that whatever was planned for Chuck that it would be Casey, and Casey alone, who would be carrying it out. That could change if he, Graham or Beckman believed Sarah was actively trying to counter their plans. It was only a matter of time before they attempted to locate her and, although she might be able to throw off suspicion for a little while, sooner or later she would be found out. Until then they'll think it a simple matter for Casey to get to Chuck, isolate him, and… and… Am I sure about this? I'm risking my career and I could be wrong. But Sarah's gut rarely led her astray and it was telling her Chuck was in grave danger from her organization –the organization that for a year had taken so much and given so little to him. If I do nothing and I was right, I will have risked –and lost– much more.

A few moments later Sarah was through the Buy More entrance. She paused to survey the store's showroom. No sign of Chuck but she did recognize the Nerd at the Herd desk, his wild hair hard to forget. Jeff. She knew she was on security cameras and while she did not care if Chuck's boss Michael or some Buy More lackey was watching, the feeds from these cameras had been spliced into by the technicians who set up the subterranean base's surveillance system and could be viewed remotely. Keep up appearances, at least until I can find Chuck. It might be pointless, or it might buy me precious time I'll need, especially if he isn't here. She presented a calm manner as she strolled to the counter, a smile painted on her face.

"Hi, Jeff, I'm looking for Chuck. Have you seen him?"

"Hello, Chuck's girlfriend."

"It's 'Sarah.'"

"Hello, Chuck's girlfriend Sarah." Jeff stared at her –sort of, as his eyes seemed undecided about whether to be in or out of focus. He met her forced smile with a lopsided one.

"Uh, hi. So have you seen him?"

"Who?"

Sarah's hand shot out, hooked the back of Jeff's doughy neck and yanked, bouncing his forehead off the countertop. When his head rebounded she could see that his eyes had settled on option three: dazed and concussed. So much for keeping up appearances.

The fantasy flitted away as quickly as it came, Sarah's hands never budging from her side. Instead, she said pointedly, "Chuck. My boyfriend."

"Oh, I think he just got back from an offsite repair. He was in the back putting his bag in his locker." Jeff crossed one arm in front of his chest and pointed over his other shoulder in the general direction of the door that led to the employee only spaces in back, giving her a dopey grin as he did so.

Sarah made herself broaden her smile as a silent "thank you" and strode towards the door. As she got within a few feet, it swung open and Chuck stepped through, his head down as he worked at tucking his white button down shirt into his pants. Sarah stopped; Chuck realized his path was obstructed and pulled up, surprised to find it was her.

"Hi, Chuck." Sarah kept up the smile, but her eyes betrayed her worry.

Chuck replied brightly, "Hey, Sarah." Then he noticed and his tone shifted, "Sarah, are you–?"

Sarah pulled Chuck into a hug and whispered into his ear, "We need to talk. Now."

They maintained the embrace and Chuck matched Sarah's volume, speaking into her ear, "Sure. Not that I'm complaining about the face-to-face, but if it was urgent why didn't you just call?"

"I need you to stay calm. I don't trust our phones. And I want to speak somewhere where there are no eyes. No cameras."

Chuck could not help himself and pulled his head back some to look at Sarah's face. Seeing that she was serious, his eyes quickly darted around the store. "Uh, how about we go to your new fro-yo place," he offered. "Hey, you could show me what you and Casey have in the back. I'm dying to know."

"No good. There are cameras set up there."

"Aren't those your cameras? Who are you afraid will see us?"

Sarah looked at Chuck but did not speak. After a beat his eyebrows rose as the implication of what she said with her eyes sank in.

"Uh, yeah, okay," Chuck said slowly. "We can go back to the stockroom where the security cage is. There's a camera there but the guys keep disabling it so Big Mike can't see them when they're goofing off. The stuff they do, I swear, sometimes it's like Thunderdome back there." Chuck could tell that Sarah did not get the reference so he continued, "Dystopian action flick. Set in Australia. Hey, have you ever been to Australia?" Sarah left the question unanswered and instead coaxed Chuck towards the doors that opened into the stockroom.

Once through, Chuck glanced at the security camera and saw it was indeed disabled, its cable dangling loose. Chuck pointed and Sarah saw it, too. And as though there to prove Chuck's earlier point about goofing off, Lester was sitting in a chair in the cage, his heels up on the workbench, flipping through a magazine. Chuck and Sarah glanced at each other. Chuck winked, and then turned back to Lester.

"Hey, Lester, sorry to bother important business, but Jeff needs you at the Herd desk."

"I do?" Jeff came up behind Chuck and Sarah, having quietly followed in their wake.

"Jeff, if you're here who's covering the desk?" Chuck asked. Jeff simply shrugged.

"That is an excellent question, Charles," Lester intoned as he stood up and stepped through the cage entrance. "Perhaps you should be covering it." Lester took a moment to inspect the nails on one hand before polishing them on his new assistant manager's vest. "Maybe you haven't heard. Big Mike just made me the assistant manager. If anyone is going to be sending anyone else to cover the desk, it'll be me sending you. So… why don't you run along and help Jeffrey."

Chuck's mouth was slightly agape. Lester rolled on, a smug expression overtaking his face, "Poor Charles. Sorry to spoil your little scheme to stay back here and, ahem, sample all thirty-one flavors of your Dairy Queen."

"I'm gonna miss the weiners," piped Jeff. He had joined Lester, standing abreast with him in front of the cage.

Lester continued, "You can take that over to the Orange Orange after your shift." Lester punctuated "that" with a dismissive wave of his hand towards Sarah.

Chuck was readying himself to reply, but, lightning quick, Sarah stepped between him and Lester and grabbed a fistful of Lester's vest. The smugness drained from his face. "If you don't give Chuck and me some privacy, when I'm finished with you and your creepy sidekick the only thing the two of you will be able eat is my soft serve. Through a straw."

"You-you-you shouldn't even be back here. Chuck, you need to control your–" Sarah brought her face close to Lester's and what he saw scared a strangled squeak out of his mouth. "Alright, we're going! Come on, Jeff."

Jeff, looking between Lester and Sarah, whined, "But I like soft serve."

Lester hissed, "Jeffrey, let's go. Come on!" Sarah released Lester's vest and he made a hasty retreat out the same way that Chuck and she had entered. Reluctantly, Jeff followed.

Sarah watched them go, shaking her head. "That Lester is an idiot."

"Yeah," Chuck replied. "Dairy Queen? Everyone knows thirty-one flavors is Baskin Robbins."

Sarah gave Chuck a reproachful frown.

"Sorry, I get it," Chuck conceded, "It's no time for jokes. So what's got you so worried?"

Chuck and Sarah had drifted into the cage. Sarah stood, facing him. She took a deep breath. "Your life is in danger. And I don't mean Fulcrum, or terrorists, or some enemy state. Graham and Beckman… I think they want you dead."

Chuck lurched back a step, bumped into the edge of the workbench and leaned against it to steady himself. "Huh? That doesn't… Why? They're getting their own Intersect. I mean, I know they consider me government property, but now they'll have an Intersect computer and can put it in an agent of their choosing, not some flunkie working at Buy More. Heck, they can put it into ten agents. A hundred. I'll be nothing to them at that point."

"But you'd remain every bit as valuable to Fulcrum and others working against our government, Chuck. When they thought Fulcrum was getting close to discovering that you had the Intersect they were ready to throw you into a bunker rather than risk having you fall into Fulcrum's hands. Graham and Beckman were deathly afraid you were an exploitable weakness then. So why not now? The Director told you to enjoy the rest of your life seemingly without a care or worry. Does that sound like him?"

Chuck was quiet for a moment, the video call in Casey's apartment replaying in his head. "No, you're right, that doesn't sound like him at all." Chuck continued, now talking to himself as much as he was talking to Sarah. "An 'exploitable weakness.'" His eyes grew large. "Like the Death Star's thermal exhaust port!"

Sarah did not get the reference but gathered that Chuck understood.

"So what does Casey think?" Chuck asked. "Does he think they want me dead, too? Have you been able to talk to him?"

Sarah spoke deliberately, "Chuck, I think Graham and Beckman are sending Casey after you."

Chuck stared at Sarah for a long moment. "No. That can't be. I know the big guy has a tough interior to go along with his tough exterior, but we've worked –lived– side-by-side for a year." And while he certainly wouldn't admit it, he and I have a friendship… of sorts. "How could he?"

"Duty, a belief in a Greater Good, they're drilled into agents, Chuck. We rely on them when… difficult deeds must be done. But they can create a powerful riptide that makes going against an order very difficult for an agent, even a good agent when faced with an unjust order." Sarah could taste bile when she thought of her prior mission before coming to Burbank and her former handler –her last handler if she had her way. That damn unsanctioned mission… maybe before that I was beginning to let myself be pushed too far, but thank God I saw it. Thank God I was assigned Chuck. She thought about how almost from day one he helped her fight against that riptide and step ashore. How it started with him, literally on a beach. A small smile flickered on her face at that thought but immediately a panic washed over her as she realized the implications of what she had been saying to Chuck. She stepped towards him and put a hand on his forearm, squeezed it. "Chuck, I would never! If they ordered me to, I wouldn't."

"I know," Chuck said, a smile finding his face for a moment as he tried to ease the stricken look off of hers. "I trust you. Always have."

Sarah's grip eased and she let go of Chuck's arm, appreciative of his trust. "But," he continued, "Casey? Maybe Graham and the General." The memory of how he nearly ended up in a government underground complex because some Fulcrum agent masquerading as a shawarma delivery girl had gotten close came vividly back to Chuck. He felt a bit queasy. "More like probably, probably Graham and Beckman. But not Casey. Did you find something between him, Graham and Beckman?"

Sarah shook her head slowly. "No, not exactly. But after you left the roof he and I spoke and… I heard it in his voice... I saw it weighing on him." There was a time I would have thought no one could get close enough to the inscrutable Major John Casey to read him. Her gaze had drifted, now it returned to Chuck. "I could be wrong, but I don't think I am. And if I'm wrong I'll deal with the consequences."

Chuck wondered if this could really be true. Sarah by her own admission did not have anything concrete. Yet he trusted her and had tremendous faith in her instincts. Still in disbelief, but lacking his former conviction, Chuck murmured, "Casey is not trying to kill me."

Horns blared and the two of them started. The muffled sounds of "Mexican Hat Dance" were coming from Chuck's pocket. He pulled his cellphone out and looked at the screen. His head jerked up. "Speak of the Devil, it's Casey."

Sarah spoke rapidly. "Put him on speaker. Don't let him know I'm here or that we've spoken. Otherwise, be yourself and let's see if we can figure out what he's up to."

Chuck gave a quick nod and a thumbs-up, then laid the phone on the workbench and tapped the answer button and speaker mode. "Hey, Casey! How's it hanging, Cee-dog? You good? Because I'm good, better than good, I'm really good!"

Chuck grimaced as Sarah looked to the heavens and back to him. She mouthed, "Act natural." He nodded.

"Bartowski," Casey barked, "What's wrong with you? You sound like that idiot Grimes."

"Yeah, yeah, sorry, Casey. I think I'm amped up from today's excitement."

While Chuck was speaking Sarah had rummaged a pile on the workbench and found a pad of paper and a pen.

"You at the Buy More?" Casey asked.

"Yeah. Stuck in the back with a bunch of repairs and rebuilds to catch up on."

"And Walker? Did she contact you since we captured Colt?"

"Um, no, haven't heard from her since leaving you two on the roof." Chuck got an idea. "Should I call her? Maybe see if I can slip outta here early and meet you both back at your place to fill in Beckman and Graham? You could call in sick."

"No!" There was subtle, but unmistakable, alarm in Casey's reply. When he spoke again his voice had an un-Casey-like breeziness. "Uh, no, Walker had a rough go today. I'll give the General and Director a brief update tonight, and then all three of us can give a more thorough report tomorrow."

Sarah jotted on the pad: THAT'S GOOD KEEP POKING

"Ok, that sounds better to me anyways. When my shift is over I was going to see if Morgan wanted to head back to my place tonight and watch 'The Phantom Menace.'"

"'Phantom Menace?'"

"You know, Star Wars Episode One. I'm a glutton for punishment, plus it's fun to do bad impersonations of Jar Jar. Yeah, I should go find Morgan."

There was a brief pause, then Casey replied, "Uh, forget Grimes for tonight. I'll watch with you. I'll tell Mike I need to cut my shift short and then I can drive us back to the apartments so you don't have to bother with borrowing one of the Herders." Another pause. "I have been meaning to watch that movie… it'll be… fun."

Sarah wrote: MENTION ME AGAIN

"Alright. Hey, maybe I should ask Sarah. I know you said to give her a break, but we'd just be kicking back and watching the movie. Some quality bonding time for Team Bartowski. I'll call her right after we hang up."

"No, Bartowski, listen to me. Don't call Sarah. Tonight is just you and me. Two… buddies, hanging out. You got that?"

"Yeah, sure, Casey. Just you and me. Sounds great. See you soon."

Chuck ended the call and muttered, "Hang out? It'll be fun?" Sarah was correct, Chuck thought, something was off with Casey. But he's a pro. If he was going to do me harm, it would be nothing more to him than taking out the trash. Chuck reconsidered. No. The big guy and I, we do have a friendship no matter how much he pretends otherwise. This can't be easy for him. But his devotion to duty is all he's had for a long time. That's winning out. Chuck's heart went out to Casey, then it sank, and as it did he felt a panic rise. John Casey, soldier-NSA agent-trained killer, is coming for me. He turned to Sarah, gulped, and asked, "Ok, I believe you, so what do we do?"

"We have to run."

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A/N: This chapter and the next will be setting the stage, then matters will move rapidly.

Please consider leaving a review and/or dropping me a PM and letting me know what you think -the good, the bad, the ugly. (I ain't too proud to beg.)

For those who do not have S2:E1 "Chuck vs the First Date" fresh in their memory, Morgan in fact staged a Thunderdome style battle between Jeff and Lester in the stockroom cage to see who would be assistant manager. The last line here, "We have to run," is what Sarah whispers to Chuck at the end of S2:E20 "Chuck vs the First Kill" when she defies Beckman's orders to bring Chuck back to Castle so he can be tranqued by Casey and taken to the bunker.

My thanks go to David Carner, SmatterChoo, WillieGarvin and Zettel for their assistance and encouragement with this chapter.