EPILOGUE The First: Shaking The Family Tree
A/N: We are near to the end. But in this chapter the whole reason why I thought of a West Wing crossover is (FINALLY) revealed. Originally I had thought that the reason would be in one of the first chapters, but it wound up in the first epilogue. And I fell off of the wagon a bit on the no action plan. But just a bit, and it's mostly implied.
I hope you enjoy.
The revelation of Chuck's past as a top tier hacker, as well as the lengths he went for Emma and Molly had been quite the shock. Between that and the engagement, Sarah's mind was still reeling the following day. Those two factors, combined with the fact that Sarah had never fallen in love before and never really contemplated being married while a CIA agent, meant that she had had no ideas about the wedding or the wedding dress. Emma and Ellie then decided they should sit down with her and help out with the details. Morgan would show up with Carmichael Industries child friendly videogames to play with Molly. He, shockingly, proved to have quite the skillset as an au pair.
It was at the third such meeting that Sarah had started to feel overwhelmed at the amount of details that needed to be decided, so she had opened up the album beneath the wedding album, which had a photo on the cover of the debate. She had decided give in to the temptation to show off her fiancé to her mom, with the added bonus of distracting the other two women from the overwhelming experience of planning a wedding. Emma suddenly looked as though she had seen a ghost. The doctor in Ellie became alarmed at the sudden pallor in Emma's face. Sarah was freaking out over why her normally unflappable mother now looked to be on the verge of passing out. Sarah looked down at the open page of the photo album that Ellie had brought out.
Ellie had previously broken out the photo album of her wedding to Awesome to get some ideas and recommendations. They had managed so far to pick out the date, venue and floral arrangements (a simple bouquet of gardenias for Sarah while the bridesmaids would have calla lilies). It was when Sarah began flipping through the pictures from the debate, sharing inside stories with Ellie, that her mom's hand had suddenly shot out, stopping Sarah from flipping to the next page in the album.
Sarah looked down at the open page, but nothing seemed unusual or abnormal about the picture. It was a candid shot of Chuck on stage shortly before the debate against Bartlett had begun. Truth be told, it was one of Sarah's favorite pictures of him (at least her favorite that didn't feature the two of them together). The television people had been blocking camera angles and lighting before the start of the debate.
In the photo, Chuck stood behind one podium, with Morgan beside him as they looked over notes on a tablet. Chuck was dressed casually, a pair of dark jeans couple with a button down dress shirt and his ubiquitous Chuck Taylor sneakers. Jed Bartlett (his version of casual attire had been a bespoke suit without the tie) was standing next to his own podium as his campaign advisor (later Vice President) Bob Russell discussed a few last minute pointers with him. Sarah was at a complete loss as to what had so badly spooked her mother.
"Sarah," Emma murmured in a whisper so low that Sarah had to strain to hear her. "Did you speak with him?"
"Who Chuck?" Sarah asked, still thoroughly confused. "No Mom. He was in his crunch time preparations and Casey and I were on high alert for any attempt by Javier Cruz to try to get to Chuck. I mean, I told him that he was going to do great, and to not freak out. Honestly, his hands were so sweaty, I was surprised during the debate that his grip didn't slide right off of the podium. But he did so great," Sarah added with no small amount of pride-or any attempt to hide that pride. "But his focus was on his talking points for the debate, while my focus was on making sure he stayed alive."
Emma couldn't help but show a weak smile as she saw, yet again, how deeply in love her daughter was with this remarkable young man. "No, Sarah. Not Chuck. Your father. Did you speak with your father?" Emma then jabbed her finger at the image of Bob Russell in the corner of the photograph. "His hair has gone a little salt-and-pepper by the temples, but that man right there is Jack Burton. After all of these years, you were right next to your dad."
"My father," Sarah instinctively corrected her mother. "He hasn't earned the right to the title 'Dad'."
Ellie rushed over to wrap Sarah up in a trademark, bone crushing hug, her protective instincts on overdrive. "Sarah, your dad…" Ellie trailed off, noticing the hard gaze that had descended over Sarah's face. Ellie knew that this was the look many a bad guy had seen just before meeting their maker. "Sorry-your father-is the Vice President of the United States. This is huge. You can finally learn about the other half of your family." Ellie shot her a beaming grin, clearly excited about the prospect.
"What am I supposed to do," Sarah mumbled, stunned at the unexpected development.
"I think that it would be a good idea to bring in Chuck," Ellie continued. "But, sweetie, you know he'll back you up, whatever you decide. No questions asked."
Later on, Chuck was unable to recall any details about his trip home, other than what normally took him 45 minutes to drive only took 20. He remembered being at a production meeting in a conference room at Carmichael Industries and receiving a call from Sarah, who had said, "I need you to come home," in a voice that sounded so lost. The next thing Chuck remembered was the sound of the tires on his car screeching to a halt in the parking lot of the Echo Park apartment complex.
He knew in the back of his mind that he had driven fast, recklessly fast even, but the only conscious thought he had was that Sarah needed him and that he wasn't moving fast enough. He also knew that at some point he would need to apologize to Morgan and the production team for bolting out of the conference room meeting without any explanation. Well, Morgan might not get the apology. Chuck may not have been paying attention to his bearded buddy, but he was pretty sure that as he rushed from the room that Morgan had called out, "Sexting and a little afternoon delight? Me likey." Yeah, Morgan wasn't getting any apology any time soon.
Chuck burst into the living room, barely taking note of Emma seated on the sofa, deep in thought, or of Ellie standing near the dining table, looking giddy with excitement. None of that mattered as he scanned for Sarah. At the sound of the front door crashing open, she had walked from their bedroom, looking both flustered and lost. Her body sagged with relief on seeing Chuck, who immediately scrambled to her side.
"Sarah," Chuck exhaled, his panic over what was wrong with his fiancé easing now that he could see and hold her, although her flustered and lost look was so foreign for her that a new panic started in. "You're all right. Oh, thank god. I mean…are you all right? What's wrong? What can I do?"
Surprisingly, seeing Chuck panicking helped Sarah to focus and prioritize. Chuck before my father. With Chuck by my side, I can handle this. "Don't freak out, but Bob Russell is my father. We finally found him."
Hearing Sarah's voice, combined with her resting her hand on his forearm, immediately centered Chuck, stopping his panic attack in its tracks. "Wait. Bob Russell, as in the Vice President, Jed Bartlett's Bob Russell? That Bob Russell is your father? I but thought you were looking for Jack Burton?"
Emma walked up beside her daughter, pulling her into a one armed hug, which Sarah leaned into while maintaining her hold on Chuck's arm. "He's one and the same, Chuck. I'm certain of it. I don't have any proof, mind you. But I'm certain."
"You don't have to prove anything to me Mrs…ah, Emma," Chuck stuttered as Emma had shot him a glare scarily similar to the look her daughter had mastered. Chuck focused back on Sarah, "You finally found him! You found your dad. We have got to go see him. You need to talk to him."
"First of all, why does everyone insist on referring to him as my 'dad'? And what happened to all of the 'We're all we've got, we're all we need' business?" Sarah instantly felt a little guilty for lashing out. She was confused and angry, while Chuck hadn't done anything wrong. She had needed him here, and he had literally dropped everything to be by her side.
"We are all we need, Sarah," Chuck said in earnest. "But the question is: what do you want? You've got family with Emma and Molly, me, Ellie and Awesome. And you will always have us. But do you want to get to know your father? To take a chance and maybe expand that family?"
As was a fairly common occurrence these days, John Casey was the NSA liaison to the National Security Council. He secretly loathed the duty, away from the field surrounded by REMFs who were perfectly willing to risk anyone's life in order to advance their agenda-anyone's life except their own that is. As his gunnery sergeant in boot camp had pointed out, how can you be expected to lead troops in battle if your entire career was spent behind a desk?"
But he had his orders from General Beckman, and his orders for the day were to be stationed at the White House. It could be worse, he supposed. Bartlett was a tree-hugging liberal who was interjecting the government into every facet of everyone's life (an irony lost on Casey), but he had a strong commander as the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and he took Admiral Fitzwallace's counsel seriously. And Casey was impressed with how Bartlett had wanted to punish those responsible for downing the aircraft with his personal physician aboard even though Bartlett had eventually come to see reason from Admiral Fitzwallace about "proportional response". Casey wasn't a fan of proportional response either. He would have advocated crushing those who dared to attack the United States.
Entering the White House through the tunnel access from the Old Executive Office Building, Casey was surprised to see Bartowski and Walker logging in with the Secret Service but well away from the public entrance-indicating that their visit was likely off of the official visitor logs. Walking up to the couple, Casey shook hands with each, congratulating them on the news of their engagement. It wasn't a surprise to Casey. He had seen how they had fallen for each other, though as far as he was convinced in the game of love there were nothing but losers. Maybe these two would be different. Walker had been a helluva agent, although word on the street was that she was doing good work at keeping the secrets locked away in Lockheed's SkunkWorks. Hmm, maybe the White House should hire her to stop all these damned leaks…Nah, there wouldn't be anyone left here to even answer the phones. Wonder why these two are out here in DC?
Before heading off to the access get to the subterranean Situation Room, Casey paused to look back at Walker, one last chance to poke the tiger. "It was the bonsai trees, wasn't it? Ladies can never resist a good bonsai tree." As he strode away, he could hear Bartowski laughing while Walker merely said, "Who knows? Maybe Casey's onto something?"
Given Chuck's request for a private meeting, Jed Bartlett had decided to allow Chuck and Sarah to come up to the residence level of the White House. It was a rare honor, but Bartlett didn't need to know much about Chuck to respect him and to respect his request.
Chuck and Sarah walked into a room filled from floor to ceiling with books stacked neatly into bookshelves. Hundreds of tomes on everything from economics to history to cooking. The room was a mini-library unto itself. It also featured some very comfortable leather chairs and an antique leather sofa that was so comfortable, Chuck could have taken a nap-if it hadn't been for the fact that he was in the White House and was about to tell a bombshell of a secret that could have serious repercussions for the presidency.
Chuck and Sarah had to wait only a few minutes, opting to sit side by side on the sofa, Chuck's presence had a calming effect on Sarah as she thought about meeting her father properly for the first time. Jed Bartlett came in and collapsed down into one of the overstuffed chairs. Before he could speak, a young man in a suit came in and whispered discretely into the President's ear.
Looking from the retreating form of the young man to Chuck and back, Bartlett spoke, "I suddenly feel as though I'm surrounded by Charleses. But neither of you see fit to use the name your parents gave you. My assistant there prefers Charlie, rather than Chuck. He is a fine young man, with one major character flaw-my daughter Zoe likes him," the President grumbled at the end.
"Forgive me Mr. President…" Chuck began.
"We're alone here Chuck, well the Secret Service is watching a video feed-but there's no audio. You can call me Jed."
"Shame you don't choose to go by the name your parents gave you," Chuck countered with a smirk, surprising Sarah with his cheek.
President Bartlett tilted his head back with a quick laugh. "Touche, Chuck. Touche."
"Before we get to the reason for our visit," Chuck continued, "can I just ask how your daughter liking your assistant is his character flaw?"
"When you have a daughter, you'll understand," Bartlett said in an ominous tone. "He's an exceptional young man, but he's still a man." The President paused with a hard look. "And she will always be my little girl."
"Yes, sir," Chuck responded with a slight smile.
"Speaking of women," Bartlett continued while extending his hand towards Sarah, "congratulations on your engagement Ms. Walker. You've found yourself a rare species. A truly honorable man who was involved in politics. And, from what Ron Butterfield tells me, my congratulations to you Chuck. Ron was very impressed with Ms. Walker here when she was on his detail, and he is an excellent judge of character." The President turned his head to the side as he grumbled, "Even if he does think that I should allow Zoe to go on a date with Charlie."
"Thank you, Mr. President," Sarah responded.
"Please, it's Jed," Bartlett said with an exaggeratedly pained expression. "I have enough people around here kissing my rear end at every opportunity. I would be grateful if this conversation could be a bit different."
"Now, Chuck, you indicated that you and Ms. Walker had some very sensitive information that you wanted to convey only to me. I'm afraid that given my schedule I have little time today, or pretty much any day, but the next ten minutes are yours. Proceed."
Chuck reached over, squeezing Sarah's hand in a show of support for her to take the lead.
"Jed, I was raised by a single mother. When she was in college, she met a young man while on spring vacation. She instantly fell in love, and they weren't as careful as they thought they were being. But the man disappeared before she found out she was pregnant. She searched and searched, but realized that the name he had given her, Jack Burton, was just an alias. She never knew his real name, or where he was from."
Sarah paused for a moment, wondering how the next bit of information would shape the lives of all three in the room moving forward. "Recently my mother was up in LA to help plan the wedding," Sarah admitted with a blush.
"Ah, yes," Bartlett said with a grin. "It was one of Abby's favorite activities as well. It was not a favorite activity for my bank account. Nothing but the best for her girls."
"Yes, sir. My mother does seem to want everything to be perfect. The thing is, on her last visit, I was showing my mother some pictures from the debate-I needed a break from the planning, if I'm being honest."
Chuck let out a broad grin, and gave her a kiss on the cheek that instantly made Sarah feel better and more confident.
"When we were looking through an album, she spotted Jack Burton. Recognized him immediately, and without any doubt." Sarah heaved a sigh as she prepared to unveil the secret, "the man is Vice President Russell. Chuck did some digging as well," Sarah said, being deliberately evasive about the type of searches, "and we are certain that during his college years and early twenties, Bob Russell used the alias of Jack Burton. Vice President Russell is my father."
"We're not going public with this. He's got a right to know he has a daughter, and an amazing woman at that. And she has the right to meet her father. They are family. That is to be cherished, not spread across the tabloids," Chuck stated, firm in his convictions. Sarah once again marveled over the fact that this amazing man was committing himself to her for the rest of their lives.
"You really don't get the gritty side of politics do you? That's actually a good thing. You're an honorable man Chuck Bartowski. Bob Russell is a good man at heart. But he's also a shrewd political operator. And right now he would only see the two of you as a threat. You going public with this would destroy what he's spent his whole career building up. Give him some time and he won't see a threat. He'll see a remarkable young woman he can be proud to call a daughter. I'll help him along the way. Frankly I can't imagine my life without my girls in it. They are what makes me want to make this country a better place. Bob will come to see that."
Bartlett exhaled loudly, as he looked up to the ceiling. "I appreciate the two of you being as discreet as you have been. Things are a bit tense for the Vice President at the moment. There appears to be a whisper campaign out to discredit him. The chief of staff for a senior senator overheard a comment casually dropped in the hallway of the Russell Senate Office Building the other day. The comment was designed to subtly smear the character of Bob. The chief of staff has been on Capitol hill for a long time, and found the comment to be a calculated attack on the Vice President."
"The gentleman is also a long time tennis partner of my chief of staff, Leo McGarrity. Leo told me of the concern the same day that your friend, Ron Butterfield, remarked to me that the Secret Service was aware of some strange chatter about the Vice President and a hint that a longtime DC insider was being groomed to take over the Vice Presidency."
"I have asked General Beckman of the NSA to quietly look into the matter. I believe that the agent she assigned is the same one who worked with you, Ms. Walker, on the threat against Charles here. A Major John Casey. Ron Butterfield told me that, until recently, you were with the CIA, but little else Ms. Walker."
"I wouldn't feel offended sir. I'm engaged to her and she tells me nothing of mission specifics," Chuck said, but with a smile that took any sting out of his words.
"It's unlikely that she ever will. When I won the general election, I received a briefing from the intelligence services, including the CIA. If you ever want to sleep soundly at night, I would recommend against becoming the President and receiving such a briefing. But one point that was hammered home hard was that 'need to know' wasn't just a guideline. It is a mantra in the intelligence community. Breaking the rule could result in an entire spy ring being caught and executed."
"Not long ago a story became public about a CIA officer who set up an incredibly effective spy ring in the early years of Fidel Castro's reign. This officer's agents were the first to learn that the Soviet Union was installing nuclear missiles in Cuba. Folks in the CIA headquarters and here at the White House kept rejecting the information as preposterous. The officer and his spies kept gathering the information, finally getting to the point where the White House relented in resuming U2 flights over Cuba-which had been shut down for months. They were told exactly where to look, and when they looked they got pictures of the missiles that everyone had said couldn't possibly be there. The history books for decades credited the U2 flights with breaking the news that started the Cuban Missile Crisis."
"The reason for this story, Charles, is that the CIA officer who was actually responsible for developing the intel never complained, never told anyone aside from his immediate supervisor about what information he had learned. The reason for his silence was the 'need to know' mantra. His closest friend at the Agency wound up rising to the level of Deputy Director, Operations, yet his friend only found out about the officer's achievement after his death when another member of the team complained about the lack of recognition for the man. His closest friend was the top CIA officer for every operation being run by the Agency, yet this man never spoke of his achievement to the DDO, as there was no need for him to know. Don't take it to heart, son, and never hold it against her."
"Well, as much as I enjoy our discussions, Charles, unfortunately I need to get to my next meeting. I will make arrangements for the three of us to meet with Bob privately in order to discuss this matter. I agree with Charles, here, Ms. Walker. Family is to be cherished. And if the man is indeed your father, he has a right to get to know the remarkable daughter that he doesn't know he has."
So far in the three weeks following the meeting in DC there had been no word from the President regarding the time and place for Sarah to meet her father. But both Sarah and Chuck put their trust in Jed Bartlett that he would be true to his word and make the arrangements. Chuck was home alone, a rare event, with Sarah and Emma off doing one type of wedding preparation or another, with Ellie pulling an overnight shift at Westside. Chuck had offered to help out, but usually found that his help wasn't so helpful. As a result, he got to sit this particular event out. As he wasn't expecting any one home for an hour or more, the knock at the door surprised him. When he opened the door, what he saw surprised him even more.
"Hi Chuck, do you think I could come inside for a moment. I'd like to talk."
Maybe I'm asleep. Maybe this is some horrible nightmare triggered by the fast food I ate at lunch today. Despite his intentions, his ingrained politeness had Chuck stepping aside before his brain caught up to his body. Ellie, that was one lesson you would regret emphasizing when you hear about this.
"I saw in the news that you were getting married. I had to come see you right away. I know you, Chuck," Jill said, tears leaking out of the corners of her eyes. "You still love me, and I love you. I made a mistake, a big one. And it is a mistake that I regret every single day. I am so, so sorry for what I did. But I want to give us another chance." She looked at him, silent in her pleading as she waited for his reaction. When it didn't come quickly enough, she decided to prompt it. "What do you say, Chuck? Will you give us another chance?"
"I am in love with somebody," Chuck said after finally finding his voice. "But it's not you." Chuck turned and walked to the far side of the room, needing as much distance from Jill as he could. "I know you cheated on me-hell, the whole world knows that you cheated on me. But I owe you an apology."
Jill was confused. He is saying that he was in love with someone else, but also owes me an apology? Was he cheating on me the whole time that I was cheating on him? Unlikely given that this is Chuck, but if so I can use that guilt to my advantage. Her face showed her confusion and uncertainty. Unbeknownst to her, the look of confusion and uncertainty was mirrored on another face that had heard the voice and snuck into position outside of the window. Sarah started to ease her favorite throwing knife out of its sheath strapped just below the base of her neck. She was going to teach Jill that Chuck was now, and always would be, taken. It was a lesson that Sarah looked forward to teaching.
But why does Chuck owe her anything, much less an apology?
"The truth is," Chuck finally said. "I never should have proposed to you in the first place. I realize now that I was never really in love with you in the first place. I think it was more that I was inexperienced in the ways of love, and conflated the idea of being in love with actually experiencing love. I had nothing to compare my feelings to. But I've met someone, and now I know what it truly means to be in love, to be committed mind, body and soul to another. I would step in front of a bullet a hundred times over in order to make sure that she wouldn't get hurt."
"You and I never had that Jill," Chuck said with a passion that shocked and saddened Jill as she realized that she was much farther behind in the chase than she had imagined. "It was wrong of me to try to force that on us."
"Oh," Chuck continued, finally turning to look his former fiancé in the eyes. "Jill, while I know that Sarah is an amazing person, she does have a skill when it comes to dispensing violence. While you cheated on me, and left me emotionally crippled for months, I don't necessarily want to see you dead. I'm afraid that I couldn't say the same for Sarah. Not only would she be happy to see you dead, she is far more than capable of achieving that particular end."
Sarah eased the knife back into its scabbard. The emotional dagger that Chuck had just plunged into Jill had caused enough damage-for now at least.
Jill walked out of Chuck's apartment and started to head to the archway to get back to her car. She had been so confident that Chuck would take her back after a few crocodile tears and pleading eyes. He had always been a soft touch, something that she had despised during their dating and engagement. Her Uncle Bernie had taught her from a young age that if a person wants to succeed, to make a name for themselves, they must be focused and ruthless.
That was why she was having an affair with her boss. The man was neurotic as hell, but he was also putty in her hands. In exchange for sex, she had repeatedly been promoted over other more experienced and more qualified co-workers. She never understood why Chuck overreacted the way he did. It wasn't like she had any real feelings for LaFleur. Hell, she hardly had any real feelings for Chuck. The business with her boss was just that—business. Chuck would come to see that eventually. It would just take a little more work. All she had to do was to make sure that he didn't marry this interloper in the the meantime.
Jill heard a slight whistle as something sped through the air past her ear a moment before a light thunk could be heard from the tiki torch next to the archway. She looked to her right and saw a gleaming silver knife embedded in the torch, still vibrating slightly from the impact.
"I'm going to have to disagree with my fiancé about something," Sarah said in a cold, emotionless voice that scared the crap out of Jill. Her tone and her casual stance screamed out that she was a dangerous woman perfectly at home with violence. "I don't feel the least bit sorry for you. I do, however, agree with him about my skill at doling out pain. I practically made it into an art form. But I'm not going to do that to you, tonight at least. Think of this as your Get Out Of Jail Free pass. If you ever try to contact Chuck again, I will teach you what the word pain really means." The whisper of a grin freaked Jill out even more than the terrifying speech.
Sarah strode past the gawking Jill, pulling out her throwing knife without breaking stride as she headed into the apartment to her Chuck. Jill turned and ran to her car, fumbling her keys in her hurry to unlock the door. As she was straightening up after retrieving the keys, she muttered, "That goddamned psycho could have killed me!"
Suddenly she was slammed face first into her car door. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw auburn hair flowing like fire as the woman who had attacked her completed her spinning roundhouse kick. "Trust me. If Blondie wanted to kill you, you'd be dead before you even knew she was there. And you wouldn't be the first to learn that particular fact." The woman was strikingly beautiful, but her eyes had a feral look to them as she stared at Jill with contempt.
Jill had no more time to think anything more than "I'm in trouble" before a fist was slammed up into her solar plexus, driving the air from her lungs as she fell to her knees yet again. An equally beautiful brunette had appeared out of nowhere at Jill's side, looking just as furious as the redhead. Judging by her punch, she was also just as capable at causing pain. "If you were dumb enough to break Chuck's heart, you might be dumb enough to ignore Sarah's warning. So we're going to make sure that the point gets…hammered home."
Two minutes later, Zondra and Carina were sitting in Zondra's BMW M6, touching up a few stray hairs that had come out of place. Neither had even broken a sweat in the lesson taught to Chuck's ex. They still had plenty of time to head over to Zondra's place to freshen up and change into appropriate attire before heading to the grand opening for Club Ares. Sarah had declined the chance to join them in their night out, instead opting to stay in Burbank. Or Yawnsville as Carina had taken to calling it.
"Probably best if we don't mention this to Chuck and Sarah," Zondra mentioned as they drove away from the Echo Park complex.
"Oh, I don't know," Carina responded. "Walker would probably appreciate the touch of throwing Jill into the dumpster. That way she not only gets to wake up with a concussion, but to the smell of trash as well."
The following morning saw Carina strolling through the same archway into the courtyard of Echo Park, still decked out in her club attire from the night before. Sarah was standing beside the water fountain, laughing at something that Ellie had just told her.
"Well, well. Look at what the CAT dragged in," Sarah drawled in good humor.
"That was terrible, Walker. Even for you," Carina deadpanned in response.
"You may as well get used to saying Bartowski," Sarah retorted, causing a huge grin to erupt on Ellie's face and a grimace on Carina's. "It's going to be my name soon. Not soon enough, but soon. And there's no chance of it going back to Walker."
"You are seriously going to go by just one name for the rest of your life? And Bartowski at that? No offense," Carina causally waived in Ellie's direction. But Ellie was too thrilled at Sarah's statement to take offense at the words of a stranger. "That is so boring. It's like if a yawn could yawn. Which is kind of perfect for this place," Carina said as she cast a less than impressed glance around the courtyard.
"You do realize that 99.9% of the population only goes by one identity?" Sarah countered.
"I always knew I was special. 0.1%. I like it. Come on. Let's go meet this albatross who is dragging you down from the life of spying."
Sarah reluctantly led Carina over to the apartment, hoping against hope that Carina would behave herself once she actually met Chuck. Her wishing was in vain.
"Well, Chuckie. Maybe I should take you for a spin so that I can see what has Walker here ditching our world to be with you," Carina said in a sultry tone while strutting towards Chuck as if she was on a catwalk in Milan. Rather than being upset, Ellie looked to Sarah to see how she would react to her friend's statement.
"Try it and I'll rip you limb from limb from limb," Sarah growled out, unable to keep from rising to the bait that Carina had laid out.
"Well, by my count that would leave me with at least one good limb. That should be enough to rock Chuck's world. What do you say stud?"
"I don't get it," Chuck said while looking at Carina in complete confusion. "Aside from turning the guy-me in this scenario- from a partner to a mere object, why would you do that to Sarah? Deliberately betray her trust like that?" By now Chuck was looking less confused and more put out by Carina's come on.
"Is he for real," Carina muttered to Sarah.
"He's better than real. He's Chuck. More precisely, he's my Chuck." Sarah glowed with pride at how her fiancé had so effortlessly put Carina in her place. Ellie vibrated with happiness over how in love her friend was with her brother, and was beaming at how far Sarah had come in being comfortable at expressing her emotions.
"You know," Sarah continued, "Ellie was just telling me about the sight she saw when she got home after her overnight shift at the hospital. Apparently Chuck's ex, Jill, was crawling her way out of a trash dumpster sporting a broken nose, two black eyes, and a rotten banana peel stuck to her hair. With you in town, it suddenly makes more sense. Come on, we need to hurry if we are going to pick up Zondra and go to the dress fitting."
"Are you sure you want to marry a guy who dated dumpster diving women?" Carina asked with a completely straight face.
Ellie started laughing hysterically," You and I are going to get along just fine."
"And this is," Carina gestured back towards Ellie while looking at Sarah.
"That is Ellie," Sarah replied. "my soon to be sister." Her smug grin triggered a bone crushing hug from Ellie. You'd think that by now I'd anticipate those. Well, I've got the rest of my life to get used to them.
A/N 2: Gary Cole as both Jack Burton and Bob Russell. The original spark of an idea was for Bartwoski/Grimes versus Bartlett/Russell but with Sarah still as on temporary duty from the CIA to Secret Service. If you've gotten this far in the story, you know that is not remotely how the story wound up evolving. One last installment to go. It's mostly written, but I have no idea at this point if it's going to be ready in a week. That is still the goal. Also, I stole a line from a song by Halestorm in this chapter. It was paraphrased slightly, but it was perfect for the moment.