A/N: Welcome, my friends, to the twenty-third arc of our story, which I'm calling the Gentle Hand arc, loosely based on Chuck vs. the CAT Squad (season 4, episode 15). Wow, twenty-three arcs and I still own nothing other than a warm feeling for these characters.
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Chuck came into the apartment with grocery bags in both hands and his messenger bag over one shoulder. Sarah was sitting on the floor crossed legged in front of the couch flying a drone around the living room.
"Hey, how'd you do?" she asked him.
"Good. I think I got everything on Amy's list," he said, bending down to give her a kiss and then moving to the kitchen to put down the bags.
She landed the drone and put it back into its case with the controller as Chuck was unpacking the groceries. At a knock at the door Sarah said, "I'll get it. You keep unpacking the stuff. You got home just in time."
"Yeah. She must have been just behind me."
When Sarah opened the door, Amy greeted her with a hug.
"Hey, there."
"Hey. Chuck home yet?" asked Amy.
"Yup. He just walked in. Got everything on your list."
"It's going to be great. You'll see," said Amy with a cocky grin and a swagger in her step.
"Ok. Glass of wine while we cook?"
"You could twist my arm," she said. "Hey, Chuck."
"Hey, Ames. Here you go. We've got a cold bottle of the Grgich chard working." He gave her a glass of the white wine and poured himself an icy glass of Zyr vodka.
"Ohhh. Nothing but the best for me, I see," she said with a grin.
"Of course," answered Chuck, giving her a kiss hello on the cheek as she came around the counter. Addressing himself to both women he said, "You guys good? I was going to go back and take off my work clothes."
"Go for it, Sweetie. We'll call you if we need anything from a high shelf," said Sarah with a grin.
Chuck headed to his bedroom with his glass of vodka. When he came back a few minutes later wearing jeans and a Captain America tee-shirt, he heard Amy saying, "Dammit, mangos are a pain in the ass to cut up."
"I'm sure there's a trick we just don't know," said Sarah.
"Yeah," groused Amy. "Like buying pre-sliced mangos."
"That would do it," said Sarah, laughing. She moved a pan off the burner and said, "The cashews are done."
"Excellent," said Amy.
Eileen and Morgan were behind the bar at O'Malley's, with Casey on the other side of the bar keeping them company. Ellie and Devon were working an overnight shift. So, Amy came over for dinner wanting to try a recipe for boneless chicken thighs with black pepper, mangos, cashews and dark rum.
Chuck sat at the table, sipped his vodka and opened his computer. He had a bunch of emails for Carmichael Industries to return, so he got started on that.
After a while Sarah asked him to set the table. He was just finishing when he heard a WHOOMP and looked over to see Amy waving a dish towel with one hand at a flaming tray of chicken thighs. Sarah was laughing hysterically.
"It wasn't supposed to ignite," complained Amy with a smile, holding an open bottle of dark rum in her other hand.
Trying not to fall over from laughing, one hand braced on the counter, Sarah said, "I don't think you have any eyebrows left."
"What?... No," said Amy, laughing herself but touching her eyebrows to make sure Sarah was exaggerating.
Chuck said, "Um...ladies...shouldn't we put out the fire? I think the smoke detector is going to go off."
"Ok, I guess," said Sarah still laughing. She found another tray of the same size and covered the flames, smothering them.
All of them were laughing. They opened another bottle of wine. Chuck finished his vodka and grabbed a wine glass. He helped the ladies bring the food to the table.
The chicken was delicious and, with the unexpected flambe from the burning rum, nice and crispy on the outside. They had served it with wild rice and a salad. Everyone agreed that the cooking experiment had been a success.
After a while they stopped talking about the food and the topic changed to one that had been on Chuck's mind for a few days. Chuck said, "I loved it. Totally loved it."
Sarah said, "Yeah, me too. It was much more fun than I thought. That fight they had in that town...where the old guy came from...when he used the suit to beat up the bad terrorist guys? That was very cool. And the flying thing with the fighters? Really cool too."
"Yeah," said Amy. "I want a suit like that."
"I know, but the end...the after-credits scene..."
"With Samuel L. Jackson?" asked Amy.
"Yeah," said Chuck. "It means there are going to be more movies. The Avengers..."
"Oh," said Sarah, perking up with a pop culture reference she connected with. "I remember them...Emma Peel...so cool. She was awesome when I was a little girl. I would catch it on re-runs."
"Right...I mean, no," said Chuck. "Same name but different group. This is a group of superheroes that work with Iron Man and are in the same universe. Hulk, Antman, Wasp, Thor..."
"Wait a second," said Sarah, holding up her hand in a stop gesture. "There's a superhero called Antman? Antman? Seriously? That doesn't sound very intimidating." She squeezed two fingers really close together and squinted as if trying to see between them. "Hey, Antman, time to stop the bank robbers." She looked up at Chuck. "I don't know, Sweetie. I'm not likely to follow you along on that one."
They were all laughing.
Chuck said, "So, Amy, tell the truth. Did you like it?"
Amy said, trying to look serious, "Ok, just going to tell you guys the truth. If I ever run into Robert Downey, Jr. in real life on the streets of Burbank I'm going to strip naked, slather myself from head to toe with baby oil and throw myself at his feet."
Laughing, Sarah raised her wine glass to Amy and said, "Word. You go, girl."
They clicked glasses.
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The next morning, Sarah sat in her office at Carmichael Industries looking out her window at the studio lot and on a call with John Neilson, their lawyer from New York.
"Nope, sorry, John. I didn't get to look at the mark up of the Western First contract either," Sarah admitted.
"Ok, no problem. I'll tell their lawyers it's my fault. That way they won't think we are putting the deal on the back burner," he said. "I'll just tell them I've been too busy to get to it. Promise it...what...next week?"
"That's fine. You don't have to take the blame, John," she said.
"Sarah, no big deal. I do it all the time. It's standard operating procedure for transactional lawyers like me. Don't worry about it," he said.
"Well, ok. Thanks. If you really don't mind."
"Not at all. Look, you have two full time jobs and you're planning a wedding. You're not just burning the candle at both ends, you've thrown the damn thing on the bonfire."
"Thanks. We have been pretty busy lately."
"Which is the reason for my next suggestion. I know you are only in business a few months, but the volume of work you are doing is increasing every day. By a lot. Contracts with the government and private companies. Contracts with vendors for your own stuff. All the employment agreements that Amy is handling. The non-disclosure paperwork. Don't get me wrong, I'm delighted to collect the fees for all those smaller jobs...delighted...but you should give some thought to hiring an inhouse lawyer for CI. Someone to take that bread-and-butter stuff inhouse. You'd save money and take some of the burden off your shoulders. They can still send it out to my guys if they want, but someone to help you just keeping track of everything. I know hiring is a pain in the ass, and takes a bunch of time you don't have, but in the long run it may be for the best."
"Ok, John. I appreciate the advice. I'll talk to the others and let you know," she said. There was a tone on her computer and Sarah looked at the alert. "Sorry, John. My other bosses want a conversation asap. Gotta jump."
"Go save the world, Sarah. I'll talk to you later," he said chuckling.
Sarah hung up and left her office. Amy was already in the corridor in front of her office and as she watched Casey and Chuck came out of their offices. Without a word, all four of them made their way to the elevator.
As the doors were opening, Chuck said, "I still think batpoles would have been faster."
Casey growled, "Don't start that again, moron."
"Just sayin'."
Amy snickered and said, "You two crack me up."
Chuck grinned at her behind Casey's back.
When the elevator dropped them into Castle they activated the view screen, connecting them to the video conference and stood behind the table, waiting for their bosses to join.
When the screen came alive, they were surprised to see DNI John Malone rather than either Graham or Beckman.
"Good morning, Team B," he began.
"Morning, Sir," they replied.
"You are talking to me today, rather than either of the directors because this mission comes directly from the Oval Office. The President sends his regards, by the way. The FBI investigation onto the events in Bakersfield has led in an interesting direction. They have managed to identify most of the men you engaged as members of a radical jihadist group operating out of Yemen. No real surprises there. The interesting part is that the investigation revealed a direct link to the Gentle Hand."
Both Sarah and Amy reacted visibly to the news, starting with surprise. Amy had her hand to her mouth in shock, eyes wide.
"Yes. I knew you would both recognize the name. Chuck, Colonel, the Gentle Hand is a terrorist for hire operation. If you want something bombed, or a diplomat killed publicly or something along those lines, you pay Gentle Hand and they take care of it for you. You get to take the credit for it in the press, but it only costs you some money. They subcontract out much of the actual work but have a small cadre of men to do the jobs themselves if the situation calls for it."
"Hell of a name," said Casey.
"Yeah. Real sense of irony, I think. Anyway, it's run by Agusto Gaez," he said. The picture on the screen changed to that of a handsome latino man who appeared to be in his late thirties. He wasn't looking at the camera and it appeared the picture had been taken surreptitiously.
Malone continued, "Agents Walker and Turner, you came the closest to shutting him down with the CAT Squad so your team is ideal for this mission. Both Agents Miller and Rizzo have been alerted and are on their way to Los Angeles. Both were overseas but they should be there by tomorrow afternoon."
"Do you want us to take out Gaez, Director?" asked Casey.
"No, Colonel. We will do that. We want you to locate him for us. Call it in when there won't be any civilian casualties and we will take it from there with an airstrike, a cruise missile, a drone, something... We're going to permanently retire him from that particular line of work. The President wants to make sure we never have another Bakersfield. That was too damn close."
"Yes, Sir," said Chuck.
Amy said, pretty vehemently, "No, no, no. Director, I think this is a mistake to use this team. To use the CATS. We had very bad luck against Gaez before. I don't want to sound superstitious, but we've got terrible mojo with this target...Sir. You'd be much better off to send a different team to go after him." She looked very shook up.
Sarah said, "Although I don't feel as strongly about it as Agent Turner does, Sir. I have to agree that the CATS faired pretty poorly last time around. Perhaps a fresh team might be called for in this situation, Sir. One without the history with the target."
Malone said, "I understand. But you have Chuck and the Colonel with you this time around. I'm confident that will make all the difference. In any event, the President asked for you specifically. Good luck, Team."
Malone broke the connection.
Amy and Sarah looked at each other, and didn't look at all happy.
Amy said, quietly, "Aw...fuck."
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Sarah and Chuck sat snuggled together on the couch after dinner, watching Star Trek. But neither was paying much attention to the show.
After a while, Chuck put the TV on pause and said, "Ok, that's the third sigh in the last half hour. Want to talk about it?"
Sarah wrinkled her lips and said, "It's the reason I wanted to hand this mission off to someone else. It's Zondra. When we were on the CATS together she was the one I was the closest to. Even more than Carina."
"And Amy," said Chuck.
"Yeah. Since Amy's been with us, I've gotten really close to her. But before...not so much. So, the CATS...We were a good team for a while, but when we went after Gaez things just went totally sideways. He was always a step ahead of us. No matter what we did, we couldn't get any traction. I concluded that we had a mole on the team. I scanned our gear and found a hidden transmitter in Zondra's boot heel. I confronted her. I was pretty pissed off. She was …. she was ...she was so disappointed in me...so hurt...that I didn't trust her. She passed a lie detector test and everything, but the damage was done. The team broke up and that was that. I haven't talked to her since."
"Did you think about reaching out to her?"
"Yeah. Occasionally. More and more recently, since I met you. But I'm so upset by what I did that I've put it off."
"Do you think you overreacted?" asked Chuck.
"I should have trusted her, Chuck. She was my friend and I should have trusted her. I was different then. I didn't trust anyone. Remember when we had the Zarnow thing? I didn't trust Casey. You had to prove to me that he hadn't murdered Zarnow."
"Ok, but there was Mead at Stanford and he was bad. The fact that I wandered into the spy world trusting everyone wasn't the right thing to do either," Chuck said.
"Ok, fair point. But you've taught me to give people the benefit of the doubt. Especially when they are friends. I should have done that with Zondra."
"Well, you'll have another chance tomorrow," he said.
"I know. That's what I'm worried about. What am I going to say to her?"
"I don't know, Sweetie. What do you want to say?" he asked.
"I want to tell her I made a mistake and that I'm sorry. It's just...it's hard for me. I'm not good with my words, you know?"
"You're a lot better than you used to be. You don't have to make it complicated. Why don't you just tell her that. I made a mistake and I apologize? I don't know if it will repair your relationship, but it's a damn good start."
"Do you think she'll forgive me?"
"I couldn't say. I don't know her. Can't hurt to try, though. You won't make it worse."
"That's right." Sarah nodded with determination after a few moments thought. "I think I'll do that."
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A/N2: Uh oh. A CATS reunion coming up. And the last time they went after Gaez things didn't go too well. We are about to meet Zondra Rizzo in New Day. Hope I can do her justice. Let me know what you guys think of the mission DNI Malone has just given them. Oh, and if any of you are on Facebook and not yet members of the Chuck Fanfiction page there, please stop by and get involved. The writers and readers chat about the goings on here.