Scene XXX – CIA Facility, Main Interrogation Room

Sarah came out of the unused interrogation room, escorting a disconcerted looking repair man. She had to sweet-talk him a little to avoid having to make a formal report on why the camera 'malfunctioned'. Why was it that men, even those that worked for the CIA, would fall for a dumb blond routine every time?

Even with that going her way, she was still in a terrible mood. The aftershocks of her fight with Chuck still lingered in her system; he was unbelievably frustrating at times. Why couldn't she get through to him? If only he would truly listen to what she was saying for a few minutes, she was sure she could get him to understand what needed to change.

She was also bothered by her inebriation the previous night, for a number of reasons. At the top of her list was letting it happen in the first place. She had let her guard down, a cardinal mistake for an agent, allowing fatigue and whatever else cloud her judgment to the point that her cover could have easily slipped. Besides, she had really embarrassed herself with her dance at the end of the evening. What must Ellie and the others think of her now?

She shook the last thought out of her head. What Chuck's friends and family thought about her wasn't essential to the mission; it was what Chuck thought about her that mattered. Thankfully, she hadn't done something truly stupid like make a drunken pass at Chuck. That could have made things really awkward.

Still, she had to admit to herself, a core reason for her current mood was that Chuck was showing her up on the current mission.

Honestly, Sarah didn't begrudge Chuck any success. When she told Chuck he was good at his job, she was telling him the truth. He was doing a far better job than any of them had a right to expect, and he certainly wasn't doing anything malicious. He wanted to excel at his job, and she certainly respected that.

But Sarah's job was her identity, and for her to work 28 hours only to have Chuck come in and make a breakthrough in a couple of hours … well, that stung. That probably explained some of the emotion that came out in her argument with Chuck that morning. And that was unfair.

In general, she was just bothered by how the past couple days had gone. She needed some kind of win in the worst way, if only for her self-confidence.

Unfortunately, she had no idea where to look next. Casey sat at the center table, trying to make sense of the financial trails leading to the security firm. It was their last batch of records worth investigating; she and Casey had been through all the other file documents. More because she had no other leads than anything else, she decided to catch up on Chuck's interview with Cushman. Maybe it would spur some new ideas.

Sitting down at the monitoring station, she queued up the video. She watched the start of the interview unfold, with Chuck saying absolutely nothing until after he opened the can of Red Bull. The entrance was purely instinctual based upon the situation, and in retrospect, she had to admit it was fairly brilliant. It gave the suspect minimal reason to put his guard up, and the first thing he really heard was what he craved most.

She watched the interview progress for a bit before getting lost in the technical elements of their discussion. She started skimming through the long sections of tape, especially when there was no talking between the two. By watching the tape in fast-forward for so much of the time, she could actually see the change in Cushman's body language as time passed.

By the end of the interview, Jeremy and Chuck were chatting like old friends, sitting side-by-side on the same side of the table. Chuck was genuinely fascinated by what Cushman had done, and Cushman was genuinely happy to find somebody who both understood his work and shared his interests. They even shared a laugh as Chuck exited the room.

Sarah was far less embarrassed than she had been. She had talked to Chuck about the different talents that the team had, and the importance of having the right person doing the right task. What she hadn't realized, until that moment, was that Chuck was the right person for that particular task.

Without looking up from the video, Sarah called out, "Casey?"

"Yeah?"

"We're both cut off from talking to Cushman. It needs to be Chuck from now on."

"Yeah. I know."

Scene XXXI – Buy More

Chuck was sitting at the Nerd Herd desk, staring off into space. He was really suffering after his mostly sleepless night, struggling hard to stay awake. While he was still baffled by the argument with Sarah earlier, there was nothing he could do about that. For now, all he could do was figure out a way to make things work at the Buy More, and that meant somehow making things right with Big Mike. He drifted off into thought as he tried to figure out a solution.

Lester walked up to the counter, Jeff in tow. "Hey, look, it's the Karate Kid."

Chuck's expression became resigned. He had spoken very specifically to Morgan about how he didn't want any of his aikido activities to get back to the Buy More crew. "I'm not in the mood, Lester." Chuck pulled himself out of his chair and walked around the front of the desk, grabbing the clipboard with today's work orders.

Lester wasn't done. "No, no, Chuck, let's see what you've got." Lester started bouncing around in a bad semblance of Bruce Lee, thumbing his nose and dancing left and right. Jeff, with a huge grin on his face, gave out a drawn-out, "Owwwwwwwww," which wouldn't have been out of place in a kung fu movie.

"Ha ha. Very funny, Lester."

Suddenly, Lester stepped forward. He reached out to grab Chuck's right arm with his right hand. Instinctively, Chuck grabbed Lester's right hand with his left, and threw Lester using the technique taught at his aikido class. Lester's expression was a priceless mix of shock and dismay as he flipped over onto his back.

Chuck, on the other hand, felt a conflicted mix of satisfaction and remorse. "Sorry, man." He reached down to offer Lester a hand. Lester brushed the hand away and pushed himself up, dusting himself off with an irritated expression.

Lester seemed ready to let things go, but Jeff was obviously pissed, slowly building up the courage to defend his friend. With an angry cry, he lunged and grabbed Chuck the same way. The result was the same. Jeff lay prone on the floor with a dazed expression, the wind knocked out of him.

Chuck tried to calm things down. "OK, guys, enough. We've got work to do. Why don't we all just…"

Jeff leapt up, and with a look at Lester, the pair attacked Chuck simultaneously. Chuck narrowly ducked under their blows, turning to shove each of them in the back to push them out of reach. The two regained their balances and spun, each assuming a fighting stance. Chuck held up his hands, and in a somewhat frantic tone, said, "Guys, this is really getting out of control. There's no reason for this."

Chuck stopped talking when he sensed the pair were no longer looking at him, but instead were looking at somebody over his shoulder. He stole a quick peek, and then turned around in disbelief.

Anna stood to the side of the desk, about fifteen feet away. She wore her Catholic school girl outfit, too much eyeliner and an irritated expression. Her arms were crossed, fingers tapping on one arm.

"I don't know what bothers me more," she said to Chuck. "The fact that you don't take Morgan's addiction seriously, or the fact that I always seem to be third in line, behind both Bartowski's!"

Chuck took a quick peek behind him to check on Lester and Jeff; they seemed content to wait and see what would happen with Anna. Turning back, with a shrug he offered, "I'm sorry?" Did she really expect him to apologize?

Reaching over the desk, she pulled out … a small curved sword? Where did that come from? "I'm afraid that's not good enough," she said, carefully running a finger along the sharp edge with a small but evil grin. Suddenly, she brandished the weapon expertly, executing effortless twists and swings, the sword whistling through the air. Chuck swallowed hard.

"Chuck!"

The four turned to see Big Mike storm up, wearing a blue Buy More polo and a pair of khakis. Standing a few feet away, he angrily looked around the group. "What the hell is going on over here?" Anna let the tip of her sword drop; Jeff and Lester abandoned their fighting poses somewhat uncertainly.

Chuck breathed a sigh of relief, for once glad to see Big Mike show up in that kind of mood. He wasn't certain how he was going to defuse things.

From over in the stereo section, suddenly the sound of singing filled the store, causing Chuck to look over. Morgan was showing a customer a high-end stereo system, and had the volume turned up. A loud Whoa-oa-oa-oa… with faint background music filled the store.

Trying to concentrate, Chuck turned back to Big Mike, who was obviously still ticked. He decided to focus his ire on Chuck. "Why is it that you cannot keep your people in line, Bartowski?" Before Chuck could protest, he continued, "We've got a line of repair orders a mile long, and your people are standing around thinking about kicking the tar out of you."

Whoa-oa-oa-oa… again filled the store. What was that song?

You just aren't providing the type of leadership I expect, and frankly, I'm beginning to see their side of things." In a single motion, he grabbed his shirt with both hands along the front collar and ripped it down the middle, tearing it off his body and exposing his large paunch. Chuck's eyes narrowed disbelievingly.

With wild eyes and a nod, he dropped into a fighting crouch, one leg in front of the other. "That's right; it's on now." Jeff, Lester, and Anna all assumed their own fighting stances in unison.

The music kicked into high gear.

Everybody was kung fu fighting…

Big Mike took three steps and launched a flying kick at Chuck, who barely had time to parry, pushing the kick to the side with a forearm. He used his other hand, and Big Mike's momentum, to send him stumbling into a rotating display tower of software books on sale, causing an avalanche of one part books, two parts Big Mike.

Those kicks were fast as lightning…

Swinging her sword to either side as she charged, Anna launched an overhead attack. Chuck caught her wrist at the top of her swing, managing to stop the blow before it really started. He twisted her wrist over, causing her to spin around and drop her sword with a cry; the sword clanged to the floor. He pushed her, almost gently, to the ground.

In fact it was a little bit frightening…

Jeff was stumbling around in a pale imitation of the drunken master style of fighting. With a maniacal scream, he suddenly lunged, but Chuck easily dodged to one side with a single step. Jeff, completely out of control, went tumbling into a shelf filled with iPod accessories.

But they fought with expert timing…

Lester, the last man standing, looked uncertain what to do with the other three dispatched. Chuck made a quick feint towards him; Lester immediately turned around and fled.

Chuck examined the other three, who were slowly picking themselves up and showed no inclination to attack him again. Dusting off his hands, he felt a small glow of satisfaction.

Then, something bothered him. Wasn't the defense routine he learned supposed to be for "five men, one with a knife"? But there had only been four…

As he turned around, Casey struck a huge blow to the center of his chest. Chuck slid across the floor and bumped his head hard against the Nerd Herd logo on the desk, slamming Chuck to a sudden stop.

The sound of a record scratch filled Chuck's head as the music, and the dream, abruptly ended. His eyes jerked open.

Chuck was sitting at the Nerd Herd desk, staring off into space with glazed eyes. Chuck shook his head: even in his dreams, and even against the Buy More crew, he still couldn't win a fight.

Lester walked up to the counter, Jeff in tow. "Hey, look, it's the Karate Kid."

Chuck's expression became resigned.

Scene XXXII – CIA Facility, Main Interrogation Room

Casey came out of Davis' interrogation room. Sarah raised a questioning eyebrow. "Well?"

Casey said, "I told him we had proof that his company had been attempting to hack into a highly classified CIA server, and he finally broke a little. Davis admitted that they had an on-site meeting a couple of months ago with the suspect that I described. He remembers that it was downtown on Grand Avenue; he thinks he could find the building if we drove him down that way."

"What do you think? Is he telling the truth?"

"Don't know what other incentive he has to lie, except maybe seeing the sun again. And he knows what will happen if I find out he's lying." He rolled his eyes and corrected himself, "I mean, if you find out he's lying."

Sarah smirked; Casey wasn't used to playing good cop. "Was Cushman involved with the meeting? If so, we can verify things with him."

"Davis says no. Supposedly, it was a business development meeting, so Cushman wasn't involved. Still, wouldn't hurt to ask."

"Anything else?"

"Davis suggested that Cushman may have just been attacking the CIA server to see how good his code was; he's done things like that before. He also said he wouldn't recognize the IP address; he passed it along to Cushman a while back, and didn't really think about it again."

"So, we need to talk to Cushman."

"Yep. And for that we need Chuck. Did you find anything?"

"Not much. A couple of names and addresses that don't seem to link to anything. A phone bill with a list of numbers. Things that…"

"…Bartowski needs to look at? I'm sensing a trend here." Casey let out a long breath and collapsed into a chair.

The two sat in silence for a long moment, neither certain about what to do next.

Sarah mused, "Think this is what it's like to wait in the car on a mission?"

Casey grunted noncommittally.

After another long silence, Sarah looked at the clock. "All right; I'm going to pick up Chuck."

"OK. I think I'll wrap up Davis and take him for a drive. Maybe we can figure out where the office is."

Sarah walked over to the desk and grabbed her things out of a drawer. "Keep me posted." She headed for the exit.

Scene XXXIII – Buy More

Chuck walked towards the break room. Sarah was picking him up in a few minutes to take him back to the CIA facility, and he needed to grab his wallet out of his locker. He was a little bit grumpy about the prospect of a car ride with Sarah: he was still feeling exhausted, and the fight that they had this morning was still as fresh in his mind as if it had happened five minutes ago.

Entering the back hallway, he revisited the argument in his head. He stood by everything he said. Well, everything except a couple of the embarrassing misstatements he had made. He shook his head. He really needed some sleep.

As he turned the corner in the hallway, he found Jeff and Lester experimenting with a version of hackey sack played with a wadded up ball of packing tape. Frankly, it was as energetic as Chuck could remember Jeff ever being.

Upon seeing Chuck walk past the pair, Lester apparently decided there was a better game to be played. Lester let the ball fall to the ground and took up stride next to Chuck.

Jeff looked annoyed that Lester would abandon their game. "What, am I just supposed to play with myself?"

Chuck and Lester both stopped and turned back to face Jeff. After they stared at him disbelievingly for a minute, Jeff finally figured out his own unintentional double entendre. "Don't worry about it; I'll fill in my own punch line on that one."

The two turned back around and kept walking. Lester said, "So, Chuck. I admired the way you handled the Morgan situation earlier. Big Mike was certainly impressed."

Chuck kept walking. "Lester, I'm really not in the mood."

"No, really. He appreciated your decisive leadership."

"Can I take your unbridled glee to mean you finally feel like you've exacted your revenge on me?"

"Sorry, Chuck. Your unhappiness is nothing but a fortunate side effect of the game we're playing with Morgan. We'll still be exacting our revenge on you, and there is nothing you can do to stop us."

Chuck stopped, and turned to face Lester. "Nothing?"

Lester grinned smugly. "Nothing. We own Morgan. And if we own Morgan, we own you. Checkmate."

Chuck had put up with Lester and Jeff long enough. "Really. Come with me."

He turned around. Lester followed. "What, you don't even realize that you've already lost? Oh, this is rich."

Ignoring Lester's comment, Chuck lectured, "I've tried being nice to you two. I put up with your silly little 'revenge' plots. I put up with you getting virtually nothing done. But I draw the line at getting a Buy More employee further addicted to cigarettes so you can blackmail him."

"You don't seem to understand. The game's over. You have no moves."

"Oh, I've got one or two moves." The pair came to the corner of the hallway. Jeff was standing there, apparently still trying to come up with a punch line for his unintentional joke. Chuck cut him off when he tried to speak. "Jeff, just don't. You'll want to hear this, too."

Lester went to stand next to Jeff. When Jeff looked at him questioningly, all Lester could do is shrug.

Chuck pulled a small DVD out of his back pocket. "I hold in my hand a recording of your activities at the store the other night. I think you know what I'm talking about."

Lester put on an affected look of innocence. "No idea. Jeff?"

"Not a clue." Jeff had a little more difficulty hiding his worry.

Chuck walked over to the corner, and said, "Well, then, let me explain. You know the old security system? It was updated a few weeks back. So when you thought you were shutting off the old system, you were actually shutting down … nothing. You were actually caught on tape on the new system," Chuck patted the control box in the corner for emphasis, "shutting down the old system."

Lester looked a little more uncertain. Jeff wasn't buying it until he looked over at Lester, and suddenly Jeff looked more uncertain.

"However, that's nothing. What's truly important is what the new camera system caught you doing in the store. Would you really like me to announce what you were doing to the entire store? We could play this on the video wall. Maybe call Big Mike out for a screening."

Lester and Jeff stood there, not quite believing Chuck. Chuck was done playing. He walked down the hallway, fully intending to play the video on the wall of televisions. Lester finally broke. "Wait!"

Chuck turned around, and walked all the way back to Lester. "Here's how this is going to work. You will not sell Morgan any more nicotine gum. If you do, video wall." He shook the DVD in his hand for emphasis.

"You will not wear a Buy More assistant manager shirt again unless you actually assume the position of assistant manager. If you do, video wall. You will not, I repeat, will not try to exact your 'revenge' on me again. If you do, video wall. You will work your tails off for however long it takes to clear the backlog of Nerd Herd jobs that have built up because you two have been slacking off. If you do not, video wall.

"Most importantly, Morgan will be holding his Christmas gift in his hand inside a minute. If he isn't..."

Jeff hesitantly answered, "Video wall?"

Chuck said, "Good, Jeff. Video wall."

The three stood there looking at each other.

Chuck calmly said, "You now have 55 seconds."

Lester and Jeff looked at each other, then broke for the break room in a panicked run.

Chuck allowed himself a tight smile. He started walking back towards his locker, watching Jeff and Lester disappear through the break room door.

As angry as he was at Jeff and Lester, he was just as angry at Big Mike. Technically, the Nerd Herd and all the salespeople reported to Big Mike. His refusal to assign Chuck, or anyone else, the assistant manager position made for a muddy chain of command, especially with Big Mike hiding in his office all day long.

Jeff and Lester came sprinting out the break room, game in hand. Jeff held the game up as they ran past to show Chuck they were following orders.

Chuck yelled after them, "Thirty seconds, guys."

He returned to his former thoughts. How was he going to convince Big Mike that it was a serious problem when people who technically didn't report to him wouldn't follow his orders?

Chuck stopped walking. He just realized that he owed Sarah something of an apology.