A/N: Just something random that popped into my head as I was watching episodes of Chuck as research for vs. The Butterfly Effect. More notes at the end.
Disclaimer: I do not own Chuck. I also do not have a beta so all errors belong time.
Burbank CIA substation, code-name designation: Castle
Chuck swallowed nervously as he prepared himself to defend his feelings for Sarah as well as to gain some form of recognition for their burgeoning relationship. Beckman continued to drone on as she debriefed the them but Chuck was startled from his thoughts when he heard Beckman address Sarah directly.
"Agent Walker, despite your heroism, you have directly disobeyed several orders..."
"Wait, General, um..." Chuck tried to interject.
"Mr. Bartowski, interrupt me again and I will personally see that you will be carted off to an underground facility before the day is over, are we clear?" The baleful glare that Beckman was giving Chuck caused him to falter for a second.
"As I was saying, Agent Walker, you have disobeyed several orders and pending a full internal review, you are suspended without pay. You will report to Langley at o-nine hundred hours tomorrow for you debriefing.
"Major Casey, escort Agent Walker off the premises and ensure that she is entrusted into the care of the NSA agents waiting for her in the Orange Orange. Agent Forrest and the asset are to remain while we discuss the status of their cover."
Chuck's mouth was hanging open as Sarah shot one last look of devestation as Casey grabbed hold of her arm and led her to the exit. Overcoming his shock, Chuck made to follow them when Forrest grabbed hold of his shoulders and slammed him into a seat, a small smirk firmly locked onto her face.
"Agent Forrest, you are to assume the role recently vacated by Agent Walker as the permanent handler of the asset. This includes assuming the cover role of an Orange Orange employee and establishing a romantic relationship with the asset for purpose of proximity surveillance."
Chuck grimaced at what Beckman had said, a foul taste entering his mouth. How could he even trust this woman to protect him when she displayed such an open and callous disregard for his safety? Opening his mouth to protest, his words died in his throat as Beckman glared at him again, silently conveying her previous threat of having him in a bunker before he could say Intersect.
"Mr. Bartowski, you are dismissed, Agent Forrest, I need to speak with you about your clearance level."
Getting up from his seat in a kind of stunned disbelieve, Chuck ambled towards the exit slowly before remembering that Sarah was leaving, heading back to Langley and the chances of him seeing her again were slim to none. Making a mad dash for the Orange Orange exit, he hoped to catch her before she left but his hopes were dashed when the door slid open and Casey walked through.
Maybe I can catch her at the Maison 23, he thought as he pushed past Casey, eliciting a disgruntled "Watch it!" from the man. Running as quickly as he could, he jumped into a Nerd Herder and took off towards Sarah's hotel. By the time he reached the green door numbered 832, one thing was clear, Sarah was already gone.
The door stood ajar as a hotel employee went over final checks of the suite before deeming it ready for its next occupant. As Chuck stared through the crack in the door, it looked almost as if no one had ever stayed in the room at all. All traces of Sarah was gone.
Slumping dejectedly against the wall across from the door to what was once Sarah's room, Chuck crossed his arms over his knees and buried his face in his arms, tears welling up in his eyes as he cursed himself for being too slow.
Echo Park, Franklin Street Apartments (Casa Bartowski)
Chuck lay awake, staring unseeingly at the ceiling as his thoughts whirred around in a mess. He wasn't too feeling too great for a number of reasons, not the least of which was missing Sarah terribly, knowing that he would likely never be able to see her face or hear her laugh again. He also had to contend with the fallout from the operation to steal Awesome's keycard. Ellie had caught him trying to surreptitiously replace it and a fight had broken out.
Despair and anger warred inside him as he thought about just how unfair it all was. It wasn't his fault that the damn greater good required sacrifices he wasn't prepared to make, he hadn't asked for this after all. Despite everything that he had to endure, the government just continued to heap insults upon his best efforts by denying him the one thing he really wanted.
Groaning as he his alarm clock went off, he reached over a hand and slammed it down on the alarm clock, shutting it off with an almighty thud. Chuck cursed as he pulled his hand back, pain ripping up his arm from the impact.
As he took a long hot shower to try and clear his thoughts, Chuck gave serious thought to going rogue.
I wonder if Fulcrum treats their assets and agents the same way the CIA does... he thought before shaking his head. No, Sarah had done far too much to help him for him to even consider joining Fulcrum. It would be insult to Sarah and, frankly, to himself. As horrible as the situation was, he had the ability to truly make a difference in the world.
While toweling his hair dry, Chuck wondered if Casey and Forrest, the name still left a foul taste in his mouth, would give him a few hours to himself without surveillance to sort his thoughts and emotions out. Casey might be sympathetic of my lady feelings, Chuck thought before grimacing at what Forrest would say. She'll just mock me and cite protocol. Sighing to himself, Chuck resolved to make the best out of a (very) bad situation.
He ran straight into Ellie as he made his way into the enjoined kitchenette and immediately remembered the other problem that was plaguing him. An pair of awkward good mornings were exchanged before Ellie, Awesome and Chuck sat down for a brief breakfast.
The atmosphere at the breakfast table seemed to quickly spread to encompass the whole apartment as the stifling tension between the three occupants rose slowly towards critical mass. Just before it seemed as if the giant bubble was about to burst, Chuck quickly rose from his seat and deposited what had tasted like shredded wheat paste into the sink and mumbled a quick goodbye and beat a hasty retreat to the Nerd Herder he had driven when he had gone to the Maison 23.
Seeing that the Crown Vic was not in its customary parking space, Chuck figured that Casey was at Castle Forrest, probably reading her into the entire mission and bringing her up to date with whatever protocol was involved in being the handler of the human Intersect.
She'd enjoy that, more protocol for her to hide behind, Chuck sneered as he climbed into the Herder and started up the engine. Feeling a bit rebellious, he took the extremely long way to the Buy More, arriving almost an hour late. He was immediately accosted by Casey after punching in and slammed forcibly into a wall.
"Listen here, Moron," Casey barked. "You may not like the situation but deal with it. Do you honestly think throwing a tantrum and coming in late to work with no one watching over you is going to get you what you want? Man up!"
Indignation rose in Chuck's chest as he made for a scathing retort but was stopped when Casey slammed him into the wall again before walking off. The anger that had tapered off during his morning shower returned in full force as he stalked back the way he came and headed to The Cage instead of the Nerd Herd desk. Pulling apart computers always calmed him down.
Two weeks after Sarah had left, Chuck's frustration and the situation at large was fast reaching a boiling point. Not only was Casey reverting to his old ways of dealing with the asset, a change Chuck attributed to the charming Agent Forrest but every mission they had been on had been a bust. Fulcrum was always one step ahead of them and Forrest wasted no time in piling the blame of Chuck.
Claiming that he was deliberately sabotaging their missions as some kind of retaliation for her perceived role in having Sarah reassigned, Forrest had seemed to have Casey well on the path of conversion to her way of thinking as well. Needless to say, Beckman had been less than pleased as the success rate of the team reaching an all time low.
Her constant ill-temper and snarky remarks were grating on Chuck's nerve but, beyond that, Casey had apparently been dressed down multiple times by the general and was taking all his frustrations out on the asset.
Another point of great contention in his life was Forrest's own very prominent role in it. Casey and Forrest had demanded that Chuck immediately insert Forrest into the role of the new girlfriend and had apparently discounted the fact that Chuck would rather have never seen her face ever again. His less than warm attitude towards the woman had already disenfranchised his coworkers of the nature of their relationship.
The highlight of the two weeks, however, was how upset Ellie had been when she had learned that Sarah had been dumped by Chuck, a fact she learned from her helpful neighbor, John Casey. To say that she was furious at Chuck had been an understatement but when she had gone to the Orange Orange one afternoon and seen the woman who was at the counter, she literally lost it.
Ellie had been snapping at everyone in the days following her discovery of the stripper that had set her relationship with her fiance off kilter. The fact that Forrest seemed to almost take some kind of perverse pleasure by pretending to be totally unaware of her actions the night of Awesome's bachelor party simply added fuel to the growing fire.
It also did not help that Chuck was forced to invite Forrest for dinner and introduce her as his girlfriend at the not very veiled threat made about shipping him off to the bunker and displacing Ellie and Devon as part of witness security. Ellie had simply dropped the bowl of salad when she saw the haridan walking through the door. When Forrest introduced herself as Chuck's girlfriend, Awesome's already wide eyes expanded even further as his mouth dropped open. Ellie's reaction, however, proved the most chilling. She simply turned around and walked straight to her room and slammed it shut.
Even now, Chuck was still at odds with Ellie and even Awesome had stopped speaking to him. He was completely miserable and angry all wrapped up in one lanky package and he found no outlet for all his feelings. Before Sarah had been replaced, she acted as his sounding board for all the frustrations that came part and parcel as being a high priority government asset but now, he found himself floundering.
As Chuck sat in the surveillance van, alternating between stewing and despairing, Casey and Forrest had gone to intercept a new weapon that Fulcrum was looking to acquire. All information that Chuck had flashed on during one of the intelligence packets that he was required look through. He had been there for a couple of hours now with nothing to occupy him but the thoughts on his current situation.
It was three hours later that an extremely pissed off John Casey ripped open the surveillance van's sliding door with a loud bang as it slammed against the suspension that held it in place. "What the hell happened out there? We were left sitting on our asses for hours and nothing happened!"
"Just more faulty intelligence, I'm not even sure why we bother wasting our time with the Intersect." Forrest drawled, sauntering up behind Casey. "He hasn't given us a shred of actionable intelligence for weeks now."
"Hey! It isn't my fault the mark didn't show," Chuck protested. "I was just reporting on HUMINT that the CIA and NSA forwarded to me for evaluation!"
"This is all on you Bartowski, Beckman's not going to be happy with another waste of our resources on shit intelligence coming from you." Casey growled out as he got into the driver's seat and started up the engine.
During the debriefing with Beckman, both Casey and Forrest had thrown him under the proverbial bus and pinned all blame for the waste of time and resources on his faulty intelligence.
"This is your last warning, Mr. Bartowski. The intelligence community is beginning to wonder why we waste millions of dollars maintaining this substation for a less than capable asset." Beckman warned. "If things don't pick up and soon, I'm pulling the plug on Project Intersect."
Without saying anything else, Beckman signed off and left the three unhappy members of Team Bartowski to deal with the aftermath.
Casey simply grunted and made his to the shooting range, deciding on expunging his anger through his favorite past time, shooting things. Once Casey was out of sight, the angry and frustrated scowl disappeared off Forrest's face and it morphed into one of supreme disinterest.
"Remember, we have a cover date tomorrow." She called out before making her way out of Castle.
Chuck just stood there with his fists balled up against his side. He could really do with something to hit right now and any of his two handlers would have made more than ample targets. Deciding that he would rather not return to the stifling atmosphere of home, Chuck opted for an aimless drive around town.
A week later, a new mission had come in through the pipeline. Beckman was so utterly disgusted with the performance of the team that she didn't even bother briefing them anymore, leaving it to a simple missive to give them their target and objectives though she had somehow managed to add in a note about the consequences should the mission fail. The missive also relayed that there would be no assistance from local resources as she could no longer justify having a full tactical unit ready every time they went on a mission.
Chuck was once again left in the van stewing in his thoughts as Casey and Forrest both went to get into position. The mission was purely surveillance only and Chuck's job was to provide on site support, informing the two agents should anything out of the ordinary occur along the rarely traveled warehouse district.
As had become the expected result of the past few week's worth of mission, there was absolutely nothing for Chuck to do as he sat there staring at the various screens that lined the interior of the truck. With nothing better to do, he simply mused about what life would have been like had Sarah never been reassigned, a line of thinking that was extremely dangerous, given his current situation.
He was pulled out of his musing when a single gunshot echoed through the deserted alleys formed by the many warehouses. Jolting straight up in his seat, Chuck tried contacting his handlers over the radio but received no reply. Wondering just what he could do in this situation, he was still trying to contact Casey and Forrest when the driver's seat door opened and Forrest jumped in.
"Where's Casey?" Chuck asked.
"He's occupied, we're getting you out of here."
"What? No, we can't leave Casey behind!"
"Shut up and listen to me. Casey's a professional and protocol during these kinds of situation is to relocate the asset until the danger has passed so that's exactly what I'm doing."
"No way, I may not like you or Casey right now but I'm not leaving till I find out what happened and we all get out of he..."
Slapping a hand to his neck, Chuck turned and stared at Forrest as she smirked at him. Pulling out the tranq dart, he stared at the agent as his vision began to blur. Just before he passed out entirely, he muttered "Oh boy."
Washington D.C. - A month later.
News had spread quickly about Major John Casey, wounded during the discharge of his duty. He had been awarded the Intelligence Star by the CIA due to his being wounded in a joint CIA/NSA operation that had irreparably changed his life. He had just recently been discharged from a military medical facility after being served his discharge papers, both from the Marines and from the NSA. After all, what use did they have for a burn out who would never again be able to walk.
Sarah had, of course, heard about Casey and and the trickle of rumors that were coming from the higher-ups about Project Intersect. She had tried everything she could, herself, to get some information but had been rebuffed at every turn. After she had been reassigned and reprimanded by Internal Affairs for her conduct as a team member of Project Intersect, she had carefully reviewed her contract with the CIA and realized that her ten-year tenure was coming to an end. She had the choice for either a renewal or a discharge.
Given the way she had ended, or did not end, things with Chuck and her growing fatigue at hurting the people she cared about because of the greater good, Sarah was determined not to renew her contract. She had, in fact, just handed in her letter of resignation to the office of the new deputy director of operations. The last two months without Chuck had been an eye-opener and she had come to realize that the lovable nerd had forever changed her and how she lived. She was different without Chuck and she didn't like it.
Dismissing her concerns about the Chuck and the project, she figured that she could find out everything she needed to know when she visited Casey.
What she saw when she walked into the temporary housing he was in, however, was not the man she knew as Major John Casey, USMC. He was just a shell of the man he once was. Nearly a month of bed rest had lain waste to his muscular physique and his skin hung loosely off his bones. Combined with the haggard look that now covered his face and the fact that he was still sitting in a wheel chair, he looked like shit. Biting back a curse, she wondered just what on earth had happened to the man.
"Hey Casey," she said, pulling his attention away from the window that he was staring out of.
"Walker." he grunted.
"How are you doing?"
Casey turned his head back to stare out the window and Sarah was left wringing her hands, wondering just how to handle the situation.
"It was Forrest."
"What?"
"She betrayed us. Shot me in the back, severed my spine. Doctors did everything they could but I'm stuck in this piece of shit for the rest of my life."
Sarah was shocked, did Casey really say what she thought he had said? Surely it was her mind playing tricks on her because if Forrest had betrayed Casey that meant...
"What about Chuck?" she blurted out, feeling a slow rise of panic as the silence dragged on.
"She was Fulcrum." Casey finally replied after a minute. "They have him now."
Sarah's eyes widened as a tear made its slow track down her face. If Fulcrum had Chuck, they would do everything in their power to keep him hidden from the world.
The door opening behind her shook her out of her thoughts as she turned to see Beckman framed against the sunlight that filtered in through the door. Before anyone could react, Sarah launched herself at the diminutive woman grabbing Beckman by the collar of her uniform and hauled her up.
"WHAT DID YOU DO? HOW COULD YOU LET THIS HAPPEN TO HIM!" Sarah screamed into the face of the general. The silence following the outcry was deafening as Beckman shifted her eyes away from Sarah. Not two seconds later, she felt a pair of strong arms grab hold of her and haul her away from the general, prying her fingers off of Beckman's jacket.
Turning her head in alarm, she saw two burly men dressed in black suits with ear-wigs stuck in their ears, typical g-man. As they carted the soon to be former CIA agent out of the room, Beckman finally spoke.
"She diagnosed your feelings as a liability but... I suppose it was also an asset to the... well, asset. It's unfortunate that is has come to this but you're not going to be part of this world much longer. I hope not to see you too soon, Ms. Walker."
And as the door she was led out of began to close, Sarah wondered to herself if anything would ever be the same again.
A/N: I usually absolutely hate angst so I'm sorry about the way this ended. It was meant to be a one-shot and I don't see myself continuing this any further.
Update: I have decided to continue this story, at least until things wrap up!
This plot came to me as I rewatched episode 02x18. We were always told that the Intersect and, by proxy, Chuck was the most important asset the government had. That made me wonder, why then was Alex Forrest so unscrupulous in her handling of Chuck? I'm pretty sure the risking of blowing up the top intelligence asset with nitroglycerine is not protocol. This is my personal take on why she acted the way she did.
I apologise if it isn't very well written, it was just something I had to get out. Please let me know what you thought of it.
