Okay, so maybe my names not really Chuck, but these are some things that you might need to know. Possibly....

I understand that it could have possibly been confusing to read the prologue. It was a bit hard for me to read it, and I knew what was going on. So, quick synopsis if that's all right: Chuck does not have the Intersect anymore. It was removed by his father at the end of Season 2 (or so I'm assuming). This is Chuck's life after Operation: Bartowski. Spy World is now completely gone, except for the Castle, which is under the Orange Orange. I didn't think that the CIA would pay to blow it up, or destroy it, so they simply dismantled it. It is still accessible, it's just empty. Casey and Sarah left after the Intersect was removed because Beckman didn't see the need for two of her best agents to protect a civilian. I think that covers everything in the prologue, but if there is something that is questionable, please alert me so that I may fix it.

Disclaimer: Still do not own Chuck. Except on iTunes.

Chapter 1

Awesome By Definition is Mediocre

Chuck's eyes were glazed over as he spooned several bites of sugary cereal into his open mouth. His taste in breakfast foods certainly had not changed over the years, nor did his taste in wall decorum, as noted by the Tron and Dune posters that still adorned his room.

That had changed, though. His room was no longer the guest room that was situated within the apartment of Ellie and her Captain. In fact, he lived on his own now. No one bothered him to grow up or get rid of those posters. Sure, Ellie sometimes haggled him about it, but she knew better than to push too far.

Picking up a paper, Chuck skimmed through the headlines, reading a few articles here and there about a lost puppy, a high school basketball team, and a fireman who rescued a cat out of a tree. None of it impressed him; it actually had an effect contrary to that. Reading these mediocre and 'normal' stories made him feel out of place. He had done great things, extraordinary things, and no one would ever know. Those that did were either dead, missing, or long gone, off to better and more exciting prospects.

He choked on his Fruity-O!'s, snorting milk out of his nose. He looked over the paper once more, noting that his excretion of dairy products had irreparably stained the front page. Chuck looked at the top of the page. January 7, 2010.

Great, he though. Another day of normal. With that thought on his mind, Chuck left the now empty Echo Park apartment, climbed into the seat of his assigned Herder, and started, ever so reluctantly, to the Buy More: Burbank Branch.

She watched as Nerd Herder number three pulled up into the Buy More Plaza. The tires could be heard as the squealed ever so softly from the sharper-than-normal turns the driver was taking. He drove past her, seemingly unaware of her presence. As he should be, she thought. After all, this is just some mediocre spy work. She laughed to herself as she thought of him making such a big deal about her 'skills'. In truth, she enjoyed his compliments, though she had to admit that she never had been to Jakarta and stopped a ruthless dictator in a knife fight. She would have to tell him someday…

Nerd Herder number three pulled into the specialized parking zone in the back of the store. Her breath caught as a tall, gangling nerd pulled himself out of the tiny car.

He spied Jeff and Lester huddled around the Nerd Herd desk, doing what could presumably construed as sexual harassment. After all, everything they did could be construed as sexual harassment. Luckily for the two Bennigan's burnouts, Big Mike had a very, very, very lax policy on all things related to practically everything. As he approached his desk, the two nerds got unceremoniously quiet. Their backs stiffened when he sat down at his usual chair. Chuck looked up, staring hard into the eyes of the two men. Jeff, who had obviously had four to many nightcaps, stared back with lazy eyes. Lester grew overly nervous, started to scratch at his collar, and muttered something that sounded like 'buttered corn' before scuttling off to the break room with Jeff in tow.

Before retreating into his world of solitude, Chuck checked the messages on his phone. It had become a sort of routine for him: wake up, go to work, check phone, pretend to work, check phone, leave, rinse, and repeat. He had grown accustomed to it, and sometimes was thankful for the monotony of his job. Well, almost.

The one and only message on his phone was from Jenny Berkely, the girl that rented the apartment next to his. The apartment that used to be Casey's. For some reason or another, she just wouldn't leave him alone. She was constantly calling for him to come fix her computer, only for him to drive all the way to Echo Park to discover that it hadn't been plugged in. Today, though, she was asking him to go to lunch.

The irony wasn't lost on Chuck. Six months ago, he had been in love with one Sarah Walker, a.k.a. Jenny Burton. Hell, he was still in love with Sarah Walker, a.k.a. Jenny Burton. It was much to his chagrin and perpetual unhappiness that a fellow Jenny had moved in next door. Sure, THIS Jenny was pretty, but there's no way she could stop a gun trafficking ring with a ball point pen. She just wasn't the same Jenny. She wasn't his Jenny. But, he thought as he replied to her inquiry with a yes, I'll never see THAT Jenny again.

"Woah! Stop the presses!"

Chuck was so distracted by the numerous Jennys in his life that he didn't notice his bearded friend approach the Nerd Herd desk.

"Vicki Vale!"

What? Vicki Vale? Morgan's only called one girl Vicki. It can't be… Chuck looked up with hopeful eyes.

He watched dejectedly as a very non-Sarahish blonde sauntered past the desk, heading for the home appliance section.

"Oh man, that's got to be the hottest piece of pizza we've seen since-" Morgan cut off mid-sentence, suddenly aware of the stiffness in his best friends shoulders.

"Carina?" Chuck's attempt at humor caught Morgan off guard, but he rolled with Chuck's attempt at levity.

"Yeah, man! Oh my God, she was so hot! And she was totally in to me, too!"

"That she was, Morgan," Chuck replied. He didn't have the heart to tell him that Carina was an undercover agent for the DEA and her date with Morgan had been only to secure Chuck's own cover.

"Grimes!" The gruff call of Big Mike was something Chuck had grown accustomed to hearing on average seven times a day. Most of these, however, were aimed at Jeff and Lester, and it must be fairly important for Big Mike to be calling for his son-in-law in such a manner….or he might just be hungry.

"Yes, sir?" Morgan slurred his words together when said this in an attempt to deflate any possible respect that might be shown in such a gesture.

"Get these losers slapped into shape! We've got a corporate eval coming in tomorrow, and if these nerds aren't at least presentable, I'm cutting nacho night!" Big Mike's promise to stop the flow of nachos into Morgan's abnormally large stomach was no empty threat.

"Yes, sir. Right away. I'll get on that immediately."

Big Mike, manager of the Burbank Buy more for eight years, stormed off, back to the relative safety of his office.

The rest of his day at the electronics retail store was, for the most part, uneventful. He had lunch with Jenny at a new restaurant in the plaza, making a mental note to check this one for concealed computers and/or hidden CIA substations as he wolfed down his burger.

Chuck pulled next to the curb that served as a parking lot for those living in Echo Park. The short walk to his apartment door seemed unbearably long without her on his arm. No, I can't think about that. It's done. She's gone. He opened the door to his apartment, half expecting Ellie to be cooking or Awesome to be doing some absurd exercise that involved hanging from the ceiling like a opossum on the branch, but there was no Ellie or Awesome. They moved out after they got married. They wanted to start a family, and they didn't think they could do that 'in such a crowded neighborhood'. Chuck knew what they meant though. They couldn't have a family of their own with such a crowded house. They didn't want their kids to grow up learning from their lazy bum of an uncle.

If only they knew. After all this time, he still wasn't allowed to share facts with his family. The United States government had forbid him from telling anyone, even after the Intersect was out of his head. They even blackmailed him into staying at the Buy More. Apparently, it would be too suspicious for him to suddenly find a motive to leave, especially after Sarah 'left' him. After all, he had fallen into a slump after Jill, the same should be true for Sarah. Fuck the U.S. government! God Damn it!

Chuck sat down to a lonely meal of cold cereal, followed by a lonely evening of watching t.v., enunciated upon further by a lonely night of sleeping. Alone. It was time for Chuck to rinse. And repeat.

"I don't care what it takes. Get him on board!" The voice of General Diane Beckman was a bit harsher than normal. If that was possible.

Sarah Walker was careful to keep her face from becoming flustered. It wouldn't do. Not now. It had been enough of a struggle to get Beckman to agree to let her run surveillance on this assignment. If she showed any signs of remorse or any indication of possible treason, she would be pulled immediately.

"Ma'am, with all due respect, haven't we ruined his life enough? We've already taken his career and his family. Do we have to take what little he has left?"

"I don't care," the General repeated. "This is getting too far out of hand. Get the asset on board now, or I will send an NSA extraction team and spirit him away to bunker so far underground that he won't even be able to dream about sunlight!" After this last exclamatory remark, Diane Beckman, Director of National Intelligence, ended the conference call.

"Bitch," Sarah mumbled, just loud enough for her partner to hear her.

"She's right, you know."

"What?" She looked at her partner. "How could you agree with her?"

"We're losing Walker. You know that. I know that. She knows that. How much longer do you think it's going to last?"

Sarah was silent. Appalled by the words that were coming out of her partner's mouth.

"We need him. He's the only one that can do it."

"No. We could try recruiting again. Run the tests. We could have messed them up."

"You know as well as I do that that won't work. We didn't find anyone that could deal with the stress. Face it, Walker. The kid's special."

She was silent again. Unbeknownst to her, she had started to cry, and now tears were running unbidden down her pearly cheeks.

"He's one in a million. No one can do what he does."

Sarah looked at her partner.

"I know," she managed to say in between sobs.

"Then you know why we have to do this."

"Yeah. I know." Knowing didn't stop the tears.

Her partner turned to leave, but turned back after a few steps.

"He really did get to you, didn't he?" The voice held no contempt or snide. It was merely a question.

She nodded and managed to say, "Yes, he really did," before completely breaking down.

"Damn. That kid really is special." With this remark, her partner turned to leave. The swoosh of the top-secret military base doors sounded throughout the room as they opened and then closed.

She was alone. It wasn't the first time she was alone, but it sure as hell felt like it. She regained a bit of her composure.

"He's more than special," she said to no one in particular. "He's awesome by definition," she said before she collapsed once more into a series of heavy sobs.

Jenny Berkely woke up. Looking at the clock she noted that it was 2:14 a.m. Right on time. She got out of bed, stretched, and walked to the living room of her two story apartment. 2:15 a.m. The plasma t.v. on the wall clicked into life.

"I assume everything is going according to plan?"

"Yes sir."

"In that case, we are clear to move forward."

"Very well, sir."

"You have your orders, agent. Make sure you follow them this time."

"Yes sir. You can trust me. I'll have the asset eating out of my hand within the week."

"Good. That will be all." The screen clicked off. Jenny Berkely had work to do, and little time to do it in. Operation Ursa Minor was underway.

Chuck's nights were normally filled with turmoil and wrought with frantic memories of a past life. Images would fly past his eyes like they used to with the Intersect, but these were different. These weren't government secrets. These were his secrets; his memories of a secret life. Chuck remembered how much it hurt when he flashed and the headaches he would get if he flashed on too many things too quickly. These images hurt so much more than that. It felt like every one was burned into his brain, and then replaced immediately for a new one to take its spot.

So it was, that on this night, the pain of memory was so excruciating, that Chuck couldn't sleep. He looked at his clock. 3:28 a.m. Fuck. Is it to much to ask for? Just one fucking night of sleep?

A soft, distinct tapping noise emanated from one corner of his room. He looked up. No one was there. Thinking that he must have imagined it, Chuck rolled over on his side, desperately willing himself to forget everything, to no avail.

He heard the noise again. He shifted a little so that he could pull the blankets over him tighter in an effort to ignore that 'fucking bird in the corner'.

Again, the noise sounded. Chuck had had quite enough of that.

Rising from his bed, he shouted, "What the fuck do you want!?!"

What he saw outside of the Morgan Door appalled him. He collapsed on his bed, whether from shock or exhaustion, Chuck would never know.

And that's the end of Chapter One. Again, if there is anything at all that was hard to understand, please tell me. And...uh....review? please? come on...you know you want to...just push the little button...yeah...yeah..that one..right there...