I don't own Chuck et al.
Wepdiggy owns the Sam 'verse.
And in the Sam 'verse the remake of certain Hawaiian police show was done a couple of years before our 'verse. That's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it. My wife just wants to see what's-his-name without his shirt. I suspect she's not alone...
Deep Voiced Man: Previously, in the Sarah vs The Fan Fiction 'verse;
You know what? Press the Back icon up there. There you go.
-o0o-
"You don't know the power of the search engine"
"Sarah! Hi! come on in. Thanks for bringing my baby brother"
"Thanks Ellie. I think he missed you."
"I think he missed my cooking..."
"Don't I get a say in this? Hi sis." Chuck squeezed past Sarah and kissed his sister's cheek "Hey, Devon."
"Awesome, bro" the Captain's high five was mandatory.
"So, how's it going?" Ellie had promised (everyone, actually) to contain her self. So she only bounced just a little bit.
"Well, Thanks to Morgan and the Buy Morons, I've had to start again from scratch. But I'm seeing a real potential, after I tried a different path, and why are you looking at me like that?"
Sarah interceded. "It's... good." She glanced at Chuck, and back to Ellie with a smile "Annnd as you can tell, he really is working. What kind of idiot would ignore that negligee to tap away at a computer?" she smiled sweetly back at Chuck.
"Oh, believe me, I saw you, although negligee barely covers... I just had to..."
"Nerd" said both Ellie and Sarah sharing a smile.
They moved in to cluster in the kitchen, where all the great smells were.
-o0o-
"That new show, Honolulu 50 is on. Shall we?" Ellie gestured to the couch
"Oooh, who's he? He's hot" Sarah leant forward. Chuck gave her a look, which she pretended to miss, and then he raised an eyebrow at Devon.
After a few minutes Chuck ventured "He must be. That's the third scene he hasn't worn a shirt."
"I notice you were awfully quiet when the girl wore that green bikini" she breathed into his ear.
"That's 'cause Devon and I were sharing a moment" he whispered back, after the Sarah induced goose bumps subsided, and he could think again.
"I'm sure."
"No, we were ...we invented a drinking game for that ... stup... wonderful teeniebop vampire epic that Ellie made us watch. Again, and again. And again. If he sparkles, drink. If they look longingly, drink. You get the idea. Devon and I have sat through it three times. I still have no idea what happens after the first ten minutes."
"Oh look, 'I see you managed to get your shirt off'" Chuck then said aloud to the room
"Galaxy Quest. Awesome" Devon recalled the last time Chuck used that quote. Some pale teenager had been glittering on the screen.
"Galaxy...Did we see that?" Sarah whispered to Chuck
"Yeah, scratched the spaceship on the way out of the dock. Remember?" she nodded with a smile at the memory.
"You're not really drinking, are you? I got plans for you later..."
"Nah, Devon and I are just remembering that game."
"Shush, you lot. I'm enjoying this."
Chuck and Devon glanced at each other, and each took a sip from the wine glass. Sarah buried her smile into Chuck's arm.
-o0o-
"Mind you, Mr Bartowski, when I first met you, I think it was about three months before I saw Awesome wear a shirt, besides his scrubs."
"Nice to see that you were paying attention to your asset." He gave her a nudge.
"Oh, I think it's now apparent, I paid too much attention to you" she flicked him a look that sent his stomach into a spin before returning her attention back to driving "But I was. To you and your environment. It's instinctive."
The next day, Chuck's phone rang while he was working in Castle. "Morgan? Hi buddy."
"..."
"Large Mart have done what? OK, what did Jeff and Lester do?" he said with regret.
"..."
"Well, how big a shovel do you need?
"..."
"Of course not. Maybe you could buy one at Large M..."
"..."
"Naturally, they haven't got any left."
"..."
"OK, see if Casey or Roan can help."
"..."
"Well, I'm sure that the fire department will underst..."
"..."
"Chuck? Everything OK?"
Chuck looked up at Sarah standing at the top of the stairs from the freezer entrance "Just a second buddy" he placed his hand over the phone.
"It looked like you were in pain, are you OK?"
"Yeah, it's Morgan" he held the phone up "just a minor hostage, fire department and pineapple moment. Have I thanked you lately for getting me out of there?" he pointed vaguely in the direction he thought the Buy More was "Even if it's only for another week. Let me say it again. Thank you."
She smiled for him and then asked "Is this to do with the elephant in the car park? And all the news helicopters?"
"I haven't got that far" he held his phone up again "Yet" his smile was now mainly gritted teeth.
"Sorry, little buddy. Now, I know I'm going to regret this, but just how is the Jet Propulsion Lab involved in this?"
"..."
"Well who let them get their hands on benzyl-diethyl-hydrazine? They're supposed to be smart over at JPL."
"..."
"What do you mean fourteen tons?"
"..."
"OK, that is surprisingly convincing" he paused, and calmed himself "I believe and again, I know I'm going to regret this, you may have left out the part about the elephant?"
"..."
Casey and Roan came in from the staff break room entrance. Casey began with "Have you seen what those two nitwits have..."
"Just finding out now" Chuck said serenely, with his hand over the mouthpiece. Chuck now had an overwhelming urge to rest his forehead against the frozen metal inside Sarah's freezer. It would hurt less.
Roan came over and placed his hand on Chuck's shoulder "Charles, take your time, get it right, and get me the hell out of here" he gave Chuck's shoulder joint a friendly squeeze.
"Ow! Why is this, my fault?"
Roan had moved on, and was telling Casey of the number of times he'd been stabbed, shot, thrown out of aircraft (with and without parachutes) or overboard. Nothing, apparently compared to Burbank. Casey reminisced lovingly about the time he held a snipe position for two weeks on top of a fire ant nest. They both missed those days.
"You know? Just lately it's kind of like my life has turned into a comic disaster movie. I half expect Chevy Chase to turn up as the guest bad guy."
They were in her bed, watching TV. The footage of the elephant trotting happily down the street was still playing. There was only cell phone footage of one of the helicopters dodging the trebuchet's payload which caused the elephant to be, even now, still playing dodge-em with LA's finest. The interview of Jeff wearing only Lester's box protector, and waiving a cricket bat around failed to air, a good thing on the whole.
JPL's spokesman, one 'Dr S. Cooper PhD' looking like he was in the terminal stages of St Vitus Dance, had kept suspiciously quiet about the rocket fuel. Chuck had the sneaking suspicion that the fuel itself would not.
Sarah smiled and leant over to kiss him "I'll admit, Burbank is not what I expected. Neither were you, Chuck. I told you once, you're amazing. You can do anything" her kiss this time was a little hungrier "OK, yes you can do that" she moved his hand, but kept hold of it so she could reapply it when she needed "So maybe, you have amazing people around you."
He grinned against her lips "I think, if you are referring to Jefster, the technically correct term is 'dazed and con...'"
But she'd opened her lips, and Chuck found something better to do.
They ignored the sirens and the trumpeting of "Manny" as the media were now referring to him, as the little parade progressed up the street outside.
"Good morning, team" said General Beckman from the screen.
Each member of Team Intersect greeted her in their own way (two 'General's and a grunt).
"Somehow" she looked at them significantly "the Jet Propulsion Laboratories have reported the loss of some fourteen tons of propellant that was to be used for the next Mars probe."
"Gee, have they? Fourteen tons, you say" seemed to be the general consensus from Team Bartowski.
"Just find it" sighed the general, before cutting off the signal, and resting her head on the blotter. She was regretting having the decanter removed from her office. But it surely it had been the right decision.
"Houston, we have a problem" said Chuck to the blank screen. "Road trip to Pasadena anyone?"
"Why would the fuel be at the Pasadena campus? They do their testing out at Edwards" groused Casey.
"What can I say? Jeff and Lester. Never underestimate them." Chuck admitted grudgingly.
-o0o-
They were riding in one of Casey's black NSA Suburbans. The guys at JPL had been as helpful as they could but the direction of their enquiries lay back in Burbank.
Casey wasn't in a good mood. The geeks at JPL were, if possible, smarter and geekier than Bartowski.
The whole time they'd been there, Bartowski had been swapping comic book names with the most normal of them.
Dr Hofstadter had been helpful. His jaw only dropped slightly when Walker came into view. He then had a frantic conversation with Bartowski, while ostensibly showing him the mission control for Cassini. The pair of them glancing at Walker the whole time.
Cooper, the one that gave the sound bite on TV, couldn't lie to save his life. Casey had the information he needed in 3 seconds. But Bartowski was in nerdvana. Walker tried to keep a lid on it, but you could see she was enjoying letting the nerd have some fun.
Casey was honest enough to agree with Walker. Let him have some fun. And as a pilot, Casey had some interest in space. He'd been about 6 or 7 when Armstrong and Aldrin... Casey blinked. Must be the air-conditioning. Because John Casey didn't cry.
Casey actually liked one of the scientists. He shut up whenever Walker was in view. Some poor Indian schmuck. It was Wolowitz who ruined the day. Casey had never seen Bartowski angry before. And Walker looked like she really wanted to water board this creep. Or use that trebuchet from the car park.
"No real surprises, then. The usual suspects it is. Just be gentle... don't leave any visible scars, OK? I'll just wait in Castle..." Chuck tried to fill the silence.
They all looked at each other. Casey was intimidating and Sarah had the 'don't look at me' expression.
"Fine, I'll ask Lester what he did with it." Chuck was always the push-over.
-o0o-
"Charles, welcome back, or are you just visiting our lowly domain? Did you see the tragic demise of that poor elephant?"
"Lester, the TV showed him waiting patiently at the front gates to the zoo. Where did you get... never mind. Please tell me Jeff hasn't drunk all of the hydrazine? Yet."
"Where do you get these absurd notions?"
"The hydrazine? Where is it?"
"I'll never talk, Bartowski. There is nothing you can..."
"Lester, I tried being nice. The guys at JPL gave you up in a heartbeat. You leave me with no option" Chuck said sadly as he walked out of the home theatre room "He's all yours." Chuck nodded to his replacement.
"I've seen better good cop routines on HB... Sarah! What... what are you doing... is that photocopy paper? No! No! I'm allergic to paper cuts...yeeeeaaaaarrrrrrrrrgggh!"
Chuck and Casey stood guard at the door to the home theatre room, as Lester's screams filled the air.
-o0o-