A/N: Thanks once again for all the reviews and PMs. Much appreciated.
Thanks, as always, to Captainrick944 for the beta.
This chapter is a rewrite of three episodes of season 2: "Chuck Versus the Ex," "Chuck Versus the Fat Lady" and "Chuck Versus the Gravitron." The Jill Roberts episodes.
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Chapter 16: Jill
Having received his diploma, Chuck was even more determined to progress his software solution. He'd had it on the back burner for some time but never really felt driven to complete it. A bit like he hadn't completed his degree.
The software tapped into what he did as Piranha. Turning what he knew about cyber-security to create a product for home use. He knew there were well-known products on the market, but he thought his would add something more.
The only downside of this renewed enthusiasm was spending less time with Sarah, or that was what he thought would happen.
Turns out she got a thrill out of watching him at work on the keyboard. He loved this about her. She helped him work. Of course, when he finished each evening, they didn't leave the bedroom, and Devon's thoughts about them proved right. The sex was, as always, fantastic. They mixed it, some linked and some 'normal' sex. Of course, even the latter was so much more than they had ever experienced before they got together.
Chuck was daydreaming about that when a call came in for an install for a Bioscience convention. He was amused. That was Jill Roberts' field. On a whim, he decided he would do the install. If he saw Jill there, he might even scoff at her.
Chuck had completed the install but sadly had not seen Jill. He started to pack his bag. He looked at the guy he'd been working by, "BioScience conference. I bet these things get pretty wild, huh?"
The guy just shrugged.
Chuck guessed the guy was as boring as the conference. "All right, the networks should now be all set up with ten-based T Ethernet connecting all the servers for the conference with a firewall in place."
It was then that he saw Jill walk into the building. He had to stare to make sure it was her, as she was too far away for his new senses to work.
She stopped to talk to another woman and smiled. That confirmed who she was. He remembered that smile.
"Is there a problem?" the man he'd been talking to asked.
Chuck looked at him. "No. There isn't, actually. That attractive brown-eyed, slightly egg-headed brunette over there is Jill Roberts, my ex-girlfriend who broke my heart. I'm now so over her."
That set him off thinking about the amazing blonde who was the true love of his life.
He decided to call Sarah to tell her he'd seen Jill. As he pulled his phone out of his pocket, it dropped to the floor. He knelt down to pick it up. While down there, he headed her voice. "Hi, I'm Dr. Jill Roberts. Is there someone that can help me with the tech requirements for my lecture?"
Chuck grinned and stood up. She looked shocked to see him. "Chuck?"
"Sure is. Hi, Jill. I'd recognize your voice anywhere. How are you?"
She smiled. "Good." She looked him over. "It's good to see you. How long has it been?"
Sadly, he could remember that exactly, but he justified that as being the way his mind worked. Storing and reusing information. "Five years, four months-ish, give or take, kind of in that neighborhood. Uh, what have you been up to?"
She seemed a bit surprised that he was so precise. "Uh, well, after Stanford, I got my Ph.D. in biomedical engineering. I'm giving a presentation at the conference on infectious diseases."
"Lovely," he lied.
"And you?" she asked.
"And me? I'm still working at the Buy More to keep funds rolling in while I create my software solution." That was true now. Then he told her the bit he really wanted to say. "And I'm engaged to the most beautiful woman in the world."
That certainly surprised her. She pulled herself together after a moment. "Oh. Congratulations." She paused and frowned. "You used to call me that."
Inwardly he was grinning her head off. "Well, I hadn't met Sarah back then."
"Huh." She then thought back to her Stanford days with regret and that was when he got his surprise.
He faltered then, but was lucky because another man approached Jill. "There you are. We're running late."
Jill turned to him. "Oh, Guy, this is my old friend Chuck Bartowski- Chuck, this is my boss Guy LeFleur."
Guy nodded to Chuck. Fortunately, he looked away as Chuck flashed. The images of the man in a lab producing something and a room full of corpses in bags.
Guy had turned to Jill, who had looked back at him. "I'm sure your friend's busy. Has, uh, computers to fix. Shall we?"
She smiled and put her arm through Guy's. "Sure."
As she walked away, she turned back and said, "Chuck, I'm staying at the Hotel Waldron, so give me a call if you want to grab a cup of coffee." She paused before saying, "And bring your fiancée."
Chuck smiled as he 'read' the thought that extended that sentence. 'If she really exists.'
Back in Castle, Beckman was telling them what had been found by the analysts in DC. 'I should be doing this,' Chuck told Sarah.
'Just let them do their job, Chuck,' she replied.
"Your ex-girlfriend's boss, Guy LeFleur, is the head research scientist for the European company Cole-MacGregor Pharmaceuticals. MI6 has reports that he may have developed a weapon which he plans to sell to the highest bidder."
"Is Jill involved?" Chuck asked. He hadn't 'read' that she was.
"It's your job to find out, Chuck. Casey and Sarah will surveil Dr. LeFleur. We need you to reconnect with Jill. Find out what she knows about Guy."
Chuck smiled. "Actually, she invited Sarah and me to meet her for coffee to catch up."
Beckman frowned. "Both of you?"
"Yes, I mentioned we were engaged before LeFleur turned up."
"Unfortunate," Beckman said.
"Not really," he replied. "Jill didn't believe Sarah existed. This will throw her off."
Sarah was grinning. Beckman looked at her. "I sense you are going to enjoy this."
"Maybe, but we will be professional, General."
"Very well. Agent Walker, the professional, can join you after dealing with LeFleur."
Chuck was pleased that he'd not mentioned that he had 'read' Jill's thoughts about being in Fulcrum. He had told Sarah, and she agreed to keep silent as well, for now. The idea of upsetting this bitch appealed. After that, they would take her in.
It was a good job that Sarah did go with Casey. As they arrived at LeFleur's hotel room, they heard a scuffle. The door was locked, and Sarah reached in with her mind, detecting two men. One was trying to kill the other. "Break the door down fast," she told Casey. She then commanded the killer, 'Release him, now!'
As Casey kicked the door down, LeFleur fell to the ground, and the assassin looked confused until Casey's bullet hit him between the eyes.
"You take LeFleur, Casey. I'm going to make sure Jill doesn't do anything to Chuck."
Casey chuckled. "If she tries what you're thinking, I don't fancy her chances if you catch her."
Sarah mentally agreed and hurried out.
Jill tried to hide the smirk as Chuck arrived on his own. 'No fiancée!' she thought.
"Sarah's been delayed, but she'll join us when she can," he told her.
Jill looked doubtful.
While waiting for Sarah, he launched straight in. "So, why exactly did you dump me at Stanford. I'm assuming it wasn't Bryce because I know he's not with you anymore."
She froze. 'He's seen Bryce! I have to get the information from him.'
Chuck knew that was Fulcrum's need and decided they really did need to take her in and find out what she knew.
She then started to think about what to tell him. 'It has to be believable. He can't know Fulcrum ordered me to do it.' She said, "I believed you'd stolen the test papers. The evidence had been found. I realized I just didn't know you, so I broke up with you."
There was some truth in what she said, but he dug further. "Evidence planted by Bryce. Did he tell you in your bed or his?"
She was about to get up and walk out when a tall blonde woman walked up to the table. "You must be Jill," Sarah said.
Jill slumped down into her seat. "Sarah?"
Sarah reached across to shake Jill's hand. "Nice to meet you, Jill," she said, but thought, 'You're right. Fulcrum through and through.'
'Since Stanford,' Chuck replied.
"He told me he was engaged and I didn't believe it," Jill muttered, half to herself.
Chuck lifted Sarah's hand to show Jill the ring. "Proof!"
Jill looked at the amazing stone. "Wow!" She looked at Chuck with renewed respect.
Sarah smiled sweetly. "Chuck tells me you work in BioScience. What have you been doing since Stanford?"
On autopilot, Jill told the same story as she had for Chuck but was so disconcerted that thoughts of deep-cover Fulcrum work appeared in her head too. Chuck was sickened at the seduction missions and just how far she went. The latest mission was to secure LeFleur's BioWeapon. However, she thought that was wrong and was trying to help LeFleur communicate it to the world. She finished by saying, "Guy's work is of interest to many people."
She was also worried that her masters in Fulcrum would get wind of the fact that Guy was going to announce his discovery at the conference. They could easily decide, correctly, that she was helping him. Then, they might activate the sensor in her neck that would poison her.
"Wow! Impressive," Sarah said in reply to what Jill had told them. 'We have to take her, Chuck.'
'I agree, but that sensor/tracker worries me,' he replied.
'Yeah. We'll have to deal with that, too.' She looked at the woman who had hurt Chuck and commanded her, 'You are very tired. Go to sleep!'
Jill slumped to the table.
Before picking her up, Chuck thought, 'God! You're so hot when you do that!'
'Not done it on you yet,' she teased.
The two of them lifted her up and took her out. Chuck said to the woman at the entrance, "She sometimes faints like this. She'll be fine with some fresh air."
They quickly took her out to the van parked outside. Casey looked up at them. "She didn't try to make a move on him, did she?"
"No. She's Fulcrum," Chuck told him.
"Throw her in the back with her boss, then," Casey replied.
"She has some sort of tracker that can be set off to poison her," Chuck said.
"Where?"
"In her neck," Sarah said.
"Well, we better get it out," the NSA agent replied.
He grabbed the scanner and ran it over Jill's neck. When he detected the precise location, he took a knife to cut it out. Chuck had to look away.
When Sarah told him, "It's ok to look now, Chuck." He turned and found Sarah holding a bandage to Jill's neck and Casey dropping the capsule containing the tracker and the poison into a container.
"All that was in her neck?" Chuck asked, feeling quite sick about it.
They strapped her in and stepped out. "I'd rather go with you, Sarah," Chuck told her.
"You two make it back to Castle," Casey said. "No stopping for sex."
"Awh!" Sarah replied.
They got into her Porsche and followed the van.
Jill was in one of the rooms with the one-sided mirror. Chuck, Sarah and Casey were on the other side. "So, how did you work out she was Fulcrum?" Casey asked.
"I flashed on her when she mentioned people interested in LeFleur's work. I suspect I didn't before because I already knew her."
"So, she didn't say anything we can tell her about?"
Chuck's shoulders slumped. "No, she didn't."
"We have to say the guy that tried to kill LeFleur implicated her," Sarah said.
'Inspired!' Chuck thought.
'Thanks, Babe,' she replied.
'Babe?' Chuck questioned. The humor in his thought was clear.
'Get over it!' she thought but was amused at both of them. Her for saying it and his reaction.
Casey nodded. "Good idea. Shall I question her?"
"She'll probably guess we were involved," Sarah pointed out.
"LeFleur isn't American, so you probably ought to interview him," Chuck said. Casey agreed.
They both read his mind, worried he might guess that Sarah would be reading LeFleur's mind in his native tongue. However, Casey was thinking that Chuck was keeping the two women apart to spare Jill from damage.
They both inwardly chuckled at that. 'Even though it's tempting to hurt the woman who treated you so badly, Chuck, if she hadn't, we might not have met.'
So, Sarah interviewed LeFleur while Casey interrogated Jill, with Chuck flitting between the two. It was good that they had two rooms with one-way mirrors.
Chuck watched Jill as she revived. She winced in pain, which wasn't surprising after having that device removed so brutally. When she found a bandage on her neck, she was shocked. She sought out the person in the room.
"Yeah, we removed it," Casey said.
Jill was frantically thinking of how to get out of this situation. "I was being forced against my will to do what they said!"
Casey chuckled. "The man who we stopped killing your boss was Fulcrum. He says you are, too."
Jill's eyes widened. She didn't know anything about this. She started to think Fulcrum must know she was no longer loyal but didn't understand why they hadn't activated the device in her neck. She realized she needed their help if she was to survive. "You can't believe that," she said. "But they will try to kill me some other way now."
"So, you need us more than we need you," Casey observed.
"Is Chuck involved with you?" she asked.
Casey was prepared for this. "Chuck? Who's Chuck?"
"The guy I was with when you took me."
"He's in the next cell. We haven't gotten to him yet. Or the other woman you were with. They're not our focus yet."
"I don't know about Sarah, but Chuck's innocent, I think."
Chuck read her mind. She did think Chuck was probably innocent, but the fact that he had admitted to seeing Bryce made her wonder. Maybe if she found out where Bryce was. Fulcrum would accept her back. After all, Bryce was now the Intersect. She would get that information and take it to Leader.
Chuck staggered back from the mirror. Jill knew about the Intersect! That hadn't been in her mind before. However, what triggered that thought was the fact he had mentioned seeing Bryce.
He needed to talk to Sarah about this first, so he hastened to where she was.
When he revived, LeFleur stared at Sarah before speaking. "That man was choking me to death!"
She knew why but asked, "Yes, why was that?"
"I- l don't really know," he said, but of course, he thought about it.
"We interrogated him!" She hissed. "So, we know about the pathogen!"
He slumped. "So, you know why I have to warn everyone about it."
"No, you need to destroy it!"
"It's too late for that, but I can produce an antidote for it," he stated.
Having just arrived, Chuck read the man's mind. Sarah obviously did too. Chuck gasped. The man had injected some of it into himself to create that antidote.
'So, give it to us!' Sarah demanded.
He looked at her and held out his arm. "It's in me."
The command wasn't really necessary as he wanted to give it to the world anyway.
'I need to talk to you about Jill,' Chuck thought.
'Can you do it like this?' she asked.
'Yes. She is not only Fulcrum but knows about the Intersect. They believe that it is Bryce, but she knows I've recently spoken to him. She thinks she can get to him through me and tell someone called Leader."
Sarah rolled her eyes. 'You let her know about Bryce?!'
'I didn't mean to.'
"I'll be back in a minute," she told LeFleur and walked out to Chuck.
Talking very quietly, Chuck said, "Jill thinks she will be targeted by a Fulcrum assassin herself. She was helping LeFleur."
"We need to be able to get to her Fulcrum handler," she said.
"I just said they'll kill her," he replied.
"If they do, we'll still get them," she replied.
"I don't want her getting killed," he said.
Sarah stared at him for a while. 'Are you still in love with her?' she asked. She suddenly felt as if her relationship status wasn't as solid as she had previously thought.
'No, you are it for me, Sarah, but I still don't want someone I know to be killed.'
He had completely opened his mind to her. He was telling the truth.
"We may still have to use her as bait," she warned him. Then, she told him about LeFleur. "He can apparently create an antidote from the pathogen, from a sample of his blood."
He had 'read' the equipment needed. "We don't have a centrifuge, do we?"
"No, contact Beckman and get hold of one. We don't want others involved."
He walked away to ring the general, and Sarah went back in with the scientist.
"Mr. Bartowski?" Beckman replied.
"General, we have LeFleur, but Fulcrum got the pathogen before we got to him. He can create an antidote, but we need a centrifuge in Castle."
"I'll get one to you within half an hour, along with a scientist we can trust."
"Thank you, General."
He looked back into the cell. Sarah was talking to LeFleur about the process they needed to follow. Chuck just hoped they had that ready in time for the conference.
"Did he tell you who he works for?" LeFleur asked.
Sarah focused on him and read his mind. "CIA, but he's gone rogue. What do you know?"
"He also works for Fulcrum. I have a list of code names for all the CIA agents I have worked with. All work for Fulcrum, as well."
She bent down to stare at him. "We need that list."
"I will give you access if you can keep me safe."
Both Sarah and Chuck 'read' his mind at that point.
'Tell Casey,' she thought.
The three of them were facing the monitor and General Beckman.
"We need that list of CIA code names, and then we can at least eliminate those FULCRUM operatives."
"He told me he has it hidden at the Opera House," Sarah announced. "There is a complicated path to get access to it, but if we force the hatch open, we can bypass all that."
"Very well. Do it," Beckman told them. "Do you have the antidote yet?"
"He and your scientist are just preparing that now, General."
"What about his associate?" Beckman asked.
Chuck hated that Casey had to say this, but it was important. "She is a Fulcrum operative, General. Her handler is called Leader."
"Interesting name. Capture him."
Casey looked at Chuck briefly, then said, "We will have to use her as bait."
Beckman didn't hesitate. "Do it."
As the call ended, Chuck said, "She'll be killed, won't she?"
"Depends if she's smart or not," Casey replied.
"We need to get that antidote to the conference to save those scientists," Sarah reminded them.
"So they can also make bioweapons?" Casey questioned.
Sarah ignored him and headed back to LeFleur.
Chuck stood looking through the mirror at the woman he used to love. "Don't hurt Walker, Bartowski."
Chuck looked around at the NSA agent, who was wondering if he would leave Sarah for Jill. "Aww. You care for her."
Casey grunted. "Best partner I've ever had, but you better not tell her that."
Chuck smiled at the older man, then said, "I wouldn't hurt Sarah if it saved my life."
Casey grunted.
Sarah walked in. 'I 'heard' that, Chuck. You know if I thought me getting hurt or even killed would save you, I'd have no hesitation.'
'I know, and you know I feel the same the other way around,' he replied.
She decided not to pursue this any further. "I have sufficient of the antidote for all the scientists there. I've taken a dose, and you two need to as well." She lifted a syringe. Chuck felt faint but looked away. It hurt!
"Don't be a baby," she said. "I'll kiss it better later."
"Not while I'm around," Casey said.
"What if this isn't where they plan to use it?" Chuck asked as they arrived at the conference.
"These are the people they would want to stop," Sarah said.
The three of them moved into the room for the presentation. LeFleur had refused to do the presentation, so Sarah was going to do it.
She was introduced. "Giving the presentation for Dr. Lafleur will be... his associate coming from Sydney, Australia. Dr. Eva Anderson." Chuck was a bit upset at her using the name she shared with Bryce, but he held that in.
She walked to the lectern. "Thank you. Yes, g'day, I'm Dr. Eva Anderson, and I'm here to talk to you all today about a deadly poison that could change the course of human science. I'm honored to stand before you all today on behalf of Dr. LeFleur. Throughout the many years of our research..."
She then saw one of the men near the back stand and rush to the side door, as opposed to the one at the back where Casey was standing.
Chuck was near that door, though, so when the man went to open it, Chuck commanded him to trip. He didn't quite fall but was slowed enough that Casey got to him. The man tried to pull a gun out, but by then, Chuck commanded him not to do that. There was a scuffle, and Casey overcame him and cuffed him.
The audience had stopped listening to Sarah and turned to see what was happening.
Then, at the seat the man had left, a canister started to emit gas.
Knowing that NSA operatives were outside, Sarah called out, "Seal the room, seal the room! Ladies and gentlemen, this is an NSA emergency. No one… I repeat, no one gets in or out."
The men outside did seal the room.
Sarah grabbed the case she had brought in as Chuck and Casey ran up to her. The three syringes were put to good use on the audience.
Casey had refused to inject the Fulcrum operative, but Chuck pointed out he could provide information on whether all the toxin had been used.
The Fulcrum agent hadn't wanted to talk, but Casey's reluctance to provide the antidote loosened his lips. Chuck and Sarah monitored his thoughts. He had used all of what had been taken.
They then had to wait for the toxin presence to reduce to an acceptable level.
Casey had wanted to take LeFleur with them when they went to the opera house, but Sarah said they knew where to go, so he wasn't needed.
It didn't take long for them to access the hatch, and they soon had a USB stick containing the list.
"I wish I could have followed all his cryptic puzzles to get to this," Chuck moaned.
"Geek out somewhere else, Bartowski," Casey growled.
Before they left the opera house, however, another Fulcrum operative tried to stop them from getting it. Chuck thought he was going to have to issue another command and was worried that Casey would start to wonder why these men were so incompetent, but that wasn't necessary. The hole in the man's head from Casey's bullet was quite effective.
They took the stick back to Castle. Casey went to check on Jill and Sarah on LeFleur.
The two NSA agents, Jill Jones and Jack Stevens, that had been assigned to guard the two had covered both toilet and food needs.
Casey walked into Jill's cell. "I didn't think you were coming back," she said.
He grunted. "BioWeapon was deployed. I was affected and had to wait for the antidote to work."
She gawped at him. "He created it for you?"
"Yeah. Now we have to decide what to do with you both."
"What about Chuck?" she asked.
Casey noted that she didn't ask about his partner. "We released both him and the woman. They weren't of interest to us."
Standing on the other side of the mirror, Chuck 'read' her thoughts. 'Chuck knows where Bryce is. Maybe he could also find his way here. If only I could get a message out. Leader could then get in here AND rescue me.'
Chuck walked away. This was just like Graham's way of thinking. Chuck just being a tool to use. He shook his head. They were all the same, apart from his fiancée. He briefly wondered if she would have been the same if she hadn't fallen for him.
When he got through to the main room, Sarah was there. She looked up at him. "LeFleur gave me the decryption key. I'm accessing it right now."
Chuck sat next to her to see what they found. Casey walked in before it got going. He sat on the other side of her.
She started a scan to match the code names against the CIA list of operatives in the Joint Intelligence Database. It was alarming how many showed up.
Sarah was surprised that Jill was on there, as she had been recruited directly into Fulcrum. It seemed that Fulcrum set up covers for people like her, so they appeared to be CIA operatives.
Casey wondered if Leader was on this list.
"Unless he worked with LeFleur, he wouldn't be on here," Sarah pointed out.
"So, it seems we still have to set a trap for him," Casey replied. He looked at Chuck. "Barrow asked about you again,"
"Maybe I can be part of a trap for this Leader," Chuck suggested.
Sarah had 'read' his thoughts about Jill's musings. She didn't like the idea, but it may be the best course of action.
Both Chuck and Sarah had seen Jill's image of what Leader looked like, but Casey didn't know. So, Chuck mentioned, "It would be good to get her to draw what the guy looks like. She was always good at drawing and painting."
Casey nodded. "I'll ask her. If she's frightened of the guy, she should want to give us that."
Chuck and Sarah weren't sure Jill would-cooperate. Both watched as Casey put pen and paper in front of Jill and asked.
"I'm not sure I know what he looks like," she responded. The image in her head, however, was clearer than ever before.
'She's not going to do it,' Chuck thought.
'Do you want to put that desire into her head, or shall I?' Sarah thought back. She nearly laughed when he thought how much her making commands turned him on. 'Maybe later, Lover!'
'You do it here and later?' he suggested.
'Stop making me want to laugh! Ok, I'll do it.'
'And I didn't even have to command you to agree!'
Sarah looked at Jill and thought, 'I want to draw Leader!'
Jill had no idea why she suddenly felt the need to sketch out Leader's appearance, but she reached for the pencil and started drawing.
It wasn't long before Casey had an image. He walked out to them. "I'll go and scan that list."
Chuck looked back at his ex-girlfriend. Her wrist was back cuffed to the chair again.
Sarah noticed. "Don't feel sorry for her, Chuck."
He turned to his fiancée. "Sorry. I can't help it. It's how I am."
"I know."
He shook himself out of this. "I should go and make an appearance at the Buy More."
She nodded and watched him go. She knew using Jill as bait was hard for him, but Jill now seemed sure she would be fine.
Casey had told Jill that they were transferring her to another location. She would have her head covered. She questioned that, but he just said it was standard practice.
The Orange Orange was closed for business, supposedly so Sarah could do paperwork and reordering. Chuck was working in the Buy More.
The plan was for Jill to "escape" while being transported to a new location. That would be after the van had been driving for a while and just happened to crash near the Buy More. Jill would run in, seeking Chuck's help.
It all went to plan. When Jill got to him, Chuck read her thoughts about what had happened.
They took Jill up through the yogurt shop with her head covered, as she'd been told. Jones and Stevens took her into the van out the back and set off. The route was deliberately confusing so that Jill would be disoriented. However the end, as planned was for Stevens to swerve and crash while running past the entrance to the Buy More shopping area. They had to drive past a couple of times until there was no traffic.
Jill eventually realized they were not coming to get her and looked through to them, seeing blood. Both agents appeared to have hit their heads in the crash.
She managed to untie herself and get the rear door to open. And jumped out.
She looked around. She hoped the Buy More she could see would be able to tell her where Chuck worked, and she ran over to it.
She couldn't believe her luck when she entered the store and saw Chuck talking to two guys near the back of the store.
She rushed over to him as he looked up. "Jill?"
"Chuck, you have to help me!" she said as she rushed up to him.
He ushered her into what looked like an audio-visual room. She looked at him. She thought he looked nervous about being with her. She put on her sexiest look and said, "Do I look like a terrorist, Chuck?"
If he hadn't met Sarah he would probably start falling under her charms. He shook his head. "No. They must be mad thinking that," he replied. "So, they let you out like they did Sarah and me?"
He almost laughed at the reaction he got when he mentioned Sarah. Jill didn't like someone in her way of what she wanted. She asked sweetly, "is Sarah ok? It must have been traumatic being taken."
He knew she was asking to see how they were taken. "I think they must have drugged us, Jill. I woke up in a cell all on my own. I was tied to a chair. I called out, but no one came to me for ages. I was freaking out, I can tell you!"
Her shoulders slumped. This wasn't what she hoped to hear. She was hoping he had seen where they'd been taken. He was going to talk about how they'd seen it on the way out when she went in a different tack. "They asked about Bryce. Did they ask you?"
He was surprised she said this, so his expression was appropriate. "Bryce? Bryce Larkin?"
"Hmm. I take that as a no."
"No. She never mentioned him," he replied.
Jill frowned. "She? A woman interviewed you?" Chuck described Jones to her. "So, this Jones woman never mentioned Bryce?"
"No. It's weird. I don't see him for six years then he shows up briefly before leaving and then people start asking about him?"
"Do you know where he went?" she asked.
"No, but I can guess," he replied. He frowned. "Are you wanting to get back together with him?"
She backtracked rapidly, "No. just curious." She knew Leader would want that information.
He decided to get back on track. "When we left that place, both of us were amazed that such a fancy place on the inside was in that warehouse."
Her eyes shot back to him. "You saw where it was?"
"Yeah. Jones drove us from there up to our home. Why? Didn't you see it?"
She lied. "I wasn't paying attention. Chuck, I have no money. Can you give me some, and can I borrow your phone?"
He handed her the phone they had prepared for her, bugged to high heaven. "Money will take longer. I don't have much on me."
She stood and gave him a kiss. He wasn't expecting that, either. In the past, he would have responded, but not anymore. He pulled away, "Jill, I'm engaged!"
She pulled back. Upset that he hadn't responded. 'I need to get rid of that blonde!'
He didn't like that thought. So, he left her to make her calls.
"Your boy's done good," Casey said to Sarah. "She's making a call already." Sarah went through to listen with the NSA agent.
"Leader, it's Jill Roberts."
"Where the fuck have you been?" A gravelly male voice replied.
"I got taken by NSA agents to some secret base of theirs."
"They must have LeFleur as well."
"I didn't see him, but he must have helped them," she replied.
"So, you've gotten away from there?"
"The van I was in crashed, and I escaped."
"Well, you failed your mission, so you're no use now." There was a pause.
Chuck, just outside, 'read' her thought before she said. "They took the tracker out."
"I knew that," Leader replied.
"I can give you Bryce Larkin. One way or another. I have a civilian who met with him recently. He thinks he knows where Bryce went. If not, he knows where the base was that held me. You should be able to track Bryce down in one of their databases. The civilian who will be easy to break."
"Hmm. The base should have access to the Joint NSA/CIA Intelligence Database, so we should be able to track Larkin if this civilian is no use otherwise."
"He works at the Buy More in Burbank," Jill responded. "You can take him when he leaves for home. He might have a blonde with him. Kill her." Chuck nearly gasped on 'hearing' this.
"You do not tell me what to do, Roberts! What is she to him?"
"His fiancée."
"Perfect. He will readily give me what I want if I threaten to kill her."
Chuck was furious at all this talk of Sarah.
Jill finished her call, and after a minute, Chuck walked back in. "You all done?"
"Chuck, can you get me a taxi?" Jill asked as she returned his phone to him.
He noticed the last call was to an unlisted number.
He knew that Jones and Stevens would be in a car by now and ready to tail her. "Sure." He used the same phone. "Where do you want them to take you?"
"Straight to the airport. I've had enough of LA."
Chuck knew that Casey would be listening in and would pass the details on to Jones and Stevens.
When she left, he hurried over to the Orange Orange.
As he started down the stairs in Castle, he threw a thought at Sarah. 'I need you!'
She didn't need to read his mind to know the threats on her life were making him emotional.
She met him at the bottom of the stairs. The tightness of his embrace was surprising to her. She hugged him back. "You know they won't get me, don't you?"
He didn't care that Casey was there. He kissed her hard.
His emotions swept through her. She kissed him back just as hard. 'I love you, Chuck.'
'I know, and I love you, Sarah.'
She pulled away and noticed that Casey was looking away. "So, You work late and make sure you're the only one left in the store."
"I don't know if he'll wait that long," Chuck replied.
"He'll not want any witnesses to you being taken," Casey replied.
"We'll be there with you," Sarah said.
"Not you, Sarah," Chuck implored. "I don't want him to have a change of mind and shoot you."
"I will be there, Chuck. You know that," she replied. 'And you know I can immobilize him as well as you can.'
The store had emptied, and, as it was a Friday, the staff had cleared out quickly, too. Even Morgan was keen to go because he had a date with Anna. Chuck called Sarah, and she and Casey came through the Buy More entrance to Castle. The three of them sat waiting for Leader to make his move.
"What if he's waiting outside for me?" Chuck asked.
"He won't want you to be seen being taken out the front," Casey replied.
"So, he'll come in through the back," Sarah added. They all looked at the monitor showing the camera view back there.
"Roberts was stopped at the airport," Casey said.
Chuck looked at him. "Where will they take her?"
"Maximum security NSA site. That's the last we'll see of her."
Chuck sighed. "I wish I could have just told her I knew everything she did back in Stanford. Confronted her about it."
Sarah took hold of his hand. "You'll have to just put it behind you, Chuck."
He scoffed. "I spent five years of my life thinking about that. Thinking she had dumped me for Bryce Larkin. That I wasn't good enough for her."
She tightened her grip. "You're far too good for her."
Casey surprised them when he said, "I have to agree with Walker on that one."
Chuck just nodded. After years of feeling inadequate, he no longer did. That wasn't Jill, though. That was all Sarah's doing.
Sarah noticed movement on the monitor. "He's here."
She and Casey slipped out of the room first to take up positions. Chuck sauntered out into the store, pretending to do final checks.
The man was quick. Chuck only just sensed him when he appeared by his side, pressing a gun into it. "You need to come with me," the man hissed into his ear. "You know where I can find someone who stole something from us."
"No. You need to give up right now," Chuck replied.
Casey's gun appeared at the man's neck. "Drop your gun," he growled.
Leader started to, but Chuck saw his thought. He was going to whip it around. 'Drop it!' Chuck commanded.
The man was surprised when his fingers released the gun. He slumped down, and Casey pulled him away from Chuck.
Sarah saw what Leader did then. His elbow smashed into Casey's chest as his hand grabbed Casey's gun. "Freeze!" she shouted and sent the same thought as a command.
Leader froze, and Casey grabbed his hands and cuffed them.
Casey dragged him away, back out where he'd come from. He'd be interrogated at the same high-security location as Jill.
Chuck felt the relief of it all being over. He and Sarah went straight back to the apartment.
Ellie was excited when they got home. So much so that she couldn't keep the news from them and just blurted it out as soon as they walked in. "The apartment across the courtyard is coming free!"
That certainly got the pair of them excited, too. "When?" Chuck asked.
"In two weeks," Ellie replied. "I hope you don't mind, but I put your names down for it."
Sarah rushed up to the doctor and hugged her. "Thank you, Ellie," she said through tears. "Thank you so much."
Chuck joined in the hug.
Ellie pulled back. "You can go and see it tomorrow if you want."
Devon walked into the room from the kitchen and smiled. Thankfully, he didn't join in the hug as well. "Perfect timing, you two. Dinner is ready."
As they sat to eat, Ellie told them how she found out about the apartment. Both Sarah and Chuck found the dialog a relief from always trying to read minds. "Joe got transferred to New York. He'd applied for the job but thought he hadn't got it. He was wrong. He starts next week. He's moving into a vacant apartment over there but Gillian needs time to pack everything up before they can move out completely. She, and their things, will follow him the following week."
They talked more about the couple who were leaving, and then Ellie asked what they'd been doing.
Sarah could tell that Chuck was hesitant, so she told the other couple. "Jill Roberts turned up and tried to steal Chuck away from me." It wasn't completely true, but it got the reaction Sarah expected.
"What!?" Ellie nearly shouted. Devon looked horrified, too.
Chuck was going to reply but saw what was in Sarah's mind and happily kept quiet.
"She was surprised to see that I existed, and he just picked up my hand and showed her the ring."
Chuck smiled. "I think Sarah being as gorgeous as she is shocked her, but the rock worked like a dream, too."
Sarah looked at his sister. "I was so proud of him, Ellie. This woman who hurt him was crushed, and I didn't have to do or say anything."
He scoffed. "Apart from looking as stunning as ever."
Sarah gave him a quick kiss for that,
Elli said, "Much as I would've liked to give her a mouthful, I'm glad she's gone." Then she smiled. "That's both of the people who hurt you put in their places, Chuck!"
Chuck thought of Jill heading to a life sentence and just nodded.
'She deserves it, Chuck,' Sarah thought.
He had to agree. He would have felt sorry for her if she hadn't been for her wanting Sarah killed. That was unforgivable, so she did indeed deserve what she got.
When they finally got to bed. Sarah wanted to talk before they moved on to more pleasurable things.
"When Jill turned up, I was just as insecure as you were around Bryce," she quietly confessed.
He pulled her to him and kissed her before speaking. "For five years, I did pine for her. Then the most beautiful and amazing woman came into my life. I fell in love with her immediately, and all thoughts of Jill faded into insignificance. I love you so much, Sarah. Please don't ever forget that." He looked at her with tears in her eyes.
"I can't help it, Chuck. You see me as this tough, strong woman that nothing can phase, but inside I am as full of insecurities as you are."
"I will never leave you, Sarah."
He kissed her again, deepening it this time. She wrapped her arms around his neck and deepened it further, passions rising.
They didn't talk anymore that night.
A/N: I definitely disliked Chuck Bartowski in these three episodes. I know General Beckman made him connect with Jill, but the woman had hurt him so very much and he could see how Sarah was taking it. His need to score exceeding both his common sense and his affection for the blonde.
Thoughts?