Usual disclaimers, no rights to any characters portrayed and this is neither the real world nor a Disney Princess tale.
As Sarah had said, they talked and held each other through the night, though there was quite a bit of kissing involved, too. While it was tame compared to what the others expected them to be doing, it was a wonderful night for them. The real surprise, for Sarah at least, came early the next morning though.
She was wide awake the moment the twins walked into the bedroom in exercise gear saying "Morning Papa…" but they stopped short when they saw Sarah, Lottie blurted out "Oh I'm so sorry! We forgot….." and they turned to run out but Sarah called out to them. "Wait…. Come back girls!"
They stopped and looked back in confusion, to see her holding her hand out with a smile, so they hesitantly turned around and came back in.
After a round of hugs and kisses, Sarah asked. "So I take it this is the normal morning routine?"
Charlie nodded. "Yes, we're sorry, like Lottie said we just forgot, whenever we're in the same house we come in to get Papa for our run with Auntie Ellie and Viv, come back and have a training session with Nana and then have breakfast while we're waiting for Mama and Auntie Anna and everyone else to get up."
Sarah groaned as she suddenly realised... "Oh no, there are three more of you now?"
The girls looked at their father in confusion and he smiled as he stage whispered. "Auntie Sammie needs lots of sleep like Auntie Em and Mama and Auntie Anna!"
That got him growled at. "Yes I f.. bloody well do! Don't you laugh at me Mister! Just because you're some kind of cyborg who doesn't need sleep doesn't mean that there's anything wrong with those of us who do!"
Her pique faded as she was wrapped in his arms and kissed, and Lottie and Charlie piled on to make it a four way hug, but then Chuck started laughing quietly and the look he got from her said that he better explain or else!
Chuck shook his head. "I was just remembering when I first started seeing the reports about the Ice Queen in Ninety Nine, because the image they generated in my head was of a beautiful and lethal cyborg, I guess two out of three ain't bad."
Sarah started shaking her head at him, but stopped and looked at the girls with concern.
It was Chuck's turn to shake his head. "We don't hide things from the girls Sarah, they aren't children, any more than we were at their age. They know what we do sometimes and they've been working with us for a few years now so they've seen all too many reports and images of that sort of thing. Growing up in Israel until they were eight, they saw more than most American kids too. And don't forget, they are Frost's Granddaughters!"
That got the girls another hug from Sarah, then they went for their run with Ellie and Viv, telling Chuck that he'd have to put in extra effort later to make up for slacking off like this. That made Sarah laugh, yep, these were Frost's Granddaughters alright!
After they'd left, Chuck explained that while he did need to keep up his fitness levels, he liked to run with the Ellie and the girls to ward off unwanted attention. Sarah could understand that, because four beautiful young women like them (Ellie was twenty nine, Viv was sixteen and Lottie and Charlie were fourteen and they were all around five foot eight or nine with great bodies) in running gear would stop traffic. She told him to go after them, because she knew that he could catch up easily enough, but he shook his head, saying that they could look after themselves, and he had to get to work on what they'd need to resolve the current situation.
That reminded Sarah that she was going to have to call Graham and tell him she was going in to engage the target this morning, and she expected him to warn her that Casey was also moving in and tell her to make sure she got to the target ahead of him. The most logical approach was that she tell Graham after she 'engaged' Chuck that she'd managed to talk him into taking her out so that she could manoeuvre him into telling her where the email from Larkin was, and that would also give them a bit more breathing space to come up with something to make a good enough argument to 'keep him in the world'.
They stayed where there were and cuddled for a little while longer then went to have their showers and went downstairs. It didn't take Chuck long to set up the news feeds, which included numerous military information channels, and he settled down to watch them, scribbling notes when something flashed up at him. John was there and he and Sarah were discussing the best way to handle this.
Chuck suddenly jerked, looking as though he was going into a seizure. They both rushed over, but it seemed to be finished by the time they reached him, he wiped a hand over his face, looking exhausted, but smiled when Sarah anxiously asked "Charlie Honey, are you okay baby?", pulling her in for a kiss and saying "Yeah, I just wasn't expecting that!"
"What happened? You looked like you were having a seizure!"
"Yeah, it's apparently how this thing works when it brings up a lot of information, it kicks my arse! Previously I just got small hits on things and they were easy enough to take, but this, yeah this one really hit me. The good news though is that I think we have the event we need to make this thing work, someone's planning on blowing up the Pacific Security League Conference tonight at a hotel here in LA so we just need to get enough information together to stop it."
She looked him in the eye, still concerned, but he smiled and leaned in to kiss her again, saying "Sweetie, I'm okay, really!" softly. Her look didn't change at first as she ran her fingers through his hair, smoothing it back, but she obviously decided that he was telling her the truth as she nodded, gave him another kiss and then went off to report in to Graham that she'd engaged the target and talked him into a date so she could get him into a setting where she could control what was happening.
By the time she was off the phone, Chuck had a vast array of search engines running up on the screens, looking for anything and everything to do with the conference and the plot, and he asked for her phone.
Sarah handed it over with a questioning look and he explained as he led the way to the electronics lab. "This entire building is shielded, so I haven't been too worried about it up to now, but your phone is bound to be loaded with CIA bugs and trackers, so we need to work out how to deal with them before you take it out of here. We also need to work out whether the CIA has already activated them so you can get your story straight when you have a longer talk to Graham. So long as they haven't been activated, I can set up everything to show that you flew in late last night and stayed at a hotel somewhere, which fits with what you've told Graham, let's just hope that he was too shaken and focused on covering his arse yesterday to order them to be turned on."
She smiled at that and kissed him. "I knew there was a reason to keep you around, I hadn't considered any of that! From the times I talked to him yesterday, and even just now, I think we may be okay though, he's still running scared that this will blow up in his face because ultimately, he's responsible for Larkin."
Chuck grinned "Let's hope!"
When he pulled her phone apart and tested all the (many) add-ons inside, he quickly confirmed that most of them hadn't been activated as yet, so he checked what the one active one did and held (it was a bug that looked like it was always on, set to record any and all phone conversations, but there wasn't anything in the recording that could really cause a problem for Sarah. The worst were the discussions with Aunt Jane about keeping her in Europe, but they'd always been careful about what they said because they expected to be monitored. Then he jumped onto the computer and inserted all the relevant records to show that she'd been in New York when Graham called her (Sarah was wide eyed as she watched him changing the phone company logs across the country to virtually reroute all the early calls and messages from California to New York) and had gotten onto a flight to Los Angeles a couple of hours later, booking into a hotel when she arrived (for that, he changed the hotel records of a room where the occupant had booked out early to get a room that had been used the night before). He also got into the systems of the rental company to alter the records to show that she'd rented the Porsche at their office over near the hotel (part of the reason to choose that hotel) early that morning, instead of in San Diego the day before.
Sarah shook her head at how thorough he was, but froze as she suddenly realised something. "Shit! You are the Piranha, aren't you?"
He looked at her quizzically. "I wouldn't have expected you to know that much about the hacker world Sarah, but yeah."
She shook her head. "I don't really, but one of the CIA techs, I'm pretty sure the best CIA tech, has helped me quite often and he has a serious case of hero worship for the Piranha, so he talks about him... you... all the time."
Chuck grinned. "It's nice to be appreciated! Who is this tech?"
"Pete Tong, I don't expect..."
"Ah! The Mongol! Yeah, he is about as good as anyone the CIA has."
Sarah shook her head again. "Do you keep track of everyone in the business?"
"No, just the ones who are good enough to be worth keeping an eye on."
With that, they went to see what the search engines had come up with. Chuck identified where the job to blow up the conference was advertised on the Russian Business Network, noting that it was actually targeting NATO General Leland Stanfield, and picked up who'd taken the job, a well known Serbian bomb maker. He got a number more flashes of information as he saw these facts, including the schedule of when General Stanfield would be on stage and some of the plans for the bomb, so they knew where and when to be there and had an idea of who and what to look for and Chuck inserted the details into the system to ensure that they had a specific table assigned to their dinner reservation in the restaurant at the hotel, one where they could see both the service and main entrances for San Francisco room where the conference was.
With their plans laid out, Sarah went off to get settled into 'her' hotel room (telling the ones at reception that she'd lost her key when she went out to get a car and collect her bags from the airport when they called to say that they'd finally found them) and do what she'd be expected to do for the day. Chuck, Jeff, Anna, Lou and Skip had to put in the time to look after their business clients, as many of them were being hit with the 'Irene Demova' Virus because guys were accessing the supposed porn site from their work computers.
As they entered the hotel to go to the restaurant, they saw Casey at the bar but ignored him. They actually had a good time at dinner, having the expected discussions for the now active bugs in Sarah's phone, though the way Sarah's eyes were flashing at the cracks Casey was making over their earwigs, knowing that they couldn't respond because of the bugs, said that they were going to be having a serious discussion, probably involving blood and bruises, when it was safe to do so.
Chuck didn't see the Serbian bomber entering the Conference, and as the time that the bomb was supposed to be set off drew closer, John said that they couldn't wait any longer. They paid up and left the restaurant, then John approached them and came out with a few atrocious lines that Chuck wouldn't be letting him forget about for a long time, quoting Robocop, really? Anyway, that gave Chuck the opportunity to go into his own lines "Wait, that guy, the one who went in there, he's a bomber, oh my god he's going to blow up the General!" and with that he pulled free of Casey and ran into the San Francisco room.
When they were inside and Casey and Sarah got the security people to back down by flashing their NSA and CIA credentials while Chuck searched for the bomber, trying to ignore Casey's comments over the earwig about how bad his lines were. "You can talk? 'dead or alive, you're coming with me'? Never mind, shut up, we've got to find this guy!"
Just at that moment he spotted the bomber and Casey indicated him to the security people, but as they were closing in on him he reached for something in his jacket and they blew him away. Chuck had to ignore that as he looked for the bomb, and spotted the covered food cart that the bomber had left standing there.
When they got to the food cart and opened the top, Chuck knew what the bomber had been reaching for, as the timer was running and was under thirty seconds, looking inside the covers underneath didn't improve anything, as there were enough explosives there to possibly bring down the building, but the bomb wasn't made to the plans that Chick had seen in the Intersect and none of them recognised anything in the wiring that would let them disarm it. Just then Chuck realised that the laptop that was being used for the arming mechanism was a cheap one that they'd been seeing a lot of that day, because the basic design made them particularly susceptible to the Demova virus.
He jumped onto the keyboard, enabling the WiFi, connecting to the hotel's network and bringing up a browser to search for the malware site. Time was running out as he entered the site, and the virus fried the laptop and killed the detonator mechanism with less than a second to spare. He went to snap at Casey when he made a crack about puking on the C4, but held it as he could see that Casey was just as shaken as he was, they all were, because Sarah had come into his arms as the laptop died and was still clinging onto him. They all knew how close they'd been to being blown to smithereens, far better than anyone else in there did.
When he saw General Stanfield coming, Chuck grabbed his phone and activated the bug jammers, as they couldn't afford to let the CIA hear what was about to be said. "Charles, John, what's going on here?" Sarah felt Chuck draw himself up and went to step away but stopped when he grabbed her hand, obviously there was a reason he didn't want her to step away, but she stopped thinking about that when Chuck started speaking.
"Hello General…. Well I was actually on a date with my girlfriend at the restaurant here in the hotel when I recognised a Serbian bomber entering the room and I was pretty sure that he wasn't an official delegate, so I called John. I knew he wouldn't be far away because he thinks I can't even go on a date without getting into trouble."
Casey cut in with. "Do you blame me? Did you miss the massive bomb we're standing next to?"
At that the General barked "What massive bomb?" and Casey pulled aside the cloth covering the body of the cart to show that it was packed with explosives "Shit! Why didn't you tell me? Johnson!"
When the head of security ran up, the General told him to get that cart out of here! When the man went to grab it angrily he stopped him with "Carefully you fool! There's enough explosives in there to level the building!" After that he very gingerly took the handle and slowly pushed the cart from the room. With that, the General turned back to Chuck and he continued.
"We got into the room and I identified the bomber, but the security people shot him and then we found out that he'd armed the bomb, so we had to disarm it, and that's where we are."
"You've prevented a catastrophe here today Charles, and I'll make sure that the proper authorities know about it!"
"I'm sorry General, but I'm afraid that we can't let you do that. You see while we are here on a date, I'm actually in the middle of an operation, and I couldn't risk my real identity getting out so I'm here as my cover identity, a civilian by the name of Chuck Bartowski... And we also need to cover up the fact that Sarah is my girlfriend, because she's a CIA agent who's in LA on an operation herself... and our relationship isn't officially sanctioned."
"You do live a complicated life, don't you Charles? Alright, I won't do anything publicly, but I will be having some private talks with the General about this, you'll be getting recognition for what you did, deal with it!"
Chuck nodded with a smile, saying. "Thank you sir"
The General looked at Sarah "And while I understand your situation, your part in this will be in the official record too, hopefully you can be officially recognised for it one day Miss?..."
"Walker Sir, Sarah Walker, and thank you."
The General nodded and went to leave, but stopped and turned back to Sarah with a smile. "I should have known that he had someone incredible hidden away, the way he's shot down every woman who's ever come after him. I hope you realise just how special this man of your's is young lady!"
Sarah smiled at him. 'Oh, I do Sir! Thank you."
With that, he left with a smile and Chuck turned the bug jammers off as they headed out of the conference room. When they'd left the Hotel, Sarah and Casey put on a good show of arguing over who was going to get custody of Chuck and how he was to be handled, and within half an hour Sarah had been contacted by Graham to tell her that she and Casey would be staying in LA to guard Chuck and act as his handlers.
To keep up appearances, Chuck headed off to the beach and Sarah 'tracked him down' there, having the type of conversation that the CIA would expect to hear before she took him home and headed off to her hotel room to try and get a bit of rest before she went into the FBI office in the morning with Casey for the first briefing on this assignment.
As soon as Sarah had left, Chuck got to work, as he had to have everything set up before the briefing in the morning. The others helped for a while before they went off to bed, but he did the bulk of it himself. The only details of their cover lives that he'd touched on so far was that he'd offered Sarah a job at PS&T and quietly told her that officially, Ellie would be sharing his apartment with him and Casey would be taking over Ellie's apartment. He had until the briefing in the morning to create everything else. But he also had an even bigger job, creating a bullet proof business case to convince everyone that the Human Intersect team had to be operated under very strict parameters if they wanted him, as the Human Intersect, to continue working effectively.
By the time that Diane came on-line at about 3AM his time, he had much of it done, the records showed that the smaller building and yard beside El Castillo had recently been sold to Thebes Security and they'd had the development application to alter part of the building approved by the local planning department. All the electronic records were in place to show that Thebes Security was a legitimate company, making up of a franchise of an established nationwide security services company based in Austin Texas (Kane Security Services) that had taken over the small but well regarded security company in LA. The owner of the LA company, Phoebe Noble (better known as the operative Cleopatra Jones up until she was burned in the late eighties, she was actually Rick's mother), would continue running the LA operation as Thebes Security. The story line was that the owners of KSS were proud patriots and had agreed to not only take John Casey on as the second on charge for the LA operation, but also to allow the government to add whatever they wanted to the premises while the building was being rebuilt.
The personnel list that Chuck had put together for Thebes Security made Diane shake her head, because aside from a few of her agents like Captain Noble, Captain Dunwoody, Miss Prince and Miss White, it was mostly made up of the best of their 'friends', who'd been supposedly been brought in from other franchises of KSS or part of Thebes security (which of course looked like an established company even though Chuck had only created it a few hours ago), these were Phoebe Noble, Buckminster Posey, Gertrude Zerbanski, Marco Kostov, Ilsa Trinchina, Yuri Gabrienko, Louis Chekov, Robin Cunnings, Alexandra Forrest, Charlene Baltimore, Michael and Tara Colt, Javier Cruz, Vincent Smith and Robert Simms. Most of them had enough experience in corporate and protective security to pull it off, but more to the point their 'friends' had all been highly respected and capable special operations or intelligence operatives, so the Thebes Security team made for a formidable force, especially with John, Bry and the others added to it.
Part of the work that Chuck had had to do was to ensure that all of their 'friends' records would stand up to thorough investigation by the CIA, and the NSA for that matter. He was still doing that when Diane came on-line and they started discussing it. He filled her in on what he'd told Sarah and cleared with Ellie, that Sarah would bring up the fact that he'd offered her a job with his company and Ellie was listed as sharing his apartment, while Anna and Lou and Jeff and Skip were listed as sharing other apartments. This was both to make it more believable for them to be living in a place like El Castillo, and so that the 'NSA' could lease Ellie's apartment next to his for John to use, as the records now showed that it had recently become vacant after the previous tenant moved east.
Chuck went on with the explanation, because that had been the easy part, the hard part was putting together enough of an in-depth and bullet proof history of Chuck Bartowski, basket case, to convince everyone that the solution they were trying to present was the only workable option. This included counsellor and psychiatrist reports, statements from students and professors back at Stanford, colleagues and customers, Ellie's friends from UCLA and Westside, a veritable mountain of evidence to show that Chuck Bartowski was borderline as it was and he would be a basket case who was good for nothing but a rubber room if he ever had to experience betrayal or abandonment again. They had a few things in their favour here, like the fact that he hadn't had anything to do with any woman other than family members and his lesbian best friends since he finished at Stanford, except for that one date he went on with Agent Sarah Walker. As General Stanfield had told Sarah, he didn't even talk to women most of the time. Then they had the fact that over ninety percent of their business dealings with customers or anyone else were actually handled by Anna, Lou, Jeff or Skip, mainly Anna or Lou, because Chuck was usually working behind the scenes so that he could get away for his other work if required.
Put together with the reports and statements that he'd created and salted throughout systems around the country, ranging from psychiatrists' practices and Stanford to comments on social media sites about Ellie's brother and the FBI, they showed a clear image of a brilliant but exceedingly fragile young man who'd been utterly destroyed when he was betrayed by his best friend and his long term girlfriend at university. His business was apparently only functioning because his best friends were running it for him, and he was incapable of having social interactions. This all made the fact that he'd actually had a date with agent Walker all the more amazing.
The NSA's favoured psychiatrist, Dr Leo Dreyfus, had formally reviewed all the reports about Mr Bartowski and stated that in his professional opinion, any further indication of betrayal or abandonment was likely to finish what the betrayal that he'd experienced at Stanford had started, rendering him an irretrieveable basket case. He further opined that Mr Bartowski had probably only opened up to Agent Walker because she was almost the total opposite of the flirty, unfaithful woman who'd come so close to destroying him. (Auntie Di had supplied him with a recording of what the CIA would have heard at dinner and luckily that portrayed Sarah as a friendly but reserved young woman who was being honest about her past, so he based his report on that.)
By the time the briefing started, Auntie Di had gone through all of this with the DNI, citing concerns that the Director of the CIA's usual heavy handed approach of using sexual attraction, if not outright sex, to control the subject would break the Human Intersect, and manoeuvred the DNI into stating the formal position that America needed the Intersect database, so if the only copy of this database was in the head of a rather fragile young man, nothing could be allowed to threaten the emotional stability of that young man.
Afterwards, Diane called Chuck and laughed. "Have you ever considered going into politics Chuck? You've got both the DNI and the President just about ready to order anyone who might do anything to disturb your delicate equilibrium banished, and they're on the verge of begging Sarah to marry you, just to ensure that you stay happy and stable. I've expressed my concerns that the CIA may not be willing to handle this in the manner that we believe necessary to keep you working properly and they're working to have that executive order you suggested to have Sarah exclusively transferred to my control, along with the rest of it, actioned."
Chuck grinned at that "I would be willing to make the sacrifice of marrying Agent Walker for the good of the country General."
"I just bet you would! We're not out of the woods yet Honey, but with all the groundwork you've done here I believe that we can get Sarah locked into this and protected from that bastard Graham's plans for her. I hope you're as proud of yourself as I am of you!"
"I'll celebrate when we know she's safe Auntie Di. We can't underestimate Graham."
"I know that Honey, but we've got a really good case and the support we need now, thanks to you!"
With that, he sent everything that she'd need for the briefing in the morning through to her and told her that he'd make sure that all the rest of the records would hold up before he went to bed. He put another few hours in before he crawled into bed, and Anna let him sleep in until 8 because she knew he wouldn't have stopped until it was all done. She had looked up what he'd put together though, so after she'd given him his coffee, she hit him "Are you kidding me? Did you specifically go out looking for tall, leggy bitches? Alexis is the shortest of the lot of them, and don't even get me started on Auntie Phoebes! Way to look out for Lou and my self esteem issues Chuck!"
He shrugged "Hey, you can blame Mom and Auntie Di, I had to go with our friends who were available and had the skill sets we needed to fit into the company we were creating and Auntie Phoebes wanted to come over because her little Ricky is here. If it makes you feel any better, think of how John's going to be when he sees Uncle Buck, Louie, Mike and Yuri."
That got a grin from her. "Oh yeah, he won't like that, damn they're big!"
"I'd say Yuri's more tall than big but yeah, Uncle Buck, Mike and Louie certainly have the big title down."
"Uh-hu, anyway, time to get up, you need to get some work done before your girl comes back and distracts you again."
He swatted her on the behind for that and she leant in to give him a kiss with a laugh, then turned serious. "I'm so glad you found her Chuck! I have to admit, I was worried that you'd be searching for her for the rest of your life and die lonely and miserable, and you don't deserve that, you're the best man there is. I was never been more glad to be wrong in my life!"
He hugged her, quietly saying after a bit. "Yeah, I've wondered about that quite a bit myself over the last eighteen years, I can tell you."
She wrapped her arms around him and said "Well you don't have to wonder about that any more, you've got her back, now we just have to sort out the government and stop them from interfering with us, no problem!" With that, she kissed him again and headed out the door.
Sarah met Casey outside the FBI's LA office, her earwig already in place so the others could talk to her while she was in there. For the benefit of the CIA's bugs, Casey asked "Did you tuck Bartowski in all snug last night Walker?"
"I made sure that the asset was delivered safely into his apartment building, if that's what you're asking Casey!"
"No need to get snooty Walker, after you!"
She proceeded him into the building, sharing a quick smile when they knew that they were out of range of the cameras.
Once they were in the secure teleconference room, the link to DC was initiated and they went over the events of the night before. Diane did a fairly good job of covering up her look of triumph when Graham buckled and formally (if reluctantly) agreed that it would be in everyone's best interests for the Human Intersect to remain 'in the world', with the Walker and Casey as his handlers, though he made a point of eagerly stressing that Walker's cover was to be as Bartowski's girlfriend.
When they started discussing the arrangements of the assignment, Sarah brought up the fact that Chuck had offered to employ her in his company the night before and that was quickly locked in as no-one could argue with that being a good thing. Graham was rather suspicious when Diane said that they'd already managed to secure the newly vacant apartment next to Mister Bartowski's for Casey, and also that they'd placed him as the second in charge of the security company being established next door to the building where Mister Bartowski's business and apartment were, and furthermore that that the owners of that security company had given the government carte-blanche to change or add what they wanted while they were rebuilding the property, so they were currently working on plans to add an operations centre underneath the building for the team.
When she baited the hook with in a dig about there being room for Sarah in the apartment that they'd acquired for Major Casey if required, Graham bit, just as she'd planned. "That won't be necessary General, we'll be setting up Agent Walker at Maison Twenty Three in the interim, but her mandate is to ramp up her relationship with the asset fast enough to move in with him within a month, two at the absolute most, because this operation needs to be brought under control as soon as possible!"
Diane could see Sarah getting upset about such a blatant order to screw Chuck into submission as fast as possible, but then saw her calm down when John said something to her. She looked at Graham. "Have you actually reviewed Mister Bartowski's file Director?"
"I've skimmed it, what of it?"
She reached forward and picked up a very thick folder from the front of the desk, dropping it onto the desk in front of him. Graham's eyes went wide, as the CIA's file on Bartowski wasn't anywhere near this size.
"The reports our people have uncovered show that Mister Bartowski was subjected to a number of extremely traumatic experiences while he was at Stanford, the first of these required him to fight off a group from the university's football team who broke into his girlfriend's dorm room to gang rape her and their friend, and resulted in the campus police trying to have him arrested and charged with attempted murder among other things, but by far the worst of them involved your Agent Larkin and Mister Bartowski's long term partner, Jill Roberts!"
"Your Agent Larkin framed Mister Bartowski for cheating and actually managed to get him expelled just before they graduated, though Mister Bartowski's family managed to have that overturned with the FBI's assistance at least, it was reportedly the damages settlement from that incident which gave him the money to start his business when he was finally back on his feet. But to top that off, your Agent Larkin then taped himself having sex with Miss Roberts" (Anna had convinced Chuck that Jill would support him using that to save himself, so the unaltered sex tape was included as part of the evidence) "and proceeded to make sure that everyone in Palo Alto, and many others right across the country from what we discovered, knew about that and Mister Bartowski's being expelled for cheating. With his relationship and prospects completely destroyed, Mister Bartowski had a total breakdown and required considerable psychiatric help before he was able to recover enough to deal with people again."
"Even now, he remains a semi-recluse. His friends Anna Wang and Louisa Palone effectively run his company for him and help keep him on an even keel. He has not had anything to do with any woman other than those in his immediate family and Miss Wang and Miss Palone, who are a lesbian couple by the way, since he was betrayed and abandoned by Miss Roberts that way."
"Our agency psychiatrists have reviewed the reports of the psychiatrists he has been seeing over the past six years, and have registered the opinion that any further incidents would most likely effect Mister Bartowski's ability to function as the Human Intersect."
"We were all amazed that Agent Walker managed to get far enough past his defences for him to not only agree to have a date with her, but by all accounts enjoy it up until the point where he saw that bomber. The fact is, no other woman has managed anything close to that with him in six years, but Agent Walker jumping into bed with him straight away would almost certainly remind him of Miss Roberts and that would destroy the trust he has apparently placed in her, and that in turn is quite likely to effect his ability to function as the Human Intersect. We simply cannot allow the well being of the Human Intersect and this operation to be endangered in that way Director."
"The only way any relationship with Mister Bartowski would be allowed to progress would be if Agent Walker were to engage in something akin to a real courtship with him, to allow trust and affection to develop between them at a more natural pace. And while we're on the subject of relationships, in view of Mister Bartowski's previous reactions to betrayals, if Agent Walker were to take that path, we could not allow any possibility of situations, on mission or off, where Agent Walker was engaged in any activities that Mister Bartowski might regard as a betrayal of the trust he has placed in her. Would you be willing to commit to that Agent Walker?"
"What do you mean Ma'am? I don't really understand what you're asking?"
"No missions involving any form of seduction, unless it's minor and we, or more to the point you, have agreed it with Mister Bartowski previously, or any dating or engaging in activities of a compromising nature in any locations where you could possibly be seen or recorded so that he might find out about it."
"That is rather restrictive, and I must say intrusive into my private life Ma'am! In fact you're telling me that I cannot have a private life!"
Diane gave a regretful sigh. "Yes, I am aware of that and I am truly sorry Agent Walker, but our reviews of Mister Bartowski's history have led our experts to the conclusion that any further betrayals would be likely to push him into a state where we would most likely lose access to the Intersect information permanently, I am willing to supply copies of these records and reports to you if you wish. The problem is, when Agent Larkin stole the copy of the Intersect that he sent to Mister Bartowski, he destroyed the Intersect Facility and every other known copy of the Intersect code and data with it, so the only known copy of the Intersect is now residing inside Mister Bartowski's head. Quite frankly, we have no idea how Mister Bartowski has survived at all because there is no record of any previous Intersect test subject surviving, but the fact remains that he has survived, and more importantly appears to be able to access and effectively use the Intersect information in his head, which makes him a unique and incredibly valuable resource for our country. So I will ask again, knowing this, are you willing to commit to fully complying with the conditions we've laid out to participate in this project?"
Sarah pretended to consider this for a while. "Well, given that information, yes Ma'am, I am prepared to commit to complying with your conditions in full."
Graham growled. "You can choose what you do in your personal life Walker, but on missions you will do whatever you're ordered to! And furthermore General, you do not have the authority to dictate to the CIA what missions we give our agents!"
"Perhaps not Director, but I have been authorised to enforce the operating conditions for the Human Intersect Project, given Mister Bartowski's history and mental state, and the fact that your agent destroyed every other copy of the Intersect code and data. Without a formal commitment to comply with all the conditions stated, Agent Walker and hence the CIA will not be allowed to be part of the Human Intersect Project."
Graham sneered. "You don't have the authority to make that decision General!"
The screen suddenly split and the DNI appeared on one side. "But I do Director! I have been monitoring this meeting because of the gravity of the situation we are in and the concerns I had about territorial issues endangering the viability of the Human Intersect. I am disappointed to see that those concerns were valid, I was also disappointed to see that while General Beckman reported to me about these issues of national importance, you apparently did not believe that it merited the effort Director. So it's me as the Director of National Intelligence asking you now Director, will the CIA formally commit to complying with these requirements in full, or not?"
Graham gritted his teeth. "Yes sir, but we will have to replace Agent Walker with another agent, as we cannot afford to lose our best agent to a project of this nature."
"That is not an option Director, as General Beckman has already stated, our experts have been astounded by the unprecedented level of trust that Mister Bartowski has extended to Agent Walker. From their reports, he would almost certainly regard it as yet another betrayal if Agent Walker were to suddenly disappear and someone else were pushed on him to take her place, especially given the fact that we have no idea what it is about Agent Walker that has made him trust her the way he has. Therefore, the requirements are that Agent Walker, and only Agent Walker, will be permanently, irrevocably and exclusively assigned to the Human Intersect Project. She will only operate within the Human Intersect team and will not perform any other missions outside of the Human Intersect team, either solo or with any other agents. She will not complete any functions relating to seduction unless both she and the Human Intersect have agreed beforehand. She will also not be involved in any missions where she is required to act in a compromising manner with other agents. General Beckman will have final authority on any and all orders issued to Agent Walker. If the CIA agree to these conditions, the paperwork will be prepared for your, my and General Beckman's signatures and we can continue."
"That is too restrictive sir, the CIA cannot afford to lose the services of its best agent like that. Under those terms, the CIA will opt out of any involvement in this current Human Intersect Project. We will continue to search for our own suitable candidate and proceed with them once we locate one."
"Your position raises questions Director, given the fact that as General Beckman has said, according to the information available to us all other known copies of the Intersect code and data were destroyed by Agent Larkin, but that is a discussion for another forum. I must formally ask, is that your final word in regard to Agent Walker's participation in the Human Intersect Project Director?"
"Yes sir, it is!"
"Very well Director, remain there in General Beckman's office, as there is other paperwork that must be processed."
Graham was certain that he'd just been manoeuvred into something, and when he saw Walker relax after Casey said something to her, he knew that the NSA was up to something so he barked. "Walker, we're leaving! I expect you to be on the next plane to Langley!"
As he said that, the door to the office opened and the DNI walked in to hear the end of Graham's order. "Director Graham, are you disobeying the direct order I gave you?"
"No sir, I was just giving my agent her orders."
The DNI looked at the screen. "Agent Walker, stay right there!"
Sarah nodded without saying a word.
Then he turned back to Graham. "It is my belief, Director, that you were in the process of wilfully disobeying an order that I had given you, but I will deal with that another time."
He put some documents on the desk in front of Graham. "I require you to sign these to accept receipt, and then action them exactly as ordered."
When Graham scanned the document, his face hardened. Looking up he said. "I decline sir, I will not give up my best agent!"
The DNI turned grim. "What gives you the impression that you have any choice in the matter Director? That ship sailed when you formally confirmed that that was your final word in regard to Agent Walker. Now, sign to accept receipt of your orders or I will have the General sign the statement on the next page to say that she witnessed you refusing to do so! In case you've forgotten, refusing to accept a direct order from your Commander in Chief can be construed as treason."
He suddenly stopped and faced the screen. "Agent Walker, I've just realised that we… I owe you an apology, as we have all been treating you as something to be traded and ordered about instead of an extraordinary young person who has already done and sacrificed so much for your country. This document (waving at what was on the desk in front of Graham) is a signed Presidential Order, and if it is executed, from this point you will be part of the CIA in name only, you will be subject to no orders from the Director or anyone else in the CIA, only General Beckman, as the Director of the Human Intersect Project, and she in turn will be subject only to orders from myself as the DNI, and the President himself. You will also be attached to the CIA's National Resources Division for the duration of this assignment so that you're authorised to operate within the United States, because at the moment you are operating illegally on U S soil. A similar order will be presented to the Director of the NSA for Major Casey, and a slightly different one for General Beckman herself to also release them to the Human Intersect Project. Under the terms of this order, you will operate purely as part of the Human Intersect team under the conditions that have been discussed here today and you cannot be forced to perform any mission, by yourself or with other agents, outside of the team. Your assignment to the Human Intersect Project will also be permanent unless you request to return to the CIA, another option available to you is that you may resign at any time you wish. I apologise for not treating you with the respect that you have earned, and deserve, prior to this. My only excuse is that we have been faced with a catastrophe here and have been racing to try and beat the clock before it all blew up in our faces, but I am now formally asking whether you choose to transfer to the Human Intersect Project under these terms, or would you rather to stay in the CIA in your current capacity?"
Sarah's eyes were shining but she kept her expression neutral as she drew herself up. "I choose to transfer to the Human Intersect Project sir, and I thank you for offering me this choice."
The DNI nodded with a smile, saying. "It is no more than what you have earned Agent Walker!"
He then transferred his attention to Casey. "Major Casey, we have also shown you the disrespect of proceeding down this path without asking whether it is what you wish, so I ask you the same question, do you wish to transfer into the Human Intersect Project under the terms discussed, or do you choose to stay attached to the NSA in your current capacity? Your orders are slightly different in that the other project that you are currently assigned to is also coming under the same umbrella."
Casey also drew himself up. "I choose to transfer to the Human Intersect Project, thank you Sir."
The DNI nodded and then turned back to Graham. "Are you prepared to sign the document Director, or must I have General Beckman sign to witness your refusal as I have said?"
Graham grabbed a pen and angrily signed the three copies of the document before throwing it down, whereupon the DNI calmly picked up the pen and signed the documents as well, passing them to Diane in turn for her signature. He then picked up one copy of the document and extended it to Graham, saying. "This is your copy Director, and now there is no need for you to remain, seeing as this is a meeting for the Human Intersect Project. You will be formally advised, along with the other agencies, of the parameters and conditions for engaging the Human Intersect team once they have been documented."
The document wasn't quite snatched from him as Graham gritted out "Sir. General." before he stalked out of the office, not quite slamming the door.
A/N: Uncle Buck is Clint Walker, look up the movie Cleopatra Jones to see Auntie Phoebes and the Long Kiss Goodnight for Auntie Charly, Marco is Dolph and Mike Colt is 'Mr Colt'