Chapter 5

A/N It was pointed out that there were a few inconsistencies in the last chapter. Again, Zac is in mid second season, and Chuck is in late fourth season. So I have decided that since Chuck has grown and matured, he would have a easier time fitting into Zac's life, while Zac would have a harder time fitting into Chuck's spy world since he does not have the intersect. I thought about it and went and updated the last chapter, so please check it out. Hope it fits better. Thanks for all who have reviewed. It is greatly appreciated.

Chuck was enjoying the ride and thought to himself that an actor's life did have some benefits. He was actually looking forward to the day for some reason. Maybe the acting he did when he slipped into his agent Carmichael role was rubbing off on him. He looked down at the script and picked it up. He better familiarize himself so he didn't make a fool of himself. He turned the light on and flipped open the script to a piece of paper that seemed to mark a certain page. He took the paper and saw that there was some doodling on it. It looked like a design of something and below was written, 'new t-shirt design' Hum? Was this Zac a designer too? He wished he knew more about the man. It would make it easier to fit in. He tried to flash on the actor, but nothing came to him. So he had never been involved with anything the CIA or NSA would have info on. Or, he was truly in an alternate reality. As he thought about it, he remembered an old TV show he and Morgan use to watch called 'Sliders.'

He looked down at the pages of the script that had been marked with the sheet of paper and he began to read. The pages were sectioned off by days and dated which looked like something the actor had done. Each day had about ten pages, and he began to read. It seemed that they were filming in 3-D and were on the last ten pages of the script. The story was about a rock star who was in danger because of some tattoo's that were actually secret messages. He had to grin at the story, as it seemed a little far fetched for the real spy world and he really couldn't see team Bartowski involved in something like it.

By the time he arrived, he thought he could hold his own and with any luck, he'd not draw attention to himself. The limo pulled up to a group of buildings and Chuck saw it was already busy with people bustling around. The driver stopped and turned and said

"Looks like you're getting off early today, so I'll be here by 3pm to pick you up."

"Thanks..Jack."

Jack just nodded at him and as Chuck got out of the limo, the driver said

"Have a great day, Mr. Levi."

"Ah, Thanks Jack...I'll see you later."

Chuck stood there as the limo drove off. He suddenly wondered where he was suppose to go. He looked around and saw all the hustle and felt that he looked kind of lost. He saw that there was a trailer near the entrance of what he thought was a set, and as he watched it, he saw the door open and a short man in a green Buy More shirt stepped down the stairs. At the bottom, he spied his best buddy and said

"Zac, hey buddy, you just get here?"

Josh came over and clapped Chuck on the shoulder. Chuck was feeling lost. This guy looked just like Morgan, but he didn't know what his real name was. He ducked his head a bit in his old Chuck way and said

"Um..yeah, the limo just dropped me off."

He looked the other man over and wished he knew the names. Maybe this was going to be harder than he though. He heard someone call his name, or at least Zac's name, and he turned to see a man approaching. Now he was going to have two names he didn't know, but 'Morgan' said

"Hey, Robbie."

Ah this guy's name was Robbie, that was one down. Now Robbie stopped and said

"Zac, we have run into a bit of a problem with the 3-D camera, and I know I wanted you here early, but we're going to have at least a couple of hour's delay, so if you what, after makeup, you can chill in you're trailer, and we'll call you when we're ready...sorry, it's going to push us back a couple of hours this afternoon, but we may be able to still get out of here at a decent hour. Hope you didn't have any plans this afternoon."

Chuck looked at the man and said

"Um..sure, Robbie...I go right to makeup and then to my trailer."

Robbie, for a moment, looked at the younger man and said

"You okay Zac? You seem...different. Did you spend last night playing video games again?"

Uh Oh, he had slipped. He gave the man a big smile and said

"No, no, I got a good night's sleep. I..um..just had a weird dream."

Yeah, he could get out of the hole he had started to dig.

"I dreamed that...um...I went into the twilight zone and then met all these weird people."

He looked at them and saw that Robbie just grinned at him and 'Morgan' said

"Cool, dude...The twilight zone huh..which episode?"

Before Chuck could answer, another man came over and said to the group of men

"Sorry to interrupt, but we need the expert opinion of our illustrious director."

"Okay,okay, lets go...Zac. Josh, we'll call you when we're ready."

Both Robbie and the other guy walked off and entered one of the sets and disappeared.

Chuck looked at the man he now knew was named Josh and said.

"Well, Josh, I need to get to makeup so..."

"Well buddy, just watch out, Adam and Yvonne are in there, and Adam is not happy about the delay...had some plans with his family this afternoon and he's already in 'Casey' mode."

Chuck thanked him and walked towards the direction that Josh had jerked his head. Now he knew that the name of the 'Casey' character was Adam, and he was thinking that this Yvonne was the actress who played Sarah. He walked up to the trailer and climbed the steps, taking them by twos. He opened the door and walked in and saw...Sarah. He stood for a moment and just stared at her. It wasn't Sarah of course, but she looked so like his Sarah, he couldn't help but get that goofy look on his face that everyone said he got when Sarah entered the Buy More, or anytime he saw her. She was just so beautiful, he couldn't help it, and he knew he had fallen hopelessly in love with Sarah the minute he had first laid eyes on her that day she had come up to the nerd herd desk. Now he just looked at the person with love in his eyes. Both of the people there turned and looked at him and he saw a look of confusion in the eyes of the woman. Uh Oh, he'd slipped again. Casey would be laughing at him if he could see him. He had made one of the worst slips in spy work...he had given himself away. He cursed himself as he let his spy sense take over and the look on his face reverted to a neutral look. He looked at the other man and saw a small smirk on his face. He sighed and sat in the chair next to him as the older man leaned over and whisper so only Chuck could hear

"Bout time Zac."

He just shrugged and hoped that the woman hadn't really noticed his slip. If this Zac didn't feel the same about her as he did towards Sarah, he had just messed things up for him.

Yvonne looked at Zac and was shocked. Was that love in his eyes? He was looking at her like a hungry man looking at his first meal after a long fast. Did he have feeling for her that she didn't know? They did have a good onscreen chemistry, but she hadn't felt anything further from him...had she? Zac had sat down and Adam had whispered something to him that had made him blush. Had he seen it to? She began to think about this. Zac had always been attentive and sweet, but she had always thought that he treated all of them with the same care. But lately, Adam had been giving her a certain look whenever she was with Zac on set, like he knew something? Had Zac been talking to him? Did Zac...she trailed off in her thinking as she began to count the different people who would give them a sly look whenever they were together on set. Were they seeing something she was missing? She was shook out of her thoughts when she heard Sue say

"Zac...did you cut your hair?"

She turned and saw that indeed his hair was shorter. It was more professional looking...no more curls and she thought for a moment that she would miss running her fingers through those curls. Then she blushed herself and turned her face away. Now Zac said

"Um. Yeah, I got it cut. It was sort of unmanageable."

"But Zac, you shouldn't do it mid season, now we need to do something to fix it. She immediately dragged him out of the chair to the one by the sink. She lowered the chair and started to run the water. Once it was at the temperature she wanted, she began to wash his hair. Once done, she lifted the chair up and pulled out her combs and brushes and dryer and began working on his hair. After a good thirty minutes, Sue sighed and said

"Well, the back and sides are too short to really fix, but at least the front will work...I hope."

Chuck looked at himself in the mirror and thought that his hair was a little off. He had liked it when he had cut it and now he thought he looked more spy like, but with this fussing she had done, now he just looked like a...nerd again. Not that he didn't like nerds, after all he really was one, but he also liked his hair the way it was. Now instead of being comb up and off his forehead, the front was combed forward so it looked like he had more hair to flop over his forehead. It reminded him of a few years ago when he had only the Buy More to look forward to. He looked in the mirror and saw the the looks on the others faces. Sarah seemed shocked and Casey was smirking at him. The makeup person was still not too sure, so she said

"Stay right here, I'm going to talk to the director and see if this will be okay."

She turned and left and Chuck just slumped in the chair. He was messing everything up and now he was thinking it was getting worse. How was he supposed to know his hair was too short? He saw the smirk on Casey's or rather Adam's face get wider. He turned in the chair and said a little too sharply

"What's so funny?"

Adam's smile widen as he said

"Great move Zac, now tell me why you would get a hair cut in the middle of the season not to mention in the middle of an episode?"

Chuck bit his lower lip to stop from answering him. He had almost blurted out that his hair had been cut over a year ago, but that wouldn't help anything. Now he just looked at them and shrugged.

The door opened and the makeup person re-entered with Robbie on her heals. He took one look at Chuck and sighed as he said

"Okay, Zac, tell me why you would cut your hair at this point? You know the fans will notice a difference."

He turned to Sue and continued

"Have you got a wig we can use till it grows out a bit more?"

She turned and opened the cabinets above the sink and took out a couple of wigs. Chuck looked at them and started to say something, but the look on Robbie's face stopped him. Sue tried the first one on, and began styling it. After a few moments, she stepped back, and they looked at Chuck. She nodded and Robbie said

"Okay, that should do."

He looked at Zac and said

"I know you were pretty out of it yesterday due to lack of sleep, but why...sorry Zac, with this problem with the 3-D camera and now this...I don't need any more surprises okay?"

Chuck nodded and stayed silent. He wasn't too keen about wearing a wig, but he guess he could do it for now. He looked at his reflection and inwardly cringed. Now he really looked like the nerd herder he use to be.

When they finally broke for lunch, Chuck was ready. The wig was driving him crazy as it itched and he so wanted to scratch, but he just got in line to get his lunch. As he made his way down the line, he perked up a bit. These actors really ate well. He dished himself some meat loaf, mashed potatoes and some corn. He took a large roll and added some salad to his plate. Once he got to the end, he filled a glass with lemonade and then turned and followed the others to a large tent structure to find a place to sit and eat. He sat down and took a sip of his drink. Then he began to eat his meal and was unaware when someone had sat down across from him as he was so deep in thought. He jumped when he heard a grunt and looked up to see Cas...Adam sitting across from him. He was about to say something when Adam said

"Look Zac, we've been friends now for a little over two years, and I'm only going to say this once...If you like her, go after her."

"Huh?"

Chuck was slightly confused, but Adam continued

"I've seen the looks you give Yvonne...Hell almost everyone sees it. If you like her, go for it...before its too late. You know if you wait to long that moron she's dating now will win. I really like Yvonne and would rather see her with you."

Chuck was now blushing as he listened to the other man. He knew how he felt for Sarah, and he wondered if Zac felt the same way for Yvonne.

"Is it that obvious?"

"Well, for me it's been obvious since the second episode of season one, but I've been married for a while...Robbie sees it to, but then he's been married for a while also."

Chuck was speechless. Evidently this Zac was as bad as he was at hiding his feelings about the woman he loved. He knew he was bad at broadcasting his feelings for Sarah.

"But you need to let her know how you feel. If you don't it may be too late."

Adam now began to eat, and Chuck followed suit. Now he was formulating a plan. He was at heart a romantic, and if what Adam said was true, Zac had a crush on Yvonne, so he began thinking of a way to help the romance along. By the time lunch was over and they went back to work, a plan had formed in his head and he was going to begin his campaign this evening. He smiled to himself as he saw the woman in question standing not five feet away.

"And...cut and wrap."

The set erupted in cheers as they had finished the filming of the first 3-D TV show. It had been fun and they were glad that the network had picked them to do it.

"And we only ran over the original time I promised you would get off today by forty-five minutes. Thank you all for your hard work today, and we all want to thank Zac for knowing his lines today!"

A lot of the cast and crew laughed and Chuck looked at Josh with a confused look on his face. Josh just slapped him on the arm and said

"He got all his sleep last night, so he wasn't sleep deprived or running on coffee all day."

Chuck decided that something must have happened yesterday, so he just grinned and shrugged, but as they all began streaming off the set, he got a lot of slaps on his back and many 'that's okay' to let him know that Zac was a favorite on the set. As the crowd of crew members thinned, Chuck looked to see if he could see Yvonne. After scanning the set, he saw her sitting in her chair. He walked over to her and when he was standing in front of her, she looked up. He smiled at her and sat in the chair next to her, which just happened to be his.. er.. Zac's. She looked at him expectantly and he cleared his throat then said

"Uh Yvonne, I was wondering if you had any plans for tonight?"

Chuck had used his long breaks this afternoon to do a little spy work and had found out that her relationship was on rocky ground. He'd also used the laptop in Zac's trailer to scout out a nice out of the way restaurant that served good old diner food that he hoped she'd like. Just a causal date with two friends that he hoped to bring closer together. He had also found out that the boyfriend was out of town doing an acting job in Canada. It seemed he was a actor although not a very successful one.

"Nothing at all Zac, why?"

She had slipped into her Aussie accent, and Chuck thought it was cute.

"Well, I found this really great diner type restaurant and thought maybe you'd like to have dinner with me?"

He raised his eyebrows and did the 'Bartowski' eyebrow dance at her. It always worked with Sarah. Yvonne just laughed and said

"Sure Zac I'd love to have dinner with you. What time?"

"Well I thought we could go in my limo and then my driver could take you home ofter?"

He had found out that she had also been driven by a limo.

She looked at him as she said

"Only if the place is causal, my jeans and shirt are not dressy."

"Sure...sure not dressy at all. My outfit will not be fancy either."

He stood and reached for her hand and said

"Meet you in twenty?"

She nodded and stood enjoying the feel of his hand.

"I'll just change and meet you at the parking lot."

She turned and walked towards her trailer, not knowing that the man she thought was Zac had another goofy grin on his face as he watched her go.

TBC