A/N: Review thanks to those that left them. I really appreciate those that do.
Beta thanks once again to Captainrick944, who spotted a few corrections needed. I don't seem to get any better!
This chapter is partially a rewrite of "Chuck Versus the Dream Job" and "Chuck Versus the First Kill," along with some Intersect removal.
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Chapter 22: Taking Away
Chuck gradually surfaced from a deep sleep. He was lying on his back, and Sarah was lying with her head in the crook of his neck and her arm across him. They were both naked, of course.
He stayed like that, still reveling in the sensation of her partial embrace.
He sometimes couldn't believe that such an amazing woman had fallen in love with him. He felt honored that she had, and knew he was the luckiest man on Earth.
Of course, then troubles started to creep into his head. She was now getting headaches when she used the Intersect, and his dad had said she should get it out as soon as possible. He knew his dad was still not completely sure that removing that wouldn't take the mind link with it. He also knew that he was probably going to need the Intersect as they battled against Fulcrum.
As he lay there, he came to a realization. He needed the Intersect, but Sarah didn't. They should remove it from her head, but not his, at least initially.
When she woke, he knew he would have to talk with Sarah about this. Nothing was more important to him than her.
With that conviction in his head, he slowly drifted off to sleep again.
Sarah woke with light streaming in around the blinds and landing on her face. It must be late. She looked at her watch and saw it was nearly nine.
She loved lying on Chuck like this but really should get up.
She lifted herself off of him without waking Chuck. She padded through to the bathroom for a quick shower.
Once she returned, using a towel to dry her hair, she found a clean bra, panties, a t-shirt and shorts. She put the towel down and quickly dressed.
Chuck was still asleep, so she quietly left the bedroom to go make coffee for them both. She was just pouring hers when she heard the shower running. Shortly after, Chuck wandered into the kitchen. "Morning, Beautiful."
She smiled. "Morning, Handsome."
They kissed, and he took the coffee she proffered.
"I want to talk about something," he said as he took her hand and pulled her through to the living room.
Sitting down on the couch, he launched into what he had been thinking overnight.
"So, you'd still have a working Intersect, but I wouldn't?" Sarah asked.
Nervous that she didn't like that, he added, "You'd be safe again."
She finally nodded. "There's another benefit to this idea." He looked at her, puzzled. "If the removal takes the mind link, we will be more prepared when he takes the Intersect out of your head."
He frowned. "We would also know whether removal is harmful."
She clutched his hand. "Don't think that way."
She suddenly felt his hands on her shoulders as he pulled her to him in a deep, deep kiss. She relaxed into it, loving it.
Chuck called his dad and explained what he thought would be good to do. Sarah sat next to him, so when Stephen looked at her and asked if she agreed with Chuck, she nodded and said yes.
"There is still a small chance you might lose the mind-reading ability," he warned.
"I know, but losing my mind completely would be worse, wouldn't it?" she said with a smirk.
He chuckled. "I do like you, Sarah."
"So, when can you do this, Dad," Chuck asked.
"Sarah will have to come here," Stephen replied. "I know your movements are monitored, son. So maybe you shouldn't come."
Neither of them had thought about that, but Chuck responded instantly. "I can forget to wear my watch. I'm staying with my love throughout."
Sarah was glad he said that. "Good. I want to hold your hand while it happens." She really did.
Stephen barked out a laugh. "Trial run for when she gives birth, although she might not crush your hand as much."
Neither had talked about having kids for a while. Sarah flushed and started to think about them. Chuck's expression of love in his eyes made her want to have them more than ever.
"Can we come over today?" Chuck finally asked.
"I'll get things ready," his dad replied.
Chuck drove them to his dad's house. The lab was in the basement, and that was where Stephen directed them.
Sarah was nervous. Chuck told her that was normal, which triggered a conversation about normal. "Chuck, you know I've never been normal."
"You are so much better than normal, Sarah."
"Thank you for that, but the reality is that I have gone into many life-threatening situations. Ones where I never expected to survive. I never got nervous. Death didn't frighten me. I expected to die early and had come to terms with it." She huffed. "This situation has me nervous about what will be left of me that you will have to cope with."
Stephen spoke then. "The Intersect removal will not harm you. You'll lose access to all that data but nothing else." He paused. "Apart from perhaps the mind-reading ability."
Sarah waved that off. "I'm prepared for that eventuality."
"Then this will do nothing unexpected," Stephen replied.
He opened the door to the lab. On the table in the center was a laptop on one side and a large monitor on the other.
"You sit in front of the monitor, Sarah," Stephen said as he sat down in front of the laptop. Next to the laptop, we're two pairs of sunglasses. He handed one to Chuck. "So the images don't affect you."
"Oh, right," Chuck said and put them on.
Stephen turned back to Sarah. "You'll see a series of images like you did when you downloaded the Intersect. These images will remove, rather than download, anything."
Sarah nodded. She didn't want to open her mouth in case a plea not to proceed escaped.
"You'll be fine, Sarah," Chuck said. He'd pulled up a chair next to his fiancée but had it facing the other way. He sat and held her hand.
Sarah really appreciated the contact. It helped her nerves. She smiled at Chuck and nodded.
His dad had been typing away on the laptop. He now looked up and asked Sarah, "you ready?"
She nodded, and he put on his pair of sunglasses and hit enter.
Sarah was assailed with an image assault much like the one she remembered in Chuck's bedroom. It didn't run for hours, though, and soon it was all over.
She blinked, feeling a headache coming on but also feeling like a weight had been lifted off of her.
'Well?' Chuck asked.
'I have a headache, but apart from that, better.' She looked at him and saw that he was grinning at her. 'I'm hoping it has worked.'
He nodded. "We'll find out if the Intersect has gone when something triggers me to flash, but you still have the mind link."
As she realized their previous conversation was thoughts, her eyes widened. "Oh my god, I do, don't I?"
"That's good," Stephen said. "I'm confident the Intersect will be gone. Do you feel any different?"
"My head feels less 'full,' if that makes any sense."
He nodded. "It should. All that data gone."
She got up, walked around the desk, knelt down beside him, and gave the older Bartowski a huge hug. She had never been a hugger before meeting any of this family, but this hug really expressed her gratitude. "Thank you so much, Stephen," she whispered into his ear.
"You're welcome," he responded.
She stood. "Can I have some painkillers before we go?"
Stephen stood as well. "Sure." He led them back upstairs and to the kitchen, where he got her water and tablets.
Once she'd taken them, she said, "Sorry to just run off, but we need to be back home or we will be missed."
Chuck was hugging his dad. "It is so good to see you in person, Dad. I've missed you so much."
His dad said, "Me too, son."
They ran out to the car, and Chuck drove them back to Echo Park. Just before they got there, she received a call on her phone. Seeing who it was, she answered, "Hi, Casey."
"We need to get to Castle. Can you go straight there and take Bartowski?"
"Sure," she replied. "See you there."
She ended the call and looked at Chuck. "You hear that? We need to go to Castle. Looks like I might get that test today."
At Castle, Beckman briefed the team. "We've been hearing about Roark Industries lately. The CIA now believes Ted Roark's latest software may contain a virus that, if released, could cause irreparable damage to the world's computer networks. This software will be released at a major tech show being held at Roark Industries later that week called NextExpo 2009.
Chuck flashed and gasped, "I think Fulcrum may be involved."
"All the more reason to stop this," Beckman said.
"Why don't we just contact Roark and tell them our concerns?" Casey asked.
The general replied, "We can't, out of fear of alerting those who might be involved, especially if it's Fulcrum. Instead, we're going to send in Chuck as a new RI employee." She looked at Chuck. "You will see if you flash on anyone or anything. Your interview is in one hour."
Before the general ended the call, Sarah asked, "Isn't it risky to send him into a place with a potentially heavy Fulcrum presence?"
"He's the only one that can do this," the general responded.
After the call ended, Sarah walked around in front of Chuck. "Are you okay with that?" Sarah asked.
"Why wouldn't he be?" Casey said.
"Well, his dad went to school with Roark," she replied. "There could be some history there."
"Your daddy issues gonna jeopardize our mission?" Casey growled at Chuck.
"No, no, I'm fine," Chuck responded. He smiled. "Forget Apple. Forget Microsoft. I've dreamt of working for Roark since college. Although does it actually qualify as a dream come true if I go in as a janitor?"
Sarah was surprised he hadn't got it. "You're going in as Charles Bartowski. Your name, your resume, your Stanford degree."
"Really?"
She nodded. "You're perfectly qualified to go in as yourself."
He looked wistful. "Me at RI?"
Then he remembered something important. He took Sarah to one of the rooms with no surveillance. "Did you flash?"
She smiled. "No. I didn't." Then she thought, 'So, everything worked as we hoped. What's more, mind-sex can continue. Tonight, lover. So, no getting in trouble at the interview.'
His eyes widened and she could see the lust in his eyes. She gave him a quick kiss before heading back out.
Chuck's interview itself was a farce. Drew, the guy that interviewed him, waited patiently for Chuck to sit. Then, he read Chuck's CV and said, "So, I see you went to Stanford. Me, too. Class of '07."
Chuck replied, "'07, wow. You-you've only been out a couple of years?"
"That's eons in the software game," Drew said. "Come on. Where have you been?" Then, his expression changed to that of an interviewer. "Seriously, tell me what you've been up to since you graduated."
"Uh, well, uh... What have I been up to?" Chuck tried to work out what to say.
"Chuck, just be honest," Sarah told him through his earpiece.
"Um, I've actually been working at a Buy More, um, in the Nerd Herd division, which, you know, has given me quite a bit of experience working with different computers, operating systems, technologies. You know, I've gotten the opportunity to work with many different unusual personalities."
Sarah didn't know if he was referring to the Buy More crew or to what he'd done working with Casey and herself.
The interview progressed. Chuck wasn't really selling himself but was, as Sarah suggested, being honest.
Chuck responded to one of the questions, "I would say probably my greatest weakness is how little I pushed myself since college. I've been trapped in a job, a life that I don't really want but don't really see a way out."
Again, Sarah wondered whether he was just talking about the Buy More or including what he was doing for the NSA and CIA. She suspected both.
"Being here's a good start," Drew replied. "Well, clearly, you're qualified. And it doesn't hurt that you're a fellow Stanford alum. I'd love for you to take the job."
Chuck was surprised. "Really? Thank you so much!"
Drew stood and shook Chuck's hand.
Drew took him on a short tour of the offices and was just to tell him about the room at the end of a short corridor when the door opened.
Chuck found himself standing face-to-face with Ted Roark, who was coming out. Chuck tried not to gawp at the man who was a hero figure in the IT world.
Drew called out, "Hey, Ted, this is Chuck, our new employee."
The man walked up and shook Chuck's hand. "Hey, welcome to RI." He leaned closer. "Never wash that hand."
Chuck didn't think about how that sounded. "I never will, sir."
Roark corrected him. "No 'sirs' around here."
"Well, okay, Ted," Chuck replied. "It's just a... it's just an honor to be here and working for your company."
Ted smiled. "Well, easy, big boy. You already got the gig. Ready to take over the world?"
Chuck watched as Roark walked away and was then stopped by a bald man whose face Chuck couldn't see. Roark obviously tensed up.
Chuck read the bald guys mind and flashed. Javier Diaz was a former CIA consultant but now working for Fulcrum on building cyber software for espionage purposes.
Chuck immediately read Roark's thoughts. 'I know we need to get the software out there and focus on the Intersect. Why does this idiot keep telling me?'
Chuck was shaken and let Drew guide him out of the building.
He would start working there the following day after attending the launch event.
'So, Roark is working with Fulcrum and building their new Intersect?' Sarah asked when he got back to Castle and he told her.
'Yes. What should we do?' he replied.
'Tell Beckman about the agent talking to him and that it looks like he's involved,' she thought.
They called the general and did just that.
"A Fulcrum agent who specializes in espionage software?" she asked.
"That's right, General. I think he might be involved in their Intersect development," Chuck replied.
"So, this virus might be involved too," she told them. "You didn't find out anything about it?"
"No, General. Not yet, but I only start there tomorrow," Chuck replied.
"It needs to be stopped tomorrow. Then, you find out what it does." She looked at the two agents. "And you need to find out about the Intersect. If it's there, we need to destroy it." She ended the call.
Sarah looked at Casey. "We need to get in there and stop it."
He grunted in reply.
She read his thoughts. He was dreading pretending to be an IT geek.
That evening, Chuck and Sarah called his dad to let him know how Sarah was getting on.
"No flashes," she told him.
"That's great news," Stephen replied. "I'm so happy for you."
"And I've still got the mind-reading ability," she added.
"Even better," he replied.
"I've got some news too, Dad," Chuck said. "I've just gotten a job at Roark Instruments."
There was silence for a while, then Stephen said, "You going to work for Roark? The man who stole everything from me?"
Chuck hadn't expected that response and blurted out, "It's a mission. He's working with Fulcrum, and he's building an Intersect for them."
"That makes sense," his dad replied. "However, I doubt he'll get it working without my help." He looked at Sarah. "You need to destroy it, anyway."
She nodded.
"Let me think if there's anything I can do to help," Stephen said as he ended the call.
"RI is building an Intersect for Fulcrum," Sarah told Casey.
He looked surprised. "You didn't specifically tell Beckman that."
"Because she can't know Chuck reads minds," she replied.
He grunted. "Well, Bartowski said enough, but it just means we have to get in there even more."
"We can't go in all guns blazing until we know they have an Intersect there," she reminded him.
That got an unhappy grunt.
Sarah and Casey were standing in line to get into the building along with a lot of IT fanatics. Both were wearing glasses because that made them look more appropriate, apparently.
Chuck walked in for his first day working there. He spotted the two in the queue. 'God, she looks gorgeous in glasses,' he thought.
Sarah heard that and looked over the top of the glasses at him as he walked up to them. 'I can wear glasses at home, you know.'
'When we go to bed?' he asked.
She nearly chuckled at that. 'Maybe. Initially.'
He shook his head to get that image out. "Either this is for the mission, or you two are very good at hiding your hobbies," he teased.
He knew this, but Sarah still said, "We're going in to retrieve the source code for the new operating system. Without it, Roark can't release the software or the virus."
Casey said under his breath, "It's gonna take time to break in the secured vault."
Sarah said, "We need you to keep an eye on Roark in case anything goes wrong.
Chuck thought about the top man who was working with Fulcrum. "Keep an eye on Roark?"
"Have a nice first day," Casey quipped.
Chuck walked off, not needing to be in the queue.
As they were all called to move in, Sarah and Casey spotted where they could slip off undetected.
They were soon at the location Chuck had specified for where Roark had met him.
Sarah tried to key in the code to open the door and got the access denied message, along with "Have a nice day."
"Damn it. I'm gonna need to do a patch." She called Chuck. "Get close to Roark and get the access code from him."
Chuck walked to the front, near the stage, but far enough away from the Fulcrum agent while still being able to mind-read. Roark looked over at him and they nodded to each other.
Chuck probed Roark's mind for the access code and walked away slightly to relay it to Sarah. He then sat down.
Once Sarah had the door open, she and Casey slipped inside. They soon found the server containing the source code as it was hooked up to the network servers that would broadcast it.
As they were taking a copy, Sarah looked at Casey. "We can't just take this. We have to destroy the original so it doesn't go out in the future."
"I know," he said, pulling some C4 out of his bag.
Chuck said to them, "You better hurry up, guys. Roark is about to go on stage."
"We are," Casey hissed.
The man currently on stage said to the audience, "Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the architect of the digital age and Time magazine's Man of the Year: Ted Roark."
Roark walked to the microphone as the audience went wild. "Thank you. Welcome to NextExpo 2009! Or as I like to call it, 'Ted Greets the Little People.'"
The audience mostly laughed at that. Chuck rolled his eyes.
Roark continued, "We've done some amazing things this year. At least I have. I mean, I traveled around the world in a hot air balloon... uh, bought another island." He lowered his voice. "It's private. Don't visit."
Standing straighter, he continued, "What else? Let's see. Oh, and we invented a new operating system that's gonna change the world!" That received cheers.
He picked up a remote control with a button on it.
"Now, guys," Chuck said to Sarah and Casey.
"We're done," Sarah told him.
Thankfully, she had downloaded the software, Casey had primed the explosives, and they had just exited the room. They walked away to the sound of a countdown from the audience. Just after it reached one, two people pressed buttons at the same time, Roark and Casey.
Sarah and Casey were now rushing out as the explosion occurred in the room they'd been in.
The whole building shook.
Roark indicated to Diaz to go and investigate. Chuck stayed where he was, still sitting near the front seats. As the man walked past him, Chuck probed his mind for the Intersect location.
Roark was hoping that RIOS had successfully been released. Chuck probed his mind on what it contained and was shocked.
Roark looked at the audience. "The whole world will now have access, free access, to our latest software. We're experiencing security like we've never seen before."
Chuck now knew it was free for a reason, and almost laughed at Roark's idiotic comment. He knew he needed to get out of there but also needed not to be seen to rush. He was clapping as hard as everyone else in the room and had a false grin on his face, making sure he still appeared to fit in.
As the audience started to leave, he spotted Drew and walked up to him. "Impressive. I'm glad I started here today to see it."
Drew nodded and they walked out together. Chuck read his mind, probing. Drew only knew his own part of the code and not what the whole created. Chuck suspected that was true of all the staff working on it.
As they walked out into the corridor, they saw men rushing about, looking harassed.
Drew stopped one of them. "What's going on?"
"Explosion in the RIOS room. Everything's lost!"
"What?" Drew and Chuck cried out at the same time.
"We suspect foul play," the man replied. "Go back to your desks and await further instructions."
Drew led Chuck to where he would be working. "I guess there's nothing we can do but wait," he told Chuck.
As Drew walked away, Chuck looked at the Roark laptop on the desk and wondered if there would be an internet connection. He tried but got nowhere. He wondered then if the explosion had taken out the access.
He sat back and waited.
Each person working there was interviewed, Chuck included. As Roark had seen him near the stage, and Drew had confirmed they walked out together, Chuck, the new guy, was eliminated from the suspect list. He, like everyone else on the team, was sent home.
As soon as Chuck started to drive away in the car the NSA had provided him, he called Sarah.
Chuck rushed out, "Sarah, the virus was to capture data from everyone's computer. It would all be fed into the Fulcrum Intersect."
Sarah gasped. "But why collect all that from civilians?"
"It won't just be civilians," Chuck replied. "He's expecting industry, governments, and even agencies, to switch to a free operating system. I also now know where they have that Intersect set up on the Roark campus."
"Well done, Chuck. Where are you now?" she asked.
"I'm heading home. We all got sent home."
"Come to Castle. We have to discuss this with Casey and the general."
He redirected the car as she ended the call.
"Well done for stopping the release," Beckman said to the team. Then, she looked at Chuck. "And congratulations to you for locating the Fulcrum Intersect."
"Thank you, General," he replied. "Are we going to capture it or destroy it?"
"It's caused enough trouble. You will destroy it," she replied.
"Can we go in with a team? With plenty of firepower?" Casey asked.
"There may be civilians in there," Beckman replied. "Just you three until you confirm you've found it. Then, you can call in the team that will be on standby."
The three of them were all clad in black, including bulletproof vests.
"As if this is going to protect us in a shootout," Casey grumbled.
"Don't forget Chuck and I can freeze people," Sarah said.
"Good," the older man replied.
They quickly found their way to the room where the Intersect was supposed to be. It looked promising as the weird, overly complex access panel was unlike anything they'd ever seen.
A door behind them opened. Even before they turned, both Chuck and Sarah issued instructions for the man to sleep.
Casey looked back at him as he slumped to the floor. "Nice ability, guys."
Turning back to the panel, Sarah said, "See if it's in the Intersect, Chuck. Flash."
He concentrated and did flash. He quickly keyed in the required code, and they were in.
In the middle of the desk was a vertical cylinder of clear glass. Within it was a cube seemingly spinning on its corner.
"So, this is their Intersect?" Chuck asked. "Could it be used to get this one out of my head?" He looked at the other two. "We should take it. Not destroy it."
He and Sarah had agreed on what to do here. Sarah commanded him to freeze.
Casey saw him frozen. "You'll not be popular with him after that, Walker."
"We have to destroy it, Casey," she replied.
He rigged up the C4 explosives and turned to her. "You'll need to command him to walk and not stop me."
She looked at Chuck and did that. 'Remind me not to piss you off, Sarah,' Chuck thought as he turned to leave.
When they were almost out of the building, they heard and felt the explosion.
Beckman looked happy for once. She almost smiled. "Well done, team."
"I wish we'd brought it with us, General," Chuck grumbled. "There might have been a way to rewire it to remove this one from my head."
She looked at him. "Sorry, Chuck. It had to be destroyed. We can't risk it being recaptured by Fulcrum."
"What about Roark and all the Fulcrum people, General?" Sarah asked, seemingly to change the subject.
"They are being taken into custody as we speak," Beckman replied.
"Wow," Chuck said, pretending to think about something other than what was in his head. "His operating system gets destroyed, as does his Intersect, and he gets arrested, too. Not the best day for him."
"Indeed," the general replied.
After the call ended, Chuck handed Casey the keys to the NSA-provided car. He then turned to Sarah. "Can we go home now?"
"Sure," she replied.
"Sorry, Bartowski," Casey said as they walked away.
Stephen Bartowski was over the moon when they told him the news. "Intersect destroyed AND Roark in prison! Best day of my life!"
"Can you now get this thing out of my head?" Chuck asked.
"Sure," his dad replied. "I suggest you claim it stopped working when the Fulcrum Intersect was destroyed. As if the two were linked somehow."
Neither of the other two had considered how Chuck would explain it, so they quickly agreed.
"We're coming over now," Sarah said.
As she drove them to the same house as before, Chuck couldn't help saying, "Oh my God, Sarah. I'll be rid of this in just a few minutes!"
"I know," she replied and reached over and clenched his hand in hers.
It was almost anti-climatic when the removal occurred. The action was definitely so, but the result was all Chuck had ever hoped for. Just like Sarah had, he felt a weight had been removed from his head.
He hugged his dad, just as Sarah had. "Thank you so much, Dad!" Then, she hugged the older man too.
Stephen grinned at his son. "You're welcome."
They made arrangements for Stephen to get in touch with Ellie.
"Are you sure she'll be okay with seeing me?" Stephen asked.
"I'm sure," Chuck replied. "And she wants you at her wedding."
Stephen smiled. "Looking forward to it."
As Sarah drove them away, she asked, "Are you sure Ellie will be okay? She doesn't hold any resentment?"
"Nah. She'll be fine," he replied.
Their first night without any Intersects was as good as they had hoped. Especially as they still had their mind link.
A/N: Intersect-free. Woohoo. I need to check how much there is left from the later episodes that need to be covered. Definitely Ellie and Devon's wedding.