AN: Thank you to everyone who had reviewed (or alerted or favorite) this story so far, or the two previous ones in this verse. This chapter wasn't done as quickly as I hoped and it isn't as long as I would have wished but hopefully it's not too much of a disappointment.

Some things to know:

Ellie states in Seduction that her favorite dessert is pecan pie.

Devon's tendency to include absurd animals in his lies to Ellie first appeared on the show during Operation Awesome.

Break-up starts the same night as Seduction ended however, despite having arranged for Devon and Ellie to share a romantic dinner together when Chuck comes back from his non-date with Sarah, Ellie and Devon are on the couch watching a cooking show and still wearing their scrubs.

Disclaimer: I do not own Chuck.

Chuck versus The Old Flame Part II

October 6, 2008

"Please tell me this is a joke." Beckman told them. Chuck wasn't sure whether she was more angry or exasperated with Roan's antics but the glare she was shooting all of them made it clear she wasn't pleased with the deviation from the plan.

"We've made deals like this before." Sarah decided to venture. Beckman turned her head slightly so she could more effectively glare at her from the screen.

"We need those parts General." Chuck decided to intercede. "Our bugs and contacts have turned up nothing. You said yourself how bad it could be if the pieces fell into the wrong hands. Even with one piece missing, we can't risk someone like the Ring or Volkoff being able to reverse engineer anything similar to Leeryder's machines from the parts that are left." Beckman's face twisted slightly in sour annoyance, before Chuck noticed her shoulders drop, just a fraction, in resignation.

"I'll see what I can work out." She relented, before quickly cutting the connection.

XXX

Morgan had passed on that Devon and Ellie had plans for the night, so Chuck and Sarah had decided to simply grab the overnight bags they kept packed for last minute missions and head over to his parents' old house to sleep for the night. It was becoming increasingly apparent that having two couples living in their small apartment was a problem, but between missions and cover work they had yet to be able to even begin searching for a new place. Chuck also was willing to admit a part of him was hoping someplace would open up nearby. He liked living near Ellie and Devon, he always had, and his need to be near his family and friend had, if anything, become stronger since he had spent so long away. Moving across town might not be anything like spending five years traveling the globe, but he couldn't help but wish they could stay within walking distance. Or, preferably, screaming distance, in case someone were to come after Ellie.

Both he and Sarah agreed that moving to the house full time was not an option. Not when there was a chance that someone might put two and two together and realize that his father had never sold the house, and therefore might be keeping something there. He also wasn't going to risk their home being destroyed by someone going after his father's work, or his father's work being destroyed by someone coming after them. Keeping the two as separate as possible was the best option.

When he and Sarah approached the apartment they were surprised to find it completely dark, even Ellie and Devon's room. Cautiously Chuck had opened the front door, wary of what he might find on the other side. Walking in he frowned as he noticed Devon sleeping on the. Closing the door carefully they had only made it a few feet into the living room before the restless man on the couch attempted to turn over and work himself up.

Devon blinked awake at them, and pushed himself into a sitting position.

"What happened to the night of romance?" Chuck asked, just above a stage whisper. Devon cringed.

"I went to Morgan for advice."

"You decided to get romance tips from the man Ellie has been continually trying to chase off for the last 19 years. Sometimes with weapons." Sarah said, more than slightly bewildered.

"It was a nerf gun." Chuck felt the need to correct.

"Not the point honey."

"Yeah, I screwed up." Devon conceded.

"What are you going to do?" Chuck asked, sitting down on the chair beside him. Sarah perched herself next to him on the armrest. Awesome gave a weak shrug.

"What I should've done last night. Cover this place in rose petals, a roaring fire, simple candlelit dinner, pecan pie." Devon said thoughtfully. "Maybe give her a foot massage in the tub."

"That's a natural place, I think, to stop giving me details." Chuck quickly interrupted. He'd had more than enough scarring images of the woman in his family over the last few days.

"That sounds perfect." Sarah added, rolling her eyes slightly at Chuck.

"Yeah, the problem is when, you know? I've gotta be at work in, like, 20 minutes. Got a 5 a.m. call tomorrow. I'll do it. I just hope it's not too late." Sarah reached out and patted Devon's knee.

"Trust me Devon. It won't be." She told him.

October 7, 2008

Sarah watched as Chuck glanced nervously at his watch. Banachek was late. Despite her initial hesitation General Beckman had been able to offer up a deal that Banachek had, somewhat reluctantly, agreed to. It had actually taken longer to agree to a meeting location as both Roan and Banachek seemed averse to meet at any spot the other had picked. Eventually, Chuck had stepped in and convinced both of them to meet at a parking lot neither one had ever been to before. Then, not long after they had arranged the meeting, the Black Widow had asked to be moved to another room in the hotel as she had found "bugs" in hers. Since then they hadn't been able to monitor her calls, and as nothing had come in from their sources indicating that she was trying to make a deal with Carmichael or anyone else, this meeting would most likely be their only chance to get the stolen components.

Roan didn't look particularly worried. She would think that was a good sign, however, she wasn't entirely sure Roan had a "worried" look. He seemed to take everything in stride, and with a lot of gin.

Ten minutes after the appointed time, a black stretch limo pulled up beside them and Banachek exited with three bodyguards. Sarah saw Chuck tense slightly. Banachek had attempted to double cross him in the other timeline, she knew, but Sarah didn't think that was particularly likely in this one. There were no hostages involved, and Banachek had already agreed to what Sarah thought was a fairly good deal considering her record. She still reached out her senses, and kept her eyes closely on the four criminals.

Despite her increased vigilance, Chuck was still the one that saw the laser sight appear on Banachek's chest. Sarah's heart sped up slightly as he dove forward, pulling Banachek down just before the shot flew over their heads - and right into the goon behind Banachek. On seeing their comrade collapse onto the pavement, Banachek's other two henchmen bolted in opposite directions. Sarah turned slightly, shooting several times in the direction the shot came from. Still holding onto Banachek, Chuck dragged the woman into an alley way and out of the line of fire with Roan following as she and Casey provided cover. When no more shots were returned, she ran after them.

"What was that?" Casey hissed towards Banachek.

"Casey, if they were with her, they wouldn't have tried to shoot her in the chest." Chuck pointed out heatedly. Casey grumbled.

"Your one to talk about double-crosses. You are the ones that placed listening devices everywhere. I wish I was surprised. I thought even you, Roan, were enough of a gentleman to leave me in privacy in my bathroom." Banachek spat. Sarah glanced at Casey whose brow was furrowed in confusion.

"I didn't place anything in your bathroom lady. Believe me." He retorted.

"You didn't check to make sure no one else had planted bugs." Roan chided.

"You didn't exactly give me much of a chance Romeo." Casey said sarcastically.

"Can we maybe wait to have this conversation until we aren't crouching behind a dumpster?"Sarah cut in and suggested.

"The shooter was probably after the device components. I trust you'd have no objection to us getting them first?" Chuck said, turning towards Banachek. She raised her eyes sarcastically, as if to say "what do you think?"

"Wonderful. Where are they?" Chuck asked.

"I gave them to my men."

"The dead one, or the ones that ran like scared chickens the moment there was gun fire." Chuck asked. Sarah fought rolling her eyes.

"The chickens." Banachek ground out. Casey grunted.

"Of course." Chuck sighed. "Roan, can you escort Ms Banachek to the van while we go after the pieces."

"I am a trained agent." The older agent said, gracefully.

"I'll take the sniper." Casey stated. "You two can go after Twiddle-flee and Twiddle-run."

Sarah edged towards the mouth of the alley along with Chuck and Casey began his ascent towards the snipers approximate location. They waited until Roan and Banachek had made it a few feet without any sign of another ambush before splitting up and heading towards their respective bad guys.

XXX

Once Roan and Sasha had finally stopped bickering and chosen a meeting location, Chuck had taken time to do a bit a research and pull up maps and satellite photos of the area. Unfortunately he hadn't thought to map out the most likely route a terrified henchman would use to flee. Chuck had landed in two different, slightly smelly, dead ends before arriving at the alleyway where the former body guard lay.

Crouching down, Chuck saw he wouldn't need to feel for a pulse. The man was obviously dead. He grimaced slightly as he began patting him down. He never got used to touching dead bodies. When he didn't find anything, Chuck reluctantly turned the man over and began searching more thoroughly. After he had searched as much of the man as he would be willing to, even if the goon had been alive, but found nothing, he decided to contact the others.

"Banachek's guard was already dead. I didn't find anything on him." Chuck told them through his com.

"Same with me." Sarah said.

"Guess that I'm the winner then." Casey said. "I grabbed the sniper."

"I'll call a clean-up crew for the bodies. We should take Banachek in." Sarah suggested.

Chuck met Sarah and Casey just outside the alleyway they had started from. He was surprised to find he recognized the man that was handcuffed and held by Casey.

"Javier Cruz." Chuck announced. "He's an assassin for the Ring."

"Goody." Casey smirked before tossing something towards Chuck. A flash hit him before Chuck had consciously registered what he had caught. The item Casey had picked off of Cruz was a Ring phone, but even a casual inspection demonstrated it was unlike any Ring phone, or phone for that matter, that Chuck had seen before.

Up until this point they hadn't found any of the phones on the Ring agents that they brought in. Chuck had begun to assume that the network hadn't been established yet. Now he realized the Ring must simply have been waiting to give it an upgrade, and he had a sinking feeling he knew exactly where that new tech had come from.

"It's not part of the device. It connects to the Ring's private network." Chuck said. Sarah smiled slightly. While the fact that the Ring was so casually using the technology they had stolen from Leeryder was troubling, the discovery was still a positive. Now they once again had an advantage in finding and tracking the Ring and its operatives.

Casey grabbed Cruz and the three of them began walking back towards where they had parked. As soon as the van came into view, however, Chuck paused. He tilted his head slightly, trying to determine whether he was imagining things.

"Is the van rocking?" He asked aloud. Before Chuck's brain had really processed what that might mean, Casey's angry center seemed to explode into a anger supernova and Chuck found Cruz being thrust into his arm as Casey marched over toward the surveillance vehicle and began pounding on the side.

"Get your clothes on. That's government property."

October 8, 2008

"It was a pleasure to work with you Agent Bartowski. And not just because you're Mary's son." Roan said holding out his hand to Chuck. Chuck smiled as he gave the older agent's hand a firm shake.

"Thank you for that Agent Montgomery. I hope you aren't in too much trouble with The General after that briefing." Chuck told Roan as they prepared to say goodbye. Beckman hadn't been thrilled that they had failed to recover the stolen pieces. However, the recovery of the phone from Cruz, as well as Cruz's capture itself had seemed to redeem the mission somewhat in her eyes. She had even agreed to honor Sasha Banachek's agreement, despite the loss of the pieces. It was Casey's inclusion of what activities Sasha and Roan had been up to when they found them, that Chuck suspected would place Roan in hot water or possibly polyester, but Roan simply chuckled.

"I think you've, misinterpreted my relationship with Diane Charles. Trust me, she may get jealous of my escapes, but it's not the kind of jealous that means I'll be sleeping in the dog house tonight." He said with grin.

"That was an over share Roan." Chuck said with a bit of horror. "Very much an over share." Chuck was saved from a response by Roan's phone ringing.

"Oh, hello Diana." The older Agent said, before giving them a parting wave. Chuck threaded his arms through Sarah's and the two watched from the courtyard as Roan headed out towards his Taxi. After he was out of sight, Chuck chanced a glance through the window to where Ellie and Awesome were, hopefully, enjoying the dinner he and Sarah had set out for them.

"Are you sure about the roses?" Chuck asked Sarah anxiously. In the original timeline he had guilted Beckman into providing a romantic dinner for Devon and Ellie. Since he was now a paid Agent, he and Sarah had been left to their own devices. That meant getting take-out from Ellie's favorite restaurant, as neither of them could cook, and store bought pie. It had also meant Sarah had a bit more influence as to the decorations.

"As much as I agree that Devon's idea was romantic, Ellie is a bit of a neat freak. Trust me, she would not appreciate having to clean up an entire room covered in rose petals." She reassured him. Chuck suspected that Sarah hadn't particularly looked forward to finding petals everywhere for the next month either, or to the bill from the florist for the order Chuck had originally intended.

"So, it looks like we have a few hours to kill, what do you want to do?" Chuck asked. Sarah gave him a mischievous smile.

"I have it on good authority that there are some very nice closets underneath the Orange Orange." She said. Before he could respond, she grabbed his hand, and yanked him towards the car.

XXX

Devon put the last of the dishes away and headed over to the table to pour another glass of wine to drink while he and Ellie snuggled on the couch. He really appreciated Chuck's attempt to give him and Ellie a romantic night. Of course, after Ellie's initial flush from being treated to a bit of wining and dining had faded, she had realized that since Devon had had the same shift at the hospital as she had, he had had to have help putting everything together. The fact that he had fumbled when she asked where he had bought the pie and sputtered something about rabid squirrels eating all the canned pecans at the store probably hadn't helped. He never was any good at lying, especially to Ellie. Fortunately, she hadn't picked up on just how surprised he had been when they walked in, and had still credited him with at least planning the evening, although she had joked that it only counted as one third of a date, though.

As he picked up the glasses, and headed back towards where Ellie had tuned into some cooking show he glanced through the window and was to surprised to see their neighbor, John, dressed up in what looked like a white dinner jacket. Curious, Devon moved closer to the window to get a better look. John looked like he caring a bottle of red wine in one hand and a single red rose in the other. Even more surprisingly, he was actually smiling. Looked like John had planned a romantic evening tonight as well. Good for him.