A/N A shade darker than canon. I don't know why they felt they needed to hide the death of Emmet from Chuck. In this story it's part of his Hero's Journey as a spy, and a link to tie up some dangling plot threads.

"Make up your mind."

"We're partners now."

"They aren't you, and you aren't them."

"Chuck, I'm listening."

The briefing room in Castle was crowded. Not with physical bodies, there were just the same three people it usually had (except when Sarah was swimming), but the large screen showed General Beckman, and she was the equivalent of many. "Well," she said. "Javier Cruz seems to have been a vital operative in the Mexican Ring syndicate. The phone you captured is a custom Ring smartphone for such operatives, the first we've ever captured."

"Good job, team," said Chuck, handing the phone to Casey. The screen was cracked, the image flickering, but they should still be able to get some useful intel off of it.

"Speaking of teams, Agent Bartowski," said the General, staring at him specifically, "Do you remember your last orders, as they were given to you by me?"

"Uh, yes, General," said Chuck, trying to sit up straighter. "Go home, sit on my bench, you'll call me?"

"Colonel Casey, Agent Walker," continued the General, "Did either of you issue such a call, in my name or otherwise?"

Sarah shook her head. Casey sat up straighter. "I specifically instructed Agent Bartowski to stay here."

"I was off duty," said Chuck. "Is it my fault that I just happened to go out to eat at the same restaurant they had staked out?"

"Dressed in your Armani from the Castle wardrobe," muttered Casey.

"It's an upscale environment."

"I have to agree, Agent Bartowski," said Beckman stolidly, overriding them both. "But only because the search histories from all Castle computers for that night appear to have been cleared of all evidence to the contrary."

Chuck smiled.

"General," said Sarah, "It should be noted that once the nature of the situation was made clear to Agent Bartowski, he cooperated in his own extraction from the scenario without incident."

"It's what happened outside the club that matters, Agent Walker," said the General. "Agent Bartowski's encounter with Mr. Cruz led him directly to the Buy More, resulting in one civilian death and your own capture."

Chuck stared at his hands. The capture he could live with, even Sarah's. They had offered their lives. Emmet had not, and Chuck's regret at a job poorly done was the only mourning Emmet Milbarge was likely to receive, since no one outside that room would ever know. "I understand, General."

"That's good, Agent Bartowski," said Beckman, a bit less harshly. "Just remember to weigh your responsibilities against your accomplishments. You have, however accidentally, struck a major blow to Ring operations on our southern border. In light of that success, and that failure, I'm reactivating Operation Bartowski. Agent Walker, Colonel Casey, it falls to you educate Agent Bartowski in some of the…greyer…aspects of our work, should the opportunity, or the necessity, arise. Dismissed." Her hand moved, and the giant screen went black.

No one moved. Casey and Walker seemed deep in thought. "So," said Chuck, after a moment. "How does this work?"

"How does what work?" asked Casey.

"If I'm going to be staying here, I need a cover."

"That's true," said Sarah. "What do you think, Casey? Gravedigger?"

"Nah," sneered the big man. "Mortician."

"It's not funny!"

"No, it isn't, Bartowski. It's either laugh or cry, and Marines don't cry." The big guy stood up from the table. "Emmet was a homicide waiting to happen, and I'm not about to lose sleep over one of those. However, if you insist on punishing yourself over the natural workings of the universe, I have a perfect job for that."

The next day…

Casey removed the blindfold, and Chuck looked around him in dismay. "The Buy More?" Casey had driven him around for what felt like hours!

"Yeah," said Casey, handing him his pocket protector. "Apparently the last thing Milbarge did before his untimely demise was to sign you on as Nerd Herd Supervisor, at twice your previous salary."

"Twice nothing is still nothing," said Chuck, sticking the plastic packet in his pocket.

Casey chuckled. "I thought you'd say that. So we took that second salary and redistributed it among the poor downtrodden greenshirts. They all thanked you, got you a card."

"You're a greenshirt," said Chuck.

"What's your point, Bartowski?" Casey snarled. "You won't miss it. You're independently wealthy, everyone says so."

Thanks, Emmet. "Ellie doesn't say so."

Casey shrugged. "So don't tell her. And one other thing–"

"Chuck!" shouted Morgan, coming up from the back room with Jeff and Lester in tow. He waved at his own chest, and his new shirt. "Check it out. Buy More Corporate called. They were begging me to take back my old job. Begging. They even gave me a raise."

"All the greenshirts got a raise, Grimes," said Casey.

"Yeah!" said Morgan, raising his hand. "Put 'er there, compadre." Casey rolled his eyes and walked away, leaving him hanging. Morgan turned the high-five into a negligent wave. "He's busy. A busy man."

"Speaking of busy, Morgan, you know Emmet was manager here for quite a while…" Chuck looked over the expanse of employees, milling about aimlessly, if not normally.

"Our work is cut out for us, mon capitaine…?"

Chuck sighed. "I'm afraid so, buddy. I'm afraid so."

Down below…

"Agent Walker," said General Beckman. "Is Agent Bartowski up in the Buy More?"

She had his image in three different monitors. "Yes, ma'am."

"Good. Given the shock he received yesterday, I didn't wish to add to it at this time, but it's an issue you and Colonel Casey should have on the top of your minds at all times. You, especially."

"What is it?" Why me?

"The skills," said Beckman. "Your mission succeeded in doing what all of our training scenarios could not. Agent Bartowski is now, for some reason, able to use the skills, and now he can learn to control them." General Beckman looked concerned. "This is not a good thing. Training exists for a reason. Chuck is now more capable than ever before, but he's unstable."

"Dangerous?" asked Sarah.

The General nodded. "Very. Until he learns to control his flashes he's a danger to everyone and everything around him, especially you two. Casey has the strength to contain him, if need be, but it's clear that Agent Bartowski listens to you. You two have to control what he can't. Protect the world from Chuck."

Later…

Chuck and Morgan walked into the courtyard of the apartment complex, chatting about nothing and everything. They pulled to a stop without knowing why, their Buymorian instincts for work-avoidance refreshed and hair-trigger.

Devon and Ellie were carrying stuff from their apartment into another. "Something I should know?" asked Chuck.

"We'd been hoping to take over this apartment for a while," said Ellie, "It's bigger, and now that you have that new position at the Buy More, with the salary and everything, you can afford to take our old one. Or share it. You have friends."

"I'm so happy," said Morgan.

"You have lots of friends, Chuck," Ellie practically shouted at him. "Other friends."

It was too late. Had Morgan not been there, Chuck would gladly have considered taking it on his own. A roommate would have made the thirty-foot rule hard to implement, unless the roommate were someone like Casey. Now, though…Ellie stomped off. "I can't watch this," she declared to the gods, whichever of them happened to be listening. "It's pathetic."

Morgan took her place, much more excited. "Dude! Two words: Bachelor Pad." He held up a fist.

Chuck gave him a bump, but without the explosion, not that Morgan was the sort to notice little things like that. The smaller man raced off to join the parade. The sooner they were out, the sooner he could claim Ellie's room for his own.

Chuck was busy reconfiguring his cover in his head when he heard a slight sound behind him. Sarah and Casey had come into the entrance to the yard. Sarah stopped, while Casey kept going to his own apartment. "We have to talk," she said.

Chuck stepped away from the scene with her, before Ellie would first, drag them both into the moving-our-stuff parade and second, start to wonder what Sarah was doing there. Since Chuck had gone to Prague, Sarah had been assigned a number of missions in the LA area, and her reputation among the Buymorians (and therefore Ellie, who still shopped there) had suffered as a result. For her to be seen with Chuck so soon would only throw fuel on a fire.

"How are you, Chuck?" she asked.

Chuck flexed his arm. Ever since she'd tackled him in Mexico it had been a little sore. "Okay, I guess."

"That's not what I meant," said Sarah, with a light punch. "I meant how are you?"

"Charles Carmichael is fine," said Chuck. "The Intersect is fine too, it seems."

It seemed. "And Agent Bartowski?"

"You still have his heart?"

"Right here." Sarah lifted her arm, pointing to a little silver heart charm, one of two hanging side-by-side. "Nice and safe."

He took her hand in his own, studying the hearts. One had his name on it, if the other had a name he couldn't see it. "Then Agent Bartowski's fine too, partner."

"Even with…?"

"Even with," said Chuck. "It wasn't like I was planning for it, but I wasn't planning against it, either. I've got to do better."

"It's my fault, too," said Sarah, unwilling to let him shoulder all the blame. "If I'd just been able to call you…"

She'd been on a mission, of course she wouldn't break cover like that. But then he'd broken it for her, trying to preserve his own cover with Ellie. "What happened to your phone? They said you were swimming."

Sarah nodded. "I was. I'd just gotten out of the pool, and the phone rang. My mark handed it to me, he might have seen your face, I don't know." She turned her hand in his, and laced their fingers together. "But I know that when I saw your face I was just so happy to see you, and you were early, I wasn't ready, and…I dropped it."

"The guys watching, and there were a lot of guys watching, they said it was a toss, not a drop."

"Reflexes," said Sarah. "I don't care about the guys, but my mark was watching, and it was falling anyway, so I made it look good." She smiled. "Well, bad. A bad break-up. He was happy to hear that."

The LA team had told him all about that, in great detail, at least the public parts, which were all Casey's optics allowed them to see. "I'll bet." They'd also thrown in, free of charge, a great deal of speculation about would have happened afterward, after Gilles had taken her hand and led her inside his mansion. "So what'd you hit him with, a number seven?" The usual. Knock-out drops and planted evidence.

"Eight," said Sarah. Same as a seven, but the implanted memories came with more detail. "We had to sell it."

Chuck understood that completely. So many things he understood now, with his new knowledge of why she did what she'd done. "Yes, the jealous lover."

"Exactly."

"So what about our real–" One heavy footstep was his only warning.

"Move it Bartowski," said Casey, grabbing his arm. "Or Ellie'll put us to work too."

Sarah waved as the distance between them grew. "Bye, sweetie," she said. "Don't hurt him."

In the dojo…

Chuck could get to like sparring. He was actually supposed to hit Casey. A win-win if he ever heard of one. "Okay, Bartowski," said the Colonel. "Enough dancing around. You managed to flash yet? I could use some exercise, and it looks like you could use a lesson or two yourself. Let's make it fun."

Chuck could do that. He flashed. He flexed his hands, a gloved Morpheus. "Bring it."

A/N2 The more I thought the courtyard scene, the more flaws I saw, so I fixed them all as I went. I also resolved the apparent mystery of the phone in the pool from chapter one, and addressed an issue that many have brought up, about Sarah actually having sex as part of her job. There are some writers who like to go on about 'government-trained whores', but I'm not one of them.

This is it for Pink Slip. Three Words is next, but after Christmas. Happy Midwinter Solstice Festival to you all. I hope you'll drop me a line and tell me what you think of this rewrite so far.