A/N The moment you've all been waiting for, played a little bit differently. As usual, when there are parts of canon that don't need to be changed, I look somewhere else.

"Look at him."

"Was that wordplay?"

"I don't even sound like me!"

"James Bond never got all stubbly."

Devon hung back from actually stepping into the Buy More break room. "Dude, I don't want to go to spy-land."

"I know, Devon, but it looks like spy-land has come to you," said Chuck. "We just need to debrief you on what you saw, who you saw, and then we'll take you right out of spy-land just as fast as our rocket-powered Aston Martins can get you there."

Devon watched as Sarah opened one of the lockers. "You have–"

"No, Devon, it's a metaphor," said Chuck, shaking his head. "Probably it'll be my Nerd Herder. The debrief is not a metaphor, though. That part's real." He held out his hand, and Sarah put a paddle into it. Chuck waved the paddle around Devon, stopping at his pants pocket. "What's this?"

"Oh, he scary lady gave me this," said Devon, pulling a box out of his pocket. Inside was a small circular device, about the size of his palm.

"That's a Ring communicator," said Chuck. Sarah got out a box for it, but Chuck shook his head. "If she's tracking it, that will just give our location away."

Just then Morgan walked into the break room, heading for his locker, but he drew up short at the sight of the three of them already there. "Hey, Chuck, what's going on?"

"Morgan," said Chuck. "Just the nerd I want to see. I need you to do me a favor, buddy."

"Sure," said Morgan, confused but always willing.

Chuck handed him the phone and the box. "Take these, take my Nerd Herder, and go somewhere far away. The Pier, maybe, you know what, I don't care. Lots of places, different places, public places. Somewhere along the line, don't tell me where, put this into that and make sure it's shut."

"What is this, a phone?"

"It's a super-GPS tracker, buddy, mocked up to look like a phone," said Chuck. "We're testing the box, to see if it can block the signal."

"You got it, Chuck," said Morgan with a smile. "Anything to keep them from knowing about us." He took the items, and Chuck's keys, and left.

Chuck pulled the tab on the locker, and the wall slid out, revealing the passage into Castle.

"After you."

"If you say so," said Devon, and he went through the doorway and into a tunnel, emerging at the head of a flight of stairs.

Casey waited for him at the bottom. "Hey Devon. Good to see you're not dead."

"Yeah," said Devon with a little laugh. "You too. How's the leg?"

"It hurts." Casey pressed a button and a computer monitor popped up from the table. "Come on down and let's get this whole thing over with."

Devon looked at Chuck, who nodded reassuringly. "Yeah, okay." He descended to the main level and took a seat, Chuck and Sarah next to him. "What do you want to know?"

"We traced Artman's vehicle to the parking garage," said Casey, putting up a picture of Artman himself, stuffed in the back seat, with the ticket fallen on his head. "Take it from there."

Devon stared at the picture. "Uh, handcuffs, a bog on my head…"

"SOP," said Chuck, trying to distract him. He made a slicing motion with his hand and Casey dropped the picture.

"I heard the shot," said Devon, no longer hypnotized. "The next thing I know, I'm sitting in a chair all tied up, kinda cold. Then a woman pulled the bag off…"

"Describe her," said Casey. An array of images popped up on the monitor, all women.

"Uh, dark hair?"

The images of women with light hair disappeared.

"Sort of a…squared-off chin? Not pointy or round."

More women vanished.

"She said her name was Sydney."

One woman remained. "You could have started with that," said Casey.

"I was working up to it." Devon stared at the picture of the scary woman. "We were on a roof, really high up. She knew my name. She thinks I'm a spy." He looked at Chuck. "She thinks I'm you."

"It's a common mistake," said Casey. "Even spies make it. The best spies don't really look like spies. They look more like half-wits and screw-ups. Totally average, barely competent…"

"Yes, thank you, Casey," said Chuck. He turned to Devon. "The good thing is that she sees you, not me, or any of us. We should be able to use that. Can you guys kick some ideas around while I–?"

The monitor trilled. Beckman was on her way. They all looked forward and sat up straight, and Devon took his cues from them. "Good morning, e–what is a civilian doing in Castle?" said the General severely.

"Uh, General, this civilian is the doctor involved in the Goya mission," said Chuck. "My brother-in-law, Devon Woodcombe." Devon nodded.

Beckman didn't. "That's all well and good, Agent Bartowski, but what's he doing there, and what does Sydney Prince have to do with it? Her file is red-flagged, and you just accessed it."

The three spies traded glances. "Jack Artman went after Devon last night, General," said Chuck, and Casey put up the visual again. "According to Devon, she intercepted them, for reasons unknown."

"Perhaps a power play?" suggested Sarah.

"Possibly, Agent Walker. Sydney Prince is a known recruiter for the Ring," said Beckman, who had the highlights of the file in front of her. "Dr. Woodcombe's abduction by Artman may have led her to conclude that Devon's a spy, and she's taking the credit."

"Assuming she can turn Devon," said Chuck.

"She may not be able to bribe him or trick him," said Casey, "But she'll have other means at her disposal."

"She knew everything about me," said Devon. "Ellie, too."

Beckman nodded. "That's her leverage, and she won't hesitate to use it."

"Then she gave me that Ring thingie, and told me she'd call with instructions."

"It was a Ring communicator, General," said Chuck, before she had to ask him what 'Ring thingie' meant. "Morgan's giving it a ride around town right now. At some point he'll put it in a block box and bring it back to us."

"Excellent," said Beckman. "Those operate on a closed network, but the NSA has new technology to crack it. This looks like a good opportunity to put it to use."

Chuck sighed, and looked at his brother-in-law. "What that means, Devon, is that they want you to keep this up with Sydney, so they can use their wonderful new tech and track her down."

Devon looked unhappy about that. "Do I have to?"

"No, of course not," said Casey. "You can just go home, I'm sure Miss Prince will leave you and Ellie completely alone from here on out."

"I can…?"

"No, Devon, that's sarcasm." Chuck gave Casey a dirty look. "As long as she knows about you, and as long as she thinks you're a spy, both of you are in danger."

"Can't we tell her I'm not a spy?"

Sarah shook her head. "Telling people they're not spies is the first thing spies do. She'll see everything you do through that lens."

"Don't worry, Devon," said Chuck, "Well, worry, but know that we'll all be behind you on this, especially me. I will get you through this. First thing we do is get you back to Ellie."

"Oh, man, what do I tell her?"

"Devon, you've got four spies–" the monitor winked out. "Okay, three spies in the same room with you." Casey got up and headed for the armory. "And if we, Sarah and I, that is, can't come up with a good cover story for you, then we don't belong to be here."

Later, near the casa de Woodcombe…

"I don't know if I can do this, man."

"It's easy, Devon, just say what we told you to say, nothing more, nothing less. Keep it simple."

"Keep it simple. Keep it simple."

His front door opened, and there was Ellie, wonderful Ellie, and here she is in his arms again, and he was in hers. Paradise. "Devon, where were you?" she asked.

Oh, hell. Devon looked over Ellie's shoulder at Chuck, and Chuck gave him a thumbs-up. Devon let go and looked his wife in the face. "I can't lie to you, El. I was kidnapped. Threatened. Blackmailed. They think I'm a spy."

That night, in a van outside the apartment complex, where team B waits for their star…

"Of course she's not happy with it, would you be?" said Chuck. "I'm sure she'd rather he was having an affair, but she wouldn't have believed that for a second." Not Devon.

"He broke into a sweat just thinking about telling a lie," said Sarah. "And we wanted him to."

"Started out okay, a run in a park, no cell phones, but then he started rambling incoherently about bears," said Chuck.

"That's ugly," said Casey. "Ellie's tough. She can handle the truth, unlike some people I know."

"I just hope I can handle being his handler," said Chuck.

"That's easy, Bartowski," said Casey, and Chuck braced himself. "Just pretend you're a girl. You already scream like one."

"You saying I scream like that, Casey?" asked Sarah.

"The point is," said Casey, "He's you, so you have to be her." He noticed a flashing light on the board. "Movement." He checked the monitor. "Here he comes. Masks."

By the time Devon reached the van door they were unrecognizable, which was good, since Ellie was right behind him. The door slid open, and he held out a package to the men in the van. "I found this on my doorstep."

"Why are they all masked?" said Ellie.

"So you don't know anything about them," said Devon, who been coached about this. "What you don't know you can't accidentally reveal, in case you should bump into one of them at the store someday."

Ellie looked a bit unhappy that these people could be walking around the store and she wouldn't know it. "Oh. Take care of my husband for me."

Chuck gave her a thumbs-up, and Devon climbed inside. The van door closed, and Ellie went back inside to worry, wishing Chuck's windows weren't dark.

"All right, what have we got?" said Casey, one eye on the monitor until Ellie was out of range.

"A watch and a…bluetooth?"

"Probably rigged to blow your head off," said Casey, tactlessly. "Only reason to use something bigger than one our earpieces."

Chuck stuck the device in a containment unit and got out a magnifier. "You gonna MvGuyver it?" asked Devon, "Like that microwave."

"I didn't McGuyver the microwave, Devon," said Chuck absently. "I just said I McGuyvered it to Ellie, so that we'd have a reason to be there together." A make-believe Faraday cage, with a real Ring communicator inside, in case Ellie needed more to believe than just them. Chuck popped open the Bluetooth shell, and removed what looked like the world's smallest wad of chewing gum. "There we go," he said, putting it back together.

Just then, the Ring phone rang. "Showtime," said Chuck.

Later, outside Crystal Towers…

"What kind of a Ring target would be in a place like this?" asked Sarah. Chuck had gone after Devon, and she was keeping herself from fidgeting by looking over the building's tenant list, which stopped at the eleventh floor.

"We're about to find out," said Casey, more concerned with tactics than strategy. "Security guard is down, accessing the elevator now."

In Washington DC, Diane Beckman was enjoying a particularly late night, monitoring her best team's actions in the van. She hated doing it, but she knew her part in Shaw's little roleplay and she would play it, right up to the hilt. She smiled at the phrase.

To the hilt.

Back in LA…

"Oh, no," said Sarah.

"What?" said Casey. "He just took down six guys." He really had to check out some of these games Bartowski played.

"He's not flashing," said Sarah.

"Here comes Prince," said Casey. "Get ready."

In her office, Diane Beckman pressed two buttons in succession, one to lock down the van, one to let her best team know that they were once again being watched. "Stand down, team…"

Upstairs, Devon heard the sound of a single gunshot. He rushed into the inner office, and saw Chuck standing over the body of a tall, muscular man. A single gunshot wound to the upper torso had turned his shirt red. "Chuck, what did you do?"

"Exactly what he told me to," said Agent Carmichael.

A/N2 Things get dark pretty quickly around Shaw. I hope you'll drop me a line and tell me what you think of this rewrite so far.