A/N My daughter was in the hospital this last week, so I sacrificed my evening writing time to be with her. Slowed this down a bit, on top of the normal slowness of rehabilitating all this material on the fly. Anyway, here's part 2 of 6.
"Just give me twenty seconds."
"The shooter was you."
"I'd rather have you than a tank."
"If I can, I will."
Ellie kept an eye out for black vans as she got closer to her block, her street, her building. She pulled into the lot, one eye open for suspicious vehicles and another for her space, which hopefully no one had parked in today.
Nothing. That was good, right?
Her space, definitely. She'd had to complain to the manager enough about that, and even if Devon didn't complain, why should he have to lug all those cinderblocks around? The men in black, she wasn't so sure. She liked having them in a place where she could see them, but they weren't very obliging. She'd gotten them once, she was going to have to make the best of that.
But first, she needed to change. These shoes were terrible for sneaking around in, and sneaking around is what she had to do now. She'd heard a grunt, and sure there were probably a lot of people who grunted like that, and she didn't really want to think badly of Casey, but she knew she wouldn't be able to sleep well until she'd crossed him off her list, and she'd rather not get caught doing it.
Shaw and Sarah walked out of the restaurant not long after they'd walked into it, leaving a generous tip for the use of the table but not much else. As they made their way to Shaw's car, a black van drove up. "That looks like my ride," said Sarah, seeing a gray-clad Chuck behind the wheel.
"Say hello to Agent Grimes for me," said Shaw in an unexpected bit of humor. Morgan had to be the connection. Sarah had put all her trackers in a block-box at his request, and as far as he knew they were still in it.
"He's more than that," said Sarah. An agent was such a small thing. "He's a best friend." She opened the door and handed Chuck the box before climbing in herself. "We'll see you at work?" she asked, ever mindful of their exposed position.
Shaw shook his head. "Go, make your report. I have information to gather, before our plans can go forward. I'll be in touch." He walked away, to his own car.
Sarah closed the door, and Chuck pulled the van away from the sidewalk. "Plans?" asked Casey from the back.
Sarah opened the block-box, putting herself back on the grid. "Let's wait to brief the General," she said, considering what she would tell them when that happened.
Daniel Shaw watched the van with his wife's killer and her partners drive away. He pulled out a phone, called the only number on it. "The hook has been planted. We can start reeling tonight."
"Congratulations on a successful mission," said General Beckman. She gazed down upon Sarah. "Agent Walker, you're looking well."
"I am well, General," said Sarah. "I'm sorry I put all of you to the trouble, and I really do appreciate all the trouble you went to on my behalf, but Shaw was pretty insistent."
"I wasn't worried about you, Agent Walker," said Beckman, "But I knew I had to do something about Chuck, or he'd do something outrageous."
"Like usual," added Casey.
Chuck looked scandalized. "Et tu, Casey? As I recall it was your idea to call in Colonel Sanders."
"You were the one who mentioned the tank."
"A tank?" Sarah cooed. "For me? You shouldn't have."
"He doesn't have the authority," said Beckman. She put her bottle and glass on the table. "But I wouldn't put it past either of them to try. So, how did you do it?"
"Morgan Grimes spotted her and called me," said Chuck.
Beckman looked surprised. "Oh." She put the bottle and glass away again.
"That's what I said," said Casey. "We were following a signal from the ruined Ring base, but it was still ruined."
"Agent Shaw lost his watch, probably at the site," said the General. "I think I saw the bill for that in today's pile." She lifted a thick sheaf of papers from her outbox. "Atlas may have shrugged but we Generals don't have that luxury." The papers went slap! back into the basket.
Casey grunted his understanding. The paperwork of modern warfare almost made peace worthwhile. "We were both hoping, I mean, afraid he'd gone rogue, betrayed his country, maybe tried to kill Walker..."
"Thank God he didn't," said Chuck, glancing at Sarah.
"Yeah," said Casey. "Thank God."
"So what did Agent Shaw try to do?" Beckman looked at Sarah pointedly.
Good question. Sarah only knew what Shaw had done, what he knew, and how he planned to use that information. Information about her, her own private shame. He'd wanted to brief her away from the eyes and ears of their organization. "Agent Shaw was trying to protect his partner, like a good spy..."
"Like being the important word," said Casey.
Sarah let that pass. Shaw might have been a good spy, once, but he'd let his obsessions get in the way. Knowing what he now knew, she doubted he'd be a good spy again. Certainly not in the government's service. "He told me the Ring showed him footage of his wife's death."
Mm-hmm hummed Chuck in satisfaction.
Sarah took a deep breath, and finally let it out. "It was also my Red Test."
General Beckman pulled away. "You mean the government ordered you-"
Chuck stood closer. "To kill Shaw's wife?"
Sarah shook her head. "A picture and a place, that's all I was given," she said. She hadn't been ordered to kill a person.
"I'm sure the difference will matter to Shaw," said Casey.
"We drank Tears together."
Casey blinked. "You did?"
"What are tears?" asked Chuck, looking from one to another of his team. "What do they mean?"
Upstairs...
Morgan was crying. Big Mike had no idea what to do. "What's the matter, son?"
Morgan could only wave his hands, too convulsed by sobs even to speak. He tried to move in, hold on to his pseudo-step-father-figure-in-law, but Big Mike was having none of that. "I can't show emotions like this," he said, holding Morgan at arm's length. He looked out the window, where none of those green-shirted vultures were obviously watching them. "They'll get me if I do." He shook Morgan gently. "What's the meaning of all this...hullabaloo?"
Downstairs...
"Whatever you want them to mean," said the General. "While we are supposed to be intelligence-gatherers, sometimes we have to take actions we may not want to take. Clandestine agencies have clandestine rituals to deal with the fallout." She looked at Sarah closely. "Although I must say I'm surprised that someone who took a Red Test would need them."
Casey cleared his throat. "Evelyn Shaw was killed in Paris, ma'am," he said.
"Yes?" Beckman frowned at him. "What does that have to do with...?" Her eyes widened. "Oh."
"'Oh'?" said Chuck, a bit more harshly than one ought, to Generals. "What do you mean, 'oh'?"
If the General was annoyed by that it didn't show. "Agent Bartowski, Colonel Casey, you are dismissed."
Upstairs...
Morgan sat in Big Mike's chair, drowning in a sudden and overwhelming surge of emotion, as if every feeling he'd ever had had decided to come back and visit, putting their muddy boots up on the polished furniture of his mind. He didn't mind them coming back, but he'd come to appreciate the order and regularity of a life without them. Now that they were back, he didn't want to give that up, but there were so many...
On the stairs to the Orange Orange...
Casey checked the monitor. The store was empty, the customer base was small-to-vanishing, but he wasn't about to count on that. "Dammit," he growled. "What's he doing here?"
"Who?" asked Chuck.
"Big Mike." Casey turned to go to a different set of stairs. "At least if he's here he's not in the Buy More."
Downstairs...
"Shaw wants to continue working with you, in spite of what he knows?" asked Beckman.
"He does," said Sarah. "We both want the same thing, the end of the Ring and the capture of its Director. Using this file this way was an insult to us both."
Beckman looked at her askance. "Are you sure that that's all it is?"
"Chuck!" Big Mike pounced on the tall Nerd Herd supervisor, not even wondering at his presence in the store so long after his shift. Casey paused inside the break room and slipped out after Mike had dragged Chuck off to some ghastly fate. When he got home, he'd drink a toast to Bartowski's gallant sacrifice.
"What's going on, Big Mike?" asked Chuck.
Mike pulled Chuck to one of the entrances to the HT room. "It's Morgan. The boy's off on a bender of some kind. I gotta go out and get a gallon of Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream."
"For Morgan?"
"For me," said Mike, shoving Chuck through the doorway. "I ain't cut out for this stuff. Good luck."
Downstairs...
"Sarah, you are an absolute professional," said General Beckman. "But even so, I can't help but think that it would be a mistake to put you back out in the field so soon. Your emotions have to be running high, even though you are controlling them very well."
"No, ma'am," said Sarah with a smile. "I'm not controlling them at all."
"I see," said Beckman. "And am I to surmise that this is because of Chuck's supposed Red Test? You were there, correct?"
Exit smile. "Casey told you."
"Of course he did," said the General, frowning, and Sarah waited for the hammer to fall. "You should know, Agent Walker, that for those of us who believe that our primary function is the gathering of intelligence, the whole Red Test program was best discarded. That aspect of Chuck's training, at least, is one I am happy to see fail."
"It did, ma'am. He lost to the Intersect, but he's still Chuck." Not a killer. Not Shaw's Chuck. "He's still my Chuck."
The General looked at her funny. "Your Chuck?"
Upstairs...
Chuck found Morgan huddled in a chair, protected by, shielded by, hidden by every cushion the HT room had to offer. He was clutching one to his chest and his eyes were closed. "Morgan?"
Morgan didn't open his eyes. "Alex."
"What about her?"
"She's gonna hate me," said Morgan, opening his eyes at last. "Yesterday when I was on that pill I wanted it to wear off so she could know the real me. Now that I know the real me I wish I was on that pill again. I want to be the man of her dreams."
"The man of her dreams or the man of yours?" asked Chuck.
"Well...wait, is that a movie quote?" asked Morgan. "If it is, don't tell me which movie, 'cause you always mangle your quotes and that ruins the movie for me..."
"Alex," said Chuck, and Morgan shut up again. "You saved her life, that has to have earned you a measure of trust. Just don't ever betray that trust. She's seen the best..."
"So let her see the rest?" asked Morgan. "Chuck, I don't even want to see that. It scares me."
"Do you love her?"
Downstairs...
"Do you love him?" General Beckman watched Sarah's face go blank. "Agent Walker?"
Upstairs...
Morgan whimpered into his pillow.
"I like the way you said that." Chuck pulled the pillow away from Morgan's chest. "You're so afraid of your past, I'll bet you haven't even thought about what your present will do to it, once you introduce them."
Morgan pulled his face from the cushion. "What does that mean?"
"Show those stupid emotions of yours who's boss."
"Alex is the boss." Casey's daughter. Morgan sat up. He could already feel her slapping their dirty emotional feet off of his shiny intellectual furniture.
"Exactly."
Downstairs...
"Yes," said Sarah. There was no Agent Walker in the room. "There was this ballerina..."
"You'll spare me the details," said Beckman, wondering in spite of herself how far back in the mission this ballerina appeared. Some of their reports mentioned an opera house, but no ballets came to mind.
"Yes, ma'am. You're not angry?"
Beckman shook her head. "About this? No, if anything, it's about time. I'll also be happy that my most trusted subordinate should no longer feel the need to lie to me in his reports."
"Yes, ma'am. Thank you, ma'am."
"Now, what about this plan of Shaw's..."
"He's going to-" The phone chimed, and she checked the screen. "That's him now."
Eleanor Faye Bartowski-Woodcombe left her apartment in the darkest scrubs she could find, and walked over to her brother's apartment, letting herself in with her key. She went into his bedroom, looking in his closet for any dark clothing he might have had. Somehow he'd managed to acquire a lot of dark jackets. She put one on and checked the lumps in the pockets. A hat, and ...gloves? Why would he need these in LA?
No matter. She put them on, soft and snug but not binding, and headed for the Morgan Door. The gloves had a really good grip to them, and she opened the window as easily as if her hands had been bare. She tried to walk normally, not stiff or crouched, and ended up crouching stiffly across the courtyard. In the parking lot a door slammed, and she threw herself into the darkness beneath the bedroom window of Casey's apartment in panic.
Casey walked between the buildings as he always did, but when he drew near Ellie's position he stopped. She froze, not even breathing as he scanned the area around him. Finally he grunted and moved on. She followed him as he walked past and away, her head and body turning. Soon she was facing a wall, and she moved a bit, to see into the darkness of the room beyond the window.
Lights flashed as they came on, but only in a small crack around the screen that blocked the window. Ellie couldn't see much, just a lot of electronics crowded around the bed, some of it on the bed. Where the hell does he sleep?
Casey went to look at one screen in particular, his body language relaxing. He reached for a pocket, bringing out his phone, and raised it to his ear. "Casey, secure." He huffed out a laugh. "A three-man op and I'm the fourth, huh? No, I get it. Don't worry, I'll have your backs." He ended the call and put the phone away.
Ellie watched him go to a small box, entered a code and put his hand on a glass plate. The top popped open, and he pulled out the contents, some black cloth and a holstered pistol. He took some clothes, black clothes, from his closet, gathered up his safed belongings and left the room, flicking off the lights.
Ellie ran for Chuck's window and safety.
A/N2 I'm compressing three storylines into one episode. Ellie/Justin (without Justin) and Morgan/Alex, as well as the plot of Other Guy. There are a lot of bits in Other Guy that make no sense in this version, so the imports fill in a number of holes. Please drop me a line and tell me what you think of this rewrite so far.