A/N In this section of canon, Chuck and Sarah walk away and let Shaw murder a defeated enemy in an elevator. I hope I can come up with something a bit more heroic than that. Or funnier. Or both. Here's part 3 of 6.

"That looks like my ride."

"We drank Tears together."

"He's still my Chuck."

"That's him now."

Ellie practically fell into Chuck's room, barely getting the Morgan Door open in time. The lights were off, a mixed blessing as she struggled her way out of his jacket, forgetting for a moment that she had those stupid gloves on. And that stupid hat! She peeled them all off her, trying to figure out how she had found them before giving that up as a bad job and just stuffing them into the pockets, hanging the jacket in the closet. She backed away. Something touched her and she jumped.

Chuck's bed. Right. Inanimate object. She bent over and smoothed the covers.

A door banged open out in the apartment, and she sprang forward, crawling across the bed and falling onto the floor on the other side. Someone walked past the door, and another door opened and closed. She crawled back over the bed and listened for movement, but she was breathing too fast, her heart pounding too loud to hear anything.

She opened the door and stuck her head out. Nothing and no one. She left the room and went into hall, creeping toward the door. A door opened behind her and she ducked into the kitchen, grabbing a cast iron frying pan out of the drying rack and raising it up. The kitchen door opened and she prepared to swing.

She had no target. Morgan's head was considerably closer to the ground than Casey's. "Ellie? What are you doing here?"

She stared at him for a second, before remembering the deadly weapon in her hand. Right. Not her apartment. Morgan and Chuck both lived here now. She lowered the pan. "I wanted to borrow this."

"You have three."

"They're dirty."

Morgan looked at her funny. "Is something wrong?"

"Wrong?" she shrieked. "No, nothing's wrong. Why would you think something's wrong?" Outside, a door slammed, and a large shadow moved past the front window. Ellie shoved the pan into Morgan's hands and ran to the curtains, catching a glimpse of John Casey walking out of the complex dressed all in black. Black jacket. Black gloves.

Black hat. A black ski-mask, maybe? She watched until he stepped into the parking lot and disappeared behind a building, off to be the fourth on a three-man op, whatever that was. And why would they need a fourth? Her hand found a doorknob, and turned it. Open, spin to the outside. "Thanks, Morgan, you're the best. Bye." Close.

Morgan stood there, holding the skillet and looking around for space aliens or something. Was it just him? He put the skillet back on the stove, refusing to think about how it had come into his hand. Too late to cook now, he'd have to get a pizza or something before he called Alex.

Casey sat behind the wheel of his beloved Crown Vic, pondering ponderously as he drove to the scene of the crime-to-be. All sorts of things wrong with this op, so sudden, like it had popped up out of the ground with all the research done. Or not done, which was the point. How could they know what they didn't know? He fumbled with his phone as he drove.

"I'm beginning to regret giving you this number," said the General.

"I'm beginning to regret everything about this whole op," said Casey. "Couldn't someone have come up with something better? We were just talking to Grimes…"

"What did you have in mind?"

"The Ring holes up in a meathook factory, Chuck and Sarah blow it up while I'm outside picking off the stragglers."

Three thousand miles away, he could hear her eyebrows go up. "That's…remarkably vivid."

"Blame Chuck," said Casey. "Six months ago I would have said having Col. Sanders on speed-dial, but I have Col. Sanders on speed dial and I've never needed to call him in six months."

"Then have faith in your partners. They'll make it work."

"They'll have to," snarled Casey. "Once they're in that elevator, they'll be at Shaw's mercy." Just like they were at his, but Casey could rest secure in the knowledge of his own merciful nature.

"So make sure you have him at yours."

In the elevator room…

"Is everybody ready?" asked Shaw, fitting a remote control panel onto the elevator computer.

Chuck looked up at the camera, saw it move up and down. Casey was on the job. He and Sarah had their harnesses on and cables in place. He nodded to Sarah. Their plan had him connecting to Casey while she was the contact with Shaw, and he was keeping to that division. "All set," she said.

"Go."

They got, rappelling down the shaft onto what Shaw said was the Director's private elevator. When they landed on the top Sarah said, "Okay Shaw, we're here." She looked at Chuck in confusion. "He said 'oops'."

"Why would he say oops?" Chuck lifted his watch to his lips. "Casey, why would Shaw say oops?"

"There's a couple of Ring goons up there," said Casey, and Chuck passed the gist on to Sarah. "Shaw's fighting them off. Grimes' chop-socky movies have more style."

"You watch chop-socky flicks?" asked Chuck.

"Back in the day, when I was looking for my calm center," said Casey. "They used to have good technique. Nowadays all the fight scenes look like they got their moves from the same weight-loss videos. Uh-oh, the idiot's going for his gun. Move it, Chuck!" Chuck grabbed Sarah's arm and pulled her to the side, just as a shot came down the shaft.

"Shaw, what's going on?" said Sarah, not having to work at it to sound concerned.

"Just a little Ring company," said Shaw, sounding a little out of breath. "Opening the hatch now."

Back where they had been standing, the hatch cover for the elevator emergency access released, and they dropped into the big metal box. They lost no time arming themselves, moving into opposite corners by the door.

Chuck surprised Sarah by carrying two tranq guns. She muted her comm. "What's the second one for, Chuck?"

"Manoosh sent me a prototype," said Chuck. "Said he got the idea from a movie and asked if I could test it in the field."

"So you decided to do that now?"

"That's why I also have the standard issue," he said. "And of course, you, but if we have to use that boom-stick of yours in a giant echo-chamber like this, we're done anyway."

Sarah raised a hand to her comm, and they pressed themselves further into their corners. Sarah felt the buttons behind her and holstered her pistol.

The door opened and a man walked in. He reached to press the button and Sarah caught his hand and arm, pushing him back against the wall without revealing herself. The Director looked at the two of them as Sarah pulled her gun. "One, please," he said, with a British accent to his voice. Shaw hadn't mentioned that.

"You're brazen, I'll give you that," said Sarah. "Most people would react more to being kidnapped in their own elevator."

"I think you two have me beat in that department," said the Director, shooting his cuffs. "I suppose you've come for the Cipher."

Great, the Intersect's central component, and they had one. That would be some prize tech, a worthy distraction from their mission. "Is it here?"

"Oh yes," said the Director. He pointed. "In my safe, at the far end of that corridor, loaded down with traps and flunkies. They'll take you down in seconds."

Sarah raised a hand to her comm. "He's baiting us with the Cipher," she said. "Do we go for that, or just take what we came for?"

"Probably just a ruse," said Casey in Chuck's ear. "I say forget it, this mission's enough of a boondoggle already."

"The Cipher's a go," said Sarah to Chuck. She gestured with her gun. "Get out your phone. Have them bring the Cipher to you here."

"I'll spare you the trouble of making the usual threats," said the Director, pulling the phone from his pocket. "I know the drill." He made the call, then stood there waiting calmly.

They heard the sound of heels tapping toward them. A well-manicured hand reached into the box, handing the Director a piece of equipment. Unfortunately for the secretary, she started talking. Sarah grabbed her arm and pulled her into the box with them. "Code words?" she asked them derisively.

"We hadn't gotten there yet, but eventually," said the Director. "I must say, you're in it now. You came for me, what are you going to do with her? Shoot her and tell the building you're here, or use that cute little tranq gun your partner's holding? A bit of a giveaway, and it would make her hard to carry."

"I have a better idea," said Chuck. He pulled out the other pistol he had and shot the secretary with that. She went stiff by the Director's side, exactly like she had been.

"What is that?" asked Sarah, surprised at the reaction.

"The guy who sent it to me called it a paralyzer," said Chuck, not wanting to spill classified beans in an unsecure environment. "Something for people you don't want to slump over right away."

Until you're past them and out the door. "Does it hurt?"

The secretary forced a hnerk! sound out of her nose.

"Yeah, I'd say it hurts," said Chuck, "But, you know, Ring. And it does give me an idea."

"Take the secretary?"

"Why not? They usually know more than the bosses anyway…" He trailed off, hearing the sound of someone else approaching.

"Sir?" said a male voice. "We've heard something in the elevator shaft, is everything all right here?"

"Yes, we're fine," said the Director quickly.

"Are you sure, sir?" asked the man, stepping into the car. "'Cause that hatch looks–"

Chuck pushed him the other corner and shot him with the paralyzer too. "Let's speed this up," he said to the Director. "Or soon we'll be over the carrying capacity of this car, and that'll bring OSHA down on us, and believe me you do not want that to happen."

Behind them, the doors slid shut and the car started to rise. "It's not me," said the Director. "You completely ruined my trap."

Chuck and Sarah shared a look. First he then she touched little studs on their shoes, causing little light to go on. Pressing their shoes against the wall, they clambered up into the corners. "What?" asked Chuck staring down at the Director's astonished face. "You don't wear magnetic shoes in a giant metal box?"

The car stopped, the doors opened, and Ring goons flooded in, looking into the corners where Chuck and Sarah had been, but not up. Chuck shot them with his standard tranq, and the collapsed on the floor. He dropped down onto the floor with a grunt. "Oh, that hurts." Sarah came down without a word or a sound.

The secretary slid down the wall into a shivering, quivering heap, taking Chuck and Sarah by surprise. By the time they recovered the Director had his own gun out. "Well, that's not good," said Chuck.

"I'm afraid I have dinner reservations," said the Director, "So this is where we part company."

A gun fired in the hallway outside the elevator, and red spots bloomed on the Director's shirt as he slammed back against the wall, looking surprised. "Daniel?" he said, as he slid down to the floor, leaving a bloody streak above him.

Daniel Shaw stepped into the car. "I'm afraid I've decided to turn down your offer," he said, as the Director died. He looked over to the twitching secretary. "Good idea to take her, Sarah. They usually know more than the bosses anyway."

Sarah handed her gun to Chuck and pulled out the zipties she had brought for a different prisoner. Shaw watched the way Chuck held the gun and put his own pistol away. "You thought I'd go rogue?" he asked Chuck. "Turn traitor?"

"Not at all," said Chuck. "I trust you completely." Sarah huffed as she lifted the secretary's limp body into a fireman's carry. In the other corner the elevator guy collapsed, twitching, but only Shaw looked. Chuck cocked the gun, getting Shaw's full attention back, and said, "You go first."

A/N2 A little bit silly, a little bit serious, and hopefully a finish you weren't expecting. Please drop me a line and tell me what you think of this rewrite so far.