Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Chuck

Chapter 6: The Door Swings in the Breeze

Chuck stood frozen on the spot, his eyes staring at the sleeping form that was lying on his bed. "Shit."

Too tired to do anything, Chuck climbed through his window and fell down on the other end of the bed, making sure not to wake Morgan up. He had forgotten about game time. Another promise broken with his friend.

"Where's Bartowski?" General Beckman asked. It was two minutes past 7 am and Casey and Sarah were standing in Casey's apartment facing the LCD screen that showed their two senior officers.

Casey and Sarah looked at each other, a slow realization appearing on their faces.

"Crap. Sorry, General. We had some heated discussions last night and forgot to tell the Intersect what time he was supposed to arrive for this briefing." Casey responded, his face showed that he was ready for any repercussions.

"I can go get him." Sarah volunteered, already turning to go towards the door.

"No need," Director Graham interjected, "There's been a change of plans today for you two."

The two agents snapped to attention.

General Beckman asked, "I take it from your reference to last night that Chuck told you about what he's been doing?"

The agents nodded in response, Sarah went into further detail, "He told us the reason for why he did what he did as well as what he asked for and its effect on him. He didn't give any particulars about the actual algorithm that he had said you told him about."

Director Graham leaned against the table next to him, "The algorithm that Bartowski asked about is codenamed Zebra Junction 3. The designer and developer is a CIA computer scientist and engineer by the name of Dr. Victor Stone, graduated from MIT with top honors and specializes in data mining algorithms based on pattern recognition. This algorithm was used in the Intersect machine and its sole responsibility was to provide the pattern and relationship mapping between data points stored in the Intersect.

"Even on Bartowski's off days, his flashes were more accurate than what the machine Intersect was ever able to produce. In effect, our Intersect machine was a glorified database with a poor search mechanism. Now, with this algorithm being used by the Intersect that's in Bartowski's brain, his pattern and relationship mapping far exceeds our wildest dreams."

"Would this doctor know the reasons behind Chuck's migraines and his bloody nose?" Sarah wondered.

"Most likely not," Director Graham continued, "He's a technical computer scientist, not a physician. The algorithm was designed for computers so I don't think there's anyone except maybe Bartowski himself that can understand what's happening, assuming he even knows what's going on in his own head.

"Now this algorithm is far from perfect. Bartowski says that it generates anywhere from 6 to 8 times the amount of information or intelligence from before the algorithm was seated into this mind. This means he has to do real time data manipulation and filtering to ensure that only pertinent information is immediately used.

"The rest of the unrelated information he's been documenting and providing us with that information separately."

"Even with this draw back, it was this new algorithm that allowed the Intersect in Bartowski to form a pattern based on information that would otherwise seem completely unrelated. That's how he was able to identify and create a relationship of the shipping manifests as well as the weapon that the items are meant to develop." General Beckman added.

Director Graham continued, "The list of shipping manifests that Bartowski provided numbered up to 25. 24 of these shipments have already landed, with one being the package that we secured. That leaves 23 that have past our envelope. We've raided 21 locations and they've all come up empty handed. The locations were either fronts that had never received any such shipments or were completely false addresses. We still have 2 real locations left to hit."

"We want you two to lead the raids for that today." General Beckman added, "This is a straight forward search and seizure, assuming there's anything there to seize."

Beckman loaded up two schematics for the buildings, "You'll be meeting up with a different set of NSA and CIA task force for these raids. I'm sending you the address for the staging area."

Graham leaned in over Beckman's shoulder, "This is a purely tactical operation. We'll be leaving the Intersect out of this for his safety. Gather whatever intell you can find and we'll have him look it over to see if he flashes later."

"You're to meet with your team at the staging location in one hour." General Beckman looked at the both of them, giving them a few seconds to see if either had any questions. "Dismissed."

When the screen went blank Casey's face lit up as if he won the lottery. "Two raids in two days, man, this is more like it." He began pulling his flak jacket and weapon case out, lovingly caressing it.

Sarah couldn't help her grin as she walked out the door, heading back to her apartment to grab her equipment. She hesitated at Chuck's window, her grin fading while looking longingly at it. Giving a sigh as her shoulders slumped she hurried back to her car, they didn't have much time to waste.

The first things that Chuck noticed as he awoke were the sounds of giggles, the sounds of something clicking, and a very fuzzy feeling on the side of his face.

"Mmm, Anna baby..." a male voice whispered softly next to his ear.

Chuck's eye lids snapped open, his eyes staring into the puckering lips of Morgan.

"MORGAN!" Chuck screamed as he shoved his best friend away, while at the same time trying to back pedal as quickly as possible. Unfortunately for Chuck, he was sleeping on the edge of the bed and ended up falling off, his limbs all splayed about awkwardly.

Morgan, after being shoved, opened his eyes, seeing Ellie's long brown hair. Morgan smiled, trying to give her his sexiest smile, "Finally coming to me eh Ellie? Niiice."

He looked to Ellie's side and saw Captain Awesome and Morgan came fully awake.

"Captain! Look, this isn't what it looks like!" Morgan tried to get onto his feet, but only ended up getting his legs tangled in the bed sheets. He too promptly fell off the end of the bed, a tangled heap of limbs and sheets.

Ellie and Devon, each holding a camera, were laughing uproariously. They were holding onto each other as if they too would collapse.

"Oh. My. God." Ellie was able to get out between her laughs.

"That, was totally Awesome!" Devon added as he straightened himself as much as possible, still having a good laugh.

Chuck's head peaked above his bed as he pulled himself up. Seeing his sister and Devon laugh made him forget all his problems for that moment. "You caught us sis," Chuck exaggerated his sigh, "Morgan, really is my bestest friend."

Chuck gave Morgan a wink, but Morgan only looked at him with a stunned face.

"Dude, noooooo..."

Ten minutes later, after Ellie and Devon left for work, but not before they kept promising to bring back the photos later in the day, Chuck and Morgan were facing the TV as Morgan was playing Gears of War.

"I'm really sorry about not showing up last night man, traffic was bad on the way back from the beach." Chuck said, his insides turning as he belted yet another lie out, "I know we haven't spent much time together and I was looking forward to it."

"No prob buddy, traffic can be murder to you 4 wheelers." Morgan responded, his eyes still facing the TV.

Chuck's attention was pulled from the TV when he heard his window shades rattle. Seeing Casey on the other side of the window he walked over.

"You, stay at home today. Walker and I are busy." Casey whispered.

"Woof." Chuck nodded in response.

Morgan had missed the exchange, his eyes glued to the game in front of him. "Oh dude, Big Mike told me to tell you that he gave you today and tomorrow off. Said something about you putting so much extra work that he doesn't want to pay overtime."

Chuck was visibly surprised, not believing his good luck. "Really? What time are you supposed to go in to work? I can drive you."

"No need bud, I switched with one of the other green shirts. So I gots today off! We can game all day today!" Morgan looked over, his eyes so alive.

Chuck was inwardly taken aback once again by Morgan's dedication, "Thanks man, that is perfect. Let me go take a shower first. I think you drooled all over me."

After his shower, Chuck sat watching Morgan whirl a grenade at a group of underground creatures as he kept playing the game.

"Hey buddy, what would you say if I were to ask for your help on a project I've only kind of started on." Chuck hesitatingly asked.

"What kinda project?"

"I've started to draw up plans to create an online puzzle game."

"You want to create a video game?" Morgan excitedly asked, his control now sitting limp in his lap, the game momentarily forgotten.

"Yeh, just a simple one. Basically it's just a memorization and retrieval game. The idea is that the game records and scores someone on how they perform. As the levels increase in difficulty, the memorization patterns and retrieval processes gets more complicated. So the first stage could be memorizing given words and using them as keys to doors or ways to solve puzzles. As it gets harder they'll be memorizing images and then maybe movies even."

Morgan was just staring at Chuck, his mouth agape. Chuck didn't add that the reason he was building this particular game initially was to see if he could gather data on how his mind remembered different types of information and if there happened to be any correlation as to how a given situation would work better to retrieve that stored information.

"You're really gonna do it?" Morgan finally asked.

Chuck stared at the TV, the game frozen in time, "Ellie was right. I can't stay at the Buy More forever and it's been long enough. It's time I start moving on you know? I figure if we start small and simple and slowly build up, maybe we can promote a few simple games and then create bigger ones. Sell the games to other companies to use. We could eventually start our own company."

"We...?"

"You and me, tackling this together. So, what do you say little buddy?" Chuck had barely enough time to finish the last few words before he was wrapped in a fierce hug.

"Beam me up!"

Late that evening Casey and Sarah were standing in front of Casey's computer, the scowls on General Beckman and Director Graham easily broadcasting the mood of the people in the room.

"Both companies are legitimate and from what we can tell, the shipments never even made it to them. Looks like they were intercepted and routed to where they were really intended to reach." Sarah reported.

"Made us waste a bunch of time." Casey groused.

Director Graham's cell phone rang, "Graham." The director's eyes shot up, "Hold one."

"Stay put agents, we may have new information for you." Graham quickly shot off before the screen went blank.

Both agents looked at each other, Casey's eyebrows quirked. "Well, let's see what tweedle dumb and tweedle dee are up to."

Sarah scowled at him in response as Casey flicked the audio switch, the room now filled with the sounds of video game gun shots and energetic shouts from Chuck and Morgan.

"See, I don't understand this one. How can you bring your top 5 favorite DVDs to a desert island? What are you going to use to watch it? What about electricity?" Chuck could be heard saying as they were still playing the video game.

Casey let out a loud groan as he slumped down onto his chair, his head in his hands shaking. "Please, not this. Anything but this." He whispered.

Sarah had a smile on her face as she looked at her partner.

The two agents sat and listened to Chuck and Morgan chatter away about solar powered appliances and how and what they'd be able to make use of them. An off comment about solar powered refrigerators and how that changed the landscape of what type of sandwich they would bring to the island nearly caused Casey to go ballistic. It wasn't until the conversation switched to non-island related topics did the agents become more interested.

"I swear to you, that hot girl I told you about came back into the store again yesterday. She was all about the Morgan!"

"Uhh, isn't Anna going to kill you?"

"Nah, she knows what being with me means. It's the magic I got, first Carina, then Anna, and now, all these hotties." Casey sat down, his hands coming to his ears in a futile effort to block the offensive words.

"Speaking of hot girls, I noticed you been spending a lot of time again with Sarah lately," Morgan began, tactless being his primary offensive weapon, "You two hooking back up?"

Sarah leaned in toward the speaker slightly, as if to try to make sure she caught any sounds that would come out.

"No, we're not getting back together." Chuck answered, his voice sounded sad.

"How come man, you still like her don't cha?"

A humorless laugh fell through the speakers, making Sarah lean back slightly. "Like her?" Chuck began, "Man, I don't know why I'm going to tell you this."

An audible sigh from Chuck echoed through the room, capturing the interest of both agents.

"I don't just like her man, I'm pretty positively sure I've fallen in love with her."

A choking sound could be heard over the speaker, easily identifying that Morgan had chosen a poor time to take a drink. Sarah's eyes were huge, shiny, her heart beating painfully fast. Casey took a sideways glance at the CIA agent and smirked.

"You love her? That. Is. Bitchin'!" Morgan exclaimed, "So what's the problem? She definitely likes you."

There was a lull in verbal communication as only the sound of the game controllers being pushed mercilessly, one more so than the other, could be heard over the speaker. A weak sigh from Chuck just whispered into the spying ears.

"She doesn't like me bud... I'm just... someone that's still showing her around town."

"What?"

"Look.. it's complicated."

"How?"

Another prolonged silence could be heard, Casey could almost imagine seeing Chuck's face frown in concentration as he was thinking what to say. He looked over to his partner, her knuckles white as her hands were clasped tightly together, her face had gone from shocked surprise to a sorrowful yet expectant look. It seemed she forgot that he was still in the room. It also seemed that Chuck forgot that there were bugs in the room too.

"I... I found out a few weeks ago, that she's in love with someone else." Chuck whispered.

Casey was caught by surprise, as was Sarah.

"WHAT? No way! Did she cheat on you? Is that why you guys broke up?" Morgan's voice became agitated, aggressive.

"Huh? Oh, no, no, no... Well, a couple of weeks ago, her... old boy friend came to town."

"What, from DC?"

"Yeh... from DC. So anyway, I caught her and Br... uhh.. Bruce, yeh, ... kissing pretty... umm.. passionately."

Sarah sucked in a sharp breath, her head shacking back and forth as her mouth kept forming the word "no" over and over again.

"Ah man, I'm so sorry."

"No worries dude, that's my luck you know."

"If she loves him, how come she didn't go back with him to DC? Wait, he went back to DC right?"

"What? Oh... yeh. She told me she stayed because of her work."

"At the Weinerlicious?"

"Weiner... oh yeh! Uhh, she's climbing the ladder there you know!" Chuck could be heard following that statement up with nervous laughter.

"So you still have a chance?"

An immense sigh could be heard from Chuck, "Chance? No, I don't compare in anyway to Bruce."

"Look on the bright side, at least it's not because of Bryce this time eh?" Morgan laughed out.

"...yeh..."

Sarah visibly cringed, she was sitting back in the seat now her face looking at the ceiling in quiet contemplation.

"Hey, I can drop Anna, we can be lone wolf and, hmmm, his other buddy, lone wolf two!"

Chuck chuckled a real small laugh, "No way little buddy. You and Anna are awesome, don't give that up. If you really like her and she really likes you, keep it for all you're worth."

"Yeh." A person could just imagine the smile that lighted Morgan's face.

Sarah's cell phone rang, shocking her out of her train of thought. "Walker." She woodenly responded. After listening for a few seconds she shut the phone down.

"Beckman and Graham have a mission for us." Sarah said, not even looking at Casey.

When the directors came on the screen, Sarah had forced her emotions down and looked like the unflappable professional. Her insides were churning. Her face, while still and emotionless were completely betrayed by the layer of liquid that had begun to pool around her slightly pink eyes.

"Before we get started," General Beckman started, just as the door bell rang.

Sarah looked at Casey, who shook his head slightly, as they both pulled their weapons. As Sarah opened the door, with Casey covering her, her weapon arm fell slack to her side.

"That should be your new partner." Beckman continued, her voice in the distance.

"Bryce..." Sarah whispered.

A/N: ... so...yeh...