Chuck was wide awake in the apartment as he heard a siren outside. He silently moves to grab his trank gun when the police car passed; Chuck slowly put his gun back down. Right beside him, Sarah snuggles closer to him in her sleep. It has now been five days since they first got the paper and they were still stuck in Mexico.
They had made good time the first four days, having agreed to go west instead of straight to Washington to throw the Ring of their trail. They reached the city of Playas de Rosarito and waited for Casey to bring them the false passports they needed to get to San Diego. Instead they got a call from a frantic Bryce, "Chuck Sarah, where are you guys."
Sarah answered, "Were still in Mexico, what happened."
"The Ring figured out it was you two who have the document," Bryce yelled, they could now hear gunshots in the background, "No idea how but you stirred up the hornets' nest big time. They've taken a ton of their agents off other assignments and tasked them with finding you. Every agent either of you has ever worked with is now a target," Bryce paused for a second before continuing, "Sarah, they got Carina."
Sarah dropped the phone, and Chuck had to pick it up, "Bryce its Chuck, is she dead?"
"No but she's still in surgery, five of them ambushed her, she managed to take three of them out but the last two got her, shot her a couple times, she still listed critical and doctors have given her a 30% chance to live. It doesn't look good." Chuck held Sarah as she struggled to get a hold of herself.
"Bryce, what about my family, are they ok"
"We managed to get them all in witness protection, around the clock guard, their as safe as possible, we also have your friends under surveillance but so far the Ring is ignoring them."
Chuck gave a huge sigh of relief and a tear of joy could be seen on his eye, "What's happening with you, we hear gunshots, you ok."
Chuck could hear a couple more gunshot and then a curse, "Yeah am ok, I was in a sticky situation for a second but got on the open road, have air support coming in. You guys hang tight ok, were a little panicked up here, and Chuck, we believe that the list you have is every Agent that the Ring has in the government, you get this to us and we could stop them forever. I got to go, I'll call back."
And with that Bryce had hung up, leaving a shocked and scared Chuck and Sarah to figure out what to do.
The next day the two of them hung out in their room, discussing what was happening and trying to relax in the best way they knew. After one particularly satisfying session, Casey called.
"Hey Casey, did you get any news?" A still panting Chuck asked. He looked over at Sarah and she had started to clean her guns, which Chuck knew meant she was nervous. For her, cleaning guns was a coping technique, whenever she was scared she would clean her guns. Chuck moved over to her and started to massage her shoulder to get her to relax. Sarah shot him a thankful look and waited for Casey to continue.
"Everything's very confusing up here still, but Beckman has given all agents orders to bring you in."
"What," Chuck exploded, "Is Beckman working for the Ring now?"
Sarah shook her head, "I doubt it Chuck, she probably just thinks that it will be safer to have a ton of agents protecting us."
Casey agreed, "I don't think she realizes how infiltrated the government is, she's trying to do the right thing, just going about it the wrong way."
"What's our options Casey?"
"Well to put it simply, its either you go across the border here or go east in Mexico, The Ring now believes your still in Mexico and is now strengthening the boarder. So if you go east you will have less time in the USA but it will be a lot harder to get across the border and make it to Washington. If you go now you will be able to get across the border easily but getting to Washington will be…"
"Difficult" Sarah finished, Chuck nodded, that was the understatement of the year.
"It's your choice guys, I'll support whichever one you decide."
Chuck turned to Sarah and saw that she was ready to explode, "Casey how is Carina," Sarah finally busted out.
Casey hit himself on the head for forgetting to mention it, "Shit, sorry I forgot, she's alive." Sarah let out a huge sigh of relief and Chuck saw a tear roll down her face. Oblivious to her reaction, Casey continued, "She is in recovery now but is ok, she is actually more pissed about the scars she got then getting shot."
Sarah gave a half sob half laugh and Chuck was amazed by the emotion that Sarah was showing. He had no idea about how close Carina was to her and they must be a lot closer then he though, and resolved to ask her about it later.
"Well what do you guys want to do?" Casey asked, determined to decide this now.
Chuck answered for both of them, "We discussed this earlier and figured these were the two most likely plans," Sarah smiled, remembering the breaks from the discussion more than the discussion themselves.
"We decided that we want to go across now."
Casey was emotionless, "That's what I figure, I already sent some ids to you," He gave them the address to pick it up and then said goodbye. Right before he turned off the phone he said, "Good luck and be careful." He said quickly, not wanting to sound too emotional.
Later that day, after they collected the documents Sarah and Chuck turn to deciding the best way to cross the border.
"How about this Sarah, we find a drug cartel and infiltrate them, we then discover the hidden tunnel they have and use it to get across the border." Sarah stared at him and shook her head.
Undiscouraged Chuck continued, "What about using a submarine, a hand glider, jetpack?"
With each idea Chuck inched closer to Sarah, who was sitting on the bed trying not to laugh.
When Chuck offered a detailed idea that involved making an alien invasion and giant robots Sarah couldn't stand it any longer and gave out a quick little laugh. The second he heard the laugh, Chuck pounced, enveloping her with passionate kisses. For the next couple minutes, neither of them thought about the trouble with the Ring or anything, completely satisfied with the love they had for each other.
A thousand miles away, in a secret underground facility, Agent Shaw waits in line as the other senior agents give their reports to the elders. While he portrays a look of calm confidence, in the inside he is a raging volcano, for the thousandth time since learned the identity of the agents who got the list of Ring agents inside the government, he thinks of the best way to kill Sarah Walker, the agent who murdered his wife.
Staring at her picture on the wall, he wonders how life would have changed if he had never found out the truth about his wife. It had been complete luck that he had found the truth, the first week that Sarah and Chuck had gone rouge, the CIA had Shaw looking through Sarah's file for possible locations they went to when he found it. The second he saw the picture of her killing his wife he grabbed every document he could fine and joined the Ring.
Since then he had risen through the ranks fast, having the right mindset to succeed in the organization, specifically his lack of any kind of empathy. He had done anything he needed to, murder, blackmail or kidnapping and was rewarded for it. Now, considered the rising star of the organization he had been picked as one of the four agents in charge of finding Agent Walker and Agent Bartowski.
"Agent Shaw, what is your opinion." The agent codenamed Leader had just finished his report which detailed his belief that the two agents had already been brought to Langley and the Elders wanted his opinion on it.
Shaw recovered and gave the best answer he could, "With all due respect to Leader, I believe that his report is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard." The Agent Leader stared daggers at Shaw which he ignored. "The two agents have been on the run from the CIA for over a year and have just gotten proof that the agency is saturated with moles, I believe that they would not have accepted CIA help. I believe that they are moving cautiously and are still in Mexico, probably about to cross the border."
The elders looked at each other before motioning Shaw to continue. "I would guess that the two of them are on the west coast of Mexico in a further effort to confuse us. I propose we focus on the border crossing, they need to move soon and have limited options, they won't risk an illegal crossing because of the chance to get caught, and wont risk using a large crossing because of the security at them. I suggest we bring another 20 or 25 agents to secure the smaller crossing.
Leader was about to speak to protest Shaw's idea when the elders spoke, "Although we worry over Agent Shaw's lack of impartiality on this case, we do see merit in his plan." Shaw nodded his head in acknowledgment, "Take 25 men and go, but remember, this is your plan, the reward will be yours if you succeed but the punishment will be yours if you fail."
As he left the room he was smiling, sure, they gave him a warning, but he wasn't concerned, he hadn't failed a mission yet and wasn't about to start now. One thing concerned him though; the fact that the elders believed his lack of impartiality was harmful to the mission. He believed the opposite was true. The mission he had was to kill Walker and Bartowski, and his personal hatred made him want this more than anything. He was more prepared than anyone else to go to any length for this mission. Shaw smiled at the thought before turning his attention back to figuring out the best way to kill Sarah Walker.
"Oh baby, get mah picture next to the police man." Sarah spoke in her best Texas drawl. After they had thought of all their possible cover, Sarah and Chuck had chosen a newlywed couple from Texas on their honeymoon. "Alright snookums," Chuck said in just as heavy of a drawl. He then ran over to where Sarah had started to pose with one of the border guards and started snapping pictures.
He continued until the commander of the guard house came out, "Excuse me sir, Ma'am, you can't stop here, your holding up the line," said the Mexican guard, pointing to the two dozen cars that had started honking on their horns and yelling at them.
"Apologies, apologies" yelled Sarah as the two of them walked to their car, holding hands and generally acting like a love sick couple.
When they got to their car and drove to the US border, the honks and angry yells were continuing behind them. Chuck smiled at Sarah, it was her idea to make a large angry group of people in line behind them, and the stop to take the pictures created it. Now hopefully, the border guards would not look as close at them if there were a ton of people they had to process.
They got to the US side of the border and one of the guards came out. Chuck stared at him closely and was relieved to not flash. Sarah handed him their passports.
"Name," the guard asked, looking at their passports.
"Charley Charles the third," the guard looked at him with incredulous look, "It's a family tradition." Chuck explained and the guard nodded.
"Hi, I'm Lisa Charles, we just got married," Sarah said extending her hand to the guard and giving Chuck a kiss. The guard rolled his eyes, already sick of the two love birds.
"Reason you went to Mexico, business or pleasure." Chuck smiled, imagining what the guard would say if he told him the truth, that they had gone down because he had every government secret in his head and didn't want to spend his life in a bunker trying to avoid the secret spy war that was raging in the USA.
Sarah gave a different answer, "Our honeymoon," she squeaked, giving Chuck another hug.
"I'll put you down for pleasure." The guard said.
"We sure had enough of that," Chuck drawled and started to rub Sarah's arm.
The guard had just about enough of this and decided to skip to the last question, "Did you bring anything with you or buy anything from Mexico?"
Sarah pretended to think about the question and pouted her lips, "Well I bought this Coke," pointing to the trick Coke bottle where she kept her holdout gun, a .22 Magnum.
"I bought her that dress," Chuck said pointing to the dress Sarah was wearing, which had her knives and guns hidden in it.
"No any plants or animals, something that could be considered dangerous."
"The only animal I need is my beautiful wife," Sarah smiles and makes a cat growl at this, "she's as wild as a tiger, and as dangerous as one two," The two of them made the growling sound a couple more times and the guard, sick to his stomach and hearing the angry yells behind him waves them on. If those two were the terrorist that they had got a notice to look out for, he was the Queen of Sheba.
Chuck and Sarah smile as they get by the guard, Chuck looked behind to make sure nobody was watching them when he saw him. The other guard, the one who never went out of the guardhouse now had his face clearly visible and was talking on the phone. Chuck flashed on the guy and identified him as a midlevel Ring agent. "Fuck Sarah, the other guard is a Ring agent, and he's calling someone."
"Damn it, ok Chuck hold on, we've got to get out of the area as fast as we can." Sarah said as she revved the engine of her Porsche. Chuck had driven with her plenty of times, and knew she loved to go fast but this time she was driving insane, easily over 100 and possibly over 120 miles per hour.
As Chuck held on, too scared to even scream, Sarah whipped out her cell phone and called Casey. "Hey, were over the border but Chuck flashed on a Ring agent, we think he knows who we are, he was on his phone."
"Shit, I'm nowhere close, call Bryce, I gave him orders to make the safe house. He's based in San Diego so he should be able to help."
"Ok thanks." The second she said bye to Casey she called Bryce. Chuck was just starting to gather enough courage to talk when a semi came and Sarah had to whip around to avoid it. After avoiding the semi, Sarah skidded to a stop and called Bryce. "Bryce its Sarah, we got over the border and I heard you got a safe house for us."
"I do but are you sure that you want to stop, you should try and get away from the border when you can."
"That's what they expect us to do, we stay in place for a while and may be able to slip out when their not expecting of it, right Chuck." Chuck, still half in shock from the ride numbly nodded.
"OK, come to this address, I got the house for you there." Bryce sounded doubtful though, he obviously thought that it was better for them to keep moving.
Chuck was about to say something to Bryce about not worrying, that Sarah's driving would have made it impossible for anyone to follow them, when he saw two black SUV's speeding to where they were parked, "Sarah look out," Chuck screamed pointing at the cars.
Sarah saw them and quickly talked to the phone, "Bryce got to go, some cars have pulled up behind us, not sure if their Ring or CIA but either way I'm not taking a chance."
With that she pulled out and started speeding away, this time Chuck understood the urgency and actually yelled at her to go faster.
"Chuck I'm going as fast as I can, were being chased by SUV's while were in a Porsche, I wouldn't worry that much." Chuck thought about that for a second and saw the logic. Just as he started to relax he heard a noise and looking over his shoulder saw a helicopter coming up.
"Sarah, "Theirs a helicopter coming after us," he had to duck his head as someone started to shoot at them, "and their shooting at us." Chuck decided that caution was the better then valor if valor would get your head shot off so he ducked his head under the seat. He wasn't sure if duck and cover would help protect against a helicopter shooting at him but it was the only thing he could think of.
Right then Sarah started to laugh, which caused Chuck to stare at her with a stunned expression on his face, "Sarah are you insane, we got the Ring shooting at us from helicopter and you are laughing"
"Exactly Chuck," this obviously didn't help Chuck's confidence in her handling of the situation.
"Sarah what the hell are you talking about?"
"Their shooting at us, that means their Ring, and that means we can shoot back, I didn't want to say anything before in case they were the CIA."
"Sarah you're driving, how are you supposed to shoot?"
Sarah rolled her eyes, "I can't shoot, you need to."
Chuck gulped, "I can't shoot, I hate guns."
Sarah got very pissed at him, "Chuck, we've been on the run for over a year now, I've seen you do things you never would have thought you could do before we started to run, besides, you don't need to shoot the people just disable the helicopter." Chuck thought about it for a second, it wasn't like he had never shot a gun before, and he was a great shot in games, and it really wasn't like he was killing a person, just a helicopter and…
"Chuck get the gun now," Sarah screamed, she didn't really want to hurry Chuck into this decision, she knew how he felt about guns but when a bullet hits your window an inch away from your head, you really need to hurry up.
Chuck took off the backseat, he had seen Sarah get them out enough that he knew where they were and picked up the sniper rifle, a new military rifle called the XM2010 Sniper Rifle. Chuck stared at the rifle, trying to figure out how to shoot it and then something weird happened, the same feeling he had when he flashed came up and he saw pictures of everything he needed to know to operate the rifle suddenly he knew exactly what to do.
He got down adjusted the sight and compensated for the movement for the car and the wind, "Sarah, tell me when we have a straightaway." Chuck commanded.
"Were straight for another 500 feet" Sarah said, very confused. That was a very important question but she would never have thought that Chuck would have thought of asking it, it was the kind of question an actual sniper would ask.
Chuck set the sight and aimed at the rotor head of the helicopter and fired one shot. He hit the rotor directly and the helicopter immediately veered down, making a crash landing. The two SUV's were still coming though. He took one breath and readjusted the sites for the SUV's and aimed for the engines. He put three shots in the engines of each SUV and they both slowed down before finally dying. Chuck stared at the sniper rifle, not believing what he had just done.
Sarah obviously couldn't believe what happened either, "Chuck that was amazing, how did you do that, even I couldn't have made that shot, hell even Casey would be hard-pressed to make that shot."
"I honestly have no idea, I was staring at the sniper rifle and then I flashed."
"So, it's a military weapon that was top secret when the Intersect was put in your head, I would be surprised if it wasn't in there."
"No, it was like I flashed and then knew exactly how to shoot, I just knew I could do it, and I did." Chuck finished weakly.
The second he saw Sarah's face he knew that what he had just said scared her. He had just admitted to his girlfriend that he had looked at a gun and suddenly become one of the best shots in the world, compared to a man who didn't want to touch a gun five seconds earlier.
He scooted over and gave Sarah a hug, "Hey it's going to be fine, we can ask the CIA about it when we get to Langley ok." Sarah nodded but continued to look ahead, not wanting Chuck to see how nervous she looked.
They finally got to the safe house and pulled up. Just as Chuck got out of the car, he looked at his shirt and saw a laser point, he went to the ground at the same time Sarah pulled out her gun. When the two of them were diving for cover Chucks cell phone went off, the one with the Star Trek the Next Generation theme song ring tone, the ring tone specifically picked for Bryce. Anger building up, Sarah grabbed the phone and coldly said, "Hello"
"Wow, you guys are a little jumpy," Said the other voice laughing.
"Bryce you asshole what are you doing?"
"Relieving the boredom, you guys really look like you need a break." Sarah made an angry noise which sounded a lot like Casey's grunt to Chuck.
"Get down here, we just got away from a helicopter, we need cover ASAP," When Sarah said that Bryce stopped joking around a came down immediately.
The three of them got into the house, which looked like a slightly aging suburban house, complete with air conditioning a kitchen and TV. Bryce went to the kitchen and got three beers out of the fridge, "So who is going to tell me what just happened."
Sarah and Chuck took turns explaining to Bryce what had happened to them in the past couple of days. When Chuck got to the part about him suddenly being able to shoot the helicopter, Bryce made him go over exactly what had happened a couple time. He leaned back in his chair and had a look of deep thought on his face.
"What you just described reminds me a little of the Intersect 2.0 that the CIA was working on, but the project was scrapped when the Ring attacked. Supposedly the 2.0 would allow a person to not only receive information but also skills, making them the perfect spy."
Chuck and Sarah stared at each other, that was exactly what had happened to Chuck, "So you have no idea how it came to me, right Bryce." Chuck asked accusingly remembering how the first Intersect got in his head.
Bryce stared at him and looked legitimately hurt, "Chuck, why would I want you to get more involved in spying, I want you out of this business, not in it more." Chuck studied his face and believed him.
"Ok, I believe you but who else would sent it to me." Bryce and Chuck spent the next five minutes discussing the possible candidates before deciding that the most likely option was that Chuck was actually a Cylon at which point Bryce went away to find the nearest air lock.
Sarah had been enjoying the thought process of the two nerds but had a nagging suspicion in her mind, when Bryce left to get more beer she finally confronted Chuck, "Chuck, I know you are having a lot of fun with Bryce but I got a real suspect for who sent you that data."
"Really who"
"Your father," at this Chuck shook his head and walked away, "Chuck think about it for a second," Sarah pleaded, "Your father is the only one that has both the knowledge on the Intersect and the computer ability to find us."
"Yea but why the hell would he do that to me Sarah, he wants me out of the whole spy business," Chuck screamed at her. When he saw the look on Sarah's face after his outburst, half scared, half mad he immediately switched his tone. "Sorry baby, I just got overexcited there for a second." He apologized while giving her a hug.
Bryce came in the room with his gun out, "Is everything ok, I heard shouting."
Sarah came to Chucks rescue, "Yea everything is ok, Chuck doesn't want to believe that his dad sent him the Intersect 2.0"
Bryce gave in incredulous look on his face, "Really, I thought we all decided within seconds that his dad sent it and we were giving the other options just so we didn't need to think about it." Sarah gave Bryce an evil glare and Chuck looked at his friend with a hurt look on his face, "I guess not," Bryce muttered as he put his gun back in his holster.
"Answer me this Bryce, why would my dad give me the Intersect 2.0, he didn't want me to have anything to do with spying."
"Yea but he wanted you to stay alive, outside that door; nearly every secret agent in the country is looking for you. By giving you the 2.0, he has tried to protect you. He gave you the skills that you need to protect yourself, sure Sarah is an amazing agent," Sarah smiled, "I don't think Sarah by herself will be able to protect you, and I guess your dad thought the same thing."
Sarah came up, "Chuck, Bryce is right. I know it and I think you know it too, trust me Chuck, its going to be ok." Chuck looked at her eyes and saw the love their and the truth. Suddenly he just couldn't stand it and rushed forward towards Sarah and grabbed her, kissing her with unbridled passion. Sarah quickly got over her confusion, seeing it melt away and be replaced by lust.
When he saw what was happening, Bryce gave a weak smile and left the room. In the year since Sarah had left, he had managed to move on for the most part. Sure he still had a few feelings for her, but he considered himself Chuck's best friend and would never do anything to hurt him. He thought about this for another second and shook off a pang of lust for Sarah. He went to his computer and entered the password and waited.
Within minutes a dark shape came on the screen, "Report" the voice said in a computer generated voice.
"Everything is set sir, the helicopter and SUV came just as you thought and Chuck flashed on it, disabled all three from a car moving over 100 MPH."
"Excellent, did he kill the men?"
Bryce snorted, "Sir, I think you don't realize something, he won't take a life it's not in him."
"He will, I will see to that," The voice paused and Bryce got the uncomfortable feeling the man was sizing him up and for some reason felt he didn't measure up.
"I'll give Chuck the next packet and send a small test his way, you be there to make sure nothing goes wrong." With that the man signed off, no goodbyes or anything like that, it wasn't his style.
Bryce sat their thinking for a while, he had agreed to the deal with this man since he thought it would only help Chuck, but now the man was sending men to face Chuck, Bryce frowned, in the words of one of his heroes, 'This deal is getting worse all the time'
"Hey Bryce," Chuck yelled from the other room, "You can come back now."
"You better be sure it's safe, I don't think you want any videos getting on the internet," Bryce yelled back playfully, composing himself automatically. He took one last look at the now blank computer, shook his head and went back to join his friend.
I still new at the writing and I honestly want to know what people think about the story and how its going, any reviews would be appriciated, negative or positive.