Nothing happens while they're in Korea.

Chuck worries but they get no urgent calls from Sarah, and no SOS's from Casey and no orders to come home early from Beckman. And the job goes really well. They feel like James Bond clones, and everything, for once, goes just according to plan.

But something still feels off.

"It's your fault you know," Bryce says as they wait for the plane to land in LA.

Chuck looks sleepy, but frowns, paying attention. "What?"

"Sarah trusting Shaw," Bryce goes on. "If you hadn't pulled away after the whole gassed-up I love you thing, and not been such a-"

"Are you serious? You're gonna pin all this on me?" Chuck snaps. "Tell me something, Bryce? Why didn't you tell Sarah about Shaw?"

It isn't that simple. He doesn't know how to have those conversations. He doesn't know how to sit Sarah down and tell her those things. Chuck's good at breaking bad news; at being a comfort, and showing his emotions. Bryce, not so much, and he never has been.

"I-"

"You are such a control freak," Chuck says tiredly. "You wanna hold all the cards and not let anybody make decisions for themselves. I am so sick of-"

"Agent Bartowski. Agent Larkin."

They look up as the screen comes alive and Beckman appears.

"General," They say in unison.

"Good work in Korea, Agents. We've checked out your claims on Agent Shaw, and they appear to be true."

Chuck's eyes widen. "But...I thought you..."

"General?" Bryce asks.

"After speaking with Agent Shaw, it appears he was going undercover as a Ring operative, and they gave him the information on his wife. I owe the two of you an apology. Shaw should have cleared his plan with me, and with the rest of the team before putting it into action."

"So...Shaw's not a traitor," Chuck says slowly. "He was undercover, and...and the Ring did tell him about Sarah's red test, and...and he's fine?"

"As far as I know, he and Agent Walker have come to an understanding, but I trust the two of you and Colonel Casey to keep an eye out for any problems. This is a delicate situation."

Bryce's jaw tightens. "Yes, General."

Beckman nods and blips off the screen.

Chuck sighs. "I guess that settles that. Except Sarah's gonna kick our butts for not telling her."

00000

Hiding from Sarah is his best plan.

Yep.

Hiding from Sarah. Agent Bryce Larkin, awesome spy, bad-ass, is hiding from his former partner/ex-lover in the Burbank Buy More because he failed to tell her that she killed the wife of the man sent to evaluate their progress as a team.

The only problem with this brilliant plan is that Morgan Grimes won't stop following him.

"It all makes sense now," Morgan chatters on as he follows him around the sales floor. "Why you're such a douche and the way you treat people, and the things you did to Chuck, it all makes sense! And hey, look. I wanted to clear the air a little. I mean don't get me wrong, I still don't really like you, but I respect the things you've had to do for our country, and...and maybe we can get to know each other and become...y'know, friends. Chuck thinks the world of you, and that says a lot, so..."

Bryce says nothing, and Morgan nods and walks off.

You know, maybe he is just a big douche. Maybe he should have just sucked it up and gone to Sarah with what he knew; let her take the lead.

Hindsight is twenty-twenty. He knows Sarah is better at keeping a cool head in weird situations than he is. Only rarely does she haul off and beat someone with a chair.

Though, if Bryce isn't careful, that's gonna be his face imprinted on a metal seat.

He spies the Nerd Herd desk, where Chuck and Sarah are talking.

"You should have come to me," Sarah says. "We're a team. You should have told me what Bryce had found out."

"You're right. You're totally right. I'm a moron. It's just...Bryce sorta took the lead on it, and I just-"

Sarah nods. "I know he's your friend, but Bryce doesn't know everything. He makes mistakes just like everybody else."

Bryce frowns. He does not, in fact, make mistakes.

"I know. I guess I just...it's hard sometimes. I fall back into this old behavior with him...or with Jill, when she came back, where I just...take a backseat, because it's easy."

"Just cause it's easy..."

"That doesn't make it a good idea," Chuck nods. "Like the dark side. But don't kill Bryce, please. I know you want to, but...you're right, he is my friend, and he was in total spy mode. He thought he saw a bad guy and he just went for it."

"Maybe I'll just maim him," Sarah gives a small grin. She swallows. "Chuck...you know that...that there's nothing going on with Shaw and I, right?"

"I...I didn't know that it was...y'know, any of my business," Chuck says awkwardly, shoving his hands into his pockets.

"Chuck..."

He purses his lips, gazing at her. "Really? You and Shaw, that's...that's not a thing?"

Sarah shakes her head. "I think he wanted it to be, before the red test came out, but...even before that, I just wasn't interested in him."

Chuck nods. "Okay. Y'know, we've been dancing around this for a long time, and things in Korea, other than worrying stupidly over your safety, things in Korea were awesome. We took down the bad guys and ate great food, and...I felt like a real spy for the first time."

She smiles, obviously proud of him.

"So, in the spirit of things going well...Sarah, have dinner with me tonight."

Bryce is torn between feeling totally relieved over Chuck finally making some sort of move, and still feeling like a crazy person over Shaw.

"I Heard Korea went well."

Bryce turns to Casey and nods. "He did good. Really good."

Casey nods toward Chuck and Sarah. "What about that?"

Bryce grins. "She just agreed to go to dinner with him."

Casey grunts.

"You don't really think Shaw is a good guy, do you?" Bryce asks him.

"No," Casey says. "But til we get some hard evidence that doesn't involve you going lone wolf and being an idiot, we can't do anything about it."

Bryce nods slowly. "He'll make a move, Casey. And when he does, we'll be ready."