Chuck Versus the 42

by: Sam Lincoln

Disclaimer: The characters of Chuck and Alias both belong to their respective rights holders and I make no claim of ownership on either

Summary: The Ring steals information, Chuck has a flash, and who is Sydney Bristow and how is she involved?

Spoilers: This story takes place after the events of Alias and during season 3 of Chuck, in between Chuck Versus the Honeymooners and Chuck Versus the Tooth

Act 6:

-Echo Park, CA

Ellie Woodcombe walked into the apartment she shared with her husband. She planned to take a relaxing soak in the bathtub after a long shift at the hospital. The last thing she expected to find was her apartment in shambles and her husband and Morgan tied to dining chairs. The keys she was holding slipped out of her hand as she stared at the pair in shock.

"Hi babe," Devon said. "How was your day?"

"Devon, Morgan, what happened? Should I call the police? Were we robbed?"

"No nothing like that, we were just playing spies with Isabelle, and things got a little out of hand," Morgan said.

Ellie walked over the chairs and untied Devon and Morgan. "Who's Isabelle?"

"Thanks babe," Decon said as he stood up and massaged his wrists to improve the circulation in the them. "Do you remember Sydney Bristow, from med school?"

Ellie frowned. "Sydney Bristow, wasn't she Danny Hecht's fiancee?"

"Yeah that's her. Funny thing, she works for Sarah's company now and came to town with her husband for a business meeting. They needed someone to look after their daughter for the day so I offered to help.

Ellie held up a hand to cut Devon off. "Wait a minute, you're telling me that Sydney Bristow, the woman whose dead fiancé we went to med school with, works for Orange Orange?"

Devon nodded slowly. "Yes, yes I am. I think she does something at their corporate office?"

"And her daughter is here, in this apartment?" Ellie pointed at the floor to emphasis her question. On cue a short brunette whirlwind tore down the steps, ran past Ellie and then dashed back up the stairs. Ellie looked over at Devon and Morgan in astonishment.

"We might have given her too much candy," Morgan said. He held up his thumb and forefinger an inch apart.

Ellie rolled her eyes at the two men. "Clean this mess up. I'll go talk to Isabelle." She then marched up the stairs after the little girl.

-Castle

Chuck, Casey, Sarah, Sydney and Vaughn were all seated at the conference table in Castle with General Beckman on the video conference line.

"Agent Bristow, it's good to see you escaped from the Ring unharmed."

"Thank-you general," Sydney said with a nod. "I'm glad you have such a good team here. I owe them, if not my life, then my existence to them."

"We sent a clean-up team to the old SD-6 base. The explosives you set off completely destroyed the Ring's Intersect equipment. They won't be able to salvage anything from the wreckage."

"That's a relief," Sydney said.

"We are also in the process of sealing the facility with concrete. Any secrets still down there will remain buried forever."

"We should have done that the first time," Vaughn said. "Thank-you general."

"But how are we going to prevent them from trying this again?" Sydney asked. "I get the sense these aren't the sort of people who take no for an answer."

"The Ring's biggest advantage is that they operate in complete secrecy. Now that we know about their interest in you we can keep you and your family safe through surveillance, discrete surveillance," Beckman said.

"And you think that will be enough?" Vaughn asked.

"As much as they want their own Intersect agent they won't risk an open confrontation with the CIA," Sarah said. "I know this doesn't sound like much comfort, but we are doing everything we can to dismantle the Ring's operations."

"We've already captured their leader," Chuck said. "The rest of the Ring can't be too far behind."

"And look on the bright side, you won't have to worry about Sark," Casey said. "The Ring doesn't tolerate failure. He'll be too busy running for his life to trouble you anytime soon."

"That actually does make me feel better," Sydney said.

"If nothing else we got Sydney back," Vaughn said. "I can't tell all of you how grateful I am for the help." He reached over and squeezed Sydney's hand.

Chuck glanced sideways at Sarah. "No, I think I have a good idea."

"Unless you need anything else I will get started arranging the protection for Bristol and Vaughn. I'm sure Assistant Director Dixon will want to oversee that operation," Beckman said.

"Dixon being involved would be a relief to us, no offense general," Sydney said. "It's always nice to see a familiar face."

Beckman nodded. "Of course, until next time agents." She tapped a key and the screen blinked off.

"Well alls well that ends well, right?" Chuck said as he looked around the table. "Do you know what we need? A party."

"Come on Bartowski, we're not in college," Casey said.

"No Chuck's right. That sounds like a great idea," Sarah said as she patted Chuck on the arm.

"Yeah, and I'm sure Ellie would love a change to catch up with you Sydney. Though there is one thing, Ellie doesn't know I'm a spy so…"

Sydney held up a hand. "Don't worry, if there's one thing I'm good at it's sticking with a cover. Though if you want my advice you should tell her. I've tried to keep the spy part of my life separate from my personal life and I wound up with one friend dead, and another in witness protection. Then again, telling Danny the truth is what got him killed. I guess I don't have any good advice for you Chuck."

Chuck flashed Sydney a wan smile. Thanks for the, er, advice anyway. I'll think about it."

"Anyway a party sounds like a great idea," Sydney said. "We still have to pick Isabelle up from Devon and Ellie's apartment after all."

Chuck stood up and clapped his hands together. "Then it's settled. Tonight we party!" He looked around the room. "Though not too late, because I have an early shift at the Buy More tomorrow."

-Echo Park

The group milled about the courtyard of their apartment complex in small groups as music played in the background. Sydney and Vaughn sat near the fountain playing with Isabelle. Casey stood off to one side in front of his apartment smoking a cigar and sipping on a glass of Scotch as he talked to Morgan. Devon and Ellie sat in chairs near their apartment. Devon held a bottle of beer in one hand while Ellie drank from a large glass of red wine. Meanwhile Chuck and Sarah sat on a bench across the courtyard and nursed bottles of beer.

Devon looked over at Isabelle playing with her parents and reached over to catch Ellie's free hand in his. "Hey thanks for the save today babe."

Ellie squeezed Devon's hand. "Of course, but you should have called me. I could've gotten home sooner if I knew you needed help."

"I didn't want to bother you at work, plus I wanted to prove I could take care of a kid on my own. I mean I know you'll be an awesome mom, but…"

"But you're not sure you'll be a good dad is that it?" Devon nodded in reply. "Oh Devon, you will be an awesome dad, I just know it."

"But I did such a terrible job of looking after Isabelle today."

Ellie tugged Devon's hand up and kissed the back of it. "Sweetie, did she get hurt when you were taking care of her?"

Devon paused a moment. "No, but she did make a huge mess."

"That's what kids do Devon, they make messes, they run around, and as long as they don't end the day grievously injured you've done a good job."

Devon frowned. "But I didn't do any of that when I was a kid."

"Of course you didn't," Ellie said with a laugh. "But I think you'll find that when it comes to children, you are the exception that proves the rule."

Devon nodded in Sydney's direction. "So what do you think babe. Does seeing one of our classmates with a kid get your biological clock ticking?"

Ellie arched an eyebrow at Devon. "Why, is yours?"

"It's got me in the mood a little, I must admit," Devon blinked. "That sounded better in my head. I don't think seeing a mother and daughter is sexy."

Ellie laughed and leaned over to kiss her husband. "I know what you meant. And yeah it kind of does, not the sexy part, but the other thing. Maybe we can work on that after everyone leaves."

A bright smile crossed Devon's face. "Party's over folks," he said as he started to stand up. Ellie laughed again and pulled him back down into his chaise lounge.

Sydney watched Devon and Ellie roughhouse and a wistful expression crossed her face. Vaughn looked up from what Isabelle was doing and saw the look on Sydney's face. "You're thinking about him aren't you?" Vaughn asked.

Sydney's cheeks flushed and she ducked her head to avoid Vaughn's gaze. "Is it that obvious?"

Vaughn reached over and massaged Sydney's shoulder. "No, but I have known you for a long time Syd."

"I'm sorry Michael. It's just seeing Devon and Ellie again brought back all these memories I thought I had buried a long time ago."

"It's okay Syd. That's understandable, I'm never going to replace Danny. I know that and I'm fine with that because I know you love me too."

A smiled played across Sydney's face. "Does that mean I'm never going to replace Lauren?"

Vaughn held his hands out apologetically. "Sydney that's not a fair comparison Of course you replaced Lauren. After all, you never worked for the Covenant." He paused theatrically. "No wait, you did do that."

"You are an ass, that was for a mission." Sydney punched him on the shoulder.

"Okay okay, you might have worked undercover for the Covenant, but you never were an actual agent for them. Plus you never slept with Sark. You haven't right?"

Sydney laughed and leaned over to kiss Vaughn. "That I never did. I can't make any promises about what Anna Espinosa did when she had my face though."

"Please stop trying to kill the mood," Vaughn said before wrapping his arms around Sydney and kissing, much to the disgust of Isabella.

From their vantage point across the courtyard Chuck and Sarah watched Sydney and Vaughn. Chuck rested an arm across Sarah's shoulders. "You know, I was talking to Vaughn earlier today and he told me something interesting."

Sarah leaned into Chuck. "And what was that?"

"Vaughn was originally Sydney's handler at the CIA. Does that remind you of anyone?"

A smile broke out on Sarah's face. "Us of course. Chuck I hope you realize that most handlers do not fall in love with their subjects."

"It would explain the name though, you know, handler." Chuck mimed a grabbing motion with his hand.

Sarah elbowed Chuck in the ribs. "That was terrible even by your standards."

"I aim to please, but seriously Sarah, look at the them. They had to go through so much, but they made it out."

"Only to have a new threat pull them right back in." Sarah reached up and caught Chuck's face in her hand. "You can never just walk away from this life Chuck. I will always keep its hooks in your someway."

"Well that's a cheery thought," Chuck said.

"I know it's not the fairy tale, happy-ever-after ending you want, but that doesn't mean we can't live our lives and be happy."

"As long as I have you none of the rest of this spy nonsense matters."

Sarah leaned up and kissed Chuck on the cheek. "That was a good answer Bartowski."

Chuck's eyebrows shot up. "How good an answer?"

Sarah's voice dropped down to a purr. "You'll just have to wait until later to find out." She traced a finger along Chuck's jawline.

"I can't wait," Chuck said. "No seriously, I can't. Do you want to just leave now?"

"That is a very tempting offer," Sarah said. "But we should probably wait until everyone has gone home before we have any fun don't you think? After all, anticipation makes everything better."

"Right now I seriously disagree with that philosophy," Chuck said.

"Just for your information, whining is not attractive."

"What's your opinion on pouting?"

"Also a mood killer."

"That just removed two of my best moves."

"Don't worry, I'm sure you'll be able to get by on your natural charm."

"Then it's a good thing that I'm very charming," Chuck said before leaning in to kiss Sarah.

"So Casey," Morgan said as they stood in front of the door to Casey's apartment. "Quite the day huh? You fought the Ring."

Casey took the cigar he was smoking out of his mouth. "And you got tied up by a toddler." He smirked at Morgan and returned to his cigar.

"True, but in my defense Isabelle is like a super toddler. I mean you've seen her parents in action." Casey rolled his eyes and walked away from Morgan. "Casey? Yo, Casey!" Morgan said as he followed after the Marine.

As the party started to break up Sydney walked over to Chuck and Sarah. "Before Michael and I leave I just wanted to thank the two of you again."

"It was all in a day's work for Team Bartowski," Chuck said. "No thanks needed."

Sydney smiled at Chuck. "I also wanted to apologize for doubting you earlier. You are an excellent spy Chuck Bartowski. Even if you're unlike any field operative I've ever met."

"Uh thanks."

Sydney reached out and rested a hand on Chuck's arm. "I know you didn't choose this life, and while that's not exactly my story, I know what it feels like to have your world turned completely inside out like that."

"It really wasn't, okay yeah that would be a fair description of how it went," Chuck said. "But it hasn't been all bad. I've made more of a difference with the Intersect that I ever did working for the Nerd Herd."

"I won't lie to you Chuck, being a spy cost me everyone in my life that I loved, but," Sydney looked over her shoulder at Isabelle and Vaughn. "I was able to rebuild, and I even have something close to a normal life now. So I just wanted you to know that you can get out of this life if you want to." She glanced at Sarah. "I suppose that advice is for both of you."

"The past day is proof that you're never completely free of the spy-life," Sarah said.

"But that doesn't mean I have to stop trying," Sydney told Sarah. "Too many people in my life sacrificed things for me to give up living the way I want to. Besides, compared to some of the other crazy things that have happened to me and Michael this was almost normal."

"That's…I won't lie, that's actually pretty disturbing," Chuck said.

Sydney laughed and tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "It probably is, but normal is what you make of it." She reached out and pulled Chuck in for a hug. "Good luck Chuck Bartowski. I'm counting on you to take down the Ring for me."

Chuck returned the hug. "I'll do my best, I promise."

"I'm sure you will." Sydney turned her attention to Sarah. "Agent Walker, it's been a pleasure to work with you." She held out a hand for Sarah to shake.

"The pleasure was all mine Agent Bristow. It was an absolute honor to go on a mission with you," Sarah said as she shook Sydney's hand.

Sydney tugged on Sarah's arm and pulled her in for a hug as well. "Take care of Chuck Sarah, and remember what I said. You don't have to let the spy life get in the way of your life."

"I'll be sure to keep that in mind," Sarah said.

Sydney took a step back from Chuck and Sarah. "Good luck both of you, and we'll see you around." She waved and walked over to Vaughn and Isabelle.

Chuck wrapped and arm around Sarah's shoulders as they watched Sydney say her goodbyes to Devon and Ellie. "So how was it, meeting your spy hero? Did she live up to your expectations?"

Sarah leaned her head against Chuck. "Honestly, I didn't know what to expect. So yes, meeting Sydney Bristow exceeded my expectations. But you know what, she isn't my spy hero anymore, role model yes, but you're my hero Chuck."

A smile broke out on Chuck's face. "Sarah, that's so sweet." He kissed Sarah on the cheek. "Do you think the security measures will keep them safe from the Ring?"

"I think they're both experienced agents and that plus whatever additional security Assistant Director Dixon provides should keep them safe, but there are no guarantees. However, if we destroy the Ring before they try again Sydney won't have anything to worry about."

"So what you're saying is that we should move the whole 'Stop the Ring' agenda item to the top of the to-do list."

Sarah spun away from Chuck and grabbed him by his shirt collar. "Maybe not the top, but second on your list definitely." She and Chuck laughed and she dragged him into their apartment.

In a dimly lit secret location, the elders of the Ring sat at a raised table, their faces obscured in shadows.

"Operation Passenger failed, and Mr. Sark is nowhere to be found."

"Order a hit order on Sark, but do not make it a high priority. We have more pressing concerns."

"We are still without an Intersect enabled field agent. Should we continue to pursue the Passenger?"

"No, the Passenger was always a long shot with limited chance of success. We should instead focus our efforts on acquiring the Governor from Orion, and Operation Shaw."

"Agreed, inform Agent Halpern to being Phase Two of Operation Governor."

"The CIA and the Intersect will never see this coming."

-The End.

Author's Notes: Yay, it's done! I can't lie, that Awesome and Morgan B-plot makes me chuckle, and I think it's very true to the show. All in all, I am very pleased with this little project. I feel it's in the spirit of both shows, and I hope you the reader agree. Up next for me is a very ambitious project titled Puppet String. I'm almost halfway through the first draft, so hopefully there will be something in a publishable format by the end of the year, fingers crossed. Thanks again to everyone who took the time to read and an extra special thanks to the generous reviewers. Until next time.

-sam