Lester watched in thinly veiled disgust as Jeff searched through the trash in his van. "What did you say we're looking for?" he asked.

Jeff briefly glanced at a crushed can for a second before tossing it over his shoulder. He spoke with a slight lisp from accidentally burning his tongue on a hair iron the day before. No one had yet been able to get him to say why he had a hair iron to begin with. "We've been over thith, Lethter. I bought thome thpy gear from Walmart a few weekth ago. It should be in here thomewhere."

Lester was perched uncomfortably on the edge of the passenger seat, trying to touch as little material as possible. "You know, the Buy More has spy gear you could've gotten."

Jeff paused and wrinkled his nose. "Well, yeah, but Walmart ith better."

Lester winced. "Ouch. But true. Anyway, did you have a reason to buy spy gear from Walmart?"

Jeff huffed. "Can you pleathe thtop athking me that? I have my perthonal reathonth thethe thingth, okay?"

Lester raised an eyebrow, but remained silent. He knew Jeff would probably wind up telling him anyway.

Sure enough, after a few seconds, Jeff said, "You know that new girl who workth here now?"

"Ah," Lester nodded in understanding. He smoothed down his greasy hair. "Yes, Sophie is… quite a specimen."

Jeff didn't notice the look on Lester's face. He bent down to look under a back seat. "Aha!" he shouted.

Lester, lost in his daydream about Sophie, jumped with a screech and whacked his knee on the dashboard. "Ow! What?"

Jeff held up two boxes. "I found them," he said with an dopey grin that didn't quite reach his heavy-lidded blue eyes.

Lester glared at him. "Jeff, what have I told you about scaring me like that?"

Jeff pouted. "I didn't mean to. I just got really exthited."

Lester waved him off. "Whatever. Now, what do you have?"

Jeff's grin returned. He held up the boxes. "Thith one has a pair of nightvision goggleth and an eavethdropping kit. Thith jutht hath a pair of walkie talkieth." On the fronts of the boxes were pictures of the same teenaged boy using the equipment with a mischievous look on his face.

Lester's eyes fixed on the eavesdropping kit. "Dibs on the goggle box," he declared immediately.

Jeff's face fell. "But I wanted the goggleth…"

Lester ignored him, snatched the box from him, and tore open the top. He pulled out the goggles, which resembled a high-tech pair of ski goggles, and looked them over, then set them in his lap and took out the eavesdropping kit. It looked like a gun with a clear satellite dish stuck on the front, with small, cheap headphones attached.

Lester grinned like a kid on Christmas who had just been given the bazooka he had always wanted. Jeff, meanwhile, was fiddling with the walkie talkies. He pulled up an antenna on one of them and flipped a switch. Static immediately filled the van. "Got it!" he announced proudly and handed it to Lester, who took it absentmindedly. He had set down the listening device and now held the goggles.

"So these let you see in the dark?" he asked.

Jeff nodded, still fiddling with the second walkie talkie.

Lester held the goggles up to his eyes and looked through them. "Everything looks the same," he said skeptically.

"You have to turn them on, Lethter. Here, I have some batterieth." And from some hidden crevice on his person, Jeff pulled out four triple A batteries.

Lester stared at them with apprehension. "Jeff, where did that come from?"

Jeff frowned at him. "My pocket, obviouthly."

Lester narrowed his eyes at Jeff, who scratched his head and scrunched his nose. "Uh, do you want them?"

Lester heaved a sigh and hesitantly took them. "Fine. But this never happened, okay?"

Jeff's face froze in an unattractive thinking pose as his brain tried to process. "It jutht did happen, Lethter."

Lester hit his lap with the goggles in frustration. "Just don't tell anybody, okay? My mother already thinks I'm a loser. She can't know that I took some questionable batteries in your questionable van that you had hidden… somewhere... to power a kid's toy."

Jeff shrugged. "She knowth enough. You can't think much lower in her mind than you have already. She doethn't even know about the jellyfish inthident yet."

Lester ignored him and popped the cover off the battery compartment. After a few minutes spent trying to fit the batteries in, he finally closed it. "Okay. Are you ready to test these bad boys out?" he asked.

Jeff's dull eyes lit up for a brief second. "Doeth that mean I get to try them on firtht?"

"No, of course not," Lester said dismissively. He tried to pull them on over his head, but the strap was set too small. After messing with it, they found that it would only expand another inch or so, and was still too small at it's largest. It was designed for children to play with, but Lester forced it on and ignored how the rims of the goggles pressed uncomfortably into his face.

"How do I look?" he asked Jeff.

Jeff nodded mindlessly, his eyes stuck on the driver's seat.

When he didn't actually say anything, Lester gave up and tilted the rearview mirror so he could look at himself. After a few seconds, he nodded appreciatively and hopped out of the car. "Come on, Jeff," he called before he shut the passenger door. Jeff crawled out the back and met Lester as he led the way across the street.

Jeff and Lester had been two of the first people to escape the Buy More when the bullets started flying. They had actually beat most of the few customers there to the doors by clawing past them and throwing them aside into the aisles.

And they would do it again in a heartbeat.

Usually, Jeff and Lester would do anything to escape the Buy More and avoid having to work. Now that the store was quarantined by a police line and there were rumors floating around that the FBI were about to get involved and that the store had been overrun by very well-armed men, Lester knew that there was only one logical decision to make.

He had to get back in and see what the heck was happening. He would never again get the chance to see the FBI in action like this. He could get a few pictures, video some people getting shot, maybe get an autograph or two. Not many people knew it, but one of Lester's childhood dreams had been to become a police officer. He had aspired to uphold the law and beat up bad guys and become a hero, until he realized how much work he would have to put into it. There would be way too much working out and desk work to get to the point he wanted to reach.

So he just settled with working at his local Buy More. It was basically the same thing. He got to use guns without having to go through the trouble of getting a license. Sure, the guns shot nerf bullets, but he would take what he could get.

Jeff had parked a few streets away from where all the action was. They would reach the back of the store in a minute or two, and Lester had the key to the loading area. They should be able to get in unnoticed that way. Jeff had been sent to scope it out, and they had seen enough spy movies to know how to time guard shifts.

After crossing a few streets, crouching behind trashcans and rolling between covers in the universally-accepted spy walk, the two crouched behind a bush. Lester peered through the leaves, then turned to look at Jeff. "Okay," he said self-importantly. "There's one guard by the corner, and… it's almost 7:00. He should be leaving soon, right?"

Jeff frowned. "How do you know that?"

Lester stared at him. "That's what you told me. After scoping the place out, you said that they change shifts every half hour, so they should switch at seven."

Jeff smiled dopily. "Oh, yeah. Sounds good."

Lester rubbed his forehead. "You did actually scope this all out, right?"

"I mean, I showed up and I watched for a little while, but it was really boring, and there's this bakery nearby…"

"Ugh," Lester groaned. "Why do I even try with you?"

Jeff was too caught up in his dreams about pastries to answer.

Lester glanced at his watch. 6:58. Even if Jeff had been lying completely, seven seemed like a reasonable hour to change shifts. At least, Lester hoped it was. He didn't want to spend much longer hiding behind what felt like a thorny bush from hell.

He pulled a few thorns out of his sleeve and took out a little pair of plastic yellow binoculars from under his shirt, hanging on a cord around his neck. Looking through it, he was able to see the guard a little closer, enough to see that it was a woman who was taking a smoke break. He shook his head condescendingly.

Jeff looked at him sleepily and hiccupped.

Lester ignored him and continued to watch the woman through his toy binoculars. After a while, he checked his watch. 7:04. Maybe they were late, but the more likely situation was that Jeff was completely wrong and there was no guard change at 7:00. They would have to sneak in the old-fashioned way.

Lester stuffed the binoculars back under his shirt and readjusted his goggles. "Okay, Jeff," he said, shaking Jeff out of his pastry-induced trance. "We're gonna have to 007 this, alright?"

Jeff blinked, and his eyes sharpened slightly. "Okay," he said simply.

Lester narrowed his eyes at the guard, who hadn't moved in the six minutes Lester had been watching her. "We're going to have to get behind that guard and knock her out with something," he said. "Do you have something we can whack her with, like a big rock or something?"

Jeff looked around and picked up a small stick. "Will this work?"

"No!" Lester smacked it out of his hands. "We need something heavy!"

Jeff pressed his thin lips together. "I don't see anything like that."

After searching around himself, Lester had to agree. The street was clean and they were in a developed area where there was little nature still left. Unless they could find some way to rip a street sign out of the concrete and wield it like a giant hammer, they would have to improvise.

Lester rubbed his hands together. He could search through the trash cans on the road and try to fashion something out of empty cans and bottles, maybe fill them with pebbles and wield them like a smaller hammer. The only problem with that was that he didn't trust Jeff with anything so deadly.

That was when Lester knew. He was going to have to sneak in.

Lester smoothed his hair back. His entire life had been preparing him for this moment.

"Jeff, follow me," he whispered. Getting into a crouch, he looked both ways and began to scuttle forward across the road, his eyes glued to the back of the woman's head. She was still smoking, but the cigarette was burning dangerously low. She was bound to turn around at any moment. Lester would have to be prepared.

He tightened his grip on his plastic walkie talkie. If needed, he could always just get behind her and whack her with that. But it was a last resort, and it wasn't looking like that was going to be needed. They were almost to the back of the store. In a few seconds, they would go up the stairs and through the door and the woman would never know.

Jeff tripped.

He stumbled forward and landed on the stairs to the door with a very unmanly whimper. He looked at his palms where they were scraped from hitting the concrete and showed them to Lester like a four-year-old would show his mother, completely oblivious to the woman, who had turned around and was staring at them with furrowed eyebrows. She was a big woman with large, hairy forearms and frizzy brown hair pulled up into a ponytail.

She tossed her cigarette over her shoulder. "What are you doing?" she asked in disbelief, as if she couldn't believe anyone would be stupid enough to sneak into a hostage situation.

Lester hesitated before opening his mouth. He had one shot to show this woman that he was not anyone to be messed with, that she would be better off leaving him to his own devices, that he wasn't a middle-aged man with amazing hair who was stuck sneaking into his own place of work with plastic children's toys and an imbecile for a best friend.

One chance. He took a breath and calmed himself down, maintaining eye contact so she would understand that he wasn't afraid of her. (That was how you dealt with grizzly bears, right?) His mind was whirling, trying to come up with the perfect one-liner…

And he had it. It was perfect. Enough bravado to scare the woman away, but suave enough to intrigue her, to make her… want more. Lester couldn't keep the smirk off his face. This line was enough to seduce the most stubborn hipster, the most arrogant rich kid, the shyest boy who hadn't come out to his parents yet.

He opened his mouth to speak, quirking an eyebrow in anticipation of the woman's reaction. "I-"

She rolled her eyes and began to stride forward. "Never mind," she said. "You're gonna have to give me that walkie talkie now."

Lester glanced down. "Oh, this old thing?" he said, trying to keep the panic out of his voice. "Why would you want this? I mean, it barely even works." He raised it and hit the power button to prove to her that it didn't work. Static showing that it clearly did, in fact, work came out of the speaker.

Lester tossed it aside with an ingratiating smile and tried to step backwards but tripped over Jeff's outstretched legs and fell hard. The woman didn't stop until she was looming over them, her thick shape silhouetted by the setting sun behind her. She looked extremely bored. "Okay," she said, reaching back to pull something out of her back pocket.

It turned out to be a gun. Not a nerf gun, like Lester and Jeff were used to. A real, honest-to-God gun that shot bullets and killed people.

Lester began to babble. "Wait! Wait, please! Just think a little before you shoot us, I mean, what were we gonna do? Sneak in there? Please, no one's that stupid, I mean, all we had was some walkie talkies that I didn't even know worked and my amazing hair but PLEASE DON'T SHOOT ME I'M TOO YOUNG TO DIE AND JEFF HAS A FAMIL- JEFF HAS A CAR PLEASE LET US GO I'LL NEVER-"

The woman raised the pistol and aimed it at Lester's head. "Enough talking," she said tersely.

Lester was out of words. He just stared down the barrel, his mouth open, mentally willing a rock to magically fall out of the sky and knock her out or something equally as miraculous, although he knew nothing like that would happen. It was the end of the road. He had finally bitten off more than he and Jeff could collectively chew, and Chuck wasn't there to fix it for them.

He braced himself for the bullet, his eyes squeezed shut.

There was a bang, and Lester shouted in terror.

And kept breathing.

There were more shouts and thuds, then all was quiet.

Lester slowly opened his eyes. The door to his right was open, swinging gently. Jeff had rolled forward and was on his stomach on the concrete. On top of him was a giant body that almost covered his entirely. The woman with the gun was unconscious a few feet away, with someone else lying on her legs.

Chuck lifted his head blearily. "Ugh, who smells like expired salami and donuts?"

Jeff groaned, his voice muffled by the concrete. "That would be me."

Chuck glanced down and jerked away from Jeff instinctively. He clambered to his feet as quickly as he could and brushed off his shirt. "Oh, sorry, Jeff," he said, more out of politeness than anything.

Then his brain began to work.

"Jeff?" he asked in disbelief. "What in the name of-" He glanced over and saw Lester, who was still sitting on the ground with his jaw dropped. "Lester? What are you doing? Don't you know there are people with guns in there? You could get hurt!"

Lester's eyes dropped down to the bloody hole in Chuck's shirt. "What- you- what?" he stuttered.

"Later, guys!" Sarah interrupted. She shot to her feet and grabbed Chuck's hand. "We're still being chased! Come on!"

"Chased?" Lester yelped.

"Yes, chased," Sarah snapped at him, "and if you don't run right now, you're going to get yourself and probably the rest of us killed as well, so move it!"

Lester was gone, sprinting back for the van. Jeff took after him as soon as he could get himself off the ground.

Sarah slammed the back door shut behind them, then she and Chuck followed Jeff and Lester. But instead of stopping to escape in the van with Lester and Jeff, they kept going for a few streets, then began to turn around until they had gone in a big circle around the store and were a few streets away from the front of the Buy More. Moving carefully and quietly, they snuck back into the Orange Orange and into the secret freezer door. Thankfully, Tony's men had left the frozen yogurt shop as soon as the first police cars and media vans began to show, so there was no one inside the store.

Neither Chuck or Sarah relaxed until they stepped foot in Castle. After going down the steps in silence, Chuck immediately went to the table and collapsed into a chair. His side was screaming at him to stop moving, and his shoes, which were slightly small on him and hadn't been replaced yet, were killing his feet.

Sarah sat more carefully in the seat next to him and let her head fall back with a sigh. They sat quietly for a minute or two, then Sarah straightened herself and looked at Chuck.

"So," she said. "We almost just got ourselves killed. Again."

Chuck nodded miserably. "I propose we don't do that again. Ever."

Sarah pursed her lips. "You didn't have to come. In fact, you weren't supposed to."

"Yeah, and just let you go by yourself, right?" Chuck shot back sarcastically. "Like I'm gonna let you do that."

Sarah had to restrain herself from strangling him. She said in a controlled voice, "Chuck, we have already had this conversation. Twice. It's my job. It's what I do. You work at a Buy More."

Chuck shook his head. "I'm not doing this again, Sarah," he said tiredly. "Please, just let it go."

"If I let it go, you'll just do it again!" Sarah said, frustrated. "Chuck, I have to make sure you're safe, okay? Why can't you get that through your thick skull?"

Chuck's head shot up. "This isn't my fault!"

"Then whose is it?" Sarah asked, almost shouting now. "It's certainly not mine!"

"All I want to do is help-"

"The best way you can help is to stay out of it!"

"You know I can't do that!"

"I know you won't, which isn't that same thing! Why won't you just listen to me for one-"

"Because I won't let you go alone!"

"Why not? I can handle myself, I have for years, I'm used to it-"

"But you don't have to!" Chuck roared, slamming his hand on the table.

Sarah was startled into silence.

Both were panting. "Look," Chuck said in a pained voice. "You don't have to continue to live life like this, alone because you choose to be. There are people who care about you, who would miss you if you left. I'm- Look, if you die, I- I don't know what I would do, okay?"

Sarah's blue eyes bored into his. "What are you saying?" she asked, softly this time.

Chuck stared at her. He swallowed visibly, painfully, and broke eye contact. His head dropped. Staring at the floor, he whispered, "You can't go and leave me here. Alone."

Sarah put her hand over his. "Why not?"

He was still breathing heavily, although for a different reason this time. After a long, pregnant pause, he lifted his head to look at her. "Sarah, I-"

He stopped and both their heads whipped to the side. They watched the hallway tensely where they had heard something. Sarah stood, her fingers sliding off Chuck's hand slowly. "Did you-?" she asked.

He nodded wordlessly.

Sarah took a step forward, eying the armory to her right. She could try to make a break for it, but that would leave Chuck at the table, exposed to whoever was hiding in Castle.

He would have to come with her. She motioned to him to get up, and he did, achingly slowly. There was another thud from down the hall, and they both froze. The noise was followed by a faint cry, like someone had dropped something on their foot.

Sarah began to tiptoe toward the armory, eying another pistol, but Chuck was frozen where he stood, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Chuck!" Sarah hissed. "Come on!"

Chuck shook his head confusedly. "I think- I think I recognized that," he said haltingly, no longer crouched.

Sarah cocked her head. "What?"

And before she could stop him, he strode off down the hall. She managed to stop herself from calling after him, but immediately ran toward him as quietly as she could. "What are you doing?" she whispered when she got close enough.

Chuck began to say something, but stopped when he turned the corner.

Sarah almost collided with his back. "Chuck! What-" She screeched to a stop. "Oh, for God's sake," she said with an exasperated sigh.

Devon grinned at both of them. "Hey, guys! What's up?" His shirt was wrinkled and his hair was messed up (something neither Chuck or Sarah had ever seen before), but his blue eyes still twinkled good-naturedly.

Chuck's mouth opened and closed soundlessly.

After a few seconds, Ellie stepped out from the bathroom. "Babe, what's going on?" She jerked to a stop when she saw Chuck and Sarah. "Oh. Hey, guys," she said. Her eyes slowly narrowed. "What are you doing down here?"

"I was going to ask you the same thing," Chuck responded.

Devon crossed his arms. "Yeah, speaking of 'down here'," he said, making quotation marks with his fingers, "where are we?"

Sarah and Chuck exchanged glances.

They both sighed, then Chuck gestured behind him. "It's a long story. You might want to sit down."