I still don't own Chuck. Not sure who does at this point. Maybe Subway.

Chuck Junior finds out the truth about his mom. She might look like a pretty suburban housewife – but she is also a total bad ass. Kate finds out some things about mom as well. It is also time for Shaw to make his move.

I'll be sure to post warnings on chapters that have violent or sexual situations. I'm going to keep this T – but I might dance on the edge for a bit.

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Bad Ass Mom

x-x-x-x-x

Chuck Junior was trying hard not to resent Alex. He really was. After all, he may have talked to him on the phone but he had just met the guy in person five minutes ago. And Kate had clearly fallen unbelievably hard for this dude. And Mom was, just as clearly, not far behind Kate. That in itself was pretty remarkable. It took a long time for Mom to warm up to somebody – anybody. Paul was still scared to death of her after being basically part of the family for four years. No, Alex had a lot of things going for him. There was just something that stuck in his craw. Mom and Dad had kept this secret from them their whole life. And now – this new guy waltzes in and finds out everything – before Chuck Junior himself did. That was hard to take.

Uncle Casey wouldn't say a word until they were in the safe room. Then there was that. Chuck Junior had always shared a special bond with Uncle Casey. It was hard to describe. It really wasn't a fatherly thing. Chuck Junior knew full well who his father was. But they definitely shared something. They were far more than friends. And now, Chuck Junior could clearly see the respect in Uncle Casey's eyes when he looked at this Alex guy.

But then again, Chuck Junior could just as clearly see the – well, the plain relief on Uncle Casey's face to see him again. That was one good thing. And he had to grudgingly admit – this Alex guy seemed nice enough. For him to have won over the group of people that now accepted him as basically part of the family – well, that was impressive. Oh, another thing that he had to admit. This Alex had gotten ten times closer to Kate in four weeks than Paul had in four years. And Kate was very incredibly, annoyingly, almost ridiculously fussy when it came to men. She always had been - so much so that his friends had jokingly nicknamed her The Ice Queen.

"Okay, Sparky," Casey said as soon as they closed the door to the safe room. "I'm sure you have a lot of questions. There are some things that I'd prefer that you hear from your parents – but I think I can tell you enough to get us over the immediate situation. Will that work?"

"Yes, sir," Chuck Junior said. "I'd appreciate that, sir."

"Your dad has a very special gift," Casey said. "Courtesy of a government project gone wrong. What exactly that gift is, I'd prefer to let your parents tell you. Suffice it to say that he is the only one that can do what he can do in the whole world – and it's important enough that twenty-five years ago the government sent two of its very top agents to protect him around the clock. I was the junior of those two agents. Your mom was the other one."

Chuck Junior scoffed. "Sir," he said skeptically. "Please. Are you telling me that my mom used to be a government agent?"

"Not used to be, Sparky," Casey replied with a wry grin. "She still is. At the time of our assignment, she was head and shoulders the very best that the CIA had to offer. She's probably still in the top third of all the agents in the country. She is a world class expert in hand-to-hand combat and small arms weapons tactics. She can disarm a man with a knife and kill him in just under eight seconds. She speaks five languages fluently and is a certified pilot for virtually every class of aircraft ever built – including foreign manufacturers. She can throw a knife into a fly from across the room. She still holds several records at the CIA training academy including most consecutive victories in kickboxing. She has been awarded presidential commendations, which is the highest honor that a covert agent can receive, on three different occasions. No other agent, outside of our team has ever had more than one. The first commendation occurred just before she was assigned to your dad. She single handedly infiltrated and eliminated a terrorist group that was plotting to kidnap, compromise, and eventually assassinate the Italian Prime Minister. Since Italy is a key member of NATO - that would have meant this terrorist group might have gained control over approximately three hundred nuclear weapons. I don't have to tell you how many lives that saved. You do the math."

Chuck Junior was still not convinced. "Mom?" he asked with a skeptical grin.

"Son," Casey continued. "Yes… your mom. But those impressive accomplishments pail compared to what happened after she teamed up with your dad. They just clicked from the very first day. With her abilities and your dad's special talent, we because an unstoppable team. Under the command of General Diane Beckman, your mom and dad led a team comprised of myself, then Agent Elise Walters, and then Agent Janice Beckman. We exposed and eliminated a faction that was in position to execute a coup d'etat against the U.S. government. Your dad devised a plan that caused the elimination of several thousand faction members in a single day. That mission and a follow up one led to your mom's second and third presidential commendations - of which the whole team shared, including me. Agent Walters suffered a life-threatening injury in our last mission and was forced to retire. She has since married fellow ex-Agent Joe West – who she had met on our last mission. Agent Beckman and I were married shortly after that final mission and we retired from active duty. Your mom and dad were allowed to remain active as a reward for their incredible accomplishments with the understanding that they would not ever be asked to actually perform any missions. That happened about three weeks before she announced that she was expecting their second child. Of course, that child became you. I think that brings us, more or less, up to date. I'm sure that you have some questions. I'll try to answer them as best that I can."

"Sir," Chuck Junior said skeptically as he looked Casey directly in the eye. "Are you serious?"

Casey just laughed. "It's hard to believe, isn't it?" he asked. "Your mom looks like this pretty little suburban housewife – but she is actually a total bad ass. Your mom and dad are national heroes. It's just that almost nobody knows about it."

It took Chuck Junior a long moment to process everything that Uncle Casey had just told him. One thing was for sure, Grandma Beckman was right. He was very, very proud. "Sir, you and Aunt Janice just celebrated your twentieth anniversary," he finally said. "That means that Aunt Elise hasn't been active for that long. So, what's going on now? Why is someone threatening her after all this time?"

"That's an excellent question, Sparky," Casey replied. "The short answer is – we don't completely know. That's one reason that Alex and I are here. We need to find out."

Chuck Junior had a million questions. But he knew that they didn't have time for that. So he just asked the first question that popped into his head. "What happened to Aunt Elise?" he asked.

"She got shot," Casey said. "She threw herself into the middle of a gunfight to save another agent. It's the bravest act I've ever seen. They didn't expect her to survive. She actually died three different times in surgery. She lost half of her left lung."

Chuck Junior just nodded. This was way too much information to handle.

Casey's eyes got a definite gleam. "It's hard to believe, isn't it, son?" he asked. "Seeing as how incredibly perfect her lungs look now…"

Alex knew most of this already – but there was some news for him too. He had been studying Chuck Junior's face to see how he processed the news – so he clearly saw the blush travel up his neck and into his face. Great – he really didn't need that thought in his head. This Elise was Kate's mentor. And she was the first one to encourage Kate to take a chance on him. He needed her as an ally – especially given the crap that Kate's last boyfriend had pulled on her. The last thing that he needed was for her to catch him looking at her – lungs. So he made a mental note – whatever you do, when you meet her – do not look at her lungs.

x-x-x-x-x

Chuck was very hesitant about taking Kate on this mission. But with Casey and Alex gone, they really didn't have much choice. Even though they had intercepted the call that they were no longer going to kill Alex, they still couldn't let her out of their sight. And since this was a three-person op, that didn't leave anybody to protect her.

Kate, for her part, was pretty excited to be going along. And even though she would be staying in the car with Janice – it still would be her first real glimpse of her parents in action. Of course her excitement was blunted substantially when she learned the details of her mom's assignment. "What do you mean he wants to get you into bed?" she asked incredulously. "He knows that you're married, doesn't he? He seriously asked you to go to bed with him – in front of dad?"

"I hate to be the one to break this to you, Katie," Janice said with a grin. "But you being married actually doesn't matter all that much to most men. Especially the ones that we run into on missions. Even them being married doesn't matter to a lot of men."

"Especially with your mom," Chuck added sadly. "Wanting to see her naked is apparently pretty much a universal trait in men from, well, sixteen to eighty. You should see the way Bryce's friends are looking at her."

"Wait a minute," Sarah said with a smile. "I thought we had a deal about talking about Bryce's friends."

"Bryce's friends?" Kate groaned. "That's disgusting. What else am I going to learn tonight that will make me want to stab my own eye out with a fork? So what is this guy…"

"Don't worry, sweetie," Sarah said – as much to Chuck as to Kate. After all, she knew Chuck's history with this particular guy. "Nobody is getting naked today. I'm just going to get your dad and me into the house. Then I'll ask to speak to him in private. I'm just going to keep him occupied for ten minutes while your dad finds the safe."

"Once I find the safe, I'll tell Janice the make and model and she can look up the specs in the internet," Chuck said. "If the safe is too new to be in the intersect, she can walk me into how to get in. I'll find the update, copy it and be back sitting on the sofa before Shaw knows what has happened."

Kate's eyes noticeably narrowed as she noticed for the first time how her mom was dressed. "And just how are you going to keep him… occupied?" she asked.

"Okay, Katie," Sarah said softly but firmly. "You can lose the attitude right now. Nobody is going to do anything to cheat on your dad. After all, this is his plan. I've been doing this for twenty-five years and I haven't cheated on him once. I'm not about to start tonight. We're really not exactly sure what Shaw is after. He went to a lot of trouble to make your dad think that we are having an affair – so it's reasonable to expect that he is going to use that somehow. But we're not at all sure how. That's one of my objectives here – to find out. I need to give your dad his ten minutes – so it may seem like I'm considering giving in to him. It may even seem like I'm actually encouraging him. I'm going to be playing that by ear. But whatever you hear tonight is just an act."

Kate always took it hard when Sarah was cross with her. Even as a little girl, Sarah could have her crying with a scowl in her direction. It actually took her a long moment before she could get any words out. So she settled for reaching out her hand. "I'm sorry, Mom," she was finally able to whisper. "I didn't mean anything. I just… look… I'm really sorry."

"I know, sweetie," Sarah said as she grabbed Kate's hand. "It's okay. I'm sorry that I snapped at you. It's just that your dad is already very sensitive with this particular man." With that she flashed a pained smile towards Chuck. "So I'm trying to be as reassuring as I possibly can. I realize that it's a lot for you to take in all at once. We're all a little on edge right now. But this is what spies – especially female spies - do."

Chuck turned to Sarah – as much to change the subject as anything. "We really don't know what Shaw will do," he said. "His original plan was that whatever was going to happen would take place in France. He'll be improvising. He is clearly mentally unstable. Be prepared to defend yourself at all times. If he gets the least bit aggressive, Janice is going to come in with guns blazing."

x-x-x-x-x

Casey just sat and gave Chuck Junior time to process what he had just learned. Finally Chuck Junior gave a huge sigh. "How much of this should we tell Bryce?" he asked.

"As little as possible," Casey answered. "He deserves to know that your parents are heroes. But your mom waited until Kate turned twenty-one before she told her. You're getting close. Bryce still has a ways to go."

"Okay, sir," Chuck Junior said. "How do we proceed?"

"We – don't do anything," Casey said firmly. "These guys are dangerous. You would need years of training to have a chance against them. They don't know that you're even aware of them. Hopefully they will never find out and just go away. Elise's situation is a little more serious. I'm going to go over there later and try to recon whoever is watching her."

Finally Alex spoke up for the first time. "How will you do that?" he asked.

"That's easy," Casey said. "They have a biometric wire on Elise. The range on that kind of device is very limited. So they must be close. They are probably sitting in a van someplace within a couple of blocks. Just like there is probably a van sitting someplace watching this house. They should be fairly easy to spot."

x-x-x-x-x

Shaw couldn't keep the surprise off his face when he answered the door. It wasn't there long – but he was clearly surprised. "Chuck, Sarah," he said in a puzzled tone. "I thought that you were in France."

"We were," Chuck said. "Our only contact died. It seemed pointless to continue."

"He died?" Shaw asked. "How did he die?"

"Apparently he had a heart attack," Chuck said with a sideways glare at Sarah.

"We thought it would be better to report to you here rather than at the office," Sarah said. "Do you think we could come in?"

x-x-x-x-x

Naturally, Janice and Kate were listening to every word over the wires that Chuck and Sarah were both wearing. It was pretty easy for Sarah to get Shaw alone. In fact, he seemed to anticipate it. Janice knew that as soon as Sarah and Shaw left the room Chuck would put is his earpiece. "Okay," she said. "Comm check. Are you copying me?"

"Loud and clear," Chuck quickly answered. "And I might add – you have a lovely voice."

"Smooth talker," Janice replied sarcastically. "The ten minutes begins now."

Kate sat in horror as she listened to her mom trying to fend off Shaw's advances. So far, he hadn't actually done anything physical. But the language was beyond suggestive. "Aunt Janice," Kate said. "Seriously, what is with this guy? Can he really believe that she has any interest in him? She's shooting him down as brutally as I can imagine. And he keeps coming back for more. Is he serious?"

"I don't think so," Janice said. "I think he's playing some kind of sick game with her. What was that load of crap about letting your dad think that they were having an affair to help her deal with the guilt? What guilt would she have? He's toying with her. He really doesn't expect her to break. Not yet. He's trying to make her miserable."

"Well," Kate said with a sigh. "I don't know about Mom – but he is sure as hell making me miserable."

"I found the safe," Chuck said over the wire. "Why do they always hide it behind the painting? Like the thieves would never look there. It was an older model so I was able to get in easily. The update is copied. How is Sarah doing?"

"About like we figured," Janice sighed. "He is putting on the full court press. He clearly thinks that you are jealous of him. He's enjoying this far too much. I really wouldn't mind shooing this guy very much."

"Yeah," Chuck sighed. "Get in line."

x-x-x-x-x

"This can't be happening,' he said, more to himself than into the phone. "What do you mean the parents are back?"

"Our man in France had a heart attack," Shaw said. "He was their only contact. So they came home."

"This is the last straw," he said. "We just get rid of the new boyfriend and now the parents are back? This is getting far too messy. We're going to have to start cleaning this up."

"I think that you're taking the narrow view," Shaw said. "Where you see problems, I see opportunity."

"What opportunity?" he asked sarcastically. "To end up in maximum security? Or in front of a firing squad?"

"Come on," Shaw said. "Your vision is entirely too small. Think about it. If we eliminate the entire team, who would be left to associate it with us? We could easily sell that some remaining faction of the old Fulcrum group plotted revenge. We'll arrange for a couple of Fulcrum Elders to break out of prison – the press would snap that up. Sure, Senator Casey would be a martyr – but dead people make lousy presidential candidates. Let me take care of this problem for you."

"And what do you get?" he asked.

"Are you joking?" Shaw replied. "This is even better than my original plan. I get revenge. Imagine watching Sarah Walker seeing every single person she's ever loved die – slowly, one at a time - right before her eyes. She'll be begging me to kill her."

"What do you need from me?" he asked.

"There is an abandoned CIA facility in Kentucky called Red Mountain," Shaw said. "Have your team deliver Team Bartowski and the kids there."

"I can't tell you how dead we are if this leaks," he said firmly. "And if we're dead – so are you."

"Don't worry," Shaw said. "I've been waiting for this moment for twenty-five years. Do you really think I would let anything mess it up?"

x-x-x-x-x

"Hey," Alex said softly into the phone. "How's it going?"

"I'm good," Kate said. "I got to go on a mission with my dad and listen to some jerk constantly hitting on my mom. So that was a real treat."

"As long as nobody was hitting on you," Alex said with a smile.

"Who said there wasn't?" Kate teased. "But I'm holding out for a hero for the rest of the night."

Alex grinned at the line from the song that they had just sung together the other night. "Just the rest of the night?" he asked.

"We'll see," Kate said. "I need a hero. But he's gotta be strong and he's gotta be fast and he's gotta be fresh from the fight."

Alex laughed out loud. "I think you might be setting up some unrealistic expectations there, Maid Marion," he said. "I'm not Robin Hood. My eye looked fresh from the fight. Like fresh meat."

"Not really," Kate said. "You took your lumps. All heroes do sometimes."

"Its fun seeing where you grew up," Alex said. "I'm staying in your old bedroom. It smells like you."

"Speaking of things that smell," Kate said. "How is Chuck Junior treating you?"

"We're getting there," Alex said. "It was a little tense at first. The Colonel took us down to the shooting range and let us practice with tranq dart guns. That was fun – so we loosened up a little after that. How many of those workout machines do you use?"

"All of them," Kate answered. "Trust me, sweetie. When you workout with my mom – you work out. If she sees you slacking off, she makes you start over." That wasn't completely true. Sarah had never insisted that Kate work out with her. But she was obviously pleased when Kate first asked. Over the years, it became the thing that they shared together. And Mom wasn't a drill sergeant. She taught Kate how to work out effectively – but never pushed her.

"I'd better let you get to sleep," Alex said. "I really miss you. I love you."

"I'll see you in a few days," Kate said softly. "Don't get used to sleeping alone again. I love you too."

x-x-x-x-x

Kate was in her apartment putting the clothes that she was going to wear tomorrow together. They had decided that Kate would sleep with Janice. And Chuck and Sarah would take Kate's bed. Chuck had just gotten done taking his update – so he was pretty beat.

Sarah walked out of the bedroom holding her phone. Even though she did a good job of hiding it, there was plainly something wrong. "That was Paul's mom," she said with a sigh. "They just found his body in his dorm room. They think that it was a drug overdose."

"Mom," Kate said. "That's crazy. Paul doesn't do drugs. I would know."

Just then Janice walked into the apartment. "The police just called," she said. "They just found Julie's body in her apartment."

"Don't tell me," Sarah said. "Drug overdose, right?"

"Yeah," Janice said. "How did you know?"

x-x-x-x-x