I still don't own Chuck. Not sure who does at this point. Maybe Subway.
Sarah realizes that her kids are never going to be safe. Not as long as they are associated with her and Chuck. So they need to be able to defend themselves. Besides – Elise, Joe, and Janice may have all been CIA Agents – but that was twenty years ago. Let's see how far Sarah will go to get her team back into game shape. And maybe she'll find out that what she has to do isn't worth it.
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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Basic Training
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Chuck Junior was quite surprised when he and Heather got to the parade grounds. He just expected his mom to be there. But the entire team was there, except for Casey, of course. They were there standing, more or less in line. Mom clearly had some major pull with Colonel Blum. He was there in person to verify to Lieutenant Moore that she was assigned full time to Agent Walker's team. He had a distinct sparkle in his eyes when he told her that she would treat Agent Walker's orders as if they came from Blum himself until further notice – or until she was dead – whichever came first.
Even though Heather hadn't served under Blum for very long, she clearly knew his style. If she was surprised or upset by her new assignment, she certainly didn't show it. "Yes, sir," was her snappy reply.
But if Heather didn't appear to be upset, that attitude surely wasn't shared by the rest of the team. Kate and Elise in particular, were making little effort to keep the displeasure from their faces. Of course, Kate's problem was that she never liked to have to get up this early. Elise was more pained about being forced into public wearing fatigues.
Sarah paced back and forth impatiently in front of the group as she addressed them – much like a tiger sizing up her prey. Since they were all dressed in fatigues, they looked very much like an Army squad assembled for PE. "Thank you for coming this morning," she said. "Heather, you're here because you've volunteered. So this next part doesn't really apply to you. Anytime that you feel being associated with my son is no longer worth it, let me know and I'll talk to Colonel Blum and get you immediately reassigned."
"Yes, ma'am," Heather said smartly. "I don't see that happening."
"And Alex," Sarah said. "You're also here because you want to join our family. You can also quit anytime you'd like. Just understand what you'd be quitting."
Alex looked surprised – and more than a little insulted. "Yes, ma'am," he said. "There is no way that I'm quitting… ma'am."
"Don't be offended, Alex" Sarah said firmly. "I'm not suggesting that you would. I just want it on the record that you are here of your own free will. Let's get started. I want to begin by saying that I love you all. I know that I hardly ever tell any of you that. I'm sorry. It's something that I was never good at. But, indeed, that's why we're here. I'm telling you how much I love you now because you're going to come to question it later this morning. It was always my hope that our team could retire from an agent's life and live normally. And it was certainly my hope that my kids and whoever they chose to be their partners would never be impacted by that life. Recent events have convinced me that hope was always a fantasy. So now, I have two choices. I can watch you be destroyed by my enemies. Or I can give you a chance to be able to defend yourself. Since I don't want to see you destroyed, that really only leaves one option. Agreed?"
"Yes, ma'am," came the instant reply from the group.
"I'd like to think that Sarah Bartowski is a fairly nice person," Sarah continued. "She raised three great kids, was active in the PTA, and tried her best to be a fairly normal wife, friend, and mother."
Sarah paused for a moment to gauge the effect. Satisfied that she had their complete attention, she continued. "Unfortunately for you," she said. "Sarah Bartowski is not here this morning. She'll be back with you this afternoon. But this morning – and every morning until further notice, my name is Sarah Walker. I intend on doing most of the talking in these sessions. But if circumstance forces you to address me, it will be as Agent Walker – or ma'am. If I resemble your wife, mother, or friend, let me assure you – I am not her. In fact, except for Janice, I've never even met you before. If you hear one thing this morning, hear this – I'm your worst nightmare. There is only one way for me to accomplish what needs to be accomplished in the short time that we have. And that's by being the hardest of the hard asses that you've ever seen. I have absolutely no intention of being reasonable or fair. I'm going to push you and trick you – and punish you whenever you fall even a tiny bit short of my ridiculous expectations. I demand your very best effort, both mentally and physically, in this series of exercises. I expect you to push yourself to what you previously thought were your limits and beyond. If you ever dare insult me by giving me less than that, things will get… incredibly unpleasant. Is that understood?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"Good," Sarah said. "We'll start each morning with a five mile run. This morning, we'll take it a little easy with twelve minute miles. Each morning, we'll go a little faster. In a week, I expect eight minute miles. Is that understood?"
"Yes, ma'am,"
"Okay," Sarah said. "Let's begin."
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Actually, it wasn't the kids that were struggling. It was more the ex-agents. After all, the kids were all in pretty good shape – especially Kate and Heather. This was actually substantially slower than they would have been running on their own anyway. They both could have given Agent Walker her eight minute miles today – so they barely broke a sweat. Alex and Chuck Junior perhaps weren't used to running long distances, but they were in shape. Chuck and Elise were also pretty used to working out with Sarah – so, while they were grateful that the pace wasn't any faster, they really weren't having a problem keeping up.
It was actually Joe and Janice who were really having issues. They quickly learned how horribly out of game shape they were. After all, they were both in the same situation. They both had incredibly challenging careers. And while they prided themselves on being physically fit, there were only so many hours in the day. They both fell quite a ways behind. And since they clearly didn't care for each other that much, it became – well, awkward. And it actually took a long time for them both to catch their breath.
Sarah really didn't allow them much time to recover. She led them directly to the base gym. Clearly, she had planned ahead – because there was a support staff waiting for them. The team was outfitted with boxing gloves, foot and head gear – and led to the ring.
Sarah addressed the group. "We're going to spend some time this morning learning to fight. This morning, from this point on, be prepared to defend yourself at all times. There is a prime objective in fighting. Alex, do you know what it is?"
"Umm," Alex said. "Not really, ma'am. Hit him more than he hits you?"
Sarah stepped over to be directly in front of him. "Alex," she growled as she glared at him. "Are you making fun of me?"
Alex was shocked – and his red face clearly showed it. "No ma'am," was all he could say.
Sarah stood and glared at him for a long moment. Finally she was satisfied that Alex was suitably chastised. "That's not correct," Sarah growled. "Heather?"
"To survive, ma'am?" Heather asked.
"Closer," Sarah said. "The prime objective in fighting is to end it as soon as possible. Preferably by getting away. But if necessary, by stopping your opponent. You see, Alex, whenever you are fighting someone, you are in danger. You want to spend as little time doing it as possible. He is looking to hurt you. He is looking to hurt someone that you love. And the rules are – there aren't any rules."
Sarah stepped up to Chuck – and buried her right fist into his stomach. He immediately doubled over and fell to the floor in pain. "You weren't paying attention when I told you to be prepared to defend yourself," Sarah said. "Were you?" Sarah looked around. "Let that be a lesson. If I would do that to him, imagine what I'll do to you. When you get in this ring, it is going to be against someone that you love. But this morning, you need to set that aside. Today, they are the enemy. Janice and Kate – you're up."
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Sarah really didn't expect Kate to put up much of a fight against Janice. So she really wasn't disappointed - much. After all, Kate was young, in shape, and had practiced punching in the gym downstairs – but Janice had once been one of the best agents in the whole world – even if she was still trying desperately to catch her breath. And actually, Kate did manage to get a couple of punches in – one even stunned Janice for a second. But after Janice finally caught her breath, she was fairly easily able to tackle and subdue her.
Alex did a lot better against Elise. He was clearly working out some of his anger at Sarah on her. He actually had the upper hand for quite a while. He even landed a blow that had Elise not knowing where she was for a second. An experienced fighter would have used that opening to quickly end it. But Alex made his fatal mistake of allowing her to grab him and hold on until she recovered. He eventually made another mistake by telegraphing a punch. Elise, who was clearly embarrassed, was able to duck it, flip Alex over her hip – and the fight was quickly over.
Joe and Chuck Junior turned into quite a battle. Joe clearly got more power punches in. But Chuck Junior took everything that he had – and delivered some serious shots of his own. He had Joe on one knee for a long moment. But Joe was eventually too big, strong, and experienced. So Sarah finally stepped in between them.
But the main event of the morning was clearly Heather and Sarah. Obviously this wasn't Heather's first time in the ring. She had been paying attention to the previous fights and knew that the agents liked to counterpunch. So she stayed on the outside and jabbed. She even bloodied Sarah's nose. But in the end, Sarah was too quick for her. A surprise kick just under Heather's ribs gave Sarah the opening that she needed.
As soon as she was sure Heather was okay, she addressed the group. "All four of you failed miserably," she said. "Actually, you all got some shots in. But every one of you had an opportunity to get away – and you didn't. You stayed in there against an opponent that had you overmatched and let them eventually get the upper hand. Alex, what is the primary objective in a fight?"
Alex sighed. "To end it as quickly as possible, ma'am," he said.
"Correct," Sarah said. "So tell me why you just stood there when your opponent was stunned. You should have run. Now you're dead. All of you are. Alex and Katie, you're not going to have the chance to be married. The grandchildren that I was going to spoil are never going to be born. Chuck Junior and Heather, we're never going to find out what's going to happen between you two. Because you're dead. You were stupid. That was the whole point of today's exercise – and you completely failed."
"Yes, ma'am," Alex said.
"That effort was totally unacceptable," Sarah said. "Because of your pathetic performances, for your reward you four get to repeat this morning's run. When you're done with that, we're done for the day. You can meet us in the squad room for lunch after you're showered and changed."
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Daniel Shaw certainly didn't share Alex's enthusiasm over driving a big rig. But at least it was transportation. After all, he had spent the past twenty-fours hours in some very rough terrain, trying to avoid being captured. He was very lucky to have stumbled upon that mountain road. And even luckier to find someone that was willing to pick up a hitchhiker. Shaw knew that he couldn't dispose of the body anytime soon. That would just tip them off. He would have to wait until be got well out of the immediate area. But hopefully that would be soon – after all, it was beginning to smell.
Shaw knew that he had to be very careful. He also knew what he had to do. The first thing was to get to an urban area and find a prepaid phone. He had to warn the others that their plot was uncovered. After all, a lot of men had been captured. Certainly, one of them would talk soon. It was time to go back underground and start over.
But first, there was the little matter of Sarah Walker. After all, he still had a number of men that weren't at the facility at the time. The problem was, they were spread out over the country. It would take a few days for them to get to Los Angeles without drawing attention to themselves.
Getting revenge could still be fairly easy. After all, this Woodcomb was a famous doctor. She should be easy enough to find and capture. And Shaw knew Sarah. She was noble – to a fault. There was no way that she wouldn't sacrifice herself to save someone she loved. And when she thought that she was only going to sacrifice herself, she really would be sacrificing her whole team. It was one of the main tenants of being a good spy. When you are that predictable, you are defenseless.
There still might be some fun left in this mission after all.
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Joe and Elise were both hurting from their fights – especially Joe. Chuck Junior had gotten a couple of serious body shots in. So Sarah excused them. And that was perfectly fine with them. At that point, spending any more time around Agent Walker didn't seem like a good idea anyway.
Sarah took Chuck and Janice to the lockup to see if Chuck would flash on any of the men that had been captured. No luck there. There were a couple of very low-level CIA agents. But the intersect had never heard of most of the men. The CIA agents claimed to know nothing. They were just following orders. None of the other men had broken – yet. But it was just a matter if time. After all, everybody talks – eventually.
Chuck was giving Sarah the coldest of the cold shoulders. Janice was also not looking all that friendly. Finally, she turned to Sarah. "What time should I pick you up?" she asked.
Sarah looked for any hint of humor in Janice's face – and could find none. "Pick me up," she asked with a confused look. "Pick me up for what?"
"Well," Janice said, still with no hint of humor, "if you're back to being Sarah Walker I figured you would want to go out and pick up men tonight. Maybe we can even find a wet t-shirt contest for you to star in."
Sarah couldn't answer for a long time. "Come on, Janice," she finally said sadly. "You know what I'm doing. It's the only way I know how."
"Yes," Janice said. "I know what you're doing – and even I'm not liking you all that much right now. Imagine what those kids are thinking."
"It's for their own good," Sarah whispered.
"Maybe," Janice said. "But does the phrase win-the-battle-lose-the-war mean anything to you? You'd better ask yourself if it's worth it."
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Chuck and Sarah were in their room. Chuck was clearly still not speaking to her. That alone was enough to have her close to tears. She always hated it when Chuck was visibly mad at her. And this was as angry as he had been in a long time. He was in the shower. Since it was his second shower in as many hours, it was plainly to avoid being in the same room with her. Just when Sarah thought that she couldn't feel any worse, there was a knock at the door.
"Heather," Sarah said as she opened the door. But actually, it took a moment to recognize her. Gone were the plain, unflattering army fatigues. Instead, she was wearing a party dress. Her golden hair framed her expertly made up face perfectly. "You look beautiful." Indeed, that was an understatement. She looked more than beautiful. "Please come in."
"No thank you, ma'am," Heather said.
"Heather," Sarah said with as much smile as she could muster. "Please call me Sarah when we're not training."
Heather didn't smile. "Actually," she said. "I prefer ma'am."
Sarah just nodded.
"Ma'am, you told me to let you know when it was no longer worth it," Heather said coolly. "Well, that's why I'm here."
Sarah had to blink the tears out of her eyes. "Are you sure?" she asked softly.
"Yes, ma'am," Heather said with a glare. "Sparky is an amazing man. If things were different, I'd really enjoy getting to know him better. I was looking forward to tonight… a lot. I was always willing to fight off Elise. I've thought about this all afternoon. Quite frankly, ma'am, being around you any longer than is absolutely necessary… well, that thought is very unattractive. I'll tell him tonight."
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