A/N Hey! A lot of you thought the last chapter should have had more emotional angst in it. When I wrote chapter nine, I was trying to lighten the mood a bit, and to show that Chuck and Sarah were trying to work out their relationship, even though they had lots of outside forces trying to foil it. I felt that I there hadn't been enough Charah so far. This chapter is largely about Sarah's sister, but I promise, the next one will delve into the inner dark-twisty emotions of our two favorite spies. This and the next chapter have been my two favorite chapters to write thus far, so I really hope you enjoy them! (Let me know if you like how Jenn was portrayed!)
By the way, I changed the story summary, so don't be too freaked out about that! :)
I was hoping to reach 100 reviews with the last chapter… But I guess it'll have to wait til the end of this one! The 100th reviewer gets a special shout-out along with a random thing I found out about Ryan McPartlin (Devon). I really want to thank everyone who has taken the time to review, and to thank everyone who will review in the future! *hint hint* It really helps to keep the story line chugging along. On with the story!
RECAP
Sarah walked into the room, ready to attack if she needed to, but she lowered her weapon almost as soon as she walked in. Before her eyes was her mirrored self, sitting on a cargo box and puffing away at a cigarette.
"Hey there, baby sister. Did you miss me?"
Sarah was shell shocked. "Jenn?" She asked, inching closer to her sister. "Is that really you?"
She scoffed. "No, Munchkin, I'm your evil twin come back from the grave to haunt you." Sarah didn't respond to her joke, so Jenn rolled her eyes, and said, "Of course it's me!" She took another puff from her cigarette, and then, feeling selfish, said, "Want one?"
Sarah refrained from wrinkling her nose, "Thanks but I don't smoke."
Jenn's eyebrow lifted in surprise. "What kind of spy doesn't smoke?" Sarah shrugged her shoulders, feigning disinterest. "So what have you been up to since I died, Sam?"
"No one has called me Sam in years. I thought you'd know that, since you're supposedly a spy. Why are you…"
Jenn put her hand up, stopping Sarah's question. "Look, I know you have a lot of questions. I promise I'll answer all of them, but for now, can we just pretend that I haven't been dead the last 15 years? We can have dinner and catch up. You know, have a sister-bonding experience."
"Jenn, I can't play pretend with you. Honestly, the only reason I came here was to find out where Mr. Bartowski is," Sarah said, trying to sound like the older sister.
The oldest Iverson laughed. "Sammy Sammy Sammy, you haven't changed a bit! Always trying to take charge of the situation and keep a level head." She took a deep puff. "That's why Dad chose you to be his partner in crime, you know. He thought I was too emotional for this kind of stuff. Maybe he was right, maybe he was wrong. All I know is that I'm not the emotional one right now. That Chuck guy, you'd do anything for him wouldn't you?"
"I don't know how you know about Chuck, but leave him out of this. This right now? This is between you and me." Sarah slid her hand down her side, making sure her knife was still in position to be thrown.
Jenn's eyes narrowed, not missing Sarah's subtle movement. "This has everything to do with Chuck. You should know that, little sister. If he didn't have that lovely intersect, he wouldn't be appealing to me at all. I've always loved an intelligent man."
"How do you know about the intersect?" Sarah spat back. "That's top secret information that only a select few know about."
"You'd be surprised what I know," Jenn said, challengingly. All of a sudden, her demeanor shifted, and she relaxed. "I really think you should come to dinner with us."
"Us?" Sarah questioned. It was then she felt the barrel dig into her back. "Damn," she thought, "I was hoping this wouldn't be a trap."
"Sarah bear," Jenn said using Sarah's preferred name, catching her off guard, "Do be a dear and come have some Chinese with us." She smiled at the person behind her. "Daniel will gladly shoot you if you resist."
Sarah had no choice but to follow her sister into the restaurant. She looked around, and decided that it was just Shaw and her sister. She could take them, if she had to. Sarah wanted to find out as much as she could about her sister, though, so she walked in, pretending that she was being held captive. She held in a smirk; she was definitely the better spy of the sisters.
Four hours after Chuck had showered and returned home, Sarah still hadn't arrived. He had called her cell, Alex's, and even Parker's. No one had seen her since her shift ended at the Orange Orange. Chuck was starting to get worried. He wanted to blame it on his paranoia, but he had a feeling…
"Hey, Ellie, this is Chuck. I know you probably haven't seen Sarah, but she hasn't returned my calls and I was just wondering if you'd heard from her. Talk to you when you get home."
Chuck closed his phone, making a classic Bartowski frustrated face. Sarah wasn't irresponsible. She didn't go places without back-up. A little voice started to nag him in the back of his mind. What if she had left him again?
He shook his head to clear his thoughts. Why would she do that? They had kissed, for real, finally. She was the one who wanted to get back together. No, it had to be something else.
Then it hit him. The letter. He had seen Sarah looking at it a lot the past couple of weeks. She had all but declared it was a living creature
It had said to meet them at Jeffster's audition. Chuck had run surveillance on all the employees of Skeeter Barns, twice, as well as all the customers who regularly ate there. Everyone was clean. It couldn't be related to that.
Casey had analyzed the letter extensively. Chuck had though it smelled like lemons when he flashed on it, which was ironic because, after talking to Sarah later, she said Jenn used to call her her "Little Lemon." Lemons. Lemons, lemons, lemons….
The light-bulb clicked on. Back in elementary school, he had written in code to his friends with invisible ink. The letter had had a secret message for Sarah, he knew it. Frantically, he grabbed his cell phone and dialed the one person who could help him.
"This had better be important, Bartowski. Reagan was in my dream."
If it hadn't been such a serious matter, Chuck would have burst out laughing at Casey's partial sleep-talking. Not wanting to anger his only ally, he said, "Casey, I think the letter may have had an invisible letter written on the back of it. Did you check for that?"
The other line was silent. In Casey's intimidating voice, he said, "Do you think I'm an idiot?"
"I didn't question your IQ, Casey. I just want to know if the letter smelled like lemons or not."
"It smelled like perfume." There was a pause. "Lemons?"
"I think there might have been a secret message on it for Sarah. Casey, did you give the letter back to her? She's been rereading it all week."
"The letter is on my night-stand." Casey grunted, wanting to go back to sleep. "Can this wait until morning?"
How did both Casey and Sarah have a letter? Wait. What if Sarah had made a duplicate? "Casey, I think Sarah's in trouble. No one has seen her since she got off work, and I have this really bad feeling…"
"A feeling? Bartowski, you have to give me something better than that. Work was what, four hours ago? Knowing Walker, she lost track of time on a run, at a bar, or shopping. If she's not back in the morning, then I'll listen to your feeling. Good night, Chuck."
Hanging up with Casey gave Chuck a new perspective. Maybe Sarah wanted some alone time? She had, after all, just found out the sister she thought was dead was still alive. Chuck was known to over-react. Heck, he'd been over-reacting the past few weeks, too. His dad… He swallowed, bitterly, trying to regain his focus for the time being. This was one of his freak-out moments, he reasoned. He needed to un-frazzle his nerves.
Chuck headed to his room, intent on playing Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga, but then he realized his controller was still broken from when he'd thrown it against the wall. How had he managed to forget about that?
He went to his desk, intent on attempting to fix it again, when he heard his phone vibrate. Looking at the caller ID, he saw that it was Morgan.
"Heeey buddy!" Morgan's cheerful voice resounded on the other side. "Whatcha doing?"
Chuck sighed, wishing that Morgan had a girlfriend to occupy his time. If only he and Alex… He shook his head. That was for destiny to work out. "Nothing too exciting, just working on my controller."
"You still haven't fixed that? Jeez, Chuck. You need to prioritize your time better! So I guess you're not hanging out with Sarah?"
"Nope, she's… Actually, I don't know what she's doing right now." Chuck shifted his cell to his other shoulder. "Morgan, do you actually have a reason for calling me?"
"Sure do! I was at that Chinese place a couple minutes ago. I was really craving some Crab Rangoons. Gosh they're delicious! Did you know that that restaurant is the only one in town that tries to use fat free oil, and…"
"Morgan. You said you had a reason for calling?" Chuck said, impatiently.
"Right! Well, it was the weirdest thing! I was ordering my delicious fat-free Rangoons with..."
"Morgan!"
"Sorry, Chuck! You have no idea how incredible those things are! Anyway, there was this girl hanging out in the kitchen. You know I get my food straight from the source. There are no lines for Morgan when it comes to his Chinese. I swear, she looked just like Sarah! She was a bit taller, but…"
Chuck dropped the phone. Jenn was still in Burbank? How could that be? They had swept the town immaculately, or at least he thought he had... He picked the phone up, still startled.
"…And then this guy walked through with Sarah. I don't think she saw me, and I would have waved, but she looked like she was thinking really hard, and I always hate to bother people when they're in their zone…"
"Wait. Rewind a bit there, buddy. Sarah was there? With the look-alike Sarah?"
"She sure was!" Morgan said, happy that Chuck had finally understood what he was trying to say. "Listen, I got some extra Chinese food. Do you want me to come over? I can bring an extra controller…"
"Morgan, I love you right now," Chuck said, "Buddy I've got to go, but rain-check on the video game night, okay? See you tomorrow at work."
Morgan was about to reply, but Chuck had already hung up. He smiled to himself. It wasn't every day that his best friend said he loved him. "Bro-mance all the way baby!" he shouted, throwing a bit of Chinese in the air, trying to catch it with his mouth, and it landing all over the floor. Morgan shrugged his shoulders; his mom could clean it up later.
Chuck was panicked. Sarah was with Jenn? Was she there by choice? Or had Jenn somehow managed to kidnap her? Was his dad there, too? Could this be a pre-Jeffster's concert thing? He dialed Casey, again, trying to figure out what was going on.
"Bartowski, I am going to strangle…"
"Casey, before you come up with a lot of unique and painful ways to kill me, you should know that Sarah is with Jenn. Morgan just saw them. Casey, I think she's in trouble."
An audible Casey sized sigh could be heard on the other end. "I'll be there in two minutes." Before Chuck could respond, Casey had hung up.
Fifteen minutes later, Casey, Chuck, and a half-asleep Alex stopped in front of the Chinese restaurant. For the tenth time Chuck said, "You could have left Alex sleeping. She's a big girl…"
"Who might be in danger if SPI is trying to kidnap our agents," Alex finished for her dad. She yawned. "It's fine, Chuck. I usually stay in the van anyway, so I'll just go back to sleep, if you stop talking about me that is."
"Is that her, Bartowski?" Casey growled, pointing into the window of the restaurant. Casey, as usual, had parked in the perfect place; a dark, secluded alley with, ironically, the street-light out.
Chuck looked through his pair of binoculars, Casey and Alex copying his movements. "I don't know, I can't see her face very well. The waiter is blocking the table." Chuck released a huge sigh. "If she would have just told someone where she was going…"
"Don't go there, Chuck," Alex warned. "I'm sure there's an explanation for this."
Chuck's face hardened. "I'm sure there is, too. That's why I'm going to go find out what it is." He reached for the door handle, and almost got out of the car, but Casey grabbed his arm and yanked him back in.
"Where do you think you're going, Bartowski? You're not going to blow our cover," he hissed, motioning his head in the direction of the Chinese worker who had just come out of the building.
"But what if Sarah's…" Chuck was interrupted with Alex saying, "Look, it's Sarah!" She was all but hitting Chuck in the head with all the waving she was doing with her arms.
Casey and Chuck both turned to look. Sure enough, the blonde had turned to talk to the waiter, and she had unblocked the other person at the table. There sat Sarah, her face grim, looking as though there was nothing she'd like better than to hit her sister.
"We have to go get her!" Chuck said, trying to get out of the car again. Casey saw his hand go for the door handle, though, and he yanked him back yet again.
"There's nothing saying she's in trouble. She could just be having dinner with her sister. Did you clear it with the General that this wasn't Sarah's assignment?"
"Um, no, but…" Chuck started to grasp at straws when he saw Casey's face change to annoyance. "Why would Beckman send her in alone? Sarah's in trouble. Can't you see her face? She looks incredibly pissed!"
"Maybe her soup had a fly in it." Casey said. He looked at his wrist-watch. "We're not going in there unless there's immediate danger." He glanced back at Alex, "We being Chuck and me. You'll be staying in the van."
Alex snorted in annoyance, but didn't argue with her dad.
"My guess is she'll come out unscathed. We'll figure out what the heck she's doing in there then," Casey said.
Chuck looked unconvinced. He needed the backup, though, so he settled into his seat, eyes peeled on Sarah and the activity of the restaurant, waiting for an excuse to rescue Sarah.
Back in the restaurant, Daniel had left Jenn with Sarah at the table, but he was watching them closely from a corner table. Sarah had thought of trying to get out of there, but she knew if she did, she wouldn't get the answers she had come for.
"So you and Chuck. How long have you been together?" Jenn asked, casually, as if the whole thing was a friendly sit-down dinner.
Sarah scowled. "Does it really matter? I assume you know the answer already, since you knew about our relationship and the intersect." She nodded her head in Shaw's direction. "Does he know?"
Jenn smiled, pleasantly. "I have my secrets, from both Daniel and you, but no, Daniel doesn't know about Chuck. It's my hopes that, with your cooperation, he won't ever have to find out. Well, yours and Mr. Bartowski's cooperation of course."
"What does Mr. Bartowski have to do with any of this, Jenn? Sarah asked, keeping her voice low, but it was clipped with fury. Anyone else would have known that Sarah was way past 10 on her anger-level, but Jenn kept plodding through the conversation.
"Why, I thought you would have figured it out by now! That's half the reason I met you here tonight. You and your team weren't getting anywhere with the investigation." She made a pouty face. "It's no fun to be the bad guy if no one is looking for you."
"Enough of your riddles," Sarah said, frustrated. "Can you for just one minute, pretend that we're sisters and tell me what the heck is going on? I saw you buried, Jenn. They have a file saying you're a CIA agent. You kidnapped Chuck's father, and, apparently, you hang out with a bunch of rogue agents. Can you answer any of these questions? Or am I just wasting my time here?" Sarah started to stand up, intent on leaving, but she caught sight of Shaw watching them. Sarah didn't want to make a scene, so she sat back down.
A waiter came over with their drinks: water for Sarah and iced tea for Jenn. Sarah was silent as Jenn ordered for both of them. She sat back with a scowl; Sarah hated when people made decisions for her.
The silence seemed to spread out for an eternity. Finally, Jenn broke it, and sighed. "It was never supposed to be this way, Sammy. I joined the CIA for you. It was supposed to keep you out of it."
Sarah perked up, but then recoiled again. "What about mom? She is dead, right? Did you murder her in an attempt to fake your death?"
Jenn looked like she had been slapped. "No! Is that what you think? Mom and I were in a six-car pileup. She… Every time I close my eyes, I see her lifeless eyes staring at me in that car." She shook her head, clearing the memories. "Did you know the late Director Graham had been waiting for a moment to recruit you?" Sarah looked shocked.
She continued, "He knew you were good; you had been working directly with Dad for ages, and he assumed I had, too. Graham saw me in the hospital, minutes after I was brought in. It was his goal to collect both of us, and have us save the world together. He didn't tell me that, though. Graham promised you immunity. I traded myself to be an agent so that you wouldn't have to become one."
The waiter brought their food over, and Jenn thanked him. She daintily started to eat her food with chopsticks, marveling about how good it was. Sarah was feeling stomach-sick, so she just sat there and watched her sister eat.
Several minutes later, Jenn continued. "I was working with a top-secret project, the intersect. I was engrossed with it. If I hadn't been, I might have found out sooner that you had been recruited. I would have convinced you to get out of the program before you wasted your life in it, too. Did you know I was a prime candidate to have my memory enhanced? But no, that brainless Larson had to send it to your boyfriend. Boy was I mad…"
Jenn calmed herself down before saying, "It was about that time I realized you had become a full-out spy. I had spent too much time in the lab, and not enough time keeping tabs on you." She smiled, menacingly. "In the past few months, I found out more about you than you probably even know yourself."
Sarah balked. "Wait, you were supposed to get the intersect?"
Jenn scoffed. "I was. Before Larkin and Chuck came into the picture. The CIA screwed me over. I'm thankful they did, though, because now I know what I want." Jenn's smile made Sarah's blood run cold. "Revenge."