A/N-No one got my reference to Clancy's series? Sad face.

Oh and the title of this chapter was actually the original fic title.

Chapter 9- Some things never change

Echo turned to his team as they finished dragging the bodies to the end of the hallway, "I want to warn you about something. Bartowki will hopefully have uploaded the new Intersect and in that case you are under no circumstances to point your weapons at Agent Walker. Do not threaten her in any way or it may activate against you and that's a world of pain you don't want to be in."

"That geek is going to kick one of our asses? I don't think so."

"He won't the Intersect will. Now we need to keep this hallway clear to cut the chatter."

***

The elevator doors parted and Sarah was out and securing the level before they had the time to finish opening. Bryce was out right after her, backing her up. She was racing towards the room, she'd memorized the plans. As she rounded the corner, far faster than someone with her training should have, she found herself on the wrong side of four heavily armed operatives. She and Bryce skidded to stop raising their weapons, despite the fact that they were by far outgunned and outnumbered. "This is a secure government facility put your weapons down and identify yourselves." Bryce ordered, Sarah certainly didn't trust her voice she was barely keeping her hands from shaking. This is where Chuck should be and he wasn't, unless he was one of the bodies those people were standing in front of. As her agent instincts kicked in she realized that none of the guns were actually pointed at her, they were all aimed at Bryce. She hoped it would prove to be an advantage she could use of some kind.

Chuck felt good about his decision as he stuck the device he'd been given to destroy the Intersect into it. A moment later it activated and removed any chance he had of changing his mind. Considering the death that surrounded him in this building he knew he had done the right thing. He opened the door and looked to see who was there ready to close it if they weren't friendly. He flashed, it was a long and violent one.

A Cube

A White Rose

Parliament

Wall Street

A square

A dead man with an axe lodged in the back of his head

Bank statements, asset holdings, shell corporations

A hyper-cube

Associated personnel and organizations.

A list of speculated activities: Assassinations, bombings, kidnappings

Speculated objective

Possible technological involvement: OCIW, J-UCAS, Boomerang, CALO, XOS, investigations pending on numerous other projects including the Intersect project.

A Cube

He gasped as his flash finished and stumbled forward into the hallway. "You're in the new Intersect. I know you work for the cube."

"Chuck!" He heard the shocked gasp from behind him. As he turned he realized that the four team members that he'd arrived with had their weapons up and aimed at the other end of the hallway.

There stood Sarah and Bryce, the latter still aiming his weapon at the group Chuck had positioned himself between. Sarah had lowered her weapon the moment Chuck entered her line of fire. "Sarah? What are you doing here?"

"We're here to rescue you." She felt silly saying it, they were outgunned and obviously were in no position to rescue him. That feeling was stopped dead in its tracks as her eyes met his. It took every ounce of restraint she had to avoid running to him and holding onto him, to make sure that he was physically there and wasn't just another figment of her imagination. Her heart dropped as she noticed the state his face was in. He had a black eye, and his nose was bandaged.

Chuck's head spun around to face the four Cube operatives and then back to Sarah and Bryce. "I know you spies like guns and all that, but could you please not point them at each other with me in the middle!"

Sarah watched as everyone glanced at each other and then slowly lowered their weapons. It turned out to be a big mistake. As they continued to look at each other unsure of what to do now that they had lowered their weapons a surviving Ring agent calmly walked around the corner.

In her right arm she grasped a pistol, in her left a knife. She knew that the few remaining agents in the building were moving to meet her as fast as possible, but she didn't have the time to wait for them. She needed to either kill or capture the Intersect immediately. She was behind two agents, and she quickly determined that the blonde was far more distracted than her partner. She advanced on her leveling her pistol at the blonde's head.

Chuck saw the glint of metal from the pistol and for the second time that night flashed. It was a flash like he'd never experienced before, rather than just getting information he saw odds, actions, results, and he felt his body moving.

Sarah watched in amazement as Chuck ran and closed the distance between the closest operative to him. She couldn't believe it. He's going with them? How can he betray me? Betray US like this? She saw his hand dart down on the woman's thigh. No…No…No he can't be with her, he's supposed to be with me.

Alpha Two was shocked as Chuck approached her in a eyes met hers, but they were unlike any she had ever seen they were far colder than what she was accustomed to seeing. What is he doing? Then she saw it, he'd been obscuring her view of the Ring agent. Then she felt his hand grazing her thigh. No there's no way he's going to try and do THAT? Not now. She felt his hand reach its intended target and nearly jumped. Chuck I hope you know what you're doing, because if you screw this up…

I hope I know what I'm doing. He felt the cold metal in his hand. He yanked her sidearm out of its holster and gave her a quick smile. The Intersect knows what I'm doing, it won't screw up…I hope. He spun around and the Intersect acquired its target the moment she entered visual range. Chuck saw the numbers it was calculating. It took data from every nerve and sensor in his body and had calculated exactly where it needed to aim. He felt his body squeeze the trigger and the bullet went on its way. Please be right Intersect. The distance between Sarah, Bryce, and his target did not leave much room for error.

He's shooting at me! This doesn't make sense! Stockholm syndrome could maybe account for him going to whoever she is, but shooting me? Or Bryce? Or anyone? It's Chuck he doesn't hurt people. The bullet whizzed past her and hit its target. She saw him breathe a sigh of relief and then return the gun sheepishly to its owner. Sarah turned around and was shocked to see the dead Ring agent. "Chuck?" She asked turning back to him.

She could tell by the look of shock on his face that he was still in there, "It's the new Intersect Sarah it…it apparently gives me the ability not only to flash on data, but on I guess abilities as well. Good thing to I guess, because no one else was ready to protect you."

She was relieved, he was still Chuck; he just happened to have a computer that apparently gave him the ability to act on the Intel he got.

"What's the code to the room Chuck?" Bryce asked. She could tell he wanted to go upload it himself.

"I already destroyed it, no need to go in there." Bryce looked disappointed, but quickly recovered.

"So uh what are we going to do?" He said looking between Echo and Sarah.

Echo took charge, "You're going to go with Agent Walker and Agent Larkin we have our own ride out of here."

"You broke into a government facility and kidnapped the Intersect I don't think we're going to let you off that easily."

"They're not the enemy."

"How do you know that?" Bryce asked, Sarah seemed to trust him enough that she didn't need him to explain himself.

He tapped his head, "They're in here and they aren't Fulcrum."

Bryce raised his weapon again, "Chuck Fulcrum isn't the only bad organization there's the—"

"The Ring I know. These guys are safe let them go."

"Bryce we have Chuck we're good let's get out of here before they decide to start shooting us."

Bryce didn't look happy, but he turned and stalked off to the elevator.

"Chuck do you remember what we discussed?"

"Yeah I'll remember. Oh do you have my iPhone?"

Sierra tossed it to him. "Good luck Chuck."

He nodded and headed over to Sarah. "Can we go home?"

She opened her mouth to respond when Bryce reappeared around the corner followed by a couple of gunshots. "Looks like she brought some friends." He said as he turned and fired of two rounds in response.

Chuck felt the Intersect activating again. Alpha tossed him her sidearm and he caught it midair and followed the four operatives down the hall towards the danger. Sarah followed him in shock, he was acting like an agent; what had happened to him during their separation?

"We'll handle them. You guys stick behind us."

Sarah didn't really listen to him, but tagged after Chuck who was following orders. Sarah didn't notice the hand signals being issued by the team and Chuck. She dumbly followed him "Sarah I need you to focus okay? We are definitely talking when this is over, but we need to get out of here alive before we can do that." The Intersect laced his speech with an unemotional professionalism that served to wake her up.

Get your head in the game Agent Walker Chuck; the guy who falls in love with his handler and screams when guns are around is acting more professional than you are. What is wrong with you? You don't act unprofessional. She shook her head and attempted to refocus. She noticed the other team stacking up around the corner and preparing some kind of grenade. Chuck was holding her further back on the opposite wall covering them.

The team tossed the grenade around the corner and after the flash and bang they followed it around the corner. She heard the sounds of gunfire followed by return gunfire. She was ready to jump into action when she saw Chuck furiously typing on his wrist computer. He plunged the entire floor into darkness right on queue. Chuck's team was prepared for this; they took cover and waited for him to turn the lights back on. The Ring agents were, fortunately, not aware of the plan and fell for it. They also took cover and began equipping their night vision goggles. With the lights off they had an advantage over the team. Chuck had planned for this and was already in position on the corner. The Intersect had calculated the most likely locations of the Ring agents, he turned and put bullets into those locations. The third and sixth shots hit someone and he was rewarded with a grunt of pain before he was forced to dive back behind the wall to escape the coming blinding light and the hail of bullets the Ring agents sent towards his former location.

As Chuck jumped back to where Sarah and Bryce were waiting, alternating between anger at him fighting without them and shock at him fighting. The mistake of night vision equipment was just about to become evident when Chuck heard a female scream of pain. He immediately reactivated the lights and hoped that he'd given enough time for the Ring agents to get equipped. When Chuck turned the lights on full blast the night vision goggles amplified the light 40,000 times and temporarily blinded them. A few screams told him that he had timed it correctly. That provided his team with the needed advantage, and they cleaned them up quickly while they were distracted. "Clear," they all reported in and then Chuck led Sarah and Bryce back to the elevator.

"Wait who screamed?"

"I took a shot to the vest, hurt like a bitch, but I'll be fine." Sierra answered.

Chuck turned to the team lead, "Good luck Echo. Don't worry I'll remember what we discussed." He said as the elevator doors closed separating Chuck from his former kidnappers turned prospective employers.

Bryce was already on his cell phone, "Chuck we can't really let them escape."

"There's only two exits."

"They've got a helicopter coming to pick them up they won't be using any exits."

"NSA strike team says they're arriving now hopefully it was soon enough." Bryce said still slightly angry that they were going to get away. He didn't like to lose.

Sarah ignored him and focused on Chuck, "Ready to go home?"

Chuck smiled at her slipping his arm around her. They were safe at last. She wanted to just collapse into him and let out her emotions, but with Bryce occupying the same elevator she couldn't. As they emerged on the second floor and then made their way down to the first floor they encountered the NSA team led by Casey.

"Walker looks like you got your boyfriend back."

She glanced at Chuck; she was seriously considering admitting it. She had been to emotional hell and back and now just wanted to have him hold her, she wanted Chuck to make her feel safe and damn the consequences.

"Great job protecting me Casey I was only kidnapped from my bed."

"Well Bartowski maybe if you and Walker hadn't decided to remove all the cameras—" He stopped as the he caught sight of the third team member tagging behind them. His hand itched towards his gun, and he tried to kill him with a glare.

"They're still here, we have to get to the roof before their helicopter arrives." Larkin said meeting Casey's death glare.

Casey grunted and signaled his team to follow Larkin as they ran off to capture the other team.

Sarah gazed up at Chuck, "Shouldn't we go after them?"

"We?"

She looked at him, "I saw your moves back there, thanks by the way, but considering what you did I don't think you're going to have to stay in the car anymore, not that you ever did."

They shared a smile, "Do I need to get debriefed or anything or can I go home?"

She ran her hand up to his injuries, testing them, seeing how much pain he was in. "I don't think Ellie will appreciate you coming home early and in your condition, so you'll be staying with me for a few days."

"Oh." His face fell and she tried to not be hurt. He obviously wanted to see his sister and future brother-in-law, but the fact that spending a few days with her seemed to disappoint him hurt.

He noticed her slightly stiffen and saw her agent mask return. He realized how he seemed to react, "Oh no Sarah, no it's I just wanted to see Ellie and Devon again, make you they're okay. I'm sure we'll have fun, I mean it's you, you always find something fun to do. You have to do something to pass the time in between missions somehow and I'm sure that you've got some interesting stories about your missions, but I guess that's all classified and I did promise that we could talk although I know you don't really—"

She laid a finger across his lips, "Chuck you're babbling." She said removing her finger which was promptly replaced by her lips in a quick chaste kiss. "And I think I can come up with a few different ways to keep us entertained; if you're up to the task that is." She directed them over to a SUV.

"I'm taking the asset home." She explained to the driver as she flashed him her credentials. She indicated him to get out and handover the vehicle and he dutifully complied.

As she started the drive back to her hotel she reached out onto the console searching out his hand. She gave him a quick smile and sped off. He looked out the window as a black helicopter took off from the roof, headed towards LAX. "I hope I never have to see you guys again." He whispered against the window before turning back to his beautiful girlfriend/handler.

***

LAX

"I trust you didn't encounter any trouble from the NSA?" Orion asked as the team entered the corporate jet.

"I don't think any of them have even heard the name Orion let alone have any idea what I look like." He poured the team a round of drinks. "My son? Its out right?"

"He uploaded the new Intersect." Echo said taking the scotch and downing it in one gulp.

"You better not have forced him, you know what I'll do if you did."

"I didn't, check the surveillance footage." He settled back into the comfortable seats as his subordinates attempted to catch a few hours of sleep in the back.

"Where's the LA team?"

"Hospital, no word on causalities."

"Are you coming or staying? We'd prefer it if you come with us, it'd make Chuck's adjustment much easier."

"Adjustment?" Orion swallowed the remains of his drink and poured himself another. This didn't sound good to him.

"Your son will be joining us soon."

"Looks like I'm going to Hereford than."

***

She tucked herself into him still reveling in the aftermath of their union. She smiled at him, "I trust you were sufficiently entertained?" She asked playfully tracing her fingers up his opposite arm. I know I was.

She regretted the statement as soon as she saw his reaction. She knew that he thought she had done this as either part of her job or that it was just casual meaningless sex. "No…No Chuck no I didn't mean it like that." Why do I always have to say the wrong thing?

He looked at her, his face a mixture of hurt, awe, and forgiveness. "I…This…This isn't just a onetime thing for me Chuck. I…I…I," she looked up trying to articulate how much she cared about him with her eyes, since words had failed her, when she saw amusement in his eyes. "What?" He better not be baiting me, I get enough of that from Casey I don't need it from my…

"I think this is the most you've ever talked about your feelings and I'm just kind of surprised I figured you'd be beating yourself up and trying to use what happened to kill our relationship." That was stupid and mean. Why the hell did I just tell her that? She didn't deserve it even if the thought did cross my mind. Please don't clam up Sarah I screwed up, but please don't.

Chuck! No. Please don't hate me for the past. I know why you might think that, but I thought I proved to you that everything has changed tonight. She was struck by the brutal honesty of his words, although it was 100% Chuck to be that honest, but she that it was deserved. She knew she needed to rectify that, "Chuck…Chuck I…I—"

That was stupid Chuck don't force her let her move this at her own pace. "Sarah it's okay I know talking is difficult, it's ok."

Why does he always have to be so caring and considerate? "No Chuck it's not. You deserve to know that…That I love you."

Han Solo or Chuck Bartowski? Which response would she appreciate more? "I love you too Sarah. No covers no lies, just you and me." I think she'll appreciate me.

She leaned up and kissed him. His mouth was more than willing under hers, but before she deepened she pulled back. "Ready for round two?" I know I am.

If the smile that filled his face, the twinkle in his eyes didn't answer her his flipping them over and the hot trail of kisses down her neck, shoulders, and breasts did. Ready.

A/N- The reason for Bryce's different attitude towards the new Intersect from the series is that he is unaware of all the abilities the new one has. So he hasn't really seen anything bad or dangerous about it.

I hope those NVG numbers were right, I got them off an NVG info site but I don't know enough about them to know if I read the chart correctly.

Yes I am that uncreative with naming things that I chose another simple geometric shape. If we never heard about the Ring and were just left with fulcrum they probably would have been named pulley or something like that. I actually wanted to call them The Hyper-Cube, but that name just doesn't have a good ring. Oh and here's the picture I was thinking of for it [the hyper-cube] as there are different interpretations of it since we can't actually see higher dimensionality shapes. If you got the historical references it obviously has nothing to do with the Intersect cube.

.com/hypercube/hypercube.

Don't worry that's probably the most science you'll have to actually know for my Chuck fics.

I believe the programs that were part of the flash are/were actual projects I would have found more, but DARPAs site wasn't being too friendly when I tried it (although it was very friendly a couple months ago strange) so I had to really on wikipedia ugh. J-UCAS I do know was though.

OCIW- Was a program that was supposed to replace the M16/M4 included in it was the XM8.

J-UCAS- Was a program designed to produce a UCAV. Originally the X-47 Pegasus was going to be included in an earlier chapter, but I dropped it and a few other minor plot lines (You guys didn't want to hear about budget reports did you?)

Boomerang- A system designed to locate the position of enemy shooters.

CALO- An AI project.

XOS- An exoskeleton project.

Woot got another Clancy reference in this chapter you guys get this one? And I figured you waited long enough for Charah hope I didn't disappoint too much.

Sorry the combat was once again pretty one sided, but they did have Intersect 2.0 helping them out.

Oh please review, this is the last regular chapter just an epilogue to go and I'd really appreciate any feedback so I can try and fine tune it to what you guys will like most.

And that's the end of the way to long Author's note.