Secure Hangar
NAS Pt. Mugu, CA
Friday, July 15, 2006
2300 hours
"Excellent work team." Masden said over the video conference. "Harper is on a conference call now with the National Security Advisor and the head of MI-6 to find out what the hell the Brits were doing running an operation in Los Angeles without notifying us."
Chuck and the team had returned to the secure hangar at Pt. Mugu with their prisoners, who were immediately put into an office that had been cleared out and converted into a temporary holding cell. In the morning the team would turn them over to a rendition team (that Chuck had already vetted) who would transport them to a CIA black site where they would be incarcerated until they had been drained of all intelligence and then transferred to one of several designated prison facilities for dangerous, high-value targets.
"Have we identified the body?" Sarah asked.
"Not yet." Masden said. "Hopefully Harper will be able to get that information as well."
"Where's Casey and his team?" Chuck asked. He had expected them to be on the video conference as well. The standard procedure the team had set up was that the stand-by team would be present at all briefs and debriefs unless they were also in the field.
"They should be just about ready to touch down in Puerto Rico." Masden said. "San Juan police raided what they thought was Meth lab this morning; but instead of Meth, they found bomb making materials, Korans, and false passports."
"Do you need me to look over anything?" Chuck asked.
"No not yet Chuck." Masden said. "Casey and his team will probably need at least 12 hours to begin their investigation and get anything new. So for now, you're still on standby." Chuck nodded in understanding.
"Understood." Chuck said. "I'm assuming you want us back at Quantico once we hand off the prisoners?" Just then, Harper joined Masden on the screen.
"Negative, Chuck." Harper said. "Other than the Puerto Rico thing, nothing is on the immediate horizon. So take a few days to visit with your sister. The rest of you, play tourist. If we need you for anything, we'll call."
"Thanks boss." the team responded.
"Now, on to the matter of the MI-6 operative." Harper said. "Apparently MI-6 was tipped off about the plutonium by one of their informants in Tehran. They were able to intercept it when it landed in Los Angeles. At that point they decided to swap out the frame and deliver it to the gallery in hopes of capturing La Ciudad. Unfortunately, the agent who was watching the painting was ambushed and captured. A couple hours later, right before he was to check in, the safe house they had been using was hit and the rest of the team killed and the frame was taken. You know what happened after that."
"Why were they operating here without our knowledge in the first place?" Sarah asked.
"That's where it gets good." Harper said. "Apparently there's been some...concern on the part of our cousins across the pond concerning just how compromised our intelligence and law enforcement agencies are by Fulcrum. Same with our government. So naturally, they decided it would be better to follow the age-old adage of it's better to ask for forgiveness rather than permission."
As much as they hated to admit it, Chuck's team couldn't help but recognize the logic on the part of MI-6. Had the situation been reversed, it was probable that the U.S. would at least consider the same approach. Unfortunately, in this case it was a disastrous decision. Though ultimately the plutonium was recovered and La Ciudad captured, it had been a very near thing and it had cost the lives of five British agents.
"Can we assume that they'll be keeping us in the loop from now on?" Sarah asked. Harper grinned.
"You can say that." he responded. "Considering the ass chewing the President and the Prime Minister is giving them right about now."
Puerto Rico Police Department
San Juan, Puerto Rico
Friday, July 15, 2006
2330 hours
"Welcome to Puerto Rico, agents." Superintendent Pedro Toledo, head of the Puerto Rico Police Department said, acknowledging Casey, Carina, Alex, Jack, Frank, and Jennifer as they walked in. For purposes of this trip, the team was posing as FBI agents assigned to the National Security Branch (NSB). Casey reached out and shook the Superintendent's hand, and introduced his team.
"This is Inspector Garcia. He is heading up our task force." Toledo said, pointing to the man next to him.
"Agents." Inspector Garcia greeted. "We have an all-points bulletin out on the occupants of the home and elevated the island's alert level."
"Is the home secure?" Casey asked.
"Yes. We got three units sitting on the house at the moment. CSI has already dusted for prints and bomb disposal has taken away the bomb materials." Garcia said. "Do you want to see the scene tonight?" Casey looked at his watch.
"No, let's get a couple hours of shut eye, then we'll hit it in the morning." Casey responded. "Did you put together the info we wanted?" Garcia handed him a flash drive.
"Everything we have so far." Garcia responded. Casey turned and handed the flash drive to Jack.
"Make sure the data gets sent to headquarters." Casey ordered.
"You got it boss." Jack replied.
Maison23
Los Angeles, CA
Saturday, July 16, 2006
0930 hours
Sarah and Chuck had returned to their hotel room at 0500 after the team had turned their prisoners over to the prisoner transport team. They had immediately fallen asleep almost as soon as they hit the bed. Upon agreement with the rest of the team and Harper, the team would get a few hours' sleep, and then Chuck would participate in a video conference with Casey's team. Unless something came up, they would then be on R&R for the next three days.
Movement and sound from her left awoke Sarah. Looking over to the other side of the bed she saw Chuck thrashing slightly and making a sound that was half-way between a cry and a moan. It was clear that he was having a nightmare; Sarah had enough of her own to know the signs. She reached over and pulled Chuck into an embrace softly whispering in his ear.
"Shhhh. It's okay Chuck; you're having a nightmare. I've got you. Wake up baby." she said. After a few moments Chuck stilled and after a few more moments, his eyes opened.
"Thanks." he said, looking down, clearly embarrassed. Sarah reached over and brought his face back up using her hand, then kissed him gently.
"It's okay Chuck." Sarah said after she broke the kiss. "I still get nightmares occasionally. Do you want to talk about it?" Chuck sighed slightly and was silent a few moments. He knew he should talk about it but was reluctant to do so. He hated showing weakness in front of his fellow Marines and co-workers. One look in Sarah's eyes crumbled any resistance to sharing however. Her eyes had a mixture of understanding, caring, love, and insistence in them.
"It's been the same one I've been having for a while now. It's not all the time, just after certain combat situations." Chuck said, running his hand through his hair. "It started not long after I was first deployed to Afghanistan. There was a small village on the outer edge of the sector my unit was assigned to. They had been through the wringer under the Taliban and the people were glad we were there. With some help, they had begun building a school, a real one, one that even the girls could go to. A week after it opened, Taliban insurgents launched an attack on our base. Except that attack was a faint; their real target was the school. By the time we got word what was happening, it was too late." Chuck stopped talking and got a distant look. "They had rounded up the entire village and forced them to watch as they raped the girl students and then killed all of them. Then they killed the boys."
"Oh Chuck." Sarah said softly.
"All they wanted to do was live in peace and go to school." Chuck said, sorrow and anger in his voice. "Anyway, the first couple of weeks after that, it was like I could see the whole thing happening when I slept. Finally, the nightmares started to get fewer and fewer; talking to the unit Chaplain helped some. After a while, they disappeared completely. Then I got sent to Iraq. They didn't come back as bad, but anytime we had a particularly bad mission involving civilians, they would hit. When I got sent to OCS, they stopped. Until last night."
"The British agent." Sarah said, understanding.
"Yep. Though obviously the situation was different, it amounted to the same thing. Someone helpless being tortured and killed. On top of it, the realization what could have happened if I hadn't flashed. Who knows where that plutonium would have ended up." Chuck said.
"I know how you feel, Chuck." Sarah said. "Doing this job, more than once I've witnessed some pretty horrific things. And nightmares happen more than a lot of agents want to admit."
"Even you?" Chuck asked. Sarah nodded.
"Absolutely. Different ones at different times." Sarah said. "The one that happens the most concerns my first solo assignment. My Red Test." Chuck's eyes widened. Thanks to his combat record, when he was transferred to the team he had been cleared from having to take a red test. This was an agent's ultimate test, used to determine if they could take a life on their superior's orders.
"How do you handle it?" Chuck said.
"I didn't at first." Sarah said. "I just tried to shove my feelings down and stomp on them. I tried to pretend that the nightmares weren't happening. All that accomplished was turn me into a robot. Eventually it started affecting my performance. Then a friend and fellow agent forced me to confront it."
"Bryce?" Chuck asked. Sarah laughed.
"Are you kidding?" Sarah asked. "His idea of helping me was to tell me to suck it up or he'd have to report me as not being fit for field duty. No, believe it or not, it was Carina. I was loaned out to DEA for an operation, without Bryce. She noticed that something was off; after the mission was over, she forged a leave request from me, drugged me, and took me out into the middle of the Arizona desert for a long weekend. Then she forced me to talk about it. I guess I must have really wanted to talk about it; after all, I didn't kick her ass when I came to." Chuck laughed; he could almost picture Sarah assaulting the redhead.
"Bottom line Chuck; you can't bury this. You need to talk to someone. If you don't want to talk to me, Casey or one of the others have probably had similar experience. And nobody on this team would think differently of you because of it." Sarah said. "If you don't feel comfortable with one of the team, you could always use one of the Agency shrinks, or maybe that Chaplain you mentioned, assuming he's stateside."
"Father O'Brien? Yeah, he's stationed at the Naval Academy at the moment." Chuck replied. He leaned over and kissed Sarah. "Thanks for listening."
"Anytime Chuck. I love you. Your problems are now my problems." Sarah said.
Conference Room
Puerto Rico Police Department
San Juan, Puerto Rico
Saturday, July 16, 2015
1100 hours
"Inspector, allow me to introduce Charles Spencer, our Technical Analyst assigned to this investigation." Casey said, indicating to the screen where Chuck was displayed, using the agreed upon code name for him when the team was posing as FBI.
"Pleased to meet you Mr. Spencer." Inspector Garcia said.
"Any luck with the data we sent?" Jack asked. Chuck shook his head.
"Negative." Chuck responded. "I ran the information against our database, Homeland Security, DEA, hell I even reached out to a friend at CIA. None of the names on the passports or other papers or fingerprints are coming up."
"What about chatter?" Casey asked. Though Chuck's statement indicated nothing in the Intersect, they had to keep up appearances.
"Nothing. As far as all the Federal agencies are concerned there's nothing on the threat board." Chuck answered. "This is damn odd. All the usual suspect groups generally like to brag about upcoming strikes. So either they've changed their behavior, or we're dealing with a new group or it's a red herring."
"Ok. We're going to head out to the scene to see if we can find anything new." Casey said. Then he turned to the Inspector. "Anything from the airport or port?"
"No. We've beefed up our presence at both plus all the government buildings. We've put an APB out island wide as well and our Emergency Response Team is standing by, just in case." Inspector Garcia said.
Parking Lot
Burbank Buymore
Burbank, CA
Saturday, July 16, 2005
1200 hours
Sarah glanced at Chuck as she put the car in park. After Chuck's teleconference with Casey's team, the pair had headed over to the Buymore where Chuck's friend Morgan Grimes was the Assistant Manager, and where Chuck had worked in college. Sarah smiled; Chuck had been insistent that he introduce her to Morgan. From the stories Chuck had told her, he looked on Morgan as a surrogate brother and he was excited to introduce Sarah to him. After turning the car off, the pair got out and started walking towards the store. Both were wearing their Marine uniforms in keeping with their cover for the weekend. That way, when they were in the presence of Ellie later and the subject of their visit to the Buymore came up (as it surely would, given Morgan's habit of dropping in on Bartowski's family dinners) they could play it off as a lunchtime visit from work. As they walked, Chuck slipped his hand into Sarah's.
A few moments later they entered the store and were greeted by the sight of every male in the store, save one, staring intently at the Nerd Herd desk, ogling a delivery girl who seemed dressed to kill and not being discreet about her attempts to get attention. Another quick glance showed them that the lone male not watching the show was shoplifting. Chuck and Sarah exchanged quick glances, communicating silently. A moment later they split up as the man started heading for the exit.
Burbank Buymore
Burbank, CA
Saturday, July 16, 2005
1205 hours
Jeff Barnes and Lester Patel were in heaven. For the fourth day in a row, they had the luck of having the goddess of the Pita Parlour had been the one to deliver lunch. As usual the brunette beauty was in tight shirts and a white polo shirt at least one size to small with its buttons undone. The result was that from the moment she entered the store, every pair of male eyes was on her. And considering she was leaning over the Nerd Herd desk, Jeff and Lester had the best seats in the house, right down her shirt.
In point of fact, they were so engrossed in watching her, that they failed to notice a tall man nearby pocketing merchandise. After a few more moments, he made his way towards the exit. He got within a few steps when his path was blocked by a beautiful blonde in a Marine uniform.
"Going somewhere?" Sarah smirked. He was about to respond when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Turning around he saw a tall, lithe man also wearing a Marine uniform.
"It's not nice to shop without paying." Chuck said. "I think we should go see the manager with your partner over there." The man took a swing at Chuck, who ducked quickly and hit him with a punch to the stomach. He crumbled to the ground. By now the commotion had succeeded in breaking the spell that had been cast over the store by the delivery girl.
"What's going on here?" Lester asked.
"I'm saving your bacon again, Lester. I thought after almost five years you would've learned to do your job." Chuck said. Lester looked at him for a moment, not recognizing him.
"Chuck! What are you doing here?! What's going on?!" Morgan Grimes exclaimed, the commotion had drawn him out of his office. At this, Lester's eyes widened. Unlike Morgan, he had not seen Chuck since he left the Buymore to join the Marines. He had heard the stories that Morgan told, but he had never really believed them.
"Hi little buddy. Got a shoplifter here. Looks like his partner over there-" Chuck motioned to the Nerd Herd desk where Sarah now had the delivery girl in custody "-provided the distraction while he went shopping..." Morgan glanced over to the delivery girl, then at Jeff and Lester, as well as the other Green Shirts.
"Dammit guys!" Morgan exclaimed. "All of you get back to work. There will be a mandatory staff meeting after closing tonight." At this there was a loud groan. "And anybody who doesn't show shouldn't bother coming in for their next shift. They'll be fired!" With that the Buy More employees started drifting back to work. Sarah pushed the delivery girl I've to join her partner.
"What do you want to do with these two?" Sarah asked. Morgan looked at her a moment, obviously admiring her.
"I'll call the police." Morgan said. "If you just leave her with my friend here and I we won't take up anymore of your shopping time, Miss-"
"Uh, Morgan?" Chuck interrupted, "This is Sarah. My girlfriend." Morgan's eyes widen slightly, then shit Chuck a look of approval.
"Way to go, dude!" He exclaimed, raising his hand to give Chuck a high-five. Sarah giggled slightly at his antics.
"Morgan, perhaps it would be a good idea if we take care of these two-" Chuck said, pointing at the two sulking shoplifters, "-then we can catch up." Morgan looked slightly chagrined.
"Yeah, you're right. Follow me." He said and began walking to his office.
Burbank Buymore
Burbank, CA
Saturday, July 16, 2005
1230 hours
Almost a half-hour later, they had finished up turning the shop lifters over to the police and giving their statements.
"So, now that business is out of the way," Morgan said. "How about we go grab a bite to eat and you can fill me in on you and Sarah here?" Chuck and Sarah grinned.
"Sure. Our project's ahead of schedule so we can afford a long lunch." Chuck said.
"Great!" Morgan exclaimed, and then remembered something. "I'm supposed meet Alex for lunch in a couple of minutes. Do you mind a double date? If not, maybe we can catch up later?"
"Are you kidding?" Chuck said. "I can't wait to meet the famous Alex."
"Ok, let's take a walk over to the Orange Orange and get her." Morgan said, getting up from his desk.
After stopping to say hello to Big Mike, the manager of the Buymore who had just returned from lunch, the trio exited the store and headed across the parking lot towards the Orange Orange Yogurt frozen yogurt shop. When they approached the door, Morgan held it open for Chuck and Sarah.
"Thank you." Sarah said. Once inside, they spied a young woman in yoga pants and an Orange Orange tank top with her back turned toward the door doing something at the sink. She was about 5' 6" with long black hair in a ponytail style and a slim figure.
"Welcome to Orange Orange. I'll be right with you." She said.
"No problem Alex." Morgan said. "We'll wait." A moment later Alex turned around and walked out from behind the counter and came up to the trio. She gave Morgan a quick kiss on the lips.
"Are you going to introduce me to your friends?" Alex said, giving Chuck and Sarah a quick glance.
"Alex, I'd like you to meet by best friend, the one I told you about, Chuck Bartowski. And this is his girlfriend, Sarah-" Morgan started, then drifted off when he realized he hadn't gotten Sarah's last name.
"Walker." Sarah replied, holding out her hand to shake Alex's.
"Uh, right." Morgan said. "Guys, this is my girlfriend, Alex McHugh." Alex shot him a dark look. "Oh, sorry, babe. I'm still getting used to it. It's actually Alex Coburn now. McHugh was her stepfather's name and now that he and her mom got divorced, she's gone back to her biological father's name." Upon hearing Alex's last name, the original one, Chuck flashed. Luckily Morgan and Alex didn't notice, but Sarah did.
"Nice to meet you." Chuck said, holding out his hand to shake hers. "I hope you don't mind, but Sarah and I are in town for work and we thought we'd stop by over lunch to catch up with Morgan. He told us you guys had plans and asked us along." Alex laughed.
"Oh no its fine." Alex said. "I'll finally get to meet the infamous Chuck Bartowski. I'm dying to know if half the stories Morgan tells me were true or not." The quartet the moved toward the door and exited the store.
"You guys want to ride together?" Morgan asked.
"No can do little buddy." Chuck said. "Sarah and I will have to head back to Pt. Mugu right after lunch." Morgan's face fell slightly; clearly he had been hoping to spend more time with Chuck.
"We'll actually be in town until Tuesday. And since tomorrow's Sunday, we have the day off. Maybe we can all do something then?" Sarah said.
"Awesome." Morgan said. The group spent a few minutes deciding where to go for lunch, then separated and headed for their respective cars. As they got into their rental, Sarah turned to Chuck.
"What was that flash about?" Sarah asked.
"Morgan's girlfriend." Chuck said, grinning. Sarah looked at him confused; she couldn't understand why he would be grinning if he flashed on the girl.
"Why are you grinning then?" she asked.
"Because, when they mentioned her biological father's last name, it triggered on a personnel file for someone we know very well." Chuck said. "Alexander Coburn. Marine Recon Officer. Recruited by the NSA in the late 80s as part of an elite black ops unit. Was officially KIA in Honduras, but in reality given a new identity. Unknown to him, his fiancé at the time was pregnant."
"You said we know him?" Sarah asked, confused. Chuck nodded.
"Yep. Alexander Coburn became John Casey." Chuck replied. Sarah gasped.
"Are you sure?" she asked. Chuck pointed to his head.
"It's all in the Intersect." Chuck said.
"So Morgan is dating Casey's daughter; one he doesn't know about. And she think's he's dead." Sarah said. "What are we going to do about it?"
"Not sure." Chuck responded. "I guess the question is, do we think Casey would want to know? And second, but equally as important, would Alex want to know her dad is alive after all this time?"
