Here's Chapter 13! I probably should have made this a part of chapter 12, but, I didn't write it until today, but, anyway, I hope you enjoy it!
Still don't own Chuck!
Bond, Bartowski's, Bond
Chuck followed Jamie down the stairs. At the bottom was a vault about the size of a small bedroom. When Chuck entered the room, Jamie had already pulled a box off the shelf and was flipping through the stack of papers that it contained.
"What is that?" Chuck asked.
"I don't know, Chuck; that's what I'm trying to figure out." Just then she pulled a manila envelope out of the box. She opened it and pulled out a stack of plastic sheets, about the size of a standard piece of printing paper. They had holes cut in them, like they were supposed to fit over something. She squinted and studied them carefully. "Chuck, go get that binder that you were looking at."
Chuck ran up the stairs and grabbed the binder. When he got back to the vault, he handed it to her. She place one of the plastic sheets over a page. "Nope," She said, shaking her head, "this isn't it." She looked up. "I thought that this binder held codes or something within his agriculture notes, but I was wrong."
"Is there anything I can do to help?" Chuck asked.
Jamie took a deep breath, and then sighed, she looked at him, her eyes pleading, and she was still shaking her head, "Does the phrase, 'Twelve Keys' mean anything to you?"
Now it was Chuck's turn to shake his head, "Nope."
Jamie bit her lip in apparent contemplation, and then spoke, "Okay, um, just, start spitballing, Chuck, what could it possibly mean?"
Chuck still didn't have a clue what was going on, but he started throwing out ideas, "Twelve keys to, like maybe a combination lock or something?"
Jamie looked skeptical, "No, I don't think that's it."
"Maybe its twelve steps, like a twelve-step program. Or maybe something like, 'Twelve keys to success'."
Jamie chuckled, "No Chuck, that's not it." Then an idea came to her, "Chuck, there is a book up there that has our answers. I know you're super smart, so could you go up there and figure it out for me, please?"
"I really don't know what I'm looking for," he argued. "You still haven't told me what you're doing, exactly."
Jamie shrugged, "Like I said, you're super smart. I'm sure you'll find what I'm looking for."
Chuck realized that there was no getting around this one, so he trudged back up the stairs. He stood in front of the bookshelf and stared at it. They were mostly books on farming and such, which Chuck thought was completely strange for a sophisticated CIA agent from Washington D.C. "Okay, Chuck, which of these things doesn't belong?" He muttered to himself. The problem was that none of these books belonged.
He scanned the rows. Suddenly his eyes lighted on something. Right in the middle of all of the agriculture books, was a book on the history of Classical Music. "Now that's something that I would believe that a CIA agent would spend his time reading," he mumbled, picking it up and flipping through the pages. Suddenly he realized that there were several books on music, strategically placed throughout the many other reading materials. Then it came to him, it wasn't what didn't belong as much as it was what did. He traced his finger down the spine of each music book, counting them. There were twelve. As quickly as he could he gathered the books up and rushed down the stairs.
Jamie looked up when she heard Chuck drop the books on the counter. "What the frak…" She trailed off.
"Twelve keys!" He exclaimed, out of breath, "There are twelve keys in a chromatic scale."
Jamie walked over to the stack of books. Her forehead furrowed as she looked through them, "You know, you might be on to something." She gave him a small smile, "Good work, Chuck."
Chuck looked at his watch… He couldn't believe the time. It was 6:45 am.
"Holy…"
"What?"
"It's almost 7 o'clock!"
Jamie flew out of her seat and grabbed Chuck's hand, "Come on," she said as she started up the stairs. She closed the vault door, put the picture back where it was supposed to be, once again grabbed Chuck's hand and rushed out the door. Instead of turning toward the elevator, she started running toward the exit."
"Wait, where are we going?"
"To pick up doughnuts. We need a believable explanation for why we were gone."
Twenty minutes later, they walked through the apartment door, talking and laughing. Ellie was sitting on the couch in her bathrobe. Jamie and Chuck immediately shut up when they saw the icy glare in her eyes. "Where have you been?"
Chuck lamely held up the bakery box. "Doughnut?"
"It took you over an hour to get doughnuts? I've been up since five-thirty."
Chuck looked at Jamie, who chuckled nervously, "Neither Chuck nor I could sleep, so around five we decided to take a walk around the apartment building, then around six we decided to go get some doughnuts, and you would not believe the traffic!" She glanced at Chuck, "Right Chuck?"
Chuck nodded his head, "Yeah, especially for that early in the morning."
"So then," Jamie continued, "The doughnut shop that I used to go to when I lived here had closed down, so Chuck and I had to find another place."
Ellie seemed satisfied with that answer, as she said nothing and walked over to the bakery box, grabbed a doughnut and took a bite. Chuck and Jamie breathed a sigh of relief.
"So what are we gonna do today?" Ellie asked her mouth full.
"Well," Jamie replied, "I was thinking that we could drive around, you know, see the sights."
"Sounds good to me." Ellie said as she popped the last of her doughnut into her mouth, "What do you think, Chuck?"
Chuck was sitting on the couch and had been staring into space, contemplating the events of last night, "Huh? What?"
"What do you think about what Jamie just said?"
"Uh yeah sure, whatever's fine, but nothing with custard? I don't feel like this is a custard morning." He answered absentmindedly.
Jamie and Ellie looked at each other like Chuck was crazy.
"What? What did I do?'' Chuck asked defensively when he noticed their suspicious stares.
"It's what you didn't do, Chuck, and that's pay attention," Ellie chided as she handed him a doughnut.
Chuck was entirely clueless as to what was going on, and his face showed it. His sisters couldn't help but laugh at the bewildered look on his face.
Chuck threw his hands up, "I don't get what's so funny."
Finally, their laughter subsided and they were able to explain everything to him. He found very little humor in the situation, and ended up playfully throwing his half-eaten jelly-filled Bismarck at Jamie's face. Her initial expression was one of shock, until Ellie threw her coffee at Chuck (thankfully, the couch was leather!). Chuck then quickly jumped over the back of the couch and toward the kitchen. He grabbed a handful of flour out of a canister and threw it at Jamie and Ellie. It turned into a full-fledged food fight, with Jamie and Ellie against Chuck. Doughnuts, Tomatoes, splashes of coffee, and many other food items graced the walls and floor of Jamie's apartment. Finally, Jamie made her way to the refrigerator, and pulled out an egg. Chuck froze when he turned his head and saw it.
Jamie gave him a cold smile, "I haven't been here in two months, Chuck, so this egg is probably rotten. If I were you, I'd give up now."
Chuck turned around fully and put his hands up, "Alright," he panted, "I give up."
"Good," Jamie nodded, walking over to Ellie and giving her a high-five and handing her the egg. Ellie turned toward Chuck, who was standing about five feet away. Now it was her turn to smile coldly, "Aw, what the hell!" She threw the egg at him full-force, hitting him square in the middle of his chest. He looked at his shirt, then back up at her, completely mortified.
"Please tell me you did not just do that." He said through gritted teeth.
"Oh you better believe I did!"
"You are so going to pay!" He screeched, rushing toward her. He tackled her down on the floor and began tickling her. Ellie screamed and squirmed. Jamie could have used use her kung fu skills to stop him, but opted not to in front of Ellie. After all, Chuck wasn't going to kill her. She just stood by and laughed so hard that she got side stitches.
Finally Ellie had had enough, "Okay, stop! Please, I'm sorry!" She pleaded.
Chuck decided to have a little mercy, and let her get up, but then he promptly walked over to the refigerator, seized the bottle of ketchup, and walked back over to her.
"Oh you wouldn't…" Jamie started to say, seeing the horrified look on Ellie's face
"Oh I would," He laughed with a false evil tone in his voice. He then took the cap off and squirted ketchup all over Ellie's head.
Ellie stood there, her mouth hanging open in shock as the ketchup dripped down her face. Then closed her mouth and twisted it into a crooked smile, "You win."
"Yessss!" Chuck threw his arms up in victory.
Just then, Chuck's phone started ringing, It was Sarah. he answered it,
"Hey honey"
"Hi Chuck," Sarah said, "How's it going?"
"Pretty good. Ya know, we're just enjoying some good, clean bonding." Chuck opted not to tell her about the food fight, although she might have thought that it was hilarious, he figured that it should be kept a Bartowski secret.
"Well good." Sarah replied, " I just wanted to call and say good morning. I miss you."
"I miss you too. I'll be home soon."
"I hope so. I should tell you that Morgan made me supper last night."
"Really?'' Chuck responded.
"Yeah, and he promised me breakfast this morning AND give me a ride to work." Sarah laughed.
"What happened to your car?" Chuck inquired.
"Nothing. He is just taking this role of 'taking care of best friend's girlfriend while best friend is out of town' quite seriously." She answred, still laughing.
"I guess so!" Chuck chuckled. "Hey, sweetie, I'd love to talk more, but I'm kind of in the middle of something. "I'll call you later, okay?"
"Okay," Sarah replied, "I love you."
"Love you too, Cant wait to see you. Bye"
"Bye, Chuck."
Chuck, Ellie and Jamie spent most of the rest of the day cleaning up after themselves. When they finished, they realized that sightseeing that day was pretty much out of the question, so they decided to just talk and then maybe watch a movie.
As the three of them sat on the couch that night watching the movie, Jamie was smiling to herself. She was so happy, she wanted to scream and jump up and down. She had a family again, and she hoped to God that her mission to find Reed's killer would not screw that up. On the other hand, she hoped that her family would not screw up her chance to find Reed's killer.
Chuck, too was deep in thought, What was Jamie up to? What was Intrepid, and what was the significance of the twelve keys? He needed to find out, and there seemed to be nothing in the intersect about it. He was starting to get worried, Jamie was up to something; something that could lead to her downfall as a spy, and he needed to stop it, but he didn't know how. Sarah would know, but this was a delicate situation, and bringing her into it may ruin the trust that Jamie had developed for him. No, he needed to figure this one out for himself.
You know the drill… REVIEW!
