A/N: As you may have guessed from the ending of the previous chapter, this is where the plot begins to thicken. One more time, I feel that I have to thank all of you for your comments and encouragement.

Chapter 17

The computer booted up in a very short time. Apparently there was only one program installed in addition to what looked like a proprietary Orion operating system. Chuck tapped the icon on the screen with a finger.

"WELCOME TO THE INTERSECT"

"Intersect? What's that?" Sarah asked.

"Beats me, but I sure want to find out." He tapped the screen again.

"ACTIVATE KEY FOR UPLOAD? (RECOMMENDED) Y _ N"

"Yes," he said and tapped the 'Y'.

"DO YOU WISH TO ACCESS ALL FILES? Y _ N"

Chuck again chose yes.

"LOADING" A progress bar appeared and began filling. When the program loaded "INITIALIZE" appeared on the screen. Chuck tapped on the word. The brightly lit room went dark for a few seconds. Then the wall in front of them lit up with a most impressive display. Thousands upon thousands of pictures were projected on it.

"Oh boy," Chuck stammered. "Look at this."

"It's beautiful," added an equally impressed Sarah. Instinctively, her hand sought his and they held hands as they gazed spellbound at the rapidly alternating images.

"I can't take my eyes off of it," he commented.

"Yes, it's… mesmerizing. And the pictures are beautiful, too."

Their eyes were riveted to the wall as the display continued on and on.

Meanwhile, Stephen had just tried for the tenth time to call his son. "He's not answering."

"Try calling Sarah. Maybe she can tell us what he's up to," Mary suggested helpfully.

"Good idea, honey. I'll do just that." He immediately dialed Sarah's number. "She's not answering her issued phone either. I'll try her personal number." But try as he might, he was still getting no answer to his calls. "Something is very wrong here. I know them both and neither goes anywhere without a phone."

"Maybe they have them on silent. Or they could be getting naughty."

Stephen smiled. "How I hope so. As his father, not his boss," he immediately clarified.

"I wonder what kind of lame excuses they'll come up with when they notice all the missed calls."

"Kind of reminds me of the time we started dating," he chuckled. "You couldn't keep your hands off of me."

"As I recall, neither could you."

"I still can't," he laughed and pulled his wife in for a kiss.

"Stephen! Not here. At least wait until we're in your office."

"Killjoy."

Nevertheless, they were laughing as they entered his spacious office. Even the massive desk, the huge display and videoconference setup and the shelves filled with books and various items of computer hardware that were lining the walls along with pictures, paintings and awards didn't seem to take up much space.

Mary was the first to notice that something might be wrong. "Stephen, your computer is flashing."

"Huh?" He moved to check it out. "OH CRAP!"

"Is something wrong?"

"The Intersect has somehow been activated. No, scratch the somehow, I know exactly what happened."

"You don't mean…?"

"Unfortunately, that's exactly what I mean." He took off running for his clean room, Mary following behind. He punched in his access code and entered the airlock.

"Look, the kids' cell phones are here!"

"I saw them," he replied tersely. The door to the main chamber opened and they rushed inside.

The sight that greeted them had them both a little worried. Chuck was lying on the floor, flat on his back, while Sarah had fallen on top of him. "UPLOAD COMPLETE" was flashing on the terminal's screen and projected on the wall.

"Are they going to be all right?"

"I'll check. You call Hartley and tell him to get his ass up here on the double." He checked Sarah first. Her breathing was normal, as was her pulse, if a bit on the fast side. Chuck's condition was identical.

"Hartley's on his way," Mary informed her husband. "I told them to meet us in Chuck's office."

"Then we should take them there." He effortlessly picked Sarah up and carried her to Chuck's office, where he laid her very gently on the couch. His son was much heavier, so he and Mary had to drag him out of the clean room and into his office. Soon, he was next to his girlfriend on his couch. Hartley came running shortly afterwards.

"Mary told me to drop everything and come up here," he said. "What's the rush?"

"See for yourself."

"Charles? And the beautiful Ms. Walker from Marketing? What happened to them?"

"They stuck their noses where they shouldn't have. They uploaded the Intersect."

"Bugger."

"Precisely."

Hartley began examining them. "Well, they look fine."

"I'll check the upload log. They should be okay, if they activated the Key before starting the upload process."

Stephen and Mary were still going over the logs when Chuck came to. "Holy crap," were the first words he uttered.

"You're awake? Good," his mother said, fixing him with a steely glare.

"I sense a lecture coming, but can it wait until I've had some aspirin? My head feels like it's about to explode. And why am I in my office?" Then he saw his girlfriend next to him. Hartley was checking her pulse. "Is Sarah all right?"

"Take it easy there, Charles," Hartley told him.

"How is she?" Chuck insisted.

"Same as you," Stephen replied. "Seriously, what were you thinking? But I should know better. Ever since you were a kid, you couldn't help playing with my toys."

"My head," Sarah whined without opening her eyes. When she did, she noticed Stephen, Hartley and Mary, who had just entered carrying a bottle of aspirin. "Why am I feeling hung over?"

"You'll feel better soon." Mary shook some pills onto Sarah's palm and then gave some to Chuck, before opening the mini fridge in the office and handing each of them a bottle of water. "Take your aspirin and then we'll talk."

"I remember Chuck and me looking at a fancy computer system in a clean room."

"Please tell me they didn't upload the other file," Hartley practically begged.

"I'll have to do some more checking. I added it to the system, but Chuck may have not selected it for upload," Stephen replied.

"Oh well, at least we may have that going for us. Graham will be pissed if they uploaded it."

"What does the CIA have to do with this Intersect?" Chuck asked.

"We are asking the questions here," his mother cut him off. "Why on earth didn't it occur to you to ask your father or me before even thinking about turning this thing on? Don't you know that curiosity killed the cat?"

"And it's the second time he did it, too," Stephen added.

"You never told me about it," Mary said suspiciously.

"It was nothing. I had just finished one of the first test versions back then. He was eight years old at the time and you were somewhere in Europe. I'd left the door to my workshop open and he sneaked inside."

"Did he turn it on?"

"Yes. Fortunately, all I had in the computer at the time were some harmless files."

"What were those files about?" Mary insisted.

"Just some light stuff I was trying on myself."

"YOU UPLOADED IT?"

"Mom, can you please keep it down? My head still hurts."

"Shut up, Chuck. Stephen, I demand an explanation. You're in enough hot water as it is, and be careful about what you're going to say next, because it will determine how many nights you'll be spending on the couch."

"Looks like our Moms hand out the same standard punishment for our Dads' transgressions," Sarah whispered to Chuck. He tried to stifle a laugh and mostly succeeded. The last thing he needed was to get back to being the focus of his mother's wrath.

"We were testing it at the time, to see if upload to a human host using subliminally retained imagery was feasible. Hartley, John Fleming and I devised a suitability test. I passed it and uploaded the files. It was silly stuff, mainly consisting of the owner's manuals for my Mustang and my Bronco, to test information upload and recall and a limited skills pack, the latter being about shooting pool and darts. Chuck got only the skills pack."

"Is that why I was so good at both in high school and college?" Chuck interjected. "I seemed to instinctively know what to do."

"Uh-huh. After you uploaded those files with no ill effects, I thought about enhancing your skills at baseball and football, but you were already pretty good at both."

"I'm trying to imagine you as a sporty little eight year old Nerd," Sarah told him. "It's not bad, actually."

"You didn't upload any intel?" Mary insisted.

"No, honey, there was no need to," Stephen assured her.

"Fine. But you're sleeping on the couch tonight."

"No problem, love. There's a movie marathon on TV and I was planning on watching it tonight anyway. But, fair warning, you'll miss me." He wagged his eyebrows suggestively at his wife. "You always do, plus you rarely leave me to spend an entire night alone on the couch."

"DAD! TMI!" Chuck squeaked.

"What? Your Mom may not want to admit it, but she's a cuddler."

"Can we please change the subject? What exactly did Sarah and I upload today?"

"It was the mother of all skills packs. Right now, if it functions as designed, you and Sarah are proficient in several forms of martial arts, languages, weapons, explosives, gymnastics, and the list goes on. You're basically the ultimate spies."

"I thought Chuck was the ultimate spy anyway," Sarah said with a smile. It earned her an appreciative hug from her boyfriend.

"Let me rephrase that. You two are now the ultimate of ultimate spies."

Chuck switched to his Sean Connery voice. "My name is Carmichael; Charles Carmichael."

"And which 'Carmichael Girl' am I?" Sarah purred sexily in his ear.

"You have so many names to choose from. Pick one."

Stephen cleared his throat to get their attention back. "We still have one issue unresolved. Chuck and Sarah may have uploaded CIA provided files."

"What exactly were those files?" Chuck asked.

"Graham wanted us to encode them and make them Intersect compatible. Then they would be uploaded to selected agents for a specific mission. Said files were programmed to self delete automatically following the upload. You see, son, the Intersect can have manifold uses. As a standalone system, it can accept various visual or auditory cues and perform a database search for related files. All files are encoded into images, which speeds up the whole process. It can also be used as a learning tool, giving a person certain skills they never possessed before or enhance other already available skills." Stephen stopped talking and logged on to Chuck's computer again. From there he accessed his mainframe and called up another section of the Intersect logs. "Dammit!"

"Oops," Chuck said lamely.

"It's safe to say that you did it again, son."

"Graham is not going to be pleased," Mary said. "Well, there's no sense beating around the bush. I'll call him. Follow me, all of you." She got up and led the way to the conference room across from her and Stephen's offices, where she initiated a video call.

-o-

Predictably, Director of Central Intelligence Langston Graham was not pleased at all. He had been looking forward to launching a very important operation and this was guaranteed to push the timetable back considerably. When Stephen and Mary finished narrating the day's events, with Hartley adding his input, Graham was already trying to find a solution to the unforeseen problem.

Stephen had one option for him. "You can send me the files again. I'll just have to run them through the encoder and prepare them for upload. It won't take long."

"I guess I can do that." Then it came to him. "The agents I have selected for this mission are good, but nowhere near as good as Chuck and his team used to be. They were the best of the best."

"What do you mean, Lang?" Mary asked.

Graham looked at his old partner and friend. "Maybe this will prove to be a blessing in disguise. Chuck, I'm reinstating you to active duty, along with your team and Ms. Walker."

"Excuse me?" Chuck was definitely surprised.

"I'm offering you temporary reinstatement as a Special Agent. Ms. Walker will get a temporary commission as a Special Agent as well. Provided you accept, of course. I could make it an order, but I'd rather you volunteered for this."

"Hold on, sir. I left the CIA."

"You should read the fine print on your contract. This is an emergency, so I can bring you back on active duty. It's a clause that has been rarely used, but I believe the extraordinary circumstances mandate it."

"What about Sarah? She was never an agent."

"She'll have to volunteer for this."

"I'm in," Sarah said without hesitation. "We'll do this together, Chuck." She looped an arm around his and looked at him reassuringly.

"Am I missing something here?"

"Director, Chuck and I are dating… exclusively."

"That explains a lot. Congratulations, by the way."

"Thank you sir," Chuck and Sarah chorused.

"But be careful not to allow your personal life to interfere with your performance. It's an important mission and a lot is riding on it."

"Lang, just to be on the safe side, I want Chuck and Sarah examined by medical professionals. At the slightest hint that something is off, I'm having Stephen remove the Intersect from them," Mary said.

"Of course. Handle it any way you see fit, but keep me in the loop. If all goes well, I want to see both Chuck and Sarah in my office on Monday."

"We'll be in touch," Chuck promised.

-o-

"Your Mom is pretty familiar with Graham," Sarah commented as she and Chuck were going back to his office.

"They were partners back in the day, before she was assigned to work with Dad."

"Mrs. B was a spy?"

"And one of the best, too," Chuck replied proudly. "I guess it runs in the family."

"She said something about having us examined by doctors as soon as possible and went to call them. Do you know who she was referring to?"

"Well, I guess Uncle Hartley could help here, but the opinion of a neurologist would be invaluable as well and… CRAP!"

"Chuck?"

"Ellie's a neurologist. We're in deep shit."

"No, you are in deep shit," Sarah laughed. "Besides, it's all your fault."

"She's gonna kill me."

-o-

Ellie didn't kill him. But she did level an ice cold glare at her little brother for the twentieth time since coming over to the Orion building with Devon and being informed of the situation. "Sounds like something Chuck would do," she commented in exasperation. "Tell me what I need to do, Dad."

"I want you to confirm that the function of the Intersect is not adversely affecting them," Stephen told her.

"Sure, I can do that, provided I have access to suitable equipment."

"We've got it covered, dear Eleanor," Hartley said. "You can come with us downstairs to the Medical Systems Division. We have a wide selection of equipment you can choose from."

"We should monitor all their vitals, not just brain function," Devon pointed out.

"Come on, Sarah," Ellie said, wrapping an arm around the blonde's shoulders. "I'll examine you first. My idiot brother can wait."

"He's not…"

"Big sister's prerogative," Ellie smiled. "Besides, it's his fault you're into this mess."

Sarah allowed Ellie to lead her to a medical equipment testing area. Fortunately, all employees had left for home, so no one would disturb them. Ellie chose a top of the line EEG and had Sarah sit comfortably while she connected her to the machine. "I'm going to take readings both with and without the Intersect active." Devon also prepared an ECG.

"By the way, how does this thing activate?" Sarah addressed her question to Stephen.

"I've got it covered."

"Okay. Let's get the show on the road, Ellie," Sarah said bravely.

"Just relax. So far everything looks normal."

"Good to know. By the way, my niece has a soccer game on Saturday. Would you like to come with Devon? Chuck has already invited more of our friends."

"I'd love to. Your niece is a great kid." She then turned to her father. "Now you can help her activate the Intersect."

"We'll be there, Sarah," Devon added.

Stephen pulled up a chair and sat down in front of Sarah. He had several cards in his hand. "I'm going to show you some of these cards now. Try to will yourself to find the knowledge about the items pictured."

"I'm ready," Sarah confirmed. Stephen showed her the first card, which was a missile launcher. She looked at it and suddenly she knew how to operate and maintain it. "Wow! That was amazing!"

"Ellie, how did she do?" Mary asked.

"There was a spike in brain wave activity, but certainly within normal limits. Sarah, did you feel any dizziness, disorientation, blurring of vision and the like?"

"No, it was like remembering something out of the blue. The recall wouldn't have distracted me from any other task I might have been performing."

"Heart rate remained mostly the same, with a brief spike, undoubtedly due to her excitement," Devon said.

"The Key worked perfectly. With the earliest, and admittedly rather primitive, versions of the Intersect you would have experienced slight disorientation and there would be certain outward signs, resembling those of a brief seizure. But now the upload and recall process are so streamlined that you show no indications of experiencing a flash of information. Let me show you a few more cards."

Ellie and the others were very much satisfied with the results of Sarah's card test. Sarah herself was all smiles as she got up. And then it was Chuck's turn. Despite being somewhat apprehensive over his sister's eagerness to poke around in his brain, he passed the test with flying colors. But they were not done yet, as the ability to access certain skills had yet to be tested. Therefore, Stephen and Hartley presented Chuck and Sarah with a variety of situations requiring the use of martial arts and advanced gymnastics, as well as the operation of weapons, the latter on a simulator Orion was making for the Department of Defense and law enforcement agencies.

"I'll be damned," Sarah muttered when she reviewed her marksmanship scores. "I considered myself to be adequate with firearms, even though I never had to use them, but now… just wow."

"You did great," Chuck told her. "Dad, just out of curiosity, is it possible to suppress the activation of the Intersect?"

"You can try, son."

"Hold on." He picked up a grenade launcher. The Intersect attempted to initialize and give him the required information, but he managed to shut it off and figure it all out on his own. "It's doable," he concluded.

"Excellent," Stephen said enthusiastically. "Let's get out of here. I'm taking you all out to dinner. Hartley, will you be joining us?"

"Sure, I've got nothing else to do. My daughter is out with friends, so I could use the company."

"And I know just the place," Sarah said. "It's not far from here."

"Your Mom's restaurant?" Mary asked.

"It was my grandparents' originally. But yes, that's the one I was talking about."

"I know it's one of the best restaurants in town. Stephen and I go there from time to time. In fact we'd been going there even before I was formally introduced to Emma."

"Dad proposed to Mom there. He was so nervous that he knocked over a candle and set the tablecloth on fire. Fortunately, no more damage was done, but Grandma and Grandpa kept ribbing him about it for years." Everyone laughed as they went to gather their stuff before leaving for the restaurant.