He's picked up by two of his new teammates. Christopher James and Leora Barrington.

Christopher is a lot like Captain Awesome; a little more cultured, but just as charming, talented, friendly and good-looking. He's the team's archaeologist, who has all the makings of a very posh Indiana Jones. His shiny blond hair and shiny smile and shiny blue eyes make him seem almost unreal.

Leora is also blonde (not really, though), and tall and pretty; Her eyes dark and almond shaped (her biological parents are from Tibet, she tells him), and a little mischievous. She looks more like an old Hollywood movie star than the spy she purports to be. She doesn't exude warriorness like Sarah. Leora is all glamour. Her hair is curly and a little short, and her smile is wide, like she's always ready for a camera to take her photo.

They're both friendly and excited to meet him, and instead of taking him to UNIT HQ, or his new apartment (flat), they take him to the pub.

He's not supposed to drink but he does anyways. He gets so wasted that he's not sure what he's doing anymore. He really doesn't know what he's doing when he lets a pretty brunette he's never met shove him into the bathroom and go down on him.

Christopher and Leora cut him off after that, and haul him out.

He goes home with Leora and sleeps it off on the couch. He wakes up to her handing him a cup of coffee.

The way she gazes at him reminds him a little of Ellie, and it's kind of comforting.

"I'm so sorry about last night," he says, his voice thick with hangover, and regret and embarrassment. "I don't...I'm not usually...that's not really me."

"Everyone has bad nights, Darling," Leora replies smoothly as she sips her coffee. "And you've been having a time of it, so I hear."

He looks down, realizing she's probably read his file.

She pats his arm gently. "No one is shaming you here, Charles," she says.

"Thank you for the couch."

"Of course."

00000

The flat is nice. Fully furnished and there's even some food in the fridge.

After Leora leaves him to it, he looks for a good place for his Tron poster, but nothing seems right.

As he looks at the poster he realizes that the man who gave it to him wouldn't really like the man Chuck's become, and so he puts the poster in the hall closet and goes about unpacking his clothes.

00000

His other teammates are pretty great.

Eliot Spencer is a former black ops, and a fellow expat, and a lot like Casey, except short and a little more emotionally available. It's like working with Wolverine, and since he and Leora have a...thing, and Leora has unofficially adopted Chuck as her baby brother, they end up hanging out some, when Eliot is in town. He's only part time at UNIT and spends the other portion of it in Boston. He never talks about what's there.

Eliot says Chuck reminds him of someone and that it's a good thing.

Miranda Tyler is their translator; a small woman with red hair who flushes with embarrassment even more than Chuck does. She's nice and really, really smart, and she knows it. Rumor is that she's part alien herself, but nobody knows for sure. She dates a demon hunter, which Chuck is wildly curious about, but too afraid to ask. Chuck talks with her about books and politics and electronics and it's nice to have someone who's nerdy in some of the ways he is.

The only team member that Chuck isn't so keen on is Jason Barrington. He's Leora's younger brother, Miranda's ex and their legal expert. He's smarmy, snooty, and Chuck finds himself hiding from the man often.

He'd rather go to lunch with Eliot and Miranda than spend time with Jason. Or watch "The Footie" with Christopher and Leora.

Or get a root canal, really.

Their handler is an older man named Gerald Price. He expects the best from his team and the words "downtime," "vacation" and "sick leave" aren't in his vocabulary.

That's fine with Chuck. Whatever keeps him busy.

00000

Some days he wakes up feeling nothing.

He's just not all there. He showers and dresses and eats a little and drives to work on complete autopilot like the Laudenol never left his system.

When the feelings come back and he snaps out of it, it's like a flood gate opens, and he has to hole himself up in the bathroom to get things under control.

Sometimes he cries and doesn't realize it until Miranda is gently handing him a tissue.

He knows he won't ever be the old Chuck. That goofy nerd that Sarah seemed to love so much.

It scares the hell out of him.

00000

Morgan visits and it's awkward. Chuck still hasn't decorated and while he's got some movies and games, he no longer knows what to do with his friend.

Morgan notices things other people don't. He notices that there are times when Chuck plays with his food more than he eats it, and that Chuck doesn't sleep very much. He notices that there are precious few reminders of Chuck's old life and that Chuck is much quieter than he was.

"Come home," Morgan says as they watch King Kong. "Come back to Burbank. We'll look for Sarah. I'll help you, I can help you."

"No."

"You said this, moving here, you said it would help you, but nothing's changed!"

"It's only been a month and a half, Morgan. It's gonna take more time."

Morgan shakes his head. "You're not facing up to your problems, Buddy. You need to."

"I can't go back."

"Why?"

Chuck starts to lose it. He gets to his feet and paces. "Because everything reminds me of her! Everything! And if she wanted to be found, we'd know it by now!"

"You don't know that."

"I'm not coming back, Morgan, I'm not ready."

Morgan goes home early, and when Chuck drops him off at the airport, he hits his head against the steering wheel of the car.

"Aces, Charles. Aces."

00000

Ellie comes by herself a few weeks after Morgan. She's two months pregnant, and Chuck tries to be excited for her, but it falls flat.

She's worried, obviously, about him. She's even more worried when she sees his flat.

"It's a nice place," she says. "But it doesn't seem like you."

It takes him a minute to answer. "I'm not sure who that is anymore."

Ellie's smile is kind and sad and understanding. "That's what I'm here for, dummy. Because I know." She looks around for a moment, before opening up the hall closet and pulling out the Tron poster. "So did Dad."

He watches her hunt around and find the things she's looking for easily (she knows him that well), and soon she's hanging the poster up in the hall right outside his bedroom door, so he'll see it as he walks out every morning.

He'd never thought of that place before. Leave it to Ellie to think of the things he never does.

He spends the rest of her visit taking her to his favorite places and showing her the sights.

The night before she leave he introduces her to the team, and she looks genuinely relieved that these people seem to have his back.

He drops her at the airport the next morning and kisses her cheek.

"Aces, Charles." She ruffles his hair and walks toward the terminal.