CHAPTER 10

"You two have fun?" Ellie asked with a smirk as they left the room two hours later.

Chuck rolled his eyes but before he could answer Sarah wrapped her arms around his. "It was great."

Devon gave an approving nod and winked at Chuck. "Nice."

"I'm walking her to her car," Chuck said shaking his head.

"You raised a real gentleman, Ellie," Sarah said with a chuckle as she was led out of the apartment.

Once they were in the courtyard Chuck expected her to drop her grip on him like normal but she didn't, keeping her arms wrapped around his. At least until they heard Casey's door open and she practically threw his arm into his side and stepped away.

Stepping out of his apartment, Casey made his way toward the pair near the gate about to leave the courtyard. "Good work today, Bartowski."

The lack of Moron made Chuck's brow arch. "Thanks, Casey."

"You handled it well, though we were lucky he didn't spot your watch."

"Why?" Chuck asked looking between the two.

"Laszlo's the one who made it," answered Sarah.

Thinking back, Chuck realized the watch face had been facing away from Laszlo almost the entire time since he was on the left side of the cabinet and Laszlo had been on his right. The only times it might have entered his vision was when he would have been focused on the screen.

"Either way," Casey shrugged, "another killer locked away."

Chuck started to nod but stopped himself to perk up. "Oh! Before I forget, what are you guys doing for Halloween? Ellie's having this party here and wanted me to invite Sarah, but I figure it would make enough sense for you to come too, Casey. You live here and we work together after all."

Casey grunted. "I'll think about it."

"Come on, it'll be fun," Chuck started before tilting his head, "though I guess it's probably not that interesting to dress up when you're a spy, what with all the disguises. But you could be anything. I'm sure dressing up like a pilot or something isn't exciting for you, but you could be something you never get to be. Like a pirate!"

Casey shook his head, then glanced at Sarah, giving her a quick appraisal. "You know you could probably pull off a Charlie Blackwood."

Chuck and Sarah stared in confusion at Casey's back as he returned to his apartment. Once the door closed Chuck shrugged and turned to Sarah. "I don't know if I get him."

"I'm sure it was either a compliment or an insult hiding a compliment," Sarah said shrugging as she made her way to the parking lot. "So do you have anything planned for Halloween?" When he gave her a baffled look she clarified, "I mean do you have a costume planned."

Chuck snickered and shook his head. "Honestly I haven't been as into as I used to be. Me and… Me and Morgan used to have this costume with the two of us, but I retired it a long time ago. Now I just go in my Nerd Herd uniform or if Ellie fights it I'll pick up something the day of one of her parties."

Sarah frowned at the thought of another thing he enjoyed tainted by the death of his friend. She couldn't replace him, but maybe she could help him find some joy in Halloween again. "How about you let me pick out your costume?"

"Really?" Chuck asked as they came to a stop in front of her car. "Are we going to do a couples costume?"

Sarah shrugged. "It would help the cover."

It was hard to miss the drop in his smirk, though he managed to keep most of it up as he nodded. "Okay. I'll trust you not to embarrass me."

"Not too badly," she said reaching out to pat his shoulder and rub down to his bicep before nodding back to the courtyard. "Now go."

Groaning, Chuck shook his head. "Really? You really think someone's going to kidnap me between here and the door?"

Her pointed look was his answer, so rolling his head he turned and made his way back to Ellie's apartment. Standing at the door he looked back and heard the Porsche's engine, raising a hand toward her before she pulled away, leaving him to return to his room.

Sinking into his desk chair he started to check his emails when he thought back to Casey's comment about Sarah. Curious whether it was supposed to be an insult or not, he did a quick search for Charlie Blackwood and felt his stomach twist. It was the female flight instructor from Top Gun.

Casey had heard everything. Why did Chuck forget there were bugs in the room? Why did he say all that stuff? He let Casey hear him.

Suddenly all the sorrow of the day twisted into anger boiling through his bones. He was angry at himself for being such an idiot he forgot about the bugs, and at Casey for not only listening in but using that to make some dumb joke. He'd started to think he should have just asked Ellie and Devon if they could have the living room, but that was probably bugged too. Hell the whole house was.

That son of a bitch probably had bugs in Ellie's room, didn't he? Or even the bathroom. That voyeuristic piece of shit. Chuck was going to… well he could try to beat him up, but Casey would just kick his ass. And he couldn't do anything as the Piranha just yet, but there was one thing he could do.

Chuck looked at his closet and took a breath. He could do it now, but he wanted to go through the house first. He wanted to find every bug he could first, and he was going to find every bug in the house. He was going to pull apart the toaster in case he slipped one between the burners.

He could barely sleep, his eyes scanning the dark of his room as if he would see the glow of all the devices around him.

The moment he heard Devon and Ellie leave for their early shift, Chuck went to work. Pulling the box from his closet he removed two small devices. One looked like a large lipstick camera while the other looked like a calculator. Taking the cylindrical one he walked to Ellie's room and hit the switch on the side, and Chuck's stomach twisted hearing a buzz fill the room.

The device began to hum and vibrate just slightly as he aimed it at her lamp, where he found the first bug. He'd removed six more before the buzzing in the room stopped and he moved to the bathroom, finding two more bugs. There were thirteen in the kitchen, thirty in the living room, two in the closet, ten in the hall, and twenty six in his room.

But then he glanced at the picture sat on his nightstand, the picture Sarah had given him the night before. "Please don't be there," he whispered so low he barely heard it, but of course when he removed the back he found a black listening device attached to the photo.

Sitting on his bed he tossed the bug on the pile beside him and shut off the detector, turning over the frame in his hands. A picture that was almost good enough to fool him and he knew they weren't a real couple. Why should any of those things he thought he saw in her be real?

Getting to his feet he tossed the frame in the trash can on his way to the desk where the calculator looking device sat. With a glance at the clock he saw it was almost time for the Buy More to open, which meant not long before him and Casey started their shifts. Hopefully Casey was up for this and listening. He wanted this to be as painful as it could be.

He fiddled with the buttons on the device which he'd scrubbed clean and drawn on himself, adjusting the frequencies now he had the bugs, most of which he flashed on. Setting it on his desk next to his keyboard he opened his shades, sat in front of a window and looked out with a grin as he activated it.

There wasn't a sound. No hum, no buzz, no screeching. He might have thought he'd failed if he didn't see Casey storm out of his apartment. When he saw Chuck staring at him through the window, sat in his chair with his arms crossed and a smug grin on his face, Casey's scowl deepened. There was no doubt now this was on purpose.

When Casey beckoned Chuck with his finger he got out of his chair and opened the window. "What's wrong Casey? Your ears burning?"

"What did you do, Moron?"

"Me? I'm not doing anything… But the frequency reflector I made is turning the signals of the hundred or so bugs in the apartment back on themselves." He shrugged apathetically. "I bet it would hurt like hell having a couple dozen screeches start all of a sudden, huh?"

"Shut that crap off, Moron," Casey demanded, stepping toward the window.

"Why? It's my private property."

"Each of those devices is government property, numb nuts."

"And each one is proof you bugged the home of two doctors," Chuck said through grit teeth. "You bugged the bedroom and bathroom."

"It's for your safety."

"It's violating." Chuck scoffed. "Though I bet the sudden screeches were pretty violating, huh?"

"Okay you proved your point," Casey said rolling his eyes. "Put them back and turn it off."

"Or what? You put me in a bunker? Put a bullet in my head?"

Chuck went over, grabbed the towel with the bugs, folded it and set it on his dresser where he pulled out his hammer and started smashing them. Casey was glaring at him when Chuck let out a breath, dramatically wiping his forehead. "Uh oh, did I just destroy government property? Though I guess I'm technically government property, aren't I? So property can't really destroy property, can it?"

Chuck then picked up the towel and threw the broken bits out the window, letting them hit Casey. "Now that there's no point in hiding it you should know I'm going to check whenever I'm home if there are more."

"This is for your-" Chuck shut the window and closed the shades, falling back into his chair and shutting off the device. He kept his eyes forward until he heard the distant slam of Casey's apartment door and let out a breath he'd been holding in since before he closed the window.

He was surprised Casey didn't burst through the window and choke him Homer Simpson style. Of course in his anger he hadn't said a single word of the speech he'd planned weeks ago. He didn't regret being so angry, he was angry and he wasn't going to hold back, but the whole point of his plan was to force them to extend a bridge to him, not burn the one he had with Casey.

Pulling off his clothes he changed for work and decided to just head in early. However he packed both devices before pulling the laptop from his vent and putting that in his messenger bag with them. There was a decent chance Casey was just going to have people come over and try to find more hidden places to put the bugs, and one of those was the vent in his closet, so he couldn't just leave it.

Making his way to the Herder he pulled the reflector from his bag and turned it on, letting it bounce back any signals while he drove a few blocks away. Once he parked near a park he switched to the detector, causing the car to fill with droning buzzes from each of the listening devices and cameras. With a sigh he got out of the car and spent ten minutes pulling them out, even using his hammer to break the plastic inside the door where a bug was placed on a speaker.

When all the bugs were found, crushed and put under the wall so he would drive over them when he pulled out, Chuck pulled the laptop from his bag. Covering it with a blanket he kept in the car for emergencies, he let the Piranha come to life for the first time in months.

In the hundred and four minutes before he arrived at the Buy More he had drained the accounts of the Malone family to make donations to clown colleges, posted links on Phillip Frangini's social media accounts to his stash of young boy porn, and bricked every computer in the Chrick Pharmaceuticals headquarters with a rat he'd used to pull information on their slave labor which he forward to whoever he could think of. Enough to let the world know the Piranha wasn't dead.

He should have expected to find Sarah stood outside the Buy More waiting for him with her arms crossed and a stern expression. For a moment he was worried, but then he remembered the bug on the back of their picture and found that faded. He wasn't as angry at her as he was Casey and their bosses, but he'd freely admit that was his own stupid bias.

Which was why as soon as he was close enough he said, "Please don't take their side."

"There aren't sides, Chuck," she said closing the distance between them to speak quietly. "You need protection."

"It wasn't condoms I found in Ellie's bedroom or the bathroom," Chuck said managing to push the anger bubbling up back into the pit of his stomach.

Sarah almost smiled, but kept her stoic expression. "I know it's hard but we need to know what's going on to protect you."

"You mean the intersect," Chuck finally snapped. If he hadn't been staring at her eyes he might not have caught the flicker of surprise. "And how exactly do bugs inside my house help? I'm all for cameras outside, I even put up with you treating me like a five year old who can't make it ten feet without being watched, but inside the house? Are you worried Ellie's going decide she never really wanted a brother? Or maybe Devon's some KGB sleeper agent?"

"Someone could be in your house-"

"Which would be caught by the bugs outside the house," he said firmly. If they were going to treat him like an idiot he'd do the same to them. "You know, the place every person has to pass through to go inside a house. Unless they're some kind of mole man coming up through the toilet. Is that something I should be worried about? Going home and finding some little person in a shit stained wet suit?"

Sarah's jaw shifted as she shook her head. Quickly looking around she returned her gaze to his asking, "Why now? You clearly knew about the bugs for a while if you were making that thing. Why use it now?"

Chuck's grip on the strap of his messenger bag tightened as he exhaled and said as calmly as he could. "Until last night I told one person about Morgan's Top Gun comment as he died. For a second I was stupid enough to think it was two, and that two of them were at least people who cared about me. But I was reminded that all I am to you people is a joke."

Sarah watched him stride past her into the store, frowning as she realized he'd grouped her with 'them'. He'd started it by asking her to be on his side, but now had her firmly planted on the other side. By the time she'd realized this she'd also clicked in on what he said about a joke and Top Gun, pulling out her phone to run a quick internet search before squeezing her phone tight enough she could feel the plastic straining.

"Casey," she seethed, storming across the mall to start her stupid cover job.

Chuck clocked in early, which was when Big Mike called him in and told him about the assistant manager's interview. Chuck almost laughed in his face. At this rate it felt like he'd be lucky to make it through tonight. And yet, when he was at the Nerd Herd desk an hour later and Casey came up telling him to go to the theater room he shrugged and held up clipboard.

"Sorry, I have a job to do."

"And we have real work to do," Casey said through grit teeth.

"And I have work that actually pays me," he said backing away from Casey when he reached for him. Grabbing his bag he turned and started running for the door exclaiming, "Computer emergency!"

Of course, the offsite job was one he'd called in, but Big Mike's assurance it was real would hopefully be enough to keep Casey and Sarah from following him. Once he was in the parking lot outside a Crater's big box store, Chuck grabbed his detector and wasn't too surprised to find another four bugs in his car. Once they were smashed he pulled out the blanket and went back to doing some real work.

It wasn't too difficult cracking into the Filipino Diplomat's private email and security footage, but took a bit of digging to find the footage of him killing his nephew. It was much easier finding the Chinese governor's secret bank account he used to fund part of Ben Lo Pan's network, which was left crumbling when they put him away with Mei-Ling. Through him he found a dozen other fairly high ranking triad members still in Chinatown and drained their accounts for a few donations, and forwarded their private emails to the FBI and Interpol. Hopefully they could find the ship carrying a hundred people to the US before they ended up soldiers for the triad or were sold off. He'd save the list of buyers for another day, because right now the Piranha had something else in mind.

Cracking the NSA personnel database was the hardest thing he did that day, but not because it was difficult to crack. Because it was in essence a betrayal. Not to the government, but to Casey. He didn't much care about betraying Beckman, though the note about her potential relationship with some CIA agent was interesting. He must have stared at the screen for two minutes before accessing Casey's file.

In a flash he suddenly knew that Casey wasn't Casey. At least not originally. He'd been Alex Coburn before Colonel James Keller recruited him to an NSA Black Ops team. Even more surprising was the fact that Casey had a fiancee before he was recruited, which meant he had to leave her behind. Chuck wasn't sure whether to feel sorry for Casey or be angry at him for abandoning someone. He knew how much it hurt him when his parents left and Morgan died. Losing someone you were in love with must have been devastating. He'd figure out some way to pay off her debts or pay for therapy without it tracing back to the Piranha.

Looking at it now, Chuck wasn't even sure why he'd done it. He was being so petty, but he'd wanted to violate Casey's privacy like he'd violated his sister's privacy.

He'd been on autopilot when he cracked the CIA database. Just like the NSA one he accessed a few hundred files to hide his interest in Langston Graham's and found he was pretty much was he expected. Not the best record he'd seen, but good where it mattered if cruel. There was a note about him receiving some complaints for recruiting agents young, but nothing ever came of it. Not much they could do against the Director of the CIA unless maybe the President got involved.

When he came to Sarah's file, he only stared at it for maybe thirty seconds before backing out, never accessing it. He knew she was one of them, but it was still too much for him to stomach. As much as it hurt realizing he was really alone he still cared for her, and couldn't betray her like that. Unlike Casey, she hadn't used Morgan's death to make a joke.

As he was closing out the last dozen files he's opened, Chuck saw a picture of a dark haired woman with a beauty mark above the left side of her lip and flashed on CIA agent Galina Bryant and muttered to himself, "What the hell is Fulcrum?"

AN:

Just a hint to prevent people getting too worked up or disappointed, little comes from him finding out about Fulcrum here. It's just a word in a flash. Even after he flashed on Tommy it took Bryce telling him to know what Fulcrum was, which is coming up soon. The purpose here isn't to get them hunting Fulcrum a few weeks earlier, but that he found it in such a way and knows of a Fulcrum agent. She won't be a factor beyond a name, but she is canon to the show. She's one of the people on the file which outs Jill as Fulcrum.