CHAPTER 21

"Which part of handle Lon Kirk with care wasn't clear Agents Walker and Casey?" Beckman said as the agents in question gathered at Casey's apartment the next day.

"Chuck flashed, General," Casey answered. "Our decision to raid the boat was based on the information we received from the Intersect."

"Except Chuck was wrong," Beckman reminded.

"We think Kirk must have managed to hide the plates somehow," said Sarah.

"Where?" asked Graham.

Glancing at Sarah, Casey answered, "We don't know."

Graham jumped in asking, "So you moved in anyway?"

"Is there something that might have caused Chuck to think those plates were on Kirk's boat?" asked Beckman. "Anything that might have caused his flash?"

Sarah almost looked to Casey feeling him look at her, but stopped herself. "Not that we're aware of."

"I don't want the two of you anywhere near Kirk from now on," Beckman said shaking her head.

"Both of us?" asked Sarah. "But he doesn't suspect me."

"We don't know that and we can't risk it," said Graham. "The only one with their cover intact is the asset." Casey's brow sank while Sarah's rose. "He and Kirk have already agreed to a meet. We'll keep that meeting. Have him say he's found out about his girlfriends dalliances and broken up with her."

Sarah looked to Casey and saw he didn't like it and even Beckman looked wary of the idea. "Are you sure that's best, Director? Chuck is untrain-"

"It's what's necessary," said Graham. "Until further notice consider yourselves benched."

Beckman tapped a button to disconnect the call and Casey growled. "Well that was a bang-up job, Walker." When she turned to him he continued, "Alright, I'm giving you one last chance to come clean. Did you or did you not compromise yourself and the Intersect?"

Sarah searched his face, shaking her head slightly until she asked quietly, "Do you ever just want to have a normal life?" She wore a challenging smile as she continued. "Have a family? Children?"

Casey grit his teeth, sucking in a breath. "The choice we made to protect something bigger than ourselves is the right choice. Hard as that is for you to remember sometimes." It has to be. Otherwise…

Sarah set her jaw, looking down before raising her chin. "I'll talk to Chuck. And if I can't fix this, then I'm going to ask for a reassignment."

As she moved to leave Casey said with a snort, "Cause that won't hurt him more."

Sarah stopped, knitting her brow as she looked him over. "Are you sure you should be asking if I'm the one compromised?"

Casey sneered watching her leave because he'd asked himself the same thing for days now. Maybe the answer was distancing himself. He'd gotten comfortable, stopped questioning the asset's actions. For all they knew he had faked the flash because he was worried about Sarah going below deck with Lon Kirk, even after their talk beforehand. Everything about all they'd done said that wasn't the case, but maybe Chuck had been playing them. They'd underestimated him far too much since day one. Now that they were starting to see glimpses of what Chuck was really capable of, Casey wouldn't be surprised if he turned out to be a part of some conspiracy they don't even know about.

At the Buy More later that morning Chuck was busying himself as much as he could. At times he thought maybe he was still hurting from where he punched himself, but it was probably just a headache from dealing with Harry Tang for prolonged periods of time. Chuck had hoped they'd be starting toward his eventual escape from Buy Moria by now, but it seemed that was about as dead as any hope he had for a relationship with Sarah.

At least it wasn't all hopeless. Sure, it wasn't great knowing that the CIA was almost certainly involved in the murder of his friend, but Chuck had people on his side. Even if Orion was right or Chuck had just ruined his relationship with Casey and Sarah, Orion wanted to help him. Maybe Bryce would be on his side also, or at least Orion's, but either way he wasn't completely alone in this.

Still, he didn't want to let things end this way with Sarah and Casey. They were too important to him to let them go. He didn't have enough people in his life to throw them away without trying.

Chuck was eating his lunch while thinking over all that happened in search of some gap when he thought to himself, At least the Thai people are getting some help, I guess.

He was raising a bunch of noodles to his mouth when it hit him and the chopsticks slipped past each other, throwing the noodles off them, onto the floor and himself as he whispered, "Rashan." Chuck put the container on the desk as he ran over to home appliances, not seeing Jeff look at the container of noodles and the ones on the floor, shrug, and kneel down to eat the ones on the floor first.

"Casey, Casey!" He said spotting Casey with a customer. "We need to talk."

"Later. I'm about to move a Beastmaster."

"No," Chuck snapped. "Now."

Surprised by the demand, Casey relented. "Fine. I'll be right back," he said to the customer before moving to Chuck. "This better be good."

"We were looking in the wrong place. We didn't follow the trail," Chuck said shaking his head. "We were looking at Lon Kirk but I never flashed on him. I flashed on the money. I flashed on the crates. And I flashed on Rashan Chen. The boxes are on his boat."

"Did you flash on this?" Casey asked dubiously.

"No, but it makes-"

"Tell me when you flash on something useful again," Casey said holding up a hand to shut him up. "Until then we're benched."

"I'm right about this, Casey. I can feel it."

Casey's shoulders raised slightly in a barely there shrug. "Orders are orders."

Chuck visibly deflated. He'd lost Casey. He hadn't had him really, but he'd been close to maybe earning his respect, and now he'd lost it all. With a nod Chuck turned and left, leaving Casey to go back to his cover job while Chuck left the store, making his way to the Wienerlicious. If this didn't work he'd go it alone.

Chuck almost barreled past a customer as he approached the counter. "Look I need to talk to you."

Sarah slumped slightly, already exhausted by what she thought was about to happen. "Chuck, please, not now."

"Sarah we were wrong. All of us. We missed the obvious thing. We didn't follow the flashes and we lost the trail. I never flashed on Lon Kirk. I flashed on the money, the boxes and one other person, Rashan Chen. He has a boat at the same dock as Lon Kirk. He has to have the ones with the plates."

The irritation on her face softened as she asked, "You think Kirk put the plates on Rashan's boat?"

"Yes. I know it's not a flash but I can feel that it's right. I know that your orders are to stay away from this but I'm telling you I know they're there. Look trust me, I wouldn't even be here right now if I wasn't a hundred percent sure…" She'd turned away after he said 'trust me' and was now sliding over the counter top. "What-What are you-"

"Let's go."

She believed him. It wasn't a flash or any kind of intel, just his own intuition. Maybe it was just so obviously right, but it felt like she actually trusted him. Not him the Intersect but him Chuck Bartowski. Driving to the docks with her he had to fight back a smile. She believed him. She believed in him. She trusted him.

They were running down the docks when they heard a screech a second before Casey called out, "Chuck! Sarah!"

Coming to a stop Sarah asked, "Casey what are you doing here?"

"Someone needs to protect the Intersect, huh?" He said with a nod to Chuck.

"Well that's very thoughtful," Chuck said sincerely. "Thank you very much, I guess."

"Plus I didn't want to miss any gunplay."

"Were we dosed by truth serum again?" Chuck muttered as Casey exclaimed, "Come on!" and lead the charge further down the docks.

"Look," Sarah said coming to a stop. "There's Chen's boat."

"Are we too la…" Chuck trailed off when he noticed something on the side of the boat and felt the pull of a flash. "There's a GPS missile tracking device on the ship. They're gonna blow it up."

"Kirk's got his money," said Casey, "he's gonna bury the evidence."

"They're loading something onto Kirk's yacht," Sarah spotted.

"That's it. That's the missile launcher," Casey explained as they watched a man drag a crate into Kirk's ship. "They're gonna follow them out and use it to take out the Taiwanese attache's boat."

"We need to stop it," said Chuck.

Sarah turned to them. "Casey, I'm going to create a diversion."

"I'll get the guards," Casey said with a nod. "Chuck-"

"Yeah, I know," he said quickly, knowing his place, "stay in the car. I got it."

"Not this time." Sarah grabbed his hand and pulled him along much to his surprise.

Once Casey was in place, his skill reminding Chuck that Casey was a marine, Sarah moved toward Lon Kirk's ship, calling out for him. Hiding behind a ship Chuck watched her speak with him acting almost love struck. Once she stepped on board that was his cue to come jogging over toward the ship.

"Well, well, well," he said trying his best to seethe. "I see how it is, Sarah! How could you do this? After everything… I've done for you," he said hoping it sounded indignant. "After all that I've given to you. The house… the house in the Hamptons! The summers in South Africa, or the winters in Gstaad?

"You don't own me, Charles," she said clutching Lon Kirk's shoulder and bicep, and Chuck desperately struggled to keep from exclaiming that he was in charge. Thankfully she continued, "Lon knows how I really feel."

"Do you love him?"

"Why don't you just go home, I'm so sick of this!"

"You know what?" Lon Kirk interjected, "I actually don't have time for this."

Chuck scoffed as snootily as he could. He could almost picture the hundred dollar bills flying from his nose as he did. "Oh yes you do! You gonna go do more of your 'good work'? Yeah I know what you're up to, buddy! I know the truth!"

"Why don't you just go home?" Sarah pleaded.

"Tell me-"

"You know what," Kirk interrupted, turning to Sarah, "it is time for you to go."

That was when they heard a splash and the guards around them drew their guns while Kirk asked, "What was that?"

The game done, Sarah turned and knocked out one of the guards with a kick to the jaw while Chuck saw Kirk tun and run into the cabin. With Sarah's back to him she didn't seem to notice and started up the stairs, so Chuck leapt onto the boat and ran in after him.

There he found Kirk opening the crate they saw wheeled in earlier, revealing a large cylindrical missile launcher. Kirk turned to Chuck, but when he went to grab the launcher Chuck launched himself at Kirk. In the tight quarters of the ship there wasn't much room to maneuver so even that was enough to knock Kirk off his feet.

The billionaire pushed Chuck away, but the taller thousandaire jammed his left palm into Kirk's nose, forcing his head aside. He felt Kirk's left hand slam into his side and grunted, but was surprised by how it didn't even hurt as bad as the punch he gave himself the day before. Which gave him the idea to throw his right fist into Kirk's temple. He felt victorious hearing the billionaire yell in pain and throw his head back wincing.

"Hey it worked!" Chuck said with a laugh, throwing his hands together and lacing his fingers before driving his hands down on the man's face. A classic axe hammer he'd picked up with from his wrestling phase. Unlike when he had his matches with Morgan he didn't do it jumping off a couch, though it did cause Lon Kirk's nose to crunch and spray blood down his face.

With a groan Lon Kirk thrust both hands into Chuck's chest, forcing him up. Then as Kirk started to sit up Chuck threw his left arm down into Kirk's hands, breaking their contact with Chuck. With nothing else keeping him off Kirk, Chuck fell toward him, which added to the momentum as he swung his right hand around, Lon Kirk rising straight into his falling punch which connected at the edge of his jaw, knocking the billionaire unconscious.

Chuck watched the billionaire's head bounce off the boat's seat and then bounce off the floor as he went still. Suddenly feeling out of breath, Chuck pushed off the floor and staggered a bit on his feet, turning around to close the crate and lock it before he fell back onto a seat, realizing he'd been holding his breath since he leapt at Kirk, just as Sarah and Casey burst into the quarters.

"Chuck! Are-" Sarah went quiet seeing Chuck slumped forward sucking in a breath while Lon Kirk lay unconscious on the floor with blood pouring out of his nose.

Casey laughed. "Nice work, Chuck."

Chuck snickered. "I won. I actually won fight."

Sarah shook her head and chuckled. "Are you okay?"

"It wasn't even that long and he only really got the one punch in, but I'm kind of tired."

"Could be the adrenaline wearing off," Casey said walking past him to flip Kirk over and cuff him. "Or your stamina's pathetic. So it's probably that."

"Maybe," Chuck said grinning. "My hand hurts a bit too, but other than that I'm great!" When Sarah came over and grabbed his hands to look them over he smirked up to her. "I can't believe I actually won."

"Is this your first fight?" She said noticing his hands weren't cut, just his right hand was a bit red around the knuckles. Nothing broken for him at least.

"Nah, but not since I was a kid," he said with a shrug. "I don't know if most of those count since it was usually me stepping in to help Morgan, and they were usually against girls and I can't hit a girl so I can't really win that fight."

"Good to know all we need to defeat the brave Agent Bartowski is a twelve year old girl," Casey said checking the missile launcher. "I'm going to call it in. You okay here?"

Sarah nodded and looked to Chuck, realizing she still hadn't let go of his hands. Releasing them she cleared her throat. "You think you can handle watching over Kirk here?"

"I got him."

Casey smacked his shoulder as he dragged the crate behind him. "I'm sure you do, Slugger."

"Wouldn't Champ be more fitting as a boxing thing than Slugger, which is more like a baseball now-and you two are gone," Chuck said as they left the cabin.

Taking a breath, Chuck got to his feet and looked over at Lon Kirk. His arms crossed, Chuck grinned down at the unconscious billionaire. "This is what happens to people who mess with her. The Demetrios' contacts and now your nose. Be thankful you just hit on her instead of hit her."

Once the cleaners arrived, Chuck was surprised when Casey asked to take him back to work. They were about ten minutes into it when Casey suddenly said. "I should apologize."

"You don't have to."

"I never said I did," Casey said firmly, "just that I should."

Chuck choked back a laugh. "Ah, sorry. I misunderstood."

"Guess I might as well. I didn't believe in you and we almost lost the evidence on Chen's ship."

"I get it," Chuck said turning to face him. "I'm not an agent and my last flash didn't work out."

Casey shook his head, as they turned a corner. "No, I shouldn't have let that make me doubt you. You've never lied about a flash, not when it's important."

Chuck stared at him a moment then blurted out. "Not technically."

Casey glanced at him then seemed to find his meaning, or so he thought. "We're spies, Chuck. Lies of omission don't count. Most lies barely count with us."

"Is it still a lie if I just don't tell you how or when I flashed, but tell you that I did flash?"

The question was obviously leading to something, so Casey shrugged realizing maybe he wasn't talking about his flash on Casey's file. "Depends on why you won't say how or when you flashed."

"What if I may have, at some point early on, may have done something that would upset everyone if they knew about it, but nothing came of it, at least not that I knew of at the time."

"I…" Casey sighed. "I'm not sure what you mean."

"I did something early on. I saw something early on I didn't understand and was too afraid of getting in trouble for what I did to ask about it. But now I understand what it meant and have been trying to figure out how to say it without getting in trouble because I'm still a bit ashamed of what I did."

"What did you do?" Casey groaned. "Did you hack again? Go on the deep web?"

"Only mildly hack into the middling web," Chuck offered.

Casey grunted as they came to a stop light and he took the chance to rub his brow. "What did you see?"

"CIA agent Galina Bryant is Fulcrum."

Casey's head snapped to Chuck. "How do you know?"

"I saw her picture and name on a site and flashed on her, but that was months ago, before we knew what Fulcrum was. It was just a word in her file that stuck out. I tried to look it up myself but then Bryce came back."

The car behind them honked as the light turned green and after sending a glare at them, Casey started driving again. "How long ago?"

"Before Halloween."

Casey nodded. "The flash tell you anything else?"

"I think she works or worked in Spain at an embassy. No where near us so I couldn't figure out a way to say anything without making you guys ask more questions."

"This is more important than your worrying about being yelled at Chuck. She might have killed people."

"And I wouldn't have known at all if I didn't see her information and flash on her," said Chuck. "If I hadn't been poking around we would never have known about her, or at least not by now."

"That's… fair," he relented. "We wouldn't have a reason to see her. It's not like we can have you look through the entire CIA database."

"Why not?"

Casey laughed. "As much as we may want to, there's no way they let anyone get a look at all their agents. I doubt Graham could even look over them all."

"I guess." Chuck sat back in his seat before saying to Casey, "She's the only other one."

"She better be."

"She is." With a teasing smile Chuck asked, "Does that mean you forgive me?"

"Sure," Casey said with a sigh. "Don't know if Walker will though."

"Hey, it is the holidays, right? Which is a time for forgiveness. I'm sure she'll understand."

Though Casey nodded, Chuck knew he was thinking, so watched him until he finally asked, "Chuck?"

"Yeah?"

"This stays between you and me, I promise you that," he began as they came to a red light and he turned to Chuck. "What's your read on Walker?"

Chuck hadn't expected that. "What? What do you mean?"

"It was your instinct and piecing things together got us Lon Kirk and the plates on Chen's boat. You spotted the Graham thing. You've got knack for this. So, what's your read on Walker. When it comes down to it, is she CIA or is she with us?"

Chuck held back his immediate answer and frowned. If Casey was being this serious then he deserved a serious answer that had been given serious thought. Seriously.

Chuck sat back in his chair thinking as they drove. It was a minute later that Chuck turned to Casey saying, "I think Sarah was never CIA."

Casey guffawed. "What? Come on, Moron."

"I'm serious. Think about it. Think about her, Casey. She's not a heartless agent, she's Sarah Walker, or whatever her real name is. She's a good person who does what's right. So far every other CIA agent I've encountered is either part of a corrupt rogue group, making child soldiers or was apparently too dumb to realize getting me kicked out of school was going to screw up my life. Sarah always protects me, she always has your back, and she chose us over leaving with Bryce. She chose the boring, worthless job of protecting some loser she doesn't even like instead of leaving with the guy she loves and the glory of taking down Fulcrum.

"I think if she was ever CIA she isn't anymore, but all the things I see in her, the things that tell me she's more than just an agent, I saw them before you showed up during out date. Well, maybe not the bad ass assassin parts, but the other stuff, it was always there. I just think they made her forget for a while."

Casey squeezed the steering wheel listening to Chuck talk, realizing that maybe Walker was right about him this morning. Hell, even if he was right about her, Casey wasn't sure he cared at the moment. The way Chuck talked about them, about her, made it seem like there was a chance for people like them. Maybe he was wrong. Maybe what Walker wanted was possible even for them.

"I agree," Casey said with a nod. "If it comes down to it I think she'll have our back. She made the right choice not leaving with Larkin. She'll make the right choice if it comes to it with Graham."

"It'll take time," Chuck said with a solemn smile, "but she'll come around eventually."

Casey couldn't help but smirk, glancing at Chuck and saying honestly, "I hope you're right."

Once the Christmas party started Chuck spent most of his time talking with people. The flow of booze and the cheer of Christmas eased even the Grinch that was Harry Tang, who was almost definitely going to end up passed out in a yard somewhere if he kept his pace.

Chuck was feeling pretty good about himself until he was mid dance when Sarah walked around him having changed her outfit yet again, catching him in the midst of an embarrassing spasm that vaguely went along with the music. "Hi."

"Hey," she said, and for what felt like the first time in weeks, she smiled at him. She gave him an honest, real, toothy smile.

"I'm glad you… I'm glad you came," he said truly relieved. When she nodded he licked his lips nervously before saying, "I got you something."

Sarah watched him walk over to the tree and followed after him. He picked up a gray alarm clock just like the one she'd knifed days ago, only this one had a red bow on the front. He presented it with a cheery, "Ta-Da!" and handed it to her. "It's a new alarm clock. Merry Christmas."

Her smile lingered as she looked it over. "You shouldn't have."

Chuck waved his hand dismissively. "Ah, come on. They're on sale in Home Electronics. Which reminds me I should probably scan that thing before you leave the store with it." He watched her smile for a moment before continuing. "Look it's also kind of a… kind of a thank you. You believed in me when you had good reason not to."

"Well, it's my job, you know," she said cheerily. "It's what I do. It's the one thing I'm good at."

It always hurt when she said it was a job but maybe it was just the relief of seeing her smile again, or maybe he'd finally started to go numb, but it didn't hurt as much as before. "Really? Cause I'm pretty sure you're good at a lot of things."

"Well, as you can see from everything that happened with Bryce, I'm not so good at relationships."

Thinking back on everything he smirked. "I guess that makes two of us." In his mind he'd been the wrong one more often than not, so when she smiled he continued, "And then that makes me good at… pretty much nothing, I suppose."

Sarah knit her brow and shook her head. "Chuck you're good at your job, too. And not just here, fixing computers. You know, the one where you risk your life to save others, the one that you didn't ask for but were supposed to have."

Hearing those words from someone he looked up to, the way she concluded it as if it were obvious, the way she smiled throughout, it made him think and feel things he knew he shouldn't. Things that had only caused trouble. Things that ignited lingering embers. So he quenched them until he he managed a contain it all in a smile rather than a full wide grin. Whatever they had, this was it, and it was enough for Chuck if it was enough for Sarah.

"Friends?" he asked offering his hand.

"Yeah," she said looking at his hand before shaking it and meeting his eyes. "Friends."

Jeff jingled over to them holding his hand up between the, "Mistletoe." Picking up on the looks both gave it and then each other, Jeff told Chuck, "You'll thank me later, Dude."

Sarah smiled, glancing down at the clock while Chuck turned to her suggesting, "How about we just dance?"

"Sure," said Sarah.

Jeff grimaced. "Lame."

While they moved to dance with the others, Casey stood off to the side answering his phone. "Casey."

"Major," said Beckman. "I am calling to inform you that the beta version of the Intersect computer was successful. This means the new Intersect should be up and running soon. Once the new computer is on line, it will be time to take care of Bartowski. If Graham is still around, you know what he'll push for."

"Roger that."

"I hope you have not grown too fond of the subject," she said carefully. "I would hate for you to be compromised."

Casey turned to watch Chuck and Walker dancing with each other, smiling as he grimaced. "I understand my orders, General." That doesn't mean I like them.

AN:

I think Chuck definitely could have a wrestling phase or two. If not when he was a kid during Hogan or even early New Gen era, then definitely as a teenager during the Attitude era or in college around the Smackdown Six era. So I don't think him pulling out a move or two would be too outlandish, especially something as basic as an axe handle.

To anyone wondering why Delgado isn't mentioned by Chuck in his bit to the unconscious Lon Kirk, Tommy didn't hurt Sarah really, at least not in front of him. Plus I didn't want to have to kill him off screen. I might use him later.