CHAPTER 53

"Chuck we can't accept this," Emma said shaking her head when he slid his laptop across the table toward her. "Insurance will cover the house and this… This is far too much."

"It's already yours. I can't force you to touch it if you don't want to, but you two deserve it for all the trouble. Not just from us, but from Ryker. You can give it away if you want, but I'd hope you would at least take care of your house first. Pay whatever bills you have, fix up whatever you need. Maybe buy a car for you two. Keep some for Molly's school funds, this way she doesn't have to tap into the other money if she doesn't want to."

Emma took a breath, reaching up to wipe her eyes as she glanced to where Sarah was standing with Molly picking out their ice cream. "Chuck," she said meeting his eyes, "if you ever see her father you cannot let him know about this."

Chuck leaned forward shaking his head. "Emma, this your money, not his. I won't let anything happen-"

"No," she laughed, shaking her head at his protective tone. "No. He won't… well he might try to take mine if I ever let him around, but I know better. The problem is if he knows you can do this, that you can just… give people this much money." She sighed and sniffed. "He'll try to use you. Take whatever money you have."

Chuck frowned. "So he's a thief?"

"He is what he is," she said with a shrug. "Just, if he ever reaches out be careful."

"I'll keep it in mind," he assured, then smiled at her. "Does this mean you accept it?"

Emma narrowed her eyes at him then smirked and nodded. "Yes. I'll accept it to make sure my house is on order, both literally and figuratively."

"That's all I wanted. Thank you."

Emma snickered at him thanking her for taking hundreds of thousands of dollars.

"If you ever need more, just let me know. I don't care what it's for or how much, I can figure it out. Anything you need just tell me."

"Chuck, you need to buy my permission," she said with a teasing grin.

"What do you mean?"

"For her hand," she said with a nod toward Sarah and Molly, who were returning.

"W-What? No, I wasn't-I'm not-"

Molly and Sarah shared a look as they watched Emma's head roll back in laughter while Chuck buried his in his face. "What's funny, Mommy?" Emma asked as she slid into the booth beside Emma, Sarah setting Molly's sundae in front of her.

"Mommy was just teasing Chuck," she said brushing her hand through Molly's hair while sliding the laptop back to him. "He just gave us a very nice present."

"What is it?" Molly said, her eyes widening.

"He gave us some money so we can redecorate the house. We can get you a new dresser and as many pillows as you want."

Molly gasped, beaming. "Thank you, Chuck."

"You're welcome, Molly. But hurry up before your ice cream melts."

Having pulled his hands away he looked to Sarah and found her smiling at him. After a few licks she offered her cone to him. "You sure you don't want some?"

Sarah saw him start to lean in as if to take his taste from her lips, but then glanced at her mother and stopped himself. "Uh, no, I'm fine, thank you."

"She knows we kiss," Sarah told him, leaning in to kiss him herself.

Molly gasped, and Emma gave a dramatic gasp of her own, but smiled as she took one of the spoons from the sundae dish and helped herself to a scoop of Molly's ice cream. Chuck cleared his throat when Sarah pulled away. It wasn't anything too heated, but even a peck would've left him nervous in front of her mother. He did register that she was eating Rocky Road, which was stored in his Sarahsect.

They took Emma and Molly back to their house, packing some clothes and getting a few things ready for her insurance claim, including the report supplied by the NSA cleaners. Molly was annoyed by the destruction of her room until Chuck pointed out, "It just means more new stuff to get for it."

After dropping them off at the hotel they returned to Ellie's unpacking the bags of clothes from his trunk before she finally wrapped Chuck in a hug. She didn't need to say anything for him to know it was for what he'd done with her mom and sister, and though he didn't think it was much he would happily take the gratitude from her.

It was almost four when Chuck got a call from an unfamiliar secure number, putting it on speaker as he and Sarah were getting dressed. "Hello?" he answered cautiously.

"Hello, Chuck," said Beckman. "I'm just calling to let you know I'd transferred the agreed funds to your bank account. The rest will come once the order is completed."

"Wow," Chuck said sinking into his desk chair. "Um, thanks General. Should I keep this number in case of emergencies or wipe it?"

"It's my office. Please don't use it."

Hearing the call end, Chuck looked to Sarah with a tight smirk. "I'm pretty sure she's in love with me."

Sarah shook her head, walking over to sit on the foot on his bed. "Are you gonna check?"

He shrugged, turning and going to his bank's website and bringing up his account. As soon as he did she watched his jaw fall open. "Holy shit."

"You already knew what the pay was."

"Yeah but now it's actually really in my account," he said turning to Sarah. "Not in some made up one, but my real account. Chuck Bartowski's account."

"Well Chuck Bartowski better take me out to a really nice dinner with all his money," Sarah teased.

"Barely have it for a minute and already you're looking to spend all my money." Chuck clicked his tongue disapprovingly. "I've heard of gold diggers, but this is something else."

"So what are you gonna do with it?" asked Sarah.

"Something I've wanted to for a long time," Chuck said turning back to the page and smiling.

The next morning when they were getting ready for work Chuck was struck by the abundance of choice before him. After years of working in the same uniform the chance to dress however he chose was unfamiliar. Finally picking out an outfit he noticed he'd most of what he bought the day before was black or gray, which he supposed fit given the colors of their company logo. He reminded himself to order some green laces if not new shoes to fit the color scheme.

Seeing him looking himself over in his room, Sarah came up behind him smirking. "You look nice."

He turned to find her in a black top beneath a gray blazer and matching pencil skirt. "So do you," Chuck said sliding his hands around her waist. After kissing Sarah he told her, "Just so you're not ambushed later, I want to have a company meeting when we get to work."

"I just hope this goes better than the last," she said with a smirk.

They drove his car, promising to take Sarah's the next day. This time they went into the garage, the gate opening itself as they approached. Parking beside the Crown Vic and surveillance van, they made their way inside and up to the fourth floor.

"You go setup," Sarah told him as they stepped out of the elevator. "I'll tell Casey about the meeting."

He was sat at his desk when Casey and Sarah entered his office and took the seats opposite him as he turned toward them. "So how is everyone this morning?" When the agents stared at him silently, Chuck nodded. "Wow, not all at once."

"Just get to the point, Bartowski," Casey said shaking his head.

"Hey, I'm your boss, what I-" Chuck couldn't make it further before laughing and shaking his head. "Sorry, sorry. Just funny to realize that."

"The point," Casey repeated.

"Right, well I have a couple things I wanted to deal with. First, this building is a ghost town. We need more employees. Can I hire people?"

"It would depend on who they are," said Sarah. "They would have to be vetted."

"I think it would help the cover at least to not have it be just us."

"Just let us know who you have in mind," Casey told him. "I'll run backgrounds and check with Beckman."

With a nod, Chuck said, "I think we should consider taking on Alex at least part time."

Casey rolled his eyes. "This again?"

"I think she would be a great fit. She's taking criminal psych classes. Clearly she at least has an interest in this type of stuff if not a desire to work in it. It would give her real experience. I think we at least need to make the offer."

Casey leaned forward. "Look, I appreciate you wanting her to work near me-"

"I swear it's not just that." Chuck held up a hand asking him to wait. "Look at her class load and it's like s he's set up to become a cop if not an FBI agent, maybe a profiler. I'm not asking her to go on missions with us. I want her behind to bulletproof glass at a reception desk. Once we get more people she can move on to being an executive assistant. And by that I mean assistant to the executives, but probably more Sarah except for when I want to stay in the office working and ask her to get lunch. The most she'd be involved is with research and getting us files."

The NSA agent stared at Chuck for a few seconds before sitting back. "I'll ask her if she's interested before I ask Beckman."

"Thank you," Chuck said with a nod before taking a breath and setting a set of folders on the table. "This is the other person I was thinking about hiring."

Both agents opened the folder and looked to each other in confusion. "Mei-Ling Cho?" asked Sarah.

"It's kinda my fault she had to defect," Chuck said pointing to their files. "She was a good agent, just caught in a bad spot and had to make a decision. She's not doing much here now, so I thought maybe we hire her. She's done lots of corporate espionage missions, that could help us with corporate security."

"Bartowski half of this crap is in Chinese," Casey said tossing the folder on the desk.

"Mandarin," Sarah corrected.

"I'm guessing you got it off their servers? Meaning you hacked the Chinese government."

"Some of it's from them." Chuck nodded. "Intersect helped me read it. It just supports what I said about her record."

"He's right," Sarah said flipping the page. "It's definitely above average with plenty of work infiltrating companies."

Hearing Casey grunt, Chuck sat up. "I'm not saying we bring her into our missions, but she knows about our work and could help cover for us. Keep work going here while we're out hunting Fulcrum, The Ring, Volkoff and whoever else gets in our way."

Crossing his arms, Casey relented, "I'll run it by Beckman. See if she can get her cleared to work with us again before we contact her to make an offer."

"Great, next topic," Chuck set his elbows on the desk resting his chin on his raised hands. "I want to offer Ellie some extra security for her apartment. I want to avoid the CIA or NSA being involved with this so I'll pay for it. I just want to know what you two think she could use so I know what to look into and suggest to her."

"Why do you want this now?" asked Casey.

"Because I had a Fulcrum agent come to shoot me at my last job, we had a rogue agent come for Sarah. If anyone comes for you, you'll just kick the shit out of them and shoot them," he said with a laugh, "but Ellie isn't as gung-ho. So I'd like to make sure her and Devon are safe even after we move out."

"We?" Sarah asked with a smirk.

Casey and Chuck scoffed in unison, making the men glance warily at one another before Chuck turned back to Sarah. "You basically live with me now. The only reason I'm not suggesting you get rid of your apartment and make it official is because you're not paying for it. Plus it might be too much of a sign that we're not just tolerating our cover relationship."

"We could have a security system installed and sign them up for a service, but I doubt she'll go for more than that," said Casey. "It's not like she's about to come to the range or go to dojo with Wallker."

"Well what about, like, special windows. Bulletproof ones, or ones that can't be picked. I don't want to do a total renovation of the apartment, but anything that won't force them out of their home should be considered."

After a look to Sarah that made both shrug, Casey said, "I can look into it."

"Great." Chuck nodded, looking back to his computer. "I-I think that's it for now. I'd like to hire more people, at least for some stuff, but they need to be people I trust and the only people I know of are from the Buy More so not exactly prime candidates for this stuff."

"Well there is always the other option we discussed," Sarah said cautiously. "The whole reason they gave us this big building is to run a substation."

"Yeah but with Fulcrum and the Ring…" Chuck sighed. "If I don't flash on someone who's with them then it risks everything. It puts us all in danger."

His grim tone made it obvious he not only took it seriously but was worried about it and had considered it fairly often. "We're not completely useless," said Casey. "We can run our own checks. We can build profiles of known agents and figure out markers to run and block anyone with them."

"You know who could help with profiles?" Chuck said with a growing grin. "Who's taking classes about criminal psychology…" When Casey sighed, Chuck snickered. "If you guys think we should do it then let's do it. That's all I wanted to discuss for now, but if you guys have anything-"

Casey said nothing as he got up and left the room. Sarah watched him before turning back to Chuck. "You don't need to worry about this. We'll be as thorough as possible, and we'll limit who knows about you. As far as anyone knows here you'll be Charles Carmichael, freelance analyst hired by the CIA and NSA as a joint asset."

Getting to his feet, Chuck walked around the desk. "You know I thought about some other potential hires, but I don't think they'd go for it."

"Oh?" She got to her feet. "Who?"

"The CATs. They could help not just with the cover missions but the government missions. Problem is they have their own stuff going on. I doubt they're just gonna dump their lives to come here to… what did Carina call it? Snoresville?"

"Well thank you for at least considering them," she said with a laugh. "You're right though, those two aren't the type to settle in here. If you want I can still ask them."

Shrugging, Chuck wrapped his arms around her waist. "I mostly considered it so you could work with your friends."

"I already work my best friend," she said standing on her toes to kiss him.

"Wow, after all we've done I'm just a friend?" He clicked his tongue and smirked.

"Not just," she said tapping his chest. "Besides, you haven't seen us together off mission. We can get… wild."

"I can handle wild," Chuck assured.

"I'd rather you just handle me," Sarah said with a grin that made him blush.

"Ms. Walker, this is a place of business."

"Fine," she said pushing off him to turn and leave, "tell it to HR."

"Aren't you HR?" He asked, her answer a shrug as she left the office. Letting out raspberry he turned and picked his phone off the desk, calling his sister. "Hey, El. How do you feel about stopping by the office today? I can give you a tour."

It was a few hours before her shift ended and though he'd told her to just come straight there she stopped home to change out of her scrubs. He went down to greet her, reminding her during a quick hug, "Cover for cameras. My office is safe."

She simply smiled in response, following him around the office as he went over the facilities. At Casey's office Chuck knocked and opened it, giving her a quick look inside and explaining he was just giving Ellie a tour. When she waved, Casey returned it with a nod before looking to Chuck. "I looked into the two we talked about hiring," he said carefully. "First one said she was interested and was cleared, so I told her to come in for a meeting. Second one was cleared but we have to make an approach. Figured you'd want to handle that."

"Thanks, Casey," said Chuck. "I'll look into it and setup a meeting."

Moving to Sarah's office they found her at the door, having heard them and greeting Ellie with a hug before showing her around her office. Chuck noticed a few marks in the targets on her walls along with two knives. "Slow day?" he asked.

Sarah shook her head. "I called Zondra and Carina to offer it and they annoyed me."

"What did they say?" Chuck asked with a frown.

"Nothing bad," Sarah assured. "Just teasing me about, you know, us."

Ellie's eyes widened. "Chuck," she said quietly.

After brief confusion he shook his head. "Sorry, I forgot to say her office is clear too. We have our cameras off most of the time." Turning back to Sarah he gave an sympathetic smile. "I'm sorry they weren't into it. It would've been nice to have them around."

"No it wouldn't," she said shaking her head with a laugh.

Putting her PC to sleep she followed them to Chuck's office, ending when he sat in his desk chair and they sat on the chairs across his desk. Ellie rubbed the arms before looking at him with a smirk. "This is incredible, Chuck."

"Yeah, it is," he said with a laugh, reaching into a draw and pulling out an envelope. After a quick glance to Sarah, who nodded, he got up and walked around the desk, sitting on the edge in front of Ellie. "Here."

Ellie looked between the two while taking it. "What is this?"

"Something I've wanted to do for a long time." After a wave of his head he offered, "Think of it like a wedding gift. Hopefully you like it more than a blender."

"But Devon really likes smoothies," Ellie said with a laugh while opening the envelope. She found it held a few papers, or rather a few checks. "What is…" She went quiet as she saw not only the amount of each check but the note written in the Memo section. One was for Ellie's student loans, one for Devon's, another for a new car and a much larger check with the Memo: For your dream wedding.

Ellie's eyes flooded as she looked from the checks to him. "Chuck-"

"There's a bit extra in the loan checks because I wanted to do this a lot sooner, but I figure that could help pay off other bills."

"You don't need to do this," said Ellie.

"No I don't," he agreed, "but I've wanted to since before I left for Stanford. I used to think that I'd graduate and the first thing I'd do once I got money was pay off your loans and buy you a new car. The wedding is the gift. The rest is just what I owe you."

"You don't owe me anything," Ellie said wiping her eyes.

"I owe you everything, Ellie," he whispered, his eyes glassy as he smiled.

She leapt up from her seat to hug him, squeezing him tight enough he wouldn't be surprised to find a few extra bruises joining the ones Ryker left him with. After a moment she pulled back, glancing at the checks before asking, "This isn't Piranha money is it?"

"No," Chuck said shaking his head. "This is all mine. I considered it, but I wanted this to be from me. If it was Piranha money the checks would be much, much bigger."

They walked Ellie back down to her car, standing in the parking lot waving until she was out of sight. Sarah turned to Chuck with a smile. "You think you'll keep any of the money?"

Snickering, Chuck shrugged. "I'm gonna use it while I got it. If I wasn't sure Beckman would get annoyed with me abandoning the apartment complex I'd look for a house."

"We could always have them look for a house if you prefer that," Sarah said turning to him.

Chuck shook his head. "No. If I get a house I want it to be mine, not the governments. I'd rather they weren't involved with this," he motioned to the building behind them, "but since they're using me to help them I'll use them to help me. Once we're done I can move buildings and start over on my own." He turned to her with a smirk as they started back inside, "It'll be a shame losing you two, but maybe I'll have enough money to convince you guys to go private."

Sarah chuckled knowing that was for the cameras, but as she returned to her office she found herself wondering if that was what she'd do. Once the Intersect was out of Chuck's head and he could live a real life would he really want to be with her as a CIA agent? Would she really want to leave him for months at a time because of some mission?

Chuck took a quick detour to Casey's office to go over what Beckman said, finding out she looked into Mei-Ling and said it was their choice to offer her a job. Taking the contact information Casey gave him, Chuck returned to his office and used their secure line to call her.

The phone rang twice before she answered, "Hello?"

"Hi, is this Mei-Ling Cho?"

After a moment of silence she asked, "Who is this?"

"This is Chuck Bartowski. You might remember me from-"

"I remember you. You helped me save my brother. Why are you calling me?"

"Well, I, uh, I started my own company, we do security stuff, and I was hoping we could meet to discuss you coming to work for me."

"You want to hire me?" she sounded amused.

"Yes. I know your talents aren't being properly utilized and thought I doubt our work will be as thrilling as yours was I imagine it's better than the office work they have you doing. I bet they have you secluded from everyone in case you turn out to be some kind of sleeper agent, right?" After a moment of silence he said, "Well, I know what you went through and why you did it. I'm willing to trust you really did it for the love of your brother, not some spy plot. It's the kind of thing I'd do for my sister and what I'm sure she'd do for me if she could."

"Okay."

"Really? Great. I was hoping we could within the week. Is there any chance you can fly out to our office?"

"I can be there by the weekend," said Mei-Ling.

"I'll email the info over and some of the basics, then we can go over the details once you're here. It's a bit complicated, but I think it could work out."

Chuck wasn't the only one who arranged for a meeting. A week after he arranged his with Mei-Ling, Quinn arrived at a restaurant in Boston where waited nearly fifteen minutes before the seat opposite him was occupied by a brown haired man in a suit rather than the blonde, gaunt man he expected. He didn't let it throw him. Instead he took a drink before with a hint of apathy, "You've changed your look a lot Anatoli."

"Zevlovski's dead," said the man.

"I see." Quinn set his glass down, leaning back in his chair. "I take it you're handling his business now?"

"I am his business," the man said with a shrug. "All his information came from me. I'm just cutting out the middle man. You need information the CIA has, the kind no one is allowed to see, and I can get it for you at the same price you agreed to."

"Fair enough," said Quinn. "Though how do I know any of this is true? That your information is worth anything."

"Because I know Nicholas Quinn was supposed to be involved with the Intersect until Agent Bryce Larkin stole it for himself. You were then sent to infiltrate the Atenas Cartel and investigate their ties to Chrick Pharmaceuticals with Agent Zach Alvaro, but they bought him out and he turned you over. You were found and freed when their practices were outed by the Piranha and returned to the US where Graham tried to guide your recovery, but you were once again passed over for this Intersect project, which is what killed him." Reaching for his drink, he stopped to smirk at Quinn. "Since then you've opened Quinn Industries and gone private sector after Copeland dumped you."

Quinn gave a nod. "You know about me. Who exactly are you?"

Extending a hand, the man smirked. "I'm Hunter Perry. Whatever you need I can find."

AN:

Alex taking a criminal psych course seems almost forgotten, so I figure this keeps her around as a character and allows for a natural integration. I have a few fun ideas for stuff with Mei-Ling in the future, but that's all later so who knows what'll happen before then. Either way I think she fits.

When I went back to make a list of Chuck's potential allies there weren't many, even from future seasons, and not many guys either, but I'm keeping to my minimal OC thing. Apart from some baddy of the week and the elders I'm hoping to avoid any significant OCs.

I considered having Zondra and Carina become involved, but I think neither seems the type to settle for it. Maybe Zondra could since we don't know a lot about her, but the vibe I got says no. If people feel strongly enough about it I could always have them become involved later. I have a few ideas on other entry points.

Hope people caught on the big building and Castle had a purpose since it's a bit obscene for three people to have both facilities. It's something I'll go into more much later, plus it also gives me the chance to destroy one and leave the other in tact, which is always a fun option to have.

As I said previously Piranha is to blame for timeline discrepancies. Just so happened he freed his real nemesis, which felt fitting. I deleted bit from previous chapter's Quinn section that I felt made one of his plans too obvious. I think it's a pretty fun one and should lead to some interesting stuff.