A/N: Here is the next chapter. Let's see how Chuck is doing as a double agent. And don't forget to review. It's good feedback for me. Also, this is unbeta'd. Does anybody know how to get a beta? Is there some sort of board around here so I could get one? Anyways, happy reading!

Chapter 4: Working With the Enemy

"So after a brief car chase, we were able to run the perps off the road and arrest them. We suffered no casualties and had no escapes."

Graham looked up from the report as Sarah finished the debrief.

"And the Intersect," Beckman asked, "how has that been working?"

Chuck stood up from where he was seated and began to report on its performance. At least, the G-Intersect's performance. At first, he was nervous about talking to the general and director. But after a few missions, he's become a bit more comfortable interacting with all the government people. The fact that nothing Fulcrum related has come up yet has just made things easier.

After Graham and Beckman sign off, Sarah turns to Chuck. "Good job, Chuck. You did great."

"Yeah," Casey smirked, "you only screamed like a little girl twice."

"And you need to stay in the car." Sarah looked a little more serious at that. "We can't protect you if you go off after the enemy. I don't want you to get hurt." Sarah was giving Chuck a soft but intent look that Chuck had to look away from. She seemed really concerned for him.

"Alright, next time a random thug aims a missile launcher at the car, I'll stay in it." He smiled and seemed to diffuse the situation a bit. "Oh, and let me just remind you that we have dinner tomorrow night with Ellie and Awesome. I think she's going to be bringing out the big guns: glazed pork chops and homemade applesauce."

Sarah's smile dazzled and she looked happy and excited. "I'm looking forward to it."

Chuck leaned heavily against the door and sunk down to the floor when he got back to his place. He was settling into his role as a double agent for Fulcrum and the government, but it was still a lot of hard and messy work. He had to relay information to two masters. And if Fulcrum showed an interest in someone he flashed on, they tried to contact that person or group. Things just got stickier when the government wanted to shut them down. So far, Chuck has been barely hanging on and keeping his stories straight. Fortunately, the missions have not yet directly clashed with Fulcrum.

Then there was another layer of difficulty: Sarah Walker. Despite his reservations and fears of her being a deadly agent that would execute him if she found out his true loyalties, he found himself getting increasingly attracted to her. She was smart, fun, beautiful, charming-

Whoa, stop right there, Chuck. He stopped that thought process before it could get any further. I'm getting way too comfortable with her. She may be an amazing person, but she is still the enemy. I have to stay scared of her. Sarah Walker is a honeytrap. She will imprison and/or kill me. She will kill me. I have to keep my distance. It shouldn't be that hard since she is doing the same thing.

Chuck repeated the mantra to himself to keep his perspective. It would not do to get complacent. He continued the mantra as he got ready for bed and went to sleep.

"Mornin' Casey!" Chuck chirped as he walked across the plaza to enter the RI (Roark Industries, in case you don't know. Not that I'm insulting your intelligence, or anything. It's just going to get real annoying to keep writing the whole thing out. Okay, I'm done.) building. Since RI had stonewalled Casey from getting a job in there, he now works at a churro cart in the general vicinity. He has mobility, access to Chuck, and some tasty treats if he gets hungry.

"Hurm," he grunted with a usual Casey expression on his face.

"I forgot to invite you to dinner with Sarah, Ellie, and Awesome tonight. I figured that since you might be monitoring us anyway, you might as well-" Chuck looked to the side and flashed.

Unfortunately, the guy he flashed on was a Fulcrum demolitionist who was entering the building. Before he could hide his flash, Casey noticed what was happening. He took a concerned and businesslike look and looked around for threats.

"Did you just flash? On who?"

Oh crap. What do I do? I can't just tell him that I flashed on a Fulcrum agent going into RI. "Uh, yeah, I kind of did flash on something. Or someone." The hell was that? Like that didn't sound suspicious.

"Well, who? Are we talking about national security?" Casey was getting amped up at the possibility of shooting someone. But he was also getting annoyed at Chuck's flash report.

"Uh, it was a guy. He was walking over there somewhere." Chuck waved in a vague direction tangent to where the agent was walking.

Irritation rising, Casey grabbed Chuck by his lapels and brought him menacingly close. "Quit with the rambling, Bartowski. Who, what, why, where, and when. Now."

"Uly Derek, some sort of rogue demolitions expert. I don't know where he's going or why he's here. But I'm more or less sure that he's not in the general vicinity now. I only caught a glimpse of him, so I don't know where he's going. Casey, please let go. I'm going to be late for work."

Casey dropped him and looked at Chuck incredulously. "Late for work? We're talking possible terrorist, and you're more concerned about being late for work?"

"Well, I mean," Chuck began to stutter, "we don't know what he's here for. But I'm pretty sure he was walking over there." He pointed again. "So maybe if you talk to the bosses, they can have more information. And being inside of RI is a lot safer than being out here. So, we've got to protect the Intersect at any cost, right?"

With that, Chuck booked it. He looked back to see Casey talking on his phone, probably alerting the proper people about the situation.

Damn, that could have been handled better. I've got to tell Ted about this. I hope I didn't just burn the guy.

"I'm going to have to consult with the others and see what we could do. Chuck, you're supposed to steer any connections to Fulcrum away from us." Ted was thinking hard about how he was going to present the situation.

"I'm sorry, but Casey saw me flash. I can't really control my responses to a G-Intersect flash. It's kind of hard to miss me seizing up like that. And it's really uncontrollable. I was as vague as I could manage without throwing up any red flags. All Casey knows so far is that Uly is in the vicinity, but he does not necessarily have anything to do with Fulcrum or RI." At this point, Chuck was nearly hyperventilating. He really hoped that nothing bad happened to Uly because of him.

"Alright, alright," Ted responded to his increasingly panicky programmer. "You did your best to divert your handler. Just let us take care of Uly."

"You're not going to kill him, are you?" Chuck asked in a small voice. He really did not want to be responsible for someone getting 'taken care of'.

"No, no. We're just going to relocate him. Now, is there any way for you to use the F-Intersect to control the G-Intersect? Ours doesn't give such visible trouble."

Chuck sighed and rubbed his eyes. "No, not yet. They're incompatible programs. It's like trying to run Apple software on a Windows OS (A/N: I'm assuming you can't do that). I'm trying to recode the G-Intersect data so that it could run on the F-Intersect search and advanced analysis programs. It's just that I don't have any conscious control over the G-Intersect like I do over ours."

Ted nodded gravely, with a touch of disappointment. "Alright, just keep working at it. And don't worry about Uly. Just go along with what the government tells you, but help us in the best way you can."

"So, there's not much else I can say. I caught enough of a glimpse of him to flash, but he was going away from us. I mean, the flash really caught me by surprise. More so than usual. And the resolution of the documents I saw wasn't very good. I suggest in the future that we take hi-res photos so that it would be easier to make out information that is flashing by so quickly. Not a lot of people can read that fast." Chuck was rambling, hoping that he could hit on something that would further divert his team and the bosses from further pursuing Uly.

"That is quite enough, Mr. Bartowski," Beckman interrupted with some irritation. "From our sources, we have found that Uly Derek is a demolitions expert that works freelance for several terrorist networks. There is also some evidence that he works with several rogue government agents."

Uh-oh, Chuck thought. Please don't mention Fulcrum. Please, please don't mention Fulcrum.

Graham didn't want Beckman to do all the talking, so he cut in. "Fortunately, we have been able to track him and his last known location was around here. " A map was pulled up which showed Uly's last known whereabouts. "Casey, Walker, we want you to track him down and take him in. Bring the Intersect with you for identification."

With that, they signed off. Casey grinned.

"Well, sounds like we're hunting a demolitions expert." Casey checked his gun and loaded it with glee. "I kind of hope something blows up."

"Great," Chuck said faintly. He was desperately trying to keep the worry off his face. But Sarah caught his expression.

"Don't worry, Chuck," she started with a smile. "Just stay in the car, and we'll keep you safe."

Uly squeezed off a couple of more shots around the bumper of the car before he sprinted to the side of a building. His eyes scanned his new position to look for a way out, but the agents after him were too hot on his tale.

"Psst, Uly. Over here. San Luis Obispo is really nice this time of year."

Uly recognized the Fulcrum identification phrase coming from behind him. He looked around and saw a guy gesturing for him to hurry on over. Uly fired another shot before he quickly snuck his way over.

"Well, I much prefer San Diego," Uly said the return phrase. "What can you do for me? In case you haven't noticed, but I've got two government agents after me." He fired a couple more shots to keep them pinned in their positions.

"Don't worry, Uly. Let me take care of them. Follow this alleyway all the way down and turn left. Go right at the next block and there should be a beige Nissan Maxima. Take it and head to Black Rock." With that Chuck handed Uly the keys to the car.

"Thanks, man. Anything else?"

"Um, you need to hit me," Chuck said with some trepidation. "I have to maintain plausible deniability with those two. Make it look like you got the jump on me and I was caught unawares. I'm not much of a fighter, so maybe just one punch would do. Not too hard, please. And please don't give me a concussion." He cringed in fear and anticipation.

"Will do. Sorry about this, man. And thanks for helping a fellow agent out."

Before Chuck could reply, Uly pistol whipped him and ran off. Chuck momentarily blacked out, but came back to consciousness with Sarah shaking him to wake up.

"So you just let him get away? And you let the Intersect get damaged?" Graham was understandably pissed. Beckman seemed no better.

"Sorry, sir and madam. We couldn't find any trace of him after he knocked out the asset." Casey was doing a good job maintaining such a stoic facade in the face of such scrutiny.

"I'm sorry the most," Chuck interjected. "I thought I saw him and wanted to get a closer look to make sure it was him. The next thing I know, I'm on my back in a dingy alleyway looking up at Sarah."

"Be quiet. If you can't keep out of danger, we might have to put you in a bunker for your own protection," Beckman fumed. "In the meantime, we are continuing our search for Uly. As for you, make sure that you keep the Intersect safe."

They signed off and left Sarah, Chuck, and Casey in his apartment. Sarah was tending to the cut on the side of his head from where Uly hit him.

"Chuck," she started, "you have to stay in the car. I don't know how many times we have to tell you, but we can't protect you if you keep getting in dangerous situations like that. I, we could have lost you."

"Sorry again. I'll try harder to do what you and Casey say. And I'm sorry that you guys got in trouble for my actions."

She smiled warmly in response and finished bandaging him up. Chuck couldn't help but feel a little guilty over his deception.

A/N: That car was the first one that came to mind, so no advertising. I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter.