A/N: I don't own the characters from Chuck. And thanks a billion to P.J. Murphy for betaing this chapter. He definitely helped with some plot and mechanical stuff.
Chapter 5: Unwanted Discoveries
"Fortunately, he was able to give up the location of the weapons cache. That was a good job you did last night," Beckman finished.
"Thanks, yeah, it was great," Chuck replied, trying to hide his nervousness. While on the mission, he flashed on the guy that they were supposed to bust. Unfortunately, he was Fulcrum. Chuck was feeling conflicted over not being able to do anything to protect him. Not while his handlers were there.
"And one more thing," Beckman continued. "He told us that he was part of a group of rogue government agents called Fulcrum."
"Did he now?" Chuck squeaked out, eyes boggling. He felt his insides twist and drop out. A touch of lightheadedness caused him to sway a bit and stumble.
"Did you flash?" Sarah asked. She clasped his shoulder to steady and reassure him. Chuck did not find the gesture reassuring at all. Instead he felt guilt and fear of discovery well up inside of him. Despite being an agent for the government, she always showed concern and compassion for him. She was tough, smart, kind, and could be counted on to act in Chuck's best interests. In return, he was playing her.
"Out with it Bartowski," Casey growled impatiently. Chuck felt another quiver of fear from the grizzly agent.
"Uh, well, sort of..." he began lamely.
"'Sort of'?' Would you care to explain that? How can you 'sort of' flash on a rogue spy group?" Casey was become increasingly belligerent at Chuck's hesitance.
"Take it easy, Casey," Sarah interjected before Chuck could become further spooked. "Alright, Chuck. Just take a deep breath and tell us what you flashed on."
The icy fear in Chuck's chest melted a bit at Sarah's concern, but the guilt still nearly overwhelmed him. It was getting harder to put up this front with a great woman like Sarah. Sometimes he felt like breaking down and telling her everything, but then he would think of how much that might hurt the both of them. And then he remembered that she was an agent, and it was her job to extract such information. He just had to remind himself that she is doing her job. And doing her job well enough that she might succeed at breaking him. As long as he held onto the idea that she didn't really care about him as nothing more than an asset, he could carry on with his facade.
"Well, yeah, I did flash. I mean, I didn't really know what it meant. And it's sometimes hard to interpret the information in a flash since everything comes at me so quickly and I have to get all the important details out. That's why it's called a 'flash'. Some of the stuff I see is important, some is not. And what I knew about the word 'fulcrum' is that it's the point where a lever works, not some ambiguous secret agency."
"Quit the yapping and tell us what you know." It was easier to keep Casey in perspective, he didn't do much to endear himself to Chuck.
"Right, sorry. The most I can figure out, now that I think about it, is that Fulcrum is some sort of rogue conglomeration or small group of agents. I don't know much more than what you know."
"Is there anything else the Intersect has on Fulcrum?" Beckman asked.
"Not that I can tell right now. It's not like I can execute a search function at will." Unlike the F-Intersect.
Beckman sighed. "Alright. I'll get some analysts on this new agency." With that, she abruptly cut off.
Chuck felt some relief at the meeting finishing. He said bye to Casey and slumped out of his apartment. Sarah caught up with him in the hallway.
"It's alright, Chuck," she once again reassured. "I understand that having a computer in your head is difficult, and that you don't have much control of your flashes. But just try to relax for now. Let Casey and I protect you from the bad guys. I'll see you tomorrow night for our cover date with Devon and Ellie."
She gave him another smile that made him feel guilty for deceiving her before she walked away. "Thanks," he muttered uneasily to her disappearing figure.
Chuck fidgeted in place while the Fulcrum agent he was with picked the lock. He looked around at the dingy hallway, but there was nothing to divert his interest.
"Do I really need to be here?" he asked the agent.
"I don't know. Why are you here?" he returned.
"Ted just wanted me to come along and get the software. I don't know why you couldn't have retrieved it yourself if you're supposed to be here and get it."
"I'm not here to retrieve software." With that, he opened the door and darted in with his gun drawn. "Stay right there and let me do my part of the job first."
Chuck waited outside for a few minutes while the agent did his job, which Chuck wasn't quite aware of. All Chuck knew was that Frank Darrow was a computer scientist in Fulcrum, and was notorious for constructing fanciful security measures for his programs. He had also recently betrayed Fulcrum. Chuck had never seriously thought about betraying Fulcrum, but he was aware that the consequences were severe.
He was broken out of his thoughts when he heard conversation. He made his way inside the apartment and looked to see if the agent had found Frank. The report of a silenced pistol spurred Chuck into a run.
Chuck stopped short in a doorway and saw the agent that he had come with putting his gun away. Frank was slumped in a chair, a look of horror marred by a gunshot wound between the eyes.
"Oh my god, what happened?" Chuck was miraculously able to squeak out from his shock.
"Orders," the agent said flatly. "He betrayed Fulcrum, and I was given orders to eliminate him. That's just what happens."
Chuck's brain was frozen in astonishment and fear over the scene. Sure, he knew that Fulcrum was trying to gain influence and power in the world. And that there was a dirty side to that mission. However, Chuck wasn't really in that branch. He spent most of his time in the computer lab. All that he was vaguely aware of sharply focused into full realization at that moment.
"Listen," the agent started when he saw Chuck begin to freak out, "he was a loose end, and would have continued doing more damage. He had to be eliminated to keep everyone else safe." He paused for a moment, trying to determine where else Chuck's thoughts might go. "And honestly, the established government works the same way. I'm still with the CIA, and I have to do this stuff all the time. Actually, I just eliminated another agent a couple of hours ago that was selling secrets to some country." He stopped, wondering if he should say anything else. He decided that he didn't have much else to say.
Chuck took a few moments to collect himself and reflect on what the agent had just said. "Okay. First off, what's your name?"
"Aaron."
"Alright, thank you, Aaron. Now, how can you be so blasé about the whole thing? You just killed a man, and you look bored. No offense."
"None taken. Well, I guess I've just been doing this a long time. With pretty much any intelligence agency, whether legitimate or not, the methods are pretty much the same. Sometimes with you science types, your eyes are so buried in your microscopes or slides or computer screens or whatever, that you don't take stock of all the other stuff that goes on. And if some of you do see it, you don't see anything wrong with it. You know, the whole ends justify the means stuff. Well, that's kind of the same approach with a lot of people, especially those in power. If you keep your eyes up and focused on the 'greater good', then you won't notice that you're walking on a pile of corpses to get there."
Chuck closed his eyes and saw what Aaron had just talked about in his mind's eye. He shivered. "Well, I don't think I'm one of those people. Or at least, I didn't. I mean, it bothers me since I'm looking at a corpse and the guy that just made said corpse. This is the first time I've actually been this close to an assassination, and I am feeling it."
"Congratulations, you're still human?" Aaron wasn't too sure what he was supposed to say. "Just keep in mind that there are other scientists who would experience this as a slight inconvenience to their work. And I'm not talking about just Fulcrum."
Faintly nodding, Chuck shuffled over to the computer and got to work. He lost himself in the maze of security that Frank had constructed. He believes he is a good person, but he was beginning to doubt that. But then, was it so different when he was working for the CIA? There was too much confusion there, so Chuck just focused on his work. Time passed, he didn't know how much, but he eventually got in and was able to take Frank's work.
Aaron startled Chuck a bit when he said, "If you want to survive, you better be indispensable. And understand that there are sacrifices in this line of work."
"Thank you."
Ellie and Awesome were getting cute and cuddly in front of Chuck and Sarah. Chuck was grateful for some normalcy after a lousy day at work. A smile came to his face as he watched his sister and her boyfriend have a moment together after dinner at the sushi restaurant.
Chuck felt warmed that his sister had a meaningful relationship with Devon. He only wished that he could say the same thing for himself. Before he could wistfully cogitate on his sister's love, he became aware of Sarah nudging him in the side. A discrete glance to her told him nothing, so he decided that she wanted him to move.
"Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to bump into you," he apologized to her as he took a step back to give her some space. He faintly registered a look of surprise on her face. (1) She gave him some sort of meaningful glance and jerked her head to Ellie and Awesome.
"So, anything else on the agenda?" he asked the two. Sarah huffed, but Chuck wasn't really paying attention to her. He didn't know what she was getting at, so he assumed that she wanted him to talk.
"How about we go back to our place for a drink? The night's still young, bro," Devon answered.
Any further discussion was derailed when a scientist dosed with deadly truth serum and secret launch codes stumbled onto the scene.
"Alright, where is it?" Casey growled.
Riordan Payne was still howling in agony from where Sarah shot him in the knee. He gave them a vicious glare, but still said nothing.
"Listen, Payne," Chuck began. "I think it's in your best interests to tell us where the real antidote is. My bosses, my real bosses..." Chuck was stumbling with his compulsion to tell the truth and to keep from revealing himself "...who happen to be in the government, would not like it if I died. I've got some really important information and programming skills that are needed by a lot of people." It was extremely difficult for Chuck to control what he blurted out. He was trying to stay vague and put in a lot of inconsequential details to mask any major revelations. "My bosses also include the people at Roark Industries." He bit his tongue to halt any further revelations. "They would be really pissed at you because-"
"Will you shut it, Bartowski? I don't need to put up with more of your inane rambling when I'm around you for this long. And you're giving me a headache." Casey turned his attention back to Payne. "Now, before this moron decides to spew anymore verbal diarrhea, where are the codes?" He cocked his gun to emphasize the threat.
Luckily for Chuck, Sarah and Casey weren't paying too much attention to Chuck's rambling monologue. It was a habit both of them had developed to filter out most of what Chuck said unless he presented them with relevant information.
Finally, they got the antidotes and were about to take them. Chuck and Sarah were facing each other, and Chuck found that this might be a good time to find out the truth of her feelings for him.
"Wait, wait, wait, not yet, not yet."
"Why? What's the matter?"
"Nothing, it's just that…this will probably be the last chance that I have to know the truth. I…know you're just doing your job here, but sometimes it feels so real, you know? So, tell me. You and me…us. Our thing under the undercover thing. Is this ever going anywhere?"
"I'm sorry, Chuck. No."
"Got it. Got it. Thank you for being honest. Even though I guess you don't really have a choice in the matter."
Before Chuck could say anything more, she chugged her antidote.
It was too close. She was getting too close to Chuck. Sure, he was nice, funny, smart, handsome, and considerate, but he was still her asset. Sarah really liked him, but she was finding it harder to keep her distance, and objectivity. It was unsettling how she was starting to feel herself get drawn to him.
Sarah shifted up another gear and swerved around the car that was going too slow in front of her. She then executed a powerslide around a corner and a couple of daredevil moves to try to release the weird tension she was feeling. A bootlegger reverse and stomp on the brakes ended with her parked in a space in front of Casey's apartment.
Sitting in the seat for a minute helped her realize that she was still feeling tense and anxious about nearly telling Chuck about her feelings about him. Feelings that were still confusing her. She decided to put off finding out what those feelings and thoughts really meant, and went in for the meeting.
"So the agent should be there in a couple of minutes to pick up the launch codes," Beckman finished. Casey and Sarah had already shooed Chuck home so that they could take care of the debriefing.
"Is there anything else that you think is necessary to share?" Graham continued.
"No sir. That's it on my side," Sarah said.
"No. As far as our knowledge goes, everything has been taken care of," Casey concurred.
"Good job then, agents." With that, Beckman and Graham terminated the feed.
A knock at the door prompted Casey to go over and check who it might be. "I don't think I can go bowling tonight, but I can lend you my ball." Casey winced at the call sign.
"Thanks," said the agent on the other side, "Todd tried to lend me his, but it's the wrong weight."
Satisfied with the return, Casey opened the door and handed the agent the codes. Putting the chip into a briefcase, the agent promptly left.
"I'm glad that's over with. I hate truth serums," Casey growled as he closed the door.
"I don't think anyone likes them. They lower your defenses and make you vulnerable."
"By the way, Walker," Casey started. "Did you say anything that might compromise you?"
"No. Fortunately, I've been trained to withstand the effects of pentathol."
Chuck watched the exchange on his computer. He had hacked into the surveillance that Casey kept on his own apartment. That way, he could keep a tab on his handlers and report anything relevant to Fulcrum. And to make sure that Chuck didn't arouse any suspicion from Casey and Sarah, he had looped the video surveillance in his own apartment to make it look like he was doing nothing particularly interesting. It was a much better solution than all out blocking the feeds.
A knock on Chuck's door caught his attention. He went over, looked to see who it was, and opened the door. The agent that had picked up the codes was there with a grin on his face.
"Hey, Eric! Come on in. Hurry, before anyone sees you."
Eric walked in and sat down. "Hey, Chuck. I was able to get picked to retrieve the codes, thanks to your brilliant computer skills."
He opened up the briefcase and took out the flash drive that held the codes. Chuck gingerly took it and connected it to his computer. With a couple of button presses, he began downloading the information.
"Thanks, Eric. This will take just a couple of minutes, and then you can continue with your errand boy mission."
"Errand boy?" Eric retorted with mock hurt. "Those are extremely sensitive and dangerous codes that need more than just a mere errand boy to keep them safe. That makes me the ultimate errand boy in the world, equipped with kung fu and loyalty bending super powers."
"Ah, it's done," Chuck said as a tone from the computer signaled the end of its task. "Here you go. Make sure you don't lose it."
"Thanks for that back." Eric put the flash drive back in his case and closed it. "So, what do you intend on doing with it? Are you going to hand it over to Fulcrum?"
"No, not just yet. For now, I'm just going to hang onto it. Who knows when I need a bargaining chip like that."
"And I heard that you and your handlers were exposed to some sort of truth serum. Did you compromise yourself?"
Chuck looked over to the screen that had showed Casey and Sarah at the debriefing. "No. Like Sarah, I also have some resistance training to pentathol. Maybe not as much as her, but just enough. I've got to thank Tommy for that, I almost told Sarah that I was working for Fulcrum."
(1) This is what I wish had actually happened on the show. Chuck being oblivious to the romantic stuff he should be doing strikes me as funny.