A/N1 Caution: Have you read Chapter 5, "Strict Time"? I posted it yesterday, but the site never treated the story as updated. (I posted too quickly to suit the site, I guess.) So, you may want to go back one chapter and make sure that you haven't missed anything. It's an important chapter. Oh, and if you do go back, leave a review of that chapter before you return to this one, please.

In this chapter, player repositioning. More context too, but things move ahead.

We are beginning the second arc, the Look Homeward, Angel arc. This story has three arcs, the final two each a little longer than the first one.

Don't own Chuck.

Sarah vs. Omaha

CHAPTER SIX

Big Sister's Clothes

"Sheep to the slaughter, oh I thought this must be love…"

-Elvis Costello, Big Sister's Clothes

Opening the door, Chuck made sure neither Ellie nor Devon was home. They were due back this evening, but he thought it likely that they could not have made it from the airport back to the apartment yet. He needed time to decompress.

The thumb drive in his pocket felt like Gollum's damned ring, weighing him down, preying on his thoughts. Too bad it can't make me invisible. He had not looked at the information on it. He had not told anyone he had it. It was, at the moment, just a perverse trophy: a reminder that he could salmon, could swim upstream. A reminder that he did not have to let the current sweep him and his life away. It had claimed so damn much. Stanford, Jill...Sarah. Even, in a way, Bryce. And the current these days was muddy and foul-full of June Thorne.

She had stepped-splashy into the life Sarah abandoned-or, rather, the cover-life. Or was it a life? Anyway, June was working at the Wienerlicious. But as manager. She took over first thing in the morning. Scooter had been sent packing, terrified for his very life. Quickly after that, mere minutes it seemed, June had hired a phalanx of high school senior boys to work in the shop.

Chuck overheard some of them talking about the interview process: June had on the Wienerlicious outfit, and she had positioned herself on the counter, crossing and uncrossing her legs in slow-motion exaggeration. The small herd of boys who had stopped by almost daily to steal a glance at Sarah in her uniform shifted gazingstock to June. She had rounded up the herd and quickly thinned it to a manageable number, all good-looking and all at least eighteen. Her training process had also been immediate and very hands-on. By the time the first day was done, she had a group of new employees who would have sold their souls to have her look at them with her purple eyes or touch them. And, later, the store was spotless, gleaming, running almost on its own. She was some kind of demon enchantress.

June had then sashayed into the Buy More, still in her uniform, and had told Chuck loudly that she was sorry that Sarah had to leave town permanently, but that, since she was Sarah's old friend, and since they always shared, she would be happy to keep him company. At least until he got back on his feet. She had said that like he would be off his feet most of the time he was with her. She told him she would pick him up after work.

Casey had watched it all with a stone-face, giving nothing away. The Buy Morons were so overcome by fresh envy that they almost immediately forgot about Sarah or about Chuck's feelings (if they had ever thought of those at all), and simply started in on how he bagged the black-haired hottie. They were as flummoxed as when he had bagged the blonde-haired hottie. And now that Sarah was gone and Chuck left behind, they felt free to talk about her considerable charms.

Chuck had never wanted to punch Lester as much as he wanted to punch him that evening. He had been missing Sarah like a body part, but that show with June had made it even worse. He felt like parts of him had been amputated and June would soon start sawing on other parts. (Sarah had destroyed him from the inside; it looked like June would from the outside.) Chuck scowled at Lester and Lester backed up, shrank. Chuck had never scowled like that at Lester, with no hint of teasing or irony. Lester could feel the threat of a punch.

Morgan had been standing off to the side of the Nerd Herd desk, closer to Chuck than Casey, but by no means right beside Chuck. He had watched the exchange with June too. Chuck and Morgan had not talked. Not yet. As June left the store, Chuck turned. Morgan gave him a concerned look, then a look of puzzlement, and turned away.

And now Chuck was home. June had explained the cover to him as they roared down the road, and then almost pushed him out of the moving Jeep when they got to the apartment complex. Laughing, she left. "We'll have a serious talk tomorrow. For now, get some rest. You're going to need it. Tomorrow you learn about the facts of life: the hard facts of your miserable life." She put the topless Wrangler in gear and roared out of the lot.

And now Chuck was home. Ellie would be soon. He would just not mention the Sarah stuff tonight, the explanation, the new cover, June. The basic idea of his new cover was clear to him. June for Sarah. Strange trade. For now, he would just evade Ellie if she asked about Sarah. He had given her enough non-answers to questions about Sarah. More would not shock her at this point.

Unexpectedly, there was a knock at the door. Chuck checked to see who it was. Casey. He let him in.

ooOoo

The kid looked bad. Casey always thought of ladyfeelings as pastel and soft, warm and clinging, colored syrup fresh from a microwave. But he knew that was silly. Ladyfeelings could hurt like a son of a bitch. The kid had lost the woman he loved. He did not even know she loved him back. Casey had been brooding on that fact in his free moments. What was worse for the moron? Not knowing or knowing? There were arguments both ways, like in Casey's high school debate class. Resolved: Letting the moron stew in unrequited abandonment is better than letting him stew in requited abandonment. Casey had no idea whether it would be better to be the Affirmative or the Negative.

He had decided to keep that knowledge to himself, though, not because of Chuck so much as because of Thorne. If Chuck knew Sarah was in love with him, he might do something crazy, try to find her, go to her. It was the moron's style. I kinda like that about the kid. For a nerd, he's balls-out. But Thorne would destroy him when she found him, and she would find him. He would end up in a bunker if he was lucky. Bartowski had no idea where Walker was. Neither did Casey. She might be in Timbuktu. She might be in Fresno. Who knew?

He needed to keep the kid walking the straight and narrow until some way of turning the tables on Thorne showed itself. Casey had a call in to his CIA cleaner buddy. Maybe he would know something or know someone who did. Casey had always hated Graham, thought he was a miserable bastard, but sending Thorne to handle Bartowski was like sending a palsied Edward Scissorhands to dust an origami collection. It was cruel even for Graham. Soon, there would be bits and pieces of Bartowski all over the place.

"So, Thorne established the cover. Did you see the legion of high school horn dogs she's Fatal Attractioned into selling corn dogs?"

Chuck laughed at that, then gave Casey a surprised look. Yes, moron, I can make a joke.

"No, but I overheard. She's...um...efficient."

"Yeah, guess so. Like fucking kudzu. Look. Watch yourself around her. She's gonna push you hard, kid. Some agenda, Graham's or hers or both, is in play now. You are the...well, the pawn. But...I'm here to protect you. And I will. Even if it has to be from her."

Bartowski gazed at Casey, now more surprised. "Uh, ok, Casey. Thanks. Really. Thanks." Bartowski looked like he was going to say something more when the door of the apartment opened. Elle and Devon trooped in, pulling suitcases and long faces. The room temperature plummeted immediately, even with the open door. Casey declared retreat.

"So, yes, that's Big Mike's idea. We can talk more...tomorrow."

"Okay, Casey," Chuck said, falling in line with the ploy. He gave Casey a meaningful look, although Casey did not know what it meant. "Tomorrow."

Casey left. Ellie stared daggers at him as he went past her. What the hell is that all about?

ooOoo

Sarah and Bryce had been marking time. They were hoping to an invitation to another New Orleans event, this one at the Garland home tomorrow, but so far, no invitation had arrived. Bryce was still confident that it would come.

Sarah had kept her distance from him. She read although she had a hard time concentrating. She watched tv for a while when she found an old movie to watch. But mostly she had sat and thought. Thought and, very tentatively, tried to feel. The heartbreak she felt when she finally really let her mind be occupied by Chuck had caused her to start thinking. She knew that Bryce had never occupied her mind like that. Never.

She had thought maybe she loved Bryce, at least she had thought that for a while. Not at the very beginning, not at the end, but for a time in-between. When she was first in Burbank, she thought she might have been right about that in-between time, the Cabo time. That she had loved him even if she did not at the end. But the longer she was in Burbank, the more doubtful she became.

She had not been sure why. The easy thing to tell herself was that she was enjoying the 20/20 vision of hindsight, finally sorting out Bryce's abandonment of her and his going rogue. But she was unsure that the easy thing to tell herself was the true thing. She was now sure that it was not the true thing. She had come to know she did not love Bryce even during the in-between times. Her clarity about that was not caused by temporal distance from the Bryce of that time, but by the spatial closeness of someone else. The emotional closeness. Chuck. But what did that mean?

Maybe what it meant was that she saw that Chuck was lovable in a way that Bryce was not, never had been. That might explain it. She found Chuck...lovable. He showed her what lovable really was. And that helped her to see that Bryce was not that, at least not for her. It did not have to mean anything more than that. No, but it does, Sarah, it does. Say it to yourself. Three words.

No. She made herself stand up and go to the window, look out. She made herself stop thinking, feeling. Her chest tightened. Her hands grew shaky. So, this was her new normal, physically compromised or emotionally wrecked, always one or the other.

Later, she had left the room to get coffee, but without conscious planning, she had walked to a nearby store. She bought two burner phones. She walked to a post office and put one of the burners in an overnight envelope. She addressed it to Burbank Buy More, Repair: Attn. C. Bartowski. She programmed the number of each phone into the other. She paid the overnight fee. The woman at the counter put the envelope in an outgoing pile.

Almost certainly, Sarah would never use the phone. Almost certainly. But having bought them and mailed the one made her feel better, less adrift, anchored. She could breathe better. Her hands stopped shaking. Even the hurt in her chest was mollified.

She still had not let Bryce in on her accidental meeting with Ellie and Devon. She had decided she would not tell him. She could trust Chuck, Casey. Even if they'll never trust me again. Even if they hate me. They had her back. My team. Chuck would find a way to handle Ellie

She knew she needed to talk to Bryce. But she still did not trust herself to do it. Not without revealing things she did not want to reveal to him...to herself. Soon. They needed clearer boundaries. He needed to stop waiting for something that was not going to happen. She needed to figure out what she was doing. She felt the burner in her pocket.

ooOoo

June put off her confrontation with the Intersect. She did not trust herself. It was too early to go too far. She worked out her feelings on Smythe. He had not had much to tell her. He was a blunt instrument for Fulcrum, not trusted to do more than deal pain and death. But she had made sure he had no useful information. Damn sure. She had the cover squared away, more or less. Ellie and Devon would be the hard part, but she would not enter their orbit yet. Better to give that some time. Things were coming together. Tomorrow, she would start on the Intersect, start squeezing him like a grape. Until he popped.

ooOoo

Casey had been shocked by the condition of Smythe when he stopped at the safe house that morning. The backup team was holding Smythe there, and from there they were coordinating the ongoing search for Nova. But Casey had said not reacted outwardly, not showing his shock, not even when the backup team made it clear that they were...disturbed by the vicious treatment Smythe had been dealt. The problem was that Casey could not honestly say he would not have done the same. This battle with Fulcrum was getting harsher, and keeping the kid safe was getting harder all the time. Still, he had made sure the team had done what they could to make Smythe more comfortable.

Casey frowned to himself. Thorne knew the game. She had hurt the man badly, but there were few obvious physical traces. Obviously, the body was familiar to her, it's weaknesses and vulnerabilities, the places where pain could be maximized while damage was minimal. But the backup team had made it clear that Thorne had enjoyed herself. Casey would not say that of himself. He might have done it, but he and Johnny Walker would have had to have a long, long confab afterward.

The shock of it had been enough to send Casey to June's apartment. He picked the lock. Inside, the place was spotless. Disinfected. Everything looked normal. Except for the pile of pencil pieces in the trash, pencils that had never been sharpened. Casey did not know what to make of that, but his gut told him it was bad. He needed to talk to Beckman. It was time to find out where her head was at, and what she suspected Graham was up to. Casey felt like he was standing in a vortex, wind whistling around him on all sides, but without any means of determining what direction the storm was coming from.

ooOoo

Ellie let Chuck grab her suitcase handle. She watched as he and Devon pulled the suitcases to the bedroom. She sat down, dropped on a chair, really, and took out her phone. For Devon's sake, she had tried to enjoy the rest of their time in New Orleans, but it had been hopeless. And Devon had grown somber too. Her mind had been racing since the coffee shop. She had been going over and over the last few months. The changes in Chuck.

Sarah's sudden appearance. Casey's equally sudden appearance. Neither of them had been forecast by any change in Chuck, and neither of them fit Chuck's life as she had known it. She did not think Sarah was out of Chuck's league (she tended to think the reverse: Sarah was too cold and conflicted for someone as warm and integral as her brother), but she had been willing to go along with it because of the changes that then occurred in Chuck. He was awake, all at once, no longer somnambulant as he had been for the last five years. He seemed to be making acquaintance again with his vast potential.

It all seemed backward to Ellie, though. He should have awakened first, and then found someone like Sarah. Befriended someone like Casey. But those things had happened first, the awakening second. It was not an impossible ordering, it just felt unlikely.

And for all the changes in Chuck that Ellie liked, there were changes she absolutely did not like. His newfound reticence, vagueness, vacillation. The lingering deep-but-unacknowledged sadness in him despite the positive changes. She had attributed it all to the rigors of dating Sarah Walker. Walker seemed unknowable, wholly self-contained. Closed off. She was obviously very aware of what went on around her, except for her seeming blindness to the misery she was causing Chuck. A cloud of doom seemed to hover over the two of them. Sarah often treated Chuck as if she had rented him from a nerd escort service, things between them seemed business, not personal. Although there were moments, mostly when Casey was absent and Chuck otherwise occupied, when Sarah gazed at Chuck as a woman in love gazes at the man she loves. When the longing in Sarah's eyes made Ellie's chest hurt. But the gaze would vanish, business would return, and sometimes the gaze would be gone for a long time.

On the plane, Ellie had finally given in and taken out her phone. Turning it on secretly, she pulled up the photo the LSU fan had taken for her. She had studied the photo slowly, carefully. Sarah was holding Bryce's hand. Their faces were intent, the expressions hard to read, but they were leaning in toward each other. That's when Ellie saw it. They both had on wedding rings. Sarah was married. Bryce was married. Were they married to each other, other people? Did Chuck know any of this? What was going on? Her brother could be clueless but he was no fool. What the hell was going on?

It was time to find out.

Chuck came back into the living room. Ellie stayed seated, but she motioned for Chuck to sit.

"So, sis, how was the Big Easy?" Chuck grinned even though he looked tired.

"Easier than I imagined…" Ellie responded. Her tone was grave, not joking. She saw Chuck's grin begin to melt.

"Really? I mean did something happen?"

Ellie had her phone in her hand. She waved it at Chuck. "Let me send you something. You have your phone?"

"Ah, yeah, sure." Chuck pulled it from his pocket. Ellie punched at the screen of hers then looked up at Chuck. She knew the look was expectant. And dark.

Chuck made a face in response. His phone beeped. He looked down and then Ellie saw the change on his face. But it was pain, not shock. She had raised him; she knew all his looks. He could not seem to lift his eyes from the phone. Ellie just sat there. Often, when she was raising him, she had waited him out. She waited now.

He finally glanced up quickly, evidently trying to get a glimpse of her face, some sense of her reaction to the photo, her intention in showing it to him. Ellie worked to show nothing to him. She wanted him to have to decide how this conversation would be framed.

"You...took this?" It was a question but not really a serious one. He was buying time.

Ellie shrugged. "No, a man took it for me. But I was there. Devon was there. We saw them." Devon had been standing by the couch. He went and sat on the arm of Ellie's chair.

"We did, Chuckster. It was not awesome."

Chuck looked down at the photo again. He saw the rings. He saw their ringed hands together. He could make nothing of Sarah's expression, other than that she was intent on Bryce. The same seemed to be true of Bryce's expression in the other direction.

"Shit. Ellie." Chuck put the phone on the end table and rubbed his eyes.

"Bryce Larkin is evidently not only alive, and evidently not only alive, but married, and evidently not only married, but married to and holding the hand of Sarah...Walker?"

Chuck was sitting forward, his forearms resting on his thighs, his hands hanging limply over his knees. For a long time, he said nothing. Ellie felt Devon's hand gently rub her back. Finally, Chuck spoke, but without looking up.

"Evidently."

"You really don't seem shocked, Chuck. Not by any of that. Are you going to tell me what is going on?"

ooOoo

Chuck had dreamed of confessing to his sister. He wanted to tell her about it all so bad. The Intersect, the fear, the danger, Sarah, Casey. But he had wanted to tell her on his own terms if he could, and he did not want to be falling apart while he tried to tell her.

"Ellie, I promise. I will tell you. But I need you to give me some time. Trust me a little while longer and I will...explain it all to you."

Ellie's expression pinched. Her eyes were wary. Devon was rubbing her back.

"Ok. But you have to tell me one thing. Do you have real feelings for the woman in that photograph, whatever her damn name is, or was it all an act?"

"No, not an act, Ellie, I swear. I had...I have real feelings for her. I like her, Ellie. I like her a lot."

Ellie's eyes flashed. "Chuck, I can't trust you to tell me the truth if you can't tell it to yourself. You don't like her, Chuck. You love her. You have since you came back the morning after your first date, covered in sand, even if you were too far gone to know how far gone you were. The one thing in all of this I am sure of is that you love…" Ellie held up the phone and pointed to the woman in the photo with Bryce Larkins, "...this woman. Beyond that, I don't have a clue. I thought she loved you, I was sure...until New Orleans."

After wincing at Ellie's final remark Chuck got up and trudged defeatedly to his room. He could not face Ellie any longer. I love her. Sarah. Oh, God, of course, I do. Why didn't I tell her? It wouldn't have changed anything...but she'd have known, at least. She might at least have thought it was...sweet.

And then the realization finally hit home. Ellie thinks Sarah loves me. Maybe it was time to believe Ellie. Maybe it was time to figure out what he really believed, and stop wallowing. He had taken the thumb drive; he was not going to be under anyone's thumb.

ooOoo

Ellie's look as Casey left the apartment had Casey worried. He walked quickly to his apartment and turned on the listening device in the Bartowski living room. He sat in his chair. He had no trouble guessing what...who...was in the photo. He heard the kid promise to tell Ellie the truth. He heard Ellie tell Chuck that he loved Sarah. Huh. Ellie and I have been on the same page there. And she's right about Sarah too. Damn smart cookie. Casey turned the device down. Things had gone from bad to way worse.

June Thorne was the new handler. Walker was with Bryce in New Orleans, wearing a wedding ring and holding hands. The kid was going to spill to his sister. This was Code: Critical. The shit had hit the vortex, and the vortex was fixing to fling it all over.

ooOoo

Morgan, oddly enough, came through the Morgan door. Not Casey this time. Chuck glanced up at him.

"So, Sarah's gone?" No rambling preamble from Morgan. Direct.

Chuck nodded once.

"Sorry, dude. I know how you looked at her."

Chuck looked at him quizzically. "How was that?"

"The way Sam looked at Diane. The way David looked at Maddie. The way Tramp looked at Lady." Chuck blinked a couple of times at the final twosome.

"What would you do if the woman you...loved left you, Morgan?"

Morgan did not react to 'love' as Chuck feared. Morgan knew already. Sam, David, Tramp. Right. Morgan's answer was serious, immediate. "Get her back."

"But what if she doesn't love you?"

Morgan's eyes narrowed for a second. "We are talking about Sarah Walker, aren't we? Not the Boba Fett that's now blasting weenies next to the Buy More?"

"Yeah, Morgan, Sarah. I mean…" he thought about the kiss, the photo...everything, "I don't know what I mean...Ellie thinks Sarah loves me. But what if she doesn't love me?"

"Dude, but what if she does?"

ooOoo

A knock on the hotel room door. Bryce came in from the bedroom. Sarah scanned the front room, making sure that everything looked appropriate. Everything that needed to be hidden was. Bryce looked out the peephole. He turned. "Garland." His voice was the barest whisper. Sarah nodded, ran her hands through her hair. This was unexpected.

Bryce opened the door. Garland's eyes traveled the length of him like hands before she spoke.

"Hi, I'm Gretta Garland. I have an invitation for you...both."

A/N2 Tune in next time for Chapter 7, "House of the Rising Sun". A party at the Garlands. June starts squeezing. Chuck and Casey have a heart to heart to heart with Ellie. Chuck gets mail. And some other stuff. See you then! Leave me a review; it keeps the story moving!