A/N1 Washington, Burbank, New Orleans: Oh, my. Here we go!

Thanks for all the enthusiastic reviews and PMs. It's fun to ride a wave crest of positive energy. Keep it coming!

Don't own Chuck.

Sarah vs. Omaha

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

From a Whisper to a Scream

Let me take you there
The dotted line
Surrounding the mind
Of a self called nowhere
It's a thing named "it"
In a bottomless pit
You can't see it there
The sunken head
That lies in the bed
Of a self called nowhere
-They Might Be Giants, A Self Called Nowhere

Beckman crossed quickly to Susie Lou, sizing up the situation as she did. Dan had told Susie Lou. Obviously. Still, she was here in NSA headquarters.

"Hello, Susie Lou. We meet again."

Dan jumped in immediately. "Susie, this is General Beckman, my boss. I told you about her."

Susie Lou gave Dan a hurt look and dropped his hand. "So this started before you?"

Beckman saw his face crumple in response, so she answered for him. "Yes, I wanted to meet you, Susie Lou." Beckman followed her hunch, what Susie Lou had said. "We need to stop Graham and I knew you had to be the person who was directing the Intersect Project. I needed to know if we could...approach you."

"'Approach me'? That's what you call it? Sending Dan to...to…"

"No, Susie," Dan objected, desperate. "I told you she sent me. Whatever she thought would happen," he looked apologetically at Beckman and she nodded for him to continue, "she sent me. I'm no agent. I'm just...a guy. A guy who couldn't...treat you that way."

Susie Lou looked at Dan and her expression immediately softened. She reached for the hand she dropped and took it back.

"No, you're not just a guy. It's...ok, Dan." She turned to Beckman, squaring her shoulders. "So, General, I am here to help. I want to stop Graham. He's planning something bad. I think he has some volunteer, some guinea pig, and he is going to get him or her to download the current prototype. Take my word for it, that will not be good for the agent."

Beckman gestured for Dan and Susie Lou to sit. She relocated behind her desk but remained standing.

"Do you know his timetable?"

Susie Lou thought for a minute. "Not exactly. But sooner rather than later. Today would be my guess, given his reaction to getting the prototype." Pain and regret fell across Susie Lou's face. "I suspect he had people in my lab...watching me. I couldn't sit on the prototype without arousing suspicion. So I gave it to him. To Graham. Maybe I should have been braver. Stalled. Something...But I went straight to Dan...to tell him. He brought me here right away."

"It's ok, Susie Lou," Beckman offered, finally sitting down herself, hoping to make Susie Lou more comfortable. "This works best if we can catch him red-handed. No chance for denial. But it is risky, very risky."

Beckman shifted her attention and picked up the phone. She dialed a number and turned away, talking in hushed tones. She ended the call and turned around. "Graham has not left the building today. He's presumably still in Langley. Do you have any idea where he might do something like this if he were going to do it there?"

Susie Lou considered the question. "There's scuttlebutt about hidden rooms deep in the building, like a dungeon," Susie Lou shuddered, "but, I admit, the working floors of the place are creepy enough for me. I've never gone looking around," Susie Lou was shamefaced.

Beckman responded, holding up her hands. "No reason for you to, and probably not safe for you to. Did Graham ever mention an agent, a volunteer, by name?"

Susie Lou shook her head. "No, no names in particular. But he gave me a list once of possible volunteers. I still remember the names. I have a good memory." She rattled off four names, all unfamiliar to Beckman. Beckman wrote them down and then went through the routine with her phone again. When she ended the call, she explained. "My contact is checking to see if any of those agents are in Langley today Did he ever mention someone named Bartowski?"

Susie Lou shook her head again. "No, but I know that name. He was involved with the original project somehow, right?"

"A bit," Beckman said, guardedly. She really wasn't sure what Graham had told the new research team about the old.

Beckman halted her thoughts on 'sure'. She was not sure; that was Beckman's overarching problem at the moment. Beckman dropped her head in her hands, as Dan scooted his chair nearer Susie Lou's. Beckman had to decide. She could take a team and force her way into Langley; it could be done. But it would mean burning huge political capital, maybe all she had, and if she could not find Graham, if he weren't there or if he were just sitting in a chair, drinking coffee, he would use her decision against her, destroy her. He could do it, no doubt; she would have done it to herself. The Agencies were supposed to observe a strict, formal No Trespass rule. Of course, in practice, neither did. They spied on each other more doggedly than on, say, North Korea. Envy of a neighbor was almost always a greater motivator than fear of a stranger. She had to decide.

She did. She had not gotten where she was by lacking grit. She grabbed her phone and mobilized a team in the building. They were heading to Langley. Butt in a sling, old girl, butt in a sling.

ooOoo

June had been anxious all day. Graham had not told her what the afternoon video conference was about. Back a couple of days ago, when it was first planned, it was to evaluate her work with the Intersect. But all he had told her when they talked early in the morning was that he wanted to meet with Bartowski alone for the first part of the meeting; he said nothing about what would happen in the second part, when she joined it. He asked June to bring a tranq gun and to have it ready. That had baffled her but she did; it was in her purse. She was to wait for a call from Graham and then re-enter for the rest of the conference. The tranq gun puzzled her. She could only think that Graham expected to say or do something to Chuck that would upset him.

She would do her job...but the thought of tranqing Chuck made her feel...odd.

It was almost time for the meeting. June positioned the monitor delivered in the early afternoon. She explained to Chuck that he would meet with Graham alone first, and then with both Graham and her later. She turned on the monitor. It was blank. Gray static. She headed outside.

She sat down in her Jeep to wait, near the door.

ooOoo

Chuck had a feeling of what it must be like to stand before a firing squad. The monitor screen showed nothing but gray static. It was like The Void was looking at him. He looked back at it, waiting for Graham.

ooOoo

Beckman and her team had gotten free at last from the near skirmish caused when they burst into Langley. She and the team plunged ahead, deeper into the building, hoping that Susie Lou's scuttlebutt turned out to be right. Beckman was sure of one thing. Graham would do this in secret, in a place where he thought no one could find him. In a place where he could savor the result. Ghoul bastard.

They went straight to the bottom floor. Just as they were about to give up and go up to the next, one of the team found an apparent access panel that was actually a door. They went through and into a long hallway.

Old-style, shaky fluorescent bulbs strobe-lit the hallway, giving it an irregular netherworldly, hellish flickering look. The bare tile on the floor reflected the flickering light back to the ceiling, but the dominant impression was of a thick, moldy-grey atmosphere, an electrically maintained half-life in half-light. It was just the sort of place Graham would gravitate to, settle in. There was a door at the end of the hall. It was closed, but a light was on, a slice of it showing under the door. Let us be in time.

In the back of her mind was an increasing worry. Could Chuck be the target? It would make a Graham sort of sense. Before the team went downstairs, she had stopped to call Casey, to send him to check on Chuck, but Casey had not answered. She left a message.

ooOoo

Casey was furious. Jeff and Lester had backed Jeff's van, Loretta, into the Crown Vic, crunching a front fender and shattering a headlight. Casey got out of the car, slamming the door murderously. Jeff saw him and pulled forward, only to twist and back up again, this time crunching the other front fender. Shattering glass; the other headlight. Casey had been planning to go to the storefront, to check on Chuck and June, when Loretta decided to lap dance on Crown Vic. Shit on a Ritz. Casey surveyed the destruction.

Goddamnit, I'm gonna rip their heads off. Casey missed his phone beeping. He was too busy listening to Lester explain how he and Jeff were going to sue him for whiplash.

"My car was parked, you idiot!" Casey growled, low and harsh.

Lester gulped and his voice squeaked. "Yes, purposely parked in our way. We back up right here, unencumbered, every day. We have the right of way. We will sue! Sue, I tell you!" He was now playing to a gathering crowd of rubberneckers.

A patrol car pulled up.

"Shit," Casey muttered.

ooOoo

Chuck's bag was on the floor behind the passenger seat. They were going to stop by the apartment later and get Chuck some fresh clothes. June looked at the door then shrugged to herself. She grabbed Chuck's bag and put it on the passenger seat beside her. She unzipped the side pocket. There was a small box with a clear plastic lid. Inside was a thin circlet of hair. Blonde. June felt a flash of rage. Walker.

ooOoo

Chuck looked at his watch. It was a few minutes past time. H Hour had come and went. Where was Graham? The screen was still staring, static grey. H Hour. D Day. Doomsday.

ooOoo

Jund unzipped the top of the duffle bag. Clothes. The warm, light odor of Chuck wafted out, an odor June had begun to enjoy at her apartment; she had put the Lysol away. But she took no time to enjoy it now. She rummaged in the bag. Nothing of interest.

But then she noticed that a rolled up pair of socks was oddly heavy. She unrolled them. A burner phone.

ooOoo

Graham was ready. He took a deep breath. He turned on the monitor. He could see Bartowski. Bartowski could see him. He gave Bartowski a big smile, something to remember. He put his hand on the 'Enter' button. He whispered, "Goodbye, Chuck. Enjoy hell."

ooOoo

June looked at the phone. Why did Chuck have it? She started punching buttons. Texts. Between S and C. Huh, S? She scrolled down, saw her own name.

The longest day with Thorne.

Scroll. Angry.

I *love* you….

Pause.

Scroll. Very angry.

Marry me?

Pause.

Pause.

Scroll. Rage, blinding rage, immediate and incarnadine.

Yes.

"No!" June grabbed her purse, dropped the burner in and freed the tranq pistol, almost in one motion. Her purple-black eyes turned wholly black, matching her face, blackened by rage: her only purple was her ribbon. She was wearing her purple ribbon.

Walker. Always. Fucking. Walker. Always. Always. She could see Walker in memory, in the crosshairs of a scope. Walker.

She opened the storefront door and screamed the name of her tormentor: "WALKER!" Wild, she thought of Graham's instructions. She fired a dart into Chuck's neck. He crumpled.

ooOoo

Graham hit 'Enter'. He heard a scream: "Walker!" He jerked in his chair, and his hand clicked the toggle switch accidentally. He saw what Burbank saw. The program started. He could not...look...away.

ooOoo

June stared into the screen. Her mind filled with images. She felt the monster, the monster, felt it feeding on the images, strengthening, yet hungrier with each image instead of less hungry. Pain. Pain. Pain. It wanted pain, craved it, coveted it, lusted for it. June's pain would not be enough. A start, oh, yes, yes, a start, but it would never be enough. More pain. More pain. More pain. The images stopped. June dropped the pistol and opened her mouth, a howling scream ripped from her throat, primitive and anguished.

And then her scream was answered, like wolf calling to wolf. A scream from the monitor's speakers. Hate calling to hate. Dark to dark. Alone to alone. The screams stopped. June craned around wildly, looking for everything, looking for nothing...looking for Walker. She had only one thought, the last of her thoughts before the monster began to feed and starve. Walker. She careened crazily through the doors, slamming them.

She was gone.

ooOoo

Graham felt hands in his mind. Dirty hands. Bloody hands. Cold hands. They were squeezing, ripping, pounding. He tasted blood, hot and thick. Coherent thought abandoned him. The hands laid waste to his mind. He screamed from the very center of his being, as that center crumbled. He slumped in his chair.

ooOoo

Beckman and her team found him slumped there. He had nearly bitten off his tongue, and blood ran down his chin onto his white dress shirt. He was alive but unresponsive. Beckman called for medical assistance. Next to Graham, the laptop screen read: 'Program Ended." She looked at Graham as one of her team members wiped the blood off his chin.

He had the Intersect now.

ooOoo

Casey raced the battered Crown Vic across town. He had gotten the message from Beckman. If those two clowns caused me to be too late...Visions of mayhem filled Casey's mind. He hit the uneven spot in the entrance to the parking lot and the Crown Vic momentarily left the ground before crashing heavily back down.

Casey slammed on the brakes. Thorne's Jeep was nowhere in sight. Shit, shit, shit. He ran to the storefront. The door was cracked, open. He pulled out his pistol and yanked the door back, entering in a crouch. Chuck was there, spread out on the ground, a tranq dart in his neck. Casey rushed to him and felt for a pulse. Yes, strong. Lester lives another day. A monitor that had not been in the store before was on a stand in front of Chuck, the power on but no picture showing.

Casey got out his phone and called Beckman.

ooOoo

Earlier that day

Garland had her hand on Bryce's ass. Not for long, but for long enough. She stared over his shoulder at Sarah and smiled. I'm going to sleep with your husband and you can't stop it. Sarah found the whole pantomime nauseating, but she forced herself to stare back, but then to be the first to look away. Garland's smile grew more satisfied. She dragged her hand across Bryce's ass slowly. Sarah kicked a little at the carpet to enhance the act and picked up another cookie from the tray the server brought around.

Joe rolled over. She gave Sarah a significant glance, then she said, "How are you, Mrs. Anderson?" Sarah mumbled in response, actually saying nothing but managing to look distressed. "Yes," Joe answered, as if responding to a request. "I'd be happy to show you the rest of the house."

They started away. It took them a couple of minutes to find an unoccupied room. "Joe, are you ready?"

Joe displayed a key and a toothy grin. "Ready, Miss Moneypenny." Sarah shook her head. "Joe, please be serious. This is dangerous for all of us, but maybe especially you."

Joe nodded, the grin on her face evaporating. "Ok. Gretta's office is down the hallway there. The hallway dead ends, so no one should come back this way. I just need you to let me know if someone heads down the hall."

"I will cough if anyone comes your way. But how will you get out of the office if someone does?"

Joe smirked, a hint of malice in her eyes. "Gretta's office adjoins a bedroom."

"Of course it does," Sarah said flatly.

"It looked like Bryce had her full attention. We should be fine." Josephine got a funny look on her face. "I'll be back. I always wanted to say that." She rolled down the hallway. Sarah stood for a moment, looking out a window into the garden. She promised herself she would not think of Chuck, but of course, she did. New Orleans with Chuck would be so much fun. A lot of fun. He'd love the Ignatius J. Reilly statue on Canal Street.

Sarah heard footsteps and looked up. Gretta was coming in her direction, pulling Bryce behind her. Sarah stepped back behind a large plant.

"C'mon, Bryce, I have waited long enough. We can talk business later. Right now, I want to get busy, and all the words I want to hear from you had better be four-letter words." Sarah could see them well enough to watch as Gretta leaned close to Bryce. Sarah could not hear what was Gretta was saying but she could guess. She was supplying Bryce with his four-letter vocabulary. When she finished, she pulled Bryce's face to hers, kissing him deeply and hungrily. Bryce's hands slipped around Gretta's waist.

Sarah was about to cough when Gretta pulled back. "So, Mrs. Anderson, she's quite a looker, tell me why we're about to do what we're about to do. Is she cold? I get a frigid, icy vibe from her, I admit. I promise I am not icy, Bryce. I will scream for you if you want," she whispered.

Gretta laid her head on Bryce's chest and let her hands wander down his sides. Bryce cupped her face and pulled her to him for another kiss. He kept his eyes open and searched around him. Sarah waved her hand, got his attention. She made a gesture, telling him to find somewhere else to go. It would be best if she did not have to cough, call attention to herself.

Bryce shut his eyes and pulled away from the kiss. "Do you think that there might be some corner of the garden without anyone around. I'd like to see...you...in the sunlight."

Gretta hummed in pleasure at the compliment and at the thought. She took Bryce's hand and led him back the way they had come.

Sarah was beginning to get worried about Joe. But then she saw her, rolling down the hallway. When she reached Sarah, she handed her a piece of paper. A date and a location. "Piece of cake," Joe commented, smirking, victorious.

"And we're just in time. The meeting is the day after tomorrow."

ooOoo

Chuck was on the couch at Casey's. Devon and Ellie were there too, tending to him. He seemed fine physically, other than the tranquilizer. Casey told them he would likely be out another hour or so, given the dart that was used.

Casey had talked at length with Beckman. She told him that Graham had been taken to the hospital in an ambulance. Not long after, she added, she was on the phone with the President, explaining Graham and the chaos at Langley. That conversation, the President had told her, was not over. It would resume when more of the facts were in hand.

The laptop and Susie Lou's lab were under guard.

The primary question was what had happened in Burbank?. It stood to reason that Thorne had tranqed Chuck. But why? Where was she? The hope was that Chuck would know.

The unspoken worry on everyone's part was that Chuck had downloaded the current prototype. He showed nothing like the signs that Graham did, so that made them think he had not downloaded it, but they would not be sure until he woke up.

ooOoo

Susie Lou stood hand-in-hand with Dan outside Graham's hospital room. "I did not like that man," Susie Lou admitted, "but I would never have wished this on him. He will live, the doctors believe, but no one expects him to recover." She grew quiet and then tears ran down her face. "My research did that. I...I…"

Dan pulled her to him. "Graham did this to himself, Susie Lou. That man lived his entire life in a deep Karma canyon. Today was the flash flood. C'mon, let me take you to my place. I'll make you something to eat." He pulled gently on her hand and she followed, taking one last look at Graham through the narrow window in the wooden door.

ooOoo

Casey saw it first. Chuck stirred on the couch. Ellie jumped up from the chair she had been sitting in, cross-legged and barefoot, and covered the distance to him in almost a leap. Casey was right behind her.

"Chuck, Chuck...It's Ellie. Chuck?"

"Yeah, yeah, right, Ellie...Don't shout. Long day of files." Casey watched as the kid put his hands down on the couch and pushed himself up off it a foot or two. He looked around. "Wait, what am I doing at Casey's?"

"You got tranqed, son," Casey explained. Chuck looked at Casey, the lights coming on, finally.

"Oh. Right, right. I heard June scream Sarah's name, and then I felt a pinch on my neck." Chuck reached up and rubbed his neck.

Casey considered that information as Elle and Devon shared an outraged glance. "Look, kid, why would Thorne scream Sarah's name? That makes no sense. Walker wasn't here, was she?"

Chuck shook his head. "I don't know. Where is she?"

"We don't know. Her car was gone. Think, kid. What happened?"

"I was supposed to video conference with Graham. It was weird. Just me. Thorne left. Went outside. I was waiting for Graham to appear when June screamed. All I remember is falling down, just as the monitor started to finally light up."

Ellie broke in. "Chuck, Graham was trying to force you to download the current prototype of the Intersect. It would have damaged your mind. Something happened and it all backfired on Graham. He downloaded it and now he is in a hospital in DC. The prognosis is bad. Do you think June might have downloaded it."

Chuck shrugged. "I don't know, but she would have likely been looking right at the screen."

Casey had been listening but also thinking. "Look, June's been showing signs of non-professional interest in you, Chuck," Ellie's head whirled around and her mouth open, but Casey ignored her, "was there any way she could have found out about you and Sarah?"

Chuck shook his head, then stopped. "I had my duffle in the Jeep. There was a...burner in it that Sarah and I have used to text each other. There...uh...might have been some...romantic talk on it…"

"Sexting, dude! Awesome!" Devon started to dive in for a bro-hug when Ellie froze him with a glare.

Casey chuckled. Chuck blushed. "No, nothing even R-rated, really. But a few 'I love you's..." Casey saw him bite his tongue. Something he wasn't saying.

Casey set the thought aside and laughed to himself as Ellie danced a silent jig and clearly contemplated diving in for a bro-hug herself. Bartowskis.

"Well, June had it in for Sarah...And if she downloaded the Intersect…" Casey started.

"...And if she was crazy to begin with…" Chuck added.

"...Then who knows what the hell she might do," Ellie finished the thought.

"But she doesn't know where Sarah is, does she?" Devon joined in, trying to help.

Chuck looked at the floor. "I moved the picture from New Orleans, the one of Bryce and Sarah, onto the burner, El. Remember, you could see the name of the restaurant in the background. June can figure it out."

"Photo?" Casey wondered aloud.

"Ellie took it, had it taken. It was of Bryce and Sarah in a local coffee shop." Chuck stood up, wavered. Casey reached out to steady him. "Thanks, Casey, but June's ahead of us by hours. And I know it: she's gone to get Sarah."

"Get?" Devon asked.

"Kill," Ellie answered.

A/N2 And there ya go. Tune in next time for more: Thorne arrives in New Orleans. Chuck and Casey follow. Gretta grows suspicious of Josephine. And more! Chapter 18, "Obsession".