I still don't own Chuck.

If you enjoyed this or any of the stories on this site, please take a second and send the author a review. It only takes a second – and it really, really makes a difference. That's probably more important than ever now that the series has ended. If you want to keep the Chuck fandom alive and continue to read about these characters, you really need to think about rewarding the people whose hard work make that possible.

The New Team Bartowski

x-x-x-x-x

Josh and Joey were already at the airport when Chuck and Sarah arrived. They were more or less in formation, standing at attention on the tarmac just in front of the ramp to the plane. "Remember, you promised to go easy on them," Chuck gently reminded her, clearly within earshot as they walked up. "I think they're probably scared of you enough already."

"Don't worry," Sarah said. "I have this."

She marched right to where Joey was standing and glared at her. "Okay, rookie," she said. "Before we go any farther, let's get some things on the table. Last week my name was Agent Sarah Walker. I assume that you've heard of me."

Joey didn't turn her head to look into Sarah's eyes, she just stared straight ahead like was demanded at the academy. "Yes, ma'am," she replied crisply. "Of course. You're quite famous."

"I also assume that you've received orders that I'm in total charge of this team," Sarah continued with no humor in her voice. "And my last assumption is that this assignment is an opportunity that you're looking forward to."

"Very much so ma'am," Joey replied just as crisply. "Working with a legend like you is a dream come true."

"Understand something," Sarah said as she put her face firmly into Joey's. Since Sarah was a couple of inches taller, it was clearly intimidating. "I'm currently none too happy with you. I really don't have the time or energy right now to break in a rookie agent who blows her cover because she 'feels bad' over an unpleasant assignment. You thought that the academy was tough? Well you ain't seen nothing yet. I didn't get my nickname of 'The Enforcer' by being overly pleasant to be around. Your ass is now mine. You should be prepared for me to constantly rag it 24x7."

Sarah waited for a reaction. Once she was convinced she wasn't getting one, she continued her rant. "I've earned every bit of my reputation as the very hardest of hard asses," she said. "When I'm done with you, that's what you'll be… or a civilian. I'm going to push you like you've never been pushed. You're not going to die on my watch because you weren't prepared for what agents have to face. I have no intention of being reasonable or fair. I'm going to test you and trick you and make your life a living hell. God help you if you ever insult me by giving me less than your full effort or fall even the tiniest bit short of my ridiculous expectations. Do we fully understand each other?"

"Sarah," Chuck said cautiously. "Is this really necessary?"

Sarah turned her head towards him. "I've got this," she said firmly. She turned back to Joey. "Do we understand each other, rookie?"

"Yes, ma'am," Joey replied. "We understand each other clearly. I'm looking forward to it, ma'am."

"We'll see," Sarah barked. She took out her gun, racked it, and handed it to a clearly surprised Joey. "It's time for your first test. We only need one of you." She indicated Josh with a nod of her head. "Shoot him."

Sarah!" Chuck said in alarm. "Please don't make her do this. We don't have to kill him. Beckman said that it was totally our call. He doesn't know anything vital. We can just leave him here."

Sarah didn't turn her head. She just continued to glare at Joey. "Chuck, shut the fuck up!" she said firmly. "I've got this. She wants to be a bad ass CIA Agent? Doing horrible things comes with the territory. We're not going to a topless beach this time. Or drinking shots of tequila. She wants us to trust her with our lives? We need to know that she'll do the hard thing, other than showing her tits when it's required." Sarah paused for a second. "Well?" she asked. "You have your order. What are you waiting for?"

Joey turned to face Sarah. "I don't want to do this, ma'am," she said.

"No shit," Sarah replied. "Maybe you should have thought about that before you set me up to be wrestled to the ground, cuffed, stripped naked, felt up, and almost gang raped in front of my husband. You're getting off easy. Unlike your ex-partner here, I'm letting you live. Agent Whatever-the-fuck-your-last-name-is, you do understand that I'm issuing you a direct order, right? If you don't obey it, your CIA career is over."

Joey's shoulders visibly slumped. "Yes, ma'am," she said sadly. "I understand. I'm afraid that I still can't do it, ma'am."

Sarah angrily snatched the gun out of her hand and handed it to Josh. "Well, she can't say that I didn't give her the first chance. Shoot her, save your career, and get on the plane. Right now. We don't have any time to waste."

Josh didn't hesitate. He un-cocked the gun and handed it back to Sarah. "No, ma'am," he said softly but firmly.

Whatever reaction they were expecting from Sarah, a smile certainly wasn't it. She turned to Chuck. "Okay," she said with a faux sigh. "So now I suppose that I'm going to have to listen to you reminding me that you were right for the whole flight."

Chuck grinned back. "More than just the flight," he said. "I'm guessing this I-told-you-so is good for at least a week. Besides, I think that you're actually starting to enjoy losing these bets with me. Thank goodness the plane has a bedroom. I'm thinking that what you're going to be doing to pay me off is maybe one area where she doesn't need your vast experience to teach her anything." He turned his grin towards Joey. "Of course that's just a guess."

Sarah didn't respond to his mini teasing taunt. She just picked up her bag. "I'm going inside to fire up the Comm. Center," she said. "We'll brief the new team as soon as we're in the air." She turned her smile towards Joey. "See you on board."

As soon as Sarah walked up the ramp and into the plane, Chuck turned to a clearly stunned and confused Josh and Joey who were still standing at attention. "Welcome to Team Bartowski," he said.

Josh was the first to recover his wits enough to ask the question both were thinking. "Excuse me, sir," he said. "What just happened here?"

"You passed our test," Chuck replied with a grin. "On our team, following orders is not the top priority. Our team is a family. We expect your loyalty to your family comes before the corrupt CIA and its stupid orders. You'll get our loyalty in return. By the way, don't ever call me sir. Chuck and Sarah works far better."

"Thank, God," Joey sighed. "I was beginning to wonder what in the hell I was getting myself into here. That was a pretty dangerous game Sarah was playing. What would you have done if I had pulled the trigger?"

"We'd have left you standing here," Chuck said. "You would have failed the test. There aren't any rounds in the gun. If the gun had clicked you would have lost the chance to be mentored by the very best field agent in the world. Your partner would also have found out a very tough lesson about where he stands with you. Fortunately, he just found out a very uplifting lesson about where he stands with you. You just found out the same lesson about him. Joey, I get that you're trained to not have personal emotions, to push them down and ignore them. That doesn't work. All it does is messes up your head. On our team it's exactly the opposite. We ask you to admit that you have emotions and factor that into your decision making. Joey, don't try and deny that it feels good to know for sure that someone truly loves you enough to make a huge sacrifice for you, that now you know with zero doubt that he has your back."

Joey reached out her hand and grabbed Josh's affectionately. "I won't try and deny it," she said. "I already knew, but it still feels great."

"Good," Chuck said. "Hopefully someday soon we'll have that same level of trust between us. We'll work on that together. You'll learn quickly that I'm not a fan of what the CIA Academy does to people. But maybe there's some hope for you two yet. We're not going to force you into anything. This is unlike anything you've been trained for. So if you come with us, it'll be of your own free will. But if you want to be part of our team, we'd better get on board. A lot of Sarah's drill sergeant routine here this morning was for show, a part of the test."

"But I still wouldn't go out of my way to piss her off."

x-x-x-x-x

Casey was driving down the Florida Turnpike on his way to Miami. He wasn't in a particularly good mood, even by Casey standards.

He had lived his life dedicated to greater good. Not only that, he was a product of the cold war. So that Russian bastard, Alexi Volkoff was the very symbol of what was wrong with the world. He would gladly sacrifice his life to bring him down. A big part of him was excited with the prospect of getting a real crack at him.

On the other hand, he also recognized that each person had the right to make that decision for themselves, for whatever reasons they deemed appropriate. Chuck and especially Sarah had fought the good fight for years. They had served with honor and had given everything they had. In fact, they had done more in this battle than most people put together. If they wanted to retire undefeated, ride off into the sunset, and spend their days making dozens of little Intersects, well that was completely their call. And even if he could appreciate the position that Beckman currently was in, it simply wasn't right to coerce them into this mission. The fact that he cared for them had little to do with it.

Then there was Laura. Okay, yes, he liked her. Okay, he more than liked her. Even if he was inclined to deny that, and he wasn't, Chuck would never allow him to get away with it anyway. But in this instance, just like Chuck and Sarah, his lady feelings for Laura had little to do with his outrage. He was a soldier, as was Beckman, as were they all. And the first rule of being a soldier is that no man, or woman in this case, was ever, ever, fucking ever left behind. Putting her life at risk and using her unwittingly as bait in some stupid test was simply outside of the bond that a soldier could expect from her fellow soldiers, much less her commanding officer.

There was one thing for sure. After this was over, General Beckman could expect a very pissed off Major standing in her office. And if anything happened to Laura, it would be a very pissed off ex-Major.

x-x-x-x-x

Sarah sat on the plane watching as Chuck was sitting at the desk pouring over the computer setting up the details for the upcoming mission. They had already briefed the team on the plan of attack. The sparkle in his eyes was simply adorable. It was clearly where he was most comfortable, in front of a computer. And wow was he ever cute. Sarah actually had to force herself not to do anything stupid, like make any moon eyes at him and break his concentration.

So it was probably for the best that Joey walked up and forced her attention away from her oh so cute husband. "Excuse me, ma'am," she said. "Could I have a word?"

Sarah indicated the seat next to her with a flip of her head. "Have a seat," she replied. As soon as Joey was comfortably seated, Sarah turned towards her. "What's on your mind?"

"A couple of things, actually, ma'am," Joey said. "First off, you sort of asked what my last name was earlier. It's Lopez, Agent Josephine Lopez, ma'am. I'd really be appreciative if you never call me Josephine."

"I know your name," Sarah said with a slight smile. "Thanks to my husband, I was able to come up to speed on your files last night. You both have some very nice test scores. We'll have to work on your shooting skills a bit. Once we get back to Castle, we'll have Casey work with you. He's the best shot I've ever heard of."

"Thank you, ma'am," Joey said.

Sarah's smile turned a little broader. "Okay, Joey," she said. "You can stop with the ma'am stuff. Down on the tarmac was just for show. I'm not upset with you because you followed some orders that I didn't particularly like. I've been there. You don't have to be afraid of me. Make no mistake, I do have very high expectations of you. Going forward I'm not going to be bashful about pointing out when I think you could have done something better. But that's also how I treat Chuck when we're in the field. You're no longer in the Academy. I'm not going to rag your ass or make you do pushups as punishment. There is no need to walk on egg shells around me. I do reserve the right to call you Josephine now and again when I'm teasing you. So maybe you should prepare yourself for that. Now why don't you take a deep breath and say what it is that you really came over here to say without worrying that I'm going to take your head off?"

Joey breathed a big sigh of relief. "Okay," she said. "Thank you. It's just that, well, our plan… it seems a little…"

"Reckless?" Sarah finished her thought with a grin. "Foolish maybe?"

Joey returned her grin. "I was going to say aggressive," she said. "Selling a drug lord his own coke?"

Sarah laughed. "Welcome to Team Bartowski," she said through her laugh. "Yes, I agree with you. I wince every single time Chuck tells me one of his plans, including this one. I think to myself that we're doomed, that it can't possibly work. And what I've learned over the past year is that they always do. All I can tell you is to have a little blind faith, handle the details of your assignment professionally, and let Chuck handle the planning."

"He's never let me down."

x-x-x-x-x

Laura was lying on a towel on the front deck soaking up some of the bright mid-afternoon sun. She was always happy when she was proven right. And there were some definite good things about her performance on that deck this morning. He had clearly forgiven her. In fact, he was just as clearly now looking at her totally differently.

Had one relatively minor sex act really caused him to fall in love with his fuck toy? It was hard to believe. Okay, if she did say so herself, it was the very best performance of a long and distinguished career. She had him on the very edge for what seemed like hours. And when she did finally allow him to finish, his whole body shook in a massive climax for what seemed like minutes. But if that one thing made such a huge difference, then she should have done it weeks ago. Maybe Casey didn't owe her one after all. Maybe she actually was the one now in debt. He'd like that.

After Rock recovered a little, it was like someone had turned on the light switch on their relationship. Before he left, he thanked her for the wonderful effort. He actually apologized for getting angry with her. There was one major common characteristic of men like Rock. They didn't have much in the way of conscience… and they certainly didn't ever apologize for anything.

Rock had been gone for about an hour before he came back out of the cabin and sat on the chair next to her. "We're heading back to base," he said.

Laura sat up and looked at him. Indeed, the ship was now moving at what she guessed was more or less full speed. But there was something odd in the tone of his voice. "Is there something wrong?" she asked.

"Not really," he said with a sigh. "Look, could you please let me know when you want to sunbath out here? I'll make sure that you get some privacy."

Laura was stunned. For one thing, she was naked because he had just insisted that she give the men a show. Even more surprising was that he asked. He even said please. Men like Rock didn't ask, they commanded. So Laura immediately wrapped the towel around her. "I'm sorry," she said. "If I've been insensitive. I didn't mean…"

Rock reached out and grabbed her hand affectionately. "Don't be sorry," he said softly. "You didn't do anything wrong. I… I… I just don't want those men looking at my girl like that. Laura, you're just so beautiful. Don't worry. I made sure that no one is looking now. No one except me, that is."

Laura was wrong just a second ago. Now she was stunned. My girl? She could count on one hand the times he had used her first name. So she allowed the towel to slowly slide to the deck and assumed the model's pose. "Aren't you sweet?" she said with a grin. "I love it when you look at me. It's a huge turn on."

Rock lifted her hand to his lips and kissed it gently. "For me too," he said.

Wow. Talk about a change in demeanor. He was almost bashful. Maybe it was time to test what this change meant to her mission. He never wanted to talk about business with her. "Why are we going back?" she asked.

"We have a chance to buy a big shipment that's already through customs," he said. "Maybe you could come with me this time. You've always wanted to be more involved."

Rock took her hand and led her into their cabin. It was actually impressive that he was ready for more sex so soon after the session she had just given him. But that was her Rock. If that sounded endearing in any way, well it wasn't. This was still a cruel, bloodthirsty drug runner. She still looked just as forward to the minute when she could put a bullet between his fucking eyes. But it was now clear. The moron had just fallen in love. Finally, at long last, Laura's mission had gotten easier. Well, easier in the major way anyway. She was now in charge. Men were foolish when they were in love. The only down side was that now she would have to participate in foreplay. She could definitely already feel his tongue seeking hers. Kissing was the worst part of having sex with a mark. You had to actively participate. In a lot of ways it was easier when you could just lie there and let him fuck you.

The foreplay thing was a definite first in their relationship. He had actually moved down her neck and was teasing her breast with his tongue. Then he topped even that. He began to kiss his way down her body until he was clearly paying her back for her earlier performance on the deck. The real surprise was that he wasn't half bad, a little rougher than Casey maybe, but not half bad. She could actually already feel the fire building. If she allowed herself, this could get not totally unpleasant. And since he clearly expected a loud orgasm from her, why risk disappointing him by attempting to fake one? One thought filled her brain, well actually two. First was not to moan Casey's name. That would be stupid. But she also now couldn't wait to tease Chuck about this. She could get his face redder than a stop sign.

Hopefully in front of Sarah.

x-x-x-x-x

Joan was in that spot that was half way between being asleep and being awake. Well, that maybe wasn't true. She was mostly awake. But it felt so good snuggling with her guy that maybe she could just stay still and enjoy it for a while.

At least they had made enough progress on the governor, that's what Steven was calling it anyway, to be confident that it was going to work. They still had some double and triple checking to do. After all, this was complicated circuitry. And they couldn't afford a glitch. Lives were at stake. In typical Steven fashion, he built it to look like a wristwatch.

Joan was actually feeling pretty good about herself, and life in general. Not only was she in love for the first time, she was actually the one who solved the last major technical problem with the governor design. That earned her a kiss that was so intense that it made her tingle to the very tips of her toes. It was amazing that one single kiss could make her so giddy. Finally she couldn't bear to be so happy in silence, so she opened her eyes. "How long have you been awake?" she asked.

Steven smiled at her. "Not long," he said.

Joan asked the question that honestly hadn't ever been very far from the surface for the past few days. "Wanna fool around?"

Steven's smile became a grin. "Was that a trick question, Doctor Cole?" he asked. "Yes, I most certainly do." Then he got decidedly more serious. "But first I have to tell you something." He waited until he was sure that he had her full attention. "There is a little more to my story with Mary than what I've told you."

Joan had heard the story of the cold CIA Agent falling in love with her asset. It started off fairly sweet, if you could overlook the simply horrible ending.

"You see," Steven continued, "when we met, we were both pretty deep in the life. It was pretty exciting, especially for her. Then when the kids came along, we decided that maybe it was time to settle down a little. The fact is that I became a different person. I don't think that Mary ever adjusted very well to life in the suburbs. She needed the excitement of always living on the edge. Maybe that was part of the reason..."

Joan was honestly getting a tad annoyed. Didn't he get it yet? Okay, yes, walking in on your wife fucking another man in your bed was a tough deal. It was bound to mess you up. But didn't he see that she honestly loved him? That she would never, ever do anything to hurt him? "Okay," she said cautiously. "I think that we've talked about this already. I'm not Mary."

"I know," Steven said. "That's not what I'm trying to say. I have some baggage from my old life, stuff that you deserve to know if we are going to be married. I wasn't really Steven Bartowski back then."

That turned Joan's mood around on the spot. Wasn't that sweet? "Okay," she said, trying her best to suppress the grin that seemed permanently affixed to her face. "If you weren't Steven Bartowski, who were you?"

Steven reached down to give her a short peck.

"My name was Orion."

x-x-x-x-x