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The Last Elder

x-x-x-x-x

Jennifer Bowles was sitting in her office, letting the panic fully set in. She had pissed Alexi off. That was never a good thing, easy to do, but never good. And now there was only one way out. She had to find Bryce Larkin. Then all would be quickly forgiven. She thought it would be easy. With all of the resources that Fulcrum could bring to bear, how could one man stay hidden? Especially one as visible as the human Intersect. He was constantly popping up all over the world fucking up their plans.

Except her problem was that none of the other Elders were returning her messages. Of course they very rarely communicated, and never openly. It wasn't like you could pick up the phone and chat. They jealously guarded their identities. After all the CIA was a sneaky lot.

It wasn't all that unusual for one of the messages sent through their back channels to take a few days to be received and replied to, but to not get a response from any of the five? That was a little concerning.

And then there was this Mary Bartowski bitch. That's all she needed right now, to have to deal with her. To say that they didn't get along was a huge understatement. She clearly still held a huge grudge, would love to see her fall. And if she could get revenge for that little incident in Paris, she would take great pleasure, and that was quite literal, in going for it.

She was so wrapped up in her gloomy thoughts that for a moment she didn't realize that a man had just burst into her office through the loud protests of Ellen, her secretary. Finally she recognized him, so she calmed Ellen with a smile and nod. "Charles Carmichael," she finally said. "It's nice to see you again. What are you doing here?"

Chuck looked around the office suspiciously. "Are you okay?" he asked breathlessly.

Bowles was confused by the question. She just nodded.

"I don't have time to explain, ma'am," Chuck quickly said. "You're in great danger. The CIA is closing in. I'm afraid that you're going to have to come with me, no questions asked, if you want to escape."

"We have to hurry."

x-x-x-x-x

Joan was in her very favorite position, lying with her head on her guy's chest. The last few days had been basically a blur. They had been working so hard on the governor that they hadn't wanted to take much time to eat or sleep. In fact her stomach was growling non stop right now. And whatever amount of time they had budgeted for the bedroom, well, sleep suddenly became less of a priority. She was hungry and exhausted.

So naturally Joan had come to the only possible, virtually irrefutable conclusion. She had just spent the best few days of her life. It wasn't even close. The guys at the office would have looked at what they were doing and immediately said she was a slave driver. That was the office nickname that nobody would ever dare call her to her face. But this didn't feel anything like work. Steven was clearly having as much fun as she was.

And the sex. Oh my God, the sex. It was unbelievably amazing. The first few times had been simply incredible. But now it had gotten even better. They clearly both were learning what the other liked best, and just as clearly were both motivated to deliver it.

Joan had almost forgotten what it felt like to wear clothes. They were either naked cuddled together in front of the computer… working, or naked together in the shower… playfully exploring each other, or naked together in bed… well you do the math. It was the perfect arrangement. The only down side was that she was getting a little tired of eating pizza. But since it was the only thing they delivered, she sure was willing to live with it to avoid getting dressed and going out to pick something else up. And besides, there was that fun look she got from the delivery guy whenever she would answer the door wrapped in only that sheet. If he only knew.

Fortunately she had so much vacation time accrued that she wouldn't have to go back to the office for a year if she chose. She was honestly beginning to lose track of days and nights. They were mashed together in one huge blur of pure happiness.

Even better, she now had an official title. And as fiancé, she had standing to ask the questions nobody else could. She had heard all of the rumors. They couldn't possibly be true. So as soon as she saw his eyes open… Well who are we kidding? The first thing she did was to reach up and kiss him lovingly. But as soon as that was over, she pulled back a little. "Tell me a little about this Orion," she said softly. "You say that he was a different person. How?"

Steven smiled back. "You would have liked Orion," he said. "He is even geekier than Steven."

"The legend is that he's a ghost," Joan replied with a silly grin. "Magical almost." That didn't come close to the rumors told in the lunch room. They couldn't possibly all be true. Joan had always written them off as urban legend, sort of like the boogey man… only good.

Steven got a little more serious. "Maybe," he said. "But if your technology is advanced enough, it is indistinguishable from magic."

Joan instantly understood what he meant. If you could go back five hundred years and show them a flashlight, they would think you were magical. They might even burn you at the stake. "You're going to show your new wife all of this technology, right?" she asked playfully. "Orion was a force for good. He was good magic."

To his credit, Steven knew that she was only partially kidding. "He was a force for good," he agreed. "At least he tried to be. But he found out that, with certain people, the line between good and evil sometimes became blurred."

He was sweet. He was clearly dancing around the subject for her benefit. She might as well get it on the table. "You're talking about my employer," she said with a smile. "Admit it."

"Okay," Steven admitted. "I'm not trying to start anything. But I think your employer is about as useful as tits on a boar hog. Sometimes the CIA did blatantly evil things because they thought the end result would be good. And that made Orion a target of the forces of evil. And more important, it made his family that same target. Please don't ask me to be Orion again. It would eventually make you a target. I can't risk that."

"We'll see," Joan said, much like a cat would talk to the mouse that she had cornered. She was fully feeling her oats. She knew full well that if she honestly asked him, he'd do anything. Becoming Orion again was the very least of what he would be willing to do for her. And she knew that so surely because she knew that she would also do absolutely anything for him. She also knew that this was the smartest person she had ever known by an almost indescribable margin. He probably had a bag full of magic technology growing dust someplace in this very room… and she was suddenly dying to play with it. So she leaned over and made sure that her chest rubbed across his. They both knew that was her secret weapon. "What would his price be to give a tour of this magic to an excited disciple? You know him pretty well. Would he accept sex as payment?"

Of course Steven knew that she was teasing. "Maybe," he said. "But here's the deal. He's a pretty tough negotiator. He might want to see a sexy striptease. You'd be out of luck, being already naked. You want to see magic. He would probably insist that the sex be magical."

"Don't worry," Joan said with a silly grin.

"It will be."

x-x-x-x-x

Chuck led Bowles out of her office as quickly as he could without drawing any attention. They walked out to the parking lot and into a running car.

As soon as Bowles got in the back seat, she looked at the driver. "Hello, Laura," she said with as much smile as the situation would allow. "It's nice to see you again. You're looking lovely… as usual."

"Thank you, ma'am," Laura said, stopping Chuck's smirk with a look. "That's nice of you to say. I'm not feeling all that lovely right now. I'm afraid we have something of a situation."

Bowles turned to Chuck. "What's going on?" she asked rather pointedly.

Chuck sighed. "I apologize for all of the drama, ma'am," he said. "But I'm afraid it was required. We had to race across country to get here in time. We just barely made it ahead of them."

"Get here in time for what?" Bowles asked even more pointedly. "Ahead of who? Tell me what's going on."

"Yes, ma'am," Chuck said. "Let me start at the beginning. We were interrogating Agent Walker. She was actually able to hold out for a long while. But she finally cracked. Her assignment was more involved than we feared. She was able to compromise Peter West and identify several Elders. West was killed."

"My God," Bowles whispered in shock. "How many Elders?"

"I'm afraid that you're the last one," Chuck said. "All of the others are already in custody. Clearly they were able to obtain some key personnel information from them. They've been picking up our agents all across the country. Laura and I may possibly be the only two Fulcrum Agents left free. If we're right, they are on their way to capture you as we speak."

Indeed, as they watched, about ten police cars pulled up and the building was surrounded by cops. A plain car also pulled up and Josh and Joey got out.

"Those are the agents in charge of your capture, ma'am," Laura said. "We got here just in time."

Bowles slumped in her seat. "Fulcrum is finished," she whispered in shock.

"Yes, ma'am," Chuck said sadly. He reached over and grabbed her hand in a show of comfort. "As it existed anyway. But rest assured, Agent Carter and I are totally dedicated to making sure that you're safe. Nothing is going to happen to you while we're alive. We'll have to go off the grid."

"Where?"

"We have a safe house in Los Angeles," Chuck said. "We don't think that the CIA knows about it. Agent Walker didn't anyway. You're not safe anywhere in the Washington area."

"We really should get moving, ma'am," Laura said softly. "This is a dangerous place for you. Do we have your permission to proceed?"

Bowles knew that the situation was grim. These agents needed to be free to do what needed to be done without worrying about decorum. There would be time later to become their leader and try to salvage whatever was possible from this mess. But for right now they needed to concentrate on doing their jobs. "Proceed," she said after a moment. "Understand something. You're the professionals. So until the situation becomes less fluid, I'm not in charge. You are. Call me Jenny. Do whatever it takes to get us out of this."

Since the parking lot was outside of the perimeter that the police had set up, it was easy for Laura to simply drive off. "Okay, Jenny," she said with a smile. "I'm afraid that I don't have a nickname. Laura will have to do."

"My friends call me Chuck," Chuck said.

"Okay, Chuck," Bowles said with a little more smile. "How are we going to get to L.A."

"The only safe way is to drive," Chuck said. "It's going to take two days. Laura and I will drive in shifts."

"Well, folks," Bowles said. "There is no way to call this an ideal situation. But it is what it is. We might as well make the most of it. It looks like we're going to have ourselves an adventure. Maybe we'll get a chance to get to know each other better."

Bowles caught the uncomfortable look that the two agents exchanged through the rear view mirror. That made her smile grow even broader. "Don't tell me," she said. "You two are a couple."

Laura turned to briefly face her. "It happened when we were interrogating Walker," she admitted. "I'm embarrassed. It's unprofessional."

"Don't be," Bowles said, now with a full grin. "You two make a cute couple. Tell me about Agent Walker. Is she…"

"Very dead," Chuck said with a grin of his own. "She was a fighter. I'll give her that. She resisted the drug for as long as she could. But ultimately she fell. She was a tigress in bed. There are some things that she is simply the best at."

Chuck laughed at the daggers that Laura was shooting at him though the mirror. So he reached up and grabbed her shoulder. "Come on. You know that I'm just teasing," he said. "You're the best."

Bowles slapped him playfully. "Wow, Chuck," she said. "Are you really this clueless? No woman wants to be teased by her guy about another woman. It might just drive her into the arms of another… person. Am I right, Laura?"

"You're very right," Laura said as she finally smiled. "Don't worry. I intend to fully pay him back."

Bowles just sat and allowed Laura to drive for a long while. "We need to find Bryce Larkin," she finally sighed, far more to herself than anybody.

"Bryce Larkin?" Chuck asked as he sat up. "The Intersect?"

"I see you've heard of him," Bowles said.

Chuck fought the impulse to flash the I-told-you-so smile through the mirror. Even he didn't expect her to grab for that bait quite so quickly. Maybe this would be easy. "I've more than heard of him," he replied. "I know where he is. Walker gave him up. As it turns out they used to be something of a hot item. Then she met this new guy."

Laura grinned at Chuck in the mirror. He knew that Sarah was listening. But maybe he deserved to gloat a little. After all, he was clearly a genius. "Her new guy," she said. "He must have been somewhat insecure. Larkin with the Intersect? He must have been one fantastic fuck."

Chuck grinned back. "Actually the way she told it, not so much," he said. "It seems that Larkin couldn't compete in the sack with this new guy. Something about a short fuse. Premature… well, you get the idea. Walker said that the new guy was the best she ever imagined, that all she could think about was getting him in the sack. Anyway poor dude. He finally hooks up with such a babe and now this has to happen. He probably misses her."

Bowles listened to the playful banter for a minute. "Wait," she said. "Did you say that you know where he is?"

"Yup," Chuck said. "He's actually in L.A. Do you want to meet him? That could probably be arranged."

"Do I want to meet him?" Bowles asked incredulously. "Very much so."

"He is our ticket out of this mess."

x-x-x-x-x

Casey and Sarah were in the van driving down the freeway about five miles behind the car with Chuck and Laura. They wanted to stay in a range where they could listen to the wire, yet not be seen. And frankly five miles was approaching the limit for the former.

"Damn," Casey said. "That Laura has a lead foot. I'm having a hard time keeping up."

Sarah was still laughing at Chuck so clearly teasing her, knowing full well that she was listening to his wire. "They make a very good team," she said.

"Just don't say a good couple," Casey said with a smirk. "I know that's what you're thinking."

"What?" Sarah protested. "They pulled that off perfectly. She bought their act hook, line, and sinker. She's actually grateful to them. She'll use them to collect Bryce and use him to go running to Volkoff to save her hide. Tell me that my new husband isn't a genius. Besides, it was your idea to make them a couple."

"Hey," Casey growled. "It's keeping Bowles from trying to fuck one or both of them, isn't it?" He turned to Sarah with a sarcastic grin. "You're welcome."

Sarah did a serious double take. As much as she loved being with Chuck full time, and as much fun as they had on The Enforcer the past couple of days, she had to admit, she also missed this playful repartee with Casey. Anybody who didn't know them well would listen to the way they spoke to each other and conclude that they really didn't care for each other much… and they would have been dead wrong. "I'm welcome?" she asked incredulously. "You're not fooling me at all. You don't want her fucking Laura any more than I want her to fuck Chuck. When are you going to give it up and admit that? It's pretty obvious that she's more to you than just the next 'spy on a mission' hookup."

Casey didn't answer. "It was a good idea calling in a bomb threat on the building," he said, clearly to change the subject. "It got a ton of cops to surround the place, made it look convincing without calling Beckman for help."

Sarah knew that he was changing the subject. Casey would rather eat broken glass than give her a compliment. But she decided it would be better to let this one slide. If he wanted to talk about his lady feelings, well there wouldn't be any stopping him. "Thanks," she said. "Josh and Joey did a good job."

"Sure," Casey said with the sarcasm dripping from his voice. "They got out of the car and looked in charge. Ellie and Morgan could have done it. Is that what we're down to? Perfectionist Sarah Walker hands out praise to a rookie for not stumbling getting out of the car? She looks to you as a mentor. Going all soft is going to get her killed."

Sarah grinned. "We've had this conversation so many times that I've lost track," she said. "My name is Sarah Bartowski. Chuck was right a minute ago. Agent Walker is dead. May she rest in peace. And you're wrong about Joey. She gets it. She understands that there is a time to be bad ass and a time to be human. Did you see her take out those three men on the dock? I couldn't have done it any faster. I'm proud of her. I'm glad that I've gotten to her before the life changes her. Before it changes her into…"

"Into me," Casey growled. "Admit that was what you were going to say."

Sarah's eyes flashed. "I will not admit it," she protested with a grin. "I was going to say into someone who is too hardened and chicken shit to admit that they love someone. I'm not responsible for whatever inferences you might draw from that, am I?"

Casey sat silent for a long, long time. "How do you know when you're in love?" he finally asked softly.

Sarah was frankly surprised by the vulnerability in his voice. She was mostly just teasing him. But if he was looking for someone who had made the transition from cold spy to someone head over heels, he had come to the right place. Still she was very careful in how she answered. "I don't know how to explain it," she finally replied. "It can make you hurt worse than you've ever hurt in your whole life. It can make you wish you'd never been born. But it can also make you feel like you can flap your arms and fly. It's that intense. When you're in love, you won't need any help to figure it out. You'll just know."

"I'm not sure how she feels," Casey said, even more softly.

"That makes it unanimous," Sarah said. "She doesn't either. She's confused. She's feeling things that she knows she shouldn't. It was easy with Seth. He was just a fuck buddy. She wants more. But can she change from what she is into what you want? That's the question she has to answer."

That got a stronger response. "Into what I want?" he asked. "I don't want her to change."

"Of course you do," Sarah said. "You maybe don't realize it yet. But you're eventually going to take a dim view of her fucking other men on missions. Trust me on this one."

"Do I have that right?" Casey asked.

"Of course not," Sarah said. "Nobody does. That's something she would have to give you. If you want that, ask her for it. That's something that would actually make her happy. Part of her conflict is her fear of not knowing what you want."

"Would she give it to me?"

Sarah sighed. "I don't know, Casey," she finally said. "Maybe. She'd like to. There is only one way to find out. Would you be willing to give that same sort of thing to her?"

Casey didn't answer the question. He simply shook his head as he remembered a similar situation in the Orange Orange that had happened literally just a handful of days ago, but now seemed like ten years. "Look at me," he sighed as he threw her own words back at her. "I'm actually taking relationship advice… from you."

That got them both laughing. "Actually, you could do worse," Sarah said when she could finally speak. "I'm surprising myself. I always get nervous when we're in one of Chuck's plans. But this time, I'm pretty calm. This isn't one of his wild ideas where he has to predict what people will do multiple moves in advance. This one seems pretty easy."

"What could possibly go wrong?"

x-x-x-x-x

Mary Bartowski was actually driving on the same freeway. She was somewhere between the car with Bowles and the van with Sarah which she didn't know about… congratulating herself. Was she just lucky? Or was she truly that good? Whichever, planting that bug in Bowles purse was paying dividends beyond belief.

The only bad news was that she was looking forward to telling poor Jenny the sad news about the death of her beloved Fulcrum herself. It would have been fun to see the devastated look at her face.

Well, that wasn't the only bad news. She tried to stay away from L.A. as much as possible. Too many bad memories lived there. Whenever she found herself wondering what Ellie and Chuck had made of their lives, she forced herself to block it right back out again. She had made her decision almost twenty years ago, she didn't regret it, would do it all over again, and had zero guilt. The only way to do that was to block their memory out of her mind. But still, she was smart enough to know that those memories would haunt her if she allowed them.

There was something about the Fulcrum Agent's voice that bothered her. It was hauntingly familiar. But she couldn't quite place it. Maybe they had crossed paths before. Hopefully it wasn't someone she liked. After all, he wasn't likely to survive.

But there was also this fact. Alexi would be so happy when she delivered the Intersect to him. Especially without having to depend on that Bowles bitch. It was going to be so much fun to watch her crawl and beg for forgiveness. And if she knew her Alexi… and she was sure that she did, it would happen… literally.

Mary picked up the phone. "Hi," she said. "It's me."

"I have good news. It looks like Mr. Larkin has been found."

"Of course. Alexi, you know that you can always count on me. I need some men in L.A. by tomorrow."

x-x-x-x-x

It was a little after midnight when they crossed the Mississippi River. Distance wise it wasn't all that close to half way. But it still was an important psychological point. Bowles was sitting in the front seat with Chuck while Laura was in the back seat sleeping. "She's really quite beautiful," she said was she sat watching her sleep. "You're very lucky."

Naturally Chuck was using this quiet time to think about Sarah. He really hoped she was listening. Even more, he hoped that this mission would end quickly. "Jenny," he said. "You're right. You actually have no idea how lucky I am."

Bowles sat quietly for a moment. "Thank you for rescuing me," she said softly. "That was very brave. I won't forget it."

"It was our duty," Chuck said. "No thanks are necessary. The CIA hasn't won yet."

"I like the way you say CIA," Bowles said with a smile. "You can really feel the loathing in your words."

"Again, Jenny," Chuck said. "You have no idea how right you are."

Bowles laughed a little, and then looked at him a little more closely. "You look really tired," she said. "Do you want me to drive for a while?"

"I'm fine," Chuck insisted. "It's just that I have this stupid headache. I haven't been able to shake it for two days now."

"And it seems to be getting worse."

x-x-x-x-x