A/N I had this idea for the Dustbin Patrol a long time ago, so it was good to finally get it down and out of my system. This chapter features one of my subtlest Casey jokes ever, and one of my favorite Devon lines. I did make a small oopsie, though, not quite a mistake. If Morgan et al had brought the car closer, they could have stored Devon in there, rather than inside the building. It would have made things better, and smoother in the next chapter, but I usually don't see that far ahead with some of the details. The bit with Ellie setting Shaw after Leader could have been better presented, I think, so I moved some of the sentences to make them clearer, and added one.

Patience is a virtue, and virtue is its own reward. That's what they told Alex Coburn back when he'd been a choirboy, and he believed them. Their voices echoed in his head as he selected his position, his targets, slowly and carefully, so glad he'd been patient, hadn't broken his thumbs after all.

Of course, a little gunplay, the smell of powder, the knowledge that every shot he fired made his country safer, those were all good as a reward too. He'd learned that after he'd stopped being a choirboy, after he'd even stopped being Alex Coburn. He'd never stopped being a sniper, though.

His perfect storm, job-wise.

A guard's radio crackled to life, their next regular check in. Perfect. He fired, once, twice, and the two men guarding whatever room they were guarding fell like living people didn't, and he was quick to take advantage of their inattention to details like that. At the very least, they were two fewer goons. They also had to have more guns and ammo than he did right now, and probably other useful stuff. Whatever was in the room they guarded was just icing on that cake.

Of course the door was locked, but that's what big heavy knives are for. Sarah would have picked it, but what the hell, that was her thing.

Casey had no problem admitting that Sarah was better at the kickass ninja stuff, as long as no one was around to hear him do it. Chuck, more imaginative than either of them, outmaneuvered the enemy on a daily basis, neutralizing their combat advantage by avoiding combat.

The door popped open, and Casey inhaled. Smells like victory. Or in this case, gun oil. And where there's gun oil…Casey grabbed a bag and started loading up, humming 'Whistle While You Work." Sometimes, there's no better solution to a problem than metal meeting propulsion, and for that, simple soldiering was ideal.

Advanced soldiering, with a heavy emphasis on guerrilla tactics and some Chuck-style out-of-the-box thinking, was even better, and he took more flash-bangs and remote-detonation grenades than bullets. There was only one of him, after all, and he needed to make that into an advantage, rather than a liability. Alex was upstairs, and he couldn't let a mere several dozen goons get in her way.

"It's not my fault," whimpered Morgan, staring at the small blue building with the very large hole in it..

Devon was staring too. "You fired it."

"You armed it!"

Alex leaned forward between them. "And I picked the locks on the car doors, so that makes it our fault." Boys. "Now come on, their defenses are breached but that's only step one."

Morgan pointed down the street, as if she'd somehow not seen their handiwork. "'Breached'? We just fired a missile at a house!"

"It's still standing, isn't it?" She opened her door, and they followed her lead. "Probably as armor-plated as this car. Pop the trunk." He complied, and she took a look. "Here's a vest." She held it out to him.

He pushed it back. "That's for you."

"Morgan–"

"If that thing keeps me safe and you get hurt, Casey'll kill me anyway, so let's just cut to the chase, okay?"

"Fine," she grumbled, shrugging it on over her coat. "He wouldn't kill you."

"You bet he would. He didn't go in there for my sake." He pointed. "What's that?"

She opened the case. "Darts?"

Morgan snapped his fingers. "Animal tranq darts, for the tiger." He looked around. "I didn't tell you about the tiger?"

She gave him a fond, if exasperated, look, and picked up the dart gun. "No. Devon, this is for you."

He pulled his hands back. "Me?"

"It's non-lethal, and you're a doctor." She held it out again, and this time he took it. "I only see a couple of darts here, so be careful who you use it on, preferably someone big. Load it like this." She demonstrated the technique, and turned back to Morgan.

"What do you have for me, Miss Wizard?"

"I…have a shotgun." She held it out.

He took it. "Okay!"

"I don't see any shells."

"Even more okay! It's not like I plan on shooting anybody."

"You can't go into an enemy fortress with an unloaded weapon!"

"You know that and I know that but do they know that?"

"I think they do, Morgan," said Devon.

"Then it'll take 'em by surprise, won't it? Come on, time's a-wastin'." Morgan set off down the street in his best recon style, guaranteed to make everyone look at him. Fortunately there was no one else around.

"Can I shoot him?" muttered Devon.

For a second she looked awfully tempted, but…"No. If those were, like, koala darts, I'd say yes, but…" She shrugged, slammed the trunk, and hurried to catch up.

Morgan was waiting for them at the alley mouth. Devon looked into the dimness of the alley, uncertain. "Dude, are you sure this thing is clear?"

Morgan looked insulted. "Of course I'm sure, Devon. You may be Captain Awesome, but I'm Captain Cobra, Force Recon, and I know an empty alley when I see one. Let's go, before the ants in that hill we kicked start to move."

After they passed, an unnoticed bum crept from an unnoticed box and approached the alley mouth stealthily, gun in hand. He'd found the daughter. Leader would be pleased. He took aim.

A hammer clicked back, behind his head, he didn't know how far, and he slumped. Leader would not be pleased with him.

"What's in the gun?"

Huh? "Tranq darts."

"Good, give it here."

"Why should I?"

"Because right now all I can do is kill you."

The bum opened his hand, and the unknown weapon-holder took the gun. "Thanks." He fired twice, and the Ring agent slumped to the ground. The shooter dragged him back to his box and left him there, cuffed and unconscious. Then he lifted a hand to his shoulder, and clicked his radio. "This is Dustbin Lead, my bad guy is down. What's our status, guys?"

There was a lot more dust in front of the building, but no laser beams showed in it now. Morgan and his team of stalwart heroes plastered themselves against the front, and he slid over to peer carefully around the edges for any hostiles. "All clear," he whispered, and stepped forward.

"Drop it," shouted a big man right inside the hole, as two other guards stepped out from either side of the building.

"Man, you're making me look bad in front of my girl," complained Morgan.

The leader took a step forward as his men tightened the noose. "I don't give a rat's ass, pipsqueak. Now hand over the gun."

Morgan raised his hands, gun loose in them…and threw it at the man's face! The leader pulled his trigger reflexively and shot his own right-hand man in the chest. Devon fired, and raised his gun to aim at the left-hand man. Alex spun and engaged him with some of her best self-defense class training, before finishing him off with a whack to the head with Casey's gun. She turned to see Morgan swing the empty shotgun like a club, giving the leader a headache to match the bloody nose, but Devon looked ready to drop.

He looked at the dart sticking out of his foot. "Not…awesome." Then he dropped.

Morgan prodded him with the stock of his shotgun. "Yeah, he's out." He looked up at Alex. "Now what?"

"Now this." Alex put the gun in her bag and stepped over Devon's prostrate form to plant a huge kiss right on Morgan's lips.

Morgan wasn't a heart surgeon but he was smart enough for that.

She pulled back very soon, though, since the doorway to the enemy fortress really isn't the right time or place for that sort of thing. "Your girl, huh?"

He went red all over. "If you'll, um…"

"How about we talk about this later, we've got things to do right now. We have to get Devon and the rest of these guys under cover." The three bad guys they just dragged into the building out of sight, after taking their weapons. Devon, on the other hand–

"Where?" asked Morgan as they carried him in.

She looked around. "There! Control room, probably for the defenses we just took out. No use for it now, and it's as safe and secure as anything we're likely to find."

In the dimness of the little room, the sudden glow from behind the dark glasses was quite noticeable. Then it faded, with a smell of burning metal and plastic as the chip self-destructed.

"What was that?" asked Sarah, taking off the glasses. She sniffed, and made a face. "What's that smell?"

"The chip self-destructed, but there must have been a second upload on it," said Chuck. "What did you see?"

Ellie's concerns were more immediate, and she elbowed her brother out her turf. "How do you feel, Sarah? Chuck, open the door, I need some light."

He obeyed, of course, and Ellie pulled Sarah out into the hall. "Well, whatever was in that upload, it doesn't seem to have affected your motor abilities. Let me see your eyes."

"Duck," said Sarah suddenly, pushing Ellie away, toward the room. Gun in hand, she crept up the corridor.

"What, Sarah?" asked Chuck softly.

"Shadow," she replied. "Stay with your sister."

He obeyed, of course, retreating to the shelter of the closet.

"Where is she?" asked Ellie.

"She said she saw something, a shadow." He took up a position between her and the door.

Ellie tried to push past. "She just had an upload, Chuck, and you're taking her visual acuity on faith?"

"You know, when you it that way it sounds kind of dumb." He heard movement in the hall. "There you see, she's back." He opened the door.

Charles Carmichael smiled, and took aim. "Hello, Bartowskis. Ready to die today?"

Without a second's hesitation Chuck kicked the gun out of his hand, followed by a jab to the throat that made Carmichael reflexively step back. Chuck moved forward, continuing his assault, but Carmichael had caught up, and matched him strike for strike. Or tried to. Ellie watched as her brother seemed to…flow from one move into another with a perfect economy and precision that Carmichael just could not match.

Ellie heard the sound of running feet, and searched around frantically for Shaw's gun. She'd just picked it up and swung around to the electrical room door when Carina appeared, and her natural dislike of guns reasserted itself.

Carina took one look at the struggling pair and wisely stayed out of it. Instead she went to Ellie, picking up the gun on the way. "Ellie, where are Sarah and Casey?"

Ellie took a second to get her brains pointed in the right direction. "Sarah's, um, chasing a shadow." She pointed. "That way. Casey went up."

"Alone?"

Ellie nodded. "There was an explosion."

Carina smirked. "Before or after he went up?"

"Before. That's how we got free. He went up and Sarah said I had to get out of here."

That made up Carina's mind in a hurry. "She's right." She turned to point back at the room she'd just come out of. "There's a tunnel entrance in there, it'll take you to another base, and our backup. They'll get you out."

"Aren't you coming with me?"

"I can't. I have to go help Casey."

"Please…"

"You're kidding, right? Even General Beckman's afraid of you. You're a Bartowski."

I'm a Bartowski, dammit…

Carina smiled at the expression that took over her face, stood up, and left.

Time to start acting like one.

Finally Chuck managed a double-strike that left Carmichael wide open, and Chuck kicked him into the wall. Stepping forward he took Carmichael by the throat and lifted him off the ground. Carmichael's struggles proved no more effective than Sarah's had been, under the same conditions, but this time Chuck was not at the mercy of the Intersect.

He let go, and Carmichael fell in a heap at his feet. "You should have killed me, Bartowski," he rasped.

Chuck stood back, flashed his sister a glance as she approached. "I've already killed you once. Never again."

"That's what makes you weak."

"No," said Ellie. "That's what makes him Carmichael."

"I'm Carmichael."

Chuck shook his head. "No, you're not. You're just a shadow of me, copied out of my brain by the Ring, and infused into the body of Daniel Shaw when they brought him back to life."

Ellie stood by his side, but now she crouched to look Carmichael in the face. "They did?"

He knelt too. "Yes. How did you die, Carmichael?"

Carmichael's eyes fluttered. "Death. Strapped to a table, needles in my back."

Chuck nodded, and turned to Ellie. "Leader said I had tamed the Intersect. They must have used their copy as a filter when uploading the Fulcrum Intersect into Shaw. We saw the room where they did it in the other base."

"I'm a shadow."

"Yes, Charles, I'm afraid that's true."

He looked her in the eyes. "Please kill me."

"I'm sorry, Charles, I can't. I don't have a lab, I don't know how."

Chuck gave her a gentle nudge. "Maybe you can get some ideas from the lab in the other base."

Ellie wiped her eyes, cleared her throat. "Right. Carina says there's a tunnel?"

"Uh, yeah." Helping her stand, Chuck led his sister into the electrical room, where nothing looked tunnel-shaped. "Huh. That's annoying, the door must have closed while we were dancing around out there." Ellie noticed his eyes start to flutter. "Oh, wait, there it is."

"Chuck, did you just flash?"

"Yeah, I know, back to the bunker for me." He reached out and pulled what appeared to be an electrical switch, and the whole panel swung out. "There you go."

She grabbed his arm. "You have to come with me."

He removed her hand. "I have to save Sarah."

"Sarah Walker must die."

Chuck turned immediately, but there was no threat, and he backed down. Shaw stood in the doorway, beaten and bloody.

"Sarah Walker killed my wife."

"Her name's not Walker, it's Bartowski," said Ellie automatically.

Shaw's eyes glazed over, and he stopped moving. "Not. Walker. Not. Carmichael. Not. Walker…"

Chuck walked up to him slowly, waved a hand in front of his face, but Shaw took no notice.

"What's the matter?"

"I think you broke him, sis, like that episode of Star Trek, where they hit the robot with an insoluble logic problem?"

Shaw's problem wasn't of the head, but of the heart. "Chuck, he's not a robot, he's suffering!"

"That's too bad. If he was a robot I could have fixed him."

"He doesn't need to be fixed, he needs to be healed." Ellie took a step forward. "Daniel?" She brushed the hair from his face.

Shaw looked at her with Carmichael's eyes, Chuck's eyes. "What do I do, sis? What do I do?"

He was a ghost of Chuck, empty and hopeless. Ellie started to cry, and swept Shaw up in her arms. "I'm so sorry, Daniel. So sorry."

Shaw returned the hug, sagging a little. "So tired. Tell me what to do, sis. So tired."

Ellie was a doctor, but her doctor's strength wasn't enough. Shaw was heavy, a far heavier burden than Chuck. "You have to take care of him, Eleanor," her father had once said." You're his big sister." Chuck was Carmichael and Carmichael was in Shaw. She had to take care of him, help him. Give him purpose. No one should have done to them what the Ring had done to Daniel Shaw, what Eve Shaw had done to her own husband. It's a useful tool, and a means to power. His return was predicted, they were supposed to eliminate him.

The angrier Ellie got, the stronger Ellie got.

Ready.

For once in her life, Ellie Bartowski had a weapon in her hands, and the will to use it.

Aim.

"Walker was just a weapon, Daniel. Who used the weapon? Who gave the order?"

Shaw had one name, one thing to cling to in the turmoil. He would die before he would let them take it from him. "Leader," he whispered.

Fire.

"Go get him."

Sarah moved stealthily up the hall, ears on the alert for any sound, not certain her eyes could be trusted. She'd been so sure she'd seen something, but now–she heard a sound, not quite a noise, just a light brushing of cloth over stone.

Leader! They'd beaten her here after all.

Maybe. It could've been a rat.

"Sorry about blocking your escape tunnel. We'll be out of your way shortly." She cocked her head, listening closely for a response, any response. Nothing. There was noise behind her but she tuned that out. Chuck would handle it.

She took another soft step.

"You think you've won, don't you, Sarah?"

Ahead and to the left.

"Not until I have you in custody I won't."

"I'm flattered."

Spin. Pivot. Clear the doorway, and…nothing. More doors, but which one?

"Do you really think that capturing me will accomplish anything?"

Left! She moved over to it as quickly and silently as she could. "We know you overlap your projects, duplicate your facilities, and copy your code. But there's only one of you."

"There was almost none of me. Does your loving husband know you're a murderess?"

She was much closer now. One room, one exit. Translucent tarps on the equipment showed no one in hiding. "Assassin. And yes, he does. Does yours?"

"I have no husband anymore, Agent Walker. Death did us part, and all that."

Spin. Pivot. Clear the doorway, and…there she was, punching a code in a pad next to another door, on the far side of a wooden table. Sarah looked underneath and saw nothing. "Step away from the door."

"Or what, Agent Walker? You'll shoot me?" Nonetheless she raised her hands and turned.

Sarah stepped forward. "Come around the table."

"I'm afraid I can't do that, Agent Walker." The door behind Sarah slammed. "There's no table." The table vanished. The whole room vanished, revealing just bare glass panels for walls. "The original Fulcrum design was a bit clunky, don't you think? We miniaturized it considerably for our prototype, but, you know…" The screens started to flicker. "Waste not."