Hello everybody. Again, sorry it took me so long to get this out. I had intended to have this done several days ago. Unfortunately, 2015 went from bad to much, much worse around here. And it wasn't even a hospital visit this time. So if I am lax in sending you a thank you email for giving a review, I do apologize. I'm afraid my mind is elsewhere right now.
I wanted to get this in just to get my mind off of what's been going on here. Hopefully the chapter works out for you. BTW, for you Jimmy Slade haters out there, I have two words to say: you're welcome.
Anyway, please ignore everything I just said and enjoy the chapter. As always in this story, the parts that are from the show are the property of NBC and Fake Empire Productions. And sending me a review...good or bad...will make this week go better. Thanks.
Echo Park - Los Angeles, CA
October 2, 2015
11:30 PM PDT
Chuck entered his apartment having finally calmed down from the evening's insanity. The look on Sarah's face right before he left was still burned into his mind. She tried to keep it expressionless, but even Chuck could tell she was fuming at the danger he was put in and she looked ready to take it out on Casey, Carina, and Jimmy. He hung his head; it wasn't their fault he identified the wrong person as La Ciudad. He felt like an idiot. If Ciudad was a guy, wouldn't he have been El Ciudad? Clearly the four years of Spanish he took in high school were a waste of time. And despite everything that happened, they still managed to rescue him. Casey was right; he got lucky. Lucky in the sense of having some very talented people watching his back.
He closed the door and found Ellie sleeping on the couch. He pulled the blanket on the couch over her, but that stirred her awake.
"Hey, how was the big date?" she asked him.
"Good," he replied with little enthusiasm. "Good, great, fine. I'm going to go to bed. I love you…"
"What? No, no, no, no," Ellie said as she grabbed Chuck's arm. "Is that all I get?" She pulled him back to the couch. "Come on, sit down. I want to know…you know…do you like this girl?"
"It's, you know, it's complicated."
"Well, explain it to me slowly. I'll catch up."
Chuck gave a long exhale. Everything that happened tonight, and he couldn't tell Ellie one bit of it. "She's a…beautiful girl."
"Yes, the entire viewing public would agree. Go on."
"And she's very…agile."
"Not sure what that has to do with your date, but I know these things, Chuck. I've seen her on the show."
"Honestly, I think she's too exhausting for me."
Ellie stared at him in confusion. "What happened? Did you guys tango?"
"Oh yeah, yeah. We tangoed. In fact, we tangoed quite a bit, but Awesome taught me the woman's part of the tango, so it was a little difficult as one might expect."
Seemingly timed to the second, Devon entered in only his boxers and sat next to Ellie. "What's up, bro? Did you do the famous dip?"
"Yeah, actually I was on the receiving end of that dip."
Devon gave him a weird look. "You did tango with a woman, right?"
Chuck rolled his eyes in frustration. "And on that note…" He tried to get up from the couch.
"No, no, no, no, no," Ellie interrupted, holding Chuck's arm to keep him on the couch. "You're not getting off that easy. Why won't you talk to me?"
"It's…" Chuck couldn't believe he had to lie to his own sister, the woman who all but raised him after their mother left and their father became obsessed with his work and gave up his parental responsibilities. "It's complicated, OK? Just let it go."
Ellie exhaled in frustration. "Fine. You don't want to talk to me, I suggest you find someone to talk to, like your idiot friend. He's called about 75 times. He locked himself in a storage cage. Whatever that means."
"Oh, no," Chuck said. "That's why he was calling me."
"You ignored a call from Morgan?" Ellie couldn't believe it. "This must have been quite a date you were on. And by the way…Charles Carmichael?"
"What are you talking about?" Chuck asked.
"You were on the news tonight. They showed you in front of the Wilshire Grand with Sarah, Carina, and Jimmy. Why are you using that fake name you created?"
Chuck shook his head and smiled. "It was Sarah's idea. At least now you won't have TMZ and Inside Edition camped outside of the apartment wondering who I am, right?"
"They better not," Ellie said, her voice taking on the hardened edge she reserved for when Awesome and she didn't see eye-to-eye on things.
"I…better let Morgan out," Chuck said. He exited the apartment.
Hotel Amarano - Burbank, CA
October 3, 2015
12:00 AM PDT
"You were right, Casey. We were lucky tonight. We were lucky our incompetence didn't get Chuck killed!"
Sarah was not in a good mood by any stretch of the imagination. Their work tonight almost cost Chuck his life. It was rare she ever got mad at her partners like this, but she was not willing to accept what happened tonight as simple bad luck.
"Bartowski got the wrong person, Walker," Casey replied. "It was a domino effect. You'd be dead right now if you tried to lone wolf it. La Ciudad is probably trying to get the hell out of the country as we speak. We did well all things considered."
"Casey's right," Carina said. "We have a blood sample, fingerprints from all of her weapons and a picture of her. We already have a team ready to intercept her in Central America. All things no agency in the entire world had before tonight."
"And we let her get away," Sarah countered as she glared at Jimmy.
"Yeah, I really need to learn how to not lose consciousness after being clocked in the head by a Jericho 941-R," he grumbled as he held an ice pack to his face, still in pain from being nailed by La Ciudad's bodyguard.
"The bottom line is, we failed tonight. We let La Ciudad get away and put Chuck in danger. We better fix this situation quickly. We're supposed to be counting on him for intel, not rescuing him every five minutes."
Both Casey and Carina glared at her for a moment before exiting the room. Jimmy got up slowly and headed for the door.
He then turned back. "You're getting too close. You know that, right?"
Sarah turned to face Jimmy, her eyes practically shooting daggers at him. "I'm doing my job as a team leader."
"Is that why you never used the word 'asset' just now? You kept referring to him as Chuck? You've never done that with any asset before. And you sure as hell have never gotten this mad at us even when we really did screw up. He's gotten into your head and you're letting it affect your judgement. It wouldn't be the first time."
"How would you know that?"
"If that didn't happen with Bryce, I wouldn't even be here. Graham was worried about you after he disappeared. He was afraid you would burn yourself out like you almost did when you first started."
Sarah's mouth dropped open in surprise. "He told you all of that?"
Jimmy nodded. "There are at least a dozen agents who would have done a much better job in this show cover than me. But he put me in for one simple reason: I wasn't Bryce. He figured after what happened to you with Bryce that you needed someone you'd be able to get along with without things getting complicated. And he was right."
Sarah looked at Jimmy for a moment. "Is that why you ran away from me on the beach after I kissed you?"
"No. Graham told me all of this after our dates but before you talked to me. I was freaking out on the beach because Sarah Walker wanted to sleep with me and I wasn't prepared for it. It was like being asked to base jump off the Freedom Tower when you're afraid of heights."
She shook her head and smiled. "To this day, I still find it hard to believe you've had so little experience with the opposite sex. Even after reading your file."
Jimmy shrugged. "I really don't worry about it that much. If it happens, it happens. And it's the same for you. There's nothing wrong with liking Chuck. You just can't let it affect your job like it did tonight when you chewed us out for no good reason. Give yourself some distance for now. Once this is over, when we find out who's after him and he gets the Intersect out of his head, who knows? Just don't make things more complicated. You're not the only one whom it would affect."
Jimmy turned and headed for the door. "Graham was right twice," Sarah said.
He turned back to her. "What do you mean?"
"Putting you on my team was as much for you as it was for me. He may have been worried about me burning out again, but he was concerned you had a death wish. Given what I know of your past now, I can understand why. He needed someone who cared about you as much as what you could do. He wants you around because of your talent, but I need you around because you're a good person that I have no problem trusting with my life. And other agents that could have done a better job than you? No one will ever convince me of that."
Jimmy looked down at the ground momentarily before turning back to Sarah with that shy smile he had. "I guess it worked." He opened the door. "Good night."
Sarah looked at the door as she reviewed everything that had happened tonight. Casey and Carina were right that Chuck identified the wrong person and yet still came closer to catching La Ciudad than anyone ever had. And Jimmy was right that she had to put some distance between Chuck and her.
But she couldn't get past how close they came to losing him tonight.
Buy More - Burbank, CA
October 3, 2015
12:15 AM PDT
Morgan understood what Andy Dufresne felt in The Shawshank Redemption. He could even hear that Italian lady singing that beautiful opera from Act III of Le Nozze di Figaro. Of course, he had only been locked up for four hours as opposed to twenty years. Still, he yearned to be free. He even started hallucinating that he smelled a delicious slice of pizza.
Given that he fell asleep on the cage floor and Chuck was holding a pizza slice under his nose, it wasn't exactly a hallucination. Morgan was startled awake.
"Dude, you have no idea the hell I've been through," Morgan said in relief as he hugged Chuck.
"OK, OK, OK. Settle down, settle down, settle down," Chuck replied as he handed Morgan the slice. "It's all good. Tell me what happened."
"Oh, God. What happened? Tang showed up and dropped all these off," Morgan explained as he showed Chuck all of the computers Harry Tang intentionally hid. "I guess he was stashing them, you know? So…alright. Let's do this."
Chuck looked at him in surprise. "What are you talking about? Morgan, you don't know how to fix a computer."
"Moral support. Never…never leave your wingman, OK? Something your team could learn a little something about."
"Look it's OK, man. Go get some sleep, OK?"
"Are you sure? 'Cause you say the word and we go down together."
"No, I appreciate that. But I think it'll be nice to do something I'm good at. So, I'll see you."
"Fantastic, I'll see you later. Good night."
Morgan shook his hand and patted him on the shoulder before taking his pizza slice and leaving the store. Chuck exhaled slowly and took a quick look at the computers that still needed to be fixed. He stretched his neck and started to take apart the first PC.
Eight hours later, Big Mike walked back to the cage holding a doughnut and his morning coffee. "You finished, Bartowski?" he asked.
Chuck slammed the case to the operating system CD he had been using to re-initialize the PCs. "Mission accomplished."
"Whoah! Two days was meant as an incentive. I didn't think you'd really do it. I'm impressed, and I'm not a man easily impressed. Gonna be sorry to not see you here every day."
"Well, I think you should know I only fixed the last few. My team did most of the work. They deserve the credit, and you're only as good as your team, so…"
"First rule of management: ALWAYS take credit," Big Mike replied, taking a look at all of the PCs the Nerd Herders fixed. "Hope we can sell all this crap."
Harry Tang walked in with several aluminum beer cans. "Sir, there's been a major infraction: drinking alcoholic beverages on the property."
"Nothing wrong with a man wetting his whistle every once in a while," Big Mike replied, clearly as annoyed with Tang's attitude as everyone else. He wanted to make Chuck the Assistant Manager so badly, but he couldn't compete against a salary five times as high and a smoking hot blonde actress as a girlfriend.
"Just keep it out of the store," he told Chuck, who agreed.
Big Mike left and Tang looked at Chuck like he just scraped him off the bottom of his shoe. "You look like a waiter," Tang yapped as he threw the cans on the floor. "Kiss ass."
Chuck stood up. "Well, as fun as it is to talk to you, Harry, I have to get to my new job. Which by the way, pays more in one year than you can make in five. I'm going to go be with my new girlfriend while you deal with an entire store where nobody has an ounce of respect for you."
Chuck started to walk out of the cage. "Good luck, Captain Bligh," he said, bumping Tang with his shoulder on the way out, like Tang had done with him so many times in the past.
O.C. Studios - Hollywood, CA
October 9, 2015
1:30 PM PDT
Jen Burton and Jill Garrett made it to the large steel door. Jill had a bag of tricks with her thanks to Duke Forrester, who was an expert in getting into any enemy stronghold. But they needed him outside taking out the rest of The Frenchman's lackeys, giving them the chance to rescue the captured Lance McCall.
"Hurry, Jill!" Jen Burton said as Jill removed the outer casing of the electronic lock and attached alligator clips to the correct wires inside. "We have less than four minutes to inject Lance with the antidote or he'll die."
"I'm working on it as fast as I can," she replied. "Serves the bastard right for locking us out of that building to prevent us from being captured."
"Fine. If he lives, then you can kill him."
"Almost have it," Jill said. The device she attached to the keypad displayed the correct combination, which she quickly punched in. "Let's go."
Jen threw the door open and the two charged in. Four guards went on the attack. Jen spun and took out the first one with a back kick while Jill threw a chop at the throat of the second guard and then nailed him between the shoulder blades to render him unconscious. The third guard went for them. Jen and Jill grabbed each other's arms and clotheslined him. The final guard tried to pull out his gun, but Jen knocked it away with a well-placed kick while Jill landed a hard jab on the man to knock him out.
They ran towards the other end of the room where The Frenchman stood with Lance tied up and unconscious next to him. An IV was attached to Lance's arm, and The Frenchman held a remote in his hand.
"Don't come any closer or I'll push this button and send enough poison into your partner's IV to kill him."
Jen stood there defiantly with her hands on her hips. "So either you'll kill him or we stand here until the original poison does the job?" Jen slid her hand down and put out two fingers, which Jill caught.
"I have a third idea," Jen said as her count went to one. She gently shook her other arm.
"What's that?" The Frenchman asked.
"We rescue our partner," Jen said.
A knife fell into her hand and she threw it at The Frenchman. It embedded itself into his arm, forcing him to drop the remote. Jill whipped out a gun and shot The Frenchman, who collapsed to the ground.
The two of them ran to Lance. "Lance, wake up. Wake up!" Jen said in desperation, grabbing his face, as Jill removed the IV and prepared to give Lance the antidote.
Lance slowly stirred awake. "How long was I out?" he slurred.
"Long enough where we have to get this antidote into you right now," Jen replied.
"Wait," Jill said. "One of the side effects of this poison is it makes you tell the truth, right?" She checked her watch. "I've got ninety seconds, so I have to ask this. Lance, who is hotter? Jen or me?"
Lance looked slowly back and forth between the two. "Which name will get me in less trouble?"
Jill rolled her eyes in frustration as she gave Lance the antidote.
"THAT was your question?" Jen said angrily to Jill.
"Hey, when would we ever get the definitive answer to that? I really wanted to find out."
"Yeah, the poison makes you tell the truth, not turn you into a moron," Jen spat.
"And CUT!" Director Jerry Chechik shouted.
"Yes! Finally!" Jimmy Slade exclaimed as the P.A.s undid the ropes on the table and he got to his feet.
"Finally?" Chuck asked. He had been sitting with the crew watching the final scene of the episode being filmed. So far, he had received nothing but compliments on how the computer displays looked. There wasn't a lot of computer-related dialogue for this episode, but he checked to be certain anyway. He wanted to make sure he actually worked and didn't just clown around because he got the job thanks to his new 'girlfriend'.
"This was the first episode where Lance had to be rescued without being able to help," Jimmy replied. "Before this, he always escaped on his own or gave some help to Jen, Jill, and Duke. I had been asking the writers for this for a long time."
Chuck thought for a moment. "I think you're right. Any other episode in which you were captured or tortured, you got yourself out of it."
"I know. I was getting a lot of nasty mail about it. I swear, it felt like I was turning into some lame-assed Mary Sue character some lonely dude wrote up in a fan fiction story."
"Mary Sue?" Sarah asked.
"That's when someone writes a story for an existing show or movie and put themselves in it," Chuck explained. "Typically they can do no wrong, everyone likes them, and either they get laid a lot or die a hero. Well, a Marty Stu in this case, since Jimmy is a guy."
"I'll have to look up some of these stories one day."
"Oh, you don't want to do that," Jimmy cautioned her. "At least avoid the adult-rated ones. You'd be shocked at who Jen sleeps with in those. Half the time, it's with Jill; the other half it's a threesome with Duke and Lance."
Sarah felt a chill go through her…which got even worse when she looked over to see Carina quite intrigued. "I am so sorry I asked."
"I know," Jimmy said, sympathizing with Sarah's plight. "Anybody who writes a character like that needs to get laid more than I do."
Sarah wanted to put this discussion in the rear-view mirror. "Moving on quickly…can I talk to you in private, Chuck?"
"Sure," he replied. The two of them walked towards the back of the studio as everyone else verified the checklist for the scene they just filmed.
"Is everything OK?" Chuck asked.
"It's fine," Sarah replied. "I just didn't get a chance to talk to you about the other night."
Chuck hung his head. "That was my fault. I identified the wrong person as La Ciudad. I should have…"
"No, do not apologize," Sarah said, putting a finger to Chuck's lips to quiet him. Both of them stood there in silence for a moment, feeling the tension around them.
Sarah finally snapped out of it and took a step back. "We put you out in the field so you could help us identify Malena. But we never should have put you in danger like that."
"I really hope you weren't too upset at anybody. I mean, those three really are your partners and friends. You can tell they'd do anything for you."
Sarah looked at the ground and smiled. "I know a certain asset who is very good at that as well."
A grin came to Chuck's face which, despite Sarah's desire to get some distance between Chuck and her, was a welcome sight. "Well, they do miss me at the store. I guess things have gone downhill in the past week. Morgan was telling me…" The grin on Chuck disappeared instantly. "Morgan is here."
Sarah snapped back into agent mode. "Did you know he'd be here?"
"No, I told him I have to work and the studio couldn't have him visiting the set," Chuck replied as he pointed in the direction of Morgan.
He then froze. "Isn't that La Ciudad's really big bodyguard?"
Sarah looked in the same direction, and her eyes widened. She immediately got out her CIA-issue phone, which could put her in contact with her team instantly. "Casey, Carina, Jimmy, get to the back of the studio right now. La Ciudad is here."
Sarah grabbed Chuck's hand. "Let's go."
Buy More - Burbank, CA
October 9, 2015
1:00 PM PDT
Harry Tang knew it was lonely at the top, but he didn't care. He also didn't care that he became the Assistant Manager by default, nor did he care Big Mike would have hired Chuck had he not gone to work for his new girlfriend. The store was his now. The new lunch schedule was sure to raise hell with the employees, but he preferred to be feared rather than liked.
"Where is Chuck Bartowski?"
Tang turned around to see a large, imposing man asking the question. Tang could hide his entire family behind this guy. And his house.
"Why? What has he done?" Tang asked.
"Because I need to speak to him."
"OK. Well, uh, if he's in any kind of trouble, you let me know. But he's not in the store right now." Harry pointed across the store to where Morgan was sitting and regaling those who would listen about his adventures in the locked cage. "The man in the green shirt with the beard probably knows where he is."
The very large man walked across the store. The look he gave Morgan made the other employees scatter in a heartbeat.
"You know where Chuck Bartowski is?"
The bravado Morgan previously felt about surviving the locked cage and his plans for a lawsuit evaporated quickly. "Uh, why do you need to see him?"
"I have to talk to him," the large man said. He then reached forward and pulled Morgan up by the lapels of his shirt with only one hand. "You will take me to him."
The man twisted Morgan's shirt, which tightened the collar around his neck. "Uh, sure. He's working right now, though. You sure this can't wait until later?" Morgan squeaked.
The man walked out of the store with Morgan in tow.
O.C. Studios - Hollywood, CA
October 9, 2015
1:50 PM PDT
Sarah looked around the studio as Casey and Jimmy quickly went through the live surveillance cameras on a tablet computer. They only had a moment or two before Morgan and La Ciudad's bodyguard got to them, but Sarah knew La Ciudad had to be here somewhere.
"There," Casey said as he turned the image to the team. "She has three other men with her besides the bodyguard we already saw."
They watched La Ciudad find a ladder leading up to a catwalk. She started to climb up with a sniper rifle hanging off of her back.
"This place is about to become a shooting range," Jimmy said.
"What?" Chuck said. "I thought you said they would try to get out of the country."
"Apparently, they don't scare that easily."
"Jimmy, get Chuck out of here," Sarah ordered. "Carina, you go help Morgan. Casey, take care of those other bodyguards any way you can. I'm going after La Ciudad."
Sarah ran for a ladder leading up to the catwalk while Carina walked towards Morgan and La Ciudad's bodyguard. Casey ran down the studio in search of the other bodyguards Malena brought with her.
"Come on, Chuck," Jimmy said as he pulled at Chuck's sleeve. They ran towards a storage cabinet 50 yards down the pathway, where Jimmy punched in a code to open it and took out his two Glock 17 pistols.
"You always carry two guns?" Chuck asked.
"I have a…slight inferiority complex," Jimmy said with a shrug.
Chuck shook his head in annoyance as Jimmy and he looked for a good place to hide.
~/^\~
Casey walked between a group of large set pieces as three of La Ciudad's bodyguards made their way through the studio. It was clear they were looking for Chuck or members of Sarah's team, given they ignored anyone else who passed by. He made his way around one large piece of scenery and saw one of the bodyguards. He grabbed a rolling tripod and pushed it hard towards the unsuspecting bodyguard. The tripod crashed into the man and tripped him up. He tried to get up, but Casey was too fast for him, kicking the man's gun out of his hand and finishing him off with a hard jab.
The second bodyguard attacked him, giving Casey a kick to the head. Casey fell to the concrete, and the man went after him. Casey got up and the man threw another punch at him, only to have Casey duck and the man cry out from hitting Casey's skull. The man then threw a vertical kick to knock Casey down. Casey rolled to his right and scissor-kicked his legs, tripping the second bodyguard. He got to his feet, but the bodyguard managed to get to his knees and grab Casey's leg. Casey reached for the large camera on top of the tripod, wrenching it off and smashing the bodyguard in the face with it. The bodyguard collapsed.
Casey got up and looked at the two bodyguards he took out.
"How's that for an action scene?" he spat at them before looking for the third bodyguard.
~/^\~
Sarah snuck quietly along the catwalk as La Ciudad finished assembling her assault rifle and looked for a target. Sarah pulled out a set of handcuffs, wearing them like brass knuckles. She got to within two feet of La Ciudad. But the sound of metal coming from the rusting catwalk made La Ciudad turn around. Sarah quickly changed tactics and did a spinning back kick to knock the rifle out of La Ciudad's hands and down to the main floor. La Ciudad sent a back kick of her own to Sarah's face, knocking her down. Sarah popped back up, but La Ciudad was breathing fire as she nailed Sarah with two consecutive hooks, following it up with another kick to her face. Sarah tried to block her next shot, but La Ciudad got the upper hand, knocking Sarah back with a hard jab. She sent another shot at Sarah, who grabbed her wrist, then grabbed her other wrist as La Ciudad tried to land another shot. She twisted around, forcing Sarah to let her go. She sent another kick at Sarah, but Sarah grabbed her leg. Unfortunately, La Ciudad was even faster and kicked backwards to knock Sarah down, who was barely staying on the catwalk. La Ciudad went to grab her to throw her over the railing.
~/^\~
Carina approached La Ciudad's bodyguard, who still had a tight grip on Morgan.
"What do you want?" Carina asked.
"I think this guy wants to kill me," Morgan squeaked in a voice a number of octaves above his usual one. "This really isn't the way I wanted to meet one of my favorite stars. Big fan, by the way."
The bodyguard throttled Morgan's collar to shut him up. "You will bring me Chuck Bartowski," he said in an extremely menacing voice.
"And why should I do that?" Carina said calmly, which made Morgan even more nervous. "Won't you just kill him anyway?"
"You will watch as I kill all of your friends, that's why."
"You know, you're a very unreasonable person. I give you what you want and you don't give me anything in return? It's like that episode we did in Prague, right Martin?"
Carina quickly looked up, which she hoped Morgan caught. Morgan saw the camera crane the bodyguard was standing under.
"Oh, I remember that episode. You were so cool in it," Morgan said. He turned to the bodyguard, who had lessened his grip slightly. "You see, Jen Burton was being held hostage by this big scary guy and Carina's character, Jill Garrett, had to get her out of it. So Jen did this…"
Morgan fainted and collapsed to the ground, taking the bodyguard by surprise. Carina pulled out a knife and threw it, cutting the hose for the hydraulics of the crane. The crane crashed down on the bodyguard's head.
Morgan crawled a few steps forward before getting up. "This is, like, the coolest day ever! I get to meet Carina Miller AND she saves my life! You can actually throw a knife like that? That wasn't a camera trick? That is SO epic!"
"We went through training to do that. Saves on production expenses if we actually know how to throw."
"But who was this guy? Why was he after Chuck?"
"Must have been that stalker the police told us about," Carina said matter-of-factly to keep Morgan from getting too curious. "Some of these nutcases write letters, emails, they get obsessed. I guess this guy saw Chuck with Sarah the other night. Sometimes they get it in their head if they can't have Sarah then no one can."
"Sarah has a stalker?" Morgan asked in wide-eyed amazement.
"We all do. Sarah, Jimmy, me, even Casey has had a couple. It just helps to remain vigilant."
"Oh, man. Wait until I tell everyone a stalker took me hostage and Carina Miller saved my life!"
"No," Carina said forcefully, clamping her hand over Morgan's mouth. "You tell anyone and we end up with more people going after us. Do you really want to put your best friend in danger like that?"
Morgan shook his head and Carina took her hand off of his mouth. "Good," Carina replied. "After all, think of where that knife could end up if you make me mad."
"Y-y-y-yeah, OK. Understood," Morgan stammered.
~/^\~
La Ciudad got behind Sarah, attempting to throw her off of the catwalk. Sarah gripped the railing hard and snapped her head back three times in a row, nailing La Ciudad in the chin each time. La Ciudad was knocked back and Sarah managed to get off the railing. La Ciudad pulled a knife out of her boot and tried to lunge at Sarah, but Sarah grabbed her wrist, spun, and landed three consecutive elbows to La Ciudad's face. She twisted La Ciudad's arm to force her down to the floor and finished her off using the handcuffs, delivering a hard cross to La Ciudad. She handcuffed the unconscious La Ciudad to the catwalk railing.
"Hang here," she said.
~/^\~
"Nobody's replying on comms," Jimmy said as he looked in both directions with guns drawn, hoping Casey did his job and Sarah could take out La Ciudad before she could get a shot off.
"Stay here and out of sight," he told Chuck. Chuck kept down between two stacks of pallets as Jimmy moved forward to get a better view. A pallet was smashed across his face and Jimmy fell to the ground, dropping his guns in the process. The third bodyguard went after the prone Jimmy, lifting him into the air. Jimmy boxed the man's ears hard, forcing the bodyguard to drop him. Jimmy sent a vertical kick at the man to knock him back. He went after the man but the bodyguard head-butted Jimmy and followed it up with a roundhouse. Jimmy tried to remain on his feet as the bodyguard took out a length of rope and wrapped it around Jimmy's neck, attempting to choke him to death. Chuck shook in fear as Jimmy couldn't get his arms up to break himself free. With a primal growl, Jimmy's hand shot down and grabbed the bodyguard's groin, twisting until the bodyguard screamed in pain. He let go of the rope and Jimmy sent a butterfly kick at him. The bodyguard stumbled backwards and tripped on a rolling pallet cart. The man fell to the ground, and Jimmy knocked him out with a kick to the head.
Jimmy then looked at the person who sent the rolling pallet cart into the aisle.
"Nicely done, Chuck," Jimmy said in appreciation. "Sometimes you gotta take matters into your own hands, right?"
"Given what you just did to that guy's balls, are you sure you want to say that?"
Jimmy's eyes widened and he looked at the unconscious bodyguard again. "Touché."
Echo Park - Los Angeles, CA
October 9, 2015
8:00 PM PDT
Chuck went to the door when he heard the knock. Ellie was already past the point of insanity. Not only would she meet Sarah for the first time, but she begged and pleaded for Jimmy and Carina to come to the apartment as well. Chuck asked both of them, emphasizing that they could say no without hurting anyone's feelings. He emphasized that as strongly as he could.
And still they were here.
"Hi," Chuck said nervously. He looked back, saw Ellie, Devon, and Morgan watching him, so he kissed Sarah on the cheek.
"Ouch." he said, pointing to his lip in the same spot where Sarah had a cut on hers. "You OK?"
"Occupational hazard," Sarah replied. "She got in a lucky kick."
"Come in, come in." Sarah, Carina, and Jimmy entered. As if on cue, Morgan went to say hi to Carina and Ellie was all over Jimmy.
"You must be Chuck's sister," Jimmy said. "He talks about you all the time. Clearly you raised him right."
"Stop," Ellie said, actually blushing in the process. "I just did the best I could."
"Wow, a doctor who's that humble? I didn't know they existed. But Chuck had asked to get an autograph for you…"
"Oh, you don't have to…"
"…but I thought that wasn't enough, so we wanted to give this to you." Jimmy handed a box to Ellie. "That's the five-season DVD set we're getting ready to sell for Christmas. You have the very first one and it has all of our signatures on it."
Ellie couldn't be more light-headed if it was 1964 and she got kissed by all four Beatles. "Thank you so much. I'm so glad Chuck got a job on your show."
"The man has talent," Jimmy replied with a smile.
"Oh, you gotta let me tell them how awesome you were today," Morgan practically begged Carina.
"Uh uh," Carina replied. "Remember…" She let the words trail off as a concealed knife waved around Morgan's groin did the talking for her.
~/^\~
Chuck and Sarah walked outside, the party still going on inside. They almost felt sorry for Carina and Jimmy with Morgan and Ellie hounding their every move.
"Congratulations on your first mission," Sarah said. "You did really good, Chuck."
"Stop it," he said, looking at the ground. "I'm not really a spy. Your computer ended up in the head of a guy who only knows how to fix them, nothing else."
"You survived a near-death experience under the threat of torture AND apprehended one of the world's most elusive killers. I'm not sure what you think spies do exactly, but most of us would consider that a pretty good day."
"OK, so today I helped take down an international arms dealer. But nobody will know about it. Not my friends, not my sister. I mean, what's the good about being a hero if nobody knows about it?"
"You know," Sarah replied. "So does Casey, Carina, Jimmy, the entire CIA knows." She gave him a smile. "And so do I."
Chuck returned the smile, which made Sarah's face light up even more. "You know, if we were really dating, this would be the part where I'd be forced to kiss you good night."
"Forced?" Sarah replied with a playful lilt. "Would it be so bad?"
"I'm sure I could suffer through it."
"Me, too."
They stared at each other for a moment. Sarah could see that look in his eyes, the look she had seen from assets before when the lines got blurred. Ordinarily she could easily dismiss it. But this time, she felt the blur herself. Chuck was unlike any other asset she had ever encountered. The way he was concerned for his friends and family, his desire to continue to help his co-workers at the Buy More, and now how concerned he was about Sarah and her team put Sarah in a position she had never been in before with anyone. Jimmy was right; she needed to create some distance.
She turned and walked away before she did something to make everyone's lives far more complicated. Chuck turned back towards the apartment. The door opened, and Carina and Jimmy departed, saying goodbye to Chuck as they left. Two steps behind Carina was Morgan, who couldn't follow Carina faster if she tied a leash to his neck.
Chuck watched Ellie pick up the plates and silverware from the table and place them in the dishwasher. She turned back towards the living room and saw Chuck.
"That was a fun night," Ellie said. "Who knew those three were so nice? And I know stars in Hollywood are even better looking than when you see them on the screen, but it's such a shock to see it for yourself. Jimmy is very handsome, Carina is lovely. And Sarah is so beautiful. You really hit the jackpot with her."
Chuck hung his head. "What's wrong?" Ellie asked.
"Look, sis, I know that I've been kind of evasive. It's just that I…I didn't want to lie to you and I chose not saying anything as being the lesser of two evils."
"Why would you have to lie to me?"
"Ellie, I just need you to trust me and know it has nothing to do with you."
"But you want me to butt out. I get it. It's none of my business."
"No! No, no, no, no, I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that. I…I just don't want to create a false sense of excitement for a relationship that seems doomed."
"Why is it doomed?"
Chuck exhaled, remembering Sarah walking away a few minutes ago. "Because she's not into me."
"Uh, trust me. I saw the way that girl looked at you tonight and she is into you."
Chuck's entire face lit up at that. "Really?"
"It's none of my business," Ellie replied dismissively.
"OK, no. OK, fine. What the hell. What do you…what do you want to ask me about Sarah?"
"Really?"
"You better hurry up. This offer will not last."
"OK. Do you like her?"
Chuck looked at the ground sheepishly. "Yeah." Ellie began to squeal. "Ha! Da-da-da, no unnecessary excitements."
Ellie calmed down. "Sorry. Sorry."
"What else?"
"That's it."
"That's it?"
Yeah. Chuck, that's it. I don't need to know the intimate details, OK? As long as you're happy, that's enough for me. And I don't…I don't want to nag you about your future and your job. I don't want to be the sister that just pesters you into oblivion…"
"No, no, no. You're not a pest."
"I just know what an incredible guy Charles Bartowski is, and sometimes I'm not sure that he knows it."
Chuck smiled. It was exactly what he needed at the end of a very long day. "How do you feel about a brother-sister hug situation right now?"
Ellie nodded. "I'm open to it."
"OK," Chuck replied as the two siblings hugged.
O.C. Studios - Hollywood, CA
October 13, 2015
10:15 AM PDT
Chuck walked down the long hallway of the studio with Sarah, Carina, and Jimmy on the way to meet Casey. They were going over items needed for the newest episode of the show. There were a couple of scenes where they would have to have Carina's character sit at a computer and hack an enemy's communications system, and Chuck wanted to find out from Casey if the camera angles they needed could be blocked correctly for the shot.
"That's quite a request, Chuck," Sarah said. "Usually we just edit in a simulated computer screen. They've been doing that for years."
"Yeah, but I wanted to give the impression that the security system was unhackable," Chuck replied. "That would mean Jill had more work to do, especially since Jen and Lance would have to infiltrate the facility…"
A man who was trying to hurry down the hall accidentally bumped into Chuck and Sarah. "Sorry," he said and moved faster down the hall.
"No, I like the idea," Sarah replied. "But they have us on these insane timetables and this sounds like a lot of…"
Sarah stopped and grabbed her left arm. Her breathing shallowed and she collapsed to the ground. Chuck, Carina, and Jimmy looked at her in shock.
"What the…" Jimmy said and then looked down the studio. He put two and two together quickly. "CASEY! GREEN HAT AND BLACK JACKET!"
Casey turned and saw the man Jimmy was talking about. The man went into a full sprint, and Casey gave chase.
"Oh, my God," Chuck said as he knelt by Sarah. He grabbed Sarah's wrist. "No pulse!" he cried. He immediately started to perform CPR.
"I'll get the kit!" Jimmy yelled and sprinted across the studio to get the emergency kit.
"Can you handle that, Chuck?" Carina asked.
"I have a sister and an eventual brother-in-law who are doctors. How could I NOT know CPR?"
Casey chased the man out of the studio and into the parking lot. The man weaved back and forth between the parked cars. Casey leaped up and jumped from car to car to quickly close the distance. Casey jumped off the hood of a pick-up truck and tackled the man to the concrete. The man tried to pull out a gun, but Casey grabbed it and smashed it across the man's head.
"Don't move," Casey said as he stood up, keeping the gun trained on the man. The man surreptitiously slipped his hand inside of his coat and squeezed hard on an object inside of it. Suddenly, the man began to convulse. Casey pulled the man's hand out of his coat to find a short needle and an empty syringe. The man stopped moving. Casey checked the man's pulse to not find it. He stood and kicked at the corpse, upset they would never find out who this was.
Chuck continued his compressions on Sarah as Jimmy sprinted back with the kit and an oxygen tank. Carina opened the emergency kit as Jimmy prepared the automated external defibrillator. Carina took a needle attached to a computer in the kit and inserted it into Sarah's vein while Jimmy placed the AED pads on Sarah.
Chuck was quickly growing tired of giving compressions. "Come on, Chuck," Jimmy said. "Keep that going."
The computer determined the type of poison the man gave Sarah and a compartment in the kit opened up with the proper antidote. Carina attached it to the needle and injected Sarah with it. Jimmy charged the AED.
"Please, Sarah," Carina said as they waited for the AED to reach a full charge.
"Charging…" Jimmy said. "Charging…charging…CLEAR!"
Chuck and Carina backed away from Sarah, and Jimmy activated the AED, giving Sarah a shock. He checked for her pulse.
"Come on, kiddo," Jimmy said breathlessly. "Tell me you're still with us…I got a pulse."
The three of them leaned back in relief. Chuck took the oxygen mask, placed it over Sarah's mouth, and switched it on.
"OK, give me those pads," Jimmy said, reaching for the defibrillator pads on Sarah. "Now I need this damn thing."
Chuck, Carina, and Jimmy sat around Sarah, waiting for her to wake up. Casey joined them. After a few moments, Sarah's eyes opened.
"What…what happened?" she said quietly.
"Chuck saved your life," Jimmy said as he stood up. He noticed how Sarah was looking at Chuck just now. "And made our lives much harder."