Hello there. I was originally trying to make this chapter much longer but there was a lot of material I managed to add to the story, even though this particular chapter parallels canon very closely in what happened with "Chuck vs. the Ex." I thought it would be better to put the cutoff in now rather than try to add the entire next episode into the story at this point. To be honest, I still don't even know how many chapters are left until this diverges into all AU, much less the total number of chapters. That's the thing about me: I can write long stories. Unfortunately, good stories are another story (pun intended).
My chapter that goes with "Chuck vs. the Fat Lady" will divert a bit from the original story. Let's face it, there was a lot of visual moments in that story that don't translate well to the written word. And of course, when I mean visual moments, I'm referring to how hot Yvonne looked in her outfits. :-D
I'll try to get the next chapter up before St. Patrick's Day. I plan to actually be conscious that day...I hope. Certainly beats the hell out of where I was at this time last year.
Anyway, the parts of the story that come from the show remain the property of NBC and Fake Empire Productions, natch. And please leave reviews. Let me know how this story is going. I promise a nice twist in Chapter 19. Trust me; you'll love it. Well, most of it. :-D
Hotel Waldron – Los Angeles, CA
March 2, 2016
10:00 PM PST
Jill sat in a chair in her hotel room, and the crying wouldn't stop. Two NSA agents were in the room disguised as an L.A. Police officer and an L.A.P.D. psychologist. They tried to question her regarding the death of her boss, Guy LaFleur, but she was in no mood to be interviewed. The team watched on a monitor in an adjoining room. The agent pretending to be a psychologist looked towards the hidden camera they planted in the room and gave a gentle shrug of her shoulders. Sarah exhaled in frustration; they couldn't prevent LaFleur's death and the person who murdered him got away, possibly with the bioweapon. And now they couldn't get the one person who could lead them to the bioweapon to tell them anything.
"Any ideas?" Sarah asked the team.
"We should wait it out a little longer," Casey replied. "Seeing her boss fall to his death was quite a shock to her system. Maybe she'll be in a talking mood she shakes it off. Worst case, we send her in for a full interrogation."
"I don't think we have the time for that," Carina replied. "If this bastard has the bioweapon, he plans to use it. And fast."
"Let me talk to her," Chuck suggested.
"You sure that's a good idea?" Jimmy asked.
"I'm a friendly face. Maybe she'll talk to me before the CIA."
Sarah nodded. "Go ahead." She turned on the microphone so the two agents could hear her in their earpieces. "Give us a few minutes."
The two disguised agents left the room and Chuck entered. Jill looked up and wiped a few tears away with the last of the tissues in the box.
"Hey, are you OK?" Chuck asked gently.
Jill nodded. "It's just…"
Chuck took her hand. "I know. I'm still freaked out, too. Is there anything that would make someone want to kill your boss?"
Jill shook her head. "He was here to give a talk on an antiviral serum for a strain of an influenza virus."
Chuck sat back. "He was? He didn't invent a bioweapon?"
"No, but our company did. They had developed an airborne strain of influenza so deadly it could kill a person within one hour if exposed. A couple of days ago, Guy learned our company secretly sells the influenza bioweapon, and he was going to present our research at the convention. So the company couldn't cover it up anymore."
Jill suddenly stopped and stared at Chuck in disbelief. "Wait, how did you know about the bioweapon?"
Chuck stared towards the hidden camera, realizing he just made a big mistake. He then heard the door open behind him.
"Uh, Jill? There's something you should know."
Jill looked towards the door to see Sarah, Casey, Carina, and Jimmy enter. "What…what's going on? Why are they here?"
"We…sort of…work together."
"On the show?"
Sarah shook her head. "Jill, we're covert agents. We work for the government. The TV show is our cover."
"Wait…all of you really are spies? You have to be kidding."
"We're not, Ms. Roberts," Casey replied. "We've been investigating your boss. We thought he was into some shady business. We kept an eye on both of you. But whoever murdered your boss must have made off with the weapon."
"You kept an eye on…" Jill looked at Chuck and put the pieces together. "So, that whole thing tonight…you being depressed and making me feel bad for you…that was all an act?"
Jill got up from her chair and stormed right past the team out of her room. "Jill, wait!" Chuck said as he ran out into the hall but Jill wouldn't slow down. Chuck returned to the room with his entire body slumped.
"Now what?" Carina asked.
"Plan doesn't change," Casey replied. "Roberts has to present the findings. That way the bioweapon becomes useless."
"I don't think she's in much of a mood to stand up in front of a group right now," Chuck said quietly, still upset about Jill's reaction.
"Then let Slade do it."
"Case, I'm a computer scientist, not a scientist," Jimmy replied.
"You have a 160 IQ. You can figure this out better than the rest of us."
"That's the plan we'll go with," Sarah said. "If Chuck can't convince Jill to take the podium, we'll have Jimmy give the presentation. Let's give her a little time to cool off. Then Chuck, do what you can to convince her. Casey and Carina, be ready to get LaFleur's files. Jimmy, hack into the servers at Cole-MacGregor and see what data you can get that way."
The team left Jill's room to head back to the hotel.
Hotel Amarano - Burbank, CA
March 3, 2016
12:00 AM PST
Chuck knocked gently on Sarah's door. She went to answer it.
"Everything OK?" she asked when she saw the despondent look on Chuck's face.
"I'm…I'm sorry," Chuck said quietly as he looked at the ground.
"Why are you sorry?" she asked as she stepped aside to let him in.
"It's my fault we're in this. I tried to reconnect with Jill and then I let it slip what you guys do."
Sarah gave him a disbelieving glance as she sat down and gestured for him to sit next to her. "It's your fault Guy was murdered? It's your fault your ex works for a company trying to sell a bioweapon? Chuck, this is how things happen sometimes. You can't control every last factor or anticipate every last problem. And if you berate yourself over every little mistake, you'll drive yourself and everyone around you crazy. That's what we had to go through with Jimmy the first few months he was on the team. He acted like he was walking on eggshells when he started with us and was borderline suicidal whenever he made the tiniest mistake. Thankfully we straightened him out. How he survived for six years before we met I have no idea."
Now it was Chuck's turn with the disbelieving glance. "Seriously?"
Sarah nodded. "He wasn't used to working with people. He spent so much of his life alone and untrusting of others, it took him a while. But eventually he relaxed and became an important part of the team. I don't think Casey or Carina would disagree with me if I said we're a better team now than we were when Bryce was with us."
"I also think they would say it's because of the person who leads them," Chuck replied with a warm smile.
A smile drew itself across Sarah's face. Not two minutes ago, Chuck was lamenting how he let the team down, and now he was talking about she made the team a success. No matter what the situation, Chuck wanted to help others and not worry about himself. The team may have been better since Bryce left and Sarah took the lead, but how the team had gotten better since meeting Chuck was beyond comprehension. The last six months had been as crazy as her career ever had been, but she wouldn't change a thing.
Except one thing, and she hoped she would eventually get that chance.
"I think Jill's had enough time to cool down," Sarah said. "Let's get Casey, Carina, and Jimmy ready."
Chuck nodded, and both of them stood. They then heard a very loud thud outside of the door.
"What the hell?" Chuck asked in shock.
"SARAH!" Casey yelled from across the hall.
~/^\~
Casey and Carina readied a set of harnesses and climbing gear, anticipating they may have to break into LaFleur's room from the outside, as it was currently sealed off as a crime scene.
"Anything, Jimmy?" Carina asked.
"Nothing so far," Jimmy replied as he typed away at the computer attempting to find any data within Cole-MacGregor Pharmaceutical's servers. "I can only get so deep into their systems, and this assumes they're dumb enough to keep the influenza data on their networks. I'd have better luck breaking into their labs directly."
"You may have to do that," Casey replied. "We need data on this quickly, and I don't want to risk thousands of lives on the off-chance Bartowski can talk his ex into trusting him. Let's hope LaFleur had all of his research in a nice easy-to-find locale."
They heard a clicking noise in the ceiling above them. All three looked up and readied their weapons. Behind Jimmy, an air conditioning vent opened and an object was thrown inside the room.
Jimmy's head snapped around when the object hit the floor. "EVAC!" he screamed and dove on top of the object, which exploded, sending gas into his face. He rolled off of it, completely blinded.
"Get out! Get out!" he yelled, but Casey and Carina didn't listen. Carina ran for the emergency wash and sprayed Jimmy's face with it, while Casey immediately took out an air toxin sensor and scanned the room.
"Don't leave!" Casey said. "Carina, seal the room! That was the influenza bioweapon!"
Carina immediately flipped a set of switches on the wall to seal off the air vents and prevent the toxin from leaving the room. Casey hit another button to seal the door and drop the hazmat curtain outside in the hallway.
"SARAH!" Casey yelled.
~/^\~
Chuck and Sarah opened the door and saw a man getting up from the ground. The man turned and looked at them. The same man who murdered Guy LaFleur.
Sarah whipped her gun out. "Freeze!"
Wolf Den spun and kicked the gun out of Sarah's hands. He then sprinted at them, elbowing Sarah in the face and pushing Chuck to the ground, before sprinting down the hall towards the stairwell.
Sarah got up and retrieved her gun, pulling up Chuck as well. "Get Jill, right now!" she ordered as she sprinted down the hall after Wolf Den. Chuck stared in shock momentarily before turning towards the conference room, scared out of his mind at the hazmat curtain now around it.
"Casey?" Chuck said loudly through the door.
"Chuck, go find Jill!" he replied. We've been hit with the virus!"
Chuck shook off the shock and ran for the elevators.
Hotel Waldron – Los Angeles, CA
March 3, 2016
12:30 AM PST
"Jill! Jill, it's me! Please open up!" Chuck shouted as he pounded on the door to Jill's hotel room.
"Go away, Chuck!" Jill shouted from behind the door.
"Look, I know my credibility with you is at an all-time low, but you need to listen to me. Someone released the bioweapon. Casey, Carina, and Jimmy will die in less than an hour!"
Jill opened the door. "This isn't funny anymore, Chuck. You need some serious help."
Jill started to close the door again but Chuck shoved it all the way open. "Jill, please! I know what I did to you was wrong, and if you hate me forever because of what I did, I don't blame you. But please don't condemn three of the best people I've ever met to die because of what I did! I try to help people! That's what I do with Sarah, Casey, Carina, and Jimmy. All of them, what they do on the show, that's what they really do! They save the world for a living! I don't even know how many times they've saved my life in the last six months, but they've done it every time without fail! And now I need to save them! But I need your help to do it!"
Jill stared at him for a long moment. She still hated him for what he did earlier that night. But Chuck always had that conviction, that sense of responsibility, that made her love him when she dated him at Stanford. And if what he said about his expulsion was really true, that he never stole those tests, then he deserved a second chance. God knows he gave her enough second chances when they were dating and wasn't even that spiteful when he saw her the other day at the hotel.
She went to her desk and grabbed a large case. "Let's go," she said.
Hotel Amarano - Burbank, CA
March 3, 2016
12:50 AM PST
Wolf Den made it out of the building and got into his car. Sarah jumped into her Porsche and took off after him. Wolf Den made it onto the Ventura Freeway, but Sarah was quickly closing the distance. He spun his car around on the busy highway and opened fire at Sarah, who ducked down and began to swerve to avoid being hit. Wolf Den threw the wheel hard to the left to turn back around, but it gave Sarah the needed time to close the distance. She pulled up alongside Wolf Den's car and shot out the left tires. She barely stopped in time as Wolf Den's car careened out of control, falling off of an embankment and rolled over multiple times down the hill.
Sarah immediately stopped her car and made her way down the hill. Wolf Den's car was upside-down but his body was hanging out of the driver's side window. Sarah approached with her gun drawn, but Wolf Den was clearly dead. She reached in and pulled an object out of Wolf Den's coat. It was Wolf Den's ID.
What the hell? she thought to herself as she looked at the ID of Barry Rommell, a CIA agent.
~/^\~
Chuck and Jill arrived at the conference room, where an NSA hazmat crew was waiting.
"OK, I need a Level A hazmat suit," Jill ordered.
"We don't carry that high of a hazmat suit," the leader of the hazmat team told her. "The CDC is bringing one in. They'll be here in about ten minutes."
"We don't have ten minutes!" Jill huffed in frustration. She opened the case and pulled out a vaccination gun. "OK, I'll go in there without one."
"Jill, no!" Chuck shouted. "It's too dangerous. I'll do it."
"Chuck, whoever goes in there has to make the antidote. That's me."
"Well, is it something you can talk me through."
Jill shrugged. "I guess."
"OK, then I'm going in." Jill didn't look convinced. "Jill…they trust me. Trying to find out about you and Guy was my idea. They put their lives on the line trusting me to do the job, and now I have to come through for them."
Jill stared at him. That conviction she remembered from him at Stanford clearly didn't go away. In fact, it had increased a hundred-fold. "Are you sure?"
Chuck nodded confidently. "Yeah, I'm sure."
"OK." Jill attached a syringe to the vaccination gun. "I'll have to inject you first."
Chuck took a look at the vaccination gun in her hands. His conviction waned quickly. "Oh…oh that's a big needle."
"Ready?" she asked. She then injected him, which Chuck would not list on his favorite activities since meeting Sarah. "OK, that was a modified version of the viral strain. Now your body metabolizes the poison and the antiviral serum is going to be created from your blood."
"Poison? Poison?!" Chuck was incredulous. "I thought I was getting the antidote? You gave me the poison?"
"Yeah," Jill replied in disbelief. "It's the only way to make the antidote. Did you not understand that?"
"Oh, oh yeah!" Chuck tried to regain his dignity…and not very well. "Hey, we're living on the edge. What a rush."
Chuck walked to the door, and the hazmat chief opened it for him. Chuck walked inside and stared in horror. Casey was barely moving, and Carina and Jimmy weren't moving at all.
"Oh, no," Casey barely coughed out. "What are you doing in here?"
"It's a long story, but the headline is I'm our only hope for survival."
Casey coughed profusely. "And here I thought things couldn't get any worse."
"What happened?" Chuck asked in wide-eyed terror, pointing to Carina and Jimmy.
"Canister went off in Jimmy's face. He took the worst of it. Carina probably breathed in too much trying to help him."
"Chuck, in the case there should be a medi-syringe and a multi-dose injector," Jill called out over Chuck's earpiece. "I need you to extract 60 cc's of your own blood and put it through the centrifuge. And then inject one cc of the antiviral serum into Casey, Carina, and Jimmy."
Chuck picked up the medi-syringe and tried to hand it to Casey, who was beginning to wobble more and more. "Casey, here. No, no, no, no. Casey, you have to take the gun. You have to take the gun and…you have to take my blood, OK? So just take my blood."
Chuck shut his eyes and looked away. Casey tried to grab Chuck's arm and aim the needle at it.
Casey got extremely light-headed and started to fall. "Take the gun, Chuck. Take the gun…"
Chuck opened his eyes in time to see Casey fall to the ground. The medi-syringe shattered.
"Oh, God!" Chuck said in complete fear.
"Chuck, what is happening?" Jill asked.
"That's…I need help right now! Casey's fading fast and the gun…the gun shattered."
"That was our only syringe! OK, stay calm. I'm going to find another."
"Jill, please hurry. We're running out of time."
"Chuck, think of something," Casey rasped between coughs. "You're smart. You went to Stanford. Sort of. Dying from catching a cold is not the way I want to go."
Chuck's eyes suddenly lit up. He sat on the ground next to Casey. "Wait, viruses are airborne, right? I mean, you catch them when someone sneezes or coughs. Maybe the antivirals metabolize in saliva."
Casey gave him a weird look. "What are you talking about?"
Chuck grimaced when he looked at Casey. "I can't believe I'm about to do this."
He grabbed the back of Casey's neck and pulled Casey to his lips.
"No! No, no, no, no! I served my country with honor, Bartowski! Please, let me die with dignity!"
Chuck kissed Casey hard, and both of them quickly wished the virus would kill them anyway.
"Chuck!"
He let go of Casey, spitting hard to get the bad taste from his lips, and turned to see Jill in a hazmat suit.
"What are you doing?" she asked.
"Jill, Jill, hey! I thought that…I thought that maybe the antivirals could be spread by saliva!"
"That's…ridiculous." She shook her head as she prepared the antiviral serum. "No wonder you failed Biochem."
Chuck's eyes widened. He slowly turned to Casey. "From the deepest recesses of my soul, I am very sorry."
Casey growled and fell back on the floor as Jill extracted Chuck's blood, ran it through the centrifuge, and gave the serum to Casey, Carina, and Jimmy.
Sarah ran upstairs to the room where the hazmat team waited in anticipation. The door opened and Chuck and Jill emerged. The whole team started to applaud.
"Way to go, Carmichael!" they yelled as they took Casey, Carina, and Jimmy for observation. Sarah looked on with a big smile on her face. Chuck had come through yet again.
Jill took off her mask. "Chuck, you're amazing!"
"Nah," he said abashedly before his face morphed into a grin. "Well, maybe a little."
Jill smiled, wrapped her arms around Chuck's neck, and kissed him hard. All of the betrayal, all of the bitterness, all of the hatred Chuck felt about his past faded away as Jill and he kissed.
The smile on Sarah's face also faded away.
West Side Medical Center – Los Angeles, CA
March 3, 2016
10:00 AM PST
Sarah walked down the halls of the hospital to check on Jimmy. The team had accompanied him to the hospital last night to be treated, having gotten the worst of the virus. He had second-degree burns on his face from the exploding canister, but the doctors assured them he would be OK and just needed a day or two of observation. Given how instrumental he was in keeping her in the hospital back when she was poisoned, it was going to be at least two days whether he needed it or not.
"Morning," she said as she entered Jimmy's bedroom.
"Hey, kiddo," Jimmy replied. "How are you feeling?"
"Um, you're the one who got injured. Shouldn't that be my question to you?"
"It's just some burns to my face. That poison couldn't make me any uglier than I was before."
Sarah gave him a light smack upside the head. "Geez, even when I'm taken to the hospital?" Jimmy said with mild irritation.
"Well, I do admit you're a lot better than when you first started with the team."
Jimmy nodded. "I know. I think you gave me a concussion one time doing that."
Sarah fell silent. "Is this about last night?" Jimmy said softly.
"You saw that?" Sarah asked.
Jimmy nodded. "I was blinded from that canister for two hours, and even I saw it."
"The worst part is, Beckman wants us to keep Jill around. She thinks we can figure out who some of Cole-MacGregor Pharmaceutical's customers were. Jill might be able to point us to the data we need. This is a big deal; the person I shot was a rogue CIA agent."
"She could get us into the company. Send us in the right direction."
"Yeah, maybe."
"But…" Jimmy started and gestured about what neither of them wanted to say.
"I know I made the right decision to protect Chuck, but now look at this." Sarah was feeling her emotions boil to the surface. "I let him do this. I trusted him to get the job done. And now…"
"He DID get the job done. He convinced Jill to save Case, Carina, and me. He did great work. But Jill still left him back in school. You date someone for three years and fall in love and then suddenly you don't believe them when they said they didn't steal tests?" Jimmy shook his head. "And sleep with your best friend to boot? Chuck can be too forgiving for his own good, but even this is stretching it."
Sarah exhaled. "It's just…the way those two kissed yesterday…"
"I don't know. I don't know what's going on in Chuck's head, and I assume you don't want me to try to get it out of him." Sarah shook her head. "So just…I don't know. I mean, last night was very 'be the hero and get the girl' for Chuck. Hell, our writers couldn't have come up with a better script."
"You're saying I should just let this play out?"
Jimmy shook his head. "I don't know what to tell you. There's a lot going on right now and we need our leader. But whatever you decide, you know we always have your back."
Sarah smiled at that. She leaned down and gave Jimmy a kiss. "Thanks. Now get better. Quickly."
"Yes, sir," he replied in a mocking respectful tone.
Sarah exited the hospital and went back to the hotel to be there in time for Beckman's conference call.