Hello everybody. It's weird how this works. I know I took four weeks to get you a 4,000 word chapter previously, but this one is over 10,000 words and I did it in less than two weeks. This was the chapter I wanted to get to in the Jill arc. Rest assured, this is very off-canon. Hopefully you'll like it. I also wanted to get into the heads of the characters in this one to see where they were at. I also tried to add some interaction between characters that really haven't interacted yet. I even managed to get Ellie involved in this chapter. When you see that, you should easily recognize the conversation.
As always, the parts that are show canon are the property of NBC and Fake Empire Productions. And again, please leave reviews. Let me know what you like or dislike (I know at least one thing you'll dislike) and let me know how the story is going for you.
The next chapters start to go AU but we are heading towards the end of season 2 quickly. And we get a couple of other people involved in the story, one of whom has spent most of their time as a side character.
NOTE: A couple of F-bombs in there, but they are definitely for comedic value. You'll see. :-D
Enjoy!
Echo Park – Los Angeles, CA
March 3, 2016
8:30 PM PST
Chuck packed the last of his clothes into the small bag he planned to take with him as Jill and he got ready to drive up the coast to an out-of-the-way resort a couple of hours away. Or perhaps only an hour, if Jill's claims about her driving prowess were true. He looked towards his desk and retrieved his smartphone. He searched for a few other items before putting everything else in a travel case. Despite Jill's desire to not wait until they got to the resort to get the weekend going, he convinced her they may not be able to check in if they got there too late.
"Ready?" Jill asked him.
Chuck nodded. "Let's go."
The two exited Chuck's apartment, Jill being grateful she found Chuck's watch and threw it in the garbage disposal. The remote location of the resort also meant Chuck's smartphone would be useless, especially given the portable signal jammer in her purse that Fulcrum provided her for the hotel.
~/^\~
Sarah, Casey, Carina, and Jimmy looked around the apartment for any clue as to where Chuck and Jill went.
"Check his computer, check his bedroom," Sarah ordered. "We need a lead and we need it now."
"This is not good," Carina said.
"What?"
Carina reached into the garbage disposal and pulled out Chuck's watch, holding it up for everyone to see. "Guess what Jill made sure Chuck didn't have with him?"
"Do whatever you can, Jimmy. Use satcomm, ping his mobile, anything. Find him."
Jimmy typed feverishly at his laptop when Sarah's phone beeped. "Yes, General?" she said to Beckman, putting her on speaker and already dreading what the general would say.
"Jill Roberts is Fulcrum?" Beckman was mad enough to order a missile strike on Echo Park. "And she has Chuck? How is that possible?"
"The LaFleur list contained a code name our computer translated to one Jill Roberts," Casey explained. "By the time we saw it, they were already gone."
"We found his watch in the apartment," Carina added.
"Find him," Beckman ordered rather vociferously. "I don't care how. Just do it."
Beckman hung up. "Tell me you have him, Jimmy," Sarah said, her voice shading quickly towards desperation.
"Maybe," he replied. "The last ping I got from his mobile was fifteen minutes ago somewhere on the PCH. I'm trying to get a better location and searching the area for anybody who checked in or bought gas around there."
"It's not going to matter," Casey said. "Fulcrum's going to try and work him over. He won't last an hour."
"No, you're wrong," Sarah replied, not ready to believe that. "They don't know Chuck's the Intersect and they don't know we found out Jill is one of them. They think they have plenty of time."
"Well, if it ain't torture, what are they doing to him?"
"Got him!" Jimmy exclaimed. "I think you were right, Sarah. Jill wouldn't have let Chuck put a reservation in his name if Fulcrum knew who they had. They're at a small resort up the coast near Monterey. They'll have to get there by ten if they want to check in tonight."
"Let's go," Sarah said. The four exited the apartment.
La Cansada Resort – Monterey, CA
March 3, 2016
10:00 PM PST
Chuck carried the bags into their room. He turned around and was on the receiving end of a passionate kiss from Jill.
"Mmmm," Jill purred. "I'm going to take a quick shower." She gave him another sensual kiss. "Back in a few."
Jill sauntered towards the bathroom, slinging her robe and a bag over her shoulder, making sure Chuck got a look at her eye-catching frame. He went about putting their clothes away but accidentally knocked Jill's mobile phone to the ground with one of the bags. He picked it up and glanced casually at the screen.
Have you heard from Uncle Tobias? – Mom
Chuck began to flash, seeing archaic images of a swimmer and a re-sequencing of the message he saw.
Meet Leader – Urgent
"No, no, no, no," Chuck said in fear. "Tell me this isn't happening."
He turned towards the bathroom but still heard the shower running. He quickly went to his bag and opened up a side compartment. He pulled out the Rolex…which he packed when he couldn't find his other watch…and hit two of the buttons on it. He then went to Jill's laptop case and opened it carefully. Inside was a document with a list of names. He came across the name Sandstorm. He began to flash again, seeing a picture of a desert at sunset and the file on Jill, complete with her picture.
Chuck sank down on the bed in defeat. Inwardly, he was cursing himself. Cursing himself worse than when he returned from Stanford after being expelled and after he tried to reconnect with Jill a few months later. He never should have let this happen. He should have known better.
"Jill, I'm going to get some ice and then I want to see if the lobby has some aspirin," he called out.
"What?" Jill replied over the noise from the shower.
"Be right back," Chuck said, quickly exiting the room.
Chuck ran down to the lobby, checking his phone to see if he could get decent reception. He was starting to wish he drove instead of Jill. He gave some thought to running back to the room and grabbing her car keys, but he didn't know how she would react to that.
He got around a corner when two sets of hands grabbed him and threw him into a cabana.
"You stupid, idiotic moron!" Casey yelled, breathing enough fire to make a dragon whimper.
Chuck turned to see the entire team there. "Guys, guys, I'm sorry," Chuck replied quickly. "There's something you need to know…"
"Jill's a spy," everybody said at the same time.
"You know?" Chuck couldn't believe it.
"Her name was on that list we took from Guy LaFleur," Carina said. "Fulcrum probably recruited her while she was still in college, much in the same way they recruited Sarah and me into the Agency. They use leadership seminars to look for possible agents."
Chuck threw his hands up in surrender. "Who in my life ISN'T a spy? My sister? My best friend? Should I just start asking people that when I first meet them? "Hi, I'd like the extra value meal, and while we're on the topic, do you covertly work for a government espionage faction?""
Chuck's collapsed onto a chair and his head dropped into his hands. "It's…I…" He gripped his head tightly. "I thought I had lost that watch, so I packed the Rolex. I should have…"
"Yeah, we found it in the trash," Jimmy replied softly, putting his hand on Chuck's shoulder. "But you activated the Rolex. Once you did, finding you was easy. You probably saved us an hour at the minimum. That may very well have made the difference."
Chuck continued to look at the ground. The team stayed silent, patiently waiting for Chuck to continue. Given how stressful the past several days had been for him…having discovered most of his adult life had been a lie…they could certainly sympathize with how much he was hurting right now.
"They…" Chuck began softly. "There was a message on Jill's phone that I also flashed on. She's supposed to meet someone named Leader."
That got everyone's attention. Sarah knelt down so she was at eye level with Chuck. "Chuck, I'm sorry. I can't even imagine how much hurt you're going through right now. But this may be the break we're looking for in getting to Fulcrum, and you got it for us. We need you to keep after it. We need you to go back to Jill. She may make contact with Leader. Find out whatever you can."
Chuck stared at her in horror. "Are you insane? Jill is Fulcrum. Fulcrum is looking for the Intersect. And the Intersect just happens to be ME!"
"But she doesn't know that, Chuck," Carina said. "Jill doesn't know who you are, and neither she nor Fulcrum has a clue that we know about them. We have the advantage now. You got us this far; you can get us the rest of the way."
"And we're right here to back you up," Jimmy added as he pulled a tray next to Chuck. "Put this bug on the peephole on the door, and she'll never know it's there. Then put this adapter into the USB drive on her computer and it will transfer all of her files to us."
He then took a bottle of wine and two glasses from Casey. "A little alcohol might soften her up." He also gave Chuck what looked like breath spray. "And in case of emergency, knocks out anybody you spray for fifteen minutes."
"I know this is a lot, Chuck," Sarah said, putting a hand on his arm. "If you don't think you're up for it…"
Chuck slowly stood. The look in his eyes changed from of defeat and fear to one of anger and determination. "I'll do it. Jill betrayed me twice. You bet I'll do it."
Chuck grabbed the two bugs and the spray and placed them in his pocket. He then took the bottle of wine and the glasses and headed back to his room.
"What took you so long?" Jill asked as Chuck opened the door and entered.
Chuck took a moment to steel himself. "I was just thinking that if we were going to be in such a beautiful setting, we might as well go all out." He held up the bottle of wine and the glasses.
"I like the way you think, Mr. Carmichael," Jill replied with a libidinous gaze towards him.
"Would you do the honors?"
"Love to," Jill replied. She took the bottle and glasses and went to the table in the room, grabbing a corkscrew and opening the bottle. While she did that, Chuck slipped the bug onto the peephole of the door. He then took a few steps to his right where Jill's laptop was. He slid his hand inside and felt for the USB port. He placed the computer bug Jimmy gave him into the port. Chuck carefully zipped the side of the laptop case closed so Jill couldn't see any lights coming from the hard drive.
~/^\~
"OK, up and running," Casey said, the team having retreated to a room two cabanas away from Chuck and Jill. "The surveillance bug is right where it should be."
"Same here," Jimmy replied as he sat as his laptop and accessed Jill's hard drive using the computer bug Chuck implanted.
"To us," Jill said, holding up her wine glass.
"To us," Chuck replied, clinking glasses with her.
Both of them took a drink, and Jill put her glass on the table and Chuck followed suit. Jill wrapped her arms around Chuck and started to kiss him.
"Sarah, let's go get some food," Carina told her. "The boys will be in for a long night."
Sarah gave her an evil look. "I can handle this."
Casey continued to look at the monitor as Jimmy came up behind him. They watched Jill step back with a big smile, untie her robe, and let it fall to the ground. She was wearing nothing underneath and stepped forward again to Chuck to remove his clothes.
Jimmy quickly hit the power button on the monitor so Sarah couldn't see what Chuck and Jill were doing. "Now you may go."
Sarah looked ready to go ballistic at both Carina and Jimmy. But both of them knew seeing Chuck like this was killing her inside, and Sarah knew they wouldn't hesitate to physically remove her from the room to protect her.
She turned on her heel and walked out of the room. Carina followed her out, and Jimmy turned the monitor back on so Casey and he could keep an eye out for trouble.
"If we get out of this, it'll be a damn miracle," Jimmy muttered in frustration, slumping into his chair again to go over the files he was receiving from Jill's laptop.
"Bartowski can handle himself," Casey replied. "Anger's a good motivating factor. So is revenge. He's learned a lot. Even I'm impressed with what he's done."
"That's not what I'm talking about."
Casey glanced back at Jimmy. "Do I look like I'm in a mood to discuss Walker or how she can't stand seeing Chuck put his cable into Roberts' USB port?"
Jimmy let a tiny chortle loose. "And how did you feel when you thought Ilsa was going to marry Victor Federov?"
Casey glanced at the monitor. Chuck and Jill were still rolling around in the bed. "Point taken." He sat back in his chair and took a sip of water from a bottle in the room. "Things were rough around here when Larkin ditched her. Now we know why he left her, obviously, but those few months before Graham put you on the team were pretty bad. Carina and I had to stay on her case night and day. And you being afraid of your own goddamn shadow when you first joined us didn't help the situation one bit. Good thing it worked out in the end. No romantic problems, and you follow her orders better than Bryce ever did."
Jimmy nodded in agreement. He still found it hard to believe he made it this far. He spent his whole life not knowing how to trust people, how to deal with people relying on him, and having people really care about him. He never got that in his youth, not even from his family. He only became a spy because it was a better alternative to life in prison with people trying to end his existence on a regular basis. Not a day went by where he didn't wish they had succeeded. He even tried to kill himself several times. But just as Casey and Carina straightened Sarah out after Bryce left, Sarah straightened him out. Three years ago, he was a lone wolf spy tearing through missions and not caring if he lived to see the morning. Today, he was one of the best agents the government had, worked with people even more talented than him, was a well-liked action-comedy star, and even made the top ten of People Magazine's Sexiest Men Alive last year…although in fairness, both Sarah and Carina had been on the 50 Most Beautiful People list twice and the team was named Hottest TV Cast during the Bryce days. And more than any of that, he now had a real family. The one he made with Sarah, Casey, and Carina.
But that family needed a lot of damage control right now, not even counting putting Chuck and Sarah back together as far as the public was concerned. And he wasn't sure if that was possible.
"Yeah, that did work out," Jimmy said softly. "But that was easy compared to what it'll take to fix this."
"Nothing we can do about it now," Casey said. "One problem at a time."
They sat back and kept an eye on the situation.
~/^\~
Sarah flopped into a chair in the other room and watched Carina order room service for everyone.
"Go ahead," Sarah said tiredly as Carina hung up the phone.
"What?" she replied.
"You have a big 'I told you so' in there just waiting to come out. Let me have it."
Carina walked over to Sarah, sat on the arm of the chair, and pulled her best friend in for a hug.
"Bitch," Sarah exhaled, feeling a few tears form as she put her arms around Carina. "You get the green light to gloat and you're not going to take it?"
Carina shrugged and smiled. "That'd be like throwing a three-legged puppy out into a rainstorm. Even I'm not that cruel."
"I shouldn't be letting this bother me. Jimmy was right; I have to be a leader. Now more than ever because of the risks we're taking with Chuck…"
"You're a leader, not a robot," Carina replied sharply. "And we do need you. But we need the Sarah we've come to know and love. Not the ice-hearted bitch you used to be and certainly not this weepy insecure thing that I really hope you're not turning into."
Carina knelt down next to Sarah. "If someone did half the things to me that skanky whore has done to Chuck, I wouldn't want to get within a hundred miles of them. Yet Chuck is still helping us take down Fulcrum. And that's because you asked him to do it. Sure, he wants revenge, but he is as loyal to you as the rest of us. Which means not a damn thing going on over there means anything. If it did…then we were wrong about how good of a person he was the whole time. And I don't think we were."
Sarah stared straight forward for a moment. She then nodded slowly. "You're right."
"I always am," Carina replied in a flippant tone.
Sarah turned towards her and gave a low growl, making Carina break up in laughter.
Spanish Bay – Monterey, CA
March 4, 2016
9:00 AM PST
Chuck and Jill walked down the shoreline. It still didn't feel real to him that Jill worked for Fulcrum. He knew her…was even in love with her…for three years. And somewhere during that time, she became an enemy of the government. He didn't know what made him feel worse: that Jill betrayed her country or that their relationship was a total lie.
"Remember that Spring Break in Acapulco?" Jill asked him. "That was such a wonderful trip. We walked along the beach just like this and watched the sun come up."
"Yeah, it…it was beautiful," Chuck replied nervously.
"Are you OK?"
"Me? Sure. I'm…I'm fine. Nothing to worry about."
Jill laughed and wrapped her arms around him. "I remember this now. You'd stand there, start getting all nervous, talk endlessly, and then there was only one thing I could do to stop you."
She put her lips on his and kissed him hard. Chuck reciprocated for a few seconds.
He then pulled his face away from her. "I can't. I can't do this anymore."
"Neither can I." Jill stepped back and pointed a gun at Chuck. "I'm sorry."
Chuck shook his head in grief. "I didn't want to believe it. I really didn't want to. But I knew this was coming."
"What are you talking about?"
"I knew you were a Fulcrum agent."
Jill was astonished. "How did you know?"
"When we were at lunch yesterday, something felt off. I mean, you knew Carina worked for the DEA. But I thought you just made a lucky guess, so I asked Casey about it. He told me to test you. Which you failed. I mean, how could you know Jimmy studied computer science at Illinois when the rest of the world thinks he was a theater major at Northwestern?
"And then…I just put everything together. How you led me down the stairs from the balcony just in time to be taken hostage, how you wanted to get me away from everybody by going to a place where my mobile phone wouldn't work…"
Chuck reached into his back pocket and pulled out his watch, which showed two blinking lights. "And you threw this in the garbage."
Jill stared in shock. "Chuck…"
"Why?" Chuck's grief quickly switched to fury. "Why did you do this?"
Jill shook her head sadly. "It started at Stanford. They sponsored a leadership seminar. After school, whatever job we wanted, they got us. They made our dreams come true."
"And you couldn't get out?"
"When someone controls every part of your life, Chuck, you have to do what they say. After a while, I found myself doing things I never thought I would have done, but then it was too late."
"Too late? Too late for what?"
"Chuck, I'm supposed to bring you to my Fulcrum handler one hundred yards up the shore. If I don't do it, they'll eliminate both of us."
Chuck looked in the direction where the Fulcrum operative would be.
"Fulcrum already knows about Sarah, Casey, Carina, and Jimmy," Jill continued. "They've known for several months they're really government agents. But they need to know why they're protecting you. What makes you so special."
"Nothing! There's nothing special about me!"
"They'll decide that. Let's go, OK? I promise I won't let them hurt you."
"Given how many times I've come close to death recently, you'll have to forgive me if I don't believe you!"
"Chuck, think about it. Sarah and her team are at least an hour away. And my handler has two dozen people here to help him. You don't have any other choice. Please don't make this harder."
Chuck turned away from Jill and looked up the shoreline. He could see a group of agents being led by a large bald man wearing a leather jacket and black denim jeans. Chuck didn't need to flash to know this was the person Jill's message referred to as Leader.
"I do know one thing that you don't," Chuck said with his back still turned. He then heard what sounded like motorcycle engines off in the distance.
"What's that?"
"My team is already here."
Chuck whirled around and nailed Jill with the knockout spray. She fell to the ground and Chuck sprinted down the beach away from Leader and his men. Behind him, Sarah and Casey roared over a dune on a pair of four-wheeler ATVs. Both of them opened fire with automatic weapons on Leader and his agents. In front of Chuck, the rest of Leader's troops ran towards him. A dune buggy flew through the air just in front of Chuck and landed to his left just before hitting the waterline. It did a hard 180 and turned back to where Chuck was.
"GET IN!" Jimmy roared as Carina opened fire at the oncoming agents. Chuck jumped into the back of the dune buggy and Jimmy took off down the beach in the direction of Sarah and Casey.
"Uh, you're taking us TOWARDS Leader, Jimmy!" Chuck yelled over the noise of the engine. "Is that a wise idea?"
Carina looked behind her to see a pair of vehicles heading their way. "It is now!" she replied as she continued to fire behind them.
~/^\~
Sarah and Casey kicked their ATVs up to maximum speed and drove right at Leader's team. They ducked down as the group fired at them. Sarah and Casey ran through the entire group, running over several of them who were too slow to get out of their way. They spun around and went after the group again.
~/^\~
The two vehicles chasing Chuck, Carina, and Jimmy closed the distance. One of the passengers leaned out of the vehicle with a Saiga-12 automatic shotgun. He aimed at the buggy's tires, nailing the rear tire on the right side. The force of the exploding tire launched the buggy into the air and flipped it over, spinning through the air twice before landing on its left side in the sand.
Carina quickly undid her seatbelt and climbed out of the vehicle, taking Chuck's hand as he climbed out of the back seat. They quickly went to the other side of the buggy and pushed the roof hard, flipping it back upright to allow Jimmy to get out.
"Are you OK?" Chuck asked as he gently pulled Jimmy out of the dune buggy.
"Yeah, great," Jimmy gritted through the extreme pain. "Feel like a hundred dollars."
Carina looked towards the water. "This way!"
"Come on, Chevy," Chuck said, pulling on Jimmy's arm, as they followed Carina down a pier, the two agents continuing to fire away at their Fulcrum foes. They hopped into a speedboat anchored at the end of the pier. Carina powered up the engine while Chuck and Jimmy unhooked the lines. Carina gave it full throttle, and the boat took off, Chuck and Jimmy almost getting knocked off their feet.
~/^\~
Sarah and Casey charged at the group again. Only this time Leader pulled out a pair of shotguns. He handed one to a lackey and the two opened fire. Sarah and Casey had to turn hard to avoid being obliterated, but the sharp turns sent their ATVs on their sides. Leader's men quickly surrounded Sarah. Casey's leg was trapped under his ATV, making him defenseless as most of the agents chasing Chuck, Carina, and Jimmy arrived and surrounded him.
"Don't move," Leader said contemptuously to Casey. "Not that you can, anyway."
~/^\~
Carina continued to drive the boat further out into the bay. Another speedboat was giving chase.
"Pedal to the metal, Carina," Jimmy said as he rummaged through the boat looking at its contents.
"Why does this feel so weird?" Carina asked.
"You're not wearing a ridiculously small bikini right now."
"Oh, that's what it was. Thanks."
The enemy boat was starting to close the distance. "Carina, hard 180," Jimmy ordered. "Hang on, Chuck."
Chuck and Jimmy grabbed a hold of the railings as Carina threw the boat hard to port. They turned to the opposite direction and started heading towards the other boat.
"Uh, any reason why we're going right at them?" Chuck asked apprehensively.
"Here's why," Jimmy replied. He took out his Glock G17s and opened fire at the other boat as they passed it. Two of the agents were hit but three remained.
"They're coming this way," Carina said. "They're leaking gasoline. You must have gotten the engine block. Maybe we can outlast them."
Jimmy looked towards the starboard side. "I have a better idea." He pulled Carina away and took over the wheel, turning the boat 90 degrees to starboard.
Jimmy checked to make sure the enemy boat was directly behind them. He then gunned the engine hard and headed towards a ramp set up in the bay.
"You know those stupid, crazy things I do sometimes?" Jimmy asked.
"Uh huh," both Chuck and Carina said anxiously.
"This time, you get to do it with me!"
The boat hit the ramp and flew fifty yards through the air, landing back in the water with a hard splash. Chuck steadied himself after a long, girlish scream and lunged for the wheel, throwing it hard to starboard and killing the engine.
"What the hell did you do that for?" Carina asked.
"You said it yourself: they're leaking gas," Chuck replied. "Jimmy, remember the boat scene in From Russia With Love?"
"Yeah?" Jimmy replied.
Chuck grabbed the flare gun under the wheel and tossed it to Jimmy as the enemy boat hit the ramp. It flew through the air. Jimmy aimed and fired the flare gun at the leaking motor, causing the boat to explode. Carina powered up the engine and got them away from the fiery debris.
Jimmy looked back towards the ramp and the wrecked boat. "Aaah, hell," he muttered in disgust.
"What's wrong?" Chuck asked.
"We jumped the shark."
"Oh, shut up."
"No, we really jumped the shark. We jumped an actual…do you not see the shark over there?"
Chuck and Carina turned towards the ramp to see the outline of an underwater cage. They then saw the dorsal fin of a shark emerge from the water.
"What the hell is a shark doing in Monterey?" Chuck asked in utter bewilderment.
"Maybe they're filming the next Sharknado movie around here," Carina replied.
"What the hell is a real shark doing in a Sharknado movie?"
Jimmy threw his hands up. "This time it's personal?"
Hotel Amarano - Burbank, CA
March 4, 2016
2:30 PM PST
Chuck, Carina, and Jimmy entered the conference room and went right to work. Chuck plugged in his mobile phone to recharge the battery while Carina pulled up satellite imaging to see if she could locate where Jill and Leader may have taken Sarah and Casey. Jimmy tried their mobile phones.
"Nothing," he said in barely-contained fury. "Carina, tell me you have something."
"Nothing on satcomm," Carina replied. "They knew we'd try to look for them that way. They're not stupid."
"They had at least a thirty-minute lead on us. They could have loaded them on a plane and had them halfway across the country by now."
"No, they're going to contact us," Chuck said with considerable self-assuredness. "Jill said they want me specifically. I think they would trade Sarah and Casey for me. We should take the deal."
"Absolutely not!" Carina was livid. "You are not sacrificing yourself for Sarah and John! You are the Intersect. You're more important than all of us put together."
"She's right, Chuck," Jimmy said. "Fulcrum won't give up Sarah and Case. Once they had you, they'd kill all of us in a heartbeat. I don't want to lose those two, but I also don't want to face them if we lost you."
"I can't just sit here and let them die!" Chuck exclaimed.
"You're the government's most important asset. You have all of our secrets in your head. We're expendable and you're not. We're responsible for you; you're not responsible for us."
"I am responsible! All of you trusted me! All of you put your lives on the line over and over for me! And the way you've helped me through this…you're…you're the best friends I've ever had. I…I just can't hide and pray everything works out, OK? After all this time, I can't think of any of you as expendable. Not for one second!"
Chuck went up to Carina and Jimmy and gripped both of their arms. "You keep saying I can do this. Please let me finish. Please let me bring them back. Trust me now, just like I trust all of you."
Chuck's mobile phone began to ring. He looked at the caller ID. "It's them."
Jimmy quickly went to the phone and plugged it into the computer. "Go ahead," he told Chuck.
Chuck hit the answer button. "Hello?"
"It's me," Jill said in a subdued voice. "Things haven't changed. Fulcrum still wants to know about you. Please, Chuck. I know you don't want anything to happen to your team, so please meet with us. By yourself, at 5PM. We'll pick you up on the corner of 3rd and Figueroa. Once we have you, Fulcrum promises to let Sarah and Casey go."
Chuck looked down at the ground. "I'll be there," he replied quietly. He disconnected with Jill and slumped back into the chair.
"Shit," Jimmy cursed. "She disabled her phone, so we lost the signal. By the time we got anybody there, they'd be long gone."
"Chuck, you know what will happen," Carina said. "This is such a setup, it's ridiculous."
Chuck looked up again and stared at Carina for a moment. He then looked down at his mobile phone before looking up again.
"Jimmy, ever play Call of Duty?"
Unknown Location
March 4, 2016
3:30 PM PST
Sarah and Casey found themselves locked in a room somewhere in Los Angeles, based on the noises they heard outside. However, since Leader and his team threw them into the back of a windowless van and took a very circuitous route from Monterey, there wasn't any way of knowing an exact location. And since their mobile phones were destroyed two hours ago, there was no way for them to be traced.
The door opened and Jill entered, followed by two of Leader's men, who trained automatic weapons on Sarah and Casey to make sure they didn't try anything stupid.
"We'll be leaving in a few minutes," Jill told them. "Please don't bother with a show of bravado or try to convince Chuck to give you two up. You know him as well as I do now. He'll do anything for anyone that likes him."
"I can't believe you would sink so low," Sarah said, incensed beyond belief. "You would do all of this to someone who actually loved you."
Jill shrugged. "Fulcrum wants Chuck, and I'm the best person to capture him. It's as simple as that. I'm doing my job."
"Then you do your job well, you treasonous whore."
A blaze of fury ran through Jill, and she slapped Sarah hard. Casey stepped forward to attack her, but the two men jamming their weapons into his temples stopped him.
"Thank you for proving me right," Sarah growled at Jill.
"And how many marks did you screw during the night and kill by morning? Don't you dare get sanctimonious with me. You manipulate and control him just like any other woman does. And you have the nerve to call me a whore?"
Jill took her gun and shoved it under Sarah's chin. "You know, I had asked Leader to make your deaths quick and extend the same courtesy to Carina and Jimmy. But since you want to act all high-and-mighty, I'm going to make sure Chuck watches as each and every one of you is killed. And it will be slow and painful."
Jill turned and exited the room. The two bodyguards stayed inside and kept their weapons trained on Sarah and Casey.
Hotel Amarano - Burbank, CA
March 4, 2016
4:30 PM PST
Chuck sat in a chair in the middle of the conference room. He couldn't shake the possibility he might be dead in the next hour…and so could everyone else. He tried his best to help them with Guy LaFleur and finding the bioweapon. He tried to help them locate the list of Fulcrum agents. But all of it may have been for nothing.
The door suddenly burst open. Chuck stepped back in shock to see Jill, Leader, and several of his squad enter the hotel room.
"Surprise, Chuck," Leader said in a gravelly voice. He turned to an agent outside. "Find the other two," he ordered.
"I…I take it I don't need to drive to 3rd and Figueroa now?" Chuck asked.
Leader shook his head. "No, that's OK. Why waste the gas. Even Fulcrum likes a green planet."
"But you have to stick to your deal. I want to see Sarah and Casey and I want to see them right now."
"Chuck, please," Jill replied. "Don't make this any harder."
Chuck then pulled out a flash drive. "Here's what makes me special. All of the data I possess is on this flash drive. A whole lot of CIA and NSA data."
He then reached down and turned on the shredder at his feet. He held the flash drive over the blades. "You can shoot me, but then I would just drop this. So bring Sarah and Casey in here right now."
Leader shrugged and turned around. He nodded to one of the squad members, who stepped outside. The agent led Sarah and Casey into the room. The other agent pulled out two chairs, and Sarah and Casey sat down with their backs to each other.
"There you go," Leader said. "Now give us the flash drive."
"A deal's a deal."
Chuck stepped forward but stumbled. The flash drive fell into the shredder.
"Oopsie," he said, a little wide-eyed.
"You…" Jill growled furiously, raising her gun at Chuck.
"Wait!" Leader said. "We were expecting him to pull a stunt like this." He turned to Chuck. "Thankfully, Jill was smart enough to bug your phone. We need you, but we also needed your base of operations. We figured you and Miller and Slade would return to it, so we just had to wait until you did."
Leader went to the main computer and tried to boot it up. "What's the password, Chuck?"
Chuck remained silent. Jill put a gun to Sarah's head. "Want to watch me kill her?" Jill asked.
"Don't tell them, Chuck," Casey hissed.
Chuck exhaled in defeat. "Password is CPE1704TKS."
"Thank you," Leader said, typing in the correct password.
Jill pointed her gun at Chuck and took two sets of handcuffs from the desk. "Now handcuff your partners," she ordered.
Chuck took the handcuffs, putting one set on Casey first. He then went behind Sarah and put the other set of handcuffs on her.
"Chuck, do whatever you can to run away," Sarah whispered in his ear. "Please just leave. Don't stay here for us."
Chuck glanced over at Jill, who was waiting for him to finish. He then dropped something in Sarah's hand.
"Get ready to unleash the Casey," Chuck whispered.
"I found the files I need," Leader said. He began to download the files onto a flash drive.
"Fine, you win," Chuck said. "You beat us. You were smart enough to bug my smartphone. The only way we had any sort of a shot is if I had found it before you arrived."
He then turned back to Jill and Leader and smiled broadly. "Oh, wait a minute. I forgot. I did find it."
Leader and Jill looked on in confusion. "You see, we knew about you. However, you knew we knew about you, until we knew that you knew that we knew about you."
"What the hell are you talking about?" Jill said with a steadily-growing sense of fear.
"Carina, Jimmy, and I had plenty of time to prepare. The password you typed in? That just erased all of our hard drives and killed our network connections. And the flash drive you inserted to get our files? It only contains the files we stole from Jill's laptop. You can keep them; the CIA has plenty of copies."
Chuck pointed at the door. "And if you look at the top of the door, you can see you tripped our silent alarm, which means every government agent in L.A. County will be here in the next five minutes."
Sarah's eyes widened. She hoped and prayed the three of them had a plan. She just didn't realize how brilliant it would be. But then her team had a habit of pulling out miracles like this, and clearly Chuck was just as good at it.
"Wide-Area Misdirect. Morgan's favorite core on Call of Duty. The nerd in me really, REALLY wants to say checkmate right about now," Chuck teased.
Leader stood and got in Chuck's face. "You made one fatal mistake, Bartowski. Five minutes is four minutes longer than I need to kill all of you."
"If you had five minutes," Chuck replied. "Actually, you have about five seconds."
Leader looked back and forth. A loud explosion was heard outside. Carina dropped down from the ceiling and opened fire on the agents in the hallway. Jimmy crashed through the windows from the outside on a rope and harness and body-slammed Leader across the room. One of the remaining agents tried to attack him, but the uncuffed Casey jumped up and knocked him out with a brutal roundhouse. Jill tried to aim her gun, but Sarah tipped her chair back and kicked upward to knock it out of her hands. Jill ran for the exit, barely getting away from Carina firing at her, and went down the elevators.
Chuck quickly released Sarah. "That bitch is mine," Sarah roared as she ran out of the room in pursuit.
Jimmy untangled himself from his ropes. "Just like Master Chief. Right, Chuck?" he said with a smile.
"That's Halo, Jimmy," Chuck replied.
"Oops," Jimmy replied in embarrassment. "That's what I get for growing up on Pac-Man and Donkey Kong."
"Let's go," Casey ordered. "We better find Walker before the walls are painted in Jill Roberts red."
The four started to leave when a growl was heard from behind them. Leader had gotten up off the floor and pointed his gun at them in an extreme rage. Jimmy dove at him and tackled him to the ground. Leader's shot went wide and the gun fell out of his hands.
"GO!" Jimmy yelled. "Get Chuck out of here!"
Casey and Carina grabbed Chuck and ran out of the room as Leader threw Jimmy off of him and got up quickly. He kicked Jimmy in the face hard, who rolled on the floor in a daze. Leader reached down for him when Jimmy kicked up his legs and grabbed Leader in between them by his neck, pushing hard to send Leader towards the windows. Both of them got up, and Leader pulled out a very large knife. He slashed at Jimmy, cutting him in his arm. Jimmy recoiled and growled in pain as blood dripped from his arm. Leader grew a little more confident as he continued to slash at Jimmy, but Jimmy avoided Leader's attempts. Leader changed tactics and tried to lunge at Jimmy's midsection, but Jimmy jumped left, pirouetted, and grabbed Leader's wrist, bending his entire arm back and elbowing him in the back of the head, throwing the knife away in the process. Jimmy stepped back towards the windows as Leader stumbled forward and put out his other arm to catch himself on the wall. He then turned back with a primal roar and came at Jimmy hard. Jimmy was knocked off balance and the two fell out of the window.
~/^\~
Chuck, Casey, and Carina bounded down the stairs to the main level. They heard the sounds of sirens outside.
"Teams, this is Major Casey," Casey announced over his radio. "Create a perimeter around the hotel. Nobody gets in our out. Hostiles still inside."
"We better find those two fast," Carina said. "Jill knows she's done, so how much do you want to bet she'd kill Sarah?"
Chuck looked around in the hallways. "I've got one idea left."
~/^\~
Jimmy and Leader plummeted towards the sidewalk. Jimmy quickly pulled out his piton gun and rope and fired at the building across the street. Leader saw what he did and grabbed him hard. The two swung towards the restaurant at street level and crashed through the large plate glass window, hurtling through the restaurant and through the kitchen doors. The employees and diners scattered in a panic.
Leader got to his feet and went at Jimmy again, who kicked up hard to knock him back. Jimmy flipped to his feet. Leader pulled a cooking knife out of a kitchen block and threw it at Jimmy, who reached for a cookie sheet and used it as a shield, the blade stopping just inches from his heart. Leader charged him and Jimmy swung the cookie sheet at his face, knocking him down. Leader swept his leg hard to trip Jimmy and got back up. Jimmy crawled back on his feet to get some distance as Leader grabbed a meat cleaver and started swinging away. Jimmy sidestepped him twice and knocked Leader's arm up on his third attempt. He tried to grab Leader's wrist, but Leader kneed him hard in the stomach. Jimmy fell back coughing profusely. Leader hung on to the meat cleaver.
"A lot harder to do without all your stuntmen around, isn't it," Leader sneered.
Jimmy was still doubled-over and coughing, leaning on a butcher block table and stove to stay on his feet. Leader started to come at him with the meat cleaver with a sense of victory.
Jimmy grabbed a cast-iron skillet from the stove and swung it at the meat cleaver, knocking it away easily. He looked up, only needing some green paint to be scarier than The Hulk.
"You tried to kill my friends…" Jimmy swung the skillet at Leader's face. "You tried to kill Chuck…" he swung it again at Leader from the other direction, who was starting to fall. "But do you know the worst thing you did?"
Jimmy slammed the skillet over Leader's head, who collapsed completely to the ground with an enormous dent in his skull.
"YOU TURNED ME INTO STEVEN FUCKING SEAGAL!"
Jimmy continued to hit his lifeless body with the skillet. "Do I look like I wear a fucking ponytail!? Do I whisper all of my lines and think I'm James Dean!? Do I gain 200 pounds and still think I'm an action star!?"
Someone behind Jimmy cleared their throat. "Are you done?" Carina asked.
Jimmy turned in surprise. He then looked at the skillet in his hand and placed it matter-of-factly on the table. "Yeah, I'm good."
"Come on, then. Time to wrap this up."
Carina and Jimmy walked out of the back of the restaurant.
~/^\~
Sarah moved quickly down the hallway with her gun pointed. One of Leader's remaining members tried to shoot at her, but she drilled him with a single shot. She walked past his body and continued to move down the hall looking for Jill.
Jill turned the corner and spotted Sarah at the far end of the hallway. She snuck forward, taking the gun from the agent Sarah shot, and aimed it in her direction.
"Stop, wait," Chuck whispered from behind her.
Jill jumped in surprise and turned back to see Chuck. She then looked down the hallway to see Sarah had turned the corner.
"You have to get out of here," Chuck whispered. "Your team is gone and those guys want to kill you. Just…come this way. You don't report me, I don't report you, OK?"
"Why? Why would you do that?" Jill asked.
"I…I just don't want to see anybody else get killed today, and I doubt Sarah and her team would listen to me this time. Not after everything that's happened. If you want to get out of this hotel and have any shot to get away from Fulcrum, you have to trust me."
Chuck put his hands up gently and wrapped one of them around Jill's gun. "Please, Jill. Sarah's already here, and the others will be down here any minute. Please, just come with me and I'll get you out of here."
Jill looked back. If everything Chuck said was true, she truly was out of options. And given how Sarah's team still managed to win despite having the odds completely stacked against them, she knew this was her only chance to get away.
"OK, fine," she said quietly.
"This way," Chuck said, leading her down the hallway.
"I don't know what to say, Chuck. After everything that happened and you still want to forgive me, I…I really regret everything I did to you. You didn't deserve it."
Chuck got to the back exit. "You know what? I didn't," he replied as he pushed the door open.
Casey, Carina, and Jimmy were waiting with their weapons drawn.
"What?" Jill was in complete shock.
"What? You don't recognize when someone's deceived you? I'm surprised, given how many times you did it to me."
Carina holstered her weapon and went to grab Jill.
"Chuck, how could you do this to me?" Jill wailed.
Carina grabbed her by the back of the head and slammed her on the hood of an NSA vehicle. "You have the nerve to ask that question, bitch?"
Carina forced her arms back. Jimmy kept his gun trained on Jill while Casey handcuffed her.
"The funny thing is," Chuck replied. "Even after deceiving me like you did, I still gave some thought to forgiving you. But then you wanted to kill my friends. And you tried to kill Sarah. You crossed the line."
Carina pulled Jill up and threw her into the back of the vehicle.
"And by the way, Jill," Chuck said. "Last night in the hotel in Monterey? I was faking it."
Jill's mouth dropped open in shock as the NSA vehicle took off.
"I'll go find Sarah," Carina said and walked back into the hotel.
"We'll need a new base of operations now," Casey said. "Better pray the show gets renewed, Bartowski. It's coming out of your pay."
"Ha ha ha, funny," Chuck replied, which got no reaction from Casey. "You ARE kidding, right?"
Casey gave a little grunt and walked back into the hotel.
"He IS kidding, right?" Chuck asked Jimmy, who only shrugged. "Great. Terrific."
"It was a helluva plan, Chuck," Jimmy said. "Absolutely brilliant. And just rubbing it in at the end there with Jill? I didn't think you had it in you. It was awesome."
Chuck stood there motionless. He then became downcast. "Not all of it was awesome."
Jimmy glanced over at him. He exhaled slowly. "Maybe not. But if there was someone who could make things right, it's definitely you."
"Any advice?"
Jimmy stared out into space for a moment, although it felt a lot longer to Chuck. "At the risk of sounding like a cheesy 80s song, don't hold back."
Chuck looked at Jimmy and a smile drew across his face. "Thanks, man," Chuck said as he pulled Jimmy in for a hug.
"No problem. You deserve the best."
The two walked back inside to find Sarah, Casey, and Carina.
O.C. Studios - Hollywood, CA
March 7, 2016
11:30 AM PST
Sarah sat on the couch in her dressing room reading the first draft of the script for the next episode. Things were quiet at the studio, which was the reason she was here in the first place. They wouldn't start filming the final two episodes of the season until next week, and most of the crew was enjoying a few days off. After everything that had happened over the past few days, she needed the break as much as anybody. Unfortunately, they also needed to find a new hotel for her and the team's base of operations.
Three days later, it still hurt. And memorizing lines wasn't going to stop it from hurting.
The mission itself was a success. The CIA now had a list of Fulcrum operatives within the government and purging them from the ranks had already begun. Her team performed dazzlingly, especially the asset they were assigned to protect six months ago. Sarah had never seen anyone outside of her team…not even other agents…handle the pressure and perform as well as Chuck had. And that was before taking into account the woman he once loved betraying him on so many levels.
But the hurt she felt when Bryce left her was insignificant next to the hurt she was feeling now. When Bryce left, she thought she could go back to her old ways, not even realizing there were people who depended on her. People who needed her to lead. And when they brought in Jimmy to replace Bryce, she knew she had to be responsible to her team, to get the best out of them that she could. And she did.
Unfortunately, she had no way of putting Chuck out of her mind. They would have to get back together because he was still the government's most important asset and it was her job to protect him. And as long as it was, what she truly wanted was irrelevant. She was starting to wish she was never given this assignment in the first place.
She got up when she heard a knock on her door.
"Ellie?" Sarah asked in surprise when she opened the door. "What are you doing here?"
"I…I had the morning off from work and I tried to track you down," Ellie replied. "Carina said you might be here."
Sarah stepped aside to let her in. "What can I do for you?"
Ellie pensively sat down on the couch. "I wanted to talk to you about Chuck."
Sarah's heart sank. Chuck was the last person she wanted to think about right now, but she didn't have any choice. As far as Ellie was concerned, Sarah dumped him.
"Look, I'm really sorry. I…I think the world of Chuck. I really do. I just couldn't stand to put him through all of this. The pressure of being in the spotlight, having the tabloids follow his every move."
Sarah shook her head and looked at the ground. "I'm sorry, I'm being stupid. You deal with more pressure in one day than I do in my entire career."
Ellie put her hand up. "No apologies necessary, Sarah. I just…it's obvious the two of you breaking up is hurting you. I just wish I could understand why you'd throw away a shot at true happiness because of some bastards on a TV show or a magazine or a website."
"It's...complicated, Ellie."
Ellie moved closer to Sarah on the couch. "Sarah, just answer me one question. Do you think Chuck could make you happy? If he can't, then I'm sorry for badgering you like this and I promise never to bother you again. But do you think you could be happy with someone like Chuck?"
Sarah looked at Ellie and a few tears formed in her eyes. She knew what the answer to that question was. Emphatically so. But to get what she truly wanted meant to risk losing that very thing.
"Ellie, I just can't do that."
"No," Ellie replied forcefully. "Do not do that to yourself. Don't throw away your shot at happiness because of what others think. If you want something bad enough, you go and get it. Chuck is a very special person. I know it and you know it. If you love him, if he's the one for you, you never stop and you never quit! You never go too far! You gotta be willing to throw all of this away to be with him! Because the absolute worst thing you can do is leave this world knowing that you had a chance to be truly happy and didn't take it!"
Ellie exhaled slowly. "Jen Burton is one of the toughest, most honest, most loyal, and most beautiful characters in television history. I really hope it's because of the woman who plays her."
She walked to the door and opened it. She then turned back. "Whatever you decide, I'll respect it. Just know either way, you're the best thing that ever happened to my brother."
Ellie closed the door, and Sarah sank back down on the couch.
Tangerine Hotel - Burbank, CA
March 8, 2016
9:00 PM PST
Sarah heard the knock on her door and went to answer it.
"Hey," Chuck said when she opened it.
"Come in," she replied.
Chuck took a look around the room as he entered. The room looked more spacious than her prior room, but then with all of the computer and surveillance equipment set up, Sarah had barely anywhere to keep her personal items.
"I guess our conferences will be a lot cozier," Chuck said playfully.
"It's just temporary. We'll have a new room set up across the way in a week or two. It'll be the same."
"Although I hear the happy hour specials here aren't as good," Chuck quipped, which didn't even get a smile out of Sarah. He exhaled slowly. "I just came by to see if you're OK. This whole thing with the Fulcrum list, with Jill…"
"I'm OK, Chuck," Sarah replied, her guard completely up.
"I mean, everything worked out in the end, but I still wish it didn't happen that way."
"Missions almost never go according to plan, but the team still prevailed."
Chuck felt his entire body clench. "Agent Walker, is it OK if I talked to Sarah for a minute?"
"What?" Sarah demanded.
"The things I had to do to make this work were horrible. If I had the choice, I never would have done any of them. I just can't stand to see how what happened has affected you."
Sarah shrugged. "You didn't do anything any one of us hasn't done before. Once the Intersect is out of your head, I'd think you would make a terrific agent."
Chuck thought he couldn't hurt worse than he did when he found out Jill betrayed him, but he was clearly wrong. "Then I guess I came here under false assumptions." He turned to the door. "I'll see you at the studio," he rasped as a few tears began to form in his eyes.
"It hurt me!" Sarah cried. Chuck immediately turned around. "Seeing you with Jill, the things you had to do, her betraying you, it was killing me! It was worse than when Bryce left!"
"I knew it was," Chuck said, his voice shaky. "We all did. I wanted so badly to not have to do any of it. I would rather have been killed by Fulcrum than see you get hurt. I am so sorry to put you through all of that."
"Stop saying you're sorry!" Sarah couldn't stop the tears from flowing. "You did what you had to do! You did what I told you to do! I asked you to help us with this mission, to take the heat for our breakup, and to reconnect with the woman who broke your heart at Stanford! And you did that! You're the reason we stopped them! But how I feel right now, this is my fault! This is my responsibility! I'm the one who did this! You shouldn't be apologizing to me! I should be apologizing to you!"
Chuck sank down on the bed. His entire posture slumped. "I wanted to help you," he said softly. "The way you've helped me. The way all of you have helped me. Casey, Carina, Jimmy…they'd give their lives for you. So would I."
Sarah sat down next to him and wiped her tears away. "You did. You've always been far more than just someone who gave us information. You're one of the bravest and smartest people I've ever met. And one of the sweetest."
"Not the funniest?" Chuck said with a raised eyebrow, which made Sarah laugh. "OK, now we know where we stand with that."
Chuck shuffled his feet and then pulled a small bag out of his pocket. "There's…um…something I've been meaning to give you. Just to...just to show how much you've meant to me. I just haven't had a good time to do it these last few days for obvious reasons."
"Chuck, you don't need to give me…"
Sarah stared at the bracelet Chuck was holding in his hand. "Wow. It's beautiful."
"It's…good luck." Chuck opened the bracelet and Sarah put out her wrist for Chuck to put it on. "It was my mom's charm bracelet. My dad gave it to her when Ellie was born."
"Chuck, I can't…I can't take this. This is something you should give to a real girlfriend."
Chuck held her hand. "I know. But I just don't think I'll live the rest of my life and find someone who is more real than you."
Sarah's grip on Chuck's hand tightened as she gazed into his eyes. She felt the echo of Ellie's words in her mind. She remembered how both Carina and Jimmy said the team needed their leader but they also needed the woman Sarah had become in the last three years. And that Sarah was starting to tire of thinking she couldn't love someone and protect them at the same time. It happened to other agents who had fallen in love with an asset, sometimes with deadly results. But Chuck was more than just an asset and always was. And if he was brave enough to fall into the dangerous world of espionage and thrive, she shouldn't be stopped by her fears any longer.
Her other hand glided up to his cheek, caressing it gently. Her fingers then tightened and pulled his face towards her. Their eyes closed and their heads began to tilt…
"Agent Walker, Mr. Bartowski, good to see both of you."
Chuck and Sarah quickly separated at seeing the image of General Beckman on the monitor.
"W-what is it, General?" Sarah asked, trying to regain her composure.
"Our analysts have taken a close look at the data your team obtained from Jill Roberts' laptop. It appears, besides Mr. Bartowski, they were after a scientist. They have operatives everywhere looking for this man."
"Who is this person?" Chuck asked.
"We are not sure ourselves what the name of the man is, but Fulcrum's codename for him is Orion."
Chuck and Sarah glanced at each other. "Orion?" Chuck asked.
Beckman nodded. "We have reason to believe that Orion was the creator of the Intersect. And Fulcrum may know his whereabouts."
Chuck and Sarah stared at the monitor in shock.
AUTHOR'S NOTE II: I know...you hate me. I can be mean sometimes, can't deny it.