A/N: Thanks for still being here with us. Real life happened and we put posting this chapter off for a while. We're back, though. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: We don't own Chuck. We aren't making any money writing this fic.
Chuck was sitting at the Nerd Herd desk, thinking about his crazy day. First there would be no more staggered lunches, then there was Anna suggesting she knew a guy who could off Harry. Then…then there was Harry. It was bad enough he was the Ass Man, but touching Morgan in the stomach like that and saying he was soft like pudding was just...disturbing.
Casey walked up and hit the bell right in front of Chuck. "You didn't offer to kill Harry for Anna, did you?" Chuck asked Casey.
"No," Casey replied. "Why, you want me to kill him?" Chuck swore it sounded like glee in his voice.
"No. No, just curious," Chuck replied. "Beckman suggested the NSA couldn't kill people...willy nilly."
"Huh," Casey grunted. "I mean I'd have to set it up, make it...look a certain way." Chuck's eyes widened. Casey grinned. "Calm down, Nancy. I was just kidding."
"I know you meant that to hurt me, but it didn't," Chuck replied. "Seriously, you could kill Harry?"
"Chuck, I could kill anyone if I was given the order," Casey replied. Chuck stared at him. "Bunker, Numbnuts. I'd put you in a bunker. Don't worry, I'd send you pictures of Walker all the time."
"And just why would you do that?" Chuck replied, crossing his arms.
"Oh, I don't know, you weren't gonna be a part of this, yet here you are, a part of this." Casey gave him a look that said he wasn't fooling anyone.
"Sarah's a friend, and she doesn't want one of her people left out in the wind, plus it will tell me why I'm in the Intersect."
"Yeah, you actually believe that?"
"Casey, let's say I did have...something for Agent Walker, wouldn't they split us up?" Casey grunted. "So, what good would it do if I did?"
"I still believe Ronald Reagan is President, don't make it true." Casey gave him a look and shook his head. "Shit, you've turned me into Dear Abby."
Chuck shook his head. "I'm pretty sure she never would have had a discussion on killing someone," Chuck pointed out.
Casey thought about it and shrugged. He dropped a photo on the desk. "We just got a hit off a traffic camera in Hollywood."
"Hey, that's Fleming."
"Wow, thanks there, Chuck. You saved me a lot investigative work. The Intersect hard at work, huh? The DMV told me that."
"Wow. Sarcasm, what a surprise," Chuck replied. "I don't think Dear Abby would have used sarcasm."
Casey stared at him. "Annie wrote to Abby, Dear Abby, I know boys will be boys, but my 'boy' is seventy-three and he's still chasing women. Any suggestions? Abby replied, Dear Annie: Don't worry. My dog has been chasing cars for years, but if he ever caught one, he wouldn't know what to do with it."
Chuck just stared at Casey. "You never cease to amaze me."
Casey grunted. Chuck wasn't really sure what that grunt was. Maybe it was new. "We located the car Fleming's driving, local address. We're bringing him in ASAP."
"What do you need me for? Need someone to insult while you wait? Oooo I know, you want a mix tape to listen to. Wait, did Sarah ask me to make one?"
Casey stared at him again. "She doesn't really like Michael Bolton."
"Or does she?" Chuck asked, eyebrows raised.
Casey rolled his eyes. "Yours is a friendly face. Professor sees you, he'll be more inclined to cooperate, copy?"
"Yeah, except that I wasn't the professor's star pupil," Chuck replied.
Casey turned and walked off, holding up three fingers. "We leave in three."
Chuck looked down at the photo and thought back. As you're aware, you scored perfectly on your midterm exam. Yeah, yeah. Well, I was up all night studying. It was a monster. No offense. You even aced the last section. Encoded images. Yeah, those were just kind of a shot in the dark. You may be aware, I keep an answer key to every exam locked inside this office. No, no, I wasn't aware of that. Really? Then how do you explain the midterm answer key... being found in your fraternity room? I'm sorry. You searched my room? We received the tip from a student this morning. What? You got a tip about my room? I need to know how you broke into this office and stole the answers, Chuck. I didn't steal anything. I don't have to, I'm acing your class. Exactly. The student also claimed that you're selling copies. What? I know you're a scholarship student and Stanford is a very expensive school. Look, whoever gave you your tip was lying. Our source was Bryce Larkin. Your roommate.
He looked up and saw Casey motioning him to come on. Chuck steeled himself. This was gonna suck.
}o{
Chuck was driving while Casey had his headphones in his ears. He claimed it was so he didn't get asked anymore advice. Sarah gave both of them a look, started to say something a couple of times, and then thought better of it.
"You okay?" Sarah asked softly.
Chuck looked over at her. "Yeaaah," he replied, and noticed her slightly roll her eyes. They were very close to talking about things, and while Sarah would, Chuck knew it didn't always make her comfortable, and with Casey in the car….he grinned, and then sobered his features. "No, no, Sarah I'm not." He saw her stiffen beside him. "Sarah, I've learned the most awful news today."
"What is it, Chuck?" her voice was catching, she was so uncomfortable it radiated off of her.
She was gonna kill him later, but it was soooooooo gonna be worth it. "I've heard, from a very reliable source...you know what, never mind."
"No, tell me," she insisted.
"You don't like Michael Bolton, Sarah. How could you?" She turned to him trying to work her jaw but finding she couldn't. Chuck was nearly crying he was laughing so hard. "I'm gonna die for that, I know."
She shook her head, trying to keep a grin off of her face. "Not cool, Bartowski," she muttered.
"Sarah...thank you," he said softly. She gave a small head nod. They both knew that was all either of them were comfortable saying. Chuck pulled up to the address as Casey pulled out his headphones and pulled out the binoculars.
"We'll extract the professor as quickly as possible," Sarah said. She turned to Chuck. "You'll keep watch?"
"If I flash on any bad guys, I'll call," Chuck said feeling like mom and dad were giving him the same lecture over and over.
She turned to him. "Everything looks quiet, but—"
"I know, I know, stay in the car," Chuck said, cutting her off. He caught the eye roll. He grinned at her. "I'll stay in the car."
"Pffft," Casey said from the backseat. Chuck gave him a look.
"Boys," Sarah said, shaking her head. "Okay, good. Let's go."
He watched Casey and Sarah cross the street, thinking about how they looked like they looked kinda weird, both in black...well, more Casey than Sarah. Sarah had a black leather jacket, and she looked pretty bad ass. That's when Chuck noticed Professor Fleming walking down the sidewalk.
"I should stay in the car," he muttered to himself as he opened the door. "Professor Fleming. Hey." Fleming began to run, and Chuck ran after him. "No, no, no, wait, professor, it's me, Chuck. Professor, stop. We're here to extract you, Glass Castle." Fleming stopped and turned toward him. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. But it's—It's Chuck. I was in your Psychology and Symbolism class at Stanford. I don't know if you remember me."
Fleming took off his hat. "Chuck Bartowski. Of course I remember you."
"Ha, ha," Chuck replied nervously. "I guess it's not every day you kick a guy out of school, huh? At least, I hope not."
Fleming took his glasses off, and walked around Chuck where his back was to the street. "So you're, uh, with the Agency now. Why didn't you say so?"
"I don't think I'm supposed to, really," Chuck replied.
"Well, we have code phrases. Didn't they train you?" Fleming asked.
"I mostly just stay in the car," Chuck replied, thinking he really didn't. Why didn't Casey and Sarah give him those phrases? Of course he couldn't stay in the car, sooooo...
"Next time, if it's a dangerous situation, say, 'Are you coming to the toga party?'" Fleming explained.
"A real code phrase. I like it," Chuck replied. "That's awesome."
"What are we doing? Who's bringing me in?"
"Oh, right. Yeah," Chuck replied. He thought for a second. "So Sarah and Casey will do that. But, um, I was wondering if I could ask you something first. Why did the CIA have a file on me at Stanford?"
Fleming looked away. His eyes got a bit bleary. "I'm sorry." His mouth opened wide, and he stumbled toward Chuck, arms open.
"Oh, hey. Hey. Hey, hey, buddy. Let's not beat ourselves up. You know, the past is the past. Okay. Look, we didn't really know each other that well at college. And this is a little awkward, so…" Chuck was patting his back and felt his fingers brush against something… He looked and saw that a crossbow bolt was sticking out of Fleming's back. "What the—? Oh, boy. Hey, hey, hang in there. Hang in there." They fell backwards as Fleming's weight shifted.
"Give this to Bryce Larkin," Fleming said, showing Chuck a piece of paper with the numbers 219 on top and F5U922 on the bottom.
"Bryce? Bryce Larkin? What—? What did Bryce have to do with this?" As Chuck turned his head toward Fleming, who had his eyes closed, a crossbow bolt ripped the paper out of his hand. Chuck stared at it, and tried not to scream. He tried really hard. He saw the man Casey had shown him earlier. He was putting another bolt in the cross bow. He bent down and retrieved the bolt and the note. "I'm nobody, I swear." He walked past Chuck.
"Casey, come on. Over here." Chuck heard Sarah's voice. He had always thought it had sounded wonderful, but now...now it was like angels singing.
Chuck began to freak out and started yelling. He started shaking Fleming trying to wake him. "Over here. Man down, man down! Help me! Help." He saw Casey and Sarah approaching him, guns drawn and he saw the look on her face, but right now, he didn't care. "Hey, hey, come on. Come on!" Fleming had no response.
}o{
Sarah looked over at Casey who was pacing the hospital floor. She gave him a head motion to come sit beside her. He sat down, but looked extremely fidgety. "Casey, you needing to shoot someone?" she asked softly.
"Walker, this thing smells to high heaven." Sarah had been thinking that but she was glad her partner voiced it. "Fleming kicked Chuck out of Stanford, and now he's shot with a crossbow?"
"I wish I knew more," Sarah replied, trying to keep the frustration out of her voice.
Casey gave her a look, and it was obvious she didn't. "And there's that," Casey said. "Walker if you're messing with me, I swear…" he trailed off. "Graham constantly leaving you in the dark...what the hell is in that Intersect he doesn't want you to know about?"
Sarah looked at him, her eyes widening. "That's the only thing that makes sense, isn't it?" She started to say more when the doctor walked up to them. She knew from the body language before a word was even said.
}o{
Chuck sat in his room with no lights on. He didn't know what to feel. He knew he felt guilty. He wanted Fleming to live, obviously, but he really wanted to know what Fleming knew about him, and that made him feel guilty. If he had that information… He had already tried to hack Fleming's computer, but nothing was on it about him. Why was he kicked out, how did Fleming know Bryce, what the hell was going on? A whistling sound at his window alerted him. He looked up and saw Casey and Sarah peeking through the blinds. He got up, went over, and pulled the cord that lifted them up.
He saw the upset look on Sarah's face and he knew what was coming. He was glad she wasn't beating around the bush at least. "I'm sorry, Chuck, but we have to talk."
Chuck nodded and stepped back, giving them room to enter. He noticed Casey pull something from his pocket and click it. "Casey, what is that?"
"Killed the bugs for a bit," Casey replied. Chuck gave him a look. "Walker and I aren't sure what's going on, but none of it makes sense." Casey looked at Sarah.
Chuck looked from one to the other. "Okay. So how was the hospital? Is the professor gonna be okay?" Sarah looked down and Casey glanced away. "No...Oh jeez." Chuck turned away, walked over to his chair, and slumped down into it.
Sarah sat on the bed across from him, Casey in a chair by the window. "Chuck it's not your fault," she said to him. He shook his head, not really believing her.
"Problem is we can't talk to him, sort this mess out," Casey began. Chuck turned towards him, giving Casey a, "Are you kidding me?" look. "For us, for him…" he didn't finish that statement and Chuck was so glad. "You sure it was Magnus you saw?"
"Gee, I don't know, Casey. How many psycho archers do you know?" Casey grunted, more of a laughing grunt. Chuck paused. "You know more than one don't you?" Casey shrugged. Chuck shook his head and continued on. "I asked Fleming about why I was in the Intersect. I should've brought him to you, I'm sorry."
"Hey, it's not your fault, Chuck," Sarah told him. He never looked at her. She glanced at Casey, who nodded. She reached over and took Chuck's wrist. He looked at her. "It's. Not. Your. Fault. You didn't shoot him with a crossbow."
"If you tried you probably would have shot yourself," Casey quipped.
Chuck gave him a dirty look. He turned back to Sarah. "I keep thinking about what he said. Why would he want me to bring those numbers to Bryce?"
"Bryce must have been one of his CIA contacts," Sarah explained. "Fleming was probably never told of his death." She got a sullen look on her face. "Seems to be standard CIA policy about not being told things pertinent to the job," she grumbled.
"List off the numbers you remember," Casey said quickly.
Chuck was pretty sure Casey, like himself, wanted to change the subject before Sarah got beyond grumbling. "There were like ten of them. A couple of nines. Five, started with a two."
"Seriously, Bartowski? That's it? You have a computer for a brain—?"
"Casey, it was a very stressful situation, okay? I watched a guy get skewered by a crossbow." Chuck took a deep breath. "And now he's dead," Chuck added softly. Casey looked uncomfortable. "Look, Fleming knew something," Chuck went on. "Before he fell, he said, 'I'm sorry.' Why would he say that?"
"I don't know, Chuck," Sarah admitted, frustration covering her face. "I seem to be saying that a lot lately, I'm sorry."
"Don't be," he replied. "There is something going on here with this," he said, tapping his head. "I think he might know why I'm in the Intersect." No one knew what to say. "Listen, I need to shower, and change. If I think of anything…"
"Sure," Casey said, quickly bolting, but not before turning the bugs back on.
"Chuck..."
"Yeah?"
"It's not your fault." Chuck nodded and she did the same. She turned and left, and he shut the window and locked it. He heard Ellie come home while he was in the shower, so when he got out he dressed and headed to her room. Ellie always had a way of making him feel better, and right now, he felt especially shitty.
He walked into Ellie's room and saw she was folding laundry.
"You okay?" she asked. "It's not too late for you to change your mind about revisiting the old alma mater." Chuck fell face first onto her bed. "Spending time with me and Devon."
"Oh, please," said, pushing himself up. "You just don't wanna be stuck in a car alone with Awesome's frat buddies."
"Maybe," she conceded. "Or maybe I'm your sister and I care about you... and I think that going back to Stanford would help you to move on." Or she had conceded nothing.
"I love you, sis," he said, pushing up and looking up at her. "And I'd take a lot of bullets for you... but five hours in a car with Awesome and his brahs, that is asking too much. Besides, if I came, you wouldn't have room for your fun old foam finger." He smacked her with it a few times.
"Stop it," she said, laughing sitting down beside him. "Okay, what if you took Sarah? In… Never mind."
"Yes, why don't I ask my girlfriend to take me to the college I was kicked out of? Oh, and in her Porsche since I don't have my own car?"
"I bet she would."
"Oh, I'm sure, but maybe I don't want to ask her to do that."
"I could call her," Ellie offered. Chuck's eyes widened. "Or not. But Chuck..." She paused. "Chuck, remember the other day when we talked about how she's not a goddess and you need to show her your flaws?" Chuck nodded. "You're not giving Sarah enough credit."
Chuck groaned internally. She was right, of course, she was Ellie. She was always right. Well, not always, but more times than not. If he and Sarah were dating… He wasn't going there. He was still broken from that braid on Halloween.
"Chuck, she knows who you are," Ellie insisted. "She likes you for you, little brother." Chuck rolled his eyes. "You saved her the other day." Chuck was glad that's all she said and didn't mention the Ass Man debacle. "God, and she's so much better than that psycho bitch from hell."
"How do you really feel about 'you-know-who', Ellie?" She gave him a flat look. He whacked her in the head again with the foam finger. She tried to take it away from him but he pulled it out of her reach. "What is this?" he asked, looking at it, and wondering how it had survived the years.
"I don't know, but look at what I found." She pulled a book out. "See this? It was in my old college stuff."
She handed him the book and he looked at it. "'The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.'"
"You want me to return it to the Stanford Library for you?" Ellie offered. "Or you and Sarah could return it..."
He gave her a flat look and she laughed. "No. No, I'd kind of like to finish it. See how it ends."
She gave him what he called the EllieMom look. "Chuck, that book is like four years overdue."
He gave her a smarmy look. "What do you think Stanford's gonna do, huh? Expel me?" She rolled her eyes as he got up off her bed and headed toward his room. He glanced at the spine, and saw the dewey decimal numbers. He thought back to those days in the library where Bryce hid his extra ammunition for his dart gun.
He raced into his room and grabbed his phone. He thought about seeing Casey, but this was a Bryce thing, a CIA thing. He texted Sarah. Random question, did Bryce ever tell you about a spot in the Stanford library?
That's cute. You think he told me about Stanford. He didn't even tell me about Connecticut...
If I gave you directions in the Stanford Library do you think you could find a hidden spot?
There was no answer for a moment. Why don't you come over here? Maybe draw me a map? He didn't really want to because he was afraid he would end up going with them to Stanford. If he could just give her and Casey the info he wouldn't have to go. Trust me.
Chuck stared at his screen. That was just low.
Wink.
What was that?
A winky face.
No, ;) is a winky face.
Chuck, you shouldn't make fun of your girlfriend who doesn't know how to make winky faces.
I'm sorry.
;)
}o{
Chuck knocked on the door and a grinning Sarah Walker opened it. She gave him a head nod to come in.
He walked in and began, wanting to get through this before he found himself back at the school he was kicked out of, with his fake girlfriend, in her Porsche. "I know what the numbers mean. They're for a book in Stanford Library. Bryce had a place where he would stash stuff. He told Fleming about it. Fleming must have left the intel there for Bryce."
Sarah didn't say anything for a second. She just stood there. Chuck was watching her and it seemed like she was waiting on him to come to a conclusion. "It's a matter of time before Magnus figures it out and beats us to the book." Chuck nodded. "Unless we can beat him to it."
Chuck turned, found a pencil and piece of paper. "Bryce kept his stuff on the third floor." He began drawing. "There was a turn…" He turned his body, trying to remember. "There was a turn…" His voice was soft. She came over and stood right beside him. "Sarah—"
"Chuck, I'm not going to make you go."
Chuck stared at the drawing and dropped his pencil. "Fleming died. Fleming died and what he knew died with him." He looked over at her. "You don't want me to go. Ellie will want us to ride together in your car."
"That's not a problem," Sarah replied, grinning.
"I told her I might be a little embarrassed riding with my girlfriend to the school I got kicked out of...in her amazing car," he admitted, scratching the back of his head.
Sarah nodded, walked over to her bed, sat down, and studied him. "Chuck, any woman who cared one bit about you and was ashamed of what you just described doesn't deserve you." She crossed her arms, and Chuck thought she looked a little uncomfortable.
He smiled at her, and knew what he had to do to set her at ease. "You know I'd have to make a mixtape."
She rolled her eyes, and uncrossed her arms, a grin spreading across her face. "Of course you would."
"Don't worry, Michael Bolton and Kelly Clarkson will be heavily featured," he assured her. "Baby, I-I want to be—"
"Fine, you have to tell Casey," she said cutting him off, smiling shyly at him.
He shook his head and sighed. "I can't believe I'm about to say this, but I have to go back to Stanford."
}o{
Chuck pulled the CD out and watched as Sarah good-naturedly rolled her eyes. He had labeled it "Chuck and Sarah's First Road-trip" and he saw Sarah's eyebrow raise.
"Uh, I-I did that thinking of the cover," he said, trying his best to sound natural, but was freaking out because he realized exactly what it looked like. "Ellie would be weird about it if I didn't." He saw Sarah nod. "She's already lecturing me, you know." He was looking straight ahead, not wanting to see her reaction. This was important, it was for the cover, and that was it. "She thinks I'm holding back."
"And you are," Sarah replied. "I get it. I'm trained in this, you're not. We'll figure something out." She paused. "What did you say to her to, uh…?"
"Yeah, if you're gonna say appease, or satisfy, this is Ellie we're talking about," Chuck replied, getting a laugh out of Sarah. "I told her you had been hurt, and I didn't want to pressure you on anything."
"Smart," Sarah replied.
Chuck took a deep breath. She had the right to know. "You know, she's really thankful for you, she says I'm acting like I did before I, and I quote, 'met that psycho bitch from hell.'" Sarah sputtered with laughter. "I'm getting the feeling she didn't like Jill."
"I never knew her and I don't like her," Sarah replied. Chuck had no idea what to do with that. "What she did was selfish, Chuck. When you care about a person, you don't do stuff like that to them."
Chuck turned towards her. "Kinda sounds like…" he trailed off seeing her face. "You know what, today's going to be 'fun' enough without both of us dredging up old relationships and how the world did us dirty."
"I'm here, Chuck," she said softly.
"I know, thank you," he replied. "And if you ever want to talk about anything, even in the most general of terms, I am as well." She nodded. "So, I have the perfect song to start us out." He pushed the CD in dramatically, and Willie Nelson came on over the speakers. "Huh? Huh? Amiright? Huh?"
"On the Road Again?" Sarah asked, laughing.
Chuck pursed his lips. "Not a fan?" She gave him a glance. "Okay, okay, I am prepared. Be ready to be wowed, Sarah Walker." He pushed the button, and she started to giggle. She looked out the window so he couldn't see. "Nailed it, didn't I?"
"No," she replied. "While I do enjoy, Here I Go Again, can I point out, it's about doing something alone, and we are a team."
"Team Moron," Chuck replied, grinning.
"I mean me and you, Chuck," Sarah said, looking at him. "You know, the cover." Chuck nodded. "Try again."
"You're a hard one to please, Miss Walker, but you're worth it." Chuck internally grimaced with that one, and he thought he saw her squirm a little in her seat, but he wasn't about to mention it. Chuck hit the button with a dramatic flair. For a moment she could barely hear anything. Chuck reached down into his bag, pulled out his sunglasses, and put them on. Sarah looked over at him, and he was grinning. He was trying to control the grin and looked serious.
"Chuck—"
"Ah," he said, raising his hand, still trying to look serious. "Feel it, Sarah, just feel it." She shook her head as Phil Collins voice came through the speakers. "In the Air Tonight is just so powerful, but you never truly experience it until…"
He had trailed off, hoping she would ask. Out of the corner of his eye he saw her struggling not to laugh at how dramatic he had sounded. "I'm gonna regret this," she mumbled under her breath. "Until what Chuck?"
He turned to her, giving her a look she had no problem seeing through the glasses. "You know," he said ominously. She laughed as Chuck waited for it. Suddenly he held one hand up in the air, her eyebrow lifting, and then just as the drum solo started, he rocked out on the air drums. Sarah burst out laughing. He sang along, and watched as Sarah shook her head, grinning. "Take it, Sarah," he said, finishing one of the lyrics. She just looked at him. "I know you've been spying for a while but when someone says take it, you take it."
"I don't sing, Chuck."
"Like, you don't know the words?"
"No, Chuck, I don't sing," she replied.
"Liar," Chuck replied and he hit the button several times. He sat back as Kelly Clarkson, Since You've Been Gone came over the speakers. "I know you know this one, and sing it in the shower."
"I do not," Sarah replied, not looking at him.
"Sarah—"
"Chuck, I don't sing!" she said a bit harshly.
Chuck swallowed. He had done what he swore he wouldn't. He had pushed too hard. "I'm sorry, Sarah. I—"
"I never did this as a kid," she said softly. Chuck clamped his mouth shut. "So I don't know how I sound, if I'm good, or terrible, or what."
"Thank you," Chuck said softly. She looked over at him. He cleared his throat. "For sharing that." She nodded. "You know when you're with people you trust, it's not about how you sound, but how you feel, how it just moves through you, right?" She raised an eyebrow. "Take for instance, Whitney Houston's I Wanna Dance with Somebody...When it comes on, it doesn't matter where you are, or what you're doing, you just move with it."
"If only you had it on that CD so you could show me," she mumbled. Chuck grinned. "Seriously, what's not on there?"
"Don't worry, Michael Bolton is as well," he replied. She began to laugh. He hit the button until he found what he was looking for. As Whitney began to sing, he danced badly, on purpose in his seat. "See, I trust you, and I'm just being free."
"Lucky me," she deadpanned.
"And you said you weren't funny!"
"I'm beginning to think you're really a cannibal," she replied. Chuck's mouth dropped open. And that's when she shocked him. No, shocked wasn't the word. Knocked him on his ass, that was the way to describe it. "Yeahhh I wanna dance with somebody," she sang. "With somebody who loves me."
Chuck smiled at her, and did the only thing he could….he joined in.
}o{
Thankfully, Chuck's road-trip mix only had fifteen songs on it, and because he insisted he didn't want to kill the songs for them, he took it out of the player instead of starting it over again, plugging his iPod in and turning on something he called "indie rock".
It was nice, pretty, soft...Good background music.
And after they stopped to eat lunch, the carbs in the two burgers he'd eaten, along with the entire order of fries, had knocked him out cold. She kept the music on, turning it down just a little so that Chuck could sleep peacefully, and her mind went after her with a fury.
She was a little over halfway there now, and she knew when Chuck woke up, he'd start showing signs of nerves. She didn't blame him, considering what had happened to him there. She wondered if it was the place in general that had him so reluctant to go there, or if he had a fear he'd see people he'd known, that they'd remember him being expelled, they'd remember why, and...God, that'd suck so bad for him.
Poor guy…
She'd sent Ellie a text letting her know they were on their way when they first climbed into her Porsche to start the drive. And she'd gotten a text back in all caps that said, "HAVE I TOLD YOU LATELY THAT YOU ARE THE BEST?" along with a "See you soon" and a happy face.
Sarah couldn't help being a little frustrated that Ellie continued to credit her with things when she didn't deserve it. But she couldn't really correct Chuck's sister on it, could she? Ellie hadn't been able to persuade Chuck to join them for the game, but he was going now. And Ellie really had no choice but to assume he'd talked to his girlfriend about it and she'd not only persuaded him to go, but she was driving him up herself.
She didn't know the truth. That Chuck's old professor was with the CIA, was just shot and killed by an Icelandic spy, and they needed to go to Stanford to figure out what said professor was trying to give his other ex-student, Bryce Larkin, who Ellie had no idea was a CIA agent…
So Sarah had to let Ellie think the best of her. She had to let Ellie think Sarah had been really good for her brother. And in reality, Sarah was part of what was putting his life in serious danger. Granted, it was her job to make sure nothing ever happened to him.
What was most frustrating to the agent was that she enjoyed the way Ellie showered her with praise, with shared looks, grins, hugs. She liked how much Ellie appreciated her being in Chuck's life. It was silly. She didn't like that part of her relied on it. Or maybe she didn't rely on it, per se, but sometimes she found herself almost aching for the other woman's approval.
Maybe it was just that Ellie was such a good person. Maybe she just liked Chuck's sister a lot. Maybe she liked all of these people. And she guessed she wanted them to like her, too. In her line of business, it was increasingly rare for her to find people she wanted to like her. People whose opinions she cared about, especially when it pertained to her.
The deeper Sarah'd gotten into the CIA, the harder the missions, the more critical and top secret the jobs Graham sent her out on, the more she disappeared… the worse the people she met, worked with, kidnapped, killed. To be pulled out of that and thrust into the lives of people like Chuck and Ellie...it was like whiplash.
That didn't matter right now, though.
Because they were now about to thrust Chuck into a situation he hadn't asked to be in. The guy had been trying to run away from Stanford for five years thanks to what Bryce did to him, and they were forcing him right back into it. He'd mentioned around his first burger that it was like Stanford had a chain around his neck or something, and that no matter how far away he thought he got from it, it was yanking him back again. Like, "Haaa! You thought! Guess again!" That had been what Chuck said, word for bitter word.
At least she was here. And while she wasn't sure of the extent to which her being here with him would help, she was aware enough to know she had an effect on him. Ellie had mentioned it in a text from the car once she and Devon had left on the drive. She knew it was sort of a way to get her to try to persuade Chuck, a subtle hint that maybe he'd do better if Sarah was there with him. "You really have a calming effect on him, Sarah." And that damn smiley face she'd added to it.
She hadn't told Chuck. Anyway, he didn't need to know about the texts she and Ellie exchanged here and there. Sarah still wasn't fully comfortable with it. Ellie used texts in a similar way to Chuck, with emojis and expressions, caps and quotes… It was well above Sarah's level of texting, but she was still trying.
And if they could manage to sneak away from the pre-gaming or tailgating, or whatever it was they were going to do before the football game started, they had real work they had to do. So she should maybe focus on that.
It was hard, though. Because she had a really bad feeling that there was a lot more to this than any of them knew. That Fleming and Bryce—both of them dead now—had been in cahoots on something that involved Chuck. And she was afraid that whatever it was would be clearer when they found whatever Fleming hid in the library for Bryce.
She was afraid that Chuck was the center of this whole thing, even before Bryce had sent him that email. And if that was the case, all of this would get that much harder for all three of them. There was a real chance Bryce might have picked Chuck out for the Intersect on purpose. And if he had, there was a reason—that reason had to do with Chuck. Something about Chuck connected all of this.
Sarah didn't doubt the Nerd Herd supervisor. He was even more in the dark than she and Casey were. And she believed completely that he wasn't keeping something from her, something about Bryce and Fleming.
But she didn't trust her superiors. And she didn't trust Bryce.
Sarah was afraid Chuck was in a lot more trouble than they'd suspected, that he was a lot more involved in the Intersect than they'd suspected. And that did not bode well for how they proceeded if they found out that was the case.
A/N: Thanks again for reading. More soon!
-SC and DC