A/N: I like to think that Chuck and Sarah own Chuck, but it's probably Jeff and Lester with my luck.
A/N2: For the portions of this chapter taking place in the main dance room of Club Ares, please imagine all our characters yelling really, really loudly to be heard over the sound of the music. I could have conveyed this by putting all their dialogue in capital letters, but you and I would both find that annoying pretty quickly.
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Led by Lou, who was holding Morgan's hand, they approached the entrance to Club Ares. There was a long line of people waiting to get in and two men at the door controlling access to the privileged domain beyond, each man roughly the size of Wyoming. Upon spotting Lou they smiled and drew back the velvet rope for her and her party. The man on her right bent down and gave her a little kiss on the cheek. She gave them each a smile and a greeting.
Lou, Morgan, Chuck and Sarah entered the main room through a crush of people. The club was a riot of flashing lights, loud music and dancing people. There was a large crowd at the bar struggling to get the attention of some very harried looking bartenders. Morgan said to Lou, "I'm usually...I'm sorry...I usually get more respect at the door. You know, I come here a lot. See, it's here on Monday nights and then Tuesdays is at Hyde. I'm on the circuit, you know. I do my thing." He was grinning to show that he wasn't serious.
Lou looked at Morgan and smiled. She said, "I can't hear a word that you're saying."
"What was that?" he asked.
"I love this song. You want to dance?" She took Morgan's hand and began to lead him to the dancefloor. "I can look for Stavros later." Meanwhile, Chuck and Sarah were looking at the room and the crowd. Chuck was being more obvious than Sarah, but not obnoxiously so. He had already spotted several exits and most of the bouncers. He noted that the tables off to the side were made of heavy looking stone which might block a pistol bullet. (He and Sarah were both wearing bulletproof vests, but it couldn't hurt to notice that other stuff, he thought.) They spotted Demetrios.
The slender man stepped out from the side of the room and approached their group. He wore all black, except for a white tie and white pocket hankie in the pocket of his black suit jacket. His longish black hair was pulled back in a small pony tail and he had just a fashionable bit of stubble on his cheeks. He wore a large fake smile on his face as he stepped up to Lou. The smile didn't reach his dark eyes.
"Hello, sweetheart," he said to Lou, with a Greek accent, while kissing her on the cheek. He turned to look at Morgan.
"Stavros...this is...this is Morgan," she said. "Morgan, Stavros."
"Hey, nice beard," said Demetrios. "You borrow it from Grizzly Adams?" Demetrios laughed and patted Morgan on the side of the neck.
Morgan smiled without humor and said, "No. I took it off a bear I killed." Demetrios pretended to find that funny.
Lou said, "And these are some other friends of mine. Sarah and Chuck."
"Hi, Chuck. Sarah, what a pleasure to meet you," looking her deeply in the eyes, he took her hand in his and raised it to his lips to kiss the back of her hand. "Just by your presence here in my club, you honor me. Please. Let me buy you all a drink?"
"Sure," said Sarah. "We'd love to."
Demetrios led them over to a table in an alcove where the music was marginally quieter. He gestured to a waiter and a bottle of white wine and five glasses appeared on the low table as they were sitting down. Demetrios said, pouring wine for each of them, "This is retsina. It's the classic Greek wine. Back in history, they would seal the wine casks with resin from pine trees in order to keep out the oxygen. The flavor from the resin would permeate the wine itself. It's still very popular in Greece and," he smiled at Lou like an alligator smiles at a chicken, "I happen to know it's a favorite of Lou's. Isn't that right, sweetheart?"
"It's ok," she said, clearly not comfortable being entertained by him.
Tasting it, Morgan picked up on Lou's discomfort and said, "It's a little bitter for my tastes, but thank you anyway."
"Well, if it's too bitter for you, maybe we can get you something sweeter. Would you like a Coke, maybe? A Shirley Temple? But I do have to warn you, Marvin, if your tastes run to sweet you will have a tough time with Lou. She is one spicy woman. A real hot-blooded Italian, let me tell you. There was that time in Mykonos when she threw a lamp at my head. I still have the scar." Demetrios showed a spot on his forearm.
"I thought she threw it at your head," said Chuck.
"The scar was from the make-up sex afterwards," said Demetrios with a smirk and a wink.
Morgan wanted to get Lou away from the conversation and said, "Thanks for the drink, Stavros. I think Lou and I are going to dance now." He started to get up.
Stavros leaned over and grasped Morgan's shoulder. He said, "No, stay. At least finish your wine. Wow. You are a tiny man, Marvin."
Morgan shrugged and said, "Morgan. My name is Morgan."
"Do you ever get stepped on? Cause tiny things sometimes get stepped on."
"No. Not too often. Do you ever play Mortal Combat, Stavros? The video game Mortal Combat? They have something there called a caltrop. It's really small, but if you try to step on it it's really fucking painful. So, people learn to leave it alone. See?" Morgan took Lou's hand and said, "Come on, honey, let's go dance."
In their ears Sarah and Chuck heard Casey say, "Holy shit. The hobbit has stones. Who knew?"
Lou seemed more than happy to get away while Chuck and Sarah stayed to talk with Demetrios. This was their opportunity, the reason for the visit to the club. They forced themselves to ignore how rude Demetrios had been to Morgan.
"This wine is really good, Stavros. What did you call it again?" he asked. Chuck found that he actually quite liked the strong taste of the resinated wine. It was a very distinct flavor.
"It's called retsina. I'm glad you like it." he said, pouring a little more into Chuck's glass. "This variety comes from a winery owned by my family on Euboea," said Demetrios.
"Where's that?" asked Sarah, although she knew.
"It's off the east coast of Greece. It's the second largest island in the country," said Demetrios.
"Do you get back often? To visit family, I mean," asked Chuck.
"Sometimes. But I don't want to talk about me. I'm boring. Tell me about you, Sarah. I want to know every little secret," he said, looking at her intently.
She laughed and said, "Wow, Stavros. If you think jet setting to Greece to your family's winery is boring, you're really going to fall asleep in your seat when I tell you about me. First off, Chuck and I are on a mission tonight. We had an ulterior motive for coming to the club. I leaned on Lou to bring us and introduce us to you." She reached into her purse and removed a computer disk. "We wanted to give you this. It's a demo tape of our friend doing a DJ gig. He'd love to get part time work at clubs and has been knocking on doors." She handed him the disk. It was actually blank, but if he ever did look at it (unlikely) she could just claim that she had made a mistake and given him the wrong disk by accident. He put it on the table, next to the bottle of retsina. "But as for my really exciting life? I sell hot dogs at the mall near Lou's deli. Very thrilling. And I come home smelling of grease. And not the really exciting Greece that you were talking about. The grease that they use in a deep fryer. So, please tell us more about your family in Greece, just to avoid all of us having to listen to me ramble on about corndogs."
Demetrios laughed and said, "A woman of your beauty would make even a discussion of corndogs fascinating. How about you, Chuck? What do you do?"
"I work near Sarah and Lou in the mall. I repair computers and phones, stuff like that."
"You repair computers?"
"Yeah, I'm part of the Nerd Herd at the Buy More. That's how I met both Lou and Sarah."
"Because our computers tonight are all messed up," said Demetrios with a mix of frustration and newfound hope.
"What's wrong?" asked Chuck.
"I don't know. Every time we enter something the screen starts to blink. And the machines are very slow. It's a big problem. Look at the bar. It's crazy tonight."
"Ah, that's the Gemini virus. The blink gives it away. It's easy to fix. You should call the Nerd Herd in the morning and they'll send someone over to take a look at it. It's not a big deal," said Chuck.
"Can you do it?" asked Demetrios.
"Sure. When you call, ask for me. They'll send me over..." said Chuck.
"No, I mean tonight. Now? Can you do it now, please?" asked Demetrios.
"Now?" Chuck looked at Sarah, as if asking permission.
Sarah smiled at him and said, "It won't take you too long, honey. Come on. I tell you what, Stavros and I will come and keep you company while you do it. We'll just chat quietly and not bother you."
"You sure? It's no fun to watch me work," he said.
"Sure. Come on," she grabbed his hand and stood up.
Demetrios stood and said, "Thank you, Chuck. Do you need our server room?"
"No, just a quiet office would be fine. Some place with a terminal connected to the network," replied Chuck.
Chuck saw Morgan and Lou dancing and apparently having a good time. He stopped on the way across the room to tell them that he was going in the back to work on Demetrios' computers. Morgan nodded, but rolled his eyes. Demetrios led them through a door marked "Staff" and down a long corridor. The farther they got from the dancefloor the quieter the noise became. They came to a door marked "Office" which Demetrios opened and gestured for them to enter. Closing the door, the music was barely audible, merely a deep base thrum that was transmitted through the building's structure itself. Demetrios indicated the computer on a corner of the desk. Chuck sat in Demetrios' desk chair and spun the computer around, telling Demetrios, "Please enter your password. I don't want to know it." Demetrios did so and spun the computer back around to Chuck.
"Thanks for this, Chuck," he said. "I owe you big time if this works out."
"Oh, don't you worry, Stavros. I'll take care of it. No problem." Chuck spoke with the utmost confidence, as was to be expected, since he had installed the virus himself that afternoon through the Club Ares website.
They had not gotten the FISA warrant for Demetrios. The NSA lawyers did not believe there was sufficient evidence of a connection to his father's smuggling business to merit going before the FISA Court. They had an almost perfect record of getting the Court's approval to their requests. Rather than the Court being merely a rubber stamp for the intelligence agencies, the explanation for that exemplary record was their own self-policing. They simply did not bring to the Court questionable requests. Chuck did not have permission to search Demetrios' computer, even at that moment when sitting in front of it at his desk. He had installed the virus merely to give them an opportunity to talk to Demetrios for an extended period of time. The removal of the virus would take as long as necessary and no longer.
Sarah said, "You good, honey?"
"Yup." He waved a hand at them and genially said, "Talk between yourselves. Ignore me."
Sarah was walking around the room looking at the pictures on the wall. Many were celebrities smiling with Demetrios at the Club, but a few appeared to be family. She pointed to a picture of Demetrios as a child with Yari Demetrios and a sailboat. "Your dad?" she asked with a smile.
"Yes. That was taken off one of the islands. He was teaching me to sail. We still have that sailboat, I think." The look on his face as he talked about his dad spoke volumes. It was clear to Sarah that Stavros loved his father very much.
"Do you still sail?" she asked.
"No. Not really. The family business is shipping, but I don't get a chance to sail myself too much."
"Shipping? Like Fed Ex?"
"No, shipping like ships on the water."
"Oh. That's interesting. Are you involved or do you just run the club?...Oh, I'm sorry, that came out wrong. I didn't mean to minimize running the club," she said.
He chuckled. "It's ok. No, I'm not involved in the family business. I have an older brother that has embraced it. I didn't want to live in his shadow, so I left that business to him and started a club on the other side of the world."
"How does the shipping business work?"
"It's not that complicated at its core. You pick up a package someplace and you bring it to a different place. It is like Fed Ex, except over water, I guess."
"Does your brother pester you with stuff about the family business? Try to get you involved?"
"No, he's more than happy to run it with my father. I hang with him when he's here to visit or when I go back to Greece, but otherwise he leaves me alone," said Demetrios.
"Do you go home to visit often?" she asked. She was smiling at him and looking at him with total concentration, as if what he had to tell her was the most fascinating thing she had ever heard.
"A few times a year. And my family comes over to visit me sometimes. My dad is coming to New York tomorrow and wants me to visit him there, but I'm going to have to miss him this time around. We have a big Thanksgiving event here that I have to prepare for. I'll catch him another time."
"What's he doing in New York," asked Sarah.
"Oh, just business. Meeting an important customer with a delivery. Nothing too exciting," said Demetrios.
Chuck and Sarah heard, in their ears, Casey say "Bingo."
"Must be an important delivery for him to come all the way over to New York," said Sarah.
Demetrios shrugged, "I guess so. I don't know anything about it. Probably something breakable or expensive or something." Sarah had had decades of experience lying and being lied to. She was an expert at reading non-verbal cues. She believed him when he said that he didn't know about the package.
"How many ships does your family own?" asked Sarah, although she knew the answer from Chuck's briefing earlier in the day.
"We have sixty-three ships and another one coming soon from a shipyard in South Korea. Not the largest fleet, but my dad started it from nothing. I'm pretty proud of him," said Demetrios.
Sarah giggled. "Sixty-three! My God, how do you name them all? Do you and your family take turns?"
"Ha. No. That's my mom. She names every ship we have. Names them after her children. My niece and nephew. Her cousins. Any sort of family. It's all on her."
"So, there's a Stavros ship running around? I mean sailing around."
"Oh, sure. One of the older ones," he said.
"Well, what are some of the other names? The one your dad is meeting tomorrow, for example. What's that ship named?"
"That's the Militos. Named after my nephew."
In their ear, they heard Casey say, "Outstanding, Walker. I'm transmitting the info to the team in New York right now. Well done, guys."
Chuck caught Sarah's eye. She nodded her head a tiny bit.
Chuck pressed a button on the keyboard and said, "Done here. Network fixed. You are good to go, Stavros. Check with the bar. See what they tell you."
Demetrios called the bar on the house phone and was told that the computers had suddenly started to work perfectly. "Chuck, you are a lifesaver. I can't thank you enough." He shook Chuck's hand gratefully.
"Stavros, you introduced me to retsina. I think we are even. I'm going to be looking for that on menus from now on."
"Oh, you'll only find it in Greek restaurants, but I'm so glad you like it. Take a bottle home with you. Let me know if you want a recommendation for the best Greek food in LA. The place is owned by a friend of mine."
"I sure will," said Chuck.
"It was really nice to meet you, Stavros. Don't forget my friend's demo. He'd love the work," said Sarah, as they were leaving the office and heading toward the dance floor. As the music got louder and louder it became harder to hear each other.
"You are both welcome here any time. I'll let the guys at the door know. And drinks tonight are on me. Chuck saved my ass," he said.
"You're welcome. And thank you," she said.
They stayed and danced for another hour or so, to keep up appearances, then left the club. Casey was grateful for the relatively early night and happy to get out of the van.
Driving back to Echo Park, Lou and Sarah got into a conversation about the new apartment that she and Chuck would be taking. Lou was enthusiastic about some of Sarah's design ideas, so they decided to spend a few minutes looking at the empty apartment.
Sarah stopped in front of the door to what would soon be her apartment with Chuck, next to Ellie and Devon's apartment and directly across the courtyard from Casey's. "We don't take it until January 1. The landlord is installing new appliances and painting the place."
"What colors?" asked Lou.
"Haven't decided yet. Chuck's sister, Ellie, and I are meeting in the manager's office next week to look at those paint color strips. Anyway...I don't have a key yet."
She took a credit card from her purse and fit it between the door and the door jam until it met the bolt. Maneuvering the card around to get behind the curved part of the bolt, she easily opened the door to the empty apartment. "One of the first things we're doing is getting better locks." Lou laughed.
The apartment seemed larger now that it was empty of furniture. Sarah began to talk with excitement about her layout and design ideas. Lou eagerly participated and voiced opinions of her own.
Sarah and Lou were still talking about design elements and ideas when Chuck noticed that Morgan had disappeared. He went out to look for his buddy and found him sitting on the edge of the fountain, seemingly lost in thought.
Chuck sat next to him and said, "Hey, buddy. Everything ok? You seem...I don't know, pre-occupied or something. Was it Stavros? From the club? He was pretty rude to you."
"Naw, man. I haven't given that tool a second thought. Everything is good. I'm just thinking, that's all," said Morgan.
"I've warned you about thinking before, you know," said Chuck with a smile.
Morgan smiled a wan little smile and said, "Yeah. Nothing good comes of it. Don't I know it."
"Want to share?"
"It's the apartment. Your new apartment. It's got me thinking about you, about you and Sarah, and me," Morgan said.
"Oh?" Chuck said, curious.
"Things are really good for you, for you both, together. I'm really happy for you," he said.
"Jeez, Morg. I've never heard those words sound glum before," said Chuck.
"No. Not glum. Not about you. I'm happy for you. Both. I really am. Things are starting to work out for you. You are getting out of the rut you were in for years after Stanford. It's great," said Morgan.
"Why do I hear an unspoken 'but' at the end of that sentence?" asked Chuck.
Morgan let out a long sigh and stared at nothing for a long time, his bearded face serious. Finally, he said, "We've been best friends since I knew what those words meant. A long time. Han and Chewie. Together. And then you went to Stanford and you left me behind. I was so happy for you. You'd worked so hard for it and wanted it so much. I had always known you could do it. You were...you are...way smarter than me. Way, way smarter. I knew this was right, you know? The right thing. But I was here, without you. I mean, I'd see you on breaks and stuff and you'd be so excited about school and classes and new friends and Bryce and you had a girlfriend and everything. Like a real exciting awesome life. It was wonderful. And I was stocking shelves at the Buy More and living with my mom. It was really rough on me, but I dealt with it. I missed you. I figured out how to deal with it and I dealt with it. But I still missed you and knew you were going where I couldn't go. In your life, I mean. And then, one day, everything for you turned to shit. That douchebag Bryce framed you and Jill dumped you and you came back. You came back in disgrace and got a job at the Buy More and were living with Ellie again. We were back together. You see, you were a loser, like me. And...and..." Morgan pulled at his beard and didn't look at Chuck. "And some little tiny part of me that I'm totally ashamed of...was happy...cause I wasn't alone in my loserdom anymore. I had you back with me. We were losers together."
Chuck squeezed his forearm and said, "Aw, Morg."
Morgan looked at him with a little smile and a shrug, "So we were both working at the Buy More and I was still living with my mom and you were living with your sister...it was so easy... and neither of us had girlfriends and we could play all the video games we wanted to and hang out and watch movies and...and...I'm sorry, Chuck. I'm sorry I was happy to have you back. Your life was destroyed and I was being selfish."
"No, buddy. Not at all. You were so helpful and supportive through all of that. You kept my mind off all the shitty stuff. Kept me distracted. You've been a great friend. A great best friend."
"Well, thanks. It's an easy job and I'm happy to do it. But the thing is, it's happening again. You're leaving me again...leaving me behind. It started when Sarah came into your life. In an instant, your whole attitude changed. You started to grow up. You're not a loser anymore, Chuck. Things got better. You got better. You've been getting in shape, working out. There's a spring in your step. You have more confidence. You aren't so passive anymore. And you got your degree from Stanford, congratulations again on that, by the way, and you and Sarah are moving in together...which is just wonderful...but, I always thought it would be us. You know? I always thought we'd get a bachelor place together. It's good though. I'm not jealous or anything. It's great. I'm really happy for you, for you and Sarah. You two crazy kids make each other so happy and it's a joy to see it.
"It's me, you see?. You are leaving me behind again, and you should be. So, I'm not unhappy about what you are up to. Not at all. I love you and you know that. But I'm rethinking me...my life. It's like I'm a manchild. I'm 27 years old living in Los Angeles and I don't own a car. Do you have any idea of just how fucked up that is? I mean seriously, what the fuck? As your life improves it just highlights my … stagnation. You are moving on and I'm still here, still stacking shelves at the Buy More for almost a decade now. I have to have a serious think, dude. What am I doing with my life?"
"Any answers?" asked Chuck.
"Not in the five minutes I was sitting here, no. But I'm going to be working on it." He gave Chuck a small grin. "First I have to figure out the questions."
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A/N3: A kind of a talky chapter, but much closer to how spies really work. If you liked it, or not, let me know. Love to hear from you folks.
A/N4: Anybody here also on Facebook? There's a Chuck Fanfiction group page. Join up and chat with fellow readers and writers. The more the merrier.