A/N1: Bill Gates owns a lot, but he doesn't own Chuck.
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The next morning, Chuck and Sarah were in Casey's apartment, sitting at his table while he made pancakes. Sarah took a sip of her coffee and said, "Last night with the Gates's. It was very nice. Not at all what I expected."
"How so?" asked Casey, ladling batter into the pan.
"Mostly what they didn't talk about. They didn't press us in the slightest to sell CI to Microsoft. No hard sell at all. In fact, they were really nice," she said.
"I thought that was the point of dinner, to convince us to sell," said Casey, surprised.
"We thought so too, but I guess not," said Sarah.
"I think he knows about the spy stuff, Case," said Chuck. "He said he understood the hesitancy to sell the company. And, in the next sentence, made reference to our government work."
"The government contracts?" asked Casey, flipping some pancakes.
"That's what it sounded like. If there was a transcript, that's how it would read. But his tone of voice. The look on his face. I don't know. It seemed to me like he knows."
"Walker, what did you think?" Casey asked.
"I agree with Chuck. Nothing definitive. Nothing to point to, but my gut tells me he knows. Not a huge surprise. He's an incredibly influential guy. Must have a ton of very connected friends."
"Yeah," grumped Casey. "And we haven't exactly been tight as a drum with our secret identities. Hell, a couple of smart cops figured it out last month."
"Did you just say 'secret identities'? Have you been reading my comic books when you come over to visit?"
"Can it, Moron. I wasn't hatched, you know," growled Casey, bringing a heaping plate of pancakes to the table. "So, their offer is off the table?"
"He didn't say one way or the other. I think it's probably still there, but they won't press it. Sounds like he'll tell them to lay off for a while. Maybe if we ever retire from spying, they'll come at us again," said Sarah, with a shrug.
"So, what did you talk about?"
Chuck said, "They wanted to talk about the Carmichael Foundation. They spent a lot of time telling us how the Gates Foundation works. How it makes the decisions about where to put its charitable contributions. They have a whole staff of experts to work with grantees and prospective grantees. When they fund some pilot project they watch it really closely and, if it seems to be working out, they might start to scale it up. That's just an example of how they go about disbursing the funds. It's actually really smart and cool."
"It all sounded very professional, to be honest," said Sarah. "We're a bit haphazard ourselves right now. Funding things that catch our eye and throwing money in that direction. If we intend to keep growing the Carmichael Foundation to handle more and more charitable giving, we might want to think about doing something more serious. Maybe hiring a staff or something."
"Probably, but we want to be careful with that," said Casey. "Too many charities burn up the donations with their own operating expenses. Paying for the CEO's private jet and other crap like that."
"Fair point," said Chuck. "We aren't there yet anyway. But as time goes by, as we keep funding the Foundation, it may be a situation we'll have to face."
"Tomorrow," said Casey.
"Yeah. Little busy now with wedding planning," said Sarah. "By the way, guys, I'm not going to Castle until the afternoon. Ellie asked me to head over to Culver City and proof the invitations."
"Oh, Dad's heading over to Crenshaw this morning. There's an electronics store he needs to visit. Pick up some circuits or something."
"I can drive him," said Sarah. "But long term, I see no reason we can't let him work out of Castle. Your workbench seems to have a lot of stuff he could use."
"Yeah. That's a good idea. What do you think, Case?" asked Chuck.
"He knows about Carmichael and the rest of it already. Not a secret from him. Hell, he's probably read all our files and whatnot, given his proficiency with computers. All the really, really secret shit is known to him already. So, yeah, I don't see why we can't let him come downstairs."
"Ok, then. Maybe I'll talk to him about it tonight at dinner. Some of the things he's working on with Ellie are leading him to want to build some equipment. Our guest room isn't the ideal workshop for Orion's Intersect work. Castle is much more practical."
"And more secure," said Casey.
"Ok, then," said Sarah.
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"Thank you for giving me a lift, Sarah," said Stephen.
"Happy to."
The Porsche pulled away and headed south.
"It gives me a chance to talk with you alone," she continued. She was a little nervous, but had rehearsed what she wanted to say.
"Uh, oh," he said quietly.
"I heard you last night. I heard you say to Chuck that he couldn't trust me and I heard what he said to you in response," she said.
"Sarah, I..." he began.
She took a hand off the steering wheel and waved it at Chuck's dad to hush him. "No, no, no. Let me finish, please. You don't trust me. I understand and I don't blame you. I really don't. You're sort of right, actually. I'm a CIA agent, trained to lie without a tell. And it's worse than that even. I was raised by a conman father and have been lying my entire life. I'm exceptionally good at it. If I lie to you, you will never know it.
"Here and now, I could swear to you that I wouldn't lie to you. I'll hold my hand over my heart and swear that I'll tell you the truth, but that doesn't do anything at all. Right? That's exactly what any liar would say. For that reason, I'm not going to bother with that.
"So, here's the thing, Stephen. I'm going to tell you some things right now that you won't necessarily believe, but I'm going to tell them to you anyway.
"Your son is the most wonderful man I've ever met. He's kind, generous, strong, moral, caring, romantic, brilliant, and hysterically funny. I fell in love with your son on our first date. I didn't know it for months afterward though. I'd never been in love before, you see. I'd been in relationships, sure. I wasn't a nun. But love...no. And, what's more, I didn't even really believe in love. I didn't believe it existed. My parents split when I was young and my dad raised me to think it was all a bunch of bullshit. My friends saw it...saw that I was in love with Chuck, but I kept denying it. Spies don't fall in love is what we tell ourselves. It's like a stupid mantra we have." Sarah shook her head ruefully. Stephen was watching her intently.
"But then it happened to me. Confused the hell out of me. Scared me a little too, to be honest. It happened. And not the kind of love like, 'yeah, been together a while and I guess we love each other'. No, it was like getting run over by a freaking freight train. It was like that. And it's just gotten better and more powerful in the last year, until now it's indescribably joyful." Sarah grinned at the older man.
"When I realized what had happened, that I was in love with Chuck. Really, really in love, well, shit. Honestly, it changed everything in my life. Everything. My career had been the most important thing to me, but now the most important thing became Chuck. And he is. He is the most important thing in the world to me. I love him more than I can even find the words to try to tell you. We are going to be married and be together forever and ever and it makes me so incredibly happy I just want to pop. I'm going to have his children, your grandchildren, and we're going to raise them to be wonderful happy people. As many kids as he wants. The only way, the only way, I am ever leaving Chuck is if he sends me away. No one and nothing will ever separate us. And if, God forbid, it happened and I was alone again, I would die. I'm not being melodramatic here. I would die from suffocation. You see, your son is the air that I breathe and without him there's nothing.
"I know you have bad experiences with the CIA. Ok. I get that. Stephen, if Chuck wanted me to quit the CIA I would do so in a heartbeat. If he wanted me to move to Siberia with him, I'd buy us some long underwear and pack a bag. I don't care. I will do anything with my life, so long as I'm with him.
"Shit, this is coming out wrong. It sounds like I'm subservient to him and that's not what I mean to say. Sounded better in my head." She gave a little laugh at herself. "What I want to say is he would do the same for me. We would do anything for each other. Without question. Before I met your son, I was just a spy. With him, I can be and do anything I want. Anything we want together. I can even be a real woman. I can be a wife and one day a mother. I can do those things that I never ever dreamed I could. And the only reason I can even think that way is because I'm with Chuck."
Sarah paused a bit and held up a single finger. "One more thing, last night Chuck mentioned Langston Graham, the CIA Director. When my dad went to prison, Langston took me into his family. Treated me as another one of his children. His daughter Karen is one of my best friends and his son Kevin will be one of Chuck's groomsmen. Langston got me through college on a CIA scholarship. He's been my boss since I started working as a spy. He's like my foster father, really. When he was going to propose, Chuck went to him and asked for his blessing." At the memory, Sarah started to tear up a bit and wiped a tear away from her cheek. "Langston will walk me down the aisle at the wedding in a couple of months. That's why Chuck told you he trusts Langston. It's not a work thing. It's a family thing … with Langston and his family.
"I started this rant by saying you shouldn't believe me, and that's still true. But, I'm going to ask you to do two things for me. Please remember what I told you today and please watch what I do. You might not believe my words, but watch what I do. My actions. I'm not asking for the benefit of the doubt. Not at all. But watch what I do. Can you do those things for me, please?"
"Yes, Sarah. I can do that," said Stephen quietly. He was studying her as if he'd never seen her before, his eyes soft, a very small smile on his face.
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Chuck parked in the parking lot of Castle Studios and walked towards the office building. As was usual for this time of day, a long line of visitors snaked out from one side of the building, waiting to buy tickets for the Studio tour.
"Chuck," yelled Zondra catching up with him.
"Hey. Morning, Zee," he said.
"How was last night?" she asked, coming abreast and falling into step with him.
"Interesting. Spent a lot of time talking about the Gates Foundation and the charity they disburse," said Chuck. "It really wasn't what I'd expected."
"Well, I did hear that they take that very seriously," said Zondra. "The newspapers say they put a lot of thought and effort into their charitable giving."
One of the women on the line for the tour had been looking at Chuck and Zondra and, as Chuck turned his gaze in her direction, she looked away suddenly. The sudden movement caught his eye and he looked at the woman more closely.
She had short blonde hair and sunglasses. She was wearing a yellow sundress and carried a Castle Studios map in one hand, with a small purse slung over her shoulder.
Chuck stopped dead in his tracks and spun to put his back to the woman.
"Zee, listen to me. The blonde in the yellow dress on line?" Zondra nodded that she saw the woman. "That's Jill Roberts. I don't know what she's doing here, but we have to take her."
"Are you sure? Short blonde hair this time," said Zondra.
"We dated for years. I'm sure," he said.
Chuck was thinking about the best way to get Jill separated from the crowd of civilians when Zondra said, "Shit. She's bolted. She knows we made her."
Dropping her bag at Chuck's feet, Zondra took off after the woman in yellow. Chuck considered following her and participating in the chase, but decided that he would be more useful with other tasks.
Picking up Zondra's work bag, Chuck ran in the other direction to the head of the line of visitors. There was a uniformed Studio security guard there with a nameplate reading Perkins. Chuck pulled him aside, out of earshot of the members of the public.
"The woman who ran from the line..."
"Yeah," said the man.
"She's a wanted felon. Almost certainly armed. Alert all your other guys. Let them all know to call you when they see her, but under no circumstances approach her or try to stop her. And tell them not to let her leave the Studio grounds if they can help it. You got it?"
"Who are you? I've seen you around, but..."
"My name is Carmichael. I'm a tenant upstairs. But that isn't something to worry about at the moment, Mr. Perkins. This is an emergency. You've got to trust me."
Perkins seemed to consider for a moment, but Chuck's demeanor convinced him. He said, "LAPD?"
"Maybe, but one of my people is chasing her down right now. Let's see how that works." Chuck didn't want to alert the police if he could help it. The attention that would bring to the Studio might be hard to downplay. He recognized that things could get out of hand, and the police might be needed, but, if he could, he wanted to handle this more quietly.
While Perkins was alerting the rest of the Studio's security force, Chuck called both Fitz and Colt and told each of them what was happening and to alert their teams just in case. When he had a location for the fleeing woman, he'd let them know if they'd be needed.
Then he called Ben Mattock and told him what was going on, confident he'd let Lisa know. Finally, he used the communicator in his watch to alert Casey (a few minutes behind him, driving from Echo Park), Sarah (at the printer's shop in Crenshaw), and Bryce (on location with Jeff Barnes).
Perkins said, "She's on French Street and turning on New York Street. Your friend is catching up."
"Thanks," said Chuck. Waiting.
In his ear he heard Zondra say, "Got her."
Perkins said, "Your friend got her. Now can I call the police?"
"No need now. We'll take care of it. Thanks for your help. And thank your guys for me," he said.
"But..." began Perkins.
Chuck turned away and said to Zondra, "Where are you?"
"I'm near the garage. I'll be bringing her down through that entrance."
"Ok. I'll meet you in Castle. Good job, Flash," he said.
"Thanks, Boss," she said.
Standing in front of the office building, he called Ben and told him that Roberts had been caught and asked him to please deal with any questions the Studio's security force might have (not all of them were spies). He called Colt and Fitz and told them to stand down, as Zondra had gotten Roberts. Finally, he let Sarah, Casey and Bryce know what had happened. All of them wanted to talk to Jill in one of the interrogation rooms at Castle.
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Jill Roberts turned the corner of some stupid fake street in the studio, running hard. Chuck and the Rizzo woman had spotted her immediately and she thought it best to run. She knew she was fit and fast, but it seemed that Rizzo was too.
She brushed past some workers hammering pieces of wood to the side of a building. The men ignored her. She supposed it made sense for the Carmichael team to base themselves at a movie studio. No matter what insanity they brought to their spy base, everyone would pass it off as part of a production.
The next corner brought her up short as it was an alley with a dead end. She skidded to a stop and began to open her purse for her weapon. Rizzo came around the corner a moment later with her pistol already in her hand.
With no choice, Jill dropped her bag and raised her hands in surrender.
"What in God's name brought you here, Roberts? You have a fucking death wish or something?" asked Zondra.
"I wanted to see Chuck again. I needed to explain," said Jill, dispirited.
"Well, I guess you'll have a chance to do that," said Zondra. "Pretty half-assed disguise, though." Roberts just shrugged.
Zondra touched her watch and said, "Got her."
In her ear she heard Chuck say, "Where are you?"
"I'm near the garage. I'll be bringing her down through that entrance."
"Ok. I'll meet you in Castle. Good job, Flash," Chuck said.
"Thanks, Boss," said Zondra with a grin. "Ok," she said to Roberts, who still had her hands raised at the point of Zondra's pistol. "Up against the wall. Lean forward, hands braced."
Quickly, Zondra searched Roberts. With the light sundress she wore there weren't very many places to hide weapons. She picked up the other woman's purse and found a compact German Walther PPS 9mm pistol, which she put into a pocket of her jacket.
From an inside pocket of the same jacket, Zondra took a zip tie, which she used to bind Roberts' hands behind her back. Holding the other woman by an arm, and keeping her gun in her hand, she walked them both to a garage type building with a huge sliding door.
Zondra turned Roberts away and entered a code to open a normal door next to the large slider. When they stepped through Zondra reached to the side and turned on the lights. The building was crowded with vehicles for the use of the Carmichael team (and their related teams). At the far end of the large room was a single door.
Zondra brought Roberts to the door and entered another code to open it. Once open, she led Roberts down a flight of stairs. At the foot of the stairs was another locked door requiring a code. Within moments, Jill Roberts was inside Castle.
Still holding Roberts by the elebow, Zondra led her to one of their holding cells and pushed her inside.
"Turn around," she said.
When Roberts did so, Zondra clipped the zip ties off, releasing Roberts' hands.
Stepping out of the cell herself, Zondra closed it with a push of a button on the side of the door. The clear glass door slid shut on Roberts. She sat on the single bunk and looked around the bare room with the glass walls. She spotted the camera pointed into the cell. With her back to the camera, she smiled.
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A/N2: Stephen's distrust of Casey and Sarah. In New Day it's totally misplaced. But the AU I've been playing in for more than four years now isn't canon. Hell, in canon Graham ordered Chuck murdered and Casey was a whisker away from carrying out that illegal order. And, in First Kill Casey is fully prepared to bunker Chuck and Sarah is almost prepared to betray Chuck for the same purpose. Stephen was wrong in canon in not trusting Sarah, but right in not trusting Casey. And frankly, his distrust of Sarah in canon, while wrong, wasn't at all unreasonable given the way it all played out.
A/N3: Jill's in custody in Castle. That's good, right? Right? Let me know what you guys are thinking.