A/N1: Perhaps Morgan owns Chuck. That would explain a lot.

A/N2: Welcome to the thirty-fourth arc of New Day which I'm calling the Crawford Arc. It's sort of based on Chuck versus the Fat Lady. A great deal of that particular episode revolved around Sarah and Jill's jealousy of one another. Obviously, not so here. In fact, Jill doesn't even make an appearance in this arc. But let's see what we can do with the episode anyway. As I sometimes do, I'm going to spend a chapter or two catching up with the lives of some supporting characters and subplots in this AU.

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Teddy Olson was upset. He was sure his wife was having an affair with that prick next door, Trey Marks. Smarmy, handsome, young, the skinny bastard always had money and always flashed it on the ladies. Teddy thought Trey might be dealing drugs. Christ knows his job at the garage wouldn't pay enough for him to have that much green.

And he'd seen the way Cindy looked at him when they were together. The little side glances. The small smiles. And the smirks that the little prick threw his way, like he had a secret that he was keeping to himself. Teddy knew something was happening, he just couldn't prove it yet. Yet. But he would. He wouldn't let them cuckold him. No fucking way.

One of the biggest problems was his job. As a long-haul trucker, he was away on the road for long stretches. He had no way to keep an eye on his wayward wife.

That was why he put tracker software on her phone without telling her. It was a way to tell if she was over at Marks' house. Or in some fleabag motel. Or somewhere else that cheaters went to do those filthy things. He knew he was obsessing over this, but like a dog gnawing on a bone, he couldn't get his mind off it.

His growl of anger was swallowed by the noise of the 270 horsepower Mack F747T as he pushed his 70,000 pound eighteen-wheeler over the crest of the hill.

Where was she now?, he wondered. His eyes flicked to his phone on the console then glanced at the clock on his dashboard. One in the afternoon. Lunchtime. Was she with a friend or two at a burger place near her office or was she in some motel with that asshole?

He grabbed his phone and pulled up the tracker app one handed. Almost at the same moment that the tracker came alive, he glanced outside and saw a car in front of him, trying to cross the intersection. He hit it squarely on the driver's side at fifty-three miles per hour and heard the crunch of metal and the screech of tortured rubber. The sounds went on and on as he jammed his foot on the brake pedal and the brake onto the floor of the cab.

"SHIT," he screamed.

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Walking into the Burbank Buy More Morgan said, "I think this is the first time we've been back here together in months."

"Yeah. I think that's right," said Chuck. "Last winter, maybe. Feel weird?"

"Little. I have an urge to straighten the products on the shelves," he said.

"Why? You didn't do it when you worked here," said Chuck, with a laugh.

"True dat," said Morgan. "I was the pinnacle of work-avoidance. The master. No one could even approach my levels." He paused. "Maybe old Jeff came close, but with him it wasn't conscious, so it doesn't count."

"And here you are working your ass off for Jackie," said Chuck with a smile.

"Yeah," replied Morgan. "And honestly,…"

"MORGAN?" bellowed Lester. "CHUCK?"

"Hey, dude" said Chuck. "What's up?"

Lester came over from behind the Nerd Herd desk and greeted his friends.

"The usual is up, Chuck. Just trying to keep the huddled masses' computers and electronic devices from self-destruction and the resultant collapse of Western..."

"PATEL!" yelled a woman's voice.

Lester's eyes went wide and he jumped a little, "Anna...yes, Anna," he said nervously.

Anna Wu marched up and said, "The phone at the Nerd Herd desk has been ringing for seven rings now. If it gets to ten you are spending all night in the cage repairing the crap back there."

Lester leaped backwards towards the desk and snatched up the phone from its cradle on the ninth ring.

Anna looked at Chuck and Morgan and said, "Hi, guys." She gave each of them quick hugs.

"Hi, Anna. I knew you'd be the right one to take my job," said Chuck.

"Like herding cats, but with a whip," said Anna with a grin. She turned to Morgan and said, "Look at you. You look great. Really great. What have you been up to? Still at Jackie's place?"

"Yeah. It's terrific. I'm having a great time," said Morgan, nodding.

"I should stop by there more often. Hang out with you. Say hi," she said, giving him a look.

"That would be great," he said.

"What can I get you guys?" she asked.

"We're here to pick up Morgan's new TV. It won't fit in his car, so I drove him," said Chuck.

"OK. Sure. Let me go in back and get it. You have the order number?" she asked.

Morgan gave her a piece of paper and she said, "Just a minute."

While they were waiting Big Mike came out and saw them, "Never thought I'd say it, but what would it take to get you two knuckleheads back here? The place hasn't been the same without you."

"Sorry, Big Mike. Our other gigs are working out pretty well, honestly," said Chuck.

"Yeah. Your biz is doing great, I hear. And you, Morgan, are doing great at Jackie's. The last time I was there I had the steak and, my God, you can make a good piece of meat, Grimes. Just wonderful."

"Thanks, Big Mike. Come by tonight. I have some Alaskan salmon I found this morning at the fish market."

"I just might do that," said Mike.

As he said it, two greenshirts, led by Anna, came out wheeling a trolley with a large box on it containing Morgan's new TV.

Chuck and Morgan thanked everyone and went to Chuck's car.

A half hour later, they were sitting in an Applebee's with beers in front of them, waiting for their sandwiches.

"You don't have to buy me lunch, little buddy," said Chuck.

"No worries. You didn't have to drive me around this morning," said Morgan with a shrug, taking a sip of his beer.

"What friends are for," said Chuck. "Speaking of which, I think Anna likes you."

"What? Anna? No. Come on," said Morgan, scoffing.

"Naw. I saw the way she looked at you," said Chuck.

"Well, we are a matched pair when it comes to stature." Both men laughed. "But other than that I don't think so. Anyway, I still have a girlfriend."

"Yeah, that's right. How are things with Lou?" asked Chuck.

Morgan took a drink and made a face, "Not bad but not good either. When she first left for New York, we talked every day. Now it's down to once a week or so. The most communication we seem to manage is to text each other little jokes most days. You know...thought you'd like this...pretty funny, huh?...or laughing emojis. I don't know. It feels like we're drifting apart."

"I'm sorry, Morgs," said Chuck.

"Thanks. I guess I am too. But...I'm also not, if that makes any sense. I really like Lou. I liked being with her and laughing and sex and hanging out...I just liked being around her. But...I don't know. I see you and Sarah together, and, dude, it's a high bar. Lou and I didn't come close. That kind of once in a lifetime soulmate love that you and Sarah have with each other. Lou and I aren't like that. I don't even know if we were in love at all, to be honest. And now with her on the other side of the country...I don't think we'll be together too much longer. I mean, we'll part as friends and blah, blah, blah, but I think we'll part and neither one of us will be truly heartbroken. I'm not casting her aside...and I sort of hope that she breaks up with me, so I won't feel guilty. But I sort of think it's inevitable."

"I hear you. Those long-distance relationships are supposed to be really hard. Especially with both of you working so much."

"Yeah, we both are. She's putting in very long hours to get her dad's hotel up and running and I'm working my tail off at the restaurant," said Morgan.

"You are. I know. What's the latest?"

"Jackie is coming in less and less the last couple of months, leaving me to run the place," he said.

"Is that good?"

"Yeah. I mean, I still call him all the time to get his advice and stuff. He's been doing this for decades after all. It's not like I feel put upon or anything. I'm coming up with ideas for running the place and Jackie always says go-for-it. Doesn't second-guess me. Let's me do my thing. It's kind of fun...naw, it's actually a ton of fun. I'm having a blast."

Their lunch came and they began to eat. Chuck said, "Well, whatever you're doing seems to be working pretty well. You guys are busy."

"Oh yeah. We sure are. We're taking reservations weeks in advance and we are turning the tables three or four times a night. I told Jackie we have to increase everyone's salary by 50% for all the extra work they're doing and he agreed and we're still making money like crazy. He's happier than anything with the way the business is going."

"And still staying away more and letting you run it. Pretty big vote of confidence, Morgs."

"Yeah, I guess so. Damn, I'm so glad I asked him for a job back in February. And I have you to thank for it. Well, you, Sarah and Casey."

"I didn't do anything. This was all you," said Chuck.

"No, no, no. Don't get me wrong. I know what I've done. I'm really proud of myself...shit, I can't remember the last time I ever felt that way. I worked my ass off and had imagination and a good attitude and all of that 'good worker' stuff..." Morgan made air quotes about that stuff. "...but, and it's really a big but, I had my head up my ass so long it seemed to be a hat. A good ten years...more...I was just drifting. But..." Morgan started to choke up a little bit and Chuck laid a strong hand on his arm. "...but when Sarah came into your life, everything changed. You changed and that changed everything else. She brought you out of your post-Stanford funk. Suddenly, you were the old Chuck, but even better. You began to dream about tomorrow and the day after. You hadn't done that in years."

"True," agreed Chuck.

Morgan dropped his voice to little more than a whisper. "And, shit, I'm not even talking about the superhero stuff you do. The saving the world stuff. The stuff to get you the President's recognition in the Oval Fucking Office. I'm not even talking about that stuff." His voice regained its prior normal volume. "Your confidence and energy and enthusiasm came back, but increased by a factor of ten now that Sarah was in your life. You are still the charming, sweet, humble guy you always were, but now you can handle yourself in any situation the world might throw at you and come out on top. You are unbeatable. I truly believe there's nothing you can't accomplish with Sarah and Casey by your side. Nothing at all."

"Morgs..." began Chuck.

Morgan held up a hand and said, "Let me finish. I saw all of that, before I even knew what I was seeing. Before I understood the huge scope of it all, the magnitude. And it rubbed off on me. It did. For no good reason at all, I began to believe in myself. I began to believe in myself for no other reason than that you and Sarah were my friends. Silly reason, right? But that's the way it happened. And now that it did, I find that I was right. Surprise. I'm doing great. I'm looking forward to tomorrow. My head is not just out of my ass, but it's held high.

"People respect me, Chuck. Do you know the last time that happened? Let's try never." He put on a slight grin and said, "Of course, they don't know I'm faking it." He chuckled.

"We all are, buddy," said Chuck.

Morgan tapped Chuck's beer bottle with his own and said, "Let's hope they never catch us."

"Here, here," replied Chuck.

"But you know the craziest thing? I finally respect myself. How crazy is that? And it all happened because Sarah showed up and changed your life and that changed my life." Morgan raised his beer bottle and said, "Here's to you and Sarah. Here's to Charah."

"To Charah," said Chuck.

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Zondra was trapped. There was no way out and she wanted to pound her fists in frustration. She quelled the desire, recognizing the futility of the gesture.

Traffic on I-10 moved forward about ten feet and she moved as well. This was, hands down, the worst part of living in LA. Stuck in traffic. Her car, a cute little Mazda Miata, might be able to outrace any of the cars around her, but not in bumper to bumper traffic.

One of her cell phones rang. She plugged the headphone into her ear and answered it.

"Rizzo," she said.

"Hi, it's Kelly," said Kelly Bennet, one of the reporters looking into the Weinberg sexual assault story.

"Hi, Kell. What's up?"

"Wanted to fill you in. Jinny and I spoke to your friend Marjorie. She, in turn, introduced us to her friends who'd had similar experiences with Weinberg. All told, we spoke, or tried to speak, to almost two dozen women. Many wouldn't talk to us at all, probably because of NDA's and settlements. Some were just afraid of the repercussions on their careers, like Marjorie. But some did talk to us on condition of anonymity. We were able to drop names to move from one to the other, saying that the prior woman had suggested that we reach out."

"Ok. Any prepared to go on the record?" asked Zondra.

"No. Not yet. We're still working on it, but nothing so far. One interesting story, though. Seems that Jennifer Patrick, back before she became rich and famous, had a run in with Weinberg. He tried something and she managed to sort of escape so he wasn't successful."

"Well, that's good," said Zondra.

"Yeah. But that's not the best part of the story. Her boyfriend at the time, Pete Mint, went to Weinberg and flat out threatened to kill him, actually fucking kill him, if he ever made her feel uncomfortable again. And no trouble since."

Zondra started laughing. "Damn. I'm sorry she needed a knight in shining armor, but good for him. I always thought he was hot as hell, but now I like him even more."

"Amen," said Kelly. "You and me both. Just thought I'd share."

"Good one. Thanks. Keep me up to speed," said Zondra.

"You got it," said Kelly.

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A/N3: A few readers have been missing Morgan, so I thought I'd catch up with Chuck's best friend. Doesn't advance the plot too much, but we got to see what was going on with him. Work is good. His relationship with Lou, less so. I figure both of those elements of his life portend his immediate future somewhat.

A/N4: In 1995 Gwyneth Paltrow was sexually harassed by Harvey Weinstein. Shortly thereafter, her boyfriend, Brad Pitt, threatened to kill Weinstein if he ever made her uncomfortable again. It seems Weinberg took the threat seriously and never again bothered her.

A/N5: What does everyone think? Let me know, if you wouldn't mind. I do love to hear from you.