"It's not too late for you to change your mind about driving up with us, you know," Ellie offered, sorting through the clothes she wanted to pack. Chuck faceplanted onto her bed. "Spend some time with Devon and I."
"Oh please," Chuck half propped himself up. "You just don't want to be stuck in a car with Awesome's frat buddies."
Chuck honestly couldn't blame her, the thought of spending five hours with them without a means of escape was nothing short of horrific.
"Maybe," Ellie allowed, folding a pair of jeans. "Or maybe I'm your sister and I care about you. And maybe I'd like to spend some time with you."
"I love you sis," Chuck announced, smiling back at his sister. "And I'd take a lot of bullets for you. But five hours stuck in a car with Awesome and his brahs? That is asking too much." He flopped over, grinning at the ceiling. "Besides, Bryce and I are planning a whole Stanford era road trip. Really leaning into the nostalgia. We've got the snacks, the playlist, we've even talked Sarah into coming along with us."
Ellie hummed in the back of her throat. "Just don't ignore her this weekend."
Chuck felt his frown pull at his eyebrows. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Nothing," Ellie said, turning back to her packing.
Chuck gave her a long look. He knew when she had something she was trying to say without actually saying it.
His sister sighed softly, sitting down by Chuck. "Fine. Don't take this the wrong way, because I know how much you like Sarah, but - sometimes - when you and Bryce are together, it kinda seems like everyone else sort of fades into the background."
"He's my best friend."
"I know."
"And he nearly died."
Chuck really didn't like reminding himself of that fact, but there was no other way to explain the way he and Bryce tended to gravitate towards one another. Not without outing the whole Intersect, superspy thing.
Ellie smiled softly, never judging him. "I know, Chuck."
Chuck propped himself up on his elbows, staring in concern. "I don't ignore you guys, do I?"
"No, Chuck," Ellie reassured him, tapping his chest with the UCLA foam finger Chuck was sure belonged to Awesome. "It's just, you and Bryce have this kind of secret language when you're together and nobody has the translation software."
Chuck guessed she wasn't talking about Klingon, rather the way they could read each other with looks and communicate with the slightest touch. Which was completely normal; he and Bryce had spent four years together, sharing the same room for most of them, often so busy and exhausted they couldn't speak. It only made sense that they'd learned to communicate in other ways.
"He's my best friend," Chuck said again. It was a lame excuse and he knew it, but even he had no words to explain his relationship with Bryce. Except maybe complicated. That one worked.
"I know he is, Chuck," Ellie said again, still smiling. "And I'm glad he's back in our lives. I just don't want to see you get hurt in case Sarah doesn't understand this thing between the two of you."
Chuck fought down the urge to tell her it was all a fake, him and Sarah. But he couldn't. He was a spy now and he had secrets, so many secrets. Instead, he just smiled easily. "Sarah understands. Believe me."
"Okay," Ellie replied easily, holding up two shirts. "Which is better?"
Chuck accepted the change in conversation, smiling. "On you? Both."
.
.
Chuck had a feeling that if you asked Casey, he would say the five hour drive up to Stanford was an exercise in anti-interrogation training. He'd sat in the back seat and glowered the entire time. Chuck, on the other hand, had loved every minute. He and Bryce had alternated driving, talking about their college road trips and singing along to a mixture of Oasis and more obscure nineties bands. Sarah had offered a story or two of her own, taking it upon herself to distribute snacks and drinks and initiate driving games that only slightly felt like a game found in spy training.
With every landmark they'd hit on the way up, Chuck felt all his youthful anticipation and excitement flooding back to him. It almost felt like he was returning to college after a weekend spent back home with Ellie. Bryce, who'd conceded the driving for the final stretch to Chuck, had just grinned over the rim of his sunglasses, most of the ever-present readiness for action gone from his frame.
"You went to college here?" Sarah asked, staring out the back window. There was a kind of awe in her voice.
Chuck knew the feeling. It was one thing to know, academically, that Stanford was a college and that they'd been there. It was entirely another to see the college and have a picture to go with it. He had been overwhelmed when he and Ellie had come up to see it, even more so when he had started living there.
"Four years," Chuck agreed, thumbs drumming on the steering wheel as he navigated towards where they could park.
"Best years of my life," Bryce added, dark lenses of his glasses covering his eyes.
"You spent the last four years as an international spy," Chuck protested, catching his friend's grin out of the corner of his eyes. "You can't seriously rate excruciating finals, crippling coffee dependency, frat parties, and lectures at the buttcrack of dawn over being James Bond."
"You're forgetting track meets, gymnastics competitions and feeling like I was going to explode from stress," Bryce reminded him, far too nostalgically. "But, still, best years of my life."
Chuck thought back over those four long and sometimes painful years; all the late nights in the library, the late nights in their shared room, the early morning coffee runs, discovering the joys of coffee in cereal instead of milk (a much more expedient caffeine delivery system, a sleep-deprived Bryce had been right). A whole lot of stress. So much. "You're right," Chuck grinned, swinging the car into a parking space. "Best years of my life."
.
.
College students and UCLA fans milled about; pouring beers, starting barbeques, tossing footballs around, cheering and displaying college pride. Chuck and Bryce both grinned at each other, fitting in seamlessly in their hoodie and sweatshirt. "It's like nothing has changed."
"Stanford," Bryce said, looking around in quiet awe. "We're back, buddy."
Chuck could only nod in helpless agreement, feeling like he'd gone back in time. "Is it strange it feels like coming home?"
"It was home," Bryce shrugged, standing still in the middle of the crowd, breathing it in. He caught a football someone tossed him, easily punting it into the crowd in the direction it had come. "Is home still, somehow."
"Go Bruins!" Awesome cried, sweeping Ellie around in a circle. "You guys ready to rock?" he asked when he had dropped her back to the ground.
"Definitely, definitely not," Chuck replied, tossing Awesome back the football he'd given Chuck.
"And, it's go Cardinals," Bryce added, tilting his head with a cocky little grin.
"Go Cardinals," Chuck echoed, just as many times in the past. He'd gone to a lot of Bryce's track meets. For support.
"You made it," Ellie beamed, her smile just as bright for Bryce and Sarah as it was for Chuck. "We were beginning to think you'd changed your minds."
Chuck knew what was coming before he even noticed Bryce's wicked little smirk.
"We would have left when you did, but Sarah and I had to talk Chuck out of wearing that ratty old hoodie of his."
"I always intended to wear this one," Chuck lied, badly. He thought it was a little hypocritical of Bryce to stop him wearing his favourite hoodie when Bryce was wearing a copy of the sweatshirt he was when they'd first met.
"Course you did, buddy," Bryce agreed, Sarah's laughter falling beside them.
Ellie laughed too, waving at one of the UCLA visitors behind Chuck. "You want to head to the stadium now? I think we're going to hang around here for a while."
"Yeah," Chuck agreed, smiling down at Sarah. "We're going to take Sarah on the Bartowski-Larkin tour of Stanford. So, uh, we'll probably meet you there."
"Do not take her to the frat house," was all Ellie said, her eyes laughing at the pair of them.
"I was thinking about the library," Chuck protested. "But, hey, the frat might be a good idea. See if our little brothers are living up to our reputation."
"You mean if they're still a bunch of nerds," Bryce quipped, winning another laugh from Sarah and Ellie.
"So you admit we were a nerdy fraternity," Chuck cried, triumphant. "About time, cause you were the biggest dork of us all."
"Wow," Bryce feigned hurt, staggering back a pace. "You can drive back with the brahs."
"Don't be like that, buddy," Chuck grinned, buoyed by the laughter of his sister and (fake) girlfriend. "I meant it affectionately."
Bryce's eyebrows rose into his hair. "So dork is an endearment now?"
"Since freshman year."
"They've always been like this," Ellie informed Sarah wisely. "But this is definitely better than the spring break they did nothing but speak to each other in Klingon."
"Klingon?" Sarah repeated, turning amused eyes on Chuck. "Really?"
"Your sister just called you a dork too, buddy," Bryce grinned, his laughter dancing in his words.
Chuck bumped lightly into his shoulder. "She called both of us dorks."
Ellie shook her head, her smile almost too bright to see. "You are."
Bryce flashed another Hollywood smile, winking at Ellie and Sarah. "You're right."
"Oh my God," Ellie laughed, her name called by one of Awesome's brahs. "You'd best get them moving before they spent the entire day arguing about which one of them is the bigger nerd."
"Chuck."
"Bryce."
"I think that might be too late," Sarah offered dryly. "But, I'll try and keep them in line."
"Good luck," Ellie wished, flashing them another smile before joining her friends.
Sarah turned to Bryce and Chuck, her smile warm and wicked. "You learned Klingon?"
"He learned it first," Chuck tattled, watching the laughter form on Sarah's lips.
"Ten minutes at Stanford and my reputation is ruined," Bryce groaned. "I had an international reputation, you know."
"You're feeling melodramatic today, aren't you?" Chuck teased, beginning to lead them in the direction of the library. "If he starts talking about Canadian plots to make him lose sleep, don't pay any attention."
"Canadian plots?" Sarah questioned, her frown pulling at her perfect eyebrows.
"It's a long story," Chuck sighed, smirking a little at Bryce.
"Short," Bryce retorted, apparently relishing a captive audience. "He'd wake me up by playing My Heart Will Go On at ear splitting volume on the stereo on the other side of the room."
When he described it like that, it was no wonder that Sarah winced. "That was cruel, Chuck."
Chuck knew that. But still; "Worked every time."
Bryce mournfully shook his head. "I have no idea why you were my best friend. You were terrible."
"You used to wake me up on exam days by telling me I'd slept through them!"
"Celine Dion, Chuck." And there was the slightly crazed look from the mornings Chuck had woken him that way. "Celine. Dion."
.
.
Casey joined up with them as they headed across the quad. He stood out immediately, his black clothing screaming that he didn't belong there. "Good job blending in with the crowd there, Casey," Chuck sarcastically praised. "Who are you rooting for? Death?"
Bryce snorted. "Nice."
Casey's eyes narrowed even as Sarah bit back a grin. "Leave the quips to me."
"Quips? You?" Bryce snorted again. "Casey, you and humour have never been on the same page. You're not even in the same, well, library." As he spoke, they stopped outside the library.
"Nice," Chuck grinned, Bryce slipping off his shades and revealing laughing eyes.
"That was good, wasn't it?"
"Very well done," Chuck agreed, happily ignoring Casey's growl.
"Where are we headed?" the NSA Major asked, striding towards the library doors.
"Third floor," Chuck said in unison with Bryce, the two of them sharing a quick grin. "There's a turn and, you know, just follow us."
.
.
"Ah, crap," Chuck muttered, stalled at the entrance. He'd somehow forgotten the need for active ID to be able to enter the prestigious library.
"Got you covered, buddy," Bryce whispered, pressing a rectangle of plastic into his hand. "Had to reactivate mine, figured I'd do yours at the same time."
"Thanks."
Armed with their IDs, only two of which were fake, they slipped into the library and carefully trekked upstairs.
"I lost so many Gotcha games here," Chuck mourned, looking around at the stacks as the memories rushed in.
"I won so many Gotcha games here," Bryce added wistfully, fully deserving the light shove Chuck gave him. That Bryce allowed it and Chuck didn't end up pressed face-first into the nearest stack was a testament to Bryce's admittance of that fact.
"I have no idea what Gotcha is," Casey announced, glaring at them. "But it sounds like you were both always geeks."
"So much meanness, Casey," Chuck observed, shaking his head. "We don't deserve it."
"He stole classified government secrets."
"That was weeks ago, Casey," Bryce smirked, Chuck watching Casey's annoyance increase. "Get over it."
"Get over-" Casey shook his head. "You broke into an NSA installation and-"
"Blew it sky high," came Bryce's reply. "I remember. And then I got shot."
"That was weeks ago," Casey smirked. "Get over it."
Chuck expected Bryce's stinging smile, the one that promised vengeance at the earliest possible opportunity. Instead, his friend laughed, inclining his head like he was conceding Casey's victory.
"It's just back here," Chuck said, getting back to business before he could start wondering if he was in the Twilight Zone. "This row."
"Oh no," Sarah sighed, looking at the mess of books left on the floor.
Immediately, Casey was back in business mode. "We're too late," he said. "Magnus beat us here. He's got the book."
Bryce leaned against the stone pillar, ankles crossed and a little smirk playing on his lips. He didn't say a word, but he screamed I know something you don't.
"What?" Casey snapped, already half turned to go after the Icelandic spy.
Bryce shook his head, the smirk turning pitying. "This was my hiding place," he reminded them, as if Chuck could have forgotten. "You think I would ever have hidden anything in a book any student could check out at any time?"
That was actually a very good point.
"You'd never be sloppy like that," Sarah agreed, eyes flickering between him and Chuck. "So, where did you hide things?"
Bryce settled back against the pillar, smiling as easily as ever. "Chuck knows."
Chuck had the feeling that he did. "The numbers were just a reference for Fleming, weren't they?"
Bryce hummed an agreement, pushing off the pillar. He put his hand to the underside of the shelf, coming away with a computer disc in a plastic case. "Now, this is sloppy," he muttered, slipping the disc into Chuck's pocket. "Look after that for me, would you?"
"Gotcha," Chuck replied, his mind still replaying the game from all those years ago. "How many spots like this did you have around campus?"
Bryce simply shrugged, spy mode coming back over him. "Magnus is a smart guy, I suggest we get out of here before he realises that book is just a book."
"Too late," Casey uttered, his eyes fixed on a spot over Chuck's shoulder.
Chuck saw the readiness snap over all three of his handlers, their smiles and easiness gone.
"Chuck," Sarah murmured, gun appearing in her hands. "Run." She and Casey pushed past Chuck, Sarah managing to glance over her shoulder once more. "Head for the back door. Bryce, stay with him."
Bryce apparently didn't even need to be told. Gun in hand, he ran behind Chuck, urging him to take one path or another, eyes ever watchful on their surroundings.
"This was supposed to be a fun trip," Chuck called, breath catching a little in his chest. "That's it, you're dragging me running with you if we make it out of this alive."
"Finally," Bryce muttered, risking a flicker of a smile. "Run faster, we've got company."
.
.
They burst through the front doors, heading for the crowds in the quad. Their tail fell back and another bought an elbow to the face courtesy of Casey as they rejoined them. "Magnus brought friends," Chuck panted. "A lot of friends."
"We've got to get out of here," Sarah announced, she and Casey already looking around for a way out.
Bryce snagged the front of Chuck's hoodie, starting off at a dead run. "This way," he called, still not sounding remotely out of breath.
Chuck wanted to hate him, just a little bit, for being so calm and collected. Unfortunately, that part of him was drowned out by the majority that felt almost reassured by further proof that his best friend was - major dorkiness aside - a terrifying superspy that ate guys like Magnus for a light snack.
Using the grip he still had on Chuck's hoodie, Bryce pushed him through the doors into what appeared to be a science lecture hall. Casey stood guard by the door, muttering various curses about not bringing enough weaponry.
Chuck moved to the computer, already pressing buttons to wake it up. "I have to see what's on this disc," he said, mostly to himself.
"That's top secret," Sarah hissed, coming to stand before him.
"So am I," Chuck replied, pulling the disc out of the case. "This holds the answers about why I'm on the Intersect."
"Bryce," Sarah called, turning plaintive eyes on her former partner.
His friend just shook his head mutely, the shadows of guilt and pain Chuck recognised all too well reappearing in his eyes. "I owe him this much."
"It's testing data," Sarah frowned, glancing at the screen.
"And recorded interviews," Chuck added, confusion bubbling inside of him. "These are all just students."
"Exactly," Bryce said, sitting on one of the chairs. "Students who were recruited into the CIA."
"Ten years worth," Sarah confirmed. "It's all their current information."
"No wonder Magnus wanted it so badly," Casey hummed. "Foreign governments pay a fortune for that."
Chuck continued scrolling down, pausing at the first name under 2002. "Bryce Larkin," he read out quietly. "You're on here."
Bryce nodded once. And was that defeat on his face? "Scroll down to 2003."
"That's," Chuck paused, staring in disbelief. Bryce knew he'd be there. How did he know? "That's me. I never applied to be in the CIA."
Bryce laughed bitterly, a far darker sound than Chuck had ever heard him make. "Neither did I."
Before he could question his friend about any of it - why he was in the file, why Bryce looked so unacceptably sad - the door at the top of the lecture hall burst open. Magnus fired towards them, Sarah pushing Chuck down behind the desk with her and Casey.
Chuck peeked over the top of the desk, his eyes finding Bryce all alone, out in the open. "Buddy?!"
"Keep him down," Bryce hissed, firing up at the half dozen people come to kill them. "Better, get him out of here!"
Chuck glanced up at the screen, still with Bryce's name highlighted in green. He had an idea but he couldn't do it. Not until he knew his friend wasn't going to get killed just to protect him. "Get him back here and I'll listen to you," Chuck heard himself say.
Casey cursed, but he and Sarah popped up, laying down covering fire.
Bryce shot a deadly glare at Chuck, the inevitable warnings about how his life was worth more than Bryce's already shining in his eyes. Yet, he inched backwards, firing almost blindly up at the maniacs come to hurt them.
And then it happened. Almost in slow motion, Chuck watched as one gunshot sounded amidst the din of others. Bryce faltered, just a little, his breath hissing out from behind his teeth. His name lodged somewhere at the back of Chuck's throat, stalled in place as Bryce vaulted over the desk and dropped beside him.
