I don't own Chuck

Chapter 4

There was a surprise waiting for them at HQ when they arrived the next morning. Chuck was looking better, certainly more relaxed, and Sarah was pleased that her prescribed treatment seemed to have worked. After they'd made love, they'd both fallen asleep and they'd slept right through, waking with her alarm at 6am.

As was their wont, they'd run from their home to the team's HQ. It was only a few miles but it was a way to grab some exercise in their increasingly-busy days and for both of them to get set for the day ahead. And, best of all, it was something they could do together. They ran around Battersea Park, up Sloane Street and through Hyde Park before doubling back on themselves and back to their HQ in the Mayfair area of London. The area was busy, filled with offices and shops, but with strong transport links to all the London airports which made it ideal for their work. It also happened to be a very pleasant place to work as well.

Their team had a floor of a 1970s building. It wasn't the prettiest building on the street, or indeed pretty at all, but it served for what they needed. Arriving, they both showered and headed up to their floor, to be greeted by their surprise.

"Eve?!" Sarah exclaimed. It was 7.45am, an early start for most Londoners, but late for many Americans. This was the time they almost always started unless something was on and they had to get in earlier.

The former director of the CIA was sitting in the reception area, wearing a navy blue suit, looking tired and with a small carry-on suitcase next to her.

"Hi Sarah! Hi Chuck!" she exclaimed, rising to her feet. "Surprise!"

"What are you doing here?" Sarah asked, although she reckoned she already knew. It seemed Chuck's and her thoughts had been right. She crossed to her former boss who pulled her in for a hug. Their relationship had been steadily growing closer since Sarah had asked her for advice after Chuck was injured. She returned the hug, trying to keep her wet hair away from her friend.

Eve moved on and hugged Chuck, perhaps not as tightly as Sarah, but then flicked her head at the secure area, looking briefly at Judith, their receptionist.

Sarah got the hint. "Come on in," she invited. "Morning Judy," she added to the receptionist, who had been staring at her computer a little too hard. "We'll come out for the mail later. Is anyone else in?"

"Hi Sarah," Judith replied. "John and Juliette said to tell you they'd be in about nine. Cole's been here since I got here earlier, with your guest."

Judith was a local, an employee of MI6. While she had some clearances, she wasn't cleared for most of what they did.

"OK, thanks Judy," Chuck said as Sarah led Eve into the inner sanctum. "We'll see you later." They both smiled at the woman and received one in return.

"What are you doing here?" Sarah asked, managing to wait for Chuck to close the door before she rounded on the former director of the CIA. "Not that it's not great to see you," she added, realising that she'd gone in a little hard.

Eve and Chuck both gave small grins and she glared at her husband, if not the former director of the CIA.

"Diane sent me to speak to your guest," Eve replied. "Given that I knew both your parents in the past, she thought I may be able to cut to the chase and find out if there's any misdirection in there."

That made sense, Sarah thought and she saw understanding and acceptance on Chuck's face as well. She was ninety percent certain that Mary had told the truth with them yesterday, but it made sense to get a second opinion.

"Do you want to freshen up?" she asked Eve.

"No, it's OK," the other woman replied. "I got some sleep on the plane. If you just tell me where to stash my stuff, I'm quite keen to meet my long-lost friend and find out what's been going on in her life." She looked at Chuck. "I've got the transcript from yesterday," she told Chuck. "Is there anything else that came up overnight that you'd like to know?" she added.

"Lots," Chuck observed slightly sourly. "But, with regards to the mission, I'd like to try and get access to the monitoring around their home so I can start trying to track what happened to Dad."

"OK," Eve said. "Why don't you come in with me now and ask for that info? Then you can get moving on that and Sarah and I will proceed with the interrogation. Does that work for you?"

Chuck grimaced but Sarah could see he was quite relieved not to be involved with interrogating his mother and she was grateful that Eve proposed this allocation of duties. She knew Chuck really enjoyed analysis and a good analytical problem should allow him to focus on that rather than his mother and father. It would also allow him time to reach an equilibrium.

"OK sweety?" she asked.

He gave her a nearly normal smile. "Yeah."

Chuck looked at the satellite imagery in front of him on his screen, trying to make out the black SUV amongst all the other vehicles.

His mother had given them the address of their home and also the number for Hartley Winterbottom. Hartley was in the Caribbean at the moment, otherwise Chuck thought that there was every chance that his mother wouldn't have come to them for help. But she had been unable to get through to him and had needed to pursue other strategies. Of which he and Sarah had been the main one.

Chuck had, however, been able to speak to Winterbottom, unhappy to be woken so early in the morning, but snapping into focus once Chuck explained who he was and what the problem was. Winterbottom had sent him through the web address for his monitoring cameras and the login information and had announced that he would get his network looking for Chuck's father right away.

Chuck had been surprised by the mild-voice of the man who had been one of the most dangerous arms smugglers in the world. But there was no mistaking his intellect and competence. He had been back to Chuck at various points in the morning with information and leads and between the two of them they had tracked his father's kidnappers to the car ferry terminal at Hull and then to Rotterdam. His father had seemingly been drugged and had been provided with a fake passport. But Chuck had been able to isolate the passports used by the other members of his party and then lock in their credit cards.

One of those credit cards had been used in Rotterdam at a gas station and Chuck had been able to get an image of the vehicle used, which had been the only one on the forecourt at the time. He was currently retracing its route north over the German border using a mixture of CCTV and satellite imagery and computer analysis suggested that they may be heading for the Oresund Bridge between Denmark and Sweden. It would then be possible to cross into Finland and over the unfenced border into Russia.

"How's it going?" He looked up at Sarah's voice. His wife looked about as tired as he felt.

"Good," he replied, giving her a small smile and gesturing her to the chair next to his. "I think they're heading into Sweden from Denmark and then to Finland and into Russia. How did it go with you?"

"Remind me not to get on Eve's bad side!" she exclaimed, subsiding with a sigh. They tried to keep visible PDAs out of the office, but he reached over and clasped her hand and she his.

"Oh?" he asked, revelling in her warm touch.

"I already knew from my first meeting with her that she had one of the best poker faces in the business," Sarah explained, "But it turns out she's a very shrewd interrogator as well. I learnt a lot."

He raised his eyebrows. She must be pretty good if Sarah learnt from her.

"She really put your mom through the ringer," Sarah continued. "But, at the end of the day, apart from learning that she nearly killed your dad after finding out what he did to you at Stanford, we didn't learn too much more."

Chuck raised his eyebrows again. "Oh, there's plenty more debriefing to go on her time under cover," Sarah continued. "But it seems that they found her orders and it's confirmed she's not rogue. Everything else was pretty much as she told us yesterday."

"Where's the Director?" Chuck asked.

"She's speaking to the General," Sarah reported. "General Beckman wants to speak to you, me and Casey in about an hour."

"Shall we go and grab a bite to eat then?" Chuck asked, looking at his watch. It was nearly 1pm.

"Yeah, then we'd better grab Casey and go and kick around some ideas ahead of the call," Sarah agreed, rising to her feet.

"So, what are you thinking, Chuck?" Casey asked as they sat down with a plate of sandwiches in the SCIF.

"It's confirmed they're heading for the Oresund," the PJ replied. "That might actually work out well for us if we want to take them out, because the population density in Sweden and Finland is some of the lowest in Europe. It should be easy to find an isolated stretch of road to ambush them on."

Casey smiled internally. The new Chuck was so different from the kid he'd first known in Burbank. Chuck the PJ, while nominally a medic, was so much more than that now. He combined elements of AFSOC, his position as deputy head (soon to be head) of the inter-agency rescue team, his analytical work for their team and also what he'd picked up from Sarah and Casey over the years as well.

"Where would you do it?" he asked curiously, looking at the map. He knew where he'd do but he wanted to hear Chuck's views.

"I'm thinking here," the younger man showed a stretch of road, "This area is kind of in the middle of nowhere, there's good cover. We can block the road behind and in front to make sure there are no civilians present and it's within ten minutes' drive of this little airfield so we can extract rapidly."

The three of them discussed Chuck's plan and also his back up locations for about twenty minutes, before the call with the General.

"Well, this is a clusterfuck!" the General started with a grimace. His one-time boss looked tired, Casey thought.

"Yes ma'am," they all replied.

"Chuck, your mother's story checks out with former Director Anderson and the CIA has found evidence that she was sent undercover into Volkoff's organisation. The burn notices on her have been withdrawn and, not that she's going to need it, but her pension has been reinstated."

"Why wouldn't she need her pension, ma'am?" asked Chuck confusedly.

"Because it transpired that your parents and former Agent Winterbottom split up the cash assets of Volkoff's empire between themselves and are now worth over a hundred million dollars each!"

The kid reared back in shock.

"I guess it goes in the family, huh kid?" Casey joked. Chuck didn't talk about his wealth and Casey respected his wish to serve, but he happened to know that Chuck's game had been one of the most successful over the past five years. His own and Sarah's royalty pots were nearly twenty million now and he knew the kid got more. He must be worth well over seventy million dollars by now. You'd never know it to talk to him though.

Chuck shot Casey an old-fashioned look and he replied with a shit-eating grin.

"I guess it does, old guy," he replied and Casey grinned harder. He enjoyed their banter these days, especially compared to how cowed Bartowski had been when he'd first met him. The ugly duckling had certainly grown into a swan.

Casey could see the General's barely-hidden grin at their banter and, if he'd looked, knew that Walker would be wearing a long-suffering smile as well. But his comment had done what it needed to – allowed Chuck time to get over his shock.

"So what's the plan, ma'am?" Chuck asked.

"We need to keep this quiet, but officially I'm asking you to get Stephen Bartowski back," the General ordered, and Casey was relieved. They wouldn't have to go off book which was always risky. "Do you have a plan?"

Chuck looked at him and Sarah and they both nodded. "Yes ma'am," he replied. "We've located what I believe is the suspect vehicle and they're in transit to the Oresund bridge crossing. If we can get transport to Sweden, we believe we can ambush them on this stretch of road here." He shared his screen and talked the General through the plan and then they discussed the logistics of what they'd need.

The General seemed on board. She just had one question. "Will three of you be enough?"

Casey cleared his throat. "I think there'll be five of us, ma'am," he said, as Chuck's head shot up and his stunned eyes met Casey's. Walker was wearing a knowing smile.

"Five?" the General asked, and was that a smile on her lips as well?

"Yes ma'am," Casey replied. "Agents Barker and Dubois have volunteered for the mission as well."

"I see," the General said and now she was definitely hiding her smile, Casey could tell. "Well, five should certainly be enough. I'll get in touch with their respective agencies and ask them to be seconded for the duration of the mission."

Casey smiled gratefully at the General. That meant that they'd be protected if anything went wrong.

"OK Colonel, I'll leave you in charge of organising logistics. Good luck to you all." Then she winked out.

"What the fuck, Casey?" Chuck asked, glaring at him.

"I told you Chuck," Walker moved in to support him like a good partner should.

He shot her a small smile. "It's your own fault Bartowski," he told the younger man. "You go and save thousands of civilians in people's countries and they feel beholden to you. They didn't want to talk to you because they thought you had enough on your plate, but they were both absolutely clear with me. Juliette told me that if we didn't take her, I'd be sleeping on the couch for a month. And you know that no sex makes John a grumpy boy!"

The kid reared back in disgust and Walker burst out laughing. "Fuck Casey! Now I need brain bleach!"

"You do not have a leg to stand on with me Bartowski!" he told the younger man. "I've had to put up with yours and Walker's shenanigans for years now. Will they, won't they? Oh yes, finally they are. Holding hands on assault missions, kissing. You know what? Fuck you Bartowski!"

The kid had the decency to blush and Walker was laughing out loud.

"There there, Chuck," she soothed, leaning over. "This is for you, Casey," she said before pulling the kid into a kiss, making sure to give sensual moans and extending her hand to him, middle finger raised. The kid obviously picked up on his cue and also started moaning, hands coming round to start stroking the CIA agent.

"Oh fuck you too, Walker!" he moaned, long-sufferingly. "Are you finished now? We've got a mission to do!"

Reluctantly they pulled apart and Walker actually bopped the kid on the nose. Jesus. Bartowski had ruined a perfectly good agent.

"Let's go!" she said.

Chuck had initially tried to persuade Cole and Juliette out of coming with them, but in vain. Then he'd thanked them copiously and made sure they agreed with the plan. Now, six hours later they were standing in the backwoods of Sweden, all clad in camouflaged mission gear.

Luckily, September was still the end of summer so it hadn't started to cool down in central Sweden yet, but it was several degrees cooler than it had been in London. The weather was fine though, although soft and damp underfoot after several weeks of rain in this part of the world. That made the going a little slower than if the ground was hard, but luckily they didn't have to move far. Casey had the furthest to go. Under the ops plan he and his sniper rifle would take position on a small hillock about three hundred yards away to provide overwatch and initiate the plan. Chuck had a drone in the air in addition and NSA analysts were now monitoring the route of the target vehicle via satellite. Local police were being deployed behind the enemy vehicle to block the road for their operation, and a few miles ahead of them to stop cars coming in their direction.

The ops plan called for Chuck, Sarah, Juliette and Cole to conceal themselves close to the road. Unfortunately, given the amount of standing water currently that would be an unpleasant and wet pastime. But Sarah and the others were used to discomfort. As the vehicle drew close to them, Casey would take out a front tire with his rifle and then, as the vehicle came to a stop, they would assault it. Cole and Juliette would lay down covering fire, if needed, with their rifles while Chuck and Sarah would use tranquiliser pistols to avoid doing any harm to the occupants.

"Ten minutes out," the NSA tech in Meade called.

"OK, positions everyone!" Chuck called.

"You're gonna owe me dinner and a massage for this Bartowski!" Sarah grumbled as she assumed her position in the wet hollow she'd selected and pulled her ghillie blanket over her. The cool water was already soaking through her clothes.

"I want a massage too, Chuck!" Cole called from the other side of the road, as he also hid himself. They all laughed.

"Well I'm sure Casey'll volunteer for that!" Chuck called, shooting her a death's head grin as he covered himself.

"Fuck you Bartowski!" Casey's disembodied voice came in her ear.

"Actually he gives good massages," Juliette chipped in loyally.

"How come we're only learning this now?" Chuck asked before adding to the analysts in Meade, now sounding all business. "Mobileye – how does our concealment look?"

"The agent to the south west needs to conceal their right leg more," came the call. That was Juliette. "Yes, that's good," the call came. "Can't see anything now."

Sarah shifted slightly, taking a better grip on her gun. She felt a little naked with only the tranquiliser pistol but knew that Cole and Juliette and even Casey would be covering her with proper weapons. She and Chuck had tranquiliser guns to disable the occupants.

"ETA five minutes," came the call, then "two minutes".

Sarah could hear faint sounds of an engine but the over-riding sound at the speed they were travelling at was the sound of the tires on the road.

"Thirty seconds." Now Casey took over operational control with the target in sight.

"And…mark." Sarah heard the report of a rifle and then, almost at the same time, the clear sound of a tire blow out as the vehicle passed by them on the road, the driver wrestling to regain control. There was the crash and tingling of glass as the vehicle hit a tree and then she was up and she saw Chuck rising to his feet only twenty feet from her, shrugging off the ghillie blanket. The car was wrapped around a tree about sixty feet away and she covered the ground quickly, seeing Juliette moving in as well out of the corner of her eye.

The passenger door on the far side opened and a body fell out, and then one of the rear doors opened on their side. She didn't hesitate, just shot the body with her tranquiliser gun. Now she was up to the car, Chuck alongside her and she leaned into the back just shooting bodies. He shot the driver through the open window and ran around the vehicle to shoot whoever had fallen out of the passenger side.

"Clear," she heard his voice.

"Clear," she echoed.

"Clear," came Casey's voice as she looked into the vehicle. There, fastened in handcuffs, was what looked like an unconscious Stephen Bartowski.

"Target confirmed," she called.

The business end had taken less than two minutes. Good planning, the ability of their team to work together seamlessly as they had done on several operations by now, and overwhelming force had enabled them to complete it with no casualties on either side.

"He wants to see you." Casey's unwelcome news made Chuck look up from where he was cleaning his weapons. It had always been a good way of relaxing for him and gave him something to do in the day which was totally mindless, a little like working in the cage when he'd been at the Buy More.

Sarah also looked up from where she'd been doing the same thing. If anyone told him five years ago that his and hers weapon cleaning would be a "thing", he would have laughed at them, but he supposed if anyone told him that his and hers running, swimming, sparring, gym work or anything else they did together would be something they both enjoyed, he would have had the same reaction. He didn't know what it was, but just doing stuff, whatever it was, with Sarah made him relaxed and happy.

They were in a safe house in Germany. Interrogation of the four kidnappers had revealed precious little – they were just following orders, it seemed. So they had had to move onto his dad to find out what he was working on. And, given his father's apparent paranoia, he'd known that this was coming, but he hadn't been looking forward to it.

While he loved his father, he was also extremely conflicted. He couldn't help but feel that his father was responsible for a lot of the hardest times in his life – by running in the first place without explaining what was wrong, working with Bryce to get him thrown out of Stanford and then removing the Intersect without revealing himself.

Sarah had convinced him that he had prevailed in each of those instances, but the fact was that his father had acted in much the highhanded manner that Bryce had in assuming that he knew best and not even consulting with his subject, and that rankled. If he was fair, he could probably forgive the actions, but the lack of contact was, for him, pretty unforgivable.

"Will you come with me?" he asked Sarah.

She gave one of those loving smiles that always melted his insides. "Of course, but there has to be a chance that he won't speak to me. I'm CIA. He hates the IC."

"Well, like it or loathe it, his son is in the IC," Chuck replied. "So he'll have to suck it up or wait for my mom to arrive." His mother was en route from London with Eve Anderson alongside her. It would have been easier to take his father back to London, but it would have been difficult to get him and their captives over the border between the EU and UK without questions being asked so it had been decided to do the interrogations here.

He finished cleaning and assembling his rifle and set it aside, rising to his feet as Sarah finished what she was doing.

"Did he talk to you at all, John?" he asked.

"Not really," the NSA agent replied. "He wasn't rude or anything, he just declined to answer. He knew I work with you though. He said he would only speak to you or his wife."

Chuck gave a big sigh. "OK, let's get this shit out of the way," he said. He looked at Sarah. "Ready?"

She gave him a half smile and reached out for his hand. "As I'll ever be."

"Christ, you two are gonna give him instant diabetes! Can't you even hold it in for a day?" Casey exclaimed exasperatedly.

Chuck and Sarah both looked at each other and then at Casey. "No," they said in unison, walking out of the room to the disgusted grunt of the NSA agent behind them. It was almost like old times!

So, this chapter and next chapter is when it all kicks off. Let me know what you thought, and thanks to all those who have reviewed so far!