Sarah was washing dishes in a kitchen that felt familiar, but only vaguely. She felt like she was waiting for someone, or something. She couldn't quite place who or what, but she felt like she was here for a reason, and it wasn't just to do the dishes.

Her hackles rose up as she heard the smallest of noises out in the hallway. At least her gun was nearby. She could feel him as he crept up on her. She was not alone. She reached for her side arm and swung around. She turned face to face with a very armed and dangerous man. Keiran Ryker.

A rush of fear came over her. She was in her mother's kitchen. Where was Molly? What had happened? How had Ryker found her?

"Nice Apron," Ryker said to her.

"Thanks," was her only reply. She knew she was going to have to kill him. He was certainly going to try to kill her. She saw it in his eyes.

He broke the stare and tried to hit her gun out of her hand. She engaged him and tried the same move. Both having lost their guns, they turned to other improvised weapons around them. Knives flew. Bottles were smashed over heads. Ryker had the upper hand.

Next thing she knew, Ryker had grappled her, and she had gone through a flimsy wall into Molly's bedroom. He was on her in an instant. He had her in a choke hold. She tried to break the hold; he was stronger than her. She tried knocking the air out of him; still he held fast. She tried to change her leverage and do some damage. It was no good. It was getting harder and harder to move, even as she willed herself to try a groin shot. She had nothing left.

The toys and photos of a girl so obviously loved surrounded her. She knew she made the right choice in bringing Molly to her mother's. That little girl would have the mother she deserved, and she was comforted by the knowledge that they would be safe. Sarah was the only one who knew where they could be found. Ryker could never find Molly now. She felt the edges of her vision darken.

As the last breath seemed upon her, Chuck appeared before them. He was holding a gun. His face was hardened, she'd never seen that look upon it. "It will be ok, Sarah," he said in a soothing voice with no fear. There was no hesitation. He fired the gun and Ryker fell. Peeling Ryker's body off her own, she rose and ran to Chuck. They embraced and she felt safer than she ever had before.

Sarah awoke with a start. What the fuck kind of dream was that? She wasn't sure what was worse, Ryker finding her mother's or that look on Chuck's face, hard with determination. Despite the horridness of the nightmare, she warmed to the memory of Chuck protecting her. It was impossible to interpret the dream. The best she could figure was her subconscious telling her she was on the right path. She would be Chuck's savior. Not that it made sense that he saved her. But it was her job, and she would make sure the Ryker's of the world never hurt him.

The more she lay there, awake in the middle of the night, trying to go back to sleep, the more she thought about him. She kept thinking about his eyes in her dream, dark as an oncoming storm. His real eyes were nothing like that. They were a fire on a cool night, dark with the brilliant embers of life in them. She couldn't decide which eyes she liked better though, the ones in her dreams or his eyes. Finally, she settled on his real eyes, if for no other reason that she could look into them again. Even if she would only admit it to herself in the middle of the night, unable to sleep.

She wished she could capture those eyes in a photograph. She only had one photo of him, the Buy More employee picture. She wished they could be more, have more. It wasn't their reality and definitely not one that she could ever entertain. But maybe she could pretend, almost like the cover.

What would they do together if they were really dating? Which movies would they go to? Which restaurants would they try? What new things would Chuck share with her. She found herself wondering about all his interests. She thought about all those philosophy books she saw in his room that first day she'd met him, that couldn't be the only shared interest, could it? If it was real, she would get to learn what else they had in common. As she drifted through the thoughts, she decided that if they were a real couple Chuck would take her to comic con. She imagined what that would be like, learning all about all the new things they might enjoy together.

An idea came to her, it was stupid, she told herself. She would have a photo made. One of the two of them at comic con together. She could pretend, no one would know how much she wanted it. It was just to solidify the cover. She could have the same photo in her space. She could look into his eyes whenever she wanted with no one there to see her do it. She made her mind up, stupid or not, she was going to make it happen in the morning. She drifted into a dreamless sleep for the rest of the night.

Buy More – Burbank, CA – October 29th, 2007 - 11:11 am

"Bartowski!" Big Mike, shouted from across the store. "My Office!" Chuck could tell he was in a mood. He theorized it was that Big Mike was either fighting with his wife Gladys again or he hadn't eaten his morning donut yet. There was a 50/50 chance for both of those things. Chuck jumped out behind the Nerd Herd desk and trotted to Mike's office.

Coming through the door, Chuck found Big Mike at his desk already. "What can I do for you, boss?" Chuck asked, taking a seat, hoping to help calm any of Mike's ruffled feathers.

Mike stared him down. "Tell me, what's the best part of being Buy More brass?"

"The Power? The Money? The Ladies?" Chuck really wasn't sure where Big Mike was going with this one.

"The Medical. I couldn't give a rodent's behind about this job, but this…" he gestured at his full body, "My body is a temple, and I must treat it as such." There was a lot of irony within Big Mike's comments, he wasn't called Big Mike for no reason.

"Is that all Sir? Because I really should get back to work," Chuck stood up to leave.

"No that is not all, sit down!" Mike yelled at Chuck. "There's a guy coming here from corporate to interview for the assistant manager spot. Now I don't have a lot of candidates besides you, and for some reason everyone around here seems to like you pretty well. If the HR guy likes you, the job is yours and so is the medical."

"Sir? Can I make a suggestion?"

"What?"

"What about Morgan sir, he's been doing some good work out on the floor, did you see his sales numbers last month?" This could be Chuck's path to getting Morgan off the sales floor and on to better things in life.

"Now why would you go and give up the chance at Medical Bartowski?" Mike asked, dubiously.

"Well sir, you know my sister is a doctor. I'm ok for now and Morgan deserves this chance. Have you noticed that since Tang has been gone how much better he has performed?" Chuck knew that he had a good point, and that Morgan really should be in the running for the job. Morgan had matured recently. Big Mike still thought of the employee that would be found in the break room playing that game of Mystery Crisper or purposely tanking sales to get back at corporate for an unfair break rule or the like. Chuck knew that wasn't Morgan anymore and was hoping to help Mike see the same thing.

"I suppose that's true. Tell you what. You get him to work some doubles for me and I'll give him a chance." Mike said, knowing Morgan hated working more than his regular shifts. If he could manage to show him that he'd grown on this point, he would consider giving him an interview. "Starting today. He left about 15 minutes ago. You get him to come back and work a shift. Fernando called off and I haven't found a replacement yet."

Chuck wasn't sure he could get Morgan to meet Big Mike's expectations, but he would try.

{o}

It took a while to track him down. He ended up at home, thinking maybe Morgan was going to be there playing video games. Instead, he only found Ellie, getting ready for the Halloween party.

"What, we don't have enough actual cobwebs already?" Chuck asked, he knew Ellie loved to host parties and decorate for parties and attend parties. She never met a party that she wasn't on board for.

"I'm getting ready for our annual Halloween party. What time are you getting here?" Ellie asked.

"Oh, you know what, I might be late. They finally scheduled that promotional-interview thing for that afternoon."

"We can just make it an assistant manager party, too, then." She was teasing him. She knew full well he didn't want that job and she was still annoyed he hadn't managed to get the bugs out of her room.

"Sure, yeah, if you feel like jinxing it." Chuck gave her a look, sure that the cameras wouldn't pick it up.

"You're just finally growing up, aren't you?" Ellie said, having entirely too much fun. "Do you think that this year would be a good time for you and Morgan to have separate costumes?" They'd covered this ground before but not for the benefit of outside ears. Ellie knew full well that Chuck liked to do these things with Morgan to stay grounded. Chuck needed to maintain connections with friends and family so that he didn't lose himself in his agency work. Ellie fully supported him.

"Excuse me, but what's wrong with our costume?" Chuck had been getting tired of playing a giant man boy but knew it was the role he had been cast in.

"Um, I'm sorry, but the whole two-man-sea-cucumber-thing is kind of creepy."

"First of all, it's a sandworm, okay? Shai-Hulud, to be specific. And second of all, Dune fans have been going nuts over our costume since the eighth grade." Chuck loved Dune.

Devon came in all but naked, Chuck was contemplating eye bleach. "Yo! Chuckster. Guess what I am?"

"You're... Naked?" Chuck commented thinking along the lines of, 'and Ellie gives me a hard time for my costume.'

"I'm Adam. You know, like Adam and Eve, Adam. Wait till you see my snake," Devon was impressed with himself.

"I - I don't want to see your snake," yep, 'Eye bleach needed,' Chuck thought.

Chuck's phone rang, and he was thanking his lucky stars for not having to discuss Devon's current state of nudeness. It really was hard to get used to living together.

"Uh," Chuck said, indicating his phone, it was morgan. "I gotta... Excuse me."

"Hello? Morgan?" Chuck answered the call.

"Hey Chuck, you called?" Morgan replied.

"Yeah, I was looking for you."

"Oh, I'm down at the pier, come join me! I've been trying to beat this guy at Guiter Hero all week. Maybe you'll have better luck!"

"Yeah, sure, see you soon," Chuck replied ending the call. It would be better to convince him to go back to work in person anyways and the Santa Monica pier was far enough away he would need a ride. Chuck went to go get the Nerd Herder and was off to the arcade at the pier.

Chuck found Morgan where he said he would be getting ready to play another game. "Hey Morgan, Big Mike needs you to come in and work another shift, Fernando called off and he couldn't find anyone else." He could tell Morgan was on the cusp of saying no, but he continued hoping that he could convince him yet, "Let's beat this guy real quick and I'll give you a ride back to the Buy More."

"Ok, yeah, I guess. I got my errands done anyways. I picked up the sandworm costume from the dry cleaners. The ranch dressing from last year totally came out, so we're all good."

"Awesome! Now are you ready to beat this guy? Do you want me to play?"

"Nah, give me another shot at it. Then you can take your high score on the board back."

"Sure thing, buddy."

"Dude, I got ten big ones riding on this, can you spot me? I'm short after the dry-cleaning bill."

"Sure, no problem."

Morgan's opponent showed up and Chuck flashed. Laszlo Mahnovski, all points bulletin, wanted on suspicion of Murder of Federal Agents while escaping custody. Laszlo Mahnovski, inventor of NSA technologies. Laszlo Mahnovski, unstable asset bunkered and forced to work for the federal government. Laszlo Mahnovski, paranoid schizophrenic child genius. This was not good.

"Uh, Morgan." Chuck tried to be quiet and get Morgan aside.

"Yeah, buddy?"

"Morgan, this guy is dangerous."

"Well, Morgan's dangerous, Chucky. Morgan's dangerous." Morgan spoke just a bit too loud.

Laszlo realized that not all was right. He looked over to the newcomer and saw his watch. A watch that he designed. He was a Fed. He had to run. He took off.

Chuck took off after him, Laszlo stopped and stood his ground for a moment and grabbed Chuck's shirt, "How did you find me? Who else knows I'm here? Who do you work for?"

"No one. No one. Let me go." Chuck replied, he needed Laszlo to calm down. He did not need a mentally unstable person like this to do something that everyone would regret. "Look, I don't know what you're talking about."

"I know you're a spy!" Chuck had a half a panic; how could this guy know anything about the Charter? "I'm not.." he tried to get out, but Laszlo cut him off. "Your watch? I designed that watch for the NSA. Are there other agents waiting for me outside?" Laszlo started to yell, "Are there other agents waiting for me outside?" Chuck thought, 'Oh thank God, it was just the watch. I'm not compromised.'

Morgan came up behind them and scared Laszlo, "You're not sneaking away from me. You still owe me ten bucks!" With that Laszlo took off. Morgan was about to follow him, but Chuck stopped him, "Morgan! Morgan! I'll give you ten bucks. Let's get you to the Buy More before Big Mike blows a gasket."

{o}

Chuck called it in to Sarah after he dropped Morgan off. She was going to meet him at Fox Run. He walked into the condo and saw Ellie. "Hey. Um, is Sarah here?" Chuck asked Devon and Ellie, who were cuddled in on the couch. Devon answered, "She's waiting in your room." Ellie saw a hint of concern on Chuck's face and checked. "Is everything okay?" Chuck nodded and Devon chimed in, "Said she had a surprise for you. Get in there, slugger." Devon winked at him.

Chuck left for the room knowing he would have to put on some kind of show to keep Devon off his back. Sarah was in his room waiting. "Hey," Chuck greeted her. "Who is this Laszlo character? He just IDed me as an agent." Sarah saw the worry Chuck tried to convey in his eyes and replied, "Relax. We're looking into him. And you did the right thing."

"I... I didn't do anything. I just flashed on the guy."

"You followed protocol, and I'm going to check in with you first thing in the morning."

"Wait, wait, hold on. Wait, um... Look, if it's cool with you, could you hang out for a little while? Look, Awesome and Ellie think that I'm...kind of getting lucky in here, and I wouldn't want to disappoint...them." Chuck hated this; it was awkward. It was what having a cover relationship meant though. He didn't want Devon suspecting anything, risking opposing anything of the truth, or lies, or any of the confusion his life was at the moment. He was convinced, the sooner they could just be friends as the cover, the better. He did not need to keep putting this agent in the position of feeling like a professional call girl, not that there was any sex involved.

"Uh, how long do you want me to stay?" Sarah replied, Chuck could tell she felt awkward too.

"42 minutes and 15 seconds?" Chuck indicated and she gave him a suspicious look. "Arcade Fire's first album. It's like an auditory aphrodisiac." Then he kicked himself thinking, 'Why did I say that?!' he tried to glaze it over, "You're not ready for it yet, we will just listen to a Modest Mouse album. Here we go." Chuck put the album on and they sat on the bed starting to listen. "Why were you waiting for me in my room, anyway?" Chuck said, realizing there might be more to why she'd been there.

"Well, I wanted to surprise you." She handed him the photo she'd placed on the bookshelf. "It's us at Comic-Con. What do you think?"

"It's... It's great. But we've never actually been to Comic-Con, have we? Huh, we actually look like a real couple."

"Well, we are a real couple. We're just a different sort of a couple."

"That we are." Chuck knew she was handling him. He needed this to stop. He didn't want false emotions from anyone. He didn't want to put her in the position of having to lie about how she was feeling, or in this case how she was implying she was feeling. He didn't want to let himself feel any of those emotions either, he was afraid of blurring the lines. Afraid that Ellie might be right and he couldn't keep this whole thing professional.

Chuck was well aware how tricky it was to handle an asset. It was one of the parts in the spy life he abhorred. He would check the frame later. This photoshop work was good. It was probably courtesy of the CIA and would have a bug on it. He needed to keep track of all the surveillance in the place. He looked down at the photograph again. Han-Solo and Princess Leia smiled back at him. Why did they put this poor woman in a Slave Leia costume? Not that she couldn't pull it off, she nailed it actually. But they could have chosen battle dress, formal dress, any number of outfits, and the CIA chose to sell her sex. It was like sexual harassment was a job guarantee for the CIA. He felt bad that she had to work in that kind of environment, that any agent did.

He decided he had to say something, something that would make it somehow better, so he broke their conversational silence, "Too bad the photoshop guys chose the Slave Leia costume, I always thought her battle costume was the best, that or the bounty hunter one. That one was kick ass." She smiled at him; it was more genuine than he was used to from her. It made him wish that they really could be a couple. Just ordinary, regular people, that could be a couple.

They spent the rest of the album in relative silence and when it was over Sarah took her leave.

The words from one of the songs lingered in his thoughts.

Well see what you want to see. You should see it all.
Well take what you want from me. You deserve it all.
Nine times out of ten our hearts just get dissolved.
Well I want a better place or just a better way to fall.

But one time out of ten, everything is perfect for us all.
Well I want a better place or just a better way to fall.
Here we go!

Buy More – Burbank, CA - October 30th, 2007 – 10:30 am

The following day Chuck was getting a cup of coffee in the break room. There was one thing that you could say for the Buy More, it was a reliable source of free bad coffee. Which, after he paid for his $7 cup every day at his intel drop spot, was very necessary. The free part at least, he wouldn't complain if it were better coffee. He didn't have an operation budget for this mission and the Buy More did not pay well.

Casey came rushing in, "You! What do I have to do to get timely intel out of you, Bartowski?"

"Look, I briefed Sarah last night, all right?" Chuck said defensively.

"Oh, I bet you did, slugger."

"I thought we were all supposed to be part of the same team here, huh- team Chuck?" Chuck replied maybe a bit of anger in his tone, thinking, 'Did he really have to imply that they were sleeping together?'

"We are, but I'm starting to feel like the guy who always gets picked last, and I do not like feeling like Team Chuck's little fat kid." Casey's tone was definitely laced with annoyance.

"Okay, you know what, the next time I have a flash, I'll come straight to you, all right, Casey?" Chuck said, 'This again, he is very sensitive to this I'm seeing.'

"What did you tell Laszlo?"

"Nothing."

"Nothing?"

"He grabbed me, wanted to know if there were more agents. I said nothing. Morgan scared him away and he ran. I do think there's a chance I'm compromised though, I was in a Buy More uniform and had my ID on still." Chuck indicated to his badge. "Plus, he'd been playing all week with Morgan, probably also wearing his uniform. It seems likely he will figure out where to find us. Do you have my back?"

"Huh, thanks for letting me know about the security risk. I'll watch for him." Casey calmed down. Walking out of the breakroom, Chuck could have sworn he heard grunt number five, 'fair enough, but you're still a moron.' He laughed to himself; he'd make Casey a friend yet.

Buy More – Burbank, CA - October 30th, 2007 – 7:07 pm

Later on, Casey was having a meeting with Beckman in the home theater room. She started out, "The Intersect was correct to alert us. We've been looking for Laszlo Mahnovski since he escaped from Los Robles national labs last month."

Casey needed to know, "Who is he?"

Beckman replied, "Weapon designer. Government brain. The target graduated college age 14. Had his PhD at 17. Been with us ever since, working for a clandestine engineering subcontractor. Laszlo's not the kind of asset we can afford to lose to our enemies."

"Grade-a egghead. Got it. What do you want me to do with him?

"Bring him in. And take caution."

"What, is he gonna hurt me with his mind?"

"Well, here's what he did to his handlers." Beckman shared a very bloody picture of some very dead agents. "Hmmm," was all Casey had to grunt.

{o}

Chuck was leaving work and a man in a clown mask jumped out at him. Chuck trying to defuse the situation said, "Nice try, buddy, but, uh, Halloween's tomorrow, okay?" and suddenly there was gun in his face. It took no time at all for Chuck to realize it was a water gun. He thought, 'No risk, but damn it, Casey didn't you say you would watch my back?' Chuck continued, "Or today, or today. It could be today if you want it to be today."

Laszlo peeled the mask off saying, "I didn't kill anybody."

"I – I never said you did."

"Then why am I on the FBI list?"

"I don't know. Just calm down."

"I was framed, okay. You have to believe me. I am not a murder."

"Okay, okay. I believe you. But fyi... you're kind of acting like a murder." Of course, Chuck was pretty sure he was a murderer, but he needed to keep Laszlo calm and somewhere he could be apprehended, preferably not by Chuck. It could break his cover.

"You told the undercover agent about me, didn't you? He's talking to pentagon operations right now.
I tapped into the encrypted video feed at the store. I helped design that home theater system."

Laszlo was being aggressive with the water gun, Chuck played along. "Look, I – I – I don't know. Is, Is that a water gun?"

"No."

"I'm pretty sure it's dripping. Yep, that's dripping."

Laszlo was embarrassed, "I'm sorry. My name's Laszlo. I need help."

"What the hell am I supposed to do?"

"You're on the inside. You have access. Look, unless you help me clear my name, they're gonna keep chasing me. Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope. But first... I could really use some pancakes." Pancakes and Star Wars, Chuck was sold. He could keep him secure, maybe with how mistreated this government asset was he could turn it into an advantage for him too.

"Come on, I know a place."

Vic's Pancake House – Burbank, CA – October 30th, 2007 – 9:33 pm

They were eating their pancakes and Chuck figured he needed to keep him talking, "What else did you make for the CIA?"

"Whatever the jobs called for, actually. I mean, if an agent wanted thermal-vision ray bans or he wanted a parachute disguised as a backpack, I'm the guy they call.

"You're like a real-life Q? You know, Q. The guy who used to make all the gadgets for Bond, Q?" Chuck was actually kind of a real-life Q, but with tech, not weapons. This guy did similar stuff that Chuck did. He was starting to feel a bit of empathy. They had locked him up as a kid after all; maybe he wasn't as bad as the intel flash made it seem.

"Bond was that spy-guy, right?" and with Laszlo's comment the empathy dropped. He knew that Laszlo was lying. He wasn't that good at it. Laszlo was trying to play him. Chuck needed to keep track of him longer until Casey and Sarah realized that he was missing. That way they could apprehend Laszlo and get this murderer off the streets.

"What, have they been keeping you in a friggin' cave?"

"Underground lab, actually. For the last 10 years, all I did was work in that lab pretty much. Well, that and play video games. But, uh...No friends, no family."

'OK, that's not right,' Chuck thought. Another case of conscription for the US government. This is why he worked for the Charter. While he felt bad about the forced work part and his childhood, this man still hurt people, maybe Chuck wouldn't have done differently under the circumstances, "No Bond. No wonder you blew up all your research and busted out there. That's just inhumane."

"So what kind of work do you do?"

"You know, it's kinda, it's kinda, uh, complicated."

"Right, but you gotta be some kind of a genius. Or prodigy? I mean feds don't bother recruiting somebody, guarding them with undercover agents, unless you're super-good at something? What are you super-good at?"

"Let's just say I'm a computer-guy."

"This is great. I mean just being able to sit in a restaurant and talk."

"Just talk?"

"With somebody who knows what it's like working for the company. You know, if I had to do it over again, I never would have gone to that pier."

"What pier?"

"I was 11... And... Some agent saw me playing Tetris at the San Monica pier arcade. So, he asked me if I can take all these tests. The next thing I know, he's offering to pay my way through school. My parents, like, they didn't know what to do with a kid whose IQ is higher than both theirs combined. So, they signed me over. And that's when I became property of the United States government. Sweet story, huh?" Chuck could not believe what he just heard. Was this the truth? Was this guy full of shit? Intersect Math basically called it a 50/50 little of column A, a little of column B. And then he saw the doodle that Laszlo just finished up.

The Intersect was a funny program. It wasn't artificial intelligence but sometimes it was almost like it was. Most of the time, it took active commands to function, which was the case when it was used to do predictive simulations or calculations. Other times, it would provide data on a new face, a special object that was in the database. These kinds of flashes Chuck could redirect and view later if needed. He would do this mainly on information that would come up on simulation runs. Kind of like opening a tab or a link to learn more later when you were browsing the internet. Some of the modules were very passive. Like when foreign languages were spoken, Chuck would just understand them. He would have to activate a portion of the Intersect to speak in a foreign language, but that was set in the programming as a failsafe. It can be very inopportune to speak in the wrong language for your cover legend when working in the field.

This flash was different than those. It was like his subconscious was interacting with the intersect when he saw the doodle that Laszlo was working on, he couldn't keep it from coming on. Instantly he knew as he flashed, that the drawing was the pier and the representation of the other images added to it were Laszlo's plan to place explosives and blow up the pier. With hundreds if not thousands of people on it. All his sympathy for Laszlo was completely forgotten. This was no longer a game and people were at risk with Laszlo being on the loose.

This next part was going to be tricky. Chuck would need to keep Laszlo close; he needed more information and he needed to run a lot of Intersect Simulations. Chuck needed to prevent Laszlo from blowing anything up and make sure his cover remained intact. He couldn't be sure, what if this wasn't a pipe dream for Laszlo? What if there were unsecured explosives somewhere?

They'd finished their late night breakfast and Laszlo seemed antsy, he was going to bolt soon, Chuck could tell. Laszlo said, "I'm a little, I'm a little strapped. You know how government work pays."

"Dude, yeah. No, no, no, no, don't even worry about it." All that and he was going to have to buy the guy pancakes. It would be will worth it if he could stop him though.

"Chuck, listen you can't tell your handlers you ever saw me."

"What? Why? They can help you, Laszlo. They're the good guys."

"There's no such thing in this business."

"I mean, you don't believe me? Go home and search your room." With Laszlo's words the Intersect clicked again. 'There is the answer, Ellie. I've got it now. Bugs out tomorrow for sure,' Chuck realized.

"See what kind of bugs your good guy handlers planted on you. From now on, you should trust your handlers precisely as much as they trust you."

"I'll do that. But hey, do you have some place you are staying? Are you staying hidden?"

"I'm fine."

"It's just that the Buy More has that home theater room and with its couch, it wouldn't be a bad place for you to hide out. I could work on my handlers tomorrow and we can get you out of this. Get better treatment. Sounds like you are a vital part of NSA's tech design. And if the NSA won't treat you nicely, then maybe the CIA will. You'll have options with my team. They are the good guys, Laszlo. They will help. I promise. And hey, we could watch some Bond movies. Make up for lost time."

"Alright Chuck. Let's go hang out at the Buy More and watch some movies."

"Right, I'm going to pay this bill and go to the restroom. Meet me outside?"

"Sure."

{o}

While Chuck was in the restroom, he texted both Sarah and Casey. He told them to meet him at the home theater room in one hour and that he would have Laszlo. Then he went out to the car to find Laszlo waiting for him. "Let's get out of here."

Showing Laszlo the theater room, he seemed to be grateful, "This is great! I'll be out before you guys open. And if everything works out, you will never see me again. Thank you, Chuck, for everything. I really appreciate it."

"Yeah, definitely."

"Ready to watch some Bond, how 'bout 'A View to Kill'?"

"Yeah, let's do it." They watched the first film and Chuck was unimpressed. His handlers should have been there by now. They really needed to start taking him seriously. 'Well, if they don't show soon, maybe I can get him to talk,' he thought.

"I keep thinking back to the way they treated you and how unfair it was. It kind of makes you want to be like the guys Bond goes after, you know what I'm saying? You know, the US government, just using us. I don't think I could do it, but that's me. What do you think? If you were a Bond villain, what would you do?" Chuck was hoping to lead him into sharing any nefarious plans he'd made.

"Well, I did design your car, did you know that?"

He did, but said, "No, I didn't. What would you do with my car?"

"Did you know there was a self-destruct sequence?"

"What? Why would they need that?"

"I'm not sure why they wanted it, but I think it would be easy to drive it to a busy place and cause a lot of damage."

The last piece fell into place. Keep Laszlo away from the car and he wouldn't have the tool to go through with blowing up the pier. "Huh, well that doesn't sound very Bondesque."

"Well, if I was in a Bond movie trying to get back at a government that had abandoned me like Zorin there, I would use this home theater system. Screw flooding Silicon Valley. Do you know what we can do with this system if we really wanted to, Chuck?"

"Watch more movies?"

"I haven't had a chance to play with this bad boy since I designed it."

"What is that?"

"Strategic air command. We keep a fleet of B-2s in Guam, kept on nuclear alert, just in case." 'Who the fuck leaves an unsecured access to Strategic Air Command?' Chuck thought. This came from left field and was not in any of the simulations that he had run with the Intersect.

"What are you doing?"

"Putting my tax dollars to work, Chuck. Would you like to play a nice game of thermonuclear war? What about Texas? What did Texas ever do that was so great? Nine hours..." Chuck was looking at him in horror, this was truly a madman. "Maybe we should pick somewhere closer? In honor of Max Zorin... Let's see how fast they get to San Francisco."

Chuck needed to get that controller away from Laszlo quickly but needed to get him to reverse the commands first in case he couldn't. "Hey, hey, hey! Um... What about, let's watch Goldfinger, huh?"

"What's it about?"

"Uh, again, it's about this bad, misunderstood guy who just wants to blow up the world. It's right up your alley; I think you'll really like it."

"Yeah, OK, we can always play later." And Laszlo cleared the command to blow up San Franciso. As soon as it was out of his hand, Chuck grabbed the nearby lamp and smashed it over his head. Laszlo collapsed unconscious. Chuck then ran to the Nerd Herd desk where he knew he kept zip-ties for keeping computer cables tidy. Returning to the theater room he secured Laszlo making it look as sloppy and poor as he could while actually keeping him secure. 'Where the fuck are Sarah and Casey,' he thought.

Laszlo captured; he went for his phone. The text was never sent: message send failure notice. He hadn't been able to check that it went through while trying to keep track of Laszlo. 'Well, this ought to be interesting,' he thought and dialed Casey. 'He wanted to be first next time. He gets to deal with this shit.'

{o}

Casey had taken Chuck home. He figured he actually did a good job tonight. He was still a moron, after all he didn't manage to get the text out to him or Sarah about Laszlo. And he didn't use the panic button on his watch. But he was impressed that he had secured Laszlo and was glad that he did after hearing about Laszlo's plan to attack Santa Monica pier. Casey was horrified when he heard about Laszlo hacking the theater room control to access Strategic Air Command. He was going to work with Beckman to prevent that from ever happening again, from the Buy More of all places.

He had grunted at Chuck at some form of approval, he was sure that Chuck understood. He wasn't going to give him more than that anyways if he didn't. He was settled in and ready for a night cap when Chuck came barraging in.

"What the hell are these?" Chuck all but yelled at Casey thrusting all the listening devices that had been planted in the Bartowski apartment right into his chest.

"Seems you already know, Chuck."

"I can't believe you've been prying into my most intimate moments...If Laszlo hadn't keyed me in, would you even have ever told me?"

"Intimate moments? Not really an issue thus far. At least, not in the sense of traditional two-person intimacy."

"Funny, And worse? Ellie's room? What the hell are you, some kind of pervert? Do you have any idea how violated I feel right now?"

"You feel violated? No, no, no, my ears feel violated. 'Cause they have to listen to you and that moron Morgan yammering on for four hours about what sandwich you're gonna take if you were stranded on a deserted island."

"What are you nuts? Nobody was talking about sandwiches for four hours, come on." Chuck was totally leading the conversation about sandwiches for that long, on purpose. He was trolling Casey. If he was going to listen to all the conversations that were going on at the Bartowski Casa, he would make it hurt.

Casey played the conversation for Chuck to prove it.

"Think about it- this is a desert island, Morgan. Mayonnaise simply doesn't fare well in the tropics—"

"Oh, yeah, but define sandwich. 'Cause technically you can put anything between two slices of bread. For instance, could I bring… A Jessica Alba sandwich to said desert island.

"Well, I guess I stand corrected. But still, why are you bugging me and Ellie?"

"It's for your protection, Chuck."

"You can protect me, but you leave Ellie out of it. I'll be checking her room and the bathroom, you plant another one there, I'll pull it, every time. You will give her privacy."

"Alright Chuck, on my honor." Chuck left and Casey settled down to finish up the paperwork from Laszlo's capture, Johny Walker in hand, glad he didn't have to listen to sandwich talk tonight. Chuck had brought him every last bug: not one was missing in the pile in front of him. He'd thought he'd hid them better than that. There was even some extras, they'd looked like CIA issue. Walker must have planted them.

Buy More – Burbank, CA – October 31st, 2007 – 1:37 pm

Chuck was sitting in with the HR guy for his assist manager interview. Most of the questions were pretty generic and it was almost done. Chuck had tried to ride the line of mediocre for the whole interview. Before they wrapped it up, Chuck spoke to the HR representative, "What do you know about Morgan Grimes? Did Big Mike give you his name to interview?"

"I see something down about him here, but I wasn't going to interview him today, why?"

"Look, just hear me out, give him a shot. I've been working as the Nerd Herd desk as supervisor for the last three years, worked here as a green shirt before that. I haven't seen anyone go from where he was to where he is now so dramatically. He's become a really good salesmen and I think he has a ton of promise. He's got an associate degree in supply chain logistics even. Look, a guy like me, you might have me for what six months? A year? Before I find sweeter grounds and better digs. Morgan? You might have a lifer there if you play your cards right. I think if you develop him, he would make an excellent store manager one day, maybe even corporate. He just needs a shot; do you hear me?"

"Sure, I'll give him an interview. Is he here? Send him in if he is."

"I'll go get him," Chuck ran out and found Morgan.

"Hey buddy, HR guy wants to talk to you. He wants to know if you are interested in the assistant manager position. Apparently Big Mike mentioned something to him after the interviews were closed. And he thought he would talk to you before he headed back to Corporate."

Morgan was surprised into silence but made his way to the office to speak to the HR guy.

Fox Run Condos – Echo Park, CA – October 31st, 2007 - 8:00pm

The party was in full swing when Chuck and Morgan got there. Ellie could tell they were in a great mood. She went up to the two and asked, "How did it go?"

"Uh, the short version is that I didn't get the job. But good news, Morgan has something to share," Chuck said clearly happy for his friend.

"Turns out Big Mike has been looking at what I've been doing at work recently and put my name into the hat for the job. HR decided to give me a probationary assistant manager to see if it was the direction that they wanted to take." Morgan seemed a little surprised by it all still.

"Morgan, you really have been doing so well at work recently, I'm not surprised. I'm so happy for you." Chuck told his friend.

"Aw, Chuck that job should have been yours," Morgan tried to deflect.

"No, Morgs, you've been working hard, you deserve it just as much. Besides, I'm already the Nerd Herd Supervisor. You should be next to move up. You just earn it and get them to make you the assistant manager and not just probationary."

"I'll do my best for you Chuck," Morgan said.

"No, do the best for you Morgan." Chuck smiled at his buddy.

"Congratulations Morgan! Time to celebrate let me get you a beer." Ellie was genuinely happy for Morgan. She knew he'd been working hard and deserved it.

"Let's get our Sandworm on! You be the head this year Morgan."

{o}

Sarah showed up to the party a little later in a Princess Leia Bounty Hunter costume and found the Sandworm.

"Morgan, would you excuse us?" Sarah asked.

"Hey, uh, buddy, you mind if we take a little five-minute break?" Chuck asked after Sarah had spoke up, climbing out of the Sandworm costume tail.

"Dude, are you kidding me? Take ten if you need it. Being the sandworm is hard work." Morgan replied.

Chuck and Sarah went to his room, where Sarah found the photo of them unceremoniously dumped into the trash, minus the bug she'd been instructed to plant there. She knew bringing a camera had been the right choice.

"So, uh, where did you get the costume? I hope you didn't decide to be Leia just for me," Chuck asked.

"The CIA can make anything."

"What are you... What are you doing?" Chuck asked, confused by her pulling him close. She held a camera out and pointing it selfie style.

"Smile. I wanted to give you a new photo of us, and I figured that it should be something real."

"Thank you." Chuck responded. He was hoping his comment about the previous costume had given her peace of mind to know she didn't need to be so sexualized. He feared that she was still just trying to play him. Only time would tell he supposed. He still hoped it was one more step towards friendship.

Morgan came in through the window, "Chuck! They're calling for the worm, bro." Chuck heard the chanting, "Worm! Worm! Worm! Worm!"

"I'll, uh... I'll see you outside," Sarah walked out the door.

"What were you guys, uh...What were you guys talking about?

"Oh, nothing. Just, uh, you know. Sarah was just telling me that if she were stranded on a desert island, she would bring roast beef."

"She didn't say roast beef."

"Oh, she totally... she completely said roast beef."

"Oh, that's terrible. That's a terrible, terrible sandwich."

"You know, she's smart, and she's sexy, and kudos on her costume, real nerd cred there, looked fantastic, but who brings roast beef to a deserted island? That's a terrible choice. You gotta dump her dude." Morgan said as Chuck grinned knowing Casey would be listening to this later.