A/N1: Um...Chuck. Yeah. Cool, huh? I'm guessing you wouldn't be here if you didn't think so too. I mean, at least I hope that's the case.
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Jenny Statler and Tony Mulia stood with Chuck, Sarah, Casey and Zondra in front of the offices of Castle Studios saying goodbye. They had an FBI car parked in the parking area waiting for them and reservations for a plane back to DC.
"Thanks," said Chuck, giving Jenny a hug and Tony a one-armed 'bro-hug.'
"Happy to help," said Jenny. "Maybe one day you can tell us the whole story."
Sarah smiled at her, leaned in to give her a hug and said, "Maybe."
Tony shook his head and said, "You spies..."
Zondra leaned in to give him a hug as well and said, "Get used to it, dude." He could feel her breath on his cheek.
He gave her a look for a few moments and said, "Ok. I'll try to do that, Zee."
Casey shook hands with both of them and wished them safe travels.
Statler said, "Proud to have been here to help. Call us the next time."
"Count on it. You're our favorite federal law enforcement guys," said Casey, with his trademark deep growl.
"Low bar," said Tony with a grin.
"What can we say?" said Sarah with a grin of her own.
As they were walking away from their friends the spies Mulia said to Statler, "What do you think happened to the prisoners on the Minnie?"
"The what?" she asked.
"The ship. The Minnie," said Tony.
"Never heard of it," said Jenny, deadpan.
After a few moments, while he had gotten into the car and buckled his seatbelt, he said, shaking his head, "Yeah. I knew that."
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Chuck and Sarah sat in one of the smaller conference rooms in the Carmicheal space in the Castle office building.
"We need a list," said Sarah, running a hand through her hair in frustration.
"Ok," said Chuck, pulling a pad from a pile in the center of the table. With pen in hand, he said, "Shoot. Start with the wedding stuff."
"Ah, jeez. I barely know where to start with that. It's a huge event..." she started.
"It's several huge events. We have the rehearsal dinner..."
"Oh," said Sarah, "I forgot to tell you. Yuri's going to make it."
"What?" said Chuck with a huge grin. "That's fantastic. I really didn't expect him. That's great news."
"It is. I'm looking forward to it," said Sarah. "I'm kind of fond of the big bear."
"Big bear?" asked Chuck.
"What? That's not politically correct? I mean Russian and all," asked Sarah with a happy smirk.
Chuck laughed and said, "Well, maybe not, but it'll be good to see him. Speaking of which, I've missed Morgan. He's my best friend and I've been blowing him off."
"Well, Sweetie, I think you've been busy and legitimately so. I mean, you know, there's only so much you can do in 24 hours."
"Maybe we'll head over there for dinner tonight? Be good to catch up," said Chuck.
"Should I make a reservation?" asked Sarah, and almost immediately wrinkled her lips and said, "Never mind. Silly question." With Morgan running O'Malley's, there was always a table for them and their friends. Didn't matter how busy they were or how long the line outside was, there was a space for them.
"Ok," she said. "Let's do the Carmichael Industries stuff before the wedding stuff. The wedding stuff is freaking me out. We have to, in no particular order, finish the run on the CIA outer rim cyber security. We have to finish the two different reports for each of the bank clients. We have to do the first run on the computers for the Bento auto company. We have to do the job for the Arizona Secretary of State. And that's just the work we have in house today. We owe letters of intent, or responses, for at least seven different companies and to schedule initial meetings with at least a dozen more. Given the way things have been going, I think we'll get at least five out of the seven from the LOI's and some of the others from the meetings. Chuck, we're up to our eyebrows in work. The whole collapse of the RIOS system alone is generating dozens of inquiries about our services."
"Well, Rachel..." he started.
"Sweetie, she hasn't slept in a month," said Sarah.
At exactly that moment, Rachel walked past the door to the conference room. "Heard my name. And naw," she said. "I can take on more. Watcha got for me"
"Forget about it. Rachel, it's time for you to relax," said Chuck.
"Take a vacation," said Sarah. "You and Brian. Go away for a while. Get some sun and booze."
"Always a delightful thought, but there's stuff to do. Unless I miss my guess, you are thinking about all the stuff from CI that we've missed when we were otherwise busy the last few weeks. You're right. We have to get back to it. You're still messed up with the Fulcrum stuff..."
"So are you," argued Sarah.
"Yeah, that's actually what I wanted to talk to you about. We're sending some of the guys back east. But I'd like to keep Jorge, Brett, and Johnny with us for the time being."
"What's up?" asked Chuck.
"Dunno. There are some weird things in the Roark money stuff that we don't understand. It's worth looking into and they are the best we've seen. Leave them with me for a few weeks, please. It might be nothing, but it might be something."
"Done," said Chuck. "I'll let DC know."
She started to laugh. "You'll be telling, not asking. And if the bosses object?" asked Rachel.
"I got it covered," said Chuck, with confidence.
"I'll bet you do," said Rachel shaking her head. "A direct line to the big boss. You guys rock the doors off the house."
Sarah said, "Look you've now got two full time jobs, Rach. It's too much. I want you to find someone to help you with the CI stuff. Go find a right-hand man. Maybe poach someone from John's firm. We're making a ton of money. No need for you to work your ass off while it's all going on. Find someone to help and hire them. Something to give you a break."
"Ok. I'll do that," said Rachel.
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The core members of Team B were in the main room at Castle, waiting.
"Do we know what's going on?" asked Zondra.
"I have no idea," said Chuck. "All I know is that Dad and Ellie have been huddled together for almost two days since he came back from Blackrock. I talked to Devon this morning and he doesn't know either."
"Ah, okay. While we're waiting for them, what do you hear about the Blackrock site? What's the latest?" asked Zondra.
"They identified two areas with buried survivors," said Chuck with a deep sigh.
"Oh, shit. I'm pretty hardcore, but leaving them to die there like that even gives me the creeps," said Zondra, shaking her head.
"Yeah," agreed Casey. "Believe it or not, I agree. So, they pumped nitrogen gas into the areas to kill those Fulcrum assholes more quickly and humanely."
"Jeez," sighed Zondra.
"Yeah," said Chuck with a look of distaste.
"Are they getting started on ID'ing the bodies?" asked Zondra.
Casey said, "There's a debate. Take the time to ID as many as we can...but we'd fill every morgue in Southern California and almost certainly blow any chance to keep it under wraps...or ignore that and just pave the whole place over."
"The President is in favor of the latter approach, but is working with Obama on the question," said Chuck.
"It'll be Obama's headache soon enough," said Sarah.
"Yeah," agreed Casey. "To be honest, I don't envy either of them that decision. Tough one."
"The bodies...well, they'll have to decide soon, I guess. Not like December in the Mojave will keep them frozen," said Sarah.
"And eventually someone's going to have to come up with some kind of bullshit closure on the Fulcrum threat for public consumption. The Battle of Ventura is still a huge deal in the press. It won't just fade from the news," said Chuck. "Probably the Obama administration will have to create some kind of event to put it to bed."
"Can't be a trial," said Sarah. "Not a real one, anyway. Not without revealing the involvement of the Intelligence Community."
"Yeah," agreed Chuck. "And no one wants to do that. It's the reason this was all handled with secrecy to begin with."
At that point, Ellie and Stephen came down in the elevator, both looking quite pleased with themselves.
Ellie got down to business with a clap of her hands and a grin. "Chuck, we think we've cracked it. The Intersect removal program. Dad figured it out."
Chuck and Sarah grinned in response. Neither Zondra nor Casey were much given to grinning, but looked interested. Chuck said, "No kidding? How'd you do that, Dad?"
"It was the Fulcrum Intersect, Charles. It was just so messed up. But when I looked at the programming, I saw it. One little bit of code. So totally wrong it could have been written by someone who had never coded before. But that was the key. It was the bit I was missing. When I added it to my removal program it solved what had been unsolvable. And with all the guidance Eleanor had given me, it broke the logjam. I've been trying to do this for decades and now I think I can. I couldn't believe it. I was stunned. But now I want to see if it works."
"That's great," said Chuck. "Let's try it."
Stephen took a pair of sunglasses out of his messenger bag with a smile. "Yes. Here we go."
Ellie, for all her good humor, held up a hand and said, "Hang on, you two. I want you to try it, Chuck. I do. As soon as possible. But, immediately afterwards, I'm going to want to run a boatload of tests on you. Like we did last winter when I first found out you had it. MRI's and things like that. Can you spare me a few hours tonight?"
With a glance at Sarah, who nodded yes, he said to Ellie, "Yeah. We can do that."
"Okay, then. Let's get started."
Stephen took a card from the bag and held it up to Chuck. The card was merely some random symbols arranged in columns. Chuck immediately flashed for the first time in months, and said, "The instructions for installing a new server."
"Exactly," said Stephen. "Shows that you still have the Intersect." He handed the sunglasses to Chuck. "Now put these on."
Ellie said, "Hold on a second. Sit down. I don't want you to fall over or something."
Chuck sat. He looked at the others in the room and said, "Here goes nothing."
Stephen said, "Good luck, Charles."
Sarah reached for Chuck's hand and held it, looking at him with love, but also a bit of concern.
Chuck put the glasses on. From the other side of the glassses, they could see flashes of light in shifting patterns. It continued for almost ten minutes, Chuck unmoving, occassionally his hand twitching.
In the middle of the process, Sarah asked Ellie if he was ok. Ellie had one hand on his other wrist, feeling his pulse. She assured Sarah that nothing was wrong.
Eventually, the lights on the glasses ceased. A few seconds after that, Chuck took off the glasses and looked around at his friends.
"How do you feel?" asked Ellie.
"I feel...I don't know...lighter, I guess. If that makes any sense. I feel lighter," he said.
"Look at this, Charles," said Stephen, holding up another card with symbols.
Chuck looked at it and said, with a sudden smile, "Nothing, Dad. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Just some random symbols on a card."
"YES!" shouted Stephen, with incredible joy.
"It worked?" asked Chuck. "It worked," said Chuck. "Yes. I'm done. It's done. I'm not the Intersect anymore." He was grinning from ear to ear.
Sarah leaned in to give him a big hug and a kiss, grinning herself with happiness and joy.
"Ok," said Ellie. "So far so good. Let's go to the hospital. I want to get you checked out."
Chuck and Sarah grabbed their stuff and headed out with Ellie after saying goodbye to the remaining members of the team.
Stephen, Zondra and Casey sat silently for a few moments. Finally, Casey said, "What do you think will happen to the Intersect project, Stephen? Now that there's a removal device, I mean."
He seemed distracted and said, "Guess Eleanor will take it from here. Wherever she wants."
"So, the multi-billion dollar project will be up to Ellie?"
"Well, of course." Stephen saw the look Casey was giving him. His mind had been elsewhere and he moved it back to where it belonged at the moment. He focused. "Not just Eleanor. You too. Your team. Casey, I have confidence that Eleanor will be able to direct this technology going forward. I'm not an idiot and, although it doesn't seem that way all the time, I actually know what's going on around me. This is a hugely consequential project. You know the GPS satellites were all a Pentagon project, until they weren't. Intersect tech will develop the same way. It will eventually spread. I cannot think of better people to guide it than you and your team. None on the planet. Even if I have some things to handle on my own for a while, I know that you both and my children, and I'm including my soon-to-be daughter in that, will steer it in the right direction in the meantime. I have every confidence in you all, Casey."
Casey didn't really know how to respond to that, and merely grunted in acknowledgment.
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A/N2: Nitrogen gas to kill the surviving Fulcrum operatives. We have to thank Marc Vun Kannon for that bit of brilliance. Thanks, dude.
A/N3: Just a bit of silliness on my part. The most sensible thing would be for Chuck to try the removal program in the hospital setting under Ellie's care. She would be instantly ready to respond to any aberration in his condition. But Castle is such an important part of the story that I wanted that important event to happen there, even if logic might have dictated another location.
A/N4: So that's a wrap. See the boxes from Colonel checked. Orion saved. Fulcrum blown up. Orion removes the Intersect from Charles. As of now in New Day, there are no human Intersects. Well, so far as we know, anyway. Next up is the Peralta Arc, which is canon adjacent to Chuck Versus the Wedding Planner. We'll see the return of Detectives Booker and Chen. But before we get there, please let me know what you all think about the Fulcrum's Quietus Arc. It was a long one with a ton of detail to move us along in the battle against Fulcrum. I hope it was exciting enough at each step. And I recognize that my hiatus may very well have made it hard to follow. I look forward to hearing from you. Oh, and thank you to the Void.