Chuck vs. The Courtyard Bench
Well, in the previous chapter: Cherice had to be rushed to the hospital after she collapsed at school the previous day. Molly joined her older sister at the hospital to check on her bff and they weren't alone as Heather and Hugo were with the Walker siblings. Needless to say, Molly was in top form to the point where she quite literally ran into Morgan looking for Cherice's room where Chuck was. In any case, they would all learn Cherice was doing fine and just needed some rest, especially after a sudden coughing fit that resulted in her doctor being called in. After Sarah, talked Cherice's doctor and received some good news. Unfortunately, there was bad news on the forefront as Heather received a call from what that had the occupants in the Cherice's room listening to a TMZ remote that someone leaked Pollak's information one of them being his real name. Sarah immediately focused on Molly as the only one who could have leaked it. So, what happens in this chapter? Here are the who, what, where, when, why, how's? Who was responsible for Pollack's leak? What does Panic! At The Disco have to with the whole ordeal? Where did Pollak grow up? When did the method actor leave his birthplace and move to Hollywood? Why is Casey playing with ducks? How does Sarah relate the ducks to the leaked information about Pollack? Read and find out! I hope you enjoyed the read and leave a comment to share your own thoughts on this particular chapters. As always, reviews are awesome.
Again, if you enjoyed reading my stories and left a comment, I truly appreciate it. Please continue to do so as it gives me the incentive to write more chapters.
I don't own Chuck.
Rebel Without A Clue
XXX
After the news broke about the leak involving Stephen Pollack, Sarah had Heather contact and then informed him to meet up with them in the 4th floor conference room. The Chief Operating Officer of Westside Medical Center also asked the actress to let Pollack know Chuck would meet with and then escort him there since Hollywood's bad boy never bothered to acclimate to his hospital surroundings. In any case, all 4 individuals eventually met up with Heather's co-star in the 4th floor conference expecting to discuss the surprising leak that was just revealed as breaking news on TMZ. What they didn't expect was not only Jagger Renner with him, but another surprisingly shocking revelation from Pollack himself.
"I leaked it."
The conference room fell completely silent as all 5 individuals were rendered absolutely speechless after Pollack dropped a bomb on them. The stunned expressions on their faces left the actor a bit amused as he peered over at Jagger who responded by shrugging his shoulders. Pollack returned his attention to the 4 individuals who were still expressing looks of disbelief on their faces. He was about to continue on when there was a sudden interruption.
"I told you I didn't do it!"
It was Molly Walker's muffled voice coming from outside the conference room door. After Sarah heard her younger sister's response, the oldest Walker sibling rolled her eyes and then shook her head. A few seconds later, Sarah breathed out an exasperated sigh, crossed her arms, and lowered her head for a moment.
"I'm sorry." Sarah responded, without shouting.
There was a brief moment of silence before Molly responded again from outside the conference room door. "Did you say something!? I didn't hear you!"
At that moment, Sarah knew Molly was intentionally gloating because her younger sister was actually right for a change, which annoyed the oldest Walker sibling. In her mind, there were moments where her younger sister was actually innocent after being accused of something that she was absolutely guilty for being in trouble for. Essentially, she would end up playing her innocence by acting genuinely hurt knowing full well she was trying to get something out of it in return, which she was doing right now. In other words, it was her style of negotiation tactics. As much as Sarah wanted to go tit for tat with Molly like they usually do between sisters, she restrained herself because she had more important matters to attend to.
"What do you want, Brat?"
"What makes you…"
Sarah quickly cut Molly off. "I don't have time for playing games, Mol. Just spill it"
This time Sarah's voice was more elevated and sounded considerably irritated, but not angry. Chuck, Heather, and Morgan clearly saw on Sarah's face that now really wasn't a good time to push her older sister's buttons. Each one of them were about to speak up and intervene on Sarah's behalf when the feisty 14-year-old spoke up.
"Panic! At The Disco tickets!"
After Sarah heard that, she briefly closed her eyes and expressed another exasperated sigh. It didn't take long for the conference room door to swing open. As she stood there in the opening doorway holding the conference door open, she stared directly at her younger sister who didn't even flinch when Sarah made her presence known. "When?"
"Next month." Molly responded, crossing her arms.
"Where?"
"Staple Center."
"Tickets may be sold out by now."
Molly stood her ground and stared back with the same intensity as her older sister. "Work your Harry Potter magic?" she firmly stated, shrugging her shoulders.
At that moment, Sarah curled her right brow in amused disbelief. "What magic?" She shook her head. "You do realize I don't have any actual powers?"
As the Walker sisters stood within the open conference room doorway, there were a number of pediatric staff who passed by and witnessed the "discussion" between the siblings. They weren't the only ones as the individuals in the conference room were totally transfixed on the conversation Molly and Sarah were having. A few seconds later, Morgan leaned over and whispered something to his hetero life partner.
"Do you remember the movie A League Of Their Own?"
"Geena Davis and Tom Hanks?" Chuck responded back. "Yeah." he added, with a nod.
After briefly looking at each other, the two childhood friends instantly knew what the other was thinking. "There's no crying in baseball." Chuck and Morgan simultaneously whispered.
Both men smiled. While Chuck stood next to Morgan, he his bearded best friend brought up the movie for a reason and he soon found out why.
"Molly is so like the character that Lori Petty played. Headstrong and butting heads with of her older sister played by Geena Davis."
Chuck let what Morgan shared sink in for a second. "I can see it."
"Lori's character resented the fact that Geena's character was made the face of the team. So, she wanted to be traded and she did." Morgan recalled.
The nerdy YouTube host nodded. "Ultimate Sibling rivalry." A nod was given in response by Morgan. "Geena's character ends up intentionally dropping the baseball at home plate to let her younger sister get the big win."
"Fortunately," whispered Morgan, chiming in. "They ended up reconciling after the game. At the end of the day they're still family."
Those 9 words resonated with Chuck because he knows what it was like to be in the shadow of an older sibling. Granted, there wasn't ever any sibling rivalry between him and Ellie, but at the same time he disliked being overly protected by his older sibling. Of course, she was keeping a promise for their dad to keep and the words that he shared with both of them still resonated with him. There's nothing broken in this whole world that the two of you can't fix. Although Ellie felt like an overprotective mother hen, she always looked out for and motivated him to never give up like Sarah does with Molly who is in a completely different league all her own. In any case, Chuck's thoughts were subsequently interrupted when he noticed Heather intervening when the discussion between the Walker sisters got increasingly heated.
"I actually know the lead singer of the band." Heather stated, standing in between both of them.
Molly's eyes suddenly widened. "You know Brandon Urie!?" Heather smiled and nodded.
XXX
"We dated," Heather momentarily paused before she continued on. "Briefly."
"How briefly?" inquired Molly. She suddenly stopped and quickly waved that question off because it wasn't important. What was important was the question she was about to ask Heather. "Can you get tickets!?"
Heather smiled. "Better," She briefly paused. "Backstage passes."
The moment Sarah heard the words 'backstage passes' she immediately stepped in. "No!" She pointed her finger at Molly who wasn't really paying attention because she was too busy celebrating the fact of getting backstage passes to Panic! At The Disco. She rolled her eyes and then directed her attention to Heather. "You don't have to."
Before Heather responded, Molly slipped in between the actress and her older sister seemingly out of nowhere. "Shut up! Yes, she can." she stated, staring and pointing up at Sarah. Afterwards, Molly quickly spun around and faced Heather. "So, about those backstage passes."
After Molly mentioned the backstage passes, Sarah yanked her younger sister into the conference in order to talk with her. Before doing so, she took a deep breath so that she would be able to do her best to compose herself knowing how overly excited her 14-year-old sister can get.
"You're putting Heather on the spot here because of her celebrity status and because she dated Brandon at one point. You're being a big imposition on her," Sarah leaned forward so Molly could only hear what she was going to say. "Among other things." the oldest Walker sibling softly growled.
The siblings were about to continue squabbling when Heather stepped in between both of them and pushed the Walker women before they ended up at each other's throats. The actress first directed her attention to Molly.
"Yes. Backstage passes." A wide smile grew on Molly's face as Heather turned from the 14-year-old to Sarah. "No," the actress said, shaking her head. "It's not an imposition and yeah," Heather nodded. "Bandon and I had history. It was a mutual break up and we're on good terms. Anyways," The actress focused the subject back on to where it was needed instead of her past dating life that involved the frontman of a well-known band. "The reason I'm doing it is because we're friends. It's hard to know who your true friends are, especially in Hollywood. I know you're one of them."
Sarah shook her head in disbelief. "I feel like I owe you big time."
"You did bully me in high school." Heather responded.
"She's got you there." Molly uttered, expressing an amused smirk.
Unfortunately, the 14-year old's smile suddenly fell flat when she noticed a scary expression on her older sister's face. At that point, Heather interjected on Molly's behalf before she ended up down in the ER because her older sister inflicted bodily harm on her. response caused Sarah to be taken aback by what Hollywood's female rising star said. Fortunately, the actress cracked a humorous smile.
"I'm joking. You don't owe me anything." she added, shaking her head.
It took a moment to let what Heather said sink in for Sarah. Her attention was then directed to her 14-year-old sister who looked as if she was about to jump out of her sink with anticipation. A few seconds later, she let out a soft sigh and asked Molly a question.
"Who's going with you?"
"Cherice," There was a brief pause before Molly spoke up again. "It's for her birthday and I wanted it to be a surprise. She doesn't know. I talked to her parents and her mom is going to take us. Her dad has to go out of town for work."
"Does Mom know?"
"I've mentioned it to her."
"Which means," Sarah retorted, sounding annoyed and irritated "You didn't actually talk to her but asked me first."
Molly shrugged her shoulders in response. That's when Heather chimed in. "If it makes you feel better, I'll have Hugo tag along and make sure they're safe." She noticed the look of uncertainty on Sarah's face and pressed on. "I'll talk to White and I'm sure she'll approve of it."
"What if she doesn't?" questioned Sarah.
"I think she will," responded Heather.
Sarah shook her head and then directed her attention to her younger sister. In her head, there were so many worst scenarios going on in her head regarding safety concerns as she stood in front of Molly and Heather. She heard or read online countless unfortunate incidents that happened at concerts in which not only serious injuries from being assaulted, but tragic deaths as well. Of course, when her younger sister was able to go to a concert, it was their mother, herself, at one point Jack when he actually stuck around. Now she has taken full responsibility if anything happened to her after she agreed to basically let her go knowing she'll be well protected with Hugo Panzer there with them. In her mind, nobody would dare try anything with him there and it would be like having Casey there, she thought to herself. After that thought, she took a deep breath then spoke up.
"Don't make me regret this, Brat." she firmly stated, pointing to her.
When Sarah said that Molly absolutely freaked out and celebrated by not only hugging her older sister, but Heather as well. Speaking of Heather, she was also hugged and repeatedly bombarded her with thank yous by the 14-year-old who was absolutely over the moon. Meanwhile, Chuck and Morgan saw the whole amusing interaction.
"Do you remember the first concert we went to?" Chuck whispered, leaning over to Morgan.
"Hootie and The Blowfish at the Hollywood Bowl," Morgan responded. "We didn't get inside, but we were able to watch the concert."
"Climbed a tree," Chuck whispered back. "And if I remember correctly, we shared binoculars." There was a brief pause before Chuck leaned over to Morgan again. "You got attacked by a family of squirrels."
"I forgot about that until now." Morgan nodded.
"They were probably protecting their nuts." Chuck shared.
"So was I." Morgan softly chuckled. "It was so worth it though."
Chuck nodded. "Good times," he responded.
Chuck held out his right fist and exchanged a fist tap with his bearded best friend. Afterwards, both men watched Molly do a victory dance and then proceeded with a lap around the conference room table celebrating the fact she and Cherice are not only going to see a Panic! At The Disco concert but got backstage passes thanks to Heather Chandler. In any case, Molly's excitement was suddenly interrupted by the sound of clapping. The source of the clapping...Stephen Pollack. He was now seated and so was Jagger Renner.
"So," stated Pollack, briefly glancing at Jagger. "Does anyone want to know why I leaked it?" he added, leaning back comfortably on the far end of the conference table chair.
XXX
After getting through the craziness of Molly and the whole Panic! At The Disco situation squared away thanks to the grateful generosity of Heather, the focus was back on Pollack who was the actual source that leaked the information to TMZ. All 5 individuals sat down at the 4th floor conference room table and listened to Pollack explain why he did what he did while Jagger continued to sit right next to him. When he was finished, there was a brief moment of silence before Morgan suddenly spoke up.
"Varsity Blues!" There was a bit of momentary silence as everyone within the conference suddenly turned their focus towards Morgan. Instead of looking around, he immediately turned his head to his right and locked eyes with hetero life partner. "Dude! Sort of sounds like Mox's story. The character that James Vanderbeek played who rebelled against John Voight's character Coach Kilmer."
As Morgan started jabbering away with the comparison of Pollack's life and a fictional movie character, Pollack was in absolute disbelief concerning what Chuck's best friend pointed out. In his mind, of all the things to focus on after actually opening up, Morgan picked that one. After the actor glanced over at Jagger, Pollack shook his head with amused disbelief knowing he practically provided his entire backstory and the reason why he changed his name. A backstory in which he was raised as an only child. However, raised was a polite word to put it. Unfortunately, he had an abusive father and a mom who he felt never really protected him from the abuse. That and combined that with how he truly hated his name, it gave him the driving determination to make a better life for himself.
In any case, what helped him keep his sanity was focusing on something that he didn't intend on doing in High School. That something was acting and the reason he did it was because of a girl. In any case, he rather enjoyed it and it gave him a creative outlet to be someone other than himself. Of course, his father had a problem since he wanted his son to follow in his footsteps in playing football. When he mentioned that Chuck suddenly brought up the movie Varsity Blues and how it apparently compared to his situation with the main character played by James Vanderbeek. Coincidentally, he's a fellow actor he's worked with and considers him a pretty good guy but isn't really good friends with him. As a matter of fact, it still blows his mind that he gets to meet and work with celebrities.
He was basically a kid who grew up in Dare County, North Carolina. It was a town that was best known for not only Kitty Hawk, but for The Wright Brothers who were basically responsible for flying the first successful airplane. Hence his being named Orville by his mom. When he was old enough, he took the opportunity and moved out to Hollywood and lived out his aspirations to become an actor. Essentially, he was rebelling against his parents. More importantly he was rebelling against his father. Of course, he reinvented himself with a new name and focused his efforts into becoming a great actor. When his stardom started to rise and did interviews, he usually gave the bare minimum on any details or simply made stuff up.
Pollack's goal was to become a star studded, caliber actor like Pacino and/or DeNiro. Unfortunately, it turned out more like Robert Downey Jr before he was ultimately responsible, as well as started the rise of the Marvel Franchise. The self-proclaimed method actor immersed himself into all the roles he was given. Granted, the reviews he got for those films ranged from being a rebellious Johnny Depp wannabe, but in actuality was a rebel without a clue. Although he was criticized for his acting ability, he didn't care as he was more concerned with dating the next actress or supermodel. However, when he agreed to and got on board to the project with Heather, Five Elders Studios tasked Alexis White to help change his overall image. As much as he didn't really want to go through an image change, he had no choice in the matter. Ultimately, he felt like he not only sold out but betrayed his fans too.
In any case, it wasn't until he met and talked with Jagger Renner after Bash At the Bench that something happened to him. It was a feeling that he never felt before and it was actually worrisome because it was nagging at him in a seemingly haunting way, especially after getting to know the kid. It got to the point where he ended up making a donation because he couldn't help but feel guilty somehow. Ultimately, it became one of the deciding factors in leaking the information to TMZ with Jagger's help who fully supported him. Of course, the leak itself would be called a publicity stunt by his critics and his intentions behind it will be called into question even by White. For the most part, he wanted to prove his actions were genuine. His thoughts concerning his intentions were interrupted when he suddenly heard 4 words spoken out.
"Such a man child."
Those aforementioned 4 words came from Molly who was shaking her head at Morgan. He was about to speak up when Chuck intervened and just shook his head as if to say it's not worth it knowing full well it's a no-win situation. After voluntarily backing down at the behest of his nerdy cohost and best friend, the 14-year-old turned her attention from Morgan to Sarah. "You thought he was gay."
"Called it!" responded Jagger smiling, turning his attention to Pollak. "You owe me $20." he added, pointing to him, expressing a smirk.
Pollak just stared at Jagger and then begrudgingly leaned over to his left. He retrieved his wallet and paid the young man the money he owed him that was apparently a bet between the two of them. Chuck, Sarah, Molly, and Heather expressed looks of disbelief as they witnessed the monetary exchange. After a few seconds of silence Sarah rolled her eyes and turned to Molly.
"I didn't say that Brat."
"Yeah," Molly responded, with some attitude behind it. "You did."
"No," Sarah firmly responded back to her younger sister with attitude as well to the point where her Wildcard Enforcer persona emerged. "I didn't." Her eyes, intensely narrowed in a menacing way.
The emergence of the Wildcard Enforcer caused Molly to back off for the simple reason of not wanting to deal with the consequences of pushing someone she didn't know. The person that was sitting right beside her was an entirely different beast altogether. In her mind, she considered herself a rebel and knew how to push the boundaries of being an incredibly annoying, as well as stubborn younger sibling. That was her job. Granted, she did cross the line a number of times but always knew that Sarah wouldn't stay made or pissed off at her for long. They're sisters after all she thought to herself. Yet, she didn't know how to deal with the side of Sarah she has only gotten a glimpse of. Instead of poking the proverbial bear she decided to back off.
"You didn't?" Molly took a moment as if she was trying to recall the conversation that happened in the car a while back. As for her older sister, she had to turn away for her own sake because the frustration was building inside of her to the point of wanting to strangle her younger sibling. As that was happening, Sarah's nerdy fiancé did his best to calm her down by doing some deep breathing exercises. Meanwhile, Molly shrugged her shoulders and continued to sit there attempting to think back on that particular conversation in question, which seemed like forever ago in teen years. A few seconds later, eyes widened and blurted out the first thing that came to her mind. "You said he was fake."
The instant Sarah heard the word 'fake' her head immediately snapped like Linda from the Exorcist and looked directly at Molly who was sitting next to her. That actually made the 14-year-old scoot back a bit in the conference room chair she was sitting in.
"Beard. Fake Relationship." Sarah firmly reiterated, sounding angry with a mix of irritated annoyance dealing with her younger sister. She emphasized it by pointing at the two co-stars of the upcoming series or movie, 'We'll Always Have Omaha'. "In real life, those two would never actually make it as a couple," She averted her attention from actors to Molly. "No offense."
"None taken." Heather and Pollack responded back in unison. Both were in agreement.
Afterwards, the oldest Walker sibling shook her head and then returned her attention to the 14-year-old. The annoying, irritated anger in the way Sarah sounded towards her younger sister certainly matched the expression on the Chief Operating Officer's face. At that point, she looked like she was about to blow up at her.
"You know what you are so…"
Sarah suddenly stopped herself in mid-sentence because she knew it was absolutely futile to argue with her younger sister. Why? For one thing, she was already mentally exhausted dealing with the whole concert ticket situation and begrudgingly accepted a helping hand from Heather who did it as a friendly favor to her. In the back of her mind, she knew somewhere down the road she owed the actress a favor in return, knowing she disliked owing favors to anyone. Plus, she didn't bother to look at Pollack because she didn't really care one way or the other how he reacted. If he reacted all. In any case, The Chief Operating Officer let out another exasperated sigh and rolled her eyes. This gave Pollack the perfect opportunity to make his intentions known.
"I'm going live on Facebook to respond to the leak," he announced, standing up. "And want you guys here while I do it." Pollack pointed to the 4 individuals sitting on the other side of the table.
XXX
After Pollack went live on Facebook, he was contacted by Alex White a few minutes later. The conversation itself was short and that led to not only him being summoned back to Five Elder Studios, but Heather as well. When the two actors left, Sarah took a much-needed breather so she could clear her head and regain her sanity. She was invited by Chuck and Morgan to come down to meet the newest rockstar rebel that was going to be introduced on tomorrow's Bash At The Bench, but she declined. Although she declined, Sarah urged her nerdy fiancé and his bearded best friend to take not only Molly, but Jagger to meet the next the Rockstar Rebel crowned for tomorrow. It was primarily for her own sake because any second longer around Molly she would have lost it.
In any case, Sarah needed some peace and quiet to clear her head. She knew exactly where to go, and it wasn't her own office. Of course, there were other spots in the hospital that she could basically hide in for some peace and quiet, but they didn't compare to the spot that she decided to go to. It was the place where Head Nurse Forrest took Chuck to calm down after he suffered an anxiety attack that culminated with the sudden appearance of his ex who shall not be named. As she stood silently in the gazebo with her arms crossed looking out into the peaceful and tranquil water, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Afterwards, she continued to stand there with her eyes closed and listen to the relaxing sounds of nature. A few seconds later, she spoke up.
"What do you want, Casey?"
"Nothing. Just here to check on my squad."
After Sarah heard that, she opened her eyes and saw Casey tossing pieces of bread to a group of ducks that were gathered below them. For a moment, she was captivated at the sight of her hulking partner interacting with a group of young ducklings that apparently were excited to see him because they were not only vocal about it, but actually made their way out of the water to get to where he was. Sarah was totally transfixed as she watched Casey walk over to the opening of the gazebo and then sit down on the steps. Instead of sitting down next to him, she decided to walk over and lean against the left side wooden post of the gazebo opening. She just watched in curious amazement at how gentle he was with the ducks while feeding them. A soft grin was expressed on her face as she heard him talking to the ducks as they were eating out of his hand.
"They seem to like you."
"They're mother got run over," responded Casey. "I've been keeping an eye on them ever since." he added, reaching down to scratch one of them under their beak. "
"How long ago was that?"
"About a month ago."
Sarah's soft grin turned into a smile after she heard that. "They've imprinted on you and now see you as their mother. That's so sweet."
Casey expressed a soft grunt that Sarah interpreted as accepting the role he was given. She knew that he would do his best to fulfill his duties to the best of his abilities. He's a big softie at heart with a gruff exterior, she thought to herself. Plus, just like her nerdy fiancé, her hulking partner may very well have found what he considered his own fortress of solitude. In any case, he was silent for a moment as he continued feeding the ducks, which made Sarah gradually feel considerably better after dealing with Molly. Afterwards, she heard him say something that she couldn't quite believe at first.
"Did you just call that duckling," Sarah paused for a second. "Joker?"
After he gave what was left of the bread he fed to the ducks, he wiped his hands and turned his face-to-face Sarah. "I couldn't just call them hey you. I gave them names." At that point, Casey pointed at each duckling individually and shared their names. Gomer Pyle, Cowboy, Eightball, Rock, Crazy Earl, Touchdown, and Animal Mother. Although they were adorably cute, they looked like a rowdy, rebellious bunch to Sarah. It also seemed like the duckling named Animal Mother was considered his favorite evident by the fact Casey cradled it in his burly arms. As much as she wanted to know why he gave them those names, she decided to keep quiet and continued watching her partner interact with the ducklings. A few moments later, one of the ducklings managed to climb up the gazebo steps and waddled over to Sarah. Speaking of Sarah, she knelt down and carefully picked up the duckling in question.
"Who do I have?" she inquired.
Casey leaned back a bit and peered up at Sarah with the duckling cupped in her hands. "Cowboy," he responded. "He's the runt but considered feisty. Always follows Joker around." he added, peering down at Joker trying to climb up the gazebo step.
Sarah smiled and peered down at the duckling quacking up at her. "Hello there, Cowboy." she softly uttered.
The duckling named Cowboy continued quacking as Sarah did her best in not dropping what Casey deemed the runt of the group. In any case, both of them were enjoying the ducklings' company when the hospital's Head of Security spoke up.
"I heard Pollack's Facebook announcement."
"You did?" Sarah responded, sounding surprised.
"Not by choice," grumbled Casey. "The elevator got stuck for 15 minutes. Apparently, some of his fans were on it with me."
Sarah was briefly silent before she responded. In her mind, Casey had the patience of a saint now that she was fully aware of his military background. She set aside her thoughts concerning Casey's past military life and focused on what happened earlier involving Pollack's Facebook announcement.
"I'm surprised he said things won't change even though he confirmed the leaks are true. He's going to be the same guy he's always been, whether the fans go by his old name or not. He doesn't want to be seen or treated any differently." Sarah recalled. "Plus, his decision to take a bigger responsibility as a visible instead of a silent partner for Project Pegasus was based on his conversation with Jagger. "
The Chief Operating Officer of Westside Medical Center made sure that she had a good hold on the young duckling named Cowboy before she took a seat next to her hulking partner. The two of them were momentarily focused on the ducklings when Casey softly grunted a response.
"He's right," There was a momentary pause before Casey continued on. "The kid." he added, without looking at her. His focus was still on the ducklings.
"Jagger?" Sarah wondered, with curiosity.
"As long as the kid is a positive influence, the method acting moron has got a half decent chance of not completely screwing up his career," he shared. There was a sudden moment of silence as if a question suddenly popped in Casey's mind that related to his own situation. "Tell me something, Walker. Do you see me any differently when you found out about my other life in the military? Finding out my codename…Alex Coburn?" Casey asked. He continued on after that.
Those two questions Casey asked caused Sarah to ponder her answer. It wasn't long before she shook her head and responded. "Your past is your past." Sarah briefly paused before she continued on. "It's the people who you've surrounded yourself with since then that have hopefully helped make you a better person." She sat there silently next to Casey while she stroked Cowboy's head with her thumbs, which caused her to grin.
Casey expressed a soft grunt. Sarah heard it and briefly glanced over at her hulking partner. She shook her head and then spoke up. "We're all like these little guys." She motioned to the ducklings, they were holding and the ones waddling around in front of them. "It seems like we all have our ducks in a row and we're all gliding along on the surface, but we're not. Pollack was the same way before Jagger changed that." Sarah paused and then continued on. "What I'm trying to say is we're all paddling away underneath the water the best we can to stay afloat. Yet, we aren't alone as we're being supported by people who are watching out for us. Just like you're watching out for these cuties." Sarah stopped to playfully interact with Cowboy and the other ducklings before she spoke up again. "How is your Sensei by the way? Has he settled in at the Monastery?"
"He's paddling away. It's been a bit of a rough go for him," softly grunted Casey. "But he'll get used to his new surroundings. Still a pain in the ass though." he added, briefly shrugging his shoulders. The two shared an amused chuckle afterwards. Westside's Head of Security glanced over at the blonde that was sitting next to him. "Thanks," he breathed out. "It means a lot coming for you."
"Expressing your lady feelings?" Sarah heard Casey expressed a faint growling grunt, which caused her to softly grin. Afterwards, she leaned over and gently bumped her hulking partner's left shoulder. "No problem." she nodded.
Casey and Sarah continued sitting there on the steps of the gazebo and enjoyed each other's company while interacting with the ducklings. A few seconds later, Casey spoke up. "Don't breathe a word of this to Bartowski and Grimes."
Sarah softly expressed a grin. "My lips are sealed." she responded, lifting Cowboy up and nuzzling the young duckling nose to nose.
XXX
NOTE: I had a bit of writer's block but thankfully I was able to finish this chapter. What do you think of Pollack leaking the information and his reasoning behind it? Also, many of you probably got the reference from Vs. Tom Sawyer where Sarah was talking to Ellie about how Chuck was like a duck. That inspired a conversation with Sarah and Casey involving actual ducks. Plus, if you've watched the movie Full Metal Jacket you know why Casey gave the ducklings those names. In any case, hope you enjoyed this chapter as the next chapter is Bash At The Bench with a new Rockstar Rebel crowned. As always, tip my hat to you all as readers and any mistakes that have been made are my own.