A/N- I'd break open the champagne, but I'm in America and under 21, to celebrate the completion of my first multi chapter fic. Only took me what 4 attempts? (Those others will get finished though). And I hope this is enough Charah for you. You may be confused for part of this, it should all be made clear in either the final author note or later in the story, if you do still have questions I will be sure to answer them (although I unfortunately cannot answer any anon review questions but I don't think I've got any of those reviews) but this chapter is more from Sarah's point of view than Chuck's although it does contain his and others.
I must thank enigmamdw for an invaluable contribution to the manuscript. Sorry had to reference Clancy again, seriously though thanks are in order for enigmamdw for making a literal life or death decision about a character that I've grown to like a bit too much to be objective. Hope you guys like the result.
Epilogue- Run, run for your life.
3 Months after his return
Casa Bartowski and Walker
"Brigadier General Diane Beckman?" The voice was devoid of emotion and spoke with military precision.
The small woman immediately regretted answering the door, "Who are you?"
The response was a pistol being pointed at her head, "That is of no concern. Are you Brigadier General Diane Beckman Director of the NSA and Head of the Intersect project?"
She took a breath ready to die she had her cyanide, "Yes." Everything went to black after that.
***
She pouted as he left their bed and her warm loving embrace to retrieve his iPhone from its place across the room. "Come back to bed Chuck I'm getting cold and lonely."
"Its ninety degrees out how can you be cold?"
"Because you're not here to keep me warm. I need my Chuck blanket."
"Sorry Sarah Casey just called he needs us down at Castle ASAP he said it was very, very important."
"You're turning down sex, for a briefing? I think we need to schedule some appointments with a psychiatrist for you or do you not find me attractive?" She pretended to pout. This banter had become much easier since they'd consummated their relationship and removed any chance she had of backing away, which was a major reason she had held back from doing so for so long.
He smiled at her before leaning over the bed to deliver a smoldering kiss, "Will that satisfy you until we can get back to the safety of the apartment?" He asked when pulled back.
"I guess it'll have to do." He could tell she wasn't playing a game, she was disappointed. He turned and headed off to the bathroom.
"I'll make it up to you when we get back, I promise." He always knew what to say to bring a smile to her face.
"You better." She called to him as he turned on the shower.
***
As they turned into the Buy More plaza their hands fell apart and the loving looks stopped, mostly. As she swung her Porsche into her parking spot in front of the Orange Orange he started up one of his old conversations, "I don't understand why you can't come work with me, it is my company after all I can hire whoever I want."
"Chuck why would you hire a food service employee to be in charge of your company's finances? As far as your family knows I'm not exactly qualified for that position." She softened her tone and continued, "I'd love nothing more than to have the office next to yours, granted you probably wouldn't get much work done then since I'd be visiting you so much more."
"I wouldn't mind that at all, hey maybe you could be my secretary?" He gave her the old Bartowski eye dance and laughed lightly as they entered the Orange Orange.
"Am I going to have to start spying on your current secretary?"
"Relax Sarah you know I'd never risk compromising our cover relationship." He smirked at the not-so-subtle joke.
"You better not; you know Ellie would kill you if you cheated on me again." She said opening the door to castle.
"Worried your boyfriend is straying Walker? I'm not sure that's why the CIA trained you how to spy, but I guess you could use those skills to keep him in line."
"No Casey we were just talking about how bad it would be for Chuck to cheat on our cover relationship again, there's only so many times a girl would take him back. Besides Ellie likes me and would not be happy."
Chuck decided that a new conversation path was needed and cut off Casey's impending grunt. "So why'd you call us down here?"
"Beckman's dead, new director wants to brief us." Chuck's eyes went wide and his breath caught in his throat. Sarah was shocked by the slight emotion in Casey's voice, not much, but a tiny amount.
"How'd she die?" Chuck asked quickly.
"Gas leak in her house."
Chuck breathed an audible sigh of relief.
"Chuck!" She couldn't believe he was glad that she died.
"Bartowski what's wrong with you? You happy the general is dead? Because I hear her replacement isn't so nice."
"Who's the replacement?" Sarah asked hoping to cover Chuck despite being shocked at his bizarre behavior herself.
"Guy named Bill Hendriksen, he's interim now, but will be the next appointed one so him and Grimsdóttir will be taking over the briefings from now on."
Sarah noticed Chuck's flash. It wasn't totally unexpected, he should flash on a major NSA agent, but when he emerged he looked far paler than he should have. "What was it?"
"Nothing just the usual, he's in some bad stuff that I'm not really used to."
He was lying to her, she wanted to call him on it, but she knew that since it was Chuck he had to have some kind of reason for it.
The screen winked on, it was split in half between Hendriksen and Grimsdóttir. "Agent Walker, Agent Casey, Bartowski." Sarah didn't miss the slight at Chuck, ever since he'd uploaded Intersect 2.0 General Beckman had referred him as Agent Bartowski. Grimsdóttir didn't, but while he had joined some briefings he didn't appear to be concerned with the Intersect project.
"Do we have a mission?"
Hendriksen sat quietly he hadn't said a word the entire meeting. "No on the contrary I'm ordering your team to stand down until a full review can be completed."
Casey looked like, well like he did on Election Days when the liberals won. Those days really sucked.
Sarah was using all her years of training to keep her hands and body from shaking in fear. Grimsdóttir had been far harsher towards her than either Graham or Beckman and he probably wouldn't hesitate to reassign her if he thought she was compromised. And he'd already made it abundantly clear that he thought she was compromised.
Chuck smiled, and gave the CIA director a small wink. "And what if I flash?"
"Alert Agent Casey and he will deal with it appropriately."
The two trained agents were confused, Sarah and Grimsdóttir were CIA why would he want the power to go to an NSA agent?
"What about Agent Walker?"
"Agent Walker might not be around much longer, Agent Forrest will arrive tomorrow to conduct a 49-B."
Chuck looked at him and smiled.
"Chuck do you know what a 49-B is?" Sarah couldn't believe he was smiling.
"Yeah."
Sarah was convinced something was wrong with him, he was happy about her possibly being reassigned because of their feelings, he was lying to her, and he was happy about Beckman dying.
"Any other questions?"
They shook their heads no and they disappeared off the screen. Hendriksen had been around for the entire meeting, but hadn't said a single word.
"Chuck can we go somewhere and talk?" Sarah could tell Casey was also curious about Chuck's odd behavior, but beat him to the punch.
"Let's go home, but can I drive?"
That was the last straw, Chuck was definitely not acting right. "My car? Do you want my firstborn while you're at it?"
The old Chuck temporarily returned as she saw his knowing smile, "Yeah I suppose I do."
She laughed. It was a slightly awkward laugh as she was still tense from Chuck's actions. "Seriously Chuck do you know how to drive it?"
"Even better the Intersect does."
She tossed him the keys and slipped into the passenger seat. As he shut the door and turned the car on, she turned to him. "I love you, I know I don't tell you that enough, but I do."
"Sarah what's the matter?"
"Grimsdóttir wasn't happy about our closeness and now that he's in charge I don't know how much longer I'll have with you." She managed to hold in the tears for him, but her voice was a mess filled with emotion.
"Sarah
it'll be okay I promise, now I believe I have something to make up
to you." She still had a thousand questions swimming through her
mind, but his little eyebrow dance erased them all.
He pointed
the car home and took off.
He always managed to make her feel better, why hadn't she given in to their feelings in the beginning?
***
10 Hours Later
"Stop staring at me. I told you I don't like it when you watch me sleep." She said without opening her eyes.
"Good you're awake. We need to take a ride."
"What? No we're staying here. You haven't fully made it up to me." She was shocked by how much she'd changed in the last three months. No longer did she always want to go out and have fun, she was perfectly happy to stay at home with him where she could talk and act freely.
"Sarah this is deadly serious we need to take a ride get dressed." He had her attention now, she figured it had something to do with why he had been acting so strange at the briefing. Her attention really perked up when he grabbed the two duffel bags that they always had packed in case they needed to run away quickly.
"Chuck what's going on?" She hated this, he was keeping secrets from her and while his take charge attitude was attractive it wasn't what she wanted.
"Sarah I need you to trust me, I'll explain everything in the car." She bit her lip unconsciously and nodded. The clothes he tossed her were even more confusing. They were her mission clothes and when she looked at him she realized he was wearing the same. Why would they need these if they were ordered to stand down?
***
"Ok Sarah I'm sure you have a hundred questions by now so go ahead."
She looked at him in total confusion, "What was your flash about?"
"Bill Hendriksen is dirty, he's a Ring agent."
Her eyes went wide, "I'm calling Grimsdóttir we need to report this immediately."
"Grimsdóttir already knows."
"Grimsdóttir is dirty to?" She nervously swallowed. She didn't want to take on the entire CIA.
"Yes, but he works for the cube not the Ring."
"Why were you smiling about Beckman's death? I know she wasn't the nicest person to you, but to be happy she died? That's not you Chuck."
"That's a little more complicated and goes back to when I was kidnapped."
***
New York City Cube Headquarters
+ 1 Day 13 Hours 10 Minutes (Chapter 7) From Kidnapping
"Now Chuck I have some unfortunate news for you."
Chuck looked at him with a mix of fear and interest.
"General Beckman is going to die, soon. Her replacement is, unfortunately, a Ring operative."
"Can't you do something? Expose him, warn her?"Chuck' voice had gone up a few octaves.
"We'll try and protect her, but we can't guarantee it and we can't expose him. If Beckman dies in a gas explosion at her house, that was us and she's safe."He knew his team wouldn't be the ones to do it, but he could arrange that signal.
"So my choices are either get killed or captured by the Ring when Beckman is replaced or remove the Intersect?"
"No they'll come after you even if you have the Intersect removed. You can either be captured, tortured, and killed by them or join us."
"And you don't care if I have the Intersect or not?"
"Beckman's reports indicate that you would make an excellent analyst even without the Intersect."
"I can't leave my sister, and Devon, and Sarah, and Morgan."This didn't surprise Echo every psych report on the Intersect told him how attached he was to them.
He knew that when dealing with someone like Chuck a little honesty went a long way. "Look Chuck I like you, I obviously trust you or I would have just tricked you into uploading the Intersect again so we could probably protect Ellie and Devon, Morgan was never in any danger and you could always take Sarah with you—"
"Sarah would never leave the CIA she loves her job." Echo laughed.
"That's not what her psych evaluation says."
"What?"
"Sarah was initially rejected as a possible recruit of ours due to her emotions. She follows them too much and considering your relationship with Agent Walker you could get her to join you."
"I think you've got Sarah wrong."
"You underestimate her feelings for you and the CIA director is one of us, he can make sure that even if Sarah goes with you that she isn't fired or considered rogue. But anyway if you got her to go with you then you would always be able to visit Ellie, Devon, Morgan, and the rest of your friends." He saw the reaction on Chuck's face and knew he had him. He had his new Intersect and his new weapon.
"Why wouldn't the Ring use them to get to me?" Traditional Chuck, always worried about others.
"We'll report you as dead in memos, don't worry you can tell Ellie your going on vacation, the Ring won't put to much effort into finding your relatives and friends, if they think your dead. If you stay though, they'll know your alive and they won't stop until you're in their custody or dead."
"You're sure they won't be found?"
"Absolutely. I'll leave the choice up to you, but the day Beckman dies I'll have an extraction team waiting for you at your favorite spot on the beach. They'll arrive one hour after sundown and wait until midnight."
"And if I don't show up?"
"They'll leave."
"And if I show up?"
"Repeat the following to whoever is there, Delta Six and then add however many people you have with you. One if it's just you, two if you bring Walker." He was happy to have gotten this far, he needed to get the codename out at the very least.
"What about Casey?"
"If you're joining us, then we want him to stay with the NSA. You would do well to have a contact with them you can trust." Chuck looked nervous about it, probably worrying about what would happen to Casey, but an NSA agent so highly placed would be invaluable.
"And I could visit my family whenever I wanted?"
Echo smiled again, he had him. "Yes."
***
She looked at him her mind reeling from what he'd just told her. He was going rogue, the NSA director was actually a Ring operative, the CIA director was actually a Cube operative, and she had the choice to go "rogue" but the CIA director would make sure she was considered to actually be on a deep cover assignment. Despite the sea of thoughts she found herself in she had the strangest question, "Why Delta Six?"
"Six because that's his number, so it tells them who recruited me, and Delta because that'll be my designation."
"So should I call you Delta Six Two?" She smiled at him, she couldn't bring herself to say Yes I'll go rogue with you.
"No, but your coming with me?" His smile was infectious and she felt herself going from the slightly forced smile before to a genuine one.
"Of course, you doubted me?"
"I know you love your job Sarah and…and I would understand if you didn't want to come."
"Chuck you just told me that your life is in danger and that you're going to have to leave. There's no way I'm letting the man I love run for his life without me especially when I can help. So what are we doing? The sun's going down now are we just going to wait for them or?" She let the sentence hang there.
"I'm going to say goodbye to Ellie."
"Well then let's go."
***
They walked in casually; despite moving out they still spent a large amount of time here. "Ellie you home?"
"Sorry Chuckster she just went in for a shift." Devon called from the bedroom, the fatigue in his voice told the pair that he had just gotten off a shift.
"Devon we really need to talk, can you get up for a few minutes? I know you're tired, but this is important."
He emerged a few minutes later, "What is it guys? I just got off a triple."
"We're leaving, we're going to uh…travel the world."
"Both of you?" They nodded, "Awesome the Chuckster and his woman traveling the world way to go guys."
"Thanks we're leaving in an hour."
"An hour? Ellie is going to freak, she won't get the chance to throw you a party or do any of that stuff she'd want to do before you guys leave."
Sarah smiled, "I know I was looking forward to the feast, but this is an impromptu kind of thing."
"When will you guys be back?"
"We don't really know, it'll probably be awhile though."
"We're gonna miss you guys around here, but I totally understand guys. Have fun. Now is that all? Because I am really tired."
"Yeah, bye Devon see you when we get back."
They turned and headed back to the 911. "Chuck while I know you enjoy driving it, can I have it back?"
"Yeah, just let me drive to the beach I don't want anything to spook them."
"No problem, baby."
Chuck's head snapped around to her. They were still within range of Casey's apartment and any bugs he had in the complex. Then he realized they had no reason to hide their relationship anymore they were running away.
"I love you Sarah." He wanted to say it just for the bugs, one last rib at Casey.
She caught on to what he was doing, "I love you too, Chuck. Glad we decided to start a real relationship all those months ago." She couldn't very well let Chuck have all the fun could she?
***
"Ellie." They called as they walked into the main lobby of the hospital, Ellie still hadn't started attending to her patients yet probably due to the record time Sarah and got them there in.
"Chuck, Sarah what are you guys doing here? Are you okay? I'm kind of busy sorry I don't really have time to talk." She was quickly searching them for any signs of injury.
"Ellie we're fine, but we really need to talk."
"Doctor Woodcomb I can cover you for a few minutes if you need to talk to these two." The newly off-duty doctor offered seeing the desperate looks the newly married doctor's brother and presumably his girlfriend were giving her.
"Thanks Elizabeth, looks like I have a few minutes so what's up guys?"
"Ellie, we're going on an extended vacation."
"What? When? Where? How long will you be gone for?"
"We're leaving in about half an hour, we're actually going to be traveling the world." She naturally leaned into her boyfriend and smiled at him.
Chuck continued for Sarah, "We're going to be gone for awhile, sis, sorry. I know you'd really like to celebrate and probably throw us a party, but me and Sarah were just laying in bed and the idea just kinda struck us. I finished up my first project last week, which you two threw me an amazing party for." He said planting a quick kiss on Sarah's forehead.
"Chuck are you sure? I mean it's kind of short notice."
"Yeah we just kind of wanted to travel around the world a bit; you know visit some romantic cities." Sarah was absolutely beaming as he said this. Despite knowing it all to be a lie she'd fallen in love with the idea and couldn't contain her happiness at doing it someday with him.
"Chuck I know your company is doing really well, but can you really afford this all?"
"I have quite a bit of money saved up for something exactly like this," Sarah added. It wasn't entirely a lie, she did have money saved up in case they ever had to run although recently she'd be considering them to be more of wedding and honeymoon than off-the-grid funds. "I look forward to getting Chuck away from work, Morgan, and any other distractions he may have.
"Oh I haven't—"
"No not you, mainly the Buy More crew. I swear any time he comes and visits me at work they're all over there and don't leave unless we hideout in the freezer." She pretended to seek more comfort from Chuck, although it was really an excuse just to get close to him. She almost hated how attached they were and how much she cared about him. It almost made her nauseous a few times.
"Jeff and Lester don't leave though." He added shivering from the disgusting thought of what they did.
"Yeah I'm considering banning them from the store, last time they brought a video camera."
Ellie was just about to add a comment about how creepy the Buy More crew was when Chuck shocked her, "I'm telling you Sarah just say the word and I'll get you a job with me. We can have fun, and you want have to deal with annoying immature boys gawking at you."
"That's so sweet, Chuck, isn't that sweet Sarah?"
"Yeah, it's part of why I love him." She was glad she could say none of that sentence was part of a cover.
"I'm going to miss you guys so much, I wish we could talk more, but Elizabeth really needs to get home."
"Bye Ellie."
"Call me when you land."
"We'll do our best."
They walked downstairs, back to the car and as promised Chuck got in and drove.
***
They sat in the car, staring at the beach. The appointed hour was about to arrive. "Last chance to back out."
She was genuinely hurt, "Get this through your thick head. I. Sarah. Walker. Am. Not. Leaving. You. Now. Or. Ever. Got. That?" She had poked him in the chest with each word progressively harder until he actually yelped in pain at the last one.
"Got it you are never leaving me. We're together forever." He made it seem so final, so committed. Then she realized, she'd never been so committed before. She loved him, and no one else was even able to compare. She was ready for final and committed.
"Let's go." They knew Casey would track the car to the beach and assume it was a dumpsite. The beach during summer? Not exactly devoid of people and cars.
They approached the beach in the darkness. He saw a man clad in black standing down by the water and a zodiac. They approached each other.
As they did they saw he was armed, he was aiming a submachine gun right at them. "Who are you?" Chuck flashed and Sarah stood by nervously. She was ready to take down this guy, but she really didn't want to have to.
"Delta Six Two." He answered as soon as the flash finished.
"Confirmed, got any gear?"
"Just what we're carrying."
"Get on board I'll join you in a minute, gotta make sure you don't have any tails." He said moving forward more towards the parking lot.
As they jumped onto the Zodiac he flashed on one other crew member. He turned to them all as soon as the greeter was out of earshot, "Do you guys know he's Ring?"
Their stunned reactions were all he needed as he and Sarah were already retrieving their weapons and racing to the mole. They approached him silently and caught him in the act a third quickly joined them while the rest remained with the boat.
"Yeah, Bill, we have the Intersect onboard I'll get you the final drop location." He hung up the phone quickly not wanting to dawdle too much.
As he turned around he was confronted by three handguns. "No you won't." Chuck and Sarah said sharing a smile. They were spending way too much time around Casey. What surprised them was that rather than arrest him, the other agent fired a silenced round into his head. Without blinking she turned back and headed to the boat.
Chuck was horrified, but realized that this was part of the business he had opted to join. "This is worse than I thought Sarah, they're really going to need our help."
"Yeah Chuck, they need the Intersect, but remember I need you so don't go changing too much on me okay? At the end of this I still want to be laying in bed next to the man I fell in love with."
"I won't, I love you to Sarah."
End of Chuck vs New York
A/N- Ok just in case the beginning of the chapter (not the Beckman part) was a little confusing to anyone Chuck and Sarah are living together (24 hour surveillance ordered since he uploaded the new Intersect and there are no cameras in it) they are in a totally real relationship that they are hiding from everyone. Chuck is starting up his own software company, but can't hire Sarah because her previous covers don't exactly lend themselves to corporate finance and she hasn't ever mentioned her Harvard degree so I assume she doesn't want them to know that.
Yup another Clancy reference, although more out of necessity then fun as the initial name for the new NSA director was Gladstone. Something I'd thought I'd made up out of nowhere, when I added a first name (William) I realized I hadn't made it up, I'd remembered it from AP Euro so the name obliviously had to be dropped.
And I'm off to Dartmouth (visiting not attending, yet, would love to though)
Please drop a review and I hope you enjoyed Chuck vs New York