Disclaimer—Recognizable characters belong to Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak. No copyright infringement intended. Any similarity to events or persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

Author's Notes—I really can't thank the wonderfully talented Brandywine00 enough for all the generous assisting in the beta-reading department. And I apologize for having such a long space between stories! But, here we are, back again, and the muse is rockin' at the next one already, so maybe I can complete both of these before Season 4 begins... Muahaha... ahem.

Spoilers—Um. Yeah, we're so far off the reservation at this point... From canon, we are accepting that Sarah is now living with Chuck. We have not yet reached the time of the finale events, however. I can also tell you that this follows Chuck versus the Paranoia, Chuck versus the False Alarm and Chuck versus the Saint. :)

Chuck versus the Plan B—Everybody knows everything by now, right? About everybody else? Maybe not.

He was just putting his key in the lock of his apartment door when he heard them.

It was very clear, the sound of soft whispers, accented by the occasional giggle. Perhaps the most noticeable of all, however, were the smiles. Even without seeing who was holding the hushed conversation in the corner of the courtyard, he could tell that the conspirators were grinning from ear to ear.

As he turned, however, the realization hit him like a ton of bricks.

The words his partner had said in a phone conversation not that long ago came back to haunt him with abandon: This changes things.

John Casey hadn't realized that the changes would include this particular scene playing out in front of him, his new girlfriend-although he wondered if he could call her that; it had only been one date-in quiet confidence with his partner.

His partner who happened to be the girlfriend of his girlfriend's brother.

He wasn't sure he wanted to know what they were talking about, but he was fairly certain his pride would prefer the conversation to end, and sooner rather than later.

What concerned him the most was that, when he'd stepped out, Sarah Walker and Ellie Bartowski's whispers had dropped to even softer tones. And, when Chuck Bartowski emerged from his apartment across the courtyard, their conversation completely ended.

The awkwardness bubbled through the fountain, overflowing into the courtyard, filling it whole. While it didn't seem to bother the ladies who were still grinning, it was clear from the stunted way Chuck moved away from his door that it was affecting the Intersect adversely.

"Sarah?" Chuck asked.

Ellie smiled at the blonde. "We'll talk later," she whispered.

Sarah grinned, glancing from her partner to her boyfriend and back again, which only confirmed Casey's suspicions.

With Sarah's fingers entwined with Chuck's, the two made their way out of the courtyard and into the bright, sunshiny morning outside the apartment complex.

Casey watched as the two left, but he lingered. After all, he had a feeling he knew exactly what Ellie and Sarah were whispering about. The night before had been pretty magical, if he said so himself. A romantic, candle-lit dinner at a seaside restaurant, followed by a cozy movie, capped off with an hour under the stars, sitting in the courtyard, at the base of the fountain, quietly talking and holding hands.

He cleared his throat. "So, how'd you sleep?"

"Once I got to sleep, just fine," she admitted, looking up at him. "It just took a while to get there."

He offered her a rare grin before he confessed: "Same here."

"Off to the Buy More?"

He grunted sadly.

Setting her coffee mug on the planter at her feet, she reached up and straightened the collar of his green polo. "Have a good day?"

He nodded. "Stay safe."

She smiled up at him.

It was a knowing smile, and he was sure he knew why. After all, he had clearly telegraphed the concern for her safety. She'd been a target more than once in the past year, and she'd chosen to stay close to her family, to Chuck. To him.

"I will be," she said, "but I'll be home late."

"I've got a mission after my shift anyway."

"Someday, you'll just have one job, won't you?" she asked. "I can't imagine sixteen-, eighteen-, even twenty-hour days are too healthy, particularly how often you do them consecutively."

"I'll keep that in mind, Doc," he promised, pulling her closer. "Though, I'm sure if I were to need, say, a tune-up... someone might help me out?"

She grinned. "I dunno, Colonel. I might be a little... annoyed... at someone ignoring my advice by then."

"Well, we can't have that, now, can we?"

She shook her head. "You're in the military, you're supposed to be good with orders, right?"

He arched an eyebrow. "You're ordering me around now?"

She rested a hand on his chest, letting her thumb graze over the cotton-covered muscle. "Just to take care of yourself. And Chuck."

"Consider it done," he said softly.

She rocked up on her toes, stealing a quick kiss. "You better get going, Marine, don't want you to be late," she murmured.

"Aye, aye."

Chuck was uncharacteristically quiet on the drive to the mall. Sarah kept glancing at him in the rear view mirror. He didn't even seem to notice that. All he did was stare out the front windshield, his mouth turned down somewhat, his eyes narrowed, his brow drawn together.

"You want to tell me about it?"

Pulled from his thoughts, his face eased slightly as he looked at her. "What?"

"What are you thinking?"

He shook his head.

"Chuck..."

"Nothing, Sarah."

"You were fine this morning when we woke up," she said, referring to their new living arrangements. Their living together arrangements. "You were fine when I got up to take a shower, when I got out of the shower... you were fine when I told you I was going to wait for you outside..."

"I'm still fine," he insisted.

It was the insistence, the fact that he simply wasn't that was bothering her. "No, you're not," she said finally. "Is this about Casey?" At the mention of her NSA counterpart, Chuck winced. "I thought you were okay with his dating your sister."

"I thought I was," he admitted. "I'm not so sure anymore."

"What changed?"

The fact that they actually went on a date, he thought morosely. He shrugged.

She sighed heavily. "I wish you'd talk to me."

Lester nudged Jeff's shoulder as he was carefully stacking the display of new iPods. The empty cardboard box tower came crumbling around them.

Jeff's entire posture slumped for a half a beat before he shrugged. If anyone, like Big Mike or Morgan, were to ask, he'd just call it modern art. He'd buy that. "What?"

"Take a look at our fearless leader over there," Lester said, narrowing his eyes critically towards the lanky geek behind the Nerd Herd desk.

"What about him?" Jeff asked, clearly not seeing what his friend was.

"Note the angry shoulders, the tense muscles in his jaw, but, most importantly, Jefferson, look at the eyes."

Jeff tried to see what Lester was pointing out, but it still just looked like Chuck to him. "Uh... Okay..."

"Note the way they're following a certain, shall we say, appliance salesman as he crosses the floor, moving merchandise from the sales display to the check out, from the back room to the top shelf... He knows."

"Who knows what?"

Lester took a slow breath. "Watch and learn, would you? And work on your long-term memory skills."

"Mom always said I got dropped on my head too many times as a child," Jeff said, blinking his eyes so slowly they did so virtually independently of each other.

"Not a stretch of the imagination by any means," Lester said before heading towards the Nerd Herd desk. He leaned against it casually for a moment. "Trouble in paradise?" he asked knowingly.

Chuck sat up a little straighter, pulling his eyes from a certain green-shirted co-worker and looking at the list of jobs to be completed that sat in front of him. "Don't know what you're talking about," he said.

Lester scoffed. "Of course not," he said smoothly. "There's never anything going on around here..."

Chuck crossed off the CD drive replacement. He'd done that when he'd walked in. He wanted to just ignore them. Getting sucked into the world of Jeffster! was never something he wanted to participate in willingly. Except, the more he tried to pretend they weren't there, the harder that became. He regarded them both coolly. "What do you two know?"

Jeff finally remembered what he and Lester had discovered and smiled an evil smirk over at Lester, who returned it, but neither answered.

"Oh-ho, no. No, no. You've started us down this path. You spit it out," Chuck said, tossing his pen back on the desk.

"It's just that we know Ellie is back on the market," Jeff said.

While he didn't want to know the answer, he felt he really needed to know it. "How did you guys hear about that?" He watched, somewhat amused, as their expressions turned from smug to nervous.

"It was Morgan," Jeff blurted out.

"Yeah, yeah, Morgan," Lester backed up. "Morgan was spilling his guts. He really needs to learn a little more self-control. I mean, he's the assistant manager now. He's had that position for a while and he really... He really ought to be setting a better example for those of us beneath him on the career ladder. I should know! I should definitely know, having been assistant manager once. You really can't understand or comprehend the stresses of that job until you've walked a mile in that vest."

"Yeah," Chuck said, disbelieving. "Sure."

"You're worried about Elizabeth," Lester said, moving on quickly.

"Well, for starters, it's Eleanor-"

"We can help you," Lester said, ignoring Chuck's correction.

Chuck couldn't help but think that Lester's offer sounded somewhat snake-like, very sneaky. "I am well aware of your certain and, oftentimes, frightening skill set, gentlemen, and I can't believe I'm saying this, but... what are you two talking about?"

Lester and Jeff exchanged glances. Lester shrugged. "We might've taken it upon ourselves, the liberty if you will, to... preemptively... check out the situation."

Chuck was fairly certain he knew what that meant, but he had to be certain: "Are you saying that you're stalking my sister?"

"No," Jeff said, shaking his head.

Lester shook his as well, but after a stern look from Chuck, he caved. "We may have sat in the van across the street from your apartment last night. We might've seen Ellie climbing out of the passenger seat of a certain late-model Ford Crown Victoria-"

"Black," Jeff added.

Lester barely missed a beat. "-registered to a certain imposing ape-man who sells large home appliances at a mediocre-sized electronics store in a downtown Burbank mall..."

"Why your sister would ever go for John Crazy... makes no sense."

"Makes some sense," Chuck said, finding himself defending Casey by default as he tried to defend Ellie.

"She's a doctor. A pillar of the community! She was married to another doctor, another pillar. Together, they were... they were two pillars, standing tall... together. But, she dumps the smart, handsome, rock hard doctor and winds up going out on a date with our very own John Crazy? Quite clearly, the least appealing member of our Buy More team, a cold, detached man, with much the personality of the inedible yogurt your girlfriend sells across the parking lot."

"If pretty girls dug ugly guys like him, then Lester and I would have to be beating them away with a stick. It's an abomination, your sister with... with... him," he said, disgusted.

"It's really..." Chuck shook his head. "That's really harsh, guys. And we shouldn't... We shouldn't be talking about my sister anyway," Chuck said, getting to his feet.

"You brought it up," Jeff commented.

"No, no," Chuck said, shaking his head. "You two had to bring up the fact that you'd managed to stalk my sister without her knowledge, or Casey's knowledge... and if you want to keep breathing, I'd suggest not stalking either of them. Because, well, as you said, Casey has a tendency to be..." Chuck drifted off.

"Crazy," Jeff provided.

"Exactly."

It was back, the awkwardness. But this time, instead of being centered in the courtyard fountain, it was centered at the conference table in the middle of the Castle base. It was so palatable this time that Sarah couldn't help but wonder if they would be able to handle the mission that evening.

"Simple op, really," Casey said, spreading the blueprints of the bus station out in front of them. "Our target will be coming in from the west entrance. He's supposed to meet his contact here," he said, pointing towards the center of the terminal. I'll take care of the contact. Bartowski, you'll take over the meet, and Walker will run back up from the van. Piece of cake."

"What if they show up at the same time?" asked Chuck.

"They won't."

"Yeah, but.. They might. Maybe even just like two seconds apart. That's virtually the same time," Chuck countered sounding, to Sarah, amazingly three-year-old-like.

Sarah cleared her throat. "Contact will be there first. It's protocol; it's standard operating procedure."

Chuck deflated.

Casey narrowed his eyes slightly, trying to figure out what Chuck was playing at because he was fairly certain it wasn't actually the mission. "You and the contact look close enough alike, once you get into position, you can intercept the target."

"What if I can't?" Chuck challenged.

"It's the job, Bartowski," Casey said through clenched teeth. "If you can't do the job, then I'll find an agent who can."

Sarah finally moved between them. "C'mon, Chuck," she said, gently easing him away from the table.

"Where are we going?" the Nerd Herd geek asked.

"To cool down," she said, pushing Chuck further back into the Castle.

"I'm perfectly fine!"

"I can see that," she said sarcastically. She glanced over her shoulder, glad to see that Casey was staying put. Once she knew they were out of earshot, she stopped.

"Sarah, what, exactly, was the point of that?"

"This... whatever you and Casey have going on... This is about Ellie," Sarah said, cutting straight to the heart of the matter.

"What?"

"You're upset."

"I'm not upset!"

His face was red, his heart rate and blood pressure were elevated. Of course he was fine. She closed her eyes tightly, trying to take a slow, calming breath.. "Chuck, I'm your partner, I'm your girlfriend. Pick either of those reasons to tell me the truth. Picking both would be best."

"I'm not upset about Ellie."

"About Ellie and Casey, then," Sarah countered, not willing to let Chuck take a pass on semantics.

Chuck opened his mouth to protest that one, but couldn't quite.

"How hard is it to tell me the truth about this?"

"What do you want me to say, Sarah?" Chuck asked. "I'm not fond of the idea."

"Why not? You wouldn't say this morning. You won't say now. We have to work together, all three of us. Casey's just trying to outline the op-"

"And I think I was asking rather pertinent questions-"

"You may have been, but the tone you were using to ask... Chuck, it's pretty clear what your feelings are about Casey at the moment. And given the way the Intersect works, given the lack of sleep you've been getting here lately, I think... I think you need to really self-evaluate here. Because I'm not sure if you're capable of flashing."

Chuck quieted.

The SUV ride to the train station was silent. Casey was content to let it be that way. Sarah kept occasionally glancing back at Chuck, as he sat in the back seat. He didn't seem to be quite as upset as he'd been earlier, or as aloof as he'd been that ride into work that morning. But he was still off. There was still something that wasn't quite her Chuck.

As Casey was pulling the car into a parking spot by the rear entrance, Chuck opened his door and climbed out of the still-moving vehicle.

"Bartowski?" Casey asked, glancing at him, puzzled.

"See you inside," Chuck said, slamming the door closed before stalking off towards the east entrance.

Casey glanced at his partner, one eyebrow raised.

"Don't ask," she said. "I'm trying."

Casey exited the car, walking with Sarah towards the rear entrance. "This is about Ellie, isn't it?"

While it might've sounded like a question to the untrained ear, Sarah knew very well it was a statement on Casey's part. "I think Chuck's not quite warmed up to the idea as much as we-and he-thought he had."

Casey grunted. Nothing's ever easy, he decided.

It was time to play Let's Make a Deal. At least, the introductory part of the game. He straightened his cufflinks and smoothed his tie. He needed to look like someone who could produce hundreds of thousands of dollars at the snap of his fingers. Technically, it took a requisition request from Beckman, which was, in no way, like having magically appearing money. There were often questions of transporting the money, of how the money was going to be returned to the US Treasury Department and the like. He wasn't sure how many hands the approval had to go through but he knew it was, most definitely, more than just his.

In his casual glances around the terminal, he kept an eye out for his target, Marcus Finch. He was a tall gentleman, average weight, with close-cropped blonde hair, wide blue eyes and an engaging smile. It screamed used car salesman at Chuck at the briefing, but what did he know?

Well, he knew that he wasn't sure what he felt about Ellie and Casey dating, but that was another matter entirely.

With a deep sigh, he kept his dark brown eyes on alert for his mark.

He spotted Casey easily who had taken up residence at the east entrance. Sarah was across the terminal. It appeared like she was just casually resting on a bench, but he could tell that she was probably more aware than anyone else in the entire station.

When he looked again towards Casey, he noticed that the Marine was gone. He didn't have time to fully process or figure out if Casey had found his mark because there was suddenly a confident voice in his ear.

"Mr. Billings?"

Chuck froze for a half second before turning, spotting his used car salesman. His mark had crept up on him. He turned, cordially dipping his head. "Mr. Finch."

Finch turned on the charm. "A pleasure to make your acquaintance."

"Same," Chuck said, accepting Finch's proffered hand.

"Seems I have something you want and you have something I want."

"So it would."

"I tell you, what, though," Finch said, motioning Chuck over to a table outside a coffee stand. "I've had a lot of interest in my acquired merchandise," he said, easing to sit.

"I can imagine," Chuck said evenly, joining his target at the table. "It's something my employers have sought after for years." Well, really, his employers had only been after it for a week. That's how long nuclear physicist Nathan York had been missing.

"Here's the thing. Bad business, I know, but these others have increased the price considerably."

He heard a voice in his ear crackle gently to life. "Don't negotiate, Chuck," Sarah murmured.

"Oh, have they?"

"So, I'm afraid I can't offer it to you any longer. I'm taking their bid."

"Well, that really is too bad. My employers would've loved to have a secure pipeline for such merchandise," Chuck said.

The smile never wavered from Finch's face, but there was a hint of something in his eyes, something Chuck couldn't quite discern. "Now, that is interesting, Mr. Billings."

"But, if the merchandise is gone, and there's no shot at any others..." Chuck drifted off with a shrug, getting to his feet.

"There is a pipeline, and I can guarantee its security."

It was Casey this time in his ear: "Steady, Bartowski."

"I'm sure my employers would believe that. If they had the original merchandise and at the original price, of course."

"Tell you what," Finch said, leaning forward again. "I'm meeting the other buyer, two nights from now, Club Azure. You show up, nine o'clock. I'll have the merchandise. We'll see who comes out on top."

"I can assure you," Chuck said, accepting Finch's hand again. "It'll be my employers."

Finch grinned. "I like you, Mr. Billings. I'm going to like working with you."

"Nice work, Chuck," Sarah murmured over the radio.

Chuck just nodded. "Monday night. Club Azure. Nine PM."

Stay tuned...

Lines from the next installment:

"Haven't seen you for a while," she said, filling a mug with black, bitter coffee.

The cafe was practically dead. A pair of teenagers sat in the very back, giggling over something. A young woman sat at the front window with her laptop, her nimble fingers pecking across the keys. No one seemed to mind that their conversation carried.

"I wasn't feeling well for a while," he lied-well, half-lied.

"Well, I'm glad you're feeling better," she said, setting the coffee down in front of him. "Pie?"

"I'm thinking," he said, looking at the menu.

"You always get the same thing..."

"Someday, I may surprise you."