Chuck vs The Upgrade

Disclaimer: I don't own BTVS or Chuck.

Author's Note: Many thanks to my beta Cassy.

Chapter 13

When they got back to Castle they heard more bad news. "Sheikh LeBouf's yacht is already docking in Los Angeles harbor," General Beckman told them. "I want you to get down and try to intercept as he clears customs. I've arranged for it to take a little longer than usual. If you miss him let me know."

"And if we find him?" Chuck asked.

The general replied, "You'll be wearing a wire. Try to get him to admit to a crime," she replied. "Any crime will do but the bigger the better. Once we have a reason to hold him we can get the rest out of him. Maybe you can pretend you want to sell him the location of the man who stole his million. That would get his interest and it might get him to offer you money to do an illegal thing or three for him. That would work out nicely for us."

Sarah nodded, "We can think of something I'm sure. Will there be cops or FBI handy to make the arrest once he spills the beans?"

General Beckman nodded, "The FBI will be listening to the wire and we'll have agents in the vicinity as well. Once he confesses to something they can grab him on they'll bust in and arrest all of you. The two of you will be released of course and LeBouf and any cronies of his they catch will be shipped to off to Homeland Security for interrogation."

"Alright general," Chuck said. "We'll leave now and call you when we get there."

A few hours later Chuck called her back, "Mission accomplished general. He tried to hire us to kill Sarah's father. The FBI burst in and arrested us all. When the sheikh asked how they found him the lead agent told the sheikh his little brother ratted him out. We should be totally in the clear."

"Thank you all," Beckman said. "The information we get out of him will help us take down even more gun runners and terrorists and we'll make sure he never poses a threat to anyone ever again." Then she signed off.

Chuck smiled, "Your father will be safe now Sarah."

"Until he crosses the next bad guy at least," she said. "He might actually be safer in prison but I can't bring myself to do that to him. I just hope he stays safe or at least calls me next time he steals from the wrong person."

He hugged her, "I'm sure he will. You don't need to worry about him anymore. We can move on to the next challenge."

"What next challenge?" Casey asked. "We have off until Beckman calls with the next mission."

Chuck smiled, "Well Sarah and I have a mission." He paused briefly then added, "Christmas shopping!"

Casey snorted, "Fine, just don't try to get me involved."

Sarah said, "Actually we both have to get home now but we can shop after that. For now let's get back to our home." She grinned, "We haven't done it in every room yet."

Casey grunts, "Ugh! I did not need to know that." Then he left Castle, followed by Chuck and Sarah.

When they got home and after they christened a new room Chuck said, "Actually I want to make cookies to bring over to Ellie's before we Christmas shop."

"We can do both," Sarah said. She stretched, "So another room first or shower then eat?"

"I vote the second," Chuck said. "I need time to get my strength back."

She chuckled, "You've been keeping up fine so far. That exercise schedule Casey put you on must be a good one."

Chuck smiled, "Yeah, I'd thank him but he'd hate knowing why."

"I'll shower first but you can join me if you want," Sarah said before getting off the kitchen table and heading for the master bathroom to take her shower.

Chuck used the time to clean up the kitchen then went to take his shower once she was done. After he showered they made cookies to take over to Ellie's who had them stay to dinner.

Morgan joined them for dinner and brought Anna. Anna chatted a lot about apartment hunting with Morgan and Chuck offers to help when he has free time.

Christmas in Burbank was quiet. The day before Christmas was a little more eventful. A man fleeing the police in a car drove right into the Buy More.

Chuck started to stand up and then felt a large hand push him back down.

"Stay down Chuck!" Casey said.

"My sister is out there!" Chuck said. "And Morgan."

"Sarah will handle it," Casey said. "You are our first priority. I was closest so I'm making sure you're safe while she takes down the threat." He growled, "If I don't get to stand up and deal with him then neither do you."

When the guy turned the weapon towards her she kicked it out of his hand before he even saw her move. Then she slowed down when she punched him in the head to make sure she didn't kill him and to make it less obvious that she was enhanced.

Casey took him out to the back saying he would meet the police behind the store to avoid scaring the customers more. Actually the general had the chase called off and he took the guy into Castle to interrogate him just in case.

What initially seemed like a case of someone snapping from frustration turned out to be an attack from Fulcrum. A second agent showed up and said he was a police negotiator even though the police had been called off. Sarah offered to show him to the criminal. He was unhappy at that but couldn't say no to that without breaking his cover. She lead him into the back where she knocked him out after a brief scuffle and dropped him off with Casey. Casey interrogated both him and the first guy and found it was a trap from Fulcrum to find the intersect. The good news was they thought it was in Bryce Larkin's head but the bad news was they knew that some employees at the Buy More were involved with it.

General Beckman told Casey that they would need to stay undercover at the Buy More and the shop across from it, the ice cream store, to catch any Fulcrum agents snooping around.

Casey sighed when he realized this undercover job might last years. These were not the people he would choose to associate with but it was his job and an important one so he smiled and told the general that it would be his pleasure. The general thanked him and arranged a pickup of the pretend thief and the fake police officer.

On Christmas Day Casey was happy with the guns he got as presents and managed to smile through a Christmas dinner with the Bartowskis.

Things got a little slow after that but before the team could get bored someone tried to blow up a musician in town to autograph CDs at the Buy More.

Chuck went out partying with him and he boasted of getting a tattoo for each concert outside of the country. He added that he had his manager arrange them all. When he showed off one tattoo Chuck flashed on it. Chuck shot him with a tranquilizer gun once they were alone and called Sarah.

"Hey, " he said. "I just flashed on one of Tyler's tattoos. It's plans for something top secret."

"So we know why they want him now," Sarah said. "They want to clean up loose ends so that nobody knows what they are doing. I'll call it in and have them pick up his manager. You said the manager arranged the tattoos right?"

"Right," said Chuck. "You start that rolling, I'll inform Casey and see if Tyler remembers the place he got the last tattoo."

Sarah smiled and said, "Good work Chuck. I love you."

"I love you too," he replied. Then he informed Casey and together they correlated each tattoo with a secret that had been stolen.

When they picked up the manager at first he pretended not to know anything but after they showed him their evidence he cracked and admitted to everything.

The manager went on trial for espionage and the musician went back on tour with an undercover agent as his new manager to grab anyone else tries to contact him or use him to smuggle stolen secrets.

"Your next mission is to pose as a happy suburban couple," General Beckman said. "We have arranged a week's vacation from work for Chuck and Sarah so no one will wonder where they are. Casey will be in the area undercover as a cable repairman. If you run into trouble or need to get evidence out while under surveillance he should be able to help. We have Chuck and Sarah set up as a housewife and a fantasy writer. This cover should allow you time to look around and an excuse to ask questions. We had one of our best agents disappear in this vicinity so be very careful. Any questions?"

"No, General," was the unanimous reply.

"Good," she replied. "I wish you all luck."

Once they had moved in and gotten settled Chuck asked, "How should we start checking people out?"

"It's going to be a nice weekend weather-wise," Sarah said. "We should do a cookout. We can say it's to pay everyone back for their welcome and the food they brought over."

"Alright," Chuck said. "I guess I'll man the grill and you'll make the sides?"

Sarah nodded, "Standard barbecue fare. I'll start writing out invitations and we will get the meat on Friday so it can marinate overnight."

The barbecue was a success. They got to talk to everyone and Chuck got propositioned by the wife of the couple next door.

Casey said, "That's great! You'll be able to enter the house and look for anything suspicious and get to pump her," he paused then smirked, "for information."

Gritting her teeth Sarah agreed, "Yes, I have to agree that it's a good opportunity. Just be careful. Also be discreet, if you take too long over there or are obvious about it I will have to be angry or we'll blow our cover. Stay just long enough to snoop around the house looking for clues."

He made arrangements to go over a few days later but he spent a bit too long looking around and ended up captured. He was drugged and brought to a Fulcrum research facility and given the Fulcrum version of the intersect just before Sarah found and rescued him.

Once he recovered he was able to identify that the whole subdivision was full of Fulcrum agents and what their real identities were. The fact that they were making their own intersect was disturbing but he had overheard enough to know he was the first person to survive it intact so they had some time. Especially after the NSA had stormed in behind Sarah and grabbed all the scientists and their hardware.

"Well that ended beautifully," the general said. "We rolled up a whole facility and stopped them from completing their own intersect program. We also now have a new and better way of recognizing their agents since Chuck now has their intersect as well as our own. Good work! Go ahead and rest up until your next mission. Beckman out."

Casey cut transmission from their side and said, "Well at least your disgustingly cute antics haven't kept us from being a crack team. We have a few days before we have to be back at our cover jobs so I'm going to head to a gun show. I'd invite you both but I know what you two do with your time off." He made a face and stood up, "Just don't leave a mess and try not to break anything."

After Casey left Chuck grinned, "It has been a while."

"Are you sure you're fully recovered from receiving that new Intersect?" Sarah asked.

"Yup," he replied. "The only question is, here or back at our apartment?"

She smiled, "Here. If we show up at the apartment early your sister and her husband will think something went wrong."

He nodded, "Yeah, and Morgan will show up to play video games and talk about our trip." Then he grinned, "Race you to the bedroom." She won of course.