A Knight in shining Nerd-Herd armour

(Chapter 1)

Chuck felt the cold metal of the gun barrel pressed to his forehead and had to fight just to avoid a panic attack. His whole body was shaking and he tried to back away, but there was nowhere to back away to. He was pressed between Casey and the wall behind him. Beside him, Casey half-sat, half-slouched against the wall. The bloodstain on his green Buy More shirt was growing steadily, testament to the gunshot wound.

The man in black glanced at Chuck, the gun still pressed to his head, and then back to Casey.

"No more heroics, shop-boy, or I use him as target practice," he said. "Got it?"

Casey nodded, glaring daggers at the man but knowing that he had no choice, and heaved a sigh of relief when the gun was removed.

As the door closed, the man leaving, Chuck took a few deep breaths to calm himself.

After a moment, he reached down and took the gun from the ankle holster that Casey always wore, holding it rather gingerly.

"Show me how to use this."

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(Four hours earlier.)

Chuck idly twirled the pen around his fingers, slouching in his chair as he watched Casey from across the store. He rolled his eyes when Morgan wandered over and Casey turned on him, holding the price gun he was using like a weapon and glaring until Morgan backed away. Every time, he thought, yet Morgan always tried again. He had to give his friend points for persistence. Moments later, Morgan sidled up to the Nerd Herd desk and leaned on it with a dramatic sigh.

"He hates me."

"Who?"

Morgan rolled his eyes. "Casey, that's who. I try to be nice but every time I talk to him he gives me this look, like he's mentally listing how many ways he could kill me."

He probably is, Chuck agreed, wisely deciding not to voice that particular piece of information. Morgan just annoyed the crap out of Casey; he didn't even have to do anything in particular. Though, to be fair, Morgan did tend to annoy a lot of people, it was just that he and Chuck had been friends for so long that he was used to most of his best friend's irritating habits so they didn't bother him. It was just a shame that his best friend and his lover couldn't stand each other.

"You seem to get along with him," Morgan went on. "How?"

Usually, under threat to our lives, Chuck thought, or more recently, in bed. Casey hadn't liked him much to begin with either, seeing him as a liability that he had been ordered to babysit. If someone had told him back then that he and Casey would be lovers by this point, he would have laughed in their face. That aspect was only a recent development, but he didn't see it ending anytime soon.

"How about I talk to him?" Chuck suggested, seeing Morgan's face light up with gratitude. "Now, don't you have something you should be doing?"

Morgan looked around the customer-free store pointedly and then back to Chuck. "No. For once, I actually don't have anything to do." He sighed again. "Doing nothing is so much more fun when you have something to avoid doing."

Chuck glanced up as Morgan ambled away toward the AV room, probably for a mid morning nap, and saw Casey's glare. If looks were lasers, Morgan would have two holes through his back. Realising that Chuck had seen him, Casey turned and stickered another box, jabbing it viciously with the sticker gun.

"Bartowski! I got a job for you." Big Mike gave him the address. "Conference suite in the Parkway Hotel; their display system just went down."

"And they don't have anyone on staff who could fix it?" Chuck asked.

"No one closer than we are," Big Mike told him. "Now quit wastin' time and go."

Chuck could almost follow the train of thought without Big Mike saying any more. If they did this job, it might lead to more from the Parkway, and that meant more money. And if there was one thing Big Mike loved in this world it was making money.

"I'm on it." He heard the sound of a sticker gun once more assaulting something. "You mind if I take Casey along?"

Big Mike actually looked relieved.

"Please do."

Chuck fought back a laugh. He knew that Big Mike was wary, if not outright scared, of Casey sometimes. Right now being one of those times. At the moment Casey was bored, just like the rest of the staff, and a bored Casey was a grouchy Casey. He had spent the entire morning growling at anyone who dared to come near him.

"Casey, you're on call-out with Bartowski."

Jeff and Lester reappeared then, watching as Casey followed Chuck out of the store toward the Nerd Herd cars.

"Weird," Lester muttered, as Casey actually smiled for the first time that day.

Jeff and Big Mike nodded in agreement. Casey's whole demeanour altered as he walked out with Chuck, laughing softly at something the other man said.

--------

The repair at the conference centre took less than twenty minutes and then they were leaving again. Chuck had expected it to take longer so he had no intention of going back just yet.

"So, you want to grab some lunch?"

Casey backed Chuck against the car and smirked. "I can think of something else I'd rather grab."

With a cursory glance around to see if they were being watched, he pressed in closer to capture Chuck's lips with his own.

Chuck sighed happily and slipped his arms around Casey's waist. It was nice to be out of the Buy More, to be able to do this. No one except Sarah knew of their relationship, which meant that they had to be careful not to do anything that would give them away. Out from under his friends' watchful gazes, he could let his guard down and just enjoy spending time with Casey.

Reluctantly, Casey took a step back, away from Chuck. "We could just go home," he suggested. "I doubt those morons at the Buy More would even notice."

"No, we couldn't," Chuck told him. "It might just be a cover for you but I actually work- and could be fired- from there."

He locked his bag in the car and stuffed his wallet into his jacket pocket. "I need to make a quick stop before we go for lunch," he said. Casey followed him out into the street, toward the ATM on the bank at the corner. "John, if I asked you to do something for me, would you?"

Casey frowned suspiciously. "That depends on what is."

"You know, the correct answer there would have been 'of course, Chuck, anything you ask'," Chuck informed him. "I just want you to try and be nice to Morgan."

Casey groaned. "Why?" he asked, sounding to Chuck like a petulant child. "He just bugs me."

Biting back a grin, Chuck said, "Because he's my best friend. It would be great if the pair of you could actually get along." Casey was still scowling. "Please, John. For me?"

After a good deal of grumbling and protesting, Casey reluctantly agreed. "I'm not promising anything."

"Just stopping looking at him like you want to strangle him would be a start," Chuck told him. He paused in front of the ATM, reading the Out Of Order sign on it and headed inside the bank instead.

"You're not going to make me actually socialise with Grimes, are you?" Casey asked as they got into line to wait for a cashier.

Chuck laughed. "No. Just be friendly."

Before Casey could respond, the door opened again and four men walked in. Immediately, Casey's senses were on alert. He turned just in time to see three of the men pull pistols out of their jacket pockets, whilst the fourth aimed a black handheld device at the security cameras.

The men had masks pulled over their faces, and now everyone else had noticed. The woman at the counter ahead of Chuck and Casey screamed, a young couple near to the door tried to make a run for it but they were stopped at the door by one of the gunmen.

"Everyone, SHUT UP!"

The silence was instantaneous.

"Now just do what you're told and this will be over soon," the man told them. He nodded to the gunman nearest to him, and together they shepherded the customers and staff into one of the financial advisor's offices, telling them to sit on the floor.

"What's going to happen to us?" an older woman, a customer, whispered once the men had gone, closing them inside.

Chuck smiled. "We just do what they say and it'll be over soon," he said.

He didn't believe it himself, but who was he to shatter their hope. Just because he'd seen more than he wanted to of the bad guys of this world in the past year or so, didn't mean that he couldn't let them believe that things had happy endings. Chuck felt Casey's arm go around him and leaned closer.

"I'm glad you're here," he said. "Well, not glad that you're stuck in the middle of a bank robbery, or that I am for that matter 'cos I can think of a million places I'd rather be. The next time I suggest going for lunch when we should be at work, just remind me of this-"

Casey rolled his eyes. "Chuck, you're babbling."

"Sorry."

--------

Almost an hour later, a commotion could be heard outside. The police had arrived a while ago and the eleven people in the office heaved a sigh of relief, all thinking that it would be alright now, the police would handle everything. Chuck looked up as two men came into the office.

"You," one said, pointing to one of the female cashiers. "Come with me."

When she shook her head, tears streaming down her cheeks, he grabbed her arm and hauled her to her feet. He pulled her to the window and stood her in front of him, picking up the telephone handset on the nearby table. They had heard the phone ring a short time ago, presumably the police negotiators trying to resolve this. Casey got to his feet and moved closer to the door so he could listen, Chuck edging forward with him.

"Now let me tell you again," Chuck heard him say. "If you don't do as I asked, I will kill one hostage each hour until you do start to cooperate. Starting with this one."

A few minutes later, the second man, previously waiting outside the door, pushed the woman back into the office. He didn't notice Casey, standing by the wall, waiting for him to come just that little bit closer…

Chuck, standing close to Casey, could feel him tense, see the focus in his eyes mere seconds before he moved. Moving swiftly, he had the man in a choke-hold before he even got a chance to defend himself. His gun hand raised but Casey was ready, yanking it up behind his back and bending the wrist. Chuck heard a sickening crack and the man howled in pain, the gun clattering uselessly to the floor. The mask the man was wearing followed, giving all of the hostages a clear look at their robber's face.

Suddenly, a shot rang out in the small office.

"Enough!"

Chuck saw the stunned look on Casey's face as he stumbled backwards, releasing his grin on the man. His back hit the wall behind him and he slid down to the floor. When he took his hand away from his stomach, his fingers were sticky with blood.

To be continued…