Posted August 26, 2019

A/N: Many years ago (reviewing A Common Spy Problem), I said never warn about fluff. (You don't _have_ to do that, like it's a good idea for character deaths or trigger situations. Fluff warnings are appreciated as advertisement, though.) This is a not-as-fluffy-as-it-could-be warning because the chapter does not start with Chuck and Sarah snuggling by a fire with Bryce roasting on a spit. The chapter ends this story with a family dinner, though.

Here's a couple of things you might need to know, or maybe you just forgot.

Sarah said, "It's still sealed shut. Is there a way to get in, or do we need to wait for equipment?"

Casey pulled off the button panel, revealing a bunch of wires. He looked to Chuck, who shrugged. Casey pulled out his gun and pointed through the side of the mess of wires.

"Casey. Wait," Sarah said.

"Like Chuck said, it's not a bomb, or it would've already blown. There's nothing toxic inside because it's not airtight. At the edges, I can feel a couple bolts that the locking mechanism must use to control the lid."

Sarah dropped her head in resignation. Casey shot twice, gunfire echoing inside the trailer. On the capsule, he found an edge that opened as a lid to reveal a large section of the top. They looked inside. Hooked to tubes and medical sensors on wires, was something they didn't expect.

"Oh my god. Bryce."

November 22, 2007
(Thanksgiving)

Chuck walked into an all white room where Bryce was strapped to a reclined chair on a single metal base. It made Chuck think of a dental chair, although it was thinly padded, wasn't attached to a large jointed arm for cleaning his teeth, and didn't have an overhead light. The chair had probably lifted from a horizontal position, and there was a tray with ampules and an injector gun nearby. Bryce wore a thin, pull-over long-sleeve shirt and pants. When they had found him earlier, he was shirtless. At least someone had given him a shirt. Now, he looked like a test subject. A couple carts were pushed against the walls with more equipment.

Chuck had planned on staying out of the interrogation, leaving it for the spies. After his former friend had upended his life multiple times, Chuck was fine with them throwing Bryce in a dark hole and forgetting about him. Chuck thought of himself as a forgiving sort of person, giving people three or four chances. His sister had told him for years that he needed to stick up for himself more. His wife had influenced his attitude about that. Maybe two chances was enough.

Bryce had refused to speak, except to ask for Chuck. They needed answers about why he blew up the Intersect computer two months ago, so Chuck had come in hopes that Bryce would say something useful. That's the only reason he was within fifty feet of his nemesis. Sarah and Casey waited just outside the room, observing through a one-way mirror.

Keeping his head down, Bryce didn't look Chuck's way when he asked, "Who are you?"

"Hey, Bryce. It's me. Chuck."

Bryce looked up at him, doubtful, and said, "I don't believe you. What did you do with the real Chuck?"

"Well, unless we're in the Twilight Zone right now, there's another Chuck, and I'm his clone, the answer to your question is yes, I am Chuck."

"I don't believe you. You made a mistake and wore a wedding ring. Chuck's not married." Bryce's face remained hard and skeptical. "Prove it." Bryce said something in a different language.

"Oh, come on," Chuck protested.

"Do it."

Chuck responded to Bryce in the same language. At that moment, the door to the room slid open, and Sarah entered.

Initially ignoring the arrival, Bryce said, "What the hell? Your Klingon's a little rusty, Chuck." He looked to the other person who had joined them in the room. "Why is Sarah here?"

Sarah took Chuck's hand down at their sides. She said, "I'm here with my husband. Sometimes I think he's too good to be true, but he's the real Chuck. He's my Chuck."

"You almost had me for a second, Chuck, or whoever you are. There's no way you're married to Sarah. She doesn't want to get married. Spies don't fall in love."

Sarah didn't want what Bryce was saying to stand. She countered, "I didn't want to get married to you. A little over four months ago, Chuck saved me. When I saw what was in front of me back then, I wanted to get away. When I saw the man that I love in front of me, I didn't want to escape. We were married in September, a week before his birthday, the day you were shot."

She turned to ask Chuck, "What was that you two were saying a minute ago? Some kind of secret language you learned in your fraternity?"

"It was Klingon, from Star Trek."

"I don't remember that in the movies, just Huttese and Ewok. If you gave me a couple of days, I might be able to get by in the former. The second was gibberish. It even had English mixed in."

"Those languages were from Star Wars. It's different. Klingon is from Star Trek, the series with The Wrath of Kahn."

"Oh yeah, that's the one you are Morgan were quoting throughout lunch we had with him at Sbarro a couple of weeks ago. I didn't remember you two talking Klingon, though."

"There's no Klingon in Khan. The language was formalized for the third Trek movie, the one after that one. Klingon is also in the fifth and sixth movies and some of the last six hundred of over seven hundred episodes."

"That many? I see why it needs its own language."

"That's not why."

"We have our whole lives together for you to teach it to me." She lightly kissed him, despite the interrogation room surroundings.

Casey joined them in the room, went over to Bryce, and tightened his wrist bonds.

"Casey," Bryce said with disgust.

Casey said to Chuck and Sarah, "These looked a little loose. Part of me wanted him to try to escape so I could shoot him again. I thought better of it and came in. If you want to keep doing what you were doing, please wait until I get out of the room, but then you can resume. I think it made this guy uncomfortable, and I'm fine with whatever makes him feel worse."

To Bryce, he said, "I strongly suggest you cooperate. Next time, I'm shooting for the head." He snickered and left.

Bryce said to his first interrogator, "If you're the real Chuck, why is your Klingon rusty?"

"I've been kind of busy lately, ever since I got your email."

"You opened it, didn't you?"

"Yeah."

"Your computer?"

"The email erased itself. We sent the hard drive off to CIA specialists. They couldn't recover the data, which wasn't surprising because I had already tried."

"So you're the only one."

"I don't get it. Why'd you do it? Why did you send me the Intersect? Then why did you destroy the original? And last up, how the hell are you still alive?"

"It's complicated."

Sarah said, "There are two theories that hadn't been discounted. One, you tried to frame Chuck as an act of revenge because you couldn't stand that I avoided your proposal but married him. Earlier, you didn't know that we are married. That rules out that theory. The other theory is that you were going to try to get the intel out of Chuck by manipulating him, just like you took advantage of him at Stanford."

"Like I did what? We were friends. He's the one that left."

"Because of what you did. We know about your plan with Flemming. We have video evidence that you deliberately withheld information from the CIA and conspired to falsely accuse Chuck, getting him expelled from school. Last week, Chuck received an official apology letter from the Stanford University President. A diploma is coming through at the end of the year. Since Chuck was on scholarship, there's no tuition to refund, but they've offered to refund any academic-related expenses for his last semester. They don't know about the CIA's involvement, but they know evidence has revealed you framed Chuck, and they know they messed up. I think they're worried about getting sued. Chuck trusted you back then and fell into your scheme. Part of me is glad you went after his girlfriend and got her out of the picture. This time, he has me. You're never getting access to the Intersect secrets that he downloaded into his brain."

Bryce tried to explain. "It was an internal hit. I was recruited by a radical, independent group that has people who have infiltrated all levels of the CIA and other agencies. They knew all of my activation codes. I had to get the Intersect away from them."

Chuck said, "Are you talking about Fulcrum?"

"You know about them?"

Sarah said, "Trying to clean up the mess you created, we looked into contacting some of the scientists who worked on the Intersect. Flemming was one, and we all know how trustworthy he is. Another was selling secrets to North Korea. A third was unknowingly working with Fulcrum. Emailing the Intersect to Chuck was putting a target on his back."

Chuck added, "I was lucky Sarah was there to protect me day one."

Bryce continued his weak justification. "I was just trying to keep the Intersect out of Fulcrum's hands."

Sarah asked, "If so, after you blew up the Intersect, why did you kill a man while you were trying to escape?"

"What do you mean?"

"During your escape, you kicked a security guard down a stairwell," Sarah said.

"When on missions, we both eliminate people in our way."

Sarah was firm in her disagreement. "That's completely different. On missions, we only kill people when we are following orders and when we have no other choice. They are enemies of this country, and they are trying to kill us. You weren't on an authorized mission. You knew it wasn't a real mission. It wasn't even a loyalty test. Once, an arms dealer gave me a loyalty test when I was undercover. I shot him between the eyes, rescued the man I was supposed to kill, and fought our way out. You killed one of ours who was doing what he was supposed to do. Jacob Snyder was a night-shift security guard protecting our national secrets. He was just trying to stop you because that was his job. His mandate was to capture, not kill, if at all possible. The worst Snyder would have done is hit you with his billy club. You could have knocked him out, but you flipped him over a railing to fall several stories to his death. He left behind a wife and two young children."

"But I kept the Intersect away from Fulcrum."

"You could have done that by reporting the contact. If you were worried about moles in the CIA and had to go through with the rogue mission, you could have destroyed the computer, emailed someone who wasn't a civilian, then let yourself be captured. Instead, you killed a man, made Chuck a target for the enemy, and tried to return to Fulcrum."

"I didn't intentionally return to Fulcrum. When Fulcrum intercepted my ambulance, I was unconscious, suffering from Casey's gunshot. They must have taken me to a European clinic."

Chuck said, "That makes no sense. Your transport ship docked at the Port of Los Angeles. If you were in Europe, they would have sent you someplace like New York. You must know more."

"Trust me, I don't. When I was out of it in DC, I was awake for a few seconds. I told them I had downloaded the Intersect into me. That's why they kept me alive."

Sarah wasn't buying it as a useful plan. "The only way that would've worked is if you continued working for them. They would've been surprised when they discovered that you had no special knowledge and that without me, you were a sloppy spy."

Casey came back into the room with two large, uniformed men. He said to Chuck and Sarah, "This guy's a traitor. At best, he's an idiot that we shouldn't trust because our enemies can easily manipulate him. Even if that is the case, he's a murderer who killed a father with young children. You're not going to get anything useful out of him that we could believe. He should be moved to maximum security."

Sarah didn't disagree, and Bryce was escorted out.

Chuck sarcastically said, "That was all sorts of fun."

Sarah took Chuck's hand. "Let's go. Ellie is showing me how to make the stuffing for tonight."

That evening

Sarah couldn't believe how great her life had turned out. After dinner, she happily stood to the side of Ellie and Devon's living room, between the dining area and the front door. She had been ordered out of the kitchen as Devon carved up the rest of the turkey for leftovers. While the meal itself had been fantastic, Chuck had insisted there was nothing better than Thanksgiving leftovers. It was the meal that "thankfully kept on giving."

Two years ago on one of her first missions with Bryce, he had been captured and held at gunpoint on the streets of Bogota. They were fleeing with a metal suitcase that was the objective of their mission. She shot his captor while she still held the suitcase. She lost track of how many times she saved his life after that. It had seemed like something that was part of her job as the girlfriend.

Now, she was part of this family. They considered her presence vital, not to eliminate whatever threat came, but because her mere presence made them happy. She knew that they were on her side no matter what happened, a stronger bond than she had ever experienced before.

Chuck saddled up to her side and wrapped an arm around her back so they faced the others in the kitchen and those still at the dining room table. They stood back several feet so they had a modicum of privacy. Everyone else was preoccupied with other things. He kissed her head through her hair and asked, "What are you thinking about?"

Sarah answered quietly so only he could hear, "About Bryce and about how lucky I am that this is my life."

"We're just lucky undead Bryce didn't show up and try to ruin Thanksgiving dinner."

Sarah laughed. "We wouldn't want that. I'm not hungry now, but when I finally am, tomorrow or after a couple of days, do we need to have a botched dinner at an Italian restaurant to get some of those leftovers? Or can I just show up? I promise to sleep in your bed afterwards as long as you don't mind being there too."

Chuck quietly laughed, "No avoided proposal or hotel room complication necessary. I suppose I could suffer through sharing my bed. It wouldn't be a good idea to sleep on the sofa blocking the gun safe underneath. That's got to be against the thirty-foot rule." Sarah and Chuck shared a quick kiss. "I wonder what they serve to prisoners for Thanksgiving dinner. Do they take them off gruel and give them turkey?"

"If they do, the gravy is probably thin and greasy. Bryce will probably be on a restricted diet because they're still monitoring his vitals. It'll be better than my last Thanksgiving dinner, about ten years ago."

"Ten years?"

"In the CIA, I was often on a mission. A couple years ago, my mom tried to put a big meal together the second week of December when I managed to visit. Turkey breasts from a butcher shop were nice, but I didn't want to put that much pressure on her. It was enough that we were together around the holidays. The day was closer to Christmas than Thanksgiving, anyway."

"What about college?"

"I spent my breaks training at the Farm. Before that, I was traveling with my dad. The last Thanksgiving dinner that I was referring to consisted of frozen Hungry Man turkey meals. You can have those any evening."

"Well, now that you are a Bartowski, you get the full Bartowski family experience every holiday. I only wish your mom could be here too."

Sarah sadly said, "Me too. About that. You've been perfect about not pushing."

"I figured it had to be something really important for you to cut her out of your life. It's not my place to second guess you when you make a decision like that."

"Thank you. I want to tell you more. It's not as big as that big secret of what is in your head, but you have two people providing full-time protection. For her, two lives are at stake, and the only protection is secrecy. I want to talk to you about it—maybe this holiday weekend, sometime after you deal with the Black Friday chaos at the Buy More. There is nothing for us to do right away. If we do something, I don't think we should even try anything before Christmas. We could leave it alone, but I don't want secrets or lies between us."

Chuck rubbed her arm in comfort. "Whatever you want." She turned her head, and Chuck's and Sarah's lips met in another brief kiss.

Before them, Casey, Morgan, and Alex talked amicably at the table. The three of them had been getting along well the entire evening, unlike the other night at Chuck and Sarah's when motives were misinterpreted and under suspicion. Casey seemed to be trying hard not to freak people out. Morgan's enthusiasm was still extremely high, but he had toned it down a notch or two from his normal level. Alex seemed to be a calming influence. She had been very friendly to her father, while also showcasing how important Morgan was to her. Even as the three of them talked, Alex held her boyfriend's hand firmly on display on top of the table. It seemed that the three of them had found a safe way of interacting.

Devon was still carving turkey leftovers in the kitchen, but Ellie reached a stopping point, so she called Sarah in for a minute. After a moment of talking and smiles, the women gave each other a strong hug. When Sarah came back, Chuck asked, "What was that about?"

"Ellie asked me to be her maid of honor like she was for me. I guess I'm to be her matron of honor."

"That's great!" He hugged her.

"She joked that their engagement is already several days longer than ours. She and Devon probably won't get married for six months to a year, because she has something in mind that's closer to a production than an elopement. Not that we eloped—close family was there. You know what I mean. Ellie wants me to help plan, though I bet she has a lot of specifics in mind."

"She certainly does," Chuck agreed.

"Next week, we're going to do some initial planning and look into the availability of ceremony and reception locations."

Chuck said, "She told me a couple of days ago that she always thought our dad would walk her down the aisle. We don't even know where he is."

"We're going to find Orion to help with that thing in your head. If we can do that, we can find your dad too. It'll be easy by comparison."

"I didn't think we could use government resources for something like that."

"This is important to you, and you're important to the government. Our mandate allows us to do almost anything if we can come up with even the slightest reason. Ensuring the safety of people related to the human Intersect is a very valid reason. If he's really missing, I bet he's owes back taxes, or the government owes him money. He ought to be located either way. We can do this." She gave him a quick kiss.

Casey got up from the table, giving Alex a light hug and even shaking Morgan's hand. He went to the kitchen where Ellie and Devon were re-packing the fridge. He thanked them both, getting a hearty hand-shake and a slap-on-the-back hug from Devon and a friendly hug and kiss on the cheek from Ellie. When Casey reached Chuck and Sarah on his way to leave, he tilted his head for them to follow him outside.

Out in the courtyard, Chuck said, "That went well."

Casey agreed saying, "That's the best Thanksgiving I've had in a couple decades. I had forgotten what it's like to feel like part of a family on a holiday for families."

Chuck said, "You are family."

"Thanks, Chuck." Casey actually smiled. It looked unusual on his face, but not forced. Apparently it was in his skill set for something other than washing his car. "I had a real family member there, in addition to the people who are as good as family. It's a lot easier now that Alex knows a little of what I do, why I missed all of her life until now, and it wasn't my choice to leave her out of my life. Earlier this evening, she stopped by my place on her way to Ellie and Devon's. She wanted to make sure I was ok after last night. It was… I don't know. I just know I'll do anything for that girl. And Morgan? He still drives me nuts, but as long as he treats my daughter right and makes her face light up like he does, I can put up with him. Chuck, you've always said how steadfast he's been to you for most of your life. Being around him with Alex a couple nights, it's obvious how well he acts towards the people he really cares about."

"About Morgan," Sarah said. "I think we need to tell him what we really do." That declaration resulted in two surprised expressions facing her. She continued, "We shouldn't tell him about the Intersect, of course. He can think Chuck is involved because of me."

Chuck added, "He knows about my Piranha identity."

"Good. It means it makes sense that you'd be working with us doing white-hat hacking. Bryce isn't going to be working undercover or maybe seeing daylight ever again, so we don't need to make up a story about how he and I knew each other. With Morgan involved with Alex, who already knows we're agents, and with Morgan always around, he's going to accidentally figure out something is going on."

"It's really ok to tell Morgan?" Chuck asked.

"It's better if we control the situation instead of something coming out when we are dealing with a serious circumstance that we can't put on hold. We were lucky last night that Alex helped cover our quick exit. We've only known her for a few weeks. She shouldn't be forced into a situation like that. Chuck, you've told me Morgan has been your most loyal friend for years. Do you think we can trust him to keep our spy work secret?"

"Of course. In private, he might seem almost unbearable at times. He's an acquired taste. It's only because he gets excited and wants to help. If we emphasize to him how important secrecy is, he won't be even a slight concern. It would help if he knows the seriousness of the stakes so he knows to stay out of it and not do anything that might break our covers. I could imagine a circumstance in which he accidentally outed us without intending to because he doesn't know what we do."

Sarah and Chuck looked to Casey for his opinion.

Casey said, "I think we can trust him. I don't want Alex and Morgan to have issues because of something that Morgan should know, too. He won't say anything as long as he knows that keeping his mouth shut about it will protect the guy he calls his brother, his sister-in-law, and his girlfriend's father. When Alex, Morgan, and I were talking after dinner, he got talking about superheroes. It was one of those things where you think he is going on and on about something that's not important. However, he said the best thing about those superhero stories is the good guys always win. We're the good guys. He wouldn't dream of jeopardizing our safety. He also told me that he appreciates that I haven't been harassing him at work lately because he's always respected my service, in what he thinks is the reserves. I think his first loyalty is to the Bartowskis, which includes both of you, but his second is to this country. He'll be a faithful ally."

Sarah said, "Good. It's agreed. I'll propose this to Graham and Beckman next week. We won't do anything without their approval. Furthermore, I think we need to let Ellie and Devon know. If I had been injured last night, the doctors would have noticed, and it would've been hard to explain. Keeping them in the dark doesn't serve a purpose. It just creates the possibility of them being exploited when they don't know the truth."

There were no objections, so she continued her proposal. "Chuck, you're going to need to help estimate how Ellie will handle it. Devon will be able to handle it if she's ok with it. Unlike the others, I think we should tell Ellie about the Intersect—specifically because her specialty is the brain. We still haven't found a scientist that we can trust about the Intersect, and you haven't seen a doctor about any effects to your head."

Chuck frowned. "Years ago, when Ellie was learning to be a doctor, I was adamant to her that she couldn't ethically practice on me."

"This is different. The stakes are higher, while that was an untrained sister messing with her brother. Graham and Beckman are going to start having some government scientists work with the Intersect. We don't know if they'll know what they're doing or whether they're knowingly or unknowingly working for Fulcrum, like Perseus. We can trust Ellie. If she says it would help to have other doctors and scientists involved, we could do that, but she would be a valuable gatekeeper to make sure Chuck's safety is paramount."

Chuck stayed silent, eyes wide at the idea that his whole extended family might find out that he's been working with the NSA and CIA and that Sarah is a spy.

Casey said, "If our bosses say it's ok, it sounds like a good course of action to me. Good night, Bartowski and Bartowski." He nodded to each of them them before going through the door into his apartment.

Sarah put her arm through Chuck's, and they turned back to the apartment that still had the other two couples. She said, "This is my favorite holiday." They walked slowly by the fountain, in no hurry to return to the party and get out of the nice, cool evening air. It was about sixty degrees, but that just gave them a reason to lean closer into each other.

"Not Christmas?" Chuck asked.

"Sometime, I'll have to tell you about the cons that I used to do with my dad at Christmastime."

"Well you're a Bartowski, now. You will be heart-warmed with lots of snuggling, a fake fireplace, and a Twilight Zone marathon."

"Sounds perfect. Maybe I'll really like Christmas with you and the rest of our family." She kissed Chuck briefly before they re-entered the apartment. "Let's get back to enjoying this holiday. Ellie said one of my pre-wedding duties is making sure Morgan doesn't eat after midnight, preferably leaving before then. I don't know why that is important, but I take my matron of honor duties seriously."

A/N: I didn't make Bryce a murderer as a way to make him look bad. The show did that, trying to make him look cool. I watched the first episode several times before I realized what actually happened in the middle of that exciting scene with the guy who wasn't an accountant. Bryce really kicked a security guard down a stairwell, presumably to his death. On youtube: watch?v=2Yr-zdvbcKU&t=2m30s

I hope you enjoyed this glimpse of how the Bartowskis—Chuck and his Nemesis's Ex—would deal with what the spy world threw their way. Some of the next season and a half of plot lines fizzle out: Ellie has Devon's jewels, Bryce is in a deep dark hole, and Stephen Bartowski is as hard to find as Orion. Jill? Well, that may be coming in a different story…

There's also a sequel to "Chuck vs His Former Handler." In case you don't remember, it's an AU covering 1.04 (Chuck vs the Wookiee) until the end of the first season. A sequel would probably be a 5-8 chapter AU paralleling 2.01 (Chuck vs the First Date) through 2.08 (the Jill arc). Sticking with the established details of that universe, it is de-intersected Chuck and his girlfriend moved in with him, Ellie, and Devon at the end of "Chuck vs His Former Handler." It continues through early season two spy problems and deal with the fact that there isn't an official team and that newly engaged Ellie and Devon know that Sarah is a CIA agent (That discovery happened after Sarah loudly neutralized Bryce when he ruined that story's Thanksgiving dinner—i.e. undead Bryce showed up.)

Songs:
- "Happy Together" by the Turtles
- A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving theme by Vince Guaraldi as performed by Vince Guaraldi Trio or as performed by George Winston