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Part Eleven
Chuck counted four men joining Sarah and Casey when they went out into the hall. “Stand down,” she ordered. “Don't do this, Bryce; we're all on the same side here.”
“What side is that?”
“I've got a shot,” Casey reported.
“No shooting!” Chuck shouted, impossibly trying to cover Bryce more, if Bryce wasn't trying to do the same.
“You'll be fine,” he defended.
Don't care, you're not shooting him. He proposed not to say anything else, instead falling back into the elevator, where he was trying to access the controls to make it go. “The access code!” he yelled, “I'll kill him, Sarah!”
No he wouldn't. He told himself, but didn't say anything as she said, “Five one six zero two.” The doors closed and Bryce was lowering his arm.
Before he could ask, Chuck had turned around, pinned him against the back of the elevator and started kissing him. His hands held Bryces head so they wouldn't be tempted to go any other places. There was only a mild hesitation before he responded, one arm wrapping around his back while the other stayed down, holding the needle.
We're going to be slowing down soon because Tommy wants Bryce. He could only allow himself a few seconds of bliss before pulling back, but not out of Bryces arm. “Good to see you too, Chuck,” he gasped, regaining lost breath from the 'attack.' He noticed the slowing of the elevator and swiveled Chuck around so he was in front of him when they opened.
“You stop this elevator again...” he started threatening, but stopped when he saw the person.
“Bryce, who's your friend?” Tommy asked.
Chuck stopped himself from making a face when the Intersect kicked up his file, showing him the dead bodies, again, and his connection to Fulcrum. “Step back,” Bryce commanded.
“Okay. I wouldn't want you to kill some random person; I'd feel just terrible.”
“Tell your people that I'm gone.”
“This is your chance, Bryce. Let's go, let's be friends again.”
“We were never friends.”
“Ouch, now my feelings are hurt,” he mocked, “You're going to run again, aren't you?” Chuck felt the nod more than saw it. “Good.” The doors closed, and the elevator started again.
Bryce released Chuck and moved back. He didn't know quite what to say. The last time, he hadn't known about Fulcrum, or Tommy. Say it all again, or just sit here in silence? Repeating it is. “Who was that?” he asked.
“No one.”
“What's Fulcrum?”
Bryce swerved to look at him. “Where did you hear that?”
He pointed at his head, “The Intersect. I have these flashes.”
He smiled, “I was right; you can remember its intel. Is it always that fast?”
“What is Fulcrum, Bryce, who are they?”
He was ignored as the elevator was stopped manually. He's going to knock me out again. “This is my stop,” Bryce confessed, then turned back to Chuck. Pulling his head down, he distracted him with another kiss while injected the sedative into him. He carefully laid him down on the floor, breaking contact when he became half-conscious. “I'm sorry, Chuck.” He then scaled out of the elevator, the doors opening right when he made it up the ladder in the shaft.
Part twelve
Chuck was walking back with the marshmallows when Bryce appeared out of the shadows. “Hello, Chuck,” he greeted.
He nodded back, “Bryce.” He played with the bag in his hand, waiting for the conversation to continue.
Bryce was looking around at the courtyard. “You live here?”
“Ellie and I do, yeah.”
“You live with Ellie?” he faltered, “What happened?”
His smile was wan. “Not a lot of colleges will take someone after they've been expelled for cheating.”
Unable to deal with the new little fact, he pressed on. “I need to talk to Sarah. Can you bring her to me? Without Casey.”
So you can do the whole kissing thing again with Sarah? “Why?”
“Fulcrum wants the Intersect; they want you. I need to talk to Sarah, hopefully make her understand.”
“Got it. Get Sarah. Out here or...”
“Your room.”
“Still remember the Morgan door?” he tried to joke.
Bryce smiled, “How could I forget? The little dwarf breaking in while we were in the middle of...” He died off, remembering a better time and trying to reconcile.
Chuck decided to speak up for both their benefits. “Give me a couple of minutes.” He walked back into the apartment, handing the marshmallows to Ellie and sitting down.
“Is everything okay?” Sarah asked.
“Yeah, everything's fine,” he said, but waited until no one was watching them before mouthing, half-whispering 'Bryce Larkin is in my bedroom.'
Sarah became serious and said, “Excuse me.” She got up and walked down to his bedroom. It was only a couple of minutes before Devon started talking about white-water rafting. The brochures. My room!
“I'll go get them,” he piped up, getting up and heading back to his room. The last time I did this, they were kissing. Oh god, are they doing it again?
Bryce wasn't even there. “Sarah?” he whispered, walking in.
“He ran. He tried to tell me something and when I wouldn't believe him, he ran.”
“Oh,” he mumbled.
“Come on, lets go back before your family gets curious.” He followed her out and back to the table.
Wait, Sarah and I found him at Caseys. If Casey gets to his apartment first, he's going to shoot Bryce. And make sure he gets it right this time. “Hey, Sarah, can I talk to you outside?” he asked, trying not to let his slight nervousness show through.
“Yeah, sure.” They both got up just as Morgan started making noises over the sweet potatoes that Ellie made. He walked a little ways to Caseys apartment to check for lights. “What is it, Chuck?”
“I...” he started, before the light went on. Right on time, thank you. He didn't have to do much as Sarah shushed him and walked in. Bryce was over Caseys computer, trying to get in. Sarah brought out a gun and went to point it at him. She was being so silent and Oh, she might kill him without the explanation. He gasped just to get his attention.
“Put it down, Bryce,” Sarah ordered.
“Sarah...”
“Close the door, Chuck,” Bryce stated.
“Okay, okay, closing the door.”
Bryce turned back to Sarah. “I need you to listen to me.
Sarah tried calming him. “Just put it down.”
The Intersect was a mission; I was recruited by an outfit called Fulcrum. A special access group inside the CIA.”
“You are lying; we would know that.”
“They knew who I was, my activation code, my record. They ordered me to shed my agency contacts and go deep. Only then did I realize it was an internal strike, to download and destroy the Intersect. Fulcrum had plans for its intel.”
“How can we trust you?” Sarah questioned.
“I didn't mean to hurt anyone,” he regretted, “I didn't know who to trust.”
“Why Chuck?”
“I needed someone that wasn't a spy, who wouldn't know about Fulcrum or the Intersect, or Sandwall.”
At Sandwall, he flashed, the files coming up as a legitimate CIA operation concerning the Intersect. There was also a side note in his future Intersect about several attempts by Quinn. Worry about that later. If I can't stop it by then. “Sarah, he's telling the truth. I flashed.”
Bryce seemed to calm a little at that, lowering his weapon. “I'm not rogue.”
Casey walked in at that point. He raised his weapon at the perceived threat. “No!” he yelled as Sarah shouted, “Casey, no!” The shot was loud and Bryce flew back a little ways as he fell, again.
Chuck didn't faint, but he still fell down next to Sarah as they both checked him over. She ripped open his shirt and showed the bulletproof vest that he was wearing underneath. Oh, thank you. Something else that didn't change. “Time to finish the job,” Casey goaded, bending down to get up close.
“Casey, Chuck flashed. Bryce isn't rogue,” Sarah explained.
“You should aim for the head next time, Casey,” Bryce taunted. Chuck hit him upside the head for even suggesting it. Casey dragged him up and moved him to where he could effectively strip-search him. After determining the only gun he had was in Sarahs hands, he went to go get a shirt and sweatpants. Bryce had the bottom half on while Chuck held the bulletproof vest that had been on him.
“I don't get it, Bryce, how are you alive?” he quoted.
“I don't know how they did it, if that's what you're asking. Probably used one of the European clinics; I don't remember it.”
Sarah declared, “But you know why they did it.”
“Yeah.”
A couple of seconds past before Casey jeered, “Well, do I have to pop some popcorn or beat the answer out of you?”
“No thanks, I'll talk.”
“Darn.”
“You know the first part already. I downloaded the Intersect intel and blew up the computer. Raced out of the DNI. Then I ran into you, Casey,” he told, “So I'm on the ground, no white light, just Casey staring down at me. And then, they brought me back. But they weren't trying to save me. No, this was a Fulcrum team. They wanted something.”
“Fulcrum thinks you're the Intersect,” Chuck pointed out.
“They brought me back to take it out of me,” he cited, “That's why I need your help.”
“We're going to help you?” Casey droned.
“I need to turn myself into the CIA, but Fulcrum has operatives within every agency. I need to know that I'm being handed to the real CIA.”
“I can do that,” Chuck volunteered, “I can do that. I can be there at the transfer. If I flash, they're Fulcrum.”
Sarah nodded, “Smart.”
“Still need a place where the transfer can go down, public place, lots of people” Casey mentioned.
Able to clear quickly, lots of weapons. “Public spot, lots of witnesses, I know the place.”
[][][][][][][][][]
Casey kicked Sarah and Chuck out after they had final plans in place for tomorrow. Sarah said bye and left for her hotel room. Bryce was supposed to be with Casey, to ensure he couldn't get away and that no one got to him.
He was in bed and thinking about the note from the future Intersect when he heard someone climb in through his window. There was a nervous shuffling as the person that just came in didn't quite know what to do. “Bryce?”
“Wasn't as quiet as I thought,” he muttered. Chuck patted the side of his bed that wasn't occupied and waited for him to join. The bed dipped and a weight fell alongside his left side.
After a few minutes of neither willing to start talking, Chuck took Bryces hand in his and held it. “I know about Stanford,” he simply said, “And I know why you did it. I saw the video of the recruitment.”
“Flemming?”
“He kept records of who he recruited.”
He sighed. Chuck pulled the sheet out from under him and threw it over so it covered both of them. Bryce responded to switching to his side so he was facing Chuck. “Did you know? Back in college, did you figure it out?”
He didn't know how to answer that. Telling the truth would screw them up. Leaving the letter and picture was one of the worst ideas I did. Worst and best. “I knew something was wrong, and you didn't want to talk about it. I thought the letter would help.”
He was about to drop down into unconsciousness when he felt Bryce snuggle closer, arm wrapping around his chest and face tucked into his shoulder. He almost missed it, muffled and low, but he still heard it. “It helped, Chuck. It helped a lot more than anything I did.”
Part fourteen
It had been five years since he had been shot. Quinns gun had a larger caliber and he was closer, so the shot that Bryce had was preferable. If you had to get shot with a gun wearing a bulletproof vest. Sarah was pissed that they hadn't told her before, ripping open his shirt to see the vest.
Then came the cleaning and Bryce having to talk to Beckman and Graham. He waited for Bryce to walk out again, dressed in a tux and having to leave for places unknown. Instead, one of the curtains drew back and he was motioning Sarah in. She went over to ask what was going on and her face went blank when she looked back to Chuck. “I think they need to talk to you, genius,” Casey jested, pushing him toward the two.
Beckman and Graham were waiting for the three to return. “General, sir, what exactly is this about?” Sarah inquired.
“We've reached an impasse,” Graham started.
“Certain events have brought new knowledge to light. Ms. Walker, did you know Mr. Bartowski and your former partner had dated in college?” Beckman questioned.
“Chuck mentioned something about his relationship years ago, but didn't specifically mention Bryce by name. I suspected as much.”
There was a minute before Graham threw the pieces out. “We have the videos of your attempted recruitment, Mr. Bartowski. We also have the camera footage from the elevator ride.”
Oh god, I didn't think about that. Wait, why didn't they access that information last time? They could have had the information on Fulcrum before the confrontation at Caseys apartment. Sarah was a little confused until she saw that Chuck had covered his eyes and Bryce had his head bowed. “What did you two do?” she hissed.
“We kissed; that's it, that's all,” Chuck told her.
“A very passionate kiss,” Beckman mentioned, just to embarrass them.
Another minute went by as Sarah turned back to the screen while Chuck and Bryce glanced at each other before also turning. “Our first thought was to put Larkin back out into the field. Fulcrum thinks he has the Intersect, which would help us draw them out by using him,” Graham debated.
As bait! Using him as bait! Chuck kept himself quiet as he remembered they did that last time and he came out of it fine, coming back to Burbank. “But the event in the elevator had us thinking. We believe it's about time Bartowski got a boyfriend. One that travels, so we can use him in specific Fulcrum areas that we need to break,” Beckman decided.
“Bryce Larkin stays dead to the world. We'll create a new identity for him to assume. He becomes part of Operation Bartowski and will help when he's in town.”
“We'll send him out for the weekend. We already have intel on a possible Fulcrum connection.”
“He'll be back on Monday. You two can start looking for an apartment,” Graham partly joked, “Doesn't Echo Park have a couple of open apartments?”
“So Casey can come and finish me in my sleep?” Bryce droned, Chuck trying to not laugh beside him. Both glared and cut off the video feed.
Sarah left quickly and Chuck didn't quite know what to do while he watched Bryce get dressed for his consulate dinner. He left after claiming one last kiss and Chuck was left in the viewing room.
Wait.
Bryce wasn't here the first time. He was off going through Fulcrum.
Crap, I think I changed things. Dad.
[][][][][][][][][]
“You think it's going to screw things up,” Orion repeated.
“Bryce wasn't here the first time; he was infiltrating Fulcrum. I don't know what he was doing, or what he's going to do concerning missions at home. I don't know if him not constantly out there will change how Fulcrum is brought down,” he panicked. He collapsed on his bed once his small speech was done.
Orion rubbed his temples. His son was over-worrying. “Charles, you said they would be using him for Fulcrum related projects. It may be possible that that doesn't change. Fulcrum still becomes defeated on the same timeline.”
“All right, but there's still the fact that he'll be around for missions here. And I don't know how Ellie's going to react once she sees him. There was something about changing his hair color and contacts for his eyes, but I don't see it doing that much to prove to Ellie it's not him. And I'm not sure what she'll do once she figures out it's him.”
“You can't just keep her from seeing him.”
“He's supposed to be my new boyfriend. At least he's not living around here; they got him an apartment in the same building Sarah's at. But it's going to be hard to keep him away if Ellie wants to meet him.”
“Maybe you shouldn't be worrying too much about this. He's still going on missions to take Fulcrum out, so that hasn't changed that much. Do you think that having another person on missions is going to change things a lot?”
“I don't know.”
“If you remember how it turned out and it's not going to plan, change it back. You're the one that knows what originally happened. If something goes off-track, stop it. Otherwise, you shouldn't have to worry much. The universe will cope and fix itself if anything goes extremely wrong.”
Chuck calmed down at those words before he analyzed the tone behind them. “Dad, have you had experience in this?”
“I was part of the CIA, Charles, I met a few people that knew about this. I learned from the best.”
Note: I took out the part thirteen separator due to the fact that the reason I had that part separated was more for space. And the fourteen part sub b for the same reason.
This is the last of the comments from kolms commentfic. Everything after this is new.
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Chuck counted four men joining Sarah and Casey when they went out into the hall. “Stand down,” she ordered. “Don't do this, Bryce; we're all on the same side here.”
“What side is that?”
“I've got a shot,” Casey reported.
“No shooting!” Chuck shouted, impossibly trying to cover Bryce more, if Bryce wasn't trying to do the same.
“You'll be fine,” he defended.
Don't care, you're not shooting him. He proposed not to say anything else, instead falling back into the elevator, where he was trying to access the controls to make it go. “The access code!” he yelled, “I'll kill him, Sarah!”
No he wouldn't. He told himself, but didn't say anything as she said, “Five one six zero two.” The doors closed and Bryce was lowering his arm.
Before he could ask, Chuck had turned around, pinned him against the back of the elevator and started kissing him. His hands held Bryces head so they wouldn't be tempted to go any other places. There was only a mild hesitation before he responded, one arm wrapping around his back while the other stayed down, holding the needle.
We're going to be slowing down soon because Tommy wants Bryce. He could only allow himself a few seconds of bliss before pulling back, but not out of Bryces arm. “Good to see you too, Chuck,” he gasped, regaining lost breath from the 'attack.' He noticed the slowing of the elevator and swiveled Chuck around so he was in front of him when they opened.
“You stop this elevator again...” he started threatening, but stopped when he saw the person.
“Bryce, who's your friend?” Tommy asked.
Chuck stopped himself from making a face when the Intersect kicked up his file, showing him the dead bodies, again, and his connection to Fulcrum. “Step back,” Bryce commanded.
“Okay. I wouldn't want you to kill some random person; I'd feel just terrible.”
“Tell your people that I'm gone.”
“This is your chance, Bryce. Let's go, let's be friends again.”
“We were never friends.”
“Ouch, now my feelings are hurt,” he mocked, “You're going to run again, aren't you?” Chuck felt the nod more than saw it. “Good.” The doors closed, and the elevator started again.
Bryce released Chuck and moved back. He didn't know quite what to say. The last time, he hadn't known about Fulcrum, or Tommy. Say it all again, or just sit here in silence? Repeating it is. “Who was that?” he asked.
“No one.”
“What's Fulcrum?”
Bryce swerved to look at him. “Where did you hear that?”
He pointed at his head, “The Intersect. I have these flashes.”
He smiled, “I was right; you can remember its intel. Is it always that fast?”
“What is Fulcrum, Bryce, who are they?”
He was ignored as the elevator was stopped manually. He's going to knock me out again. “This is my stop,” Bryce confessed, then turned back to Chuck. Pulling his head down, he distracted him with another kiss while injected the sedative into him. He carefully laid him down on the floor, breaking contact when he became half-conscious. “I'm sorry, Chuck.” He then scaled out of the elevator, the doors opening right when he made it up the ladder in the shaft.
Part twelve
Chuck was walking back with the marshmallows when Bryce appeared out of the shadows. “Hello, Chuck,” he greeted.
He nodded back, “Bryce.” He played with the bag in his hand, waiting for the conversation to continue.
Bryce was looking around at the courtyard. “You live here?”
“Ellie and I do, yeah.”
“You live with Ellie?” he faltered, “What happened?”
His smile was wan. “Not a lot of colleges will take someone after they've been expelled for cheating.”
Unable to deal with the new little fact, he pressed on. “I need to talk to Sarah. Can you bring her to me? Without Casey.”
So you can do the whole kissing thing again with Sarah? “Why?”
“Fulcrum wants the Intersect; they want you. I need to talk to Sarah, hopefully make her understand.”
“Got it. Get Sarah. Out here or...”
“Your room.”
“Still remember the Morgan door?” he tried to joke.
Bryce smiled, “How could I forget? The little dwarf breaking in while we were in the middle of...” He died off, remembering a better time and trying to reconcile.
Chuck decided to speak up for both their benefits. “Give me a couple of minutes.” He walked back into the apartment, handing the marshmallows to Ellie and sitting down.
“Is everything okay?” Sarah asked.
“Yeah, everything's fine,” he said, but waited until no one was watching them before mouthing, half-whispering 'Bryce Larkin is in my bedroom.'
Sarah became serious and said, “Excuse me.” She got up and walked down to his bedroom. It was only a couple of minutes before Devon started talking about white-water rafting. The brochures. My room!
“I'll go get them,” he piped up, getting up and heading back to his room. The last time I did this, they were kissing. Oh god, are they doing it again?
Bryce wasn't even there. “Sarah?” he whispered, walking in.
“He ran. He tried to tell me something and when I wouldn't believe him, he ran.”
“Oh,” he mumbled.
“Come on, lets go back before your family gets curious.” He followed her out and back to the table.
Wait, Sarah and I found him at Caseys. If Casey gets to his apartment first, he's going to shoot Bryce. And make sure he gets it right this time. “Hey, Sarah, can I talk to you outside?” he asked, trying not to let his slight nervousness show through.
“Yeah, sure.” They both got up just as Morgan started making noises over the sweet potatoes that Ellie made. He walked a little ways to Caseys apartment to check for lights. “What is it, Chuck?”
“I...” he started, before the light went on. Right on time, thank you. He didn't have to do much as Sarah shushed him and walked in. Bryce was over Caseys computer, trying to get in. Sarah brought out a gun and went to point it at him. She was being so silent and Oh, she might kill him without the explanation. He gasped just to get his attention.
“Put it down, Bryce,” Sarah ordered.
“Sarah...”
“Close the door, Chuck,” Bryce stated.
“Okay, okay, closing the door.”
Bryce turned back to Sarah. “I need you to listen to me.
Sarah tried calming him. “Just put it down.”
The Intersect was a mission; I was recruited by an outfit called Fulcrum. A special access group inside the CIA.”
“You are lying; we would know that.”
“They knew who I was, my activation code, my record. They ordered me to shed my agency contacts and go deep. Only then did I realize it was an internal strike, to download and destroy the Intersect. Fulcrum had plans for its intel.”
“How can we trust you?” Sarah questioned.
“I didn't mean to hurt anyone,” he regretted, “I didn't know who to trust.”
“Why Chuck?”
“I needed someone that wasn't a spy, who wouldn't know about Fulcrum or the Intersect, or Sandwall.”
At Sandwall, he flashed, the files coming up as a legitimate CIA operation concerning the Intersect. There was also a side note in his future Intersect about several attempts by Quinn. Worry about that later. If I can't stop it by then. “Sarah, he's telling the truth. I flashed.”
Bryce seemed to calm a little at that, lowering his weapon. “I'm not rogue.”
Casey walked in at that point. He raised his weapon at the perceived threat. “No!” he yelled as Sarah shouted, “Casey, no!” The shot was loud and Bryce flew back a little ways as he fell, again.
Chuck didn't faint, but he still fell down next to Sarah as they both checked him over. She ripped open his shirt and showed the bulletproof vest that he was wearing underneath. Oh, thank you. Something else that didn't change. “Time to finish the job,” Casey goaded, bending down to get up close.
“Casey, Chuck flashed. Bryce isn't rogue,” Sarah explained.
“You should aim for the head next time, Casey,” Bryce taunted. Chuck hit him upside the head for even suggesting it. Casey dragged him up and moved him to where he could effectively strip-search him. After determining the only gun he had was in Sarahs hands, he went to go get a shirt and sweatpants. Bryce had the bottom half on while Chuck held the bulletproof vest that had been on him.
“I don't get it, Bryce, how are you alive?” he quoted.
“I don't know how they did it, if that's what you're asking. Probably used one of the European clinics; I don't remember it.”
Sarah declared, “But you know why they did it.”
“Yeah.”
A couple of seconds past before Casey jeered, “Well, do I have to pop some popcorn or beat the answer out of you?”
“No thanks, I'll talk.”
“Darn.”
“You know the first part already. I downloaded the Intersect intel and blew up the computer. Raced out of the DNI. Then I ran into you, Casey,” he told, “So I'm on the ground, no white light, just Casey staring down at me. And then, they brought me back. But they weren't trying to save me. No, this was a Fulcrum team. They wanted something.”
“Fulcrum thinks you're the Intersect,” Chuck pointed out.
“They brought me back to take it out of me,” he cited, “That's why I need your help.”
“We're going to help you?” Casey droned.
“I need to turn myself into the CIA, but Fulcrum has operatives within every agency. I need to know that I'm being handed to the real CIA.”
“I can do that,” Chuck volunteered, “I can do that. I can be there at the transfer. If I flash, they're Fulcrum.”
Sarah nodded, “Smart.”
“Still need a place where the transfer can go down, public place, lots of people” Casey mentioned.
Able to clear quickly, lots of weapons. “Public spot, lots of witnesses, I know the place.”
[][][][][][][][][]
Casey kicked Sarah and Chuck out after they had final plans in place for tomorrow. Sarah said bye and left for her hotel room. Bryce was supposed to be with Casey, to ensure he couldn't get away and that no one got to him.
He was in bed and thinking about the note from the future Intersect when he heard someone climb in through his window. There was a nervous shuffling as the person that just came in didn't quite know what to do. “Bryce?”
“Wasn't as quiet as I thought,” he muttered. Chuck patted the side of his bed that wasn't occupied and waited for him to join. The bed dipped and a weight fell alongside his left side.
After a few minutes of neither willing to start talking, Chuck took Bryces hand in his and held it. “I know about Stanford,” he simply said, “And I know why you did it. I saw the video of the recruitment.”
“Flemming?”
“He kept records of who he recruited.”
He sighed. Chuck pulled the sheet out from under him and threw it over so it covered both of them. Bryce responded to switching to his side so he was facing Chuck. “Did you know? Back in college, did you figure it out?”
He didn't know how to answer that. Telling the truth would screw them up. Leaving the letter and picture was one of the worst ideas I did. Worst and best. “I knew something was wrong, and you didn't want to talk about it. I thought the letter would help.”
He was about to drop down into unconsciousness when he felt Bryce snuggle closer, arm wrapping around his chest and face tucked into his shoulder. He almost missed it, muffled and low, but he still heard it. “It helped, Chuck. It helped a lot more than anything I did.”
Part fourteen
It had been five years since he had been shot. Quinns gun had a larger caliber and he was closer, so the shot that Bryce had was preferable. If you had to get shot with a gun wearing a bulletproof vest. Sarah was pissed that they hadn't told her before, ripping open his shirt to see the vest.
Then came the cleaning and Bryce having to talk to Beckman and Graham. He waited for Bryce to walk out again, dressed in a tux and having to leave for places unknown. Instead, one of the curtains drew back and he was motioning Sarah in. She went over to ask what was going on and her face went blank when she looked back to Chuck. “I think they need to talk to you, genius,” Casey jested, pushing him toward the two.
Beckman and Graham were waiting for the three to return. “General, sir, what exactly is this about?” Sarah inquired.
“We've reached an impasse,” Graham started.
“Certain events have brought new knowledge to light. Ms. Walker, did you know Mr. Bartowski and your former partner had dated in college?” Beckman questioned.
“Chuck mentioned something about his relationship years ago, but didn't specifically mention Bryce by name. I suspected as much.”
There was a minute before Graham threw the pieces out. “We have the videos of your attempted recruitment, Mr. Bartowski. We also have the camera footage from the elevator ride.”
Oh god, I didn't think about that. Wait, why didn't they access that information last time? They could have had the information on Fulcrum before the confrontation at Caseys apartment. Sarah was a little confused until she saw that Chuck had covered his eyes and Bryce had his head bowed. “What did you two do?” she hissed.
“We kissed; that's it, that's all,” Chuck told her.
“A very passionate kiss,” Beckman mentioned, just to embarrass them.
Another minute went by as Sarah turned back to the screen while Chuck and Bryce glanced at each other before also turning. “Our first thought was to put Larkin back out into the field. Fulcrum thinks he has the Intersect, which would help us draw them out by using him,” Graham debated.
As bait! Using him as bait! Chuck kept himself quiet as he remembered they did that last time and he came out of it fine, coming back to Burbank. “But the event in the elevator had us thinking. We believe it's about time Bartowski got a boyfriend. One that travels, so we can use him in specific Fulcrum areas that we need to break,” Beckman decided.
“Bryce Larkin stays dead to the world. We'll create a new identity for him to assume. He becomes part of Operation Bartowski and will help when he's in town.”
“We'll send him out for the weekend. We already have intel on a possible Fulcrum connection.”
“He'll be back on Monday. You two can start looking for an apartment,” Graham partly joked, “Doesn't Echo Park have a couple of open apartments?”
“So Casey can come and finish me in my sleep?” Bryce droned, Chuck trying to not laugh beside him. Both glared and cut off the video feed.
Sarah left quickly and Chuck didn't quite know what to do while he watched Bryce get dressed for his consulate dinner. He left after claiming one last kiss and Chuck was left in the viewing room.
Wait.
Bryce wasn't here the first time. He was off going through Fulcrum.
Crap, I think I changed things. Dad.
[][][][][][][][][]
“You think it's going to screw things up,” Orion repeated.
“Bryce wasn't here the first time; he was infiltrating Fulcrum. I don't know what he was doing, or what he's going to do concerning missions at home. I don't know if him not constantly out there will change how Fulcrum is brought down,” he panicked. He collapsed on his bed once his small speech was done.
Orion rubbed his temples. His son was over-worrying. “Charles, you said they would be using him for Fulcrum related projects. It may be possible that that doesn't change. Fulcrum still becomes defeated on the same timeline.”
“All right, but there's still the fact that he'll be around for missions here. And I don't know how Ellie's going to react once she sees him. There was something about changing his hair color and contacts for his eyes, but I don't see it doing that much to prove to Ellie it's not him. And I'm not sure what she'll do once she figures out it's him.”
“You can't just keep her from seeing him.”
“He's supposed to be my new boyfriend. At least he's not living around here; they got him an apartment in the same building Sarah's at. But it's going to be hard to keep him away if Ellie wants to meet him.”
“Maybe you shouldn't be worrying too much about this. He's still going on missions to take Fulcrum out, so that hasn't changed that much. Do you think that having another person on missions is going to change things a lot?”
“I don't know.”
“If you remember how it turned out and it's not going to plan, change it back. You're the one that knows what originally happened. If something goes off-track, stop it. Otherwise, you shouldn't have to worry much. The universe will cope and fix itself if anything goes extremely wrong.”
Chuck calmed down at those words before he analyzed the tone behind them. “Dad, have you had experience in this?”
“I was part of the CIA, Charles, I met a few people that knew about this. I learned from the best.”
Note: I took out the part thirteen separator due to the fact that the reason I had that part separated was more for space. And the fourteen part sub b for the same reason.
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