Chuck Vs. the Beefcake

Fulcrum was getting closer and closer to finding the Intersects. All three were involved in the suburbs mission. With the twins' connection to the Intersect and learning things about it, Beckman didn't want them left alone. This time, Chuck couldn't talk Beckman or his handlers out of bringing them in. They didn't have a cover for the mission. All the twins had to do was stay in the van, behind the front seats and out of sight.

It was easier said than done with curios eyes and minds.

"Are you telling me you can't handle two children?" Beckman asked before it was time to brief them on their new mission.

"General, the twins stayed in the van as directed. But when Walker and I were captured, so were they."

"They were taken to a different room. What happened to Chuck likely happened to them as well."

"They're too afraid to tell anyone. Not even Chuck knows if they have Fulcrum's Intersect in their heads," Casey informed.

"Let me know if anything changes… In the meantime, we have a situation."

"Who's the stiff?" Casey asked.

"The corpse was dug up from a CIA dump site. The grave belonged to Brad White," Beckman answered.

"That's one of the Fulcrum agents who ran the Intersect test on them… Why would they rob his grave?" Sarah inquired.

"That's what we need you to find out. We picked up chatter that whatever they took is potentially game-changing intelligence."

"You want us to grab Chuck and the kids, keep them underground?"

"I don't think that's necessary yet but keep a close eye on the assets until we have further information. Don't let them out of your sight."

The call ended. Casey left to change into his Buy More uniform. Sarah picked up her cellphone and reached out to Chuck.

~***~***~

Chuck poured cereal and milk into two bowls. Then he opened a drawer and pulled out two spoons out, placing them in the bowls. He set the breakfast dishes on the table in front of two very tired, and unusually silent kids. He had his theories as to why they were so quiet. Usually, such silence occurred after Morgan had played a horror movie in front of them. And they hadn't been near that genre after Sarah and Casey entered their lives. It had to be the Fulcrum Intersect.

"Rinse your dishes when you're done," he said. Getting them to clean up after themselves was easier with their room since everything was at their level. But when they were only a head higher than the counter, they were more likely to just drop everything into the sink for the next person to take care of. With this in mind, Chuck had to remind them to use a stool to extend their reach.

With the glaze in the twins' eyes, none of the adults in the room thought the kids were listening to them until one asked:

"What's abstinence?

Ellie, Chuck, and Devon all said, "Let's change the subject, shall we?"

"They're talking…" Ellie had been concerned for the past week. She got up from her seat at the table and went to the twin that spoke. Chuck did the same, but Ellie was faster.

The adults stared at the kids. Chuck had to come up with a good cover story after that mission, but this was the longest they'd gone silent.

"The silence is broken… It'll still be a while before that memory doesn't bother them as much," Devon said.

There seemed to be something uncomfortable Ellie had wanted to talk to Chuck about, and realizing that the twins weren't really eating, he said:

"Go, get your bags," Chuck said. He wasn't going to take them to school. He didn't care that they had missed a whole week because of the mission. They had gone suspiciously mute, and he didn't have an explanation that the school wouldn't investigate through the internet or counselor.

Kelley was the first to get out of her seat. Maya soon followed. Both were still silent. Their bags were in their room. Chuck had removed and hidden their books and folders the night before and replaced them with toys and things that would keep them entertained in Castle while he worked. Having a room for them in Castle was a great way for him to both keep an eye on them and work. In a way, every day was a bring your kid to work day.

~***~***~

Their target was Cole Barker, a Fulcrum agent. He had intelligence on him. The intelligence that he'd removed from the dumpsite was a belt buckle. Sarah was asked to get the intelligence using any means necessary. It was fortuitous since Chuck had decided to break up with Sarah. He couldn't take lies and not remembering which ones he had used or how to keep the lies from unraveling, not to mention what he thought it was doing to Kelley and Maya.

~***~***~

Cole Barker didn't go down without a fight, and Sarah gave him a run for his money. Chuck heard Sarah order Cristal champagne, the distress signal, and responded since Casey had left to get rid of a few Fulcrum agents.

Since Chuck was unarmed, he wasn't sure how he was going to make his entrance to Cole's room He body slammed the door hurting himself in the process.

~***~***~

"That's not our ride," Sarah grit. She and Chuck, along with Cole, used a car that was parked on the roof as cover from the hail of gun fire that was raining down on them.

It was then that Cole informed them that he was MI6 undercover. He hadn't said anything until they were being shot at because he didn't want to blow his cover.

Blowing the gas to take down the helicopter that was gunning them down was the last thing he remembered when Casey gave him a blow to the head, knocking him unconscious,

~***~***~

"I want to apologize to you directly, Agent Barker. We had no record you were MI6," Beckman said over the video call.

"You people just blew eighteen months of undercover work," Barker chastised.

"We did recover the stolen intelligence, didn't we? I mean it wasn't..." the chip nearly fell from Chuck's hand, then he caught it midair. "It wasn't a complete loss. I'm just saying it wasn't a complete loss." Casey had taken it from Chuck before he completed his thought.

Whatever information was held on the chip was useless without a playback device. The chip was like a signal scrambler, and the playback device decoded everything. Barker explained how his mission was to bring the chip to his Fulcrum contact and find out what was on it.

Beckman ordered Barker to lockdown in Castle for the night, then added, "Until we know more, Major, for everyone's safety, keep them close."

To Barker the order could have referred to the team. To Sarah, Chuck, and Casey, it meant Chuck and the twins.

Casey put a hand on Chuck's shoulder and said, "Leave them here tonight. They're already asleep."

"And you'll need to bring them back with you in the morning, anyway," Sarah added.

"I'm gonna go check on them before I go… for my own sanity if nothing else. Last week did a real number on them," Chuck said as he got to his feet. He left the table and went down the hall to the twins' room.

Sure enough, they were sound asleep, but in a corner on the floor instead of the beds provided. He lifted them into his arms and carried them from their room.

"Chuck!" Casey growled. The sudden noise startled him. "They're safer here."

"Yeah… yeah, they're physically safer here. But if you think watching Sarah kill a Fulcrum agent scared me, that's peanuts compared to something no child should have experienced. They need to be near someone who loves them and can stave off the nightmares. Why else would they have been sleeping in my bed or with Awesome and Ellie every night since Valentine's Day?" Chuck explained as he walked through the common room.

"So that's what them means," Barker mused. "Never would have pegged him as a parent. Seems too nervous."

Before Chuck could walk up the stairs, Barker caught his attention. Chuck wasn't comfortable leaving Sarah alone with Barker, but since Sarah was his handler and no longer his girlfriend, he didn't have a say in how she spent her night in Castle with a man who knew other men were envious of his appearance.

Barker asked if there was anything going on between Chuck and Sarah. Since there wasn't, he planned to flirt, or butter her up.

Hoping the twins were sleeping too hard to hear any of that, Chuck quickly made his way up the stairs and out the door.

~***~***~

Chuck opened the Morgan Door and let himself into the apartment so he didn't have to search through his pockets for his keys or wake Morgan who would have been sleeping in the living room. Morgan had asked if he could stay for a few nights because their boss was now dating his mother and he hadn't been sleeping at all.

He laid the girls down on either side of his bed. He didn't bother waking or changing them because they were already dressed for bed with clothes from Castle. He pulled the blankets down ever so slowly so he didn't wake them. Once they were settled, he left them uncovered until he had changed out of his mission suit and into his own sleepwear. Then he climbed between them and fell asleep. His last memory before his alarm buzzed was the twins snuggling closer than they had in a while.

Morgan had spent part of that night at Chuck's. Devon and Ellie had come out of their room to find him in the nude and getting a midnight snack. The big to-do about that for Ellie was that Morgan was naked. Devon was both impressed and creeped out. The even bigger to-do for both was what if the twins were home and saw that…

At breakfast, Chuck learned of Morgan's sleeping habits when he asked why they were missing a house guest.

"Your boy dropped trou last night," Devon explained because Ellie was still having flashbacks and couldn't bring herself to speak just yet. "The bearded buffoon sleeps au naturel, which I respect, just not on my couch."

"Appetite gone," Chuck said, now unable to scrub the image of a naked Morgan out of his head, "I am so, so sorry."

"Yes, let's, uh... let's just forget about it," Ellie said, finally able to speak. "Did you talk to Sarah?"

"I did, and we've decided that we're just going to be friends."

"Oh."

"Oh, what? What, Oh?" Didn't you say that I should break up with her, that I needed to move forward with my life? Do you remember saying that?" Chuk was on his way to a panic.

"Yeah, I do. I do remember saying that. Um, I just think that once you let her go, it's gonna be really hard to get her back."

Chuck hadn't told the twins what was going on between Sarah and him. They had yet to meet Cole who had briefly met them while they were sleeping. They hadn't had an Intersect bedtime story since Valentine's Day and hadn't done any backdoor Intersecting since then either, so they were in the dark.

Why would Daddy need to get Sarah back?

He didn't break up with her again, did he?

~***~***~

"Sarah? Cole?" Chuck called as he and the twins entered Orange Orange. "Go sit at the table. I'm gonna unlock the door." He directed them to the table closest to the register. "Sarah? Cole?" he called again.

He didn't get an answer, which to him was unexpected. So, deciding to be nosy, he accessed Castle's security cameras. He watched, becoming sadder by the second as he thought Sarah was falling for Cole's charm. He watched until Casey came up behind him, startling him once again. It wasn't a scared startle. It was more along the lines of I just got caught doing something I shouldn't be doing.

"Oh. Impressive," Casey said, complimenting the unwitting Cole. Casey didn't wait for Chuck to follow. "Come here. They come, too. Take them to their room. They can't hear mission details."

Chuck went to their table and told them to follow him. "You know they haven't flashing?"

"I do, but as you keep reminding us, and I happen to agree, they're far too young to participate in anything mission related, including the briefings. And even if they weren't too young, you'd still try to fight us tooth and nail to leave them out of this as much as we can."

~***~***~

The chip's case couldn't be opened, and they had yet to get their hands on the playback device. Chuck offered to crack it, essentially admitting he had a history as a hacker. Because none of the agents knew of Chuck's true abilities with technology, Cole downplayed Chuck's brag.

"It's a little more complicated than you and your friends stealing video games."

"Yeah. Don't try to be a hero on this one, Bartowski. Leave that to the pros," Casey said.

"Excuse me. I am a pro. My job is a certified computer and electronics technician," Chuck corrected.

"Great cover," Cole remarked.

"It's not his cover. It's his life."

Ultimately it was decided that the chip would stay in Castle, but Chuck had other plans for it once the professional spies had left and couldn't stop him.

"Daddy?" Kelley said as she slowly came around the corner.

"Hey, kiddo…" he had to stop. She spoke. He turned to face her. The chip fell to the floor, but for a few seconds, he didn't care. Their PTSD was subsiding, and that was all that mattered to him in that fleeting moment. He was so thrilled to hear her little voice again that he hadn't seen Maya enter the common room.

Maya saw where the chip landed and went to pick it up. Having learned many of the ins and outs of the Intersect, and now with the Fulcrum Intersect in their heads, she flashed on the chip. It was like a flashback to the suburbs. The modified sunglasses the Fulcrum agents made them wear. A room they couldn't leave. Terrifying screams and explosions still haunted her. And now, with this flash, they were even more prominent.

No one else knew the playback device was no longer necessary. Maya saw who was on the chip.

Chuck finally took notice of Maya and her frozen state. He knew the look, and she had it after not flashing for a long time. He removed the chip from her hand. She snapped to, suddenly becoming aware of her current surroundings. She watched as the chip made its way to Chuck's pocket.

"No! DADDY! DON'T PLAY IT! DON'T PLAY IT!" she screamed. He didn't know what had come over her. She never screamed like that, even if she was mad. Neither twin had ever screamed like that. They usually saved that kind of scream for amusement park rides.

He did what he could to comfort her, though he didn't understand her words because they jumbled together. He told her he wasn't going to do anything with the chip. It was just there for safe keeping. He wasn't going to inform them of his true intentions with the chip.

~***~***~

What was that about? Kelley asked. The door to their Castle room closed as Chuck left. He didn't want to, and he had stayed until she wasn't screaming or crying anymore, but she was still frightened. What was on that chip?

Daddy's on it Maya replied. And… and she couldn't continue. She didn't scream this time because that information wasn't what frightened her that much.

~***~***~

"Someone call for a professional?" Chuck asked to himself as he hijacked the chip's motherboard. "Don't tell me to leave the spy work to the spies. I'll show them…" What he didn't know what that the chip had a tracker on it that would signal its location if it came online. "Now, let's see what cause all those screams."

He finally got through the mainframe. And he was quite proud of himself until he saw himself on the computer screen. Seconds later, another widow popped up with the twins in another room. The same thing was happening, only they weren't strapped to chairs and wore glasses.

He had his answer. But how was Maya able to play the chip just by touching it when he couldn't. He had the same Intersects in his head.

Chuck looked up in time to see the Fulcrum agents Cole, Casey, and Sarah had gone to meet coming toward him. He flashed on one. She had endured a myriad of torture techniques while legitimately working for the CIA.

He quickly smashed the chip with a stapler, not knowing what the rest of his day might look like. While he cared a lot for his own safety, his daughters were safe in Castle so long as they didn't touch anything outside of their room.

~***~***~

His hands were chained above his head the same as Sarah's and Cole's. They hung from a bar that crossed the top of a warehouse cage.

"This is going to get ugly," Cole remarked. "What level is his pain tolerance?"

"I'd say about a one out of ten," Sarah answered.

"A what?! A one? I'd say I'm at least at an eight," Chuck said sounding both offended and in pain.

"Chuck, the torture hasn't started yet."

There were needles on a tray near the chain-link wall in front of them.

"This is the pre-torture?!" When his question was answered with silence, he continued. "Okay, okay. Put me down for a one… Sarah. Sarah. I saw it. I know what's on the chip."

"What?"

He looked at Cole, debating if he should say anything.

"Uh, sorry, mate, it's a bit difficult to put my fingers in my ears right now."

"It's okay, Chuck."

"I'm on it. It's me…" He looked like he was going to say something else.

"What aren't you saying, Chuck?.." It hit her. "Don't… Chuck… tell me that what I'm thinking isn't true."

Chuck gulped. "Okay… I won't say it."

"Where are they?"

"They were in Castle when the agents arrived."

This only a little comforting to both the agents and Chuck after watching the footage of them manipulating Castle's electronic locks.

"Hopefully they're still in there if Casey stops at the Buy More," Sarah said. She went on to instruct him on what to do when his turn for a torture session arrived. She told him to use his fear of needles to his advantage. He had to scare himself into passing out.

~***~***~

Casey entered Castle. The first thing he did was check the monitor for Chuck's location, and if that was removed, somewhere he would take someone for interrogation. Then he pulled up the playroom feed. The twins hadn't forgotten they were being watched. But it didn't look like they were in their room until he saw movement under a blanket. They were hiding from something. Had his priority not been to save his team, he would have gone in to check on them. But even if he had done so, he barely knew the first thing about children other than to leave them alone if they're sleeping.

"I'm gonna bring him back to them," he promised. Keeping a family together meant a lot to him, orders be damned. And that was exactly what he did.

Once he found the warehouse, the Fulcrum agents did one of many things. Some fought back, while others ran. Some died in the crossfire while others broke their cyanide tooth, killing themselves. The ones who were still alive and hadn't run were arrested. The one Chuck had flashed on had injected herself with Ricin.

Cole was checked on by the medical team with Sarah's assistance as the extent of his torture, which included a multi-strand whip, was far more severe than Chuck's falling backward to the floor while strapped to a wheelchair.

~***~***~

Watching the way Cole kissed Sarah through the Orange Orange register did something to Chuck. Since he still had to finish his shift and act as if nothing completely terrifying had happened, that was his next stop. Before leaving Castle, he had checked on Kelley and Maya who hadn't come out of hiding since Casey last checked their video feed.

The sound of his voice let them know it was safe to come out. He'd hugged them tighter than their little lungs could handle.

But the kiss between Cole and Sarah told him it was time to move on with his life. He and the twins would move out of Ellie and Devon's apartment. Morgan could live with them. Other than his choice of movies and internet activity, he was great with the girls.

Morgan was thrilled to be making such plans. The only one who wasn't on board with the idea was Ellie. To her, moving in with Morgan wasn't a step forward. To her, it was as though Chuck was channeling his inner child when he approached her with his news.

Chuck's moving plans and excitement for the occasion came crashing down. Cole had been captured by his own driver. With his knowledge of who the human Intersects were, it was only a matter if time before he talked… if he talked.