![[I saw three ships]](../img/2009icon.png)
Chuck Bartowski liked to embrace his nerditude. He was a nerd, down right to his shoes. He knew that. He worked in the Nerd Herd, for crying out loud. He had fun being a nerd, playing games with Morgan, watching movies with Ellie and Awesome, hanging out at the Buy More. It was a good life, for most part, if not the life he'd wanted.
Where Bryce Larkin had destroyed his life at Harvard, Bryce Larkin had saved Chuck's life now by sending him the Intersect. Bryce, unintentionally, had sent him Sarah Walker.
"Hey, Sarah!" he said, waving to his fake-but-totally-wanting-it-to-be-real girlfriend. From the serious expression on her face, he knew that what she wanted to talk to him about…was probably about Bryce.
His ex-best friend had showed up outside the Buy More two days ago, injured and moaning out Sarah's name. While Chuck knew he wasn't a bad guy anymore, that didn't mean he had forgiven Bryce for what he'd done. The least the guy could do was actually say sorry! Was that too much to ask for ruining his life at Harvard, stealing his girlfriend, sending him the Intersect (and, okay, if Chuck were going to be honest, except for the constant near-death experiences, he liked being a spy and thought he was pretty good at it. Barring the whole dealing with death thing, of course.), making everyone think he was a traitor, making everyone think he was dead, coming back from the dead like nothing had ever happened, stealing the girl he wanted to be his new girlfriend (again, to be honest, Bryce had found Sarah first, but she was here now and Chuck really liked her!), and making Casey even more irritable that normal (which meant DEATH to pretty much everyone on his bad side. Which was, well, everyone).
He turned away from the Castle computer he'd been working on and looked up at Sarah as she slid into a seat next to him. "Chuck," she said, and he straightened. "Bryce is awake. He wants to talk to us."
"So?" He raised his eyebrows at her. "He can talk to you, right?"
She shook her head. "No, Chuck. He won't talk about where he's been or what happened to him," Sarah explained and Chuck inhaled sharply, sensing a 'but' coming. "Unless we're both there."
Oh, not a 'but.' Not much better either.
Chuck swallowed and nodded. Sarah reached out and touched his arm reassuringly. "Don't worry, Chuck. I'll be right here with you, Casey will be monitoring us. He's locked up. I'll do the talking. Nothing is going to happen." She smiled at him and pushed her chair back, standing. "Let's go, Chuck."
He sighed and did as she asked, rubbing his hands against his jeans. "Think he has anything good to say?" "We won't know until we listen," she told him and led the way back toward the Castle's holding cells where Bryce had been their guest for the past two days.
He looked a lot better than the last time Chuck had saw him (bleeding and delirious). His knife wounds (at least that was what Sarah said they were, Chuck had never got close enough to actually see for himself) had been treated, he was sitting up, and he didn't look nearly as pale. Chuck figured that was from the blood transfusions. Blood loss made you pale, right?
He smiled, looking as pretty (and Chuck tried not to think about his guy friends in terms like that, but frankly, Bryce was pretty, Morgan was... Morgan, and Casey was handsome in an overly muscled jock sort way. There was no way to change the facts, even if he didn't want to admit it, that was the way he thought deep down) as ever. He was stretched out on the bunk, his back to the corner as he waited for them to stand outside his cell. There was a little stood, for visitors, that had been planted right in front of the glass and Chuck decided to be chivalrous and let Sarah have it. "Glad you could join me," Bryce said. "The accommodations aren't exactly five-star but it's quiet and safe." His smile grew and he straightened, moving his feet off the bunk and to the floor. Then he looked directly at Chuck, who stood awkwardly in the background, fiddling with his hands. "Not toj tlhInganpu."
Chuck's eyebrows shot up at Bryce's words. What did bluffing have to do with anything? Was this his way of saying 'pay attention'? Or 'trust me'? Or both?
"Chuck, what did he say?" Sarah asked.
"Bryce said…" He trailed off, wondering if he should give the literal translation or what he thought Bryce meant. "He said pay attention," Chuck finally decided. "What he's going to tell us is important."
Bryce's smile grew and he leaned forward. "I have information about Fulcrum leadership," he said seriously. "But I don't have much time. I had to make sure my intel got to people I trusted." He looked up at the ceiling of the cell, about where Chuck knew the camera was placed and waved. "I assume Casey's listening in?"
"He is," Sarah answered, finally sitting down on the stool. She leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees in a mirror of Bryce's own position. Chuck just continued to stand (awkwardly) behind her. "So tell us what you know, Bryce."
"I will, in a minute." He sighed and his usually straight shoulders slumped a little. Chuck tried to think of the last time he'd ever seen Bryce so — so — depressed seemed like the word (but Bryce was perfect; he didn't have anything to get depressed about!) before and he couldn't. Chuck couldn't even think of times where Bryce had been unsure or worried or even mildly sad. "First, I have something I need to tell you. Both of you." He looked up at the camera again. "Turn it off for five minutes, Casey. I want no recordings of this. Then you'll get your intel." He looked at Chuck. "Go make sure. I'll believe you if you tell me the cameras are off. You're too honest to be a good liar."
"Thanks," he muttered, a little insulted. He happened to be a very good liar. It was how he made it through so many missions unscathed.
Well, except for that one time with La Cuidad. Or Mei-Ling. Or Laszlo. Or Lou.
Okay, maybe Bryce had a point. He was a crappy liar.
Chuck looked over at Sarah, silently asking her what he should do. Sarah nodded at him. "It's all right, Chuck. Casey, turn the cameras off."
Chuck turned around and headed to the entrance to the Castle, expecting that was where Casey would be. "So are you really going to do it?" he asked.
"Of course not," Casey said, not bothering to turn away from the monitor. He didn't need to add 'you numbskull' because his voice did it for him. "Whatever Larkin has to say, he can say to all four of us. You'd better lie really well."
Chuck gave him a dirty look and sighed, trudging back to the cells. When Bryce saw him, he chuckled. "See, that's why I sent you, Chuck. I knew I could tell when I saw you. Casey not cooperating?"
"Nope. I guess that's what happen when you're a, uh, triple agent. That's what you'd be right? You worked for the CIA, made Fulcrum think you were a double agent and then —" Chuck babbled until Bryce laughed again.
"Don't ever change," Bryce told him.
"Too late." But Chuck gave him a quick smile anyway.
Bryce sobered and got up, walking over right to the glass. "I suppose we'll all just have to live with Casey listening in, then." He put his hand up on the glass and Chuck had a sudden flash of Wrath of Khan. His stomach dropped. "I need to say I'm sorry. To both of you."
Those were the last words Chuck had been expecting from his old friend and nemesis. He'd wanted to hear it, of course, he craved hearing it. But Bryce Larkin didn't apologize. Bryce Larkin didn't do things that required apologies.
"For what?" Chuck blurted out, moving up close to the glass, coming even with Sarah.
"For leaving," he told Sarah. "For destroying your life at Stanford," he told Chuck. "I did what needed to be done, at the time." Bryce sighed and dropped his hand. "But that doesn't mean I enjoyed hurting the two people I care about most. The two people…" He trailed off, looking back and forth between Chuck and Sarah.
"Oh, it's okay," he said brightly, more than just a little uncomfortable with Bryce's sentiment. It was just weird to hear him being so — honest like that. "I got over that years ago."
"Liar." But Bryce smiled as he said it. "Can you both forgive me?"
Chuck looked down at Sarah and found her looking back at him. Her expression was somewhere between wistful and sad and that made Chuck feel wistful and sad too. He patted her shoulder gently. "I'm glad I got to know you both," Chuck told her.
Sarah smiled, a real one, that lit up her face and eyes like the sun was coming out. He liked seeing that expression on her face. A quick glance at Bryce showed that he wasn't immune to Sarah's sunny smile and his expression lightened as well.
For the first time, in a long time, Chuck felt like he was friends with both of them. Good friends (maybe more than friends, but he wasn't going to let his brain think about that one too deeply, not with Casey watching and Bryce hurt, and his thing with Sarah still…a thing and nothing more).
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Casey's voice came through the intercom system. The three of them, lost in the moment, jumped, startled by his intrusion. "Stop jerking around, Larkin."
For a moment, Chuck stared at his (ex and now something completely different) best friend and his totally fake (but wanting something more) girlfriend. Then the three of them started laughing, all at once.
Being a spy wasn't so bad. When you had the right kind of people helping you.
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