Chuck Vs. the Tango

For months, a painting of water lilies traveled through countless galleries. With every stop, one or more dealer or fence's bodies were found in its wake. Two intelligence agencies knew its connection to a world renowned, yet never seen criminal. It was only a matter of time until the piece came to a gallery near one of these agencies.

"What happened, Man? The twins don't come here for lunch anymore," Morgan whined. He missed something that was meant to be special for Chuck. "You and I haven't spent much time together ever since Sarah arrived. And last week, you started Sarah's soufflé on fire. While it's something that could be thought of as normal for you-"

"How is that normal for me?" Chuck interrupted. "I don't go into a relationship purposely looking for ways to embarrass myself."

"Few people do. But you..."

"If you say I have a knack for it, I won't let you use my Buy More security clearance to play any new video games." This shut Morgan up.

Chuck wished he could tell his best friend that there was an incredibly good reason his kids had stopped coming to see him during his lunch breaks, or why he hadn't been available.

"Sorry. They've just been dealing with a lot of headaches lately," Chuck explained. It got the twins off the hook for something they didn't even know could compromise their safety. "Ellie's having everyone in their social circle keep an eye out for them."

It wasn't a lie. The twins had been getting headaches from the intersect, which Chuck pieced together after he'd managed to slip an image of the NSA incinerator out of an evidence bag. They knew what the device was, just not how to say its name. In their words, it bloweded things up and nothing would be left behind.

"Well, that explains the twins. But you?"

Chuck was getting better at producing answers on the fly.

"I know, Buddy. Sarah and I have had plans almost every night since we met," he lied.

A kid chose that moment to come and ask for help fixing a gun for his video game. It wouldn't shoot. Morgan left to let Chuck tend to his customer who demonstrated the problem on one of the games playing on a screen.

~***~***~

School let out five minutes early. Had the doors opened five minutes earlier, or even on time, Kelly and Maya might not have seen newspaper articles like the water lily painting being placed in a display case.

Both sisters looked to the article. The glance didn't last long as their eyes closed, and images and videos flashed before them. People who looked like they were sleeping but had red puddles coming from under them. A lady kneeling with a blade on her neck. Screams emanated from her images.

Kelly took Maya's hand in hers. They'd both seen the same thing, and it scared them. What was happening to them?

Chuck and Morgan were there to pick them up from school that day. It was a nice surprise for them because Ellie and Devon were usually their way home. Chuck had his own copy of the paper in a cup holder in the front seat. He wasn't worried since he figured they couldn't, and hadn't, seen it yet.

His presence was a surprise, but the twins didn't act happy to see him. They looked sick.

"More headaches?" he asked, bending down to their level. He received nods as answers as the girls wrapped their arms around his neck. The action and the headaches told him everything he needed to know. There was no use in trying to hide the article. It was far too late.

Chuck noted that Maya's forehead felt a little warm. Ellie will look at her when we get home.

"Daddy," Kelley began. Then both tried to ask the question and pronounce the name.

"Who is La. See. You. Dad?" they finally got out after several attempts.

Chuck knew he was under surveillance, but he didn't know how far, so he didn't think to stop the question.

"I don't know yet," he replied. "Just... don't ask questions like that in front of people... especially Sarah and Casey." It was an unnecessary reminder. He said it more for his own sanity than for the twins' sakes.

"We won't," they chimed.

"Dude," Morgan whispered. "Who are they talking about?"

"Must be a new kid at school," Chuck lied.

Morgan bought it. Being a school, it was a reasonable assumption.

Chuck took one twin around to the driver's side of the car, and Morgan took the other. Each twin crawled into the back seat of the Herder. They climbed into their seats and fell asleep while Chuck fastened Kelley's seat belt and Morgan did Maya's. They knew how to do it themselves, but they were out as soon as their heads hit the headrests.

The biggest thing on Chuck's mind that day had been fixing all the computers that had been assigned to his team. They had to be completed in two days' time. It was all so he could prove he was assistant manager material.

Until the twins got the Intersect, quiet rides home from school almost never happened. Now they were a daily occurrence, and Doctor Ellie was trying to talk Chuck into getting them MRI's.

~***~***~

"Why were those people sleeping?" Kelley asked from her bed as Chuck raised the covers to her chin.

He couldn't lie to them. They may not have known the political or legal terms used in the Intersect, but they knew everything he did.

"I'll tell you some other time, Kiddo. Just, not when you're about to go to sleep."

He finished tucking Kelley in, then went to do the same with Maya. She didn't ask any questions because she had been listening to the answer Chuck gave Kelley, and she was already asleep.

Chuck felt Maya's forehead again. He didn't expect much of a change after Ellie told him she had a fever in the time it took to get home from school. Then he went to leave. He looked back to check on them once more, then closed the door to muffle the sounds coming from the kitchen.

Ellie was ecstatic to hear of Chuck's possible promotion. In fact, all she heard was promotion. She didn't hear the rest, or the doubt in her brother's voice at first.

Chuck barely came back into the living room after putting the girls down for a nap. He hoped that would do something for their headaches but what he wanted even more was for Ellie to contain herself.

"I am so proud of you!" she shrieked. "Morgan told me about the assistant management job. Congratulations."

"Team Bartowski moving up in the world, huh?"

"Okay, first, the twins have really bad headaches again and are resting. Second, it's not mine yet, and third, you can ease up on the enthusiasm. It's only a two dollar an hour raise at an electronics store, and it doesn't even give me my own parking space."

Ellie and Morgan ignored Chuck's presence from then on, planning his future for him. He picked up a comic book and read it as if the background noise happened every day. And in his life, it did.

~***~***~

General Beckman, Casey's boss, was glad to hear he had moved into the apartment next door to Chuck. Getting that close was the best they could do without compromising Chuck's willingness to work with them. Or attracting unwanted suspicion.

"If he's right, this is a high priority. La ciudad is the most elusive and dangerous arms dealer in the world.

"And the last anyone heard, MI-6 in London had a drop on him, but he vanished."

"Well, if he turns up, we'll just take him down at the auction," Sarah said.

Graham, Sarah's superior, said, "Not so easy. We have no idea what he looks like, no photographs. No one has ever seen la ciudad that has lived to tell about it."

"So, we'll bring the intersect," Casey suggested. "Everything you know about La Ciudad was fed into that computer."

"No way. It is too dangerous. He has no field experience or training."

"He'll be fine. It's an art auction," Casey pushed.

Maya continued to sleep while Kelley slipped out from under the covers to spy on the adults. She'd been practicing ever since they got the intersect.

The door to Chuck's room was open so she went in there instead. Everything seemed normal. A calendar on the wall. The Tron poster. Comic books and video games in one corner, and Chuck's computer in another.

What wasn't normal to her was being able to look out the window and see Sarah and Casey in the next apartment. They appeared to be arguing. As far as Kelley knew, Sarah and Casey didn't know each other until last week.

A screen lit up their faces. Casey was his usual self with that angry expression of his. If a smile came across Casey's face, she would have been scared as it was something she'd never seen him do.

The look on Sarah's face, however... That's the one that kept Kelley interested. It constantly changed. One second, it was angry, the next it was scared. Sarah went back and forth between the two, sometimes adding confusion into the mix.

~***~***~

Neither Casey nor Sarah notice Kelley watching them until it was time to let Chuck know he was going out on his first mission.

"We've got company," Casey said, nodding toward Chuck's window.

Had Casey and/or Sarah watched the video feed that was hidden in Chuck's room, they would have seen Kelley drop to the floor and crawl toward the closet in Chuck's room. "Think she knows?"

"She's seven, Casey. What she does know has nothing to do with us," Sarah reminded him.

"Which one was that, anyway?"

"You can't tell them apart?"

"Not yet. Haven't been able to spot any differences since they're identical, dress alike, always moving, and talk in unison all the time. They're like those creepy sisters in The Shining." Sarah laughed. "Oh, and you can do better."

"That was Maya. She's always spying on everyone."

"Kelley where are you?" they heard through their surveillance equipment. "Why aren't you in bed?" It sounded more like Chuck was talking to himself. "Are you playing spy again?"

"Pull up the twin's room," Sarah said.

Casey opened the twin's window on his laptop. He chuckled because his point had been made. Neither of the highly trained spies could tell the difference between the twins.

Maya was still in her bed. She was a kicker in her sleep, so her covers were off. Chuck entered the room to check on the sleeping child. He covered her back up, then checked her forehead again.

"No change... not for the better anyway. I wonder why Kelley didn't get a fever... two kids with people they know twenty-four hours a day. One gets a fever, and the other is healthier than a horse. I hope this isn't related to the Intersect."

"Did he just say, 'Intersect' in reference to the twins?" the spies asked in unison.

"Does that mean one, or both of the twins have it too?" Casey mused.

They were going to have to continue watching both the past footage and future until they have proof that the twins were Intersects, or one of them spilled the beans.

"He's about to check his room. I'll leave you to let him know of the upcoming mission."

Sarah left the complex just as Chuck opened his bedroom door. He was still looking for Kelley. Casey went over to the window and opened the blind enough for Chuck to see his face and nearly scream.

"Congratulations, Chuck. You just got your first mission-- tomorrow night. Hope you're ready for the real world." Just as Casey was about to let the blinds close, a sound came from the closet. Both sets of eyes went in that direction. Chuck's gaze stayed a little longer than Casey's. "What was that?"

"Oh... uh... probably nothing. If anything, it's my comic books falling off the shelf," Chuck brushed it off.

Casey only grunted as if letting Chuck think he believed him. He didn't believe Chuck, so he opened the feed to Chuck's room when he returned to his place and was rewarded.

Chuck had opened the door to his closet and found Kelley hiding. His comic books had indeed fallen from the shelf... just, not on their own. He brought his hands down to the child's level for her to grab them and lifted her into the air before she landed back on her feet.

"What were you doing in there?"

"Hiding."

"You were playing Spy, weren't you?"

Kelley nodded as her head came down to Chuck's shoulder. It was a position that let Chuck no she was tired. He just didn't know why she was out of bed if she was that sleepy.

~***~***~

"Ellie, can you come here for a minute?"

His sister wasted no time in getting away from Morgan and Awesome talking or arguing about what Chuck should do with his life. She was just glad to get away because someone needed her.

"What's wrong?"

"She was hiding in my closet, and my comic books fell on her head. Will you check her out for me? I'm going to see if Maya uncovered herself again."

This was one of those moments when it was good to have a doctor like Ellie in the house. As a neurosurgeon, she worked with heads a lot and could see more than a general physician in most cases. And with the twins' recent spells, she was getting more concerned.

Ellie checked Kelley's eyes for pupil reaction. She didn't find anything to be concerned about other than the red mark on Kelley's forehead. Ellie brushed her fingers across her forehead and noted the same temperature spike Chuck had with Maya.

She led Kelley into the twins' room and set her on her bed.

"How is she?"

"No sign of concussion, which is good..."

"You've got that look that says there's a 'but' in there."

"She has one, too, Chuck. You should keep them home tomorrow. I'll take the day off so I can monitor their fevers if they haven't broken by the time Devon gets up at the latest."

"Thank you, Sis. I don't know what I'd do without you," Chuck replied. It's not like Sarah and Casey would let me hire a babysitter without a thorough, and I do mean thorough, background check. They'd probably say the sitter would have to be a spy, too.

~***~***~

First things first, Chuck thought. If Ellie or Awesome get called in, I'll need a babysitter.

"Uh, Casey," he said as he walked through the door of the Buy More.

"What?" It was the kind of gruff that said he didn't want to be disturbed, but since protecting Chuck was his job description, he had to listen.

"This thing tonight... how late will it be."

"Your kids will be fine without you for one night, Bartowski. You don't need a babysitter if Awesome and Ellie are there. Besides, it's not like they're Intersects," Casey began a serious chuckle that caused a rather nervous laugh to come from Chuck. "Is it?" Casey stopped the chuckle faster than it began.

Chuck still wasn't good at lying yet so he simply changed the subject. It didn't go unnoticed, but the mission at hand was more important at that moment. "So, dress attire for this evening-- uh, sneakers, or are we classifying this as more of a shoe event?"

"I rented you a tux."

"Oh, that's very nice... how did you know my size?"

"NSA-- they have records of your rental information from prom night." Casey held back the biggest grin that was building up as Chuck believed every word. "I checked the suit in your closet."

~***~***~

"You won't need a babysitter, Chuck," Sarah said. "Besides, if you got one, Casey and I would have to know so we can do thorough background checks. The only way you could possibly get a sitter who isn't Morga, Ellie, or Awesome is if they were CIA or NSA and read in on the assignment."

Sarah was trying to brief Chuck on how to make a cover.

"Charles Carmichael?"

"Simple, dignified." She was impressed. "Easy to remember and not far off from..."

"Graduated with honors from Stanford. Runs a hugely successful software company. Semi-retired and is considering entering America's cup." He'd thought about this a lot over the last five years. "I'd still be Kelley and Maya's dad. It's the one thing about Stanford that I wouldn't change."

"Have you done this before?"

"Let's just say, uh, Mr. Carmichael and I share a small kinship... When I first entered Stanford, it's kind of where I envisioned myself being by now, except for the sailing part. I don't really know where that came from. But he's where most of my class already is."

"So, what happened?"

"My life took a little detour senior year when our old friend Bryce Larkin discovered stolen tests under my bed and was kind enough to alert administration."

"Did you steal the tests?"

"I thought it was kind of implied that I'm a decent person."

"Well, we all make mistakes."

"And I made plenty. That just wasn't one of them. But then Bryce sent me a whole database of government secrets that are now locked in my brain, keeping me in a constant state of fear, danger, and anxiety, so I'd say we're even."

~***~***~

The twins noticed that a lot of Intersect worthy events were happening after they went to bed. Like them, Chuck was always tired. Most of the time it was for different reasons, but he got the same headaches they did when he flashed on something/one.

As bedtime stories, he would tell them of his adventures, leaving out the gory details, and the lies he'd told in case anyone outside of the know listened in.

The most recent event was the art auction. Chuck's date wasn't until after the twins' bedtime. They had settled into bed. Their temperatures were still high, but the fevers had broken. Chuck left the door open so he could hear them if they called.

He thought they were asleep when he asked Ellie if she knew how to Tango. Neither twin knew what a tango was, but stayed in their room when Chuck's voice rose...

"Did someone say tango?" Awesome asked as he walked out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his wasted. Reason number one the girls stayed in their room.

"No, thank you, Captain Awesome, I'll look it up online... Would you please put on, something, a robe or something?"

"Why do all of Daddy's dates happen after we go to bed?" Maya asked.

"Probably for the same reason we're not allowed to talk about what's up here," Kelley answered with a finger to her head.

After Devon walked by their room, now wearing a robe, the girls slipped out of bed to spy on the adults.

Chuck was still held in the dip of the dance when both he and Awesome saw the twins watching them. Had they not laughed, Awesome wouldn't have dropped Chuck to the floor. The twins knew they were caught, but still raced back to their beds as quickly as they could.

~***~***~

Sarah gave Chuck a watch, explaining that it was a way to keep track of him. He was getting nervous again. It was a combination of fear for his life and the possibility of the same thing happening to the twins.

He didn't have to talk through it that night, though Sarah and Casey did use it to locate him.

"One of the twins pointed to her head last night," Casey said as he and Sarah made their way through the halls of the hotel.

"That doesn't mean anything, Casey."

"It does when she said it was something they weren't allowed to talk about."

Now it meant something. It wasn't proof, but it worth making an entry in the confirmation file they'd started for the girls.

"We'll keep watching them. Chuck needs a babysitter for future missions, Casey. And if they are Intersects, those sitters will have to be agents. Beckman and Graham won't have it any other way."

~***~***~

"Who else knew to look at the frame," Maya asked when Chuck told them of the adventure. He left that part out of the story.

"How did you... right. I forgot for a second there."

"So, what happened to her?" Kelley inquired.

"She got away. Jumped out the window and landed on the balcony of the floor below."

"Maybe you won't see her again."

Chuck didn't have the heart to say he had his doubts. He didn't tell anyone that he lost his Buy More badge.

"Did I tell you that they came to the store?"

"They did?" they said in unison.

"They did. Big Mike fixed the cage because Morgan got locked in. I thought I had one of La Ciudad's men trapped in there since no one told me the cage was fixed."

"But he got out?" Maya asked.

"He did. He opened the door with no trouble at all. Then Casey threw a microwave at the man's head."

"And what did Casey say?"

"Yeah, what did Casey say?"

They didn't know the man as well as Chuck did, but they knew he said something.

"He said, 'Now that's what I call moving some merchandise'," Chuck replied. He was scared when it happened, but now, telling his kids the story, he could laugh about it.

~***~***~

"Congratulations on your first mission. You did really good, Chuck," Sarah complimented as he walked her out of the apartment. The twins watched from his bedroom window.

"Stop it. I'm not really a spy. Your computer ended up in the head of a guy who only knows how to fix 'em, nothing else."

She had planned to see if Chuck was hiding something from her about the twins, but the time hadn't presented itself yet.

"You survived a near-death experience under the threat of torture and apprehended one of the world's most elusive killers. I'm not sure you what you think spies do exactly, but most of us would consider that a pretty good day."

"Okay, sure, so today I helped take down a major international arms dealer, but tomorrow... tomorrow I still gotta go clock in at Buy More. I mean, what's the good of being a hero if nobody knows about it?

"You know. And so do I."

"You know, if we were really dating, this would be the part where I'd be forced to kiss you good night."

"Forced? Would it be so bad?"

"I'm sure I could suffer through it."

"Me, too."

Chuck hadn't noticed that Casey was watching everyone through the blinds of his apartment until Morgan came up and pointed out how creepy it was. Chuck couldn't help but agree as he and Morgan walked back toward his apartment.

It was time for the girls to get ready for bed and tell more tales of the Intersect that were yet to be known, even by Sarah and Casey.