11 Aug 2010

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Chapter 7

Morgan's Law

The Bartowski Home, Encino, CA

Last morning, two days later

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Ellie returned to the family room with a half surprised, half smiling look on her face. "I still can't believe Dad bought the house from us back when he left."

"He may not have been around, but he was still looking out for us, Sis."

Awesome came up behind Chuck with Sarah trailing. "Bro, are you sure about this? The house, I mean. I think that maybe you and Sarah need a place where the worm can wiggle free."

Chuck shuttered at the comment. After years, he still wished Awesome would learn to keep the conversion more…appropriate for all ages. "Sarah and I talked about this. While we have loved each other for three years, we have really only be dating for a few months. A house would be too big of a step. However, we could maybe take over your apartment."

Sarah added, "Chuck and I do better with small steps."

"So you two are still taking it slow?" Ellie questioned with a hint of disapproval.

Chuck defended back, "Things are great the way we are doing them now, and we would appreciate it if our protective sister-slash-friend would let us find our own path."

Ellie rolled her eyes. "Fine. I'll back off for now. But no promises for the future, " she added with a twist of a smile. "Thank for you for the house."

"It's your house too, Sis. Actually, right now it's nobody's house. Dad bought it under an alias, which we have not been able to link to him. That and a few classified documents I found are the reasons drafted Sarah to help yesterday." Ok, more than a few documents. Chuck realized now was the time to start hinting about their mom. "So far we have had no luck with the alias or the trust that has been keeping this place up. For all we know, Mom's name might be on the place too."

"Mom? Why would you think she would still be involved?"

"She was on the original mortgage. Maybe—"

Chuck was interrupted by a sliding sound from across the room. The four people in the family room turned towards the no-longer-hidden opening with different levels of shock. From the opening, emerged a little bearded man holding a grape soda and a sandwich.

"Hey guys. I thought I heard someone up here. I let myself in last night. You know I missed my surprise breakfast with Alex yesterday. Casey shot me with a tranq dart in retaliation for shooting him on our mission the other night. He's still giving me this creepy predator look, so last night I snuck out, took three buses and two cabs to lose him. Then I surprised Alex with the cinnamon rolls this morning. Morgan's Breakfast Surprise, Take Two. Good call with that, Chuck. She had a good time, I think, I hope. I followed your advice, Sarah, and just tried to be myself. Chuck gave me that advice once too, a couple years ago, when you had that mission to seduce that guy at the yacht club. I did better this time. At least I think it went well. I wasn't there long, but we have a real date for tomorrow night. I doubt Casey would want his daughter stood up on a date, so I should be in the clear, without him shooting me again, that is. After breakfast, I came over here to work on the files. There are dozens of boxes to go through before the Buy More reopens as a CIA front, like Beckman told us yesterday that it would. You know the light switch code for the Orion Cave wasn't that hard to figure out. In only took me twenty minutes or so. I started through the file on your Mom again…"

Morgan stopped, finally noticing Chuck across the room, wildly waving his arms and stopping on the floor. Sarah had collapsed to the sofa, trying to hold back tears as she covered her laugh with one hand and held her stomach with the other. Devon's eyes were quickly darting around the room in a complete look of confusion. Ellie's look of initial shock transformed into something darker.

"Chuck!"

Chuck sighed. "Ellie, have a seat. I guess I need to explain a few things."

How did Chuck ever keep his secret for three years? Forget all of the strategizing he and Sarah had done about what to tell Ellie when. Forget Murphy's Law. All it took was Morgan.

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A/N: Morgan's favorite sandwich is foot-in-mouth sandwich—with cheese. For all my ideas about how Chuck could tell Ellie, I decided the best way was by accident. As for picking on Morgan in these last two chapters, I probably should say I really like Morgan, especially now that he is in the spy loop. I just think it's funny when he helps in some unexpected way. Chuck didn't know how to tell Ellie; with Morgan's "help" that's no longer a problem.

That's all for this story. Once again, it's been fun. Thank you all for your supportive reviews and for just stopping by. I'm better at banter than action, so this story was a bigger challenge for me than my first. However, the chase scene was a lot of fun, especially because it was added on a whim. I hope you enjoyed it.