Chuck's Terrible, Awful, No Good, Very Bad Week
The drive from Echo Park to the Large Mart Plaza was a silent one, neither Chuck, nor Sarah were all that interested in talking, albeit for different reasons. Chuck wasn't interested in getting rejected again today, she'd been rather blunt about it at Casey's apartment. After Bryce's surprise visit earlier in the week, and then her rejection this morning, Chuck was even more convinced of his decision to make a very specific call later this afternoon. He hadn't made the call in a long time, but given everything that was happening in his life, he needed a night, just one single night.
Bryce had dropped in unannounced, earlier in the week for a mission, he'd needed their help stopping a bomb threat at the Twentieth Annual Los Angelis International Defense Summit, which was held every year at the Waldorf Astoria in Beverly Hills. Chuck had expected that Bryce needed the help of the Intersect, but that was not to the case. Bryce made it very clear from the outset that he needed a female agent he could trust, to help him go under cover at the summit. Beckman and Graham saw the urgency of the mission and quickly whored Sarah out to Bryce Fucking Larkin like a cheap hooker. Days for Chuck, were spent behind a computer, down in the future base of operations for Team Intersect, that was going to be codenamed Castle; though it was still under considerable construction at the moment.
All Chuck did all day while Bryce and Sarah were actively out and about, was watch camera feeds from the hotel with Casey; while Bryce and Sarah mingled throughout the hotel, it was just a continual stream of tedium and boredom for Chuck and Casey. Chuck would give advice and information to Bryce and Sarah; Sarah would usually take his feedback and thank him, Bryce would usually disagree or subtly belittle him by telling Chuck to leave the spying to the
real
agents. Chuck could see that it was getting on Casey's nerves listening to Bryce's shots at Chuck, but Sarah never said a thing, nothing at all, radio silence from Team Intersect's CIA Agent turned NSA Captain.
Eventually after three days and nights at the Waldorf as the
Andersons
, Bryce and Sarah determined that the threat was a complete bust
and a waste of fucking time
; the summit concluded without a problem, and Sarah returned to her previous duties with Team Intersect. Down in Castle after the mission had concluded, the debrief was ice cold between Sarah, Chuck, Casey, and Bryce. Sarah was distant towards everyone during the debrief before she left to go start her Wienerlicious shift. The Wienerlicious was going to be closed and converted into a government owned and operated front for Sarah to work in, but that work hadn't started yet, so the only way in and out of Castle was through the emergency access tunnel behind the Large Mart. Casey left the debrief without a word not long after Sarah had and left for work at the Buy More. With his handlers now gone, Chuck was left alone with Bryce. Chuck stood from his seat to leave when he heard Bryce's voice.
"Chuck," The Nerd Herd Supervisor stopped and turned to face Bryce with a flat expression on his face. Chuck waited for his former roommate to speak as he himself spoke in a disinterested voice.
"What is it?" Bryce was obviously taken aback by Chuck's coldness, but he hid his shock quickly.
"You did good these last couple days; for someone without training, you're good at this whole spy thing," Bryce said with a quiet chuckle, Chuck simply huffed in frustration and shook his head; after everything that Bryce had said to him all week, he was complimenting him? It wasn't even really a compliment, it was another insult, a passive-aggressive slap in the face masquerading as a compliment.
"I think I'm just going to let the
real spies
handle it Bryce," Chuck said before he turned and left to go start his crappy shift at the Buy More. Bryce simply stood there silently before he looked down at his hands and nodded to himself. The sound of the door opening and closing signaled that Bryce was alone, like always.
That had been two days ago, since then things had gotten close to normal for Team Intersect, but things were still rather icy between Sarah and himself. He'd thought they were in a good place, but after her rejection this morning, he just didn't know anymore.
For Sarah, the last week had been an exercise in frustration, her asshole ex-boyfriend had showed up out of freaking nowhere and suddenly she was his partner again until his mission was complete. The way her bosses had talked to Larkin about it made her feel cheap, like a tool, like her only value was how she could assist him, how she could