Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to the Chuck TV series or characters. I do, however, reserve the rights for any characters I develop and the plot of this story.

Chuck vs. the Rose Thorn

By Jojobevco

Chapter 7

Making a Bit of Progress

AN: Tic Tac was a very good episode, of course the first reaction I had was "Casey has a daughter?" But, I wish that they had done something a bit better with it, you know, the whole Casey has a daughter thing would have made for a good subplot to continue later (I hope they do)

Final Exam was just simply painful to watch, especially the ending, I mean come on, seriously, to pull an overused quote, "I find Sarah's lack of faith disturbing." Although, I get the sense we haven't seen the last of her red test. (For the record I wrote that line before American Hero aired)

American Hero, was good, it was the show that started redeeming the show, it answered questions, oh and good use of Shaw there.

Other Guy, can be summed up with a "Ding, Dong the Wicked Witch is Dead!" and "Finally, they fixed the damn show!"

The rest of the season was just great, except for the Stephen Bartowski dying part and the whole Ellie being manipulated by the Ring.

Everyone was tired the next morning, everyone in Castle was holding a mug of coffee and appearing especially bleary-eyed. Ellie turned to the group, "Okay, people, where are you on your assignments? John?"

Casey was smirking, "Agent Alex Forrest was picked up in the lobby of the CIA this morning; she had no idea whatsoever that a capture order had been issued. However, I'm told that the video itself is rather funny, they're going to be forwarding it to us later today."

Anna smiled, "Good, I'm bringing the popcorn." She, like a lot of the members of Counterweight, did not like Forrest, and not just for betraying them, but also because she's a "stuck up bitch."

"What else do we have?"

"Well, you have me."

Everyone turned and looked up at the Castle entrance, to a variety of reactions, Casey grunted, Sarah quirked an eyebrow, Chuck smiled, Jill groaned, and Ellie just looked at the new arrival in a daze.

Anna rolled her eyes and muttered, "Cue the cliché spy music."

Elle made a rather valiant effort to overcome her surprise and schooled her face back into a mask of relative normalcy, "Um, Roan, it's, uh good to see you again."

CIA Agent Roan Montgomery, just smiled and took a sip of his martini before walking down the stairs adjusting his immaculately kept jacket, he reached Ellie and kissed her on the hand.

"Eleanor, it is very good to see you again. I must say that I missed working with you."

"Yes, yes," suddenly Ellie snapped out of the daze she was in, "Roan, may I remind you that I am now a very happily married woman?"

After Chuck heard that he started giving off a look halfway between gob smacked and nauseous, "Wait, wait a second here; Ellie and Roan were together? You have got to be kidding me." When no one bothered to correct him, Chuck got a disgusted look on his face, "Excuse me; I have to go throw up now."

Anna laughed, "Oh, stop being such a prude Chuck, your sister was quite the wild thing back in the day and based on what's been happening around here lately, I get the feeling that this isn't the last time this is going to happen."

Ellie's face suddenly became serious, "Anna, how about you give your report."

Anna swallowed, she probably shouldn't have said that, "Yes, Ma'am." She hit a button on the control and a business profile came up, "Everyone, meet Bargrim Technologies, the latest and greatest software development firm, featuring Charles Bartowski as its CEO and Morgan Grimes as its VP of Development. Also featuring Sarah Walker as its VP of Finance, John Casey as its VP of Security, Roan Montomery as its VP of Sales and yours truly as its Head of IT/Administrative assistant."

Elle pouted, just a bit, "What about me?"

"Well, you're still Doctor Ellie Woodcomb."

"You do realize that that will considerably limit my operational abilities."

"Well Doctor isn't exactly a cover you can get out of easily."

"I'll quit."

"And do what, Ellie, a doctor is always a doctor, they aren't exactly interchangeable like your average sales people or executive covers."

"I could transfer to another hospital, a CIA hospital, and operate out of there."

Jill snorted, "Really? What a spectacular idea! And what happens when Rose Thorn get's recognized by someone? You made a lot of enemies throughout the years, many of whom still work for the CIA."

Ellie sighed, "We'll think about it later," she turned to Sarah and Jill, "Okay, so what's your analysis of your conversation with the General last night?"

Jill glared at Sarah out of the corner of her life, "We came to the conclusion that she was not aware that Graham was alive. We also tested the conversation under a voice stress analyzer and tracking micro-expressions against key words and phrases. To the best of our knowledge she is not a member of Fulcrum or the Ring."

"Good. That's someone that we only have to keep one eye on."

Chuck was, in all his naivety, confused, "What, but I thought we just determined that she wasn't Fulcrum?"

"We did, Chuck, but do you seriously think I'm going to believe any analysis that says someone isn't Fulcrum? I only trust the people in this room, Chuck, and a very select few outside of it. I've had at most a total of five minutes of conversation with Beckman and while I trust Jill's judgment, it takes years of interaction and life threatening experiences and missed opportunities of betrayal for me to completely trust someone."

Chuck looked a bit more confused, "I thought the point of the spy world was that people never trusted anyone?"

"Chuck, you have to draw the line of trust somewhere. If you never trusted anyone than you'd be a paranoid idiot always looking over your shoulder." She glared at Casey here, who just shrugged.

"Hey, it's how I keep my sanity."

"Whatever makes you happy, John. So, we've dealt with Beckman, our new covers, and now that Roan is here, what's left?"

Everyone looked at Chuck.

"What?"

"Now would be a good time to start your training, Chuck. John, take him to the firing range and get him started on the basics. Roan, go buy a penthouse, and I mean the apartment, not the magazine."

The man in question scoffed, "Roan Montgomery never needs a magazine."

Ellie, rolled her eyes and blushed, "As I'm all too aware. Jill, start going through the records of the assault on Castle and the Intersect Facility, last week, see if you can pick up anything."

Jill nodded and moved to one of the computers.

"Anna, start working on Morgan."

"I'd love to." Anna started skipping up the stairs before Ellie stopped her.

"You know what I mean, Agent Wu."

Anna nodded, "Yes, ma'am."

"Okay then, break!"

Everyone left, leaving Sarah and Ellie alone in the Castle control room. Sarah stood, looking at Ellie.

"You're wondering why I didn't say I trusted your judgment."

"It had crossed my mind."

"First of all, I don't know you, professionally, I mean. Personally, you're one of my closest friends. The second is Langston Graham."

"What?"

"After seeing your reaction to his treason last night I looked at your file, to find the connection."

"Your connection is similar."

"Yes, but unlike you, I had already accepted the possibility that he could have betrayed me. It actually made sense."

Sarah sighed, as much as she didn't want to admit it, Ellie was right, "So now what do we do?"

"We train, Sarah, it's been years since I've had to take someone out." They both walked back into the dojo like room. Ellie grabbed a bo and tossed it to Sarah.

"Ready?"

"Always."

They briefly bowed before starting to swing their staffs.

AN: Please Review! Thanks to those who have.

AN2: The next chapter will probably skip ahead to the events of "Chuck versus the Pink Slip"