It's a Wonderful Cover Life (Chuck Fan Fiction)

Chapter 11

48. The Bartowski Inquisition

Chuck felt footloose and fancy-free. At least he thought he did – he had no idea exactly what fancy-free entailed. He did feel like doing a little happy dance, but not only didn't he dance as a rule, he was pretty sure that if he broke out a couple of spastic robot moves, the orderlies would unceremoniously escort him upstairs to the psych ward.

"There's that AWOL brother of mine."

"Hey, Sis."

Chuck grinned as Ellie rounded the nurse's station and enveloped him in a bear hug. He'd missed that. She pulled back and punched him in the shoulder. Hard. He had not missed that. "Ow, El. What did I do?"

"You took my niece and disappeared on me."

"It's only been three days," he replied, rubbing the spot that had just suffered some sisterly abuse.

Ellie leaned bank against the desk and folded her arms across her chest. "Which means you should be coming home tonight." She didn't exactly phrase it as a question.

Chuck cringed. "I was going to call, but then I got – " Kissed, his brain supplied. " – side tracked," he said.

"It must have been a pretty big distraction. I haven't heard a word from you since you left. Why haven't you returned any of my calls? Or just picked up a phone to say 'hey, we're still alive'? Do you know how worried I've been? If it hadn't been for Devon I would've driven up to Malibu to see for myself that you hadn't been kidnapped or locked up in a bunker, but apparently it 'wouldn't be awesome' to mess up my brother's big payday." Ellie dropped her voice and added air quotes as she mimicked her fiancé. "Seriously, Chuck. Why didn't you call?"

Chuck cocked his head to the side and studied his sister. Aside from his time at Stanford, they'd lived together their whole lives and he could tell that there was more to her outburst than him not getting in touch. "What's really bothering you, El?" he asked.

"What, you disappearing on me for three days isn't enough?"

"Okay, yeah, it is, but I can tell there's something else."

Ellie took a deep breath and released it slowly. "I went downstairs to see Maggie on my break."

"Is she okay?"

"She's uninjured," Ellie said, but his eyes widened a little nonetheless.

"I know you're a doctor, El, but saying she's fine is a lot more reassuring. She is fine, right?"

"He's asking me," she mumbled under her breath.

"Ellie, did something happen?" His mind started conjuring up everything that could happen to a little girl at daycare. Though his logic told him that his sister wouldn't be so calm if something serious had, panic still rushed through his limbs.

"Kitty happened. Maggie couldn't stop talking about her. Kitty gives her ice-cream when she can't sleep. Kitty makes mac 'n cheese without broccoli. She and Kitty dress the same, do their hair the same – "

Chuck let out a relieved breath. "You should see them together, Sis," he said before his brain could filter the words. "Sarah was apprehensive at first, but she's a natural. She even managed to break the Dora combination."

"Yeah," Ellie deadpanned, "Sarah sounds neat, but you haven't answered my question. When are you coming home?"

He slipped his hands deep into his pockets and shifted his weight from one foot to the other.

"Chuck?"

His palms started to sweat a little. It was never a good sign when Ellie pronounced his name like it had two syllables.