Y/N Versus Chuck’s Intersect Freak-Out, Part II
      Your life turned upside down the day after your best friend’s did the same. One day you were a part-time student in a crappy LA apartment with two sucky part-time jobs. The next, you were a part-time student in a crappy LA apartment with two sucky part-time jobs and a side hobby of keeping government secrets – like the existence of the Intersect in your best friend’s head.
      “This is crazy,” you whispered to your dashboard, parked in the Buy More parking lot. Inside were a man and woman who had both held guns on you less than twenty-four hours ago.
      The passenger door opened suddenly and you almost screamed. Chuck climbed into your car and slammed the door as fast as he could, his long legs crammed between the seat and the glove compartment, his hands on his knees. “Y/N, I’m freaking out,” he announced in a panic.
      “What? Is your shift over? Did you just walk out? Are we running away?”
      “I just flashed,” he gasped, still trying to catch his breath. “I saw Sarah and I flashed. She killed people, Y/N! She beat them up like – like some gorgeous blonde ninja and killed them!”
      You winced. Sarah and Casey both scared you quite a bit. You didn’t know them, didn’t trust them.
      “I flashed on her ring!” He rambled, nervous and panicky. He rubbed his palms on his knees anxiously, like he wanted to run. You worriedly tried to make eye contact but he wouldn’t focus on you, and his face was pale. “I just saw her ring and saw things I should never have seen! I know things I have never learned! And – and I didn’t choose for it to happen, it just did, and I was just along for the ride! This thing is in my brain and I don’t want it there, it just takes over and I – I don’t know what to do! I don’t want to live with this!”
      “Chuck,” you stressed once he had run out of breath. You reached over and rubbed his thigh. “I know this is messed up. I know you’re scared, I am too.” You pulled his hand up and put your fingers in his. “But it’s not forever. They don’t want to be here or for you to have the computer in your brain any more than we do.”
      He turned the puppy dog eyes on you and made a tiny whimper in his throat. “Why is this happening to me?”
      “Because Bryce is a dick,” you replied promptly. “But we already knew that.” He had gotten Chuck expelled, after all.
      “Was,” Chuck mumbled, looking down at your hand holding his.
      You held in a sigh. “Yeah. Was.”
      You were both quiet for a few seconds. Bryce, for all he’d done to Chuck, had still been one of your best friend’s best friends and no level of animosity could have made Chuck want him dead.
      “I’m sorry,” you said softly, squeezing his hand. Chuck squeezed back, his hand shaking a little and his palm sweaty. “It’s going to be okay. Sarah’s going to protect you, even if Casey won’t, and they’ll get the Intersect out and we can go back to our lives sooner than you think, okay? Because they’re the goddamn CIA. They can get things done.”
      “Yeah…” He responded, taking in a deep breath. He rubbed his face with his free hand to rub the color back into his cheeks and then put his fist against his stomach while he breathed. “Okay. This is temporary. It’ll be okay.”
      “Chuck, I know you must be getting sick of hearing this, but don’t freak out.” You leaned over the gear shift and pressed a kiss to his cheek. “It’ll be okay.”
