Outtake #4 - "Borrowing Trouble"

Hey, all! So "Borrowing Trouble" got a lot cut from it -- at least two pages overall. And you know what happens to outtakes? They end up on the blog. I'll post this one today and hopefully remember to post the next (cuter) one tomorrow.

"Borrowing Trouble - Outtake #1"
Takes place during the Thanksgiving picnic on Chuck's bed

Sarah forked up some green beans. “And why do you think it’s corrupted?”

“I’ve almost broken through the encryptions a couple of time, but it feels like…” Chuck searched his brain for the proper way to put it, his hands playing with the lid of one of the Tupperware containers. “It feels like I’m sometimes trying to hack something that’s not there. Like, it’s…incomplete or something.”

“Not there? Could the drive have been a dupe?”

“A dupe?”

“Yes, well, the computer was in the room that held the trapdoor down to the vault, right?” Sarah didn’t look so confident in the details, judging by the way a small line appeared between her eyebrows. For a woman who had told him herself about her damn near perfect memory, to experience great lapses of memory loss must be off-putting, at the least. Sarah barreled onward before he could comment, however, so he pushed that stray observation aside. “So, the computer itself could just been just a dupe, maybe, right?”

Chuck frowned. “It’s possible, but I think it’s real. The data on it, at least.”

“Okay. What makes you think that?”

“Gut feeling,” Chuck said after a long pause. He honestly didn’t have anything more scientific than that to offer. “Or, maybe, I hope it’s real because if Casey and I somehow screwed up the transfer and I’ve spent nearly a week trying to hack a dupe drive, I’m going to be…annoyed.”

Sarah picked a piece of turkey out of her sandwich and chewed on it for a second. “We’re spies,” she said, swallowing.

Chuck gave her a “What are you talking about?” look.

“Sometimes things just don’t pan out, but it’s still our job to sift through all of the trash and find out what’s truth. And sometimes we have to use unorthodox methods to do so.”

Like stealing somebody’s cell phone.

“Chuck?” Sarah’s expression shifted from supportive to suspicious.

“What?” Quickly, he shoved down all thoughts of the stolen phone and did his best to look innocent. Until he had a solid idea one way or the other about what Mr. Matching Pocket Square had been doing around Jill’s place, there was no need to involve his partners in the affairs of his ex-girlfriend.

Apparently, the act was almost successful. Sarah eyed him for a second more before the tension eased out of her shoulders. “Nothing, I guess."