Author's Note: This has been sitting in my "musings" folder for awhile now and wondered if anybody else might enjoy it. Will be mostly from Casey POV and I figure in his head characters are referred to mostly by last names. Hope it doesn't get too cumbersome.

Disclaimer: I do not own Chuck, Sarah, Casey, or any of the other wonderful characters or anything having to do with show. But my hats off to those who do and many thanks for letting me borrow them for just a while.

Chapter One - Sucker Punch

Sucker punch: A punch that takes your enemy by surprise, possibly knocking them out. Comes from them being a sucker for not having their guard up.

Knowing that she was nearing the end of the class, Casey eased through the door and took a relaxed stance near the front desk. She glanced at him and then quickly returned her eyes to her students, but Casey knew she had evaluated him on a level most people never did.

He watched as she worked with a blond haired kid wearing a blue belt, walking him through a series of movements, called a form or kata depending on the discipline she was teaching. The kid followed her closely, putting everything he had into each movement. Casey respected that. He ran his eyes around the room and saw that every kid in the place had crisp, clean techniques backed with as much power as could be expected from the age.

He moved his eyes back to the woman. He knew from her file she was 35 years old. 5-foot 9 and 150 pounds. Martial arts uniforms are not designed to show off the female form, but looking at her Casey figured she had lost a few pounds since active duty. Her dark auburn hair was tied back in a braid that draped to her mid-back. And though he couldn't see them from where he stood, he knew her eyes were hazel.

The woman ordered the kids to line up with such authority that Casey's instinct was to snap to attention as well. The kids ran to take their places, turned away from the woman to straighten their uniforms and then turned back. A teenager wearing a black belt called them to attention and all the kids straightened. The black belt had the class bow to the flags and bow to the instructor. Then a kid wearing a brown belt ordered the class to bow to the black belt and class was over.

Casey watched as the kids headed off to the locker rooms. They were the most respectful and well behaved group of kids he had ever observed. Of course he should have expected as much when the school was being run by a retired Marine.

The woman approached him with a wary smile. "Can I help you?"

When the General gave the team the assignment, it hadn't taken them long to decide to play it straight. She wouldn't fall for Bartowski's bumbling fool routine and it would have taken too long. She was a Recon Force Marine who had served the country proudly for 13 years. She deserved the direct approach.

"I hope you can," Casey said in a quiet voice, doing his best to appear unthreatening. She stopped just outside the reach of his side kick and he felt the corner of his mouth reach toward the ceiling. He pulled his credentials from his back pocket and flipped it open, making sure she was the only one who could see it.

The smile fell off her face before her eyes went to his ID card. She checked the ID, and shifted her eyes back to his face, studying it for a long time. Finally she rolled her eyes and exhaled forcefully.

"Listen, I told you people several years ago that I'm no longer available for…" she glanced over her shoulder, checking to see if anybody had escaped the locker rooms, "… consulting work."

He took a step closer and lowered his voice. "But this is something that you are uniquely qualified for."

"Uniquely qualified," she said with a laugh. "Girls like me are a dime a dozen if you know where to look, and you…" she ran her eyes over him obviously, "I'm sure you know where to look, Marine."

He cocked his head to one side. She gave him a dismissive wave of her hand and moved past him toward the front door. As she passed him, he caught her scent – sweat, vanilla, and soap – and his heart broke formation – one irregular beat. He shook his head and turned to watch her look out the glass door.

"You people aren't crowding my parking lot with black SUVs, are you?" she asked, turning her eyes back to him. "This is my livelihood here… I need for people to be able to get to class."

He shook his head. "Did you hear what I said? You are uniquely qualified to help us…"

She took an angry step toward him. "Did you hear what I said? I'm out. Permanently. There is nothing you can say to me that will make me help you."

Casey lowered his voice even more. "Peter Smythe."

Her peaches and cream complexion went sheet white. "What did you say?"

"Peter. Smythe."

She stared at him for a moment and then said, "Oh, well why didn't you say so? In that case the answer is HELL no." She walked past him again, this time headed for the front desk. "You need to go," she said, pointing toward the door.

He put a hand on her arm and was immediately sorry for it. She moved quickly, wrapping her arm around his, stepping into him, and using her hip to throw him off balance and down to the floor. His instinct was to roll away from her and jump to his feet, but that would be a threatening move and he didn't want to get into a brawl with her. He could take her of course, but it wouldn't help their cause.

He held his arms up in surrender and stayed on his back as footsteps approached. A group of kids gathered around her. The black belt teenager with Zac Efron hair stepped forward.

"You need help, Master Caldwell?"

She let out a musical laugh. "Oh, goodness, no," she said. "Mr. Casey was just inquiring as to how well our self defense techniques work and I was just demonstrating."

The teenager gave Casey an angry glare. "Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure," Caldwell said, extending her hand to Casey. He took it and allowed her to pull him up.

"Very impressive," Casey said in effort to play along. "I'm definitely interested in signing up for classes. Can I start class tonight?"

The way the muscles in her jaw tightened pleased him for some reason. She hesitated for a moment before forcing a smile and responding. "Of course. Why don't you have a seat in my office? There are some forms you need to sign." She led him to her office and pushed open the door. "I'm just going to see my students off and I'll be right with you."

Casey nodded and took a seat in front of the desk. As he listened to her chatting with her students, he looked around the office searching for pieces to her private life – anything he could use. He noticed the high end computer and a top of the line security system including several cameras in the parking lot and back alley. He saw a stack of bills and some fliers for upcoming tournaments. There was a variety of demonstration weapons and boards for breaking at the back of the room. But the only personal items he found were various rank certifications hanging on the walls. Like all good covert operatives, she left nothing of herself exposed.

He heard the students leaving, the door opening and closing. And then a strange thing happened. The lights went off and he heard the sound of the door closing and locking.

xxxxxxxxxx

Three sets of eyes were on him the minute he crossed Castle's threshold. Casey was unhappy with the way the meet had gone and the fact that Grimes was there to hear the details made him even more unhappy.

"How did it go?" Walker asked.

"Use that famous Casey boyish charm?" Chuck asked with a dopey smile. "Convince her to work with us?"

Casey made his way down the steps before answering. "It didn't go to plan."

"What does that mean?" Walker asked.

"I told her who I was, dropped Smythe's name, and asked for her help…" he said.

Grimes jumped in like an annoying cartoon character, "Yeah, yeah, and then?"

Casey exhaled sharply. "Then she locked me in her dojang and left."

There was a short moment of silence before Chuck gave a hardy laugh. "She locked you in? I like her style!"

Casey growled in response.

"She ran?" Grimes asked.

Casey shook his head. "I don't think she's running."

"What do you think she's doing then?" Walker asked.

"She's setting the tone for our next meeting."