A/N: As always, the usual copyrights apply. Adrienne's mine, however. I wrote this a while ago, and never got around to posting it, but I figured that since I haven't posted anything in a while, I owed it to my fans, as few and far between as they may be. It's another one of my Casey fics, but this one is a Casey/OC, but it's very minor. I don't write anything rated higher than teen, unless it's anime. And obviously, it's not anime. Anyway enough blabbering, read and review please!

Love always,

Brittny Bombsquad

Viewmont Apartment Complex

Des Moines, Iowa

3 AM

January 5, 2008

Adrienne looked up, shocked. Her land-line phone was ringing. She had only set up the land-line as protocol, in case any of her temporary contacts had to get ahold of her. Of course, they never did. She had no friends here, and she always went to work, so the phone sat dormant, gathering dust in her small one bedroom apartment. She ignored it, hoping it was a telemarketer or a wrong number. After seven intent rings, it fell silent, but Adrienne remained on edge. She had been trained better than this, she shouldn't be letting this get under her skin, but it was. She turned off the television she had been zoned out in front of and checked compulsively out her windows. Outside was miserable and cold, a typical Des Moines January night. The hustle and bustle of the Intercity was everpresent, she wouldn't have noticed someone unusual out there unless she knew who she was looking for. The phone started to ring again. She took a deep breath to clear her head, and answered.

"Hello?", she asked, sounding falsely confident. A deep male voice on the other end responded, "Is this Adrienne Dickey?" Adrienne's heart skipped a beat. 'It can't be someone from the agency', she thought.'My cellphone number is on record'.

"No, sorry wrong number."

"Well, then, Who is this?"the man on the other line pursued. "Andrea Delmonico," Adrienne answered, using her current Iowa alias.

"Do you know where I can find her then?" The guy seemed annoyed, yet he was persistent to contact Adrienne. Just then, she thought she recognized the voice.

"Wait, Casey?" she asked. He cleared his throat."This line is not secure, meet me at the coffee shop in your building's lobby."

"Now?" she asked incredulously, glancing at the clock. A click on the other end told her he had already hung up.

Although she was sure the man she was meeting was Casey, she hid her gun in her belt before heading downstairs. In her years at the agency, she learned that people are very rarely who they say they are, and even if they are, it doesn't mean you can trust them.

In the near deserted lobby coffee shop, she found Casey sitting at a round corner table, with two coffees already ordered. She sat down and hesitantly took the coffee he offered her. "It's not poisoned. I swear. You know full well that if I were going to kill you, I'd shoot you."

Adrienne smiled. "Yeah, I know",she said, absentmindedly clasping her side. After she finally sipped her coffee, Casey leaned forward."I have a reassignment for you," he said professionally.

Sarcastically, Adrienne replied, "And here I was, thinking you just wanted to talk."

Casey glanced around the room. "This is too open. Can we go up to your apartment for this?" he asked, although he said it more like an order. She led him to the elevator across the lobby, and pushed the button for the fourth floor. They got off the elevator to a deserted hallway, and Adrienne let Casey in her apartment. He sat down on her faux leather couch and she pulled out her cellphone and put in a code. She walked briskly around the room, her cellphone held in front of her, checking for "bugs". When she finished her search she joined Casey on the couch. He raised his eyebrows at her. "Alittle paranoid, are we?"

She glanced at him."I'm assuming this is important?" He sighed and went into an unofficial briefing.

"As you know, 'Intercect' was hacked into, and went missing. It has been tracked and found to be incoded in a civilian's head. You are to join us, that is to say me and a CIA agent, in Los Angeles's Echo Park Plaza Buymore tommorrow. Pack your bags, temporary residence has already been arranged for you. I can't garuentee that this will be a short assignment; I've been there for three months already. It's not going to be glamorous." He stood to leave. "I'll see you tommorrow then. Come in through LAX, General Beckman should send you your ticket tonight.Call me as soon as your in California for further instuction."

Echo Park Buymore

Los Angeles, California

12 PM-noon

January 6, 2008

Adrienne took a deep breathe before stepping through the automatic doors to the Buymore. She glanced around around the store before heading to the game isle, as instructed. Casey approached her. "May I help you, ma'am?" he asked, with an air of sarcasm. She turned to face him, and looked him over appraisingly. She went to answer him, but was interupted by a short member of the Buymore staff, sneaking behind Casey. "Who's the fan club?" she asked. Casey turned to look at him. "Morgan," he groaned. "Hey man, Just checking out your lady friend...customer." With a menacing glare from Casey, he backed down.

Casey took Adrienne by the arm and led her into the Home Theater Room. Chuck and Sarah entered soon after. Chuck looked from Casey to Adrienne. "Who's she?"he asked, raising his eyebrows.

"Special Agent Major Adrienne Dickey, of the CSS," answered Casey

."Which is just a fancy way of saying she's a smart member of the NSA.," added Sarah, snidely.

Adrienne raised her eyebrows and shrugged. Sarah stepped forward, her back to Chuck and Adrienne.

"Casey, why is she here?"she asked. Adrienne snorted."Not like I'm right here or anything."

Chuck sighed."Great. Sarcasm. Is that like an NSA requirement or something?"

Somewhere in the room, a woman cleared her throat. General Beckman was on the TV screen. Casey and Adrienne stood at attention, while Sarah and Chuck hung back. "She is there on my orders, Agent Walker. Is that a problem?"she asked. "Well, no, but I think her being here may become a conflict of interests, given her and Casey's, uh, history. Plus, I don't personally think we should bring more federal agencies into the 'Intercect' case."

"Well, as you pointed out, Agent Walker, the CSS is technically part of the NSA, and you had no problem with 'Corina' being on the case, but not only did she have more of a history with Major Casey than Major Dickey does, but she was in a completely seperate agency.So if anything, Major Dickey being assigned to this case would be a conflict of interest to you, not Major Casey. I advise you put aside your personal problems with Major Dickey, or you will be replaced on this case, seeing as her knowledge of Cryptography is very important to keeping 'Intercect' hidden and assist with the removal of it,"General Beckman finished sternly.

Chuck grasped his head. "Removal? Will it hurt?" He was ignored. General Beckman continued. "The CSS branch of the NSA has only recently been needed for the case. Major Dickey is one of their best Cryptologists, and she is also a fairly good field agent, given her military expierence. She is playing the same role in your lives as any of you are currently and will stay that way until taken off the case. As unorthodox as she may be at times, she does now have control of 'Intercect' and neither one of you is to stop her from doing her job. Carry On,"she said, before the screen went black.

Adrienne sighed."I love how everyone talks about me like I'm not even in the room."

"So can someone please tell me whats going on?"asked Chuck.

"Easy,"answered Adrienne."I'm an NSA agent who is trained in decoding and hiding messages, like the subliminal messaging stored in the Intercect. I was called in to this assignment to thread messages in and out of you, and as extra protection."

NSA Headquarters

Fort Meade, Maryland

12 AM-Midnight

January 6, 2008

Michael Gregovitch couldn't believe his eyes. He was one of the few NSA agents in the building at this hour; one of the rookies that took night shift to get his hours without actually doing anything, but here he was, doing something. The computer screen in front of him flashed 'HATEF', a NSA code for Soviet contact that hadn't been in use since 1991. He had only heard of the code during his Cryptoanalysis class at Baltimore State; his Federal training didn't even mention it. He looked around, hoping one of his few fellow agents of the hour had gotten the same message, but the only other agent in the room was asleep. Michael opened the "HATEF" file, and a video of static greeted him. The white noise in his headset was unbearable. As he went to turn it down, however, he heard a man's voices coming threw the static.

"Hostile contact" it said. "Soviet spies...returned...protect...Intercect...Prime minister...assassination attempt...hide...intel..."the voice came across barely through the static. Then, clear as day to the young agent, was a gunshot. The screen in front of him cleared and he got a brief view of a bald scar-faced man in a dark suit who raised a Colt revolver to the screen and fired. The screen went black and the noise in his headset was cut off.

Apartment of Chuck and Ellie Bartowski

Los Angeles, California

8 PM

January 6, 2008

"Hey Chuck,"called Ellie. "Why don't you go invite John to dinner."

"Yeah, ok," answered Chuck, knowing John Casey doesn't do dinner invites. He pounded on the door anyway. To his surprise, Adrienne answered."So is this what Sarah meant by your history with Casey?"he asked. She closed the door in his face. "John, it's for you, obviously." Casey wretched open the door. "What?"

"Hey there big guy. Don't mean to interupt anything here, but Ellie would like to know if you'd care to join us for dinner." Casey closed the door in his face too.

"Hey Adrienne, do you want to meet Chuck's family, by any chance?" To his dismay, she said yes. He opened the door again. "Yes I guess, as long as your sister's okay with Adrienne coming." He closed the door again and glared at Adrienne. She smiled back.

When Chuck returned to his apartment, both Morgan and Sarah were there. "Well, Ellie, I hope you made alot of to much, because I'm assuming Sarah and Morgan are going to eat with us, and Casey's bringing his roommate, if it's alright."

"Yeah, the more the merrier,"said Ellie, laughing nervously.

Sarah approached Chuck."He's bringing Adrienne I'm assuming?" Chuck nodded. "She's not to be trusted," she added, as the doorbell rang. Devon answered, ushering Casey and Adrienne in. Morgan jumped up from in front of the TV as soon as he noticed her. "Well hello again. I didn't think we meet again, so soon," he kissed her hand.

"Morgan," whined Ellie. "Please don't scare away my guests. I'm sorry about him, he's one of Chuck's friends. I'm Ellie, Chuck's sister." She offered Adrienne her hand.

"I'm Adrienne, John's girlfriend," she responded, shaking Ellie's hand. Chuck supressed at laugh, at both Casey's reaction to Adrienne's introduction and Morgan's realization that Casey was going to kick his ass.

While waiting for Ellie to finish dinner, Devon, Sarah, Chuck, Morgan, Casey, and Adrienne sat in the living room, chatting. Since couch space was limited, Adrienne sat in Casey's lap, stroking his chest. "You're having way too much fun with this," Sarah pointed out. Adrienne just ignored her, and continued to pretend like Casey was the love of her life. He seemed to be getting into it, stroking her hair and letting his face soften alittle.

When Ellie called them for dinner, they all eagerly abandoned the increasingly awkward situation in the living room. "So, Adrienne, have you and John know each other for a while?" Sarah asked, trying to catch Casey in his bluff.

Casey shot her a sideways glance, but Adrienne picked up the conversation without missing a beat. "Yeah, we go way back. I met him a few years ago while I was working in New York, and we just hit it off. Then he moved out here for family, and I couldn't abandon my job as easily, so I decided to move up here with him when I could."

Ellie sighed."That's so sweet that you left your job and moved 3,000 miles across the country for him. Your so lucky, he's such a sweet guy." Adrienne smirked at Casey, knowing all of it was a lie, and that he had someone convinced he was "sweet".

Devon offered Adrienne a plate of biscits. "So what did you do in New York?" he asked.

"I worked on the army base, actually," she answered. That part was true. She had worked on a military base of some sort in New York once, but the rest of her story was lies and half-truths.

"Oh, really? What branch of the military?" asked Ellie, intrigued. "The Marine Corps, actually," she responded, knowing that she needed to trail the story off soon before they knew to much, or Sarah reported her.

"You don't look like a Marine," said Chuck. Adrienne faked a laugh. "Long sleeves hides the tattoos." She noticed the growing smile on Sarah's face, telling her she needed to back out of the conversation or Sarah was going to report her to General Beckman. She glanced at Casey, and he knew to change the subject. "Ellie this is amazing," he said, giving an uncharateristic compliment to save Adrienne's skin. "Thank you, John. See, he is so sweet." She smiled at Adrienne. "So," she continued, "This is our early Russian Christmas celebration. Lets all hope for snow tommorrow."

"Babe, It's LA, its never going to snow," said Devon.