A/N: Here's something new and a challenge…this idea has been rattling around in my head for a little while and I finally decided to drop it here…and I'm inviting anyone who thinks they might have a chapter or a one shot for this story to send it to me at jaytoyz (at) …I'd love to hear from anyone who might like to collaborate…here's your chance to play in the sandbox of a new AU…use any of the existing characters or make your own, my only hope is that we'll get Sarah and Chuck together…drop me a story idea or an entire chapter…any contributions that are used will be glaringly acknowledged…remember, Chuck or any of the characters in the official 'Chuckverse' are not ours and no one will be making any money from this…I won't be using a beta but anyone who wants to play is more than welcome to…the future of this story is entirely dependant on contributions because I'm gonna go play with some of my other stories…I won't ignore this, just want to see if anyone else would like to 'play…hope to hear from y'all.. JT

Sarah Walker - Broken Beyond Repair? - Chapter 1

A slight breeze rustled through the tree, strong enough to rattle the leaves but lacking the strength to dislodge any of them. Standing next to the tree, Sarah Walker watched the small group of people who had gathered, under overcast skies, to say goodbye to a man who'd died much too young.

She'd been invited to join the family and friends for the graveside service but just couldn't bring herself to stand with them, knowing that it was her failure as an agent that had led to his death.

She looked down at the fading bruises that circled her wrists, reminders of the cuffs that Dr. Zarnow had used to bind her while he attempted to force her to reveal the identity of 'patient zero'. She'd wanted to laugh at the feeble attempts to make her talk but thinking of that night always led to thinking of the out of control helicopter that had plunged into the bay, missing the dock that had served as a landing pad, taking her asset into the frigid waters and out of her life.

She still couldn't believe that the doctor had gotten the drop on her after she'd fled Casa Bartowski, tranqing her and tossing her into his trunk before Casey or Chuck could offer any help. Her first memory after fighting her way back to consciousness was worrying about the curly headed nerd who'd come to mean a great deal to her in such a short time. Looking around her, she almost breathed a sigh of relief when she realized she was alone because that meant that her charge was safe.

The torture had been rushed and ineffectual, a stun gun doing little to encourage her to talk. The 'Doctor' had just picked up a pair of pliers and was advancing towards her with the promise of removing a fingernail or two when his phone started to ring. Fumbling the pliers from one hand to the other, he'd pulled his cel-phone from his pocket and after looking at the display, he'd actually excused himself before wandering away from her.

Moments after the 'Doctor' had disappeared, chuck had materialized at her side and she found herself torn between her desire to yell at him for putting himself at risk and her desire to kiss him senseless, a feeling that confused her because she'd known him for less than a week. The tape on her mouth prevented her from doing anything except mumbling until Chuck pulled it away while quietly pleading with her to 'not be mad' while his eyes searched hers for some sign that she wasn't pissed at him.

"What the hell are you doing here, Chuck?"

"Um…rescuing you?"

"Where's Casey?" Sarah asked while Chuck's eyes seemed to drift down from her own, settling on the front of the damp, tank-top that was clinging to her breasts, clearly showing her bodies reaction to the slight chill in the air. "Chuck! Focus! Up here!" she added, fighting the urge to smile when she took note of the blush that bloomed on his cheeks when he realized he'd been caught staring at her tits.

"Right, I…uh" Chuck stammered as he looked upwards to the cuffs that held Sarah's wrists. "What can I do?"

"Find me something to pick the lock on these cuffs. Preferably before the 'Doctor' returns to torture me some more"

Um, like what?" Chuck asked after doing a quick inspection of the immediate area and finding nothing.

"A thin piece of metal, like the underwire in a bra"

"Um, Sarah, you're not wearing a…"

"I know I'm not wearing a bra, Chuck. I said like the underwire…"

"Yeah, I get it but I'm not seeing anything, uh, wait a minute" Chuck said while moving quickly towards the table that was against the wall almost ten feet away and then bending down to pick something up off of the floor. "How about this?" he asked, rushing back to her, holding a small piece of wire in his fingers.

"It'll have to do" Sarah replied and cocked her head when she heard sounds from the direction that the doctor had disappeared in earlier. "Hurry up, Chuck. I think the 'Doctor' is coming back. Put the wire in my hand, put the tape back on my mouth and then get the hell out of here."

"But…"

"Chuck, just do what I asked, please"

"Ok" he answered and then moved quickly away after giving Sarah the piece of wire and placing the duct tape back over her mouth.

Sarah watched as Dr. Zarnow appeared moments after Chuck had disappeared into the shadows, wanting to laugh when the older man retrieved the pliers he'd dropped earlier and tried to give her a menacing look which made him appear constipated, not threatening.

"So, agent Walker, any guess's how many fingernails I'll have to pull before you decide to tell me the identity of patient X?" he asked after ripping the duct tape from Sarah's mouth.

"Oh please" Sarah laughed back at him, hoping the man would be stupid enough to get close enough to attempt to carry out his threat.

"Or maybe…" he said as he walked over to the table, dropped the pliers and picked up section of pipe, "…we'll try this" he hissed before stepping back to her and swinging the makeshift weapon at her right knee, the dull thud followed immediately by a whimper as Sarah tried to hold back the scream that tried to make it's way out.

"Sarah!" Chuck gasped, giving away his position when he stepped into the light with a look of concern on his face.

"Ah, 'patient X', I assume" the doctor said with a smirk before pulling a pistol from his jacket pocket and aiming it at Chuck.

"Run, Chuck!" Sarah yelled and watched as the curly haired nerd seemed to freeze, torn between following her order and trying to find some way to help. Before he could decide, a dart appeared in his neck after a nearly silent 'puft' sound indicated that the tranq gun had been fired. Turning a confused look towards her, she watched as his eyes rolled up into his head and he dropped to the ground. Before she could say anything else, the doctor moved to stand in front of her, taping her mouth shut once again.

"Well, it seems that my business here is done" he said smugly, pulling his phone from his pocket and, after tapping a quick sequence , spoke into it, telling whoever was at the other end of the call to 'get in here and give me a hand' before ending the call.

Sarah struggled against the cuffs, ignoring the pain that flared from her knee whenever she moved. She'd dropped the piece of wire Chuck had handed her when the crushing blow had been delivered to her knee and she tried frantically to shake herself loose from the hook the cuffs had been looped over. While trying to slip a hand out of one of the cuffs, she watched as a man approached from the shadows and, without a word, throw Chuck over his shoulder.

"The chopper's waiting" the big man said.

"Let's go" Doctor Zarnow replied, giving Sarah a quick look and then dismissing her before turning and following the big man out of the building.

Sarah Walker watched helplessly as her asset was carried off, shaking with anger and wishing she could scream, wondering what the hell had happened to John Casey.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Major John Casey, special agent for the NSA, was not having a good day. It had started with a call from his boss, General Diane Beckman, who had informed him that Bryce Larkin's body had vanished and no one seemed to be able to figure out what the hell was going on. When Casey had pointed out that 'at least the traitor was dead', the General had corrected him, pointing out that with no body, they had no proof that he was dead, leaving the very real possibility that the man who'd stolen the intersect might still be alive. The General had gone on to order Casey to stick even closer to Bartowski than he had been.

"Crap" Casey had muttered under his breath, glad for once that his boss had an annoying habit of disconnecting a finished phone call with no warning and she hadn't been there to hear the displeasure in his voice.

The rest of the day had been just as bad. First came the news that Dr. Zarnow had been vaporized in an attack that seemed to point towards the NSA. He'd warned the moron to stay away from Walker, not really expecting the kid to do as told but hoping he might surprise him and follow his orders.

As expected, the asset had ignored him and when he'd gone to speak to Walker, to find out what the nerd had said, they'd ended up at each others throats and she'd very nearly handed him his ass. If a group of the little perv,s that seemed to flock to the store since Walker had started working there, hadn't shown up, he might very well have gotten his ass kicked.

He'd spent the rest of the day in a pissed off funk and then, to top it off, he'd had to crash Bartowski's sister's dinner party as part of his intensified babysitting. Less than ten minutes into the dinner, after the moron had managed pull off an impromptu magic trick and piss off Walker when her gave her soufflé a shower after it managed to combust, Walker had excused herself and left. He and Chuck had followed her out and been surprised to see a very much alive Doctor tranq her and speed away after tossing her unconscious body into his trunk.

Before they could pursue the doctor, he'd managed to get tranqed and, while fighting off the effects, had somehow managed to find the warehouse where the CIA agent was being held. Leaving the asset in the car with orders to stay put, he'd been about to enter the building when his phone vibrated. Pausing to check, he cursed silently when the ID let him know that the General was on the line and toyed with the idea of ignoring the call.

"Yes ma'am" he'd answered and then his day really went to shit. The powers that be had decided that Bartowski was at risk and Sarah Walker was now considered compromised due to the unknown status of her former partner and lover. When her questionable status with Bryce Larkin was added to the strong interest she'd seemed to have developed in Bartowski, it was decided that the asset needed to be brought in.

When Casey had questioned the timing, admitting that Walker was currently being held and he was about to attempt to offer her aid, he'd been informed that a second team had been performing overwatch duties since that morning and a plan was in place to move the asset. He was ordered to go ahead and help Agent Walker and to not worry about the asset because the second team had already set an extraction plan into motion. Before he could ask any questions, the call ended and he found himself swearing at his phone.

After shaking his head and taking a couple of deep breaths, he slipped the phone into his pocket and quietly slipped into the warehouse through the back door it had taken him several minutes to find and then open. Working his way through the aisles of shelving, he finally found Walker, hanging from a hook by the cuffs on her wrists.

After doing a quick scan of the area, he crept close and then pulled the tape from her mouth and then, after wrapping an arm around her waist, lifted up until she could free herself from the hook. He'd lowered her to the ground and pulled the tape from her mouth, watching as the blond started limping towards the exit on the far side of the building.

"C'mon, Casey" she called back over her shoulder, "Zarnow has Chuck and a helicopter waiting for them out this door"

"Right behind you" he answered and moved to catch up, wondering just how bad Walker's knee was and, more importantly, what was actually waiting for them on the other side of the door.

He stepped through the door and almost ran into Walker who was standing just outside, her eyes locked on the helicopter that was a couple of hundred feet in the air and seemed to be in trouble. Smoke was pouring from the engine compartment and the craft seemed to be losing altitude. Before he could move, there was a blinding flash and the helicopter, now totally engulfed in flames, plunged into the bay, missing the wharf, that had been used as a landing pad, by less than ten feet.

He watched in stunned silence as Special Agent Sarah Walker, after calling the asset's name in a hoarse whisper, took a step forward and then collapsed like a puppet who's strings had been cut. He was about to step forward to offer what assistance he could when his phone vibrated. Pulling it from his pocket, he read the text and then deleted it before returning the device to his pocket. Taking a deep breath, he moved forward and knelt down to check on his soon to be ex-partner, not surprised to hear the sound of rapidly approaching sirens. The powers that be already moving to begin the work that would be required to explain the tragic passing of a young man who'd died in a single car accident that was being staged nearly twenty miles away.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Special Agent Sarah Walker tightened her grip on the cane she'd been using since being released from the hospital, the wrapping around her knee making it very difficult to walk with out it. Reaching up with her free hand, she wiped the tear from her cheek and turned to leave after taking one last look at the group that was gathered around the grave site. Limping towards the black suburban that waited for her, she offered a silent goodbye and wondered what the hell she was going to do now.

A/N: 2 I say it again, I'd really love to hear from you and I don't need reviews(although they are certainly nice)…you can send me story ideas or finished chapters at jaytoyz (at)

…anyone who wants to join the fun will be acknowledged for any contributions. Remember, you can do anything you want with anyone you want…except for Chuck and Sarah…anything you do with them has to help feed into the happy ending that will eventually come…chapters or one-shots are welcome…any chapters submitted will be published and then we'll let the fans vote on their inclusion in the story.