Any comments or suggestions you guys have, I would greatly appreciate.

Gathering Scraps

Chuck Bartowski threw down a file in disgust, got up of the chair and walked over to the nearest row of filing cabinets, laying his head against it with a groan. "This is pointless. There's just too much material here to go through."

Casey grunted as Sarah spoke up. She was wearing a purple blouse. He liked the color purple on her. Heck, he liked every color on her. "Sit down Chuck, come on, we can do this. Let's start from the beginning, work out everything we know for sure."

"That sure of a hell isn't a lot. All these files, and not one flash from Bartowski here. And since his father had an Intersect, I would have guessed he'd be flashing for us more than Lindsay Lohan." Casey took a swig of his coffee as Chuck sat back down.

It had been a frustrating week for Chuck, he thought as he held his head in his hands. His father's funeral, and now all this worrying about his mother. And guilt. Guilt that his father had died, because of him, and guilt towards Ellie. He had promised her that he would retire from the CIA, yet here he was, busy working like a spy as always. He couldn't tell her what he was doing, and get her hopes up. And still with no job to boot, the Buy More was blown up and the home office wasn't going to rebuild it. He supposed he'd better update his resume, but right now, that seemed so inconsequential.

The sound of rustling papers shook Chuck out of his thoughts. Sarah was flipping through a vanilla file that they had put all the most relevant files from the Mary Elizabeth Bartowski filing drawer in. They had looked through those papers so many times. "My guess," Sarah said, "is that Steven purposely didn't include any documents or pictures in any of these files that anyone could flash on, so in case an enemy found this place, and they happened to have their own Intersect, they couldn't glean even more from all this information."

"That sorta makes sense, though my dad did send me here, so you'd think he would have let me know how to flash on anything."

"Well, we don't have time to speculate," Casey said. "Let's get back to your mother, we can't worry about something your father may or may not have done."

"Mary Elizabeth Bartowski," Sarah started. "Disappeared May, 1991. Ellie and you were lead to believe she just left you."

"Why didn't my father tell me? If not when I was a child, than why not now, during this past year?"

"More than likely the same reason you won't tell your sister we are doing this," Casey said, looking Chuck dead in the eye.

"Touché." Chuck bowed his head.

"Your father was sure that Mary was being held by the CIA, but he never could find her. He managed to find places where he thought that she was previously held at, but that's it. And that's pretty much the end of all the concrete information. There are countless papers with references to other organizations and people that may know something about Mary that I'm sure we could find more about somewhere within this room, but that's it."

"What was that name, again? The one dad had last questioned?"

"Uh, just a second…"

Casey interrupted her. "Malordore. Marlordore Trinsburg."

"Yes, that's it. Location, Pennsylvania. Your father last wrote he was going to see her, but nothing is written after that. It's the last thing in this file, according to the time stamps."

"So we don't even know if he made it out to see her before he… before he…"

"No," filled in Casey. He tapped the handle of a knife against the wood table, thump, thump, thump, as he spoke. "Or he could have gone and seen her, and just didn't make it back here yet to update the file."

"Well, we have to go see her. It's the only lead we have." Chuck looked at Sarah. "Unless you have another idea?" He could already tell she did.

"We are assuming that your father was correct, that the CIA is holding your mother. I'd like to try and verify that before we head east."

"My father was sure."

"Well than maybe we can get new intell. Casey, you are perfectly positioned to ask someone high up about it."

He nodded his head. "You guys are lucky I managed to convince Beckman I should be the one to stay here and guard the retired Intersect. Took a lot, considering one of the world's most dangerous ex-spies is his girlfriend."

"In any matter, if you could just find out if she knows anything. She always liked you best, Casey." The expected grunt followed that.

Chuck looked over at Sarah. "So what do we do?"

"We go to see an old friend of mine." She stood up, her long legs catching Chuck's eyes. The miniskirt was very… mini. Chuck blushed. "Lets get moving. We've talked long enough."


Chuck loved watching Sarah's hair blow in the wind. It was a hot day out, so she had the top down on her car. Watching her was better than watching Dune on Blu Ray.

"Don't turn around Chuck," she suddenly said, her voice tight and tense. "Look straight ahead."

Never one to argue, Chuck did exactly what she said. Not sure if he could speak, he whispered to her, "What's wrong?"

"We are being tailed. Blue car behind us."

"Blue? That's odd."

"Why's that odd?"

"Cuz the bad guys cars always seem to be black."

Sarah smiled, but it looked forced. "Okay, okay, I know I'm going to do. Chuck, I'm going to pull over. Get the gun out of the glove box. If they do pull over, we'll take them."

Chuck fumbled for the gun. "Do you need one?"

"No, I've got one on me."

Chuck looked her up and down, dressed in a tight blouse and short mini skirt. "I can't possibly imagine where."

Sarah giggled, which was so cute Chuck wanted to grab her and take her right there. Stupid bad guys, stopping him from being spontaneous. "Okay Chuck, here we go!" She did a complete 180 degree turn, spinning off onto the side of the country road. Chuck lurched forward, somehow forgetting he didn't have a seat belt on, and banged his head off the dash. Darkness fell.


Sarah groaned as she unbuckled her seat belt, than lurched to her right to pull Chuck up. The one time he forgets to where his seat belt, she thought. The car that had been tailing them stopped about twenty feet in front of Sarah's car, and a man jumped out, in a dark suit, and hide behind his door, a strategic position for a gunfight. Sarah followed his suit.

BANG BANG BANG. Bullets bounced off both their doors. Back and forth they fired, until there was silence. Was he out of bullets? Or was he trying to lure her out? She didn't care, she was taking him now, she decided. Go for it, and don't look back. She stood up, watching him stand up at the exact same time, both of their weapons pointed at the other. They both pulled the triggers, and both heard clicks. "Damn it," Sarah swore. They both were out. This is my chance, she thought.

Moving out from behind the car door, she ran towards the man. She always was a better fighter than shooter. Leave the guns to Casey. She quickly glanced back at Chuck. He was still out. Looking back in front of her, the man was running towards her. All too soon, they met.

The man was about six three, with an average build. He was older, brown hair with grey streaks running through it. His face was emotionless as Sarah's. He knows what he doing, she thought.

He threw a punch at her head, and she ducked, sliding to try and kick his legs out from under him. He managed to dive sideways to avoid her slide, but she latched onto his foot and flipped him so he landed flat on his back on the hard pavement. A loud thump indicated he had nailed his head. She went to jump up, but before she could, he was on top of her.

A punch straight to the mouth forced her head to repel off the road. He kneed her in the gut, and she groaned, than brought her hips up and tried to buck him off. It didn't work, but it distracted him long enough that she managed to get a round house punch in that connected with his left cheek.

Dazed from the vicious punch, he clumsily tried to wrap his hands around her neck. She smiled, tasting her own blood. Bringing her knees up quickly, she pushed against his rear with her powerful legs and threw him over her head. Another loud thump indicated he had once again knocked his head off the pavement, and this one proved to be the last he could take. Blood trickled onto the pavement out of his head, but he would live. She stood up, than smiled as she saw Chuck running towards her.

"Sarah, Sarah, are you okay?" He ran up to her in a full panic, and wrapped her in his arms. God, that felt so good.

"Yea, I'm good. He put up a good fight, but he made a mistake. I got him."

"I'm so sorry, I should have been there for you, I could have used the Intersect and crushed him…"

Sarah gave him an amused look. "I can take care of myself, Charles Bartowski." Chuck smiled and put his head down. She leaned up and gave him a quick kiss. "Though the fact that you are here to take care of me makes me so… I can't think of the word."

"Horny?"

"Chuck!" Sarah laughed as she mock pushed him, than her eyes got wide as she saw the man she had knocked out, the man she had fought, running towards his car. She took off after him, but before she could get near he had jumped in and peeled out of there. "Damn it," she yelled, kicking a small stone. "Now we won't know who he is."

"Now what do we do?"

Sarah started back towards the car. "We go see my friend."


"So, as you can see, General Beckman, there really isn't that much to report. Chuck is still grieving over his father's death, and half heartedly looking for a new place of employment."

The redhead on the television screen nodded. "Good to hear, Colonel Casey. Thank you for your report. I'll see you again in three days." Beckman went to turn the camera off when Casey raised his hand, stopping her. "Yes, John?"

"I do have one question, if you don't mind?"

"Not at all. What is it?"

"I've just been wondering, is there anyway we can use our team at the NSA to find Chuck's mom for him? I know she left Chuck and Ellie when they were little, and now that their dad is gone, I thought it might be nice to try and track her down for them."

Beckman's eyes narrowed, and her voice got that sharp tone in it. "She is dead. When we first came across the Charles Bartowski, we looked her up. She is dead."

"How?" Casey asked.

"I don't remember, Colonel. Is that all?"

"Stephen Bartowski had files, files that indicated Mary Bartowski might be in CIA custody?"

General Beckman's face turned even redder. "I told you, she is dead. She is not in anyone's custody. I suggest you stop asking questions and digging up old, dead and buried bones if you want to keep your current mission, Colonel Casey. That's an order." With that, she turned off the screen.

Casey smiled. Beckman knew something about Chuck's mother, that was for sure. And that meant there was more stuff to figure out. They might pull this off yet, he thought as he headed out of Castle.