Disclaimer: As I said in chapter 1, I don't own anything in this story except Cassie.
"And I so totally beat her, dude, But she won't admit it. I've never seen anybody play like that though, not even Chuck. Well, there was that one dude at the arcade, but it was such a close call with him," he told Anna and Lester enthusiastically. "Hey Chuck, you were there, didn't I totally beat Cassie last night at Guitar Hero?"
"Hmmm...Oh yeah, you beat her, but only because you gave her the controller with the sticky strum bar. She would have beaten you if the controller hadn't acted up."
Cassie smiled at him, happy that Chuck liked her enough to stand up for her against his best friend. "I think we should have a rematch. Lunch today, we'll play with the demo set in video games. What do you say, Morgan? Do you accept my challenge, or are you a coward?"
"Morgan Grimes is not a coward. I accept your challenge, oh great Guitar Hero ninja. Bring it on, but don't going crying to your traitorous buddy Chuck when I beat you fair and square this time." Morgan did his best ninja impression and misbalanced as Sarah approached.
She smiled brightly at the group. "Hi Chuck"
"Hi, Sarah. When you get back?" Chuck asked nervously, not sure how to bring up, or rather avoid bringing up, Cassie.
"Last night. How were things while I was gone?"
"Fine. No flashes, no ninjas, except Morgan of course. Oh, uh there's a new employee at the Buymore, more specifically the Nerd Herd. Um, her names is Cassie Creasey."
Cassie turned to face them at her name. "Ah this is her. Cassie this is my...friend Sarah, I told you about her, and Sarah...This is Cassie." Sarah offered Cassie her hand. "Nice to meet you. So are you and Chuck friends?"
"Yeah, you could say that. It was nice to meet you, and I look forward to seeing more of you, but for now I have work to do."
"She seems nice. It still doesn't mean anything. She just shows up out of the blue, I'm assuming, and you welcome her with open arms. Chuck I love it that your a trusting guy, but how do you know she's not some assassin who's going to kill you the moment she gets a chance?"
"Relax Sarah, Casey already ran a check on her. He didn't find anything. So she really is just a college student who needed a job to pay for school in the area."
"Right. Then how do you know she's not an NSA assassin or something? Casey could've lied."
"I really don't think so, seeing as..." They were interrupted by Morgan, sticking his head into say hi.
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Cassie approached Casey with a clipboard and a smile. He crossed his arms and glared at her. "Nice to see you too." She leaned over a shelf to hide her self from view. He leaned casually against the end shelf, looking bored. " So I'm just going to assume thats Agent Walker. Chuck wasn't subtle in the least in telling her about me, so she sent up the red flag, as the company is good for. Anyway, she's badgering Chuck about who I might be, and saying you could be lying about my file being clean, and now she thinks I'm an NSA assassin."
"Well looks like the CIA has finally got something right."
"What...What are you talking about? I'm not an assassin. I'm not you, as hard as that maybe for you to accept sometimes."
"Oh..Ouch. That hurt," Casey said sarcastically. "All I'm saying is that she's right in assuming your NSA, and in assuming that I'd lie to cover your ass '
"Oh...Wait, What?" Casey was already walking away.
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"Chuck, why was Cassie just talking to Casey, hmmm? I mean seeing as she's 'not' a spy or anything, and face it, he's not exactly friendly," Sarah asked, trying to catch Chuck bluffing.
"I think Big Mike told her to get orders from the greenshirts. Sarah she's not a spy. If you don't believe me ask her. Ask Casey." Sarah headed for her. Chuck tried to follow to keep Sarah from harassing Cassie, but Casey caught him around the chest before he caught up.
"She can take care of herself Bartowski. Besides, I don't think Agent Walker is going to go after her guns blazing, thats my area of expertise."
Sarah caught Cassie in the camera aisle. "Hi, Cassie. I just wanted to talk to you, personally."
"Um, OK Sarah...What's up?"
"Your friends with Chuck right? Nothing more?"
"Yeah. I'm not into Chuck like that. Don't get me wrong, he's a great guy and all, but I'm just looking for friends right now."
"Right. Look I don't know where you came from, and I don't really care. I won't have a problem with you as long as you don't hurt Chuck. If you do, then you'll have to deal with me." Sarah threatened. Cassie laughed as she walked away. She had a little bit of a size advantage on Sarah, and was faster than alot of peoples trigger fingers, so Sarah's threat didn't phase her. She watched as Sarah interrogated Casey.
"Is she NSA, Casey? Don't lie to me," she asked.
"Well, gee, Walker. I don't know. Have you tried asking her? It's not my job to keep track of every person in the NSA, or the Buymore, for that matter."
"How would it look if I approached a potential civilian and started harassing her about an agency that's spent years trying to convince the world it doesn't exist?"
"You'd look pretty crazy in her eyes, and you probably wouldn't look to good in Graham's eyes, either. Plus then I would have to kill you for compromising the mission. If you think she could potentially be a civilian, well with how sharp you are, Walker, she probably isn't," he retorted sarcastically.
"Don't mock me, Casey. I know you know, either way. Tell me the truth."
"Fine. No, she's not. There, you happy?"
She stalked off to find Chuck. "Chuck. Hey. So tell me about Cassie."
Chuck looked nervous. Sarah was flushed with anger from her argument with Casey, and still seemed pretty pissed off."Well, Sarah, what do you want to know?"
"Whatever you want to, or need to tell me, Chuck. Anything interesting, important, whatever."
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"Chuck's gonna crack like an over boiled egg. I should go pull a Morgan," Cassie told Casey, as they watched Chuck squirm under her gaze.
Her grunted at her."Leave him alone. It'll be good for him. Besides, what's the worst that'll happen? He'll crack and tell her your an NSA agent, maybe even your true identity, and relation to me, but what's she gonna do about it? You can't actually be afraid of Walker, are you?"
Cassie looked skeptical. "Well, no. I could probably bench press Blondie, but she could turn me into the CIA."
"Yeah, cause that's stopped you before."
"You know, I'm starting to realize why none of my teachers found my sarcasm amusing, since I'm really starting to hate it, too."
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Cassie let herself into Chuck's room through his window and plopped down on the bed next to a sleeping Chuck. He jumped up, started. "Holy crap Casey...Sorry Cassie. What are you doing, its 3 o'clock in the morning."
"Well Chuck, I needed to talk to you, alone. I would've called, actually I did, but you didn't answer. And Casey's fine, as long as we're not around, well, Casey."
"So I'm up now, what did you want to talk about?Wait, how did you get in my room? Never mind. Morgan Door, NSA agent, yeah I know."
"What did you tell Sarah? Hm...Bartowski.You didn't compromise me, did you?" She grabbed him around the shoulders.
"Ow...Ow. No I didn't. I told her. Ow. I told her the same story you told me. Ow. I swear."
"What about me and Major?"
"Major? Oh, Casey. Well it's nice to see the bonds of family. Ow...Ow. I think she already thinks your related, but I swear I didn't tell her anything."
She let go of him and he rubbed his arms. "Ow. Casey, not cool. Look, as much as I appreciate nice friend-to-friend chats at 3 AM, I have to work in a few hours, and I would appreciate some sleep. Goodnight Cassie."
"Goodnight Chuck." She showed herself back out through the window, but instead of leaving, she headed for Casey's apartment. She saw that there was a light on, so she knew she wouldn't be bothering him. She raised her hand to knocked and he retched open the door. "What?" he grunted.
"Nice to see you too, Major. Can I come in?"
He stepped back to let her in. "Charming place you got here," she said sarcastically, looking around at the various surveillance equipment set up in his living room.
"Hm. What do you want?"
"Nothing really. I just thought you'd appreciate some company."
"Well I don't, but I know that doesn't make any difference, because you're going to stay anyway. Now, what do you really want? And think carefully before you answer, since I already know the answer."
"Really Major? And what might my reason be?"
"Chuck's got you all uptight. And I don't mean about Agent Walker."
"You know what? I think this was a bad idea. I'm gonna go now."
"Hmpf" he said as she showed herself out.
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At work Cassie took care to avoid Casey as much as possible, but that turned out to be harder than she expected. "Hey," he snapped from behind her in the storage cage, where she had taken to hiding.
"Cassandra, you didn't really think you could avoid me all day did you?"
"I was hoping I could. Look I really don't want to hear whatever stupid, sarcastic quip you have about some moronic moment of weakness I made the mistake of showing, so if that's what your here to say, save your breath."
"I wasn't..." he stopped as Sarah entered the cage. "Hi, Casey, Cassie. Chuck said you guys were back here. I just wanted to talk to Cassie." She smiled at them both, but neither of them returned the smile. They both faced her, arms crossed, every line in their faces set with dislike.
"Casey, do you mind?" she asked, trying to get him to leave.
"Actually I do. I'm sure anything you have to say can be said in front of me."
"OK, fine. Well, Cassie. I just wanted to apologize for what I said yesterday. I'm sorry we had to start off on such a bad foot, and I'd like to make it up to you. How about a girls night out, just the two of us, tonight? Hm? Probably dinner, a movie, some shopping, if you want?"
Casey narrowed his eyes at her. Cassie, on the other hand, agreed. "Yeah, sure that sounds great." She smiled at Sarah uncharacteristically bright, and Sarah returned the smile. Casey looked between the girls, confused, and left the cage, shaking his head. Once he was gone, they both dropped the fake smiles. "Where do you live?" Sarah asked.
"How about you just pick me up from Chuck's tonight, whenever."
"Works for me" Sarah replied.