Casey was waiting at 9 am sharp by the fountain. Chuck had dressed in his Buy More uniform, although he suspected he wouldn't need it. Casey's outfit confirmed at least part of Chuck's thinking: Casey was decked out in a dark suit and tie with a crisply pressed white dress shirt rather than the usual green Buy More polo and khaki pants.

Chuck asked, "So, do I finally get to learn what's going on?"

"Yes, but not from me. We've got a plane to catch."

Chuck's heart sank. Sarah's discussion about unconditional trust and the impending travel likely could mean only one thing. He had mentally prepared himself for this as best he could as he got dressed this morning. "So, it's finally time for the bunker." He sighed. "Well, I suppose I was lucky to avoid it this long. Can I bring anything with me?"

Casey shook his head. "C'mon, Bartowski. Do you really think Walker would let you end up in an underground bunker now, after all the work she did to prevent that from happening?"

"Only if she thought it was best for me for some reason."

Casey grunted. "Well, she obviously didn't feel that way; she fought tooth-and-nail to keep you here for the past three years." Casey looked around the courtyard with feigned disgust. "Why, I'll never know." His voice betrayed the slightest hint of sadness, something Chuck would never have picked up had he not worked with Casey so closely for so long.

Casey was covering something up. "You won't be coming back here, will you," Chuck guessed.

Casey assessed him for a long moment, his face a mystery. Eventually, a small smile came to his face. "That's right. Time for a new assignment."

"And Sarah's already off on hers, I assume."

Casey again assessed him for a moment, this time nodding to answer Chuck's question. For the first time, and probably the last, Casey asked Chuck about his feelings. "You doing all right?"

"Yeah, I'm all right. I'll get over it." Maybe.

Both of the agents had acted strangely yesterday, although Sarah's actions were obviously more pronounced. That had bothered Chuck until, during a lull in his lovemaking with Sarah, he had an epiphany.

Sarah had always said the two of them could never be together while they worked together. There was little chance of her finally caving after three years if she hadn't caved before. The only explanation that made sense was that they weren't going to work together any more.

That also explained Casey's oddly relaxed mood the previous day. Casey was a tight-ass, but that didn't mean he was completely heartless. Chuck and Sarah had successfully battled their feelings for three years and almost never allowed those feelings to compromise a mission. Casey had previously allowed rules to be bent on occasion, but to allow the two to be alone like that would have been a major concession on his part, unless his time on the mission was coming to an end as well.

Having figured out the riddle, the last time Chuck and Sarah made love had become a tender, unspoken act of goodbye. They both unsuccessfully tried to pretend that the other did not know, making the moment all the more powerful and bittersweet. In the end, the pair had been left clutching each other long after their passion ebbed, reluctant to let go.

They hadn't said another word to each other. There was nothing that could be said.

He thought of begging her to stay. He thought of asking her to run away with him. He thought of a great many things.

But in the end, he had to respect how things had to be. For Sarah Walker, the job came first. And loving Sarah Walker meant accepting her for who she was.

In the end, he had to trust that she would give him everything she could. Even if it was only one night.

Lost in his thoughts, Chuck missed the slightest of smirks on Casey's face. "She gave me a message for you."

Pulled from his thoughts, Chuck raised an eyebrow.

"She said to tell you, 'It's hard to say goodbye,'"

Chuck's grin grew bigger and goofier despite himself. It was an ironic statement from a woman who, by her own admission, didn't like to talk.

At least they had the one night. That was one more night than he thought they would have.

A car service was to pick up the pair outside the apartment complex at 9:15, giving Chuck enough time to head back to the apartment and change into a pair of slacks and a button-down. He deliberately chose the outfit because Sarah had helped him pick it out at the mall a few months back. Checking himself in the full-length mirror, he adjusted his collar and smoothed a crease in the shirt, just as she had done for him so many times.

He allowed himself a melancholy smile.

After dressing, he took one last look around the room. He could still picture her perfectly from last night. He sighed as he irrationally closed the door to his room behind him, wondering if he would ever see it again. Casey had been completely unforthcoming about what was next for Chuck. Maybe Casey didn't truly know.

After a quiet ride to the airport, Chuck was surprised to find that a Leer jet awaited the pair at LAX. Chuck hadn't been expecting that; when Casey had said they had a plane to catch, Chuck instinctively expected coach class on a major airline. The private jet only fueled his curiosity, but again, Casey refused to say anything.

As Chuck sat in a leather chair sipping Coke from a small plastic cup, he couldn't help but think about Sarah. Surprisingly, last night seemed to help more than it hurt, at least right now. While part of him had always known Sarah's feelings for him, to see her finally act on them meant more than he could ever put into words.

Deep down, he had always known that she would leave without saying goodbye. That was just the way she worked, much like the way that she had asked him if he unconditionally trusted her without offering her own trust in return.

Truth be told, he was still a bit puzzled by her insistence on discussing whether he fully trusted her. Maybe that was just her way of reassuring him that she wouldn't leave him if she thought he was in any danger: one last piece of business to wrap up before she gave in to her feelings.

He suddenly realized that he might be missing part of the point of the question. Maybe she was not only ensuring that he wouldn't worry about what was coming in his future, but she was also asking if he could accept things the way they needed to be. Had he answered differently, maybe she would have turned around and walked away.

He would likely never know for sure.

Looking out the plane's window at the fluffy white clouds, he allowed himself to be distracted by glimpses of the ground far below. He didn't want to think about never seeing her again.

The plane touched down at Reagan National Airport in Washington D.C. a little after 4:00 pm local time. Another black sedan waited at the airport for them. Chuck hadn't realized there was an airport so close to the interior of the city; they were in the heart of the capitol before he knew it.

The car dropped them off outside a plain-looking office building in sight of the Capitol building. Casey, still not revealing anything about where they were headed, wordlessly escorted Chuck into the lobby. He signed Chuck in, acquiring a visitor's badge and a pass from the guard station, and motioned him through the metal detector. Casey had to remove a surprising number of weapons to make it through the detector. Well, the weapons were surprising to the guards; Chuck had seen it all before.

Once past the guard station, Casey guided Chuck to a bank of elevators. There were several people waiting there, but when Casey showed the armed guard monitoring the area his pass, those people were forced to wait for a second elevator.

Where the heck are we going? Chuck wondered to himself.

Inside the elevator, Casey slid the pass into a slot on the floor selection panel. The doors shut, and the lights inside the elevator turned red and a monitor on the wall lit up. A female voice said, "Identification please."

"Casey, John J." Casey said. As he spoke, wavy lines appeared on the monitor, appearing to be generated by the sound of his voice. The monitor pulled another wavy line from a database and compared the two, indicating that the voice print matched.

The lights turned back to normal, and the elevator started moving up at high speed. There were three indicator lights at the top of the panel where there normally would have been additional buttons; the elevator stopped when the middle light lit.

The doors opened.

Chuck didn't know what he expected to see, but what he did not expect was a simple, wide white hallway, going both left and right, lit with bright fluorescent lights. "This way," Casey indicated as he pointed to Chuck's left.

The pair walked down the somewhat busy hallway, passing a couple of people with faces buried in memos, seemingly indifferent to anyone who might be walking past. Chuck wondered if that was because far more important people than the two of them typically walked these halls.

Chuck glanced at some of the unassuming name plates on the wall. J. O'Neal. P. Mitchell. N. Jessep. He recognized a couple of the names; they were obviously all high-ranking military officers from the décor in their offices. As they passed an office with the name "J. Davis", Casey looked disappointed that the door was closed. "Old friend," he replied to Chuck's unspoken question with a mischievous smirk.

They passed a few more doors when Casey finally stopped. The nameplate on the wall read "L. Beckman".

Chuck didn't need to hear it, but Casey said it anyway.

"Here we are."

Casey opened the door into the office he'd seen so many times on the communications array. There sat General Beckman in all her wrinkled glory, Director Graham standing at her side.

The general spoke. "Agent Casey. Mr. Bartowski. Please, come in."

Chuck had acted playful with the two officers over the videoconferences, but it was entirely different being in the presence of the pair. Any notion of being flippant evaporated, especially since he didn't know what fate the two had planned for him. He swallowed hard as he took a position flanking Casey across from the officers.

Seeing their serious countenances, part of him instinctively wondered if he should have taken the opportunity to run. He quickly dismissed the notion. That would have meant giving up the final night with Sarah, and he wouldn't trade that for anything. Besides, he trusted that Sarah wouldn't let him walk into a bad situation.

"General. Director," Casey greeted the pair formally. "I hereby deliver the Intersect, thus completing my mission."

"Excellent work, Agent Casey," the general said. "I know this wasn't a typical assignment for you, but you came through with flying colors."

"Thank you, General." Casey beamed as he stood at attention.

"Your request for R&R has been approved; it's long overdue. We'll see you back here in two weeks."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Dismissed."

Casey came out of attention. Chuck looked at him questioningly as he started to head for the door. "Wait!"

Casey turned back around, a quizzical look on his face.

"That's it? Three years of working together, and you're just going to walk away?"

"Of course."

There were a million things that Chuck wanted to say. He had thought that he had Casey had become friends, in a weird sort of way. To see him seem so impassive was a bit disappointing.

Then it came to Chuck: Casey didn't want to show any attachment in front of the officers.

Chuck could respect that.

Rather than throw his arms around Casey like he wanted, he simply offered his hand. "Thank you, Casey. For everything."

Casey regarded the hand for a moment before reaching out and taking it with a firm grip. Looking Chuck straight in the eye, he said, "Bartowski, it's been an honor serving with you."

It was probably as high a compliment as Casey had ever given, certainly as high a compliment as Casey had ever given Chuck.

Chuck gave Casey a huge, probably unprofessional grin. It may have been his imagination, but Chuck thought he saw Casey have to fight to keep the corners of his mouth from turning up slightly.

Without another word, Casey turned and left the office, leaving Chuck alone with the military brass.

The room was eerily silent. Sarah and Casey were gone, and he still had no idea what was in store for him.