Author's Note: If you're still reading, Thanks for sticking around. Originally this was chapter 1 but I moved it around. So, now, here goes the new chapter 3:

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Learning Curve

December 15, 2007

Casey burst through the exit on the roof, Chuck hot on his heels. The latter was running faster than he had run in recent memory.

"I hate you so much, Casey!" He exclaimed to the back of the bigger man's head as he ran across the rooftop. "You said this was going to be easy," he accused as he reached the Major.

"Man up, Bartowski," Casey replied as he pulled himself into his harness. "Don't tell me you don't feel the adrenaline coursing through your veins," he countered as he threw the rope over the side of the building. "There's nothing else like it."

Chuck began putting on his own harness. "Of course I do, but that's not the point," truthfully, he had begun liking the rush he got from going on missions but he was not going to admit that to anyone. He threw his rope over just as Casey had done moments before. "It just would've been nice if someone had told me people would be shooting at me today. I could've worn a vest or something," he exclaimed.

"And blow our cover as soon as we walked in here?" Casey retorted. "Moron. Think about it: when is someone not trying to shoot us during one of these things?"

Casey had a point there, Chuck thought. He was about to speak up but the roof door burst open again and the guys that had been chasing them started to file through, guns drawn.

Casey was instantly on the move. "You know what you were just saying about me telling you things?" He asked with a devious smirk on his face.

Chuck didn't like his tone of voice.

"Well, Bartowski," he offered, "brace yourself, 'cause this is gonna hurt."

Chuck's eyes widened instantly. "Ugh!" Casey tackled him, sending them both over the edge of the building just as bullets started whizzing by.

Chuck felt as if he had been free-falling through a bottomless pit, his stomach was doing flips, his heart was racing. His trip came to an abrupt end as the harness ran out of rope and he was slammed into the side of the building, driving his shoulder hard into the wall. He heard Casey let out a grunt at the same time he groaned from the impact.

Chuck hadn't fully recovered when Casey pulled out a knife and cut both ropes, dropping them the remaining couple of feet to the ground. "Run, moron!" He urged Chuck.

Chuck didn't have to be told twice. He burst into a sprint and made for the waiting van that had pulled up in front of the building. The side door slid open and Chuck dove in, followed by Casey. The van tires screeched as the rubber burned against the ground and then the van shot forward.

Casey turned onto his back, pulled out a remote and pressed the red button. A second later a shock wave rocked the van as the building was blown into a million pieces. "God, I love C-4," he said with a twinkle in his eye.

Chuck was wide-eyed yet again. "Dude! You blew up the building?" He shouted, observing the giant ball of fire that remained in the lot through the back window of the van. "Isn't that overkill? I mean, I had already wiped their servers."

"No such thing when it comes to Fulcrum," he said, getting up and moving into the front seat.

Chuck was about to reply when Sarah beat him to the punch from the driver's seat. "Well, that seems to have gone well," she remarked sarcastically, looking at him through the rear-view mirror with slightly narrowed eyes. She turned to Casey, "Are you guys okay?"

"Just some scrapes," Casey grunted just before he proceeded to pop his shoulder back into place.

Chuck cringed when he heard Casey's low growl. "I may need some ice," he called from the back seat. "And probably some heavy duty pain killers... oh, and how about a day or two off?"

"Shut it, moron," Casey spoke. "You'll be lucky if you can get Walker to kiss your boo-boo all better."

Chuck grinned at the thought. Sarah however did not. "Fat chance," she said, once again looking into the mirror with narrowed eyes.

Chuck had no idea what he'd done to upset Sarah but, clearly, she was upset about something; which meant he would have to rack his brain until he figured out what to apologize for this time.

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Casey's apartment

Echo Park

5:30 pm

The rest of the ride had been spent in silence. Sarah concentrated on driving, keeping her eyes locked on the road in front of her. Casey closed his eyes and seemingly went to sleep, which boggled Chuck because his shoulder was killing him and his hadn't been dislocated as far as he could tell. Chuck laid down on the backseat of the van and let his body turn to jelly. He would definitely been feeling all this physical exertion tomorrow.

They were standing in Casey's living room waiting to video-conference with General Beckman and Director Graham.

"Major Casey, report," the General started as soon as they appeared on screen.

"The information was good, General," Casey informed her. "The building really was a Fulcrum hub."

"Were you able to get anything?" Graham wanted to know.

"Bartowski managed to download all the files they had stored there before we were made," he said. "He wiped the server on our way out, so they lost everything they had."

"Good. Send us the information as soon as you can," Graham ordered.

"Anything else?" Beckman chimed in.

"Well..." Casey hesitated.

"Well, what?" Beckman lifted an eyebrow.

"General," Sarah took over, "Casey kind of blew up the building as we were making our escape."

"Kind of?" Beckman glared.

"Completely," Sarah corrected.

"Major Casey, what the hell were you thinking?" Graham scolded.

"I was thinking that building and everything it stood for was a threat to national security," he defended. "Besides, if the Fulcrum agents had given chase and caught Chuck, they would've had themselves an Intersect. I don't think anyone here wants that," he finished.

"Major," Beckman called for his attention, "next time, try to be a little more conservative in the way you deal with Fulcrum. We can't afford for you to be making a spectacle of things and drawing attention to this operation."

"Yes ma'am," Casey nodded. "I understand."

"Good," Beckman answered. "I'll be expecting your full report."

The screen turned black and it was just the three of them in Casey's living room again.

"I'll see you two tomorrow," Casey said, moving to his kitchen. "Now, get out."

"Always the gracious host," Chuck joked as he and Sarah made their way out. Suddenly he remembered Sarah's mood and decided that, for once, he wouldn't mind spending some more time in Casey's apartment.

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Chuck and Sarah's apartment

6:00 pm

The walk across the courtyard was much too short for Chuck's liking. He was dreading what would happen as soon as they were out of the cameras' unblinking eyes.

As soon as he closed the door to the apartment, he felt Sarah's fingers close around his ear and pull him down to her level. "Ow! Ow! Ow!" He felt the sting of her nails digging into his ear. "Sarah honey, that hurts, seriously!"

"Don't honey me, Chuck!" She yanked on his ear. "What the hell was that earlier?"

"What was what?" He said, grabbing for her hand.

"You jumping from that building like that," she yanked once again. "You were supposed to repel not dive off! What the hell were you thinking?"

"Not much, actually," he tried to joke. "Ow! Okay, okay. That was all Casey, I swear." She had a surprisingly strong grip when she wanted to.

"Go on..."

"The Fulcrum guys caught up with us and he pushed us over the edge right before the bullets started flying, I had nothing to do with it," he pleaded. "In fact, I had just been telling him to warn me about that sort of thing, so really, you should be mad at him," Chuck argued.

Sarah let go of Chuck's ear and sighed. She brought a hand to caress the side of his face and spoke, "I'm sorry, but you know how I feel about you putting yourself in unnecessary danger."

"I know." He smiled warmly at her. "But nothing happened, Sarah. I'm fine," he assured her.

"That shoulder says otherwise," she challenged, giving it a small squeeze.

"Mmm... okay," he gritted. "So maybe my shoulder hurts a bit." Then an idea popped into his head. "You know, I'm pretty positive that it would make me feel a lot better if you gave it a little kiss." He waggled his eyebrows.

"Oh, I think I can do a little more than that," she whispered into his ear, her hot breath sending all kinds of tingly feelings through his body. His eyes shut as he enjoyed the moment.

"Yeah... that's—that's good, " he managed to mumble in response.

She grabbed his hand and led him toward the bathroom. "Come on, Chuck, let's get you patched up," she said. "Then we'll see about making you feel better... I think we still have some oils left over from last time."

Chuck thought back to the last time they had given each other massages and promptly picked up the pace, the pain in his shoulder suddenly seeming like nothing more than an itch.

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Author's Note: Good news: (well, I'm presuming) Chapters of Recalled and Regenesis coming this weekend. This was easier to write and it would just not leave me alone 'til I wrote it out, so it came out first.