So there you are again. Still don't own Chuck.

Chapter 6—the Briefing

…it was a dark and stormy night….

Bar F CA Ranch

"Steven said that he has another helicopter, from the USC hospital, coming for Chuck and Casey. There is a nice field beside us and we'll have it land there." Mary waited for a reply.

Sarah had just gotten control over the Fulcrum prisoners and now her boss wanted her back at Castle. "Okay, tell them I'd like to ride back with them and get Steven to send a car to pick me up at the USC hospital."

On the ride back to Mary's position Sarah began to think what had transpired, 'If Kelly was getting pressure, then Chuck was right. The Elders were powerful. He had described Maximilian de Brouget as a Fulcrum Elder in Sacramento. Max had been in politics, held a seat in the State Senate and ran for Congress. He made his billions in construction, mainly overseas. Lost the bid for the Congressional seat as some claimed that he had his party's rival killed before the primaries.

'How many Fulcrum agents have we either captured or killed within the last few weeks? There was the shoot out at the Leadership school, the bombing at Barstow, the shoot out at the wedding, the airport, and the garage. And now we have 72 prisoners. How many more Fulcrum agents could there be in California. We must have destroyed their West Coast operation.

"Chuck, you better be okay. We cannot have gone through all of this to have you in trouble.' Sarah saw that they were pulling to a stop. She got out and went over to where Lea was taking care of Chuck and Casey. "How are they?"

Lea looked up at Sarah, "They are better now. Their pulse is down to a normal range. Their temperature is okay also."

"Can you tell anything more? Were they knocked out or did the tranquilizer get them?"

"No, I really can't tell. They don't have any noticeable bruises or swelling on their heads to indicate any head trauma."

"Thank you for taking care of them. I am going to check with Mary." Sarah walked over to the van. She went inside and looked at the display. There were signatures all over the lawn. "Mary, do you have an estimate of the arrival of the USC helicopter?"

"Should be here in another ten minutes. What do you want to do with this mess?"

Sarah looked thoughtfully at Mary, "Well, I was hoping you would be able to handle it. We mainly have clean-up around here. FBI is to come in for the real clean-up. I'll remind them how big this job will be. When they get here with enough people to handle it, you should be able to hand it over to them. Let the Scouts and the Air Cav go then too. Finally, let Vandenberg know they can have control of the UAV. I will give them all a call to let them know we are putting you in charge. Give me a call if you run into any problems.

"Get everyone back to the Apartments. Here's the key to the conference room. You have the code for the cipher?" Mary nodded her head. "Okay, I will be over as soon as I can. I am not sure what Director Robins has to say. But I will come right over. Oh and finally, make sure the drivers stay awake when you come back." Sarah sat down at the console and started making the calls. She told them that Mary would be in-charge and that they really appreciated the job they did today.

Sarah finished making the calls just as the helicopter landed. The crew picked up Chuck and Casey. They gave Sarah a hand up into the helicopter. She sat next to Chuck but could see how Casey was doing too. The crew had IVs in both and both were securely strapped in their medical cots. She was all strapped in too. They lifted off when the crew chief gave the pilot a thumbs-up. Sarah made it until they got off the ground and then she went to sleep.

USC Hospital

Sarah woke up when they touched down at the hospital. She remembered the drill from last time. She followed them down to the emergency room.

Steven met her there, "Hey Sarah, how are you doing?" He wrapped his arm around her and they sat down next to Chuck.

"Okay, just really tried."

"We have four guards here. Chuck and Casey will be fine. Why don't you go back to the apartment and get some rest? We can take care of Chuck and Casey." Steven held her hand and could feel it trembling. "Don't worry everything will be fine."

"Oh, I cannot go back to the apartment without Chuck. It was going to be our first night in the apartment together. I cannot do that." She just shook her head no. "And I have to get back to Castle for a brief with Director Robins."

"Well, since I am being paid to be a consultant, I'll consult. You probably would be better if you just lie down and get some sleep here. They will be moving Chuck and Casey up to another room soon. We can make sure it is one for two people and get a bed in there for you to lie down. You need sleep too. What needs to be done so that can happen? I'll call Kelly and tell him. Who else needs to know? By the way, do we need you checked for these drugs?"

Sarah looked at Steven. "No, I am just tired. Well, Kelly said he needed to talk with me by message when we were up on a secure network. So, that's got to be important. And then I was going to have everyone meet us back at the apartments."

"Fine, I'll tell Kelly you need sleep. And if you don't get some sleep, I'll tell him the drugs got to you too. And have these fine emergency people take over. So, get some sleep. I'll tell everyone else to meet at the apartment tomorrow morning."

Sarah finally said, "Okay."

Steven got up, "Don't worry it will be okay." He walked off and talked to the emergency admittance nurses. He arranged to have them sent to adjoining room and Chuck's room equipped with an extra bed. He told the guards he wanted an extra detail at the hospital 24X7 while they were there. Then he walked outside and gave Kelly a call.

Sarah watched the nurses check Chuck's and Casey's vitals and draw their blood. Steven came back and told her that Kelly said that it would be fine. It could wait now.

A little while latter a doctor came over and told them that they did find some serious bruises on their shoulders and hips. They could have suffered some trauma to the head. They had some Acepromazine in their blood. The doctor said that with that kind of tranquilizer it will be difficult to determine how long they will be asleep. Finally, Casey had a broken metacarpal in his left hand. They set the bone and a cast was put on the hand. But if it continues to get broken, they may have to do surgery to repair it.

The nurses came and got Chuck and Casey and took them up to their rooms. Steven went up with Sarah. When she promised to get some sleep, Steven went back to Castle.

Early that evening Chuck woke to see Sarah lying in the bed next to him. He panicked. "Oh, what happened? She was clear back with command van. Sarah, you better be okay. We cannot have gone through all of this to have you in trouble. Oh please."

Chuck tried to get up quickly to go over to Sarah. When he sat up, he got dizzy. 'Okay, a little too fast. Wow that hurt. Wonder why we would both be in the same room. You got to be okay.' Chuck got up and saw the extra robe on the night stand. Putting that on, he walked over to Sarah. 'Please be okay. Please be okay.'

Sarah started to wake-up when Chuck was bending over her to see if she was okay. She turned over to him and stretched. It surprised Chuck a little and he found that he was off balance. He tried to recover but wound up putting his hands on the bed to both her sides. He was able to mutter, "Sorry." Then he bent all the way down to give her a kiss.

Sarah looked at Chuck as he bent to kiss her and raised a little to meet him. She was so happy he was up and apparently okay, she pulled him down to her.

With a muffled, "ah..um," he straightened up a second later when the nurse came in.

She definitely came across as Nurse Ratched. "Well, I guess you woke up. Please take a seat at you bed. I need to take your vitals."

Chuck scrambled to get to his bed. Sarah got up and put her tactical vest back on. Seeing how unhappy Sarah looked at the situation, he wondered whether Nurse Ratched would last the evening. The nurse was extremely efficient. She was back out the door as fast as she came in.

Almost in unison they said, "You okay?" "Yeah."

Chuck got up and started to walk over to her. Sarah advanced to Chuck. They met hugging each other as hard as they could. Once again getting no break, they heard a knock at the door. As they separated the doctor came in.

The doctor gave Chuck a quick check. After asking several questions he said that Chuck may still get headaches from inhaling the mixture of the drugs and tranquilizer. He said that both Chuck and Casey would remain overnight for observation. He had some latent indications that there were head injuries in both. He also recommended they get a clean set of clothes as their black uniforms were covered in those drugs.

When the doctor left, Sarah said, "Well, I better see how Casey is doing."

"Wait, I'll go with you." Chuck got up from the bed. Making sure he had his robe on correctly, he slipped into the hospital booties.

Chuck got up and offered Sarah his arm. She smiled at him and took it knowing they would get a big reaction when Casey saw them.

When they came out of the room, another nurse saw them. She held up her hand and said, "There are a lot of people in the waiting room that want to check on them. Are you ready to see them?"

Sarah looked at Chuck who looked like he was going into panic mode because of the hospital grown and robe. She smiled and said, "In a second, let us make sure our friend is ready too." She knocked on Casey's door and heard the ever present grunt. "Casey, you awake? Are you ready to see a few people?"

Casey came to the door, "Hey, I am awake. What are you talking about?"

"The nurse said there were a few people in the waiting room to see us. Are you okay?" Sarah stood waiting with Chuck for Casey to open the door.

"I'm fine." Opening the door, "Who is here?"

Chuck was almost jumping up and down. He waved at the nurse, "Let them in. We are ready." Casey must not have looked hard at his gown. While Chuck's gown was a pale blue and his robe was a pale green, Casey's was a small clover print. Somebody at the hospital must have had fun too. He whispered to Sarah, "Please tell me you brought your iPhone."

Casey pulled his pale brown robe around him, "Make a move and you're a dead man Bartowski. I heard that." Then he closed his door.

Steven, Mary, Alice, the Chief, LT, Lea, Brad, Vera and Kristen came by the nurses' station to greet Chuck and Sarah. After many handshakes and a couple hugs Casey came out and joined the crowd. They stepped into Chuck's room. Sarah sat down on Chuck's bed and motioned to the others to take a seat. Kristen, Vera, Lea and Alice sat on Sarah's bed. Mary went over and sat by Sarah. Chuck took the other side. Steven, the Chief and LT deferred to Casey to sit in the visitor's chair. When everyone took their places, one of the guards looked in and closed the door.

Chuck started out, "What happened? We should have been far enough away that the blast would not roll a big van like we had."

Sarah began the explanation, "There was a secondary blast that was a lot bigger. It blew you off the road and then the van rolled down the hill."

Chuck looked really worried, "Wait, did we kill anybody doing that?"

Mary had been following the way Chuck had planned their operations, "Chuck, don't worry. No one was killed. There were a few that got hit with fragments of the shed, only two were serious. At the last report they were in stable condition."

Chuck nodded at Mary.

Sarah then asked, "So I don't want to make this into a work session, but did the transfer take place without any problems?"

Mary explained, "Well, it took a little longer than we thought. It just took longer to get the prisoners loaded. None of them were awake. But they sent enough agents to take care of it. Everything else went smooth."

Sarah was smiling at the results. "Thank you, all of you, for getting that done and helping us get Casey and his detail back."

A grunt and, "Yeah, thanks for helping us get out. Are they all okay?"

"Yes, Sergeant James was wounded. But he was the only one. The Air Cav scouts had no problems. Actually, the Air Cav commander said thanks for the opportunity to do a live fire run." Mary said with a small smile.

Steven provided the next update, "I stopped back at the apartments. Devon's operation went fine. The patient's family was very happy he came back to do it. Ellie and Devon left for the second half of their honeymoon. I did not explain what our current operation entailed, but they both said be careful. Ellie said she wants a serious long talk with both of you. We could arrange for you to be out of town for an extended period?

"Finally, Kelly called back and does want to talk with all three of you when you get back tomorrow." The last thing that happened was Casey and Steven nodding at each other.

A/N Hoped you liked this. New story to follow. Please review.