On the way to Castle

To say that Sarah Walker was upset would be a wrong assumption. She was clearly past that point. She wasn't even angry, because anger would have been to tame for what she was actually feeling. Sarah would have been pacing in her room if she wasn't in Chuck´s car already. She had quite the poker face on the outside, but on the inside, she was furious.

They were headed into Castle to talk to General Beckman. Sarah even let Chuck drive because she thought she might have been too emotional. That's how furious she was. With her current state of mind, she just wanted to hit something.

Sticks really changed around here.

She felt like a puppet without a puppet master. And by that definition, she would have been feeling great, if she didn´t lose her father in the process. Most of the strings were cut, but there was one last string that needed clipping. She needed to save her father.

What happened to the times when everything was cut and dry? Accomplish a mission, than start another. The incident with Quinn proved that point. Even when she saw the video logs that Casey gave her, instead of listening to her heart, she ran away.

"It´s kind of ironic you know?" She was looking out the window trying to memorize the road. It was something she used to do when she tried to relax. Just let the world fly by and see what pieces of information the brain could catch up on.

"What do you mean?" Chuck finally asked with his eyes still on the road.

"Me to realize, what I have here? Everything that I had experienced last couple of days, it showed me that I have to choose. I can see my whole life, thanks to this retrospection, the people and things I want in my life, and the people and things that I don't want in my life.

"Sarah, I don´t think this is - - -"Chuck began.

"Chuck, don´t push me away just because you think that I´m vulnerable. I need my husband Chuck Bartowski, just as much as I need agent Charles Carmichael right now.

Gosh, did I say that out loud?

"So, please talk to me."

"Sorry Sarah, I just want you to be happy. I don't want to put you into any sort of uncomfortable situation." Chuck´s eyes were looking directly into the eyes of his angel.

"You should be watching the road," Sarah pointed out.

His smile lit up the interior of the car.

"You could have sent me straight to the CIA institution, but you didn´t. You have more than enough reasons to do so, but you didn´t. Thank you for trusting me."

"Thank you for trusting me too, but you're forgetting one thing though." He replied grinning.

"And that is?"

"We still have to talk to Beckman."

In the Castle

Diane Beckman was a General, but she was still a human being. Even through the video conference, the tension was imminent.

Team Bartowski was just sitting in front of the table. The usual greetings were said, and now came the hard part.

"Sarah, I´m really sorry about your father, I assure you that we will be doing our best to bring him home." She gave Sarah her sympathetic look.

Chuck raised his hand. "General if I may, what exactly is operation Goldmine?"

Beckman raised her eyebrows. "That is not an operation under NSA jurisdiction Agent Bartowski.

Sarah bit her lip. "What are you talking about, the operation should have ended years ago!"

"General, Sarah is right; if you know something, you should tell us." Morgan added.

"Mister Grimes if I could, then I would help you on this, but this is out of my hands."

"But general…-"Chuck tried.

"Chuck, I have a week until my retirement. You know we'll inform you once we get something. Go rent a movie, or check your mail, that´s all I can do for you." And the conference was suddenly off.

"That went well." Casey gave a grunt and almost a smile.

Sarah and Morgan on the other hand were confused, which was something that didn´t happen in most cases. To Sarah at least.

"All of this was taped, which means, if Graham had his own badass operation at the CIA's expense, then I understand pretty much why everyone is so overprotective about it." Chuck explained with a small grin.

"They want to cover their asses." Casey made his contribution.

"I think we all know that this is an area where we have much experience." Chuck nodded.

"To cover asses?" Morgan raised his question, thinking about the times when he used his signature move.

"To cover their asses to protect USA's finest, moron! And this is me being quite polite about it."

"Did you just use the word polite in your sentence Casey?" Sarah was amazed Colonel John Casey had a smile on his face. There were so many things she didn´t remember. Life, her life, their life! It was something she really wanted back. But as she looked upon John Casey, she could easily see the emotional growth of his personality over the past five years.

Casa Bartowski

They found a small box in the mail. As they opened the box inside the house, a very small and familiar black laptop popped up.

"Greetings team, I guess I owe you some details." The General allowed herself a small grin. "Operation Goldmine was a failed attempt to control drug trafficking all around the world. The plan was to make an organization that controlled the clients and smugglers and would eventually finance the organization from the income they would receive."

"Unfortunately, there were some missteps during the operation, and the project was called down." Beckman paused.

"We know from our contact in Mexico, that the project was restored by a mercenary group called Red Sun, and a man named Nicolas Quinn. Your flight to Mexico will be ready in 90 minutes. Good luck Team." 10 seconds later...the device melted.

"That was scary…" Morgan just verbalized everyone's thoughts.

...

There you have it, another part of the story. I have to thank Maverick41 for his help with this chapter. Leave a review, tell me what you think.

As for the other story Sarah VS the Island, I hope that next chapter will be up at the end of this week. I´m not good with deadlines so be pacient with me. Thanks for your support it means a lot.