A/N: I reckon this is probably the penultimate chapter of this story and I apologise now for the ending. Thanks to Yokaputo for the beta and to zipfe for the help with the German part at the end, I was pretty close but any improvement is good improvement.

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Casey's investigation wasn't going entirely as he had planned, Chuck was still in a cycle of depression followed by a couple of days of becoming tolerable after his supposed high school friend called, but he quickly sank back into depression as the month went on. While being suspicious, it wasn't enough for Casey to go to the General with, and the only way he could prove anything was to bug Chuck's phone, which was easier said than done when the phone was never more than three feet away from its nerdy owner. It wouldn't have been too bad if Chuck was actually cooperating with Casey and Forrest, but the few flashes he did have were rarely complete Intel reports and more than once Casey had had to save Forrest's ass when Chuck failed to warn her of approaching enemies. Casey had a sneaking suspicion that this uncooperativeness was part of a ploy to get Sarah reassigned back to Team Chuck (Team Bartasey had been mothballed after Casey threatened to put Chuck's head through the wall). Something had to give pretty soon, thought Casey, otherwise the idiot's going to get us all killed.

At the Orange Orange, Casey was going over the surveillance of previous phone calls Chuck had received, trying to look out for a slip which might give him an idea of who was calling. The back story checked out, he had had the NSA look into this 'Zoe Taylor' and she had indeed recently been transferred abroad by her company, but he couldn't find anybody Chuck had come into contact with that had also left the country. Casey had called Chuck on that, but he gave some lame-ass excuse about it being a customer. It didn't make complete sense but Casey didn't see the point in pushing it further as it might get back to whoever was in contact with his asset. It damn sure wasn't Taylor, that he did know, but until he could be sure he wasn't prepared to take it to the General. He knew she'd just order him to find something concrete to go on, so he'd wait until he had that before bothering such a busy person.

Just as Forrest walked down from the store front the huge screen at the front of the main Castle area flickered to life, and Casey hit pause on the surveillance footage and made his way to the front of the table where he waited at attention until the General came onto the screen.

"Major Casey, Agent Forrest" said the General by way of greeting.

"Good morning ma'am" answered the two agents.

"Now, onto business," began the General, "I am getting reports from the two of you of an increased level of uncooperativeness from the Intersect, would you explain the extent of these?"

"The asset is still refusing to enter the Orange Orange ma'am" said Forrest, "he appears to have some issues with depression if he enters the store."

"Right, is there any way you can think of to alleviate this, it is becoming a large issue which may compromise your covers if we must continue to use the Castle entrances within the Buy More and I would prefer for a secret base to remain, well, secret."

"The only way I can think of to improve the asset's mental state would be to reassign Agent Walker to the team, ma'am." Said Casey, "I believe I have made my feelings clear that this would be my preferred route of action to take in the past on this matter ma'am. Agent Walker's feelings towards the asset may have clouded her judgement towards certain matters concerning him, but she was an effective protector and the best partner I've ever had the pleasure to work with."

"You may have made your feelings clear on this matter, but so have I, Major. Agent Walker will not work with Team Intersect again while I am still the leader of this project, she is too emotionally involved."

"Well then we can expect an asset with decreased effectiveness ma'am. His flashes have become more and more incomplete as time has gone on. It is my opinion that he is withholding information he deems to be 'irrelevant' or not completely vital to the success of the mission."

"Why hasn't this been made clear in your earlier reports, Major?"

"I wasn't certain of my suspicions ma'am, and I wanted some concrete evidence instead of opinion before I came to you with it."

"So why share this now?"

"The effectiveness of the team has to be of the highest priority, so I felt the time was right to share my suspicions with you."

"Keep in mind that you should report any suspicions you may have to me immediately, Major."

"Yes ma'am."

"Now, Agent Forrest, what is your opinion on the asset's effectiveness in the field?"

"I don't think he trusts me yet ma'am, Major Casey has had to intervene on numerous occasions to prevent an enemy attacking me."

"Did we train you for nothing, Forrest? You are a field agent, are you not? You should be used to solo operations without surveillance back up. If you aren't up to the job then I'm sure there are some rookies currently undergoing training that could replace you and do a better job. Consider this your only warning, Forrest. Shape up or report back to Fort Meade for a desk job. Your choice."

"Sorry ma'am, I will enlist the aid of Major Casey to help me improve my field skills, this cover lifestyle is not very conducive to maintaining key espionage skills."

Casey had turned very red and his stance got even more stoic at Forrest's comments, which the General seemed to pick up on.

"Problem, Major?"

"No, no problem ma'am."

"Good, I have made a decision on how to fix the problem with the asset. Find him and bring him to Castle as soon as possible, I have some matters to discuss with Agent Forrest in private while you do so."

"Yes ma'am, roger that." Said Casey as he left Castle and headed over to the Buy More.

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Chuck was lost in thought as he sat at the Nerd Herd desk. Sarah had called a couple of weeks ago to tell him that she was going undercover in Germany and that it would probably be a few months before she could call him again. She had told him that if he really needed to hear her voice he could call but if she answered in German he had to hang up straight away and wait for her to call him. Chuck could handle that certainly, he'd gone six months and had only spoken to her 6 times in that time, so just the fact that he could call her was a huge boost to his happiness. He was so deep in thought that he didn't notice Casey had been standing in front of him for at least a minute. Finally Casey's very low patience threshold snapped.

"Bartowski!"

No answer.

"Hey! Dumbass!"

Still no answer.

"Dammit Bartowski!" followed by a slap to the side of the head finally got his asset's attention.

"Oh, hey Casey, didn't see you there."

"No kidding, Bartowski, it's not like I shouted your name and had to hit you to get your attention."

"And?"

"As much as I'd like to continue this cute little moment, Beckman wants to see you."

"I thought I made myself clear, I'm not going down to Castle."

"There you go acting like you have a choice again, do I have to tranq you?"

"Listen, just because I go on missions because I don't like my tranquilised dreams, doesn't mean that can be your go to threat."

"Shut up, you're coming with me."

"Make me."

"What are you, six?"

"So's your face."

"What? Forget it, I wanted it to be a surprise but since you don't care..."

"What's a surprise?"

"Walker's back."

"Really?"

Without waiting for an answer Chuck took off towards the Orange Orange faster than Casey even thought possible, and was through the freezer door before Casey had even entered the store.

"Damn, I'm getting too old for this" muttered Casey.

"Casey, you bastard!" came the shout from the freezer. Evidently Chuck had figured out the lack of a certain blonde CIA agent in Castle.

"It got you down here didn't it? Now shut up and go talk to Beckman."

"What if I don't want to?"

"Jesus, Bartowski, if I have to carry you down there I will, now go!"

"Fine, fine, I'm going."

Chuck took his usual place next to the armoury as he stood in front of the screen and waited for Beckman to finish whatever paperwork she had to do. She looked up at the screen and seemed to notice Chuck standing there looking slightly apprehensive, while Casey and Forrest stood with emotionless faces.

"Mr. Bartowski, let me tell you where I'm coming from here. You are the most important intelligence asset in the country, that's why we've assigned two of our best agents as your handlers, but if you aren't supplying the Intel we need, the Intersect goes to waste somewhat, so I'm going to give you one chance to explain what it'll take for you to cooperate fully with us once more, or we will have no other option than to remove you and place you in protective custody."

"Well, General, I think you know what I want."

"Enlighten us, Mr. Bartowski."

"Put simply, Sarah. She's the only handler I could ever completely trust. Don't look so hurt Casey, I trust you, but there's no way I can completely trust someone who tried to kill me."

"How the hell do you know about that?"

"I didn't, but it was a good guess that you would be ordered to terminate me once the new Intersect was online. Thanks for confirming it though, really appreciate it."

"Damn you, you devious little runt."

"Did you or did you not just trick me into coming down here by saying Sarah was here?"

"Boys, stop this bickering before I order Forrest to terminate both of you," said Beckman.

"Now, Mr. Bartowski, are you saying that the only way we can get you to cooperate is for Agent Walker to rejoin Team Intersect?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying, General."

"Alright then, I will make the necessary arrangements for Agent Walker's transfer back to Los Angeles, but I will give her the choice whether or not to do so, okay?"

A look of disbelief crossed Chuck's face as he heard the General's words, replaced by the widest he'd smiled since Sarah's departure six months beforehand.

"Really? And we can pursue a real relationship?"

"We'll see, Bartowski. It will be at least a 3 month probationary period, but after that I see no reason why we shouldn't allow you to, um, explore your feelings, should Agent Walker prove she can protect you."

"Thank you General, when will I know of her decision?"

"Agent Walker is in deep cover, it may be around a week before we can make contact, you are dismissed Bartowski."

"Thank you so much," said Chuck as he practically skipped out of Castle.

"General? Permission to speak freely?" asked Casey

"Granted," answered the General.

"Why the change of heart from about an hour ago when you refused to reassign Walker?"

"I don't need to explain myself to you Major, but this is part of a plan we have used before with great success. If there's nothing else... Dismissed."

As the screen again went dark, Casey and Forrest shared a confused look as they wondered just what the plan was and how it would affect the asset. Something about the tone of General Beckman's voice suggested it wouldn't be a happy ending.

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Chuck decided to call Sarah as he headed home, he couldn't wait to tell her the news and wanted to hear her voice as he told her she could come home. He just had to hope that she didn't answer in German. The phone rang and finally someone picked up.

"Hallo?"

Crap, was that German or not?

"Hi...is that Zoe?"

"Not a good time Chuck!"

Now that she mentioned it he could hear bullets whizzing around, and he also heard a shout from Bryce in the background.

"Sarah, now is not the time for you to answer your phone! Do you not notice the fact that there are people shooting at us?"

"Damn it Bryce, it's Chuck! I have to answer!"

"Uhh, can I call you back Chuck? We have some bad guys to shoot."

"Not a problem, I'll be waiting."

"Love you Chuck" said Sarah as she ended the call.

Well that could have gone better, thought Chuck.

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Chuck decided to get some sleep while he waited for Sarah to call him back, but lying in the dark didn't exactly help him relax. He was sure he'd heard bullets in the background, what if one of them had hit Sarah? He didn't think he could forgive himself if his call had resulted in Sarah being hurt. A ringing noise interrupted his silent freak-out session. Chuck scrabbled to pick it up and almost dropped it in his haste, but eventually managed to get it to his ear.

"Hello"

"Chuck, I'm sorry about earlier but it really wasn't a good time. How did you get my number anyway?"

"Err, I used callback" said Chuck, relief washing over his body as he heard Sarah.

"Oh...right. What did you want to talk about anyway?"

"Well, I spoke to Sarah's boss and managed to persuade them to transfer her back to LA"

"What? Chuck that's brilliant! How did you do it?"

Chuck smiled broadly at how happy Sarah seemed, he never thought that'd happen again, or at least for a long while.

"I honestly don't know, I've been trying for a while but she just agreed when I asked this time, maybe I just annoyed them enough."

"That is a skill of yours Chuck" chuckled Sarah, "When did Beckman say she'd contact me?"

"I dunno, she said around a week, Sarah's apparently difficult to get hold of."

"Well I should be, it wouldn't do if just anyone could call."

"Yeah I suppose so, it's good to hear you're going back to see your boyfriend too. If he's anything like me he won't be able to wait to see you."

"Oh he's a lot like you, Chuck."

"Really? Never would've guessed," said Chuck sarcastically."

"Oh shut up Chuck!" laughed Sarah, "now I really need to get some beauty sleep."

"Like you need it."

"Thanks, it's nice to hear that, I can't wait to see you again."

"Me either, see ya."

"Bye Chuck."

Both Chuck and Sarah hung up with broad smiles, and Sarah settled down to dream of the phone call which would change her life.

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The call finally came around a week later, while Sarah was about to finish up a meeting in her undercover job within a law firm in Dresden. The firm had connections to a Neo-Nazi group that were plotting to assassinate the President, and Sarah was feeling pretty confident that they had enough information to arrest the major players without drawing suspicion to her. She was about to end the meeting when her phone rang.

„Ja?"

„Hallo, darf ich mit Frau Sabine Holly sprechen bitte?" said General Beckman, fulfilling the protocol for calls to undercover agents in a foreign country. A call at the wrong time from someone speaking English could cause all sorts of cover issues, so superiors had to speak in the appropriate language. If the operative answered in English, so could the superior, but if not then the line was unsecured and they should continue to talk in the foreign language. In this case, German.

„Ja, ich bin sie," said Sarah.

„Hallo, Fraulein Holly. Ich habe mit ihrem letzten Chef gesprochen, und habe eine wichtige Nachricht für sie."

„Ja, und?"

„Es tut mir leid, Frau Holly, aber Chuck Bartowski ist vor zwei Tage wegen Fulcrum gefangen genommen worden und wir müssen davon ausgehen, dass er Tod ist. Es tut mir sehr leid um Ihren Verlust".

The people still within the meeting room watched in shock as Sarah collapsed to the ground.

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A/N: Below is a translation of the conversation between Beckman and Sarah.

"Yes?"

"Hello, may I speak with Miss Sabine Holly please?"

"Yes, that's me."

"Hello, Miss Holly. I have spoken with your last boss, and I have some important news for you."

"Yes, and?"

"I'm sorry, but Chuck Bartowski was captured two days ago by Fulcrum and we have to assume he is dead. I'm sorry for your loss."

Really sorry for that ending. *Evil Laugh*