A/N: Ouch!!! Reviews from the Charah fundementalists. lol (specifically ones that I don't have a way to respond by PM to)

Look, I'm just writing a little story here. I wanted to write something different from either the angst filled "I love you but I can't be with you" or the Charah "we're moving in together and making love every night" stories. Mind you, there's nothing wrong with either of these kinds of stories. My intent was to create something different. I believe I've done that. It's certainly not anything to write home about as stories go but it is different. Don't tell me what you don't appreciate as a reader and not give me the opportunity to clarify your misconceptions. Or, to tell you you're absolutely right.

Truth is, I've not really prepared this story from an outline standpoint. I've not even put an outline on paper. Believe me, I have no misconceptions about the quality of this story. Just read it and have fun with it. I'm pretty sure the guy gets the girl in the end. lol

Also, if we've talked by PM don't pay any attention to the above. Not meant for you.

One last thing. lol If you like the story my delicate ego could use a little stroking. I'd appreciate knowing that this little attempt at something different is appreciated.

That's my rant for today. :)

Witness Protection

Chapter 8

"So, how is everything going?" Chester asked.

"Fine, you've already asked that."

"You just seem…distracted…on edge. What's wrong?"

"How can you tell how I'm feeling when you've never even seen my face?"

"Come on, love. Give me some credit here. I know you pretty well by now. And I would like to see your face. Any chance of that, soon?"

"Actually, you could help me out and in so doing; maybe allow that meeting to take place one day."

He became guarded. "Sure, if I can, I would do anything for you that doesn't get me put in jail." They both laughed but Sarah was preoccupied with her upcoming request. She wasn't sure if he would do it or not. And, she wasn't sure how she would handle has refusal.

"I need to find this guy. He's most likely an Air Force officer but I don't know his name."

"Aw, come on. I mean, I like to show off, but this is next to impossible."

"There's more to go on I think."

"I'm listening."

Sarah didn't know how to get what she needed without telling Chester. But she didn't know if she could trust him. She wanted to, but she had not really trusted anyone, or at least she couldn't remember trusting anyone since she was a little girl.

There's this guy that died. He was a Colonel in the Air Force. But I think that he didn't really die. I think that he was given another name and assignment. I can tell you when he died, I can tell you his age. I could even send you a copy of his photo if you'd give me an email address."

"Why didn't you say so? What's the name and age? I don't need the photo."

Sarah knew that Chester would not give her the address and that was his way of not going there.

"Colonel John Casey, age 42. Died early November."

"Right. Give me a day or two and I'll let you know. Now enough of that. Tell me about your day."

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Hey, love. I got that information for you."

Already?"

"Who do you think you're dealing with?"

"I'll let you know after you give me the information."

"Oh ye of little faith."

"I love it when you talk like that. Say something else English."

"Where do you live, I'd like to come knock you up?"

"Very funny."

"What would you say if I said I'd give the information only after I get your address?"

Silence.

"Okay, I was kidding. I've got it right here…you're guy just got transferred to McChord AFB just south of Seattle. His name is John Green, he's a lieutenant."

"What's the address?"

"327 Meridian. The town is called Edgewood."

Thanks, Chester. I've got to go. But I owe you one."

"Sally, if I could make it to Seattle, do you think you could stay for a couple of days?"

"Not now, Chester. I need to finish this up. If I do, we will meet."

"Then go get em. Call me when you get back."

"I will, I promise."

Sarah made travel arrangement and was on her way to Seattle International Airport the next day.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"They did what?" Director Kemmet shouted.

"We just found out about it. We're trying find out who gave the order."

"Goddamnit, McChord is thirty miles from Seattle. I don't want them in the same state let alone the same county. We can't afford for them to meet. We don't know how they will respond to that."

"We've asked that Lieutenant Green be kept on base and not given access to leave. But you know how military red tape is. I'm not sure if they caught him in time. I should know any minute now."

"I don't want Green anywhere near Seattle. If Bartowski and Casey run into each other on the street, it could be newsworthy."

"He lives off base in a little two bedroom house. I have a couple of the locals going to retrieve him if he's already left the base.

"Get him back to the base. Someone is going to have a boot up there ass over this."

"And what about Walker? Has there been any other hits on phone surveillance?"

"None Sir, we didn't get a trace on the one hit we had so we're just listening for key words. Our tech guys think she knew we were on to her. If that's true, then we won't catch her that way."

The Director sighed. "Very well, keep looking for her. This Goddamn project couldn't have gone worse if the Ring had designed it themselves." He watched the project lead leave for the door and then had an afterthought.

"Oh, and get Kelly back here. The Med team think they've got some information about Bartowski that we need her to check out. Our man on site hasn't really been able to get close enough to him outside of work. We're hoping that Kelly can get a peek at his private life."

"Very well, Sir."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lieutenant Green walked through the front door of his home after a long day at work. He never had thought of himself as the pencil pushing type but that's the way his career had turned out.

He threw his car keys in the wooden bowl he kept on the table by the front door and walked towards the kitchen, opened the fridge and pulled out a Coors. He popped the top and took a long guzzle, before turning around to get in his favorite chair and turn on the TV.

As he walked into the living room, he stopped dead in his tracks. Sitting in his favorite chair was a gorgeous blonde eyeing him seriously while pointing a thirty eight caliber automatic right at his chest.

"Are you John Green?" she said.

"Look, if you're looking for money, boy have you come to the wrong house."

"Sit down," she said, motioning with her gun to the couch across from her.

Green didn't look like he wanted to comply until the blonde cocked the weapon with practiced precision. He got the subtle message she was sending him and sat down.

"What do you want?"

"I just want to talk with you for an hour. Then I'll leave."

"That's it! You just want to talk. Lady, I don't know what your game is but"-

"You ever hear the name John Casey before?" Sarah recognized the man before her as the man she had had the argument with in the CIA conference room.

"No, should I?"

"What about your memory? Does it seem a little fuzzy for the last three years?"

He started to stand until she refocused the weapon at him. "I don't know what your game is, but I'm pretty sure you've got the wrong guy."

Sarah laughed because she had the memory of herself shoving him in the back as he started to leave. She briefly wondered again what that was about. It gave her hope that she was on the right track. It gave her courage to just be honest.

"I am a CIA agent." She threw him her ID badge. "I believe my memory has been altered and the last three years have been tampered with. I believe you and I were partners and we worked with a third man named Chuck. Does any of that ring a bell?"

His first thought was to call for the medics. But then he took the time to look at her ID. He'd seen CIA ID's before, although he couldn't remember where, but this one looked legit.

Suddenly, taking her a little more seriously. "Okay, yeah, I've had some issues with my memory. But I drink a lot. Goes with the territory."

"Well I don't drink a lot and I'm having these dreams-"

"Dreams! What kind of dreams?"

"Mostly about this guy. Here," she said and pitch the picture of Chuck that Ellie had given her. She pitched it like you would a playing card and it landed perfectly on the Lieutenant's lap.

"Does he look familiar?"

Casey didn't answer right away. But he did look uncomfortable. It was enough to let Sarah know that Chuck's picture did remind him of something. "Look John, I don't know what they did to us, but I intend to find out. I could use a partner here. And if I'm right, an old partner. What do you say? Up for a mission?"

Just as she said the word mission, he had a flash of memory. He saw himself and this lady talking to another officer on a TV screen in some kind of control room. And the guy in the picture was there too. He looked at her and almost remembered something else. It was so close to surface and yet, he couldn't quite bring it up. Just as he stopped trying, it came to mind.

"You and that guy in the picture were doing the big nasty long term weren't you?"

Sarah frowned at him. "Why would you say that? Do you remember anything about us?"

"Yeah, I think so." He was interrupted by a police car pulling up out in front of his house and slamming on the brakes.

They both stood in unison.

"John, remember this number. When you get a chance call me. I've got the feeling that you're being taking away."

The officers knocked on the door and John Green went to answer it.

"John, don't tell them about me," Sarah said and then watched his expression show hurt.

"Partners don't betray one another," he said and opened the door. "Hello officers, can I help you?"

"We have instructions to take you to McChord."

"Why didn't they send MP's?"

"We don't know Lieutenant; we're just doing what we're asked to do."

John gave a quick little smile to the blonde hiding in his living room out of sight from the officers but so she could still see him. "Yeah, I'll be right there. Let me get my wallet, it has my ID." He grabbed his wallet and left without looking back to Sarah.

She watched the police officers leave with her lead with a strong sense of exasperation. "Shit," she said, as she watched the car disappear. She had been this close. He remembered Chuck and I having an intimate relationship, she thought. Now the best thing she could hope for is that he would call her when he was able. What was he going to tell her about Chuck and herself? Trying to calm herself down after being so close to more answers, she went to the refrigerator and grabbed one of Casey's beers. She knew she could not leave him a note as tempting as that was. No, she would have to wait for him to contact her.

She found it unusual that she did not for a second fear that he would not call. She saw in his eyes the same need for answers that she had. She realized also that the brief time with Casey had seemed to give her some of her memory back. It was hazy but she saw herself and Chuck sitting with Ellie and another man. A man she now remembered as Devon. Feeling as though she was close to the truth, she left Casey's house and headed back to the airport.

All she could do now was go back to Gulf Shores and wait for his call. As she sped away from Casey's house, she wondered briefly how close she might be to Chester. She was tempted but for only a second, to call him a set up a meeting. But then she realized she needed to finish what she was doing before she thought about something else. The piece that was still missing, the piece that she still needed to know…was her relationship with Chuck real or not.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"The new model agrees with Dr. Reynolds' early warning that the subject may have some latent memory available for recall. The model predicts that in that scenario, we could see a certain kind of anti-social behavior crop up as a means of dealing with the frustration of understanding what has happened on a subconscious level. But he would not be able to act upon that knowledge consciously," Director Kemmet said.

"And you want me to do what?" Kelly asked as though she wasn't going to like the answer.

"We want you to go to his house and check it out. If you have to break in then do it, but we would rather you get invited. I understand that his house is just a step below Ft. Knox in security systems."

"Still, if it's all the same to you, Sir, I would prefer the break in approach."

"Nonsense, Meyer. Use your position as a customer to have dinner with him. Take the opportunity to look around the house. If it's clean then we are worrying for nothing."

Kelly just nodded but the expression on her face told the story about how she felt about spending more time with Chad Brown.

"What do I do if I find something?"

"Just let me know. We'll take care of it from our end."

"You know it would help if I knew who this guy was."

"Its need to know. Just find out if he's operator a dog fighting ring, or even getting his cable illegally. You understand?"

"I want to go on record as stating contrary to what others around here have said about Sarah Walker. And that is there is no way that she and this Chad Brown ever had anything going."

"You've made that clear, Kelly."

"It's just that Sarah's not here to defend herself."

"No one is attacking her."

"Sure seems like it to me."

"It's duly noted. But we need this information and our man on site hasn't been able to get an invite over."

"You'll get it, I guarantee but I expect that promotion after this assignment."

"It's odd that you protest as much as you do. I don't recall Walker ever having the same issues."

"Walker's the best there is. She probably had to gargle every time she had to kiss the dweeb. But she would never complain. I doubt if another agent in the same room with them would know how she really felt. I've seen her in action. She's that good."

"Good to hear. Now, you better get back to Seattle."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sarah was jittery. She began to get the feeling that it was time to move on. And, she was frustrated by how close she had come to finding out about the true nature of her relationship to Chuck. Was it real or not?

She also felt as though she was at a crossroads in terms of continuing her telephone relationship with Chester.

There was something about him that intrigued her, pulled at her even. But, if what she had with Chuck was real…?

But if it was not real, then what?

Sarah's thoughts swung back and forth in this manner. What she didn't know at the time was that her indecision was a direct result of the effects of her memory altering procedure growing weaker with each hour.

The more that she pictured her meeting with John Casey, the more tidbits from the past she was starting to recall. But the tidbits were random and as of yet, not much help in aiding her in the decision between the two men.

She recalled numerous get-togethers with Ellie and Devon. But since Ellie had not been aware of Sarah's real job, those images could easily be fake.

So on this late Friday night, sitting on her back porch looking at the ocean as she thought about what she really knew about the assignment, she concluded that it was fake.

If she had had an intimate relationship with Chuck, it most likely was to keep him in line. She probably did "like" the guy and didn't want him to get hurt. She could see herself doing that. But fall in love with an asset?

She had waffled back and forth on this issue. The night before she was ready to call Chester and tell him not to call again. She would have thrown her phone away but she needed it so Casey could contact her.

That was the turmoil she found herself into. It was not her fault. She had been drugged in a very powerful and new way and this was her mind's reaction from coming "off" the drug.

But Chester called this particular Friday night. A night where Sarah was sure her relationship with Chuck was fake. He must have sensed a subtle change in her and became just a little more aggressive than normal.

"Hey, love. How are you tonight?"

"Good, I've missed your voice."

"Sorry, I've been working."

"Anything noteworthy?"

"Not really. But I've missed talking with you too."

"I thought maybe you forgot about me down here." Sarah knew the minute the words left her lips, that she had made a mistake. She knew even more so by the silence on the other end.

"Down there, huh. You're slipping, love. Are you sure you're okay?"

Sarah did not respond. She wondered if she really did want him to find her and that was just a subconscious desire manifesting itself through her slip of the tongue.

"Actually, that's why I called. I'm going to Seattle the end of next month. I want to see you."

"I…don't know, Chester."

"Tell you what, meet me in Seattle and I will tell you my real name. Then you won't have to call me Chester anymore."

"I like Chester."

"Fine, meet me in Seattle and call me Chester or anything else you want to call me. Just say you will come?"

Sarah hesitated too long before answering.

"Sally, meet me." His voice was soft, and earnest but demanding in a non-threatening way.

She sighed. "When?"

"March, 30th. Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. It's on Pine down by the theater."

"Yeah, I know where it is."

"Really! You know Seattle pretty well?"

"Been there more than once."

"Soon as I hang up, I'm calling and making 8:00 p.m. reservation under the name of…John Casey. That ought to be safe since he's considered dead," he said with a chuckle. "It's a date then."

Sarah smiled despite her misgivings. "It's a date."

"I'm quitting whilst I'm ahead. I've got reservations to make. See you soon."

"You better not be some overweight, bald guy with bad hygiene."

"Ditto, love."

Sarah disconnected the line and her phone immediately began to ring.

"Hello," she said, guardedly.

"Walker, it's Casey. We've got to meet. Tell me you're still off the grid?"