Part I

A/N: Not long. I got really tired and irritated and didn't want to put too much 'me' into it. Esardi - this one's for you and the NightNurse who iPad's a lot. APR


21st Century Security
Castle Complex

Pamela Wallace knew she had competition for the affections of John Casey but she had no idea just how fierce the competition was going to be.

First off, Billie O'Doyle had become fixture in his life as well as Chuck's, although Chuck seemed to be keeping his distance since Sarah Walker returned to DC to work with Larkin and the US Attorney on their case files and testimony. In fact, he was distant with Casey as well.

"Chuck, what's up with you and John? You two had a real good thing going when I left so what happened? You barely seem to tolerate Casey."

"It's nothing for you to be concerned about, Agent Wallace. Just a bump in the road, that's all. So, is this a continuation of my 'evaluation' for uploading the damned new version 2.X? Because if it is, this interview is over."

"No. I was just curious since the distance between you seems to affect the team dynamic, that's all. I'm here for as long as it takes me to figure out why you work and Larkin doesn't. That's all. I'm not here to try and convince you to do anything against your will. I saw your demonstration with Dr. Krupp and you were correct in your theory. Beckman has a hard time accepting that but she'll come around."

"I could care less. They won't bother fixing Bryce as long as they think I'm their backup boy. Ain't going to happen, Agent Wallace. Sarah and I discussed it in detail and we're both comfortable with just being together. Her ring is our commitment. I believe in marriage but I won't allow Beckman to use the divorce from Larkin as leverage."

"OK, enough of that. Tell me about my competition. What's going on between John and this Billie person?"

"Ask Casey. I won't talk behind his back even though he doesn't extend the same courtesy to me or Sarah. They're good together and she's a lot different from anyone Casey's ever met. Until this crap with Beckman, we used to spend time as 'couples' at her house in Topanga and we all got along fine. Sarah and Billie were becoming friends but that whole situation is on hold. Too bad, really, because Sarah doesn't have any friends except Carina and they don't see each other that much."

Chuck enjoyed watching Casey writhe in the throes of a teenage love triangle. Pamela Wallace was making her play for John. Billie didn't know about Pamela and Chuck thought Casey was a real asshole for playing both women off against each other. He just watched. It was none of his business.


A few days later, Beckman called a pre-mission conference. Arlen Napper, the JPL scientist, had been contacted once again by the Chinese intelligence agent and Chuck needed to make the meeting.

Pamela Wallace helped Chuck put on the wire and together they reviewed the mission objectives. Casey was handling 'housekeeping items' with the General and Pamela needed brought up to speed.

"We're going to the Griffith Park Observatory observation deck and I'll meet Chin at one of the benches. We only have 2 hours to get prepped so Casey better be wrapping up the call with Beckman."

"Chuck, wear a vest. At least one of the lighter weight body armor used under suits. It won't show and I'd feel better if I didn't have to tell Walker her fiancé got greased on a mission because he wasn't wearing a vest."

"Agent Wallace, you worry too much."

"Chuck, since we're going to be working so closely together do you think you could just call me Pam?"

An hour later Chuck was sitting on the same bench waiting for Chin to make contact. He looked at his watch. Chin was late.

"Casey, he's late. How long do I wait?" He looked around but saw no sign of the Chinese agent. He set his briefcase down and waited for the call.

"We'll give him another half hour. Maybe he got stuck in traffic or something."

Napper's cell buzzed just as Casey's time limit expired.

"Napper."

"Ah, Dr. Napper, this is Mr. Chin. I see you're in the same spot as before. Did you bring the remaining flash drives?"

"Yeah. You got my money? And I hope you left your girlfriend and her baby behind this time."

"She has been taken care of, Dr. Napper. You have nothing to fear from her."

"Good. Where are you? I want this transaction over and done with. I'm getting paranoid. I see FBI agents at every turn. Where are you?"

Chuck felt a tap on his shoulder and it was Chin. He sat down beside Chuck and opened up his laptop. Chuck leaned back and saw their Suburban pulling into the spot right below him.

Chuck handed him the case with the drives and asked for his money. Chin smiled and told him to 'wait' while he verified the data. Once he was satisfied, he opened the briefcase he brought and showed Chuck the stack of Bearer Bonds totaling the $2 million he'd demanded.

"Excellent. It's been a pleasure doing business with you, Mr. Chin. I'll be running along now."

Chuck grabbed the briefcase with the Bearer Bonds and started to stand when Chin reached into his coat and pulled out a silenced pistol and shot him in the side. Chuck fell to the rough pavement unable to breathe and he could hear Casey shouting through his earpiece that 'they were on the way'.

Chin stood over him, admiring his handiwork. Chuck's lungs were on fire and he couldn't seem to draw a breath.

"Dr. Napper, your running days are over. You've seen my face. Surely you knew that this would end badly for you? The Chinese Peoples' Liberation Army thanks you for your service."

Chuck looked up at him and saw the muzzle of his pistol swing towards his face. In desperation he thrust his foot up and into Chin's knee just as he fired.

Casey reached the pair and fired two trank darts into the Chinese agent who was screaming and clutching his knee that seemed to be hinged the wrong way. Casey didn't want any more attention drawn to the situation. It had already degenerated into a real rat fuck.

The entire side of Chuck's head was covered in blood and Casey feared the worst. Pamela Wallace knelt down beside them and felt Chuck's neck.

"I've got a pulse. It's strong but fast – very fast. I think he's going into shock. He can't seem to draw a breath. Thank God I convinced him to wear a vest!"

"Too bad you didn't add a bullet proof helmet to his wardrobe. Christ, I can't find out where the blood's coming from."

C asey called in a spot report and a request for a medical team. A few minutes later Beckman called demanding an update.

"General, the Chinese agent shot Bartowski in the head. There's too much blood to accurately access his condition. He's out cold. I'll update when I know something. Christ, he blew his head off!"

He hung up on Beckman's shrill demands and called for an extraction team and a status on the medical evacuation and gave the analyst their exact location. A helicopter was already in the air and would be on site within 5 minutes.


Burbank Memorial Hospital

"Oh, my ear…fucker shot my damned ear off! Where is he? I'll rip both his ears off. Son of a bitch welched on the deal and tried to take the drives and the bonds. I definitely got a broken rib, Casey." He ran out of breath.

"Hold still, Mr. Bartowski. I deadened the whole side of your head so you shouldn't feel the stitches." The doctor was anxious to get this done and get the patient to x-ray.

"You're probably going to want to have the ear looked at by a plastics guy, Chuck. Y'know, one ear is now bigger than the other. Sarah's going to have to nibble on the whole one." Casey was ragging on him to deflect from the seriousness of the situation. He could still see Bartowski lying 'dead' on the pavement.

"Screw you, Casey. Jesus, I can still see the muzzle of the pistol aimed right between my eyes. I just reacted like you taught me and kicked him in the knee. Hope I broke his fucOW! Damn it, I thought you numbed it?"

"Oops, my bad. Must have missed a spot. Just a few more stitches, Mr. Bartowski, then we'll get you to x-ray." Chuck swore at the doctor and looked to Casey for the truth.

"Can't staple it, Chuck, and there's nothing left of it to glue back on." He was messing with his mind. The bullet had clipped the top ¼ inch of his ear and then ripped through his scalp before ricocheting off the pavement into the unknown. He was damned lucky he'd kung fu'd Chin. Saved him a lot of paper work.

The doctor sprayed the area with a topical antibiotic, slapped on a gauze dressing and stepped back to admire his handiwork. "You'll be almost good as new in a week or so, Mr. Bartowski. I'll get a nurse to take you to x-ray and if there are no problems, we'll see you back here for another session of needle work and we'll see about taping up those ribs after I see the films."

Later that night, after making sure Chuck had security on his hospital room, Pamela and Casey sat in the conference room and wrote up their mission reports. Casey went for coffee and he heard Pamela page him.

"Casey, the General's on the screen. She wants an immediate update on Bartowski and then I think she wants a few strips of skin off your butt." Pamela was glad it wasn't her who had to report the disastrous mission.

He turned and walked to the conference room and his punishment.

Conference Room

"Major Casey, this could have been a disaster. Explain, in minute detail, everything that transpired. But first, what is the status of Mr. Bartowski? Can he still access the intersect? Just how badly was he hurt?"

"He has a cracked or broken rib. He was wearing a vest under his shirt. Chin shot him in the side just as they were ending the transfer. Chuck went down hard and we were out of the truck and up over the hillside in seconds. I saw Chin shoot him again just as Chuck broke the bastard's knee with a kick to the joint. I tranked Chin to stop his screams. Bartowski wrecked the guy. He won't be walking any time soon."

"And your initial report – 'Chin blew Chuck's head off' – was somewhat inaccurate, wasn't it?"

"Ah, well, he wasn't responding and there was blood pouring out all over the place. It was just the top of his ear and a furrow through his scalp, General, and the docs sutured it and taped his ribs. He's good to go."

"Run a daily past him. Make sure he can flash. I want him in DC for the remainder of the week. He and Mrs. Larkin can spend some 'quality time' together and then I want to meet with him on Monday here at Headquarters."

"I'll tell him and arrange civilian air travel. I'm sure he'll have no problems with an early visit."

"See to it, Major. We dodged a bullet today. I suppose it couldn't be avoided. He did well though. Tell him 'well done'." She disconnected and then sat back and made plans.

Burbank Memorial Hospital

Pamela came to pick him up when he was discharged and to bring him clean clothes. Chuck had a monster headache but other than that, he felt good. He was alive.

"So, how pissed is Her Bitchiness? At least we got bearer bonds and a Chinese intel officer so it wasn't a total bust."

"Casey won't be able to sit comfortably for a while. I think the General saw the intersect project go up in smoke when we first reported your status from the scene. Casey got a little excited and said that Chin had blown your head off. That got her attention!"

"She probably laughed her scrawny ass off and was sorry she didn't get to see it. How disappointed is she?"

"Actually, she seemed relieved when we updated your condition."

"Tell me, Agent Wallace, how bad is it, really? How much of my ear is…gone?"

"Most of it…"

"Shit! Most of it? One-eared Bartowski? I thought he was kidding! Sarah's going to be so pissed at me."

Pamela just laughed at his reaction and the look of absolute panic on his face. Didn't anyone here explain his injuries to him?

"Most of it is intact. You didn't let me finish, Chuck. It just nicked the top of your ear, honest. You have a concussion but nothing to worry about. They kept you here last night to make sure you didn't stroke out on us. Now, here are clean clothes so get up and dressed. We'll drop your suit and shirt off at the dry cleaners on our way to the Castle."


NSA Headquarters Conference Room

"Ask Mr. Larkin to meet me in the conference area when he's finished with the latest round of modifications." She could imagine her admin assistant scurrying to comply. Oh, how she so enjoyed the little people in life and their pathetic attempts to rise above their trailer park past.

Bartowski had been right and the programmers had worked on 'patches' to eliminate some facets of the 2.0 intersect but Larkin was still prone to freezing up and when he spoke, he rambled on and on, sometimes mumbling and losing his train of thought. More work was required, obviously.

"Agent Larkin, you've made great progress but you're taxing yourself immensely and it shows. You're needed in the DC US Attorney's office to go over your files and testimony. I suggest you stay at your old apartment and get as much rest as possible between work sessions. Your wife is in DC and working with the same attorney handling the case. The rest will do you good."

"Uh, General, we're divorced. I don't know if…"

"Your divorce was never processed, Agent Larkin. You and Sarah are still husband and wife. Well, anyway, you're released to DC after the next session. I'll see you back here Monday for further evaluations. Have a pleasant few days off because we're going to need you and Sarah in the field again."

"Oh, her fiance, Mr. Bartowski, will be in town also, coming in on the redeye from LA. Don't make a scene, Agent Larkin. If you want to discuss your marital status with Agent Walker, you'll find her in the US Attorney's office preparing her testimony for trial. Good day."

That little bit of information, thrown out so casually, sparked a plan that Larkin felt would surely drive his beautiful partner and wife back into his arms and bed she never should have left. The Golden Boy and Golden Girl would be together again. After all, 'What God has joined together, let no man put asunder'. It was a sign of divine will to Bryce Larkin. Bartowski had better watch his step around his wife. The engagement was off. Bryce was back. There would be no divorce this time.


US Attorney's Office
Washington, DC

Sarah Walker was tired and cranky. She'd been here all damned day and had spent most of the time listening to the attorney handling the case and trial drone on and on about arcane legal matters that, quite frankly, bored the shit out of her. She'd learned all about trial proceedings at Harvard Law.

Well, Chuck would be there on Friday and she could spend the entire weekend rolling around in bed and then doing it again. She missed him more than she thought she would and was looking forward to Friday.

She was startled from her dirty daydreams by a man clearing his throat. She looked up and saw her ex-husband, ex-partner, ex-everything, standing there with a small bouquet of spring flowers.

"Hello, Larkin. To what do I owe this displeasure?" She wanted him to leave them in peace and just go away.

"Hey, look, I'm sorry about all the phone calls. They've modified the thing in my head and I'm right as rain again. I'd like to apologize to Chuck, too. Man, I was out of my mind."

She was taken aback. Pole axed. Shocked. Bryce Larkin never apologized. He never did anything to warrant it – at least in his mind.

"Thanks, Bryce, that's nice of you. I'm glad to see you getting straight again. Look, I'm trying to finish up here and get home. I…"

"Let me take you to dinner, Sarah, as a token of congratulations on your engagement." He pointed to the ring on her left hand.

She smiled and said, "Thanks. We're very happy together. I think we make a wonderful couple. But dinner's not necessary, Bryce, really." She wanted to go home and soak in a tub and plan all sorts of things to do with and to her fiancé.

"I – I, uh, I thought we could discuss the divorce. Maybe if you found out what went wrong with us, you can avoid the same mistakes this time around."

"Well, I suppose we do need to discuss getting the damned thing processed. OK, dinner but that's all, OK?"


LAX

Chuck's flight was on time for a change. Non-stop to DC and he'd be with his fiancé for 5 days. Pam had driven him to the airport after checking his dressing and retaping his ribs. She talked the entire trip to the airport about Casey and that 'trollop', Billie. Chuck feigned interest but in reality, his mind was on his fiancé, not discussing his friends' relationship traumas.


Sarah's Apartment
Arlington, VA

"Dinner was nice, Bryce. I think we got a lot settled. And it was really thoughtful of you to walk me home but really, I'm a big girl and can handle myself. I want you to consider coming to the wedding, Bryce. I want Chuck to have all his friends there and you were and can still be his best friend."

"Well, I'll think about it but no promises. I – un – Sarah, can I come up? Just for a second? Uh, the modifications left me with a few problems – uh, I really have to use your bathroom – shit! This is so damned embarrassing."

"Oh! Sure, I'm sure you remember the way." He should. They lived had here for 2 years when not on missions before she transferred to Burbank and broken it off with him and then she'd demanded his key back.

Bryce ran past her and back to the bathroom. Sarah busied herself with sorting through the mail and making coffee. She really didn't want him here. This place was for 'Sarah & Chuck'. There was no 'Bryce' in her life any longer.

Sarah stiffened and tried to turn around when Larkin put his arms around her and began nuzzling her neck. She tried to break his hold but he'd pinned her arms to her sides and she couldn't get any leverage. She stomped down on his foot but he had anticipated it and kicked her in the back of her knee ruining her move.

"Bryce – stop it! Are you nuts? Damn it, let me go…" She felt the pinch of a trank dart and then lost consciousness.

"Oh, baby, we're going to have such a time, you and I. You'll never want to leave me again, Sarah. You're mine, bitch, and I'm taking back what's mine!" There would be no wedding bells in her future. She was his!

A psychiatrist observing Larkin's actions would have immediately classified him as a sociopath. There was no love in his actions, no caring. The modifications had merely hidden the flaws brought out by 2.0, not removed them.

He carefully constructed the scene and when she began regaining consciousness he fumbled through his clothing strewn all over the floor and found another trank dart he'd stolen from the clinic and used it. He had at least three more hours of fun and games before she revived and by then Bartowski would be long gone. He had planned on humiliating and crushing that sanctimonious little worm in front of Sarah but his plans changed. This would be so much better.


A/N: Sorry for the cliffie. APR