What do you know; I'm updating this when I said I probably wasn't. I'm sorry I lied to you. I feel so ashamed to put out this update after lying. I really didn't expect to write this so quickly but it just came to me so easily. The poll is officially closed and the story will forever be changed because of your numerous votes.
Thank you for all the reviews and alert subscriptions and favoriting.
I do not own Chuck.
/
"What happened with you and Walker?" Casey asks curiously as he hands Chuck a bulletproof vest to put under his shirt while in the Castle armory. "You've obviously been contacting each other over the phone."
"She just up and vanished without even so much as a goodbye…" Chuck starts to explain sadly as he remembers the depression it caused him.
"Understandable," Casey muses. "She is a spy."
"Yea but then a few weeks later, she called me," Chuck answers with happiness back in his tone. A silent beep is unheard throughout Castle.
"So why did Cruz contact you of all people?" Casey grabs his own bulletproof vest while Chuck straps his vest over his undershirt.
"You can't tell anyone especially Beckman what I'm about to tell you," Chuck says with conviction.
"You're playing with fire Bartowski," Casey warns.
"You promise?" Chuck pleads seriously.
"Sure," Casey nonchalantly answers.
"I had my dad create untraceable phones so we can talk uninterrupted."
"That's smart but it still doesn't explain why he contacted you."
"The phones can only call each other."
"Beckman is going to find out about you and Walker at some point," Casey informs Chuck as if it is inevitable.
"I know. I just hope it isn't anytime soon, you know?"
"Ahem," A loud female cough blares from the speakers of the room. Chuck looks over at the monitor and sees General Beckman looking directly at him with an expectant scowl on her face. Chuck immediately drops to the ground and behind a table to try and hide.
"General?" Casey is shocked but stands at attention.
"What is Bartowski doing here?" Beckman angrily asks. "You can come out now *Mister* Bartowski."
"Hi General," Chuck sheepishly smiles and waves. "How much did you hear?" His voice is feeble and quiet by the end of the question.
"Enough," she answers cryptically. "Are you going to explain why you are in a government base?"
"Agent Walker and Larkin were captured," Casey answers truthfully. Beckman's eyes flash with shock for a very brief millisecond before dropping back into the expectant gaze. Chuck gives Casey a wide-eyed look of betrayal. "We believe Cruz contacted Bartowski thinking that he was Walker's superior officer."
"And she's been contacting you behind my back?" Beckman is enraged. "She disobeyed direct orders! I should have her suspended!"
"Right now we need to deal with reacquiring both agents successfully," Casey changes the subject. Chuck is so thankful for Casey changing the subject but restrains himself from bowing down to Casey or saying anything.
"This isn't over," Beckman glares at Chuck menacingly. "So what are the parameters?"
"Cruz wants to meet outside the BuyMore at midnight tonight," Casey explains.
"Why would he want to meet right next to a government base?" Beckman ponders.
"I'm not sure General," Chuck answers. "That was his demand though. Maybe he doesn't know there's a government base here."
"Or he does and is using the agents to get access," Casey suggests oppositely.
"We cannot allow them access to Castle and must reacquire the Intersect," Beckman explains.
"What about Sarah?" Chuck asks worriedly. She cannot honestly just throw Sarah to the wolves, can she?
"And Agent Walker too," Beckman says unenthusiastically. "What is your plan?"
"Bartowski leads them out and uses a flash bang. Then I tranq the enemies," Casey explains the gist of their plan.
"The magnet, huh?" A very subtle grin appears on Beckman's straight face. Casey mirrors her grin with a nod.
"I really don't like the way you guys say that," Chuck expresses his distress.
"The Intersect is top priority," Beckman orders. Just like that, her grin is completely gone and she is back to all business.
"Yes ma'am," Casey nods and stops Chuck before he could protest that Sarah is just as important if not more.
"Update me after the mission. I expect to have the Intersect safe and secure."
"And Sarah!" Chuck shouts as Beckman cuts the feed. "Are you kidding me? She could care less about Sarah!" Chuck starts to get furious. How could she care so little about someone who has religiously worked for her for over two years now?
"The Intersect is more important than your girlfriend," Casey explains.
"Not to me!" Chuck shouts angrily.
"I'm sorry if the General doesn't see the same importance in her as you do," Casey sarcastically responds.
"Well I'm not letting anything happen to either of them," Chuck says with pure confidence.
/
Chuck is waiting outside the BuyMore impatiently. The brisk air seems colder on this night than most nights but he can still feel the sweat bearing down on him. The light from the BuyMore behind him is the only visible light on the area as the stars seem extra dim on such a horrific night. It would be a beautiful night to spend out with Sarah just staring at the stars but the situation is ruining it.
The flash bang is safely secured on the back of his belt. He nervously fiddles with his hands as he goes through what his mission is. Chuck is not cut out for this; he never really was. The only thing that could possibly make him a spy would be Intersect 2.0 but he doesn't even have 1.0 anymore; not that that would help right now.
Casey is hiding in one of the few bushes in the parking lot fifty feet from Chuck. He is in an all-black BDU outfit with a balaclava mask over his head. He has two tranquilizer pistols; which he wishes were real. He cocks both of them and inspects them. "Stupid Bartowski and his aversion to killing," Casey mumbles annoyingly.
"I can hear you," Chuck reminds him through their earpieces.
"I know that," Casey quips although it did slip his mind. "I'm in position and Cruz should be here any minute. Just stay calm. You've been on plenty of missions before. This is no different."
"Uh, thanks," Chuck sheepishly responds. It is totally different to him with Sarah being in trouble, but the pep talk didn't hurt.
/
"We stopped," Bryce feels the dark musty van that they are tied up in come to a standstill. Sarah perks her ears up as she looks around.
"I can't tell where we are," Sarah tries to look out of the sliver of missing tint in the back window.
"Let me see," Bryce scoots to look out of the sliver. Sarah moves out of the way. After a few seconds, something captures his eyes. "Is that the Orange Orange?"
"What?" Sarah is shocked. There is no way they are at Castle. "Move over," she uses a bit of force to look out of the sliver; knocking Bryce out of the way. "Sorry," she mumbles unapologetically.
"Thanks," he sarcastically mumbles back as he struggles to get himself back up because his hands are tied behind his back.
"I think you're right. And there's the BuyMore," Sarah states with confusion. "Why would they take us here?"
"They did want our base. Castle is right here. They must have found out," Bryce muses.
"This is not good."
"You can say that again," one of Cruz's associates climbs into the back of the van; the front being sectioned off from the cargo space. Sarah and Bryce both look at him as he pulls out a length of duct tape. "Smile," he smirks evilly as he places a piece over both of their mouths.
/
"A black van just pulled up," Casey informs Chuck as a black van pulls up twenty feet from Chuck and thirty feet in front of Casey. This works perfectly as he is on the opposite side of the van then Chuck.
"I see it. That must be them," Chuck replies. The van sits still for a few minutes; making Chuck even more nervous. He draws in a long breath and slowly lets it out to calm himself. This is it, he tells himself.
The front passenger door opens along with the driver side door. Cruz and one other man step out. Chuck only knows it's Cruz because he studied a picture they had of him from the botched mission yesterday. Cruz walks over towards Chuck; now only fifteen feet away with a gun pointed towards Chuck. "It's a pleasure to meet you Agent…" He waits for Chuck to tell him his name.
"Carmichael, Charles Carmichael," Chuck states as confidently as possible.
"Well *Agent* Carmichael," Cruz states smugly, "I would love a tour of your base." Cruz studies Chuck's lanky, un-athletic form. He stifles the need to berate Chuck on his puny appearance.
"First I have to see that my agents are unharmed," Chuck responds coldly with the same confidence.
"Reasonably," Cruz lifts his empty hand and gives a hand signal to his associate by the van. The associate opens the van and the other associate climbs out from the darkness of the inside of the van.
Chuck watches carefully as he sees the associate pull Bryce out. Bryce has his hands tied behind his back and duct tape over his mouth. Chuck notices the slight swelling on his face and cringes. Bryce's brow furrows as he sees Chuck standing there. He tries to talk but it is just a mumble under the tape.
The associate who opened the door climbs in and pulls Sarah out by her right arm. Chuck tenses as he sees the woman he loves being pushed around without her will. Anger starts to build in him as he sees Sarah thrown out of the van. She steps out and feels a rush of cold air bristle against her skin. She takes in a long breath through her nose as she hasn't smelled such fresh air in hours. When she notices Chuck, her eyes widen to saucers and she tries to say his name under the tape. She feels tears threaten her glassy eyes as she didn't think she would see him again. Chuck tries to stay calm as all he wants to do is run up to her and hug her forever. Because he cannot, he gives her a quick wink that tells her that he knows what he is doing.
As she situates herself outside the van, her shirt slides up because of the associate pulling on her sleeve to reveal fresh bruises on her stomach. "You touch another hair on her body and I'll kill you myself," a hateful venomous tone of pure intent threatens. Chuck gets shivers at how evil and deadly the voice is until he realizes it came from his own mouth. It was purely from impulse and surprised even Cruz with the pure hatred in his tone.
"You're not exactly in a position to declare threats," Cruz states smugly as he aims the gun at Chuck.
While this is going on, Casey sneaks towards the van silently as he stealthily presses himself against the opposite side of the van.
"My superiors will be pleased to know that I found the location of a government base," Cruz smirks at Chuck as he walks towards Chuck.
"They don't know about it yet?" Chuck asks as he tries to keep the hopefulness out of his voice.
"They will," Cruz responds cryptically.
"That's good to know," Chuck grins slightly. That means no one knows about Castle except for Cruz and his associates.
"Why is that good to know?" Cruz questions skeptically.
"Now," Casey orders Chuck through the earpieces.
Chuck whips out the flash bang and pulls the pin at the same time. He tosses it towards Cruz. Cruz panics and fires a shot that slams Chuck in the right chest. Chuck cascades onto his back and Sarah screams under the tape as her eyes widen at the sight. She rips her right arm out of the associate's grip and runs towards Chuck before the explosion of the flash bang.
A loud bang pierces the chilling air and Cruz squeezes off an errant shot as he screams out in blindness and brain puncturing pain that causes him to stumble to the ground; holding himself up with just one hand.
Sarah crumples over as the piercing ringing penetrates her ear drums and her vision is blurred to a pure whiteness. She lets out a loud gurgle that sounds like "Chuck!" Tears explode from her eyes as she replays the image of Chuck being shot in her head.
Cruz's associates both fall to their knees as they squeeze their eyes shut. Bryce noticed the flash bang so he quickly shut his eyes and looked away so the blindness isn't quite as bad nor is the piercing sound.
Casey quickly wraps around the van and fires three tranquilizer shots; all hitting their marks with perfect accuracy. Casey runs over to Chuck in slight fear. It would be miserably ironic if Chuck died while saving Sarah's life. He would do it in a heartbeat, but to see it is very real to Casey. He sees the smashed bullet against Chuck's chest and no blossoming rose of red viscose liquid where the bullet hit. Casey is relieved as he slaps Chuck a little forcibly to wake him up.
"Ah!" Chuck stirs in a groan. "Damn that hurts! I don't know how anyone could get used to that."
"Aren't you glad I told you to wear one," Casey quips as he pulls Chuck up to his feet with one hand. "You check on Walker. I'll check on Larkin."
Chuck nods as he runs up to Sarah and unbinds her hands and slowly removes the tape. "Sarah!" He calls as he cups her cheek and looks into her tear stained face.
"Chuck! Is that you?" She asks worriedly as she is still blind from the flash bang. She wants to just cry into his safe arms, but holds back the continuing tears.
"Yes, Sarah," he pulls her into his arms and holds her tightly to his chest. "It's me."
"But I saw you get shot?" She questions as she forms to his arms; the safest feeling she has ever felt.
"If I learned anything from my years as a spy, it's to always wear a vest," he quips with his special giant smile that's only for Sarah. Her vision finally clears just enough for her to see his smile.
"I thought I lost you," she sniffles and wipes away any of the remaining tears as she wraps her arms around him.
"You're not getting rid of me that easily," he jokes as he enjoys her touch and kisses her forehead.
"Ugh," Casey grunts in disgust.
"I never thought I'd say this but I'm with Casey," Bryce jokes.
Chuck helps Sarah up off the ground. "Did they hurt you?" Chuck asks humbly as he tries to examine her stomach.
"Not really. I'm fine," she smiles at him as she resists Chuck's need to check up on her. "I'm just happy to be safe."
"About that," Chuck sheepishly smiles as he scratches the top of his head. "Beckman kind of knows I've been talking to you."
"What?" Sarah flinches back in shock as numerous ways it can go down flash through her head; all of them ending with her losing Chuck forever.
"She kind of just appeared while we were preparing in Castle," Chuck goes on.
"I think you're best off sitting out this briefing," Casey tells her as he can just imagine what Beckman would say to her. "I'll deal with her tonight. Do you need any medical attention?"
"Nope, and thank you Casey," Sarah smiles graciously at him.
Casey nods and turns to Bryce, "Now help me with the bodies."
/
No cliffhanger this time. Well not really at least. I wasn't sure if I wanted Beckman to find out quite yet, but she did and now there will be consequences.
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