NOTE: A very special thanks goes out to Kathryn Oelssner Rydz for helping me to come up with a name for Lester's stuffed elephant. I felt it fit Lester's innocent and childlike side. The man still wears footie pajamas, people! It's both awkward and cute.

"Please; take my hand!"

Gloria looked around, but all she could see were the flames from the fire and dark smoke. "I-I can't! I'm too scared!" she screamed, tears running down her cheeks, but oddly enough, her voice carried no sound. She looked for Chuck's face, but all she could see was a blurry figure, his face completely unrecognizable. Even his voice sounded strange.

"We don't have time," Chuck's 'voice' said before he stretched his hand towards her.

She looked down at his hand, but it soon disappeared, as did Chuck altogether. "Chuck? Chuck, where are you?" she coughed, waiting for a reply as panic started to set in.

"Don't leave; please don't leave me!" a voice, also unrecognizable cried out before the fire completely consumed her.

"Aah!"

Gloria sat straight up, clutching her throat. She looked around and instantly recognized that she was still inside Blackwell's holding area, Jeff sleeping across from her. Wiping the sweat from her forehead using her shirt sleeve and fighting the urge to burst into tears, she thanked the heavens that her startled cry didn't wake her half-sibling. "That's it; I have to get out of here," she muttered, rolling over on her side. As she did, something in her pants pocket poked her in the leg. "Dammit," she cursed before pulling the object out. "Oh, yeah. The keychain."

"Just push the center with your fingerprint and it will activate an emergency signal," John Casey had told her. She looked down at it now, her index finger hovering only centimeters away. It would be so easy to press the button and have Casey, Sarah, and Chuck come to her rescue yet again. But then what would they tell Jeff and Lester? Would it blow their covers? Gloria herself wasn't even supposed to know, but she knew that Chuck could trust her with their secret. Jeff and Lester, however would have it broadcasted on the news or on social media outlets within the hour.

"I can't take that chance. I have to do this myself," she nodded before throwing the device against the wall, smashing it into pieces.

"Mmm...you taste like chicken, Ms. Simpson. Or is it fish?" Jeff muttered in his sleep, causing her to look at him, eyebrow raised in curiosity. Out of the corner of her eye, however, she saw that the big screen on the wall was being reflected through the glass and that it was now white with red type that read 4701*, whereas it had been black earlier.

"What does that mean?" she whispered, assuming Faison had turned on the computer. As she looked around, she finally saw a compartment on the wall by the door. Opening it, she discovered a tiny keypad. How did I miss this before? she thought before entering the numbers and symbol.

Seconds after she did, the door opened with a loud hiss and Gloria nearly whooped with joy. Running over, she shook Jeff. "Jeff; wake up! We're free. Let's get out of here."

"Huh?" Jeff responded, slowly sitting up and using his wrinkled tie to wipe the drool from his mouth and chin.

Not waiting until he realized what was going on, Gloria grabbed his arm and pulled him off the platform and out of the room. As they got to Lester's cell, Gloria turned to see that thankfully, the screen had changed to read 2693*.

"We have to get Lester's attention," she told Jeff as she saw that Lester was sitting on the floor against the wall, with his back to the door.

"Lester!" Jeff called, knocking on the glass.

"It's soundproof, Jeff. He can't hear us," she pointed out.

"Oh, right," he recalled before jumping up and down, waving his arms like a crazed person.

Lester finally turned slightly to see them and instantly sprang to his feet, hope returning in his eyes. Gloria quickly motioned for him to look for the keypad by the door. When he did, she used her fingers to relay the numbers before mouthing 'star". She then sighed with relief as his door opened and she immediately started to turn around and run. Lester, however, acted quicker and embraced both of them gratefully. Jeff returned the embrace but Gloria gingerly put his arm around Lester for only a brief few seconds before taking off. "We have to leave, guys."

"Right behind you," Jeff and Lester replied in unison as they raced down the hall and out the back door.

As they continued running, Gloria mentally thanked Faison for coming to their rescue. She just hoped he wouldn't have to answer to Blackwell later.

"Okay. It's done. They should be free now."

"Great job, Chuck," Sarah encouraged with a smile as they sat inside Castle. "You successfully managed to hack Blackwell's security system and let them escape without us having to go directly to them."

Chuck sighed in relief and laced his fingers together. He still couldn't believe the information that Genral Beckman had found regarding Blackwell and Gloria. Not only were Gloria's foster parents spies with the CIA, but they had hidden a microchip which contained information that could prove detrimental if put into the wrong hands. And Blackwell was two of those wrong hands. He had battled Gloria's foster family for years and knew way too much. He wondered how she was taking the information he knew Blackwell was only happy to share. And how she had managed to survive being captured with Jeff and Lester. That in itself had to be absolute torture.

"I just can't believe she didn't activate the GPS tracker I gave her," Casey complained. "I thought she was smarter than that."

"Look, Casey; I'm sure she didn't use it because if we-well, you and Sarah-came in there guns a-blazin', Jeff and Lester would have a lot of questions to ask. I don't know about you, but would you want to be interrogated by those two?"

"They wouldn't dare," Casey growled, popping his knuckles. "Besides, a few knock-out drops and they probably wouldn't remember a thing. Only downside is, it might kill the remaining two brain cells those buffoons share."

"Aw, Casey; it's almost like for a split second, you seemed to care," Chuck teased, hiding his horror at the idea of using knock-out drops. He just hoped that Gloria would lay low until they could capture Blackwell and that she also had no idea that it was Chuck who rescued them. Ever since he saved her from the fire years ago, she hated feeling as if she needed rescuing. That's how Chuck also knew she would never have activated Casey's GPS tracker. But he couldn't tell them that. Not without explaining the situation. Gloria had never told anyone about the fire and how it had affected her. He still was concerned at the fact that she was still having nightmares about it, so many years later. "Guys, if you don't mind, I think I'm going to go home. Hopefully I can talk to Gloria and find out how she's holding up," he told them, standing up and stretching.

Sarah stood up, as well. "Of course, Chuck. Please, give Gloria our best. I'm sure she is still reeling from everything that's happened earlier."

"Thanks. I will," he waved as he went upstairs. "Goodnight, guys."

"Ugh," Lester groaned as he shifted his position in bed for the umpteenth time. He had tried everything: tea, cuddling with his favorite stuffed elephant, begging his mom to sing him a lullaby. Nothing worked, however. His mind was too preoccupied with the kidnapping, the isolation, and most of all, her. Sitting up and running his hands over his face, he grabbed the remote by his bed and turned on his satellite radio. Maybe hearing good eighties music would calm his restless soul.

"She's like the wind through my tree/She rides the night next to me/She leads me to moonlight/Only to burn me with the sun/She's taken my heart/But she doesn't know what she's done..." the crooning of Patrick Swayze's "She's Like the Wind" began immediately over the speaker.

Are you kidding me right now? Lester thought bitterly before quickly snatching the remote and turning the power off. "Stuff a sock in it, Swayze," he muttered, flopping back down in bed defeatedly. "There is no way that I have feelings for that...woman. No way in hell. Isn't that right, Mr. Snuffles?" he asked, squeaking the stuffed elephant as a 'reply'. "That's right. That woman is gonna be the death of me. I bet she's even turning Jeff against me right now. Well, I don't need either of them. I will be just fine by myself."

But as Lester said those last words, he literally shuddered. He knew he didn't mean it; truth was, he was downright terrified that complete and total loneliness was going to be an emotion he would feel all too soon.

Blackwell had been staring at the microchip for longer than Faison felt comfortable with. His boss was obsessed, that was for sure. But surely, he didn't expect her to really remember verbatim what her CIA mommy told her as a child. But it sure seemed that way. Almost every hour, he or Faison took Gloria out of the room for questioning. Which got them absolutely nowhere.

"Faison; go get Gloria and bring her here. I'm tired of playing Twenty-One Questions," Blackwell finally barked, taking his eyes off the chip momentarily.

"Boss, maybe she really doesn't remember," Faison heard himself say for at least the fifth time.

"You know, it's funny the things we can remember under extreme duress. Bring her to me. And bring that idiot brother of hers, as well. If I have to torture him to make her talk, so be it."

Faison held back a groan and headed back towards the isolation areas. As he turned the corner, however, he saw that two of the cells were open. One of them had the speaker torn out of the wall. The other one had something smaller busted into tiny pieces. The worst and most noticable thing of all, however, were that the three prisoners had escaped. "Son of a bitch," he said aloud, both relief and dread washing over him. Blackwell was not going to be happy. Not at all. "Uh, boss? You might want to come here!"

"What is it, Faison?" he sighed in frustration.

"T-they're gone, sir. They escaped."

"Escaped? How in God's name did they escape?" Blackwell cried out, his face turning bright red. "Faison, this is your fault! You were supposed to keep an eye on them!"

"Boss, unless they had the codes, there is no way they could have possibly-"

Suddenly, they turned to the giant screen on the wall and saw a message that simply read: Leave Them Alone...Or Else.

Faison couldn't help it. "Or else what?" he asked.

"You moron! Someone hacked into our system and helped them escape! And you let them do it!" Blackwell screamed, smacking the back of Faison's head.

"I-I-" he stammered, but it was no use. He knew Blackwell would not take this lying down. He was out for blood. Faison just hoped it wouldn't be his blood.