A/N: I don't own nor make any $ from Chuck. Thanks for all of the reviews, and please keep them coming.
Carina waited outside Casey's hospital room and tried to compose herself. She hated hospitals, from the sterile atmosphere to the suffocating feeling of despair; she despised every thing about them. Most psychologists would probably say that she had a fear of facing her own mortality, but Carina knew it went deeper then that. She could handle anything that happened to her, but couldn't handle when someone she cared about was sick or dying. She remembered back to the time when her mother was dying of breast cancer. She had never been through anything as emotionally painful as watching someone she loved dying in front of her, and she was absolutely powerless to help her. She was grateful for the time she spent with her, but seeing her suffer was like being in prison of tortured emotions, and the only one who got her through the ordeal was Sarah. She smiled when she thought of how unlikely a paring they were, but realized how incredibly fortunate she was to have her in her life. Carina was the total opposite of Sarah, where Sarah was reserved Carina was impulsive, and where Carina was cavalier with relationships, Sarah was cautious. In fact Sarah was the type of person that Carina usually had an aversion to, despite these differences or maybe because of them, Carina and Sarah became best friends.
The first time Carina knew there was something between Sarah and Chuck was when she met her for dinner on evening when they were both back in DC. They talked about Bryce and what it did to her when he betrayed her, but strangely, Sarah didn't seem to care that much. She was hurt that he didn't trust her, but deep down, she knew that she didn't trust him either so maybe in the end his betrayal was not so much of a surprise after all. Carina was floored at Sarah's honesty. Usually to get this kind of information out of her she would have to pull her teeth, but here she was just offering it up. At that moment Carina knew her friend had changed, she knew Sarah better then anyone else and, although the change in her was slight, it was very noticeable to Carina. She immediately began to probe her friend to find the genesis of the change in her, and after hearing her talk about Bryce, she suspected that it wasn't him.
"How is your new assignment going," she asked.
"Oh not too bad," Sarah replied.
"So how is working with Casey?"
"Eh you know the guy has his issues," she said.
"So how is the asset," Carina said.
"He's ...eh...it...not that bad," Sarah stammered.
Sarah was quiet for a minute, and Carina knew that she struck a nerve. She knew Sarah very well and picked up on her hesitation. Sarah would never hesitate with an answer if it was just business, her mind was so thoroughly trained that only some type of internal conflict would derail her thought process. Talking about Bryce or Casey didn't faze her in the least, but just the mention of this guy brought her to a halt.
Oh yes there is something here Carina thought to herself.
She was about to ask another question, when Sarah completely blindsided her.
"Do you ever feel like you have been doing this job for too long," Sarah asked.
"What do you mean," Carina
"Oh nothing. Never mind forget I said anything,"
"No you can't do that Sarah. Tell me what you are thinking," Carina pressed.
"It's stupid. It's just, did you ever want to have a more normal life," Sarah asked.
"What do you mean normal," Carina asked.
"Nothing it's stupid," Sarah replied.
"It's not stupid," Carina said.
"You mean no more agency? Normal 9-5, 30 year mortgage, house full of kids and husband," Carina laughed.
"See I told you it was stupid," Sarah replied.
"No it's not stupid, but it's not for me," Carina replied.
"Yeah not for people like us," Sarah replied.
"No. I said it's not for me, but I think it could work for you," Carina said.
"C'mon Carina don't make fun of me," Sarah chided her friend.
"I'm not making fun of you Sarah. I think it can work for you, all you need is the right guy," she winked.
Sarah noticeably blushed at her words, but tried to cover quickly.
"After my history? Please I'm done with relationships. I gotta go to the bathroom," she said as she got up and left the table.
"Well I guess I gotta go meet this guy," Carina said softly as she watched her friend head to the ladies room.
"She looks so happy," Carina smiled as she saw Sarah look back.
Two weeks later Carina hitched herself to the team, and their mission to recover a stolen diamond. Technically they were assisting her case, but in reality she was there to find out all she could about the asset who had turned her friends world upside down. When she met Chuck she didn't find him too overly impressive, but when she saw the way he worked within his team, she was blown away. She was also blown away with how far gone Sarah was for him, and frankly, it scared her a little bit. She had never seen Sarah this overly protective of anyone, or so obviously in love before. Carina was very protective of Sarah and wanted to make sure that she wouldn't get hurt, but the problem was Sarah was so inexperienced with men, that she didn't know what was good for her. Carina made it her mission to protect Sarah by testing all of her men to see if they were good enough for her.
Her criteria was simple, if she was able to seduce them, then they were not good for Sarah. Bryce was easier then the SATs, and thought he was seducing Carina, but then again he was never that smart. She put on a full blitz for Chuck, but couldn't get anywhere with him. As a matter of fact she got a healthy dose of over protective Sarah and a bloody lip for her trouble, but she walked away happy knowing that her friend found a good guy.
It was because of this good guy that Carina readily agreed to be part of his plan, and as she slowly leafed through the same magazine for the thousandth time, she remembered the conversation she had with Sarah when all of this madness started. They were in Carina's safe house in Baltimore and had just finished briefing Beckman on the plan.
"So are you sure about this," Sarah asked her.
"Yes," Carina replied.
"I wish there was another way, I'm sorry that you have to get dragged into this," Sarah said sadly.
"You are not dragging me into this. I'm a big girl Sarah, I know how to take care of myself."
"I know..its just I feel bad," Sarah replied.
"Why?"
"For getting you involved in something that doesn't involve you," Sarah said sadly.
"Doesn't involve me," Carina barked as her anger flashed.
"Listen to me Walker! You life and happiness concerns me! You are more then just my friend, you are my family! I'm not going to just sit by when some asshole wants to make you a widow, because I might break a goddamn nail!"
Sarah was taken aback by her friend's sudden display of emotion.
"Carina..I can't ...please...," Sarah said as she struggled with her emotions.
"I know Sarah. Don't worry. I won't let anything happen," she said as she gave her friend a reassuring hug.
"I do worry about you Carina," Sarah said as she hugged her back.
In that embrace Carina felt every emotion that Sarah was trying to verbalize. She trusted her with the most important thing in her life, she trusted her with Chuck.
"Thank you so much," Sarah said as tears fell down her face.
"You never have to thank me Sarah. That's what sisters are for," Carina replied.
"I love you Carina."
"I love you too."
"Oh how sweet. I guess I need to get the baby oil and popcorn," came a voice interrupting their embrace.
"Blow me Casey," Carina replied.
"Anytime anywhere," Casey chuckled as he walked off.
"Now Sarah don't worry. Everything will be ok.
"God I hope your right," Sarah replied.
Admiral Corr sat in his office and tried to make sense out of the past few hours, he was not a man who tended to overreact, but something was very wrong. They had a dead SAS team that was killed by a dead British operative, who until a mere two hours ago, was a decorated operative of the British government. This was the second time in less then a week in which an operative died in his custody, and to say Corr was angry, was the understatement of the year. He was a man given to obsessive tendencies, and was analyzing every conceivable point where there could be a traitor, but he couldn't find it. He hated the feeling that was permeating through him right now, it was a feeling of incompetence, and the fact that he couldn't figure out who the traitor was, only served to infuriate him further.
How the hell could Bruin get access to the foreign agent list? Even the president of the United States didn't have that access...he rattled around in his brain.
The only people who had access to it were those in the upper echelon of the intelligence offices, and by congressional decree, these were unelectable positions. They were reserved for the highest-ranking military leaders, who were carefully and thoroughly screened. The fact that Bruin had access to the list meant that he had someone on the inside, and more specific, someone in within Corr's circle.
Many years ago Corr acquired a love of tea while stationed on the Middle East, and when he rotated back stateside, had it imported as no American tea ever measured up. He poured himself a cup and let the steaming liquid cool, as he thought through his problem. As much as it pained him to admit it, all roads to the traitors' identity lead to Diane Beckman.
Barker's death was not an accident, and when Corr examined the video Barker was clearly going after Walker. Beckman had killed him, but was she really involved? Why would she order him to kill her even after she freed her earlier from prison...the questions rattled around in his brain without any answers.
It could be possible that she is trying to throw me off her scent, but what does she hope to gain? The intersect project is dead, so why would she sabotage her project? What did she hope to gain?
Corr read through her personnel file again looking for anything that he could use, but everything just came up empty. He picked up his tea and was about to drink it, but stopped suddenly when his eyes began to sting, and his mucus membranes became highly irritated. He threw the cup down and ran to his sink to flush out his eyes, nose and mouth, letting the water clean out the toxic vapor.
"Nightshade," Corr said.
He had this reaction before to atropine, which is the active ingredient in the Nightshade berries, which is used to make the poison. Corr had a hypersensitivity allergy to atropine, which caused him to react to the mere scent of it. Fortunately for him, this allergy saved his life on more then one occasion by allowing him to detect it.
"Goddamn amateurs," Corr huffed as he threw down his towel in disgust.
He needed to find this traitor now, but if he alerted base security now the traitor would slip away. He put the video of Barkers death on again, and after the 5th time of watching Barker's attempted escape, he finally saw it.
"Son of a bitch," Corr mumbled.
He watched it twice more before he was fully convinced, and then picked up his phone and dialed the base security.
"Security Duty Officer (DO)," a voice said.
"Do this is Admiral Corr. Pull all security from Franklin immediately," he said.
"Yes sir," came the reply.
"Very good," Corr said as he hung up.
He waited three minutes and then keyed the emergency medical code into his phone, which sent out a base wide alarm. He figured the Alarm was the distraction that the assassin would use to get to Franklin, once the code went out from his office, all hell would break loose, which would provide the perfect cover.
Corr didn't have much time, and got up and headed down to interrogation room where Franklin was still being held, confident that unless he was very wrong, Franklin would never leave this base alive.
Franklin sat alone in his in the darkened interrogation room. He was still restrained in his chair from his interrogation with Corr, and his mind was racing with fear over what would happen to him. The absence of light added to the sensory deprivation, and was a standard technique that most agents were trained to resist, but Franklin was not and agent and he was terrified and startled by a sound behind him.
"Who's there," Franklin called into the darkness.
"It's me," a voice said as a body materialized from the darkness.
"What took you so long? You need to get me out of here," Franklin said.
"Sorry James," the person said as they raised a gun to his head.
"No! Please!"
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Corr said as he crept out of the darkness with his gun raised at the assassin.
"Corr," the assassin said.
"I never thought it would have been you general."