A/N: Carina talks.

Burying Dirt

Chapter Twenty-Four: Rub-a-Dub-Dub

Carina stared. Not at Sarah. At the barrel of the gun. Down it, a dark path to nowhere.

"Just go ahead. Shoot me. I gave you the chance before. Take it now."

Chuck's hand was on Sarah's shoulder. Warm. "Talk to us, Carina. Why did you betray Sarah, me?"

Carina stood, using her good hand to help, the other close to her chest — faced Chuck and Sarah. Shrugged without conviction.

"Playing the angles. I was in LA, between gigs, missions. Sleeping during the day, in bed awake all night. Rub-a-dub-dub."

Chuck clenched his brows. "Huh?"

"She wasn't alone."

"No, I had company, every night. But I got a call, my boss, Houghton, DEA. He and Graham, thick as thieves." Carina intertwined the middle and index fingers of her left hand. "Hell, they are thieves. He told me Graham was coming to town and that I should do what he asked. A raise and a promotion in it for me. Agent-In-Charge on my new team-missions. No working under other agents...except by choice." Small leer.

Serious again. "The story was that you, Sarah, had been acting...strangely. Graham was suspicious of you, worried that you had...changed. Graham burned you shortly after he sent you the mission to...to do Chuck. Houghton claimed Graham burned you to force you to come to yourself, to convince you to submit to a gamut of psych evals. He gave you Chuck as a test. Simple termination, no need for your level of deadly, but he wanted to know if you were still on his leash or...had slipped it.

"He had another team in place in LA. They were to take you if you terminated Chuck, bring you back to DC. If you failed, or bailed, the other team was to terminate Chuck and...you were to be treated as beyond salvage, terminated too. When you let Chuck live, you went from burnt to beyond salvage before you took out the other team.

"Graham asked Houghton to send me after you or to get me to tell them where you might be. I told Houghton I would look for you, but that the beyond salvage tag had to be lifted. I would turn you over, turn Chuck over, only if I knew that you would get the help you needed, that you would not be terminated. Graham promised Houghton. Houghton promised me. I could get you help, and give myself a leg up. The angles."

Sarah blew out a breath. "And Chuck?"

Carina frowned. "So not my problem. I had no idea who he was then. Or why he mattered — and I still don't have any idea about that. But I made sure no one was tailing me and I went to find you. You were acting...peculiar. You not only hadn't terminated Chuck, but you were nursing him back to health and, Jesus,...you were sleeping with him. You, the Ice Queen. Shacked up in the woods with your very own Choir Boy-Toy. I figured Graham was right. You needed help. In all the time I knew you, you never slept with a man…"

Saw Ellie shift her attention from Carina to Sarah. Intent gaze.

"...not once. Ever. You seemed...untouchable. Outside of that sort of need or desire. The very idea seemed...to creep you out. Untouchable. But when I found you in the woods, you'd certainly been well-...touched. All dewy and glowy. You!

"I decided the best thing to do was play along. See what was happening. Push on you. And you kept acting more peculiar...You were rogue. You had switched sides.

" You were on his...Chuck's side. And that was crazy. And — just as crazy, if not crazier — Chuck, the Choir Boy-Toy, was obviously a goner. For you. I mean, yes, you are easy on the eyes, but not...on the soul. You're a shit ton of ice cubes, Walker. And Chuck, here, he has...a soul. And he was with you: it was obvious from the moment I stepped into the cabin. You had a man in your bed who was supposed to be in the ground. And Chuck was...making love…" — Carina paused, her mouth working in distaste — "...to the soulless woman."

Not soulless, not anymore. Not Nobody, Carina.

"But why come to my room at the hotel that night, Carina?" Chuck broke in. "What was that about?"

"I wanted to know if you were as good as Sarah seemed to think you were." Her eyes lingered on Chuck, his towel.

"That's...ambiguous, Carina. Would you have slept with me if I'd let you in?"

"If you'd let me in, turnabout would've been foreplay, Chucky…You take anything good anytime you can get it in this business. And it would've been easier with you two pried apart. Estranged. Give you to Graham. Give Sarah to the CIA shrinks. But it didn't work out."

"What do you mean?"

"You turned me down and then let Sarah in. So, I decided to wait until Sarah separated you two. I knew she would. She's fundamentally a loner; that would reassert itself. When the job's got to be done, the Ice Queen goes it along. And she did. The next morning. She had us serve as a back-up but…"

Chuck glanced at Sarah. She met his look. Then, her eyes back to Carina.

Chuck, shaking his head, hand up. "Wait. Why take me up on the roof? Why the whole charade?"

"I talked to Graham on the way to LA, when we stopped."

"I thought it took you a long time to pee," Sarah growled.

Carina ignored the comment. "He anticipated Sarah coming back to her original hotel. He told me to encourage it or not to interfere with it. The plan was to capture her there.

"He thought you, Chuck, would be more...pliable...if you saw her taken, knew that she was dead to you. Gone. Or if you saw her escape and abandon you. But that...wasn't how it went.

"She…" — a hard glance at Sarah — "...not only got away, she came back for you. You must be good, Chuckie, damn good...The Ice Queen I knew would never let her crotch override her spy instincts. Ow!"

Carina bent over, hands to her head. Turned.

Ellie had hit her on the back of the head with her fist. "You mercenary bitch! That's for...well...Chuck, and Sarah, and all that shit you just confessed. And for jabbing that gun in my ribs…"

Carina straightened, rubbing her head. "Shit, I had to get Sarah to listen. — Are all you...Bartowskis...so damn hard to deal with?"

"Ellie Woodcomb," Ellie hissed through her teeth.

Sarah could not suppress a laugh. "You have no idea, Carina. Is your usual kit in your car?"

Carina nodded, one hand still on her head. "Yeah, the trunk. Grey KIA sedan." She reached slowly into her pocket, keys out.

A look at Ellie. "Ellie, take the keys. There should be a leather bag in the trunk of Carina's car. Just press the 'Unlock' button." Back to Carina. "Handcuffs, I assume."

Carina stopped rubbing her head, her smirk revisiting her face, renewed smirking conviction. "Always, business or pleasure. — Really, Sarah, girl, cuffs? You don't trust me?"

Ignored the question. "Get Morgan and Devon. Bring the whole bag, Ellie. You can cuff Carina, as tight as you like."

Ellie left. Expectant grin on her face.

Carina plopped onto the bed. "So...looks like the three of us are going to bed together after all." She glanced at the bed. Bumby. Shook her head at Sarah and Chuck. "Make that the four of us. Rub-a-dub-dub. A Teddy Bear will be a first for me. Furry. Not many firsts left for me...Would that be yiffing? Quasi-yiffing? I have to say, he looks a little... flaccid."

Sarah kept the gun trained on Carina. Rescued Bumby. "Keep your filthy paws off him — and Chuck."

A/N: Ah, Carina. Thoughts? Love to hear from you.