CHARMING'S AUTHORS NOTE #1: Hello everyone, I'm back again with another multi-chapter story. I don't know how long it's going to be, I don't know where exactly it's going, but I'm not worried. I'm just going to let Chuck and Sarah take me wherever they want this one to go.

CHARMING'S AUTHORS NOTE #2: Once again Nev was my beta and once again he did a great job; he's getting better and better at that, which is good news for me lol.

Never Again

A Story by CharmingCharles2896

Chapter One:

Save You Later

Never again, this was never going to happen again; she'd failed him and let those animals have their way with him for two whole days. It was supposed to be an easy op, a simple in and out, but no plan survives contact with the enemy. They'd gotten separated in the middle of the hail of bullets; she'd gone left assuming he was right behind her, but he'd gone right. She could only sit there crouched behind cover and watch as Fulcrum grabbed her asset, she'd aimed her gun at him. She knew she'd have to shoot him to prevent the Intersect from falling into Fulcrum's hands, but as she looked down the sights of her gun into Chuck Bartowski's eyes, Sarah Walker couldn't do it. She couldn't shoot a man who had done so much for her in the year she'd known him. The look in his eyes as she pointed her pistol at him was one of resignation, he knew she had to do it, he knew she couldn't save him.

Sarah could still remember their voices telling her to drop her weapon and surrender, she couldn't do that though, that was suicide. She had to do this, she couldn't let them get away with the Intersect, she couldn't let them take Chuck. What she heard next she would never forget.

"If you let her go, I'll go willingly, I'll help you if she lives." Chuck said to them with an iron like resolve that she didn't know he had; her eyes grew wide as she realized what her asset was saying.

"Chuck no!" Sarah said desperately, she couldn't let him do this.

"Promise me she'll get to walk out of here and I'll do whatever you want!" Chuck said to his captors, who exchanged a look behind Chuck's back.

"Deal, but she better start walking," The bigger of the two fulcrum agents said emotionlessly. She couldn't fight the tears as the reality that he wasn't going home this time sank in.

"Chuck, please don't do this," Sarah begged, she couldn't let him do this for her, she didn't deserve this, she didn't deserve to live without him.

"Sarah, if I'm going to spend the rest of my life in the hands of Fulcrum, then I need to know that the woman I love is going to live, so please just go." His words tore her apart, he loved her enough to spend the rest of his life a prisoner of fulcrum.

"Chuck," Sarah said as the tears fell in earnest.

"Just make sure that the story you give Ellie makes things okay; please don't let her believe I abandoned her." His own voice was thick with emotion now as he felt the Fulcrum agents put him in hand cuffs.

"Start walking Agent Walker," the Fulcrum agent commanded again; in that moment she knew she had to tell him, he had to know how she felt.

"I love you Sarah," Chuck said before he was pulled away from her forever; as Sarah stood there alone with her grief she spoke in a broken voice.

"I love you too," He would never hear those words from her, he'd never get to know that she'd loved him almost from the beginning, even if she hadn't recognized it at first.

Moments later a very battered looking Casey came limping towards her; his nose was bleeding and likely broken, he had a nasty gash on his forehead, and she could tell something was wrong with his ankle.

"Where's Bartowski?" Casey asked between pants as he looked around for his asset; Sarah couldn't speak as the tears continued down her cheeks. Casey saw the look on her face and he knew. Fulcrum had him now, he'd probably traded his life for her own, the selfless bastard.

"Oh god," Casey muttered as he observed the devastated look on his partner's face. "What happened?" Casey asked as he holstered his pistol and turned to look at his despondent partner.

"We were jumped by some Fulcrum agents, in the gunfire we got separated. Once they had Chuck, he told them he'd go willingly if they let me walk away." Casey had never seen the legendary Sarah Walker like this, he'd never seen her so defeated.

"I begged him not to do this, I'd rather us both just die in a hail of bullets than leave him to that fate. He wouldn't let me, he told me that if he was going to spend the rest of his life in the hands of Fulcrum then he needed to know that the woman he loved was going to live." Casey simply shook his head knowingly, he'd had suspicions that Sarah was compromised, but this confirmed it.

"Stow that shit Walker, we can save him, we can fix this, but you need to pull yourself together," Casey said harshly towards his partner, who simply eyed him angrily but nodded. They could fix this, but they had to be smart about it, there was no room for doubt, no room for mistakes this time.

XXX

It had taken them two days to track Chuck down and rescue him; Fulcrum had been holding him in an office building in Sacramento. When Sarah had kicked in the door to his cell, she'd come upon a sight that would be burned into her memory until the day she died. The sadistic bastards had been torturing him. She knew he hadn't held out for long, because of his low pain tolerance, so this was just for fun. They'd taken his clothes from him, and had his arms bound above his head using chicken wire that had dug into his wrists, drawing blood that ran down his battered and bruised arms. He had burn marks and lacerations all over his body. She could see a few gnarly looking bruises forming on his torso; the entire scene made her want to puke. Apparently, the monsters weren't satisfied with physical torture, they had some head phones on his head and she could hear the piercingly loud sound play every ten seconds or so. It was to prevent sleep, to break the mind, they'd tried to break him.

In a flash, Sarah pulled the headphones off of his head and tossed them away; next she untwisted the wire around his wrists and quickly caught his limp body as he fell on top of her. Sarah quickly laid Chuck down on the cold polished cement floor and screamed for Casey; Sarah knew that Chuck needed her right now so she had to control her quickly spiraling emotions. When Casey came running into the room, no words needed to be said before he was on the radio calling for the medics. When Casey returned with medics, Sarah stood up and spoke to Casey in a tone that sent chills through his body.

"Where are they?" Casey knew exactly what his partner was asking and he knew he should have stopped her, but after seeing what those animals had done to a good man, Casey wanted a piece of them just as much as she did.

"They're downstairs," Sarah turned and was gone in a flash, Casey knew Chuck wouldn't want this, but those animals had to pay. Downstairs, Sarah found the same pair of Fulcrum agents being detained by a pair of junior agents from the CIA. Sarah quickly flashed her badge and pushed the two Fulcrum agents into a cell. The junior agents that had been detaining the Fulcrum agents looked at her worriedly.

"Agent Walker, what are you doing?" They both asked as they watched the silent Agent Walker grab the spool of Chicken wire; in a disturbingly cold tone, Agent Walker turned to look at the two junior agents.

"Leave, if you're not here for this then you'll have deniability," the two junior agents swallowed nervously and simply left the room. The two Fulcrum agents looked at each other in fear as they watched Agent Walker silently close the door and lock it. They both knew exactly who Agent Walker was, she was a legend who was known as a killer, as ice cold, unfeeling. More than that, they knew that they'd hurt a dear friend of hers. In that moment, as they saw the ice cold, expressionless look in her eyes, they knew the stories were true.

"What're you going to do to us?" The shorter of the two Fulcrum agents asked, he didn't look to be older than twenty-one years old, but in that moment Agent Walker didn't care. Agent Walker quickly undid the handcuffs and tied the both of them up just as they'd done to Chuck; the both of them hissed and whimpered in pain as the wire cut through their skin.

"Please don't do this, please don't do this," the shorter one said desperately, he found no sympathy in her eyes.

"This is happening, you made this happen the second you hurt the man I love; he's a good person, and you've destroyed that, so this is happening." Agent Walker said evilly as she pulled out one of her knives.

"You can't kill us, we're on American soil, we have rights," The bigger of the two Fulcrum agents said to her, as if that would change her mind.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to kill you; I'm just going to hurt you so bad that you'll both gladly kill yourselves." Both Fulcrum agents paled at that and watched as Agent Walker used her knife to cut their clothes off. She knew she'd end up shooting them both, but the idea that they'd do themselves in was terrifying for them, and that was the point. She knew she was being rough and didn't care if she nicked them with the blade, that was the least of their problems. Her knife was already bloody, but the pain hadn't even begun yet.

"You two tortured him for fun, you hurt him because you thought it was funny; well neither of you worms has any idea just how much pain I can inflict on you both while keeping you alive." The shorter of the two agents wept as he realized the gravity of his fate.

"Help us, she's going to kill us!" The shorter agent yelled desperately; that got a small smile from Agent Walker as she looked at her bloody blade in her hands.

"You can yell and scream all you want; nobody is coming to save you." Agent Walker said sadistically, without even looking up from her blade. "Now, because I'm such a generous person, I'm going to let you decide what part of your friend I hurt first," Agent Walker said as she looked up into their eyes. "Don't worry, he'll get to choose for you too; now, how shall we begin?"

The screams of agony would go unheeded, nobody was coming to save them. Hours later, two gunshots would ring out before the entire building would fall silent once more.

As the door opened and Agent Walker walked back out with bloody hands, she spotted the two junior agents from before who both looked ready to throw up. Sarah silently wiped the blood off of her hands using a cut up remnant of the taller Fulcrum agents under shirt. Neither of the junior agents said a word to the infamous Ice Queen, who they'd only heard stories about.

"Did Major Casey leave?" Agent Walker said as she dropped the bloody piece of fabric onto the floor without a care. The female of the two junior agents, an Agent Cassidy, spoke up.

"Major Casey left to escort Mr. Carmichael to the medical center an hour ago Agent Walker," Agent Cassidy said nervously as she tried not to look over towards the open door and the horrors that awaited them inside.

"Look at me," Agent Walker said forcefully to the two junior agents, who both quickly snapped to attention and looked exclusively at her. "Do not breathe a word about this to anyone, understand?" Agent Walker said coldly to the two agents who quickly nodded yes, nervously. Satisfied that the two junior agents understood the seriousness of her order, she silently walked past them and left, she had a man she needed to go see.

XXX

As Sarah walked into the secret CIA medical clinic she walked right past the woman at the front desk, giving her a dirty look and a growl as her only warning to leave her alone. She needed to wash the blood off of herself before she saw Chuck, she couldn't let herself be near him like she was now, after what she'd just done. Sarah Walker was a good agent, she liked to believe she did things for the greater good, that she only did what was in the best interest of America. Tonight she'd done the polar opposite of what was good for America, she'd tortured those animals because she was angry, she felt powerless in the face of what they'd done and she wanted them to feel that pain. It was a fever, a rage burning deep inside her that she couldn't tame without blood. A part of her needed to extract bloody vengeance upon those responsible for destroying a person as pure and as good as Chuck Bartowski.

Sarah knew what an experience like this did to people; many were never the same afterwards, many never got back what they lost. The only thing she could do was be there when he needed her and hope she could help him get back to himself. This was a rare moment of clarity for the legendary Ice Queen; for maybe the first time in her adult life, Sarah Walker knew exactly what her priorities were in life. Being a CIA Agent was no longer her priority, no, now she was going to be Sarah Walker, the woman who loved Chuck Bartowski. Sarah was going to devote her entire being to helping the man she loved and ensure that this never happened again. Never. Again.

Sarah walked through the hallways of the clinic until she found a bathroom she could use; for the next twenty minutes Sarah scrubbed the blood off of herself, she needed the memory of Agent Walker's rage to be long gone before she saw him again. After she'd scrubbed her hands raw, she left the bathroom and went to find Casey. It wasn't hard to find the former Marine, he was sitting stoically in a chair in the hallway outside of what Sarah guessed was Chuck's room. Casey looked to his left and spotted Sarah walking towards him; in that moment a silent conversation took place between them. She could see what he was asking so she simply nodded.

"Yes Casey, they're dead," Sarah mused to herself as she sat down next to Casey silently.

"They've got him sedated," Casey said simply as the two of them eyed the door to Chuck's room; Sarah simply nodded. Sarah tried for several minutes to talk, to say anything, but the words wouldn't come. She wanted to go into that room and see Chuck, but she didn't, could she see him like that? Could she see him so broken, so far from what he used to be?

"I failed him," Sarah said quietly to nobody in particular, maybe if she said it to the universe, the guilt she felt would leave her. She could feel Casey looking at her and as much as she hated the looks she was getting from her partner lately, she didn't do anything to stop them. Chuck was in there alone, he was in there because she hadn't protected him. Chuck was hurting, alone in that room and she was too much of a fucking coward to go in there and be with him.

"Walker," Casey said quietly, Sarah hated how he was talking to her, like she was a delicate little flower. Sarah felt Casey's hand on her shoulder and heard him speak with more emotion than she thought he could muster. "We both failed him, I should have been there, but I was sloppy and let the team down." Sarah looked over at Casey emotionally.

"This is my fault Casey, I was the one in the room, I was the one who was supposed to keep him safe." Sarah said as the tears began to well up in her eyes, Casey gave Sarah an understanding look and shook his head.

"Don't do that, if I was in your shoes, then I would have failed him; there was nothing you could have done. Chuck knew that you would save him, that was why he bargained for your life. Chuck was gambling on you being able to save him, and you know, he was right. You found him, not me, it was you who tracked him to Sacramento; he knew that you would save him and you did." Sarah simply nodded and looked down at herself, she still had blood on her clothes.

"It's okay if you love him, he's a good man," Casey said stoically as he looked away from her down the hallway. Sarah looked at the back of Casey's head in shock, was she really that easy to read? "I looked into your background; you were recruited at sixteen-years-old, under duress no less. I chose to be alone, when I chose this life; you never had a choice. As far as I'm concerned you have the right to a life; now get off your ass and go be with him before I use my boot to kick your ass in there." Casey said with a hint of the gruffness that she usually expected from the Major. Sarah gave Casey an appreciative look and nodded to him; Casey watched his partner stand up and nervously walk into the room containing the man she loved.

Casey knew things would be different going forward; Bartowski would be a changed man and not in a good way. It could be years before Chuck was back to his old self, if he ever even got there. Casey had seen good men come home from Afghanistan without a scratch only to find them broken on the inside. Casey had served with men who'd been fun, positive people, only to watch them lose themselves after the horrors of war. It would be up to the people around Chuck to make sure that he didn't lose himself and that meant Sarah more than anyone.

As Sarah stepped inside the room, she saw the lifeless form of Chuck Bartowski laying there hooked up to all sorts of machines. The sound of the door latching shut was only drowned out by the steady beep of Chuck's heart monitor. He looked so bad, they'd done a number on him and it was all her fault. As Sarah sat down in the chair next to Chuck's hospital bed, she had to resist the urge to hold his hand, which itself was bandaged. In that moment a flood of emotions overwhelmed the legendary Ice Queen; she tried to hold it all in, but with a hitch of her breath, the dam broke and the tears began to fall. As Sarah cried for the second time in a year, after going almost a decade without any tears, she couldn't help herself and leaned forward to rest her head on the bed against his arm.

As she wept for the man she loved, she couldn't help the loneliness and helplessness she felt; she didn't know what she was going to do to help him. Sarah hadn't been raised religious per se, but there had been moments over the years where she'd turned to a higher power for help or guidance. Sarah pulled back from Chuck and clasped her hands together to pray.

"God, I know I'm not the best Christian, and I haven't exactly been upholding your ideals, but I need your help. Please show me what I need to do to help him get through this. I can't live without him; I can't lose him now after I just found him. If my sins are a problem, then punish me, but help him so he can go home to his sister, so he can live his life. Things can be different, I can change, I can be better; don't let me lose him, just show me the way." Sarah said tearfully as her desperation and fear reached their zenith.

"Sarah?" Came Chuck's weak voice to Sarah's surprise, her head shot up and looked at his face.

"Chuck!" Sarah said as Chuck raised his bandaged hand up to her cheek and wiped away her tears.

"Don't cry," Chuck said quietly with drooping eyelids; Sarah couldn't handle how good he was, even after everything, his first thought was to comfort her.

"Oh Chuck, I thought I was going to lose you." Sarah said emotionally as she finally spoke to the man she loved, after two days of worry and strife. Chuck simply nodded to her and gave all the smile he could muster.

"Won't get rid of me that easy," Sarah couldn't help the wet laugh at her Chuck, he was too good for this world.

"I love you Chuck, so much; I was afraid I lost my chance to tell you." Sarah said emotionally, this hadn't been how she wanted to tell him, but she wouldn't take the chance again, he had to know. Chuck simply gave Sarah a happy smile and spoke dreamily, obviously close to falling back asleep.

"That's great; I'm so sleepy," Chuck said adorably, Sarah simply laughed at her charge, he was too cute.

"Don't worry, just rest, I'll be right here when you wake up, I promise." Sarah said soothingly to Chuck as his eyes sagged and closed. Chuck simply nodded to her and wandered off to dreamland once more. As she sat there and watched Chuck sleep, a nurse came into the room.

"Hello Agent Walker, don't mind me, just checking on Mr. Carmichael." Sarah simply nodded and got out of the way so the nurse could do her work. After the nurse had taken Chuck's vitals, she turned and spoke to Sarah.

"You'll be glad to know that we'll be pulling the sedative he's currently on in the next two hours; once that happens, he will wake up and you'll be able to talk to him." Sarah simply nodded in confusion, she knew for a fact that she'd just spoken to Chuck, but according to the nurse, he had enough sedatives in his body to knock out a small army.

"Thank you very much." Sarah said to the nurse who simply nodded and left; now alone once again, Sarah simply looked at Chuck, she really took him in. He looked so peaceful in spite of the last forty-eight hours. Had that been a sign from God? Could it be that her prayer had been answered? It was in that moment, as Sarah Walker watched the peaceful smile on Chuck's face that she knew what she needed to do.

"I hear you," Sarah said quietly as she ran her hand through Chuck's hair, God had sent her a message and she knew exactly what needed to happen next. "Don't worry Chuck, this will never happen again, never again." She said with determination in her voice; this was not going to destroy them; this was going to make them stronger.

XXX

Two weeks had passed since Chuck had been rescued and Sarah had yet to leave his side for longer than a few minutes; Casey had to give it to the blonde CIA agent, she was dedicated to the kid. Chuck was physically healing very well, it looked like he'd be physically back to normal in a month, maybe two tops. Psychologically, Chuck was a different story; the old Chuck was in there somewhere, but he was buried away inside, somewhere that the bad guys couldn't get to him. Every once in a while, there would be a line or a joke that Chuck would make to lighten the mood, proof that he was still in there somewhere, but Chuck stayed quiet most of the time. Walker was still guilty as hell over how everything went down, which didn't surprise Casey, but he was just hoping she'd be able to forgive herself in time.

A lot of things were still up in the air with the entire situation; what did this mean for Team Intersect? What was going to happen to the Intersect program? What were they going to do with Bartowski if he couldn't continue as he had been? The most pressing question was what were they going to tell Ellie? They'd so far kept Chuck in a covert government medical facility for intelligence operatives. They had told Ellie that her brother had been accidentally exposed to a top-secret pathogen being studied by the CDC that required him to be quarantined with no contact with the outside, but that excuse wasn't going to fly forever. Eventually, the kid would have to leave the facility to continue his recovery somewhere else, but where was the issue.

It was that issue that found John Casey in DC; he had a file in his briefcase and he knew exactly who needed to see it. As Casey waited on the bench outside General Beckman's office, he was going over exactly what he needed to say to the general. Casey's wording would be extremely important in this situation; he was out on a limb, but his team was broken at the moment and needed time to heal. Walker felt guilty over what happened, while Bartowski was trapped within himself. Both of them needed time to recover, which was why Casey was here.

The door to Beckman's office opened, grabbing Casey attention; the former Marine stood up and grabbed his bag. Casey stood at attention and saluted Admiral Brewer as he walked by. Admiral Brewer saluted back and went about his day; Casey watched the famous Admiral walk down the hall to the elevators.

"Come in Major Casey," came the voice of General Beckman, snapping Casey out of his revere; Casey walked into General Beckman's office and closed the door behind himself. The oft-stoic General watched the Major walk up to her desk, drop his satchel on the ground and salute her. General Beckman simply smiled at the Marine and spoke.

"At ease Major," Casey stood easy and began to speak.

"Thank you General, I know you're a busy woman so I'll skip the niceties and cut to the chase, we have an issue back in Burbank." General Beckman simply nodded and motioned for Casey to take as seat, which he did.

"I agree Major Casey, if you're here instead of Burbank then I assume you have something to say about the matter." General Beckman said intelligently, Casey simply nodded.

"Yes, ma'am I do," Casey said as he grabbed his satchel and flipped it open; General Beckman watched the Major shuffle through some documents before he pulled one out and set it down on her desk. General Beckman reached out and grabbed the manilla folder labeled "Project Sapphire," she gave Casey a curious look and opened the file to start reading. As General Beckman finished, she smiled a small, but uncharacteristic smile to the gruff Major.

"Tell me why?" General Beckman asked; Casey simply gave the general a small smile.

CHARMING'S AUTHORS NOTE #3: Well there is it, chapter one in the bag; I don't know when i'll update this one again because i'm working on chapter six of Desire right now. Please leave a review, your feedback is always appreciated.

Until Next Time :D