"Oh my God, Chuck," Sarah screamed, the Fulcrum agent's gunshot still echoing in her ears as she watched him fall as if in slow motion to the ground. The dark red of his blood began to spread, staining his silver tie and shirt, as she fell to the ground beside him, trying to put pressure on the wound to staunch the bleeding. He'd been wearing a vest, but the bullet must have hit him right at the edge of the plating. "Come on, Chuck, stay with me!"
"Sa-rah," He gasped trying to reach his hand to brush the tears from her cheeks, "Don't cry, I'll be fi-" His whispered voice fell off as his arm dropped to his side.
"Chuck!" She sobbed, "No you can't, I never... Please, don't leave me! I need you to stay with me! I need you!"
Casey had heard the shot and saw the kid go down. Walker was closest, so while she rendered aid, he took out the Fulcrum agents and called in support services, "Agent down, we need a MEDEVAC ASAP!" The support staff at the other end of the line confirmed evac was 3 minutes out, thank God LA was lousy with commercial and private airports where they could stage rescue birds and medical personnel. He watched as Sarah, her hands covered with the kid's blood, fell apart. He'd known for some time that she had feelings for the asset, and the kid made it no secret he'd fallen head over ass for her practically from day one. In Casey's opinion, it was a shitty situation for all involved, but felt there weren't nothing wrong with it, long as it didn't compromise the mission. From what he'd seen innumerable times over, Walker's lady feelings for the geek made her a better agent, more focused, but at the same time less of the wildcard enforcer he'd heard about prior to all the Intersect business.
For a brief moment, he wished he had someone who cared for him the way Walker did for Bartowski. He'd had it once before Keller recruited him to black ops and forced him to cut ties with Kathleen. He didn't regret the decision he made, often, but he couldn't deny he enjoyed the company of a good woman, not that he came across all that many in his line of work. Ilsa was good while he had her, and she was of his world, but in the end it wouldn't have worked. Kathleen thought he was dead and had long since remarried. He'd gotten permission, once he realized that this was going to be a long-term mission, to inform Kathleen so as to avoid any problems if she were to run into him. She'd been surprised, and understandably furious with him, for all he'd put her through by letting her think he'd died on deployment, but eventually forgave him. What he hadn't anticipated was that she'd have a surprise of her own, they'd had a daughter, apparently their aborted trip to Niagra Falls and spur-of-the-moment alternate plans had resulted in her getting pregnant the weekend before he'd shipped out.
On his rare down time, he'd slip away to spend time with the girl, who was now nearly 12 years old. Alexandra, or Alex, as she preferred to be called was the spitting image of her mother, but had the Coburn tenacity. Her proudest achievement to this point in her young life was earning her brown belt the previous month after studying Karate since the age of six, it was also the first rank-up test he'd been able to attend. He was so proud that day, but knew it wasn't his place, at least not yet. Kathleen was responsible for guiding her to be the amazing young woman she was.
Casey was pulled from his reverie when he heard the whack-wack-wack of the helicopter blades as it began to land. He glanced over to where Sarah was still knelt, bloody hands covering the section of the kid's upper torso not protected by his body armor, tears streaming down her face, before running to the door and marshalling in the medical corpsmen. The corpsmen were disguised as air ambulance employees in their dark red jumpsuits and carried a portable backboard and medical kit with them as they ran to Bartowski's side.
At first Sarah didn't want to move from her position, but Casey quickly pulled her to her feet, and for the first time in the history of their partnership, allowed her to bury her head in his shoulder as she continued to cry for the man she loved. The closest hospital was a civilian facility, so when the team cut away the kid's shirt and protective vest to gain access to the wound to stabilize him, they left the vest behind. Once Chuck was hooked up to an IV of antibiotics and his wound delt with enough for transport, he was transferred onto the backboard and carried out by two of the corpsmen, a third running alongside their team, IV bag held aloft. The fourth member of the team ran up to Casey and saluted.
"Major, we have Agent Carmichael as stable as we can at this point," The corpsman explained, "The closest hospital with a trauma department is Westside Medical."
"Heads up, Carmicheal has family who works at the hospital," Casey advised, "A Doctor Eleanor Bartowski, she is unaware of his clandestine service, copy?"
"Hard copy Major," The Corpsman nodded, "What is the cover story?"
"Mugging gone wrong," Casey advised, "Get going, Corporal, Agent Walker and I will follow."
"Aye-aye, Sir," The Corpsman saluted once more before turning on her heel and running to join her team in the chopper which was spooling up for lift-off.
"Come on, Walker," Casey urged Sarah, the growl in his voice only a bit softer than it usually was, "We have to get going and run interference for your boy toy."
"He's not my boy toy," Sarah grumbled, pushing away from Casey and practically running for the door and to the Crown Vic.
As soon as they were in the car and on their way to Westside Medical, Casey called in the cleaner crew to deal with the now dead Fulcrum agents. When they arrived at the Emergency room at Westside, Casey flashed his badge and they were informed that Chuck was in surgery and given directions to a private waiting room where a doctor would meet with them once the kid was out of surgery. Casey settled into a chair with a grunt, might as well call and brief Beckman while they waited.