I don't own Chuck

"I'll do it," Sarah said softly.

Ellie was silent for a second. "Thank you, Sarah."

"He doesn't deserve to die," Sarah told Ellie. She turned to Beckman. "I'm not giving you your soldier, I'm teaching him how to defend himself." Beckman nodded. "So basically, I'm back in, is what you're saying, just with the NSA now."

"You are…if you want to be," Beckman said. "I promise you, we aren't the CIA."

"We have much better dental," Casey said. Everyone turned and stared at him. "Christ, I must miss the moron if I'm making his jokes."

"Okay, so how bad is it?" Sarah asked. Beckman never looked at her, she simply punched a button and a new video began to play. Sarah leaned forward her elbows on her knees, her hands steepled, her index fingers over her nose, her thumbs under her chin.

"This isn't doctored, I promise," Ellie said. "I edited it because…well…"

"I just long and sad," Casey said. Everyone turned to him again. "What? It IS!"

"It is," Beckman agreed. Sarah saw the time highlighted on the video of Chuck sitting in front of Sarah's door, holding gardenias. There was a cut in the video, and she could hear him saying softly, "I'm sorry, please forgive me," as if she was in the room, hiding from him. She looked at the time stamp and saw it was seven hours later. Sarah bent her head down, her index fingers sliding up her forehead, her thumbs never moving. She heard a groan, and realized it was her own.

"He can't flash at all, can he?" Sarah asked.

"Nope," Ellie said in a clipped voice. "He keeps insisting he just has to 'straighten things out,' and he can." Sarah looked up at her. "I've watched a LOT of footage of him talking to General Beckman and others."

Sarah studied Ellie for a minute. "What happened?" Ellie started to answer and Sarah simply tilted her head and lifted an eyebrow.

"I deserve that for what I did earlier," the brunette said with a smile. "I tailed him, Sarah. I've been tailing him, me with no training and I've been tailing him."

"Oh, God," Sarah groaned.

"He has gone to your door every day and waited for you." Sarah groaned at that. "I was able to convince Big Mike to have one of his guys get this footage off of the camera." Sarah gawked at her. "I didn't want to sit in the stairwell the whole time." Ellie shrugged. "I told Big Mike that it would be awful if there were suddenly a lot of sexual harassment lawsuits against some of his staff."

Sarah chuckled. "What did Chuck say while sitting at my door?"

"He talked to your door about how Casey shunned him and all sorts of other stuff I didn't understand," Ellie told her.

Sarah looked over at Casey. "She came to me with this tape and….oh, hell, you know what happened."

"She scared you," Sarah said.

"I've seen starving, rabid bears less scary," Casey admitted. "No offense," he said quickly to Ellie.

"So what do you want me to do?" Sarah asked.

"Exactly what you were going to do, go off the grid," Casey told her. Sarah started to protest and then realized
there was no point, he was right. "But take the moron with you."

"Careful, Casey," Sarah warned. "Rabid, starving mother bear over there."

"Oh, he is a moron," Ellie agreed. "I need you to train him to take care of himself, and see if you can help him use that damn thing in his head, for protection." Sarah held Ellie's gaze. "I'm not saying try to fix things between you."

"Your not, not, saying that," Sarah pointed out. "Ellie, this is on me, he stayed. I wasn't enough for him." Casey snorted. "What?"

"Nothing," Casey said quickly. Ellie glared at Casey. "Walker, you've got it wrong. He told that door why he did it. He did it because he wanted to be your equal. He did it because he looks up to you and respects you and….." Casey clamped his mouth shut.

"And what?" Sarah asked.

"Nothing," Casey said, shaking his head.

"John," Ellie said in a warning tone.

"He loves you, alright?! He's up in his damn ladyfeelings….no offense to any of the three of you," Casey quickly added.

"Funny damn way of showing it," Sarah said before she could stop herself. She felt Ellie's eyes on her and refused to look at her. "So, he had no idea you were following him. He isn't paying attention to anything, can't flash, and is having trouble with his emotions. That about sum it up?"

"Yes," Ellie said. Sarah nodded. "If this is too much…"

"It is, but at the same time, he obviously wouldn't be in this spot if it wasn't for me," Sarah told them. "I will train him. I will work with him to control his emotions and hopefully that will get him to flash. I can't promise miracles."

"Sarah, I need you to protect him if he can't protect himself. I don't want to send him to a bunker." Beckman seemed to wither a bit with the look Ellie gave her. "If he can't flash, you have to teach him some basic defense."

"Okay," Sarah said nodding. Beckman pushed a paper toward her. Sarah looked over it and then back to Beckman, shocked.

"Not enough money?" Beckman asked.

"No, that's more than I made at the CIA," Sarah mumbled.

"Told you we have better benefits," Casey said grinning. Sarah gave him a look. "What?"

}o{

The two NSA agents looked through Chuck's window, and saw him sleeping. "If the Intersect is working we might get our ass kicked," Sarah told Casey.

"We'll nab him with no problem," Casey assured her.

Ten minutes later it was done. A drive, a flight, and another drive, left him still out from the drug they had given him. She put him in the room, gently put the gag in his mouth, put the hood over his head, and gently tied him to the chair. She shook him and he started to wake up. She walked out of the room. She needed to clean her gun. She had to do something, because she was in her hideout, her sanctuary, and he was here, and she had swore after Prague he would never be here. Now, he was here, until he learned how to defend himself or the threat was neutralized. She felt the frown grow as she began to clean her gun.