The Mission – July

When Carina returned from D.C. she figuratively brought Sarah back with her. She purposefully pulled Sarah back into Chuck's life. Sarah was now a specifically named entity in her CATS stories or other stories from her past. The underlying theme was Sarah, was a wounded soul, shit at communicating her feeling, beat down and used by her Dad and Graham, always longing for something. Sarah needed to be someone he should feel for, not hate.

She started on her first day back, as she joined Chuck in the kitchen helping make their grilled chicken salad dinner for the night. She waited until he had finished rinsing the lettuce, and was about to begin hand shredding it into the salad bowl.

"Hey," she started, to get his attention.

He looked up from his work, and once she could look him straight in the face, she stated, "Saw Sarah, while I was in D.C."

His nostrils flared, his pupils dilated, and his neck seemed to redden. Holy crap did that get a reaction, she thought.

Suppressing the sorrow that appeared somewhere inside her, Carina accepted, Sarah is still it for him.

Chuck quickly looked down, turned his attention to the lettuce, and attempted to respond with an indifferent, "Oh".

"Yeah, we went out and had a couple of drinks. She's alone now, you know, she works alone. And, I must say, she seems lonely."

Not looking up, Chuck offers an uncommitted, "Hmmmm".

"You know her and Shaw broke up, long before he was killed. She said it didn't feel right from the beginning, but I guess she needed a distraction…from something."

Chuck's hands stilled, frozen for a beat, before resuming his task.

"Yeah, never understood that girl." He offered, attempting a flippant response.

"She's abused, Chuck. And, she does a crap job dealing with it, so she just pushes it and all of her feelings, down inside. Her Dad and Graham just used her, and diminished any feelings of self-worth, self-agency, heaven forbid she has a thought of her own. And she just accepts that it must be that way, if the two most important men in her life treat her like a tool, she tries to be the best tool possible."

"It makes me cry sometimes", she continued, "but I can't live her life for her, and I can't be the one who heals her, who gives her that unconditional love she is missing. I sure hope she can find that someday. Someday soon."

Chuck had stopped working, his shoulders slumped in despondence. After a pause, he straitened his shoulders and grabbing a carrot to chop he bitterly stated, "And maybe Hawthorne and Beckman will quit fucking up her life."

Point made, and not wanting him to lose a finger, she turned the conversation to how interesting it was that Casey was joining the team.

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Chuck was now Carmichael. Not Moron, not numb nuts, not idiot. Well, sometimes idiot, because for Casey idiot is just another pronoun, which could refer to you, them, or whoever.

But, Chuck had earned some level of respect from Casey. And, Chuck was developing a greater level of understanding of Casey, and his grunts. Chuck swore that someday he was going to catalogue them. And as he learned to decipher more of the nuances and subtleties of each one of them, he gained a greater understanding of how the hell Han understood Chewie.

General Beckman had happily agreed to Chuck's request for Casey's reassignment. As befits a Colonel, Casey had military command of the villa. Practically, he was in charge of Facility Security, as well as being in charge of the Armory and Vehicles. However his superseding mission was as the Interesect's personal protection.

So, his protection duties, led him to be wandering the halls of the villa, looking for Chuck. Casey had already done his end of day walk through, secured the armory and garage, had dinner and watched a World War I documentary. It was 11:00 and he was ready to go to bed, but Chuck was still down in office, doing something.

"Hey Numb-Nuts, you staying up all night again.?"

"Now Casey, I didn't think the Marines made you a 9 to 5 kind of guy. What, did you clock out at night, when you were in the walls of that Presidential Palace in Costa Gravas?"

Casey Grunted, (Point Taken) "I didn't know we had any pressing Intel, so what are you working on?"

"Well, this is a little side project that I got our bosses to sign off on. I am writing some security apps. You know how I write these little security programs to protect our files, or break into the bad guys files?"

Casey nodding in affirmation, acting only slightly bored.

"Well, I figure there has to be commercial applications for them, so I am reworking them for the business market."

"What, were going to see boxes, with your ugly mug on them, hawking some kind of anti-virus, on the shelves of a Buy-More?"

Chuck laughs, "no, no ugly mug pictures. This is something I will sell to bigger companies, pieces to add to their puzzle. So like a operating system, or browser, or security package will license this from me and incorporate it into what they already have. And I think, it should do well. I'm going to call the company Castle Security."

Casey raised an eyebrow.

Chuck smiled, understanding the response. "Well that is where all of this started."

Casey snorted, nodding in agreement. "Well, good luck with that. I'm hitting the rack. Turn out the lights and try not to get kidnapped before you go to bed."

Chuck laughed at that, and bade Casey good night.

Hmm, his own software company. Maybe he isn't a moron, after all.

July ended mission less, unless you included the side missions of Chuck trying to give Casey purpose, and Carina trying to figure out a way to get Chuck and Sarah together, when she visits.