xxxXXXxxx

Casey was outside the restaurant when his call connected. On the other end, General Beckman spoke. "Hello, Major, can I safely assume you're calling to report that the task has been completed?"

Casey drew in a deep breath. "General, we may have a problem."

~o~o~O~o~o~

The last two minutes had been increasingly uncomfortable for Casey. On the phone with General Beckman, he first had to explain to her how he had been lulled into believing he had control of the situation and that the successful completion of the "exit strategy" was within easy reach, only to discover that Chuck was gone. When he had told her he was certain that Sarah was aiding Chuck, Casey had received an earful of invectives, delivered on the heavily encrypted connection, from a cruising altitude of about 40,000 feet somewhere over the heartland.

Now he was on hold, told to wait while the General contacted Director Graham to apprise him of the setback. Casey was not, however, standing around; he was double-timing it to the new subterranean operations base. (An old S.O.B. heading to the new S.O.B., Casey mused, bitterly.) He still had a card to play and needed computers with the necessary access protocols, and the base was much closer than his apartment.

As the dead air from his phone stretched on, he replayed the last couple of hours in his head. He was irritated by his overconfidence and by his miscalculation about Sarah. When the General had pressed him at the airbase about Sarah he wanted to believe she would in the end put national security ahead of any attachment she felt for Chuck, at least enough to not interfere with what needed to be done. But if I really thought that, why did I lie to Sarah on the roof? Because I was deceiving myself about how much she cares about Chuck, that's why. Irritation became infuriation. And the salt in the wound: Jeff, a 15 watt bulb on a good day, had unwittingly bought Chuck and Sarah additional time to go to ground.

When did Walker stop being a pro? She knows this is what we signed up for. Protect the Greater Good. It was the right choice, goddammit. It was. It had to be. A murmur of a memory fluttered at the edge of his consciousness. A bus station. Him –with another name– looking at a beautiful young woman. His hand outstretched towards her, telling her he had to go, in order to prove himself. His time to make the right decision. Her saying, "Yes, of course." But that was not quite–

The pitch of white noise in Casey's ear changed and the General was back, some restraint having returned to her voice. "Major Casey, Director Graham is on as well. I have already summarized our conversation for him."

Graham made no attempt to hide his consternation. "Outmaneuvered by the asset? Major, how is it that you let him slip through your fingers?"

"He may lack guile," countered Casey, "but he's no fool."

The General cut in. "And he has your agent helping him."

A couple beats of silence passed before Graham spoke again. "I'm bringing in someone else."

"What?!" Beckman was apoplectic.

"Easy, Diane, he–"

"Don't 'easy' me, Langston. The point was to remove the asset discreetly –no record, no trail back to us. Not everyone understands the risk Fulcrum poses, or accepts the measures that may be necessary to thwart them."

"Yes, yes, there are too many politicians that care about protecting their necks first and the country second. You don't need to remind me. But my guy has a knack for burying problems, and has no qualms getting into the muck to do it. And I did not read him in on the Intersect. What he does know is that we're at a dangerous juncture in our war with Fulcrum and so long as the asset is alive he's a grave national security risk. I will inform him that Walker was the asset's handler and is helping him. My man has carte blanche, as do you, Major, to carry out the termination. I would prefer Agent Walker be brought in alive if possible, and do try to avoid civilian casualties. Harder to whitewash."

Don't you mean avoid all but one civilian casualty? Casey worked his jaw. The Greater Good. The Greater Good. He did not speak.

Graham continued, "Also, he has some history with Agent Walker. Knows what she is capable of, and understands she has a softness that can be exploited if need be." Graham became subdued. "He had warned me, but I did not believe it about her. Recent events seem to have proved him right." The authority returned to Graham's voice. "Major, he is already inbound. Kieran Ryker. Fortunately he was nearby, just south of the Mexican border. I've given him the access code to the new base. You can rendezvous there."

"Director, I'm heading to the base, but I don't have time to wait for your guy. I still have a chance to track Walker and Bart– uh, the asset, but that window may close quickly."

Beckman asked, "How is that?"

"I have a tracking device on Agent Walker's car." Casey thought of the rocky start he and Sarah had at the beginning of their shared assignment. He had put the device on her Porsche when he didn't trust her, wired to the car's electrical system to give it a constant source of power. Later he had decided to leave it on when he thought it could someday be a means to come to her aid if she was in trouble, but kept its existence to himself. He knew a sure fight would have ensued if he had told Walker about it and how long it had been in place. "With the computer at the base I can put the tracker into active mode and have it's location data forwarded to my phone."

"Very well, Major," Graham replied. "I will update Ryker on your plans. He will be in touch. I'm also sending to your phone his number and a photo so you'll recognize him." Graham briefly paused speaking. "There. I'm sure I do not have to tell you that cooperation is in everyone's best interest. If we do not put a lid on this quickly we'll be forced to expand the resources and personnel involved."

Beckman added, "Best of luck, Major. If all goes as planned, tomorrow we will have the new Intersect computer operational and the first class of Intersected agents ready for the field. A Fulcrum without its own Intersect will stand little chance."

Casey could hear Beckman's self-satisfied smile. "Uh, thank you, General." The line disconnected. Casey took the phone from his ear. He stared at it for several heartbeats, trying to understand the empty feeling that had come over him. Then it dawned on him: for the first time in a long time, maybe ever, the challenge of a mission laid before him provided no thrill.

~oOo~

"This form is full of blanks. Did you take it?" growled Casey.

The man before Casey, an assistant manager for a parking garage located in Irvine, flinched. "Uh, yeah, I think so. I think she was in a rush or something. She seemed nice."

"Let me guess. Tall, blonde, easy on the eyes?" Casey gauged the young male before him. "Hard to not get distracted, right?"

"Um, yeah."

Close to two hours had passed since Casey's call with the General and the Director had concluded. After the call he had gone to the S.O.B., acquired the car tracker's signal and set up a relay to his cellphone. He also spent a few minutes pulling up video from the Buy More. Sarah's and Chuck's body language in the footage of them leaving the store confirmed what he knew: they were on the run.

Casey had left the S.O.B. with cautious confidence that he was on the trail thanks to the car tracker. That confidence had dimmed when the signal stopped moving in the city of Irvine. It vanished when he had arrived to find the signal's source located in a parking garage. The Porsche was there in a reserved spot, but no Chuck or Sarah.

The parking agreement for the long-term reserved space was blank where the make, model and license plate number should be. Casey turned back to the assistant manager. "It wasn't a Porsche that parked here, right?"

"No. It was… I don't remember exactly, some dark colored sedan I think. American. Or maybe Japanese."

"That's great," Casey snapped. "Really narrows it down." The assistant manager flinched again.

Goddammit, Walker, you kept a backup car in case you ever had to bug out. Casey looked at the date on the agreement. It had been signed mere days after the scare with the GLG-20 bugs in the Buy More that nearly gave Fulcrum Chuck's identity as the Intersect. When Chuck had narrowly avoided being bunkered. That had rattled Sarah. Casey grunted. You put a car here in case you had to bug out with Chuck.

Casey leaned in close to the assistant manager. "You've got video cameras here, I saw them. I want you to check the video and get me the car model, color, and its tags. You got that?"

"Sure, yeah, but…"

Casey silently glowered, waiting for the rest of the sentence that was sure to further frustrate him.

"…I can't do that without the manager. He's worried about the video equipment getting stolen so it's all locked up, and the system has a passcode on it that only he has. He's gone for the day."

"Get him back here. Tell him it's urgent."

"I'll try." The assistant manager gulped. "Who did you say you work for again?"

"FBI. When you have it, call or text this number." Casey jotted a phone number down on a scrap of paper and shoved it into the other man's hand.

Casey walked out of the manager's office towards the idling black Suburban on the ground level of the parking garage. His choice of vehicle was far from ideal –it screamed "Government issued"– but it was either the SUV, or his Crown Vic that Sarah would recognize immediately. (It did help sell his FBI cover, as did the black attire and navy windbreaker that he had changed into). That car choice dilemma now seemed frustratingly moot as he assessed the situation. The only advantage he had –and Casey knew it was a reach– was that Sarah would almost certainly expect the car swap to go undetected for days, if not longer, and so believe her backup car would cloak her and Chuck for that long before another swap would be prudent. If that moron assistant manager could get to the security video, Casey should know the car and its plates sooner than Sarah would think possible. However, he was struggling to see how having the information on the car could be put to effective use short of leveraging surrounding law enforcement to put out an all-points bulletin. He knew suggesting an APB to Beckman and Graham would be met with ire and severe pushback. Casey continued his trudge.

~oOo~

Chuck followed Sarah and closed the door behind them. He put down the large duffle bag he had removed at her request from the car's trunk, dropped his messenger bag onto a small table, and quickly took in the motel room's faded burgundy curtains, threadbare carpet, old picture tube television and other furnishings. His eyes settled on the bed, small and solitary.

Chuck cleared his throat. "So, um… just the one bed. Should we ask for a second room?"

Sarah lifted her eyes from the bed to him. "No, it's fine. I'm not letting you out of my sight." After dropping the computer case she was carrying by the bed and placing her pistol on the nightstand, she unzipped the duffle bag and pulled out a toiletry case and some garments. As she turned to the bathroom she said, "There's some shorts for you in there. I'm going to take a shower."

Chuck started rooting through the duffle bag. "I'm going to assume that whole not let me out of your sight thing… nevermind." Chuck's back was to Sarah so he missed the small smile that played across her lips as she entered the bathroom and closed the door.

~oOo~

Casey's cellphone rang as he sat down in the driver's seat. He looked at the caller ID and recognized it as Ryker's number that Graham had supplied. Frustration was being replaced by a headache. He pulled the SUV's door closed and jabbed at the answer button on his phone. "Casey, go."

"This is Kieran Ryker, Major Casey. I understand that Director Graham has already informed you that I am part of this hunt now. I was also told you are able to track the car the target's riding in. So, do you know where the target, this Charles Bartowski, and Agent Walker are? Or did they give you the slip again?"

Yep, a splitting headache. "Walker switched cars. It was only a matter of time. Hard to blend in driving a Porsche. But it happened quicker than I had hoped. She had another car stashed in a parking garage. I'm there now."

"So, the slip. I'm at your fancy new base, Major. I'd kill to know what is so special in Burbank to justify this, but another time. What's important is there's some serious hardware here. So I find myself scratching my head wondering why you aren't tracking the target's cellphone."

Casey could not help but to audibly scoff at that. "Pfft! Why waste my time. Bartowski ditched his tracking watch. There's no way Walker let him keep his phone."

"You say that you're at a garage? Would that garage be in Irvine? Because I'm pulling records for his phone and the tower hits have it lingering there not too long ago before it started moving again."

Casey was momentarily speechless. Chuck has his phone? Walker, where is your head at? Was it a ruse he wondered. No. It made no sense to bring the cellphone here and risk having the car switch discovered. If she wanted to send Chuck's pursuers on a wild goose chase all she had to do was toss the phone into the back of a random pickup as she was leaving the Buy More.

"You still with me, Major?"

"Yeah, I'm still with you."

"So that's the good news. But it seems Agent Walker is trying to get off the beaten path because the phone is moving into an area with limited coverage. Triangulation may not be possible." Ryker's speech became slow and patronizing. "So, do you at least have an I.D. on the new car?"

Casey ground his teeth. "No, but I will. Once I have the manager here review their security footage."

"Good, So this is what we're going to do, I'll–"

"Hey! Just because you're there and I'm not doesn't make you king of the castle." Castle? S.O.B.? Castle.

"Of course, Major. This is what I propose we do…"

~oOo~

Sarah looked at herself in the mirror as she dried her hair, a towel wrapped around her torso. She accepted that by conventional standards she was attractive. She had been the proverbial ugly duckling when she was a teenager, her efforts to alter that discouraged by her conman father who preferred that she remain forgettable. Her transformation when it finally happened had offered her no joy as it had coincided with joining the CIA, where her external beauty was weaponized, made a part of her arsenal to accomplish mission objectives.

She thought about that day she entered the Buy More for the first time and located Chuck, fully intent on beguiling him –her latest mark– with her physical appearance and studied flirtations. She had again set out to do more of the same the night that soon followed when she and Chuck, his role in the mess created by Bryce Larkin still murky, dined and danced. But as that evening went on her will to continue the professional seduction began to wobble like a spinning top bleeding off its momentum. She had never let a mark charm her before, yet Chuck had been doing exactly that. The guileless wonderment she saw on his face when he had looked at her stirred her in a way she thought was not possible. By dawn of the next day, she had made her decision: she was done using her beauty to manipulate Chuck for the CIA's ends.

Yet there had been times since then when she had wanted and hoped that Chuck would see her and think her lovely. A sci-fi bikini for a Halloween party. A negligee for a staged night of faux intimacy. A black gown to play his wife in pursuit of counterfeiters. Each instance ostensibly for the sake of a mission or for their cover relationship. There was always a pretense she could hide behind.

She let the towel drop and slipped into the garments she had brought into the bathroom. Sarah looked at herself in the mirror while taking a few calming breaths. No more hiding.

~.~.~

*Blip* Chuck, remote in hand, changed the channel on the old television that he was inattentively watching. *Blip* He was in the bed, under the blanket propped up at an angle by some pillows wedged between his back and the wall. *Blip* The fingers of his free hand were anxiously drumming his thigh.

I need to settle down. It's time I tell her regardless of how she might feel. Isn't it? Yes. Chuck, attempting to calm his nerves, reminded himself that he and Sarah had shared a bed before, albeit expressly for the sake of their cover relationship. That this bed, with him now in it, seemed comically small did not help. He was still sizing up the bed when the sound of the bathroom door opening caught his ear. "Sarah, maybe I should sleep on the flahhh…"

Sarah stood at the end of the bed, a vision in a wispy t-shirt and hipster panties. Chuck could not find his voice. That she was physically striking was a contributing factor, but it was more than that, much more. The expression on her face, the shape of her eyes, the way she held herself, he instinctively sensed that something was monumentally different. That ceaseless sensation that she had a metaphorical hand gently laid on his chest to keep him from getting too close, it was gone.

Sarah moved around to the other side of the bed. Chuck pushed himself up, straightening his back against the wall and watched her. She slid under the blanket on her side of the bed and laid on her back, close to him but not quite touching.

Chuck's head was turned, still looking at her. Sarah's eyes flitted between his and the ceiling. Is she nervous? Sarah's never nervous. He felt his own anxiousness, but he had been steeling himself for this moment since chickening out in her car. It was time to tell her.

Chuck asked, "Do you remember talking by the fountain the night we first grabbed the Cipher?"

Sarah nodded.

"You said I could have anything I wanted. Well, um..."

Sarah had turned her head, her stare now intently focused on Chuck. She nodded again, urging him on.

He gave her a smile. "I know what I want, Sarah. It's the only thing I've wanted since we first met and you needed a tight screw."

Sarah's eyes went wide.

"Whoa, that came out wrong." Chuck shook his head to clear it. "I meant since I helped you with your phone that first day we met. It may be the only thing I've ever truly wanted."

"Chuck." Sarah breathed out his name in a tone that was a mixture of disbelief and desire.

"You came into the store –into my life– and it was a revelation. I'd been a fool. Foolish for believing for five years that I knew what it meant to be in love and to lose it." Chuck took a calming breath. "I was too chicken to say it at the fountain, at the restaurant, all the other times I was with you and knew the truth. But this," he swirled his hand in the air, "It made me realize that if I didn't find my nerve that I might miss my chance to tell you."

Chuck swallowed; Sarah held her breath.

"I'm in love with you, Sarah Walker, deeply, deeply in love."

A jolt ran through Sarah. She drew air sharply. It was as though Chuck had touched a live wire to who she was. It was an unknown sensation for her, wonderful and frightening, but mostly wonderful. Sarah sank into her pillow and closed her eyes, squeezing out tears.

"I'm sorry, Sarah, the last thing I wanted to do was upset you. Springing that on you here, with what's going on, that was probably a mistake." Chuck looked about the room. "Maybe I should move to the floor."

Sarah's eyes opened and found his. "No, no, you have it all wrong." She was quiet for a few pounding beats of her heart. "Chuck, would you… again? Please."

Looking back into her eyes, it took only the briefest moment for Chuck to comprehend. "I'm in love with you, Sarah. And I hope to spend the rest of my life, however brief that may be, proving it to you."

Again, like an electric current, Chuck's declaration flowed through her. What had been for many years a dark, cold filament deep within her had steadily grown more and more incandescent since she met him. Now it burned bright and white hot. Better still, she was certain nothing would ever put it out.

"It's true, Chuck."

"What's that?"

"Anything you want, you can have." She laid her hand on his back and gently pulled him close to her.

The two kissed, slow and soft, paused, looked into each other's eyes and shared smiles, then kissed again. And again. The grimness of their situation would wait until tomorrow.

~oOo~

The black SUV was one of only a few vehicles on the dark road, the urban development having fallen away a while ago. The assistant manager had come through and Casey now had the description of Sarah's car in a text on his cellphone, which he had forwarded to Ryker.

The phone rang. Casey took his eyes from the road and glanced at the caller ID before answering. "General, I have you on speaker. I'm alone."

"Major, do you have an update? Have you heard from Graham's man?"

"I have, and we have a plan in motion that gives us a good shot at finishing the task by the morning."

"Excellent. I'm sure you won't disappoint."

Casey felt his stomach lurch. "General, are you sure…"

"Enough, Major. The asset served his country admirably. It's now your job to protect it."

Casey was silent.

"I had another reason for contacting you. I called in a favor from someone well connected at the CIA. This Ryker fellow, he's, officially, former CIA. Seems he had a reputation for going off mission, causing a lot of collateral damage. 'A wanton disregard for life, friend or foe,' was how my contact put it. Ryker finally went too far and landed on a burn notice. But then the notice was pulled back on Graham's order. Since then rumor has Ryker involved in some nasty wet work, all of it unsanctioned."

"So he's the Director's personal attack dog?"

"It appears so. Watch your back, Major." Beckman abruptly ended the call.

Casey blew out his breath, his mood darkening further. He was not overly surprised by the General's revelations. Casey had instantly taken a disliking to Ryker, but he grudgingly acknowledged that Ryker had devised a viable plan to locate Chuck: use the cell tower hits, spotty as they were, to demarcate a search area and once there was sufficient daylight employ Castle's access to satellite imagery and its serious computing power to identify possible vehicle matches. Sarah's apparent decision to avoid populated areas in order to escape was going to backfire. Out in the sticks there would be very few matching vehicles that would act as decoys. His immediate plan was to drive another hour or two to put himself roughly in the middle of that search area, find somewhere to park so he could make preparations and to catch some shuteye before the morning. Ryker already had the computers programmed and set to transmit results once available and was now on the road heading in Casey's direction.

Casey knew, somehow, that he would find Chuck and Sarah tomorrow. Casey also knew he was damn good at his job. Tomorrow Sarah Walker would be captured and Chuck Bartowski would be dead.

He sank back into the driver's seat. With that thought he was now resigned that sleep –any rest– was going to elude him tonight.

xxxXXXxxx

A/N: Thanks for continuing to read this story. Please consider leaving a review as I'd be very interested to hear your thoughts.

David Carner, SmatterChoo, WillieGarvin and Zettel, thank you for your assistance with this chapter (and with the prior chapter, which I was remiss in failing to mention in that chapter's notes).

The last part of this chapter with Chuck and Sarah is of course reimagining the motel scene from S2:E21 "Chuck vs the Colonel." Some of the imagery is taken from the episode as is some of the dialog (verbatim or paraphrased) between Chuck and Sarah that is spoken before she goes to the bathroom. Sarah's outfit is taken from the episode and I wanted to consider the significance of her choice to wear that knowing she would be sharing the bed with Chuck. Are they in Barstow? I don't know, they wouldn't tell me. :-)

In S2:E1 (before this story diverges from that episode), Sarah at the fountain does tell Chuck, "Anything you wanted, you could have."

Chuck thinking that Sarah is nervous even though she's never nervous is a nod to S4:E11 "Chuck vs the Balcony" when Sarah, on her way to meet Chuck at the balcony knowing he plans to propose to her, tells Morgan (via her earwig earpiece) that for the first time in her life she's nervous. Chuck talking about "proving" his love is a nod to his wedding vows in the season four finale.