Chuck had leveled the Learjet off at 35,000 feet. He still had his hand on the throttle controls, when he felt a hand on top of his.

He looked down, and saw a hand covered in dried blood on top of his. He didn't care about the blood, though – the hand belonged to Sarah Walker. He looked up and over at her. She looked back at him and smiled – and then her eyes rolled backward in her head, and she slumped back against the seat.

Chuck's eyes went wide, and then he looked down – her lap was covered in blood.

"Oh my God," he whispered. He turned his head to look out the cockpit door. "C.A.!"

His brother-in-law-to-be's head snapped up in the back, where he was working on pulling bullets out of John Casey's legs. "Chuck?"

Devin stood up and darted to the front of the aircraft. Chuck had unbuckled his seatbelt and engaged the autopilot. He was trying to get Sarah out of her seat.

"Jesus Christ," Devin breathed, when he saw the amount of blood in Sarah's lap. He unbuttoned his shirt and pulled it off. "Chuck, take this, find where she's bleeding from – it looks like the right hand side of her stomach – and hold this against it."

Chuck lifted up Sarah's shirt, and there it was – an ugly, gaping gunshot wound. Chuck held Devin's shirt against the wound, and Devin gently lifted Sarah out of the seat, his arms under her arms and wrapped around her chest.

"Grab her legs," Devin ordered. Chuck wrapped Sarah's knees under one arm, keeping the shirt pressed to her stomach with the other hand. Between them, the two men carried her to the back of the aircraft.

After laying Sarah on the floor in the aisle, Devin cut her shirt off, exposing her shoulder and stomach wounds. "Get me a diagnostic unit," he ordered. Ellie grabbed it for him. He set it on a seat next to Sarah, and attached the leads to her chest and finger. Casey had propped himself up on his elbows, a worried look on his face.

"Pulse is thready… blood pressure is incredibly low," Devin announced. "Chuck, grab me an IV pole. Ellie, get me two plasmas and one O neg."

Chuck grabbed the IV pole. Devin slid a catheter into the vein behind Sarah's elbow, and attached the line to the blood units. "She's bleeding out really fast," he said worriedly. "We've only got so much blood."

Devin turned to look at Chuck. "Chuck, we've got to get this aircraft on the ground, soon, or Sarah's not going to make it."

"Where are we headed?" Casey asked.

"Bakersfield," Chuck replied. "Sarah said she had contacts there."

"Where are we right now?"

"Uh, last check, we were over Monument Valley in Arizona."

Casey's eyes brightened, an idea coming to him.

"Change the autopilot settings to head us toward Flagstaff, Arizona," he ordered. "Then get on frequency 121.5 and declare an in-flight emergency. When Pulliam Airport responds, ask them to pass a message to Ulysses Howard – a terrifying space monkey is approaching with casualties."

Chuck gave Casey a look like he might've given a small child. "A 'terrifying space monkey'?"

"It's code, Bartowski. Just do it!"

Chuck scrambled back up to the cockpit. He flipped the transponder over to 7700, turned the radio to Guard, and said, "Mayday, mayday, this is Carlito Lear 1, declaring an in-flight emergency. Repeat, this is Carlito Lear 1, declaring an in-flight emergency."

"Carlito Lear 1, this is Albuquerque Center. Please state your situation."

"Albuquerque Center, this is Carlito Lear 1. I am near Flagstaff, Arizona. Request to be transferred to Pulliam Airport."

"Carlito Lear 1, copy. We are handing you over to Pulliam Airport at this time."

"Carlito Lear 1, this is Flagstaff Pulliam Airport. How copy?"

"Pulliam Airport, this is Carlito Lear 1. Please alert Ulysses Howard that a terrifying space monkey is approaching with casualties."

There was silence for a moment. Then a different voice came on the radio. "Carlito Lear 1, this is Pulliam. Please repeat that last."

"I repeat, a terrifying space monkey is approaching with casualties."

Silence again. Then the voice spoke. "Carlito Lear 1, this is Pulliam. You are cleared for immediate landing. Please change your transponder to 4200 and lock on to our auto-approach beacon."

Chuck complied. Not too long after that, he could see the outskirts of a small town. Then, he saw a break in the towering pine trees, with a dimly lit gray strip running through the forest.

"Pulliam Airport, this is Carlito Lear 1, I have visual."

"Carlito Lear 1, you may land at your leisure."

The Lear's auto-approach system was more than adequate to bring the airplane swooping in over the trees and place it on the runway, but Chuck kept his hands on the yoke, just in case. As soon as the tires bit into the runway, he pressed his feet onto the toe brakes and yanked the throttles back to the thrust-reverse stop.

The plane slowed to automobile speed with more than half the runway left. Chuck coasted to the next taxiway turnoff, and turned left, exiting the runway. As he coasted to a stop in the parking area, two ambulances came roaring up to the aircraft.

By the time Chuck secured the aircraft, Devin had opened the door and dropped the airstair. "I've got two gunshot victims!" he was shouting to the paramedics running toward the plane. "One has experienced heavy blood loss, and has deep tissue and organ lacerations to the abdomen!"

The paramedics charged up the stairs with gurneys and oxygen. They loaded Casey onto one, over his protests, and Sarah onto the other. Devin got in the ambulance with Sarah, Ellie with Casey, and Chuck was left standing by himself on the tarmac.

A wiry Latino man with glasses and graying hair walked up to Chuck. "I'm Ulysses Howard," he introduced himself.

"Chuck Bartowski," Chuck replied, extending his hand.

"Really," Howard said, his eyes widening. "The Human Intersect?"

"How… how…" Chuck's mouth opened and shut, kind of like a beached fish.

"I'm NSA," Howard replied. "Well, deep-cover NSA. I work directly for Major Casey – I'm his contact in Arizona should he ever need help here."

"I… see…"

"Yeah, he had to keep me in the loop regarding you. Given that we're essentially California's next-door neighbor, I had need to know. That, and I used to be part of the project that developed the Intersect."

Chuck just nodded. "So… what was the bit about terrifying space monkeys?"

Howard cocked his head. "You've never seen Firefly?"

Chuck's jaw dropped. "Oh, of course!" He smacked himself in the forehead. "There's my nerd cred, all shot to hell."

"Yeah," Howard laughed. "Believe it or not, Casey's a huge fan. Thinks he looks like Adam Baldwin – guy who plays Jayne. I think he's full of it.

"Anyway," Howard continued, "I've got a car out front that you're welcome to borrow. You probably want to get up to Flagstaff Medical Center with them."

"Yeah," Chuck replied, a renewed sense of urgency in his voice. "But I need directions."

Howard smiled. "Just how good are you at being the Intersect?"

"Pretty good," Chuck said. "I scored high on subliminal encoding at Stanford."

Howard nodded. "Alright. Turn left out of the airport. Right at I-17. I-17 becomes Milton, which becomes Route 66. Stay on Route 66 to San Francisco Street. Turn left. Go north. Flagstaff Medical Center's on the left-hand side."

Chuck looked at him, and thought for a moment. "Got it."

Howard laughed incredulously. "You're unbelievable, kid. No wonder the government's such a huge fan."

Chuck nodded. "Thanks… I think."

"No problem. Here's the keys – it's the green Crown Vic out front."

Five minutes later, Chuck walked around the front of the small terminal building to see what was clearly a retired Forest Service car. "Damn, that's an ugly car," he breathed.

He got in and turned the key in the ignition. The V-8 motor roared to life. As Chuck put the Crown Vic in gear, he laughed at the fact that when he last put a vehicle in gear – less than three hours ago – the circumstances were so very different.

The streets of Flagstaff were fairly deserted at this time of night – until he got to San Francisco Street. As he drove up the street, it became immediately evident that he was in a college town. However, it was only a couple blocks till he was past the "party" area, and then, there was the hospital.

He entered through the lobby, and said he was looking for a Sarah Walker and a John Casey. He was directed to another wing.

When he got there, he discovered Ellie waiting for him. Wordlessly, she stood up, and embraced him. He could feel her starting to cry. "I was so worried about you," she whispered. "I kidnapped the director of the NSA to find you…"

Chuck's eyes went wide, and he pulled back. "You did WHAT?!"

"I was working with Casey and Sarah," she said. "I kidnapped General Beckman."

Chuck couldn't help it. He started laughing. "That is fantastic," he choked out, bending over to catch his breath. "She's going to hate our entire family."

Then a sobering thought hit him. "Sarah and Casey," he said. "What about them?"

"Casey's alright," Ellie replied. "Both his legs are going to be in casts for awhile, but he's okay.

"Sarah, on the other hand… Chuck, she lost a lot of blood. That bullet to her stomach caused a huge amount of damage. Devin's still in there with her – they've been in surgery since the moment we came in the door."

Chuck sat down wearily in one of the lobby chairs. Just like any other hospital in the world – a vinyl covered chair, cold, and uncomfortable. Ellie sat down next to him, and hugged him.

Chuck raised his hands to his face, and for the second time in twenty-four hours, began to cry.

It was just after midnight when Devin came into the lobby. He looked exhausted. It was clear that he'd just stepped out of the shower, and he had ditched his blood soaked t-shirt and jeans for a clean set of scrubs.

But the smile on his face spoke volumes.

Chuck jumped up as soon as Devin walked in. He quickly crossed the room to Devin. "How is she?" he asked.

"She's an incredibly strong woman, my man," Devin replied. "She lost her appendix – which, no great loss, that. Aside from that, she had some muscle and tissue damage, and we had to reconnect a few veins and arteries – that was what caused all the blood loss. The shot to her shoulder broke her collarbone, but she should be okay. She's stable now, but we're not going to try to wake her for a few hours."

Chuck closed his eyes and blew out his breath. "So, she's going to be out for awhile?"

Devin nodded.

"Okay. Ellie, did she bring her grey sweater with her?"

"I think so," Chuck's sister replied. "In fact, yeah, because she took it off and stuck it in an overhead compartment."

Chuck was already on his way out the door.

She slowly and painfully came to wakefulness. It was a lot like seventy-two hours before, except this time, in addition to feeling completely hung over, she was in a world of pain as well.

As her eyes slowly opened, she could see sunlight peeking in between the slats on the blinds over the window. Looking down, she also saw that she had been draped in her grey sweater – that explained why she was actually warm; she could never remember having ever woken up, still warm, in a hospital bed before.

She looked back up, and saw Chuck, sitting in a chair past the foot of the bed. He was reading a magazine, but he looked to be pretty close to dozing off. She tried to talk, but nothing came out.

Concentrating, she made her mouth moisten just a little, licked her lips, and tried again. "Chuck," she whispered.

His head snapped up, and his face brightened when he saw that she was awake.

"Hey," he said softly. He snagged a bottle of water with a squeeze tube attached, which he put in her left hand. She slowly lifted it to her mouth and drank like she'd never see water again.

"That's a whole lot better," she said quietly after having her fill. "How long was I out for?"

"It's actually only been about twelve hours," Chuck replied. "You passed out in the airplane just before 8:00 PM yesterday, and it's about 7:45 local time."

Sarah looked around. She didn't recognize the hospital. "Where are we?"

"Flagstaff, Arizona," was the answer. "Devin basically said that if we didn't get you on the ground, post haste, you were going to die. Casey, fortunately, has a contact in Flagstaff, and so we landed here."

"Casey," she gasped, remembering that he had been shot. "How's he doing?"

"Hell of a lot better than you, Walker!" was the cringe-inducing loud answer, as Casey rolled into the room in a wheelchair. Just as suddenly, though, his wheelchair was grabbed by Captain Awesome and pulled back out of the room.

"Sorry about that," Devin said, sticking his head into the room. "We'll leave you folks in peace."

He closed the door behind him. Sarah smiled and shook her head – then immediately regretted it, as her right shoulder shifted and shot pain through her upper body.

"Owwww…" she moaned.

Chuck grabbed her good hand. "Just don't move," he suggested.

"Thanks, smartass," she whispered, looking up at him.

He looked back down at her for a long moment. Then, almost as if inviting him, she closed her eyes. Chuck leaned down and kissed her, softly. It lasted for a very long moment, and when the kiss broke, he didn't move – he left his forehead resting gently on hers.

"Chuck…" she whispered.

"Yeah?"

She didn't say anything for a moment. In fact, she was silent for so long that he was afraid she'd fallen back asleep. But then…

"I love you…"