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"You were mugged.

You hear me, Bartowski? You were mugged!

That's your story.

You and Walker were out on a date and you were assaulted by two men with knives, you got that?

Hey.

Hey!

Pay attention, Bartowski!

This ambulance is CIA.

They're taking you to your sister's hospital.

They're going to corroborate your story.

Got it?

Don't say anything else!"

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"What the hell are you doing here?"

Casey's hands are fists around the collar of Chuck's jacket and the complete force of them pins him against the wall.

"Good to see you too, Casey."

If it were under any other circumstances this first meeting between them in nearly a year would probably be going a lot more amicably.

Chuck is in Antwerp and as beautiful as the canals and narrow streets and dutch-homes-right-out-of-a-Vermeer-painting are, the only reason he's left the hotel is to go stake out the pier and find Sarnov. But Casey sort of threw a wrench into those plans when he virtually materialized out of nowhere and grabbed Chuck just as he was turning the corner.

And now, in a dark alleyway, Chuck's making nice with the brick wall behind his head and remembering just how strong and perpetually angry Casey always was.

"I'm not gonna ask you again."

Chuck very much doubts that he is the reason Casey is in Antwerp. He's gotten good enough at not leaving a paper trail, and anyway, Casey's stopped looking for him a long time ago. If Chuck had to guess he'd say that the reason Casey's here is because he's on the job.

"I'm here for the same reason you are."

"Really? Cuz I'm here on orders to stop an arms deal and you're here to act like some vigilante super hero from one of your comic books. As much as you hope the haircut makes you look like a tough guy, it doesn't."

Casey had never been much of a fan of Chuck's plan. As much as Chuck knows Casey's anger stems from a place of protection it's still not appreciated.

"Just leave me alone, Casey."

But Casey doesn't leave him alone. He jabs a forearm into Chuck's neck and uses his other hand to find the gun behind Chuck's back. Casey pulls it out, looks at it, grunts. "You are ten kinds of idiot, Bartowski."

And maybe because Casey isn't expecting it, or maybe because he is actually a bit of a tough guy now, Chuck manages to knock Casey back and swipe the gun from him in one deft move so that when Casey stumbles backward he's almost as surprised as he is pissed off.

"You got nothing to do with this," Chuck warns. "And you can't stop me."

"Why do you think I'm here?" Casey asks. "This is out of NSA jurisdiction but I want to get this guy just as bad as you do. Now, I can make sure Sarnov gets caught but you need to stay out of my way. God only knows how many ways you can screw this up."

"I don't want Sarnov caught," Chuck says. "I want him dead."

"The place is crawling with CIA, Bartowski. You know what's gonna happen here tonight? They're going to break up this deal, they're going to take Sarnov in, and then I myself will arrest you for going AWOL because even though you're no longer priority number one or the only human intersect anymore you're still a piece of very important US intelligence. I could still gain a lot of brownie points from my superiors for bringing you in."

"Then go ahead, Casey. Yeah, you know what, go ahead. Take me in. Please. You know why I don't care anymore? Because this–" he taps his temple with an index finger– "this doesn't work anymore."

"What are you talking about?"

"I haven't flashed in a year. Not on anything. And I've been in enough places and around enough bad people to do it."

"How's that possible."

"Maybe it's because I haven't been able to get the image of Sarah getting stabbed out of my head."

Casey hasn't got a response for that.

"You know when you see something so horrible it takes over everything else?" Chuck asks. "My most vivid memory, out of everything in my life, is the moment right before the knife went in. You know that was the only time I'd ever seen her cry? Not when the knife was being held up to her neck, but when it went down to her stomach– when it wasn't her life in danger anymore."

Casey couldn't pretend it wasn't hard for him to hear it. "You're not going to kill Sarnov."

"Watch me."

"You've been obsessing about this for a year and once it's over, it's over. You're gonna come crashing down and you're not gonna know what to do with yourself. You think you can just do this and go back home and live a normal life? A person like you doesn't come back from this, Bartowski. This'll give you nightmares the rest of your life."

"I already get nightmares," Chuck says. "I can't close my eyes without thinking about it."

Casey shakes his head, disappointed. "You know, back at the academy I hear you're a cautionary tale." He looks at Chuck and smiles ruefully. "The asset gets mixed up with the agent, they delude themselves into thinking they can be together, start a family. But in the end it all gets shot to hell and everyone's life get ruined. For them, the worst part of the story is that the agent gets demoted to a desk job." He sighs. And there isn't anymore that either of them can say to each other.

"I don't know why you're so angry, Casey. "You'd be doing the exact same thing if you were in my shoes."

Which Casey knows is true. But he also know that he'd have a better shot of not getting killed in the process. "Don't let me find you again."

Chuck leaves and Casey's left in the alleyway by himself.