A/N Yea I know. It's been just over a year to the day since this story was last updated. I've been in a bit of a dry spell with writing and after a reader PM'd me asking about this story I got the inspiration to sit down at the keyboard again. This chapter is a bit tough for all involved but I hope you folks are still interested in this story.
Thanks again to minirix for letting me play in this universe but I still don't own Chuck.
Chapter 4
Reveals
Burbank
"Dhamar is where Sarah killed Daniel Shaw."
"Sarah killed Shaw?" Carina looked at Chuck stunned by the revelation.
Chuck nodded trying desperately to keep himself from hyperventilating. The images his flash had shown him had been some of the most horrific visuals he had ever witnessed. It reminded him of scene from some of the worst teen slasher movies he always avoided but on a few occasions Bryce had talked him into watching back in college. He had told him girls got all clingy and hot when they watched them. But the over the top graphical carnage simply turned his stomach even though he knew it was all fake and the blood just Karo syrup mixed with food coloring. Why so many kids his age liked those kinds of movies was beyond him.
But this was all too real. It was just too much and Sarah had been both a participant and a witness to it all first hand. He had no idea how she survived or how she fought off those nightmares.
"Chuck please sit down and take a breath. Tell us what you saw?"
"No, no, no. I can't. I... Oh God please forgive me..." She could see tears forming in his now reddened eyes. Eyes that were full of despair and horror.
"Agent Carmichael! Sit down!"
"Chuck please!" Carina stood up and grabbed him pulling him back to the couch.
Chuck looked up at the screen and a fury came over him. "General, how could you not tell me about this? You know how I feel about Sarah and yet you said nothing! You let her carry that burden alone when I could have helped her!"
"Agent Carm..., Chuck, what happened in Dhamar was none of your concern. She was no longer a member of your team. Agent Walker was given the standard CIA psychological review when she returned from that mission. She refused further treatment and was put back on active duty after the normal thirty day session."
"Back on active duty, after thirty days? How could anyone who went through that not be affected by it and placed back on active duty so soon?" His voice rose even further.
"Agent Carmichael! What we saw in Agent Walker was the utmost professional. Trained to deal with any circumstance in the field, compartmentalize it and continue her to perform her duty. If she said she was ready to return to active duty and our psychologists agreed, then she was damn well ready."
"Bullshit!" Both women pulled back in surprise. Chuck rarely if ever swore at anyone and especially not to a woman.
"Chuck! You can't talk that way to a General!" Carina grabbed him and tried to take his attention away from the diminutive redhead.
"I don't care. That's CIA bullshit and she knows it. It is just a game to get good agents back in the field as soon as possible. No one gives a shit if they are really ready or not. They have the signed forms from the Agent and the Doc and so they are off the hook if it all goes south."
"Agent Carmichael, that's enough. What's done is done. Walker is a professional, and if you want to help her and Casey, you better start acting like one yourself." The fury that could come out of that small woman never ceased to amaze him.
Carina reached out and took his hands in his and tried to calm both the rage and the pain she saw inside him. She had never seen him like this before. Had he ever reacted like this when she was in danger? Or was it because it had been his idea to change the assignments that put Sarah in this position. Carina hadn't missed his slip about his feelings for Sarah but that was for another time. Now she needed to find a way to reach him so they could find a way to rescue Sarah and Casey.
She began in a soft soothing voice. "Chuck, the General is right. It doesn't matter now what happened in the past. We can deal with that later. You need to calm yourself down so we can go find Casey and Sarah. I can't do this alone. I need you. Casey needs you and ... and most of all Sarah needs you."
Chuck looked into the redhead's eyes and saw the sincere concern she held there. He knew she was right but the thought of being betrayed by the General would not let go of him. He took a breath nodded at Carina, squeezing her hands gently and then turned his attention back to the monitor. He had the beginnings of a plan and he needed to use the General's professionalism to make his next point.
"General, maybe it wasn't my concern on a personal level anymore but when you assigned Agent Walker back to this team, it became my professional concern and yet you failed to tell us about what happened to her a year ago. That was information we needed in order to make sure this team successful. Both Agent Miller and I have noticed that Sarah is different, that she was hiding something and was not the same agent we both had worked with in the past. It is quite evident to me now what happened to her in Dhamar with Agent Shaw is the reason behind this change. Because you kept us in the dark, we thought it was just she was uncomfortable being around me again after... well after everything. So I made a stupid, selfish decision and Sarah and Casey have to live with the consequences of that decision and both are now in grave danger. Maybe you didn't know of any connection between the mission in Cairo and what happened in Dhamar but obviously there is one and if Agent Miller and I are going to find out what that connection is then we need to be granted certain liberties."
Both the General looked at Chuck with curious expressions. "What kind of liberties, Agent Carmichael?"
"Yes Chuck, what do you think we are going to need?"
"General, I would like Agent Miller and I to be granted access to all of the unredacted files regarding everything that Agents Shaw and Walker had worked on for the Ring Task force."
"Agent Carmichael, that isn't possible. Many aspects of that task force are classified and can only be unredacted and viewed by the head of the DNI, the Director of the CIA, myself and the President."
"General, I believe that my status as the only successful Human Intersect should put me on virtually the same clearance level."
"This is most..."
"General, I'm not finished. I'd also like access to Agent Shaw's unredacted personal files and anything at all related to him since he got out of diapers."
"Chuck!" Carina interrupted. "An agent's personal file is sacred. No one is allowed to see it. Please don't tell me you are going to ask to see Sarah's or Casey's as well. And why not mine while you're at it?"
"Carina, please. I understand that and I understand the need to keep that file completely private. I have no intention of asking for Sarah or Casey's files unless it is absolutely necessary. I know who they are and don't want to know their private personal information. But Shaw was killed by Sarah for a reason. In the flash I saw that Sarah had said in her report that Shaw had gone rogue and was working with the Ring. That makes him a traitor and strips away his right to privacy. I need access to everything if we are going to find Sarah and Casey. But if it is absolutely necessary to save John and Sarah's life, I will ask for theirs as well." Chuck knew that Sarah would be furious if he looked at her unredacted file. It was why he never allowed himself to flash on the redacted version that was in the Intersect. He had long felt that if Sarah wanted him to know about her past she would have told him herself. It was why he hadn't asked for anything when she offered him the chance after her high school reunion. At the time he desperately wanted to know everything about her but only if she chose to share it with him on her own.
But that kind of connection seemed so long ago now and if seeing her file would somehow help him find and rescue her and Casey, he would gladly bear whatever wrath and anger she placed upon him to know she was safe.
Carina nodded. One of every agent's biggest fears is that their personal file be compromised. It contained everything about them both personally and professionally. Every mission, every report, every seduction, every scrap of information about them. All of it "unwashed" and open. No one had access to this. All mission reports were gone through and any top secret info was redacted and that was what got into the servers and the Intersect. But this was the "clean file" and it was the biggest threat to any agents life.
General Beckman took her glasses off and set them on her desk. She took a breath as she made her decision. "Agent Carmichael because of your status as the Intersect host and the fact that Agent Shaw went rogue. I will grant you access to Agent Shaw's file but I can not grant access to Agent Miller. But remember the unredacted files of the CIA are sacrosanct. Their integrity will not be compromised for any active agent. Period. If you need access to Agent Walker and Colonel Casey's files, only the President himself can grant that access." The General's stern features let Chuck know that there was virtually no room for compromise on this issue.
"I will have to discuss your access to the files of the task force with the DNI and will get back to you."
"Understood General."
"But in the mean time I want you and Agent Miller at Bob Hope airport in two hours. You will have a jet fueled and waiting for you when you arrive. I want you on scene in Cairo by evening. Shaw's file will be waiting for you when you arrive."
"Yes, General" The two agents responded just as the screen went black.
As soon as the General finished Chuck got up to head to his room to grab his go bag. Carina grabbed his arm and pulled him back down.
"Chuck!"
"Carina, we have to go get packed. The sooner we leave the sooner we can go save Casey and Sarah." His voice still filled with emotion, so many she had difficulty recognizing them all even after being his partner for three years.
"Chuck, I know but please just sit for a minute. I need to tell you something." Carina was dreading this. Admitting she had kept something from him wasn't going to help their fledgling relationship, whatever that was. Especially seeing it related to Sarah. Chuck's slip about how he "feels" about Sarah and not how he "felt" was weighing heavily on her as well. But she needed to be honest with him and if what she had been keeping from him helped them in any way find Sarah and Casey, then it was worth whatever price she had to pay for withholding it.
"Carina, can't this wait? I need to get..." His nerves were frazzled and she could see the tension all through his shoulders. He was blaming himself for Casey and Sarah getting captured.
She laid a reassuring hand on his forearm. "Chuck, no it can't."
He sat back down and turned into the redhead's gaze. She broke her eyes away from his and looked down at her lap before taking a deep breath.
"Chuck I haven't been completely honest with you and before we head off to rescue Sarah and Casey I need to tell you this because it might have an impact on things."
"Carina, what is it? Is it something about Sarah?"
"Well yes and no." Chuck looked at her intently but confusion now took over his face.
"About six months ago when I was in DC I went and saw Sarah."
"What? Why didn't you tell me?"
"I'll get to that. But when I saw her I could tell that something was really wrong with her. She wouldn't tell me and I didn't ask but it was obvious something emotionally traumatic had happened to her. She was pale, weak, couldn't look me in the eye. I didn't see anything physically wrong with her but something wasn't right. You know how closed off Sarah can be. But this wasn't the Sarah I had seen back in Burbank. I thought it might have something to do with you as nobody affected Sarah like you did, but I knew you hadn't spoken to her since she left for DC with that asshole Shaw. Plus it seemed like it was something much more recent."
Chuck looked down and barely above a whisper said, "Dhamar."
"Yea, seems that way."
"But that doesn't explain why you didn't tell me about seeing her."
Carina took a deep breath. This was where it could get messy. "Chuck, look. I had spent the first year we were partners watching you tear yourself up inside because you thought you weren't good enough for Sarah. That she left with the better agent and the better man. That you weren't her 'type'. And that was just so far from the truth. She broke your heart when she left and you, Chuck Bartowski, don't do well with a broken heart."
"Tell me about it."
That got a small chuckle from Carina.
"Sarah leaving with Shaw tore you up inside for that year. Believe me I heard you those nights alone in your room when you thought I was sleeping. But over the next eighteen months you finally starting to move past it. You started to open up and were happy again. Or at least you hid that pain much better. And that led us to more successful missions."
"So you kept it from me to protect the missions? Now you sound like Beckman."
Carina grabbed his hands gently. "Again, yes and no. I knew that if I told you how broken Sarah seemed you would have wanted to run off and try to help her."
"Of course I would. No matter what happened between Sarah and I in the past, she was my friend, I still care about her and I can't stand the idea of my friends being in pain without doing everything in my power to help them deal with that pain."
Carina gave him a small smile. "I know. It is one of those things about you that make you so special Chuck. And no matter what she had done to you I also know you would have done it without any regard to how it may affect you to see her hurting again. You would gladly bear a million tons of your own pain if it would help relieve just one ounce of Sarah's."
Chuck looked down humbly at their hands, still holding each other.
"So you tried to protect me and the mission by not telling me."
"Yes."
"Carina, I understand but how could you do that to Sarah? How could you just let her hurt on her own like that? When she showed up here you should have told me."
"Chuck, you know how closed off Sarah can be, it's what we Agents do. It's what we all are trained to do. We deal with our emotional pain and bury it deep inside. I did it because that's what she would have wanted. Sarah was never someone to ask for help. Especially from someone like me. It would show weakness and an agent as good as Sarah would never want to show weakness, especially to a fellow agent."
"Carina, that's more CIA DEA bullshit and you know it. Bottling up your feelings just leads to broken agents who make mistakes, mistakes that get people killed. We all need help sometimes and its human to ask for it."
She gently rubbed the back of his palms. "That's why you are who you are Chuck. And its one of the reasons you are a threat to so many Agents and to the power structure of the agencies themselves. You make those around you not want to blindly follow their orders and actually become human beings again."
Chuck looked at his partner and saw something but it was gone in a flash.
"Chuck I also have to tell you that a part of me didn't want to tell you about Sarah because I was selfish. I like the attention you've been giving me this past year. I still believe in the cardinal rule of spying but I liked the feeling of being pursued by someone. Someone as special as you are Chuck. A part of me was jealous of how you and Sarah felt about each other back in Burbank and like I told you a long time ago, I like taking what Sarah wants. This past week has been the most fun I've had with my clothes on in a long time, stupid space cowboys and all."
That brought out the first sign of a smile on Chuck's face since their meeting with Beckman began even though the tips of his ears had turned just a bit more red than they were before.
"I'm glad. I have to admit the fashion museum and the play were a lot of fun for me too."
"See, it's not so bad living the lifestyle of an international secret agent now is it."
"No it's not, especially when that international secret agent has someone as beautiful as you on his arm to share it with."
Carina leaned in and gave him a gentle kiss on the cheek.
"Thank you Chuck, you're not so bad yourself." Chuck smiled in return. A small part of him had wanted to turn his head towards her lips but realized now wasn't the time. Her simple gesture of affection and thanks was enough.
"But all of that has to be put in the past now if we are going to save Casey and Sarah." Chuck nodded in reply, the sadness and worry returning to his eyes.
"Chuck, just remember. You're a million times better an agent on your worst day than Shaw ever was on his best. Whatever we find in Cairo, whatever is in those files, you will figure it out and you will come up with a plan that will save Casey and Sarah. I have complete and total faith in you and I bet if we could ask them, they would both say the same thing. Knowing you are out there looking for them will sustain them. I have felt that feeling first hand. Knowing Chuck Bartowski has your back is the best feeling an agent can ever have." She said sincerely.
"Thank you Carina, that means a lot." he said humbly. "But they also have you in their corner as well."
"Thanks Chuck. Now let's go get our friends back."
Unknown location
24 hours earlier
Sarah began to regain consciousness and could feel the telltale dryness at the back of her throat. The splitting headache she felt was all too familiar as well. The tranqs the Ring used left a much more tangible calling card than those of Fulcrum or the CIA itself. As she became more aware she ever so subtly opened her eyes just enough so she could see through her long lashes. She didn't want to alert anyone that she was awake in case they said something she might find a use for. Also it would give her enough time to fully regain her senses so she could assess her situation.
Unfortunately the room was dark, though she hadn't expected otherwise, and her shaded view gave her nothing to go on. So she closed her eyes tightly again and tried to think back to the last thing she remembered before waking up wherever she was now. As her mind looked back through the drug induced haze, she remembered seeing a known Ring agent, Justin Sullivan, go into the store they had under surveillance. When she had gone down to get a better look she remembered seeing a woman wearing the scarf she had admired the day before. The momentary distraction seeing that item she had daydreamed about cost her her freedom and probably the mission. For an agent even a few milliseconds can be the difference between success and failure. And this time Sarah was on the negative side of that ledger. The Ring had captured her and Casey and it was all her fault. She had made a mistake because she had lost her edge.
Deciding to shake off those thoughts for a bit she slowly opened her eyes once again to try and see if she could become acclimated to the darkness and possibly get an assessment of where she was and how she was confined. The first thing she noticed was that she was still fully clothed. At that fact she let out a small sigh of relief. It was always a female agent's biggest fear when captured to wake up nude as it most certainly led to other things, things she didn't want to think about right now. She felt the cold steel of cuffs around her wrists and what were probably shackles attached with a chain around her ankles. Fortunately they had kept her hands in front of her when they cuffed her.
Her other senses had told her she was someplace cool, probably in a basement or somewhere underground. The foul smell of dried blood and urine that permeated the mattress she was on told her she wasn't the first person to have been held here. It made her stomach, though empty, churn just a bit.
As she looked to her left she could see a very faint line of light probably coming from underneath the bottom of the door to whatever room she was in. As her eyes focused better now in the darkness she thought she could make out the outline of another cot like the one she was lying on, on the opposite wall. She saw no movement and couldn't tell if anyone was on it but she hoped it was Casey. Until she knew for certain it was him, she had no intention of letting the other person in her cell know of her presence.
As she looked at the ceiling she thought she saw something hanging in the middle of the room. Possibly a light but she couldn't tell for sure.
Sarah tried to slowly rotate her body the other direction as quietly as she could. She didn't want to wake up her companion or let anyone listening in know she was awake. As she looked now to her right she saw what was probably a very poor excuse for a toilet, a simple bucket on the floor. But she also felt a slight movement of air, air that was a slightly higher temperature. This was probably from some small ventilation duct. She thought that if the temperature was higher it meant it was daytime and when it became cooler it was nightfall. This would be a way for her to keep track of how many days she was here.
Her recollection from her refresher courses she took after Beckman had granted her wish to take the Ring task force with Shaw back out into the field had taught her that the compound she had probably been given by the Ring agent in the van would keep her out from 16-18 hours. That amount of time unconscious and she could be almost anywhere.
The thought of that revelation made her heart fall. She could be virtually anywhere in the world and nobody knew they were even captured. They weren't due to contact Beckman till today so for all she knew, no one was even looking for them yet.
As her mind came to terms with that thought, she knew she had to focus on somehow figuring out any possibility of escape. Until she knew for sure that the person in the other bunk was Casey she had to act like she was alone and the only person she could count on was herself. She had to find that great agent she had once been again and figure out some way to get out of her situation.
Deciding to think back again to her capture as her mind became clearer still, she suddenly remembered the man she had been brought to see just before she had been tranqed. The memory of his face made her blood run cold. It was a face she had thought she would never see again. A man she thought she had killed. A man whose blood she had seen pouring from the wound she thought was lethal in his neck. A wound she had given him. A man whose blood had been mixed with that of the man she had been working with for almost three years. And the man she had been sleeping with for much of the first eighteen months of that partnership.
As the smoked glass window of the Audi had opened, Sarah remembered the shock of seeing the man who had been such an evil part of her never ending nightmare was still alive. And now as she thought back to that moment all of the horror of what had happened in Dhamar came rushing back to her. The blood, the betrayal, the thought that everything she had worked for those past three years had all been for naught. All she had given up, all the trust she had thrown away, all the trust she had given to someone who didn't deserve any of it. The realization she had made the biggest mistake of her life when she got on that plane to DC. A mistake that almost cost her her life. And now she was captured once again and would have to live through all of that horror once more.
Instinctively she tried to wipe her eyes with her handcuffed hands. It was a nervous tick she had developed ever since that night in Dhamar. A tick developed because she had wiped away Shaw's blood after the arterial squirting of his carotid covered her face while she watched him die.
As the chills she felt too many times since that night began to take over her body, her misery was broken by a sound from her companion. Sarah stayed still not wanting to let the other person know she was here. After a few more seconds she heard a small but deep bellowing sound. A sound that was music to her ears. It was a grunt, a Casey grunt.
Sarah rolled over on her mattress towards her partner. Once in position she whispered his name.
"Casey."
"Hmmmph" He responded groggily.
"John, it's Sarah."
With a hoarseness in his voice he responded verbally this time. "Walker? Where the hell are we?"
"I don't know. We could be anywhere."
"How long was I out?"
"My guess is 16-18 hours based on what I think the Ring gave us."
"So the Ring was involved with Hassan."
"Seems that way."
"And if we were out for that long, they could have taken us anywhere."
"That's my guess."
"Any sign we are being watched or monitored?"
"Not that I've been able to find yet but I only woke up about ten minutes before you. But we should probably assume they are seeing and hearing everything we do and say."
"Standard Loretta protocol?"
"Agreed." Casey's mention of the special protocol they had developed back in Burbank for communicating when they had suspicion they were being monitored brought a faint smile to her face. They had named it after the creepy duo who worked at the BuyMore who always seemed to be stalking someone. Jeff had named the van he equipped for that purpose Loretta and when ever that name was mentioned, it meant someone was watching.
Casey tried to test the shackles and cuffs to see if he could find a weakness. When the time came he knew he could break his thumbs and get out of the cuffs, but the shackles were another story. But as he moved his legs he felt the metal frame of the cot give a little. It was something given enough time he could probably break if need be.
"Casey, what happened? How did you get caught? I didn't see anyone in the alley."
"Damned IED. I stepped on it and felt the trigger through my shoe. Someone came up behind me and before I could set it off to take him out he tranqed me"
"Set it off? You would have been killed too."
"Yea but it would have been one less terrorist after you."
"Casey, that isn't what I would have wanted, you know that!"
"Not your call, Walker."
"John, you are not to ever blow yourself up to protect me. Got it?" Her voice strong and firm, reminiscent of the Sarah Walker he knew back in Burbank. The Sarah before things got screwed up between her and Bartowski. The Sarah before Shaw. For an instant he remembered the scene in the Orange Orange when Shaw wanted to blow up Castle with Chuck in it. How Sarah had acted so weak and almost subservient to the bastard. The Sarah before Shaw would have dropped him where he stood for threatening the Intersect, or more honestly for threatening Chuck. Hell he knew for a fact she did it with Mauser when he had to dispose of the body. But Shaw had some kind of hold over Sarah he couldn't understand. It was like whenever he was around he sucked the life out of everyone and everything he came in contact with.
"Can't promise you that blondie but it's good to hear my old partner again even if it is under these circumstances. Anyway turns out it must have been a trap."
Sarah was confused a bit by Casey's statement but decided to let it drop. She knew he was going to ask her the same question he had asked him. She wasn't sure what she was going to say.
"You're turn, Walker."
Sarah took a breath and realized that she couldn't lie to Casey. No matter how much it bothered her that she allowed herself to get distracted and get caught, she hoped her old partner wouldn't judge her too harshly.
"I... I got distracted."
"You what?"
"I got distracted ok? I saw something and my attention slipped and they got the drop on me."
"Jesus Walker, what the hell did you see that got your ass thrown in here?"
"It doesn't matter. It won't change what happened. I screwed up and the next thing I knew I had a gun pointed at my kidney."
"Damn it Walker. You used to be better than that. The only time you ever got distracted before was when you were thinking about or making googly eyes at the moron."
"Don't call him that." Her weak defense gave Casey all the info he needed. But knowing what had gone on since she came back he decided to give her a break. After all it wouldn't do them much good under the circumstances they were in to piss off his cellmate.
"Look, is there anything else you can think of that might help us get out of ..."
Just before Casey was about to finish his question they heard a noise in the hall. The faint light coming from under the door gave the telltale movement of feet just outside their cell. Looking briefly at each other they turned their heads back to the door when they heard the noise of an old fashioned padlock being released. It seemed their new home was a bit old school. What that meant, they weren't sure.
As the door opened, two men appeared in silhouette. As their eyes tried to adjust to the sudden brightness, it was made worse by someone turning on the single overhead light. Quickly closing their eyes they waited a few seconds before reopening them. This time the faces of the two men now clearly in view.
"Well, I see our guests have woken from their little nap. You two ready for the fun to start?" The smirk on the tall American made their skin crawl.
He turned towards his companion chuckling a bit. "Seems our guests are not very talkative. I expect that will change soon enough."
He turned back and took a few steps forward and stood between the two cots. His arms folded across his chest. A chest he had fully extended signifying how proud of himself he was.
"My, my. How the mighty have fallen. Two of the US's best agents, excuse me former best agents, all shackled and bound in our little cell.. It really must be my lucky day."
Both Sarah and Casey were calling on all their training not to want to reach out and wipe that smirk off their faces.
"Agent Walker, so good to see you again. I hope the shock of seeing me alive wasn't too much for you yesterday? I know after our last... encounter... I for one can't be happier to have you in front of me. However, I don't think you feel the same way." His voice laced with contempt.
Casey watched the two carefully. The mention of their encounter had brought out a strong reaction in both. Casey recognized the second man as Justin Sullivan from the day before but whoever this man was, he and Walker had a definite history. He also noticed the long scar on the man's neck that ended right at his carotid. Somehow he knew Walker probably played a part in that bit of cosmetic surgery.
Turning his attention to Casey, the American continued. "Why John Casey, I thought you had been kicked out of the NSA in disgrace for stealing some new fancy emotion drug. Then re-upped and got sent to Afghanistan cause you couldn't cut it as a civilian. I guess that little redheaded bitch back in Washington must have been desperate to bring an old burnout back to the Agency."
Casey was fuming. How the hell did he know about the Laudanol? It had been a condition of his dismissal that the reasons behind it be kept top secret. Only Team Bartowski and General Beckman knew of the circumstances. It was the reason he had been allowed to return to active military duty after a "cooling off" period.
"Once we are through with you here, I bet your friends in the Taliban would love to get their own bit of payback on whatever's left of you."
Just then his companion reached into his pocket and pulled out what looked like a smaller more advanced version of the Ring phone they had captured back in Burbank. After ending the call he whispered something in the man's ear and showed him the display. He nodded and signaled for Sullivan to head back towards the hall.
"Well it seems I have something I need to attend to but don't you worry I'll be back soon enough. I'll have a little water and some bread brought in for you. I don't want you to think I'm a terrible host after all. Besides you are going to be here for a while and the fun part hasn't even started yet. If you need to use the 'facilities' I made sure your shackles are just long enough. I just hope your not shy. Can't help that."
After looking back and forth between the two agents one more time, the tall American smirked one more time and headed out the door. The sound of the lock being put back in place. The light in their room extinguished once more.
Sarah took a deep breath trying to control her emotions. She knew she had to keep them at bay during this ordeal if she and Casey had any chance of surviving this. They needed the old Agent Walker now, not the one that existed since that night in the Dhamar.
"Ok Walker. Something tells me you two have a history and it's a big one. Who the fuck is that guy and what the hell happened between you two? And how the hell did he know about the Laudanol?"
Closing her eyes trying to slow down her rapidly beating heart. She took a deep breath and turned to her cellmate. She knew telling Casey who the man was would open up everything she had gone through since she left for DC with Shaw. But he deserved to know the truth about all of it.
"His name is Clyde Decker. He was the former head of Operation Cygnus, a top secret, not officially sanctioned arm of the CIA. Operation Cygnus was supposed to clean up all of the Agencies messes. And Decker being it's head knew all of the agencies dirty little secrets."
"Ok, but what does that have to do with you?"
Sarah swallowed dryly. It was time Casey heard about the traitor that was their former partner. "Well it turns out Decker was actually working as a recruiter for the Ring all along and I thought I'd killed him right after I slit Daniel Shaw's throat."
Cairo
Chuck and Carina had arrived in Cairo just after dark and headed straight to the KhanKhalili marketplace. They wanted to observe the area and to look for any signs they were being watched or followed before they entered the small apartment that was Sarah and Casey's last known position. They hoped they could get in without being noticed by anyone working with Hassan or the Ring.
After midnight they felt it was finally safe to head inside. Once they arrived they found that all of their partners surveillance gear was long gone and the place was in a shambles. The two agents spent the next 3 hours going through every scrap, every splintered piece of wood, every hole in the plastered walls looking for something, anything that would lead them to their friends. But every piece of furniture had been tossed and anywhere that could possibly have been used as a hiding place was gone through before they got there and anything of value was now in the hands of either the Ring or the local street gangs. It was a depressing scene and the feeling of desperation that Chuck had felt ever since Beckman had played the audio recording of their capture was growing stronger.
Chuck was exhausted both from lack of sleep and the stress he had put himself under. On the plane ride to Cairo Carina had tried to tell him that it wasn't his fault, that life as an agent was always fraught with danger and at any moment they could be captured, hurt or even killed but they accepted those risks without reservation and without blame. But Chuck wouldn't have any of it. It was his decision to send Sarah on this mission, his decision to change assignments so he could spend more down time with Carina. His decision to keep Sarah at a distance just when it seemed they could become friends again. His decision to run away from the hurt he felt every time he saw her and tried so desperately to hide ever since she came back. His decision to send her away to help him move on. His decision that led to two of the people he cared about most in the world to be captured and him not knowing if they were alive or dead. And if they were still alive it was his decision that would mean Sarah would have to relive the nightmare that was Dhamar.
Seeing the state her partner was in Carina flipped the metal bed frame back upright and placed the thin dingy mattress that had been thrown on the floor on top of it. She took Chuck's hand and pulled him over to sit down next to her. Sitting silently for a few moments looking at him she could see that the weight of everything that had happened was still very much laying upon his shoulders. She had to figure out some way to calm him, to at least get him to catch a couple of hours sleep before they regrouped and tried to find out where Sarah and Casey were being held.
"Chuck, why don't you try and get some rest. We've looked through everything here at least three times and there's nothing left. It's all been cleaned out. I'll keep watch and you get an hour or two of sleep. We'll head out just before dawn to the safe house Beckman arranged. She should have granted you access to those files by then. We can't do anything more here."
Jumping to his feet he turned and look at his partner with fire in his eyes. It was the same rage he had directed at Beckman back in Burbank.
"Damn it, how can I possibly sleep knowing that Sarah and Casey are out there God knows where probably being tortured or killed while I lay here and 'get some rest'. Jesus Carina, I have to find them."
"No Chuck!" An anger now laced in her voice.
"What did you say?"
"Damn it Chuck, you don't have to find them. We have to find them! You are not carrying this alone. We're a team and right now you need to stop acting like it's all on you and do what's best for that team. And right now what's best for your team is for you to get some sleep!"
"Carina,! But it's all my fault!" Chuck turned his head and reached down grabbing the first thing he saw and threw it against the wall in desperation. It smashed and landed on top of the bed.
"Chuck! You need to calm down now or Hassan is going to know we're here if he doesn't already!"
Chuck closed his eyes and sat back down on the bed. He knew Carina was right. He had to get a hold of himself or he was going to get two more agents captured. She sat down next to him and pulled him close resting his head on her shoulder.
"Chuck, I..."
"You're right. I'm sorry. I just can't stop thinking about what they may be going through because of me."
"It's ok Chuck. We'll find them, I promise. We're a great team and you are going to do what you do best. You're going to look at those files from Beckman and you're going to find out where they were taken and why. But you need to be at your best. They need you to be at your best. And right you need some rest. Let me move this and you can lie down. I'll wake you in two hours."
"Ok, thanks."
Chuck looked over as Carina picked up the debris from what Chuck had thrown against the wall. She recognized it as the remnants of Sarah's suitcase, the hard outer shell now cracked. As she looked at it more carefully she saw there was a small hidden compartment and something inside.
"Chuck, come here. Take a look at this."
Chuck got up and stood next to Carina while she pulled out a blue piece of material. Once she got it all the way out and he saw the small white buttons his hands began to shake.
Not looking at her partner, Carina spoke. "Chuck, why would Sarah have an old blouse hidden in a secret compartment in her suitcase? It's just a blouse, why not just keep it in the regular part?"
Chuck didn't answer. He couldn't. A hundred thousand thoughts were flying through his brain and he had no way to process this.
Carina never saw the look on Chuck's face as she noticed something else hidden underneath the blouse in the secret compartment. She reached inside carefully and pulled out what she had found.
"Chuck?" When she turned to look at her partner's face, all she could see was the single tear that ran down his cheek.
A/N2 Not sure if another of this story or the next chapter of LL&L will come next but I am enjoying writing again. Hopefully I can get my pace back up again. BTW please read all of the new writers stuff we have on the site. Encouraging them is the best way to keep this community alive.
