For notes and disclaimer, please see part one.

Here's a couple things you might need to know or maybe you just forgot: Ellie gets questioned at the hospital by a well-meaning coworker about her date. Chuck and Casey are still at odds. Mr. Finch, the procurer, has a money-making idea and invites others to crash the meeting Chuck set up earlier at Club Azure for Monday. Sarah gets Chuck to confess that he's having issues with Ellie and Casey's new relationship. Alex gets Casey to confess that he's having concerns, too.

Casey was up long before the sun that Sunday morning. He hadn't slept well. While he'd enjoyed his conversation with Alex, he was still keeping all sorts of lies. He hadn't told Ellie about his daughter. He hadn't told his daughter that he was her father. He'd never had any issues before, with keeping a cover straight. But, this wasn't a cover. This was his life.

So, he sat at his computer, staring at the screen. He'd attempted to distract himself with the blueprints and layouts for Club Azure. It wouldn't hurt to have all his homework done early so he could review it often. But, the more he looked at the screen, the more he found himself distracted. And that wouldn't be good for any of them.

He couldn't help but run through the various worst-case scenarios. That was his job. He was good at it. Game theorist. It said so on his NSA dossier.

The reactions he kept seeing in his mind were mildly different but had so many of the same elements. He saw a lot of hurt. Some tears. Stunned silence.

He ran his hands over his face, like that could somehow erase the past fifteen attempts he'd run through in his brain to try to tell her the truth. Each time, it seemed, the reactions got worse. Each time, the reactions were more gut wrenching. Each time, he regretted telling her.

But, it was killing him, the prospect of not telling her. She deserved to know. She deserved to live her life fully in the light as opposed to the shadows he continued to throw.

Getting to his feet, maybe he'd take her out for breakfast...

No. If he dropped that bombshell there, she might think that he'd done that intentionally, to quell any reaction she might have.

Maybe he'd just bring over a cup of coffee...

No. He looked at his coffee pot. He drank his so dark and so bitter that he couldn't imagine she'd like it. He could sour the mood before he even got started.

Maybe he'd just stop acting like a damned teenage girl, get over his fears, suck it up and get it over with.

He nodded to himself before crossing towards his door.

It was still early, and he had the potential to ruin a perfectly good Sunday, but he needed to. He needed Ellie to know exactly what she was getting into, exactly what, or who, he was. Taking a deep breath, he stepped into the courtyard and purposefully strode towards her apartment.

Except, the closer he got, the slower he walked.

Pansy-ass, bleeding-heart chicken, he chastised himself.

"Casey?"

He stopped, glancing over, spotting Chuck at the open door. "Bartowski."

"Got a second?"

Casey nodded slowly, changing course to meet Chuck halfway.

"About yesterday..."

The Marine said nothing, interested more in what the kid had to say, what he might volunteer.

Chuck sighed, seeming to deflate a little. "I don't want there to be... weirdness... in the team, y'know? I mean, there's nobody I trust with my life more than you and Sarah and Morgan. You took a bullet for me. That's... Out of all the things you've done to save me in the past three years, that's... That takes the cake, buddy." Chuck fully expected an accepting grunt but was surprised to see the older man nod slightly. "And I don't want that to change. I don't want some other NSA guy to roll in here and take your place because, well... he couldn't. You're pretty irreplaceable. It's just... weird."

Casey cleared his throat. "Well, maybe I can remove the weirdness for you."

Chuck narrowed his eyes slightly at his NSA protector. "What do you mean, exactly?"

"There was no reason, really, to tell Ellie before, but I need to tell her now."

"Tell her what?" Chuck asked, his confusion morphing into concern.

"About Alex."

"Oh," Chuck said, his eyes wide. "Are you... are you sure that's the greatest idea ever? Because I'm thinking maybe that wouldn't be something that you would necessarily have to tell."

"I'm not going to lie to your sister. Not anymore."

"But, that's... that's like Fat Man and Little Boy, all the destructing power the Manhattan Project gave us in the '40s, released in this apartment complex! There'd be nothing left. The fallout has the potential to destroy for... well, forever, after that."

"I'm aware," Casey admitted.

"I know! I know, let me get Sarah out here to tell you how bad of an idea this is. I mean, some lies are okay. Little ones. Teeny ones. Like... C'mon, no woman expects a truthful answer when she asks if she looks big in that dress. They fully expect you to lie! And you, being the spy that you are, you'd be able to offer the most believing, the most convincing lies, like, ever."

"I don't think my having a child is a small fib."

"Well, she's not so small, really..." Sensing he was about to lose Casey, he spoke again, quickly. "I just... Please, don't do it," Chuck tried.

"Which is it, Chuck? You want me to break her heart now? Or later?"

"Preferably? Never. I'm thinking never is a very good time for her heart to break."

"I can't guarantee that."

"I don't see why you couldn't."

Casey's civility was starting to wane. He could feel himself reaching his boiling point. "I've made up my mind, Bartowski. I'm going to tell her everything."

"Casey..." He watched, mildly horrified, as the Marine turned on his heel to walk away. "Wait, wait, Casey, hold up... Hold up here, big guy," he said, reaching out to try to stop him. "We could... we could puzzle this through, we could chat a little more, y'know..."

"The only Bartowski I feel like talking to this morning is Ellie," he said flatly, looking back at Chuck.

"I just... this... This won't end well."

"I know," Casey said before finally reaching Ellie's door.

"Case-" He stopped in mid-syllable. It was too late. The big guy's fist had connected with his sister's door. Sighing and muttering a curse, he slipped back into his apartment.

Ellie glanced up from her coffee and muffin when she heard the knock at her door. She bit her lower lip, hopeful that it was a certain Colonel dropping by unannounced. When she peeked through the curtains into the courtyard, she saw his familiar tall, muscular form at her doorstep and her lips broke free into a huge grin. Taking a moment to take a deep breath and calm herself back down again, she opened the door casually. "Hey, John."

"Ellie," he returned.

She could tell that some of the magic was gone from his eyes. "What's wrong?"

"I was wondering," he began slowly, "if I could talk to you."

She nodded, welcoming him inside. "You want some coffee? Something to eat?"

He shook his head. He'd had enough of his coffee and he wasn't sure adding anything on top of his now churning stomach was such a brilliant idea. Certainly, no more brilliant than what he had planned for her morning.

"Sit," she said, offering him choice of seats in the living room. "What's up?"

Casey quickly took one of the arm chairs. He didn't want Ellie to have to sit close to him, and he had a feeling if he'd chosen the couch, she would've perched next to him. "Ellie, I became aware of something a little while ago, something you need to be aware of..."

"Is this some kinda... scary spy thing?" she ventured. She instantly regretted saying anything when she saw the look on his face. She knew he wasn't upset at her. He was just upset because, whatever it was he was going to tell her, it was going to take longer if she interrupted him. "Never mind," she murmured.

He swallowed hard, glancing at her before looking at the rug on the floor between them. "Before..." He cleared his throat nervously. "Before I was John Casey, I was Alexander Coburn."

"But... I met your mother..." She stopped suddenly. "I'm sorry; keep going."

"And she was Elizabeth Coburn," he said, glancing at her.

"I don't care what your name is, Marine," she said gently.

"It's more than that, though. I... I was engaged to be married, as Alex."

A dread fear took to her, pooling in her stomach. Was he married? As in not formerly but currently? She swallowed that question, however.

"I didn't know it, when I became John, but I have recently become aware, as in very recently, that my former fiancee, who has moved on with her life, had a child."

Ellie slowly looked up at him, praying silently that he'd look at her, too.

Casey, however, closed his eyes. "While I'm not completely certain, I'm mostly certain that the child is... mine." He finished his sentence, barely above a whisper. He looked up just in time to see her eyebrows shoot up her forehead, at the shock he'd imagined a hundred times when going through this very same scenario in his head.

"So... so, this child, this... child of yours is... is how old?" she managed.

"Twenty."

"Twenty?" She was expecting maybe a toddler, maybe someone still in the early elementary school grades.

"It was 1989, I was in Honduras, and they offered me a position with black ops, which I took." He tried to explain quickly, because it looked like he'd punched her, physically, in the stomach. Maybe repeatedly. He hoped the explanation would remove that expression from her face because, God, he hated seeing it there. "Ellie, I didn't know she was pregnant. I thought I was doing what was best for my country, what was best for her-"

"Twenty..." she repeated again, in shock.

"I didn't know. I didn't know anything about her, not until a mission shortly before the one where I was shot-"

"Her?"

"Yeah," he said, his voice catching. "I have a daughter."

Ellie closed her eyes. Because, if she closed her eyes, then the room had to stop spinning. Except, it didn't. "John..."

"Ellie..."

She opened her eyes again, one hand on her stomach, the other resting against her forehead. "Please, leave..."

Casey got to his feet. He lingered only for a moment before doing as she asked.

Chuck watched from the curtains in his bedroom as Casey practically fled from Ellie's apartment. As predicted, it hadn't gone well.

"Who are you spying on?" Sarah asked, poking through her drawer to find acceptable clothes to wear after her shower.

Chuck immediately snapped the curtains closed. "Nobody."

"Chuck..."

"Maybe Casey. Maybe Casey who just broke my sister's heart."

Sarah turned, resting a hand on her hip. "I thought we had this discussion last night, where you were going to talk thorough your issues."

"We did! And Casey and I talked this morning, but he just left from Ellie's after telling her about Alex."

Sarah's eyebrows drifted up her forehead.

"That's what I said! I told him not to! I'm going to go talk to Ellie-"

"Chuck..."

"Yeah?"

"Give it time."

"But-"

"Time," she insisted.

Mandy could tell Ellie was furious. While the doctor would plaster on a smiling, happy face for her bedside manner, the rest of the time, there was a tightness in Ellie's jaw, a furrow in her brow, and a general look of being lost in thought.

It had been like that for hours. While Ellie hadn't made any missteps, while she hadn't made any errors, Mandy decided to take proactive steps to help out. "Dr. B?"

Ellie didn't look up from where she scribbled in a chart. "Mm?"

"It's break time."

"I'll see you when you get back, then."

"Actually, I was thinking you should come with me."

Ellie glanced up but shook her head. "I have to harass radiology for those x-rays for the skateboarding kid."

"Scotty could always do that."

"Scotty could always do what? What could Scotty do?" asked Dr. Scott Harris. He grinned at both Mandy and Ellie.

"I'm fine, Mandy," Ellie said, closing the chart she'd been writing in and moving towards the telephone.

Mandy looked at Scott for backup.

Scott could tell, too, that something was off. Of course, none of them had realized that Devon was so close to leaving, that his marriage to Ellie was so broken it couldn't be fixed. He began scribbling on his prescription pad.

"What are you doing?" Ellie asked.

He tore off the top sheet, handing it to her.

It took a moment for her to decipher his handwriting. Even though he was a doctor, and most of their handwriting was terrible, his chicken-scratching easily took the cake.

Pie, one slice. Coffee, times two. Refill at Pie Shack, as needed.

Chuck paced. "I didn't mean for it to go quite this way."

"You don't even know which way it went," Sarah reminded.

"It went very clearly badly."

"You haven't talked to Casey since he talked to Ellie. Maybe he didn't get a chance to say what he wanted to, maybe she was in a hurry, was running late for her shift..."

"No, it was early enough. She was fine. He told her," Chuck said, trying hard not to wring his hands.

"Why don't you call Ellie?"

"'Cause I don't want to bother her."

"Why don't you talk to Casey?"

He glanced back at her. "'Cause I don't want to die?"

Sarah shook her head.

"He is, potentially, a wounded animal right now. I, for one, am not going to poke the wolf when his paw is stuck in one of those nasty-looking claw traps," he said, gesturing with his curled fingers as an example.

She got to her feet, tossing the newspaper she'd been casually skimming on the table.

"Wh-where are you going?" he asked.

"To poke a wolf caught in a trap," she said simply.

Chuck watched her fretfully. "Are you so sure that's a great idea?"

"Somebody's got to let him out," she explained as she exited into the courtyard and crossed towards Casey's. She took a slow breath before knocking.

As she waited for him to open the door, she thought back. She'd felt that this was coming for a long time, Ellie and Casey's relationship. She was thrilled when it finally seemed to come to fruition. Casey needed the love of a good woman and Ellie... Ellie, really, seemed to be made for him. Alike in many ways while different in others. They matched well.

She hadn't been so sure about it at first, when she first started seeing the initial inklings in the time immediately following his mission to protect Ellie in San Francisco. He often looked at her when she wasn't looking at him. She would steal glances his direction when his attention was elsewhere. There were the occasional lingering moments in the kitchen on family dinner night.

And then there was the hostage situation at the hospital, where she'd seen his struggling to maintain his composure when Ellie had been held at gunpoint, when Ellie had refused to allow him to rescue her like he'd wanted. When he had put Chuck into the wall of the surveillance van.

It was then when she'd realized it was inevitable. That they'd started tumbling down a mountain and they'd never be able to stop. While Casey hadn't been keen on admitting it, it didn't matter. It was true.

And when the door opened, when she looked at her partner, it was clear Casey was still struggling.

"What happened?"

Casey opened his door wider, letting Sarah in. "I told her about Alex."

"That's what Chuck said..."

"She did not take it well."

"Which means, what, exactly?"

"She asked me to leave."

"And?"

Casey shrugged. "And nothing. I left."

"She's not called?" Off Casey's shaking head, she continued. "I'm sure she just needs time to let it all sink in."

He scoffed, dropping into his recliner. He didn't think so.

"I'm sure she felt like it came out of nowhere."

"What am I supposed to do, Walker? Keep lying to her?"

"It's not lying," Sarah said. "It's just... not being completely forthcoming."

"Po-tay-to, po-tah-to," he growled.

She eased to sit on his couch before looking at him-really looking at him.

"What?"

"I'm not saying that I think you need to lie to Ellie. I'm just... you had one date. And, by the sounds of it, it was pretty spectacular, pretty amazing." She was surprised to see the hesitance in his eyes. "You saw me talking to Ellie yesterday. I'm sure you knew we were talking about you. It sounds like you had the perfect romantic evening planned. You're both on this new-love high. I just don't quite understand why you would potentially jeopardize it so quickly." She'd known Casey'd never been particularly confident in real relationships. He had no problem with the cover variety, with the seduction for mission purposes. But, if his heart was really, truly involved, it was a very different story.

"The key word there, Walker, is jeopardize. Now or later. Why not now, before there's too much invested?"

She looked at him hard. "Because, you're already too invested."

He closed his eyes, inhaling slowly. When he opened them again, he was determined. "I don't want to lie to her anymore than I have to. While national security is my top working priority, I want to be able to talk to her about everything else."

"Sometimes working priorities are personal priorities."

"But, they aren't all the time," he countered. "While I'm not Alexander Coburn anymore, being him..." His mouth twitched slightly. "Being him for twenty years did help make me who I am today. That's what I want Ellie to understand."

"Names aren't that important."

"Says the woman who's had more than she can count," he said gently. "I spend so much time lying to everyone else, I don't want to lie to her. She's... She's different. She deserves better than that."

"Why didn't you tell her about your daughter before? Why'd you wait until now?"

"She was still married to Devon then. I didn't think I'd ever have the possibility for forever with her. But, now that there was even the remotest chance, I had to tell her."

"What happened to that chance, though, with the truth out?"

He shrugged.

"Casey, if there's one thing I know about you, it's that you examine every possibility before doing something. That's what makes you the spy that you are. That's how you've cultivated your reputation. It was deliberate. What happens now?"

"That's the thing," he said. "I don't know."

"Casey-"

"It's all up to Ellie now," he said, a little sharper than he'd intended. "There's nothing that I can do. Nothing except wait."

She sat at the table, not even looking at the menu.

Mandy knew something was beyond wrong. "What is it?" she gently goaded.

Ellie sighed a little, shaking her head.

That answer wasn't nearly good enough. "Is it Devon?"

"What?" Ellie asked, shocked. "No."

"Then..." coaxed Mandy.

"Devon is... Devon is a good guy," Ellie explained. "The divorce was a mutually agreed upon decision. He's off with his new life and I'm off with mine. He... He's barely a blip on my radar anymore." She wanted him to be happy, healthy, and safe, but that was as far as her concerns went.

"Then, is it the new guy? Y'know, it's okay just to have a rebound guy. No one would blame you or think anything negative about you. Everyone in the world does it."

"That is not what John is," Ellie said, affronted.

Mandy's eyes widened as the detail sunk in, as she remembered why that name was important. "Your neighbor John? Your rescuer John? Your John? The one who got shot not that long ago? That John?"

Ellie immediately clammed up.

The waitress breezed over, smiling broadly at them both. "Hi, my name is Alex, and I'll be taking care of you today. Can I start you off with some coffee? Juice?" She watched as her two patrons just stared at each other. "Um...I'll give you ladies a-"

"Yes, please. Coffee," Mandy said, finally looking up at Alex.

"Same," Ellie managed weakly.

Alex scribbled that down on her order pad. "Our slice of the day, ladies, is key lime." When neither seemed to acknowledge that sentence, she headed back towards the counter.

"It is, isn't it? Strong, sexy John."

Reluctantly, Ellie nodded.

"Well, what's the problem? By the look of things, he's perfect. Tall, dark and handsome. Knight in shining armor."

"He is all of that," Ellie admitted. "But he's also secretive." Well, no, it wasn't that so much. He'd always been so much more truthful with her than the others. "Not secretive. He just... He just told me something this morning I never would've imagined and it was... startling."

Mandy's smile was soft. "It's just new. You and Devon were together a very long time. It's just... It just takes time to adjust to the fact that you're dating again. Dating is bomb dropping. Dating is learning new things about people. He's not going to know everything about you instinctively and the same goes for you about him. It's not marriage, it's... You have to build back up to that level, where you know where all the bodies are buried, about all the skeletons in the closet, about the size of the emotional baggage collection."

Ellie shook her head slowly. "You don't understand, Mandy, this was a bigbomb."

"Think back when you first met Devon. There were bombs then, too, weren't there?"

Reluctantly, Ellie nodded.

"And eventually they became distant memories. The smoke fades, the shrapnel pieces are collected and disposed of, right?"

"I guess you're right," Ellie relented.

"Of course I'm right," Mandy grinned as Alex returned with two steaming mugs. "John's a keeper. Trust me."

Alex didn't think much about the overheard part of the conversation. At least, not until after Mandy ordered the peanut butter silk pie and Ellie ordered the pecan.

Pecan pie. Scrubs. Doctor. John.

"Ellie?" Alex ventured.

Ellie glanced up, surprised. "I'm sorry, do we know each other?"

"Not yet, but I think we know the same John. Crazy tall. Blue eyes. Scar," she said, pointing at her own right cheek.

Ellie tried to rationalize why John, super spy, would talk to someone about her. Wouldn't that be potentially hazardous to all of their health? "Sounds like my John."

"He's just the sweetest guy. Always with a smile and a kind word. Always concerned how you are."

Ellie nodded slowly, but then her eyes fell on the girl's name tag. Alex. Her heart pounded in her chest when she looked back up at the girl, at the familiar hue of her eyes, at the similar shape to the ears and nose. She even sort of resembled her grandmother. "It's... it's very nice to meet you, Alex," she finally managed.

Alex grinned. "You, too! He speaks so highly of you."

Stay tuned...

Lines from the next installment:

Morgan paused before reaching down and snagging the ink pen from its pocket in his bag. He crossed towards the arm chair, easing down into it. He propped his feet up on the coffee table, easing his fist, closed around the pen, under his chin. He clicked the pen a time or two. "Would you like my semi-professional opinion?"

Chuck let out a slow sigh. "Do I get a choice in the matter?"

"Not really," Morgan admitted.

The lankier geek eased back onto the couch.

"Change is painful. But the only thing constant is change... Therefore, pain is constant."

"That's kinda deep for a Sunday afternoon," Chuck admitted.