John Casey was lying on the floor with a shotgun in his hand. Chuck could barely see his face but he would never forget those eyes. Eyes burning with hate as he slowly rose and limped over to Marcus who was still on the floor, screaming in pain.

"Oh, my god! Casey!!!! Are you ok?!" Chuck shouted, trying to get a reaction from the bleeding agent who slowly made his way towards Marcus. Casey ignored Chuck and went over to their torturer.

Chuck knew instinctively what was about to happen and he felt a cold chill pass through his body.

"Casey! No, don´t do it! Casey!!! Listen to me, you don't have to do this, you can send him to some underground bunker instead, Casey don´t!"

Casey, still ignoring Chuck, placed himself next to Marcus and chugged the gun, putting a new round into the still smoking pipe.

"Chuck."

Casey had turned towards him and gave him a stern look.

"Chuck, close your eyes."

"What? Casey no! I won…"

"CHUCK!!" Casey's voice lacked its normal forcefulness and he swayed were he stood.

"Chuck, please close your eyes."

Chuck dared not, not comply and he turned his head.

"BANG!"

Chuck jumped at the sound of the gun, feeling the shockwave as the weapon was fired close to him.

"Chuck…." Casey's voice was weak, barely audible as he spoke.

Chuck opened his eyes and immediately felt sick to his stomach looking at the sight before him. Marcus was laying on the ground, dead, with a look of horror, permanently etched on his face. Casey had shot him through the chest, a big gaping hole had replaced where his heart would've been.

Casey had knelt beside Marcus, the recoil had brought his broken body to its knees.

"Oh my god…my god….Casey…Casey! Are you all right?"

Concern colored his voice as he shook his restraints, desperate to get free and somehow help Casey.

Casey rose from the ground, slowly and with much effort, he left all of his training of concealing his pain aside, it was just Chuck watching him.

Casey dragged himself over to Chuck and even though it was a small distance to cover, it took Casey longer than he thought with pain coursing through his body.

Chuck felt so sad, watching the normally so proud and strong man being rippled with obvious pain and yet….Yet he kept going.

Casey then reached over and released him from his restraints. Immediately after Chuck had taken his hands down, the pain came rushing back. Chuck fell to the floor, the big lash on his back burning, blood slowly leaking down his back.

"Chuck! Are you ok?" Casey grabbed him carefully by the shoulders and tried to keep him steady as the younger man tried to squirm out of his own skin.

It took him a while, then Chuck slowly opened his eyes, meeting Casey's worried gaze. And then he saw the tearings on Casey's face and neck, saw with a blunt obviousness that Casey had been subjected to so much worse torture the he had, feeling ashamed and regretful for his reaction. He was such a wimp, falling down, whining about one cut on his back when Casey had received at least ten lashes, if not more….

"Listen, Casey…We need to go get help, ok? I´ll try to get out of here, see if I can stop a car or whatever"

"No need, my phone is in Marcus' pocket, I'll get it and call for assistance" Casey sounded so tired and no wonder, his normally sun kissed skin had started to look like Chucks pale excuse of a tan.

Casey made a move to get up as Chuck put a hand on his not so bruised shoulder, earning a confused look from the wounded agent.

"No, Casey, you're not moving, ok? I'll get it, just stay here, ok?"

Casey didn't have the energy to argue; he just nodded and slumped down on the ground, barely able to sit up.

Chuck made his way over to Marcus, wincing as his back hurt and his stomach burned like fire. But he tried not to complain aloud, knowing Casey's pain outnumbered him easily.

Not that he spent time with corpses every day, but somehow rummaging around in a dead guys pocket didn't bother him as much as he'd thought it would have. Eventually he found the cell and headed back to Casey.

"Here it is, Casey! Call…your people at…wherever that place is! Casey? Casey?!"

Casey had become unconscious, he was barely breathing as far as Chuck could see.

"Casey! Come on, I don't know how to call, or who to call! Please Casey wake up….." Chuck's begging was to no avail as he received no answer from the still bleeding NSA-agent.

"Ok, think Chuck, think….It's just a cell phone, you know how to do this, just open the phonebook and find…something…" Chuck rambled to himself, not making any sense out of Casey's phonebook, it was obviously encrypted, making it impossible to understand any of the letter combinations Casey had programmed.

He stopped his flipping through the address book when he came across the letters "BQN".

"Bqn…? Why does that sound familiar….?B….q….n…..? OH, oh, oh!! I know, I know, Casey I´m gonna get us out of here!"

Chuck hit the call button, waiting….

"Major Casey?"

Chuck made a sigh of relief as General Beckman answered.

"Thank god, it's you general! Look, we need help, Casey has been tortured and he's really not feeling well, we need help to make him better, could you help us please?"

", is that you? Where are you and why are you calling me on this line?"

"Yes, mrs general, it's me and Casey is passed out, I think he might be…dead soon. I just picked up his phone, please just help!.....help us!" Chuck almost screamed out the last few words, his fatigue and worry over Casey's health finally catching up with him. He lied down on the ground close to Casey's limp body, tears freely flowing now.

"…..please help him…..please general…"

"Stay where you are, mr Bartowski, I'll send help immediately. Stay on the line until help arrives. Mr Bartowski, are you all right?"

Chuck sobbed quietly, looking at Casey.

"I'm ok, but general, I don't think Casey I ok, he's bleeding so….so very much and his skin is almost gone…..and …… please just help……"

"Mr. Bartowski, Major Casey is one of the strongest agents we have, don't worry about him right now. Are you alone? "

"Yes, we're alone, now….Casey shot him and now he's dead and…" Chuck couldn't force his words anymore, he fell quiet.

"That's ok, Mr. Bartowski, just keep yourself safe until help arrives, ok?"

Chuck didn't answer, he just crawled in close to Casey, wrapping his arms carefully around him, Chucks way of keeping him warm, hoping help would arrive soon..

The last thing Chuck heard before the stress and fatigue overtook him was the familiar sound of helicopters landing and combat boots jogging into the building.

Then everything went black…..

Chuck opened his eyes carefully, blinking at the bright lights above. He found himself in some sort of hospital environment, but the surroundings were quiet and no one moved in the hallways outside the room he was in.

An occasional beep broke through the silence and Chuck turned to see where the sound was coming from.

"Casey!" Chucks heart almost leaped out of his chest, seeing Casey in the hospital bed next to him with all sorts of machines connected to his body.

Chuck lifted himself of the bed and took his IV with him as he walked with careful steps over the cold stone floor. He felt pretty ok, a bit oozy, there was probably something against the pain in his IV making him comfortable.

Casey appeared to be sound asleep, Chuck thanked his lucky stars that he was alive, the machines surrounding them did their best to reassure him that that was the case, by beeping out of tune of each other.

"Casey… He whispered to himself, leaning forward, placing a hand on the sleeping agents forearm.

"He's sedated, Mr Bartowski" A female voice made Chuck spin around, instantly getting himself trapped in the tube feeding him the IV.

"Hi…! And you are…?" Chuck looked at the middle aged woman in front of him, she looked a lot like general Beckman, except for a better haircut.

"I'm Dr. Jennings, Mr. Bartowski and I would like for you to return to your bed, now."

Chuck did as he was told, easing his way across the floor and slumping down on his bead.

"I'm sorry, dr Jennings was it? I was wondering how Casey was doing, how is he?"

"Agent Casey is stabilized for now, but he has sustained quite a trauma to his physique, but he's strong Mr. Bartowski, I'm hoping he'll pull through."

"Hoping? Is there a risk that he'll…..you know?"

She eyed Chuck carefully, looking directly at the young man and nodded.

Chuck wasn't able to respond, he felt a chill pass through his body, making him shudder.

"Mr. Bartowski, we'll do everything in our power to help agent Casey, he's most valuable to us, but you need to think about your own health right now, ok?"

"But he saved my life, that guy almost killed me and Sarah…." Chucks mind raced, trying to remember what had happened to Sarah.

"Agent Walker is fine, Mr. Bartowski, she is waiting to pick you up and return you to your family." Chuck let out a sigh of relief and felt a sting of guilt for not thinking of Sarah.

"You're returning home today, the cover being that you've been in a car crash whilst you and agent Walker were returning home from your weekend holiday. Be careful not to let your family see your back, your wounds are hard to explain with just a crash. Agent Walker has been instructed how to change your bandages as you won't be able to do it yourself"

Chuck tried to wrap his mind around all the instructions she was feeding him, but it proved hard, the drugs affecting him more then he thought.

"But what about Casey? Is there some way to know if he's ok or visit…or just something….." Chuck felt himself being scrutinized by the female doctor, ducking from her gaze.

"No, there is not I'm afraid. You are currently in a maximum security government hospital, not localized on any maps or registered in any phonebook. If something were to happen to agent Casey, I'm sure the NSA would appoint a new agent to assist you, Mr. Bartowski,"

Chuck felt like he had just had the wind knocked out of him, he didn't want some other agent, he wanted Casey to be there, he'd always felt so safe with him around.

"Ok, I'm sorry doctor,,,,but that's not good enough for me, ok? I'm not some robot agent with zero baggage in the emotional department, ok?" Chuck couldn't believe the coldness sorrounding the doctor, did she care about anything?

"Can I leave now, please? " He glared at the doctor filling his voice with venom. returned his gaze with no emotion and nodded.

A few minutes later, Chuck had gotten dressed and was ready to leave. He asked Sarah to wait outside for a minute as he walked over to Casey's bed.

He leaned in close to Casey's ear and whispered slowly.

"Get better……ok, Casey? I need you, please come find me when you're better."

Against all better judgment Chuck gave Casey a small, chaste kiss on the cheek, feeling his eyes tearing up as he did.

"Goodbye, Casey.."

Chuck dried his eyes on his sleeve and walked out of the room, not able to look back.