Chapter V

I Love You, Vicky!

"Oh, crap!" Carina had exclaimed.

She couldn't find any Cornelia Stanford in any base that matched the girl's face. So she picked her Canon, took a picture of "Cornelia" and uploaded it in her laptop to check with face databases. That kind of comparison however would take some time.

Carina went out with one of the NSA agents, talking something to him while Chuck was sitting down on the couch.

'Oh God,' he said to himself thinking of all that had happened today. 'And I thought Ellie's wedding was the craziest day in my life. Now, I'm not so sure.'

When Carina returned, she pulled out her secure mobile, put the right chip and dialed Sarah's number.

'Hi, Carina, how are you all there?' a very anxious Sarah asked.

Yeah, she had turned on the rogue mobile again. Carina smiled. You didn't have a choice, did you?

'Don't ask.' she said instead. 'It was probably the craziest day in my life, or at least very close to.'

'Why, what happened, is Chuck, OK?' Sarah could sense now her heart pounding.

'He's fine, just sitting on the couch and resting I guess. He'd better tell you about it.'

She entered the living room and handed him the mobile. "It's Sarah. Curious how we spent the day. I'm gonna wake up Casey now.'

'I talked to the NSA people outside, Chuck.' she added, 'Go to their apartment for a couple of hours. I don't want Casey to hurt you when he wakes up.'

Chuck took the handset and went out. He spent the next 2 hours talking to Sarah, telling her about their insane day.

Sarah couldn't believe it. 'You never have a dull moment without me there, huh...'

'Now I think you're a bit jealous, Sarah, and you shouldn't.' Chuck was trying to employ the most soothing overtones of his voice, 'It wasn't that much fun for me,' he said, remembering the crazy siren of Casey's Vic No.2 and everything that ensued.

Carina checked on the legally blond chick, which was most probably some con artist. She was still sleeping. Calculating something in her mind she decided that it was time for Casey to wake up and went to see him.

No, he was still dreaming. She tried to wake him up, slapping him lightly.

It took another 30 minutes before he opened his eyes, however.

'Where am I? What is this place?' Casey felt like just coming back from World War II. Every muscle was stiff, hurting, he could hardly move.

Then he started to remember what had happened, piece by piece.

'Aaaargh, the Vic, ... Chuck!', he grimaced.

'Calm down Casey.' Carina's voice sounded very soothing. 'He bought you another Vic, limited, perfect condition. It's shining. Just calm down.'

Seeing that he remained unconvinced, she went on:

'Hey, you don't want me to report to Beckman your idiotic behavior? And this crazy car alarm of yours. Do you? Or your 'Beckman-wreckman-I-don't-care' comment, maybe?'

'What?' Casey couldn't even remember the last.

'Oh, you don't remember, of course.' Well, she had prepared for this.

She had the monitoring console in her hands, and it was exactly on these frames where he was saying it. She played them for him.

'Hmmm,' he grunted. 'OK, tell that moron to stay 5 miles away from the car.'

'OK, deal.' Carina sighed in relief, 'No more childish behavior, we have serious work ahead of us.'

'But before that you really must know something.' Carina went on. 'The new car is perfect, but it just needs a paint job.'

She went on telling him what happened after he was tranqed again. The crazy blond, the pizzeria. He just omitted mentioning that the girl saw Chuck flash and how important the target was. Just some local drug dealer, most probably, she guessed.

Finally, she asked, "Can I tell Chuck to get back here now and that you won't hurt him?'

Casey grunted affirmatively.

'Good boy!' she tapped him on his shoulder.

She jumped up and went to see if Chuck had finished talking to Sarah. Of course not, they were still talking, laughing at something. Carina signaled to him that it's time to finish and asked for the mobile.

"Let's get back to the suit, Chuck, I talked to Casey, it's safe.

'Somehow I'm not sure that's the case but I hope I'll be able to flash the kunf fu if he gets too aggressive.' he said without a trace of enthusiasm.

'Don't worry, it won't be necessary.' Carina assured him.

They came back into the suite. Casey was sitting on the couch in the living room now.

'Hello Casey,' Chuck started, saying good bye to his knee caps.

'Hi, Chuck, missed me?' Casey growled.

They were both feeling uncomfortable now.

Carina stared at Casey, signaling him something with her eyes.

'Listen Casey,' Chuck tried again, but the colonel stopped him.

It's OK, Chuck, it's my fault as well. I may have gone a little overboard with this alarm upgrade...hmm, I'll cover 50% of your expenses. Carina told me that you bought it and how much you'd paid.'

'It was actually my mistake' he finally offered his hand to Chuck.

Now shaking Chuck's hand, Casey went on. 'As long as you don't turn against the government I'll be here to protect you Chuck. As always. Semper Fi.'

"Sem-per fi, col-onel.' Chuck stuttered stunned.

He turned to Carina, asking her with his eyes.'How did you do that?

'Don't ask' she signaled with her lips.

'Well, Casey,' she said, 'Here are my car keys. Go home. We need some rest here. Hopefully we'll be able to figure out what to do with this pink enigma,' she threw a quick glance at the bedroom, 'tomorrow.'

Going through face databases, with facial recognition, comparing, would take hours, she thought.

'I'm going to sleep now.' she said to both Chuck and Casey, went into the bedroom and tried to sleep.

Xxx

Chuck was lying on the couch unable to sleep yet. What an insane day. Casey had finally left so he felt safe now.

His mobile buzzed. It was Ellie. He answered it immediately.

'Hey, sis, how is the honeymoon?'

'Chuck, we are coming back home, tomorrow evening, we'll be back there with you and Sarah', Ellie sounded so ecstatic.

'What, sis, why, what's going on?' Chuck frowned.

'I'm pregnant Chuck, get ready to be an awesome uncle. '

Xxx

Soon after Chuck fell asleep, Carina got up and took her secure mobile. She entered the bathroom and turned the lock. Then she dialed a number.

'Hey, I know, they told me about the flash.' Agent 20 got right to the point. 'It's going well so far. We have to change out plans. Accelerate. It's time to castle. Tomorrow, I'll talk to Walker. We are entering Phase II. How are things there?' he finally asked a question.

'Nothing worth mentioning.'Carina replied. Just wanted to know if they had told you about Chuck's flash. And that I need to get rid of Casey for the time being. So hurry up please.' Carina was triumphant. Phase II !

'Yeah, that's absolutely true. Casey will come here for some time, and Sarah will be back there with you. … Ah, Sandra, there is one more thing you should know ….', Agent 20 went on for another 20 minutes.

Xxx

Special Agent Sarah Walker was again in front of the eye scanner, at the underground CIA facility at Langley. She passed the test, put her mask and entered. As usual, she walked along the hallway and entered the all-plastic conference room.

Strange. Only Agent 20 was there.

'Good morning,' Sarah greeted her new boss.

'Hello Sarah', Agent 20 smiled. 'How was your weekend?'

'Fine, just fine, 'Sarah said nervously. 'Where are the rest of the people of our team?'

'Everybody is working on his or her part of the operation, and so should you. Take you mask off.' Agent 20 said. 'Nobody here.'

'This is why we have to talk.' he went on. 'First, since the asset's involvement is now imminent, it is time to inform General Beckman about this op and keep her informed on these aspects that she needs to know about.

'Then, you'll have to …' They had a really tough and exhausting 5-hour conversation

xxx

It was 6,45 am. Carina opened her eyes. She would have preferred to sleep more but there was so much ahead. She knew that the legally blonde was still sleeping next to her as she had sedated her again. She didn't want a civilian who was most probably a con artist messing around before she tied some ends first.

She got up and went to check on Chuck. He was still sleeping.

Carina headed to the kitchen, turned the coffeemaker on and opened the window.

She laughed out loud. Yeah, Casey was already there next to the pink Vic. He stood there with a bucket and cloths, brushes, bottles of detergents, liquid soaps, waxes, whatnot. A lot of stuff has been scattered around the car.

He was kneeling there, watching her, caressing with a cloth, sometimes with his bare hands.

Carina knew what to do now. She had turned the video camera of her mobile and left it on the sill, pointed at Casey and rushed back to the living room where she had a high end camcorder. She took it and got back into the kitchen. The show was so worth to be taped.

She let both the camcorder and the mobile recording and got back to the living room.

'Chuck, wake up.' she started tapping him on the shoulder.

Mmmmm, what's up Carina, what's the time? He was opening his eyes now.

'Get up, it's 7 am, go to the kitchen, see Casey with the car. He loved her. Can you imagine?' She winked at him.

'Just don't touch my cameras. They are recording.'

Chuck was at the kitchen window now and couldn't believe his eyes. Casey looked so smitten with the Vic, even if it was looking so not "Casey-ish". What he was doing looked more like a love ritual than car wash. He was still kneeling and caressing her there.

He finally got up and saw Chuck watching him from the hotel, Casey waved at him and gave him the thumbs up. A friendly Casey. That was incredible!

Chuck did the same, still unbelieving. Did Casey finally start growing a soul? He decided to go down there and talk to him. Witness for himself this magnificent transformation. History was made today, that was for sure.

He was back in the living room where he bumped into Carina.

'Where you heading?' She asked.

'I wanna talk to Casey. This is an amazing piece of evolution. What could have caused it?' Chuck seemed really anxious.

'Well, maybe too much tranquilizer finally did some good to his brain matter, who knows.' Carina laughed.

'If that's indeed the cause for this beautiful change, good work agent Falcone,' Chuck allowed, in total disbelief that he would approve of her methods.

He was now down there, striding toward Casey and his new beloved. The colonel had again knelt down on his left knee, pressed to the car, riveted by her clean lines.

Chuck threw a quick glance inside the car. Was that a notepad there? It looked like a poem, written on it.

'Well, Casey, I'm really glad you liked it. The paint job isn't that bad, is it?' Chuck sounded really excited.

'What do you mean Chuck, 'not bad'? It's beautiful.' Casey protested. 'It radiates such innocence, such grace.'

'Chuck,' Casey went on, 'can I share something with you?'

'Sure, Casey, that's what friends are for,' Chuck felt so heart-warmed, anticipating another 'Ilsa' moment. He remembered Casey opening to him about his tragic love.

'I'm not angry at you anymore for the Vic', Casey whispered in his ear, 'I wouldn't have met Vicky, you know.'

'Who's Vicky?' Chuck knitted his brows, 'Have I met her before?'

Casey was staring at him, with some desperation, signaling him with his eyes, pointing at the car.

Oh, you mean Vicky,' Chuck looked at the car, 'of course, Vicky. Well, it was a pleasure to ...'

Ha-ha-ha,' Casey had just burst into a powerful laughter, 'gotcha Chuck! Do you really think a bucket of pink paint and a bunch of flowers will melt an NSA colonel, hardened in battles at Tora-Bora and Falluja?'

Chuck's head hung. 'Good, Casey, Air force humor,' he gritted.

The colonel was still laughing loud, waving his hands.

He finally went on, 'Well now we are even, aren't we? That was for the emotional distress you caused. Frankly, soldier, I like the pink, but not as much as your lady feelings led you to think. I have to repaint it now, you understand that, dontcha?'

'I'll survive,' Chuck said, turned around and strolled back to the hotel without saying anything.

Carina had watched the whole scene from the kitchen window. She raised her hand and said to the microphone in her watch: 'Good job, Casey, that'll teach him another lesson.'

Chuck saw her at the window. She waved at him smiling.

'Well? How was it?' she shouted at him.

'Ohhh, it was you who put on this show, right?' he shouted back.

She nodded affirmatively.

Chuck sighed and entered the hotel. When he reached the suite Carina opened the door. She was waiting for him there.

'It was a bit cruel, don't you think?' he started unenthusiastically.

'Yeah,' she sighed, 'I know.' You need some tough love for a change. I'm not Sarah, you know. You are still too soft for the world you chose to enter, do you realize that?"

'Maybe', he allowed. He wasn't sure know.

'I need some coffee' he said and headed to the kitchen.

Carina's gaze was following him now. Bryce Larkin had popped up in her head some time ago. "Good job! The kid needs to realize that this isn't for him. You need to get to his father and have him remove the intersect from his head. He's not cut out for the cloak and dagger world.'

"He's not a kid anymore, Bryce!' Sandra snapped back at him. 'Let him decide his own fate. All I can do is remind him what to expect."

Carina shook her head. Larkin was gone.

xxx