Thank you charahkids for betaing.

A/N: I am so sorry guys. You should all know by now how I feel about cliffhangers and I'm so sorry that I left it that way. I didn't realize I had cut the story off. Luckily this one was almost done so I spent all day finishing it.

Chapter 7

15 months ago.

"If you were a superhero, what would be your superpower?" Chuck asked. Sarah burst into laughter and looked over at Chuck who had a lopsided grin plastered on his face.

It was a wonderful peaceful day. Beckman had given all of them the weekend off after spending the past two weeks tracking down a terrorist in the Los Angeles area. It had been a weird moment when the tiny woman smiled at them, congratulated them for a good job and then told them about their free weekend. It was even more of a surprise when she gave them permission to spend it up the coast, all-expense paid.

"Some weekend off." Casey had grumbled once the General closed the feed. But Sarah had assured him immediately that it would be, for all of them. They all needed the time off, even if theoretically she and Casey would still be working as they had to watch Chuck, but they had been going nonstop for months and needed the relaxation.

They had made arrangements to rent a small house just off the beach that was slightly isolated but still close enough to not feel cut off from everything. Sarah had taken full responsibility for Chuck's safety, letting Casey do whatever he wanted as long as he was within range if there was a problem. Nothing had happened, which had surprised her. Knowing their luck she fully expected Chuck to flash on one of the random people at the beach or in the small seaside town and their calm weekend would turn into another last minute mission, but nothing happened.

The first day, once Casey had left for whatever he was going to do, they barley left the bedroom. Only leaving it in the late afternoon for a dip in the water. It was wonderful and she felt at peace and fulfilled and wished for it to never end. The second day they had gone all around the little shops in the ocean side town picking up weird little knickknacks for souvenirs for their friends. Not that they were required as it was only a few miles outside town, but Chuck loved getting things for others and he took such care into picking out something each person would enjoy.

Today, the last day, Chuck and Sarah lay on a giant blanket on the beach soaking up the sun while having a wonderful picnic that Chuck had surprised her with. Currently they were lying opposite ways with their heads together and Sarah had agreed to answer any questions that Chuck may have. She didn't see the point in hiding it from him any longer. She loved him, he knew it. She was hopelessly compromised and she had long decided that this was it for her.

Only, the questions she thought he'd ask he didn't.

"Seriously? You want to know what my superpower would be?" She asked him with a huge smile. He rolled to his side, propping his head up with his hand so he could fully see her face and nodded.

"You said I could ask any question so I did." He explained as if it was obvious. She quirked her eyebrow at him suspiciously, not really buying his innocent act.

"I thought you would ask, I don't know, more personal stuff." She said.

Chuck squinted his eyes at her, looking very serious. "What is more personal that your superpower? I mean come on it could show what your weakness is and make it very easy to defeat you." He explained once again causing Sarah to laugh.

"Chuck…" She started but his grin faded into a more serious expression as he rose up on his elbow to lean slightly over her. He traced her lips lightly with the tip of his finger, causing a shiver to run down her entire body.

"I don't need to know about your past Sarah, unless you want to tell me. I know who you are now and that's enough for me." He admitted honestly.

"What if I want you to know?" She asked him, curiously. A small lazy smile crossed his face as he leaned down and placed soft kisses upon her lips, his nose bumping into her chin making her giggle slightly has his chin tickled her nose. He pulled back from her, placing a final kiss on her nose before looking directly at her again.

"Then you'll tell me what you want to reveal when you're ready. I'm not going to push you on this Sarah. I've pushed for almost two years and it did nothing but make you back away. I'm willing to wait till you're ready, because I feel you are worth it. We are worth it."

Unable to contain herself any longer Sarah sat up on the blanket and reached her arms around Chuck, pressing her entire body to his and began kissing the life out of him. Chuck didn't seem to complain or mind as he held her just as tightly, both seemingly afraid to let go of the other as they lay back down on the sand.

Present.

Sarah's eyes adjusted to the overly bright lights of the room quickly as she looked around it. Her heart wanted to seek out Chuck immediately but the agent in her demanded she take stock of her surroundings.

It was a small room, barely bigger than a prison cell, but instead of being surrounded by bars there were only four walls that were painted a pure white, which only caused the bright fluorescents above to reflect even more around the room, making it hard to focus on anything in particular. The door behind her in which she came through was made the same, obviously making it difficult to know where it was. There were writings on the walls that broke up the clean whiteness of them and she stepped over to the nearest one to take a look. It seemed like gibberish to her as she was unable to make out most of the characters written so she moved on further into the room.

There wasn't much furniture in the room, just a dresser that was void of anything on it to one side, a twin sized bed off to the other that was far too small for someone of Chucks size and stature. A desk was off to another side was pushed out slightly from the wall and near it was a sink and a toilet. Her heart sank further at seeing the conditions that Chuck had been living in for the past year. She closed her eyes at the pain as her heart told her she should have come sooner, should have looked harder. But opening her eyes to the room again, a moment of panic sparked through her at not seeing Chuck.

She was about to turn back to the command area when a very quiet soft sound hit Sarah's ear as she turned to leave. She tipped her head slightly to hear better but nothing but gibberish could be heard. She looked around the room, searching for the person who inhabited it, her gut twisting wanting to see her Chuck but at the same time feeling slightly sick at the feeling that something was not entirely right.

She took several more steps into the room, searching intently for the source of the sound, becoming more and more alarmed that she couldn't see Chuck in the sparse room.

"Chuck?" She called out. The soft murmurings stopped suddenly and silence descended the room leaving a soft ringing in her ear.

"Sarah he's not on the security camera." Bryce said in her ear and she turned her head to view one of the many cameras that littered the room. She felt a shiver pass through her at the sear number, knowing that there was no inch of the room that couldn't be seen 24 hours a day. If Chuck had no privacy before, she couldn't even speculate what this would be considered. "There's one spot behind the desk that we can't see. Check it out."

Sarah nodded her head, but dismissed the notion that he could possibly be there. It wasn't a big enough spot. Chuck was 6'4, but she was going to check it out anyways. Approaching slowly, head still tilted to hear if the sound will happen again she walked over to the desk and stood on the other side for a moment, waiting to see if something will jump out at her.

"Chuck?" She said again, voice soft. A sudden startled noise and a thump heard behind the desk caused her to jump slightly but she came back to herself quickly and pulled the desk out of the way as to see what was behind it. She gasped at the sight and took a step back. "Oh my god."

The creature she found behind the desk couldn't be described right away by Sarah or anyone else who saw it. But for all intents and purposes it was a too tall too skinny man folded and twisted into a tiny ball up against the corner of the wall. Sarah's heart stopped at seeing him. The ball whimpered and cried in fear, wrapping its long skinny arms tighter around its bean stalked legs and pushing itself impossibly tighter to the wall.

"Come on Sarah we don't have much time." Jill's voice said urgently, bringing Sarah back to the present.

Sarah nodded her head in understanding, not taking her eyes off of Chuck and knelt down on the floor a few feet away from him. He hadn't even looked up to see who was currently in the room, but from the soft cries and whimpers that was coming from him Sarah could only imagine that he didn't like the idea of finding out.

She took another moment now that she was closer to get a better look at her boyfriend. Aside from being skeleton skin, his hair was shorn short and bald in some patches. She could see dark bruises in various degrees of healing, or just beginning to form on his arms and one on the side of his neck that was exposed. His skin was pale white and practically translucent, matching the walls surrounding them from the lack of sunlight. Sarah didn't know that she had enough of a heart left that wasn't broken already to break any further until this point.

"Chuck." She tried again, softly. He didn't make a move. "Chuck, it's me, Sarah. I'm here to save you." She said, still getting no response from him. Her breath hitched in her throat as she looked around the room desperately for anything that could help her. But the room was devoid of anything but furniture made of the softest, weakest materials available. With one last attempt she crawled the few feet that separated them and reached her hand out cautiously. The second she touched his arm he pushed his body further into the wall, causing Sarah to jump back at the loud thump, crawling back a few steps as she watched Chuck fling his arms and legs out in disarray as he tried to get as far away from Sarah as possible, only to be blocked by the wall.

She couldn't take her eyes off of him, couldn't turn away. Her heart pounded in her chest as tears welled up in her eyes and the only words running in her head were 'oh god' over and over again. She wasn't sure what to do, how to calm him, how to sooth him and let him know that he was safe now, that she wouldn't hurt him, so she just watched him in horror as he continued to fight off whatever imaginary enemies were attacking him.

Until a soft sound whizzed by her ear and Chuck stopped moving completely and slumped boneless against the wall.

Stunned, she turned around quickly, getting to her feet, pointing her own weapon and saw Casey standing right behind her, tranq pistol still poised aimed at Chuck.

"Casey! What did you do?" She asked astonished before anger took over. Casey just shrugged his shoulders, finally lowering the pistol and holstering it into the waistband of his pants.

"Change of plans Walker. He's not walking out on his own and we have to go." With that he strode forward to Chuck, not flinching even an inch as he reached down and touched the mangled stained clothes he was wearing and lifted the tall tiny man up onto his shoulder in a fireman's hold. "Let's go." He said gruffly.

Sarah stood stunned still for a moment, unable to move as she watched her large partner carry Chuck out. She heard Bryce and Jill's voices in her ear at seeing him but ignored them, schooling herself; she grasped tightly onto her gun and exited the room.

The whole op was a lot easier then they originally thought it would be. With all the guards knocked out and the cameras all on a loop not showing what was going on, everything went smoothly. Nobody noticed anything was out of place and each of them hoped it stayed that way until they were far away from there. The only thing that went wrong was Chuck. They hadn't expected him to be in the condition they found him in.

They had all ran across the back of the facility, back to the hole in the fence and their waiting vehicle as quickly as they could. Sarah switched with Jill, wanting to be as close to Chuck as possible and got into the back first so Casey could lay his head on her lap.

They sped away a few seconds later.

The car ride to the first switch off was in complete silence, nobody saying a word, each lost in their own thoughts and Sarah knew they were all on Chuck. Sarah cradled Chuck's head in her lap, softly running her fingers through his shortened hair. She didn't like it. She loved running her hair through his lushes curls, feeling the softness of the tresses. Her breath hitched each time her fingers touched some kind of scab or wound on his scalp and she wondered if Chuck had done that to himself or if it was from some sort of cruel treatment on the government's part.

Either way a few hours later they pulled over on the side of the road where the second vehicle was parked waiting for them. They carefully transferred Chuck to that SUV, it was bigger and had more space and changed their clothes and took off their gear tossing it all into the first car. Bryce and Casey changed Chuck out of his dirty clothes, Sarah getting a good look at the stained pants and shirt he had before tossing it in the car as well. She felt all the air get knocked out of her at how small he looked inside his old clothing as she slid into the new car.

Before they took off for their next location Casey dosed the vehicle and rolled it deeper off the road down a ravine before tossing a match down after it catching the whole thing on fire.

All evidence was destroyed. Now they just had to get Chuck to safety and heal him.

"How is he?" Casey asked from the front seat a few more hours later. The sun was beginning to rise behind them as they made their way west. Sarah looked up from where she was staring at Chuck still face and met Casey's eyes in the review mirror.

"Still sleeping." She replied softly. Jill turned around in her seat to face them and for the first time Sarah didn't have the energy to scowl at her, instead meeting her concerned gaze with one of her own.

"We won't reach our next destination till late afternoon; the drugs should wear off by then." Sarah nodded and went back to staring at Chucks face, which though drugged was still pinched as in pain.

"We should keep him drugged until we get to Orion's." Bryce stated. "We don't know how he'll react. Its best it's not in a moving vehicle where we can't control him."

"He doesn't need to be controlled Bryce. I think he's had enough of that." Sarah bit out glaring dangerously at him.

"I didn't mean it that way Sarah. I just." He paused and she knew what he was implying. "You saw him Sarah."

"I did. And I agree. He should remain asleep until we get back. Until Ellie and Devon can take a look at him." She said softly.

It took them another two days and another car change to get back to Orion's hidden cabin, the whole time Sarah sat in the back with Chuck, refusing to let go of him. They had kept him sedated for the whole trip, pulling over several times a day to change his clothes and once to bathe him. It was hard and exhausting and Sarah felt like screaming and waking him up each time watching Chuck have to suffer such indignity, though they were all respectful of him.

At long last hey pulled up to the final road that would lead them to their final destination. Sarah was antsy after sitting in a car for so long and wanting to get out, to move around, to breathe fresh air, and most importantly help Chuck.

Casey stopped the car in what seemed like the middle of the forest, it appeared nothing was around for miles but Sarah knew otherwise. Pulling out the burn phone from the glove compartment Casey called the only number programed into it and waited.

"We're here." Sarah heard him say before disconnecting it. They waited in silence a few moments, nothing and nobody moving, waiting for whatever happened next.

A few seconds later the car began to descend into the ground, the vibrations shaking through each of the spies in the vehicle as it was lowered. Sarah watched as the forest ground rose up over the top of the car leaving them in darkness for a moment before light spilled out from below them, opening up into a darkened cavern.

There stood Orion, or better known as Stephen Bartowski next to a control panel watching as the car descended. Standing next to him was Ellie, arms wrapped tightly around herself and her fingers playing idly with a thin chain around her neck looking worried.

Sarah felt a slight bump as the platform stopped at the bottom and everyone begun unbuckling their belts. The door on her side was opened suddenly causing Sarah to jump slightly seeing both Devon and Morgan there waiting.

"Oh Chuck-me." Morgan said behind Devon at the sight of Chuck.

"Honey, bring the gurney over." Devon shouted. Sarah didn't move as they maneuvered Chuck over her and onto the gurney. She watched, eyes wide, making sure they didn't do any more damage to him before speeding off down the long tunnel to the cabin.

Sarah got out of the car and stood next to Ellie, her body aching and protesting but starting to feel good at finally being able to stand again. They watched the boys retreating backs in silence until they were no longer visible.

"Shouldn't you go with them?" Sarah asked Ellie softly. Ellie shook her head and continued playing with the neckless, not looking away from where they just took her brother. "Ellie?"

"They think it will be better if I let Devon treat him for now. Just until we know what's been done." Ellie said simply. Sarah nodded, understanding that point.

Her body was wary and she just wanted to curl up on the floor and sleep for eternity. But she couldn't. She wouldn't be able to sleep until she knew that Chuck was going to be alright. That whatever damages the government had done isn't permanent. She didn't think she'd ever forgive herself if that was the case.

"You should get some sleep Sarah. You look horrible." Ellie suggested looking concerned.

Sarah shook her head. "No, not until I know Chuck is alright."

"Sarah we won't know that for a while. For one he's still sedated. It'll take time to go through and do an exam. Just, go up to the couch and rest. I'll come get you when he wakes, I promise."

The suggestion was really tempting, too tempting not to take it. If anything it would give her time alone to think, something she hadn't allowed herself to do since they retrieved him. Sarah nodded her accent and with one last glance at Ellie made her way through the tunnel and up into the cabin above.

A/N: Again I apologize for the clifhanger. This one ends better. With that in mind...it'll probably be a couple weeks till the story continues. I'm sorry. Breeders cup is coming up in a few weeks and we have temps to train and a lot of stake races. But I promise i'll be working on it when i can!. Feel free to drop me a line on FB or Twitter.

zanex9: I know! I'm so sorry! *sobs*

phnxgrl: Glad to hear you're enjoying it.

atcDave: Cause it is?

Nomadic Nerd: I know i know. i'm so so sorry!

sevenrez: I know, horrid cliffe. Hence why this is here! Woot. And you're right, I actually do a slight re-write, if anything for my peace of mind.

MrBi11: Yeah i don't think I made the memory/dream sequences clear. But I do hope you enjoyed them anyways.

wilf21: lol You're tellin me!

Rob M (Guest): Thank you for the compliment. I try to make it sound natural and how they would speak. I'm thinking I may rework cvh, if anything just cause I need practice.

fezzywhigg: I did not meant to leave such a cliffhanger. I hate them with a passion. Even more so when authors don't finish their stories.