Thanks everyone for your feedback. I'm glad you are enjoying the story I am enjoying writing it. I am going to try to update it more often. Chapter 8 is a nice long chapter, so hope you enjoy it. Your reviews inspire me to write more often, so please keep them coming.

Disclaimer: I own nothing!

Chapter 8

Ellie sat up in her bed. The aroma from the other room intrigued her. Whatever Devon was cooking up sure smelled good. Ellie turned her attention to the night stand by her bed when her alarm clock began to sound. She noticed her cell phone laying next to the alarm clock. She picked it up and turned it on, waiting patiently for it to power up.

"Good morning beautiful." Devon entered carrying a tray of food.

"What's all this?" Ellie asked setting her phone down and turning all her attention to her new husband.

"Well I figured you probably worked up quite the appetite last night, I know I did. So I thought I would make my wife some breakfast in bed." Devon climbed up on the bed next to her. He gently set the tray down next to them and leaned in to kiss his bride, who happily obliged.

Ellie's phone beeped causing the two to part ways. She picked it up and looked at the screen.

"23 messages?" Ellie laughed. "I can't believe I forgot to bring my cell phone with us."

"I can't either, but I'm kind of glad you did." Devon replied, giving Ellie a wink and tossing a grape in his mouth.

Ellie typed in her password and held the phone to her ear to listen to the first message.

"Hey sis, it's just me."

"It's Chuck." She said to Devon as she picked at the food on the tray.

"I didn't really want to bother you on your honeymoon and all, but I wanted to let you know that I'm going to be going out of town for a while. I got this great job opportunity and I will be away on business for a while."

"Oh my God!" Ellie exclaimed as she listened to Chuck's voice on the other end of the phone.

"Babe what is it?" Devon asked, his voice filled with concern.

"Shhhh!!" She motioned for him to stop talking as she tried to listen to the rest of Chuck's message.

" I'm not really sure how long I will be gone, could be weeks, maybe months. I'll fill you in when I get back though. Hope you and Awesome are having a great time, Love you and I'll see you when I get back to town."

Ellie put the phone down, a look of shock overtook her.

"Sweetheart what is it? Is everything okay?" Devon enquired once again.

"He's gone." She replied.

"What?"

"He left town. Something about a job."

Devon perked up at the mention of a job. "Really, what did he say? Is Sarah with him?"

"What?…I don't know. He didn't say anything about Sarah. Why?"

Devon wasn't sure how to respond. He knew Chuck's secret, but he couldn't share it with Ellie. "Uh..I don't know, she's his girlfriend….If I was going out of town for a while I would want the girl I love to go with me."

"I should call him." Ellie grabbed for her phone and was about to start dialing when Devon interrupted her.

"Why don't you listen to the rest of your messages first. Maybe he called again." Devon suggested.

"Right.' Ellie picked up her phone and proceeded to listen to the next 22 messages.

"Lieutenant are you sure?" Agent Steven's questioned Sarah's orders.

"You heard me Steven's. He doesn't know anything, he's not involved. There is a team en route now to retrieve Agent Thompson.

"How do you know he's not involved? Where did you get your intel from and whose to say it's accurate?" Agent Steven's challenged Sarah.

"I'm to say that's who. Who are you to question me Steven's? You're on my team remember. If you can't follow orders here, I'm sure we can find you another placement."

Stevens sighed heavily, obviously annoyed by Sarah's words. "That wont be necessary lieutenant." Steven's answered.

"Very well then Agent Stevens. Once Thompson has been picked up, head to your base and await further instructions with your team.

"Yes Lieutenant." Steven's responded coldly.

Sarah switched the monitor off and went back to her computer. It was only moments later when Casey re-entered castle. Casey went over to his computer and pounded away on the keyboard until he brought up what he was looking for.

"We got something Walker."

Sarah got up and joined Casey at his computer. "That address that Chuck kept flashing on, it's an old warehouse downtown." Casey motioned to the image on his computer screen as he zoomed on it and brought it into full view for Sarah. "Could be a secret base or something." Sarah didn't say anything, she moved across the room and grabbed a nearby gun.

"Walker, don't you want to call in one of your teams to check it out?" Casey questioned.

"Nope." Sarah replied, placing several bullets in her BA-12 Assault Rifle.

"Why not Walker?"

Sarah tossed the gun to Casey and went about putting on her bullet proof vest.

"Because we're going." She said as she pulled up her pant lag as far as it could go before securing a knife to her leg.

"Finally." Casey said. "Some action." he went about suiting up himself. He was ready for combat. In his mind it had been far too long.

Chuck sat at his desk lost in thought. His mind kept drifting back to moments earlier. It was the first he had seen of her in three weeks now and he couldn't get the image out of his head. She was even more beautiful than he remembered. His heart ached for her. He recalled the tears that made their way down her cheeks. How she tried to hide them from him and more importantly what she tried to tell him. Whatever it was seemed to be pretty important to her and he wondered if he would have the chance to speak to her again.

"Carmichael?" Agent Hansen called out. "Carmichael?" he repeated, but still no answer. "CARMICHAEL????" he raised his voice several octaves this time.

"Huh?" Chuck replied as he emerged from his trance.

"Carmichael, I asked you a question. You need to pay attention if you ever expect to complete your training."

"Hanson, do you ever come out of Agent mode or has the job permanently taken over your entire mindset?"

The question totally caught Hanson off guard. "What's that supposed to mean Carmichael?" he asked rather annoyed.

"Do you ever think about anything but the job? Are you married? Do you have a special someone in your life? Kids? Do you have a life outside of all this, or is this it?"

It took Hansen a moment to respond. He seemed to weigh Chuck's questions heavily before answering.

"Some things are more important that all that Carmichael." He finally replied.

Chuck laughed. "You sound like Casey." he replied. "With all due respect Agent Hansen,… nothing is more important than that."

"Cover me Walker!" Casey exclaimed just before kicking down the door of the old abandoned warehouse. The two entered, combat ready as Sarah's team secured the perimeter and readied themselves for attack.

After a thorough walk through and search, Sarah and Casey concluded that the place was now empty.

"Look at this." Casey said as he came across a huge set up of computer equipment and monitors along with several other devices that he wasn't quite sure what they were. Sarah recognized some of the equipment as being the same devices that Haz had used on Chuck during his examination.

Sarah's teams quickly emerged, Weapons ready.

"At ease." she said as they approached. They quickly put down their weapons and awaited further instruction.

Turning to face her team, Sarah ordered them to dust for prints and do a clean sweep of the building. A team of agents would remain posted there, should anyone return to the building.

"Now what Walker?" Casey asked turning his attention back to Sarah.

Sarah took a moment to take everything in. "I don't know Casey, something doesn't feel right here."

Sarah barely got the words out when Casey fell to the ground, a gunshot to his leg ripped through him. Casey groaned in pain.

"Take cover!" Sarah yelled to her team as gunshots began to fly.

"Sarah crouched to the ground and managed to help Casey move out of harms way before she opened fire herself on their attackers.

"Walker hand me my gun." Sarah tossed Casey his assault rifle and the two of them opened fire. Gunshots flew and three more of Sarah's agents fell to the ground. Sarah called in three more teams on her radio for backup. Gun fire ceased after about fifteen minutes. Casey struggled to get to his feet. "I called in medics. They'll be here in a few minutes." Sarah told him.

"Great, can't wait." Casey replied sarcastically.

Sarah and her team went about conducting a cleanup and recovery. Sarah lost two agents another was shot but appeared to be in stable condition. Sarah concluded that 8 ring agents were killed and another 2 were injured. Both appeared to be in critical condition.

The medics continued their work on Casey as she informed him of her findings. "I'm going to the medical base with the ring agents that are still alive. I want to question them personally." she told Casey. "Agent Molloy was hit in the crossfire, right now I want you to stay with her and just ensure that she is stable. Keep me updated." She didn't wait for Casey to reply as she rushed off to meet up with the injured Ring agents.

"Okay Carmichael, just before the fumes start seeping in, 'you're going to want to take a deep breath. You only get one good chance to take in as much air as you can and it needs to last as long as possible, so make it a good one." McKinley explained to him over the intercom as he watched Chuck through the glass panel that separated them. Chuck was about to undergo his first lesson in withstanding chemical warfare.

"Normally when you are under attack with chemicals, you don't know it's coming, so you have to be aware of the signs. You might suddenly come across a faint odor or come across a powder substance. Those are the easy ones. Sometimes there are no warnings, so you look for symptoms, like sudden headaches, nausea, dryness of the mouth or burning in the eyes. These can all be symptoms once you have been exposed. Should you be exposed, you're going to want to call in a hazmat team. If you have access to water you need to wash any trace of the substance off immediately before it starts absorbing into your bloodstream through your skin. It all happens very quickly."

Chuck remembered the time he and Sarah thought they had been exposed to a poisonous chemical. She frantically removed his shirt and had instructed him to get his pants off as she went to work removing her own clothes. Sarah tossed him into the ice cold shower and went to work scrubbing him down in an attempt to remove any trace of the chemicals. As dangerous of a situation that it could have been, Chuck could still remember the chills that shot through his entire body and they weren't caused by the cold water pounding down on them.

As soon as his hands touched her skin, any trace of the cold water had disappeared. He may as well have been on fire at that point as his hands moved over her soft, smooth skin. Had they actually been poisoned, he could have died a happy man at that moment.

"Carmichael, the gasses will be released in three phases. The first, you won't see coming, so you are going to have to utilize your senses and your training thus far to know when is the right time to act. The second phase will still not be visible to the human eye, so you're going to have to rely on your senses again and your reactions. Pay attention to what your body is telling you. For the third phase you will actually see the gasses, should you make it to that stage. Just so you know, no one has ever made it to the third phase in their first attempt, in fact I've never seen it done before the fourth try, so don't worry about completing the whole run through your first time at it. Carmichael we have our hazmat crew standing by and ready. Should you pass out…or, well, when you pass out, we will shut down the operation and once it's safe for them to move in, they will retrieve you and provide whatever care necessary. Are you ready agent Carmichael?" McKinley finally asked.

Chuck swallowed hard. Was he ready? What kind of stupid question was that? He was about to be attacked with poisonous chemicals. Is anyone ever ready for that?

"Lets do this." he finally replied, putting his trust in agent McKinley.

McKinley pressed the button on the wall, beginning phase one. He stood by and watched as Chuck paced the tiny room. Chuck finally stopped and took a seat on the floor in the middle of the room. He figured that the chemicals would be coming from one of the vents he noticed on the sides of the walls and if he was in the middle of the room it was probably the safest place he could have been.

Several minutes had passed, McKinley was quite impressed that Chuck was doing so well. He reached up and pressed the next button on the wall, starting phase two.

Chuck grabbed his head. He felt a headache starting but he wasn't sure if it was from the chemicals or the flash he felt coming on. Chuck's eyes rolled back in his head.

McKinley watched intently, he had never seen this type of reaction before. He readied the team that was standing by and prepared them to move in.

A series of images flashed in Chuck's head. Numbers and what he assumed were formulas and calculations.

Coming out of the flash, Chuck inhaled deeply. Outside McKinley's mouth dropped. The light on the wall flashed indicating to him that it was time to start phase three. McKinley reluctantly reached for the button and proceeded to press it.

Chuck noticed the fumes that were beginning to fill the room. He closed his eyes and concentrated on his breathing. He wasn't sure how much longer he could hold his breath. He could feel his skin burning and felt extremely nauseous. His eyes watered but he continued to focus only on his breathing, That was the key to getting through this.

Moments later phase three was complete and the operation shut itself down. McKinley and the hazmat team waited for the chemicals to clear before entering the room. When they were allowed to enter, McKinley was shocked to see Chuck still in a sitting position in the middle of the room. His eyes remained closed as he seemed to be in deep concentration. Chuck was struggling to hold his breath.

"Carmichael?…..Carmichael?"

Chuck's eyes flew open. He was greeted by McKinley and the hazmat team, all wearing decontamination suits. "Breathe Carmichael." he ordered. Chuck took a deep breath, his breath was labored, he gasped for air as he struggled to get his breathing under control.

"Carmichael are you okay?" McKinley questioned, still in shock that Chuck was still conscious.

"Yeah, I think so.' Chuck managed to reply.

"Carmichael, the team here needs to hose you down, they're going to check you over and treat you. We have to make sure all traces of the chemical are out of your system."

McKinley helped Chuck to his feet and handed him over to crew standing by. He watched, still in shock as they hosed Chuck down and went to work on treating him. He had never seen anything like it before. Even the best trained agents out there had a difficult time with the chemical warfare training, and McKinley never heard of anyone completing it on the first try.

"Unbelievable." McKinley said to no one in particular. "Unbelievable."

When Sarah arrived at the medical base, she was informed that one of the ring agents died on the way to the hospital, the other one remained in critical condition.

"Doctor how is he?" Sarah asked the physician exiting the patient's room.

"He has a gunshot wound to the chest and one to the abdomen. I was told by the medics that he took a good 50 foot fall from some rafters, which has caused a great deal of internal injuries. He's being prepped for surgery, but I have my doubts that he will even make it that long."

"Is he conscious?" Sarah asked, the disappointment evident in he voice.

"He was when I left him."

"I need to question him."

"Be my guess lieutenant. Good luck." the doctor made his exit and Sarah proceeded into the patient's room. As she entered. Two nurses exited the room to give her some privacy.

Sarah approached the bed. The man laying in it watched as she came closer, a smile came over his face.

"Why are you smiling?" She asked disgusted.

"Sweetheart if you could see what I was looking at you'd be smiling to." he responded.

Sarah rolled her eyes. "Who are you?" she asked. "What's your name?"

"Darlin', I'll be whoever you want me to be."

Sarah was frustrated. Obviously she wasn't going to get very far with him. Perhaps she would have to try a different approach.

Not amused, Sarah moved in closer to him. "Are you with the ring?" She asked. The man didn't answer. "Your team is dead. There is no one to protect you. No one's going to rescue you." She added. "Your best option here is to cooperate."

Still there was no answer.

Sarah moved in even closer and sat on the side of his bed. "Are you working with Haz?" Sarah couldn't help but notice the man squirm a little with her most recent question. He turned his head to advert her gaze. Sarah scooted closer to him on the bed. Reaching out she placed her hand on his chin, turning his face to meet hers. She leaned in over him "Please. I can make it worth your while." Sarah nearly choked on her words.

He eyed her up an down. His eyes came to rest on her chest as she leaned over him. "What did you have in mind?" he asked. He placed his hand on her thigh and began to rub it seductively. Sarah stifled the vomit that was making it's way up her throat. She had the sudden urge to throw him into a headlock, strangle him slowly and watch him gasp for air until he breathed his last agonizing breath. But she couldn't do that. She would play his game. Whatever it took to find Haz. She had to for Chuck's sake.

"Whatever it takes." She replied seductively. Her hand making it's way down his bare chest. He caught her hand with his and brought it up to his lips, placing a lingering kiss on it, pulling her closer in the process. He moved his lips down past her wrist and proceeded down her arm.

"Uh…not so fast." she stopped him, pulling her arm out of his grasp. And creating some distance between them. "First you answer my questions."

"Fine." he replied. "I'll play your game."

"Your name?"

"Adams." He replied. "Major Tom Adams."

"I see, Major Adams and are you with the ring?"

"Not so fast yourself sweetheart." he said. "I answered your question, what do I get?" he asked suggestively.

Sarah moved in closer to him. With one hand she reached up and loosened her top button, to give him a better view of her cleavage, just enough to tease him. He licked his lips, causing Sarah's stomach to turn. His hand found it's way back to Sarah's thigh and resumed rubbing it.

"Are you with the ring?" She asked again.

"Yes." he replied.

Sarah ran her hand teasingly over his bare chest once again. He pulled her in and held her against him. He moved his hand from her thigh and ran it up her back, he tugged at her shirt and slid his hand underneath the material. Sarah cringed as his hand made contact with her bare skin.

"uh uh uh." she pulled away. "Who's moving too fast now?" she teased. He smirked in response, his eyes watched her hungrily as she pulled back a little.

"Where is Haz?" She was so close to getting the answers she needed and if it meant having some slime ball feel her up a little bit to save Chuck's life she would do it. It's not like it's the first time she's had to seduce someone to get information. It was however the first time she's had to since she and Chuck happened and she had to admit, it felt completely different now. She had to believe in the back of her mind, that he would understand and that it was part of the job. It's not like she was actually going to let anything actually happen with this guy. "What's the matter, cat get your tongue?" she teased. "Haz, where is he?" she asked again.

He began to laugh. "What's so funny?" She backed away from him and stood from the bed.

"You'll never find him." he finally managed to reply. "Did you know that no one even knows what Haz looks like?" Sarah looked at him in disbelief.

"What do you mean?" She asked.

"Haz is a master of disguise. He takes on new identities like woman changes clothes. He could be in the same room as you and you would never even know it." the man managed to get out before going into a coughing fit.

Sarah grabbed a glass of water from the table by his bed and helped him drink from it.

"Thanks darlin'" he replied as she set the glass back down on the table.

"Do you know where Haz is? What's he planning?" Sarah was quick to ask. Adams was talking and she wanted to get as much information out of him as she could.

"Haz…he…"The man began to cough again… "intersect…" blood began to drip from his mouth. The next thing Sarah knew, his eyes closed and monitors began going off. A team of medical professionals quickly made their way to the room, pushing Sarah out of the way as they rushed to his side. They tried for several minutes to revive him but were unsuccessful.

"Time of death 12:47." the doctor said as he pulled the sheet over Adams' face.

"Dammitt!" Sarah walked out of the room, she was in a daze. She was finally getting somewhere with the ring agent and now he was dead. Could anything else possibly go wrong? She thought to herself. Just then Sarah's phone rang. Finally on the third ring, she retrieved it from her pocket. Without even looking at the caller ID, she answered abruptly.

"Walker." she spoke into the phone.

"Sarah?" the voice form the other end of the phone questioned.

Sarah's mouth dropped once again. She moved the phone away from her ear to look at the screen and cringed.

"Ellie!" she exclaimed putting the phone back up to her ear. "How are you? How's the honeymoon going?" With everything that had been happening the past few weeks, Sarah had completely forgotten all about Ellie. She had said she would cross that bridge when she came to it and from the looks of it, that time was now.

"I'm fine Sarah, are you okay? You seem kind of shaken up." Ellie questioned.

"What? No I'm fine, great really. Is everything okay with you?" Sarah was trying desperately to take the focus off herself.

"Everything's great Sarah. Devon and I just got home last night."

"You're home?"

"Yeah, actually I was calling to see what was going on with Chuck?"

"Chuck?" Sarah tried her best to sound surprised. "What do you mean?"

"Well, I forgot my cell phone at home when Devon and I left for our honeymoon. I was going through my messages this morning and I got this one from Chuck. Something about going out of town for a job. He said he didn't know when he would be coming back. I was just wondering if you've heard from him, where is he, what's this job he's talking about?"

Sarah went silent, She didn't know what to say. She wasn't expecting all these questions, not today anyway and she hadn't had any time to prepare the kind of answers Ellie would want to hear.

"Yeah Ellie, I actually just talked to Chuck a few hours ago. He's good. He's been really busy with all his training. Doesn't really get a chance to call very often. It was actually the first chance I even had to speak with him in a couple of weeks." Sarah bit her tongue and waited for Ellie's response. Maybe she shouldn't have mentioned that last part. Ellie wouldn't understand why Chuck wouldn't have called his girlfriend in weeks unless they were having some problems.

"What?" A few weeks? Sarah, I don't understand. Why wouldn't Chuck find time to call you? Is everything okay with you two? And what is this job anyway? Chuck was so vague in his message. Sarah I'm really starting to worry about him. This isn't like Chuck to just up and leave and.." Ellie was on a rampage. Sarah had to cut her off before she went any further.

"Ellie! Relax, Chuck is fine." Sarah took a seat in the empty waiting room outside of Major Adams room. "We're fine. Trust me."

Ellie seemed to relax a little on the other end. "Sarah, where is he? What is he doing?" She posed the questions again.

"He's in New York right now. They have him traveling a lot. I believe he was leaving for Europe tonight." Sarah lied. She hated lying to Ellie. She had really become close with her the past few months, helping her with the wedding preparations and all.

"Europe? For what? What is this job Sarah?"

Sarah had to think quickly, "He was hired by a private firm to develop some new operating systems. They've been sending him to some top notch agencies all over world to conduct research and work alongside some of the world's top developers. He's been working non-stop. Between the different time zones and the facts that he has constantly been on the go, we just really didn't have a chance to connect with each other before today." Sarah prayed silently that Ellie would believe her lies.

"Sarah…That's horrible."

"What?" That wasn't the reaction that Sarah had been anticipating.

"You must really miss him." Ellie responded.

She believed it, Ellie believed her story. Sarah was in the clear, at least for a while anyway.

"You have no idea."

"When does he come home Sarah?" Ellie continued to grill her.

"I don't know. Chuck didn't know when I talked to him. We're hoping it will be soon. He loves the traveling, but he's anxious to come home."

"Well of course he is. He must be missing you like crazy. I can't even remember the last time you two went a day without seeing one another. Are you okay sweetie?"

"I'm fine Ellie, Thanks for your concern and all."

"You must come to dinner Sarah." Ellie blurted out.

"What?" Sarah questioned Ellie's motives.

"So we can catch up. I've missed you. Come to dinner tonight."

"Oh, Ellie that's sweet, but I have to work tonight, I can't."

"Well tomorrow then." Sarah couldn't think of another good excuse at the moment.

"I'll try Ellie."

"I'll call you tomorrow then. Can't wait to see you." Before Sarah could say another word Ellie hung up the phone.

Sarah rubbed at her temples the oncoming headache was going to be a massive one, she could feel it now.

Sarah took out her phone and hit number 2 on her speed dial. She waited patiently for someone to pick up on the other end. Finally after five rings there was an answer.

"General Beckman please."

"Lieutenant Walker……Yes I'll hold.

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