ChuckParis6

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Chapter 7 – The Morning After and Casey Enters the Arena

Hannah's sore muscles protested when she bent over to recover the nightclothes she'd hastily tossed out of the bed. She was deliciously sore in places that had been unused in years. If someone saw her smile they would know instantly what put the smile there. Only incredibly satisfying sex could make her glow. Everything about her seemed to vibrate and as she looked over at the quietly snoring source of her glow she giggled, then laughed for the pure joy of it.

A sleepy voice asked her, "What's so funny, Hannah? You weren't laughing last night if I remember correctly. Well, you did giggle when I…"

She slid back into bed, straddling him. I didn't mean to wake you, sweetheart. I just feel so incredible this morning and it's all because of you. And since you're already 'up'…", she slid further down his legs, pulled the sheet over her and took him in her mouth. This would be a day of many firsts in her life.

"Hannah…ooh…Hannah…"

They bathed together and she changed his dressing, no longer brought to the point of tears by the wound. If he hadn't been so 'nice' and thought about his friend in Burbank and bought the flask, she'd never have known the joy of being with him.

They discussed everything and anything over a breakfast of fresh croissants, fresh Moroccan orange slices and Turkish coffee. Chuck finally asked her what her immediate plans were.

"I – I really don't know, Chuck. I was kind of in limbo when I lost my job and returned here to pack up and move back home to America but I've found my father and I don't want to leave him. I don't mean I want to live with him - after all, he has his own life and I need my own. What about you?"

"I had a job waiting back in the States, two actually. But there's no one person other than Ellie that I have any connection with. I don't know what I'm going to do. Whatever it is, it has to be as someone other than Charles Bartowski. He's dead. At least I hope my team thinks I'm dead. I have nowhere to go, Hannah. I have no one I can trust and I've obviously made powerful enemies within the intelligence services of my own government. I just don't know."

"You can trust me, Chuck." She reached across the table and grasped his hand like he was going to turn to smoke if she let go.

"I know I can, sweetie. I meant people in my line of work. My 'associates', you don't make friends in this business, are the only people I know other than occasional acquaintances from other agencies and from Stanford. I can't call on them. The word is out. Bartowski is dead and if contacted, inform NSA. I need to stay hidden and dead."

"Stay here, with me and my father. He won't turn you out, Chuck. He's a good man and he can be of great help to you. And if you do go, I'll be with you. Don't say it…don't say it…I mean it, Chuck. We're soul mates and we have an obligation to one another. One without the other is merely half, my lover. Together, we're One and no one will be able to stop us from living. I have some money saved and you have some cash. We can hop on the Eurail and disappear into the countryside."

"Those are beautiful thoughts, baby, but I know this business. It's called going off the grid and it's almost impossible to do nowadays unless you want to live where electricity and running water are campaign promises never kept. No, countries are too interlinked, interwoven. We'd have to go to the 3rd World and I wouldn't inflict that on us." She was weak and he knew she'd never survive the running, the stress and the fear of discovery.

"I know what you're thinking, Charles Bartowski. You're thinking I wouldn't be able to handle living on the run, the constant fear of discovery and that I'd eventually leave you and come back to safety and civilization. Well – well - well, you're wrong. I would never leave you alone like that. And I am stronger than you think. Don't plan on going it alone, baby, because wherever you go, I'll find you. Papa has resources and I'll use them."

"It's too nice a day to have this conversation. Let's take a walk. Maybe your father can suggest someplace we might go. All the 'safe areas' I know about are also known to my partners, so they're automatically eliminated."

Henri knocks at the door and lets himself in. "Agent…er…Chuck, Mr. Dubois will see you now. Ms. Nguyen, he would like you to accompany Chuck. Please, he is waiting."

Chuck walks out into the bright sunlit courtyard, Hannah hanging on his arm. There are three armed men with automatic weapons.

Chuck feels the familiar 'tug' in his head as the intersect dumps information regarding the weapons he's looking at.

Common Name: MP5SD6F
Calibre: 9×19mm
Origin: Heckler & Koch GmbH, Oberndorf, Germany.
Use: Armed forces: special service. In use with all special ops units, including 1er RPIMa, 13e RDP,FORFUSCO, CPA10, etc. Police forces: special service. In use with all special ops units, including GIGN, GIPN, and RAID. Details: Fires semiautomatic, 3-round bursts, and full-automatic. Integral sound suppressor. Retractable stock.

"Henri, is my presence the cause of this additional security? I don't want to be the cause of any trouble for the Director. I will not repay his hospitality by bringing the possibilities of threats to his door. Perhaps I should plan to leave sooner than we discussed?"

"Chuck, you've talked about leaving and didn't tell me? You were going to leave me without…"

"No, Hannah. I just mentioned a timeframe when I asked Henri to arrange an appointment with your father, that's all. Don't fret. I wouldn't leave without saying goodbye and making arrangements to stay in touch. I couldn't do that to you, baby."

"You're damned right you couldn't, Chuck. My papa will not let you leave without me. You'll see. Don't even think of it. We're together and we're staying together. Get used to the concept, Chuck. It's a new paradigm in our lives…being together."

"Ah, Chuck, my young friend. You are, what's the phrase? Oh, yes, you are toast. She is so like her papa. Do not cross her. She is most formidable."

Chuck sighed in resignation and amusement. All the women in his life were 'formidable' or so it seemed. Ellie, Sarah Walker, Carina Hansen, and now Hannah. All formidable.

"Come, the Director will see you…both." Henri was amused. He'd never seen two people so right for each other actually find each other. Ms. Nguyen fairly glowed and when she looked at the young man. Henri could remember times when a woman had looked at him like that. Years ago. She would make any old man wish for younger days.

"Colonel Casey, this is General Beckman. The time has come to bring you into the fold. You have been involved in a deception operation. We never thought it would get so complicated after being so simple on paper. You almost ruined everything when you shot young Bartowski but Fate intervened and now we're further along than anticipated."

"General? Deception operation?"

"Bartowski is infiltrating the highest echelons of the Ring. He has identified and put together an incredible dossier on Jacques Dubois, also known as the Director General but mostly by 'Director'. He found a link no one else had. He was going to go at it from the front, claiming to be a defector, exposing himself as the intersect host and seeking 'asylum'."

"Then this whole 'vacation' is bullshit?"

"Yes. And I suspect that Daniel Shaw is more than he appears. He should have ordered the shot on Dubois, not Bartowski. However, as I stated, events overtook our original plan and Bartowski has capitalized on it. He's ingratiated himself into Dubois' household through the daughter."

"Hannah? He's using Hannah to get to her father? What then? Assassinate him?"

"No. Join him. The original plan is still viable. The only complications are Shaw and Walker. Shaw, because of his doubtful loyalty and Walker because of her ''unresolved' feelings for the host. I'm going to send those two hunting for Bartowski in distant corners of Europe, away from France. You will remain and hold in place until Bartowski contacts you."

"Why would he do that? He doesn't know I'm aware of the real mission."

"Because he'll contact me per our plan and I'll refer him to you. I'm certain you can bridge the trust gap created by the bullet you left in his chest."

"Then you agree with me that he's alive? Why the inquisition when he was first shot?"

"I didn't know for certain that he was alive. Now, I am."

"Why?"

"Exactly."

"Huh?"

"'Why?' was the code word to be sent in the clear if he made it into the inner circle. Otherwise it would have been another phrase or sentence depending on his circumstances."

"You're sending Walker out with Shaw? She'll kill him at the earliest opportunity. She's fried, emotionally cauterized. She lost it when she thought Bartowski got whacked."

"She's resilient. And I'm not sending them out together. She'll go to Sweden, Norway, Holland and Belgium and Shaw will be sent to the Balkan states, Austria and Germany. I was going to keep moving them around but I want Shaw under observation and Walker well away from France."

"And then? Chuck is going to be pissed off beyond belief that Shaw ordered the hit on him and pissed at me because I didn't question the circumstances, just followed orders. Walker's going to become a problem for the team if she still rejects him after his return. I don't see him returning to our team. Maybe you should consider re-teaming him with experienced agents who can be trusted with what's in his head."

"John, Chuck won't be returning. This is a long-term deep cover operation. It was his choice. He came to me with the plan and it was audacious and he was almost desperate for me to accept it. He was heartbroken over the murder of his friend and the situation with Walker. He'd forgiven Larkin but could not find it in his heart to forgive Walker for her continued rejection. I took advantage of him for the greater good."

Her recitation chilled John Casey. First, she called him 'Chuck' and then had spoken openly about 'feelings' and then admitted to taking 'advantage' of his emotional turmoil. This was a high water mark for Casey. Beckman seemed almost regretful of her actions.

"Colonel, you're quiet but Agent Bartowski was and still is an emotional wreck and I did what he asked since it would ultimately benefit our efforts in the long run. Now we'll see if his plan and my faith in him will stand the acid test of reality. That is all."

"General, wait! If Shaw had ordered the shot on Dubois, his plan would have collapsed. What was the plan then?"

"We had no plan for such a contingency since neither of us could have anticipated such a situation. He would have been on his own until he made contact. Considering the situation, I doubt he would have done so. He would have considered Shaw's warning of a possible sanction and acted on that assumption and disappeared."

Casey just snorted. "General, no one, not even the intersect host, can just 'disappear' nowadays."

"You have so little faith in our young friend's abilities. He was always the prime candidate for the intersect. He'd been identified in testing at Stanford as part of Project Omaha. It was always his fate. It was his moral compass that disqualified him initially. That same moral compass blocked his abilities as a spy in training and resulted in him being sent home in disgrace."

"Something's happened to his 'compass' then since what he's doing requires him to ignore all those things that make him a decent human being and not spy material."

"Yes. Things have happened. Times have changed. He's learned to compromise for the greater good. He's surrendered control of his destiny to events that he can't control."

"Sounds like he's given up. Not something I figured he would do."

"Ilsa, John. She was his Ilsa. Why do you think you were pulled from Eastern Europe? Why do you think you were assigned security of the intersect project and why do you think you were assigned to babysit or eliminate an unwilling host? It was because of Ilsa and all the problems that being emotionally compromised bring to the table. Walker was his Ilsa."

"General, if he feels that deeply for her, how can he just…how can he just walk away?"

"How did you, John? Not once but twice? If there's nothing more, our next contact on this subject will be when Chuck makes contact with me. Until then, follow my instructions, participate in the team activities and wait."