Disclaimer: I don't own Chuck

A/N: After a long time, I have finally finished another chapter. At the moment, I'm working on a feedback and support equals quicker chapter, if that makes any sense!

Flash – Wow, thank you, I had fun doing it, maybe I'll go back to his POV later on in the story

Zoe Taylor

I stood still, feeling the lift doors close behind me. Chuck and I slowly looked at one another, our mouths dropped open in realisation of what we had seen. We had found our intersect. Willow was the intersect we were looking for. It was clear the moment that I saw her. She was definitely the most beautiful girl I had ever seen.

Willow had these big green eyes, like the colours of many tree leaves were in summer. She had brown hair which had been pulled back into a loose ponytail, most likely Frank's pitiful attempt at doing her hair.

"Hi there, Willow," I said, sitting down on a cube.

"Hello." Willow smiled a little. "That's a pretty dress." Her dainty little hands traced the material.

"Thank you. Someone very important to me bought it for me to wear tonight." I was about to ask her a question when I hear screams and gunshots from downstairs, like warning shots.

Then I heard a scream from the balcony. Chuck rushed that way to see what it was before slowly walking back inside.

"There may be a slight problem Zoe…" he mumbled.

"What is it, Chuck? Give it to me straight." I hoped that he wasn't about to confirm that Frank had just thrown himself off the balcony. "Please, tell me he hasn't just-" I stopped in my tracks when Chuck nodded his head. "Willow, do you trust me?"

Willow hesitated for a moment. "I think so."

"Will you come with me?" I asked.

Even if she had said no, I would have still taken her. I would have dragged her kicking and screaming if I had to.

"Casey, can you get us a quick getaway?" I pressed a finger to my ear.

"We're working on it Taylor." I heard him reply.

I held my arm out to Willow and she leant on me, enough for me to lift her up. I could feel her clinging to my neck. "I will protect you, Willow. I promise."

"I trust you, Zoe."

"What are you thinking, Zoe?" Chuck squeaked, closing the balcony doors and turning the key in the lock.

"I won't leave her behind. I won't. She's a child." I watched Chuck get closer to me

The lift suddenly dinged. Someone was about to come running in. Without a moment's thought, I pulled out the gun out from the back of the waistband of Chuck's trousers and aimed it at the lift. I was holding it at such an awkward angle, almost horizontal. The lift doors opened and I raised my gun, letting out a deep sigh.

"Morgan, geez, you didn't think to communicate?" I yelled, tossing the gun to Chuck and cradling Willow's head. Her hair smooth to touch, it was like she was the perfect child.

"What are you doing?" Morgan asked as I bundled him back into the lift. "We can't go back down, there's loads of gunman down there."

"Well, do you have a better plan?"

It went silent as I looked between Chuck and Morgan. "I didn't think so." I fished out my gun from around my thigh and pressed the ground floor button. "Are you coming or not?"

"A frenzied Zoe is not a Zoe I want to see." Chuck leapt into the lift and it started to slowly make its way down towards the ground floor.

"Chuck, I want you to take Willow, and give me your gun back." I handed Willow to Chuck and took his gun. "It's a quick split second operation now. Those doors open, you get out. Ready?"

They nodded.

The lift beeped as it got to the ground floor. I kicked off my shoes and raised the guns to eye level.

"Clearly she means business," Morgan whispered.

I walked out of that lift expecting to blast bullets into anyone that stood in my way, but it was empty. There was no one there at all. "Go Chuck!" I snapped.

He cautiously went out of the building, followed by Morgan. I hesitantly followed. I turned to check the way and it was clear. I pushed the door to leave when I felt a stabbing pain in my shoulder, practically the socket of my shoulder. There wasn't time to turn and shot the knife thrower. I had to get out of there. I had my family to think of now. I slammed into the open door of the van. Chuck stepped down and scrunched his face up a little.

"Zoe?"

I fell forwards into his arms.

"Guys? Which way is the quickest hospital?" Chuck lifted me up and almost over his shoulder. Probably because of the angle at which the blade was sticking out at. "We might need one about now."

I shook from side to side over Chuck's back as the van began to zoom off.

"Eyes down Grimes," I heard Casey snap.

I was carried through the hospital and into the medical bay, or so I thought. I was put into the operating room and I think I even heard the sound of the blade being removed from my shoulder. Then they put me under.

I woke up to feel a warmth on my right side. I opened my eyes, wincing at the pain in my right shoulder. "Willow?" I murmured, seeing her snuggled up beside me, sleeping peacefully. I don't know what it was, but I felt a motherly relationship to her. She had no one else, and she was so special because she was an intersect. Willow was like me, and I couldn't afford to let her get taken away from me.

"Zoe?" I looked to my side and saw Casey sitting in the chair.

"Casey…" I whispered, feeling a tear run across the bridge of my nose and over my cheek. "What happened to me?" I winced at the pain. I raised my hand to stroke Willow's hand, but the pain was excruciating. "Casey?"

"Don't panic Zoe, everything is going to be okay. You just took a knife to the socket of your shoulder. It'll take some time to heal. You're going to have to take it careful, incredibly careful. For your own well-being, if you don't rest your arm, you might lose the limb- or something like that…"

"Casey, why is Willow here?" I asked, gently rubbing my thumb across her hair.

"That's her way of saying she wanted to stay. Beckman tried to remove her, but the kid grabbed your shoulder, which made the doctors refuse to let Beckman take the kid." Casey paused, for a long time.

"Is there something else, Casey?"

"Um- Beckman has suspended your agent status."

"What?" I yelled angrily. "Why?"

"For breaking some rule of hers, and to stop you from injuring yourself before you are ready to come back to work."

I was furious, I couldn't believe that Beckman would even dream of suspending my agent status. What was I going to do? Well, I suppose I could spend some bonding time with Liam.

"Where's Liam?"

"Woodcombe's house." Casey then glanced at his phone, I leant forwards quickly and growled at the pain. "Sit back." Casey pushed me down onto the pillow gently, but with some force. "You can't help us now, not with your shoulder as it is."

How did he know I was going to say I could help?

"Besides, Willow's going to need someone to look after her."

"Well why can't we?" I asked, hoping that he would agree. This could be Liam's older sister. Something I only hoped I could give him, I lifted Casey's chin to look me in the eye, "You don't want to, do you?"

"We've already got one child, that's enough to me. I got to go, before I get my own status suspended."

I knew he was joking, though I couldn't help but feel like there was a slight spiteful tinge to his words. "Bye Casey…" I murmured, as he left the door, I had to tell him something else, "Happy Valentine's day, I'm sorry I'm so accident prone. I- I love you, John."

He held the door in his hand, facing me. "I love you too, and I cannot wait to marry you, Zoe."

"And I, you."

Later that day, Beckman returned, with two men on either side of her. I watched her ignore me and point at Willow. My hand shot out to try and stop them taking her, but one of them lifted her, waking her up. Willow kicked and screamed as he hauled her out of the room.

"Lieutenant Taylor, this child is to be put under protection of the NSA and CIA, you will recover and then eventually have your agent status reinstated." Beckman turned on his heels.

"Zoe!" I heard Willow scream, I couldn't bear it. My maternal instinct pleaded me to do something. Leaning forwards, I slowly stood up, grinning through the pain.

"Please…" I whispered, collapsing into the bed in pain, but Beckman was gone. "Willow."

A doctor came in and started cursing a little, begging me to get into the bed. When I looked at them, everything in me began to flash. Documents and faked passport, this guy had been all over the world. England, Egypt, Italy, China, India, Morocco, Peru, Canada. He was part of the undercover deals, he was my father's work partner. Paul Bailey's aid.

Part of me felt like he was trying to collect me. A while ago, Beckman had approached me on opening up the underground exchange as the SparrowHawk, in the hope to lure out some of the most wanted. I had to take a call from Beckman two nights ago to let me know that someone may be in touch with me.

"You need to get some rest now, Miss Taylor." He had a syringe in his hand with some peculiarly coloured liquid in it. "This injection is a new serum that will help to strengthen your shoulder joint."

My eyes began to twitch, this was a serum called 'Phoenix', rising from the ashes, like a new being. I felt the prick of the injection in the back of my shoulder, and nearly jerked my shoulder as I felt him press the plunger.

"Eurgh," I whimpered.

"There, now you'll be healed up in no more than a day."

"What was that thing?" I asked, even though I already knew the answer. "That sounds unbelievable."

"It's a bone and muscle growth serum. You'll be okay in a no more than a day."

"So I don't need a cast or anything?" I asked.

The man shook his head before leaving and I began to be in disbelief of the 'Phoenix' as this serum, it sounded so unbelievable. Only time would tell

The next morning I woke up and rotated my arm at the shoulder. It was amazing, it felt brilliant. There was no pain in my shoulder at all. I had to get back to Castle.

When I got there, it was empty, but it was so good to be back. I put my feet up on the desk and relaxed in one of the chairs. Unbelievably comfy chairs once I leant back in it. The door opened and in came Chuck, Sarah, Morgan and Casey walked in coolly, almost in success of a mission. They froze when they saw me, like me, they too were in disbelief.

"Hello everyone." I smiled widely.

"What the-? How? What?" Chuck towered over me and suddenly almost lifted me up off the chair with his hands on either side of my face. "How are you here?"

I laughed a little. "Chuck, I drove here from the hospital, they discharged me this morning. Simple as that." Because he was holding my face, I squeezed his cheeks. "What's the problem?"

"Zoe… You dislocated your shoulder joint, that's not only the hardest to dislocate, and it's also the most difficult joint to mend. It was unlikely that it would ever repair. Now, you're driving, you don't have a cast, and you don't seem to be in any pain… How?" Chuck shook his head a little

"Because I am the Phoenix."

"What did you say?"

"You heard me, Chuck. Chuck, the doctor gave me this injection of Phoenix."

"Wow, I honestly don't believe you, you're wearing a patch- and on meds – or, or something…"

"I swear, trust me, it's fine." I stepped back a little. "Tell you what, I challenge you to a fight. Mono-a-mono." I patted his chest and walked along to the training room.

Casey, Sarah and Morgan followed like eager spectators at a baseball game.

"Come on, Chuck," I taunted him, holding my fists up to prepare myself. "After you Chuck."

I waited for him to move, his face twitched and I knew he was ready to attack. When Chuck's fist headed my way, I ducked and threw him forwards, over me. I had never done anything like that before. Thrown by the adrenaline, I flicked my legs over my body in an almost no-handed cartwheel, landing with my feet only inches away from his chest. I leant down so that my face was close to his.

"See, I'm all good."

In amongst his heavily, fast paced breathing, he managed to muster up a single sentence.

"Yeah, you got that right."

Thoughts from AspiringWriterGirl = Okay, so it's a shorter chapter, but I didn't want to do too much. To be honest, I'm really enjoying writing my own storylines. Can't wait to do the next one, which probably won't be for a while! Sorry about the delay, hope the chapters okay. Make sure you review, all suggestions and criticisms accepted here, or at least considered!