Disclaimer: I don't own Chuck, the man or the show or anything in between.
Chuck P.O.V.
The doors opened with a cheerful ding! and Chuck staggered into Castle. He made his way to the main room and sat heavily at the head of the table. Now that he was out of danger, his adrenaline was dropping, and the full weight of his injuries was hitting him. His side was obviously the most worrying, but the bullet had only grazed him. It still hurt like hell, but it wasn't life threatening or anything. His hands stung from his hard landing earlier, and he might have sprained an ankle at some point, but he considered himself lucky to have gotten out of there at all.
Chuck leaned back and sighed heavily. He fished the flashdrive out of his pocket and looked at it. It seemed too small and innocent to contain something so important. He chewed his lip pensively, then painfully got to his feet and walked over to the desk. He sat in front of the computer and powered it up, then inserted the flash drive. It loaded quickly, and Chuck selected the only file on it.
As soon as it opened, Chuck's head exploded. He flashed on every single name and picture on the file, and there were easily several dozen of them. He scrolled down, taking in the names of criminals wanted for everything from theft to murder to credit fraud. He jolted to a stop when he saw Tony's picture. Tony Hitchens, suspected for the murder of three bank clerks during the theft of over eight hundred thousand dollars. A chill ran down Chuck's spine. He had just been casually talking to him. Tony could have just whipped out a weapon at any point and shot him in the face without feeling the slightest tinge of remorse.
He reached the end of the file and fell back, breathing heavily. "Well," he said to himself, "at least he wasn't lying about this being the real deal. I wasn't shot for nothing."
Now for the next step; he needed to call General Beckman and let her know what was happening. He began to get up, then stopped in his tracks as he realized something. He didn't really know how to call General Beckman. He'd seen Casey and Sarah do it before, obviously, but usually she was already on screen by the time he got there.
He looked over at the tv screen. He could probably figure it out, with time, but he didn't feel like he had the required time. He needed to get help, and he needed it fast, before Tony and his crew killed someone.
Then a thought struck him. At the beginning of the mission, he had been given a phone that he was supposed to hand over to Tony when he received the information they needed. That phone was to be used to call the general. Since Tony obviously didn't know her number, it must already be on the phone.
He dug it out of his pocket and paused for a moment. Its case was scratched and dented, no doubt from Chuck's evasive maneuvers earlier. "Please, please don't be broken," he muttered, then flipped it open and pressed the power button. After a tense second, it lit up with a soothing little sequence of notes.
"Oh, thank God," Chuck said under his breath. He went to the contacts menu, where he found only one name: CIA. "Well, that's simple," he said to himself, then he selected the name. It began to ring, and he put it up to his ear.
Almost instantly, he heard General Beckman pick up. "Hello?" she asked, her voice slightly deeper and more serious.
"General Beckman!" he exclaimed. "That- that is you, right?"
There was a pause. "Bartowski!" the general said, annoyed. "What are you doing? Where is the contact? You should have called by now!"
"Well, the contact just tried to shoot me, so I decided not to give him the phone. Was that a bad idea?"
Chuck could hear the frown in the general's voice. "What do you mean? What's happening?"
"Well-" Chuck started.
"What did you do?" the general interrupted.
Chuck stopped. "Wait," he said indignantly. "Why do you assume it was my fault? Maybe Casey accidentally shot someone. I'm sure it wouldn't be his first time. It probably wouldn't even be on purpose."
"The hypothetical way that you are talking in tells me that this is just that- hypothetical. Now what happened?" General Beckman insisted.
"I think you'll be happy to know that it actually wasn't my fault, nor was it the fault of anyone on my team," Chuck informed her, slightly proud.
"Then what happened?" General Beckman shouted.
"Um, well, you see, that guy Tony? The one who was supposed to help us?"
"Yes?" the general prompted.
"He didn't actually help us."
"What do you mean?" she asked flatly.
"Well, he brought the information, but he also brought several cohorts with guns. He had several weapons of his own too."
"What?"
"Yeah," Chuck agreed. "It was pretty scary. I got shot."
"What?!"
"It's okay, though. I outran him and hid in the freezer entrance to Castle."
"WHAT?!"
"Listen, General. You're getting kind of repetitive." Chuck glanced down at his shirt, which he was starting to bleed through. He swallowed and forced his mind off the fact that he was bleeding profusely. "Um, do you think you could maybe walk me through some first aid or something? My shirt's much redder than it used to be."
The general cursed. "Chuck, you're hiding in Castle? Where are Casey and Sarah?"
Chuck thought about it. "Oh. Uh, I don't- I don't really know. Where they are." He frowned as he realized that he hadn't even thought about Sarah or Casey. They might be captured or wounded or even dead, and he hadn't even spared a thought to their safety.
The general cursed again. "We need to send backup." She took the phone from her ear, and Chuck heard muffled shouts to someone on the other end. "Bartowski, don't do anything stupid," she said back into the phone. "We're sending help. Just wait for them to arrive, okay? We'll get you out of there."
"General?" Chuck asked. "I think they took over the Buy More. Or something like that. I know there were guys with guns out front. It can't be anything good."
Chuck was becoming impressed by the general's repertoire of curse words. "Stay out of the way, okay?" she ordered. "Just don't get caught."
Chuck shrugged, immediately regretting the motion because of the pain that shot through him. "Oh! Wait!" he suddenly said loudly.
The general groaned. "What? I need to go."
"I have the information Tony brought."
There was a pause. "Wait. He brought it?"
"Yeah."
"And you have it?"
"Yup."
"In your possession? Right now?"
"Uh, yeah, I do."
"Stay. There," General Beckman reiterated. "Don't get caught, don't get killed, don't lose that information. Help is on the way."
The connection ended, and Chuck closed the phone. He set it on the desk in front of him and leaned back, staring at the screen in front of him. "Okay," he murmured to himself. "Right. Just… don't get caught. Or shot. Heh, that rhymed." He chuckled softly, then frowned. "Okay, that was stupid. Stop that."
He forced himself to his feet. "To the first aid, I guess." He tried to walk forward, but his vision started swimming as soon as he took his first step. Disoriented, he tried to lean against the table again, but he missed and lost his balance. He desperately tried to stay upright, but his dazed brain was working against him. He collapsed, smacking his head on the corner of the table as he fell.
He was unconscious before he hit the ground.
Sarah P.O.V.
Sarah didn't stop running until she finally saw the entrance to Castle ahead of her. It's outline was highlighted in the dark hallway by the light that shone through from beyond it. She slowed to a halt in front of it, panting lightly. Her knuckles were still throbbing from colliding with Henry's face multiple times, and she was sure they would end up bruised, but she knew she was lucky to escape alive. She could handle a few bumps and bruises.
She placed her hand on the scanner at eye level on the wall. A green light ran up and down the screen, then identified her as Sarah Walker. The door lifted, and the harsh artificial light that accosted her eyes was blinding at first. She shielded her eyes with her hand and quickly darted through the door. It was programmed to close quickly, in case the user needed a quick getaway.
Sure enough, it lowered again almost as soon as she stepped through and closed with a hiss and a clunk. Sarah blinked, waiting for her eyes to grow accustomed to the light, and eventually recognized her surroundings. She was in one of the back rooms of Castle, near the holding cells. After reorienting herself, she made her way through the halls and found the nearest bathroom.
She flicked on the light and studied herself in the mirror. As she had predicted, her knuckles were red and bruised. Her blonde hair had been ripped out of its neat ponytail and was hanging loose, just brushing past her shoulders. Her makeup was smudged all over; a dark bruise was forming on her chin where she had hit it on the floor when she had been tackled by Henry. But, overall, she had definitely come out worse before. The fight had been pretty one sided, after all. She had dealt out most of the punishment.
She turned on the faucet and splashed some water on her face, washing off all the grime from rolling around on the floor of the Buy More. She dried off and took a breath, then withdrew her phone from her pocket. Thankfully, luckily, it had survived the altercation in her pocket without falling out. There was a small scratch on the screen, but nothing too bad.
Sarah considered calling Chuck, but decided that there was a more important call to make first, so she punched in the numbers she'd had memorized for years.
She rang through to voicemail.
Sarah was taken aback. She had never reached voicemail on this line before. It almost always picked up within three rings. Not to be arrogant, but Sarah was one of the best agents they had, which came with some perks, like second chances and not being put through to voicemail. She didn't really know what to do now. If the general wasn't going to pick up, then she supposed she would have to do it all on her own.
She didn't know where Chuck was, Casey was unconscious and in enemy territory, and the CIA wasn't picking up, so reinforcements wouldn't be coming anytime soon.
As she was considering calling again, her phone rang. Without even looking to see who it was, she answered and said, breathlessly, "Yes?"
"Who is this?" The general sounded very irritated. "I really can't talk right now, so it had better be important!"
"General?" Sarah asked.
She heard an audible sigh of relief. "Walker, thank God!" the general exclaimed. "Where are you?"
"Castle," Sarah answered. "But that's not important. What's important is-"
"Hitchens betrayed us, yes, I know," General Beckman interrupted. "I'm trying to dispatch someone right now, but they aren't picking up. Who doesn't pick up when the director of the CIA calls you?"
"Wait, how did you know that?" Sarah asked, taken aback.
"Chuck told me. Where are you?" Beckman asked again.
"Uh, Castle," Sarah answered. "Is Chuck okay?"
"You're in Castle? Good. Where's Casey?" Beckman ignored her question.
Sarah struggled to keep annoyance out of her voice. "Henry got him."
"Henry?"
Sarah quickly explained everything, about the malfunction and Chuck disappearing into the back, how Henry stopped Sarah from following, how Casey was unconscious, and how she escaped. She left out small details, like how all Henry's group had to do to infiltrate the store was walk in.
Beckman cursed. "We have less time than we thought. Walker, you have to get Casey out of there immediately."
Sarah sighed, aggravated. "Of course I will. But you said you talked to Chuck?"
Beckman paused. "Wait, you haven't seen him? You said you're in Castle, right?"
"Yes," Sarah said slowly.
"He's in there too."
Sarah hung up and sprinted through the door.
Oh no! Heh. Hehheh. Heh.
Sorry, I know it's short, but hopefully that doesn't make it bad. I've come down with a case of writer's block, and life is a thing. Even with the delays, thank you so much for all the support y'all have given me! There have a few reviews in particular that made me feel like I was on top of the world, and I really appreciate that you think it worth your time and attention.
Thanks for reading!