A/N: Note, this first bit won't make much sense if you haven't read "Casey Vs The Rookies". If you haven't, then go read that (and leave a review lol) so you know what's going on. You guys got this up to 25 reviews astonishingly quickly, so I'm fulfilling my end of the bargain and writing this before I leave. Thanks to her nannyness, SarahLisaWalkerFan101 for the beta. If you like peeing rocks, her stories are for you.
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Casey had gotten used to his office quicker than he was had expected to. It had been a month since his 'retirement' from the NSA field ranks and subsequent new job training NSA rookies. His first group had all passed barely a week before, in record time and it was also the first time an entire group of five had passed at the first attempt.
Naturally, Casey had taken the credit; he knew that you might as well take the credit when something goes right, because damn sure nobody's going to take the blame when it goes wrong. The success of his first group had increased Casey's standing within Intelligence circles as an effective instructor.
He had formed a particularly strong rapport with Recruit Cobb who, despite a love of weaponry which even surpassed his own, was a very strong candidate and in Casey's opinion would be most likely to end up as a successful agent. Recruit Mitchell was a strange one; he seemed to believe he had factual proof of the existence of alien life. Casey was of the opinion that he was destined for a short career in the NSA.
Recruit Rohrer was the archetype of a soldier. Casey wasn't sure that he could be killed even if you decapitated him and then threw him in a lake. Another one who was probably more suited to the military rather than covert work, but he had adapted well to the training regime, so Casey was less sure of that previous opinion.
Recruit Linderman had some childhood issues to work out; his brother had died while Linderman was still a child, but he had amazing protective instincts. Casey had given him some of the contacts he had built up within the bodyguard network should Linderman want a change of scenery.
Hamilton was an astonishingly strong recruit physically. The PT had been a breeze for him, but a medical test had revealed that he had suffered a trauma to the neck earlier on in life. It didn't seem to hinder him much if at all, so Casey was happy to sign him off with a pass, like all the other recruits.
The reports he had signed off had also given the recommendations for the partnerships to be formed within the team. Rohrer would be working solo; that seemed to be his preferred modus operandi, which conveniently left two teams of two. For some reason Cobb worked well in tandem with Linderman, so they were paired together. If Casey's prediction about Mitchell's career longevity was correct, then Hamilton would also likely work well on his own, but his teamwork was a strongpoint of his too, so there were no major misgivings about him working in a pair.
The next batch of recruits were due in soon, according to the Colonel, but Casey hadn't yet received the information on them, which unnerved him a little. The call he received from Colonel Sanders' aide to head up to the Colonel's office A.S.A.P just heightened his trepidation. Still, not one to shirk a challenge, he cleared up the paperwork spread on his desk into a neat pile and headed out the door.
Good thing Bartowski's not here now; he'd never shut up if he saw me doing paperwork at a desk. Dammit! Get out of my head, Bartowski! I don't want you there anymore!
Still chuntering internally about the fact his inner monologue appeared to be fixed on that L.A. assignment, Casey made his way up to the Colonel's office. He had built up a strong rapport with his superior officer, and numerous late nights had been spent in the base bar swapping war stories and generally scaring the crap out of any unfortunate trainee who was stupid enough to try to engage them in conversation. The door was open, as it usually was, which was the Colonel's way, so Casey headed straight in.
"You wanted to see me, sir?" he said, announcing his presence to the senior officer.
"Ah, Major. Yes, I have a message for you right from the top; General Beckman has ordered me to tell you this."
"Something wrong, sir?"
"For me, yes, but this is a great opportunity for you, John. It could be a career maker for you. Hell, if you pull this off well there could be stars on your shoulders within ten years."
Now Casey was intrigued, but the sad reality was that he would have to turn this opportunity down if it happened to be another covert mission.
"John, someone at one of the Brit agencies seems to have heard about the results you achieved with that last batch of recruits. They want you to go over to Hereford and train some of their 'Five' and 'Six' newbies for a while. The Brits want to bring their covert capabilities up to our standards, and they don't think their training methods are up to scratch in these modern times. Their espionage was good in the 50's and 60's, but now it's gone a little downhill. They're going to bring in a couple of Mossad trainers alongside you, if you accept, and some CIA trainer called Montgomery. They say he's a legend when it comes to seduction. Not my thing, but I daresay he could teach you a thing or two."
"So let me get this straight, I spent a month here and I'm already being recommended to help out the Brits' training? Sounds a little too good to me, but what the hell, I'll accept anyway; it could be fun."
"John, I don't think I've ever heard you refer to something as fun that doesn't involve Scotch. You getting soft?"
"Not a chance, sir. England's closer to Scotland, I assume. That means that I can head over the border on my day off and get the real thing. Plus if we're going to be relying on the Brits more often, it can only be better if they're somewhat competent."
"Sure, I believe you, John. Shall I call General Beckman and let her know you've accepted?"
"Yes, sir, that'd be best. When should I leave?"
"There's a car outside waiting to take you to the airport. You'll be in Hereford in a couple of days, then you'll get settled in before the rookies show up. Have fun, Major. Hereford's not known for the nightlife."
"I was stationed there before, did some training with SAS. Believe me, sir, those rookies aren't gonna know what's hit them."
"Good to hear, Major. Just come back to Quantico at some point, we could use your skills here."
"I hope so, sir. It's been good working here."
"That it has, now go get your stuff."
"Will do."
Oh joy, months in Hereford. The only way this could be worse is if by some twist of fate I have to train Bartowski.
Actually, that might be kinda fun.
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"Hereford?!" shouted Chuck, "where the hell is that?"
"Calm down, Chuck. You knew we'd be getting training at some point, why are you so shocked?" said Sarah with a slight chuckle colouring her speech.
"I dunno, I guess I just thought we'd be staying in London for a fair while. I wanted to see the Palace and all that touristy stuff. What's so special about Hereford anyway?" said Chuck, sulking.
"It's where the British Special Forces do their training, and apparently where they train their covert agents too," explained Sarah.
"When you say Special Forces..." started Chuck.
"Yes, Chuck. The SAS," said Sarah, realising how Chuck was going to react and unable to keep from smiling.
"Oh crap. How the hell am I gonna keep up with them?" said Chuck in a panic.
"Don't worry, Chuck. You've gotten more fit over the past year. I'll be with you every step of the way, and I might be able to come up with a way to reward you if you do well on a particular day."
"When do we leave?" said Chuck excitedly.
"Chuck, is that all I have to do to encourage you?" said Sarah through laughter.
"Seems to be. I can't help wishing you'd come up with it earlier though."
"Why? Is that all you want from me? I thought you were different, Chuck!" shouted Sarah, fleeing once more to the bathroom of the hotel room they had returned to.
Those damn hormones! Now what do I do? She has to know I didn't mean it like that. At least, I hope she does. Man, this is screwed up. I should fix this one.
"Sarah?" said Chuck tentatively, knocking on the bathroom door. "I'm sorry if I implied that I only think of you as an object. I don't. Nothing could be further from that. You mean everything to me."
"Chuck, I may have overreacted a little to that. I'm big enough to admit that."
"Well, that's good."
"What?! It's good that I'm big? YOU did this to me!"
How is it that I can send her crazy with three words? Thought one part of Chuck's mind
The logical part replied, Because she's getting PMS multiplied by about a million. I'm sure that we remember that time where she sent us to the store for ice cream and pancakes to satisfy a craving.
The emotional part of Chuck's mind stepped in, But how can we fix this? I'm sure we all hate hearing Sarah cry.
All of the assorted parts agreed with that assessment. Well, all apart from the Casey conscience that had crept in over the period he had been Chuck's handler.
Jesus, Bartowski! Do I have to spell everything out for you? She's pissed at you, give it a minute and she'll run out of the bathroom in tears and hug you. It's called pregnancy, dumbass.
This 'conversation' between the proverbial devil, angel and Casey resulted in Chuck walking away from the bathroom door with the message "When you want to talk, I'm here for you."
A couple of minutes later Chuck heard the click of the lock to the bathroom door, and Sarah walked out slowly, looking a little embarrassed by her crazy mood swings. She barely managed to keep from running into Chuck's arms and begging him for forgiveness, but that would just cement her reputation as a crazy person in his eyes. No matter how understanding he had been, it had to be at least a little bit of a burden.
"Why do you put up with me?" she asked softly.
"It's easy for someone you love," said Chuck with a shrug of his shoulders, as if that reason were painfully obvious. It hit Sarah that it probably was obvious to him. Chuck would do anything for her without a thought to his own safety. It had been problematic, of course, when she was his handler, but now it gave her a secure feeling. She thought that the training he was about to receive, while tough, would at least make Chuck's job easier the next time he felt the urge to do something heroically stupid. Not that she wanted him to go risking his life for her.
No, that's my job, Sarah thought wryly.
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The orders given to Chuck and Sarah meant they had to get to Hereford within two days. The Director General had pulled some strings to make sure that the Security Service's possible new Team Intersect were happy. He had managed to get the base CO to release a house normally reserved for the permanent residents of the base, which was a privilege not normally granted to recruits. Otherwise however, they would be treated like any other recruit, and they would have to pass every section of the training that a normal recruit would need to in order to be considered as full-fledged 'Five' agents.
These were, in no particular order:
Firearms Proficiency, in which every shot from a standard 9mm magazine had to be put in a 'kill' area from thirty feet within a minute.
Stealth: Using the sniper training area of the Hereford base, a prospective agent had to start from a mile away from the target and get close enough to attempt an assassination shot without discovery by the numerous sentries positioned around the area. A modified version of the final sniper training exercise.
Adaption: A simulated mission gone wrong, and different in each case. The candidate has to complete their mission objective without causing more casualties than originally specified.
Mission planning: The candidate is given an operation objective, and they have 30 minutes to come up with a feasible plan that is then run through a simulation to test its capabilities.
Finally, there was an SAS training program, which was a cut down version of the actual SAS selection program. Normally it took months to complete, but it had been cut to two intense weeks designed to push candidates to their limits. By the end of it, however, each candidate that made it through would be prepared for most of the hostile situations the covert world would place them in.
It took completing the SAS program to be made a full agent, but if all but that were completed, then the Security Service would often take the candidate on as a support agent in a team; provided they could successfully complete a course on technical analysis.
Chuck had looked at the program when it was given to him on his arrival at Hereford, and this had subsequently made him even more determined to pass the SAS course, as in his mind "support agent" was equivalent to "stay in the car". That wasn't going to happen while Sarah was out there in the field though. He was fulfilling his duty as both a husband and a father, even if he wasn't either yet, to protect Sarah and his unborn child. Since the child depended on Sarah, she would have to be healthy. If that meant sacrificing himself then so be it.
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When Chuck and Sarah had arrived, and after being given the program for the training, they had been directed by one of the MP Officers to the house that would serve as their home until training was complete. With any luck they wouldn't be there too long and they could get on with protecting the country again, albeit a different, more civilised country. Sarah was confident that she could pass the espionage aspects of training were she to take the tests now, and Chuck would have a good chance at passing the Adaption and Mission Planning sections. He would need practise to pass the other two, and she wasn't going to take the tests until Chuck was ready. That wasn't to say she wouldn't help him along; her offer of a reward still stood for every successful day.
The SAS training would be first, in order to maximise the efficiency of it. Because of the way the espionage program worked, if the SAS training took place after, then candidates would trickle in and this would result in too much work for the training cadre. Better to have all of the candidates in one. When some inevitably couldn't hack it and dropped out, and then were they to also fail the technical analysis course, then there wouldn't be a waste of resources on the espionage section.
Chuck and Sarah had a couple of days to settle in to their new home before the training started in earnest with the arrival of the other candidates. The house was a fairly standard English home, a three bedroom semi-detached house with a small front lawn and a large back garden. Not at all like the stereotyped cottage with thatch roof.
As they had arrived on a Saturday afternoon in mid-August, the base was practically deserted. Most of the soldiers had decided to pay a visit to the pub just outside the base because of the simple fact it had a Sky Sports subscription, and as barely any of the base personnel were from Manchester, most of them were Manchester United fans, naturally.
A fair few also decided to head along to Edgar Street to watch Hereford United play; Cheltenham Town were in town, Chuck later learned, so there was a large crowd due at the small stadium for the local derby, and soldiers loved their football. This combination led to a crowd much larger than was normally found at the fourth division side's famous old stadium.
Sarah deposited hers and Chuck's bags in the living room and decided to make their first night in the house memorable. Whether it was the hormones or not, she had been keeping Chuck a lot busier in the bedroom lately.
Not that Chuck had any complaints; he was a breathing male after all. She changed into the lingerie that she had found on a very quick shopping trip and found some candles she had packed for some strange reason. Sarah didn't even remember packing them, nor the Arcade Fire album she saw placed next to them.
That was when the penny dropped for her, and she laughed at the synchronicity she and Chuck exhibited astonishingly often. She had been unpacking Chuck's bag by mistake, including the lingerie, which he had bought for her as a present apparently. She supposed he should have had a good idea of her size by now, so she didn't know why she was surprised it fit so well.
Sarah had other things on her mind at that point anyway; namely that she needed the man downstairs to be a lot closer to her in order to get their first night in the house off to a very early and very explosive and passionate start. She had a long session planned, but first Chuck had to draw himself away from the technology she had spotted in the living room.
She laughed softly, Boys and their toys, he'll certainly prefer what's waiting up here.
After settling herself into a comfortable yet completely irresistible position, (Not that I need to put in much effort to be irresistible to Chuck, thought Sarah, he seems barely able to control himself when we're in close proximity. How's he going to deal with it when I get muddy and wet in the SAS training?), Sarahdecided to make Chuck's choice for him.
"Chuck, if you like what's downstairs I think you'll enjoy what's in the bedroom a lot more!"
She barely had to wait a second before she heard Chuck start barrelling up the stairs as fast as he could. He had obviously caught onto Sarah's hidden meaning.
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A/N: Who knows? If this makes it to 40 reviews by tomorrow night I may end up writing another chapter before I leave. You know what to do if you want that, just click the green button and give me your opinion on the chapter. Even if you hated it.