A/N: I finally got the motivation to write this, and it's the much awaited (at least, I hope someone out there was waiting for this) Casey confrontation. Thanks for the truly staggering number of reviews you've given me so far. And thanks to SLWF for the beta, even though she wasn't at a computer. Now that's dedication!

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"Well, Casey, I guess I should start explaining then..." began Sarah confidently, although the slight tremor in her hands betrayed her nervousness at sitting before the man who quite literally held her (and Chuck's) fate in his hands. It wasn't nerves for herself though; she had proven that she could take Casey in a fight before, but she was worried he might get to Chuck before she could deliver the mother of all beat-downs on him. Chuck noticed the shake and grasped her hand, causing Sarah to look up at him in surprise. When he smiled reassuringly at her she almost completely lost her train of thought, as they gazed into each other's eyes.

Chuck's seemed to be saying, go ahead, I trust you.

To which Sarah gave him a look that said, what if he doesn't accept the reason? I can't lose you now.

Again Chuck's face showed his complete trust in Sarah, which enabled her to take a deep breath and push the worries and fears down deep enough to keep her voice steady. Their gazing match was interrupted by an impatient cough from the man sitting across from them.

"I still don't like feeling like the little fat kid, Bartowski," said Casey, as if that explained everything.

It did to Chuck, of course, who broke his gaze on Sarah and looked back at Casey. Sarah, on the other hand, was completely confused by Casey's cryptic sentence.

"What?" she asked, questioning both men.

"We'll talk about it later, sweetie," said Chuck. His term of endearment didn't sound nearly as forced as it did during the cover/really real/sort of a cover but we're not sure/maybe there's something there/who knows? relationship, which was brought right back to the front of the memories of both Chuck and Sarah with the other member of the former Team Bartowski sitting across from them.

"You two make me sick, you know that?" said Casey in disgust. He'd thought the Idiot was intolerable when Walker was away, but this new form of lovey-dovey Idiot was on a whole new level. "I give it a week, tops, before she has your kid. That is, if your swimmers are up to it," finished Casey evilly, blissfully unaware of what he had just willingly stepped into.

"Funny you should mention that, Casey," said Chuck, never one to pass up an opportunity to enrage his former handler. He glanced down at Sarah's yet-to-bulge stomach to make his point. It's fair to say that Casey got the message; at least going on how his eyes bulged wider than when he'd heard Firefly had been cancelled.

It was one of the few TV shows that Casey had actually liked (especially that mercenary guy, he pulls of the goatee better than I ever could, thought Casey) because it had aired during a rare time that Casey had been between assignments, and his next assignment had been a babysitting one much like his last assignment in order to ease him back into the job after a difficult mission in Russia.

This meant he had plenty of free time to watch TV; and the fact he was performing a role not dissimilar to Walker's as a cover partner, coupled with his asset being a pretty big nerd, meant that Casey had ended up watching most of the 14 episodes, and the ones he missed had been religiously caught up on. Casey figured Bartowski would never let him forget it if he ever found out that Casey had actually spent the night before Serenity was released camping outside a cinema along with the other Browncoats.

He even owned his very own brown coat, not dissimilar to the one worn by Nathan Fillion (Government connections can get you anything). Another thing in the bank of trivia that "The Idiot Won't Find Out About Me" that Casey had very quickly decided on once the full extent of Bartowski's infuriating way of figuring out personal details had become clear. He could tell Walker had fallen victim to that very quickly indeed. Hell, she probably blabbed her name to him before what's-her-face, Carina, had left with those infernal handcuffs of hers.

"Walker..." began Casey, before falling silent.

"Wow, is the great John Casey finally speechless?" said Chuck in mock amazement.

"You'll be speechless when I rip out your vocal cords and use them to tie my boots," said Casey menacingly.

"Ah, there's the Casey we've all come to know and love," said Chuck in amusement.

"And there's the Moron we've all come to know and tolerate. Seriously though, how did you manage to trick Walker into procreating with you?" asked Casey in disbelief, albeit with a slightly evil smirk on his face.

"Why? Do you have that little faith in my ability to charm women?" asked Chuck.

"Honey, I have little faith in your ability to charm women, knowingly at least. Not that you ever needed to charm me," finished Sarah, bumping up against Chuck and giving him a little smile.

"Bartowski, that's too easy for me to even bother with an answer. But no, it's not that, any idiot could see that you could set Walker off by looking at her"-Sarah blushed at that comment- "Don't try to deny it Walker, I've seen the water bill for your hotel; only about one in three showers actually involved hot water. Funny that, isn't it?" said Casey with amusement; he had missed ribbing his partner about her lady-feelings.

Forrest was basically like him (I never got Bartowski back for that crack he made about her being a more masculine version of me. Revenge will be sweet, thought Casey) on the emotional front, and the only emotions she seemed to show towards the asset were barely bridled contempt and annoyance at being forced to babysit what at that point had been one of the more annoying human beings in history. This made ribbing that partner a lot more difficult, so he'd given up after a couple of weeks.

"So why was it so difficult to accept that Sarah might want to be with me?" asked Chuck in confusion.

"Oh, that wasn't the difficult part. It was accepting you actually had male genitalia that was difficult."

"Oh ho ho, very original, Casey."

"If it ain't broke don't fix it. Speaking of...Walker, how do you propose you'll be able to distract some male mark enough to let the Idiot over there complete whatever mission you're on. I mean, in six months time even you won't be much of a looker," finished Casey, laughing to indicate that he was in no way serious.

Chuck had noticed the rage emanating from Sarah as Casey had said that. It was as if she were literally projecting various shades of red into the immediate vicinity of her.

"Oh..." he muttered, "bad move, Casey."

"Huh?" said Casey, surprisingly oblivious to the very obvious danger in front of him. Chuck just pointed to his left and then more or less dived for cover. Casey looked back at Sarah just in time to see her leap out of her chair and virtually jump across the desk of Casey's temporary office to get to him.

"You bastard!" was Sarah's almost feral cry of rage. Casey was too surprised to do anything but try to defend himself before Sarah's blind fury commenced the beat-down she had been reserving for the event that Casey decided to complete his last NSA assignment.

"Did. You. Just. Call. Me. Fat?!" she yelled, desperately trying to do some damage to Casey other than bruise his palms and forearms where he had blocked the blows.

"No! I swear I didn't! Bartowski, do something!" said Casey, regretting the last words as soon as he said them.

"Did...you...just ask me for help, Casey?" said Chuck in disbelief.

"Yes, now would you go do something to stop your insane girlfri-" he was cut off as Sarah heard the 'insane' and redoubled her efforts to cause damage on Casey.

"Do you have a fridge, Casey?" asked Chuck.

"What the hell use is that gonna be?" shouted Casey in desperation as he tried to fend off Sarah's blows.

"I have a plan," said Chuck as he looked around and found a fridge in the corner of Casey's office.

"You are NOT gonna kiss me again, Bartowski!"

"Jeez, you make one mistake, ONE, and you get it held against you for the rest of your life," said Chuck, rooting through Casey's fridge.

"The rest of your life is gonna be a very short time if you don't do something soon!" warned Casey.

"Yeah yeah yeah, just like usual," muttered Chuck, "hey Casey, why do you have chocolate ice-cream in your fridge?"

At those words Sarah stopped the attack on Casey. Luckily she hadn't caused much damage in her rage, but she looked at Chuck who was standing there with a 'rabbit in the headlights' expression. His mind was racing with numerous self-preservation thoughts.

You're standing in between a pregnant woman and sugar! Move, you idiot!

I can't! She's too beautiful when she's crazy!

Oh hell, she's coming towards me! What do I do?

Man, this is a terrible, horrible, not good, really bad day. And it's about to get worse. Please move, legs, please. React!

Luckily his legs did react in time to get out of the way, because Sarah wasn't stopping for anyone. The run had dropped her sugar levels past 'pregnant normality' and she was really feeling the cravings. Sarah supposed that was the reason for the reaction she had against Casey's badly-timed comment. She saw the magical sight of the tub but then her heart fell. She didn't have a spoon.

Do I have the lack of dignity to just eat it without the spoon? She asked herself, but Chuck seemed to be reading her mind as the metallic coldness of a spoon was pressed into her hands. She shot him a grateful smile before returning to the cold sugariness of the ice cream and taking the tub back to the desk where she started eating happily, leaving the men to stand there in disbelief.

"Uh..."said Casey articulately.

"Yeah..." finished Chuck lamely.

"Bartowski, why do you have a spoon?" asked Casey

"You learn to adapt," said Chuck with a shrug

"Fair enough. How do you deal with this?" asked Casey, waving his arms in the vague direction of Sarah, who was still eating, completely oblivious to the conversation going on around her.

"I honestly have no idea. I have a happy place," explained Chuck.

"Which is?" responded Casey

"Me kicking Bryce's ass," said Chuck.

"Yeah...about that...not gonna be happening anytime soon," said Casey cautiously

"A man can dream, can't he? I mean, we might run into him somehow," responded Chuck.

"Only if there actually is an afterlife," said Casey bluntly. Chuck finally caught onto the not so hidden meaning behind Casey's words.

"Oh," he said lamely. "How?"

Even Sarah had stopped eating now, and was looking up at Casey with sadness. Even though she didn't love Bryce anymore, and probably never truly had, she couldn't help but be sad at hearing the dangers of his job had finally caught up with him.

"Outside your safe house in Daytona. Fulcrum attacked us and Bryce was presumably undercover in their task force to find you two. He ended up getting hit during the attack. He didn't make it."

"What happened?" said Chuck, still in shock. Sure, he didn't particularly like Bryce, but he didn't want the guy to die.

"Mistaken identity," responded Casey.

"Wait, you shot him, didn't you?" said Sarah, struggling to keep her agent front up, but just about managing to do it. If Casey noticed the cracks, he was at least discrete about it. Chuck didn't seem to have any such qualms about showing emotions though. He was still fighting to keep a modicum of composure, but he was fighting a losing battle. Bryce had been his best friend at one point, even if that was about seven years beforehand.

"Better me than some bastard who'd miss and get him in the stomach," said Casey with a surprising amount of tact considering the subject matter.

"Well, there is that," began Sarah. "Casey, can we have a minute?"

"Oh no you don't, you're gonna explain to me exactly why you decided to betray your country and risk the Intersect falling into Fulcrum's hands. Then you're going to convince me not to kill you and take Bartowski back to Ft. Meade with me, and most importantly of all, Bartowski is going to beg for my forgiveness."

"Err, what? Why would I need forgiveness?"

"Because you got me DEMOTED!"

"Oh crap."

"Damn straight. You're pretty goddamn lucky I got promoted when I joined the training section of the NSA or you wouldn't be alive right now. Right then, why don't we start with why you betrayed the country, Walker?"

"I think you know why I did it," said Sarah sadly; she was struggling to see a way out of this situation as her gun was still at the house. Recruits weren't allowed to carry unless ordered to.

"I could probably make a good guess, and he's standing next to you, isn't he?"

Sarah just nodded at this; what was the point in denying what was so obvious?

"Now we've got that sorted, I'm asking myself, why haven't I left your bloody corpse in this room and taken Bartowski on a plane with me back home? You have an answer for me?"

"Casey. I know you don't think that I do, but I know you," began Chuck.

"Chuck," whispered Sarah. "Don't piss off the guy with the gun. Basic Spy 101. I think you missed a couple of classes somewhere along the line."

Chuck ignored Sarah for the moment because he thought he had an idea to stop Casey's itchy trigger finger from being scratched in his or Sarah's general direction.

"I do know you, and I know you have a very defined moral code. Not even at your coldest would you be able to kill Sarah, not now you know that she's pregnant. We both know you couldn't do that."

"Let's say you're right about that. But I didn't get a rep as a burnout for no reason. I've killed plenty of people who got in my way in my time."

"Even so, Casey, this is an unborn child we're talking about. And just in case that isn't enough, wouldn't we be helping America indirectly by working for MI5?"

"Just how would you do that?"

"I'll be getting the Brit Intersect put in after the training. Just think what might happen if I flash on a terrorist and stop a major attack. That can't happen if you take me to the bunker! We'll be of much more use to national security, even America's, if you just let us go. Please, Casey, I'm begging here. Just let us go, finish up this training and go back to Quantico, just don't tell anyone you saw us. Please," finished Chuck desperately.

Sarah was looking just as desperate; she knew just how close they were to this whole thing ending in a gout of flame from the muzzle of Casey's weapon. Her, the baby and Chuck. All gone in two shots. Three lives that all hinged on what was going on in Casey's head. All she could do was to hope Casey would do the right thing. She thought he would, but one could never predict the actions of a fellow agent, not even if one had worked with them for years. Agents were taught to switch personalities as often as possible to throw off enemies; nothing made it easier to blow a cover than a bad habit.

"What in God's name are you two recruits doing in my office!" bellowed Casey. "Get the hell out and back on the parade ground!"

Both Chuck and Sarah were too stunned to do or say anything. Could they have just gotten away with it?

"I don't see any movement! Go before I give you a taste of Vera!"

Casey named a gun after Jayne's gun in Firefly? Thought Chuck, shame I won't get to rib him about that.

With that the two terrified, relieved and altogether shocked recruits made for the door, Sarah leaving the ice cream tub discarded on the table and they headed to rejoin their fellow recruits. Casey followed them, keeping a good distance away, occasionally bellowing instructions to them if they fell slightly out of step in their marching, as all recruits were required to do. Once they made it back to the parade ground Chuck and Sarah moved onto the end of the line, and it appeared they had unfortunately interrupted Captain Mainwaring mid-rant.

"I see you Yanks have seen fit to grace us with your presence. Did we have fun on your little break?" he asked sarcastically, and then saw their faces. "Who pissed on your chips? Doesn't matter, I don't care. You're just recruits, and you'll be working double as hard if you want my respect, even this snotty nosed little kid over here-Pike, I think- has more respect from me at the moment."

"We're dead..." muttered Chuck.

It was a sentiment Casey agreed with; no recruits talked on the parade ground unless spoken to by a superior.

This could be a fun two weeks, thought Casey, almost beside himself in anticipation.

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A/N: Long delay I know, but I was on a holiday, as you know, and when I got back I had no motivation. I promise, the training will be in the next chapter. Reviews give me the motivation to write; you gave me about 50 in 3 days, you got 4 chapters. Guess what's gonna keep that rate of updates up? That's right, more reviews. I'm thinking the next chapter'll come after 100 reviews.

Yes, I'm evil, but I like it.