Disclaimer: Chuck's not mine. Sigh.

Please let me know what you guys think of this, about pacing, characterization, direction, any of it! I was reminded that Casey would be about 65; I kinda picture Casey being like Chuck Norris who is in his 70's and still kicking butt ;) In this case, though, he has retired from the NSA and works a (typically) much calmer cyber security job for Carmichael Industries.

Chuck smiled wryly at his wife. "Adam went back to talk to Riley. Morgan and Casey are on their way. Breathe, relax. Once everyone else is here, we will get a game plan together and figure this all out." He wrapped his arms around her shoulders and kissed the top of her head.

Sarah sighed into Chuck's shoulder, and hugged him close. "I can't believe he's come back…I don't think I want to know how he even got out."

The spies both looked up abruptly when the muffled sound of Adam shouting. Chuck released his wife and took off for his daughter and employee. He could hear Sarah and Molly's steps following his own as he rounded the corner to the hallway of cells.

And stopped just short of a glass door. He cursed under his breath and slapped his palm against the panel on the wall next to him. Chuck turned his gaze in surprise when the panel wailed in denial. "What the hell?!" He hit the panel with his open palm again, and growled when it denied him access again. "Sarah!" The blonde touched the panel with no different effect. Chuck pounded the glass with his fist. "Adam! Riley!"

For a moment, they didn't hear anything. Chuck opened his mouth to call for his daughter again, but his breath caught in his throat and his entire body went rigid when Shaw stepped out of an interrogation room. One arm was wrapped around his daughter's waist, the other around her throat, and her eyes were clenched tightly. "Riley!"

"Dad!" she screamed. Shaw smirked evilly at his nemesis, and dragged the teenager into the room that Chuck knew held an access panel to the vents.

"Let her go, Shaw! She's innocent!" Chuck pleaded, knowing his words were falling on deaf ears. Shaw had likely forced Riley up into the vents and couldn't hear him anymore anyway. He then realized that there was someone missing from the equation, and felt another shock of fear race through him. "Adam!"

Sarah joined him in trying to get the panel to respond, typing in any code she could think of to override the lockdown Shaw had somehow put in place. "Damnit!" she hollered, raking her hands through her hair. Chuck wrapped his arms around her, struggling to reign in his terror and fury. "What are we going to do, Chuck? He has our baby girl!"

"We're going to do what we've done every time this son of a bitch has tried to tear our family apart…we will beat him," he swore, his voice trembling. "We will."

As if in response to his vow, the door opened with a soft whir. Chuck stared at the open space in shock for a moment, and then took off for the room Shaw had disappeared into. The vent was closed. He reached up to tug it open, and cursed under his breath again when it didn't budge. "Sarah, can you try to get this open? I need to check on Adam," he murmured, holding his wife's gaze long enough to see that she had transitioned into her agent mentality, pushing down her feelings long enough to get the job done. She nodded to him and ran to get tools while Chuck turned to Molly. "I want you to stay in here until I can check on Adam, do you understand me? Help Sarah until I call for you okay?"

As soon as the young woman nodded, Chuck ran to the room he'd seen Shaw and Riley leave. His steps faltered when he found Adam face-down on the floor with blood pooling under his head. The raven-haired man hesitated in the door, taking a steadying breath.

He then knelt next to his young employee, and breathed a sigh of relief when he felt the steady thump of Adam's pulse under his fingers. "Adam? Adam, buddy can you hear me?" he eased the young man onto his back. "C'mon, wake up, Adam."

"Riley," Adam whimpered, his eyes clenching against a blinding headache. He tried to reach up to touch the source of his pain, and was startled by a hand gently halting his movement. He blinked up at Chuck, suppressing a groan. "Where's Riley?"

Chuck closed his eyes for a second and took a deep breath. "Shaw took her. We're going to get her back. We need to get you cleaned up first." He offered his hand to Adam to help him sit upright.

"I'm…I'm so sorry, sir…it's my fault that she was taken."

When Adam didn't move, Chuck placed his hand on his shoulder and eased him up to lean back against the wall. "First of all, since when do you call me sir? You have been working for me for three years. Second of all, this is not your fault. Molly?" Chuck called, waiting until his other employee hurried into the room to speak. "Molly I need you to grab the first aid kit for me, okay?" When she gave him a teary nod and ran back out of the room, Chuck turned his attention back to Adam. "Shaw is a twisted son of a bitch with more connections than we knew about. I don't know how he got into Castle, but none of this is your fault, Adam. The fact that you've got a pretty nasty head injury tells me in no uncertain terms that you tried to protect my daughter."

Adam refused to look up until Molly came back in and handed her boss the kit.

"Get your damn hands off of me!" Riley growled as Shaw's men dragged her roughly into a warehouse. She tried to plant her feet, to throw off their balance, but they simply wrenched her shoulders forward and left her scrambling to follow. "Please, let me go," she begged to Shaw.

The man in question stopped in the middle of the warehouse and turned to her with a smug smile. She stared at him, taking in how much he had aged from the picture her mother had shown. Grey lightened his once-jet black hair, and lines marred his face and made him look perpetually angry. "I will let you go if your parents give me what I want."

"What do you want?!"

Shaw laughed. "I want the information that is in your father's head. I want the Intersect, and then I want to watch the light go out in his eyes."

Riley straightened her back and sent him the nastiest look she could muster. "You haven't been able to kill my father in any of the attempts you've made over the past twenty years. You've been rotting in prison; I must say the years haven't been good to you by the way. My father, on the other hand, has spent the last twenty years improving his skills. How the hell do you plan on getting the best of him now?"

Shaw's grin disappeared, and he moved into her personal space so she had to look up at him. "You have so much fire, so much like your mother." He gripped her chin, and turned her face to get a better look at her. Riley tried to pull free, but he tightened his hold until she winced. "Your father has been a slave to his feelings his entire life. He will give me whatever I want to free his precious child."

"Bastard," Riley hissed. Shaw released her chin only to backhand her hard across the cheek.

"Put her in the cell. Get everything ready for our little message to Mr. Bartowski."

Once again Riley planted her feet, this time also trying to pull her arms free. She cried out in surprise when the men holding her kicked the backs of her knees and manhandled her across the rest of the building to a small room with no windows. She was shoved into the cell, and left to pick herself up while they slammed the door and locked it. The young Bartowski finally allowed herself to feel everything she'd been suppressing to appear strong, and tears welled instantly in her eyes.

Sarah came into the room as Chuck was finishing with Adam. The former agents looked to each other, and Sarah shook her head. "They were long gone before I was able to get in. Casey called me, and I bypassed the lockdown long enough for him, Morgan and Alex to come in. They'll be down in just a minute." She turned her attention to Adam. "Are you okay?" He nodded solemnly. "Adam, this was not your fault. I know that you did everything in your power to protect Riley…Shaw is a trained killer. You are not. We are thankful that he didn't go to that extreme, but I don't want to hear any indication that you hold yourself responsible for this do you hear me?"

The young man gave her a feeble half-smile. "Yes ma'am."

"What's with the sir's and ma'ams? Knock that off," Chuck insisted, attempting to keep the levity from vanishing as fast as Sarah was able to create it. He knew the moment they all stopped to think about the gravity of their situation, they would risk losing focus. "Let's go fill Casey and the others in." He held out his hand for Adam, and pulled him carefully to his feet. Instead of releasing his employee right away, he placed his free hand on Adam's shoulder and gave him a meaningful look. Meeting his gaze, Adam finally released his guilt and nodded.

"Let's go figure out a plan and get our girl back."