OK, Story Reading 101, the best rule to follow is: Unless the writer explicitly requests suggestions on what to write, if you have the urge to repeatedly tell him or her how to write their story, DON'T!

I'm willing to bet that most writers share my inclination to tell anyone who keeps making unsolicited 'suggestions' about what changes we have to make to our stories to suit them to shove it, for that matter it makes some of us wonder why we even bother writing stories here.

So, if you think your suggestions are so wonderful, sit down and write the story you want to see yourself, don't try to dictate to another writer what to change in their story to suit your ideas!

Like most writers, I have an image of at least of how I want my story to flow in my head, so having someone keep trying to tell me what I need to change to make it better for them not only throws me off, it aggravates the hell out of me, to the point that I'm sitting here responding to those messages telling me what to do rather than working on the story.

Usual disclaimers, no rights to any characters portrayed and this is neither the real world nor a Disney Princess tale.

September 2005 – Langley Va

Upon his triumphant return to the States, Bryce Larkin was riding high until he was asked to unlock the device that the mission data had been copied into. Because he'd left all of the real work to Walker, he hadn't known until then that the device locked away the data behind multiple levels of encryption and security that were keyed to the agent who had used the device. The fact that he wasn't able to unlock the device was all it took to blow apart the story he'd been telling ever since he reported in while he was being extracted.

When he called in, he'd told the Station Chief that Walker had gone off mission and tried to seduce the wrong person at the party, so she got herself caught. His tale of daring do went on to say that as he couldn't save her without jeopardising the mission, he had to leave her to face the situation she'd created for herself while he went on to complete the mission and get the data they were sent to retrieve and then called to be extracted.

The fact that Larkin couldn't unlock the device proved that he hadn't been the one who had retrieved the mission data, and that in turn called the rest of his story into question. The device was sent off to a secret facility in California to get the tech who had created it to unlock it and extract the data while they dragged the real story out of Larkin. It took Graham to scare him enough to admit that they had been pinned down by the guards after Walker retrieved the data, so he'd grabbed the device and left her behind, because he decided that the data was more important than her.

Graham was furious that his own plan had backfired on him, teaming Walker up with this idiot was meant to make her more malleable, not get her killed! He paused at that, Walker was the best agent he'd ever seen, maybe even better than that bitch Frost, surely it'd take more than some two bit Ukranian warlord to finish her off? No, he wasn't going to accept that she was dead until he had some real proof, so that was the priority now!

As he was thinking that, he noticed that Larkin was still in his office and barked at him to get out, telling him that he was suspended without pay until further notice. As Larkin went to scamper out of the office, he stopped him, and the menace in his voice as he told him that if he tried to leave Washington there'd be hell to pay almost made Larkin foul his expensive silk boxers and Italian suit.

When Graham ripped into the Station Chief for failing to confirm the details of Larkin's mission report, the story became even more convoluted, because the Station Chief had to admit that Walker had called for an extraction a couple of hours after Larkin, but said that before the extraction could be organised, his mole in the dacha had reported that a young blonde woman had been brought in with the dress that Walker had been wearing that night. When he went on to say that the woman had reportedly died in the process of her….. questioning, and her body had been disposed of, Graham flew into a rage, but he cut the link before he said too much on a video conference that was being recorded. He vowed to himself that both of those incompetents would pay for their parts in costing him his best agent!

Even the poetic justice that Walker had obviously gone out being used in what may have been worse ways than he'd been trying to force her to accept wasn't enough to mollify his anger at what he'd lost, and the changes he'd have to make to his plans without having her to make them work.


Meanwhile, Larkin was holed up in a hotel, trying to drink his worries away. He wasn't an idiot, he knew that Graham valued Walker far more than him, even if his ego wouldn't let him admit that Graham's opinion on that was justified. That meant that his abandoning Walker to be captured and killed would probably be the end of him, so he decided to make the most of it and called up the best looking and most imaginative of the admin personnel that he'd been working to ensure that he was the one who came out looking the best in all of the mission reports.

Out of force of habit, he tried to get what information he could out of the women while he was screwing them, and a few days into his bender, he came across a real gem, that Project Omaha was still going, and they'd recently made a major breakthrough on the delivery mechanisms! As soon as he got rid of the woman, he dug out the contact details for the one who had offered him a king's ransom for the Intersect before and called him, asking if they were still prepared to pay the same if he brought them the Intersect.

When he had confirmation that they would deliver what he wanted and they sent him a small computing device that could copy all of the data off quickly and compress it enough to store it on something that could fit into his pocket, Larkin went to work. It was only two and a half years since he'd left Project Omaha, and on a top secret project like that the key staff rarely changed, so with any luck he knew where he'd be able to find one of the ones he'd need to get access to what this Fulcrum organisation wanted.

It took him three nights to find Captain Bowman, one of his top choices, drowning his sorrows in a bar. The fact that he was already half tanked made it easier to slip something into his drink and then get him out of the bar without a fuss. Captain Matthew Bowman had a secret, one that hadn't come out when his security clearances were being vetted, you see Captain Bowman was a closet homosexual. Larkin had discovered this while he was working the personnel of Project Omaha, looking for anything that could give him an advantage, and now he could use it.

Larkin took him home, seduced what the current security controls were and the latest passcodes out of him, and then killed him. Captain Bowman was lucky that Larkin needed certain parts of him (like his eyeballs) to use on the biometric devices to get access, because that meant that Larkin had to make his death quick and clean. He stashed the body where it wouldn't be found and cleaned up the apartment, then headed for the Omaha facility.

Two of the things that had put Bowman at the top of Larkin's list was that he was quite similar in height, size and colouring to Bryce, and that his position gave him twenty four seven access to the facility. This meant that if he was careful, Bryce would be able to use his accesses to get into the Omaha facility at night without setting off alarms.

Everything seemed to be going to plan, he got onto the base and into the facility without being challenged by the guards, and from there got into the server room to plug the device in and started copying the data off. He was just finishing copying off the data when everything went to shit, because the alarms went off and he heard the doors locking.

What Captain hadn't told him, because he didn't know most of the details, was that over two years before, the CIA had lost sole control of Project Omaha. After everything fell apart when they realised that Larkin wasn't the almost perfect Omaha Candidate that they'd believed him to be, people started talking about what a disaster that had been, and they were overheard by others who weren't in the pocket of Langston Graham and his cronies.

When that news got out, an oversight committee was convened, but the people driving Project Omaha didn't have enough time to get control of that committee, so the findings of the committee resulted in control of Project Omaha being split between the CIA and the military, and the military's allocated co-director was one Brigadier General Diane Beckman, because of her association with groups that had demonstrated their superiority in technological matters.

The Special Projects groups weren't directly involved in project Omaha, but Diane had had them beef up the security on the critical systems and data, and this was what had set off silent alarms when the Intersect data was accessed. Casey happened to be in D.C. at the time because he was winding up a solo mission that Diane had sent him on, so she contacted him and sent him to the Omaha facility to deal with the problem.

When Casey arrived and was cleared to take charge, all they could tell him was that the data was being accessed, but they didn't know where from. As he still favoured the 'if in doubt, attack!' approach, he ordered the entire facility locked down and a room by room search until they found the intruder. This was what set off the alarms and locked the doors.

Larkin panicked when the doors locked, but tried to calm himself and think of a way out of this. He smiled to himself when he remembered the other half of what he'd agreed to do. When the device was delivered to him with instructions on how to use it, so were a few but very powerful bombs and his instructions for what to do with them. Once the data had been copied off the systems, he was to set the bombs to blow up the systems, databases and backups, to ensure that the copy of the data he had on the device was the only one in existence. They pointed out that the explosions would also give him cover to escape, which he had no issue with.

As he couldn't understand why they were worried about backup tapes, Larkin modified the plans and used that bomb to blow the door to get him out of there, setting the other bombs to blow up the systems and databases after he'd escaped from the server room. He was confident that those explosions would destroy anything else in the server room anyway.

Once again, the plan was going well, the first bomb took out the door (well, half of the wall that the door was mounted in) and he took off, Bowman's accesses still worked to get him though the doors outside (something that caused considerable trouble when Casey later found out that Larkin had been using the accesses of a man who wasn't normally supposed to be in the facility at night, but no-one had told him about him being there), and he decided to go up and then use the fire escapes to bypass the security he knew would be at the main entrances now.

He almost made it, but he hadn't taken John Casey's distrust of everything into account. When the bombs went off and the security guards started running towards the explosions, Casey immediately thought of a diversion and headed outside. That was how he was there to see a fire exit burst open and a figure who wasn't wearing a guard's uniform race away from the building.

While he might not be able to match Mowgli, Casey was better than just about anyone else he'd gone up against with most weapons, so while a hundred yard plus shot with a handgun was an impossible shot for most people, it wasn't for him. To be sure, he squeezed off four shots in two or three seconds, and was rewarded with seeing the figure go down.

Larkin felt three or four hammer blows in his back and he went down, hard. He knew from the difficulty he had breathing and the way he was coughing up large amounts of blood that his chances of surviving this were very slim to none, so he went to send the data off to Fulcrum, now that he was outside the Faraday cage that encased the entire Omaha facility, but stopped. What had Fulcrum done for him? Nothing! With that, he went with his usual fallback plan (screw Bartowski ), quickly changing the address to one that he'd committed to memory years ago in case he wanted to send a final 'Fuck You!' to the bastard who'd screwed up his plans before he sent the email.

Casey wasn't one to lower his guard, so it took him a few minutes to approach the body on the ground carefully, holding his pistol on the figure as he nudged it over with his toe. Larkin had to laugh at the shocked look on Casey's face, which in turn led to him coughing up a lot more blood as Casey tried to get an answer out of him. "Larkin? What are you doing here? What have you done with the data you stole?"

Larkin spent the next few minutes trying to laugh and coughing up more blood, then the small thermite charge in the device went off to destroy the device once the data had been sent and he gave Casey a bloody grin, wheezing out. "You're too late, it's gone!" before he coughed up the last mouthful of blood and died.

By the time the medics arrived, there was no chance of reviving him, so Casey put the remains of the device into an evidence bag and walked off. Diane and Graham arrived about half an hour later and went through the debriefing with him. Casey turned over the remains of the device to the on-site techs to see what they could get off of it and Diane told him to stand down.

September 2005 – Tijuana Mexico

Sarah spent a few days trying to work out what the hell she was going to do now, then she realised two things, the first being that as far as the CIA knew, she was dead, and the second was that this meant that she was finally free to try and find Mama to get her out of danger. Zondra and Carina told her to just take the money and run, but she said that she'd only take what she needed so that the option was still there for them as well.

She used the secure communications they had set up to get Tommy to step up the covert searches he had been doing for any mention of her mother, and made plans to get back over the border and disappear. They'd have to replace the car they had at their San Diego safe house, because she'd be taking that one when she went off to look for her mother.

Now she was on the spot like this, Sarah understood why Zondra had always laughed at her and Carina when they'd turned their noses up at the cars they had stashed at their safe houses. Sure, they weren't anywhere near as stylish as the Porsches that Sarah loved or the Ferraris that were Carina's go to car, but they were at least as fast and they didn't attract undue attention. The car that Sarah was driving up to San Diego was a 2001 Subaru Impreza WRX, the performance of this car was well above a stock WRX but it had been made to look like a slightly modified ordinary Impreza to give them the element of surprise if they suddenly had to make a run for it.

Similarly, the car she'd be taking to go look for her mother in was a hopped up Lancer Evolution VIII that had been made to look like a tastefully done up 2004 Lancer. It fitted in with the image she was adopting of a girl of moderate means in her twenties with a bit of a sense of adventure, it had the legs to take her all over the country if necessary without costing too much to run, and had the go to get her out of trouble if she needed it.

Sarah had no trouble getting over the border to the safe house in San Diego, and took the Lancer to get it serviced and tuned up by a mechanic they knew and trusted in town while she got the rest of her equipment ready. She made sure that the sights were set properly and she had plenty of ammo and mags for the pistols and the M4 carbine she was taking with her, and checked out the surveillance equipment, laptops and the rest of the gear as well.

She'd been waiting for Tommy to get back to her with a clue on where to look, but she understood that he had to be careful and she couldn't just sit in San Diego waiting, so when she got the Lancer back from the mechanic, she changed the plates, packed her gear into the car and headed up the coast to Los Angeles first thing the next morning. Worst comes to worst, she would just check out the areas where they and Auntie Mary had been living before her father took her away in hope that she might see someone she recognised from back then and that they might have some idea where they'd gone when they left.


Halfway to Los Angeles, the phone rang, and when she saw the first half of Tommy's number as she glanced at the display she jumped to answer it. "Tommy, did you…."

The voice that cut her off wasn't Tommy's. "Walker! Where the hell are you and why haven't you checked in over a week?"

Sarah muttered "Fuck!" as she pulled over and tried to settle her nerves. She hadn't been expecting anyone but Tommy to be calling her because she thought everyone else in the CIA believed that she was dead. She hadn't even risked letting Jane know that she was OK, in case she was being bugged.

When she had calmed herself enough she answered. "The reason I haven't checked in, Sir, is that given I've already been burned by the CIA, making it easier for you to catch me didn't seem to be too bright a move in my book!"

There was silence on the line for about thirty seconds. "What the fuck are you talking about being burned for Walker? You haven't been burned! I was told you had been captured and killed by that warlord."

"Oh I was meant to be captured alright, that bastard Larkin tried to make sure of that when he started firing at the guards and then stole the device and abandoned me to be killed at the dacha! I managed to get away, but he had already taken the car and led them straight to the hotel, so by the time I got there on foot the warlord's men were all over the place and had all of my things. His things obviously went with him when he was extracted!"

She silently thanked the guy who'd made these phones again, because if she could trust that they were as untraceable as Tommy said as long as they were in the right mode, which it was, Graham couldn't get her location from this call. "I moved away from the hotel, found some different clothes and ditched what I was wearing at the dacha, then I called in for an extraction. The fucking Station Chief tried to make me stay where I was for twenty four hours and get my exact location out of me so that he could give me up to the warlord! If that wasn't being fucking burned, what the fuck would you call it, Sir?"

Graham swore incoherently for about five minutes and then started speaking again. "I'd call it one dead man walking in Europe and you pushing your luck Walker! Larkin's dead, and that Station Chief will be as well soon. He burned you, not the CIA, you're still my best agent and I need you, now are you going to do your duty or will you and your mother be joining the other two?"

She wanted to tell him to go fuck himself but he'd just played the card he knew would make her buckle, Mama…. "What do you need me to do Sir?"

"Are you in country?"

"Yes Sir."

"Good! I need you to be in Los Angeles first thing tomorrow morning, can you do that?"

"Yes Sir."

"Right. The techs are still putting the information together but they'll get it to you by then. What we have so far is that Larkin sent what he stole from a government facility here before he was killed to an old college buddy of his. You will use any and all means necessary to recover what Larkin sent to him! You can kill him afterwards if you want, hell, you can kill everyone there if you want, but you will recover what was sent to him first, you got that Walker?"

"Yes Sir."

"Beckman is sending her Pit Bull Casey after the same intel. Under no circumstances is he to get his hands on it! You will get to this guy, recover that intel and you will deliver it directly into my hands, and my hands only! If Casey or anyone else gets in your way, kill him and anyone else who tries to stop you, do you understand Walker?"

"Yes Sir. Do we know anything about the target yet?"

"Just his name, the fact that he was Larkin's room mate at Stanford, what is presumably his business's company name and the area it's in. He's Charles (Chuck) Bartowski and the company is Charlemagne Technical Services in Pasadena. Calling his business Charles the Great's company makes it a good bet that he's just like Larkin, so that should make it easy for you to work him. I'm doing what I can to keep Casey tied up here in D.C. for as long as possible, so get to L.A. and get my intel for me before he gets a chance to interfere!"

Sarah just said. "Yes Sir." again and Graham disconnected the call without another word.

She sat back with a tear trickling down her cheek, she'd thought that she was free and she'd be able to get Mama to safety, but that bastard had caught her again! She shook her head about the fact that he hadn't asked once whether she had what she needed to carry out this mission, he was probably laughing about the fact that she'd have no choice but to fuck the guy into submission to get what she needed from him…. No, he wasn't laughing about anything at the moment, whatever this was was important, but he would be gloating about that as soon as he had the time to stop and enjoy it. Well you lose you bastard! She had everything she needed right here in the car and she was less than an hour away from L.A. so she could get in, get what she needed, kill Larkin's accomplice if indeed he was anything like Larkin, and still have time to check out where they'd lived in hope of finding someone who could point her to where Mama or Auntie Mary had gone.

September 2005 – Pasadena Ca

An hour later she was sitting in an Internet cafe in Pasadena, looking up Charles Bartowski and Charlemagne Technical Services. Sarah shook her head at how little understanding of the real world the analysts seemed to have, as she was still waiting on the extra info from them, but before she'd finished her coffee, she had the address for the business and a description of what they did there. From the comments she'd read, this 'Chuck' was a real guru, and that gave her the approach she needed to use to get to him.

Sitting in the car down the street from the Charlemagne office though, Sarah started having serious misgivings about this, because that building was far more secure than it was made out to be. She spotted the discreet armoured glass, cameras all over the place, hidden roller shutters that could close off all the windows and doors and even what looked like hidden weapon emplacements, this place was a fucking fortress…. Her face screwed up in disgust as she unfortunately realised that with all this security, she might actually have to fuck this bastard into submission to get what she needed and get out again after all.

She tried to push bile rising in her throat down as she grabbed the bag off the back seat and started changing from the extremely cute and wholesome girl next door in a tank top, tight jeans and boots into your stereotype wet dream sexy secretary in a rather short, tight skirt and stilettos in the car. Reluctantly accepting that she might need to go further to pull this off, she took off her bra and dropped it into the bag, luckily she was wearing nice underwear, so she didn't need to change that. The suit jacket over the thin white silk blouse gave the outfit a (very) thin veneer of respectability, even though the overall effect basically said 'fuck me!', especially with how many buttons were undone on the blouse. In five minutes, she'd redone her makeup to match the new outfit.

She transferred the paperwork she'd put together from the backpack she'd had it in before into the stylish woman's briefcase from the secretary bag and girded her loins to put on a bit of a show to try and distract anyone who might be monitoring those cameras from the fact that she'd been sitting in the car for fifteen minutes. One long, lovely leg, and then the other, were extended out of the car door before she exited to stand up, tugging the skirt down in a façade of modesty. Then she made a point of showcasing her delightful derrière as she bent over to lean back into the car to collect the brief case, tugging her skirt down again and her jacket straight before she proceeded to the Charlemagne office.

When she walked into the Charlemagne office, the animal growl that came from the short Asian woman who'd buzzed her in confirmed that the outfit was working, but this obviously wasn't Charles Bartowski so she needed to somehow get past the little minx without being mauled, it was obviously time for the ditzy secretary routine. "Hi! Is Mister Bartowski in? We've got a real big problem and my boss's friends told him that if anyone could help us it would be Mister Bartowski!"

The suspicious but amused look on the girl's face told Sarah that she'd screwed up somehow, it looked as though no-one who was actually referred to Bartowski would call him 'Mister Bartowski'. Damnit! Now she'd have to work this harder, she just prayed that she could get out of this without giving the bastard any more than an eyeful.

The girl kept giving Sarah appreciative looks as she turned and wandered over to a door on the other side of the office and called out. "Chuck! There's a…. lady here to see you!"

Sarah heard someone respond quietly (and absently, as though he was concentrating on something else) to the girl from the other side of the open door a couple of minutes later. "Anna, we've got the intercom for a reason, it isn't very professional to go shouting across the office, especially when you're saying things like that."

The girl, Anna obviously, lowered her voice so that Sarah had to strain to hear what she said. "You try to keep your mind above your belt when you see this one, she's fucking gorgeous! Do you think the boys might have gotten you a stripper-gram or escort for your birthday? If so I want to know where she came from, I'll order one for El, hell, I'll order one for myself!"

"Shit Anna! That's my sister you're talking about! I could have done without that image in my head! Now, what the hell are you talking about?"

"There's a rather scantily clad leggy blonde goddess here who's asking for Mister Bartowski and she's using the old 'Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You're my only hope.' routine."

Sarah heard the guy give a nice chuckle (nice? Where the hell did that come from?) and said "You're such a dork Anna, and a pervert by the way, now where's this lady?"

"The lady is at the reception desk..." Anna's voice dropped even lower as she glanced at Sarah again. "And I think she can hear us, actually."

"Shit Anna! You couldn't have mentioned that earlier?"

With that, the guy came through the door with a tablet computer in his hand, saying. "Sorry to keep you waiting, how can I help you Miss…."


The moment he saw her, he froze, and so did Sarah. Things dropped into place for Sarah quicker than they did for him, because she had already been thinking about them before she got here. Charles. El. Technical genius. They were in Los Angeles where they'd all came from and she'd know those eyes and that gentle smile anywhere, this was…. "Charlie?"

He just stared at her in shock and yearning as he whispered. "Sammie?"

Anna froze too at that, looking from Chuck, to Sarah, and back again. "Sammie? This goddess is your Sammie? What the fuck's going on Chuck?"

Chuck's eyes didn't leave Sarah's as he whispered. "I…..don't…know."

This hadn't hit Anna as hard as it had hit the two main players in this scene, so she still had enough of her wits about her to suddenly realise that there was someone else this news was vitally important to. The other two didn't even notice when she ran into her office to call Emma.

Emma and Ellie were both at home, and when they heard what Anna said they didn't even take the time to make sure the door was locked as they ran for Ellie's car. Ellie was the only one in the family with the reflexes and skills to come close to Chuck behind the wheel, and while no-one timed it, it was a good bet that Ellie had easily beat Chuck's best time between Arcadia and Pasadena with that run as her 2005 Lancer wagon with a seriously tweaked works rally spec Evo IX drivetrain was the fastest machine in their 'regular' stable and Ellie wasn't holding anything back, if that was Sammie standing in their office, she was going to get Auntie Em there before she could leave!

In the office, Anna was splitting her attention between the pair standing in front of her, haltingly trying to talk to each other and the tracker that was showing Ellie's Lancer's progress. When the Lancer was getting close, she entered the code to open the garage door on the storage side. As soon as the Lancer screeched into the building she entered the code to shut the door, as the two women just left the car doors wide open when they jumped out and ran for the office.

It was hard to tell who moved faster when Emma and Ellie burst into the office, Sarah as she produced a pistol out of nowhere and brought it to bear on the intruders, or Chuck as he stepped in front of the two women to shield them. The point was moot though, because the second Sarah realised just who it was she was aiming the pistol at, she dropped it as she stepped forward, gasping in a disbelieving voice. "Mama?"

Anna had tears in her eyes from the sight of the teary reunion of Emma and her daughter, and the way her girlfriend and her brother were holding each other and crying in relief and disbelief as well, as she went through to the storage area to take the keys out of the ignition and close the doors of Ellie's car. When she came back in, she realised that she should let the others know as well, and went to call Bry, Jeff and the General. Bry and Jeff headed for the office a bit more quietly than Ellie had, but the General demanded that Anna get her a video link to the office immediately.

When the diminutive General appeared larger than life on the big screen on the wall in the office, Sarah flushed with anger, what the hell was General Beckman of the NSA and military intelligence doing intruding on their family moment like this? But…. the old bitch was crying? And trying to say…. what was she trying to say? Sarah was rather distracted by seeing her Mama for the first time in nearly sixteen fucking years, but she was sort of getting Beckman's words….

"Oh Emma! I can't believe that we've found her after all this time! How did you?….."

Diane stopped, suddenly realising that it was an awfully big coincidence that Emma's daughter, who they knew was in the CIA, suddenly turned up the day before Langston Fucking Graham's supposedly best agent was due to arrive to investigate where the transmission from the device that Bryce Larkin had had gone to. Diane didn't want to believe that Sammie was Graham's picked agent, but she had to know….

"Agent Walker, I presume?"

Sarah, Chuck and Ellie all froze, and Emma looked horrified as she realised what Diane was saying, and even worse, that it was true. Diane went on in a colder voice.

"Your Director informed me that you would not be able to get to Los Angeles until tomorrow Agent Walker, how is it that you're there now?"

Sarah was about to respond, but Chuck beat her to it, snarling at the screen with such venom that Diane jumped back. "Stop it Auntie Di! We've finally got Sammie back and you aren't going to turn what we have into a war with Graham! If you try and turn on Sammie, you'll have more than Graham to worry about, you'll have Me to worry about!"

Ellie stepped up beside Chuck and said in a similar tone. "And Me!"

Sarah could see that the old bitch, who Charlie had just called his Aunt? was afraid of both Charlie and Ellie. It suddenly occurred to her that everything she thought she knew about Old Ironpants had come from Graham and Beckman appeared to be family so she tried to diffuse the situation, she put her hand out to gently touch Charlie on the arm. The anger in his expression faded to confusion as he turned to look at her and she shook her head. "Charlie, no. She's right, I am Agent Sarah Walker and Graham did send me here a day early to try and get what was sent to you before Casey could…."

It was her turn to stop and look back at the screen. "If you're really part of Charlie's family General, I take it that the Casey who is coming here isn't the same stone cold killing machine that the CIA and everyone else know him as?"

Emma reached out to touch her arm. "Di's not just part of Chuck's family Honey, she's also your godmother…."


Sarah looked back at the screen and Diane nodded hopefully, but at that moment, Emma's tugging at her blouse to fix the wardrobe mishap that must have occurred either when she went for her gun or while she was hugging her mother made the Ice Queen suddenly blush as she realised how she was dressed in front of the two most important people in her world, actually three including Ellie. Emma saw what was going through her head and patted her on the arm. "It's alright Honey, no-one's judging you here, we love you!" Sarah hugged her again with tears in her eyes.

"Oh I love you so much Mama! But I'm, I'm just going to go to the car and grab some clothes so I can get changed into something decent!"

Ellie reached out to take her hand. "Come on Sammie, you can bring your car inside and I'll show you where you can get changed."

As Ellie led her out into the storage area and opened the garage door, Sarah's nose couldn't miss the overpowering smell of burning rubber that was emanating from the Lancer wagon that had been hastily left near the door. Something told her that this thing would put her Lancer to shame.

Turning back to Ellie, she caught and understood the worried look on her face, so she hugged her, whispering in her ear. "I'm just going to get my car, honest Ellie! I've been wanting to get back to you, Mama and Charlie ever since my father took me away. I'm not going anywhere, I promise!" With that she kissed her on the cheek and quickly walked down the street to the Lancer, turning it around and driving back to where Ellie was standing at the open garage door as soon as the street was clear.

Ellie keyed the command to close the door and came back as Sarah was getting the bag out of the back seat. She took her into the Shiloh offices and pointed her to an office where she could get changed. While Sarah was doing that, she went over and looked at her car through the glass wall that fronted the office. She didn't get into the technical details like Chuck did, but she knew enough to recognise that that car had an Evo drivetrain under it, like her wagon and their Summit Wagons did.

When Sarah came out, aside from the vamp makeup, she was back to the girl next door look in jeans and a tank top (and bra) and Ellie smiled, this was how she'd always thought of her! No matter how incredibly hot she'd looked before, Ellie had been a little uncomfortable seeing the one she'd always regarded as her little sister like that.

Sarah tossed the bag back into the car and they went through into the office. Sarah saw the relieved smile pass over her Mama's face when she saw her and she knew that while she'd been honest when she said that they wouldn't judge her, Mama much preferred to think of her like this. So did she for that matter!


She was a little surprised to see General Beckman still on the screen, she knew how important the woman was and even if they were family here, she couldn't see how she could spend so much time away from her duties…..

A string of things suddenly flashed into her consciousness, that ordinary looking wagon next door that was obviously seriously fast and had even more obviously just been pushed to its limits, something ordinary people couldn't do. The speed and efficiency with which Charlie had moved to shield Mama and Ellie when she grabbed her gun, and Graham referring to Mama as the best analyst and planner that the CIA had ever had…. Her entire family was in the fucking spy business!

That was confirmed a few minutes later when someone else came through from the storage area and Sarah's jaw dropped. "Agent Mills? What are you doing here?"

Ellie snorted. "Well you may not remember him Sammie, but he's been your Uncle Bry all your life…." She stopped and glanced at Emma, who picked it up there. "And he's also your stepfather Honey."

Sarah was looking from one to the other, trying to work out whether this was a joke she wasn't getting, but Bry was sounding angry when he spoke to the others. "I told you that it was Sammie, but you all just told me that I was hallucinating from the pain and blood loss! Now do you believe me?"

Ellie and Chuck were trying to apologise for doubting him, but Emma jumped to her feet and ran to him in tears to wrap her arms around him. "I'm so sorry Honey, I should have believed you then but the arguments that you were almost dead at the time and were confused from the trauma seemed to make sense, can you forgive me?"

Sarah was aghast. "I almost got my stepfather killed?"

Bry looked at her over Emma's head as her held her. "Well for one I wasn't your stepfather at the time, and for another you didn't almost get me killed, I saw a lone agent who was obviously almost out of ammunition being attacked by eight to ten better armed assailants and I stepped in. I had no idea it was you until you rushed over to see if I was OK and I saw your mother's eyes looking down at me."

Emma stretched up on tiptoe to kiss him on the cheek and then turned in his arms to face her daughter. "Bry and I go way back as friends Honey, before I met your father actually, I met Bry through your Auntie Mary because they worked together quite a bit, but after Mary was assigned to be your Uncle Stephen's handler, Bry was overseas on missions most of the time. When I was with your father, he'd get jealous and cause trouble whenever Bry came around, so Bry stopped coming to save me more trouble..." She looked up at Bry and he nodded for her to continue. "After your father took you and left we got close again, but I didn't divorce your father straight away because I was hoping that he would bring you back, and we were both old fashioned enough to believe in the sanctity of marriage, so we didn't do anything. In nineteen ninety, Bry was seriously wounded on a mission and was sent back home to recover in hospital. He took up with a sl…. A nurse at the hospital and they got married when they found out she was pregnant." It was obvious that she didn't like talking about this, so Bry took up the tale.

"When I went back to active duty, Lenny, or rather Lenore as she wanted to be called, refused to move overseas because she said that it would be bad for Kim, my daughter, so the only times I ever saw them was when I had a bigger break between major assignments. I refused to believe the stories I was being told about all the men she was with, I think I might have trying to convince myself that she was a good woman like Emma despite all evidence to the contrary, but anyway, I turned a blind eye to it. One thing I will say for her is that she didn't do anything in front of Kimmy, and none of her men ever touched my daughter, but that may have been because she knew that I would have killed them, and her for allowing it, if anyone ever did. Anyway, the only thing there for me was Kimmy, and things got more difficult whenever I was there, so when Kimmy was a little older, whenever I did come home, she'd come and visit with me at the house in Arcadia for a few days before I had to go back. And no, I was still married, so your mother and I didn't do anything when I stayed there."

Sarah thought that it was unusual to be talking this openly in front of everyone, but then she realised that she was the only one who didn't already know this story.

"After the business in Milan, I was sent home to be patched up, and once I was stable enough not to need constant care, I was released to come back to the house because Ellie's a qualified ER doctor and she took responsibility for my care. Before I left hospital though, Lenny had divorced me and got remarried to a dodgy businessman by the name of Stewart Sinclair. There was an incident when Ellie found out that Sinclair had physically stopped Kimmy from coming to see me, and that ended up with her and Casey taking Kimmy away into protective custody at our place and my getting sole custody of her, so she's living with us and going to school in Arcadia. Anyway, for the first time in about twenty five years neither your mother or I were married, so we decided that we didn't want to tempt fate and we got married straight away. We wanted you there, so much, but we had no idea where you were, I'm sorry Sammie."

Sarah came forward with tears in her eyes and hugged him. "No! If anyone's at fault it's me, I should have made more effort to find Mama, but Graham had me convinced that he knew where she was and that he could get to her at any time. I was so afraid of that I did just about anything he said to try and keep her safe."

Bry looked grimly at the others over her head, and the other faces in the room, and Diane up on the screen, matched his look, as they had all been in the business long enough to know the types of things that bastard had made her do by dangling her mother's safety on a string over her head.

He stood there with his arms around his wife and stepdaughter until they'd both settled down enough to step back and wipe their faces. Sarah felt a soft touch on her arm and heard Charlie asking softly if she was OK, and she latched onto him. She couldn't believe herself, Charlie was right up there with Mama as the most important person in her life and she'd been here an hour without letting him know just how much she'd missed him?


When everyone had settled down, Anna looked around the room, Chuck and, Sarah? Emma and Bry and she and Ellie had their arms around each other and Jeff was looking confused. The core family were all looking a little shell shocked, even the General up on the screen, so she decided to take charge and cleared her throat. When they looked at her, she started.

"We've got a lot of serious things to work out here, both family and business, but I think it would make things easier if we started with everyone knowing who each other is..."

Everyone nodded at that, so she went on. "I'm probably the easiest… Shut up you two! You know I can kick your arse Jeff, and I can set Ellie on you Chuck." After a quick glare at the two of them she went on as if nothing had happened. "Because I'm the newest here. I'm Anna Wu, also known as the Lotus in hacker circles and Rikki in Special Ops. Chuck caught me hacking military sites in late ninety nine and made the General give me a choice between going to a black site for the rest of my life or working for him, obviously I chose to work for Chuck. They trained me for the cyber and analysis work and also to assist on missions, and I work with the family in those areas. I'm also…." She stopped, not sure whether to go on, so Ellie took it up.

"My girlfriend, Anna helped me get over some dorks I went out with at medical school and we found that we make each other happier than any guy ever has. You know who I am Sweetie, but my official name is Eleanor Bartowski now. I have a few other names for military identities and I'm also known as Raksha in Special Ops circles. I work on analysis and missions and I'm doing my residencies in ER and neurology. Jeff?"

"Hi, I'm Jeff Barnes, also known as Roscoe in hacker circles. I came in like Anna, Chuck caught me back in ninety six and I chose Chuck over prison as well. I work on cyber and analysis jobs and assist on missions… Um, Bry?"

"You heard the background before Sammie, I'm Bryan Mills, also known as Bagheera in Special Ops circles. Up until I was injured in oh four, I was a CIA field agent attached to the SOG, but since then I've only been doing analysis and mission work with the family. Chuck."

Chuck shook his head, but spoke up. "My official name is now Charles Bartowski and I'm normally known as Chuck rather than Charlie nowadays. Like all of us, I've got a number of other military identities and I'm also known as the Piranha in hacker circles and Mowgli in Special Ops circles…."

He stopped because Sarah was staring at him with her mouth open. "What's wrong?" She tried to compose herself. "Nothing. Go on!"

"I work on Cyber and analysis jobs and missions, Auntie Em?"

"I'm just your boring old Mom Honey, I used to be called the Fox but no-one's called me that in ages… Quiet Bry! Keep that for later! I do analysis work and assist on some missions. Di, Sammie? Which of you is next?"

Diane spoke up. "I'll go Emma. I am Brigadier General Diane Beckman, it is my understanding that I am also widely known as Old Ironpants, as well as Auntie Di to a much more select group that I am hoping that you will join Samantha, because Ellie and Chuck's mother is my older sister, and as your mother noted, I'm also your godmother. As I noticed you worked out earlier, a large part of my work is running the Special Projects Groups, of which our family makes up the core and holds the command positions. The group was just the family before nine eleven, but after that we had to expand to handle the extra workload that was coming at us….."

"Your Auntie Mary is still alive, but she's been stuck in Russia with Alexei Volkoff since early ninety one because she was set up by the CIA and has been trapped there to keep Ellie and Chuck safe from Volkoff, much like you thought you were with your mother. Mary was known as the Frost Queen at one point, she is still known as Agent Frost, or Frost, and she was known as something else when she was a KGB agent, but she claims that she can't remember what it was. That's total bullshit because Mary never forgets anything…"

She cut off the question that Sarah was trying to form. "Yes, Mary was a KGB agent in her youth, Ellie and Chuck can tell you the full story on that later….Your Uncle Stephen was the technical genius who used to build all of the CIA's most advanced tech, he's still known as his codename from back then, Orion. He went off the rails when Mary was sent to Russia and did something really stupid in ninety one that almost fried his brain. He kept getting worse until he disappeared in early ninety three, we located him a couple of years later and he's been in therapy here in D.C. ever since, most days now he's quite capable, but he still has days when he doesn't know who he is. When their father disappeared, Ellie and Chuck were given new identities and moved down there with Emma. Soon after that Emma, Ellie and Chuck started working for me and Casey was assigned to work with and protect them about six months later…"

She glanced at Sarah. "I should give you a bit of background on Colonel Casey as well. He's also known as Baloo, yes, Mowgli's offsider, in Special Ops circles, and I am well aware that he is generally known as Beckman's Pit Bull as well. I will ask you never to call him that when his daughter is there, as he's a good man and he deserves to be respected in front of his daughter. She's at the house quite often and in the office there as well a fair bit, Alexandra is sixteen now. Casey works on analysis jobs and missions, and I use him for outside missions as well. You should know that he was the one who shot your ex-partner Bryce Larkin when he was trying to escape, but Larkin had just destroyed a critical facility and killed many good soldiers doing so, so I believe that Colonel Casey's actions were justified. That being said, I understand that you were involved with Larkin so I apologise..."

"NO!"

Diane looked totally confused. "No what, Samantha?"

Sarah didn't know what part of that to answer first, so she started with the easiest part. "Look, if I'm going to be around you and have to work with Graham, you have to stop calling me Samantha or Sammie or I'll get caught out in front of him. He gave me the name Sarah Walker over seven years ago and he insists that I use it. I've also never used the cover name of Samantha and that bastard is bright enough to remember that, so you have to get used to calling me Sarah!"

They all nodded and apologised, but when Charlie… No, Chuck! Whispered "Sorry." in her ear and kissed the top of her head, she almost forgot what she had been talking about, but then it came back and slapped her in the face like a wet fish. She turned around and looked him in the eye as she answered the other part. "No, I was never involved with Bryce Larkin! I was his partner for about a year, and Graham used mission requirements to force me to have sex with him four or five times over that year, but I was never involved with that bastard! I'm quite aware of all the stories that he and others have been spreading around about me, but they're all lies!" She was starting to break down in tears by the time she finished, both from happiness at the acceptance and trust in Chuck's eyes and shame from having to admit to having had sex with Larkin, and Chuck drew her into his arms again. When she had herself under control, she stretched up to kiss him on the cheek before turning to face the others and the screen again. Having Chuck's arms remain around her gave her the strength to do this.

"As I said, my official name is Sarah Walker now, but I'm also known as..."

She was cut off by Ellie. "The Ice Queen."

And Anna. "And Shanti."

And Diane in an angry voice. "And Graham's Enforcer!"

She was shocked that they knew the most common names she was known as, but she addressed Diane first. "You sound as though you have an issue with me General."

Diane looked horrified. "Oh no Honey! My issue is with Him! And myself for not being able to find you and get you away from that bastard years ago!"

Emma piped up. "Chuck has never stopped looking for you Honey, that was one of the things that drove him to master computers back when he was twelve and got access to the technology, learning how to search for you, but there are no official records about you anywhere. We found out about someone being called Shanti after Anna was training with the SOG teams in two thousand and they talked about you. As soon as he heard that, Chuck went searching through the CIA systems again but everything had been scrubbed except for the record that you had attended, Chuck did find some pictures and comments related to Shanti though that let us confirm that it was you. He used those to start searches for images of you or mentions of Shanti. Then in two thousand and one, Roan…."

Sarah interrupted. "Do you mean Roan Montgomery?" When they nodded, she went on. "How did he get into this group?"

She caught a movement on the screen and turned to look at Diane, who was looking rather embarrassed. "We've been together, on and off, for about thirty years now Sarah."

Sarah looked shocked, but Emma started again to take the heat off Diane. "Roan came through after he and Bry went to Stanford with Chuck to get his expulsion reversed after your ex-partner framed him for cheating. Anyway, when we showed Roan the images of you as Shanti he remembered you from when you did your infiltration and inducement training with him. He said you were the most accomplished student he'd ever had, and I told him how your father had been training you at that since you were a little girl. He mentioned that you were being called the Ice Queen then and that he'd also heard the name used since then, and that was how Chuck's been able to track you best since then, when people talk about the Ice Queen. Chuck also worked out that the references to Graham's Enforcer also applied to you, so he's had searches for any references to Ice Queen, Shanti or Graham's Enforcer and image recognition searches for anything that matches your key traits running non-stop for years now."

Sarah twisted her head to look up at Chuck. "When do you have time to any work if you're doing all of this?"

He grinned at her. "It's pretty much all automated, I just look at the results and follow up anything that looks interesting."

She shook her head and turned back to the others, as she didn't want to look at him as she told the next part. "Aside from Larkin and the training I was forced to submit to, I've only been forced to submit to that five times, though I thought I might have to do it again here when I saw what a fortress this place is! I didn't think I'd be able to fight my way out, so if I wasn't able to get this Bartowski character to willingly follow me outside I was….."

Sarah refused to look anyone in the eye for the next part, she was disgusted and ashamed of the sex missions, but the sheer volume of the ones she'd tortured and killed was horrifying. "My specialities are extracting information and killing targets though, I've done many hundreds of those missions..."

She stopped as Chuck gently grasped her chin and forced her to look him in the eye. "I know you've heard the stories about Mowgli, so you know that there is very little chance that you've killed anywhere near as many as I have…. I've had to do the other things more times than I like to think about as well. Of all of us, only Auntie Em and Jeff have managed to largely avoid these things, and even they haven't managed to totally avoid them. Remember what Auntie Em said to you before? No-one here is judging you, and we love you, this is what she was talking about..."

He had to stop talking then, because Sarah wrapped her arms so tight around his neck that he could hardly breathe.

A/N: Yes, I realise that I focussed rather heavily on Sarah's attributes when she was getting ready to confront this Bartowski guy, but Sarah is a Goddess, and a Goddess deserves to be worshipped!

NB: Just to be clear for the one eyed personages of limited imagination or cognitive functions, at no point did Sarah want to do anything with this bastard she had been sent to retrieve the information from! However, after taking in the fortified state of the building, she was forced to accept the fact that she was unlikely to be able to fight her way into or out of that building, so she very reluctantly prepared to do whatever she needed to do to protect her Mama, just as she'd been doing for over seven years at this point.