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

When Chuck saw General Stanfield headed their way, he grabbed his phone and activated the jamming function, out of the corner of his eye, he saw Casey doing the same thing and nodded. When it came to making sure that Langston Graham didn't hear the upcoming discussion, there was no such thing as overkill. They could easily explain away the bugs dying by saying the bomb disposal guys had set up jammers to block any signal from getting through to the bomb….. Come to think about it, they still had hundreds of pounds of explosives sitting there attached to a bomb that hadn't exactly been disarmed, so that wasn't a bad idea.

It occurred to Chuck that he didn't know whether the Bomb Disposal Squad had been called in yet and he looked at Casey. The nod he got from Casey reassured him a little, but the voice he heard came from General Stanfield.

"It always creeps me out to watch you two having a conversation without speaking. Captain, Colonel, can someone explain what happened here tonight and why there's a large bloodstain in the carpet over there please?"

Chuck nodded to him. "Evening General. Well the short answer is that I was having dinner at the restaurant that's just outside and I happened to see a Serbian Bomber entering via the service entrance. I called John and he just happened to be in the bar, right here in the hotel, so he joined me and we entered the conference room to locate the Serb. Unfortunately, your security guards heard me identify the Serb and challenged him, which just made him go for the remote arming device… Damn, Casey, we don't want anyone playing with that, just in case!"

Casey nodded and took off to secure the arming device. The General asked. "Did you say 'bomb'?"

Chuck nodded and surreptitiously pulled aside the cloth to show him the explosives. The General went white and whispered. "Fuck me!" and turned to call for the cart to be removed but Chuck hissed. "General!" at him sharply. When he turned back, Chuck quietly said. "Casey has called in the Bomb Squad, and considering that that amount of explosives could bring down the hotel and the bomb hasn't actually been disarmed yet, I think it would be best to leave it to the experts, don't you?"

"Is it your Bomb Squad that's coming?"

Chuck nodded again.

"Yes, well in that case I concur."

"Now would you care to tell me the real story about why you're here? You rushed in here, pretending to be a civilian and Colonel Casey and this lovely lady flashed their credentials to stop the guards shooting you. There was no way that you just happened to be at the restaurant right across from the conference room, any more than Casey just happened to be in a bar right here in the hotel. Let's just pretend that I'm bright enough to understand what you tell me."

"Yes Sir. I apologise Sir."

Stanfield waved that away. "I know that you will have your reasons Captain Carmichael, but I think I need to know what really happened here."

Chuck nodded. "We uncovered word that the Serb had accepted the contract to bomb the conference here tonight while you were on stage. General Beckman passed on the warning to the security detail for the conference but they refused to do much without hard evidence. I was in L.A. to see Sarah and Casey, well you know how he thinks I can't go anywhere without getting into trouble..."

He had to grin when Stanfield pointedly looked at the massive bomb they were standing next to, but continued without a pause. "So he came along to keep an eye on me. When Johnson brushed off the General, we decided to combine a date with keeping watch for the Serb, but he somehow managed to slip in without me seeing him so we came into try and locate him. The security team heard me identify him and, well you saw what they did. By the time we located the bomb, the timer that the Serb started when the security team shouted at him was down to thirty seconds so there was no time to evacuate and the bombs the Serb built are too tricky to disarm quickly, but luckily my current cover job is as a computer repairman."

Chuck waved at the laptop in the rat's nest of wiring on the food cart. "There's a nasty virus going around at the moment that's coming from a fake porn site, and these cheap laptops are particularly susceptible to it, so I hooked it up to the Internet and pointed it at the fake porn site, which managed to fry the computer in time."

Stanfield shuddered. "So you effectively stopped a bomb like that with porn? I probably don't want to know this, but how close was it?"

Chuck's expression belied his light tone as he said. "It wasn't that close General..." But he capitulated to the look Stanfield was giving him. "Two or three seconds."

Sarah came moved back into his arms for comfort and Stanfield shuddered again at that. "You prevented a major catastrophe here tonight Captain, and I'll be making sure that you and your companions are recognised for that!"

Chuck kissed Sarah on the head before he released her and stepped forward to speak quietly. "We can't let you do that General. As I said, I'm currently under cover as a civilian, Chuck Bartowski. My girlfriend is CIA and and is here on an assignment of her own and… well our relationship is neither known nor sanctioned."

Stanfield looked from Chuck to Sarah and frowned. "I'm not happy about this Captain. Alright, I'll stick to the public story that you, Chuck Bartowski, was having dinner and somehow recognised this bomber and came in after him, and how you disarmed the bomb, well that doesn't give anything away and it's too crazy a story not to tell. But I will be talking to General Beckman and the Secretary and you will be getting recognition for this, all of you!" He looked at Sarah. "That being said, I haven't actually been introduced to this lovely lady?"

Sarah held out her hand. "Sorry about that General, it's Walker, Sarah Walker."

"Glad to meet you Miss Walker, and might I say, it's good to see our boy here with someone like you?"

That got him a confused look and he chuckled.

"The Captain here was a Lieutenant Commander when I met him seven years ago, and I've watched women throwing themselves at him ever since. Not one of them could ever turn his eye, now I can see why. When he has someone like you, he wouldn't have even seen them."

Most people who thought they knew the Ice Queen would have been shocked to see her blush furiously at that, as she stuttered. "Oh no, we haven't..."

Stanfield raised the hand that he hadn't released since he shook it to his lips and said. "Please Miss Walker, don't try to bullshit a bullshitter, anyone can see what you two mean to each other, and I really am glad to see that he has you. Your boy is all business all of the time, being that focussed in action means that more people get to come home, but it isn't good for him to be like as a constant state. I think this is the first time I've seen him this relaxed, and we're standing next to a bomb that could bring the whole building down!"

They laughed at that, Casey joining in as he'd returned with the remote arming device in time to hear Stanfield's talk with Sarah, and he gave a nod of approval at what the General said.

The Bomb Squad came bustling in at that time and Chuck filled them in on the bomb, who made it, how they stopped the timer and the fact that it wasn't disarmed as yet, then left them to get their job done. General Stanfield asked them for copies of their pictures and report on the bomb, to deal with the ones who'd discounted the threat without putting any measures in place in case it was real.

When they stepped away from the Bomb Squad, General Stanfield looked around to confirm that no-one was in earshot before he spoke. "OK, officially, I debriefed you because I wanted to know what the hell was going on. I'll go along with the story that Chuck Bartowski, a civilian, somehow recognised a Serbian bomber looking suspicious and rushed in here to try and stop him. For some reason, he was accompanied by Sarah Walker from the CIA and…." He looked at Casey. "John Casey, NSA." Stanfield nodded. "John Casey of the NSA. After the security team challenged the bomber and shot him when he reached for something, Mister Bartowski somehow identified the bomb and ran to it. You discovered that there was only thirty seconds left on the timer and when the Agents couldn't work out how to disarm the bomb, Mister Bartowski had a crazy idea and managed to disable the laptop used for the arming mechanism with a porn virus, stopping it with seconds to spare. Is that the story that you want me to use?"

The three of them nodded, muttering 'Yes Sir!'s.

"OK, that's what we'll go with officially, but as I told you, I will be talking to General Beckman and the Secretary about you two, and I will be talking to the CIA about you as well Agent Walker to make sure you get proper recognition for what you did here tonight, unless that causes problems for you?"

Sarah looked at Chuck, who glanced at Casey with a grin. Sarah matched his grin and turned back to the General. "No, that should be OK General, you see my assignment here actually involves Colonel? Casey, so turning up at the same time as him shouldn't be a problem."

Stanfield nodded. "Right, then helping save all the notables who were here from a bomb like this should be worth an Intelligence Star, and that's what I'll be recommending to the CIA!"

He was graced with a smile that lit up the room as Sarah said. "Thank you General!"

With that, he went off to demand to know why soon to be ex-Major Johnson, who'd been in charge of the security arrangements for the conference, not only disregarded the warnings given about the suspected bombing attempt, he had also failed to notify General Stanfield or the other senior officers that those warnings had been received.

They had a quick discussion about what they'd say once they got outside with the jammers off, and after confirming that the bomb squad had activated their own jammers they turned theirs off and left.


Sarah and Casey put on a good show for those listening outside, arguing about who would get Chuck, until Chuck cut them off. "Stop! I'm not going anywhere! I'm sure that that General inside will want to ask me more questions, and if I disappear just after I stopped the bomb that would have killed everyone in the hotel from what those bomb guys were saying, they know to ask John Casey of the NSA and Sarah Walker of the CIA what the hell happened to me, and I don't think your bosses would be too happy about that, would they? Look, you need me more than I need you so… Leave me alone, I'll talk to you tomorrow, but for now I need time to think about all of this." With that he turned and walked away.

Casey and Sarah argued a little more and then called their respective bosses. They didn't know whether their communications were being monitored so Casey and Diane stuck to the script, other than the wrinkle that Chuck had just added with the fact that he knew that General Stanfield would be asking questions if he disappeared, which took the option of grabbing him and spiriting him away off the table. That was something that Diane and Casey were thrilled about, of course.

Sarah had a harder time with Graham, because he was determined to have the Human Intersect in his sole control, so at first he ignored the arguments about how much he could do if he was out there to use the Intersect the way it had originally been envisioned, and the fact that as Chuck had said, General Stanfield would ensure that a full investigation would be launched if the saviour of tonight suddenly disappeared, and his history with the CIA wasn't good, so if Chuck supposedly turned up dead, he'd be demanding proof that it was him, and investigating how he died if it was.

Graham eventually came around and conceded that they couldn't get away with grabbing Bartowski and disappearing him, and that he'd probably have to work with Beckman and her people as well. He gruffly told her to keep an eye on Bartowski and he'd talk to Beckman, then hung up without another word.

Under Graham's orders, Sarah had 'planted' a tracking bug on Chuck along with the other bugs when she met him earlier, but she knew where he was going anyway, so she went to his car and pretended to use the CIA tools to break into it and hotwire it (he'd actually slipped her the keys earlier so that she could get past the security systems in the Summit), and followed him to the beach in the Summit. She sat and watched him for a while, then took her boots off and went down to join him.

They talked for a while, and then Chuck dropped the bombshell Sarah had expected earlier. "Sarah, I knew you were a CIA agent. When I saw you, all these names and pictures and reports came flooding into my head. That's why I just stood and stared at you, I wasn't blinded by your beauty, well I was because you're the most beautiful woman I've ever seen, but I was just getting overloaded with all of the information I was being hit with."

Sarah looked at him. "Chuck, what… What did you see?"

"Everything I think, well it seemed like everything, I saw reports and pictures and videos of what you'd done on all of those missions, they all had different names, you were Elana Truffaut, Eva Anderson…." Sarah let him go through more than thirty names before she quietly said that yes, she had been all of those women and he went on. "Yeah, I could see that they were you. I have to admit, it was a shock to see and read about what you did as all of those women but..."

He reached out to gently pull her face up to look at him. "None of that matters…. You've done some terrible things, but I'm sure you were made to. I see you, Sarah Walker, and that's not who you are. I'm not sure of what the rules for something like this are, but if we can, and you want to, I really want to get to know you, the girl, no the woman that you are, because I like you Sarah, I really do!"

Sarah didn't have to fake or hide the heartfelt smile that she gave him then, because the bugs were audio only and there wasn't any angle to catch her face from, but she did have to be careful about her words. "I like you too Chuck, and I'd like to get to know you as well. I don't know exactly how this will go, but I need you to do something for me..."

"Yes?"

"Trust me Chuck, I promise to do what I can so we can get to know each other and see where that goes, but I need you to trust me!"

Chuck nodded. "I do Sarah, I do trust you!"

In the CIA operations room where they were monitoring the feed, they laughed about the fact that the Ice Queen had snared another sucker, and what an amazing actress she was, to be able to put that much emotion into what she was saying when she didn't have a heart, but that didn't mean anything to the couple on the beach. One conscious thought managed to get through the happy glow that consumed Sarah at that point, that the CIA had no idea that they were the ones who'd just been played, she and Chuck had meant everything they said to each other, but the CIA, and Graham, would see her as masterfully getting the mark under her control. Graham would see that as a good reason to agree to the joint operation that Beckman was demanding, because with the geek under Walker's spell, he'd have control of the Human Intersect.

Chuck dropped Sarah off at the hotel an hour or so later and went home. A message was waiting from Auntie Di to say that Graham had agreed to a joint CIA/NSA operation to determine how the Human Intersect could be utilised in live operations, and that the operation would have to remain in L.A. due to the visibility that Bartowski apparently had there. As planned, she and Casey would be having a meeting with Sarah and Graham first thing in the morning. Sarah and Casey would be going into the FBI's Los Angeles field office to use their secure video conferencing facilities.

With everything in play, Chuck sat down and got started on the work that had built up over the last couple of days. Diane called him when she got up in Washington, as was her want when they were working on anything big, because she knew that it was a good bet that he'd be up, and working. They had a laugh about the fact that General Stanfield had already contacted her and the Secretary of Defense and was determined that both he and Casey would get the Secretary of Defense Medal for Valor for stopping that bomb and saving all those people, and the hotel itself. Neither of them were surprised to hear that Graham had had a similar call about Sarah being awarded the Intelligence Star for her part.


Nearly six hours after Diane called Chuck, Sarah was meeting Casey at the FBI field office. As they knew that Graham had his hooks into people in the FBI but didn't know whether he had anyone in L.A. or not, they kept to the rather prickly civility that people expected to see as they were led to the secure video conference room that had been allocated for their meeting.

They skipped over what had already been agreed, that it would be a joint operation, based there in L.A. because the asset was well known and had connections to highly placed people. Diane put up a token resistance before buckling and agreeing to Graham's insistence that Sarah would be playing Bartowski's cover girlfriend so that she could be close to him at all times.

That was when Sarah told them that Chuck had offered her a job at Charlemagne if it was decided that she would be staying on. When Graham wanted to know why that hadn't been on the recordings, she said that the bugs had been planted on his jacket, and he'd thrown the jacket into the boot when they left the beach because he'd been sitting on it and it was covered in sand. Graham was suspicious about this, but he couldn't argue that having her working with the asset would be good for the assignment and agreed.

His suspicions rose when Diane said that she'd managed to contact the building owners to investigate why it had suspiciously high levels of security, and had sighted proof that they had added the security when they remodelled the building to create a high security storage company that could be certified for government use if they wanted to pursue government clients in the future. She added that her facility security contractors had looked over the designs and signed off on the security as being above most secure government facilities.

Diane had to fight to keep a straight face when she dropped her bombshells, that the Shamrock Security company that was located in the building was also owned by the same company that owned the building, and she had not only secured employment for Agent Casey with Shamrock security, she had also managed to secure the apartment next to Mr Bartowski's for him, because it had been vacated recently and they hadn't found another suitable tenant yet. Her dig about using the apartment for the team's base of operations was another bitter pill that Graham had trouble swallowing, but he reluctantly agreed that it made the most sense.

Her expression of detached interest as she asked about Agent Walker's living arrangements showed more acting ability than anyone knew she possessed, as she would have fooled them if they didn't know better. Graham fell for the bait hook, line and sinker. "Walker will be set up in a serviced apartment at Maison23, but that will be a strictly short term thing, as she will ensure that she has moved in with the asset and is keeping him under her control within the month, two at the most!"

She almost thanked him for that, and after glancing at the screen to confirm that Sarah remembered their plan here, and was OK, she asked. "Have you read Mister Bartowski's file Director Graham?"

"I've looked at it, what's your point General?"

"Perhaps if you'd read it more carefully you would have realised that attempting something of that nature would ruin the entire operation!" She paused to extract a couple of files that were both several times thicker than the single folder that the CIA's analysts had provided to Graham. Pulling the top paperwork out and dropping it on the desk in front of Graham she continued.

"In May two thousand and one, Mister Bartowski was framed for cheating by his room mate and supposed best friend, Bryce Larkin, who I believe was a CIA Agent up until Agent Casey shot and killed him after he stole the Intersect files and destroyed everything in the Intersect Facility? Mister Bartowski was summarily expelled from Stanford without any investigation or being offered any chance to plead his innocence. Coming back from that meeting, he walked into his room to find Agent Larkin having sex with Bartowski's long time partner, Jill Roberts, who Mister Bartowski was about to propose to, and to make matters worse, they were having sex in his bed."

She glanced at Graham before she continued, adding other paperwork to the pile in front of him. "Mister Bartowski had a breakdown over that, and even though the university reversed his expulsion and offered him the opportunity to complete his degrees after they did the investigation they should have done in the first place, he was in no state to do so. As you can see, it took considerable psychiatric help for Mister Bartowski to get past this and be able to function again, but it has left him a very fragile young man."

Graham growled at her. "What's your point General?"

She dropped more paperwork in front of him before she answered him. "My point is that since that day at Stanford, Mister Bartowski has not had any relationships with any women other than his sister, the young daughters of family friends and his lesbian friend Anna Wu. The psychiatrists have likened him to a house of cards, and the agency psychiatrist who looked over all of these reports has presented the professional opinion that any further betrayals, no matter how minor others may view them to be, will invariably lead to a total breakdown and make him unable to function as the Human Intersect."

She turned to face him. "So my point, Director, is that if Agent Walker attempted to screw him into submission as you've just ordered her to, she would almost certainly cause another breakdown of the Human Intersect, one that the experts tell us would take him a very long time to recover from, if ever! In simple terms, what you're proposing would almost certainly destroy any chance of our accessing the only version of the Intersect that exists since your agent blew up everything else!"

"Who the hell do you think you're talking to Beckman?"

"I'm talking to my co-director of both the Intersect Project and this operation Director Graham, and you would do well to remember that I'm your equal in both of those roles!"

She fixed him with a look that showed that the famous red-headed temper was no myth in her case and continued. "Now that that idea has been put to rest, we do have some things going our way in this matter. By all reports of the… ah… dates of the past two nights, even though Mister Bartowski has refused to be anything close to intimate with any woman since May two thousand and one because of Larkin and Roberts, he appears to be quite taken and comfortable with Agent Walker. None of the experts can understand how this happened, the best suggestion they can come up with is that she might remind him of someone he was close to as a child, because from what we could discover, she's nothing like anyone he was close to since then, but this can work in our favour, providing we have certain safeguards in place."

She looked at Sarah. "Agent Walker, in view of Mister Bartowski's deep seated trust and betrayal issues and fragile state, the only way that your participation in this operation can work is if you are willing to commit to never being in any circumstances, on mission or off, that could be construed as a betrayal of his trust by Mister Bartowski."

Sarah looked at her, confused. "I don't understand ma'am, what are you talking about?"

"No missions involving any form of seduction, unless perhaps you and Mister Bartowski have discussed and agreed to it prior to the mission. Also, if you are dating or are engaged in any kind of activities of a compromising nature with any men other than Mister Bartowski, it can only be done in private locations where you are absolutely certain that you cannot be seen or recorded, so there is no possibility of Mister Bartowski can ever discover it."

Even though she was sure she didn't want to do anything like that with anyone but Charlie, Sarah didn't have to entirely fake her outrage at being told that. "What? You're telling me that I can't ever go out to dinner or dancing or heaven forbid make out with anyone other than Bartowski? So I'm supposed to be his personal slave am I? Keep him happy and never touch or talk to another man? How is that any different from what Director Graham ordered me to do?"

Diane put her hands up to try and placate her. "That isn't what I was saying at all Agent Walker! I'm sorry, I didn't phrase what I said very well. I would never order an agent to seduce someone like that, what I trying to say is that the psychiatrists have all told us that Mister Bartowski will almost certainly crumble and become useless as the Human Intersect at the slightest sign of betrayal. All the references that have been dredged up in regard to when you were out with him over the past two nights have said that Mister Bartowski seemed quite fond of you and liked your company… well there were some unflattering social media posts from girls who were unhappy that he liked your company better than he had their's when he was out drunk on a previous night, but the gist was that he obviously likes you. Now with what happened with Agent Larkin and the girl he was going to marry, our experts all agree that if he grows any closer to you, seeing or hearing about you being with another man would almost certainly cause another breakdown, and that would lose us the only version of the Intersect information that we have, now that Agent Larkin has destroyed everything else. So I'm sorry, but what I'm saying is that the only way that we can afford to have you continue in this operation is if you can make that commitment until after the operation is finished."

Sarah looked at her for a while. "I apologise for my outburst General, I misinterpreted what you were saying. I have no doubt that those reports say what you say they do, and on that basis I can understand your position. In view of that, yes, I can give you the commitment that I will never do anything on mission or off that would cause Mister Bartowski to regard it as a betrayal of his trust."

Graham was staring at the screen, and appeared ready to explode. Diane knew they had him when he spat out. "Don't make promises you have no authority to make Walker! You can be a nun in your private time if that's what you want, but when you're on a mission, you'll do exactly what I tell you to! You also appear to have forgotten yourself, General! You may share the lead for this operation, but you have no authority to tell CIA Agents what they will and won't do on missions, I will give my agents their orders, and those orders will be followed! I'm not going to let you use some Californian new age therapist's waffle to try and take control of this operation or my agents!"

"I am well aware that I don't generally have authority over CIA Agents Director Graham, but I do have the authority to enforce whatever conditions I deem necessary to ensure that Mister Bartowski, as the Human Intersect, remains in a state that allows us to access the Intersect information that he alone has access to. What that means is that without that specific commitment for Agent Walker she, and therefore the CIA, will no longer be involved in the Human Intersect operation."

"Don't try to threaten me Beckman, you won't like what happens! Under who's authority are you trying to take control of this operation?" He didn't doubt that she would have been authorised to do so by the Director of the NSA, but he had things in place to shoot that down. What he wasn't prepared for was for the screen to split in two or to see the face of the man who said. "Mine!"

No, Graham wasn't at all prepared for the Director of National Intelligence to suddenly pop up from where he'd obviously watching and listening to say that she was doing this under on his authority.

The DNI's expression didn't bode well for Graham at all. "Director, I have been watching and listening to this meeting because General Beckman had concerns about getting the necessary agreements for this operation to be conducted in a manner which would give us a reasonable expectation of success. I am not happy to see that her concerns were quite valid, especially as I assured her that I was confident that the CIA would do everything necessary to ensure that success. You made a liar out of me Director Graham, that does not bode well for our future working relationship."

He looked at Graham for a while longer. "Have you read or listened to any of the information that General Beckman presented to you about Mister Bartowski? I must presume from your responses that the answer is 'No', because if you took any of it in, you wouldn't have said what you did."

The DNI then turned to look at the Los Angeles screen. "Agent Walker, I can assure you that what General Beckman said was in those reports on Mister Bartowski was accurate, and what happened at Stanford was only the last straw. He had lost both of his parents before he was fourteen and he and his sister were taken in by a friend of their late mother's, you met her two nights ago I believe, the lady they call Auntie Emma. She did what she could for them but money was tight, so they had to work to help her make ends meet from when they were still children. The only way they could go to university was by earning scholarships, but they both worked hard and got their scholarships, and they did very well at university as well. Then, just before Mister Bartowski graduated and had a chance to live the life he deserved, a disgusting individual in collusion with one of his professors framed him for cheating and had him expelled. Then, to add insult to injury, he walked into his room to find the girl he was about to propose to having sex with his supposedly best friend who'd just ruined his life. The fact that they were using his bed must have been intended to hurt him even more."

"I am not surprised that he had a breakdown over that, and in fact I'm surprised that he recovered as well as he did, but the fact remains that he is, and will continue to be, very fragile in regards to matters of the heart. Now as the General said, our experts were astounded by the reports that were gleaned from the Internet about how he interacted and responded to you, but they were also concerned about how vulnerable to you that makes him. Please understand that we are in no way trying to pimp you out to Mister Bartowski, we have no intention of asking you to do anything with him that is not your choice. All we are asking is that you be a friend to him, if you are comfortable with that, and that you commit to the conditions the General raised earlier. Are you still prepared to make that commitment Agent Walker?"

Sarah looked at the screen and promptly responded. "Yes Sir, I am."

"Thank you Agent Walker. Now the General has an agreement there that spells out what we have discussed, you have my personal guarantee that it doesn't say anything that we haven't talked about."

Diane placed the document in front of Graham as the DNI continued. "Director Graham will sign the agreement, then it will be sent to you in Los Angeles to sign, and then it will come back to me. I will also sign it and hold it as a binding agreement of these terms. Does everyone understand and agree to this?"

Sarah said "Yes Sir." but she was almost drowned out by Graham saying "No Sir!"

The pleasant expression that the DNI had been directing at Sarah turned stony as he addressed Graham. "What do you mean 'No' Director Graham?"

"I cannot give up my best agent to an operation of this nature Sir, I will supply another agent who will comply with these terms but it cannot be Walker."

"Well that answers the question about whether you were reading or listening to the information Director. Both the General and I have discussed, and you would have read if you were so inclined, that Mister Bartowski has apparently bonded more with Agent Walker than he has with any other woman other than his sister and his lesbian friend in well over four years. We have also explained and you've seen the reports about what the acknowledged experts expect to happen in the event of another betrayal. Now just how do you think Mister Bartowski would react if Agent Walker, who he likes and gets on with, was suddenly replaced with a woman he's never met and we have no idea whether he can get on with and he's told 'This is your new girlfriend'? I think it would be summed up in one word 'Betrayal!' Agent Walker, are you, personally, comfortable with agreeing to the terms that we discussed here?"

Sarah was looking a little confused and worried. "Yes Sir?"

"Thank you Agent Walker. Director Graham, I cannot fathom your position on this, you are well aware of the importance of the Intersect to our intelligence operations, and now that one of your agents has destroyed the Intersect facility, Mister Bartowski is our only way of accessing the Intersect information. You have been presented with ample evidence to support what is required to enable the Human Intersect team to operate effectively and yet you have repeatedly refused to cooperate. Therefore, I am forced to order you to release Agent Walker to be seconded into General Beckman's Human Intersect team until such time as General Beckman and Agent Walker agree that she is to be released from the team."

Graham gaped at him, he never thought that the man would have the gall to try to order him to release his best agent. "I'm afraid that I can't do that Sir. Agent Walker is the best I have, and I cannot in good faith deprive the CIA of her services."

The DNI looked more determined than he'd ever seen him. "Stay right there Director, I will be there shortly to straighten this out." With that he disconnected the link.

Graham turned on Diane. "I don't know what you think you're playing at Beckman, but I can assure you that you will regret this!"

Turning back to the screen he barked. "Walker! Get moving, I expect you on a plane to D.C. within the hour and in my office in less than seven hours!"

Unfortunately for him, the DNI had walked in in time to hear that. "That sounded suspiciously like you have wilfully defied both of the orders that I just gave you Director Graham!"

"With due respect Sir, neither were lawful orders, you do not have the authority to order me to release my agents to another group or to tell me to sit here and wait for an indefinite period of time."

"I can see that I'm going to have trouble with you Graham. For a start, if you bother checking the powers of my office you will find that I do have the authority to give you those orders, but to forestall further debate, do you recognise this signature?" With that, he slapped the document in his hand down on the desk.

That question didn't need an answer, of course Graham recognised the President's signature! Graham groaned to himself as he looked through the document, he should have agreed to that bitch's terms for Walker to work on the team! That way she would have at least still been under his control, and she would have returned to her general duties as soon as this farce finished.

This way, he lost Walker for good, she was totally out of his control, answering only to Beckman, and the document stipulated that she had the right to resign when the project finished, or any other time Beckman agreed. On top of that, while she stayed on the CIA's books and he was being forced to promote her to a Special Agent, no-one in the CIA could give her any assignments or orders. He also saw that they had added another section at the bottom, where Beckman would sign to say that she witnessed him refusing to sign for his acceptance of the order if he didn't. He grabbed a pen and savagely slashed his signature across the document, half hoping it would ruin the document but at the same time worrying about the ramifications of wilfully destroying a Presidential order.

The DNI said "Wait!" when he went to storm out of Beckman's office, and signed the form, handed it to Beckman to sign and then separated it into the three copies, handing one to Beckman and the second to Graham, saying. "I expect to have confirmation this afternoon that this has all been processed properly Director Graham. And by the way, this is another order that the President signed, apparently General Stanfield was quite effusive in his praise for Agents Walker and Casey's part in disarming the bomb and saving everyone in the hotel last night, especially all of the dignitaries who were at the Conference. The President agreed with General Stanfield and signed the orders for Agents Walker and Casey to get the medals that the General recommended. Apparently Mister Bartowski is getting a medal as well. We will expect the medal and documentation to come through today with Agent Walker's new credentials that show she's a Special Agent attached to the National Resources Division as well as Clandestine Services. Well we won't hold you up any more Director Graham, good day."

Graham managed to be almost civil as he bit out. "Yes Sir, it will be done today. Good Day." and stormed out of the office.

The DNI chuckled, and then froze, muttering to himself as he turned to face the screen. "I must apologise Agent Walker, I just realised that we did this without consulting you. You have just been effectively permanently transferred from the CIA to the Human Intersect Project as a CIA Special Agent who is authorised to operate within the United States as well as abroad. Do you agree to this? If not I will make the necessary arrangements to cancel this, though I must warn you that Director Graham is unlikely to be in a good mood if you return to the CIA."

Sarah was having trouble keeping a straight face as she replied. "That's quite alright Sir, the situation was a trifle tense and I can understand how you missed that one point. I got the gist of the terms that I was being transferred to the Intersect Team under and I am quite happy with the transfer, thank you."

He smiled. "Good, now seeing as you're all Intersect Team members now, I would suggest that you head back to use the more secure facilities you have at your base." He turned to Diane. "Diane, when can I expect to hear about the other agents that you're looking to add to the team?"

She glanced at the screen. "I have to discuss it with Agents Walker and Casey Sir, hopefully I'll be able to tell you whether they have agreed or not within the week."

He nodded. "I'll look forward to hearing from you. Diane, Agent Walker, Agent Casey, good luck with your new team." With that he walked out to their goodbyes.

Diane looked at the screen. "Why don't you two get back to the office and we'll pick this up there. Sarah, if you want to swing by the hotel to check out, that's fine."

They nodded and said that they'd call her soon, just before the link was disconnected.


Sarah went to ask Casey what was going on but he put his finger to his lips before waving it about, and she nodded. As they left the building, she said that she'd see him at the office after she checked out of her hotel. It wasn't much over half an hour later that she arrived at the office, because she wanted answers.

Chuck was busy with his day job, so they went into Casey's office and initiated the link to Diane. The first question she asked was. "Are you OK with this Sarah? I know that you had an idea of how it was going to go yesterday morning, but we didn't really ask you when we rammed it through."

"It's fine, really, I'm just confused about a few things, like what I'm actually going to be doing and where I'm going to be living?"

"You'll be doing what you were doing before, just with a lot less seduction, torturing and killing, and more real intelligence work. As far as where you'll be living, you basically have two choices at the moment. You can either stay in the apartment there where you stayed the first night, or you can take one of the apartments in East Pasadena where Casey and Jeff are. At a guess I'd say that Chuck would prefer you took the apartment there because it's more secure."

Sarah had to smile at that, as that idea certainly appealed to her for a number of reasons, but she wanted to hear more about these other apartments. "Why weren't the apartments in East Pasadena mentioned before?"

It was Casey who answered. "I can take you out there and show you if you like. We bought a small block of apartments when the group was growing and remodelled them. The security was improved, but it's nothing like what we have here. Originally Bry, Ellie, Jeff and I had the apartments there, but Ellie moved in here with Anna when this was done up and Bry moved into the house in Arcadia with Emma when he came back in two thousand and four, so two are empty at the moment. I was going to be moving in here too, but with Graham out of the picture, I guess I don't need to now?"

Diane just shook her head and he continued.

"We generally try to keep at least one apartment empty there in case we need to use it for an operation, but they may be taken up by these new people. That's what I'd like to hear about!"

Diane nodded. "Yes, this would be a good place to address that. The proposal that Chuck put together and the President and DNI have signed off on has two other agents joining the team under the same conditions as Sarah did, one from the DEA and one from the FBI. Chuck has suggested two names but said that Sarah is the one who knows them the best..."

Sarah looked thoughtful as she asked. "What are the names?"

"Well he doesn't think these are their real names but the ones he has are Rosalia Zambetti from the FBI and Anja Lundgren from the DEA."

Sarah laughed. "No, they aren't their regular identities, those were just created for one assignment, albeit it went for two years."

"Do you believe that they would be a good fit for the group? Who are they anyway?"

"Yes, I think they'd be perfect, except for one small issue, they're two of the three women I worked with on the CAT Squad and they were a good match for me."

"What is the issue?"

"Casey may have a problem working with one of them, they're Carina Miller from the DEA and Zondra Rizzo from the FBI."

The "Oh, Hell No!" blurted out by Casey confirmed the issue.

Diane looked at him. "Who do you have an issue with John, what was it about and will it prevent you working with her effectively?"

"Agent Miller Ma'am. It was six years ago in Prague. I said some things I shouldn't have and she left me handcuffed to the bed. I would have worn that because I knew I deserved it, but she sent the pictures of me, handcuffed naked to the bed to everyone she knew, which included nearly everyone I knew! I spent years trying to live that down, and people are still bringing it up. No Ma'am, she was a damned fine agent when she wasn't being crazy, and she was crazy on her own time. As long as you keep her away from handcuffs I won't have a problem working with her. I'm prepared to take Walker's assessment of Rizzo."

"It looks like we have a plan then. Sarah, can you contact them and see how soon we can meet them to discuss this, preferably here in Washington so I can be involved?"

"Not a problem Ma'am. How much do you want me to tell them?"

"As little as possible, I don't want to risk anything getting out before we have a chance to talk to them."

Half an hour later, Sarah had set up a meeting in two days time at a club in D.C. that they'd often gone to when they were in town at the same time. The other two, especially Zondra, called her more than a few uncomplimentary things when she told them that she needed to talk to them about something but refused to say what it was.


On the appointed night Carina and Zondra noted two things when Sarah came up to them, First, as hot as she looked in those tight jeans and top, she wasn't dressed to tear the town up, so this wasn't going to be one of their usual wild nights. The other thing was possibly more interesting though, because she hadn't come from the front door, she came from one of the private rooms.

That was why she was met with. "What are you up to Blondie?"

"Damn, you two really know how to make a girl feel wanted!"

Zondra's temper was a tad shorter than Carina's. "Whatever, cut the bullshit. A week ago, you were desperate to sneak into the States to try and find your mother. Now you're here in D.C. and acting like everything's OK, in fact you're happier than I've ever seen you. And who's in that private room?"

They looked at each other as she glanced back at the room in question with a smile, she was definitely up to something!

Sarah was more serious when she turned back to them. "OK, have things improved for you two, or are you still treated like shit by the bastards you work for?"

Carina and Zondra looked at each other again, and Carina answered this time. "Of course everything's still shit! You know that's never going to change, what are you getting at Sarah?"

"Would you like to change that?"

"Are you high or what Blondie? What the hell are you talking about?"

"Just what I said Zee, do you want it to change? Because if you do, all you have to do is go in that room!"

"I think you're crazy, but if anyone can do the impossible, it's you. Come one Red, we're off to see the wizard!"

Carina hopped off her stool and hooked her arm through Sarah's. Zondra was caught up in it enough to take Sarah's other arm and they all skipped their way to the door of the private room.

Once inside, Carina was shocked to hear the cute guy who she didn't know saying 'Oh fuck no!" when he saw her, rather than Casey, who she'd expected to hear it from it from.

Zondra was staring at the guy who apparently recognised Carina in shock, and Sarah, Casey and the older woman were looking at him in confusion.

Carina tried to cover up her hurt by dropping into the Man Eater act as a defence mechanism, slinking over to him and purring at him as she ran her hands over his shoulders. "Hey, don't knock it until you've tried it Cutie, and don't believe what Johnny Boy says, he just didn't like to lose..."

She stopped when he reached up and gently took her hand to pull her around so he could look at her. "Sorry, but there's three things wrong with what you said. First, John has never said anything to me about you. Second, I'm sort of taken and have been since I was a little kid. And third, I don't do that with family and you're my first cousin."

Now everyone was staring at him in shock, but he turned to the older woman in the room and spoke in a much colder voice. "Why did you give her up?"

She looked shocked. "No! It can't be! Roana? I thought you were dead?"

"I asked you a question Auntie Di!"

She looked down at the table, unable to meet his eye, or look at the woman who was apparently her daughter. "I. I wasn't as strong as your mother Chuck. I was barely in my twenties and my parents were going on about the shame I was bringing on the family by having a baby to some man I didn't even know. My uncles were screaming at me because they'd called in a lot of favours to get me the intelligence career I wanted and now I was going to throw it all away to become a mother to a baby who'd have no man's name. I let them talk me into giving up the baby when she was born, and they arranged for a remote posting to hide me away so that no-one would know that I was pregnant. I left right after Ellie's christening."

"I had the baby and gave her up to a nice couple and then returned to the mainstream postings. I saw Roan a few months later and broke down and told him that we had a beautiful baby girl but I'd given her up for adoption. He was so angry! He said if I'd just told him we could have made it work. With him beside me, I was strong enough to stand up to my family and we went looking for Roana, but we were told that the entire family had died in a house fire. We investigated the fire, in hope that she survived, but we gave up after a few months without finding any trace of her."

She finally looked up at her daughter. "I'm sorry Roana, I didn't want to give you up but I wasn't strong enough to stand up to my family."

Chuck gave the hand he was still holding a squeeze and quietly said. "Don't be too hard on her, our family was so bad that my mother ran away to Russia when she was fourteen!"

Carina looked at the woman who was apparently her mother and then back at the guy. "So what was I called? And you seem to somehow have the answers, so what's the rest of my story?"

"You were called Roana Mary Beckman, your first name is from your father, your middle name was the same as both of our mothers'. You were rescued from the fire, but had no known family so you went into the foster care system. Unfortunately you suffered the same fate as many girls in the system and the abuse probably kept escalating up until the point where you were raped by your foster father when you were twelve. You killed that bastard and ran away, teaching yourself what you needed to live on the street. You must have been pretty good because you were rarely caught, those times you were it was for pick pocketing, burglary, safe cracking and confidence games. In ninety eight you were caught by a group of rich jocks while you were cleaning out the house after you'd gained entry by way of a party. They gang raped you, but you managed to get your hands on an ice pick and killed them all."

"Unfortunately you were too badly knocked about to think to get the security tapes and were caught, but it was for multiple counts of assault with a deadly weapon causing death this time. Even more unfortunate, you caught the eye of Langston Graham and he grabbed you for his program. As you didn't have anyone to use as leverage, I presume that he had some threat that was vile enough to ensure your compliance. You obviously crossed him somehow though, because when you finished your final training at the Farm, he immediately traded you to a buddy in the DEA, and we don't need to dredge up what they forced you to do there."

Sarah and Zondra were looking from Carina to Chuck and back. Aside from the fact she was Diane Beckman and Roan Montgomery's child (even Zondra knew both of those names), what Chuck was saying explained the way Carina had developed frighteningly well.

When he finished, Chuck looked at Carina. "That was about it, wasn't it cousin?"

She collapsed into his arms, breaking down and crying with more anguish than Sarah and Zondra had ever seen her show before. Diane, Sarah and Zondra weren't in a much better state after what they'd just heard. When the tears died down, Sarah could see that Diane was in no state to run this, so she did.

"I think we need to get this done so we can get the two of you out of here. What we're here for is to offer the two of you places on a new team that we've just started, you'll retain your identities and authority as DEA and FBI agents, but you will only take orders from General Beckman, you won't be under the authority of your agencies any more. These transfers will also be permanent unless you choose to go back for some reason, and you will be free to resign at the end of the project, or before that with the General's agreement. We will be based in Los Angeles, sorry Red, I know what you think of L.A. but I can guarantee you two things, the first is that you'll never have to screw filthy pigs so that some other pig can get his jollies off from it ever again. The second is that what you'll be working on will be more important than anything you have ever done before. General Beckman is the Director, and the team is made up of me, John Casey, Chuck, our field analyst, and hopefully you two, so are you in?"

Zondra spoke up. "Mowgli is our fucking analyst? What are you pulling here Blondie?"

"Yes Zee, and he'd also the Piranha, remember what he did for you, for all of us, when they tried to frame you? Chuck wears many hats, but in this team, he's officially a field analyst. Once again, are you in?"

Carina and Zondra looked at each other, turned back to Sarah and said. "Yes!" in unison.

Diane had pulled herself together enough to take charge again. "Right then! You need to collect your things tonight because you're going back to California with the rest of the team, I'll get your orders signed off and then we'll get everything else processed, but for now, welcome to the Human Intersect Project."

Carina spoke up then. "I don't want to rain on your parade… General, but there's no way the DEA will let me go, there isn't anyone else who will do what I do for them."

Diane dug out the correct form and pushed it across the table to her so that she could see the President's signature on it. "They don't have a choice! The Director of the CIA has already buckled to this and released Sarah from the CIA, the DEA is nowhere as strong as the CIA. We don't envisage any problems with the FBI's Director, he's one of the good guys."