I know it's been awhile since the last update and this is a rather short chapter, but hey, you get what you pay for. Just kidding. Your reviews and comments, and all the friends I have made here at FF are payment enough.

Thanks again to Doctor Poa for her editing and proofreading work. Poa is hard at work on her chapter for the Authors Intersect Round Robin Chapter. If you haven't read the SI RR story, check it out. Some really great authors - and me - are making it a real labor of love.

CHUCK VERSUS THE BUY MORE BOMBER

Chapter 24

If a Tree Falls in the Forrest…

Chuck and Sarah pulled quickly apart. In his haste to stand, Chuck tripped over his own feet, fell off the bed, and went sprawling across the floor at the side of the bed. Sarah gasped and leaned over the side of the bed as best she could without pulling out her I.V. "Are you all right?" she gasped, trying hard (and not entirely successfully) not to laugh.

"Yeah, yeah," Chuck moaned. "Nothing injured but my pride."

The tall blonde in the Orange Orange uniform looked down at Chuck, as if examining a bug. "I can see why he needs protecting," she said. "But how do you protect him from himself?"

Casey looked down at Chuck and just shook his head.

Chuck scrambled to his feet. "I'm all right," he said. "I'm all right. I got it."

Sarah looked up at Casey, and blanched when she saw that he was looking at her with more of a scowl than usual. "Feeling faint, Walker?" he asked.

"What?" Sarah asked.

"I figured maybe you were having trouble breathing, and that's why Bartowski was giving you mouth to mouth."

Sarah glowered. Why did Casey have to pick that exact moment to come in? And with what was obviously a new agent, at that. Wait. A woman? Casey had said that her replacement was a man, hadn't he? An Alex Forrest?

The woman elbowed her way past Casey and stood with her feet spaced precisely shoulder-width apart. "I'm Agent Alex Forrest. I have been designated by General Beckman as your replacement, Agent Walker. You are relieved."

"Sarah," Chuck whined.

Sarah looked up at Agent Forrest and immediately decided she didn't like the tall, blonde, very attractive agent. First was her attitude. She looked positively smug standing there, telling Sarah she was taking over her assignment. And make no mistake about it, Chuck was her assignment. If it wasn't for her, the NSA would have simply tossed him in a padded cell in an underground bunker two years ago. She was the one who had convinced Casey and, through Casey, the NSA, that Chuck could be a valuable asset in the field.

Second, as hard as it was to admit it, she was beautiful. Perhaps as attractive as Sarah herself. 'Oh God,' Sarah thought. 'Given what I've been through, I probably look like hell. And here she is, standing there with her perfect hair and perfect makeup and perfect figure...' Suddenly, Sarah felt like she was back in high school with her braces and her ratty hair and baggy clothes, looking at Heather Chandler in her cheerleading uniform with her perfect hair and perfect teeth and perfect everything.

At least she wasn't a brunette. Somehow, after Lou and Jill, Sarah found brunettes rather intimidating.

Sarah composed herself and looked at Casey. "So what's the protocol?" Sarah asked. "How are we going to make the temporary transition?" She took a breath to force herself to keep her voice even. "Obviously, we need to do it in a way that doesn't compromise Chuck's cover with his friends and his family." 'In other words,' she thought. 'Chuck's not getting a new girlfriend, Forrest, so you can keep your hands off of him.'

"With all due respect to your... position," Forrest said, "you've been relieved, Agent Walker. I will take care of managing the transition in my own way. Project Bartowski is on a need to know basis and you no longer need to know."

Sarah gritted her teeth and looked over at Casey, waiting for him to shoot this bitch down. But he didn't. He just stood there. Her partner for two years, and he just stood there while Forrest tossed her aside like yesterday's newspaper.

To her surprise, it was Chuck who took a step forward, threw his chest out in what he no doubt viewed as striking a brave pose, and said, "You can't talk to Sarah... Agent Walker that way. She's still a part of this team."

Forrest turned her head slowly and menacingly toward Chuck, and he took a half-step back. "No, she's not."

Chuck licked his lips and cleared his throat, but his voice still cracked when he retorted, "Yes, she is."

Forrest took a step forward. Standing at five foot ten, she was half a foot shorter than Chuck, but somehow she seemed to tower over him. "Beckman's orders," she said. "Walker's been benched." She shook her head and looked over her shoulder at Casey. "Why am I arguing with an asset?" she asked rhetorically. She turned back to Chuck. "Assets, like children, are to be seen and not heard."

Chuck sputtered. "I will have you know, I am a valuable member of this team. And I will not..."

"Chuck," Sarah said, reaching out and touching his arm. "Could you give Agent Forrest and me a moment alone?"

Chuck turned and looked at Sarah and all the fight seemed to drain out of him. "Yeah, um, sure. I guess so."

Sarah looked over at Casey. "Casey," she said coldly. "A minute?"

Casey grunted, turned and walked out of the room.

Chuck looked at Sarah, then over at Forrest, then back at Sarah. "It'll be okay, Chuck," she said softly. "Agent Forrest and I just need to discuss a couple things, agent to agent."

Chuck hesitated and then nodded. For a moment, Sarah was afraid he was going to lean over and kiss her. The Sarah part of her wished he would, but the Agent Walker part of her was silently hissing, 'Just go, Chuck. This isn't the time.'

"I'll be right outside if you need me," Chuck said. Then he turned and marched out, glaring at Forrest as he passed her with all the believability of a mouse glaring at a cat.

Forrest crossed her arms and watched him go. As soon as the door closed, she turned back to Sarah and said in a condescending tone, "We have nothing to discuss, Agent Walker. General Beckman made it clear that you are relieved and I am taking over this assignment."

Summoning all her spy skills, Sarah smiled sweetly at Forrest. "I think maybe we got off on the wrong foot," Sarah said. "First, welcome to Los Angeles. Where was your last assignment?"

Forrest's tone was clipped, perfunctory. "That's classified."

Sarah took a breath and, with a great expenditure of willpower, maintained her smile. "Of course," she said. "But listen. You need to understand. This assignment is nothing like any assignment you've ever had before. Chuck isn't a spy. He has no training and, well, he doesn't think or act like a spy."

"Well, that's no doubt why he's classified as an asset and not an agent," Forrest said. "Do you have a point, Agent Walker?"

Sarah sighed. "My point is, Chuck is a very valuable asset, but he has to be handled with kid gloves."

"So is that what you were doing when I came in?" Forrest asked.

Sarah grimaced. "That was... it's complicated."

"Well, then it's a good thing I'm here so I can uncomplicate things," Forrest said. "Fraternization between agents and assets is highly inappropriate. Perhaps if the kid gloves had come off and Bartowski had been treated more like an asset, then you wouldn't be lying in that hospital bed, several retail stores wouldn't be smoking ruins, and al Fayed wouldn't have gotten away."

Sarah winced. As much as she hated to admit it, part of her agreed with Forrest. Maybe if she had been more professional with Chuck from the beginning, things wouldn't have gotten out of hand.

Forrest took a couple steps closer to Sarah's bed and leaned in so that she towered over the injured agent. "Let me make myself clear," Forrest said. "Bartowski is now my asset. You've been relieved from the case and, obviously, not a moment too soon. You are to have no further contact with my asset of any kind. Any further contact between you and the asset will be reported to General Beckman as interference in an ongoing operation, subjecting you to charges. Do we understand each other?"

Sarah clenched her fists. "You can't do that."

"I most certainly can. As a matter of fact, I intend to contact General Beckman immediately and recommend that you be permanently removed from this assignment and shipped back to Langley for a refresher course in proper asset/handler relations."

With that, Forrest spun on her heel and strode out of the room.

Sarah gritted her teeth and wished she had her knives.

***

In the hallway outside the room, Chuck was pacing back and forth in front of Sarah's door. Casey stood to the side, armed folded across his chest, staring at the wall.

"What do you think they're talking about?" Chuck asked.

"Whatever it is, it's none of your business, Bartowski," Casey said.

Chuck stopped pacing and whirled to face Casey. "None of my business?" he gasped.

"That's right, Bartowski, none of your business. Let the adults take care of things."

Chuck's eyes narrowed and his nostrils flared. "Listen, Casey. I don't need..."

The door to Sarah's room burst open and Forrest came storming out, her face set, her stride purposeful. She grabbed Chuck's arm without breaking stride. "Come on," she said. "We're leaving."

Much to her surprise, Chuck didn't move. In fact, it was Forrest who was almost yanked off her feet when he didn't. Whipsawing backwards, Forrest glared at Chuck. "I said come on," she hissed.

Chuck set his feet and pulled his arm from her grip. "No. I'm staying with Sarah."

"Agent Walker is off this mission. I'm in charge now," Forrest said, reaching for Chuck's arm again.

Off to the side, Casey's eyes narrowed and a low growl sounded deep in his throat.

"I don't care," Chuck said. "Sarah's hurt and I'm staying."

"So help me, I will tranq you, drag you back to base, and lock you in a cell," Forrest said, pulling on Chuck's arm.

"Oh yeah?" Chuck retorted. Then flinched. 'Brilliant comeback, Bartowski,' he thought. He tried to pull his arm away again, but Forrest's grip was like iron. Chuck shook his arm, but Forrest was persistent.

"You're coming with me," she said.

"No, I'm not," Chuck said, glaring at her.

They both turned in shock when a vise-like hand gripped Forrest's wrist and Chuck's arm. Both turned to see Casey's scowling face. "How about we take this somewhere more private?" he asked.

"Fine," Forrest said, pulling her arm quickly away from Casey.

"No," Chuck said.

Casey narrowed his eyes and he took a slow, measured breath. "So help me, Bartowski, I will end you," he said through clenched teeth.

"Yeah, yeah," Chuck said nervously. "That will go over real big with Beckman. Killing the guy you're supposed to be protecting."

"You don't think I can make it look like an accident?"

"No... Well, yeah, maybe. But you won't." Chuck didn't sound entirely convinced, but he continued to stand his ground. He gave a little shiver, then straightened up to his full height so that he was eye to eye with Casey. "I... am... not... leaving... Sarah." He jerked his arm so violently that he succeeded in breaking Casey's grip.

Casey was so stunned, that he didn't stop Chuck when he strode back into Sarah's room.

"Looks like I got here just in time," Forrest said, rolling her eyes.

"Shut up," Casey said before turning and striding down the hallway.