Let us do something, while we have the chance.
Still don't own Chuck.
"Sometimes it helps to know that you got something to lose."
--Agent Walker Episode 3.4
Chapter 15—the Real Problem
Casa Bartowski
Alice had just reported that they discovered a tunnel from the Ring building that emptied out three blocks away. At the same time a video from Atlanta displayed showed a computer monitor with Chucks address. Chuck switched to the video outside the apartments just as two of their protection detail's cameras switched to focus on the sky. Chuck hit the panic button on his laptop. The alarm sounded throughout the apartments loudly then changed to a constant tone.
Chuck announced over the net, "This is Chuck at central. Our facility is under attack. Main operations for today should switch to the regional centers for cleanup directions. All local units switch to the tactical network." He looked over at Sarah and saw her putting on a headset. She nodded. "Sarah is lead. Detail, check southeast corner positions." Chuck heard gunfire outside the apartments. "Dorothy, get me out of this," Chuck said holding up the IV.
Sarah was already up and over at the hidden closet. She got the vests and threw one over to Chuck. She gave the remaining two to Doc and Dorothy. The gunfire was continuing. The net was constant with reports of breaches and the detail reinforcing positions.
Chuck and Sarah got their weapons from the closet. Chuck pointed to the closet and told Dorothy to take cover in it. Chuck and Sarah had a Colt in their hands and one in their waistbands. Their vests had another six clips. Chuck put on the tactical headset. They looked up at the screen in their apartment. Chuck had changed the presentation to tactical and the display showed the position of the thirty Marine guards that were posted for duty that day. Four of the positions showed the guards were down.
Sarah began her directions, "This is Sarah. Major Lenner, the guards at the southeast are down. Status unknown but display shows heartbeats. I show you at van across from apartments. Please confirm."
"This is Major Lenner. Correct, at the van. We can see at least six shooters at that Southeast corner."
"This is Sarah. Engage if possible. Kristen, what is the status in the Conference room?"
"This is Kristen. We are okay. There is gunfire coming into the conference room and the next room. We think it is from an airborne source. Nothing else would have this angle."
Sarah went back over to the main network, "This is Sarah at the Center. We believe there is an unfriendly in the skies by the apartments. Please vector the F-16s back to confirm. Coordinate with me when on station."
Casey came on, "This is Casey. The F-16s are being redirected. And should be on your tactical frequency now. Surveillance shows air activity in your neighborhood."
Sarah heard them, "This is Ringneck. Confirm, two bogies at your position. Old Hueys, but they are armed. They are attempting to engage us."
Sarah came back immediately, "This is Sarah." She saw Chuck nodding, "Take down the opposing force." Sarah looked at Chuck again.
He pulled his mic away, "Two helicopters falling out of the sky, should cause significantly less damage than two fighter jets crashing at high speed. That was the right choice." In less than a second they heard the screeching sound of metal slamming into the building. One of the helicopters was hit and attempted to ram the apartments. It fell a bit short, but the fuselage kept coming and hit the apartment below the conference room. They felt the building shake.
"This is Major Lenner. That helicopter just smashed into the apartments below the conference room. Everyone on that side of the building evacuate to the courtyard."
"This is Ringneck. The other chopper ditched at the parking lot about a block north of your position."
Chuck, Sarah, Dorothy, Doc, Steven, Liz, Eldie, and Kristen left the apartments and came out to the courtyard. Chuck was relieved that Ellie and Devon had already left for the hospital on an early start for a couple operations Devon had scheduled.
Sarah pointed over to their apartment, "Come on, we are too exposed out here." The group proceeded over to the Morgan door and let themselves in. "This is Sarah. We are taking position in the Woodcomb apartment."
A few shots rang out in the courtyard as two men in dark outfits began running for the door of Chuck's apartment. There were more shots at the side entrance to the courtyard.
"This is Sergeant Norde. The force from the Southeast has broken through. Maj Lenner and two others are down."
Sarah slowly opened the door of the apartment and shot the two men at the door across from her. Kristen went out and took position behind one of the pillars. When two more men came into the courtyard, Kristen and Sarah shot them. Eldie and Chuck took position at the door and Steven took the other gun from Chuck and waited at the window. Another man emerged and shot twice at Kristen. Sarah shot him and went to Kristen's position.
"This is Sarah. Kristen has been hit." Three more broke into the courtyard and began firing. They all opened up at once. The cross fire was quick and the three went down.
"This is Sergeant Norde. That was the last of them. We have the last two out here. And we did intercept the squad from the downed helicopter."
Doc Adams ran over to Kristen. He had his backpack with him and began to treat her. She had been shot in the leg and in the chest. After confirming that she was wearing a vest, he checked her breathing first. He looked at Sarah, "She'll be alright," and started cutting through her pants to get at her leg.
Dorothy went back over to Chuck's apartment and got her bag. She and Eldie went out to see if they could help the Marine guards.
"This is Sarah. Please confirm that everything is contained." She heard reports back from all positions and finally from Sergeant Norde confirming that they were secure again. She told Sergeant Norde that he had control again. LAPD and the Fire Department had arrived on scene. And the Sergeant was put in charge of coordinating with them.
Steven used the laptop he brought to connect to the network and Ellie's large screen TV. He pointed over to Chuck. He looked at Sarah, "You go first. I want to check the traffic."
"This is Sarah at Center. The attack has been repulsed. We sustained seven casualties. Six Marines, and they have been evacuated to the nearest hospital, and Agent Kristen O'Day. She was treated by Doctor Adams and is being taken to the hospital. The apartments sustained damage from a helicopter crash. While we have a temporary set up here," she saw Chuck and Steven talking and heard them say Castle, "we will be relocated to Castle in a few minutes."
"This is Chuck. I have reviewed the reports sent since this attack began. Most appear to show clean up actions proceeding as expected. Does anyone have anything significant or out of the ordinary?" He paused for a second, "Okay, we'll be linking to the net over cell phones. Primary control remains with the regions."
Steven began breaking down the equipment. Liz and Eldie got what they could from the apartments. Chuck and Sarah were met by Dorothy. She did a quick check of Chuck and agreed it would be better to get over to Castle. Doc Adams was at the hospital with Kristen and the Marines. After Casey got another protection unit in place, they got in the vans and headed to Castle.
Chuck sat at the main console at Castle. He thought it a bit odd that the apartment seemed like they were better equipped than Castle. Then he remembered that his dad was the prime architect of the apartment set up. Chuck established the connection with the net, "This is Chuck at Castle. We are coming on line. Give us ten minutes and we'll be asking for status reports."
Steven and Liz began to connect the equipment they brought. They got laptops up for Sarah and Chuck and then for each of them. Each station had a separate microphone and video camera. Chuck and Sarah were busy with emails.
Dorothy had gotten the monitoring equipment from the apartments and connected Chuck. "Unless you think you are going to get into trouble with your heart rate, we won't hook up the IV," Dorothy told Chuck.
Chuck was so happy he could avoid another needle he almost got up and kissed her. Chuck looked around, "Everyone ready?" He saw everyone nod. "Okay, this is Chuck at Castle. Mary, please provide your report and will continue with the same order as before."
Mary reported that at San Diego they had captured 43, and there were 18 casualties with 11 deaths of the Halverson, Fulcrum and people from the ship, likely MS. We had two casualties. Two of our SWAT members were hit. They were both in the hospital, in stable condition. Alice had only the one Ring casualty and another detainee. Kayle and Lea had arrested 13 and had another 60 victims. Brad Hill and the Special Forces team met fierce resistance at the MS office, total force was used and all 12 MS were dead. The reports from around the country were basically the same. Chuck felt quite happy that they did not suffer that many casualties. It turned out the attack at the apartments resulted in the most wounded of all the individual operations. Chuck warned all the participants to take special care of the Ring Agents. While they surrendered, there was a very good likelihood that they would try to escape.
The rest of the day was spent finishing up and coordinating interrogations and methods to distribute the results. Chuck had one last conference call with everyone and thanked them, "You all have my thanks and gratitude. You all took action to rid this country of a horrible threat. You are all great Americans. As you visit our wounded today and in the next days, please convey my thanks to them. They certainly have our prayers for a speedy recovery. Thank you again."
Before he ended the call, his boss came on-line, "This is John Wabash. Before everyone signs off, I wanted to pass along the President's thanks. You all did a magnificent job. This country is safer because of the actions you took today. And I echo what Chuck said, our prayers will be with those that were wounded today. Finally, a special thanks to Chuck. Now, go get back on leave so you can heal and get ready for the wedding. I'll see you there." He dropped off the line.
Chuck ended the call and looked at Sarah, "I do want to stop by the hospital and check on everyone."
Dorothy looked over and said, "That is probably a good idea. While you are there we can get you a throughout check."
Casey and Mary came on the screen. Mary said, "Hi, we were just checking in. We are going to stay down here in San Diego tonight. That way we can finish up and head back tomorrow. Otherwise we would have to come back down here a couple times."
Sarah answered, "That sounds fine. We have a little work to do at the apartments. The helicopter crash got most of Steven's apartment and the conference room and the next room are probably not safe." She looked over at Chuck with a question in her eyes and saw him shrug his shoulders. "Casey, we don't really know the status of your apartment."
Mary said, "Well," Mary paused for a second and whispered in Casey's ear. He grunted. She looked at him, "Was that a yes?"
Casey's surprised look was apparent on the screen, "Yes."
Mary spoke with a smile on her face, "We'll have everyone come down to the ranch. That includes Ellie and Devon, your dad, and the girls. That way they can get the apartment all set and you can get your wedding fixed up."
Sarah looked over at Chuck saw that he agreed, "Mary that is a wonderful idea. I really don't know the setup down there, but do you have room?"
"Oh yes. We have four large bedrooms in the ranch house and a guest house with four bedrooms. We should have no problem. Dad and Uncle Philip have some additional comm. lines out at the ranch. Hold it," Mary went over to Casey again. "Sure, we have space."
Casey turned to the camera, "If we can get it approved, I think we should bring this command center with us. It has all the features of Castle. It's not scheduled for deployment. So we should be able to use it, till at least after your wedding."
Chuck answered, "Casey that sounds great. We are going to head over to the hospital. We'll get a hotel room here and then head over to the ranch tomorrow. Will you be able to have the command center set up by tomorrow evening?"
Casey said, "Sure, we'll meet you down there. By the time you get done at Castle, we'll be set up and switch over."
"Sounds like a plan. We'll see you down there," Sarah said. They ended the call.
Chuck started to get up, "Ah, Dorothy, how about unplugging me and we'll head over to the hospital?"
They all began the drill. Dorothy got Chuck unplugged and everyone headed to the hospital. Chuck and Sarah were in the back of one of the vans. Chuck pushed back in the seat and reached over to Sarah. She moved over beside him and buckled in. He put his right arm around her. They sat with him holding her the entire trip. When they got to the hospital Chuck whispered in her ear, "Forever."
Before Sarah got out of the car, she kissed him. She got out on the other side and went around helping Chuck. He was bent to his left side a little and she went around helping prop him up.
Chuck said, "I want to check everyone first. Then we'll go see the Doc."
Sarah looked at him, "You okay?"
"Yeah, I think," he saw the raised eye brow. "Well, I didn't start feeling it until I got out of the car. But when I went to the door during the shoot out, it felt like I pulled something. Let's go see everyone, then the doctors can figure it out."
"No, we'll have them check. If it is okay, we'll go see everyone," she looked at him like this was not negotiable. She walked in with him and motioned to Dorothy, "He says he felt like he pulled something. Can you set up the check up now?"
Dorothy called Doc Adams and they had Chuck and Sarah sent to a separate room. Doc Adams, Doc Weidman and Dorothy came in and began their checks. Each one listened to him as he took deep breaths and let the air out. They did find a stitch area at one of the cuts that was bleeding. They re-stitched the area. They checked his breathing again.
Chuck was a little bothered by the two doctors continually checking his breathing, "Okay, something wrong?"
Doc Weidman started, "No, we were just making sure. If you have time tonight, I would like you to get an MRI of the area we had problems with?"
Chuck gave Sarah's hand a slight squeeze and sat up a little straighter, "Sure, can I go see my guys first?"
Doc Weidman said, "Take would be fine. I'll schedule it for you."
Doc Adams added, "I'll take you around to each of them."
The small parade of Doc Adams, Chuck, Sarah, a Master Gunny and the protection detail proceeded to each of the rooms. Chuck and Sarah gave their thanks and passed along the thanks of their boss and the President. While Chuck knew the Master Gunny would have everything under control, but he check with each to make sure they were going to be cared for when they got out. Even the Major looked at the Master Gunny when he relayed that he was going to stay with his parents while he recovered.
Sarah knocked on Kristen's door. She heard a come in. Sarah went over to Kristen and gave her a hug. Chuck was right behind. He gave her a hug and they said at the same time, "How are you?"
Kristen answered first, "They told me to stay overnight. The flesh wound does not have them concerned, but they are concerned about the hit to the chest. I had a vest but the bruise has gotten bigger with this new hit. So you guys are okay?"
Sarah answered, "He has to have another MRI to verify that he is healing. So, we'll be here a bit longer. The apartments are going to need some work. So, Mary asked us all to come down to her ranch. Everyone from the apartments was invited."
Kristen said, "Oh sure, I'll come."
About that time Ellie and Devon poked their heads in the room. Ellie said, "Can we join you?"
Kristen replied, "Please do. Hi you two."
After a long explanation of the events at the apartment, Sarah explained that even Ellie and Devon's apartment had taken a few bullet holes. She invited them to Mary's.
Ellie said, "Oh that would be great. We have the next two days off and can help get things set for the wedding."
A/N Hope you enjoyed. Right the real problem. Please review.
