I present Chapter 20! Horrible writer's block aside, I think that this chapter turned out okay.

I don't own Chuck

Revolutionized Views

Sarah walked down into Castle to find Jamie sitting at the table going over a file.

"Hey Sarah, did you miss me?" Jamie asked sarcastically.

"Yeah, immensely," Sarah scoffed, and then added, "What are you doing?"

"Going over a file. I'm still adjusting to being nothing more than analyst."

"How did training with Carina go?" Sarah asked.

"With Carina? Oh, good. We really connected."

"I'm serious, Jamie."

"Truthfully, everything she taught me, I already know."

In a flash, Sarah attacked Jamie and had her pinned face-forward on the floor. "Forget everything you ever learned," she hissed, "What Carina taught you, it's the first time you've ever learned it. You're a clean slate, understood? "

"Yeah, Understood." Jamie replied, her voice muffled by her face being pressed against the training mat. "Sarah?"

"What?"

"Can you let me up now?"

"Oh, yeah, sure." Sarah released her and stood up.

Day after day, week after week, it was the same routine for Jamie. It was beginning to wear on her, but at the same time, she felt oddly good about herself. There was structure in her life, and she could go through her day without being afraid to get caught or reprimanded, or even worse, suspended.

x-x-x-x-x-x

Sarah was sitting at the table in Castle going over mission reports after her training session with Jamie one day, when she heard the door open. She didn't think much of it unitl she heard her name.

"Uh, excuse me, Agent Walker?"

Sarah knew she had heard that voice somewhere before. She turned her head around and sure enough, she was right. "Agent Rayner!"

"Oh my God! You're Sarah Walker!" Tripp exclaimed as he went to hug her, "I should have put two and two together. How the heck are you?"

"I'm good and you? Gosh how long has it been?"

"Too long," he chuickled as he pulled away from the hug, "Gosh I think the last time I saw you, must have been back in '05 or '06."

Sarah sat back down, "Yeah, you came to observe me and Agent Larkin. Gosh, you were just a kid!"

"I was twenty-two, and had a huge crush on you." He laughed.

Sarah laughed too, but when it subsided, she asked, "So what are you doing here?"

"The general sent me. I'm working undercover in San Diego. I'm a specialist on Intrepid, and since Agent Coleman is no longer an agent, the General has instructed me to help your team in any way that I can."

"You know Jamie?" Sarah asked.

"Yeah, we used to date." Tripp chuckled.

"Really? I can understand why you broke up." Sarah said, a bitter chuckle escaping her lips.

"Actually she's the reason I'm here." Tripp informed her, "I kind of wanted to talk to you as I understand you're not her biggest fan."

"Yeah, you could say that, but if you're here to plead her case, then I'm not really interested in hearing."

"Look, Sarah, Just hear me out. Jamie was recruited into the CIA when she was thirteen years old, and after that, she really had no life outside of her handlers and trainers. Emotionally, Jamie is still thirteen years old. She tries to act her age, and she does a pretty good job at it. She can fight and she can kill, But you can't expect a thirteen year old to deal with her emotions the way that you and I can. It's just not possible. She cracks under pressure and she acts impulsively, and any amount of spy training isn't going to fix that.

"What are you trying to say?" Sarah asked.

"Sarah, just show her that you care. I don't know how you're going to do that, you just need to do it."

Sarah chuckled a little under her breath. Show Jamie that I care? She thought, How on earth am I going to do that? I can't stand the girl.

However, by the next day, Sarah had a plan. She was sitting at the table when Jamie came down for her training. Jamie greeted Sarah with a smile, but her smile changed to a look of confusion when she noticed that Sarah was not wearing workout clothes.

"Uh, Sarah, are we not training today?"

Sarah smiled, "Come here."

Jamie walked over to the table.

"Have a seat," Sarah instructed. When Jamie sat down, Sarah continued, "Tell me about Marcus Reed."

Jamie took a deep breath, "What do you want to know?"

Sarah shrugged, "Everything."

"Well, he came to my house the day after my mother's funeral. Told me his name and affiliations, and he asked me if I would be interested in working on a top secret government project. He told me that I was smart enough, and that the CIA would pay for my education as well, so I accepted."

"How long did you work on the intersect project?" Sarah asked.

"About three years. Then one day, Reed told me that I was going to start spy training, and so I did."

"Where did you live during all of this?"

"I had kind of a dorm room, but I also had a room at the Reed's apartment. He and his wife lived there, but they also had a house in Alexandria.

"Was your friendship with Reed real or for cover?"

Jamie was taken back by Sarah's question, "Um… I think it was real. Marcus' wife Giselle died about a year after I was recruited, and then we got closer, but he never took advantage of me or anything. He was like… My dad. So, yeah, I think it was real."

"You think?" Sarah questioned

"It seemed real. Sarah, he left everything to me. All his research, his house, his money, everything. I don't know if he actually cared about me, but I sure cared about him. I was thirteen when he found me, and he and Giselle, they took care of me. Look, I don't know where you're going with this, but all I ever wanted to do was find the people responsible for his death. You have to believe me!" She stood up and gave Sarah a menacing look, "Now if you don't mind, I'm going to go train." She walked away from the table. As she walked away, she called, "And I know Chuck is hiding behind that door!"

Chuck walked out of the shadows, "Wow, I never thought she'd open up to you like that." He commented.

"Well, I still failed." Sarah sighed.

Chuck walked over to her and put his hands on her shoulders. He then bent down and whispered in her ear, "Bryce."

Sarah turned her face towards his, "What?"

"Tell her what you went through with Bryce. Just tell the story to make it sound as close as possible to what she's going through."

"Why?" She asked, then it all became clear to her, "Oh my God, Chuck, you're right!"

Sarah walked onto the training floor. Jamie pretty much ignored her, and continued practicing with her bowstick.

"Jamie, have you ever heard about Bryce Larkin?" Sarah asked.

The younger woman continued to work on her moves, "Yeah, I've heard of him. Why?"

"Bryce Larkin was my partner and best friend. I trusted him implicitly, and it shattered me when I thought that he had gone rogue and got himself killed."

Jamie stopped what she was doing ,"But he did, didn't he?"

"Not exactly. But that's what I thought, and it made me really upset. I always knew that Bryce never would have gone rogue on his own accord and I wanted to know who made him do what he did, and I wanted to strangle them with my bare hands."

"But you didn't." Jamie pointed out.

"No, I didn't. Do you know what I did do though?"

Jamie shook her head.

"Instead of looking for whoever the reason was that he got killed, I looked for whatever he got killed for, and you know what? It worked. Instead of blindly trying to get revenge, I got to the bottom of why he was killed."

"And what was it?"

"The intersect," Sarah repled, "Bryce eventually came back and helped us to uncover the guys that he was working for."

"Yeah, Sarah, I don't think that Reed's coming back any time soon," Jamie scoffed.

"You're missing the point, Jamie. You can't do this mission with the mindset of revenge; revenge will come later. Right now, you need to focus on one thing, and that's finding out what the twelve keys are. That's your first step. Do you understand?"

Jamie nodded her head. "I think that I do."

Sarah's eyes were filled with compassion, "Reed didn't want you to avenge his death, Jamie, he merely wanted you to carry on his work. And we're here for you, every step of the way."

Jamie broke down, she just couldn't stop crying. She ran over to Sarah, who took her in an embrace. "Shhh, it's okay, everything's going to be fine," Sarah whispered.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Six weeks into Jamie's training, Sarah and Casey got together to talk.

"How's she doing in self-defense?" Casey asked.

"Pretty good." Sarah replied, she's got the hand to hand down, but fencing and bowstick skills still need some work. How's she doing otherwise?"

"Excellent." Casey said, "She's been sticking to her schedule perfectly, she's getting better with her weapons skills, and she's doing very well with her spy training. She's mellowed out a lot, if you haven't noticed."

"So how much longer do you think it's going to be before she's ready for me and Chuck to evaluate her skills?" Sarah asked

"Well, a couple more weeks, at most. Maybe longer, depending on how long it takes you to complete her self defense training."

"Casey, is she gonna need another Red Test?"

"That's up to you and Bartowski." Casey grunted, "Jamie's CIA. That's why my assessment doesn't matter."

"Well, I think that she's about ready for an assesment, too. Until then, I think that we can ease up on her training a bit." Sarah said.

"Sounds good to me," Casey grunted, "I'll call in a team, have them put her room back together."

When Jamie walked walked into her apartment after work, she could tell something was off. She dropped her keys in the key dish and then she heard footsteps. "Casey?" She called.

"Casey's not here," She heard a voice from behind her. She whirled around.

"Tripp." She whispered, then she ran over to him and grabbed him by the shoulders, "Tripp, what are you doing here? Casey's going to kill you!" She hissed through her teeth.

"Jamie, relax," Casey's not going to kill me," Tripp chuckled, "In fact, he knows I'm here." Tripp walked back into the kitchen and came back out with two glasses of wine.

"Oh, no, Tripp, I can't drink. I'm on a special diet."

"Hey, it's okay, I promise. Casey said you're done."

"Really?" Jamie looked surprised as she took the glass of wine.

"He told me that Agent Walker said that you're about ready for an assessment, and until then, your training will be on your own accord."

Jamie took another sip of her wine, her eyes never leaving Tripp's. Her face began to widen into a smile.

"What?" Tripp asked.

Her smile faded a little, "I just started thinking; actually, I've been thinking for a long time."

"About what?"

"About you… and me…us."

Tripp was puzzled, "What about us?"

"I'm glad you're here, Tripp, because I've wanted to talk to you for a long time about our deal."

"What about it?"

"I want to back out of it." Jamie informed him.

"I should have known," The look of hurt on Tripp's face was evident, "You never were one to hold up your end of a bargain anyway." He chuckled bitterly, "Why should this time be any different?" He got up to bring his glass into the kitchen.

Jamie got up and chased him, "Tripp, that's not what I meant!" She grabbed his arm.

"Then what did you mean?"

"Tripp, I was stupid when I made that deal. I was arrogant and prideful, and I thought that it was going to be a piece of cake to bring Intrepid down. But now I realize that it might never happen; and if it never happens, Tripp, I'll never have you."

"What are you saying?"

"Tripp, I want to be with you, now." She reached her face toward his and kissed him. He kissed her back, but after a moment, he pulled away.

"Jamie, we can't be together. I'm sorry."

"Why not?"

"Because you're an asset now, not an agent. It's not only unprofessional, it's not allowed."

"But I'll be an agent soon!" Jamie protested.

"Jamie, Casey and Walker have spent the last six weeks turning you into the agent you should have been all along. Do you seriously think that I would jeopardize that by getting romantically involved with you, even after you were reinstated as an agent?" Tripp sighed, and then continued, I'll always love you, Jamie Bartowski, but you and me, right now we're not good for each other."

"So what you're saying is that YOU are backing out of the deal." Jamie angrily pointed out.

"No, once we stop Intrepid, you and I can quit the spy life and be together—for real." Tripp took her hands in his, "I promise." He kissed her on the forehead.

She looked at him and he looked at her. Even after that long rejection speech, he still couldn't resist her. Their mouths crashed together in a fierce battle of tongue-hockey that lasted about ten seconds, when once again, Tripp pulled away, "No! I can't do this." He could feel Jamie's hot breath on his neck.

"Please Tripp, give me this one night, and I will never ask you for anything again." **

I think that most of you can conclude what happened at the **

Chapter 21 will be up in no time flat, and takes place three weeks after Jamie's night with Tripp. So stay tuned!

As always, REVIEW!