A/N: I dont make any $ or Profit from Chuck. Thanks for all the reviews, I know Beckman and casey are a strange pair, but thats what makes life interesting sometimes!

Bryce was is pain, he returned to the safe house after his failed assassination attempt, and tried his best to clean the glass that had lodged itself into his eyebrow. The real genesis of his pain however, was his ego, and the fact that the last few hours had proven to be the most embarrassing of his professional career. He was angry that Casey had managed to get the better of him. Never did it cross his mind that Casey was a superior shot to him, or that Sarah and he were et yet prepared for Bryce then he was for them. In his mind they had just gotten lucky, but he would make sure that it would never happened again.

He was finishing up his coded after action report to Graham, when his phone buzzed, signaling an incoming message.

Report of activity at primary locations alpha and beta is negative. Gamma location has been disabled.

Alpha and Beta had been designated for Sarah and Ellie's apartments, respectively, while gamma was castle. Since the termination order, Beckman had sealed castle and posted armed security, which had severed all uplinks and dumped the mainframe. In short they were erasing the intersect project. Bryce recalled how enraged Graham was when he discovered it. Clearly, he had not anticipated this, and though he should have known the NSA would try to exert their domain as soon as possible, he probably thought he would of had time for Bryce or Walker to get the files before they were wiped.

Ironically however, Beckman act of sealing castle was most likely what was keeping Bryce alive at the moment. He knew the way Graham worked, and knew he was on borrowed time after botching his last assignment. Beckman's action had forced Grahams hand in one circumstance. He would have liked to bring a new team in to eliminate Bryce, as well as Bartowski, but now he was forced to keep Bryce in the field to complete the mission. This gave Bryce a very narrow chance at redemption, and it was one he could not afford to lose.

Code in. Priority 1 came a message on his phone.

Bryce logged in through his remote terminal and accessed the waiting message.

Package located. Location information downloaded to your mainframe. 5th freedom authorized on all targets. Epsilon protocol authorized.

Bryce reread the message to make sure that he could confirm epsilon protocol, and then closed out his connection. Epsilon protocol dictated that anyone who could not be identified at the scene would be designated as "unfriendly" and therefore hostile. This was a total cleaning job of every person in the area, even civilians. Even a poor guy walking his dog would be killed if he was within the operational perimeter of the action, and the operational perimeter was at Bryce's description. Graham had just authorized Bryce to kill everyone who got in his way; he was going on the hunt.

Casey had just finished on his phone when Beckman came into the bedroom.

"Was that Walker?"

"Yes."

"How is the as..how is Chuck?"

"He is still unconscious, but seems to be stabilizing," Casey replied.

"The operation from my end will continue as planned. I will push through all required authorizations," Beckman said.

"She will be happy to hear that. I'll make sure to tell her next time," Casey said.

"I'm sure she will, and tell her that I will keep my end of the bargain as well. When this operation is over, as far as the United States military is concerned, Charles Bartowski and Sarah Walker will be officially dead."

"Good."

"They have earned it, among other things," Beckman said.

"That they have ma'am," Casey said.

"We would probably never find them anyway," Beckman joked.

"Only if she wanted you to, and if she did I sure as hell wouldn't want to be that guy."

"Why is that?"

"It would be the day I would die."

Sarah was sitting at the foot of Chuck's make shift bed, trying to process the last few minutes. Her emotions ranged from elation, to disparity, and then back to uncomfortable all within a window of 4 minutes. She was elated when her first woke up, but that elation was short lived, as Chuck slowly faded back into sleep a few seconds after waking up. Alberto told her that it was normal, and a very good sign that he had woken up; but she wanted him back full time, and a general feeling of uneasiness and depression settled over her. She was familiar with this feeling, having experienced it ever since childhood, and even through her CIA career. It might have been one of the reasons why she was so reluctant to ever be able to really like herself. She had never thought about killing herself, but there were many times when she hated herself, or more accurately, the person she was pretending to be.

That was most likely the reason that she considered herself a lost cause, that feeling of depression she had could beat everything in her life, everything that is except for Chuck. He was the only remedy that she had ever found that could finally silence the anger in her soul. If he was with her now, she was sure that she would not be feeling this way. She knew that he would say something that would make her happy. More then anything else that was really what he did for her, he made her happy; but not only happy to be with him, he made her happy to be who she was because she was they type of person who could make him happy.

How could a bad person make someone like Chuck happy? They couldn't! Therefore she must not be that bad. That is what she really loved about him. Somehow is his own way, he made her love the one person that she hated, he made her love herself. He saw the boundary between the agent and the girl, which had long ago blurred in her eyes, and pulled the real girl out of that hell. He destroyed the armor she cloaked herself in as Graham's enforcer, and exposed the Sarah Walker that she was. The one that he loves, and that one that loves him, and they tried to kill him...she thought as she removed the earwig from her pocket and slowly rolled it in her fingers.

Casey had powered off the earwig before he gave it to her, but she knew that they had a tracking device on it and when she activated it again, they would be coming for him. Graham would send Bryce, and if he failed he would send someone else; but it didn't matter to her. She would kill anyone who came for him.

"How are you Sarah," Selma said as he walked in to check on Chuck.

"I'm ok," she said softly.

"Really," Selma said as she eyed her earwig.

"What's that?"

"Just something someone left behind," Sarah said as she put it in her pocket.

Selma was silent for a minute and looked at Sarah.

"They will come again for him Sarah. Yes?"

"Yes."

"He will never be safe will he," Sarah said softly.

"Not like this no," Selma replied.

"I don't know what to do," Sarah said in frustration.

"It will get better Mija. You will know what to do when the time comes," Selma said as she put her arms around her.

"How did you get through it," Sarah pleaded.

"My grandmother told me that when she was a little girl, her father would dig these large holes around the chicken coops. He told her never to go near these holes, and that if she did she would be in danger."

"I'm don't understand," Sarah said with a puzzled expression.

"Just listen, and maybe you will know what to do when the story is finished."

"Ok," Sarah replied with tears in her eyes.

"One day her father was going into town to sell his crop for a few week, and before he left gave her a rabbit. He told her that he would build a house for it when he came back, but she should keep it in the house with her at night until he got back," she said.

"She loved the rabbit and played with it every day and took him in the house every night. The day before her father returned, she was playing with her sisters and brothers, and their mother called them inside for dinner and they forgot to bring the rabbit in."

"When she realized she ran out and went searching for it, and ran out before her mother realized it. She looked everywhere, but couldn't find it, so she finally went to look in the holes near the chicken coop."

"Now her oldest brother was still out in the field and caught site of her right before she went to look in the holes. He ran up behind her and pulled her away just as she saw inside."

"What did she see?"

"Snakes."

"Snakes?"

"Yes. The snakes would come every night to feed on the chickens and the rats. One of the snakes had eaten her rabbit. Every morning before sunrise her father would burn the pit, but the snakes would always come back."

"I don't understand what you mean," Sarah said.

"I asked my grandmother the same question," Selma laughed.

"Do you know what she said to me?"

"What?"

"She said Mija, when what you love is in danger; you can only hide behind a barrier for so long, but eventually the barrier will fall. To truly protect what you love, you must kill all the snakes."

The hunter looked through the thermal scope at the desolated aircraft hanger, and saw 4 heat signatures. Three were vertical, while one was lying in a prone position, like on a bed. Designating that target as highest priority, the hunter focused on that one. Waiting for the moment to strike down the quarry with ruthlessness and deadly efficiency. Slowly adjusting position to remain undetected, like a predator slowly crawling towards the ignorant prey; closer now and downwind, the scent of isopropanol hung in the air and led the way to the target. It would only be a matter of time now, as the hunter pulled out a knife.

"What is your status," Graham called.

"I have tracked the device to location. In position. Targets acquired. Close range. CQC area."

A CQC area is a close quarters combat area, meaning that the targets were in a confined space, and a gun would draw attention from the other targets, complicating matters. As this was a priority mission, silence was mandatory. Usually in these situations, a knife was the means of termination, as it allowed a silent kill.

"Have you been compromised?"

"Negative sir. I'm a ghost."

"Very good. Every target 5th freedom designation. Understand?"

"Understood."

"You have a go," Graham called.

"Roger. Engaging!"

Bryce crept into the room and quickly plunged a knife into the form that was on the bed.

"What the fuc...oh no," he said as he realized too late that he was staring into the eyes of the hunter.

Standing in between three space heaters, Sarah looked at him through eyes that truly terrified him. She had him dead to rites, and realized in these last few seconds, just how much better she was then him. She had known that he would use a thermal scope to survey hanger, and used the space heaters to counterfeit the signals. He never would have anticipated that she would have known his assault plan, or more importantly, the exact type of equipment he would use. She knew his scope was easily fooled by concentrating heat signatures, and by simply raising the temperature a few degrees in one room, could render the remaining inhabitants invisible, which is exactly what she did.

He tried to pull his knife, but she was faster and threw her weapon with deadly accuracy. The blade pierced his neck, causing immediate paralysis and dropped him to the floor. As he lay dying on the floor, she leaned down and pulled the earwig out of his ear.

"You will never hurt him again," were the last words Bryce heard as his life slipped away and the darkness overtook him.

"Report! What's going on," Graham called.

"Is the package down?"

Sarah could hear Grahams panicked voice and put the device in her ear.

"Larkin! Report!"

"Graham!"

"Walker?"

"I'm coming to get you," she said as she took out the earwig and crushed it with her foot.