I still don't own Chuck.

I'm going to start to post this story here. If you haven't read the previous chapter in a while, make sure that you do. It has changed and is very important to the story.

This is certainly not a happy chapter, not by a long margin. But it is also the point in the story that some of you have been waiting for.

I understand that there isn't a review function on this site. But I would still appreciate your comments. The worst thing for an author is silence. You can't tell if you're connecting with your readers, if they're getting where you think the story is going or not. And those comments don't have to be praise. Of course, I'd be lying if I tried to say that I don't enjoy the praise. But I actually learn more from the critical comments. Just as long as you're respectful and allow me to respond, you can say anything.

To Russia With Love

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The shock sent waves through her body, her hands tensing against the cuffs that held her arms high in the air. It wasn't even the pain that was so bad. Oh, the pain was excruciating, a white hot wave that felt like someone was shoving pins into every square inch of her body. But the worse part was losing control. When the electricity was flowing, you couldn't control a single muscle. They all just tensed up involuntarily.

The first few times, Joey tried hard not to give them the satisfaction of seeing her react. But now she screamed as loud as she possibly could. Maybe it would hurt their ears a little.

Finally Mary sat the tazer back on the table. "This is getting ridiculous," she said in frustration. "It's been hours and we're getting nowhere. We're clearly going to have to move to something more drastic."

Volkoff walked over to Mary and placed his hand gently on her shoulder. "My love," he said. "Maybe I could have a word with our new friend. Why don't you take a break? Maybe bring us some coffee?"

As soon as Mary left, Volkoff turned to Joey and softly cupped his hand on her cheek apparently affectionately. "Young lady," he said with a smile. "You are most impressive, dedicated, brave, and clearly very beautiful."

Joey was a fairly recent graduate of the toughest training academy in the universe. She knew all about interrogation techniques. She had sat through all of the lectures, had even been injected with sodium pentothal before, knew exactly what she was currently feeling, what it did to you. She currently wasn't in a mood to be coy. "Fuck you, pervert," she said. "You're getting nothing from me. Do you think I don't know about good cop, bad cop?" She quickly realized when she tried to speak how swollen her face was making her words slur a little. She could also taste the blood from when one of the shocks made her bite her lip.

Volkoff's smile turned into a broad grin. "You're so feisty," he said laughing. "I love that. But perhaps you should take a breath and examine this situation rationally. You've been trained to hold out as long as possible. I understand that. And even though it's currently directly in my way, I actually admire it quite a lot. But you know that everyone talks eventually, right? Surely they told you that in your classes. It's a given. You've done your duty. You've held out longer than anyone could reasonably expect. Why fight this any longer and take any more abuse? You called me the good cop. Well the bad cop will be back in a few minutes. And she is very, very, very bad. She takes her work personally."

"Fuck you," Joey spat defiantly. "I have nothing to say."

Volkoff ignored her harsh words. "At least tell me your first name," he said. "So we can have a conversation like two adults. What harm could that possibly do? It wouldn't be a violation of your duty. You're allowed to give me name, rank, and serial number."

Joey was unconvinced. "Those Geneva Convention rules you're citing only apply to uniformed soldiers," she said. "So fuck you. And for the sake of argument where exactly does that tazer fit in with the scenario that you're trying to paint?"

That got him laughing. "You are really quite the package," he said. "Young, beautiful, feisty… and smart. I have a daughter about your age. You remind me a lot of her. I really wish we had met under other circumstances. I'll bet we could have been great friends. Now what harm could possibly come of telling me your first name? My name is Alexei."

"I know who you are," Joey said. In fact, she knew all about him. Alexei Volkoff was CIA public enemy #1. He had taken the opportunity presented by the breakup of the old Soviet Union to make himself a multibillionaire. He had tons of legitimate business. But he also had his share of 'hobbies' that were definitely not legitimate. He was referred to often in training. He was protected in a fortress that it would take an army acting in open war many days to penetrate. So far his political connections made him untouchable. Knowing they were going after him, Joey had taken some time on the boat with Josh to go over his file. She was pretty sure that the daughter thing was bullshit. There was no mention of any daughter in the files. She was also pretty sure that the woman torturing her was the mysterious Frost. Not a lot was known about her, only that she was his right hand… and incredibly ruthless.

Volkoff rested his hand flat on Joey's stomach and gently placed his finger on one of the many welts caused by the tazer. "I'll make a deal with you," he said. "Tell me your first name and I'll get some salve to put on these burn marks. We wouldn't want such a pretty girl to develop any scars."

Joey was exhausted and scared. She had no illusions of living through this night. She was really hurting. She could no longer feel anything in her arms. She was close to giving up. In fact telling them what she knew so that they would finally kill her was sounding more and more attractive. And he was probably right. What good would her first name do him? The marks where Frost had applied the tazer were starting to really burn. "You can keep the salve," she finally said defiantly. "We both know that I'm not going to live long enough to develop any scars. But my name is Joey."

Volkoff smiled. "That's not necessarily true, Joey," he said. "It's an odd name for such a beautiful woman, isn't it? Sort of sounds like a tomboy. I'll bet you got the nickname as a young girl climbing trees. But it seems to fit you. I like it a lot. Anyway, Joey, we need to know about your mission and what the CIA knows. I'll not deny that. We're not going to stop this until you've told us what you know. But I have a big soft spot for people like you. You can make it out of this alive. Who knows? Maybe it will be the beginning of a new chapter in your life."

Joey looked into his eyes. He had called her beautiful one too many times to miss his meaning. "Fuck you, Alexei," she said with a sarcastic emphasis on his name. "A new chapter as in becoming your personal fuck toy? No thanks. Being raped isn't high on my list of things that would get me to talk."

Volkoff looked honestly offended. "I don't rape women," he said. "I understand that it's a rather common occupational hazard in your line of work. But it's barbaric… and completely unnecessary. I don't need to use such crude tactics. On the contrary, Joey, I convince them. I entice them. It's something of a hobby of mine. I've been very successful at taking young women like yourself and setting them free. I bend them, show them what they can become once they look beyond their current lot in life, and slowly turn them into what their destiny calls for. When the process is over they invariably thank me, are eager to show me how grateful they are. I can do that for you too. Trust me. If anything intimate ever happens between us, you'll be more than willing. In fact, it's you that will become the aggressor. You'll soon look at this unfortunate session as the very beginning of your life. Do yourself a favor. Let's get this uncomfortable first part of our business concluded before Frost is forced to do something that won't heal quickly. Then I can prove it to you, okay? Perhaps someday you'll think of me as your best friend."

Of course that forced Joey to think about her current best friend. The prospect of not ever seeing him again made her sad. But the thought of how he was probably worried sick about her right now caused her to have to blink away the tears. She hoped that Josh would be okay. Hopefully he would find a new partner quickly. Whoever it was, she was lucky. "Fuck you," she said, but now it was more of a sob. "I already have a best friend. You could never replace him."

At that point Mary walked back into the room with his requested cup of coffee. Volkoff stepped up to her while she was still out of Joey's earshot and kissed her on the cheek. "I'm afraid that you still have some work to do," he said. "Before you begin, I promised my new friend, Joey here that we would put some salve on her burn marks. Have a little patience. Don't do anything drastic. You're almost home."

"I'm going to go talk to my other new friend."

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Sarah was slowly mentally getting back into mission mode after the earlier all consuming fear of Chuck's imminent death and then the giddy relief of his recovery. Oh, she had barely let go of his hand since they had entered the hospital. She found that she had a need to constantly touch him to keep away the panicked feeling.

Ellie was in a lot better mood since Joan had led her dad away, ostensibly to find a hotel room suitable for a wedding night. Dad clearly snickered when he mentioned something about mirrors on the ceiling. Ellie really didn't want to know any more details. And Joan was just as clearly being sensitive in not rubbing any into her face.

Chuck was taking a nap. He was exhausted from dealing with the pain and not really having slept in days. But his face finally looked peaceful. For now, that was more than enough.

"How is he?" Sarah asked. "Is he okay to move? I'd really like to get him someplace more secure."

"I don't think there is anything medically wrong with him," Ellie said. "He's been through a major trauma. He's physically exhausted. But all of his vitals are well into normal ranges. He just needs to rest."

Ellie turned much more serious. "Tell me what's going on," she said. "Sarah, exactly why does Chuck need to be someplace more secure?"

Sarah recognized that Ellie was just as protective of Chuck as she was… and that she was just as scared. "I don't know exactly what's going on," she said. "That's what scares me. We were hit by an overwhelming force that came out of nowhere. We don't even know who they are yet. They took one of our agents and Bryce. That means they are very quickly going to find out the truth about Chuck. They may come after him. I want to get him someplace where we can protect him. Don't worry. We'll take him to our base under the Buy More until we can figure this out. He's safe there no matter what."

"He needs to rest," Ellie cautioned.

"Don't worry," Sarah said. "There are living quarters there. He'll have a bed and be very comfortable. While we're talking about this, how long do I have to wait before… um…"

"Sex?" Ellie finished her question. Her sly smile bellied the tension in the room.

Sarah nodded with the red visibly rising up her neck. "We're still supposed to be our honeymoon," she said meekly.

"I don't know," Ellie sighed. "His body has just gone through a major event. I think six weeks, maybe eight."

Responding to Sarah's devastated look, Ellie laughed a little. "I'm just teasing you," she quickly said. "There is no medical reason to avoid sex. It actually probably would do you both some good. Do you want me to leave so you can wake him up and go for it right here?"

Sarah did a double take at how effectively Ellie had just teased her. It bordered on cruel. But she had to admit, it was also funny as hell. "What is it about the Bartowski family?" she asked with a growing grin. "They just don't seem to get the concept of paybacks. I think I can wait until tonight."

"I'll come by after my shift and check on him," Ellie said. Her grin very plainly said that she was very pleased with herself for nailing her friend so thoroughly. "As far as paybacks…"

"Take your best shot."

x-x-x-x-x

Whatever giddiness Sarah felt at Chuck's miraculous recovery was fading fast as soon as they were in Castle. At least it was a familiar setting. It was as much home as they had. They hadn't been in Burbank in what seemed to be a year. And her hotel room didn't seem any more like a real home than this did anyway. At least Castle had a kitchen. The grimness of the situation was starting to sink in as the team gradually all finally gravitated back to base.

They quickly concluded that it was most likely Volkoff's men who had taken Bowles, Bryce, and Joey. Who else could it have been? But how did he find out? How much did he know?

That led to the inevitable thought. It was hard to not think about what Joey was almost assuredly going through right now. Josh was particularly making no effort to hide his panic. The veteran spies were perhaps better at keeping their outward composure, but they also knew better than anybody how grim the situation was. The odds of ever seeing her alive again, well Sarah didn't want to say it out loud but they approached zero. At least Volkoff needed Bryce alive. Once she inevitably told them what they wanted to know, Joey was just an inconvenience. Hopefully they would allow her body to be found so she could get a proper burial and the team could get closure. But even those odds were long.

They had a video conference call with Beckman on the big screen. She was clearly shaken at the complete failure of the plan. It wasn't hard to tell that she had been recently crying at the realization that her grand plan had just delivered Alexei Volkoff the last Fulcrum Elder and a working Intersect on a silver platter. She was also plainly close to breaking down again.

Normally Sarah would have taken some grim pleasure in seeing the normally stoic Beckman so close to visibly losing her composure. She wanted to scream at her that she had just killed Joey. But today that seemed like an empty victory. She had already clearly come to that same conclusion all on her own. And when Sarah really thought about it, it wasn't true, no more than any commandeer killed a soldier who died following orders on a battlefield anyway. Besides, Sarah felt like crying herself.

Beckman did admit that Team B had done what she had asked of them to the best of their ability. She would keep her promise. The team was officially disbanded as of today. They would extract the Intersect from Chuck as soon as a verifiably safe process could be developed. Chuck and Sarah were now immediately retired with the maximum pension that an agent could receive. She spent a fair amount of time thanking them all for their service. This was the team that destroyed Fulcrum. She asked that the others not make any rash judgments about their future. It would be prudent to take a few days to think about what they wanted to do and perhaps get new assignments.

Beckman was clearly contrite. She assured them that every effort was being made to locate and rescue Joey and Bryce. But she was honest enough that she didn't pretend to give them much hope. She also promised that she had forces standing by in case Castle was compromised and attacked, which she was quick to admit was very possible. She strongly suggested that they put Castle into lockdown and keep a guard constantly.

She also 'advised' that perhaps Ellie and Devon would be safer locked down in Castle for a few days until they could figure out the depth of the threat. Casey and Laura were immediately dispatched to go and collect them.

On top of everything else that was going on, Sarah was struggling trying to get Chuck to go to bed. She fully understood. He wouldn't have been her Chuck if he didn't want to be out here lending his moral support to his family. But he clearly needed the rest. Fortunately Sarah found an unexpected ally in Laura. Before she left with Casey to go get the doctors she angrily stomped over to Chuck, put her face directly into his, and told him in no uncertain terms how much he had scared them all today… and that if he didn't get his ass into that fucking bed in something like two seconds, he was going to get a really good look at her totally pissed off for the first time. She promised that he wouldn't much like it. He must have believed her because he quit arguing and made Sarah promise to come wake him up if anything happened.

Sarah would have liked nothing better than to climb into that bed with her husband, snuggle into their favorite position, and sleep for a solid week. In fact she already missed touching him. But she didn't want to leave Josh out here all by himself. He was clearly in shock. He just sat there staring with his glassy eyes not really focused on anything. As soon as Ellie got here she was going to have her look at him. It might be a good idea if she could give him something and he could also go to bed and get some sleep. Losing teammates was as bad as it got for a spy. But this was ten times worse. He clearly loved her more than he was letting on. It was sweet… and totally heartbreaking at the same time.

In fact it was Devon who drew the straw to have Josh as a patient. And that was a good thing on multiple levels. First it freed Ellie up to go check on her brother. That didn't take long. Once she realized that he was soundly sleeping the examination was quickly aborted. Sleep was better than any medicine she could prescribe.

Sarah watched Devon in action for about two seconds before she was instantly ashamed of calling him a flake the other day. Okay, so he had his quirks. She couldn't imagine being Ellie for a single day without shooting herself in the head. But he also was genuinely a warm and compassionate man, one of the truly good guys. He took one look at Josh and quickly led him into the bedroom that Sarah indicated. He actually helped him get undressed and into bed. Then he whacked him up with a full 20cc of some relaxing feel good juice before Josh even knew it was coming enough to mount any kind of protest. He'd get one good night's sleep anyway. In fact he was already snoring.

But Devon could hardly hide his own excitement. Naturally he was trying to be sensitive to the down mood in the room. But he had never met Bryce or Joey before. And he suddenly found himself inside of a secret spy base that was hidden under the Buy More he had been in a thousand times. He was excited sort of like the French were excited when Charles Lindbergh landed. He spent a long time exploring the hidden wonders like a child in a toy factory. He kept bugging Casey until he showed him every weapon and explained its use. He couldn't have done much better to gain Casey as a friend if he had tried.

Then Devon found the infirmary that was stocked like a miniature hospital and dragged Ellie in it to amaze themselves with the medical wonders, and who are we kidding, to get a little private grab ass playtime in. It had been a while since he had nailed Ellie in a medical closet, and never in a secret spy base. So the opportunity was simply too good to pass up.

Ellie pretended to be resistant to his romantic overtures… for about ten seconds. But her mood quickly changed. In fact it was soon her that began to make her clothes hit the floor as she turned into the aggressor with a sexy striptease.

Sarah didn't have the heart to pound on the door and ruin the mood they had going by telling them that all of the non-bedrooms in Castle had video surveillance installed. But she did make Laura turn the image of them going at it off the main monitor just before they were actually naked. She probably couldn't keep them from secretly watching the tape later. But then again she really didn't want to know.

Since there had been a secret camera in their bedroom for the past year, there was dozens of hours of tape of a naked Devon and Ellie fucking in the archives someplace anyway. It was CIA policy that intimate surveillance scenes that didn't directly impact the mission were redacted and sealed. But Sarah wasn't so naïve to hope that there weren't plenty of voyeurs in the agency with access. It was actually something that she had in common with Ellie. Agent Walker had her fair share of redacted surveillance scenes with her being less than fully clothed in the archives as well.

So it was in that vein that when Casey and Laura offered to camp out in the main room and keep watch while the others slept, Sarah was too far gone to question their motives or register any protest.

When she finally got into the room with Chuck she was far too mentally tired to do anything except strip down to her panties and climb into bed with him. Normally she would have found one of his t-shirts to wear. Not tonight. That would require far more effort than she was currently up for.

"Any word?" Chuck asked sleepily before she could even get her head into its normal position on his chest.

Sarah kicked herself. "No," she said sadly. "Ellie and Devon are here. I'm sorry that I woke you up. Please go back to sleep."

"I'm fine," Chuck replied. "I took the nap that you wanted. Now stop worrying so much about me. I'm feeling pretty good. I'm actually more worried about you. You've been through a lot today. Are you okay?"

"I will be now," she said. "There is no question but that it's been a horrible day. It really didn't look good for a while. And if you hadn't noticed this somehow over the past few weeks, I love worrying about you."

It was odd. They, like everyone, were depressed. Sex was really the last thing on either of their minds right now. It wasn't even clear who kissed who. It was like their lips had minds of their own, found each other in the dark, and met all on their own. It was even hard to call it sex. Sarah actually couldn't remember taking off their underwear. Oh, technically his right parts fit into her right places. But it was much more than sex. In fact the word 'sex' seemed far too trivial, almost demeaning.

It wasn't even making love. It was something beyond even that, slow, unhurried, comforting. It was like they became one, to get each other through a really bad day. Neither could tell where they ended and the other began. The fire that had started off smoldering for what seemed like forever had now turned white hot. Sarah instinctively timed her movements to be in time with his slow, patient thrusts, pressed her lips to his, and made sure that every possible inch of their bodies was touching. But even then there was no hurry. When Sarah's orgasm finally hit she was blown away by the intensity. She had no way of knowing how long it lasted. And the funny part was that the orgasm wasn't even the climax of the session. There was no climax. She loved the cuddling after every bit as much… and it was even every bit as intense.

By some instinct Sarah knew fully what this was. She was now officially a housewife. She had finally developed a wife's instincts, was now fully Mrs. Charles Bartowski. It was now her full time job. Beckman may have earlier today just made it official, but Chuck Bartowski had just made it real. Agent Walker was dead and buried, just a bad memory. The baggage that she constantly had to lug around with her day after day was now long gone. That very last rat bastard demon was vanquished. It felt, well wonderful was ridiculously, woefully, almost pathetically inadequate.

Of course they still had problems, huge ones. One way or another they had to find Joey, now not because she was their teammate, she was no longer their teammate, but because she was their family… and either wrap their collective arms around her and welcome her home in relief… or much more likely say a prayer on her behalf, bury her with all of the honor a hero deserved, and then avenge her death.

But that was tomorrow's problem, wasn't it? For tonight anyway, it didn't matter.

Sam was finally free.

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