A/N: DC here. I'll be lucky if she doesn't delete this but...you know what I love best about writing with SC? We'll sometimes hit a spot and we're trying to figure out what to do, and one of us will message the other one: "trust me?" (Yeah, we do that on purpose) And then the other sits back and watches (well, let's be honest, sometimes SC has to tone down the fluff….I do get carried away). There's been times when one of us writes and the other reads something, puts down a word to use instead or a phrase, and then it's off to the races. Guys, it's so much fun, I'm pretty sure it's not legal. Now some may yell this is canon, but please, pay attention to what each character is saying and feeling, because they are changing, and next chapter….hehehehe...you ain't ready for it(walks off whistling, swinging pocket watch on a chain)
(checks pocket) Hey! How the hell did you get my watch, David? And my chain? -SC
She shook herself at the smell of something burning and hissed a curse as she realized she'd left the wieners spinning for too long. She opened the door to the cooker and cursed again, trying to take them out with her tongs.
"That's the second time you've done that, Miss Walker," Scooter said from behind her.
"I know!" she spat at him and he shrunk back a bit. She didn't care.
Carina had succeeded in her scheming once again and Sarah couldn't remember the last time she'd been this pissed about anything. Casey was probably right. With that diamond, Carina was going to get herself practically canonized by her administrators. She didn't give a shit what the plan was supposed to be.
And she'd used Chuck along the way, and that was the part that infuriated Sarah the most. The DEA agent had found the perfect place to stick the needle, and she'd damn well stuck it over and over and over, knocking Chuck's focus off balance, screwing with the trust he had in his handler.
Sarah believed him, though. She believed Chuck wasn't going to give Carina the diamond, as much as she'd waxed poetic about telling the truth about Bryce where Sarah had lied. Yeah, Sarah did lie to Chuck about the extra connection she'd had with her ex-partner. But she didn't owe him that truth. That was her truth. And she understood it had hurt him, she felt terrible about it, but damn it, he didn't have the right to let that cause him to lose trust in her.
Apparently he hadn't lost trust in her, though...at least, not enough to let Carina fool him into jumping sides. But the wily bitch had gotten him anyway with yet another seriously cheap move. And Sarah didn't think she was about to live it down.
All she'd had to do to distract Chuck was to pretend Sarah'd gotten hurt and his focus was smashed to smithereens. She'd seen the way he'd paled as he looked towards her. She'd been confused at first, both by Carina's shout of her name, and then the terror in Chuck's face as he spun on his heels.
And she'd figured it out around the same time as it looked like he did. She tried to warn him, but it was too late. He'd let himself get played, the diamond was Carina's, and screw that fucking redhead for all of it, but especially for the heavy-handed symbolism of landing her kick right into his chest over where his heart was. She knew the bitch had done that on purpose. It was mean. And it wasn't funny.
Sarah hadn't felt all that confident when Casey sped away after dropping her and Chuck off in the Buy More lot. It wasn't anything against Casey, really, but his track record with the DEA agent wasn't great. Not only that, she hadn't heard from him in an hour. And she had a bad feeling about that.
Her status check text had gone unanswered. That wasn't like him.
"Not the trashcan!" Scooter practically shrieked. "Some of those might be salvageable!"
"Great! You do it. I need to take my break."
"What?"
She thrust the tongs into Scooter's hand and rushed past him. "Emergency."
"We really need to have a talk about your commitment to this job, you know."
"Great. Maybe when I get back," she said offhandedly, grabbing her purse and her jacket, then rushing out, leaving him to deal with the mess. She had a feeling she had a far bigger mess on her hands, but she needed to talk to Chuck first.
Not the talk they really needed to have. Yet another talk. But he needed to know where she was going, and that he had to go straight home. She wouldn't have Carina, or this Alahi bullshit, touch him again. It wasn't supposed to have touched him in the first place.
But Carina Miller…
Growling to herself, she hurried across the parking lot and walked right in through the automatic doors. She was relieved to spot Chuck at his desk, his back to the door as he typed away on a laptop he was most likely fixing.
She practically ran to him, ignoring Lester completely as he looked up at her, and she rounded the desk, slamming her jacket down on top of it, getting his attention by saying his name. He glanced at her over his shoulder, did a bit of a double take, and immediately moved towards her, open and receptive...the complete opposite of what he'd been yesterday in the Wienerlicious after that shitty revelation that wasn't even supposed to have happened.
"I haven't heard from Casey in an hour so I'm going to Carina's hotel." She grabbed her jacket and quickly shrugged it on. "And I need you to stay home tonight, got it?"
"You don't want my help?" he asked.
Hell no. "Not tonight."
"So I'm off the team."
She clenched her jaw inwardly, but kept her features even. She shouldn't have expected anything else from him. He was going to take this personally. But she didn't have time to make him feel better, and she also needed him to freaking stay safe, away from this so she didn't have to worry about protecting him on top of everything else.
"No, Chuck. Just benched." She raised her eyebrows and pulled her pigtails from the collar of her jacket. "But we're gonna have to talk about what happened." She met his brown eyes steadily and watched as his shoulders slumped, his brow furrowed.
Sarah knew it probably wasn't fair to give him the 'we have to talk' line and bounce but she didn't trust herself to say anything else, and she especially didn't trust herself if she let him say something, so she hurried away from him, speed walking out of the Buy More altogether.
Something inside of her stung, but she pushed it to the side, because she most likely had to go rescue her damn partner from Satan, and she needed to focus on that.
She changed in the car again, for the second time in less than two hours, deciding the back of a Hummer was a lot easier than the back of a Porsche. And then she sped to the hotel Carina had moved to last night, figuring the agent would hide out there until she could get the DEA to provide transport. Casey had most likely found her there and...well, she wasn't going to assume, but...well, yes she was.
She was going to assume.
Because men were idiots.
Sarah hurried down the hallway towards Carina's room not ten minutes later, her lock pick out of her pocket before she even got to the door.
She made quick work of it, grabbing her gun as she pushed the door open and pointing it as she stepped across the threshold. Her jaw fell open as she spotted Casey prone on the bed, in his undershirt and boxer shorts, his wrists shackled to the headboard, a gag in his mouth.
Sarah found herself smirking as she reached back to blindly swing the door shut behind her, moving further into the room, unable to keep from sauntering.
"Wow," she drawled as relief spilled over her partner's face. It wasn't hard to figure out what had happened. And the fact that this kept working for Carina was a testament to her power, and also to the stupidity of the male libido. "Just like Prague, huh?"
Casey made an angry growl behind his gag and glared at her. She didn't have to work too hard to decipher what he was growling at her as she stopped and popped her leg, her hand on her hip as she just barely held back a laugh.
This was too good an opportunity to pass up, though. So she took her phone out, pointed it at him, and took a picture. "Smile!"
His growls became ferocious as she wondered just what she might do with this picture now that she had it. She shifted over to his side of the bed and chuckled quietly, taking another picture from a different angle. "For posterity, ya know?"
"Ffffmmmmfff mfffffffggrrrr fmmmmm!"
"Oh, don't worry, Casey. We'll get her back. Which would be different from Prague. Too bad you didn't have a partner like me back then, huh?"
Before she could get her phone back into its holder, preparing to actually untie Casey now that she'd laughed at him a little, the door she'd just come through burst open. Her hand landed on her gun, but Alahi's voice filled the room.
"You even touch it and you get a bullet in your brain, Blondie."
Shit.
She shut her eyes for a moment, then opened them again, slowly easing her hands up by her head. One of Alahi's men grabbed her arm and shoved her to stagger a few feet, spinning on her heel and facing them all, hands still up.
The other took her gun, then slipped it into his belt. Mother fucker.
"That dumb blonde act was pretty good."
"It wasn't my best, actually. You're just a fucking dumbass," she said, and the first guy who'd manhandled her came at her again. She got one punch in, swiping her fist across his nose, but he didn't go down, as much as his eyes were watering, and instead he grabbed her arm and twisted it painfully behind her back. She cried out in pain and winced, letting him shove her down so her torso was perpendicular to the floor.
"Not so brave when you don't have your gun or your little redheaded partner, are you?"
"She isn't my partner," Sarah ground out through gritted teeth. "She betrayed me, too. She ran off with it, left me to die."
"Oh, sure. And I don't even know what in the hell is going on here with this big guy, but I like his boxer shorts." She looked up through her eyelashes to see he was smirking over at Casey, the gun he held still pointed at her. "Give me a good reason I shouldn't just kill you both right here."
"We can help you find her. And the diamond."
He nodded at the man holding onto her and she felt her arm get yanked harder. She yelped and shut her eyes tightly. He'd just barely managed to keep it from dislocating altogether, but God, it hurt.
"What if I don't trust you?" He leaned down at eye level. "See, my father warned me about pretty girls. I should have listened to him. But! I have a safeguard. Guns. A terrorist network in the palm of my hand. So that when pretty girls like you, like that slinky red-haired bitch, try to screw with me...they don't succeed."
A terrorist network…? This guy was psychotic, obviously, on a wicked power trip, but he'd just talked about terrorists...not an opium cartel…
"I'm a nice guy. A forgiving guy. So I'll give you a chance. I'll give you a chance to call her, get her back here, with. my. diamond." He gestured with his other hand and his goon let go of her arm. She winced and stood up, shaking her arm out and glaring at him. "Now, don't give me that loo—"
Her phone rang suddenly where she'd dropped it after Alahi came in with his gun pointed at her. She saw Chuck's face appear on the screen. God, what in the hell was with him and Morgan and timing?
"Oh, is that...Chuckie was it? The idiot who didn't know what kind of boxers to wear under a white suit?"
"You're a fifty-something year old man who walked around in nothing but a speedo all day, so who's really the problem here, Peyman?" she snarked. One of his men came towards her, probably to hit her but Alahi lifted a hand to stop him.
"No, no. I like her spirit." He chuckled. Then he sobered and lifted the gun to point it at her head. "Give her the phone." She was handed the phone. "Answer it."
She did. "Hello?"
"Sarah! Ooohhh, heeyy, thank God. Listen, I know that you're really mad at me right now, okay? But y—Wait, you know this is Chuck, right?"
Sarah just barely held back a roll of her eyes. "Yes, Chuck. I do." The gun came closer to her and she held up her free hand by her head, just to emphasize that she wasn't making any false moves.
"Okay, good. Goodgoodgood. Okay, listen. The diamond. The diamond that we stole from the wooly mammoth. It is not a drug diamond, okay? I repeat. It is not a drug diamond. It belongs to an Afghani terrorist group. Look, I could get into a lot more details but the point is it is way more dangerous than we thought," he rambled. She didn't have time to think too much on it, but she thought maybe Chuck had flashed...on what, she had no idea. What in his apartment would he have flashed on? And it made sense now that this bastard was working for a terrorist group. But how had the DEA gotten this so wrong? It didn't matter. What mattered was that she did what Alahi told her to do.
She needed to survive this. And then she would kick this guy's ass again.
"Chuck," she said steadily. "Find Carina and tell her to bring me the diamond."
"What?" he murmured. "Sarah, what are—?"
"Please."
"What's going on? Sarah, did you find Casey?"
"Remember what I said about Carina? If I'm actively telling you I want you to find her and have her bring that diamond to me at her hotel…" She paused dramatically. "So you need to know I really mean it."
There was a bit of a pause. And then she heard a quiet gasp. He'd figured it out. "Shit. Okay, okay, okay...Okay, I've got this. I'll—"
"Carina, Chuck. Find her." Her phone was grabbed out of her hand and Alahi hung up, tossing it onto the bed.
"I think he got the message. At least...you better hope, hm?"
She wasn't sure how she felt about her fate being in Chuck's hands as she stood there looking down the barrel of a gun. But way worse than that, she definitely wasn't psyched about her fate being in Carina's hands.
}o{
Chuck paced back and forth in his kitchen. He'd had to play it cool as he brought Morgan another grape soda and more pizza. He'd forgotten the game his friend had told him to grab, though, because he'd also found the freaking diamond in Morgan's bag along with said video game. So here he was, staring at it, the diamond still in his hand. Carina had probably slipped it into Morgan's bag when she'd kissed him...But why? What in the hell was she playing at?
How was he supposed to find Carina? How did a civilian with an Intersect in his head—an Intersect he still didn't know how to properly work—find a super sneaky, wily DEA agent? It didn't matter. He had to. Sarah was in trouble.
Peyman Alahi had found her. He could hear it in her voice, the way she kept repeating that he needed to find Carina. And with the way she was adamant he stay at home tonight, it meant something bad was going down if she was asking him to actively search for the woman she'd told him time and time again was untrustworthy, a wildcard.
"Crap," he breathed, looking down at the diamond and leaving the kitchen. "Hey, Morgan, I—eep!"
A tall, thin intruder stood in front of him. How they'd gotten there, he had no idea. They wore a mask over their face as they stared at him.
"Uhhh, heeeey. Listen, go ahead and take whatever you want. I keep a little cash in my sock drawer. By a little I mean spare change…" Why the hell did this keep happening to him?
They stretched their hand out towards him and he looked down at the game. "Video game? Sure, yeah. I mean, it's my buddy's game but I'm sure he's up to share." They rolled their eyes, fed up with him, just like everybody was, he thought to himself. Then they pointed at the diamond. "This?" He held it up. Oh. "You want this? I can't—I can't actually give you this...because it's not mine to give."
And it was the only thing that stood between Sarah and Peyman Alahi hurting her very badly.
So he darted to the side, back towards his living room. But the intruder did a ridiculously unnecessary handspring to block the door. Shit.
He spotted Morgan's pizza plate on the table and grabbed it. Sarah had saved his ass earlier with one of these...he had to call upon his old frisbee skills to save his own ass this time. And he whipped it at them, cracking it into the side of their head.
"OW! What the fuck, Chuckie?!"
"...Wait...Carina?"
She whipped the mask off. "Yeah, you prick! Ow!" She rubbed the side of her head. "The mask was so Martin wouldn't ID me. Now gimme the diamond."
Chuck glanced over his shoulder towards the hallway, down which Morgan was waiting for him. He'd have to keep waiting.
"Chuckie. The diamond. Now."
"Wait," he rushed, hurrying closer to her and lowering his voice. "Nonononono, I need your help, all right? Sarah's in trouble."
"Sarah's fine. She's very resourceful. Now the rock—?" She stretched her hand out towards him again, looking harried, frustrated. He frowned at her, holding the diamond further away from her.
"Wait, so you're just gonna cross your fingers and hope for the best instead of saving your friend?"
"Oh, come on, Chuck!" she snapped, that flirty, tongue-in-cheek, smirkish attitude of hers completely gone now that she wasn't playing her games anymore. Now that he had the upper hand... "You know...this thing of ours? This spy thing? We're all in it for ourselves. It's what we do."
He got the hint. Sarah was in it for herself, too. That teasing she'd been doing, insinuating feelings and extra activities between him and Sarah… That was a game, too. And anything he might perceive about Sarah outside of the job she was doing was a lie. He got the hint loud and clear.
But she was wrong about Sarah.
"It's not what Sarah does," he said. And he realized this was the first thing he was one hundred percent sure about in the last week probably. Carina just gave him a slightly sympathetic look, like he was some kind of Boy Scout getting played. He wasn't. Not this time. And not by Sarah. He'd been listening that day in the Wienerlicious, just like he listened to everything Sarah said, every bit of info she gave him. He wasn't the first one she'd risked life and limb for, was he? He stood a bit taller. "An-And! If she would've thought that in Pakistan, then you wouldn't be alive right now to have this conversation." Carina shifted her weight, squirming a little as she looked away. "You want it?" Her bright blue eyes flew back up to meet his brown ones as he lifted the bag with the diamond between them. "Here ya go."
She snatched it from him.
"But with or without you, I'm gonna go help Sarah."
Carina rolled her eyes to the ceiling, and then she smacked the diamond back into his palm. "Just hold onto it. In case I change my mind."
His chest filled with...something. But mostly he was just grateful. And he wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth.
"Duuuuuude! What's the ETA on my gaaaaaame?" Morgan called from down the hallway.
Chuck rushed over to grab his jacket. "Uhhhhhh….Buddy, I'm gonna go pick up some more pizza, kay? I'll see ya!"
He marched after Carina, who seemed like she didn't much intend to wait for him either way, rushing out into the courtyard and dashing to her car to get in the passenger's seat. But she was opening up the trunk of her car instead of getting behind the wheel and going to the hotel.
"I don't get it, Chuck," she said as he stepped up next to her, peering down at her arsenal. He felt a shiver go through him. The spy world was truly insane. "Thought you and Sarah were on the outs."
He ducked his head and frowned. "I was an entitled jerk and I made the mistake of thinking she owed me...more," he said honestly. "I guess I'm still getting used to how you guys need to lie about who you are."
"I'm feelin' like a knife fight," Carina growled almost hungrily as she snapped open another suitcase in the trunk and revealed an insane array of knives. Was she even listening to him, he wondered? She slipped a few of the knives out and stored them down the back of her pants. "You analysts don't know what it's like for us field agents. This is part of the job. We shed identities like people shed clothes." She looked up at him and bobbed her eyebrows, but he ignored the flirtation completely.
Because she didn't seem all that bothered by that, as though it was just how it was. He wondered if Sarah felt the same way about it. He wondered if she ever wanted to keep an identity, stop the shedding, be one person for longer than...well, she'd been here for three weeks or so, hadn't she?
"Try 'em on, like 'em or leave 'em, after a while, it doesn't even matter," she continued, strapping herself with more weapons.
"So you don't let anyone know who you really are?" he asked as she closed her trunk and turned to face him.
"Can't." She looked at him matter-of-factly. "Might have to leave them in five minutes or...shoot them in the head."
He saw the slight smirk on her face, and she was flirting again, teasing him, he could tell, especially with that last bit there. But he still appreciated the honesty. For once, it was without guile. And he felt...sad. "Trust me," she said, the flirtatious sparkle gone. "A spy doesn't want you to know anything about them that's real. No matter who you are."
That last parting shot before she went to get in the car felt like a barb in his chest. She'd been able to distract him earlier on in the day by pretending Sarah'd been hurt, and that meant she knew he cared about Sarah as more than just a member of the same team. No matter who you are. ...or no matter who Sarah was to him.
}o{
"You don't know who you're dealing with, do you?" Peyman asked as they led her down the hallway, away from Carina's room. They left Casey tied to the bed, the way Carina had left him, and with only one guy watching him. She inwardly smirked. That wouldn't last long.
"I'm not sure you're aware of who you are dealing with, Peyman."
He chuckled quietly. "You remember when I said pretty girls can call me Peyman? I revoke your privilege."
"Aw, bummmmmerrrr," she mocked, strolling along as though her life wasn't in grave danger. She had no idea if Chuck was able to find Carina or not, if they were on their way over here, if Carina found her damn conscience somewhere under the years' worth of dust and grime that gathered on top of it from disuse…
But she needed to keep her head on her shoulders no matter what.
"That diamond is very important. It belongs to a friend of mine and if we don't get that diamond back, he'll be very, very cranky."
"Doesn't sound too good for you," she snarked.
"Even worse for you, sweetheart. If that diamond isn't back in my hands in the next hour, you're dead. So no matter what happens to me, I can at least have the satisfaction of watching you die."
She raised her eyebrows, feeling the steel pressed against her back all the more acutely as they stepped into the closed quarters of the elevator. "It'll be here."
The rest of the journey into the lobby was quiet, as there were other people around. And she noticed the absence of the gun at her back. But she was experienced enough in situations like this to know there was still a gun on her. Somewhere.
Peyman gave her a bit of a shove, forcing her to sit on one of the chairs in the seating area. She looked down at the floor at her feet and frowned. Alahi's men sat in the chairs around the table, suspicious bulges in their coats—guns, she knew. And he stood right behind her, trying to be intimidating, no doubt. Imposing.
She assumed he had an incredibly miniature dick what with how much he seemed to compensate.
And they sat in silence for five minutes, then ten...fifteen...twenty.
She was starting to wonder if Chuck knew where she was. She'd told him but had he listened? Had he found Carina? What if he was still out there looking? What if he'd gotten himself into trouble and she was stuck here, unable to help him? She felt bad for the way she'd snapped at him in the car, and for the extra ice she'd shot him at the Buy More when she told him he was benched.
Sarah knew that Chuck cared about her. At the very least, he'd made it clear to her that he considered her his friend. He'd failed his orders by letting Carina snag the diamond from him, and he'd done it because he thought she was hurt. She was angry with herself for being a little touched by it. When was the last time someone had been concerned about her well-being? ...Besides her mom. A month ago. But in the field? Never. The mission came first. That was how it had to be. She was expendable.
But, she thought, maybe she wasn't expendable to Chuck. He wasn't a spy. Or even an analyst like she'd persuaded Carina. He didn't understand the way all of this worked. And she wondered...Even if he did understand, would he jeopardize a mission if she was in danger? He might.
He couldn't. But maybe she was making too big of a deal out of what had happened to him. That had been Carina, one hundred percent.
God, and now she was at that pernicious woman's mercy.
Worst yet, if Chuck had found her, he was at her mercy. She'd wrecked him earlier today and she'd barely lifted a finger. Though she hadn't been able to sway him from Sarah's team, had she? And that gave her a spark of satisfaction. He was smart. And he trusted her. In spite of her history with Bryce that she'd kept from him. She was being too hard on Chuck. She could keep emotions out of all of this, but he couldn't. And he shouldn't have to. That wasn't who he was. She didn't want him to be that way.
None of that mattered if Carina didn't show up with the diamond soon. She'd be killed.
Another five minutes passed when she felt the air in the room change suddenly. She slowly glanced up to see Carina making her way across the lobby towards them, her usual calm and confidence plastered over her face. But holy shit, Chuck was here, too.
...Of course he was. Where else would the freaking nerd be but right here, in the thick of all of this?
"Do you have what I want?" Alahi asked when Carina didn't seem to want to talk first. Sarah swung her gaze up to Chuck.
He didn't look quite as calm as Carina did. And he quickly lifted the bag with the diamond to show it to them.
"Maybe," Carina drawled, and Chuck's eyes widened, as he quickly hid the diamond behind his back again. Apparently they hadn't come in with a plan, so that was encouraging. At best, they weren't on the same page. "Maybe I pawned it for front row tickets to Justin Timberlake."
Sarah heard the gun behind her head being cocked. Chuck's head jerked around and worry exploded over his features. She couldn't believe Carina Miller. After all these years, she still just couldn't believe her. "Why do you always have to provoke people?"
Yeah, so maybe she was sort of a hypocrite…
"Show me the diamond," Alahi said again. This time when Sarah looked up at Carina, she saw something else besides mischief and confidence. She did have a plan after all. She didn't even have to voice it.
That smirk on her face was the type of smirk she saw when there was a brawl on the horizon. Sarah was ready for it. Even with her hands cuffed together. These guys weren't shit.
Carina gave Alahi a little shake of her head. Which Chuck must've caught, because he pulled the diamond back up again for everyone to see. "I have it! I have it!" He pawed through the little velvet bag. "In the...there it is. Theeere it is. See? See that?" The diamond was pinched between his fingers, shimmering in the light.
"Come and give it to me," Alahi said.
"No."
Chuck spun to give Carina a wide-eyed look. He definitely wasn't read in on whatever Carina's plan was, and Sarah wasn't sure if that was a good or bad idea on the DEA agent's part. "No? Um. I know that I'm new to this, but I'm pretty sure that this is the part where I do what the man says," he said through clenched teeth.
Without even looking, Carina smacked Chuck under his hand and snatched the diamond out of the air. "He didn't say please," she drawled at him, before turning back to look at Alahi as though she was daring him to do something about it. "Now. If you want it so badly, try taking it away from me."
"Look around you," Alahi said, not seeming to want to play games. "Everyone in the room is with me."
Sarah'd had a feeling when they first walked into the room and she was proven right as she watched the bellhops, the concierge behind the desk, the janitor, turn to face them and step forward. There was no way they would've walked her down here with handcuffs on where everyone was milling around and not have people stare or even acknowledge. She'd figured he and his men had cleaned this lobby out, that the actual workers were either dead or locked in a room somewhere, tied and gagged.
She counted ten, including Alahi.
She and Carina had handled worse.
"What're you gonna do?" Alahi asked. "Fight us all? All by yourself?"
"She's not by herself," Sarah piped up finally, keeping her eyes on Carina's. What was the plan, though?
Carina answered it for her, speaking in pristine Swedish. Sarah wasn't entirely fluent in the language, but she knew enough to know that Carina was asking her if she'd drop the keys if she threw them to her.
Cheeky bitch.
In Polish, a language she knew the other woman spoke almost fluently, she answered, "Only if you throw it like your daddy."
Carina nodded just slightly. Without warning, Carina spun and slammed both of her fists into Chuck's chest, shoving him back and out of the way. Without missing a beat, she cracked a right hook across the man's jaw who'd been standing next to Chuck.
Knowing Alahi'd be distracted, Sarah turned and shoved the gun he'd been holding on her away, swinging a high kick up to nail him right in the face. He dropped like a ton of bricks and she spun back to catch the keys Carina tossed to her. Ha!
She didn't have time to unlock her cuffs as one of Alahi's men sprang towards her but she cleaned him out with a swing of both of her fists across his temple.
Sarah watched Carina get dropped and the diamond flew out of her hands. She didn't see where it ended up as she cracked her elbow into another goon's nose. But more importantly, she couldn't see Chuck anywhere.
But there was a small, round vase on the table and since she couldn't exactly get rid of the cuffs just yet, she could at least get a hold of a weapon. She grabbed it as she jumped up onto the table and leapt off the other side, bringing it down on one of their heads, freeing Carina up to take care of the bastard who was trying to bind her arms behind her back.
Sarah switched her grip on the vase that miraculously hadn't broken the first time she used it, and then she slammed it hard across the next guy's face, feeling bone crack under the power of her attack.
Good.
She heard Chuck's voice through the din and jerked her body around to scan the room for him. He was making a mad dash through the lobby, darting towards the door to the employee area, yelling in fear as he went. He had the diamond. She watched him disappear as he was chased. But before she could go after him, she came face to face with yet another asshole built like a tank. Where in the hell did they keep coming from?
She leveled him and turned to see Carina bust the toe of her boot into a guy's face, sending him staggering towards her. Sarah hit the nearby swinging lamp towards him, but he managed to duck it just in time. Which was fine. Because as he popped back up, she creamed him with the vase.
Sarah let Carina get the last word as she focused on getting her cuffs off. Chuck was running around in the guts of the hotel, being chased by someone who wouldn't hesitate to kill him to get that diamond.
Once they were off, she shoved past Carina and made a beeline for the door she saw Chuck disappear through chased by an Alahi henchman. She felt Carina on her heels. "You see the diamond?" the redhead asked.
"Chuck took it."
"What d'you mean he took it?"
Sarah ignored her. If Carina didn't know by now that Chuck wasn't the type to jack an incredibly important diamond and leave his team to rot, she was an idiot. And she knew Carina Miller was not an idiot.
"Chuck!" she cried out as she staggered through the maze-like hallways. "Chuck, where are you?"
"Here!"
Relief flooded through her as she followed his voice, and rushed into the mailroom. She nearly collided into Casey's back, skidding to a stop in the center of the room and looking up to see Chuck standing with his hands clasped over his mouth, his shoulders raised, eyes wide.
"Are you okay?" she asked him, going to his side and putting a hand on his forearm.
"Mhm."
"What. Did. You. Do?" Casey growled threateningly. When she glanced back at him, she noticed for the first time that he still wore his handcuffs, and he'd literally carried part of the headboard with him. Jesus Christ…
"Where's my diamond?" Carina asked.
Chuck slowly lowered his hands and winced. "Uh. Well."
"Tell me it isn't in that." Casey said, gesturing towards the mail chute Chuck stood next to.
"Teechnically, no. It is not in this. Beeecause when you put things into this, they immediately shoot down into...a, um, mail room...Unless it got lodged in here, which isn't likely because they tend to make these so that doesn't, uh, happen..."
"You did what?" Carina snapped as Casey closed the distance with murder in his face.
Sarah stepped in front of Chuck and put a hand on Casey's chest. "Hey, hey. What the hell are you talking about?" She spun to face Chuck. "What's going on here?"
She turned and noticed the man who'd followed Chuck into the back was unconscious (or maybe even dead) on the ground at their feet, blood under him, and she was pretty sure Casey had shown up with perfect timing.
"Um, well?" Chuck cleared his throat. "I locked myself in here with the diamond and needed to find a way to keep him," he pointed at the prone body on the ground, "from killing me once he inevitably broke the lock and came inside. So I, uh, put the diamond in a shipping box, made a label for it, sealed it, and threatened to drop it down the mail chute when he finally busted in."
"Did you drop it?" Carina demanded.
"Casey burst into the room and knocked this guy out and it surprised me and my fingers just...opened up!" Everyone groaned. "I'm sorry, okay?"
Sarah crossed her arms at her chest and shook her head. "So where's this box going? Maybe we can head it off."
"We can go down and find it in the warehouse down below where this chute ended up," Casey said.
"I mean, I sent it to Director Graham in Langley."
She froze and slowly turned to face Chuck. "What?"
"The label. I used your director's address. Quick Internet search, copy paste, print the label, and voila." He gestured to the computer behind Casey.
"You are crazy, you know that?" the redhead snapped, leaving the room. "I can't believe this shit…" Sarah heard her say down the hallway, out of sight.
Casey shook his head and snarled a bit at Chuck, then stopped and looked out the door. "H-Hey, wait. You got the keys to these cuffs?" He rushed after Carina.
Sarah huffed in awe and turned to survey the nerd. He just looked back silently and shrugged a bit. "I have no idea what's gonna happen with...that," she gestured to the chute and he winced again. "But you did really good." She paused. "Thank you for coming for me."
"You're welcome. But I-I wouldn't'a been able to do this if Carina hadn't agreed."
Sarah raised her eyebrows and nodded. "Noted." Then she grabbed his arm and pulled him towards the door. She just wanted to get home, shower, and sleep at this point. "Hey, how'd you find Carina anyway?"
He narrowed his eyes at her and tilted his head. "That's a really long story...you sure you wanna hear it?"
She raised one eyebrow and pulled her chin back a bit, looking at him. "Yes. And I hope I don't regret this."
A/N: I still don't know how the eff David got my pocket watch. Damn it. But reviews would be splendid. Thanks, folks! - SC