A/N: Not too many views or reviews for the last chapter. Not sure if that's due to the continuing FF problems or if interest in this story is waning. I'll keep going for a bit anyway, because I have one more chapter after this and have started the next too.

Beta thanks go to Capt Lil once again.

This chapter very loosely covers the events of "Chuck Versus the Final Exam."

Don't Walk Away

Chapter 12: Perry

Sarah stood in front of the camper that Stephen Bartowski had returned to not long after his daughter's wedding. He'd dealt Chuck and Sarah an almost fatal blow to their relationship when he'd told them at the wedding that Bryce had been taken. It wasn't intentional, but instead of Sarah telling Chuck she was giving up the spy life to be with him, they and Casey had rushed to rescue Bryce, which had led to Chuck downloading the second Intersect. His dad knew nothing about this, and rather than call him, she decided to come out here to talk to him about it, without Chuck.

She knocked on the door and only had to wait a few seconds before it opened.

"I wondered about not answering and pretending I was out," he muttered.

"I need your help, Stephen," she said.

"And that's why I shouldn't have answered."

"It's about Chuck," she added.

He let her in and they sat opposite each other.

"What's happened?" he asked, looking nervous.

"When you sent us after Bryce, we found him dead, but that wasn't all." She took a deep breath. "Chuck downloaded another Intersect."

"I know," he replied.

That surprised her. "You do?"

He nodded. "Disappointing though it is that he did that, and chose not to tell me himself, but Diane is not very good at hiding things from me."

That filled Sarah with fear. "Could anyone else find out?"

He smiled. "Piranha, but that's not a problem, is it?"

She smiled back. "No."

"So, why do you need my help?"

"Your daughter now knows about the Intersect." He looked panicked and she guessed why. "Not your involvement, though. She said something that scared me. The Intersect could be damaging his brain. Is that likely?"

He groaned. "Eleanor has been dragged into this?"

"Chuck couldn't face hiding it from her anymore."

He sighed. "It has been a curse on this family. Mary and I wanted to keep it from our children, but have obviously failed in that."

This was the first time he had mentioned his wife. Sarah would want to follow up on that at some time, but for now, Chuck was the important topic. "So, could it harm him?"

He thought about it. "Continued mental access to the Intersect would cause problems. This new one has some of my intended use built in, the ability to learn new skills. That adds to the program size and would add to the stress of using it."

"Can you get it out of his head like you did before?"

"I may be able to, but this isn't the same as the one he downloaded before, so it'll take me longer to create an unloader. In the meantime, I'll create something to govern his neural network and prevent the Intersect from causing brain damage, dementia, or insanity."

She gasped. "It could do that?"

He nodded.

"I want it out of his head!" she declared.

He agreed. "I'll also load details and plans of the original Intersect program onto a laptop that Eleanor can have."

She grabbed his hands and squeezed them. "Please."

He looked at their hands and then up at her. "You're different to when I last saw you."

She pulled her hands away, but nodded. "Chuck and I admitted how we felt about each other. It's no longer just a cover relationship."

He smiled, albeit a little sadly. "Life repeats itself."

She frowned, but then remembered his words about keeping the Intersect hidden from their children. "Was Mary Bartowski a fellow scientist or a spy?"

He looked closely at her in silence for a few moments. "Neither of them know," he finally said.

She pushed. "Know what?"

"Their mom is a CIA operative."

"'Is' not 'was'?"

He sighed. "I hope so. It's a long story and I should tell them first."

She understood that. "She obviously wasn't in the CIA under her married name. Who was… is she?"

"She probably isn't in there under her maiden name either, but was known as Frost."

Sarah gasped. "She's a legend!"

"She was more than a legend to me and our kids. She was the perfect wife and mother. My love, I miss her so much."

Sarah could see his tears forming and decided it was best to change the topic. "Sorry to bring unhappy thoughts," she said. "Any ideas on the timeframe for this governor or the unloader?"

"Governor. That's a good name for it." He obviously noticed her gaze. She wanted an answer, not a Bartowski spiral. "The governor will probably take a week to ten days. The unloader will take a lot longer, I don't know how long."

She stood. "Let us know when you have the governor ready and I'll come and collect it."

"Get Charles to leave his computer on and I'll send a message as before." She frowned, not knowing how that was. "He'll know what I mean," he said.

Before she left, he asked a question. "Does he know about this visit?"

"We agreed that the Intersect should be removed, but I decided to come without him. Two Bartowskis spiraling would've taken forever."

He chuckled. "He gets that from me. You're more like Mary. Precise and direct."

Sarah told Chuck about her visit to his dad that evening.

"You're probably right about dad and I getting together, but I wish you hadn't done that, Sarah."

She did feel bad, but at the same time knew it'd been the right thing to do. "I'm sorry, but I needed him focused, and he started to go off at a tangent that you would've followed."

"I thought we're in this together," he replied. "No secrets."

Now she had a dilemma. Should she tell him what she'd learned about his mom?

She sighed. He was right. No secrets. She had to tell him. "Chuck, your dad told me something else. He's promised to tell both you and Ellie, so don't go distracting him from the important tasks I've given him."

He groaned. "It's about mom, isn't it?"

He was so much better at reading her now. "Yes."

His head dropped. "She's dead, isn't she?"

Her news was hopefully better than that. "He doesn't know for sure, but he thinks she's still alive."

"Where?"

She hadn't asked that. She was leaving it to his dad to provide all the information apart from what she knew. "She's a CIA operative, like me."

He gawped at her. "A spy?"

"She's the best spy, the one we were all compared to at the Farm."

"That's not in the Intersect," he said.

"Her real name isn't but you might know her alias. I'm just worried you might flash and it might hurt you."

He looked at her. "I can't wait for dad's magic."

She was annoyed with herself now for not thinking this through. If she'd just held on for ten days or so.

He gripped her hands. "Tell me, please."

"I'll get some pain killers first," she said and rushed to get them and a glass of water.

Once she was back she made sure she could clearly see his reaction. "She's known as Frost."

He did flash but not as much as she had expected. The gasp was painful, though. She pushed the tablets into one of his hands and the glass of water into the other.

Once he'd swallowed the tablets, he looked at her still with a pained expression. "I didn't see any missions. The information is probably too old, or redacted so much that it isn't in the Intersect, but I did see two things against that name. A photo of mom when she was much younger than I remember her, probably before she had either of us." He was almost in tears now. "The other thing was that she's regarded as having gone rogue."

Sarah knew nothing about that. "Rogue?"

"Not linked with The Ring, though."

She pulled him into a hug and he clung to her.

Chuck was still in a daze as he joined Sarah and Casey in Castle the next morning. He'd not slept well.

Just imagining his mom as a spy was hard enough, but a rogue spy was even harder.

The general appeared on the monitor in front of them. "We have a new mission for the team. It should be quite a simple one."

Chuck had difficulty with that, but thought he'd managed to hide his reaction.

He was wrong. The general looked at him. "It's probably easy enough for you to do it without help."

He was still thinking about his mom, and replied sharply, "But I'm not a spy."

Sarah kicked his foot, probably to tell him not to talk to the general like that.

General Beckman didn't react to his tone, but to his words. "On the last mission, you seemed to be uncertain about remaining an analyst. This could've been a test."

"I do not want to be a spy, General."

She accepted that. "We still need you in the field." An image appeared on the monitor beside her face.

The mission centers around this man, Anatoli Zevlovski, a Russian FSB agent."

Chuck flashed on him. A nasty piece of work.

"He's in Los Angeles to meet with a person we believe works for us. A mole within the CIA, who has been selling secrets to Anatoli, who then sells them to the Ring."

She looked up. "This mole is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of civilians and nine of our agents. We have intel that Anatoli is meeting with him, or her, at the Cobalt Hotel and Spa tomorrow night.

"We need to know the identity of the mole and to stop him. I'll leave it to you to decide how to achieve this."

After the call ended, Sarah said to Casey, "Chuck and I will stake out the hotel's entrance and let Anatoli lead us to the mole."

Casey nodded. "Seems easy. I'll monitor from here."

The following evening, Sarah and Chuck were in the building over the road from the hotel.

She was disappointed that Stephen hadn't managed to get this governor to them, but he had indicated it wouldn't be ready that quickly.

The two of them had dressed smartly because they'd need to go into the upmarket hotel.

As was often the case, she found him in a suit and tie quite distracting, and had to keep her eyes against the binoculars in her hand.

A car pulled up and the passengers got out. "That's Anatoli," Chuck said.

It was. "With two bodyguards," she noted. "We should get over there."

They headed over to the hotel. Just as they got there, they heard from Casey. "Zevlovski just swiped a credit card he uses at the spa."

Sarah looked at Chuck. "I doubt he's meeting the mole in there."

"But what if he is?" Chuck asked.

"You're right. We should check."

The spa was downstairs. When they got there, Sarah said, "It's unlikely they'll meet in the spa. We'll wait for Anatoli to come out and follow him."

"But what if it is in there?" Chuck asked. "We should go in."

She gave him a flat look. "Do you want me to strip down and only have a towel around me for cover?"

His brain clearly considered that. "If it was just us, yes, but you might distract them enough for the exchange not to happen."

She grinned. "I'll wear just a towel tonight."

"But not for long," he replied.

She liked the sound of that, but pushed the thought away. "Go in and see if the mole is there. If it's just Anatoli and his men, come out and get back in your suit. We'll then wait for him out here."

Chuck went to the counter. Sarah listened to the conversation through her earpiece.

The spa host looked up. "Can I help you? Do you have an appointment for a treatment?

Chuck replied, "Uh, no, no, not an appointment per se. I made plans with a friend of mine... A Russian fellow... to meet here and go on to the bar for a drink."

"Oh, I think he and his party only just checked in and went to the steam room. The day use fee is $100, not including treatments."

Sarah knew how his mind worked. "Just pay it, Chuck. You can claim it back."

Chuck handed over his credit card and went to the man's locker room.

"There's no one in here but me," he said to her.

"So, go to the steam room," she replied. She grinned. "I get to see you in just a towel on the way."

He chuckled.

Then, Sarah heard a phone call come through to the host. She wandered over and could just hear the voice at the other end. "You have Mr. Drago there. I'm not coming down to him now. Please tell him to come up to room 7009." It was an American accent. It had to be the mole.

"Chuck, the mole has called for him to go up to his room. The name he's using is Drago, not his own. Quickly get changed back and get out here."

She watched the three men walk out of the steam room and go to the men's locker room, just as Chuk was walking out.

He and Sarah seemed to get into a heated exchange beside the elevator as the three Russians walked up. She pressed the button for it, and continued complaining about Chuck's supposed dalliances. She smiled internally at that. She knew he would never stray.

Anatoli entered first with his men and pressed for the seventh floor. Chuck and Sarah joined them and, noticing the floor, Sarah nodded to Anatoli and stood seemingly in a huff.

Once they reached the floor, the three men walked to the room, but Anatoli told his men to wait outside. Chuck and Sarah seemed to be going to the room beyond, but once passed, shot tranquilizer darts into the two guards, catching them as they slumped down.

"Do we burst in?" Chuck asked.

She deliberated that for a second. They were just supposed to be identifying the mole, not capturing him, but it was too good an opportunity to miss.

First, she pressed her ear to the door to listen.

First, she heard Anatoli. "Well done. You are about to become an even richer man. We should begin the process of retrieval."

The American replied, "Change of plans, Anatoli. I'm dealing directly with the Ring now. Your services are no longer needed."

She heard Anatoli grunt.

She quickly opened the door and the two of them rushed in.

She had expected that they would have to tranq both individuals, but now there was only the one still alive. Anatoli was lying on the floor with a knife in his stomach. The other man had just retrieved something from Anatoli's jacket, swallowed it, and was starting to turn toward the door.

She heard Chuck gasp beside her and she quickly fired a dart into the man.

"I flashed on him," Chuck said. "He is CIA, his name is Hunter Perry."

She nodded. "Well, that worked out differently to how I expected."

She called for a team to collect Perry and Anatoli's men, and to deal with Anatoli, too.

They had to wait for those men to arrive, then she grabbed Chuck's hand. "Come on. We both have towels waiting for us at home."

"Gonna turn the bathroom into a steam room?" he asked with a smile.

"Maybe," she replied, looking at him through her lashes.

The following morning, General Beckman congratulated them on yet another successful mission. "They're almost boring now," she drily commented.

"He had an interesting way to transport what he took from Anatoli, General," Sarah commented.

"It's not uncommon," the general replied. "His stomach was pumped and the memory stick has been cleaned." She looked at Sarah. "I've seen what's on it and will have it sent to you."

Sarah frowned as she wasn't expecting that. "Should I be worried?"

"I don't think so, but you should still look at it."

As the call ended, Casey said, "That was weird."

"What could be on it that she wants you to look at?" Chuck asked.

Sarah shook her head. "I have no idea. A recording of one of my past missions?"

"Something that The Ring would be interested in?" he asked.

"But all the missions against The Ring have involved more than just me. One or both of you would've been with me."

"We'll just have to wait and see what it is," Chuck said, as he placed a hand on her shoulder and squeezed it.

A/N: I found the scene in the show where Chuck's towel dropped very amusing because he looked down with those glasses on. Sarah will have had a clear view of what she was missing out on. Not here, though. She will have seen it again and enjoyed it back at home!

If you have the time, please leave a review. It'll help me decide whether to continue this story or not.