A/N: As promised, the other half of Colonel. The heartache is coming fast and I'm dreading it too. I do love The Ring so I'm excited to write those chapters! A bit about this. One thing I forgot to mention from the last part. How is Chuck in different clothes? She runs with him in a Buy More uniform. Suddenly he has jeans and a different shirt. He pulls his wallet out of the Buy More pants. Come on! It's very hard to tell if they actually kiss in the cell, but it appears that they don't quite make it. I did my best to try and attribute believable motivation to Casey's OOC behavior. And what was Steven's plan anyway? How would that have worked if Chuck stayed in the car? Plot hole. Lots of driving back and forth to Barstow. I'm assuming a lot of silence in the car. And then the end. It is real. He's so happy. She has to be a total wreck. She doesn't know if she's coming or going, literally. There is no real reason why, given what almost happened in the motel, Chuck and Sarah wouldn't have had sex the night of the rehearsal dinner. She's not his handler. They are both free. But we know, because Chuck tells Morgan, that they never did while they were cover dating. Chapter 73 starts with a potentially legitimate explanation as to why. Enjoy these last few moments of happiness before that long stretch of misery and Sharah (yuck!)

"I'm sorry, Sarah."

I was furious, and Chuck apologizing only made me angrier. "You didn't do anything wrong, Chuck. You trusted somebody who you thought cared about you." My voice was sharp, and directed straight at Casey.

He knew I was talking to him as I addressed Chuck; I saw him look in the rearview mirror and I heard him grunt softly. I glared right back.

I was faced away, out the opposite window, as we drove past the drive-in where we had arrived the day before.

"Tron. Tron! Tron!" Chuck started shouting. I spun, craning my neck to see over his shoulder.

"Did you see that? My father signaled me!"

"What? Did you just flash?" I asked him, uncertain as to what he had seen.

He was shouting, his words running together. I could barely make out what he was saying. I felt him tense, pulling me with him as he shifted back and forth. He was begging Casey to go back, that his father was there.

His father was in the underground base, Protocol 7, which was underneath the drive-in, exactly where Chuck said it would be. The way down just wasn't obvious at that point. Orion accessed the power grid, activated it, turned on that old abandoned sign, and added a message that Chuck could not mistake for anything or anyone else just as we were driving by.

"I don't care."

I didn't understand what had caused the change in Casey, or I should say, the change back. This was the Casey who had threatened to shoot Chuck and me and then go out for pancakes just two years before. Here, with irrefutable proof of where Orion was, a mission Beckman had agents supposedly working on, and Casey ignored it–because he was angry.

Each in our own way, Casey and I were partially dead inside before we met Chuck. To do our jobs the way we did, we had to be. Chuck was correct in saying that Casey had an angry center, like he had seen after Casey's mentor went rogue. Agent Casey was emotionless. That "angry center" was the beginning of Casey's emotions waking up, if you will. As time went on, Casey learned how to feel much more than anger, thanks to Chuck, and later, meeting his daughter.

A little bit into the future from this point, I did ask Casey why he acted the way he did during all of this. I was not in a good place when I asked him–heartbroken, rejected and alone after Chuck had denied me on the train platform in Prague. Believe it or not, Casey had enough sense to temper his response because he knew how much pain I was in. That's proof enough for me that what I thought was Casey being heartless in Barstow was his wounded heart showing instead.

He told me then that he believed bunkering Chuck when Beckman called for it, because Jill Roberts was at large and an imminent threat to Chuck's wellbeing, was the safest thing to do. Even at his softest (as he would say,) Casey could compartmentalize better than either Chuck or me. Chuck couldn't, ever, when it came to people he loved. A nuclear bomb that could kill millions…but he acted first for his sister. I was sort of caught in the middle most times, trying to convince Chuck why he sometimes had to think beyond his family.

Casey could always stack things in order of importance in his mind, no matter how much the next thing down on the list mattered to him. To the point where I know, several years in the future from this point, he would have killed me to protect Ellie, though I was one of his closest friends. Yes, I was rogue, turned if you will against my own will, but he could rationalize it, telling himself that I wasn't myself and that if I were, that I would have told him to do it. Chuck was a tortured wreck in the same situation, unable to choose between his sister and his wife.

When I ran with Chuck, Casey took it personally, the same way he took Ty Bennet's betrayal. Taking it to mean that I didn't trust him, I wasn't being a good partner.

Did you honestly think I would have tossed Chuck into a hole in the ground and walked away like it was nothing?

That was what he said to me right before I left Burbank for the first extended mission once Chuck was training. I was still so angry I didn't process it. But I know I probably should have had a little more faith in Casey than I did. The problem was I was thinking of the big picture, Chuck being free of the Intersect, and Casey was merely concerned with his safety.

Casey drove us all the way back to Burbank in silence. He put us together in a holding cell and called Beckman to report we were in custody. That was when we learned that Casey had been promoted to Colonel. I shouted to Beckman that Orion was at the drive-in, that there was a potential mission there that evening. She dismissed me, purposely not using my professional title. It stung.

Chuck accused Casey of betraying his own team.

Casey charged at the cell, throwing his body against the glass. "I would never betray my team!" he growled. "You went AWOL. You betrayed me." He tapped his index finger on the glass and glared at me as well. "Don't you ever forget that."

Chuck was being typically sarcastic, using humor to defuse the tension. I just implored Casey to focus on Orion. He was still our only hope, and now Casey was the only one left who could do anything about it. It was worth me saying it, letting him know that though he may not have cared, Chuck was telling the truth in Barstow. Orion had signaled Chuck, and Casey shouldn't ignore it.

Casey gave Chuck his word that if Orion was there, Casey would bring him home safely.

Casey walked away and left us alone.

Chuck sat beside me on the cot inside our cell. He sat close enough that I could feel the warmth of his body through my clothes, our shoulders almost touching. My head was against the wall and he angled his face towards me to talk.

"For whatever it's worth…if I have to spend the rest of my days in a dark, windowless room," he looked at me intensely, looked down, then back at me again, "I can't think of a better person to spend it with."

If only that would happen, nothing would have bothered me. "That's not really how this works."

"What? We can't request a cozy little two-bed, two-bath cell?"

His eyes were smoldering and I was suddenly aware of how close to me he was. The events of the early morning were suddenly there in between us again. "Two-bed?" I asked coyly.

His face got serious. I dropped my gaze to his lips, remembering how he had kissed me this morning and knowing I still wanted those lips more than anything. His lips were almost against mine, so close I felt his breath on my cheek, when the power went out.

The door to the cell popped open. It interrupted the kiss, but it gave us the out we needed. I told Chuck to hurry before the power came back on. Turns out, it was a Jeff and Lester prank, using explosives they found in Casey's locker to blow out the new automated registers in the Buy More. Once more, Chuck's real life and spy life collided, this time in a stroke of luck. We didn't waste any time.

The moment we were out of the cell, we got a view of the surveillance monitor that Casey had been looking at. He was nowhere in Castle. What we saw horrified us: Devon was inside Casey's apartment, apparently caged after he had tripped a security feature of the NSA agent's residence.

What the hell was going on? We didn't know, but we knew where we needed to go first.

We arrived at Casey's apartment mid-melee between Casey and Devon. Considering the competition, the fact that Devon was still on his feet when I made it inside was impressive. Casey wasn't an agile fighter, but he went down like a brick house.

I clobbered Casey over the head and held him at gunpoint. I had to do it in front of Devon; I had no choice. I knew there would be damage control needed later, but we were in crisis mode now. One step at a time was all I could do.

Devon's astonishment continued as he saw me with the gun, then right afterward, Chuck arriving on the scene.

Chuck realized his cover was blown with his almost brother-in-law, and he asked Devon not to freak out.

Of course, Devon freaked out. I think overall, asking someone to not freak out has the opposite effect. I asked Devon to help me lift Casey into the chair and I started to tie him up while Chuck tried to explain to Devon as best he could.

Devon wanted us to call the police, explaining in a nervous tirade about finding Casey in Chuck's room, the stalker-ish contents of his Buy More locker, the weird set up in the apartment, what he believed was an attempt by Casey on his life. He was thinking two-dimensionally, understandably. Against my wishes and better judgment, Chuck was about to reveal the three dimensional nature of the situation.

I tried to get him to stop, but this close, I know Chuck couldn't hold it in. He had wanted so much to tell his sister or Morgan the truth. So much he had lied about to keep his secret. The allure of telling someone was too much for him. And he trusted Devon, implicitly. So he let it all out, everything but the Intersect, about his role with the CIA, even as I was shouting for him not to do it.

It was a lot to take in, but Devon digested it all pretty quickly. His reaction, the shock subsided and he realized Chuck was being serious, surprised me. Devon was thrilled. He used the word "awesome" to describe it. Chuck gave me this very smug look over his shoulder, his silent I-told-you-so. My mind was reeling about all this extra complication I was going to have to manage.

Devon left first, fresh from Chuck's delivery of a mission for him to handle his sister so she wasn't worrying about where we were. Casey grumbled the whole time, then got angry when Chuck and I moved to leave.

"You walk out that door, you're a dead man."

I walked past Chuck to go outside, but not before I heard Chuck tell Casey sarcastically, "I don't care."

Chuck drove this time, in his Nerd Herder, since my car was still hidden and unavailable. The Nerd Herder was a bit conspicuous, but we didn't have a choice. I was surprised at how fast Chuck was driving; he was always so white-knuckled in my car when I drove fast. But he was desperate to get to his father, every moment we had wasted weighing on him. He said very little, again, because he was beyond nervous rambling.

He was worried about the fact that Devon knew the truth. He wanted reassurance that the government wouldn't pull him into protective custody because of what Chuck had divulged. I wished I could reassure him, but I couldn't guarantee Chuck wouldn't be placed there. That was the whole point of this. I told Chuck that if we just found his father, his father could remove the Intersect and then none of that would matter. Everything would be fine.

At least for him. For me, the water was still too murky to tell.

It took us until well past nightfall to get back to the drive-in in Barstow. I told Chuck to stay in the car. He was in the middle of protesting when Casey came up behind us out of nowhere and pointed his gun at Chuck.

My gun was pointed at Casey. He told me to drop it, I told him to drop it. And Chuck just didn't care anymore. He said Casey was going to have to kill him.

Casey told us Beckman had called in an airstrike.

So why was he here?

Chuck railed, angry, banging his hand on the roof of the car, reminding Casey of his promise to keep Chuck's father safe.

Casey then shocked the hell out of me once again. He told Chuck about the mistakes we had made. We didn't realize Casey had been following him, we didn't bring enough firepower, and we didn't ask Casey for his help. Then he lowered his gun.

Chuck looked at me in confusion, and I'm sure my face looked almost the same.

Casey came all this way to…help us?

I honestly didn't know what to believe, but I knew we needed all the help we could get. No looking a gift horse in the mouth. We both agreed that Chuck should stay in the car.

Casey and I were hiding in the underbrush, scanning the area, looking for the way into the underground base. Cars started to arrive in droves. Something big was definitely going on here this evening. There were the rusty skeletal remains of a playground and one of the rocking horses appeared to be the lever that opened the door. We pulled the horse down and it revealed a descending ladder.

We found our way through the tunnels until I saw Steven Bartowski, seated at the computer in the makeshift lab Fulcrum had made for him. He looked and saw me. I motioned to him, to let him know we had a plan, that it wasn't just me alone. I waited.

Steven asked one of the guards for a cigar. On his way out of the room, I ambushed him with a kick straight to the head. Another kick and he went down. Casey took the other one down. Steven asked for the keys and I tossed him the ring. He unchained himself and took off with us.

Casey told him Beckman had sent an airstrike. Steven scoffed bitterly, but said nothing else. I didn't really quite know what to make of that reaction, but he had long since stopped trusting the government. Did Beckman really have an ulterior motive in ordering that airstrike with, quote unquote, no time to rescue Orion? With Orion dead, Chuck would remain the Intersect. It was what she wanted, more than anything else. One more thing I will never know, and can't ever ask her. At least it's water under the bridge now.

When we got back to the car, Chuck was gone.

Again, no reason why I should have believed that this time he would have listened. What happened next still doesn't make all that much sense, unless I go with my gut and say that Orion knew Chuck wouldn't stay in the car. He was his father, even if he hadn't been in his life for ten years. He knew Chuck just as well as I did. If Chuck had listened to us, we would have escaped. The Intersect Orion built was faulty, so the Fulcrum threat would have remained static, and our situation as well.

But Chuck didn't stay in the car. Our true destiny was barreling towards us, even if we weren't aware of it at the time.

We had to go back and search for Chuck before the bombs started falling. Vincent stopped us before we could go.

They took us to the old rickety projection booth. Chuck was in there with Roark. So was the Intersect cube. Chuck looked at me apologetically. I tried to communicate what I could with my eyes. We had to do something. I just hoped he knew what to do when we made our move. Steven moved to stand beside Chuck. Chuck looked anxiously at me. Roark ran the Intersect.

Chuck shouted for Casey and me to shut our eyes.

I opened my eyes to see Steven crouched low…because he was holding Chuck in his arms. Chuck was unconscious. What had just happened? It took all my strength to stand where I was and not rush to him, to make sure he was ok.

Roark started raging that the Intersect didn't work. He exploded, swearing Chuck, and everyone else for that matter was dead, because Orion failed to deliver. If it failed, then why did Chuck pass out?

While Roark was moving, Casey and I made eye contact. The ground below us started rumbling. The airstrike was here.

That was just the distraction we needed. We attacked the guards, although Roark got away from us in that building. We didn't notice specifically at the time.

Chuck was too heavy for Steven, so Casey bent down and hefted Chuck over his shoulder in a fireman's carry. We ran for our lives.

Bombs and fires exploded all around us. I stayed as close to Casey as I could, shielding Chuck's body with mine. Steven was right behind me.

We made it to Casey's car. I slid into the back seat and Casey carefully placed Chuck in the back seat with me. He was still unconscious. I shifted so his head was in my lap. I touched his face, comforted that his skin was warm and he was breathing normally. Steven jumped into the passenger seat and Casey put the pedal to the floor.

"Chuck? Chuck, are you ok?" I asked, trying to wake him. He sat up partially, disoriented and confused. He said he felt different.

Steven said it worked. That he had programmed that Intersect to remove the Intersect in Chuck's head. The Intersect was out.

"It's over, Chuck."

None of us could believe it. I was stunned. Chuck looked at me, just as stunned. My mind couldn't process it. I felt like I was sitting beside myself in the car, watching the events happen, like I was watching a movie.

Just like that, a few seconds, and…everything was changed. Chuck wasn't the Intersect anymore. I wasn't his handler. I wasn't…anything. What happened now?

We were all in such a state of shock we didn't speak, all the way back to Los Angeles.

After another sleepless night, we went back to Castle for our debrief. Beckman was a little incredulous of Casey's report. He definitely embellished what had happened to show everything in the best possible light. He even covered for my defiance, for running with Chuck the way I did. He attributed the success of the mission to me, which was about as sweet as John Casey knows how to be. I didn't embarrass him with the hug he truly deserved.

I felt like I was standing beside myself again as Beckman declared the Bartowski mission over. Chuck was over the moon ecstatic, but I felt…lost, adrift, like a shipwreck victim clinging to a piece of driftwood.

Chuck left quickly to go check in at the Buy More. I couldn't even say anything to him. I just smiled.

I had to go back to my hotel and get ready for the rehearsal for Ellie and Devon's wedding. I was still her bridesmaid. No matter what else, I couldn't let her down.

I chose my dress carefully and spent extra time on each detail of getting ready. We could just be…Chuck and Sarah. I was full of mixed emotions, happy for Chuck, nervous for my future, uncertain about what would happen next. In the end, I wanted the night to be perfect for Ellie. Her wedding had almost been ruined several times, but now it was here, and about to happen just as she'd wanted.

I don't know if that thought jinxed her.

I walked into the courtyard to see Chuck, his jacket slung over his shoulder, talking to Casey. He looked so incredibly handsome it made my knees feel weak for a moment. His face was dreamy as he approached me. He complimented me, and I did so for him in return.

I asked him how it felt. He said it felt great, like everything was finally real.

"It is real."

I reached for his hand. He touched my arm and gently ran his hand down to meet my hand. The sensation made me shiver pleasantly. We walked to Casey's car hand in hand. And that was real.

I put everything else out of my mind and told myself I could just enjoy this night. This wasn't a mission, nothing dangerous was going to happen, nothing would interrupt us. I was just a girl, with her boyfriend, at his sister's wedding rehearsal. It occurred to me that a part of this was still pretending. But I lived the lie, reveled in it. If only for that one night, everything could be perfect.

And it was. Until we went home from the restaurant.