A/N: I meant to have this a few days ago, but with my daughter flying to Germany this morning, it's been a weekend. (Also I officially got one year older). Anywho, welcome to the newest episode, which does pick up where the last ended. I like to call this one Handy with a Knife.

Disclaimer: I don't own Chuck

Chuck pushed the door open to the morgue, and stopped in his tracks. Sarah nearly crashed into him. "What are you-" she began to ask as he spun, putting his finger over his lips. She looked past him, her eyes widening.

There was Lester.

The two backed out of the morgue.

"Okay, so, maybe last night was an amazing dream, and this is a nightmare," Chuck reasoned.

"Hmm, if that's so, then we had a shared dream and a shared nightmare," Sarah pointed out. "But usually, my dreams aren't that good."

"Dream-Chuck has disappointed me greatly," Chuck said softly, grinning at her.

Sarah leaned in close. "Oh, he didn't disappoint me," Sarah replied, just as softly. "It's just real Chuck… well… he's better than anything I could ever imagine."

"I have no idea how to respond to that," Chuck admitted, a little breathily.

"You responded just fine," Sarah teased.

"Listen, I am trying to work a case here," Chuck began.

"I've seen your work," Sarah reminded him. Chuck gave her a flat look, making her giggle. She surprised him by pulling him into a hug. "Can I tell you how happy I am? Like, we get to do… this. All of it. Be us, and… be together."

"Can I tell you how happy it makes me that I make you happy?"

"Jesus, Chuck, you trying to get laid?" Sarah teased him.

"Not actively," he admitted. "But were it were to be a by-product of what I am doing…" He trailed off and shrugged, making her laugh. "We do, however, need to concentrate on the case. There will be time for other stuff later."

"Promise?" Sarah asked.

"Sarah," he said, sincerity in his voice. "I will always make time for you. Even if it's just a moment here or there, when you need it."

"I'm about to attack you right here," she admitted.

"We need to go in there and figure out why Lester is here," Chuck reminded her.

"Need?"

"Yes, need," Chuck told her. "Because if we don't, I'm going to let you attack me. I'm going to be gladly attacked by a wild Sarah."

"You've yet to see a wild Sarah," she told him. His eyes nearly bugged out. He turned, opened the door, and went back into the morgue, making Sarah laugh out loud.

"Lester, why are you here?" Chuck asked after Sarah followed in behind him.

"I work here," Lester replied, straightening up from the file he was looking at.

"You do not," Chuck reminded him. "You quit, moved out of your apartment with Jeff, and then ran against him."

"No, I do work here, because Jeff forgot to submit my termination paperwork," Lester countered.

"That completely checks out," Sarah muttered to Chuck. Chuck couldn't help but agree. "I'm gonna go find Jeff."

"Don't leave me alone with Lester," Chuck nearly pleaded in a low tone so Lester couldn't hear him.

"Oh, I'm not leaving this area," Sarah assured him. "Jeff is here… somewhere." Sarah moved toward the huge metal morgue freezer, where she paused in front of each small door.

"What is she doing?" Lester asked.

"Shhh," Chuck said. "You'll interrupt her process."

She stopped in front of one door, turned toward Chuck and Lester, and leaning back against the cabinet she opened the door, the tray rolling out. Jeff sat up.

"What'd you do that for?" Jeff asked. "I'm not on the clock for another thirty minutes."

"It's after nine," Chuck informed Jeff. Jeff tapped his watch, shrugged, and got up. Walking over, he yanked away the folder that Lester had been looking at.

"This is an official government document that you can't look at unless you are employed here."

"I am employed here," Lester informed Jeff. "You never submitted my termination papers."

Jeff started to respond when he saw Chuck. "Hi, Jeff Barnes," Jeff said, starting to walk toward Chuck, grabbing a bumper sticker off the table.

"Jeffrey," Lester said. "That's Chuck, he ran your campaign. Plus, the election is over."

"Are you sure?" Jeff asked.

"Positive," Lester replied. "Where are you going, Charles?"

Chuck was heading toward the door, tired of this madness already. "Anywhere but here."

"So, you don't want to know about the stab wounds on the doctor's body?" Lester asked. Chuck paused, his hand on the door. He dropped his head back, whining a bit.

"Chuck," Sarah called out. "You've been through the worst. Let's find out the information we came here for."

"If you'll notice," Lester said, "the knife wounds show no hesitation." Chuck came back to the table where Lester was showing the wounds on the photograph of the dead doctor's body. Chuck pulled out an iPad out of his bag, playing a video of the attack. "Yeowch! Nope, no hesitation."

"Notice how he holds the blade flat," Jeff pointed out. Sarah peered in. "He goes between the second and third rib… or maybe it's the third and fourth."

"Third and fourth," Lester said, showing Jeff on the photos of the corpse.

"Six rapid stabs, puncturing the liver, causing the victim almost instant death," Jeff continued.

"So, are we talking another doctor?" Chuck asked.

"No, an attack like that… someone was trained," Sarah said.

"Military," Jeff said.

"Yes," Lester agreed. "Where was the body found?"

"Near the homeless camp down from the hospital the victim worked at," Chuck said. There was silence. They all knew that there were former military in that camp, disaffected veterans. "Okay, we know where to start."

"They are transient," Lester reminded Chuck. Chuck nodded.

This case had taken a turn no one was happy about.

}o{

Chuck sat in silence, as Sarah drove them to Westside Medical. When they left the coroner's office, Chuck had suggested they go talk to Ellie. Since then, he hadn't said a word. "The whole part about this possibly being someone in the military getting to you?" Sarah asked, breaking the silence.

"Yeah, it does bother me," Chuck said. Sarah gave him a look, but he was staring out the window.

"Well, guess I have no choice," she muttered to herself. "Look at this photograph!" she sang loudly, and as off-key as possible.

Chuck turned to her, wincing with one eye shut. "What the hell was that about."

"You're keeping something from me," Sarah told him.

"Is that code for we're not having enough sex?" Chuck asked her. She burst into laughter as she pulled into the hospital parking lot.

"No, Chuck," she said, parking the car. "But there is something on your mind."

"Oh, that," Chuck said, blowing out a breath.

"Yes, that," Sarah said, staring at him.

"Well, there is something that both of us are keeping from someone," Chuck explained, giving her a look. Sarah racked her brain, trying to figure it out. And then… then it dawned on her. Her eyes widened, and her hand shot to the ignition to start the car. Chuck gently encircled her wrist with his fingers. "It's too late," he said softly. "She knows we're here."

"How do you know that?" Sarah asked.

"It's Ellie," Chuck said, giving her a sad look, and getting out of the car.

She got out, her mind running a million miles an hour. This was Chuck. Her brother… but more than her brother. She had helped raise him. There was no one who's opinion was more important to Chuck than Ellie's.

She was also Sarah's best friend.

Sarah never thought about Ellie when she asked Chuck to keep this between them. All she was thinking about was the office, Casey, Carina, and honestly… Morgan. She knew that Morgan thought the two of them should be together since the first moment she met Morgan. She wanted her and Chuck to work, and she worried that Morgan… well, he would be Morgan, and make it weird. Okay, so it was implied that Morgan would make it weird, but weirder than even Morgan usually made things.

"Okay, we should tell her," Sarah blurted out. Chuck gave her a look. "I know, I know, if we tell Ellie, she'll tell everyone. And it won't be because she doesn't respect us, but she'll see us somewhere, and she'll just be so happy for us that… she'll give it away."

"Sarah, we can do this," Chuck replied. "We're adults. We can pull this off."

"Okay," Sarah said. She didn't believe what she was saying, but she felt she should at least try, since keeping the relationship quiet was her idea in the first place.

}o{

"It's all anyone is talking about," Ellie said, stabbing some lettuce with her fork.

They were having lunch with Ellie in the cafeteria.

"Dr. John Good was one of the good ones, no pun intended. He would always go check on the people in that homeless camp that was near the hospital."

"Was he having trouble with anyone?" Chuck asked.

"Not that I know of," Ellie replied. "You might talk to his wife, but you're not her favorite person right now." Chuck sighed and put his head in his hands. "Sweetie, you have to know that cop swore up and down your client killed her husband. She thinks you let his murderer go."

"Ellie, the way he was killed, there is no way Terrance Bryant could have done it," Chuck said, his head still buried in his hands. He raised up. "Unless he had some secret training we can't find."

"Let me reach out to Rene, and see if I can convince her to let you look through his stuff," Ellie said, rubbing her brother's arm.

"Did he have any partners?" Sarah asked.

"Yes, I believe his name was Dr. Tyler Black," Ellie said, thinking for a second. "Don't know much about him."

"Not the saint Dr. Good was?" Chuck asked. "I mean with that name, don't you have to be, well… good?"

"He's dead, Chuck. Maybe you shouldn't make jokes," Ellie told him.

"I've looked at the picture of his corpse a hundred times if I have once," Chuck said softly. "If I don't joke, I might cry." Ellie's face softened. "We don't usually get this type of case, you know. I'm not really built for this kind of stuff. You, Sarah, Awesome, and all the doctors here… you've all seen stuff, and had to deal with stuff, that I… can't. I'm just not built like that. Sorry, the jokes are my coping mechanism."

"I'm sorry, Chuck," Ellie began.

"No, no, you're right," Chuck admitted. "Plus, it looks like whoever killed him is probably a veteran, and chances are good that person might live in that homeless encampment. This case has not been easy."

"Hey, you did save a man from going to jail, and probably dozens of others by getting that stupid system shut down," Ellie said.

"Probably hundreds if not thousands," Sarah agreed. "And I think Ellie would agree with me, we're both okay with you not taking this case well. If it became the norm, well…" She trailed off, and Ellie nodded to her. " And I don't know about Ellie, but I had training to push that stuff away. Please know that afterwards…"

"One of the reasons I stay in the shower for what you call forever is to try and wash away what I've seen during the day," Ellie told him.

Chuck nodded. "Thank you both." He turned to Ellie and squeezed her hand. "And thank you for the information. If Rene' Good doesn't want to see me, I understand."

"I'll talk to her," Ellie told him. "I really have to get back." She stood, as did Chuck and Sarah. She gave them both hugs. Looking from one to the other, she grinned. "And one of these nights, the four of us need to go out to dinner."

"Welllll, we could, or you could cook potroast," Chuck said with a shrug. "I'd get all the groceries and do the dishes."

"Deal," Ellie told him. "You'll come of course?" she asked Sarah, a grin on Ellie's face.

"Of course," Sarah said. Ellie nodded and walked away. Chuck waved at his sister, and as soon as she disappeared from sight, Sarah grabbed Chuck. "She knows, Oh, God, she knows."

"She doesn't know anything," Chuck told her.

"I don't know about that," Sarah said, worried. Chuck's phone went off. He pulled it out and looked at it. "What's wrong?"

"Casey wants to see me," Chuck said. "I had texted him earlier about the stabbing."

"Okay, I'll take you to him and head back to the office," Sarah told Chuck. "There's some paperwork I need to get finished."

"He's coming here to get me," Chuck told her. "I would kiss you bye, but Ellie would know in five seconds."

"Then I'll just collect later, with interest," Sarah told him. She winked and she left.

Chuck stood there, wondering what he did right to deserve her in his life.

}o{

"Yup, I think Barnes and Walker are right, former military," Casey said, looking at the video. They were sitting in Casey's car. He had parked in the sight-line of where the murder had taken place. "Too many come back home and just can't readjust."

"What do you mean?" Chuck asked.

Casey was silent for a moment. "Something happened where ever they were deployed. The nightmares follow them. They could have been happily married when they left, and all they wanted to do was come back to their loved ones. But something… something happened. They wake up with night terrors, or, God forbid, wake up holding a knife to the throat of the ones they love."

"Oh, God," Chuck muttered, horrified.

"And these men and women, who gave their all for their country… they've now nearly killed or harmed the ones they love. They leave. They don't think they can live with themselves, or those they care about, for what they did, or almost did."

"And that's how they end up there," Chuck said, looking at the homeless encampment.

"Some of them go to Hawaii and just live on the land there," Casey said. He nodded toward the encampment and Chuck followed his line of sight. "And then there are some who want to forget everything."

"How do they do that?" Chuck asked, a little stunned to see a familiar figure, checking on people in the encampment.

"They try to kill the pain," Casey said softly. "But it doesn't kill it, it simply masks it until the high wears off. And then it comes back, and it brings friends."

"Casey, are you telling me that it's not a coincidence this homeless encampment is by a hospital?" Chuck asked, both watching the person they knew slowly making her way through the encampment. She was checking on people, showing grace and concern. It was obvious she knew these people. It was obvious this was not her first time.

"I'm not saying the hospital is supplying them," Casey said firmly. "But I am saying that drug use in homeless vets is off the charts. Hell, drug use in vets that aren't homeless is pretty high." He turned to Chuck. "Some of them have been through hell, and they don't know how to get back."

"You brought me here, showed me this, so I have to ask," Chuck began.

"I figured you would," Casey muttered.

"How long has that been going on?"

Casey was silent for a moment. "You know her background." Chuck nodded. "You know where she worked, and then we… we were a couple…"

"Still should be," Chuck said. Casey gave him a look, but Chuck held his ground. Casey sighed.

"Yeah, but I fucked that up," Casey admitted finally. He looked back over at Carina. "I had a friend that was staying over here, and I would come to check on him from time to time. Offer him a couch. But he refused. Carina started listening to my stories about him, and others I knew. She told me I should start a support group but… well, you know me and ladyfeelings."

"I don't think those are ladyfeelings," Chuck replied. Casey let out a low growl. "Right, my bad… ladyfeelings."

"So, Carina started coming with me when I checked on Hank," Casey said. "He died last year." Chuck was silent. "She kept coming back… checking on others, told me they were still here."

"Is this why you broke up?" Chuck asked. Casey looked away, but Chuck swore he saw a tear in Casey's eye. "Casey, you can talk to her."

"I lashed out," Casey said softly. "I lashed out because I couldn't save him."

"He wasn't yours to save, Casey," Chuck said gently. Casey refused to look at Chuck, but Chuck heard Casey suck up some snot. "Casey, you can only help those that want your help."

"I know, kid. I know." He turned back forward, and Chuck could see the red in his eyes, but said nothing. "I do love her, but… part of me is like those guys." He nodded toward the encampment. "I hurt her."

"Wait… are you saying-"

"What? No! I didn't hit her," Casey said. "Hell, if I'd've tried, she'd've cut my nuts off and fed them to me." Chuck had to admit that probably is exactly what would have happened. "But I yelled, and she didn't deserve it."

"Have you tried… oh I don't know, talking to her?" Casey glared at Chuck. "Imma take that as a no."

"Listen, we can deal with my lack of love life later," Casey began.

"I want it noted that you said we, and I will be bringing this up again." Casey glared at him. "At a later time, but I will be."

Casey rolled his eyes. "Carina could be a big help to you. I think you should talk to her."

"Okay," Chuck said, nodding. Casey kept looking at Chuck. "So, you mean now?" Casey's glare intensified, and Chuck opened the door and got out. Casey started the car, driving off and leaving Chuck standing there. "Now how am I supposed to get back to the office?"

"So, you're all mine, huh?" Chuck heard behind him. He slowly turned and saw the grinning Carina. "Oh, Curls, how I've waited for this moment."

Chuck audibly gulped.

A/N: Listen, I know this got heavy, but you know me, I like to deal with real things. If you or someone you know are in a crisis and you/they are a veteran, please call 988 and hit option 1, or text 838255 . Take care of yourselves.

Next time:

I understand you can't keep your hands off of me," Chuck continued.

Sarah mocked gasped, and swatted his arm. "Well you're the ones with ideas on how I should wake you up."

"You should see the ideas I have about me waking you up," Chuck countered.

"I think I'd like to see them," Sarah said, bouncing an eyebrow. She giggled at Chuck's eyes crossing. "Hey, focus."

"I'ma focusing, I'ma focusing," he muttered. "Seriously, what am I supposed to be focusing on?"

*Shakes head* My word…what is he supposed to be focusing on?