A/N: Poor Skip….just….poor Skip…who would do that to him? It's almost like someone is trying to get him killed, or Zondra killed….wait….are you saying….

Disclaimer: I don't own Chuck

Chuck was sitting in the back of the plane, on the bed, alone, lost in his thoughts. Why the hell was Skip in the field? He was studying Skip's file, and was stuck on a note made in it by Dr. Dreyfus. Dreyfus mentioned Skip's lack of verbal communication, but also his amazing computer skills. Dreyfus recommended using Skip as an analyst, but under no circumstances was he ever to be allowed out in the field. Additionally, his verbal skills deteriorated near women, and for maximum efficiency he should never work with one. Chuck opened the file on Zondra. Skip was probably out of his mind near her. She had a beauty about her, and in the outfit that Chuck had seen her in on the screen… Chuck slammed the folder shut. What in the hell was going on?

"Tired of blondie, already?" Carina asked. Chuck looked up, having missed her coming in. "Don't worry, sport, I'm not touching you. Your mom scares the shit out of me."

"She's not called the Frost Queen because of her love of Wendy's Frosties," Chuck replied. Carina gave him a look, not used to these types of quips from her normal team members. "What's up?"

"Something's rotten," Carina said. Chuck patted the bed beside him for her to have a seat. She arched an eyebrow and he returned a flat look. She smirked, and sat down beside him. Chuck opened Skip's file and pointed to Dreyfus's notes. "Oh my God," she muttered. She looked up at Chuck. "Listen, I know Zondra. She was in Iraq. Someone pulled her out."

"Who would have that kind of authority?" Chuck asked.

"A special agent in charge," Carina offered. Chuck seemed unconvinced. "Listen, your organization was penetrated, why not the CIA, FBI, NSA, DEA, Homeland, or even the FDA?" Chuck gave her a look. "Dude, the FDA has some real powers." Chuck shook his head, trying not to laugh. "What I'm saying is, this stinks."

"Like the rotted meat the FDA didn't recall." Carina gave him a flat look, and he just shrugged. "You opened the door," he muttered. She shook her head and looked away. "So, let's say there is something fishy going on. What do we do?"

"Proceed carefully," Carina replied. "Look, if there is something fishy, then it's coming from higher up, and that's a problem. Is Beckman looking into it?"

"Yeah, usually I'd be the one scanning different servers looking for anything," he muttered. He ran his hand through his hair, frustrated. "Why am I running this team? Why isn't Casey, or you, or hell, Zondra? All of you have more field experience than I do."

Carina studied him a moment, thinking about what Frost had said. An idea came to her. She could have her fun if she handled her business, and if there was one thing Carina hated, was a boring op. "Listen, Chuck, Sarah will make sure you're okay."

"She shouldn't have to," he retorted, blowing out a frustrated breath. He buried his head in his hands. "She is being pulled into this, because it's apparent to everyone I can't protect myself."

"Chuck, we're not protecting you because of your inabilities. We're protecting you because of your abilities." Chuck looked up at her. "You can do this, and everyone is here because they want to be here, but you do bring up a good point. I think we need to expand this mission to bring in a second. We need a computer guy on the ground."

"Skip," Chuck said, nodding. "Thank you, Carina."

She heard movement towards the door, and made her decision. "Anytime, Chuck," she said, pulling him into a hug and running her hand through his hair.

"Oh," came the surprised voice at the door, as they both turned and saw Sarah. Carina pulled back, her hand cupping his face, making him look at her.

"Remember," she said, got up, walked past Sarah, never acknowledging her, and left the room.

"Beckman needs to talk to you," she said, her words crisp and short. Sarah turned and left. Chuck stood, and followed her out of the bedroom. Chuck walked by Casey, who had a knowing grin on his face. Sarah's face was a mask, and Carina wore a smirk. He wasn't sure what was going on, and had no time to think about it before Beckman appeared on the screen before him.

"Chuck… team… I have been in contact with Director Graham." Beckman paused, her face solemn. "Graham is as surprised as all of us about Skip and Zondra being on this case." She took a deep breath. "I have known him for many years, and I have never seen him as shaken as he is right now. He is scrambling, trying to figure out who has overridden his orders."

"What are our orders, General?" Casey asked, ready to get down to business.

"Your mission has officially become a rescue… or a recovery one, if necessary."

Confusion covered Chuck's face. "Recovery?" he asked. Casey cleared his throat and Chuck turned toward Casey. The look on Casey's face was one of seriousness. It then dawned on Chuck, and he turned toward Beckman. "No," he said softly.

"We don't know what has happened," Beckman began. "Orders were given to agent Rizzo, but whether she has received those orders is unknown."

"If they've killed them," Chuck began, the rage building in him, thinking back to the Fulcrum invasion that had left Anna dead, his friends wrecked, and his mother in a hospital bed. He never saw Sarah begin to reach for his hand to comfort him, but snatch it away at the last second. He took a deep breath to get control of himself. "General, after the mission I would like to propose a sub-mission to take down the Collective."

"It's your call, Chuck," Beckman replied. "You are independent, after all." Chuck felt all eyes on him. He glanced to Casey, and received the slightest of head-nods. He turned to Carina, who did the same. He finally turned to Sarah.

"I don't know why you're asking me," Sarah said, her words sharper than they needed to be.

"Because you're in charge of my protection, because you're a part of this team, because… you're important." Sarah stared at him, unable to form words for a moment.

"Of course I'm in," she finally managed to say. "We're here to get justice, right?" Chuck nodded. "Apparently, you think this ties in, or we wouldn't be going after them."

Carina chuckled. "Blondie, this boy scout here is going to try and right every wrong he sees. The day may come when you need to say no. But in this case, with someone going after a member we had handpicked, you bet your sweet ass we think it's tied in." Sarah and Carina locked eyes, as a slow grin grew on Carina's face. "He's right, you're important."

"So, we're all in agreement?" Chuck asked, not having a clue what was going on, but needing to move forward before he became even more confused. Everyone nodded. "Next stop, Bob Hope International?" Beckman nodded and cut the feed. Chuck turned to face his teammates. "Next stop, our new home in Castle."

Carina grinned, turned, and walked to the back of the plane. Sarah stood there a second, turned and followed her. Chuck watched them go, confused. "Did I do something?" Casey grunted a laugh, sat down in the seat, shut his eyes, and went to sleep.

}o{

Sarah followed Carina to the back of the plane, into the bedroom. "Just so you know, Blondie, those rumors about me rolling that way aren't true."

"What you two do, are what you do," Sarah began.

"You want the dirty deets?" Carina asked, grinning.

Sarah ignored her. "But know this. My job is to protect him, and if he's worried about you, or thinking about you in the field-"

"Whoa, whoa, Blondie, all I want is a little tumble. I'm not looking for 2.3 kids, a dog, and a white picket fence. I mean, if that's what you want, fine."

"This isn't about me," Sarah retorted. "It's about me doing my job."

"Right. So do your job, keep him safe, however you need to, because you are important. You're the one that protects him. Because without him, nothing happens, and that includes for me." Carina walked past a shocked Sarah. Sarah was standing there fuming.

"Why is this bothering me?" she muttered. "I don't care what they do, it's their life." She sat on the bed, seething. She had no idea what to do with these emotions, ones she had never felt in her life.

}o{

An SUV was waiting for them as they walked down the staircase from the plane. "CHUCKSTER!" came the booming voice.

"AWESOME!" Chuck replied.

"I'd like to climb that," Carina muttered to Sarah as they started down the stairs.

Sarah glared at her. "He is happily married to Chuck's sister. So if you want to cause a split in this team, or get Frost pissed at you, by all means go for it," she hissed, power-walking away from Carina.

"Miller," Casey growled.

"Don't worry big guy, I'm just yanking chains," she said, grinning.

"Why are you?" he asked, shaking his head. She stopped, turned to him, and put her hand on his chest, stopping the bigger man cold.

"Casey, you know the team dynamic, you know how people can be when they first realize something in the field."

Casey studied her a minute. "Miller… what the hell are you doing?"

"Those two have it baaad for each other, and… and I'm just pushing it along to get it into the open now, when the stakes aren't too high," she explained with a shrug. "We both know if I got curls into bed, he'd be my lap dog for life." Casey smirked at her. "What?"

"Just saying be careful. Your calculus may be based on bad data, and you may find yourself his plaything for life." With that, Casey walked by her. Carina was shocked for one of the few times in her life. She turned and stared, as Chuck hugged a strange bearded little man. She grinned and flexed her fingers at the middle joints giving him a slight wave. He stared at her, and shook his head. It seemed like… disappointment on his face. Why was he disappointed in her? She mentally shrugged, and headed to the SUV.

}o{

The drive to Castle was interesting. Morgan asked Sarah to join him in the back, Casey sat up front with Devon, who drove, and Chuck and Carina sat in the middle. Morgan kept shaking his head. Sarah felt her phone go off, picked it up and saw it was a text message from Morgan.

M: What is she playing?

S: She's Pam, not Babs. (shrug emoji)

M: But is she? She hasn't seen Dick's ass yet.

Sarah snorted, not able to help herself and she saw Morgan grin. She typed.

S: The rate she's going she's gonna see Chuck's ass or already has.

M: No, she hasn't, I'm certain. He has no want to see her ass, he's too mission focused, there's only one ass he wants to see.

Sarah raised an eyebrow with that and grinned as she saw his next text.

M: Sorry, got carried away, it sounded better in my head.

S: For strictly protection purposes, who's ass does he want to see?

Morgan was silent, and she felt the heat from his cheeks, where the blush crept through. She really liked Chuck's friend. He was a good guy, going through a loss, and what he had said, while maybe a little cringeworthy, had been said with the best intentions. So, she decided to bail him out.

S: Trust me, he doesn't want to see mine.

M: How do you know that?

S: She's set her claws in him and he didn't push her away.

Morgan looked up at her and shook his head. She raised an eyebrow and he quickly typed something out and then paused. She mouthed, "send it."

M: You're Vicky Vale.

S: What does that mean?

M: It means, you're the smart, tough, investigative reporter that when she sees something she wants she goes after it.

S: I don't want Chuck, I'm just protecting him.

Morgan looked up at her, and held her gaze. She felt hers waiver. How did this short man with this crazy beard see through her? He typed something and hit send.

M: I know I'm his friend, but I'd like to think I'm yours too, and that means I hold your confidences.

Sarah dropped her hands and looked up at the ceiling. She let out a long breath and started to look back at her phone, when she saw Carina and Chuck sitting in the seat in front of them. Her arm was around his shoulders, leaning close as if she were whispering sweet nothings in his ear. Her phone pinged.

M: If you try and tell me, looking like that, that you feel nothing for him then I'm going to call you a liar.

She gave Morgan a sad smile and shook her head, and that's when understanding dawned on Morgan. His expression went from one of trying to understand and figure her out, to complete understanding of what he was witnessing.

M: It's okay. This is a safe space. You get to explore those feelings.

S: I don't know what you're talking about.

He grinned at her and pressed send one last time.

M: That I believe.

}o{

They pulled into an underground garage and exited the car. Devon and Morgan led the way to the elevators, and Sarah followed, her mind numb.

"Hey, you okay?" she heard him ask. She turned to him, seeing real worry and concern there.

"Yeah, I just realized I hadn't seen my dad, and don't know how he's doing," she said with a shrug. It wasn't a total lie…

"Awesome, how's Sarah's dad doing?" Chuck called out. Devon spun toward them, continuing to walk backwards, awesomely.

"Well, awesome!" he said with a grin. "You should go see him, but be warned… he lost some hair."

"That's gonna kill him," Sarah said, knowing how much her father loved his hair.

"He's good. I fixed him up with a wig and, if I hadn't told you, you'd never know it," and he laid his finger on his lips, grinning.

"That's great," she replied, a worry she hadn't wanted to admit had worn on her lifted. She felt him beside her, beaming. She looked up at him. She was being childish. "Hey, can you and I get another elevator, so we can talk?"

Chuck blinked, processed, and turned to the group. "You guys go ahead, we need to…" He turned to Sarah. "Talk?" She nodded at him, and he turned back to the group. "Talk." As the doors shut, Sarah saw Carina smirk, her gaze holding Sarah's. Then, just before the door completely shut, Carina winked at Sarah. Sarah glared at the closed doors. "So…?"

Sarah spun toward him. "Okay, I'm going to be super professional about this, because it's my job."

"Oookaaay," Chuck drawled, confused.

"If you're looking for a long-term thing, that is not Carina Miller. If you're looking for a 'hit it and quit it' type deal, then she's your girl, but… Chuck, for the love of God, you have to use protection." Chuck stared at her, his eyes wide.

"I-I," he stammered. "I'm… I'm… I'm not."

"Chuck, I'm not judging… okay, maybe I am a little, but what you do in your personal life is your personal life. But I have to tell you this stuff, because it could affect the mission, and we cannot have it affecting the mission, okay?" Chuck stood there, speechless. Sarah nodded, and turned toward the elevator. She reached for the elevator button when his hand shot out, and grabbed her wrist. Both looked down, surprised what he did. They looked back up and locked eyes.

"Wait," he began.

"I told you, I don't care what you do," Sarah told him.

"It's pretty apparent that you do," he retorted, before he could stop himself.

"Look, if you want some empty sexual pleasure with her… then help yourself, but you're better than that, Chuck," she added, with no idea why she did.

"Well, maybe you could use some yourself, to loosen up, or whatever."

"Are you calling me tightly wound?" she asked, anger boiling up in her.

"I'm saying that right now you are wound a bit… tightly… yeah!"

"Maybe I should go find someone and get good and unwound!"

"Maybe you should," Chuck said, frustration over his confusion boiling out of him. "Maybe you should go up there and drag Morgan off, and you two discuss whatever it was you and he were discussing earlier."

"You sound jealous!"

"What do I have to be jealous about!?"

"I HAVE NO IDEA!" She bellowed. They both stared at each other. Sarah turned, hit the elevator call button a bit more fiercely than necessary, and walked in as soon as the door opened. She hit the button to go upstairs, leaving Chuck standing there by himself.

"What in the hell just happened?" he asked the empty room.

A/N: Poor Chuck. I asked my beta what he thought, and his response. "Other than wanting to personally strangle Carina, then launch her in the nearest available capsule into a parking orbit around Titan, it sounded fine to me." EDC might be helping me with this one….I'm not allowed to say.

Next time:

"Will you please tell me what I did to piss you off?" Chuck asked.

"Christ," Casey muttered. "Here we go."

"Nothing," Sarah replied with a shrug. "You just won't listen to advice because of some reason I don't understand."

"And, you make assumptions about me that are not based in fact," Chuck retorted.

"ENOUGH!" Frost yelled, smacking her hand down on the table. She pushed herself to her feet with her crutches. "What has gotten into you?"

"Maybe you've picked the wrong person to lead this team," Chuck replied. He shook his head. "I'm not cut out for this." With that, he turned and walked away.

Oh…I'm sure this is fine….Dillwg? Is this fine?