Author's Note: I know I really shouldn't be doing this, but I'm going to anyhow. This is a tester story for myself. I tend to write a lot, my chapters are sometimes long and not many people like to read long winded chapters. I never thought it would be possible to keep a single chapter short, but I have written these first two and I'm quite pleased with myself. When I do continue, I shall strive to keep them just that, short…but hopefully interesting and entertaining.

This idea came from re-reading my other Chuck story, Casey Vs The Mother. I'm not good with mission stories, but I sincerely hope its plausible.

I only own my Ocs, not the others. Shame…to own John Casey would be DE-lish! But then there is only one woman who could own him. And that will be implied…as in all my Chuck stories.

Enjoy.

JC Carmicheal

The Blame

"What did you do?"

John Casey wasn't expecting the affront when he opened his door, but he did give it to the nerd. It was intimidating, for him. Perhaps it was only really intimidating because Casey felt a little guilty and that was something this NSA Colonel did not feel that often. Or rather he didn't let it show.

There was a momentary look of embarrassment on the older man's face, one which Chuck slyly grinned in victory at. The Intersect obviously thought he had the upper hand and he might well have had every right to be angry at him, but Casey knew he wasn't faultless in the recent foul up on their mission. Nor was he entirely to blame.

This whole mission was a bad idea and he had said that at the very beginning.

Casey's brow frowned and the dark menacing glare Chuck received from his handler made him gulp nervously.

"What did I do?" Casey snarled under his breath, looking over Chuck's shoulder at the surroundings behind him. No one was around and Mrs Olson from the flat above wasn't peeking through her curtains. "You should have said nothing to Janet Milligan…you compromised your cover, you were the one who brought her into this."

"You really want to discuss this, here, Casey?" Chuck had folded his arms across his chest and lowered his voice in a hiss. "You want to talk about why we've freaked out our mark, here in the open, where anyone can hear?"

"Get your ass in here Bartowski." John grabbed Chuck by the scruff of his shirt and dragged him inside, slamming the door behind them. He released Chuck and stormed over to his desk, where the files of their current mission were discreetly displayed for revision purposes. Casey avoided meeting the young man's glaring and insinuating stare and slumped down in the chair behind his desk. "You want to talk? Talk! Either way Beckman is not pleased as to how our mark got spooked. She is not even going to know the reason why we…"

"You!"

"Why WE screwed up." Casey's head shot up and gave Chuck an even more frightening scowl. John was once again impressed when Chuck found what little defiance he had in him to attempt to match his expression. "You made the mistake of breaking from our cover identities. You told her information that was foolish and irresponsible, you jackass."

"Yeah. Okay." Chuck scoffed, walking round the other side of the desk and picking up one of the files. He didn't even need to look at it to know what was hidden between the grey plastic cover, he had been revising it for the past month or so. "I admit, I panicked. But I couldn't back out of it or Janet would have wanted to have known more. She is so charming that I couldn't help but be a little honest."

"It's that honesty that messed all this up, you moron!" Casey shoved some of the files harshly over to Chuck, but instead of him catching them they skidded off the edge of the table and clattered onto the floor. He wasn't going to be intimidated, or he was trying not to be.

Casey just got back up and leaned forward resting his clenched fists down on the desk. Chuck could hear the murmurs of the Casey growl number 88, (hints of "extremely pissed off." but laced with an unhealthy dose of "I'm screwed.") and he saw the bulging muscles on Casey's arms twitch and flex. Those arms were obviously wanting to lash out at something. Chuck knew it wouldn't be him. Well part of him hoped it wouldn't be him.

Casey eventually spoke again.

"You've have essentially crapped a month and two weeks work of cover prep down the toilet, Bartowski, all because you got swayed by a good looking woman's wily charms!"

"And what you did wasn't as bad as my mistake?" Chuck shook his head and rose up to meet Casey's glare. Chuck was scared, but he was also angry, John could see that now. Again, Casey couldn't exactly blame him. "Do you know that this mission is screwed because of what she caught you doing?"

"She should not have been anywhere near…."

"Do you have a whole list of excuses to try and excuse yourself from blame, Casey? Because its not going to work with me. You have got a lot of nerve doing what you did with my…"

"I'VE GOT?…why you….."

"I said that it wasn't right. I objected right from the beginning but you just had to carry on and ignore my warnings. I'm the intersect and you're my handler, we're supposed to be a team! Haven't the last few years meant anything to you? Don't I deserve to be heard? Do I not have your respect?"

"Yes." The fierceness and threatening anger drained from his voice and Casey spoke with a begrudging, yet Chuck knew, a genuine respect for him. "You do. You serve your country well and this team has been through a lot. More than most agents ever could…but you're still a moron. You didn't listen to me. Or Sarah."

"So we didn't listen to each other! Well its about time we did."

"I'm listening, Bartowski. How do you suppose we remedy this, get back into our mark's confidence and into Beckman's good books again?"

"I have a plan."

Casey growled. It was number 42.

"We're screwed."