Chuck Fanfic 1.

All characters and most inventions mentioned in this piece of writing belong to the studio/creators of Chuck.

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WARNING: This story contains soft m/m vore with no death or digestion. You have been warned, no likey vore, no likey this story... have a nice day.
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Some explanations for those unfamiliar with the show: Chuck is a normal guy who just happened to end up with a huge amount of government secrets in his brain, he can't access them at will, but when he sees things that are related to them, he has a `flash' which is a surge of information that the computer in his head (The Intersect it is called) knows. Basically everything known by the government about everything was put into that computer, and can be activated at any time by seeing a person, picture, name… well pretty much anything related really.

When this happened his normal life was invaded by two special government agents, Casey and Sarah.

Casey is a semi-psychotic killer with a cruel sense of humour and a serious tough-guy complex.

I think that is all you need to know, I shall include an image of the characters in the writer's description at the end of this section so you can see what they look like. Feel free to ask anything you are confused about.

This fic takes place during season 1, probably about halfway through.

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A mission that seemed silly to Chuck, really REALLY silly… they had to sneak into a hotel, full of known terrorists and drug lords, and steal a ruby from the head guy's room. A huge ruby worth millions in drug money, that was being passed from hand to hand among terrorist groups as payment for shipments of dangerous and illegal weapons.

Okay so it made sense to try and put a stop to it… but still! Sarah and Casey were highly trained government agents… but him? He was just a guy who worked for the Nerd Herd at the Buy More! But no, they HAD to bring him along in case he flashed some important information about someone that they needed to know whilst they were there.

The mission went very well… to start with. They got the crystal, by pretending to be hotel staff and getting into the appropriate suite to steal it, and even managed to sneak out of the room again before one of the particularly dangerous crime lords saw the three of them… disguised as a waiter, a cleaner and a barmaid, re-locking the door. That was when the shit hit the fan, everyone was shooting at everyone, and Chuck was the only person without a gun… but because he was the one who was holding the ruby, he was the one being shot at the most.

After about two minutes of cowering behind a corner, he decided he'd had enough and ran for the nearest storage cupboard at the end of the corridor, throwing himself through the metal door and slamming it after him, panting as he looked at the ruby and tried to think of what to do with it… any minute now someone would come through that door and try to take it, and he had been told that under no circumstances could the terrorist organisation be permitted to have the ruby back.

He thought on this for a long moment before coming to one simple but very unpleasant conclusion… and lifting the object up, he examined it. Big… BIG for a ruby… half the size of his fist… could he do this? He shook his head, biting his tongue and he made himself bring the object to his lips, and steeling himself, he shoved it into his mouth.

Chuck winced immediately, forcing the horribly uncomfortable thing back in his mouth and gulping hard, almost gagging as his body screamed in objection to this mistreatment. He all but yelped in pain as the object slid further down, hurting his delicate throat, making him desperately want to curl up from the pain. But he couldn't, and forcing himself to gulp harder, he started moving furniture in front of the storeroom door, blockading himself in firmly before collapsing against the desk he'd shoved against the door last, panting as the object finally slid into his stomach, falling down uncomfortably and sitting in a large, heavy lump. He gulped hard a few times, trying to set his throat right, rubbing at his stomach hard, trying to make the heavy, unnatural feeling go away.

It was only made worse however when there was a heavy smack on the door outside, knocking all the furniture and causing him to yelp. There was another loud impact on the door and he yelped louder, trying to hold the furniture in place and failing miserably, shouting in alarm as he was pushed back with it and a figure squeezed into the room.
Chuck could only pant in relief as he realised that the figure was only Casey.

Casey glared at him. “Get out of this cupboard! Where's the ruby?!”

Chuck shivered a little at the mention of the item. “Safe… very ve-e-ery safe…”

Casey nodded, grabbing him by the collar and dragging him out of the cupboard heading for the exit at high speed, him and Sarah apparently having cleared a path out.

Before Chuck knew it he'd been bundled into the back seat of a car and they were moving, Sarah driving and Casey leaning over from the front passenger seat. “Give me the ruby.”

Chuck frowned, “uh… that would be something of a problem…”

Casey glared at him. “Why?!”

Chuck frowned, “Well… you remember I said it was very safe? Because you told me to hide it somewhere they could definitely not take it?”

Casey nodded slowly.

Chuck frowned. “I swallowed it.”

Casey blinked, staring at him. “You SWALLOWED IT?!”

Chuck winced at the raised voice. “Yes…”

Casey stared at him for a long moment. “That ruby half as big as a man's fist?! You SWALLOWED it?!”

Chuck nodded, “yeah, it hurt but… I thought we could worry about getting it back once the bad guys were dealt with…”

Casey shook his head. “You idiot! That's a priceless gem!”

Chuck nodded, “Yeah, and I didn't think it was going to be in there long enough to get damaged! I don't think humans can digest rubies anyway!”

Casey growled at him angrily. “Cough it up Chuck… NOW!”

Chuck nodded a little, tensing nervously, feeling this shift the heavy lump in his gut, then he tried to force it out, tried to make himself sick, tried everything he could think of… nothing worked.

By the time they finally stopped at his apartment complex he was getting scared that he couldn't get it out, and Casey's insistent staring at him was not helping his situation at all. “Look I can't get it out!” he finally cried at them frustrated.
Casey glared at him, pulling a knife from his belt. “Then you'd better be ready for me to cut it out!”

Chuck yelped, clutching his stomach at the very idea, extremely glad when Sarah grabbed the knife. “You are not cutting into anyone Casey, I have a better idea… you two go wait in your apartment and keep trying, I'll join you in a little while.” She said quickly, gesturing for them to get out.

Chuck climbed out of the car, relieved that he wasn't going to be sliced open any more, but could only yelp again as he was dragged off to Casey's apartment by the larger agent.

Chuck frowned, “When are we going to make a no shoving rule? Or a no dragging rule? I mean I really don't like this any more…”

Casey shoved him hard into a chair. “We're not, now sit there and try to cough up that crystal… I have to explain the… delay… to our bosses.”

Chuck sighed, sitting nervously in the chair as Casey stamped off into the next room. He felt so very sick, and yet couldn't make himself throw up the crystal… was it too big? Was he doing everything right and the thing was simply too large to come back up without being positioned? It certainly felt that way!

After a few minutes Sarah returned, and he could only watch with fear as Sarah came into the apartment and brought some large and painful looking metal devices with her, fortunately taking them into the next room with Casey, and not threatening him with them in any way.
There were raised voices and arguments for some time from the next room and when Sarah finally came back in, Chuck had given up on getting the stone out himself. He looked hopefully up at Sarah. “Please tell me you have a painless way out of this…”

Sarah paused for a suspiciously long moment before speaking. “Well we have a solution, but you're not going to like it…”
Chuck tensed, looking at her. “Why?

Sarah sighed, “Because we need that crystal by any means possible, and the means we've come up with… are… unusual… a government secret… something only recently completed, a method used mostly for protective custody and transport of important peoples…”

Chuck blinked, staring at her, now utterly confused. “How does that relate to my problem?”

Sarah sighed, holding her hands out, revealing she was holding a small, four inch tall Casey, wearing a waterproof communication earpiece and looking about to explode with rage. “He's going in to get it Chuck.”
Chuck winced, feeling his head pound suddenly with the rush of a Flash, the Intersect computer in his head throwing everything the goverment knew about this into his conscious mind, causing him to wince as he spoke very fast. “Scientific case ID 34513, the capability to shrink living people or inanimate objects to a size small enough to be consumed by a host and kept inside alive and/or safe until such time as they can be released at their intended location and returned to full size by trained government agents.” He panted hard, clutching his head right afterwards, tired and confused by what he now knew as he stared at the four inch man. “NO! There is NO WAY I am letting you do that!”

Sarah sighed, “We don't have a choice Chuck, we need that crystal and this is the fastest and least painful way to do it.”

“Least painful for YOU!” snapped Casey, clearly sour about the whole idea.

Chuck shivered, starting to get up, “No! I am not letting Casey go wandering around inside me! You violate my privacy, you bug my house, you track my cars, you go through my computer files and you probably overall know more about me than I do!… You CANNOT violate me in this way too!”

Sarah sighed, pushing him back down in his chair. “Chuck we haven't been completely honest with you… that Ruby isn't just a priceless gem, it has a computer chip hidden in it as well, that belongs to the government and is currently carrying research data on a terrorist organisation… if we don't get that back in a matter of hours, lives could be in danger.”

Chuck whimpered, torn between violation on a new extreme of privacy violation and the risk of innocent lives. “Isn't there another way?!”

Sarah shook her head. “It's stuck in there Chuck, the only way it'll come out is if it gets unstuck… that's what Casey is going to do.”

Chuck frowned, worried about this whole idea. “Why does it have to be Casey?!”

Sarah sighed, “Because he's been better trained for this!”

Chuck blinked, looking at Casey. “He has?!”

Sarah shook her head. “No time to chat Chuck, you have to do this now!”

Chuck panted, rubbing his head. “Alright… alright… as long as you swear I can't hurt him…”

Sarah nodded, grabbing one of Chuck's hands, “You already know you can't.” He said, putting Casey in the hand.

Chuck frowned, gently grasping around Casey's torso, realising how big he still was, and how heavy… how the heck was he supposed to get him down?! “he's still so big, can't you make him smaller?”

Sarah shook her head. “This is the limit we can shrink to… I know it seems hard but it's physically possible, we know it is, now please hurry.”

Chuck gulped hard, shifting his grip on Casey, looking at the little man and then frowning, reaching down and plucking the man's gun off his belt. “First rule, no guns inside Chuck… second rule…” he reached down and removed the second gun strapped to the man's ankle. “Still no guns inside Chuck…” he felt the objecting man over and removed a knife strapped to his other leg. “Third rule…No knives inside Chuck.” He checked Casey over, who was now shouting and hurling abuse in objection to having all his precious weapons removed, then he looked up at Sarah. “Fair?”

Sarah nodded, “Fair.”

Chuck nodded, gulping hard again and lifting Casey up. “Please, please… I don't want to do this either… let's make it fast?”

Casey glared at him, “Wouldn't have it any other way.”

Chuck sighed, and closed his eyes, carefully positioning Casey and starting to slide him into his mouth, head first. He winced as he felt the weight of the man's chest on his tongue… heavy, so very heavy for one so small… he could feel the man tensed to the very furthest point a human body could be.
Chuck was extremely uncomfortable with this already, and when it suddenly hit him that he had a living person in his mouth… a government assassin no less, who was as unwilling as him for this, he gagged, spitting the man out into his hand again. “I can't do this!”

Sarah sighed, “You HAVE to Chuck, if you don't we have orders to… well… to remove it using more extreme measures…” she gestured to a knife on the table. “It wouldn't kill you but we have no anaesthetic…”

Chuck whimpered, staring at the knife. “Okay, okay, don't do that… I'll try…”

He reluctantly raised Casey to his mouth again and slid him inside, trying to pretend he was nothing but food as he forced himself to tip his head back. He found himself blushing as he used his tongue to pull the man firmly against the back of his throat, but forced his objections back into silence as he gulped hard, flicking his head a little to start Casey sliding.

Now the pain really began for Chuck, as the broad shouldered, muscular agent was forced into his already damaged throat. He fought against his instinct to start coughing, just gulping again hard, putting two fingers into his mouth to shove the man's feet down hard, not caring that he was being too rough, just wanting Casey somewhere he wouldn't cause so much pain. He clasped a hand to his throat, swallowing hard, wincing as he felt the broad body sliding under his hand, he pressed down on it, trying to compact the man a little or something, not thinking straight enough to know that wasn't going to help in the slightest. He could only lean back and gasp as the agent finally slid down past his collarbone, allowing him to breathe again. He clasped at his chest as the lump of living meat was pulled deeper, still stretching his throat badly. He could not believe this! He had just eaten a person! A living, breathing person! Who was now only a couple inches away from reaching his stomach and what should mean certain death! He sat up in the chair, shivering. “Sarah are you SURE he'll be okay?!” he asked again, looking at her.

Sarah sighed, “he'll be fine Chuck, now sit still and don't move.” She put a headset on Chuck firmly. “He'll use this to communicate with you… don't do anything unless he tells you to.”
Chuck nodded nervously, clutching the arms of the chair, not daring to move, waiting, tensing even more as he felt Casey slide down into his stomach, more than doubling the already unnatural weight in it and making an uncomfortable shifting sensation that felt very unnatural. He took a deep breath, trying to soothe his jingling nerves. He yelped in surprise when a voice came over the headset, a shouting voice. “CHUCK!” He winced, “Ow, not so loud Casey!”

The voice came back, as loud as before. “WHAT'S THE BIG IDEA?! YOU NEARLY BROKE MY LEGS AND SUFFOCATED ME!”

Chuck winced, “Sorry Casey… I was kind of panicking… are you okay?”

There was a heavy shift as Casey presumably grabbed the crystal. “Never mind me, just get ready to bring this out.”

Chuck tilted his head. “Wait, how are we going to?” he winced and stopped talking as he felt the sharp object shoved hard up into his gullet again. He closed his eyes, focusing on bringing it out, forcing it slowly back up, almost crying out in pain as he felt a corner of it slice into the delicate flesh, and continue to do so as it moved up his throat, finally stopping as it reached his mouth. He yelped, spitting it out into his hands, wincing as he tasted a goodly amount of blood pouring into his mouth. He gagged, holding a hand over his mouth, holding out the ruby to Sarah in the other hand.
She took it gently, blinking. “Blood? Chuck are you okay?”
He shook his head slowly, trying not to freak out at the taste of blood, finally getting up and running into the bathroom to wash it away with lots and lots of water. He didn't dare to drink any but he rinsed his mouth out an insane amount of times, waiting for the blood to stop for some time before going back to the living room and falling back into his chair.

Sarah had apparently gone off into the other room to report that the crystal had been safely returned, because he found himself alone now. Well… kinda alone.

“Enough drama Chuck, time to let me out!” came Casey's voice over the headset, and Chuck winced as he felt the man shove his arms up into his gullet. He shook his head as this stung extremely badly, gulping automatically, shoving the intruding arms back down into his stomach. “Wait a minute Casey, I just sliced my throat open in at least a few places, please just give me a little while…”
There was an angry movement and the arms were shoved into his throat again, “No Chuck, you're letting me out right now!”

Chuck winced, gulping hard, forcing him back down again, glad that he was able to stop Casey… just for once being the stronger one. “I can't Casey! It hurts too much!”

There was an angry shout over the headset. “HEY! You CANNOT keep me in here! Let me out!”
Chuck frowned, “I'm not going to KEEP you there, that's the last thing I want… what I'm asking is for five minutes for my throat to stop hurting and so I can check there's no serious damage.”

There was a slight pause. “I'll give you two minutes and then I'm starting to force my way out.”

Chuck sighed softly, leaning back in the chair and closing his eyes, gulping gently, trying to ease the strain in his throat and slow his thundering heart.

After a minute or so Sarah came back into the room, looking at him. “What's wrong? You haven't brought Casey out yet?”

Chuck sighed, rubbing his throat, “I just need a minute, I think that stone damaged something…”

Sarah frowned, tipping his head back and opening his mouth, shining a desk lamp into it. “Hmm… I do see the start of quite a nasty looking cut… how far down does the pain go?”

Chuck shrugged a little, gesturing with a hand roughly to an area a couple of inches below his collarbone.
“Oh that's a bad one…” she tipped his head a little further, peering down as best she could. “Very deep…”

Chuck tolerated this uncomfortable examination for a moment longer before he felt Casey give him a kick, then he pulled back from Sarah's grasp. “Stop it Casey!” he snapped, slapping his stomach in irritation, surprised when this was met with a pained yelp. “Casey are you okay?” he asked, immediately worried, having never heard Casey exclaim in pain like that.
“I'm fine, just get me out of here!” snapped the voice, which sounded strained and wheezy. “

“Wait no… what's the matter? Are you hurt?” Chuck was worried now… he'd managed to narrow down the sensations from inside and figure out what was what… and he could feel Casey leaning against the back wall, panting hard.

“No… I'm fine, I just want to get out!”

Chuck shook his head, “no something is wrong… I can feel it…”
Sarah frowned, putting on a headset. “Casey? If something is wrong you need to tell us now….”

There was a long pause and finally an answer. “Okay… I'm not fine… I think some of my ribs have been damaged… on the way down, the crushing, it caught me awkwardly…”

Chuck frowned, looking at Sarah. “I thought you said he'd be fine!”

Sarah sighed, “I meant he can't be hurt by your digestive system… he can still be crushed or broken.”

Chuck winced, rubbing his throat. “How bad is it Casey?”

There was a pause and a sigh. “Pretty bad… I mean I'll be okay, but…”

Sarah sighed, “The pressure of getting you out could be seriously dangerous…”

Chuck blinked, “Wait what?”

Sarah sighed, “And with your throat too Chuck… it might be better if you don't bring him out yet, his ribs need a chance to repair themselves at least to a degree… and your throat needs to heal, if you bring him out now we risk his life, and possibly turning your wound into a far worse one.”

Chuck frowned, “But how can he stay there?! How will we eat?! Or work?!”

Sarah sighed, “He'll be fine there, you just need to be careful not to eat as much as normal, and you'll be able to work normally too.”

Chuck sighed. “I don't like this…”

Casey joined in over the headsets. “Seconded, don't like this at all… Sarah you can still use the knife you know…”
Sarah shook her head. “You know I can't do that Casey, the ruby was needed and high priority, you're in no danger and having you there for a while won't harm the mission… you'll be able to keep a closer eye on Chuck than ever before at least…”

Chuck sighed, “Oh great… as if things weren't complicated enough, now I have a homicidal spy living in my gut…”

Casey punched him firmly. “You say it as though I'm moving in permanently... I'd like to remind you that I am not thrilled with this either…”

Sarah watched this quietly. “Like it or no… it's for both of you to remain healthy… so… you have to live with it.”
Chuck sighed, rubbing his head, “I want to go to bed.”

Sarah nodded, “Considering the way things have gone tonight that's probably a good idea.”
Chuck nodded, standing up slowly, wincing as Casey punched him. “Where do you think you're going? We should stay right here in MY apartment…”

Chuck blinked, “Why?”

Casey frowned, “because it's safer.”

Chuck shook his head, taking a deep breath before just heading for the door anyway. “Shut up Casey… just shut up for once… I'm in charge for the time being.” He proceeded to ignore the heavy punching he got for this, waving to Sarah before going back to his own apartment, glad to not run into anyone as he made a beeline for the fridge, grabbing some cold pizza and a beer and retreating to his room.

Casey had finally given up punching at Chuck, knowing he wasn't going to win this argument. Everything about this made him uncomfortable, to such an extent that he could almost feel himself on the verge of just attacking Chuck madly. He knew it wasn't the man's fault but he still felt he was to blame somehow.

He was settled unhappily against the back wall, still panting a little, his chest aching badly and his legs unable to support his weight. He hadn't mentioned this to the others but when Chuck had shoved his feet to get him down faster, it had hurt him terribly, and strained the muscles and tendons in his legs very badly. The combination of the two sets of injuries and the repressed anger he was holding in had made him feel very very tired, but he could not rest, he wanted to be pacing around, but couldn't. He should NEVER have agreed to do this… he should have just cut Chuck open and retrieved the stone that way. Messier but a lot less trouble.

He hugged himself, leaning against the wall, listening as Chuck walked back to his apartment and did something he couldn't identify before stopping at last and apparently sitting down. Then after a couple of minutes he heard the distant noise of a television. He sat up indignantly, snapping into the headset. “You could at least speak to me, not just ignore me, I'm here whether you like it or not.”

Chuck scowled, “Is that so?” He snapped, “Well maybe I don't want to speak to you just now.” He took the headset off angrily and tossed it over to the bed where he couldn't hear the angry voice any more, then he settled down to watch some bad television, starting to eat the pizza very cautiously, not keen on starting his throat bleeding again. He ignored Casey as the man punched at him in objection to being joined by food, eating hungrily, but holding back on the amount he ate, as he had been told to do.

Once he decided he'd had enough, he went to his bed and lay down, ignoring Casey further as the man punched at him angrily for this, he lay there for some time, drinking his beer slowly and carefully so as not to put Casey at risk, then slowly undressed and climbed into bed properly, setting his alarm and letting his head fall gratefully onto the pillow.

He felt a little bad about ignoring Casey like this, but he had forced himself to do it… if he didn't show Casey now that he was in charge, the man would be nothing but trouble for the whole time they were like this. Casey seemed to have calmed down now and was just sitting quiet, a heavy weight reminding Chuck that he was there the whole time, still and silent… but ever present.

The man eventually made himself relax to sleep, dozing off quickly and surprisingly easily considering the insanity of today.

Casey listened silently to Chuck falling asleep, feeling bitter and unhappy now. He understood that Chuck had wanted a little time to himself, but taking the headset off, leaving it off, and not even telling him he was going to sleep… that made Casey both insulted and worried. He had always been a total jerk to Chuck… why should Chuck take care of him now? Was he stuck here to be completely ignored until he was strong enough to come out? He didn't know if he could cope with it if that was the case… he didn't want to admit it but he already felt lonely and cut off. Shifting carefully he moved, cautiously, not really wanting to wake Chuck up and make him angrier than he was about all this. He crawled slowly and silently to the front wall and settled there, able to tell which one it was due to his immaculate sense of direction. He wanted out, and this was the closest he could come to being out, so here he would stay.

He relaxed into the wall, hugging himself again, even though it made his chest ache. He hated this… it had been all Sarah's idea, she had had the equipment and been the one to talk the bosses into it, so why had he been the one nominated to be dinner? Because he was `trained for anything'… well that was a compliment to him, but still! He sighed, leaning back into the squishy wall, trying to relax. It was hot in here… really hot, wet and slimy too and he did not like it at all! He wanted a shower! And a hot meal that he didn't have to sit in! He sighed, curling up with these resentful thoughts and slowly complaining himself to sleep.

Chuck awoke with a start when his alarm went off the next morning, trying to smack the snooze button but knocking it off the table instead. He muttered objectingly and reached for it from under the covers, not wanting to leave the warmth of his bed yet. Unfortunately he misjudged the distance away, and after reaching further and further, he just fell out of bed onto the floor heavily, whining softly in objection, rubbing his face which had been the part to bear most of the fall. He pulled himself up into a sitting position and smacked the alarm snooze button, shoving the clock back onto the bedside table and climbing back under the covers, flopping down on his front and closing his eyes sleepily.

Casey yelped in shock as he was woken by the world suddenly turning itself upside down, feeling himself roughly tossed around, immediately thinking he was under attack. He clawed at the walls around him, trying to find his attacker, realising after a minute that there was no attacker… he was inside Chuck. So what had happened? Was Chuck being attacked?! There was a pause in the movements and he realised he could distantly hear an alarm clock… oh… so the clumsy fool had fallen out of bed… great, just great.

Casey rubbed his eyes sleepily, shifting against the flesh, getting himself upright and comfortable again. He could only shout in surprise when Chuck moved and suddenly he was squashed hard, the world squishing down until he was being crushed. He gasped, clawing at the walls, wriggling, shouting in pain as his chest started to hurt badly. He had to make Chuck stop whatever he was doing! He shouted louder between gasps, starting to kick for all he was worth, clawing the wall in front of him hard.

Chuck blinked awake after a moment of this, confused and concerned about the movements in his stomach that definitely should not be there. He sat up quickly, pressing a hand to it. “What the heck?!” he suddenly spotted the headset on the other side of the bed and felt the memory come flooding back… that was Casey! Casey was… in his stomach… gross. He realised that he'd been laying on his front and that might have seriously hurt the injured Agent… he grabbed the headset and jammed it on roughly. “Casey?! Casey are you okay?!”

There was a terrifying moment of silence before a strained voice replied to him. “Oh so NOW you want to talk.”

Chuck sighed in relief, leaning back against the headboard. “Sorry I completely forgot you were there… was half asleep.” He ignored the tone of the voice, knowing Casey was angry about being ignored last night.

There was a pause in the speaking as he felt the man moving, apparently checking himself over before replying to him. “Well I'd appreciate you NOT laying on me again…”

Chuck sighed, resting a hand gently over his stomach. “I'm sorry… I didn't do it on purpose.”

Casey grumbled for a moment or two before settling against the back wall, still an unnaturally heavy and feelable weight. “Alright alright… we need to talk about how this is going to work…”
Chuck stretched slowly. “How do you mean?”

Casey sighed, “I mean how are you going to work? We can't communicate in public because you can't take the headset.”

Chuck shrugged, “The same as last night… I work normally, pretend you aren't there except when I'm eating, and even then I only need to keep an eye on how much I eat.”

Casey sighed, shifting uncomfortably. “And what do I do all day?”

Chuck shrugged, standing up and turning off his alarm, deeming he wouldn't need the snooze now. “Sleep I guess… try not to move too much or make any noise that would draw attention.”

There was a long silence, enough so for Chuck to think the conversation was over, and he stretched again, “I'm going for a shower.” He said, taking the headset off and hiding it under his pillows before going to the bathroom.

It was as he turned on the shower and threw his boxer shorts aside that he realised how awkward he felt about having Casey there whilst he was going about personal daily stuff. He found himself turning red as he double checked the lock on the bathroom door and stepped into the shower. He relaxed slowly into it as he realised it was a preposterous idea that Casey could see or hear him, he was going to be fine.

Casey sighed softly, listening to the odd noises of water hitting Chuck's body. He did not like the idea of simply being ignored all day, but he knew they had no choice… they couldn't risk him being spoken to, otherwise someone might get the idea that something was going on… and the last thing Chuck needed was more attention being drawn to him. He was already feeling claustrophobic and trapped, wanting nothing more than to get outside and go for a walk in the cool outside air… just thinking about it made him pant slightly in the stale, hot air in here… the heat was the worst part for sure. He shook his head, standing up unsteadily on the squishy floor, trying to keep his balance as he stretched out a little, unable to do much before his arms hit the ceiling. He didn't know what he hoped to achieve in doing this, maybe he'd hoped the air would be fresher by the entrance… even though he knew it wouldn't be. He winced a little, running a hand delicately over the opening he had come in through, wishing bitterly to be out and free again… it took all his willpower not to shove his arms through there and try to pull himself out by force. He knew that would hurt Chuck… and hurt himself even worse. He rubbed a hand gently over his chest where the damage to his ribs was, even the light touch causing an aching pain. He shook his head, sitting back down against the front wall, settling there, blinking as he felt it shift behind him strongly. What was that?! He tilted his head, looking at the wall as it happened again… that had to be Chuck's hands. He frowned a little, realising the sheer power the full sized man now had over him… the strength of those hands alone… he shivered, leaning back against the wall, nervous as he now realised how utterly vulnerable he was at this size… even as the fully trained agent that he was, he was still tiny and weak now. He sighed, shaking slightly, not used to the idea of being weaker than something… it was very humbling.

Chuck finished his shower, feeling many times better for it as he turned off the water jet. He climbed out and started to dry himself, but stopped as he felt the small sensation of Casey shaking against his insides. He frowned, automatically putting a hand to his stomach, pressing at it gently. “Casey? You okay?” he realised that he didn't have the headset on to get a reply and sighed, finishing drying himself before rushing to his room and putting the headset on, sitting down on his bed. “Casey?”

There was a long pause before any reply came. “What?”

Chuck tilted his head, resting a hand on his stomach. “You alright? I think I felt you… shaking…”

Casey sighed, “It's nothing, I just get the shakes in the morning when I haven't had coffee…”

Chuck frowned, “Those are some pretty severe shakes you get…”

Casey made an angry noise at him. “Well then perhaps you should get some coffee before it gets worse then!”

Chuck blinked and nodded, starting to get dressed. “Okay, fine, no need to be snippy about it, we have to live together for a while so it'd be best if we get along…”
Casey made the angry noise again. “I don't…get along with people.”

Chuck shrugged, dressing himself a little more roughly at this. “Your choice… I'm taking the headset off to go get some breakfast so just be quiet I guess.” He finished getting dressed and took the headset off, hiding it in his desk as he headed downstairs.

He ate an unenthusiastic breakfast of toast and coffee before hurriedly leaving for work, driving cautiously, almost painfully aware of the movements of the tiny man inside him, the weight shifting with every corner he turned. This was going to be a very long day!

It proved to be just that, but not for the reasons he had expected. He had expected that Casey would misbehave, not keeping quiet and still, generally being a nuisance and stopping him from working normally. It wasn't that at all though… everything went fine most of the morning. Casey just settled down and kept silent, not bothering him or making any sound at all, just moving enough occasionally to keep Chuck comfortably knowing he was okay. It was even a quiet day at the Buy More, and he got to spend most of the morning quietly working on repairing some of the backlogged computer repairs they needed to do. More than once in the day he found a hand creeping protectively to his stomach, resting there protectively as he worked, but every time he realised he forced himself to stop, sure he would either make Casey uncomfortable or catch someone's attention.

The day took a bad turn around lunchtime, when he was about to start eating his sandwiches, he suddenly heard the telltale click of a gun right next to his head, and a heavily accented voice whispered in his ear. “If you want to live I suggest you do not make a sound.”
He tensed up completely, giving a soft whimper, “What do you want?” he asked, his voice high and nervous.

“I want my ruby back.” Snapped the person behind him, jamming the muzzle of the gun hard against the back of his head.

Chuck gave a soft yelp at this, “I… I don't have it…”

The gun muzzle pressed harder into his skull. “Then I hope you know where to find it.”

He shook his head slightly. “No… it's been passed to my superiors…”

There was a pause. “Well then, we'll have to persuade them to give it back then won't we.” Then before he could respond, there was a sharp pain in the back of his head, and he fell into unconsciousness.

He woke up with a groan some time later, trying to lift a hand and rub at his aching head, frowning when he couldn't because his hands were firmly tied at the wrist. He blinked, remembering what was going on, sitting up quickly, hitting his head hard on something above him and falling back down again with a yelp. “owwww…” he winced, lifting his hands to his face, rubbing it, trying to wake himself up.

He blinked as he felt a firm movement in his stomach, and a distant muffled call. “Chuck?! You awake?”

He frowned, “Casey?! Are you okay? What happened?!”

There was a pause. “YOU got us captured moron!”

Chuck groaned, trying to rub his head. “how did they find me at the Buy-More?”

Casey sighed, “I have no idea, they must have found some way to identify you…”

Chuck winced, “Great, now what?”
Casey moved around a little, clearly frustrated. “Well… what's your situation?”

Chuck shrugged, looking around, unable to see anything in the pitch darkness around him. “I don't know… all I can tell is that my hands are tied up and probably my ankles too.”

There was a pause before Casey answered again. “Chuck, you have to bring me out… we know it will hurt both of us but I can free you…”
Chuck frowned, “How could you free me? You're four inches tall!”

There was another pause. “I have a knife… I can cut your wrists free…”
Chuck blinked, “Casey! Rule 3! RULE 3!”

Casey punched at him. “Shut up Chuck, I thought we might need it, and I'm glad I did… now.”

Chuck frowned, “What if it's not safe… what if someone suddenly comes to get me whilst you're out?”

Casey sighed, “Well I guess you'll have to find a way to hide me if that happens.”

Chuck sighed, having barely been able to hear that. “Look I really think you should stay there…”

Casey punched at him, but gently now. “Don't be stubborn Chuck… look… this might let you get out of here alive… if it will make you feel better, once I've cut you loose… you can put me back here…”

Chuck frowned. “Alright deal, but only if you promise me something… That you are SURE your ribs can take this…”

Casey nodded, “They'll have to.”

Chuck sighed, “Alright… start forcing your way out… I'll try to help.” There was movement from inside him and a moment later he felt the man's arms being shoved into his gullet. He waited until he felt Casey get more of himself up into the tube of flesh and then started trying to help him, focusing on bringing him out slowly and gently, ignoring how this was re-opening the wounds in his throat, he just wanted to make sure that he didn't hurt Casey any more.

Within a few minutes, he was slowly letting Casey slide out of his mouth onto the cold floor, wishing he could see him. “You okay?” he asked, swallowing, trying to make the pain in his throat go away.

There was a long moment of panting before a reply. “Yeah, can you try and bring your hands to me?”

Chuck nodded a little, slowly lifting his arms until he could feel the warm form beside his hands. “There.”

Casey nodded, and there was no speech for a while, just the sounds on the tiny knife working hard against the rope ties. Finally Chuck felt his wrists freed and he gratefully sighed, rubbing his wrists, assessing the damage.

Once he was sure he was alright he gently put a hand around Casey, hearing the man panting again. “You doing okay?”

Casey nodded, leaning against the hand. “Yeah… just cold…”

Chuck nodded, realising that to someone who had been in extreme heat for a long while would be struggling in the sudden cold of this place. He sat up slowly and carefully, keeping low to avoid whatever he'd hit his head on before, starting to feel over his ankles and work on the knots of the rope that tied them together firmly. Unfortunately his fingers were numb and the knots were strong, and he sighed, “Casey can you take your knife to these as well?”
Casey nodded, “Yeah if you shift them around to me…”
Chuck tilted his head, wriggling his feet around and putting them gently next to Casey, who went to work on the knots. “Casey? Why won't you stand up?”

There was a pause before Casey answered… “How did you know? It's too dark…”

Chuck tilted his head, “You're not the kind of guy to ask for things to be brought to you when you could get to them yourself…”

Casey sighed, “When you shoved me down… my legs were damaged… it's not bad, they just won't support my weight very well… I can stand… but I can't really walk…”

Chuck frowned, falling silent as Casey finished cutting his ankles free and then very gently picking up the small man, feeling how cold he was. He held him gently, trying to warm him with his hands. “Can you… survive the trip back down?”

Casey nodded, “Yeah… I think so… how is your throat doing?”

Chuck sighed, “It's… sore… and bleeding again… but I'll be fine.”
Casey shifted a little awkwardly in his hand. “So… what now?”

Chuck looked at him, still barely able to see him at all in the darkness. “I put you back where it's safe… and then I see if I can get out of here…”

Casey tensed slightly. “But you have no idea who captured you, where you are… nothing like that…”

Chuck shrugged, “I'll do okay… I'm gotten remarkably good at running away…”

Casey sighed, “Well alright… but I don't like it, I'd rather stay outside…”

Chuck frowned. “Casey… you KNOW that's not safe… if you stay out, all kinds of terrible things could happen to you…”
Casey shrugged. “I can handle it…”

Chuck shook his head, “no… you're four inches tall, you have possible broken ribs, and you can barely stand… you cannot handle it, for once in your life.”

Casey wriggled uncomfortably in his hand. “And there's no way I can get re-sized until we have Sarah and the right equipment.”
Chuck nodded, “Sorry Casey, we both know this is the only way.”
Casey sighed, nodding, “Alright, get it over with.”
Chuck shook his head, “Wait a minute there, hand over the knife… rule 3 remember?”

Casey made an angry noise and then held out the tiny object, which was about half the length of Casey's forearm, but to Chuck it was a teeny little thing, and he took it delicately, dropping it into his chest pocket. “Okay… I can feel you shivering… time to go back in.”
Casey reluctantly nodded, “Okay, go ahead.”

Chuck nodded, lifting the small form up and gently starting to slide him into his mouth, realising exactly how cold he was for the first time, hurrying a little as he positioned him and tipped his head back, starting to swallow before he could close his mouth, because Casey was too long for him to do so. He swallowed a few times to get the man's broad shoulders down before it became easier, more automatic, his body drawing the form on gently but firmly. He held his calm as best he could this time, making it easier on himself and Casey as well, gulping more lightly, not trying to crush Casey down as fast as he could. Sure he was scared about all this, and the thing that scared him the most was how willing he had been to repeat this terribly painful process… he wanted to protect Casey very badly… why? Casey was a jerk! But… he was a vulnerable jerk… who had saved his life a ton of times… and needed warmth and safety… and wasn't a jerk ALL the time…

He shook his head, knowing why he was doing this deep down. Gulping again as Casey slid slowly down past his collarbone, sending the man safely on down. It was still beyond his ability to accept this, but given the greater danger they were in, he wouldn't worry about it as much until they were safe again. He sat up a little more as he felt Casey slide into his stomach, the weight settling there heavily. He could feel the man panting hard and quickly became worried, “Casey? You okay?” he wished bitterly that he had the headset so he could speak to the agent properly, but he had to make do with what he had.

There was a long pause before Casey seemed to gather the breath to reply. “I… I'm fine… just hurry… escape…”

Chuck was extremely worried about the clear trouble that Casey was having breathing and speaking, but his priority was getting them both out of here, and he started to move, feeling over the area around him, trying to feel where he was and see if he could locate a way out. The walls were rough wood, untreated, splintery and harsh… the area was something under metre high and perhaps just over two metres long… was he in a crate?

He frowned, pushing at the roof hard, gasping when it lifted a fraction of an inch revealing a sliver of light and giving him hope. Bracing himself against the floor and pressing his shoulder against the roof, he pushed up hard, forcing the lid up more, but it was apparently nailed down, and didn't open more than a couple of inches before sticking. He paused in his efforts to peek out and see where he was… some kind of small warehouse it looked like… with hundreds of crates of varying different size and shape all around him… and he couldn't see any other people around…

He took this as a good chance and braced himself again, throwing his weight heavily against the roof, heaving it free of the nails that held it down and clambering out of the crate onto the one next to him. He now stood on a stack of these things, piled to about ten feet off the floor… which was a good vantage point for him to see the two armed guards pacing around the far edges of the warehouse.

Silently he grabbed the lid of the crate he had been in and shifted it back into place, so that things looked relatively undisturbed.

Now he had a difficult situation on his hands… he had to sneak past two armed guards, and possibly more outside… and he had no weapons, no training and no idea who he was up against.

He silently started to work his way along the top of the stack of boxes towards the door, keeping very low, trying to remain unseen and unheard. This worked… for about two minutes, until one of the guards happened to look up, straight at him.

Before he knew it, both guards were shouting in foreign and pointing their guns at him. He yelped, freezing up in fear for a moment before trying to run, slipping over on the crates and tumbling hard onto the floor, knocking himself out as he landed.

When he awoke, things had gone from bad to worse, though bleary eyes he managed to see he was surrounded by mean looking armed guards… he tried to move, wincing as he realised his hands were tied behind his back, painfully tight this time, this was bad… very bad. He shifted his position, realising that he was in a chair now, tied down firmly so there could be no more escapes. He didn't dare to speak to Casey with that many guys staring at him, and since he could feel the little man breathing inside, he knew he was still alive… which was small relief to him at this point. He shook his head a few times, trying to get the aching pain in it to fade, but it would not go. He gave a soft groan and looked up as he heard footsteps approaching him, a small man compared to the others, definitely another American, perhaps help? He looked the man over almost hopefully before realising that this man was certainly not the cavalry. He had a knife in one side of his belt and a gun on the other, with large amounts of gold jewellery on and an extremely top of the range suit, this man had to be some kind of drug lord.

“You've caused us real trouble for being just a Buy More worker, did you know that?” demanded the man, looking at him coldly.

Chuck shivered a little, “Look I didn't ask to be involved in this, and I can't help you get your ruby back!”

The man chuckled, “No, you can't… but HE can…” he pointed at Chuck's stomach.

Chuck tensed up, how did he know?! This was bad, oh very very bad! “Who? I have no idea what you're talking about!”

The man chuckled again, “Oh yes you do… case 34513… national security is not as secure as it used to be… we found out about it when we captured an agent `transporting' a witness who was to testify in trial against one of our more useful members…”

Chuck frowned, watching the man fearfully now, deeply scared for Casey, feeling an urge to protect the man… but tied up as he was, he could do nothing. “What… are you going to do?”

The man smiled, “We're going to get him to help us… with some gentle persuasion…” He chuckled, gesturing to one of the guards, who left for a moment before returning, carrying a large container of something sweet smelling.

Chuck watched, worried now, not liking the look of this at all. “Look maybe we can work something out…” he started, shaking slightly.

The man chuckled, “You said yourself that you can't get the ruby back… our business is no longer with you… it's with him.” He pointed at Chuck's stomach again.

Chuck blinked, “But… how will you talk to him?”

The man held up a small walkie-talkie like device. “This is tuned into the frequency of the communicator he's wearing… we can talk easily.”

Chuck looked at him nervously, tensing up. “And what if he won't help you?” he knew deep down that Casey would die long before helping out a terrorist organisation.

The man laughed darkly. “Well… if that is the case… then he'll die,”

Chuck blinked, shifting nervously in his seat. “Wh… Wh… How would he die?”

The man smiled, taking the container of sweet smelling stuff and holding it for Chuck to see, “He'll drown in this.” The syrup was thick and light gold in colour, some kind of treacle from the scent of it. “Golden Syrup… like edible tar, once he gets stuck in enough of this, there will be no keeping his head above the surface.”

Chuck winced, “no, no, there is no way I'm going to let you…” that was as far as he got before the man snapped his fingers and one of the armed guards came forward and grabbed Chuck's head, pulling his mouth open.
Chuck yelped, trying to bite down on the fingers, but another man came in to help, and brought with him a piece of sturdy looking plastic tube, which he proceeded to force half of down into Chuck's throat.

Chuck made angry noises, trying to stop them, spluttering and coughing angrily, biting on the tube, finding it too strong to do anything against with the combined strength of the men holding him. All he could do was squirm as the boss approached him and started to pour some of the syrup down into the entrance of the tube.

Chuck winced, making angry noises, trying to stop himself from swallowing it, but finding out that without the help of his throat entrance muscles, he couldn't do a thing, and he was helpless to stop it as they poured more and more of the stuff down his gullet. Every minute or two the man would stop and bark some demands into the phone, and when he didn't get the answer he wanted, he kept on pouring.

Casey made an angry growling noise as the thick syrup started to rise, it seemed that they had Chuck well and truly overpowered… unless help arrived, both of them were truly screwed.

“You will get the ruby brought here right away!” shouted the man over his earpiece.

“No, I won't!”

“Then we kill you AND your friend here!”

Casey winced as he felt Chuck's stomach get a heavy indicating slap, knowing that must have hurt. “I will not help you and neither will he!” he snapped, frowning as more of the syrup started pouring in, presumably as punishment for his refusal. Even if he wanted to he couldn't get what the men were asking for… from here with only this earpiece and no other equipment, he couldn't contact anyone at all! Not that it mattered, even if the Ruby had been at his fingertips he would still not hand it over to them… even if it cost his life… and Chuck's. He didn't have the authority to make a decision like that about Chuck really… but in desperate times he had to make drastic decisions.

The level of syrup rose to his hips before the man spoke to him again. “Are you beginning to see yet that we are not playing games here?”

Casey scoffed. “You guys are a joke… you have NO idea what you're dealing with… you don't even rate as high as a game.” When all else failed, total defiance was the logical recourse.

He got no answer, just more syrup pouring into the stomach with him… but he was stubborn and determined, it was going to take a LOT more than desert treats to get him worried.

Chuck could do nothing to stop them as he felt his stomach starting to fill up with the thick syrup, though he struggled for all he was worth, getting more and more scared by the moment for the small agent in his stomach… he could HEAR his repeated defiance of the man, and could only fight down the terrible realisation that was starting to dawn on him. That Casey was willing to give his own life… just like that, he was willing to die for this. That scared Chuck beyond all reason, because he was not only not willing to die, but he wasn't willing to let Casey die either!

Casey pressed himself up against the back wall, trying to keep his footing firmly… if he slipped over in this, he might never be able to get up again with his legs as weakened as they were. He had been forced onto his barely working feet a few moments before, and was holding onto the wall firmly for balance. He had no idea what he was holding on for, he had no intentions of giving the man any help at all… but he was starting to realise that he couldn't face the idea of dying like this, in Chuck's stomach, drowned in treacle. He was holding out some hope of rescue maybe?

He closed his eyes, hanging onto the wall, frowning as the level of the substance rose up slowly, submerging his chest and getting rapidly deeper. It was at this point he became aware that his legs were starting to become itchy in the liquid… could exposure to too much sugar do that? What else could it be?! He frowned as he heard a groan around him and remembered… he was in a stomach! Had the protection worn off?! He had no idea how long it was supposed to work for! He did NOT want to be dinner!

Casey's already scared mind couldn't handle this thought and he started to shout and kick at Chuck, trying to tell him to get him out, he didn't care how or what it would do to him, he just wanted to be out!

Chuck winced, struggling harder as he felt this, worried that Casey was seriously in trouble now… over the noise of the men he caught just a snatch of muffled speech, and just made out the word `digest' and immediately began to panic, his mind jumping to the conclusion that his body had somehow passed by the defences put in place when Casey was shrunk. He bit down hard on the plastic pipe, blinking as it started to crack, biting down hard again, shattering the pipe into many sharp pieces, hurting his mouth badly.

He coughed, spitting out pieces of plastic, coughing up most of the pipe that had been in his throat, wincing at the pain.

The boss frowned angrily, grabbing his throat, “I suggest you do not try that agai…” he never finished as a loud gunshot rang out, and he winced, freezing up, his grip falling from Chuck's throat as he collapsed sideways.

The large armed guards immediately turned towards the shooter, seeing nobody there at all. Then there was a clink of metal and a square object clattered across the floor in front of them, exploding into a blinding flash of light, causing Chuck to yelp, and the guards to stumble around blindly looking for their attacker.

In a series of loud gunshots, he heard the guards falling down one at a time, and the still blinded Chuck jumped fearfully at each sound, with Casey still freaking out inside him, struggling to stay surfaced in all the syrup. He shouted in alarm as he felt a hand on his shoulder, trying to struggle away from the person, too freaked out from all this to deal with any more troubles right now. “Chuck calm down! It's me!” snapped a very familiar voice… Sarah… Chuck relaxed against his restraints in relief. “Sarah… thank goodness, you have to hurry… I think Casey is in trouble…” He winced as he felt a delicate touch against his stomach and heard some kind of electronic equipment being used. “Wh… what are you doing?”

“Checking that he's okay and everything is still as it should be with the process…”

Chuck nodded, waiting nervously, blinking as his vision started to come back slowly, worried as there was a long pause and then finally some good news. “He's okay Chuck, don't worry… it seems he let his imagination run away with him, give him a few minutes to catch his breath and let him know all is safe… he'll be fine.” She set to work untying him and checking him over for wounds.

As soon as he was free, Chuck leaned forwards and put his arms around his stomach. “Casey? You okay?”
There was no spoken answer, but a small movement at the back of his stomach told him the agent was aware of the gesture. He could only hope his body took down the level of syrup in him quickly, because he wanted to know Casey was able to rest safely now.

“Sarah… thank goodness you got here!” he sighed, rubbing his wrists. “Who was that?”

Sarah pulled him up off the chair. “Talk in the car in case there are reinforcements on the way.”

Chuck nodded, starting to move towards the door quickly, glad as the last blurring of his eyesight faded and let him see properly again. He was looking forwards to being safe at home again more than a little bit… unfortunately their troubles were not yet past. Sarah had apparently missed several guards, and before the two of them could reach her car, three armed men came around the corner of the building, shouting angrily at them.

Chuck yelped, doubling back and racing back into the warehouse, knowing Sarah could deal with them easily, and too rattled to want to help. He headed for one of the stacks of crates, clambering up and squeezing into a gap between a couple of the crates, curling up there and trying to slow his breathing so he could be quiet, not wanting to draw any unwanted attention.

Unwanted attention was on the way however as he heard heavy footsteps in the warehouse with him… one of the men was here!

Chuck huddled down among the crates as he heard the man speaking, “Come out come out… I know you're in here… why don't you just show yourself and die like a man?” He stayed utterly silent, not having any intention of dying, in a manly way or otherwise.

There was a long pause before the voice came again, right next to the crate pile this time. “I know you're in there… and if you don't come out, I'm going to blow you to kingdom come.”

Once again, Chuck was silent, frowning as he heard something heavy and metal being dropped onto one of the crates and then running footsteps moving away. He barely had time to realise that something was about to go boom, when something went boom.

The man must have dropped a grenade, because before Chuck knew it, the crates in front of him exploded into a thousand tiny pieces and the shockwave of the blast knocked him backwards hard, causing him to whack his head on the crate behind him, knocking himself out cold.

He can't have been out long, but when he opened his eyes, all was silent again. He was laying in a heap of smashed crate wood and he hurt all over.

Wincing, he looked down at himself, not moving enough to dislodge the large amount of wood covering him, but enough to see the large piece of wood sticking out of his stomach.

Giving a soft yelp of fear he reached down and felt at the area, feeling a long, deep gash and suddenly feeling terrified… how deep as it?! Was Casey okay? He could feel blood pouring from the wound and suddenly had the terrible mental image of the tiny agent coming out with it. He winced, grabbing the piece of wood and pulling it out of the wound, trying not to faint from the pain, pressing a hand hard against the opening, holding it closed and trying to stop the blood flow.

He must have fainted again, because when he came to, he was in the back seat of Sarah's car and he could see streetlights moving over them. Was he safe? He sat up quickly, yelping as this hurt his stomach and his sore body objected to it, falling back onto the seat. “Owwww….”

“Lie still Chuck, it's okay, we got away safe… though you had me worried for a second…” Sarah's voice… thank goodness.

Chuck sighed, flopping back, relaxing, lifting a hand to feel over his stomach, which had been carefully bandaged. “Sarah… is Casey okay?... I couldn't tell…”

Sarah nodded, driving carefully. “Yeah, he's fine, it wasn't nearly deep enough to hurt him… he's still struggling with the syrup but you two are out of danger.”

Chuck sighed, relaxing, “Thank goodness…” he rested a hand gently on his stomach, relieved, and confused by how worried he had been for Casey.

He lay quietly for the rest of the trip back, and once he was dropped off home, he hurried to his room and shut himself firmly inside, going and putting the communication headset on right away. “Casey?” He still had so much syrup in him that he couldn't feel the man moving as he could before, he could only feel a small amount of the weight he presented. “Casey are you alright?”

The voice that replied to him sounded tired, unhappy and unhealthy, totally unlike the Casey he knew. “I've had better days.”

Chuck sighed, rubbing at his stomach gently. “Is there anything I can do to help?”

There was another pause and then an equally awful sounding reply. “Can you find a way to get rid of some of this?!”

Chuck sighed, “I don't know… if I throw it up I could drown you or something… or you could get crushed again…”

Casey sighed, “Well find a way to do something… please… I can't sit down, I can't lay down…”

Chuck winced, knowing Casey's legs were hurt badly, he had to do something. “Uh… hang on…” he frowned, trying to think of something, anything he could do to help the man. If he could lower the level for him… but how?! Then he had an idea, an uncomfortable idea but one he was sure would work at least to an extent. He started gulping down air firmly, hating the way it felt and the way his body objected, but he determinedly carried on. He continued with this for an unpleasantly long time, until his stomach actually felt stretched and harder than normal to the touch, and even past that point, until he couldn't make himself take any more in… then he stopped, laying on his back on the bed, knowing this would thin out the depth even more. “Casey? Is that better?” he asked into the headset, hoping and praying that it was.

There was a little movement, and then he finally felt the sensation of the heavy form sitting down. “Yeah… now I can sit… Thank you Chuck.”

Chuck nodded, relieved, laying his head back on his pillow and relaxing, resting a hand gently on his stomach. “Bad day.”
“Well we're alive aren't we?”

Chuck nodded, “Yeah…”

“Then stop complaining… it's nothing short of a miracle we're okay.”

Chuck sighed, relaxing. “If you say so Casey… I thought it was a bad day, because even after all this, tomorrow I will have to go in to the buy-more and have Big Mike shout at me because I disappeared today, and that you're off sick again.”

Casey was silent for a few minutes now before there was a soft reply. “What do you want me to say?”

Chuck sighed, “I don't know… thanks for getting us through it alive Chuck? That might be a good start.”

Casey shifted a little uncomfortably. “Look, things are not good right now for either of us, but don't get me wrong Chuck… you did good to survive this, I'm just… so tired… I want a shower and a double glass of scotch… and sleep.”
Chuck nodded a little, understanding this. “Well… I say we take a rest until the syrup is gone… and then we see what we can do about that.”

Casey chuckled softly. “Thanks Chuck, sounds like a plan.”

Chuck smiled, unused to Casey chuckling, and relieved to hear it. He relaxed more and reached out for his Xbox controller and TV remote, “I'm going to play a game for a while… but I'm leaving the headset on tonight… so I'm here if you want to talk.

Casey shifted a little, then relaxed against his insides. “Thanks Chuck.”

Chuck smiled, he'd never had so much thanks from Casey even once before. He played on his game cheerfully for a couple of hours, glad as his stomach emptied slowly and he was able to release the uncomfortable air one burp at a time, until he was feeling normal again, and Casey was apparently resting comfortably.

When he thought long enough had passed he put down the controller, turning off the game. “So Casey… things okay in there now?”

Casey stretched slightly, relaxed against one of the walls. “Yes… it's all gone now… and I don't think I will ever eat that stuff ever again.” He felt horrible… all sticky and sore, desperate to wash the stuff off, but unable to do so. He tried to run a hand through his hair, and found it to be solid, the syrup having dried in it. He sighed, his chest hurting worse than ever after all the strain of today, and his legs having worsened from having to use them for so long. “So… how about finding a way to sort out that shower you mentioned?”

Chuck smiled, sitting up gently. “Well, I need a shower too, so I'll have one, and send some of the water down to you… just let me know when you think enough has joined you.”

Casey nodded, shifting a little where he was. “Sounds like a good plan… warn me before you start and I'll shove at you to tell you to stop okay?”

Chuck nodded, getting up slowly and taking the headset off, flattered that Casey was comfortable enough with him to do anything like this now… normally the paranoid man would not give anyone the slightest chance to do this… but now he was not only accepting help, but he seemed grateful for it.

Chuck hurried to the shower, carefully undressing and removing the bandage from the wound on his stomach, examining the area, shivering a little as he remembered a rush of fear he had had from seeing it. Hadn't been fear for himself though… it had been for Casey... which felt very odd to know.

He shrugged it off and got into the shower, waiting for the water to get good and warm before patting his stomach, “Incoming… you ready?”

There was a pause and then a few firm shoves against the wall, presumably a yes, telling him the man was ready. So after a moment he lifted his head and let the water stream into his mouth, gulping down quite a bit before he felt the shoves to let him know to stop. Then he turned his attention to his own shower, cleaning his wounds and scratches from the blast.

Casey sighed, relaxing, laying in the warm water with it up over his chest, submerging himself every few minutes, letting it soak the syrup out of his clothes and hair, feeling better already. He found himself finally letting himself accept the situation, listening to the steady sounds of the heartbeat and breathing that he could hear… so very clearly, all around him. It was oddly soothing for some reason, and though that confused him, he relaxed into it, knowing he had to find a way to deal with this. He could adapt to any new lifestyle and identity… he could adapt to this too. He nodded, settling down, listening still, trying to pick up any sounds of outside, almost curious now he was past the initial gross factor. He was shocked to find himself getting sleepy… he was very tired but he hadn't expected the sounds to have that effect on him so fast. He sat up quickly, rubbing his eyes, unwilling to let himself just drop off like that. He had had much tougher days that this before and dealt with them fine, he would damn well deal with this one. He folded his arms and leaned back against the wall, sighing, blinking as he felt a shift behind it… Chuck's hand again. But for some reason he didn't feel the same rush of fear… it was something else… was it… trust? Surely not, he didn't trust anyone… he didn't need to. He felt the hand pass by him again and frowned, shifting in place, turning slowly, pushing at the wall with one hand gently, finally letting his curiosity about the place get the better of him.

Chuck blinked as he felt this, something small pressing against the wall of his stomach. He smiled curiously, putting a hand to his stomach and pressing one finger gently at the point of pressure, chuckling as there was a pause and then the pressure was returned more firmly. Casey was pressing at him? He smiled a little more, rubbing at his stomach where he could feel Casey leaning against the wall, feeling the little body shift under his fingers. The pressing back continued for a moment and then stopped as he felt Casey relax again, fully this time.

Chuck wasn't sure if he should say anything, or just carry on as though nothing had ever happened… perhaps the wiser was latter for now, considering what normally happened when he encouraged Casey to open up… it was better that he said nothing for now.

He finished his shower and dressed quickly in his pyjamas before grabbing some first-aid supplies from the bathroom and heading to his own room, closing the door as he climbed into bed and carefully put on the headset, leaning back against the pillows. “Back now,”

“It's not like you went anywhere without me Chuck… You can't really leave me behind when I'm in your stomach.” It wasn't a nastily said comment for once, almost amused.

Chuck smiled, “I know, I feel you there believe me.”

There was a pause. “You can feel me?”

Chuck nodded, “Yeah… I can feel everything… movements, breathing, weight…”

There was a longer pause. “Really? I didn't think you'd be able to… stomachs aren't built to feel…”

Chuck laughed, “I know, and I'd have agreed if you had asked me before all this… but here we are…” he tapped his stomach gently over the point he could feel Casey leaning against him. “And there you are.” He smiled as he felt the man move a little at this, and then sat up a little more, reaching out for the first-aid supplies he had brought and carefully starting to bandage the wound on his stomach, asking idly. “What's it like there Casey? I have to admit I'm curious… this is all so insane…”

There was an even longer pause as Casey seemed to consider this. “Too hot for one thing.”

Chuck laughed softly. “That's it?”

Casey chuckled, “Chuck, I sincerely hope you never have to find out… just be glad you're not the one who had to be dinner.”

Chuck shrugged, finishing bandaging and laying back to relax. “Fair enough, you have to admit though it's been… interesting.”
Casey sighed softly. “That it has… but Chuck… just so you know… once this is over and I'm out… I will become the same arrogant, bad tempered jerk I always am…”

Chuck laughed softly, resting a hand on his stomach. “Casey, I wouldn't have it any other way.”

END