~Casey's POV~

Major John Casey prided himself on his determination. If he made an oath, he was going to fight to keep it or die trying. Which makes it easy to believe that he never failed a mission before, nor did he give up even when it seemed hopeless.

Chuck Bartowski was hopeless. Casey's current assignment, to protect the seemingly insignificant life of a geeky nerd-herder with a super computer brain, had him at his wit's end. The kid was constantly running into trouble, and it took all of Casey's strength and mental capacity to not kill himself. It took even more concentration not to kill Chuck.

So far in the course of Operation Bartowski, things had been going pretty well, considering Chuck was still alive and making a mess of things. Casey had served in Afghanistan and had protected hundreds of lives- surely, he could protect one lanky nerd from getting himself killed.

That was what he had convinced himself until said nerd came stumbling into the Buy More looking like Death had took a holiday to the Bahamas. His dark chocolate-colored hair was more unruly than usual and stuck to his head with sweat, obscuring his dull, red-rimmed eyes that nervously darted back and forth, as if awaiting an attack from an unseen enemy. His skin was pale, nearly transparent. A simple breeze could hit Chuck Bartowski and cause him to crumble to dust. His shoulders were slightly slouched as he attempted to make his way over to the Cage, as if the weight of the world rested solely on his shoulders- which, as of late, was reality.

Casey grunted in annoyance (concern? No, that couldn't be what he was feeling, that would be ridiculous. The kid was nothing more than an assignment to him.) as he saw Chuck list to the side, leaning heavily against the Nerd-Herd desk to avoid face-planting into the less-than-pristine tile floor. Despite his display of annoyance, he found himself walking (not running, no- he surely wasn't that worried) towards the kid, ready to catch him should he fall.

~Chuck's POV~

Chuck was slightly shaking from exhaustion as he tried to fight his way to the farther regions of the Buy More. Of all the time he spent in employment to the store, never had the simple walk felt so exhausting. He found himself struggling to catch his breath, winded from just a few feet. A sudden wave of dizziness overcome him, and he found himself having to lean on the Nerd-Herd desk for support. He continued onward, using anything he can reach as a crutch to make it to the Cage. He figured if he could lock himself away in there, with just the broken computers and blissful silence to keep him company, he could take time to breathe and just relax.

Ellie was a bloodhound for illnesses, and whenever Chuck got the least bit ill, she would pounce on him like an overbearing mother and baby him until he could barely stand it. It wasn't that he didn't appreciate everything Ellie had ever done for him growing up- she basically raised him when his mom left them. He loved Ellie, but he hated worrying her. In order to escape Ellie's sick-o-meter, Chuck had sneaked out through the Morgan Door and hurried to work.

As he was halfway to the Cage, Chuck jumped in surprise, his heart rate skyrocketing, as a heavy hand clamped onto his shoulder, halting any progress he'd been making. A glance behind his back was greeted with a scowling face that had oddly become familiar and comfortable over his time as the Intersect.

"Bartowski, what do you think you're doing here?" Casey asked gruffly, turning the kid around and beginning to drag him towards the exit.

Chuck pulled back from his handler, desperate to finish his journey so he could finally have some peace and quiet. "I'm going to work, what else would I be doing here?"

Rolling his eyes, Casey crossed his arms in frustration. "Have you taken a look in the mirror today? You like like crap, Bartowski. Why are you hell-bent in making my job as your handler so difficult?"

"It's just a cold, Casey. There are some things you just won't be able to protect me from."

"Well, I'll sure as hell try," Casey roughly grabbed Chuck's arm and continued pulling him towards the doors, this time much more forcefully and fast-paced. "Pick it up, I'm driving you home."

Chuck's vision blurred as he became light-headed, the sudden increase in speed throwing his senses off. His view of the shop and Casey's hulking figure began to grey as he began to feel faint. A nauseous feeling started to swirl in his gut, reminding him that he hadn't eaten since lunch the day earlier, and dry heaving in the middle of the Buy More would be anything but pleasant.

"Casey, wait!" Chuck called out desperately. When his handler failed to respond to his plea, he begged again, black spots edging in to blot out his vision. "Please, wait!"

Casey ground to a halt as the desperate waiver in Chuck's voice caught him off guard. As he turned, he was just able to catch a glimpse of Chuck as his eyes rolled back and he fell to the side. Fast reflexes learned from years spent fighting to survive allowed him to catch Chuck before he cracked his skull against the floor.

Lowering his asset to the floor, Casey was momentarily at a loss as to how to handle the situation. Human care had never exactly been his forte. Lately, he had enjoyed being able to rely on Sarah dealing with the emotional cases. If she was here right now, he wouldn't hesitate to toss Bartowski into her lap without even making a crack at their "relationship." Unfortunately for both men, Sarah had needed to take a Wienerlicious work trip in order to maintain her cover, which she had adamantly complained against before eventually succumbing to necessity and orders from the general.

Casey growled, cursing his luck- not for the first time that day. However, there was no time to throw a pity party. It was time to man up and focus on the situation, which happened to be his nerdy asset out cold in the middle of the Buy More. It was only a matter of time before Jeff and Lester would wander by and make his day worse than it already was, and he wasn't sure if he would be able resist shooting them today.

"Chuck, get up," Casey ordered in his commander voice. He had thought a forceful approach might have an effect, but Chuck remained unresponsive. Well, he never listened to my orders before. Why start now.

Opting for a different approach, Casey gently shook Chuck's shoulder, calling his name less aggressively. This time, he received a moan in response, and a mumbled complaint that sounded suspiciously like "five more minutes, El."

Casey groaned and flicked Chuck in the ear. "Wake up, stupid, I'm not your sister."

Chuck's eyes flew open and exclaimed, holding his tender ear. He was about to complain about being woken so abruptly, when he noticed that he wasn't in the privacy of his own bed, but on the floor of Buy More, and currently halfway on Casey's lap. His cheeks reddened in embarrassment as he realized he had fainted and that Casey had to catch him- he was such a girl. "Uhm, thanks for... you know-"

"Shut it, Bartowski, I don't want to speak of this ever again. Now get up before one of the idiots come over here. And if you breathe a word of this to anyone, you're a dead man."

Chuck gulped, already hurrying to distance himself from Casey's lap- and his gun, should it come to that, which wouldn't be too surprising. "Yep, getting up. No worries, definitely not going to be sharing this story any time soon-" A dark glare from his handler made him stumble to rephrase his words. "Ever, I mean ever. In fact, I don't even recall what we were talking about. I'm just going to go on my way and return to work, and you can go your way and do whatever Casey's do. I'll just be off-"

Chuck had finally reached a somewhat stable altitude and had already turned back towards the Cage, but an angry rumble from Casey made him stop in his tracks and turn back.

"I said I was taking you home, and that's final. I don't care if you're hell-bent on killing yourself, but do it on your own time, Bartowski, and preferably when you don't have all of our secrets locked in that geeky brain of yours," Casey once again latched onto Chuck's arm, but continued at a much slower pace than previous. "And this time, try not to faint on me."

Chuck sighed in resignation. He should have stayed in bed.

~Casey's POV~

Glancing over to the passenger side of the small Nerd Herder, it was clear that the exhaustion of the illness had finally caught up with Chuck. His face was pressed up against the window, his slightly wheezing breath causing it to fog. With one hand firmly grasping the wheel, Casey carefully placed a hand on Chuck's forehead, feeling the intense heat radiating from his skin before it even made contact.

Chuck murmured in his sleep, prompting Casey to quickly withdraw his hand in embarrassment. The agent, never one for emotional displays of affection, regained his tight hold on the steering wheel and continued to pretend that his asset didn't exist. Of course, that was easier planned than done when said non-existent asset was currently wheezing and appearing completely miserable a few feet from you.

His phone stared at him temptingly from its place in its charger. It would only take a couple seconds for Casey to dial the phone and hear Sarah's voice. One mention of the slightest harm to Chuck and she'd come running to his rescue. It would be easy to just dump the kid off with the CIA agent and be rid of him. It would be easy to give up on Chuck and go about his day like he had planned- relaxing and Chuck-free.

But Casey didn't do easy, and he didn't give up. Chuck may be a head-case waiting to explode, a nerd without the slightest hint of survival training, and an accident waiting to happen, but he was his assignment. His mission was to protect Chuck Bartowski, and nothing was going to keep him from succeeding in his task, even if it killed him.

A/N: This turned out to be much longer than I had originally planned, but I like how it turned out. I recently found the wonder that is Chuck and gobbled up every single episode that was on Netflix. Now, in my post-series depression, I have been moved to write and read Chuck fanfiction, and nothing can stop me from my disastrous path. Anyway, I plan to make "Protecting Chuck Bartowski" a series of one-shots of different situations that Team Bartowski had to protect our beloved Chuck.

Feel free to leave any feedback in the comments or suggest any prompts you'd like to read about in this series.

Thanks for reading!

~Trinaluv33~