A/N: Okay, I did not write this story solely by myself. I had help from several amazing people from the awesome Yvonne Strahovski fansite, Strahotski(.com). It more or less started because a couple of us were bored and it just grew from there. I'm pretty happy with it. I hope they are too. I said I would post when we were finished so here we go. Please review! (:

Authors in order of contribution with their user names on Strahotski placed first (though it was more of a round robin type thing):

Nannygirl/SarahLisaWalkerfan101

Kroblues (both sites)

Chuck(.Sarah)(both sites)

Swedude (both sites)

Sevine (both sites)

BiLLi0 (Strahotski only)

Alexg (no longer a member)/Pike16

SarahFan/(unknown)

Sarah-Fan/disabrina

Wepdiggy (both sites)

Adorable Yvonne/Zerectica

We knew this fic as the Never Ending Story or the Strahotski Story (I hope the new title is okay with everyone), depending. Haha. You can go to the site and read the thread if you want. ;-)


Chuck was sitting on his bed aimlessly playing with a magnet. There was nothing better to do. His normal standby to alleviate boredom would usually be to give Morgan a call, but Morgan was off with Anna, and whatever was going on there was something Chuck would very much prefer keeping away from his mind. Sarah. Well, he didn't know where Sarah was.

She's probably off doing something interesting with someone interesting, he thought grimly. He or whoever she's with must be a very interesting person. She even forgot to tell me about where she was going or if it was personal. She's late for our fake date. She's never been late before. Maybe I should stalk her. I mean, I am her fake boyfriend. But can I really justify stalking her? It didn't end well last time and I hate it when she gets angry at me.

The magnet fell on his toe and Chuck grimaced in pain.

Damn it, thought Chuck,why do I have to keep thinking of her? She's made it perfectly clear what she wants. I'm just an asset, a mission, to her. She was going to leave with Bryce after the wedding anyway. It's my fault she's still stuck here in this ridiculous assignment.

In his anger, he hurled the magnet at the wall, unfortunately knocking the camera Casey had mounted behind said wall off its axis. Chuck winced slightly as he saw that. He had long learned the location of every camera in his room, and he had also learned that Casey was unnaturally protective of his electronic monitoring devices.

The Colonel who was currently the object of Chuck's slightly terrified musings was watching this as he tried to settle in for a relaxing episode of "Idiot Watch", and he was having a nice laugh to himself over Chuck's moping around until that little mishap.

Oh, bad move, Bartowski. Now I get to try out one of my new toys...

Casey took his taser out of his non-lethal weapons cupboard, which naturally was much smaller than his other, vastly more interesting, weapons cupboard. His serious armory was more of a walk-in-wardrobe. He walked out his front door and over to the Bartowski apartment, and as he was about to open the door, Ellie walked up behind him.

"Hi, John," she said as he turned around to greet or tase her whichever turned out to be the necessary reaction. "What are you doing here? And what's that thing in your hand?"

"Uh, just looking for Bart – Chuck," Casey said with a forced smile. "This is just a new, uh, Wii controller that the store got in today. I told Chuck I would bring it by after my shift."

"Okay, well, I can give it to him," Ellie suggested

"No, thanks. I can give it to him myself later. I just remembered I have something to do," Casey lied. He left Ellie's side and went directly to his apartment, shutting the door behind him and cursing himself for the temporary loss of his usual ability to think quickly. Damn that new perfume Ellie was wearing. It distracted him more usual when he was around her.

"That was weird," said Ellie as she turned to walk into the apartment.

Chuck went to the Morgan Door and began a careful watch for Casey. If the larger man approached him, Chuck was prepared to tuck and run. He watched cautiously as his handler stalked back to his apartment. He had been preparing to make a break for it because, even though he was fairly sure Casey wouldn't kill him, it wasn't worth taking the chance when Casey got angry. When he deemed it safe to return to a confined area, he slipped back into his room.

Okay, Bartowski, time for Plan B, thought Casey evilly.

Suddenly, Chuck was interrupted in his Sarah-based moping session by a booming voice that erupted from his TV speakers. He was glad the NSA had seen fit to soundproof his room, because he had forgotten to turn the volume down after a late night Call of Duty session and he really didn't need Ellie finding out about the spy stuff in addition to Awesome.

"Bartowski! That was a very expensive camera you just broke! Be glad Walker threatened to put me out of action if I hurt you."

So Sarah does care, thought Chuck. But why wouldn't she tell me where she was going tonight?

As it happened, Chuck would get his chance to find out, as Sarah was staring tentatively through the Morgan Door at him.

Chuck was confused by Sarah's sudden appearance, but he was nonetheless happy to see her, as his 100-watt Chuck Bartowski smile showed. He quickly opened the window and Sarah slid into the room.

When Sarah was fully inside the room, Chuck asked, "Sarah, what are you doing here?"

"I just came to give you these," Sarah said, straightening out her shirt nervously and offering Chuck what looked like tickets.

"What are these?" Chuck asked, taking the four tickets from Sarah.

"Uh, tickets to Comic Con," Sarah said.

"How did you get these?" asked Chuck in surprise. "Comic Con has been sold out for months!"

"Do you really want to know?" Sarah asked with a look on her face saying that he most certainly did not.

But Chuck, being Chuck, didn't get the message and said, "Yeah, of course. How?"

"Well," Sarah said, "there was this geekthat, uh, said he had some extra tickets. We arranged a meeting where he would give me his terms. The little twerp tricked me into a date, but I got the tickets."

"Wha'?" Chuck asked. "Date?"

"It was nothing," Sarah said. "Just lunch, really."

"Why would you do that?" asked Chuck, obviously touched that Sarah would go on a date with a geek for him.

"For you," Sarah said, smiling. "I wanted you to be surprised."

"Well, I certainly am surprised," Chuck said, giving Sarah another one of his special smiles. "Thank you. But why are there four tickets?"

"Uh, one for you, one for me, one for Morgan, and one for Casey," Sarah said, sitting on Chuck's bed.

"Casey?" asked Chuck in confusion. Obviously there was an asset-security based reason for his coming along.

"He's a Browncoat," Sarah shrugged. Chuck's mouth fell open in shock. That certainly wasn't something he had ever expected Sarah to say. Admittedly, the NSA agent had more than a passing resemblance to Jayne, but it was still quite unexpected.

"Thank you, Sarah. You didn't have --" Chuck started to say.

"But I wanted to, and besides, it's going to be fun!" Sarah smiled again.

Chuck felt his knees weaken and his heart start to get warmer. He never could resist that smile.

Chuck whispered, "Not with Casey around."

"Of course it's going to be fun! You haven't seen his costume yet!" Sarah playfully slapped Chuck's shoulder.

He laughed, "Can't wait to see that. And what costume are you wearing? Hopefully something ugly, because if anyone sees you they're going to keep following you. I mean, even if you wear something ugly, you'll still be beautiful"

That earned him another slap in the shoulder. "I'm not going to tell you, and I picked out what you're going to wear."

"Ouch, What happened to 'can't damage the Intersect' thingy? And I will find a way to make you tell me what costume you got for me."

"No, you won't. Have you forgotten? I'm a CIA agent. And I'm not damaging you," Sarah whispered.

"I will! What if you accidentally choose a character that's gay?" Chuck said with a serious face

"You'll just have to deal with that!" Sarah stuck her tongue out.

Chuck grabbed her by the shoulders, pushed her to his bed, and pinned her to the mattress and started to tickle her.

"Surrender?" Chuck asked with his biggest, most genuine smile

"Hahahah! Ne-haahaha-ver!" Sarah managed to say between laughs. How did he find out I was ticklish?

"Never, eh? You have a high opinion of your ability to resist the patented Bartowski tickle attack, Agent Walker," said Chuck.

Sarah tried to maneuver herself into a more defensible position, but she was convulsing too hard from Chuck's Bartowski onslaught.

"Do you give?" he asked.

"Never!"

"You'll talk before long, Agent Walker. Everyone talks."

Sarah fought off the instinct that pulled her arms into her torso as Chuck continued the tickle offence and an idea suddenly struck her. Before she could implement her counterattack, however, she made the mistake of looking up at Chuck's beaming face. There was no resisting it, but they were now frozen in a silent gaze, and drew slowly closer together.

That was, of course, until they were interrupted by the most inopportune knock at the door ever. Ellie barged into the room a moment later, not waiting for an answer.

"Chuck, where are the..." His sister trailed off, seeing the two on the bed. "Oh, sorry. I didn't know that you were here, Sarah."

The two occupants of the bed were, more or less, frozen in place, which was no mean feat considering Chuck was essentially hovering just an inch from Sarah's face. Each was embarrassed but for different reasons. Chuck because his sister had not only walked in on him but because it had happened with Sarah. Beautiful, wonderful, amazing, so out-of-his-league Sarah. On the other hand, Sarah was embarrassed because she had been caught off guard, and it was probably all on Casey's surveillance. As if he needed more ammunition to needle her about her "lady-feelings".

Slowly sliding herself from under Chuck and off the bed, Sarah flashed Ellie a smile.

"Sorry, Ellie," she said. "I just came over to drop some tickets off for Chuck."

"Oh, that's okay," Ellie said, still standing in the doorway. "Uh, you're staying for dinner, right?"

"Actually, I think it's better if I go." Sarah was blushing.

------

"What happened to this damn thing? It won't work." Casey slammed the side of his surveillance equipment in a futile attempt to get it working again. "Damn thing's always on the blink. Okay, this isn't working. It's Walker's job to watch the idiot now. I think I'll have the day off. Now, where did I put that Scotch?"

------

"No, Sarah, please stay," Ellie cried out. "I'll be upset if you don't."

Sarah felt her phone vibrate on her pocket. "Sorry." She flipped it open and read what it said.

Surveillance broken. You're on your own. I'm off. Enjoy baby-sitting the moron.

Sarah took a deep breath and said, "Okay, seems like I'm staying".

Ellie's joy quickly erupted in Casa Bartowski. "Yay! I'll leave you two alone for a moment, but, remember, food's getting cold!" Ellie winked at Chuck and closed the door behind her.

The two were left in the room, and it was a decidedly uncomfortable atmosphere that Ellie had left behind. Sarah was standing to the side of the bed, while Chuck seemed to be on the verge of a torrent of profanity at coming that close, again, only to be denied, again. Sometimes he thought a lot of people spent way too much time thinking up ways to stop his being with Sarah. It had to be the only explanation for all of the bad timing whenever he got close to his objective.

"Uhh, about earlier," began Chuck, "sorry, I got a little distracted."

"Yeah, me too," admitted Sarah.

"What made you change your mind? I thought you would've been out of here before I could turn around."

"Casey sent me this," she said, showing him the phone with the text still on the screen, "and, well, I guess I can't let you out of my sight."

Sarah was trying not to think about the last time she had said that. That was the last thing she needed to be filling her mind in the state she was in.

"Let's not keep Ellie waiting, shall we?" said Chuck.

"No, that wouldn't be a very good start to my 'round-the-clock protection. Letting my asset get throttled by his own sister within 20 minutes of taking control does not look good on a CV."

"Well, then, after you, milady," said Chuck, trying to be suave and failing almost totally.

Sarah just laughed, and Chuck was surprised at how it seemed he could do no wrong in her eyes. Then, in a strange display of mental synchronicity with Sarah, he started to smile as he realized what had happened the last time she couldn't let him out of her sight.

Chuck followed Sarah down the hall to the dining room. Both were practically drooling before they were able to sit at the table. The smell of Ellie's special spaghetti usually did that to people, but Chuck and Sarah were both lovers of spaghetti. Once seated, Chuck served himself and Sarah very large helpings of the dinner along with the salad and breadsticks that Ellie had set out.

"Mmmm," Sarah moaned before taking a bite of her food. "Looks and smells amazing as always, Ellie."

"Thanks, Sarah," Ellie said with a satisfied smile.

The small dinner party of four, consisting of Chuck, Sarah, Devon, and Ellie, was relatively quiet. Conversation was about work or life in general, but the Woodcombs were watching Chuck and Sarah closely because they expected something was off in their relationship, and Chuck and Sarah felt like they were being watched even though they didn't know why. Casey's surveillance was inactive, but Sarah wouldn't put it past her partner to try and trick her by telling her the cameras weren't recording and waiting for her guard to slip. The little dinner party was quiet until someone knocked on the front door.

"I wonder who that could be," said Ellie sarcastically as she got up to answer the door.

"Hello, Morgan," she said, speaking even as she opened the door, and, sure enough, the little bearded man was standing outside, looking hopeful.

"Can I come in?" he asked.

"There's no point arguing, so, whatever, come on in," said Ellie in defeat.

As Morgan crossed the threshold Sarah noticed something radically different about him.

"Morgan, what happened to your beard?" she asked.

"Why? Whatever do you mean?" he said, feigning ignorance.

"It's gotten more – more..." She trailed off before looking to Chuck for help.

"Lumberjack-y?" he supplied.

"Yeah, that'll do. Anyway, what happened?" she said, returning her attention to Morgan.

"Man," he whined, "Chuck didn't tell you?"

"Chuck didn't tell me what," she said with menace, turning back to Chuck.

Chuck shot Morgan a look that said What the hell, man? before timidly answering Sarah's question.

"Morgan and I are seeing who can go the longest without shaving," he blurted out quickly.

Ellie rolled her eyes at this new development, but Sarah looked at Chuck in a new light. Yes, that was definitely stubble.

"You're not growing a beard," she said flatly.

"Why not?" asked Chuck defensively.

"Because if you love me, you'll take what I think into account for once!" she said before storming off, and Ellie followed her.

"Never say no to the lady, dude," was Awesome's sage advice.

"Real good advice there, Devon," said Chuck sarcastically.

"Hey, I'm just saying," he began, before lowering his voice so Morgan couldn't hear. "Besides, you never want to make someone who can kill you with her bare hands mad."

When Sarah got to Chuck's room with Ellie, she dried her tears and started to giggle. She gave Ellie a high five. "That totally worked."

"You bet it did. No to beards!" Ellie started to quietly laugh.


A/N: I hoped you liked chapter one. Stay tuned for more. (: