Rating: T

Spoilers: Goes AU after Chuck vs. the Ex.

A/N: Going through a bunch of old stories that I wrote years ago and found this one in the pile. This was such a great show. Also, I heart Zachary Levi. My love for him is still strong. :)

xxx

She kissed him. Her eyes were closed, but she could tell his eyebrows were climbing upwards in surprise. He hesitated, then kissed her back, his mouth warm against hers. Against her will, her breath caught in her throat. That was the thing about Chuck. Even though she'd only done it a handful of times in the entirety of their fake relationship, kissing him always surprised her. Tall, dark, and caring, indeed. The passion was the wild card.

She let it continue just a fraction of a second longer than she normally would have deemed prudent. Really, it was questionable whether it was prudent to have done it at all. A simple kiss hello in the interest of keeping up their cover was one thing, but when she couldn't even exercise the self-discipline to keep things professional… to keep a fake kiss, well, fake… maybe she shouldn't have started this in the first place.

She broke the kiss, and looked into his face. He had a goofy, happy looking smile on his face, and she was torn between wanting to hit him for being so frustratingly adorable, and wanting to reach up and caress his face, and laugh up into his eyes. She could feel her cheeks begin to flush lightly, and she quickly schooled her expression into a mask of detachment to cover it. "We have a mission," she said brusquely, and saw his face fall, the blatant disappointment in his eyes.

She walked through the Buy More to the home theater room, wanting to kick herself as she felt him following behind her, his very footfalls sounding dejected. He had specifically told her he couldn't handle the intimacy of the cover because he couldn't tell what was real and what was fake; it was all real to him. He was too emotionally invested. And here she was, blurring the lines again, telling herself it was for the job, completely disregarding his feelings. She felt like a jerk. Chuck had never been anything but honest with her, and always respected her wishes, when it was obvious he wanted more. He was such a good guy. He didn't deserve to be treated as inconsiderately as she'd just treated him.

She exhaled furiously as she entered the home theater room, where Casey was already waiting for them. She told herself her behavior had nothing to do with the phone call she'd overheard between Chuck and Jill a few days before, that it certainly wasn't some twisted attempt to mark her territory, to purposefully confuse Chuck about his feelings now that he finally had a chance at something real with someone else. Surely she was better than that. A better agent than to use an asset for less than professional purposes. A better friend than to willfully hurt someone she genuinely cared about.

No, she told herself firmly, she was just protecting the cover. After all, Chuck was a hopelessly bad liar. Now that he was involved with someone else, he was liable to compromise their cover by behaving like a lovesick fool about Jill, so it was up to her to make sure their cover stayed believable.

"Bout time you got here," Casey grunted at them, breaking her reverie. "We've got a situation."

"Let me guess, Fulcrum agents are plotting to infiltrate a high society event in order to covertly sell launch missile codes to our country's enemies, and it's up to us to stop them," Chuck said dryly.

Casey glanced at him. "Well, I don't know about high society, but the rest of it is about right. Did you flash on something already?"

Chuck's eyebrows climbed again. "What? No! I was joking. Seriously, the launch code thing was right?"

"Some of us don't joke about missile codes," Casey said, unamused.

Chuck swallowed. "Right, when it's a real thing, joking about the potential destruction of the known world is probably in poor taste." At a look at Casey's stony face, Chuck straightened up. "Okay, shutting up now."

"Where is it happening?" Sarah asked.

"Downtown. A restaurant called 'Chez Pierre.' You and Bartowski are going undercover as a couple celebrating their anniversary." He sighed. "I will, yet again, be going as a waiter. Bartowski, be ready at seven o clock."

"Wait, this is happening tonight?" Chuck exclaimed. "I can't go tonight, I have a date with Jill."

Sarah winced, wondering how to break the news to him gently, but Casey answered before she had a chance.

"Oh, really? Well, in that case, we'll just call Fulcrum and ask them to reschedule their plot to overthrow the United States government for a time that's more convenient for you," Casey said. Not gently.

Chuck waited a beat. "You're being sarcastic right now, aren't you?"

Sarah sighed. "I'm sorry, Chuck. I know you're disappointed, but Jill knows about your role as an agent. You'll have to tell her you'll go on your date another time. She'll understand."

His eyes came to rest on her. "Yeah, telling a girl you have to cancel a date to go out with a beautiful woman who isn't her, who wouldn't be understanding about that?"

"She knows you have a cover girlfriend, doesn't she?"

Chuck nodded reluctantly.

Sarah raised her eyebrows. "Then what's the problem?"

To her surprise, instead of answering her, Chuck exchanged glances with Casey, who shook his head to indicate he didn't want to get in the middle of this. Chuck sighed. "Never mind."

"Good," Sarah said, not certain what had just happened. "I'll expect you at seven, then."

"Fine." Chuck left the home theater room without a backward glance.

She shot Casey a questioning glance, but he just said, "Well, I've got Grill Masters to sell," and left.

She followed him out of the room, and headed toward the Nerd Herd counter, concerned about Chuck.

She saw him talking to a woman with long dark hair, and her eyes narrowed. Chuck was talking extraordinarily fast, the way he always did when he was nervous, and even though she couldn't see her face, Sarah could guess that this was Jill.

Quelling a pang of… well, some kind of pang that probably didn't need to be named, Sarah approached. She still felt bad about what she'd done earlier, and Chuck was clearly making a hash of things on his own. The least she could do was try to smooth things over for him with his new…old… well, with his girlfriend. Plus, she could see the other members of the Nerd Herd glancing at the woman at Chuck's side with blatant curiosity, clearly wondering about the role of this new woman in Chuck's life, so obviously, her intervention was needed if their cover was going to stay intact.

She sidled up to Chuck's side, and Chuck jumped about a mile, ceasing his babbling and the anxiety in his eyes escalating to actual panic. Sarah ignored him. She smiled and held out her hand to Jill. "Hi, you must be Jill. I've heard so much about you."

Jill shook her hand, looking taken aback. "Oh? Only good things, I hope?"

"Of course," Sarah replied. Other than betraying him and sleeping with his best friend. But since she'd slept with Bryce, too, who was she to throw stones? Although, that had been before she met Chuck, and she'd never been involved in a real relationship with him. "Chuck thinks the world of you." That much was true, at least. "It's nice to meet you. I'm Sarah."

Jill's eyes widened behind her wire-frame glasses. "You're Sarah?"

Sarah's smile faltered. "Yes. I understand Chuck already explained the situation to you?"

"You're his girlfriend," Jill said flatly.

Sarah glanced at the Nerd Herd, who were out and out staring now, but were still just outside of earshot. "That is our cover, yes," she said lightly. Beside her, Chuck made a strangled noise. Again, she ignored him, and tried to project a reassuring air to Jill. "I hope you're not upset with Chuck about having to cancel this evening. Believe me, he was very reluctant to do so, but he's a very honorable guy, and he would never ignore the call of duty when lives are at stake, whatever that may cost him personally."

Jill looked slightly mollified. "That's true."

Sarah smiled at her. "Great. I knew you would understand. Hopefully tomorrow there will be no rogue agents threatening the safety of the country, and you two can go out then."

Chuck made another strangled noise. She looked up at him, concerned. "Are you okay?"

"Fine," said Chuck, his voice cracking.

"All right," she said. "Well, I have a mission to plan, so I'd better get back to work." Glancing at the Nerd Herd audience again, she stood on tiptoe and gave Chuck a very brief, professional kiss on the cheek. "See you later."

As she was leaving, she heard Jill say, "That was your cover girlfriend?"

"Uh-huh," Chuck said eloquently.

"Somehow, when you told me you had a cover girlfriend, I imagined someone a little… shorter," Jill said dryly. Sarah faltered, but resolutely kept walking, determined not to be distracted. Shorter?