Hello peoples! The other day I was on the fanfiction boards clamoring for more entertainment in our fandom, so I decided to put up. This is a light little fluff piece about Chuck with a small Smallville crossover. You don't have to be a Smallville fan to like the story; you do have to be a Chuck fan however. This story is takes place before the Orion arc in Chuck, and before the Stiletto episode of Smallville. I haven't seen the Stiletto episode, and neither has Sarah, so she is just guessing what might take place based on the trailers she's seen.

A note for those who are not Smallville watchers: Smallville is a show on the CW about the early years of Clark Kent before he becomes Superman. The next episode, 8.19, will be about Lois taking on a crime fighting identity in order to propel her news writing career.

Without further ado:

Sarah vs Stilettoff

By MySoapBox

Sarah sat behind the counter of the Orange Orange with her eyebrows furrowed as she stared intently at the screen of her laptop. She typed furiously and occasionally, when she was really concentrating, her tongue would pop out at the corner of her mouth. She heard the jingle of the front door and she saw Chuck's tall lanky frame through the glass. Startled, she hastily set the laptop aside and arranged an innocent smile on her face.

"Hey Chuck, what brings you over? I didn't think you had lunch until one."

He leaned against the counter casually. "It's just so slow today. If another customer asks me about ink cartridges I think I'll lose my mind." He noticed the laptop sitting idol. "What'cha working on?"

Sarah smiled and pushed the laptop aside nervously. "Oh nothing. Nothing important."

Was that a twinge of embarrassment he sensed in her face? His curiosity piqued, Chuck said, "Nothing huh? Then you won't mind if I take a look." He lunged across the counter and grabbed the computer.

"Hey! That could be classified information!" Sarah protested as she leaned over the counter in an attempt to get it back.

"But it's not!" Chuck said triumphantly. Sarah dove over the counter and swiped for the computer, but she wasn't fast enough, Chuck jerked and spun it away from her hands.

"It looks like…." he said, dancing across the small yogurt shop with Sarah in pursuit.

"Give that back!" Sarah protested.

"….a Word document," he said smiling, taking glee in this little game of keep away.

"Chuck! I mean it!"

"It's a…." Sarah grabbed him around the waist. Chuck raised the laptop high in the air, just out of Sarah's reach. "….a…story?" he finished.

"Chuck, give that back now!" Sarah growled, as she tightened her grip on his waist with one hand and stepped on his toes in an attempt to stretch her reach.

"Okay, okay, I'll give it back," Chuck said, relenting. "But you have to let me go first."

Sarah relaxed her grip and stepped back from Chuck.

"Gee wiz, Sarah. You almost pulled down my pants," he said hitching up his waistband and straightening his shirt with his free hand. "I'm just going to set the laptop down right where I got it from, okay?"

Sarah eyed him suspiciously as Chuck moved his way around the counter and placed the laptop down. As he did, Sarah saw him quickly punch a few buttons.

"What did you do?! You didn't erase it did you?"

"What do you take me for?" Chuck said, pretending offence. "I would never do anything to jeopardize your work."

Sarah snatched up the laptop and quickly scrolled through her document. "What did you do then? I saw you on the keyboard."

"I just um…" Chuck started to back his way to the door. "I maybe….just…" He started to push the door open. "…emailed it to myself," he said quickly as he turned and rushed out the door and across the parking lot.

"Charles Bartowski!" Sarah yelled in rage after him.

***

When Chuck got back to work he took out his iPhone and opened his email to see what Sarah had been working on. The fact that she had been so mysterious about it wasn't unusual. But she had also seemed to be very embarrassed, which wasn't like her at all. Whatever it was, in a few simple clicks Chuck would find out.

He opened the document and read aloud. "Stilettos Revenge? What the heck?"

He read on…

It was a dark and stormy night in Metropolis. A night where evil reigned and the people cried out for a hero. Little did they know that just such a person was rising out of the shadows to defend them. That hero was Stileto. During the day Stileto was really Lois Lane, struggling reporter at the Daily Planet, trying to get a scoop, a scoop that would land her on the front page. But at night, with mask and black boots she became a crime fighter that struck fear into the hearts of every criminal in the city. But her biggest obstacle wasn't the dregs of society, it was her partner, Clark Kent, who always seemed to get in the way…

Open mouthed, Chuck continued reading through the story. Five pages later, right in middle of a very detailed knife fight, the story abruptly ended. Chuck leaned back in his chair, put his hands behind his head and grinned. "Who would have believed it?" he said to himself. "Our own Sarah Walker is a fan fiction writer!"

***

Sarah couldn't be more embarrassed. She had only been writing fan fiction for one day and she may have already been found out. She had discovered fan fiction a few weeks before. The Orange Orange was always empty and sometimes she filled the dead time browsing the internet to catch up on the few TV shows she tried to follow. One afternoon while searching for the latest news about the show, Smallville (she had been a Superman fan from the time she was a little girl), she accidently clicked on a result that took her to a fan fiction site. The title of the story caught her attention and before she knew it, she was hooked. Since then she had spent hours every day devouring everything she could read about Clark and Lois.

As she browsed the site she saw that many people were posting stories and they all seemed to be at different levels and ages. Sarah figured she could write as well as the worst of them, couldn't she? She already had a pen name all picked out: 'spygirl29'. Okay, so maybe it wasn't the most original penname in the world, but it seemed fitting. It took her several days to work up the courage to try her hand at it, but once she sat down at her laptop, the words just seemed to flow out of her fingertips. It was exhilarating and wonderfully escapist as she took her heroine crime fighting in the bowels of the city, right under Clark's nose.

She could only hope that Chuck was kidding when he said that he had emailed a copy to himself. But when she heard her phone ring and saw Chuck's picture light up, she knew that all her hoping was in vain.

"Hello?"

"Stiletto is spelled with two t's."

"Excuse me?"

"Stiletto. In your story you spelled it with one t, it's actually spelled with two."

"Thanks for the trivia. If you're done, I have work to do."

"No, I'm not done. When were you going to tell me about this new hobby, Sarah?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Oh, don't even go there. I've read it, Sarah, I read about the masked Lois kicking bad guy butt all over Metropolis. It has your fingerprints all over it."

"You've got to be kidding."

"First of all, Lois is too smart. I mean you have her calculating every move, three moves in advance. That's what you do, Sarah, not Lois. The Lois on the show just rushes head first into things without thinking."

"She didn't plan everything," Sarah protested. "The whole knife fight on the last page? It was her own mistake that put her in position for that ambush."

"That's another thing, Sarah. No one goes into that much detail about knives and which brands and sizes are the best for different kinds of fighting. I mean…why does she even use knives, when a good handgun would be easier?"

"Maybe she likes the thrill of it!" Sarah answered defensively.

"And the Lois in your story is a true crime fighter through and through. I think the Lois on the show is just doing it to get attention, not to be a Dark Knight knockoff."

"She's AU. You can do that you know. Anyway, I'm not talking about this with you anymore."

"Oh, yes you are, because I'm your new Beta reader."

"You're my what?"

"You are new at this. Your Beta Reader," he said slowly, "I'm going to help you with your story."

"And how are you going to do that?

"Well, I'll read it through and correct your spelling and grammar mistakes – there are quite a lot, surprisingly."

"Are not!"

He ignored her. "And then I'll give you suggestions on how to make it better and stuff."

"Hey, how do you know so much about it?"

"Sarah, I'm a sci-fi fan. Fan fiction was born for sci-fi." Sarah heard talking in the background. "Dang, I got to go. Your place at eight!"

"My place? Chuck… Hello? Hello?"

"Oh boy, Sarah," she said to herself as she put away her phone. "What have you gotten yourself into?"

***

Chuck knocked on Sarah's door at five to eight with a vegetarian pizza in his hand.

She was already dressed in sweat pants and a t-shirt. "What are you doing here?" she asked.

"I'm gonna help you with your story, remember?." He tilted his head just a bit to the right and raised his eyebrows.

Of course she remembered, she had only hoped that he had forgotten. "Come in," she said stepping back from the door, "but I'm only letting you in because you have pizza."

"Works every time," Chuck said. He walked into the room and tossed the pizza onto a small table. As he started to help himself to a slice he noticed the laptop sitting open on the middle of the bed.

"How's the writing coming?" he asked.

She sat Indian style behind the computer. "Good."

Chuck shook his head. "I still just can't believe it."

"What?"

"That you...Sarah Walker: CIA agent...are writing Smallville fics."

"Why not? You think you're the only one to have geeky hobbies. For your information I was a member of the chess team in high school. Made All-District my senior year."

"After seeing a picture of you in high school, I totally believe that." Sarah shot him a dirty look. "But fan fiction, Sarah that is what makes you like…a total geek. The geek of the geeks. The king of the geeks!"

"Okay, okay, I've got the point! This is why I never wanted to tell you."

"What? You don't want me to know about your geeky side? Hate to break the news to ya, but it's too late."

"Whatever, Mr. stay-up-all-night-and-play-Halo."

He clutched his chest dramatically. "Ouch, Sarah. You sure know how to hurt a guy."

"Did you come here to help? Or are you just going to stand there and make fun of me?" she asked.

Chuck, kicked off his high tops and sat on the bed next to her. "Okay, where are we at?"

"Well, she said pointing to the screen. Lois, dressed as her alter-ego Stilleto of course…"

"Of course."

Sarah shot him a dirty look. "Are you going to help or not?" she grumbled.

Chuck raised his hands in surrender. "Okay, okay."

"As I was saying…Stiletto has just killed eight bad guys in a knife fight…"

"She killed eight guys single handed?"

"Yeah, what's wrong with that?"

"Well it seems a little Mary Sue doesn't it?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, the whole Stiletto character." He bent over the computer and scrolled through the story. "Like this here…."

Her eyes flashed from cerulean to black as she stared down her opponents with gleaming daggers in her hands.

"or here…"

Golden locks billowed about her as she jumped from rooftop to rooftop in long strides.

"Sarah, who does that? I can't imagine even walking in those pointy boots, let alone jumping across rooftops."

Sarah rolled her eyes. "Well it IS just a story, Chuck. And for your information, I've done that. I've jumped off a roof in high heels. It's not fun but it's possible."

"Okay, but can we have her only killing six guys in the knife fight? Eight just seems….excessive."

"No, I already wrote in eight. And she doesn't kill them all with knives, two she shoots with a pistol that was hidden in her boot."

"Well that wasn't very sporting of her," he deadpanned.

Sarah bumped into him playfully with her shoulder. "So help me here…Lois has been stabbed and she is loosing blood…."

Clutching her side, Stiletto stumbled through the dark alleyway. The pain was nearly unbearable. She looked down expecting to see her bowels protruding from her skin but she saw none. As she walked on, she could feel the sticky warmth of her blood seeping through her fingers. At this rate, she knew she didn't have much time to live.

Chuck was reading over her shoulder. "Ew, that's a little gory isn't it?"

"That's how it feels," Sarah said, as if it were a mater of fact. "But now I'm not sure what to do to save her. I mean, she doesn't have any backup. I guess I could have her find a hospital or something but that seems kind of anti-climatic."

"Well isn't it obvious?" Chuck said. "She should call out for the Red-Blue Blur."

"I thought of that, but she doesn't want anyone to know that she is Stiletto. And in her weakened condition, she could easily divulge information."

"I know how some superhero types like to keep their secrets, but this is no time for modestly, the lady is dying here!"

Chuck pulled the laptop over and started to type…

Lois's eyes were clouding over and she knew she would not be able to take another step. As she crumpled to the cold, wet, pavement she cried out, "Red Blue Blur, help me!"

Chuck looked over to Sarah. "Do you think Red Blue Blur should be capitalized?"

Sarah shrugged. "It's a name isn't it? Okay so what does Clark do when he finds her?"

"He takes her to Smallville General of course."

"But Lois wouldn't want to go to the hospital? That kind of offensive knife wound would have to be reported to the police."

Chuck shook his head. "This is Smallville General we are talking about here. Have you ever known anyone to notice or report anything? And anyway, she'll be healed in less than 24 hours."

Sarah nodded her head. "Good point," and started typing.

Chuck read over her shoulder as she worked. "What? He's just going to leave her there alone?"

"He isn't a doctor Chuck; He got her to safety what more do you want him to do?"

"Clark would stay with Stilleto. He may not have admitted it yet, but he loves Lois and he deserves to know about her secret identity."

Sarah shook her head. "If he knew, it would change everything. It would make Lois vulnerable; Lois doesn't like to feel vulnerable."

"But it's just another secret keeping them from being together. If they could both just be honest with each other for once, and stop dancing around each other all the time, they would have hooked-up eight episodes ago. And they wouldn't have had to go through that whole Lana thing."

Chuck leaned over Sarah and started typing again…

Lois could hear beeping. She slowly opened her eyes and saw that she was in a hospital room. Clark was sitting in a chair next to her bed, reading.

"Clark?" she asked groggily.

"Stiletto, it's good to see you awake but how do you know my name?"

"Clark?" she croaked, "There's something I need to tell you."

She reached up and pulled away her purple mask. "I'm really Lois."

Clark reached down and stroked her damp hair. "And I'm really in love with you."

Sarah read it over and shook her head. "I don't know Chuck, this was supposed to be an action adventure. Not a romance."

"Why not? All of these stories have to have some sort of romance. It's written in the fan fiction bible somewhere."

Sarah glanced towards Chuck and then back to the screen. "I mean, I know Lois has feelings for Clark and everything. I just don't feel that comfortable writing about them."

"Aw come on." Chuck turned and caught her eye. "Even the worlds greatest superheroes needs someone to love them."

"What if she doesn't know how to say what she feels? And she's afraid that if she does it will just make everything too complicated?"

"She doesn't have to be poetic, Sarah. She just has to speak from her heart."

Sarah sighed. "But it's not like Lois was looking for a relationship. She only wanted to make the world a better place, enjoy fighting the good fight, and propel her career. At least that's how she used to feel."

"Used to?" Chuck asked.

"Used to - until she saw Clark through new eyes. She stopped seeing Clark, the nerdy farm boy, and started seeing Clark, the reluctant hero, who didn't ask for the life he was given, but always tried to do what was right anyway." Sarah looked down and fidgeted with the hem of her t-shirt.

Chuck reached out his hand and placed it on her knee. "And now that she sees him that way?"

She looked up at him nervously. "She's frightened, because she realized that she is a much better person with him in her life, than she was without him."

"Why would that frighten her?" Chuck asked, pushing a stray lock of hair over Sarah's ear.

"Because she thinks that if Clark saw behind her mask, saw behind the knives and the superhero moves, that he would see that she is just a scared, screwed up girl, who never had a home. And then he would realize that she isn't good enough for him…that he deserves much better."

"But doesn't she know what she means to him?" Chuck asked leaning in a little closer so that their eyes were on the same level. "Doesn't she know that since he lost Lana, Clark walked around like half a man, until he started working with Lois? And in Lois he found a woman with fiery determination and passion. And the black leather wasn't so bad either." Chuck winked and Sarah chuckled nervously. "In her, he found the other half of himself," he continued, "the half he always knew was missing but didn't know how to fill it until now." Chuck said those last words as just a whisper.

Sarah was mesmerized by his brown eyes. She could feel his breath against her cheek and smell the cologne on his shirt. And before she had a full sense of what she was doing she leaned in and kissed him. Her kiss wasn't full of passion, but it was sweet and slow. After a short moment, she pulled away.

"Chuck! I am so, so sorry. I guess I got carried away in our story," she stammered, turning red in her cheeks.

He leaned back and ran his hands through his hair. "I'm sorry too. Whew, is it warm in here? I'm feeling a bit warm." He stood up from the bed and pulled at his collar.

Sarah sat contritely on the bed, looking down at her hands. "Chuck…"

"Look, I understand. Sometimes things happen. It's okay." He looked down at his watch. "I have to go, I'm opening the store tomorrow."

Sarah stood and walked Chuck to the door. "You're sure we're okay."

"Yeah," he said, giving her a little hug. "We're fine. I'll see ya tomorrow at…."

"At the nine a.m. briefing," she supplied.

"Yeah, I'll see ya then."

***

The next morning Ellie must have sensed that Chuck was in a bit of a slump because she made him pancakes. As he cut into the first bite of his stack, he pulled out his iPhone and started thumbing through his email. One immediately caught his eye. It said "New story: "Stillettos Salvation", by: Spygirl29 has been posted." He clicked the link and Sarah's story opened in the browser. He thumbed down the page, skimming the parts he had already seen and reading the parts where she had made changes. The closing paragraph caught his eye….

Lois watched with a heavy heart as Clark left her hospital room. She still felt his kiss warm on her lips and she wished he didn't have to go. She wished that he could stay by her side forever. But for now it was not to be. But no matter the obstacles, her past, their working relationship and those that would try to keep them apart, Lois made a promise to herself that she would keep fighting to make a world where they could finally be together. Until that day she could wait and hoped that Clark could wait too. Because a love like theirs was worth waiting for.

Chuck put down his iPhone and smiled.

Many thanks to the Chuckster who beta read and caught many errors. And for those interested, the statement Sarah made about being on the high school chess team came from the fact that Jenny Burton had a pin up about the chess club in her locker in the episode Chuck vs the Cougar.

I hope you had as much fun reading this as I did writing it!