She had stared down uncounted gun barrels, resisted all kinds of truth serums and had to kill to save her own life and/or for the greater good... And that was just on this assignment. Sarah Walker had been a busy bee ever since she joined the CIA. But now, she was scared. Not scared for her life, mind you. This was scary on a whole other level.
What happened?
She only wanted to drop by Chuck's to go over some recent missions with him. Nothing serious, just she'd really feel better if he listened to her - even though his bumbling idiot act got them out of trouble more often than she liked to admit.
As she knocked on the door at Casa Bartowski, Ellie opened. "Oh, hey Sarah! Good to see you!" Before Sarah could say anything she found herself embraced in one of Ellie's very excited hugs. Maybe that's how a sister welcomes her brother's girlfriend, Sarah thought. "Come on in. Chuck's over at Morgan's, but that gives us the perfect opportunity to catch up" Ellie said, all smiles. "I haven't seen you, much less talked with you in so long" ... Sarah took one long deep breath. "Sure, why not Ellie? You're right, it's been a while".
Sarah carefully entered the apartment, flashbacks to her last one to one conversation with Ellie ("Chuck is like a duck"...) accompanying her every step and finally settled in on the couch. Meanwhile, Ellie headed for the kitchen and returned moments later with a bottle of red wine and two glasses in hand. She sat the bottle and glasses on the table and made herself comfortable on the couch as well. Sarah sat there silently, unsure of what to say, as Ellie opened the bottle and poured some wine for both of them. "How have you been? How's the new job at Orange Orange? I'm so glad you don't have to work at that disgusting Hot Dog place anymore. How you managed to work there and not smell like fried meat all the time is something I'll never cease to be amazed of..." Sarah mentally breathed a sigh of relief that Ellie wasn't questioning her about her recent trip to the suburbs with Chuck. She had got her first taste of a more normal life, complete with a dog, picket fence and husband. All fake, but she still kind of enjoyed it while it lasted. Whether this was something to keep her happy for more than a few days she didn't know, but she wouldn't mind trying this longer term.
Sensing it had been a while since Ellie asked her about the Orange Orange, Sarah turned her attention to Ellie: "Yes, thank God I got out of the Wienerlicious before it went broke, or else I would have gone broke, spending all my money on shampoo, conditioner and shower gels to get rid of that smell. You wouldn't believe how many bottles I went through in a month... Me quitting that job probably meant some shampoo factories were closed down", Sarah said, returning Ellie's smile. Ellie giggled. "Well, here's to less smelly work places" she said as they clinked their wine glasses. Sarah relaxed, feeling like this was a good opportunity to improve her small talk skills, which, as she discovered on this assignment, needed some serious improving. "So, how are the wedding preparations coming along? Are Devon's parents still trying to decide everything for you or have they backed off a little?" Ellie smiled bittersweetly. "It's getting there. I'm so excited to marry Devon, I'm not going to let this affect me too much. Plus, Devon has really helped in getting them to back off a little. You're so lucky, you know that? You won't have to deal with overbearing parents when you and Chuck decide to get married."
Sarah's face lost almost all colour instantly. This had started out so innocently and now she had maneuvered herself into this minefield she desperately wanted to avoid. She let out a nervous laugh. "Oh Ellie, let's make sure you have the perfect wedding you and Devon deserve before we get ahead of ourselves and already start planning the next one." Ellie of course noticed Sarah's sudden loss of colour. She poured some more wine, keeping the conversation going, hoping to finally get Sarah to open up to her. She'd been in her life for so long, yet she felt this woman still was a complete mystery to her. "Let me preface this by saying I don't mean to pry, but: is that where you see your relationship with Chuck going? We had this really odd conversation when he came back from when you house sat together, at first I thought he was going to tell me you had broken up." "Oh?" Was all Sarah could say at first. Ellie, sensing Sarah's discomfort, added "think of me as a friend, not as Chuck's sister. Whatever you tell me stays between us. We girls need to stick together, right?"
Sarah took another deep breath. "Right..." She was at a complete loss here, what was the right answer in this situation? Should she say 'yes', even if she wasn't sure herself that she wanted to get married, or should she say 'no', which would almost certainly cause Ellie's protective side to kick in, questioning her why she didn't think Chuck wasn't marriage material. She bridged the gap until she decided on an answer with a shy smile, the kind she usually put on to make gullible men believe she was a sweet innocent girl with not a care in the world, when she was a CIA operative sent there to kill/seduce/whatever them for the safety of her country...
"You know, I guess the most honest answer is I don't know. I don't know if I even want to get married. But what I do know is that I am very happy with Chuck and what we have, as complicated as it may be sometimes. Probably the happiest I've ever been." She paused to take a sip of her wine and Ellie took the time to process what Sarah had just said. "I guess, this is all still very new to me, to have a guy in my life who cares so much about me, and who's so... you know, like Chuck." The women looked at each other, before Sarah continued, "I've never dated someone who was so... into me, as a person, you know? Wanting to know my favourite bands, movies, anything. It's like he's a sponge who wants to suck up everything there is to know about me. And I'm not really used to... being so sharing and open." Sarah sat there, suddenly finding her hands very interesting, unsure of where to look, what to say or do.
Ellie put a hand on top of Sarah's. "You'll get there in time. There's no need to rush anything, it's just... when I see the two of you together, you seem so perfect for each other, and all I ever hear from Chuck is that it's complicated. And when Morgan told me Chuck was seeing Jill again, I was really worried. But it seems he made the right choice in the end."
Sarah nearly broke her wine glass in half when Ellie mentioned the other woman, all that anger threatening to bubble to the surface. Not just because Chuck chose her over her, but because she had played Chuck again and the fool insisted on protecting her, even though she was Fulcrum and had almost delivered to them and God knows what would have happened then. "Huh. I think he needed to see her again to finally close that chapter of his life, you know? And I wasn't worried for a second," Sarah said, putting on her confident smile, "after all she has done to him, there was no way he'd still be interested in her. And between you and me, there's no way I'd lose my boyfriend to her. I have a few tricks up my sleeve to keep him in line..." The girls shared a laugh, while Sarah thought about how far from the truth she had strayed with that last statement. She didn't want to lie to Ellie, but she enjoyed hanging out with her "boyfriend's" sister too much, she'd never really experienced something like this before. She didn't date much in high school, and after that came the CIA where meeting the family of your lover/boyfriend wasn't really high up on the agenda.
Suddenly, the door opened and in came Captain Awesome, carrying his bike on his shoulder, his bike shirt in his hand. The women turned around and he looked back at them. He stood there for a moment, his eyes wandering from Ellie to Sarah to the bottle of wine on the table and finally said "girl's night, huh? Awesome. 'Bout time you came by to catch up with your future sister-in-law, Sarah..." Ellie and Sarah looked at him but before either could say anything he simply continued "don't mind me, I'll be gone in a second. I met John in the parking lot and I'm gonna go and help him make some modifications to his new car." The girls kept staring at him as he took his bike into the bedroom and returned moments later, having changed into another pair of shorts, leaving them with a "be good" as he closed the apartment door. Ellie looked at Sarah: "yeah, that's my future husband..."
They shared a moment of comfortable silence, before Sarah spoke up again: "so, what was it like, growing up after your parents left? You pretty much became Chuck's surrogate mother, right?"
Ellie was silent for a moment and Sarah could tell in her mind Ellie had drifted off to those times when she and Chuck were on their own... "It wasn't always easy, but on the other hand I don't know any other siblings who are as close as Chuck and I... And I wouldn't give that up for anything." Ellie had a wistful look on her face. "You know, it wasn't all me. I may have mothered Chuck after our parents... left, but he was there for me too, whenever I needed him. We had each other and that was what mattered. I'll never forget when some bullies tried to take my lunch money away and Chuck stepped in on to protect me... Only to get his money taken away too. And then Morgan. But by then, the teachers had noticed, so we all got our money back." Ellie went silent, seemingly lost in all those memories Sarah's question had brought to the forefront, while Sarah sat there, wishing she had more "normal" memories of her childhood like Ellie's, but hers were mostly of travelling the country with her father, staying only as long as her father needed for his current con job, with Sarah always being the outsider in school, never really making friends and missing out on most of the things regular teens take for granted. It made her realize just how much she yearned to experience this normal life. The question changed a long time ago from whether Sarah wanted to have this supposed normal life to whether she wanted it enough to give up her life and job with the CIA. And she wasn't touching that question with a ten foot pole, even the idea of leaving the CIA was way too scary for her.
Thinking of the CIA apparently made Sarah's spy instincts kick in and she decided this might be a good time to find out what exactly Chuck had been telling his sister about her. "So, what did Chuck say when he got back from the suburbs?", she asked, playing the role of concerned girlfriend. Or was she really?
Ellie seemed hesitant to get into the subject. "Come on, Ellie. You just said yourself we need to stick together. Is there anything I should know about my man?" she pushed the elder Bartowski with a playful smile. "I really think you should talk to him about that," Ellie finally caved. "But when I asked him about how living with you for a few days had been, he told me he had realized you guys weren't ever going to be more than you are now. And he said he was okay with it, but I know my brother... Something's bothering him. And don't get me wrong, not even getting an Xbox 360 on release day made him nearly as happy as being with you has, but I don't think taking you out on dates and watching movies together and whatever else you do is what he wants to be doing until the end of time. I know he loves you and I'm pretty sure you feel the same about him, so as a "neutral party" in this I hope you work out whatever is standing between you."
Sarah thought about what Ellie had just told her. "I'll talk to him, see if I can find out what's bothering him", although that again was pretty far from the truth.
She already knew what was bothering him and she wasn't sure whether talking to him about it would do any good. He wanted more than she was willing to give right now. He wanted the real thing, not just a pretend cover relationship. And as much as she enjoyed being with him, she wasn't sure if she was cut out to be somebody's girlfriend, much less someone like Chuck.
Just as Ellie had opened a second bottle of wine, the front door opened and in came Chuck. He saw Sarah sitting on the couch with his sister, the empty bottle of wine on the table and didn't know what to make of it. "What are you two doing?" he asked them with a playful smile. "I'm just making sure you're treating your girlfriend well, or if I need to see to it that you put in more effort", Ellie answered in a mock serious voice, and Sarah, picking up on it, added "and I'm making sure you're not ignoring your sister on my account."
Chuck looked on as the two most important and favourite women in his life bonded and couldn't help the smile that was spreading on his face. "As long as Ellie promises not to dig up any of the old family photo albums, I'll be in my room and let you two get to it." Ellie couldn't resist such an opportunity and motioned for Sarah to play along: "Oh, we're already way past those. We even ordered copies online of Sarah's favourites."
"Is it okay if I put some of them up at work, sweetie? So I always have you around..." Sarah added teasingly, while Chuck looked like he was about to burst in shame. "That's... awesome. I think I'm gonna spend the night at Casey's. Or... you know, Awesome has been talking about this trip to Antarctica for a while, now seems like a good time to go... Don't you think? I'm... I'll be... See ya." Chuck rushed out the door and as soon as it was closed, the girls burst out laughing hysterically. "We need to do this more often," Sarah said. "I couldn't agree more," Ellie replied, as she poured some more wine for both of them.
THE END