Hello, fellow Chuck fans!

This is my second Chuck fanfic (my first was "Sarah and Casey vs. Black Friday"), and my first multichap for this fandom.

Anyways, a little background on this fic: I've had this idea for a few months now, and have finally found the time to write it. It's supposed to be a season 3 fic – yeah, I know I'm putting it out here really late, considering season 3 premieres tomorrow! – which means it will most certainly end up being an AU fic. Though I have most of the story planned out, this is the only chapter I have written, so there's going to be some lag time between chapters.

This first chapter serves as an introduction to the situation, so it might not be as good as later chapters. As shown in this chapter, most of the story is going to be told from Chuck's POV, though there'll be a few chapters near the end told from Sarah's POV.

Spoilers: Brief references to "Chuck vs. the Wookie" and "Chuck vs. the Ring"

Well, I'll let you get to reading now. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Don't own Chuck. The creators weren't kind enough to give it to me for Christmas. Maybe for my birthday…

Chuck vs. the Accident

CHUCK POV

"Ow…" I moaned, leaning back in my seat and applying more ice to the bump on the back of my head that was gradually swelling. Rain poured down on the roof of the car, almost drowning out the sound of the windshield wipers swiping the glass. Despite the dreary conditions outside, it was much too quiet for my pleasure inside the car. That was mainly due to the silence of my handler, CIA agent Sarah Walker, who was going a little too heavy on the gas at the moment.

"Uh, Sarah, would you mind easing up on the gas a little bit?" I asked timidly, both in an attempt to get her to talk and an effort to save our lives. Sarah gave me an annoyed glance out of the corner of her eye, but said nothing and kept that lead foot going.

I refocused my gaze on the road in front of us, which Sarah was staring all too intently at. We remained in uncomfortable silence for a few more minutes; until the car sped towards a light in the middle of changing from yellow to red and I yelped, "Watch the light!"

"I SAW THE LIGHT!" Sarah shouted, stomping her foot roughly on the brake and sending us forward into our seatbelts before rebounding back to our original positions. Afraid to move, I kept my hands poised in midair as I looked curiously over at Sarah. She was seething, her eyes narrowed and her chest rising and falling with every jagged intake of breath. We remained in our positions until the light changed and Sarah slammed on the gas, causing the car to jolt forward with a squeal of the tires.

Still utterly terrified, I waited a few minutes before speaking up again. "Sarah, is something wrong?" I asked slowly, only to roll my eyes at my own stupidity. No, Chuck, nothing's wrong – Sarah always acts like a homicidal maniac! I thought sarcastically to myself. However, after reminiscing on the countless times Sarah had saved my constantly threatened life over the past few years, I realized that this statement was actually quite true – an understatement, really. In certain cases, my bafflingly gorgeous cover girlfriend could turn downright psychotic.

"You just can't listen to orders, can you, Chuck?" Sarah finally said. Though she tried to keep her voice level, I could still tell that she was infuriated with one look at her knuckles. They were bone-white from holding the steering wheel in a death grip. I looked at her expectantly, assuming that she had more to say. Sure enough, she did.

"We'd tell you to stay in the car, but no, you'd always follow us," she snapped, dragging out the "no" as sarcastically as she could. "I told you not to give the diamond to Carina, but you did it anyway." She paused her angry rant to lay on the horn and shake her fist at the person who had just cut us off. Turning to me with a menacing glare, her voice rose a decibel as she screeched, "And this time, I told you not to move, but you did and nearly got yourself killed!" She emphasized this last example by furiously pounding her fist against the steering wheel. Once she completed her angry tirade, Sarah released an annoyed sigh and placed her forehead in her right hand in frustration.

There was a long pause before I laughed. At first, it started with a tiny chuckle trapped behind my lips – which were pressed up against the side of my right index finger in an attempt to smother the snicker. Sarah still heard it, shooting me a glance resembling both confusion and hostility. This only made me laugh harder.

"Excuse me, but was there something you found amusing about what I just said?" Sarah asked sternly. With one look at her menacing gaze, the remainder of my guffaws choked off. I cleared my throat nervously before gathering the courage to answer Sarah's question.

"Uh… yes," I started uneasily, clearing my throat again. "Yes, I did find something amusing about your little – um – outburst there." Sarah raised her eyebrows in interest, as if to say, "And…?" This prompted me to continue, as well as my chuckling.

"It's just…" I paused to shake my head in disbelief as I laughed softly to myself. "Well, it's just funny because I've defied orders ever since I downloaded the original Intersect, and now you're acting all psychotic about it? Sarah, even though I have no idea what I'm doing half – okay, 98% - of the time, everything turns out fine. I mean, think about what happened this time – sure, I moved and could have been killed, but I wasn't – I just have a little head injury," I said, placing the ice pack back on my head. "The only other people injured were those Ring agents who were pointing guns at our heads before I took them out with my mad kung-fu skills." To emphasize the last part, I made chopping motions in the air, looking more like Morgan attempting – and failing – to imitate Bruce Lee than a ninja-like super spy.

The tires screeching, Sarah punched the brakes as we neared a stoplight, throwing us forward in our seats again. Once she resumed to her original position, Sarah took this pause in driving as a chance to get her two cents in.

"The thing is, Chuck, you can't always assume that everything will turn out all right," she said, her voice dropping back down a few decibels. "You can make one little mistake, and lose an important opportunity." She turned to face the road again and blink a few times before saying softly, "You can hurry to save someone you care about, and still not be fast enough."

My eyes narrowed a little bit at this last example, knowing Sarah chose it for a reason. "Let me guess – this person you speak of is Bryce."

"Chuck!" Sarah cried – more out of pain than anger – as the light turned green again. She turned to me – a pained, shocked expression on her beautiful face – just as another car's headlights shone through her window. She didn't even have time to turn around in response to my terrified look when there came the sickening crunch of metal on her side of the car. Still gaping in horror, I screamed her name as the shards of what used to be Sarah's side window flew out from behind her head and brushed against her blond waves. The crunching noise continued as Sarah's hands – limp and heavy like the rest of her now-unconscious body – fell from the steering wheel, causing the car to veer off to the side. The last thing I saw was a lamppost shining through the rain on my side of the car before the dashboard rushed to meet my eyes.

CHARAHCHARAHCHARAH

Moments later, my heavy-lidded eyes reopened in confusion, trying to make sense of my blurred surroundings. Where was I? Where was Sarah? Was she okay? And why was my head hurting even more than before? The first and last questions were immediately answered when I lifted my head off of the airbag and felt blood run down my forehead.

With that information, I searched my mind for more answers – more specifically, the memories of what happened prior to my loss of consciousness. I remembered the rain pounding on the roof and Sarah's irritation about my tendency to disobey orders. There was a conversation that followed, and I had said something about Bryce that upset Sarah. And then… and then…

Headlights. The crunching of the impact. Glass shards flying.

Sarah. Limp. Not moving.

Once the last words hit me, I spun to my left to see Sarah slumped against the steering wheel, whose airbag had also deflated. Her stunning blue eyes were closed, and her fair hair was now bloodied and littered with glass shards.

"Sarah…" I croaked, unbuckling my seatbelt so I could reach out to her. I started to get out of my seat, only to collapse back into it as my head spun. I hoped the wooziness would subside so I could help Sarah, but an unrecognizable voice reached my ear through my broken side window.

"Sir? Sir, are you alright?"

Moaning, I looked to my right to see a well-built man open my crumpled car door and peer down at me with concerned eyes. Upon seeing my injuries and an unconscious Sarah, he clapped his hand over his mouth and swore before turning to a woman with short blond hair behind him. "Honey…"

"I already called the hospital. An ambulance will be here soon," she responded to her husband's unasked question. As if on cue, sirens wailed behind me.

"Look, don't move. We're going to get you to the hospital," the man told me. I nodded slowly, feeling myself slipping back into unconsciousness. I stole another quick look at Sarah, who still hadn't moved, before the woman cut in. "Don't worry about your girlfriend. They'll get her out, too. Just don't move."

Doors opened and slammed as the rainy night became ablaze with red and blue flashing lights. Everything began to blur again as I was lifted out of the car and placed on a backboard. There came a gasp, and an all-too familiar cry of, "Chuck!" pierced through the air as my worried sister materialized at my side.

"Ellie, get… get Sarah out," I moaned, before succumbing to the darkness once more.

Cliffhanger! You better get used to them, because I have an even bigger one planned for the next chapter!

I don't know if Ellie goes along with the ambulances when there's an accident, but I really wanted her to be there at the end of the scene, so I'm just saying that she does in this story.

So, what'd you think of this first chapter? Loved it? Hated it? Thought it was okay? REVIEW to let me know! Feel free to comment on my writing, as comments help me improve my writing! But as a forewarning, I'm really slow at replying – reality always gets in my way.

This is just the appetizer of "CvstOLS," so stay tuned for the next chapter! I hope to get it up in the next few days, but if I don't, it'll probably be up next weekend. I promise it'll be – wait for it – AWESOME!

Happy (almost) season 3! Woot!

Peace. Love. Charah!

AQotL