AN: This is my first Chuck fic, so be kind and give me pointers!!
Chuck vs. The Pacific
Chuck Bartowski was bored as hell. It was a slow day, a Wednesday, and nothing at all interesting had happened all day. Not that this job was particularly interesting on the best of days, and this day was definitely not one of the best. He was hunched over at the Nerd Herd station, head pillowed on his crossed arms and his eyes closed.
"Having a nice nap?"
His head snapped up, so suddenly that for a moment his vision was black. As he blinked at it began to clear, he saw Sarah smiling up at him amusedly, her eyebrows raised. He couldn't help but smile back a little.
"Hey," he said a little dumbly. There was something about Sarah in her Orange Orange uniform that just made him start to daydream. Something about cartwheels and wind blowing. But that wasn't the point right now.
She leaned against the counter casually, her eyes glittering. "Don't want you losing this job, now do we?"
Chuck sighed, leaning on his elbows again. He caught a whiff of the smell of her shampoo as he inhaled. "We wouldn't want that." His words were sardonic and he felt Sarah's eyes on him.
"It won't be like this forever, you know," she replied softly. "They're already working on a new version of the Intersect. Soon it'll be out of your head and you won't need to live like this anymore." Glancing up after hearing something almost sad in her words, Chuck found himself staring at her profile. She wouldn't look at him. He looked at her for a moment longer before faux-cheerfully filling in the gap.
"So, what's up for today? Any national security threats? Bombs? How about terrorists that just want some Coldstone? I mean, they're out of their minds not to want it – "
"Chuck," Sarah interrupted, laughing a little. "Just come with me, alright?" There was still a little smile on her lips as she walked away. Chuck followed without hesitation.
When he caught up to her, he asked, "But really, what's up for today? If there's no big emergency, maybe you and I could – wait, why are we in the Orange Orange?"
"Temp headquarters for the moment, and there is a big emergency, Chuck. Just hold on a sec." She tapped the code in quickly to a key pad next to the door and walked into the freezer, where Casey was sitting at a small table with a few laptops and about six guns surrounding him. "Casey? Any updates?"
"The freezer? This is what the CIA springs for?" Chuck wrapped his arms around himself as Sarah shot him a look.
The brawny NSA agent didn't look up from polishing his guns. "Got us two practically priceless invites to some party he's throwing tonight on his yacht. The yacht happens to also be where he is storing the biological weapons."
Chuck halted immediately. "Whoa, wait, biological weapons?"
"That are going to be released over LA," said Casey lightly. Chuck frowned. Sometimes – okay, most of the time – he thought Casey acted so blithely just to rile up Chuck. And it worked.
"Biological weapons released over LA. Okay, well, we can stop that, right?"
"Sure," said Casey in a mockingly cheerful tone. "Because it's that easy, super spy. Just waltz into the man's party, grab the means for biological warfare and then waltz out."
"You're almost right, Agent Casey," said Beckman from the screen of a laptop. All three of them turned to face her. "Chuck and Sarah, you'll be going to the party as guests. Sarah for protection, and Chuck to see if he flashes on anything. Casey, you'll be on long range back up duty on a small motorboat nearby. Far enough away to remain unseen but close enough to help if need be."
"Okay," said Chuck cheerfully. "Just another day at the office!"
Sarah ignored him. "And if we find the biological weapons? What do we do with them?"
"Put them in a safe container and bring them back to the Castle. I'll have analysts meet you there to take the weapons to be tested," said Beckman. "Are we clear?"
"Yes, ma'am," Casey replied. The screen went dark. "Alright. The party's at 8. Bartowski. You need a better suit."
"I'd better go get ready," said Sarah before leaving the room. The boys stared after her.
"What is it with women taking hours to get ready for something?" said Casey with honest confusion in his voice.
"I have no idea," replied Chuck bemusedly.
--
"Have I told you that you look really nice tonight?"
"You have, Chuck. Thank you." Even though she was admonishing him, her voice was pleased.
"Really, really nice."
"Chuck," she said, now smiling more fully. She did look really nice, though the word barely covered it. Her dress was dark blue and sleeveless, dipping low in the front and fluttering around her legs, ending just above her knees. Her hair was down and in long waves down her back and he honestly couldn't stop staring. "Work, remember?"
"Ah, yes. It's a tough job, this one." He looked around the large open room on the yacht, filled with glamorously dressed people drinking champagne out of narrow glass flutes. He adjusted his tie a little nervously, but Sarah put a hand on his arm and smiled up at him.
"It's going to be fine, Chuck. We'll just sneak off for some 'alone time' and snoop around a little." He suddenly found it hard to swallow.
"Oh, ah, alone time? Isn't that – I mean –"
"Cover alone time," she replied a little briskly, looking away. Chuck thought her cheeks looked a little rosier than they had before. "There, there he is. Valentine, that's our man."
He followed her gaze and found a man walking the edge of the party, obviously in the role of the host. He stopped to speak with people, shook their hands and smiled. He was…tall, dark and absurdly handsome and Chuck hated him at first sight. Then his brain switched into gear and his vision was awash with pictures of clouds of gas blowing across a desert, a bunch of files with Valentine's picture on them and a few pictures of cherubs holding arrows. He blinked out of it quickly.
"Yeah, Valentine is planning on selling the weapons to the highest bidder here in LA. The plan isn't to wipe out LA, but to sell them here and then transport them to Washington D.C. They're planning on releasing them over the capital." He and Sarah shared a slightly panicked look. Well, definitely more panicked on Chuck's end.
"What do we do now?" Asked Chuck.
"Watch Valentine for a bit. See how he acts with different people," said Casey through their ear pieces. "Have you flashed on anyone on the boat?"
"No, not yet," Chuck replied. "Well, other than Valentine."
"Alright. You and Walker go make out in one of the rooms."
"Whoa, hold on Casey, I don't think we – "
"He meant as our cover, Chuck. We need access to the rest of the boat and the only way we're going to get it is if we act like a drunk couple who is a little too busy to be paying attention to their surroundings." There was a shift in Sarah's face as she stepped closer to him and smiled in a rather alarmingly seductive manner. "Come on, Chuck, let's go."
"Uh, I um – "
She stood on her toes and balanced herself with a hand on his chest as she whispered in his ear. He got another great whiff of whatever was in her hair and his eyes closed involuntarily. "Follow me." Her voice was low and her breath warm on his neck and of course he couldn't deny her anything.
She took his hand and led him out of the room. When they reached a hallway a little off to the side with just some servers in it, Sarah giggled loudly – she giggled – and turned to wrap her arms around his neck. Again, she whispered in his ear, but he could hear the smile she had put on her face in her voice. "Just play along for a bit, Chuck." Her fingers tangled with his hair and she slowly made her way towards his mouth. Still a little hesitant, Chuck just stayed still, though his arms automatically went to wrap around her waits. The back of her dress dipped lower than the front, and his fingers encountered warm skin. He swallowed.
Lightly, she tugged on his bottom lip with her teeth. They were making their way down the hall, Sarah stumbling in a falsely drunken way and Chuck stumbling simple to keep up with her.
"Uh, Sarah?"
"Shhh," she whispered against his lips, kissing him. In an instant, Chuck was responding, opening his mouth to hers and pulling her closer with his arms. She made a little noise of surprise but didn't pull away. He thought he felt her shiver, and she was holding his head tightly, keeping it near hers. Chuck's heart soared.
They stumbled back towards a doorway and fell through it, breaking apart in the process. Sarah smoothed back her hair and took a few deep breaths. "You see anything?"
"Uh," Chuck began, barely able to make himself look around the room. "No, I don't…" Then the world blurred and there were images of rainbows and chemistry labs and cats hissing across his vision. When he came back to the regular world, Sarah was looking at him expectantly, her lipstick smudged. "Yeah, yeah. That box, there." He pointed to an ornate wooden box that had Chinese patterns across the top.
There was a little lock but Sarah snapped it easily with the pliers she had hidden…somewhere on her. Chuck didn't want to dwell on that. Then she slowly opened the box…
…and that's when the ticking started.
"Why can't the terrorists ever just want Coldstone?!" Chuck exclaimed, backing up very quickly. Sarah was already shouting something into her little microphone, most likely to Casey, but Chuck was thinking about something else. "The people. Sarah, the people on this boat probably aren't connected to this whole thing. They can't die." She looked at him but didn't say anything. "No, we are not letting them die!"
"We don't have time! The bomb says five minutes. That's hardly enough. I have to get you out of here," she said harshly, grabbing his arm and dragging him from the room. Instead of going back to the main room, they ducked into the kitchen, ignoring the angry yelling from the staff. "We have to get off this boat. Right now." She was about to move towards a window when Chuck yanked his arm from hers.
"No! Just give me a second." He looked around the kitchen before finding something that was more than a little inspiring. Chuck grabbed the crème brulee torch and turned it on. With a little yelp of surprise at the flame, he held it up towards the smoke detector, close enough to burn it. Within a few seconds the alarm was starting to turn black, smoking a little, and it began wailing. Chuck ran back to Sarah, who looked mildly impressed. "Okay, let's go now."
She ripped off her heeled shoes and grabbed his hand, running towards the back of the boat. Together, they leaped up and over the railing, plunging down into the Pacific Ocean.
Water closed over his head and Chuck had the weirdest sensation of being completely alone before Sarah grabbed his shoulder and practically hauled him to the surface.
"Swim. Dock. Now," she said breathlessly.
"Casey?" He said, starting to swim and almost swallowing a lot of salt water.
"I told him to stay away from the boat," was her clipped reply before they were both too busy swimming as fast as possible away from the boat. They made it into the shadow of a dock, both going to one pillar and clinging to it desperately while they caught their breath.
"We almost just died!" Chuck whisper-shouted, eyes wide. "Sarah, we were almost dead a second ago!"
Her laugh blew her breath in his face as they clung underneath the pier. "That's kind of a daily occurrence for me." He laughed with her, very quietly, but after a moment the amusement wore off. Chuck suddenly became incredibly aware of their bodies pressed together in the cool water as they both huddled around the same pillar. Her dress was floating around her legs and he could feel it brush up against him underneath the black surface of the water. She seemed to notice something similar, because the smile swept off of her face very quickly and she went completely still. Her make up had run a little down one cheek, her hair was sticking to her face and neck, she was bleeding from a cut on her forehead and Chuck had never seem anything more beautiful.
He swept the arm not holding onto the pier through the water, propelling himself toward her just another inch. He saw her throat move as she swallowed and her eyes didn't leave his. With his free hand, he wiped some of her dripping hair back from her face. "Sarah."
Slowly, very slowly, he tilted his head down and gently pressed his lips to hers. Her body was almost completely still, as if she was afraid to move, and her lips were cool and wet and smooth. He pulled back a tiny bit from that small kiss, almost just a touching of their lips, and exhaled lightly with his eyes still closed. When he did open them, she was looking up at him with the strangest look in her eyes, her mouth slightly open. Then she had pushed herself forward in the water and their lips crashed together.
Chuck thought, for one wild moment, that he was dreaming. It was near midnight, pitch black but for some lights on the dock, and they were in a world with just the two of them, floating and weightless. And he was kissing Sarah. Sarah was kissing him. A little of both, and it was incredible. She was swirling and cool against him and if her hand hadn't been tightly clutching his shirt he would have been very willing to believe this was a dream. But her grip was strong and demanding, her mouth opening against his and suddenly she wasn't cool anymore, but as fiery as he knew she could be.
A huge boom and flash of brilliant light made them jerk apart, clutching the pillar in shock. Valentine's yacht exploded in a flash of orange and yellow light, debris flying every direction. The boom echoed off of the metal hulls of all the ships in port, making it sound much louder than it actually was – though it was plenty loud.
As the noise quieted again, Chuck swallowed. "I forgot about the exploding boat thing." Sarah laughed a little breathlessly and leaned her head on his shoulder, obviously relieved. He let his arm swim around her as they floated, watching the fire cast the dark water red.
"Walker? Bartowski?" a voice hissed above them, and Chuck and Sarah immediately pushed apart. Chuck instantly regretted the separation. "You down there?"
"Yeah, Casey, we're here!" Sarah hissed back up. "Come on, Chuck," she said brusquely, barely looking at him. Swimming down the dock towards a ladder, she hauled herself up it, water cascading off of her nice cocktail dress…that was now clinging to every inch of her. Chuck decided to stay in the cold water for a moment longer.
"Bartowski, we don't have all day," Casey said grouchily. Chuck sighed and pulled himself up the ladder in time to see Sarah wiping herself off a little with a towel. Casey threw one at him as well. "Dry off. We have to go report that it was a fake. Now." The NSA agent jumped into the driver's seat of the black SUV.
Chuck and Sarah walked a little slower, cold and cramped from spending so much time in the Pacific Ocean. Chuck swallowed and gathered his nerve. "Hey, Sarah? About – "
"Not now, Chuck," she said, turning and looking at him with something like regret in her eyes. "We have to report that the weapons weren't on the boat, that it was a fake and that the yacht's destroyed." For a moment she opened her mouth and it looked like she was going to continue, but then she closed her mouth and just climbed into the SUV. Wearily, Chuck followed her. As usual.
"Then what? We still don't have the weapons, but Valentine's dead."
Casey grunted. "Unfortunately, he's still alive. He hopped off the boat the instant the fire alarm went off, along with all the guests." He glanced at Chuck in the rear view mirror. "Good thinking, Bartowski. With the fire alarm, I mean."
"Thanks," Chuck replied, looking at the back of Casey's head as the agent just glared at the road ahead of them.
"We have to find Valentine," Sarah said quietly. When Chuck looked at her, she was staring out the window and into the brightly lit, LA night, a deeply thoughtful look on her face.
"What do we do now?" he asked her, his voice quiet. She looked over at him, picking up the double meaning in his words. Then she sighed and looked back out the window.
"I don't know."
