Chuck vs. Damn That Kung Fu!
Hi, this is my first attempt to write a fanfiction, so feel free to voice any criticism or tip, only don't be too unforgiving in your reviews...
Besides, I know that my English is bad (I'm from dear old Italy...), sorry about that! I'll do my best to improve my skills.
Obviously I do not own Chuck and the characters, all are property of NBC.
I know this chapter is short and lacks new ideas, but I didn't put too much effort into writing it, so if there will be new chapters I promise they'll be more intriguing.
Having said this, REVIEW, REVIEW, REVIEW!
Last but not least: let me know if I broke some of the site rules, I hope I did all right.
Update (1): sorry about the previous use of brackets instead of the quotation marks, but in my country that seems to be the standard...
Update (2): revised and corrected with the help of kroblues… Eventually I have a real beta-reader! Thank God! Added some new dialogues and a bit more angst (however nothing revolutionary)
"I know Kung Fu!" shouted Chuck, totally amused and yet not truly believing what he'd just done.
Some seconds of pure motionless silence flooded the room, until…
"You, you… YOU!" growled Casey, staring at him, while the last trace of astonishment was disappearing from his face, leaving the place to a truly scary expression "MORON!"
"Casey! I was expecting something more original this time!" moaned Chuck "Hey, what's up with him? I just saved his life…" he continued towards Sarah, desperately searching for her eyes.
She was still having serious problems formulating a single word, not to mention lifting her jaw, which had dropped to the ground.
"Sarah? Sarah, are you okay? Are you hurt?" he asked with a growing sense of fear. Fear of having hurt her himself, with the decision he took a few minutes before. Fear that she couldn't forgive him.
Finally she shook lightly her head and was able to say "I-I'm fine… But… But what about you?"
"W-what?"
"You're shaking…" she managed to say in a feeble voice.
"Oh!" said Chuck a bit too loudly, looking at his hands as if it was the first time in his life he realized he had them. "I guess… I guess it's normal considering… well, you know… my recent promotion from 'asset' to 'unbeatable asset with superpowers'…" he joked. "Or 'hero' if you prefer…" And then he couldn't help grinning.
A little smile crossed her face too, as she quickly glanced up at him and pulled back just before losing herself in that warm brown chocolate lakes. She wasn't sure she could withstand them.
A smile of relief for both of them. For Sarah, who finally recognized that the kind, caring and funny old Chuck was still at his place, just near herself. And for Chuck, who could finally shake the weight off his shoulders.
But it didn't last long. Like the rainbow after a storm, their feelings lasted no more than an instant, whereas the wet of the rain didn't go away at all, leaving both of them soaked to the bone in that little, but as deep as hell, puddle of blood.
Bryce's blood.
"Sarah…" began Chuck, but he couldn't go on. Thousands of words were trapped in his chest, frozen by the despair in her eyes.
"A-AHM!" said the Colonel clearing his throat. "Sorry to bother you with such a trifle, but would you two mind helping me find the keys for the handcuffs?" despite the choice of words, he absolutely wasn't that gentle.
He had to be harsh. Walker was clearly having some serious problems standing on her feet.
"Casey, you know, that actually sounded like a threat… You really should work on your speech abilities if you want people to…"
"Bartowski, shut up! Or I'll…"
"However I never would have thought that you could know such a difficult word like 'trifle'." said Chuck, trying to sneer. "It was surprising." He could feel Sarah briefly rouse herself behind him.
"At least I didn't need to upload the Intersect in my head to learn it!" muttered the agent. And after a pause he added "Moron!"
"Ouch! Touché…" admitted Chuck unwillingly. Then, ignoring Casey's order, he turned to his cover-girlfriend, who was trying to unlock the door keypad.
As she moved her finger over the pad, Sarah looked at her slightly-shaking hands like she didn't recognize them any longer. She tried to force them to stop, but her efforts were in vain. Once the door opened she hurried out, kneeling to feel Bryce's pulse. That was also in vain.
Breathing became more and more difficult, as she felt tears muscling in towards her eyes. She couldn't do even that.
That was odd. She'd always got what she wanted, all her life she did nothing but succeed in what she tried to do. But now, in a couple of minutes she hadn't been able to either react to the sight of Bryce's body, or to withstand Chuck's gaze. Nor to stop her damned hands, or even to choke back the couple of lonely wet gems that were cutting her cheeks. She could feel them unmercifully burning her flesh.
What am I turning into? Sarah asked herself. When she'd become an agent she'd promised herself that her heart would always be empty, free from all the dangers of a real life with its real feelings. She'd suffered enough when her mother went away and when her father was taken away from her.
Graham had given her a future. She'd made sure her heart would never interfere with it.
Chuck didn't know what to do, nor did he know what he, a common Buy More ex-employee, at least until an instant before, could possibly have done to save his… His…
Nemesis? No, sure not. That was only a residual from his previous life.
Savior? He risked his own life to help him against Roark, at Ellie's wedding.
Protector? At least…
Friend? Sort of. Maybe the kind of friend that is just there without you knowing it. The ones that get behind you as you don't realize you're walking backwards.
Suddenly another sad thought crossed his mind. Maybe if he had been Awesome…
Once again he silently swore at himself, at his powerlessness…
On the other side of the room Casey was still mumbling "Moron!" at every step.
"Oh, c'mon Casey! I already feel bad enough! Could you please end this wrecking campaign against my pride?" asked Chuck, coming back to planet Earth.
He sighed.
All of a sudden, Sarah stood up and walked towards him, leaving the dead body behind her. Any trace of any previous smile had faded away. She was clearly choking back her tears, just a small one had been able to dodge her defenses and was now sliding down on her right cheek. There was no doubt that that wasn't the first tear she'd shed.
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." he apologized instinctively, in a whisper. "When I came in, he had already lost all that blood… I didn't know what to do. Sarah, believe me, I feel so guilty…"
She put a forefinger on his mouth, her crystal blue eyes finally staring deep inside his warm brown ones "You don't have to…" she reassured him. Her voice was firm, her eyes were less. A sad smile widened upon her face as she threw her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly. She was feeling as if she had been split in two. The standards of happiness and relief marching against the banners of sadness and mourning. "You're safe." she whispered.
He winced. "Ugh! More or less…" objected him, with eyes wide open and a frozen smile on his face.
"What's up?" she backed off a step, looking at him with a worried expression.
He winced again as he tried to move himself. The effect of adrenaline was fading away.
"Moron!"
"CASEY!" both Sarah and Chuck rebuked him simultaneously.
Every muscle started shouting its pain to his brain throughout his nerves, like they were a big metal pipe amplifying the sound and also making it more sharp than it seemed possible.
"Maybe I should have done more sport since I left college." stated Chuck, trying to minimize the worry with an aching grin on his face.
"Be honest Bartowski!" said Casey "Also before leaving the college."
"Indeed… Hey, wait a minute, how did you know that?"
Sarah cracked a smiled and a sneer appeared and quickly disappeared on Casey's face.
"Oh, yeah, spy stuff… Obviously you've done your homework and studied my dossier."
At those words Casey burst out laughing.
Chuck couldn't see any smile on Sarah's face, but he felt the shadow of one crossing her eyes. She was slowly rousing herself. Though he couldn't tell if it was just a protective shield.
"What's up with you two?!" he continued "Well, this time I must admit that I don't get the joke, but maybe it could depend on the fact that I am the only one here who cannot move a muscle!"
"Ah! I found them!" said the Colonel rising from next to an unconscious enemy agent with a key ring in his hand. He freed himself and then threw the keys to the couple that was at the other side of the room. The little metal shapes danced awkwardly between Chuck's hands, which he moved as if his arms were two stiff pieces of wood, before falling to the ground.
"Glad you're still the same Bartowski!" Casey mocked him.
"Ah ah, reeeeally funny… I surely would laugh, if only I could disregard the fact that I can't move!"
"Does it look as if I care?" replied him.
During the short squabble Sarah picked up the keys and handed them to Chuck, so he could free her hands. Despite Casey's rudeness she had to admit that he was right. She too was glad that the new Intersect had not changed Chuck. Her second greatest fear dissolved in a feeble sigh of relief.
Her first one was still there. Pulsating in her heart. Girl-feelings as Casey used to say? Or mankind-feelings? Why not just sweet-feelings?
She was still rubbing her reddened wrists down when suddenly Chuck flashed. It was a real quick flash and instantly he started dropping to the ground. Sarah tried to stop his fall, but she wasn't fast enough. Surprisingly, however, Chuck didn't hit the floor.
Probably because he was not falling.
In fact with a fluid move he unsheathed a throwing knife from Sarah's ankle holster and powerfully cast it, sticking it in the floor right before the hand of Miles, who had come round and was sneaking towards a gun.
Three pairs of astonished eyes were staring at him. "Oooow!" he groaned "I know I'm supposed to say something cool and/or funny, and believe me if I tell you that I'm really sorry 'bout my lack of creativity…" Sarah and Casey were wordlessly staring at him, both standing still (except for Casey, who in the meantime was enjoying very much kicking the face of that Ring's bastard who dared trying to reach a gun). "…and I also hate to be exceedingly iterative, but… I CAN'T MOVE!" he screamed. "Guys, I doubt I'll go home with my own legs tonight!"
When the support squad and the cleaning team got there, all the Ring's men were taken away. That traitor Miles received the tender loving care of the Colonel, who couldn't help to beat the shit out of him every time he dared to look at his ex-senior officer.
"Everyone talks." he whispered threateningly, "Sooner or later everyone talks. You will too, and I promise you I'll personally make sure of this." a cruel grin appeared on his face, while the arrogant grimace melted on Miles' face.
Meanwhile Chuck was receiving the medical assistance he needed from two Agency paramedics. Sarah held his hand all the time, especially when they took a small syringe of morphine that Chuck's subconscious automatically turned into a weapon of mass destruction, specifically designed to make his eyes bulge out of their socket.
Sarah just stood there, almost truthfully smiling when her cover-boyfriend over-pleased the two doctors and consequently remained disappointed by their coldness. "Okay, they are really professional and all, but they're as cold as a shower of liquid nitrogen." He complained, but he forgot everything when he turned to Sarah and lost himself in her eyes. Without any particular reason he set a ten thousand megawatt smile on his face. Any particular reason except her beauty.
A quite forbidden beauty, he thought, and his smile lost some light bulbs.
The paramedics went away without saying goodbye. The last words they told him were about keeping ice on the painful muscles and not doing anything as stupid as Kung Fu without training.
"Thanks!" said Chuck sarcastically at their back, as they were walking away. "Luckily you guys have studied medicine; otherwise I wouldn't know how to live through this…"
Sarah glanced at him and barely kept from laughing.
She never left his side until two cleaners brought out Bryce's body in a large, cold, black bag.
Only then she stood up slowly, bitterly and sadly looking at his shape under the wrinkles of the plastic.
Chuck gathered all his energy, grit his teeth and followed her. He felt like he was standing on a tall pair of stilts, both physically and emotionally "I only realized he truly was one of my best friends at the end. He would have done anything to protect me. And in the end he did everything that was necessary and more, much more…"
A mantle of silence fell over them.
Eventually her voice lifted it. "I broke his heart." were the only words she could let out.
Or, perhaps, the only words she couldn't keep inside.
"When you chose not to leave with him?"
"How do you know that?!" she asked, completely surprised and a bit confused.
"He told me just before… You know… Just before the end." he heaved a sigh. A sad one. "I thought I should forgive him for having expelled me from Stanford, but now I'm starting to consider the idea of asking his forgiveness for having shifted the blame to him for all these years."
"So… You didn't re-upload the Intersect because of me? You…" she said with a bit of relief in her voice. "You didn't give away your dream of a real life only to keep me here with you?" she asked. Tears were threatening to slide out from the corners of her eyes.
He caressed her face with both his hands, gently pulling her nearer to lay aside on her lips a sweet kiss. He'd finally understood: "What's more real than this?" then he stated "It was just the right thing to do, I suppose… In addition, someone persuaded me that I am a hero." joked him showing his world-famous smile.
Looking at him with a praiseful glance, she forced herself to give him at least a half-smile and said "Don't get big-headed now." Then she looked down at Bryce and a grieving mood stained her voice "Chuck… You're…"
"Fantastic. Yeah, yeah, I know." he nodded.
She couldn't help but smiling. But soon her expression darkened again. "What I was trying to say is that you're really sweet, and caring, and kind, and nice, and whatever else…"
"But? Because there actually is a 'but', am I right?"
"It's not what you think…"
"Try me out. Will you?"
She reluctantly nodded her head.
"You blame yourself for his death, am I right?" Began Chuck, "you think you could, or better still, should have come with him at least for this last mission."
She stood silent, staring at an imaginary point down to her left. Neither an assent nor a denial came from her. He was right, but that was only a piece of her inner torment.
Her immobility persuaded Chuck to continue. "Okay, now listen carefully to me. If you had come with him here, tonight, you too would have died for sure, and I know that he would have never wanted this for you."
Sarah shook her head. "You almost don't… Didn't know him. How can you be so sure?" she questioned back.
"Because this is what I would've never wanted for you. To die for me." After that he remarked: "Never. Don't you dare die for me." the look in his eyes was strong and determined like never before.
She finally looked up at him. Captured by his whole-hearted expression, she sighed "Maybe you're right." She paused and continued after a few seconds. "I guess both of us will never forget him. This is the best we can do to show our appreciation…" her voice cracked at that word "…for all his efforts."
As the handcart finally slid out of their sight, both said "Goodbye, Bryce." Their hands were clasped, and they joined with their quite sad thoughts.
After a few minutes of silence, Sarah turned to Chuck. "Let's go." she suggested, offering him a tender smile that warmed both their hearts.
They headed towards the elevator supporting each other, one hard step after another.
After a particularly difficult one, she couldn't help but teasing him "By the way, how could you be so sure I would be willing to die for you?"
"O-oh, that, well…" babbled Chuck while his face started turning beet-red "I was, you know, so involved in my speech that…"
Sarah couldn't hide longer her smile. Her Chuck didn't change at all. "Don't worry! Just joking."
"Seriously?! Are you serious?! Go easy on with me, I'm soooo badly injured I could collapse in any moment! Besides…" but he stopped when he realized the implications of what she just told "Wait, wait, wait a minute, wait-a-minute! You would really die for me?!"
Her hearty laugh echoed sweetly through the corridors.
Outside Sarah went to fetch the car while Casey was holding Chuck on his weak and painful legs, as they were waiting near the entrance of the Intersect building.
"By the way: good work down there, Bartowski. I thought Walker would have fallen apart. You've managed to cheer her up, well done."
"Oh, so you do have a heart! And you've also been able to box up two praises in one single speech. That's awesome…"
A perfectly clean and newly waxed Crown Vic stopped right in front of them.
"Indeed that's great, I mean, you're really making progress! A new, fully socially-interactive John Casey…"
"Don't get used to it!" he grunted.
"Get used to what?" asked Sarah coming out from the other side of the car.
"Nothing! Absolutely nothing!" almost shouted Chuck, slightly influenced by Casey's proximity, not to mention the gun that he quickly pointed at his back. The eyes wide open and the frozen grin on his face were quite expressive, tough.
"It's personal." asserted the Colonel keeping a straight face.
"You guys are somewhat scaring me now…" she admitted."C'mon Casey, help Chuck get in the car. We have a debriefing with General Beckman in half an hour."
The operation of putting her favorite nerd on the back seat should have been simple, yet Sarah couldn't do anything but stare with an incredulous expression stuck on her face at the scene that was taking place before her.
The two men were tangled in a way apparently incompatible with life, quarreling like two kids over a toy.
One was screaming "Ouch!" at every little move.
The other, instead, was shouting "You, moron!"
"Damn that Kung Fu!" both cursed in unison.
"Why did you do that?!" said Sarah, reprimanding Casey after getting in the car.
"Personal satisfaction." He answered looking back through the rear-view mirror.
Chuck was innocently sleeping on the rear seat.
"And for a Greater Good, of course." As he was admiring the tranquilizer dart stuck into Chuck's neck, he cracked a smile. A pleased one.
Actually it was closer to a satisfied growl.