Chuck's great. Some scenes just pull a guy in. This is from the 11/24 episode, Chuck vs. the Gravitron. Spoilers for the episode follow.

I still own no part of Chuck.

"OK, imagine that I am Jill." Sarah's words didn't really compute to Chuck. She and Jill were so very different. So very, very different. But, at the same time, it made sense, in a weird sort of way. They both seemed to be able to twist his heart with a look, so it wasn't all that different.

He barely heard Sarah's next words. "The moment is romantic. She's close to you. She's looking into your eyes." Which 'she' was this? Sarah had moved close to him, oh so very close, like she had on other occasions. It felt so right, so electric. Was that her training? Was that his emotions? Her emotions? Either way, Chuck could feel his pulse accelerating and his breaths shortening. Sarah's eyes were piercing into his. He always felt like she was reading the depths of his soul when she did that. He tried to read her eyes in return, but hers were unreadable. He thought he detected passion, but he dismissed it as just the skill of a consummate actress.

He tried to find his voice. "Got it …" Why was his mouth so dry? Every time Sarah beckoned, he came like a chastened puppy. But he couldn't help himself. He tried again, "OK, you…" You what? It wasn't supposed to be about Sarah. It was about Jill. The mission. Focus on the mission. "I got that." Chuck was panicking. This was too real for him. He always got lost in Sarah. He tried to make a joke to lighten the mood. "I'm trying not to be distracted by the oh-so-romantic secret base."

His attempt at lightening the mood failed. Sarah broke eye contact, freeing half the synapses in his brain, though he still felt addled. However, the mood didn't lighten for long. Sarah grabbed a control and turned out the lights. Suddenly, the castle felt less cold and foreboding and much more romantic.

"Concentrate," Sarah said. That was easy for her to say. He was still in love with her and he knew it. How could he concentrate on Jill and acting? With Sarah? "Keep looking into my eyes." Her eyes. If he looked there, previous experience told him he wouldn't really be able to process anything that was said. Those blue pools drew him in. Instead, he looked to the heavens for help and strength and inspiration. "Don't look up!" Sarah knew him. She knew what he'd do. She was aware of his foibles, his idiosyncrasies, his habits. She really knew him. She proved it to him again, "And if you can't hold Jill's stare, look at her lips."

Chuck looked at her lips. Her full, succulent lips. He'd tasted those lips. He knew how tender, firm, and exhilarating they were. He knew what they felt like against his lips, knew the passionate kisses they could give. He saw the red, the moisture, the curves. He could focus on her lips. "Good!" Oh. Not Sarah's lips. Jill's lips. Jill, whom he had thought could give him a real life but it turned out she was a spy too. He mentally kicked himself. Focus on Jill. Focus. Jill.

"Now move her hair back over her ear." He heard the words and reacted without conscious though. Move Jill's hair behind her ears. His hand reached out and delicately pushed the silvery blonde strands of Jill's hair behind her ear. Wait, Jill's hair wasn't blonde. But the hair he was pushing was blonde. And he was loved it. He could see himself moving that hair every day for the rest of his life.

"And when you start to kiss, focus again on her, and just before …" He focused back on her. On Sarah. The woman he was about to kiss. The woman he wanted to kiss. The woman he was afraid to kiss. Did she want to kiss him? No, it was just the mission. Wasn't it?

Sarah's calm, relentless voice continued, "your lips are about to meet …." Oh, he could feel it. He remembered it. He could barely her voice over the pounding of his pulse in his temples and in his fingertips, which still clung to the memory of her blonde hair. Sarah's hair, not Jill's hair.

"Close your eyes…." He closed them. He tried to make himself visualize Jill, kissing Jill, even after she had betrayed him a second time. He couldn't. Sarah's face filled his mind. Sarah's eyes, Sarah's lips, Sarah's smile, Sarah's voice. She surrounded him, cocooned him, comforted him. She also scared the daylights out of him. He wanted her so badly.

He leaned in, his eyes shut, his mind and body filled with anticipation. The very air seemed to crackle. His lips were puckered, gently, anticipating the passion of the moment. The kiss with Sarah he so desperately still wanted. And was it his imagination? Could he feel her moving in towards him? Would they really kiss? Was she caught in the moment, too? Was it not acting?

"OK, good." Her voice pierced his thoughts, pierced and punctured the balloon of anticipation. He drew a ragged breath and pulled back from the encounter. His eyes opened. Sarah looked a little flushed, a little bothered. Why was that?

"Good, you're all set." Set? Set for what? Oh… This wasn't a Sarah and Chuck thing. This was a mission thing. A get-him-ready-for-Jill thing. A training-the-rookie-spy thing. That wasn't what he wanted.

"Huhh…m?" The sound escaped. He didn't want it to. It sounded so dumb, so lost. The fact that he was lost didn't matter. Just being around Sarah made him so vulnerable, though. He hated it, while he reveled in it at the same time.

"Oh, yeah. Good." He drew back from the moment, mentally and emotionally. Could he handle this? Could he keep working with Sarah? Could they just be friends? Why did it have to be so hard? And what about Jill?

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