Disclaimer: I don't own the show or any of the characters. Sarah Walker does own me, though.
A/N: I... don't even know what to say about this. It's one day in the life of Team Chuck, one hour per chapter. And I really hope you'll enjoy :)
01:00 Two-bed?
It all started like a regular day in his new life. He flashed on a man at the grocery store, told Casey and Sarah, and General Beckman ordered them to go neutralize the bomb he was planning to use to reduce the entire city to ashes. Nothing special, just your ordinary save-the-world shenanigans that were part of being the Intersect. The new and improved Intersect, actually, with Kung-fu superpowers to add to the usual flashes. Chuck was mostly used to it by now.
It had been an uneventful mission at first. They arrived at the café where the bomb was supposed to be located, he asked for two espressos, a scone and a chocolate muffin – his "girlfriend" had a sweet tooth, you see – and Casey served them to him with a grunt on the side, just to add to the sense of normalcy. Of course, that wouldn't last. Something told him he should have known tranquility meant trouble when Bad Guys were involved.
Things happened fast after he put the muffin in front of Sarah. Three men walked into the cozy little café, four men stood up, Chuck flashed on all seven on them… and all hell broke loose. It was all kind of a blur: guns being pulled from – apparently – thin air, Casey going into full-on combat mode, and a scary number of sharp, shiny knives appearing on Sarah's hands. Chuck just stared at the fight unraveling in front of him. It was too late to stay in the car, but not to duck and cover under a table the second Casey barked the order at him.
Okay, it was all going just fine. Casey took down two – no, make that three – of the men, and Sarah was just about to severely injure her second opponent. It was all under control. Team Chuck had it covered. That is, until one of the men shot Casey and the remaining Bad Guy joined him in pointing his gun at Sarah. So maybe it was not all okay. That's two guns and one Sarah, and Chuck may not have been a seasoned spy, but he'd seen enough fights to know two guns and one agent was never a good combination.
"Who do you work for, Blondie?"
Chuck could almost hear Sarah's teeth grinding with rage. That was about the moment when she was supposed to go all crazy – and very, very sexy – ninja on those guys and take them down using hairpins, or her belt buckle, or even one of her high-heeled shoes. Sarah was like a badass MacGuiver: she could make weapons out of virtually everything she touched. But a second passed, and then another, and she didn't move. Even more worryingly, there was no blood-thirsty Casey jumping from behind the counter to save the day. Chuck was beginning to get very close to the point where all he could do was let out a terrified squeaky sound and await his death.
"I'm going to blow that pretty little face right off your head."
And then a click. Not just your regular click, mind you, but the kind of click you hear right before a gun is fired. A gun that was aimed at the aforementioned pretty little face on Sarah's head. And that was all it took for Chuck to scramble out of his hiding spot – the fact that he hit his head on the corner of the table did not, in his opinion, change the heroic nature of his action – and turn the Bad Guys' attention to himself.
"Wait!" Sarah shot him a death glare that, quite frankly, was not nearly as scary as having one of the two guns now pointing at his pretty little face.
"And who are you?"
"Carmichael." If Casey was still alive – and he hoped against hope that he was both alive and about to manhandle the two Bad Guys – Chuck was sure he was rolling his eyes right then. "Agent Charles Carmichael. I'm the one you want. Not her." A look of complete awe at his manly spy-ways on Sarah's face would really have helped his voice sound steadier than it did.
"Really?" Chuck managed a nod. "In that case, I'll have to kill you both." Well, he should have known. Bad Guys usually went for the option with more dead bodies, after all. "And Blondie will go first."
"No!" He wasn't sure if he yelled and then jumped or if it happened the other way around. Either way, there was a yell, and he jumped and pushed Sarah away, and a gunshot, and then there was pain. Oh, so much pain. Probably blood, too, but he was scared too look in case he fainted. Actually, he was beginning to feel a little dizzy from the blinding pain on the right side of his abdomen. Very dizzy, to be honest.
And then he saw red. Literally.
That's when he jumped to his feet and kung-fu kicked the guns off the men's hands. And then he felt as if he was being handled by a kid on a sugar high with an Xbox controller in his hands. There was punching and kicking and even an insane move that he was fairly sure would make him have cramps in his nether regions the next day.
Next thing he knew, the pain was back.
"Chuck?" Sarah. Pretty, beautiful Sarah with her pretty little face still firmly attached to her skull. "Chuck, are you all right?" He – rather ungracefully – sat on a chair. "Are you hurt? Chuck, talk to me!"
"Ouch." Sarah fumbled with his blazer and saw what he could only assume was blood. He closed his eyes, defeated. "Tell Ellie I love her." Sarah ripped his shirt open and ran her hand along his stomach until she touched the spot that made Chuck wince in pain. He was going to die, wasn't he? So young. He hadn't even had the chance to give Windows 7 a try. It was supposed to suck less than Vista. "And Awesome. And Morgan. And Jeff. And Lester. And Big Mike too, if you have the time." He could hear someone walking behind him. God? An angel? He was running out of time. "And, Sarah? Before I go, I want you to know that I love…"
"For the love of God, Bartowski, man up!" Casey? Were they both dead already? How had Casey ended up in Heaven? "It barely touched you, you moron."
Chuck opened his eyes then, only to be faced with a disgusted-looking Casey with a hand on a blood-soaked spot on his shirt and a Sarah that looked far too calm to be witnessing her cover boyfriend bleed out. "What?" He took a peek at his side and saw blood. And then a little scratch. And then… nothing. "Where's the bullet hole?"
"Your entire brain is a hole, dumbass." Casey growled and used his free hand to grab Chuck's shirt and pull him up to his eye level. "If I hadn't passed out I would've killed you myself for that stunt you pulled." Chuck couldn't suppress a squeaky sound when Casey dropped him on the chair. "I'll see you two at the Castle." And, just like that, he left.
Well, that was embarrassing.
"You saved the day." Sarah was smiling at him. That smile she saved for life-changing moments. "You saved Casey." Chuck wasn't entirely sure he was too happy about that. "And you saved me." His eyes widened, and she carefully cleaned the blood off his skin with his shirt. He saved her? That was a new one. He saved her. He had to smile. "Thank you, Chuck."
"My pleasure." Did he qualify as a hero now? He saved her. He felt… proud. It was a new feeling for him.
"I'm glad you're getting the hang of those kung-fu flashes." Sarah was still smiling, but Chuck's ego deflated a little. She didn't think flash-less Chuck Bartowski had what it took to take a bullet for her. That was reserved for ruggedly handsome spies and Bryce Larkin, apparently. To add insult to injury, there was no more blood left for her to clean, and she took her hand off him to go get her phone. That hurt.
But it hadn't been the flash. It'd been him, and her, and seeing her in danger. "I didn't flash."
Sarah stopped on her tracks before she could reach her purse. "What?"
"I didn't flash. Well, I did, but that was later." He was beginning to ramble. Heroes did not ramble. He pulled himself together. "It was just me. Just… Chuck."
She stayed silent. Did she even believe him? Seconds passed, and Chuck convinced himself she didn't. Things got worse when she walked back to her spot in front of him and shot him what could only be described as an ice-cold look. "What were you thinking?" Wait, so she was mad at him? How did that happen? "You are the Intersect, Chuck! You are the one that has to make it alive. You can't just put yourself in danger like that! You are all that matters! Casey doesn't matter, I don't matter, you…"
"You matter to me!" Well, look at that. He was interrupting one of Sarah's Very Serious Lectures. Now that was heroic.
"You. Are. The Intersect!" Chuck was fairly sure the only definition for what he saw in Sarah's eyes was pure, undiluted rage. "When are you going to understand that?"
"I get it!" He wasn't exactly a happy camper, himself. It drove him insane that ability of hers to go from sweet, understanding Sarah to Ice Queen Agent Walker in one second flat. "I'm the intersect! I don't get to have a normal life, I don't get to have a normal relationship, I don't get to have a normal anything!" He knew he'd hit a nerve. Well, good. They'd been avoiding the subject of their almost life together for weeks, it was about time someone at least referenced it. "I get it, but I won't stand by and watch you get hurt."
"Chuck…" She sighed, and sweet Sarah was back again. The flavor of sweet Sarah that broke his heart every single time. The one that always seemed to be on the verge of admitting she wanted to be with him. "I can't let you compromise the mission…" He'd heard enough. He wasn't about to sit through another speech about how their mission was more important than whatever it was that they felt. He just wanted her to stop talking. So he made her stop.
"I'm in love with you." Not to be smug, but he literally took her breath away. Her breath caught in her throat, and her eyes widened, and she looked more human than he'd ever seen her look before. "When are you going to understand that?"
And then she kissed him. Sweet and soft and a little bit hungry, and so Sarah he was sure he'd have collapsed if he hadn't been sitting down. So he did the only thing a red-blooded human would do if Sarah walker kissed them: he kissed her back. And then he stood up and kissed her again, and then he kissed her neck down to her shoulder and thought he may just die if he didn't get to taste her skin every single second from that moment on. Because Sarah Walker tasted just as good as she smelled. And she smelled good.
"Chuck…" It had been a sound between a whisper and a moan. He'd never in his life say he didn't like his name again. "Chuck." Not so whispery anymore, but still Sarah, still...
"Bartowski!" Casey? No. Nononononono. He squeezed his eyes shut and hoped he wasn't actually waking up. "Don't make me kick your ass out of bed, Bartowski."
He opened his eyes. He saw his handlers ready for business. He saw it was one in the morning. And then he cursed the Universe for giving him that dream and then taking it away.
"Chuck, we have a mission." Agent Walker, reporting for duty. No more breathless Sarah for him. "Get up."
And so he did. This was going to be a long, long day.