A/N This story takes place immediately following Chuck vs The Geek God. I didn't want to say anything until after my first story so I could use this to build angst, but I am a huge Charah fan. I may even be close to what I think you refer to as a shipper (I am not really sure about the use of that term.). I won't say any more than that right now, but keep it in mind.
Chuck vs. The Wild Side
Chapter 1
The crew at the Buy More had done a near 180 since their conversation only 48 hours before. "Chuck you are such a sap. Why are you taking her back?" Lester asked in disbelief. "I mean a few months ago I wouldn't have blamed you because I would have thought the chance of you landing another hottie like her would be slim to none. But Chuck, my man, for some strange reason, that none of us one fully understand, woman continue to throw themselves at your feet."
"Kiss him once and you might understand why," Anna interjected as she walked by.
This earned her a few surprised looks, the most surprised came from Morgan. "You didn't go through with your plan did you? I told you it was a bad idea."
"Don't worry babe, not the whole plan," she smiled at Morgan. "We stopped short of his bedroom." This left Morgan with a less than enthusiastic look on his face and caused Chuck to drop his head on to the desk. As usual he struck his head on the desk and then grabbed his forehead. Why do I do that? He thought to himself.
Morgan was just about to ask Chuck what Anna had meant when Jeff got all of their attentions. "Uh oh, here comes the she-devil now."
Chuck looked to the front entrance seeing the beautiful tall blonde walking through the door. She looked around until she spotted Chuck. As soon as she saw him she broke into a large smile, though the smile quickly turned into a concerned look. She knew that he was still upset at her.
Seeing her smile had an immediate and uncontrollable impact on Chuck. His heart rate increased and he felt warm all over, though he was able to suppress his smile to a slight grin. He hated himself for continuing to allow her to affect him like this. It is not real. She is not your girlfriend. She does not care about you.
Sarah walked up to the nerd herd desk with two small packages in her hand.
"Hi," Sarah was uncharacteristically timid. She was unsure what kind of reaction she was going to get from Chuck this morning.
"Hi," Chuck sounded unsure in his own response to Sarah.
Realizing that people were watching and she was unlikely to get any other response from Chuck, Sarah decided to continue with her reason for stopping over. That is, the reason she was telling everyone else. Her real reason was the fact that she was being eaten up inside due to the way she and Chuck had left things. "I know that Morgan's birthday is not until tomorrow, but I thought I would drop off his gift today. It may help clear up some of the things that happened yesterday."
Morgan, hearing that she was here to give him a gift, instantly forgot that he was upset. "A gift for me? You didn't have to do that," he was already reaching for the small present that Sarah had begun to hand him. He tore the package open like a child on Christmas. When he got to the point that he could see what was under the wrapping, he stopped. His eyes the largest anyone had ever seen them, a small tear running down his cheek. Everyone was eerily quite until Lester asked what it was. Morgan could not respond, he simply turned the package around. Gasps came from all those standing around the desk, including Chuck.
"It is the Holy Grail," Jeff whispered.
"Call of Duty 5," Morgan had barely regained his voice enough to get it out. "This is not supposed to come out for another 6 months, how did you…" all eyes turned to Sarah who was giving them a sheepish smile.
"I knew, well Chuck told me, that the game was ready for release, but they were waiting to release it to build anticipation. So when I heard Chuck talking about Chip…Mr. Isidore," she didn't want to sound too comfortable with Chip's name in front of Chuck, "I thought I could talk him into getting me one early."
"She is a she-devil, but she uses her power for good and not evil," Jeff said in a haunted tone.
Morgan could not restrain himself anymore, as he embraced Sarah in a bear hug that trapped her arms at her side. She smiled awkwardly and looked at Chuck, and then at a none too pleased Anna.
"Okay buddy, why don't you guys go fire it up on the wall," Chuck said, not even getting the entire idea out before the rest of the crew was in a dead sprint away, with Morgan yelling "thank you" back over his shoulder as he ran excitedly away.
"Thank you, I know he loves his gift. I am pretty sure you made his decade. It was also good for our cover," Chuck added quietly.
"Though it is important to maintain our cover, it is also nice to do something for him because I want to," Sarah was hoping that Chuck would understand what she was saying. "I also got a copy for you," as she pulled the other package out of the bag. I thought maybe we could get together tonight and you could teach me how to play."
"I don't know. I told Morgan we could hang out just the two of us tonight."
Morgan, who had come back to the desk to get Tang's universal remote, overheard this. "Dude, she can come over. Besides being the coolest person in the world right now, she wants to play games. Besides you guys have had a rough couple of days. I will see you tonight Sarah," and he went running back to the wall.
Sarah didn't say anything, while she waited for Chuck's response. "I guess I will see you tonight then," he didn't smile when he said this. Typically Sarah would have just said she understood and given him an out, but she needed to fix this and she was really starting to miss Chuck already.
"Actually I will probably see you before that though. You are coming over for lunch right?"
"Um…No I have something I have to do," Chuck was looking at the floor when he said this.
"What would that be?" Sarah was unable to hide the disappointment in her voice.
"I have an appointment for a hair cut."
"Why are you cutting your hair? I love your curls. They are…" Sarah had reacted a little more emphatically that she had intended, but was interrupted.
"Adorable, kind of like you thought Chips were?" Chuck's anger beginning to show itself again.
Sarah remembered saying that to Chip. She was devastated. She had thought they were nice, but mostly because it made her think of Chuck's unruly hair. "Chuck I really do love you hair, please don't cut it. I…" Sarah had dropped her head and had started to cry, which surprised Chuck. He had just started to feel the full anger returning from the past few days, and now he was completely disarmed. He hated to see her like this whether it was an act or not.
"I have to go," Chuck said as he started to walk away. "Thanks for the game, I will see you tonight at Ellie's."
Sarah turned and walked out to the Orange Orange while the tears continued.
Both Sarah and Chuck were miserable all morning. Sarah sat in the nearly empty store alone all morning. The store was empty as no one was in the mood for a slushy on a colder rainy day. The weather only added to her somber mood. She had spent the entire morning trying to figure out what she could do to win back Chuck's trust. She was having a great deal of difficulty because the store was so quiet it was hard for her not to reminisce over something Chuck had said or done. This only made her feel more depressed at the thought of losing Chuck, not her asset or the intersect, but Chuck. She loved to be around him, the way he made her laugh, and the way he made her feel. She had never felt more at home than when she was at the Bartowski's, not even before she joined the CIA. She loved the feeling of having friends and family that care about her, and more importantly someone that truly loved her. And not because she had manipulated him into it, but because she had allowed him to get to know her better than anyone else has in years. She was going to think of something. What, she just didn't know yet.
Chuck had spent all morning looking for some quiet. Even the cage had become unsafe today as Big Mike had made the herders take their gaming off of the main floor. He was walking aimlessly around the store with his head hung low, when he ran into Casey.
"Watch it Bartowski!"
"Sorry Casey," the sad tone not going unnoticed by the NSA agent. Chuck looked up at Casey and decided to ask him for advice, "Casey you are pretty much a robot. What I mean is on a mission," Chuck changed his wording as not to anger Casey. "How are you able to put other people's feeling aside like that. I mean when you know, or at least think you know, you are hurting someone's feelings but it has to be done. How do you do that?" Chuck had rambled on.
Casey looked at Chuck as if trying to analyze what he was really asking. "You can't," he replied.
"Yes you can, I have seen you do it countless times," Chuck rebuffed.
"Yes I can, you can't. It is just not how you are wired," Casey softened slightly as he continued. "I know that our world is kind of hard on you, and I may be hard on you about not being strong enough. Many times you are not." Casey held up his hand to stop Chuck from arguing as he said this. "But, fact of the matter is, there are some things about you that make surviving in our world very difficult. If you change those things you would be a better spy, but you would be losing who you are. You care more about the well-being of others more than you do your own, this is one of the reasons that your family, the morons at the Buy More, and even others care about you." The way Casey said others made Chuck curious, but any hopes of further explanation were gone when Casey turned and walked away. Besides it was nearly his lunch break and he had to go. He walked into the break room and looked in the mirror, reaching up and running his fingers through his hair. He was just so confused.