Hi folks. Just thought I'd drop in a New Year's story to usher in 2010. Hope you enjoy this one-chapter story, please leave reviews, and may the worst of your 2010 be better than the best of your 2009.

W Hotel, Times Square, New York
December 31, 2009
10:30 PM

Sarah looked out of the window of their hotel. There were already hundreds of thousands of people gathered on the street below, readying themselves to usher in 2010. She was certainly in a better mood since Christmas. Things had been so stilted between Chuck and her in the last several months, but she had to admit not being totally innocent of blame in it. Their relationship had to be different as his instructor rather than his protector. Everything had changed 8 months ago, and she wasn't certain if she could handle Chuck willingly going in and out of danger now. She had been too rough on him at times during training. But this wasn't supposed to be him. She fell in love with the sweet, caring Chuck. This Chuck, the one that was finishing putting on his sweater and preparing for the cold night downstairs, was the one who wanted to save the world.

Oh, to have had five more seconds to talk to Chuck before his father interrupted at Ellie's wedding. She thought a life in the CIA was all she was entitled to. But working with Chuck for over 2 years now made her realize she deserved more than what she had. She deserved to have a life that she wanted. However, the life she wanted was with the man across the room right now. She wasn't sure if she could still get that life, but at least she knew it wasn't dead forever. Chuck still had that thoughtful side, that caring side that she hadn't seen enough of recently. Her fingers gently ran over the diamond earring in her left ear; one half of the gift Chuck had given her 7 days ago. She adored the gift and needed all of her willpower not to tackle Chuck on the couch in Ellie and Awesome's place and take him right there. Although she had to admit, making a look of disgust on Casey's face permanent might have made it worthwhile. She knew there was still something there with Chuck.

The gift made her think that, one day, he may do what she tried to do back at the wedding: decide what he truly wanted in life. She knew he downloaded the new Intersect for a reason. He did it for everybody who thought he was destined for something greater. That he was so much more than a computer repair person in a Buy More. She couldn't fault him for doing it; she encouraged him more than anybody. It had just taken her so much longer to come to grips with what that meant.

"What's going through your mind?"

Chuck had come up behind her and asked the question she really didn't want to answer. There was far too much to tell him, and this was supposed to be time off for the team. Casey tagged along for only one reason: he finally was able to get to the east coast and would drive up to see his family tomorrow. He would be back in Burbank early next week, while Chuck and Sarah would fly back on Sunday. They decided to keep their covers intact, which required Chuck and Sarah to stay in the same room. So far, it hadn't presented a problem. Of course, the fact they didn't sleep together last night was a problem, as far as Sarah was concerned. Whether it would tonight remained to be seen.

"Oh, I'm just looking at the crowd down there. I've been to New York before, but never at New Year's."

"Me, neither. I visited once or twice as a young child. Mom and Dad would drive us from Connecticut and we'd see the big buildings. Honestly, I don't remember much. I was 2 or 3 at the time. I'm sure I wanted to take a nap while Ellie wanted to run into FAO Schwartz and never come out."

Sarah laughed. "Oh, I've heard of that place, but I was never in it. That would have been so much fun."

"Can you imagine Casey trying to go in there as a kid? He'd probably go straight to the section where all the little green Army men were and had to be dragged away from it kicking and screaming."

"Oh, that is so mean. True, but mean." She hadn't smiled as much as she was right now in months. It felt good. She had more good times with Chuck in their first six months together than she had in the 28 years of her life before then put together.

"Ready to head downstairs?" Chuck asked. Sarah turned to face him. The CIA-issue winter jacket he was wearing made him look like he belonged at a ski lodge. The navy and gray coat housed a GPS transponder and secret pockets everywhere to hide enough gadgets and/or weapons to infiltrate any organization in the country. The coat was also lined with the latest Kevlar material that could stop any bullet short of one that came out of Dirty Harry's gun without the bulkiness of a full vest. The jacket she wore housed her Sig Sauer pistol and several clips. It also adequately concealed several throwing daggers. It wasn't Chuck's idea to dress like this, but the incident in the Buy More on Christmas Eve meant there would be no argument from him when Sarah insisted on it.

"All set," Sarah replied with a smile. Chuck jokingly put a hat on her.

"You've been hanging out in California too long. Don't you know to bundle up?"

She gave him a playful snarl. It was funny that he was being the protective one all of a sudden. Then again, he saved the day more than a few times, so being protective was always in his nature, even though it was technically her job.

They exited their hotel room and walked to the elevator.

"Is Casey already staked out in the bar downstairs?" Sarah asked.

"And none too happy about it," Chuck replied with a bit of a smirk. "He doesn't want to go outside, but he can't smoke his cigars in the bar, either."

"He doesn't do well in crowds. A night alone with a good scotch is a party, as far as he is concerned."

"How true." The elevator reached the lobby. "Let's go welcome in 2010."

Sarah grabbed Chuck's hand, mostly to keep the cover, but also to keep him close. The din of the immense crowd hit them the second they cleared the doors of the hotel. It took Sarah a bit of time to be used to huge crowds, as she spent most of her youth as a wallflower. At least, when she wasn't helping her father pull a con. These days she had grown more accustomed to them, both for work and for dealing with the outgoing nature of the Bartowski's. But even one million people in a confined space was rather intimidating.

Looking at Chuck, she was a bit relieved to see he was nervous as well.

"You find all of this a little intimidating, too?" Sarah asked him.

Chuck exhaled. "I'm glad I'm not the only one. I guess we just stay close. What the hell, it's only an hour and change out here."

Sarah wrapped her arms around him, and he did the same. "Well, at least we look like every other couple out here. Let's head down the street."

They stayed close as they moved their way carefully through the crowd. Chuck saw several network TV setups ready to usher in the New Year for the people at home. He wasn't sure if he should kiss Sarah at midnight, but her reaction to his Christmas gift made him think that she may not object to it. He felt the distance between them as of late, and he knew he wanted that to end. Besides, wasn't it tradition to kiss someone at midnight? Certainly there was no way he would ever find a more beautiful and desirable person to kiss than the person he was holding right now.

He checked a clock displayed outside of a restaurant. 55 minutes until midnight. The crowd around him was in a festive mood, and he wanted to enjoy this with them. They continued to walk through the crowd. To his right, he saw a man slightly hunched over with his hands in his pockets. The man briefly looked up and stared at him for a second with a scowl on his face. Chuck began to flash. He saw a profile on the man, and a laundry list of offenses of which the man had been accused.

He also saw the blueprints of a bomb. 10 of them, to be exact.

Sarah felt the jolt from Chuck. She looked up at him and saw the panic in his eyes. She stood on her toes to put her lips closer to his ears and shouted to be heard over the crowd.

"What's wrong, Chuck?"

Chuck's wide-eyed look refused to go away. His eyes darted around, and then he turned to Sarah.

"Do you have a tracking device on you? Quick!"

Sarah reached into her coat and produced a pin-sized object. "What did you flash on?"

Chuck turned the both of them around and started them walking in the direction of the man. "The man up ahead of us in the black parka with the hood up. That's Salim Khaled. He was rumored to be running a terror cell for Al Qaeda out of Long Island. They must be planning something for tonight."

Sarah started looking around as well. "They must be planning to attack at midnight. But what are they doing?"

"It must have something to do with the bomb I saw in my flash. It had a brick of C-4 with what looked like a wireless transmitter. Sarah…" Chuck looked as scared as he ever had in his life. "I saw 10 of these bombs."

"Oh, my God. They could hide them anywhere or there could be 10 people walking around with them."

"We have to tell the NYPD. They have to clear the area."

"If they do that, they'll start a panic, and more people would be killed in the stampede. We have to follow Khaled and narrow down where the bombs are."

Sarah held up her hands to stop Chuck. "Call Casey, and have him get in contact with the NYPD. They'll help us coordinate a search without raising alarm. He can probably locate who is in charge faster than we can. I'll plant the bug on Khaled and try to follow him."

"Sarah, you can't risk…"

"Chuck! There's no time to argue! Get going!"

Chuck moved away from the revelers to make the call to Casey as Sarah weaved through the crowd quickly. She staked her path down the opposite side of Broadway from Khaled so he wouldn't spot her.

Chuck quickly dialed Casey's mobile phone. "Casey, it's Chuck."

"Why are you bothering me? I'm trying to enjoy myself here."

"No time. I just flashed on a terrorist who is in Times Square right now. I think he's planted several bombs throughout the crowd. He's going to set them off at midnight! We need your help!"

"Where's Walker?"

"She's keeping an eye on the guy. She hopes he'll lead her to where the bombs are. She wanted you to get in contact with the NYPD and coordinate a search."

"OK, I'm on it." Casey hung up his phone and bolted out of the bar. He heads directly for the NYPD staging area two blocks away.

Sarah made her way down the street, keeping Khaled in her sights. She doubled-back to his side of the street and walked towards him from the opposite direction. She started to sway back and forth to make it look like she was drunk.

"Baby! There you are!" Sarah stumbled into Khaled and grabbed the lapels of his coat to keep her balance. "Happy New Year!" She gave him a kiss while pinning the bug to his collar. Khaled pushed away from her.

"You have the wrong person," he replied gruffly as he continued on his path. Sarah continued to sway back and forth until she was out of his line of sight. She quickly activated the tracking device in her mobile phone. She followed Khaled from a distance and hit a series of buttons on the phone. The message went to Chuck and Casey's phones that the bug was planted.

Casey arrived at the NYPD staging area. He flashed his badge.

"Who's in charge here?"

"I am," came the reply from an older gentleman who also took out his badge. "Captain Grady Morrow, 9th Precinct."

"Colonel John Casey, NSA. We just received intel that a member of a cell associated with Al Qaeda may have planted a bomb or several bombs in the crowd tonight. We suspect they're planning to set them off at midnight."

Captain Morrow checked the time. "Damn, that's in 35 minutes. Too late to evac the crowd. We'd have a riot."

"Have all of your patrols start checking in and looking for signs of anything out of the ordinary. Cars where they're not supposed to be, verify ID's of anybody working, that sort of thing. Keep it quiet. We don't want to tip them off. How many plainclothes do you have out there?"

"300 or so, mostly on crowd control and watching for robbery, drug dealing, that sort of thing."

"Can you text them? That will draw less suspicion."

"No problem. All of them have mobiles."

"Tell them to start searching, but keep it as quiet as possible. Like you said, we don't want a riot. Let me see if I can get you more intel."

Casey moved away from the crowd of officers, who were now starting to organize the search. He dialed a number on his phone.

"Chuck, is there anything else you can tell me? Anything in your flash?"

Chuck slowed his sprint towards Khaled to answer Casey. "I..I…it's a brick of C-4, and what looked like some sort of wireless transmitter. They must be controlling them by computer somehow."

"Where are you now?"

"I see Sarah 30 yards ahead of me, and she's following Khaled."

"Idiot! You don't want to walk into a trap! You still have an Intersect in your head!"

"Casey, I think we're way past the whole 'stay in the car' thing now. If they set this off, where the hell can I hide? I gotta go." Chuck hangs up his phone.

Casey looked at his phone with building rage. Chuck was the only person Casey ever met that drove him nuts and made him proud at the same time. But it was hard to get Chuck to not give in to his heroic side, given that he had to display it himself for a living. He went back to the captain.

"Captain Morrow, do you have any equipment here that can scan wireless frequencies?"

"Yes we do. What do you want to look for?"

"We're not sure, but the bombs have wireless transmitters. Scan for any frequencies that shouldn't be here. Eliminate police and fire frequencies and anything coming from cell towers. The terrorists wouldn't risk someone accidentally setting off the bomb by calling their girlfriend."

The captain went to his tech person to carry out Casey's instructions.

Sarah spotted Khaled walking down an alley. She closed the distance between them. As Chuck emerged from a crowd of people further down, he saw Sarah duck down the same alley, pulling her gun out. His heart skipped a beat or two, praying that Sarah wasn't walking into danger. He stopped for a moment to steady himself. He had enough experience with the new Intersect to know he needed to be as calm as possible for it to work properly. Watching Sarah slipping down the alley did not help his situation, but running in there half out of his mind would be even worse.

Sarah spotted the flatbed truck hiding in the alley. She noticed the 6 garbage cans on top of it. The same type of garbage cans that were placed throughout the crowd for cleanup purposes. She also saw what appeared to be four people lying down in the alley. She looked around as she inspected the bodies. All four of them were dead from gunshot wounds. They were also in their underwear.

The four men who emerged around her with Khaled wearing Sanitation Department jumpsuits answered that question instantly. They pointed their guns at her. She dropped her weapon to the ground.

"You are already too late," Khaled sneered at her. "Everything is locked into the computer, and you won't stop us from planting these last six. We will score a major blow against the oppressors of the West."

He leveled his gun at Sarah and cocked it. "But I will spare you the horror of the explosion and end your life right now."

Chuck slid along the wall of the building in the alley. He was beyond tempted to just fly in there, but he couldn't risk Sarah being shot with 5 guns pointed at her head. He looked around. He found a piece of brick by his feet. He aimed and whipped it at a dumpster on the other side of the 5 terrorists.

A loud metallic crash filled the alley, and the terrorists turned in surprise. Sarah grabbed Khaled's wrist and twisted it, releasing the gun from his hand as she swept back and kicked the guns from the two men behind her. One of the other terrorists turned back to her and prepared to fire. From behind, a hand chopped his arm up, and the shot went wide. That man turned to be greeted by a punch from Chuck's fist. Chuck pounced on two others, delivering roundhouse kicks to them, while Sarah flipped Khaled on his back and landed a kick at the last terrorist. She retrieved her own gun while picking up Khaled's. She aimed both guns at the men now on the ground.

"Nobody move!"

Chuck went around the group to retrieve their weapons. Two NYPD officers came down the alley with their guns drawn. Sarah turned to them.

"CIA. Agent Sarah Walker. Chuck, show them your ID."

Chuck had a case of severe guilt. "Uh, I kind of left that…"

Sarah growled at him and stashed one of the guns behind her back. She pulled out her ID. "Place these men under arrest and call for backup. We have a bomb going off in 15 minutes."

She grabbed Chuck and took him to the flatbed truck. "Look at the garbage cans. See if that triggers anything."

Chuck hopped onto the back of the flatbed truck to examine the garbage cans while Sarah searched the front seat. The two NYPD officers called for backup and began to handcuff the five men.

"Sarah, we know what the bombs look like, but we have to figure out what's controlling them." He counted the garbage cans. "There are six here, which means there are four out in the crowd."

Sarah emerged from the front of the truck and joined Chuck among the garbage cans. She handed him a map.

"This was in the front seat."

Chuck studied the Arabic markings on the map. He flashed and saw the computer system that was controlling the bomb.

Another image also popped into his head. The same thing that one million people were cheering at that very moment.

"Sarah! The computer that controls the ball! They're wired into it somehow!"

"What?"

"We have to get to One Times Square. That's where the bombs are being controlled from!"

"Let's go!"

Chuck and Sarah ran down the alley towards the crowd. They spotted Casey running towards them.

"Walker! Bartowski! Where the hell were you?"

"No time, Casey!" Chuck yelled. "We have to get to the ball. The computer that controls the ball is the computer they're using to set off the bombs."

"That took you long enough. NYPD found that frequency on their scanners. Come on. There's a squad car that will take us the back way."

Chuck, Sarah, and Casey piled into a waiting NYPD car, which sped off down the streets just outside the gathering. It headed to One Times Square.

"NYPD has their helicopters in the area scanning for C-4," Casey brusquely reported. "Once they have the remaining ones spotted, they'll move in."

"We have to get to the computer first, Casey," Sarah replied. "If they spot us messing with the bombs, they might be able to set it off early."

The squad car skidded to a stop. "You can get into the building through that alley over there," the officer informed them.

The three sprinted from the car and got to the door. Sarah motioned for Chuck to stay back, and Casey and she entered with their guns drawn. They proceeded quickly to the elevator and took it to the top floor.

The elevator opened on the 25th floor, and Casey and Sarah slowly stepped out with Chuck close on their heels. A single light illuminated the hallway. The trio moved quickly down the hall. Reaching the door, Sarah and Casey readied themselves on either side of it. Sarah leaped in first.

"Freeze!"

The person at the computer put his hands up in fear. Sarah checked the badge pinned to his shirt. It appeared to be legitimate.

She did not see the man leveling his gun at the back of her head. A shot rang out.

The man slumped to the ground. Casey entered with smoke still coming out of his gun. Chuck followed him in. Casey looked at the dead terrorist with utter contempt.

"Enjoy remembering some of your old acquaintances."

Chuck ran quickly to the computer, pushing the other person out of the way. "How much time do we have?"

They heard a roar coming from outside.

"Never mind," Chuck said in a state of panic. "One minute."

He quickly accessed the computer's networking system. He typed furiously into the computer.

"Chuck, is there enough time?" Sarah asked.

"I…I…hope…"

The crowd's roar went to a whole new level. "10! 9! 8! 7! 6!"

Chuck found the correct program. He shut it down.

"5! 4! 3!......."

The crowd went silent. Some of them started cursing and screaming. Casey ran to a window looking out over the scene.

The lights were out above them. The ball had been turned off.

Casey looked at him with a bit of a smirk. "Well, the good news is you stopped the bombs. Now can your little Intersect stop one million pissed off New Yorkers?"

Casey's phone rang. He listened to the person on the other end of it. "NYPD located all four bombs. Two of them are right downstairs. I'll go take care of that. Try not to ruin everybody's night further, huh?"

Chuck and Sarah gave him an evil look as he departed. Chuck looked at the computer program again.

"OK, let me see if I can fix this." Chuck typed a few more items into the computer. Suddenly the crowd roared to life. Sarah went to the same window Casey looked through a moment ago. The crowd was partying.

"What did you do?"

Chuck smiled. "Thankfully, they use a different program to control the lights that spell '2010'. I bypassed the program that dropped the ball and ran that program.

Sarah breathed a sigh of relief. "This has to be the craziest way I ever rang in the New Year."

Chuck walked over to the window and stood next to Sarah. They looked down at the crowd.

"Did Casey get the bombs?" Chuck asked.

They looked down to see two NYPD officers carrying the two garbage cans away from the crowd. Casey was directing them where to go. He turned back to the crowd just in time for a woman to jump into his arms and kiss him. Chuck and Sarah laughed.

"What is it with Casey and redheads, anyway?" Sarah asked.

Chuck was laughing. "I have no idea. It must be a vibe he sends out."

Sarah laughed as well and turned to Chuck. "Happy New Year, Chuck."

"Happy New Year to you, too."

They looked at each other for a long moment. Chuck gently placed his hand on Sarah's cheek and gazed into her eyes, the fireworks from outside giving them an extra sparkle.

Sarah wrapped her arms around him. "We can't really go against tradition, can we?"

Chuck smiled. "I wouldn't recommend it."

Their eyes slowly closed as their lips met. They held each other tightly as they welcomed 2010 in each other's arms. Even though they shared a passionate kiss before, neither of them seemed to tire of the other. The combination of how they felt about each other and the smoldering embers of their passion, the kiss continued long after the singing stopped and the fireworks ended.