Standard Disclaimers apply including the fact that I don't own Chuck.

A/N: To help avoid confusion, I felt it best to inform readers that the beginning of this chapter takes place near the middle of the story. The story flashes back almost immediately to a few days before the opening scene. Once the story catches up to opening scene in briefly displayed in Chapter 1 it will proceed past it.

Chapter 1

Saturday (Evening)

Lost & Found:

The scene opens with a sky cam looking down at a car speeding along a single lane gravel road leaving a large amount of dust in its wake. The road is contained on both sides by steep dirt walls. As the sky cam descends towards the vehicle, you see it's a white older model Thunderbird. The car is obviously running beyond what would be considered 'safe' speeds, as the whole automobile is dangerously sliding and swaying side to side on the loose gravel. As the camera pans to the inside of the vehicle you see the two occupants.

--

A layer of road dust coats everything, including the occupants. Even with the windows closed, the dust is working its way in through every crack, joint and hole. Neither the driver nor passenger notice. Casey's hands are gripping the wheel tightly. His face is solid, impassive, yet without the usual fire and gruff demeanor. His eyes tell a similar story. They are focused, yet strangely...hollow. .

Sarah's face and eyes are the exact opposite. Her eyes are red and water filled, but she does not appear to notice. Her face betrays the mental anguish she is experiencing. Looking at her, one would get the impression she is fighting the urge to throw up. Her eyes are focused inward and are unaware of her surroundings, or what 'liberal' measures Casey is taking with his driving.

If one was to look into only their eyes, one would appreciate the truth behind the saying, 'eyes are windows to the soul'.

Sarah glances back down at the cell phone in her hand, her fingers are white from gripping it. Sarah's thoughts are flashing from event to event in a chaotic pattern. She is trying hard to focus. Her brain jumps back to a memory from a couple of days earlier in an effort to determine when this roller coaster started.

--

Thursday (Noon) 3 days prior

It had begun when Chuck had flashed on a small group of young men at the Weinerlicious. One of them was identified as a 'potential' threat to National Security and things had progressed quickly from there.

Casey and Chuck filed a quick report to HQ and received instructions for Team Chuck to monitor them until they were able to determine intent. Under no circumstances would the 'potential' terrorists be allowed to leave the country.

Sarah had begged off work to track them while the others picked up supplies, equipment and clothes for a stake out. They would meet up with Sarah when she phoned with the terrorist location.

Chuck found Ellie at home when he arrived to pick up some clothes. She had just come off of a late shift and was on her way to bed. He used that as an excuse to keep his talk short, but he did remember to tell her that he had a day or two off work and would be spending all of it with Sarah. Maybe they could travel around the city a bit and see the sites. She was from D.C. after all, and hadn't done much site seeing.

Lying to Ellie always made him feel crappy, but Chuck had said that Ellie seemed pleased with the idea and was happy that things were progressing so well with Sarah.

--

Sarah remembered Chuck's face when he repeated the conversation he had with Ellie. She noticed that he sounded somewhat depressed and wouldn't look her in the eyes. She used to attribute his depression to the fact he was lying to his sister. She was right about that, but as they became closer over these last few months, Sarah knew it had more to do with the fact he was having a hard time talking to Sarah about their 'cover'.

She could always tell when Chuck was uncomfortable talking about their 'relationship', as he would never look at her face while speaking. It was a definite 'tell' of his. He simply could not look into her eyes when he discussed 'issues' that where too close to 'home'. She really needed to figure out how to handle her real relationship with Chuck.

Her thought processes hiccuped and her mind froze ever so briefly.

Then like ripples in a pond, thoughts of a relationship triggered other similar thoughts. It struck her that she already thought of herself as being in a real relationship with Chuck. Other than a brief verbal confirmation to him, she hadn't done much yet. Their first kiss at the bomb was rushed and the last kiss didn't really count. That turned out...poorly, mainly due to the lack of communication on the relationship topic.

In spite of the current situation, she had grinned to herself, as she imagined what kind of face Chuck would make when she told him she wanted a 'real' date.

Her small grin faded quickly as she knew there would be other things to deal with as well.

How would they handle her job? Would Casey interfere or would he ignore it like he's been doing? Would they have to hide their involvement? Who would they have to hide it from? Casey? HQ? Both?

What would she say to Bryce when he came back? Despite his speech when he left, she knew he would be back. Agents like him always turn back up. One thing was definite; she would no longer be playing his game.

--

Casey spoke, interrupting her thoughts. His normally sarcastic tone all too noticeably missing, yet his voice cut through the silence like a car crash. "We're two clicks out and closing. We should be there in 2-3 minutes."

--

His voice scattered her thoughts like dandelion seeds into the breeze. Like déjà vu, her brain settled on the time mentioned, forcing her memory to flash back to the surveillance mission from earlier...

--

Wild n Geeky

Hotel Room:

She had followed the 'potential' terrorists to a nearby hotel. While enroute, Casey had been able to tap into the airport passenger lists and found out that their booked flight had been delayed due to mechanical problems. The airport was not able to give a flight departure time and the expected delay was to be at least 12 hours. Obviously, the terrorists would rather not hang around the airport under the scrutiny of security, and had decided it would be better to relocate to a nearby hotel until a solid flight time could be confirmed.

While the hotel was not very busy, the floor the terrorists had been given was. Sarah booked the only room left on their floor. Looking at the room location, one got the impression that it was probably a staff room before being converted to a guest room. It was located at the very end of the hall with the small vending machine room separating their room from the next one. Standing in the room, you could hear the overly loud hum of the vending machines next door. At least they didn't have neighbours to worry about, as the other side was the outside hotel wall.

Casey entered the room Sarah had acquired for them. He began speaking the moment the door clicked closed. "They have stepped out of the room to pick up something from the hotel services. We'll only have 2-3 minutes to plant the surveillance equipment. With Chuck watching the elevator and stairwell monitors planted moments earlier, Sarah and Casey slipped into the adjacent hotel room to plant the bugs and look for incriminating evidence.

Everything had been gone well. The bugs were planted and the terrorists seemed to be somewhat sloppy. Several laptops were sitting around the room and with one still running. The screen saver had not yet turned on.

A quick glance at the laptop showed they were in luck. The terrorists were running the latest Operating System (OS) made for mass consumption. The newest OS had been widely thought by the technical elite, to be buggy, feature poor, and bloated, but more secure than previous operating systems. The reality was that it was the exact opposite. The OS was feature loaded...with spyware built right in. Any update (legitimate or not) that caused the spyware 'features' to malfunction or be impaired in any way, resulted in as system crash and forced a full system reload to ensure the 'features' were back up and running properly. Part of the latest 9/11 initiatives...similar to the Intersect.

It was a testament to the overall design of the software that the most technical geeks merely thought the software was crappy. The public had no idea and neither did the terrorists. It definitely worked in Team Chuck's favour.

They took this opportunity to attach a small device to laptop in the room. The devices would be able to link into the OS and monitor everything they did. The tap was strictly a close range device, but it worked well in this case. They could also access the laptops drives (albeit slowly) using a search algorithm while it was in use. It would hide itself as an operating system maintenance procedure. No one would be the wiser. Operating systems are always running some obscure task in the background.

They received word from Chuck that the geeks were coming back up to the room. Apparently they had stocked up on burgers, and various junk food and beverages. With this part of the job done, the agents headed back to the stakeout room to watch the monitors.

The terrorists set up 'shop' with their newly purchased goodies and started their junk food binge while pulling up schematics and discussing technical stuff.

One look at the so called terrorists on the monitors led Casey to laugh. "These guys aren't terrorists. They're geeks gone bad. Look at them for Christ's sake. Looks like they are having a damn sleep over.

Great. pauses to look at Chuck before he continues Not only am I babysitting one, I have to spend the night watching half a dozen more. Come to think of it, it's like watching half a dozen Chucks every night." grunts

Looking at Casey, Chuck squints his eyes slightly and responds, "Bite me."

Sarah rolls her eyes and in a warning tone, "Boys...don't you have something to do?"

It was definitely going to be a very long and boring night. He glanced towards the bed. The luck of the draw was not with them on room selection. Their room had one bed, unlike terrorists down the hall.

Sarah suggested that they rotate their use of the bed. Casey would take the first sleep shift, then Chuck, then Sarah. She was a better night person than a morning one and this way Chuck would not be without an agent on duty to watch with him. Casey took the first sleep shift and settled down for quick bit of shut eye. He was asleep in moments.

Casey woke up on his own. The clock showed he had a few more minutes before Walker was scheduled to 'wake' him. He was going to relax until then but his sharpened senses picked up some kind of tension in the room.

It only took a second to identify the problem. The room was strangely quiet. Too quiet.

A quick glance told him that everything was in place. Chuck was busy watching the video feeds from the laptops to see if there was any information he might flash on. Chucks head blocked Casey's view of the monitor, but it didn't seem that exciting, as Chuck wasn't really moving much. He noticed that Chuck was listening to his iPod while watching. Casey thought that was a bit strange, as he usually preferred to talk to Walker.

A peek at Walker revealed a similar scenario. She was busy monitoring the terrorist's room using a large set of padded ear phones. It was fortunate that the cord was very long, as she appeared to be wearing a hole in the carpet with her pacing. Well the headphones explained the quiet room it was not clear why Sarah's eyes kept flicking over in Chuck's direction. He was not sure if she was looking at Chuck, the monitor, or both.

There was some detail he was missing. Maybe he needed to get up now.

Casey's rise from the bed went unnoticed by Chuck and Sarah. She had stopped pacing and was standing directly behind Chuck while Casey was on the bed behind them. She could easily see the door in her peripheral vision but Casey's approach was from directly behind the two. He saw that she had placed her hand on his shoulder and appeared to be gripping it firmly.

Curious, he slipped up just behind Sarah and Chuck and was about to ask if they had found anything, when he caught a glimpse of what they were watching on the laptop feeds.

Porn. All the laptops were running either live, in action feeds or viewing slideshow pictures. Casey's response to the screen was immediate and sounded jarringly loud in the quietness of the room. "WHAT THE HELL!"

The reaction from Chuck and Sarah was also hasty and reminiscent of a child caught red handed in the cookie jar. Chuck's full glass of pop, long since forgotten in his hand, now launched its contents into the air. Sarah had violently spun around to confront and, if necessary, defend against the noise. Her rapid movements pulled the headphones from their jack.

Chuck's pop landed on his head and her back. The disconnection of the headphones meant the speakers were now the default playback device for sounds from terrorist's room. The previous silence was now broken by the moans of women in ecstasy, punctuated only by the odd geek making comments in regards to what 'they' would do with the women shown.

Being an agent had sharpened Casey's deduction abilities. He grimaced and grunted loudly as he realized what had happened. Chuck had to watch the laptops, but wisely chose to use his iPod as a distraction. Sarah tried to keep the voices and room noise out of the equation, by using the headphones.

As an agent, she still needed to keep a trained eye on the monitors and Chuck. Chuck was still an asset under her protection and lacked the training required to perform surveillance alone. To Team Chuck's benefit, he was extraordinarily perceptive and might flash on something seen on the video feed. To Sarah's detriment, it was apparent she was more than a little uncomfortable with the content viewed and Chuck in close proximity.

It was not hard to assume her feelings for Chuck were a key factor in this equation. Casey doubted she would do anything about her feelings with him in the room, but it was likely a good thing he woke up when he did.

He made a mental note to watch them a little more closely tonight. A very small smiled appeared on his lips and went unnoticed by his teammates. On second thought, it might be a good opportunity to evaluate their current relationship.

Sarah and Chuck had calmed after seeing it was Casey, although they did look embarrassed at being surprised, especially with the content they were watching. Casey spoke loudly enough to be heard with the speakers running. "Did we find anything to report?" He finished his sentence with a pointed glance, a slight smirk on his lips and raised eyebrows at Sarah.

Sarah walked to the speakers to mute them, before heading to the bag of extra clothes they brought. She needed to change. She spoke as she walked. "Nothing so far. Unless you count being a male and having an affinity for watching naked women on the internet, out of the ordinary."

She did not say anything else. She couldn't. She needed to get away from Chuck as quickly as possible. Between the video, sounds and her uncontrollable feelings for him, she was having an extremely difficult time keeping a professional demeanour.

Being an agent meant celibacy for extended periods. Around Chuck her thoughts had a tendency to 'drift'. The surveillance did not help. She was by no means interested in the pornographic material, but it did kick her imagination into high gear and Chuck sitting there was almost too much for her to handle. She did not want Casey or Chuck to notice, and the shower was a perfect distraction.

Chuck was wet, uncomfortable, and a little red in the face. His shoulder ached where Sarah had gripped it before Casey startled them. Initially he had welcomed her touch, but it had become somewhat painful, while she watched the monitors with him. Chuck felt it probably wouldn't be a good idea to mention that detail. Instead he spoke up in an effort to diffuse the situation.

"Apparently the terrorists are not allowed to access much nudity or sexually explicit information. From the looks of things, you wouldn't think they even have women over there. Once they realized what they could do, it was only a matter of time before they were up and running."

Casey noticed that while Chuck was somewhat 'excited', he seemed pretty calm about the porn in general. He decided to press Chuck on the topic. "You seem pretty non-nonchalant about the whole 'porn' thing, Bartowski. What's the matter, outgrowing your inner geek?

Chuck's response was quick, if not very eloquent. "ahh...nerd is the preferred term, and I see a lot of porn at the BuyMore. At this, Sarah stops her search for clothes and looks at Chuck with a slightly surprised expression, which mirrors Casey's look.

Chuck realizes what they are thinking and responds, "What? Don't tell me you two forgot I work with Morgan, Lester and Jeff. Remember 'Irena Demova'?. Not to mention that customers bring in their computers for 'fixing'. Most of their problems are related to downloading of virus infected sexual or illicit material. I probably weed through an hour's worth, in some form or another, every day. Several hours of it, if I'm working 'the cage'.

Sarah's' blank look forced Chuck to explain. The "cage" is what we call to the computer diagnostic and repair area.

Casey grunted as he looked Chuck up and down and found his response adequate.

Sarah has listened to the exchange, but has stayed quiet until now. "While you two chat, I am going to have a quick shower to wash this soda pop off." Casey and Chuck nod in agreement.

After Sarah enters the bathroom, Casey turns to Chuck with a piercing glare. Chuck is somewhat taken aback. "What now? Look I said I was sorry for spilling the pop. It wasn't my fault you scared the crap out of me."

"I'm just wondering where you two would have been if I hadn't been here."

"What are you talking about, Casey?"

"Let's just say that I doubt she's having a hot shower." With that, Casey heads back to the speaker system and plugs the headphones back in. Chuck is left staring at the bathroom door for a moment before he turns to collect fresh clothes for his shower.

Sarah is very quick with her shower. She opens the door to the bathroom and calls for Chuck to come in.

Casey grimaces as Chuck passes him on the way to the bathroom. Casey rumbles under his breath, "A cold shower for you too Chuck."

Chuck ignores Casey and approaches the bathroom. Sarah has not yet exited. He looks into the room and enters finding her dressed and wrapping a towel on her head. With Casey's words fresh in his mind, he realizes there is no steam or sensation of moist heat, as would normally be expected. As Sarah turns from the mirror to exit she must've seen something on his face, because her expression changes from a business one, to a slightly amused one. He could swear she passes at an uncomfortably close distance. Maybe a cold shower is a very good idea.

By the time he exited the shower, he was extremely cold and more than a little awake. He was not sure how he is going to get to sleep now. While the sleep schedule worked well in theory, it was pretty obvious that it wasn't going to work in practice.

Upon exiting the bathroom, he finds Sarah lying on the bed. His logical reasoning isn't quite fast enough to stop his imagination from jumping to conclusions. Suddenly his time in the shower wasn't quite long enough. Chuck knew he was supposed to grab the next shift and was confused. "I thought...??".

Sarah cuts him off "Casey feels it might be better if we get some sleep now. He will handle the rest of it by himself."

Casey, having the headphones turned down enough to hear the conversation, provides a grunt of agreement.

Chuck is a little surprised by the turn of events but not about to look a gift horse in the mouth. Looking at Sarah, her expression is neutral. At least they will be fully clothed. That was good for a couple of reasons.

The first had to do with the marks on him. It wasn't until after he came out of the shower he realized she had left bruises on his shoulder where she was gripping him just before Casey startled them.

The other reason dealt with the fact that the last time they were in bed, he hadn't known what to expect. As it was, he had ended up telling Sarah she looked like a hooker... which, not surprisingly, lead to a fight. That 'wonderful' night ended by taking Ellie to the hospital for poisoning.

At this point, Chuck doesn't know if he could stand being mostly naked with her under blankets, even after a cold shower. Scratch that. He definitely knows he couldn't.

Chuck climbed onto the bed and positioned himself no more than the ½ way point of the bed. He knows Casey is watching their every move. Sarah is still facing towards the bathroom door and he is behind her. As she is on her side facing away, she glances slightly over her shoulder as she says 'Night Chuck'. He responds in kind as he stares at the ceiling. He is hoping sleep will come quickly, although he has a sneaky suspicion that will not be the case. As expected, it is indeed a while before sleep finally finds Chuck.

Sarah's eyes snapped open. She does not move. She hears the shower running. It must be Casey. It takes a second to get her bearings. She is in bed with Chuck and she is curled up to his right side with a hand on his shoulder and her head nestled into his neck. Now she wonders if she did that before or after Casey went into the washroom. She shifts her head slightly to look up at Chuck. His eyes are open and a little bit...wild.

"Good Morning", he says quietly.

She tenses but does not move. Chuck has an idea of what is bothering her. He sighs gently before speaking, trying to savour the moment. "You didn't cuddle up to me until after Casey started the shower. Of course, I only know the last few minutes, as I was asleep until I felt you."

Sarah pulls her head and hand away and straightens up slightly. "I'm sorry to wake you".

Chuck looks slightly saddened that she has moved. "I didn't say I didn't like it" flashing his trademark Chuck ultra wide grin while his eyes give off a mischievous glint. "I'm just saying." The words bring a smile to her face.