Title: Discovering Omaha 2/?

Author: dettiot

Rating: T

Summary: For Chuck, it's a chance encounter. For Sarah, it's a mission. But what happens when the spy remembers she's also a woman and the man realizes he could be a spy?

Author'sNote: A switch to Chuck's POV for this chapter. From here on out, the POVs will alternate between Sarah and Chuck. Many thanks to LiptonLee for helping me with Chuck's voice.

XXX

The trip to Cabo had been Bryce's idea.

"C'mon, Chuck. You need to have some fun. Live a little."

Chuck, buried in code printouts, two different colored highlighters in his mouth, grunted. Bryce rolled his eyes and tried again.

"Buddy, you've buried yourself in your classes ever since Jill . . ." Chuck did his best to glare at him, but Bryce just grinned and went on. "You're gonna kill yourself if you keep this up, and with being nearly done, it'd suck if you didn't make it to graduation."

Chuck spit out the highlighters and sighed. "I get it, Bryce. I haven't been a lot of fun lately."

"It's not that," Bryce said, flopping down at the end of Chuck's bed. "I'm worried about you. And since the frat's getting a bunch of stuff comped by the resort in Cabo, it'll barely cost you anything. You already said that Ellie was going away with her friends-what are you gonna do, sit around the whole break and play video games? You've done that every other spring break. This is your last chance to cut loose, have some real fun south of the border." Bryce smirked, clearly referring to more than just the destination of the trip.

Chuck pulled a pillow out from behind him and threw it at Bryce. He nimbly caught it and tossed it back at Chuck.

"Do you promise not to do that again? That whole 'south of the border' thing?" Chuck asked, knowing it was probably hopeless. "Because . . . because that was awful. Really, really awful."

"I'll promise to try," Bryce said with a grin. "Does that mean you're in?"

Chuck looked down at the printouts in his lap. He had thought he'd go home, hang out with Morgan, get a jump on his final projects. It'd be the responsible thing to do. It'd be the safe thing. It'd be the Chuck thing to do.

And suddenly, the last person he wanted to be was Chuck, who was going to graduate Stanford summa cum laude and go to work for some software company and cash out in ten years. Not when Chuck was the one to get dumped by the girl he had been planning to propose to.

"You know what, Bryce? I'm in."

XXX

If angels existed and if they ever smiled, they probably looked something like Sarah, Chuck thought in the back of his head as she shook his hand. This girl-no, woman-this woman was the most beautiful female he had ever seen, in person or on screen.

And she was talking to him. To Chuck Bartowski, who was pretty smart and just the person to talk to about your physics homework, but not the kind of guy who got absolutely gorgeous women talking to him.

It wasn't like she was really talking to him, though. He was just buying her a drink to make up for clobbering her. And for staring at her like he was the village idiot. But when you run into a beautiful woman who was wearing an insanely short skirt and a black bikini top under a thin white tank top, no man could be held accountable for letting his brain wander for a moment. Or seven.

"So . . . so what's your poison?" he asked her as they stepped up to the bar.

"Whatever you're having," she said, leaning in towards him in order to be heard over the music, he guessed. Although the music wasn't that loud.

"I was gonna get a tequila shot . . ." he said, looking down into her very blue eyes.

She grinned in a way that was both cheeky and really, really hot. "Then that's what I'll have."

"All right, then," Chuck said, finding her grin infectious. "Barkeep, two tequila shots, please." He pulled out his wallet and slapped down enough pesos for the drinks and a nice tip. Bryce always said that when you were trying to impress a girl, you made sure to leave good tips. Chuck always countered that regardless of impressing a girl, you left a good tip.

"So . . . Chuck. It's an interesting name," Sarah said, leaning against the bar and facing him.

"My parents are sadists," he said, using his standard response. He grinned to let her know he was joking, and she grinned back.

"Makes you wish you could name yourself," she commented.

"You don't know how many times I've wished that," Chuck said, mirroring her position. "I'd have picked something a lot better than Chuck. Like . . . Maverick."

She let out a laugh and reached over to take the shots from the bartender. She handed him one and raised hers in a toast. "To wishes."

He found himself caught in her gaze. In his attempts during this trip to be someone other than himself, he found that the real Chuck kept slipping back out. He had felt embarrassed that he couldn't go crazy like Bryce and the rest of his frat brothers. But maybe . . . maybe that wasn't so bad. Not when it brought a woman like Sarah into his life, if only for the time it took to drink a shot.

So he gave the beautiful, alluring woman in front of him a smile and raised his shot. "To wishes."

XXX

He must have done something really, really good. Like preventing an endangered species from going extinct, or giving a desperate person the chance they needed to change their life. Maybe he had indirectly saved the president from an assassination attempt. How else could he explain how he was walking on a Mexican beach with a woman who took his breath away?

After the shots, he hadn't been sure what to do or say, but Sarah seemed to know. She began asking him questions: where he was from, what his major was. It was easy to talk to her. She listened so hard. It was like they were the only two people in the whole nightclub.

He had offered to buy her another drink after they spent several minutes talking, but she had smiled and declined. "The line between attractive tipsy girl and ugly drunk girl is pretty thin. A few beers and two shots is my limit."

Chuck, who was feeling tipsy and from more than the alcohol, couldn't let her remark go. "I don't think you could ever be ugly."

Some emotion he couldn't identify flickered in her eyes and then it was gone. "You never know," she said, her voice light.

He arched an eyebrow at her and grinned. "You've been asking me a lot of questions-how about I ask you some?"

"Oh, I'm not that interesting. Just your average spring break-er," Sarah said.

Chuck shook his head. "The last thing you are is average."

To his delight, Sarah laughed. "Wow. This, all the charm? It's nice."

He knew his smile was becoming scarily similar to a clown's, but he didn't care. "I'm charming, huh?"

"Maybe," Sarah said, giving him a coy smile. "Hey, why don't we go take a walk on the beach? We could talk some more."

He almost did a double-take. She wanted to spend more time with him? That . . . that was unexpected. And really, really awesome. But mostly unexpected, and now kind of terrifying.

Sarah took his hand and started pulling him towards the beach exit. Chuck managed to catch Bryce's eye and wave before Sarah got him out of the nightclub.

And now, here they were. She had dropped his hand once they were outside, but she was staying very close to him as they walked across the sand. Contrary to her offer, she had fallen silent as they walked, and he didn't want to talk and risk messing this up.

It was nice. Walking on a moonlit beach, with the waves crashing against the shore, the sound of music and talking and laughter drifting from the various bars and clubs as they walked past.

More than nice.

Almost like she was reading his mind, Sarah spoke softly. "It's beautiful here."

He looked at her. "Yeah . . . it really is."

She gave him a small smile. "I'm sorry to be leaving. Tonight's my last night."

"Oh," Chuck said, feeling his stomach drop with the disappointment. "That's-that's too bad."

She nodded. "Yeah. The friend I came here with, she had to leave early because her mom got sick. So it's been kinda lonely, being here by myself."

"When you're all alone in a crowd, it makes you feel even more alone," he said, remembering those times in high school, even college, when that feeling had swept over him. The sense of being different, of nobody understanding how he thought or acted..

Sarah slowed her walk as she looked up at him, her face soft in the moonlight. "Yeah, exactly."

Now that they were alone, she seemed different from the girl she had been in the bar. And Chuck liked this Sarah even more.

They had reached a section of beach that was quieter, without any nearby clubs. He gestured to the sand. "Do you want to sit down?"

She smiled at him. "Sure," she said, gracefully dropping onto the sand, her endless legs stretched out in front of her. Chuck sat down, trying to be as graceful as possible, and crossed his legs.

"Looking at the ocean always makes me think about the big questions," she said quietly.

He looked at the side of her face. "Yeah?"

Sarah nodded and leaned back on her hands. "Yeah. Life, death, all those things. The secret of the universe." She looked at him and gave him a small smile. "What do you think? What's the secret to the universe?"

"Forty-two," he answered without thinking. Sarah looked confused, her nose wrinkling in an adorable way. Chuck grinned sheepishly. "It's from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The answer to all of life's questions is forty-two."

"Forty-two what?" Sarah asked, still looking confused.

Chuck shrugged. "Whatever you want it to be."

She laughed softly. "It's as good of an answer as anything, I guess."

"Yeah," he said with a grin, ducking his head and feeling his face flush. It might be possible to be a bigger nerd right now, and he was a bit embarrassed to realize he could come up with seven different options without even thinking hard. But the last thing he wanted right now was to out himself like that.

She leaned over, nudging him with her shoulder. "Why's it called The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy?"

He looked at her in surprise. "You really want to know?"

"I wouldn't have asked if I didn't want to know," she said with a smile. "C'mon, tell me."

Chuck took a breath. This was a bit nerve-wracking. More than a bit. Jill had been nerdy like him and she had liked him for being a nerd. At least, that's what he had always thought, until she broke up with him. Going on an extended riff about the brilliance of Douglas Adams wouldn't exactly be conducive to the whole "being someone else" plan. And even though Sarah was only here for tonight, he really, really wanted to spend as much time with her as he could.

"Earth to Chuck," she said softly. "Everything okay?"

He shook his head. "Yeah, yeah. Everything's fine." He smiled at her a bit and started explaining Hitchhiker's Guide to her. Because . . . because she wanted to know, and he liked the feeling he got when she listened to him. It made him feel good. Confident. Like maybe, just once, he could make things go his way.

Sarah followed along with the story, laughing at the funny parts. When he ran out of steam, she smiled at him. "It sounds good. I'll have to find a copy of it sometime. Once I graduate maybe, and can think about something other than economics."

Chuck laughed softly. "Yeah, I hear you."

The breeze kicked up, and Sarah shivered a little. She wrapped her arms around herself. "Cold?" Chuck asked, moving towards her.

She nodded and leaned into him, almost snuggling against him. His palms immediately became clammy. "You're warm," she said, looking up at him.

He swallowed. "Um . . . yeah, I've always run a bit hot." He almost winced. "A bit hot"? He waited for her to burst out laughing and then tell him he must be dreaming if he thought he was hot.

She didn't laugh. She gazed at him, her face catching the light from the moon. Chuck felt his breath catch. This moment, it was leading towards what he thought it was leading towards, wasn't it? Because J-people had always said he was pretty oblivious for a smart guy, but Sarah wanted him to kiss her, didn't she? That's what all these signals meant, that's what his whole body wanted him to do.

He took a deep breath and looked into her eyes. What was it about her that made all his doubts fall away? He felt himself lean towards her, seeing her eyes widen. He paused, giving her a chance to pull away.

She stayed where she was, not moving. Her face was a bit flushed, and she was breathing shallowly. And her eyes . . . they were locked on his, sending him a silent message to kiss her.

It wasn't like him to kiss a woman he'd just met. A woman he barely knew, and wouldn't get to know any better. But at that moment, Chuck knew that all he wanted in the whole universe was to kiss Sarah.

So he closed the gap between them and softly pressed his lips against hers.

End, Chapter Two