Chapter 2- The Preparations

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As Chuck looked at the bag in front of him, he thought that he had everything. After he had been yelled at by Big Mike when he got to work, it had been an average day. He figured that he should definitely wait until tomorrow to ask Big Mike for the next week off. Sarah had come over from the Weinerlicious to talk to Chuck about what they were going to tell Ellie and Awesome. After work, he'd checked the Internet for a packing list for going up north. He'd then taken that shopping and gotten gloves, hats, scarves, boots, snowpants, a heavy coat, heavy socks, and a bunch of sweatshirts. After living in California all of his life, he had never had to buy these things. When he figured that he had everything, he zipped up the bag and started packing his carry on.

As he was setting his iPod in, the doorbell rang. He left his room, went down the hall and opened the door to see Sarah standing, beautiful as usual. "Hey Chuck," she said as Chuck moved aside to let her in. "Hey," Chuck replied. "So, are you all packed?" Sarah asked looking into the kitchen to see where Awesome and Ellie were. "Yeah, just have a few more things to put in my carry on. How about you, are you packed?" Chuck replied. "Yeah, I'm getting there. So, where are Devon and Ellie?" Sarah asked, sitting down on the couch, Chuck following next to her. "They should be home in a few minutes, must have been a rough day at work," Chuck replied, turning on the TV.

"Hi guys," Ellie said as the door of the apartment swung open. "Hey Ellie," Chuck said, standing up and taking a couple of the grocery bags that Ellie was carrying. "What up Chuck, Sarah?" Awesome said as he walked in, looking at the new jogging suit that he had bought. "Check this out Chuck, it's Spandex, hugs the curves," Awesome said, making Chuck feel his jogging pants. "Wow, that's by far the creepiest thing I've ever heard," Chuck replied, as he put the groceries into the cupboards.

As he looked into the living room, he saw Sarah motion to him. "Oh yeah, Ellie, Awesome, we have something to tell you." Chuck said, moving over to Sarah. "We'll be going up North to Minnesota on Friday and staying for a week. It's kind of a couple trip, we both had some extra vacation days, so we figured that we'd take a kind of anniversary trip," Chuck said, looking at Sarah for reassurance that he got everything. "That's awesome," Awesome continued, "You should totally get some skiing, snowboarding, and hockey in. Man, winter sports are so awesome,"

"Oh my gosh Chuck, your leaving. Your going to have so much fun but I'm gonna miss you so much," Ellie said, her eyes wide. After another 15 minutes of Devon talking about how awesome it will be for Chuck, and Ellie freaking out about him leaving, Chuck had rushed them off to bed and was standing at the door with Sarah. "Well, see you tomorrow and good job on the "mission" tonight," Sarah said, laughing a little. "Thanks. See ya," Chuck said, chuckling, as he closed the door and walked back to his room to finish packing his carry-on bag.

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Casey looked at all of the heavy clothes set out on his bed and couldn't help but smile. He loved cold weather and it was almost as fun to pack for it. He hoped that he might be able to ditch Chuck and Sarah for a little bit, mostly because they might be all lovebirdish the whole time, but also to try and find some people to play hockey with. He had learned to love the game in Russia and was ecstatic to get a chance to play again.

He also couldn't wait to go fishing. It had been so long since he had last gone ice fishing and hoped that they would go on a lake where he could actually catch something. He loved the thrill of the catch. It was kind of like the thrill of hunting and killing fugitives for him. It got his adrenaline pumping and put a huge smile on his face.

He also wanted to ride a snowmobile again. The last time he was on one, he was chasing down a drug lord with a gun in one hand and a knife in the other. He hoped that his next assignment was somewhere cold as well because he wanted to have the chance to play hockey, fish, and snowmobile again.

Casey came to his senses, realized how stupid his smile must look, and immediately returned to a scowl and left the room.

"This vacation might be fun," he thought, his scowl flirting with a smile again.

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Sarah looked at all of the stuff that was layed out on her bed and was content. It had been a while since she had been assigned somewhere cold, and she couldn't wait to feel the air on her face again. She knew that Chuck had never been out of California and hadn't felt weather under the low 40's, so that should be fun. She wanted to take Chuck to do all of the cold weather things that he hadn't ever done before. She knew that he had only been fishing a few times and had never been ice fishing, so she wanted to give him the chance for that thrill. She also wanted to get Chuck onto a snowmobile and ride the trails, she loved the air whipping past her face and figured that he would to.

She knew that Casey would want to do as much cold weather stuff as he could before he had to go back, which was probably good. That way Casey would keep them on their toes and give Chuck the chance to do as much stuff as possible. One thing that she did want to do though, was slow down and lay out on the couch in front of the fireplace with a warm cup of hot cocoa. She loved having that warmth while looking at the freezing weather outside. The thought of warmth of the fireplace and hot cocoa reminded her that she still had some shopping to do. Sarah packed what she had and then left to go buy some more "supplies".

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(Hope you liked this chapter and thanks for reading.) (Please review and I will try to update soon.)