A/N: I know a few of you might read through this chapter wondering, "Okay, when's the story gonna get going?" I promise I have good stuff in store.
I can't believe Morgan's nose hasn't led him out of bed yet.
Chuck had two skillets working, one fluffing up scrambled eggs and the other, finally at the right temperature, making picture-perfect pancakes. Chuck was not one for spending time in the kitchen, especially since both his sister and Morgan had far more culinary aptitude, but he did know his way around breakfast.
"Whatcha makin' us, buddy?" A bearded scraggly face appeared on the other side of the counter.
There's the man. "Pancakes, eggs, and bacon … for three."
"Good, 'cause I could eat for two at the moment."
"You might want to ask Sarah before you eat her breakfast too."
"Why would Sarah … oh … dude! Way to go buddy!" Morgan held his fist out, awaiting a bump.
"Let's not set the frat boy tone this morning."
"Right, gotcha. Sarah's a classy girl. So, I guess the date went well?"
"Very."
"Does this mean you guys are back together? Actually, before you answer that …" Morgan gave Chuck a questing look.
Chuck nodded in the direction of the pot of coffee he'd brewed earlier. Morgan grabbed an oversized mug, filled it half way with coffee, then topped it off with a Red Bull from the fridge.
"That can't be good for you … and yes, we're back together … for good, I hope." Chuck lowered his voice. "I don't want to push her or anything … I'm definitely taking it slow and careful, but … she's the one, man. I'm not letting her get away."
"That is so fantastically awesome. You have no idea how good the timing is."
"Why …"
"I met a girl."
"Okay, that gets a fist bump. So, what's her name? Where'd you meet her? Wait, I thought you were at poker last night."
"Chuck, a man gets to a point where he has to dispense with childish things."
Wow, this girl must be something special.
"No, Skip and I went to see his friend's band …"
"Wait, you hung out with Skip … Johnson?"
"Yeah, Skip's pretty cool, man. He knows the LA music scene pretty well. He's played guitar in a bunch of bands … knows just about everyone."
Chuck attempted to reconcile this with his conception of the nerdy blonde Q-tip.
"So, anyway, we sit down at a table with some of his friends and I start talking with this girl, Fabrice. She's really cute, serious guns … I mean her arms not her … well those were nice too. But she had these amazing tattoos on her arms. I mean she was just ..." Morgan went to another place for a moment then returned. "And this is the point where I always screw up. I turn into a freak … start saying stupid things. But I was just … normal."
"What do I always tell you? Always be yourself."
"Yeah, no kidding. We just talked video games, TV, music … it was like talking to you except I actually wanted to see her naked."
"Well put. So did you two … you know …"
"Let's not set the frat boy tone, shall we?"
"Touché."
"So get this, dude. She's a roller girl! She plays roller derby. You know, with the skates … knocking girls down and stuff. She showed me this huge bruise on her thigh like she was proud of it. She's totally badass."
"Hmmm, sounds like someone else I know."
"The best part is, she likes me. We talked the whole night and she didn't run away."
"And why would she? You've got the beard, vast knowledge of 80s movies, cooking skills, Call of Duty skills, fine taste in cheap Asian cuisine and a deep appreciation of classic science fiction."
"A regular Latin lothario."
"Exactly. So, you going to see her again soon?"
"I invited her to the Halloween party tonight. You think Ellie would mind if I brought a plus one?"
"Are you kidding? And this'll be great. Sarah and I can meet her there."
"Hey, does Ellie know you two are back together?"
Chuck's mouth dropped open and he froze, pancake precariously holding onto spatula.
"You didn't tell her yet, did you?"
"Crap! She's going to kill me. I haven't had the time. Sarah just came up to me yesterday out of the blue and that was that."
"That's kinda weird … Really? Out of no where?"
"Hey, you saw it yourself."
"Don't get me wrong, Chuck, I think Sarah's great, but I always get the feeling there's a lot more going on behind those icy blue eyes than she lets on."
Buddy you have no idea. Why did she do that anyway? No attempt to hide it from Shaw or anything. She's made herself even more of a target for him. I hope she knows what she's doing.
With quiet intensity and impassive gaze, the big man scanned the near constant stream of meat for the profile of his target. His trained senses detected subtle details in posture, gait, and dress that gave his quarry away. He was a predator living in a world of prey. Day in, day out he watched them trudge through their prey lives, herded into their business-park pens, fattening, never looking over their shoulders for those like him that hunted in their midst. Most had little to fear from him; he took only the high value assignments, letting lesser talents take care of the rest. Abruptly, his eyes narrowed on one of those assignments, and, target acquired, he readied himself for the kill.
"Whale!"
"What?"
"A whale … a big spender." John Casey rolled his eyes at Sarah. "Walker, how much time have you spent around here making googly-eyes with Bartowski and you still don't know what a whale is?"
"I know what a whale is. I just didn't think you took your cover so seriously."
"This is retail, Walker! No one lets a whale escape the Buy More alive … or at least they wouldn't if they weren't so busy sniffing each others' butts to see that one just walked in the store." Casey favored his coworkers with a look of revulsion. "In the marines we learned to lead by example. If the receipt for this one isn't at least $3000 dollars, I don't deserve this name tag."
Did he just lick his lips?
Sarah stared in awe as John Casey stalked off towards the big screens, a predatory leer on his face. Much more pleasing was the somewhat narrower figure headed towards her, bringing a warm flush to her cheeks.
"Hey, beautiful. Casey have anything interesting to say?"
"Depends on what you consider interesting. Casey's a really odd guy."
"Ya' think? The man's only loves are guns and a small plant. We should re-name him Leon."
"Leon?"
"The Professional? Never mind, we'll add it to the list."
"Ah, movie reference. Should have figured."
"So … did you find your breakfast?"
Sarah knew from the change in his voice that this wasn't the question he was really asking. "Yup. Though it was more like brunch by the time I had it. It survived the microwave pretty well too." She paused knowing she couldn't put off the next part of the conversation any longer. "Sorry it took me forever to get out of bed. I had a lot of sleep to catch up on. Did anyone miss me this morning?"
"Oh, you mean the Sarah Walker who is on time to everything and never misses a meeting? Nothing odd about her not showing up. Nothing at all."
"That bad?"
"Actually it was bizarre, like no one noticed you weren't there … in the several-ton-wolly-mammoth-in-the-room-that-no-one-wants-to-talk-about sort of way."
Sarah lowered her voice to a whisper. "I kind of expected that from Beckman and Casey … but Shaw too?"
Chuck nodded.
"Hmmm. I really wasn't expecting that."
Chuck lowered his own voice. "Wait, did you plan to miss the meeting?"
"Yes. Sorry. I didn't know you were going to make breakfast and everything; I probably should have told you. We're trying to push Shaw to make a move … contact some members of his team. Between our date last night and me not showing up this morning things may finally not be fitting into his plans. Maybe now he'll have to make some adjustments. We have taps for every SIM card he has but he hasn't used them to call anyone; all we need is one call to start working on."
Chuck went rigid, his demeanor changing instantly. "Wait, last night's date was part of a plan?"
"Whoa, Chuck, last night was for us. I didn't …
Sarah stopped as the diminutive figure of Lester Patel slithered up to the Nerd Herd desk.
"Well, well. What do we have here? Sounds like a herd of snakes hissing at each other."
The sibilance of Lester's 'S's were like fingernails on a chalkboard in Sarah's ears. She clenched her jaw, holding back a response the civilized world would consider excessive, then wondering if she'd have to do the same with Chuck. He held himself in control, however, speaking with only a trace of annoyance.
"A herd of snakes? Really? Lester, I don't think snakes come in herds."
"How do you know, Charles? Are you a … herpetologist?" He said the word with a flourish that seemed to accentuate the first syllable.
"While I'm impressed that you know what a herpetologist is, I don't …"
"I saw a herpetologist for a rash once." Looking vacant and bug-eyed, Jeff had just hovered up behind Lester. Sarah never failed to be impressed with how quickly his non-sequiturs could suck the sanity out of a room.
Chuck lost his patience then. "Jeff, herpetology has nothing to do with STDs! Don't either of you have anything better to do? Actually, never mind; I know the answer to that. Look, Sarah and I are trying to have a discussion, so go play in traffic or something."
Lester affected an air of self-righteousness. "I see. Your private conversation has higher priority than actual work. Must be nice to be roomies with the AssMan. Come on Jeffery. The beautiful people need to have their "talk"; there's no room for working men such as ourselves. Have no worry, my friend, my people are experienced with exile."
Sarah thought Chuck's patience with the Wonder Twins might end and was glad to see the two leave before anything happened. The muscles in Chuck's jaw were bulging and his fists were clenched. Strangely it reminded her of his intensity the night before, his skin flushing, sweat on his brow from the rhythmic exertion …
Whoa, Walker! Stay in the moment. You have to fix this.
"Chuck, aren't you the Nerd Herd supervisor? Can't you just fire them or something?"
Chuck lowered his voice again.
"If I got Big Mike to fire them then I'd have another problem. He might hire competent Nerd Herders."
"Good point. I don't see those two ever figuring out what goes on here. Inventing crazy conspiracy theories maybe but …"
Chuck's hissed whisper cut her off. "Hey, no changing the subject! You used me last night for one of your plans … just like … just like a mark!"
"No! Oh Chuck, no ,no, no. It wasn't like that at all." Sarah felt a panicked frustration, seeing that things were going badly very quickly but not sure how to defend herself. She opened her mouth and words came out in a whispered rush. "Look, Beckman was ready to do something drastic yesterday, maybe reassign me. I had to do something. There was no way I was going to let her take you away from me. So … I suggested a new strategy. Yes, it did involve last night's date, but I did it that way for us. We needed last night and I wouldn't have traded it for anything. That was honestly one of the best nights I've ever had. Maybe you think I need to get out more but …"
"No, Sarah. Last night really was perfect. I'm sorry, I shouldn't be so quick to freak out but … why couldn't you tell me about the plan yesterday? Why can't you just trust me enough to tell me what's going on in your head?"
Oh, Chuck. I don't know if you're ready for that. I don't know if I'm ready for that. Not with the places my mind went at the end of last night. I don't want to scare you off …
"I would have told you about the plan before but … well … if you weren't thinking about Shaw, then I wasn't thinking about him either, so last night could just be about us. Plus, it was kinda fun asking you out and flirting with you."
"And I suppose it didn't hurt that you got to take the pressure off of me with Shaw's isolation strategy and direct all the risk solely on you."
Damn. He doesn't miss much anymore. "Chuck, you know I function a lot better knowing you're safe."
"And you don't think it's the same for me? Don't get me wrong; you're amazing, but that doesn't mean you're invincible. That time in Seattle was way too close."
"I know. I need to respect you have the same worries that I do now, but don't forget that we have all Shaw's communications tapped. If he calls the hit on me we'll know it right when it happens."
"Yeah, that doesn't make me feel any better. This is Shaw we're talking about. I doubt we have all of his communications."
"Hey Chuck, how about a little respect for me? I'm not some easy target you know. I've dodged more hits than Fidel Castro." Sarah gave her most charming smile, looking up at him through her lashes and a spill of blonde wisps.
This brought a genuine smile to Chuck's face and Sarah felt a return of some of the warmth from the night before. His response was missing his earlier iciness.
"Don't try using your Jedi mind tricks on me."
"Oooo, a Star Trek reference."
Chuck's eyes flared open, horrified, but then quickly narrowed.
"You did that on purpose, didn't you? Well you're not going to derail me. You told me, not too long ago, that we're a team and we do everything together. This includes sharing the danger."
"Okay, okay. But I didn't do this just to take the heat off of you."
"It didn't hurt, though, did it?"
"I'm not going to lie; I do like it better this way."
"That's my Sarah, always wanting to be in control of things."
'My Sarah' … Do you know how much I like to hear that … or that I think of you as 'my Chuck'? "Well it's too late to change anything now … but isn't there some little way I could make you feel better about it?" She gave Chuck a look that did not suggest an innocent interpretation.
"You're just pulling out all your charms, aren't you?"
"Is it working?"
"Maybe … but just tell me you aren't going to keep making big decisions without me."
"I promise you. I really mean it when I say that what I love most about us is that we make a good team."
"Me too." Chuck began to lean in for a kiss before his eyes were diverted, looking past her.
She turned to see Casey approaching with a victorious look that would have been perfectly at home on the face of a wolf, hovering over its kill.
"Take out a terrorist with your bare hands, Casey?"
Casey ignored this and slapped a sales receipt down on the counter in front of Sarah.
"$4500. Read 'em and weep."
"Wow, John. If you keep up the good work, you might get that employee of the month plaque yet."
"Hmph, at least one of us takes their cover seriously … I mean … the actual work part."
Sarah's eyes narrowed at this last comment and the leer that came with it. A little jealous, old man? "Nice, Casey. Anyway, I have a chewing out to sit through downstairs so you boys play nice together. Chuck, don't forget the meeting in Castle before the Halloween party. I'm picking up sandwiches so both of you let me know what you want before five."
"You getting one for Shaw too?"
"Oh, of course." She gave a devilish smile. Shaw's would come with extra mayo, just the way he hated it. For some reason, the sandwich shop never seemed to get his order right. She turned to go, giving her hips an extra sway as she walked away, knowing where Chuck's eyes would be.
Casey watched as the love-sick moron checked out Walker's caboose, several thoughts running through his head at once. As was his habit, he distilled these down to a single grunt.
"You know Casey, you may not be aware of this but Homo Sapiens long ago developed the ability to communicate using symbolic vocalizations, or "words", which were able to convey complex ideas and …"
Casey walked away before Chuck could finish his sarcastic little rant. He headed back to the stockroom to pick up the items for his whale, hoping the finish to the kill would put his mind at ease.
Damn moron doesn't even know what he's done to Walker. Shaw, or one of his goons, is going to be coming for her any day now and the idiot's gone and muddied up her head with lady-feelings. As usual we'll just leave it to me to keep everyone from getting dead.
A/N: Let me know what you think.