A few things before you start reading:
This chapter is dedicated to Shoosh, whose idea this was completely. I just wrote it.
I stole a quote from the montage, NBC please don't come after me, I'm saying that I don't own it. If you've seen it, you'll recognize it (I tweaked the last part a little, though).
--
Running a hand through his hair, Chuck sighed yet again. Today had not been a good day. First, some man came in asking if his computer could be fixed. Chuck, curious, asked what happened. The man replied sheepishly that he was trying to send a file to a friend, but it wouldn't work, so in frustration he'd thrown it on the floor.
"Well how big was the file?" Chuck asked.
"About 79 MB."
He cocked his head to the side and looked at the customer, wondering why America was getting stupider and stupider. Turns out he had to get a new laptop, which angered the guy even more.
And then later Jeff and Lester thought it would be funny to put a video camera in the girls bathroom lounge and connect it to the wall. Big Mike nearly had a heart attack when he saw.
But then, finally, it was lunch break. As bad as his day was, there was always something that made him feel better. Chuck was just about to go over to Wienerlicious to visit his girlfriend-the mere word brought a smile to his face-when Sarah came through those automatic glass doors in her frilly skirt, walking over saucily to the counter where Chuck was getting up from to go meet her. He looked at her in awe. So far they'd been dating for real for five and a half months. It started when one day when Chuck stumbled on Sarah crying in her apartment after a fight, and he'd convinced her to give their relationship a chance.
He rose, smiling down at her, and she gave him a quick peck on the lips. Pulling back, they took one look into each other's eyes and came back together. Even over the counter, Chuck's long arms pulled her in close, both of Sarah's hands grabbing at his hair. She groaned, wanting to get closer. Just as she was about to jump up on the counter, Lester called out for them to get a room. The two pulled apart, and looked around shamefully at the crowd of Buy More employees staring at them.
"So," Chuck started to get rid of the awkward moment. "Why did you come here?"
She smiled and pulled his hand toward the break room. The men in the store stared jealous eyed, thinking that he was about to get lucky, but Chuck knew the truth. He sighed, thinking of how just when he was starting to forget about the CIA, it would jump back at him. Another mission, of course, where he would probably have to watch Sarah flirt shamelessly with another man.
Casey was already there, eyeing their interlocked hands with a scowl. Sarah looked at Chuck with an apologetic face and dropped his hand. He sighed again, thinking of what a bad day it was so far, except for the kiss. A few seconds later, Beckman and Graham appeared on the screen, looking serious as usual. Did they ever smile?
They held up a picture of a man with shoulder length brown hair, like Bryce. Chuck immediately flashed and found about a man named Islav Vertisko, a rich drug dealer who had friends in high places. Graham told them that he would be staying at the Omni Los Angeles, at California Plaza, and wanted Chuck and Sarah to go as a couple and Casey as a waiter (to which he scowled and grumbled almost inaudibly). There they would bug his room and form a plan. They were not to "take him down", Beckman instructed. He had too many connections, and soon would be home free, plus expecting another attack.
The fact that Sarah wouldn't have to seduce anyone greatly brightened up his day. Even though Chuck had to deal with three more customers who legally shouldn't own anything technical, he was actually starting to look forward to this assignment. He and Sarah got to share a room, act like themselves, and there was barely any risk of danger. Yup, this was the easiest mission ever.
--
They were watching The Wedding Crashers, Sarah leaning into him, both of his arms around her and one intertwined with her hand. Chuck flinched as the football hit Jeremy yet again, causing him to fall to the ground. Sarah, noticing this, merely laughed and proceeded to reach a hand back and play with his hair. It was so soft, and the perfect length. She became mesmerized, even stopped paying attention the to the movie. Only Chuck's voice brought her out of her trance.
"Are you having fun?" he asked with an amused smile.
"Yes," she replied simply. She stopped suddenly, and looked up at him. "What do you think of the mission?"
"I think it'll be easy. We can just act like ourselves."
Sarah nodded. "Hopefully." She then returned to playing with his curls.
Chuck nuzzled her neck. "You know, that's kind of distracting me from seeing Isla Fisher straddling Vince Vaughn."
Sarah rolled her eyes and proceeded to straddle him, causing his gaze to slip away from the television screen. "Better?"
"You're blocking the TV." But he didn't tear his gaze away from her eyes. When she didn't move-thankfully-he added, "Well just please don't do the hair flippy thing on me…or pour alcohol on my cuts."
"Oh shut up and kiss me already."
--
Chuck was staring up at the ceiling, mindlessly running his hand through Sarah's hair. She was lying down, her head on his bare chest. "I love you so much," he breathed.
She mumbled in appreciation, her eyes closed.
"I'm sorry, what was that?"
Sarah opened her eyes groggily, sat up and looked at the man in front of her. "I love you too."
"So you're glad now that I stumbled on you crying that one night?"
She rose up, exposing her body, and breathed the word "Extremely" on Chuck's neck. Lightly grabbing his chin, she kissed him deeply. Starting out slowly and slowly rising with passion, she was soon lying on top of him.
He pulled away slowly, eyes still closed. "Didn't we just do this?"
Sarah smiled. "Twice. Do you have a problem with that?"
He rolled over so that she was underneath him. "Not at all."
--
"Sarah, have you ever thought of…you know what, never mind."
She took a napkin and wiped away the trail of milk running down her chin, took another spoonful of Corn Pops, and then asked, "What?"
"Have you ever thought of, y'know, kids?"
For some reason this didn't seem to faze her. "Yes," she replied honestly.
"Really?" Chuck asked, surprised by her reaction.
Setting the spoon down in the bowl, Sarah looked him hard in the eyes. "Yes, Chuck, I have. I've imagined a little girl with curly blond hair, and deep brown eyes. I've imagined a boy with your curls and my eyes taking his first steps. I've imagined us reassuring them that their first day of school would be fun, and that we would be right back there when the day was over."
She leaned over the table and wiped away some milk that had somehow gotten on his cheek, all the while nonchalant. "Why, have you?"
Chuck stared at her in awe. "Every time I look at you," he whispered.
--
Straightening Chuck's tie and patting it down, Sarah climbed out the car door, leading him by the hand. "Remember, this is information only, so once the bugs are in place, we can just enjoy our stay here."
He nodded, for the first time completely calm on a mission. Come on, the only reason he was there was to listen to the bugs and see if he flashed on anything. And if needed be, it was recorded anyway, so him and Sarah could take a break for a while. Another plus was that this Islav guy must sleep sometime, so it wasn't like they had to pull an all-nighter. As they got inside, Sarah mentioned that she had to go to the bathroom, leaving Chuck to stare mesmerized at the lobby. He sat down in the check-in area, taking a turn to stare at the blue and green carpet under his feet, the glass windows showing into a room full of plans, the staircase that looked so fancy that Chuck felt as though he didn't deserve to be in this hotel, with the kind of payroll he got….
"Sir, are you okay?"
Chuck turned toward the man behind the check-in counter. "Yes, I'm just waiting for my girlfriend."
He turned back to take in the beauty of the hotel, but controlled his facial expressions. Charles Carmichael was used to this sort of stuff. Within a few seconds of talking to the man, his phone rang. Casey. Walking over to a corner of the room, he answered.
"Hello?"
"Bartowski. You in?"
"Yes, Casey. It's not like I had to sneak in or anything. What about you, where are you?"
"Finishing parking your car." It was clear by his voice that he was not happy about being a worker, while Chuck and Sarah got to enjoy the hotel as guests. "Anyway, we have a problem."
He had the urge to audibly gulp. "Problem?"
"It seems that last minute, Vertisko changed his room, so we're going to have to do a little tweaking, since the room you guys got is on the other side of the hotel. Mine is closer, but not as much as I'd like it to be. I was able to change mine last minute, so I'm down the hall, but I can't change more than that, since there will be questions."
"So what do you want me to do?"
There was silence at the other end. "The only open room near Vertisko is the newly-engaged couples suite."
"What?" Chuck hissed.
"Sometime tonight, you're going to have to propose. Well, fake-propose…I don't give a damn. Make a show out of it, get people's attention. Find a way to get that room."
"Casey, do you realize what you're saying? You want me to fake-propose to my real girlfriend? Do you know how complicated this makes things?"
"Sarah is an agent. She knows what you have to do for a mission, I guarantee that she'll understand."
"Yeah, well what about me?"
"Just shut up and do it before I shove your head up some poor guy's ass." Click.
"Shit." He put the phone in his suit pocket-he really wasn't used to this whole five star 'always dressy' thing-and turned around to see Sarah. As much as he thought that the hotel was beautiful, it didn't even compare to her, especially when she smiled. However, right now she was definitely not smiling. "Oh, hey. What took you so long?" he joked.
"I figured I mind as well…gear up. Better safe than sorry. What is it?"
He couldn't believe he was saying this, but Chuck actually didn't want to see what was under that dress. How could he explain the situation to Sarah? "Well, our situation just got a lot more complicated."
So much for an easy mission.
--
They were in the Noe Restaurant, at one of the middle tables. Sarah's hand was over Chuck's, sitting on the table. "Are you sure you're okay with this?" she asked quietly.
"That doesn't matter, does it? I'm fine. Are you?"
She nodded. "You got the ring?"
"Yup. Pocket."
"So when do you want to…?"
"Not yet. First I want to enjoy the view."
Sarah smiled. "Chuck, we're in the middle of a room. What view?"
"You."
Despite the fact that they had been dating seriously for a long time now, a blush still rose to her cheeks. "Thank you."
He used his other hand to eat a bite of…well, he wasn't quite sure what it was. Something fancy. But it was definitely good. He was lying about the ring being inside his pocket. He'd realized that he really did want to marry Sarah. Chuck always knew it, but now that the concept of proposing came up, he knew that it was time. He loved Sarah more than anything else in the world, and he wanted this to be perfect, to be everything she'd ever dreamed of. That was why while taking a 'walk' after unpacking a few of his things, Chuck had run down to the restaurant to make some pre-arrangements, also asking-no, telling-Casey. All he had to do was wait.
Sure enough, a few minutes later, a waiter came by with a bottle of champagne and two glasses on a large platter. "Chuck, we didn't order any of this."
He gave her hand a squeeze. "I did."
The waiter stopped at their table and put the platter on the table after giving it a short spin in his hand. When it landed, there was now an open jewelry case pointed towards Sarah, a diamond ring inside. It was obvious by her eyes that she was surprised. He was sure that there were a dozen pair of eyes on them at the moment that he dropped to his knee, but then he didn't care. He took her hand and stroking it with his thumb.
"Sarah, ever since we met I've never imagined a life without you. When you finally agreed to try our relationship out, I felt like I was the luckiest guy on the planet. We've been through ups and downs, and we've survived it all. You're beautiful, you're smart, you laugh at all my stupid jokes, and you have this habit of always loving me no matter what. I mean it, Sarah. I want to wake up to see your face every morning and be able to know I can call you mine forever. I want to be able to say "This is my wife" to strangers we meet.
"So Sarah, will you marry me?" He looked at her with hopeful eyes, trying to make sure that she knew that this was real.
Sarah must've known, because her smile was huge, and there were tears streaming down her face. "Yes."
Chuck slipped the ring on her finger and stood up. Sarah threw herself into his arms, kissing him with a passion she didn't even knew existed. He lifted her up a few inches off the ground so that they were closer in height, her hands wrapped rightly around his neck. Knowing that they were still in a public place, the kiss didn't last too long and Chuck set her down before whispering into Sarah's ear.
"I mean it, Sarah. I don't care how long I have to wait, as long as I know that you'll always love me. Don't feel compelled to throw away your job life just for me."
While wiping away her tears, she whispered back, "Thank you, Chuck."
Yup, this was the best mission ever.
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A few thinks after you're finished reading:
I actually researched the hotel, so anything description is real (although it does not have an engagement suite)
The fluffy parts are just to add to the fact that Chuck/Sarah were really a couple (instead of just saying so)
