A/N: Posted 8/9/11

The reviews have been wonderful. Many thanks!

Thanks to supesfan18 and quistie64 for their beta work.


Chapter 7

Four, or so, Months Ago

"Again, Chuck. Let's do it, again!" she implored him with an evil grin.

She was clearly enthusiastic about their new activity, but he was getting concerned, "You're gonna wear me out, Sarah."

"Don't be silly. The more you do it, the better you get. And I want you," she said as she tapped his bare chest with the bamboo switch for emphasis, "to be the best you can be." Again, that evil grin. She leaned over him and with a husky voice, she reminded him, "Besides, you wanted this."

He stood up and nodded his head, "Okay." He stretched forward and then as far back as he could go, bringing his arms over his head. With each move, he had moved a little closer to Sarah. As he brought his arms down, he put them around her and pulled her in.

He went in for a kiss and felt her pull her head back but then finally give in. She did say to do it again. He knew she was right. He broke the kiss and watched her slowly open her eyes, "I love you, Sarah Walker.'

She beamed and gave him a kiss in response.

But she still hadn't said it back. For a moment, his disappointment flickered in his eyes.

"So, are we going to kiss all day, or are we going to get back to it?" She mock glowered at him.

"Yes, mistress," he lowered his eyes and smiled. I wouldn't mind kissing her all day, every day.

She laughed, "Oh, I don't think you want to go there."

"Sarah, I'm willing to try anything once, if it makes you happy." He gave her a devilish smile, a quick eye brow dance and continued, "Or maybe you'd like to try it the other way?"

Sarah's mouth dropped open. She never expected a suggestion like that from Chuck. It was almost a week ago that she'd confessed her greatest secret to him. She wasn't ready to give up this one. She bit her lip and her eyes lit up as she thought about it, "Ooooo." She shook her head clear, but managed a smile, "You are such a bad boy!"

He smirked and prepared himself for her attack.

"Thawp!" She'd connected with his chest.

"Damn! That hurts, Sarah." He wasn't fast enough.

"It's a lot like sex, Chuck. You have to look for those non-verbal cues from your partner. Or in this case, your adversary. And right now, that would me." She tried to give her own version of an eye brow dance.

He simply snickered and got ready for the next round.

She swung the bamboo switch from left to right, just missing his chest. "That's it, Chuck!" She came at him again, swinging downwards.

Chuck dropped and curled into a ball, rolling back and away from Sarah as she stepped forward after him.

"When you come up, look for my eyes. They'll tell you were I'm going next."

He ducked to his left.

"Thawp!"

"Ow! You cheated!"

"Yes, I did. Never listen to your adversary," she admonished him and came after him again.

He saw her eyes move to the left, but her arm was winding up for a left to right upwards swing. He dropped to his left and stood just as the switch passed his arm.

Her next parry was a simple straight downward swing. He stepped to the side, grabbed her hand and tugged her towards him. He smiled and moved in for the kill on her lips.

"Very well done, Chuck." Her tone sounded sincere.

He wasn't sure he trusted her praise. He was learning fast.

She dropped the switch and had her hand on his back. There was a slight curl to her lips as she roughly pushed herself up against him. "But by thinking with your little head for your follow through, you're about to lose him. Look down."

He groaned. Sarah's knee was an inch from his groin.

She smiled and gave him quick kiss, "Go do your sprints. But in the dry sand this time, Chuck. And then do a cool down." She moved to his neck and gave him another kiss, closing her eyes as she smelled the salt and sweat mix on his skin. She almost didn't have the will power to push him away. "Ummm, Chuck. Don't clean off in the water."

He smiled and ran off.

For some reason her lower lip was hurting. She was watching Chuck so intently that she didn't realize she was biting down on it. Sarah couldn't wait for him to come back to her and shuddered as she thought back on his tease; 'Or maybe you'd like to try it the other way?' Men always wanted her to be their 'mistress'. Without knowing it, Chuck had just offered to play her fantasy.

Stupid broken arm!

The Present, but still somewhere sandy

"Ah… John, hold up a second." Chuck took a hold of Casey's arm and pulled him back a step towards him. They were headed down the trail to their vegetable garden. "Sarah, would you take a few shots of the garden?"

"Come on, Chuck, we don't have all day." Casey was losing his patience with the 'tour'.

"Hey, a lot of work went into this. Besides, Beckman will want a full report." Chuck continued as Sarah passed by with a camera that the chopper crewman had provided. He ached to reach out and grab her, but Casey was already grumpy.

"Of course," Casey reluctantly conceded.

Sarah stepped carefully past the two men and took several shots, including a few with Chuck and Casey in the background. "Clear?" she asked.

"Clear," Chuck replied.

Sarah took their knife from her pocket, knelt down and made a quick slice. A large weight of stone and sharpened bamboo swooshed down from its position in a tree to the side of the trail and swung across the path and upwards, holding its arc by a vine rope attached to the tree. It reached its apex and swung back down again, coming to a crash on the ground.

Casey eyes went wide, "Whoa!"

Sarah looked up at Casey with a broad smile, "Most of the island is rigged with booby traps. We weren't sure if we would ever be found or if we were, by whom." She directed her gaze at Chuck, sparkling with wit, "We took some precautions."

"Damn, Walker," Casey marveled as he knelt down to examine the contraption. "You did some nice work here."

She expected just that reaction and responded slowly, purposely, "No, John. Not me. Chuck."

Casey looked over at Chuck, "Seriously?" Then the realization hit him, "Of course, the Intersect."

"No, not the Intersect, John. He has quite the knack." Sarah beamed with pride as she moved back towards Chuck, "For quite a few things, I must say," and pulled him into a kiss.

Chuck did what he usually does when Sarah goes on about his talents; he blushed.

"Hey! What did I say about the chocolate and peanut butter?"

Sarah laughed, "Get used to it." She looked to Chuck and gave him a wink, "Uncle Johnny!"

The large man stood and growled, "Bartowski!"

Chuck shot him a grin, "Yeah?"

He growled, "What the hell did you do?" Casey started laughing, "Beckman's going to be pissed. She thought she was getting the team back together."

Chuck grabbed a hold of Casey and pulled him downwards.

Casey was not prepared for it, lost his balance and fell into Chuck with a grunt. He felt Chuck's hand on his mouth and his breath in his ear.

"Stay down, John," he whispered.

Sarah hit the ground at the same moment as Chuck and crawled over to the men. She had her 9mm out, had loaded a clip and chambered a round in a single smooth motion. She took their 8.

Chuck had done the same with his weapon and took their 12 and urged Casey, "Take 4."

Casey didn't argue; his hand had already moved to his weapon as he rolled away from Chuck and took the third position. He neither saw nor heard a threat and stole a glance at Sarah. How the hell is Chuck doing all this? He was playing catch-up and didn't like it.

Sarah looked back at Casey and held up two fingers, pointing to her eyes, then to Chuck and then to his position.

He understood, two coming in; 12 and 4.

Sarah crawled towards John and whispered, "Stay here. We have flanks." She continued out into the woods on their 6 position. Chuck was already moving out on their 10.

Casey watched his partners disappear into the jungle. As far as he could tell there was no one out there. He then heard a snap and a 'swoosh' sound coming from their original 12. There was a sickening crunch and then silence.

He then heard the same grunting sound he'd heard from the boar on the beach and it was coming from Sarah's direction. There was another snap sound followed by a male voice yelling. He heard Sarah's order, "Drop it."

Casey was on his feet a moment later and headed towards the direction of her voice. He was stunned by the sight. The chopper pilot was hanging upside down from a tree held up by a vine rope. Sarah had a gun trained on him and was holding two more weapons in her other hand. Chuck was already securing the man's hands behind him.

"What the…" Casey blurted out.

Chuck turned to his partner. "The other crewman's dead," he reported, pointing back to the position he'd come in from.

The pilot's eyes went wide, "He's dead?"

"Yeah. I'm sorry about that, really. But you came at us, remember?" He hung his head. He had blood on his hands, now.

"And the pilot here, is going to tell us who he works for," Sarah added.

For the first time in months, they were not in perfect sync with each other and the events around them. Sarah didn't immediately catch Chuck's emotional dip.

Casey noticed that and felt a bit of relief. It had begun to unnerve him. They hadn't just finished each other's sentences or magically mind-speak to each other or whatever they wanted to call it. Not that he doubted it, but it was good to see that his partners were still human.

She sported a huge grin and looked a little too happy, "Or he'll learn how we pluck chickens around here, first hand."

Chuck smirked, "I still say they look more like parrots."

And if Casey hadn't looked at just the right moment, he would never have seen Sarah's emotional pick up of Chuck or his recovery.

"To-may-to, to-ma-toe, sweetie," Sarah chided him.

"Seriously, Sarah? Next you'll be telling me it's Arange."

They heard 'Diane' grunting somewhere in the growth.

"Oh, sure, you always take her side!" Chuck yelled out to the boar.

They both started laughing.

"Enough!" Casey bellowed. "Freakin' Drs. Dolittle." He stared at the pilot a moment, "Well, are you going to ask him or do I have to do all the work around here?"

The pilot immediately responded, "To-ma-toe! To-ma-toe!"

Sarah snickered, "I think you better cut him down, Chuck. The blood is going to his head."

Chuck pulled down on the pilot until he could reach the rope that had ensnared his foot. Chuck cut the rope and the pilot thudded to the ground. He bent down and pulled the man to his feet.

"I think you'd better start talking as my partners are a lot rougher on people than I am," Chuck warned him.

"We were told to kill you," the pilot quickly confessed. "I'm not sure who they are, but they have my wife and one of his kids." He had anticipated Chuck's next question.

"Lie face down and don't move!" Casey barked at the pilot. The man complied, with Chuck's help. Casey turned to his partners, "You two, come with me."

He turned away with Chuck and Sarah following. There were a good twenty feet away when Casey turned to his partners keeping an eye on the pilot. He pulled the sat phone from his pocket and called Beckman.

"General. We have a situation."

Beckman responded, "Understood. The extraction team has been given a go. You will have to take care of yourselves for a few hours."

"Thanks. I'll advise as possible." Chuck and Sarah were leaning in close enough to hear both sides of the conversation.

Casey looked at Sarah, "We are on our own for a while. I don't suspect everyone on board the Australian vessel, but I'm not taking any chances with the asset." Casey smiled when he said the word, 'asset'. "Or with you two!"

Chuck smiled back at Casey; he'd understood why he was making a distinction. "The island will protect us, but I think we should check out that chopper before either side gets here."

Casey stared at Chuck, startled at his command of the situation. "We're going to have a long debrief. I think I'm going to enjoy it."

Sarah slid Chuck's 9mm back into his pocket. She unloaded and checked the pilot's weapon. Satisfied, she stuffed it into her pocket.

"Let's get to the beach," Chuck suggested. He looked Casey in the eye, "You walk directly behind us. I don't want any more mishaps with our … traps."

"Lead the way," Casey urged.

Sarah was already helping the pilot to his feet and nudged him towards the garden.

Chuck took the lead, followed by the pilot and Sarah. Casey took their rear.

As they approached the exit from the jungle to the beach, Chuck stood to the side and waited as the pilot and Sarah passed. He raised an arm to Casey's chest and pointed to the ground. On both sides of the trail, there were numerous bamboo stakes driven into the ground. Two inches of sharpened bamboo were left above the surface of the ground and were covered with leaves. "Those will go right through the bottom of your boot."

Casey nodded. He was familiar with the technique from the jungles of Indonesia. How did Chuck know about this?

Chuck sensed his partner's question, "Research for 'Call of Duty'. I never got to use them in the game."

"You're going to have to show me that damn game when we get back home." Casey surprised himself with the response.

There were tears in Chuck's eyes. He mumbled, "Home. Ellie." He wiped his eyes, "John, any chance of going to Australia? I have something I need to do."

"Such as?"

"The crew on that C130 never had a chance. I'd like to talk to their families."

"Yeah. We can do that. Let's get off this rock first." That boy has done a lot of growing up.

Chuck smiled and turned to follow after Sarah. She was waiting for them, a hand holding the arm of the pilot.

"Casey, this is the last of the weapons from the chopper." Sarah was carrying an old style M16 and two gallon jugs filled with water.

"Why the water?"

Sarah laughed, "Sorry, we've gotten used to scavenging. It's automatic now." She put the jugs down and handed the gun to Casey, "Remember these?"

"Oh, man, do I ever. They were antiques when I started." He examined the gun then looked up at Sarah. "Where's Chuck?"

"He's in the chopper jury-rigging a little surprise, should we need it." She had an evil grin on her face.

Shaking his head, Casey replied, "Hopefully it won't come to that." He thought about the other surprises Chuck had come up with, "You guys had a rough time of it, huh?"

She looked at him, "Actually, no. Chuck makes it all look so easy." She brought her left hand up in front of her face and wiggled her fingers. "The first six weeks or so were tough on him. He won't admit it, but he saved my life. I had a broken arm and he pretty much did everything."

Casey just stared at her.

"Go ahead, say it."

He smirked, "Including knocking you up."

She rolled her eyes.

"Have you thought this ahead …" he saw a flicker in her eyes. She hadn't. He didn't think so. "… to when we get back?"

Sarah smiled, "My life with Chuck? Yes, every day." Her tone changed, almost daring to be challenged, "And I'm telling you this now. We're not going back to the way we were before." She let out an almost happy sigh, "And then there's the fact that I'm pregnant. It complicates things. I only told him this morning. And as much as it scares me to death, I'm going to do the best damn job I can as a mother."

"You're going to miss our life."

She bit her lip. There were doubts, but only as far as how good a mother she would be. "You're right. But this island changed me."

He thought back to his past, the life he gave up. "I didn't say it before, but I'll say it now, congratulations. I mean that." He looked down at the ground, a bit embarrassed, "I'll miss you."

Her eyes narrowed as she frowned, "I'm not going anywhere, Casey."

"What? Oh!" He looked back at her, "I only meant that I'll miss working with you on missions."

Chuck came sprinting out of the chopper towards Casey and Sarah. "We're all set." He had an arm pressed against his chest, overflowing with beef jerky. He had one unwrapped and held it out to Sarah, "I never cared for these things back home, but they sure taste good now." He stuffed several packets of the jerky into his pockets and did the same for Sarah.

"Chuck! Is that what I think it is?" Sarah stared at the package sticking out of Chuck's top front pocket, practically drooling.

He grinned at her, "Yeah! Dark chocolate. With coffee beans." He bent down to pick up the water jugs, "Let's go. We need to get the inland site secured."

He looked back up at John, "Sarah will take lead and I have the pilot. Stay behind me and make sure you walk where I walk."

He growled, but he had to respect Chuck. From what he'd seen so far, he was impressed and that said something. A full debrief had to wait. But it was like telling a kid he had to wait until tomorrow to open his presents.

Ten Weeks Ago

Mother provided well for her children.

Chuck and Sarah had more food than they needed and Chuck had started to experiment in his cooking by adding a variety of vegetables and herbs that were harvested from the abandoned garden. It just needed to be cleaned up a little, weeds removed and a few stakes for the tomato plants. The garden was also expanded and planted with the seeds from the produce they had taken. They'd even found a source of fresh water, thanks to the rats. And Chuck thanked the rats every day. But he did ask them, with a wink, not to scare Sarah again.

They'd even come across an old brick and mortar building. The roof had collapsed, but was easily cleared out. They had contemplated making it their home, but there was no urgency to the task since their beach front camp site seemed pleasant enough. And Chuck still held out hope of seeing a ship on the horizon that he could signal with a fire. He missed his friends and family.

Sarah wanted to go home as well, if only for Chuck's sake. But it just didn't matter as much to her. She was already home.

A conscious effort was made to vary their schedule from day to day. Otherwise, they knew, it could lead to complacency. They learned how the island breathed and were not afraid of it, but they respected it. They had to be their own doctors and a simple scratch could become deadly if not taken care of properly. Chuck was fairly certain that they had nothing to fear from outside intruders, but Sarah was unconvinced.

She felt duty bound to teach Chuck the basics of survival in her world; detection avoidance, escape, flight and to a degree, self defense. She was amazed at his speed and agility and how quickly he learned. Until her arm got better, she didn't want to risk an injury teaching any hand to hand techniques. But his handsy techniques delighted her.

And it amused her, that he had, on too many occasions, managed to trick her into make out sessions or out right love making when she was pre-occupied with teaching. Although, she would blame it on him even when she initiated it. It was because of his hair or his eyes or his smile or whatever…

But there was one constant in their lives.

No matter how Chuck went to sleep at night, by morning, he found himself wrapped around Sarah. He didn't remember doing it but he certainly didn't mind.

No matter how Chuck went to sleep at night, by morning, Sarah had succeeded in cocooning herself in her Chuck blanket. She usually remembered doing it.

That morning, they had slept later than usual. Chuck usually woke first and enjoyed Sarah's closeness before hitting the sand for a run. Today, he dawdled. He extricated himself with a few groans of displeasure from Sarah, rested on his elbow and engaged in his favorite pastime; sleeping Sarah watching. She called it staring. To-may-to, to-ma-toe. He leaned over a bit and kissed her shoulder. He decided he liked that and continued moving down her arm and kept going. By the time he was done, Sarah was awake and in no mood to move. She had an arm over her eyes and sported an idiotic grin. He was up and gone before she could object.

By the time he returned from his run and shopping for breakfast, Sarah had recovered and had gotten the fire started.

Chuck watched her as she checked the range of motion in her left arm. She'd been taking the sling off for a few hours every day for the past week.

His mind wandered as his focus shifted from Sarah.

He'd just lost at Hide'n'Seek. Yet again. And, he hadn't come close to winning. This time or ever. It was really a game of hunter and prey. He was always the prey and she always hunted him down. The object of the game was to get to their camp site from the other side of the island without being seen. The beach was off limits, as was running. She showed him how to back-track and leave false clues. But she always found him. He suspected it was his smell. Just like he could smell her behind him at times. Or the boar, 'Diane'.

The three of them had a somewhat uneasy peace. One morning, as Chuck was running along the shoreline, he had come across the boar with a piglet. He had already devised a plan to catch it for dinner by the time he had gotten back to their camp. Chuck told Sarah about the pig but she forbade it. Or more precisely told him that she would never eat it. And if he ever wanted to touch her again, he would leave Diane's baby alone.

Sarah sighed, "There hasn't been any pain in over a week and it seems to be fully healed, but it's just not quite right." What had started out as an embarrassingly, vulnerable situation for her, had become sweet moments between them. There was a grace to how he did it. Since she started taking off the sling, there was no reason for Chuck to take her to the bathroom. And she would miss it.

His mind focused back on Sarah. "Yeah, I remember my sister talking about a patient that had a broken leg. It's called atrophy. You haven't used it in a while so the muscle mass has shrunken a bit. We'll work on that."

She thought on that a moment and frowned. "I just hope it doesn't take too long. It feels like I'm favoring it." She gave her arm another stretch.

"A few extra portions at lunch and we'll fatten you up!" He sported an evil grin. Chuck thought she had a perfect form, but he loved the way her eyes narrowed when he suggested that she was too skinny.

And he was rewarded with that very look.

She half-heartedly pushed him away in mock anger as he tried to pull her closer. "Don't make me get a switch, Mr. Carmichael." His defensive training had progressed quite well as Sarah had to work at it to get even the occasional contact.

He released her from his embrace and took a step away, still holding her hand, "Ha! You might beat me, but, I still love you." He noticed her eyes make a quick dart from his, but they returned with a smile. She still had not said it. Why won't she say it? Is she having second thoughts? It was hard for him to push the thoughts from his mind.

Chuck pretended to stretch and took a step closer to Sarah. He gave her a quick shove and took off. It was only fair, she was constantly catching him off guard. He took off running down the shore in the dry sand and yelled over his shoulder, "Race you to the wharf. Loser gets spanked!"

"Chuck! You are so going to get it!" She was off balance for only a second, recovered and took off after him.

He slowed down as she pulled up alongside of him and matched her pace. In a wry twist of fate, there was one thing they found that Chuck excelled in over Sarah, running. He could run away really well.

He sensed her slowing down as they got near the wharf, "No, let's keep going. The oil drum."

They'd found an old, rusting oil drum on the beach about two miles down from their camp site. It was un-useable for anything else, so they left it to be used as a landmark.

She nodded and picked up the pace, but soon tired as her gait was uneven, she was favoring her left side. Damn, she thought. She slowed herself up to catch her breath as Chuck sped past.

Chuck slowed down and came back to her.

Sarah had their knife in her hand and held it out for him. "The closest tree." It was about thirty feet away.

He took the knife from her with his right hand and studied the tree. Standing with his right side to the tree, he brought his arm across his chest, point outwards in his hand and flew the knife out at the tree. The knife point hit the tree, seemed to hold for a second and then fell to the ground. He ran over to retrieve the knife.

"You snapped your wrist, Chuck. It comes from the arm, you know that. Clear you mind and let it fly. Don't throw it."

He nodded with a sheepish look on his face as he pulled up on his return. He took his stance and thought only of the tree, imagining the knife stuck in its side. He brought his arm across his chest again and flew the knife. It hit with a solid 'thunk' and stuck. He smiled and turned to face Sarah.

She surprised him with a gentle kiss. When she pulled away, she praised him, "Much better. Did you feel the difference?"

He smiled, "Yeah, I did. But you make it look so easy."

"You'll get the hang of it," she encouraged him as she rubbed her legs. "Mind working on this knot in my calf?"

He let out a slight laugh, but played along, "Your calf? Sure, which one?"

"Left."

Chuck motioned to the sand.

As she lay down, he smirked. Work on her calf and then a few other things, he thought.

He dropped to his knees by her feet. "Which calf was that, Sarah?"

Her face was turned to the water line and her eyes were closed. "Ummm, the right."

He bit his lip, stifling a laugh. For fun, he took her left leg in his hands and began working the muscles in her foot. She didn't correct him on the wrong right leg or the wrong body part. He'd get to them all eventually, but he was going to make her suffer. She twitched a bit as he rolled his fingers through her muscles. The skin was so soft and her muscles gave in easily as he worked his way higher. He took advantage of her lying flat to run his hand up the length of her leg. He couldn't help himself after being forced to look and not touch for almost a year. Her breathing got heavier, so she didn't seem to mind.

Each time he brought his hand upwards he would dip his hand a little further up into her skirt. He planned to catch a bit of that cute rear end of hers the next time. There was no way she wouldn't notice. His hand slid under the skirt and kept going, looking for the start of the material of her panties. His hand was holding a naked ass cheek when he stopped. He'd meant to make her gasp, but instead let out his own.

She let out a giggle, then stifled it. Spies don't giggle.

"Sarah! Commando? Since when?"

She snickered at him and rolled over. "Just this morning. After you woke me." She sat up on her elbows and laughed at Chuck. "And just so you know, that is now my favorite way to be awakened." Sarah coyly beckoned him closer with her finger, "I had to get back at you for running off before I could return the favor."

Chuck moved closer to her and let himself be dragged down to her lips. She kissed him and he forgot to breathe. Again. It was still a very common occurrence for him. He was panting, sucking in air when she allowed him to break. Six weeks. Six weeks and he still lost his mind when she kissed him like that. He didn't feel too embarrassed by it. It seemed, at times, that he'd have the same affect on her. Lord knows why.

Time for a little more shock and awe on Chuck, she thought with relish. Sarah pushed Chuck onto his back and brought a leg over his body, straddling him. She brought her lips to his ear and teased him.


A/N: See you next week!