A/N: I hope this is keeping most of you entertained. It is very introspective and those of you who like action may find this boring. With only one character I can understand if you do. I would really like to hear from you if you do find it boring. It will tell me a lot. Of course I would like to hear from you if you enjoyed it too.

I would like to know that if you read and don't review...does that mean you don't like the story? Are you lukewarm about the story" So I'm asking for information. If you like the story...let me know. If you don't like the story...let me know. I would appreciate it.

OK, I received a review that told me I've got unnecessary details in this chapter. I've reread and don't know if I agree. I would like to hear from you. Have I slowed the story down with unnecessary details??? Let me know.

LeeCan

Chapter Seven

Sarah awoke early. She thought briefly about last night. But as she got out of bed and put her feet on the floor, she began to think about the future and the promise of hope that it brought. It was unconscious on her part but she had made a distinction between the certain despair of the past and the promise of hope for the future. Bryce was the past and although she would never forget him she needed to concentrate on the future. Concentrate on why she was here. Chuck.

She had not seen him yet. In fact she didn't even know why she was certain that he was here. She was going on the word of Yuri Karlanov and that was risky at best but then there was the general's reaction to her being in Cedar. But even that could have been an act to throw her off.

And yet she didn't worry about any of it. She knew. She knew that Chuck was here and if he needed her she would be here too.

As she stepped out of the shower, she checked the time. I've got time for breakfast, she thought. She put her makeup on and brushed her hair before putting on her clothes. That's when she thought about the time that she and Chuck went into the shower together in just their underwear. She knew that he had noticed her because she had caught him looking at her. She smiled at the memory of seeing his expression when he realized that he had been caught. What he didn't know is that she had checked him out as well. She was just better at covert observation.

She wondered briefly what it would be like if Chuck was here with her now. Her imagination took over as she saw him walk up behind her and drape his arms around her shoulders just above her breasts. He kissed her neck once and then again.

Sarah actually turned her head to the side to allow him better access to her neck. She still had an expression of delight on her face as she looked back to the mirror.

She knew that she was beautiful. She had had too many men not only tell her that for years, but they acted like fools in her presence. It reinforced in her over time that she was indeed beautiful.

But she had never felt beautiful inside…at least not until Chuck. She didn't know what it was that he did to her but somehow when she was with him she felt as beautiful as apparently other men saw her to be.

She regarded her naked form in the mirror and thought back to her imaginary Chuck kissing her neck. God, if you're real…make that a reality. I've never asked you for anything but please. I want this more than anything I've ever wanted… I've ever known. She focused back to the mirror. She saw the tears in her eyes. She quickly wiped them away so they would not ruin her makeup. For some reason that brought her back to reality and she put her yearnings behind her and began to focus on her day.

She ate the continental breakfast provided by the hotel. A continental breakfast is a continental breakfast, she thought. Scrambled eggs, sausage and toast with jelly got her started. While eating her breakfast, she noticed three businessmen looking at her.

One of them actually came to her table and asked if she was free tonight. She made a point of looking at his wedding ring.

Meeting his eyes she responded. "I don't find cheats particularly attractive." Sarah watch the man slink away after giving her an apologetic smile that seemed to say, it doesn't hurt to try.

She stood and walk out of the dining area knowing that most men were watching her leave. As she stepped out of the hotel, she was greeted by sub freezing temperatures. The wind whipped about her like a cyclone. Wrapping her coat around her tightly, she walked to her car and drove back to the house for sale across from where she believed Chuck was staying.

As she pulled into the driveway, she scrutinized Chuck's house closely in the rearview mirror. She saw that the blinds were open now. But she saw no activity or movement inside.

She knew the chance of Chuck recognizing her with short black hair was remote although if Casey was there he would be more likely to see through her disguise. She waited until the real estate agent drove up before getting out of the car.

When he did she quickly went into her happy housewife act. She had told him that her husband had been transferred here and that she was on a house hunting trip.

He greeted her enthusiastically and they went into the house.

"There are new hardwoods throughout the house, except for the kitchen and the bathrooms which all have ceramic tile," he said.

"It's very nice," Sarah said as she walked into the kitchen pretending to be interested in the house. "I love the cabinets," she said and walked into the living room which had the best view of the house across the street. She walked up to the large picture window in the front. "I just love the view." She looked at the large window in the house across from her and saw someone walk across her line of vision. She wasn't sure but she thought she recognized Chuck. She waited hoping to see more of him but stood for as long as she dared before moving on to the rest of the house.

After making their way throughout the house, the real estate agent finally made his play. "This house hasn't been on the market that long. I doubt if it will be around for much longer."

"Oh really, the MLS says it's been on the market for eight months. The price has dropped five times."

"Ah, yeah, I guess I was thinking of another house," he said not able to meet her gaze.

"Look, I'm not ready to buy a house yet. And especially not at this price," she said as she walked towards the door.

"Would you be interested in renting it?"

Sarah turned around and regarded the man with raised eyebrows.

"I mean I just found out today that the owners need some additional cash flow while they pay on two mortgages. They are willing to rent it by the month."

Sarah began to smile broadly. "How much?"

"Twelve hundred the first months and nine hundred a month afterwards."

Sarah knew that she had over two hundred thousand to work with. "I'll take it. But only if I can move in today."

"No problem. If I can get a check from you I will get the keys."

"Great, when can we make the exchange?" She winced internally realizing that she sounded like she was exchanging secret documents and not real estate papers.

"Drop by my office around lunch, maybe we could go out for a bite to eat?"

Sarah looked at him for a moment. She did not like what she saw. "Are you asking me out on a date?"

"No no, nothing like that."

"Then what is it like?"

Jim Bowman saw that he was going nowhere. "I'm sorry. It's just that I thought it was worth a shot."

Sarah adopted a much haughtier attitude as she walked over to the large window and looked across the street. "You don't have a clue about the kind of man that interests me," she said absent mindedly.

Finally, she turned toward him. "Just be at your office at noon. I'll drop by then to give you the check." She went to the door and waited for him to follow. They left the house without another word.

She waited in the car for him to leave. His car was parked behind her. She then noticed the two men parked at the same spot they had been yesterday. She dug into her purse and found the object she was interested in. Pulling it out, she looked back to see where Jim Bowman was. She looked up just in time to see his car go around the corner and out of sight.

She took a deep breath and quickly glanced at the house across the street. Not seeing anyone, she got out of the car and pretended to look around the outside of the house. After putting on the show for a few minutes, she noticed the men sitting in the car and waived at them in her best girlish waive.

After another second, she walked toward the car.

The two men watched her approach with expressionless faces. When she stood beside the car, she pecked on the window with her car keys.

The driver of the car lowered the window and then looked at Sarah and tried to act like he belonged to the neighborhood.

"Hello again," he said trying to sound friendly.

"Hi, I'm thinking about buying that house right there." She pointed in her cutest manner to the house across from their target. "And I was wondering if you could tell me if this is a safe neighborhood?" She leaned over giving both men a healthy view of her cleavage.

The two men glanced at each other and then back to the cleavage. "Yeah, it's very ample, I mean safe," the driver said still looking at her breasts.

"Hey, what are you guys doing out here still?"

"Where waiting on our buddy," the driver said nervously.

"Oh, he sure keeps you waiting a lot," she said in her best dumb blonde voice. She made sure that the two men saw her drop her purse. "Opps," she said as she bent down to pick it up. As she did, she attached the homing device to the underneath side of the car.

"Well I guess I'll see you guys around," she said and then turned around to go back to her car.

The two men in the car watched her walk away with interest. Even under the heavy coat she wore, the alluring sway of the female form could be ascertained with ease.

When Sarah made it back to her car she stole a look at the two spooks. She was satisfied that her exaggerated walk had worked its magic. The windshield of their car had steamed up to the point that they were wiping it with a handkerchief.

She was still smiling as she got into her car. She looked into her mirror again at Chuck's house but left without seeing anyone. She drove back to the hotel knowing that the thirty mile range of the transmitter she attached to the spook's car should give her plenty of leeway.

She had two and a half hours to kill before meeting Jim Bowman for the keys to the house. She made a quick trip to the bank to set up an account so she could write a check. And with almost two hours to spare, she walked into her hotel room while keeping a vigilant eye on the tracking device for the two men in the car.

The key exchange went without a hitch and by two o'clock and after making arrangements for a bed to be delivered to her new abode, she checked out of the hotel and walked into the house. She pretended not to notice the two men still sitting in the car down the block.

She had taken a phone book from the HiVee on Collins and went about finding delivery and take-out food establishments. Sarah Walker did not cook.

Just before five o'clock the bed was delivered and her sweet smile persuaded the deliverymen to set it up for her. After they finished, she asked if she could pay them for their help. The repeatedly refused her offer as they oafishly stumbled out the door grinning like morons.

As Sarah closed the door, she wondered why she found the same goofy behavior in Chuck delightful but with these two it was sad. What is it about Chuck Bartowski that had captured her heart in such a way that she now felt helpless until she knew one way or the other how he felt.

As she leaned against the door, her mind drifted off to that moment in the future when she would stand face to face with him and tell him how she felt. She would ask him if he felt the same. She imagined how her heart would wait, not daring to beat until he said yes…or no.

She thought of how she would feel if he said yes. She smiled as she thought about them embracing and finally how they would kiss. A real kiss. A kiss that said what she wanted it to say.

And then that happy thought was gone only to find that she was standing before him having just said that she was in love with him. And now she waited. Waited for his response. And this time instead of her heart singing, it sank in despair.

He needed a normal life and that- she couldn't give him. She actually felt her heart breaking as she imagined this possibility of her quest to find Chuck.

It hurt so much that it almost made her want to pack her bags and leave for Washington.

Almost.

Before she had met Chuck that is exactly what she would have done in this circumstance. But not now. She had decided when she had lost him that one way or the other she was going to ask him that question and she was going to deal with his answer. No matter what that answered turned out to be. Sarah Walker took a deep breath and went to order pizza.

X-X

After she ate, she noticed that someone pulled the curtains before they turned on the lights. She had the lights off everywhere except in the bedroom upstairs. She noticed the front porch lights came on just minutes before a car pulled into the drive.

Sarah went on high alert when she saw the dark haired woman step out of the car. She watched as the woman signaled the men who were still watching the house from down the block. She watched the car move past her house and turn out of the neighborhood.

Immediately, her tracking device started singing an alert that the car was on the move. Sarah rushed to get her coat and then left the house to follow the men to find out where they went.

She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw the outline of a man and a woman kissing in front of the large window in the front of the house. She watched without breathing as she saw the passion of the kiss. She could not tell who it was kissing on the other side of the curtains but in her heart she was sure it was Chuck.

The agent in her told her she had to follow the men. That was the professional protocol to follow. But Sarah the woman found it difficult to leave knowing that the man she loved was inside that house with a known Fulcrum Agent.

She finally went to the car, got inside, started it and drove away after letting it idle for a second. She was within a couple of miles from the two men. She decided that she didn't need to get any closer than she now was. After watching the signal for ten minutes, the car stopped.

It was now just a matter of following the signal until she found the car. She did so after another ten minutes. The car sat in the parking lot of the Five Seasons hotel in downtown Cedar Rapids. It was the largest hotel in the downtown area.

She left the parking lot immediately and drove back to her new house so she could keep an eye on Chuck. She would have to find out what room the two men where in tomorrow.

Sarah Walker had done this many times. She knew the routine. She knew just what had to be done and what sequence that they needed to be done in. She knew that trying to hurry the process is how you get caught. Or the difference between success and failure. She was not going to fail this time. Too much was at stake.

Back in her driveway, she hurried into her house. She turned the lights on but deliberately walked upstairs and then turned the lights off. She then snuck back down so she could keep an eye on Chuck's house.

She hoped that she would see the two figures in the window and she hoped that she would not. She was disappointed.

The lights turned off the minute she got set up and they did not come back on the rest of the night.

Sarah had a decision to make. Did she stay up and document the movements or lack thereof here and risk losing something later when she had to sleep. Or did she sleep now and risk missing something in the night.

Sarah decided that she would do both. Stay up through the night and then for most of the morning. She would catch a couple of hours of sleep tomorrow afternoon before beating the two spooks to their hotel.

Sarah's instincts were usually right and this was no exception. At five o'clock the next morning, the front porch light came on and for the first time she was certain that she was looking at the man she had fallen in love with. Chuck Bartowski stood on the front porch in his pajamas as he went to get the newspaper. Sarah's jaw just about hit the floor when she saw Amanda Irving step out as well, fully dressed. The hair on the back of her neck stood up as she realized the danger Chuck was in.

Those same hairs were singed to the skin when she saw Amanda walk past Chuck towards her car when he grabbed her roughly by the arm pulling her back to him and into a passionate kiss.

His smile at her was seared into Sarah's brain as he waived goodbye. That's my smile, she thought as she watched.

She watched the woman get into her car and leave. She watched Chuck waive goodbye. For the first time in her career as a CIA agent, Sarah Walker was unsure how to proceed.

She decided that she would go upstairs and catch a few hours of sleep.

Sarah Walker found sleep very difficult to come by. Tears, however, could be purchased by the gallon.