Sarah vs. the Normal Life—Chapter 3
~Disclaimer: Chuck belongs to NBC and Warner Bros., not me. If it is for sale, please let me know so I can buy it. However, until then, I make no money from this. Please don't sue me!~
"Chuuck," Sarah moaned as rays of light sliced through the tiny opening in the curtains of the hotel room. "Make it stop," she said, swatting the dust particles floating in the beam lazily with her arm. After a few seconds of Chuck continuing to snore, blissfully unaware of the slightly blinded, tired and bleary eyed Sarah currently resting her head on his chest, she groaned and buried her head in his chest; trying to block out the light. "Chuuck," she repeated as he instinctively tightened his arms around her. "Chuck, wake up."
"Huh?" The very Casey-esque grunt came as Chuck finally opened his eyes, only to slam them shut again as the light burned into his retina. "God. Why is the window open?"
"Switch it off," Sarah mumbled into his chest as Chuck gently rolled out of the bed and stumbled over to the window, pulling the curtains closed so that the only light that illuminated the room was the soft glow that managed to diffuse through the thick fabric. "Now come back to bed. I need my pillow." Chuck laughed as he made his way back to the bed and wrapped Sarah up in his arms.
"Good morning beautiful," he said as he leaned in to kiss her.
"Good morning Mr Bartowski," she replied, laughing, "and little Mr Bartowski?" she added, cocking an eyebrow as her hand began to wander and she pulled him down under the duvet.
Sarah sighed contentedly as she sat on the edge of the soft bed, watching Chuck trying to pull his jeans on. The phone had rung just as they were finishing their impromptu session, once again reminding Sarah that, although she loved Ellie, she really needed to work on her timing. Then again, their 'impromptu sessions' tended to last a surprisingly long time, with this not being an exception. Having woken up at 8am, when the Sun was at just the right angle to blind her, they had gone on until eleven, when Ellie rang. It was a short session. She paused when Chuck had finally managed to get dressed, and sauntered over to her, reaching out with his hands; grabbing them, she pulled herself up and kissed him lightly on the cheek. "I think Ellie misses us," Sarah said with an amused smile, looking over at the five new messages on Chuck's phone.
"Hmm, I suppose we could actually check out of a hotel room on time for once."
"I suppose," she replied, with an adorable faux dejected pout.
|CHUCK|
"I see you made up?" were the first words out of Ellie's mouth when she opened the door to find Chuck with his arms draped over Sarah's shoulders, and her head resting on his upper arm.
"Yep," Chuck replied, nodding contentedly and squeezing Sarah's shoulders.
"Okay," Ellie replied, sounding confusingly unhappy. Maybe not unhappy, but definitely not the ecstatic squealing Chuck was expecting. "Devon, why don't you get Sarah a drink," she called over her shoulder, before turning back to face them. "Chuck. I need you to take some stuff from your room."
Ellie turned on her heel, leaving Chuck to tag along timidly behind her, reluctantly letting go of Sarah who, equally confused, stepped unsurely over to a bemused Devon who knew better than to interfere with Ellie's 'mother mode'. Chuck ambled into his old room—which was exactly how he had left it, his old record player still on the stool next to his now-bare desk—and shut the door behind him. "So, what do you want me to get rid of?" he asked, the ghost of a smile on his face as he tried to live in hope that that was the only reason (or even part of the reason) Ellie had dragged him in here.
She just raised an eyebrow. "What the hell was that Chuck?"
"What? I just wanted to know—"
"Not that!" Ellie waved a dismissive hand at Chuck. "Yesterday. One mention of marriage and all hell breaks loose!"
"I told you not to bring it up, Sis…"
"Chuck. What happened?"
"I don't really—"
"Chuck."
"Ellie, I really don't—"
"Chuck," she repeated a little more forcefully.
"Sis. I don't—"
"Charles Irving Bartowski! You will tell me what the hell happened or, so help me God, I will get John Casey in here to beat it out of you."
Chuck sighed, and flinched when Ellie narrowed her eyes at him, before he decided that he might as well get it over with. "Well, she heard me say the stuff, about marriage, and she was upset."
Ellie just gave him a "well, duh," look.
"And then she said she had spoken to Morgan behind my back… and I guess I kind of lost it."
"Why, Chuck?"
"I don't know—"
"Let me finish Chuck." Chuck looked at the floor, and Ellie watched him impassively for a moment. "Why did that bother you so much? I know my little brother, he doesn't yell for anything."
"I don't know," he began cautiously as Ellie watched him, her eyes filled with… worry? "I think, I guess, it's just that—"
"Chuck."
"It's just my insecurities Ellie. You know what I'm like, especially with someone like Sarah."
"Someone like Sarah?"
"You know… angel-like," he waved his arms out in front him to exaggerate his point by drawing a vase shape.
Ellie just rolled her eyes, and finally broke out into a small smile at the nerdy comment that only Chuck could make sound sweet. "Okay. But Chuck, you can't keep all this bottled up. You and Sarah have to talk about this stuff; you can't keep having these huge arguments and then making up within moments of seeing each other. It's not healthy."
Chuck looked dejectedly at his desk, and sighed. "I know, I know. I'm just scared of bringing it up, you know. There's a whole Pandora's box of stuff that happened between us, and we kind of have a silent agreement to not ever talk about it."
"That's exactly my point Chuck. You, and Sarah, you both can't keep this stuff bottled up. And I've seen you two together for three, nearly four years now; having this conversation is not going to break you apart. I'm fairly sure that there's a law of Physics against that; the fact you went through all that 'Pandora's box' of stuff it testament to it. But if you don't have it, it'll always be at the back of your minds."
"Yea, yea I know," he sighed again, but nodded as he spoke. "I'll talk to her when we go back to Washington tomorrow."
Ellie smiled and reached out her arms, hugging Chuck. "Aces, Charles. Remember it, Chuck."
"Thanks Sis," he replied, pulling back from the hug as Devon knocked on the door.
"El, do you want me to fix something for lunch?"
Chuck looked at Ellie in horror at the thought of Devon cooking lunch, and gave Ellie a silent plea to save them all from some kind of exotic protein shake pie. Ellie laughed, and walked over to the door, swinging it open. "No, it's fine Devon. I've got it."
Chuck followed Ellie out of the room, and found Sarah on the couch with a drink her hand, and her legs tucked underneath her as she leaned on the armrest and turned her head to throw a smile at Chuck. He wandered aimlessly over to her and sat down, wrapping his arms around her and curling up into a ball with her in his lap. "I love you," he whispered quietly in her ear.
She looked up at him with a bemused expression on her face. "I love you too. What's brought this on?"
"Do I need a reason?"
"Nope," she replied, smiling and resting her head back on his arm. After a moment, she looked at him again, "What did Ellie want?"
"Just about yesterday," Chuck replied, trying to avoid going into details. There would be plenty of time to talk about that in D.C.
Sarah raised an eyebrow. "That's all?"
"She just wanted to make sure we're okay," he said with a smile.
"And what did you tell her?"
"That we're okay," Chuck looked into her eyes as he said it, before wrapped her up in his arms again, and turning to watch the news that was currently playing on the TV when he heard the mention of 'London' and 'MI6'.
"We don't know why an entire district of London was sealed off for five hours last week, but we do know that the press was not allowed into the Vauxhall area of London, where the MI6—England's equivalent of the CIA—is located, for the remainder of the day," the news report came out through the new plasma screen that Devon had bought (earning a big sale at the new Buy More for an ecstatic Morgan Grimes, Assistant Manager), and the image of the overly made-up, hair-sprayed-until-it-looked-like-a-sculpture news anchor was replaced with a Google Maps shot of London.
Chuck turned to look at Sarah, who burst out laughing when she saw the look of shock on his face. "Now you know why I don't watch the news, Chuck."
"I'm guessing that that had something to do with your 'trip' to London?" Ellie's voice came accompanied with a large plate of sandwiches.
"Uh, yea. It was—"
Ellie threw up her hands. "I don't want to know. Just stay safe."
|CHUCK|
"Chuck!" Morgan's voice came from the corridor running past the kitchen towards the bedrooms of the apartment just as Chuck was finishing the last sandwich.
"Morgan! Why can't use use the door like a normal person?" Ellie replied as she made her way over to the front door. "Chuck, I've got to go, code orange. There's a jackknifed truck on the Interstate."
Morgan just ignored her and carried on babbling. "He's gonna kill me Chuck! What am I gonna do? Have you seen him when he growls?"
"Morgan," Chuck said, trying to get him to calm down. "What's wrong?"
"Casey, Chuck!"
Chuck just looked at him with a confused expression, and began to untangle himself from Sarah, who pouted. "Sorry, you know how Morgan is…" Chuck replied, kissing her quickly and making his way over to the kitchen, where Morgan had begun to go through the fridge. "What about Casey, Morgan?"
"He's here!"
"Yea, I know. We all got time off."
"With Alex!"
"Alex?"
"Casey's daughter, Alex."
"So—oh," Chuck replied, realisation dawning as he elided the two words together.
"She wants me to go over. Tonight. For a date. With him," he said each phrase separately, as if he was just realising what he had gotten himself into as he was speaking the words.
"Morgan, calm down."
"Calm down? Chuck!"
"Morgan," Chuck replied firmly, waving Sarah over with his right hand. She would probably be helpful in a matter regarding Casey. "Casey is not going to kill you."
"What's up, Chuck?" Sarah asked, once she had made her way into the kitchen and perched herself on the worktop.
"Morgan has a date with his new girlfriend."
Sarah raised an eyebrow when Chuck said 'girlfriend'. "So?"
"His new girlfriend is Casey's daughter. And Casey is here to visit her."
Sarah smirked, hearing this.
"What, what what what?" Morgan babbled when he saw the look on her face.
"Nothing," Sarah replied, a mischievous smirk playing on her face.
"Chuck, your girlfriend's mean," Morgan whined, turning back to Chuck, who had moved over to the worktop so he could wrap his arm around Sarah.
"Don't be mean Sarah," Chuck said with faux seriousness as he leaned over to kiss her cheek.
"Sorry," she replied, before turning back to Morgan. "Casey will test you, to see if he thinks you're worthy. If you pass, you'll be fine, if you don't…"
"Just, make sure you pass," Chuck interrupted quickly, when he noticed a playful smirk reappear on Sarah's face.
"What, pass? How do I pass? I can't shoot, or fight or—"
"Morgan," Sarah said, breaking off his blubbering. "Just show Casey that you aren't out for a fling with his daughter."
"Oh, oh. Okay. I can do that," Morgan replied, nodding his head. "Should I get flowers for her?"
Chuck laughed. "Yes. Yes, you probably should, Morgan."
|CHUCK|
"Morgan. Has a girlfriend," Sarah repeated for the third or fourth time since he had left to go and buy flowers, and clothes (Sarah's orders), for Alex. "Nope. It still doesn't sound right."
"You know, three years ago, neither of us would have believed that in three years time we would have non-dead-end jobs and beautiful girlfriends."
Sarah smiled at him. "You just got what you deserve Chuck."
"I got way more," he countered.
"So did I," she said, just as her phone buzzed in her pocket. She pulled it out, and grimaced when she saw the screen. "It's Beckman."
"What does she want?"
"She said to 'make sure we're decent'," Sarah replied with an amused grin. "She sounds just like Casey."
"Why would she—" his frowning question was cut off by the clicking, buzzing and beeping of the TV screen, as it switched itself on and an image of Beckman appeared on the screen.
"Chuck, Sarah," she acknowledged them with a nod. "I have some news."
"About what, General?"
"I've just come out of a rather lengthy discussion with the chief of the SIS. He wanted to know how two American spies seemed to have more intelligence on his staff than he did."
Chuck and Sarah shared a worried look with each other. They had been hoping the SIS wouldn't notice that.
"Exactly," Beckman said in response to their tense silence. "He contacted me, and we do have an intelligence shared agreement with the British; so I made a deal."
"What kind of deal, exactly, General?" Chuck asked.
"I read them in on the revived Project Omaha, and in exchange, they add their intel to the Intersect 3.0, and they give us the unredacted copy of that file you need, Chuck."
"You got the file?" Chuck asked excitedly, knowing that this would be—could be, he corrected; he still didn't know what was on the file—a huge breakthrough for him.
"Yes. And you will know be collaborating with the SIS and GCHQ in the development of the 3.0. Your British contact is Agent Barker. I believe you already know him?"
"Yes ma'am," Chuck and Sarah replied in unison.
"Good. That will be all. The file will be waiting on your desk when you get back tomorrow, Chuck." With that, the line disconnected and the screen returned to a dull grey colour that seemed to substitute for black on most TVs.
Chuck turned to Sarah with a smile on his face. "So, I'll be working with Cole…"
"Are you okay with that, Chuck?" she asked with a hint of worry. "I know we've had a bit of a rocky past there."
"It's fine, Sarah. I do like the guy, even if he is a bit of a James Bond," he wiggled his eyebrows as he said it.
"Yea," Sarah said, drawing out the word. "But I didn't fall in love with James Bond."
~"The course of true love never did run smooth." ―A Midsummer Night's Dream A1S1, William Shakespeare~
Sorry for the recently erratic updates, I had my AS Level exams (I know, who knew they needed work, right?). Now that they are over, I'll try to keep a better schedule.
[1] Code orange is code for a "mass casualty incident" in a fair few hospitals, according to Wikipedia.
Next time on Best Laid Plans:
Chuck didn't really know why the CIA wanted their agents to be dressed in a black suit, with a black tie, and black sunglasses; to him, the get up screamed 'Secret Agent', there wasn't really anything inconspicuous about it. Still, he mused as he paused at the door to the house and Sarah reached out to knock, it gave him the air of authority he would be needed to search the place. The door swung open at Sarah's knock, revealing a pretty brunette with wide brown eyes, whose flirtatious smile dropped when she saw the man standing at her door.
"Chuck?"
Chuck's jaw had dropped into a small O when the door was opened, and had remained there since then. Composing himself, he managed to splutter, "H― Hannah?"
