Chapter 9
Casey was staring intently as Sarah. "You know that I really don't care what fulcrum does to Bryce, but Sarah you and Bryce…"
Sarah interrupted Casey before he could say anything further. "are finished! He knew what he was getting into. Chuck was thrown into this. We can't risk Chuck's life to save anyone, especially Bryce. He's the one that got Chuck into this in the first place." Casey smiled as he saw Sarah show the loyalty to Chuck that he was hoping to see. His reaction caused Sarah to become somewhat angry, "Is there something funny that I missed?"
"No, it is just good to see that you have finally figured some things out…now that we are on the same page I think I have idea of how we can get the pretty boy out of trouble without involving Chuck." Casey had a much more serious look on his face.
While Casey and Sarah were outside of Chuck's room, Ellie convinced Devon to take Morgan and Anna to the cafeteria to get something to eat. She had wanted some time to speak with her brother. She had done very well at maintaining her composure throughout the ordeal, but now wanted nothing more than to just be Chuck's sister. When it was finally just the two of them Ellie allowed her strong confident posture to relax as she sat on the bed next to Chuck.
"You really had me scared there little brother. I don't know what I would do without you." Tears filled her eyes as she spoke.
Chuck, who had always hated to see Ellie cry, leaned forward and took his sister into a loving embrace. "Come on Ellie, you know that the lack of blood flow to my brain really wouldn't hurt me." His attempt to lighten the mood worked slightly, though it was more the fact that he was sitting there smiling at Ellie than his joke that had helped Ellie relax.
"That is true," she laughed. "Besides these days you seem to have an awful lot to come back to."
"Ya, the Buy More would be lost without me." The sarcasm in Chuck's voice was apparent. Chuck had always been hurt by the fact that he had done so much good for the last year and was not able to share it with the only person whose opinion of him had ever mattered. This had caused him to feel very self conscious about his so called real-life and how little he had accomplished in it.
"Well thanks a lot I guess all the people that refused to leave your side don't count then." Ellie was still playful but there was obvious hurt in her voice as well.
"I'm sorry Ellie I didn't mean to hurt your feelings, I really appreciate you guys being her for me. I know that I have the best sister and friends in the world." Chuck said sincerely.
"Aren't you forgetting someone?" Ellie asked. "You know, your girlfriend."
"Oh ya…I know I am lucky." His voice was unable to hide the confusion he felt about Sarah.
"What is wrong with you? She is great and after the way she has been there for you the last few days, I can't believe you are still unsure how she feels about you."
"Ellie, she is hard to read sometimes. You just don't understand the whole story."
"Chuck I may not know the whole story, which I would love to hear sometime by the way, but I know the way she looks at you. I know the way she refused to leave your side even in the car on the way to the hospital, and I know the way she cried when we thought we might lose you. I don't know what all she is feeling, but I can tell you one thing she feels, and that's love."
Chuck knew that Ellie had always liked Sarah and this was definitely not the first time that she had tried to convince Chuck about Sarah's feelings. He wanted to listen, and after the conversation that he and Sarah had started just a few hours earlier he was feeling a little more hopeful. He just couldn't help but fear that he was going to be hurt again.
The door to Chuck's room slowly opened as Sarah peaked her head in. "Is it okay for me to come in?"
"Speak of the devil. We were just talking about you," Ellie laughed as she stood and walked toward the door. "Come in. I think you guys may need a minute." Before Ellie left, Chuck saw her posture change. She was standing taller and had reassumed the authoritative look on her face that Chuck knew was her doctor face. "I will be back to check on you soon. I am going to go check when you are scheduled for your procedure. She held the door for Sarah and then closed it behind her as she left.
Sarah smiled and walked towards Chuck's bed. She walked past the chair at his side that she had been in for countless hours and moved to his bed and sat down taking his hand. "So Chuck what were you saying about me?" She had slowly started rubbing the back of his hand with her thumb.
Chuck was smiling both at her and at Ellie through the window. "Oh, nothing really, just trying to decide which of bond girl you most remind us of." Chuck smiled as he lied.
"Really Chuck, what are you smiling at?" Sarah pleaded, curiosity getting the better of her.
I guess I never realized how similar you and Ellie are. She is no super spy pretending to be the slushy serving girlfriend of the head of the nerd herd, but she leads two lives too."
Sarah was intrigued with where Chuck was taking this. "Go on."
"Well she is so warm and caring at home, and even though she is very caring with her patients, she hides her emotions so differently when she is Dr. Bartowski…" Sarah had started to pull away from Chuck stopping him in mid thought. He tightened his grip on her hand and pulled her back towards him. "She does so because she needs to protect her patients." Chuck paused because he both wanted Sarah to understand what he was saying, and because he was afraid to continue. "Sarah I know that you have been trying so hard to show that you really do care about me. I think I am just now beginning to see that I may not have been the only one going through a rough time. Sarah what I am trying to say is that I…"
Sarah leaned in and kissed him as she realized what Chuck was saying.
Chuck fell deeply into the kiss, and as Sarah finally pulled away he chuckled. "Though I love the kissing, we may have to work on some other form of communication."
"I just wanted to stop you. You have always been the one that was free with his feelings. I want to go first this time." Sarah took a few moments before she could continue. Chuck was very patient, after all he was about to hear what he had wanted to hear for over a year. "Chuck I may not always, or even ever, know the right thing to say, but I need you to understand that I have never in my life felt about anyone the way I do you. The last few days, feeling like I had missed my chance with you, and then almost losing you completely were the worst days of my life…Chuck I love you." Sarah was looking down at their entwined hands. Putting her feelings into words was incredibly difficult for her and Chuck knew so. She had never put herself out there like this before. She was filled with excitement that she had finally been able to say these words to Chuck, as well as fear that she was going to be rejected.
"So what you are saying is if I would have played hard to get then nearly died a year ago, you would have come around a lot sooner." The joy that Chuck felt was indescribable. He felt like his heart was going to leap straight out of his chest. Sarah looked up at him with a smile on her face. Though she was still anxiously waiting for him to say something more, she could hear the joy in his voice. She merely slapped him on the arm and let him continue. "Sarah I love you more than any man has ever loved a woman in the history of the world, and I have since the day I met you. I have wanted to hear you say this to me for so long, and now that you have I have to say…It is about time."
Sarah acted like she was going to slap Chuck again causing him to raise his hands to defend himself. When he did this Sarah instead threw her arms around him and kissed him. The kiss was deep and passionate. It was not as hurried or desperate as their first kiss on the docks, but it was filled with love and emotion. It was by far the greatest kiss that either Sarah or Chuck had ever experienced. When the kiss ended Sarah was breathless and Chuck was light-headed. Sarah looked very concerned as Chuck reached up and grabbed his forehead.
Seeing the concern on Sarah's face Chuck smiled and reassured her, "No leaky blood vessels or anything, just a little dizzy after having a year's worth of build-up finally pay off. I don't think I would have been ready for that even before our run-in with good ole Billy Wave." Chuck's smile had faded a small amount at the mention of Billy's name.
"Chuck, I know that Billy's death must be hard on you. If you want to talk about it I am here." Sarah slowly rubbed Chuck's cheek as he deflected his eyes down to the bed.
"I finally get you to tell me you love me and I have to go and ruin the moment by bringing up a dead bad guy." Chuck said with disgust.
"Hey, if anyone knows what you are going through it would be me. And besides, it is the job of a real girlfriend to be there when things get rough." Sarah couldn't help but smile when she referred to herself as Chuck's girlfriend. Even though she had been doing so on and off for the past year, it felt so different now. Chuck had not missed the importance of the moment either, as he looked up and managed a half smile.
"Ever since the first time I witnessed you and Casey shoot a bad guy I had always wondered what it would be like to have to shoot someone, what would I feel? It is nothing like I thought. I mean it all kind of feels like a dream. Because of the drugs it is all kind of fuzzy and I can't remember everything, but I can't get him out of my head. I keep seeing his face and then seeing him drop to the sand."
"Chuck you did what you had to do. You saved both Casey's and my life."
"I know, and I think if I were in a situation where someone was going to hurt you I would probably do the same thing, high on drugs or not, but I hate knowing that I killed someone. What if there was someone out there that didn't know what he did and they loved him."
"Chuck…I know what you are feeling and no matter what I say this is something we are going to have to work out for a little while. But I want you to focus on the positives. You directly saved the lives of two people and probably thousands more indirectly by taking him and his drugs off the street. You can drive yourself crazy with this, if you allow yourself. I have seen it happen."
Her words had meant a lot to Chuck, and he was starting to feel at least a little better about the situation. There was just one more thing that he needed to say. "I know this may sound stupid but I don't want you to look at me differently," Chuck was able to vocalize one the things that worried him the most after shooting Billy.
Sarah smiled at Chuck, "Chuck I am going to see you a little differently. You did something that was difficult for me to do even after the best training the CIA could offer.
You went above and beyond anything anyone ever could have ever asked you to just to protect me. I look at you and still see the sweet innocent man that I fell for, but I also see my hero, the man that would do anything to keep me safe."
Chuck looked at Sarah with love in his eyes, "I thought you never knew the right thing to say?"
"I guess I'm going to get used to this girlfriend thing faster than I thought," she answered with a smile. She then looked over at the window to see Morgan pressing his forehead against the glass. I think there are some others that want to come back in." As she started to stand up Chuck pulled her hand one more time.
"Like I said, I don't really remember everything that happened at the beach, but there was one other thing I need to ask you about." Chuck was hesitant as he spoke. Sarah thought she knew what he was about to ask but let him squirm a little before he continued. "I kind of remember saying some thing to you before you hit me, but I can't remember what I said."
Sara leaned in and kissed him on the cheek and then whispered in his ear. "You did say some thing and I do plan on making you pay for it, but not tonight." She pulled away with a sinister smile on her face and walked towards the door.
Chuck was mumbling as he thought out loud as something came to him. "Did it have anything to do with a pimp?"
Sarah turned and chuckled, "Like I said you will pay, but not tonight."
Sarah opened the door allowing Morgan to run into the room. She waited outside to speak to Casey.
"Did you tell him what is going on?" Casey asked pointing towards Chuck.
"I couldn't, not yet at least. We won't be able to move ahead with the plan for a little while anyway. We can tell him when we have to. Until then, we let him rest," Sarah was expression was very sad as she replied.
Let me know what you think. Thanks for the reviews.
To be continued in the next episode. Chuck vs The Fatal Flash?
