Just three main things to address so far that has been highlighted by reviews throughout the last few chapters:

One thing about Morgan that I've already covered in the story and why he's not very hostile towards Sarah is that in the fourth chapter Morgan was angry as he realized who Sarah was, but when Sarah ran off crying, Morgan obviously sensed that there was more about Sarah than Chuck had obviously told him over the years. Chuck had made Sarah out to be a heartless monster that didn't care about him. But if she didn't care, why would she run off crying even six years later? Morgan isn't an idiot, he knows there's a reason for why Sarah actually left Chuck. And that's why he's being nice to her, because he seen just how fragile she was when he sent Carina into the rest room after her.

As for the rest of the guys in Gold Squadron, they have no idea who Sarah is to Chuck, I also addressed this in the second chapter. Only Bryce and Morgan knew/know who Sarah was/is to Chuck.

Finally, Chuck is a fighting man in this story. Though he is also still the Chuck from canon, if you look at his relationship with the children and the wives of his unit. Chuck is Chuck in different ways in this story, such as saving the dog from Chief Rodriguez, or protecting men under his command by putting his life on the line. As addressed in the second chapter, Chuck has to be outspoken in this story, because it's his job to create a camaraderie between his men and keep them in line and and more importantly, alive...


Chapter Nine

Love Struck

August 24th

Dam Neck Annex

Virginia Beach

Virginia

United States

It was now the morning after Sarah's unsuccessful attempts to be reassigned, and the big revelation that had accompanied it. Sarah hadn't slept very well at all as her mind couldn't understand why Chuck's dad would want Sarah anywhere near his son after how she had treated him six years previously, another unanswered question to add to the increasingly growing number, she thought to herself.

Today was a big day for Gold Squadron, as newly promoted Chief SWO John Miller was returning to duty four months after that fateful day that nearly lost him his life. There was a massive buzz going around the camp, as their comrade was welcomed back with open arms.

The entire Squadron were presently in the mess hall and the CO of the Squadron had just arrived to formally welcome back their brother in arms.

As Chuck arrived at the mess hall, he noticed Sarah still here, but he didn't have time to think about that, today was about something bigger than holding a grudge, today was about brotherhood.

Standing at the front of the hall, accompanied by his subordinates from the other two troops in the Squadron Lieutenant Commander Cooper and Williams, as well as Lieutenant Grimes who was the XO of Chuck's troop, Chuck paid special homage to Chief Miller.

"I would just like to speak on behalf of everybody here and I know I can count on you all agreeing with me on how great it is to have you back with us John, welcome home buddy!"

A sudden thunderous noise suddenly echoed around the mess hall as every single operator began banging on the tables in agreement with their CO accompanied with shouts of "Hear hear!" and other messages of support from all the operators of Gold Squadron.

Master Chief Garcia who was seated next to the newly promoted Chief began to talk to one of his best friends. "It's good to have you back you bastard." He says as shakes his hand to welcome back his brother in arms.

"Just couldn't bear to be without us buddy eh?" Chief Rodriguez chimed in who was sitting opposite Chief Miller.

"Nah, I was on my way out until they upped my pay grade, it's all about the dollar baby, all about the dollar." Chief Miller jokes as he chats away with his brothers.

The comrades all in the immediate vicinity began to laugh as they continued to offer their messages of support to the Chief returning to action.

The Master Chief put his arm around one of his best friends laughing, as the air was filled with an enormous sense of camaraderie between the elite operators of all the troops in Gold Squadron.

Continuing to address the men under his command, the CO continued "Today also marks the tenth day until we ship out. So make sure you begin to start tying up any last minute loose ends you have before we go kick some ass!" Chuck finishes in a yell to his men.

Once more, a thunderous noise is heard.

Chuck continues "Oh, our troop is also heading out tonight in celebration, you're welcome to come along and bring your wives, but keep them away from the Lieutenant!" He jokes as the room erupts with roars with laughter.

Morgan mocked a feint hurt expression, as he held his hand on his heart as if to say 'How could you.' to his CO.

Chuck continues once more "Oh, speaking of the LT, Lieutenant Grimes also thinks today will be his lucky day and that he will beat my record on the weapons course, though frankly, I think he's lost his marbles as that's never gonna happen." Once more, the hall fills with laughter. And with that, the CO left to resume about the tasks he had, leaving all the men under his command to resume chatting away to each other.


14:00 hours

At least thirty of the SEAL's of Gold Squadron had gathered at the weapons assault course that involves undertaking some movement manoeuvres, followed by engaging fifteen targets with a combination of assault rifle and sidearm gunfire.

There was a buzz around the place and the frogmen were taking bets with each other.

Sarah was standing near to Master Chief Garcia "Who's going to win?" She asked the Master Chief.

"Haha, nobody has ever came close to beating the Commander, many of us have tried, all have failed." Replies the Master Chief, as he thinks back to the last time he himself tried to oust his CO from holding the record.

"Is he that good?" Sarah asks, looking towards Chuck.

The Master Chief shakes his head before continuing. "Oh yes, just watch, you'll be amazed at how quick he moves, he's a natural. The Commander is the finest operator I've seen and I've been on the teams fifteen years, one tough bastard. You wouldn't want the Commander coming up against you, I'm just happy he's on my side." The Master Chief jokes to Sarah whose face had filled with a mixture of admiration and utter shock.

Meanwhile, at the head of the course Morgan was trying to put his CO off.

"Are you okay there Chuck? You're looking a bit scared over there, it's not too late to back out." Morgan jokes.

"What and pass up on the opportunity to take all their money?" Chuck jokes in response while looking around at the people who are foolishly betting against him before turning to look at his XO once more "Bring it." He says as he prepares to advance.

Meanwhile, all the frogmen who had gathered and were listening in to the two officers began to get extremely hyped up...

"Standby!" Comes the call from Chief Miller who had been given the honour of refereeing the competition.

"Ready!" He says once more as he fires a gun into the air beginning the competition as two other operators holding stop watches begin the countdown.

Chuck and Morgan immediately advance forward with their assault rifles, taking down targets in rapid succession as they perform their first manoeuvre over one of the obstacles.

Advancing further on, with Chuck already in a clear lead they continue to take out targets. Stopping to reload, they then advance even further taking out targets before they stop to crouch to expend the rest of the clip onto targets.

Dropping their assault rifles on the floor, they un-holster their personal sidearms and began to shoot at targets. Stopping to reload, they then perform a combat roll and continue to expend the magazine of their side arm on the final target, finishing the course.

Back at the start of the course, all of the operators were screaming away at what they were witnessing

"And the winner is!" Says Chief Miller, before pausing for a long moment to add hype to the competition.

"Commander Bartowski!" The Chief says finally after a few seconds before continuing again as he looks at the two stop watches that the operators were showing him. "Oh shit boys! He's set a new course record! 29.9 seconds!"

The operators all run to their CO to congratulate him, lifting him up in the air as the victor.

Once they had put their CO down, the loser of the competition comes up to Chuck. "I fall on my sword, sir." Morgan says, as he bends his head down to pay respect to the victor.

Chuck briefly turned to glance at Sarah, who was amazed at what she had just seen, he even gave her an ever so brief smile before he was about to give a victory speech when he was interrupted from doing that by a deeply hurt Morgan, who obviously wanted to extract some form of revenge on his CO as best he could.

"Hey Sarah, why don't you have a go with the Commander.?" Morgan shouts to Sarah as he looked between Sarah and Chuck, the latter giving him deathly stares.

Morgan began to laugh as all the frogmen who were still there began to get hyped once more, encouraging Sarah to take on their CO wanting to see what she had to offer.

"Well, shall we?" Chuck eventually ends up asking Sarah as all his men were clamouring to see it.

"Sure, why not." Sarah replies, as she moves to step forward to take up position on the course where Morgan had previously been.

This led to rapturous cheers from the operators who were gathered to watch the competition...


The Chief had now explained the rules of what Sarah had to do on the course, and had handed her one of the team's primary assault rifles that they now use, the FN Special Operations Forces Combat Assault Rifle or SCAR, for short. Sarah hadn't used this particular rifle before but she had a lot of experience in using Carbines at one of the many gun ranges that she's spent her excessively large amounts of free time that she has had throughout the last few years.

Sarah had also been issued with a Sig Sauer sidearm, this weapon she was familiar with and had used it many times, once more on one of the many gun ranges that she'd been on.

Chuck looked in Sarah's direction on the weapons assault course, who glanced back at him. "Good luck." He says to her.

"Thanks." Sarah replies as she turns her head back to look at the course infront of her.

Once more, the Chief goes through his routine.

"Standby!"

"Ready!" He says once more before proceeding to fire his gun in the air as the two former lovers now went head to head on the weapon's assault course.

Chuck and Sarah begin to advance and all the SEAL's who had gathered were all screaming their encouragement to Sarah, willing her on to beating their CO so they can take the piss out of him for an eternity.

Chuck had now turned to his sidearm, quickly followed by Sarah when he glanced over at Sarah and was pretty impressed with how she was handling herself, he didn't expect this in a million years.

They had now just reloaded their sidearms and performed a combat roll, which Sarah also did, which led to cheers from the SEAL's who were jumping around and screaming still encouraging her to oust their CO when the course ended.

Chuck and Sarah then returned back to the start of the course. Chuck once more looking at Sarah with a look of admiration on how she handled herself, especially with it being her first time on the course.


They were now at the location of Chief Miller and the two operators who had the stop watches when the Chief began to speak to the anxiously awaiting SEAL's.

"Commander Bartowski," the Chief said, which was met with boo's by the entire group of thirty plus that had gathered "34.7 seconds."

"Agent Walker," the Chief said, which was met by thunderous cheers "40.7 seconds."

"Booo! It's a fix!" The group all began to yell.

Chuck walked closer to Sarah "Well done." He said sincerely as he got within close proximity of her.

"Thanks, you too." Sarah replied, as Navy SEAL's all began to surround her.

Chief Miller was the first to speak "How did you learn to shoot like that you were amazing."

The operators all suddenly stopped talking to listen to her response, even Chuck paid particular interest to the answer of this question.

"Well, a whole lot of free time and a lot of hours at a gun range." Sarah replied to the Chief while looking into the eyes of Chuck as she spoke.

"Commander, are you ok sir? You look a bit love struck." Chief Rodriguez jokes as Chuck had been glancing at Sarah for a short while.

"Dude, wouldn't you be, Agent Walker is like the female equivalent of him!" One SEAL says.

"Commander spends his life at a gun range also." Another jokes.

"Hey Sarah have you ever thought about a different career? You'd be more than welcome here." One of the SEAL's says, followed by most of the operators agreeing with their comrade who shouted that.

"Hey that means Sarah now holds third place on the course!" Chief Miller just realized as he was looking at the log book of all people who had taken part on the course.

All of the SEAL's once more began to laugh that caused a pretty deafening noise as one frogman suddenly shouted, "You're getting too old Master Chief!"

"Who the fuck said that!" The Master Chief demanded as he scans around trying to find the culprit so he could kick the living daylights out of him.

It turned out the culprit was Morgan which caused both Sarah and Chuck to laugh as they were still glancing at each other.


Next Chapter: The team all go out to dinner to celebrate Chief Miller's homecoming, and Sarah is invited along.

And more!