A/N: Another fluff chapter before we get to the action. Just finishing off the Thanksgiving weekend.

Still don't own Chuck.

Chapter 10.

Thanksgiving dinner was a huge success and Marco's didn't clear out till after seven. The family went to Ellie and Devon's apartment after for drinks, not wrapping up there till after ten. Sarah had told Chuck about the little display with Vicky when Sarah introduced Carina to Cole, so both were kind of interested in what was going to happen… interested and a little apprehensive… and maybe a little excited, if the truth be known. But as the night wound up, Vicky, Cole, Carina and Diane all headed out for their apartment together. They were all in the guest apartment on the eighth floor which had four bedrooms. Sarah looked at Chuck with a little trepidation, but what the hell…

After getting ready for bed, Sarah grabbed Chuck in a fierce hug.

"Thank you for getting Carina here. I didn't realize how much I missed the little minx."

"Yeah… I was a little scared to get the two of you together again, but it had to happen sometime and at least this way I had plenty of help around. Plus Casey wasn't here and that always helps when dealing with Carina."

"She told me you slept with her right after I left. Couldn't wait till I was gone could you."

"What? No… wait… we didn't… well I mean we did… but not that way… and you're messing with me!"

Laughing Sarah stopped him with a kiss. "Chuckles… calm down. You are so easy. I know nothing happened. She wouldn't try it and you wouldn't do it. I… I'm sorry for what I put you through… I can't say that enough. I'm sorry."

"Are you really sorry?"

"Yes… I'm really sorry."

"Because if Sahara is really sorry there's something she can do for Chuckles."

"Oh really… and what can Sahara do for Chuckles?"

Chuck threw her onto the bed then crawled in on top of her. "Sahara can be real quiet making love to Chuckles, because Emma and Molly are just down the hall." Chuck tickled her side, and she barked a laugh and squealed, before clamping her hands over her mouth. "Sahara needs to be a lot quieter than that."

Black Friday. Ellie and Sarah had put their heads together and decided that this was the perfect day for a girls outing. And that meant everyone... well, all the girls anyway. They planned on taking one of the stretch limo's to accommodate the whole crew; Ellie, Sarah, Carina, Vicky, Diane, Emma and Mary. They even shanghaied Anne and Julie as the security team, to drive them. Of course that meant that Chuck, Devon and Cole, had Molly and Clara. Cole heard that and remembered he had old friends in Chicago that he hadn't seen in years. Chuck told him to at least be back for Sunday, because Chuck had gotten an executive suite at Soldier Field for them all to see a Bears football game.

The girls were up early Friday morning, nothing ridiculous, but early for a non-work day. Chuck got up with Sarah and made breakfast for everyone; eggs, bacon, sausage, home fries, toast and pancakes. Ellie left Devon and Clara sleeping, Molly slept through the whole thing, and Cole had already taken off, so basically it was just the ladies and Chuck. Everyone was talking about what a good time they all had the previous day as they served themselves and sat down. Sarah noticed that Vicky and Carina sat next to each other and were whispering back and forth, giggling and laughing. Sarah gave Chuck a look that he returned… what's going on? Finally, Sarah couldn't stand it any longer.

"What is going on with you two?"

"What?"

"Don't give me that 'What?'… you just met and you're acting like a couple of old friends, giggling… laughing… I don't know about Vicky, but Carina, you never giggle. Give… what's going on?"

"Well… if you must know… and just between us girls… Cole tried to get us to… well he said he couldn't decide… he wanted us BOTH to sleep with him."

"WHAT?"

"That's pretty much what we said. Well it kind of pissed us both off so we decided to see if he was as susceptible to seduction techniques as any other male. He was. We played him for… what Vicky… two hours?"

"Yeah… it must have been close to 12:00 am when we went to bed."

"We had him totally convinced that he would have us BOTH. We went into extremely graphic detail about what was going to happen, with the three of us. We kept that going for an hour or so. Then we started acting like we were getting into each other rather than him. That went on for just under an hour. The best part is that I slept in Vicky's room, and for the last 10 minutes we gave him ALL kinds of ideas of what was going to happen without him. Serves him right… both of us. Some ego."

That got the whole table roaring with laughter… and got Chuck cringing in the kitchen. Man… don't ever piss a woman off… they can be MEAN… and Cole managed to piss off two of them at the same time.

Finally the girls were ready to leave. Sarah promised they'd be home in time for dinner at 6:00… then backtracked and said they SHOULD be home for dinner at 6:00… then said they MIGHT be home for dinner, AROUND 6:00… then finally admitted that she had no idea what time they'd be home. Chuck decided on Chinese takeout for dinner. If the girls weren't back by 7:00 he'd send it down to the fourth floor.

Devon woke up around 9:00 am, and brought Clara over to Chuck's. Molly had just woken up so Chuck made a second breakfast from the remains of the first one. The weather was beautiful, especially for November, so the guys took the kids to the park for some running around time. They got back to the apartment around noon, but in the elevator on the way up, Devon got a phone call.

"Dr. Woodcomb. Yes… yes… no I… yes... hold on. Um… Chuck? Can you take care of Clara. I've got an emergency."

"No problem. Molly and I can take care of Clara… right squirt?"

"Sure! We'll have fun… we can play dress up and have a tea party…"

"See… we'll be fine. Rebecca?"

"Yes Mr. B."

"Please have a car brought around to the front for Devon."

"Certainly… Dr. Woodcomb, will you need the driver to wait?"

"I don't think so Rebecca. This sounds like it's going to be a while, so I'll call when I'm done."

When they hit the eighth floor, Devon didn't even get out of the elevator, he just kissed Clara goodby, passed her to Chuck and stayed on the elevator. Chuck spent the day taking care of Clara and entertaining Molly. They played video games, watched a movie, Molly had a great time using Chuck as a dressup doll. As Chuck expected, 6:00 pm came and went with no signs of the gaggle, so Chuck fed the girls. 7:00 came and went, so Chuck had the Chinese food taken down to four, bathed Clara and put her to bed. He and Molly played video games till Molly's bed time. Then it was just Chuck. Just after 9 o'clock, Diane, Emma and Mary, showed up.

"Hello Chuck… where's Molly?"

"Hi Emma. In bed… it's past her bed time."

"What time is it? Oh my… we were having such a time… I'm so sorry Chuck."

"It's okay Emma, where's the rest of the crew?"

"Well Mary, Diane and I come back because we're exhausted. Mary went to check on Clara, then she was going to bed and Diane said she was going to bed. The girls dropped us off and were going to a dance club… lord knows when they'll be home. And me… I'm going to bed also. Good night Chuck."

"Night Emma."

It was a little early to go to bed so Chuck went back to the video games, this time opting for Call of Duty. Chuck must have fallen asleep because the next thing he was aware of was the girls coming down the hallway, making a racket telling each other to be quiet so they won't wake the children. Getting to the doorway, Sarah and Ellie, arm-in-arm, stepped inside to let Vicky and Carina, also arm-in-arm, stagger by them headed for their rooms.

Ellie was slurring her words just a touch. "Chuck? Where's Devon? Did he go to bed?"

"No Ellie… he's at the hospital. He had an emergency… and after finishing the first one, a second one came in so he stayed rather the let them disturb someone else. He called a little while ago to tell me that a third had come in and he figured that since he was there…"

"When did all this happen?"

"Oh… poor guy's been there all day. He got the call around noon… we were just getting back from the park and were still in the elevator."

Sarah realized what he was saying. "You mean to tell me you've had both girls all day alone? Why didn't you call?"

"Why? I assumed you guys were having fun, or you would have come home. The girls and I had fun."

"Chuck… are you wearing lipstick?"

"Um… we played dress up and Molly got a little carried away. Guess I didn't get it all off."

"God you are going to be such a good father."

"Yeah, that's fine if we have girls… what the heck do I do if they're boys."

"Oh… same thing… just different games."

Saturday was going to be a couples day. Chuck and Sarah, Ellie and Devon, and Cole and Vicky. Unfortunately, Cole never showed up so they just plugged Carina in for Cole. Chuck had the day all planned out. A long leisurely breakfast, followed by some exercise at the climbing wall, then off to the Navy Pier for the SOFA art show. Next, a late lunch at the Shake Shack downtown, followed by a wine tasting. After that they could either do dinner or go to the Festival of Barrel Aged Beers, then dinner after.

It was Ellie's turn to cook so the couples all had breakfast at the Awesome's apartment. Emma and Molly were going to help Mary take care of Clara, and Diane wanted to visit some friends in the area. Unlike Cole, her friends were real, so it was just the three 'couples' at breakfast. Again, Vicky and Carina sat next to each other, whispering and giggling all through breakfast. While Ellie and Devon cleaned up, the other four sat around drinking mimosa's. Vicky went to the bathroom, and as soon as she was gone Sarah swooped in on Carina.

In something of a stage whisper Sarah started in "Carina… did you sleep with Vicky again last night."

"Um… well yeah… so what… we were both pretty drunk and I just couldn't make it to my bed."

"Yeah right… you weren't that drunk. You slept with Vicky didn't you."

Chuck finally realized what Sarah meant. "Oh… Carina… come on fess up."

"Come on Carina… I know you go both ways."

"Okay yes… Vicky and I had sex last night… and yes we had sex the night before also. We really got into telling Cole what we were going to do without him. After the door shut, and we finished laughing our asses off at his expression, we started getting ready for bed, and we kind of hemmed and hawed, and finally admitted to each other that we really wanted to do all the stuff we just told Cole we were going to do… so we kind of did. Turns out that Vicky is just as bi-sexual as I am, and she is so nice, and we had such a great time together both in bed and out and I just get so tired of men taking advantage and not living up to expectations and the agency expecting me to... well you know. So yes… we really like each other and we slept together."

Carina looked at the floor. When she looked back up Sarah and Chuck were both smiling. Sarah leaned over and hugged her best friend.

"Carina, we are happy for you. I know you might get crap… so just don't say anything. You both are invited to visit us any time you like… and if it happens that's at the same time, well, all the better."

By this point Vicky came back from the bathroom. Carina rose and much to Vicky's surprise kissed her. Vicky was shocked, franticly looking around at everyone watching, then looked at Carina and realized everyone was smiling.

"Awesome!" came from the kitchen, which completely broke the last of the tension.

Everybody went back to chatting and sipping mimosa's. Sarah leaned over and whispered in Chuck's ear.

"What do you think?"

"We'll have to give her an intest to be sure, but she is intelligent enough and her memory seems excellent. Do you want to bring her in house or put her on one of the agency teams?"

"Ummm. I think an agency team. Coming in house would be the same as retiring, and I don't think she's ready for that."

"Agreed. Me or you."

"I'll do it."

Sarah sat up straight and looked over at Carina. "Carina, there's something I would like to talk to you about. Um… how much do you know about what I've been doing for the last six months."

"Not much. I know it was some kind of Rescue team, completing busted missions and rescuing agents."

"Yeah, that pretty much sums it up. Well, Orion Industries has been contracted by a consortium of agencies to re-establish this project and expand it. Would you be interested in joining the project?"

"Is Vicky joining?"

"Yes. We haven't decided which team yet, but yes she will continue her role as one of the field agents."

"Can I be on her team?"

"If you like! We can put you on the same team."

"Can you promise that? I mean can you just assign agents as you like?"

Chuck cut in at this point. "Carina… we have full discretion as far as recruiting and placement of the agents. You should have seen the steam coming from General Beckman's ears when Sarah insisted on that clause. She was not pleased but she finally agreed."

"Carina, we actually have told you more than we should already. Would you like to join? Oh… and I should mention that there will be some 'special' training."

"Is this the same kind of 'special' training that Chuckles had all those years?"

"Um… what do you mean?"

"Come on Sahara. The two top agents from the CIA and the NSA are assigned to snorsville USA for a long term mission with Chuckles as their 'analyst'? He obviously was an asset… but what kind of asset would need both you and Casey to hold his hand? You guys were his bodyguards. How important must he be to have both Sarah Walker and John Casey as his bodyguards? Then there were all those rumors flying around about something called the 'intersect', some kind of human-computer. One and one still equals two."

Chuck looked over at Sarah and chuckled. "Told you she was intelligent enough!"

"And to answer your question… yes, I'm in."

So now it was again truly a couple's day. Chuck didn't want to completely ruin any of the sectech's weekend, but was still paranoid enough that he didn't want to go without a security team so he had arraigned for three separate teams to cover different times of the day. Plus they were going to both wine tasting and a beer tasting, so they needed a driver. But first the climbing wall. Devon was the expert here, and Ellie had done it enough with him to be quite good. Sarah, of course, was a natural athlete and had had some training, as had Carina. Vicky was the surprise having spent almost a year deployed with the 10th Mountain Division. Even though the division itself no longer had climb training, the junior officers had a climbing club. So that left poor Chuck as the only one with only limited training and no experience. Yes, it was in the intersect, but he didn't like using the intersect for personal stuff like this.

The place was called First Ascent and it boasted one of the highest climbing walls in the country, almost 60 feet tall. Devon was a regular and talked the manager into giving them a secluded section off by themselves. At the moment, Devon was checking Chuck's equipment, while a nervous Chuck tried to keep his hands dry.

"Whose great idea was this anyway… oh wait… that's right it was mine. What the heck was I thinking."

"Oh don't worry Chuckster! It'll be awesome. Come on."

They had split up three and three. Ellie with Carina and Vicky had already started on the right face, Carina, as the least experienced, between Ellie and Vicky, and Chuck between Sarah and Devon on the left face. Sarah, already ten feet up, stopped to look down.

"Come on Chuck… you only weigh like a hundred pounds… this should be easy."

"Ha… ha… very funny… if I kill myself on this thing I'm coming back to haunt all of you."

Tenuously, Chuck began his ascent. Slowly he selected his next step then moved cautiously. Another step… then another. He figured he had to be fifteen or twenty feet up by now. Looking down he realized that he was only eight feet off the floor… this was going to be a long climb.

"You guys go ahead… I think this is going to take me a while. I'm on a safety line so it's not like I can get hurt, so go ahead."

"Are you sure Chuck? I can stay here with you and let Devon go ahead."

"No. Go ahead… I know you want to… I'll be fine."

"Well okay." Looking over at Devon, Sarah gives him a saucy smile. "Race you to the top, Devon."

"You're on. Hey… no fair." As soon as Devon had said okay, Sarah lunged for her next handhold and was off, climbing the rock face like a monkey going up a tree. Devon was by far more experienced, but Sarah had some training and actually seemed to be in better condition than Devon, if that was possible. The pair raced up the rock face.

Chuck grinned and laughed, watching his wife race his brother-in-law, Capt. Awesome himself, up the wall. Cautiously, Chuck planed his next move. He moved his left hand, and his right foot, got a good grip and moved up the wall. Right hand and left foot. Left… right.

"Say… this isn't so hard." He realized there was nobody around to hear him. The other five were all pretty much half way up the wall. Looking up to see how Sarah and Devon were doing, he leaned back a little too much and lost his grip. Now normally this would not have been an issue. He was on a belay line and the most he should have fallen was a couple of feet before the belay man down below caught him. Unfortunately, when Chuck stopped to look around, his belay man, Frank, figured it was safe and turned to grab a water bottle from his pack. Chuck only fell about fifteen feet, but it was enough to knock the wind out of him and daze him, leaving him spread eagle on the floor.

Up above, Sarah and Devon were laughing and trash talking back and forth, when Sarah momentarily looked down.

"CHUCK! DEVON… CHUCK FELL!"

To his credit, Devon was only about three seconds behind Sarah hitting the floor. Instincts for both kicked in. Sarah immediately went into Agent mode. She went into a defensive stance with a huge, wicked looking Bowie style knife in her right hand that had appeared from nowhere, scanning the area looking for threats. Devon went into Doctor mode, immediately went to Chuck and began checking him. Within fifteen seconds, Ellie was beside Devon, and Vicky and Carina were on either side of Sarah. As soon as her backup was in place, Sarah flipped her knife to Carina, took two steps, latched onto Chuck's belay man Frank and roughly flipped him onto his back between Vicky and Carina. Sarah didn't take her eyes off Frank, simply put her hand up and her knife came flying into it like it was Thor's hammer. When Frank opened his eyes Sarah's knife was resting on his carotid artery. A flick of the wrist and Frank would be dead in ten seconds.

"WHY DID YOU DROP CHUCK? WHO DO YOU WORK FOR?" Sarah pressed the blade down a little and Frank started to whimper, sweet popping out on his forehead, eyes bulging. Everything had happened so fast that the climbers around them had not yet realized what was going on. The other safety men and the manager, who ran up, all looked on aghast at the scene of one of their employees on the floor with a knife to his throat.

The manager tried to take control of what was obviously a bad situation. "What's going on? Please release that man." Sarah turned to stare at the manager, and the look on her face caused everyone to gasp and take a step back. A momma bear protecting her cub wasn't half as terrifying as Sarah was at that moment. They were a heartbeat away from a three state killing spree.

"Sarah. It's okay." Chuck was sitting up.

Sarah was not to be appeased. "Answer the question. Who do you work for?"

Tenuously Frank stuttered out "First Ascent".

Looking at the manager Sarah said "How long has this man worked for you?"

The highly confused manager said "Um… almost two years?"

Sarah began to calm down. Chuck had gotten up by this point and she rose and went to him. Somehow the knife disappeared. She ran her hands all over him, like she was making sure he was OK. Chuck whispered in Sarah's ear and she nodded. Chuck moved with Devon following, leaving Sarah with Ellie, and walked over to the Manager.

"My apologies about that, but we've had some threats and we do have a number of enemies, so my bodyguards are naturally on edge."

Vicky and Carina were standing just behind Chuck, scowling. At some point the security team had gotten on scene and were standing with their backs to Chuck and the group, scanning the room, machine pistols in hand. The manager looked at them, then at Sarah, gulped audibly and said "They're your bodyguards? All of them?"

"Well the blond is my wife… but yeah… and trust me, you don't want to say anything they'll take offense to. Neither of these two…" gesturing to Carina and Vicky "…have shot anybody in like two weeks and they're getting antsy. Now Frank… what happened?"

Stammering Frank tried to answer. "I just turned away for a second, sir… I'm sorry, sir. You were stopped looking around… I'm so sorry… you looked like you were resting… I just turned for a second to get some water… I'm SO sorry sir."

"Okay… it's okay Frank… no harm done… just an accident. Dan… you're the manager? Sorry about the scene… we'll pack up and go."

"Oh no… please sir… please stay. This is entirely our fault, sir. Dr. Woodcomb, please sir… please stay. I don't want this incident to hamper your enjoyment. Please stay."

The entire episode happened so fast that hardly anyone had noticed so Chuck decided to talk to Sarah and the group before they decide whether to stay or go. The whole group huddled up.

Looking at Carina and Vicky, Chuck guffawed quietly. "Well you two don't have quite the intimidation factor as Casey… but you'er close, thanks. What do you say group? Want to stay? I had figured we would be here another hour at least… maybe two."

Everyone kind of looked at each other.

Not getting a response, Chuck said "Was everyone having a good time?" When everyone nodded, reluctantly maybe but still agreeing, Chuck said "Well then let's not let my clumsiness spoil our fun."

"Chuck are you really okay? Ellie… Devon… what do you say?" Sarah of course wasn't going to let it go THAT easy.

"He's perfectly fine. With the padding and helmet we have on him, he could fall twenty or thirty feet and be just fine."

"Okay but this time I'm staying with you." Turning, she looked at Frank. Chuck can see her thinking about what to do. Frank pales and actually looks like he might faint.

Chuck smiles and takes Sarah by the hand. "It'll be okay. I don't think Frank will ever take his eyes off his climber again… will you Frank?"

"NO SIR! Never again."

They tie back in and begin their accent. It took a while but Chuck actually made it to the top.

After the climbing wall they headed over to the SOFA show at the Navy Pier. The Sculptured Object Functional Art and Design show was really something to see. Chuck had already checked with Alex and got her 'permission' to decorate the lobby and Sarah's office. Chuck was having a great time picking the most hideous pieces then presenting them to Sarah as great works of art, and telling her she should use the piece in her office. Sarah was baffled at first, thinking Chuck was serious and trying to figure out how to tell him how ugly the art work he choose was, without hurting his feelings. Soon enough she realized he was teasing and relaxed. As soon as Chuck recognized that Sarah had picked up on his game, he stopped and they got down to the business of actually buying some pieces for her office and the lobby.

As big as the show was, sooner or later it was bound to happen… Chuck flashed on one of the pieces. It had been stolen in Europe eight months before. How it ended up in Chicago was anyone's guess and not their concern. Chuck put a call into the Precinct Captain who was their liaison with the Chicago PD. Fifteen minutes later a very confused looking Detective showed up with a couple of uniforms. Chuck had one of their security team, Carlos, meet them, ID himself as a PI and fill in the Detective. Not wanting to have anyone from Orion Industries involved, Chuck had Carlos tell the Detective to take all the credit for discovering the stolen piece and to not mention a tip. Evidently the Detective had been advised to just cooperate because he just nodded and proceeded to the dealer. The whole crew stood off to the side watching. It looked like the Detective wasn't satisfied with the dealer's answers to questions, because the next thing they knew, the dealer was in cuffs and being led off. A couple of days later the paper reported that the dealer was a major fence for stolen goods and Chicago PD was well on it's way to shutting down a whole organization of fences and smugglers.

Chuck looked aghast at Carina. "What do you mean you don't understand football? Didn't you go to college?"

The whole crew were in a luxury executive box at Chicago's Soldier Field. Wait staff moved through the crowd, dispensing drinks and hors devours. The remnants of a buffet was laid out against one wall, that they had already demolished.

"Of course I went to college… I was just more interested in things other than sports. I mean I liked the jocks… just had no interest in the 'games' they played… outside of the games in the bedroom that is."

"Jezz Carina… I'm a nerd and at least I understand the game. I never played and have no real interest in it, but at least I understand the rules."

"Sorry… just never had the interest. Okay… if it means some much to you, explain it to me."

"ME? NO! I'm not explaining it to you. Get Casey to explain it… he probably played in High School."

"Yeah right. I can just hear that explanation. Grunt Whoever has the most points wins, moron. Grunt That's not going to help me appreciate the game."

"How about Devon… or even Ellie? They are both big fans."

"Oh come on Chuckie… it'll be way more fun with you."

"Sarah… you explain it to her."

"ME? I hardly understand it myself. How am I supposed to explain it to her?"

"Okay… I suppose… Okay Carina, the object of the game is to score points by getting the ball into the other teams end zone. When a team has possession they have four tries to go ten yards."

"Oh… and that scores the points?"

"Um, no… that gives them four more tries to go ten yards."

"What? Why would they want to only go ten yards. I thought the object was to get to the other end?"

Chuck just looked at her for a moment… "This is going to be a long day."