Hey all,

It has been a while and while me and Erica are both very sorry for making you wait, this wait couldn't be helped. Starting off at college is Hell, but we're through the confusion (kinda- tbh I'm always confused) and this chapter has been completed (obviously). We didn't waste our time though, we have been talking about where this fic is going and we managed to plan a crossover in thrity minutes. Not bad, huh? And no, that doesn't mean that the plot is terrible (hopefully) it just means we no longer have any friends. :D

Anywho, we would like to thank everyone who reviewed and has put us on story alert and what not. So thank you. It helps immensly to know how our writing is perceived, so please keep reviewing!

Disclaimer: No, we don't own Chuck. I may or may not have spent many nights awake in tears because of this very real fact. I did however get Chuck Season 2 on DVD for my birthday- I'm getting closer- as well as driving lessons, so all those on the roads in South Wales... beware... *evil laugh*

Please enjoy, that's why we write (another reason: so that our heads don't explode from the plot bunnies that just keep forming).

It was hot. No, that wasn't right. It was blistering hot. Smoke surrounded him, clouding his vision and making his eyes water.

Maybe this wasn't the best idea.

'No kidding.' Sarah was gonna kill him. Then Ellie was gonna bring him back to life to kill him, followed by a very very long lecture.

He just wasn't thinking. Everything he owned was in the burning building. All he had left of his parents. As much as he hated them for what they did, he couldn't just let their things burn. The things that would remind him that there was a time when they cared about him and Ellie. He couldn't let that go. It would be like losing them again.

Chuck thought that after living in the apartment for a few weeks that he would be able to manoeuvre his way through the smoke.

THUNK.

Or not. Chuck found himself on the floor. He didn't know what he tripped on but he was thankful for it because now he was in the hallway that led to the two bedrooms and the bathroom. The smoke must have originated on the other side of the apartment 'cause there was little or no smoke near the bedrooms. Sending a quick thank you to the man upstairs, Chuck got back onto his feet and made his way to his bedroom.

Even though the fire hadn't spread to the bedrooms, the door handles seared his hands when he barged roughly into his room. He ignored the pain and hurried to the pile of half un-packed boxes in the corner of his room.

'Where is it? Where is it?' Boxes were strewn haphazardly on the floor of his room as Chuck hunted through them. Smoke slowly spread through the cracks under the door that he had closed not a minute before. The air had become stifling. It was getting hard to breathe.

There!

He could see the marine blue material poking out one of the upturned boxes. Smoke now filled the room. 'How could the fire be spreading so fast?' He'd been in the apartment for less than five minutes. Less than five minutes too long, he could hear Ellie's voice in his head. The smoke was spreading through the room and Chuck started coughing. It was getting darker and harder to see but Chuck felt the course material brush against his hand. Grabbing onto it, Chuck pulled and dragged it out from the box. 'Oh, shit.' Where would he escape? The door was obviously out of the question. The smoke was choking him and it was getting harder to think. Tears were streaking down his face. Chuck started wheezing as he futilely tried to suck in oxygen. Blackness surrounded his vision. Slowly sucking him down.

SMASH!

A loud sound dragged him from the brink of unconsciousness. It sounded like glass breaking. Glass? The window!

'Note to self: Go to Church; get down on your knees and thank God.'

Moving towards where he thought the window was, Chuck crawled head first into a large, yet slightly soft object. His bed! If that was his bed then... crawling sideways, he reached his hand out and touched wood. His desk! Hope was enough to push away the last vestiges of unconsciousness that had lingered. Bracing himself against the desk, Chuck pulled himself up. Only to fall to the floor when he started coughing again. Even with the window open, the smoke was still thick and Chuck was breathing a higher percentage of smoke than he was oxygen. What if he couldn't get out? He was so close he could see light through the smoke through his watering eyes.

Taking a deep breath, Chuck told himself to calm down. It worked and soon his heart stopped beating so fast in his chest.

Now to get out.

Breath in.

Breath out.

Breath in.

Breath out.

Repeating the mantra in his mind, Chuck gripped the desk again, but this time with one hand open and one clenching the bag. This time when he pulled himself up, he leant on top of the desk so that he wouldn't slide down.

The air was getting thinner, the little oxygen that there was burned his raw throat. Reaching out his hand, Chuck grabbed on to the windowsill. Chuck rose onto his knees on the desk. Using a mixture of push and pull, Chuck found himself lying on something hard and the bag was no longer in his hand. Concrete!

The fresh air burned as he gulped it in. The light was too much for his watering eyes to handle so he closed them. He could hear voices. So many voices. Sirens. The voices got louder and louder, closer and closer.

Someone was yelling his name but he couldn't find the energy to answer. The adrenaline rush that had rushed around his body when he moved to make his escape out of the window left him as quickly as it filled him. Then...

Pain. There was so much pain. His hands were on fire! And his throat! Oh, God his throat! He squirmed on the hard ground trying to quell the burning he felt. Cool hands held him still and something was gently place on his face. It made his already aflame throat burn more. Chuck fought against the hands. They did things that hurt him. He wanted, no, he needed the pain to stop.

He heard a voice, a soft melodic voice. An angel. Nothing could have such a beautiful, soothing voice. Through the fog, Chuck couldn't understand what the angel was saying to him.

'Be quiet!' He wanted to tell the other, courser voices. 'The Angel is saying something. I need to hear the Angel.'

Opening his eyes he saw blurs of dark blue and white moving around him. But through the wave of yellow he saw her. The Angel. Her hair was billowing around her and her clear blue eyes were filled with concern. She was crying. Why was the Angel crying? Had something bad happened? He wanted to wipe away her tears but his arm was too heavy and he couldn't lift it.

Then she was gone. Just like that. He looked everywhere but he couldn't find her. He tried to call to her but no sound came out. His eyelids were getting heavier and everything was darkening around him. The Angel had gone and so he let go and fell into the shadows.

Sarah moved away from Carol, towards the broken window. In her head she kept thinking: 'Please be okay.' When nothing else happened the hope that had built up at the sight of the broken window began to dwindle. This couldn't be happening. Chuck couldn't leave her, he just couldn't. He was different. Her mom had left, then her dad. Now Chuck.

'No! He hasn't gone yet.' The small part of her brain argued. It was the part she wanted to believe the most. She'd learned from experience that nothing ever lasted. After the first two new schools she'd enrolled in after her mom left and her dad started moving them around the country she discovered that it would be easier not to make friends because she'd had to leave them in the end.

But when she moved in with the Millers, things had changed. She'd changed. She'd gotten into a routine; she'd let them in. She was happy for the first time in a long, long while. Chuck had helped; he'd shown her that not everyone wanted something from her. The complete opposite of everything her father had taught her when she was younger. She'd even started calling Carol and Alex, Mom and Dad. It had taken a while, but she had gotten there. She had come home one day from a good day at school (a lot of classes with Chuck) and it just rolled off her tongue. It felt natural. She'd spent more time with them doing family things, watching movies on Saturday nights, she'd even played a board game. I know right? Sarah Walker playing a freaking board game.

And now someone else was going to leave her. But it was more than that. Chuck was going to leave her. Her best friend. The most adorable and yet sexy boy in the world. The first person she may have more than just 'friend-like' feelings for.

Wiping at her eyes, she watched as the firemen fought a raging battle against the fire, only to have something catch her eye.

Chuck! Suddenly she was running towards him, she could hear Carol calling to the firefighters. Sarah skidded on to her knees next to Chuck and became worried when she found him moving erratically. His reddened hands were clawing at his throat. Gently, she took his flailing hands into her own and brought them away from his throat. Before she could say anything she was pushed aside to watch the paramedics as they worked on Chuck. Her foot bumped against something and she looked down to find a blue backpack lying on the ground next to Chuck and picked it up. It must have been important to Chuck for him to run into a burning building to get it. 'Or he was just that dumb. When you get better Chuck I'm gonna kill you for making me - us go through all that. Geez, how could you be so idiotic, Chuck?'

Chuck freaking out again brought Sarah out of her thoughts. The paramedics had put the oxygen mask on Chuck and he clearly didn't want it on.

Sarah tried to calm him over the medical jargon of the paramedics. "Chuck, you need to calm down. You're gonna be okay."

His eyes opened and after a second or two his beautiful brown eyes stared straight into hers and Sarah couldn't stop the flow of tears that made their way down her face. Happy tears. Chuck had stopped fighting the paramedics and she continued to talk to him, to reassure him. "Everything's gonna be fine, Chuck." Before she could say more the paramedics moved her away so that they get the gurney through to Chuck. Within a matter of seconds, Chuck was in the ambulance that was carving its way to the hospital.

When they arrived, soon after Chuck had, Alex's position wasn't enough to find out how Chuck was. It merely warranted a 'He's okay.' But nothing more. It was policy that they could only give news out to family members.

"Oh, God. Ellie!" Sarah said in alarm. "We need to call her. Tell her that Chuck's in hospital."

"How? We don't even have her number." Carina asked the pertinent question.

The nurse had been listening in on their conversation, having no other job at the moment in time, answered them, "Charles' sister was called as soon as he arrived. I talked to her myself and she assured me that she would be here as soon as possible." With a smile the nurse directed the worried group to the waiting room.

He wasn't on the ground anymore. That's the first thing he noticed. It was soft, but not as soft as his bed. It was the smell of antiseptic clued him into the fact that he was in a hospital.

'Why am I in a hospital? What happened?' Chuck started to freak out. Opening his eyes, he quickly closed them against the harsh lighting of the room. After a quick succession of blinks, Chuck was able to look around. He was in a large ward, he could tell by the fact that the only thing separating him from the large discord of sound was a thin, light blue curtain.

Raising his hands to wipe his bleary eyes, Chuck was shocked to find his hand swathed in bandages. 'Oh God,' he groaned silently as he remembered the events that landed him in his current predicament. He was glad to find that his fingers weren't wrapped up. This meant that he wouldn't have to take days off from school or work. Thank God. He didn't need to add catching up and extra hours to his workload.

Whatever they gave him for the pain, something he was very grateful for, was wearing off and the ache from his burns became more and more prominent. Luckily a doctor entered his small cubicle. The doctor introduced himself as Doctor Malcolm Cobb. He'd promptly laughed at the look on Chuck's face, stating that he was lucky his parents did want their only son to reach the age of twenty and decided that being called Jayne certainly wouldn't help his case. After sharing a laugh, the doctor's smile transformed into a serious frown.

"Mr Bartowski-"

"Call me Chuck, Doc." Chuck interrupted with a small smile.

Doctor Cobb smiled but it was tight and it didn't reach his eyes. "Alright, Chuck, when we were tending to you we noticed evidence of beatings... several beatings," Malcolm Cobb stopped a frown from blossoming on his face as he watched the lively young lad before him close himself off. "I need you to trust me and to be honest with me, Chuck. Are either of your parents responsible for the... bruises?" He stared right into Chuck's eyes and it made Chuck slightly uncomfortable but he knew that he had to stop that accusation in its tracks before anyone tried to delve into his and Ellie's lives.

Looking straight into the Doctor's eyes with as much sincerity as possible, he replied, "no. I'm just a clumsy child." He gave an awkward chuckle, still under the doctor's scrutiny. "I swear. Okay, maybe a few run-ins with bullies and stuff but that's all been dealt with. Honestly."

The Doctor broke off eye contact, the young lad's testimony was very heartfelt, but he had to face the facts, the kid was a bad liar. Good attribute to have. "Okay, Chuck. I'll leave it alone, but only if you're sure. If there's any problem, promise me you'll tell someone."

With the brightest smile he could muster Chuck promised the friendly doctor that he would certainly do so.

"Okay, to the diagnosis. You are one lucky gorram kid, Chuck. Aside from smoke inhalation you have first degree burns on your hands. The smoke inhalation was treated on your way to the hospital. Now to your burns: your hands are gonna be sore for a little while. They may swell and you're gonna have to apply some Aloe Vera on them for the next few days and if you feel any pain, over the counter pain meds are perfectly fine. You'll have to change the wrapping every day until the burns heal which should take no more than a week." Doctor Cobb shut the clipboard with Chuck's information with a snap as he moved towards the thin curtain.

"When can I leave?" Chuck asked before the doctor left.

"As soon as your sister comes we can sign you out." And with that and a large grin the doctor left Chuck to himself.

Ellie was coming. A large part of Chuck's brain was cheering at the chance to see his sister, even if they had only been separated for less than a month.

Roughly, two percent of his brain started panicking. Ellie was gonna kill him. And he couldn't blame her. He'd been an idiot. Running into a fire to save a few keepsakes - rather important keepsakes, sure- but nothing warranting the idiocy of his previous act. And he had drawn Ellie out of studying. Ellie had worked so hard studying to get into UCLA. She almost didn't go because of their father's vanishing act and now, because of his pure foolishness she had to give up very important studying time to come all the way to Burbank and pick him up from the hospital.

Zero point zero zero zero one percent of him rejoiced at the fact that she wasn't driving all the way to Burbank to collect him from the police station. It was a small plus, but he'd take anything he could.

Pushing the thin sheet off of him, Chuck realised that he was wearing a hospital gown. He knew he shouldn't be surprised, the Doctor had asked him about the bruises and they were mainly concentrated on his torso, but the feeling that someone had stripped him of his shirt – he was thankful that his trousers were still on under the gown – while he was unconscious. That was slightly weird and Chuck felt his face turning red. Jerking the material off him, he pushed those thoughts aside and found his shirt on the back of the plastic chair by his bed and quickly put it on to ward away cold.

Suddenly the curtain was ripped open behind him and he turned just in time to see a blur of brown before he was roughly taken into an embrace. Realizing it was none other than his sister, Chuck's arms came to life and rose from their useless spots at his sides and wrapped themselves around his her. Abruptly she pushed herself from his embrace and punched him- hard- on his shoulder.

"Oww, dammit Ellie! I swear you don't know your own strength." Looking more closely at his sister he asked, "have you- have you been crying?"

"Why do you sound so surprised? I get a call saying that there's been a fire and that you had been admitted. What did you expect me to think?" Ellie wiped at her red-rimmed eyes and glared at Chuck. "Seriously, Chuck. What the Hell? Running into a burning building? I just can't seem to wrap my head around the fact that my responsible little brother- who convinced me that it would be fine for him to stay by himself with me only an hour away- to do something so… so dim-witted. Why, Chuck? Just please explain to me why the Hell you thought it would be a good idea? Coz I'm seriously drawing up a blank."

Chuck's head had slowly dropped throughout Ellie's – well-deserved – reaming. "Look, I don't really know what I was thinking. I- I guess I wasn't really thinking." Chuck looked into Ellie's eyes, watching them soften. "It's just, I couldn't just stand and watch while everything we own burnt to a crisp. We had photo's and just things that - "Chuck stopped himself.

"Things that what, Chuck?" Her voice was softer, gentler, now.

"I just couldn't stand back and watch as everything that showed that w– we were once a – a family burnt away. Everything that proved that on- once, there was a time when…" Chuck's throat was blocked and he looked at the ceiling, willing his eyes to dry. He couldn't say anymore but Ellie knew.

"Everything that proved that they once loved us." Chuck nodded. "Oh, Chuck." Ellie wrapped him in her embrace once more, blinking away her tears as she felt Chuck's soak through her shirt. Pushing away from him, gently this time, Ellie grasped his shoulders and made sure he was looking directly into her eyes. "We don't need any evidence to know they loved us, once upon a time." Chuck mumbled something incoherent and Ellie asked him to repeat himself, feeling her heart break once more when he did.

"It wasn't enough for them to stay. We weren't enough."

Ellie grabbed his chin and forced him to look at her. "That's not true. You know that Chuck. I don't know why they left us, I can't even begin to fathom why, but they did. And it wasn't anything you or I did, okay? You need to understand that, Chuck. It wasn't your fault. It happened, they left but we still have each other and that's all we need, okay?"

"Okay." Chuck repeated, a small smile growing on his face, only to be marred with a confused frown. "Ellie, what are we gonna do about the apartment? Where am I gonna stay?"

"Before I came in here I met a few friends you made. They offered for you to stay at their place and they made a very convincing argument."

"Friends? What frie-" Chuck's unfinished question was answered when he walked into the waiting room. "Oh, those frien-oof!" This time Chuck was unable to finish speaking because someone crushed him into a bear hug, overwhelming his bruised ribs, only to pull away and hit him. The exact same place as Ellie had done previously. "Dear God! What the Hell is up with you women today?" He cried out as he checked his shoulder for any sign of bruising - he already had enough of those.

"What's up with us? You're the idiot that ran into a burning building!" Sarah was pissed beyond all reckoning.

"I'm sorry," Chuck was once again wrapped in Sarah's embrace and her scent of… vanilla? Whatever it was it smelt nice, very nice. Chuck blushed as he caught his thoughts wandering into uncharted territory. Drawing himself out of the embrace he could have sworn that Sarah's cheeks were tinged slightly with pink. It was probably because of the temperature in the waiting room, which was unbearably high all of a sudden.

Once he knew that any sign of his blushing was gone, Chuck looked up to the rest of the crowd. The whole Miller family was there as well as Casey.

"Hey, Chuck. All patched up?" Alex asked.

"Yeah, just a couple of small burns. Should be gone in a week or so. So umm…" Chuck looked uncertainly between Ellie and the Miller's silently asking if they had really offered him a place to stay.

Carol caught on quickly, smiling brightly, "Me and Alex talked to your sister and we offered for you to stay with us, indefinitely. Before you say anything we'd just like to stop any of your arguments in their tracks. It's close to school, Ellie can rest assured that you're being looked after and there's no need for you to waste time and money looking for another place. You can stay as long as you want. It's no problem."

Chuck looked at Ellie, who was giving him and 'I-told-you-so' smile that only older sisters could perfect. "I can see what you mean about a convincing argument."

And that was how Chuck ended up living under the same roof as Sarah Walker. Oh, man. Things were gonna get interesting.

Oh! Oh! Just realised another reason why we write, so you can make us feel happy by clicking that little (but important) button just down there and inflating our heads, or deflating them. We don't mind (lie), praise or constructive criticism (another lie). Just kidding. Please let us know what you think, compliments and constructive criticism is (honestly this time) welcome.

D-no

TeamBartowski.