Chapter 12
When Peter and Neal arrived, Sarah had quickly bid her goodbyes and left. They were the last two people she wanted to know about her going to El for advice about what to do with the Chuck and the 'does he want a baby?' situation. It was crazy, even to her, that she would be worried about such a little thing. She was a trained spy and should be able to talk her way through anything.
El assured her that it wasn't a little thing, that having a child would be a big step for them and that she should talk to Chuck about it because they needed to be on the same page, especially if their actions were going to affect another life.
"Talk about it as many times as you need to," she had said. Now, Sarah was certain that she hid any signs of nervousness. Sitting there with El, it was easy to imagine having that talk. Yet, El had looked at her and then said that she would call tomorrow and see if she had talked to him. "If you haven't, then we'll come up with another plan," she explained knowledgeably.
Maybe El's ability to read people or to just have a back-up plan that the other person would find acceptable was part of her job as an event-planner. As much as she would have liked to go to El for more advice, the more she did, the more likely it was that Peter or, heaven forbid, Bryce would find out. The last thing she wanted was her ex hearing about her current relationship worries.
"Chuck?" she called as she opened the door to their hotel room, her heart hammering in her chest. There was a lot that could go wrong; maybe he would leave her because he wanted children, maybe they would be so tense that they wouldn't be able to continue working together on this mission or maybe he would insist on children anyway, regardless of what she wanted. There was a lot to lose.
"Hey," he greeted her with his large, nerdy smile from the bed where he was sitting and flipping through a TV guide.
"Hi," she responded, nerves bubbling up in her stomach. She strolled across the room and sat on the edge of the bed, on the opposite side from him.
He seemed to sense that something was up as he sat up.
"Something wrong?" he asked.
"We need to talk," she responded. The worry that settled into his features sent a stab of pain through her heart. Maybe this could wait? At least until the mission was over. "I want to go out for dinner tonight," she said instead of starting the baby conversation, "it's a place El suggested and I'd like to try it while we're here." She accompanied all this with a bright smile.
The worry on Chuck's face vanished, replaced with confusion which hurt her less.
"That's what you want to talk about?" He didn't sound so certain.
"Of course," she said, nodding her head to reinforce the thought. "I don't think we go out nearly enough."
Chuck mused on this for a moment before smiling again.
"Sure, if that's what you want," he said, grabbing his wallet. "So, where is this place?"
She smiled at his happy energy as she relayed what El had told her.
Chuck knew that he was easy to fool. He fell for each and every story people told. But, he also knew that they didn't work too long on him. He dawned onto the way Sarah changed the subject the next morning, when he woke up and she was already in the shower. She hadn't been sleeping near him and they didn't cuddle in the mornings either.
He knew then that whatever she wanted to talk about, it wasn't about going out. No, there was something else bothering her. Something that made it difficult for her to be close to him.
"Sarah, is there anything wrong?" he asked her when she came out of the shower. It was probably a little mean surprise her with such a question during her morning routine but, he had been hoping to surprise a proper answer out of her.
"Nope," she responded. One word responses weren't proper answers; Chuck's high school English teacher would support him on that.
He didn't know what to do. Once again, he felt like he was failing her. He failed to know what she needed.
Later that morning, their phones rang, one after the other. Sarah's rang first and she pushed himself outside while she answered it. His rang a little bit after and he answered it while sitting next to the locked hotel room door.
"Peter heard from Ward and they're meeting in three hours," Bryce said, "get ready."
"Right," Chuck responded. Peter would come and pick them up and they would use his equipment to monitor the meet. Chuck knocked on the door and called out to Sarah that they had work to do.
The plan was simple enough. Ryker would meet with Ward and whomever he was working for, confirm that they had the first painting and then they would take them down. If he could get their reason for stealing it out of them, then that was a bonus, although Sarah was pretty sure they could get that out of them during interrogation.
Sarah, Chuck and Bryce; he couldn't use Neal's ID because the meet was outside his radius, would be listening from a back room of the warehouse where the meet was taking place. Bryce set up cameras, Chuck programmed their laptops to the feed and Sarah scouted the place. She located all the exits and paths. She also hid a few guns for Ryker to use if he needed. Ryker watched and coordinated.
"So, when was the last time you did something like this?" Bryce felt like asking. The silence had been bugging him.
"Why do you ask?" Ryker responded in a lower register of voice than Peter used. Bryce felt a shiver creep down his back before he sighed.
He shouldn't have expected anything else, it wasn't like he would answer properly if Peter; Ryker!, asked.
"It's almost time," Sarah announced and the hush returned to the room. She turned to Ryker. "You should get into place."
Ryker nodded and moved. Bryce tried to suppress the feeling that something was wrong. After all, he wasn't really used to seeing Ryker work. He was used to working with Peter.
Ward showed five minutes after the designated meeting time. He strolled in and stopped a fair distance away from Ryker.
"You're late," Ryker commented.
"Yeah, well, things happen," Ward responded in a vexed tone, "you have the painting?"
Ryker nodded and lifted the tube carton he was holding.
"You have my money?"
Ward nodded and motioned towards the briefcase he was carrying.
"Let's do this then," Ryker said, stepping forward. "Although, I don't know what you'd want with this painting."
"That's none of your business," Ward spat as he pulled out a gun. "Drop the painting!"
Ryker held his arms up, still holding the tube. Bryce's stomach felt like it plummeted. His instincts had been right, there was something off about this. It wasn't an exchange, Ward was going to take the painting and kill the witness.
Peter.
"I thought we had a deal?" Peter questioned. There was a shift in the shadows around him.
"Bryce!" Sarah scolded in a whisper as he jumped to his feet and out the door. The back room was hidden behind storage boxes, so they couldn't see him as he stalked out.
"What are you doing?" He should have guessed that Sarah would follow him out.
"He's in danger," Bryce responded, pulling out his gun. "We have to help him."
"No." She grabbed his arm. "He's a trained spy, he can handle it."
Bryce glanced through the boxes where Peter was surrounded by four gunmen, including Ward. There was no way he would be able to grab his gun and shoot them before they shot him.
"I'll take that," Ward said and Peter grunted as the tube was taken from him.
It sounded final and so, Bryce shrugged Sarah off and moved.
