This is not an original story. It was written during the middle of season 2. The original story assumed a sequel that never happened. So there will be some brand new content in this rewrite and several new chapters at the end.

Okay, I'll admit that I'm getting pretty frustrated by a couple of reviews. I put a warning in the very beginning of this. Yet, I'm getting complaints about the very thing I warned about.

So let me say this as plainly as I can. This story is about Sarah turning from mostly spy and a little girlfriend into mostly girlfriend and just a little spy. Currently she thinks that sex is a valid weapon for her. By the end of the story, hopefully that will change. But for right now, she is pretty unapologetic about that. I think she has valid points, but that is an eye of the beholder thing. For those of you who see Sarah through the prism of mainly Chuck's girlfriend, she is going to fall short lots of times. But she is going to grow.

So if you are one of those people who are uncomfortable with the concept that Sarah might use sex in her job, you are unlikely to enjoy this story. That's fair. But please, PLEASE, stop reading. This type of pointless, complaining review is exactly what the warning was designed to prevent. If you insist on reading after reading my warnings, you forfeit any right to complain. If enough people stop reading, I'll stop writing. But all you're currently doing is pissing me off. Both of the reviews I'm referring to are from people who have never written a story of their own before. I'm currently updating twice a week with mostly new content. Try that sometime before you bitch.

Having said that, I am open to constructive criticism. I've learned a lot from critical reviews. A lot of ideas from reviews have made it into my stories.

If you read the original (and good decision, BTW) you'll notice that some basic things have changed. In fact the number of chapters has changed. I've added new scenes and deleted others. This chapter is mostly new but there is a key scene that you might recognize. In the original it was much later.

I realized that when I changed the rating, fewer people would read the story. It simply doesn't show up in the default list. I guess I'm surprised by how many fewer. But it can't be helped. There was no way to tell the story I wanted to tell and keep it T. You'll see why soon.

Anyway, it's probably now more important than ever that the few of you that remain stay vocal.

I still don't own Chuck.

If you enjoyed this or any of the stories on this site, please take a second and send the author a review. It only takes a second – and it really, really makes a difference. That's probably more important than ever now that the series has ended. If you want to keep the Chuck fandom alive and continue to read about these characters, you really need to think about rewarding the people whose hard work make that possible.

The Partner and the Pastor

x-x-x-x-x

It was perhaps the longest limo ride of Chuck's life. He could tell that Sarah was pissed. But then again, drivers on the other side of I-15 could tell that Sarah was pissed. She was making zero effort to hide it. Chuck really wasn't sure what to do. For one thing, he wasn't totally sure why she was so upset. But he also knew her well enough to understand that trying to talk to her before she had cooled off a little was not going to go well. So they rode home in total silence.

It was when he saw her plop down a blanket and pillow on the couch that he knew this was serious and he had better address it. "Um, Sarah," he said cautiously. "Care to tell me why you're so mad at me that I'm obviously going to be sleeping on the couch?"

"I'm not mad," Sarah said quickly. "At least, not at you. That's not why you're sleeping on the couch tonight."

Chuck wasn't sure he believed that. She still looked pretty mad. "Then why?" he asked.

"You don't even know, do you?" Sarah sighed. "That's even worse. Chuck how many times do we have to have this discussion? You are the Intersect. People all over the world are looking to capture you and use your abilities. After they torture you for a few months and you're of no further value to them, they kill you. Are you trying to help them? You simply can't be putting yourself at risk."

"Are you talking about the fight?" Chuck asked, genuinely surprised. "Come on. Be fair. That wasn't anything to do with the Intersect. It was just some rednecks looking for trouble."

"Oh," Sarah said, the sarcasm dripping from her voice. "Maybe I'm being too harsh. Tell me how you knew that it wasn't Fulcrum using Devon and Ellie to lay a trap for you. You must surely know enough about Fulcrum by now to realize they would do that in a heartbeat. So the only logical explanation is that you must have known that it wasn't Fulcrum somehow. What you did was still stupid. But tell me how you knew and I'll drop this. Did you flash or something?"

Chuck held his tongue.

"I didn't think so," Sarah said angrily after she realized that Chuck wasn't going to respond. "You just don't get it at all. You are simply not a normal person. You have special responsibilities. Why do you think that Beckman made you an agent in the first place, Chuck?" Then without waiting for a response she continued her rant. "Because Casey and I forced her hand. We told her that she either had to support us or fight us. She was not at all happy about it and that is mild understatement. It was far more than just our careers we were risking. It was an incredibly tense moment. And honestly there was a time when it could have gone either way. What turned the tide was when we convinced her that you would honestly do the right thing if she trusted you. Now I'm going to have to report to her that the Intersect got into a fucking bar fight and sustained injuries. She is absolutely going to hit the roof, and with every good reason."

"Okay," Chuck said. "I get that."

"No you don't," Sarah insisted. "Not at all. I really wish that you did. Because there's a lot more. Forget all about your responsibility to the country for a minute. Forget all about Beckman or the CIA or doing the right thing. Do you have a clue in that tiny pea brain of yours what losing you would do to me? Do you? It would destroy me. It would end me, make me want to stop living. You claim to love me. You're willing to put me through that?"

That finally got a reaction. "I don't 'claim' to love you," Chuck snapped back angrily. "That was a low blow and you fucking know it. Do you think I could live after something happened to you? Yet you seem to willingly put yourself in plenty of dangerous situations. Do you 'claim' to love me? You need to be at least a little fair here. I'm not even sure what you would have had me do tonight. I walked up on four guys pounding on Devon. Did you really expect me to stand there and watch them kick his ass?"

"Of course not," Sarah snapped back. "But do you really think that joining him in getting his ass kicked was going to help in any way? You should have went for help, found me, went to the bar and got security, called 911 on your fucking cell phone, almost anything other than what you did. It was pure luck that I got there in time."

Chuck took a deep breath. "Okay," he finally said. "I get it. Maybe I could have handled it better. I'm sorry, okay? Can we please make up? I hate it when you're mad at me."

"I'm not mad at you," Sarah insisted. "Not really. That's not what this is at all. I'd love to be able to stand here and tell you how proud I am of you, let you know that you're a hero, my hero, drag you into the bedroom and make you forget all about the pain in your gut. But I can't do those things. It would send you the wrong message. You want me to me fair? I'm sorry, I can't do that. Fulcrum has no intention of being fair. So it's a luxury that we just don't have in fighting them. Chuck, I just don't know how to get through to you about this. I'm going to be your wife. But I've always been your bodyguard. I'm going to protect you, even if it means treating you like an asset for a while. Maybe spending a night on the couch will make you think about it next time something like this happens. If you think I'm happy about this in any way, you're crazy. The truth is, I'm dreading going into that bedroom alone. I probably won't get a minute's sleep without being cuddled with you. I'm getting punished far more here than you are. So, yeah, I guess that does make me a little mad at you."

Chuck could tell that there was no way to talk himself out of this. "Okay," he sighed. "I'm sorry."

"I know that you are sorry," Sarah said softly. "I'm sorry too. But sorry just isn't good enough. You simply have to change, to condition yourself to be overly cautious."

"I'll see you in the morning."

x-x-x-x-x

It was fairly intuitive that Chuck wasn't having a very good night, on multiple levels really. The pain in his stomach was mostly gone. Ellie was right, he did have quite an ugly bruise. But the pain had mostly faded. Now it was still pretty tender to the touch, but otherwise just a little sore.

The couch was ridiculously uncomfortable. It really hadn't been designed to sleep on in the first place, wasn't even long enough to allow him to stretch out his legs. Chuck found himself tossing and turning trying to find a position that would let him fall asleep. But that proved to be fairly futile.

But the real reason he couldn't sleep was more emotional. He had let her down. She was in that bedroom tossing and turning just like he was. He didn't have to see it to know it was true. The worst part was that, even if she wasn't being totally fair, she had a valid point. Jumping into that pile hadn't been very smart. They were still hopelessly outnumbered. All it would have accomplished was to get both him and Devon seriously hurt and Ellie… well who knows? He was supposed to be the brains of the operation. Maybe it was time to start acting like it.

But maybe he did fall asleep for a while. Because suddenly he realized that Sarah was kneeling on the floor next to him. She had his right hand firmly grasped in hers, her head lying on top of their joined hands. She looked to be sleeping.

His initial reaction was to wake her up and try to make up with her. After all, the couch maybe wasn't all that comfortable, but the position she was currently in looked horribly awkward. And there was a big comfortable bed twenty feet away just waiting for them. But by more instinct that anything, Chuck decided to stay still. He knew her. If he woke her up, she'd just go back to bed alone, back to her tossing and turning. It wasn't until he heard her speak that he realized she wasn't sleeping.

"I love you," Sarah said softly. "I honestly do. I have for a long, long time. Ellie calls me lovesick. She says there is no known cure. That's good because I don't want to be cured. I'm just wish I wasn't so miserable at it. I don't even know how to say it to you properly. And I know that you worry about it. That somehow you think that it isn't real or won't last. And I should be doing more to help you somehow. I understand that. And if there was something I could think of to make you realize the truth, I would do it. But if you really knew, Chuck, if I could just open my head up and let you look inside, if you could only see in there how much I love you, you'd honestly feel silly for worrying. You never would again. There is nothing that I wouldn't do if you asked me. If you really knew how I felt, how intense it is, it would probably scare you."

Chuck couldn't help the deep breath at hearing that… and that caused Sarah to pause until she was convinced that he was still asleep.

"And I'm so sorry that I'm not the girl that you deserve," Sarah continued as she gave the hand she was holding a squeeze. "I'm really trying to be. I'm so sorry for all of the crap that you have to put up with just to be with me. I really hope that you don't get tired of it. I'm so scared of losing you."

"And most of all," Sarah said as she tried to wipe the tears from her eyes with her free hand. "I'm sorry that I can't talk to you this way when you're awake. I'm not even sure why it's so hard. It would help you. And you deserve it. You deserve so much that you're not getting. It's just that I don't have a clue what I'm supposed to be doing. I'll be the first to admit that I'm struggling with that. Please hang in there with me. I know that it might not look like it to you but I'm trying my best. Please don't give up on me. Don't ever give up."

Chuck wanted so very badly to open his eyes. He wanted to wrap his arms around her and make her demons go away. He wanted to tell her that he felt just as strongly about her. That he would die before he gave up on her, make doubly sure she knew how silly that thought was, that he didn't even know where it was coming from. But he instinctively knew that she wouldn't want that tonight. Chuck understood that it was therapeutic for her to softly talk to him without him hearing. So he did the only thing that he could do. He stayed still on his back and pretended to be asleep while the love of his life softly struggled to offer words of love. And, okay, maybe they weren't the most eloquent words. But they were honest, the very best that she could come up with through her tears, and wow were they effective. He promised himself that the very second he could, he would make her feel as loved as he was feeling right now.

It's funny how life works. Chuck was spending his first night on the couch since becoming a couple. He was having a bad night. There was no question about that.

Until right now. Suddenly it was the very best night of his life.

x-x-x-x-x

Pastor Bob Michaels sat in his office working on his sermon for Sunday. It was honestly a part of the job that he loved. But then again, he loved most parts of his job.

Bob always approached his sermons more like a college professor would approach a lecture. If he had a criticism of his brethren, it was that their sermons tended to depend too much on pure emotion. Oh, Bob certainly was willing to use emotion when it was appropriate. A person's relationship with God was an emotional subject. But that emotion had to be based upon solid logic. The comment he enjoyed the most was when somebody told him that they had learned something that Sunday morning.

He was so consumed with his thoughts that he didn't see the man approach until he wrapped softly on the open office door. "Chuck," Bob exclaimed warmly as he immediately got up to greet him. "What a nice surprise."

Chuck wasn't really a hugger by nature, and especially with another man. But with Pastor Bob it just seemed natural, it was his way. Even after having only met him a couple of times, it was something you just expected. "I'm sorry to just show up like this," Chuck said. "If you're busy…"

Bob scoffed at that notion. "Don't be silly," he said as he guided Chuck to a padded chair and took a seat beside him. "I'll never be too busy to talk to a good friend. Where's Sarah?"

Chuck looked around the room nervously. The long answer was that she was getting ready to drive to Vegas to act the part of the sexual toy of her ex-husband and possibly many others. She was currently passionately kissing her partner goodbye to sell that they were engaged. But that was not the reason he was here. "She's working," he finally settled for.

Bob looked at Chuck and smiled. "You must know me by now," he said with a short laugh. "I'm a 'get right to it' kind of person. So let's get right to it. What's bothering you?"

Chuck looked at the floor, at the wall, out the window, anyplace but at Bob. "It's Sarah," Chuck started. Then he laughed nervously a bit. "But you've probably already figured that out, right?"

"She's quite a handful," Bob answered.

That got them both laughing and broke the tension in the room.

"She's quite a handful," Chuck agreed, still laughing. "You don't know the half of it."

"So what's wrong?"

"Here's the deal," Chuck said. "You're aware that Sarah and I see some things differently. And I don't want to cave on some of the things that I believe. But how do I do that without making her worry that I have doubts about us?"

"Do you have doubts?" Bob asked gently. "Chuck, it's okay to admit that. It doesn't mean that you don't love her. You disagree on some pretty fundamental things."

"Bob, I have zero doubts," Chuck said flatly. "That's as plainly as I can say it. I feel like my life began the day that Sarah walked into it. I can't imagine a future without her in it."

Bob smiled as he heard the honest conviction in Chuck's voice. "I sense a 'but' coming," he said playfully.

"But she's hurting," Chuck admitted. "She interprets our disagreements as more than they are. You called them fundamental a second ago. I don't see it that way. Sarah has perfectly legitimate arguments for the way she believes. I just disagree with her on some things. They certainly don't make me love her any less."

Bob's smile grew as he listened. "Let me read you a little scripture," he said as he opened his bible. "If you've ever attended a wedding, you've probably heard this. It's the scripture most often quoted. I usually refrain from using it in my weddings, just because it is cliché… and well, I'm something of a rebel. But I do think I am going to use it when I marry you and Sarah. It seems to fit somehow. It's from the 13th chapter of 1st Corinthians."

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Bob closed his bible. "It's always risky to take scripture out of context," he said. "Paul was certainly not talking about love in the context of a marriage, or even romantic love for that matter. But still, I believe this applies to your situation. What Sarah needs is to know, with zero ambiguity, the things that you just told me. She needs to understand that when you disagree with her, it is from a position of pure love. Of course she needs to hear that from your lips. But much more important, she needs to feel it from your actions. Sarah is a pretty strong person. She thinks that she always has to be the strong one in every situation, that's who she is. I can see how it might be hard to get her to sit still and listen to you. But maybe it's time to man up, Chuck, to put the ways of childhood behind you."

Chuck nodded as a smile, faint at first but quickly growing, took over his face.

"I have to tell you something," Bob said with his own smile. "I've been doing this for over thirty-four years. I can't imagine having another job. I've married scores of people over those years. But I've never met a couple as perfect for each other as you and Sarah are. It screams out just looking at you whenever I see you together, even when you disagree on things. Your love has been rigorously tested, ridiculously so. It has passed every test that life could throw at you. You've both proven over and over that your love is real. Maybe it's time that you both started depending on that love. I probably don't have to tell you how very lucky you are, Chuck."

"But, then again, so is she."

x-x-x-x-x

Sarah was sitting in Castle with Casey going over the plan for today and beyond. "Laura has certainly figured out by now that my cover is working at the Orange Orange," she said. "She almost assuredly will be watching the building for any sign that we're not really together. Hopefully she'll see as we kiss goodbye. If I know Laura, she will be aggressive, most likely follow you right over to the Buy More after I've left and start trying to make contact. It's probably best if you play dumb about knowing any of my personal history. You can just claim that we agreed not to discuss our prior lives. Laura knows me. She will find that very believable."

"Roger that," Casey said impatiently. "Don't worry about me. This is not my first rodeo. When are you going to know what you're going to do?"

"I'm meeting with Seth tonight," Sarah said. "Assuming it goes well with you, I should know then. When we kiss goodbye you should probably reach up and cop a quick feel."

Casey paused for a long moment. "I don't want to do that," he finally said.

"No kidding?" Sarah said flippantly. "Not half as much as I don't want you to. It'll be a nice touch though. It's something a fiancé would do, sell to Laura that we're romantic. Use your left hand. I'll make sure we're turned so that she'll be able to clearly see it."

"You're not understanding me," Casey said firmly. "I'm not doing it."

"Why?"

"Chuck is my partner," Casey said. "He's also my…"

"Oh my God," Sarah said in frustration as she buried her face in her hands. "Not you too. I expect this foolishness from Chuck, but certainly not from you. This is a mission. We're trying to sell something. I'm wearing a bra. You're not really going to be feeling much. Chuck wouldn't care. He won't even know about it."

"I'd know," Casey said firmly. "I'm telling you, it's not happening. I'm not putting my hand on your chest. Deal with it. And you're wrong about Chuck. He would care… a lot. And he should."

"Men," Sarah muttered dismissively. "I don't fucking believe this."

"You just don't get him at all, do you?" Casey demanded angrily. "Don't give me that professional crap, Walker. I'm not naive. I understand why seduction is necessary sometimes, why it's such a powerful weapon. I've stuck up for you to him. You know that. I would again if the situation required it. But tell me something. Just why do you think all of your seduction tactics are so effective anyway? You've spent literally hundreds of hours studying men and what they want in order to manipulate them. But you haven't spent one fucking minute studying what a husband is or what he doesn't want. For all of your smugness, all of your tactics and techniques there is something that you don't understand and never will – what it's like to be a man. Chuck knows precisely what the men you are playing are thinking, because he's had those same exact thoughts. He has put up with a ton of crap already, frankly more than I thought that he'd be capable of. Trust me. No man wants his friend's hand on his fiancé's chest no matter what the reason. If this were life or death, maybe. But it's a silly detail that doesn't matter. I'm not doing it."

"Fine," Sarah muttered.

"Let me ask you something," Casey continued. "Why would you even suggest this? In your estimation, is this detail really worth causing Chuck pain? The kiss alone is bad enough."

"Of course not," Sarah said sadly. "I would never intentionally hurt Chuck. I didn't think it would cause him any pain. I'm still not sure why you think it would."

"Well," Casey said. "I think maybe I see the problem. You'd better start learning… quick."

"I know," Sarah said with a sigh. "You're right about one thing. I don't have a clue what I'm doing. That much is pretty obvious. Look at me. I'm actually taking relationship advice… from you."

That broke the tension in the room and they both started laughing.

"Admit it," Sarah said with her eyes sparkling as soon as she could stop laughing.

"You love him too."

x-x-x-x-x