CHAPTER 25

It had been a week and Chuck still hadn't told her what was in the closet. Granted, Sarah hadn't asked, but she was getting close. At least close in the sense that she had contemplated numerous times how to make him tell her.

She could try just demanding he tell her, but there was a chance he would push back and try to hide it again. She could try to sneak in and find out on her own, but it felt like too much of an invasion which, even if he didn't find out, would taint what they had. She could try threats, but either they could come out flat since she wouldn't mean them or he'd believe them and it would ruin everything they had. Or she could really risk it all and try to overwhelm him with seduction, but there was a chance he would give in and turn it on her, and that would throw them off the tightrope they were walking.

Their week off had been fairly simple apart from when Chuck flashed on a report about a terrorist attack and it turned out one of the perpetrators was based out of Encino. While they had staked out his house Chuck sat in the back of the van going over all the documentation Casey had gathered for him to study for the analyst tests.

As usual things had ended with Chuck disabling a bomb while they took out a small cell of Eco-terrorist. By the time the cleaners arrived Chuck had pulled all the contacts from their phones, which led to six other cells on the west coast.

When they pulled up to Echo Park that night Chuck seemed a bit solemn, so Sarah grabbed his hand to stop him from getting out of the car. The cameras couldn't see them here.

"You did good today, Chuck."

He shrugged. "Eh, it wasn't hard. Like Casey said they're hippies. They were using basic stuff they were probably given when they joined up. Anyone could have cracked it."

"No," she said shaking her head and pinning him with her gaze. "We did something good by stopping them."

Realizing what she'd meant, Chuck nodded. "I know. I just wish we could have got them before the first attack."

"Well, unless the Intersect also makes you a psychic I don't think we can do much to predict things like this." Sarah rubbed his hand consolingly. "All we can do is be vigilant and be prepared to react and adapt to anything."

"Constant vigilance," Chuck said with a grin.

"Sure," Sarah said nodding until Chuck's choked laugh made her narrow her eyes. Damn it, that was another reference she missed, wasn't it? "What?"

"It's from Harry Potter. This one guy is an old auror, kind of like a wizard cop, and he's really paranoid and-it doesn't matter," Chuck shook his head. "It's a thing he says."

Watching him pull his bag from the back seat, Sarah took a breath. "Chuck?"

"Yeah?"

"Are we okay?"

Facing her in the passenger seat, Chuck nodded. "I think so. Why?"

"Well we're taking some big steps lately with the cover business and now you studying to be an analyst. I just want to make sure we're all on the same page. I know things were tense for a while, but hopefully it didn't change too much."

Chuck couldn't get a good read on her, but had a sense this was about more than what she was saying. The problem was he wasn't sure what it was so he wasn't sure how to handle it beyond assuring her, "We're good."

"Okay," she said, relenting for now. Sarah stayed in the car to watch him head back to Ellie's, not wanting to risk slipping in front of the cameras right then.

At the door Chuck turned as usual and waved to her, and smiled when he saw her wave back before driving away, leaving him to enter the apartment. He found Ellie leaning into Devon as they sat on the couch in their scrubs. She greeted him with a smile that had been there since she heard his keys jingling before unlocking the door.

"How was your date?"

"Fun," he answered with a shrug. "I'm heading to bed."

"Maybe next time, bro," Devon said with a sympathetic nod.

Chuck furrowed his brow but didn't ask, instead he gave them a wave. "Goodnight."

Ellie smacked Devon's shoulder playfully before getting up and following Chuck into the hall, catching up outside his room. "Don't mind him. He's just worried."

"About what?"

"That you're going so slow because of her," Ellie shrugged. "I told him it's none of our business…"

Chuck's head slumped to the side seeing her eyes practically popping out of her head as they flew from side to side. "But?"

"Is she okay?" Ellie asked softly, placing a hand on Chuck's shoulder with a frown. "Is it because of something that's happened to her?"

"What?"

"We had to run a kit tonight and it got me thinking maybe you're going so slow for her sake. Maybe because of some old trauma?" Ellie said somberly, "Was she…"

Catching her meaning, Chuck shook his head. "No, no. At least I don't think so."

Ellie breathed a sigh of relief. "Okay. Sorry, but, it was a blonde girl and it got me thinking."

"I get it," Chuck nodded. "We're just taking our time, El. She has her past and I have mine, you know. We want to try to do this right, and I think maybe we're both just afraid to screw it up. Especially now that we're going to be working together."

Chuck looked into his sister's eyes and wanted to tell her everything, to bear his soul like he did when Cassandra McKinely broke up with him in the cafeteria. She found him crying in his room from the embarrassment and heartbreak and spent the night hugging him, going back and forth between joking that she'd set him up with some college girls to make her jealous and saying she'd go beat the shit out of Cassie. He'd missed that openness they had, and even before the Intersect he'd always had to hold back part of himself thanks to the Piranha.

He'd debated it often, but didn't want her worrying or to risk her forcing him to stop, not when it had mattered so much to him. For so long it had been the only good thing he did with his life, the only time he did something that mattered and helped people in some real way, but that had changed. Just tonight he helped two of the best federal agents subdue a terrorist cell, disabled a bomb which would have taken out three city blocks, and found six other cells which would be planning their own attacks. Sarah had said they did good, so maybe Chuck could live without the Piranha.

It would take time though, and he wasn't ready to open up to Ellie that much just yet. He could however open up to her vaguely about his relationship. Surely that would be okay.

"There were times where everything felt hopeless," Chuck told her. "Like it was doomed or I was wasting her time. I'll admit things aren't what I want right now, but they also kind of are. Right now I feel like it's more real than it ever has been. As little as there is, it feels more real than everything with Jill ever did." Especially since he found out she lied about dating with Bryce. "Maybe not as solid, but bigger, better. I don't want to ruin it by pushing her, and with all of her stuff I think she prefers we go slow and give it time over moving too fast and ending up with her having to leave here too."

Ellie was clearly proud hearing her brother, not to mention relieved that he was opening up to her, and ecstatic that he was comparing his relationship with Sarah favorably to the one with Jill despite how little they seemed to do physically and how long Jill had hurt him. Taking his hands she squeezed them and bounced slightly before sighing as she realized what he'd said at the end, reminding her how Sarah had mentioned her decision to leave DC. "Her ex must have been some piece of shit, huh?"

Chuckling, he shrugged. "I don't know. I think they just weren't right for each other. Maybe they were too similar. I think he wasn't what she needed, you know?"

"And you are?" Ellie asked hopefully.

Chuck took a breath and shrugged. "I don't know. I hope so. If not I hope I can be."

"Well you're pretty great, little brother," she said beaming.

After a quick shower Chuck settled in for the night, locking his door and running his detector before opening the vent in his closet and taking out his laptop. While the Orion one was a cut above his own, he didn't want to risk Orion if he slipped up somehow. At least that was what he told himself to avoid admitting that his pride as the Piranha kept him from accepting some part of his success might be aided by Orion's computer.

After working through another name on the shrinking list he'd been whittling down over the last month, Chuck decided that in honor of that night's mission he'd look into other terrorist groups. Usually he chose his targets from the news, but decided to go a bit deeper. The group they had found that night wasn't one usually named whenever an attack happened. The next day's report on their arrests would be the first time the groups name would appear in a national newspaper. As if his time in the spy world hadn't made it clear, the obvious threats weren't the only ones they had to worry about.

So Chuck grabbed a shovel and dug. He found a dozen different attacks and started pulling the government files on each of them. It took a bit more time since he didn't have the familiarity he did with the US ones, but code was code. He took his time to cover his tracks since this was research. And in that research he found that eight of the attacks were linked to a single organization.

"What the hell is the Gentle Hand?" he said aloud, though it didn't take long for him to pull of files on the group.

The Gentle Hand were terrorist for hire. Used by criminals to further their agenda as well as a few corrupt politicians trying to push theirs. Looking through the file for them he found a picture of their leader and upon reading his name felt the pull of a flash flooding his mind with intel on Augusto Gaez.

Shaking his head afterward Chuck laughed. "The CIA know about him?"

Chuck swiftly pulled up the CIA database and pulled up Gaez's file, scanning through it until he asked, "What the hell is CAT Squad?"

That was the next page he brought up, and instantly he chuckled to himself. "Aren't team and squad kind of redundant?" Shaking his head, he scrolled down halfway before his smile faded. "Carina?" He scrolled down twice more before his stomach twisted into a knot and he felt sick. "Sarah?"

He wanted to slam the monitor down but he couldn't. It was too late, he'd screwed up and he couldn't take it back. Setting the laptop aside he put his head in his hands muttering, "Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!"

He'd made a point of avoiding Sarah's file and was even terrified of flashing on her again. He wanted her to tell him about herself because she wanted him to know about her, not to force it out of her or find it out himself like he had Casey. As much as he was glad Casey now knew about his daughter, he still regretted how he'd found out. He didn't want to do the same to Sarah.

It was too late though, so Chuck let out a long breath and pulled the laptop back onto his lap. If he'd gone this far then he may as well see what it was. Clearly the CIA hadn't gotten Gaez, but maybe The Piranha could help Sarah close this old case.

In the morning Sarah went through her usual routine and settled in front of her laptop where she found a news alert. Though she'd never get the credit for them she still liked seeing how the news reported on her cases, so tracked most of them to some degree. That morning she found one she'd almost forgot she set up.

"Demetrios?" She whispered, bringing up the story. A quick read found it was about a raid on the Le Cruda cartel, which the report revealed with the sixteenth one linked to the dismantled Demetrios smuggling ring.

Sarah spent an hour looking into it and found that it was actually the eighteenth, the CIA had just covered up the sixth and twelfth. The story was right though, all of them were tied to the Demetrios family. It was as she looked through the list that she heard Chuck's threat to Yari play in the back of her mind. His promise to make everyone who was ever linked to him suffer and to make sure they knew it was because of him.

Sarah gasped, her focus shifting beyond the screen in front of her. Did he make good on his promise? Was that what he was keeping from them?

AN:

Chuck as the Piranha here gives a lot of ways to introduce characters earlier than normal, though I want to avoid overuse. I have one other I'm considering at the moment, but beyond that not many.

There's a certain kind of amusement and joy I find in shifts of context that remain similar. So Chuck's involvement with the CAT Squad in canon starts with him trying to help Sarah, which becomes kind of the word of the episode as he apologizes for helping her and she tells him to not to stop, etc. Here he decides to get involved again to help, but to help them close the case rather than full out her side of the aisle. Not important, but amusing for me.