A/N: This AU starts from S3E1. Chuck has to win Sarah's heart again after Prague and convince her that he won't break her heart again. It will all be from Sarah's point of view. The first chapter is a retelling of S3E1. I will be replaying what Sarah heard and saw, along with what she said and did, but you'll get her thoughts and feelings too.

This was a request from Rafa Silva, so thank him for me doing this. If you don't like it, blame me! Note that in this AU, Agent Shaw does not join the team.

I would like to say thanks to JohnnyRayChandlett for pre-reading and giving me his thoughts of how I could improve it.

No betas were hurt in the creation of this, so it may be full of mistakes. I may be able to beta other people's stories, but am blind to my own mistakes and certainly may have British words & phrases rather than American ones. Sorry! If you spot anything I should change, PM me on FanFiction.

Disclaimer: I don't own Chuck and make no money from this. I just love the show and its characters.

Prove Yourself
Chapter 1 – Return

The last few months have been really hard for her. Not physically hard, but emotionally.

It's the first time I've experienced a hurt like this. Sure, Bryce had abandoned her, but that was more of an annoyance; she hadn't felt this way about him. The physical demands of her job somehow pale into insignificance when compared to a broken heart.

In the past, she had kept her emotions totally under control. Not even exhibited any. She had, after all, earned the label "Ice Queen" for a reason.

Ha, Ice Queen. Some Ice Queen I am, letting myself get hurt by a stammering, insensitive, egocentric idiot... No, not idiot; moron, as Casey says. John knew from the start.

Now she was a mess. That's what he'd done to her. She'd fallen for him. Probably as much as he'd claimed to have fallen for her, but she didn't want to think about that. Spies don't fall in love, after all.

Besides, he obviously hadn't fallen for me, if, the moment I offer him "everything", he refuses me.

In spite of that, every day, she'd wake up missing him. She didn't understand that. She should hate him. She certainly dreaded the moment she had to see him again. That will hurt so much.

Knowing he was being trained to become a spy made her want to weep. She did sometimes. When he did return, he would be a changed man. A cold, heartless agent. Not the loveable, gentle man she knew before. The one she had wanted.

She and Casey had continued to work from the Burbank office. The Castle. Fighting against The Ring.

At the end of a lot of planning, she had been going to the home of a mark for the last week. An infiltration mission. She had managed to gain the interest of her mark, Giles, and discovered he would be making an exchange with a Ring agent soon. He, fortunately, was not a womanizer, but did like to have her around, which suited her perfectly. However, she had to stick with him until the exchange, in case anything changed.

She had been at his place, swimming. Keeping cool. Same as most days. Since the start, she'd come over for the afternoon, claiming that was all the time she had, and sometimes went out with him in the evening. She didn't stay and she had, so far, avoided sleeping with him. She couldn't bear the thought of doing that. She never had before with a mark and wasn't going to start now.

God, she hadn't even shared a bed with anyone since "pretending" with Chuck! Somehow, even though he had broken her heart, she just couldn't move on.

So, these days were spent at Giles' villa avoiding his touch. He didn't seem to mind, but certainly enjoyed having her as his 'arm candy' when they went out. However, she still had to pretend to be soon-to-be-willing-girlfriend, at least for a few more days.

When her phone had rung, Giles had handed her the phone and she saw it was Chuck. She couldn't handle talking to Chuck. Not there. Maybe not ever again. She couldn't let him hurt her again. She'd thrown the phone in the pool. He wouldn't be able to contact her when she got a new phone.

The call did, however, bring that pain back. Normally she didn't feel anything during the working hours. Keeping herself busy. Pain during the day not only hurt, but was a distraction.

She had to get over him. So, why can't I?

Sarah is sitting in a restaurant, El Bucho, waiting for Gilles and a Ring courier to arrive for the exchange. This should be easy. Casey is here with her, acting as a waiter, as he often does. They've done this sort of thing before. They knew how to help each other. They were a team. They had been a larger team once, but she tries to forget about that.

Sarah could hear the bouncers talking to someone, but couldn't hear what was being said. This may be her mark, so she sat up and took on the appearance of an attentive girlfriend.

"Walker, we have a situation," came through on her earpiece.

The person who enters is not Gilles. It is the one person she didn't want to see. Chuck.

He looks around the room and spots her.

Her heart leaps when she sees him, but she also feels that stab of pain.

She gets up and walks to Chuck. He looks nervous, as well he should. She tries to calm herself. "Hello, Chuck. What are you doing here?"

He holds up his hands. "Don't worry. This is not about us. I'm purely here for backup. I need to prove to Beckman..."

As he talks, Sarah notices Gilles entering the room and spotting them. Thinking quickly, she hisses at Chuck, "Kiss me."

Chuck looks surprised. "What? Right now? Don't you think we should talk first? I'm getting mixed signals."

"Kiss me now!" she hisses.

He isn't going to refuse and he grabs her and kisses her, with passion.

Much as the kiss being so desirable, what she'd wanted all their time apart, if she was honest with herself, she has to play this out. Fool the mark. She pushes Chuck away and, with an angry face, slaps him. Hard. He falls to the floor.

Giles approaches. "Who the hell is that?" he asks, looking irritated.

She glares at Chuck. "Uh... just my ex. He's having some trouble letting go." She ought to kick him to show how much she dislikes him to Giles, but decides not to.

She takes Giles' arm and they walk away, leaving Chuck on the floor. She doesn't look back, but knows Casey will take him away. After a few minutes, she tells Giles that she needs the rest room and heads there, diverting when out of sight, heading to the back room where Casey has Chuck.

Chuck is sitting with an ice bag pressed against his cheek. She is not sorry. He deserved that and a lot more, not just for Prague, but here too.

Casey is pacing the floor. "Why'd you knock him out?"

She rolls her eyes. "It was a slap."

Casey grunts. "Lemon's got a glass jaw."

Chuck mumbles, "I was caught off guard, on an empty stomach, okay? I didn't eat anything. I can take a punch."

Casey replies, "You mean a slap."

Chuck stands up. "I'm sorry, okay? I'm sorry, guys. I didn't mean to screw anything up. I just came here to help out. Things went wrong in Prague, I don't know why, but I know that I can do this. I can be a spy."

Casey shakes his head.

Sarah looks away. Seeing Chuuk again hurts so much. How dare he turn up and try to act as if nothing happened? And then to top it all, he says that. Wanting to be a spy. Just what she didn't want him to be. Bastard!

Chuck continues in a pleading tone, "Sarah, you know I can. Please."

She turns to go back into the restaurant and coldly says to Casey, "Get him out of here."

She goes back and sits with Gilles. She hates this slimy jerk, but plays the part of a doting girlfriend. Somehow, seeing Chuck increased her dislike of the man, which angers her even more.

Casey voice comes through on her earpiece, "We dumped the Lemon."

She tries to calm down and prepare for the exchange.

The next thing she knows, Chuck, dressed as one of the mariachi band, holding a guitar, arrives on the stage.

She could almost hear the anger in Casey's voice. "He's going to blow the whole op!"

She talks into her watch mic, "Just give him a second."

After some fumbling, she notices him flash, then he plays perfectly.

Gilles turns to her. "Isn't that your ex?"

Looking at Chuck, she replies, "Yeah, he's a bit of a show-off. Just ignore him."

"Do you want my men to take care of your ex?"

"Uh, no. Come dance with me." She pulls him up.

As they reach the dance floor, Giles asks, "What is her doing here?"

Sarah puts her arms around his neck. "He's just trying to make you jealous. And that's supposed to be your job." She takes Gilles hands and places them on her ass. That should show Chuck Bartowski what he's missing!

They start dancing, then Gilles frowns. "Wait. How did he know you were here? Who is he really?"

Before she can answer, she hears Casey's voice, "Tranq him! Take him out now!"

She knows he's talking about Chuck and replies to Gilles, "You have nothing to worry about."

There's a commotion. She hears Chuck shout, "Sarah!" She looks his way to see him throwing himself at her. He knocks her to the ground and his body lands on hers.

This isn't something she wants right now and certainly not in a mission.

All the other people in the room converge on the three of them, aiming guns at them.

Gilles looks stunned. "What's going on?"

One of the men above them says, "Don't move! Don't you move!"

Sarah pushes Chuck away. "Chuck, what the hell are you doing?"

Chuck stumbles over his words as he replies to her. "There's a... There's an assassin here."

He gets up and turns, looking at everyone else. "There's an assassin here, people. He was gonna kill her."

Looking back at Sarah, who is getting up, he continues, "He was gonna kill you."

Standing in front of him, she snaps, "Where? Where is he?"

Chuck looks around, not seeing the assassin.

Sarah continues, "Half this club is undercover, Chuck."

Casey is walking towards them. "Been planning this for months. Good thing we brought this many agents, 'cause I'm gonna kill you!"

Sarah stands in Casey's way. "Hey!"

Chuck continues his spiral, "Sarah, I flashed. I swear to you, there was an assassin here. It was Javier."

Trying to stay calm, Sarah says, "Now we'll never know."

Then she thinks about all the work that has gone into this and how he just ruined everything. She snaps at him, "You don't work anymore, Chuck. It's over!"

She turns and storms away.

Later, she and Casey are clearing out of Castle. The whole op has been cancelled and there is no point staying any longer.

Sarah is relieved. She doesn't want to stay here now Chuck is back. Seeing him is a reminder of his betrayal.

She is about to close down the terminal and the monitor showing the break room in the Buy More. She looks at the screen and notices Chuck there. Before Prague, she would have thought she would miss him. Miss their chance at being together, but he has taken that away from her, just like others have taken things from her in her past.

Casey, standing behind her, mutters, "I'm gonna miss this."

She questions, "What?"

"M-134 mini-gun. 3, 400 rounds a minute. Never got to use her.

Sarah has stopped listening to him and switches off the screen.

Casey mutters, "Poor bastard."

Sarah doesn't turn around. "Who?"

"Moron that's still in love with you."

She scoffs, "I promise you, Casey, he's not in love with me."

"Oh, come on. I don't know what happened between you two. Don't want to. Just saying I've seen men have their fingernails pulled off treated more humanely than you did that kid."

She turns around quickly and glares, "I was just doing my job."

He looks away, "Job's over. Put him out of his misery. He deserves that much."

Sarah walks into the Buy More. Chuck and Morgan are walking towards her, on their way out.

Morgan looks at Chuck and says, "Right. Uh, why don't I give you guys a few seconds, and I'll just see you back at your place?"

Chuck is just looking at Sarah and mutters, "Yeah. Thanks, buddy."

As he walks past her, Morgan brightly says, "Hey, Sarah."

She smiles. "Hey."

Chuck walks up to her. She looks him in the eyes and holds out her hand. "I wanted to say a proper good-bye."

He looks down at her hand and slowly reaches forward and holds it. She shakes and he replies, "It's been a pleasure working with you, Agent Walker."

Agent Walker. That hurts. She replies, rather coldly, "You, too, Agent Bartowski."

Chuck continues to look at her. "I appreciate that, but I think we both know that the whole agent thing didn't really work out. If I could go back in time..."

While he was talking, Sarah notices a man coming up behind him, gun in hand. She tries to stop Chuck rambling. "Uh, Chuck?"

Chuck isn't paying any attention to anything other than what he wants to say, just like the old days. "Please, Sarah, let me get this off my chest. Okay! At least I can live knowing that I told you everything about how I felt. You owe me that."

The thought flashes through her mind. I owe this bastard nothing! But it's not time for that talk. She says, "No. Chuck..."

A man walks right behind Chuck and hits him over the head. He falls to the ground, unconscious. The man says, "And I owed you that."

Sarah is shocked to see the man she cares for, even though she can't tell him that anymore, collapsed on the ground. She looks up and sees two men with guns pointing at her.

The man who hit Chuck says to the others, "Bring her."

She tries to put up a fight, but is knocked out too.

Waking in a cell was not something new to Sarah Walker. This had happened many times in her life as an agent.

She tries to pick the lock, but doesn't have the tools for it, so fails. She calmly moves around the cell looking for anything that could help, but finds nothing.

After a while, she hears another cell door open. The one to the cell behind her.

She can just about hear the voices, so listens carefully.

The first she hears is Chuck's. "Oh, Javier. Uh, you know, I think we actually got off on the wrong foot. Truth be told, I'm a huge fan of mariachi music. And my hitting you was completely unintentional."

A gruff voice replies, "I want to know who you are."

Chuck, obviously spiraling again, says, "Nobody. I'm nobody. In fact, I think that I have documentation somewhere that... that proves that I'm an official nobody."

Sarah holds her head in her hands. Why does he talk such shit?

She then hears him continue, "Wow. You are extremely ripped, sir."

"You hit me very well outside the club. Try that again."

Chuck again, "Okay, let's do this. Let's do this. Shh. Freaking flash. Come on!" He is obviously panicking. "If you could just give me one second."

She hears him being hit.

The other man snarls, "You're going to tell me everything, Mr. Bartowski. All the secrets you know. Who you are, who you work for. And then, you're going to tell me about the girl."

She hears the door close again.

Then she hears Chuck again. "Come on, Chuck. You can do this. Just one flash of kung fu and we are out of here."

He goes quiet for a while then starts up again, "I'm dead. I'm so completely dead. What am I going to do?" The last was almost a wail.

She has to get him focused. "Chuck. Chuck, can you hear me?"

"Sarah?"

Good, he can hear her. "I need you to break out of your cell and come and get me. I couldn't pick this stupid lock!"

His reply comes instantly. "There's no way that we could reverse those roles, is there?"

Stupid man! She's already told him she can't get through her door. Why would she ask if she could? "You can do this. You've been trained to do this. The Intersect can do this."

His whiney voice comes through again, "Sarah, you don't get it. You and Casey were right. I'm... I'm a lemon. I don't work. My emotions just mess everything up."

She cuts him off. "No. Chuck, listen, I was mad... and wrong. And ever since you went to Prague, I have worked with the best spies in the world. And you know what?" She pauses for his reply.

"They're on their way here to save us?"

She almost groans out loud. What a stupid thing to say! She would love to have time to tell him that. Instead, she replies, "None of them can do what you can do. You're a spy. Now flash on Javier and get us out of here."

He replies, after a pause. "Something's happening here, Sarah."

She needs him to stay calm if he's going to flash. "Chuck. Don't freak out."

She hears his door open and close. Then that other voice. "When I'm done with you, I'm going to deal with her." A pause, then, "The girl."

She hears Chuck's reply. "Me first."

She hears someone get hit and a groan.

Sarah realizes, in spite of all the pain of the rejection, she will actually miss Chuck. He's not even on the team anymore, how can I ever miss him? And still… it feels like... missing the idiot, if he's dead already.

She knows it might be Chuck down, and she shouldn't let the other guy know they are talking, but she's desperate to know. "Chuck? What happened?"

His quick reply is both good to hear, but also infuriating. "Something... awesome!" Why didn't he let her know rather than leaving her clueless and having to ask?

She hears her door opening and there he stands. It's great to see him standing, but they have no time to talk. "Thank you. Let's go."

He stands still, saying, "No. Hey, you should've seen it. I knocked him out with one punch. One punch."

The stupid, self-centered man wants to bask in his success! Jerk! He is delaying our escape! Doesn't he have any brains?

She snaps, "That's great. Let's talk and run." She brushes passed him, heading out.

They get up onto the roof.

Chuck looks around. "Where are we?"

Sarah had been looking out of her window and now, getting up here and looking further afield, she knows. "Mexico."

The men have spotted them and start firing from below. Chuck just ducks down, but Sarah starts firing back, then realizes she won't have enough bullets. "Chuck, I'm almost out. We need to get off this roof."

She looks back at him. He's taken his belt off. Is he wanting to have sex? Now? Here? Incredulously, she asks, "What are you doing?"

He looks at her, not realizing what's going through her head. "Zip line. It'll work. I promise."

A bit disappointed, both in that he isn't thinking about sex, but also in herself for think it with him. "Okay. I trust you."

Sarah has all these conflicting feelings welling up. They are confusing her. She shakes her head, trying rid herself of these thoughts.

Standing beside him, she watches as he throws his belt around the wire. He looks at her and says, "Hold on tight." She reaches her arms around his chest and then, when he pushes off, she wraps her legs around his waist.

They slide quickly across with no gunfire, thankfully.

They drop behind a car.

With no awareness of what's around him, Chuck says, "I can't believe that worked!"

Sarah does check, and sees a gunman coming around the nearby building. "I'm not so sure it did."

More men appear, including Javier.

She and Chuck stand and hold up their hands.

Chuck pants and says, "Sarah... there's something I need to tell you."

Facing the other way, Sarah is trying to think how to escape and he starts this! Irritated at how he always choses the wrong moment to talk, she replies, "Not now, Chuck."

Stupidly, he stops her thinking with more of his rambling. "Actually, I think this might be my last chance."

Thankfully, they all hear a helicopter approaching. This both stops him talking and draws everyone's attention. She sees it is Casey, with the gun he thought he'd never get to use, the M-134 mini-gun. As he starts to fire, Sarah ducks down behind the car and, thankfully, Chuck does too, removing her need to pull the idiot down.

As the helicopter comes down, Casey is mowing down the enemy, getting Javier last. Sarah has been running to the helicopter and reach it just as it lands, getting safely onboard.

Chuck pulls a device out of his pocket and hands it over to Casey, who looks at it and says, "Dunno what this is. The NSA Tech Guys might, though."

Sarah knows that Chuck will not try to talk around others, so relaxes.

When they land back in LA, Casey drives them to the Orange, Orange, dropping Sarah off. Chuck starts to get out, but she rushes to her car, gets in and drives off.

She gets back to her hotel room and thinks about the events of the last 24 hours.

Chuck definitely ruined everything at the restaurant. There was no doubt of that. However, he stupidly had really pissed off Javier, making an enemy of him, leading to the Ring guy coming to get Chuck.

If she hadn't gone over to the Buy More at the same time, he would have been taken without them knowing. He would have been tortured and, no doubt, given away their secrets. It would have been too late for the Ring to attack them in Castle, they would have left, but he would have given up more secrets than just that.

He was a real liability! In fact, it was worse than that, his feelings for her made him act really, really stupidly. If she hadn't been here, none of this would have happened.

She knows she has to get away. Not just to get away from the pain of seeing him, being around him made her heart ache, but also stopping him from getting killed.

She thinks about that. Why do I even care if the idiot gets killed? What has he got that I still... care?

As she drifted off to sleep, she was still thinking about this.

As she slept, her nightmares come back in force.

The main one is about her taking cover from Ring agents firing at her.

Chuck just walks between them, calling out for her, not knowing where she was.

She calls to him to take cover, but he just turns and says, "Sarah... there's something I need to tell you."

He is riddled with bullets.

She jumps up, shouting, "Nooo!"

A bullet to her chest, and then one to her head, knocks her down.

She wakes gasping with one hand to where each bullet hole would have been.

I definitely have to get away!

Fortunately, Chuck had arrived last to the briefing the following morning, so she hadn't had to fend him off.

She is sitting nearest the screen with Casey behind on the left and Chuck behind on the right. Beckman had appeared on the screen just after Chuck arrived. She is now talking about what they had found. "Javier Cruz was a vital operative for The Ring's Mexico Syndicate. The device you picked up is a custom smart phone for Ring operatives. This is the first one we have ever captured."

Sarah hears Chuck speak and hates what he says, "Hey, good job, Team Bartowski." As if he was part of the team and the team was named after him! Fuck that!

Before he's even finished slapping himself on the back, Sarah cuts him off, coldly stating, "General, Colonel Casey and I will be departing for Lisbon tonight. There's been chatter that another Ring cell is operating there."

Beckman peers over her glasses, looking at Sarah. "That won't be necessary."

Sarah is upset and asks, "Why not?"

Beckman takes off her glasses and says, "I can't believe I'm about to say this..."

Chuck interrupts her, "Say it." He then looks around and quieter says, "I mean... Please say it."

The General looks at them all. "I'm putting Operation Bartowski back into the field."

Sarah hears Chuck say, "Yes!"

The General continues, "Casey, Sarah, you will work alongside Agent Bartowski to bring down the Ring. That is all." She disconnects.

Chuck jumps up and runs to the front, looking back at the two stunned agents. Full of himself, as always, and thinking only of himself, he blurts out, "This is great! This is great. Come on, guys. The three of us, the old gang, back together again. I cannot wait." He doesn't even bother looking at them and rambles on. "Hey, what's my new cover going to be? 'Cause I... I need a new job. Can it be something exciting? Race car driver? Hmm? It's gotta be something cool."

Before Prague, Sarah would have rolled her eyes at him saying something so childish, but not anymore. She turns away, thinking, You self important, selfish jerk! I hate you!

Sarah is sitting in Castle, having a one-to-one with Beckman.

She has asked the General to let her go. Back to the CIA.

Beckman has refused and is currently talking, "Sarah, I need you to keep Chuck's emotions in check so the Intersect can work. He listens to you, but he's also an unstable element."

Sarah asks, "Do you think he's dangerous?"

"Very, but he's worth the risk. For the last two years, we protected Chuck from the world. But, now, we have to protect the world from Chuck."

Sarah gulps. She's not quite sure why Beckman is thinking like that, but it has a worrying sound to it.

Sarah has come over to Echo Park. She has just watched Morgan walk away from his friend. Chuck is standing with his back to her, near the fountain.

She doesn't want to do this, but knows she now has to. She calls to him, "Chuck." As he turns to her, she continues, "We should talk."

He looks at her and says, "Absolutely,"

She really, really wishes she could just walk away, but walks over to the fountain. She doesn't sit, but just stands facing him.

He reaches his hands in her direction and, just like always, doesn't give her a chance to speak. "I'll go first. I'll go first."

She hates that he always does that. If only he allowed me to talk first every time he insists he does, the things I would have told him, sooner or later, would have led to real kisses. He always got in his own way, and so, in ours.

It is also not gentlemanly at all! However, she just says, "Sure."

Chuck starts. "Sarah, they wanted me to be a spy, okay. They told me that I could make a difference. For years, I've been... I've been kicking around not knowing what I wanted to do with my life, like a... like a loser. That they really thought I could change the world. Me. Chuck Bartowski. It was never about you..."

The selfish bastard! So, full of himself, but at the same time, trying to imply he was pushed to do what he did. Not caring about her feelings at all!

She cuts him off. "Stop." She sighs. "I acted impulsively. And it's a mistake I don't usually make. And it won't happen again." It certainly won't!

He tries to interrupt her, "But, Sarah..."

She doesn't let him continue. "You're a spy now, Chuck." She nods, thinking that says it all, but decides to continue, to make it clear what his decision means. "You have to keep your feelings to yourself."

She turns and quickly walks away, thinking to herself. This is going to be the worst mission ever!

A/N: As mentioned at the start, apart from Sarah's thoughts and feelings here, this was all as per the show. The fic diverges from the next chapter.

PMs and reviews are welcome on what you think about Sarah's take on this.