Epilogue
A/N: The epilogue has nothing to do with Christmas, or espionage. We just had to bring back a familiar face one more time before putting this story to bed. Thank you to all of the readers. A special thank you to those who wrote reviews and sent PMs. Getting that feedback is what makes it worth it to put in the time and effort to research and write these stories. 2021 has been a trying year, and it was nice to take a break from reality and immerse ourselves in the world of Chuck.
In what had quickly become a common sight at Stanford to faculty and students alike, Sarah and Chuck strolled across campus arm in arm, heading from his office to go to a little off-campus joint they liked for lunch. Chuck had noticed early on that Sarah was edgy when they had gone to Lou's, so they'd found a new place together. They strolled through the beautiful spring day, their arms wrapped tightly around each others' waist. Sarah was thrilled to see that Chuck was becoming more comfortable with this form of PDA.
As they walked, Chuck periodically waved in greeting to a few colleagues and several students. But he didn't stop to chat, as he normally would do. He wanted to get lunch with Sarah, and she was under a time crunch to get back to her studies. She was determined to be the top student in each of her classes (again). It was an attitude that Chuck both respected and encouraged.
Chuck also respected Sarah's superior, if terrifying driving skills. He encouraged her to drive when it was just the two of them. He had even stopped screaming in terror when she would use some of the tricks she had learned in her high speed pursuit/evasion class. Mostly stopped screaming. Or at least no longer was constantly screaming, which he thought was a real improvement. But judging by her carefree laugh when he did scream, she somehow found his pure fear of death to be endearing.
"My friend Carina is coming to town this Friday," Sarah mentioned as they pulled out of the faculty parking lot (a definite perk to dating a professor in Sarah's opinion). "You know, the one who was tailing me back in October when you came running to save me." Chuck smiled at the memory, but his smile dimmed at the hard look Sarah was giving him. "Instead of staying in your office where it was safe."
"Heh. Yeah, I got to the Quad so out of breath. I realized once I got there that I had no clue how I could help you. I just…" Sarah looked over at him curiously. The curiosity spiked when she saw how vibrantly he was blushing. When she merely cocked a single eyebrow, Chuck slumped down in surrender. "I needed to help. Like a 'desperate, there's nothing more important in the world' kind of need to help. I couldn't sit back and do nothing when you were in danger. Or, at least when I thought that you were in danger."
Sarah tried to swallow down the lump in her throat. After a lifetime of being surrounded by people who constantly hid their true thoughts and feelings, it was unfamiliar territory to deal with someone like Chuck who was always transparent in his thoughts and feelings. Like Chuck? Ha! There's only one Chuck. She reached over the console to squeeze his hand. Sarah laughed as Chuck quickly tried to move her hand back onto the steering wheel. That's my Chuck.
Deciding to save Chuck from his mortifying embarrassment, she picked up the thread of her earlier conversation. "The thing about my friend Carina is…well, she's the type…" Sarah floundered, trying to figure out a way to summarize the tempest, and temptress, that was Carina Miller.
"She'll tell you she's as orphan after you meet her family?"
Sarah's head snapped over to Chuck, who immediately tensed up and pointed at the road, hoping that she would focus on the oncoming traffic instead of him. "That's exactly what she's like. Wait, did she contact you the last time that she was here?"
To her surprise, instead of answering the question, Chuck began to softly sing. "Oh, she talks to angels. Says they call her out by her name." Note to self, remind Chuck to sing to me more often. It brings back memories of Christmas. Although it would probably be best if we are alone when he sings. And not while driving. Sarah scrunched up her nose. "Nope. Musta been another Carina. That woman has nothing to do with angels." Sarah paused for a moment. "Unless you consider Lucifer to still be an angel. That guy probably is on a first name basis with her."
Sarah beamed with pride as Chuck laughed out loud, glad to repay a tiny fraction of the happiness he had given her all of the times he got her to laugh. "Well, Ms. Walker, we will have to enroll you in some courses at the Chuck Bartowski School of Music Appreciation." He looked over at her and bounced his eyebrows. What is the deal with me? If some other guy did that, I'd want to knock him into next week. Chuck does it and I want to find someplace private-quickly!
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Shortly after grabbing a seat across the table from Sarah at Kristoff's Café, Chuck felt hairs brushing against his ear a moment before he heard a voice dripping with sexuality.
I think we should make out
In a few hours I'm getting on a plane
There's a pretty safe bet you'll never see me again,
Chuck's eyes bulged as he cut them over to Sarah who hadn't even reacted to some stranger approaching him…which meant that this woman couldn't be a stranger to Sarah. As he looked closer at Sarah's eyes, he could see the emotions of humor and frustration dueling for supremacy.
There's a king size bed but we can do it on the floor
Turn your cellphone off, leave a sign on the door
That says "Do not disturb"
And if I were you I'll bring your girlfriend too
Two is better than one, three is better than two
Leave a sign on the door, the whole night through
That says "Do not disturb"
"Alright, Carina," Sarah finally interjected, still focused on her laptop in front of her. "No breaking my nerd."
"Whaddaya say, Chuckie. You want me to be your record, while you can be my turntable?" Carina acted as though she hadn't heard Sarah's warning, although Chuck started to looked panicked at the thought of the two agents brawling inside the little café.
Sarah gave in to temptation and glared at her erstwhile friend. "It's one thing to push me. But, his mom is Frost. You do NOT want to get on her bad side."
Carina straightened back up to her full, statuesque height as she deliberately shook out her auburn hair. Both she and Sarah ignored the two teenagers who had collided with each other while staring slack-jawed at the two beautiful women separated by a blushing professor.
"Damn. Frost's kid?" She narrowed her eyes at Chuck for a moment. "No pressure on your kids then. It's not like anyone will expect them to be superspies after swimming in that gene pool."
It was Sarah's turn to be slack-jawed. She wasn't horrified at the thought of having kids with Chuck. She was horrified that she wasn't horrified by that thought. Although, she recalled the thought had briefly crossed her mind after Big Sur. Oh boy! A moment later Sarah gathered her wits about her. "Stop teasing Chuck. First, he was kidnapped. Then the IC had him locked away. You don't need to torture him as well."
Carina looked contemplative for a moment before nodding in acquiescence. "Fine. No more picking on Chuckie here." She shifted the strap on her purse before strutting away, the lunch crowd parting before her like the Red Sea.
Meanwhile, Sarah was scrutinizing Carina as she walked away. "That was too easy. Carina never just gives up. She's up to something," she murmured. Just as she said that, Carina paused at the door to the restaurant. Without looking back to the table where Chuck and Sarah sat, she pulled her phone from her pocket held it over her head and pushed a button.
A moment later, music started blaring out of Sarah's burner phone. She was lost for a moment, although Chuck had started laughing as soon as a guitar riff was heard. Once the lyrics started in, Sarah ground her teeth together as she growled, "I'm going to get you for this, Red!" Still without looking back to the table, Carina gave a royal wave and strode out of the building. Sarah scrambled to pull her burner phone from her bag and mute the incredibly loud ringtone that Carina had managed to load onto her phone without her knowledge. But the gathered diners started laughing as David Lee Roth could be heard belting out:
Ow! Got it bad, got it bad, got it bad
I'm hot for teacher
I've got it bad, so bad
I'm hot for teacher.
Sarah sent a half-hearted glare Chuck's way. "Laugh it up, fuzzball." Chuck promptly melted on the spot. "I do so love it when you quote Star Wars." They both froze for a moment. He hadn't said the Ll word to her. But they were both thinking it. She grabbed him by the hand and pulled him towards the door, throwing more than enough money on the table to cover their bill.
"Where are we headed?" He didn't really care where the destination was, as long as the journey was with him by Sarah's side.
"When Santa came to visit, I didn't get anything in the stocking by my tree. So I was thinking, Santa Baby, that maybe you could look at my stockings and tell me how to get Santa to notice them next time around."
Chuck's feet skidded to an involuntary stop.
"And if Santa's a good elf, maybe he can see me model my Seven of Nine costume as well."
Oh boy.
Secondary Character Glossary
Many of the non-canon characters had some significance to their name choice, so the following is a brief description of how the names were chosen:
Anton Pamchencko- Volkoff could have worked here, but he would have had better operational security than to discuss nerve agent with an underling while in public. So instead, it was a character from an ex-girlfriend's favorite movie "The Cutting Edge". He was a good guy in the movie, not so good here. No spy significance unfortunately.
Jamie Sommers- The Bionic Woman herself. Rumor was that NBC was hoping to get Yvonne to sign on to the short lived reboot, but Schwartz & Fedak got to her first. Fortunately for us.
Harry Stone- This was the name of the judge on the 80s sitcom Night Court that also starred John Larroquette. This show is also getting a reboot, with John not only reprising his role, but also producing.
Peter Franks- A character from Diamonds Are Forever who doesn't match the role of an administrative assistant to the Director of Central Intelligence, but the only real life example that I could think of was Fawn Hall. She was more a willing participant in helping to try to cover up a covert op gone awry, as opposed to brow-beaten underling. So Bond won out over real life. Plus, Bond featured in Chuck's decision on how to try to draw Sarah out of the shadows.
Gayle- the tech support for Sarah back at Langley who helped Sarah up to the point of hijacking an NSA satellite. Gayle was actually a nod to Grayroc's La Belle Dame sans Merci which had Gayle Ardis as a secondary character who helps Sarah realize that she needs to save herself from Graham.
Virginia Hall-She has already been mentioned a bit. But she deserves more than a mere passing mention. She was a socialite who wanted to work for the State Department, but was only offered secretarial postings. She wound up getting part of a leg amputated as a result of a hunting accident shortly before the outbreak of WWII. Despite her gender and disability, she was hired by Britain's SOE and inserted into occupied France. In 1942 the Gestapo labeled her the most dangerous of all Allied spies. In the midst of a war, she climbed over the Pyrenees with a prosthetic leg to escape capture. But then she switched from the British SOE to the US OSS and went right back into France to organize the Resistance ahead of the Normandy invasion. When awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, she declined to have President Truman present her the award publicly as it would have drawn too much attention to her and could have resulted in post-war reprisals against the Resistance fighters who fought along side her. Nearly 35 years after her death, a training facility at the CIA headquarters was named after her. "A Woman of No Importance" was a biography released in 2019 that became a New York Times Bestseller and is a thrilling read. You want to read about a real life Sarah Walker, give that a shot.
Anne Neuberger- Formerly the NSA Director for Cybersecurity, she now serves as Deputy National Security Adviser. After 12 years at the NSA she left to go to…the NSA. And yes, she's a brunette.
A/N 2: Chapter 17 featured songs from Slade as well as The Pretenders. This time around, we've got Halestorm ("Do Not Disturb"), Black Crowes ("She Talks To Angels") and Van Halen ("Hot For Teacher"). We know that song fics aren't for everyone, but when you've got two writers who don't just love music, but a lot of the same music, it's hard not to have a mental soundtrack when you are creating these stories.
This brings us to the end of the road. The story featured some romance, some comedy, some drama, and a whole lot of Sarah being a badass. Happy holidays to all the readers out there, and a happy New Year. Hopefully a year from now we will have the third annual collaboration for your reading pleasure. But maybe not with the daily postings. It's a tough schedule to keep up with. Stay safe and stay well, friends.