"Chuck, are you going to be okay on your own long enough for me to go home and take a shower?" Sarah asked as she pushed away from the security feed in the maintenance room.

"You're still here?" Chuck responded after having recovered from the near heart attack the police officer gave him. "Have you been here all day?"

"Yes I have been," Sarah confirmed, standing up and stretching her back, her arms high over her head. "I'm here to watch you, Chuck. Doing it from the feed room is a natural command center, not to mention I can be right here on call in case something happens without me needing some kind of silly disguise," she explained.

"Yeah, you getting a job across the parking lot when you could be watching me from inside the building on a monitor makes way more sense. You don't even have to be the CIA to do that," Chuck said laughing.

"So will you be okay?" she asked again.

"Oh, yeah, of course," Chuck said. "We're already locked up, and if you're trying to be all super spy, maybe if I let you out from the docking bay, you'll be more inconspicuous?"

"That's not a bad idea. Although, my car is still in the parking lot. I might have to start commuting to be even less under the radar. I'll talk to Captain Casey about it in the morning."

Chuck bristled just at the mention of the brash and stern leader of the Burbank PD. "That guy's a jerk."

"I know he is," Sarah admitted quietly. "He's a good captain, and he has great instincts, but he's as huggable as a flaming cactus."

Chuck laughed hard at that, his nose wrinkling on his face, which in turn made Sarah laugh. "That's the hardest I've laughed all day."

"I've noticed. It's good to see you laugh, Chuck. Keeping you relaxed is important. It's important not to give off that anything is wrong, but it's also important for your mental health, too. Are you holding up okay?" Sarah asked.

Her tone was genuine enough that Chuck felt like he didn't have to lie about his condition.

"I really don't know, Sarah. I'm terrified for my life, literally, but at the same time, I'm still flying high on having a job, and real friends now, and not sleeping outside all the time. I'm on such a roller coaster that my head is having a hard time keeping up."

"I can get that," Sarah said, nodding sagely. "Well, if you want to just hunker down here, I'll be back soon, okay?"

"Sure," Chuck said, nodding, but also swallowing deeply. Sarah didn't miss that anxious telling. "But uh… why are you coming back? I mean, you shouldn't have to live here, too."

Sarah sighed. "Believe me, I don't want to be locked up here, either, but I don't know what else to do for you, Chuck. Casey thinks there's something deep going on here, but he won't give me what he thinks it is. He's essentially made you my job until we get this figured out."

"Do you… um… do you think it might have anything to do with my sister?" Chuck asked, shuffling his feet.

Sarah took a long pause before answering, "I didn't want to say anything, but I was thinking about that, actually. Your sister doesn't come up a lot in the system, Chuck. Bryce does, however."

"What? Bryce Larkin?"

"Yeah. Bryce Larkin is a dangerous man, Chuck. Before he went private, he had his hands in a lot of things. He was a hell of a narcotics officer for a long time, ex-military before that. His last high profile case was shutting down a human trafficking ring out of L.A. He got pulled from his usual work for it, and they put him deep undercover He quit and went private after that."

"Shit," Chuck whispered, his eyes wide. "I had no idea."

"Honestly Chuck, if Bryce can't find Ellie and we have heard nothing…."

"No," Chuck said, his voice strangled and his eyes beginning to well up. "No. She can't be. Don't say it, Sarah. Please don't say it," Chuck begged, dropping his head as a strangled plea left his throat, and his body began to shake with quiet sobs that came out as deep intakes for breath.

Sarah began to tear up herself, and all she could think to offer was, "Chuck, can I hug you right now?"

Chuck nodded, and Sarah approached him slowly. Chuck just stood there, his arms limp, not lifting his head to look at Sarah as she stood toe to toe with him.

She slipped her arms under his and pulled him tight to her, resting her head on his chest. He dropped his forehead to the crown of her head and let her hold him as he sobbed.

"If your sister is still out there somewhere, Chuck, we will find her. If she turns up, we'll be there when she does," Sarah whispered into Chuck's heaving chest.

She held him there in that room until he hugged her back. She kept holding him until he told her he was okay and that she could let go.

Sarah did end up going home to shower, but after her transparency conversation with Chuck, she didn't want Chuck to be alone. Chuck also was in dire need of a shower, but Sarah casually invited him to have one without mentioning the locker room cloud around him.

Sarah unlocked the door, and gently guided Chuck inside with a hand on his back.

"You can shower first, okay?" Sarah offered.

"Yeah, that sounds good," Chuck said, his voice rough. "Thanks, Sarah. For everything."

"Take all the time you need, okay?"

"Yeah. That sounds good," Chuck agreed, slinking into the bathroom and gently shutting the door behind him.

Sarah waded her way over to her couch, feeling like her limbs were full of sand, but somehow not even part of her at all. She wondered if it was what the phantom limb phenomenon was like. She was physically stiff from sitting all day and her eyes were kind of burning from watching screens all day, but she was emotionally exhausted. She felt like she had expended an entire day's adrenaline supply.

Sarah held her chin in her hand as she stared at her glass-top coffee table, trying to will herself not to cry again. She had wanted nothing more in that moment than to tell Chuck that everything was going to be alright. She wanted to tell him that he was going to be safe, that Ellie was safe, that they'd find her and that he would see her alive again and soon. She couldn't honestly do that, and she would not lie to Chuck. She couldn't say for certain Ellie was dead, but the chances weren't good, they were less than 10% by Sarah's loose figuring.

Sarah had seen Bryce's record, and had heard Casey talk about him before; stories from Casey's homicide squad days. He was damn-near a war hero, and was a decorated cop. He was a hell of an investigator. If anyone could find Ellie outside of the proper system, she was sure it was Bryce.

If Ellie was mixed up in anything, and if whoever she was mixed up with found out that someone like Bryce Larkin was investigating her, Ellie could be sent deeper underground or downright killed. None of these options were ideal for Sarah, and certainly not for Chuck.

Sarah's mulling was decapitated by the sound of the bathroom door opening and the reemerging of Chuck.

Sarah tried to put a happy face on, but she knew it was weak. Chuck did look better, though. He looked squeaky clean, his hair and bushy beard still damp. He was out of his work uniform and back into the sweats set Sarah had got him.

"Hi," Sarah said softly, not knowing what else to say.

"Hi," Chuck said back, a tired, lazy smile on his face. "How are you?" he asked.

"Shouldn't I be asking you that?" Sarah asked with a humorless chuckle.

"It would be kind of ridiculous to ask how I'm doing. I am absolutely miserable. You are human, though, and should be asked how you're holding up."

"You're right, Chuck. I am human. And we're both going through a lot together right now, and it's hard for me, too." Sarah paused for a moment and said, "but not as hard as it is for you. Can I get you anything, anything to eat? Tea?I don't really know how to…"

"It's okay, Sarah," Chuck said, his voice barely above a whisper. "You're doing more than enough. Go take your shower, I'll be fine," he assured her.

"Okay," Sarah gave in. "I locked the door behind us," she told him as a form of consultation she didn't quite understand herself. A locked door always meant she was safe; she was in and the world was out there.

While Sarah was in the shower, Chuck busied himself by trying to find something to watch, and began thinking about how good tea sounded.

He had finally found something to watch when Sarah came back out. Her hair was up in a loose ponytail, and comfortably dressed in a tank top and purple shorts. She didn't look like she was going to be leaving the apartment any time soon.

"So I'm not going back to the Buy More tonight?" Chuck asked. "I thought it was agreed I wasn't supposed to walk anywhere alone?"

Sarah tilted her head to the side and her face slackened as she remembered she was supposed to be bringing Chuck back. She was so tired she was on autopilot, and driving back didn't even enter her head.

"You'll be fine staying here for one night, right?" Sarah asked, falling bonelessly into her recliner.

"Uh… sure. As long as you're cool with me staying here," Chuck countered.

"Look Chuck, I'm tired. I know you're tired. Someone tried to kill you last night and we've both had to deal with some very hard potential realities tonight. So you know what? You deserve more than sleeping on a falling apart break room couch tonight. Hell, have my bed tonight. Watch TV till you fall asleep. Make some popcorn. Just try to forget everything outside of that door for just one night, okay?" Sarah finished her little rant, her elbow perched on the armrest as she pointed at her dead bolted door.

"You deserve more than a couch, too. Your entire job just got screwed over for the simple fact of you knowing me. I heard Casey today. That's right, I was eavesdropping. I heard him say whoever is following me knows where you live. I heard him tell me not to let you get shot. I didn't take that lightly, Sergeant Walker, so help me, if you're not sleeping on that bed, no one is," Chuck fired back, his arms crossed and a pout on his face.

"Well then I guess we're both sleeping on my bed or we're both on the floor here."

"Wait, what?" Chuck said, his eyes bugging.

"You heard me, Bartowski. Get your ass to bed or I swear to God we're sharing this carpet," Sarah nearly barked, getting out of her chair and snapping her fingers like Chuck was a dog on a piece of furniture he shouldn't be on.

"Sarah… we,"

"We're both fully clothed, Chuck. I'm trusting you not to do anything, and I know damn well I'm not trying funny business. So let's both be tired, responsible adults here, and go to bed. If you do try anything cute, I will spoon feed you to those people myself."

"Alright, alright, I'm going," Chuck yielded.

"Good. I'm fucking tired," Sarah huffed as she went to the freezer and grabbed the Dairy Queen blizzards they had neglected the night before.

Sarah had no issue getting comfy in her own bed, but Chuck chose to lay there awkwardly, straight as board on his back.

"Chuck, how are you going to eat ice cream like that, let alone watch a movie?" Sarah challenged. "My ceiling isn't very entertaining, and I doubt it tastes as good as your Butterfinger blizzard."

"I haven't been in a girl's bed since college, Sarah. This right here feels perfectly safe," Chuck responded, his hands folded over his chest.

Sarah huffed and looked at him. "Chuck, most guys would be pleased as punch to be invited into a beautiful girl's bed," she teased.

Chuck shifted his eyes to look at her but didn't move his body an inch. "That is a rigged statement if I've ever heard one," he said.

"It definitely is. You're good," she said with a laugh as she dug his own spoon into his ice cream and held it by his mouth. "Open," she ordered like he was a little kid.

Chuck reluctantly did as told and let Sarah put the frozen treat in his mouth.

Chuck cleaned the spoon off and took it from her hand. He sat up and said, "Okay, that is really good."

"Here, let me give you some back support," Sarah offered, and piled some pillows behind them. "There, now lean back," she told him, taking the ice cream from him while he repositioned.

Chuck took the ice cream back, but kept looking at Sarah."

"What?" Sarah asked with a giggle and a smile as she had another spoon of ice cream for herself.

"You're just so nice to me," Chuck said, a pained expression on his face, his eyes threatening to tear up again.

Seeing Chuck's reaction to genuine human kindness, just having someone really care about him moving him to tears broke Sarah's resolution from earlier.

Sarah smiled at Chuck as tears filled her own eyes for the second time that night. She put her ice cream down and did something she wouldn't have seen herself doing just a week ago; she cupped Chuck's bearded chin in her hand and wiped away a hot tear with her thumb.

"Yeah," she confirmed. "It's about time someone was," she said, and leaned in to gently place a kiss on his brunette curls before straightening up and turning towards the TV. "You have people who care about you now, Chuck."