AN- Continuation of the in between scenes for Sizzling Shrimp
-When Mei Ling Visits the Buy More-
Sarah looked up from the wiping the counter, trying in vain to fight the good fight against the grease that permeated the blasted place, when she heard the door. She looked up trying to summon the energy to paste her fake smile back on, when she smiled for real. Chuck stepped through the door, trailing Casey, and giving her a small nervous wave. Her real smile became pasted on when she saw the expressions.
"Apparently its a hot dog emergency." Casey said, shrugging and then pointing at the pot where the hot dogs were simmering.
She shrugged and turned to the prep area. She grabbed four buns and quickly slipped hot dogs into them and their little paper boat like holders.
When she came out from around the corner with a tray, Chuck and Casey were already sitting at a table. She plopped the tray in the middle and sat down.
Never one to waste an opportunity to fuel up, Casey immediately began scarfing the meat adjacent product. She only raised an eyebrow at Chuck, waiting.
"So, listen, I've been thinking a lot about last night." Chuck said, slowly and picking up speed. "And, you know, you guys were talking about how the spy could be valuable to us."
She nodded, and Casey grunted around a mouthful.
Chuck continued. "So, I was thinking, what if we could convince her to, I don't know, like, uh, give up some secret stuff..."
"You mean defect?" Sarah said, a bit dubiously. Is this just his guilt? A nagging suspicion formed. Or did he do something...
"Defect! Yes! People do that kind of thing all the time, right? The Hunt for Red October." Chuck replied animatedly. "White Nights..."
Casey stared at him, chewing, swallowing. Sarah was impressed with his devotion to his food. He didn't even grunt.
"White Nights... Gregory Hines, Baryshnikov, dancing their way to freedom." Chuck finished making a little dancing motion with his fingers. Sarah pressed her lips together. She wouldn't let on that it was actually one of her favorite movies.
"Well, as long as you've done serious research on the subject." Casey said after the briefest of pauses, then around another mouthful. "You get her to defect, I'll help rescue her brother personally."
She didn't know if it was the instinct of a girlfriend or agent, but she knew Chuck wasn't saying everything. "Why are you bringing this up?" she asked, suspiciously.
Chuck avoided their eyes. "Well, she sort of... just... called me." Sarah froze.
Mouth still full, Casey asked, "She called you? Where?"
"At the Buy More." Chuck replied rapidly. Sarah was already dreading where this was going and tensing to get out of her chair. "I think she might've been in the store, too, because she knew my every move. She even knew that I had mustard on my tie."
Sarah bolted out of her chair, headed for the door. She caught Casey out of the corner of her eye spitting out the hot dog and following. Halfway to the door she realized Chuck wasn't following, so she grabbed his arm and pulled.
"What? Hey, where are we... " Chuck was still talking and was cut off finally by the movement.
They hurried across the parking lot, at not quite a run and when they went through the front door she and Casey broke left and right respectively as if they'd planned it. Which, actually, they had. Sarah let go of Chucks arm and hissed, "Go to your desk, stay, later we'll talk about contact protocols."
She was searching and looking for any added or out of place cameras, really anything out of place. Behind her she could hear Chuck and Morgan talking. She vaguely remembered Chuck mentioned something about Morgan and a sales competition, and quickly dismissed it from her mind to focus.
"You have anything?" she heard over her earpiece, Casey's voice.
She raised her wrist as if adjusting her watch band and softly replied. "Negative."
They continued searching the store. Sarah swung back towards the Nerd Herd desk and noticed that Chuck wasn't there. She saw Casey come around a display and see the same thing. She turned and listened as he questioned Jeff.
"Where's Chuck." Casey demanded.
"Storage cage, signing for a delivery." Jeff answered absently.
Casey looked at his watch. "Delivery's come at six."
"Guess they got here early dude." Jeff replied and wandered off.
Casey and Sarah turned at the same time to jog towards the storage cage.
As they rounded the corner she could hear Chuck stammering… "...tried Sizzling Shrimp?" and for just a moment, she wanted to shoot him.
"Drop the gun, drop it!" Casey said sharply as they came upon a scene that could have been plucked from her nightmares.
She'd never quite felt this level of terror before. Then after a moment, a chill down to her core. She hadn't really understood the references in stories to someone's heart freezing. But now she understood, Sarah drew on that inner core of nothing that she'd relied on during so many of her missions for Graham. She slipped completely into the Ice Queen. "Let. Him. Go." she said, in a glacial voice.
The Chinese agent held Chuck's arm behind him and had a weapon pointed at his head. Flashy, distinctive. Chromed copy of a Tokarev. Stupid choice. Traceable and logistically unsound in the US. She'd have done better to buy a Glock from some gangbanger. The Ice Queen calculated, watched the desperation in the other woman's features. Danger to Chuck, high. A shot now would be too risky. She paused then, watching for an opening. Single action pistol, hammer down, she noted. The time it would take to pull the hammer back would be the best opening and sign that she had to take the shot.
"Shoot me, I shoot him." the agent was saying, weapon wavering. But not enough.
"Hey, hey! I've got an idea. How about a new plan that involves less shooting?" Chuck said rapidly, breathlessly. His hands were waving at them as if to say 'stand down'. She looked again but didn't see any other opening that didn't present too high of a risk.
Chuck was still talking. "Casey… Casey… you agreed to help if she defected."
"I would never…" the agent was saying, but was interrupted by Casey.
"Why? Too much loyalty to your government? The same one that left your brother for dead?" Casey said, not realizing that his statement paralleled Chuck's situation in some ways. A government ready to throw away one of its own people.
She waited. There would be an opening for a shot, or the agent would let Chuck go. Binary solution set. No other outcome was acceptable.
"If I defect, I can never go back to China, I will never see my brother again." the agent said, voice wavering a small amount.
"And if you don't," Chuck said slowly, head turned slightly into the muzzle but also towards the agent. "you'll lose him forever. And you don't want that." he looked back at Casey and paused for a moment eyes widening at her expression. "Guys? Promise Mei-Ling you'll help rescue her brother if she defects. Please. Please?"
She didn't respond to that pleading tone. She simply adjusted her aim slightly and waited.
Casey was the one who broke the silence. "Promise. Now let the kid go."
"How do I know I can trust you?"
"You don't have any other choice." Sarah replied flatly.
Mei-Ling moved the gun aside and shoved Chuck towards them. Ice shattered, forgotten as that feeling of nothing receded. She lowered her gun holding it in one hand, as she dropped to one knee to check Chuck with her other hand. She had to trust that Casey would have her covered. She heard Casey talking to Mei-Ling, and them leaving out the back door, but she never looked up from her examination.
When she the heard the door close, however, she reached out and smacked Chuck on the back of the head.
"Ow!" he exclaimed, rubbing his head as he stood.
She stood and concealed her weapon back in its holster. Then she lunged forward and seized him in a crushing embrace. "You idiot, you scared me ninety-nine percent to death." she sobbed as the adrenaline was wearing off and relief hit.
"Isn't the phrase 'half to dea…" he murmured into her hair before she interrupted him with a fierce kiss.
When she pulled back she said, "No, we moved past that a while back. Chuck, I told you to go to your desk. What happened?"
"Jeff said there was a delivery, I didn't even think. Its pretty normal." Chuck replied, shrugging.
"A delivery. At the wrong time? When we knew there was a trained agent who'd been close enough to tell you you needed to change your tie?" Sarah sighed as she leaned into him. "Chuck, if I tell you to go somewhere – don't leave until I give you an all clear. Its so I know where you are. So Casey and I can sweep and clear…" she paused and looked up at him. "around you, you adorable dolt."
"I'm sorry." he said softly. "This is all still strange to me."
"I know." she said. "I know, just… try to remember. Everything I tell you is to keep you safe. If you have questions, ask, don't assume. OK?"
"OK" he said, holding her nearly as tightly as she'd started out grabbing him.
"Chuck?" she asked, her heartbeat picking back up.
"Uhm?" he mumbled, nose somewhat buried in her hair.
"Brushes with death, violent encounters, and things like this have a known psychological and physiological effect on people. Side effect, perhaps, one might say." she said, pulling back and towing him towards the corner they'd used before to talk.
He stumbled a bit as she yanked him along. "Is that ri… hey-oh!"
"It is. And I find myself in need of some… reassurance that you're in… working order, Mr Bartowski." she said, a bit huskily.
-After rescuing the brother-
After they'd escaped the freezer in the restaurant and Casey had taken the two Chinese nationals to a safe house, Sarah had driven them back to Echo Park. She stopped in front of Ellie's apartment and sat in the drivers seat of her Porsche, bouncing her head gently on the steering wheel. "Why" bonk "do" bonk "you" bonk "keep" bonk "doing" bonk "these" bonk "things." She rested her forehead on the wheel when she finished.
"You need to get this, Sarah." Chuck replied, she could hear the firm note in his voice. "I will not leave you, I will not abandon you, I will always come for you. Just like I know you would for me." she heard a nervous chuckle. "I might be scared spitless, but I will be there."
"I know." she nearly whispered in reply, then picked her head up and turned to face him. "I know, and we're going to have to go over some things that will help keep you alive." she took in the look on his face. "I'm not giving up on you staying in the car, but I accept that things happen."
Then she twisted in her seat and leaned on him. He wrapped an arm around her and she sighed. "We're lucky it worked out." They remained like that for about ten minutes before the awkwardness of leaning over the brake and gear shift started to get to her.
"Are you going to be OK talking to Ellie?" she asked and sat up. "I can come in if you want?"
"I think I better face the music on this one." he replied. "I put a chain of events in motion, you and Casey were along for the ride. Ultimately, this one's on me."
Smiling suddenly she reached over and tapped his watch. "Just remember, if things get dicey hit your emergency button and Casey will come bust down the door. I think, maybe, Angry Ellie and Casey might be an even fight."
"Home turf." Chuck replied promptly. "I think Ellie could take him."
"Well, he's just got to hold out long enough for me to get there, and I'll rescue you both." she laughed, and then kissed him. "Go, grovel and apologize. I have it on good authority that girls respond well to that. Call me later?"
"You know I will." he said and kissed her again.
"If we keep that up you'll never make it inside." she said as she fended off another smooching attempt.
He sighed and nodded. Then got out of the car after holding her hand for a long moment.
She watched him walk into the courtyard, waited a few minutes to be sure he got inside and then made her way back to the hotel. I wonder if its too soon to suggest I move in for the cover… its been over a month now. Probably wait… dammit.
Based on Chuck's phone call last night, and his chipper attitude today, it seemed that he'd at least partly mended fences with his sister/parent. They'd finished the hand off of Mei-Ling's brother and she'd driven off with Casey to be transported to start her long debrief. Sarah didn't envy that. The former Chinese spy would spend the next several weeks in grueling interviews.
She noticed Chuck looking at her. "What will happen to her?" he asked as he put his pen away and closed the lid over his clipboard.
"She's in for a rough few weeks. Interviews, cross checks, tests, exams and the like." she smiled and touched his arm. "There's a bright side, Chuck. At the end of it all she's done. They put her in a form of witness protection, she gets a new life. She may not know it now, but I think in the long run she'll be happier. Not a lot of spies get an out like that."
"Is that what you want?" Chuck asked, taking her hand. "A new life, a way out?"
"Sometimes, yes. Very much." she replied with a small smile. "However, I have some new requirements. My new life would have to start in or around Burbank. And it would have to include a certain dark haired Buy More employee."
"Ah, I knew you had a thing for Lester." he said, holding in a laugh. Barely.
"Well, he does have a way of…" she paused. "Making me want to take a shower after he's looked at me. And as tempting as that is, I think I'd rather have you."
He grinned at her. "I'm not going to get tired of hearing you say things like that."
"That your coworkers disgust me? I mean Skip's alright. And Morgan's family." she said, almost absently at the end. She wondered, again, how her highly trained reflexes continued to fail to warn her when sudden Bartowski hugs were inbound. "What'd I say?" she got out, muffled by his shirt.
"You said Morgan was family." he replied, and kissed the top of her head.
I did? She thought. Huh, I did. "Well he is like a brother to you, and it feels like he's extended that to me." she shrugged. "I'm not entirely sure as to why, I'm not that nice to him."
"He's got a big heart." Chuck said. "Just accept it and don't treat him any differently really. It would confuse him."
Sarah extracted herself and held Chuck's hand as they walked to the car. "So, you're hanging with Ellie tonight? A redo?
"Yes, god, sorry. I know we'd originally planned a movie and…" Chuck was speaking rapidly, apologetically. Sarah put a finger on his lips.
"Shush. Its fine. If we spend too much time together right now it will raise suspicion almost like spending too little. And I have paperwork to do tonight. I'll see you at lunch tomorrow?" she said as they reached the car and got in.
"Yeah, that'd be great. I've gotten used to taking lunch at a regular time and eating with someone who who can hold a conversation about something other than games and sandwiches." he replied after he buckled his seat belt.
Sarah smiled. "Well I'm happy to oblige. Even if you end up wanting to talk sandwiches."
After dropping Chuck off, she'd decided to just return to her hotel and beat on the punching bag for a while. The hot dog place was wearing on her remaining nerves quickly. She managed a solid workout and showered, but hadn't managed to kill as much time as she thought. Paperwork awaited her and she began to sort through the forms, including the arcane calculations around the Weinerlicious 'pay' vs her CIA salary vs the expense reporting system.
By the time she finished that, it was almost dark. Sarah was watching the glow of day fade through her window, and procrastinating on filling out another form. It wasn't really the paperwork though, she missed Chuck and was indulging in a good solid mope. She gave herself another five minutes, and then she firmly looked away from the window and picked up her pen. And then, in answer to her unspoken prayer, her phone rang. It wasn't the hash tone she'd had before. It was an annoyingly catchy tune about limes and coconuts. Chuck had done something to lock it in on her phone. She was seriously just considering requesting a new phone from the local substation.
She glanced at the number and sat up. "Hi, Ellie, what's up?"
"Sarah, I'm glad I got you. Can you come over?" Ellie said. Sarah tensed automatically. However, she didn't sound unhappy, angry, or worried so most of the possible bad outcomes Sarah ruled out, and she relaxed.
"Isn't this supposed to be a redo, a family night for you and Chuck?" Sarah asked.
"It is, but I think I need to acknowledge that its not just us anymore. Chuck's got you, I've got Devon. Even Morgan is a part of the family. So, just like on Chuck, I'm going to play the big sister card and insist you come."
Sarah took a moment to weigh pros and cons, particularly in how it would be seen on the surveillance. Of course this call is being monitored most likely too. Missing Chuck outweighed the rest she realized. "Sure, that sounds fun. Should I bring anything?"
"We have food and drink covered. Dinner's in about two hours, so you've got time. See you later!" Ellie's voice was pretty chipper.
"Bye, see you then." Sarah ended the call. Then looked down at her yoga pants and sports bra. Two hours. Hmm. She hopped up and headed to the shower.
Sarah heard voices as she walked up and, suppressing habit of the professional spy, knocked on the door rather than listening in first. Not that she was above listening while she waited.
There were some muffled voices and then she heard Ellie and Chuck, who must have moved into the living room.
"Well, she's your new best gal. How could I not?" Sarah could hear the smile in Ellie's voice.
"Ellie, you know you'll always be my best gal." Chuck's said, his voice getting closer.
Ellie's voice was quieter, but clear enough. "Don't take this the wrong way, Chuck, but I hope not."
Sarah smiled, feeling a bit warm. Being accepted was something to treasure, even if it made her more vulnerable. She was lost in her thought's and missed other comments, she managed to suppress a jump when the door opened.
Chuck was standing in the door smiling at her, and looking at her slightly dressed up state in a way that made her glad she took the extra time.
"Ellie invited me, she," Sarah paused and waved at Ellie. "Uh, insisted I come, actually."
They walked into the living room. "So… Mother's Day?" Sarah was curious, she knew a lot of the story so celebrating Mother's Day at all seemed odd. Even more in October.
"Yes, Mother's Day, that's right. We didn't talk about the details…" Chuck looked sad for a moment and then looked over at his sister and his face lit back up. "Mother's Day is the anniversary of the day our Mom…"
"Oh!" Sarah said and put her hand over her mouth. "When she left? Oh, Chuck..." She moved almost without thinking to hug him. OK, now I'm doing it. This Bartowski hug thing is infectious.
Ellie's voice had a note of surprise to it. "You told her?"
"Yeah." Chuck said over Sarah's head. "Sarah kind of insists on us actually talking like semi-mature adults. Its like she wants to avoid those quirky misunderstandings that cause fights and breakups."
Sarah pulled away and lightly smacked him. "Watch it. Fights are still on the table." Then she turned to Ellie, who was holding a tray of snacks, and said. "Please ignore him. So, this is…" she said, inviting Ellie to pick up the conversation.
"This is when we learned to take care of ourselves." Chuck said from behind her. "And to rely on each other." Ellie said, almost part of the same sentence, and smiling at their exchange.
Champagne was distributed and they settled in around the coffee table. Sarah couldn't participate fully in the conversations that followed. Too many of her stories were cover breaking, so she limited herself to listening and just enjoying the 'family' time. She did manage, after the first bottle of champagne had been finished, to convince Chuck and Morgan to go into more detail about some of their childhood antics. It was, as she'd suspected, both adorable and hilarious. She was also pretty sure Casey was either vomiting or turning off the monitors to avoid having to hear any more about this.
A second bottle was opened and, after a while, conversations spread out a bit. Chuck wandered out into the courtyard to sit by the fountain and Morgan went with him. When they went out the door they were discussing some fine point of contention over the plot of a movie she'd never seen or even heard of. Ellie had stayed on the couch and was sipping from her glass, looking off into the distance.
Sarah watched her, thinking about her own moping earlier that evening. "Missing Devon?"
"Huh?" Ellie shook herself and looked over at Sarah with a surprised expression. "Um. Yeah, I guess at least part of it. Its not unexpected, this is the life surgeons sign up for, but I miss him every time." Ellie smiled and waved at Sarah. "Mostly I was kind of struck thinking about how serious things must be for you that Chuck would talk about that, you know our Mom and stuff."
"It was kind of intense I suppose." Sarah admitted. "I had a realization that… well, that not talking about things was setting us up to fail." How do I summarize and not give away too much. Or better, how can I give away just enough… "We had a bit of an argument after some elements of my past came out." Sarah sighed happily. "Luckily Chuck and I sat down to talk about it. We've, traded some stories. Our childhood issues came up, at least in summary."
Ellie winced. "Devon and I experienced our share of unintentional wounds. It took a while for us to heal, but you seem to have hit upon what we did – you have to do it together." She looked at Sarah speculatively. "I guess this had something to do with an ex, for both of you?"
Sarah looked down. "Yeah." She drained her glass and poured a refill. Drained it. "Um. Its one of those horrible coincidences in life that seems to follow Chuck around. Or me maybe."
"Oh c'mon, it couldn't have been that bad. Its not like you were dating Bryce Lar…" Ellie trailed off seeing Sarah's expression. "Oh. My. God."
"I'd broken up with Bryce about six months before I met Chuck. I hadn't really thought of it, and when I found out Chuck knew him…. I kind of chickened out. I knew it was bad, what had happened and I didn't want to, I dunno open old wounds?" She shrugged. "Maybe I was just scared of his reaction? Whatever it was, I… lied about it." Sarah laughed mirthlessly. "Of course that worked out about as well as it does in any movie or sitcom. We ran into an old friend who made a point of needling Chuck. She gave a solid attempt at seducing him, 'cause she likes to take things of mine. Chuck shut her down on that, which I expected and do plan to fully reward at the appropriate time. However, she didn't stop there. She put two and two together and prodded him by mentioning Bryce."
"Oh no."
"Yeah. There was kind of an ugly blow up about it. And then the adorable man comes to my place later on to apologize for getting mad at me. When I was the one who'd messed up really." Sarah smiled and shook her head. "If I hadn't met him I wouldn't have believed someone like that existed. So, like I said, I sat with him and set him straight on exactly who'd messed up first in this scenario. And we talked, through a lot of the emotional baggage I've been carrying. It took a good chunk of the evening, but I think we'll be all the better for it."
"Wait, this is that first night he stayed over at your place?" Ellie demanded and looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "He did not come home the next day acting like he'd had a deeply emotional discussion. I've seen Chuck emotional. That was not emotional Chuck. That was stupid goofy grinning happy Chuck."
Sarah grinned. "We didn't talk all night, Ellie."
"Oooh... Ew."
"Anyway, things are pretty good." Sarah shrugged apologetically. "I am still sorry that I've monopolized so much of his time. Still finding our balance. Part of me wants to go running ahead, take the next step and such. The other part of me knows I haven't even known him two months. Its a weird feeling."
"Well save some girl talk for tomorrow, we'll have plenty of time." Ellie smiled. "Honestly I'm glad to be talking to someone who doesn't work at the hospital, so I'm really looking forward to it." She rose and gestured for Sarah to stay sitting. "I'm going to head out and shoo Morgan along home. Its time things were wrapping up."
Sarah sat back on the couch and relaxed. She felt that had gone pretty well, she'd walked the line on lying or leaving things out about as well as she could. A few minutes later Ellie and Chuck came back in and started cleaning up. Sarah had started to rise to help, but when Ellie had waved her back down she just tucked her feet up and watched the siblings banter as they straightened up the apartment. She felt a sense of peace and family that was new to her, but also felt right like she'd found something she hadn't known she'd lost. With Casey on watch, and surrounded by people she knew wouldn't hurt her, she never remembered exactly when she fell into a dreamless sleep.