A/N 1

Thank you all for your reviews. It is fascinating reading all of the different reaction and viewpoints.

I feel that I need to explain a few things.

1. This is divergent canon, so I am trying to keep everyone in character, as I understand it, as they do whatever my story requires.

2. This is divergent canon. It diverges in 2 ways. Chuck is sent to Rome, and Chuck truly believes that he has to become a spy, as he understands it, doing things that are unusual (Carina) and revolting (guns).

3. Not entirely divergent, is my opinion that canon Chuck is not a Saint. He doesn't always do or say the perfect thing. He does always lead with kindness, but he is a flawed, still developing twenty-something. For instance, essentially modeling himself after Bryce Larkin, because, as far as he knows, Bryce was a model spy.

4. Oh, Carina, Carina, Carina. What a can of worms writing about her opens. I feel that in canon, she is a minimally developed, semi-caricature. A Hyper-sexual Femme Fatale. In my mind, she isn't a borderline psycho, and she isn't Sarah with red hair, sharing flaws and desires. Sarah is Taciturn, Carina is Tactile. Sarah hides her emotions, Carina freely displays hers, even if they are fake and created for the Cover. In an imperfect nutshell, "my" Carina is an uber Type A personality.

5. Nobody in this story is perfect. All are dealing with challenges, both personal and circumstantial, imperfectly.

A/N 2

About the story. This chapter seems to be much needed. We check in on Sarah and get updates on Shaw and Casey. I try to create a realistic relationship for the Carina and Sarah. Let me know what you think.

I'll be posting the final chapter, of this Thanksgiving Arc, on Saturday. It is Carina POV, including her thoughts about Chuck.

A/N 3

Thoughts are in Italics. Completely confused about when to do line break during longer narrations, or dialogue, so I hope this is sensible.

A/N 4

No own Chuck. No make Money.

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Thanksgiving - Carina and Sarah

"I wanna dance," Sarah whined, pouting.

Usually, Carina would have been the one to be dragging her onto the dance floor, or, at least, would gladly be going along. But, as she watched a sweaty, sexy Sarah in a bold red mini dress, virtually vibrate in place as she non-stop scanned the bar, Carina really wanted to know what was going on in her friends head.

It had been around a year, and Carina wanted to know more about what happened with her friend, and more importantly how she was doing. But, Sarah wasn't talking. That wasn't unusual, but Carina could typical tease some kind of information out of her.

Now, Sarah was closed down and deflecting any questions not involving drinking or dancing. Not only will she not tell me what's going on, she seems like she is refusing to tell herself. How do you share, what you are using all of your energy to avoid? was what all of Carina's years of studying people, especially the person who was her best friend, told her.

Since they had all been deep cover during the Ring war, there wasn't much she could look into. She needed to get the information straight from Sarah.

But, Sarah was unfocused and distracted. She was trying hard to be unfocused and distracted. She was drinking steadily to insure that she was unfocused and distracted. And that worried Carina.

Carina understood and accepted they were different. They both had issues in their youth, that informed their thoughts and actions, but that wasn't Carina dominant influence. She was an energizer bunny. As long as she could remember, she was the one always craving action and adventure. She didn't need much sleep, and the more she active she was, the more energized she became.

That wasn't Sarah. On the surface, she also seemed like an energizer bunny. But Carina knew that wasn't Sarah's true nature. It was a personality that life had required of her. From Sarah's Dad to the CIA, she needed to be a woman of action. Her Dad had taught her to hide her emotion's, the CIA was trying to get her to kill them completely, so she could be a ready killer, available for them to quick draw on command. But, that level of activity was forced, and drained her, rather than energizing her, like it did Carina. So, Carina recognized Sarah's actions were unnatural and forced.

Carina stayed in motion because she couldn't stop. She was trying to embrace life as fully as she could. Ravenously consuming experiences. Trying to drink from the hose of life, at full blast. She didn't think deeply or ruminate on feelings, because who has time for that?

On the other hand, for Sarah, activity was cover. It covered the true feelings she actually had, her reflections on her actions, the crappy hand that life had dealt her. Sarah kept busy in the moment so she wouldn't worry over the past, nor allow herself any hope for the future, or recognize the lack of hope that could push her to just eliminating her future. The 3 foot rule insured that taking that action wouldn't be difficult, the tool was always at hand. So, it was better to just not stop and think.

But tonight Sarah seemed to have taken escaping her reality to new heights, or lows. Her non-stop movement, either dancing on the dance floor, or bouncing and jittering on the sidelines, told Carina that Sarah was trying to bury something big, and bury it deep. Carina should have suspected something was up when Sarah suggested meeting at a club instead of a more sedate restaurant.

Having no living family, Carina was spending her time in D.C. catching up with what "friendships" the spy life permitted her. Sarah was alone at the top of that list and Carina put extra effort into their relationship, calling her as soon as she hit the ground. The Director can wait.

So, Carina was nursing a drink and keeping up her inquiries, as to what had Sarah so bothered.

"You have to be happy that we have done away with "Them", Carina tried, opening her renewed questioning. "We can now spend our time watching out for simple bad guys, and not backstabbing traitors," she emphasized, hoping that would draw out some response.

Sarah kept bouncing and looking around, answering with a clipped, "Sure".

"So how did things go with Casey, and what exactly happened with Shaw? He's dead right?"

That caused Sarah to pause. "Yeah, he's dead." She took a deep breath. "It was a rough year in many ways." Her bouncing stopped and her shoulders slumped as she deflated.

"Do you miss him?" Carina softly asked.

Sarah slightly nodded, tears pooling in her eyes.

"So you and Shaw were pretty serious?" Carina asked, pushing for more information, more understanding.

Sarah's head snapped up and her eyes met Carina's, momentarily confused and lost. Then recognition of Carina' assumption set in and she shook her head. "No, not really. Actually, not at all. We were only intimately involved for a couple of weeks. I needed a distraction from…. something, but he was lacking, and the whole barely personal spy dating thing was lacking. So, I had us shift back to being only professional partners, and he didn't seem to care that much. For him it seemed to be merely the loss of a convenience."

"He dropped off the map, anyway." Sarah continued. "It was weird" she added, "kind of like so much about him", her eyes staring at the table, but seeing something else.

"He went on a simple surveillance mission and he disappeared. We presumed he was captured or killed by the Ring. Then the facial recognition software got a hit on him at an Airport, and after a search that took way too long, he was identified as a passenger on a non-stop flight to Paris. Unfortunately, the search took so long, the plane had already landed, and were weren't able to intercept him."

"Shaw had dropped off the grid and was assumed rogue for weeks, when he suddenly called me. He said he had infiltrated a Ring cell, and had discovered some important information. Then he said I needed to meet him in Paris, so he could reveal this information in person. It seemed kind of off, so I agreed, but delayed, trying to get some corroboration, and I never heard back from him. That was explained when his remains were identified after a shootout at a Ring location. His body was returned to D.C., identified and buried by the Company."

"We had no idea what that was all about, so I just kept working with Casey, and the NSA kept our momentum up and pressing the Ring, until they were finally defunct, with all of the players dead or hiding, as you well know." She smiled, "Casey was a great partner for that because their treason pissed him off so much he was relentless. You know, Casey is Casey." And then she grunted. They looked at each other and just burst out laughing.

This is like old times, Carina thought. So Sarah is still in there.

Carina's mind had latched on to Sarah's odd reaction about Shaw. If she wasn't thinking about Shaw when I asked about missing him, then who? Oh! She almost exclaimed as the obvious answer hit her. It wasn't Casey, but she wanted to find out about him, while she had the chance.

"So are you going to keep partnering with Casey?" she asked.

"No. He has been a great partner, but for normal field work we aren't a match. I am stealthy, he is a bulldozer. I sneak in to get what is needed. He unloads with everything he's got. So, he is off somewhere, shooting whoever they will let him. And I am alone, I mean I'm working alone, now." She tried to cover.

Her need to shift the conversation prompted her to ask, uneasily, "I know how instrumental you and … your team were, over in Europe. How was it?" She couldn't resist, "How is he?"

Carina now knows the power of Chuck's cuddles. But she also knows that she can't settle down. If he has that power over someone who doesn't want a home, imagine its effect on someone who does want that, someone like Sarah.

They both lost their parents, Carina's to a Tornado, Sarah's to life's misfortunes.

Carina at least had stability for most of her life, family dinners and joyful holidays weren't lacking in her youth. And her parents never gave her grief for her Tomboy ways. They even encouraged her enrollment in martial arts classes, figuring that could help channel and control her endless energy. It served her well growing up, allowing her to protect herself from unsavory characters that her un-concealable beauty would attract.

Her family's death taught her life is transitory, resulting in her already inborn desire for excitement being turned up a notch. Tomorrow isn't guaranteed and don't waste time fretting over a past you can't change.

Sarah, on the other hand never had a stable life. Endless hours in motel rooms watching sitcoms made her long for the homes she saw. As an adult she had distanced herself from those memories, but her subconscious still held them dear.

Sarah was ready to settle down, but after Chuck rejected her at the station, she closed down. She feels like she helped despoil innocent Chuck, ruining their opportunity for happiness.

Carina could sense the need and depth of feeling that produced that simple question. And, it slowed her full throttle race through life enough to more fully appreciate the turmoil Sarah was going through.

But, Carina expected people to handle their own shit. She was compassionate for Sarah especially, but she never saw any benefit from trying to live another's life for them. Sarah needed to accept her own feelings. Sarah needed to realize that she had to start applying her strengths of focus and determination to her life, not just to her missions. That is, if she would ever choose to be truly happy, and not decline into oblivion.

Carina could try to push her into action.

"It's been a wild ride, he's a wild ride. If you are nice I might let you ride him." Carina jibed. Come on and fight for him.

Sarah didn't fight. She retreated, vacated the field, abandoned the ship. Her thoughts were a flood of feelings, that if they could be formed into a coherent thought, it would be abandonment. He abandoned her, she abandoned him, parents abandoned both of them. It was a shared pain that they failed to overcome through each other.

Sarah's blood ran cold, and if she let her restrained tears fall, the Ice Queen would have cried ice cubes. She didn't mourn the loss of his touch as much as she mourned the loss of his heart. Oh, Chuck is any of your sweet soul and warm heart left? She might be an assassin with numerous kills, but it was the murder of his innocence that would damn her.

So she dipped her reply in dismissal and distain and wrapped it around a core of bitterness and replied, "Yeah, I've heard about Charles Carmichael, or Bryce Larkin 2.0. Been there, done that." # Heartbreak

She shakes it off and her mask returns.

Damn it, I've lost her again. Carina realizes.

Sarah was back to bouncing and looking around the room. She ran away from Carina and the conversation, and everything that underlay it, without even taking a step.

"If you aren't going to dance, I'm going to find something else do for fun," putting on her best smug mask, "or someone. We'll do lunch before you leave." They didn't.

Carina shakes her head at Sarah's nonstop and meaningless motion, more an automaton in a frenetic existence, than a human living a life.

Carina wordlessly watches Sarah walk away, adding some sway and attitude to her movement, and she realizes who Sarah was making a bee line to.

Hmm, blonde, 5'10, stocky with a beard, doesn't look anything like Chuck. Oh yeah, that's probably the point. Nothing to bring forth, or possibly spoil, the memory of Chuck.

As Sarah approached, her target realized that he was in her sights. His eyes widened, then narrowed in appreciation of her beautiful form. His eyes widened again, tinged with a little fear, as at an instinctual level he became prey, trapped in the sight of a predator. Sarah walked right up to him, and pulled him into a kiss. His eyes closed with the kiss, then fluttered and rolled back in his head, as she whispered something in his ear. And then, she was dragging him out the door. No conversation, no getting to know you, just a diversion, a release, a discarding; followed by a collapse into a sleep that hopefully would be dreamless. Carina knew the game and watched. Then Sarah was gone.

Carina shook her head, Sarah, when are you going to learn you can't hide from your heart. Oh well, I'm used to taking what Sarah wants, because, after all, if she wasn't going to use it, I'm not going to lose it. I've got no problem sharing Chuck. Heck in some ways that would make it easier.

Carina did wish Sarah the best, and hoped that burying her distraction with Chuck, would allow Sarah greater focus on missions.