A/N: I decided I would make this a few chapters longer than four, probably six or seven.


A Comet Appears


And if you took to me like a
Gull takes to the wind
Well, I'd have jumped from my trees
And I'd have danced like the king of the eyesores
And the rest of our lives would have fared well

— The Shins, New Slang


Chapter Two: Venus


Chuck froze — but only for a millisecond.

He had felt frozen for five years, but this time, now, he managed to move, to overcome himself. He acted without hand wringing, without any second-guessing. He committed himself.

He bent down and carefully turned the woman — Venus — over. He did it as gently as he could. He heard her murmur or moan, something soft and indistinct. He could not make out any words.

He brushed the sand from her face softly and pulled out his phone. He held it up and turned on the flashlight.

The steady phone light revealed a woman more beautiful than the momentary car lights had shown him.

Her eyes, large and blue, opened for a moment, saw him, and then closed. He did not speak. No further sound came from her.

Holding his phone closer to her head, he moved her hair, more golden, up close, drying, and found the source of the blood on her forehead. A cut. It was not deep, not long, but, like most head wounds, it was bleeding heavily.

He had a clean handkerchief in his pocket and he dug it out, holding it by one corner and shaking it to unfold it. He daubed softly at the wound, cleaning it enough to be sure that he was right and that it was not serious. He had seen worse wounds on Morgan's head back in the days when Morgan had wanted to learn to skateboard. Chuck could never get him to wear a helmet.

But as Chuck daubed at the wound, he realized that Venus had a large, swollen knot on her head. She had been struck savagely by something, and her falling onto the sand, her disorientation must have been the result of that blow to her head.

He kept the handkerchief pressed against the cut, but moved the phone to look at the black body suit she was wearing. It had initially seemed like a wetsuit, but he now realized it was not. It was made of some durable, stretchy material, but not rubber. Then he saw the holster. It was empty but it was there. A holster. For a gun.

Trying not to touch her in any way that would embarrass him, he searched her.

He found nothing. She had on boots. The suit zipped up the front but he avoided the zipper. Venus' breathing was shallow but regular. She had injuries to her back and legs, but nothing severe. Her head was the problem.

He shoved the bloody handkerchief back into his pocket and took a deep breath.

With a mighty effort, he managed to wedge his arms beneath her back and lift her off the sand. He lumbered forward, stumbling, almost falling, then he corrected for her weight and his sinking footfalls in the cold sand.

He carried Venus to his Nerd Herder. The beach was still deserted, the night growing colder.

He started to put her in the back seat, then realized that it was likely she had a concussion. It would be a bad idea to let her slip into a deeper sleep.

With effort, he managed to open the passenger door and sit her in it, putting the seat belt around her. The salt scent of the ocean wafted off her, but also a hint of perfume or soap, sweet beneath the salty.

He made himself stop dwelling on her scent, and he ran around the car and jumped into the driver's seat. After blowing out a breath, he fished his keys from another pocket and started the car.

He reached over and took one of Venus' hands. Warm.

"Hey, hey, I don't know your name, but I need you to wake up and stay with me. I'll get you some help." He started to mention a hospital and then he saw the empty holster again. No. He changed his mind, knowing the trouble it would cause him. "My sister's a doctor and so is her boyfriend, Captain Awesome."

The woman's blue eyes flickered and a smile flickered below them, white and perfectly uneven: "Awesome?" she asked softly, almost as if she did not understand the word.

Chuck laughed. "That's what I call him. He is awesome. Nothing he does falls beneath the standard of Awesome. Even when he's mediocre, he's awesome at it. Mediocrity par excellence."

"French? You're funny. A comedian. Like SNL." The woman said, softly, haltingly.

"SNL? Not me. I'm just a guy who repairs computers. People laugh at me, mostly, not with me. I'm Chuck. I don't know French, just that phrase, and I didn't know it was French."

The woman looked at him for a moment, nodded, then closed her eyes.

"Hey, hey, don't go to sleep. You don't have to talk; you don't have to keep your eyes open. Just…" he moved his hand, laced his fingers into hers, "...just squeeze on my hand. Constant pressure. If I feel you let up, I'll squeeze and you squeeze back. Stay awake."

Chuck started to back from the parking spot when a patrol car rolled behind him. He gasped, then held his breath. Venus managed to turn her head enough at the sound of Chuck's gasp to see the car as it passed them. She jerked, squeezed his hand hard, and Chuck took it as a sign that he was right to avoid the hospital.

He waited for a breathless moment for the patrol car to leave the lot, then he backed up and left it too, turning the opposite way on the road.


As he drove, Venus kept constant pressure on his hand. Only once did she let up, her head began to loll, and he squeezed her hand in response.

She lifted her head, eyes still closed, and squeezed back.

He drove as quickly as he could, consistent with not drawing attention. Finally, he arrived at the Echo Park apartment complex where he lived with his sister.

Venus opened her eyes when the car stopped. "Where are we?"

"Echo Park. What's your name?"

The woman looked at him for a moment blankly, and then panic filled her eyes. "I don't know. I…I…My name is…"

She shut her eyes tightly but when she opened them the blankness returned.

"I don't know my name."

Chuck did not know what to say in response. He looked away from her blank eyes toward his apartment. The outdoor lights Ellie had strung for his birthday party were no longer on. The light by the front door was off too.

The complex's parking lot contained only familiar cars.

His party was over.

He looked back at the woman. Her eyes were closing as if her eyelids were weighted.

"Stay with me now, no sleep. Do you think you can walk to that fountain, just past it?"

The woman looked in the direction of Chuck's pointing finger. "Maybe, if you help me. My head's hurting worse. Throbbing."

Chuck nodded. "I'll come around and help you up. Then you can lean against me as we walk. Actually, that'll probably help keep anyone from bothering us. Is it okay if I put my arm around you?"

She looked at him as if the request for permission was a novelty. His old self-doubt gripped him; he felt like the king of the eyesores.

But she agreed. "Okay, sure. I…don't mind."

Chuck opened his door and jogged around the front of the Herder. He opened her door and reached in to unclasp her seatbelt.

Her head settled against his shoulder as he reached across her. She inhaled and sniffed him. "You smell nice."

"Stay with me," he said through an embarrassed grin.

He reached behind her with one arm and pulled her to him, then lifted her up from the seat. She helped him a little.

"Good, you're strong," he said. She was. He could feel the ripple of her lean muscles as she worked to stand. He slid his arm down around her waist.

"We'll go slow. Superslow. Let me know if you need to stop."

She nodded once and leaned more heavily against him. He started them toward his door.

It took a long time, their path wavered, and sometimes they took a step backward before stepping forward.

Her feet scuffled the ground; imbalance caused her to wobble, and so to put her arm around him.

They walked like a tipsy couple, arm in arm, across the complex.

"My head, it's worse. It hurts."

They reached the fountain Chuck had mentioned and passed it

Chuck lifted her up onto the step in front of his apartment. He held her more tightly as he used his key to open the door, making sure she did not fall.

Inside, the apartment was dark.

No surprise.

Ellie was undoubtedly pissed, and turning off all the lights on him was only the first sign of the wrath to come.

Chuck clicked a light switch by the door, and helped Sarah to the couch, maneuvering her past furniture, and lowering her down.

He grabbed a pillow and put it behind her head, then re-examined the head wound; it did not seem to be bleeding again.

"Be still, please — but don't sleep. I'm going to get my sister. Um, don't freak out if you hear some yelling."


A red-faced and bewildered Ellie stood with Chuck looking down at the woman on the couch.

Chuck had Ellie's doctor's bag under his arm.

He was rubbing his shoulder where his sister punched him before he was able to explain that there was an injured woman on their living room couch.

Ellie grabbed her bag, put it on the floor, and got down on her knees.

Chuck watched as she took a light from her bag. "Hey, hey, sweetie, can you open your eyes?"

The woman did, staring at Ellie. "You're…the sister?"

"Afraid so. Ellie Bartowski. But right now, what matters is that I'm a doctor. My boyfriend is a doctor too, but he got called to the ER a little while ago, since…well, since a party I planned went sideways." She gave Chuck a sharp glance, then looked back at the woman. "Follow my light with your eyes if you can."

Ellie moved the light up and down, left and right. The woman followed the light, but slowly, and with obvious signs of pain.

"Okay," Ellie said after a moment of thought, "that's good. I'm going to examine your head now."

Ellie quickly put on a pair of blue gloves. Chuck, watching, furrowed his brow. "Is that necessary?"

"Habit, and training, Chuck." Ellie picked up some gauze. "You say she doesn't know her name?"

"No, she didn't seem to know where she was, didn't know her name. She tried to remember but couldn't."

The woman listened to the two of them talk but added nothing. She closed her eyes.

Ellie started to examine the wound when she noticed the holster. It was on the woman's opposite side.

Ellie stepped back like she had been shocked, stepped toward Chuck, and whispered. "Chuck, what the hell does she have on? Is that a holster? Did she have a gun when you found her?"

"No, but…No. I saw a comet. It appeared. Just before — no, a while before she came up out of the water. I think it was an explosion. A plane. She must've jumped, parachuted."

Ellie was staring at him. "Did she have a parachute on?"

"No, but she could have taken it off, would've had to take it off to swim to shore."

Without shouting, Ellie raised her voice. "A plane, Chuck? An explosion? For all you know, she could be a killer, a terrorist."

The woman's eyes opened for a moment, hearing Ellie's last word. She stared at Ellie but did not see her. "Lebanon…"

Ellie's eyes stretched wide. She whispered again. "Chuck! Did you hear that?"

The woman's eyes closed.

"I did — but it doesn't prove anything. I don't think she's…a bad guy, El."

"She's dressed like one, all that black. Is it Spandex?"

Chuck shrugged. "Dunno. High-tech stuff. — Just help her, Ellie. I'll figure things out after I know she's okay. She needs your help, Hippocrates."

Ellie's green eyes flashed. She shined the light still in her hand in Chuck's face. "Don't bring up my oath; I haven't forgotten it. I'll help her — but in the morning, if she's okay, she has to go. You take her to the police."

Chuck blinked. He turned toward the woman like a gull turns to the wind.

"Okay, Ellie. But trust me. She — she's like Venus. She just rose from the sea. Like that painting, Botticelli. The goddess of love, beauty, desire…"

Chuck trailed off, looking down at the couch, transfixed. The woman's eyes opened for a second, focused on Chuck, then closed. She no longer seemed to be following the conversation.

Ellie began work on the wound; she had been studying Chuck's face.

The woman's eyes stayed closed but she responded to Ellie's touch, frowning, the wound and the area around it obviously tender.

"Jesus, Chuck, did you get hit on the head too?" Ellie asked after a silence in which she considered her brother, his expression as he looked at the woman.

"None of the women from the hospital tonight do it for you, Irma, Joan, Scooter, so you go and summon a woman to you from the depths of the ocean or the vault of the sky. Look, she's pretty, Chuck, but my guess is she's broken, and not just physically.

"Normal girls don't rise from the surf or fall from the sky. And there is no Venus. She doesn't exist."

Chuck feared Venus was listening, although he could not tell. "I know that." He spoke more quietly. "I know all that. But, it's my birthday and she just appeared. I feel — I feel responsible for her."

Ellie lifted an eyebrow as she finished cleaning the wound. The woman seemed to be awake but not really following the conversation. "Responsible? That's the first time you've used that word in — well, in a while, Chuck."

Ellie's voice softened. "Go get me a glass of cold water, a bowl of hot water, and a clean towel."

Chuck hurried to the bathroom. Ellie cleaned the woman's forehead.


The woman stirred as Chuck left, tensed. Ellie made a soothing noise and then asked: "So, sweetie, you don't know your name?"

The woman shook her head, touching it. "No, but it's just this headache. It hurts so much — crowding everything else out."

Ellie produced a bottle from her bag. Chuck came back with the items he was sent for. "Here, take these." Ellie handed the woman a couple of pills.

Venus put the pills in her mouth and Ellie gave her the glass of water.

"Okay, I'm going to numb the area around your wound with a topical. Once it takes effect, I'll give you a shot to numb the area more, then I'm going to put a few stitches in. After that, I'll check your other wounds.

"Chuck, you need to leave. I'll have to take off her suit.

The woman looked at Chuck, saw his immediate blush, and a slight smile ghosted her lips.

Chuck turned, shifted his eyes from Venus, and left. "I'll just be in my room; I'll come back when Ellie finishes."

The woman watched him go.

Ellie began to doctor the head wound again.


The woman wasn't asleep, wasn't awake. Her head was full of fire and dark, of explosions. The roar of air and engines.

And then she was in water, cold, salty, fighting to float, fighting against something pulling her under.

And then it was off her, gone, and she could float, grab a breath. She swam upward, toward the surface, the stars.

She opened her eyes, and her visions cleared. The tall man from the beach, the man with curly hair, was bent over, holding her shoulders.

She had been thrashing on the couch, wrestling the blanket, reliving her effort to keep from drowning.

His hands on her shoulders were firm and soft all at once, his eyes saturated with concern for her.

Concern for me. Why does that feel new?

"Shhh," he whispered, "it's okay. You're safe."

Safe. Have I ever been safe?

But at that moment she felt safe.

She put her hands around his wrists but did not move his from her shoulders. "Thanks, I'm okay." She held his eyes with hers.

He smiled and pulled his hands away as he stood straight.

"I'm here. You were drifting off. We were talking about my job. Should have known that was a bad choice. The job makes me sleepy too. Especially when I'm doing it. — Do I need to wake Ellie?"

She shook her head gently. "No, I'm okay, better. Keep talking. Maybe hold my hand again, squeeze it, like before?"

He smiled and took her hand and then she really did feel better.


A/N: Hope you're enjoying this upside down version of the show.