A/N – I'm gonna keep this short. I don't own Chuck etc., have no beta and would like you to join us over on the Facebook Chuck Fanfiction page.

I hope you enjoy.

Chapter 11

Stepping through the doors of the Buy More a couple of hours later, Carina winced at the gaudy green and yellow décor, the cacophony of colour assaulting her still sensitive eyes. The store had seemingly been built to focus attention on a large circular counter with a large red and white sign above it, declaring to the universe and everyone, that it was home to something called the Nerd Herd. The whole image made Carina cringe, as did the scruffy looking middle aged man sat on the counter, strangely picking at his ears with a pencil. She watched him remove the pencil and sniff it, turning her already queasy stomach again. Choosing to focus on the reason for her visit instead of the way her insides churned, she fixed her face with an easy smile and confidently strolled on, moving through the store quickly until she stood only a few feet away from him. When the confused looking man finally noticed her standing there, he fell from the counter and landed heavily on the ground, getting up slowly and shaking his head.

Ignoring his dazed appearance Carina frowned before smiling at him "Hello…" she said, leaning forward and looking at his badge quickly, before retreating a little further away from him "…Jeff, can you help me?"

He furrowed his brow and gazed at her goofily "You know my name?"

"It's right there…" the redhead pointed at his chest, making him grin.

"Oh, yeah it is." Jeff slapped his forehead and continued to stare at her, "…just one minute" he held up a finger and suddenly turned and ran off, disappearing through a pair of large doors. Moments later he reappeared, his scruffy face followed by a much smaller, very effeminate Indian one. Pushing the doors open with a flourish, the smaller man strode confidently over to her, seemingly being shadowed by Jeff.

"Yes madam, how can I service you today?" the Indian man asked, not even trying to hide the fact that he was checking her out, she reached into her purse and pulled out the damaged phone, wiggling it in front of him "Jeffrey, I believe Big Mike was looking for you." He pushed the older man away and looked back at her, in what he obviously assumed was a sultry manner.

"Why? …Lester, what did I do?" Jeff asked, his tone matching his confused expression.

Lester turned quickly and stared wide eyed at him "…does it matter?" he gestured with his head for the bigger man to leave, turning back with that creepy grin again.

Carina watched the interaction with barely hidden disgust for both men, eventually as Jeff wandered away muttering to himself, she decided that she'd had enough of these morons "Excuse me, Lesley…" she began, her tone a little harsher than she'd originally intended, but her head had begun to pound again.

The little man raised his hand like he was a schoolkid needing the toilet "…it's Lester" he interrupted bravely.

"I don't care…" she almost snarled at him, rubbing her temple with her empty hand.

"Hey Lester she sounds like my mom." Jeff chirped up from the other side of a nearby DVD stand. Carina found the comment more than disturbing, considering the way he'd been looking at her moments earlier but she frowned even harder at Lester when he seemingly agreed. "…I miss her" the scruffy man sighed and wandered further away.

From the corner of her eye, Carina spotted a short Asian woman enter through the same doors that Jeff had brought Lester through, she was heading towards the desk confidently. The redhead hoped that the woman worked here, the way Lester was creepily staring again had seriously hit her last nerve. The tall redhead looked at the woman's outfit and winced, wondering how the pretty woman coped with the two men, especially wearing such an extremely short skirt. Carina shivered slightly when Jeff creepily looked her way.

"…I'm sorry for them." The small woman announced, gesturing with her head at Jeff and Lester.

Frowning a little in curiosity, before giving a tight smile, Carina answered quickly "Don't you mean 'about' them?"

Shaking her head vigorously, a wide smile quickly appeared on the Asian woman's heavily made up face "…not really, no. I'm Anna" she said, reaching her hand out and noticing the broken phone sticking out of Carina's outstretched hand as the redhead attempted to shake it back. They both laughed awkwardly as Carina swapped the phone to her other hand.

"…Carina" she offered, shaking the much shorter woman's hand and they both smiled. Handing the phone to Anna, the redhead raised her eyebrows in question.

"Wow, an Intellicel…" Anna said, taking it and rolling it in her hand "…I haven't fixed one of these bricks in years."

Carina raised her brows in challenge, surprised at the smaller woman's tone, "…well, that 'brick' has my entire life on it" she huffed.

"I'm sure we still have some spares for these out back." The smaller woman said, apologetically. Turning quickly, she shouted over her shoulder "…LESTER." He came running over, slowing the last few steps and puffing up his chest a little. "…go to the cage and get me a screen for an Intellicel #092407" she demanded, glaring at him this time. The smaller woman shooed him away and turned back to Carina "it should only take about twenty minutes, if you want to wait…" she noticed the redhead wincing as she looked over her shoulder, seeing Jeff and Lester reappear "…there's a Starbucks and an Orange Orange just over the way." the pretty Nerd Herder offered. Seeing the redhead's appreciative smile as she turned around quickly and headed for the doors.

As she waited for the doors to open in front of her, Carina glanced back and saw Jeff and Lester walk back to the desk, staring again.

"Is it just me, or have the women around here got hotter recently?" Jeff said to himself.

Ignoring his friend for the moment, Lester moaned "Oh my god, she is too good for this store, isn't there a nicer establishment where the beautiful people can shop?" he stared again at her retreating form.

"Anywhere but here." Anna muttered, cackling to herself as she opened the back of Carina's phone, both men started to chuckle with her.

"She's coming back…" Jeff chirped, standing a little taller. Lester rubbed his chin and pursed his lips, deep in thought for a moment. "We've got twenty minutes… Should I set up my keytar?"

Anna cringed and was about to speak, when Lester thankfully said "No…" making the small woman breathe out in relief. "Jeffrey, go to the van and grab your guitar." He smiled creepily, "…Jeffster's going unplugged." Anna shook her head in disgust as the pair looked at each other and cried "JEFFSTER!" at the top of their lungs.

Big Mike suddenly appeared at his office door, the round faced African American store manager quickly strode over to the counter, looking furiously at the pair, "What are you two idiots doing?" he pointed his large pudgy finger towards Lester's chest and gestured away from the desk "Go serve some customers." He looked at Jeff angrily "Barnes… go clean the diaper change station" he growled, staring at Jeff's vacant expression angrily, causing Lester to giggle at his friend's dilemma. "Patel in my office, NOW!" Big Mike shouted at the smaller man, nudging him with his rotund belly towards his office.

Thankfully Carina's found her return visit thirty minutes later far less frustrating, the two annoying men were nowhere in sight and after she'd been greeted by Anna, she simply paid for the repair and left. When the doors finally squeaked closed behind her, Carina imagined herself miraculously escaping through an airlock like in one of her dad's favourite movies, the aliens safely trapped on the other side. A pang of guilt shot through her briefly at that thought, it really had been far too long since she'd been to visit her parents. Deciding that she'd drop by tomorrow and spend a few hours with them, maybe see if her friends wanted to tag along, the thought made her smile.

Crossing the last few yards to their parking space and jumping into Zondra's black Mustang, she pulled the car door closed and pushed the receipt into Zondra's hand, grinning a challenge "You said that you'd pay."

"I know, are we done here? Or do you want to visit the zoo again?" she snarked, gunning the engine and reversing out of the parking spot.

"That…" she gestured with her hand towards the store "…was your fault" the redhead replied haughtily, pulling out the phone again and flicking through the various menus. Satisfied that it was ok and she wouldn't have to go back in, she nodded, placed it carefully into her purse and smiled.

"So what do you want to do now?" Zondra enquired, peeling away and heading vaguely uptown along the surface roads.

"Just get us out of here…" Carina grinned broadly "…I'm glad my phone's fixed, but man, that place was a mistake…HUGE. I need to cleanse my credit cards for a while."

"Ok, Vivian…" Zondra chuckled, pointing the car roughly towards the freeway, quickly leaving Buy More plaza in their rear view "…let's get you to Rodeo Drive."

The redhead grinned cheekily, "I'm still kinda mad at you for breaking my phone, but thanks for calling me a Pretty Woman" her eyes sparkled briefly before she pulled down her sunglasses and stared happily out of the windscreen.

Nodding her head in admiration for a second, Zondra chuckled to herself "…Whatever Red."

The rest of the day passed in friendly companionship, the two women joking as they went from boutique to boutique, amassing an ever growing collection of bags and drawing a great deal of male attention with Carina's habitual flirting. After grabbing an early dinner, the two women decided to head back to Carina's room.

When they wandered back through the doors of her hotel just before 10pm, the women were still chuckling as they talked about everything that had happened during their shopping spree, all of the stares, come-ons and suggestive nods that their passing had attracted. Carina had even been asked for an autograph by a tourist who'd mistaken the leggy redhead for a famous model and of course, she'd played along, signing his ball cap and letting him take a picture. A few other guys had tried to approach the flirty redhead, or Zondra herself when a couple of them built up the confidence to try together. The two women had thrown away all of the business cards, or little strips of paper once the unfortunate suitor had left. They weren't heartless after all.

The brunette gestured with her head and caught Carina's eye, drawing attention to the look she was receiving from her latest admirer. Carina deliberately exaggerated the sway of her hips and winked at him as she walked by, chuckling again as she caught Zondra shaking her head at his gobsmacked expression. Both women quickly passed through the lobby, Zondra following into the waiting elevator. "What? I'm just giving the poor guy a thrill" the redhead announced when the doors closed.

Reaching her floor and entering her room, she pushed the door closed behind Zondra with one of the myriad shopping bags, Carina let them all drop and pulled off her heels, stretching her tired feet on the cool floor.

Zondra dropped down onto the nearby sofa, watching her friend with a smirk "So when are you heading to Washington?"

"I should fly out Monday night, my boss wants me back for this big presentation on Wednesday and I'm gonna need to sort a few things out first" Carina replied, pulling her hair back over her shoulder and sitting wearily against the arm of the chair.

The brunette smiled warmly "…any news on that promotion?" and pulled off her own shoes and placed her feet on the coffee table.

Carina cleared her throat and replied "Nah, it's just another sales update, I'm only going to see how big my bonus is this time." She added cockily.

"Poor you." Zondra offered in fake sympathy, receiving a faux glare in response "…flying all over the country, getting paid to flutter your eyelashes at rich doctors."

"I don't know what you mean…" the redhead said defensively, a smirk playing on her lips "…I sometimes take them to dinner, but that's all. We both have a nice meal and my boss pays for everything. As long as the doctors keep signing up to our trials, I don't think they actually care what I do" she shrugged.

Zondra had a warm smile fixed to her face "That's a little disturbing. Come on Red, how many of those handsome doctors have actually tried to bag you? Be honest…"

"Oh, all of them…" Carina declared immediately as though it were obvious "Like I said though, I've always said no."

"Unless they're called John" Zondra snickered "…I'm not judging, I never have." Zondra offered quickly, faking sympathy and resting her hand on Carina's arm.

"Don't you start that, I know Sarah likes that line. I've only ever dated one John and that was back in high school." The redhead pouted for a moment, stood up and went to the mini bar, pulling out two beers.

"Oh, I know, Sarah told me about him being your first love." Zondra replied, shaking her head at the offered drink. "I should head home, if I stay much longer those guys in the bar downstairs will think something's going on."

"You should be so lucky…" Carina snickered, gulping at her beer.

The brunette snorted loudly and smiled at her friend "If you still want to go, I'll pick you up in the morning and we'll visit your folks." The brunette offered, standing up and stepping into her shoes.

"Thanks, that'd be great." Carina answered, and saw her to the door, sharing a hug before the brunette headed for the lift.

A few miles away, Chuck and Sarah were laid on her sofa, the nearby television ignored by them both as she settled her head on his chest, her body melting against his in perfect contentment.

On the way back from a wonderful day wandering around Santa Monica, Sarah had insisted that they stop at her favourite pizza place to pick up dinner. After grabbing their food, she'd driven them back to her place, quickly excusing herself when they arrived to jump in the shower and remove the remnants of sand from her feet and hair. Only a few minutes later she was drying herself and wandering into the walk-in closet, the towel wrapped tightly around her. After settling on a light blue blouse with tiny flowers coupled with a comfortable pair of Capri pants, she got dressed. Her still moist ponytail hung loose on her neck as she playfully stalked her way back from her bedroom to the sofa, catching Chuck with his back to her, playing on his phone as he waited.

A stray strand of her blonde hair made him jump as it wet his cheek, looking up quickly he caught sight of her slender neck inches above him. Leaning back a little and lifting himself up, he kissed under her chin "Spiderman kiss?" he mumbled and reached out to pull her closer. She shook her head and jumped away laughing, making him turn around as she quickly retrieved the pizza from the kitchen. Shaking his head as she sauntered back and sat down next to him. Dropping the box on the table and handing him a plate, they ate and chatted.

As she placed the last morsel from his plate between her luscious lips, the blonde saw his gaze suddenly laser focussed on the way her tongue seductively swept out to remove a stray crumb. Biting the corner of her lip a little, she somehow held in the unsubtle comment that jumped into her head about needing the energy later. Sarah saw her boyfriend's megawatt smile plaster itself on his face as they locked eyes, the smouldering heat she saw in those chocolate orbs gave her a sneaking suspicion that he also thought they would be burning off most of these calories, her heart already hammered in her chest when she teasingly licked her lips again.

His eyes seemed to lose focus for a second, before shaking his head and clearing his throat quietly "Oh, before I forget… Dinner, tomorrow night at Ellie's. She really wants you to meet Devon."

She pouted briefly at his sudden shift "We met when we dropped her off. He had to virtually carry her from the car. Remember?" She eyed him sarcastically "…tall guy, blonde hair, apparently he's allergic to shirts" he snorted as he nodded in agreement.

Chuck puffed up his chest and mimicked Awesome's posture, holding his breath and jutting his chin out for a moment before giving up his attempt at looking muscular "Honey, I don't think pulling Carina back into the limo with Zondra when she drunkenly tried to launch herself at him, counts as actually meeting him."

Sarah smiled warmly at the memory "…yeah, that was pretty funny."

Offering a tight smile, he continued "I don't think my sister thought so..."

Sarah hoped Chuck was wrong but steadfastly defended her friend "Come on, I've seen Carina far worse than that, there was this one time in New York, a creepy skinny guy from Pakistan had been sending her drinks all night, he tried to get her to go back to his place to view his diamonds… Let's just say I REALLY had to save her ass" he looked at her quizzically.

"So, how'd my super ninja girlfriend save her? Knife fight?" she snorted and looked him squarely in his now almost caramel coloured eyes.

Shaking her head and placing her hand on his chest "No… Obviously. The guy was a creep, not some kind of terrorist" she snorted in amusement.

He chuckled before jutting out his lower lip "You're no fun. Tell me…" he moaned, leaning against the sofa and holding up his hands "I could tickle it out of you" he wiggled his fingers playfully.

The blonde eyed him warily pushing his hands down, a broad smile flashing his way as she pre-empted his attack and began tickling his neck "…are you having fun now?" she teased as he squirmed underneath her, shaking her head and chuckling as he attempted to pull her closer.

Pinning his hands against his sides again, she leaned so close to his neck that her breath caused his neck to shiver agonisingly. He almost choked as she released his hands and her fingers began to trace across from his sides and up to his neck, pushing him firmly into the sofa and simultaneously moving her leg to straddle his legs "I…" he managed to get out before her hands were replaced by her lips and she peppered his neck and jaw with tiny kisses, teasing him again when she stopped mere millimetres from his searching lips.

For a moment she smirked at him, running her fingers up to his hair and watching the swirling colours in his eyes again, whatever resistance she jokingly put between them was obliterated with one suggestive lift of his brow and a solitary finger sweeping wonderful patterns along her hip.

"Ok, you win. This is fun" He breathed against her cheek, moving one of his hands to the base of her neck, his fingertips playing against her skin, his other hand settled just above her waist, resting it reassuringly on the small of her back. The blonde began to look at him more seriously, her playful chuckle silenced by the way his strong arms almost cradled her lovingly. His embrace enveloped her in a cocoon of safety and joy that made her feel more secure than she had in her entire life. As he lifted his chin and traced a finger across her cheek, she held back a happy tear that wanted to escape.

She wondered how she'd survived before meeting this wonderful man and for the first time in years found that she wanted to share her entire being with another person. Her first boyfriend Zach had broken her heart so completely that after her father left, she'd vowed to never let any man hurt her like that again. She'd been very lonely for most of her adult life, with only a few very close friends that understood her history. Sarah now understood that baring that past to the nerd and offering herself completely, heart and soul would be the safest decision she could make in her life,.

The warmth of his fingertips reignited the fire in her body again, but as she looked into his eyes, she understood that he'd already done that with her, his past, all of his painful experiences laid out in front of her. Neither of them had uttered the actual words but as she smiled into his kiss, she wondered if he knew how much she treasured his trust "I have some things to tell you..." she whispered into his ear "I'm sure my dad would tell me there's a very big chance that I'm making a complete fool of myself, especially because we haven't even been together that long, but…" his warm gaze gave her the confidence to utter the three words that scared her more than anything, she paused, "I, I, love you" she said, sitting back a little and looking lovingly into his eyes, there she'd done it.

He saw her tremble after the admission, her lustrous eyes glancing at him nervously as he gently moving a loose hair behind her ear, a smile erupted across his face as he realised he hadn't responded yet "Yes, I mean… not the fool thing but, yes I love you, I love you Sarah Walker, it feels so great to finally say it out loud. I LOVE SARAH WALKER!" he almost shouted "I think I've loved you from the first time I saw you. I mean, you're amazing."

"You're not so bad yourself" she laughed at his exuberance and pulled him into a tight hug, kissing his neck.

"Please, I'm fantastic." He tightened his grip and smiled confidently, never wanting to let this amazing woman go.

"Yeah… you are." She replied, leaning into his chest and resting her head near his shoulder, she could easily hear his heart thumping in his chest and wondered if his own heart was trying to burst out and fly as free as she thought her own had.

A/N – There I did it, Sarah said it first. I hope you're still with me as the plot re-emerges and our favourite hacker returns. Please R&R if you like what I'm doing, it's been wonderful to hear from everyone who's reviewed.