A/N (1) Previously on Chuck versus The Journey: Chuck and Sarah, as the newlywed Carmichaels, leave the dinner at a Santa Monica hotel early, using their infatuation with each other and their wish to be alone in their honeymoon suite as an unspoken explanation. They leave the Governor of California and his family, as no leads came out of the evening, and want to retreat to their room to discuss matters with the rest of the team - and possibly some matters between just the two of them.

Every breath you take,
Every move you make,
Every bond you break,
Every step you take,
I'll be watching you.
"Every Breath You Take" (Gordon Sumner)

Chapter 12: Chuck & Sarah vs. The Honeymoon Suite (1)

Chuck wanted to lovingly lead his wife out of the banquet hall and to the elevator. Samantha Lisa Carmichael seemed to have different plans. The Veep and the Secret Service were gone, but there were VIPs galore, so the security checkpoints were still set up. While the large entrance doors were open and unattended now, one could enter and leave the hall only one at a time.

Sarah sashayed forward, leaving him behind, not only because of the sudden change in her walk but also because of the soft sway in her hips that made every straight male bystander stop doing whatever they were doing – and stare. Some stares were indecent, some looks were admiring, some were from older eyes which followed the spectacle with a knowing but not leering smirk.

Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, Chuck thought, I would have a hard time remaining my gentlemanly calm if I didn't know her, but how am I supposed to react as her husband? I can't shyly look away. I am the one everyone expects to know everything her lithe body is hinting at in detail!

Chuck knew it would be pure joy to watch Sarah's bottom sway through the crowd. He always aimed to be a man of honor, but he was far from being a monk. As everyone knew him as her husband, he really should give in and watch the show while it lasted. But that was the issue – he wasn't her husband. He was her partner in a CIA operation tonight. The moment they would enter the privacy of their hotel room, the sober-minded analysis of the evening would bring an abrupt end to all the billing and cooing. And all the glances he stole now would haunt him then.

So he concentrated his gaze at her blonde shock of hair and watched his wife bypass a few guests as she sneaked in just before an elderly man, and sashayed through the security gate, which elicited an amiable smile from the man. At that very moment, a bellhop heavily loaded with luggage was about to pass between Sarah and the elevator. She did a couple of quick, bouncing steps that made her look like a young girl as she bounded to the elevator before the bellhop passed by. Sarah reached the elevator. Placing her left hand on her waist, she bent down, making the dress as breathtakingly accentuate her behind as she expected when selecting it, and made a production number out of pressing the button for the elevator up.

A unison sigh came from several men nearby, collateral damage to her intoxicating, dreams-evoking sexy gracefulness.

"Man, that's not fair," a guy complained, and another assisted him.

"It's like Jell-O on springs. She must have some built-in motors to move so perfectly," the other man said with plain envy shifting his gaze to Chuck for the tiniest moment.

Cast everything in black & white, give these men the faces of Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon, and I would believe that I am watching an unseen outtake of Some Like It Hot, with Sarah Marilyn Walker stealing the show, Chuck was mesmerized.

Sarah was done with the elevator control panel and turned around. Her eyes widened in mock surprise, seeing him a few yards away and not directly behind her, and realizing that she outdid him on their way to the lift, her lips parted with delight, her right hand came up to face level, her slightly parted fingers waving at him. Her sapphire blue eyes beamed at him with chaste joy.

Mr. Carmichael was stunned. He emulated Sarah's goldfish as he stood there with big eyes and a mouth that opened and closed like it had a life of its own.

Chuck, get it and get me some time, Sarah silently urged, and it seemed like he finally comprehended what she did and why.

Oh… oh… this is a show! She wants to have a few moments of scanning everything before leaving. That's why she abandoned my hand and skirted all the other people to have some time until I catch up.

Noticing that Chuck took his time, she routinely surveyed the scene. The look into the banquet hall did not change from this point of view: Many unsuspicious guests, sprinkled with apparently agency people and a handful of individuals who would merit closer inspection.

Are the Kowalskis still at their table? Yes, and Gene is already looking down another blouse, so he won't miss me. Check!

The couple coming up to the elevator is holding hands, and he plays with a hotel key card as if he is bored, but they are not man and wife. They're spies like us. Young, most probably inexperienced, but spies nonetheless. Check!

What little I can see of the balcony hasn't changed. The ATF couple is still missing, there are two men, possibly NSA, who scan the crowd, and there are two more couples who certainly are from an agency. Others may overlook it, but I am too experienced to miss their earwigs. Check!

One of the tables I thought would pay closer inspection is empty now. We need to find out later who was sitting there. Check!

Aside from all the observing going on, there is not any activity that requires my immediate intervention. Check!

All that noted, it is time to take care of my cover role again. Check!

Give your husband a beaming smile, affectionately watch him rushing close to you, and take his hand. Che- whoa! What was that? As we touch, a jolt of electricity tingles in my hand. I am absolutely helpless to fight it and clueless how to deal with it. Especially as it happens every time we hold hands... oh, the elevator!

As they entered the elevator for the short ride to the first floor, Sarah and Chuck fell into silence. Another couple who left the banquet hall at the same time selected the seventh floor. The Charmichael's ride to the second was as short as Casey's patience with morons, yet long enough to examine what had taken place this evening wordlessly.

Chuck was pensive but enchanted. The evening had been a fake on the surface, but if his intuition was correct, then Sarah Walker made a handful of confessions and declarations between the lines. It was up to him to sort out truth from legend. He had reason to be nervous about that, but it was a joyous nervosity. I must not be pushing her. For once, you gotta keep your impetuous mind under control.

Sarah shot the other couple a glance. After all these years, she knew if someone was from an agency. These two were no more a real pair than Chuck and her. Their performance was as convincing as Morgan feigning to care for a customer.

As the Carmichaels left the elevator, their earbuds emitted the familiar voice of Casey, who expressed an unfamiliar undertone.

"Listen, lovebirds. The case of the missing ATF couple is solved. The ones from the balcony." Casey was no one to make pauses for effect, so he continued without interruption. "The guy can't be found. His female partner was found on the beach a few minutes ago. Dead."

Sarah and Chuck looked at each other with a strange foreboding. An unwonted warmth engulfed her heart as she clearly could see what was on Chuck's mind. If that happened to them, then Chuck would be the one missing – while Sarah would have been the one killed. And all she could see on his features was a deep concern for her. Yet, she knew it was essential to maintain their cover until they reached the safety of their room.

They kept strolling towards their room. "Stay in cover," she whispered. "Someone's watching us. There's a man down the hallway, acting as if looking for his key card. He was down at the banquet hall as well, but I never saw him sitting at a table. Only watching the guests. He isn't here by coincidence, and I am sure he's not staying on our floor. And I don't think he is one of ours."

Sarah pulled her key card to open their room and hesitated for a moment.

This is the moment, Samantha, when you can become Sarah again.

When I can leave the oppressing presence of my former life behind, but it is also my Cinderella moment. My beautiful dress will turn to rags again, and I will lose my prince.

Chuck used the second she lingered, made her stand back, and opened the door himself. In an instant and with a mischievous grin, he swooped her up and carried her over the threshold laughingly. This had never happened to her. His move came as such a surprise that she let it happen without protest.

It was an odd experience, and while marriage for Sarah was something that was as far away as Burbank was from Pakistan, she knew that this tradition stemmed from the superstition of ancient times. Grooms carried their brides over the threshold because evil demons lived under those thresholds, and to avoid that the bride brings these ghosts into the nuptial bedroom, she is carried into it. Until now, she had looked at the tradition with a fair dose of suspicion: If there were demons, why was it that only women would lure these into the house, and what was so special about men that their sheer presence would avoid that?

But while she did not believe such legends, she knew without a doubt that Chuck Bartowski was special. It would be plain heavenly if Chuck could carry her over a threshold, any threshold, and in doing so, she could shed all her personal demons for good. With firmly closed lips, she smiled at the thought of being fraught with old fear and pain one moment - and liberated of it the next.

Actually, if Chuck could do that, he can carry me into the bedroom with all that's supposed to happen there.

Sarah came out of her daydream when Chuck gently let her down. She switched on the light and, feeling a bit abashed over her mind drifting into forbidden zones, turned away from him, clearly dropping her cover. Meanwhile, Chuck closed the door. His eyes fell on the air conditioner right above it. As he felt the well-known waves of a flash, he reached for Sarah's hand and urgently pulled her in his arms again.

"Of course I will keep my promise, Samantha Lisa, what did you think?" he scolded her with mock seriousness out of the blue. She searched his face for any reason why he would act like that – the cover was not needed anymore. He rolled his eyes by trying to make her aware of the object he discovered. He failed. At least she sensed that something was off and waited in his arms for a long moment to explain himself. She let herself be held safely by him, slightly bent back, and looking up to him like a virgin just saved from a menacing fiend by her hero. For the zillionth time this evening, she threw him out of his mental balance. Consequently, when Chuck rolled his eyes again, impatiently this time, it was way too unfocused to let her determine where she should look – if that was what he wanted anyway!

"I'm going to make you happy as long as my princess desires," Chuck proclaimed. "How about attending to your wishes until 3 AM and then we'll have a snack of whatever these good people left us here?" gesturing to the tea wagon placed right in front of the bed. "And then I will proceed in my attempts to evoke happiness in my lady till the early morn."

His strange wording almost made her snicker, but at "3 AM", Sarah blinked. He saw that he got that hint across. She laughed and bent her head back slightly for a quick peek in the referred direction and saw it. There was a tiny camera placed rather unsuspiciously on the control panel of the air conditioner.

He broke the embrace and walked over to the tea wagon. Sarah was stunned, not the first time today, how professional he could be. She mused if he possibly used his playful side – and she knew there was plenty of it – to maintain his cover.

"Look, Honeybee, Champagne!" he exclaimed as perfect as a young lover would welcome a gift that would make the night even more glamorous. "Why don't you try to find some romantic channel on the radio while I open it?"

Champagne? Only Champagne? I'd like to have you in a cocktail, cool and strong and intoxicating, and I would do things to that cocktail cherry right under your eyes that would make the polar caps melt - and your brain!

She scurried over to the radio, happy to have something to do to turn away and not let her feelings be seen by him, and soon was successful while he cracked open the bubbly. Clinking their glasses, she stepped close to Chuck. He lowered his head to whisper in her ear.

"I know that type of device. It's an older surveillance device with audio, trading off quality both in video and audio to bundle that. The camera is OK, but not much worth if it's dark since there's no night vision. The audio is below average. The microphone doesn't reach far."

"Crap," she sighed, sensing all kinds of complications coming up, but he had more to report.

"The good point is that they weren't too clever by putting it on the far side of the room. Whoever it is, they won't understand us if we talk in below-average voices, but otherwise, they most probably will."

Sarah's lips smiled, but her eyes were concerned.

"Lucky you flashed on that. Any more info?"

"No, sorry," he whispered to continue louder: "Are you hungry, Honey? Shall we see what else they brought us?"

"Take your time, Sweetie," she said, comfortably sipping her Champagne. Chuck turned his glass in his hands and tried to hold his nervousness under control. Just as he thought he would accomplish it, Casey cursed into their ears.

"Holy shit! When you mentioned the camera, I checked – you're actually on the other surveillance circuit you detected before the mission!"

"What?" Chuck whispered, hardly able to contain his agitation.

"As I said, Bartowski," Casey began, forgoing addressing him as a moron, which certainly wasn't a good sign. "The other series of surveillance cams someone unknown placed, those you found before our mission, in the van, right? You set it up so that I can check these too, you remember?"

"We remember," Sarah confirmed. "We're on there?"

"Yeah, Walker, I can see you and Bartowski. I could even hear you talk when you came into the room. I couldn't when you whispered. It's hard to tell as I also pick up audio from your watches, cufflinks and earrings, but as Bartowski guessed, I'd say you're safe from being overheard when you speak quietly."

Sarah reached up and put her hands on Chuck's shoulders. If he was happy that their cover play had been prolonged, she couldn't see it. She lazily turned to the music, guiding him with her, so she could check out their surroundings.

The honeymoon suite was spacious and luxurious, and its setup unusual. The entrance door at the far left and the king-size bed at the far right were in the room's diagonally opposite corners. So the camera over the door was at the far end of the room, as seen from the bed. Whoever planted had complete control of the coming and going and good general overview of most of the room.

The bathroom was on the right-hand side. Only a step from the door, there was a walk-in wardrobe on the left side. It was open, and Sarah could see willing CIA hands had prepared it to look like the wardroom of a couple on vacation. Sarah was thankful for the well-known ahead planning of her agency as it would have been their undoing if that camera had picked up the team that set the stage for their honeymoon play. She even caught a glimpse of a white bridal gown. The vast empty space was loosely filled with a relatively small table, two chairs, a loveseat, and more furniture that seemed to be there for the sole reason to offer honeymooners variety while exploring their young marriage. The entire length of the opposite front was a glass front, a thick curtain at both ends. A door led to a terrace almost as large as the room itself. She realized that the first and second floors had a considerably larger ground plan than the upper floors, which gave way to these terraces on the seaview side, possibly even coming - it is a luxury hotel! - with direct access to the beach area. As soon as a new day would begin, the view out to the ocean promised to be spectacular.

Sarah's inspection of their room yielded nothing suspicious besides the camera, but unobtrusively checking the dark night-time terrace instantly changed her mind. She stopped moving and firmly held Chuck in place.

"Don't freak out, Chuck."

•••••••••••••••••••

A/N (2) Some Like It Hot (1959, Billy Wilder): The short moment of Sarah hopscotching from Chuck to the elevator, of course, is a bow to Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, and Jack Lemmon as the two cross-dressed men watch (and discuss using the "Jell-O" and "built-in motors" I quoted) "Sugar Kane" Monroe walk hip-swaying to board the train and join "Sweet Sue and her Society Syncopators."

A/N (3) "As soon as a new day would begin": For anyone who missed it, a New Day has begun! It's Willie Garvin's brilliant "Chuck vs. A New Day," and if you are not reading yet, you should start immediately - this chapter has ended, so what are you waiting for?

A/N (4) Every Breath You Take: If you plan to use this song for your wedding, think again - but I assume most people know the story behind the song by now. Sting explained himself: "I think the song is very, very sinister and ugly and people have actually misinterpreted it as being a gentle little love song, when it's quite the opposite."

A/N (5) A cliffhanger of all things at that moment? Don't worry, the next chapter will follow soon. It is one scene anyway, but the mood is going to shift in the next chapter, as you all can expect, and before it gets too long, I divided it.

A/N (6) Thank you all for your reviews and thoughts. Keep 'em coming, don't send 'em to NBC, send 'em to me!