A/N (1) Previously on Chuck versus The Journey: Chuck and Sarah successfully managed to convince everyone that they are honeymooners by faking their conjugal duties, but it came at a high emotional price for Sarah, who is suffering from haunting memories of her past. Spending the night together in total innocence and a peaceful snuggle in Chuck's side of the bed, Roan Montgomery liberates them in the morning from the camera watching them and has an agent's heart-to-heart talk with Sarah. Meanwhile, Chuck had a talk with Carina in her room where Sarah eventually finds him.
The last chapter ended with these words:
"Moron!" Carina impersonated Casey. "I'm talking about that big head of yours. If I ever need a flash for one of my own missions, you will do so."
Chuck stared at her silently. So that was why she talked. I should have listened to that little warning voice inside my head right from the start.
•••••••••••••••••••
Don't make me take my earrings out,
Cause I'll show you what a catfight's all about.
I'll throw you down and mop the floor.
A man like mine's worth fightin' for.
Don't make me take my earrings out.
"The Earrings Song" (Monty Criswell & Rivers Rutherford)
Chapter 19: Chuck vs. The Girls
"Everything comes with a price tag in the spy world," Carina coldly said and got up, leaving him sitting on the bed. Like in a fast-moving stage play, the lock of the door clicked, and in stepped Sarah. She checked out Carina's appearance with a swift neutral glance, then gave Chuck a stern look.
"Finding you in another woman's room! You're aware what till death do us part can mean if you marry an agent, are you?"
"Uhm… you take care of my parting yourself?" he wondered, even more so as she mixed her real life with her cover persona. She didn't look like it was a slip, so it was deliberate, and that was as surprising as an elephant's sneeze.
"Very clever, Mr. Carmichael. I wish you'd been so clever as not to visit here. Philandering on our honeymoon, I can't believe it. I want a divorce. You can keep your Tron poster and that redheaded bitch, and the rest is mine."
Chuck didn't know if he should hide beneath the bed or wildly grin. Her words were spoken in a mockingly accusing tone and what she said...
Sarah is messing around with me, she's joking, right? Can't be anything else, mixing real and fake, right?
As her expression turned to impish, he knew for sure she was messing with him. Chuck's grin quickly expanded from Carina's room almost halfway to his place at Echo Park.
Yes!
Sarah was a funny person, he knew it all the time - if she only allowed that part of her to the surface. For some reason, she did this morning. He contemplated if it had to do with the night that lay behind them. A night when, in a way, nothing happened and still quite a lot between them changed - so much that she apparently was opening up for a bit of teasing banter.
Yes again! She is opening up! To me! Whatever snapped in her mind last night, it changed her! I really should pinpoint the moment, I should buttonhole her, pick up the great improvement and further it, discuss it, reason with her, charm her. Now is the moment to tell her again how much I love her, now she possibly may accept it...
His gaze fell shortly on Carina and he got reminded of the debacle that should have been a conversation among adults.
No, no, no. You better keep those words to yourself. Talking to Sarah about love in the presence of Carina is trying my luck too much. Possibly... possibly I also should not push her... but assist her in developing these emotions... and then she'll see that I'm the right one...?
Chuck knew that the wrestle with his own tongue to keep quiet would be tougher than to face Stone Cold Steve Austin in the arena, but he was willing to try, so he diverted his view from the redhead and laid his best trusting puppy dog look at the blonde knockout who seemed nearing the moment to knock-out someone. Not him, he knew. While Sarah did not trust Carina, she trusted Chuck enough to joke about the situation. With a softer voice, she continued.
"Charles, please leave. You remember our cover? You shouldn't be here. Head over to Casey."
He was glad to get out of the room and quickly made it to the door as Sarah turned to Carina. He hoped the looks in their eyes only meant one of their verbal exchanges. The last thing he heard was Sarah addressing Carina.
"And you, will you finally dress, or is that how you'll work today?"
Carina crossed her arms in front of her chest and earnestly considered the option. She shot a controlling look to the door that closed behind Chuck and then replied.
"You could slip into something comfy too, and we call Brown Eyes back and have fun with him."
As Sarah opened her mouth to retort, Carina delivered a line that left the blonde agent reeling.
"You know, he dreams of a threesome with the two of us."
Carina tremendously enjoyed the few seconds Sarah needed to reply.
"When did he say that?" Sarah demanded unbelievingly.
Chuck is wise about Carina. He would never sleep with her as long as he got me. Ouch, he hasn't got me... yet. But still, he wouldn't. And a threesome with Carina and me? Is there a little macho in Chuck I never saw, or is the green-eyed troublemaker trying to upset me as usual?
"It was before the mission when you left him in your room to wait for me. I stepped out only in a towel and then dropped it, and he could watch me at his leisure as I dressed. We casually discussed threesomes in general and specifically one that would involve you, me, and him," Carina stretched the truth of what had happened that evening. If Carina's truth were the suspension cables carrying the Golden Gate Bridge, they would have stretched too far and disrupted that moment. The bridge would have tumbled down into the strait connecting San Francisco Bay and the Pacific.
"Just ask him," Carina teased. "We could put on a show for him and peel some silky little nothings from each other, and –"
"I peel your skin off of you if you dare to touch him!" Sarah spit out fiercely, but Carina was the last person she would tell about her feelings first. "You know now about his importance. Don't unbalance him!"
"I yet have to meet a man becoming unbalanced when thoroughly banged," Carina mused but held up a defensive hand when Sarah stepped closer. "It's OK, I'll leave him alone," she conceded.
As Sarah eyed her with cold suspicion, Carina assured her. "It's OK. Nothing happened here. Just a bit of talking between two old chums."
Sensing that there still was more to Chuck visiting Carina, but trusting him fully that he had not been there for what she jokingly alluded to, Sarah decided that it wasn't the time to find out what they had talked about.
"C'mon now, we have a briefing at Casey's room!"
•••••••••••••••••••
"Where's Walker?" Casey grumbled without greeting or even looking at him when Chuck entered the hotel room which was impressively set up as a surveillance unit. The low hum of the machines was music in Chuck's ears.
"If you let room service in here, they'd faint," Chuck commented and replied: "She's showering and getting ready, and, yeah, talking with Carina now. I thought I would drop by to see if you have anything new for us."
"And here's me thinking you'd shower together after last night," Casey smirked.
"Casey, nothing happened last night."
John Casey turned around, staring at Chuck in disbelief.
"You didn't?"
"We didn't."
Casey gruntlessly turned back to look at the monitors. His shoulders convulsed, and only then he produced grunts Chuck never heard before. Eventually, he gave up and roared in laughter, pounding the arm of his chair.
"You didn't? You didn't!"
It took Chuck only a slight shove against the chair, and Casey slid down to the floor, but the big man didn't mind at all. He propped one arm on the seat and slowly regained control of himself.
"You know that honey pot is a golden one. Uncounted numbers of men would give an unimportant organ to get into a situation where they have to assault this one with a friendly weapon," he still panted from laughter.
"This one is a wonderful human being and not an object. You can't reduce her to her... her... honey pot, as much as I want …, I mean, I am a man, but I can think with my head instead of my weapon… errm…" Chuck rambled irritatedly.
Casey wiped a tear of laughter from his cheek.
"Anyway, Bartowski, you're too good for this biz. Do you know what Larkin would have done? He would have bent her over the next table or chair faster than she could kick off her high heels, and she would have had no chance to do anything but to co-copulate." He snickered at his word creation while Chuck winced from the rude words.
"She would have blown the cover otherwise. On the other hand, by blowing him, she would have secured the cover within sixty seconds. No one would have been suspicious, and the guys checking you out would have switched to other cameras as soon as the show was over. Instead of keeping out that watch on you all night, moron. And coming back today to see where you're going."
He gave Chuck an unusually long and un-grunted look. There was, all the crude words aside, a notion of respect and approval in his eyes.
We're a team, Casey thought. We respect each other - we don't "use" each other. Well done, kid.
"So, how did you convince them?"
"To be honest, it was quite simple," Chuck began and gave Casey a quick summary of what happened last night, explaining how they fooled the people listening into believing they had a passionate night but leaving out all other details.
Casey grunted in an undertone of compliment.
"The simple ideas always work best."
Chuck changed the topic. "Do we have any relevant news?"
Casey shrugged. Any mission news was so non-existent that it wasn't even worth a grunt.
"Nothing. We're still looking for the agents who disappeared, but we have no info about the bomb. I agree with Walker's opinion that there's something strange about the whole situation. It's like the whole deal is a hoax."
Before Chuck could voice his own opinion, the door opened, and Sarah and Carina walked in. He checked both of them out from head to toe if there were any signs of fresh wounds.
"You've seen how he gave us the once-over?" Carina murmured to Sarah. "I only say one word: Threesome."
Just as Sarah sighed, annoyed, a large screen came alive, and General Beckman was looking at them pensively.
"I talked to Major Casey already earlier, and I was allowed to read all of the reports from the other agencies on site."
Seeing that Sarah raised her eyebrows, Beckman addressed her directly.
"Everyone has their pants full up to their belts from the fear of an atomic bomb explosion in the US. As the main agency around, we were treated to all of the information gathered. It is not much and certainly not sufficient for a precise picture of the threat. So what's your take on the situation, Agent Walker?"
Sarah cleared her throat.
"General, there is no evidence whatsoever of a weapons deal and no clues that would make me believe that the agents we lost are in any way connected to such a threat. It may be a hoax."
Beckman and Casey shared a knowing glance. They obviously came to the same conclusion.
"However, I begin to worry about Mr. Bartowski. Let us assume for a moment that all our combined teams could be discovered and busted by our unknown enemy. Then I end up probably dead, and Mr. Bartowski kidnapped. Accepting that turn of events as the intended outcome, our enemy would have gained an asset worth much more than a single atom bomb. Such a scenario makes sense. My personal safety aside, I think it would be wise to remove the Intersect from the premises. He may be the real target."
Casey proudly looked at Sarah.
Sarah would make a great Marine. She cares for her buddies and puts her own safety second. She can cooly talk about being killed in a subordinate clause while emphasizing the safety of her comrade-in-arms. I could not ask for a better partner.
"Major Casey and I came to the same conclusion."
Sarah stole a glance at Casey, and he nodded friendlier than she could remember.
"However, there are two issues I can not ignore. First, until we can absolutely eliminate the danger of the bomb threat, we have to take it seriously. In that case, the Intersect has to remain where he is to support our task of averting a nuclear disaster. Second, if these efforts were really orchestrated to get hold of the Intersect, our approach to the mission will change drastically and offers immense possibilities. We should identify as many members of opposing organizations as possible and arrest them. For that, we need the Intersect, so he should remain where he is."
"I don't mind being called Chuck," the man referred to inserted. "All this talk makes me think that Charles I. Bartowski stands for Charles Intersect Bartowski."
Beckman snapped her fingers.
"We can arrange to have all your official documents edited and replace Irving with Intersect within 120 minutes if that would put you at ease, Mr. Bartowski," she said curtly. "As I explained, Mr. Inter- the Intersect remains where he is."
She leaned her head down and glared out of the screen.
"If I bore you, Agent Miller, I could inform the head of the DEA how you miss the necessary willingness to support this inter-agency operation. I haven't talked to Chrissie anyway in a while."
Casey hawked nervously but went on nonetheless.
"I'm sorry, Ma'am, that would have been my fault. I failed to inform you that after the assassination team on Walker and Bartowski was called off, Agent Miller volunteered to pull sentry duty near their terrace for the whole night. Only as a precaution. She didn't sleep a wink."
Beckman blinked and probed Casey with her eyes but determined that it wasn't a white lie.
"That's why she's yawning all the while!" Chuck commented. He looked at Carina sympathetically and nudged Sarah. "She's a true friend."
"Hmm-mmm," Sarah only produced.
One female agent is challenging enough, Chuck inwardly sighed, but two of 'em is dancing at the edge of the volcano.
"Agent Miller," the General began, "I am profoundly delighted to hear about your commitment to this operation. I will commend you to Chrissie for your sense of duty."
She coughed and returned to the mission.
"Major Casey overheard that the Carmichaels are for the time being safe inside the hotel, but the people who observed their room decided that you would be observed when you leave the building."
Casey grunted contemptuously. Would these two, unable to make use of a honeymoon suite, be ordered to spend the rest of the day in their virgin room?
"Therefore, you'll stay in your room until about noon, and then you leave for an afternoon at the beach. I don't want any agency-related activity from the two of you. You pretend to be the happy couple, period. That is especially an order for you, Agent Walker. Then, the two turtledoves will retreat to their room. You stay away from dinner downstairs later and have it served to your room. Major Casey or Agent Miller will update you if necessary, but you will not involve yourselves in any action unless I tell the Major so."
Chuck was torn between being delirious with joy or delirious with fear. Spending agency-free-time with Sarah, per orders, while possibly being the main reason for this huge operation, was a truly unsettling combination.
"It is Friday only, and, as we know, the enemy operation runs until Sunday night. We bide our time and clear you two completely of any suspicion of being anything other than honeymooners for anyone who observes you. We bring the Intersect back into the action on Saturday, possibly only for the night when you're invited by the Governor," the General concluded.
The moment the screen went blank, Casey did for what he was best known for before speaking.
"I wish I was ordered to do nothing all day long! Walker is even getting paid for it! Bartowski, get your yellow polka-dot bikini out!"
•••••••••••••••••••
A/N (2) I'm discussing my story with some of you. Thank you very much. It allows you to detail your critique and me to explain what was between the lines. Neither in the purpose to convince each other, but to understand how we all view our favorite characters in general and in this incarnation of their story specifically. My sincere Thanks for all of your considerations and thoughts.
A/N (3) If you've got enough grunts from Casey and enough lewd words from Carina this time, hold your breath for the next chapters when this weird man torturing his keyboard is sending Chuck and Sarah off to the beach. Unless a big white one nibbles on their toes, y'all have one guess only who the most dangerous thang on that beach will be.