Published December 24, 2020

A/N: The past couple years, I've been planning and reviewing stories excessively by many standards. I've usually drafted a few chapters ahead before I post anything. In my last story, I had ten chapters drafted before I posted chapter 1. I still revised heavily, after that point, but the direction was defined.

This story is a three-shot and was completely unplanned. A few days ago, I said in a Chuck Fanfiction FB post that I'm not writing this. A little over a day ago, I started writing this anyway, thinking maybe I could get a long one-shot done by Christmas. After writing most of chapter 1 on the night of the 22nd, I realized this would be a two-shot, making the idea of finishing it by Christmas even more ambitious. After drafting, I know it's a three-shot.

This story starts in the middle of "Chuck vs Santa Claus", after Chuck gives Sarah the bracelet, going AU from there.

Merry Christmas Eve!

Disclaimer: Nobody else owns anything here, so why would I?

Disclaimer 2: No beta. This story was rushed to hit the holiday. However, if you PM me corrections, I'll fix them.

Sarah traced her fingers along the beautiful Christmas gift on her wrist. It was hard to believe that in this horrible Buy More hostage situation, she received the most wonderful gift that she had ever received. Whenever she thought Chuck couldn't make himself more irresistible, he'd do something like invite her to night of "fake" cuddling or give her a wonderful Christmas gift, treating her like a real girlfriend.

Chuck shouldn't have given his mother's bracelet to her. He was an asset. Her job was to protect him. She wasn't allowed to have feelings for him. It didn't matter if he didn't leave her to die alone in front of a bomb that wasn't a bomb. That was his fault that she had to kiss him. It didn't matter if she was tempted to shoot another agent so he wouldn't be taken away from her after Fulcrum bugged the Buy More. That was his fault for being so fantastic. It didn't matter that she wanted a third first date with him. (One that wouldn't be interrupted with cars crashing into other cars or restaurants.) That couldn't happen.

Chuck should have given the bracelet to a real girlfriend. She told him that. He said he had. On one level, that declaration terrified her. On another, it thrilled her. There was no way anyone was taking it away now.

The hostage taker, Ned, had told everyone they could contact their "loved ones." Chuck had called her, not because of the cover, but to give her a special gift. Part of Sarah wanted to thank him right then, in the middle of the store. Chuck didn't like PDA, and it wasn't appropriate with a guy waving a gun around the Buy More. All she could do was gaze at his face and wish for this situation to be over. Their moment didn't last long since Chuck was called away from her to once again talk on the phone with the LAPD hostage negotiator. Chuck was being a hero because he was "that guy."

Nothing about this crazy situation felt right to Sarah. Jumping out of a plane into hostile territory—no problem. Sneaking into a Pakistani prison, rescuing a captive DEA agent, shooting their way out, and stealing a plane to escape—admittedly, that was harder, but she never doubted she could do it. Chuck's supposition that she quelled Paraguay revolutions with a fork was a stretch. However, his other idea of going undercover to Jakarta and getting in a knife fight with some evil-doer—that was no problem. That was a mission that fit her skill set.

Watching the man she was supposed to protect—the man who thought of her as a real girlfriend—the man that she… Chuck shouldn't be in the middle of a mess like this. Earlier she told Beckman that Rhyerson seemed pretty timid. The local PD should handle it to maintain Chuck's cover. That was before Casey lost a toe. A gun went off near Chuck. He could have been shot. Now, Sarah didn't want to wait for the local PD. She wanted to resolve the situation herself.

Sarah knew that if she did that, she wasn't maintaining her cover as Chuck's normal girlfriend who worked at the yogurt shop. The truth was that she was such a nervous wreck about Chuck's safety that she was having trouble maintaining the "normal girlfriend" cover already. Chuck's sister could see her unease, asking what was wrong with her. Sarah should have been portraying fear but not that much fear. Sarah told her that she hadn't been that close to a gun before, and Ellie believed her, even though it wasn't close to the truth. Sarah had been much closer to a gun that had just been fired to kill a teammate. The difference was she hadn't been that close to a gun when she was supposed to not do something about it. Nothing about the situation felt right. Ellie could tell something was wrong with Sarah.

Chuck got off the phone. It sounded like he was going to the front to let the LAPD hostage negotiator inside. That made no sense. By coming inside, the negotiator was giving up himself as an additional hostage. Sarah wasn't a hostage negotiator. She was a "break-in and save everyone person." However, she knew the basics of hostage negotiation. Never give something without getting something in return.

Looking at Rhyerson, something about him seemed off. Sarah had been great at reading people for fifteen years. For this entire hostage situation, he had been acting like he was in over his head. That was not how he was acting at that moment. He didn't seem like a twitchy person that might accidentally shoot people. He looked like having Chuck let a police officer into the store was expected. A moment later, the nervous act returned, but it had been gone for an instant.

Around the room, Sarah saw something more disturbing. Devon had rallied the troops, despite earlier cautions to stand-down from both Ellie and Casey. Big Mike and Devon had lined up opposite sides of the man with the gun. They were staying low but weren't subtle. Big Mike was still wearing a Santa suit, which stuck out anywhere. Jeff and Lester had picked up big plastic candy canes decorations. She didn't know where Morgan, the other person who had been in the group earlier, was hiding. The fact he had disappeared was suspicious.

When Chuck punched in the security code to raise the big garage door, Jeff and Lester charged, yelling and wielding the big candy canes as clubs. Idiots. They were going to get shot, like Casey. This time it wouldn't be an accident.

It didn't come to that. Their captor no longer looked like the person who just wanted to see his wife. He transformed into someone else. He bounced into a loose fighting stance, ready for the incoming assault. Unleashing a roundhouse kick, he knocked Lester flat unto his back. Jeff stopped in his tracks. Big Mike and Devon stood up straight, realizing their charges wouldn't work. In reaction to the commotion, Chuck stopped the gate. It remained blocking the front entrance because it wasn't high enough for someone to enter.

"Finally, this is getting interesting," the hostage taker said. "Ok, who's next?"

Enough of this. Too many people were getting hurt. Chuck was in the middle of things, and Sarah didn't want him to become the next victim. Rhyerson might not look meek anymore, but he didn't look like someone Sarah couldn't handle. She stood up from across Santa's Village area where she had been sitting by Ellie. "Ellie, stay low and get behind something."

"What do you mean?" Sarah didn't answer, walking straight at the man with the gun. "Sarah, what are you doing?" Ellie's questioning didn't disrupt her resolve.

Rhyerson looked straight at Sarah and asked, "You?" I wondered if I should watch out for you, but thought maybe my information was wrong because of how you were acting earlier." Sarah was surprised her act had fooled someone. She continued her slow, calm approach to her target.

"Stop right where you are." The man raised his handgun to point directly at her chest. The determination on her face did not waver. How would Ned know she was a threat? If he had "information," crashing into the electronic store where the Intersect worked was not an accident. He might have shot Casey intentionally, not on accident. Since she hadn't altered her slow approach, she was only about ten feet away.

Recently, Casey defeated his turncoat sensei, but Sarah could hold her own in sparring sessions with her partner, and that was holding back to protect his pride. This evil-doer had no idea who he was threatening. Chuck had promised to heartwarm her. Then, he gave her something special. She wasn't about to let someone with a gun ruin possibly her first good Christmas since she was ten.

"Sarah," Ellie called from behind her. "What are you doing?"

Sarah stopped a couple feet in front of the man waving a gun. If he knew better, he never would have let her get that close. He raised the gun further to point straight at her head. "You should go back over by the last man I shot."

Sarah had trouble not smiling. This stupid man didn't know what to think of the slow approach. She was positive that she could take him. Her first year at the Farm, she learned how to disarm a person when they stood as close as she was at the moment. It wasn't even that hard. She had unexpected help.

From underneath the fake snow, Morgan sprung up, covered in white over his elf costume. He was holding the tube for the snow spraying machine. He covered Ned with a cloud of synthetic snow, obstructing his view. Sarah was close enough that some was getting on her, but not enough to block her view. With Morgan's perfect distraction, she moved.

Quickly lifting both hands, Sarah hit both sides of the hand holding a gun. The gun went flying, but she didn't stop. She yanked on Rhyerson's wrist, pulled him forward, and kneed him in the gut. He wasn't ready for her attack and was pliable to go anywhere she led. She pushed her opponent back a step and then kicked him in the face. She pushed him again, so her victim fell to the ground, smacking his head on the hard floor. He was unconscious. The hostage situation was over.

When Sarah had said to let the local authorities handle the hostage situation, she had wanted to avoid a Federal raid, blowing Chuck's cover. It turned out, a full tactical assault was not necessary. This man seemed to know something about her, but he had underestimated her resolve. By only shooting Casey in the foot, he showed he hadn't wanted to blow his own cover as a criminal who was in over his head. He knew how to handle a direct attack from amateurs, like what Lester tried. He didn't know how to deal with a direct assault from someone who wasn't scared of him, and he didn't expect something like the distraction from Morgan.

Sarah could hug Morgan for his help, but that wasn't possible because she was assaulted from the side with a solid hug. Sarah rotated a little and saw it was Chuck. Hugging him was even better than hugging Morgan, so she returned it with the full strength that Chuck was giving. He said, "I'm so glad you are ok. When Ned knocked out Lester, I was worried someone was going to get really hurt—worse than what happened to Casey. Then, I saw what you were doing. I was so scared."

Sarah felt a second hard hug around both her and Chuck. It was the other Bartowski. "I can't believe you did that, Sarah. I didn't know you could do something like that. That was unbelievably dangerous. Why did you even try something like that?"

They all separated, and Sarah explained. It was time for a little embellishment in her cover that contained some truth. "I don't talk about it, but Chuck knows this." He actually did. Chuck told her last year how he flashed on her ring a couple days after they met. "A few years ago, I was mugged." In reality, she was trying to get mugged. The mission was to try to find the leader of a local gang. They came at her hard, but she won. No need to share that part of the story. "As a result, I took several self-defense classes." That wasn't true. She took those classes before getting mugged, when she was training at the Farm, the summer after her Freshman year. The scenario was close enough.

Devon had joined the group. He said, "The way you just walked straight at him and then disarmed him. That was awesome."

"It was also extremely dangerous," Ellie said. "You could have been killed."

Chuck stuck up for her, "Sarah has had more than one self-defense course." It was a lot more than two. It wasn't exactly self-defense either. Sarah was proud of him for attempting to go with the cover story.

Ellie wasn't buying it. "What you did was more than self-defense. Chuck, did you know she could do things like that?"

Sarah knew it was her job to salvage the cover that she had jeopardized, so she saved her cover boyfriend from the interrogation. "I had multiple instructors say I'm a natural." That was true. "People who wave guns around pick victims that appear vulnerable. They don't expect people to fight back. I went up to this guy because I was angry that he was putting the people that I care about the most in danger. Since he was the one with a gun, he'd never expected what I did. It's about confidence."

"Still, it was crazy. I can't believe anyone could pull it off."

Sarah shrugged like it was no big deal. Chuck helped cover by giving her another strong hug and once again saying how thankful he was that she was safe. At least, Sarah thought the hug was good for the cover. Considering the type of gift he gave her earlier, maybe he wasn't covering and really meant it. Maybe it worked either way. Regardless, Sarah liked how Chuck's hug and him saying those things made her feel. It was better to think of it as for the cover, though. If she happened to like it, the CIA and NSA didn't need to know.

Chuck finally let her go when the phone rang. He was the one who needed to get the phone. The gate was only up a foot and the hostage negotiator was still outside, so Chuck let him in. All around, the ex-hostages were thankful they had survived. A bit of mistletoe was making the rounds, so green-shirts were using it as an excuse to kiss each other, sharing the joy that they were still alive.

Despite protesting that he was ok, Casey was taken out on a stretcher to get his foot checked. The EMTs weren't satisfied with only a field dressing, even though it was applied by two doctors. They wanted an X-ray. Sarah did get a few relatively private words with Casey before he was taken to the hospital. Sarah could barely believe what he said to her. He did have a point. Sarah had blown up her cover as a failed actress with one TV ad who worked a series of jobs in the food service industry. Casey's concern was legitimate, though she could barely get her head around his suggestion.

Lester was taken out on another stretcher. Sarah saw Anna and Lester kiss, which she couldn't believe. She saw that Morgan also witnessed it and was devastated. Morgan was sometimes annoying, but he was a good friend to Chuck and didn't deserve to be treated like that by Anna or anyone else. Sarah was confident that she could have prevailed tonight, but Morgan made her victory a certainty with his distraction. Part of Sarah wanted to do the same thing to Anna that she did to Rhyerson—kick her in the face. Morgan was too good for her.

The man she kicked was still breathing, but he remained unconscious. The NSA would divert the ambulance to a facility where he could be properly interrogated after he regained consciousness. This hostage farce had to be staged. There was no way it would accidentally happen at the same place Fulcrum bugged—the same place where the Intersect happened to work.

Ellie loved the bracelet on Sarah. Sarah didn't want to give it up on a personal level, but with it also being part of her cover, Sarah could wear it more.

To end the hostage crisis, Sarah had blown her cover as Chuck's timid girlfriend. However, there was nothing linking her to the CIA. There was nothing indicating Chuck was the Intersect. Chuck was safe. Her new cover was as Chuck's girlfriend who was really good at self-defense and could take care of herself. It would help if the girlfriend part of the cover was obvious to everyone. Chuck might not be happy with PDA, but he'd have to deal with it. There were parts of this assignment that Sarah loved. Tonight, she was staying overnight with Chuck on Christmas Eve.

A/N: Sarah had enough and walked directly up to Ned and stopped him. However, everyone saw what she did. What does that mean for the cover? Also, she ended the hostage crisis without shooting Mauser. What now? That's coming soon.