Sarah did wake with the sun the next morning, but it was filtered softly through filmy curtains into their air-conditioned cottage. They'd left the private beach area after their time together there and came back to the cottage to sleep in the luxurious bed with clean sheets and pillows. She felt the rays warming her gently as she lay entwined in Chuck's arms. He seemed to be particularly fond of this spooning position because it allowed him to wrap an arm around her and cup one of her breasts while they slept. She certainly wasn't complaining.
She opened her eyes slowly, snuggled deeper into him and gloried in the night they'd spent together. She felt like it was far and away not just their best night yet but her best night. She hadn't known that such intimacy was possible. It was like her ability to be open with him, the act of being open with him, had also opened a new awareness in her at how closed off she had been before. Not just with him, but with everyone, always. It occurred to her that it was really no way to live and she wondered if other field agents lived the same way or if she was unique in that regard.
She rolled back through some of her various missions in her head and looked at the interactions she'd had with other agents to see if they'd tried to draw her out. She had to admit that quite a few of them had, at least early on in their interactions together. The men and the women had tried and for the most part, she'd shut them all down quickly and firmly. Some of the men had gotten through the shell a little, intrigued her enough in some way that she'd let them into her bed, but they were the rare exception.
The only one who'd managed to break through her Ice Queen exterior was Carina, the undercover DEA agent she'd worked with quite a bit over the years. She'd gotten through right away, mainly by sheer force of will. Carina was just so bold, and she'd simply rejected Sarah's attempts to shut her out. It was after after their first mission together had gone sideways in the Florida Keys and they'd barely made it out. The mission had been a success, but a messy one. Carina made the offhand comment that she needed to go clubbing to drink and dance away the residual adrenaline. This was in Miami, where clubbing was a national pastime. Sarah had tried to push her off, but Carina was having none of it. "Oh, screw the mission post-mortem. That shit can wait. I need to go out and you're going with me. Take a rest from your Ice Queen bullshit for one damn night!"
Sarah had been so taken aback by her forthright nature that she found she actually did want to go out and blow off some steam. And oh, the time they'd had. Her pounding head and the strange man in her bed the next morning were a testament to that. She'd promptly ejected the man, taken three extra strength Tylenol and called Carina to curse her birth. This almost immediately led to them having breakfast together and laughing about the night before. But Carina was the exception that proved the rule. She was worse than – or at least as bad as – Sarah when it came to trust issues, she just closed herself off in more boisterous ways.
When she'd first heard about her nickname within the agency being The Ice Queen, she'd felt proud of the title. Looking back at it now if felt a little disparaging. She couldn't help but wonder that if she did move forward with being a field agent, how would she interact with other agents now? Would she be as closed off as she was previously? She realized it didn't matter because just the thought of going back into the field had her mentally shutting down, so she abandoned that line of thought. She felt like that option was well and truly closed to her at this point. It may have been closed before meeting Chuck, but now? Christ, she'd asked him to be her boyfriend, and was thrilled when he'd asked her to be his girlfriend. There's no way she could, or would, go back on that now.
She let her thoughts drift forward to the most recent mission she'd completed; the mission against her own agency handler. When she'd first uncovered his plans, she'd been genuinely impressed at the level of planning and forethought that had gone into it. They had accounted for nearly every variable except her. The intense anger that had come after discovering his plans had shocked her. It wasn't rage; it was more tightly controlled that that. So, she used it, focused it. She'd started her outline of the evidence she had against him and her mission planning to thwart him that night, and it was one of the most difficult planning sessions of her career, nothing could be left to chance. It had taken her 36 hours to develop, without a wink of sleep, running on the heat energy of that anger alone.
Once she had everything together, she'd gone directly to Director Graham and practically demanded to be the lead agent on the team to bring him down. He had agreed and the mission had been an unparalleled success. They were even able to keep her involvement in the mission hidden. Since Ryker was very aware of Sarah and her abilities, it was the first mission she'd been forced to lead from behind the scenes, using a codename to direct the actions of the agents in the field. Everything had come together beautifully, but with an unexpected twist. Which was that in the process of taking her former handler and his minions down, she'd also exposed a secret organization operating within the CIA, using CIA resources to further it's own goals, which still weren't fully known.
The real problem she ran into was that the anger hadn't gone away after thwarting Kieran's plan and bringing him down. It had dissipated somewhat, but the raw core of it remained. And she hadn't had the first clue on what to do about it.
The emotional disparity with how she'd been moving through her life then, compared to now was… jarring. As she lay there, still comfortably ensconced in Chuck's arms, this walking contradiction to everything her life had been about, she tried to see that anger. As ever present as it had been, she would have thought she'd recognize it's absence. The first time she remembered not being angry was when Chuck started riffing on Vicky Vale. And since that moment, Chuck had been the foremost thought on her mind. It seemed the anger and Chuck couldn't coexist in her mind.
As this thought occurred to her, she felt Chuck stirring.
"Good morning, Chuck Bartowski's hand." She giggled as his hand moved against her. She never giggled before she met Chuck, and now it was like she never stopped.
"Good morning, Sarah Walker's breast." He said. He kissed her neck and stretched with a groan.
She rolled over to look at him. "Sex then coffee and breakfast or vice-versa?"
Chuck laughed. "That's probably the best question I've ever been asked."
She looked at him expectantly. "And yet it remains unanswered, Chuck." She said patiently.
"I'm thinking!" He yelled defiantly. "Uhg, as much as I hate to admit it, I need fuel first. So, vice-versa."
"Ok, I'll call room service." She stood up next to the bed facing him and stretched her body lavishly, arched her back making soft groaning noises, then turned away from him and repeated the same motions. She looked down at herself, then over her shoulder at him, put her hand over her mouth and said, "Oop, I don't have any clothes on."
His face was a roadmap of pure desire, etched into every pore. "Uh, Sarah, the phone is right there. You could have easily reached it without getting out of bed!" He said with a slow smile.
"You know, I think you're right!" She yanked the covers back off of him and saw that he was perfectly fine with sex first. Raring and ready to go in fact. She pulled a condom out of the box on the nightstand and tore it open. "I guess this means that you answered the best question you've ever been asked, wrong." She said as she crawled over to him.
An hour later she fell on top of him and it was several long moments before she could speak coherently. "Chuck, whenever the question is a choice between sex or something else, the answer is always sex. Always."
"Of course, it is. I knew that. I know that. You're right. Of course, you are." He mumbled softly.
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Later that morning, A handsome middle-aged man who had taken over duties at the front desk directed them to the best local restaurant for breakfast, which happened to be within walking distance. Given that it was closing into mid-morning on a Monday, the restaurant was only about a third full and they were seated right away. Chuck opened the menu but looked at Sarah as a though occurred to him. "Do you consider yourself a breakfast person?" He asked curiously.
"Honestly, not really. Coffee is a staple, of course, but beyond that." She shrugged. "Somedays I might have some oatmeal or a piece of fruit in the morning. But as far as a big breakfast traditional breakfast with eggs, bacon and potatoes, not very often." Sarah admitted. "But your omelet the other day may have changed my mind."
Chuck smiled at her in thanks. "Breakfast is my favorite meal, but in all honesty, I usually just grab a bowl of cereal." He admitted. "But when I go out for breakfast, in my experience, the best bang for your buck is Omelets or Skillets. You typically get more eggs and the options are limitless."
"What about waffles or pancakes?" She asked smiling. "Aren't those part of a traditional breakfast as well?"
"Yes, they are, but I make those better at home. Plus, way cheaper. If you like pancakes, wait 'till you have my pancakes." He said proudly. "The secret is beer."
"Shut up. You're messing with me." She said looking at him dubiously.
"I won't and I'm not." He said smiling. "It's true."
"Well then, I guess at some point when we get back to LA, you're going to have to make me beer pancakes." She said with a glint in her eye. They placed their orders and while waiting for their food to arrive they started planning for the day.
"So, I know we're going to spending a lot of time at the beach today, but at some point I was thinking we could try to rent some jet skis?" Sarah said.
"That does sound fun, but I've only ever done that on lakes. Is it more dangerous on the ocean?" He asked, but more with curiosity than fear.
"Yeah, it can be if you're not aware of the risks. Like any activity in the ocean near the shoreline, you have to be cognizant of riptides. Those are insanely dangerous, but they don't happen everywhere. Not sure if they have them off of Carmel beach or not, but we'll have to find out." Sarah said thoughtfully. "How good of a swimmer are you?"
Chuck shrugged. "Pretty good, I guess. I was on the swim team in high school and we made it to the State Finals. I wasn't the best on the team by any stretch, but I held my own."
"So, all this time you've been telling me you were a nerd in high school, and now you're telling me you were a swim jock?" Sarah said, looking impressed.
"Oh, I was a huge nerd in high school. Still am, in point of fact - like it's literally in my job title." He said laughing. "But, yeah, I was also a little bit of a swim jock. I hit a pretty huge growth spurt in 10th grade and I was this tall, skinny rail. I found I could slip through water really well. That was my best year. I started filling out a little in 11th grade and it got harder."
"Pff. You'll be fine." Sarah said with a wave of her hand. "The main thing to remember on small watercraft like that is to always approach waves dead on as much as possible when they're breaking near the beach. Hit them at the wrong angle and they'll roll you over. Jet ski's can typically handle a roll-over, but it will probably flood out a wave runner."
"It sounds like Jet Ski's are the way to go." He said simply.
"I think so too." Sarah smiled. "Ok, now we just need to reserve a couple of them."
The waitress brought their food and Sarah asked, "Do you guys have any brochures for places that rent jet skis?"
"We sure do. The owner of the restaurant is part owner in a PWC rental company as well. We get nice folks like you asking about that every day it seems like." She said with a smile. "I'll bring you the information."
"Thank you!" Sarah said with a smile. She looked back at Chuck. "Ok, in the interest of planning ahead, I was first thinking about snorkeling tomorrow, but have you ever been scuba diving before?"
"I have not, but I find the idea quite intriguing."
"Well, if you've never been, it might be a challenge to get the equipment for you by tomorrow. Technically you have to be certified before you can rent the appropriate gear. It's a question of insurance for the dive shops."
"Well, we can always put that on the agenda for a future boyfriend-girlfriend getaway." He said smiling at her. "And I can't tell you how much I enjoy saying that."
Sarah beamed at him. "If it's as much as I enjoy hearing it, then I think I have a pretty good idea."
"Ok, so after breakfast, we'll head out to the beach, soak up some rays, swim a little bit, then grab some lunch, maybe walk around downtown a little. Then later we go grab the jet skis and tear it up on the water, then maybe go back to the Captain Awesome cottage, and grab a "nap" before we head over to the fish-fry this evening?" He did air quotes when he said nap, and Sarah couldn't help but grin at him.
"That sounds like a spectacular day you just planned out there, Chuck." Sarah said. "I am hoping you'll elaborate on this "nap" thing you glossed over though. That sounds awfully vague."
He just winked at her and blushed ever so slightly but refused to offer any additional details.
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Several hours later, Sarah thought that the idea of climbing into their bed to sleep for a couple of hours was about the best thing she could think of, and Chuck was right there with her. They were both just a little exhausted after the day they'd had. Everything had gone pretty much as they'd planned, though they'd kept the jet ski's a little longer than originally anticipated because they were just having so much fun.
On their walk around Downtown Carmel, Chuck had discovered a Comic Book store and Sarah got to see an adorably goofy aspect of Chuck she hadn't yet experienced, and it warmed her heart even more. It's like she could see a part of the little boy he'd been, and she was gratified to see that the man he'd grown into had left room for the childish things that still gave him joy.
After spending so much time in the salt water, and having to reapply layers of sunscreen, they found themselves again in the shower together, exulting in washing each other clean. As fun and sexy as it was they silently agreed they were both more tired than they were amorous. Chuck set an alarm on his phone and they climbed into bed together, snuggled into their preferred position and were both asleep within minutes.
Sarah's eye's popped open as the edges of a dream she couldn't quite grasp faded from her mind. She lay there, feeling the clean sheets against her recently cleansed body, and Chuck's pressed up against her. She felt rejuvenated from their nap and was trying to think of a way to wake him up when the alarm on his phone went off. She reached over and picked it up off the nightstand to dismiss it and felt him stirring against her.
He pulled her tighter into him and groaned. "Oh my gosh, that was the best nap ever!"
"I think the secret was the shower we took." Sarah said rolling on to her back and looking at him. "I just feel so clean after getting off all the sand and salt and sunscreen." Chuck's hands beginning to roam across her body and felt shivers of pleasure at his touch. She felt so far removed from her previous life that she wondered if she hadn't gotten trapped in some kind of marvelous dream.
"I almost can't handle how soft your skin is yet how incredibly firm your body is." He whispered to her. "You are so stunning that I often wonder if I'm dreaming."
"Ok, now it's my turn to be creeped out by you reading my mind." She said looking at him.
"You were thinking about this being a dream?" He gestured around the room and the two of them.
"Chuck, however wonderful this is for you, remember the life that I was living last week. I'm so far removed from that life at this moment that it's a little hard to comprehend how I got here."
"Yeah, like I mentioned before, I can't even imagine what you were going through. Having to deal with that anger; no one to to talk to about it, no way you could see to work through it. It breaks my heart to imagine you going through that." He touched her face, pushing hair back behind her ear, drawing his fingers down her jawline. "I want you to know that I'm here for you. I know you can't talk to me about specifics, but you can talk to me about feelings. That anger you had to carry around, that's the kind of thing I can help you with, that I want to help you with." He said sincerely.
"Chuck, shut up and kiss me." She said softly, her heart brimming. And he did.
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A short while later had them pulling up in her Porsche to the area where the fish-fry was traditionally held, weather permitting. To make it easy for everyone to get to, it was held at a public pavilion on the beach that was only a couple hundred yards off of a large beach-access parking lot.
Chuck opened the car door for Sarah and held his hand out for her. As she stood up, she reached into the back seat and pulled out a bag with a couple of bottles of wine they'd picked up. They walked hand-in-hand with their arms intertwined. Sarah was wearing a different blue dress they'd found walking around downtown this afternoon. It was also backless with a not quite so deep v-neck, and slightly longer in the skirt. Chuck was dressed casually in blue cargo shorts and a loose fitting white button down linen shirt. As they approached they were surprised at the size of the event.
The pavilion itself was open on three sides with the back side made of large rocks mortared together, a large fireplace built into in the center. It was about fifty feet square, about fifteen feet tall with a peaked roof and open rafters inside. It had a large concrete foundation that was raised off the sand about three feet. There was a railing on all three sides with steps up on each side with the widest being on the ocean side of the pavilion. The inside of the pavilion had been setup for dancing, with speakers on stands inside and someone obviously acting as a casual DJ. The cooking area and tables were setup in the sand on the far side of the pavilion and there were a couple of all-terrain vehicles with trailers parked in the back, which was obviously how they carted in all the equipment and food necessary to host the event.
"There are a few more people here than I expected. I was thinking there might be twenty-ish or so people at this event, but there's gotta be twice that many people here. Planning for this every week must be a chore!" Chuck said, obviously impressed.
"Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. Something much smaller. But, wow, it looks like a lot of fun!" Sarah said as they walked up to the pavilion. Several people inside looked at them and smiled. They saw Beth dancing with a young man who looked to be in his late teens. It was indeed a very casual affair with a lot of the attendees wearing bathing suits under their clothes. There were also a few people dressed casually like Chuck. Sarah was easily dressed the nicest even thought it was a simple one piece dress.
Chuck looked closer at the setup in the pavilion, then looked at Sarah and grinned. "How's your singing voice?"
"Um, I don't really know, why?" She asked, a little surprised by the question.
"They've got a karaoke setup in there. In addition to being a chess nerd, and an AV nerd, I was also a choir nerd in high school. I'd have had to be an Olympic level swimmer for my "jock" level to come close to the level of nerd I had going on. I'm self conscious about a lot of things but singing isn't one of them. I supposed I lied a little about being on a stage the other night. I enjoy a good karaoke." He said giving her a grin.
They walked around to where a group of people were helping to prepare the food and saw a shorter muscular man in his thirties standing with Mandy the bartender. As she saw them, her eyes lit up. "Hey you guys! I'm so happy you could make it!" She walked around to greet them, and Sarah surprised herself by pulling Mandy into a big hug.
"Thank you sooo, much!" She whispered into Mandy's hear. "Seriously!" She pulled back, a little embarrassed, but Mandy just gave her a huge smile and winked at her.
"This is my husband Bob. Bob, this is the couple I was telling you about. They're living proof it's possible to be spontaneous, you lug." She said, but with affection. He smiled at them and rolled his eyes a little. "It's nice to meet you folks. Make yourselves at home here, it's a pretty casual thing."
"Oh, we brought some wine, just in case. The event is actually a little bigger than we were expecting." Sarah said.
"You didn't have to do that, but it was very thoughtful. I'll take them and put them on the drinks table." She said. "We'll start frying up the fish at about sunset, so you have a little time to mingle or dance or whatever."
Chuck was just about to ask when they were going to fire up the karaoke machine when he heard someone shout his name.
"CHUCK!" Sarah and Chuck both spun around, surprised. "CHUCK FREAKING BARTOWSKI!" They saw a dark skinned man walking towards them purposefully with a disbelieving expression on his face. "Holy shit! I can't believe it! It is you!"
"Joe?" Chuck exclaimed, obviously a little stunned. "Oh my gosh, Joe. I completely forgot you were from Carmel!" The man strode up and pulled Chuck into a big hug.
"Man, Chuck! It's so damn good to see you!" The man stepped back, obviously very happy to see Chuck. "I've got so many questions, but the first is, what the hell are you doing here?"
"Joe, what a crazy coincidence to run into you here!" Chuck looked at Sarah and she could see he was brimming with excitement at this reunion. "Hey, Joe, this is my girlfriend, Sarah. We're just up here on a little impromptu vacation. Taking a couple of days off from LA. Sarah, this is a fraternity brother of mine from Stanford, Joe Grant."
Joe smiled at Sarah and she felt the warmth of genuine affection he had for Chuck emanating off of him. "Sarah, it's very nice to meet you." He said holding out his hand. "I'm not all surprised to see that he's still winning the hearts of the most beautiful women around."
Sarah shook his hand firmly. "That's very sweet of you to say, Joe. It's nice to meet you."
A little crowd had gathered around at the small spectacle of Joe yelling at the stranger and giving him a big hug. Joe looked around at the people standing nearby. "Everyone, this is an old Sigma Chi fraternity brother of mine from Stanford. This guy single-handedly got me through econometrics!"
There were a few claps and whistles as the people nearby recognized Chuck's new standing among them. He was connected to a respected local, which meant he was now an accepted part of their group. The group of people dispersed to give them some room to catch up.
Chuck was blushing and when Joe saw that he started laughing anew. "Oh, Chuck, you haven't changed a bit, have you? Still with the blushing!" He pulled him in for another hug. "It's so unreal that you're here. After that bullshit at Stanford it's like you fell off the planet, man. No one could find you."
Sarah noticed that Chuck was starting to look uncomfortable with the topic of conversation, so she jumped in. "Why don't we go grab a table so you guys can catch up?" She said motioning to a table a little away from everyone. She grabbed Chuck's arm, "Chuck, you want a beer or something?"
He looked at her gratefully. "That would be great, thank you Sarah."
She looked at Joe. "You want a beer Joe?"
"Sure, thanks!" He said with a smile.
Sarah grabbed the beers and went to sit next to Chuck while the old friends reconnected.
"So, what did all the guys say after I left? Things happened so fast that I didn't really get a chance to say goodbye to anyone or explain things." Chuck was asking Joe.
"Man, Chuck, everyone was stunned; completely disbelieving. We all knew you were the last guy to cheat. No one believed it. But you just left. You didn't get your Ethics Hearing or anything. There was supposed to be this formal review process but none of it happened and no one would tell us anything." Sarah was listening intently, filing information away.
"Joe to be honest with you, there's a lot I don't understand about what happened that day. You remember Dean Fleming?" Joe nodded. "He didn't give me any choice but to leave immediately, no hearing, no fight. Dude, he threatened my sister! Like threatened her academic career if I didn't leave quietly."
Joe's mouth was hanging open. "Chuck, man, that is so totally messed up." Sarah flinched a little at how closely that mirrored her sentiment when Chuck had laid out the situation to her just a couple of days earlier.
"Joe, I've been through this so many times. Do you have any idea who might have put that answer sheet under my bed?" Chuck asked, obviously struggling to make some sense of the situation.
"Chuck, man, no one. Seriously, no one in that house would have done that to you. Even the idea is unthinkable." He looked at Sarah. "Sarah, I wasn't kidding back there. This man dragged me through my econometrics class. I was about to lose my scholarship because my GPA was slipping. I was this close to having to pack it in sophomore year." He held his thumb and forefinger a hairsbreadth apart. "This guy saved my ass and I'm not the only one. He helped a lot of guys in that house and not by cheating but by just having the biggest and baddest brain there."
Sarah rubbed Chuck's back affectionately. "Joe, I believe every word you're telling me." She said smiling.
"So, Chuck, what exactly did you do after you left? A few of the guys tried to find you, but Bartowski's a more common name than you might think, and your old address was locked up tight. The grass was all over grown and there were weeds everywhere. It looked almost abandoned."
Chuck looked surprised. "Wait, you went to the address that was on my enrollment forms?"
"Yeah, man. Like I said, we didn't understand what happened. We went down that weekend after you got kicked out. We even went to Jill and she shut us down." Joe looked at Sarah, unsure if he should say anything else, so Sarah spoke up.
"I know about Jill." She said simply. Stupid woman.
Joe nodded, relieved. "Ok. Yeah, that was the other bizarre twist in all this. We went to talk to Jill, and she was like, I don't want to talk about Chuck, I don't know where Chuck is, he betrayed us with his cheating, blah, blah."
"Wait, what? Jill knew where I was. She knew I was moving back in with my sister. She'd been there for Thanksgiving! She had my number, she had Ellie's number, Christ she even had Morgan's number!" Chuck exclaimed angrily. "She believed that I cheated?"
"I don't know, Chuck. She seemed really strange about the whole thing." Joe paused for a moment. "You know she was with Bryce for a short while after you left, right?" Chuck nodded. "It was weird too. A lot of the guys gave him some shit about it, but they were only together for a few weeks I think."
Sarah asked, "Bryce? Who was he?"
"He was one of our fraternity brothers. He and Chuck were pretty much inseparable at Stanford. Quintessential best friends. That was the other weird thing too. We asked him to come with us that weekend, but he gave us some lame excuse that he couldn't. He seemed off, like depressed or something. He actually moved out of the frat house into an apartment off campus a couple of weeks after Chuck got kicked out. Then after graduation, he vanished too. Last I heard he was working as an accountant in Silicon Valley I think." Joe looked at Sarah again and shrugged.
"Chuck, man I'm really sorry to be dragging this all up again. It was just all so strange. Then to see you here of all places out of the blue, man. I thought I was hallucinating at first, like that dude looks just like Chuck freaking Bartowski. Holy shit, that IS Chuck freaking Bartowski!"
Sarah could see Chuck mentally dragging himself out of the past and shaking off the unresolved feelings he had for the situation. He smiled at Joe, but Sarah could see that it didn't quite make it to his eyes.
"You know what, Joe. It's fine, don't worry about it. All that was a really long time ago." Then he looked at Sarah and suddenly his entire demeanor changed. She saw the life just bloom back into his eyes and his face, his smile got deeper, he sat up a little straighter. He took her hand almost absentmindedly and looked back at Joe. "I think I can honestly say I've let all that stuff go. Like I said, it was a long time ago, and I'm in a pretty good place now." He actually laughed a little, and he sounded like himself. "What about you, Joe? Last I remember, you were talking about running for Congress someday."
Joe laughed at that. "Yeah, I'm not so sure about that anymore. I'm actually pretty happy where I am, too." Chuck nodded. "A few years ago, I started a specialty marketing company. We help small technology companies all over the US and Canada, even some in the UK and Australia."
Chuck looked genuinely impressed. "Joe, that's great man! Good for you!"
Joe smiled. "Thank's, Chuck, I appreciate it. It's actually been a lot of fun. I get to meet some crazy interesting people, do seminars all over the country and the technology is really cool. I really do love it." He looked at Sarah and took a sip of his beer. "What about you Sarah, what is it that you do?"
She laughed a little. "I'm afraid it's not nearly so interesting. I do logistics for a defense sub-contractor, but I'm actually thinking of making some changes soon." She said. Sarah suddenly heard a song come on, a different rendition of the slow song they'd danced to on their first date. She looked at Chuck then poked him lightly in the side. "Hey, remember our deal?" She asked, tilting her head toward the dance floor with a smile.
Chuck grinned and stood up. "Joe my friend, we'll catch up more in a little bit. Right now, I'm going to dance with this amazing woman."
Joe laughed. "You dance now, Chuck?" He looked at Sarah. "You're a good influence on him."
She smiled at him. "He's a pretty good influence on me, too."
As they walked on to the dance floor, Sarah wrapped her arms around him and leaned into him as they swayed together to the music. "What happened back there? I could tell you were really upset, then your whole demeanor changed?" She asked quietly.
He leaned back a little so he could look at her. With the light of the setting sun shining in on them, she could swear his eyes were more of a dark whiskey color than the usual chocolate brown.
"You happened." He said simply. She looked the question at him, so he continued, laughing softly. "Look, I'm not one of those guys who really wonders too much about fate, if things are supposed to happen or meant to happen. What I do know is that what happened at Stanford put me on a path and that path intersected with you. Maybe our paths would have intersected anyway, but it's pointless to try and guess about that stuff. All I know is that in this reality, this is how we met. And as much as all that Stanford stuff sucked, if it meant I would never meet you, I wouldn't change it. Just these past four days have been so much better than those days were bad."
All Sarah could think of as a response to that was to kiss him. So, she did. And she tried to put into the kiss what she couldn't put into words. A few seconds into the kiss and Sarah realized that the public venue would prevent her from really putting into the kiss what she wanted to, but he seemed not to mind too much.
As she pulled out of the kiss slowly, she saw with some amusement that his eyes were a little cloudy and half lidded. "Chuck, I think you got a little lost in that kiss. Do you have any idea how adorable you are right now? Like, off-the-charts." She said smiling at him. She realized rather than dancing, they were just embracing each other in the middle of the dance floor, so she backed off just ever so slightly and started leading him in their swaying to the music again.
He looked at her and smiled, "Well, what can I say Sarah. Uh, wow, you're a good kisser and that one was…" He got a devilish grin on his face and looked around.
"What's that look, Chuck?" Sarah asked.
"Where's Mandy? You think she's got a secret spot around here?" He asked surreptitiously.
Sarah's eye's got wide and she smacked the back of his head, laughing. The music changed to up tempo dance music, but to her surprise, Chuck just stepped back and started moving with the music. He wasn't awkward or clumsy. He looked relaxed and comfortable and… happy. He must have known the song because he even started softly singing the lyrics to her. She lost herself in dancing with him again, and before they knew it, the sun was touching the horizon.
Someone turned down the music and everyone stopped what they were doing to watch the amazing sunset. She felt Chuck wrap his arms around her from behind and as she leaned back into him he put his chin on her shoulder.
"Oh, it's so beautiful, isn't it Chuck? I can't remember the last time I watched a sunset like this." She said softly, leaning her head against his.
"It is very nice. But I hang out with Sarah Walker a lot, so the bar for what's beautiful is now very high for me." He said softly. "So that sunset is about here." He said holding his hand at about chest level. "And Sarah Walker is about here." He held his other hand about a foot higher.
She looked at him a little disbelievingly. She pulled him around to face her and noticed that they were standing towards the back of the crowd of people engrossed in the sunset, and the others, well they'd just have to deal with a little PDA. She put her hands in his hair and pulled him down to her as she stretched up to meet him and lost herself in kissing her boyfriend. It wasn't at all sexualized, it was intimate. It was soft and sweet and warm and genuine. It was wonderful. Then she heard the announcement of the speakers that the fish-fry was officially on, now that the sun had set, and it pulled them back into the present moment. They pulled out of the kiss, but were still holding each other close, Sarah absently winding one of his curls around her fingers.
"Wow." Sarah heard herself say.
"I think we just leveled up." Chuck said softly.
Sarah smiled at him. "Am I supposed to know what that means? I'm not fluent in nerd yet." She said softly.
He grinned back and her. "It's a video game reference. As you play certain games, finish quests, collect items and so forth, you gain experience. When you get so much experience, your character 'levels up' meaning now they're stronger, have access to more skills, and are generally better at doing stuff. I think we just leveled up our kissing game." They were so close to each other that he was barely speaking above a whisper.
She leaned into him seductively. "Chuck?" She said in a low whisper.
"Yeah, Sarah?" He asked quietly, expectantly.
She paused, breathing lightly into his ear. "I'm really hungry. Can we eat now?"
A few minutes later found them sitting at a long picnic table with plates mounded with fried fish, beans, slaw and corn on the cobb. They were sitting next to Joe, Mandy, her husband, the young looking Beth and an almost equally young looking man, and several other people they hadn't officially been introduced to.
Mandy kicked off the conversation first. "So, Chuck, what is it that you do?"
"I work for the Nerd Herd at a Buy More in Burbank." He said simply, smiling.
She was obviously non-plussed at that and wasn't sure how to respond. "So, you're a technology guy. Well, that's a great field to be in these days." She said, trying to recover.
Joe jumped in. "Chuck, I've been dying to catch up and find out what you've been up to these last five years. I know you worked as a Nerd Herder when you went home for the summers, but are you telling me you went back there after leaving Stanford and that's what you've been doing all this time?" Joe was obviously a little incredulous.
"That is correct." Chuck said simply.
"Chuck, I don't get it man. You were one of the smartest guys in that place. When you went home, there's any number of things you could have done. I mean, I get needing a job, but there were 50 guys who would have lined up to give you a recommendation. I don't mean anything negative about Nerd Herders in general, but you're about 5 light years over-qualified for that job. Help me out here, man." Joe was obviously struggling with reconciling the genius he'd known at Stanford as a long time Nerd Herder.
"I don't know what to tell you, Joe. I was honestly a little lost after Stanford. I lost two of the three most important things in my life in the same week. I went back to the Buy More because it was familiar, and I guess I needed that. And I while I don't see myself there too much longer, at this point I wouldn't change things." Chuck explained.
Mandy's husband looked confused. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but, you mentioned you lost two of the three most important things in your life. Do you mind if I ask what those were?"
"No, not at all. I can see where it would be confusing. We were at Stanford, just a couple months away from graduation and all I had were three finals to pass that week and I would have been up for Summa Cum Laude. And then I was falsely accused of cheating and kicked out of school. I was forced to leave that day. Then a couple of days later, my girlfriend, who I was with since freshman year and I thought I would one day marry, broke up with me. It was a rough week." Chuck explained easily.
"Wow, Chuck, that's brutal." Bob said. "I can totally understand wanting to go back to something familiar." He paused taking a drink of his beer. "Just out of curiosity, what was the third thing you didn't lose?" He asked.
Chuck smiled again. "Ellie, my sister. She basically raised me after our parents bailed. I moved in with her when I came home from Stanford. I'm still living there actually. She's always been there for me. We're there for each other, but admittedly I've needed her more than she's needed me." He wasn't at all self conscious talking about it and was obviously proud of his sister.
Bob smiled. "That's really great that you two are so close." He said genuinely. "I have siblings but we're not terribly close. They've all moved on."
"I'm sorry to hear that." Chuck said. "This seems like it would be a great place to host family reunions, though." He said hopefully.
"Yeah, they all hate it here. Small tourist towns are not easy places to grow up and they couldn't get out fast enough. I actually always loved it here though and had no interest in leaving."
Mandy took the opportunity to jump in when Bob finished. "So, Sarah, how long have you guys been together?" She asked, obviously very curious.
Sarah and Chuck looked at each other and grinned around mouthfuls of food. Sarah put her hand up as she finished chewing, then took a drink of beer before she dropped the bomb on them all. "Um, we've basically been on our first date for about 96 hours now." She said with a huge smile.
They watched everyone's mouths who were sitting near them drop open at her statement. Joe was the first to recover. "Shut the fuck up! You're not serious!" He exclaimed disbelievingly. Sarah nodded, taking another bite of fish while Chuck was stifling laughter around a mouthful of food. He swallowed and took a drink.
"While that was a fabulous description of our last four days, technically our first date was about 30 hours, and our second date, which we're still on, has so far been about 60 hours. Approximately." Chuck corrected. When Sarah gave him a confused look, he reminded her. "I went home Friday night then you came over to my place Saturday morning."
"Ah, yes. I stand corrected. This is our second date." She said to the group, who all still looked dumbfounded. She looked at Chuck questioningly. "Why did we decide for you to go home Friday night, again?"
"Pff, cause we're stupid?" He joked. That broke the spell, and everyone around them started laughing loudly, causing other tables to look at them wonderingly.
Mandy's face was a picture of awe and confusion. "How.. What…" She tried to speak looking back and forth between the two of them, then cleared her throat. "I'm sorry, one of you is going to have to explain to this small town girl how a first date lasts 30 hours and then a second date picks up 8 hours later and lasts," She did quick math in her head. "What, four days by the time you guys get back to LA tomorrow? How does that happen?"
Sarah looked at Chuck and said. "I'm actually curious to hear your answer." She said smiling.
Chuck laughed. "Ok, um. I guess the first part of my answer to that question is just… Insane chemistry?" Chuck shrugged a little. "I mean I'm sort of assuming Sarah was right there with me, but from the very first moment there was this off-the-charts chemistry." He looked at Sarah questioningly. She made her eyes very wide and nodded slowly and dramatically to everyone who was listening, drawing laughter.
Chuck continued. "And I think everyone here can agree, Sarah is pretty easy on the eyes, right?" This also drew laughter as she punched his shoulder. Chuck paused for a moment thinking. "So, here's an analogy I think everyone can relate to; have you ever been on a date that was an absolute nightmare, where everything went wrong, everything was awkward and you both kind of ended up looking like assholes?" Everyone nodded and laughed. "Well, for us, that first date night out was the exact opposite of that. Everything kind of fell into place during our first night out together to show each of us in our absolute best possible light. The food was amazing, the conversation was comfortable and easy and it all just amplified the attraction that was already there. It was like a positive-feedback loop where all the good stuff feeds on itself and you both sort of look like superheroes to each other. Throw that on top of the crazy chemistry we already had, I guess at a certain point we sort of lost ourselves in it." Chuck smiled and saw that everyone looked impressed with his explanation.
"Is that your perspective too, Sarah." Mandy asked a little breathlessly.
She let her face take on a disinterested expression as she shrugged dismissively. "Meh. I just thought he was hot, and I was bored." Everyone's mouth fell open again for a moment, then their raucous laughter drowned out the other tables for a second time.
The conversation continued for a while, everyone being fascinated by Sarah and Chuck's story. Eventually the conversation moved on to other things and as people finished eating, someone started actively working as the DJ, playing popular dance music. People slowly started migrating over to the dance floor.
As Sarah walked with Chuck back to the pavilion, she said, "You know, when we were dancing earlier, you weren't awkward at all. You seemed very casual and comfortable moving to the music, feeling the groove and the tempo. I'm wondering if how bad you were was all in your head."
Chuck laughed. "Well, it was, and it wasn't. I mean, I was terrible because I was in my own head. It's like I was making my own worst fears happen. I was self conscious and afraid I was going to look like an idiot and then I would spiral and sort of drown in my own fears. I'm not worried about that with you, so, I guess now I can dance. I mean, I can just let myself groove to the music a little and not get in my own head about it."
"That's pretty great, Chuck." She said admiringly. "Most people don't find it that easy to get out of their own head."
He smiled at her. "I find I'm learning all kinds of things about myself since I met you."
They danced together until it was time for Karaoke and Chuck was first up.
As soon as he started, Sarah's mouth dropped open with shock. He wasn't a good singer, he was an amazing singer. His voice was full and rich, projecting out from him and into the night with incredible depth and power, his pitch so close to perfect that she couldn't tell the difference. And he wasn't just standing their static while he sang. He was feeling the song, not just repeating the lyrics but actually singing them. It was a powerful, soulful song and he was embracing it, closing his eyes at the chorus and letting the emotion of the lyrics show in his face, moving his body with the rhythm of the music and lyrics. He wasn't just singing, he was performing, and it was incredible. Everyone watching was completely enthralled, they're faces shocked at the raw talent this stranger had.
Are you kidding me with this right now? How is this guy even real?
He obviously knew the song by heart as it wasn't playing on the screen. It was a relatively new, slower song about a man telling a woman that he wasn't perfect, but that she was giving him a reason to start over and be a better person.
As he sang and she listened to the lyrics, Sarah could envision the song being from her perspective. It could apply to her telling him that she wasn't perfect, but she'd found a reason to show a side of herself she didn't know she had, and that he was that reason. There was an apology in the lyrics that didn't really apply, but the rest was just spot on. As she thought more about it, she realized that he could be applying this to himself as well. She knew that he had self-esteem issues about where he was in his life – his job, living with his sister – that he felt diminished him when she knew it didn't. Again, he could be singing to her about wanting to start anew with her, be a better person with the reason being her. She felt tears building as the depths of potential meaning, combined with his astonishing performance blended together to affect her in ways she'd never felt before. As the song drew to an end, the last lyrics were to the woman in the story, once again telling her she was the reason and Chuck looked at her as he sang them.
The music ended and she felt hot tears spill down her cheeks as she ran to hug him. The gathered crowd roared with applause and whistles for his performance as they hugged, then rose several more decibels as she kissed him deeply.
Several more people went up to sing and there were a couple of duets as well. They were all actually pretty good, but everyone was in agreement that Chuck set the bar very high and stole the show for the night.
As things were winding down, everyone pitched in to help clean up, and with so many people working together, everything went extremely quickly. The garbage was disposed of and leftovers were distributed out for people to take home. They'd had enough of these events that they had the process down to a science. Joe made sure to find them before they could leave. He gave Chuck one of his business cards. "Chuck, man, I got so caught up in everything that I forgot to tell you, I actually live in LA now, too. I come up here to Carmel once a month to hang out and do this fish-fry. You gotta give me a call man, we gotta get you out of the Buy More and into something that can really challenge that big brain of yours." He pulled Chuck into a hug.
As they separated, Chuck laughed. "Joe, it's been surreal seeing you again, and that's crazy to hear that you live in LA. I'll definitely be giving you a call."
"Freaking Piranha working as a Nerd Herder. That's like Einstein teaching long division to grade schoolers, you know that right?" Joe punched his shoulder. "Oh, and hey good job on the Karaoke tonight, you killed it. Nice to see somethings haven't changed." He looked at Sarah. "You didn't know about Chuck's singing did you?" Sarah shook her head. "Yeah, back at Stanford Karaoke was kind of a thing, and Chuck was pretty much king of that thing. We used to go all the time and Chuck was always the main event."
"Thanks, Joe." Chuck said smiling. "I kinda forgot how much fun it was. I let myself forget a lot of things, I guess."
"I bet." Joe shook his head. "Chuck freaking Bartowski. You better fucking call me, man. I will find you. There can't be that many Buy More's in Burbank." Joe said with a laugh.
Sarah pulled Joe into a hug. "Joe, like Chuck said, it was a little surreal meeting you like this. I'm sure we'll be meeting up soon in the next few weeks." She said.
As she pulled out of the hug, she asked him, "What did you mean by Piranha working as a Nerd Herder?"
Joe laughed. "That was Chuck's hacker tag. His name on the Dark Web back in the day." He said simply. "Don't let the whole comic book nerd thing fool you. Yeah, he's a huge nerd, but the man has serious computer skills. Like better than his Karaoke skills, no BS." He looked back at Chuck and shook his head. "Seriously, man? Nerd Herd?" Chuck just smiled and shrugged.
Sarah didn't really hear the last part of what Joe said. She was busy trying to recall a briefing she'd had about 6 years back. A new hacker was making a name for himself, breaking into top tier systems. He didn't take or break anything even though he easily could have. He'd just leave a tag somewhere on the systems he'd penetrated, "Piranha pwned your system" or something to that effect. The NSA wanted him and put together a joint task force to catch him. Sarah had been read into it but going after a hacker who wasn't actually malicious didn't seem to be a high priority for her, so she'd passed on the opportunity. It ended up being a non-issue as Piranha just up and disappeared right as the task force was formed.
They said their good-byes to Joe and Sarah just looked at Chuck. It can't be. I mean, come on. It can't be. But of course, it is though, right? Because apparently that's just my life now. The ridiculously impossible reduced to mere happenstance.
A/N: I really struggled with the Karaoke scene because copyright rules prohibit using lyrics without permission. I've always loved the song in question and heard it randomly a few days ago. I was struck by how it could apply to both Chuck and Sarah. They both struggle with wanting to be better people and they are both The Reason they've found for each other to strive towards this.