A/N1 Another of the current run of staccato chapters. This one is quite short but quite important, and it is my modest Valentine's Day gift to my readers. Love is in the air - even in the desert.

The final chapters will lengthen out; just a few more to go.

Don't own Chuck.

Chutes and Ladders

CHAPTER TWENTY

I Spy

Chuck stared at Sarah for a long second before remembering to steer the truck.

"Really, I am a POI?" He shook his head, sighing ruefully. "Every PI's rite of passage, I guess..."

"There's nothing much here, Chuck, other than what I said, and a comment about you knowing both the victims."

"Well, that's true. But why would they suspect me?"

"Haven't you been following Jill around, tailing her?"

Chuck nodded, spinning the large steering wheel to avoid a dip in the sand and throwing Sarah more fully up against him. "Yes, you know I have. But I was doing that for Casey."

"I know, but were you part of any official investigation?"

Chuck shook his head. "No, but still…"

"Chuck, do you think someone might have tailed you when you were tailing Jill? Perry maybe, or that Shaw guy?"

Chuck pursed his lips. "I was on the lookout for that dark SUV, the Escalade, from the time I first saw it. But it could have been there before I saw it. And I guess that Shaw guy…" Chuck's voice got gravelly, "...well, I have no idea what car he drives. I wasn't watching for anyone but Perry." He pursed his lips again, this time twisting them to the other side of his face. Sarah realized the dark had turned grey: dawn was coming.

"Still," Chuck continued, "I think I would have noticed, probably, maybe…I guess I never thought I needed to play I Spy for spies..."

"Chuck, sweetheart, don't take this the wrong way, but I tailed you tailing Jill, and you never noticed."

"Touché. But you are good, really good, at everything." He waggled his eyebrows at her.

Sarah laughed, glancing away. "Thanks, but someone might have tailed you, might have photographs of you following Jill around. Someone might be able to make this difficult for you. Who knows what they may have found at the scene…"

"Wait, you take Perry to have been talking about Bryce and Jill, not the Monroes?"

"I do. I don't understand, but I think that's the assumption we should be operating under. In fact, I am going to call the Monroes now."

Sarah made the call, putting it on speaker. Ringing. More ringing. No answer.

"Okay, that's not good, but I still think we should assume Perry was talking about Bryce and Jill. Whoever did it thought they were both dead, but was wrong. Jill is still alive."

"Perry and the person he was talking to clearly had a plan. Do you think it involved framing me? Did they, do they, think they can make that stick?"

"Maybe they don't care, ultimately, maybe the point is to get you off the game board."

"The game board?"

Sarah nodded. "Yeah, Chuck, we've been players in a game - one game I now think, not two, since we know that Perry and Shaw are connected to FARMA somehow - and I suspect you are in the way of the endgame they have planned."

Chuck nodded slowly, considering Sarah's words. "Okay, that sounds...right, dammit. But I am not off the board, yet. And they don't know I have my ninjagarten teacher at my side. Well, I guess Perry and Shaw do, but we are going to take them off the board…"

Sarah kissed Chuck's cheek. "Yes, Chuck, I am by your side. That's my favorite place, although I admit that being under you and on top of you also have strong attractions." She saw him blush in the first blush of dawn. "But speaking of taking Perry and Shaw off the board - you were a little angry with Shaw back there. Are you okay?"

Chuck dipped his head, sheepishly. "Yeah, that's not me, not normally. But I thought they'd killed Casey and Rhonda - and, Sarah, I love those two. Casey, I mean, we never, ever show it to each other, but we are best friends. He's my best friend in the world other than Morgan. He's a big reason I am making it at all. He supports me, has supported me, even as he torments me.

"I think some days I would have just locked my office and sat there, staring at the walls, if he hadn't come by, or called, or given me work. And Rhonda, well, you've met her. She's got a big heart and she loves that big lunatic, and I love her for both of those…" Chuck swallowed hard. "And then I thought Perry and Shaw killed the Monroes, maybe hurt Sasha or took her...And I saw the way that Shaw guy looked at you, pushed himself against you…"

"I didn't realize you saw that, Chuck."

"I did. And I know you are your own woman and frankly more capable of protecting yourself than I am of myself, but," Chuck's voice took on conviction and he lifted his head, "as long as I breathe, Sarah, I will try to protect you…"

"And be a bit jealous?" She turned a smile on him.

He grew sheepish again. "A bit, a skoosh, a smidgen…"

She bounced him with her shoulder. "Don't feel bad about it, Chuck. I know you are past her but I admit I am jealous of Jill, a bit, a skoosh, a smidgen...I hate to admit that, especially with her in ICU."

"Yeah…" Chuck was silent a minute. "Let's hope she makes it, for all sorts of reasons, but, you know, mostly so she makes it."

He glanced at Sarah. "I just got really angry. I guess I felt helpless, sort of like I felt when my parents...you know, and again during the whole debacle at Stanford. Like events were washing over me with no possibility of resistance. I guess I have probably needed to confess to that feeling for a long time, just in order to get past it. But you, Sarah...I hope you know. You are a game-changer, the game-changer for me."

Grinning at him and taking his free hand, she leaned in. "And what game would that be, Detective Bartowski?"

"Ummm. Miss Walker, that would be the game of Life."

"Chuck! Is that a proposal?" Her grin grew.

Chuck returned her grin. "Well, given the mess we are currently in, let's just say it was not not a proposal." He eyed her with nervous expectation.

"Okay...And let's just say that I am not not accepting…" She looked into his eyes; he looked back. Then they each glanced away.

They sat for a moment in silence, both reckoning with what they had not not said, smiling.

ooOoo

Finally, Sarah broke the silence. "I've been thinking, Chuck. You know I have money. You know how I got it. When this mess is over, what would you say to taking that money and starting the AI company I know you've dreamed of."

When he looked at her, she continued: "Ellie told me a while back. You could do the work you were meant to do, help developmentally challenged kids. That sounds like a good thing, Chuck, and I believe in you. I know you'll succeed. I know you'll make kids' lives better. We can put the money to work doing good, redeem it, so to speak."

Chuck studied the desert through the window and Sarah held her breath. All this was moving fast, but it felt so right to her - like she had finally found her place in the world, the man she was going to share her life with, dream awake with. She wanted to start her dream, his dream, their dream. Although she had not been in hiding for years as she knew Chuck had, hiding himself away in the professional shadows of his investigative world, she had been hidden from feelings, from trusting, from sharing herself. She was ready. She thought he was ready.

"That...that would be great, Sarah. If you are sure. I am sure. Sure of you. Surer than I have ever been of anything in my life. Absolutely sure. I think Ellie was right. She told me we would be perfect for each other."

"Smart woman, that Ellie," Sarah noted. "We should listen to her, I think."

"Me too, Sarah, me too. So, when we get out of this mess?"

"When we get out of this mess, then us, Chuck."

ooOoo

Chuck stopped the truck next to the three cars. The sun was now above the horizon. Chuck and Sarah had no more than gotten out when Casey raced around the truck. "Chuck, Chuck!" Casey was waving his phone, "do you know?"

Chuck nodded. "Larkin and Jill - me?"

Casey nodded. "Damn, kid, what the hell is going on?"

"I haven't put all the details together, yet," Chuck said, as Casey and Sarah looked at him, "but I am getting the big picture into focus. There's something I haven't told you. About the Monroes, about Matthew Monroe's AI programming…"

"What about it," Casey demanded.

"I recognized what he was doing. Just a while ago, when Perry jumped us. Oddly enough, it has features in common with my dad's work, it just took me a minute, so to speak, to see it…"

"Your dad, Chuck?" Sarah studied his face. "You dad was a computer guy too?"

"Yeah," Chuck grinned, "I'm a chip off the old block." Sarah and Casey both groaned. "Sorry, too early for puns, or too late?" Chuck sobered. "Anyway, here's what I figured out…" Chuck started explaining, quickly.

A/N2 So, what is going on? We are about to find out, most of it, anyway. Tune in next time for Chapter 21, "Frogger".

My time with you is growing short. How about sharing a reaction?

Zettel