A/N: My lawyer tells me I don't own Chuck, and I believe her.

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The car ahead of them moved forward about three feet, so Sarah moved their car up an equal amount.

"So, this is a spy car. Does it have an ejector seat and machine guns under the headlights?" asked Chuck.

"No, but it is completely bullet proof, has run-flat tires, and can reach a speed of 200 miles per hour," said Sarah. The car in front of them moved another three feet, so Sarah did the same.

"Two hundred miles per hour," said Chuck nodding his head meaningfully. They moved forward another four feet. "Useful." His delivery was deadpan, but she could see the sparkle of amusement in his eyes.

She laughed. "Are you always this funny?"

"I think you're just easy," he replied.

"You think I'm easy? Is that what you think? Just because I took you to bed last night? Easy?" she said angrily.

"Oh, God..no...that's not what I meant," he looked a little panicked. "No, I swear..." He caught sight of the tiny smile she was trying hard to conceal. "You're just messin' with me. God, and I fell for it. I'm such an idiot."

Now she laughed even harder, "Yup. And you call me easy."

"How can you ever say you're not funny? That was really funny."

"Beginner's luck, I guess," she said. They moved another three feet.

"Listen, forget the GPS. It won't take traffic into account. I got this." He proceeded to give her directions. The trip would be much faster, as they were now away from the flow of heavy traffic.

"Wisdom of the native?" asked Sarah.

"Sarah, avoiding traffic in LA is an art form. I've been here 27 years and have the intuition of a Jedi when it comes to traffic."

"What's a Jedi?"

"Seriously? You don't know what Jedi is? Are you messing with me again?"

"Ah, no. I really don't know."

"OK, we have to make a note. I'm going to show you the Star Wars movies."

"Are those the ones with Captain Kirk?"

"Oh, boy. Do I have work to do," he said.

"Well, speaking of which, you did some pretty good work today," she said seriously. "Between Union Station and the way you stood up to Beckman and Graham, you were incredible."

"Thanks... I wanted to ask you, what's the significance of a Silver Star? I mean I know it's a medal and all, but when Casey said that you gasped."

"Chuck," said Sarah, "that's one of the top medals they give out. It's a very, very big deal. For him to suggest that...wow. I don't know him, but his reputation is pretty fierce. He wouldn't say something like that lightly. We were twelve seconds away from death and you saved us...you saved everyone in the building... me, Casey, hundreds, maybe a thousand lives. And it wasn't the Intersect thing, it was you, Chuck Bartowski from Burbank. Seems Casey's become a fan of yours. And the fact that he stood up to Beckman on your behalf...wow again. That was wild." She grinned. "But I wouldn't expect him to go easy on you because of it."

"Hell, he'll probably be all the harder on me,"

"Yeah, that seems most likely," said Sarah. "But Chuck, you should know, he's not the only one you impressed the hell out of today." She gave him a smile that took his breath away and reached out to hold his hand.

"Thank you, but you were pretty damn impressive yourself. And I'm not just talking about the fight with that woman, although you are scary good at fighting. I mean the way you coordinated the search. Got all the agents on the same page. Made smart decisions quickly and firmly...you were really in command...you were the leader. It was so cool to see...to be a part of. You're truly an amazing woman, Sarah." Inside, he couldn't believe that they were together, that they were dating. She was so far out of his league it was ridiculous. Sure, Ellie was always telling him he's a great catch, but, as sweet as she was, he knew better.

"Thanks, Chuck. Are we the charter members of the Chuck and Sarah Mutual Admiration Society?"

"You know, I've always thought it should be Reciprocal rather than Mutual. It's not something we are doing together, it something each is directing to the other."

"Oh my God, you are such a nerd." She was laughing again. She realized that she had laughed more in the last 24 hours than she had in years. It was a continuing revelation to her that a great sense of humor could be so damn attractive.

"Um...yup. Hope you are good with that."

"It's working out pretty well so far," said Sarah grinning.

"Here, here, here. Turn here." She did and he said, "The place is right over there. Let's take the first spot we find."

They found a spot quickly and walked over to the restaurant. It was a small, cute, beachside bar and grill. Chuck had promised that it had the best burgers in town, even better than In-N-Out Burger, which Sarah found hard to believe.

"Hey, Jack," said Chuck to the host. "What's up?"

"Oh, you know, Chuck," the man said while leading them to a secluded table with a lovely view of the ocean. "The usual. How's Ellie?"

"She's great. So's Devon, awesome as usual. How's Barbara?"

"She's good. Getting ready for finals. Hey, did you hear the feds caught those bastards who blew up the hotel?"

"Yeah, I heard," said Chuck. He glanced at Sarah, who didn't look up from her menu.

"Seems those pricks tried to bomb Union Station too, but one of the feds disarmed the bomb. Real hero. I'd buy him a beer, I'll tell you that. Hell, I'd just love to shake his hand."

"Yeah, quite a hero," said Chuck, feeling really weird about not telling Jack the truth.

Addressing himself to Sarah, Jack said, "Don't know if Chuck told you, but we have the best burgers in town."

"Actually, that's exactly what he told me," she replied with a huge smile.

"Great. I'll send over Cheryl. Enjoy dinner. Talk to you soon, Chuck." Jack walked away.

"I feel weird not telling him the truth," said Chuck.

"Chuck, that's something you're going to have to get used to. What you did, what you volunteered to do now, there's no recognition, no notoriety. You won't get the headlines, even when you are the hero like today. Did you know there's a whole wall at CIA headquarters with stars for agents who died on the job? No names, though, only the stars. Even when they are gone, there's no recognition of what they did."

"No, Sarah, that's not it. That's not what I mean. I don't care about that stuff. Recognition and that stuff. I just feel weird...I don't know...having secrets, keeping secrets."

The waitress, Cheryl, came to the table and greeted Chuck with a huge smile, "Well, if it isn't my favorite customer. Hi, Chuck." Cheryl was a somewhat busty brunette with a nose ring. She looked at Sarah.

Chuck said, "Cheryl, this is my..." Chuck froze. One date...a great date...and all day...and now dinner...when does a girl he's dating become a girlfriend?...How many dates?...Is it something they should agree on? Talk about?

Sarah said, "I'm Chuck's girlfriend, Sarah. Nice to meet you, Cheryl." As they shook hands, Sarah saw a twinge of disappointment in Cheryl's eyes, just for an instant, and was surprised to find that that made her really happy. She smiled even wider.

Chuck ordered a cheeseburger and a Bud. Sarah ordered a cheeseburger with extra pickles and a Stella.

Once Cheryl left Chuck said, "You're my girlfriend?"

"Yup. You got a problem with that, Bartowski?"

He gave a somewhat goofy grin and said, "I guess that makes me your boyfriend," as he did something funny with his eyebrows.

"Guess so."

"Then, no. No problem at all," said Chuck. How in the world did he end up here?, he wondered. Could this whole thing be a dream? "Can I stand on the chair and announce to everyone here that you're my girlfriend?"

"I think Jack might object," she said laughing.

"Cause I really want to right now." Their beers came. Both of them declined the proffered glasses and picked up the bottles. Chuck held his bottle up and said, "Here's to new days."

She clicked bottles with him and repeated, "To new days."

"Chuck, what you said before about keeping secrets. You know that's important, right? Even if you are tempted to. Even if you really, really want to, you can't tell anyone what's going on. Not your sister or her awesome boyfriend. Not anyone at the Buy More, even Morgan. You can't tell him either."

"I know. I understand. I can't put them in danger. I'll have to keep this secret...I'll have to lie to them. I understand. It's just going to be hard. Maybe I'll get used to it..."

"I hope not," said Sarah. "You're a really nice, honest guy. I hope you never get used to it."

"I understand that all spies do it. Lie. I get it. It's part of the job. Is Sarah even your real name?"

Her face got stormy and a deep frown developed. She said, her voice not quite angry, but nowhere near lighthearted, "I told you I wouldn't lie to you and I won't. That doesn't mean that I don't have secrets." Chuck felt like he'd stepped on a land mine, an innocent step followed by explosion. "I do and I will. Don't ask me to tell you personal stuff. It isn't any of your business and it..."

Their food arrived. Sarah was no longer smiling. Once Cheryl left, Chuck said, "OK, got it. No personal stuff. Got it. Another question, though, I promise not personal." She nodded ok, but still didn't smile. Oh, boy, he thought. "So, you know the video conference with Beckman and Graham? Where was the camera they were looking into?"

"What?" The humor started coming back into her eyes.

"Seriously. Didn't you notice? It seemed they were looking right at us, but that would mean they were looking right at the camera broadcasting their images. But they couldn't have been because they were looking at us on the screen in front of them. So where was the camera? In the screen? Embedded in the screen? Cause that's some awesome tech if they have that."

She was laughing again. "Oh my God, my boyfriend is so weird. But, he has good taste in burgers. You were right. This is delicious."

"Better than In-N-Out?"

With her mouth full, she just sort of nodded yes.

"I have pretty good taste in girlfriends too, you know."

Her mouth still full, and with a smirky smile, she nodded yes again.

Chuck said, "So, where do we go from here? What are the next steps?"

"Well, I guess we go home. I'll go to the hotel and you go back to your apartment. Unless you want to stay over again. I'd like that a lot, but might be hard to explain to Ellie."

"I would so love to, but that's not actually what I was asking. With this whole spy team thing...what happens next?"

"Oh. Well, I will have to coordinate with Casey, so my answer is tentative until we can check with him too, but, probably I'll go back to DC. If I'm setting up here for a few months, I'm going to need more than a couple of changes of clothes and I'll need a bunch more gear. I'd also like to have my own car, so I don't have to drive the company cars. My guess is I fly back, pack and drive across...hey, you want to come? Drive cross country with your new girlfriend?"

"There is nothing I'd like to do more than that... but if I'm gonna stay at the Buy More and be a full time analyst, I think I better husband my available vacation time. I'm probably going to need it. Right?"

"Oh man, I'm used to being the hard-nosed practical one. Of course, right. What are you doing to me, Chuck?"

"I'm a terrible influence."

"While I'm gone, Casey will be around. We won't leave you without one of us nearby. In addition to your teammates, we are also your bodyguards. As the only working Intersect, you are pretty valuable. After that, they will probably want you checked out by doctors or scientists or something, being the lab rat that you are. You know, by the way, that when you insisted on an analyst position, you cleared the way for our relationship..."

"Long may she wave." He raised his beer bottle in salute.

"Yes, long may she wave," she similarly raised her's. "... to be open and above-board. To come out to Graham and Beckman. That was pretty cool of you. It will make our lives a lot easier so long as we are seeing each other."

"I knew that. It was in the textbook that assets and handlers can't have real relationships. The asset can be seduced by the handler, but if the handler actually develops real feelings for the asset the handler is out on his asset." He smiled a little. "But that's not why I did it. It's a side benefit, but not the real reason. The real reason is that being an asset, for me, was insulting. It's the object of the intelligence gathering, not a free, willing participant. The asset is not part of the team any more than the lion is part of the lion tamer's team. He, or she, is useful, until not. There is no partnership, no loyalty. I hated the idea. If I was going to help, and I had already decided that I wanted to, there was no way I was going to have that designation...have that relationship with the people I would be working with...not just with you, but Casey too. With all of them. Assets are disposable. Burn them, kill them, drop 'em in a hole. Colleagues aren't."

"I understand. I never looked at it that way, but can see it... See your perspective on it. Well, it turned out just fine. They agreed. Beckman with less than good grace, but agreement is agreement. Hey, you know, we should probably get you an analyst's contract. Get it in writing. Can't hurt."

Having finished their burgers, they paid the bill, said good night to Jack and left the restaurant.

Chuck said, "Want to walk for a bit? There's a path by the beach."

"Sure," she said. She put her arm around his waist and he put his arm around her shoulders and they began to walk down the path. They were quiet for a while, until Sarah said, "You remember I warned you a couple of times that I have baggage?" He made an affirmative hmmm noise. "Well, you stubbed your toe on some of the baggage at dinner. I'm sorry I snapped at you."

"It's ok. Don't worry about it."

"Chuck, I have all sorts of reasons for not wanting to talk about things. Some of them might be good reasons, but I'm sure not all of them are good reasons. But they are my reasons and I'm pretty serious about them."

"It's ok, Sarah. I'm not going to press you. I'm sorry I asked. Tell me what you want to tell me and don't tell me any more than that. It's cool. When you hire me as your biographer, we'll have a different discussion, but in the meantime, it's cool." She laughed lightly.

They walked for a bit more in silence. When she said, "What's a name? What do you mean is this my real name?"

"Sarah, you don't have to..."

"No, just go with it. What do you mean?"

"I don't know. The name on your birth certificate, I guess."

"No, this is not the name on my birth certificate. It is also not an alias picked a few days ago for this mission to California."

"Ok."

"Sarah Walker is the name that I have been known by my entire career, many years now. It's what's on my file in the CIA. It's how they make out my paycheck. It's how all my colleagues know me. It's the name my real passport and bank accounts are under."

"OK, so, it is your real name. That's all. People change their names all the time for all sorts of reasons. Muhammad Ali used to get royally pissed at anyone calling him Cassius Clay. Who cares what's on your birth certificate? You are Sarah Walker. End of story. The rest of it doesn't matter a bit."

She hugged him harder and said, "You are a pretty special guy, Chuck Bartowski."

"Maybe that's how I ended up with a pretty special girlfriend." He found that he quite liked saying the word 'girlfriend'.

They walked in comfortable silence for a little while longer when Sarah said, "I wasn't a hundred percent honest after the call with Graham." She looked at him and he raised an eyebrow in query. "I told you standing up to Beckman and Graham was nothing I wouldn't do for anyone else. That I did it because it was the right thing to do. And the truth is, I don't know. True, I feel differently about you, and what you did at Union Station was way beyond special, but there was something else too. I was angry at the CIA and angry at Graham. My last assignment, before coming to California to meet you, was a total disaster. I was betrayed and used by someone I trusted … someone the Agency told me to trust. And that led to...some pretty tough stuff...and, in the end, I rebelled a little bit...maybe more than a little. I was so fed up with the Agency telling me and everybody else what to do. As if they know better. As if Graham can't make a mistake. They throw around words like National Security and think it gives them carte blanche to run roughshod over people...innocent people. It made me mad. And when they started talking about putting you in a bunker...well, I just saw red...I just thought you should know. I mean, we are going to be teammates...partners...I thought you should know. I'm finding myself a little grumpy about authority lately."

"OK, Sarah. I'll keep it in mind, I guess. If you ever want to talk about stuff, you can always talk to me. I don't want to pressure you or anything, but..."

"Thanks, Chuck. I appreciate that. Hey, you want to sit on the beach and look at the stars?"

"Sure." She took off her shoes and he took off his Chucks and they walked barefoot through the sand to a nice semi-secluded spot. They sat looking at the stars. Looking westward, with their back to the city, the stars weren't obscured by light pollution and were brilliant and beautiful.

Chuck said, "Want me to tell you the myths associated with the constellations?"

"Only if you let me explain how to navigate a boat far from land by the stars alone."

"Wow, we are both kind of nerdy."

They were quiet for a while and Sarah sensed that he was deep in thought. Softly, she said, "Talk to me, Chuck."

"Yesterday, I was making eleven bucks an hour fixing computers, now I have one in my brain, and I can't figure out why Bryce did this. Why he chose me. It's like a sci fi story, but not a good sci fi story, like Red Mars, a bad sci fi story, like Flash Gordon. And I don't know what to make of it all. Am I to blame for the bombing last night? If I had flashed on something, could I have stopped it? What if I had seen a picture of the hotel in a magazine or on a billboard? Would those people still be alive? Sarah, I didn't say it to Beckman and Graham, but that's the real reason I agreed to help. I didn't help yesterday and thirty people are dead and dozens more wounded. Maybe I could have stopped it."

Sarah could hear the pain, the emotion, in his voice, "No, Chuck. There's no way you could have known. You didn't even know what was happening in your brain until this morning. It wasn't your fault. Please, don't think like that. It's not your fault. Bad things happen. We do all we can to stop them from happening, stopping bad people. But they will happen anyway. If you take on yourself the blame for everything you will end up in a mental ward or worse. Please."

He nodded his understanding, and said, "OK, but it's more confusing than that. My feelings are so conflicted. I don't even know how to describe it...as freaked out as I feel, and I really am freaked out...and as bad for the victims of the bombing as I feel...for the first time in years I feel alive." He smiled at her. "It's like I woke up from a long sleep and everything familiar seems suddenly new. I have no doubt that being with you...having you as my new girlfriend, is a huge part of it, but it's not all...I did something today that I'm really freaking proud of. I did something good that helped people...and it felt great. It felt like I had finally accomplished something after years of...well, of not accomplishing anything. I like that feeling, Sarah. I'm really looking forward to tomorrow, and I haven't said that since Stanford. But, I really am also freaked out. I'm scared, too. At the same time."

"We'll protect you. You're not going to get hurt."

"I know, but that's not really what I meant. I mean, don't get me wrong. I don't want to get hurt. I'm a full-blown coward."

She made a face at him and said, "Yeah, a full-blown coward who sat on top of a bomb with less than a minute to detonate. Some coward."

He gave a little grin and continued, "It's not getting hurt that scares me, I mean not really. It's screwing up. Your world is all new to me. Different rules and risks. I don't understand any of them. I'm stuck at the Nerd Herd desk at a Buy More, so I clearly don't even navigate my own world too well. Think about it, Sarah. You are a top-notch spy. Maybe the best America has to offer. What if you went into an operating room with Captain Awesome and he handed you a scalpel and wished you luck? As good as you are, you'd freak out too."

"Chuck, I hear you. I understand. But unlike in your analogy, Casey and I will be right there with you every step of the way. You've already proven to be a quick learner. It is all going to be ok. There's only one thing you have to do for me."

"What?"

"Trust me, Chuck." She leaned into him and they kissed for a long time.

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A/N: That's the end of Chuck's new day. Stay tuned for Dr. Zarnow.

If any of you readers hold an In-N-Out franchise, sorry, but if It's any consolation, Jack's burger place is fictional. In-N-Out Burger still has the best burgers in LA.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to all the readers who have given feedback. It is what makes posting this stuff fun.