A/N: Hope you're all healthy and safe. Thanks for the reviews.
Disclaimer: We don't own Chuck and we're not making money from this story.
It continued… an alarm of some sort…
Like having cold water splashed over them…
Sarah sat up, gently moving Chuck off of her so that he sat beside her, lowering his shirt back down over his torso.
"What the fuck is that?" he asked breathlessly. God, she looked at him sitting there with his shirt twisted and askew, shock in his face, his lips red, his curls tousled…
Shaking herself, she took a deep breath. "Fire," she muttered. "It's a fire alarm."
And then what she'd just said sank in through the muddled mess of their desire-plagued brains at the same time and they spun to meet one another's gaze. Fuck!
They burst out of the bed on either side, Sarah snatching at the nearest pair of whatever she could put on to cover the camisole and underwear she'd fallen asleep in, and she watched helplessly as Chuck burst out of the bedroom without her.
"Chuck, wait!" she called after him.
He reappeared in the doorway. "Sarah, it's Hannah. You know it is. I'm not the only one thinking it!"
He wasn't.
"Go. I'm coming right after you."
Chuck was gone, leaving her to button her blouse and tuck it in even as she ran after him. She swiped at her flats as she went, grabbing her clutch with her key and shutting and locking their suite door behind her.
She pulled her flats onto her feet out in the hallway, staggering after Chuck's figure as it disappeared around the corner, and when the shoes were finally on her feet, she sprinted as hard as she could, her clutch trapped tightly in her hand.
Sarah still had her eye on Chuck's back even as she pushed past the early morning guests popping sleepily out of their cabins into the hallway to see why a fire alarm was going off. She dodged them, keeping her gaze on Chuck's mussed dark curls.
He knew the way to Hannah's cabin while she didn't. He'd studied it the night before, his brain worked in a way hers didn't, and she'd only taken a quick glance at the cabin number. She couldn't afford to lose Chuck in these maze-like hallways.
He'd be in danger if she did.
And Hannah would be in a lot less danger with two federal agents at her cabin instead of one still-in-training federal agent.
She wasn't sure how long they ran through the labyrinthian hallways—a minute or two?—but Chuck finally led her around the corner and she half-slammed into his back, as he'd halted right at the start of the corridor. She caught herself around his waist with a yelp. And that was when she saw it.
Smoke billowed out of a cabin halfway down, creeping silently and awfully along the ceiling towards them. People pointed and yelled, but were frozen in inaction.
Chuck was not. "That's her cabin!" he yelled, and he raced down the hallway towards the cabin.
"Chuck, wait! Chuck!" she called after him when he didn't listen to her. Shaking her head, she tore after him towards the burning cabin.
Her partner halted outside of the room, coughing into his fist and reaching out to touch the doorknob. He tapped it carefully to see if it was hot, and then grabbed it and pulled. It was locked. "Shit, it's locked!" he gasped out. And then he straightened to his full height, clenched his jaw, and backed up until he was pressed against the opposite wall.
"Chuck, you don't know what's going to come out of that door if you open it!" she insisted, knowing what he was about to do.
"I have a terrible feeling she's in there, Sarah. I can't just stand by and watch."
To confirm his fear, they heard a distant, muffled scream for help inside. Oh God...
She winced as he rushed the door and slammed his shoulder and side into it. And she gasped in surprise as it buckled under impact, swinging open. Flames licked at the air around Chuck as he nearly staggered into the room. But she managed to reach out and grab his arm, yanking him away from danger and into her. She nearly fell, but they caught one another against the wall. And she held onto him tightly, refusing to let him go any closer to the wall of flames.
"Oh my God," she breathed.
"Sarah. I have to go in. I need to get her out."
"No! Chuck, it's suicide!" He tried to spring away from her, but she held fast, blocking his path with her body and holding him where he was. "Chuck, no!"
"Hannah!"
Chuck stopped fighting her and they both turned to see a man dressed in his officer uniform racing towards them down the hallway. He was tall, almost as tall as Chuck, and handsome, even as fear and concern tinged his features.
"HANNAH!" he yelled as he neared the cabin. He tore his officer's hat from his head and shoved it into Sarah's hands. More crew members spilled into the hallway after him with fire extinguishers in hand.
And unlike Chuck, he didn't have anyone holding him back when he made the suicidal dash into the flames, his arms up to guard his face from the heat.
His navy blue back disappeared into the flames licking at the doorway even as his subordinates moved in to spray the fire with the extinguishers. They all waited outside of the cabin with bated breath, Chuck reaching up to hold onto his shoulder he'd used to break the door in, worry in his face, muttering under his breath a soft mantra of, "C'mon, c'mon, c'mon…c'mon…"
The fire parted and the officer burst through after what felt like an excruciatingly long time, an unconscious, small figure clutched in his arms. The crew worked to put out the flames as he rushed his patient through the crowd with a blunt, "Move! Out of the way!"
Sarah rushed into action. "Give them space!" she barked, pushing at people to clear the way for the officer, and Chuck immediately followed suit.
They hurried after him as he cleared the lookie-loos, but he didn't stop there. He carried her up a flight of stairs towards the crew's living quarters. When the concerned officer saw that they were still walking with him, he nodded towards a door. "Key in my right jacket pocket. Open it for me, will ya?"
Chuck acted first, snagging the key out of the other man's pocket and rushing to unlock the door, opening it and holding it for the officer to carefully step into the smaller one-room cabin and deposit her on the bed gently.
"Water's on the dresser," he ordered and Sarah hastened to pour the water into a glass and bring it over to the bed, standing over it as the officer leaned down and tenderly cupped Hannah's face that was tinged grey with smoke. "C'mon, baby. Breathe. Open your eyes."
Sarah exchanged a look with Chuck. He gaped at her, eyes wide. Apparently he'd heard it too.
There was a quiet cough, and Hannah's body lurched. The officer turned her onto her side and rubbed her back as harsher coughs suddenly wracked her form. She drew in deep breaths as he leaned over her and slipped his hand up to her face, pushing her hair out of the way and ducking his head to look her in the eye. She smiled a little and put a hand on his chest. "You okay?" he asked.
"I'm okay. Yeah." She nodded, her voice ragged. "My chest feels like it's filled with…"
"Smoke?" he cut in.
"Yeah. That." She huffed in self-deprecation, the edges of her mouth twitching in a weak smile. And then she finally noticed Sarah standing there with the glass of water and her eyes widened. "You," she breathed.
"Do you need some water?" Sarah asked, offering it, but Hannah sat up, pushed the officer out of her way, and smacked the glass out of Sarah's hand. Sarah took a step back and prepared herself to defend, confused.
"How'd you do it?" She turned to look at Chuck then and clenched her jaw, using the headboard to push herself to her feet, swaying a bit. But her rescuer was there to prevent her from collapsing. "You. I saw you. I thought maybe there was something weird about you just showing up there next to me on the pool deck."
"Hannah, what are you talking about?" the officer asked.
"It was them," she said. "I was following them." Uh oh. Sarah inwardly kicked herself. They were watching for Ring agents, and they never once picked up on the fact that they were being watched themselves, followed, by a damn civilian no less. Or at least, she thought Hannah was a civilian. "You didn't want anybody else getting that key, so you set fire to my cabin."
"What?" the officer snapped, turning to face them, his jaw clenching.
"We didn't set fire to anything," Chuck spoke up, stepping in closer. "It wasn't us. We were trying to protect you."
Sarah sighed and shut her eyes tiredly. Well, now that Chuck had made the decision to break their cover, she supposed she had to go with it. "We didn't know who was carrying the key at first, Hannah, until we did a little digging and put the pieces together. All evidence pointed to you."
"So you set my cabin on fire and tried to kill me," the young woman hissed.
"That wasn't us!" Chuck cut in. "We aren't the bad guys, here."
"What's your real name? I thought Chester Wayne sounded too ridiculous to be real," she snarled.
Sarah sent Chuck a flat look, then turned back to Hannah. If they were going to convince her, they had to go all in. And deal with the repercussions of it later. "We're federal agents. I'm CIA. He's NSA. We were sent here on a joint mission to retrieve the key from you so that we could bring it back and find out what's in Stromberg's briefcase once and for all."
"Yeah, and we definitely wouldn't be able to find out what's in that briefcase if we set fire to you and the key," Chuck added.
She stopped, considering their words, her eyes flicking back and forth thoughtfully.
"They make a good point, Hannah," the officer said then. Was he in cahoots with her, Sarah wondered? What in the hell was going on here? It was obvious there was a romantic connection, a deep thread that bound them together. Hannah still had her hand wrapped around his arm, and he was holding onto her in a way that belied any notion that they didn't know each other before this moment.
"Prove you aren't with…" She paused, lowering her voice. "Them."
Sarah looked to Chuck. They both knew who she meant by them. But neither of them had their credentials on them. They were on their own here. Sarah wracked her brain, and then Chuck spoke up.
"We were the agents who broke into Stromberg's vault at his heavily guarded compound. We broke in, took the briefcase, and we're now keeping it in an undisclosed location until we can get our hands on the key. We are here to get that key, and to protect you from the Ring."
"The...what? Ring?" the officer asked. Hannah squeezed his shoulder reassuringly and shook her head. He deflated a bit and sighed. It had been a good try.
"Protect me? Why? I'm working with Stromberg. I'm transporting the key to his briefcase for him. He's a criminal. My helping him makes me a criminal too. That's how that works. What about any of that makes the CIA or the NSA or whatever else want to protect me?" she asked, and Sarah had to admit it was a good question. The answer to that question was complicated, but mostly it had to do with the fact that General Beckman assigned Agent Carmichael—Chuck Bartowski—to this mission. And he was...well, who he was. Wasn't he?
She turned to look at him closely as he stared thoughtfully down at the floor beneath his feet. He finally looked up again, his brow furrowed as he peered at Hannah Liu, then he switched his gaze to the officer, and back to Hannah once more.
"The Ring has obviously deemed you acceptable collateral damage." The officer clenched his jaw even as Sarah spotted an almost imperceptible shiver go through Hannah. Chuck hit the woman with a grave look then. "Our respective agencies don't believe any collateral damage is acceptable. We haven't yet decided what you're gaining from being Stromberg's mule, or what your connection is to him or his organization. We don't even know if you have connections to the Ring. You might. For all we know. But if there's even a chance you're doing any of this against your will, or you were forced, or who knows what else, you're someone who is worth protecting." He shrugged. "At least, that's how this team operates."
Sarah could see an inkling of understanding in the officer, and Hannah seemed to almost take her cues from the man, as if he was the only person she had whom she fully trusted. If they could swing him onto their team, they would finally leap a step ahead of the Ring. For once.
Chuck—Agent Carmichael—was proving to be more of an asset to this spy team than she thought any of them figured on, even Chuck himself. And in ways she really should've predicted. This was how Chuck had always lived his life, protecting innocent people, making good first impressions, and winning people's confidence. She didn't realize it then, and she wouldn't until later, but something inside of her was slipping.
"So...what then? I'm arrested?" Hannah asked, slumping back to the bed.
This time Chuck looked to Agent Walker's experience. She could see it in the way he glanced at her, his eyebrows raised. And she took the lead. "Not arrested, per se. But once we get the key, you will have to come with us. You're in graver danger than you could even begin to guess."
"Lady, someone broke into my cabin while I was sleeping and set it on fire, almost killing me, not, like, ten minutes ago. I think maybe I have an inkling of the danger I'm in."
The CIA agent bit back a harsh reply. According to her dossier, Hannah Liu was at least two or three years older than she was. So the shoe mogul could stuff the 'lady' shit up her own ass.
"Either way," Sarah said, clenching her jaw. "It's best that Officer, uh…" She paused as she gestured to the man who'd rescued Hannah.
"First Officer Nick Valle," he said, straightening his spine in a way reminiscent of a soldier standing at attention. "Second in command only to Captain Morales. And I'll remind the both of you that while we're on the high seas, on my ship, my authority surpasses yours, whether you're really federal agents or not."
Damn it, he was right. She fixed him with a look. "You still don't believe we're federal agents?"
"I'm sitting at about eighty percent."
"Well, we'll have to take eighty percent for now," Chuck said with a nod to her.
"Moving forward, First Officer Valle, Ms. Liu cannot stay in that cabin," Sarah said, getting down to business.
"Of course not. It caught fire. All of my possessions...everything I own...well, almost everything," Hannah said with a pained look on her face as she pressed her hand to her forehead. Valle put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "I know, I know. They were just things. I'm lucky I survived."
"And the key?" Sarah couldn't help but ask. "Was it still inside the cabin?"
Hannah fixed her with a distrustful narrowing of her eyes. "The key survived but that's all I feel necessary to divulge at this current time. You might be feds, but I just so happen to not have much trust in feds either."
Sarah spotted a look of annoyance cross Chuck's face and she subtly pressed her fingers against his wrist. She agreed with him but he really needed to work a bit on his reactions. At least outwardly.
Most importantly, it seemed the Ring hadn't been successful in disposing of the key, nor had they been able to dispose of the current owner of the key.
A double failure. She inwardly smirked. ...The bastards.
"Ms. Liu needs to be moved to another cabin. In the meantime, have work to do. Whatever you do, make sure the key is stowed someplace safe, even if you won't trust us with the location." They'd find it out anyway. Sarah was going to make sure of that. "If you can spare crew, First Officer Valle, I suggest putting a few on her. Lie if you have to. Tell them after what happened to her cabin, you can't rule out that someone was trying to rob her or...whatever. I'm sure you'll figure out something. She's an heiress after all."
He nodded. "We have another cabin we can move her to, one closer to the crew's quarters so that we can keep an eye on her."
"The ship is swarming with Ring agents. Make sure you trust the men you assign to protect her," Chuck warned.
"You think my crew—my brothers and sisters—would ever lower themselves to join a terrorist organization?" Valle practically snarled, pride and honor seeping out of him.
Sarah inwardly rolled her eyes. "Maybe," she replied easily, seeming to shock the man. "If you care about her as much as you seem to, you'd be wise to act with care, have a discerning eye."
He frowned.
"And most importantly, do not break our cover," Sarah said, pointing at them. "If the Ring knows there's a CIA agent and an NSA agent on this ship, they won't rest until they find us. We're gonna be in as much danger as you. And we can't help you if we're too busy keeping our own asses from getting fried."
Hannah nodded reluctantly, and Valle joined in.
After they left the first officer's cabin, Chuck scoffed. "Not only are we still in the dark about that fucking key, she is insufferable. First she doesn't believe we're federal agents, and then she does believe it, but says she doesn't trust federal agents. Jesus Christ."
Sarah shook her head. "A lot of this isn't adding up, Chuck, her insubordinate attitude aside. I can give her sort of a pass on that since she was just almost murdered. But if she's a criminal, why the hell's the ship's first officer helping her? How does he know about the Ring? How does she know about the Ring? What's her story? That period of time her record was erased—the hell's that about? I have even more questions now than I did before."
"You think she's really a plant sent by the Ring? Bait?" Chuck asked then, and a shiver went through her. Shit. Could she be? "Lure us into a trap and pounce?" He grabbed her arm gently and turned her a bit towards him as they walked down the stairs. "We told her pretty much everything."
"Yeah, Mr. Transparency. That was all you." She rolled her eyes.
"You did, too!"
"I was following your lead. You made a decision, I followed. It's how this whole partnership thing works. I lead, you follow, you lead, I follow."
"Mm. And neither of us follows Casey."
In spite of everything that had happened since she woke up wrapped in her partner's arms, Sarah snorted and shook her head at him. "You two with your banter."
He sniffed in amusement, and waited to catch her eye. When he did, he said quietly, "Some things never change, huh?"
She stopped at their door, then, turning to face him, and every last touch, every kiss, every sensation that had assailed her when they'd dropped all pretenses and barriers to tangle themselves up in their shared bed, no holds barred...it all came back to her, full force.
"Some things do, Chuck." She smiled a little and opened the door, ducking inside and leaving him staring after her in the hallway.
}o{
Hannah Liu had some romantic thing going on with the first officer of the cruise ship. Said first officer had just rescued her from a cabin fire that the Ring had set to do away with the key to Stromberg's briefcase, while also doing away with the courier herself. And now Hannah and her boyfriend(?) both knew that he and Sarah were federal agents sent here to this ship to retrieve the key.
He had to keep repeating this over and over and over in his mind, forcing himself to focus on the things that could potentially lead to either a successful mission, or...an abject failure. His future with the NSA was on the line. His future on this team was on the line.
Most importantly, someone's life was on the line. Sure, he'd lied about being sent there to protect Hannah, but that didn't mean he wasn't going to do everything in his power to make sure she escaped this situation unharmed. And he thought Sarah was onboard with it as well.
Sarah…
He repeated in his mind what had just happened with the cabin fire and the tete e tete with Hannah and Nick Valle. Over and over.
Because if he didn't, he'd drown in the vivid memory of how he'd woken up that very same morning. God, he'd been so sure that Sleeping Chuck had totally blown everything, rolling over to spoon Sarah unconsciously as he slept. When he'd woken up to find her pressed so close to his chest, her legs sandwiching one of his, he thought she'd spring away from him, that the walls would come up, only this time they'd be titanium walls.
But no. Instead, she had squeezed his hand, threaded her fingers with his, scooted even further into him. And when their eyes met, something in him snapped. He wouldn't have kissed her if he hadn't seen the desire and warmth reflected back from her incredibly blue eyes. He would have backed off. But it was there. And it only took a few moments for her to kiss him back. And God, she'd done so much more than just kiss him back. His skin was still singed from her touch, as if she was made of fire. His lips still tingled, the numbness having worn off eventually. His body was still very alive. And he ached for more.
He wanted to grab her and kiss her again, and maybe...maybe they'd finish what they started.
Chuck didn't dare, though. He was afraid that he'd broach the topic and she'd pull back, call it a mistake—she'd slipped, she would say, and it wasn't going to happen again, she would insist. And he'd continue to be dragged along behind her by a thin, desperate string. He'd have the image of those eyes of hers crackling with desire—for him for God's sake, she'd desired him—and the sound of her whimpering voice in his ear, breathy, almost begging...the sound of his name on her lips...aching and desperate. It would haunt him forever.
He knew his brain was getting melodramatic now as he peeked out at the ocean through the curtains covering the window in their bedroom. Sarah was doing a quick perimeter check outside of their cabin suite, and he was standing here next to the bed where he'd been mere minutes away from knowing what it felt like to be with the woman he'd loved since...maybe the first day he'd met her. She had wanted him, he knew. And as he turned to stare at the bed, the sheets tangled at the foot of it, covers flopped over onto the floor, he felt a momentary spike of ire at his stupid life. The way she'd touched him, kissed him, the passion and need he'd felt in every part of her...that fucking alarm, the fucking Ring, fucking Hannah Liu and the fucking key and the enigmatic fucking first officer who'd been taken into her confidence… Fuck all of it.
God, they'd been so close to something real.
He'd been so close to being able to show her how he felt, how he really felt, in a way words just...couldn't. Every last part of him hurt now with lost opportunity.
It was lost, wasn't it? It had to be.
Then again, she'd insinuated something had changed. And she'd said it with a small smile. But before he could try to get clarification, she'd announced she was making a perimeter check and she'd disappeared outside again, leaving him alone in their cabin.
That was ten minutes ago.
He knew she'd be back. It took more than a ship full of Ring agents to take down Agent Sarah Walker. Granted, she didn't have her knives on her. He was intimately aware of the fact that she'd had nothing strapped to her thighs, calves, ankles, biceps. His hands had run up and down that body, over nearly every inch of her. He would've known if his fingers had slipped over the cold steel of one of her knives.
No, it had been just them in that bed this morning. No spy stuff. No weapons. No mission. Everything else had faded to the background.
He heard the door to the main room of the suite pop open, followed by the click of it shutting behind her. And then the dull thud of her feet moving through the cabin until she reached the bedroom door…
Chuck turned and let the curtain flutter back in its place, watching as she stopped at the threshold of the sliding doors. God, her eyes dropped to the bed and swept back up to him, and he was maybe going to die. Right here. Right now.
She was so gorgeous and she was everything and he was deeply and intensely in love with her.
He didn't know how much of that showed in his face, but he didn't have it in him to try to mask it. Not right at that moment.
Clearing her throat, she shifted her weight and stepped further inside, moving to lean back against the door, folding her hands behind her back a bit daintily. Or maybe it just looked dainty because she was wearing those adorable vintage wide-legged flowy pants and the button-up blouse tucked in. Her hair was wild, and the look she gave him was tentative.
"We all clear?" he asked quietly.
"All clear. Least so far as I can tell," she said with a nod.
He nodded back.
"Chuck, we're...maybe in some really deep shit."
Pfft. She said it.
"Yeah. Minus the maybe I think." She raised her eyebrows in agreement and lowered her eyes to stare at the floor somewhere between them. "Sarah, I need to apologize." Her gaze flicked back up at him, eyes wide. And he knew what she thought this was. He probably should have phrased it better. "I went out on a limb with Hannah and this Valle officer guy." Realization that they weren't having that conversation swept over her face and her shoulders eased a bit. He didn't know how to take it. "I told them the truth and maybe I shouldn't have. I've...kind of put a target on our backs if either of them aren't trustworthy. If they're Ring, there are a lot of terrorists on this floating lion's den who at least have a good description of what the two federal agents working against them look like." He felt himself spiraling a bit and he wasn't sure it was all about Hannah and Valle. He was pretty sure what happened between them that morning was also screwing with his...well, everything. "You absolutely stand out in any crowd and I'm...Well, I'm really tall."
A small smile appeared on her lips and she nibbled a bit on the inside of her cheek. "You do sort of stand a head taller than everyone else," she admitted.
"It's a curse."
She shrugged. "Today, maybe. But I'd be lying if I said I didn't like it on you."
Chuck felt his jaw go slack. She closed the distance between them and gently put her hand under his chin, closing his mouth and smirking. And then she shook her head, almost as if at herself. "We need to stay focused. We will end up getting iced if we don't keep our eyes open, if we don't play smart."
He nodded resolutely, trying to ignore the particularly old-timey bad guy lingo she'd just used. Iced. "You're right."
"And I shouldn't have been so hard on you earlier. You took the lead telling Hannah and Valle that we're federal agents. And I think you were right to." He widened his eyes and she shrugged. "Giving them some truth, as much as we safely can, is a good way to win their confidence and trust. It was good work, Chuck."
Chuck couldn't help smiling at her, feeling pride tickle at his ribcage. "Thank you. I just hope it doesn't bite us in our asses."
"You took a chance for the mission. It's what we have to do sometimes, take risks, chances. Put ourselves in a bit more danger. When we get the key and get off of this fucking barge, it'll be worth it."
He sniffed in amusement. She'd called the cruise ship a barge and it was really freaking cute.
"And how do we get that key?" he asked then as she stepped around him kicked her flats off of her feet, crawling up to the headboard of the bed and leaning against it. How was she just sitting there like that after everything that had happened in this bed not an hour earlier? "Neither of them saw fit to trust us with its location, but she insisted it's safe."
"She could be lying. That key is a bargaining chip. Without it, she's down Shit Creek. It could've burnt up in the fire and she's just not going to tell us that. We have no way of knowing until we actually get the key."
Chuck took a chance and walked over to the bed, crawling onto it and leaning back next to her, turning his head to meet her eye. "What if the key was never in her cabin at all?"
"We looked through her belongings in the hold, so did that Ring agent, and we found nothing."
"Maybe she hid it somewhere else entirely." He shrugged. "I don't know where. I'm just spitballing. But a key is small. You can put it … virtually anywhere and it'd be pretty easy to hide. It's gonna be like a needle in a haystack." He huffed, pushing his hand through his hair.
"Well, we just have to be smart. And careful. Any time we step out of this cabin, we need to be exceptionally careful. You're the only person within hundreds of miles that I trust, Chuck. You're my partner. Likewise, I need to be the only person you trust. That means no looking into Hannah's doe eyes and assuming she's innocent and no trusting Valle just because he's the first officer on this cruise ship."
"No way am I gonna trust that guy." He shook his head with a scoff, the corner of his lips tilting. "He's in love. And as important as his duty is to the ship, his captain, his crew—I'm sure there's some sort of code of honor thing for these guys—I'm not so sure he wouldn't shirk his duty for Hannah. I picked out the way he looked at her in half a second."
Maybe because he'd related. Hard.
"So did I," she said quietly. "He has all the markings of a man who's been in the service before."
"Military?"
"Navy most likely," she said.
"Makes sense," he said, gesturing at their surroundings. "Ship."
She smiled in amusement. But the smile dimmed as she looked at him seriously. "I don't know that a man who'd had his duty pounded into him the way they do in the service would be as apt to throw it all aside because of a beautiful woman." She sighed. "Think Casey."
Chuck felt like the subject was veering a little too close to home, and he squirmed in discomfort. "Maybe Nick Valle isn't...like Casey. You know? Maybe he's different. And while he knows his duty is...important, super important… she's important too. Maybe he can...maybe he can prioritize...both."
Sarah was quiet for a few moments. And as he chanced a glance at her, he saw that she'd ducked her head, a small knowing smile on her face. She lifted her chin again but didn't look directly at him. "Chuck, you know I mean that Hannah might be a Ring agent and he'd betray his country by helping her because he's in love with her."
"Oh." He cleared his throat. "Yeah. That. I-I mean, that's a possibility."
"Would you—" She paused, licking her lips slowly, and he tried not to dwell on the fact that he'd felt said lips pressed against his in a way that had ignited his very soul. "Would you betray your country like that...for someone? I mean, do you think it's possible?"
He had a feeling she wanted a certain answer from him, but damn it, he couldn't figure out what it was. He wished he could say what she wanted to hear. He couldn't though. So he opted for the truth.
"Honest to God truth, if she was with the Ring? No." She turned and looked at him, her features hard to read. "I think there are lines I wouldn't cross. Being a terrorist who works against the safety and livelihoods of innocent people, supporting a clandestine regime that hurts people, murders people, for power? I wouldn't be able to support that. You can't pick who you fall in love with, but what you do with it is entirely in your hands. And I can't see any reason to aid a terrorist organization like the Ring, even if it was just for someone I love."
Sarah took a deep breath and looked down at her lap. "You seem pretty sure about it."
"That's because I am. Not that I wouldn't rebel a little against our superiors for someone I love. There are no...mics in here, right?" She made a 'what the fuck are you talking about' face and he cleared his throat. "Just...making sure." And he felt himself blushing as he realized they'd been rounding second base and if there were mics they'd be...oh God, he needed to not even think about it. "If Beckman told me I had to let my sister die for the good of the country. Or Morgan. Awesome." He paused. "If she told me I had to let you die for a mission, I'd tell her to shove it up her ass." Her eyes popped at that, and she seemed unable to help herself, letting out a quiet bubble of laughter, disbelief on her face. "What? It's true," he said, smiling a little. "But if you were a part of the Ring, Sarah… You would never. But...if you were...I don't know. I don't know what I'd do, but I'm not sure I could…" He shook his head.
"Good," she said solidly, and her hand reached over to drape on top of his. She squeezed and he was brought back to this morning again, how perfectly her smaller form fit against his as he curled himself around her. She'd squeezed his hand like this then, instead of pulling away.
"Good?"
"Yeah. Good. Fuck the Ring."
"God, I agree so hard," he breathed, shaking his head. "And I can't...I can't help thinking about how many of them might be here, that Hannah and Officer Valle might be Ring agents, and that there's a really good chance they might… I mean, that we might end up being captured. By the Ring."
He didn't want to admit he was pretty sure they'd just be tortured or killed rather than locked up if the Ring got their hands on them.
"It's a possibility," she admitted quietly, and her fingers moved against his. "But I'm afraid that probably isn't how it's going to work."
He smirked a little. "What, we can't request a cozy little two bed, two bath cell?"
There was a bit of a pause, and then Sarah turned her head, her chin lowered, looking through her eyelashes to meet his gaze as she smiled quietly. "Two bed?"
Chuck just stared at her, watched the way the light came into her eyes, and he found himself smiling at her. Her meaning was crystal clear. And he didn't know how to handle it. Except to trust her. To trust the look in her face, the invitation there. He decided to not overthink for once.
And when he leaned in, she didn't pull back. She met him halfway, pressing her lips to his. He was awash with warmth. Again, she wasn't running away. She wasn't saying what happened that morning was a mistake. She wasn't putting walls up or hiding. She was kissing him.
Throwing all caution to the wind, Chuck cupped the back of her head and pulled her in tighter, moving his lips over hers, slinging his other arm around her waist and clinging to her with everything in him.
Sarah grabbed his face in both hands and kissed him back just as hard, her lips demanding and almost fierce as she sighed, twisting her fingers in his hair again. She let her weight fall back, dragging him with her, slinging her leg over the backs of his.
And just like that, she pulled out of the kiss with a gasp, breathing hard as she panted, "Wait, wait. Wait. Shit."
Chuck still held her, dipping her so that both of their torsos hovered over the bed, but he pulled back away from her face to meet her eyes. Oh no, please. Please, please…
"This was me. This was my fault. I'm sorry. I just… We can't." She licked her lips, stroking her hand through his hair, imploring him. He must have looked supremely hurt and confused, because she pushed them both to sit up and shook her head, looking him right in the eye as she cupped his face again. "No, no. I don't mean—God damn it," she cursed herself, rolling her eyes. "Chuck, we both need to have our wits about us until this mission is over. We're in a really tight spot, and any slip, any misstep, could be the end. For both of us. For this mission. Shit!" she cursed again. "We need to keep our heads in the game, Chuck. We need to be Agent Walker and Agent Carmichael. We have to keep our wits about us, and I am going to be completely honest and super blunt right now. If this happens...this between us...if we finish what we...keep starting…" She bit her lip. "I'm not sure I'm gonna be able to keep my head where it needs to be. I've never been in this situation before and I don't know if I can do this kind of compartmentalizing. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have...I initiated this."
He let out a long breath and nodded, unable to keep the glee from flooding through him. Because she didn't say "This is a mistake". She didn't backtrack. Well, she did. But not like that. Not in the way that would make him want to put his head through the nearby window. She said they had to focus on the mission and if this happened, she wasn't sure she'd be able to focus. More or less. And she had a point. But God, this wasn't a no.
"Listen, please don't ever apologize for kissing me. Let's just get that out of the way right now, okay?" She pressed her lips together in a bit of a smile and gave him a halfhearted flat look. And yet, she seemed pleased. "And another thing." He fixed her with a serious look this time. "Thank you for being honest with me. I mean, just telling me. It's really… It means a lot. You trusting me with complete honesty. I promise I'm not gonna take it for granted."
She took a deep breath and nodded. And then she surprised him, diving in to wrap her arms around his shoulders and burying herself in his embrace. He held on tightly, not really sure what was happening, if the tides were changing...why they were changing. But he was going to take this as a win. It was a win. It was a big win.
He grinned as she pressed her lips to his cheek in a long kiss.
"So uh...correct me if I'm wrong but this...wasn't really a 'we can't', it was more of a, um, 'we can't right now'...am I correct in my interpretation?"
Sarah pulled back just a little and looked him in the eye with a dubious glare. "I didn't say that."
"But you also didn't say 'never'." He bit his lip and wrinkled his nose.
A blush rose to her face and she pursed her lips, twisting them to the side. "I didn't say 'never'."
Chuck dove in to hug her again, his arms clutching her tightly against him, and he felt her clutching just as hard, just as desperately. What had happened? What had changed? God, he was confused and overjoyed. It didn't matter. All that mattered...was that this felt different. It felt like a door had opened. He just had to complete this mission before he could attempt to walk through it.
A/N: Enough said. Please review! Thanks!
-SC and DC
