A/N: Hi, so there is a point in this chapter where I have to figure out how much time a flight takes, time zones, and I swear a north-bound swallow made it into the equation at some point. I have many degrees, none in math, so if I screw up the time, I don't care. I tried, I tried really, really hard. Also I was inspired by Thin Ice, which is nothing new because Steampunk . Chuckster is ALWAYS inspiring me. Thanks to Zettel and Angelgurl0 for the double beta! I give you Pros and Cons Ch 13, Eligible Bachelor
A/N 2: Today is one year since I first published here. Chuck vs the Nanny…eh..(I still need to finish remastering that), and it took me 3 good months to post that fic. True to form I had a crazy dream last night about another fic so I jotted it all down, ran it by some people, and it is in the pile of later…(behind V2 and Season 3 Bartowskified) thank you one and all for supporting me this last year. I can't tell you what it means. Let's have fun, Ch 13, Eligible Bachelor
Disclaimer: Don't own Chuck, and I almost feel sorry for Jill….no, I don't.
"You are the most unprofessional people I have ever worked with in my entire life!" Jill screamed at Chuck and his crew.
"If you don't like how we do things you can get the hell out of here!" Chuck screamed right back. Ellie got in between the two of them. She might have pushed Jill back a little harder than necessary. Sarah was smirking and Ellie was trying not to grin from seeing the smirk.
"Christ, all of you cut it out!" Casey bellowed. "Jill, we did exactly what we promised; the artifact wasn't here. Now, why don't you let us debrief and we'll meet back at Carmichael Solutions in a few days." She stared bullets at him, but he stared right back and she quickly realized she wasn't out-staring John Casey. She stormed out of the room, slamming the door. He turned back around, proud of himself. "Did you get it?"
"Please, it's me," Anna said. "We got all her contacts and are tracing them now. She had a minimum of seven suspected members of the Ring talk to her tonight. Plus she had conversations with several other questionable people. We hit gold. If we don't find that artifact, this alone will be worth it as far as the NSA is concerned."
Casey nodded, pleased. He turned to Chuck and Sarah who were both grinning. The grins fell off of their faces as Casey glared at them. "Why did you repel down?"
Sarah gulped. "Because I'm not going to let him go somewhere like that by himself!" She stood up straight but it was obvious she was a little nervous.
Casey turned to Chuck. "And, YOU!" Chuck gulped. "You went and repelled down upside-down."
"You have to admit the Spider-Man kiss was pretty cool," Bryce said, grinning. Chuck nodded his thanks, but the grin fell off of Bryce's face as Casey growled at him.
"Why the hell was she naked?" Casey asked.
"Because Chuck was doing his job, getting the part while she was in the shower. I hit the guard in the back of the neck with the gun, taking him out, and when I came in, she had Chuck wrapped in one arm with the gun trained on him." Sarah was getting tired of the questions.
"I thought the 'Put some clothes on, Bitch,' was a nice touch," Anna added.
"For the record, I really didn't notice that she was naked until Sarah asked me and I realized her plan." Everyone looked at Chuck. No one believed him.
"We're dating, Chuck; you're not dead, we're dating," Sarah said.
"Really? Dating?" Ellie asked, vibrating, her voice turning vibrato, gaining in pitch.
"Please, Ellie, no," Chuck begged.
"Dating?" she squealed to Sarah. Sarah nodded,grinned.
"Exclusively," she said beaming and turning to Chuck, who quickly nodded his happy agreement.
Casey looked from Chuck to Sarah. "So let me get this straight, you two lovebirds flew in there, got the tech, watched each others backs, and got out?"
"Add in theSpider-Man kiss," Anna added. Casey looked at her, shook his head, and returned to Chuck and Sarah.
"Yes, Casey," Chuck and Sarah admitted in unison..
Casey smiled. "Well done," he said, turned and headed toward the door. "Everyone pack up, we're heading home ASAP!"
"Just wait a damn minute, Casey," Zondra ordered. Casey turned. "We can't leave, we have a line we just introduced in this show. It's important to us and it helps establish a cover when we need it." Sarah looked torn. "No, girl, you go and watch your man, he needs you, we got this and we'll talk when the two of us get home."
"I could stay behind," Bryce offered.
Casey nodded. "I like it. Everyone else pack up!"
-ooooo-
"Uh, Chuck, we may have a problem." Chuck turned to Sarah. Everyone had begun to split up to leave, leaving the two of them alone. It was 3 AMish, Chuck thought. He was pretty sure it was. There was a flight, and time zone differences, but all he knew is it was dark, and he had slept on the plane and he was awake now. He didn't know what could be such a big deal at 3 AMish. "Did you agree to be on a TV show starring LA's most eligible bachelors?"
Chuck's eyebrows shot up and he winced. "Uh-oh," he muttered. Sarah giggled behind her hand.
"I thought you weren't dating, Chuck," she said emphasizing the "k", and dropping her hand. "What happened to not seeing anyone?"
Chuck scratched the back of his head, cornered. "Uh, Ellie." Chuck dropped his head. "Sarah, I've told you the truth, I promise I'm not out looking for a date. I'll cancel."
"Hey, calm down, Bartowski, I'm just teasing." Chuck took a deep breath. "So, if you're not looking, why are you going on, other than because Ellie asked you to."
"Asked?" Chuck began to laugh. "Ask?" He laughed harder. He tried to catch his breath. "Sarah, Ellie does not just ask you to do something. I call her Hurricane Ellie for a reason, she brings the wind and the rain, brings everything down on top of you...until you snap." Chuck actually snapped his fingers as a sound-effect. Sarah giggled. Chuck rolled his eyes. "It is for the company."
"Than we better get to the studio, because you have to be in make-up soon." Chuck groaned. "Think how happy Ellie will be."
"Think how unnecessary this is. I have a girlfriend."
She gave him a peck on the lips and led him to the car. "Don't you forget it either, Buster."
-ooooo-
Sarah stood out off to the side. This was big for the company. Sure they already made a ton of money, but getting this piece out there, showing all the good they were doing was important to Chuck. She kidded him about looking for a date, but she stopped quickly because she saw something on his face that said what they had wasn't to be joked about. She was afraid he was going to do something stupid. The piece on the company ended, which Sarah couldn't have been prouder of, and the interview began. Sarah could see his hands fidgeting. She knew his palms were sweating.
Victoria Dunwoody turned to Chuck. "So, Chuck, you okay? You look nervous." Chuck had on a three piece linen suit. It was a light grey three-piece suit, with the jacket unbuttoned allowing the vest and his lavender dress shirt to show through. He had on a dark purple tie, and Sarah had to admit he looked GOOD. Sarah's pulse responded.
"I want to thank you for having me here, Victoria, but it turns out that I'm here under false pretenses, and I feel a bit guilty about that. My...uh, situation has changed."
Victoria looked around at her studio audience, exaggerated surprise on her face. "Chuck, did you go an get married and not tell anyone about it?" The studio audience laughed. Chuck did too, but nervously.
"No, but I am seeing someone." He paused. "Exclusively." The audience murmured. "It's new, but then again, it's not." He shrugged. "It's complicated."
Victoria looked pleased. "Chuck, that's great! Many have wondered why a guy as great as you didn't have someone special. You've not been a player, you've not been trouble. In fact, some would say you're...almost too good to be true." During Victoria's slight pause, a picture went up of him and Sarah together at the party in Milan.
Chuck shifted in his chair uncomfortably. "Sorry, to spring this on you, but an old friend of yours from college, one I hear you're working with currently, Jill Roberts, sent us this." Chuck's lips tightened. "She gave us a name of your mystery woman, but it's like she just appeared out of thin air." Victoria waved her hand like a magician performing a trick.
Chuck hadn't anticipated this. He hadn't considered what would happen when the paparazzi found out about Sarah and then began digging around. He looked over at her behind the curtain, and she gave him a wide, encouraging smile. She pointed at him, and then at herself. You and me, that's all that matters. Victoria followed his glance. "Is that her?"
"I fear we're really messing up the most eligible bachelor thing you have going on," Chuck said, trying to stop the madness or slow it. Sarah mouthed "the truth". Chuck sat there a second, undecided. "Look, if I talk about her, can we leave her alone? Unless she wants to come onstage?" Sarah quickly shook her head no.
"If that's what you want," Victoria said, sugarysweet. Chuck's trouble-meter went off. This was about to go south. "Now, you know Jill, the kidder." Chuck's heart sunk. He knew what was coming. "She confided that your girlfriend, that's what she is, right?" Chuck nodded. "She confided that she used to be in jail." Victoria smile got more sugary. Chuck looked at Sarah, who grinned calmly and nodded.
He took a deep breath. "Jill told you that? Hmm. I mean it's true." The audience gasped. "Her father was a con artist and that's the life that she was raised in, that's what she knew. Sarah approached a friend and I back at Stanford to run a con on him, but instead she didn't because she met me. At the time I was supposedly dating Jill."
"You don't know if you were dating Jill or not?" Victoria was getting sucked in. She was now on Chuck's script and not her own. Sarah grinned.
"Oh, no, I know that I was, however, Jill didn't seem to get that as she was...um...entertaining other men." The audience gasped. Chuck gave them a minute. "In fact, Sarah saw that I was hurting because of Jill constantly canceling dates, from her being distant, and she did something. Something unselfish, and selfishly I blamed her and my friend for trying to hurt me. She proved Jill was cheating on me." The entire audience gasped again. Victoria was stunned. "I blamed Sarah for trying to sabotage me. And maybe she did." Sarah's eyes got wide from shock, but Chuck's softened. "Because even if I couldn't admit it, I was falling in love with her and she was falling in love with me, and maybe she caught Jill so she could have me...and I could have her. So we could have each other." Chuck shrugged gently. He could hear people sniffling. "As I slowly began to put my life back together, Jill collected evidence against Sarah and her father, and Sarah was arrested in front of me." Chuck glanced down as the audience murmured.
"So you waited for her?" Chuck looked up at Victoria. "You waited all that time for her?" Victoria was fully invested now.
"No," Chuck admitted. "I was scared to get hurt. My parents left me, Jill left me, and Sarah, she did too. No fault of her own, but she was arrested, and I was scared too live." He looked at Sarah and his smile began to grow. "But now I'm scared to not have her in my life. To not get a chance everyday to tell her I love her. To not wake up and see her or to not see her right before I close my eyes." Tears pooled in Sarah's eyes. Chuck turned to Victoria. "I said I was coming her under false pretenses and I wasn't kidding. I'm not married, but I'm the closest thing to it." The entire audience stood and applauded.
At home Jill threw her coffee mug at the TV, smashing both items. Bernie looked at her. "I'm going to break them up, Bernie, If it's the last thing I do! It's clear I hurt him more than I realize and can't win him back, but I break them up, we get that artifact back, and I'll move up in the Ring."
Bernie sat there a second. "Why you gotta break them up?"
She looked at him like he was stupid. "Because she doesn't deserve him. I'll tear him down, and then he'll want me. That will work." She thought for a second. "I know Chuck and that woman has no clue what makes him happy."
"He looks pretty happy to me."
"Don't be a dolt, Bernie. He's with her because of her looks, it's obvious. What we need is someone to appeal to the nerd in Chuck." She though and grinned. "She went after Bryce originally so it's obvious she like a good looking guy. I know just the couple. The Seduction Specialists." The way she said it, it was like she expected creepy music to play in the background.
"The who?"
She glared at Bernie. "The Seduction Specialists. They'll swoop in, make those two realize they can do better, hopefully one of them will sleep with one of the specialists, because that seems to bother those two, and then it will be over. They'll be over. They'll break up, I'll win, and Sarah Walker will be right back where she belongs."
"I don't know about this."
"Uncle Bernie, I think your village lost their idiot when you moved away." Bernie tried to do the math and realize she was insulting him.
"That's real love," Bernie said, looking back at the ruined tv, and standing up to his niece.
"What the hell would you know about real love? I am going to crush Sarah Walker and make her rue the day she ever met me." With that bit of melodrama out of the way, she stood and stormed out.
"I'd bet on her before I bet on you," Bernie mumbled to himself.
-ooooo-
Chuck sat in his dressing room chair after the interview. Between the flight, the time zone changes, and the interview he was whipped. His suit coat was off, hanging on the chair, tie loosened, top button undone, and sleeves rolled up. He didn't like what he just did, but Sarah had told him too, giving him the chance to fire back at Jill. This was going to get worse before it got better, but he found he didn't care. He had Sarah. She loved him and he loved her, and all those months apart had changed nothing. They were together, just the thought of that brought a peace over him he didn't know if he had felt since his parents left. He trusted her. He trusted her with his heart and that was something he hadn't been sure he could ever do again. The knock on the door pulled him from his thoughts.
"Come in." The door opened and there stood Victoria Dunwoody, looking embarrassed. She came in and shut the door.
"I owe you, Ellie, and Sarah a huge apology." She shook her head and sat down on the couch in the room across from him. "I thought Jill was just messing with you, I thought it was all just a joke, and then I find out I've basically been used to further Jill's agenda against you. Why are you working with her?"
Chuck knew the answer but he couldn't tell her the whole truth. Victoria would have it on air in fifteen minutes. Instead, he gave his patented answer. "When you say everyone deserves a second chance, you have to give it, no matter how much it hurts you."
"Chuck, she doesn't deserve any more chances!"
"Either she's going to change, or I'm giving her enough rope to hang herself." That was the absolute truth, although Chuck really expected Jill to hang herself. "I'm not mad, Victoria, it's what Jill does. She's good at it. She's had years to practice to become who she is today." He thought for a second. "No, she's had years to practice to work on this cover she has cultivated for the public. You probably saw the real Jill Roberts today, and that's a shame. She could have been someone special." Victoria stood up, and patted his arm.
"You're a good guy, Chuck Bartowski, and it's clear that Sarah makes you quite happy. I'm in your corner."
"Thanks," he said as she left. He spun back around slowly in his chair and he heard the door open. He made a complete turn and saw Sarah leaned against the door, a coy look on her face. He heard a click behind her.
"Nope, don't you move from that chair." Chuck froze. She was scanning him from top to bottom . "Stand up," she said softly. "We need to have a talk, Bartowski. You don't get to go on TV and talk about me like that, and then be alone in this dressing room looking like that…." Her voice trailed off as she bit her lip. She walked toward him….no, she didn't…she stalked him. He gulped, but he didn't move. Why would he move? In fact, a smile ghosted his lips, one of confidence..oh, she liked that. "Chuck, we are going to do something in here, right now."
"Sarah," he said. There was something in his voice that made her heart swell. It made her feel things all over. Good Lord the things he was doing to her shouldn't be legal by law. "There's something I need to know." She swallowed. She tell him any damn thing he needed to know right then and there. "This vest," he said, looking down. "While I like it…are there too many buttons?" Oh, he was gonna pay.
"Bartowski," she said huskily. His eyes turned a little dark with that and the heat seemed to flame up in her. She looked around him and saw the chair. That would do. Nicely. "You let me worry about those buttons. You get any chance to wear that, you do it. Trust me, it'll be worth it. Later, if not sooner."
"Sarah, you're not thinking of us having sex right here are you?"
"Chuck, I'm not thinking about it, it's happening. Already started." She pushed him down into the chair and then climbed aboard his lap.
"But all of these buttons," he protested, a smirk returning to his face. She grabbed his belt and pulled him close, his lips inches from hers.
"Who says we need to remove the vest?" she asked, undoing his pants. "Maybe I want it to stay on."
Victoria walked Ellie towards Chuck's dressing room door. "Ellie, I can't apologize enough."
"Don't be silly, Jill got all of us to fall for her games over the years, I know you didn't mean anything by it." Ellie grabbed the door, and it wouldn't open. "Would you unlock it for me?" Victoria raised an eyebrow. "He's just changing, he won't be naked. Besides, he's my brother and I raised him. Nothing new for me to see." Victoria unlocked the door, gave Ellie a hug and headed off. Ellie opened the door and stepped in. It took her a second. Why was Chuck in the chair and Sarah...? "OH MY GOD! I AM SO SORRY!" she put her fists over her eyes and screamed as she bolted blindly out of the door. Laughter trailed her.
"I guess we're even for the bathroom incident," she heard Chuck yell. Ellie took her fist from her eyes and blushed furiously, but she was secretly thrilled. Her brother had finally found the right one. A while later the door opened and the two, looking extremely flushed, and a little embarrassed stepped out. Ellie grabbed Sarah and hugged her.
"Told you, you were gonna be my sister." Chuck started to open his mouth. "Shut up, Chuck, let me have this." He was quiet. He was also thinking she was right.
A/N: So I realized something writing this fic. I got trapped by it. The will they/won't they. I'll never do anything like this again, and I think with this chapter, and maybe even the last, you can see the tone has changed. I wrote those first 12 chapters over a week. I've written nothing for nearly three weeks until this chapter, because I didn't know how to go forward with that tone, hence the change in the tone. So going forward its more hilarity, more of a caper, more of Charah, more fun. Hoped you liked it, reviews and PMs are always welcomed…Take Care
DC
