Disclaimer: I do not own Chuck, but if I did there would be ten seasons and a movie.


Love-Struck Spies

Chapter Four, You Know Him?


Wednesday, 30 November 2005

19:30 Hours

Aboard a CIA Gulfstream Jet on Route to L.A.

Agents Bartowski and Walker had been in the air for two hours. After leaving the Director's office, they headed for the rendezvous and then boarded onto the plane at 17:30 local time. Chuck being the genuine and caring guy that he always was had insisted on taking Sarah's luggage off of her. She reluctantly allowed him to as she was a CIA Agent and did not need anybody to mollycoddle her. Nevertheless, she appreciated the heartfelt gesture a great deal, and she rewarded him with a brief kiss on his cheek, which immediately sent Chuck to heaven again as she had done on the very first night they met. Sarah had then boarded onto the aircraft giggling happily at her new partner's antics.

The first two hours on-board were spent going through mission files related to Los Angeles. The communication and understanding of the two agents was nothing short of outstanding. The Director was certainly right when he said that they both think very quickly on their feet and that they would be a perfect match. It was like Chuck held half of the key, and Sarah held the other half, combine it together, and you can open the lock. Chuck and Sarah were in perfect sync.

The Director had provided them with little information about just what was happening in Burbank. That fact was reinforced when they received a minimal amount of intelligence on this compound in Los Angeles. They would be fully briefed by the tactical teams already on the ground when they landed, but other than that they were going in blind. That created a little tension, but it was just the perks of the job, and neither of them complained as they both knew and accepted how it was.

Once Chuck and Sarah had finished studying the mission files, they both began to relax for the final three hours on-board the Gulfstream Jet that was taking them to start their new lives in Burbank, Los Angeles.

Sarah and Chuck had multiple emotions going through their minds at this moment in time. Chuck, for the first time in several years, had become close to somebody again, he had developed a personal and professional relationship with Sarah very quickly from the outset.

But he was anxious about returning to his birthplace and reconnecting with his sister, having to tell her lies about where he has been, lying about never being in danger. The idea scared him. Eleanor Faye Bartowski was a scary woman, and the thought of how that reunion would go down scared the living hell out him, but he concentrated on the job in hand, a distracted spy is a dead spy. Protecting his partner mattered most to him right now.

Sarah, just like Chuck for the first time in many years, had instantly become close to somebody. All of the other guys she had 'worked' with before did not respect her at all. They were all the alpha-male type, and if you would have said to Sarah just seven days ago that she would have found a guy who genuinely cared about her well being rather than his own, then she would have laughed in your face until she met a tall, incredibly gorgeous guy named Chuck Bartowski.

Sarah began to think back to the hotel in D.C. when Sarah watched a movie with him, and he was so focused on the film and not on the girl who had her head firmly rested onto his shoulder. If she would have had her head rested on any other agent, then they would have been all over her, and severely injured themselves in the process. It felt so freaking good to Sarah in knowing that there was somebody who actually cared about her and did not just see her as a prize they had just won even though they had only just met each other. He's a keeper, Walker!

Sarah would have accepted a posting anywhere in the world as long as she got to go with Chuck. The truth was that she had no family, no family residence, at least not yet, she thought. Immediately then realizing what she had thought to herself as her inner thoughts began to conflict and panic. Was she really visioning herself and Chuck laying down foundations in the future? Sarah Walker might not be able to talk and to express her feelings publicly very well, but she had the same thoughts as everybody else. She wanted someplace that she could call home. Someplace to return after a complicated mission without moving from one city to the next.

Chuck was such a heartwarming guy, and it was paying off on Sarah already. Sarah was not used to these emotions that she was experiencing with him, but oddly enough, she felt completely comfortable displaying them, and she happily reached out for Chuck's hand who returned the action. Sarah and Chuck then began to rest back into their seats, holding hands, and Sarah had the seat closest to the window. She looked out of the window as she took in the night sky, it was such a beautiful evening, and it even felt romantic. If only we were not on a mission. Maybe we could have built on our personal side just a little more...

Sarah had no idea what to do when Chuck would finally reconnect with his sister once more. Would Chuck even want her to be there with him? She wanted to be there for him to provide support. Over the past few days, she had learned that Chuck loved his sister, that she was the only family he had left. A couple of days ago, Sarah only had the Agency, but now she felt like she had somebody, after many years since her dad was taken away, she had somebody. And he was sitting right next to her with his hand entwined with hers. The thought of that soothed her enough to get some needed shut-eye, because who knew when they would next get the chance...

-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-

22:00 Hours

Aboard Gulfstream Jet

As Sarah slowly began to wake, she was now closer than she was earlier to Chuck, and their hands were still held together, their fingers entwined. Sarah was instinctively a cuddler. Maybe it had something to do with her lonely childhood life. She always carried around her favorite bear with her most of the time, snuggling up to it. As it so happened, the past few days, she seemed to have found a new teddy bear in the form of one Chuck Bartowski, and as she woke, she noticed he was sporting a massive grin on his face, and Sarah felt the urge to find out what he found so amusing.

"What?" she asked him, cutely.

"Am I the luckiest guy in the world right now, Sarah? Just being able to sit here next to you and be able to watch you sleep. I could not even imagine this in my dreams. Yup, I'm definitely the luckiest guy in the whole world," he told her with the words coming from the deepest corner of his heart and with a wide grin on his face.

Sarah had a bright beaming smile now. And just when I think Chuck Bartowski cannot get any more amazing, he does. Maybe she should stop setting a barrier because he would keep breaking it time after time.

"I'm so happy to have you as a friend, Sarah. I really mean that" Chuck said with his continued grin.

"Just a friend? You're supposed to be my loving boyfriend, and we are supposed to be deeply in love," Sarah replied flirtatiously with a wide smirk.

"What, a loving boyfriend, can't be your friend and be deeply in love with you at the same time?" Chuck said just as flirtatiously as Sarah had.

Sarah now had to fight back the giggles, and Chuck joined the action with her while their hands affectionately danced around together a little.

Graham was right, they were like love-struck puppies, but neither care, they have both had a horrible couple of years, and it was only the Agency that had kept them going.

They had both been lonely for quite some time.

But neither of them felt lonely right now.

Instead, they felt euphoric to be in each other's company.

They needed each other to heal, more than anything...

Chuck and Sarah then began to slip back into agent mode as they would land in around twenty minutes. They were turning into Agent Walker, and Agent Carmichael slash Agent Bartowski once more. The time to build on their personal lives was momentarily on hold. They had a lot to sort out together, but there would be plenty of time for that once this mission was over.

They would be living together.

Permanently.

-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-

19:30 Hours

LAX

The plane carrying Agents Walker and Bartowski had now landed at LAX, and the two agents departed the aircraft, where a tactical team was already waiting for their arrival on the runway. Agents Walker and Carmichael slash Bartowski then entered into the SUVs, which sped off to the staging area. The CIA had picked up on communication chatter about a captured agent being moved around 02:00 hours, so they needed to act fast as it was 19:30 now that they had landed in L.A. and Agent's Walker and Carmichael had to prepare a tactical assault because as soon as they touched down, they had assumed joint tactical command of the situation.

20:45 Hours

Staging Area.

The vehicles carrying Chuck and Sarah arrived at the staging area. They had to land at LAX in case the enemy had spotters at airports. Sarah and Chuck then left the vehicles, and they headed inside a building in an industrial complex 2KM away from the target. As they entered the building, the tactical teams were already gearing up inside of it, and the tactical team leaders were already engaged and coordinating the mission. Sarah and Chuck needed to report in with the Director immediately, and Chuck got out his secure Satellite phone, and he began to dial Director Graham.

"Graham secure."

"Carmichael, Walker, secure."

"Agents, our analysts are hacking more and more data from that chip as the hour goes by, and we can update you of the threat and who it actually is you will be up against. Sarah, the information should be appearing on your PDA right now."

Sarah got out her PDA, and she held it between her and Chuck, and as the Director had said, the information started to come through to them.

Director Graham then continued speaking while the two agents paid attention to the PDA as well as the Director. "Our analysts have decoded vital intelligence that informs us that you will be up against a rogue organization called Fulcrum. If you look at the PDA, you will see all the information we have on this organization."

Agents Walker and Carmichael had a lot of questions, so the quicker they had them answered, the faster they could assault the facility.

"Director, what is this symbol?" Chuck asked.

"That is the symbol they use to identify themselves," Director Graham said.

Sarah and Chuck began to study it intensely.

"Director, you say they are a rogue organization, but how come this is the first time we're heading of their existence?" Sarah asked.

"They are tricky. They've managed to stay hidden for several years, building up quite a fierce reputation worldwide," Director Graham stated.

Chuck and Sarah began to look blankly at each other as neither of them had ever heard of them.

Graham continued, "Look, Agents, there will be a time for a proper briefing, and as we piece more and more together, we will then brief you when we are aware of the full situation, but until then, let's get our agent back. Information should also be showing up about the captured agent."

And right on cue, the photo of the captured agent then appeared on the PDA...

Chuck and Sarah froze everything they were doing, and they entered into shock.

"Larkin..." Sarah whispered out distastefully.

"Bryce..." Chuck whispered out in the same tone as Sarah.

They turned so fast to face each other that they were lucky no bones snapped out of place.

"You know him?" Chuck asked, intrigued.

"Yep, he's the pervert whose hand I broke. I should have broken more parts of his too. And you know him, how?" Sarah asked, equally as intrigued.

"He was my best friend at Stanford..."

Graham interrupted them both. "Ok, Agents, you have a job to do, so let's get Agent Larkin to safety first and foremost. You have two tactical teams at your disposal. Command has also done a thermal scan of the area. There are twenty bodies inside the facility, including Agent Larkin. I will monitor from command. Good luck. Graham out."

Chuck and Sarah began to process the information for a moment as they then walked together over to study the map plans laid out over where tactical was assembling.

"This place is a god-damn maze," Chuck said with a deep sigh of complaint to his new partner.

"Yep, we have to be extremely careful, or we could be entering a slaughterhouse," Sarah said in a very concerned tone.

"Thermal indicates Agent Larkin is being held on the second floor..."

-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-

Chuck and Sarah had now suited up, and they were going over their proposed plan together, and they had both agreed that it was the best plan available as time was running out. They then proceeded to head over to join the two tactical teams to take up their positions ready for assault at 23:05.

Once they had rejoined the tactical teams, Chuck began collecting his thermal optics, and he was unaware that his partner was watching him. The geeky side of him started to play around with them as Chuck was always amazed by technology. With a bright smile on her face, Sarah watched Chuck with great interest from a distance as he played around with his optics. He would never lose that part of him despite being a deadly assassin, and she had to admit, she was extremely fond of it. She then continued with what she was doing herself, and she collected her weapon, and the teams headed out to the breach location. All of Chuck and Sarah's team were equipped with assault rifles, as these Fulcrum guys certainly were not messing around with serious firepower of their own.

23:00 hours, outside perimeter of Fulcrum facility.

Both CIA tactical teams were now in position on the outside perimeter of Fulcrum's facility, and there were five men in each tactical team plus Chuck and Sarah.

23:05 hours, Fulcrum facility

The two tactical teams broke cover and began to advance on Fulcrum's facility. There were five Fulcrum guards stationed outside as both CIA tactical teams focused fire on the sentries posted and after several exchanges of gunfire fire, three of the Fulcrum guards had been eliminated, and the other two guards began to retreat inside the facility, as both CIA teams continued to advance quickly in pursuit.

23:07 hours Fulcrum facility

Both of the CIA tactical teams were now inside of the facility, and they were about to split into two teams. Neither Chuck or Sarah liked splitting as they wanted to remain compact, but it was the quickest way to eliminate the threat and to get to Bryce.

23:09 hours, Fulcrum facility

Chuck's team had eliminated several Fulcrum guards inside of the facility, but both teams were now coming under some heavy fire in return.

Sarah's team was under intense gunfire, and she had already lost two Agents on her team, and she was slowly becoming pinned down. She took up a defensive position, and there were only four of them left. Sarah's team could not advance any more without being torn to shreds. Chuck had heard on his radio that his partner's team was getting torn up pretty badly, and he still had five men.

"Sarah, my team is still fully healthy. I'll come and join up with you and approach from an angle they're not expecting," Chuck radioed to his partner.

"No, Chuck! Focus on the mission! Bryce is the objective! I'm fine!" Sarah shouted back while she was busy engaging in a gunbattle with Fulcrum operatives.

But Chuck was having none of her demands. The gunbattle she was engaged in sounded an intense one, and her team had already lost two agents.

"Guys, I'm going to reinforce bravo team. Continue with the objective," Chuck ordered his small team.

"Copy that," the tactical team leader said as the team continued, and he doubled back as he began to rush to head towards Sarah. When he arrived, he could see Sarah's team still pinned down. Chuck had a clear vision of two Fulcrum agents that were out in the open thinking they had Sarah's team suppressed enough and Chuck raised his carbine as he discharged his rifle and he successfully eliminated both of the agents which stopped the gunfire onto Sarah and the two remaining members of her team as the Fulcrum team had sadly killed another agent. At least ten of the Fulcrum detail had been eliminated, leaving nine more according to satellite imagery.

-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-

23:14 hours, Fulcrum facility

The two remaining tactical team members from Sarah's team acknowledged Chuck before then proceeding on to secure Bryce.

Right now, Sarah Walker was divided into two conflicting personas. There was Agent Walker, who was angry that a poor tactical decision had cost the lives of three agents, and another agent had to come and help her out, that agent being her partner, somebody she already cared about too much about to risk the life of. An agent would never admit they needed help. It should never have come to that.

But her second persona, Sarah Lisa Walker, loved that somebody cared about her so much so that he would risk his own life to save hers. Any other agent would have been focused on the mission, but he chose her.

"WHY THE HELL DID YOU COME FOR ME! I HAD IT UNDER CONTROL, CHUCK!" Sarah screamed at him in immense frustration, but she didn't have it under control. He probably just saved her life.

Sarah was angry. She was furious with herself for letting herself walk into a trap and losing three agents and risking the life of Chuck, who had to come and bail her out. She wasn't angry at Chuck. She'd have done the same thing for him if he was pinned down. She just lost three agents because of a tactical error.

"WHAT WOULD YOU RATHER ME DO? PROCEED WITH THE MISSION?" Chuck screamed back at her as he could not see what the problem was. His tactical team had already cleared the floor, and they were heading upstairs to flush out the remaining Fulcrum in the building.

"YES!" Sarah screamed back at him.

"WELL SORRY! I MUST NOT BE THAT GREAT OF A SPY THEN, SARAH, BECAUSE I WON'T LET ANYTHING HAPPEN TO YOU, NO MATTER WHAT YOU SAY!" Chuck screamed back at her.

Sarah began to run at him, and before he had a chance to try and calm her down before she throttled him, she was attacking his lips with her own as she began to kiss him. Sarah could not control it any longer as all of the frustration boiled over, and she was so mad right now that the only thing she wanted to do was to kiss her partner. Sarah needed to vent out the immense frustration running through her. This passion had been threatening to release ever since they first set eyes on each other three days ago.

She knew that.

The instant Sarah set eyes on him inside that small office room at CIA headquarters; she just knew that she had to have him.

Chuck was confused right now, like totally really, really, really confused. One second his partner was screaming at him, causing him to have a nasty headache. And then the next, she was physically assaulting him with a desire he had never seen before. He had to admit, Sarah Walker was extremely sexy and attractive when she was angry. He was animated himself right now too because Bryce Larkin was back in town, and he recalled what Graham had said about him advancing on Sarah when she made it clear she wasn't interested. That and the fact that Graham was holding something back from them that could have cost all of their lives.

It only took a second for him to acknowledge that this wasn't a dream, and then by god, he did some assaulting of his own. He moved to take a firm grip on her, as she was already doing to him, and their mouths continued to skirmish together and their tongues met and made their acquaintance with each other for the very first time. Chuck and Sarah continued to kiss, to explore, to taste, to vent with each other as they remained locked in the intense passion that had been boiling over ever since they set eyes upon each other with several other incidents afterward, only adding fuel to the fire. They continued fighting for control and dominance, so lost in each other that they had no idea about anything that was happening around them. When they finally stopped kissing, and their lips began to separate after what felt like a while, they were now fighting to try and regain control of even the smallest of breaths of air.

They also started to pull back from each other slightly, but with their hands still gripping tight hold of each other as they began to stare into each other's eyes with an immense longing in their eyes as their minds started to fill up with thoughts over how perfect that moment was that they had just shared.

A call then came through on the net, requesting them on the second floor.

"We should uh... uhh, head to the second floor," Sarah managed to say in a very flustered tone as she finally let go of the strong grip that she had on his torso.

"Yes..uh..yes!.. right... right!" is the only thing that came from Chuck as the both of them were now at a loss for words after that intense kiss they had just shared.

Chuck and Sarah tried to regain as much composure as possible, but they would both now be thinking about what had just happened for a very long time indeed.

They made their way up to the second floor, and they found their package. Bryce was alive, and he was blindfolded, and they agreed to keep it on until they were safely away from the Fulcrum facility as the last thing they needed right now was an awkward reunion between the three of them.

Chuck felt very uncomfortable because he had not seen Bryce Larkin for years, and he didn't have much to say to him. Sure he was curious at how Bryce became an Agent, but they both parted ways at Stanford. As far as Chuck was concerned, he was told to bury his past, and that's precisely what he had done. Bryce must have been told the same thing. But anybody who treated a woman the way the Director had told Chuck about what he tried with Sarah was not a friend of Chuck's...