A/N: This chapter focuses on Sarah's observation of Chuck. I had some trouble writing this chapter, I wanted to get Chuck just right, let me know what you think, but most importantly, enjoy!

Chapter 6 - Operation Getting to Know Bartowski

USS Abraham Lincoln,
Arabian Gulf,
0900 (UTC+3),
March 20, 2003

They had landed on the carrier not 10 minutes ago, the medics snatched LTJG Bartowski away before he could undo his harness properly. Sarah wasn't worried, she could see the bullet hit him dead on his ballistic plate, and did not penetrate; and none of the young officer's other injuries were life threatening. But Sarah did see how close the bullet came to claim the young man's life, four inches higher, the bullet would have hit him directly between his body armour and flight helmet. Sarah felt her heart tighten at the thought of that, Sarah was puzzled at her own reaction.

This was her first time on an aircraft carrier, and Sarah could not believe that her first experience of an aircraft carrier was a Nimitz-Class super-carrier, Sarah Walker was definitely impressed. She had gotten her pilot license while she was in "the Farm", and she could say she was a very good pilot and could fly numerous airframes. But seeing the planes taking off and landing on an aircraft carrier, the thoughts of doing that actually terrified, and thrilled her at the same time.

The Senator was greeted by the ship's Captain, whom, to Sarah's surprise, checked on LTJG Bartowski personally first. He then left with the Senator and half of the protection detail, now she was left with the lead agent, Kane, and another agent, Smith, with nothing to do. LTJG Bartowski's co-pilot came over and offered them a short tour of USS Abraham Lincoln, while the rest of the crew started checking over the chopper for damage.

LT Granger got them off top deck as soon as she could, considering how dangerous that place was, especially with the invasion still going on. They made short introductions and started the tour. When they arrived at the hanger, LT Granger introduced them to the various airframes on board the aircraft carrier, including Grumman C-2 Greyhounds used for carrier onboard delivery; the tactical airborne early warning aircraft, Northrop Grumman E-2C Hawkeyes; Sikorsky MH-60 S Knighhawk helicopters, like the one they just flew on board with; and last but not least, the twin-engine multirole fighter aircraft, F/A-18E Super Hornets.

Sarah couldn't help but admire the well-designed aircrafts, she was giddy with excitement as she thought about the feeling of flying in one of these beauties at supersonic speed. That was when she noticed, under the canopy of one of the Super Hornets, printed 'LTJG Charles "Einstein" Bartowski'. She couldn't stop herself, and asked the Lieutenant, "Lieutenant Granger, I thought the pilot who flew us in was Lieutenant Bartowski, why is his name printed on that Super Hornet?"

LT Granger was glad the blonde agent asked her that question, she was hoping Agent Walker would notice Chuck's name, which was why she brought them down to the hanger in the first place. She wanted to make Chuck look good in front of the beautiful blonde, who was clearly interested in him, at the same time, the devious LT Granger wanted to leave out enough detail, keeping the blonde agent intrigued, so her curiosity would drive the blonde to find out more about Chuck, in person. LT Granger answered in an as-a-matter-of-fact manner.

"Oh, because she is Lieutenant Bartowski's baby, his second one according to him. And the chopper we just flew in with would be his third baby, but he had insisted she is our baby, it's one of his many ways of telling me that I could pilot her whenever I want. Einstein flies in both airframes, he is one of the best pilots I have ever seen, whether in a Knighthawk, or in the Super Hornets. That's just one of his many attractive traits." She said the last sentence, looking in Sarah's direction.

Sarah saw this and blushed, she tried to cover it by asking another question, "That's quite unusual for a pilot to fly two airframes, especially on one deployment, isn't it?"

LT Granger answered proudly, "It was unheard of, as a matter of fact. It is a rather long story, the short version is, Einstein really lives up to his call sign, he just soaks up everything he wanted to learn like a sponge, he learned how to fly a Knighthawk during this deployment, and was flying it better than everyone onboard not long after. As for the long version, you should ask him yourself if you are so interested." LT Granger finished with a challenge to the blonde agent.

Sarah never responded well to a challenge, she thrived on challenges, so she shot back defiantly. "Maybe I will." LT Granger just smirked at this.

Agent Kane, who had been silent this whole time, was thinking rather unkindly about the pilot who probably saved his life. He had tried to get into Agent Walker's pants since she was assigned to him, without any success, now, out of nowhere, she was suddenly interested in this flyboy, that didn't sit well with the Agent in Charge. He asked rather unkindly, "Did he come up with that call sign himself? His ego must be the size of Texas!"

LT Granger's expression immediately became cold, she shot the lead agent a deathly glare, and replied harshly. "No, you must be confused your own ego with his." She turned to Sarah and said with a softer tone. "Lieutenant Bartowski got the call sign from flight school, he made a few changes to his aircraft, changes that would save lives and gave us more advantages over the enemy, changes that are being upgraded to many aircrafts in the Navy as we speak. His flight school CO gave him "Einstein" as his call sign, and it stuck with him. I never met anyone who was more modest than Lieutenant Bartowski, he does all these amazing things, but always contributes the success to everyone else but himself, and he always takes the blame voluntarily when someone else messed up." LT Granger finished passionately.

Kane couldn't come up with any retorts, just scoffed. Agent Walker, being the observant person she was from her CIA training, saw the sudden change in LT Granger when her obnoxious co-worker insulted Chuck, she could tell, the Lieutenant's protectiveness towards her partner knew no limit, and for some reason, Sarah's gut told her LT Granger wasn't the only one.

There was an obvious tension between the Lieutenant and Kane for the rest of the tour, Sarah was pretty sure the tour was cut shorter than LT Granger had original planned.

USS Abraham Lincoln,
Arabian Gulf,
1200 (UTC+3),
March 20, 2003

Once LT Granger had left them, Sarah spent the rest of her morning wandering around alone, she ended up going back to the hanger, and had been admiring Chu … LTJG Bartowski's, she quickly corrected herself, 'second baby' since then.

After hearing LT Granger talking about LTJG Bartowski, Sarah became more intrigued by the young pilot, a part of her couldn't believe a man like LT Granger described existed, most of the men she had met were full of themselves, especially during her time in "the Farm", hence she wasn't particular popular in "the Farm" among her peers, despite of her good looks, given she could kick the asses of every single male recruit. Apparently, their ego couldn't take the hit from being beaten by a girl. Now, Sarah really wanted to find out If, what LT Granger said about LTJG Bartowski matched up to reality.

Sarah decided to start her new mission, 'Operation Getting to Know Bartowski'. She headed towards the mess hoping to find him there. Just before she left, a thought came to her mind made her gasp. What it would be like to share a baby with young Lieutenant. What made Sarah gasp wasn't precisely that thought, rather, it was that she wasn't sure whether she was thinking of a Super Hornet for a baby or an actual baby. What the hell? Never once in her life had she thought about children, now she had met a man for less than half a day, she wanted to bare his baby? Sarah wasn't sure what got into her, it must be the ocean air mixed with jet fuel. Sarah kept telling herself.

USS Abraham Lincoln,
Arabian Gulf,
1230 (UTC+3),
March 20, 2003

Sarah was sitting in the mess having lunch with her fellow Secret Service agents, including Kane, the other 3 agents who was with the Senator was dismissed and had joined them, as the Senator and the Captain didn't see need for protection while he was on the ship. This morning for Agent Walker was hectic to say the least, now all the chaos had calmed down, Agent Walker was just glad she was able to live to fight another day, and she had to thank Chuck for that. Chuck, when did he became Chuck? First baby, now Chuck? They still had not been formally introduced yet, but the blonde agent could not stop thinking about the pilot with dreamy brown eyes. And since when did his eyes become 'dreamy'? Sarah scolded herself, she didn't even know 'dreamy' was in her vocabulary.

Sarah's thoughts were interrupted by Agent Kane's cursing, he was still in a bad mood after being put in his place by LT Granger, and now he was taking it out on everybody. He started off with complains about the food, which then escalated to insulting the cooks, then moved on to general insults about the Navy and its sailors. Sarah could see some of the sailors sitting nearby were getting agitated, this was going to get out of hand, Sarah thought to herself, but before she could do anything about it, she saw the object of her obsession for the whole morning, no wait, she meant her primary mission target, walked into the mess.

This was the first time she saw Chu … LTJG Bartowski without his flight helmet, but Sarah would recognize those eyes everywhere, chocolate brown, warm, open, honest, drea … Sarah stopped herself just in time. She carried on observing the rest of him, trying to not to get drawn into his eyes again. He was wearing his green flight suit. He had an air of confidence about him, the kind that couldn't be mistaken for arrogance. He had a gentle, warm smile that could disarm anyone. His buzz cut was growing out a bit, and the hair on the top of his head was starting to curl, in a way that was giving Sarah the urge to run her fingers through it.

Sarah also noticed how the other sailors and officers reacted to his presence. They all greeted him friendly, the officers would joke and laugh with him; the sailors treated him with respect, but none of them were afraid to approach to talk to him. They really gave off the vibe of being a big happy family to Sarah, she never thought this many men cramped in one ship, even if it was a gigantic ship, could get along this well together.

Sarah saw after LTJG Bartowski got his lunch, he went to sit with a bunch of people not far from her table, she ignored her own disappointment at this, but she wasn't surprised given how embarrassed he became during the flight. She noticed the people he was sitting with were the only ones in the mess wearing Combat Utility Uniforms, Sarah eventually recognised famous 'SEAL Trident' on these men's uniforms. After seeing how they interacted with Chuck, Sarah had given up correcting herself, it wasn't like anyone else could hear her thoughts anyway, she was puzzled, she wondered why these battle-hardened, first-class warriors were treating him like one of their own. She could tell all of them, including the enlisted, were acting brotherly towards Chuck, especially the Lieutenant among the group.

Chuck was having a good time with his brothers, he had become especially close with Steve, ever since that mission when his chopper was shot down, luckily, everyone came out of that one alive. The platoon leader of the SEALs along with his platoon had taught him a lot, and he was still learning from them every day. One of the skills they taught him was situation awareness, which was how as his brothers teased him about taking a bullet, again, Chuck could feel the beautiful agent's eyes on him. He had noticed her watching him, while trying to be discreet, the moment he stepped in the mess, when he did the unconscious once over of the room. He was still too embarrassed for staring at her for a clearly socially unacceptable amount of time during the flight, and even after thinking about the beautiful blonde ninja all morning, Chuck was still too enchanted by her to think up a good apology. Which was why he joined these bunch of lunatics rather than greeting their new guests.

As he carried on chatting to the SEALs while eating his lunch, it wasn't long before Chuck noticed the agitation from some sailors around him. Always wanting to help, Chuck searched to see if there was an obvious reason for their agitation, and he was surprised when this search led his eyes to the table, where all the Secret Service agents was sitting. Chuck realised Agent in Charge Kane was the source of everyone's annoyance, God must hates me, Chuck thought. He wasn't ready to face the beautiful blonde yet, but he wasn't about to stand for his family to be insulted either. Chuck got Steve's attention and nodded to Agent Kane's direction, indicating he was going to deal with the situation, Steve gave him an affirmative nod, and signalled to the rest of his platoon after Chuck left for the Secret Service agents' table.

Sarah saw him approaching her table, but realised he was focused on Kane, again pushing down her own disappointment, she wondered what Chuck was going to do.

Chuck went to stand next to Agent Kane with a respectful distance, and Sarah noticed the whole mess had gone quiet except for Kane's insults, everybody was watching Chuck. Chuck started with a calm voice, "Agent Kane?"

Kane noticed the young officer just then, he really didn't like him, wearing his flight suit thinking he was special. "What do you want, flyboy?" He said with disdain without looking up.

If Chuck was surprised by Kane's targeted hostility, he didn't show it, and said in the same calm and confident tone. "The sailors and officers here, myself included, really respect what Secret Service agents, including you guys do every day, risking your life to protect the leaders of our country." Chuck tried to make eye contacts with everyone during this, and he succeeded with the other 5 agents, including the blonde agent, but Agent Kane refused to look at him.

Sarah was happy he finally looked at her, and she could see the honesty in his eyes as he declared his respect for them. This wasn't what Sarah expected, she expected him to go all macho on Kane, she wasn't exactly against the idea, but that would put him down with all the other stereotypical Alpha-males, and Sarah hoped Chuck was above that, he didn't disappoint her this time, in fact, he exceeded her expectations. She thought Chuck was going to try to offer an olive branch to calm the situation, but instead, he praised them with such sincerity, Sarah was stunned.

Chuck carried on while unbeknownst to him and everyone else in the room, Senator Davidson, Captain Cardwell and Commander of the Battlegroup, Rear Admiral Marcus Wainwright walked in and silently started observing the scene. "I would like for you to extend the same courtesy towards our sailors, who also made that choice to serve this great country, just like you did. So, please, Agent Kane, keep your insults to yourself."

Agent Kane had enough of this self-righteous flyboy, he stood up suddenly with a bang, got into Chuck's face, attempting to intimidate him. To both Kane and Sarah's surprise, Chuck stood his ground and didn't even flinch.

At the same time, the other 5 agents stood up as well, not to support their leader, but to back away, none of them liked their arrogant boss, it looked like he was going to get it, and they won't be standing in the way.

If Sarah wasn't already impressed by Chuck's passionate speech, she was definitely impressed by his nerve. She also noticed how when Kane made the sudden move, all 16 men of the SEAL platoon reached for their holstered M11 Sig Sauer P228 9mm pistol, but did not draw. She also saw a number of sailors clenching their fists, not out of anger, but out of protectiveness towards their leader. Agent Walker could tell her hunch about LT Granger being not the only one, who would do anything to protect Chuck, was right, but she didn't expect this coming from a SEAL platoon. Who is this guy? How is Chuck able to earn the loyalty of all these men and women?

Kane raised his voice and said, "Listen, you dip-shit, what do you squids know about serving your country? You guys didn't risk your lives like I do every day, you guys didn't sacrifice your lives by walking into a war zone like I did, you hide in a ship that is out of the reach of the battle, so you can shove your self-righteous comments in your ass, and get out of my face before I shut your mouth for you."

Again, Chuck didn't back down, he stood taller, now he was definitely looking down on Agent Kane with his 6'4" well-built frame. He raised his voice and replied with the authoritative voice of a true leader.

"Agent Kane, do not talk about things you do not understand. All you have talked about was yourself, where as we, work as a team. Every sailor, marine and officer has a job to do to protect this country and its ideals, from the Rear Admiral down to the cook, everyone on this ship is an integral part of this Operation."

"Talking about sacrifice, you talked about how you walked into a warzone being a sacrifice. But did you even notice your own team member's bravery? As I approached the extraction site, I had a bird eye view of the firefight. Let me ask you, where were you when your agent," He paused and nodded in the blonde's direction, eyes full of admiration. Sarah saw the admiration in Chuck's eyes, and couldn't help but blush while Chuck carried on with an obvious awe in his voice, "ran out of ammunition, but still dispatched 5 men armed with automatic weapons, with a knife? Where were you when your agent, as a last resort, jumped on top of the Senator, ready to make that final sacrifice?" Chuck paused, and looked back towards Agent Kane, "Let me answer that, you were taking cover and keeping your head down, while the Senator himself, the person you were supposed to protect, was returning fire."

"Talking about sacrifice, please do tell me, how many days did you spend in a war zone for your whole life? What was the longest time you were away from the states, where your home, your family and your loved ones are? These men and women standing around you had been away from their home, their family, and their loved ones for the 8 months straight while we are at sea and for God knows how much longer, do you hear them talking about their sacrifices? They made their sacrifice by choosing to do their part for our country over seeing their wives, husbands, parents, and children every day." Chuck took a breath after that part of his passionate speech, composed himself and said in a lower, but firm voice. "You can insult me all you can, Agent Kane, but don't you dare to speak a foul word about the Navy or its people again." With that, Chuck backed away a couple of steps as a precautious measure, and headed towards his brothers, shaking his head, disbelieving of the nerve of that guy.

Sarah's eyes was moistened by Chuck's speech, never in her life had she seen anyone so passionate about something that was not for their own gain, and oh his eyes, she had missed him looking at her like that, full of admiration and awe. She knew now LTJG Chuck Bartowski lived up to every single word LT Granger had said about him and so much more. Sarah knew she would be lucky if she could ever end up with someone like Chuck one day, and if he was interested in her, she was going to give it all to have a chance get to know him and to be with him.

As Chuck walked away, no one spared another look for Kane, they looked at their fearless leader and friend proudly, and was about to follow his example to get back to what they were doing. Just then, Kane shouted out of pure rage of being lectured like that, "OR WHAT? What are you going to do, flyboy? Are you going to shut me up? Like you navy squids would even know how. Everyone knew the Navy squids couldn't do anything to defend themselves!"

Chuck Bartowski was by no means someone easy to anger, or someone who liked to fight for that matters, he was a gentle man at heart. But he would stand up for his friends, family and country. Just like he stood up to bullies for Morgan during middle school, to Al Qaeda for his country when he joined the Navy and now he was going to stand up for his brothers and sisters in arms, to Agent Kane.

Before Chuck could turn around, LT McGarrett gently put a hand on his shoulder, they made eye contact and silently communicated with each other, and Chuck gave Steve an infinitesimal nod, before LT McGarrett stepped forward and spoke up.

"Agent Kane," He said calmly, but dripping with distain. "If you want to find out how us squids couldn't defend ourselves, why don't you get in the ring with Lieutenant Bartowski here, or are you just all talk?" He stepped forward right into Kane's face, "No protective gear other than a pair of gloves, no rules, no time outs. The fight finishes when one person taps out or passes out, and the loser would shut his mouth for good." LT McGarrett stated, and carried on, "Now the question is, Agent Kane, you can talk the talk, but can you walk the walk?" He finished with a challenge.

Kane wasn't stupid enough to want to get into a fight with a SEAL, but at that moment, he wasn't really thinking that much due to his rage, besides, he would be fighting with the flyboy, he himself was a trained Secret Service agent for years, he was sure he could take the kid down in matter of seconds, it would be a quick fight. He answered confidently. "Where are the gloves? And don't forget to get the medics ready for the flyboy."

LT McGarrett just smirked at this, he would get the medics ready alright, it certainly won't be Chuck who was going to need it, but the arrogant douchebag in front of him. Steve and his men had been training Chuck since near the beginning of this tour, he could tell the kid was already skilled, but lack the experience. After over half a year of training with him, he was pretty sure the kid was a much more skilled fighter than he was, he really learned fast. If it wasn't for Chuck's sharing the fighting techniques he already knew with the platoon, and the SEAL members' many years of experience in hand to hand combat, most of his men including himself, would be finding trouble to gain an upper hand over Chuck. Steve was planning to speak to his CO, LCDR Joe White, about recruiting Chuck to the SEALs, and if Chuck does end up taking his advice and going for BUD/S, Steve was sure by the time Chuck earned his 'SEAL Trident', he would no longer look forward to a spar with Chuck. So yeah, LT McGarrett was confident his brother could take the trash in front of him.

However, other than the SEALs on board, only a number of people had seen Chuck fight, most of the other sailors couldn't imagine the caring and cheerful young officer in a fight, so naturally, they were to some extent, worried for their friend, but they all knew better than to step in to stop the fight, plus, they took the comfort of knowing the SEAL platoon leader would never put LTJG Bartowski in situations he couldn't handle.

This thought was also shared by Sarah as well, Kane may be an obnoxious jerk, but he was a good enough fighter to become a team leader in the Secret Service, and she was worried Chuck's clearly genius brain, would not help him to get out of this undamaged. However, like others, she could see why Chuck would have to do this, and if she was honest to herself, a part of her was looking forward to the possibility of having Chuck beat the crap out of Kane.

Chuck wasn't going to misplace his brothers' faith in him, he wasn't going to let them see all their hard work in training him go to waste, he was going to give it all he got during the fight. He said simply with a firm tone to the Secret Service agent. "Gym in 15 minutes, don't be late." With that, Chuck left the mess to get ready for his fight, he didn't see the two senior officers and the Senator making scarce of themselves just before his exit.

USS Abraham Lincoln,
Arabian Gulf,
1300 (UTC+3),
March 20, 2003

Sailors and junior officers filed into the gym eventually, not everyone who witnessed the confrontation in the mess turned up, after all, there was still an invasion going on. But words had spread like a wild fire on the ship, so everyone who wasn't on duty had showed up, including all the Secret Service agents, the SEAL Platoon, Chuck's wingman in the VFA-115 and his Knighthawk co-pilot, LT Granger, she was certainly not going to miss the chance of seeing Chuck beating the jerk on his ass.

Chuck had arrived 10 minutes after he left the mess, he had just missed the Executive Officer (XO) setting up a tiny camera Chuck himself had made, and left at his work desk, for the Captain, so the Battlegroup Commander and the Senator could watch the fight with the Captain, discreetly.

Chuck was wearing his standard Navy PT uniform, he had been warming up with a heavy bag, and had really worked up a sweat when Kane had finally arrived. Chuck asked as a courtesy towards the agent. "Do you need time to warm up, Agent?"

Kane shot back without thinking, "Why would I need to warm up for a fight with a wimp like you?"

"Suit yourself, let's begin." Chuck said, despite seeing Kane had dropped his top, Chuck opted to keep his shirt on, he didn't want to give away the bruise he had on his back from the bullet impacting on his body armour, as for the group of bandages he had on his right arm, there was nothing he could do about them, they were just flesh wounds, didn't hurt that much.

Despite of being well versed in boxing, kick boxing, Muay Thai, Krav Maga, Tai Chi, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Aikido, Karate and various other moves he had picked up from the SEALs, Chuck still wasn't confident, as he had never been in a real fight yet. Chuck had decided to apply the principle strategies he had learned from Art of War, carefully learning about Kane's strength and weakness first, then deciding on how he should strike to achieve maximum efficiency. He would also have to be careful protecting his right arm and his back.

Sarah was quite disappointed when she realised, Chuck was not going to take off his shirt, as his PT shirt was hiding whatever was underneath it quite effectively, only showing off his broad shoulders.

The fight had been going on for 5 minutes, to the untrained observers, and trained fighters with big egos like Kane, it looked like Kane was winning. Chuck had barely landed a punch, where Kane had landed plenty, the sailors were getting quite worried. But to the sharp eyes of the SEALs as well as Agent Walker, they could tell none of the punches had properly landed, they were only creating the illusion to Kane that he was winning. Sarah was getting less worried by the minute, she had realised Chuck was testing the waters, only throwing in attacking moves when he wanted to learn how Kane would react.

For the next 5 minutes, Kane eventually realised he wasn't winning after all, as his opponent, who should have been crushed by him 9 minutes ago, didn't show any sign of discomfort or tiredness. Whereas he was getting tired from all the attacks he had been doing, he needed to finish this fight quickly, for he knew he wouldn't last too long. So Kane renewed his attacks with more powerful hits, hoping he would gain an upper hand soon.

However, this change in tactics had exposed a lot of openings for Chuck. Chuck could see the agent was getting agitated, and was starting to make mistakes, he decided to exploit Kane's agitation as a weakness, and to agitate him even more to create more and bigger openings for his own attacks.

Sarah noticed after 10 minutes, Chuck had started a small number of offensive moves, there weren't many of them, but she could tell Chuck had selected each opportunity for his attacks carefully, only stroke when he was sure he wasn't going to expose himself, and each strike was as powerful as it was unexpected. She smiled when she saw the pained expression as well as the increased rage on Kane's face.

As Sarah watched on, she couldn't help but be more attracted to Chuck. Sure, Sarah was attracted to Chuck in the first place because he was different to all other men she had met, he was warm, caring, honest and noble, not to mention the dreamy brown eyes, yes, Sarah could admit to herself now that his eyes were dreamy. But this side of Chuck who could fight, not for himself, but for the people he cared about, and could fight really well apparently, was getting the blonde agent all hot and bothered. For the first time in her life, Sarah felt being turned on by a man, she felt like she was in heat, and Sarah was definitely not ready for Chuck's grand finish.

After the 15 minutes mark had passed, Chuck could see his opponent was close to exhaustion from all his exertions, and Kane was leaving out a lot of opening for his attacks. Chuck decided that he had baited the agent enough, it was time to finish this.

Sarah was shocked by the combination of Chuck's final attack, up until now, Chuck had only used well practiced, standard kick boxing moves, but his final attack had gave everyone a glimpse of how skilled Chuck was, with a range of martial art disciplines. Chuck started off with a frequently used move in Krav Maga, two quick jabs to stun the opponent, grabbed Kane by the nape of his neck and drove a knee to his groin; before Kane could finish yelping in pain, Chuck had threw him on the ground with an Aikido move that would made Steven Segal proud; once Kane was on the ground, Chuck had moved on to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, starting with a full mount and delivered several hard blows to Kane's face, before switching to a back mount position and put Kane into a choke hold. Chuck had completed this combination in 6 seconds flat, it happened so fast, Sarah could barely follow it. Sarah was still confident that she could take Chuck in a fight, but it would definitely be a challenge, and Sarah was looking forward to that challenge someday, that was when her subconscious projected an image of her, mounted on a topless Chuck, which did not help with her arousal at all, she was going to need a cold shower, a really cold one after this.

Needless to say, the sailors and junior officers were in awe of their friend.

Sarah couldn't see Chuck's eyes, but if she could, she would notice that, Chuck's warm brown eyes were replaced with darkened ones, with a hardness and determination sipping through them. Chuck took control of his breathing, warmth eventually returned to his eyes, he said compassionately, almost pleading for the agent to come to his senses. "It's over, Agent Kane. Give up now, and we can ignore all this mess like it never happened."

Sarah couldn't believe what she was hearing, the man just never gave up, he was still trying to be civil after all this, even when he was holding all the cards. Sarah realised, Chuck's unwillingness to finish off Kane, when he could have easily beat him unconscious from the beginning with his much superior fighting skills, just made Chuck that much more special.

Kane was still recovering from, well he didn't really know what. The flyboy had gotten the drop on him, and he was still getting over the shock of being kneed in the groin when he was thrown onto the ground, and before he knew it, he was in a choke hold. Kane wasn't stupid, he knew he couldn't win this fight now, unless he was fighting dirty, so he would concede, for now, and tapped out.

Chuck let go of Kane, who rolled to the side. Steve came over with a proud smile, and offered him a hand, Chuck took it gratefully, and was heading towards the edge of the ring. He had just made eye contact with the rest of the SEAL platoon when he noticed everyone had tensed up suddenly, that was when Chuck realised Kane had decided to not to give up after all. Kane did not realise it yet, but he had just pushed the young officer over the edge, as he had just betrayed their silent agreement, and decided to stab Chuck in the back, so to speak. Kane's reaction reminded Chuck of Jill's betrayal, and Chuck's whole demeanour changed before he delivered his knockout blow to Kane; Chuck jumped up, turned his head to locate Kane's position, and followed up with the jumping spinning hook kick Jean-Claude Van Damme was famous for, straight to Kane's head, and knocked him out cold. After making sure Kane stayed down this time, Chuck allowed himself to relax, and let the darkness in his eyes fade away and the usual warm chocolate brown to return.

Sarah saw what Kane was about to do, she was seething that Kane could be this foolish, and still wasn't willing to give up. Not only that, he had decided to go back on his conceding to the fight, and decided to attack Chuck after letting Chuck believe he had given up. She was just about to warn Chuck and that was when she saw the change in Chuck.

His eyes had darkened so much, she could barely make out any brown in them, they were no longer warm and kind, and instead, they were cold, calculating and oozing with confidence and determination. Despite these changes, Sarah could see his eyes were still, in a way, open and honest, and she could still see the bottom of his soul. Through his eyes, Sarah saw sadness and betrayal. She had learned so much about Chuck in that one moment, she had thought Chuck had led a perfect life, he was so open, cheerful and caring, Sarah thought he must have grown up in a loving family and had never suffered through any major traumas to be the way he was. But she realised she was wrong, this was a man who had suffered before, experienced betrayal before, but instead of dwelling on those experiences, this amazing man in front of her had decided to look forward to life, and was somehow still able to look for the best in people. But, he was no push over, he was willing to give others however many chances they needed, but one betrayal would be one too many.

Sarah felt even closer to Chuck after this realisation, he had baggage just like she did, and she really hoped that one day, soon, they could help with handling each other's baggage. Sarah smiled at that thought, and that was when she figured out why her heart tightened, when she realised how close Chuck came to dying. Sarah realised now, she already knew Chuck was special then, and if Chuck had died then, she would never got this chance to know more about this amazing, special man, and she would have spent the rest of her life as nothing else but a CIA agent, because she was sure there wasn't another man in the whole world who could compare to Chuck, her Chuck.

Sarah decided to not waste any more time, with the line of work she and Chuck were in, they could never be sure which would be their last day. 'Operation Getting to Know Bartowski' had just changed to 'Operation My Chuck' with the primary mission objective of winning Chuck for herself and having him to become hers, just like she was already his. He just didn't know it yet.

A/N: I hope that was ok, it's a rather long chapter for my standard. But I wanted to get across what everyone was thinking along the story, so it took me a while to get to this point. Hopefully, it was acceptable.

Review Response: I think I have mentioned during a previous A/N, I would very much like to describe Chuck's life in the Navy for a lot more chapters, but it's a Charah story after all, so which is why Chuck's meeting with Sarah is quite earlier on in the story. But I do plan to write more about Chuck's deployment before he met Sarah, like how he connected with the SEALs, but they would be in a flashback where Chuck and Sarah start to share stories with each other, I hope that satisfy your wish, Blorg13.

Again I would like to thank you all for all your lovely reviews, they are really encouraging. Thank you!

Below is a response to Tropp's review, since you don't have an account here.

First of all, thank you for reading my story, and reviewing. I really appreciate it.

You are right, this is a fiction, and not everything here might be correct. Could you please point out the incorrect bits, instead of just telling me I am wrong? Because I would like learn more about Navy life, and if I don't know where I am wrong, I obviously can't correct it.

I won't lie, despite how much I do appreciate your review, I am somewhat peeved when you just accused me I know nothing about the military life. I can assure you, I did not get all my data from playing CoD, as I am not a big computer games fan at all. I am not going to write out my military career here for everyone to see, if you are or were in the service, you would know what I mean when I tell you, I have earned my maroon beret in the British Army, I have earned what is equivalent of the Gold Bar in the US armed forces, twice. It's true I have never been deployed on a ship, that is the reason I didn't write much in detail about everyday life on a carrier, except for what Chuck did, to emphasise he was different to everybody else in the Navy just like he was in the CIA.

Regulation wise, I do admit, things like radio procedures and how to greet officers, they won't be fully consistent to the US Navy. Because we do use a different system in the British Army, and I just combined that with what I know is different in the US armed forces. So my apologies for that, I don't mean any disrespect.

As for the flag waving bit, I might have overdone it, I have hinted the cohesion within the ship wasn't there from the start, and I am fully aware how not everything in the military is good, many aspects of it can be dreadful. I wrote it this way because I want to get across, indirectly, Chuck's effect on people. Besides, despite the not so good side in the military, I still have the utmost respect for everyone who had served and are serving their country honourably, that played an important factor in why I didn't want to write anything foul about the military, I was actually quite conflicted with the way I portrayed Kane, as I didn't want to disrespect the Secret Service either, but I had to create an enemy somewhere somehow, and I am planning to punish Kane, severely.

In summary, I do appreciate your opinion, but it would be more helpful if you could let me know where I can improve on. Thank you.