A/N: Thank you all for all your lovely and encouraging reviews, they are a really good motivator to say the least. I am sorry this chapter came out a bit late, I didn't want to write down too much boring details of their life, so I was taking a while trying to get it right. So here it is, hope you enjoy it. Review responses will be at the end of the chapter.

Lastly, could I ask you to vote on the poll on my profile, please. It's related to this story, and would become somewhat important in much later chapters. Thank you. I will be posting this repeatedly on my new chapters until I close the poll.

Chapter 8 - What Friends are for

USS Abraham Lincoln,
Arabian Gulf,
1530 (UTC+3),
March 20, 2003

Sarah had just finished her shower, on her own. She did tease Chuck again by asking if they were going to take a shower together, just before they went their separate ways for their respective showers, and Chuck being Chuck, his face went bright red and he declined politely with a stutter. Sarah couldn't help but be somewhat disappointed, but she was glad at the same time, knowing Chuck respected her and was not the type to have sex with any woman he could; in addition, there was that cute reaction Sarah loved watching, when he got all flustered by her.

Chuck had dug out one of his old Stanford shirt, a boxer and a pair of PT shorts for her, she was now wearing all of them after showering using Chuck's shampoo and body wash, now she could smell Chuck all over her and she had to say, she enjoyed his scents, especially those coming from his Stanford shirt, immensely. His shirt was really big for her, but Sarah found herself snuggling into it comfortably, this is one shirt he was not going to find again. Sarah thought to herself, already decided this shirt no longer belonged to Chuck Bartowski, but to her.

Sarah had not walked more than 5 meters away from the showers, did she bump into non-other than Chuck's co-pilot, LT Granger.

LT Granger had a big smile on her face, knowing her superiors were actively taking part on her plan. When she saw Sarah coming out of the showers in what were clearly Chuck's clothes, her smile got wider. She greeted Sarah mischievously. "Agent Walker, I like the outfit." Nicola looked up and down the blonde agent, before giving her a wink, Nicola teased, "Should I be expecting to see Lieutenant Bartowski in the showers, too?"

Only now did Sarah realise, she must looked like she was doing the walk of shame. Her face went bright red, as she stuttered like Chuck, "No, it wasn't like…" Sarah stopped mid-sentence, and asked herself why she was explaining herself, she wanted the world, or just all the brunettes in the world to know, Chuck was hers and hers alone, and nothing would stand in her way. Sarah regained her composure easily with her training, and held her head high, "Actually, why don't you have a look for yourself, Lieutenant Granger?"

Nicola was both surprised and impressed by Agent Walker's response, she knew Chuck well enough to know Chuck would never sleep with someone he just met the same day, let alone on an aircraft carrier taking part during an invasion. It seemed that despite the reflexive urge to defend her honour, the woman in front of her was not afraid to admit her feelings for Chuck, and was more than ready to stake her claim. Nicola was pleased about her friend's taste in women, or a woman, so it seemed. Nevertheless, Nicola wanted to make sure Agent Walker never breaks Chuck's already wounded heart.

"Nice come back, Agent Walker." Nicola praised. Sarah nodded proudly, and Nicola continued, more kindly. "Chuck is quite clueless about these things, but we don't want the whole ship see you in that now, do we? I am sure neither you nor Chuck needed that kind of reputation." Sarah thought for a second and nodded again, she then answered back.

"Chuck had planned to get me more appropriating clothing, but he wanted to let me get a shower first, so I could get rid of all the Iraq that was stuck on me. He is in the shower now, the men's shower, he said he will get to it as soon as he finish."

Nicola nodded at her explanation, which made complete sense, giving how caring Chuck was. She smiled inwardly at the blonde agent's use of 'Chuck', and turned on her teasing expression again. "First name basis already? I suppose that went with sharing clothes." Nicola winked again before saying. "Come on, Agent Walker, Chuck might be a genius and all, but he is clueless when it comes to clothing. Luckily he joined the Navy, where he could just wear one of the many different uniforms we have, more or less, I don't know how he would survive adulthood as a civilian with his sense of fashion, or lack thereof." Sarah could sense, the way LT Granger was talking about Chuck, it was almost sisterly, Sarah hoped one day, they could become good friends, as of right know she didn't really have any. Nicola continued, while thinking of ways to create opportunities for these two lovebirds to see each other off the ship, "Anyways, we look about similar in size, I will lend you some of my civilian clothes, get Chuck to return them to me when you are done with them."

"Are you sure about this?" Sarah asked, she didn't accept help easily, not only that, she couldn't help but feel the brunette was up to something.

"Yeah, of course, give me a sec, I'll yell through the door to let Chuck know where you went." Nicola did just that, and didn't really give Sarah much of a choice, before she led the blonde agent to her berth.

USS Abraham Lincoln,
Arabian Gulf,
1600 (UTC+3),
March 20, 2003

Nicola had just handed her a stack of neatly folded clothes, Sarah could tell there were a couple of sweaters, a pair of jeans, a pair of track pants and some unused Navy issue under clothes as well as a set of sports bra. Sarah picked up the sports bra and looked at the Lieutenant questionably.

LT Granger just smirked, "Chuck wasn't the only one who saw you took down those 5 Iraqi soldiers with a knife, after Chuck's performance against Kane earlier on, I figured you would challenge him for a spar, am I wrong?"

Sarah wasn't pleased that the brunette could figure her out that easily, still, she nodded affirmatively and smiled at the thought of 'sparring' with Chuck.

Nicola continued. "Well, I figure Chuck would be even more attracted to you if you turned up wearing that, not that he needs any help from the looks of things, he seemed already spell-bound by you."

Sarah turned red again, she didn't realise Chuck's feelings towards her were this clear to everyone else, and she couldn't help but be flustered and feel good about herself. She smiled sheepishly.

Nicola looked directly into Sarah's eyes to catch her gaze, and asked softly. "Just do me a favour, please, Agent Walker?"

Growing up as a conman's daughter, Sarah subconsciously tensed up a bit, "Please, call me Sarah."

"Only if you promise me this favour."

"What is it?" Sarah asked cautiously.

"Promise me you will make him happy, and never break his heart. Will you promise me that?" Her voice was soft, but Nicola's eyes were never more intense.

Sarah couldn't help but start to worry, worry if she was capable of making a man like Chuck happy, she wasn't even funny, not to mention she was a CIA agent. "I can promise you I will never knowingly break Chuck's heart, I would die before doing that, but…, but I am worried that if I am capable of making Chuck happy, I didn't exactly have a happy childhood, not to mention our different career paths." Sarah was surprised that she even revealed this much about herself.

Nicola smiled at her response, to Sarah's surprise, and said confidently. "Of course you will, I can tell you that, for the past 8 months I have known Chuck, I have never seen his eyes lit up like they did today when he was looking at you. And he had just known you for less than half a day." Nicola's expression became solemn, "Chuck's childhood wasn't a good one either, before you ask, it's not my place to tell. Just be there for each other as much as you can, Chuck is a Navy man, he understands that you won't be able to see each other all the time, but it doesn't mean you can't be there for each other in other ways, just talk to Chuck, and you will figure something out together. Whatever it is between you two, I can tell it's something special, it something that only happens once in a lifetime, don't give up on it, never give up on it. Promise me that, will you?"

Sarah thought the brunette had a point, she had never been this happy before, and whatever it was, she would be damned to let any obstacle get in the way. She looked into Nicola's eyes with determination, and nodded. "I promise. Lieutenant."

Nicola smiled, seeing her resolve at making this work. "Good, now you can call me Nicola, Sarah."

"Sure, Nicola, thank you for the advice, and the clothes." Sarah returned her smile and said.

"No problem, let me know if you need anything else. By the way, chow starts at 1800, come sit with me, so I can tell you some embarrassing stories about Chuck." Nicola smiled deviously at that thought.

Eager to learn more about her Chuck, Sarah smiled brightly and said. "I won't miss it for the world, see you at the mess then."

USS Abraham Lincoln,
Arabian Gulf,
1820 (UTC+3),
March 20, 2003

Chuck had just gotten his warning order, he would receive the Op Order at 2100. So he went to the mess, hoping to see the beautiful blonde there. No matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't take her off his mind. So he had given up trying, and decided having her brilliant smile forever on the forefront of his mind wasn't a bad place to be, he would just have to find a way to concentrate on his many jobs while thinking about how beautiful Sarah's smile was.

Oh how he longed to hear her laugh again. Chuck had gotten his wish the moment he stepped into the mess. Chuck had his full Bartowski grin on as he approached the table, where Sarah, Nicola, Steve and Cat were laughing their heads off about something. Chuck's grin faltered, when the group noticed him approaching, and started laughing even harder, he had a strong feeling that he was the subject of their amusement.

Chuck sat down and mocked, "Ha, ha, ha. You guys are so funny," He then turned to Sarah, and said with a serious expression, "Sarah, whatever they told you about me, they were lying."

Sarah managed to stop laughing for a second and asked challengingly. "Oh really, Chuck?"

"Yes, really." Chuck was not going to back down.

"What about what I told them?" Sarah smirked, and made eye contact with everyone else on the table, who got the message and let Sarah play this out, before returning her gaze to Chuck.

Chuck wasn't as sure as himself before, in the short time since he had met the blonde goddess, she had already made his brain freeze a number of times, and Chuck wasn't sure how many embarrassing things he did while he was flustered by the beautiful agent.

"What, what did you tell them, Sarah?" Chuck asked drawing out her name again.

Sarah just smiled sweetly, and asked. "Are you sure what I told them was a lie?"

"Yes," Chuck answered without thinking, but seeing Sarah raised her eyebrow questionably in such a cute way, he got flustered again, and changed his answer. "Maybe," Chuck said slowly before Sarah raised her other eyebrow as well, staring right into his eyes. Chuck's resolve cracked, and answered. "No." before he pouted.

Seeing his pout, Sarah clapped her hands in glee, and pointed at Chuck's mouths, "See what I mean? The big bad combat pilot pouts."

Everyone started laughing at Chuck's expense. And Chuck's pout got even more pronounced as his face went bright red, this only served to fuel everyone's laughter even more. His pout didn't stay long though, seeing and hearing Sarah laughing like that made it all worth it, as Chuck's Bartowski grin was back in place, and he caught Sarah's gaze, who smiled her brilliant full smile back at him. Yet again, everyone else around them faded away, and there was just them in the whole world.

After some time, Steve, Cat and Nicola had calmed down for a few minutes, and realised Chuck and Sarah were not going to snap out of it by themselves, they decided to intervene.

Steve's snapping fingers finally broke the spell, and both Sarah and Chuck went bright red again, realising they had yet another stare contests under everyone's watch, they really had to stop doing this in public places. Cat chimed in, "If you two lovebirds can stop making googly eyes at each other, maybe Chuck could get his dinner now?"

Nicola suddenly had a devious thought, she knew with Chuck's personality, it would be ages before he would make a move for the blonde agent, maybe she could plant some thoughts into their minds to nudge them in the right direction. So she added conspiringly. "Or maybe Chuck would like to have Sarah for dinner instead?"

Chuck wasn't sure he heard his co-pilot correctly, but either way, he started coughing and couldn't stop himself. While Sarah's eyes glazed over at the thoughts of being intimate with Chuck, and zoned out. The three other people at the table just watched their reaction with amusement. Steve couldn't help but add, "By the look of things, Sarah wants to have Chuck for dinner." Nicola and Cat exploded in laughter, yet again.

Eventually, Chuck regained his composure, well not entirely, but he stopped coughing and stood up. "I am going to… erm… get some food, for dinner." He said the last word with a glare directed at Nicola, who gave him an innocent smile.

Seconds later, Sarah realised Chuck had left, while Steve, Cat and Nicola were all watching her carefully, she could tell they were all trying to restrain themselves from laughing. Sarah went red again, I blushed more times on this damn ship than I had in my entire life. Sarah composed herself again, putting on her most intimidating glare, trying to at least, which wasn't easy as her mind was still occupied with thoughts of Chuck, but she did managed to look intimidating somewhat and she challenged. "What?" Inside, Sarah was thanking her agent training from "the Farm", for she wouldn't know what to do with herself otherwise, other than to dig a hole in the ground for her to crawl in.

Cat cringed a little bit, the blonde could be scary to say the least; Steve pulled a surprised look, and nodded approvingly; and Nicola just smirked. They all chorused, "Nothing".

USS Abraham Lincoln,
Arabian Gulf,
2300 (UTC+3),
March 20, 2003

After Chuck returned with his food, the group finished their dinner in relative calm, they still bantered about everything, except Sarah and himself were no longer the 'victims'. He found himself kept stealing glances at the beautiful blonde, and every now and down, he would catch her stealing looks at him too, and they would have a mini stare contest with each other before breaking away from each other's gaze. If the rest of the group caught on about what they were doing, they didn't let on and just left them alone.

After dinner, Sarah left to see the Senator, and didn't see her again until he had received his Op Order.

The US had achieved air superiority over Iraq, his squadron along with many others on this ship as well as those belong to other Carrier Air Wings had been put on a roster, to patrol the air space and to provide air support for the ground forces.

Steve and his men were given a warning order about a possible mission that could take place anytime in the next 72 hours, Steve wouldn't let him go because it would be a full-on urban operation, which he wasn't trained for. Chuck had relented, but hoped he would be the pilot on duty when they start the mission.

Chuck was surprised and ecstatic when he found out from Sarah, right after his Op Orders, that she along with Agent Smith would be staying for a while, as Senator Davidson would like to stay on the ship to observe the operation for an unforeseen amount of time; the other four Secret Service agents, including Agent Kane, had already flown out.

So here he was, lying on his bunk, thinking about the whole day, the day he met the beautiful blonde kickass ninja, Sarah Walker. He fell asleep with a smile on his face, there was no doubt who would be visiting him in his dreams tonight.

Meanwhile on another part of the ship

Sarah got assigned a temporary berth on the ship, she had just settled down. After making sure her service weapon and knives were under her pillow, she let herself relax and think about the whole day, the day she met the brown, dreamy eyed genius pilot, Chuck Bartowski.

Sarah was finding trouble to contain her excitement when the Senator told her that he would be staying on the ship, and she would be part of his protective detail while he was on board USS Abraham Lincoln. She would have more time with Chuck, more time to win him over, thanks to Nicola, Sarah already had many wicked things she wanted to do to one Chuck Bartowski, things she had never even thought about doing before. Sarah smiled at that thought as she snuggled into Chuck's Stanford shirt, she would be using this shirt as pyjamas for the unseeable future, until she and her Chuck would start to share a bed that was. Sarah smiled even wider at that possible future, a future she would acquire soon, and fell into the best sleep she had since… forever.

A/N: Hope you enjoyed that, I am not a particularly funny person, so I apologize in advance if my attempt at humour was a massive fail in the Chapter. I think I am going to write about the much anticipated 'spar' between Chuck and Sarah for the next chapter, and I would very much like to write a chapter with Chuck flying the Super Hornet to support Steve's mission. Before you know it, USS Abraham Lincoln would be heading back, making a brief port call at Pearl Harbor, My plan is to have Sarah to stay on the ship at least until then.

Review Response: Sorry, I couldn't be bothered to write more about Kane, so I had him flown out without much ado. However, he will return, when you least expect him to. I already have the whole scene planned out.