A/N: Dear Beloved Readers, I am so sorry for the delay posting this chapter, I don't really have much of an excuse, except that it's life, things kept coming up. And I am sorry that I can't make any promises when the next chapter is going to come out. I will try to update as often as I can, and that's all I could promise.

As for the story, I hope you like this new chapter, without much further ado, I will leave you to it, I will answer the reviews at the end of the chapter.

Chapter 9 – Spar

USS Abraham Lincoln,
Arabian Gulf,
0600 (UTC+3),
March 21, 2003

Chuck had woken up with a smile on his face, he had been dreaming about a certain blonde goddess the whole night. He looked back to the previous day again, and he realised something he had missed, something fundamental. He had taken a life yesterday, and yet he managed to have the best night of sleep since his last mission as a co-pilot.

Chuck had found out the hard way, how different it was between, taking a number of lives by dropping an ordnance on some target and, taking a life by shooting that person with a firearm, while watching the life fade away from his enemy's eyes. It certainly put things in perspective when you can link the faces to the lives you took. During that failed mission and the subsequent extraction 5 months ago, for the first time, Chuck had to kill someone, make that many 'someone's, up close. When he finally got back to the ship, Chuck couldn't sleep for days, and for the few brief minutes he did sleep, he had nightmares, he saw the faces of the lives he took. Eventually Chuck went to the therapist on board voluntarily, and managed to work through his issues. The therapist had helped him realise, Steve and maybe more of the SEAL team as well as himself, would have died if he didn't do what he did, and the Taliban insurgents he had killed would have just kept on hurting more people.

Eventually, Chuck's nightmare had faded away. And every time when he came back from a mission with Steve and his men, Chuck would go see the therapist if he had taken a life during that particular mission. But still, he hadn't had a night of sleep this peaceful, for nearly 5 months.

Chuck started to use that brilliant brain of his to analyse why that was, and the only reasonable explanation he could come up with was, Sarah. He had been dreaming about her the whole night, his mind was too preoccupied with the blonde angel to think about the Iraqi soldier he had killed. But Chuck also knew it was more than that, he knew when he shot that Iraqi soldier that he was saving Sarah, and now that he had gotten to know Sarah, his subconscious had already decided, that he would make the same choice in a heartbeat if it meant Sarah could live, in fact, Chuck had just realised, there wasn't much he wouldn't do when it comes to saving Sarah.

Chuck got up at that realisation, and started his morning routine, he was definitely looking forward to see Sarah again. Oh wait! I am so not looking forward to sparring with Sarah.

USS Abraham Lincoln,
Arabian Gulf,
1000 (UTC+3),
March 21, 2003

Sarah was finally woken up by the activities on the ship, she was definitely not a morning person. When she woke up, Sarah was surprised to find herself drenched in her own sweat, she felt like her whole body was on fire, Sarah tried to figure out what was the cause. Then it came to her, she had been dreaming all night about the upcoming 'spar' she was going to have with a certain dreamy eyed, sexy pilot. Her dream came back to her in full force as Sarah's breathing hitched.

There was Chuck all sweaty from their ongoing spar, he had to take his shirt off, revealing his muscled upper body… She had him pinned down on the mat, and he had stopped resisting… She started to run her fingers along the ridges of his well-defined abdominal muscles while she watched his breathing speeding up and his eyes darkening with desire… she grinded herself into him, feeling the obvious arousal in his pants while she felt herself getting wetter and wetter… She continued to tease him until he could not take it any longer, and he flipped her over to reverse their position in a swift move, he had pinned her arms to her sides and she couldn't help but be flushed with excitement by this aggressive Chuck, as he lowered himself down, about to plant his lips on hers. He was getting closer and closer…

Sarah groaned in annoyance as that was when she got woken up. She grabbed a change of clothes and a towel and headed towards the showers, she was going to need a really cold one to calm herself down.

Finally calmed down after standing in the cold shower for about 10 minutes, Sarah started scolding herself. She was supposed to be the master seductress, sure his eyes were dreamy, his hair had curls, he was exceptionally smart, he was funny, cute, honest… but he wasn't supposed to make her, Sarah Walker, master of self-control, to feel this way, she felt anything but in control, especially when he didn't even do anything, well, anything other than smiling at her like she was his whole world.

And the images came up in her dreams. Where did that come from? Sure, Infiltration and Inducement classes during her CIA training was very informative, but the instructor, the legendary Roan Montgomery had said, "Those who were best at what they do, should never have to sleep with the mark, they would be able to keep their mark at arm's length, while at all times, still keeping them hooked." Even though she could tell Agent Montgomery had no intention of following his own advice, Sarah had every intention of being the best at what she does, she was not going to sleep with some sleaze ball when she could complete the mission without doing so.

Sarah wasn't planning to go on her first CIA mission while still a virgin, she knew perfectly well the risk of being captured and raped as a female agent. Although Sarah would like her first time to be with someone special, but losing her virginity with a guy she reasonably liked under her terms was still better than losing her virginity during a mission with a mark, or even worse, while being raped. So Sarah had planned to hook up with one of the Secret Service agents she liked the most, before her first CIA assignment, given all the male CIA Agents or Trainees she had met so far, were assholes with egos as big as Jupiter. Well there was a trainee that did catch her eye during the summer, Bruce, was it? Sarah could tell he was arrogant and probably considered himself a ladies man, but he could be quite charming when he wanted to be, and he had tried to put his moves on her, but Sarah was too busy breaking the Farm's records at the time, so she had politely rejected his advances. There were times Sarah had regretted she did, but that was until yesterday, when she did meet the perfect man, a man she knew but was still not willing to admit to herself, whom she was falling in love with. No matter how charming Bruce would act, he could never measure up to her Chuck, who didn't even need to act to be charming, and what made him so dangerous was the fact that he never realised how charming he was being.

So things couldn't have worked out better for Sarah, there was a chance for her first time to be with someone special, and Sarah would move heaven and earth to not let this chance slip through her finger-tips. Time to put those Infiltration and Inducement classes to a good use, of course, Sarah would abandon the 'no sleeping with the mark' advice this time, besides, Chuck was anything but a mark, he was someone special, someone she wanted, and Sarah Walker always gets what she wanted.

With that thought, Sarah stepped out of the shower with determination, time to utilise all her resources and training to claim her Chuck.

USS Abraham Lincoln,
Arabian Gulf,
1200 (UTC+3),
March 21, 2003

Chuck and Steve just got their lunch, and Steve was telling Chuck that his platoon was still on 30 minutes notice to move as they approached Sarah and Nicola's table. God, he had missed her. However, Chuck had this nagging feeling that these two women were up to something, as the smiles they greeted him with were entirely too innocent. Chuck pushed down that thought, he was glad Sarah and Nicola were getting on so well, they were both so important to him. So Chuck returned their smile with his signature Bartowski grin.

Nicola, being as the observant person she was, had noticed how Chuck's grins in the past two days were different than those she had ever seen before Sarah came to their lives, they were brighter and contained a lot more wattage than before. Nicola was very happy for her friend, this Sarah Walker was clearly good for Chuck, and it seemed like her effect on him was hitting Agent Walker back in full force as well, Nicola was determined to get these two lovebirds together, and to help them stay that way.

The foursome had their lunch together, cheerfully. Strangely, no-one had mentioned the upcoming 'spar' at all, Chuck had a lingering hope that Sarah had already forgotten about it, but somehow, he knew it was a pipe dream.

USS Abraham Lincoln,
Arabian Gulf,
1430 (UTC+3),
March 21, 2003

If Chuck only knew how right his nagging feeling was. Sarah had indeed been conspiring with Nicola, she had learned Chuck's schedule for the next few days by heart, especially when he was most likely to go to the gym. She was a spy after all, surprise would always be on her side, Sarah was going to ambush Chuck in the gym, so he wouldn't be able to find an excuse to not spar with her. With Nicola's help, Sarah had devised numerous plans for seducing her Chuck.

Sarah grinned deviously as she walked into the room, where Chuck had taken Kane down the day before. She had timed it perfectly, Chuck had already started on the bag, working on his kickboxing moves. Sarah watched him carefully, admiring his form. She knew that he had noticed her entering, she could almost see him tensing up. No point to delay to inevitable, she jumped into the ring, and teased at Chuck. "You know, Lieutenant, that bag can't hit you back, why don't you jump into the ring, and try to hit something that can hit you back?" If Sarah was honest to herself, she was quite nervous inside, not about fighting Chuck, she was accomplished in more than 6 fighting styles, so no, Sarah wasn't worried about the fight; she was more worried about if her plan to seduce Chuck would work.

Hearing Sarah's musical voice, Chuck was both giddy with happiness and nervous for the upcoming spar. He sighed inwardly wondering how Sarah managed to pick just the time coming here, when he had already warmed up, now he couldn't make any excuses to escape. Might as well face the music, Chuck decided.

"Hi, Sarah!" Chuck greeted cheerfully as he turned around to face Sarah. Seeing her wearing a formfitting sport pants and jumper, Chuck was both disappointed and relieved. Disappointed that there wasn't more skin showing, but relieved that he would at least able to concentrate somewhat during spar. Even then, Chuck wasn't sure how long his concentration would last, the formfitting clothes showed off Sarah's goddess-like figure, didn't really leave off much for imagination.

With some trepidation, Chuck joined Sarah in the ring. He asked anxiously, hoping against hope that Sarah wasn't serious about this. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

Sarah pushed down her own anxiety, and grinned at Chuck mischievously, making Chuck gulp. "Of course, Chuck." Sarah answered joyfully, "Don't tell me the big bad combat pilot is afraid of sparring with a little girl?" Sarah put on an innocent little girl expression she had mastered during her years of running cons with her father.

Chuck snorted, he would have been fooled by the cutest expression he'd ever seen, if, he didn't remember seeing the same girl took down 5 Iraqi soldiers with a knife. "Little girl?" Chuck answered incredulously, "Are we talking about the same little girl who gracefully took down five…"

Chuck didn't get to finish his sentence, as Sarah had started her warm up stretch right in front of him, and that did not help him with his concentration at all. Chuck's eyes clouded over as Sarah showed off all her womanly curves with her stretches. Sarah had a smirk on her face when she noticed Chuck had stopped talking mid-sentence, and knew that she had achieved her desired effect. She stopped her stretches and saw Chuck was still distracted, as Sarah walked closer to him.

"Chuck!" No response, "Chuuuck!" She drew out his name, still no response. "CHUCK!"

Finally hearing his name, Chuck jumped a little. "What?"

Smiling with amusement, "You were saying, Lieutenant."

Knowing he was caught, Chuck was just about to sputter when he noticed the amusement in those beautiful sapphire blue eyes, he now knew Sarah had done those stretches with intent to tease him. Deciding to not let give her anymore materials to tease him with, Chuck thought it was better to get on with the spar. "Nothing, Agent Walker, let's get started, shall we?" Chuck replied cordially.

"Sure! Come on, help me warm up a bit first." Sarah said enthusiastically, but inwardly, she was planning for her next tease.

With a resolute sigh, Chuck followed Sarah to the middle of the ring, and began circling around each other after he helped put Sarah's gloves on. For the next 5 minutes, they lightly attacked each other with standard kick-boxing moves, which also served to feel each other out and learning each other's footwork and reflexes. Sarah was particularly focused, just because her primary mission was to seduce one Chuck Bartowski, it didn't mean she didn't want to win the spar, she got a reputation to maintain.

Another 5 minutes later, Sarah decided to implement her next phase of the plan. Sarah signalled Chuck to stop, and took her gloves off as she said. "All right, Lieutenant. I am all warmed up, it's actually quite hot in here."

Without any other warning, Sarah started taking off her formfitting jumper, as slowly and as sensually as she could, without being too obvious about it. Meanwhile, Chuck's mouth fell open, as he watched his spar-partner took off her jumper in the sexiest way imaginable, inch by inch, Sarah's smooth and toned stomach was revealed to him. Eventually, after what felt like eternity to Chuck, in reality it was only 20 seconds, Sarah got rid of her jumper completely, leaving behind a black sports bra that showed off her cleavage generously. Poor Chuck just stood there, dazed, and without much control of his own body.

Sarah observed Chuck's expression and smirked in triumph. As she watched Chuck's dreamy brown eyes, pun intended, Sarah saw awe and a healthy amount of lust that made her feel beautiful and wanted, her smirk turned into a genuine smile, this did not help the young officer's current state of mind at all.

Sarah's smile turned to that of teasing one. She moved directly in front of Chuck, and waved her hand in front of his face to get his attention. Actually that wasn't right, I already have his undivided attention, I need him to snap out of it. Taking the advantage of his dazed state, Sarah grabbed one of Chuck's arm, and flipped him onto the matted floor, straddled his waist putting her full weight on it. Only then did Chuck come out of his Sarah-induced daze, and found himself in another daze-worthy position. Chuck couldn't help but felt a part of his anatomy stir as he saw the beautiful blonde goddess straddling his stomach, he instantly flushed red with embarrassment.

Sarah's teasing smile widened as she watched Chuck's eyes regained lucidity, followed by his face turning red with embarrassment. Sarah slowly leaned forward while having Chuck's arms pinned down on the floor, said in a mock stern voice. "You know, Lieutenant, it's not polite to stare." When she finished, she was inches from his face, and Sarah was whispering.

Chuck squirmed as Sarah's face approached his slowly, and he struggled to keep his eyes focused on hers, instead of on her very enticing cleavage, which had drips of sweat beads slowly moving down. Chuck had already forgotten to breathe and Sarah's mock scolding almost didn't register, when it did, Chuck finally managed focused his eyes on her beautiful face, and that was when he noticed the teasing smile and the amusement in her eyes. She's going to be the death of me one day. Chuck repeated his sentiment the day before in his head. He let out a groan, and started breathing again as Sarah started laughing out loud, still on top of him. Chuck thought he might as well get some payback and do some teasing of his own.

As Sarah was distracted by her own laughter, she suddenly found herself being rolled over and pinned down by Chuck. Sarah breath hitched from the position they were in, however, before she could do anything else, Chuck had stood up. In the process, Sarah felt something hard pressed into her groin, just for an instant, she wasn't sure if Chuck had done that intentionally, but it sure sent her mind to the gutter and left her very aroused.

Sarah was brought out of her daydream when Chuck's teasing voice broke through her fogged mind. "So that's how you want to play it?" Chuck said with his own mischievous smirk, causing shivers running down her spine. "Be careful what you wish for." Then he promptly got rid of his sweat soaked shirt, revealing Chuck's naked upper body. It was Sarah's turn for her mouth to drop, as Chuck leaned over to offer her a hand helping her up. It didn't help with her arousal problem either, as Sarah watched the layers of his lean and sculpted muscles moving over each other.

The corners of Chuck's mouth lifted into a smirk as he watched Sarah's reaction to his little retaliation, it took just as long for Sarah to regain enough composure to get up with Chuck's help.

Sarah couldn't believe how turned on she was, she couldn't wait to run her fingers along the ridges on Chuck's 8 pack. Sarah also wanted to confirm that, she didn't imagine the size of the hard rod that had momentarily pressed into her groin, and she already got just the plan to make sure. Chuck suddenly felt like a hunted prey as he watched Sarah licked her lips, while her eyes roamed all over his body, gleaming with lust. Perhaps, his little payback had worked too well.

Sarah didn't bother with putting on her gloves again, she started using all the grappling techniques in her martial arts arsenal to get Chuck down the floor again. Chuck was quite surprised by Sarah's sudden and vicious assault, but nonetheless, he managed to stay on his feet, and doing well to defend himself from the avenging angel. After 5 minutes, a heaving-breathing, frustrated Sarah realised she wasn't going to gain the advantage she needed, if she limited herself with only grappling moves, Chuck was way too good a fighter for that, she needed a distraction.

Backing off a bit, Sarah flashed Chuck a dazzling smile, who despite being extremely alert, could not help be affected by Sarah's full smile and the hungry gleam in her eyes, that was not to mention the sight of her heaving chest, and that moment of distraction allowed Sarah to sweep Chuck's feet with her leg. Before Chuck realised what happened, he found himself in that familiar position again, except this time, the blonde goddess had straddled a lot further down his body than last time.

The moment she got on top of her Chuck, Sarah pushed her advantage and ground herself into Chuck's groin, who instantly lost any thoughts of resistance. Chuck felt his semi-hard erection grown into a throbbing one, as it was being massaged by the heat coming from the beautiful blonde goddess above him, there was nothing else for Chuck to do except to moan in pleasure.

Sarah had confirmed that it wasn't her imagination how gifted Chuck was and instantly threw all caution out of window. Still grounding herself into Chuck, Sarah took Chuck's head in her hands, and lowered her own to attack him with her lips.

Chuck was already in heaven, as he felt Sarah's whole body melding into his own: their nether regions grounding into each other, the smooth and soft skin of her stomach sliding along his abdominal muscles, her firm but soft breasts pressing onto his chest and her soft hands holding his head. But when her soft juicy lips met his, and hungrily devoured him, it took being in heaven to whole new level. Despite a voice on the back of his mind reminding he was still on an aircraft carrier taking part of an invasion, another voice told him that he could never reject Sarah Walker, the beautiful tall blonde goddess with scary knife skills. So Chuck brought his arms around Sarah's waist, pulling her closer if it was at all possible, and returned her kiss with passion.

A/N: Again, I hope you enjoyed the chapter, next one will be more action based.

Thank you all for those of you voted in my poll, if you haven't voted, please do so. At the moment, the votes are pretty much balanced, so I will likely to get everything there integrated into the story as realistically as I can. Thank you again.

Review Response: Thank you for all your lovely reviews, and those who had PM'ed me, I will answer the PM individually.

Ryan: Thank you for your kind words, I am not sure I understood you properly, this is the sequence of events I intended: Warning Order, Dinner, OpOrder, back to his bunk.

Mad about the Boro: First of all, thank you for your review, I appreciate it. I know Sarah is somewhat OOC, but not that much in my opinion. On the show, if I am correct, Sarah completed her red test in 2005, which I personally think is bit late, and I plan to have her complete the red test right after her assignment with Secret Service. I do agree running cons with her father affected the way she acts deeply, but I felt most of her closed off personalities came from her missions with the CIA (Ryker, Larkin, Red tests, CAT squad) which at this point in my story, hadn't taken place yet. This Sarah still doesn't trust easily, but like the Sarah in the show, she was affected by Chuck almost right after she met him. As for Chuck's relationship with the enlisted, I didn't really write anything about Chuck's involvement with their personal lifes other than help with their career development (which is what a good officer suppose to do, at least it was how we were taught in British Army) and giving them means to contact family (even then, Chuck didn't really involve himself with their personal lifes).

Jace: I am trying to think of a way to bring in Casey soon, but it will likely be after Chuck's current deployment, which will end in 2 months according to the history of USS Abraham Lincoln. As for Orion and Beckman, that will be much later on, probably late 2007 or even later, I haven't decided whether to have the intersect making its first appearance in Chuck's life at the same time as to the show yet.

stars90: I think I have mentioned that the senators official reason was to observe on going operations. He had tried his best to prevent the war from starting, but now it had started, being Navy himself, it didn't mean he would forget all about it. If you still think this reason is a bit too thin, let me know, I will try to come up with something, thank you.

I would like to thank all the rest of you for reviewing as well, your kind words are what made me want to come back and start writing again.