Glistening strands of gold gently blow in the breeze. Sparkling sapphire eyes gaze longingly into his dark brown ones. Perfect red lips ready to touch his. She was so beautiful, so perfect.
Chuck gently placed his hand on her cheek. They were moving toward each other. Their faces were almost touching. She closed her eyes and he closed his.
"Chuck!" A voice was shouting his name. He opened his eyes and the dream fizzled out. He didn't get the kiss. Even in a dream, he couldn't experience the taste of her lips. The shout came again. "Chuck!"
Moments later the door to his room burst open and he was being dragged out of bed. Not yet fully awake Chuck rubbed his eyes and asked, "what time is it?"
"6:14," the voice he now recognized as Sarah's answered.
"6:14! The sun isn't even up yet." Chuck grumbled. "I make it a point to not rise before the sun. Come back in a couple hours."
Sarah's voice held an abnormal amount of energy and excitement for the early hour. "Chuck! Come on!"
Sarah tugged on his arm. Using her superior strength, she was able to pull the sleepy Chuck into an upright position.
More alert now, Chuck asked another question regarding the interruption of his sleep and more importantly his dream. "Sarah, what is it? I thought our mission wasn't until Monday. We just came a few days early to establish our cover. A cover we only need to maintain when we go out, since we're staying in a secluded cabin in the woods. So why did you wake me up so early?"
"This has nothing to do with our mission. Come here." Sarah then dragged Chuck over to the window across from the bed. Pulling the curtain back, she pointed out. "Look!"
Sarah didn't give Chuck a chance to respond. Exclaiming in a manner similar to that of a small child, she shouted "It's snowing!" An excited smile spread wide across her face. "Come on. Let's go outside!"
"Sarah, it's still dark outside and I'm not dressed." Sarah took her eyes off the window to look at Chuck. He was only wearing boxers and a T-shirt.
"Well here, put this on," Sarah said grabbing his jacket and tossing it to him. "Now get your shoes and let's go!"
"Do you mind if I put on some pants first?"
"Fine, but hurry up."
With that, Sarah ran in the direction of her room. Less than a minute later, still wearing her pajama top and bottom, she returned to find Chuck slumped on the bed again. He had only managed to get one shoe on his foot. Sarah grabbed the other shoe and put it on herself. She then tried to shake Chuck awake.
"Mmmm. Sleeping." Chuck mumbled, without moving or opening his eyes.
In a loud threatening tone, Sarah forcibly stated, "Chuck Bartowski, if you don't get up right now, I will drag you out the door!"
That got Chuck's attention. "Would you really do that?"
"Yes, I would," Sarah stated seriously. "I want to go see the snow and you're coming with me."
Chuck slowly and reluctantly rose from the bed and Sarah flashed her brightest smile. When he took a step forward, she dashed off ahead of him and swung the front door open. Standing in the open doorway, Sarah held her hand out and let the beautiful white flakes fall onto her palm.
After several moments, she withdrew her hand back inside. Turning away from the door, Sarah's eyes searched for Chuck. He was moving far too slowly for her liking. "Hurry up Chuck! You're going to let all the heat out."
"How am I letting the heat out? You're the one standing there with the door open."
"Because I have to wait on you. Now get over here."
"Sarah, you're not planning on wearing that out there are you?"
Sarah looked down at her pajama pants and long sleeve pajama shirt. "Why not? I have shoes."
Chuck just shook his head.
A gust of cold air blew through the door, hitting Chuck, which caused him to shiver. "Sarah, it's cold out there."
Sarah looked at him as though he were crazy and chuckled. "Of course it's cold. It's generally a requirement for snow."
"I'm not going out there. I'll freeze."
"Oh yes you are." Sarah then maneuvered behind Chuck and pushed him out the door.
Sarah ran past Chuck out into the yard. Holding her arms out, palms facing the sky, Sarah spun around and around in the snow. A few inches had already fallen and it was still coming down. "Isn't this amazing!?" Smiling, Sarah continued to dance in the snow.
"No. It's cold."
"You're no fun," Sarah pouted.
Swiftly and efficiently, Sarah scooped up a ball of snow. Just as quickly as she gathered up the snow, she released it from her hand, hitting Chuck in the back of the head.
Chuck quickly whirled around and saw Sarah standing there with her hands clasped behind her back and the displaying most innocent looking smile on her face.
Chuck stood there staring quizzically at the brilliant blonde spy for a moment. "Did you just throw a snowball at me?"
Sarah turned her head away before sweetly and guiltily responding with a slow drawn out, "nooo."
Chuck was amused by this side of Sarah. He had never seen her behave so playfully. Well two could play this game. If she wanted a fight, a fight, she would get.
"Oh, really? Then who did, because you and I are the only ones here."
Chuck then scooped up his own handful of snow and threw it in the direction of Sarah, but using her CIA training she was easily able to dodge Chuck's attempt at revenge.
Sarah was now facing away from Chuck and bent down to gather more snow. While she was in the midst of creating a new snowball, she felt something cold, strike her back.
Sarah was stunned that Chuck had managed to take her by surprise. After all, she was one of the government's top agents and Chuck was, well Chuck. Which was the problem. She didn't know what it was, but there was something about Chuck, something that made her feel comfortable, safe. When they were alone, he seemed to be able to get her to lay her guard down.
Sarah snapped up and turned to stare Chuck in the eyes. "Oh, you so did not just do that."
"Oh, but I did Agent Walker. I, Chuck Bartowski, hit the great Sarah Walker with a snowball. So what is she going to do about it?"
"She's going to show you why you don't want to get into a fight of any kind with a spy. You're going down."
Sarah took the formed snowball in her hand and sent it sailing toward her assailant. The cold, white ball struck his left shoulder and fell away, landing in pieces at his feet.
As Chuck was gathering up another ball of snow for his counterattack, Sarah took off running around the corner of the small, but cozy cabin.
Chuck ran off after her, but couldn't find her. Walking all around the cabin he could hear Sarah giggling, but he still couldn't see her. Chuck wondered how she was able to hide so well, so fast. He had only been a couple seconds behind her and yet she had completely disappeared, save for her faint giggling.
When Chuck turned the corner to the front of the cabin again, he came face to face with Sarah. Before he could even register her sudden re-emergence, she had struck again. The score was now Sarah 3, Chuck 1.
Chuck again wondered how Sarah did the things she did. First, she disappears in the blink of an eye, then she reappears just as suddenly. Sarah was right, there was a reason you didn't mess with a spy, but he had a few tricks of his own.
Sarah was gone again, but instead of going after her, this time he waited. His only movement was to make another ball of snow so that he would be ready. Ready for her. He was going to score another point for himself.
Crouching in the winter wonderland, Chuck's hair was slowly collecting snow. Snow was landing on his shoulders, his arms, his back, his knees, even his nose. It was cold, but he didn't dare move if this was going to work he had to make her come to him.
Just as expected, a few minutes later Sarah came looking for him. And Chuck was ready. As soon as she was in sight, he threw the snowball he had been holding. Then he ran.
He hadn't made it very far when Sarah caught him and together they fell into the soft blanket of snow below. Lying in the cold, wet snow, both agent and asset started laughing. Sarah was the first to recover and while still lying next to Chuck in the snow, she grabbed a tiny sprinkling of snow and flicked it in Chuck's face.
Chuck then repeated the action and soon they were wildly grabbing at bits of snow and tossing it at their opponent. When the game finally ended a few minutes later, both were completely covered head to toe in snow.
Chuck got back up on his feet and held his hand out to Sarah. At first, he thought she was going to pull him back down, but she didn't. Sarah instead let Chuck help her to her feet.
Standing there in the still falling snow, Chuck and Sarah were both shivering, but Sarah wasn't quite ready to head back inside. And since the door was locked and she held the key, Chuck was going to have to wait until she was.
Sarah started looking all around and Chuck wondered what she could possibly be looking for. No one else was here or was there? Chuck began to worry that Sarah was gone and Agent Walker had returned because of something she had either seen or heard.
When Sarah asked Chuck to come along, he did so without question. Together they walked around to the right side of the cabin, where Sarah stopped to look again. She didn't stay there long however, and soon they were headed around to the back. And again she stopped to look. Chuck's concern was growing now. Who or what was out there? Were they in any danger and if so, how much? Afraid of the answer, Chuck stayed silent.
Chuck was nearly startled to the ground when Sarah pointed to an area across from them and shouted, "there!"
Chuck looked closely at the area at which Sarah was pointing but he couldn't see anything. Sarah took Chuck's hand and started walking over to the area which she had indicated. She had finally found what she was searching for, a patch of perfect snow, untouched by their footprints.
In the perfect, untouched snow, Sarah lay down to make a snow angel and Chuck lay beside her. When Sarah finished her angel, she carefully got up and below the angel she drew an 'S' in the snow with her finger. After watching Sarah, Chuck drew a 'C' below his angel in the same manner.
By now the snow had soaked all the way though their clothing. They were freezing. It was time to go inside to warm up.
After getting back inside the cabin, both Chuck and Sarah went to change into warm, dry clothes. Sarah had finished first and when Chuck came back out into the living room he saw Sarah working to build a fire in the fireplace.
"I'll go make us some hot chocolate."
Sarah turned and nodded to Chuck, then went back to work.
When Chuck returned with two steaming mugs of hot chocolate, he found Sarah sitting on the floor in front on the fireplace and leaning against the couch. She had also wrapped herself up in a large blanket and there was another one lying on the couch for him.
Chuck walked over to the cozy Sarah and handed her one of the steaming mugs. "Thank you."
"You're welcome."
Sarah set her mug of hot chocolate down beside her. Sarah pointed to the mug Chuck still held. "Here let me hold that for you while you get settled."
Once Chuck had gotten his blanket and settled down beside Sarah she handed the mug back to him then picked up her own.
Together they sat by the warm fire. Their drinks were a bit too hot to drink at the moment. Chuck made Sarah laugh when he blew into his hot chocolate creating bubbles. Wanting to join in on the fun, Sarah copied Chuck's silly antics.
This game continued on for several minutes. First Chuck would make Sarah laugh, then Sarah would make Chuck laugh. By the end of the game both were laughing so hard that they had to set their drinks down so as to avoid spilling the hot contents.
After all the laughing and giggling stopped, they sat in silence watching the flames in the fireplace flicker. Two minutes of quiet had passed when Chuck spoke. "This is nice, huh?"
Sarah looked him in the eyes. "Yeah, it is."
A few more seconds of silence passed as Chuck readied himself for what was going to say next. "Sarah? Today... I've never... I mean... You seemed really excited about the snow, so carefree, so happy."
Sarah knew what Chuck was trying to say. After a moment of pause and hesitation she began to speak. "I used to love the snow as a kid. It's been so long since I've been around snow and I've really missed it. Some of my best memories are of playing in the snow. So when I woke up this morning and saw the snow falling outside the window, it brought back those happy times."
Chuck was surprised to hear Sarah talk so freely about something from her childhood She usually went out of her way to avoid talking about her past.
Chuck placed his hand on hers. "Thanks for letting me be a part of those memories. I really had fun. Even if it was very cold."
Sarah smiled at Chuck's comment about the cold. "Thank you for playing in the snow with me, even though it was cold. It was nice reliving some of those memories."
Chuck smiled back at Sarah, letting her know that he was happy to have helped her to remember some of those cheerful times.
By now, the once steaming drinks had cooled, so Chuck and Sarah picked up their mugs again and began slowly drinking the now merely warm chocolate. They finished the chocolate in a comfortable silence as the warm fire in front of them crackled and burned.
The early hour at which they awoke and the energy spent running around in the cold snow had Chuck and Sarah quite tired. Sitting together on the floor wrapped up in soft, warm blankets by the roaring fire, both fell asleep, their heads resting atop one another.