The Plumbing

After a small break and some technical difficulty the chapter is up.

Thank you Engineerd for all the creative ideas and for being a great beta reader and never giving up when hope was low

Now is better than never, right. I decided not to change the last chapter and fix things up here.

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In Chuck's F-150 on their way home from the bar….

"Sorry about what happened." Morgan tells Chuck, slurring his words. "It's just…she looked too perfect for you buddy. I couldn't let you date her."

"Wow, thanks, pal." Chuck says sarcastically while he talks very soberly.

"You don't understand, Chuck, I had to save you from her. She would have broken your heart just like your ex. It's my job as your best friend, your life partner, to keep you away from that type of woman."

"It's also your job as a best friend to make sure I'm happy, right? Well I was happy; when I was around her I was happy. You know I'm practically fixing her house for nothing just to be around her.

Morgan, you've done some stupid things but this one tops the charts. Why'd you have to tell her all those things about me? And don't say you were trying to protect me 'cause you never said any of that other stuff to any of the women I've dated. How am I suppose to show my face tomorrow when I have to go work on her house?" Chuck yells at Morgan.

"Well maybe Chuck, you should have grown a pair and told me to leave from the beginning of your stupid date!" Morgan argued back. He was not going to be yelled at.

"You know what? I am going to grow a pair." Chuck stops the truck. "Get out."

"Oh, now you take my advice?"

"Yep, thanks. Now get out."

"You're not serious; this is not how you treat your life partner!"

"Morgan what the hell is a life a partner, never mind just…out!"

"Chuck, you can't do this to me. I don't even know where we are and I'm drunk!"

"Guess I shouldn't have given you all those tequila shots, huh? Better sober up, pal."

Morgan gets out of the truck. "You're going to regret this."

"I'll just have to live with the guilt. Like you'll have to live with the guilt of knowing you let my one opportunity to have my life back in order slip away because of you."

"Maybe you should start taking responsibility for your own mistakes and stop blaming me!"

"Go to hell, Morgan."

Chuck drives away and leaves a drunken Morgan all alone.

At Casa Bartowski…

"You're home late." Devon says with a proud smile.

"Not now Devon." Chuck says depressed and taking off his shoes.

"What did you do?" Ellie asks.

"It wasn't me this time, it was Morgan. He told Sarah how I was divorced; he told her all this other unnecessary stuff. To top that off, Sarah made an excuse to leave early."

"Wait, where'd Morgan come from?"

"I almost ran him over on our way to the restaurant. Damn! I should have run him over!"

"I think the same thing everything day. Where is he?"

"I got him drunk and left him on the side of the road somewhere."

"Chuck! As much as dislike Morgan you still can't do that to somebody."

"Don't worry, I just called Anna and kinda told her what happened. She tried to apologize for him and she said 'don't worry' that she'd find him."

"Good. Did you have anything to drink?"

"Water, he thought it was Vodka. You know I'd never drive drunk. Not even if I had a sip of beer."

Ellie nods her understanding.

"Can we talk tomorrow? I'm really tired and just want to say good night to my goddaughter and then go to bed."

"Night." Ellie and Devon say.

Chuck goes to Natty's room and looks at the little girl sleeping peacefully in her crib.

He reaches down and touches her little hand.

God how much he wanted a family of his own. Sarah seemed like the perfect mother.

'Damn Morgan and all his bulllshit.' Chuck thinks.

At Sarah's house…

Sarah had read Travis a book and put him to bed. After that she put some laundry in the washing machine and took out of the dryer.

"So how'd the date go?" Carina asks, helping Sarah fold clothes.

"I'm tired I'm going to bed." Sarah picks up a basket off the living room floor.

"Oh come on Sarah, it couldn't have been that tiring. What did you guys do?"

"Not what you do on the first date. Look Carina, the date…let's just say it wasn't like any other I've had. It was…"

John runs up the stairs from the basement. "Carina, could I see you for a moment?"

Carina walks over to John. "What?" John whispers something in her ear. "What?!"

They both run down the stairs with Sarah following.

"What the hell happen?!" Sarah says looking at the mess in her basement.

Carina and Sarah look at John. "What did you do?!"

"I tried to fix it. Your damn machine wouldn't drain so I fixed it. I tried turning the water off at the valve but it's leaking now"

"This is fixed to you?!" Sarah yells pointing to all the soap and water filling her basement.

John growls at Sarah.

"Don't you growl at me! I am not in the mood, John!"

"At least you have that indoor pool you always wanted." Carina jokes.

"Carina?!"

"Sarah calm down, we'll just call Chuck and ask him to come fix this whole mess." Carina says walking up the stairs and picking up the phone.

"No! You can't do that!"

"Why not?"

Sarah thinks for a minute. "Maybe we should let John fix his own messes. It's late, Chuck's probably sleeping, and we should let him rest."

"As you can see, John breaks things, he doesn't fix em'. I'm calling Chuck."

Back at Chuck's place…

His phone rang in his pocket and he quickly answers it before it wakes up Natty.

"Hello?" He says while walking out of the room. "Okay, I'll be right there."

Chuck rushes to the living room to put his shoes back on.

"Where are you going this late at night?" Ellie asks, curled up next to Devon on the couch.

"Sarah's basement is flooded. One of her pipes might have burst."

Ellie quickly sprung up from the couch. "This is great! This is your chance, Chuck!"

"For?"

"For redeeming yourself. You've got to go over there and lay down some pipe, fix her plumbing. Show her…"

Chuck looks over at Devon and they both laugh.

"What?" Ellie says clueless but suddenly gets it. "You two are disgusting! That's not what I meant and you two know it."

"Oh sure it isn't, sis. I mean, you are always hooking me up with sluts. It sort of sends the wrong message."

"Well Chuck I'm not getting any younger, I'd like a couple of nieces and nephews at some point."

Ellie watches Chuck's face fall.

"Chuck, I'm sorry. I forgot about…"

"It's alright, sis. It's in the past." Chuck takes a deep breath. "I have to go."

Chuck leaves the apartment and tries to focus on getting to Sarah's house instead of thinking of the past.

He was going to fix whatever was broken and be on his way. No need for pleasant conversation. They really didn't even have anything pleasant to talk about anyway.

He gets to Sarah's house 7 minutes later. He gets his tool box out the back of his truck and knocks on her door. She answers.

"Thanks for coming." She says.

"It's my job." He lets himself in and to the basement.

The basement is full of water with bubbles floating over it. He sees John by the back door pouring water outside with a bucket.

"Did you turn off the water or drain it?" Chuck asks him.

"Don't you think if I did there'd be less water?" John says. "I couldn't find the damn faucet or drain in this mess."

Chuck steps into the cold water and disappears into the bubbles.

"Where's Chuck?" Carina asks, with Travis in her arms, but only receives a shrug from Sarah and John.

They hear a squeaky faucet being turned then see Chuck covered in bubbles walk to the foot on the stairs.

Travis cries at seeing the bubble monster.

Chuck wipes bubbles away from his face.

"Here." Sarah says, handing him a dry towel.

Taking the towel Chuck says, "Thanks".

Travis stops crying after he sees that it's only Chuck.

"So who was messing with the piping before I arrived?" Chuck asks.

Both women and Travis point at John. John grunts at them.

"Well looks to me that you did a good job in trying to connect the washing machine drain to the septic line back together."

John grunts proudly.

"Unfortunately you forgot to tighten up the coupling and it blew off."

John suddenly doesn't feel so proud.

Carina whispers to Sarah, "Sounds sort of like your relationships, huh?"

"Shut-up." Sarah whispers back.

"It's alright; it's one of those things people don't really think about doing. I can fix it and get the water out of here; it just might take a while." Chuck says looking at Carina or John, who had walk upstairs, but never looking at Sarah.

"That's great. So I guess we're not needed any more and can leave. I hope this won't take up too much of your time so you can still get some sleep before your meeting." Carina says.

"Uh…no, I'll be okay."

Chuck gets to work in finding the drain to get rid of the water.

Upstairs Carina hands Travis over to Sarah and starts putting on her shoes.

"Carina you can't leave me here alone with him."

"Sarah he'll probably be down there the whole time fixing the basement. What happened on your date that had you like this?"

"I just…I learned some things about him that really changed what I thought of him."

"What, did he kill somebody?"

"No."

"Like he has the guts." John says and gets slap in the back of the head by Carina.

"Did he spend time in prison for some crime?"

"No."

"Then there's nothing to worry about, little sis. He looks like he wouldn't hurt a fly."

John grunts in agreement.

"Give the guy a second chance. Sometimes there's more to learn about people then what you get on a first date."

"Where'd you read that 'Annoying Sisters Weekly'?"

"Yeah, they confused your address with mine."

Sarah slaps Carina's shoulder.

"Just do what I say Sarah. Play nice."

"Maybe."

Carina and John leave.

Sarah puts Travis on the couch and turns on the TV to let him watch while she makes him another bottle.

In the basement, Chuck found the drain being blocked by wet clothes. He took them off and water starts to drain away. The bubbles start to dissolve and he suddenly sees that there is more damage to the valve leading to the washing machine.

'This is going to be a long night.'

He takes his iPod shuffle out of his pocket and turns it on.

As Sarah is taking Travis back to his room she sees that Chuck has taken his shirt off only wearing a very tight white undershirt. He was wrapping his shirt around a pipe on the wall that was leaking.

'Maybe there is more to Chuck I can learn about.' Sarah says to herself as she watches Chuck's shoulder and back muscles flex from tying the shirt around the pipe.

She put Travis in his crib, which Chuck set up, Sarah remembers.

"Goodnight Travis." Sarah gives him a kiss on the head, puts his night light on, and closes the door a little.

She grabs a blanket from the closet and sits on the couch and watch's TV. She was going to have to stay up until Chuck was finished.

An hour later, Sarah has fallen asleep with the TV still on.

In Travis' room, Travis climbs out of his crib. He slowly opens the door and pokes his head outside to see if his mommy is anywhere in site but she's not so he proceeds over to the open basement door.

Chuck was moving boxes and toys out of the way so he could make room for the washing machine and dryer. He hears somebody walk to the stairs. He looks up and sees it Travis sitting at the top of the stairs looking at him. Chuck smiles up at him, thankful it's not Sarah, and Travis makes his way down.

"Be careful, little buddy." Chuck tells him as he notices how slippery the stairs. Chuck's paternal instincts kick in. "God Chuck, don't let him slip and fall."

Chuck goes and picks up Travis and they sit on the third to last stair together, any further and they'd be swimming.

"Hey, couldn't sleep?" Chuck sits next to him, taking his ear buds out.

Travis nods once.

"Here" Chuck takes off his iPod and wraps it around Travis' small wrist then puts the ear buds into place.

Travis takes the ear buds out of his ears and looks at them, wondering where and how the music is coming out. He puts them back into his ear and takes them back out.

Chuck laughs at the small boy's curiosity.

Someday he thought of doing this with his own son. 'If I ever have kids.' He thought to himself. His son wouldn't be able to sleep and he'd be there listening to music with him and keeping him company and scaring the monsters away.

Sarah was woken up by laughter. It sounded like a man's laugh. Then she remembers Chuck is still here. Why was he laughing?

She walks to the basement and sees Chuck with Travis on the stairs. Travis has one ear bud in his ear and Chuck the other.

Travis takes out his ear bud, shows it to Chuck then says something in his baby language.

"I know." Chuck responds, not having a clue what the little boy said.

"Like you know what he just said." Sarah says.

Chuck and Travis turn around and look at her.

"Mommy!" Travis says, holding up his wrist with the iPod on it.

Sarah starts walking down the stairs so Chuck quickly gets up, helping Travis up as they turn facing Sarah.

"What are you doing up this late, Travis?"

Travis talks again and holds up the iPod.

"Don't you think you should give Chuck his iPod back and you should go to bed?"

Travis shakes his head.

Sarah tilts her head a little and crosses her arms. "Travis."

Travis pouts and takes off the iPod and hands it to Chuck.

"Thanks Travis." Chuck says.

Travis holds his arms open to give Chuck a hug. Chuck picks him up and hugs him then hands him over to Sarah without looking at her.

"Thank you." Sarah says and receives a grunt for it.

She puts Travis back in his crib and makes sure he is asleep before walking back down to the basement.

"Can I make you a coffee or tea?" Sarah offers.

"I wouldn't want to bother you." Chuck says, paying more attention to the drain then her.

"It's no bother."

"No thanks."

"You're probably tired, why don't you come up stairs and have a cup of coffee with me?"

Chuck looks at her. She's smiling at him with that angelic smile of hers that makes you do whatever she wants. Chuck looks away.

"You're right, I am tired." Chuck agrees.

"I'll go start up…"

"I'm tired of women like you." Chuck says with slight madness.

"Pardon?"

"Your little rich, typical women with big egos."

Sarah was starting to get mad. "Listen…"

"You listen! I've met your kind before; I've worked for your kind before. Rich stuck up women who only care about themselves. I thought you were different. You seemed nice and caring. Then we went on that stupid date and I saw the real side of you."

"Well you never told me you were divorced."

"You never asked. You never even really talked to me until you were forced to go on a date with me. At first I thought you liked me even though you said you weren't interested and wanted time alone 'cause of your break up. I respected your decision and said I wasn't interested either even though I liked you. I tried to make myself and everyone around me believes I didn't like you."

Sarah moves a step forward to touch Chuck's arm but he moves away.

"I was ecstatic when Carina set us up on a date. I was freaking out too, but I was trying not to show it. Everything was going great until you started to listen to Morgan. I know, it's my fault, I should have told him to leave from the beginning but I…it's been a while since I had been on a date with someone I really liked and didn't want to be alone and say the wrong thing. Well, I didn't ask Morgan to leave but I it doesn't matter now, does it. Nobody wants to date a loser like me." Chuck gets mad and throws his hands up in disgust.

That causes Sarah to jump and step back from Chuck.

Chuck takes a deep breath and calms down. "It's always the same with you women. All you see and hear are the bad things about me. You call it quits without giving anyone a chance to show you who they really are and what makes them special or different, maybe if you gave someone a chance you might find what you're looking for..."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be. You have a right to reject whoever you want."

Chuck starts putting away his tools.

"So you're not going to let me have my say?" Sarah asks.

Chuck looks at her.

"I'm not an egotistical rich girl. If I was I wouldn't be living in this dump."

"True." Chuck says looking around the wet basement.

"The reason I didn't talk to you was because I was nervous and kind of shy."

"Why?"

"Well you said you weren't interested in me."

"Only 'cause you said you were interested in me."

"I just didn't think you want to date someone like me."

"What do you mean?"

"Okay, for starters, I have a son."

"I love kids, I love my niece like she was my own, that's why I volunteer at the elementary school helping kids build their own little projects. Having a son doesn't change my opinion of someone."

"I just didn't think you want to date a single mother with a lot of baggage."

"I could be your very own baggage handler." Chuck suddenly felt stupid for saying that.

Sarah giggles. "You're funny, Chuck."

"Well I'm a funny guy."

Sarah sits down on the steps. "You know, you assumed things about me after the first date just as I did you. You assumed that just 'cause my father has money that I'm stuck up. I bet you didn't think I was stuck up when you first met me."

Chuck sits next to her. "You're right. I guess we both made fools of ourselves tonight."

"Yep."

"Maybe we could give each other a second chance, you know, a second first date?"

"I'd really like that."

"Me too."

Sarah slides her hand into Chucks. Chuck tightens his hold on Sarah's hand. Sarah looks over at Chuck and smiles. They start to move closer. Sarah moves her other hand to the back of his neck and they move closer to each other.

"I should tell you something before we go any further." Sarah says as she looks into Chuck's eyes.

"What's that?"

"I want more than a fling. I'm looking for a long term commitment. If you're not looking for that just step away and I'll forget this ever happened."

Chuck moves closer to Sarah and kisses her softly.

"You know baggage handlers typically stay with the owner of the baggage until they don't need them anymore." He says smiling.

Sarah smiles back at him and kisses him back. Chuck sweeps Sarah off her feet and carries her back up the steps into the house…

The next morning, Sarah's alarm clock goes off. She reaches over to turn it off and is met by another hand.

"Good morning." Chuck says with a big grin on his face.

She slowly opens her eyes and smiles at Chuck.

"Great morning to you too." She says with an equaling big grin. "I see you enjoyed our little extracurricular activity."

"Little? I wouldn't say it was little."

Sarah slaps Chuck on his bare chest.

The door flies open and they quickly sit up. "I said 'give the guy a second' not 'bed him'!" Carina says with a shocked look on her face.

"Way to fix the plumbing, handy man." Casey says with a smirk.

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"You know baggage handlers typically stay with the owner of the baggage until they don't need them anymore."-That was all Engineerd. I love that part. I never would have thought of it.

Next up: Anna's House of Pancakes (AHOP)

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