"Thank you for choosing the Orange Orange! Please come again!" Sarah Walker said as she served another customer. It'd been busy for the last twenty minutes or so. Not only did she have her regular customers - and, strangely, the Orange Orange, for all the short time it had been around, did have regulars - but that group of girls was here again.

And the one with the long hair was... was... looking at her again. Now, Sarah knew she was an attractive woman, and it was hardly the first time that a woman had looked at her that way. She'd even used that attraction on occasion during her assignments, but this was the first time that she felt... well, almost like she was threatened. Or maybe it was just dominated. There was something about the other woman that made her nervous, that she didn't like. She was usually the 'alpha' female, and Sarah was getting the feeling that she ran a close fifth next to these other four girls.

So, she decided to do something about it. She couldn't deal with it right now, not with the memories of Sunnydale floating just under the surface. So she went back into the kitchen, pulling out her cellphone.

* * * *

Damn, Kennedy thought to herself. The good ones really are all taken or straight. And damn but Slayer hearing sucks, sometimes.

Kennedy was sitting in the Orange Orange idly spinning her spoon in her bowl. She and the rest of her Fast Strike team had arrived the previous day, and begun scouting the location. Once done with that, of course, they had all zeroed in on the Orange Orange. While it wasn't ice cream, frozen yogurt came close enough to heaven that they wanted to enjoy it. Hey! They might all be Slayers, but they were girls too!

In the five years since the closing of the Sunnydale Hellmouth, Kennedy had done a lot of maturing. No longer quite the brat that she had been in Sunnydale proper, she'd been honored to be chosen to head one of the three teams allocated to the West Coast. Fast Strike teams normally roamed their territory, putting down uprisings of evil when and where they found them. There was, however, an exception to that. Fast Strike teams were also called in to scout an area where members of the Watcher's Council would be putting in a lot of time. This usually meant the Scoobies, of course, but that was besides the point.

When it had been decided that Xander would take a job at the Buy More to see if their educated guesses about Jonathan Levinson were correct, her team had been rotated in to handle the area. That was probably for the best; Rona and Vi, the leaders of the other two teams, still had something of schoolgirl crushes on Xander. The truth was that most of the girls who'd ever met him did. Kennedy herself didn't quite get it, but then, she didn't exactly play that side of the field. Oh, she understood in a purely mental way: Xander had been fighting this fight since he was fifteen without any of the Slayer benefits, but his personality had remained pretty much the same the entire time. He was, in a very real and more than mystical way, the heart of the Scoobies, the heart of the Slayers. And, for her personally, her Willow's heart.

And even she could admit, even after losing his own, that he wasn't exactly hard on the eyes.

She sighed, mostly to herself. She and Willow had been broken up for more than four years now, since almost a year to the day after Sunnydale collapsed, and yet she still thought of Willow as 'her Willow,' sometimes. It was hard, but she threw herself into her work instead. It felt... it felt good saving people's lives, even if they never knew that you'd done it for them. But, right now, she wasn't feeling so good, and it was just because of her damned Slayer hearing. She could hear both sides of Sarah's phone call, and she knew the other Slayers at the table could as well.

* * * *

Just as Chuck was settling down behind the Nerd Herd main desk, his cellphone started to ring. Flipping it open, he recognized the number; it was Sarah's. Which was kind of a surprise, seeing that he'd just seen her not long ago. He pressed the button to answer and placed the phone to his ear.

"Hiya," he said, glancing around a little nervously at the other employees nearby. "Can't get enough of me, so you needed to call?" Hey, at least Morgan wasn't there to be nudging him and giving him a thumbs up. And making things worse. He cared for Sarah, but they could never really have anything together while he was the Intersect and she was duty-bound to protect him.

"I need you to come back here and kiss me senseless," came Sarah's whispered reply.

Chuck nearly dropped the phone.

"Whaaaa...." He cleared his throat, looked around again, and repeated, "WHAT?!"

"I need you to come back here and kiss me senseless," Sarah repeated. Then she explained. "There's a group of girls here at the store. I think they're lesbians." That was only Kennedy, but Sarah couldn't be blamed for not noticing the difference between someone looking at you with romantic interest and the someone looking at you with the standard cautiousness of an on-duty Slayer. "And I think one of them is intending to ask me out."

For a moment, Chuck entertained the idea of watching Sarah and another girl together. He stopped himself before he drooled.

Hey, whatever else he might be, Chuck was male! And what she was describing was very nearly the holy grail!

"It's not the first time this has happened." Concentrate, Chuck! Concentrate! "But I can't deal with it right now. So I need you to come 'stake your claim' to me." Sarah hadn't stopped whispering despite the fact that Chuck hadn't said a word.

"Uh, okay," Chuck squeaked. "I'll be there in a few. Bye."

* * * *

Kennedy looked absolutely dismal. It wasn't like she had a girl in every harbor, as it were; there weren't that many women who drew her interest anymore. No Slayer did - they were each too much of a predator to be willing to submit to another predator in that way.

The rest of the team commiserated, and brought the conversation back up to normal levels to try and distract her. It didn't work, but she was glad they tried. It wasn't as if they knew each other very well. The teams weren't constant, after all. People rotated in and out, both from other teams and other postings. It was a good way to get more than one kind of experience.

I guess if I cannot have her..., Kennedy thought to herself. ... then I will play Cupid! She grinned at that. Sure, it hurt her heart, but doing the good thing always seemed to make it feel a bit better.

Got to manage the timing just right, though, she thought to herself. Slayer sight presented Kennedy with the approaching Chuck far in advance of when Sarah herself would see him, so she stood up, doing her best to look hesitant, and began to walk over to the counter, where Sarah had just come back out.

"So," Kennedy said, purposely twirling her hair in her fingers coquettishly. "I'm... we're new in town and I was wonder if you would be interested in..."

The door slammed open, revealing Chuck standing there. He was carrying a bouquet of flowers, a touch that even Sarah hadn't expected.

"Sarah!" Chuck said, blowing things a bit out of proportion in how he was doing this. "I saw these flowers and immediately thought of you, so I had to come see you!"

Chuck strode directly through the store, braced one hand against the counter, and hopped over it. Carmichael. Charles Carmichael, he was thinking to himself. Do it like he would do it.

It probably would have helped if he hadn't kicked the register and nearly lost his balance in the process, but he recovered quickly. He thought he might have screwed it up, but a side glance to the dark-haired girl on the other side of the counter showed an awed look directed at the two of them.

Kennedy could be a good actress when she wanted to be. She knew that this was mostly an act put on for her benefit, so she was humoring them.

Chuck straightened and pulled Sarah bodily against him, mashing his lips against her own.

Now, let's take a brief moment to remember some things. Three weeks prior to this, in order to try and find the Cipher, a critical part of the new Intersect, John and Sarah had brought Chuck to Agent Roan Montgomery, a legendary lover/spy along the lines of James Bond, to teach him how to seduce another spy.

Roan also promised to teach him how to seduce Sarah. That never happened, of course, but Chuck did learn a thing or two.

Sarah almost moaned against Chuck's mouth. He'd never, ever been this aggressive before. But, then again, she'd never told him to kiss her senseless before, so he was just trying her best. A little part of her mind, one that making itself more and more difficult to ignore, reminded her that she had feelings for Chuck. Damned it all. She cared for Chuck, but she knew they could never really have anything together while he was the Intersect and she was duty-bound to protect him.

Still, she could play the femme fatale. It wouldn't even be that difficult. So she draped herself against Chuck and returned his kiss, ignoring for the moment that they had 'broken up' and living in the possibility for just that one moment.

Kennedy's eyebrows shot straight up. If this was fake, she was as straight as a steel-shafted arrow. This was no act! What the hell?! Why was she calling him to fake this when she felt this way about him? Why was he faking not feeling anything for her?

For a moment, she looked back at her table, as if to ask if they saw what she saw. And they did. So... no time to play Cupid. Time to be Cupid, even if these two idiots were too stupid to see it for themselves.

Kennedy cleared her throat, and Chuck and Sarah finally separated, both of them looking more than a little disoriented, both of them flushed. Chuck lifted the bouquet of flowers and held it between them, not trusting his voice. He noticed how much she was blushing, but the only thing he could think of was that that was just how good an actress she was.

"So, I guess me asking you out is a bad idea, eh?" Kennedy said, looking at Sarah. She tried to look wistful. "I'm Kennedy, by the way. Like the President, but it's a first name."

Thank all that is holy, Sarah thought. It worked. "I'm Sarah, and this..." Here she blushed. Again. "... this is Chuck."

"So where are you guys going out tonight? I mean, well, what I was saying was true - we're new in town, and were wondering where the dating hotspots were." So they could pick up guys, girls, or prowling vampires, of course. "After that, I have to think you guys are going out, right?"

Kennedy suppressed a smile. Even if they weren't going out, now they would have to in order to not make her 'wonder'.

"Um, well," Chuck stuttered. "There are a couple of dance clubs. I mean, I dance like a chicken on electroshock..."

That got a laugh from all four Slayers, which confused the hell out of Chuck. Kennedy explained, "My... our best guy friend, he dances the same way." The three other girls nodded. "We love him all the more for it. He's always trying to cheer us up, make us happy. He's a great guy." This was mostly directed at Sarah, for reasons she would not let herself understand.

Chuck didn't know what else to do, but turned back to Sarah, and asked, "So... do you want to go?"

With the four girls watching her, she couldn't say no. But this hurt more than she thought it would. She wanted so much to tell him how she felt, but she couldn't. If she did, she knew the first thing that would happen is that she would be replaced. And she couldn't do that, couldn't let that happen.

"I guess so, sure," Sarah replied.

The four Slayers all grinned. "It's a date!" Kennedy said. "So, tell us where it is, and we'll say 'hi' when we get there."

One of the others winked at Chuck - who blushed, himself - and added, "Hanging out with five cute girls like us will really up your reputation. We guarantee it."

Chuck blinked at the Slayer, looked back to Sarah - who he still had his arms around - and smiled. Looking down into her eyes, he said, "Sounds like fun."

Author's Notes: This chapter surprised me. During BtVS, I... well, let's just say I really did not like Kennedy. So, when I woke up this morning and this chapter was beating at the back of my head screaming 'Write me! Write me!', I did not expect it. Also, I wanted to be sure I wrote enough on the 'Chuck' side to balance the 'BtVS' side, and this seemed the perfect opportunity.

I'll leave it up to my reviewers: suggest people you'd like to see as members of Kennedy's Fast Strike team. I haven't named any of them purposely, because I wanted to give people a chance to join in. I'm sharing the wealth