Fate's Design

Chapter 5

Main Cast

Charles "Chuck" Bartowski – Zachary Levi

CIA Special Agent Sarah Walker – Yvonne Strahovski

Major John Casey, USAF, NSA – Adam Baldwin

Eleanor "Ellie" Bartowski – Sarah Lancaster

Devon "Captain Awesome" Woodcombe – Ryan McPartlin

Morgan Grimes – Joshua Gomez

Supporting Cast

Michael "Big Mike" Tucker – Mark Christopher Lawrence

Jefferson "Jeff" Barnes – Scott Krinsky

Lester Patel – Vik Sahay

Another beautiful day, thinks Chuck as he walks through the sliding double doors of the BuyMore and makes his way to the Nerd Herd station. I swear there's a skip in my step. Whatever. I feel good!

"Morning, buddy!" He relaxes into the office chair and swivels aimlessly around, with a huge smile on his face. Morgan, however, is looking somewhat depressed as he slouches to meet his friend.

"Dude, whilst I'm really happy that you finally got together with that super hot blonde valkryie-"

"Who told you?" Chuck asks, looking around nervously for the looming figure of his NSA handler. Morgan merely smiles.

"Chuck, I've been your best friend for what, twenty years? I'd have to say I'm quite the expert when it comes down to reading you like a book."

"Sure…" Chuck looks skeptical. "Anyways, buddy, why are you all slouchy? You didn't spend last night doing that creepy thing I will never name?"

"Chuck, it's just caring about someone enough to find out things they won't tell you themselves," Morgan insists. "There's nothing wrong with it."

"First of all, it is stalking, and secondly, there is something wrong with it. The law has made it pretty clear."

"Whatever, Chuck. Back to the main point," Morgan slumped over the desk, "dude, I'm dying here, my sales figures are rock bottom."

Chuck's eyebrows rise. "But you never care about your sales figures."

"Well, normally I wouldn't give a damn about it, but Big Mike…" Morgan winces. "Well, let's just say there's trouble in paradise."

"Lady Big Mike?"

"Yup." He gulps. "Whatever she's doing, everybody here's suffering because of it. Big Mike made Jeff take a shower. And wash his hair."

It is Chuck's turn to wince. "I'm guessing that didn't go so well."

"There was a definite amount of biting and scratching involved." Both wince.

Eyeing a nervous looking customer standing in front of the TV wall, he gets up and straightens his shirt. "How do I look? Professional?"

"Gel your hair, Morgan, I've told you hundreds of times, you look like you're still in primary."

Morgan sighs. "Fine. But when I die alone without a wife, you know it's your fault." He scoots off, calling to the customer. "Sir! Yeah, you! Sir! Buy this television! It's expensive!" The man, jumping in fright, takes off running with Morgan chasing after him. "BUY THE TELEVISION!"

Chuck sighs. Some things never change.

"BARTOWSKI! GET IN HERE! NOW!"

He sighs. Definitely. Walking into the BuyMore manager's office, he sits down in front of him.

"Yes, Big Mike?"

The man huffs and takes a bite from a muffin he seems to have produced from nowhere. "You have a massive backlog of service calls, Bartowski, and people have been ringing in the second we opened. Care to explain why you weren't here yesterday to deal with it?"

"I had the day off, Big Mike, and as I recall, you told me to take a break."

"Well, consider that statement null and void. Get back to work." As Chuck leaves, he adds, shouting, "Hurry up, slacker!"

Shrugging off the insult, he heads back to his desk, retrieving a clip and flicking through the repair requests. Just as he is about to head off, he feels a soft tap on his shoulder and beams, turning around.

"Hey, you," Chuck says, leaning in to kiss her, but Sarah stops him just in time, glancing upwards at the security cameras. He sighs mentally and resigns himself to a hug. Hmm, he thinks. Still feels good though.

As his arms wrap around her, a warm feeling rushes to her head and something begins to do backflips in her stomach. She blushes lightly.

After he releases her, she maintains a hold on his hands, gently swaying them.

"I was waiting for you to arrive," she replies, and then pouts. "But I have to say, I'm a little annoyed that you're late. I was hoping for," she lowers her voice to a huskier tone, "some alone time with you."

This causes the brown-haired to redden a little. "Ah, well, um, good to know!" Glancing at his watch, he groans. "I'm sorry, but I've got to run, a whole load of service calls came my way. Aww, don't look so sad… I'll make it up to you tonight, okay? I'm hoping this date will go better than the last one, which didn't end quite as I had hoped."

"Really? So how did you think it was going to end?" Sarah smiles seductively and Chuck groans.

"You're killing me here, Sarah."

The blonde smiles and gives him a discrete peck on the lips. "Hurry up, then. Maybe you'll last long enough to go on our date tonight." With another groan, he heads out and she allows herself a little sigh of contentment before heading back to her cramped office.

"Did you see that, Jefferson?" asks a voice from behind a stacked mound of blenders. Another man responds with a murmur of acknowledgement and the two of them creep out from behind their cover.

"Looks like our boy Chuck's got blondie in his bag," remarks Lester.

"He doesn't know how lucky he is," agrees Jeff. "First the brunette…"

"Jill. She was hot."

"And now the blonde bombshell as well. He's making the rest of us look bad."

Patting his companion on the shoulder, he sighs. "One day, Jeff. One day we'll find someone like that. But how would you feel about spying on little miss Sarah for the while?"

Jeff grins. "I thought you'd never ask." He brings up the video camera in his hand. "I've already started."

"Fine work, my friend." Both of them turn around and make a strangled shrieking noise when they find said blonde bombshell standing behind them looking very unimpressed.

"What do you think you're doing?" she questions, her voice laced with venom. "I don't appreciate people spying on me, so if I catch you again I'll make life very uncomfortable for the two of you. Understood?"

"I had a shower an hour ago and my hair is smoother than silk. There's nothing you can do to make my body more defiled," Jeff leers. Sarah stares at him with disgust and Lester facepalms. Hard.

"Jeff, Jeff, you have to know when to shut up!" he hisses to his friend. "You see, Sarah, we were simply, uh-"

With a groan of disgust, she snatches the camcorder from them and stalks away, dismantling it very forcefully and removes the memory card. She places it on the ground and crushes it with a single stomp. The Indian gulped loudly.

"I think I nearly had a heart attack." Seeing the dreamy look on his friend's face, he groans and walks away, leaving Jeff in his own fantasy.

Later on in the day, as the BuyMore is closing down, the blonde sighs in relief as she finishes signing off the final piece of paperwork and drops it onto a stack of sheets. Impatiently checking her watch, she glances expectantly at the front doors.

As if answering her hopes, Chuck appears right in front of her and smiles brightly. "So, how was your day?"

"Absolutely horrible. I swear, if I ever have to sign for another package delivery, it'll be too soon."

"If it's any consolation to you, my day wasn't any better – do you have any idea how many people call as a joke? I had to run around all day, and it turns out half of the calls were fake." He runs his hand through his curled hair. "I spent half an hour knocking on the door of a warehouse down at the docks. Turns out it was empty."

"Sounds like you had a stressful day. I know just the thing to help you relax." She takes him by his hand and leads him out to her Porsche. "Time for our date, mister."

"What about Casey and his bugs?" Seeing the mischievous gleam in his girlfriend's eye, he groans. "Something makes me feel that I don't want to know the answer to that."

"I didn't do anything! Well, nothing serious anyways. I may or may not have injected strong laxatives into his Hot Pockets."

"You are evil, I tell you, pure evil," he taunts. She gives him a quick peck.

"Personally, I think you love it."

A short car ride later

The Nerd Herder stops outside the Santa Monica pier and Chuck slips out, running to open Sarah's door. He bows deeply as he does so and she grins as she steps out. "So, Mr. Bartowski, what are we doing tonight?"

"Hmm, depends." Sarah slaps him on the arm. "Ow! That hurt!"

"Aww, you want the pwetty girl to kiss it bettah?" Sarah taunts.

"That actually sounds pretty appealing," Chuck says and the blonde laughs. "Anyways, in response to your previous question, it really does depend."

"On what?"

"Whether the phrase "Street Fighter" still mean anything to you."

Sarah's eyes widen. "Don't tell me… seriously?"

"Hey!" the nerd exclaims. "You love the arcade! As I remember, I lost many a match against you on Street Fighter. You were a mean Chun Li."

"That was a long time ago, Chuck," Sarah says. "Who says I'll be any good now?"

"From what I can see, you are very, very good with your hands, what with all that knife throwing, gun shooting, and other hand-related spy things."

"So my hands are only good for spy stuff, huh?" Sarah whispers into his ear. "Nothing else at all?" She drapes a hand over him and begins fiddling with his hair. "You want to rephrase that?"

Chuck nods dumbly, finding himself completely captivated by the beautiful woman. Oh my god, Chuck, you must be the luckiest man on the entire world. Scratch that, you are the luckiest man in the universe! Bryce Larkin can kiss my ass. "Uh huh," was all he managed to get out.

"What was that?" Sarah's voice has taken on a playful taunting tone.

Fortunately, Chuck's blank mind finally starts to work again. "Your hands are great… for everything, you know, uh, really multipurposed, like, um suited to lots of things, spy stuff and, ah, the wonderful thing you're doing right now."

"Good to know," she answers with a grin.

"Come on, Sarah Walker, don't tell me you're too scared to play a video game."

Sarah stares at him. "You're going to regret challenging me, Charles Irving Bartowski."

An hour later, Chuck and Sarah leave the arcade, with him looking a little deflated. She pats him consolingly on the back. "It's okay, Chuck, so what if you didn't win at a video game? It's not the end of the world."

"Hey, I'm fine, it's not like I just got beaten by a person who hasn't played in six years," Chuck replies, still a little sore from his defeat. His gaming ego is now down a few sizes, thanks to Sarah completely whooping him at practically every game they played.

"I'll make it up to you," she says in a sing-song voice, and Chuck immediately brightens. "You're incorrigible, you are."

"Hmm, be that as it may, but I'm adorable as well, aren't I?" The nerd puts on his thousand-megawatt smile and Sarah smiles back. I must be the luckiest girl on the world. Even after everything I've done, I've still managed to end up with my dream guy.

"Hey, Earth to Sarah Walker, you still in there?"

Sarah blinks, her eyes focusing on the chocolate brown ones in front of her. "Sorry, zoned out. You were saying?"

"Well, it's time for Part Two of Chuck Bartowski's Night of Charming Sarah Walker," Chuck says, taking her hand and leading her down to the waterfront. Sarah's mouth forms and "o".

"Wow," she breathes. "Oh my god, Chuck, you didn't have to…" She looks at the candle lit dinner table with a vase of gardenias standing on it. "This is beautiful…"

"I thought that maybe it would be a little heavy for, you know, a second date, but I really wanted to do this for you, and I made sure everything was perfect, I mean, um, the food and the wine and the… I'm babbling again, I must seem like such a klutz…" He laughs nervously.

"No, Chuck, this is wonderful!" Sarah beams happily, holding his hands tightly in hers. "I don't think there's another guy in the world who could be as sweet as you."

"Sweet… golly gee, thanks for making me feel like I'm four," Chuck replies, grinning. She giggles.

"Don't take it badly, Chuck. I haven't met any guy who would actually do all this for me, let alone like me for me."

"How could anybody not like you for you?" Chuck answers. "You're incredibly smart, funny, beautiful and kickass, to boot." This elicited a smile from Sarah.

"Thanks," she replies happily. "You're a real heartwarmer, you know?"

"Of course. I pride myself on being top dawg at the heartwarming business." Chuck pauses, and then considers what he just said. "I should never, ever say top dawg again."

Sarah laughs. "You are really adorable. Now hush and lie down on the sand. I want to cuddle." Chuck raises an eyebrow at her. "NOW, Chuck." He hastily obliges, and they hold each other as they watch the sun dip down under the horizon.

Yeah, I know, it's been ages, and all you've gotten isn't all that great, but live with it. I'm seriously jetlagged. Stupid BA and its stupid airplane engine fuel intake problems. I slept on a cold, hard, stony floor for a night. Don't try it. It's not fun. Your back starts hurting fifteen minutes into it.

Anyways, to all my followers out there, I will still be writing, so look forward to more!

Clamman