A/N the First: Thanks to my awesome beta mxpw who helped me figure out some things and is always there to be a great sounding board and a pretty cool dude. *sticks a pin in his voodoo doll* Oh, sorry that you had to see that, it's just in his contract that whenever I compliment him, I also need to cause some kind of pain. Also, thanks to my great pre-readers and everybody who's left a comment and read so far. Hope you're still enjoying the story!

Interception

When Sarah emerged from her shower the next morning, rubbing at the ends of her hair, she saw Violet sitting on her side of the bed, reenacting some kind of battle scene with Chewbacca (the teddy bear, not the dog) and Strawberry Shortcake. From the pew-pew-pew, it sounded like Sergeant Shortcake was pinned down by enemy fire and there wasn't a hope for rescue.

All chances of ex-fil were forgotten when Violet looked up and spotted her. "Sarah!"

Sarah put a finger to her lips and jerked her head at the still-sleeping Chuck. Violet slapped a hand over her mouth. "C'mon," Sarah said, and they crept out of the room. Strawberry Shortcake came along, but Chewbacca was left behind.

Chuck was probably going to be very confused when he woke up and found a toy in Sarah's place.

"I'm hungry," Violet said, dragging a chair over to the counter while Sarah rooted through the cabinets, familiarizing herself with the kitchen. "I'd ask Uncle Morgan for waffles, but he's still sleeping and he likes sleep more than he likes waffles. He told me so. Can you make pancakes?"

"Can I make pancakes? What kind of a question is that?"

"With strawberries, like my doll?"

"I thought you liked blueberries this week." Sarah poked through the fridge. Apparently Ellie had done quite a bit of shopping for the week. She hoped that the strawberries in the crisper weren't for anything particular.

"Her name's Strawberry Shortcake, not Blueberry..."

"Bundt-Cake?" Sarah guessed when Violet's face scrunched up in confusion.

"Blueberry Bundt-Cake? Is that real?"

"Probably not. But never fear, we've got strawberries. Now, let me just find the rest of the ingredients."

"Can I chop up the strawberries?"

"Why don't you wash them off instead?" Violet would probably splash water all over the place, but at least she was still in her pajamas. "Where's that dog of yours, huh?"

"Major Casey Sir took him for a run." Violet poked the tip of her tongue out as she concentrated on running water over the plastic container. "Sir was really, really happy about it."

And Casey probably wasn't, Sarah thought. It was easy to maneuver around the girl standing on her chair as they'd done this before multiple times back in Burbank. She had Violet set the table while she flipped pancakes and prepped the rest of the food. The aroma would wake Morgan up, no doubt, and Chuck wouldn't be far behind. Ellie and Devon had made plans to hit the slopes early, so they wouldn't be back until dinner. Morgan had plans to spend the day at the local Buy More—which was the only reason he'd gotten the full week off—so it would just be Violet, Chuck, and the spies.

And Sophie.

Casey and Sir returned just as Sarah set the platter of pancakes on the table. "No sign of trouble," Casey said. "Everything should be okay for later. Wait—did you cook?"

"Why are you always surprised when I do that?"

"Little girly for you, don't you think?"

"Don't be a dou—ble un-fun person," Sarah said, remembering the little ears wandering around the kitchen, singing nonsense songs to the dog. "Go wash up. We're all eating breakfast together."

"Kill me now."

Violet looked up from squishing Sir's face. "Aunt Ellie tells me that I shouldn't forget to scrub behind my ears when I take a bath."

Since Casey's scowl deepened to frightening levels, Sarah put an arm around the girl and gave him her biggest grin. "That's exactly right. Don't forget to scrub behind your ears, Casey."

He grumbled wordlessly as he stomped out of the kitchen. Violet scooted into her seat at the table. "How come you don't call him John if he's your brother?"

"Because he likes being called Casey."

"And Major Casey Sir?"

"He loves that."

"Awesome!"

Chuck stumbled in, definitely a little more rumpled than usual. "What's awesome?" he asked. He gave Violet a one-armed noogie/hug. "Morning, Megabyte."

"Major Casey Sir is awesome," Violet said. "Sarah doesn't call him John because he prefers Casey, but he likes Major Casey Sir even better. Do you think it's because he shares his name with Sir?"

"Of course it is," Chuck said. "Hey, Megabyte, look at the wall or something, will you? I'm going to kiss Sarah good morning."

Obligingly, she covered her eyes with her hands. "Kissing kind of looks gross."

"Yeah, yeah, save it for the peanut gallery. Hi." Chuck stepped around the chair and pulled her close, and though she normally didn't really find smugness all that attractive, a little curl of sheer lust made its presence known. It only intensified when Chuck kissed her, taking his time. She bunched her hand in his shirt.

"Hey, guys, what's—oh, gross. Is this going to be a regular thing now?"

"Uncle Morgan!"

Chuck lifted his head to glare at his best friend while Sarah chuckled and rested her forehead against his shoulder. "Thanks. Thanks so much."

"If you two are going to be all gross and public displays of affection, I'm gonna have to rescue the Megabyte. Who knows what these G-rated eyes will see?" Morgan snatched the giggling Violet up and tossed her over his shoulder, spinning around.

Sarah eyed the wall. That was cutting it rather close.

"Uncle Morgan! Sarah made pancakes!"

"You two kept your lips off of each other long enough for her to do that?" Morgan asked.

"Well, considering I just woke up..."

"I'm sorry, did you not want pancakes?" Sarah asked, raising an eyebrow at Morgan.

"I don't know, I'm protecting the impressionable youth here. Are they—ooh, strawberries, sign me up." Morgan stopped spinning long enough to head for the table—where he promptly ran into Casey, who'd just entered the kitchen. Morgan wobbled backward and nearly tripped over Sir, who had nosed over because all of the activity had intrigued him more than the potential of food. Sarah saw catastrophe happening in slow motion.

Until Casey plucked up the child with one hand and grabbed the nerd with the other. He grunted as he tossed Morgan into a seat.

Violet's face lit up with rapture. She wrapped her arms around Casey's neck. "Major Casey Sir!"

He unceremoniously plunked her in the chair next to Morgan's. "I was told breakfast was mandatory."

"You're cheerful as ever this morning, Major," Morgan said. "Sweet dreams of enemy fire and bowie knives, I'm guessing?"

"Quiet." Casey speared a stack of pancakes and dragged them onto his plate. He turned slightly in his chair to give Chuck and Sarah a look. "We've talked about this."

"PDA police is here," Chuck said, but he gave her another quick kiss—Casey made one of those subsonic growling noises—before he sat at the table, leaving the last seat for her. Sir plopped his giant haunches on the tiled floor next to Chuck's seat, obviously recognizing a soft touch when he saw one.

"Just shut up and let me eat," Casey said, glaring at him. When Violet gave him a puzzled look, he sighed. "I'm hungry, okay?"

"Well, you're lucky Sarah made lots and lots."

"Enough to feed an army, for sure," Chuck said. "They look good, Sarah."

"Thanks."

Violet looked confused. "But Major Casey Sir, you said you were Marines, not Army."

"Hoorah," Casey said.

Sarah had to fight back the urge to laugh. "It's so nice to have everybody together like this, don't you think?"

"What does ‛Hoorah' mean?"

"God bless Yo Gabba Gabba," Chuck said as he shut off the shower.

Sarah stepped out first, grabbing the towel that was still a little damp from her earlier shower. "Are you going to thank a random cartoon every time we have sex? Is that going to become a thing?"

"You mock, but it has been a long time to me, and it feels disrespectful to thank the deities even though I swear I saw them—again."

They both scrambled into clothes. "Did they look like me again?"

"Not even close to as good as you."

Sarah, in the middle of shimmying back into her underwear, laughed. "That's an incredible line. You didn't find it in the Intersect, did you?"

"I don't know if the Intersect is good at helping me pick up chicks, but, hey, it did bring you into my life, so."

Sarah grabbed his face and gave him a long kiss, though she could feel him laughing a little—until he abruptly stopped and they both had trouble breathing. "How long is Yo Gabba Gabba?"

"Not nearly long enough."

Reluctantly, they broke apart. Sarah stepped back to keep a little distance between them while she waited for her heart-rate to slow. Three months of hiding from surveillance cameras meant things had apparently been a lot more pent up than she expected, evidently. "What time did Sophie say she was coming?" she asked as she pulled her shirt back on.

Chuck tossed her the comb when she gestured. "She said two, so we can probably expect her around three. I haven't told Vi yet."

"Are you going to?"

"I think it's okay to let this one be a surprise, in case she doesn't show."

Sarah thought of her own childhood and all of her father's broken promises. "Probably for the best. You're dressed, you should probably go see if Casey and Violet have burned the place down. I'll need a minute."

"Why? You look perfect."

"Charmer. But if Casey sees me with wet hair, he's going to wonder why I needed a second shower."

"Cleanliness is next to godliness," Chuck said. "And given how angelic you are, you're a very godly woman—"

"Okay, that went from smooth to cheesy," Sarah said, though she laughed as she gave him a kiss and shoved him out of the bathroom. She tidied up, reapplying all of her makeup and blow-drying her hair in almost record time. She figured they were probably pushing their luck, sneaking away while Violet was distracted by a colorful TV program, but Chuck had given her a look after breakfast, and she hadn't been able to resist slipping into the shower after him, and if they were being a little reckless, so what? There weren't any cameras or bugs around to catch them. All too soon they would be back in Burbank and back to the status quo and the constant eyes on them. Casey could grit his teeth and bear it.

On second thought, Casey could shove it. He didn't need to be that grumpy. Come to think of it, actually, he'd been rather disproportionately cranky all day. He had general flavors of grumpiness, really, and she'd become pretty attuned to them during her time in Burbank. Usually she let him deal with those moods—god, he was like a teenager sometimes—on his own, but since they were pretty much living in each other's pockets this week, maybe it was best to get to the core of what was bothering him.

She bypassed the living room, where Chuck and Violet were rough-housing while Sir galomped around them, and walked into the garage. Sure enough, Casey was there, pounding away at the snowmobile. "Just curious, but is this regular grumpiness or is something bothering you more than usual?" she asked.

He banged his hand against the snowmobile, which only made him swear. Belatedly, Sarah realized she probably should have made a noise. "What the hell, Walker?"

"You're being a grouch. I'm being a good partner and making sure there's not something more than general Casey crankiness going on."

"Who the hell says I'm cranky? Not all of us have to deal with pathetic nerd-loving this week, Walker."

"You're cranky," she said when he finally glared at her. "Something's up. What is it?"

"Why do you care?"

"Can't say I really do."

She folded her arms over her chest and stared. It wasn't a threatening stare—that never really worked on him unless she was well and truly pissed—but it was one of the things she'd picked up from Violet. And because of that, it was effective. Casey broke and sighed, though the annoyance didn't lessen. He grumbled wordlessly as he reached into his back pocket and fished out his phone. A couple of taps of his thumb later, he tossed it to her.

Sarah blinked. It was a surveillance feed of their own living room, filled with construction workers. Beckman had warned her this would happen, but unease still sat like a lump in her gut. "What's the big deal? We knew this was coming."

He glared. "Look harder, Walker."

"I don't see anyt—ooh. Oh, no." They'd moved the picture of Ronald Reagan. Did they have a death wish? Sarah winced and closed the feed before she tossed the phone back. No wonder he was so cranky. "I'm sure they'll put it back right where they got it, Casey."

"Like hell they will. Damned pissants."

"I'll call Beckman and—"

"And what? Laugh at me?"

"I was going to say ‛take care of it.' The Gipper will be right back where he belongs." They both glanced at their phones when they chirped off a proximity alert. "However, I'll have to do that later. It looks like Sophie's early."

Casey moved over to the garage door to peek through the panes. "Standard SUV. Smart. If she weren't wasting her life with that acting career, she'd make a good agent."

"There's a cheerful thought." Sarah pushed her hair back and straightened her shoulders. Encounters with Sophie tended to be awkward.

"Good for us she's so paranoid. Makes our jobs easier. Keeps the kid out of the tabloids, too."

"Still, I can't help but wonder why she changed her mind and came to visit," Sarah said.

Casey gave her a long, measuring look. Apparently she wasn't the only one who had picked up something from Violet.

"She's only getting more famous, Casey," Sarah said with a sigh. "A friend owed me a solid, so a few weeks back, I had him hack into a few of the tabloids' networks, see how big of a fuss there is around Sophie Marston. It's pretty big, and only growing. There are rumors that her career's taking off."

"And the paparazzi are only going to get worse?"

"It looks like."

"Well, there's a pleasant thought. Have fun playing the new interfering girlfriend with Violet's mom. I'm going to go see what's in the basement until she leaves."

"Feel free to stay down there indefinitely, asshole," Sarah said under her breath as he left.

She took a couple of minutes checking the surveillance feed from her own phone rather than going out to greet Sophie. She needed to make sure that they hadn't actually damaged Casey's picture of Ronald Reagan. If it came down to her to prevent World War Three, so be it. But eventually she sighed to herself, pocketed the phone, and went into the living room.

"Oh, there you are," Chuck said, his head jerking up. She frowned at the relieved note in his voice, but it occurred to her that if things were weird between her and Sophie, they must be even stranger between Sophie and Chuck. Especially if they weren't arguing. "Were you hiding somewhere?"

"No, just checking on something in the garage."

"Sarah!" Violet bounced over in her snow pants and tugged on Sarah's arm, excitedly. "Did you see? Did you see? My mom's here. She came to visit me."

"I see! Hi, Sophie." She mustered up her friendliest smile, which wasn't easy to do in the wake of Casey's accusations.

Sophie looked equally awkward, at least. "Sarah. Hi. I hope you're not mad at me for intruding on your vacation."

"No, it's great. And honestly, I think it's Ellie's vacation. The rest of us just follow orders."

Sophie forced an uneasy laugh.

"I can't deny it," Chuck said. "She's hired a photographer to come take snow portraits and everything. It's a bit like living with a military general. But don't worry, she's out skiing right now."

"Oh, thank god," Sophie said, and the stab of sympathy Sarah felt was genuine. She wouldn't want to be Ellie Bartowski's greatest enemy either.

"Mom came all this way just to see me," Violet said, tugging on Sarah's arm again. "And we're going to play in the snow and build snowmen like Squidward. Are you coming, too?"

"I think it should just be you and your mom for a little while," Sarah said. "But I promise to admire the snowman later. Actually, why don't I help you get into the rest of your outside gear, let your mom talk to your dad for a minute."

"Coward," Chuck muttered as she moved around him.

"Damned straight." Though she gave him a wink.

In the mudroom, she helped Violet into the layers of clothing, again marveling that this had become her life. She snugged the hat down on Violet's head and had to bite back the urge to laugh. The girl looked like a pink and purple marshmallow. She could see maybe one tiny strip of skin and Violet's bright blue eyes peeping between the scarf and the hat.

"What's so funny?"

"Can you even move?" Sarah asked.

Violet wiggled around like a penguin. "Of course I can."

"Of course you can."

"She looks like that abominable snowman thing you showed me, but pink," Sarah told Chuck a few minutes later, after Sophie had taken Violet outside. They'd made themselves comfortable on the couch, Chuck with his head resting on her thigh and Sarah holding a mug of tea. "We may be overdressing her."

"Southern California baby," Chuck said. "We have notoriously thin blood. Besides, she'll start stripping layers if she gets too warm. And we'll undoubtedly miss a few when she does, so some poor schmo that rents this cabin next will find, like, a single glove in the snow, and they'll always wonder."

"Well, as long as we provide absolute strangers with a mystery." Sarah turned on the TV and began flicking through the channels. She hadn't really discussed Sophie's surprise in depth with him, and she wasn't sure she wanted to. Casey hadn't sounded surprised when she brought up her theory, which meant he'd likely seen the signs for himself. Chuck probably had, too. Or had he? He could look at the world through some pretty rosy lenses when he wanted to. It was a skill that Sarah envied, even though her heart ached a little at the potential pain that was heading down the line. Violet really only saw her mother once a month, and Sarah got the feeling that the little girl was picking up on the fact that there was something different about it, but it would still hurt like nothing else if Sophie chose to break ties completely.

No matter how much easier it would make protecting Chuck.

"I think I should be worried," Chuck said, making her jolt a little. "You're rocking a pretty serious face there, Sarah Walker."

"Was I? Just thinking."

"About me?"

"Sure," Sarah said, and Chuck grinned.

"You know, there's nothing really stopping us from staying here on the couch and just necking like a couple of teenagers," Chuck said. He wiggled his eyebrows.

"I will shoot you both," Casey said from behind the couch. They both winced a little as they heard him stomping into the kitchen.

"Well, he's a spoilsport." Chuck sat up and propped his socked feet up on the coffee table. He did an elaborate stretching move that somehow ended with his arm around her shoulders, and Sarah shook her head at him. "He can at least let me have this."

"I think he woke up on the wrong side of the bed," Sarah said. "I don't think he'd actually shoot us."

"Would be totally worth it. And my god, I have no idea what is up with me today. It's like Smooth Operator Chuck took over my body. I have to say, it's a little annoying. Where was that guy when I needed him in college, huh?"

"I thought you were monogamous in college."

"Yeah, and look how well that ended for me. It's like—wait, is that what's bothering you?"

Sarah had to blink at that one a few times. "Monogamy in college?"

"No. Uh, no." Chuck withdrew his arm and shifted so that he was facing her. "Sorry, that segue is a little hard to follow. But is that what's got that look on your face? Regretting sleeping with me?"

"You're going to have to explain that segue to me. How did you get from college Chuck to me regretting sleeping with you?"

"Jill, mostly, but that's not important. Is that what it is?"

"No," Sarah said, because even though she wondered at the wisdom of taking their relationship up a level—and she really needed to spend less time among video game nerds—she didn't actually regret sleeping with Chuck. Maybe she'd wondered if it was actually the smart thing to do. But the act itself? She was already counting the hours until they could be alone, and Casey could go stuff a sock in it. "No, that's not it. I definitely do not regret sleeping with you."

"Well, I'm sure I can do plenty to help you change your mind."

Sarah ignored Casey's potential wrath to lean forward and give him a long kiss. "Not going to change my mind."

"Sure, you say that now—"

"Chuck, do me a favor: stop talking."

"Yes, ma'am. Though I'm still curious, for the record." Chuck gasped when Sarah's hand slid up his thigh. "But there's always time for curiosity later, I've found."

"Good policy." Sarah went still as she spotted something over his shoulder.

She didn't mask the movement enough, which wasn't a surprise because she was half in Chuck's lap. He jerked up, nearly dislodging Sarah. "What? What is it? Vi? Is she—"

"She's fine." Sarah could see both Violet and Sophie outside, darting in among the trees. As Sarah scanned the tree-line, Sophie snatched Violet up and spun her around, and they collapsed into the snow, no doubt to make snow angels. "See?"

"Then what's the matter? You reacted to something."

"Not sure yet. I'm going to go check the property."

"Vi should come inside—"

"Actually, you should go outside and build a snowman with her. It'll be fine." Sarah made sure the look on her face was absolutely supportive and calm. "I'm just being paranoid. Casey and I will check it out, okay?"

He was already heading for the mudroom. "Are you sure?"

"Positive. We need to keep up appearances."

"But—"

"Chuck, do you trust me?"

He swallowed hard. "Of course."

"Then go on. Play with your daughter. It'll be fine."

She left him in the mudroom and headed for the kitchen and Casey. "We've got a problem," she said.

"What is it?"

"I think Sophie was followed."

A/N the Second: OH GOD WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE