A/N 9/27/2012 – Thanks for your patience. This took a lot longer than I thought it would but I think I may finally be back into a comfortable writing pattern. Taking a break from this for over a certain length of time can really throw a monkey wrench into things. Also, I'm not writing this story from an outline and had to give some thought to where I wanted it to go. Now that question is somewhat settled, so things should progress a little more smoothly going forward - I think. I'm still trying to stay somewhat flexible with this one and let the story develop on the fly, hehe.

Thanks to my wife and somedeepmystery for beta reading this and putting up with and correcting my many shortcomings as a fiction writer. Yes, I know, I still have a long ways to go.

I don't own Chuck

Sarah Versus the Farm

Chapter 4 – Reaching an Understanding

Everything was moving in slow motion, their feet, their breathing, even the rotor blades of the helicopter seemed to be turning slower. Like one of those dreams where the faster you needed to run the slower you got, like your feet were stuck in thick mud. The Super Cub seemed to be miles away, and it didn't appear to be getting any closer. But the helicopter certainly was. It appeared to be trying to move between them and their only means of escape. It flew towards them like it was going to land, and as it did, it moved heavily, drunkenly, like it was struggling almost as badly as their feet were as they ran.

Chuck realized as he watched the helicopter that his impromptu calculations were correct; that it was operating very near its maximum hover altitude here in this high alpine valley in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. He had an advantage here and he was going to use it. As the helicopter moved to land not far from them he jumped down onto the gravel edged riverbank near them as Sarah looked at him with confusion trying to tug him back toward the Cub. He jerked his hand from hers and picked up a double handful of round river stones, throwing them up into the air over the whirling rotor disk of the helicopter.

"SHIIIT!" the pilot exclaimed as the helicopter made a terrible racket around them. Stones went flying every which direction as the rotor blades hit them and the pilot yanked on the stick and collective trying to move them out of harms way. John Casey grabbed the edge of his seat watching the rotor disk almost come in contact with the ground as they maneuvered from the unexpected danger so surprisingly, and literally, thrown at them. Casey glared back at the young man who had almost brought them down with a hand full of stones like a modern day story of David and Goliath.

Chuck got a good look at the angry man in the passenger seat as the helicopter quickly turned away, and he froze for a second while a set of very disturbing government files appeared before him and he tried to shake the image and the sudden accompanying headache away. He looked up from the riverbank to Sarah who was standing there above him on the grass with an expression of complete shock and disbelief before she too finally shook her head and pulled her attention back to the helicopter as it flew away from them.

Turning her attention once again to Chuck, she held her hand out to him and shouted, "Come on!" Sarah watched him standing there as if he was frozen in place for a couple of seconds with an utterly perplexed look on his face. What just happened to him? Then Chuck finally reached out and took her hand and was amazed at her strength as she yanked him up him up out of the riverbed and pulled him toward Stephen's Mistress with an iron grip on his wrist. This was all way too much. It made his head spin trying to take all of this in. They finally made it to the airplane and Sarah released her grip on him to climb in. "C'mon, get in Chuck!" she exclaimed, but then watched with bewilderment as Chuck ran back to the picnic blanket behind the plane and quickly gathered everything up in it in a large ball of cloth. "Chuck! What are you doing?!"

He ran up to the plane and tossed the blanket and its contents into the baggage compartment over Sarah's shoulder. "My grandmother made that blanket!" he shouted back, with an odd mixture of anger and amusement on his face, as he hastily climbed into the front seat, "Besides, I've already got two government agents breathing down my neck, I don't need the Forest Service doing it, too!"

Sarah just stared dumbfounded at him and the brown curly locks spilling from under the bottom of his cap as she watched him hurriedly start the engine. When the Cub's engine roared to life and the airplane started to move, Chuck pushed the throttle and stick swiftly forward, and the planes tail lifted as he pivoted it on the left wheel. As the plane turned around on the gravel bar the McDonald Douglas MD520n came into view ahead of them over the river, moving in an apparent attempt to block their takeoff. Releasing the left brake, Chuck stood for a split second on the left rudder pedal and the plane accelerated across the gravel bar in a turn rapidly picking up speed. He yanked on the Johnson bar, pulling out the flaps, just as the wheels hit the water. Then he flipped a switch cover up on the stick, pressing a button that caused the engine to race as nitrous oxide flowed from a small tank under the pilot's seat. The airplane hydroplaned across the water almost directly at the helicopter, coming up on one hydroplaned wheel as it went, with the Super Cub's wingtip only inches from the water.

"Holy SHIT! Who the hell is that guy?" the helicopter pilot yelled over the intercom, as the Cub's wingtip narrowly missed the rotor blades of the helicopter when it flashed by.

"The stupid moron is a crop duster pilot," answered, John Casey, through gritted teeth. He watched the plane fly so closely by him he could see the color of the pilot's brown eyes.

"Well he certainly fits the stereotype! That guy is nuts!"

"Hng! No argument there," retorted Casey through a grimace that looked oddly like a smile. "Don't lose him!"

The helicopter turned to give chase as Chuck flew the Mistress up the river only a few feet over the water, in ground effect, letting the airplane accelerate under full power. He whipped the plane into a hard bank and followed a meander in the river between a stand of ponderosa pine trees, flying up a canyon, a large ridge looming above them up ahead. The helicopter was now starting to gain on them not very far behind.

All this time Sarah had been struggling to put her seat belts on as she watched the terrain and trees flash by only feet away from the window. She felt a knot rising in her stomach and for the first time in a very long time, remembered what it felt like to feel almost completely out of control of a situation and her tight control on her fear. "Chuck, what are you doing?" she shouted, over the din of the engine and propeller for the second time in the last minute. "You just flew us into a box canyon!"

Chuck looked briefly back over his shoulder at her "I know! Trust me! I know what I'm doing!"

The brief glimpse Sarah got of his brown eyes told her he was just holding onto the edge of control of his own fear, but he spoke with confidence like he already knew with certainty where the next few seconds were going to lead. She watched Chuck reach for his headset from the overhead bar with his free hand and slip it on almost effortlessly as he flew the plane up the canyon jinking around the turns in the narrowing river at tree top height. She reached for her own headset and put it on as she watched the canyon wall flash by and the ridge looming up ahead getting larger in the windscreen. All this time the helicopter with its better top speed was rapidly catching up to them, now just slightly higher than they were.

"Did you get your seatbelts on?!" Chuck asked. At the same time he quickly took the stick between his knees and latched his lap belt.

"Yes!" She wanted to ask him what the hell he was doing for the third time, but held her tongue when she realized it didn't matter a bit, and that she was along for the ride no matter how it turned out.

"Good!" he answered, "Because you're going to need it! Hold on to your hat!"

Chuck yanked the plane into another hard bank around some trees and toggled the nitrous oxide tank again as he leveled the wings and pulled back on the stick climbing up the canyon wall towards the ridgeline above.

The helicopter behind them struggled to follow. On the verge of a rotor stall, the pilot realized too late he'd been suckered into a performance corner of the flight envelope that he couldn't sustain under the G loading he would need to miss the trees up ahead. He and John Casey watched the Cub roll almost knife-edge up ahead of them narrowly fitting between the gap of a stand of trees near the top of the ridge. Too late, the helicopter pilot realized they weren't going to fit through that gap and he tried to bank the helicopter in a vain attempt to squeeze through and still keep it flying.

"Oooooooooooooh, SHIIIIT!" The ends of the rotor blades went crashing through the trees as the MD520n barely cleared the ridge top and the cockpit started to fill with white smoke as a terrible high pitched grinding whine came from the top of the cabin. Warning horns started to sound and the instrument panel looked like a Christmas tree as almost every annunciator light in the cockpit lit up. John Casey glared out the helicopter windscreen watching the Super Cub ahead of them roll inverted and fly down the back of the ridge line out of sight.

"Dammit! Hang on, Major Casey, we're going down," shouted the pilot, and he then started to sound a Mayday on the radio as he struggled with the controls to make an emergency landing in a small clearing in the trees. The pilot set the helicopter down heavy in the wet snow patched meadow just as the transmission catastrophically failed with a loud grinding bang and the rotor blades ground to a halt.

In the Super Cub, Sarah watched goggle-eyed when Chuck rolled the Mistress into knife-edge, threading the airplane through a stand of pine trees near the top of the ridge as he continued the roll until they were inverted at the top of the ridgeline. She looked up at the tree tops flashing very closely overhead through the sunroof and looked down and saw sky as he pulled the stick back and descended down the back of the ridge upside down. He then pushed on the stick causing them to go weightless in their seats and the plane then rolled back upright again into a hard turn to the right with sudden positive G's. All the while their speed was building as they rounded a corner in the canyon and flew down it. Sarah watched Chuck quickly check over his shoulder behind them and a grimace crossed his face, and for a second he caught her eye before he again looked forward.

"They're not back there anymore! I think they may have gone down!"

"Leave them Chuck," she shouted back, her voice high and cracking slightly, "Get us out of here!"

"No!" He turned and glared at her. "I'm going back, they may be injured!"

"No, Chuck. It isn't safe. We need to get out of these mountains, there might be more of them." Sarah was trying with all her might to sound like she was being reasonable and in control of the situation again. She attempted to moderate the tone and volume of her voice, if only failing a bit, as her voice was still almost a shout.

Chuck stared straight ahead and said with stony words, "Isn't safe? Isn't safe? What the hell was safe about what we just did? I don't know what they do in the world you come from, Sarah, but in mine we always check a crash site for survivors. I don't care who they are!"

He pulled the plane into a climbing turn and flew back up the canyon looking over his shoulder for a moment to see the woman in the back seat giving him a deadly, cold stare, but remaining silent. Her blue eyes were practically glowing with anger, and he felt a shiver run up his spine as he looked at her.

Seeing smoke up ahead he pulled up over the ridgeline and they saw the helicopter that had been chasing them parked in a meadow below as they circled around it. Smoke was billowing from below the rotor hub and two men were standing in the soggy grass staring up at them.

"Are you satisfied now, Chuck?! Now get us out of here before I do it myself!"

Chuck scowled back at Sarah for a second, and then rolled the airplane aggressively back around to the west and descended down low into another canyon. The two of them sat in icy silence for several moments as they flew west towards lower terrain flying just below the ridgelines. When Chuck started to circle a spot in the mountains below them he felt Sarah grab his shoulder with a firm grip.

Sarah's voice was as cold and deadly as liquid oxygen, "What are you doing now, Chuck? I said get us out of these mountains. Get us out of these mountains now, or else-"

"Or else what, Sarah, you're going to shoot me?" He kept his eyes focused straight ahead not wanting to see the deadly look he knew he would see if he looked back at her. He could feel her eyes burning the hair on the back of his head. Then he heard a very heavy sigh come over the intercom. When he looked back at her all he saw was pain.

"Chuck…" Her voice cracked.

Chuck felt the hardness in his own face soften as he looked at her and returned her sigh. "Look, Sarah, only a few moments ago you held on pretty close to me and asked me to trust you. Granted, the circumstances weren't the best," and he allowed that crooked grin to appear a bit on his face, before turning his attention back out the plane and continuing, "But I decided to do it, in spite of all the startling revelations and the deceptions, I decided to do it; because something in me was shouting at me to trust you. Now I'd like you to trust me," he said turning back to her looking her in the eye, "In spite of what you may have been told about me in some briefing, or what you or some agency superior thinks I've done. I'm asking you to trust me. I don't even know why you're here or what this is all about. But I want to sort it out. Will you please give me the opportunity to do that?" They sat in silence for a moment as Chuck circled a point on the ground.

Sarah looked out to try to see what he was circling but couldn't spot anything obvious except what might have been an odd looking cabin in a stand of trees on a hilltop below them. She heard another sigh pass her lips. "All right, Chuck. We'll do it your way," she said quietly, "What do you have in mind?"

She watched Chuck turn to her with that amazing smile, like the previous moments had never happened, and instantly she felt herself calming under the onslaught of its warmth. He chuckled softly and said, "Sorry to do this to you again, so soon, but hold onto your hat."

She watched dumbstruck as Chuck chopped the power and rolled the airplane into a Split-S, diving down toward the mountains below them. He leveled out, adjusting power as he made a sweeping turn toward the hilltop that she had seen the cabin on only a moment before, but there wasn't a runway anywhere in sight. As Chuck approached the hill in front them he pulled out all the flaps and added power, lining up on a short, smooth, grassy area that ran up the hillside toward the top of the hill. Only then did Sarah realize he was going to land there and her breath hitched as he rounded out and the wheels touched down on the hillside. He added more power even as they slowed on the steep slope and rolled out into a small clearing in the trees at the top of the hill. Chuck chopped the power as the ground leveled out, and braking to a halt, he spun the Cub around, shutting the engine down when they stopped.

Sarah realized she had been holding her breath and let it out in as a controlled manner as she could. "Don't tell me, this is another one of your secret picnic spots, isn't it?"

Chuck let out a short mischievous laugh as he turned to her, "This is a whole lot more than a picnic spot. If my Dad had been here to see me do that he would have killed me."

Sarah looked at him with subtly amused curiosity. "I get the impression that's not the first time you've landed here."

Chucks only gave her half a smile but mirth was dancing in his eyes as he answered, "No, it's not. Please don't tell my Dad, O.K.? I would be in so much trouble if he found out."

Sarah couldn't help herself and smiled back at his request, "I promise I won't tell him, Chuck. Where exactly are we?" she asked after looking briefly around them again.

Chuck pointed to a structure partially visible through the trees, "We're on the Kern Plateau, at my Dad's old hunting cabin. Not many people know about it. We should be able to hole up here for a while so we can sort all of this out," he said with a touch of wistfulness, looking down into his lap.

"Chuck…look, we-"

"It's okay, Sarah. There's no way we can avoid this. We have to talk about it; to see if we can reach some sort of an understanding about what is going on here…" As his voice trailed off he looked into her eyes, and Sarah knew when she gazed back into his own brown eyes that he was talking about much more than the events of the last half hour or so. The strange events and circumstances she had experienced with Chuck since meeting him only a little more than a day ago shook her to the core as they flashed through her mind like a movie. Chuck unlatched his lap belt and quietly started to get out of the plane, snapping her back to the present. Sarah unbuckled her own safety belts and climbed out of the Cub following him across the small clearing into the trees.

-II-

The two of them walked through the trees up to a small hexagonal shaped structure with a green metal roof. The building was covered with shakes and several small windows were set in the facets of the six walls. An odd shed-like structure was attached to one side of the building with solar panels on its roof and a small satellite dish was perched on the roof of the cabin. A seldom-used jeep trail led away from the building down the side of the hill and out of sight into the growing darkness around them. Sarah followed Chuck up to the very substantial front door and he pulled a key ring from his pocket inserting one of the keys into a round Buffo lock in a large hasp on the door.

They walked into the small cabin and Chuck reached up and picked up a flint lantern starter from a shelf by the door and lit a small gas lamp on the wall near them. The brightening lamp mantle illuminated the modest interior space revealing two metal bunk beds along two of the walls. Both of the bunks were the type that had single beds on the top and full sized beds on the bottom. A table and chairs were in the center of the room, and a small kitchen was along one of the other walls. The doorway to a small bathroom was situated between the beds and the kitchen. Another doorway on the opposite side of the kitchen with a window in it looked into a dark space beyond. There was a small desk on the other side this door with a computer sitting on it. It seemed a little out of place in the rustic looking room. There were also two simple wooden chairs with cushions arranged around a small pot-bellied stove between the front door and the beds.

Chuck turned to her with a slightly melancholy look in his eyes. "Please, make yourself at home. The bathroom is over there if you need it," he said to her pointing at the door.

Sarah looked back at him for a moment trying to gauge his somber mood, and then nodded wordlessly back at him before walking into the bath and shutting the door. She stood with her back leaning against the door for a few seconds and let out a long cleansing breath before turning her attention to a very strange looking toilet under a small window. After taking a moment to re-familiarize herself with the workings of a composting toilet she turned back to a mirror over the sink and stared at her reflection for several minutes attempting to make some sense of the chaos she now found herself in. Finally, washing up and splashing some water on her face, she wiped her face with a towel that was hanging on a ring by the sink, took another deep breath, and walked back into the main room of the cabin.

A sudden moment of alarm gripped her when she looked around the room and didn't see Chuck, but the front door was still open and she could see a glow coming from outside in the growing darkness. Cautiously, she walked to the door to see Chuck with his back to her, sitting on a split log bench. He was using a stick to poke at a freshly lit fire in a fire ring near his feet. Sarah watched him from the doorway for a moment, noticing how the firelight played across him. She studied him, taking in his broad but slightly hunched and stooped shoulders. His posture seemed to be telegraphing a sense of defeat to her. She silently walked up to him, placing her hand on his shoulder, and it made him jump as he looked up at her with a tight-lipped and sheepish smile. The reflection of the fire dancing in his eyes revealed a veiled sadness that made her heart leap into her throat.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you," she said apologetically as she took a seat close to him on the bench. She inwardly breathed a sigh of relief when he didn't move away.

"It's okay, don't worry over it. I'm just a little on edge right now." He had her picnic bag next to his feet and pointed to it, "Would you like something to eat?"

"Yeah, that would be nice." Sarah watched Chuck as he dug through the bag. She sighed quietly as she thought about the source of his edgy mood and the awful string of events that had led up to this moment. He seemed to be remarkably in control of himself in the face of all that had transpired, and it surprised her a bit. As she watched him she saw a person who seemed to sometimes give in to his moods, like he was now, but didn't let them rule over him. It intrigued her to know he could apparently stay in such close touch with his feelings without letting them drag him into a destructive mental state. He had the look about him that seemed to say he'd seen a lot in his life; tough times that had made him grow up quickly, molding him into a person who seemed to be able to roll with the punches life threw at him. But he still seemed to wear his heart on his sleeve despite it all. She wondered how he managed to do that. Her own life had molded her into an often times hard and cold person; a person who had over the years raised enormous walls around herself to keep the outside world at bay. It was how she stayed in control and coped with the occasionally nasty world she worked and lived in. But this man in front of her didn't appear to have any walls whatsoever, and she wondered how he coped with the world without them. It was a foreign concept to her, and one that completely contradicted her own life experiences and the training she had received at the Farm.

"I don't know about you, but I could sure use that cookie now. How do you feel about dessert, first?" he asked with a small smile that didn't make it to his eyes.

"Sure, that sounds good," she heard herself answer, with a shy smile, as she accepted the offered carrot cake cookie and took a small bite. Sarah found herself momentarily weighed down by dread, as she struggled to find something else to say to him; anything that might re-establish that amazing connection she had so quickly made with him. A bond she so abjectly feared had been lost in such an equally short time. Then Chuck saved her, if only from her inner battle when he spoke up.

"What happened to me, Sarah? Why am I suddenly being watched and chased by the CIA and the NSA? Why am I seeing these strange visions and having these sudden…I don't know what to call them…flashes of information I should know nothing about? I looked at John Casey today in that helicopter and I saw his entire NSA personnel file…and a whole lot more. That is not a very nice man."

"I don't know exactly what has happened, Chuck, but maybe we can figure it out together." Sarah's heart once again beat heavy in her chest as she pondered a horrible possibility. "Chuck, did you…flash on my personnel file, too?" She couldn't help herself. She had to ask. She needed to know if he'd seen that piece of her that haunted her every time she looked in a mirror.

"No, I didn't. Should I have? I don't understand what's happening to me Sarah, what is causing me to see these things, what might be triggering them. I saw the complete schematic for your GLG-70 watch when I saw it blinking today. This is one of the strangest things I've ever experienced."

Sarah was relieved, but lost in thought for a moment as she asked herself why Chuck would see the intel on John Casey but not hers. Lacking an explanation she pursed her lips, and looking at Chuck, decided to take a different tack. "Chuck, have you heard from Bryce Larkin recently?"

He looked back at her with curious alarm. "As a matter of fact, yes. He sent me an email a couple of days ago. I just got around to reading it last night. Do you know Bryce?"

Sarah felt that knot in her stomach when she heard Chuck's second question, then deflected it. "What was the email about?"

Chuck looked thoughtfully into the fire for a moment, munching on a bite of his cookie. "It was pretty strange. Somehow he hacked my Halo game server and created a private game on it. The email looked like a challenge to play the game. It had a riddle in it for the game access password. It was all a little weird because I haven't heard from Bryce in ages."

"Before you got that email when was the last time you spoke with Bryce?" she asked biting her lower lip.

Chuck visibly winced when he recalled the memory. "Right after he burned me and got me kicked out of Annapolis using false accusations that I had cheated on my mid-terms. We actually had a physical confrontation. It was the first time I'd ever been in an actual fight. It didn't end well for me," he answered with a despondent sigh.

Again, Sarah felt the knot twisting at Chuck's mention of the word 'burned', and the thought of him losing in a fight with Bryce. The notion that Chuck had lost the fight didn't surprise her knowing what she did about Bryce. But the fact that Bryce would do what he did to his best friend did surprise her. She thought she knew Bryce better than that.

"Sarah, why would he send me that email, and challenge me to a game, after all this time and after what he did to me at the Naval Academy? It doesn't make sense. I almost deleted the message because I'm still so angry about it."

I wish you had, Chuck. "Did you solve the riddle?"

"Oh, yeah, that was easy. I solved the riddle and accessed the game. But it wasn't a game…" he trailed off, as if he'd come to a sudden realization that sounded too fantastic to be possible.

"What happened then, Chuck?"

"I don't really know. I remember being a little freaked out when my server stack went berserk…and then there were these images on the computer monitors. Then, the next thing I knew, Morgan was waking me up and I had a terrible headache…and my server was crashed…in fact it was way more than crashed. It was wiped clean."

Chuck gazed at the young woman next to him. He could see the hard drives spinning in her head as he watched her lost in deep thought. An ugly thought crept into his head as he wondered if he could really trust her at all and if the signals she had been sending him were just because she was only using him to get what she wanted.

"Sarah, what did Bryce send me? What aren't you telling me?"

Looking back at Chuck, Sarah could see what he was thinking. He wasn't hiding it at all. He was questioning his trust in her, and it made her heart sink seeing it. But who could blame him after what she had done? Playing him was part of her mission plan. But the mission had changed, and so had her feelings for Chuck. She had to regain his trust somehow, and not just for the missions sake. She could see the possibility that this operation she was on might take an unexpected turn, and much larger possibilities beyond that. Thinking back on her actions of the last twenty-four hours she wondered if she had known that all along.

It was time for full disclosure. "Chuck, Bryce is an agent for the NSA. He was recruited in his senior year at the Academy. For some reason he went rogue and destroyed a highly classified government project at Fort Meade." Sarah paused as she thought about what more she could tell him.

"What kind of government project? Did it have anything to do with computers and intelligence gathering?"

Well, at least he's asking the right questions. She let out a sudden breath, "The project was called the Intersect. It was designed to gather and correlate intelligence data and look for patterns and links in the noise. I was told in my briefing for this mission that they were also experimenting with visually encoding the data in a program to supposedly allow faster access to the results, but the purpose was never explained. That's really the most I knew about it until this morning when I discovered you unconscious on the floor in your den and-"

"Wait a second. You were at my house and found me? Why didn't you wake me then?"

"I didn't know what had happened to you, Chuck. If I'd awakened you I would have blown my cover. I needed some time to put the puzzle together."

"So how come I'm seeing these visions, or flashes, or whatever they are?" Deep down he already knew the answer and it scared the daylights out of him.

"Because it's also a program. A program that was designed to be downloaded into the human brain. I didn't understand why they would visually encode the data until you accessed it when you saw my watch today."

Chuck palmed his face as the implications of what she was telling him sank in. "I have a computer program in my head? One that has all the CIA's and NSA's intelligence on it?" He suddenly felt like he had a huge target painted on his back.

Sarah somberly nodded back at him, sitting quietly for a moment. She pulled her cell phone from her pocket and saw she had one bar and encrypted access. She breathed a sigh of relief at the sight. "Chuck, I need to call my Director to let him know what's going on. This is a game changer and I need to consult him on it."

Sarah took his hand in hers and looked earnestly into his eyes. "If it means anything at all to you at this point, I'm sorry about what has happened to you, and I'm going to do everything I can to help you. Please believe that, Chuck. I'm on your side…and I'll stay there if you'll let me."

Chuck gulped as he stared glassy eyed at her. "Sarah, are they going to disappear me over this?"

Her gaze fell to her feet as she sighed, thinking about the possibility and her contingency orders; illegal orders that could have painted a target on her own back now that she thought about it. "I don't know, Chuck, but I'm going to do everything in my power to prevent it." She looked back up at him and her eyes were that burning blue flame again, "Please believe that, Chuck. I won't let them hurt you or take you from your family." Or me! Damn the orders!

"I need to call my Director now. Why don't you go inside? I'll be in, in a little bit."

"Alright," he answered warily, "I think I'll email Morgan and let him know that we're okay. He's got to be worrying about us. I just hope he hasn't already called the cavalry."

"What?" she looked at him in amazement, "You have internet access up here in the boonies?"

He chuckled briefly, "Please. I'm a Bartowski. I feel practically naked without my technology." He pointed to the satellite dish and the shed building. "See that? Well, it's a remote observatory. Dad and I built it a few years ago. We access the telescopes and run them over the internet."

Sarah looked at him agape as she thought about the nerdiness required to do that. Every minute she was around Chuck he surprised her more and more. "Okay. Go ahead and let Morgan know we're all right. But don't tell him where we are. Or better yet, why don't you tell him we're someplace else." She felt a twinge of guilt at the thought of asking him to lie to his best friend.

Chuck looked back at her for a few seconds and then grinned with that funny one-sided smile. "I understand. I can do that; and I know just the place. I'll see you in a few minutes," he said, as he picked up the picnic bag and walked toward the cabin. "I'll go ahead and make us some supper," he added looking over his shoulder at her, hoisting the bag up in his hand.

"Okay. That sounds good. I'm pretty hungry." When the door closed Sarah turned back toward the fire, staring into the flames and composing her thoughts for a few moments. Then, looking at her phone, she pressed the encrypted speed dial command. Somehow she had to make this right.

-III-

When Sarah walked back into the cabin she was surprised to see a bottle of wine sitting open on the table along with most of the contents of the picnic bag. There were place settings on the table and a simple chandelier made of deer antlers hanging from the peak of the ceiling on a chain was lit up over it. Chuck was in the kitchen slicing up some cheese and cleaning some strawberries that they hadn't gotten around to eating at lunch.

"Oh, hi," he said as he turned around and placed the cutting board and bowl of fruit on the table, "Dinner is served."

"Wow, this looks good; and wine too, I'm impressed."

He grinned as he poured some wine into her glass – a real wine glass. "I keep a few bottles up here just in case. Pinot seemed appropriate, I hope you like it. Please, dig in."

"Pinot sounds good," she said taking a seat in the simple wooden chair at the table, and plastering her best CIA smile on her face as she took a sip of the wine.

He looked back at her cautiously as he sat down and started to eat, noticing her equally cautious smile. "I really don't want to get dinner conversation off to a bad start, but you look a little troubled. How did your conversation with your boss go?"

Damn, how did he see through that? She looked at him for a moment and bit her lower lip as she thought about it and picked up a slice of cheese, "Honestly, I'm still trying to read between the lines about that. My boss can be a little cryptic at times."

"Big surprise there, considering he's a big wheel at the CIA," Chuck quipped.

She looked up at him through her eyelashes and smiled; this time it was more genuine. "Well, he certainly didn't get where he is by showing everyone his cards."

"So, what did he say?"

She chewed her food thoughtfully using it as an excuse to delay her answer. "At first he wanted to take you into protective custody-"

Chuck choked and his face fell. That didn't sound good.

"However," she continued stretching the word out, "I made a strong argument for the assignment of a personal protective detail instead," she paused waiting for him to look at her. "I volunteered for the job," she continued when he finally did.

He looked at her incredulously, "Why would you do that? Aren't you a field operative?"

"I promised you I'd help you. I don't know any other better way to do that than asking for assignment to your protective detail. I'm also uniquely qualified for the assignment and already read in on the Intersect program. This way we can minimize the number of people who know about you. It's a security risk every time another person is read in with this information. That's how I presented it to Graham."

"Graham is your boss?" He picked up a strawberry and bit into it, wondering where he had heard that name before.

"Yes, Graham is a Deputy Director and the Director of the National Clandestine Service. I think I made a strong argument for you, Chuck. I think he's considering it seriously."

"But he hasn't made a decision."

"No," she answered, but then added when she saw him frown, "I think there's a good chance he'll go for it, though." God, I hope so. She wasn't sure if Graham would agree to losing his protégé and best case officer to a protective detail. The alternative was not pretty. She thought of the real possibility of having to take Chuck off grid and run. It was a possibility that had her really wondering about her motivations. The thought of how her loyalties might have changed startled her. But she had tried to convince Graham that there was a possibility that Chuck could be brought in as an asset, even though she found the idea repulsive, and what it would mean for her and Chuck personally. That thought made her heart heavy.

"And if he does, what then?" Chuck asked as he set his glass down and started to push his food around his plate.

"I don't know," Sarah answered, somewhat crestfallen, "We'll just have to wait and see, I guess."

"Okay." He looked at her realizing something about that was bothering her, but changed the subject when he thought of a file he'd seen. "And what about John Casey? Does he have orders to kill me?"

Sarah stared back at him wondering just what Chuck had seen in that 'flash'. "Graham is trying to get in contact with Casey's boss at the NSA to have him called off. I don't know what his orders were, but they probably weren't much different than mine."

"The man had an assault rifle, Sarah."

"Yes, and he probably could have shot both of us back in that meadow. But I really don't know."

"Okay, I think I can accept that." He looked back at her regretfully, and then felt a lump in his throat as he pondered just what Sarah's orders might have been. "I think we really need to change the subject, because I've had enough of this depressing topic for now. I emailed Morgan and told him we were okay and where we were. He was glad to hear we were all right. He was getting a little worried about us."

"Where did you tell him we went?"

"Barstow."

Sarah looked at Chuck like he'd sprouted a rack of deer antlers, "Barstow? Why Barstow?" What's in Barstow besides truck stops and seedy motels?

He shot her that megawatt smile and it melted her. "Believe it or not, there's a really great steak house there. Morgan and I fly over there occasionally and borrow the airport courtesy car to go there for dinner. He was a little jealous to hear I took you there."

Maybe you'll have to really take me there for dinner sometime, Chuck. "Oh, okay, I guess that works. Except for explaining us being gone overnight."

"Well, we were going to have to find a way to explain that anyway," Chuck, said sheepishly, trying to hide the smile, but failing miserably.

"Yeah, I suppose you're right." Sarah murmured smiling back as she looked up at him through her eyelashes. Did we get one room, or two? Two beds, or one? Stop!

He smiled at her again and rose from his seat, starting to clear the table. "We'll figure that one out later. How would you like to see the observatory? Can I give you a tour?"

Sarah shot him an amused sideways glance. "That sounds suspiciously like 'how would you like to see my etchings', Chuck," and she smiled when he turned beet red.

"No,no,no,no, nothing like that, completely innocent," he stammered, "I just thought I'd share my nerdy side with you."

Damn. "Sure, I'd love to see your observatory," she answered with a impish smile, "Maybe constellations are better than etchings." That should get his mind off of John Casey and the Intersect for a while.

Chuck almost dropped the plates he was holding.

-IV-

Wow. It was nerdier than she'd envisioned. Chuck pushed a button next to the door when they entered and the low roof rolled off to one side. He flipped another switch and the roofless room was bathed in soft blue-green light from L.E.D. lights mounted low on the walls. Spaced equidistant on the floor mounted on pedestals were two telescopes on what looked like very expensive German equatorial mounts. One was a large short-focus refractor and the other some kind of big compound reflector. Each had specialized digital cameras and filter carousels mounted on them with carefully bundled wires leading away to a computer that was sitting in a protective cabinet in the corner by a small work desk.

Looking up, as her eyes adjusted to the darkness, Sarah saw a spectacular sky filled with stars. More than she could recall seeing in a long, long, time. Even with a waning full moon just starting to peak up over mountains the sky was just amazing. As she looked up she realized it was having a surprising effect on her. Maybe this really is better than etchings.

Chuck walked over to the P.C. and typed some commands on the keyboard causing the refractor telescope to slew towards the northern sky. After activating another program he clicked some icons on the monitor with the mouse and a galaxy appeared, filling the screen.

"Wow, now that is really neat," exclaimed Sarah when she saw it, stepping up very close to him with her hand on his shoulder to get a closer look. Even with the troubling day they'd had the sensation she'd felt when touching him was still there. But she could sense wariness in him, a reluctance to return her touch, and before she could stop it a small sad sigh passed her lips. He seemed to notice it.

"Andromeda. Our closest galactic neighbor. You can actually see it with the naked eye or a pair of binoculars. But a five inch refractor really does it justice," said Chuck looking at her with a soft smile.

"You said you and your Dad built all this?" she asked with a tilt of her head, almost resting it on his shoulder. She felt a small victory when he let his hand rest on the small of her back.

"Yeah, back when I was a junior in high school. It was sort of a father-son bonding thing shortly after my grandfather died. Over the years I've upgraded it a bit. It's completely controllable over the internet. Some of my friends use it more than I do, now."

"Well this is amazing; and the sky up here is beautiful. You and your Dad seemed to share a lot of interesting hobbies," said Sarah with more than a little curiosity.

Chucked looked at her and laughed, "Yeah, probably way more than was healthy, at least for Dad's bank account, but we've had a lot of fun with it."

"I'll bet." This seemed like a better opportunity than she'd had so far, but she still felt very uncomfortable asking it. "Tell me more about your Dad, Chuck. What was he like?"

Chuck's expression turned somber and he looked at her appraisingly a few seconds before he took her hand and turned to walk toward the door. "C'mon. This conversation is going to require some elixir."

Sarah shook her head as her shoulders fell a bit, realizing she might have just put them almost back to square one, and followed him into the kitchen. He reached up and grabbed a blue velvet bag with a gold tie cord and yellow stitching off the top of one of the kitchen cabinets and two glass tumblers off a shelf. Recognizing the bag she knew exactly where he was going as he walked out the front door. She watched him throw some more firewood on the embers and stir them back into a flame. Then he sat down on one of the split log benches and patted it with his hand. Quietly, she sat next to him and took a glass of the amber liquid when he filled it and held it out for her.

Filling his glass with three fingers he took a sip and cleared his throat, "My Dad. Where to begin?" he asked the flames in front of them.

"You don't have to talk about this if you don't want to," said Sarah, apologetically. She knew how she felt when asked these questions. She'd been evading them from Chuck only this afternoon.

"It's okay," he said taking another sip and looking into the flames, "It's so ironic how much easier this is to talk about now. My parents were spies."

She hadn't expected that. "What? Both of them?"

He chuckled hoarsely, "Gramps too."

"You're kidding me," Sarah, said shaking her head not sure whether to believe it. But he hasn't lied to me yet.

"Nope. No lie, no joke. It was kind of a family thing, I guess. Ellie and I come from a long line of spies; all the way back to before the civil war. We broke the chain…at least we tried to…" he said, wistfully.

Sarah shook her head at the sudden revelation, realizing Chuck had been brought back into a world he wanted nothing to with, by someone who was once his best friend. Then something else occurred to her that she'd given little thought to until he mentioned both his parents. "What happened to your Mom? You've never mentioned her."

His gaze fell to his feet. "Mom disappeared almost fifteen years ago on a mission. We never heard what happened to her. Only that my Dad said for us not to give up hope."

Oh, my gosh! "I'm so sorry, Chuck," she said placing her hand on his arm, "Did Bryce know about this?"

"Yep."

That son-of-a-bitch! "I don't know what to say." She really didn't. The whole thing left her speechless, and angry.

"Not much to say, I guess. Maybe it's destiny, or fate…or whatever," he said, palming his face with a sigh.

"I really wish there was something I could do, Chuck; to make this all go away." How can we get this out of his head? This is just wrong!

"I feel like I've been dragged into a world I want no part of, Sarah. I saw what that world did to my parents." Chuck looked at her with pleading eyes that made her heart sink. "I refuse to let myself become a part of it…" his voice trailed off and it was laced with despair.

Sarah looked at him sympathetically, but curiously. She wondered how with all the briefing information she had received for this mission, something as important as Chuck's parent's being spies could have been so glaringly omitted. She needed to know more, but didn't know how to ask. She couldn't ask. Not right now.

They sat by the fire for a long time without saying a word. Long enough for Chuck to have to throw some more wood on it, and to refill their glasses.

"Why did you do it, Sarah?"

She sighed and pursed her lips, avoiding eye contact with him "Do what?"

"You know, Sarah. Why did you ask me for a job? Why did you insinuate yourself so deeply into my life so quickly? What were you thinking when you did that? Was it all about the mission?"

She gulped as she looked up at him. She had been asking herself that same question repeatedly for the last day and didn't seem to be getting closer to any real answers. She had always been all about the mission. And this one, well there were some very ugly aspects to it that frightened even her when she thought of the implications of what she'd been ordered to do.

"I don't know." She paused for a moment to think about it as she looked at her own questions mirrored in his eyes. "I have a tendency to compartmentalize things. Sometimes plan ahead for things…contingencies…things that I think will happen, or could happen. Sometimes I do it without even thinking about it. It just…happens. But I think a part of me really wanted that job, Chuck." After a long moment of hesitation she stammered, "At first it was all about the mission…but then…something…"

They sat for a few moments in silence, and then Chuck looked into the campfire and spoke, "I know this has all been very sudden…and that sometimes I can be as dense as the January Tule fog…but there is something going on here isn't there…something between us?"

They both stared into the campfire and the silence slowly became more and more unbearable, "I'm sorry Sarah, I shouldn't have asked. I know you have a job to do and I-"

Very quietly she interrupted him. He almost didn't hear it. "Yes." Sarah couldn't believe her ears when she heard her own voice say it. She didn't think it would ever be possible, or happen so swiftly.

He looked slowly up at her, but Sarah couldn't meet his gaze and instead kept her focus on the flames in front of her; flames that seemed to be reflecting her own burning emotions. Chuck looked down at his hand when Sarah's reached for it and their fingers intertwined. Then she leaned into his side with her cheek resting on his shoulder.

"Yes, Chuck. There is something... between us…something different…special. I…" she looked up at him earnestly, "This is all so very dangerous. I don't think you have any idea how-"

"Yes, I do." Sarah looked at him a bit surprised. "Listen to me Sarah. I know the dangers. I watched my parents live it. Ellie and I were a product of it. We saw how difficult it was for my Dad and Mom; how it colored and distorted their lives." Chuck took a sip of his whiskey and swallowed it, slowly, thoughtfully, "My sister and I decided long ago we didn't want any part of that life. But, you know what? Over the years I realized that neither of my parents would have changed a thing about their decision to be together even if they had the chance to make that decision all over again."

"Tell me a bit more about your parents, Chuck. How is it that you know what they did for the government? Why did they tell you?"

"Like I said, we're from a long family line of spies," he said, with a soft resigned chuckle. "My family was in the business of secrets, but we didn't believe in keeping secrets from each other. My parents didn't want to live a constant lie with us so we were given the broader picture very early on. There are no rules about sharing the occupation, only the stickier compartmented aspects of life at the tip of the spear. My grandfather was a member of the OSS and he spent a lot of time explaining it all to Ellie and me when we were younger. My parents wanted us to know about it so we'd be prepared if something bad were to happen to them or their covers were exposed in a way that might endanger Ellie and me. They wanted us to be aware of it all so we wouldn't be blind to any danger if it presented itself to us. They wanted us to be wary, Sarah." Chuck stirred the embers a bit, staring at the fire. "A lot of good that did…"

Sarah gazed at him sympathetically as she realized his last words were aimed directly at her, and nodded, before looking back into the fire. She could see the logic in it. How having the knowledge of what your love ones did could actually make you safer knowing you had a reason to be on your guard against the nastier possibilities the job of an operative presented. Still, many officers or agents wouldn't share that sort of thing with their families. The thinking being that ignorance was bliss, and the less your family knew the easier it was for everybody; when the cold reality was that not knowing could potentially place some people in greater danger. She really had to commend Chuck's parents for that. That they trusted their children with at least the larger picture. Sarah couldn't help but wonder how many of the grittier details Chuck and his sister might know. Especially when she considered the knowledge that it sounded like the spy life was apparently a family legacy, and one that Chuck and his sister wanted to break. The only problem she saw with the logic was how it might make someone paranoid and always on their guard; maybe even unable to form close ties with anyone.

Chuck there- "Chuck, there are rules about relationships between assets and handlers." There, she said it; and the thought made her chest feel tight and her heart ache.

"I'll never be an asset, Sarah. I'd rather die in a flaming aircraft accident than allow the government to own me like that. Besides, that stupid rule is total B.S. anyway. It's meaningless in the face of human emotion. My Dad started out as an asset. Well, not in the classic sense. But the NSA considered him one even though he was a contracted engineer with the agency. The CIA assigned my Mom to him when it became apparent how important the work he was doing was to national security. I remember my mom once said to me it was love at first sight, and that they smashed the rulebook to pieces and never looked back."

"It's not that simple, Chuck. There are reasons for those rules that aren't so very nice to think about."

Chuck squeezed her hand and looked at her with flame dancing in his brown eyes. "Not that simple? Isn't it? It's only complicated if we choose to make it that way. There are ways around every problem in life, Sarah. Even the stupid ones created by a damned government agency that thinks it can throw away the things that make its best people human. Besides, could you really burn me if you were ordered to?"

Sarah's eyes went slightly wide with surprise, her eyebrows arching, even as she tried to hide her reaction to his unexpected insight. No, Chuck, I wouldn't ever be able to burn you. Say it! The only thing she could do at the moment was answer him with another huge sigh. But somehow Chuck had gotten to her, and had made her start to think about the alternatives.

"You know," Chuck continued, "I've been telling you a lot about my family and me. But earlier today you spent the better part of a conversation evading every question I asked you. I think it's time you told me at least one or two things about yourself."

"Hmng! That's a touching story, moron; but don't expect the Ice Queen to give you any answers, or even one you're going to like, let alone break any rules for you," said a gruff voice from the darkness.

A/N – Oh, nooos! How much did Casey hear, and just what are Chuck and Sarah going to do about it? Stay tuned.