Buffy watched as Chuck nervously shook Dawn's hand. He hadn't responded like that to her. Ignoring the internal twitch jealously, Buffy couldn't help but feel proud of her sister. Dawn had grown into such a beautiful and intelligent woman. Unfortunately, not every Summers had the smarts to pull off an Oxford degree, or the height to not crane her neck to talk to people, or the cleavage to warrant a C-cup. Buffy sighed internally, she really got the short end of the stick genetically. Buffy snorted, short.

Buffy's musings were interrupted by a short bearded man.

"Hey Chuck, what's up?"

Chuck replied, "Hey buddy, I kinda need you to do me a favour."

"Anything buddy." Buffy smiled at their obvious closeness.

"Could you get Sarah for me? I wanted to talk to her about dinner plans tonight."

Morgan visibly dimmed, "Dude what happened to game night?"

Chuck's smile took on a somewhat grim appearance, "We'll take a rain check buddy. But Sarah and I really need to talk."

"Look man I know you two-"

Chuck interrupted, "I need to talk to Sarah, Morgan."

Morgan's eyes stretched to comical proportions, "Oh! Yeah right your special dinner tonight. Uh... right away."

Buffy gave a quick glance to Xander to verify that something was off about the whole situation. He gave her a serious nod before allowing a smile take over his face.

"So Chuck, is Buff's cell phone salvageable?"

Chuck seemed to shake his nervousness and replied with a smile, "It may be I actually may need more time to take a look at it."

Buffy asked, "So if we came back tomorrow, you'd be able to let me know?"

Buffy pretended not to notice the relief on Chuck's face, "Yeah that'd be great actually."

"Who's Sarah?" Dawn blurted, oblivious to the awkwardness a few moments earlier.

Buffy noticed a slight blush, "She's my girlfriend." Chuck replied.

"Been together long?" Dawn continued.

"We were off and on for the longest time, but things have just be clicking lately." Chuck explained, genuine happiness creeping back into his features.

Dawn gave Xander a look, "I know exactly what you mean."

Buffy could only take Xander and Dawn making googly eyes at each other for so long. So she coughed loudly, breaking their staring contest.

"So you're making dinner plans?" Buffy asked, "Sounds nice."

The previous awkwardness was gone, but she could tell him gathering himself for a lie.

"Yeah, Sarah and I haven't done something nice for us since we got back to Burbank."

Smooth, too smooth.

Dawn enquired, "Where were you before?"

"Uh, we kinda travelled Europe a bit... But we spent some time in Paris." Chuck grimaced.

Ok maybe, not so smooth. Buffy was having difficulty reading him. He obviously hadn't meant to share that.

"Get to see any sights?" Xander asked, following it with a goofy grin he added, "I don't remember much myself except the Eiffel Tower."

Chuck's previous blush returned, "We uh... didn't really uh... sight-see as much as we thought we would."

Buffy couldn't help chiming in, "Why?"

Chuck determinedly looked down at the desk, "It was around the same time we worked through everything."

"Good for you man!" Xander exclaimed joyfully, "High five!"

"So you two made with it like rabbits?" Dawn asked innocently. Buffy tried to hold back a smile.

Chuck looked up like a deer caught in headlights.

"Uh well... speaking of which, here comes she comes!"

The three of them turned around. Xander's jaw dropped. Buffy could only think. What. The. Hell.

Xander couldn't believe his eye. Chuck's girlfriend was insanely hot. As in so hot, if Dawn didn't hit him soon he'd start drooling. She was tall, lithe, and completely blonde bombshell. There was a magic to the way she walked. Her walk was so graceful and alluring Xander was reminded of the movements of his own slayers. With a more critical eye, Xander noticed that she walked with a controlled poise which just screamed hidden danger. He should have known something was wiggy the moment the imaginary wind blowing her hair nearly knocked over one of the Buy-More employees.

Chuck barely contained his sigh of relief watching Sarah approach the table. He knew logically that he could handle a hand to hand fight just as well, if not better than Sarah, but being with her always made him feel safer. He still couldn't determine the possible threat level of the trio in front of him. Their conversation had seemed quite benign and did not seem like a cover story any credible spy would come up with; then again that's what a competent spy would know you thought right? But what if they knew that you'd know...Before Chuck managed to push the thought loop into an infinite cycle, Sarah stopped in front of him.

"Hey sweetie." Sarah began smiling her fake cover smile.

"Give me a moment," Chuck addressed the trio before reaching over the desk and pulling Sarah into a prolonged kiss. If Chuck were to guess the appreciative whoop was from Xander. When he finally ended the kiss, Xander was grinning wildly, Dawn was smiling at Xander, and Buffy still had her jaw dropped.

"Hey guys, this is Sarah," Chuck introduced. Chuck noticed Buffy's mouth close with an audible click.

"Hi," Sarah waved.

The three replied with varying amounts of enthusiasm. Buffy looking very awkward decided to speak up.

"Thanks for everything Chuck, I think I'll drop by tomorrow to pick up my phone?"

Chuck gave her a reassuring nod, "Yeah sounds great. No problem."

"Hey guys let's go," Buffy began turning around and walking away.

Before turning around, Xander couldn't help but say, "May we live long and prosper with our respective hotties."

Chuck laughed when Dawn smacked Xander causing him to yelp. Chuck and Sarah continued to watch the trio leave with good-natured smiles, up until they exited the store. The moment the trio stepped outside Sarah turned to Chuck a serious expression on her face.

"What's going on Chuck?" Sarah asked the smile completely gone, "Morgan was freaking out when he ran out to get me. He's probably still struggling to breath."

"Do you know where Casey is?" Chuck asked in return, "I'd rather talk with both of you at the same time. He may know something. We also need to talk to Beckman."

"He'll be back he said he had an errand to run," Sarah continued on worried, "Chuck did you flash?"

"Yeah, more than once," Chuck gave a grim nod, "Let's get down to Castle."

"You notice anything hinky with the whole situation back there?" Buffy asked the other two as they walked.

Xander and Dawn simultaneously responded differently, "Yes." "No."

Looking at both of them Dawn exclaimed, "What?"

Xander explained, "The whole conversation between Chuck and Morgan was a bit off. Full of not so hidden second meaning."

"The girlfriend also set off a few warning bells," Buffy added.

Unsure, Dawn asked, "Sure you're just not jealous Buffy?"

Xander shook his head, "She's been trained and well. Reminded me a lot of our experienced Slayerettes."

"No way," Dawn's eyes widened before dimming, "I didn't see that at all."

"Dawnie," Buffy consoled, "You've only recently finished school. Xander and I have years of field experience."

Dawn nodded, "I know, I'll get there eventually. Just as a watcher I should be able to spot these things."

Xander grinned, "Personally I'm glad you're not perfect. Otherwise I'd never live up to you."

Dawn slapped him playfully before taking on a serious face.

"So what do we do now?"

Buffy thought carefully before replying, "Nothing."

"Nothing?"

Xander took over, "All we know is something worried Chuck enough for Morgan to get his girlfriend. His girlfriend may or may not be dangerous. To who, we don't know."

Buffy chose not the mention her own thoughts on Chuck and his conflicting signals.

"As far as we know they're human," Xander continued, acknowledging Buffy's nod, "So until we have reason to believe they are a threat to us, we should focus on things that go bump in the night."

Dawn nodded her understanding, while Buffy continued thinking.

"He only reacted differently once I started talking to him," Buffy offered, finally expressing her worries.

"Are you completely sure about that?" Xander asked.

With a reluctant shake of her head Buffy admitted it could be possible she was wrong.

"Well we'll deal with it if we need to," Xander comforted, "We've dealt with worse than a geek and his super hot girlfriend."

"Super hot girlfriend?" Dawn asked in a deceptively innocent tone.

"Yeah did you see -OW!"

Buffy shook her head, Xander had nearly perfected the art of constant vigilance. Nearly.

AN: Although I have this also posted on tthfanfic, I'd love to hear what you think! Leave a review.