A/N: Hi! I'm so sorry for the delay… I have a lot of exams coming and they kind of get in the way of writing FF, you know? Anyway, here's chapter six. I hope you like it.
As usual, a huge thanks to all of you for sticking to the story, and to Aerox, who went over this chapter in record time :)
I own nothing.
Chapter Six
The next morning when Chuck arrived, Casey, Sarah and Graham were already there, looking through the glass into the interrogation room where Delgado was being held. He was sitting in a chair and cuffed to the table.
"Morning, everyone!" Chuck greeted.
"Hi, Chuck," said Sarah, while Casey only grunted –by now, Chuck didn't expect anything else from him- and Graham nodded to acknowledge his presence.
"Ok, Carmichael, you're on," said the Director.
"Me? Are you sure about this?" he skeptically asked. He had never conducted an interrogation before, obviously, and he figured Casey or Sarah would do a much better job than him.
"You're going to do fine, Chuck, don't worry," Sarah encouraged him.
"Ok, wish me luck!" he said and went into the room. He stood in front of Delgado without saying a word. Not because he was trying to make him nervous, but because he didn't know where to start. You can do this, relax.
He straightened his tie and cleared his throat, trying to look confident.
"So, Agent Delgado," he started, "it's nice to have the opportunity to talk with you."
Delgado smirked. "Oh, let me guess… you just got off the Farm and want to impress your bosses? What's your name, kid?"
"I'm Agent Carmichael, and I ask the questions here."
"Sure you do. So what do you want to know?" Delgado asked in a mock tone.
Chuck was sweating and couldn't think about anything to say. He turned around to give an imploring look to the mirror, knowing his partners and his boss were watching him.
"I see he's a natural born interrogator," Casey sarcastically commented behind the glass.
"Give him a break, Casey, it's his first time," Sarah snarled. She trusted Chuck to do this.
Graham kept quiet.
Seeing that no one was coming to the rescue, Chuck took a deep breath and came up with an idea.
"Last night, after we apprehended you and your men, the CIA was able to track Bryce Larkin. He's under custody now. And he has talked. In fact, he told us everything about FULCRUM. Maybe, just maybe, if you tell us something we don't already know, we can make a deal." Chuck turned to see the rogue Agent had gone pale.
"You're lying."
"No, I'm not. Until today, we had no idea what FULCRUM was, but he's been very cooperative with us."
Delgado's face contorted in rage. "No matter what that little rat might have told you, you will never win. Larkin didn't know everything; he didn't know about the bigger things that are going on right now. Yes, FULCRUM is a threat, but that's nothing compared to the kind of threat they are."
"They? Who's 'they'?" Chuck asked.
"You're not going to get anything from me, Carmichael, I'm done talking."
Chuck turned to face the glass once again, but suddenly, the door flew open and Casey and Sarah rushed through the door. He quickly looked to the table, horrified to discover Delgado's upper body was lying lifeless on top of it.
"Cyanide pill… hidden in his ring," explained Casey.
Graham stepped into the room, looking very angry. "How did this happen?" he demanded to know.
"I'm sorry, Sir, this is all my fault… I should've never stopped facing him, I should…" I really screwed up, Chuck thought.
"It's not Chuck's fault," Sarah said, "The Agents who brought him here should've taken his ring off. We should've been aware of the possibility that this might happen."
"The only thing I know, Agent Walker, is that we had a rogue operative who could tell us all about FULCRUM and now he's dead. So don't expect me to be happy about that!" Graham commented. He took a last glance at Delgado's body and stormed out of the interrogation room.
"Hey!" Casey said, taking the handcuffs off the deceased, "I've got this."
Sarah nodded and grabbed Chuck by his arm and dragged him out. Once they were out, she didn't let go. Instead, she looked him in the eye and told him, "Chuck, this is not your fault, ok? You couldn't know…"
"But I should've known. You said it yourself, we should've seen it coming, but I wasn't paying attention and now he's dead. We don't know what FULCRUM is, we don't know who they are and our partner is taking care of a dead body because I didn't do my job!" Chuck was miserable. A man –rogue Agent or not- had died because he was too distracted to see him take the poison. It was the first time in his life he'd seen a person die and he wasn't handling it very well.
"Chuck, you're new to this, it was your first interrogation! Graham knew that when he sent you in there! And you did your job, not like the people who were supposed to search Delgado for anything that could harm him or you in that room."
"I… I just… I need some air, Sarah. Excuse me."
He needed to get out of there fast. He almost ran to his apartment, and the moment he got in, he took of his tie, which seemed to be strangling him at the moment and opened the first two buttons of his shirt. He took a glass of water and drank it in one gulp. He couldn't breathe. He put his hands over his eyes and felt the moisture trickle on his hands. Pull it together, pull it together. You can't be a spy if you let your emotions take control. He took a deep breathe, and then another, until he could feel himself starting to calm down.
Back at the CIA building, Sarah was sitting in one of the chairs on the hallway. She felt bad for Chuck. She knew he was feeling guilty, even when it would've probably happened to anyone. Of course, Graham's reaction hadn't helped at all. She understood that he felt frustrated, but he was wrong blaming it on Chuck.
"Walker!" She looked up and saw Casey and Graham approaching her.
She quickly stood up. "What is it?"
"Where's Carmichael?" Graham seemed to have calmed down, but his frown was still there.
"I… don't know. He said he needed air. He probably went home."
Casey grunted. "That's pretty brave of him."
"You know what, Major? It's not Chuck's fault that Delgado killed himself!" she snapped. "And as his partner, I think you should be a little supportive. This is all new to him and it was clearly not a great first experience, so why don't you give him a break? He's not like us. Besides, Delgado was done talking."
"Everybody talks, Agent Walker, you know that. We could've used other… methods to make him give us the information we needed," said Graham.
"With all due respect, Sir, everybody talks, except when they have an escape route like Delgado did. And he had it right in his hand. We just missed it. We all did, not just Chuck." Sarah knew that she was indirectly accusing her boss of not being careful enough, but it was the truth. They'd all made the same mistake, and it wasn't fair to let Chuck take the blame.
"She's right." If she hadn't seen Casey's mouth actually forming the words, she wouldn't have believed that he was backing her up. "And even though we may have more questions than answers right now, there are a lot of FULCRUM Agents out there. We'll just have to keep working to arrest all of them."
Sarah smiled a little and silently thanked him. He just nodded.
"Ok, then. Since we have nothing to do here, you can go home. I'll call you if anything comes up." Graham walked away, leaving the two spies in an uncomfortable silence.
"So, are you going to look for him?" Casey asked.
"Look for whom?"
"Carmichael. He's probably still moping around and blaming himself for what happened."
"He wanted to be alone, Casey," Sarah answered, although she wasn't sure if he should be.
Casey just grunted. "Yeah. Ok, I'm out of here. I'm moving today."
"Need any help?" she offered.
"No, thanks, I got it. See you." With that, he walked away too.
I guess I'll go home too. She was still worried about Chuck. He was clearly upset about what had happened, but she didn't know what to do. Should I call him? She didn't know what to say, though. He obviously wanted space, so she wasn't just going to show up at his apartment. I'll call him tomorrow, she decided, as she headed home.
Chuck entered the CIA gym and instantly regretted it. There were a lot of people there, all trained spies, of course. I'm just going to make a fool out of myself here. All the women had an athletic complexion, and he noticed they were all beautiful. Men were lifting weights, doing pull-ups, push-ups and sit-ups and he wondered again why, of all places, he had decided to come here. He imagined how he must've look with his skinny arms and lanky frame, but he swallowed hard and headed straight to the punching bags in the corner. This'll do. He needed something to get rid of his frustration, and this seemed like a good idea. He put on the bandages and stood in front of the bag. He thought about the past night, when that guy had pushed Sarah to the floor, and the flash hit him.
It had been about forty minutes when he heard someone talking to him.
"Someone must've really pissed you off!"
Chuck looked to his side and saw the woman who had spoken. She was tall and beautiful, with blue eyes and red hair. He stopped hitting the bag and grabbed a towel to clean the sweat from his face.
"You need the bag?" he asked.
"No, I'm cool. I'm just enjoying the view," she said, winking at him. "I'm Carina, by the way."
"Chuck"
"So, Chuck… I've never seen you here before," she said.
"No, this is the first time I've come. I'm kind of new in the business."
She chuckled. "Well, I can see why they recruited you. You were beating the crap out of that punching bag. I'm sure you're great in hand to hand combat."
He wasn't sure why, but he thought it sounded kind of dirty when she said that. Shrugging, he answered, "I can defend myself." He grabbed the bottle of water he had brought and took a sip. "I'm done here. It was a pleasure to meet you, Carina."
"You too, Chuckie. Maybe I'll see you again?" she asked, with an innocent tone.
Chuck nodded. "Sure, maybe. Goodbye."
After he took a quick shower and grabbed his stuff, he went back to his apartment. When he reached his floor he was shocked to see Casey in the hallway.
"Hi, Casey, what are you doing here?" he greeted.
"I live here," was the Agent's response before he bent down to carefully grab what seemed to be a bonsai. Why Casey would be into bonsais, was beyond Chuck's comprehension. Monster Trucks and giant scary bears, probably wouldn't have surprised him, but little trees? He wondered if he was into puppies too. Probably best not to ask, he thought.
"Uh… Casey?" The Major turned to face him with an inquisitive look, "you need any help?"
"Sure, why not?"
Chuck left his gym bag in his apartment and came back to help Casey. He was about to grab another bonsai when he heard Casey's yell, "Not the trees, Carmichael!"
Chuck smiled as he asked, "What's with the trees, anyway?"
"They keep me calm."
Chuck just nodded and stepped into the apartment. Casey was pulling a portrait out of a box, and Chuck could've sworn he saluted it when he put in on the desk. He almost burst out laughing when he noticed it was a picture of Reagan.
"So… of all places, you are moving in here. I'm assuming you like the view and it has nothing to do with me living right across the hallway, right? 'Cause that would be stalker-ish and creepy, and frankly, a little scary." Casey just snorted as he kept pulling things out of the boxes, mostly books and guns. He has a lot of guns, Chuck noticed. "So tell me, Casey… should I change my locks and get an alarm?" he joked. Kind of.
"I can pick a lock and I can turn off an alarm, Carmichael, I'm a trained assassin." Casey glanced at Chuck. "But I live here because I needed a place more permanent and it's my job to protect you, so why not? This way, we can save a lot of time."
"Oh, ok. Thanks, I guess." Suddenly, he came up with an idea. "Oh, we can set a day of the week and make it trilogy day, you know? I used to do that with Morgan back in L.A. and it's awesome. I bet you love Die Hard, uh, big guy?"
Casey grunted. "Stop that, Carmichael. We're partners and I'm not going to spend time with you outside of work."
"You can try to resist all you want, Major, but I'll grow on you." Chuck laughed at the incredulous look Casey was giving him. "So, where do I put these?" he asked, holding a bunch of DVDs.
"You can leave them there, right next to the TV."
"Oh, speaking about the TV, you need me to set it for you?" Chuck offered.
"No, that's ok; Graham's sending some guy tomorrow to set it up, along with the computers," Casey answered.
"Please! You're offending me. I can do that too. In fact, I'll bet you I can do it better than any guy Graham could send."
"I don't know, Carmichael, what if you mess up?"
"I won't, Casey, this is my thing. And this way, you don't have to wait until tomorrow to watch TV. I heard there's a Vietnam documentary showing on the History channel tonight. You wouldn't want to miss that, right?"
Casey mumbled something that sounded very similar to, "I really don't," but Chuck wasn't sure he had actually said that, so he waited until the Major spoke out loud. "Ok, Carmichael, do your thing. But if you mess up, you're telling Graham."
Chuck smiled broadly. "Please, I'll have this working before you can say Republican."
Casey turned around to keep setting up his stuff, but Chuck saw him trying to hide his laughter. Ok, so we're making progress on that front.
Thirty minutes later, Chuck had set up the TV, the home theater, the computers and the sound system. Everything worked perfectly.
"I have to admit, Carmichael, you do know your stuff." They were sitting on the couch drinking beer.
Chuck smirked. "I told you. I even worked as a Nerd Herder for like a day."
"What does that even mean?"
"Believe me, you don't want to know," Chuck told him. "You know what's missing here?"
Casey sighed. "Yeah… a M134 minigun. I've always wanted one."
"What? No! Casey, I swear to God, if you get one of those in the building I'm telling Graham."
"Ok, but if you say 'a puppy', I'll shoot you."
"No! A puppy would probably kill your beloved bonsais, so that's out of the question. A gaming system!"
Casey snorted. "Carmichael, you should know this by now; I don't play. Ever."
Chuck smiled. "Yeah, yeah… wait until you see what Call of Duty is about and then you can say that. I have a feeling you'll enjoy shooting bad guys in a screen just as much as in real life." Chuck stood up. "Thanks for the beer and welcome to the building. I'll be across the hallway if you need me."
Casey stood up too, "Ok, Carmichael. I'll see you at work." Chuck nodded and opened the door. "Carmichael," he heard Casey calling. "Thanks for the help." He smiled and headed to his apartment.
Chuck was awoken by the phone. He tried to ignore it, but it kept ringing, so he had no other option but to answer it.
"Hello," he said groggily.
"Chuck, are you ok?" Sarah's worried voice filled his ear.
"Uh, Sarah? Yeah, I'm ok, why wouldn't I be?" he glanced at the clock and saw it was seven thirty. "Anything happened?" he added.
"No, why? I was just calling you to see how you were doing…"
Chuck winced. He would've been better with a couple more hours of sleep, but it was nice of Sarah to call him. "Oh, I'm fine, I'm fine. I have news though."
"What is it?" she asked.
"I have a new neighbor. A mutual acquaintance of ours, in fact."
"Well, who is it?"
"You have to guess! But I can tell you this: he grunts a lot, he loves bonsais and has a very unhealthy fondness of a former President of the USA."
Sarah chuckled, "You're kidding me! Casey moved into your building?"
"Yup. He lives right across the hallway now." In that exact moment, the tone in his phone let him know he had a call in the other line. "Wait a second, Sarah, Casey's calling me."
He put her on hold and accepted the other call. "Hello, Casey."
"Carmichael, you and Walker need to be at my apartment in half an hour. Graham's gonna give us a new mission."
"Ok, but we're only fifteen blocks away from the headquarters, why not go there?"
"This way's safer. I have to call Walker now."
"Wait, I have her on hold, I'll tell her."
"Ok, don't be late." Chuck heard Casey hang up and told Sarah their orders.
Half hour later, they were gathered in front of Casey's TV, waiting for the videoconference when Beckman's face popped up in the screen.
"Good morning, team," she said. Graham appeared behind her and greeted them as well.
"Last night, Bryce Larkin was spotted here in DC by a traffic camera," Beckman said, "Right now, we have our best people working on finding out where he's staying, but you need to be ready to move fast once we have that information. He's not going to be easy to apprehend and we need him alive. No mistakes can be made this time." Chuck felt himself blushing, until one of Sarah's hands grabbed his. It only lasted a few seconds, but it calmed him and at the same time, made his pulse go wild. "Stay close and ready to move. We'll be in touch." And with that, the screen went black.
"Ok," Chuck started with a smile, "since we have some time to kill, who wants some breakfast?"
"I've already had breakfast and I want to clean my guns now, Carmichael. You two can go wait in your apartment. I'll call you if I have any news."
Chuck turned to gaze at Sarah lifting his eyebrows. She shrugged. "Sure, why not?"
They headed to Chuck's apartment and he started to make some coffee. "Need any help?" she offered.
"Uh, no, I got this. What do you want to eat?" he asked as he searched for a frying pan.
"Whatever you're eating."
"Ok, then, pancakes it is." He started gathering ingredients and began preparing the pancakes as they made small talk. Once they were done, he set the plates on the kitchen table and they sat there.
"So… Bryce is back. I wonder what he wants this time," Chuck mused.
"Yeah. It doesn't make sense, though. If he's running, DC is the last place he should be in right now," Sarah commented.
He swallowed his food and said, "Unless he has a mission here. Maybe he needs something. Maybe he tries to break into another CIA facility this time."
"I guess so," she said, not sounding very convinced.
"You never told me how you knew him," he pointed out.
Sarah didn't want to go there, so she just told him the partial truth. "I, uh… we were partners."
"Bryce was your partner?" Chuck couldn't believe it.
"Yeah," she bitterly admitted, "for about a year".
"Wow… that's… it must've been quite a shock to find out he was a traitor," he sympathetically said.
Sarah looked down, still ashamed of not noticing before. "Yeah, it was. I still think I should've seen that coming."
Chuck reached for her hand and gave it a comforting squeeze. "Hey, he deceived the whole CIA; you can't blame yourself for that."
She grinned a little. "I guess so." Her cell phone rang and she opened the text message. "Great, just what I need right now," she mumbled.
"Everything alright?" Chuck asked.
"Yeah, just… a friend's in town and wants to see me."
He smiled. "That's a good thing, right?"
Sarah sighed. "Yeah, but you don't know her. As soon as she finds out that we're trying to catch Bryce she's going to want in and she's not the kind of Agent you want working with you on a sensitive mission like ours."
Chuck chuckled. "Come on, Sarah, I'm sure she can't be that bad!"
"Believe me, it is. Once in Pakistan I had to save her from a whole army just because she felt the need to improvise." She noticed his surprised look. "And it only gets worse… a few months back in New Zealand she almost got us killed for a pair of diamond earrings, which had nothing to do with our mission."
Chuck grinned at the obvious affection behind her words. "This friend of yours sounds… interesting."
It was Sarah's time to chuckle, "Oh, she is. There's never a dull moment with Carina."
"Carina?" He remembered the woman in the gym, "Beautiful, tall, red hair, blue eyes, flirty?"
"That's her," Sarah answered. "You know her?"
"I talked with her at the gym yesterday."
"Oh…that's… that's great." Sarah didn't know what to say. She knew how Carina was with men and wasn't sure if she wanted her anywhere near Chuck.
"Anyway, I think you should see her. It's always good to catch up with a friend. Besides, we have nothing to do until we know where Bryce is."
Knowing Chuck was right, she caved. "Ok, I'll tell her we can go out tonight."
In that exact moment, her phone rang. Oh, crap. "It's her," she told Chuck, while she picked up.
"Hi, Carina," she greeted.
"Walker! You got my message?"
"Yeah, I was going to ask you to meet me tonight for a drink."
"Sounds good. Are you on a mission or something?"
Sarah took a glance at Chuck, who was trying his best to not listen to her conversation. "No, not right now."
"Perfect. Maybe we can hit a club later. I feel like dancing tonight. Maybe we can even get lucky…"
Sarah could picture her saucy smile, and rolled her eyes. "Carina…" she said, in a warning tone.
"You're no fun, Walker, no fun at all. I've heard you got yourself a new partner, maybe you can bring him. Is he hot?"
She smiled. "Well, you already know him, what do you think?"
"What do you mean I know him?" Carina sounded genuinely surprised.
"You met him at the gym yesterday." Chuck looked at her when he heard that, and only got a grin for response.
"Oh… so you're partners with Rocky now?"
"Rocky?" She glanced at Chuck, who was shaking his head. "I'm actually at his place now, we just got briefed."
"I bet you did. Put him on speaker."
"Carina…"
"Come on, Walker, I swear I'll behave."
Sarah knew Carina never behaved, but she did what she said anyway.
"Hi, Chuckie."
Chuck dropped his fork, which made a very loud noise when it hit the floor. "Oh… hi, hi, Carina, nice talking to you again," he stammered.
"I was just telling Walker you should come tonight too. You know, have some fun, a few drinks, maybe even dance a little…"
Chuck looked at Sarah, who was shaking her head, an amused smile on her lips. "Uh, thanks for that, but, uh… I'm not really a dancer."
"Oh, come on. I'm sure you could use the night out. And I know for sure that Sarah needs it. She's finally starting to get over that traitorous bastard who left her…"
Sarah's eyes widened as she tried to stop her friend and reach her cell phone, which was lying on the table a few inches away so Chuck could listen too. "Carina, Carina, stop!"
"… I never even liked him, but I guess this time, Bryce Larkin has finally shown his true colors." When Carina finally ended her rant, nobody spoke. Sarah was looking at the phone with a horrified expression, and Chuck was looking at her with a frown and his mouth open.
"Are you still there? Damn, this phone keeps losing signal, I should have never bought this cheap piece of sh…"
"We're here!" Sarah said, her eyes closed and wincing a little.
"Oh, ok… so? You're in for tonight? What do you say, Chuckie?" Chuck was still affected by the earlier revelation, but he cleared his throat and told her, "I don't think that's a good idea, Carina. Maybe some other time." He clenched his jaw and walked out the kitchen and locked himself in the bathroom.
Sarah saw Chuck leaving and turned off the speaker, taking the phone to her ear "Carina, tonight, when I see you, remind me to kill you, slowly and painfully."
"What did I do now?"
"I have to go." She hung up and sat on her chair. She buried her head on her hands. I'm going to kill Carina.
Chuck was in front of the mirror, still having trouble to process what Carina had said. Sarah was with Bryce. She wasn't just his partner, she was his girlfriend. He sighed. He didn't even know why he was so upset, after all, he and Sarah had met again after the whole mess, so he had no right to feel… betrayed. And you and Sarah are just friends. Why does it bother you so much? But then again, she had lied. She had told him they were just partners, while they clearly were more than that. Even as a teenager, Sarah –or Jenny at that time- had always been reserved, but it didn't make sense that she'd hide something like that. Why would she not want him to know about her relationship with Bryce? Was she ashamed? He concluded that must've been it. Her partner and boyfriend had betrayed the USA and she hadn't noticed. And she was a trained spy. And I'm here moping around about my feelings. He remembered what she had said about this line of work, about not knowing who you can trust. She had trusted, but she'd deposited her trust in the wrong person. She'd been betrayed by her own boyfriend. Surely I can relate to that. Now, he was embarrassed about his behavior. I'm a selfish idiot. She doesn't owe me anything and I have no right to feel this way. She must've been through hell this past month. I should be comforting her, not locked up in my own bathroom. He would've kicked himself, but he had no time. He was going to make this right. He washed his face and went to the kitchen, where he found her doing the dishes.
"Hey, what are you doing?" he asked with a small smile.
"Oh, I figured, since you cooked…"
"You don't have to, I can clean that later." He went to the sink and turned off the water. He turned to face her, their feet touching at their closeness.
"Look, Sarah…"
"Chuck I'm…" they spoke at the same time and Chuck smiled, but Sarah had a sad look on her face.
"Chuck, I'm sorry I didn't tell you. I… I guess I was ashamed. I should've seen it coming, but I didn't, I let my feelings cloud my senses, I…"
Chuck could see she was struggling to not let the tears fall freely, so he smiled, and he put his finger under her chin, making her lift her head until they locked eyes. "Hey, hey, hey… Sarah, it's not your fault, ok?" She looked down again. "Hey, look at me," he said softly. "It was personal and you chose not to tell me, it's ok, I get it. I didn't need to know that, and I'm sorry Carina telling me made you upset. But I know how it feels to be betrayed by someone you love. My girlfriend cheated on me and I was a mess for two whole years. I just want you to know that I know what you're going through and if you ever need to talk, I'm right here. Maybe we can even get drunk and burn a picture of them or make a voodoo doll or something…" he joked.
That elicited a smile from Sarah. She looked up at him again. "Thank you, Chuck. It means a lot."
"No problem. And hey, tonight's a good opportunity to start to move on. We can go out with Carina and dance a little, we have the night off."
"I thought you said you weren't coming?" she asked, sounding surprised.
"Uh… I was just being an ass then. Really, we should go," he insisted animatedly.
Sarah lifted an eyebrow at his enthusiasm. "I thought you said you weren't a dancer."
"I'm not, but I'm trying to cheer you up here, please, bear with me, would you?" he said with a grin.
She smiled as well. "Ok, I'll call her and tell her to meet us at that new club near my apartment."
Chuck smiled brightly, proud that he'd made her feel better. "Awesome."
Sarah just shook her head and dialed Carina's number. She turned her back to him, but not before he could see she was smiling.
"Come on, what happened to cheering me up?" Sarah whined, pulling his arm and trying to drag him to the dance floor.
"There's a thin line between cheering you up and just being ridiculous, and I'm not about to cross it."
They heard Carina's laughter behind them and they turned to see what it was about. She just looked at them knowingly and said, "You two look like a pair of sixth graders who like each other. I'm just waiting for him to start pulling on your pigtails." Chuck blushed –like a sixth grader- and Sarah gave her a murderous look.
"Ok, let's go. But I have to tell you, you may lose the ability to walk after going there with me." He wanted to be as far away from Carina as possible. She had proven to be… a little forward and too honest most of the time. All the time, really.
"Oh, is that a promise? Maybe I'll go too," Carina was having a blast messing with Chuck. He was really nice, but so easy to fluster.
Chuck face turned impossibly red as he felt the need to explain. "Because I'll step on her feet, because I can't dance… I didn't mean… I would never… and I'm heavy and she'll probably have bruises tomorrow…" Sarah put a hand on his mouth and while laughing, guided him onto the dance floor.
Chuck had never liked these kinds of places. He much rather preferred a night at the arcade, maybe even a quiet bar, but this was too much. People kept pushing him, and he was sure his shirt –which he had bought for the occasion- was covered in several people's DNA. Don't think about that.
He didn't even know how he could think at all when he saw the way Sarah was dancing. She was very, very, close to him and sensually swaying her hips, lightly brushing him when someone would push her. He tried to look at the ceiling and think about something else, preferably baseball, but his eyes kept darting down at her and the way her body moved. He wanted to hold her so bad. Eyes up, he thought when he found himself staring at her ass while she did a spin in front of him. No, not her cleavage, her eyes. Ellie would kill me if she saw me right know. He had always been proud of being a gentleman, just as Ellie had taught him. He'd learned to not objectify women and respect them from her, and it was something he usually did. But she looks so damn good in those tight jeans.
Sarah was having a great time. She was completely relaxed and enjoying her time off with Chuck. She could see he was tense and figured it was because he didn't like being there. He had said something about people's sweat and his shirt, but she couldn't quite hear him. She loved to dance and hadn't done it in a while. She looked at their table and saw Carina flirting with some hunky guy. She smiled. That had never been her type. In fact, she wasn't sure she had a type. She had been with a few men in her life, but never really felt a connection. And Bryce, well, we all know how that went. She glanced at Chuck, who was awkwardly moving his arms around while trying to keep the beat with his feet. She grinned brightly at the sight. How adorable is he? She bit her lip when she realized what she was thinking. Stop it, stop it, he's Chuck, your friend, your partner, she repeated to herself. She glanced at him again and caught him staring at her… cleavage? Is he really…? Before she could go there, she felt her cell phone vibrate in her back pocket. It was Graham. She signaled Chuck to come with her, as she took his hand and dragged him to their table. When she saw Carina making out with the guy from before, she took him to a corner.
"Hey, what is it?" asked Chuck.
"Graham just called me. I'll text him to see what's up." She did that and less than a minute later, she got her response. As she read the text, she started to pull Chuck out of the club.
"Wait, what about Carina?" he asked.
"She's a big girl; she'll find her way home. We have a mission now. Bryce has been spotted three blocks away from here." She was in full Agent mode now.
"What? So close? Should we call Casey?"
"There's no time for that, let's go." She started to drag him again.
"Wait, we don't know where he is! What if it's a trap? We have no back-up, no guns…" he trailed off.
"What are you talking about? I always have my gun. And my knives."
Chuck's eyes widened when he thought where those may be concealed, her clothes being so tight and… well if he was honest there wasn't a whole lot of room in there with the way that she filled them. He shook his head. Focus, Bartowski! "Ok, but he could've gone anywhere by now. How are we going to find him?"
"There's a CIA facility about ten blocks from here. You want to bet we'll find him there?"
"Ok, you win. Let's do this."
They jumped in her car and parked a block away from the building, not wanting to alert Bryce of their presence. Sarah took off her heels as they reached the door, which was already open. The guard had been shot; Sarah kneeled in front of him, but couldn't find his pulse. Cursing, she got up and headed to the stairs. When they were at the second floor, they heard noises coming from the elevator. They reached it and noticed it was going up.
"He's heading to the roof. He's probably called the extraction team already," Sarah said.
Chuck nodded. When they reached the door and Sarah went for the doorknob, he stopped her.
"What?" asked Sarah, impatiently.
"I think, as the Intersect, I should go first. I mean, he could very well be holding a bazooka and I'm pretty sure I can do a move from the Matrix if he takes a shot at me, while you, on the other hand, would be bound to get hit," he explained. Seeing the look on her face, he tried to joke "Don't blame yourself, it's in the computer." He didn't really wanted to go first, but he couldn't let Sarah do it either.
She narrowed her eyes at him, starting to get pissed. "This is no time for jokes, Chuck! We can arrest Bryce right now. And it's my job to protect you, so I'll go first. Now get out of the way!" Before Chuck could protest, she opened the door and steeped into the roof, where Bryce was standing alone, smiling smugly.
"Hands up and on your knees," she yelled.
"Come on, Sarah, it's not that I don't want to catch up, but the roof is kind of rough, even for you."
"Shut up! Now do as I say or I'll shoot you."
"I'd listen to her if I were you, Bryce." Chuck said, appearing behind Sarah.
"Chuck?" he seemed shocked to see him there.
"Yeah, Bryce. Now, please, don't make Sarah shoot you. She really wants to, and I can't say I blame her."
"Chuck, buddy, come on, let's talk about this," he tried to plead.
"There's nothing to talk about, Bryce. Just turn yourself in and we'll see what we can do after that."
Suddenly, a helicopter appeared out of nowhere, making Chuck and Sarah back off. Someone inside threw a rope ladder and Bryce climbed it.
"It's hard to say goodbye!" he yelled as the helicopter flew off. At that moment, people in the helicopter started to shoot at them. Chuck jumped on Sarah, trying to cover her from any bullets. When it was finally safe, he stood up and extended a hand to help her on her feet. But she just ignored it and yelled at him, "What the hell were you thinking, Chuck?"
"Wha-What?" he stammered.
"Just now! What were you thinking? They could have killed you!" She's mad because I tried to keep her safe?
"Well, they could have killed you too!" he yelled back.
"I don't have the government's secrets in my head! You heard Graham the first time, I'm expendable, and you're not!"
"Stop saying that! What am I supposed to do? Run away and leave you here to die for the 'greater good'?" he said that doing the air quotes.
"Yes, that's exactly what you are supposed to do! And if you can't control the Intersect, maybe you shouldn't be in the field at all." She was shaking. The moment the bullets started to fly around them, Chuck had thrown himself on her heavily, and even when she tried to escape his hold, she couldn't. He could've been shot and she couldn't bear the thought. So she just yelled at him.
"The Intersect? That wasn't the Intersect! I don't need a super computer in my brain to do the right thing, you know?" He was offended she would think it had been something he couldn't control, because he had done it voluntarily.
Sarah was fuming now. She approached him with a murderous look. "That's even more stupid! You need to understand that you're more important than me, than anyone, for that matter. You can't go exposing yourself to bullets and other dangers just because you want to play hero…"
Ok, now he was offended. "Play hero? You need to understand that I am not going to let anyone die for me if I can prevent it. Not a chance, Sarah. Especially not you."
She cocked her head and her expression softened. He cleared his throat and looked away. Where did that come from? He hadn't meant to say that, it had just come out. And when it did, he knew it was true. This is not the moment to be thinking about this, we have to get out of here and call Graham.
When he glanced at her again, he saw she was staring at him with a frown and a confused look. "We need to get out of here, Sarah, and we need to tell Graham and Beckman about this."
She nodded slowly and finally tore her eyes away from him.
They walked to the car in silence, and the ride to the CIA building wasn't any different.
Chuck was extremely uncomfortable, trying to read her expression to know how his earlier confession had affected her, but she was looking straight at the road, her face never giving away any kind of emotion.
Why do I ever open my mouth? he thought. What if I ruined it? On the other hand, he hadn't really said a lot, but the way she looked at me, she got it all wrong. Another voice in his head –that sounded very much like Ellie's- joined his conversation: Did she? He growled internally. Focus Bartowski, you're in the middle of a mission, stop thinking about this.
Sarah's knuckles were white from holding the wheel with much more strength than necessary. Chuck had saved her. And it wasn't because of the Intersect; he had decided to protect her from those bullets. It was the first time in her life anyone did that for her, so she didn't know how to react. Yelling at him was definitely not a good idea, she thought, remembering his hurt expression. I should be thanking him instead of ignoring him. She could feel Chuck's glances at her, every few minutes. He had said 'Especially not you.' She was afraid to look into the meaning behind his words. Could it be…? No, don't go there, Walker, you're on a mission.
They finally arrived at the CIA headquarters and went to see Graham and Beckman. Casey was there too.
"So? Want to explain what happened?" he asked.
Sarah started talking. "We were just a few blocks away when we received Director Graham's text message, so we pursued Bryce to the building, where we found him on the roof. I ordered him to surrender when a chopper appeared out of nowhere and he got in. We couldn't do anything to stop him."
"What do you mean you couldn't do anything?" Casey was mad that he'd missed the chance to shoot Larkin. Again.
"She means they started shooting at us and we had to…" he trailed off when he saw Sarah's face. Apparently, she didn't want to get into that.
"You were shot? And where was the Intersect at that moment?" Beckman asked.
"He…" Sarah hesitated.
Chuck interrupted her. "The Intersect was safe in my head, as it always is, General. If you're asking about me, Agent Walker here made sure that I didn't get hurt."
Sarah glanced at him, surprised that he had lied to cover her.
"Very well, then, our primary objective remains the same: capture Bryce Larkin alive," said Beckman.
The three Agents nodded and headed out after being dismissed by their bosses.
"You need a ride, Carmichael?" Casey asked.
"Uh, yeah, sure, I'll be right there." He wanted to say goodbye to Sarah first.
The Major only grunted and walked towards his Crown Vic parked across the street.
Sarah looked at Chuck and said, "Chuck… I, uh… thanks for doing that."
He grinned a little. "No problem, the last thing we need right now it's being yelled at by our bosses, when there was nothing you could do. I mean, I kinda crushed you there, and I've been told I'm heavier than I look," he joked.
Sarah chuckled. "Thanks, but I meant what you did in the roof. I… you probably saved my life, and I just yelled at you…" she turned serious. "I'm sorry I treated you the way I did, but you have to promise me you won't put yourself in danger like that again."
Chuck returned her serious gaze as he spoke. "I'm sorry, Sarah, but I meant what I said. I can't promise you that because if I have to choose, I'll never let anyone hurt you… or Casey to protect me."
She felt that thing in her stomach again, and started to think that maybe she wasn't going to get sick at all, 'cause every time it had happened, it was because something Chuck had said. Another thing to think about tonight.
"Look, I'm tired and I don't wanna argue right now, so I'm just going to go home and we'll talk about this later, ok?"
He grinned again, more brightly this time, "Ok, but I know how that conversation's going to go."
She just smiled reluctantly and shook her head tiredly. "Goodnight, Chuck."
"Goodnight, Sarah."
He walked towards Casey's car and got in. "Nice car!" he commented.
"1985 Crown Victoria. The perfect car," Casey said.
"This is the perfect car for you? I mean, Sarah's Porsche is way more…" he stopped talking when he saw the way Casey was looking at him.
When they arrived at their building, he got out and Casey went to park the car.
He was about to open the door when he noticed it was already open. He carefully stepped into his apartment, not making any noise in case the intruder was still there. He was going to retrieve his tranq gun from under the kitchen table when he heard a loud bang behind him. He turned around, ready to flash, only to find himself facing his nemesis. He was looking at him with a smirk.
"Hello, Chuck," he heard the unmistakable voice call out. Bryce Larkin, the CIA's most wanted man, had broken into his apartment.
A/N: So? How about that? What do you think it's coming? Where do you want this to go? When Bryce proposes to Sarah –Aerox idea- and they ride off into the sunset together, should she be pregnant with twins or triplets?
You can stop freaking out now, that's only plan B! Seriously, though, I really appreciate the reviews, good or bad, they always help and make me want to keep writing. So, pretty please, hit the button down there –oh, dear! No pun intended- and let me know what you think!
Until next time.
P.S. I can't watch Chuck tonight, so enjoy it for me :)