Side note: For those of you confused last chapter (really just one of you), Chuck is afraid of needles. No, I did not make this up. It is a thing in the show. Chuck is deathly afraid of them (see Chuck vs the Beefcake, in which Chuck tries to be awesome for Sarah and withstand torture only to faint at the sight of a needle), ergo the fainting and stuff. For those of you who were not confused last chapter, kudos to you.
Disclaimer: I do not own Chuck, the man or the show.
Sarah P.O.V.
Thankfully, Chuck was out cold for the entire operation. He would constantly mumble nonsense under his breath that just about drove Sarah crazy while she was trying to concentrate, but he never woke up. At least she didn't have to deal with his irrational fear of needles.
After stitching him up, she had to peel off the rest of his shirt, which was by this point completely soaked in blood. The amount Chuck had lost was enough to make Sarah nervous, but he was still breathing steadily. After cleaning and stitching, she pressed a pad of gauze to the wound. She had to awkwardly roll him slightly to each side repeatedly so she could put a wrap around his midsection.
He was much heavier than Sarah had expected, and she ended up almost dropping him once or twice, but he sustained no more head trauma, so she considered the operation to be successful.
After rolling out the last of the wrap and securing it snugly, she took a deep breath and relaxed. She repositioned the blanket under Chuck's head, careful not to touch the side of his head that was injured, and returned to cleaning it. It wasn't above his hairline, so she didn't have to give him an impromptu haircut, something she was sure he would be happy about.
It didn't need stitches, either, so she wrapped a pad over it in some more gauze and replaced the blanket under his head with a new clean one, then sat back and watched him breathe. He looked almost childish when he slept, all the stress and worry gone from his face. She knew it was extremely cheesy, but he looked adorable when he slept. She couldn't help but smile as she studied his face.
But then she realized that she was staring creepily at her unconscious coworker while, a few hundred yards away, her first partner was also unconscious in the aforementioned coworker's place of work, which was also taken by a representative of the mob. The matter of how cute Chuck may or may not be while he was dead to the world with both a gunshot wound and a possible concussion was not important and could wait to be considered some other time at her own leisure.
Sarah got to her feet and stepped over Chuck, who was mumbling something under his breath about Morgan and a grilled cheese sandwich.
She would never understand what went on in that crazy mind of his.
Sarah made her way to the head of the table and sat heavily in the chair there. She made to pull out her pistol again, and again realized that she didn't have it anymore. It had become such a normal instinct that she had found herself doing this multiple times since she had escaped.
She cursed under her breath and stood. She headed toward Casey's beloved arsenal and punched in the code on the keypad on the wall to her right. The glass door slid up silently, and Sarah stepped in. She passed by several guns as long as her entire arm, shoulder to fingers. They were racked up on the wall, lovingly polished to a shine. She passed by a few submachine guns and even a few blades that Casey didn't really use, but still kept clean and bright.
She passed all of these and went straight for the pistols. She considered them for a few seconds before choosing one, a compact, heavy one with a large magazine. She stuck it in its usual place on her hip and grabbed another one. She wouldn't be disarmed so easily this time.
On the way out of the armory, she glanced at the clock. It was after two; she had been in Castle for over an hour. It didn't feel like it, but she supposed her mind had been preoccupied by other things. She went back to the table and sat once more. She picked up the remote to the large tv in front of her and powered it on.
While it was mostly used for surveillance and communicating with the general, it was also just a normal tv with normal channels. Sarah had once found Casey watching the Hallmark channel, but he protested that he had just been flipping around. Although that didn't quite make sense, since it had been the middle of the day, when all the hunting shows and other stuff like that, the only stuff Casey owned up to watching, was never showing, but Sarah had let it slide.
It was already playing local news channel, where the camera was trained on the Buy More. There was a barricade of police cars and other official vehicles parked in front of the store, lights flashing, sirens off. A woman news anchor was speaking over the footage, talking about a possible terrorist attack.
"As of right now," she was saying, "there have been no reports of what has happened since the first report of a group of armed men entering the local Buy More." The camera cut to the news anchor. "If you're just joining us, you may be surprised that these men chose the Buy More, and you are not alone. Numerous theories have been posited as to why they would choose this store over one of its competing, more successful rivals, but we can be grateful that it wasn't the site of another shooting, as any customers that were in the store have been allowed to escape.
"These escaped customers are mostly unharmed, except for a broken wrist from a fall. These customers have been sent to the hospital to be sure that they are unhurt, but they have no helpful information about the masked men. However, not all of the Buy More employees have emerged from the building. All but two have reported their safety. On top of this, apparently another employee from a nearby store has been reported missing. We aren't sure whether this is due to the attack or if it's a coincidence, but we are led to believe the worst.
"No terrorist groups as of now have claimed responsibility for this attack. We have no information on the missing employees, and the culprits have locked down the store and are
mostly staying out of sight. For now, all we can do is wait and hope for the best."
Sarah turned down the volume on the television. It had flipped back to a view of the Buy More. Other than the ring of emergency vehicles creating a semicircle in the parking lot and the crowd of bystanders watching from a safe distance, the Buy More looked more or less the same as always.
She dropped the remote on the table and slouched in her chair. As she watched the news anchor pretend to look legitimately worried, a wave of exhaustion hit her like a ton of bricks. Her eyelids began to droop, suddenly impossibly heavy. She tried to keep them open, but her brain was becoming sluggish, struggling to process the information being fed to it.
She glanced to where she could see Chuck's head sticking out from behind a chair. His curly hair looked strange all contained under the bandage. Some of his bangs were flopped down over his eyes. Sarah smiled at his peaceful face. Chuck wasn't exactly a stressed out guy, but he still looked ador-
Stop it, Sarah scolded herself. You already had this conversation. With yourself. She frowned. God, I'm tired. Her brain was lethargically following rabbit trails to stupid stuff like how adorable Chuck was when he slept, because, goddamn, he absolutely was a-
Sarah's head slowly dropped toward the table as she tried to stop thinking about the sleeping Chuck a few feet away from her, and she eventually peacefully drifted off to sleep.
LINE BREAK FTW
"Sarah?"
Sarah's eyes shot open, and she sat bolt upright, the back of her head colliding with something soft.
"Ah!" someone shouted. Sarah whipped her head around to see Chuck stagger back and hit the wall behind him.
"Chuck!" Sarah shot to her feet and reached him as he began to slide down the wall. She grabbed him under his arms and kept him on his feet until he got his own feet under him. He leaned heavily on the wall and rubbed his nose.
"Ow," he whined.
"What were you doing?" Sarah scolded, worried.
Chuck shrugged, still holding his nose. "You were asleep," he said defensively. "I wanted to wake you up, and then you went and bashed me in the face."
Sarah ignored that and tried to move Chuck's hands away from his face. "Damn it, you're bleeding," she muttered.
"Yeah, because you-"
"I know what happened!" Sarah interrupted, annoyed. "Just sit down and be quiet."
Chuck muttered something under his breath, but he sat where Sarah had been sleeping. Sarah jogged over to the first aid where it was still on the ground and grabbed a rag. Chuck's pillow lay crumpled on the ground a few feet away. She brought it back to Chuck, who had found the remote and began to raise the volume.
Sarah tilted his head back and began to wipe away the blood, but Chuck protested and snatched the rag from her. "I can do this myself," he told her.
Sarah raised an eyebrow, but stepped back. "Fine." She crossed her arms as a thought struck her. "Chuck, do you know what time it is?"
He shook his head, pinching his nose.
Sarah made her way to the desk and powered on the computer. She glanced at the corner and cursed.
"What?" Chuck asked, his voice muffled.
"It's been three hours," Sarah explained. "Damn it."
"Wait, what? What time is it?"
"Not important," Sarah said, striding past him and disappearing into the hallway.
"Oh, come one, Sarah," Chuck protested. He tried to follow her, but staggered and sat heavily. "Ooh," he moaned.
"Yeah, you shouldn't be standing," Sarah added as an afterthought.
"Thanks a lot." A pause. "Uh, what are you doing?"
Sarah poked her head out from behind a wall. "We need to get Casey back. What else would I be doing?"
"Wait. Casey?" Chuck called after her, struggling to speak loud enough through the rag covering his mouth and nose. "What's wrong with Casey?"
Sarah showed her face again. "He's still in the store. You didn't know?"
"How would I have known?"
Sarah shrugged. "Well, now you know."
Chuck felt an overwhelming urge to sneeze, but stifled it in his rag. "But the general told us to wait for reinforcements!"
"She told you to wait for reinforcements," Sarah clarified. "She told me to get Casey out of there, and I should have done it a long time ago."
"Even you have to sleep sometimes, Sarah," Chuck reminded her. "You don't have to feel guilty about it."
"But even you were up before I was, and you were just knocked unconscious." She showed her face again. "How are you feeling, by the way?"
"Been better," Chuck said offhandedly. "You can't go alone, Sarah. That's suicide."
"I'll be fine," Sarah insisted.
"Even you can't take on an entire team of bad guys with guns!" Chuck's blood pressure was rising. "At least let me come with you!"
Sarah reemerged, a frustrated look on her face. "Chuck, I don't mean to be rude," she began, "but how will taking you with me help? I mean, you can barely walk."
"That's not true!" Chuck said, indignantly trying to prove her wrong by getting to his feet.
Sarah strode over and firmly pushed him back down. "You'll just hurt yourself," she told him dismissively.
Chuck gritted his teeth. It stung that she had rejected him so out of hand, but he knew that she was right. He would just slow her down, and as much as he wanted to help, he would probably just give himself a concussion going up the stairs. Plus, he would have to run around with a gun in one hand and the rag held to his nose in the other. Hardly an ideal situation.
"Fine," he grumbled. "At least tell me what you're planning." He pulled the rag away from his nose and his stomach turned at the sight of the blood clotted on it. He tasted the salty flavor on his upper lip and hurriedly wiped it off, grimacing. Sarah, already having gotten the last rag from the box, pressed it into his hand. He thankfully pressed it back up to his face and left the dirty one on the table.
Sarah gave him a look. "We don't leave our bloody articles of clothing on the table, Chuck. I thought you knew that," she scolded, ignoring Chuck's earlier request.
"Oh, yeah. I guess it's just never applied to me before." It would be because of a nosebleed, the least heroic injury of all time, he thought sourly. "And don't think I didn't notice that change of conversation." Chuck caught her eye. "Hey, at least tell me you have a plan before you go in guns blazing."
Sarah dropped her gaze and didn't respond.
Chuck's own eyes narrowed. "Sarah…?" he asked warily.
Sarah busied herself with her pistol, taking out the magazine and inspecting it. "Hmm?"
There was a tense silence, then Chuck slumped, again trying to hold in a sneeze. "You don't have a plan, do you?"
"I have a plan!" Sarah protested. "I do! It's just-"
"Just what? A half-baked outline of a general idea of what might work? That's not enough, Sarah!"
"Oh, like your plans are always so much better!" Sarah shot back. "You'd never go off on any stupid crusades to try to impress everyone and almost get yourself killed in the process!"
Chuck threw up his hands. "At least I was trying to do something!" His head was pounding painfully from the shouting, but he refused to back down.
"And I'm trying to do something now!" Sarah slammed her pistol magazine on the table. "So let me!"
"Not if you're going to get killed!" Chuck stood angrily, just so he could gain the extra few inches over her. It was slightly ruined by the rag and the fact that he struggled to remain upright, but he would take what he could get.
"That's not your decision to make!" Sarah made to shove him, but stopped herself. She resorted to cursing at him. "Chuck, I need to get Casey back, goddamnit!"
"And you will! But at least let me help. Or wait for the general, that would be even better!"
"And what if she's too late? What if Casey's already-" Her breath hitched, and she stopped.
Chuck put a hand on her shoulder, after making sure it wasn't bloody. "He won't be," he reassured. "You have to have faith in him. He knows what he's doing."
Sarah seemed calmed down, and Chuck relaxed. He stepped back and sat down again, comfortable in the knowledge that he had talked her down.
"He's still my partner," Sarah muttered.
Chuck rolled his eyes. "I know, but-"
Sarah turned on him. "No, Chuck," she said sternly. "I know you have good intentions, but Casey and I are partners. We don't leave each other behind for someone else to reach. We clean up each other's messes, we work together, and we trust each other with our lives. I understand that you don't get that yet, you're pretty new to all this, but you have to trust me when I say that I can't leave him there, because I know he would do the same for me."
Chuck recognized the resolute look in her steely blue eyes and sighed. "Sarah," he tried one more time, as if that one word could change her mind. "Is there anything I could say to stop you?"
Sarah shook her head. "I'm sorry, Chuck, but I'm going, and you aren't."
Chuck glanced away, trying to think of the right words to say. Sarah braced herself for another devastating appeal to her emotions, something Chuck specialized in, but it never came. She looked up to see Chuck frozen in front of her. His eyes were trained on something over her shoulder. His mouth was open, the rag falling away from his nose a small bit.
She frowned and turned. "What is it?" she asked, scanning the room for a threat. Her immediate thought was that someone had found their way into Castle. Then her eyes found the television.
Chuck mindlessly reached for the remote and turned up the volume so they could hear the news anchor talking over the scene shown on screen.
"...don't know how they got there, as there was no sign of them at the beginning of this situation. No clear reason has been found as to why these in particular were taken, or how, but the police are working to reach a compromise. So far, no progress has been reported, but more reinforcements are on the way, including experts in this field, to take care of the situation.
"After a quick background check, we have found that both are successful doctors and have been living together since they graduated at the top of their class. No details jump out as to why they were chosen, or, again, how they got there, or how long they will be held. They appear to be unharmed. All immediate family has been contacted, or has at least been tried, as not all have-
"Wait, we're getting something here. It turns out that one of these doctors is related to a worker at this very Buy More. Eleanor Bartowski, older sister of one of the very employees who has been missing since this story began. Can this missing employee possibly be the reason for all of this? More with Michael Highmore, who is currently on the scene. Michael?"
The screen changed to a view of a tall man in a casual suit. He held a microphone and stood several dozen feet in front of the barricade to the Buy More. He stood by a familiar face.
"Thanks, Jake," he said in an announcer's voice. "Standing with me, I have one of the lucky employees who somehow managed to escape the building before he was gunned down."
"Oh, well, it wasn't that dramati-"
Michael cut over him. "Now, Morgan Grimes, is it true that you were a close friend of the missing person?"
Morgan looked confused, his hands thrust in his khaki pockets. "Missing person?" After a few seconds, an idea hit him. "Oh, you mean Chuck. I'm sure he's fine. He's a pretty resourceful guy. I mean, he's one of the only guys who can beat me one on one with the freakin' energy sword when I'm armed to the teeth, even though I get to practice all the time, while he actually works-"
Michael interrupted him again. "Where do you think Charles is?"
Morgan chuckled. "He's probably hiding in the bathroom. I wouldn't worry about it. Also, don't call him Charles. Only his dad does that. It's weird."
Michael was struggling to keep the conversation on topic. "Do you know of any reason why someone would come after Charles, or this store?"
Morgan's grin was huge. "Dude, yeah! We're serious competition for every other electronic store in the state! It makes sense for them to feel threatened."
"So… you think this is an attack from a rival business?"
Morgan shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe. Who knows? All I know, is as soon as this is all over and Chuck's back, I'm buying him a pizza, 'cause he got me on tv. Hey, Mom!"
The feed abruptly cut back to Jake in the studio. He was clearly trying to restrain a smile. "As you can see," he said, his voice straining, "not many credible theories out yet as to why choose this store or this family, but hopefully we'll have more information after the break."
A commercial for a local water park came on.
Chuck shut it off. There was a silence, then he set the rag down on the table and sniffed. His nose and upper lip were stained red, but the flow had ebbed to nothing. "Are you still going to make me stay here?" he asked sullenly, his voice stuffy.
"Yes," Sarah responded bluntly.
"What? But they have Ellie and Awesome!"
"All the more reason for you to stay here!" Sarah faced him. "Listen, if you come, the chance of the mission failing skyrockets. Now that there are confirmed civilians in there, we have to be as careful as possible."
"I can be careful!" Chuck protested.
Sarah shook her head. "Sorry, not happening."
"Sarah, I stopped bleeding, I'm fine," he repeated.
"Good for you," she said irritably. "You're not going to change my mind."
"But I'm not bleeding, I'm okay! Just let me-" He stopped abruptly. Sarah frowned at him as he made a face- eyes half closed, mouth open, face raising toward the ceiling.
She realized what was happening just in time. She cursed and leaped out of the way as Chuck finally sneezed, sending blood and snot shooting into the air in front of him, air that had been occupied by Sarah only seconds before. The force of the sneeze sent Chuck back into the chair, dizzy. "Ow," he groaned.
His nose was bleeding furiously once more. Sarah sighed, then set a careful hand on his shoulder. "Sorry," she said, almost meaning it. "You can clean the floor while I'm gone, though."
Chuck scowled at her, but the effect was lost over his watering eyes and blushing cheeks. She smiled sweetly at him, then patted him on the head and returned to checking her gun.
Guys! It happened! I finally sat down and wrote something more than a thousand words! Rejoice! Seriously, I'm sorry it took so long. I hope it was worth the wait.
Thanks for reading!