I still don't own Chuck. Not sure who does at this point. Maybe Subway.

Heather is getting tired of worrying about Sparky's feelings. Time to send in the pro.

I'll be sure to post warnings on chapters that have violent or sexual situations. I'm going to keep this T – but I might dance on the edge for a bit.

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Kate's Mission

By the time that Chuck and Sarah got dressed and arrived at the base hospital, the situation was pretty much in hand. Chuck went to check on Alex and Sparky while Sarah went directly to Joe's room. Joe was awake – still a little groggy – but recovering quickly. Elise was in the room lying in the bed with him. Her arms were wrapped tightly around him. Since Elise was the one who probably knew most of the entire story, Sarah sat and listened while Elise got out of the bed and told her what happened.

When Elise got to the part about Heather, Sarah stopped her. "Are you sure?" she asked.

"I'm sure," Elise said. "I talked to one of the men. They're all talking about it. She did what it took to get him some help. If she hadn't…"

"I know," Sarah whispered. "We've been much too lax. Shaw is still out there. He is clearly still dangerous. Thank God for Heather. She really must have been paying attention in today's exercise. She saved the day."

"She's an amazing kid," Elise said. "And she's probably hurting. She's probably feeling a little guilty – questioning if she did the right thing. Sparky isn't the most open with his feelings. I guess that it runs in the family. She is probably beginning to doubt. I'm thinking that she could really use a friend right about now. Should I go talk to her?"

Sarah smiled. "Thanks," she said. "A friend would be nice - but I really think that it's time for a mother-daughter type chat. Don't you?"

Elise just smiled back – and nodded. "Yes," she said. "I really do. Actually it may be a little overdue. But I'm thinking that perhaps Sparky comes by his characteristic of not liking to talk about his feelings – honestly."

Sarah sighed. "Hey," she said. "I'm getting better. Let me prove it to you." She leaned down and kissed Joe on the cheek. Then she wrapped her arms around Elise. "Joe – Elise – I love you guys," she said. "Thank you for being part of my family. And thank you for risking your life for us – and not just today."

x-x-x-x-x

Chuck was already in Alex's room with Kate when Sarah walked in. The good news was there was nothing major wrong. The bad news was – he was going to be sore for a while. One side of his face was swollen – and his ribs were already turning a nasty black and blue. But nothing was broken. He had already gotten the okay to leave. They were just resting for a minute while they waited on word about Sparky.

Chuck grinned at Alex. "Alex," he said facetiously. "I told you that you were going to have to do something dramatic to marry our daughter. I'm a little confused. Do you want to marry our son as well?"

Alex seemed to consider that for a moment. "No, sir," he finally said – with his own grin. "Marrying one Bartowski is proving to be all I can handle – and then some."

Sarah stepped up and rustled his hair – gently. "You do realize that you don't have anything left to prove, don't you?" she asked. "You haven't for a while. Alex, what you did tonight was incredibly brave. We've come to expect nothing less from you. After all, you're a hero. But listen to me for a second. If you continue to throw your body at six trained agents, you're eventually going to get seriously hurt. If that happens, what am I going to do about grandkids?"

Everybody laughed – except Alex. "Sparky is my friend," he said. "He would have done the exact same thing for me." Then he smiled. "And, Mom," he said. "I think I can safely promise you your fair share of grandkids. Please wait until they start school before you start to train them to be a spy."

Sarah was having a hard time stopping laughing. But she was also blinking back tears. Could Alex possibly be any more a part of this family? There was clearly a bond between him and Chuck Junior that was well beyond any casual friendship. Tears and a huge grin at the same time – what a combination. "You're right, sweetie," she finally said. "He would have done the same for you. I can't make any promises on training the grandkids."

x-x-x-x-x

When Sarah finally walked into the room where Sparky was, the first thing that she noticed was that Heather was sitting there in the dark holding his hand – and silently crying. When she noticed Sarah, she tried as best she could to quickly hide the tears.

Sarah pretended not to notice. "He's not awake yet?" she asked.

"Not yet," Heather said. "There is no reason to be alarmed. He took two darts. His vitals are great. He is starting to stir a little. He should be awake in just a few minutes. I'll leave so you can be alone with him when he wakes up. He'll really want to see you."

"Heather," Sarah said softly. "I think that he'd much rather see you when he wakes up than me."

Heather was clearly taking a moment to gather her composure. "I'm not sure that's true," she was finally able to get out.

Sarah felt so sorry for her. She was clearly panicked - and for no good reason. If she only knew… "Heather," she said. "I'm absolutely, one hundred percent positive that it's true. Tell me the honest truth, sweetie. How do you really feel about my son?"

Heather couldn't keep the tears off any longer. "I'm not sure that I can tell you," she said. "When I say that I'm in love with him, it sounds hollow somehow. It doesn't come close to how I feel. I don't know what words would. All I do know is that I've never come close to feeling like this before. I can't imagine my life without him."

Sarah smiled at her. "Sweetie," she said. "Stop trying to imagine your life without him. It's not going to happen. You're worrying about nothing. Trust me. He's crazy about you. He's crazier about you than you are about him. You're sitting here all worried because he hasn't said it yet, am I right?"

Heather didn't answer her question – directly. "I'm not a sissy," she said. "I can't stand you thinking that. I'm not one of those girls who need to hear how much he loves me every ten minutes. I'm willing to fight for him. It's just that seeing him lying there in that parking lot made me realize that I want it so badly. And I almost lost my chance tonight. I hope that you don't take offense at this – but with this family you never know when you're going to lose your chance. And every minute that we don't seize might be a minute that we never have – because someone's taken it away. And I'm greedy. I want every minute I can get."

Sarah smiled. "Why would I take any offense at that?" she asked. "You're absolutely right. That is really true of everybody. Some people just don't realize it until it's too late. And I'll admit it's probably a little truer in this family. Life is short. You need to live each day like it might be your last. The big lug lying there is not letting you do that – is he?"

Heather shook her head. "How did you know what I'm thinking?" she asked.

"That one's easy," Sarah said as her smile broadened into a grin. "Because he's just like me. That's the bad news. I hope that you still want to be with him after hearing that. I know that you and I didn't get off on the right foot. I'd really like to fix that. After all, we share something very special. We both love that guy lying there. Just look at him sleeping. Have you ever seen anything cuter in your whole life?"

Heather paused for a long moment to gather her composure. "You're right," she finally whispered. "He's very cute. But that's not the half of it. He is simply an amazing man. It's hard to believe that he's only twenty. I can't wait to see him as a doctor. At first, I was thinking that he was too good to possibly be true. But I was wrong. He really is that special. You did an incredible job raising him. I'll not lie – you intimidate me a little. There was even a time when I downright hated you. But now I think I can see things a little better. I'd love for us to get closer."

"Good," Sarah said. "Me too. I'd love to take credit for raising him. But I have to share that with Elise, Casey, and of course, his dad. You're right. He is incredibly special. But guess what sweetie – so are you. I do have some good news. Sweetie, trust me on this – there is no reason for you to be intimidated. I don't think that you're a sissy – not even close. You're a hero. You just saved my son's life. Tell me the truth. You used today's seduction training to get him the help that saved his life – didn't you?"

Heather looked at the floor. "I kissed him," she said. Her voice was so soft that Sarah had to strain to hear her.

"And…" Sarah said expectantly.

Heather struggled for composure. "I agreed to spend the night with him," she said. "I'm supposed to go over there at ten. Do I have to go?"

Sarah smiled. "Speaking strictly professionally, that's a close call," she said. "There is no question that this guy's a jerk for demanding it. But this is someone that you know. You did agree to his terms. If you don't pay off, there are a lot of people who would never trust you again."

"If I do go," Heather said. "Will Sparky ever forgive me?"

"For one thing, you're not going," Sarah said. "Don't worry. I've already taken care of it. But the answer to your question is – yes. You did what you did to save his life. If you hadn't, he'd be captured right now and almost certainly being tortured and eventually killed. Of course he would understand that."

Heather just nodded. "Thank you for taking care of it. Do I want to know how?"

"I didn't order him killed, if that's what you're asking," Sarah said with a laugh. "I think that you'll find out within the hour what I did. You saved my son's life. I'll never – ever forget that. So what I did is the least I can do. That's not all - let me try and do something more for you. Heather, I see you hurting – and I'm here to tell you that it's for absolutely no reason. Please sit down and let me tell you a little story. There is a way for you to quickly get everything that you want. After all, he wants it too – probably more than you do. Don't you want to hear how?"

Heather actually smiled for the first time. "Very much, ma'am," she said.

"It's really pretty simple," Sarah said. "First, you need to stop calling me ma'am. My name is Sarah. But you need to get the one woman in the whole world to talk to him that he'll truly listen to."

"That's you, right?" Heather asked. "Would you? I'd really appreciate it."

"I would," Sarah said. "But it wouldn't do any good. I'm not the one who he would listen to."

"Elise?" Heather asked in confusion. "I'm not sure that she would…"

"She would," Sarah interrupted with a laugh. "Trust me, sweetie. She's rooting for you more than anybody. I just talked to her. Elise is a very good ally to have. Chuck Junior has had a massive crush on her since he was nine. She could talk to him about a lot of things. But she's not the one to have this particular talk with him. He would just get embarrassed and shut down."

Heather just looked confused – and she said so. "I'm confused," she said. "Who is this super woman?"

x-x-x-x-x

The Military Police took the Ring Agents into custody to be questioned. They also took all of the solders involved in to get their statement. They were all sitting in a conference room waiting to be dismissed when the door opened. At the first sight of the eagle pinned to his chest, the men all scrambled to stand at attention.

"Relax, men," Colonel Blum said with a smile. "Is Corporal Quincy in here?"

"That's me, sir," Quincy said crisply.

"Men," Blum said. "Can Corporal Quincy and I have this room for a moment?"

"Yes, sir," they said as one. They raced each other to be the first one out into the hall.

"Corporal," Blum said as soon as the door closed behind them. "I understand that you organized the group that rescued Mr. Bartowski. Congratulations. That was well done."

"Thank you, sir."

"There is an unfortunate rumor going around," Blum said. "That you may have coerced Lieutenant Moore into agreeing to something – well fairly ungentlemanly. Now I know that one of my men would never do anything so cowardly. Surely this must be some sort of misunderstanding. So I wanted to come and give you a chance to explain to me what that might be."

Quincy swallowed. Blum had a reputation for getting right to the point. He also had a reputation for being a very bad person to piss off. An officer could make his life a little tense for a few days. The Commanding Officer could make his life pure hell – for as long as he wanted too. "Yes, sir," he said quickly. "I believe that must have been a joke, sir. You know how these rumors are. They grow out of control. I apologize if anything was done to make anybody uncomfortable, sir."

Blum smiled. "I thought that it was probably something like that," he said. "Those damned rumors. But actually, it's Lieutenant Moore who probably has the apology coming – don't you think?"

"Yes, sir," Quincy said. "I'll be more than happy to apologize to her, sir."

"That's a good idea," Blum said. "Do that. She's at the hospital. Maybe you could stop by on your way home tonight. I plan on talking to her myself, later. Just to make sure that she takes it okay. It's funny. When you command someone like Lieutenant Moore – they become almost like your own daughter. You start becoming very protective of them. Anybody who would hurt her – well, they become your enemy. You want to hurt them back. Do you know what I mean, son?"

Quincy swallowed. Blum had just sent him a not so veiled threat. He just told him that he was personally going to make sure that he followed through on his apology – and what would happen if he didn't like what he heard. "Yes, sir," he said. "Consider it done, sir."

"Good," Blum said. "You did well tonight Corporal. Tell the men that they all just earned a seventy-two hour liberty over Christmas."

Quincy breathed a sigh of relief. He would have to eat some major crow tonight. But at least he could salvage what was going to be left of his pride by telling the guys the good news. The seventy-two hour Christmas liberty meant going home and spending Christmas with their family. It was the most sought after prize on the entire base. "Yes, sir," he said smartly. "Thank you, sir."

x-x-x-x-x

Chuck Junior finally woke up. He found himself in a darkened room in what was clearly a hospital bed. Even though he couldn't see her face in the dark, he could tell that Heather was sitting in the chair beside him. "What happened?" he asked groggily.

Heather didn't answer him. So he stretched his arms. "Heather, what happened?" he asked again.

She leaned over to talk to him – and when she did, her face moved out of the shadow into the light. "Guess again, dumb ass," Kate said.

Suddenly Chuck Junior was a lot more awake. "Kate," he said. "Where is Heather? Is she okay?"

"We'll talk about Heather in a minute," Kate said – perhaps not harshly – but with a definite edge. "Don't worry. She's fine, physically, at least. You want to know what happened? Your moronic jealousy led you right into a Ring trap. If it hadn't been for the heroism of Alex, Elise, and Joe – but especially Heather – you would be in their hands right now."

Chuck Junior sagged into the bed. "I know," he said. "Let me talk to Heather. I want to see her."

"Tough," Kate said firmly. "The way I figure it you probably would be in the process of being tortured right now. Since we saved you from that, I think that it's only fair that you endure a little of my brand of torture for a few minutes. Don't you agree?"

He lifted the sheet a little. "Since I appear to be naked," he said. "I don't seem to have much choice. "You just said that Heather is fine physically. That infers that she's not fine emotionally. What's wrong with her?"

Kate just shook her head. "You're what's wrong with her," she said sadly. "Are you really the only person on the planet dumb enough to not see how crazy she is about you? You're hurting her, Sparky. And she is far too special to be hurt. If you can't see that, you're too dumb for me to help. You need to tell her how you feel – so that she can move on. Just, please, let her down easy. Right now, you're just being cruel. I love her – even if you don't."

Chuck Junior paused for a long moment. "Why would you think that I'm going to let her down?" he finally asked. "I've never met anyone like Heather. I love her. I'm crazy about her."

"Okay," Kate all but shouted. "But consider this. Maybe you should tell… her. I sure as hell don't see what good it does to tell me." Then Kate took a deep breath – and calmed her voice. "Come on, Sparky," she said. "You're supposed to be a genius. Do you really need for me to tell you this? You claim to love her. You know that she's hurting. And you can fix that by saying three little words to her. Could it possibly be that easy – or am I missing something?"

Chuck Junior smiled – a little. "Well," he said. "You're clearly missing any sense of tact or sensitivity or humor or warmness or …" Then his smile turned into a grin. "But your point might be a little valid. Should I tell her tonight? Or should I pick a time to be more romantic?"

Kate let out an exasperated sigh. "What are you - eight?" she asked sarcastically. "You should do both. Wow, is this really the first time that you've told a woman that you love her? A trained monkey could do a better job. All of those bimbos…"

"Actually, yes," Sparky said. "It is the first time. Please send her in. I'd like to talk to her."

Kate had been trying to hold in the laugh, she just couldn't any longer. "For what it's worth," she said. "I'm glad that you weren't captured – a little. It would have depressed Mom. Who needs that?"

Sparky laughed back. "Don't go getting all mushy on me," he said.

"No chance," Kate said. "I'll go get Heather."

x-x-x-x-x