Sarah vs covers, lies and ticking time bombs

A/N I don't own Chuck.

Chapter 3

Sarah opened the closet and pulled out her suitcase. She sighed. If this was a normal seduction, it would be easy, but when it comes to Chuck, things hardly ever were. She had to keep him interested enough to take his mind of Lou, but not so interested that he'd want something more and force her to rebuff him again. It was already hard enough to keep her walls up as it is. Simply because she didn't want to anymore. But she had to. He was her asset. It would be unprofessional to be together. She would be reassigned.

The easier course of action would be to investigate Lou and if her motives were true, give Chuck the go-ahead to date her. To have a real relationship. It could help secure his cover in the event that someone ID's her and it wouldn't complicate the mission that much. Instead of using the cover as his girlfriend to stay close and protect him, she'd have her turns to keep him, and most possibly Lou, under surveillance. But then not only would she have to deal with the knowledge that he was with someone else, she'll actually have to witness it. Call her selfish, but the thought almost made her sick. She sighed again and pulled out the purple negligee.

Sarah paused in the doorway, smiling at Chuck's little sexy dance. He was so engrossed he didn't notice her at first. When she closed the door behind her, he froze, clearly embarrassed. "Ellie let me in," she explained. Taking in the atmosphere he created, she continued, "Wow, Chuck. What do you think was gonna happen here tonight?" Truth be told, no man has ever done something like this for her before.

"Why? What do you think I think?" His attempt at flirting was endearing.

"Well, I don't know. The candles and the music. I mean, you do know we're just spending the night together for cover, right?" She said it more for her own benefit than for his.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Why would I possibly think anything else? By now I'd say I'm pretty familiar with the concept of faking it, so..." Sarah's heart twisted a little like it always did when Chuck pretended he wasn't hurt by her actions.

"We've gotta take this assignment seriously." If they both thought of this as a mission, it might be easier to deal with.

"Okay, I'll lose the music," Chuck conceded. Turning off the IPod, he moved over to the bed and slipped between the covers. His eyes were fixed on the ceiling. "You can change in the bathroom."

"That's okay." Sarah wasn't as calm as she sounded. Nonetheless she took off her jacket and folded it. Chuck caught the movement out of the corner of his eye and bolted upright when he noticed what she was wearing.

"What? You give me crap about lighting some candles and you come in wearing that?"

"What, this? This is part of my cover." It was only half true.

"Well it doesn't cover a thing." Of all the reactions she imagined, that was definitely not one, but she had her 'excuse' ready.

"What if Ellie or Awesome were to walk in? This is exactly what a girlfriend would wear to seduce her boyfriend. I'm just being professional."

"Yeah, the world's oldest profession." Sarah's mouth nearly fell open. Did he just call her...

"Oh, right. Well, that's real nice, Chuck. What is the matter with you tonight, anyway?" Chuck ignored her question and turned his back to her, lying as close to the edge of the mattress as humanly possible without falling out of bed. Sarah followed suit, stretching the covers between them. Neither spoke for a while or attempted to go to sleep. Not that it was possible with the raised voice coming from the next room. They couldn't make out what Devon was saying, but from Ellie side of it, it sounded like a pretty stupid argument about porno shorts and awesome being mediocre, but it was her 'when's the last time you did something nice for me' that really got to them.

"We're starting to sound like them, aren't we?" Chuck asked quietly.

"A little." Sarah turned around to face him. "Are you okay? Is there anything you wanna talk about?" She knew there was and as his friend, she should listen, but she was also the girl who liked him, liked him...more than liked him actually and she really didn't want to hear about his interest in another girl.

"What exactly are the rules with our...like, you know, our thing?"

"What do you mean?" Sarah knew she was stalling.

"What I mean... Hypothetically speaking, are we allowed to see other people?"

"Well, uh, our cover is boyfriend-girlfriend so tactically that would be challenging. Plus any prospective date would have to endure a rigorous vetting process to determine her motivation."

"Wouldn't her motivation be love?" Most likely, Sarah thought, and that's what she was afraid of.

"Ideally, but you're a very important piece on intelligence and you have to be handled with extreme care." Well, that's real nice, Sarah, she thought to herself, you just called him a computer. Guess we're even.

"Well, that sounds very nice." Sarah couldn't help feeling sorry for Chuck. He didn't ask for this, for his entire life to be turned upside down. At the same time she couldn't help wondering why now. For five years he was free to pursue a relationship, but he was too hung up on his ex-girlfriend.

"Chuck, I don't have to be a spy to piece together the clues here. You're interested in that Lou girl, aren't you?" Sarah held her breath, knowing what the answer would be, though secretly hoping for a different outcome.

Chuck didn't respond to the question directly. He just looked at her for a moment and sat up. "Well, I, uhm...you know what, I think I'm just gonna sleep on the floor."

Sarah sat up to and grabbed his arm to prevent him from getting out of bed. "Chuck, you can't compromise our cover." It came out a bit more harshly than she intended, but this whole situation was rather frustrating.

"Well, you know what? I feel compromised already." Yeah, Sarah thought, that makes two of us.

Sarah was high on adrenaline. It the past couple of hours, she, Chuck, Casey and Ellie have been poisoned. Chuck gave Ellie the antidote instead of taking it himself and then he found the tracking device that led them here, to Reardon Paine's apartment, where they're hoping to find more of the antidote to save them. Casey just admitted that she was better at picking locks. Truth serum did have its perks. Especially when Chuck turned to her while they were waiting for the elevator.

"God, you're so pretty." Sarah smiled widely, her breathing becoming even more erratic as her heart rate sped up. That's what he was supposed to say last night, but it's probably a good thing he didn't. She was too busy remembering how good it felt lying next to him, despite the fight slash talk they were having, that she barely registered his "And Casey, you're jaw was chiselled by Michelangelo himself."

They found the codes and the antidote. Before they could take it, Chuck stopped them and asked the one question Sarah has been dreading for a long time now. "I know you're just doing your job here, but sometimes it feels so real, you know? So tell me...you and me, us...our thing under the undercover thing, is this ever going anywhere?" He looked so vulnerable that Sarah found herself swallowing a lump that suddenly formed in her throat and looked away for a moment.

"I'm sorry, Chuck." She truly was. She broke eye contact again and concentrated on shaking her head slightly and formed the word "No" before looking up at him.

It was Chuck's turn to swallow. "Got it. Got it. Thank you for being honest." He tried to crack a joke and failed. "Even though I guess you didn't really have a choice in the matter." Sarah walked off before she could give into the temptation to tell him that she was trained to withstand Pentothal. Now she knew that he would choose her over Lou.

But he chose Lou anyway.

A/N Season 2 is showing on the free channels at the moment – tonight was the episode where Chuck committed treason to save Jill, hence the 'depression'. Poor Sarah. This will be my last update for the next two weeks or so. If I don't pass at least one more subject this year, I'm afraid the university is going to send a shrink to my door...

So from the next episode, Sarah sets her plan in motion to get Chuck back – I'm trying to keep it in line with cannon for now, but yes, Coreymon77, I will go AU pretty soon.

PS – From the promo of 4x08 there's no Chuck next week? NAEIOU! (Zach's impression of Yvonne's accent, in case you haven't seen the video on YouTube.)