A/N Hey there! Just to explain the relationships up to this point: Aaron and Eve are step-siblings. General Beckman is Aaron's biological mom and Eve's step-mom. Eve married Shaw. Sarah shot Eve as part of a mission. Shaw remarried Sarah's sister, Jenn.
Recap: Aaron was still angry, furious even, that his own mother would be defending the side of a murderer. No wonder Daniel and Jenn had gone rogue. Their government was a mess. "I won't do anything rash, but I don't know if I can still work on this case, General. I hope you understand." He clicked the power button, hoping to not see the concerned look on his mother's face. "Family," he grumbled to himself.
Time had flown for the team. The couple remaining weeks before the Jeffster concert had passed, and all through the Bartowski house, everyone was sleeping, everyone except Sarah. Wanting to clear her head, she stepped outside to look at the stars. Shivering slightly, she rubbed her arms, looking up at the sky and hoping her parents could see her and give advice.
By this point, Sarah knew what she had done to Alex was wrong. She had wanted to talk to Chuck about it, but every time she started to broach the conversation someone interrupted her. After mulling it over, she had developed a plan, well, half a plan, if she was honest with herself, to use the scans as leverage against her sister.
Deciding she was cold, she walked back to the front door to let herself back in. "You've got to be kidding me," Sarah mumbled, mentally kicking herself in the head for not having grabbed a key. Sighing, she realized she had locked the doors and windows herself, even moving the spare key back inside due to paranoia of her sister surprise-attacking her family.
Sarah glanced around, trying to decide what to do. She could wake Alex up to let her in, try to fall back asleep on the porch, or, wait, was a light on in Chuck's room? She did a double-take and realized it was. Skillfully she climbed the ledge to Chuck's window, tapping on it, letting memories flood her mind of when she had returned to Burbank that fateful, painful night.
A disheveled Chuck opened the window, looking at Sarah through bleary eyes. Yawning to wake up, he said, clearly shocked that Sarah was at his window again, "What are you doing?"
She gnawed at her lower lip, "Um, I couldn't sleep and kind of locked myself out of the house. Can I come in?"
Chuck smiled, started yawning again, and made Sarah chuckle at his goofy face. He grinned back and moved so she could climb in. He sat down on his bed, and Sarah started to walk back to the couch she had been sleeping on.
"Sarah, wait, do you want to sleep here tonight?" Chuck offered. Sarah looked at him, stunned at the offer. "I mean, the stairs are creaky and Ellie sleeps like a mouse. I'd feel bad if you woke her up."
Sarah responded, "I'd love to." With a soft smile, she lay down next to Chuck. His breathing evened out almost immediately, amusing her that he had fallen asleep that quickly.
She waited another twenty minutes, having difficulty falling asleep with his night-light on. Looking over at his sleeping form, she leaned over, kissed his forehead, and scanned his eye with Jenn's flash drive. "Love you, Chuck," she whispered by his ear, hoping he would agree to her plan.
Ellie groaned as she slammed her alarm clock. 4:30am was too early to be awake. Devon rolled over, snoring loudly, and went back to sleep. Dragging herself out of bed, she stumbled past Chuck's open door on the way to the bathroom.
"Chuck and Sarah look so cozy cuddled together," her half asleep brain thought. Making it to the restroom, she went through her morning routine before it hit her. Chuck and Sarah were sleeping together.
Much more alert, she half walked, half-ran back to the door and stood there, gawking. Chuck was spooned next to Sarah, an arm draped over her, their legs intertwined. Elle stood with her mouth open, with strange squeaks coming out.
Composing herself, she marched back to her bedroom to Devon's side of the bed. "Devon, wake up," she started, shaking her husband slightly. He grumbled, "My day off work, Babe, shhh," before starting to drift off again.
She tried again, "Devon, there's an emergency, wake up!" talking a little louder. Devon woke up instantly. "What? What happened? Where's my pager, hospital emergency?"
Elle tried to hide her smile. "Not that kind of emergency, come see," she said, pulling her now standing husband towards Chuck's room. "When did the two of them get back together? " she half-whispered at the door.
Apparently her whisper wasn't quiet enough, since Chuck's eyes blearily opened. Seeing his sister and brother-in-law watching him sleep woke him up quickly, and he internally groaned at the picture he and Sarah made. Detangling himself, he quietly walked into the hallway, motioning his family to follow to the kitchen. He looked back, Sarah was still sound asleep.
Looking at the clock in the hallway, Chuck let out a pitiful moan. 5am. He was going to kill Ellie.
As soon as they were someplace to talk normally, Ellie and Chuck started talking at the same time: "When did you and Sarah get back together? Is she living here again? Why do you keep doing this to yourself Chuck?/ Elle it's 5am! It is so weird to wake up to your sister watching you sleep. I need Lucky Charms to wake me up, this is ridiculous…"
Devon cleared his throat, trying to get them to stop talking. Unable to get them to quiet down, he loudly shushed them. Both turned to look at him.
"While I agree the hour is not an awesome hour to have this kind of conversation, for what it's worth, I'm glad you and Sarah are working together again. You two make a good team, and I know you can work out your problems. However, I think Ellie needs some answers, Chuck. It's not fair to leave her out of 'family matters' that pertain to her," he said, emphasizing the family part while fixing Chuck with a stare.
"You're right," Chuck mumbled. "Ellie, okay, I have to say something that may come as a bit of a shock to you." He motioned to a chair, and she sat. "Sarah and I are trying the relationship thing again. We have to be united because, well…" he muttered off, unsure where to go with this. "Have you heard from Dad recently?"
Ellie looked at him like he had grown antennae. "No, but that's not really out of the ordinary. It's not like he's really been around."
Chuck continued, "Right, well, there's a reason for that. You know how dad's always been a little off? I think it was because he was paranoid of something bad happening to him. And, well, it kind of happened," Chuck ungracefully finished. Elle looked between him and Devon, confused. "I think Dad's been kidnapped, sis. Sarah and I are trying to find him, but we haven't had much to go on."
Ellie's eyes widened. "What?" was all she could manage. Devon continued with, "I think it's true, Babe," but was interrupted with Ellie yelling, "You guys both knew this and didn't bother to tell me? And Sarah knew but I wasn't told, even though he's my dad?"
"That's the thing. We think Sarah's sister might have been in on it so…" Chuck was interrupted with Elle again, "And you're dating her? Again? You think she kidnapped our dad and you're sleeping with her? God, Chuck, how pathetic is that?"
Chuck looked like he'd been slapped. "Ellie, calm down. We were going to tell you…" Devon started but Ellie continued with, "No, listen. You three have been in on a secret that you haven't told me anything about. When were you planning on telling me? After Dad showed up dead? How long has he even been missing?" Both started to respond but she interrupted again, "No, actually, don't tell me. I'm mad enough. I'm just going to go to work and pretend that my family actually trusts me enough to talk to me. Tonight, we are sitting down like rational adults and discussing this."
Chuck and Devon exchanged glances, "Tonight's the Jeffster concert," Chuck reminded her, sheepishly. "Well then we are discussing it as soon as we are all home!" Ellie continued, not slowing her tirade. She looked at her wrist-watch, alarmed by how late it was. "If I kill anyone at work today, I'm blaming you two," she growled, storming out of the kitchen to finish getting ready for work.
Chuck massaged his temples as soon as she left, not comforted by Devon's gloomy, "That went well." The two sat down at the table at the same time, neither sure what to do since it was so early.
They cringed as the heard Ellie yelling again on her way down the stairs. "And if you hurt my baby brother again, Sarah, I'll come after you with a scalpel myself!" After a general huff in Devon and Chuck's direction, they heard Ellie's car leave the garage.
Sarah walked into the kitchen and joined them at the table. There was a long, awkward silence as everyone tried to think of something to say. Devon finally broke the ice with, "Since we're awake, anyone up for a morning jog?" Sarah offered a half smile while Chuck let his head drop onto the table. He was not a morning person.
After an uneventful day at work, Sarah and Chuck drove home to meet Devon for the Jeffster concert. Sarah was still trying to make Chuck feel better about what had happened that morning. "Ellie had a right to know about her dad, Chuck. You did the right thing in telling her."
"But maybe I should have told her as soon as we found out. I'm a horrible brother. She would have told me immediately," he argued.
"Yes, but then you would have had to tell her you were a spy. You would have blown your cover. It's for her own safety that you didn't tell her sooner," she reasoned back.
Chuck groaned. "She's not going to forgive me for this one. And I had to involve Devon. Could this day get any worse?"
Sarah gave him the eye, "Don't jinx yourself, Chuck. Besides, it was my fault, if anyone's, that Devon got involved. He wouldn't know anything either if I hadn't of needed to help with my gunshot wound."
Chuck winced. "Don't remind me." He sighed. "I just wish everything could go back to normal." Chuck fumbled with the radio station, finding a decent song to listen to and sitting back. The All American Rejects softly played out of the speakers:
Another day and you've had your fill of sinking, with the life held in your hands are shaking cold, these hands are meant to hold…
Sarah reached over from the wheel and touched his hand. "It will, Chuck. Just give it some more time. I promise it will work out in the end."
Chuck smiled at her. He looked down and saw a message from Morgan on his phone. "We r at ur house. Where r u?" "You might drive a little faster," he told Sarah. "Morgan and Alex are already waiting for us."
Sarah rolled her eyes, "If we wouldn't have been looking for Parker then maybe we would have gotten home on time."
Chuck put his hands up in defense. "I just wanted to invite him to the Jeffster concert. We haven't seen too much of him since he had to fake break-up with Alex. Poor guy, I hope he didn't actually really like her."
Sarah bit her lip, trying to decide how to respond. Chuck glanced over when she didn't say anything. "Sarah?" he started, "You know I know when you start biting your lip you have a secret. What's up?"
Sarah glanced at him, then at the clock to see if there was enough time to tell her story. The radio continued: Speak to me, when all you got to keep is strong, move along, move along like I know you do, and even when your hope is gone, move along…
Deciding there was enough time, she said, quietly, "Did I ever tell you what happened in the six months I was gone?"
Chuck's eyes widened. "No, but I figured you wouldn't want to, since you're super secretive." Seeing Sarah's eyes wince, he recovered with, "But I would love to hear about it if you're willing to talk about it. I just don't want to push you too fast."
Sarah took a deep breath. "Okay, well, do you remember how I said Aaron and I were partners?" Chuck nodded. She continued, "We did live together, acting as a couple so that we could work at Alex's university without raising too many red flags." Chuck looked alarmed so Sarah quickly continued, "Nothing happened between us. Or, well, I didn't let anything happen…"
Chuck looked confused so Sarah tried a different approach. "Look, I know Aaron liked me. He didn't know about you, and I was trying to keep you a secret since I thought you were in spy school. He tried to kiss me, once, but I told him I didn't want that. In my mind, you and I were still dating, even though I hadn't heard anything from you for months. Aaron is a really nice guy and we got pretty close as friends during our mission, but you know how it is. You start to like the people you spend the most time around, and for Aaron, that was me."
Sarah was quiet for a few seconds, letting Chuck process everything. Chuck responded, "Yea, well, being a spy doesn't really allow you to have much of a love life, let alone a social life. I'm glad that you weren't romantically interested in him, but I was still jealous when I thought you two were together. Those six months were horrible for me, Sarah."
"They weren't so great for me either, Chuck. I didn't have contact with anyone outside of Aaron, and while he's nice, he's not you. I know Aaron was upset when I started dating you again. He told me his worst fear was rejection. Even a fake rejection like Alex's had to hurt him. Lately, he's spent a lot of time in the Castle and giving me dirty looks when I go down there. I couldn't figure out what was up with him until I overheard Alex apologize to him for their fake-break up."
"Do you want me to talk to him about it?" Chuck interjected. "I don't want him to make things uncomfortable for you."
Sarah smiled at him, "Thanks, but he'll get over it. We just need to find a nice girl to match him up with."
After a few minutes of silence, Chuck picked up the flow of conversation again. "So who do you think attacked you at the school anyway? I know we decided it was a rogue agent, but other than that, we haven't really discussed what happened to you that night."
"Honestly, Chuck, I think it was SPI," Sarah quickly answered, trying to say everything before they got home. Chuck looked dubious so she continued. "I have a confession. The night I went to visit my sister, she told me that she was after the CIA for revenge. She's angry that she wasn't chosen for the Intersect project. I think she might be after you and Alex and, I'm so sorry but…." she was cut off by a loud honking noise.
"Chuck, Sarah, I thought you'd never get here!" Morgan yelled, running towards their car with an air-horn. "Do you like my new toy? Alex got it for me! Jeff and Lester will definitely know who loves them the most when they perform!" Sarah had abruptly stopped the car, shocked, thus allowing Morgan to jump on the hood and blow his horn again at the wind-shield.
Alex came up behind him, trying to look embarrassed but failing. It was easy to see she was pleased Morgan was happy. "You two should change, the doors open soon and we have a fairly large group going with us."
As she spoke, Casey was seen walking out his door, locking it, and pocketing the key. The look he sent towards Morgan was unfathomable. Clearly trying to control his emotions, scowling slightly, he went and stood behind Alex.
Sarah let out a huff of disappointment. Chuck heard it and reached towards her, "We can pick up the conversation tonight, okay? After we have our big talk with Ellie."
Sarah sent him a tight smile. "I forgot about that." Her face relaxed a bit as her shoulders slumped, "I really need to talk to you, Chuck. It's important. As soon as we have any free time together at all…." she was interrupted by Morgan's air-horn again. Casey let out a quiet growl while Alex took her Dad's hand and laughed, amused at the situation.
Chuck couldn't help but laugh at how annoyed Sarah looked. "Sarah I promise, the first chance we get, we'll talk. Let's go get ready for a crazy night."
Chuck couldn't help but be smug as he held Sarah's hand walking into Jeffster's audition. Sarah had cleaned up quickly from work, but the skinny jeans, boots, and tight sweater she wore were turning heads left and right. Finally, after so long, he could finally claim her as his girlfriend.
"Chuck, they're waving at us," Sarah whispered in his ear. Chuck couldn't help but be aroused by her close proximity and breath moving past his ear. Swallowing tightly, he saw Jeff waving frantically from a corner. Morgan, Alex, Devon, and Casey had already started walking towards them.
Deciding that now was not the time and place to suffer from Sarah's spell, Chuck replied with a nod and started pulling Sarah after the group, desperately trying to get himself under control.
"I'm so nervous. We're going to do terribly. I know we're going to fail," Lester was chanting as his friends came closer.
"This place smells like goat cheese," Jeff helpfully interjected.
"Ah come on, you two," Alex said, pulling Morgan by the hand towards the performers. "You're going to do great! The Buymore's sales totally went up when you played. The crowd loved you."
"And I heard your lyrics for your original song*. They're rock awesome!" Morgan continued, after his girl-friend elbowed him in the ribs.
Jeff and Lester looked expectantly at their friends for more words of encouragement. The six friends soon started talking at the same time, "You can do it!/They're going to love you!/This is giving me a headache…/This place is awesome!/ Where's the bathroom?/ I can't wait to hear you perform!"
Jeffster, as one, puffed out their chests with confidence. "Bring it on," Lester said, confidently.
The friends left Jeffster to find a place to stand near the stage. The first couple acts were good, it was obvious the crowd wasn't completely thrilled with them, though.
Morgan volunteered to go get everyone a round of drinks. After taking the orders, Devon decided that there were too many for one person to bring back. The two navigated through the crowd, bringing back Corona for everyone.
Chuck accepted his with glee. He couldn't remember the last time he had had a beer with friends at a concert. The couple next to him were slightly rowdy, though, and managed to knock into him and Sarah. Chuck spilled most of his beverage on the floor. "Hey," he started, not happy with them for spilling his drink.
"Sorry, man," the guy next to him said. "Here, you can have mine. I haven't even opened it yet." He handed Chuck his drink, and Chuck gratefully accepted it. The couple quickly moved away after Sarah gave them a dirty look for starting to make out as soon as they stopped talking to Chuck.
Other than the rowdy couple, Sarah was enjoying herself. Chuck was standing behind her, his arms surrounding her, and the two were swaying to the music. The song was a slow, country song that she didn't recognize, but she found herself wanting to melt into Chuck to the beat of the music. She didn't realize how muscular Chuck had gotten with all the morning work-outs Devon had been making them do. She sighed, contentedly, and clapped at the end of the song with everyone else.
"Jeffster is up next," Chuck rumbled in her ear. Sarah shivered, turned on by the close proximity. Even as her friends took the stage, she was having trouble focusing on anything but the man holding her.
"We would like to dedicate this song to our friend, Alex, who has encouraged us to follow our passionate dream for music," Lester said.
Jeff continued with, "This one's for you, girl."
As Jeffster's original lyrics floated off the stage, Sarah couldn't help but be impressed by their voice and deep meaning, "So easily said in passing, always followed by some way out, you got me so dizzy, I'm wondering what it's all about."
"Wow, they're actually pretty good," Chuck murmured to himself. Sarah heard him, though, causing another flash of heat to go through her. She was starting to get embarrassed at how attracted to Chuck she really was. Unsure how to resolve her problem, she finally decided she needed to head to the bathroom to cool down.
"Chuck, I need to use the ladies room," she concert-whispered up to him. Chuck untangled himself from her. He watched her go to the lyrics, "Oh can't you see I hang on your every word, this ain't no game I'm playing, I really love you, don't promise nothin' that you can't live up to…"
With Chuck no longer focusing on Sarah, he was able to notice his surroundings a little more. He was slightly dizzy, but he played it off on the beer. In a moment of brief clarity, his eyes made contact with an individual wearing all black by the steps of the stage.
Chuck flashed. A syringe. An alarm clock. A chicken. A sprinkler. A bar of soap.
Realizing it was the girl from the rowdy couple next to him earlier, he whispered, "Holy crap, it's Jenn," shocked. She sent a bone-chilling grin at him. Suddenly, the lights went out and the room was pitch black. Chuck distantly heard someone screaming his name, but all he could think about were the lyrics he had just heard Jeffster sing, "Help me get to the bottom of this, I've listened to all your excuses, it's the truth I miss."
"What is the truth?" Chuck thought to himself as pain erupted in the back of his skull. Then it all went black.
A/N *The song is (I Hang) on Your Every Word by Michael McDonald. It sounds like a love song Jeffster would sing. Did anyone look up the band from the last chapter?
I did it! Successfully managed to write this chapter (and started the next one) during the first two weeks of PA school :) Thanks for all the encouraging reviews, it was nice to see that there was still interest in the story! I hope I sent all of you a thank you, but if I didn't, I appreciate the feedback so much! It definitely keeps me motivated to procrastinate homework and work on fanfic instead lol. Let me know how I did/if there are errors I need to correct or explain in the next chapter. You guys rock!