Thanks to Poa, my editor/proofreader. (Yes, she's back). And thanks again to MySoapBox for her help while Poa was away. The casual reader may not realize it, but we have an incredible network of very supportive, very talented people here on . I am so glad that I posted that first story in that it gave me an entry into a wonderful community of truly special individuals. ('Snort', Casey says. 'Special.')

CHUCK VERSUS THE BUY MORE BOMBER

Chapter 10

Charles Carmichael, Hero

Chuck and Sarah rode in the back of the ambulance to County General Hospital. Casey insisted on following them in his Suburban. Because Agent Humbolt, the agency paramedic, rode in the back with them, the beginning of the trip was made in silence. Of course, that didn't stop the sidelong glances that Sarah cast at Chuck and Chuck at Sarah, each looking away quickly when it appeared the other might glance their way. 'God, it's like I'm back in junior high,' Chuck thought. Finally, he lay back and enjoyed the slight buzz he was getting from breathing the pure oxygen. 'I guess this explains what people see in oxygen bars,' Chuck thought.

He looked down. His hands were starting to throb a little. He cleared his throat and turned to Agent Humbolt. "Could I get, I don't know, some aspirin or something?"

Agent Humbolt was on his feet and leaning over Chuck in an instant. "What is it, Agent Carmichael? Headache? Your hands? Your throat?" He seemed genuinely concerned, which only succeeded in making Chuck nervous.

'Am I in worse shape than I realize?' Chuck thought. 'I don't feel that bad.' "It's, ah, my hands. They're starting to throb a little."

"Just a little?" Humbolt asked.

Chuck nodded. "I mean, not too bad. But it's starting to get uncomfortable, if you know what I mean."

Humbolt nodded. "Tell you what. We're almost there. If you can hang on a little longer, we can let the Doctor prescribe something for you. You can wait that long, can't you?" He shook his head and answered his own question. "I'm sorry. Of course you can. You're Agent Carmichael." He glanced over at Sarah who had her eyes closed, then said to Chuck in a low voice. "You know, I was over at the Sheraton Conference Center when you went in without a hazmat suit to rescue those scientists. Bravest damn thing I've ever seen. And now with you running into that building?" He shook his head. "It's too bad we can't tell anyone about you, Agent Carmichael. You're a real hero."

Chuck felt his face flush and fidgeted a little. At least the burns on his face would hide his blushing. Chuck knew he wasn't a hero. Heroes were guys who threw themselves on grenades or charged enemy pillboxes single-handedly. Or who, like Sarah and Casey, took on hordes of bad guys with nothing but their feet and fists without a thought for their own safety. A real hero wouldn't feel the gnawing fear in the pit of their stomach that plagued him. A real hero wouldn't have hesitated before running into the building like he had done. Even now, there was a slight tremble in his hands at the mere thought of what he had done.

The problem was, how was he supposed to ask for aspirin now? "I'm just doing my job," Chuck said. "The same as you." He nodded over at Sarah. "Agents Walker and Schwartz are the real heroes. They're the ones who ran inside to evacuate the building knowing that there was a bomb."

Humbolt grinned. "I know you asked us not to say anything, but it was kind of cool the way you clocked Agent Casey. He's got a reputation around the local NSA office of being something of a hardass."

Chuck couldn't help grinning. He leaned closer to Humbolt and whispered conspiratorially. "It's all an act. Agent Casey is really just a big teddy bear, once you get to know him."

Sarah must not have been asleep after all, because Chuck heard a stifled chuckle from the next gurney. He leaned up on an elbow and looked over at Sarah, who leaned up on an elbow as well and winked at him.

When they reached the hospital, Agent Humbolt turned them over to an Agency doctor and medical staff. Chuck was a little concerned when they wheeled him into an area marked, 'Biohazard! No unauthorized access. Level I hazmat suit required.' The orderly wheeling the gurney must have seen the look of panic on his face, because he said, "Don't worry. The sign is just to keep people out. The agency has a special area set aside for its personnel and some of the hospital staff have been given clearance to work on 'special cases' like you."

Chuck was a little distressed that he was taken into a separate examining room from Sarah, but the matronly nurse who attended to him seemed quite nice and very competent. The nurse was taking his vitals when the door slammed open and John Casey, face still blackened from soot, burst into the room. The nurse turned around, took one look at him, and pointed a long index finger at the door. "Out," she demanded.

Casey opened his mouth to speak, but before he could utter a single syllable, the nurse jabbed her index finger at the door again and said, even louder, "Out. Don't come back until you've cleaned up."

Chuck saw Casey's angry center, already at a slow burn, flame into a full-blown blast furnace. But to Chuck's surprise, Casey turned on his heel and marched out of the room. The nurse turned back to Chuck and he was startled at the intensity of her expression. He suddenly understood Casey's about face much better. But the nurse's expression instantly softened. "Germs, you know. You have to be careful with burns. It's easy to get an infection. Once I've got your vitals, we'll start to get you cleaned up, too."

True to her word, she had Chuck strip off his dirty, stinky clothes and slip into a hospital gown while she waited outside. He fumbled with the tie in back. It was bad enough trying to tie the blasted things normally, but his hands were hurting and his fingers seemed to have all turned into thumbs.

The nurse returned and Chuck spun to face her while he clutched the back of his gown closed. "Trouble tying it, dear?" the nurse asked.

"I, ah, well… That is…"

"Don't worry," the nurse said. "You haven't got anything I haven't seen before. Besides, I've got house slippers older than you." She spun him around and quickly and efficiently tied the gown closed. Chuck still felt half-naked wearing only the thin, open-backed gown and his underwear. "Once the doctor is finished, I'll get you some scrubs to wear," she said. "We keep some extra ones on hand."

The doctor came in a few moments later. He didn't look much older than Devon, but he had a shock of white hair that added gravitas to his mien. "Agent Carmichael, I'm Doctor Jennings. You've had quite the day, haven't you? Let's take a look at you, shall we?"

He gave Chuck a thorough examination before turning to his burns. "The face doesn't look too bad. First degree. No worse than a good sunburn. I'll give you a cream that will help. Now let's look at those hands." He carefully unwrapped the gauze and gently held Chuck's hands from the back, careful not to touch the burned palms. "You've got a little blistering. Can you close your hand?"

Chuck tried, but winced in pain as his hand was about half-closed. "That's okay. Stop there. You've got some pretty good burns here. Second degree. I'm going to clean them and apply an ointment, then we'll re-wrap them. You'll have to change the dressings… well, have someone change the dressings… twice a day. And I'll give you some ibuprofen for the pain."

He went to work on Chuck's hands and when he was done, Chuck held them up to inspect them, all wrapped in gauze as they were. "I feel like Imhotep," Chuck said.

"Excuse me?" the doctor asked.

"Imhotep. You know, The Mummy? The Mummy Returns?"

The doctor shook his head.

"Brendan Frazier? Rachel Weisz?' Arnold Vosloo?"

The doctor shrugged.

Chuck shook his head. "You really need to get out more, doc. Do yourself a favor. Go rent them. Great special effects. Don't bother with the third one, though. Different Evie. No Vosloo. Not worth the time."

The doctor chuckled. "You're certainly different than my other agency patients," he said. "I…"

The door burst open and John Casey, now scrubbed clean and dressed in purple scrubs, barged in. "Listen, Carmichael…" he started to say.

"Excuse me," Doctor Jennings cut him off. "And you are?"

"About to have a little chat with your patient here," Casey replied.

"Um, Casey, about earlier…" Chuck started.

"Excuse me," Jennings said, a little louder so as to cut Chuck off. "I am in the middle of examining my patient. You can wait outside."

The veins in Casey's neck started to throb, but he took a deep breath, let it out slowly, and said, "We'll talk later, Agent Carmichael." He turned and slammed the door open and barged out of the room.

"Who the hell was that?" Doctor Jennings asked.

"My partner," Chuck replied. "Well, one of my partners. The other one…"

As if on cue, the doors opened and Sarah came in, looking stunning even in wet hair and blue scrubs. "Oh, am I interrupting?" she asked.

"No, no, please come in," Doctor Jennings said. "I'm Doctor Andrew Jennings." He put just a little more emphasis on the 'doctor.' Chuck rolled his eyes. By now he was used to men fawning over Sarah, but that didn't make it any easier to swallow. "But you can call me Andrew," the doctor continued.

"Hi," Sarah said, taking the doctor's offered hand. "I'm Sarah Walker. I'm here to see my savior, if that's all right."

"Of course. Of course," Doctor Jennings replied. Then he paused, confused. "Um, savior?"

"Agent Carmichael pulled me from a burning building," Sarah replied. She smiled at Chuck, but Chuck saw something unreadable in her eyes. Unreadable and a little disquieting. He almost preferred that Casey come back in. Almost.

Jennings' eyes grew wide and he looked at Chuck. "Wait. You're the one on television."

"I'm what?" Chuck asked.

There was a television suspended from a ceiling mount in the room. Doctor Jennings picked up the big blue and white remote from Chuck's bed and turned on the television. He flipped through the channels until he found one where there was a picture of the burning North Hollywood Buy More. He turned up the volume.

"…third Southern California Buy More bombed in four days. Police do not yet have a suspect. Fortunately, an FBI team arrived at the store moments before the explosion and began an evacuation. The heroics of two of the FBI agents were captured on this amateur video. We apologize for the quality of the footage, but the scenes are dramatic. Viewer discretion is advised."

The scene cut to footage that was obviously being shot by a very excited bystander with a hand-held video camera. The shaky video showed the front of the Buy More sheathed in smoke and flame while men and women in green shirts and Nerd Herd uniforms stumbled away from the store. "Geez, look at that," said a voice on the tape. "That's incredible." "You think we're safe here, dude?" "Shut up, I wanna get this." "Whoa, dude, look!"

A hand appeared to the left of the frame, pointing. The camera swiveled and jerked to catch the image of a tall, lanky man with curly hair, dressed in a black windbreaker on which one could just make out 'FBI" stenciled in yellow on the back, running toward the inferno. He collided with a man in a green shirt, bounced off him, and then rushed headlong into the smoke and flames.

Chuck's and Sarah's eyes were riveted to the screen while the doctor looked from one to the other before occasionally glancing back up at the television.

"He's toast, dude," the voice on the video said. Another figured appeared, slightly larger than the first and also dressed in an FBI windbreaker. He stopped for a moment at the door and then ran into the fire after the first man. "Whoa, like, FBI convention, dude," the voice said.

The video zoomed in and out inexpertly, and panned over the smoke and flames coming from the store, before the voice shouted, "Look! There he comes." A figure staggered out of the smoke carrying a limp form dressed in black. The long, blonde hair and slender build showed it to be a woman. The rescuer stumbled forward, was grabbed by a bystander, shook him off, stumbled forward a little farther and was stopped by a police officer.

Doctor Jennings looked at Sarah, then at Chuck, then back at Sarah. "Was that…" he started to ask.

"Here comes the other one," the voice on the video interrupted. The video showed the second figure that had entered the store striding out with a body draped over his shoulder. Then a fire engine pulled in front of the camera, blocking the view. The television cut back to the news anchors at the studio.

Chuck said a silent prayer of thanks that the video was of low enough quality and taken from far enough away that he couldn't be recognized, nor could Casey or Sarah. That would have been a little hard to explain to Ellie or Morgan.

"Dramatic footage, indeed," the male television anchor said. "There is no comment, as yet, from the local FBI office with regard to the extraordinary acts of heroism viewed on this tape. Officials at the scene requested that the names of the FBI agents involved be withheld since they are part of an ongoing investigation."

"Well, our hats are off to them, whoever they are," the female anchor said. "As we said earlier in the telecast, this is the third…"

Chuck reached over and turned off the television. He swallowed a lump in his throat and looked over at Sarah. Her mouth was drawn in a thin line and her eyes glistened. Sarah turned to the doctor.

"Could you give us a moment?" she asked.

"Oh, ah, sure," Jennings said. His eyes darted hurriedly around the room, as if looking for something to take with him, but then he licked his lips and nodded at Chuck. "I'll, ah, get you those ibuprofen, Agent Carmichael." Then he hurried out of the room.

Sarah sat down on the bed next to Chuck. "What were you thinking?" she asked. "Chuck, you could have been killed."

Chuck looked down and shifted uncomfortably. He suddenly felt very naked, dressed only in a thin hospital gown while Sarah sat so close to him.

"I… well… that is…"

"Chuck," Sarah continued. Her voice was flat: no heat; no passion. It was as if she was reciting a practiced speech from memory. "It's my job to protect you. You're the Intersect. You are incredibly valuable. You aren't supposed to endanger yourself for the life of a mere agent."

Chuck looked up at her. "You're not a mere agent, Sarah."

"But Chuck…"

"Sarah, do you honestly think I could go on living if I let you die in there? That I could just stand by while the girl I… while you died in that fire?"

Sarah started to say something, but stopped and took a deep breath. "Thank you," she said. "Thank you for saving my life."

"One down and, what, two or three hundred to go to even the score?" Chuck asked, a smile starting to slowly spread across his face.

"It's not the first time," Sarah said, bumping him with her shoulder. "But it was incredibly brave. And incredibly stupid."

Chuck just shrugged.

"I'm serious, Chuck. You can't take chances like that. That's my job. And Casey's. If Beckman thinks you're endangering yourself for me…" She paused, leaving the possible consequences unsaid.

"Sarah, I think you'd know me better by now. If it makes you feel any better, I would have done the same for Casey. Well, okay, I don't think I would have hit you and he would have been a lot harder to carry." He smiled that mischievous smile of his and Sarah heaved a heavy sigh.

"What are we going to do with you, Chuck?" she asked.

"Well, I could make a few suggestions."

Sarah raised an eyebrow. "Really, Mr. Bartowski? Pray tell, what did you have in mind?"

Called on his bluff, Chuck fidgeted nervously and said, "Well, um, I… I mean, what I meant to say was… See…"

Sarah smiled and he laughed.

"Did you really hit Casey?" she asked.

Chuck nodded. "Um. I didn't really mean to. I mean, I guess I meant to but I really… You know… He wouldn't let me go and… It's just…"

Sarah shook her head. "I think you better let me run interference with Casey for awhile." She frowned. "It's going to be kind of hard explaining your injuries to Ellie and Devon. I think you better stay at my place for a few days until you heal."

"Um, really?" Chuck asked. "I don't want to put you out or anything. I guess we could tell Ellie… Um… Surely we can think of something."

Sarah shook her head. "You're staying with me, Mr. Intersect. It's the only way I know I can keep you out of trouble. And you're going to need someone to take care of you while you heal."

"So how is it that you get blown up but I'm the one with all the injuries?" Chuck asked.

Sarah shrugged. "I have to maintain my reputation as Wonder Woman."

Chuck suddenly remembered Ari and felt guilty at neglecting the man he considered the true hero of the day. "Is Ari here?" he asked. "Is he okay?"

"He'll be fine. His back got cut up a bit by some flying debris and he has a few burns, but he should be okay. He's in surgery right now to remove the shards from his back."

"What happened in there?" Chuck asked.

A frown flickered across Sarah's face as she remembered the events inside the Buy More. "Ari and I ran into the store and pulled the fire alarm. The assistant manager ran up to us and asked us what we were doing. When we showed him our badge and told him what was happening, he started shouting 'pineapple' and everyone started running from the store." She suppressed a shudder at the thought of what came next. "There was an explosion – the bomb must have been somewhere in the back of the store, behind the concrete walls in back. Ari pushed me away from the fireball and behind the counter. That must have been when he got hit in the back with the debris. He was shielding me with his body. Then… Well, then I woke up outside with you."

"So Ari did save your life," Chuck said.

Sarah laid a hand on Chuck's arm. "Yes, he did. And so did you. My Hero. Thank you." She leaned over and gently kissed his cheek.

Despite the feather-soft lightness of her touch, his face burned where her lips touched his cheek. But as to whether it was the sensitivity of his burnt flesh or the fire inherent in her lips, he couldn't say.