Author's Note: Okay, folks, here we go. This is more or less the last chapter of this little saga. There will be a very brief epilogue that I will post in a few days, but this is it. Now initially, I planned to make this chapter a little bit more...adult, I should say. But I decided, after careful consideration, to pull an ulstergirl. If you don't know who ulstergirl is (and for shame if you don't) she is a very good writer that writes some pretty great, albeit adult, Charah stories. What she typically does is post the "sanitized" version on FF and the M-rated or adult version on her livejournal.

I don't have a livejournal nor do I plan to set one up, so here is how things will go. If you want to read the M-rated version of this chapter, you must PM me and we will set up some kind of way of getting you the story, either by e-mail or through docx. You've gotta request it. This is so those who have been reading this story can do so without reading something they might not be interested in. If you're not interested in the M-rated version, no harm no foul. I wouldn't blame you. I mostly wrote it just to see if I could do a sex scene (it's practice for a scene I'm thinking about putting in DA). I don't think it's that good, which is why I consider this practice. But this way, at least I can see how many of you are as big of pervs as Wep and I are. :-P

Of course, this story would not be anything without Wepdiggy, my fellow co-conspirator in Sill and Sarina. Thanks for all of your assistance, my friend!

It wasn't until she was out of the shower and toweling off that it truly hit her what had just happened.

She had been in the shower. With Chuck. While they were both half naked. And she had done absolutely nothing.

She had literally dreamed of a situation like this before. She might have been far more adept at hiding her innermost thoughts than Chuck was, but Chuck wasn't the only one who wanted more out of their relationship. She thought about sex, and having sex with Chuck, nearly every damn day.

And she had finally been presented with a golden opportunity, and let it slip through her fingers.

So what if she had thought they were seconds away from death. So what if her primary reason for existing was ensuring Chuck's safety. So what if she didn't think she could ever have just sex with Chuck. She had grabbed his head and forced his face in between her breasts, and if she hadn't been so terrified by the fear that he might die any second now, she probably would have…well, it's unlikely her bra would have stayed on for much longer.

She ran her towel along her hair and risked a look at Chuck by her side. He looked dazed, like he was in a stupor and the mechanical attempts to dry himself were the height of his current cognitive abilities. She wasn't sure if he was so out of sorts because just a few seconds ago he thought he was going to die a slow, painful death due to inhalation of an unidentified biological agent, or because of her.

She desperately hoped it was because of her, of being that close to her in such an intimate way, but knew that she wasn't that lucky or had that much good karma stored up. It had to be because of the biological agent.

Since Jill had come back, he'd barely paid any attention to her at all. Well, okay, so that wasn't completely true, it just felt like it was. She was so used to being, in many ways, the center of Chuck's universe, that when she wasn't, she felt…lonely. And to add on top of that loneliness a feeling of inadequacy and fear that she might be losing Chuck forever and she had not had a good couple of days.

And it was all because of Jill.

Quite possibly the most horrible name in the world. Which fit, because Jill was possibly the most horrible woman in the world as well. Jill was annoying, arrogant, selfish, unappreciative, deceptive, cruel, and she had not stopped thinking about Jill since their kiss the day before.

She hated Jill. That she was positive of. But everything else? Nothing but a whirl of confusion. She couldn't deny feeling the competing urges of wanting to strangle her and sleep with her. She knew which one she needed to do, and suspected she knew which one she wanted to do as well.

It had been quite a while since she'd last had sex. Not since Carina had been in town for that stupid jewel, and that encounter had been a huge, albeit physically satisfying, mistake. Since then? Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Nein. There was a dull ache inside of her, an ache that needed to be soothed and massaged and relieved, and all she had been able to think about since the incident with Jill was that Jill Roberts was the one to relieve that ache.

It sure as hell couldn't be Chuck (as much as she might want it to) and she didn't give a fuck about Jill. Sarah knew Jill wouldn't blab to Chuck, and she knew she sure as hell wouldn't blab to Chuck. And if she maneuvered things right, Jill would soon be far away from Chuck and out of his memory. It would essentially be a one night stand, and while she wasn't normally a fan of those, for Jill she would make an exception.

It was clear the brunette was at least interested in her. It seemed logical in her mind to conduct a brief affair, sate that urge, and then get the intruding skank as fast out of Los Angeles as she could.

She had never used a person for sex before. She didn't count marks. She may have slept with them, but she had never gotten any kind of enjoyment out of the encounters. Not even the female marks had ever gotten more than a passing interest out of her. The whole process was too mechanical, too artificial, too…fake to be satisfying. She wasn't using the marks for sex, that wasn't her purpose; sex was merely a means to an end. She had used them for entirely different reasons. But just for sex? And then to discard the person like they meant nothing? Her brain had never been wired that way. She had never felt the need, nor did she ever want to become one of those people.

But Jill Roberts? That, she was fine with. There was so much hate and animosity there that she knew she wouldn't lose any sleep over it. She could live with that. It would probably be the closest she would ever get to Chuck. At least while he still had the Intersect.

It was all academic anyway. She had no intention of going near Jill. She could think about it and she could fantasize and she could approach the edge, but she'd never go through with it. Because if Chuck ever found out… If she thought she was lonely now, it'd be nothing compared to what would happen then.

And then there was a knock on the door and before she could tell Chuck not to answer it, he had already started to open the door.

To her surprise, it was Jill. And the brunette was staring at the both of them in open-mouthed shock. Mostly, though, she noticed, Jill was staring at her.

That was when, she realized for the second time since the shower, she was wearing nothing but a very wet set of bra and panties. Her immediate reaction was to cover herself, especially when she saw how fixated Jill seemed to be on her chest, but she realized that that would be a mistake. Here was a prime opportunity to ruin whatever was going on between Chuck and Jill, hopefully for good.

She took a few quick steps and sidled up to Chuck. She smiled haughtily down at the brunette before attaching herself to Chuck's arm and smiled up at him coquettishly. He looked at her in confusion and panic, before he started to blurt out an explanation to Jill.

"Jill, this isn't what it looks like! I can explain!"

"You can explain why…she is naked and hanging all over you? I think the explanation is pretty obvious," Jill said bitterly and with biting sarcasm.

Sarah snorted and gave Jill a very superior smile. "I am not naked. Trust me, you'd notice if I was naked."

Jill repeatedly licked her lips. It seemed to be an unconscious gesture of the brunette whenever she was nervous or excited. Jill had done it often when they had been alone in her hotel room. And just like it had then, it turned Sarah on to watch Jill's tongue slide in and out of her mouth. To make matters worse, she could have sworn that the brunette's eyes glazed over briefly, but before she could even run with that thought, Jill was back to being angry.

"Close enough," Jill snapped. "What the hell is going on, Chuck? You told me nothing was going on between you two!"

Chuck reached out for Jill but she backed away, holding her hands up as a shield. Her beautiful dark eyes were alight with an angry passion, and they frequently flicked back and forth between herself and Chuck like Jill couldn't decide just who to focus on.

"Jill, please, there is nothing going on between Sarah and I. It was…it was because of a mission," Chuck said rather lamely.

Sarah elbowed Chuck in the side hard and he exhaled loudly. She glared up at him and she wasn't sure if she was glaring because he was saying stuff about work he really shouldn't or if because he was ruining her plan to make Jill jealous and angry. "Chuck, honey, maybe you should tell Jill the truth," she said with more than a hint of suggestion.

Come on, Chuck! For once in your life, back me up here! Don't give in! You know that Jill's no good for you; you know that she'll just break your heart again. I'm doing you a favor! She wanted to scream those thoughts right in his face, but of course she only bit her bottom lip and batted her eyes at him.

For a second she thought he seemed unfocused and in a daze, but with a small shiver, he snapped out of whatever trance she had lulled him into and started to react to her statement.

She took solace in the fact that she really did hate what she was doing to Chuck, because at least that meant she wasn't a total automaton, but that didn't stop her. This was too important, Chuck was too important, to lose to anybody, let alone a woman that could never truly appreciate him.

By all rights, her plan shouldn't be working. It didn't make a whole lot of sense. But Jill was clearly jealous and she was pissed and thinking logically seemed to be the last thing on the other woman's mind. If the way Jill was looking at her was any indication, she wasn't even sure it was her she was jealous of and not actually Chuck.

Chuck's eyes bugged out and his face reddened slightly and all that came out of his mouth was inarticulate sputtering. She could only imagine what he must think of her right now, but this was for his own good. She was a better match for him than Jill was anyway.

Finally, Chuck managed to string together a complete sentence. "I don't know what you're talking about, Sarah, but I swear to you, Jill, nothing is going on between us."

Jill's eyes traveled up and down her body slowly, and she felt a sudden uncomfortable heat grow inside of her. She nearly sighed in relief when Jill pulled her eyes away to focus on Chuck instead. "I can't believe you would do this to me, Chuck. I trusted you," Jill said with what sounded like real pain in her voice.

What did it say about her that she didn't feel the slightest bit sorry about Jill being in such pain? Probably that Chuck was right about her, but she didn't care. She'd long ago made peace with the fact that if it was necessary, she'd kill, lie, or cheat for Chuck. What was one more sin added onto the pile?

"Wait, Jill, no! This is just a big misunderstanding," Chuck said desperately.

But Jill wasn't listening because she was already on her way out the door.

Sarah couldn't help but watch the way Jill's hips moved or deny that she had stared at the brunette's ass for far longer than was appropriate, but at least the bitch was finally gone.

She immediately stepped away from Chuck and resumed drying herself like nothing had happened.

"I have no words," Chuck said tightly. "I honestly don't know what the hell has gotten into you."

She glanced up at him, saw how truly angry he was, and hurriedly glanced away. She couldn't remember the last time she'd ever seen such anger in his eyes. He was normally such a gentle person, it was one of the reasons why she was so attracted to him, but now he looked anything but gentle.

"Chuck, I'm sorry, but that was for your own good. Someday, you may even believe me."

"I really doubt that, Sarah."

Chuck walked away from her without another look.

# # # # #

She had spent longer in the shower than she normally did. The water was hot and she had scrubbed her skin until it was pink. She had briefly considered trying to give herself a little relief, but when she couldn't decide on who to think about (Jill or Chuck) she realized that she was simply too confused at the moment to get any real enjoyment out of the experience. She wasn't sure her brain could handle thinking about the both of them at the same time. And she had been pressing her own buttons more than enough over the last few months that it wasn't the same anymore.

After drying off, she slipped on a pair of dark blue boyshorts and one of Chuck's T-shirts that she had long ago stolen. She wasn't sure if he even knew it was gone, knowing him, probably not, but it was not the first article of clothing she had stolen from him and it wouldn't be the last. She liked knowing that she was wearing his clothes. In some way, it brought her closer to him.

Certainly closer than she was allowed, that was for sure.

She was about to burrow under the sheets of her bed for some much needed rest when there was a violent pounding on her hotel room door. The walls were rattling and whoever was out there was bound to wake up her neighbors with the noise; which was not good at all, and certainly not good for her cover. Any attention brought on her was bad attention.

There was only one person who would knock on her door, unworried about anything like compromising a cover, and that was Chuck. To be honest, she had been expecting a confrontation like this ever since she and Chuck had parted ways after the fruit punch attack. She only wished that he could have waited until the morning, or at the very least be a little more discreet.

She sighed and forgetting the fact that she wasn't really dressed, or armed, opened the door. A blur of swinging brown hair pushed its way past her into the hotel room, and if she hadn't been so surprised at the sight of Jill being the one on the other side of the door, she probably would have assaulted the woman in an instinctual response.

When she realized that it was Jill, she wished she had listened to her instincts.

"It's all your fault," Jill ranted.

Jill started to pace up and down the length of her hotel room, her hands swinging wildly in agitation. "You ruined my chance with Chuck!"

Sarah crossed her arms under her breasts and glared at the wild brunette. "What chance? You never had a chance! That's what I've been trying to get you to see."

Jill walked right up to her and started to crowd into her personal space, much like she had before. This time, Sarah did not back away. This was her hotel room, she was tired, she didn't want to fight, and there was a very good chance that she would not be able to resist the urge to grab Jill and bring her in close. That would not be good.

She really should put some space between them, but her pride wouldn't allow her. She had let Jill dictate terms once before and she wasn't going to let it happen again.

"Back off, Jill."

"Or what?" Jill taunted. "You'll kiss me again?"

She swallowed slowly and clenched her fists. She was really fighting the urge to do just that. "Just please go, Jill. I don't want to go through this with you again."

"Too bad," Jill said. "If you didn't want to go through it again, you probably should have answered the door wearing pants."

She didn't say anything. She felt more exposed now than when she had stood in front of Jill in nothing more than her wet underwear. It was like Jill's eyes had burned away Chuck's shirt, her boyshorts, everything between her skin and Jill's caressing, piercing gaze.

"Come on, are you telling me you don't want to? I can see you, you're barely holding it together," Jill continued to taunt.

What was Jill doing? Did Jill actually want her to kiss her? Did she want to go down that path, a path they could never take back? She thought Jill cared about Chuck, but it wasn't surprising that that didn't seem to be the case.

Maybe she could scare her away.

"If I kiss you, Jill, there will be no stopping this time. Are you ready for that?" She stepped closer until she was practically flush with Jill's body and she brought a hand to lightly run up and down Jill's arm. "Do you think you can possibly handle that?"

Jill's voice was low, throaty, laced with desire, "Don't make threats you don't intend to follow through on."

"It's not a threat," Sarah said in a whisper. Her eyes locked with Jill's and she felt the last part of her willpower disappear. She needed this. She needed the relief. She needed something, anything, to temper the longing she felt for Chuck. Just to make the edge disappear, if only for a little while.

Jill didn't respond with words, but with action. She raised up slightly and kissed her. It wasn't like before. That kiss had been hard, unyielding, punishing. This was soft, hesitant, unsure.

Sarah immediately responded, moving both hands around Jill to pull her right up against her body. She deepened the kiss almost instantly.

She was finally going to get her relief, and for at least a little while, thoughts of Chuck would fade away.

Epilogue will be forthcoming soon.