CHAPTER 46

After telling Ellie what happened and making it out with their spines in tact Sarah and Chuck went to her apartment where he realized she didn't have much to pack. He did find it touching that the only thing she packed beyond her clothes, laptop and notebooks was the alarm clock he got her for Christmas. It could have been sad, but she was a spy and didn't have much, but the clock mattered to her.

That night they didn't do much except watch movies while holding each other in his bed. It was inevitable things would heat up when one of them pushed things, but they returned to holding each other and Sarah fell asleep with her head on his chest. Her head seemed to find its way there often during the week or so after Mauser's death. He didn't mind, relishing the chance to hold her, occasionally squeezing her tight as if needing a reminder she was real.

The first few days were fun, and not just the sex, but just being around each other. They spent their mornings catching up on the news. When she started to pick up that he was fairly out of date with a lot of things she asked, "Do you not read the news or anything?"

"Some stuff," he said with a shrug. "I was never much of a news watcher, but after the Intersect I've kind of been avoiding it. I, uh, already flash enough as is. It feels like I'd be asking for even more work if I watched the news all day."

"We can watch something else-"

"No, it's fine, Sarah," he said shaking his head to ease her concern. "I like it."

He enjoyed having her explain things, learning her opinion on topics, relishing in her interest in his opinions. After breakfast she went for a run, leaving Casey to come over while Chuck showered until she returned and took her own. At night they would watch movies or even play a few games. He chose mostly co-op games, enjoying working with her, though she often found ways to make them competitive.

Their afternoons had mostly been spent in Chuck's room, but only because that was where he worked. He sat at his desk with his desktop monitor pushed aside along with the keyboard while working on his laptop.

Once he started working he seemed locked into focus, Sarah noticing that at times he was switching between three different windows. It was in the middle of the day when a fourth window popped up and his brow knit seeing the warning titled 'SW File Alert'. Below it was lines of information including an IP Address. A moment later another box appeared titled 'JC File Alert' with matching information.

Glancing over his shoulder, he saw Sarah was on her laptop, so brought up a new window, leaving the other three as he followed the new lead. The address given originally was based in Spain, but was clearly a fake. He spent almost half an hour tracing it, but ultimately hit a dead end. After arranging for traces in case they tripped up, Chuck went back to working on the other things.

It was around four when Sarah basically forced him to take a break and join her in the kitchen for a drink. "Find anything?" She asked splitting a can of soda with him.

"It's a pretty slow process at first so not really," he said taking a sip as they sat at the kitchen table. Twisting his cup on the table he watched her take a drink. "How about you?"

"It's mostly looking through the news, tracking old cases and going over reports," she said with a shrug. "Pretty boring stuff."

"Right… So how's work?"

Sarah blinked at him. "Chuck we work together."

With a sheepish laugh he clarified, "I meant the CIA. Anything going on there? Any promotions your up for or maybe a yearly performance review?"

Leaning her crossed arms on the table she asked, "What's going on?"

He'd hoped to avoid telling her before knowing it definitely wasn't her or her bosses accessing the file, but it seemed he'd have to take the chance at embarrassment. "I-Well, let me start by saying I still haven't looked at it… but I do have a program tracing anytime someone accesses your CIA file."

"What?" Sarah's face fell. "Why?"

"I have it on Casey's file too," he said quickly. "I just-I figured if someone did find us out they would look into you two, and it would give us a bit of a heads up. And, um, today I got an alert about someone accessing your file and then his. I tried tacking them but they were using a nested VPN relay, probably through a virtual machine they destroyed after downloading copies of the file and transferring them."

"So you're saying someone access our files? Could it have been Beckman?"

"She wouldn't go through so much effort to hide herself, and her trail wouldn't have gone dead like this one did."

Sarah took a breath, sitting back to think it over. "Could it have been Bryce looking into us for something?"

"Maybe," he said shrugging. "Whoever it was knew enough to cover their tracks."

"Would they know you're tracking the files?"

"No. I'd doubt they could find it if they even suspected it, but definitely not in less than an hour. It was a little over twenty minutes before it went dead."

"Then they're cautious or paranoid." She wasn't sure if she hoped it was Bryce or not. "I'll call it in and ask someone to look into it. Until we know for sure I wouldn't worry too much about it." That was her job, for now she'd let him focus on what he'd been doing.

Copeland said he hadn't tried accessing their files. Though he was curious how Chuck could trace them, he thought Chuck's reason was good enough to let him keep tracking them, though Sarah imagined Chuck would do it anyway. While the Interim Director assured her he'd have analyst look into it with the information Chuck gave them from his attempt to track the source, she doubted they would find anything if Chuck couldn't. Maybe it was the girlfriend part of her but she trusted him more than she did every analyst working.

About halfway through the next day Sarah came back from grabbing a drink and stopped to look at him. With a smirk she asked, "Chuck, why are you wearing headphones with one ear uncovered?"

Pulling them off and quickly tapping the space bar on his desktop keyboard he turned with a smile. "Well I can't drink all the time while I work so I like to listen to music, but I want to hear you if you want to talk or say something. Why? Is it too loud? I can put both ears on if it's bugging you. Or shut it off."

Setting her glass down, Sarah shook her head. "Why don't you just use your speakers?"

"Well I don't want to bother you, my typing is probably annoying enough."

"It's not annoying," she said quickly. If anything she kind it. It was like a constant reminder he was there, even if she wasn't looking at him the noise told her he was nearby. "Use the speakers."

"If you say so," he said reaching over to unplug the headphones from the computer before restarting his playlist.

After that she found herself frequently looking over to him at his desk. Mostly she watched him type, occasionally bobbing to the music, even singing along to bits from almost every song no matter the genre, which seemed to change from song to song at times. As much as she enjoyed hearing him singing bits of Journey's Separate Ways she stared wide eyed as he started singing both parts of Paula Abdul's Opposites attract, pitching his voice differently whenever he went from Paula to MC Kat's lines. She gaped watching him go from Kat's rap and instantly pitch shift into Paula's line.

It was only as it switched the next song and Ida Maria proclaimed Oh My God that he realized what he'd been doing and went still. Looking over his shoulder he found Sarah grinning at him, her shoulders shaking with contained laughter. Seeing him flush swiftly turn back around with his head low, Sarah put her laptop aside and slid off the bed, wrapping her arms around him from behind.

"Mmm," he almost growled.

"Don't be embarrassed," she said releasing him to turn his chair, making him face her. "I thought it was great. You're adorable."

"Just what I needed to hear after embarrassing myself," he said sarcastically.

"There's no reason to be," she said sitting on his lap, her arms wrapped around his neck. "I still remember you singing when we first met."

"Again just what I want to hear," he mumbled, but she saw he didn't look quite mortified anymore.

Returning to the bed she went back to work. After a few more songs she found herself bobbing to an electronica song with some kind of robotic voice repeating Robot Rock. "Who is this?"

Surprised by the sudden question, Chuck looked over his shoulder answer, "Daft Punk. I'll give you one guess what the song's called." Both chuckled and he watched her go back to focusing on her laptop, noticing her nodding her head slightly. "Do you like it?"

"Kinda, yeah," she said looking over to him. "Why?"

Chuck had to stop himself from saying he loved her again. He wasn't going to risk scaring her away. "You've never heard them before?"

"Not that I remember."

Thinking back to their first date he turned his chair around asking, "So you really don't have like, a favorite song or even a favorite band? What about not favorite, just ones you like?"

With an apologetic smile she shrugged. "Not really." She had to keep herself from saying Opposites Attract might be her favorite now, but only his version.

"Well we need to correct that," he said with a smirk. "How about this? Whenever you hear something you like let me know and I'll jot it down, make a playlist just of stuff you like and try figure out other stuff you might like."

That was the beginning of her musical education. She did as he said, asking about a song whenever she heard one she liked, and he would add it to a list.

Things seemed to be going well, but the first bump came when Ellie came home from work and told Chuck, "Orion's starting working on the new upgrade."

"He's making another one?" She asked the siblings.

"I gave him a list of all kinds of stuff I want and everything on each skill that I could find." Turning to Ellie he asked, "What did he say about using the laptop into of another delivery?"

Ellie sympathetically shook her head. "He said he'll try but considering how big an update it is he'd feel better having ht delivered so there's less chance of interruption."

While Chuck frown at the idea Sarah looked at them confused and frustrated. "Why's this update so big?"

"Because Chuck's asking for about fifty different skills," Ellie said with a laugh. "I think he has every type of kung fu there is."

"Martial art," Chuck corrected, "Kung fu is a type of martial art." Turning to Sarah he explained, "I focused on more practical stuff. Not just martial arts but shooting, knifes, driving, anything I could think of."

"You don't really need that," Sarah said shaking her head. "We can handle that stuff."

"I know but this will help. Next time someone tries to shoot me I can disarm them instead of having a ringing ear for half an hour."

"There better not be a next time," Ellie said with a glare at him.

"Chuck I know you," Sarah said frowning. "If you can you will. With that kind of update you'll think you can help all the time and you barely stay out of the way as it is."

Chuck bristled, his brow sinking. "I'm not a child sticking my hand in the cookie jar, you know? Besides how many times have I helped you and Casey? The suburbs were, what, my third time rescuing you?" He shook his head and held a hand to stop her from arguing. "It's my choice. I made it. You can not like it, but it's happening."

Sarah knew he was right, especially after Mauser. She couldn't be there all the time even with their round the clock protection, so him knowing how to defend himself would help, but she couldn't help feeling it was taking away a reason he needed her. Their mornings with her going over the news with him were great, as were their nights where they watched movies holding each other or played a game together, it was the afternoons that left her anxious.

It was a relief when Beckman called them to look into a trafficking ring, but Chuck's flash found the leader then confirmed it with a few searches. The next day she found herself asking if he flashed on anything after the news, and then again as they went to bed.

He picked up on it quick so with the weekend approaching suggested, "Why don't we go with Ellie and Awesome on their hike?"

Sarah's face scrunched as she turned to him while sliding into the bed beside him. "You want to go hiking?"

"It's a day out," he offered. "Plus maybe we can get some pictures together. You know, for the cover."

Sarah chuckled, sliding next to him and humming as she laid her head on his shoulder. He knew he'd signed himself up for misery, especially since Ellie and Devon would be there. Devon would try to push him as hard as he could while Ellie babied him and acted like he was dying every time he had to slow down or take a break, as if it wasn't embarrassing enough for him to show how pathetic he was in front of Sarah.

Still, it was a day out of the house, but when Sarah once again asked about flashes with a hint of desperation he felt defeated by both the mountain and himself.

The next morning when she came back from her shower he spun his chair around, greeting her with a grin. "We're going out tonight."

"You flashed?"

Chuck felt his lips buckle, but propped them up and shook his head. "No. A date. A real date."

"Oh." Though she maintained a smile he'd seen it drop. "Okay. Where we going?"

"Well, um," he cleared his throat, "dinner and then… well, it's a surprise."

Sarah gave him a questioning look before warning, "Chuck. I don't like surprises."

"Good to know, but since I'm still coming up with what to do it's a surprise to me too, so I can't really help it." That seemed to be enough to ease her concerns, earning him a kiss on the cheek as she went to her back to get dressed, leaving him turning back to his computer frowning as he tried to think of what to do.

Trying to think of what she might work was more challenging than he'd admit. Movies or a concert were pretty much out considering they listened to music all day and watched plenty of movies. She probably had to go to art gallery and museum events for missions and he wanted to avoid reminding her of work. He'd considered dancing, but nix it mostly because he didn't want to tire her out and only slightly because he didn't want to deal with other guys trying to cut in or embarrassing himself more than he did whenever he started singing along to a song without realizing it.

When it came time for them to get ready Chuck told her to dress casual, nothing fancy. "Wear something with socks," was the only thing he suggested. "You'll thank me later."

After dinner she asked where they were going and he typed the address into her GPS, leaving her dubious until they arrived and she laughed. "Bowling?"

"The sport of champions and beer bellies," he said with a smirk. "I'll try to go easy on you."

That clicked her competitive side, which left her grinning as she got out of the car and followed him inside. She was thankful he'd suggested socks as they rented a pair of bowling shoes, which were fairly clean but still made her vow to buy their own pairs if she thought they ever might return.

While she'd started strong with a strike and boasted about her inevitable perfect score she found it difficult to achieve, getting frustrated every time she had to pick up a spare. "Not a word," she warned him when she was left trying to hit a split, leaving a single pin standing. He was pleased through, because despite it she was all smiles. It helped that they were fairly close at the end, at least until she sealed her victory with another strike and claimed her victory with a searing kiss. When they got back to his room he barely had time to put his phone down before she'd pushed him onto the bed and straddled him.

Yet after it all, the next morning she asked again after they finished the news, "Any flashes?"

It left him frozen for a moment. He'd thought he'd done so well, at least enough to hold it back a day. He felt his inside sink as he tried to think as quickly as he could while shaking his head and seeing a hint of disappoint on her face as she went back to his room.

Sarah had slid back onto his bed with her laptop when Chuck came in and closed his, pulling the plug from the wall while pocketing his ipod and a pair of headphones. "I'm gonna go work at Casey's."

Sitting up she asked, "What? Why?"

Chuck picked up his laptop with a shrug. "You can have some time to yourself and go do whatever you want for the day. Go have a spa day or something. Get your nails done. Do you."

Sarah was so stunned she just watched him leave. She was completely lost on what had caused this and what to do about it. For a moment she felt a flicker of fear that this was him finally realizing he didn't want or need her, but pushed it aside. Thinking back she noticed the strain in his voice, the way his eyes were downcast as he spoke.

It would have to wait though, and maybe this would be good for the cover. Make it look like he's seeking refuge away from her because he was frustrated with being around her all the time.

"What are you doing here?" Casey asked opening the door to find Chuck on the other side.

"I want to work here today, that okay?" Before he could answer Chuck added, "Please?"

Glancing past him toward Ellie's apartment, Casey stepped aside and waved him in. Once he closed the door Casey asked, "Guess the bubble burst for you and Walker, huh?"

"No, I just…" He frowned, setting his laptop on Casey's table along with his headphone and ipod. "I guess it did for her."

"What does that mean?" Casey asked heading over to his desk where he picked up the cigar he'd been working on.

"I-I think she's getting cabin fever."

"Finally had enough and blew up on you, huh?" Casey shook his head sinking into his desk chair, looking at Chuck sitting at the table. The agent noted that Chuck put his back to the kitchen, keeping the rest of the apartment in view, and wondered if that was conscious.

"She didn't blow up, but…" He pushed open his laptop and groaned. "She keeps asking if I'm flashing and is disappointed when I don't. She's clearly bored, but even when I tried to do other stuff she's still bored. I-I went hiking with her and Ellie and Awesome cause I figured it would get us out of the house, you know? But then she was bored that night, so I took her out last night and it was great. I took her bowling to do something different and she had a ton of fun, but then this morning she was back to asking about flashes and being disappointed."

Casey watched Chuck prop his elbow on the table, holding up his hands and burying his hands in them, sliding it down to let his fingers comb through his hair before pulling his head back and letting his arms cross in front of him.

"I guess this is just normal stuff dating a spy, huh? They spend half their time in danger or doing something exciting so sitting around too long must be like torture. They have their own pace and like their own space, and I'm invading it, or at least making her give it up to be around me all the time. I mean anytime we go near her past she still freezes up. Which is why I'm over here now, and hopefully you don't mind if I come over here a bit more often to give her time to herself. She has to be around me all morning and night, so I thought maybe we could give her the afternoons off."

Letting out a plume of smoke, Casey tapped the ashtray and nodded. "As long you don't talk to much and don't bother me, it's fine."

"I won't." He held up the wire for his ipod. "I'll just listen to music and work on my stuff. Promise."

"Good." Casey started to turn back to the screen then stopped to turn back. "It takes time to adjust to being with someone like that. It wasn't long, but when Kathleen and I were living together we fought a ton. It was too big a change too quick for me when I was that young, having her insert herself into all my routines. Every so often she'd leave for her parents, but would come back in a few hours. For a while I was worried she'd never say yes when I asked her to marry me, but she always came back."

Chuck thought over his words before musing aloud, "Sarah kind of came back."

Casey's brow arched. "You're already looking to propose?"

He was surprised to see Chuck guffaw, then answer flatly, "No. No way. She got annoyed when I tried asking when her birthday was. She'd flip out if I asked her where she went to high school, where she grew up or what her real name is. She'd probably freak out if I tried to share tooth brushes or something. No way she'd go for that."

Nodding, Casey noted nowhere in that did Chuck say he didn't want it, only that she didn't. He was clearly right, it would freak her out, but it was amusing to know how far gone the moron was. She could crush him. It was enough to make him glad he didn't have that, even if it felt a bit pathetic that he was glad to have Chuck over for a while, if only to break up the solitude of the last few days.

He was surprised how quiet Chuck was, bar the constant click of keys. The interruption for the afternoon came from the sudden ring of his doorbell followed by a fairly firm knock that made Chuck jump up in his seat. "Is it Sarah?" Chuck asked as Casey got up.

"She left an hour ago," Casey said switching over to the courtyard cameras and freezing in place.

Chuck noticed his eyes widen slightly, lowering his screen to ask, "Something wrong? Do we have to run?"

"No, no," Casey quickly shook his head. "Just, uh…" Sighing, he shut off his monitor and walked around the desk, stopping to point a finger at Chuck. "Keep your mouth shut. The only reason I'm not sending you away is because it's my job to keep an eye on you, so pretend you're not here."

"That doesn't really make sense," Chuck said, earning a glare that made him sit up and mimic zipping his mouth. He watched the NSA agent go to the door, and take a breath, brushing off his shirt and standing tall as he answered the door.

Leaning over to peek through the doorway he saw a short, young brunette woman staring at Casey while clutching the bag on her shoulder. Anxiety was clear on her features, but he noticed relief as well.

"Alex," Casey said quietly, making Chuck's brow shoot up as he realized what was happening.

"I heard what happened at the Orange Orange and I-I remembered Mom said you worked there," she said quietly. "I thought maybe you…"

"I'm fine," Casey assured. "It wasn't me they shot it. It was my, uh," after glancing back toward Chuck and grunting upon seeing him grinning at them, Casey looked back concluding, "my coworker."

"Ouch," Chuck said shaking his head.

"I'm honestly surprised it took this long for someone to shoot him," Casey added.

Alex looked past him to Chuck at the table. When he waved, she looked to Casey. "I don't want to interrupt-"

"You're not!" Chuck said leaping out of his chair and hurrying toward the door. Casey growled watching Chuck extend a hand to her, which she shook. "Hi. I'm Chuck, Casey's best friend in the whole world and soon to be boss. Big Bear here is just watching me because after the whole gunshot thing my girlfriend was real worried and asked him to not let me out of his sight while she did some stuff for our work, and Big-"

"Call me that and I rip out your throat," Casey told him quietly.

"Casey is a man of his word to a literal degree at times," he said quickly. "But I have headphones and lots of loud music, so you two can talk among yourselves and ignore me completely."

Alex looked from him to Casey. "Is that okay?"

"Anything you want," Casey said, shoving a hand into Chuck's shoulder before waving her inside. "Sit wherever you like."

Chuck stumbled away chuckling as he returned to his seat and put on his headphones, but just happened to have one ear slightly exposed as he watched Alex and Casey sit in the living room.

"What did your mom tell you?" Casey asked setting a cup of coffee in front of her.

"That you said you were part of something dangerous for the government and had to fake your death. That you found me in the restaurant and realized who I was."

Casey glanced to Chuck and nodded. "That's the basics."

"Why now though? Why didn't you reach out all that time?"

"I didn't know," Casey answered somberly. "I thought all I was giving up was a fiancee. Not a… not you. Back then she was all I had but I thought I had to do it to protect her and everyone else who deserved the kind of life I'd wanted with her. The kind of life she deserved. It's why I still do it."

Alex knit her brow, glancing toward Chuck. "I thought you worked at the Orange Orange."

Casey's jaw shifted as he admitted, "It was a cover. I'm still an agent."

Alex's surprise fell to a frown as she thought on it before nodding toward Chuck. "Does that mean he is too?"

Casey laughed and shook his head. "Not really. He's better than most though." Turning serious he told her, "Alex I need you keep quiet about this. What I do… if the wrong people find out they'll not just hurt me but you and your mom. If anyone ever comes around asking about me I just showed up and work in security at Chuck's company, okay?"

She quickly nodded. "I understand."

"Thank you. I-I want to try and be as open with you about this stuff as I can, but you have to understand I'm still a federal agent. I can't break my cover, not even for… my daughter."

He was relief to see a cautious smile cross her lips. "I appreciate it…"

"You can call me whatever you like," he offered. "Though I'd ask you go for John or Casey. It's safer."

Frowning, Alex looked down in thought before saying with a breath, "How about Dad?"

Chuck grinned watching a smile come to Casey's lips as he took his own breath and nodded, clearing his throat. "Whatever you're comfortable with."

"Less risk of me slipping this way," Alex said with a laugh. She set her bag aside, having clutched it in her lap as some kind of safety blanket. "Mom said you offered to help me with school. I just-I wanted to thank you for the offer. I appreciate it, but there was this fund-"

"I heard," Casey said glancing at Chuck, who swiftly looked down. "It really was from a friend. They didn't tell me about it and I didn't like them doing it, but they meant well and I trust them completely when they say it was all cleared."

"Mom was worried it was some kind of scam at first, but I looked into it and it seemed clean." Alex shrugged. "Did you really just happen to find me at work?"

Casey sighed, thinking over how to answer. "Someone else found out my real name and about your mom and then about you. Once they did they told me about you and I went figuring I'd be a friendly customer who left big tips."

"What changed?"

Casey glanced to Chuck again, then answered, "I guess I did."

AN:

It's a microscopic thing, but part of the reason I mention Separate Ways and had Daft Punk as the band that hearing her interest in makes him think he loves her is because they're tied to Tron Legacy. I was tempted to have Chuck change his company name to Flynn for the Tron ties but stuck with Carmichael. Opposites Attract is just a fun song. I always imagine Chuck has not just usual hipster indie/old music taste, but eclectic enough to fit something from every genre and he had a low key rap side, like he's into a few Tupac songs and Snoop Dogg or something.

When I was writing this is felt like not a lot happened, but looking back I realized there's a lot of setups. The file alert is something I've had in mind a while to lead into something else, but also the news bit has one next chapter for example. Some won't be resolved for a long while and others are vague hints. Chuck having asked about her birthday is one, but so is Alex saying she looked into the Piranha donation. It's nothing major, just a hint of her character and for Chuck it's just a hint not just that he is interested in info on Sarah but that he wanted to give her a gift.

I picture this and the previous chapter as a kind of lead in to the season finale for part 1 of the story. Got a Casey episode and then what I'm picturing as the finale for part 1. There won't be any changes, the story won't end, but it's just an internal logic thing.