Chuck Versus Thin Ice
By Steampunk . Chuckster
Summary: On the doorstep of the Olympics, top American curler Sarah Walker has lost her mixed doubles partner and her boyfriend in one fell swoop. Her coaches throw newbie Team U.S.A. curler Chuck Bartowski onto her team and thrust them into the Olympics, hanging America's curling hopes on two people who only have a short amount of time to learn to trust one another.
A/N: I forgot just how much happens in this chapter and then I was editing it and I was like ... daaaaaaaaaammmnnnn. So enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own this show. I don't own the characters in this show.
Sarah opened the door to her apartment and walked inside, letting the door swing shut behind her and dropping her duffel at her feet. She stepped out of her boots, taking her thick coat off, her gloves, beanie, scarf…and then she picked her duffel up again and shouldered it, walking through the living area towards the bedroom.
"Hey, we have some tickets to go watch the men's big air event in a few hours! Wanna…go?" She stopped once she got inside of the room, though, because instead of sitting on the bed reading or doing something on his laptop like she expected, her boyfriend was lying facedown on his bed with both of his arms and his head hanging over the end of the mattress, his limbs limp. "Chuck?!"
Her heart stopped. But then he moved.
She put a hand to her chest as he looked up at her with a half-wince, half-pout and just made a miserable sound before slumping back to his original position.
"Jesus Christ, this looked like a crime scene for a second with the way you're lying there! What the hell?" She came closer, dropping her duffel on the floor at the foot of her bed along the way. "Hey, what's up? Are you sick or something?"
"No, but I deserve to be," he mumbled.
"I…don't know what that means."
She sat next to him and put a hand on the back of his neck, combing her fingers through his curls. He let out a quiet groan and she wasn't sure if it was her fingers in his hair or whatever was going on with him.
He lifted his head and propped himself on his elbows to look up at her, still looking miserable. Now that she was closer, she thought she detected…mortification, perhaps? "I'm an absolute failure of a person."
She pulled her chin back and furrowed her brow. "Well, then what's that bronze medal doing hanging above your suitcase right there?"
He tossed a dismissive look at the medal and turned back to her. "That's not important right now, Sarah. I fucked it up. I fucked it all up and she hates me now. I hate when people hate me and I'm such a dipshit. I'm an ass!" He slumped forward again and grumbled."What? Who hates—?" But as she happened to glance down his long body towards the head of his bed, she saw that his foot was pressed down against a bag of ice that was laying on top of a face towel from the bathroom. She got up and crawled on her knees over towards his foot, picking it up to look at it. She immediately spotted a bruise on his big toe. "Oh my God! Chuck! What happened to your foot?"
"It's too big," he said glumly. "It's too big and it's dumb. It's big and dumb and I'm big and dumb."
He sounded like such a little boy and it just struck her as amusing in that moment. She barely suppressed a sudden giggle, instead turning it into a quiet snort. She cleared her throat when he flopped onto his back and craned his neck to frown at her. She schooled her features quickly and lifted the ice to prop it against his toe again, scooting up his body and sitting cross-legged.
"You do have big feet, but they aren't dumb. And in spite of how tall you are, you're not dumb, either. Why don't you just tell me what happened to your foot? Did you trip on something?"
"Yes. Actually. My own God damn MOUTH!"
"Okay, that doesn't clear anything up for me, buddy."
He huffed and pushed his hands into his hair, looking mortified again. It was definitely mortification. She could see it clearly now. "I did it. I handled the thing. And then she did that."
Sarah followed where he pointed to look at his foot again. And it clicked. He "handled" it. Oh, crap. She bit her lip and winced. "Did you, uh, talk to Hannah? Is that what this is about?"
He nodded miserable and covered his face.
"Hey, look. You don't have to be that way with me. No matter what happened, as long as you didn't sleep with her, I'm not gonna be mad at you." She laid a hand on his chest. He was quiet long enough that she couldn't stop herself from asking, "You…didn't sleep with her, right?"
Chuck pulled his hands off of his face and glared up at her, offended. "Of course I didn't sleep with her! What kind of a guy do you think I am, Sarah?"
She held her hands up in surrender, eyes wide. "I know you didn't. But when you said nothing I felt like it'd be smart to just…make sure."
He pouted up at her darkly and then reached up to ruffle his dark curls in frustration, taking a deep breath. "I did a terrible job, but the job is done. And she did this, which is less than I deserved, to be honest with you."
Sarah frowned then. "Did she stomp on your foot or something?"
"Nope. She slammed her door into it."
"Well, what the hell is wrong with her? There's no need to physically injure you just because she was rejected. What if you still had an event?! …Psychopath." She was legitimately mad as she put her hand over his abdomen and rubbed comfortingly. She couldn't reach his poor black and blue toe from where she sat.
"Trust me, I deserved what I got and worse. I'm lucky she didn't toss me down a flight of stairs. I was that awful."
Sarah bit her lip, hit again by the humor of the situation. And a quiet titter came through her nose. Chuck groaned at her as he heard it and she tried to clamp her hands against her mouth. "Sorry. Sorry, I know it isn't funny. I'm sorry. Your toe is super bruised and it's not funny at all, but…I mean, what could you possibly have done that was that bad?"
She was trying not to let the amusement show. She was really trying.
But he seemed willing to just let her have it now as he emitted another whimpering groan, pressing his hands to his cheeks and smooshing them adorably. "Lemme just summarize for you. I somehow managed to make her think I'm gay and when I was able to convince her she was wrong about that, I then made it sound like she's immature for wanting to continue where we left off in Sochi, then somewhere in there I made it sound like I think she's some kind of sex addict, and I topped it all off with basically implying that I was taking myself off the menu so she could be free to peruse other men," he said, counting it all off on his fingers matter-of-factly.
By the end of it, Sarah had both hands clasped over her face, staring at him wide-eyed through her fingers. She couldn't stop the laughter this time. It erupted from her. And Chuck sat up, staring at her with a long, flat look until her giggles subsided.
She was gobsmacked as she lowered her hands from her face. "Dear. God. How did you manage to—I mean, what even happened? Did you hit your head on the way in? Did you have a stroke? Were you possessed by the spirit of a really bad comedian from the mid- to late-nineteen eighties? Did the ghosts of DouchBag Past visit you at the stroke of midnight last night and I slept through it?"
"Haaaa…" Chuck sneered, then seemed unable to keep back a quiet snort, stifling it with a fist and twisting the amusement out of his mouth. She saw it, though. And she smirked a little at him. "Look, I-I don't know what happened. I was calm, collected, confident. And then she opened the door and I was immediately a moron. I said all the wrong things. Every wrong thing you can think of, I'm sure I managed to slip it in there. I was such a dick."
She made a soft pitying sound and reached up to rub his shoulder. "It sounds like the bruised toe is a light sentence…considering."
Chuck scoffed and nodded, burying his face in his hands.
"Awww, heeey…" Pushing her hand to his neck, she moved her hand back and forth in a comforting gesture and scooted closer. "Is she still trying to get in your pants?"
"Pfffffffffft! After that? That's a definite no."
"Well, I mean…you did what you set out to do, then. Right?"
She got another flat look and winced.
"Yes, I wanted her to know that I have no intention of having sex with her again. But I also wanted to do it in a nice way, so she wouldn't feel bad about it, ya know? Or…feel bad about herself. And, weirdly enough, I certainly wasn't looking to come off as a fucking nut." He groaned and tipped towards her, his head crashing into her chest lightly as he eased his weight against her.
Sarah wrapped her arms around him and hunched over to rest her chin on his head, reveling in how ridiculously soft his curls were. It was honestly insane how good his hair felt against her face. "What if I told you that I have a real thing for nuts?"
"I'd wonder if you're actually a squirrel in a hot woman's body."
She laughed and hugged him tighter, nuzzling his head with her nose. "You really are a nut. I hope you know that." Sarah paused as he nodded. "But I'm pretty fond of you, exactly the way you are…bruised big toe and all."
Chuck let out an adorable chuckle and sat up a bit to meet her eyes. "I really hate that I've made yet another person hate me. Because I couldn't just be normal. Like, I could'a said anything else. I could'a said I made a pact with a friend; neither of us are going to have sex with anyone during our time in Pyeongchang. Like Lent but…solely focused on not having intercourse."
Sarah made a grossed out face. "Ugh, please don't call it intercourse. Especially not when it's with me."
"Well, I guess I won't be saying interc—er, that word—at all, because you're the only person it's gonna be happening with. I just made certain of that."
She hummed in amusement. "Good. Even if your word choice left much to be desired. Like ten times over." Leaning in with a wince, she pecked him on the lips, then went in for a longer kiss. When they pulled back, she smiled and cupped his face, waiting for his eyes to flutter open again before she spoke. "And hey, just think…this relationship is gonna go public later. And when it does, I'm sure she'll put the pieces together."
"Uh huh. She'll probably set up a petition for people to sign to persuade you to escape from the crazy person you're dating. I'll still be lunatic, but a lunatic with a girlfriend."
Sarah let out a soft giggle and moved in to kiss him again.
She could tell as they moved to settle back against the pillows of his bed that he was still bummed, guilty, embarrassed, even if he was no longer wallowing in misery. So she pulled her cellphone out of her pocket and pulled up Twitter.
"Hey, I have an idea to pull you out of your funk. We can laugh at the tweets in the Bartowsker hashtag. It'll be fun!" She typed Bartowsker into the search and gave him a mischievous look, biting her bottom lip with a grin.
When she bounced her eyebrows, he finally cracked a smile, chuckling. "You're asking for trouble, doing this."
"I am not." She looked down and scrolled through the usual gushy ones. "Oh, ha! This one's good. Ready?" She arched her eyebrow at him.
"Mmmhm."
"Are we really all just out here living our lives while Chuck Bartowski and Sarah Walker are in Pyeongchang sharing McFlurries? Hashtag Bartowsker." She turned the phone for him to see. "Look, they included a picture of a McFlurry."
He laughed and shook his head. "See, now I want one."
"I don't know what's wrong with you that you really like those as much as you do. They're gross. We're in South Korea. You have so many different types of food you can eat. And you want a McFlurry." She giggled.
"It's freeeeeeeee. Listen, when you grow up pinching pennies and eating a lot of ramen and signing up for the free lunch at school by getting your sister to forge your parents' signatures…your tastebuds change so that free food tastes way better to you than it does to other people." He chuckled and leaned in to put his chin on her shoulder. "Read me another Bartowsker tweet."
She smirked at him even as she dwelled a bit on what he said. She was trying to cheer him up, though, not bring him down even further, so she didn't ask him to elaborate further on that bit about pinching pennies, eating ramen, the free lunches, his sister forging signatures of his parents. Why hadn't their actual parents signed?
Sarah turned back to her phone and scrolled some more. She stopped on one that tickled her. "How haven't any of the thousands of athletes and media people in Pyeongchang reported on Hashtag Bartowsker holding hands yet? Are they even looking? Hashtag DoYourJob."
He laughed. "Because we're freaking bosses at this whole secret thing, that's why."
"Mhm. You have a busted toe to show for it."
Chuck gasped. "That's right! I do! I might even need to put it in a boot," he said dramatically, his lip quivering.
"Awwww, so melodramatic," she drawled, leaning in to kiss his cheek, his jaw, the juncture of his jaw and neck, and down a little more to nibble just under his chin. He giggled adorably and reared back.
Sarah beamed at him and went back to Twitter. "Ooo. How 'bout this?" She cleared her throat. "I don't understand how Hashtag Bartowsker being in the same building again while Chuck watches Sarah's matches doesn't just melt all the ice in the place? Like how aren't all this curlers swimming?" They laughed together.
"Imagine if they knew we're sharing an apartment back home," he said.
"Hashtag DoingTheDirty."
Chuck legitimately guffawed at that, throwing his head back.
Sarah snorted then, having clicked on the tweet to see the replies. "Wait, someone responded by saying 'you're an idiot' to the original tweeter, and the original tweeter responded back in all caps: 'NO THEY'RE THE IDIOTS!'"
He laughed even harder, then reached over to snag her phone. "You're right. This is fun. Lemme try it." She watched happily as he turned to look down at the screen, but then he immediately frowned. "How does someone with Chuck Bartowski's hair manage to land a Perfect Ten like Sarah Walker? Hashtag Bartowsker."
Chuck opened his fingers and let the phone flop onto the duvet haphazardly. "Cool. That's the first one I get. There's a cool close-up of my crappy mane, too."
Sarah snagged the phone. "Oh, come on. You chose a negative one on purpose."
"I didn't! I went with the first one that caught my eye!"
She looked at the tweet in question and saw the picture he was referring to. It was from one of their matches. Chuck was in position to deliver a stone. His hair was a mess. He'd probably been nervously running his hands through it. But it looked like a pretty attractive mess. "I know they zoomed in to try to emphasize how messy your hair is in this photo, but I'm firmly of the mind that this is some incredibly sexy hair right here."
Chuck made a sound of dismissal, shaking his head. "You're my girlfriend and you have to say that."
"That's right. I am your girlfriend. And if we weren't keeping that a secret, slash if it were even remotely appropriate, I'd respond to this person with my official Twitter account to tell them that those cute little curly bits that stick up right there…" She pointed for him to see. "And that one there, too? Yeah, those make great handlebars…"
He furrowed his brow at her in question.
"Oh, do I have to finish that? Okay. For riding."
Chuck's face immediately crumbled, and he pretended to slump over in a dead faint. She laughed, scanning through more tweets. He didn't even budge or crack a smirk as she said, "I'll read you another one." She laughed hard and flashed her phone at him. It was the meme with the "most interesting man in the world" from the beer commercial and they captioned it, "I don't always bang curlers, but when I do, her name is Sarah Walker" and they superimposed Chuck's head over the original actor's.
He covered his face and sunk lower on the bed, groaning and blushing like crazy. Sarah couldn't stop laughing. "Your hair is so different. It's really short."
"They took it from my pre-Sochi days." Another groan behind his hands. "Just skip to another one, please!"
She did, but not before saving the meme to her phone first.
-oooo-
He was supposed to just grab a coffee.
At least, that was his excuse for moving away from the spot the women's curling team had procured close to the action, where every last insane bit of air the competitors got was perfectly visible.
Too visible, as it turned out for Chuck.
Because the first guy he saw go off of the end of that ramp had flown so fast and so far that it seemed like all there was around him was sky. It put Chuck right back into that moment when he'd felt that way, skis strapped to his feet, the air blasting past him, pushing against him. It had been three years, and he could still feel it.
He'd broken out in a cold sweat under the layers of jackets, sweaters, and shirts he was wearing. And before anybody could notice he was having a minor panic attack, he turned to Jane who stood next to him and said he was getting a coffee.
And he hobbled off towards the café a few dozen yards away from where everyone stood to watch the men's big air event.
Chuck knew he should've said no to Sarah's invitation. But she had just sort of assumed he was going with. And why shouldn't she just assume? It was a free ticket to watch the new Winter Olympic sport, and what else did he have going on? His event was over, Ellie only had one more event tomorrow, Awesome was done, Morgan was done. The men's curling team had a match later tonight but if he was going to that, this event wouldn't conflict.
And Sarah had no idea that he hadn't strapped skis on his feet for years, that he'd refused to even get onto a snowboard. This happened when he even thought about it. Panic, fear…although, he hadn't expected it to happen at the big air event. It was a different event from ski jump altogether, and yet…watching these guys fly so far above the ground, shooting off the end of a ramp…
There was nothing but hard-packed snow meeting them when they came was all too familiar. And he wasn't ready for it, one of his companions would notice he was gone awhile. He didn't even get that coffee. He was afraid it would rattle him even more to have caffeine in his system. Instead he was standing behind the café building, hunched over with his hands on his knees, breathing slowly…Like his therapist said back in high school when he'd had problems of a different kind, and for a different reason. Instead of that crazy body-breaking, spirit-breaking ski jump accident, back then it had been abandonment issues he hadn't realized he'd had until someone had bullied him about it.
Just breathe slowly. In…and out. In…and out.
He was feeling better now. But if he went back, the next snowboarder who flew off that ramp would set him off again. Maybe he could pretend he was coming down with a cold or getting a headache and he could just ditch out, go back to the apartment, and watch a movie. Recuperate. Recalibrate. Get his damn mind back.
He kept breathing and then just hunched there, finding his balance.
But as he opened his eyes at the sound of boots crunching in the snow, he saw fur-lined boots that could only belong to…
Chuck stood up straight and beamed at Jane Bentley. "Oh, hey! Hi, you!"
"Thought you were getting a coffee…" she said quietly, that ever-observant, knowing look on her face.
"I did. I drank it."
"Mhm. And then you decided to just stand back here, hiding behind the building? I looked for you all over this place when I noticed your coffee took over half an hour."
"I…drink coffee slowly. And I like to…be alone. When I drink it." Chuck cleared his throat, knowing by the look on Jane's face that she could read him like a book. He still tried.
"You missed a lot of competitors," she said, throwing a thumb over her shoulder. She casually and gracefully leaned her shoulder against the wall and crossed her arms, raising an eyebrow. "Or…was that the point?" He blanched. "You got somethin' against big air?"
"No."
"Chuck, c'mon. You're as pale as this cold junk we're standing on right now. Talk to me."
Chuck studied her for a moment, and then he shoved his hands in his coat pockets, nodding. If nothing else, Jane was the best listener there was. At least, he thought so. In the last month or so, they'd gotten a bit closer. She'd stopped seeming so…unapproachable and calculating. And he knew that was on him. His perception, rather than the reality.
Probably.
She still treated Jeff and Lester like dirt but they were…well, kind of gross. So he got that.
"You know about my ski jump accident." He huffed and shook his head. "Everybody knows about my ski jump accident. It's been making the rounds on social media since I was announced as Bryce's replacement ten weeks ago so I'm sure you saw it."
She nodded. "Yeah, I know about it."
And Chuck noticed that she didn't speak to whether or not she'd seen the video. He appreciated her small show of respect in not mentioning that. And that was what ultimately got him to unload.
"I've still got some…triggers, you could say. Uh, it effed me up…" He cleared his throat. "Not just physically but mentally also."
"Mmmm. Some sort o' PTSD, huh?"
"Yeah. Um, besides not really being interested in skiing, like, ever again, I can't watch ski jump competitions anymore. I break out in a sweat and can't breathe. Like a panic attack but I guess not—not that bad." He shuffled his feet, feeling a bit mortified now as he admitted this. "Apparently that extends to the big air competition. Something about them just…shoooofff…" He thrust his arm through the air in an arc, his palm facing down, hand flat.
"Oh. It is a lot like ski jump in that way, isn't it?"
"Mhm. Sorry. I didn't mean to just disappear…Hope I didn't worry any of you. It's just, uh, embarrassing, and I didn't want to…you know…" He awkwardly reached up to fix his beanie, scratching the back of his neck.
Jane smiled and closed the distance, putting her hands on his shoulders and nodding once. "I can't empathize, 'cause I haven't been through the shit you went through, Chuck. But I do understand. And I don't judge you. Don't think any of the others would, either." He opened his mouth to respond, but she cut him off quickly. "I get that it's still embarrassing, though. I get it."
Chuck let out a bit of a crooked, lame smile and cleared his throat again. "Thanks. I, uh, I appreciate it, Jane."
"And don't worry, I got your back." She winked. "In more ways than one."
He frowned a bit in question.
"I could see Sarah was sort of lookin' around when you didn't come back after a few minutes. Worried about you. So I told her I'd go and find you, make sure some yeti didn't gobble you up." She crossed her arms and leaned in again. "It's a lot less suspicious if my almost-forty-year-old, matronly ass goes lookin' for you instead of the other half of the Bartowsker hashtag."
He chuckled and shook his head. "Oh. Yeah, that makes sense. Thank you."
"I'm perfectly fine covering for you two. Nobody will know." She winked again.
Chuck narrowed his eyes. "Know?"
"No, no. It's okay. You don't have to tell me anything. Neither of you has to say a thing." She tapped the side of her nose with yet another wink. "We don't want any filthy shipper distractions hounding the rest of our tournament, anyway. I need my skip in tip top shape."
"W-What? No. Jane, we're not—Sarah and I don't—"
"Oh, no. I know. I know you don't." She just freaking kept winking, nodding this time and smirking. "Just saying, you two encouraged me with The Swede and between us, that physical release has made me a beast on the ice."
"Oooookay. That's not—" He pressed his lips together and shook his head.
"Like, a total beast. So whatever you two got going on—and I know it isn't physical, since you two keep doing a fuckin' ballet around this crush y'all share—but whatever is going on here, it's making my girl curl with the soul she used to have, back before Bryce's overrated but still annoyingly fine ass showed up in her life. You two got me. I got you. That's my point."
He huffed and shook his head. "I don't even know how else to respond, so…Okay."
"Just when I think you can't be any smarter…"
She knuckled his shoulder. "Look, I know you've got a legitimate fear of watching those guys fly, but come with me to get some drinks for everybody, we'll head back out there, and you can rattle off whatever nerdy shit you got in that brain of yours instead of actually watching what's happening. Nobody will know the difference, since you run your mouth a bunch anyway."
His jaw fell, and he laughed instead of looking offended like he meant to. Then he shrugged and made a face. "I mean, you're not wrong."
She giggled. Before she could lead him back around the building, he closed the distance and wrapped her up in a bear hug, squeezing her tightly. She laughed and patted his back.
He pulled away and grinned. "Thank you, Jane. You're kind of an amazing friend."
She shrugged modestly and brushed at the dust on her shoulder with the backs of her fingers, making him chuckle.
About twenty minutes later, Chuck and Jane made their way out to where everyone else stood, both of them holding a few drinks each. He noticed Sarah was the first one to turn when they approached, and her blue eyes softened when they met his.
"Hey, what's all this?" she asked as Lou and Anna turned away from the event to watch the other approach.
"We got you some draaaaaaanks," Chuck drawled, stepping up and gesturing with a flick of his head for her to take one of the three coffees he held from his hands. "That's yours."
"Thanks." She took it and held it in both hands, humming. He handed Anna the other one.
"What is this? I don't drink coffee," she said, squinting at him dangerously.
"That's why it's tea. Green tea."
"Oh." She smiled. "Thanks, Chuckles."
"I got you."
Sarah didn't seem to deem it necessary to ask him what he'd gotten for her. He imagined she inherently knew he was aware of what she liked in her coffee.
He glanced up and saw that another snowboarder was at the top of the ramp, ready to take off, and he diverted his gaze down to his feet with a harsh breath, taking a sip of his hot chamomile tea and burning his tongue a little.
As he winced, he felt Jane give him a subtle nudge with her elbow.
"Hey, you said somethin' about a comic book I'd like when we were on the bus. I mostly ignored you 'cause you're a freakin' dweeb and I couldn't care less about superheroes an' shit. But you said something about Toni Morrison…?" She twisted her lips to the side. "I hafta admit, I'm intrigued."
Chuck smiled inwardly, and quickly found himself folding back into his pattern of rambling when someone asked him about comics. "So, this girl's Icon's partner. People call her his sidekick, but Rocket's absolutely a partner. She saves Icon's ass so much. But she's a writer. And she has this ever-present goal of wanting to emulate Toni Morrison."
"Who's Icon?"
"Okay, so…Back in the eighteen-thirties, this starliner crashes into the middle of a cotton field in the South. Miriam, a slave woman, finds the pod. And the pod has this function that alters its passenger to transform and mimic the first life-form it encounters, right? So this baby alien that was in the pod takes on the form of Miriam and he's raised on the plantation. But he isn't human so he doesn't age past adulthood. So he has to go through a few centuries pretending to be his son, then his grandson, then his great-grandson, and so on…" Chuck heard a loud gasp go through the crowd and he knew someone had probably fallen or sat down when they landed. He fought back the chill going down his spine and talked faster as Jane pointedly caught his eye, nodding for him to continue. "He keeps his powers a secret, and his immortality as well, by kind of laying low. And then these bad guys break into his home and he uses his powers to defend himself. Raquel, who becomes Rocket, sees it. And she becomes his partner…not sidekick. Fun fact!" he chirped, maybe a bit too loudly, because the other members of the curling team turned slowly to give him strange looks. He ignored them, though, focusing on the comic.
Comics are the best, I love comics, Icon is the coolest, Rocket Rocket Rocket Rocket…
"Fun fact," he repeated, a bit calmer. "Raquel is the reason why Icon becomes Icon. He's originally Arnus when he crashes to Earth, but he takes on a different human name. And when we meet him in present day, he's Augustus Freeman. When Raquel sees him use his powers, she persuades him to take on the super alter-ego of Icon. See, she's super idealistic, the whole writer slash Toni Morrison thing, and she grew up in a gang-controlled, poor neighborhood called Paris Island, so she's got these ideas that Icon can help people with his powers. And she tags along as his—"
"Partner. Not sidekick."
"Yes! Exactly! Cool other fun fact about Rocket! She's a teen mom. Turns out she got pregnant with her ex. So she's this teen mom kick ass crime fighter with her superhero partner. And man, there's such a great dichotomy between Augustus and Raquel. 'Cause she's super young and idealistic and progressive. And he's this kind of straight-laced, controlled guy who lived through two centuries of American history…"
The discussion went on, and on, and on, and on…And Chuck could feel that Sarah, Anna, and Lou were looking at each other after a while, as though confused as to why Jane—of all people—was actually listening and asking questions, but none of them interrupted or said anything.
The event finally ended up winding down after an hour, and people began climbing up from their seats over in the stadium seating area, Chuck noticed.
"We got silver," Lou announced as they began filing away from the event themselves, and Chuck took a long drag from his now cold tea.
Chuck had no idea what had happened. But nobody was jumping anymore. He'd talked to Jane the entire time, giving her lists of comics to read, even slipping into talking about why Supreman's so under-appreciated by people who want to seem cooler than everyone else by not liking the "popular" heroes, and ending the conversation with telling Jane to read Tales of Earthsea.
"Wait, so…who won gold then?" he asked.
"You'd know if you didn't run your mouth the whole freaking time," Anna said. "God, Chuckles. You, like, didn't stop. Not for a second."
"Sorry." He blushed. He didn't say it out loud, but he wanted to—he was sure they especially would've been disturbed if he'd had multiple panic attacks instead of rattling off stuff about comics and books. "She, uh, she asked about Rocket and Icon and I'm, um, I'm a nerd. Nobody asks me about that stuff."
"I dunno, I think it's cute," Lou said with a shrug.
"Thank you, Lou!"
"Like when you tell a puppy it's dinner time and they get so excited they just, like…lose their minds."
Chuck glared at her as the other women laughed. "I withdraw the thank you."
Jane placatingly pat him on the back, and out of earshot of everyone else, he leaned in to say, "Hey…You saved my ass. Sorry you had to listen to all of that."
"Eh, I was only half-listening to be honest. But it wasn't bad. Some of it was kind of interesting." She shrugged.
"How'd you learn that trick to keep people from panicking?"
Jane shrugged again, squinting off at the nearby mountains as she responded. "My dad went to Vietnam. Came back with really bad ear problems and also PTSD. It was just something I learned to do with him growin' up. Usually, it worked pretty well."
"Ah." He paused. "Sorry."
"Hey, it happens. Send me a link for that Earthsea thing, though. So I can get it on my e-reader. I'll read it on the plane ride home in a week."
"Deal."
They shook hands, and Chuck missed the significant look Jane sent over her shoulder towards Sarah, the eye contact they made, the small smile on Sarah's face as she followed behind them.
-oooo-
Sarah had to take a few extra long breaths to recuperate from that tenth End against Denmark. She leaned her head against a locker in the prep room and shut her eyes. They'd won, nine to eight, with Sarah's very last shot. She was lucky she'd ended up with the hammer, or things might have gone differently. And now they were six and oh as a team. Only South Korea had the same record so far.
This was a close one, though.
"Hey." She felt a nudge against her shoulder and she turned to see Lou grinning at her side. "We did it. We pulled through. Thanks to that crazy shot of yours." She leaned down and shoved a few things into her duffel bag.
"Yeah, we did. And thanks. You swept the crap out of that ice."
"Eh, my guard helped a bit, too," she teased.
Sarah snorted and squeezed her lead's shoulder, packing her things up and changing her shoes. When they filed out of the hall and made their way into the lobby, Chuck and Morgan were there waiting. Morgan made an almost embarrassing show of celebration, waving his new sign he'd made for them above his head and yelling, "U-S-A! U-S-A!"
Chuck just quietly high-fived them.
And Sarah couldn't help noticing the way Lou held onto Chuck's hand after the high-five and smiled extra wide.
"Why do I see you at our games all the time, but rarely at the guys' matches, Bartowski? Is there somethin' you wanna tell me?" she flirted. Or maybe she was just teasing, but Sarah's mind immediately classified it as flirtation.
"Uh, yes. Girls rule, boys drool. There's a reason that phrase goes back for centuries," he said, chuckling. Sarah smiled, in spite of the extra hard giggle Lou directed at her boyfriend. And again, she had to remind herself that Lou had no idea he was taken.
In spite of the discussion Jane said she'd had with Lou about Sarah and Chuck's unspoken crushes they had on one another, Sarah could see why her team's lead would still flirt with him.
He was nice. He was charming. And he was cute as fuck.
"Good answer," Lou said with an approving nod. "Did you, um, help Morgan with his sign?"
"Um, no. The stick figures are all his. I was going to make a sign but I'm not the most creative fella." He wrinkled his nose with a wince, sticking his hands in his pockets.
"I've seen you curl. You're pretty creative."
"Naaaaah, that's different."
They all started walking through the lobby then, and Sarah fell into line behind Chuck and Lou, unconsciously glaring a bit at the back of the latter's head.
An arm was slung over Sarah's shoulders then and she turned to find Jane there. "Good game, lady," Sarah said, trying to stop the stupid jealousy going through her. But she noticed Lou inching closer to Chuck, and Chuck inching a bit away, even as they continued talking and laughing.
All she and Chuck needed was for some fans or tabloid writers to start up a thread about Chuck Bartowski and women's lead Lou Palone being in a romance. What would that shipping name be? Barloneski? Chou? Paltowski? Those names all sucked, she decided.
"Uh…" Jane snapped in front of her face a few times. "Hate to sound like my fifth grade teacher, but eyes on me, Walker."
"Huh? Wha—? Oh. Sorry. Um. Daydreaming," she lied.
"You're such a liar. But we're in mixed company so I won't say what I wanna say 'til later." Then she scowled a bit. "Seems what I said a few nights ago didn't sink in much, though, huh?"
"I…don't know what you're talking about," Sarah lied again.
"Uh huh. You know exactly what I'm talking about."
Sarah just frowned and kept walking.
Chuck and Lou were finally broken up on the bus ride back, with Morgan slotting into the seat between them, the lovely little bearded wonder. She could've kissed him for it, even if he didn't do it on purpose. At the very least, he deserved one of those loving noogies she saw Devon give him sometimes.
Once they were back in the village, Chuck and Morgan split off from their group. Ellie had her last event soon and they had to hop on a connecting bus to meet up with "Awesome" at the venue.
Sarah was bummed she'd be missing Ellie's run for another gold, but her own match would conflict with it, and so she stayed behind disappointedly. She caught Chuck's eye as he backed away from their group at the entrance to the eating hall.
"Good luck, Team U.S.A.! Show those Swiss who owns the ice, huh?" He winked in Sarah's direction, and she couldn't help preening a bit. "Tell Ellie good luck," she called out to him. "And congratulations on the gold she's about to win."
"Oh, you know it!" he called back, before he and Morgan walked away from them with their arms linked.
"If they weren't both straight boys, I'd say they should get married," Jane joked as they all walked towards the entrance.
"I wouldn't wish that fate on Chuck," Lou snorted.
"Morgan's not that bad." Anna seemed to catch her own defensiveness and how it might have sounded, and she crossed her arms, frowning. "I mean, he's an idiot. And his sign was stupid."
Sarah sent Jane a significant look at that. Get it, Flying Beard…
When they got inside, Lou and Anna took their food to go and went back to the apartment building, wanting to take naps before their next match in a few hours.
And that was how Sarah found herself sitting at a corner table, enjoying a leisurely lunch with her best friend.
"So about Lou and Chuck."
Well, it was leisurely.
"What about Lou and Chuck?" she asked, taking a swig of her water, trying to be as nonchalant as possible.
"Girl, please. The look you were throwing at that sweet girl's head when we walked to the bus after the match?"
"What look? I didn't have a look.""Please. You were practically shooting lasers out of your eyes like that…Unibrow guy who's the X-Man or whatever the hell Chuck talks about."
Sarah made a confused face. "Unibr—Oh. Wait. Cyclops?"
"Yeah. Him. Whatever. The fact that you know that is another thing we're gonna have to talk about later. But my point is, you were ready to fry that bitty."
"I wasn't."
"Sarah, you were jealous. You are jealous. Because you think he's cute. You think that nerdy, tall, sweet fella is downright adorable."
As Jane continued to prove her point, listing reasons why she knew Sarah and Chuck cared about each other as more than just partners or friends, Sarah just shook her head over and over, rolling her eyes.
"In conclusion, you're hot for your partner and Lou's attentions towards him after our match steamed your teapot. You're jealous of the sandwich girl and the fact that she was making our boy laugh. Admit it."
Sarah snorted, letting out a soft chuckle as she scanned the tables where other athletes were eating. "I'm not gonna."
"Well, anyway, I don't think she means any harm. Lou, that is."
"She can do whatever she wants, Jane."
"Um. Well, there is the fact that we had that talk, me and her. About the fact that there's a whole we're-not-doing-anything-about-this-but-we-definitely-dig-each-other thing between you and Chuck. Like, I really thought I handled that. Thought I nipped it in the bud." Jane propped her elbow on the table and leaned her chin on her palm, shrugging. "Guess not."
Sarah just looked at her friend for a few long moments. The woman had no idea that Sarah and Chuck definitely dug each other, and that they actively were doing something about it. And yet she was clearing the way for them, doing epic wing-woman work, setting the stage, blocking other women from getting to Chuck like a bad ass.
And maybe if there wasn't anything between her and Chuck, she would be a little frustrated and annoyed that Jane was being such an Emma Woodhouse, making assumptions and pushing herself into this as though she knew Sarah better than Sarah knew herself.
But there was something between them, and Jane was making it so much easier by being this supportive of it and protecting it in spite of not knowing that it was actually going on right under her nose.
Sarah couldn't help but wonder how Jane would react if she told her. There was a pact, though. She and Chuck agreed not to tell anyone. So she wouldn' , she deflected.
"Look who's talking. You and Chuck were missing for, like, almost an hour during the big air competition yesterday. Wanna let me in on what you two were doing?" Sarah asked, grinning cheekily to let her friend know she was fully joking.
Jane gave a massive eye roll and sniffed in amusement. But then she went a little quiet, her smile dimming as she took her spoon and stirred her coffee slowly. "I was on the fence about tellin' you, actually."
Sarah tilted her head, intrigued. "Tell me what?"
"Why Chuck disappeared for so long. Why it took me a while to bring him back." She shrugged, then lifted her brown eyes up to meet Sarah's blue ones.
"Why?"
"Don't let this slip to anyone, huh? He was pretty embarrassed about it." Sarah nodded, a little concerned suddenly. "It's that crash he had. You know, the ski jump accident at the worlds three years ago. He didn't realize the big air event was gonna be a trigger. But he ducked behind the café for a while to regroup after it gave him a panic attack."
Sarah sat back against her chair and looked down at the last third of her meal, swallowing thickly. "He had a panic attack? I didn't see that."
"Well, sometimes they're good at hiding it." Jane shook her head and cleared her throat with a shrug. "And sometimes not so much. But seeing those guys fly off that ramp put him in a bad place, memories of his accident an' shit. You know."
She was a bit shaken up by this news, and all she could do was nod. The big air event had been her idea and she'd had to sort of drag him along. She'd thought he was just being lazy when he was a little reluctant. But maybe he thought it sounded like it had the potential to be hard for him to watch after his accident. She knew he had some PTSD, that he hadn't jumped since because of it. She felt so guilty. Not that she couldn't have guessed it would be hard for him, but why didn't he just tell her? She never would've made him go if he'd told her he was worried it might trigger something.
"So anyway, I found him behind the café and we talked about it for a bit. Then I got him to come out."
"Why—Um, why wouldn't he have just told us? I mean, we wouldn't have blamed him for wanting to leave."
Because he was embarrassed. Obviously. Of course he'd be tentative about letting her know especially. This was such a new relationship, and maybe he didn't want to tell her something he felt embarrassed about. Maybe he thought she'd think he was…crazy or something. That made her chest ache.
"He seemed pretty embarrassed about it, hence why he hid, and why he didn't come back for so long. He was trying to devise a way to stay out there and not get wrecked by watching the competitors hurl them off the end of a ramp to their potential doom when I found him."
Sarah huffed and scratched the back of her head. "Well, shit. If I'd known, I wouldn't have asked him to go with us."
"Oh, he didn't blame you. I don't even think he knew it'd be a problem. But that's, uh, that's why I stood there talking to him for the rest of the time. I just told him not to look, but it'd be weird if he stood facing the opposite direction from the actual event, right? So instead, we had a conversation about comic books." Jane rubbed her temples. "A long, loooong conversation about comic books."
"It was more Chuck rambling about comic books than an actual conversation," Sarah said, unable to keep the warmth from her tone. So much warmth. Because it was literally flooding through her. She genuinely loved the woman sitting in front of her. So much. Jane Bentley was such a fierce protector, of her…and now, she realized, of Chuck as well. And she wasn't even sure what to do about it except melt.
"Yeah, well…I knew that would be the thing he'd probably know the most about besides computers. And with computers, that's a whole 'nother language and I'd be crazy lost. Comic books? At least he was speaking English. I get stories. They're weird, insane stories, not really my cup o' tea, but still, they're stories. I just let him…go off." She shrugged. "It got his mind off of the competition and let him focus on stuff he enjoys."
Yeah okay, that was it.
Sarah was legitimately in pain about the fact that her best friend didn't know the truth. She felt terrible that Jane had no idea about her and Chuck. This woman was going to bat for both of them and meanwhile, they were keeping their relationship a secret from her, and this had to end. She had to stop it.
Now.
"Jane…"
"Hm? Oh, don't worry, Sarah. Your boy is all good. I know how to handle situations like that, you know, with my dad and all." Sarah pressed her lips together nodded. "I told you about that. Anyway, he's good. Chuck's fine. I just felt like you needed to know—even though he probably would kill me if he knew I told you—because you're his partner and eventually you'll be his girlfriend. It's gonna happen, I just don't know when," she said with a confident wink and a smirk.
"About ten days ago."
Jane froze.
"Well, I don't know the exact amount of days, honestly. That requires thinking harder than I want to right now. It's kind of complicated. But…yeah."
"Wait…I…" Her jaw went slack.
"I'm done keeping this from you, Jane. You're my best friend and you've been so freaking kick ass with me and Chuck and the thing with Lou, and I need to just tell you. Chuck and I are dating. We're together."
Jane blinked. Then she looked down at the table, then back up to Sarah…And she blinked again. Realization came over her face then and she leaned forward so violently that the table jumped between them. She clenched her jaw and pointed. "Are you fuckin' with me, Walker?"
Sarah met her gaze steadily. "No."
Jane reached across the table and snatched her arm in a tight grip. "Seriously?"
"Seriously."
"Well, holy shit."
As her friend sat back in her chair, blinking, mouth agape, Sarah leaned both of her elbows on the table and pressed her hands to her cheeks, wincing. "Chuck and I were afraid it would be this huge publicity melodrama if anybody knew about it and we thought it might distract from the competition, both of the competitions," she added. "So we agreed not to tell anybody. And we haven't." She huffed. "Until right now."
"I'm about to smack you," Jane hissed, grinning suddenly. She leaned forward, keeping her voice down. "All this time you kept it from me!"
"I told you why. It-It felt important that—"
"No, no…I get why," she said, waving that away with a quick swipe of her hand through the air in front of her. "I just can't believe you successfully kept it from me." She laughed a bit incredulously. "More surprising that Chuck hasn't slipped, honestly."
Sarah sniffed in amusement. "You're probably right. It's just that this is really, really important, Jane. We've got a lot to prove with our team, you know? And I don't want some bullshit about who I'm dating and how it relates to Bryce and blah blah getting in the way of our gold."
Jane just laughed again, clasping her hands together in front of her face. "I almost feel stupid, how hard I worked to preserve this crush I was so sure you two had on each other, and all the while you two were jiiiiivin'." She let out a girlish giggle and smirked, her teeth showing as she nodded. "Go 'head, girl."
Blushing, Sarah bit her lip and rolled her eyes. "Okay, calm down."
"I'm just going to go ahead and get this out of my system for a sec, though. I TOLD YOU!"
People around them spun to look at the source of the loud noise as Sarah hushed her desperately, leaning forward to try to smash her hand against Jane's mouth. She just had her hand batted away as Jane did an amusing dance in her chair, pumping her fists.
"I was right," she sang. "I was right. About you." She kept up the dance as Sarah covered her face and just blushed. She knew she was bright red.
Then she felt her friend curl her fingers around her wrists and pull her hands away from her face. "But you have to tell me. Tell me everything. I need the low down."
"You really don't need all of the low down."
"Well, shit. I didn't ask what his favorite position is. Chill out, Sar." Sarah blushed vibrantly again. "Wait, I know. It was when he 'accidentally'," Jane made air quotes, "spilled water all over Jeff's lap when he was trying to tell you about his great-aunt's rabies that she got from a baby koala or whatever the hell that story was. And Jeff had to get up and leave so that someone else could sit in his seat and you didn't have to deal with that one eye of his that always feels like it's looking down your shirt, even when you're wearin' a turtleneck."
Giggling a little, Sarah narrowed her eyes in thought. "I don't remember th—oh, wait! I do remember Chuck spilling all over Jeff that one time, but that was, like…months ago. Like when I was still with Bryce."
Jane shrugged. "So? It was legit. If a guy'd done that for me, I would've been like, 'Oooo helloooo'," she drawled, smirking and leaning forward in a flirtatious way. "He didn't do it for me, though. He did it for you. And that's one of the things that made me start to genuinely like him. It was done with such subtlety."
Shaking her head with a giggle, Sarah shrugged. "I guess I must not have noticed. I was with someone else at the time."
"Mmmmhm, but Chuck wasn't." Sarah looked up at that, but Jane was digging into her food again, not meeting her eye. "Anyway," she continued, her mouth full, "if it wasn't back then, when was it?"
"We only started dating during our tournament. Here in PyeongChang."
"What took you so damn long?"
Sarah gawked. "Five minutes ago, you didn't even know Chuck and I were together."
"Yeah, and I thought you were both at freakin' high school levels of silliness, too. But I don't tell other people how to live their lives. Now that I know you've been dating for at least a week, I'm wondering why the hell it took this long?" She took a sip of her coffee. "It's a valid question."
Rolling her eyes, Sarah sniffed in amusement. "All of that crap on social media about Lawker didn't help. How big Bryce's fanbase is. My insecurities and Chuck's. The horrible things people were saying about our partnership, the team."
"Well, then…What changed? C'mon, girl. Tell me everything. I'm living for this."
Sarah laughed. "God, fine. I'll tell you. But only because it's been torture keeping this inside for so long. I'm happy, really happy, and I feel like I have to stamp it down when I'm outside of that apartment."
"I dunno, sounds kinda hot to me. Suppressing it out here so much that by the time you get back inside that apartment, it's like a damn explosion. A powder keg." She wrinkled her nose and shimmied her shoulders, leaning forward interestedly.
"I had no idea you were such a horndog. Wow. You are getting zero details."
"Girl, I didn't ask for details. I have a Swede on speed dial if I need to get my kicks. Please." Then she settled in, leaning even closer. "But before you tell me how all this happened, I'm gonna need one thing from you."
"What?" Sarah chuckled, charmed by Jane's response to all this.
"Jane Bentley, you were right about me and Chuck this whole damn time and you're a damn bad ass. Say it."
"Oh, God." She rolled her eyes.
"Say it."
"Ugh. Fine. Jane Bentley, you were right about me and Chuck this whole damn time and you're a damn bad ass," she droned, her eyelids heavy with sarcasm.
"Good. Now tell."
As Sarah explained about the bonspiel in Mammoth, the almost kiss and the weeks of awkwardness and tension, the plane conversation, the first pact she and Chuck made, and the joint breaking of said pact, leaving out how powerful that part had been, she found herself wondering how on Earth she'd explain this to Chuck.
She'd have to explain it to him part of her thought maybe she'd messed up here, as joyful as she was to finally have someone to talk to about Chuck, about what was going on between them, about how good it was with him. Chuck had kept his side of the agreement, and she'd just dropped the ball.
Would he be upset if he knew?
Would she tell him?
That was the real question, wasn't it?
Oh, boy…
A/N: Oh, boy INDEED. Jane knows now, too. This whole SECRET thing has gone suuuuuper well for them. Suuuuuuuuuper well. Leave a review!
-SC