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: This has been a ride and a half, folks. Like, we're at the point where there are only a few chapters left probably and the reviews have exploded the roof off my house and I just hope it doesn't rain anytime soon. Ha! But honestly, I can't thank you folks enough. Really. What a top notch, amazing group of people you all are. I hope you enjoy yet another chapter of ... curling ... drama ... laughs ... you know, the usual.
Disclaimer: I don't own this show. I don't own the characters in this show.
Chuck Bartowski had never seen anything like this. He'd seen so many basketball players barely win a championship match by shooting a Hail Mary three-pointer in the last moment before the buzzer. He'd seen football teams score a touchdown on the last play to barely win a Superbowl. He'd watched soccer players score winning goals in the waning moments of extra time.
Stuff like that just didn't happen in curling.
Not that it wasn't an exciting sport. He wouldn't be here now if it was boring.
But those last moment miracle moments, those feats of insane athleticism, just weren't a part of this game. It was all about precision, calculation, planning.
And that was why he'd never seen anything like this. Ever.
They were in the middle of the twelfth End. The U.S. was tied with Canada after Sarah stole two points in the tenth End, and they went into the first extra End tied at eight points each.
The eleventh End was a blank, which had to be unprecedented. Sarah looked rattled now, even though she would have the hammer for this End, because Canada was doing a good job of crowding the center of the house. Jane had one throw left, and then it would be a battle between the two skips, Sarah Walker and Taneesha Philips.
Beckman walked out onto the ice to join her team of warrior curlers, and now they were about fifteen seconds into their allotted time of one minute to consult with their coach. This was it. This was their only chance to consult with their coach in the match, something they hadn't had to do in any of their other matches he'd been here for.
Chuck was surprised he still had hair left, honestly. And he was so stressed that he was breaking out in a cold sweat. He couldn't do this. He couldn't watch Sarah lose this playoff against Canada again, not after they went down in the same fashion, against the same country, in their mixed doubles playoff match a week earlier.
"I need some vodka," Ellie breathed. Her cheeks were red from how much she'd dragged her hands over her face.
"You and me both, sis."
Everyone was a bundle of nerves. As Beckman came back around to sit at her table, Chuck could read her body language loud and clear. He almost wished he was watching on television instead of live so that he could hear what they'd been saying down there. Whatever it was, it hadn't eased the tension he could see bristling in the small woman as she scooted her chair in and went back to her notes.
Play continued and Jane went to the hack. "Hit and roll?" she called out as Sarah came around the house and walked down the side of the sheet towards her teammate.
"Yeah. Behind the corner guard."
"Got it."
Chuck thumped his fist against the railing. "Oh, that's a really good idea," he said.
"Why?"
He turned back to Ellie. "That means they'll have a rock that's pretty well buried behind that guard right there, sitting in the house. So that when Sarah makes a throw, she can take out the two yellow Canada rocks that'll be remaining in the house with a double take out. If the shooter stays in the house, she'll not only have that counter, she'll also have the rock Jane's about to throw. Two points. And with Sarah having the hammer, there's a good chance they take this."
Ellie blinked and turned back to the game. "Right. Okay. I'm gonna take your word for it."
He patted her hand that rested on her knee and turned back, leaning on the railing and watching with rapt attention as Jane made her throw.
"Hard!" Sarah yelled as Lou and Anna swept. She hurried behind the house and knelt down, watching. "Line's good. Harder…Hard!"
And then Jane belted out a loud, "Whoa!" from the other end of the sheet where she was still kneeling down, watching everything unfold.
The rock bumped Canada's yellow on the T-line, moving it out of the house altogether, and Jane's shooter rolled away…slowly inching towards the side of the house. Anne swept a few times at the ice in its path to get it the rest of the way and then it stilled, perfectly hiding behind their corner guard.
"OH, AND THAT! IS! HOW! YOU! COME AROUND!" Chuck belted as the rest of the audience around him applauded Jane's efforts.
"That's what she wanted, right?" Morgan asked from his other side. "To line it up behind the red one?"
"Yep. Perfect shot."
"Score!"
He pressed his clammy hands to the sides of his face and then slapped his cheek a few times. He needed to chill the hell out, because he was all tingly with nerves. He shook his arms out a bit and began bouncing his leg, his knee bobbing up and down quickly.
"You need to breathe, dude," Morgan said then. "All is not lost!"
"No, I know. I know. They've got this. I'm just…worried. Taneesha Philips—"
"Is super hot."
Chuck turned to give his best friend a look. "Did you just now notice? I mean, she's been right in front of us for hours now."
"No. I mean…I noticed. It just hit me so hard just now that I felt like saying it. I love that little updo she's got going on with her braids. And the neck tattoo is freakin' hot, too. What is it of?"
Chuck shrugged. "I dunno."
But at least Morgan was sort of settling Chuck's nerves a bit, even if it was through shallow conversation about the Canadian women's team's skip.
Taneesha, he noticed, had a look on her face that was very similar to Sarah's Getting-Shit-Done look. It scared him a little. Because if Taneesha got shit done, that'd be to the detriment of Team U.S.A.
She knelt at the hack and got into position. Then she cast off and let it go. The Canadian rock slipped in the pocket between the other two yellow rocks they'd drawn earlier on in the End, forming something of a yellow crescent with their three rocks just beside the button.
"Shit. Shit, I don't know if that's enough space," Chuck mumbled to himself. There were maybe two inches at the most between the three Canadian rocks. He figured Sarah would try to hit the one nearest her at the right angle to bounce it into the second, which would hit the third, and then she'd hope all three were hit hard enough to roll out of counting position. There was no way she'd get them all out of the house, but if she could at least make it so that they were further out from the button than the draw Jane had hidden behind the corner guard, they'd be sitting pretty. Prettier than usual.
Chuck smirked to himself a bit at that thought.
But then he went back to his original worry, because if the rocks couldn't get enough strength when they hit one another, they wouldn't roll as far as she needed them to, and the game would be lost.
"This look good to you, Sar?" Jane asked, setting her broom for Sarah to gauge her throw.
Sarah pulled a red rock over and got into position, glaring down the sheet. "That's perfect," she called back.
Not wasting any time, Sarah pushed off from the hack, gracefully slid across the ice, and let go of the rock.
Her release was absolutely stunning. And as much as Chuck wanted to keep his eyes on his girlfriend, he watched the trajectory of the shooter.
"Haaaaarrrrddddd!" Jane bellowed.
"Yes!" Sarah joined in. "Yes, yes!"
"Whoa!"
Lou and Anna stepped away as Sarah's shooter smacked into the first yellow rock, which sent it into the second yellow rock, which then cracked the third yellow rock at just the right angle. And all three yellow rocks kept rolling, sliding over the ice.
All three of Sarah's teammates jumped in to clear the ice, sweeping furiously to force the Canadian rocks to continue their rolls. Both the second and third yellow rocks moved so that one just barely bit into the house, the other sliding out of the house at the back. The first rock she hit with her shooter however stopped and looked like it was equidistant from the button with Jane's rock.
Sarah's shooter slid to a stop just inside the four foot ring.
Chuck couldn't tell which was in second position from the button—if it was the Canadian rock or the rock Jane had delivered, but it didn't matter for now. He clapped so hard for Sarah's shot that his hands were numb when he finished.
"Wait, so which one are they counting?"
"Canada still has a throw. Then Sarah's got the hammer. They're gonna leave that quandary for the moment and just continue the game," he explained to his sister, not even looking away as Taneesha moved to the hack to deliver what might be Canada's last rock of the playoff match.
She cleanly took out Sarah's prior rock that had landed in the four foot ring. It was a hit and stay, leaving her own shooter almost in the same exact spot that Sarah's counter had been in. Now the U.S. only had Jane's rock in the house, while Canada had the rock Taneesha had just delivered into the four foot, plus the rock Sarah maybe-but-he-wasn't-sure hadn't rolled far enough out of counting position.
All Sarah could do with her hammer shot was try to do a double takeout.
"This is so intense. I don't even know what she's gonna do, but I'm terrified," Morgan said from behind Chuck. He ignored him, though, just staring at Sarah, trying to give her as much good joojoo as possible.
He found himself mouthing, "C'mon, baby". Over and over. Watching her take a deep breath as she knelt at the hack, flexing her fingers on the handle.
She pushed off.
And as she let go, he clasped his hands together and damn well prayed.
-oooo-
She watched as her shooter hit the yellow in the four foot ring, but she knew the moment her shooter rolled that it was missing the second yellow rock that was sitting at the inner edge of the twelve foot. She'd missed the double takeout.
Fuck.
It didn't even skim it.
"I'm sorry," she breathed as she skated up to her teammates. "The curl wasn't enough. I screwed it up."
Jane's hand was on her shoulder, squeezing, Anna's on her back, and Lou just made a 'please' face that made Sarah smile, even though her heart sank.
This was something she'd done so many times in her career. It wasn't an easy thing to do, of course, but she should've been able to do it. She'd done much more difficult things. Like the last shot she took before this one, for instance.
The Canadians were already leaning down though, inspecting.
Because Jane's rock and the yellow rock Sarah had bounced out of the button earlier looked to be exactly the same distance from the tee in the center of the house.
"Hey, Walker…Take a look at it. See what you think," Taneesha said, gesturing to the rocks.
They spent over a minute deliberating.
"As much as I want to win, I seriously can't tell which is closer," the Canadian skip said. "I don't know."
"We're gonna have to measure it, aren't we?" Jane asked, peering down over her own rock.
"Let's do it."
They called the official over who got her measuring device out, slipped it into the hole in the tee, and knelt down to do her job. She was very slow and meticulous about it, swinging it around to the Canadian rock first, then carefully walking around to the U.S. rock.
There was a long pause…
She pointed to the red rock.
The crowd erupted.
The U.S. was closest to the tee. They'd won the match. Sarah put a hand over her mouth, the other pressed against her chest. They'd done it. Jane's rock had given them the lone point in the twelfth End. They won nine points to eight.
Her ears were ringing as Taneesha shook her hand. And the two women embraced, rocking back and forth, laughing with each other, before they let go.
When Canada had moved off of the ice, Sarah let out a squeal and raised her arms over her head. Anna crowded her, gathering her up in her short arms and bodily lifting her off of the ground, yelling, "We won!"
Lou flat out just sat down, her hands clasped over her chest. And Jane was clapping up at their fans, pointing, thanking them. She seemed to be the most professional of the four of them.
They were going to the gold medal match.
Sarah signed off on the win a few moments later, noticing the official waiting off to the side with the clipboard, and the moment she handed the pen back, her teammates were there. All four of them stepped together in a tight hug, their heads down, and it was like the crowd wasn't even there for a moment.
It was just her with Jane, Anna, and Lou. They'd worked their asses off to win every single match of this tournament. They'd worked together to do this. Chuck had shown her a tweet that had a promotional picture of Sarah standing alone in her U.S. polo, holding her curling broom. And it said, "Best Curler in the World". She'd been shown tweets about her, and how well she was doing. There were people tweeting about how they "stan Walker".
But she was here because of her team. She was sure no other combination of curlers would have done this. If even one of them had been replaced by some other woman they'd pulled in from another Midwest club, she didn't think they would've gotten this far.
It was the perfect storm, as they said.
And she was incredibly grateful.
"How we feelin', girls?" Jane asked, and all four of them laughed. There was happiness there, but Sarah could feel the relief from all of them. Palpable relief.
They pulled back and clapped, waving towards the crowd. Sarah looked for Chuck immediately. And she found him grinning like a total idiot.
She grinned back at him and then waved up at Ellie who was whipping a small American flag on a stick back and forth.
The interviews took a while, and eventually Sarah and Jane were singled out by the reporters. By the time Sarah had changed and bundled up a bit to go back outside, she figured everyone else had left. But as she passed one of the hallways, she spotted something out of the corner of her eye.
Sarah halted and furrowed her brow, backing up to look down the hallway again.
That was Jane. And a very tall blonde. It was like their faces were welded together. Well…everywhere was welded together.
Get it, Jane, she thought to herself with a smirk. She definitely wasn't going to interrupt that, even if she would've preferred a buddy to head back to the Village with.
Backing away quietly, she then made her way towards the exit.
"There's another hallway on this side if you're game."
Sarah froze, and then she turned slowly on her heel. "Bryce. Don't you have a girlfriend with a full bikini spread in Sports Illustrated to think about?"
"Ah, so you have noticed…" She glared and he shrugged. "I'm just teasing. Like I used to."
"Yeah, but that was before you dumped me and quit the team, leaving us all in the shit."
Bryce let out a long breath and stuck his hands in his pockets. He looked good in his suit and she hated him for it. She wished she had Chuck's laptop, however the hell he'd connected it to Bryce's Apple watch, so that she could make the little robot voice tell him he was a douchebag.
"I did do both of those things. I said it then and I'll say it now. I'm sorry."
She shook her head. "What do you want from me?"
"I was leaving after my segment and I just saw you here, alone. Thought I'd say hi."
"Why?" she asked with a shrug. He didn't seem to know what to say to that. "Why wouldn't you just walk in the other direction like you did a few months ago? I would appreciate that a lot more than you stopping me to say hi."
"Jesus, Sar." He gave a soft chuckle that sounded condescending to her, and the way he held his hands up defensively didn't help. "Maybe I just thought those almost three years we were together meant I could still give you a friendly hello."
"Right. So you're friendly here, right now, when it's just the two of us. But when you're on live television, you have no problem telling millions of Americans about my strained relationship with my mother. In the middle of fucking commentating one of my team's Olympic matches." She crossed her arms and eyed him steadily. "You don't know what's going on with me and my mom."
"Uh, I was right there for it. We were together. I heard the yelling matches over the phone. And the shit about your da—"
"You ever mention my dad on live television—I don't care in what capacity—I will show up at your broadcast and kick your damn ass. Millions of Americans will hear you begging me for mercy. Live." He just stared with wide eyes. "I'm serious, Bryce."
"Yeah. I know. And I know you could kick my ass, too. It's one of the things that makes you so hot."
"Don't."
"What? You're objectively hot, Sar. Whether we're still sleeping together or not, doesn't mean I don't still notice."
"I said don't."
He put his hands up in surrender again. "Okay, okay. I was just trying to say hello."
"Cool. Well, good bye." She started to leave again but he stopped her with a hand on her wrist. In a split second, she spun and slammed him face first into the wall, wrenching his arm behind his back and pinning him.
Realizing what she'd done, she backed off quick, letting go of him. "I don't even know why I let you get under my skin."
He chuckled and let out a soft "phew", fixing his suit jacket's lapel with more suavity than he deserved to have as he turned to face her again. "It's a gift I have."
"Don't try and be charming. I don't fall for that shit."
"Too bad for Bartowski, then, 'cause he's as charming as they come. That LA boy easygoing jokey goofball charm." He scoffed quietly. "Oh I'm new to the Olympics and the spotlight. I'm so down to earth, just like everybody else," he mocked. Then he rolled his eyes and shook his head. "Can't believe people fall for that schtick."
Sarah found she wasn't all that angry seeing him mock Chuck, and it surprised her. But she recognized something she hadn't remembered seeing in him before, as he mocked Chuck. Jealousy.
And it had nothing to do with her. She couldn't imagine Bryce would ever suspect she and Chuck were dating.
Was he jealous because he knew Chuck was actually the genuine article? Was he jealous because people out there were starting to realize that about the so-called "LA boy"? Was he jealous because even though he was in the booth, his voice coming through all of those TV sets over there in the U.S., he was being relegated to the shadows? Meanwhile, Chuck had an Olympic medal, Bartowsker was everywhere, and memes about "Curls" were all over social media, as well.
Maybe Bryce was just jealous of the medal.
Or maybe Chuck's pranks had really done a number on this asshole's ego. God, she could kiss her tech genius boyfriend for that.
"Well," she said, putting her hands on her hips. "I fell for your good person schtick for almost three years. Towards the end, I started waking up a bit, though. You're too self-centered for that charm to be genuine. Something your fans will never understand, since they didn't date you for three years and live with you for one."
"Harsh, Blondie."
"Don't fucking call me that."
"You used to love that."
"There were a lot of things about you I liked. But I was an idiot."
Bryce raised his eyebrows and then nodded, almost looking a bit hurt by her words. She almost felt a little bad, but then he stuck his hands in his pockets and looked up at her through his eyelashes. "Yeah, I could see you going lukewarm on me."
"What?"
"I could see that you weren't in love with me anymore. Which sucked a lot because I was planning on proposing."
Sarah just stared at him, a chill going through her. And then there was anger. Incredible anger. She felt her fists clench. "How dare you?" she asked, her voice quiet and dangerous.
"It's the truth, Sar. I was in love with you. We'd been together forever, it felt like. And it just seemed—I mean, it's what you do when you're together for a while, right?"
"Wow. WOW. I mean, you've seriously just come up to me, months after breaking up with me and potentially ruining my chance to compete in the Olympics, and told me you'd planned on proposing marriage to me. You seriously just did that." She put her hand to her forehead and let out a breathless laugh in disbelief. "You're such an asshole."
"I tell you I was gonna propose...and I'm an asshole?"
"Yeah, Bryce!" She thrusted her hands out, palms up. "You can't break up with someone and then just 'oh by the way, I was gonna propose before I broke up with you instead'. What kind of a selfish dick are you that you'd think I'd want to hear that? And now of all times?"
"I recognized that you weren't in love, like I said. So I did the only right thing, even though it broke my heart, and I ended things for you."
"You're shit," she spat. She'd had enough.
"Sarah, I freed you. I mean, look at you now. You've got a bronze medal. Granted, Bartowski can barely curl his way out of a box, but you still pulled it off."
"Don't talk about him like that."
"Sorry, I'll stop. I just want you to understand, I only ever meant well for you. Otherwise, I would've done what I wanted to do, Sar. I would've married you."
"Oh, fuck that," she said, over her shoulder, because she was getting out of here now.
"Sarah, I'm still talking to you."
"You just assume I would've said yes. Joke's on you, because that would've been the perfect opportunity for me to drop your ass like Kryptonite." That had just snuck in. And she silently cursed Chuck a little bit for that rambling he'd done about Superman next to her during that big air competition.
"That's a lie, Sarah. You don't know that's what you would've said then. You don't know we wouldn't have been happy."
She slowed as she neared the door, and then she stopped, her hands on the bar. She turned to look at him as he stood there. He looked smaller than she remembered him in her mind, especially as the only person in this large room. He looked pitiful.
But she didn't pity him. He was garbage. She'd made a mistake giving him so much of herself. And she suddenly found herself wishing above all else that Chuck had been a little more of a heel when he first got to their club. Maybe he would've pursued her, talked to her more, in spite of her being with another man. Because all he would've had to have done was be himself towards her for just a little while, and Bryce Larkin would've been chopped liver in comparison.
"I don't know what it takes for you to be happy, Bryce," she said finally. "I never knew. And I definitely don't know now. But I know what makes me happy, and you would've made me miserable. Life with you would've been terrible. And I'm not—I'm not saying that to be cruel, Bryce. Really. You're just not nearly enough. I deserve more than what you're capable of."
She walked out into the cold, leaving him behind.
-oooo-
Chuck was ready for her the second she came into their apartment, already tugging her bag over her shoulder as she stepped aside to let the door slam behind her.
"Hey! Okay, first of all, you need to know that I'm super proud of you. That's the first thing. I feel like that needs to be the first thing that comes out of my mouth. Like, you are an absolute legend, all four of you are legends. Twelve Ends, to come away with that win…Like, the heart and the determination that takes. Oh my God. But also, Morgan and Anna were totally making out in a closet in the lobby."
Sarah froze, her hand hovering over her duffel she'd just dropped on the ground at her feet. And then she blinked. "Thank you. For all of the, um, the first thing. All that. Thanks. BUT DID YOU ALSO JUST SAY MORGAN AND ANNA WERE MAKING OUT?"
He laughed and closed the distance between them, grabbing her arms and pulling her further into the apartment. "No, you don't understand. It was insane. He was with me and Ellie one second—"
"Wait! Wait, wait. Morgan Grimes and Anna Wu. My Anna?"
"My Morgan and your Anna."
"How? When?"
"Okay, so I was downstairs in the lobby, right? Ellie walked away to get us waters from the vending machine. And I was lookin' around like, 'What the heck? Where'd Morgan go? He was just here.' Right?" She nodded, eyes still wide, gaping at him in disbelief. "So I go looking for him. And I go down this hallway, and as I'm passing this door, I hear a loud thump against it. And I jump, ya know? Like what the hell's that?"
He mimed turning a door handle and whipping the door open. "I opened the door, right? And Morgan nearly falls right into me, Anna attached to his mouth, her arms around him. She was basically, like, koala-ing him, Sarah!"
"What?!" She put her hands to her face and cackled. "God, I wish I was there! Oh my God! I'm so pissed I missed it! I'm especially pissed I was held up…like, more pissed than I already was."
There was something in her face as she said that and he furrowed his brow a bit. "Well, I mean, you did just win a twelve End thriller to get into the gold medal match. It's further than any of our curling teams have gotten. Ever." Even the men's team had fizzled out, not making the playoffs unfortunately. Nine games and they were done. "So of course everyone wanted to interview you."
"Yeah." She paused for a long time, then shook her head, almost as if to herself. "You're right. I guess I just wanted to get back here and see you."
Chuck grinned, holding his arms out. "Here I am." He grinned harder as a warm smile spread over her beautiful features. "Signed, sealed, delivered, I'm yourmfffffff!" She cut him off, springing at him and grabbing his face in a kiss.
It was a while before they pulled back, and he found himself frozen, lips pursed, trying to get some feeling back into his limbs as his eyes finally fluttered open. "If that's what I get when you make it into the gold medal match, I'm pretty fuckin' stoked for you to win that gold tomorrow afternoon."
Sarah giggled and wrapped her arms around his neck, stepping up against him and hugging him tightly. "It's not just that. It's kind of just…you." He blinked, tilting his head in curiosity as she pulled back a little to look up at him, her hands on his chest. "As one of my friends used to say, 'You're a good.' And not just compared to other people, other men…" She got a look in her eye, a momentary frown, and he wondered if she was talking about Bryce. "I mean, just you…as you are."
"Oh."
Sarah laughed. "Oh? That's your response? I kinda put a lot out there, Chuck."
"No, no, I'm sorry." He laughed with her, blushing. "I just wasn't expecting it. It's kind of, erm, mushier than I've come to expect from you."
She shrugged. "Guess I'm feeling particularly mushy right now. I've got either a silver or a gold in curling no matter what happens tomorrow and it's quite the feeling. Everything is sort of bubbling over."
He smiled slowly and reached up to run the backs of his fingers down the side of her face. "Well, you are also 'a good'." He chuckled softly and she grinned. "You're also getting the gold tomorrow. South Korea doesn't stand a chance." He winced. "That feels mean to say when this country has been so freaking welcoming and amazing. Like, I want the best for them, I really do, but you're not on their team, you're on the U.S. team, so I'm making an exception and they can lose tomorrow."
Sarah laughed. "Well, they didn't lose today. In fact, they absolutely smashed Sweden."
He winced again. "I didn't hear how that game went. Yikes. So I'm guessing it wasn't twelve Ends, then."
"No." She widened her eyes. "Sweden conceded in the ninth End."
"Weeellllll, shiiiiit." But he shrugged, then, looking as unconcerned as possible. "Doesn't change that you're winning tomorrow."
"Okay, big britches," she teased, pulling away and moving towards the fridge, grabbing a small coconut water out of the fridge and cracking it open.
"Big britches? This is confidence in you, not in myself," he chuckled.
"Mmm, yes. But…" She held up her pointer finger, the cap to her drink clutched in her other fingers. "I pretty consistently get into those britches, so my accomplishments reflect pretty well on you."
Chuck laughed and shook his head, unable to keep from blushing. "That's faulty logic. And also a really dorky way to say we're dating. 'Yes, this is my Pretty-Consistently-Gets-Into-My-Britches, Sarah. She's a professional curler."
Sarah choked a little on her coconut water and laughed once she'd cleared her throat and wiped her eyes. "You trying to kill me before my gold medal match?"
"No." He smirked, then, feeling a spark of mischief in his chest suddenly. "However…" Chuck cleared his throat. "I did have something in mind."
She raised an eyebrow. "To kill me?"
"No!" he laughed. "No death involved. I mean, it could be if we aren't careful. The tile's a bit slippery in that shower." He let a slow, cheeky, almost cartoonish grin overtake his features.
Sarah responded with a delicious look of her own, but then there was a quick rapping of someone's knuckles against their door.
Chuck whined. "Really?"
Sarah huffed and walked around Chuck, handing him her coconut water on her way past him. He looked at it, then at her, with a confused look. And then he watched as she answered the door.
"Hey—"
"Sarah, we need to talk—Oh. Hi, Chuck." Jane had pushed herself inside, eyes a bit wide as they fastened on Sarah, but then she'd caught sight of Chuck and she stood up a bit straighter, clearing her throat.
"Hiya, Jane. Everything okay?"
"Oh. Yeah. Everything's great. Going to the gold medal match. What's better than that?" Sarah turned and gave Chuck a look that clearly said 'I don't know what's going on', and he shrugged back at her. "Hey, Chuck…You mind if I steal Sarah for a few minutes?"
"Uh…Yeah, that's okay."
He must have gotten a concerned look on his face or something, because she stretched a hand out reassuringly.
"Sarah and I are going to talk about my Swede," she said quickly. "And I don't think you want to hear the, um, dirty details," she drawled.
Chuck swallowed thickly and shook his head. "Nope. No, I do not. You ladies take your time here, and I'll just take a shower—"
"No, don't do that!" Sarah said quickly, reaching out towards him. And then she froze and blushed bright red. He had a hard time biting back a smug smirk, and an even harder time not blushing right along with her. "I-I mean, you don't…"
There was really nowhere for her to go with this.
So he jumped in to rescue her, especially since Jane looked like she was half-confused and half-ready to suspect something sexual. "You know what? I'll shower later. You ladies can have the entire apartment to yourselves for a bit. I'm gonna go down and get some hot cocoa. Either of you want something from the café?"
"Uh, tea for me," Jane said, going into her pocket.
"It's on me," he said, brushing her off as he walked around them to the door. "Sarah?"
"Hot cocoa," she answered weakly."Kay. I'll be back."
But then Sarah caught his hand and pulled him back, and her lips were on his, soft, warm, and a little open, he noticed. But before he could take advantage of the opportunity, she pulled back, her cheeks pink. "Ahem. Thank you, Chuck. For the, um, hot cocoa."
He could read in her eyes that it was for more than that. And he winked, bit his lip, saluted to the two women, and ducked out of the room.
-oooo-
"What the hell was that about?" Sarah asked the second Chuck shut the door behind him. "You really going to try to tell me about your sex life with the Swede right now, because I'm not really all that interested…"
"No! Damn, girl. That's my business. And Albin's."
"Albin." Sarah giggled and got a glare, so she just cowered a bit and shrugged. "Why'd you kick Chuck out? He already knows that you know about us."
"But does he know about you and Bryce?"
Sarah froze. "What?"
"You and Bryce. I hadn't left the Center yet and I turned the corner and saw you two standing pretty close, talking about something I couldn't hear. I went out another exit. But I still saw what I saw. The hell was he talking to you for?"
Sarah let out a long breath and walked over to the nearest chair, plopping into it with a huff. Jane followed slowly, sitting across from her. "He caught me alone when I was on my way out, and then he did the same shit he used to do to me those two and a half years we dated."
"What'd he say?"
She shook her head, leaning forward with her elbows propped on her knees, chin in her hands. "Whatever he could say to push blame off of himself. Shit about how he freed me by dumping me and quitting the team."
Jane raised an eyebrow, looking pissed. "He's sort of right, but still, why the hell did he feel the need to talk to you?"
"Exactly. He could've just turned around and walked away. Instead, he saw a chance to mess with my head some more—maybe one last time for the road." She clenched her jaw and slid her hands around her neck, letting out a frustrated breath. "It put everything into perspective, though. So I guess that's one good thing."
"How?"
"I was manipulated for years. The charm, the kindness, the little moments I thought I was in love with…maybe I didn't just think it, maybe I really was in love…but it was all manipulation and lies. None of that was the real Bryce Larkin. I met him today, though. For the first time. After years of dating someone else I thought was him. And I'm a little bit shaken up, I'm not gonna lie."
"It almost sounds like a scifi movie when you put it that way."
That got Jane a half-glare, but she found she couldn't keep from being a little amused. She wasn't wrong.
"Just feels like such a waste, that's all. Add to it the fact that Chuck was right there for six months and I just…kept dating this manipulative shit head."
"Well, you didn't know Chuck."
"Exactly. I could've known him. If I wasn't so caught up in my own bubble, if I didn't dismiss him right off the bat the way I did."
"Well, yeah. Woulda coulda shoulda. There are always things we wish we could've done differently when we look back because hindsight is twenty/twenty. But you can't change that now. You just have to keep moving forward. You know Chuck exists now." She shrugged.
Sarah let out a short giggle. "Oh, definitely."
"Ugh. Okay, I didn't need that tone, though. Yuck."
"What?" Sarah sat forward with a laugh. "This from the woman who spent the last two weeks obsessed with our romantic relationship."
"Okay, that's a damn exaggeration, if I ever heard one."
They both giggled and sat back against their chairs. And then Sarah sobered significantly, casting her eyes to the side. "Bryce told me he was planning on proposing."
She saw Jane sit up straighter in her peripheral. "What?!"
"That's what he said. He said he was going to propose to me, but then he paid attention—a rarity by then," she added with a scoff, "and could tell I didn't love him anymore. So instead he broke up with me."
"That fucking prick. The night before our gold medal match, he's gonna toss that bullshit at you? Is he trying to make us lose?"
Sarah just shook her head. "No, I don't think that's it. I think he just doesn't care about anything but himself. He felt a need to use this moment when we were finally alone in PyeongChang to explain to me where he was coming from. And maybe a part of him regrets that we aren't together."
"You think so?"
She sighed. "I sort of felt it. He's easy to read sometimes, because his emotions are based off of what he wants or what he needs. So you can usually guess at it and be right."
"Because you are winning medals?"
"Maybe. Maybe it's the attention I'm getting. Maybe he's getting word of how many opportunities for promotion and sponsorship are coming through Zondra to get to me and Chuck, and maybe he regrets that it isn't him here with me. But fuck him, it's way too late to go back. And if I had the chance to go back, I wouldn't do it. Not in a million years."
"I don't blame you," Jane said, shaking her head. "Nerdy Curls might have some baggage, and he reads comic books to the point where he knows way too much about them, and sometimes he really has a hard time shutting up," she said, making Sarah giggle, "but that's a good guy you're with. All the way down to his deepest depths, he is a good man. And you know I never said that about Bryce Larkin."
Sarah pushed herself up and leaned forward, furrowing her brow, something occurring to her. "Wait, I-I know I always had a mental block where Bryce was concerned, to the point where he was able to manipulate me into thinking he was charming and good and…a slew of nice things I thought were there that really weren't." She lifted her blue eyes to her best friend's brown ones, looking for any change in the other woman's face. "Did you—?"
Jane just shook her head and Sarah didn't need to finish her thought.
"Wow," she breathed, feeling a little lost all of a sudden.
"It really pisses me off to think he was seriously considering proposing to you when things were just so…lacking in connection."
Sarah pushed her hands through her hair, not saying anything.
"You letting him get to you with that?" Jane asked then. "Him telling you he was going to propose."
"It makes me even more glad than I was before that I escaped from that relationship. And maybe—Maybe I am letting it get under my skin. And I hate it because I know that's what he wants. But-But how am I supposed to react to a man telling me he was planning on proposing marriage?"
"But he wasn't serious about it. Bryce Larkin has never been a genuine guy. He's never been sincere. When you were dating him, I was like, 'Alright, girl, you get that fine ass while you're young', because you were always just so checked out from it."
Sarah frowned. "Checked out?"
"Yeah. From your relationship with Bryce. You were so focused on curling, on training and competitions. And you seemed like you were all right with where things stood. You didn't seem particularly unhappy when you were with him. And you're stubborn." She gave Sarah a side-eyed.
"Stubborn? What's that have to do with anything?"
"You're like a teenager. You tell them no and they wanna do the thing even more." Sarah glared. "What? It's true! If I'd told you I didn't think Bryce was good for you, do you really think you would've listened to me and broken up with him?" She gave her time to think about it, and when the blonde didn't respond, she continued. "No. You hate it when people tell you what to do. And you hate accepting help from people. Tell me I'm wrong."
She couldn't tell Jane she was wrong, because the truth was that she was right. She just sighed and shrugged lamely.
"And I don't think Bryce noticed you were checked out. I think he's a liar."
Sarah tucked some hair behind her ear. "Oh?"
"I think he realized he was checked out. Both from you, and from the sport. You weren't winning anything together, either. And first and foremost, with you two, everything was connected to the curling and whether or not you were getting results. So he bailed, like the lazy-ass coward he is. And he took the modeling work because it was more lucrative."
"You might be right."
"I know I am."
There was a thumping against the door, then. She climbed up from her chair and padded over to the door, opening it to find Chuck standing there with a cardbad holder filled with three steaming hot drinks.
"Hey. I took as long as I possibly could without the drinks getting cold."
"Why didn't you just use your key?" she asked with a bit of a curious smile.
"If you're still talking about Swedish hockey sex in there, I didn't want to walk in on it." His cheeky grin buoyed her spirits greatly.
But then he must've realized there was a bit of reluctance in her eyes, because he twisted his mouth to the side a bit and nodded. "You're not done talking, huh?"
"Um…no. But that's okay, we—"
"Here," he interrupted, grabbing a drink out of the holder and handed it to her carefully. "That's the hot cocoa, for you. This one is the tea." He handed her the other one. "Send me a text when I can come back. They've got replays of the events on downstairs and some of the snowboarders are watching. I'll hang with them."
She didn't realize she gave him yet another look, but he chuckled and leaned in, winking.
"Not her. Don't worry. Even if she was there, I'd probably scream and run in the other direction. I don't feel like getting KO'ed in the lobby."
Sarah giggled and put her foot in the door to hold it open. "C'mere…"
He leaned in as she pursed her lips, signaling to him quite clearly what she wanted, and she was pleased when he made the kiss last a little longer than was maybe necessary.
"Thanks, Chuck," she whispered, rubbing his nose with her own.
"Giiirl, you know I've got your back." He smoldered and backed away. "Text me when the convo is over."
And he was gone again, leaving her to shut the door behind him and walked back over to the small sitting area. She handed Jane her tea and then sat down with her cocoa.
"Did he just agree to go away again?"
"Mhm."
Jane let out a small smile. "He must think I'm going through every single detail of last night's extravaganza."
Sarah laughed. "Extravaganza? Think you're exaggerating a bit?"
"I'm not. Not a bit."
"Jesus Christ, Jane Bentley."
They laughed together, Jane's laughter a little saucier than Sarah's, and when they sobered, her friend leaned forward to put a hand on her knee. "Please, Sar…Don't let Bryce manipulate you like this, make you question things, question the end of your relationship with him. It ended. It's over. And you've moved onto something much better."
Sarah smiled. "Oh, I know I have. I've been curling with so much more freedom."
"Not just curling, Sarah. I meant romantically. With Chuck."
"No, I know. That's what I meant, too." Jane tilted her head in question and Sarah scooted forward a bit, sipping her cocoa. "Chuck has moved the barriers Bryce set up in the last few years, the barriers that kept me trapped, both on the ice and off of it. And he's made it so I can open doors for myself. I can't explain it better than that, I don't think."
"That was actually pretty poetic. I'm impressed. And also a little heart-warmed."
She giggled. "You sound like Chuck."
"Oh God, and then you just insult me after I compliment you. Thanks."
That made Sarah laugh, throwing her head back. "It's true, though. Chuck lets me just…I dunno. He lets me curl the way I want to. There's this wide berth there, now, where I feel like I can take risks because I'm capable of making them count. And Bryce just shut me off completely. I guess it's connected, is what I'm trying to say. That my playing with more freedom has made me live with more freedom. Even just the smallest things—I-I mean I do what I want to do now. For me."
"And this just started two weeks ago?" Jane raised an eyebrow. "Girl, if I'd known you were repressed all this time—"
"No, no. I don't want you pulling this onto yourself, like you've been a bad friend. You haven't, Jane. And it wasn't just two weeks ago, it was two months ago. Even when I was trying to recuperate from being dumped by my longtime boyfriend and all the crazy publicity of it following me around, training with Chuck and watching him be such a freaking nut with his shots, living with him and spending all that time with him…I had my moments when I got comfortable with Bryce, when I felt safe to be myself, and I'd say something or do something a little uncontrolled or…silly. And the response I got was…deflating. It wasn't anything blatantly or outwardly rude, obviously, but enough that I'd kind of just reel it back."
She took a deep breath and set her drink down again, tucking her hair behind her ear and blushing. "The first thing Chuck did when we had our first training was so awkward and didn't help the situation with Bryce at all. But then I slipped up with a shot and berated myself for it, and he just shrugged it off. Like he didn't mind that I made a mistake. He was like, 'Hey, I get it. You're going through a lot right now. Loosen up a little. It'll be fine.'"
Sarah smiled to herself, casting her eyes to the side as she remembered. "He started hopping up and down and shaking his arms, rolling his head back and forth, like a total weirdo, right?"
Jane laughed, leaning forward in interest.
"And I remember thinking he was such a freaking dork. Like, crap, nothing I do or say could be as bad as this guy." She giggled. "But it completely set me at ease. Because Bryce has always been the voice in my head saying, 'Don't do it.' That was always my mom's job before, you know? And then I dated a guy who did the same thing. Don't do it, don't do it. Go to college, get a real job. Don't take the difficult shot when there's this easy one you can take instead. Why? Because I said so. Blah, blah." She paused. "And Chuck just swept in out of fucking nowhere, literally, and was like, 'Why not?' I wanted to try those risky shots, and even with you girls, I'd still have that Bryce voice telling me to do the easy thing. He's out of my ear now, out of my head."
"Chuck got him out."
"No, I did. And that's the thing, Jane. Chuck didn't hand me any of this. He just gave me the confidence to grab it for myself. He hasn't changed me. He's just made me feel like I could be myself for once. I can say silly things or be a dork, lose total control of myself, and I don't have to worry about being shamed. I can take risks, I can ask questions, I can say things I never would've said a year ago. And today, Bryce tried to take his power back. He cornered me at the exit and made it seem like I did that crap to myself—him dumping me, quitting the team, those weeks of uncertainty—like it was my fault. And he made me freaked out by saying he was planning on proposing. He made me ponder a life spent with him, I'm not going to lie. There were some good times in spite of everything."
Jane nodded. "But…?"
"But I deserve to be happy. Whether that includes Chuck long term or not, I don't know. I really don't want to jinx it or force it or anything. But I know I deserve better than Bryce Larkin. I deserve better than the way my mom made me feel when I was growing up, and I deserve better than the way Bryce made me feel the last few years. Being around Chuck has been such a stark contrast and it's made me realize I want more out of my life than that."
Jane threw her hands up. "Hallelujah!"
Sarah laughed, feeling herself blush a little bit.
"And girl, seriously. I knew things weren't perfect, but you never told me how not-perfect. You never said this much to me."
"Yeah, well…I didn't feel like there was really anything wrong at the time. I thought, you know, relationships are never perfect…"
"But usually they're at least good, Sar. Healthy. You get happiness out of it, even if it isn't perfect. I mean, don't go by me. I'm shit at relationships, but I at least know what a bad one feels like and I get outta there fast." She shook her head.
"I know. I mean, I know that now. I just didn't then. That's why it hurt so bad when he broke it off. I thought—I thought it was pretty good, what we had. Obviously it wasn't and I was just caught up in training and my job and paying the bills and I didn't pay enough attention." She shrugged. "I get it now, though. I just wish he'd leave me alone. You can't break up with somebody and then sneak in and try to charm them back like that. I felt…attacked, almost. Emotionally."
Jane nodded. "It was unfair of him to do that. But please, try and push it away. At least until after tomorrow. Not to sound selfish, but I want that gold, Sar. And I know you want it, too, maybe even more than I do. We've all got a lot to prove, but I think you do more than anyone."
"I'll push it away. We're getting that gold, Jane. I promise." She took her phone out, then. "Can I invite Chuck back up here?"
"If you're done. I mean, you still need to bend my ear?"
Sarah snorted. "I've practically mangled it, I've bent it so much."
"Oh God, you've spent way too much time with that freakin' nerd. Seriously. You need a few hours a day of separation or next thing I know, I'm gonna turn around and find you reading comic books."
Sarah laughed and sent the text to Chuck.
He was back inside the room within minutes, and he closed the distance with one hand out. "Okay, listen. Before I say anything else…Jane, I googled Albin. I don't know if his teeth are real, but the rest of him is, and he is a handsome devil. So basically, what I'm saying is…tap that."
Sarah cracked up, reaching up for Chuck as he came to squeeze onto the chair with her, and she pulled him down, half on her lap, having to scoot and finagle a bit so that she was the one on top. He was skinny, but there was a lot more muscle there now and he was heavy.
Jane just groaned and rolled her eyes. "How the hell'd you know which one he was?"
"Lucky guess?"
She glared and Sarah felt Chuck shiver against her back.
"Okay, fine. Someone who shall not be named told me."
"What? Who the hell told you—"
"You did."
She did a double-take. "Huh?"
"I overheard you say his name out loud the other day," he said, giggling when Jane growled in frustration. "I resisted looking him up, but couldn't stop myself when I was down there, knowing what you two were talking about up here."
"I hate you."
"Why? I'm proud of you! He's a strapping young man!"
"You make me sound like a cougar! He's only four years younger than me!"
"I also think you're a strapping young woman, though!"
"Okay, stop. Stop right there. That's enough of this conversation." Jane grabbed her phone. "Since I have you both here now, and we're all on the same page and everybody in this room knows you two are an item—and oh God, I didn't just say you're an item, how freaking lame—let's go ahead and get an update on just how poorly you're doing keeping it a secret from the world. Bartowsker hashtag, here we come."
"Noooo!" Chuck said, reaching out his hand, his other arm quietly sneaking around Sarah's waist, she noticed as she melted into him a bit more. "Don't punish Sarah! I'm the cheeky butthead, not her!"
"Too late. You're a couple now. You eff up, she gets part of the consequence. Think twice next time you mess with me, Bartowski. Oh, here's a really good one," Jane said, a mischievous look on her face. She cleared her throat. "ImIntoCurlUSA says: 'Did you see that thumbs up Sarah Walker gave Chuck Bartowski? That was an I Want To Do You Later thumbs up.' This tweet has over sixteen hundred likes and three hundred retweets. It's really got some traction."
Chuck groaned and buried his face in her shoulder as she tensed. "An I Want To Do You Later thumbs up? What the fuck's that even mean?"
"I don't know. But sixteen hundred people agree with it. Oh, I like this one. It's a picture of you two with the Skiing Lovebirds after Ellie's first gold. Chuck, you're really all up in Sarah's bubble."
She turned her phone around, flashing the picture at them. Sarah rolled her eyes.
"That's not even fair. I was actively trying to put distance between us and Devon yanked us together on purpose because he already knew we were together at that point."
"Well, he suspected," Chuck said.
"I stand corrected. But still. Not even fair."
"It's accompanied by, 'Hashtag JustAdmitIt, and Hashtag Bartowsker.' Yeah, you two. Just admit it."
Jane was enjoying this way too much.
"Chuck, you really need to watch the looks you give my girl when you're in the stands. Sar, look at his face here." Sarah took Jane's phone, which she proffered and looked at the picture.
Chuck was leaning forward, his arms folded over the railing, his chin propped on his forearm. The look on his face was a mixture of awe and pride. It did wonders for her self-esteem as she turned to send him a smile over her shoulder. "This is pretty cute."
He snatched the phone from her fingers, sending Jane an unamused snarling look, and glanced at the picture. "This isn't even fair. I was caught up in the moment. And I was probably revisiting the first time I saw Sarah Walker curl. Any curling enthusiast would have the same look."
"Any blonde enthusiast…" Jane snarked, and then she let out an evil cackle as Chuck mimicked throwing her phone at her.
Sarah snatched it back with a laugh, trying not to blush.
But she immediately regretted giving it back to Jane, because her best friend went right back to the hashtag. "Umberellaella says 'Who do they even think they're fooling? He went to every match. That's not partner behavior, it's boyfriend behavior.' That checks out. And SWCBForevah says," she was cackling even as she read off the Twitter handle, "'Do we think they'll name their first child Bryce since he's why they started shaboinking in the first place? Hashtag TooSoon?' Oh, and…"
Sarah just slumped back against Chuck, laughing, listening to Jane read off the worst of the hashtag that was actively shipping her and her secret boyfriend. And she found herself enjoying the freedom of this moment, being able to express affection for Chuck in front of someone else without worrying about a single thing.
It felt good. Really good.
A/N: Altogether now...since this is basically the chorus to this story's song: Screw Bryce Larkin
Well done, fam. Well done. Please keep the reviews comin' since I love reading 'em! Next chapter will be out soon! THE FINAL CURLING MATCH AHHH!
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