This is not an original story. It was written during the middle of season 2. The original story assumed a sequel that never happened. So there will be some brand new content in this rewrite and several new chapters at the end.

I still don't own Chuck.

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The Joke

x-x-x-x-x

Sarah had to bite her lip to keep the cry of passion from escaping her lips. She wasn't really sure why that was so important to her. Chuck would probably enjoy hearing her helplessly cry out, to know that his tongue was driving her crazy, positive feedback and all that. It's just that she was a spy. And spies were taught to keep their real feelings to themselves. Old habits were hard to break.

But somehow she figured he was getting the general idea that she was having a very, very, very good time anyway. Sarah had her hands firmly on the top of Chuck's head, fingers tangled in his hair, pressing him into her, arching her back, straining to get the most contact humanly possible. Not that Chuck needed any help. In fact restricting his movements like that was probably getting in his way more than helping. He clearly knew what he was doing. At some level Sarah knew that this was simply her way of maintaining the illusion of being in control of this situation, which is where she was always most comfortable. After all, she was the seductress. She set the agenda, was the pursuer. Except she wasn't in control of this situation. She knew it. Chuck knew it too. He was firmly in control.

They had only been together officially for about a week, actually only six glorious days, and Sarah had already come to find this her very favorite part of their love making, which really meant the favorite part of her whole life to date. She couldn't believe how much she had already come to look forward to it. It even unnerved her a bit to admit to herself that she had never in her life felt anything like the intensity of the orgasms he could coax from her. She loved it so much that she had already learned to overcome her embarrassment and openly ask him for it. And he was always more than happy to accommodate her. It was something that he plainly enjoyed as much as she did. That's probably a large part of the reason why she enjoyed it so thoroughly. She wasn't totally sure why this fact pleasantly surprised her so much, but it was something that Chuck was proving to be very, very good at. And that didn't even come close to describing it. It was closer to magical.

Not that she had much to compare him to. Bryce was always somewhat less than enthusiastic, was only doing it for one reason, and clearly always wanted to get it over with as soon as possible so they would move on to his turn. And at least Bryce was a step up from Seth. With Seth she didn't even get a turn, he took both. But Chuck clearly enjoyed doing this for her. He knew exactly where her hot buttons were and how to get the job done. He just as clearly enjoyed slowly and steadily getting her to the very edge, then slowing down and playfully trying to keep her at that edge, making it a game to see how long he could make it last for her, and then just before it became frustrating finally speeding up the tempo again and driving her to an explosive climax.

The first few times Sarah felt a little guilty. He stretched it out so gloriously long until she worried about making his neck sore. But he scoffed at that notion, told her that he loved making her squirm. So finally she had learned to take him at his word, accept that this was his expression of how much he loved her, and just enjoy it. And she did enjoy it, just lying there squirming under his control, letting him do this thing, and trying to make the glorious feeling last as long as possible. But finally she couldn't hold out any longer against the explosion that he was steadily building inside of her. As the spasms of her powerful orgasm consumed her, she must have lost touch for a while. Because when she regained awareness she found Chuck lying next to her, his finger gently taking the place where his tongue had just been. He was actually pretty good at that as well.

Sarah just stayed still for a long moment enjoying his gentle touch. Then she took a deep breath and leaned over to kiss him lovingly. "Thank you, sweetie," she said. "That was fantastic, maybe the best it's ever been. Someday you're going to have to tell me how you learned to do that so expertly. You must have had a good teacher."

Chuck was clearly pleased by the intensity of the orgasm he had just given her, and even more by her praise. "You're very welcome," he said. "I probably learned it the same way you did."

In the dark, Chuck failed to catch the gleam in her eyes. "Carina taught you too?" Sarah asked in faux surprise. "You must be a better student than I am. The girl has incredibly high standards when it comes to sex, always tells me that I have some work to do. Every time she's in town she comes here and makes me practice on her all night until my neck starts to hurt. I'm not sure what's going to happen next time when she finds her two prize students in bed together. She can get pretty jealous."

The red in Chuck's face was plain, even in the darkened room. He didn't know what to say. "Really?" was all he could think of.

Sarah slapped his chest playfully. "No, not really," she said as she openly laughed at his horror. "I'm just teasing you. Come on, Chuck. Seriously? You're being ridiculous. I know what you meant."

"Very funny," Chuck said in relief. "You're a regular comedian, aren't you?"

Sarah leaned in to kiss him again. Even though she was still laughing, this kiss had a lot more purpose. "I have my moments," she said. "Just a bit of friendly advice, if that image came at all close to one of your secret fantasies, I'd keep it to yourself. A mark suggested to Carina in Italy a few years ago that they invite me to join them in bed and I think the poor guy is still in the hospital."

"That's funny on several levels," Chuck said. "For one thing, that's not my fantasy. In fact the very thought is disgusting. For another, Carina scares me. Finally, are you seriously trying to tell me that Carina would object all that much to the general concept? That seems hard to believe."

"Probably not," Sarah agreed. "She's pretty open about who she screws. I don't know for sure, mind you, but under the right circumstance I don't really see gender being a show stopper. But here is what you need to know. It wasn't Carina who kicked that mark's ass around the room. It was me. It blew the mission. I actually got called back to Washington and had to stand there at attention while Director Graham screamed at me pretty good for an hour. I was even benched for a few days. It would have been longer if I wasn't one of his favorites. So I'm just saying. If the mood ever strikes you, I'd definitely keep it to yourself."

Chuck decided to let slide why she was one of Graham's favorites… for now. It wasn't the time for that particular discussion. But someday he was going to find out what that meant. "That's good to know," he said. "Like I said, it's disgusting. Are there any other things that I should keep to myself if the mood strikes me?"

"Maybe," Sarah said as she leaned in to kiss him again. This kiss was clearly designed to lead to something. "I think I might just let you find out the others on your own. I think that maybe you need a little bit of fear to keep you honest." She began to kiss her way down his neck and slid her hand down his bare stomach and under the waistband of the sweatpants that served as his pajamas. "Now back to the matter at hand, which coincidentally seems to be full of little Chuck Bartowski at the moment. I really, really enjoyed that. Let's see if I can return the favor."

To say that Sarah was surprised when Chuck grabbed her wrist and gently but firmly pulled her hand out of his pants would be far, far short of reality. It was the first time that he had been anything but eager to fully participate in whatever she had in mind. And what she had in mind in this case seemed pretty obvious. In her experience, men didn't turn that down, no matter what. Bryce would have already been sitting on the side of the bed in his normal spot waiting for her. That she would quickly reciprocate for him would have been a foregone conclusion. It's the only reason he would have done anything of the sort for her in the first place and they both openly knew it. He would have fully expected and basically demanded his payback. He would be simply using her for his satisfaction. But that was fair. After all she had been just using him too. But Chuck was at a completely different level. He didn't think that way at all. He was… just different.

"Not tonight," was all Chuck said.

So Sarah snuggled into her favorite position with her head on his chest. "Is something wrong?" she finally asked softly.

Chuck paused for a long moment, so long that Sarah was beginning to think he wasn't going to answer. "Nothing's wrong," he finally said.

Sarah lifted her head to look at him. "What's wrong?" she asked more insistently.

"Nothing's wrong," Chuck insisted, perhaps a little more forcefully than he intended. "Can I just not be in the mood?"

"Don't do this to me," Sarah said softly but firmly. "Chuck, please don't shut me out like this. It doesn't help. I've worked so hard to be open with you even though it's totally outside of my comfort zone. I deserve the same from you, don't you think? We both know that something's wrong. You can tell me what it is. That's the only way we can deal with it. This is about tomorrow night, isn't it?"

Chuck paused for a long moment. "It's all I can see," he finally said. "I don't want to fight about this again. I'm trying to be supportive. But I can see it with my eyes open, the smug look on his face while he's watching you get down on your knees. Or watching you lie there helplessly naked on his bed with your legs in the air just waiting for him to start pounding into you."

"Chuck, you're being ridiculous. Those things aren't going to happen."

"Ridiculous?" Chuck asked. "Talk to me about that. You've told me what isn't going to happen. What is?"

Sarah paused for a moment at the tone in his voice. She was surprised by the question. She thought that Casey had talked to him about this, thought that he knew generally what she was doing with Seth. "I'm not specifically sure," she said truthfully. She decided to make this as clinical as possible. Maybe that would help. "I'm not being vague to try and hide anything from you. It's just that some of this depends on circumstances. The objective here is to make the mark as aroused as possible, think he's about to get sex, then to place a condition on him getting that sex that you want to force him into. Obviously my condition is that he trust me enough to accept my explanation about Lizzy and report it to his superiors so that they'll end his assignment and lead him away from the Buy More. I've already told him there would be no sex until I could trust him and that would take some time. He's been told to not expect sex tomorrow. Of course hopefully he still is expecting it. That just means my job is to keep him blind with anticipation. He needs to think that I'm struggling with my own desires and that he's very close to getting what he wants from me. So I'm going to do whatever is required to get him on fire and keep him there. It shouldn't be too bad. There has already been some pretty heavy kissing. I'm going to take more of the lead on that tomorrow. He's already put his hand in my bra for a second. He'll likely do it again. If he doesn't, I'll probably encourage him, let it stay there for a while this time and pretend that I enjoy it, maybe with a moan or two. That should be enough. If not, I might rub him through his pants while we're kissing to judge just how excited he is. If I don't like what I feel, worst case I might tease him by losing most of my clothes for his benefit when we're getting ready for bed. Once we're in bed, he is assuredly going to make his move. But I should be in firm control by then. I'll tell him that if he doesn't stop, I'm leaving."

Chuck paused for a long moment. "And you seriously expect me to accept that?' he asked angrily.

Sarah was stunned by the anger in his voice. "The things that you're worried about won't happen," she quickly said. "This is all pretend."

"Don't tell me that!" Chuck yelled. But he quickly gathered his composure. "I'm very sorry that I raised my voice to you," he said. "That's not acceptable. But, Sarah, you just don't get it. I know that those things aren't going to happen. I'm not worried about that. This isn't that I don't trust you. But you're telling this man in word and deed that they are going to happen. More important, he thinks they are going to happen. Can't you see that's almost as bad? You're making me stand there helplessly watching while another man is kissing my fiancé with his hand playing with her breast, watching her take off her clothes for him, and smugly knowing that he is about to fuck her brains out for a whole night. You're giving me no way to correct him. The fact that he's wrong is almost irrelevant. Do you seriously really not get what that feels like, how emasculating it is?"

Sarah paused for a long moment. "I guess that I do now," she said softly. "You're right. I didn't get it. That is exactly why you have to tell me these things, so we can deal with them. I'm very sorry if this makes you feel emasculated and that I haven't been more sensitive to that. That's the last thing I would want. It just never occurred to me, I'm honestly still not sure why you'd feel that way. But in my defense, I've never had someone who actually loved me, who actually worried about my honor before. Bryce couldn't have cared less. He would have suggested that I dance for him and perform a sexy strip. He would have wanted me to practice with him the night before in case I'd tragically forgotten how to dance or take my clothes off somehow. But you're not Bryce, are you? You're so much more. I'm sorry, Chuck. What can I do to help you?"

"That seems obvious," Chuck said. "Don't do this."

"Okay," Sarah said. "Here is the deal that I'll make with you. If you don't want me to do this, I won't, okay?"

"Okay," Chuck said cautiously. "Thank you. I don't want you to do it. But what will that mean?"

"I'm afraid that it means you're much more likely to end up in a bunker," Sarah said. "And that means telling Ellie that we're dead and never seeing her again. If that's what you want…"

"But you know I don't want that," Chuck said quickly.

"I know," Sarah said. "But I'm afraid you can't have it both ways. Chuck, I'm not inventing this problem. It's just a reality of the situation. I take no pleasure in making you face that unpleasant decision. I wish those weren't our only choices, but they are. If that's what you decide, I'll do my level best, but if I can't make Seth blind with the anticipation that he is going to get me on my knees or my legs in the air, you've taken away my best weapon. It would take our odds of being successful down from 90% to about 10%. That is simply my honest professional opinion. But you are my top priority, Chuck. You always have been. I know those are just words, but I mean them with every fiber. If you can't let me help you through this, if this is going to haunt you, emasculate you, then it's not worth it. We'll just take our 10% chance and live with the consequences."

"How can you help me though it?" Chuck asked.

"A few ways," Sarah said. "If you'll let me. First, now this is your decision. That puts you in charge. That has to help a little. Second, I can tell you how I deal with those feelings. I don't like having to kiss this guy who I can't stand, or to allow him to feel me up any more than you do. So I make it a game. I become an actress playing a role. I turn that smugness around. I laugh at him behind his back. The poor pathetic bastard thinks he's so smooth, thinks he is in control, thinks he has me at the point where I'm about to beg him to fuck my brains out. What he doesn't know is that I'm really thinking how nice it would be to kick his brains out, if he had any… and keep kicking until they oozed out onto the floor. His anticipation is so powerful that he makes the most stupid, fundamental, laughable mistakes to not mess it up. It allows me to lead him around by the nose like cattle to slaughter. I'm standing there secretly snickering at him every time he makes a move. We can make it a joke between us. The moron has no clue. He's a joke, Chuck."

"Okay," Chuck said hopefully. "That actually does help a little. What else you got?"

"Well," Sarah said. "I can share the sense of accomplishment with you. Fulcrum is pure evil. They are looking to control the world. And you're the tool they are searching for to help them. As hard as this is for both of us, stopping them is a very good thing. It's in our own self interests. It's something that has to happen before we can ever talk about a family. Even if it wasn't, if you like it or not, you are a hero. And heroes make sacrifices. But in the grand scheme of things, this is not all that bad of a sacrifice, is it? This particular man has already done and seen far more than anything that's going to happen tomorrow. And our sacrifice in this case saves countless lives, including someday maybe people that you love, me, Ellie, Casey. But that's not the biggest way I can help."

Now Chuck couldn't help the smile from starting to break out. "Okay," he said. "I give. What's the biggest way?"

"Simple," Sarah said with her own smile. "For this one, I need your help. I can make sure that you know how much I love and respect you. And then I can follow that up with a more practical statement. I can help you relax and take that smug look you are so worried about and claim it for your very own while you're watching me on my knees or on the bed with my legs in the air waiting totally for you. I really don't ever see you wanting to fuck my brains out, not your style. But I think you get the idea."

"You're making fun of me," Chuck said. "I'm sorry that I used those crude terms."

"Why are you sorry?" Sarah asked gently. "I'm not making fun of you at all. And those terms may be frank, but they certainly are accurate. Embrace the smug look that's yours. Unlike Seth's, your smug look would be deserved. Because you're getting something that no other man is ever, ever going to get from me… genuine enthusiasm… love. I'll be having the time of my life while knowing that I'm also making the love of my life feel pretty damn good, just like I felt your love when you were making me feel pretty damn good a few minutes ago. And, Chuck, here's the very best part. We're not really going to be doing anything that we didn't do yesterday. We're going to do it again tomorrow… and the next day, and the next week, and the next month, and the next year, and hopefully fifty years from now. The only difference tonight is that first I'm going to make a point of reminding you of something that you already know, that you're my soul mate and I'm happy, eager even to make you feel good. Doesn't that make tomorrow seem pretty insignificant to you? It sure does to me. Seth Roberts can never touch that, wouldn't even understand the concept. And yes, I understand that you're not really comfortable with the idea of using sex to make a point. But this is a special circumstance, don't you agree? Besides, it's an expression of love… just one with an attitude. What's wrong with that?"

"You must think I'm being a baby," Chuck said sadly. "Don't you? You shouldn't have to get on your knees to make a point to me."

"Chuck," Sarah protested. "I so do not think that you're being a baby. At all. Get that thought out of your head right now. You're a hero. Not only that, you're my hero. You've made sacrifices that most people could never imagine. And you're wrong. Even if I wasn't already eager to do this, I should have to do those things. I love you. It's my job to remind you of that in as many ways possible to get you through this. Someday soon it might be your job to get me through something. And when it is, I expect that same consideration. I'll do anything it takes to get you through this. If I seriously didn't think you could handle tomorrow, I wouldn't ask this of you. Besides, what part of me having fun making you feel good didn't you understand? I may not be struggling with this as much as you are, I maybe even wish you could see this for what it really is and be more supportive, but the truth is that I'm not looking forward to tomorrow either. I could never do this, or anything when it really comes down to it, knowing that it was killing you. So what's it going to be? Bunker? Or make him a joke, feel a very real sense of accomplishment, and steal his smug look?"

"We'll try it your way," Chuck sighed with something of a faint but growing grin. "I'm still not happy about this."

"I think that you just made a very good choice," Sarah said in faux seriousness sporting her own grin. "Nobody is asking you to be happy about this. There would be something seriously wrong if you were. All I'm asking is that you try and see it for what it really is and not allow it to drive you crazy. The fact is I'm proud of you. I would give you Bryce's sexy dance strip show as a reward… but I appear to already be naked. So which would you like first? My legs in the air? Or my knees on the carpet?"

Chuck didn't answer at first. He just wrapped his arms around her head and pulled her into a long, loving kiss. "I'm sorry for being like this," he said. "None of this is your fault. You're willing to do this uncomfortable thing for me, for us. I get that. You don't deserve this guilt."

Sarah kissed him again. "Enough with the buzz kill," she said still sporting the grin. "You're supposed to be acting all smug tonight. You have nothing to be sorry about. Last time I'm asking before I make the decision for you. What first, knees or legs?"

"Surprise me."

x-x-x-x-x

Sarah was in the apartment packing her bag for her night with Seth. She was grateful that Casey had already picked up Chuck for work. No matter how much they both enjoyed last night's mini therapy session, Sarah knew that he was struggling with this assignment more than he should and the less reminders of it, the better. Sarah was grateful that there was a briefing before she had to leave for Seth's. It would give her a chance to sneak in a few minutes alone with Chuck to say goodnight. It was important that she make him as comfortable as possible. Everybody had to realize that he hasn't had any training and maybe cut him a bit of slack.

It was easy to forget that she and Casey had the benefit of thousands of hours of training. It was a huge help in dealing with the psychological issues. It was actually very impressive that Chuck was doing as well as he was. Of course, Chuck would say that the CIA training was just brainwashing. Maybe he had something of a point. Sarah made a mental note to tell Chuck how proud she was of him after the briefing. She also smiled as she made a mental note to get a few minutes of serious necking in.

Sarah had everything packed except for her nightgown. It came down to basically two choices, one of her flimsy negligees or the much more conservative one that Chuck had nicknamed the 'granny' nightgown. There was no question which one the spy would choose. Even Agent Walker a week ago wouldn't have had a choice to make. After all, the objective was to keep the mark consumed with lust. Even if it meant showing him a lot of skin. Or, in this case, pretty much all of the skin.

Which of the negligees really didn't matter. They were all pretty much the same, a way to claim you were wearing something while actually being naked. But with Seth, was that even necessary? He was already pretty consumed after all. And it would be a nice detail to be able to tell Chuck that she wore the granny one. That would help. But the last thing that Sarah wanted was to let her personal feelings lead her to bad decisions. That's how you got dead in this business. After all, they were making this sacrifice for a reason. It would be stupid to let a silly detail like allowing Seth to see her boobs, which he had already seen many times anyway, to ruin that. So in frustration, Sarah threw the negligee into her bag.

"Oh well," she said to herself with a groan. "He'll be dead soon anyway."

x-x-x-x-x

Sarah was already in the briefing room when Casey and Chuck arrived. Sarah made sure that she flashed her brightest smile at Chuck and waited for his reaction. She breathed a huge sigh of relief when she saw his broad, if a little tense, smile in return.

"Hi sweetie," Sarah said softly as Chuck sat beside her at the conference table.

"Are you all set?" Chuck asked as he took a big breath.

"Don't worry about a thing," Sarah said softly as he grabbed Chuck's hand under the table where Beckman wouldn't be able to see. "This is just business. Remember last night. He's a joke. It doesn't mean a thing."

Casey took his customary seat at the other end of the table in silence. Casey, being a master at pretending that everyone else in the room was invisible, stayed silent.

When Beckman came online she was, as usual, all business. "All right people," she said sharply. "We have a lot of things to cover and not a lot of time so let's get down to it. Agent Walker, are you still on target to meet with Seth Roberts tonight?"

"Yes, ma'am," Sarah answered crisply.

"Good," Beckman said. "On your printer you will find a packet of information that we've prepared to assist in your cover."

"I have it, ma'am," said Casey as he retrieved the papers from the printer.

"First," Beckman said with a smile as a document appeared on the screen. "Is the Buy More employment application for our new imaginary Romeo, John Mark."

"Let Fulcrum try and track this guy down," Casey said with a laugh. "I wonder how many agents they will assign to that."

"Many, I would guess," Beckman said. "Next, are several photographs that appear to have been taken from the Buy More surveillance system." Several pictures appeared on the screen.

"This first one," said Beckman. "Shows John Mark and Agent Lizzy kissing in the break room. This next one shows then holding hands on the sales floor. And finally, this last one shows them in the home theater room umm, umm…"

"Pretending that they're Morgan and Anna, ma'am," Chuck said as the room erupted in laughter.

"Close enough, Chuck," said Beckman with a smile. "And this last item is an email sent from John Mark to the Service Group email account at the Buy More. It is describing how much John missed everyone and there is a picture attached." When the picture appeared on the screen, Lizzy was obviously present in the background.

"Agent Walker," said Beckman. "This should give you enough information to convince Seth Roberts that Lizzy is alive and well and went off of the grid of her own free will."

"Thank you, ma'am," Sarah said. "Is there anything else?"

"A couple of things, Agent Walker," Beckman said calmly. "First, I agree with your assessment of last night. I would like you to encourage Seth Roberts to set up a personal meeting between you and his Fulcrum superior as soon as possible. Maybe we'll get lucky and net a big fish."

"Yes, ma'am," Sarah said with a smile.

"The other thing is that we did some checking on Laura Carter and she may cause us a problem," Beckman said with the concern evident in her voice.

"Yes, ma'am," Sarah said in a confused voice.

"Unfortunately," Beckman continued. "It turns out that Miss Carter is still active with the CIA. If she has actually defected to Fulcrum, nobody knows yet. That means she still carries her security classification. She is also much higher up the CIA food chain than Seth Roberts ever was. It goes without saying that she is privy to highly classified information including basic knowledge about the Intersect Project. Since she knows you personally, it won't be long before she realizes that your cover story of protecting a foreign diplomat's child doesn't make much sense. She may even be able to find out the association between you and Bryce Larkin."

"I always knew that association would come to no good," Chuck said, more under his breath. Responding to Sarah's dirty look, he flashed a smile. "Hey," he said innocently. "I thought we were treating this like a joke?"

"Yes, ma'am," Sarah said, ignoring Chuck for the moment. "How would you like me to proceed?"

"Fortunately," Beckman said. "We were able to trace the cell call that Roberts made to Miss Carter last night."

"Wait a minute," Casey said in shock. "Begging your pardon ma'am, but this moron made a call from his cell phone? To another undercover agent's cell phone? Of a personal nature? While he was on an active undercover mission?"

"It appears so, Major," Beckman said with a smile. "Seth Roberts' career has been somewhat less than stellar. He has acquired quite a reputation for being sloppy and lazy. For the past several years he had been used mostly for minor courier type assignments. That's probably why he defected to Fulcrum, to jump start his career."

"And you married this guy?" Casey asked with a sly grin as he turned to Sarah. "Gung ho, hard ass, super agent Sarah Walker? Wow! He must have had… other qualities."

Sarah's face was very red, indeed. She looked at the table, obviously embarrassed until Chuck gave her hand a squeeze for encouragement.

"At ease, Major," Beckman said sharply. "But back to the point, since we are able to monitor Agent Carter's cell calls, we can tell if she attempts to tip Seth Roberts off. If she does, we'll have to abort. Is that understood? We all know what that means."

"Yes, ma'am," Sarah said softly.

"We'll reconvene at seven tomorrow morning to debrief and make plans on how to proceed," Beckman said. "Good luck, Agent Walker."

"Thank you, ma'am," said Sarah.

"Are there any questions?" Beckman asked without waiting for a response. "You're dismissed."

As soon as the screen went blank, Sarah shot a look at Casey that screamed for him to leave them alone. Not that Casey needed the look. He was already half way to the stairs. As soon as Casey was out of sight, Sarah slid over and sat in Chuck's lap.

"Hey," Chuck said softly as he kissed Sarah. "A joke, right?"

"Don't worry about me," Sarah said with a smile. "I could take this guy with my eyes closed. You heard Beckman. He is very lazy."

"Yeah," Chuck said with a twinkle in his eye. "But I also heard her say that he was sloppy. That's something I'm hoping that you don't experience tonight, if you know what I mean."

Sarah tried to keep the laugh in. She just couldn't. "What am I going to do with you?" she asked as she giggled helplessly into Chuck's shoulder. "I just need to know that you're going to be okay."

"I'm not going to lie," Chuck said as he kissed Sarah again gently. "I wish you didn't have to do this. I know that you don't either. I'm going to miss you tonight. Even more important, I'm going to worry about you. But I have to admit; a week ago I thought that you were single but in love with Bryce Larkin."

Sarah noticeably winced when Chuck mentioned Bryce. "I've hurt you a lot lately," she said sadly. "Haven't I? I'm sorry. I'm trying so hard not to."

"Hey," Chuck whispered as he held Sarah tightly. "Let me finish. I didn't say that to make you feel badly. I just wanted you to know how lucky I feel. A week ago you were out of my life. And today, with all of our problems, I can trust you with my soul."

"I like my position a lot better now."

x-x-x-x-x

Sarah stood in the hallway of the hotel trying to psych herself up enough to knock on the door.

What's the big problem? After all, she had convinced other marks in the past that she was in love with them. It really wasn't all that hard. They always wanted to believe it was true. She never worried about it before. What was so different about this situation that had her so freaked out? She certainly didn't feel sorry for Seth that was for sure. Reading that transcript just told her what she already knew. He had never really cared for her. That didn't affect her at all.

"That's Seth," Sarah whispered to herself with a grim smile. "He is just looking to get laid."

No, she had to admit that the person she was worried about was Chuck. He was home alone tonight wondering what was happening. And even though he told her he was okay, she could tell that he was worried. She could see it in his eyes. And why wouldn't he be? Maybe she should have made more of an effort from the start to look at it from his point of view. His fiancé was spending the night with her ex husband.

"Actually her not so ex husband," Sarah again whispered to herself with a grimace.

Who could like that? And yet, there he was, putting on a brave face. He was doing that for her, because he thought it would help keep her safe. Suddenly she was consumed by rage. She hated this bastard. Forget the fact that he had betrayed her trust in him and fucked her best friend in her own bed. Forget that he had become a traitor, joined the very organization she had been fighting against her whole life. He was hurting Chuck. That was a capital offense.

And in that instant, she knew how she was going to get through this. She had to do it to protect him. But also she could look forward to seeing the bullet land between his eyes. Fuck going through the hassle of getting the stupid marriage annulled. She would take matters into her own hands and make herself a widow. She would end this bastard.

She also knew that she had to calm down a little. Hothead Agent Walker wasn't going to make this guy so inflamed that he would switch off his brain, what little brain he had anyway, sexy Sarah was. Suddenly she remembered her advice to Chuck. Seth Roberts was a joke, not even a particularly clever one. It was good advice… even if she did say so herself. It made it not seem quite so bad.

So with a silly grin on her face, Sarah stepped up to the door. As she knocked on the door a comforting thought raced through mind. It would be the last time for quite a few hours that she would be able to indulge in that thought so she was going to enjoy it as much as she could.

Chuck Bartowski loves me.

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