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.

If you read the original (and good decision, BTW) you'll notice that some basic things have changed. In fact the number of chapters has changed. I've added new scenes and deleted others. This chapter is almost all new.

At first my plan was to write a fairly steamy sex scene between Devon and Ellie (or more accurately Darrin and Elise) that was really fairly explicit. I'm not going to do that now. A funny thing happened. As I was writing the gratuitous sex scene, the point jumped off the page at me. Indeed, now this chapter is pivotal to the main story as Chuck and Sarah struggle to understand each other's perspectives.

I realized that when I changed the rating, fewer people would read the story. It simply doesn't show up in the default list. I guess I'm surprised by how many fewer. But it can't be helped. There was no way to tell the story I wanted to tell and keep it T. You'll see why soon.

Anyway, it's probably now more important than ever that the few of you that remain stay vocal.

I still don't own Chuck.

If you enjoyed this or any of the stories on this site, please take a second and send the author a review. It only takes a second – and it really, really makes a difference. That's probably more important than ever now that the series has ended. If you want to keep the Chuck fandom alive and continue to read about these characters, you really need to think about rewarding the people whose hard work make that possible.

The Agent and the Asset

x-x-x-x-x

Chuck was sitting at the table trying hard to catch his breath. He'd always known that Sarah was a freak of nature on the dance floor. But tonight was five times as worse.

Well, 'worse' might not be the most accurate term. The truth was that she had never looked more beautiful. Her joyous smile simply lit up the room. She was basically a sexy blonde tornado bouncing around that dance floor, full of energy… and maybe also a little full of tequila. She had said that she would probably become more affectionate when she was drinking. As it turned out that was a ridiculous understatement.

It was something that he found it pretty hard to complain too awful much about. Oh, he probably could have done without the hand job action in the car while he was trying to drive during a hellacious thunderstorm… with his sister three feet away. Fortunately, she hadn't done anything all that close to provocative once they were actually in the club. She was clearly being respectful of his well known aversion to PDA.

What she did do was to make completely clear, to an honestly skeptical audience, that she was with one Chuck Bartowski for the duration. The doe eyed look on her face as she sided comfortably into him at every opportunity made that quite obvious. Chuck couldn't really blame the men for being skeptical. After all, he was a pretty ordinary guy… and she was simply a goddess. Any man who was so bold as to test her commitment and ask her to dance, and there were a few, was quickly treated to a subtle but really good view of her engagement ring and a polite perhaps but also slightly coolly dismissive 'no thank you' that left no doubt what her interest in leaving her fiancé's side was – zero.

Chuck was actually a little embarrassed how good that was making him feel. Somehow it felt like showing off to him a little. But here was the most beautiful woman in the world, and she was making every not so subtle effort to make sure everybody knew that she belonged to him. "Thank you," he finally said.

Sarah laughed. Well, after she took a long pull of her margarita anyway. "What are you thanking me for?" she asked. The sparkle in her eyes was a clear indication of how good of a time she was having.

Chuck couldn't keep from laughing himself at how giddy she was. "Well," he was finally able to get out. "First, for actually letting me take a song off. I was getting close to needing some oxygen."

"No problem," Sarah said, still giggling. "Actually, I needed a drink. But I was also sort of hoping that I maybe might have to give you some mouth to mouth sometime tonight. That's the only way I can think of to get you make out with me in public."

"That's the other thing I'm thanking you for," Chuck replied in a teasing voice. "I feel like I'm taking the homecoming queen to the prom, and every man is looking at me like I must have won some kind of contest. I hope that didn't sound possessive or weird."

Sarah leaned over and gave him a quick peck, stopping well short of anything that could be considered PDA. "What it sounded like, is what it was," Sarah said. "Incredibly sweet. First, I'm no homecoming queen, not even close. Second, why should you worry about sounding possessive? I'm your possession." Then she quickly responded to his look. "Yes, I understand that thought makes you a little uncomfortable, that you would never treat me like a possession… but you could if you wanted to. Just like you're my possession." Suddenly the smile that lit up the room was back. "You don't see it do you? You honestly don't see how many women have been looking at you so lustfully on that dance floor, do you? Chuck, that's so sweet. Women might be a little more subtle than men in that regard, but trust me, it's happening."

"I seriously doubt that," Chuck responded skeptically.

"Wanna bet?" Sarah said. "Go ask that slut over there in the blue party dress that barely covers her clearly store bought tits to dance. She's been checking you out all night. I say that if you bought her one drink she'd be willing to go home with you… or even better head out to the parking lot for a quickie in your back seat."

"I can't even describe all of the things wrong with that plan," Chuck said. "First, do I really look stupid to you? Second, I doubt that she would be interested even if I was. Third, picking up women in bars is a little outside my skill set. But most important, why would I want to do that even if I could? If I wanted a quickie in the back seat, I'm positive just a single word could get the most beautiful, the most amazing woman in the world eagerly dragging me out there. Why in the world would I look anyplace else?"

Sarah leaned in to kiss him lovingly. This time the kiss lasted a while, firmly into PDA territory. "Wow," she said. "That was pretty sweet. Even if I hadn't already been in the mood to follow you out to the parking lot, I sure as hell would be now. You just don't get how sexy you are, do you? That's probably a good thing… and it's exactly why you're so sexy. If Miss Store-Bought-Tits over there checks out your ass one more time, you might just get an up close and personal demonstration of how possessive I am."

That got another laugh. "Please don't pick a fight," he quickly said. "Trust me. If I wanted to fight every man I've seen checking out your ass tonight, I'd be fighting half the bar… and getting my ass kicked a lot. Besides, instead of all this distraction stuff, why don't you just tell me?"

That faded her smile considerably. "Tell you what?" she asked.

"Relax," Chuck quickly said. "I'm not going to ruin our night. But what's up with Ellie? Since when does she dress like that? Why have I seen her rubbing up against so many other men that I've lost count? Is there something wrong between her and Devon?"

Sarah looked around nervously. "If I tell you," she said. "Will you promise to give me a chance to explain before you get mad?"

Chuck's smile never faded. "You have an explanation for this?" he asked with a nod. "I'd love to hear it."

"Ellie and Devon are playing a game," Sarah started cautiously. "Ellie is pretending that she is an agent seducing her mark."

"Okay," Chuck said, the confusion plain in his voice. "And what part of that were you worried would make me mad?"

"Some of the details might have been my idea," she admitted sadly. "I sort of mentored her on how to act like Carina for a night. I picked out her dress."

Even if Chuck wanted to blame Sarah for this, he knew his sister. If she wanted to do something, she found a way to do it. And if she didn't, well, it wasn't going to happen. "Did you pull your gun on her?" he asked with a grin. "Force her into that slutty outfit in any way, steal her bra maybe?"

Sarah quickly realized that Chuck was teasing her. That was a very good sign. But she wasn't ready to start breathing easy yet. "Of course not," she said. "Ellie came to me asking for help. I owe her so much, Chuck. I just couldn't say no to her. They aren't going home with us. They are spending the night at the hotel across the parking lot."

"Then why would I be mad?"

Sarah took a long sad breath. "Mad probably isn't the right word," she said. "I just don't want to put the idea in your head that if Ellie is playing a role with Devon…"

"That you might be playing a role with me," Chuck finished her thought.

Sarah nodded sadly. "I never have done that to you," she said. "And I never will. But I understand that you're very sensitive to that thought. So, yeah, the idea worries me a little."

"I think maybe you're underestimating me a little," Chuck said. "Oh, I know that I haven't exactly inspired confidence lately. I'll even admit that I've been childishly jealous in the past. I also understand that we see some pretty fundamental things differently. But you don't have to worry about me. I'm actually very secure in us. Whatever differences we have are pretty minor compared to that, aren't they?"

Sarah was never happier to be wrong about something in her whole life. "I have underestimated you," she said with a growing smile. "I seem to be doing that a lot lately. I'm sorry about that. If I can't talk you into a quickie in the back seat, let's go home and I'll try and think of a way to make it last a little longer."

"Let's go," Chuck quickly agreed. "But we rode with Ellie and Devon."

"There is limo waiting for us," Sarah said. "We ordered it when you and Devon went for the tequila. Why don't you go out into the parking lot and find it? I'll go to the ladies room and meet you out there."

"So," Chuck said with a grin. "That's what the 'training' was all about in the car. You were keeping me distracted."

"Maybe a little," Sarah admitted. "But for the record, I enjoyed it. As long as you're taking this so well, full disclosure means that you probably deserve to know that you weren't the only Bartowski getting a hand job in that car."

Chuck's face turned red. "Why would you tell me that?" he asked in mock disgust. "I guess that I appreciate the honesty. But there are some things that I simply don't want to know."

Sarah was clearly enjoying teasing him. "One major difference," she said in mock seriousness. "Ellie's hand was her own."

Now the disgust was real. "That's it," Chuck said. "Nothing more to drink tonight for you."

x-x-x-x-x

Chuck walked around the parking lot trying to find the limo that Sarah said would be waiting. It was incredibly dark. The thunderstorm had passed through some time ago and it was no longer raining. But the low clouds that remained hid the moon so the only light came from the club and the hotel on the other side.

He could see what looked like a group of people huddled together. Maybe they had seen the limo. It wouldn't hurt to check, right? But when he got a little closer, he could see that it was Devon and Ellie. They were surrounded by a group of men… and they didn't look at all happy.

That's all he needed tonight, to get into a fight. Sarah would not be pleased. But he was the agent tonight. He had promised her. And Devon was hopelessly outnumbered.

So Chuck picked up the pace.

x-x-x-x-x

Devon Woodcomb was a big, strong, incredibly fit, health freak. He had muscles on top of his muscles and abs that would make a body builder envious and the women on the beach openly drool. But he was also a soft spoken, mild mannered, gentle soul. Fighting simply wasn't in his nature. He preferred reason to fists. But it was looking more and more like he wasn't going to be given a choice. "Look," he said. "We're not looking for any trouble. We're just walking across the parking lot to the hotel."

The leader of the group was a fairly large man himself, maybe not quite as big as Devon, but clearly was used to fighting to get what he wanted. "Looks like this isn't your night," he said sarcastically. "You see, I hate cock teasers." He indicated with a nod of his head towards Ellie who was standing as close to Devon as she could possibly get. "This bitch has been rubbing her tits up against us all night. It's time she paid off. Maybe we'll join you. You can wait in the hall for an hour or so while we warm her up for you."

Okay, so the man had just said the magic words, the only ones that could provoke Devon into fighting. Threatening Ellie was a sure fire way. He gently pushed her behind him protectively. "Not going to happen," he said firmly.

"That's up to you," the man sneered. "You can just go home if you want while we party with the whore." Then he took a huge swing aimed at Devon's jaw.

Devon was a very athletic man. Perhaps he wasn't used to fighting but he was very quick and nimble. So he was fairly easily able to duck under the wild amateurish punch by pure instinct. He was even able to land a pretty decent counter punch of his own that knocked the man to the ground. Unfortunately, the man's five friends were far too much of a force for any one man to take on, no matter how athletic. One went to grab Ellie while Devon was quickly buried under a pile.

Ellie remembered Sarah from last night and tried to kick her guy in the groin. Unfortunately she missed. And since that was a sure fire way to piss any man off, it earned her a rather ungentle slap to the side of her face. It didn't do any real damage. It only stung for a couple of seconds. But it did convince her to stop struggling.

When Chuck came running up, he was torn. He could clearly see Ellie firmly in the grasp of some guy, who was clearly just as interested in copping a quick feel as he was in controlling her. But Devon was plainly in trouble. He was rolling on the ground taking a pounding from four men. So without thinking, he launched himself at the pile.

Pure surprise made that tactic actually work… for about five seconds. He was able to knock two of the men off Devon, which at least gave him a chance to protect himself. But those two men were far too much for Chuck to defend himself against. He quickly found himself taking a beating. One of the men got to his feet and launched a kick. It landed right in the middle of Chuck's gut and knocked the wind out of him. He could plainly see him draw his leg back for another kick when he suddenly went down in a heap, his night complete courtesy of a Sarah Walker kick to the side of his head.

When Sarah looked around the scene was pure chaos. Naturally her first priority was Chuck who was wrestling with the man who remained on top of him.

To his credit, he was doing okay. He wasn't winning by any stretch. But he was able to hang on enough and avoid taking any further punishment. All he could see was the streak of blonde hair as his adversary suddenly went limp, his night also finished.

When Chuck began to struggle to his feet, Sarah pushed him not so gently back down. "Stay right fucking there until I tell you otherwise," she growled. "That's an order."

Chuck knew the tone of her voice. Not that she was making any attempt to soften it in any way. It was probably best to obey this order. And his stomach was on fire anyway. So Chuck just slumped back down to the ground.

The leader had now recovered enough from Devon's original counter punch was he was back on his feet. He stood facing Sarah and pulled a knife from the waistband of his pants.

Sarah looked at the man in dismissive disgust, an ironic smile on her lips. When would these guys ever learn? "You're not holding that knife properly," she growled.

Ellie was so taken by the déjà vu that she stopped struggling against the man who was holding her and his hand that she had so far been able to keep out of her dress and from it's clear goal of playing with her breast. "Oh shit," she muttered to him with a grin that totally belied the seriousness of the current situation. "Here we go."

Apparently men with knifes didn't accept constructive criticism well. "Shut the fuck up," he growled. "At least now we have two bitches to party with."

Much like his brethren in stupidity last night, his knife quickly went clanging on the pavement. The follow up kick to the groin maybe wasn't quite as devastating as last night's but Sarah was in a hurry to check on Chuck. She maybe didn't have the leverage of two men holding her, so she settled for precision. It was still plenty more than enough to lift him off his feet, totally take the thought of any further fight out of the man, and send him back to the pavement rolling around in genuine agony, suddenly sorry that he got out of bed this morning. "Good," Sarah growled. "I like to party. Something tells me that you're not going to be up to it anytime soon."

Just as suddenly as the fight started, it was over. The redneck gang was clearly routed and ran away. Well, all except the two geniuses that had actually the nerve to touch Chuck. They were both still lying unconscious. The leader wasn't exactly running, it was more like hobbling. But they were clearly done with any further adventure for the night. Sarah stood squared off against them in a defensive posture and allowed them to retreat. Once she was convinced that they were really leaving she turned back to her family. On her way to Chuck she glanced at Devon who was just getting to his feet. "Are you okay?" she asked.

Devon was far too impressed at the demonstration he had just witnessed to be hurt. Besides, he really never took a solid punch. "I'm fine," he said. "A little winded."

Sarah walked over to where Chuck was still laying. He was doubled over in pain from the lasting effects of the vicious kick he had taken. When he saw her approaching, he tried to get to his feet. "Stay down," Sarah said firmly. "You're hurt." She went to check on his injuries when it struck her that there were two doctors standing there. So she turned to Ellie. "Can you look at him?" she asked. "He took a pretty savage kick." She turned to Devon. "Come on," she said. "I'll help you over to that bench and you can rest until Ellie can look at you."

"I don't need any help," Devon insisted as he panted for breath. "I really didn't take any serious blows. I'm just winded. Give me a minute."

"Okay," Sarah said. "Go sit down and catch your breath. I'm going to go find this moron limo driver who just blew his tip… and if I can get a kick in, possibly his chance for fatherhood. Wait here for me."

x-x-x-x-x

Devon reluctantly made his way to the bench Sarah had pointed out and sat down. It really didn't sound like a request. And the fire in her eyes certainly inspired obedience.

Ellie knelt down to where Chuck was now sitting on the pavement and felt around. "I think you're okay," she said with a relieved smile. "You're going to have a bruise. If you had any broken ribs, you'd be in a lot more pain. Take some Tylenol when you get home. If the pain hasn't eased by morning, go to the E.R."

The pain in Chuck's gut was already starting to fade a little. "How would you know?" he asked with as much smile as the pain would allow. "I don't think that Agent Elise went to Medical School. I picture her as more a graduate of Lap Dancing School."

If Ellie was surprised that Chuck knew about the cover name, she didn't show it. "That's true," she said facetiously. "To be honest, Agent Elise has no clue if you're okay or not. To be brutally honest, she really doesn't care all that much. She just wants to get back to her mark." But then she surprised him by wrapping her arms around his neck and squeezing for all she was worth. "Sweetie, I'm having the very best night of my life," she whispered. "Thanks for being cool. I maybe could have done without the fight, but I can't wait to see what happens next."

Chuck was surprised. Okay, that didn't come all that close. He badly wanted to grab her and deliver a stern lecture. After all, she had just come much closer to being gang raped than anybody ever should. But the words died on his lips. After the year he had just lived, lecturing anybody else to be careful, even his big sister, was so hypocritical as to be silly. And she was happy. At the end of the day, that's all that mattered. "Have fun," was all he said.

x-x-x-x-x

Sarah finally found the limo. She was so relieved that she actually let the driver live. Once they had Chuck comfortably in the back, she grabbed Ellie's hand and led her out of earshot. "Are you sure he's okay?" she asked.

"I'm sure," Ellie quickly. "In case you haven't noticed, he's sort of a baby when it comes to pain. If he had anything close to a broken rib, his wailing would be audible from outer space. If he's more than just sore in the morning, take him in for some x-rays. But that's not going to happen. Maybe next time we can actually go out without you having to kick a knife out of some moron's hand."

The relief actually made Sarah a little giddy. "Maybe," she sighed. "But I have to tell you, it happens a lot. Morons with knifes seem to follow me around, especially since I've been with Chuck. So how are you doing? How is Darrin treating you?"

"Oh my God," Ellie giggled. "He is such a pig. He's really getting into it. I'm pretty sure in the hotel he's going to make me try and stand on my head."

"So it's going okay?" Sarah asked with a smile.

"It's going better that okay," Ellie said. "Sarah, this is the best night of my life."

"It was one of mine too," Sarah said. "Until a few minutes ago."

"I know you're mad at him," Ellie said. "I think I understand why. But could you maybe go a little easy on him? There is no way he could watch Devon getting beat up by four men without trying to help."

"I know," Sarah sighed. "He's a hero in a nerd's body. I'm not mad at him, not really. I'd love to tell him that I'm proud of him. But that's exactly why I can't go easy on him. I have to figure out something. He has to learn."

"We simply can't have him getting himself killed."

x-x-x-x-x