I still don't own Chuck.

Content warning. There is an intimate scene in this chapter. And while it is maybe less graphic than others in this story, it may be more disturbing to some. At least, as always, until you read the whole thing. No, it's not a dream. :)

I understand that there isn't a review function on this site. But I would still appreciate your comments. The worst thing for an author is silence. You can't tell if you're connecting with your readers, if they're getting where you think the story is going or not. And those comments don't have to be praise. Of course, I'd be lying if I tried to say that I don't enjoy the praise. But I actually learn more from the critical comments. Just as long as you're respectful and allow me to respond, you can say anything.

The Great and Powerful Orion

x-x-x-x-x

Sarah made no effort to keep the disappointed look from her face. In fact to say she was disappointed didn't come close to it. "That's your plan?" she asked incredulously. "Really? The great and powerful Orion? So for twenty years you've been crafting a plan to steal his fortune? We're not after Volkoff's money. That makes us sound like common thieves."

Sarah could immediately see the genuinely offended look on his face… and just as immediately felt horribly guilty. She knew this time it was up to her to maybe reach out to him a little. "I'm very sorry that I offended you," she said softly. "I'm a straight shooter and sometimes I don't stop to think what I sound like. I didn't mean that like it sounded. I'm just a little confused. How is taking his money going to help? Can we please forget I said anything?"

If Sarah realized it or not, she couldn't have given Steven a better gift than an honest human moment had she tried. The feeling overwhelmed any offense he had just felt. So he flashed a genuinely warm smile at her. "You don't have to be sorry," he said. "It was a legitimate question. But, Sarah, think about it. Money is power. Alexei Volkoff is not a beloved man. He has a ton of enemies who would dearly love a shot at him. But his billions protect him. He sits in a fortress that is defended by a well paid and well trained army with the most modern weapons, in the middle of the second most powerful military power in the world. Unless he does something really extreme and provokes the only country in the world that could actually do anything about him into risking nuclear holocaust by waging open war with Russia, he is untouchable… and everybody knows it."

There was really no denying that. The plane was filled with nodding heads.

"But if he lost that money," Steven continued after a dramatic pause. "His protection would quickly collapse like a house of cards. Once he missed a single payroll, his mercenary army would immediately disappear, off looking for their next paycheck. Without being able to line the pockets of the Russian government officials, they would no longer have any reason to protect him politically. He would be forced to go on the run to hide from the horde of people who would love to see him hanging from a tree."

Casey couldn't keep quiet. And his vote was rather predicable. "I just say that we kill the bastard," he growled. "One bullet between the eyes… problem solved."

Chuck ignored Casey for the moment. "So let me get this straight," he said with something of his own growing smile. "We wouldn't have to kill him to win."

"Exactly, Charles," Steven said. "Casey, killing him wouldn't be as easy as you're thinking. We could maybe get Charles or Sarah in a position to kill him. But getting them out alive after would be problematic. And killing him might feel good for a day. But it would eventually cause more problems than it solved. As long as that money is there someone would just take his place. And at least Alexei's evil is somewhat rational. The small handful of lieutenants in position to fight to take over for him are worse. Who knows what madman would gain control of his fortune? To misquote from the New Testament, it's actually the money that is the root of all evil here. Besides, killing him let's him off the hook far too easy in my opinion. Without his money to protect him, he'd be forced underground, always hiding from his enemies, living from day to day in abject poverty."

"You're saying him," Ellie said. "But it's really them, right?"

Steven smiled at his daughter. "You're right, Eleanor," he said. "Agent Frost has just as many people who would love a shot at her… besides us. She would immediately go from rich and pampered to poor, on the run, and herself desperate. Would that be the justice that you're seeking?"

Ellie's grin fully answered his question. "For the record," she said. "I'd like to see you get some justice as well. I know that maybe I haven't been acting like it. Dad, I'm sorry about that. It's taken me longer to deal with this than it should have. But I think that maybe it's time for that to change."

Like Sarah just a moment ago, Ellie also couldn't have given Steven a better present had she tried than her genuine concern and expression of forgiveness. It took him a long moment to gather his composure enough to speak. Once he blinked the tears out of his eyes he reached out and touched her arm lovingly. "You have nothing to be sorry for, Eleanor," he said, trying to keep his voice from breaking… and failing miserably.

Ellie knew that she had touched him… and it felt great. But now it was time to let him off the hook. So she allowed the grin to reappear. "There is one thing that I don't understand," she said. "If you know where he hides his money, why haven't you taken it already? It's been twenty years."

"I'm afraid that it's not that easy," he said as he finally matched her grin enough to continue. "Alexei Volkoff doesn't keep twenty billion dollars sitting in his wall safe. He understands as well as anyone that his money is what makes him powerful. So he guards it jealously. And he has other assets. Volkoff Industries is in some ways a conglomerate of legitimate businesses. They have manufacturing facilities throughout Europe and South America. It makes a tidy profit. In fact they've had a very good year. But like most rich men, Alexei is fairly greedy. He keeps those companies very leveraged. They all have very high debt ratios and he allows them very little working capital. He wants direct control of all of the cash himself. So without his money protecting them, those businesses are very susceptible to being disrupted by a bit of creative corporate sabotage. The financial institutions that currently provide the operating capital to meet payrolls and such would be much more reluctant without knowing that Volkoff's billions guaranteed repayment. Without working capital the businesses would all collapse in just a few days and quickly be seized by their creditors."

Steven looked at the grins that were popping up all through the plane and realized that he had their attention. "His money is in a series of Swiss bank accounts," he continued. Alexei is ridiculously fanatical about them. He keeps about a billion dollars in each account. When he earns another billion he opens a new one. So that means he currently has twenty different accounts, each with its own constantly changing password. The account numbers and passwords are in two totally separate vaults in the middle of his compound. They are both protected by the usual complement of fortified doors, laser guided alarms, poison gas, and biometric controls. You'd have to get into both of them within the same ten minutes to actually match an account to its password before it changes. None of that information is in the Intersect, so the only way to get to them is from the inside. Only an Intersect 2.0 would have a chance."

"Let me guess," Sarah said. "It takes two Intersects to get into both of his vaults at the same time. And if we rescue Bryce we have exactly two. The Bartowski family is going to get the other one inside."

"Exactly," Steven replied. "His greed and lust for power have given us the opening we've been waiting for. He wants to entice Agent Walker into working for him, hoping that he can trap her into delivering her husband and his sister to him on a silver platter. I say that we give him his wish."

"What are we going to do with the money?" Ellie asked.

"That's up to you," Steven said. "Twenty billion dollars could do a lot of good in the world. I'm confident that you, Sarah, and your brother will make good stewards of it. Some average, hard working people with families are going to be hurt when his businesses collapse and they lose their jobs. So I would think that it would be a good thing if you would make an investment to make sure that they were all reformed and the jobs recreated. I'm also thinking that one of your priorities will be to make sure that your loyal team lives very comfortably for the rest of their lives."

"All that sounds good," Chuck protested. "But, Dad, he wants to break her."

"He does," Steven admitted. "Desperately. It's his main hobby, one of his driving passions. He's going to try and get into her head. He would love to get her to betray the things that she loves. That includes her country and if he was totally successful he would love to get her to betray you, to get her to talk you into doing some things you don't want to do. And in order for our plan to work, he's going to have to be a little hopeful that he's succeeding a little so that he'll let down his guard. But you know your wife, right? Can Alexei Volkoff actually break her? In fact could he coerce her into getting him a cup of coffee if she didn't want to? Do you really fear that?"

Chuck didn't answer. The question was clearly rhetorical. But it also clearly embarrassed him.

"Look, Charles and everyone," Steven continued. "I'm not saying that this isn't risky. The plan is complicated and there are some tasks we haven't discussed yet. We have to make sure that Volkoff is left with no assets to protect himself and come back after us. That means we'll also have to coordinate hitting all his businesses at the same exact time. There are multiple assignments for each of you. To pull this off, we're going to have to do some distasteful things, things that we don't want to do. Every person will have to decide for yourself if you're willing to accept that risk and if it's worth it. And no one will think less of you if you decide that you don't want to and move on with your life." Steven turned to Sarah unable to keep the grin from his face. "But based solely on the few days I've known her, I think that Alexei Volkoff is about to meet his match."

"Don't you?"

x-x-x-x-x

It had been a long day, but they were all finally settled into their various rooms on The Enforcer. Steven could barely contain his excitement at the marvelous facility. It was actually a perfect base of operations. Not only was it private, it had all the world class communication gear one could hope for.

The team had been split up all afternoon into a flurry of activities. Casey and Devon went with Steven to his place to help pack up his equipment. It turned out to be more than either had anticipated. It was a long afternoon but they finally had one of the interior staterooms set up to rival the command center of any military ship. And since Rock had fully stocked the ship with tons of weapons before his untimely demise, including a couple dozen shoulder launched missiles, Casey made sure that they were surely going to be able to defend themselves.

Ellie went with Joan to her place to pack some things. Both women were making no effort to hide their giddiness at the prospect of spending the foreseeable future on such a luxury ship. Joan didn't own a bikini and Ellie's was in her dresser back home. So they took the opportunity to go on a quick shopping trip. Joan wasn't exactly comfortable in a social situation. She never had a girlfriend to hang out with before. But she quickly found that being around Ellie was easy. So they found themselves laughing quite often. In fact they both ended up having a far better time than either anticipated and were clearly on the fast path to becoming close friends. Ellie even tried to tease her by telling her the story of the mission that Sarah sent Agent Elise on a few days ago and rubbed it in that she would probably end up on a similar mission of her own. So Joan countered her clear attempt to shock her with the story of her night with Bryce Larkin, the mission he sent her on, and the real story of how she met Ellie's dad. They called the attempt to shock each other a draw.

Josh and Joey were excused for the day. They took the occasion to drive to Baltimore and tell his dad the happy news about their engagement. Before they left Ellie gave her patient a stern lecture to take it easy like only Dr. Eleanor Bartowski could. She didn't mince words. She could either have the pain pills, or some celebratory champagne… but most definitely not both. For today anyway, Joey chose the pain pills. Tomorrow that would definitely change… and the champagne would switch to tequila.

Laura left without asking to be excused, ostensibly to also go to Baltimore, talk to Seth, and figure out her future. She didn't say if she was coming back or not.

That left Chuck and Sarah to get things ready for up to a two week cruise. Chef was instructed to spare no expense ordering food for the next two weeks. At least they would eat well.

It felt good to be back on the ship, especially for Sarah. So much so that it calmed down her tense mood substantially. It was really the first home that they had acquired together as a married couple, so it was pretty special. Thankfully the CIA didn't know about it. Carina assured Sarah of that as soon as she called her. The only bad thing from Chuck's perspective was that she was waiting for them on the ship when they got there, already sunning herself on the deck. Fortunately, she was wearing both halves of her bikini. She said something about not wanting to miss the action. Chuck hoped she meant the mission action. But with Carina, you never really knew.

Finally everyone on the ship retired to their respective room for a little much needed rest before dinner. Actually, in Chuck and Sarah's case it rather predictably didn't turn out to be much of a rest period. Sarah hadn't forgotten about her promise of this morning. And there was also the matter of snapping at him angrily in the van to apologize for. So quickly enough she excused herself to go to the bathroom. And when she came out she was wearing the blue teddy that Chuck liked so much. She had clearly spent a few moments making sure her hair and makeup were perfect. Chuck's tip off, if he needed a tip off besides the fact that his wife was standing there posing for him in the full light of day wearing basically a blue colored nothing, that rest wasn't going to happen anytime soon was that she was also wearing her heels.

After a moment Sarah sauntered over to him and stopped his wordless admiration with a finger on his lips. "We both know that I'm not good with words," she said. "So if it's okay, I'd like to do all of the talking uninterrupted for a while." Seeing him nod, Sarah began the activities by slowly pulling his shirt out of where it was tucked into his pants, sliding it up over his head, and tossing it unceremoniously to the floor. "Things are going to get tense in the coming days," she said as she fumbled with his belt buckle. "We're going to be in mission mode. I'm not really that much fun to be around in mission mode. You probably have already figured that out. But it's more this time. We're both going to have to do things that go against our nature. Even worse, we're both going to have to stand by and watch as the other is forced to do those uncomfortable things. We really don't have a choice. Our goals are admirable. We're doing this to secure our future, not only for us, but for our future children. I'm not exactly sure what assignments your dad is going to hand out." As soon as she had his pants on the floor she grabbed the hem of her garment and began to lift it slowly and seductively. Soon enough it was lying on the floor.

As soon as she was also naked she stood in front of him and posed for a long moment before joining him on the bed. "So I want to make sure that we both understand something," she said. "I'm willing to do anything for you. That wasn't hyperbole, just words for effect, I mean literally anything. But in this case, I'm doing it more for me. I want to start our family a lot more than you do. And Chuck Bartowski, I know that you know this, but I want to say it anyway. No matter what happens in our fight, I'm your devoted wife. I'm going to be right beside you, loving you with all my heart for the rest of my life. Our agreement was that since I'm no good with words, I'll use my actions. So consider this a down payment. We're going to make love every single chance we get, starting right now and ending… well, hopefully never. And here is my commitment to you. During those times I'm going to try my very best to let all of my Agent Walker baggage go and just be your wife. So if you hear an occasional 'fuck me harder' from me, it means just that. When things get hard in our fight, and I fully expect for things to get hard, I want you to remember this moment, look forward to the next time we make love, and know that this is what we're fighting for. Okay?"

The quick series of passionate kisses had Chuck already losing most of his ability for rational thought. But he did know that he should respond in some way. It came out as more groan than anything.

"Okay."

x-x-x-x-x

Sarah walked into the bar looking around uncomfortably. Well, that wasn't exactly true. Sarah wasn't around, she was now fully Agent Walker. The first thing she did was check the exits, force of habit. There was the front door she had just walked into and another on the side. It was one of those sleepy neighborhood bars. There didn't appear to be anyone who could pose a threat, or even move very quickly when it came right down to it.

This first assignment was going to be the hardest thing she had ever done. And even though she knew that this was a distinct possibility when she agreed to this mission, she was surprised that it came so soon. Knowing that she had to do this for her new husband didn't make it any easier. Her mark was easy to spot, sitting alone at the bar nursing a beer.

Her assignment from her new husband had been more than clear. "Don't let this guy out of your sight until you get a coded text on what to do with him. I'm afraid that you're going to be totally on your own for at least one night. Be prepared for your assignment to last for up to a few days." And if that wasn't clear enough, he clarified it. "You do realize what is expected?" he asked. "I understand that this isn't something you want to do. But you can't worry about me. I'll live. This is vital to our goals. This guy was too hard to find. We simply can't lose contact with him again or it all falls apart."

He was right. It had to be done. And for a newlywed husband he was being remarkably calm about the whole thing. Sarah wasn't sure if that helped or not. "Yes," she was quick to reply. "We've talked about this. It's necessary. Don't worry about me."

But now seeing the mark in person Sarah wasn't so sure. He wasn't her type at all, even before she was married. He was a fairly typical looking business type guy, shorter than he looked in his picture and, well, not exactly fat. But he could sure stand to lose a few pounds. Even more important was that she no longer had a type. She had only been married for a couple of weeks. She still should be on her honeymoon for goodness sake. She had really hoped that being married would forever get her out of fucking some random guy on an assignment. But Laura was right, living in a spy world meant you had to be willing to fuck the occasional mark. It's just how things were. Pretending anything else was true was pure fantasy. And seeing as it was her husband who gave her the assignment in the first place… and she understood how important this was to all they were working for… it was hard to argue with.

Fortunately the place was relatively empty so the seat at the bar next to him was unoccupied. She quickly sat down and with a single waive of her hand immediately got the bartender's attention.

"Hi," he said. "What will you have?"

As it turned out, the bartender clearly would have also been easy to pick up tonight. The eyes that had already drifted down to her chest and the cleavage she was displaying said that very loudly. And actually he wasn't all that bad looking. But he wasn't her assignment. So she turned to her mark. "I'll have what he's having," she said. Beer was probably Sarah's least favorite drink. It was fattening and tasted like ear wax. But it was her drink tonight. So she turned her most dazzling smile towards the mark. "It looks so refreshing," she said in her best dumb blonde tone.

"It is," he quickly agreed. He turned to the bartender. "I'll have another."

Sarah had already decided on the dumb blonde approach. It was easy… and almost always effective. So she handed the bartender a credit card. "Put it on my tab," she said. Then she turned back to the mark and held out her hand. "My name is Sarah."

"Mark," he replied and he took her offered hand. "Thanks for the drink."

Sarah knew full well what the smile she was flashing did to a man, almost any man. It almost wasn't fair. She tried to not snicker at the irony of his name like she had in the pre-assignment briefing. Her mark was actually named Mark. "No problem, Mark," she said. "That is my husband's credit card. I just came home early and found him in bed fucking my best friend. So I hope that you're really thirsty."

Apparently the husband cheating with the best friend and the wife getting revenge by fucking the first man she encountered wasn't all that rare. Or maybe it was the sheerness of her blouse that he was staring at like he was trying to develop x-ray vision. Whichever it was he accepted her explanation without question. "Your husband is an idiot," he said. "If I was lucky enough to have a wife as beautiful as you, I wouldn't let you out of my sight."

The fish had most definitely taken the bait. All that was to be done was to play him into the boat… um, or bed in this case. Not letting her out of his sight was exactly her assignment. "Why, Mark," Sarah said. "Aren't you sweet? That's exactly what I needed to hear. How did you know?"

The next two hours were something of a blur. Agent Walker forced herself to block out any personal emotions and concentrate on the assignment. She had to pretend to enjoy the seeming endless rounds of beer. She also had to pretend to laugh at his crude jokes. Most important, she had to smile sweetly and pretend to enjoy his hand that had started off rubbing her arm, but eventually had drifted to her knee and had disappeared up her skirt about three quarters the way up her thigh. It was a test and they both knew it. So she shifted her seat to give him a better angle where the other men in the bar couldn't see very well, smiled sweetly, and opened her knees in a clear signal that she wasn't going to register a protest no matter how far he went. She was starting to think that he was going to go for it right there in the bar. So it was actually a relief when he stopped inching his way up the inside of her leg just before he reached the top of her stockings and suggested that they take this party to his place. At least the rest of tonight's degradation would happen in private.

Believe it or not, this was actually Sarah's first assignment where keeping the mark occupied with sex was the only true objective. Of course Sarah had been thoroughly trained in seduction tactics… in a classroom setting. On the other hand, Laura had been through the real world battles. She had forgotten more things about fucking a mark than the instructors at the Academy had ever heard of. And she was clearly more than a little concerned for her friend. If she hadn't had her own assignment tonight she would have stepped in for her. But she was going to be all the way across town with her own mark. So she settled for a private briefing telling her best friend what to expect. She had been positively uncanny describing how the scene would play out. Sarah had no need for seduction tactics. He was totally willing to be the aggressor. Laura was spot on when he would first kiss her and when his hand would first slide into her already semi open blouse.

Laura was also right when she warned her about this sort of man having a sixth sense of knowing when you were helpless. Of course Mark thought that she was desperate for revenge and a place to stay after leaving her cheating husband. He didn't realize that she was ordered to keep him interested for up to a few days. No matter why. They both knew that she had no way to refuse anything he would demand.

Normally Sarah would have tried to slow him down a little, to put off the actual sex for as long as possible. But Laura warned her that trying to resist him in any way would be a very bad idea. All it would do is make him even more aggressive. And once these guys felt like they had something to prove, there was no telling what they would demand from you.

So Sarah wasn't surprised at all when it seemed like he had grown several additional sets of fingers as soon as they walked into his room and started kissing. One set started off roughly pawing her breast. Another had made its way up her skirt and inside her panties. All the while another was behind her head, keeping her mouth pressed to his as he tried to see how far he could jam his tongue down her throat. Still he had time and fingers to spare to undress her. She suddenly became aware that her blouse was now laying on the floor, quickly followed by her bra and then skirt and finally panties. He clearly didn't think her stockings were worth the effort so he left them on. The rest was fairly typical, some fairly rough second and third base necking that settled for foreplay.

Laura was even right when she said that the actual fucking would be the easy part. It was. At least she didn't have to kiss or even look at him any longer. She could just lie there with her eyes closed, put her knees in the air, pretend she was someplace else, and let him grunt while he gladly did all of the work. Thankfully, predictably, he didn't last very long that first time.

Sarah knew what she had to say. After all, just fucking this guy once wasn't her assignment. She had to keep him interested for a few days. "That was unbelievable," she sighed as soon as his breathing returned to semi-normal. "I can't believe I've been missing this all of my life. Let me know when you're ready to go again. In fact…"

Chuck had heard enough. So he wrapped his arms around his wife and kissed her forehead lovingly. "So that was your first seduction mission," he said. "The one thing that I don't understand is why Seth gave you the assignment."

Sarah was looking intently into Chuck's eyes trying to figure out his mood. Even though he had asked her to tell him about it… that was a pretty tough story for a husband to hear from his wife of not quite two weeks. "They clearly thought I would do it with less protest if it came from him," she finally sighed. "That was their plan all along. They knew from training that I was very reluctant to do something so overtly sexual. I found out later that the assignment wasn't all that important. It was more of a test to see if Seth could actually get me to fuck him. I guess that he passed. Chuck, I was so naive. It took me a while to figure out why Seth wanted to get married so badly. It helped his career. The irony is that the story I told the mark actually happened to me the very next week."

"What ever happened to the mark?"

"That's the only good part of the story," Sarah said. "If it had lasted another day, it would have really gotten hard. Sometime after round two, I got a coded text that they no longer needed him. So I waited until he was starting to get the gleam back in his eyes and offered to take a shower with him to begin round three. And when he was in the shower, I cut his throat."

Chuck was trying hard to hide his anger. "A test?" he asked. "So that is the CIA's idea of a how they should treat their loyal agents? You could have killed him in the first minute."

Sarah smiled at her guy's anger on her behalf. "You wanted to hear about it, right?" she asked. "Are you sorry that you asked?"

"I'm not sorry at all," Chuck said. "In fact, I couldn't be happier. That was a simply awful story. That you willingly told me about it means you trust me enough to share the worst parts of your life, the things that you would rather forget about. We both know that's a first for you. I can't tell you how great that makes me feel."

"Thank you for being there for me," Sarah said. "The truth is I feel like someone just took a hundred pounds off my shoulders. You're very right about it being a first. Before you I couldn't imagine telling that story to anyone, not even the CIA shrinks have heard it. The worst part actually wasn't the sex. Laura was right. It was after. Having to lay there naked, wanting to cover yourself and knowing that you can't. Then seeing that look on his face, both knowing full well that he had just possessed you, and having to put that stupid smile on your face inviting him to do it again as soon as he was up for it."

Chuck joined her smile. "It's my job to be there for you," he said. "No thanks are required. I'd like to point out that you seem to be naked now. You're not attempting to cover yourself in any way. In fact your current pose is quite provocative. And you have a smile on your face."

That got Sarah laughing. "If you think this is provocative," she said. "Then you ain't seen nothing yet. This is a totally different experience. I don't feel naked at all. And I couldn't force the smile off my face if I had to. One small detail is the same. I am inviting you to possess me again… as soon as you're up for it."

Chuck got more serious. "I'm sorry that you had to relive that awful night just because of my stupid insecurities," he sighed. "And if you ever have to…"

"Don't even say it," Sarah interrupted. "Don't you dare say that you wouldn't mind. That is off the table. You would mind, and you should."

"I wasn't going to say that I wouldn't mind," Chuck protested. "I was going to say that if there is ever anything else you want to tell me, I'll be just as understanding."

"Thanks," Sarah said with a relieved sigh. "That assignment was harder for me than I've ever admitted to anyone. But it was a long time ago. And you don't have to worry about feeling guilty. I didn't tell you that story because of any insecurities. Sharing it with you was therapeutic for me too. You helped me feel better about it. It may sound a little sappy but you help me feel better about everything. The honest truth is that I'm a different person now. You've changed me. I know that I don't have to say this. But I love you more than I could possibly say. That part of my life is over. You never have to worry about me with a mark like that ever again."

Chuck was adamant. "I don't worry about it," he said. "I love you too. But it was a bad memory. I feel horrible that I made you relive it. Now you need some pampering to get you over it."

"Pampering?" Sarah questioned.

Chuck didn't answer her question… at least not with words. He just grabbed her and rolled them both so that she was on her back and started kissing his way very slowly down her chest and eventually her stomach.

"Pampering," Sarah sighed as he was finally pushing her knees apart to give him easy access. "So that is what we're calling it tonight. I think that I'm going to like pampering."

Chuck very quickly had her at the edge, as he was so, so good at. "I'm afraid that we just have time for a down payment on the pampering. We have to join the team for dinner. When we get back later tonight I'll apologize for doubting in any way that you can handle Alexei Volkoff."

Sarah just allowed him to do this thing for a long moment. "That feels so good," she finally whispered. "If this is the reward I think that I can come up with some other stories."

"Even if I have to make them up."

x-x-x-x-x