I still don't own Chuck.

Hey. You've maybe noticed that I haven't posted a chapter in a couple of weeks. Well, I went in for a routine colonoscopy a couple of weeks ago and found out that I have a tumor. While there's no way to spin that as good news, it's also not as horrible as it could have been. It looks to be very early and there is no sign that it has spread to the lymph nodes which is the point where colon cancer gets very serious. I've been given every indication that if they remove the tumor, that will be the end of it. The surgery is scheduled for this Thursday. So I'm going to be down for a while. As far as writing goes, I may find that I have more time for it. But it also is not going to be my priority for the next few weeks. So we'll have to see how it goes.

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 Surprise Assignment

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Laura Carter prided herself on being a purely logical thinker. Actually all spies were… at least the ones who survived for any length of time. There really wasn't any way to be a spy and allow emotions to rule. And she suddenly found herself with plenty of time to think.

It wasn't all that impressive of a mental feat to have been able to predict what Seth would want to do the second she walked in the door. In fact her blouse was hanging open and her bra lifted out of place before she had a chance to set her bag down. And while Laura wasn't really looking forward to fucking him, the hard truth was that explaining why to him would have been more emotional than she was currently up for. So while she really didn't participate in what settled for foreplay with Seth, she didn't resist him either. Predictably that quickly left her in an all too familiar position, on her back with her knees in the air while he pounded into her. If he did notice that she was less than enthusiastic, and he probably didn't, he didn't say anything. At least it gave her some quiet time to think.

And as a logical thinker, she had some things pretty much figured out.

First off, she knew that she had to get away from that boat, for multiple reasons. Mainly, if she stayed with Casey much longer, she would soon find herself unable to leave. She could maybe sell herself on the idea that getting jealous of Carina was normal. After all, Carina was a spy just like she was. But her reaction over Casey having a normal lady friend had been a warning shot across her bow. This was getting far too serious. And she knew from experience how dangerous that could be. After all, getting jealous over Seth and Sarah had just been a total cluster fuck. It had led her into the exact sort of emotional decision that spies weren't ever supposed to make, with almost disastrous results. She was starting to get far to close to him. And since Casey plainly wasn't looking for that kind of permanent commitment, all falling in love would accomplish was a big heartbreak. Who needs that?

Similarly she was also starting to get far too attached to the idea of belonging to a family. Spies didn't have families. They sometimes had long term teammates. But that was different. And Laura almost always worked alone anyway. Sarah had been the only person that Laura would ever admit to having loved. But now she most definitely had to put Chuck in that list, with Joey and Josh not far behind, and honestly Ellie and Devon not that far behind them. Carina, well loving her would have to be a work in progress. But Joan and Steven, even after knowing them for only a couple of days, were clearly on the path.

Besides, who were we kidding? Laura wasn't a wife and family girl. She was a lone wolf. She didn't fit in with Chuck, Ellie and the family crowd. She didn't have anything to offer a family. But fortunately, she was a world class expert at fucking a mark. And this was suddenly as close to that as you could get. One thing was for sure, she couldn't stay here with Seth for very long either, for almost the exact opposite reason. It soon would become too hard to take. What she needed was another assignment… and the distance it provided. Seth noticeably quickened the pace. That had always been his tell that he was getting close. So she called upon her training, blinked away the tears that were forming, and forced herself not to think about Casey.

After all, that would just prolong the pain.

x-x-x-x-x

Sarah really never fell asleep. She was just in that dreamy blissful state. Chuck rubbing her back simply felt so good. She decidedly could get very used to being pampered like this for the next sixty years or so. In its own way it felt every bit as good as making love. In fact it almost felt too good. Because it took a long time for her to gain enough consciousness to realize that Chuck wasn't saying anything. In fact she finally realized that he was aimlessly staring sadly into space… again. "What's wrong now?" she asked.

Chuck didn't answer for a long moment. And when he did, he answered her question with one of his own. "Do you think that I'll ever get past being so jealous?" he asked softly. "You don't deserve that. It's ridiculous isn't it?"

Sarah smiled at him, partly to reassure him, but also partly because he was so damned adorable. "A little," she said in faux seriousness. "But it's also cute. I think that you being insecure with the idea of you and me is always going to an inch below the surface. You think that I'm out of your league."

"You are out of my league," Chuck sighed. "You're a goddess. You're out of anybody's league. I know that thought frustrates you. I'm sorry. But it's true."

"It's absolutely not true," Sarah insisted as her smile broadened. "I wish it was. I kinda like the idea of being a goddess who is out of anybody's league. It's sweet of you to say, but it's hardly accurate. I'm sorry that I've gotten frustrated with you about that in the past. That didn't help anything. It's just another example of me not being there for you like a wife should. So let's talk about it. I can actually see how you would have felt that way once. Before I met you I had a type. And you weren't that type. Let's be mature and face that head on."

"Bryce is your type," Chuck said sadly. "The dashing super spy. Confident, good looking, hero, how does a nerd compete with that?"

Sarah's smile quickly became a grin. "Here is exactly the problem," she said. "In the first place, your tense is wrong. That may have been my type once. But the fact is you compare yourself to guys like Bryce, and for some amazing reason that I truly still can't figure out, you feel like you fall short somehow in that comparison. You always have. I want to hear you admit that."

"Okay," Chuck said. "I'll admit it. And for the record I have no fear of Bryce specifically. But there are a million of them. We both agree that I fall short."

Sarah's smile quickly faded. "Don't put words in my mouth," she said firmly but without anger. "I didn't say that. I certainly don't think it. The truth is that you not being my type says far more about my flaws at the time than it ever did about yours. I'm embarrassed about it. The fact of the matter is that in an honest comparison you have it all over Bryce in every way one can imagine. That's exactly why he is so intimidated by you."

Chuck was stunned. "Bryce Larkin is intimidated by me?" he asked sarcastically. "In what universe?"

"You called him a super spy," Sarah said as her smile reappeared. "Confident, good looking, a hero, is that about right?"

Chuck nodded sadly.

"Here's the deal," Sarah said. "I know you won't believe this, but you're better looking than Bryce."

"That's not true," Chuck protested.

"It is absolutely true," Sarah insisted. "I knew you wouldn't believe it. What Bryce has is the confidence, some would say arrogance, that he knows he's good looking. And he uses that as an offensive weapon. You don't have that. Ask the spies, the ones that you think have a type like I did. Ask Joey. Ask Laura. Ask Carina. Okay, so I know that you would never ask them anything like that. But trust me, they've all told me some variant of once they got to know you, how good looking you are. I've had a talk with each of them, in language that they would be sure to understand, to stay the hell away from you. Now I'll admit that if you and Bryce walked into a random bar on a Saturday night looking to get laid, his arrogance would give him a better shot. But it's certainly not because he is better looking. I can honestly say, with zero exaggeration, that just thinking about getting you naked instantly gets my motor running to the red line… and that didn't ever happen with Bryce… or any other man when it comes right down to it."

Chuck didn't protest, but he also still didn't look convinced.

Sarah's smile again faded a little as she got more serious. "You just called Bryce a hero," she said. "I understand what you meant. Okay, sure, maybe in a way. But don't you get it? You're ten times the hero that he is." She stopped his look with one of her own. "And don't even say it's because of the Intersect," she said firmly. "Bryce is a professional hero. It's his job. He and his crowd only do the things they've been trained to do, and they do them for their own mostly selfish reasons. You're a different kind of hero, an honest one, an amateur one, one that does things that you don't have a clue how to do, just because it needs to be done. And most of those things were to protect me. Chuck, you stood in front of a bomb, ready to be blown into a million pieces, only because you didn't want me to die alone. You jumped off a building wrapped in only a banner, all to save me. And the fact of the matter is both of those things were foolish. They pissed me off. I never, ever want you to do anything of the sort again. But they certainly prove that you're a hero. No one can deny that."

Sarah didn't wait for a response. She reached up and kissed him lovingly. "And all of that misses the point anyway… by a country mile. It's important that you understand this and I've dropped the ball at making sure that you do. I don't love you because you're some smooth talking stud, some bad-ass Intersect superhero. In fact if I could have my way, you wouldn't be an Intersect at all. It's dangerous. It makes you a target. And that part honestly scares me a little. I love you for entirely different reasons. I love you because you make me laugh when I need it. I love you because you loved me first. In fact you showed me what love is. I'd never experienced it before. You stood by me and loved me when I was subconsciously doing everything that I possibly could to drive you away. But no matter how big of a bitch I was, you still loved me. I love you because you're a real person, the nicest man I've ever met. I love you because you're going to be such a wonderful father to our kids. I can't wait to see that. I love you because when I'm not with you, I feel a little empty inside. I love you because I'm looking forward to growing old together. And here is the best part. It's the thing that I need to tell you more often. I was miserable before I met you. Now I'm happy. And that's completely because of you. Tell me, sweetie, is any of this sinking in? Even a little?"

Chuck couldn't help the smile that sprang to his lips. "You're probably getting tired of telling me this," he said sheepishly. "I know that this is hard for you. I'm being ridiculous."

"You are being a little ridiculous," Sarah said as her full grin reappeared. "But that's okay. You're allowed to be a little ridiculous from time to time. And I'm not getting tired of telling you that in the least. I'm starting to kinda enjoy it. In fact I don't tell you often enough. I understand that now. If I was doing my job, you wouldn't have the time or energy to worry about it. Be prepared for that to change. You've been pampering me. Well it goes both ways. I'm going to start pampering you right back."

That finally got the grin she was looking for. "Okay," Chuck said sheepishly. "That actually doesn't sound half bad. But we really don't have time right now. We have to meet with the team. Rain check?"

It was hard to make Sarah Bartowski blush, damned hard. But for some reason that she couldn't explain, remembering their inside joke about what pampering meant turned the trick. "Wow," she said after a moment. "Why am I blushing? I finally got you to ask for something."

"Of course you can have a rain check."

x-x-x-x-x

Chuck and Sarah hadn't even fully sat down yet before Steven started the briefing. "He has her," he said.

Sarah immediately knew what he meant. "Bryce has Beckman?" she asked. "Already? That's impressive. How did he do it so quickly?"

"Actually, I might have helped him a little," Steven replied with a grin. "His plan was to lure Beckman into meeting with him secretly. He was going to send her a series of anonymous emails to her personal account telling her that he knew Volkoff and where the nuclear bomb was and he would only deal with her off the record."

Sarah wasn't trying to be skeptical. She really wasn't. This was the magical Orion. But it also wasn't in her nature to simply trust things were okay, especially when Chuck's safety was at issue. So she was pretty careful that her tone was respectful. "Beckman would fall for that?" she asked. "That doesn't seem like her."

Steven smiled as he recognized Sarah's hesitancy to offend him. It was… nice. "It's not like her," he quickly said. "You're right about that. Bryce knew that it would take some time, that at first she would try and find out who he was and then trap him. He'd have to escape her trap, frustrate the hell out of her a few times, and use that fact to get her desperate enough that she would finally meet with him alone. That's when he would grab her. I just hastened that process a little."

Sarah paused for a long moment, not knowing what to do. Finally Steven's smile broadened. "You don't have to worry about asking tough questions," he said. "I don't take any offense if you appear skeptical. It keeps me honest. Let's you and I make a deal. When we're in here, we're all business. You're bad-ass Super Agent Walker, and I'm the great and powerful Orion. That's why we're doing this, not only to make sure that you're totally comfortable, but to also get the benefit of your training and experience. You're the senior agent. You've been in the field. I haven't. I need you to tell me when you don't think something will work, or there is a better way."

Chuck couldn't tell if his dad knew what he was doing or was just lucky. But he couldn't have possibly have said anything better. In fact not only had he just made himself a daughter-in-law, he had also made himself a lifelong friend. Sarah was positively beaming. And Chuck had to admit, anybody who could make Sarah glow like that couldn't be all bad. Maybe Ellie was right. Maybe it was time to let some of the anger go and work on healing.

Sarah was finally able to compose herself enough to speak. "And when we're not in here maybe we can work on the father, daughter-in-law thing," she said. "I think I'd like that."

"Wow," Steven said with a grin. "You totally have a deal."

Sarah's smile didn't fade. But she did get a bit more serious. "Okay, Orion," she said. "So what did you do?"

"Not really all that much," Steven said. "First, I arranged to have Bowles picked up. That part was easy. Bryce was apparently very willing to sacrifice his new girlfriend to escape Beckman's trap. Then I sent Beckman some fake intel to her official email hinting that Volkoff had a rogue agent to who willing to give up the location of the nuke if he was richly enough rewarded and warning that he was understandably easily spooked. Everyone knows that betraying Alexei Volkoff is a high risk / high reward type of deal. That was enough to get Beckman to meet with him."

"Bowles is in custody?" Sarah asked eagerly. "I'd love a chance to talk to her. I have some unfinished business with her. Is there any chance of that happening?"

"Absolutely," Steven said. "I've already set it up. We need to find out anything that she knows. And who better to find out than The Enforcer? The rookie agents who are currently holding Bowles are actually nervous as hell about meeting her. She apparently has something of a nasty reputation." Steven noticed the red rapidly creeping up her neck. "I'm just teasing you, Sarah," he quickly said. "That was a long time ago. I'm sorry if I embarrassed you."

"It's okay," Sarah said with a sigh. "You didn't embarrass me. I just realized that this will be the first time that Chuck will have witnessed me interrogating someone."

"I'm afraid not," Steven said with something of a grin. "Maybe you could take Devon and Joan. I have my reasons but this will work out for the best. Bowles may need a doctor after you're done with her. And Joan still has a valid CIA senior management ID to show her guards. Besides if I don't let her do something, I sense the other side of the bed is going to get fairly frosty. Chuck has something more important to do."

Sarah wasn't sure if she was relieved that Chuck wasn't going with her, or concerned. "What is Chuck going to be doing?" she asked.

"Hopefully nothing," Steven said. "But we have to capture Bryce Larkin and if our primary plan fails, we may need an Intersect."

Now at least Sarah was sure. Concerned had definitely won out. "What is our primary plan?" she asked.

Steven grinned as he recognized Sarah's protective instinct kick in. "Don't worry," she said. "We're not going to put Chuck in any danger. I promise. The whole rest of the team will be there. You trust me, right?"

Sarah maybe paused a little longer than he would have liked. But she finally nodded. That's all that really mattered.

"Good," Steven said. "Bryce has made arrangements to meet some of Volkoff's men in a bar and tell them where to find Beckman so they can ship her to Russia. We're going to restore Bryce's memories so he'll help us. We might even give him a governor so that his head doesn't explode, although I'll not deny that I might find watching that to be a little entertaining."

Sarah ignored his shot at Bryce. Apparently she wasn't the only one who wouldn't mind watching Bryce's head explode. "Okay," she said slowly, clearly not yet convinced. "How are we going to do that?"

"In theory it will be easy," Steven said. "I've encoded some flash cards that will almost instantly get him back to normal. The problem is that we can't cause a scene. If Volkoff finds out, we're done for. And he will have men watching him. So we have to get him out of that bar without any ruckus, and without triggering any Intersect defensive mechanisms. Fortunately, Agent Larkin has a clear weakness that we can exploit."

That weakness was obvious to almost everybody, but it was Carina who first articulated it. "He's a horn dog," she said. "He'd never pass up a chance to get laid. Finally an assignment that I can do."

Steven shook his head with a grin. "I'm sorry Carina," he said. "It can't be you."

"Why?" Carina protested. "Who has more experience picking up a man in a bar than I do. And Bryce? It's almost insultingly easy. I could do it in my sleep."

"I'm sure that you could," Steven said soothingly. "And we are most definitely going to be using those skills later. But I'm afraid that it can't be you tonight. In fact it can't be any of our agents. Agent Larkin is an Intersect. Maybe he wouldn't remember meeting you, but he would almost assuredly flash and instantly know something was up. It has to be someone who isn't in the Intersect. We only have one female who meets that requirement."

Ellie looked around the room ruling out everyone until she came to the proper conclusion. "You want me to pick up Bryce Larkin in a bar?" she asked in shock.

Steven reached over and grabbed his daughter's hand. "It's not my first choice," he admitted. "But there just isn't a good alternative. We absolutely need Bryce for any of this to work. This is someplace where we know he'll be."

"Dad," Ellie protested. "I've never picked up a man from a bar in my life. I wouldn't know what to do. Besides, I'm engaged."

Suddenly Sarah was struck by her instinct to be totally protective of a second Bartowski. "Are you sure that this is a good idea?" she asked. "Ellie isn't a spy. She hasn't had any training."

Naturally, Sarah didn't see the look that Ellie was currently flashing her. She didn't know Ellie well enough to know that questioning if she was capable of something almost guaranteed that she would try and prove you wrong. But Carina did see it.

Carina looked at Sarah with a derisive grin. "I guess that she has just as much experience picking up men in bars as you do," she said. "Absolutely none. Maybe you should have been a little more willing over the years."

It was Chuck's turn to, well, maybe not protest. "I guess Ellie's the only one who Bryce hasn't banged," he said disgustedly. "He might as well make it a clean sweep."

"Excuse me," Joey protested. "Why would you assume that Bryce has banged all of us?"

Josh turned to her with a huge grin. "Um," he said. "Hasn't he?"

"Okay," Joey admitted in faux anger. "But that still doesn't make it right for Chuck to assume it."

That got them all laughing. Carina noticed that Ellie still looked nervous so she turned to her. "Don't worry. This is easy," she said soothingly. "You can wear a wire. I'll talk you though the whole thing. Besides, this is Bryce Larkin we're talking about. All you have to do is lose your bra, tell him that he is the sexiest thing you've ever seen, and offer to buy him a drink. Trust me, he'll eat that up. He'll be staring at your tits all night like the cure to cancer is written in code on one of your nipples. You won't have to do anything. He'll be the one who will turn aggressive. Your biggest decision will be how much skin to show him in the car on the way back to the hotel."

Ellie smiled at Carina's calm confidence. "I guess," she sighed. "I mean, how hard could it be?" She turned to Devon. "Are you okay with this?"

Once Devon smiled and nodded, Sarah really couldn't find much to argue with. She suddenly realized why Orion had assigned Devon and Joan to go with her. They wouldn't want to witness this. Come to think of it, she didn't want to witness it either. She didn't want to get too detailed in front of Devon and ruin his good mood… but maybe she could pull Ellie aside for a moment after the meeting for a few quick tips on how to keep his hand out of her panties in the car. After all, this was Bryce.

"Okay, Agent Elise," Sarah finally said with a sigh of her own.

"I guess it's a good thing that we practiced last week."

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