A/N: *DC tries on monocle and then looks in mirror….remembers he's blind without his no line trifocals* SC! Does this make my head look big? SC? SC!? *Walks off trying to swing chain on watch and crashes into wall*
HA HAAAA! - SC
Disclaimer: We don't own anything. We're not making any money from this.
They stood in Casey's apartment, on the computer that Chuck had set-up. One more thing Chuck could add to the growing talley of what he had done for the CIA and NSA. Not that the two people on the monitor cared.
"Capturing the Nadan-I-Noor Diamond has dissolved Peyman Alahi's credibility." Beckman said. "His network has fallen apart."
Graham jumped in. "We were also able to thwart the purchase of $26 million of surface-to-air missiles the Afghani terrorist group was planning on buying." Sarah beamed at Chuck, Chuck grinned at her and then turned to Casey, who was smiling as well. Well, this was a first. Everyone was happy with him. Nice win. "No diamond, no cash, no sale. Job well done, people."
"Hey," Chuck said to his teammates, raising his hand. "High five?" Casey growled at him. "Group hug?" Casey glared. "You know what," he began, turning to Sarah, when she gave him a high-five and a smirk. He grinned at her and turned back to the monitor about to speak to Beckman and Graham when he noticed a package being delivered. His eyes bugged out. He and Sarah shared a look, he was nervous, she was grinning. He looked at Casey who seemed awfully amused at his predicament.
"You didn't..." Graham groused. Chuck grinned and shrugged. Beckman reached over to turn off the monitor, but not before Chuck swore he saw her grinning.
"Now to deal with the devil spawn," Casey growled heading outside. Sarah was chuckling at that.
The group congregated in the courtyard to say goodbye to Carina. After what had been an interesting mission, Chuck was wondering if this was the norm, saying goodbye to other agents, never knowing when, or if, you would ever see them again.
Carina stepped from around Sarah where she had been tailing, touching Sarah's arm affectionately. Spies made weird friends. "Well, this was fun."
Casey reacted first. "Yeah. Good-bye, Carina. Working with you has been... Well, let's never do this again, hmm?"
Carina smirked at Casey. "Oh, thanks, Johnny. Maybe next time you can shake it up a bit and pull the four-leaf clovers out of the rotation."
Chuck turned to Casey who was chuckling. "Casey, did you try opening the gates of Mordor?"
Carina and Sarah's mouth dropped as Casey glared at Chuck. Chuck swallowed but stood his ground. Casey stalked off. Chuck turned back to the two, smirking.
"What was that about?" Sarah asked, her eyes wide.
Chuck shrugged, "Just getting even. I'm sure I'll pay for it. You will speak fondly of me at my funeral, right?"
"You know I will," Sarah replied, her eyes sparkling. She turned to Carina and pulled her into a hug. "Well, you know, as much as I hate your methods, there's never a dull moment, right?"
"Well, if you want a dull moment, just check out your cover life."
Sarah looked over at Chuck with a smile he couldn't read. "Well, you know, we have our adventures."
"Right," Carina replied, barely stopping her eyes from rolling.
Sarah turned to leave but stopped and turned to Chuck as she walked past him. "Oh, uh, dinner tonight so we can talk?"
Talk? Oh, boy. What were they gonna talk about? Talks never went good, especially with CIA agents that he had snapped at in the Wienerlicious. "Pizza?"
"Sounds good," and she turned and left, leaving him wondering how bad she was going to yell, or tell him he had hurt her feelings, but she wouldn't because she was Agent Sarah Walker and she buried her feelings. Right?
Carina came up behind Chuck as he was lost in his thoughts of Sarah, startling Chuck. "Sure you don't want to come back to my hotel room?"
He really needed to be careful here. She was a trained agent, she might hurt him, and there was no sense in being rude to her. "Um, as... as flattered and intimidated as I am by your proposition, why me?"
"Well, you're sort of cute-ish. But, um, the real reason is...I love taking what Sarah wants."
WHAT? She was messing him again. That was it. She was trying to drive a wedge again and he was NOT falling for that, because Sarah had made it very clear they couldn't do that because it would be dangerous, and foolish. "What? What? Me? No. Sarah... No, Sarah doesn't want me. She told me."
Carina smirked. "Yeah, she probably doesn't even know it herself yet... but, um, I do." She played with his shirt collar for a moment, enjoyment on her face from watching him. "What exactly did she say to you?"
"Carina," he began, but the look on her face told him he had no real choice. "She said it would be foolish for us to pursue anything because of our situation." He said it in a way that sounded like he had won the disagreement. So why was Carina grinning? Why did she look like she knew something he didn't?
She leaned forward and whispered into his ear. "I never heard the words she didn't like or want you." She kissed his cheek and walked away. "Be gentle with her, Chuckles," she called out as she walked away.
Chuck stood there, gobsmacked. He had no idea what to do.
"Hey, numbnuts! We're gonna be late for work!" Casey yelled. Go to work. That's what he had to do.
}o{
He took a deep breath as he knocked on her door. This was gonna be big. She opened the door with a genuine smile, as though she was happy to see him. For a split second, it was almost like she really was his girlfriend and God, he needed to not let his mind wander down that path. She was dressed casual; blue shirt, jeans, hair down, barefoot, and she looked amazing. But none of it compared to the smile that was not only on her face, but was in her eyes. She leaned against the door and tilted her head.
"Hey," he said softly. He put the bag of napkins and utensils on top of the table just inside her door, and opened the pizza box, revealing the pizza inside. "Vegetarian with no olives. It's the only thing I know about you that's true." She looked down at the pizza and when she looked up the smile on her face intensified. "You don't like olives."
He didn't quite understand why she was silent for so long, why her blue eyes stayed on his face. At least, he didn't understand at first. But then a thought struck him and if he was right, the spy world was an even worse place than he'd ever imagined. Had no one ever bothered to learn the least little thing about her? Had no one ever cared enough for Sarah Walker, or whatever other name she went by, to learn how she liked her pizza? It seemed such a trivial thing, but such an easy thing, too. All he'd had to do was pay attention to her in the smallest way during game night, and then again during the "double date". Chuck made a decision right then and there. Agent Sarah Walker deserved someone in her life who cared about her. He cared, and he was gonna show her what it felt like to be important to another person, to have someone genuinely care enough to pay attention to the small things. Maybe the spy world was a cold place, but his world wasn't, and in at least some ways, Agent Sarah Walker had been forced into his world.
When she spoke her voice was so warm that he double down on his decision. She needed someone who didn't cause her problems because she was protecting him every single day. She was watching over him, and she didn't need a love sick puppy following her around. But he could still care about her.
"Thank you." He heard the weight in those words as she said them. "Come in."
"Thank you," he said as he entered her apartment. "Look, I'm-I'm sorry about what I said to you in the Wienerlicious. It's none of my business. I got my feelings all out of whack over what Bryce has done to me, sending me this Intersect. I-I shouldn't let my feelings affect the mission. And, um... if you and Bryce— if you had a... thing, well, that makes sense. He always got the great girls." She looked down. Did he almost make her blush? "Listen, this whole thing, the secrets, Bryce sending me the Intersect, and then you and Casey showing up, one of you who used to have a ….whatever with Bryce, and the guy that killed him, it's...it's not my world. And I don't mean that to be an excuse, I just didn't handle it well. I didn't know what to do."
She was still quiet.
"It's hard, you know? You and Casey have files on me, you know things about me, and I only find out stuff when it slips in during a meeting, or when the intel is justified, and I get why, it's just...I just wish I knew something real about you. Not because it's my right, or I 'deserve to'," he said with finger quotes earning the slightest upturn of the corner of her lip. "But because I know things about my friends, and Sarah, I'm sorry, I'm terrible as a spy. In fact, we can both just easily admit I am not one."
"Am I?" she asked softly. "Your friend."
Good grief, when was the last time this woman had a legitimate friend? When was the last time she did something for herself, for fun? "Yes, Sarah. You are, and that's why I keep trying to find out things...well, not about Bryce, that just made me act like an ass." She grinned at that. "Can't you just tell me just one true thing? Just-Just one? Like-Like, where did you grow up?"
She reached out and took his hands. He figured it was to keep him from spiraling. "Chuck, it's not safe for you to know that. I know you could flash on it, at least I think you might be able to, but the more you know about me, the more danger you could be in."
Chuck nodded and blew out a breath. "Ok, and I get it, I get it— if that's too much, then I'm gonna assume asking about your name is out of the question. Like what's your real name?"
"It's been so long…" She looked away. "I have a legal identity, which is Sarah Walker. That's how the CIA pays me."
Chuck shook his head, an amused smile on his face. "Nicely played." She gave a slight head bow. "Okay, last thing I'm gonna ask. What's your middle name? Can't you just tell me your middle name?" She was quiet for a long enough time, just looking at him. He got the message. Chuck nodded, and pulled his hands out of hers. He stood. "I'm going to. . I'll go get the napkins."
Before he could move, she spoke in a whisper, looking down. "It's Lisa." She looked up at him. "My middle name is Lisa."
He grinned. "Yeah?" She nodded. "Okay, okay. I'm going to get the…" He stopped and came back. "Thank you. I'll take it to my grave."
She stared at him. "You better," she said softly but intensely. His eyes got wide and she burst out laughing. She fell over on the bed laughing.
Chuck turned and walked away. "I know your biggest secret. Agent Sarah Walker is a dork." She laughed even louder.
}o{
Most of the pizza was gone, the room silent as they sat cross-legged on the end of her bed. Well, she sat cross-legged on the end of her bed. Chuck's feet were planted firmly on the floor. She wondered idly if he'd even be able to fold his insanely long legs up like this without getting them all tangled up and falling off of the bed altogether. She let herself indulge on that image for a moment, only because she'd let herself indulge on other things tonight already. Like revealing...things to him that could potentially come back to haunt her.
Not that she thought Chuck knowing her middle name would cause her genuine harm. He meant it when he said he'd take it to his grave. She knew he meant it. And he'd keep his word. Chuck kept his word...unless someone asked him to stay in the car.
But the act of telling him, of giving him something like that, would he take it to mean something she didn't want him to think? She hoped not.
She didn't know how his brain worked yet. He was hard to pin down, the way he thought. His brain was complicated, complex, brilliant...and maybe that was why the Intersect had fit into it so well. Maybe that was why it was...working. Was it working? She still didn't entirely understand the physics of the Intersect...the biology of it. How did they get it in his head? How did flashing images trigger it? It was all well out of her range of expertise.
And somehow, they put every scrap of intelligence into the Intersect and that fit inside of that brain of his. One human brain with all of their secrets. In a sense, Bryce had made Chuck the one person in the world with the highest level of clearance, at least in so far as what he knew, what he had in his head, what he could access.
It blew her mind to think about. It was unfathomable. How could a human brain, as intricately complex as it was, manage to store this much information? There were people who couldn't pass a simple history exam, and here sat Chuck Bartowski beside her, sipping soda from a little plastic cup, staring at the TV screen with a little crooked smile on his face as he watched whatever it was she'd inadvertently put on and ended up muting anyway...Chuck Bartowski had intelligence Director Graham and General Beckman probably didn't even have. And they had clearance above even the president.
This was truly bizarre. She had a million questions, and she knew she could ask them one after the other, twenty-four seven, for the rest of her life, and still never get to all of them. So instead, she asked one she knew he could tell her, a question that had kept her up at night after Casey had revealed everything he knew about the Intersect to her and to Chuck.
"H-Hey, Chuck…?"
He turned from where he was staring at the TV. "Yeah?"
"What's it like?"
Chuck blinked at her and tilted his head in question. Then he nodded and swallowed hard. "Well, uh...I got picked on a lot as a kid, through middle, even into high school. Had my comic books thrown in a few toilets. But all in all, can't complain."
Sarah rolled her eyes at the cheeky smirk on his face, his teeth showing as it widened into a grin. He apparently thought he was funny, or cute, or both. And damn it, he wasn't wrong.
"Oh, you didn't mean what's it like being a nerd? Sorry. My bad."
"You're an idiot," she murmured, bumping him with her shoulder as he chuckled, unable to keep the mirth from her face. "I meant the Intersect. What does it...feel like? Do you...feel anything?"
"Do I feel any different than I did before?" He shrugged. "I mean, of course. It's crazy, you know? Because before, I felt...I dunno, my brain has always just worked...differently, anyway. I don't know how to explain it. But the way I think about things, the way stuff seems to just come to me. Like, uh, for instance...at-at Stanford, when I was in physics and we had to go solve an equation on the board or something, it seemed so easy." Chuck ducked his head and cleared his throat, looking a little embarrassed suddenly. "Sorry, I know I sound like I'm tooting my own horn. I'm not, seriously, it's just...the truth."
"No, I get it." She shook her head reassuringly. "You were one of those kids that didn't have to really study because you were a genius. A prodigy." She winked a bit and was pleased by the light blush on his cheeks.
"I wouldn't go that far, Sarah," he groused. "I'm no Mozart."
"You sure? You ever try to write a sonata?"
He laughed and she was even more pleased by that. "Stop," he chuckled. "I don't know how to explain it better than that. But...I think I was always kind of different anyway. But after the Intersect, things just seem...clearer, but murkier...all at the same time." He scoffed. "I know that makes absolutely no sense. But it's the only way I know how to describe what the Intersect is...doing."
"Clearer but murkier? Like...your vision?"
"No, not that exactly. I'm not sure it has affected my vision, like...radioactive spider bite status. Nothin' that crazy or comic book-y."
"I dunno, this seems pretty crazy and comic book-y." She raised an eyebrow.
"Uh. Good point. But it's more, um, more understanding than seeing. Seeing things for what they are. Getting down to the root of it. Not problem solving exactly. Not like solving an equation. It's more like I'm figuring things out faster, easier. Figuring...people out. Ideas." He seemed frustrated as he ran a hand through his curls, but she was too caught up in what he'd just said to notice.
Seeing things for what they are… Could he see her like that? Did he see her for what she really was? A cold-blooded killer? Did he see past the reassuring looks and kind words she gave him, where the lying, manipulative, hard-souled spy lurked?
"It's weird," he continued. "But it's almost like I can...see how things connect. Not to sound too Disney, but the circle of life. I feel the push and pull between ideas and people, sometimes without even realizing that's what's happening, I'm starting to think. Does that make sense? Like if real life were a word problem on a physics exam, I've got the formulas to figure it out right here. If I can just...find all the pieces." He tapped his temple and gave her a closed-mouth smile.
"I don't understand how it could even be remotely possible, but I do understand what you're saying. This is so crazy." She raised her eyebrows and looked away, uncurling her legs and dangling them over the edge of the bed, letting out a huff in disbelief.
"Oh, trust me. I know. I wake up some mornings and sort of...forget it's there for a hot second. And then I feel the heaviness of it. In there." He poked his forehead. "And I'm like, 'Oh, that's right, I'm fucked.'"
She couldn't help the quiet giggle at the way he'd almost chirped that last bit. And the way he smiled at her seemed almost unfair, as though he was proud of the reaction he'd gotten from her.
"Wait," she said, as something occurred to her. "Heaviness? Can you feel it in your head? Like...weight?"
"Sometimes. It feels...heavier after I've flashed. Like, um...have you ever had a really bad cold or something, and your sinuses feel like someone's pumped 'em full of liquid? Sorry, that's gross," he said when she made a face, "but that's the only way I can describe it. Like my head is just...super full and heavy."
"I see." She nodded, biting her lip. And then she asked the real question, the one she'd wanted to ask since the beginning, when he first did the flash thing in front of her and she knew that was what was happening. "Does it...hurt? When you flash?" She bit her tongue to keep from continuing, telling him she saw him wincing, his brow furrowed, almost like there was pain there. She didn't want to embarrass him really, or reveal how closely she watched him sometimes because she was concerned about his well-being. She'd already told him her middle name and he didn't need more reason to think...those things.
"Yes. Sometimes not as bad, sometimes...bad. It's...a lot, I think. You know? A lot of stress, maybe. It's more like...pressure." Then he sighed and shook his head. "Nah, that isn't even true all the time. Sometimes it just hurts. That morning after I first opened the email and had this shit pumped into my head, I felt like someone had sunk a cleaver right into my head like shhhink!" He mimicked it with his hand as the cleaver, thumping it against the center of his forehead.
"Jesus," she breathed, pushing her hands through her hair. She'd been afraid that might be the case. That on top of the emotional toll of lying to the people he loved, the mental strain of knowing he was in constant danger, he also had to deal with physical repercussions from Bryce's little gift. "Does it last long?"
"No, not at all," he said, shaking his head. "And I can usually sleep it off."
When he glanced over at her, she smiled a little and nodded. "What-What about when you flash?" He furrowed his brow at her. "What do you see? What do you feel?" She sniffed and shook her head. "Sorry, I know I'm prying, but it's all just so mind-boggling, and I always want to try to...understand stuff."
That made him smile, and she didn't know why. "Me, too. Casey's in for it, huh? Two curious minds he's having to contend with."
Sarah snorted. "Let's not tell him and let him figure it out on his own, instead."
Chuck laughed. "Agreed. ...When I flash, it's kind of like...um...I don't know how old you are, really, I assume around my age, give or take a few years…" She wasn't telling him that, and it didn't seem like he was prying for that information anyway, thankfully. "But do you remember how televisions used to just do the static thingy on the screen before you turned on Nintendo, or fixed the antenna?"
"Uh, not the Nintendo thing, but the antenna thing, sure. Static."
"Yeah! Well, it...it's like that, sandwiched by flashes of images I don't really understand, like of nature and random objects or places, then it stops on something from...uh, I assume files? Government files? I'll, um, give you an example. When I flashed on Carina, I saw a slew of nonsensical images flash, and then it stopped on Carina's dossier from the DEA. Then more images, then surveillance footage with her in it, et cetera." Chuck shrugged. "I-I don't know if I'm the one sticking it all together or if it's the Intersect. But there you are. And how it feels? Well, it makes the inside of my skull feel like someone's tickling it. And then there's almost, like, a zap or something here, between my eyes." He poked his finger there. "Like, you know when you hit your elbow on something in that one specific spot and the tingles shoot through your arm and it doesn't hurt exactly, but it's insanely uncomfortable?"
"Funny bone?" she asked.
"Yeah. That. But in my head." She must've made a face because he snorted and nodded, raising his eyebrows. "Yeah, it isn't pleasant exactly. I don't know. I guess then the images and static happens, and everything melds, and then I-I just...know stuff. Then the headache, depending on how intense the flash is."
Sarah was quiet for a few moments, finding herself wondering if he'd gotten a headache when he'd flashed on her. That made her feel uneasy. She didn't exactly know why. "I can't imagine it. Any of it."
"I wouldn't be able to, either, if it weren't literally happening to me." He sighed heavily and pushed his hands through his hair. "Did you really not get any kind of...er, briefing on this stuff from your boss? From the director, I mean?"
Sarah paused and nibbled on the inside of her cheek, not looking at him. "No. He just told me you had important intel in your head. I knew it was some sort of...strange...program you'd somehow downloaded into your brain, but most of what Casey told me? I never got any of that information."
"Why did he get it and you didn't? That seems...stupid."
She raised an eyebrow at him in question.
"I-I mean, stupid of him. Of Graham. Of whoever it was who made the decision not to tell you what you were dealing with when you came here. It's honestly impressive you were able to do everything you've done so far with such a small amount of information." He shook his head. "I see why this is all so important, why I'm important now—or I guess why the stuff in my head is so important…" She refrained from speaking up and telling him he was more than just the stuff in his brain, because he didn't seem like he was in a place where he might receive that the right way. "And it makes sense that they sent you over everyone else in the CIA. You are pretty amazing at this."
Sarah smiled a little down at her lap, but her chest was aching. She was one of the best, she knew. And she also knew he meant the compliment sincerely. But the problem was that being an amazing CIA agent meant leaving a long trail of blood behind you—at least, it did for her. And no matter what she did, she wouldn't be able to wash her hands clean of any of it. Chuck couldn't understand that. To him, she was the agent keeping him safe, keeping his family safe.
"Thanks, Chuck. I take my job seriously."
"Yeah, you do." He shrugged. "But not Casey levels of serious and I appreciate that about you too."
That made her laugh when she hadn't really been in much of a laughing mood. And that was something Chuck was amazing at.
"Hey, I-I'm sorry if I'm still making your job hard. That thing yesterday with losing the diamond to Carina. Letting her manipulate me. Even if I didn't fall for it on the beach, I shouldn't have let my guard down."
"You got it back, Chuck. You singlehandedly got her to bring it back." He made a face at that. "What?" she asked dubiously.
"She actually slipped it into Morgan's bag when he met her at her hotel. I found it in his bag back home when I was looking for a game we were going to play to cheer him up since she...well, I'm gonna say dumped him, but there wasn't anything to begin with so technically…" He winced.
Sarah sighed and dropped her head in her hands. "Oh my God. I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have let her mess with him like that. Is he okay?"
He chuckled and shook his head. "He'll be all right. I've got him on a steady diet of video games and grape soda." She made a grossed out face. "I know. I know, but it works." He shrugged.
Snorting softly, she shook her head. "I can't believe you got her to come back."
"I can." He shrugged. "It really wasn't that hard. She wanted to, deep down. I could tell. I don't know what the dynamic is in your relationship with her, because it's super confusing if I'm being honest, but I do know that she cares. Sincerely. About you."
She couldn't help but smile slowly at him. The fact that he noticed Carina cared, the fact that he was able to use that to get the wily DEA agent to help him rescue her from Peyman Alahi's machinations, meant that he cared. And she'd already known that. There was a whole flurry of feelings she had about that, both negative and positive. But at the moment, it felt...nice.
"I know she does. And I couldn't explain our relationship if I tried, so…"
"Don't try." He chuckled, holding his hands up. "But uh...I should probably head home, huh? We've both got early shifts."
Sarah nodded. "Yeah. Thank you for the pizza. And...um, for being honest. About all the things I asked." And for the apology, the sincere and honest way he explained his actions, everything he said about Bryce and about her. And for calling her his friend. It was such a silly little thing, stupidly sappy, and yet it meant more than she was willing to admit.
So instead, she walked him to the door of her room.
He'd snagged all of the trash along the way, and he spun with the pizza box and plates, cups, bottle, facing her with a serious look on his face. "I'll see ya tomorrow?"
"Count on it."
"Cooool," he drawled, backing down the hallway and grinning. As he spun on his heel again and walked to the elevator, she watched him closely, the smile on her face dimming.
She silently cursed herself for wanting to go with him.
}o{
"Things good with Sarah again?"
"Jesus Chr—Oh my God, Morgan."
He hadn't expected his best friend to be sitting in the dark in his room when he got home around eleven thirty, having stayed with Sarah a lot longer than he'd thought he would. It had just been too nice for him to want to leave, and she hadn't seemed to want him to go at any point, either.
Morgan looked like Chernabog from Disney's Fantasia when the sun starts to rise as Chuck turned the bedside lamp on. "Sorry, dude. I just...I'm feelin' punk. Thought I'd stick around here and wait for ya to come back instead of going home. Too many memories of Carina there."
Chuck frowned. "Did she go to your house?"
"No, dude. Of course not. But that's where I put her number that she scrawled in that neat, cursive handwriting…'Carina' written above it…" He waved his hand through the air and sighed dreamily. "It's by my bed. And it's just...so hard to look at now."
"You could just...throw it away."
"What?! Throw it away? And erase the memory of the only stupidly hot woman who ever showed an ounce of interest towards me? God, Chuck. You are operating on next level privilege now that you've got a hot girlfriend. Think a guy's just gonna throw away the phone number of a girl like that. Pfft." He shook his head.
"Uhhhhh...okay. Well, you can leave then. That's fine. I mean, honestly, dude, I'm really beat."
He regretted saying that the second Morgan got a certain look on his face. "Beat, huh? Tired? Did you and Sarah...make up?"
"Get that out of your head immediately before I freaking smack you. I'm not talking to you about any part of...that side of my relationship, whether it's happening or not. It's just been a really long day, okay?"
"Oh. Well, you never answered my question. I've been so focused on this Carina stuff, but I heard through the grapevine that you and Sarah had a fight."
Chuck rolled his eyes and plopped down on his bed, taking his shoes off. "Did that grapevine happen to have a Nerd Herd shirt on and has been trying to grow a mustache since he was fourteen years old?"
"His name starts with an L and ends with an -ester? Yep."
"Damn it." Chuck laid back against his pillows and groaned. "It wasn't a fight. He's exaggerating. I slipped up, she was kind of upset about it, I apologized, and now we're totally fine. It was a non-issue."
It wasn't really a non-issue, but Sarah seemed okay tonight. She asked him about the Intersect, about his flashes, and she'd listened more intently than anyone had ever listened to him before, about anything. Though, she really was excellent at listening. She made him feel comfortable with being candid, like he could tell her his feelings about the missions or other things bothering him and she wouldn't scream and run, or judge him.
And in spite of knowing the truth now about her prior relationship with Bryce, as much as that made his chest ache, as much as it made him feel crazy and even a little jealous—or more than a little jealous—none of the negative emotions that came with the revelation were directed at her. And he thought he'd done an all right job at convincing her of that much. At least.
"Well, that's good, man. At least one of us isn't a total loser." Morgan stopped and turned to face him better where he sat on his chair. "That's you. You're the one who isn't a total loser. In case I wasn't clear."
"I got ya buddy." He chuckled. "You aren't either. There are plenty of fish in the sea, buddy. Right? You'll find someone else who appreciates you enough to stick around."
"Will I, Chuck? Will I? What if that leggy redhead bombshell took my heart with her? I'll never find anyone like her again."
"Maybe you don't want to," Chuck muttered under his breath.
"Huh?"
"I, uh, I said...Maybe we can watch Xanadu."
"Oh. Dude. Random. But sure, if you want. I just don't wanna go home, ya know?"
Chuck was tired, but he didn't feel so bad at the moment. He knew Agent Walker's middle name. Lisa… Lisa. His insides felt warm. She'd told him something, and maybe it wasn't a lot. But he didn't need a lot. He didn't need everything. And he wouldn't ask for more than she was comfortable giving him, because he was afraid she'd pull away for good if he did. But things had felt comfortable tonight, their meal eaten in companionable quiet, with a few spells of chatter about the mission, what would happen to Alahi and his diamond, et cetera.
He felt pretty good.
So he turned on Xanadu and let Morgan drape himself over the other side of his bed, and he fell asleep feeling like maybe this whole thing wasn't as bad as it could've been.
A/N: DC here: CANON JUST CHANGED! (High fives SC)
I accept this high five. Please review! Thanks, friends! - SC