A/N: ISH…..I apologize for nothing, although this may be where SC really starts to regret this team-up.
Disclaimer: We don't own CHUCK or its characters. We aren't making any money.
Chuck watched Devon through the hospital room window as he sat with Ellie who lay in the hospital bed. They were so good together, he thought. Great even. They didn't deserve this. They deserved little Ellies and Awesomes running around. He was going to fix this. He was going to save his sister and give them both the life they deserved. He had no idea how, but he was going to make it happen.
"Pulled the video surveillance," Chuck heard Casey say behind him. "Man posing as an officer exposed your sister to the poison."
"Why would anyone want to hurt Ellie?" he asked, still watching Devon and Ellie and seeing the little Awesomes disappear in front of his eyes. "She doesn't know anything about nuclear codes. She doesn't even want us to own a microwave." He was becoming more frustrated by the minute.
"That's good news. Means the person who poisoned her is still out there looking for the intel chip," Casey tried to reason with Chuck.
"No, no, no, no," he said spinning around. He was getting mad. That was his SISTER. He had lost his mom and dad. He had lost Stanford, and Jill had cheated on him, and two people had been there for him through everything, Ellie and Morgan. Ellie who had helped him in every way possible over the years. Ellie who was the definition of family. "There is no good news. Okay, you just told me that my sister was poisoned by the same stuff as a dead guy."
"Chuck, our medical teams are trying to identify the poisoning agent to create an antidote for Ellie," Sarah said, stepping in front of Casey. God bless her, he knew what she was doing. She was trying to calm him, again. This was his worst fear last night, and now it was coming true.
"There's no time!" he yelled. Not at her. Just in general. He didn't want to yell at her, but right now he was losing control of his emotions, his life… "If it's the same poison as the dead guy, that means Ellie's only got a few hours left." He saw her eyes slip over and look at Ellie. He knew she was on his side but she wasn't the final say. He'd need both of them on the same page to get Beckman and Graham to agree, and if they didn't… "Look, this is easy. All we've got to do is find the codes, and we get get the bad guy to trade us for the antidote. Okay? We do this kind of thing in our sleep."
"Even if we knew where the codes were, that's not a practical plan. Can't risk the bad guy endangering millions of lives for the one," Casey said.
Chuck stared at him. "Okay, Spock, I get it, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or the one." Casey and Sarah both gave him a look. "This is my sister we're talking about, all right? We can't just sit around and watch her die. The needs of the one outweigh the needs of the many."
"Is he talking nerd?" Casey asked Sarah, not quietly, right where Chuck could hear him. Sarah glared at Casey. He turned away from them to look back to his sister. He was gonna save her with or without them.
"Okay, the only clue we have so far is the bug that we found on Ellie," Sarah said, trying to be the voice of reason, holding out the box in front of her. Bless her, she was trying to find a compromise. Chuck looked at it.
"Soundproof box," Casey said. "Don't want the bad guy knowing we're onto him." Sarah was watching Casey, holding out the box, not paying attention. Was she giving him an opportunity? If she was… "We've got a team working on reversing the tracking signal."
Chuck lunged to grab the box from Sarah's limp grip and moved out of their reach.
"Hey, what are you doing?" Casey yelled trying to grab him. "No!"
Chuck stopped and lifted the lid, making both of them stop. His eyes locked with Sarah. She had let him grab that box. He could see it in her eyes. "Found the codes," he said, meeting Casey's glare with a look of certainty. "Can't believe where Mason Whitney hid them. I'm going to keep them on the lady doctor until we can move them safely." He carefully put the lid on the box right as Casey yanked it out of his hand.
"Now the bad guy's going to come to us. Not bad, Bartowski," Casey growled. Chuck lifted his eyebrows confidently. He and Sarah locked eyes. She had done it on purpose. "Do that ever again and I'll kill you."
}o{
He sat at Ellie's bedside. Devon told him it wasn't looking good and that Chuck might want to spend a little time with her, and then he walked away, tears in his eyes. Chuck took his place next to her and tried not to have negative thoughts. She was going to be okay. He was making sure. And the best intelligence agents in the world were helping him. Right?
"I'm going to fix this, Ellie, I swear. Look, I know that you think I'm just Chuck, your screw-up little brother. But there's a lot about me you don't know." The monitor beeped. "See, I'm, I'm... I'm also Chuck, the guy with all these...important government secrets in my brain. I can make this better. I will make this better." The beep came again and Chuck checked it. He was getting worried. Hell, he was past worried. He was beginning to think he was going to lose her. "Ellie, everything is so different now. I used to be able to come you, and ask your advice about anything. And now, my whole life is, like, a lie." The monitor beeped again and he let out a huff of emotion.
Devon walked in. "Went downstairs to get Ellie's sweater from her locker," Devon said somberly.
"Her lucky sweater. She could use it. Thanks, Devon." Devon squeezed his shoulder and left. Chuck laid it over her and as he did he felt his fingers skim over something hard in one of its pockets. He pulled it out and saw it was a necklace of some sort. As he turned it over, he noticed a chip. The flash was sudden, the images racing through his mind, and stopping on "Sanctuary". He shook himself once it was over, jumped to his feet, and hurried to find Casey and Sarah.
Chuck raced through the hospital towards the room where Casey and Sarah were supposedly setting up their trap, bursting into the room. "I found them! I found them!" Chuck yelled, not able to stop himself from crashing into a cart. "I found them. I got the codes. The codes are on the necklace." What was that weird odor? Why did he feel weird? Why was Sarah's gun in her hand?
"The vial," he heard a strange voice say in a hushed serious tone. Oh, shit. What had he done? The little guy he hadn't noticed until right then grabbed the necklace from Chuck and took off. Was that the poison? Were all of them poisoned?
Casey and Sarah rushed after the guy and he followed behind. They raced through the corridors after him and Chuck skidded to a halt as he saw Casey grab a crutch from a patient and throw it through the air like it was a javelin, hitting the guy in the back, making the antidote fly out of his hand.
They were screwed.
But then Sarah dove like the badass warrior she was and saved the antidote from crashing to the floor. The dude ran and Casey started to go after him.
"Wait!" Sarah yelled. "Casey, wait. What about Chuck?"
Casey pulled up short and spun to face them both.
"Here," Sarah said, thrusting the vial toward Chuck.
"No, no, it's for Ellie."
"I'm sorry. There's no debate. It has to be you. You're the intersect," Sarah said.
"I won't take it knowing that Ellie will die without it, that both of you have been poisoned, too," Chuck retorted.
"You're a good person, Chuck, and I respect that, but I got a job to do. So take it before I shove it down your throat," Casey said.
"Thank you, Casey," Chuck said sincerely.
"It's the truth."
"Okay, okay, fine. I'll do it," Chuck relented, taking it from Sarah.
"Thank you," Sarah said. Chuck saw relief on her face.
"I'll pretend to agree to take it, then I'll run like hell to my sister's room and make her take it. Why did I just say that out loud?"
"It's the poison," Sarah replied like she was discussing the weather. "It makes you tell the truth."
"You do that, I'll give chase, put a gun to your head, and threaten to pull the trigger if you don't take it," Casey said, pointing the gun at Chuck.
"Would you really shoot me?" Chuck asked.
"No," Casey admitted.
"Yeah, don't waste the bullet. We're already dead. I'm saving my sister." Chuck turn and ran to his sister's room, never looking back. He crashed into her room and slid to a halt at her bedside, not even thinking twice about what he was doing. This wasn't her fault. She wasn't a part of this. She needed this more than anyone else did.
As he administered the drug, he looked up and saw Casey and Sarah in the window. He was assailed with guilt as he gazed at them. He didn't want them to die, but Ellie deserved to have a good life, a long life, with lots of little Ellies and Awesomes.
Maybe they'd name one Chuck.
}o{
Sarah watched him in the room with Devon and Ellie. He'd asked a question that night, and for some reason she was stuck on it. He'd asked her what constituted flirty curls and she'd thought about his. She stared at his unkempt, apparently flirty curls as he stared down at the sister whose life he was currently saving, and she had one regret that popped into her mind, randomly, out of the blue; for all the flirting they'd done, the cover dates, the fake sleepovers, she'd never known what it felt like to have her fingers in them. She regretted that. She regretted that she wouldn't know what it was like to be with a man physically and have that there for her to grip onto—she inwardly shook herself and realized the poison was starting to get a hold of her. She needed to fight it, lest any of these thoughts made their way out into the open. And maybe she should be ashamed of her mind going there, unchecked, but what did anybody else know about it if she didn't say it out loud?
Anyway, none of that mattered. They were going to die.
But she didn't really believe that, did she? If she did believe it, these last hours of her life would probably be when she'd stop resisting the truth part of this poison currently slithering through her system, slowly shutting it down. And maybe Chuck would know that she repressed most of what she felt when he was around, when he smiled at her or laughed at something she said. But she wouldn't say anything, she'd keep resisting, she'd keep the truth inside as best she could. Because something had to work. Eventually. They'd figure this out.
And maybe if they didn't...maybe she'd spent her last moments wrapping her arms around him and letting herself finally discover what it felt like to be held by him, no covers or pretending. Maybe she could let herself do that.
She turned away from the sight and dejectedly slid down against the wall to sit beside Casey.
"You should tell him." Sarah turned to look at Casey, confused. He was playing with a wheelchair wheel, seemingly in a far off place. "He deserves to know."
She felt the pull of the serum, working at her tongue, her chest full of a sensation she'd tried really hard to repress for two months now. She held back but couldn't resist giving Casey a long look. He knew, didn't he? He didn't have a full grasp of it, though. Nobody did. She didn't think she even did. He just knew there was something. He knew she was compromised. And he'd just stood there letting it continue, not dragging her for filth to their superiors.
"He's a good kid," Casey said shrugging. "It's all pretty tough."
"Is it possible we're both...sort of compromised?" Sarah asked quietly, shaking her head. She cleared her throat then, looking down at her lap when he made a soft snorting sound that confirmed it. "We don't have a lot of time, you know. Any ideas?"
"Nope," Casey said, spinning the wheel. "Just praying the scientists figure out a cure."
"Do you think they will?" Sarah asked.
"Nope, and that's why you should tell him," Casey replied. She really wished he'd stop that.
That was when Chuck left the room to give Devon and Ellie some time alone, quietly shutting the door behind him. He went around the corner and slid down the wall to sit like them, their shoulders just barely touching, she noticed acutely. She didn't move an inch She reached over and took his left hand in hers. This much, she'd allow herself to do. They were maybe, probably—hell, most likely—going to die.
She heard him speak, his voice sounding...weird. "You know, if I had a blog this would be a really big day for me. Do my laundry? Check. Save my sister's life? Check. Save my own life? Final entry."
She turned to send a longing glance at him around the corner, taking in his peripheral. "I am so sorry about all of this," she said, because she was. That was the honest to God truth and she wanted to let that one out. "You deserve better."
"That's okay," he breathed, utmost understanding in his breathy voice. "That's okay. It's not ideal, but I've lived a pretty good life, you know? I mean, how many guys can say they've landed a helicopter and saved the lives of innocent people?" Chuck asked.
"Courageous and honorable members of the United States Military," she heard Casey say. She noticed their fingers idly playing with each other as they held hands. Neither looking, neither mentioning it. It was the perfect symbolism for them. Together, but they couldn't acknowledge it.
"And hey, and the silver lining is now I don't have to work out my five-year plan again. Streamlined that down to about five hours." She couldn't let him go down like this. Hadn't she made an oath? Not just to him, but to herself as well? There had to be something...
What was he staring at? Did she have something in her nose? He ran past her and picked something up off the floor. He stared at it, and then she saw his eyelids flutter, his jaw fall open… He'd flashed. She was on her feet immediately, a hand on his shoulder, ready to hold him up if he needed her to. To the end, she supposed. She'd be next to him to the end. ...And that wasn't so bad, was it? She'd always thought she'd have a lot worse.
"Bad guy's name is Riordan Payne. Used to be an Olympic gymnast, blew out his knee. Now he sells hard-to-find items, like nuclear codes, to hard-to-find people. Lots of people want to spend lots of cash on these codes, but they're not going to get the chance."
"Oh... Why not?" Casey asked, frowning.
"Because this thing's going to lead us right to him," Chuck said, confidence spilling through him in a way that made her decide to take a step back. Just in case her brain connected with her mouth in a way that might overpower her resistance.
He took off and she ran after him. They got inside of the Nerd Herder and Chuck immediately took her hand again. She let it happen, and she didn't pull away, either. She just kept them clasped together down by the gear shift. She thought Casey was probably too distracted by the poison coursing through him, the truths sprinting around in his head, to even notice. He was talking to his gun about all the regrets he had of not shooting people.
"We're gonna be okay," Chuck said to her and when she looked at him, he was looking away, out the window.
"How can you know that?" she asked, allowing herself one moment of candidness.
"Because I've got you," he said. "And Casey," he added. The unending confidence he had in her, and in Casey, perhaps the both of them together, seemed almost unfair in that moment. When she was trying so hard to resist all of the urges the poison was doing its best to bring out of her.
Luckily they pulled up to their destination before she could thinking too hard about those urges. They got out and ran up to the door. As she took her lock pick out, she saw Casey preparing to do the same.
"I got it. I got it!" Casey yelled.
"I got it," Sarah insisted, almost offended he would even try.
"Well, who's better at it?" Chuck asked, apparently a pragmatist when he was under the influence of truth serum.
"I am," she found herself saying, raising her hand with a proud tone in her voice. She felt Chuck's eyes on her.
"She is," Casey admitted. He looked pissed then. "Damn truth serum."
She squatted down and picked the door within seconds. They ran up to the elevator banks and she pressed the button to call the elevator. She was going through scenarios in her mind, what they'd do when they caught Riordan. What if he didn't have an antidote? What if they were too late?
"God, you're so pretty."
She spun to look up at him, eyes wide. The way he'd said it, like her beauty flat-out took his breath away, as if he was trying to hold it inside this whole time and it just exploded out of his mouth, his efforts in vain. She just gaped at him.
Her inner Sarah just fainted and swooned. She had been called so many things when she was hit on by men. She had so many what guys considered compliments but weren't. But here, in what could be his last hours was Chuck Bartowski, being Chuck Bartowski just saying the things that ran through his head. And how often did it have to run through his head for him to say it here? How often had he thought it?
She turned away and felt the smile spreading on her face. She tried to bite the inside of her cheek to keep it at bay, at least a little.
And then, in true Chuck fashion, she heard the next words come out of his mouth. "Casey, your jaw was chiseled by Michelangelo himself." Truth serum Chuck was really out-Chucking usual Chuck, and for a moment, she let herself bask in just how pure it was. In how she wanted to be around it all the time. She let herself have that true thought.
"Thank you," Casey replied.
"Oh, you're welcome," Chuck muttered.
They got to Payne's apartment and Sarah knocked on the door. "Yes? Who is it?" They heard him ask.
"The NSA, CIA and me," Chuck shouted out, "who's a little tougher to explain, but…"
Casey had enough, spun out, pulling his gun making her and Chuck take cover. Casey shot the door and gave them both a look. "We all have our skill sets," he said with a shrug. He then kicked the door open and they all barged in.
"Freeze," Sarah said, feeling herself get control of her thoughts fully now. Perhaps it was something about being in the thick of danger that really settled her. "My partner would rather shoot you in the face than let you get away."
"You called me your partner?" she heard Casey ask. She turned to him and smiled. He was. They all were partners, technically, weren't they? This was where she belonged. The irony of it all slammed into her. Her last mission and she had found her tribe. Her group. Her family. She was where she belonged and even her inner voice who said she didn't deserve anyone, ever, couldn't say anything to that.
"Where are the codes, you son of a bitch?" Casey growled pulling her out of her thoughts.
"Where's the antidote?" she asked, torn. She wanted to live, but this truthfulness…
"Actually, I was just about to enjoy a little antidote myself," Payne said. "What kind of host would I be if I didn't offer you some as well?"
Casey clicked the gun chamber. "Careful there. Haven't killed anyone in a while. Getting a little hungry."
Riordan slowly came forward and handed a vial of antidote to each one of them.
They started to take it, when Chuck's voice cut in. "No, no, no! Wait, wait, wait! Don't."
"Did you," Sarah began, but checked herself before asked if he had a flash. "...remember something from the file?"
He glanced at her; he caught it. "No." he replied. "No. I've just read tons of comic books. And the villain always samples it first."
Casey grinned evilly and handed his to Payne. "Good one, Chuck."
"All right," Payne said softly. He grabbed Casey's arm, yanked on it and leapt away from them, doing a few of those tumbles or whatever they called it in gymnastics.
Sarah watched him with an annoyed look on her face. This guy poisoned Chuck's sister. He poisoned Chuck. He had poisoned her partner. And he had poisoned one of the best assassins and marksmen...was that markswomen? She didn't know...on the planet. All she knew is she was tired of all the damn flipping and hopping. She waited for him to land and pulled the trigger, kneecapping him and ending this insanity.
"Very unsportsmanlike," Casey said. Sarah grinned with pride. "I like it." Casey walked over and he and Sarah worked to apprehend the gymnast. When they finished, Casey walked back to the desk, grabbed one of the poisons, and started toward Payne, when he stopped in front of Chuck instead. "You wanna do the honors? Seems like this guy has put you through the most hell."
Chuck stood there considering it, and then he shook his head. "I'm sorry. I can't." He took a deep breath. "I mean I know, he's gonna tell us where the antidote is, but I can't."
Casey nodded. "Probably best, kid." And then Casey grinned. "Aw, who are we kidding? I wanted to do this and I'm gonna enjoy it." Casey force fed the poison to Payne. Sarah watched Chuck, fighting everything in her. This was her last chance. But there would be another mission, another awkward night, because no one was gonna believe that the two of them had made love when so much had happened tonight. So telling him how she felt, showing him...that would be the worst, for everyone. He deserved better. He really did. She wished she was better.
"The antidote's in the cabinet, bottom right shelf." Payne said, beginning to sing like a canary. "Key is in my pocket. Codes are in my right shoe." Sarah went to get the antidote. She grabbed one for her and Chuck. She needed him to be okay. She gave him his and then brought hers up to her lips.
"No, wait, wait, wait. Wait, wait. Not yet. Not yet," he said.
Inside she was terrified. What was he going to do? "Why? What's the matter?"
"Nothing. It's just that this... This will probably be the last chance that I have to know the truth. I know you're... You're just doing your job here, but sometimes it feels so real, you know? So, tell me. You and me. Us. No one else has to know." He paused. Oh God, he was going to ask if they were real. What was she supposed to do? She could resist. She'd been resisting this whole time. If she chose not to resist, though...well, there was no way she could deny it. Would it bring out feelings that were even deeper than she knew? Would it work like that? Would she be just as surprised as him? It was going to be so bad, but a part of her, a small part of her sang out, with hope. Maybe if he asked, if she answered...really answered...
"Sarah, do you really like Michael Bolton?"
She just stared at him, her eyes searching his face. He could've asked and they both knew it. But he wasn't going to, because she had told him. She had told him that them doing anything would be foolish, and in this moment, she could answer every question he ever had about them. For all he knew, she had no resistance to this stuff. He could know anything he wanted. And he'd instead asked about Michael Bolton. God, was he real? How could he be?
"Well?" he asked, a grin on his face. "Do you?"
"No, Chuck," she replied easily, not really sure if she could, or should, say anything else. "I don't."
"Oh, come on!" he said, a smile on his face. Not any smile, her smile. "It's the hair, isn't it.? It's his hair."
"Take your antidote, Chuck," she said, her eyes dancing.
He winked at her, and took it. She took hers and then wrapped her fingers around his wrist. "Thank you," she said softly.
"What, again with the altruistic thing? Sarah, I saved my own skin."
She grinned and nodded. "Right," she said. His smirk told her all she needed to know. She went off to help Casey, but couldn't help hip bumping him as she walked by.
}o{
"We've received the codes and now our weapons sites are more secure than ever. Congratulations on a job well done," Beckman said. Again, she'd called them on the screen in the home theater room sans Director Graham.
The door opened behind them and Sarah found herself pulling a gun on Harry Tang. "Major Casey! Who's infiltrated the home theater room?" Beckman asked, Tang out of her sight.
"I... I... I see nothing out of the ordinary here," Harry said. Sarah noticed a small wet spot on the front of Harry's khakis. "Carry on, Bartowski," and he started to turn.
She thought about all the rules and how much of a hellscape Harry had made Chuck and Morgan's lives at the Buy More while he was assistant manager. "Stay right where you are."
Chuck's eyes went wide. She smirked inside. The Enforcer voice had that effect on people. "Wait, wait, wait. Wait, wait, wait, wait. What are you going to do with him?"
"We'll take care of it," Casey said, and took Harry outside.
"Sarah!" Chuck said.
Sarah gave him an amused smile as she holstered her weapon. "Come on, Chuck. We're just gonna get rid of him. We'll relocate him and he won't bother you and Morgan anymore."
"Do you have this in hand, Agent Walker?" Beckman asked. Sarah nodded. "Good, get some rest, you deserve it." She clicked off.
"Hey, I know we still have cover work to do, but can we talk about that later?" Chuck asked. Sarah nodded. "'Kay. I'm bushed. Thanks."
"For what?"
"For making it so easy for me to take that box from you at the hospital," he replied.
She grinned at him and shrugged. "What can I say? I'm not perfect, and you got one over on me."
He just looked at her for a moment, meeting her grin with a serious look. Her grin dimmed a bit, unsure. And then he closed the distance between them, standing close, and leaned down so that he was even closer. "Agent Walker, you aren't the type to let anyone get one over on you." He stooped a bit to kiss her on the forehead and left the room. Sarah found herself standing there for a while, not moving, not quite knowing what had just happened.
}o{
She was was refilling the condiments in the Wienerlicious the next morning when Chuck surprised her by showing up. She'd been stuck in her head, trying to figure out the next step with the cover situation, considering how badly Plan A had gone. And for once, she was glad Chuck wasn't at the Buy More today and she didn't have to worry about him waltzing in. She needed time to put something together and he had a habit of being a distraction. She would welcome it if she was just doing menial work at the Wienerlicious, but this time, she had a lot to work out. So it was with surprise and a tinge of frustration that she looked up to see him holding the door for patrons who were leaving before he strolled in with that smile on his face.
"Oh, hey!" She smiled back, shoving the frustration away. Bring on the distraction, she supposed. "I...didn't know you were coming by. Aren't you off today?"
But Chuck looked troubled.
"Um, Sarah, you know when you think you're going to die, and your whole life is supposed to flash in front of you?" he asked with absolutely no hello or even a slight preamble. "That didn't exactly happen to me yesterday. In fact, mostly it was just a list...that I saw. A list of stuff that I haven't done and things that I haven't had a chance to say." Oh, crap. "So today…" Chuck licked his lips. "Today, I want to start crossing things off of my list. And this is the first thing that I promised myself that I'd do." He wouldn't. He wasn't really going to lean in and kiss her. He couldn't. She didn't know what she'd do if he did. Would she stop him? She had to, didn't she? Crap. "Sarah, what we're doing is crazy."
She blinked, her eyes widening slowly.
"What new couple would have their first night together at his sister's apartment?" What? What the actual what? "I mean we could hear them talking the other night, right? Which means if there was something...happening in my room, they'd hear that. Which is so embarrassing, right?" She just stared. What was he doing? "I know how we fix this. Our Plan B, so to speak." She winced at that but he mercifully didn't see, as caught up in his own head as he was. "I will spend the night at your place. A whole thing with me and Ellie and Awesome, so they know I'm going. Not like...like a big thing. A regular sized thing, 'cause I'm me. And I ask Awesome for a couple of pointers, I mean, not...not that. Maybe not that. And technically I don't even have to ask because he's most likely just gonna offer 'em because that's what he does." He rolled his eyes. "And then we," he said signaling back and forth, "you and I meet here and...well? Do whatever the hell we want."
She got a hold of her senses and ducked her head for a moment. She needed to stop letting him catch her off-guard like this. It was getting out of hand. And then she looked right up into his eyes. "Does that include a rematch?" she asked, a smile curling on her lips.
"God, woman, you are such a demanding girlfriend," he quipped. She smirked at him, giving him a teasing warning look. "And we NEVER do anything like that again, putting on that kind of show at the apartment, because...that was nuts."
"It was," she replied. "But hey, we got through it."
"We did, and we can get through anything, right?" the question hung there. Oh, that cheeky jerk. She knew what he was doing. He couldn't ask the question he wanted the other night when she was affected by the poison, but now, when she had her full arsenal, so to speak, he was going to ask.
"Yes," she said softly. "We can get through anything. Now, you have to do something for me." He raised his eyebrows. "I need you to come with me." She turned away. "SCOOTER!" she yelled. "I'm going on lunch!"
"Miss Walker," he said, coming out of the back. He started to say something else, saw her eyes and reconsidered. "Enjoy."
Her phone rang and she looked at it. "Hey, I need a second. Wait here?" He nodded. She walked outside and took the call. "Yeah?" she answered. She looked in the window seeing Chuck talking to Scooter.
"I meant to ask you somethin'," Casey began. "I don't want to, but it matters, so I will. After I cut the feed, there wasn't a lot of time, so I'm assuming nothing happened."
She shut her eyes and sighed. She got why he had to ask, but she hated it still.
"It didn't."
"Good," Casey said.
"Casey, I thought…" She trailed off.
"I mean you'd be pissed as hell if he had that short of a fuse," Casey retorted. Sarah twisted her lips in amusement trying not to laugh. "Seriously, I need to know if anything happened while we were under the influence of that poison. Anything you had to say to him that...I should know about, just so I know how to handle it. Just in case."
"I'm no more compromised than you," Sarah replied, biting her lip and crossing her arms, inching to the side a bit so she was out of Chuck's sight.
"Well, we're all fucked," Casey stated. She snorted quietly. "And Tang's been successfully relocated, so that's done."
"Good. I'm taking Chuck to my apartment tonight," she said, hating how it sounded, knowing the situation and the implications of all of it, the heavy layers stacked one on top of the other. "So that should be the end of that."
"Go easy on him," Casey said. Not in the mood for that crap, she began a retort when he continued. "If you beat him at video games he'll sulk for a week."
She let out a huff of amusement and just hung up, glad Casey wasn't the type of person who needed a fancy farewell at the end of a phone conversation. She then walked back in and caught Chuck's eye, gesturing with a flick of her head for him to leave with her.
When he joined her outside, she led him towards Lou's.
"What are we doing?" Chuck asked, his step halting a bit. She grabbed his wrist and pulled him up next to her, forcing him to keep walking with her.
"I believe you said at the apartment, and I quote, the idea of sitting down and eating a sandwich with a nice, pretty girl seems like heaven, end quote." He grinned at that. "Now I already know you think I'm pretty, and I have it on good authority that you even sometimes think I'm nice. Soooo, I thought you could enjoy a slice of heaven."
"Sarah," he began, and paused, shaking his head. He chewed a bit on the inside of his cheek thoughtfully, then looked down at her. "Thank you."
"I know you had some corny line about me and heaven," she said as they walked into the door.
"I was just going to tell you Heaven wasn't by Michael Bolton it was by Bryan Adams," Chuck said, holding the door for her.
"I told you I don't like Michael Bolton," she said, giving him a look and then waving at Lou who caught her eye from behind the counter.
He leaned down with his face close to hers and narrowed his eyes. "I still don't believe you," he said. She shivered at the feeling of his breath fanning the hair at her temple, but he was already standing at his full height and striding towards the line.
}o{
"Hey…." her voice died as she opened her door. Chuck was in full black tie, the suit and the crisp ironed shirt beneath it, his hair...well, he attempted to do something with it. Why? First of all. And secondly, she was hit anew by how surprisingly good he looked all done up. But still...why? "What…is this? What have you done?"
He snorted at that and tilted his head. "Well, I've been sort of working on the cover in my head since I last saw you. And what with the whole tango thing, Cover Sarah is a pretty classy gal. I mean, not that you're not. But you get it." She just furrowed her brow, not knowing what he was getting at. "And if I'm gonna make up for my sister ruining the whole plan the other night, I'd better show you a super classy night out on the town, pull out all the stops." He tugged at his tie adorably and grinned. "This is a stop."
"I'm kind of impressed."
"With my cover building, or with me in a suit? The tailor at the rental place said I've got the perfect build for a good suit. Though, he could'a been trying to sell me on that extra package." He bent his knees a little, his smile crooked, eyes narrowed. "In case you're wondering, it worked."
She laughed, shaking her head at him.
"Can I come in?" he asked then. "I have to get out of these clothes."
She blinked.
He held up his bag. "My PJs, I stashed 'em in the Herder." She closed her eyes and nodded. "What did you think I was referring to, Sarah? My goodness." She opened her eyes to glare at him, but it was useless. Between the teasing lilt in his voice and the past few days…
"What I think is going to happen is I'm gonna kick your skinny ass at video games."
"It's not that skinny," he replied, mock affronted. And she felt like she'd saved herself a little maybe, opening the door for him to come in. She shrugged, stepping back letting him in. "Unless you know better than me. You have a better vantage point than I do."
"Shut up," she chuckled, shutting the door and rolling her eyes.
A/N: *Carries the one, stares at the formula, then back at the fic….* SC! I think we did something!
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-SC and DC