CHARMING'S AUTHORS NOTE #1: Welcome back! The meeting is in the rearview mirror, now it's time to meet the family!
CHARMING'S AUTHORS NOTE #2: I have to give a massive shoutout to my friend Nev AKA nevr. Without Nev, I never would have continued this story, so thank you Nev, couldn't have done this without you.
Desire
A Story by
CharmingCharles2896
Chapter Inspired by the Song
Welcome to My World by Jim Reeves
Chapter Nineteen
Welcome to the Family
Castle
Burbank, California
Friday, May 15th, 2009
12:10 PM PDT
After a trip to China Temple, Chuck was carrying a large paper bag filled with delicious Chinese-American cuisine. Casey had come with him, to "help" as he'd called it, but Chuck knew it was just to make sure his shrimp fried rice was in there, which it was. Chuck knew his teammates well enough to know what they liked from China Temple.
"I wonder how Nora and Sarah are getting on; those two have so much in common," Chuck said as they approached the Double O.
Casey merely grunted and replied. "Both recruited by Graham, both fast tracked through training, both used by Graham to further his career. Yeah, I guess they do have a lot in common." The cynicism in his words were unmistakable. Casey pulled the door open and held it for Chuck, who nodded his thanks as he passed through it and into the dark Double O. The two of them silently made their way to the back and walked through the freezer.
When the door opened and the two of them walked into Castle, the first thing they heard was the laughter of two women, which Chuck thought was a good sign. Chuck walked down the stairs, hearing the tale Sarah was telling.
"So there Chuck and I are in the brothel, Chuck in his suit and I in this really trashy party dress. The entire left side of my head is covered in glitter and Chuck's sporting a busted lip from Candy swinging the obscenely long dildo like a baseball bat at his head. Candy, Misty, and Mandy are all unconscious on the floor at this point. We can hear the police outside the door and we just know that there is no way to talk our way out of this," Sarah said between fits of laughter. Nora for her part is too busy laughing and wiping the tears from her eyes to respond.
Finally, Nora contained her laughter enough to speak. "So, what happened?" Sarah just laughed as she remembered that ridiculous evening.
"The door opens and there is Casey, his suit covered in mud, his pants missing, and his four-leaf clover boxer shorts out there for the whole world to see. He stomps into the room, holds up the ledger we came to get, and with absolute seriousness says… fuck redheads." Nora cracked up, nearly falling out of her chair. Sarah for her part was right there with her new teammate as she remembered the ridiculous mission from earlier days of Team Bartowski's time together.
"Walker, I thought we agreed to never speak of that again?" Casey growled. Sarah and Nora turned to look at the stairs and saw the two men walking towards them. Sarah stood up with a beaming smile and practically skipped over to her husband. She captured his lips in a kiss and took the bag from his hands.
"Thanks, Sweetie, you're the best." As she turned, she looked at Casey and spoke. "You may have agreed to that, but I sure didn't." Chuck just shook his head with a chuckle and followed Sarah to the table.
"Who knew a giant silicone dildo could be so painful…"
"You're not the one who was tased and thrown out of a window into a disgusting mud puddle by a satanic redhead," Casey grumbled back. Nora cracked up once again, shaking her head at the crazy story her new teammate had just told.
"Oh god, you guys have so much more fun than I ever have, I'm almost jealous." She said as she looked over at Casey who himself was struggling to conceal a smile. Sarah dug into the bag and began pulling out cartons of food.
"Casey, here's your shrimp fried rice," Sarah said as she handed Casey the carton and a set of chopsticks. Casey grunted happily and sat down next to Nora's seat to dig in. "Beef lo mein for me," Sarah said as she set her's aside. "Lastly, one order of vegetable fried rice, and one order of chicken chow mein."
"Nora, I completely forgot to get your Chinese order this morning and I barely had enough time to order this, the Buy More was so busy. I like both of those, so you can take your pick and I promise to learn your order for the next time," Chuck said with a small, contrite smile on his face. Nora was floored by how nice everyone was, it was like nothing she'd ever experienced since joining the CIA.
"Don't worry about it, Chuck, the chicken chow mein is fine. For future reference, I absolutely love General Tso's chicken!" she gave him an excited smile and then eagerly grabbed the chicken chow mein from Sarah, along with a pair of chopsticks, and retook her seat. Chuck grabbed his lunch and then the four of them ate in comfortable silence for a few minutes. Eventually, Chuck stuck his chop sticks up, like he was preparing to speak. The three of them watched him chew quickly and then swallow with a gusto. Eventually he took a breath, as if the chewing had taken a massive amount of effort.
"We need to talk about tonight."
"What's happening tonight?" Nora asked.
"Ellie is throwing a party ostensibly to welcome me back into the family," Sarah said to Nora who nodded.
"Sounds like fun, why do we need to talk about that?" Nora asked curiously.
"Beyond the fact that we'll be announcing that Chuck and I eloped and are having a baby, we'll also be introducing you, Nora." Nora eyebrows rose in shock, she didn't think they'd be introducing her so soon, but it made sense.
"What about my cover?"
"That's what we need to talk about, numb nuts," Casey said with a grumble, Nora gasped in offense, but quickly remembered what Sarah told her about him. The long and short of what Sarah had told her was that John was gruff to a fault, but he was a great spy.
"Any thoughts on a cover?" Chuck asked, looking at Nora, who shrugged.
"I really don't have a clue. I haven't had to make that kind of choice, I've only been a senior field agent for a day, so I've never had enough authority to make choices like that." Chuck nodded while Casey shook his head in disbelief. The more Casey learned, the more he was certain that Graham was a bastard. Sarah saw her husband deep in thought as he eyed Nora, when he got contemplative like that, she knew that her brilliant nerd was about to come up with another excellent idea. Chuck looked away from Nora and turned to his wife, seeing her looking at him intently.
"Why don't you and Nora stand up over there, I want to check on something," he said, pointing over to the open area in the middle of the room. Nora and Sarah exchanged a look and got up to oblige Chuck's request. Nora and Sarah stood next to each other, shoulder to shoulder. Chuck got up as well and eyed them both shrewdly for a long moment. The way he was seemingly examining them both made Nora mildly uncomfortable. She knew he was regarded as a smart guy, but the way he was looking at them made her feel like she was on display. Just as she was ready to speak up in protest, she saw the tall and skinny man turn to John.
"You see it too, right?" Casey tilted his head in thought before nodding to Chuck.
"What is it?" Nora asked in frustration.
"You two look like sisters," he said honestly. Nora's eyebrow shot up in confusion as she turned to look at Sarah. Personally, Nora couldn't see it, but the agreeable shrug from Sarah surprised her.
"How do you figure?" Nora asked skeptically.
"You're both tall, modelesque, blonde haired, blue eyed, bombshells. You have similar facial features and physical builds. Your personalities are similar enough, from the few interactions I've had with you, Nora. That's not even mentioning the fact that you both went to impressive schools, those being MIT and Harvard. You both excelled in training, and demonstrate outstanding work in the field, even if you were both misused by your former boss. The resemblances and similarities between you two are kind of crazy." Nora couldn't help it and blushed a brilliant crimson color at the flattering words from Chuck. To be favorably compared to a legend like Sarah Walker, now Bartowski, was honestly humbling.
Nora silently turned to Sarah and spoke. "I get why you married this guy." Sarah merely smiled back as the two of them retook their seats.
"I'm lucky and I know it," Sarah said and leaned over to steal a quick kiss from her husband. Casey simply grunted in disgust as his two teammates kissed; Nora chuckled at the grumpy older man's reaction. After the happy couple broke the kiss, Chuck spoke once again. "She just couldn't resist my nerdy charms; it was only a matter of time." Sarah barked a laugh.
With a skeptical grunt, Casey spoke derisively. "What charm?" Chuck gasped in faux offense, which amused Nora.
"My nerd has plenty of charm, thank you very much," Sarah said with a saucy smile that made Chuck's brain fry for a brief moment. Nora couldn't help but giggle at Chuck and Sarah's interactions, they were just so cute as a couple and they obviously loved each other to pieces. Chuck finally regained control of his poor, overclocked, nerd brain and turned back to Nora.
"I mentioned this to Casey and Sarah earlier this week. My idea is that you two are half-sisters who share a mother, but have different fathers. It allows you to build covers on your own experiences, but you still have a believable familial bond as far as everyone else knows." Nora nodded, liking where this was going. "Not to mention, you two seemed to be getting along really well if your laughter was any indication earlier." Nora nodded as she remembered the hour and a half of the two of them swapping stories.
"I don't know about your wife, but I think we get along pretty well." Sarah nodded in agreement. "I like your idea for the cover, anything else would just be more complicated to explain and less believable." Chuck nodded with a grateful expression. "We'll just say that our mother got divorced after Sarah was born and remarried before I was born. That explains the vague resemblance and the different last names." The other three members nodded in agreement.
"How about, Nora's been estranged for a while and she's reconnecting with her older sister after a change in career?" Casey offered.
"That's good, but what was my previous career?"
"Model?" Chuck threw out with an unsure wince.
"Model?" Nora replied in confusion. "I went to MIT, how does being a model fit into that?" Chuck shrugged, unsure of it himself.
"Maybe you decided to become a model after MIT, which angered Mom and Dad, thus explaining your being estranged." Sarah pitched.
"But why a model?" Nora said, feeling like her question still hadn't been answered.
"Seriously? You don't understand that?" Chuck asked in disbelief, Nora merely shook her head no. "You're nearly six feet tall. Your suit sort of hides it, but you've got an incredible figure. You've got flawless skin, a great smile, and piercing blue eyes." Nora blushed once again.
"What my husband is trying to say, is that you've just got that look. You look like the kind of model you'd see on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue." Nora was nearly beat red from their nice comments. Still, she just couldn't see it.
"You really think I'm that good looking? I don't think I'd be convincing as a model."
"Listen, Kid," Casey began, Nora was beginning to understand that John didn't speak much, but when he did you listened. Everyone fell silent as Casey spoke, his voice just having that effect. "You're absolutely gorgeous," Casey said to Nora who gave him a small, bashful smile.
"Thank you, John," Nora said to Casey who looked stunned that she'd called him John. "I'm flattered that all of you think so highly of me, truly. I want to go with the cover you suggest." Nora couldn't help the small amount of excitement that was welling up inside her. These people were the nicest agents she'd ever worked with. She'd never been in such a warm and welcoming environment. She'd known these people less than six hours and she already felt closer to them than any other agency personnel she'd worked with.
"Great! Now that we've got that settled, you've got to tell me what MIT was like. I've got this picture in my head, but I'm curious." Chuck said excitedly, which made Nora laugh and shake her head at his childlike exuberance. Nora nodded as she laughed at him.
"Fine, I'll tell you about MIT, but only if all of you share some stories too," Chuck chuckled and nodded. He grabbed his Chinese food and dug in as the four of them shared stories of their younger years. Chuck told stories of all night coding sessions with Bryce in their free time. Sarah spoke of the one time she went out and partied at Harvard and puked her guts out for almost an entire evening. Casey told a story from his days in Afghanistan where he'd played the floor is lava on crates of live artillery shells with his unit. That was a story that proved that there was more to John Casey than just the gruff exterior. It was only an hour-long lunch break, but by the end of it, Nora felt like part of the team. She felt like she finally belonged somewhere, for the first time since she was at MIT.
~X~
Casa Bartowski
Burbank, California
Friday, May 15th, 2009
5:30 PM PDT
It was strange, Chuck was now living with his wife in her hotel room, but all of his stuff was still back at Ellie and Devon's apartment. This meant that Chuck was getting ready at Casa Bartowski, while Sarah and ostensibly Nora were getting ready at Maison23. Everyone was supposed to arrive at six, so Chuck was cutting it a bit close. As he zipped up a faded pair of jeans, he glanced in his full-length mirror. He was going semi-casual this evening; sporting a pair of jeans and his blue stripped button up shirt that was very similar to the one he'd bought in Vegas. He'd done a bit of work to tame his hair, but not too much work, because he knew his wife liked his curls just the way they were. After clasping his belt into place, he walked out and made his way to the kitchen where Ellie was busy with final preparations.
"Chuck, can you set the table for me? I'm up to my elbows in hors d'oeuvres," Ellie asked. Chuck nodded and got busy on his prescribed task. "So, with Devon still at the hospital and everyone else not expected here until six, tell me about this Nora Rogers." Chuck paused, he'd expected this line of questioning eventually, the question was what to tell Ellie. Finally, Chuck came to a decision, Ellie was a part of the team now, she had a right to know.
"She's really nice and gets along great with the team. She's very smart, having gone to MIT before joining the agency. At this point we still don't know about her skill in the field, but I'm confident that this is going to work out." Ellie nodded with a relieved smile. She'd been so worried that the next agent would be just as evil as Agent Forrest was.
"Is she pretty?" Ellie asked with a sly smile. Chuck simply looked at Ellie, trying to determine if this was a trap. "This isn't some sort of loyalty test, Chuck, I just want your honest opinion." Chuck slowly nodded and thought of the best way to answer before giving up with a tremendous sigh.
"Other than my wife, she's the most beautiful woman I've ever seen. She could make millions as a model if she wanted to, but the idea of it seems alien to her." Ellie's eyebrows were sky high as Chuck finished. She'd assumed Agent Rogers was pretty, but Chuck made it seem like she was the next Brooklyn Decker or something.
"Wow, that pretty huh?" Chuck simply nodded.
"She doesn't care about that though, she's an engineer at heart and she's already affecting the team in a positive way. Today she brought up questions about the Intersect, none of had ever thought about. She thought of stuff that I'd never consider doing, but I know is absolutely necessary." Ellie nodded and watched Chuck finish setting the table.
"I can't wait to meet her; I have a feeling that I'll be talking to her a lot when I start learning about this Intersect in your head." Chuck nodded.
"She has a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering and apparently she went to MIT on an academic scholarship." That impressed Ellie, MIT was a hard school to get into, and the fact that she'd gotten in on a scholarship given only to the best of the best, meant that she was truly smart.
"She's staying at the Maison23 next door to Sarah and I. Sarah is going to introduce her as her younger sister, the two of them having different fathers, but the same mother," Chuck said leaning against the counter and watching Ellie work.
"Seems like a good cover," Ellie said as she set down her oven mitts and looking over at her younger brother. "I don't mean this like I'm kicking you out, but what are your plans with Sarah? Are you two going to find an apartment?"
"I assume we'll go apartment hunting in the next week or so. I know Nora's wants to find a more permanent living space, with room for her tools for some reason." Ellie merely shrugged.
"I hear that Mrs. Heditsian is moving to a home for the elderly, so that apartment across the courtyard might be opening up. That place is a three bedroom, perfect for a couple starting a family," Ellie said, giving Chuck a proud smile. Chuck smiled back at her and nodded.
"We'll look into it."
~X~
Maison23
Burbank, California
Friday, May 15th, 2009
5:40 PM PDT
Sarah smoothed out her crimson long sleeve shirt, the one Chuck had bought her in Vegas on their honeymoon as she was now calling it. The shirt was extremely flattering for her and really emphasized her bust, which wasn't a bad thing if she wanted to spend the evening frying her husband's brain. She'd paired the shirt with a pair of black capris and some modest shoes. Her hair was hanging in loose curls that framed her face nicely; she knew Chuck liked this look on her.
The knock on the door grabbed Sarah's attention, she went to the peep hole and peered through it. When she saw Nora standing there she quickly opened the door.
"Hey, Nora, what's up?" Sarah asked.
"You wouldn't happen to have some mouth wash? I don't have any," Nora asked nervously. Sarah nodded and welcomed her teammate in. As Nora walked past her, the first thing Sarah saw was the extremely flattering jeans that seemed to hug every inch of Nora's stunning figure. Nora had paired her jeans with a black, women's tee shirt tucked into the waist of the jeans. The front of the shirt had a Animaniacs poster in it.
"The mouthwash is in the bathroom next to the sink," Sarah said with an amused smile on her face. Nora saw the smile and looked down at her shirt; she chuckled at it.
"I was a nineties kid and the Animaniacs was my absolute favorite of all the cartoons on in those days." Sarah merely nodded.
"I was partial to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles personally, then again I'm a little older than you," Sarah commented as she watched Nora walk into the bathroom and freeze. Sarah paused, wondering what was wrong. Nora slowly crept over to the sink and reached out for the bottle of blue liquid. Her hands were shaking as she read the label.
Scope
"Nora?" Sarah said as she approached Nora. When Sarah got to the bathroom, she could hear the quiet sniffles. "What's wrong?" Sarah asked with genuine concern. Nora spun around and held up the bottle of Scope.
"You use Scope," Nora said simply, emotion seeming to pour out of every part of her.
"Yeah, I hate Listerine," Sarah said with visible concern and confusion on her face.
"Everyone calls me Listerine Girl, because of reputation as Graham's whore. On missions they'd always give me a small bottle of Listerine to take with me. Every. Fucking Time!" Nora looked away as the tears filled her eyes. She spoke again with a slight stutter as she struggled not to cry. "The first thing I promised myself I'd do once I got done with that assignment was throwing away my Listerine and switching to Scope." Sarah's eyes softened as realization took hold and she pulled the crying girl into a hug. As Nora felt the loving arms of Sarah Bartowski envelope her, she was suddenly overwhelmed by shame and a myriad of other negative emotions. In one moment, everything came pouring out and she sobbed. Sarah's eyes turned glassy as she heard the emotion coming from her new teammate. It would appear that everything Nora had kept down, locked away inside her heart where it couldn't hurt her, was coming back to the surface.
"It's okay, that's all over now," Sarah whispered maternally as she rocked the sobbing blonde in her arms. "Let it out," she cooed comfortingly, determined to be there for her new friend. Nora couldn't wrangle in her emotions and force them down under the Listerine Girl persona like she'd done for so long. In that moment, Nora Rogers felt all of the pain and shame of what Langston Graham and Clyde Decker had made her do. Three years of constant seduction missions, no breaks, just one cock to suck after another.
"Damn him!" she screamed angrily between sobs, damning the late Langston Graham. Sarah merely shushed the emotional blonde and continued to comfort her, determined to help this poor girl get through this, something she had a suspicion nobody else had ever bothered to do.
"I'm so sorry, Nora."
~X~
Casa Bartowski
Burbank, California
Friday, May 15th, 2009
6:15 PM PDT
Morgan, Anna, Casey, and Devon had all arrived on time as expected and everyone was milling around. The problem was that Sarah hadn't arrived yet, she was only a ten-minute drive from here, but she hadn't arrived yet and she wasn't answering her phone.
"Bartowski, relax," Casey said as he came up next to Chuck, who looked extremely on edge.
"I can't relax, Sarah always answers her phone." Casey just shook his head; there was no reasoning with this geek when he got like this.
"I pinged her phone ten minutes ago and they're on their way, now chill the hell out!" Casey hissed quietly. Chuck nodded to himself and Casey turned to mingle with the others. Something must have happened at her apartment that delayed them, that was the only explanation.
The sound of a knock on the door grabbed Chuck's attention. Ellie was already to the door when Chuck turned to look. The door opened and there stood Sarah Bartowski and Nora Rogers. Chuck's breath caught in his throat as he laid eyes on his wife and the shirt she was wearing.
"Sarah," Ellie began as practiced as any hostess should be. "Who is this you've brought with you?" Ellie asked excitedly, giving Sarah a perfect opportunity to introduce Nora.
"Ellie, this is my younger sister, Nora Rogers," Sarah said as the two of them walked in. The entire apartment seemed to turn at once to see the new girl. Devon was the first to react, giving Nora a huge smile and picking her up in a welcoming hug.
"Awesome, so great to meet you, Nora," he said in his typically welcoming voice. Nora gave Devon a dazzling smile, well-practiced.
"You must be Devon; Sarah's been giving me a crash course all afternoon." Devon nodded. Chuck saw Morgan, his mouth practically on the floor, standing next to his girlfriend. Ellie walked past Morgan on her way to the kitchen. As she passed him, she hissed into his ear. "Stop gawking, you have a girlfriend!" Morgan snapped out of his shocked stare and blushed in embarrassment. Nora walked further into the room and couldn't help the feeling of family she got from the place. It was a well lived in home, a place for family. Casey walked up to Nora and extended his hand, needing to uphold the cover.
"John Casey, I work at the Buy More with Chuck." Nora gave Casey a smile.
"Hello, John." Once again she saw the flustered look on his face as she called him John instead of Casey like everyone else did. Nora had to admit that she enjoyed how flustered that made him and she intended to continue to do it. Next in Nora's mission to introduce herself to everyone, she found Morgan and his girlfriend Anna.
"Animaniacs, nice," Morgan commented, which made Nora smile a genuine smile.
"Us nineties kids have got to represent." That made Anna chuckle.
"So, you're Sarah's sister? She never mentioned you before." Nora nodded, now it was time to spin the web of lies to establish her cover.
"We haven't spoken in five years. We're technically half-sisters, we share the same mother, but had different fathers. When I graduated from MIT, I chose to become a model instead of an engineer." Morgan's eyes bulged in shock.
"You're a model?" Morgan asked with quiet awe, much to Anna's annoyance. Anna shook her head and walked off. Nora nodded and chuckled, this guy was exactly as Sarah had described him, a nice guy, extremely loyal to Chuck, but a child at heart.
"I was, don't know if I'll ever find work modelling again, but you never know." Nora pointed the cuts on her forehead Morgan nodded. "Got into a fight with another girl; I kicked her ass, but not before she got in a lucky punch." The casual way in which Nora said it totally won Morgan over.
"God, that's so cool; smart and a badass!" Morgan gushed. Nora laughed at the little bearded man, he amused her more than any man ever had, and she wasn't against that.
"Come eat!" Ellie called loudly, grabbing everyone's attention.
"Yes!" Morgan muttered as he and Nora walked to the table. As the two of them sat down next to each other, Anna realized that there was no room next to Morgan, she groaned internally at her on again off again boyfriend.
"First Ellie, now this girl?" she mused internally. As everyone got seated, Ellie placed the bowl of spaghetti down in the center of the table along with a pair of plastic tongs that had little grabby claws on each end.
"We're doing this family style, so pass it around if you need to," Ellie instructed. Nora watched the older sister of Chuck Bartowski and had to admire her; she'd become the matron of the family before she could drive. As everyone served themselves some of the delicious smelling pasta, Ellie took her seat next to Devon and dug in.
"So, Nora, was it?" Ellie began, obviously in the know, but playing her role in this farce. Nora nodded to Ellie and watched her intently.
"We've never met another member of Sarah's family, so we're glad to have you." Nora nodded and gave her a big smile.
"I'm glad to be here; I'm also glad to see my big sis has finally found someone nice. You should have met the last boyfriend of her's that she brought home when we were younger." Sarah quirked her eyebrow at Nora, knowing she had to be prepared to jump in and help build on the cover.
"Paul wasn't that bad!" Sarah exclaimed, which made Ellie and Anna laugh.
"The leather jacket and the piercings weren't that bad? I thought Mom was going to faint." That got a chuckle from everyone.
"I was rebelling," Sarah said quietly, her cheeks blushing slightly.
"Sure you were, Sis, sure you were," Nora said derisively as she returned to her food. From there, conversation flowed freely, Nora and Sarah quickly finding a rapport. As Chuck watched the two of them effortlessly bounce off of each other's ideas, he had to admit that he was impressed by Nora, she was good.
After dinner everyone began to mingle once again, loud energetic conversations popping everywhere. Anna found her target and approached Sarah, who was off to the side simply watching everyone. When Sarah saw Anna she gave her a happy smile.
"Hey Anna, it's great to see you again." Anna nodded.
"It's good to see you back together with Chuck," Anna began, which made Sarah frown slightly, she knew what was coming. "He was pretty messed up after you left, you know." Sarah merely nodded, emotion in her eyes.
"I know, I…" Sarah was cut off by the sound of Chuck's voice calling to everyone. As she saw his posture and demeanor, she knew he was about to break the news.
"Everyone, it's no secret that I've been at a low point the last month or so," he said as Sarah walked to him and took his hand. "But that all changed when I ran into this beauty last Friday." As Chuck looked lovingly into Sarah's eyes, a loving grin appeared on his face.
"I just knew that I had to make him mine," Sarah cut in making Chuck snort. "As we danced that Friday night, I knew I could never leave him again. So, I asked him to marry me and he did." The whole room exploded into congratulations, Casey and Nora playing their role before Morgan came over to Sarah and captured her in a strong hug.
"Thank you," he whispered to her, Sarah nodded and pulled back from the hug. Sarah turned to Chuck and nodded, he gave her another smile and nodded.
"We've got another announcement, everyone." The whole room stopped and turned to Chuck and Sarah. Chuck felt her snuggle up against his side, her arms holding onto his bicep. "On Monday we learned we're having a baby," he said simply. Everyone burst into jubilation, more hugs, more congratulations, more of everything. As Sarah soaked it all in, she felt Ellie next to her before she ever saw her.
"Welcome to the family, Sarah," Ellie said to a clearly emotional Sarah.
~X~
Casa Bartowski
Burbank, California
Friday, May 15th, 2009
10:15 PM PDT
Everyone had gone home, leaving Chuck, Sarah, Nora, and Ellie. Devon had to run off to the hospital for an emergency, so it was just the four of them in the apartment. As the four of them cleaned up, Ellie spoke up.
"So, Nora, how was your first day in Burbank?"
"It's been great, everyone is so nice and welcoming, it's incredibly refreshing," she said as she tied off the garbage bag and put a new one in the garbage can stowed under the sink.
"I'm glad to hear that," Ellie said, sparing a glance at Chuck and Sarah who both seemed to be preparing for Ellie the Inquisitor to come out. "I assume you've heard about what happened to my brother with your predecessor?" Ellie said with a hint more intensity, enough for Nora to notice.
"Yes, I have," Nora said nervously to the other woman in the kitchen with her.
"Elle," Chuck called, obviously trying to intercede.
"I just want to be clear, Chuck," Ellie said to her brother before turning back to Nora. "I consider all of us family, Nora. Sarah, Morgan, Casey; all of them are part of my family. I want to put you in that category too, but you have to show me that you're worthy. You can do that by not hurting him." As Ellie spoke, Nora began to understand why Sarah had called Chuck's older sister, Hurricane Ellie; she was an unstoppable force of nature.
"That monster abused my brother and I refuse to allow that to happen again, so I'm going to be fanatical for a little while. You can earn my trust by doing your job well and keeping him safe." Nora nodded and stood up to her full height, looking at Ellie equally as intensely.
"Don't judge me based on the actions of someone I've never even met." Nora said firmly, ice in her eyes briefly. When she saw Ellie take a half step back, obviously shocked at Nora's shift in attitude, she spoke again. "You don't have to worry about me, Ellie. Nothing is more important to me than this job and the safety of your family. I don't have the illustrious career that Sarah has had. This is my last shot. If I fail here, I'm finished. Believe me, you've never seen someone more dedicated to keeping your brother safe, than I am." Ellie was impressed, this woman had a strength to her that her demeanor hadn't shown all night. Ellie gave her a smile and extended her a hand to shake. Nora shook Ellie's hand and felt Ellie pull her into a hug.
"Welcome to the family, Agent Rogers, don't mess it up." Nora smiled and pulled back from the hug. As the two of them looked into each other's eyes, it became clear that the two of them had reached an understanding.
"Never."
CHARMING'S AUTHORS NOTE #3: So, that's where the second arc was supposed to end, but it will go on! Here's the thing though, I have chapter twenty finished, but I don't know if I can finish chapter twenty-one before I have to post it. I don't like writing chapters on a deadline, it makes it feel like a job and not something I enjoy. That is mostly what sucked the enjoyment out of Contrition. The reason I am bringing this up, is because I'm going to stop posting weekly after chapter twenty and instead post the remaining chapters of the second arc whenever they are finished. This will be more like it was before the second arc, so I know all of you will be fine. I will tell you, just as a sneak peek, Charah has their first fight as a married couple in chapter twenty-one and boy is it a doozy!
CHARMING'S AUTHORS NOTE #4: So, chapter nineteen is finished! What did all of you think of it? Nora is part of the team, her cover is established, and sher impressed the hell out of Morgan lol, poor Anna. If you're so inclined, I would love to hear from you all. Please consider leaving me a review with your thoughts, I love to hear from all of you.
Until Next Time :D