A/N: I have to say it. Ready? Wait for it. I don't own Chuck. There, I said it.

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Casey thought Chuck's idea was a good one. Set the trap for the poisoner outside the hospital, so as to keep the man (or woman, he guessed) away from the other patients and medical staff in case things turned south. Team B decided to set and spring the trap themselves without the assistance of Fitz's guys. That would leave Fitz's men to protect Whitney and Ellie. Fitz agreed. Whitney was almost gone and was expected to pass any minute, but Ellie was still strong, thank God. They chose not to pull Fitz's security off the patients in case the attempt to trap the poisoner turned out to be a waste of time. What if the poisoner had nothing to do with the bug? What if he (or she) wasn't listening or was far away? What if both the poisoning and the bug were unrelated to the chip with the Sanctuary Report? All possible, but judged unlikely.

Casey watched from a distance as Chuck made his way to the Porsche with Sarah covering discreetly behind from a distance. He saw the janitor also following and was instantly sure that was their man. Janitor was a great cover. Menial service people often went unnoticed. It was why he so often found himself under cover as a bartender or waiter, for example. Janitor fell into the same category.

Casey watched the confrontation between Chuck and the janitor and saw Sarah draw on the sonofabitch. He was shocked to see the man start firing his weapon. 'What a reckless bastard,' he thought. His momentary alarm was eased when he saw that both Chuck and Sarah were ok and began to give chase to the man in the janitor's uniform.

That was Casey's cue. The Crown Vic was already idling and he drove out of the parking lot, running parallel to the three figures sprinting through the park. As he did so, Fitz contacted him, "Major, Whitney just died. You need some of my men out there with you?"

"No. Stay put. We flushed somebody out. He's trying to rabbit, but Carmichael and Walker are chasing on foot and I'm in a vehicle. We'll have him in a minute."

"Roger that, Major."

Casey saw Chuck knock the man down and Sarah knock him down a second time. This murderer had killed three people and fired on both his partners so far today. Subtlety be damned. Casey just straight-up ran into him with the car. The man's body impacted on the front hood and flew a few feet to lay crumpled on the ground in the street.

Casey quickly got out of the car and met Sarah and Chuck by the body of the poisoner. He seemed to be in a lot of pain, "Ahhh, my leg. I think you broke my leg."

"You ok, Walker?" said Casey.

"Yeah. Vest took the impact. I'll be sore,..." Casey had no doubt about that. Even with a vest, being hit with a single 9mm round carried the impact of a sledgehammer blow. It hurt like hell and would leave a bad bruise. "...but I'll be alright."

"Kid?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. In addition to the vest, I had that bulletproof clipboard you gave me in my bag. It took the bulk of the force from the bullet."

Casey grunted.

They squatted around the man in the janitor's uniform, lying in the road moaning and complaining. Chuck flashed. "Hey, I recognize you. Payne. Riordan Payne. You find hard to find things, like the Sanctuary Report, and sell them to people who want them, like China or Russia."

"What's that noise?" asked Sarah. There was a hissing sound coming from Payne's messenger bag lying on the street next to him. She opened the bag and took out a ruptured aerosol can, spraying its contents into the air and on all four of them. Although they were all sprayed, it happened that the split in the side of the can was pointed directly at Payne as she took it out of the bag. By far the bulk of the substance went directly into his face. He gasped from shock and surprise, inhaling a large dose.

Payne yelled, "It's the poison. The truth drug. Get rid of it. Get rid of it now. Get rid of it." As he spoke, the can emptied its contents and went silent. Payne reached for his bag with an element of desperation. He was easily stopped by the three people surrounding him.

Casey said, "Shit. Now we are all poisoned."

"I have an ampule of antidote in my bag. Just let me drink it and I can take you to more of it... more of the antidote."

"Fuck you, Payne," said Casey. "Deal doesn't work that way. You tell us where the rest of the antidote is and maybe you get some."

"No. I'm your prisoner. I have my rights. You have to give me medical attention...Urggghhhh," Payne said, his words cut off by Casey's big hand clamping down on his throat.

Casey leaned forward, his angry face inches from Payne's, and said, "I'm not a cop. You listen to me, you little shit. You killed three people today and a fourth victim is clinging to life. You think you are entitled to anything from me? You're not. If I didn't need the antidote, I'd kill you right here and now and head out for a bite to eat. I'm thinking pancakes. You understand me now?"

"Whitney?" asked Sarah with a raised eyebrow.

"Just died," responded Casey.

"Dammit," she said, pushing back a lock of hair that had strayed down into her face.

Payne's eyes were starting to glaze over from the drug. Casey slapped him hard across the face and said, with urgency, "Where's the rest of the antidote, asshole? Well? Your life depends on the answer. Hey...hey...you still with me here? Hey."

Payne was rapidly fading. He was shaking his head from side to side and seemed to have trouble focusing his gaze. "Hay is for horses...my mom used to say that. heh, heh, you guys are trying to stop me, but you can't cause I'm too good for you. I always win...I'll get Report...Belgian...fucking guy...Volkoff's man's a thief...Antidote at home...easy...at home...home...home run...I don't like baseball...boring game...I used to do gymnastics...that was fun...Fun and games...I play video games sometimes...shooting games. I win. I always win. I'm a winner. Cops don't catch me. I'm too good. You guys are good too. You're pretty," he said, trying to look at Sarah. "You're not," he said in Casey's direction.

"Where is your home?" asked Chuck.

"LA...I like the weather...I don't like the mudslides...or wildfires...or earthquakes...or traffic...why do I live in LA anyway?"

"Where in LA, Payne?" asked Sarah.

"The sandy part. Sand...yellow...tan...sand," he said. He faded and fell into unconsciousness.

Sarah said, "Let's get him back to the hospital. In addition to the poison, you hit him with the car. He was complaining about his leg, so he might have other injuries."

Chuck and Casey each took an arm and dragged him to the Crown Vic. He lost a shoe on the way, but Sarah collected that with his messenger bag. They put Payne in the back of the car, with Sarah in the back next to him. She handed Chuck Payne's bag. Casey gestured to the glove compartment and said, "Gloves."

Chuck took out and donned a pair of latex exam gloves from a box in the compartment and began to go through the contents of the messenger bag, still potentially contaminated by the spray from of the sodium pentothal derivative. Meanwhile, Sarah was searching Payne himself. She gave the contents of his pockets to Chuck.

Chuck gave a small snort of laughter, "Whitney wasn't in pain, guys. He wasn't hurting. Remember, Sarah, when he said he was in pain? He was just trying to tell us the name of the man who poisoned him." He found what he was looking for in the bag and removed a small bottle of green liquid. He looked at it closely, as if pondering its contents. They arrived back at the hospital and called Fitz. Being undercover, they didn't intend to announce to the hospital staff or LAPD that they had apprehended the poisoner. Fitz and his men could do that. And, anyway, he should be examined by the doctors.

Fitz and Leo took Payne away to present him to the doctors, leaving Team B together holding the single dose of the antidote. With profound emotion in his voice, Chuck said one word, "Ellie." Both Sarah and Casey turned to look at him. Before they could say anything, he said, with a hand raised to forestall interruption, "We have to save Ellie. I know you are going to try to talk me out of it. It's your job to protect me. I understand that. But it doesn't matter. I can't take the antidote and let Ellie die. I can't do that..." His voice broke a little bit with the force of his emotion. "It's Ellie, for God's sake. She has to live. And don't give me any crap about me being the Intersect and valuable. I don't care. The Intersect doesn't mean shit compared to Ellie's life. The country survived without it until two months ago and will continue to survive if it's gone. It doesn't even work that well. Please, we have to save Ellie. Please."

Sarah reached out and put a gentle hand on his arm. There was a world of emotion in her eyes. She said, "Oh, Chuck."

Casey, on the other hand, just said, "You done?"

"Yeah," said Chuck.

"Of course, we have to save Ellie, kid. Of course. Let's go," said Casey.

They jogged through the hospital corridors to Ellie's room. Luckily, Awesome was still in the cafeteria, so they didn't have to distract him. Chuck took the antidote and gently poured it into Ellie's mouth. And they all hoped for the best.

"Okay, kid. You've done all you can for her. Now go find out where Payne lives. How about you look for his address as if our lives depend on it?" said Casey.

"Yeah, no shit, Case." Chuck found a vacant room next to Ellie's and opened his computer. No government databases had Payne's home address. Wherever he lived, he did so under an alias. Chuck emptied Payne's messenger bag and the contents of Payne's pockets onto the hospital bed and began to look for an address. Nothing. It's not like he expected to find a note - "If found please return to..." With nowhere else to look, he opened up the man's laptop and broke the encryption. He noted that the system was connected to the hospital's wifi network.

The first program to come up was the program controlling the bug listening to the conversations in Ellie's room. There was a small red dot on a map showing the location of the bug. He accessed the base information about the bug and found an ability to turn it off remotely. He turned it off. The red dot on the map disappeared. He turned it on. The red dot reappeared. Interesting. He began to search the program and finally found what he was looking for. A list of the other bugs Payne had in his inventory and synced with the program. Chuck clicked on all of them and turned them on. Switching to the map, he saw all of the red dots stationary at two locations, one of them the room he was sitting in, no doubt reflecting the bugs from Payne's bag sitting on the bed. 'That's good,' he thought. Switching maps, he found that the other location was a house in El Segundo, near the beach.

"Sarah. Casey. Let's go," said Chuck, stepping out of the room. "All Payne's other bugs, the ones not here, are located in a house in El Segundo."

"Outstanding, Bartowski. Let's go." said Casey.

On the drive to Payne's house, or what they hoped was Payne's house, Chuck said, "Well, if this doesn't work out, at least I don't have to work out my five year plan any more. Streamline that down to a few hours. But I accomplished a lot today. Do my laundry. Check. Find the poisoner. Check. Save my sister's life. Check. Save my partners and me. Not so much. At least not yet. Hoping for the best, I guess."

"You did great today, Chuck. You faked out Payne perfectly. You caught him running. You found out where he lives. You did great," said Sarah, twisted around in the car to face him. They were all feeling the effects of the drug, to a greater or lesser degree.

"Thanks. You're so nice to me, Sarah. You're always so nice to me. It makes me feel really good. Like I can do anything. But I know I can't." He shrugged. "I still work at the Buy More. I know I'm just a host for the Intersect. It's what I bring to the team and it's just a fucking accident. You and Casey are so awesome, so skilled, so talented and well trained. You're the best...I'm just..."

Sarah was about to speak when Casey pre-empted her. "Cut that crap, kid. It's bullshit and if you don't know that, you should. You are an integral member of this team, even when that fucking Intersect isn't firing. Sure, you don't have the training we do, but that just makes what you accomplish that much more impressive. Get your head out of your ass and see this thing for what it is. You are fucking good at what we do. Even without any training or that computer in your brain, you're really good at it."

Sarah said, smiling at Casey and then at Chuck, "Casey's right. You are so much more than the Intersect. Don't think that way. Don't ever think that way again. You know the confidence that you had in college, before Bryce fucked you over to keep you away from us? It was deserved. And now it deserves to be back. Think about the last two months. You can do anything you want. Be anything you want. Your world is open and unlimited. Anything you want, you can have." She looked at him deeply, her sapphire blue eyes sparkling with warmth, and said in a slightly softer voice, "Anything." Neither of them noticed Casey give her a quick glance out of the corner of his eye. Chuck smiled and reached out to give her hand a squeeze.

They arrived at the location in El Segundo. It was a large freestanding house within walking distance of the beach. They headed to the back door, because the back door was more concealed for a break-in. Sarah took out her lock picking tools and bent to the door. Casey said, "Walker, we're poisoned. Ticking clock here. Step aside." She did. He kicked the door with the flat of his foot once just above the lock. It popped open with a crash. Guns drawn, they spent four minutes clearing the house to make sure there were no unpleasant surprises. Then they got down to the task of searching the house for the antidote.

Soon they found a container labelled "SP-117 Anti". Inside were five ampules of a liquid matching the one from Payne's bag and an empty slot for the one they had found and given to Ellie. They were all definitely feeling the effects of the drug by this point and wasted no time. Clicking the ampules together, Chuck said, "Cheers". They all downed the antidote.

Chuck let out a sigh. "Good. Maybe we won't die today. Good. I didn't really want to die, to tell the truth."

Casey gave a growling chuckle and said, "Yeah. I didn't really want you to die either, moron."

Chuck laughed quietly, mostly from relief, and said, "Thanks...you know...you...Malena...when we were with Malena...pretending that we were brothers...you remember that, Case? … brothers...I never had a big brother before...Big sister, but not big brother... that's kind of...well, now I kind of like it … that's how I …"

"Stop it, kid. It's the drug talking. You have to resist it like our partner Sarah here...see? She's fighting the effects...she's not talking..." He was right. Her training had taught her the best way to avoid the effects of sodium pentothal was to clench your jaw shut and not say a word. "See? Our partner...partner... odd word for me to use...military we don't have partners...chain of command...on teams I was in command...Major, you see?...not command here...equals...partners...never had partners before...singleton or commander...partners ...are good...you are good...both of you...I like it, even with all the lovey-dovey crap I have to listen to...proud...I'm proud to be serving with you, Chuck...you and Walker both...we've done good work...even today, we saved Ellie...caught Payne...good...ah, crap...I'm talking...crap...Shut up...I'm going to search the house...See what else I can find. I shouldn't be driving now anyway...or talking."

He wandered away mumbling to himself.

Chuck laughed, and said, "Careful, big guy." He felt almost giddy, and didn't know if it was the effect of the drug or relief that they had taken the antidote and would live. He looked at Sarah, who was staring at him wide eyed and silent. The muscles of her jaw bulging slightly with her effort to keep herself quiet. "No talking?" She shook her head 'no' with almost comic exaggeration, but never took her eyes from him. He smiled at her and took her hands in his. "Ok. Me...I can talk...Didn't want to say it before...too soon...it would freak you out, but...Talk... I love you... feels really nice to say it.. I love you...not quiet now... God, I feel like I've been bottling this up forever... I love you, Sarah Walker... since the first moment I saw you...we're perfect for each other ...I want to spend the rest of my life with you... only been together a couple of months and already my love for you has re-shaped everything. Everything in my life. You mean everything in the world to me." He touched her cheek gently. "I'm going to kiss you now." He leaned down and kissed her still silent lips. She returned the kiss with her eyes closed. Then he wrapped her in his arms and held her close.

She clung to him, her head resting on his chest, and didn't say a word.

Inside, though, her thoughts were chaotic. 'He loves me...he loves me...Chuck loves me...someone loves me...other men have said the words, but they had always been hollow, intended solely to get me horizontal for a while. Chuck really means it...Why am I reacting this way? Why does it seem like the world has just shifted on its axis? I've heard these words before...not like this...not at all like this...Chuck loves me...me...with all my flaws and shameful history...he doesn't know my history...he doesn't know who I am or what I've done...he might not love me then...no, this is Chuck...he will love me still...you don't know that, girl...tell him how you feel ...tell him that you...that you...' Then her father's voice started to talk to her inside her head, soft spoken, but insistent. 'Love isn't real, honey. It's all a con. What those people think they feel is fake. This is all a game and they are the losers. We are the winners. That's what we have to do...win...Don't ever feel for the marks...don't ever feel for other people...that's how you lose the game...the world isn't all happy lovey stuff...that's just what the losers tell themselves to get through the day...it makes them sheep...we live in the real world...we know better...' She thought, 'No, Dad. This is real. This is real. He really loves me. Chuck loves me. And I...' Her dad started again, 'Don't go down that path, honey. It's a slippery slope. The next thing you know you'll be married with a passel of kids and it's game over for you.' She was crying and didn't even realize it. She hugged Chuck tighter, silently, while her mind spun in circles.

Casey came back into the room. "I've called Fitz to come with his team. I'm not good with driving yet and we've got to get the antidote back to the hospital for that asshat Payne. But they can finish the search. This place is a goldmine of information. Beckman and Graham are going to be thrilled. It will take a week to empty it of all the useful stuff I found, and I didn't even finish a partial search. We still don't have the Sanctuary Report, but there's a lot of good stuff here anyway."

Sarah pushed herself off Chuck and wiped her eyes. She took a deep breath. She smiled at Chuck and said to Casey, "Kay."

They went about searching the house more carefully. She still wasn't talking, but she couldn't take her eyes from Chuck for very long.

He loves me, she thought.

She wasn't surprised. He'd acted that way since the beginning. Or, at least the way she had always imagined people in love acted. A million little things he had done over the time they had been together. The way he looked at her. The way he spoke to her. The way he touched her. The sex. She had told him truthfully after their first time together that it was the best sex she had ever had and, as their feelings for each other had grown, it had just gotten better and better. And, as great as it was, it was nowhere close to the defining element of their relationship together, as it had been with prior men in her life. He had said the words, though. Said the words. Three times. She couldn't explain it and didn't know why, but saying the words...that was huge. A really big deal. She was aware that she had not said the words back to him. Very, very aware. She sucked at talking about her feelings. She knew that. It was part of the baggage she had warned him about when they first got together.

They found all manner of interesting things Payne must have kept for sale, including a prototype of a new spy camera, blackmail information on seven foreign leaders and three US Senators, a list of Chinese MSS agents in Vietnam, the Russian battleplan for an invasion of Ukraine, and the formula for Coke. As the drug wore off, or the antidote kicked in, they were able to think more clearly. Chuck started working on Payne's main computer and found some innovative hacking tools that he copied to a thumb drive on his keychain.

Casey said, "Guess Payne was a hacker. Explains where he got a lot of his stuff. Maybe he's not in the class of the Joker, QBR, or the Piranha, but probably pretty good."

Chuck deliberately kept looking down at the keyboard beneath his fingers, "Who?"

"A few of the top hackers, past and present," replied Casey, while looking through some paper files.

"Oh," said Chuck, still not looking up.

Fitz and his men arrived to take over. Billy agreed to drive them back to the hospital in Casey's Crown Vic, with Leo following in one of their cars. During the drive, Sarah still didn't say much, but sat in the backseat holding Chuck's hand and looking out the window at Los Angeles passing by.

He loves me.

Without her noticing too much, Los Angeles was gradually becoming one of her favorite cities. The air was softer that night. Darkness had fallen and the early evening lights twinkled.

Chuck went to check on Ellie while Casey and Sarah went with Billy and Leo to make sure Payne got his own dose of the antidote. He joined them a few minutes later.

"How's Ellie?" asked Sarah.

"Good. She's dressed in her clothes from last night and Devon is taking her home. The antidote worked great."

"That's wonderful," said Sarah. Casey grunted.

"Yeah, but that's not all. Look." Chuck held out his hand. In the center of the palm was a computer chip. "She thinks Whitney dropped this into the pocket of her sweater. She asked me to give it to Fitz if it's actually the chip he's looking for."

"She asked you to give it to Fitz? She didn't want to give it to him herself?" asked Casey.

"Apparently not," said Chuck. They contacted Fitz and looked at the contents of the chip. It was the Sanctuary Report. Fitz took it to return it to the think tank from which it had been stolen. Although the mission was a success, four people (counting the janitor, whose body had been found by that time) had been murdered in Payne's efforts to get the Report. It was hard to be upbeat after that body count.

As Sarah, Chuck and Casey were leaving the hospital, Chuck got a text from Morgan.

U and S. Dinner w/ me and Lou? 8pm at Gino's. K?

After checking with Sarah, he texted back that they would be there. Damn, his little buddy had moved faster than he thought.

They went directly to dinner from the hospital. They were on time, but Lou and Morgan were there already, sitting in a booth. The two couples spent the next couple of hours eating pizza, drinking a couple of bottles of Montepulciano and laughing, but through it all Sarah was uncharacteristically quiet.

He loves me.

She took every opportunity to touch him. As if to continually reassure herself that he was real. She looked at him almost constantly, almost ignoring Morgan and Lou. She wished she had a girlfriend to talk to. Maybe Ellie, tomorrow. Not now, of course. She'd had a very bad day. Maybe Carina. No, Carina would just gloat and say, 'I told you so.' For the first time in years she regretted losing touch with Rachel and Karen. But she was a CIA agent. She didn't have civilian friends. It was the ideal job for her, if her dad could pick. No real relationships, only short-term couplings. The thought of Bryce flashed into her head and out again just as fast. Don't let anyone get close to you or get to know you, knowledge was power and anyway, you might have to leave in the morning. The life of an agent was just like the con life she'd been bred to.

He loves me.

Chuck and Morgan were in the middle of a funny story about waiting in line for a Star Wars movie when Sarah said, "We're moving in together."

The three others stopped and looked at her, as the statement had come out of the blue, almost blurted. Chuck looked at her with surprise, but started to smile. Morgan said, "What?"

"Yeah," said Sarah. The smile she gave Chuck would have illuminated a medium sized city. "Chuck and I. We're taking that apartment across the courtyard. It's just become vacant. We're taking it together. It's going to be our new ho...home. Together." There was a pressure behind her eyes as she stumbled over the word "home" and she knew if she lingered on the word too long, she'd start to cry thinking about it.

"Well, that's great," said Morgan, grinning. "This is the first I'm hearing of it."

"It's the first Chuck's hearing of it also, but it's happening. We're going to visit the building manager for a lease first thing in the morning," she said.

"Congrats," said Lou with a grin, happy for her new friends.

"Are you sure we're ready?" Chuck asked with a smile, almost teasing her a little, squeezing her hand.

"Oh, we're ready. We're ready. We're so ready." she said, nodding emphatically and looking at him with all the love she could put into her gaze. She couldn't bring herself to say it, and couldn't even really admit it to herself, but some part of her really wanted him to know.

He loves me.

His love for her was like a big, fluffy, warm towel directly from the dryer. She wrapped herself in it and luxuriated in its warmth and the comfort it brought her. Until then she hadn't even realized that she'd been chilled her entire life.