Summary: Down on her luck, America's Sweetheart Sarah Walker flies to Chicago for a job interview. When she meets a charming, bumbling nerd on the same flight, her life takes an unexpected turn.

Author's Note: I would like to warn you that the next few chapters will be quite angsty. I always planned for the story to go like this, but when I was planning it, I hadn't realized just how much angst it would entail. I briefly thought about changing it, but it wouldn't feel right with the story I had in mind, or the trajectory I saw these characters going. So I apologize if angst isn't your cup of tea; I promise you, it should be smoother sailing after that. As someone once said, you first have to go down before you can go up. I hope this won't scare you away; there are still some big moments ahead of us, and I'd love for you to be a part of it.

Now that's out of the way, I'd like to thank you for your continued support. More than 100 reviews!? I truly appreciate you and your words, thank you so much! Enjoy your reading. I'll be waiting for you on the other side :)

Disclaimer: No shits were harmed during the writing of this chapter. If the word offends you, well, um, read over them I guess? Also, I don't own Chuck.


Shit shit shit.

"Come on, stay with me, Sarah," Chuck yelled out over the loudness of the wind and the roaring beat of the plane's propeller. It was dark out. Chuck was freezing as the wind wheezed through the shattered window of the aircraft. His hands were warm and sticky, his knuckles blanched white, as he painfully gripped onto the steering wheel.

"Sarah!" he screamed louder, not daring to glance sideways, his eyes on the vast blackness in front of him. Little shimmering lights popped up in the far distance. His heart had never beat so fast in his chest before.

It had all gone wrong. From the minute they'd arrived on the island, he'd known something was greatly amiss. But they'd carried on regardless, ignoring all the signs glaring at them alarmingly. If he'd just been quicker, if he'd just been less him and listened to her, then they wouldn't be in this mess right now. Then he wouldn't be piloting a Seaplane over Lake Michigan while Sarah was bleeding out to death in the seat beside him.

ONE DAY EARLIER

Shit shit shit.

Chuck's heart had never beat so fast in his chest before. As Casey's words reverberated in the small hotel room, it took Chuck another minute to fully grasp their meaning. Sarah, on the other hand, who was still lying underneath him, had caught on and was now pushing Chuck off of her.

"Come on, Chuck. We've gotta go," her breath was shallow, her hair tousled, her lips glistening from their earlier activities. Shit. They'd kissed. And not just a peck on the lips, no, they'd been fully making out and were about to go further if it weren't for the rude interruption of one John Casey.

"Chuck, come on. We don't have time for this," she was standing in just a pair of lacy underpants with a matching bra. When had she taken her clothes off, he wondered, his eyes glued to her incredible body.

"Chuck," she said more forcefully, jumping into a pair of blue slacks, and throwing on a white blouse, her lightly tanned skin disappearing behind the fabric.

It was as if he needed her body to be wrapped up in clothes, before his brain could start to function again. He shook his head, the reality of their situation finally settling in.

"Shit, Sarah. We've gotta go. You can't miss your flight," he quickly moved off the bed, his foot getting stuck in the linen causing him to trip and fall into Sarah who was fixing up her hair in the bedroom mirror. His hands automatically caught on to her waist, his lower half colliding with her lower back.

Sarah who had been doing her best to get ready as fast as she could, halted her movement as Chuck's breath felt hot on her neck making her shiver slightly. His eyes threw her an apologetic look in the mirror. For a second, she got lost in their reflection; his head on her shoulder, only slightly towering over her. His large hands on her hips, his dark chocolate eyes sparkling with intensity.

She barely recognized herself as her eyes moved to the blond woman in front of Chuck. She looked good, almost carefree. Her hair was pulled back into a high bun; her uniform luckily had remained crease-free. The only way someone could tell what she'd just been doing was her heartrate that still hadn't returned to normal and the faint blush that colored her cheeks.

"Sorry," Chuck whispered, as he removed his hands and went through his curls, trying to at least make them look somewhat decent.

"I didn't mean to trip," he shrugged a little sheepishly.

"It's uh, it's ok," damn it, why was she still so out of breath?

They stood there for another minute, in silence, both seemingly trying to recompose themselves. When Sarah had calmed herself down enough, she cleared her throat and said:

"You ready to go?"

She didn't dare to look at him, though, as she was quite certain he was the key factor in the unevenness of her breathing. Instead, she grabbed the handle of her suitcase and rolled it to the door.

"Yup, I think so," he said.

"You're going like that?" she looked over her shoulder, only daring to do so because she had created sufficient space between them. At least, she hoped she had.

"Uhh," he looked down at his clothes. He was still wearing the sweatpants and the dark navy shirt. He should not be looking this handsome right now, a voice in Sarah's head said in frustration.

"I think I'll be fine," he chuckled self-consciously.

"Alright, let's go then," she opened the door and moved over to the elevator, not trusting herself to be in the same room as Chuck for another second.


"So, how long have you and Sarah been cavorting?" Chuck choked on his coffee.

"That's- hot coffee," Chuck coughed, accepting the napkin Montgomery offered him to wipe off the liquid that had spilled on his sweatpants.

They'd made it just in time to get on the shuttle to the airport with the others. To both their reliefs, the only two seats available had been the one in front and the one in the back. Chuck had decided to sit next to the driver, while Sarah joined her fellow cabin crew. Chuck had heard Carina say something to Sarah, but Sarah hadn't seemed in the mood and had cut off any further conversation almost immediately.

Once they'd arrived at the airport, there hadn't been any time for Chuck to hold the conversation he was so desperate to have with Sarah. He had had enough time during the drive to go over what had happened this morning, and he really, really needed to talk to her. He needed to know what it all meant.

For the past two weeks, he'd been beating himself up for liking and occasionally flirting with a married woman. More so, he'd been confused because said married woman had not only accepted his flirtations but also acted upon it on multiple occasions. And then yesterday, he'd learned from Casey that she and Bryce were getting a divorce.

And then, this morning… Chuck had quickly thought of Jeff and Lester eating expired food in the Buy More break room, anything else really to not have to think about this morning in the hotel room with her lips on his. He was sharing a shuttle with ten other people after all, of which Sarah was one.

"So?" Roan asked unashamedly.

"What?" Chuck asked, hoping honest to god that he'd drop it. When was Sarah coming back anyway? They were seated in the cockpit; the flight had just started boarding when Sarah had run out to take a call leaving Chuck with Montgomery and his prying questions.

"You and Sarah? Cavorting, intercourse, the devil's tango… should I go on?"

"Um no, thank you. I got what you mean, and to answer your question. We're not… cavorting," the word tasted sour in his mouth. And why was he clasping his hands like that? Chuck quickly released them and picked up the plastic cup that was now only half full. He could use that coffee right about now.

"What's wrong, don't you find Captain Walker attractive?" Montgomery raised an eyebrow.

"Of course, I find her attractive," Chuck stammered.

"It's just that she's married, and I'm trying to be respectful," he continued hoping that would be enough for him to drop it.

"Oh, please. We all know a bad marriage when we see it. Not once have I heard Walker speak of him except for the first day when the redheaded stewardess brought it up. Must I point out the wedding ring that is conveniently missing?" he wiggled his ring finger to prove his point.

"I uh-," he didn't get any further though as Sarah entered the cockpit.

"Captain Walker, you're back. I hope you had a good talk with whomever it was on the other side of that line?" Roan said, his eyes moving between Sarah and Chuck. Ignoring Roan's gaze on him, Chuck lifted his eyes from his cup and tried to read Sarah's features.

She seemed normal; a little tired maybe, but apart from that, it was hard to tell whether the phone call had been a happy or sad one.

"Um, yeah. It was fine," she said, stowing her phone in the left side pocket of her jacket, seemingly evading both men's eyes.

"Chuck?" she then asked, lifting her head to look at him directly. A pool of warmth circled in his lower stomach, the morning flashing before him once again. Who was he kidding? He couldn't stop thinking about it.

"Chuck?" she repeated.

"Hm?"

"Can I have my seat back?" the corners of her mouth curled upwards in amusement as his face turned red.

"Oh, yes. Of course, um. Sorry," he quickly got up from the chair, knocking over the cup of coffee he had placed on the ground just moments ago.

"Charles, that's the second time you've spilled," Montgomery said, getting up as well to take some more napkins.

"The second time?" Sarah asked curiously, giving Chuck a hand with the cleanup. As their hands touched, Chuck raised his head, noticing how close they were to one another. His Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed nervously.

"Uh yeah, twice. I can be a little clumsy at times. You know me," he got up quickly, her touch still burning on his skin.

She giggled.

"Yeah, I guess I do."

"Alright, Charles. No more coffee for you. Please return to your seat. I wouldn't want to alert the 138 passengers on this flight that their arrival time in LA will be delayed because someone was so careless to bring an uncapped hot drink onto the flight deck."

With some flare, Chuck flopped down onto the rather uncomfortable seat against the back wall, which earned him a chuckle from Sarah whose eyes lingered on him a little longer than usual before she turned around to start the plane's taxi.


The flight was uneventful. Uneventful in the sense that whatever it was that had transpired in the early hours of that morning at the hotel room in Queens was now far gone. In comparison to the previous flight that Chuck had accompanied Sarah on, Roan was actually awake this time around, and he chatted away for most of it.

Chuck, who hadn't slept nearly as much as he had hoped since he'd worried for half of it, quickly dozed off. He only awoke when the airplane shuddered under the impact of its wheels connecting with the LAX tarmac.

"Good afternoon, sleeping beauty," he heard Roan say from behind the wheel. He heard Sarah chuckle, as she said a bunch of numbers into the headset.

"How'd you sleep, Chuck?" she asked over her shoulder. It was late into the afternoon; the sun was pouring into the space creating an angel like halo around Sarah's blond hairs. Chuck stretched loudly to announce his contentment, feeling his joints pop back into place as the aircraft came to a halt by the terminal gate.

Roan had just finished welcoming his passengers at LAX airport and announced the local time, when Sarah got up from her seat.

"You've got it from here?" she asked, retrieving her suitcase and her jacket that she must have taken off during the flight.

"Yes, Walker. Of course, I've got it. I'm not Captain Roan Montgomery for nothing," he rolled his r which earned him a good-natured laugh from both Chuck and Sarah.

"Good flying with you today, Sarah. Now, go, go," he shooed her away, his other hand on one of the flashing buttons in front of him.

"Alright, I can see I'm no longer wanted," she feigned hurt, winking at Chuck while draping her jacket over her arm.

Chuck laughed warmly, coming to stand in front of her. He felt his nerves returning with full force now. This is it, he thought to himself. She's done flying for the day, nowhere she needs to be; it will be just us, and we can talk about this morning, and what it might mean. He sighed away some of the jitters, his mouth about to open when she spoke.

"So… I'll see you around?" she asked.

"Uh…," not what he'd expected. Maybe she didn't want to have this conversation in front of Roan, he mused.

"Sure," he smiled unsurely, which caused Sarah to wince. He'd wanted to say a lot more than that but he didn't want to appear too intense.

"Ok, well…," she hesitated briefly, glancing back at Roan who was currently writing down some figures. Satisfied, it seemed, she moved closer and lifted onto her tiptoes to place a soft kiss on his cheek.

"Call me when you hear something," she said softly, her words only meant for him. Then, she lowered herself again, said her final goodbye and exited the plane.

He was about to run after her, his hand on his cheek, her lips still hot on his skin, when Montgomery stopped him.

"Ah-ah, let her go," he removed his headset, and swirled around in his chair as if he were some kind of king, or a mobster perhaps.

Chuck glanced at the door for another second, before he finally relented and brought his attention to the white-haired man in front of him.

"A great man once said it will give her the illusion of being pursued," Chuck smiled at that.

"You trust me?" Roan got up, and swung a purple scarf around his neck elegantly.

"Yeah?"

"Good. Do you own a white dinner jacket?" he asked as he ushered Chuck out the door.


Chuck was giddy as he exited his Nerd Herder with a rose in one hand, a bottle of wine in the other. He even had a skip in his step as he walked up the pathway to Carina's house. The white jacket was a little too big for his narrow frame, but he wasn't going to complain since it already was a small miracle in itself to have found one on such short notice.

He was at the front door in seconds, his heart beating enthusiastically in his chest. He inhaled deeply, took a last glance at himself in the small window's reflection to make sure that his hair was somewhat passable before he pressed the doorbell.

The evening had fallen by now. By the time he'd finally exited the airport, driven to three different rental places before finding the illustrious dinner jacket, and picked up the bottle and the rose, the sun had given way to the moon, and the street lights had flickered on.

It took a while for any of the inhabitants to open. Now that he thought about it, how sure was he to even find either Sarah or Carina at home? Apart from the weekly flight schedule Sarah had told him about, he realized he knew fairly little about the rest of the pilot's calendar. For all he knew, Tuesday was Salsa night? Who knew?

But it wasn't even that, he reflected. How much did he really know about the woman he was head over heels for? He knew that he liked her immensely and that he'd never seen a more beautiful woman in his life before. He knew the obvious things, that she'd been flying with her dad from a very young age, that she'd been somewhat of a national treasure at some point, and that something had happened to her dad.

It had been in a lot of newspapers at the time, seeing as the country had suddenly lost one of their great American heroes. Chuck had been at Stanford then. He'd been happy, everything had seemed to be going his way. He and Jill had been in a committed long-term relationship; he had been acing all his courses which allowed him to keep riding a full scholarship.

The news of the celebrated pilot's death had almost flown passed him if it weren't for his bearded friend Morgan who'd showed up at his dorm one night wondering if now was a good time for him to reach out to his daughter Sarah Walker.

"Who?" he'd remembered asking.

"Come on, dude. We've been over this. Sarah Walker," Chuck had shaken his head in bewilderment.

"The blond pilot chick, you know, the one who used to travel with her dad to all those cool airports? The one on the cover of uh- like every magazine four years ago?"

"Right. What happened to her anyway? Haven't seen her on anything in ages," Chuck had asked, remembering the obsession Morgan used to have.

"She went to USAFA in Colorado, dude. D'you think she's still up there? Maybe I can fly over, provide her some comfort?"

"Sure, buddy. I bet she's at the airport right now waiting for you to show up. What are you waiting for?" he'd pushed his friend out of his dorm room. It had been 3 am and he had been studying like a mad man for his upcoming exam with Professor Fleming.

"Do you really think so?" Morgan had wondered in earnest.

The door finally opened, and while Chuck was glad to see it was Sarah, her appearance wasn't at all what he was expecting. She sounded winded, her cheeks were a little red, and the bun he'd seen her make this morning had come loose. But what really threw Chuck off was her clothes, or better yet, the lack thereof. She was wearing a pencil skirt, its zipper only half pulled up, as she was frantically buttoning up the white blouse that was half sticking out of her skirt.

Her eyes widened at the sight of Chuck, clearly surprised to have him standing there as she'd run to the door. Then her eyes caught on to the bottle and rose in Chuck's hands, the white diner jacket, and her mouth fell open. She quickly recovered as she said:

"Chuck, hi," she finished the final button of her blouse as the door opened wider, and Bryce joined her at her side. He was wearing a black three-piece suit, the tie still in the process of being tied.

"Hey, he's the guy from last week," Bryce said as he gave Chuck his best Colgate smile.


"Chuck, where have you been? We've been worried sick," was the first thing he heard as he entered the apartment. He'd gotten rid of the jacket, given the rose and bottle to a happy couple out on a late-night stroll. If he hadn't, he was sure it would have been part of Ellie's interrogation right about now. Luckily it wasn't.

He welcomed the hug she had sprung on him, and held on to her longer than strictly necessary, but he didn't care. He could use all the comfort he could get. He hadn't stayed long in front of Carina's door. Bryce seemed like a good guy; at no point had he wondered what some random dude was doing in a white dinner jacket, with a rose and a bottle of wine to see his wife. For all he cared, Chuck might have been there to see Carina.

Sarah hadn't seemed to know how to respond, but to be quite honest, he hadn't really given her the time to. He wasn't completely sure he knew what he had walked in on, but he wasn't stupid either. It was quite obvious he'd interrupted a moment between the pair he thought was getting divorced.

"Chuck," she had yelled behind him, but he had just continued walking. If she had been alone, he probably would have stayed to hear her explanation. To be fair, she wouldn't have had to explain herself if it weren't for Bryce.

He needed time to regroup. Time to really think about what he'd experienced, felt, done and witnessed in the past two weeks. He'd been so consumed by how the pilot made him feel, that he'd barely stopped to think about all the crimes he was committing so carelessly. Most of all, he'd been neglecting his own family and friends in the process.

It was only now that he was in her arms, that he realized how much he'd missed the presence of his sister.

"Chuck, are you ok?" she asked, moving her brother to the couch as he didn't seem to want to loosen his grip on her. Since it was impossible for the siblings to sit down like that, Chuck let go and slumped onto the couch, his hands in his hair.

"Talk to me, Chuck. Morgan told me you didn't come in to work yesterday or today. Is this about the interview from a few weeks ago? Did something happen at the Buy More?"

Shit.

That made him feel even worse. On top of rarely being there these days, he'd also lied more to Ellie in the span of those two weeks than he'd done in his entire lifetime. But that would change tonight. He was done lying to her.

"Ellie, she has a husband," he said.

"What?" the gentle strokes on his back ended.

"You mean Sarah?"

He didn't respond, because his posture said it all.

"Oh, that woman, if I ever see her again I'm going to-"

"No, Ellie, it's not her fault. I knew," that made Ellie stop immediately. Chuck didn't need to look at her to know she was disappointed as he confessed.

"I knew she was married but I went after her anyway," he looked down at the dress shoes he'd rented out and forgotten to return.

"What about that date then?" she asked after a moment.

"Um…," as much as he wanted to tell her, he knew he couldn't. Telling her about Sarah was one thing, telling her about the blackmailing… he sighed.

"She told me they're getting divorced, I don't know much about it. We rarely even talk about her husband, if I'm being honest. God, Ellie. I feel like such an idiot. I thought I'd never go after a married woman but then I met her, and she was so perfect. I didn't even know she was married until she told me she was in the middle of a divorce."

"But if she's getting divorced, what happened? Where were you yesterday?" she asked.

"We –um, went on a date and I stayed over," his ears turned a little red at that. Ellie was equally uncomfortable so she quickly asked:"Uhu, and then?"

"I had to go on an install today, and I thought I'd surprise her. So, after work, I headed to her place…" he got upset again as the image of her opening the door filled his mind.

"When I opened the door, she was buttoning up her shirt, and her husband was there," He didn't need to say more. Ellie sighed loudly, and wrapped her arms around him for another hug.

"I'm so sorry, brother."

"Yeah, me too, sis."

They stayed like that for a while, both lost in thought, until the buzzing of Chuck's phone interrupted their silence.

"Is that Sarah?" his sister asked with a yawn. It was only now that he noticed she was still in her scrubs. She must have come home from a long shift, and decided to wait up for her brother who hadn't been home in two days.

"Um yeah," he said, realizing it wasn't his regular phone but the burner one.

"I'm going to take that in my bedroom. Thanks for waiting up for me, sis. I love you," he placed a kiss on her forehead and retreated to his bedroom.

"Love you too, little brother. Sleep tight," she said.

While he was still hurting, he was now more angry at himself than anything else. Even though he had twisted the reality a little in his retelling to Ellie, it became painfully clear that he and Sarah had never really talked about it.

He had had to find out from Carina that she was married, and from Casey that she was getting divorced. And it had been Montgomery who had pointed out that it didn't seem like the best of marriages. Chuck was mad at himself that he'd gotten his hopes up so much, and created expectations for him and Sarah while they'd never actually talked about it.

Yes, she had flirted, and yes, she'd been very much engaged in the kissing this morning. Had it only been this morning? It felt like ages ago. Even so, that didn't mean that she had signed a contract saying she'd be Chuck's girl from now on. She was still a free woman, who apparently seemed to be kissing both her soon-to-be-ex and her partner in crime.

What a mess.

He sighed, and finally pulled out his burner phone.

Shit.


"This is Sarah, please leave a message."

"Hi, this is Chuck. Of, course it's Chuck, you know that. You have eyes. Um- sorry for leaving you all those messages but I really need your help, Sarah. I wouldn't be calling you if I didn't. I know I shouldn't have come over to your place yesterday without invitation, I apologize for that. I guess I should also apologize for yesterday morning, I didn't mean to kiss you. Uh- no, well I did. I guess you got that I wanted to kiss you, otherwise you wouldn't have kissed me ba- What I'm trying to say is-"

"Sir?" Chuck looked up from his phone. He was the only one left in line, all the other passengers had already boarded the plane to Chicago. The brunette stewardess gave him a professional, patient smile.

"Right, sorry. Hold on," he held his phone between his head and shoulder, while he searched for his wallet. Meanwhile, his minutes were up and the phone beeped loudly to let him know it had stopped recording.

"Here you go," he said quickly, taking his phone to redial.

"This is Sarah, please leave a message."

"Hi, Sarah. Chuck again. What I wanted to- thank you," he said as the flight attendant returned him his ticket.

"Sarah, I need you. I can't do this assignment alone, ok? They want me to get to an island in the middle of Lake Michigan, to steal some highly secret information from some deceased general of the United States Air Force. They want it tonight, if I don't… look, my flight is leaving in two, and I'm getting on it. Please, if you hear this-"

Beeep.

He sighed. He had done everything he could. After reading the assignment last night, he had put his personal feelings aside and immediately called Sarah. Unlike his previous assignments, he couldn't imagine how he was supposed to pull it off. It was as if they had forgotten that Chuck was a mere tech genius, not a spy.

He didn't know how to get to an island undetected, break into a house to tap into someone's computer. While Sarah wasn't a spy either, at least she'd had a military training and she knew how to fly. If Chuck had to choose someone he knew to help him out on this mission, the only person he could think of that'd fit the bill was Sarah. Her or maybe Devon, but he couldn't implicate him.

"Sir, please move onto the airplane. They're all waiting for you," the flight attendant said, her patience starting to crack.

"Can't we wait a minute longer? I'm waiting for someone," he looked around the crowded terminal hoping he'd spot Sarah's blond locks, hoping that she'd heard his message, gotten into her car and was simply late due to traffic. She lives next to the airport, you doofus.

"That's impossible, Sir. The flight is fully booked and you're the last passenger."

For a millisecond, he thought he saw Sarah in a group of UCLA frat boys, and his hopes went up, but they were soon crushed as the person turned around and they looked nothing like her.

"Sir?"

"Right. I guess I must have been mistaken," he smiled politely, the smile never travelling to his eyes. With one last glance, he turned his back on the terminal, walked down the corridor, and boarded the plane.


A/N: There you have it, folks. Hopefully that wasn't too bad and you're ready for the next part. This chapter is again a little shorter, but the next one's length should definitely make up for it!

Next on Chuck vs the Pilot: You'll learn what Bryce was doing there, why Sarah was in a state of undress, and you'll visit an island in Lake Michigan.

Please review! :)