I do not own Chuck

Part 8

Budapest, Hungary

"Chuck, I got a problem," Sarah thought that even to herself she sounded desperate.

"Sarah, are you OK?" Chuck's voice sounded concerned down the phone line.

"No! I really need your help," she explained.

"What happened?" he asked, now sounding worried.

"Kieran's on the take," she explained desperately. "The whole mission is a con. Off the books. I'm sure it's not even sanctioned. I had to kill a whole bunch of people and the package is a little baby. I think he meant to kidnap her." The baby gave a high-pitched scream.

"What was that?" came Chuck's startled exclamation. "Sarah, are you OK?"

"I'm not hurt, Chuck," she told him, apart from my ears, she moaned internally. How mothers put up with this, she just didn't know. The poor kid had a great set of lungs on her and Sarah's hearing was acutely sensitive. "The baby's not happy."

"Where are you Sarah?" he asked.

"In a hotel near Gyor," she explained. "I had to get out of Budapest. Can you meet me in Vienna if I can get across the border?"

She heard him take a deep breath, then, "I'll be on the next flight."

Thank God for Chuck. "Thank you Chuck," she intoned gratefully. "I'm so far out of my depth here it's not even funny."

It had all seemed just like normal when she was assigned to the operation. Sarah, and much of the CIA's upper echelons, was still reeling from Graham's death. While she had found herself becoming less close to Graham over the past eighteen months since Chuck had come into her life, the fact remained that it was he who had recruited her, who had mentored her and looked out for her in the first few years of her career. His death had been a shock and doubly so because it looked like it was a Fulcrum hit which took him out and injured Diane Beckman, a senior NSA official, as well. Given that Sarah had been involved in the fight against Fulcrum, she didn't think it reflected well on her that the CIA's Deputy Director had been taken out by the group that she was trying to destroy.

Graham's death had led to her being recalled from the multi-agency anti-Fulcrum task force and she had found herself back on general duties for a while before the mission with Kieran had come up.

She'd known Kieran Ryker for years and couldn't quite believe that he could have been a traitor. She thought back to when they'd worked together before and couldn't recognise any signs. Maybe it had been a relatively new thing? Perhaps even brought about by Graham's death? She didn't know. And she certainly hadn't suspected while the briefing was going on or even once she'd arrived in Budapest.

The first inkling she'd had that things weren't what they seemed was once she'd got into the building and found the bodies of the baby's parents. Of course, that had been after she'd already fought off multiple armed hostiles. The fact that Kieran would give so few details about the operation had already raised Sarah's finely-tuned hackles and then his desperation to rescue "the package" had further worried her. She'd ended up leaving via the back entrance and going to ground, unsure if she could trust Ryker. A later phone conversation had proven she couldn't, and she'd been extremely grateful to Chuck for making sure she had recording functionality on her cell phone because it meant that the conversation was backed up and she was able to alert Langley to Ryker's duplicity rather than worry that he would accuse her.

But that didn't mean that she was safe. And, more importantly, it didn't assure the baby's safety. So she had reached out to the only person in the world that she was absolutely certain she could trust. Her boyfriend. And like the wonderful person he was, he had dropped everything and was flying across the Atlantic to help her.

"Thank God you're here," Sarah wasn't one for histrionics usually, but she felt ever so slightly out of her depth with recent developments. To be fair, the baby wasn't too out of control, but Sarah had no experience with diaper changing, screaming, cleaning or anything required for babies, and she was desperate for some help. She knew (because he'd told her) that Chuck had had vacation jobs working with kids and hoped he may be able to help her out. Both with the here and now and their future strategy.

Closing the hotel room door behind him, Chuck pulled her into a tight hug and Sarah couldn't help the moan of contentment that escaped her. She'd missed him. There were no two ways about it. Going from seeing him several days a week to not seeing him at all, and then not even being in the same country as him, was tough and her withdrawal was very un-Sarah Walker-like, she reflected. Nevertheless she liked who she was much more now under Chuck's influence and if that meant that she was less Sarah Walker-like, then so be it.

"I missed you," he whispered into her ear, maintaining the reassuring pressure and unconsciously echoing Sarah's thoughts. They stayed like that for a minute before a high-pitched scream interrupted them.

"Sarah?" Chuck questioned, pulling away.

"This," Sarah replied, walking over to the bed and picking up the little bundle of towels, "Is baby." She sighed sadly. "I don't even know what her name is." She hugged the baby to her chest and the little girl instantly relaxed.

"I don't know why you needed me, Sarah," said Chuck. "You seem to have everything down fine."

"But I don't know what to do with a baby, Chuck!" Sarah exclaimed. "I'm a CIA officer for God's sake! What business do I have looking after a baby?"

"I didn't say you had any business, honey," Chuck placated. "Just that you're pretty good at it. Look, the little girl likes you." He lightened his voice and tone and reached out with a finger. "Hello little one."

The little girl reached out for the appendage and burbled happily. Sarah sighed in relief.

"What have you fed her?" Chuck asked, letting the baby play with his finger.

"Just some milk and some chocolate," Sarah replied.

"Oh-kay," Chuck returned doubtfully.

"I don't know what babies eat Chuck!" she exclaimed angrily and regretted it as soon as she had, since the baby seemed to pick up on her exasperation and screamed.

Chuck smiled at her. "You're doing OK Sarah, just relax." He reached out to squeeze her shoulder. "You're doing much better than you think, you know." He paused. "Why don't I go out now and get some food and equipment? You girls stay here and get some rest and I'll be back in a few hours."

"But you only just got here," Sarah complained.

"Yeah, but we're not going to be able to get much thinking or planning done until she's more comfortable," Chuck explained. "And then you'll need a break as well."

"OK," Sarah agreed, looking down at the now more-relaxed bundle in her arms.

"I'll text when I'm downstairs," Chuck announced, palming a key card from the table and heading for the door. "So you don't get a shock when I open the door."

"OK," Sarah agreed, sitting down on the bed, still cradling the baby. Suddenly she felt tired. Now that Chuck was here it looked like this nightmare may be about to end.

"See you soon," Chuck whispered, before closing the door.

"What did your Mom say?" Chuck asked as Sarah came into the room. He had had to go back to DC several times during the several weeks it had taken the tweo of them to get here, but he'd come back each time. Sarah was grateful; she didn't think she could have coped with this on her own.

Chuck looked closely at her then and, obviously ascertaining the situation from her red-rimmed eyes, he climbed to his feet and crossed over to wrap her in a hug. "That bad?"

Sarah relaxed into the hug. They'd managed to make it back to here by virtue of a meandering route via the UK, Miami and up to Dallas, and now they were safely ensconced in a safe house that she owned near Rockwall. They'd developed a plan which involved reaching out to the only other person in Sarah's life that she could trust in this instance; her mom.

"She was shocked," Sarah confessed, "Unsurprisingly, I guess. Then she was angry. Pretty angry." Sarah was unsurprised that Mom had been angry with her. It was a long time after all. She had agreed to meet with Sarah to discuss the situation. That was probably the best that Sarah could expect under the circumstances, she guessed.

"Will she meet you?" Chuck asked, still hugging her. Sarah had never been a hugger but Chuck was, and she'd grown to love his hugs. The feel of his warm body against hers and being wrapped in his arms. In her view, there was nothing better in the whole world.

"Yes, but I'm not hopeful," Sarah admitted. "We may have to go with Plan B."

They had hatched the plans on the way back from Europe. They had looked at all the different options and batted around several ideas, but in the end their strategy distilled down to two separate plans. Plan A was for Sarah's mom Emma to take the baby and bring her up the way Sarah wished she'd been brought up. Plan B was for Sarah to leave the CIA, go underground, and bring the baby up the way she wished she'd been brought up. After two weeks with the baby Sarah was veering towards Plan B and she couldn't quite believe it. But the little ball of trouble had come to mean so much to her. She wondered how different it would have been if she hadn't met Chuck? She wondered how old-Sarah Walker would have handled being left with a baby? She probably would have gone with Plan A. The problem was that Chuck was great with the baby - who they were calling Kat for ease - and, once Chuck had advised her what to do, she found she was pretty good with baby Kat too. And she had genuinely grown to care for the little noisemaker.

But the problem was that Plan B involved being away from Chuck for a very long time as he protected them and ensured they managed to get away OK. It could be years until they'd be able to be together. But they would be eventually, and if the plan was successful it would enable them to escape the Intelligence Community once and for all. Of course, there was a Plan C as well; but after two weeks, that was unaccepetable to her. They could just leave the baby at an orphanage and wish her a happy life. But that was only going to happen over her dead body.

"So, I guess it's Plan B then," Sarah's voice was melancholy and Chuck could understand that. The meeting with her Mom had not gone well. While the woman had been happy to see Sarah (or Sam, as she'd called her), there was a definite residual anger and hurt there. Sarah had picked up on it and even Chuck had picked up on it over the wire that Sarah wore. As Sarah had explained the plan, the importance of her having no contact with Emma and the baby, Emma had risen to her feet and started pacing and Chuck could tell from the way Sarah's clothes rustled that she was tensing. He thought that the Sarah he'd first met would probably have ignored the anger, but the Sarah that he now knew was more empathic and he knew she was in turn hurt by her mother's reaction to her.

She'd been a young kid after all. It was her parents who'd screwed up her life in Chuck's view. They should have taken responsibility and decided who'd get custody between them, not forced Sarah to choose.

Emma had agreed to take the child for the four to five weeks it would take Sarah to quit the CIA but she'd said that she didn't want the responsibility longer than that. Chuck supposed that was the best they could have hoped for under the circumstances. He thought that the woman expected that Sarah would be around with the baby after that and she'd be able to be involved in their lives but, of course, that wasn't the plan. After Sarah quit the CIA she'd simply disappear. Chuck was already working on building and improving some identities for Sarah and baby Kat to help them get away, and they would settle overseas. At the moment they were veering towards France.

"I can't believe it came to this," Sarah's voice was melancholy and Chuck could understand why. Their relationship had been progressing well. They would have expected to see more of each other over the next few months. Unfortunately now they'd not see each other at all. Probably for years.

But Chuck knew that once Sarah's mother refused to take the baby, that this would be the endgame. Sarah Walker was many things but his ninja spy wasn't the sort of person that would surrender baby Kat into an orphanage and she wanted to give the little girl a happy, healthy upbringing. And what Sarah wanted, Chuck wanted. The way he saw it, it was three or four years of being apart followed by an entire lifetime of being together. And when you looked at it in those terms then he guessed it was a reasonable sacrifice to make.

He was sad though, but he needed to hold it together for Sarah. "I've made you three different identities," he explained. "One for getting out of the States, I've improved the one for France and there's an emergency one for if you need to go on the run." He paused, squeezing her tightly. "You remember the addresses of the contact websites and email addresses and the passwords?"

"Yes Chuck," she replied in a long suffering way and he knew that was the fourth time he'd asked that.

"I know," he replied. "But it's bad enough I won't see you for three years. I couldn't hack it if I couldn't have any contact with you at all."

"I understand," she said, squeezing him. Her arms were so strong yet so tender and Chuck could never get over what a badass his ninja spy girl was. She'd totally rocked his world. He'd never thought anyone as amazing as Sarah would be attracted to nerdy Chuck Bartowski, that was for sure. But she had been and Chuck had been amazingly happy with her.

"OK," he said, looking at the time. "I guess this is it." He didn't want it to be, but her flight was leaving in less than four hours. He'd have wanted to come to the airport so that he could see her off, but there were too many cameras there and they had to keep their relationship under wraps. That was the key to him protecting her, after all.

"OK," she said, pulling back, and he saw there were tears in her eyes. "I want to thank you Chuck, for being there for me, for helping me through this. I couldn't have done it without you."

He pulled her back in. "Of course I'd help you through this. Anything Sarah. I love you."

She squeezed him tight again. "I love you too."

It took another ten minutes until they were able to part.

Chuck sighed and pressed the key and all evidence that Sarah Walker had ever been present at Paris's Charles de Gaulle airport ceased to exist. He had systematically gone through and erased all video camera evidence of Sarah's trip throughout the US and Europe, to cover her tracks, and now she was in France. His task over the next several months was to erase all facial recognition data that the US Government held on one Sarah Walker in any of her incarnations. That was a job for Mr P Rana, not for Charles Bartowski, NSA wunderkind. Charles Bartowski's day job would be focusing on beating Fulcrum. Once Mr P Rana had erased all facial recognition data for Sarah Walker he could work on finding Kieran Ryker. Given that the entire US intelligence apparatus was searching for Ryker and hadn't found him, he was realistic that it could take months or years to find out where Ryker had ended up.

That was alright. He had time. It would take time to beat Fulcrum. He had agreed with Sarah that he would deal with the IC's Fulcrum problem before he resigned from the NSA. Some things needed to be done and the world would be a safer place to bring up Kat in if the Fulcrum problem was dealt with once and for all. And Sarah would be safer as well. Because for some reason Fulcrum had a thing about her. And Chuck had found out that that pertained even after Graham was dead and she'd resigned from the CIA. Fulcrum were still looking for her, and he didn't know why. It didn't matter; they would never find her. Not while there was a breath of air remaining in his body.

He looked longingly at the last remaining image, one of a woman and a baby at Paris's Gare du Lyon train station. The woman looked tired but vibrant. The baby in her walker, happy. Chuck wanted so much to be a part of that image. He swallowed. Someday he would be.

So, a slightly melancholy ending to this chapter, but we know that they found one another eventually. Next chapter will be the last.

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