Thanks for all the reviews last chapter. Now the return of an old favourite character!

Unfortunately I don't own Chuck

Part 6

Bogota, Colombia & Washington DC, September 2005

Hold there. Just checking for pursuit. The words flashed up on Sarah's cellphone as she and Carina sheltered in a doorway from the tropical rainstorm which seemed to be providing excellent cover from their pursuers.

Thanks, she typed.

"So who the fuck is this Wizard, anyway?" Carina asked as she ejected her spent magazine and grabbed another one from a holster she kept around her waist.

Sarah had pondered the answer to this question which she was sure would come up. "He's a hacker," she admitted.

"Oooh, a hacker!" Carina grinned salaciously, seemingly all memory of the pursuing drug gang gone from her mind. "I've heard they're very good with their hands – are they?" Carina lifted her eyebrows and Sarah knew her friend was waiting for her to brush off the comment, but this time Sarah would meet fire with fire.

"Well, he certainly is," she grinned at her friend's dumbfounded expression, before going in for the kill. "But he's better with his tongue!"

Sarah had known after only one meeting that her intention to keep Chuck as only a friend had been doomed to failure. She'd fought a sterling rear guard action, but had given in by the third date. The problem was that Chuck was just too good.

Sarah had never met anyone before like him and the way he made her feel so warm inside was totally unique. No-one had ever made her feel like that before. Here was a man who liked her for who she was – just Sarah, not some kickass CIA agent. Here was a man who understood that she did a difficult job, wasn't threatened by her physical abilities and wasn't threatened by her mental abilities either. He enjoyed intellectual conversations, he was intellectually stimulating, and he always asked for her opinion and made attempts to understand her point of view, even if he didn't agree.

Sarah had never met a man like that in her line of work. In her experience, men were threatened by a women who was competent physically and by one who was competent intellectually, but that was not Chuck.

Plus he was so empathic. The first time they'd met up after the Moscow mission had been after one of her missions - this one in Prague - had gone wrong. She'd made it back to DC to give her report, been reamed out by Graham when it hadn't even been her fault that the mission was screwed up, and put on ice for a week. Feeling the need to be cheered up, she'd texted to see if Chuck was around and he'd called almost immediately. Responding to the fact that she felt depressed, he'd laid on a day of activities designed to cheer her up, including visiting a beautiful botanic garden, a fairground and then dinner and a movie. And all the time he'd spent bolstering her fragile self-esteem until she felt better.

That was when she realised that there just wasn't anyone else like Chuck Bartowski out there. But having told herself they'd just be friends, she been too stubborn to want to break her word to herself so soon.

That resolve was tested three weeks later when, on a mission in Belgrade, he'd called to tell her to abort. This time her Spidey sense (Chuck's description, not hers!) hadn't warned her, but it seemed that he had been working on the peripherals of the operation and the Fulcrum problem was rearing its head again. Knowing Chuck was keeping an eye out for her left her with a warm feeling inside. Nobody else in her life had ever cared about her enough to keep an eye on her. Focusing more on her surroundings she had picked up the tail and aborted without telling her control. That had ended up being the right decision.

Later that week she'd had it out with Graham and he'd finally let her all the way into the Fulcrum situation. She could understand why he'd held off, given how substantial it was, but given she'd nearly been taken out twice now purely for being his ally, she felt she deserved to know.

She had texted Chuck and asked to meet up and they had discussed the Fulcrum situation in general terms before they'd gone on for dinner. Sarah had managed to control her hormones but, when they'd kissed goodnight, with considerably more familiarly than they had the last time, she'd known that there was an attraction on both sides and it was only a matter of time.

The third date had also come between missions. She'd just undertaken a particularly rough undercover mission in Eastern Europe which had resulted in her being beaten several times over the course of a few days. Eventually she'd managed to call in the cavalry and the human trafficking ring had been taken down but, even several days after, she was still feeling fragile.

Chuck had taken one look at her and, abandoning his plans, took her to his apartment which had a huge tub, running her a hot bath and leaving her to stew in it for some time. More comfortable, he'd then laid her down to relax on his bed. They'd bummed around the apartment for the weekend, during which time the last of their inhibitions had deserted them. The sex had been fantastic and the last hot bath had been a his and hers activity!

After that they'd not looked back in their personal relationship and Chuck took a more than professional interest in some of her missions, even when she wasn't involved in anti-Fulcrum missions which fell within his remit. Which was how he had been able to offer her a safe exit route with Carina when this mission had gone to hell in a handbasket!

Sarah jerked out of her recollection, conscious of the fact that Carina was still staring at her. "You screwed him?" she eventually gasped. "You, Sarah Walker, the Ice Queen, screwed a hacker?"

"Yeah," she replied nonchalantly, checking her cell phone which now had a new message. Thanks for the compliment. You're rather good with your tongue too!

She grinned, blushing slightly, looking around and trying to figure how he could see her and hear her. Carina was looking at her strangely. "What, Red?" she asked the other woman.

"Do you really like this guy?" the DEA agent asked.

"He's pretty special," she admitted, giving up her search.

Her screen was updating again. Stand by to break cover. There's a car coming up. When the distraction happens run to the end of the street and turn right. There's parked cars there you should be able to hotwire.

OK, she typed.

"He's gonna make a distraction and then we'll have to run for it," she told Carina, checking her gun.

The redhead looked dubious and Sarah sighed and showed her the message.

"Nice one," the other agent grinned. "Does he do other agencies or just CIA?"

Sarah was about to tell the redhead what she thought of that when the phone vibrated again. Carina's not my type, it said. Tell her that rather than killing her!

"Just CIA," she replied through gritted teeth, hearing a whining noise like a plane diving, just as a green sedan turned the corner of the street they were on.

She looked up just as what looked like a drone whizzed past and impacted on the windscreen of the car, exploding in a flash.

"Go!" she yelled at Carina, not even pausing to look at the crippled car. There was no pursuit and they were able to get away cleanly.

"Sarah, thanks for coming in today." Sarah raised her eyebrows in surprise as Graham didn't stop at his desk but proceeded to lead her into the conference room adjacent to the DCI's office. There were already a number of people there. She swept her eyes over the occupants and found that she recognised all of them. NSA Assistant Director of Special Projects Cassandra Damingham was present. She'd never met the woman, but she'd made it a point to look up Chuck's boss. Agent Rob Lowell was also present from the NSA, as well as Peter Robards, assistant director of the NCS and Graham's deputy.

Graham sat down and beckoned her to do so as well. He flicked a switch on the desk which Sarah knew caused the windows and doors to vibrate to block out any acoustic microphones.

"This meeting is about our little Fulcrum problem," Graham started, dispensing with the pleasantries as was his normal behaviour. "Analysis by the NSA has indicated that our problem is bigger than we initially anticipated and we need to set up a team to help clear it up." He looked at Sarah and Rob. "You two have been fully read into the situation?" he asked.

He knew Sarah had because he'd briefed her when she'd got back from Colombia last weekend. Graham had been incandescent to find out that another mission had been disrupted by Fulcrum and had demanded to know Sarah's source. In order to protect Chuck's identity, Sarah had stated that she had someone on the inside but didn't know who it was that the warnings were coming from. Graham hadn't been happy but was clearly prepared to accept any help he could get.

It seemed Rob Lowell was also up to speed because he nodded.

"OK, you two are going to be the tip of our spear, backed up by a couple of analysts and other resources." Sarah kept the surprise out of her expression. She was pretty sure that the "other resources" were Chuck but that the NSA was keeping his involvement a secret. She knew that he wasn't a common or garden analyst from what had happened in Russia, plus other discussions with him, but she still didn't really know what he did on a day to day basis when he wasn't either wining and dining her or saving her life!

"Colonel?" Graham invited.

"Agent Walker," the woman Chuck called Aunt Cassie was professional-looking but the crows feet around her eyes suggested that she liked to smile. "Fulcrum seems obsessed by you. We've tracked at least six attempts to take you out over the past year. Do you know why?"

"Six?" she gasped, letting her shock show this time. "I was only aware of two." While that was true officially, actually (thanks to Chuck) she knew of four, but still…six?

The Colonel gave her a serious look. "NSA resources have been committed on at least six separate occasions to protect you," she explained. "I can't tell you when or how, but I've shared that with Director Graham. I'm afraid it's a need to know matter on the resource, but it is true."

"I've never been approached Ma'am," she replied, "As far as I'm aware." She looked at Graham with her eyebrows raised.

"Agent Walker takes care of a lot of our most sensitive jobs," he said, musing. "It could be that she is perceived as either a threat to Fulcrum or as a key ally of myself."

"Well, whatever's going on, we've managed to make a breakthrough based on the most-recent operation," Damingham explained, "And we traced the orders back to this man. Do you know him?"

There was a gasp from the CIA members of the meeting. "That's Tommy Delgado!" exclaimed Robards. Delgado was a senior case officer in the NCS and well-respected within the organisation.

"It is," continued Damingham grimly, "And our analysts have been able to make a number of breakthroughs by hacking into his personal files and following up on some digital leads. We now need some human information collection and that's where the two of you come in. I can't emphasise to you how careful you have to be given that it's clear we've got multiple penetrations." Rob and her looked at each other and nodded. "Here's what we want you to do…"

"So I guess you made it official?" Sarah raised her eyebrow at Chuck as he took a seat on her sofa. He was taking her out to dinner but she'd asked him to come a little early

"Official?" he looked surprised. "I thought we were official last month? That's what you said, anyway?"

She smiled as she realised that she could have been clearer. "I meant that you're gonna be watching over me…" she grinned, "Some might even call it stalking."

"It's only stalking if you don't like it Agent Walker," he grinned back, stretching languorously. "Besides, if you didn't like it, I know you could more than kick my butt!"

She sat down next to him. That right there was one of the reasons that Chuck was different than anyone else she'd ever been in a relationship with. That self-deprecating humour. "Just so you know, I don't call it stalking," she told him. "I'm really touched that you care enough to look out for me. I've never had anyone in my life who cared about me that way before."

He pulled her into a hug, seemingly mindful of her close to the surface emotions. He was always very respectful of her emotionally in a way that nobody had ever been of her before. "You deserve to have someone who looks out for you Sarah Walker," he told her, laying his head against hers.

She smiled into his hair and then leaned over and gave him a peck on the cheek. Pulling back, she asked the question she'd been agonising over. "Aunt Cassie wouldn't admit you were on the team, Rob would barely admit it. Just what is it you do Chuck?"

He looked at her pensively. "You pretty much know Sarah," he replied. "I'm an analyst, a hacker, but I guess I'm also what you'd call a handler – I manage agents in the field and I also manage the remote parts of intelligence-gathering. It's a little more than what I told you in Russia. I'm sort of Aunt Cassie's right hand man."

"And Rob?" she asked.

"He's part of my security detail. He's supposed to protect me from outside elements."

"Security detail? Part of?" she raised her eyebrows. Only high value operatives got security details.

"I should have said 'our'," Chuck said slowly. "I'm in charge of building up a team of people like me. It was actually when I was vetting people for that that I came across the Fulcrum situation. I dug around a little and realised how big it was and decided to take it to Aunt Cassie – only after I'd vetted her mind."

"And how do you vet people?" she asked.

"I have a computer program," he confessed, "But it takes a long time, a lot of resources to run for each person. We've identified about twenty people that way though. We mainly use it for deciding who to trust. My contention was that we could use human resources and investigation to follow a high level Fulcrum member and hope he or she led us to their contacts. I suggested that you should come in because they obviously see the danger you represent to them. Plus you've worked with Rob before and you work well together."

She supposed that made sense. She had worked with Rob Lowell on a mission in Italy and they had been very successful working together. He was a good operative and he wasn't arrogant like many of the CIA NCS operatives she'd worked with. They both had a healthy respect for one another's talents.

"So you're to blame for my new job?" she asked with raised eyebrows.

"Well, as you said," he replied sassily, "I wanted to make it official. Now," he continued, "Shall we head out before we're officially late?"

She grinned, and they did.

Washington DC, November 2005

As Sarah lay in post-coital bliss she reflected on what an amazing six months it had been. Six months ago she was a cold, hard killer, nearly captured by the Russians, sold out by a rogue US intelligence faction. Now she was part of the human race in a way she'd never have believed was possible after her upbringing. And that was all down to the amazing man lying next to her in the bed recovering from his recent exertions.

This was the man who had physically saved her life on that operation and remotely saved her life on several operations since then, but had also saved her mentally. Many assassins and clandestine agents fell down a hard slope; the nature of the job meant that they had to isolate themselves from their feelings, and Sarah had felt herself falling down that slope. Until Chuck had come into her life.

Chuck had grounded her again. He'd shown her what real life and real people were like in a way she'd never have believed possible prior to meeting him, and now she felt physically and mentally encased in warmth.

They had decided to keep their relationship a secret. Strictly speaking they were breaking the rules, but with Fulcrum penetrating the intelligence services so deeply they simply didn't know who to trust and, with Sarah very much on their target list, they'd decided that not disclosing their relationship would protect Chuck. That meant that they had to be professional in public even if they were anything but professional in private!

This new anti-Fulcrum operation was physically and mentally taxing but it would have been lots worse if she didn't know that Chuck was looking out for her and protecting her every step of the way. He had got her and Rob out of a few sticky situations already, and they both appreciated his interventions. She was able to show her appreciation a little more actively than Rob however!

"What are you grinning about?"

She jumped in surprise; she hadn't realised he had woken. "Just thinking about how I'm able to show my appreciation for your work a little more physically than Rob!" she told him. "At least I assume I am?"

He grinned. "He hasn't tried to get me into bed yet so I'd say you do!" he replied. "He seems happy with just buying me meals. I prefer it that way around."

"Me too," she agreed, nuzzling his chest.

"Already?" he asked. "You're insatiable!"

"Hey, if you can't stand the heat Bartowski, get out of the fire!" she kidded.

"I'll give you heat!" he said, surprising her by flipping her onto her back. And he did.

Thanks for all the reviews for the last chapter. Some of you have good ideas, some of you need to go back to the drawing board! Please drop me a line and tell me what you thought of this chapter!