Critical Hellfire
By Steampunk . Chuckster
Summary: Chuck and Morgan are co-hosts of a locally popular streaming channel in which they discuss all things metal while playing video games. Their lives are uprooted when their demo guy hands them THE demo of the ages—a band called Critical Hellfire, fronted by singer and bassist Sarah Walker. AU Charah.
A/N: Thanks for your reviews! Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own CHUCK or any of its characters. I don't own any of the songs mentioned in this chapter, this fic, or anywhere else for that matter. I am making absolutely zero dollars writing and posting this.
He thrived on the sound of her giggle muffled against his mouth, the way her chest bounced against his, her fist tightening in the front of his shirt.
But then her other hand draped over his where he'd put it on her upper thigh, his fingers sneaking up further and further, teasing the skin under the hem of her dress. She broke the kiss just enough so that she could speak, though her lips brushed his as she breathed, "We said no bases, remember?"
Chuck wrinkled up his face innocently. "Oh, yeah. I forgot."
He pecked her lips, making her giggle again, and then he dove in to kiss her harder, rounding her waist with his arms where she'd climbed into his lap once she grew tired of the center console between them, digging into her ribs. He tugged her closer now, nudging her lips open and smiling against her mouth as her tongue immediately met his.
She let out a wanton hum, one hand sliding up into his hair and holding on.
He pulled his lips back from hers, taking a deep breath. "We said no bases, remember?"
"I don't recall having that conversation."
"Oh, you don't?" he chuckled, happier than he had any right to be, he thought.
"No. Anyway, where am I rounding a base?
"Doing that to my hair counts as rounding a base."
Sarah snickered, giving him a dubious look. "It does not. If I stuck my hands down your pants, that's rounding a base. Touching your hair? No."
"Whoa. Okay, you jumped to that particular base. That's…interesting."
"You like it," she flirted, nudging him with her hips.
Chuck gasped. "Uh. Duh. Why would I even deny that?" She laughed, thankfully moving her hand out of his hair and to his neck. But then she rubbed him there and that felt incredible. His eyelids fluttered. He couldn't help the breathiness in his voice as he continued. "But you absolutely rounded bases when you put your fingers in my hair."
"It's practically nothing, though," she giggled.
"Okay, I've discovered the problem," he said in his most diplomatic tone, giving her his most diplomatic look. Sarah raised an eyebrow. "We have a fundamental disagreement on what constitutes a base being rounded." She gave him an amused look. "You think it hinges on whether the act meets criteria based on extremity of the actual physical touch. And I think it hinges on how the person the act is bestowed upon reacts to said actual physical touch. You put your fingers in my hair and sure, to you, it's practically nothing. Thus, we are not rounding a base. For me, it feels like a thousand and seven electrical currents blasting from the tippity-top of my head down to my toes and back up again, driving me absolutely mental. Thus, I say that is rounding a base."
Sarah blinked. "You're nuts but that actually made sense. And we do disagree, because how am I supposed to know what the severity of my partner's reaction will be when I touch him, where I touch him? If my intention is not to round a base, how do I keep to that if I don't know my partner's…sensitivity to my touch?"
"Oh shit, that's…kind of a good point."
"Mmmmhm." Then she got a mischievous look on her face. "I still say it isn't rounding a base to do this." She slid her fingers in his hair with both hands this time, massaging his scalp, making him groan.
"But you have no idea what this is doing to me—"
She cut him off, kissing him ravenously. Not fair. Not fair at all.
He didn't give a flying fuck.
As they continued to make out for a few minutes, teasing one another, sharing secret, adrenalized, breathy giggles, touching, grabbing, he thought he might've distantly felt Sarah curl her fingers around his wrist, lifting his hand, her head tilting just so even as their lips stayed connected.
And then she broke the kiss, taking a deep breath, nuzzling his nose, pecking his deliciously swollen lips with hers. "We should stop. It's almost ten."
Chuck made a whining noise. "But we're only, like, two blocks from my house."
"Three," she giggled. "But I don't want to be the one who makes you late for your Games N Rock Sessions live streaming. I'm not gonna let folks accuse me of Yoko Ono-ing your Twitch channel." He gave her a perplexed look even though he thought he knew what she meant. She huffed. "You know, first you're late to one show because you were on a date. And then another show starts late, again, because you were with me. And another. And then you and Morgan get into a fight about your priorities. And it builds and crescendos, and it alienates you from everything you care about. Like the way people villainized Yoko for breaking up the Beatles. I refuse to be that."
He laughed happily, squeezing her in his arms. "That's actually very cute. Okay, fine. Fiiiine, we can go. I don't want them to Yoko Ono you. I don't want to trap you in that position."
Sarah gave him a very saucy look. "Oh yeah? What position were you thinking of trapping me in?"
Chuck whistled as he helped her climb back over the console and carefully maneuver her long, bare legs underneath the steering wheel without knocking her knees against it. She was unfairly graceful about the whole thing. "And you said I'm the one with the good lines? That was a doozy."
He watched her grin lasciviously as she started the car to take him home.
But then they pulled up against the curb and he felt an air settle between them. A tentative one, a little awkward…unsure.
So he reached out to take her hand nearest him, threading their fingers, waiting for her to meet his gaze before he spoke. "Wanna come in with me?"
Sarah arched her brow. "You…want me to go in?"
"Yeah. Please. Unless you've gotta go somewhere or do something else. I totally understand if—"
"No," she said, cutting him off. "I'll come in. Sure."
"Great," he breathed, beaming at her.
She beamed as well as they climbed out of the car. He snuck a peek at his watch and winced. It was already three after ten.
He didn't mean to make Morgan uncomfortable. He hated starting shows without Chuck. He just stared at the webcam with wide eyes and made frightened little whimper sounds. It was kind of funny, though…well, maybe not so funny for him. The viewers loved it, however. The chorus of, "C'mon buddy, you got this!" and "Oh, no. Poor Morgan." popping up in their Twitch comments, along with a lot of laughing emojis.
As he opened the door and held it for Sarah to walk in after him, Ellie turned from the couch where she was watching TV in the living room. A smile exploded onto her face as she turned off the TV and hopped up to her feet. "Hi, you two. How was dinner?"
"Delicious," Chuck chirped. "So good we boxed up the rest. Oh, here. Lemme take it and I'll put it in the fridge for a bit." Sarah let him take her box from her and he hastened into the kitchen to put them both away, marking his styrofoam to-go box with a C using his fingernail. "Is Morgan starting without me? He isn't mad, is he?" he called over his shoulder as he shut the fridge door.
As he wandered out, Ellie had already laid claim to Sarah, her hand wrapped around the blonde's, keeping her close to her side.
"Nope. He isn't here yet. He rushed outta the basement maybe forty minutes ago because he had to get something or whatever. Told me to tell you the show's gonna have to start fifteen minutes late or so." She shrugged.
Chuck rolled his eyes to the ceiling, a little miffed. "It's the twenty-first century. We've all got cell phones. He could've texted me to tell me." Maybe he could've had an extra ten minutes of make-out time with Sarah, damn it. He wasn't saying that part out loud, though.
And as Sarah raised an eyebrow and smirked at him, he wondered if she was reading his mind. Oops.
"Why don't you go down and get everything set up for the stream?"
He nodded, moving towards the door that led down into the basement, but then he paused. "You comin', Sarah?"
"I'll send her down in a bit," Ellie said. "Don't worry, I'll be an exceptional hostess. Want something to drink, Sarah? We've got whiskey, wine, soda, water, and I have my special stash of vodka." She winked.
Chuck met Sarah's gaze. She raised her eyebrows, looking amused.
"Well? Go on, Chuck. Don't worry, I'm not gonna talk about the embarrassing posters you had on your wall when you were a kid. I'm just getting Sarah a drink." Ellie ushered Sarah into the kitchen with her, leaving Chuck to tentatively make his way down to the basement without his date.
}o{
Sarah watched Ellie pour the red wine. She'd decided to stick with what she'd had at dinner, out of an abundance of precaution. "So what posters did Chuck have on his wall when he was a kid?"
Ellie laughed. "Go down the hall and look in his bedroom now. They're still up." They chuckled together as Ellie handed her the glass. "Don't think he's changed much in that room over the years. Gotta love 'im for it. I took down the Ewan McGregor in Moulin Rouge poster and the N'Sync stuff over the years. That happens when your boyfriend moves in and looks at it all a little funny. It took one weird look from Devon and they were gone. So fast."
Sarah snorted. She lifted the wine then. "Thank you for this."
"Of course. Please. You sticking around a little while? You should. You're more than welcome to."
"Thanks. Maybe for a little while. I'm not gonna lie, I'm interested to see how their Twitch streaming stuff goes down. A little peek behind the scenes. I've only ever watched the finished product."
Ellie leaned her hip against the counter. "Oh? You watch their show?"
"Tone of surprise?"
The brunette seemed a bit contrite then. "It isn't that it's not great. They're pretty cute and it's funny. I get the appeal. My brother is a charm-cannon." That made Sarah laugh. It was an accurate description of Chuck. He did more than just exude charm, he blasted it at you and disarmed you, made you feel a bit wobbly with it. "You just seem like the type of person who's traveling around with her band, always keeping busy, going to gigs, practicing. Chuck told me you were a badass, and so far, I see nothing that could refute it." Sarah blushed. "I love my brother and I'm proud of him, and his show, and this contract they signed to expand onto a bigger…internet network, I dunno the term for it. But you seem…too cool for a show about video games." She wrinkled her nose. "Now I feel like I sound like a jerk."
"No, no," Sarah chuckled. "To be honest, I didn't really watch it. My bandmates did. I came in and Dylan and Mac were raving about it. Even Zondra admitted she watched and enjoyed it, and here I didn't even know it existed." She shrugged. "But then I watched it, I saw them gushing about my band soon after that, and now I'm pretty hooked. They're both ridiculous, yeah, but it's also really…heartwarming."
"They are pretty ridiculous. And yes, it is heartwarming. Those two are peas in a pod."
"But you're right, I am definitely too cool for video games," Sarah said, making Ellie crack up.
"I will cheers to that!"
They clinked glasses and finally sipped. Oof, this woman was good at picking out red wine. It sang against her tongue and felt amazing going down.
"Speaking of heartwarming, I've gone on two dates with that brother of yours now, and he gushes about you a lot. I don't think I've ever met siblings as close as you two are," she said. "It's really nice. Kinda makes me wish I had a sibling."
"You don't?" Ellie asked conversationally. Sarah shook her head. "I see. I wouldn't have made it nearly this far without that guy."
"Way he told it, sounds like he's pretty sure he wouldn't be here without you, either. I hope it's okay, he-he told me about…your parents."
The woman glanced away for a moment, taking a sip, swallowing slowly. "Ah. Yeah, those parents of ours. I mean, of course it's okay. Both of us dealt with it, it's his story to tell. But we're okay. We made it."
"You did. And you are both pretty fantastic."
"Awww, thank you." Ellie beamed in a way that made Sarah's chest feel like it was filled with light. So both of the Bartowskis had that power and it wasn't just Chuck. Made sense. She found she liked this woman a whole lot, almost immediately. And she was suddenly struck with an overwhelming need for Ellie Bartowski to like her back.
"You brought up a pretty great guy," Sarah said.
"He is pretty great, but it wasn't all me. He's kind of always been like this. Always doing the right thing even when it's the hard thing. Like a little superhero out of one of his comic books." She paused. "Oh, boy. You know about the comic books, right? I didn't just break news, did I?"
"I know about the comic books," Sarah laughed. "But the whole doing the right thing bit? Saw that in action. It's pretty jaw-dropping, actually."
Ellie's eyes widened. "Oh, really? Saw it in action already? And you've not even known 'im a week?"
Sarah found it interesting Ellie knew they hadn't even met a week ago. And she wondered if Chuck plopped down at the table in the other room with his sister and spilled his guts about all of it, how they met, where, when, why, the conversation they'd had that night, how it spanned into the wee hours of the morning, the way they'd essentially asked each other out, her eagerness in seeing him immediately the next day…
"Well…there was a, um, situation. His superhero tendencies got called into action. He didn't tell you?"
Ellie stood up straighter. "No."
"He, uh, met one of my exes," she said with a sheepish look. Maybe she shouldn't go into too much detail. She wanted Ellie to like her, and if she knew the kinds of men she'd screwed around with for years now, she might think her brother was going out on dates with a dud. Sarah really didn't want to be a dud. Especially not in this woman's eyes. She knew what the male version of duds looked like and she really didn't want to be a female one.
"Oh." The brunette let out a deep snicker, snorting. She cleared her throat. "Sorry. I'm just very curious about how that went."
Sarah raised an eyebrow, maybe a little bit defensive. "He was incredible. Stupid bastard kept trying to get him to engage in a fist fight to protect my honor," she mocked in a deep voice.
Ellie pulled her chin back and wrinkled up her face in disgust. "Fight to protect your honor? That's gross."
"Yeah, extremely gross. I'm not…proud of the time I spent with him."
The other woman seemed tentative as she asked, "What'd my brother do about it? Because I know he only fights in video games."
Sarah laughed. Ellie really did know her own brother. "He definitely didn't fight. But the way he used his words…" She bit her lip, swooning for Ellie's benefit, leaning back against the counter. "You get so used to the clown car of idiots parading in front of you all the time, the morons who get into the bar fights, brawling in alleyways over stupid shit, laying claim over women with their fists like they're apes in the wild." She rolled her eyes and Ellie rolled her eyes back. "Suddenly somebody comes along and uses his words instead of his fists, cleans the guy's clock with words, and it's so mature and impressive."
The grin that got out of Ellie Bartowski made Sarah feel a little weightless. "Well, look at you go, Charles Irving," she breathed, and Sarah wasn't sure it was meant for her to hear. Irving? Cute.
"Sent Christian back to his car with his pride shattered, looking like the moron he is for wanting to fight some random guy he didn't know simply because he was taking me home after our date." Sarah shrugged a bit cockily. "Definitely not at all what I was expecting."
"Well, like you said, you get used to bad shit. Good shit rolls around and you don't really know what to do with it," the brunette said with a shrug, sipping more wine.
Suddenly the front door blew open, and in swept Morgan, full tote bags crowding his arms.
"Hi, Ellie! Hi, Sarah! Bye, Ellie! Bye, Sarah!" They heard him staggering down the stairs of the basement with a, "Dude! I'm so sorry I'm late—"
And the door at the bottom of the stairs slammed shut behind him, cutting off whatever else he was going to say.
"Uh, we were saying," Ellie drawled flatly.
Sarah giggled. "A real whirlwind, that one."
"You have no idea what I've dealt with while you two were having a nice romantic dinner. More than twenty years of nonsense." She smirked, her eyes sparkling, which made it sound more like she was teasing. Interesting. Sarah wondered what the history was with these three.
Ellie shook her head then, grabbing the bottle of wine and moving to pour more for Sarah. "There. Sounds like you need that with an ex like this Christian dude."
Sarah laughed, blushing. "Need something way harder than this when I think of the terrible trail of terrible guys I've left in my wake. I'm…um, not proud of myself or anything," she added meekly, shrinking into herself a bit.
"Hey, stop." The other woman put a comforting hand on her shoulder and squeezed. Sarah felt herself pull her shoulders back a bit more at the mere touch from Ellie. "You think I didn't go through some real winners to get to where I am now? I wonder if I would have found Devon if I didn't go through all the trials and tribulations with the losers before him first."
Was Ellie insinuating that Chuck might be her own version of Devon? The blue skies after going through a decade of stormy weather?
Sarah smiled hard. Because she couldn't imagine Ellie hinting something like that if she didn't at least like the new woman in her brother's life a little.
"Thanks for not judging me. It's hard to do worse than a guy who waits outside your home months after breaking up, sees you arriving after a date, and tries to fight the new guy… but I, um, probably have."
Ellie made a face. "Judge you? Fuck no. Never."
And that was really all she had to say.
Sarah genuinely thought she might…love Chuck's sister? There was an easiness to her, a comforting warmth. Like she'd been places and seen shit, a lot of shit. It felt like she was wise, observant—maybe even more so than her brother which was a little scary. But she seemed to have tact too.
And both of the Bartowskis were ridiculously kind.
Sarah heard the door at the bottom of the stairs to the basement swing open, footsteps coming up the stairs, and then Morgan appeared.
"Hey, Sarah. I have been instructed to tell you we're going to start streaming soon and Chuck wonders if—well, we both wanna know if you wanna watch." Morgan shrugged bashfully. "You don't have to. I mean, it's kinda like when a ride breaks down at Disneyland and you have to get out of your log and walk through the backstage area and you see, like, sand bags and rigs and the back of Brer Rabbit." He shivered. "Don't wanna kill the magic."
"Oh God," Sarah heard Ellie groan quietly. "Why didn't Chuck come up to get his own date?" she asked more loudly.
"Oh. Well, he said he wanted me to do it because he doesn't want to come up here and accidentally hear you telling Sarah something insanely embarrassing from when he was a kid. He just doesn't wanna know what you two are talking about. Ignorance is bliss and all that."
"Morgannnn!" they heard Chuck whine from the basement. "Did you seriously just tell them why?! Dude!"
Morgan frowned, giving Ellie a bit of a glare. "Great. Now you got me in trouble with my best friend."
Ellie threw a hand up and sighed, sending Sarah a look that made the younger woman giggle.
"I'll come down. Tell Chuck I'll be right there," Sarah said. "I would like to see how the magic happens."
"Oh, good." Morgan looked genuinely pleased, turning on his heel and trotting down the stairs.
"Can I take this?" Sarah asked the surgeon, lifting the full wine glass.
"Of course. Have fun." She winked.
"You ever watch them record?"
"I'm usually either asleep or at the hospital, but I've watched before, yeah. It's a, um…experience," she said with a giggle. "You'll see."
Excited, Sarah moved to the basement and wandered down, her jaw dropping at the set-up. The basement looked straight out of the 'nineties, with the wood panel walls and old furniture. But it looked like Chuck and Morgan had invested in a nice, comfortable couch for their show. Metal bands were pasted all over the walls, collectibles and action figures were all over the place. There was a big set-up with a record player, large shelves packed with vinyls, and beneath that CDs, and there were even what looked like tapes straight out of the the 'eighties and 'nineties. (She had to look at those later.) Multiple video game consoles were stacked around the place as well.
"Nah, man, I think I'm gonna need to double pillow it this time. I've got that twinge in my back again today."
"You ask your doctor about that?"
"Yeah, it's that stupid bike crash two years ago. Fucked up my back."
"I told you, ya gotta get a car, Morgan."
"I have a car."
"That's my car. You just drive it a bunch, dude."
They were wandering around, doing things in tandem, like a couple that had been married and living together for years.
Chuck tossed Morgan a second pillow to put on the couch. "What are you drinkin' tonight, man?" He popped open a fridge in the back corner of the room, and only then did he notice that she'd joined them in the basement. The grin stretched over his face as he snagged a can of soda out of the fridge. "It's a joke," he explained. "See, all there is in this fridge is Morgan's grape soda and my cream soda. We do the same thing every show. He has grape, I have cream." He took a second can out and showed them to her. "Want anything? I've got grape soda and cream soda."
She giggled. "Uh, you know what? I think I'm okay." She lifted her glass of wine.
"Ah, good. Ellie set you up. Sorry I rushed off, but—"
"No apology necessary," she cut him off. "This is important. We gotta get you guys streaming. Which, by the way, love the basement. Pretty cool." She looked around the place again.
"Apparently they're sending people over to photograph it in a few days," Morgan said, setting up the TV where they'd be playing video games most likely. "They said they're gonna recreate it down to, like, every last detail. Ya know, for the big special TV crew type show we're gonna do. Morgan Grimes in 4K. The world isn't ready," he said dramatically.
"They'll be able to see every single bristle of your beard, buddy."
"I know! Maybe then people will appreciate the TLC I put into keeping this thing in tip-top shape."
With a chuckle, the taller of the two wandered over to her, smiling. "Do you, um, think you wanna stay down here and watch the stream? We won't do a long one I don't think, since we're starting later anyway. Just to check in with the viewers and see how they're doin'. If you'd like to stay. You don't have to," he rushed out.
"No, that, uh…sounds kind of fun. You aren't gonna make me be on camera, right? Can I just sit off to the side here and watch?"
"Yeah! Yes! Of course. Please. We aren't gonna force you onto our couch for a surprise guest appearance or anything."
"Nah, we are very big on consent," Morgan added, plugging in some wires. "We're set here, pal. Whenever you're ready to start."
"Cool. Okay. Be right there, man. Get your pillows all comfy behind your back."
"On it."
As Morgan sat, finagling with the pillows behind him, Chuck turned back to Sarah and grinned. "I'm gonna be all self-conscious with you watching this, I just know it."
Sarah giggled, so damn enamored. "Oh, come on. Remember yesterday? The piece of shit ex that tried to fight you and you eviscerated him with words so that he had to drive off in shame?" He nodded, lips pursed. "Nothing you could do or say during this stream will ever be even close to as bad as that was for him."
Chuck winced. "Ooof. You're right. Yeah. I feel much better."
"Here." She stepped in, shifted her wine out of the way safely, and moved onto her tiptoes to kiss Chuck on the cheek. "Good luck."
"Awwwwwww!" Morgan drawled from the couch. "We've got viewers already yelling at us they're gonna leave if we don't start soon, though, soooo…"
"Oh. Shit. Okay, okay." Chuck scrambled towards the couch, then spun back to her, eyes wide. "Oh! Please sit. Wherever you're comfortable. Make yourself at home, huh?"
She nodded, grabbing a plush chair and scooting it so that she could see both of their faces and the screen of the TV as well.
They went live then and she watched them do their intros, only for them to get right to business, playing some sort of basketball game against one another.
Morgan waited for Chuck to dunk on him before he turned to the camera. "So not this time around because we want to do this in primetime when all of our regular viewers can be here to see it, but we do, uuhhh, have a bit of an announcement. So I guess this is the teaser. Right, Chuck? We decided on a teaser."
"Right, tonight's the teaser. And—" He stopped, looking at the computer they set up so that they could see the comments they always responded to in the episodes she'd watched. "Oh. Um."
Morgan leaned over to look as Chuck blushed. What were viewers saying?
"Chuck, they wanna know why you're all spruced up." Morgan sent Sarah a secret look and she bit her lip, amused. Oops.
Chuck cleared his throat. "Thanks for the compliment about the black on black, plutosplat01. It, um, it was a spur of the moment choice for the night. I-I wanted to look nice for our teaser!"
Morgan and Sarah exchanged another look, both of them amused. So apparently he didn't want the viewers to know he'd been on a date. She wondered if he was worried about being teased relentlessly. It was silly, but she decided to give him this bit of silliness this time.
"Yeah. Yeah, the teaser. It's a big deal, so I got all spruced up. Heh." Then he cleared his throat again and swung right back into the task at hand. "Grab all your pals, make sure everyone you know who watches our show tunes in Thursday night because we have something fun to tell you folks. But it's hush hush. Until it's all, you know… What? What'm I trying to say?"
"Until the ball gets rolling."
"Perfect. Yes. Thanks, buddy."
"I gotchu. Annnnd I gotchu! You think you can fuck with Giannis? Naw, son! NAW, SON!" Morgan had gone for a three-pointer and sank it, getting in Chuck's face.
"I'm still winning by ten points, buddy."
"Yeah well…it was thirteen, you turdface."
"Thursday night!" Chuck repeated. "Primetime. Which means nine o'clock sharp. We won't be late like we were this time, because Thursday night's a big one."
"Biiiiig kahunaaaaaaaaa."
"Changes on the horizon."
"That's right, and you guys know how much we hate changes. Change scares the shit out of both of us. I've been using the same kind of toothpaste my whole life."
"And there's this." Chuck held up his can of soda. Morgan paused the game, grabbed his own, and thunked it against Chuck's. They both chugged, almost as if they were racing each other, their eyes darting to the side as if checking to see if the other had beat them yet.
Sarah held her hand over her mouth to keep from laughing loud enough that the viewers heard her on the feed as Chuck finished first, crushing his hand in his fist with a strangled, "Yaarrrrggghhhh. I win!" He wheezed a bit.
Morgan finished too, turned, hacked a little, let out a massive belch, and held out his hand. "Oh my God, I think that time I almost died."
"Still with us?"
"Still here. Poke me."
Chuck poked Morgan right between his eyes with a boop!
"I felt that. Oh thank God. Still here. Still alive. We're good."
And Sarah wondered how they'd started these bizarre little games between them. Or maybe it had always been there since they were kids—a part of their usual antics. They were ridiculous, and she was so taken with all of it.
"So yeah! Change!" Morgan said. "It's a'comin'. But not changing the sodas."
"Never fear, the sodas will remain the same. But you know what, buddy? I'm gonna unpause. You know what?" Chuck unpaused and they kept playing.
"What?"
"I don't think change always has to be bad. Somebody's sorta…helping me see that." And Chuck's gaze left the TV screen, his eyes falling on her. She immediately felt heat rising to her cheeks. "Sometimes change is pretty good."
He smiled at her and she smiled back, giving him her most dazzling smile she could conjure. And she couldn't wipe it off her face if she tried as she watched their show, suppressing her laughter for the next twenty minutes until they finally signed off to their viewers, reminding them about Thursday at nine one last time.
Morgan fished his phone out of his pocket. "Oh shit. My mom texted. She made cherry pie, the kind with the cinnamon sugar on the top. I need to go before she shoves it in the fridge and ruins its freshness."
"Go!" Chuck urged him. "Away with you! Get that pie while it's fresh and toasty!"
"I'm away!" Morgan announced. Then he rushed to Sarah and squeezed her arm. "Nice to see ya, Sarah. Don't do anything I wouldn't do, huh?" Then he hastened to Chuck. "Dude, you mind doing the pick-up from the show? Sorry to bail."
"I got it, I got it. No worries."
"And hey…the back gate trick."
The what?
Chuck was blushing bright red as Morgan used the staircase that led straight out into the yard to leave.
"Pedal saaafe!" the curly haired nerd called out.
"Love you!"
"Love you!"
He shuffled his feet, seeming almost a little shy now that they were alone. "Lemme just get the wires put away and the camera back in its bag and stuff and then if you want, I can walk you out or…I dunno, whatever you, uh, want."
She bent to help him, reveling in the grateful smile he sent her, and within five minutes they were finished. She didn't want him to walk her out because she didn't want to leave. Not just because it was only a little after eleven and that was comparatively early to the first time they'd hung out at her warehouse gig. But she wanted to stay in this man's space, with him…hell, even with his sister around. There was something about this place, or maybe it was the people, that made her feel so God damn comfortable.
And then she felt this buzz inside of her that was less comfortable when he looked at her with those whiskey-colored eyes of his, reaching out for her hand and pulling her in close.
But just before his lips touched hers, she heard footsteps on the stairs leading down from the living room. They both stilled, moving back from each other just in time as the door popped open and Ellie poked her head in.
"Is the stream over?" she hissed. "Oh. Oh good, Morgan's gone. I'm dead on my feet and I'm hitting the sack. Just wanted to say goodnight to Sarah."
"What am I, chopped liver?" Chuck groused, grinning.
"Yep."
She came into the room and went straight to Sarah for a tight hug. "So nice to meet you."
"Nice to meet you too," Sarah breathed, hugging the slightly shorter woman back.
"Come over anytime, okay?" Ellie pulled back. "I'll make dinner for the four of us."
"No Morgan?" Chuck asked, smiling in amusement.
"Ugh. Fine. Him too I guess." Ellie pointed to the empty glass in Sarah's hand. "Want more of that, or are you good?"
"Oh, I'm good. Thank you. Oh!" Ellie took it from her. "I can take it up—"
"I got it." The other woman winked. "Off to bed I go. Chuck, you'll lock up and take care of the lights?"
"Of course."
And then she was gone, leaving them alone.
"I should…probably…um…" She gestured in a general direction.
"Oh, yeah. You gotta go, huh?"
She didn't have to. But it felt like the type of thing she should say, in this situation, at this hour. But she didn't freaking want to go. At all.
}o{
They stood at her car, hips leaning against the driver's side door.
They'd already said goodnight, thanked one another, promising to keep in touch, to set something else up soon. But the next few days were crazy for them both, he imagined. And Barker had been on his ass about the photographers coming to his house to check out the basement, while also asking if they could meet soon to discuss details.
The guy had a million and ten things he was working on at once though and he needed to "find some space" to squeeze them in.
Morgan thought he was just stringing them along, but Chuck didn't think the guy would go through all that trouble just to string them along in the end.
Anyway, Sarah was stepping in close, framing his face in her soft, cool hands, moving to her tiptoes, and kissing him. It was a slow kiss, the kind that made your toes curl in your shoes. Oh, his toes were curling.
He felt ridiculous for the words—Morgan's words in particular—ringing in his ears. The back gate trick.
He shouldn't be taking Morgan's suggestion here, only…he didn't want to break this kiss, watch Sarah climb into her car, and not see her again for who knew how long.
Chuck pulled back just slightly, nuzzling her nose. "Sarah…?"
"Hm?"
"Stay over?"
She froze under his hands, leaning away from him just enough to look into his face. "What?"
"Stay. Tonight. With me. I know it's technically just, uh, the second date. Our second date. I just…want you to stay. If you want to."
Sarah looked up at him through her eyelashes. "I do want to."
He fidgeted, nervous, even as he was filled with pure, unadulterated adrenaline. She wanted to stay? She wanted to stay. Oh God.
These were those times when living in the home where he grew up, his sister right down the hall sleeping, really felt like a drag. He didn't want Ellie to hear them come back inside, wander past her bedroom, disappear into his bedroom, and do…well, it'd be obvious, wouldn't it?
He had to do what he'd done with women before.
Chuck bit his lip. He was really doing this.
"If you drive your car around the block to the street behind my house and park there, there's a back gate into our yard. The window to my bedroom is right around the corner from the gate. I'll open the window for you and you can come in that way."
Sarah blinked. "Are you…sneaking me into your bedroom?"
"Yes. Please don't judge me."
"I'm judging a little," she said, wrinkling her nose cutely.
"Fair. But please don't judge me too harshly?" He winced.
"That I'll agree to. Okay, fine. Around the block?"
"Mhm."
"Okay." She pecked him on the lips and climbed into the car, Chuck stepped back onto the curb, and he waved as she drove off.
He calmly walked back inside, locking up, turning out the lights like he promised Ellie he would. And as he walked down the hallway, he saw that Ellie's light was still on under her door. She was doing her nightly reading before bed thing, no doubt. Soon, she would nod off while reading, stick a receipt or some scratch paper in the book to hold her place, turn off the light, and pass out. He knew his sister's routine.
And in the meantime, he waited by his bedroom window.
He fidgeted.
It had been a while since a woman had stayed over. But it wasn't just that. The last woman who'd stayed over, and the scant few women before that, including Jill, hadn't made him feel like this. And none of them had been this damn badass. None of 'em wailed like Sarah Walker did.
He pressed himself against the wall next to his window and took some deep breaths, trying to calm his nerves. And then he heard the light tapping of fingernails against his window and he sprung into action, grinning at her through the glass, yanking his window open and reaching out for her.
She stuck her head in with an adorably jaunty look on her face. "I'm looking for a guy…told me to sneak around, go through a gate, and climb in a window. This the right one?" she said smoothly. Quietly too, thank goodness.
"Right window, right guy."
Sarah smiled, arching her brow, and she took his hand, letting him help her inside, but she really didn't seem to need any help, even with the stilettos on her feet. She stood to her full height in his bedroom, smoothing down the skirt of her cocktail dress, and she shifted to the side so that he could close the window again.
He swallowed hard when he turned and found her inspecting his bedroom.
"You really haven't changed this place since you were a kid, have you?"
"What d'you mean?" he asked, blinking in confusion.
She sent him an amused look, but there was also affection in there that was plain to see and he'd take that without questioning it.
"Oh. Um. I've got extra stuff if you need something to sleep in. Like, um, T-shirts and stuff. So you can be comf…ort…ab…le. Wha—?"
Sarah was slowly peeling her jacket off, killing his ability to speak. She tossed it over the back of his desk chair. "I don't think I'll need anything, Chuck. But thanks. Zipper's kinda hard for me to reach. Think you can help me out with that?"
"Yes," he said eagerly, hurrying to her side and sweeping around behind her. He undid the clasp at the base of her neck, and as he slid the zipper down carefully, he muttered, "They call me the zipper king."
"What?" she giggled, sending him a look over her shoulder.
"I-I don't know. Ignore me."
"Ignoring you kind of defeats the point of me crawling through your window. And having you unzip my dress." She turned to face him when he finished, looking up at him through her eyelashes.
"Oh. True," he breathed. Then he held up his pointer finger. "Just…Lemme just…one second."
Chuck scrambled to the bedroom door, flicked the lock on it, and rushed back to her as she giggled.
He helped her get out of the dress, then she helped him with his own clothes, and they crawled into bed together.
A/N: Right, sure, Chuck... You're wearing the super nice clothes during the stream for a teaser annuoncement. Uh huh. Suuuuure. We believe you.
Please review if you're able. Thanks!
-SC