A/N: Ah, you're back. We're here for the finale of Sweat Equity. As my good friend Steampunk Chuckster would say, hang on to your butts
Disclaimer: I don't own Chuck
Chuck sat on his couch, trying to figure out what was going on.
It had all started the night before when he had come out of his bedroom, dressed after his shower, to find that Sarah had brought him Mexican food to celebrate him getting his PI license.
The two had imbibed while eating, and Chuck was beginning to think drunk-Sarah was about to make an appearance. He discovered he was wrong; she was already there. She told him, "You know, if you don't want to keep making the coffee every day, I'll take one of those backrubs instead." This had very nearly resulted in an epic beer-laden spit take.
He had managed to steer around that topic the rest of the night, but he was worried about her driving home. She told him she had brought a change of clothes, just in case. Going into the bathroom, she changed, and returned to snuggle against him, watching TV. Five minutes later, she was snoring.
In the past when one or the other had fallen asleep at the other's home, if Chuck heard anything, it was the softest, faintest snore. However, drunk-Sarah… it sounded like an orgy of chainsaws.
He didn't sleep much, between the snoring, the soft but firm body lying against him, and his dreams reminding him of the noises she'd made earlier in the day during her massage. He thanked God when his alarm went off, and he managed to shake her awake. He also noticed that his shoulder was soaked from the drool that had come out of her mouth during the night.
He found it ridiculously cute of how embarrassed she was. He had seen her practically naked the day before, and she was worried about drooling on him. He went about making her coffee, as she took off to the bathroom. On her return, she thanked him for the coffee. She looked at him nervously, kissed his cheek, and told him she would see him later.
With that, she all but fled.
Chuck didn't have time to think about what all of that meant… he had a job to do. He was genuinely curious as to what was going on with Brad yesterday. Something weird was afoot, and he needed to figure it out.
He needed to concentrate on that.
Maybe by doing that, he wouldn't think about Sarah, about the massage, about the way he felt about her.
He grumbled, got up, and headed out the door to go to the gym.
}o{
"Been working here a while?" Chuck asked Brad. The two were in the weight room today, Henry swearing to Chuck he wouldn't make him do any more massages.
"Yeah, about five years now," Brad told him. He started to say something else when he paused. Chuck followed his line of sight and saw Amanda walking across the room. She had an amused look on her face.
"Anyone I should avoid, or be careful around?" Chuck asked Brad. Brad couldn't help but snort laugh at that. "Ex-girlfriend?"
"Amanda?" Brad asked, horror on his face. "God no!" he said. One of the customers waved at Brad. "I gotta take care of this."
Brad walked off as Chuck pulled out his phone. He had managed to clone Brad's phone since he was close enough. He scrolled through Brad's messages, stopping when he saw who one message was from. He scrolled a little further, seeing a message from Amanda. Chuck opened the message, read it, and closed his eyes.
Well, that explained a lot.
"Hey, Brad, I need to talk to Henry a second," Chuck called out. Brad nodded, and Chuck headed to Henry's office.
}o{
"Did you figure things out about Brad?" Henry asked.
Chuck scanned Henry's office and found a picture on the far corner of his desk. "Those your sons?" Henry gave Chuck a look, then followed Chuck's line of sight. He turned back to Chuck.
Henry took a deep breath. "No, the brunette is my son, the man with him is his husband."
"How long have they been married?" Chuck asked.
"Two years," Henry replied. "What has this got to do with my boy and his husband?"
"Let me ask you an honest question… those that go to a gym, how do you think they'd feel if one of the employees here were gay?" Chuck asked.
"I would hope it would have no bearing on anything," Henry replied.
"How well do your employees know how you feel?" Chuck asked.
Henry dropped his head and was silent for a moment. "Brad's gay, isn't he?"
"Does it matter?" Chuck asked gently.
Henry shook his head. "No, it doesn't."
"But does he know that?" There was silence for a moment. And then Henry asked the question that was weighing on his mind.
"Is Brad the one selling that junk?"
"No," Chuck replied quickly. Henry let out a relieved breath. "But I think he does fear for his job." Henry looked quite uncomfortable. "I think he's being blackmailed."
"Is it Amanda?" Henry asked. Chuck didn't say anything. In the three years working with Sarah, he had picked up that some people, when faced with an uncomfortable silence, would begin to talk to cover that silence. The thing was, when they talked, they tended to give things away. Especially if you had been discussing things like a case, theory, or lead. "He always seems to… I don't know, shrink… around her. Is that the right word?"
"I think it is," Chuck agreed, nodding, letting Henry lead the way on this.
"She seems to think she is… a little more important than anyone else. No one has said anything, but you can tell, you know?" Chuck nodded. "I need to talk to her."
"No, let us," Chuck told him. "Wait until we have enough evidence, and Sarah is ready to have that conversation."
"Well, she's off the rest of the day, and has the five-to-ten shift tomorrow night," Henry told Chuck.
"Good," Chuck said, standing. "None of my business, but if you do support your son and his husband, perhaps it's time your employees know it."
"You're right," Henry said, nodding, looking slightly ashamed. He lifted his gaze to meet Chuck's. "You're right.
}o{
Chuck sat on his couch that night, exhausted. He was one who could talk forever, about anything, but apparently no one had ever talked to Brad before about his personal life. Chuck had told Brad he wanted to help him, and Brad told Chuck he had no idea what he was talking about. A few minutes later, Brad came up to Chuck and told him he wouldn't be blackmailed.
It had taken all of three minutes for Chuck to tell Brad that he knew about Amanda blackmailing him, and he was here to stop it. The look of relief on Brad's face… Chuck had never seen anything like it. For the next four hours, Brad told Chuck everything that Amanda had done to him. Any time Brad had met with a person that was older, that was alone, he was to tell Stephanie.
Brad explained to Chuck that somehow, as you massaged a person and loosened the tenseness in them, they opened up and told you about their life. It was obvious, as Brad talked, he had no idea the former members were dead. Chuck wasn't about to be the one to tell him. Brad was the most popular masseuse, and he had worked at all locations, answering the question of how people were targeted in different locales.
The door to Chuck's apartment opened, and he didn't even look up. If it wasn't Sarah, he would deal with it. But he knew it was. They hadn't spoken since that morning.
"You okay?" she asked. He raised his head to see the concern on her face. She looked worried.
"She's been blackmailing Brad," Chuck said softly. "She's been using the fact he was gay and not out to his coworkers, against him, Sarah." Sarah approached and sat down beside him, pulling him into her arms. He didn't even try to resist, as he laid his shoulder against her. "I know what we do helps people, but we're exposed to such ugliness sometimes."
"I know," she said softly, rubbing his shoulder. "You know that's one reason I love working with you. With my old job… I was the one doing these things to people sometimes."
"Yeah, but not to innocent people," Chuck protested.
"Chuck, sometimes I had to blackmail spouses or significant others of those people," Sarah argued.
He seemed to snuggle closer to her. "Okay, so maybe you did some things for the betterment of the country that weren't the best. But please tell me how that's similar to blackmailing this guy to find victims for this drug scheme."
Sarah was silent. She continued to rub his shoulder. Every time she thought she couldn't fall deeper in love with him, he would say something like this. He would force her to take her arguments of how much of a bad person she had been and simply… disintegrate them.
"You're not saying anything because you know I'm right," he continued. She couldn't help but chuckle.
"You truly do care about everyone," she said softly.
"I just don't see the point in others being hurt just for cruelty's sake, or to advance some awful agenda," Chuck replied, sighing. "And then I end up on your shoulder."
"Well, that's what it's here for," she told him. "You know I love you, buddy… right?" He nodded. He didn't really know how she felt. She couldn't tell him that… could she? "You care. You care so much it hurts."
"Since I'm a full partner now," he began.
"Uh, you've always been a full partner," Sarah corrected.
"Potato, pizza," Chuck replied.
"Wait, what?"
"Usually it's po-tay-toe, po-tah-toe, but I'm getting hungry and started thinking about pizza," he explained. "But, since I am now a licensed detective," he paused, and she couldn't argue that point, "what if we put, under our name on the door, the phrase, The PIs That Care."
She bent over and kissed his head, feeling his soft curls against her face. She swore he gave a contented sigh, and she thought she might explode. She knew she had to talk about last night, to apologize, to-
"Sarah, I know you have your own place and all, but tonight… can you please stay?" He looked up at her. "I just… We've got to finish this case, and we can't do anything until tomorrow after five when she shows up."
"You got it, Chuck," she told him, squeezing him in her arms. "Pizza?"
"Oh, God, yes please," he nearly groaned. She got up and went to order food.
She should have told him. She should have told him everything. The problem was if she did, and this didn't work… she could lose everything. And she refused to do that. He meant too much to her, to risk losing him.
}o{
"Have you seen Amanda?" Chuck asked Stephanie, when he walked into the gym that next afternoon slightly before five. Stephanie gave him a look. "What?"
"I've seen what she's done to him," Stephanie said in a low voice. "She's hurt Brad, a lot."
"Well, that's going to stop," Chuck told her.
"I think she's doing some bad things," Stephanie told Chuck. "You know someone died from here, and Amanda spent a lot of time with them?"
"Where is she, Stephanie?" Chuck asked.
"She's in the steam room," Stephanie told him. "She said one of the thermometers needed adjustment."
"Thank you," Chuck said to her earnestly. He walked over to where Sarah stood, and the two headed over to the saunas. Each appeared to be empty as they passed by them. Coming to the last one, they entered. Chuck was surprised to find steam in the room. "Sarah?" he said, looking around. There was steam everywhere, and he was staring to sweat. He heard a thudding noise, and then the sound of something heavy hitting the ground. Spinning, he found Sarah on the ground, and Amanda pointing a gun at him. Chuck raised his hands.
"Listen, this doesn't have to get violent," Chuck told her.
"I'm afraid it does," Amanda said, as she moved out the door, slammed it shut, and locked it. Steam started to fill the room. Amanda ran off, and Chuck looked around.
Sweat poured off him as he tried to figure out what they were going to do. This was bad. Really bad. He looked over at Sarah, who was lying on the ground, unconscious. "I'm going to have to take off her clothes." He blew out a breath. "And then I'm going to have to take of my clothes."
Chuck hoped she could forgive him. He bent down in front of her, his hands at the buttons on Sarah's blouse. "Sarah," he said out loud. He reached for the button. "I'm sorry."
"Wha's goin on?" she asked, shaking her head as she opened her eyes, trying to focus on Chuck. Why was there was so much steam, and why was she so hot? She looked down at his hands on her buttons. "What are you doing?"
"I need to take your clothes off Sarah," he told her.
"Are we about to make love?" She watched his eyes flutter, and realized this was not, in fact, a dream. "Sorry," she said shaking her head. "Friday night and all… thought it was a dream."
"Excuse me?" Chuck asked.
"I'll explain it later," Sarah told him. She narrowed her eyes at him. "And why exactly, and I do mean exactly, were you trying to take off my clothes?"
"We're trapped in the sauna, and it's been turned on," Chuck began. "I figure we've got fifteen minutes tops. If we leave on these wet clothes, chances are it will hold in more heat, speeding up the process."
She sat there a moment, processing what he had said. "Okay, but underwear stays on," she told him. Chuck nodded. "I've got mine, get yours." Chuck backed away, and turned away from her, pulling off his shirt. Sarah started to unbutton hers. "So, once we get these off, we need to find something sharp, with an edge, like a belt buckle or something. We'll use that to pry off the cover of the emergency switch, since I'm assuming she smashed it. Then, we need to find a way to protect ourselves while you see if you can rewire it, or I can hotwire it." She stopped as Chuck slowly turned to her, his eyes wide. "Uh, what are you doing?"
"What do you mean emergency switch?" Chuck asked. Sarah shut her eyes, knowing what had happened. Chuck had freaked out. She opened them to see his head whip around and look for said emergency switch. They both saw it at the same time. Two long strides later, he was bringing his hand down on the big red button. An alarm began to blare out, the steam stopped, and he turned to her with a sheepish look. He started to speak, when a gun shot rang out.
Sarah dropped to the ground. "Get down!" she hissed. Chuck dropped to the ground, and she crawled over to him, shirt still unbuttoned. The door opened, and they both looked up at Stephanie standing there, looking shocked.
"She tried to shoot me," Stephanie said. Chuck heard sirens in the distance. "When you went after her, I called the cops, and when she came out, she tried to kill me. I fought with her for the gun…" She trailed off, shock on her face. Chuck heard Sarah mutter "I got this," and went over to her. Chuck grabbed his shirt, walked out of the room, and went around the corner. Amanda's body lay there, clearly dead.
"Chuck?" Sarah called out. Chuck turned to Sarah, giving a quick shake of his head. Sarah nodded and returned to comforting Stephanie.
}o{
Chuck sat on his couch, channel surfing. Casey had told both he and Sarah to go home after they had been questioned.
There had been tough cases in the past, and he was sure there would be more in the future, but this one… someone had been blackmailed for who they were, and worried they would have lost their job had the truth come out. And someone lost their life.
Chuck had showered, and thought about going to bed, but he couldn't sleep. He had questions, and not just about the case. He heard a knock on the door and couldn't help the smile that spread across his features.
"You feeling okay? You never knock," he called out. The door opened, and Sarah walked in, a smirk on her face. "C'mere," he said, standing.
She walked over to him and gave him a hug. "I'm sorry about the other night," she told him.
"Nothing to be sorry about, Sarah," Chuck told her. "We're just really comfortable around each other."
"We are," she said pulling away, and sitting on the couch. She took his hand and pulled him down beside her. "So, are you going to ask me, or do I just sit here wondering when you will?"
"Ask what?" Chuck queried, trying to look innocent. She couldn't help but laugh as she rubbed her neck. "I'd offer to massage that, but something tells me that would embarrass you even more."
She stood. "Fine. I have had a few dreams about us… being…" She paused.
"Making love?" Chuck offered.
"Yes," she told him. "After all, we are normal, healthy adults, and sometimes dreams are just whacked."
"I hear that's a scientific term," Chuck offered. She grinned at him. "Wanna watch TV?"
"Uh, yeah, but I might fall asleep here. And after the past few days, if you don't mind, I think I need to sleep in my bed by myself." She paused. "Unless you need me to stay."
"I appreciate it, but I'm okay," Chuck told her. "Is our relationship part of the problem with Bradly?"
"No idea," Sarah said with a shrug.
"Well, if it was, I am sorry." She tried to hold her face as neutral as possible, but she began to laugh. At the same time, they both sang Look at this photograph!
Chuck stood, and walked her to the door. She turned, gave him a hug and a kiss on the cheek. She said goodnight and went out the door. Chuck closed the door and leaned against it, unaware that on the other side, Sarah was leaning against it, as well. They both stayed there a second, wishing Chuck had said he needed her to stay.
}o{
A few days later
The man sat in his car outside the gym, in the underground parking lot. He heard the heels click on the concrete. His passenger door opened, and Stephanie got into the car. "This is the last of it," she said, handing the small package to Bernie Ominsky.
"Anything trace back to you?" Bernie asked Stephanie.
"No," Stephanie told him. "I do hope your niece doesn't have another screw up like this ever again."
"Listen, she was trying to make the steroids better," Bernie said, defending his long-time family friend. "When Volkoff asks you to do something, you do your best to make it happen. Besides, one of the batches worked."
Stephanie raised an eyebrow. "Was it worth it?"
"When you own a prison camp in Russia and giving the workers the drug increases productivity to the point it's like getting an extra day's mining a week out of it…" Bernie spread his hands.
"And we get a fifteen percent cut out of it," Stephanie finished for him. Bernie nodded.
"Any blowback on you? Police-wise?" Bernie asked.
"DA said it was a good shoot, and self-defense," Stephanie replied. Bernie burst out laughing, making Stephanie smile. "I mean, she handed me the gun and I pulled the trigger. It was the easiest kill I've ever had."
"Stay frosty, Slyvia," Bernie said.
"It's Stephanie," she reminded him.
"Yeah, yeah," Bernie replied. "Gotta call the boss." Stephanie nodded, got out of the car, and headed back to the gym. Bernie made a phone call. "Boss, the bad batch has been located and will be destroyed."
"Excellent," came the reply of Teddy Roark. "I appreciate your dedication to this matter." With that, he hung up the phone. "Why do we hire so many FUCK UPS?!" he yelled, wanting to throw his cell phone across the room. His office intercom went off. "WHAT?!" he yelled, hitting the button.
"Your security supervisor is here for your meeting, Mr. Roark," the voice over the speaker said.
"Send her in," Roark replied. Roark listened as footsteps approached his office. His door opened. "I need you to look into someone," he said by way of greeting. "I knew his old man back in the day, and he caused trouble for me. His name's Bartowski." Roark thought for a second. "I think the first name is Charles. He goes by Chucky, or Chuck, or something like that."
"Deep dive?" she asked him.
"Yep," Roark replied. "But don't approach him."
"Understood," she replied.
"I like you, Zondra," Roark said. "Don't ask many questions, do as your told, and do your job well."
"Thank you," Zondra replied. "Anything else."
"That's it," Roark said. Zondra nodded and left. Roark picked up a rubber ball and started bouncing it against the wall. "Last thing I need is another Bartowski fucking things up for me."
A/N: I mean, you all did say you wanted me to do a mystery. Let me guess, you want a sneaky peaky of the next episode, I'm calling International Incident?
Sarah Walker's voice:
Next time on Private Eyes
He was silent for a second and then just blurted it out. "Are we okay?"
She should have been surprised by the question, but she wasn't. "Yeah," she replied. "Yeah, we're okay." She sat there a second trying to gather her thoughts. She had answered the question Chuck had asked, but she had worked with him for three years and she knew better than anyone that the question asked was normally not the question he wanted answered. She glanced down a second and then back up, locking eyes with him.
"I think you're pretty aware you're my best friend, my work partner, and my rock." Chuck ducked his head and blushed slightly at that. "I normally don't find myself in those situations we were in the other night, and here's the thing, I trusted you. And I know it's been over three years, but my trust was badly broken. Again, not by you, but…" she trailed off.
"Broken all the same," Chuck said softly. Sarah nodded.
"So I did what I do, and took…what do you call it, Sarah time?" Chuck grinned and nodded. "Something I never did before I met you. I took Sarah time and just thought about and processed what happened. And what happened was my partner had my back…" She couldn't help but grin as she said the next part. "And apparently wanted to see me naked while doing it."
I suspect there will continue to be shenanigans. Also, the next episode is only three chapters, so, do with that what you will. Until next time. Leave a review if you can.