Posted May 14, 2022

A/N: The break-up is in the past, so now, it's going to be better for Charah. But wait... Why was it "uncomfortable," and what was Boba Fett doing there?

In addition to being in between "Chuck vs the Imported Hard Salami" and "Chuck vs the Nemesis," this chapter also mentions a couple things that were not addressed in the previous chapter, after "Chuck vs the Truth."

"Chuck vs the Imported Hard Salami" (1x09) Recap

Here's what's been going on in Chuck's life.

At a dock in Helsinki, Finland, men with guns monitored the loading of an ominous shipping container with a biohazard logo. Inside, there was a countdown timer for 72 hours.

At the Buy More, Morgan asked Chuck for a night of Call of Duty. Chuck turned him down because he had plans. Morgan incorrectly assumed Chuck's plans were with Sarah, so Chuck informed his friend that he and Sarah are no longer together. Morgan incorrectly assumed Sarah broke up with Chuck, which Chuck corrected by saying he broke up with her. Morgan still didn't understand, but before Chuck could explain, Sarah showed up, and indicated they needed to talk in private.

Sarah told Chuck she didn't think the break-up was a good idea for the cover and double-checked to see if Chuck really wanted to do it. Chuck said because of what Sarah said under the effects of truth serum, he wanted to find something more common, with less of an emotional roller coaster. Sarah said she'd have to "sell it," so she faked crying and left the store upset.

After seeing Sarah leave upset, Lester asked Chuck if he could take a crack at Sarah. Chuck said to go for it. Morgan tried to console Chuck by making plans again, but Chuck said he had a date with a sandwich maker.

At Casey's, the two agents informed Beckman about the breakup. Casey said Sarah was dumped. Sarah said it would be best if Chuck dated a civilian in case she was recognized. Beckman didn't trust Lou and ordered Casey to determine her intentions.

On Chuck and Lou's date, they passionately made out in a Herder. She invited Chuck inside her restaurant, where she "made him a very happy man" by giving him a sandwich. He flashed on a flyer of Stavros Demitrios at Club Aries. When he asked Lou about it, she said it was her ex's and tossed the flyer.

The next morning at Casey's, Chuck, Sarah, and Casey were briefed by Beckman about Stavros: a "playboy" and the son of a shipping magnet, Yari Demitrios. A time-sensitive package was coming into LA. They suspected it was a weapon from the Middle East. Chuck was tasked with getting close to Stavros to see if he would flash. Chuck tried to object, but his concern was disregarded.

At work, Lester went to Wienerlicious to invite Sarah to a movie. Sarah couldn't believe "Larry" was asking her out a day after she broke up with his friend. She decided to fake making an aggressive move on Lester, who freaked out and ran away. Sarah taunted him as he left and saw Lou walk by. Sarah called Lou in and forcefully told her not to hurt Chuck because he's a great guy.

Back at Buy More, some of the Buy Morons lamented that Chuck was on to his second girl. Jeff said he was going to "tag Anna." She rejected the disgusting thought and said she'd prefer Morgan.

Lou brought a sandwich to Buy More. She asked Morgan where Chuck was. Morgan thought it was odd Chuck hadn't mentioned him. Chuck showed up and introduced the two of them. Morgan took the sandwich for himself and said there was hope for the relationship.

Lou mentioned her encounter with Sarah to Chuck. On the subject of exes, Chuck suggested that he and Lou could go to Club Ares. Lou said it was a bad plan, but because of orders, Chuck insisted.

Before the date, Casey and Sarah got Chuck ready for the "date." They gave him a bug in the form of a guitar pin and gave him an earwig because the date was a mission. Casey gave him a rose so he "could get laid." Sarah didn't like hearing that suggestion.

At the club, Lou bypassed the line and bouncer to get her and Chuck inside. They met Stavros and went back to the VIP area. He ripped on Chuck's tacky pin and said Chuck has a "chicken neck." When Chuck nervously asked for a new drink for Lou's, which she didn't need, Stavros warned Chuck because Lou's a "fiery Italian." Stavros still had the scar from the make-up sex.

After hours in the Buy More home theater room, Morgan played Call of Duty by himself with Anna watching. Anna said some nice things, which Morgan misinterpreted and made a pass at her. She rejected him and said just because she had said she'd prefer him to Jeff didn't mean she was interested.

Sarah and Casey listened to Chuck's mission-date from a surveillance van. Based on how Sarah was acting, Casey figured that she had feelings for another partner: first Bryce, then Chuck. Casey said he wasn't interested. Worried about Chuck, Sarah went inside the club.

Lou saw Sarah in the club, so Chuck went over to see what she wanted. Lou didn't like Chuck going to his ex, so she left. Sarah pointed it out, so Chuck ran after her. On his way out, he tossed the mic in a shot glass and left—the date over.

The next day, Chuck called Lou and tried to apologize. Casey told Chuck that the bug provided a lead to a shipment coming to the docks.

Morgan told Chuck that Anna had rejected him. When he saw Lester and Jeff laughing, Morgan misinterpreted and thought Anna had revealed that she had shot down Morgan. They had actually been laughing about Chuck getting dumped by the deli girl after he dumped the wiener girl.

Later at the store, Sarah apologized to Chuck for interrupting the date and told him Lou's favorite flower, based on the CIA information on flower deliveries to her address.

With his apology calls unanswered, Chuck went to Lou's deli to apologize in person. He had to take a number at the deli counter. When it came up, he couldn't talk to Lou because it wasn't her turn to serve, so he took another number. After waiting even longer, he finally got the chance to talk to Lou. He flirted about a sandwich order as he apologized, and Lou accepted. They went on another date.

At the docks, Sarah and Casey were caught on camera in an otherwise empty container. Yari Demitrious had discovered the bug, so he staged the container shipment and recorded the raid. He told his son that he wanted him to find out who was bugging him.

The next morning, Chuck congratulated himself in the mirror for getting Lou back. Casey and Sarah showed up in his apartment, said the raid was a bust, and revealed photos of Lou talking to her ex after the date in which Lou and Chuck the night before.

At the Buy More, Lester and Jeff told Morgan that Sbarro has a new pizza named after him: No toppings, no sauce, only cheese, called The Looser. Anna started feeling sorry for Morgan.

Chuck went with Sarah and Casey to surveil another meeting between Lou and Stavros. Chuck left the car to confront Lou, and he opened crates that Stavros had smuggled for her. She said the smuggled crates had Portuguese cured sopressata. She was a "meat smuggler" because the meat would go bad if it sat in customs. Once again mad at Chuck, she left.

Sarah joined Chuck to check on him, but Stavros returned with the guitar bug in hand. He captured Chuck and Sarah and threw them in the trunk. In the trunk, Sarah was furious because the CIA didn't care about meat smuggling, but Chuck's feelings got them captured.

That night at the Buy More, Morgan and Anna hung out in the home theater room. Morgan said he should be like the lone wolf. Anna said lone wolves are lonely. This time, when Morgan made a move, Anna accepted.

Casey lost Sarah and Chuck, so he went to Lou's and said Chuck and he were undercover FDA agents, looking into smuggling. He said Demitrios was wanted for smuggling weapons and that she needed to tell him where they were or she would be considered an accomplice. Lou cooperated.

Chuck and Sarah were tied up in front of Yari at the docks. Chuck claimed to know nothing, but when that wasn't working, he flashed on one thug's watch and got them to turn on each other. Yari killed the one who went behind the back of the other. Another man showed up and said the shipment was about to "expire," meaning it had been about 72 hours.

Casey showed up with a team. In the confusion, Sarah got free. She went to stop what they presumed was a bomb. Chuck insisted on going because he had the Intersect and could diffuse the bomb.

When Chuck and Sarah found the bomb, he didn't flash so he couldn't disarm it. With seconds left on the bomb's countdown, Sarah pointed her gun at Chuck to force him to leave. Chuck refused to abandon Sarah, said he thought it was heroic, and said she brought out the worst in him. Sarah said Chuck brought out the worst in her, then grabbed him and kissed him. They kissed for a while, past when the timer expired.

Realizing they weren't going to die, Sarah said the good news was they were alive and the bad news was it was a little uncomfortable. Chuck said he was completely comfortable.

The next day, Chuck apologized to Lou again for being a jerk. She said it was ok, and she understood he was an undercover FDA agent. Lou said she was going to Large Mart next time her phone broke and the next time he was hungry, he should go to Wienerlicious.

At Buy More, Anna and Morgan flirted, and Lester said Morgan was whipped. Chuck couldn't believe Morgan was with Anna. Morgan suggested a double-date: Morgan/Anna and Chuck/Lou. Chuck told him he wasn't with Lou anymore, so Morgan broke up with Anna over the store's PA. Chuck said he was going to get back together with Sarah, so Morgan apologized to Anna over the PA.

Sarah and Casey went to the docks where the bomb was, and the bomb disposal team revealed it was not a bomb. Opening the large capsule revealed it was Bryce, who was still alive.

Meanwhile, Chuck left a message for Sarah asking her on a real date to Sbarro to get a Morgan pizza, as a show of support.

Chapter Characters: Chuck, Sarah, Casey, Morgan, Anna

Song (from 1x09):
- "My Absent Will" by Meredith Bragg

www. imdb. com (8.5/10)
chuckthisblog. wordpress. com (24/91)

Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Los Angeles, CA

It was a disaster—a complete disaster. Sarah's dad taught her, a thief has to run out of town as fast as he can, but a good con man can leave whenever. She wasn't getting out of this. She wasn't a thief, and the only thing she stole was time with Chuck. While she wasn't a thief, she was a liar.

She lied to Chuck about what she thought of their future under the undercover. She didn't actually lie, but she misled him. That backfired when he broke up with her.

Then she lied to Beckman about there being a good reason for Chuck to break up with her in case she was identified. No one would recognize her. She hadn't worked in the US since before she was in the CIA. During the Lazslo incident, Agent Scary knew who she was, but that wasn't her fault. He shouldn't have been told. That was a security issue in the CIA. They should've done a better job of keeping her presence in LA a secret, even from other agents.

Someone inside the CIA realizing she shouldn't be stationed in the US was a far greater security risk than dating Chuck for the cover. The cover was for the public, but it also gave an excuse for a CIA agent to be in the US. If she was broken up with Chuck, she wouldn't have a reason for Chuck to be around her in case he flashed. That was a bigger security risk.

She hadn't just lied to Chuck and the CIA. She had also lied to herself that she was fine with the fact that Chuck broke up with her. That kiss was proof that she had been lying. It felt… no, she wouldn't think about how it made her feel anymore.

She never should have made that mission video report last night, though she was pretty sure no one looked at it. That she ascertained a couple days ago with a prior mission log:

Day 49. Chuck broke up with me today. Well, uh. Fake… Fake broke up with me, technically.

When Sarah briefed Beckman, the general didn't know Sarah and Chuck had broken up. A break-up would have been a serious security concern that Beckam and Graham would have insisted on talking to her about immediately. That didn't happen, proving they had never seen the mission log video. On one hand, it seemed like they didn't think Chuck was important as she did. On the other, it was nice they trusted her.

Whatever the reason, it was clear no one was watching the videos. Since she was the agent-in-charge, she was fully authorized to look at access logs for her mission videos. From what she could tell, no one had seen them since the first one, which was only accessed by both Graham and Casey.

Even though the mission logs were not being watched, they still felt important to her. It's not like she could talk to a CIA therapist. The reason for a CIA agent operating on American soil was too classified to talk about with anyone. If something ever happened to her so she was replaced, the videos would be useful for the next agent to help understand Chuck.

When she realized a few weeks before that her mission logs were not seen, she started revealing more. It wasn't professional talking about what she thought about Chuck or Lou. It was all true, though.

Then came the incident at the docks yesterday.

Day 56. Chuck I were defusing a bomb today, and there was a moment where we were sure we were going to die. He closed his eyes, and… I kissed him. I—kissed—him.

Why did she kiss him? She had escaped death before. Why would she think it was any different than time? She always completed her mission, and her mission was to keep Chuck safe. Chuck wasn't safe at that moment, so she had to survive to keep him safe.

One surefire way to get people to watch her videos would be to leave LA. Her report was only private if she remained Chuck's handler. It would be torture to remain so close to Chuck and not be able kiss him again. That's what she deserved, though. She should have to suffer to stay close to him.

Why did she kiss him? There has to be a subconscious excuse. Maybe "about to die" was one.

It was a mistake, though. Now, it was uncomfortable between her and Chuck. He said he was completely comfortable with kissing her, and she had evidence that she should be. If she didn't have to protect him, she would be very comfortable with it, but she had to protect him, so she couldn't be comfortable with it. She didn't want to be reassigned away from her asset because Graham thought she couldn't do her job. If she wanted to stay by Chuck, she couldn't let it happen again.

She didn't have to worry about Chuck forcing her to do something to compromise herself. He wasn't like that. She did have to worry about him remaining irresistible. She had to do whatever it took to cool down that thing "under the undercover" that she had lied about a few days ago. Denying the existence of something "under the cover" didn't work. Chuck just broke up with her and threw himself into danger. She needed another approach.

What was she supposed to do, to keep Chuck interested but to not have a situation again that led to them making out like at the docks? She had no idea.

Things were worse with the "bomb" being Chuck's nemesis, Bryce. Why couldn't it be a deadly virus that would've killed her off, ending the emotional mess she was in? This bomb was worse. This was the man who had tried to destroy Chuck's life twice.

At the moment, all she was doing was standing around waiting for the medical team to take Bryce away. With nothing to do, she was spiraling. It was Chuck's influence on her.

How was she going to deal with Chuck? She did have that message from Chuck that she needed to listen to. Earlier, he called when they were opening the Bryce Bomb. That "explosion" made her forget about the call. She was afraid to talk to him. It was ridiculous! She never had reason to be scared of Chuck. Now she was. She didn't know what to do when near him.

"Hi, it's Chuck. Of course, it's me. It's me. It's Chuck. Look, I was just wondering if you wanted to go out on a date tonight. And by "date" I mean no GPS and no mics and no chaperones… It'd just be us… I'm thinking maybe we could hit up Sbarro. They just named a new pizza after Morgan, and, uh, you know, I kind of wanted to support him. So… Okay. Bye.

She should have expected it, but that was worse than she feared. Chuck wasn't letting one, admitted fantastic, kiss go. He wanted to go out on a date.

Even if he was going to ask her on a cover date, he would have broken it off with Lou, first. That wouldn't be a surprise, but he didn't stop there. He didn't want a cover date. He wanted a real date.

She couldn't go out on a date with him again. If she did, they'd finish off the night better than the last time, when it was a mission for her, but real for him. That time, he diffused a bomb, and she spent the night with him. Next time, if they went on a date that was not for cover, then there wouldn't be a bomb, but they'd spend the night together again. No sand would be involved.

She couldn't let that happen. It would prove that she was compromised, making it so it didn't matter if she could still protect Chuck. She'd be sent away from him. She didn't want that. She had to stay with Chuck so she could protect him.

Getting back together with Chuck made tactical sense for the cover. She just had to make sure the kiss never happened again, and it remained only a cover.

"Thinking about your boyfriend?"

Casey's voice startled her. Sarah had forgotten he was standing right there. How did he know she was thinking about Chuck?

"We'll transfer him to a medical facility and get him back to full strength so we can interrogate him before I shoot him again."

Again? Sarah shot her NSA partner a confused look before she realized she was calling Bryce her boyfriend, not Chuck. As far as Casey was concerned, she and Chuck were broken up. He didn't know Chuck had just asked her on a date.

Sbarro
Burbank, CA

Morgan walked right up to the counter and proudly said, "Give me a slice of The Morgan."

The bored teenager stared at him, obviously not knowing what he meant. After a few seconds, he said, "A what?" He motioned to the right. "You can see our choices under the counter."

Morgan looked devastated that the server didn't know his namesake. Another Sbarro worker was bringing a pizza up from the front and overheard. He came over and said to the person at the register. "That's a cheese pizza with no sauce. We named it yesterday. We didn't call it 'The Morgan.' It's 'The Loser.'"

The newly informed person asked, "You want only cheese. Why would you want that?"

Still enthusiastic, Morgan said, "It was named after me!"

"Your pizza is all cheese? It's a good thing you aren't lactose intolerant. Someone might have been sending you a death threat."

"I know. It's so cool!"

The previously confused employee brought Morgan a XL slice of New York-style pizza—all cheese. Morgan started to pay, but turned to Chuck. "Do you have a buck for the tax? I thought with no toppings, I had enough."

Chuck handed over a dollar and ordered for himself. He wasn't thinking clearly, so he didn't even know what he ordered.

"Sorry, but our vegetarian has black olives."

He realized he had ordered for Sarah without thinking, but she wasn't there. That meant he could get olives—unless there was the minutest chance he was going to get to kiss Sarah later. Then olive-breath wouldn't be good—best to avoid it. Sarah said she liked sausage. Chuck liked sausage, too, so he could order that. Before he did, he remembered he was there to support Morgan, so Chuck ordered a slice of cheesy bread called "The Morgan."

Morgan and he took a table, and his friend asked, "What's with the vegetarian pizza? I didn't know you liked that. Why no olives? I thought supreme is your third favorite, after sausage and pepperoni. Supreme has black olives."

Chuck sighed. Morgan knew his favorites better than he did. He wasn't going to have pepperoni while he had a chance to be with Sarah because she didn't like it. It'd be best not to mess up Morgan's list, so he explained his original choice. "It's Sarah's favorite. I asked her to Sbarro tonight, but she didn't answer and hasn't called me back."

Morgan looked hurt. "So I'm your backup?" Chuck gave Morgan a look that clearly said who wouldn't rather go on a real date with Sarah.

After kissing like he and Sarah had at the docks, why wouldn't he rather be with Sarah? The kiss was classified, though. Even if a date tonight was real, the fact it hadn't been real before and the kiss were both top secret. Fortunately, Chuck hid his thinking from Morgan, who said, "Thanks for supporting me and getting a slice of 'The Morgan.'"

Chuck got the luke-warm cheese bread that was supposed to be pizza only for support. It was like greasy cardboard and was only slightly warm because of the heat lamps. Chuck would never get it again unless Morgan was with him.

With his mouth full from devouring his namesake, Morgan said, "This is so great. We both have food named after us. Wait. Since you are no longer with Lou, does that mean there is no longer a 'Chuck Bartowski' sandwich?"

"I doubt it. The break-up went better than it could have. The sandwich was new on the menu, so it could go away. At least the name will. Lou asked me to not go back."

"Do you want me to stay away from Lou's?"

"That's not necessary."

"I will anyway. You're more important than a 'Chuck Bartowski' sandwich."

Morgan going back might not be an issue. Lou thought Chuck was an undercover FDA agent. He thought Casey would probably follow through, because he was so into following the letter of the law. He'd bust her restaurant for meat smuggling. She hadn't followed food and health safety laws. Chuck would be surprised if the place was still open at the end of the year.

Chuck stopped thinking about the fate of Lou's deli and thought back to Sarah. He was always thinking about Sarah. His thoughts slipped out. "When I called Sarah earlier, she didn't answer."

"You said that. Lucky me. Anna is still mad at me, so we're both lucky—best buds, hanging out. And Tang is gone. What could be better?"

Chuck felt lucky always having a loyal best friend like Morgan. However, times like this—like when Carina "broke up" with Morgan because of her other (non-existent) relationship, Morgan didn't seem to get it. Chuck liked hanging out with Morgan, but hanging out with Sarah outside a mission—even when it was cover maintenance—always took priority because she was Sarah. Now, with the possibility of a real date and a kiss goodnight like they had last night, it was no contest.

It was good that the worst person at Buy More, Harry Tang, was gone. Jeff and Lester were creepy problems, but Chuck could deal with them. Harry was bad enough that Sarah had guessed that he was Chuck's nemesis, instead of Bryce. It didn't feel right to think it was good that someone was dead, but whatever the slightly better thing than wishing someone dead was… That's what Chuck thought. He was glad he'd never have to deal with Bryce again. In a way, Harry was Chuck's "living nemesis," and he was off in Hawaii. With both Chuck's dead and living nemeses out of the picture, life was good.

Chuck only hoped that Morgan and everyone else wouldn't pressure him about taking the Assistant Manager job. Missing the interview proved one thing: there were more important things than Buy More. He wanted to do whatever it took to keep Sarah. Working with her was more important than Buy More.

As if she heard Morgan say her name a minute ago, Anna came out of nowhere and stood by their table. "There you are."

"Anna! Anna banana. Does this mean you forgive my stupid announcement at work? I didn't mean it."

"It means you're on probation. I want you to take me somewhere to eat."

"We can split a 'Morgan.'" He pushed his half-eaten slice of cheese bread towards her.

Anna looked over at Chuck, clearly showing she had no idea what Morgan was talking about. She didn't know about "Morgan" pizza. Chuck wasn't going to tell her because he couldn't say it without being mean to his best friend. She looked back at Morgan. "What do you mean split a Morgan? You're mine, and I'm not sharing."

"Sbarro named a pizza after me." He waved his hand over his food. "The all-cheese pizza is now 'The Morgan.' Isn't that great?"

"All cheese is called 'The Morgan'? No. That's not great." She grabbed Morgan's arm. "Get up."

Morgan complied, and Anna dragged him to the register. Anna was a firecracker. Chuck wanted to know what happened, so he turned and listened.

To the person at the register, she said, "I want to speak to the manager."

The teenager who identified 'The Morgan' pizza earlier came to the front. "Is there a problem, Miss?"

"Why did you name the all-cheese pizza after him?"

"He hit on the hot Chinese chick he worked with and was rejected. He was all cheese. It's not 'The Morgan.' It's 'The Loser'" His face turned white because he realized who he must be talking to.

"He's not all-cheese. See?" She turned and spun Morgan towards her before she laid a full, deep kiss on him. Anna was in complete control, moving his hands through his hair. They looked awkward—a perfect example of why Chuck didn't want anyone to see him kiss in public. He probably would look worse.

Morgan and Anna kept kissing for a while. They really looked ridiculous. The young manager said, "We'll change the name. This is a family establishment so please stop doing that."

Anna broke them off, leaving Morgan dazed. Since Chuck had been with Jill back at Stanford, he hadn't had a second real date with anyone since, but Morgan was even more of a lost cause around the opposite sex. Anna was going to eat him alive.

She pulled Morgan back over to Chuck's table. "We're leaving." She looked at Chuck's slice disapprovingly. "You got that too? Figures. They should have at least named the sausage after Morgan." Chuck didn't want to think about what that might mean. "Let's go, Morgan. My roommates are out tonight. We can find something better to do than eat." Morgan didn't argue for an instant and left with her.

After the horny Nerd Herder and her whipped puppy were gone, Chuck sat with a half-drunk soda and two half-eaten pieces of boring cheese bread. He'd find better leftovers at home. He thought he should also try calling Sarah again. She couldn't meet him for dinner, but maybe they could talk about their future under the cover.

Maison23

Later back at her room, Sarah needed a shower. She didn't like a single thing about the day. She was avoiding Chuck after the kiss, so she couldn't let him make her feel better. The not-a-bomb ended up having a bigger explosion than a bomb: Bryce was alive.

When she heard he was dead, she was upset because he was her partner and the closest thing she ever had to a boyfriend—not that she was sure she and Bryce were still that when he "died." The last time they were going to meet for dinner, he stood her up. That was right before her mission to Budapest. Turns out, he was probably already preparing to blow up the Intersect and to put a bullseye on Chuck's back. Whatever she and Bryce were, they were a mistake. Part of her thought Bryce got what he deserved.

But he didn't get what he deserved. He was still alive. Now, maybe they would find out why he did what he did. She hoped she wouldn't be responsible for figuring that out.

Casey didn't care about that. He didn't ask. Instead he spent the afternoon needling her about how she could enjoy using "interrogation" techniques. He wasn't talking about Sarah torturing Bryce. Instead, Casey was talking about interrogating in the bedroom like he was a mark.

The entire afternoon was incredibly crass. Sarah didn't work like that. No spies did because it was an unreliable way to get information. Sometimes, spies would go up with marks to their rooms, but then they would drug them to do something like break into a safe or kidnap them. That wasn't necessary this time because Bryce was already in custody.

Sarah wasn't obsessing about her ex anyway. She couldn't help but think about kissing Chuck. She didn't talk about her curly-headed asset because no one could know. She couldn't even stop Casey talking to her about Bryce because he might realize she was thinking about Chuck. On the Club Ares mission, she had messed up with her partner seeing how she felt. Then, she went after Chuck, only to be captured by Demitrios. That afternoon, in front of the Byrce-bomb, if Sarah had done more than ignore Casey's quips, like deny there was anything between her and Bryce, then he might have figured out that she was hung up on Chuck.

She couldn't be hung up on Chuck, no matter how good it felt to kiss him. He was her asset. The only way they could be together is if they ran. At the beach after their first date, she told Chuck there was nowhere he could run. That wasn't completely true. There was nowhere he could run and hide from her, but she had started running almost two decades ago. If they ran together…

No. After the Stanford mission and finding out how Graham and Beckman were going to use Chuck, she made go-bags for her and Chuck. If they ran, though, they could never come back. She could do that, but that wasn't fair to Chuck. It was also unnecessary. No one knew that she wanted to continue kissing Chuck like their lives were about to end and that he was "completely comfortable" with the idea.

She needed to take a hot shower, burning thoughts of him out of her head.

After her shower, she acknowledged what a big mistake it was. Why did she think she could strip, get in the shower, and not think of Chuck? Instead, she ended up thinking about him being in the shower with her.

That would never happen. All she could do now was go to sleep and not think about it. She'd deal with hiding the Bryce situation from Chuck in the morning.

Sarah woke to the most horrible sound in the universe. Music alarms never woke her, so she always used a buzzer alarm. It didn't matter the kind. It was always the worst sound in the universe.

Her dreams… She shouldn't think about those. She sometimes had dreams about the horrible things she had done and about the baby she saved, but that night, she dreamed about Chuck all night. Her asset played a prominent role in every single one of them. In her dreams, the two of them weren't "restful." All the dreams did was make her hornier than she already was, thinking about the one person she shouldn't have kissed and should never kiss again.

How could she face him? She couldn't avoid him forever. Denial was her only option.

Echo Park Apartment

The first thing Chuck thought of when he woke to his radio alarm was that it was a wonderful day.

He felt so good, he could almost dance on the bed. He didn't feel quite that good, though. He didn't actually see or talk to Sarah yesterday. She was busy with important CIA work. It was probably about that bomb that hadn't gone off. The work kept her away from a real date last night, but today was a new day! He'd ask again.

Chuck showered as he got ready for work. All night, he had dreamed about Sarah. It was a wonderful night. He was always respectful of women in his dreams, but now he knew what Sarah would wear to seduce him and what she tasted like. It wasn't disrespectful to dream about memories. It was wonderful. All they did in his dreams was kiss, because imagining more would not be respectful, but it was completely realistic because he had experienced proof.

The day before Black Friday was an easy day. He'd call her again.

A/N: I've heard Portuguese cured sopressata is better than Italian from…no one, because sopressata is Italian, not Portuguese. My guess is Lou's biggest secret was that in her Italian deli, she wasn't getting sopressata from Italy. If she wanted to import meat from Portugal, she should have picked chouriço or linguiça. Her unusual sourcing location was a bigger deal than the fact she was risking her customers by bypassing health safety checks, which whether you agree with or not, are put in place for a reason by food safety experts.

Even when it didn't explode like a normal bomb, the "Bryce Bomb" was dangerous to Charah. Unfortunately, Sarah and Chuck weren't talking.

MyNameIsJeffNImLost AU stories:
- "Chuck vs His Former Handler" (chapter 5, "Turkey and Muenster Cheese on Egg Bread")
- "The Bartowskis vs the Spy World" (chapter 9, "El Camino Real")
- "Chuck & Sarah vs Trust" (chapter 9, "The Intersect Couple vs the Baby")
- "Chuck vs Under the Cover" (thematically, chapter 2, "Talking")