Posted November 18, 2023

A/N: For the second episode in a row, it seemed like Chuck and Sarah hadn't just recently broken up.

"Chuck vs Tom Sawyer" (2x05) Recap

At the San Fernando Valley Video Game Champion in 1983, Jeff Barnes was interviewed as the new Missile Command world champion. In the present, Big Mike called the staff together on the sales floor. Chuck was not there.

As Chuck was leaving home, Ellie stopped him because he was skipping breakfast. When she asked why he got home at 4am, Chuck hid his fake mustache from a mission and said he was playing video games. Ellie challenged him about his future plans.

At the store, Big Mike introduced a new corporate efficiency expert, Emmett Milbarge. Emmett said he was going to evaluate the staff's performance. He interviewed Jeff, Lester, Morgan, and Anna, but Chuck still wasn't there.

When Chuck showed up, Morgan told him to say he was late because of gallstone issues. Chuck proceeded to flash on a "customer." The customer asked Chuck if he knew the Buy More employee in an old picture. It was a picture of Jeff from the 80s.

In Castle, Casey revealed the customer, Farrohk, was a terrorist. Sarah said they wanted Chuck to approach Jeff socially and get him to open up about his past. Sarah left because Ellie was in the Orange Orange.

Back at Buy More, Chuck put off Emmett from conducting an interview. Then he asked Jeff to hang out, enticing him with beer. They hung out that night in the home theater room. Jeff showed a video of his muse, Anna.

Ellie had Sarah over to ask about Chuck's future. She tried to give Sarah credit for things going better with Chuck, but Sarah said she didn't deserve any. Ellie pointed out that Chuck was only 12 credits from graduating and getting a "real life."

Chuck asked Jeff about the guy at the store who had asked for him. Jeff said it must have been a fan, and he showed a video of the interview about winning the Missile Command World Championship.

Chuck flashed on the award presenter, Mr. Morimoto of Atari. Jeff passed out from the beer, and Chuck and Casey extracted him just before Farrohk and his crew captured him. At the apartment, Sarah defended Chuck to Ellie, right before Chuck entered carrying Jeff, passed-out over his shoulder.

The next morning, Jeff woke up after having slept on the couch. He handed Ellie a card about how to get home. It said "My name is Jeff and I'm lost." Chuck interrupted and said he'd called a cab. With Jeff gone, Ellie confronted Chuck about the night before. Chuck tried to reassure her that there was nothing to worry about.

At Castle, Casey and Sarah informed Chuck that they learned Morimoto worked for the Japanese military, where designed a weapon satellite. It was still in space—dormant but presumed operational. The mission was to find Morimoto before Farrokh, who was after the satellite.

Using Chuck's plan, he and Casey went on a fake Nerd Herd call to Atari, to eliminate a virus which Chuck had designed at Stanford. The company's experts turned down the help, so Sarah was called in as Plan B, wearing a sexy Nerd Herd outfit. The Atari experts were far more receptive to her. While she distracted them showing off their computer skills, Chuck and Casey snuck past security.

Inside, Chuck found Marimoto playing Missile Command while listening to Tom Sawyer by Rush. Morimoto told Chuck he was too late because Farrohk had the code for controlling the satellite. Morimoto had hidden the code on the final "kill screen" of every game. Only he could get to it because the mathematics to get to it were too advanced. They needed to run because a bomb was hooked up to the game Marimoto was playing. Chuck and Casey escaped just in time.

Since Farrohk had the code, Casey and Beckman gave up and decided to use an ICBM to shoot down the satellite before Farrokh used it to start World War III. Chuck said it was better to try to get Jeff to reach the kill screen and find the code.

He convinced Jeff to come out of "Missile Command retirement"with enough incentive: nourishment, his lucky arcade game, Anna wearing a hula skirt while fanning him with a palm frond, and a crowd of his fans. Chuck got Morgan to help arrange the video game exhibition. They quickly got Jeff's fans and a TV reporter to come to the store for the exhibition.

As the coverage started, Chuck flashed and told Sarah that he knew that Farrokh was going to the TV station to control the satellite. Casey said it was too late and started to coordinate the ICBM launch. Sarah went to the station because she trusted Chuck.

Jeff froze and couldn't play for the exhibition. Chuck tried filling in to stall the crowd, but he didn't do well. In front of the unruly crowd, Chuck flashed and realized Tom Sawyer was the key because Marimoto had called in the "music of the universe"

Chuck got Morgan to play the song when he tried the game again, and he used the music as inspiration about what to do. This time, he reached the kill screen and relayed the code to Sarah, who had fought her way through the terrorists to the station's control room. She shut down the satellite before Casey had to order the launch.

Later, Big Mike congratulated Chuck for reaching the kill screen, and he informed the staff that Emmett Milbarge was to be the new assistant manager.

At the apartment, Ellie congratulated Chuck. She didn't care about the game, but the congrats were for his new diploma. Ellie and Devon said they were impressed Chuck had been taking online courses, and said it explained why he had been a mess.

Chuck and Sarah went out to the back to "celebrate" with a drink. Chuck thanked Sarah for the fake diploma. She told him it was real. He had earned it from his exceptional field service, and Stanford agreed. Then, she pointed out the "star" on the horizon, which was the Air Force burning up Morimoto's satellite by bouncing it off the atmosphere. She said Chuck should make a wish because it was his.

Songs (from 2x05):
- "Tom Sawyer" by Rush
- "The Touch" by Stan Bush

imdb (8.7/10)
chuckthisblog - wordpress (30/91)

Monday, October 29, 2008

Devon joined the woman he loved in the kitchen and wrapped his arms around her hips. They had left Chuck and Sarah out the back, so it was just him and Ellie. Alone time. Awesome. He kissed the side of her neck.

"What are you doing, Devon? Don't start something you aren't going to finish."

"I'm all yours." He squeezed tighter. "And I fully intend on finishing."

Ellie turned and patted him on the chest, which effectively pushed him back. "No you're not. We have company."

He'd never make her uncomfortable, but... "They're not exactly company. Chuck lives here, and Sarah's stayed over before." With his hands on her hips, he inched closer. "You know…we could move this to the bedroom."

"She last stayed here after I was poisoned. They've always stayed at her place since. I don't want to be a bad host and scare her off even more."

It'd been a year since the weird incident when Ellie went to the hospital. Chuck and Sarah were going slower than even he and Ellie did. (By that, he meant how slow he and Ellie had been going since they moved in together. How fast they ended up in the closet at college was far from "slow.")

He didn't want to jeopardize scaring off Sarah either, but he wasn't going to be pious around his future wife whenever Chuck's girlfriend was around. Chuck's girl didn't stay overnight much, but she was always around. "We can be quiet."

That didn't seem to convince the woman in his arms. Devon managed to hide his disappointment and tried a different tact. "What happens when Sarah moves in?"

"Sarah's loaded. When Chuck and Sarah move in together…if they ever do before we get married…they won't live here. They'll get their own place. Until that happens, I don't want to risk making my bridesmaid feel uncomfortable. One day, she'll be family. For all practical purposes, she already is."

Ellie patted him on the chest and said, "You know, we shouldn't hide. We should be celebrating what Chuck did with them. Chuck never got a graduation party. Let's ask them back in for a toast."

"Let's" meant "let us," but Devon knew what his role would be in the "us." That wasn't the issue. He asked, "What if they are 'celebrating'? We shouldn't interrupt them."

"This is my brother, Mr. No PDA, we're talking about. He'd never make a move on Sarah where the neighbors could see or even while we were nearby in the apartment." She grabbed Devon's arms and turned him around. "You get the new college grad and his girlfriend. I'll get us a couple more beers for the toast."

Devon took a deep breath. His task shouldn't be intimidating, like it was a heart transplant or double bypass. (He did both of those last week.) He could do this.

Seeing Chuck and Sarah on the back patio… the way they looked at each other… If they could harness the way they looked at each other into an energy source, they could power the apartment complex… heck, the entire block. That was just from a look.

It would be rude to brutishly break a charged bubble like that, so Devon knocked on the door frame leading outside. It seemed like even before he did, Sarah was looking straight at him. He was surprised she knew he was on the planet, but she had been looking his way before he could see her. It was like a sixth sense. Ellie had that sometimes, but he always thought his fiancée was just really intuitive. If Sarah could do it too, maybe it was a woman-thing—a genetic thing they didn't teach in pre-med.

Still… This was something else. Devon hadn't made a noise, yet somehow Sarah knew he was coming.

Chuck hadn't reacted to Devon's knock. He couldn't see outside the Charah-bubble, but that wasn't a surprise. His future bro-in-law was a great guy, but a lot of the time, he was oblivious to the world around him. The Stanford grad was about to say something to his girl, but she put her hand on Chuck's forearm and nodded towards where Devon was.

"Hey, Awe—Devon. What's up?" Devon noticed what Chuck had almost said. He didn't mind that nickname. It was always better than being called the same nickname as his dad. The important thing was Ellie didn't hear Chuck say it. She didn't use it as a nickname in public, but he didn't mind when she used it certain times in the privacy of their bedroom, so it might as well be a nickname. If it wasn't a public nickname, whenever other people said it, the word would take on a private meaning that would not be good for polite company.

He said, "Since you never got a graduation party, your sister thinks you deserve a better congrats. I agree. She asked me to bring you back in for a toast."

Sarah took Chuck's free hand and started to guide him inside, but Devon stopped them while he had their exclusive attention.

"While I have both of you…" Devon looked towards the kitchen and saw Ellie was out of earshot, so he could talk quietly, "Two things. First, stop making me look bad. A person can only seem 'so' awesome. I'm going to marry that woman, but even she said I was not romantic enough because of the example you two set. Chuck said he has to pretend to win you over and over, Sarah, but I'm not sure I buy it. I don't understand how anyone could believe you two are not together so he has to 'win' you."

Sarah looked at Chuck and said with shock, "You told him we broke up?"

"Not, no really…because we didn't. Ellie and Devon asked me my secret, and I said it was like we are not really dating and I had to win you over and over."

Sarah placed a hand on Chuck's crossed arms. "Oh. That's sweet."

Devon interjected, "And very romantic. Now I have a really high bar. That brings me to the other thing. Thank you for coming through for me, big time. The problem is I don't know how I'm going to follow up that mission, which I failed."

"What do you mean?" Sarah asked.

"The rose petals and pecan pie instead of Sister Act and a Klondike Bar. I never should have listened to Morgan."

"Of course you should never listen to Morgan about my sister," Chuck agreed.

Sarah looked upset with Chuck again. "You told him about the rose petals and pecan pie?"

"No."

Wow. She really kept on Chuck, more than even his sister did. This time, Devon could let him off the hook. "No, he didn't say anything, but it was obvious. Ellie doesn't know what you did. She thinks I did it. I know that's not the case because I didn't do it. I figured you both have keys, Chuck knows what she likes, and Sarah can afford it and can cook. It was the only possible explanation.

"You're not in trouble. Ellie might have been ok with one of her bridesmaids helping, but hearing about her brother setting up a night of seduction might've been awkward, so I didn't tell her. Thanks for the awesome surprise. At the same time, I feel like I'm being set up to fail even worse in the future."

Chuck said, "If Ellie ever figures it out, you don't need to mention me. I told Sarah there was a problem, and she took care of it." He looked at his woman, and she nodded that is what happened.

"However it happened, thank you both. We should go in before Ellie sniffs out what we've been talking about."

They joined Ellie, who was none the wiser, in the dining room for the toast. "To my genius brother!"

Clinks went around, and all took a drink. Chuck then objected, "Thank you, but no. It's not right to say I'm a genius when standing in a room with two doctors: one for the heart and one for the brain."

Devon always knew Chuck was really smart, but he would not contradict the thought that his fiancée was a genius. He also knew better than to correct her. This time, it was Chuck's awesome accomplishment anyway.

"Don't sell yourself short," she countered. "You graduated from Stanford." After another round of drinks, she said, "I didn't know they let you do classes online. I also didn't know they would let you complete your degree, after what happened."

That was odd. Devon wouldn't have thought that either. Chuck didn't explain. Instead, he looked at Sarah, who provided an explanation. "They don't. They made an exception for Chuck."

"After they treated him so badly. Why would they do that?"

"They did it because Chuck's special."

"I know that, but I'm his sister. I didn't think they knew that. They were the idiots who didn't believe him the first time. Also, how did you afford it, Brother? You only could afford it before because of that scholarship. Did you help, Sarah?" She didn't wait for an answer. "I bet you did. Thank you."

"Actually, it was all Chuck. He earned it, and I didn't have to pay his tuition. No one did."

Devon was even more confused. Fortunately, Sarah explained more. "They found proof that Bryce was behind framing Chuck and that Chuck did nothing wrong."

"Of course that slime bag was behind it. They found proof?"

"Yes."

"What did they find?"

"It doesn't matter. It was proof. Stanford just wanted Chuck to earn it because it's not an honorary degree."

So, Chuck had earned the degree and was free and clear from the disaster of a mistake that happened back then. That was awesome.

"That's wonderful, Brother. What are you going to do, now that you have a Stanford degree?"

Chuck looked at Sarah, as if she had a say. Although… As the girlfriend, in a way she did. She didn't say anything right away, so he said, "I don't know. The Buy More, I guess."

"You are so much better than that place. I know. I know. I complain about it a lot, but…" Ellie trailed off when she looked at Sarah again. Chuck and Sarah were smiling at each other, and once again it was like no one else was in the room. More power for the neighborhood. Ellie talked despite the audience not appearing to be listening. "This is a degree from Stanford, you know, the Harvard of the West."

Sarah was listening after all. Right away, she looked confused and said, "I didn't know Harvard has a west campus."

The woman who had been in charge of Chuck his entire life directed her next worry directly at her brother. "Don't stay the same place you've been since college. Now you can do anything…" Ellie was on a roll, but trailed off when she looked at Sarah again. Reasserting herself, she told Chuck. "Please make your life better by doing what I know you're capable of." She then sent a mental message to Sarah. Devon could understand that look as if Ellie had said it aloud: Don't hold Chuck back.

Sarah didn't seem to try to catch it because she was still enthralled with her boyfriend, the graduate. "Whatever Chuck does, whether it be staying at Buy More or going somewhere else, I'm not leaving him."

Ellie had not found an ally to steer Chuck to a "real" job, but that strong statement from Sarah was something that was hard to follow with more pushing. Chuck's surrogate mother wisely stopped.

Sarah was unconcerned about Chuck's future with a degree, but she had a question. "What'd you wish for, Chuck?"

"Uh…" Chuck looked rightly uncomfortable, and his eyes darted between the others.

Sarah explained the reason for her question to the doctors. "We saw a shooting star, and Chuck made a wish. I was asking what he wished for."

Uh, oh. Devon knew that was a no-no question. Ellie had stopped riding Chuck about his next career, but she didn't back down this time. "NO! Chuck, don't you dare tell her."

"Don't worry. I know better."

Sarah countered with a question, "It's just a wish. Why can't you tell me?"

"If I tell you the wish, it won't come true," Chuck answered.

"Really? I never learned that."

"It's the same for wishing wells and blowing out candles for your birthday cake."

"My dad never taught me that. Maybe that's because we didn't do birthday cakes."

Ellie explained, "No cake? That's not good. Anyway. When we were young, I wished for our mother to come home for my birthday right after she left, and I told our dad my wish. He wasn't happy; he said I'd never get the wish because I shared it. I didn't. She never came home."

"Forget I asked, Chuck." Sarah squeezed his arm.

Seemingly satisfied that the threat of a wish-reveal was over, Ellie more calmly said, "You made a wish, too, didn't you Sarah?"

"No. They never work for me."

"If you saw the shooting star, too, you could've also made a wish, too. I'm sure a bunch of people around LA probably wished on it, too." She looked at her brother. "There isn't a limit of one wish. That's why wishing wells have more than one penny. Twenty million people have birthdays the same day, but there isn't only one magical wish-granting cake. The only rule if you want the wish to come true is you can't tell anyone the wish."

Sarah frowned a little, "I never got what I wished for, so I stopped wishing. Guess I now know what my problem was." She got past the disappointment quickly, though. She took the beer from Chuck's hand and put it down on the table with hers. "Let's go celebrate, Chuck."

Devon thought that sometimes Ellie was too invested with what she thought Chuck should do, but seeing her excitement at the moment, watching Chuck and Sarah head to his room, there was no question that she was too excited that her brother was going to get lucky.

It had been about a year since that one time Sarah had stayed over, which ended with Ellie going to the ER. Since then, Chuck and Sarah had only stayed over at her place, which in a way was understandable. Devon was determined to keep tonight emergency-room-free. To ensure that, it was his mission to keep his fiancée's thoughts on something else.

Mission happily accepted.

He took Ellie's hand and took her to their room. She knew what it was for, and with the guest in Chuck's room, not in "public," she happily followed.

In Chuck's room, Sarah quickly shut the door. Chuck started, "What—"

Sarah didn't let him finish pushing him hard against the door. She didn't assault his lips because there were no civilian witnesses. Instead, she held her finger up to her lips, telling Chuck to be quiet. She then put her hand over Chuck's mouth and kissed the back of her hand. A couple months ago, when Chuck hadn't broken up with her, she might have kissed him for real. Probably not, though, because there was NSA surveillance. Chuck didn't understand what she was doing, so he tried to move away. Sarah used that movement to thud Chuck back against the door again. It was important for the cover.

From outside the door, Sarah heard the verbal declaration she was expecting, which explained the need for her actions. "Graduation sex. Awesome."

"Quiet, Honey."

Sarah continued her ruse, spinning Chuck and throwing him onto the bed, causing the bed springs to make loud noises. What followed next was a giggle from the other side of the door, footsteps going down the hall, and another door slammed shut.

She was a little worried Chuck might get the wrong impression, but for the horrified look he made toward the door, she knew that Chuck had figured out what she was doing. He quietly asked, "How did you know they were there?"

Sarah tilted her head, because of course she knew. Ellie was too nosy, and Devon wasn't shy. For a spy, it was a logical assumption. He figured out that reason and commented, "I live here and know they're never that noisy. Ellie normally tips me off so I can be somewhere else when they…you know.."

"We weren't being quiet, so they had no reason to be quiet."

"Hopefully they won't take tonight as permission to be noisy all the time."

"I doubt it. We'll go back to being at my place, whenever we need to have a reason to go on a mission."

"Now, I know what you sound like," Chuck mused. Then he turned beat red. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to say that out loud."

He was talking about how she had moaned for that pickle-burger he bought her. "Don't worry about it. It's not what I'm like anyway. Spies do it quietly." Chuck's eyes widened. Sarah couldn't help but smirk a little. She hated smirkers, but it served him right for breaking up with her, updating the Intersect…then doing sweet things like having her back at her reunion, like bringing her a pickle burger with cheese, and like tonight: wishing she was his real girlfriend.

Chuck wasn't going to tell her his wish, but he was easy to read. She knew that he wished for her. It was too late for her to make that wish, but if it wasn't, it was what she would've wished for, too. She didn't know how to make it happen, but maybe someday… That's what made it a wish.

Finally gaining control of his mouth, he cleared his throat a little and asked, "We aren't actually doing what they think we're doing, so what's the plan?"

He seemed disappointed. Wasn't he? Or was she disappointed? Chuck should always be easy to read, but sometimes she had trouble. She never saw that break-up coming, but it was partly because Chuck was clearly still in love with her while he was breaking up with her. It was the sweetest break-up imaginable.

What did Chuck ask? That's right. What was their plan? "I'll slip out the window." It felt wrong to call it the 'Morgan Door' when she was slipping out after cover-sex. In the future, she would never call it that if she ever used it for a cover-booty call. "We do have a friend-reason to be here at the moment, though." She pulled out her iPhone and held it out for Chuck. "You were going to give me an exercise playlist. Have you made one yet?"

"Right. Let me give that to you." Chuck got up from the bed, took the phone, and hooked it up to his computer.

The fact he already had made one excited Sarah more than she knew it should. She saw Chuck's playlists again: one "Jill," several "Sarah" lists with numbers, and a new "Sarah's Exercise Mix." Chuck started transferring the new one to her iPhone.

While it was a little gratifying to see so many of Chuck's playlists were about her, she made the responsible handler suggestion. "You shouldn't just listen to playlists inspired by me."

"What…I don't…" When Chuck saw she wasn't buying it, he finally agreed, "Ok."

"If you want to exercise something other than your fingers playing a video game, I'm sure this new exercise one is ok." A friend-list of non-romantic songs was safe.

"I get it. You want me to get into shape." From Chuck's tone, Sarah could tell that he didn't think much of the idea.

With the transfer done, he unhooked Sarah's phone and handed it back to her. She thanked him.

"Anything for you. It's the least I could do. And thanks for covering with Ellie about the degree."

"Everything I said is true. I didn't have to lie. I didn't say Bryce is alive. We didn't even know that when we saw the video evidence of him talking to Flemming. I didn't say you took online classes that you didn't take. They jumped to that conclusion. Stanford made an exception for you because you do deserve it. That's true."

She continued, "We didn't show Stanford the evidence because it's classified, but we sent them a notarized letter that you had been completely exonerated. Taken with assertions that your exemplary field work more than covered your last 12 credits, they did the right thing. It's not an honorary degree."

After Sarah was sure Chuck understood, she explained, "It's easier when a cover is based on the truth, so I was careful about what I said to Ellie and Awesome. It's easier to keep track of lies when you don't tell any."

"But I still have to work at Buy More."

"If you stay there, it will be easier, but we're flexible. Being in the Nerd Herd, where you regularly leave work for calls, makes what we do easier. If you became Assistant Manager, we would make it work. If you go somewhere else, we'll make it work."

Chuck nodded that he understood. "Even with the degree, I'm not going anywhere else. Working with you…and with Casey…it's the most important thing I've ever done. I still want to get the Intersect out of my head, but I'm not going to make your job harder."

Sarah was gratified to hear that. "Good." With nothing to do, Chuck and Sarah simply looked at each other. She could look into Chuck's eyes all day. They weren't supposed to do that, though. She sat on Chuck's bed because it was a couple feet further away. For some reason, sitting on his bed was a little safer than hers, but she refused to think about why, because then it wouldn't be safer.

She came up with a neutral topic. "Chuck, I didn't know Stanford is the Harvard of the West. Is there a Harvard of the East?"

"Harvard is in the East."

"Boston is east of Harvard, which is in Cambridge, on the other side of the Charles River. Boston College is not in Boston. It's in a different suburb that is actually west of Harvard, so it can't be that. Boston University is a little east, but mostly south. MIT is also in Cambridge and is also south, but it's more east than Harvard. Emerson and Northeastern are east, inside Boston city limits, but calling them the Harvard of the East is a little uppity, because they aren't good enough schools."

"Look at you—knowing the geography of Boston. Were you stationed there, or something?"

Sarah shook her head. "The CIA is international. The Intersect is special, which is the only reason I'm in LA." Lucky her—another thing she couldn't think because Chuck was only her asset.

Chuck answered what she was asking a minute ago. "There's no 'Harvard of the East.' MIT is better in engineering, but it doesn't have other programs as good as Harvard. The 'Harvard of the East' is just 'Harvard.'"

Chuck looked thoughtful for a second. "I know where you went to high school, but I don't know if you even went to college. You're obviously smart, so I assume you went to college. Where did you go to college? No, I don't need to know, I passed on your free question."

Chuck was so cute when he rambled. Yes, he passed on the question and just wanted to share a cheeseburger with her, but this one was free. She would've felt a little bad about telling Chuck, back when he had been framed, kicked out of college, and didn't have a degree, but that was no longer an issue. "Don't worry about it. Consider the information about my past to be a graduation gift. The reason I didn't tell anyone is because my alma mater doesn't work with the cover. Ellie and Devon know I have means, but that could be from anything. My college degree doesn't make sense for the cover of someone who worked at Wienerlicious and who works at Orange Orange. That means you can't tell anyone where I went. Got it?"

"Don't tell where a spy went to college. Got it."

"Or that I'm a spy."

"Of course." He teased, "You know, I do keep an Intersect-worth of secrets."

"I went to Harvard."

Chuck flashed. He must have just seen her transcript. He sat there quietly for a moment, opening and closing his mouth. "Wow. That's not… Oh, that's why you know where those are schools in the Boston area. The CIA recruited you out of Harvard, like it recruited Bryce when he was at Stanford."

Apparently, the details of her recruitment weren't in the Intersect. That was something she didn't want to share with anyone. "Not exactly. It's hard to explain. I was in Internal Relations with minors in a couple languages."

Chuck let out a laugh. "Internal Relations? That's what they call it in the CIA?

For over a year, she had been trying to not make Chuck feel bad about not having a college degree. Now that he had one, what did he do? He teased her about where she got hers. She looked at the photo of them at Comic Con. She wasn't really mad so she would shatter the frame with a pencil. Instead, she grabbed one of Chuck's pillows and flung it at him. That caused him to slip out of his chair and land on the floor.

For a second, she was worried that she had hurt him. She hadn't meant to hit him that hard. Her concern disappeared when saw Chuck was laughing. She obviously didn't know her own strength or how to flirt-tease. It was a good thing they were only just cover-boyfriend and girlfriend.

In for a penny… "Ellie's not here. What'd you wish for, Chuck?"

"I'm not telling. I learned not to tell anyone my wishes, back before I was a teenager."

She raised her eyebrows in disbelief. "You're really not going to tell me who?"

Chuck's eyes widened. "I didn't tell you. How did you…"

"Remember." Sarah pointed to herself. "Spy." You provide a leading question and let your mark fill in the blanks.

She shook her head and herself. She shouldn't have asked. It was a rule that Chuck learned a long time ago, like she had learned this interrogation trick of half-answering a question, long before she was a teenager. "On the other hand, don't tell me." She unwisely couldn't stop herself from adding. "Whatever your wish is, I want it to come true."

"But I never said—"

"Even though it can only be a wish, it's a good wish."

Sarah broke eye contact later than she should have. "I should go." She quickly went to the window, where she could "escape."

"Uh. yeah. That's probably a good idea," he agreed, "And I'll fix my playlists. I do enough running from the bad guys, so I don't know how much additional exercise I need, but I'm sure you'll do enough for both of us."

That's not how it worked. You exercised so when you had to run, you're in shape and can run faster. If a cover-girlfriend was in shape, that didn't transfer to the cover-boyfriend. Sarah wasn't going to argue, though.

It wasn't a good idea, but Sarah couldn't help herself. Before she left, she walked back from the window, and gave Chuck a hug, with her face pressed to his so she could speak quietly into his ear. "Congratulations, Chuck. You deserved to get your degree. And thank you for saving the world, once again."

That was all she could do. She didn't dare look at Chuck before she left out the window.

A/N: TPTB had Chuck "break-up" with Sarah at the end of "Chuck vs the Break-up" so he wouldn't "cheat" on Sarah when Jill came to town, but they seemed to be back on the Charah-train for the next two episodes. In the Jill arc, Sarah seemed more upset than a non-girlfriend should be, but she was also very accepting.

MyNameIsJeffNImLost AU stories:
- "Chuck & His Roommate vs the Next Mission (chapter 5, "Dating as a Spy")