A/N: Welcome to the ninth arc of New Day based, very roughly, on Crown Vic. The Kirk arc. (And not the Captain, although that would be cool, but it would be a crossover, so you wouldn't be able to find it here.) Thank you all so much for following along on this seemingly neverending story. I really do appreciate it. Several of you have asked me how long I intend this story to run. The honest answer is that I have no idea. I will keep writing it as long as I'm having fun, and I'm really having fun. So, for the time being, I'm just going to keep going. Oh, and, you all know I don't own Chuck, right?
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"Chuck. Sarah," called Ellie.
"You go ahead, sweetie. I'll be along in a second. I'll just finish this shelf," said Sarah. Chuck thought she looked as beautiful as she had ever looked, in jeans and a tee shirt with minimal makeup. She seemed to light up the room just by being there.
Chuck said, "Ok," gave her a quick kiss and left his room to head to the kitchen and answer Ellie's call.
Sarah closed the box and taped it shut, writing BOOKS on the top and sides. She picked up the next box on the pile and took the last bunch of books from the shelf. She stopped herself suddenly and began to flip through one of the books she held. A slow smile came to her. She put that particular book aside and put the others into the empty box. The one she had set aside she tucked into a large inside pocket of the jacket she was wearing, with a smile and a soft chuckle.
Chuck and Ellie were in the kitchen discussing plates and cookware. Although Devon was working today, the rest of them had off from their jobs (and cover jobs). Shopping for furniture and household/kitchen items was on the agenda.
Sarah closed the box, taped and labelled it and made her way to the kitchen. Ellie was saying, "No, you take it. You can use it for the chicken pepperoni you make."
"But then you'll have to go out and buy one..."
"No, I can use this," she held up a similar piece of cookware.
Chuck wrinkled his brow, "Are you sure...?"
"Yeah. No worries. You take it." She put it with a pile of cookware near a packing box.
"Ok, Sarah's here. We can finish this later. Let's go," said Ellie.
"Thanks, again, Ellie," said Sarah. "I really appreciate your help. I have no sense of style."
"Nonsense. You always look perfect," said Ellie with a smile and a wave of her hand.
Grinning, Sarah said, "Thanks, but I meant furnishing a place. Buying ...I don't know...a couch. What's a nice couch? Does it go with the table? Is leather better than upholstered? You know, stuff like that."
Laughing, Ellie said, "Oh, like I do? All the stuff here is mismatched because we got it cheap a little at a time over many years. Hell, we didn't even get this apartment until I started to make actual doctor money. You should have seen the place we had before. Ooowwww, I'm so happy for you two. Taking that place." Ellie clapped her hands together and bounced a little to express her happiness.
"I'm excited too. I can't wait to have you as a neighbor. To be here all the time. And to live with my sweetie all the time," she said, running her hand through Chuck's curls.
Chuck took her hand from his hair and brought it to his lips, kissing her palm. He said, "I can't wait either." He looked into her beautiful blue eyes with all the love he had in his heart. That's when a dish towel pelted him in the face.
Ellie said, "Come on, you two. If you get started doing lovey dovey we'll never get to IKEA before the rush."
"Ok, coming, Sis," said Chuck, laughing and dropping the towel on the counter.
"Do you have to get the car keys from John?" Ellie asked.
"Nope. He's already given them to me," said Chuck, holding them up. Neither the Nerd Herder nor the Porsche would fit the boxes of disassembled furniture they intended to buy and Devon had taken his and Ellie's car to the hospital already. Casey had loaned them the Crown Vic for the day with a strict warning about what would happen if it received even a minor scratch.
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"Ok," said Ellie. "Here we go. You need a couch, a love seat, a coffee table, an end table and a lamp. Right? That's what we decided last night."
"Yup," said Sarah. "The rest of the stuff we can take from Chuck's room or from you guys lending us some stuff."
"Giving. We're giving you that stuff," said Ellie. "And you know you don't have to take everything from Chuck's room. You could lose that Tron poster, for example."
"Hey, dad gave me that Tron poster," said Chuck.
"Oh, yes," said Ellie, sounding contrite. "Sorry, Chuck. Of course."
"We keep the Tron poster, Sweetie," said Sarah. She leaned forward and whispered to him, "I have some wonderful memories we made while I was looking at that poster."
Chuck turned red and mumbled, "Oh, yeah. Uh, good. Yeah." She giggled a little. He was so easy to set off, even after all these months.
So, they started to search the store. Sarah was excited and happy. Chuck was mostly quiet, content to observe his sister and girlfriend as they moved about the large store and discussed the various pieces. After ten minutes, all the furniture began to look the same to him. As the morning went on, a pattern became clear. Ellie would comment on a particular couch or table and Sarah would find something wrong with it. Over and over again. Even Sarah began to get a little annoyed with her own reactions, a little frustrated. Her good mood had evaporated. She became a little snappy.
Eventually, Ellie gave her a long look and said, "Chuck, go get a cup of coffee or something. Ok?"
"Uhh, sure, Ellie."
Once he had gone, Ellie said, "Ok, Sarah. What is it?"
Sarah was upset at the process, but was trying not to show it. "I don't know. I'm frustrated. There's nothing here I love. Nothing that's perfect. It has to be perfect," she said with a little desperation in her voice.
"I know, but we looked online at the other stores. Even with the holiday sales, this is the place you guys can afford right now. As you save your money you can replace this stuff with nicer, more expensive stuff, but for starters..."
"I know we talked about it. I know. It's just that now, faced with it. I don't know...I just...I want it to be perfect...I want it to be perfect for him. I want our first...first..." Without much warning, Sarah started to cry.
Surprised, Ellie wrapped her in a hug and said, "It's ok. It's ok."
Sarah was wracked by sobs, "No, no, no...it's ...home...first home...I want ...first home..."
"I know, honey. I understand. It's ok. You want your first home with Chuck to be perfect..."
"No, Ellie...No...first home...my first home...this will be my first home...with or without Chuck...this will be my first home..."
Hugging her, Ellie was suddenly glad that Sarah couldn't see her face, because she showed all the shock that such a declaration might engender. Sarah's first home? What did that even mean? How could she not have had a home before this? Where did she grow up? Foster homes? Ellie knew by now not to ask. She had never asked and been rebuffed, but Sarah had tiny "tells" when she was uncomfortable. Ellie noticed things like that and knew not to ask anything about Sarah's past. But if this was to be her first home? Holy shit, no wonder she was freaking out a little.
Ellie took a deep breath. Ok.
Ellie pulled back from the crying woman and smiled at her as brightly as she could, "Ok, in that case, we are definitely going to make it perfect. Tell me exactly what you want and we're going to find it for you."
Through her tears, Sarah smiled a little and said, "I'm sorry for being such a difficult shopper."
"Nonsense. You have every right to be. It's your money, you should get exactly what you want. So, let's get started for real now. No more Ms. Nice Shopper. I'm going to call one of those store people over to us, whip out a pair of handcuffs and keep them with us until we furnish your new home. And if they try to get away, God help them."
"Thanks, Ellie," said Sarah, wiping her eyes with a bit of tissue.
"I'll call Chuck back and we can let him watch how a couple of pros do it."
Grinning now, Sarah said, "Ok, Dr. B."
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Chuck said to Morgan and Lou, "You have no idea what Sarah and Ellie can be like when on a mission. They got a second wind and ripped through IKEA like you've never seen. They had the sales people scurrying around like ants by the time they were done. They ordered us stuff from other IKEA stores that they didn't carry in this one. They got everything we needed for the new place and even brow beat the store into including everything in the sale package. I thought Ellie was going to make the store manager cry."
Lou laughed and gave Sarah a high five, "Way to go, Sarah. You and Ellie rock, girl."
The two couples were having dinner at O'Malley's. Ellie had the night shift at the hospital and couldn't join them.
"Do you have to build it all?" asked Morgan.
"Yeah, most of it. We're keeping the boxes in a corner of the apartment now. We'll build them after the new year, when we can move them into the new place. No sense in building them now just to have them take up room until we move," said Chuck.
Jackie O'Malley came over to their table. "Hey, guys. Everything good?"
Sarah gave him a happy smile and said, "Just great, as usual, Jackie. Thanks."
Jackie said, "Terrific. Hey, Morgan, I tried that new dry rub recipe you gave me ..."
Lou said, "What was that one, oh bearded one?"
"Oh, it's the best, Lou. Salt, pepper, paprika, brown sugar, cayenne, chili powder, cumin and coriander. It's great on steaks. But, Jackie, from the look on your face, I'm thinking I led you astray."
"Yeah, dude. I'm not a fan. It tastes bitter when it's done. Not at all what I thought."
"I'll bet you burned it. It's the sugar. If you use a direct heat, like searing the steak, it will burn and get bitter. You want to put in on the part of the grill with indirect heat, so the sugar caramelizes rather than burns. It takes a little longer, but..."
Like most spies, Sarah kept multiple phones on her at any one time. Different groups of friends and colleagues had different numbers. As Morgan and Jackie were in the middle of a discussion regarding the ideal temperature to grill meat coated in Morgan's dry rub, one of Sarah's phones rang. It was the one whose number she only shared with close friends. "Hello."
"Hi, Sarah. It's Mei-Ling. Is this a good time?"
To Chuck, Morgan and Lou, Sarah mouthed 'Sorry' as she got up to step outside the restaurant. Into the phone she said, "Sure. Is everything okay?"
"Oh, yes. All good. I'm working, but nothing scary for a change."
"Me too. Between missions. How's Lee doing?" asked Sarah, stepping out into the cool night air.
"He's good. The Lo Pan business increased his profile with his bosses. He's in New York now. Still with the UN, but in a slightly higher role. He loves his job. Fen went with him and they're living together now. He's in one of the mission's apartments on the East Side."
"Oh, that's great. Tell him we say hi...tell them both. Can she get a job as a nurse in New York?"
"She's working on it. I think there's some kind of procedure to transfer her license. It takes a few months, or so I'm told."
"Good for her. She was terrific. I liked her a lot," said Sarah.
"Yeah, I agree. I kind of hope he settles down with her," said Mei-Ling. "I wouldn't mind her as a sister-in-law."
"I'll bet. Chuck and I are moving in together, by the way. We're taking the apartment across the courtyard from Casey's. We were out shopping for furniture today."
"Oh, that's great. Good for you both. Tell him I said to be nice to you, or else."
"Oh, don't you worry. He couldn't be nicer. Things are great with us."
"Sweet. How's Casey?" asked Mei-Ling.
"He's good. Same as ever. Not seeing anyone, if that's what you were asking."
"No. Wasn't really asking that, but thanks anyway. Tell him I said hi."
"Will do," said Sarah.
"So, Sarah, I am actually calling about business," said Mei-Ling.
"What's up?" asked Sarah.
"Have you ever heard of Rashan Chen?"
"Umm. Taiwanese. Right? Rising politician. They are mentioning him as a possible presidential candidate in the next election there. Pretty far to the right, I think. He was mentioned in an article about how some governments, countries, are moving rightward."
"Exactly," said Mei-Ling. "Very far to the right. He's just retired from the Army with the rank of General. A real hawk. Pushing for a much harder line against my country. Like, mining the Strait of Taiwan, that kind of hard line."
"Shit. That's insane. That would lead to war," said Sarah.
"Yeah. And would you guys jump in to defend Taiwan? Who knows? We are looking at the possibility of World War III. The guy's halfway nuts. Your country is officially staying out of it, has no position on the him or his potential candidacy. Unofficially, they are as worried about this guy's rise as we are. The status quo isn't ideal for anybody, but it's better than a shooting war."
"Ok. I'm guessing if this is business, then you want to share something about Chen," said Sarah.
"Yeah. I was doing some work and came across evidence that Chen is financing his political rise, at least in part, with counterfeit American dollars."
"Damn. You'd think we would be the last folks he'd want to piss off," said Sarah. "If it hits the fan with your country, he'd be relying on us to come to his rescue."
"Yeah, you would think so, but his ego is mammoth. He's got to be thinking he'd never get caught."
"Hubris. It makes our jobs so much easier," said Sarah.
"So right. Always. Anyway, I'll email you what we've got. You can hear it yourselves."
"For attribution? Are you authorized to share?"
"Oh, yes. My bosses approved my passing this on to you. As I said, this guy is a pain in the ass to both our countries. We'll be just as happy for you guys to bring him down. Saves us from having to."
"You worried about sources and methods?" asked Sarah.
"No. I scrubbed out any of the data that you could have used to compromise any of that stuff. That's actually why I wanted to speak to you about it. Without that data, the provenance is unknown and you could discount the veracity of the information. I wanted to tell you that I personally have high confidence in the information."
"Ok. How damning is it?" asked Sarah.
"Audiotape of Chen and one of his lieutenants making plans to get some new printing plates to their presses. It mentions Mojave and someone named Lon. Don't have any more clues about Lon, but Mojave is obviously the desert east of you. The conversation is in Mandarin, so I'm sending you both the original and my translation."
"Ok. It's a good start. Our Secret Service is top notch. If there's bad money out there, I'm sure they are already investigating. This lead should be very helpful. Thanks."
"You're welcome. Good luck with it," said Mei-Ling.
"I'm sure my boss will thank your boss," said Sarah.
"Good news for both our careers," laughed Mei-Ling.
"So true. So, uhh, I finally told Chuck that I love him."
Mei-Ling laughed again and said, "Come on. He knew that already, Sarah. It was so obvious."
"Well, that's what everyone is telling me, but still..."
"But still, it's nice to say it, I guess. I'm so happy for you, Sarah. So happy for you both."
"Thanks. Come back and visit soon, huh? Be good to see you again."
"Be good to see you too," said Mei-Ling. "Not so easy for somebody in my line of work to go see Disneyland, though."
"I understand. Maybe I'll bump into you in Macau or something."
"Yeah, or something. Take care, girlfriend," said Mei-Ling.
"You too. Bye."
"Bye," said Mei-Ling.
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A/N2: Anybody who misses Jeffster stumbling around bikini clad women on a yacht, please leave a review. Anybody who doesn't, please leave a review. You know what? Just please leave a review.