A/N: Long stories (that's greater than six chapters for me, lol) are all well and good, but one-shots are still my favorite. This is a short one. I felt like starting 2024 with this.
Following the Mauser incident, Sarah had had a difficult time as Chuck withdrew from interacting with her. On New Year's Eve, she decided she couldn't cope with it any longer. AU following "Chuck versus Santa Claus."
No beta, so I totally own all the mistakes, typos and Anglicisms. You can PM me with corrections, though.
Sarah vs NYE
It had been a difficult week for Sarah Walker. Chuck had been avoiding her and it hurt. She'd decided she had to do something about it. However, as she drove to the Echo Park apartment complex, her conviction was diminishing. This had felt so right in her room in Maison23, but now?
She reminded herself about the last week and how she'd felt.
Killing Mauser was absolutely the right thing to do. If he'd made anyone aware that Chuck was the Intersect, Chuck's life would've changed for the worse. They both knew that. However, her fear of his reaction had made her lie to him. She didn't know that Chuck saw her kill the man, and their friendship suffered as a consequence. Worse than that, he'd avoided her which had hurt far more than it should have done.
Having finally cornered him earlier in the day and made him tell her what was wrong, she had explained what had happened. He had forgiven her and she realized just how much his opinion meant to her. He didn't know how much, though. Her feelings for him had been growing day-by-day. She knew now that she loved him, but she'd not actually admitted it. Hell, before now, she'd not even admitted it to herself.
So, here she was in the evening of New Year's Eve heading to the party his sister had set up, determined to actually tell him. But was that a good idea? Maybe she should turn around and head back to the hotel. Forget this crazy idea. But He deserved to know how she really felt about him.
She continued vacillating all the way there.
As Sarah walked into the courtyard, her senses were on high alert. Where was Chuck and was he safe?
She finally spotted him talking to a beautiful brunette near the entrance to the apartment he shared with his sister and her fiancé. He was only casually talking to the woman, but Sarah's jealousy immediately kicked in. Who was this woman and what were her intentions toward him? Chuck's my boyfriend!
She was going to give the woman a piece of her mind, but was stopped before she got to them. Ellie Bartowski stood in front of her. "Sarah! We didn't think we'd see you tonight. You two seemed… estranged?"
Sarah focused on her friend. "We've had some ups and downs but I'm here for him. For us. We need to get past the problems." She wasn't going to say what those problems were, obviously. Thankfully, Ellie didn't ask about them.
Ellie enveloped her in a tight hug. "I'm so happy to hear that, Sarah. You're so right for each other. You will stay the night, won't you?"
Sarah hadn't planned to stay, but couldn't say 'no' now. She said she would and was hugged even tighter.
She finally managed to escape from that embrace, and walked toward Chuck and that woman. He looked up. His eyes lit up as he saw her. That made her feel so good.
As she joined them, Chuck said, "Jane, my girlfriend, Sarah, that I've been telling you about, is finally here." The brunette, Jane, turned and looked at her. Sarah felt like she was being assessed.
Jane said, "I've been listening to Chuck gushing over you for several minutes. It's been… fascinating. I've not heard a man speak so openly before. You're one lucky girl."
Sarah suddenly felt that way. She locked eyes with her nerd. "I am." The smile that crept onto his face made her sure of that statement.
"I can see you feel the same. You're both almost too much. I'll leave you to yourselves." Jane backed away.
"Gushing?" Sarah asked.
"Not my choice of words," he replied.
She smiled. "Was that to fend her off?"
He frowned. "She wasn't interested in me. She'd seen us together at the Double-O and asked about you."
She loved that he was so naive and couldn't see that Jane was 'testing the waters.' She gave him a quick peck on the lips. "I'm going to check on Casey." She wanted no recordings of her time with Chuck tonight.
Before she turned to go, Chuck said, "Casey doesn't like parties. He went to bed with a bottle of Johnny Walker to celebrate New Year on his own."
She instantly wondered if the surveillance would be on or off. Probably on for safety's sake. She didn't want to face a drunken Casey. The comments and sarcasm would cut right through her. However, she thought of how to converse in private.
She pulled him to sit on a wall away from the others. Somewhere she also knew that the surveillance would hear nothing.
Chuck gave her a questioning look, so she said, "Chuck, you have forgiven me for lying to you, haven't you?" She wanted to make sure.
He nodded, but she didn't find it convincing. However, he said, "It upset me at the time, but you explained it. I still find that explanation to be surprising, though."
Confused, she asked, "Why?"
"Because of the implications." She said nothing, so he asked, "Sarah, do you want this relationship to be real?"
He'd gotten directly to her purpose for being here. She hadn't expected to say this so quickly, but she didn't hesitate. "Yes."
He blinked a couple of times. "Really? Really real?"
She smiled at his words. "Really, really real," she replied. "but you know we'll have to hide it."
He snorted. "The story of my life."
That wasn't expected. "What do you mean? You don't normally hide anything."
His gorgeous hazel eyes locked with hers. He took a deep breath. "After what you've just said, I'm not going to hide this. I think you probably know that I'm in love with you, Sarah Walker. I have been almost since the beginning. I've just not said it out loud before."
As he declared his love, Sarah's walls, weak anyway, collapsed completely. The warmth that spread from her heart outwards almost overwhelmed her.
She crashed her lips to his. The kiss was like the one in front of Roan. It was not as passionate as the one in the warehouse, but this was her kissing Chuck, conveying her feelings without the threat of imminent death.
The wonderful kiss fueled other feelings. Her desire for him spiked. It had been a long time for her, even if it hadn't been for him. She quelled that last painful thought.
When she finally pulled away, he was clearly stunned. She knew he needed words as well as actions, so said, "I've been wanting to do that since you kissed me in front of Roan, but I stuck to protocol." He averted his eyes and she had to grip his chin and pull him back. "I'm sure you enjoyed that kiss as much as I did. So, what's wrong?"
"I did enjoy it so much back then, even though I was annoyed with Roan." What she saw in his eyes was more than she'd seen before. They were full of desire as well as love. He told her, "I suddenly remembered that gas and what we had to do."
She remembered that time as a desperate attempt to save him, washing to get the gas off of him, but now reflected that it was a time of almost nudity. "You're thinking of my body?" she asked teasingly.
"God, I am. Sorry."
She was starting to feel her own desire building. "Hey. Don't be. I'm thinking of yours now, and wishing I'd focused more in that shower."
"We couldn't do anything, but I really wanted to," he admitted.
The tingling below was increasing. She wanted more than just the kiss now.
"Why did you come here tonight, Sarah?" he asked, bringing her back from her lustful thoughts.
She looked down, and admitted, "I've missed our time together since I shot Mauser. I've come to realize just how much you mean to me."
He lifted her chin up. "Thank you, Sarah. You've made this the best New Year party ever." His love for her was clear. He was obviously suppressing the lustful thoughts, but she wanted them back.
She quickly looked at her watch. It was only 11:04pm. They could still get back out here for midnight. She held his gaze and said, "I need to go and switch off the surveillance." She could see understanding in his widening eyes.
She stood, but he grabbed her hand. "I can put a loop on, fooling the surveillance. It would be better." He stood. "Give me a minute before you come to my room." She watched him rush into the apartment. Her amazing IT guy was always surprising her.
As she entered his bedroom, he grinned. "Casey will see the room empty when he checks the surveillance recording."
She locked the door and turned to him. "We only have about 45 minutes." She immediately started unbuttoning her blouse and gestured for him to do the same. He was very quickly down to his boxers and she to her bra and panties.
"God, you're gorgeous!" he said.
Sarah was looking at the hair on his chest. Hair that trailed down into his boxers. His boxers showed what he thought of her dressed as she was.
She grabbed his hand and pulled him to the bed, but stopped before settling down on it. "You'll have to be gentle with me, Chuck. I've not done this in a long time."
Chuck kissed her tenderly and eased her down onto the bed.
The next forty minutes were the best of her life. He was more than just gentle; he lovingly worshiped her body. Everything he did seemed to be about giving her pleasure. And, boy, did she get so much pleasure!
She no longer wanted to see in the new year with the others. She wanted to do that in this bed with Chuck.
He was more aware of what was needed, though. "I have to put the surveillance back on so that it captures the sounds of us all out there at midnight."
She reluctantly climbed out of bed. He paused for a few moments, looking at her naked form. She did the same. However, they had to stop this. They quickly dressed, but before he went to the computer, she stopped him. "This isn't finished, Chuck. We come back here after the celebrations out there are over. We'll continue this celebration well into the night."
He nodded furiously and looked as desperate for it as she knew she was. She leaned up and kissed him hard before unlocking the door and heading out. "I'll get us some drinks," she said over her shoulder.
"You disappeared," Ellie said, but not too accusingly, as she handed the champagne flutes to Sarah.
"Reconnecting?" Devon asked suggestively.
Sarah grinned and nodded. "More reconnecting after this."
He grinned. "Awesome!" And it had been. So very awesome.
Sarah felt Chuck's hand slide around her waist. It reminded her of what else his hands had done in the last hour. A shiver ran up and down her spine as she handed him his glass.
Ellie turned and started the countdown and everyone joined in.
The midnight kiss they shared was one of promise, not just the cover one she had originally expected. They helped clear up before that promise was realized, but it was that night, again and again.
She knew things between them were great now. It would be a challenge fooling the general, but so worth it.
The new year certainly started with a bang. Several in fact.
A/N: Just a quick one-shot, but a significant diversion from canon. The trip to the suburbs after this would be very different.
Please leave a review to let me know if you enjoyed this, if you have the time.