A/N: Hi. If you're reading this, you know the drill. I hope you enjoy it.

Disclaimer: I don't own Chuck


"GOD DAMN IT!" she yelled as she got into the van. It had gone sideways in a way she didn't know was possible. She threw her bag in disgust as she slid the door shut, causing Casey to look up into the rear view mirror. He locked eyes with Carina and Zondra, who both shook their head. It was the barest of movement from both, but he saw it. "How did I mess that up?" Casey said nothing. He put his foot on the gas and pulled away.

Carina and Zondra shared a look. After the years together on the CAT Squad, they knew that when a mission went pear-shaped, Sarah would get frustrated, but the sound in her voice…the anguish…it was not her. "Blondie, it wasn't you," Carina said softly.

"Then who the hell was it?" Sarah snapped, hitting her hand against the side of the van, the frustration pouring out of her. "You two were dressed to kill, letting me get in, unobserved. All I had to do was hit him with the drug, get him to the rendezvous spot, and we take off."

"Some kind of computer security," Casey groused from the driver's seat. "It took everyone by surprise."

"We're the damn NSA, Casey, we're supposed to be the best of the best when it comes to that stuff!" Sarah barked. "How did we not even know about it?"

"Cause that squirrelly fucker is one of the best," Casey reminded her. Sarah let out a low growl of frustration and looked up at the roof of the van. Casey locked eyes with Carina, who again, barely shook her head. "I hate this damn assignment," he grunted, put his foot on the gas, and took off.

}o{

She walked into her room and threw the bag on the bed. She fell back onto the bed, and stared up at the ceiling, letting out an ironic laugh. She never did anything like that before….before meeting him. She was fighting feelings that she didn't know she could have. "Damn it," she said softly, pushing the hair out of her face. The briefing with Beckman had gone better than she thought possible. Sarah's face had not been seen, and those that reviewed the footage didn't think that Carina and Zondra had been made.

Manoosh obviously had a computerized security system that was great at sensing people, but telling him who they were, or anything about them, not so much. Beckman reminded her that they would step back, reassess, and come up with a better option. That was the NSA way, not going in guns blazing, as it was under her former Director in the CIA.

She thought this mission might be short. She thought they could get in, get their target, get out, and during their downtime….

"DAMN IT!" she said, hitting both hands against the bed, knowing it was looking like she was throwing a hissy fit. She sat up on the bed and blew out a rough breath. She began to pull off her clothes and went into the bathroom to take a shower. A hot shower could drive away these thoughts.

She got in, started the water and stood under it. She missed him.

"Don't go falling in love with me, Chuck."

"I was going to warn you not to fall in love with me."

"I'm sorry, I don't think I'm capable of falling in love…not like that."

"What do you mean you can't fall in love like that? Either you fall in love, or you don't."

They had said their goodbyes. She had left. She warned him that she would, when they started their summer romance.

"I guess you were right," she said softly, the hot water pouring down on her. She didn't even feel the heat, thinking of the shower that she had shared with him. She reached over and turned the water as cold as she could take it.

}o{

She was towel drying her hair, wrapped in her robe. She kept glancing at the reflection of her suitcase in the mirror reflection. She blew out a breath, and gave up. She walked over, opened the suitcase, unzipped the side pocket, and pulled out the photo she kept. She had never carried a photo before. She fought back tears.

It was just the two of them, standing there, at the photo booth at the arcade. His arms wrapped around her, her hands on his arms. She reached up to her head, and touched the spot on her head, where his lips were on her head in the picture.

Her phone rang, snapping her out of her thoughts. She walked over, saw it was General Beckman, gathered herself, and answered the call. "Agent Walker, secure," she said.

"Agent Walker, there has been a situation with the Manoosh case," Beckman said as a way of greeting. "We have…what they call a white hat that has reached out to us."

"A 'white hat'?" Sarah asked.

"He's one of the good guys, apparently," Beckman replied. "Our experts have vetted him the best they can."

"That doesn't sound good," Sarah said. "The best they can?"

Sarah heard Beckman exhale. "It seems our best in this field isn't up to his best," Beckman admitted. "He will be joining our team, and has asked that you protect him."

"Me?" Sarah asked.

"He said he has read the teams files," Beckman continued. "Trust me, I'm not exactly comfortable with this, but our people assure me that if anyone can get to Manoosh it's him."

"Okay, so what's the plan?" Sarah asked.

"There is a soirée in a week," Beckman explained. "This hacker claims he has an invite for him and his party. He is worried for his safety. He noted that you have some background in protection."

"A week?" Sarah asked, her heart plummeting. "But why me? Carina and Zondra are better at this stuff than I am. I guess what I don't understand is why we are trusting a hacker?"

"We have no choice," Beckman said. "There is a weapon that Manoosh has created, a computer program that is above my understanding, that could wreck countries' economies, destroy their computerized files, and all other chaos."

"Let me guess, he selling it to the highest bidder," Sarah groused.

"Correct," Beckman said. She paused, and when she spoke, Sarah heard amusement in Beckman's voice. "As for why you, I quote, 'Carina scares me, Zondra seems like she would yell, and Agent Walker seems like the kind of person you could trust with your life.'"

"Okaaaay," Sarah said.

"He also asked me to press upon you, that he is not comfortable with public displays of affection, and he promises he will be a perfect gentleman," Beckman told her.

"They all say that," Sarah groused. "And then they act quite ungentlemanly."

"Don't I know it," Beckman agreed. "He should be there tomorrow morning."

"That's fortunate," Sarah said.

"Not really, he watched the entire mission," Beckman told her. "He tried to contact us when he realized how good Manoosh's security was, but by that time it was too late."

"We need to sign this guy up," Sarah said, impressed.

"One last thing, Sarah," Beckman said. "He told me…he told me, 'Don't let Sarah be too hard on herself, she did the best she could in that situation.'"

"What the hell?" Sarah replied.

"Agent Walker….do you know any hackers?" Beckman asked.

"No, not to my knowledge," Sarah said. "But I'm worried he might be a stalker."

"I didn't get that feeling but…well, you can judge for yourself tomorrow," Beckman told her. "You make the final call if this mission is a go or no-go."

"General, we have to based on what you told me," Sarah said.

"He said you'd say that," Beckman said, chuckling. "Good night Agent Walker." With that, Beckman hung up.

Sarah held the phone in her hand, confused. She looked at the clock, did math, and looked back at her phone. It would be late afternoon/early evening there. Was he working at the Buy More? She shook her head and put down her phone. It had to be a clean break. She went over to her bed. It had to be. So why wasn't her heart listening to her?

}o{

The previous May, you could say the start of Sarah's Cruel Summer (Come on Swifites)

"Here you go," she said, sliding the drink to the man in front of her.

"Hey, let's say when you get off, we meet up and you…get off," the guy taking the drink said, a grin on his face.

The smile never left Sarah's face, as she sweetly replied, "You have a choice. You can turn and leave, or find out what it will be like having to drink your drink through a straw because your mouth is wired shut."

The man turned and fled. "Great, you scared off another cute one," Carina told her. Sarah turned to Carina, shaking her head. It had been a few weeks since all three women had left their respective spy agencies. They all three now worked for the NSA. They were currently surveilling the beach from the open bar the three worked at.

When Amy had turned on the group, at the behest of Gaez and Graham, the three women had taken all three of their foes down. None of the women trusted the CIA any longer, and they all agreed that the DEA wasn't for them. Beckman had made them an offer, and frankly, it sounded like a dream assignment.

Beckman knew the women needed downtime, but none of them had the mental makeup to take it. She came up with the next best option, sending the three women to survey a beach for the summer, that had reported activity on it. Supposedly the beach was used for a meeting place of known gun runners.

Working at an open faced bar on the beach all summer, truly sounded like a great job…if you didn't mind the occasional idiot.

"He was an ass," Sarah said.

"I know, it was a great ass," Carina pointed out. Sarah gave her a look, and Carina held up her hands, grinning. "Look, he was pretty, and he seemed to believe in his abilities." Sarah couldn't help but snort laughter. "Okay, is he just going to sit there all damn day?"

Sarah followed Carina's gaze to the man who looked to be about their age, sitting on the sand, staring out at the water. He was wearing a white shirt and black pants, not the typical beach wear.

"Not the typical clothing of a beach goer, is it?" Sarah said, watching the man. Carina looked at the man and then looked back to Sarah. "Doesn't seem like one of our targets."

"How's that?" Carina asked.

"I don't think our targets would dress in a way that makes them feel quite so out of place," Sarah said. Carina snorted, nodding. "I mean, if they did, it would make our jobs a lot easier." Carina chuckled, as the two got back to work.

Sarah kept noticing the man just sitting there as people came in and out of the bar. She became distracted by a commotion that was taking place on the beach. A couple, with a child, and an older couple was standing together, the three younger people looking embarrassed. The older woman was yelling at the older man, loudly.

"What do you mean you didn't record it?" the woman's voice was heard in the bar. "How could you not record it?"

"Sarah, do we have a problem out there?" Zondra asked Sarah quietly. Sarah started to respond when she saw the man who had been sitting on the beach, stand, wipe the sand off of his pants, and walk over to the group. Sarah couldn't hear what he was saying, but he did seem to diffuse the situation. She served a drink to the customer in front of her, all while keeping her eye on what was going on.

She noticed he had his phone out, looking at something and talking to group. She wasn't sure, but it looked like he had out his calendar, planning something.

"Tall, nerdy, and lanky diffused that, huh?" Carina said as she walked past Sarah. "I'm sure he's good at talking people down."

"What does that mean?" Sarah asked. She didn't know the man out there, but he had done nothing to deserve Carina's snark.

"Listen, he's a nerd, and to survive, they learn conflict management skills in the wild," Carina answered with a shrug. She studied Sarah for a moment. "Okay, go talk to him."

"What?"

"Go on," she said, gesturing for Sarah to go out there. "I can tell you want to know what happened." Sarah started to respond. "Look, I'm not gonna lie, I'm a little interested myself, so, go. Find out what happened and report back."

Sarah started to retort, changed her mind, and headed out to the beach. The man was standing there, alone, staring at the ocean. The family was walking off, the older woman still giving the older man grief, but much quieter.

"Hey, everything okay?" Sarah asked the man. He turned to her. He was good looking, with curly hair, and brown eyes with gold flecks in them.

"Hmm?" he asked, having been in thought. "Oh, yes. Everything's fine."

"I'm Sarah," she said, holding out her hand, the man shook it and Sarah was glad for her spy training because it felt like something ran through her, from their hands just touching.

"Chuck…Chuck Bartowski," he answered, still shaking her hand staring at her.

"I didn't know they still made Chuck's," she said. She looked down at her hand, and he followed her gaze. He realize he still had her hand in his. His eyes went wide and he quickly let go.

"Because my parents were sadists," he said quickly. He looked up at her. He started to speak, and Sarah just knew it was to apologize for shaking her hand too long. The thing was…she didn't think it was for too long, so she decided to cut in before said apology could happen.

"So, if you don't mind me asking, what happened there?" She gave a head nod toward the group wandering down the beach, the older woman still talking to the older man.

Chuck looked down the beach, seeing the group, snickered, shook his head, and turned toward her. "So, that was the Parkers," Chuck began.

"Do you know them?" Sarah asked.

"Well, I didn't until this little spat took place," Chuck answered. "See, the patriarch of the family bought a digital camera to record his granddaughter's recital. It seems the matriarch, Edna, couldn't come along as she had an important doctor's appointment."

"Is everything okay with Edna?" Sarah asked.

"Sadly, the conversation never veered that direction and having witnessed Edna read Steve the riot act…I had no interest in venturing down that topic," Chuck replied. Sarah giggled at that. "Turns out Steve…Steve didn't take the lens cap off the camera."

"Oh, God," Sarah said.

"Now that was a new one," Chuck admitted. "Usually they run into the Buy More, where I work, and tell me that they can't find what they recorded. It's typically because they didn't have anything to record it on in the camera."

"Oh, boy," Sarah said, eyes wide. She wasn't the most technology efficient but this…this sounded like a special slice of hell. "So you work at the Buy More?"

"Nerd Herd Specialist Chuck Bartowski at your service, Mrs….Sarah," Chuck said.

Sarah grinned at him. "It's Sarah Walker."

"Lovely to make your acquaintance, Sarah Walker," he said in a warm voice. There was nothing overt about the way he said. Nothing sexual. Nothing special that she could lay her finger on, but damn if she didn't think she could listen to Chuck call her Sarah Walker and enjoy the feeling of it the rest of life.

"So, long story short, which I realize at this point, is not possible." Sarah laughed. "We kinda keep an area at the store to redo recitals. I checked my calendar to see when I'd next be in and they could come by and rerecord the recital."

"Wait, what?" Sarah asked, shocked.

"Yeah, I mean after the third time of having to build a make-shift stage, we just thought it would be easier to have everything on stand-by to make the stage when we needed it."

"You're not serious," Sarah said.

"Oh, deadly," Chuck said. "I think we've saved at least half a dozen marriages by providing this service." Sarah began to laugh, making Chuck smile. "What?"

"Oh, I just have never met anyone like you, Chuck Bartowski," Sarah said.

"Blondie! Either make out with him, get his phone number, or tell him to hit the bricks!" Carina yelled. Chuck's eyes went wide, and Sarah looked supremely annoyed.

"I am sorry about that," Sarah said.

"I gotta run, I've gotta get to the store early in the morning to set up the stage," Chuck said. "The pleasures of working at the Burbank Buy More."

"How early?" Sarah asked.

"They said they'll be there when we open at ten," Chuck told her.

"Good luck," Sarah said, waving at him as he walked off.

"Thanks," he replied. Sarah watched him go, realizing she had never asked him what had drawn him there to start with.

}o{

Now

She shoved the covers off of her, grabbed her robe, wrapped it around her, and walked over to the window. She stared out at the city night. She watched the lights of the city.

"I know it's not natural, but there's something beautiful about seeing LA traffic at night. Not being in it, obviously, but seeing the lights….there's a beauty in it."

"Is that what you do, Chuck? Do you find beauty in everything?"

"There's hidden beauty in everything."

She swallowed, thinking of the kiss that followed. She thought back to that day that she went to the Burbank Buy More.

}o{

Then

She sat in the parking lot, wondering what she was doing. She was a former CIA agent, a current NSA agent. She was here on a temporary assignment. She should have nothing to do with this civilian…this obviously good man. But she found herself drawn to him.

As she found herself out of her car and walking to the store, she questioned what she thought she was accomplishing. If he was lying, then he was like everyone else, telling a story, trying to impress someone. If he wasn't….if he wasn't then he might be the kindest man she had ever encountered, and what did that accomplish?

Men like him…nice men…they shouldn't be with agents like her. She couldn't be honest with him, and Lord, if it didn't seem like honestly was baked into his DNA. As she walked inside, she told herself going inside the Buy More was the dumbest thing she had ever done.

She saw him almost immediately. She slipped behind some kiosk, watching Chuck gently show the young lady where to stand. A crew had gathered. There were lights, a camera, and speakers, all strategically place. He was telling the truth, they had done this before.

As she watched the young lady dance, all she could think is why? What would make someone be like this? What would drive someone to help someone they didn't know? She wasn't staring at him, but she saw him glancing about. He looked as though he thought someone was watching him. She ducked her head where he couldn't see her. She looked up and he was gone.

She made her way to the door, but stopped just as she got there. He was standing there, a lopsided, amused smile on his face. "Find everything okay, Mrs. Walker?" he asked.

"I did," she replied. She walked up to him, and stopped. What the hell was she doing? "Does the Buy More give employees bonuses for saving marriages?"

Chuck laughed. "No, just a perk of the job." She cocked her head to the side, giving him a look. "Maybe it's not in the handbook, but we have a choice in this world, don't we? We have a choice to watch it pass us, or get involved and make it better." He looked over to where the recital was still going. He turned back to her and shrugged. "I wanna make things better. I want to find the beauty in life. Too much of my life hasn't been that way."

"That's a very noble thing you are trying to accomplish," Sarah said.

"Nah," he said, deflecting. "I'm just trying to make a difference in people's lives. There are things I can't do, and I know that. But-but there are things I can do. And if you can make someone happy, why not?"

"Why not indeed," Sarah replied. "Well, I don't want to interrupt you at work," she said as she started to leave.

"I don't mind," Chuck told her. "Besides, I did interrupt you last night at your job."

"I didn't mind," she said. She started to leave again, and though everything in her said not to, she paused. "I wouldn't mind if you interrupted me tonight."

"Oh?" Chuck replied. "Do you have a topic of conversation planned if I do? Or do I have to bring them," he said, gesturing toward the family with his thumb.

"I am curious why you were there last night, in your work clothes," Sarah said. "It didn't seem…planned." She saw the look on his face. It was obvious why ever he was there saddened him, and she found she didn't like it when Chuck looked sad. "Or, we can not talk about that."

"I don't think it would be anything that would bring you joy," Chuck told her.

"Maybe talking about it, would help you deal with it, whatever it is," Sarah said, stunned she had said those words.

"Maybe," Chuck said. Sarah nodded. She started to walk out when she heard him speak. "If-if I did come, you're saying I should change?"

"I mean, it's your call," she said, giving him a grin and a shrug.

}o{

"I just had to invite you," she muttered to herself. "God, I miss you."


A/N: Hope you enjoyed it, thanks for reading. If you have time to leave a review I would appreciate it. Thank you all, take care of yourselves.