The Nerd Versus the P.I. Family

By Steampunk . Chuckster

A/N: Thanks for the reviews, everyone. Hope you enjoy.

Summary: Sarah Walker has uprooted her life, leaving her job with the LAPD and going it alone as a private investigator, all in the hopes it provides her with less dangerous stakes and a schedule she can control so that she can handle her most important job, raising her toddler, a bit easier. But when the single parent thinks her computer might've been targeted by a criminal, she has to request help from the unlikeliest of sources: The Buy More Nerd Herd.

Disclaimer: I do not own CHUCK, I do not own its characters, I am not making money from posting this.

Chuck could only gape at the redhead. "I-I'm Chuck. I'm here for…Sarah? Sarah Walker? Is this…?" He scrambled to take his phone out of his pocket and pulled up Sarah's text of her address, eyeing the door to compare apartment numbers. He felt himself actively sweating now.

"Chuck…?" she asked, smirking. "Who's Sarah?"

He didn't know what to think, so he just kept staring, bad tingles going through his fingers and toes, heat rising up from his shirt collar. "Oh, man. Wow. Am I at the wrong apartment? This is the address she gave—"

But then the woman smirked harder and stepped back, opening the door wide for him. And then she full on giggled, wincing. "I'm sorry, I'm an asshole. I'm Sarah's friend, Carina. What you just experienced was me pulling your leg."

He furrowed his brow, confused for a second. "Oh. Oh my God." He let out a relieved but still gobsmacked chuckle, stuffing his phone back in his pocket. "You, uh, you got me good. You had me goin'."

Suddenly a voice came from somewhere inside of the apartment. "Carina, let him in, or so help me—"

Carina's eyes widened like she was in trouble and grabbed him by his arm, pulling him in. "He's in, he's in!" she rushed out as he staggered into the living room right as a blonde head popped out from around the corner—a hallway that led to the rest of the apartment, he imagined.

Sarah's eyes fell on him and she smiled. "Hi," she breathed, and all he could manage was a meager wave of his fingers. "I'm so sorry, just give me, like, five minutes. Carina, please stop thinking you're funny when you're not." She glared at her friend and then sent him an apologetic look, then disappeared again.

"It's o…" he tried, but she was gone. "…kay."

Then he turned to face Carina. "Um. Hi." He thrusted his hand out towards her. "I'm Chuck. Chuck Bartowski."

"Oh, man," she chuckled, shaking her head. "Are you ever." She took his hand and shook it, squeezing tighter than he'd expected. She was absolutely sizing him up and in spite of her being around half a foot shorter than him, he felt about four feet tall as she inspected him with her piercing blue eyes. They were ice cold and flashing with intrigue.

He was not expecting this reception.

"Carina," she said finally. "Miller. Sarah's best friend and tonight's lucky babysitter."

"It's nice to meet you, Carina." He smiled and finally pulled his hand back.

"Is it?" She gave him a dubious look. "I did mess with you pretty hard right there. I can't help it. It's in my nature. I don't make friends easy, as you can imagine, which is why I'm so protective of that one." She gestured down the hallway Sarah had disappeared into a minute earlier.

Suddenly Sarah's head was there again. She pointed at Carina with a death glare. Chuck didn't know how to interpret it, but it seemed Carina did with the sheepish look on her face.

And then Sarah looked around. "Where's Max?"

"I here, Mommy…"

Chuck jumped a little at the tiny voice, but tried to play it off by tugging on his jacket with a jerking movement. And then he spun to watch a little boy who looked maybe two-ish step out from around the couch and approach slowly.

He had chestnut colored hair that was thick and wavy, with blue eyes, and Chuck pondered that the little guy probably didn't even come to his knees.

He stuck his thumb and part of his hand in his mouth, his eyes big and shy, as he turned his gaze from his mom to look at Sarah's friend, and then finally, it settled on Chuck. He stopped and just stared as if he was looking at a ghost.

"Max? Sweetheart, this is Chuck. Can you say hi to Chuck while I finish getting ready? Carina, please… for the love of God, handle things for just a minute," she hissed through her teeth and the redhead held up her hands in surrender. Chuck swallowed hard and turned to watch as she sent him yet another apologetic look. "I'm so sorry, Chuck. Really. Just…a minute. I need to just…get my shoes…on."

"It's okay. Really." He held out a hand to try to reassure her and she smiled warmly before she disappeared again.

This was…really a whirlwind, wasn't it?

"Max, c'mere, sport." Carina held out a gentle hand to the toddler, but he seemed resistant to coming closer to Chuck.

He felt a little bad for thinking it, but he was just so relieved Sarah's son was this young. Sure, the whole Terrible Twos thing was real, but he could handle tantrums. What he'd have a harder time trying to overcome was an older kid who'd immediately despise any guy who might come into his home and try to whisk his mom away.

But this kid seemed quiet and shy.

And that was when Chuck noticed the cartoon helicopter on Max's shirt was stained with dark red juice…strawberries maybe? And the front of his pants, too.

"C'mon," Carina tried again, wiggling her fingers. "He won't bite. He just plays with computers."

Chuck snorted at that and Carina sent him a look over her shoulder, a bit of a sparkle in her eyes, before she turned back to the little boy. "Come ooonnn…"

Maybe it was his height, Chuck thought. Sure, both Sarah and apparently her best friend too, were model height, but had the toddler ever seen someone who was six feet four inches?

So Chuck took a chance and knelt down with a bit of a grunt. "Hi," he said as warmly as he could, smiling. "I'm Chuck."

Max came closer, but only to hug Carina's leg, smashing his face against her knee and peeking at him with one blue-grey eye.

"Max, say hi to Chuck."

He peeked out a bit more and mumbled, "Hi" with a little half wave. Chuck waved back.

"Hi, Max. Can I ask you a question?"

"Kay."

"How old are you?"

There was silence as the boy just seemed to want to look at him, taking him in, studying him, as if trying to figure out if he should be okay with him being here or not. Chuck felt nerves going through him, making his fingers and toes buzz.

"Max. Hey, he asked you how old you are? Can you tell him? Or use your fingers if your voice isn't working tonight. That's okay, too."

Max held up two teeny-tiny fingers, then hugged Carina's legs tighter and smiled, hiding his face behind her knee again. Chuck couldn't help the bubbly giggle. This kid was criminally cute. It hit Chuck just how cute Max was almost instantaneously.

He was dangerous levels of cute.

"You're two? Twoooo?" Chuck whistled low. "I was gonna say at least four. Five, even. Wow."

Max leaned out from behind Carina's leg and took a whole step away from her, then inched a little closer, his hands clasped in front of him, fingers of one hand bending the fingers of the other hand back and shifting his weight. "What dis?" he asked then, shyly. And he poked his lips, pursing them.

Chuck giggled again. "You mean when I whistled? This?" He whistled again and there was light in the little face. Max nodded. "That's a whistle. I do it all the time. Mostly when I'm happy. Like now." He whistled part of a tune, whatever first popped into his head, and Max full-on giggled.

Yep, this kid was cute at criminal levels.

"Who are you?" Max asked then, sticking his hand back in his mouth.

"I'm Chuck."

"Oh."

"I'm, um, I'm taking your mom out to eat dinner with me tonight." That was the best he could do.

Carina pushed her hand through Max's hair adoringly. "Max, your mom is going on a date with Chuck. And we're very excited about your mommy going on a date," she emphasized. Chuck had a feeling if Sarah'd heard that, she'd give Carina another death glare, but he had to take what the redhead had said as a good sign. Er, somewhat.

"Yeah!" Max drawled, tilting his head back, jutting his chin out, and grinning with his bottom lip covering the teeth that had already come in, and then going on his tiptoes. "We excite! What a date?" he asked then and Chuck's eyes nearly popped out of his head.

Oh, boy…

}o{

Sarah slipped her heels on and cursed under her breath. Shit, he was early. He'd gotten here early. And of course tonight of all nights, Max had been careless about eating out of the bowl of cut up strawberries and he'd tipped the bowl so that they spilled all down his front and sat on his lap for a whole thirty seconds while Sarah bit back a curse and tried to get stuff to clean it with.

Even with Carina's help, the mess had been a beast to clean up. Not just trying to wipe off Max's shirt and pants, which were deemed a lost cause eventually, but all over the seat of the highchair, down the legs and the floor, too…

She'd had a minor ant problem in the apartment last week, too, which meant she was extra paranoid about leaving sticky substances around.

And then there was the strawberry Max had somehow sat on?

Such a damn mess.

It had made Sarah so God awfully late getting ready and then Chuck had arrived early? Seriously? She had to go out on a date with a guy who showed up for a date ten minutes early. Jesus Christ.

…It wasn't his fault.

It was hers.

She was a mom. And Max was a handful, as sweet and as well-meaning as he was. And this late shit was going to happen to her every single freaking time. Damn it.

Checking her appearance in her mirror one last time, running her hand down the front of her blouse, checking how the black jeans she wore fit her lower half, she finally shrugged on a blazer over the blouse.

"Okay," she breathed. "You're okay. You're good." She just had to pretend Carina hadn't made an awful first impression with that fucking prank at the door. Well, first she'd apologize to him for it, and then she'd forget about it so that she could make a good impression of her own without dwelling on Carina's bullshit.

Grabbing her purse and checking it for everything she'd need, she rushed down the hallway, ineffectively prodding at the messy updo she'd twisted her hair into at the back of her head.

But she slowed as she got to the end of the hallway, because she spotted her date kneeling down so that he was closer to Max's height, and Max was standing about two feet away, doing his shy, closed-mouth smile, ducking his head a little.

And she felt a little unfair, waiting there and watching before any of them spotted her.

She could only see Chuck's profile as he smiled. "Uh, I'm going to be honest with ya. I have no idea how to answer that."

"Why?"

"It's, um…" He looked up at Carina for help and she gave a wide-eyed shrug. She was such a jerk. She loved her but God she was a jerk.

She seemed to take a bit of pity on him, whatever it was they were even talking about. And she leaned down a little to catch Max's eye.

"Max, when your Auntie C said your mommy is going on a date, she…she um…" Oh God, really? "She meant it's a, um, a chance for two grown-ups to spend time together and get to know one another." Carina cleared her throat. "Your mom and Chuck are going to do that."

"And eat? Dinner?" he asked.

"Yes! Exactly." Carina nodded.

"Wha're dey gonna eat?"

Chuck cut in. "What's your favorite thing to eat, Max?" he asked.

A very shy look came over her son's face and then he pressed his lips together and squeezed his eyes shut tight as he thought. "Ummmmmmmmm… chi'kin nuggets!" he yelled, his eyes popping open again.

"Oh, man! That's such a good choice!" Chuck clasped his hands together in front of his face.

Max looked proud. "You gonna eat chi'kin nuggets too?"

"Well, now that you put the idea into my head, we just might," Chuck responded, twisting his face up in thought for Max's benefit, tapping his chin with his pointer finger.

"Are you gonna dip it in bercue sauce?" He pressed his little hand against his face, turning his arm upside-down and leaning to the side as if that would help him twist it further.

"That's a good idea! You're full of good ideas!"

That made her son grin and Sarah switched her gaze to Chuck, watching as he grinned himself and let out a quiet giggle.

"Can I come to get nuggets?" Max asked then. Uh oh. Uuuuhhh oh.

Chuck furrowed his brow, opening his mouth to answer, but not seeming to know what to say exactly. He at least knew enough about kids to know that just saying "no" flat-out might lead to a negative reaction. Max still couldn't figure out a lot of things. He was only two and a half after all.

Before Sarah could leap into action, Carina did actually come to Chuck's rescue. Or at least, to her credit, she tried.

"Max, this time it's just your mommy and Chuck, okay?"

Sarah felt a pang in her chest as Max frowned. "Why?"

"Because that's how dates work, pal. But you get to hang out with me instead! Fun, huh?"

"But I wanna get the nuggets," he said with a pout.

This was gonna go bad. God, they'd be late for dinner and Chuck would learn firsthand what it would really be like, dating a woman with a two year old son. She started towards the small group as Max frowned even deeper.

"I wanna get the nuggets," he whined. "Why can't I get the nuggets?" He tugged on Carina's shorts. "I wanna goooooo…"

Chuck reared back on his hind legs, not seeming to know what to do. He was definitely out of his depth with a kid whining about something he didn't even really get. It was a mixture of hunger and tiredness. She recognized it in him the way only his mother really could.

"Hey, hey…What's this?" she asked, then, approaching them.

Her date looked up at her, his eyes widened, and he sprang up to his full height, spinning to face her. "Oh, h-hey. Hey, there."

"Hi," she breathed, smiling sincerely at him and squeezing his arm in greeting. She only distantly noticed the way he was taking her in as she knelt down before her son. "Hey, now what's this?"

"I wanna eat wi'f ooo and have nuggets on da date," Max whined, his eyes welling up and his lips making a pout. Sarah sent Carina a bit of a dark look and the redhead shrugged.

"Oh, I know you do. I know. But this is just for me and Chuck this time. I need you to try to remember that your favorite person will be with you tonight. You get to spend time with your auntie! Isn't that fun?"

"Yeah," he pouted, sniffling, rubbing his eyes with his fists. "But I want to eat wi'f ooo."

God, Sarah melted. "I'm going to eat with you tomorrow. How's that? All of the food times. Breakfast, lunch, dinner. Maybe even dessert if you're good for Carina tonight."

"I wanna hab nuggets nooowwww…"

"Hey! Hey, you know what? I almost forgot something!" Everybody turned to look up at Chuck as he stood off to the side awkwardly. Sarah noticed for the first time that he was holding flowers. For her, no doubt. It made her smile from the inside out.

He fished around in his back pocket with his free hand and then pulled something out, holding it in his large hand, hiding it in his fist. "I got something for your mom." He held up the flowers, a crooked smile on his face as he met her gaze. Her own smile grew. "But I also got you something, Max. It's…not a big thing." He knelt down then, but paused, a thoughtful look on his face as he caught Sarah's eye. "Erm, if-if that's all right with you, that is. I mean, erm, Max…if your mom's okay with it…"

Max gave her big, hopeful eyes. She smiled at him, then turned to look at Chuck again. She nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, of course it's okay."

The fact that he'd asked in the first place…

Chuck cleared his throat then, looking a little tentative, and he stuck his hand out towards Max, turning it over and opening it. "Here you go."

"It's an ephant!" Max yelled, making Chuck jump a bit. His eyes widened, and he laughed good-naturedly. In his palm were a couple of sticker pads, one with various wild animals, the other with just elephants.

"Oh my God, you could not have brought anything better," she said, shaking her head in disbelief, giggling.

"I mean, they're just stickers. It's not a big deal for me, really. I just thought he might like them…"

"I ha' the ephant?"

"Of course, they're all for you! They're yours!" Chuck insisted, putting them into her son's hand.

He looked down at them as he held them, then, eyes wide, looking like he'd just hit the jackpot in a way only a two year old who'd just received small sticker books with his favorite animal on them might.

Sarah decided to interrupt the adorable sight of her son ogling his animal stickers like he couldn't believe what had just happened. "Max? Chuck just gave you something. You know what to say, right?"

Max blinked and then curled his little fists around the stickers, crinkling them a little, before he looked up with big eyes and mumbled a quiet, "Tank'oo."

"You're welcome," Chuck said with a small giggle. And then he stood up and turned to face her. "And these are for you. Um, they're called…something with a 'g', like Gerber's. Gerberas. That's it." He thrusted the flowers out towards her and gave her a closed-mouth smile.

She grinned, taking them from him. "Thank you."

"Can I see the f'owers?"

Sarah knelt down and let Max look at them. He reached out and petted one of them, making everyone laugh. Then he leaned in to smell.

"I don't think they have a scent. At least, I tried to smell them after I bought them and couldn't smell anything. Sorry. I got 'em for the look and didn't think about the…"

He cleared his throat as she looked up at him and stood to her full height.

"No, they're beautiful. Thank you, Chuck. Let me just get these into water and we can go…?" He nodded and she hastened away from him.

To her surprise, Carina excused herself and followed after her into the kitchen. Sarah hissed, "What are you doing?" over her shoulder as they got into the kitchen and were somewhat out of earshot. Carina gave her a what? look. "Can you not leave that poor man alone with my two year old son, maybe? Kind of awkward for him."

"He's fine for two seconds," Carina hissed back. "Anyway, the stickers were a stroke of genius. I'm sure he can handle this situation."

"It kinda was, wasn't it?" Sarah muttered, grabbing a long cylindrical vase and rinsing it out with water before filling it and sticking the flowers inside.

"I just wanted to make sure you know that even though the guy seems a little, er…way out of left field for you, I support you dating again and I also need you to understand that I'm fully prepared to stay here as long as you need me to…" She gave Sarah a demonstrative wink.

"What's that?"

"What, this?" Carina did the wink again. "You know that wink."

"I really don't."

She did. It just annoyed her that her best friend was really doing this shit with her right now.

"Just send me a text if things…progress…to the point where you, uh…" Carina rolled her eyes when Sarah just blinked at her as if she was clueless. "If you're having sex, just tell me and I'll stay over to watch Max."

Sarah groaned quietly and shook her head. "Red, do not put that kind of pressure on my shoulders. God damn it. Now I'm going to be having that stuck in my head all night and that's not fair to him or to me."

Carina didn't look all that guilty about it. In fact, she seemed pleased.

But she had agreed to watch Sarah's two and a half year old so that she could go out on his date in the first place so she rolled her eyes and took Carina's arm, squeezing. "You're a complete jerk for what you did to that man when he first got here and now I probably have some compensation I need to do, but thanks for babysitting tonight."

"Um." Carina gave her a dubious look and snickered. "I saw the way he looked at you when you walked out looking like this. I'm pretty sure he's forgotten all about my teasing."

Sarah did her best to cover the blush by leaving the redhead behind in the kitchen and hurrying back out to see Chuck sitting on the floor with a sticker of a gecko on his forehead, Max having spread the sticker packets out all over the floor, picking each one up separately and giving it a good stare, awe in his adorable little face.

Chuck glanced up at her and smiled, and then he must have realized what was on his face when she gave him an amused look because he darted up to his feet and ripped the sticker off of his head. "Uh, you-you ready?"

"Definitely," she said smoothly, a warmth in her chest at the way he knelt down and offered the gecko sticker back to her son.

"Tank'oo!"

"You're welcome," he chirped as Max carefully took it between his fingers and without missing a beat, stuck it on the top of his foot.

Chuck blinked and then turned to send Sarah a curious look at Max's actions.

"I-I don't…ask questions," she explained with a shrug and an amused huff.

He chuckled and nodded once. And then he looked up over her shoulder. "Carina, it was nice to meet you."

"Was it?" Carina asked doubtfully. He just laughed in response, a self-deprecating look in his face. "Make sure you tell him about your curfew, Sar—ow!"

Sarah smacked Carina's shoulder with the back of her hand. "Cut it out." Something occurred to her then. "Oh, by the way, if you plan on giving Max a bath tonight, he freaks out if the water is too warm." Carina furrowed her brow. "I know. It's a new thing. I have no idea what happened. It's just how it is now," she said with a sigh.

"Thanks for the tip."

"Thanks for babysitting." She gave Carina a quick hug, then slipped her hand around Chuck's forearm and pulled him towards the door. She went back quickly and got down on her knees in front of Max.

"Mommyyyyy. You winkling my stickooahs."

"Sorry, sorry." She moved to kneel away from the stickers. "Can I have a hug before I leave? You'd better be fast asleep by the time I'm back, Mister. And listen to your Auntie, okay?"

"Okayyy." He toddled close with his arms up and she hugged him tight, kissing his wavy chestnut hair and ruffling it.

"I love you. Be good, huh?"

"Kay!"

As she stood up again, she went to join Chuck as he waved down at her son.

"Nice to meet you, Max."

"Kay."

It wasn't exactly the response she was looking for, and she assumed it wasn't the response Chuck had expected either, but Max was already gathering up his embarrassment of riches in stickers and running back to the couch to study them, no doubt.

At least Chuck looked amused rather than offended or put off.

"You kids have fuuuun," Carina called, backing towards the couch and waving by wiggling her fingers.

Sarah felt the spike of nerves at the look of expectation on Carina's face.

It felt unfair, Carina putting that much weight on this. God, couldn't a girl just go out on a date?

She locked the door behind her and stuck her keys back in her purse, nibbling on her lip nervously, trying to collect herself, and then she turned to face him as he waited patiently, leaning against the wall, his hands in his pockets. "Okay," she said with a bit of a shy shrug.

This was ridiculous. She'd been on dates before, even since she'd given birth to Max two and a half years ago. And she was acting like it had been years. She knew how to do this.

He grinned and pulled his hands back out of his pockets. "Okay."

They turned together and walked down the hallway, almost a bit haltingly, and Sarah inwardly rolled her eyes at all of this. Both her own awkwardness and the awkwardness Chuck seemed to be channelling from her now.

Was it Max?

Had pushing Max's existence into this made things more tentative and awkward? Because before Chuck knew she had a son, there was no awkwardness, or shyness. The conversation had flowed, the sparks had been flying, and there was a feeling of warmth between them. She'd flirted blatantly with him in her office and he'd flirted back.

Now they were starting this date in tense silence.

It wasn't tense. It was more just…uncomfortable.

"So!"

"I wa—"

They both stopped when they realized they were talking over one another as they approached the elevator. Sarah giggled, shaking her head, hearing Chuck let out a rough breath, chuckling quietly.

She pressed the button to call the elevator. "You go 'head," she said, smiling up at him.

"Oh, um. I was just going to, um, I don't really remember…suddenly." He scoffed. "Just…up and left my brain. Um." He scratched the back of his head, embarrassed.

"Oh. That happens to the best of us."

"Yeah." Chuck shrugged.

"I should apologize."

"What? Why?"

Sarah gave him a flat look and he winced. "My friend. Carina. She doesn't mean anything by it, she just likes…uh, antics. Antics are her favorite thing to do. Her number one hobby." She rolled her eyes as he chuckled. "So I am sorry she pulled that with you at the door."

"I definitely thought I'd shown up at the wrong building or apartment or something, I'm not gonna lie. My stomach dropped."

He was grinning so she felt safe enough to giggle as they got into the elevator and he pressed the button for the ground floor. "I'm so sorry. She's terrible."

"Nah, it's okay," he insisted, chuckling. "It woke me up. Not that I wasn't already awake, but it made me a lot more alert."

"Alert for what, exactly?"

"Um…" He seemed not to know how to answer that, and she wondered again if Max might be a part of his unspoken response.

"Meeting my two and a half year old?"

He squinted and bit his bottom lip. That was answer enough. But he spoke up anyway. "Yeah, I… Well, I don't know. Yes. Yes is my answer." She sniffed in amusement as he gave her a self-deprecating smile.

"He's just a two year old. Distract him with a dog or some kind of electronics screen or something and he's fine," she said with a shrug. "Nothing to be too scared of." Chuck laughed at that, pressing his hand against the opened elevator doors and gesturing for her to step out first as he held it open. "Anyway, you brought him stickers. Not a bad way to make a good first impression."

He lifted his eyebrows, opening the door and letting her leave the building and step out into the LA night first. "Well…I, uh…"

She turned to look at him over her shoulder. "It was really nice of you, Chuck. You didn't have to think of him like that, but you did."

Chuck took the lead this time, walking to where he'd parked his car. "Hey, no, it's no biggie. I mean, they're just stickers. I, um, I try to keep stickers and stuff like that at the Nerd Herd desk so that the Nerd Herders can give 'em to the kids of our customers. I just rifled through the drawer and picked some out 'cause I thought he'd like 'em." He froze then once they reached what she assumed was his car, and he spun on her, making her step back with wide eyes. "Oh God, are those stickers a choking hazard? I didn't even think about it. You never said how old your son is, but I saw the toys in your office and just figured he was, like…little. But I didn't even think about how kids put stuff in their mouths!"

She grabbed his arm to make him stop what looked and sounded an awful lot like spiraling, and when he pressed his lips into a thin line, wincing, she reassured him. "No, it's fine. Trust me. He isn't going to choke on those. He still puts some things in his mouth, like his hand, fingers, some of his toys… He won't do that with stickers. He knows how to play with stickers. He's old enough. Don't worry."

"Oh." He let out a relieved breath. "Okay, good. Thank you. Jesus. How idiotic would that've been, giving a little kid a choking hazard as a gift…?" He rolled his eyes and shook his head.

Grinning, she pat him on his elbow and then looked down at his car. "So you really don't drive that cold medicine capsule around all the time."

He groaned at her, unlocking the car and opening the passenger side door. "Come onnnn. I told you my sister was borrowing my car. That's why I had to drive the Herder."

"Is that what you geeks at the Buy More call the vehicles you drive around for jobs? Herders?" she asked, giggling as she braced herself to get in, pausing to look up at him still standing on the curb and looking that much taller.

"Nerd Herd," he explained with a "pfft" and a shrug. "What else would we call 'em? Cars? Boring."

She laughed and as gracefully as possible, slid into the passenger seat, letting him shut the door for her, and then she watched him trot around to the driver's side and open the door, swinging himself down into the seat next to her, pulling his extra long legs in and shutting the door, turning on the car.

"You have to bear with me, though. The heat is kinda faulty on this thing. I can get air to come out, but I can't make it warm. Still waiting for my appointment at the shop."

"No, that's okay, it's not too bad in here."

"Right, it'd be a problem if I lived in the Ozarks. But LA? I can deal with it until it gets fixed." His eyes wandered down then and she caught him looking, before he turned to face forward and pull away from the curb. To his credit, he'd only looked at her legs for a few moments before he diverted his gaze again. She'd been ogled before, and she knew what ogling looked like, what it felt like. There was a difference between ogling and admiring.

And when he cleared his throat, stopping at the red-light, he confirmed her thought by saying, "You look beautiful."

Three very simple words packed a whole lot of punch. She was disarmed by just how much punch. And she smiled, smoothing her hand down her black jeans a bit shyly. "Oh. Thanks. I mean, it's not much different from what I usually wear for work." Then she shook her head. "I mean, I don't usually wear jeans at work. I try to be a little more…professional."

"Even as a P.I.?"

"Especially as a P.I. because I don't really get a uniform, and I don't have a union to back me up, either. So I have to be on my best behavior, and that includes the clothes I wear."

He nodded his head to the side, assenting her point. "True. Either someone wants to hire you or they don't."

"Exactly."

Sarah turned to glance out of the window then, watching as the light posts flitted past, lighting up her face for a split second before shrouding her in shadow again. There was silence for a little longer than was comfortable, and she could almost feel his energy over the console between them, because she felt the same energy. She knew he was searching for something to say to fill the silence, start a conversation, since the attempts they'd made so far had fizzled out.

And then he finally broke through and she felt palpable relief flood through her. "So, you like Mexican food?"

She grinned at him. "You kidding me? I love Mexican food. How can anyone live in Southern California and not like Mexican food?"

"Those people exist. Trust me."

"Well, I'm definitely not one of 'em."

He smiled at her and turned back to look at the road in front of him. "Good. I'm taking you to my favorite Mexican restaurant, aside from…you know, like, taco trucks and stuff. But I didn't feel like a taco truck was, um, nice enough for a first date."

Sarah laughed. "I love taco truck tacos, though, so I wouldn't have been all that upset about it. For the record." He opened his mouth to further explain, but she held up a hand and continued, chuckling. "But I totally get it. It's probably not the typical first date situation."

"No, I was gonna say, I've tried that before." She sent him a look and he winced. "I know. It wasn't the smartest plan. She wasn't super happy about it. I could see it in her face even though she didn't verbalize her annoyance. My bad."

Snorting, she shook her head at him. "I'd be a little like 'uuuuh okay, dude' about it maybe, but if the tacos were good, it wouldn't actually matter all that much to me, honestly."

"Well, it mattered to her. Obviously. Because as good as the tacos were, I did not get a response when I texted and called about a second date. Whoops."

"Are you that bad at first dates? Geez."

He cracked up. "Daaaaaaaamn! Okay. Wow."

She beamed at him with her tongue between her teeth, wrinkling her nose. "I guess I'm stuck either way now that I got into the car with you, so I'll find out for myself."

"Jesus," he drawled, shaking his head, amusement in his features.

"I'll keep you updated," she giggled.

"Great, thanks. I can't wait." He shook his head then and cleared his throat. "Anyway, that isn't what I should be doing right now."

"What?"

He glanced at her and the corner of his mouth tilted up. "I mean, you know, talking about past dates while I'm on a date with someone new. My sister told me I need to stop doing that and she's right. She'd be very disappointed in me right now," he finished with a chuckle.

"Oh, come on. It's not that bad," she drawled, reaching over to squeeze his arm. "It's not like that's all you're talking about."

"Either way, I'm changing the subject. We still have a good twenty minutes or so of driving left before we get to this restaurant, and I'm not spending it talking about my dating exploits…or lack thereof," he added under his breath. She still heard it and she gave him a bit of a look for that. He winced. "What do you want to talk about? Weather's safe. It was a little overcast today. Weird. Overcast days are kind of weird."

"Not as weird as windy days, in my opinion."

"Really? Do tell."

She kept a straight face. "I don't know. There's a weird energy in the air. Like…a lot of friction from the wind or something. And I get sort of testy, things set me off a lot easier. I hate wind."

"You're right, and everything is super staticky. And I end up with things like socks getting stuck to my hair and I don't know it's there. Very embarrassing."

Sarah nearly broke but she bit down on her cheek to stifle it. "So we're agreed wind is the weirdest?"

"I dunno, overcast is up there, Sarah. It isn't, like, cloudy, but it is cloudy, and yet it's super bright and you need to wear sunglasses. Like, I'm not living in Florida, what the crap is this?"

"Overcast is literally clouds, Chuck. What did you think it was?" Then she made a face. "Oh no. You're not one of those chem-trail people, are you? The ones who think the government is poisoning the sky with airplanes emitting chemicals to brainwash us, make us stupider, so that they can more easily rule over us…"

His giggle bubbled out of him, and she gave him a bit of a victorious smile, having won the game they'd wordlessly started with one another. He'd broken first. Victory was hers. "Okay, this conversation started about the weather but it took a really weird turn at the end there."

"You're welcome!" she chirped, making him grin in amusement. "You…aren't a chem-trail believer, though, right? Because you…didn't really answer the question."

Chuckling, he shook his head. "I thought the part where I called it weird sort of acted as an answer."

"Not a clear answer. I was looking for a clear answer, and I still haven't gotten one."

"No!" he exclaimed, laughing. "Jesus, Sarah." She laughed too. "I am not a chem-trail person. I don't think our government is poisoning our sky to make us stupider. Do you?"

"Pfffft. We're already stupid enough as it is. Not much more they could do." And then she realized how completely cynical that sounded and she winced. "Sorry. That was…er…"

"No, it's okay," he said, brushing it off with a wave of his hand. "You're not really all that wrong."

"Maybe not, but I don't want you thinking I'm an asshole."

"Hey, no. If you were an asshole, I would've already figured that out." He shrugged.

Sarah made a dubious sound, watching him closely in the light that flitted past his face. "You sure?"

"Yes," he said with a smirk. "I'm sure. Think about it, in a roundabout sort of way, I kind of spent two days in your employ. I was your worker. I was doing work for you. That's, like, primetime for finding out if a person is an asshole. You were the furthest thing from that. Definitely."

He was so adamant about it, she couldn't help but raise her eyebrows and admit, "I have to give you that point."

"You do! Because you could've easily been mean to me, or you could've taken your frustration out on me when I took extra long with my GreyWolf program. Instead, you were just kind and understanding and trusted me. For all you knew, you'd never see me again. You could've treated me like dirt and there'd be no repercussions," he reasoned.

Sarah just stared at him, her brow furrowed. The fact that he was saying this so easily made her wonder what kind of bullshit behavior he endured from customers when he was at work. After all, her first job was retail when she was still in high school, and at sixteen, she saw a lot of awful crap.

"Is that something you've experienced before? Because you're being super nonchalant about the idea of one of your customers treating you like dirt. It never would've even occurred to me to treat anyone providing help like dirt," she said, shaking her head.

"Oh, you wouldn't believe the types of people I've come into contact with. I could tell you stories!"

Her jaw fell open. "And there we go," she said, thrusting a hand out between them, palm up. "Just underscores my point about crappy people."

Chuck snorted. "You said stupid, though, not crappy."

She pursed her lips. "Oh, I did, didn't I? Well, add crappy to stupid."

He laughed, then lifted up his hand, mimicking writing something in the space between them. "There. Added it," he said, putting his hand back on the steering wheel.

Giggling at his antics, she shifted her purse and decided the weight felt a little off. That horrific feeling of thinking she'd forgotten her wallet at home crashed through her and she dug in the purse to find it. Thankfully she felt it against her fingers and sighed in relief. But as she pulled her hand out again, she felt something else, something she knew shouldn't be there. She knew what it was immediately and groaned, grabbing it and pulling it out.

"Oh damn it," she groused, turning over her son's Lovey in her hands. "Damn it!"

"What? What is it?" He asked, concerned as he glanced over at her in the dark.

"Lovey is in my purse. How did Lovey get in my purse?"

"Lovey?" Chuck paused. "Is that some ex-boyfriend of yours, or…?" She sniffed in amusement and sent him a flat look, earning a self-deprecating wince. "Sorry. Bad joke. Is that Max's?"

"Yes," she droned, pressing her fingers to her forehead. "God, this is bad. I don't know how it even—Oh. Shit, yes I do. We were playing hide and seek earlier, before I started getting ready for the date. If Max is in the mood—I should say if Lovey is in the mood, he partakes in the game of hide and seek, and I have to find him too. Only problem is that Carina arrived in the middle of our game and we forgot about Lovey. Here he is!" She wiggled the stuffed bunny head with the soft, small blanket attached to it, the same stuffed animal he'd had since he was only a few months old. Every so often, he still chewed on the tail halfway down the blanket, when his mouth hurt from teeth that were still coming in.

"He's cute!"

"He is. I bought it for him at a specialty shop downtown one day when he was, ohhh, I don't know, maybe two or three months old?" She smiled down at it. "Two plus years later, he's still a big fan. A big enough fan that my having it right now is a real problem."

Chuck frowned over at her as he finally pulled the car off of the freeway and ventured into the surface streets. Sarah knew where they were, and she knew going back to her apartment and heading back this way again was going to take another forty minutes now that they were only a few minutes away from the restaurant, most likely. Shit!

"What's the problem? Is he that attached to Lovey?"

"Only when he's going to sleep. Naps and bedtime, he needs Lovey, or he won't sleep. Unless he's just absolutely worn out and falls asleep on the way home from an outing in the car or something. But if it's time to lie down for a nap or to sleep and he doesn't have Lovey, that boy will absolutely rage until he gets him. Shit, this does not bode well for Carina having a good night with him." She started almost talking to herself then. "She's gonna look everywhere for him when it's time for bed and she won't find him because Lovey's right here and she's going to be fucked with that angry, tired kid. Godddd, I should've checked my purse before we left!"

Chuck curled his lip a little. "Damn it. That is a real problem." There was a short pause, and he shifted his hands on the steering wheel. "Okay, what's the plan of action?"

She furrowed her brow at him. "What?"

"The plan of action! What are we doing about Code Red Lovey?"

Sarah really couldn't help letting a slow smile stretch over her lips as she looked at him. Something about Code Red Lovey just struck her perfectly, right in the middle of her chest. Maybe it was the mixture of nerdiness and cuteness? She didn't know.

She shook her head a little. "I don't know. You planned this date, Chuck. Don't we have a dinner reservation? I mean, we can't just…go back to my apartment for this stuffed animal. That's silly."

But he put his signal on and pulled into the left turn lane. There was no street to the left, which meant he was making a U-turn.

"Chuck, what are you doing?"

"We're going back to put Lovey where he belongs so that Max can fall asleep and Carina isn't driven out of her mind from Lovey-less toddler rage."

She widened her eyes. "Chuck, no. Come on. That's ridiculous. We'll miss our reservation at the restaurant you wanted to go to. That's twenty minutes there and then twenty minutes again to get back here. And it's…" She checked her watch. "It's almost the time of our reservation now, isn't it?"

"Um…" He glanced at the clock on his dashboard. "Yep. But it's fine! I'll call them and let them know we'll be, um, forty minutes late." He wrinkled his nose with a quiet, "Oops."

"Chuck, no! Seriously. It's—" She put her hand on his arm as he pulled a U-turn and headed back towards the freeway. "You're already doing it. You don't have to take me all the way back to my apartment."

"I know I don't have to. But that's important," he said, pointing to Lovey. "I'm not about to prioritize a dinner reservation that I didn't even pay for over that."

Sarah pursed her lips, facing straight ahead, not sure how to deal with the turn of events, or the man currently sitting behind the driving wheel, the decision he'd just made for both of them, and what that might mean for the rest of this date.

A/N: No Lovey, no sleepy. Them's the rules.

Please review if you can. Thanks, folks!

-SC