A/N: Feels like these two are about to combust, doesn't it? Funny how that happens when I write these things. I invite you to Part 2 of this ep, International Incident. (For those of you curious, this ep is three parts, the next ep, No Presumption of Innocence, is only two parts, and completed. It is currently at beta. Now, back to our story)

Disclaimer: I don't own Chuck

"Get her set up?" Chuck asked Sarah, when she popped her head into his office at the end of the day. He wasn't used to being in his office. Ever since he came to work at Castle Security, he had manned the outer offices. Sarah told him he didn't have to, but he told her someone had to be front facing. She didn't have the customer service experience he did.

And frankly, he wasn't about to let someone call her his secretary.

"Yeah," Sarah replied. "Everything is set up for her apprenticeship, and she's got our filing system down pat." Chuck looked away, his neck blushing. "If anyone ever asks about your Kryptonite, I'm going to tell them it's filing."

"I swear, I get one papercut-"

"You bled all over that file," Sarah cut in.

"Apparently, it was a vein gone rogue," Chuck argued.

"Jesus, will you two just go in there, lock the door, and bang each other!" Anna yelled. Both Chuck and Sarah's eyebrows nearly shot off their heads. "Oh God! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry."

Anna was rushing over to them, looking frightened, like she had just lost her job.

"There is nothing between us, Anna," Chuck said quickly. "We're friends, and we go back and forth some times. Yeah, we have dinner and hang out, but we're just friends."

"It doesn't matter," Anna told them. "I shouldn't have said that, it's just… I'm no good at this."

"It's okay," Sarah told her gently. "You just have to know it's us… being… us."

"Yeah, we just spar sometimes," Chuck added.

"I mean, some could call it flirting," Anna pointed out.

"Me, flirt with Sarah?" Chuck said. "And besides, if she… Sarah Walker… flirted with me… I'd just melt into a puddle. She's so out of my league."

Chuck was grinning at Anna as he said it, and missed the look on Sarah's face from his comment. Anna, however, did not. "You know what, I was wrong. I'm sorry, and I'll work on it." With that, she fled.

"Can you believe her, thinking we… we're a thing?" Chuck asked Sarah, chuckling.

"You are not out of my league," she told him, softly, but seriously.

"Noted," Chuck said, swallowing. "Uh, dinner tonight?"

"El Compadre?" Sarah offered.

"Sarah," he said in a faux whisper. "I thought we didn't flirt." Sarah rolled her eyes and walked off. "Are we going?"

"Yeah!" Sarah yelled from her office.

}o{

Chuck was chewing in happiness, loving the taste of the chip and salsa. He took a sip of his beer, and it was all he could do to not smack his lips together in happiness. Letting out a small, contented sigh, he realized it was time to have a serious conversation.

"So, real talk," Chuck began. Sarah had just dipped a chip. She glanced at him, and then put the chip back into the salsa. "No, no, finish it."

"You think I can truly enjoy that chip now, that you said, real talk? You think I can savor the spice and perfect room temp of that salsa with the hot, salty, crunchy chip?"

"But the chip will go soggy!" Chuck protested.

"That chip is lost," Sarah told him.

"And it's all my fault," Chuck said, blowing out a breath, a frown on his face.

"Yep, and you have to deal with it," Sarah told him. Chuck sighed, reached over, grabbed the chip and shoved it in his mouth before it broke, making Sarah laugh. "Well, that's one way to deal with it." She shook her head. "So, what has you bothered?"

"I wouldn't say bothered, per se," Chuck began.

"Chuck," she said crisply, cutting off the impending spiral of doom.

"Right," he said, clearing his throat. "I guess I'm going to have to be more professional in the office." Sarah stared at him a second. He watched her upper lip twitch, and then she sputtered a laugh. A second later, her head was in her elbow, laughing hysterically. "So, you're saying I can't?"

"No," Sarah said, raising her head. "It's that you think you're unprofessional."

"I am," Chuck insisted.

"Unconventional, sure. But unprofessional? Chuck, you treat everyone with respect. Now do you and Casey give each other verbal jabs? Sure."

"I think I give him more than jabs," Chuck added quickly, to defend himself.

"All they do is irritate him," Sarah pointed out.

"That's all a jab does, consistently irritate someone until you can hit them with the big shot," Chuck told her.

"And when, when are you going to hit him with the big shot?" Sarah asked.

"Did you know boxing matches didn't use to have maximum rounds?" Chuck asked her.

"So, your goal is to exhaust him?"

"I have been told I'm exhausting," Chuck pointed out.

"I told you that."

"You just made my point," Chuck said with a shrug.

"Do you want me to strangle you?" Sarah asked. Chuck opened his mouth to reply, and the look she gave him made his mouth snap closed, his teeth clacking together. "If Anna can't deal with us, then she is welcome to go elsewhere."

"Yeah, but Sarah-" Chuck began to protest.

"No, Chuck," Sarah said, her eyes blazing. "Chuck, for years in the CIA everything I did was exactly by the book, with no emotion attached. Even the wins I could not enjoy, because emotion was off the table. I still don't think after all this time you get why I want you as my partner."

"I really don't," Chuck admitted.

"Chuck," Sarah began. "You see the joy. You see the good in people, and in things. And even the bad work, you understand the necessity of it to help people. And when the work isn't good… we walk away."

"The Fulcrum case?" Chuck asked.

"Listen, we don't kink-shame," Sarah told him. He giggled. "People sometimes need proof of bad things to move on with their lives. Is it good in the moment? No, absolutely not. But – and this is the important part – it lets people move on, and achieve their greater good."

She paused for a second, and then leaned in and took his hand in hers. "I know you think I hired you for your typing skills." He grinned at her. "And initially, that is why I approached you. But Chuck, those skills… they're now at the bottom of the list of why you're my partner, and my friend." He grinned at her. "What?"

"I feel like if you get me extra guac, you're gonna try and make a move on me later."

Sarah burst out laughing. The waiter came over and took their order, and as they were handing the menus back, Sarah winked at Chuck and added, "Give him extra guac, he deserves it."

The waiter shook his head and walked away, as the two laughed.

}o{

Sarah walked up to the door of Castle Security, a smile on her face and in her heart. Dinner with Chuck last night had been exactly what she had needed. He had walked her to her car when it was over, gave her a huge hug, and planted a light kiss on top of her head. But what he had said before he left had rendered her a little breathless.

"Listen, I know telling you to stay safe is a little pointless since you can probably kick everyone's ass in this parking lot at once, but… stay safe."

She had driven home while floating in her car. She dreamed of him that night (and it wasn't even Friday!), holding her all night. And God, did she wake up feeling refreshed. Unfortunately, her mood was deflating a bit as she approached her office. She heard voices, both she recognized, arguing.

"Listen to me you big lug, you will leave him alone," Anna snapped.

"Anna, it was coffee," Casey argued. "He made you coffee!"

"Yeah, well no one has ever made me coffee," she countered.

"He makes everyone coffee… hell, he made me coffee!"

"But no one else ever has… he didn't ask, and yet he knew how I wanted it," Anna told him. "No one knows I want cream in my coffee, everyone thinks I want it black. I know, I'm tough on the outside, but I am soft on the inside… somewhere… I swear I am. Can I help it if I want cream in my coffee?"

"Jesus," Casey muttered. "So, to be clear, I can't bully him anymore?"

"Exactly," Anna told Casey.

"And you'll stop bullying him as well?"

"Don't be ridiculous Casey," Anna told him.

"Anna, John," Sarah said as she walked by them and into the office.

"What did I do to her?" she heard Casey ask, as she walked inside.

"People do call each other by their first name, Casey," she heard Anna reply.

"You don't," Casey pointed out.

"We're not close like that," Anna countered.

"I see you're causing a ruckus this morning," Sarah said to Chuck as she walked over, took the coffee he offered her, and before she could stop herself, kissed him on the cheek.

"I swear to God, Sarah, all I did was give Anna a cup of coffee," Chuck began. "Casey called me a moron, Anna started screaming at him, and then they went outside where they've been arguing ever since."

"Is this your game Bartowski? Getting women coffee, and getting them all hot and bothered?" she asked, her eyes twinkling.

"Is that what I do in your dreams on Friday nights?" Chuck asked. "Get you coffee?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Sarah replied, making him laugh. The door opened and Casey and Anna came in. "Just be gentle with her," Sarah whispered. "She's not used to being pampered."

"It's just coffee," Chuck insisted. "I make it for Casey, as well."

"Something I need to know?" Sarah asked. Chuck snorted.

"Got a mission," Casey said, shutting down all conversation. "Got a foreign national with diplomatic immunity we need trailed."

Chuck looked at Sarah. "Someone from another country is here, doing something, can't be prosecuted, and the government wants plausible deniability if we're caught tailing them."

"Oh… why didn't he say that?" Chuck asked.

"I did, moron," Casey muttered.

"Casey!" Anna barked.

Casey winced. "Anyway, all I'm allowed to say is the foreign national's name is Diego."

"Huh," Sarah replied. Chuck looked over at her. "What?"

"I don't know, sort of feels like you should yell his name, like Kirk yelled out Khan, or at least have a low, gravelly voice when you say it."

"Diego," Sarah said calmly and normally. Chuck shrugged, turning back to Casey. "So, what's the play."

"He's got this briefcase, the contents of which the NSA would really like to know. It's lead-lined, so we can't see inside, and we can't get a tracer on it. We're positive they're gonna try to three-card monte it."

"Makes sense," Sarah said. Chuck looked at her. "It's the street game where you show someone a card, flip it over, and then move it back and forth to get the person to figure out which one it is. In this scenario, multiple people will have multiple brief cases and set them down, then pick up either the same briefcase or a different one. That's how the switch is made."

"So, we need to trail them," Chuck said, nodding.

"For just forty-eight hours," Casey said. He handed a check to Sarah. "Does that cover it?" Sarah's lifting eyebrows answered his question. "I figure three eight-hour shifts for-"

"No!" Anna said, making Casey jump back. "You know that it's better when it's a two-person team."

"There's only three of you," Casey began. Anna glared at him. "Christ," he muttered. "Fine, Wu and I will be one team, and cover twelve hours."

"Wanna team up with me?" Chuck asked Sarah.

"Do I have to?" She replied.

"No, you don't have to, but I would owe you."

"A back massage?" Sarah asked. Chuck's eyes widened, and Sarah shrugged. "I drive a hard bargain."

"I'll say," Chuck admitted. "Sure."

"They're nauseating," Casey muttered.

"Shut it, they're my bosses and they're allowed to be as nauseating as they want," Anna said, grabbing his arm and marching him out the door. "We've got first shift!" With that, they were gone.

"Are we too much?" Chuck asked. Sarah shrugged as she walked into her office. Chuck stood there.

"I kinda feel like we're not enough," he said to himself, softly.

}o{

"Private Eyes," Chuck sang, and then clapped twice. "They're watching you. They see your every move. Private eyes." He went to clap twice again, but found his arm nearest Sarah held in place by her hand, as she used the other to scroll on her phone.

He didn't know why he found that so ridiculously hot, but he did.

"Apparently, Anna was working on a file while doing surveillance today," Sarah said, looking at what Anna had sent her. She snorted laugher. "Oh my God, she commented in the notes section, Apparently more people are in polyamorous relationships then they realize."

"I'm not sure it works that way," Chuck said, deep in thought. "I thought everyone knew about everyone else." Chuck went silent and then his eyes went wide. "Oh God! I'm so sorry, I just mansplained-"

"Chuck," Sarah said, cutting him off. "I'm going to have to ask you to tone down your misogynistic mansplaining ways." Sarah burst out into laughter, and Chuck couldn't help but chuckle. "Actually, you're right, but for the sake of the joke…"

"Right," Chuck said. "Sorry, trying to be more serious and professional."

"Well, knock that off, and hand me a Cheeto."

"Your fingers will get orange," Chuck began. Sarah produced a set of chopsticks, making Chuck let out a low whistle as he leaned the bag in her direction. She plucked one out of the bag. "Damn, you're so smart, what can't you do?"

"Get the courage to ask you out," she assumed she thought to herself, tossing the Cheeto into her mouth and chewing.

"What was that?"

"Nothing," Sarah said shaking her head as she picked up her binoculars and looking at the house. "What time will DoorDash be here?"

"I swear, order from them once on a stakeout…" he trailed off, grinning at her. "I packed a picnic."

"You are working hard on this Friday's dream, huh?" Chuck turned red as he laughed. "Are you okay if I nap?"

"I got this, but I can take a nap and let you get rest later, when you're really tired." She gave him a look. "You know it's hard for me to try and convince you of things, when you see through my bull-puckey."

"You're sweet," she told him. "But we both know that one of us can stay away easier than the other."

"I mean, not if your head is on my shoulder," he pointed out.

"Then leave your head on that side of the car," she said to him with a wink. She turned in her seat, facing his direction, closing her eyes. "Seriously, anything happens, wake me."

"I will," he promised, taking a sip of his drink.

"Don't drink too much of that."

"I've got my Snapple bottle in the back and the hazardous waste container to store it in," Chuck told her.

"Well, if you need to use it while I'm sleeping, wake me and I'll watch," Sarah said. Chuck turned to her slowly, amused. Sarah's eyes went wide. "I didn't mean watch you, I meant watch our target."

"I don't think I'm old enough to know what all happens on Friday nights," Chuck muttered. Sarah swatted his shoulder.

}o{

"Sarah," he said, lightly touching her shoulder.

She sat up, took a look at her surroundings and assessed the situation. "You have to pee?"

"In a minute," he told her, looking through the binoculars, and then handing them to her. "We have inbound."

Sarah took the binoculars and looked. "Hmm, seems like we have a visit from a lady friend."

"Think she's here for a pick-up?" Chuck asked. Sarah lowered the binoculars, looked over at Chuck, shook her head, and lifted them back up. "What?"

"Chuck, sweetie, I love you, but the type of picking up that's about to happen has nothing to do with what is in that briefcase," Sarah explained. "I mean, look at that coat she's wearing."

Chuck took the binoculars. "What about it?"

"Notice there is nothing extending below the coat?"

"I've been trying not to notice," Chuck admitted.

"But you did," Sarah said, chuckling. "Any adult male would, and most pre-adult males, for that matter. She's either not wearing anything under the coat, or she has on lingerie."

"Oh," Chuck said. "So, Diego is getting a booty call."

"Jealous?" Sarah asked.

"No," Chuck said shaking his head. "I mean, sure. Would I like someone to want me enough to come see me in the middle of the night because they want to be with me? Yes. I don't think anyone would hate that."

"No, I don't think they would," Sarah agreed.

"But, I mean, if she's just there to have sex with him… I mean, don't get me wrong, we all have wants and needs, but… I don't know, sometimes I just need to be cuddled."

"I know," Sarah said, making him laugh. "We all do, Chuck, whether we choose to admit it or not. We all need something more. I mean, yeah, sometimes you have some urges that you need satiated-"

"Is that what Friday nights are for?" Chuck asked, chuckling.

She grinned as she looked down. She glanced over at him. "No," she said softly. "Like I said, if I'm going to blow it up…" She trailed off.

"I do hope dream Chuck takes care of your every need," Chuck told her.

"Every?" Sarah asked.

Chuck locked eyes with her. "Every," he said. He saw her lick her lips. "I really gotta pee, Sarah."

She began to laugh as he dashed out of the car, ran to the back, opened the back hatch and got out his Snapple bottle.

"Eyes front, Soldier!" he said, slamming the hatch shut, making her laugh.

}o{

"We've got six hours left," Casey muttered. The entire team were in the surveillance van. The best they could tell, no one had swapped cases with Diego. He was out on a date with the woman who had come over the night before, at a swanky restaurant. "We need eyes in there, that could be the place where the swap happens."

Chuck looked up from the computer. "I can get two of us in," he said. "I've swapped out Sarah and I for another couple, and I really feel bad about it. Is this really necessary, Casey?"

Casey started to answer when Anna glared at him, making him grumble to himself. "Chuck," Anna said, "if this is some type of terrorism plot or something, you could be saving a lot of lives. And if that's the case, I bet that couple would be fine with you messing up their dinner."

"Do we know that it's a terrorism plot?" Chuck asked. Anna glared at him. "Noted. So, Sarah, what's the cover."

"Just got engaged," Anna told Chuck. Chuck started to argue. "Listen, when you get nervous, you blabber. And when you blabber, you spiral. And if you start to spiral, if people see that you just got engaged to her, they will accept your blabbering with no questions asked."

"She is right," Sarah agreed. "You can really go on, when you get nervous."

"So, we are going in there, and pretend we're engaged?" Chuck asked her. "Just making sure I have my story straight. And what are we to do about an engagement ring?" Anna looked at her hand, pulling a ring off her thumb. "You just keep an engagement ring on your thumb?"

"It's my grandmother's," Anna told him, handing it to Sarah.

"Don't lose that," Chuck told Sarah and then was shocked when Anna hugged him.

"Get out of here, before Wu decides that she's going to make you hers," Casey grumbled. Anna gave him a withering look. "Where the hell have these lady-feelings come from?"

"AREN'T I ALLOWED FEELINGS!?" Anna yelled at him. Sarah dragged Chuck out of the van.

"You good?" Sarah asked him, sliding the door shut.

"I'm engaged to you, so I imagine I'm spectacular," Chuck told her. "I'm just channeling Friday night me." Sarah grinned at him. "Or is that too much?"

Sarah couldn't help herself. "Maybe Friday night you is everyday you," she said softly. "Come on," she said, walking past him, grabbing his hand and gently tugging it. He followed.

Mind-blown, but followed.

A/N: I'm sure everything will be fine next chapter….you don't believe that either huh?

Next time, on Private Eyes

"What do we do?" Chuck asked her.

"I have an idea, but…" she trailed off, and looked at him, nervous.

"I trust you," Chuck told her. She saw the door to the kitchen about to open and she grabbed him and kissed him. It wasn't any regular kiss. It was like there was a bomb going to go off and melt both of them. It was like this was their last moment on earth, and she needed him to know in that second, she chose him, and only him. They heard a clearing of a throat, and pulled away. "Jesus," Chuck gasped.

….*sips tea and grins*