A/N: Y'all ready for more of our yarn?

Disclaimer: I don't own Chuck


Per Lester's information, there were at least thirty men left in Shaw's gang. They were split up between four different camps. The closest one only had six members, and wasn't far off the path they were taking up to Beecher's Hope. They thought they'd hit it first, then claim the nice one-hundred-and-eighty-dollar bounty.

Sitting on a nearby hill over the camp as dusk settled over the landscape, Chuck looked through the binoculars, scouting the camp.

"What's it look like?" Sarah asked.

Chuck handed her the binoculars, while continuing to peer at the camp. He felt eyes on him, and turned to find Sarah watching him.

"Did I do something?" Chuck asked.

"Yeah," Sarah replied. "You just… I don't get it, Chuck. You're the bounty hunter. You just handed me the binoculars."

Chuck shrugged. "You fought your way out of your old house, so you're obviously a pretty good tactician."

"But I'm a woman," Sarah reminded him.

"Oh, don't I know it," Chuck replied. She grinned at him, and he realized what he had said. "I mean, from that first night we met… okay, I'm not sure that made it any better."

She chuckled, looking through the binoculars for a few minutes. She pulled them down. "I have a suggestion."

"I'm all ears," Chuck told her.

"Let's get off this hill, before someone notices us," Sarah offered.

"Great suggestion," he said, and the two took off.

}o{

"You think it's smart to stay in this hotel?" Sarah asked. Chuck was looking out the window, thinking how they should take out the gang. He looked over at her. "I mean, we don't have a ton of money."

"I think we're okay," Chuck told her. He went over to his ever-present bag and brought it over to her. She looked at it, and he gestured towards it. "Go ahead."

She opened the bag, and her eyes widened. "Chuck!"

"What?" he asked, shrugging. "I don't have to pay for it all at one time, when I buy that property." She gave him a look. "What?"

"Okay, we are going to Beecher's Hope after we take care of these six. You can't be running around with all this cash. Plus, we need to get there before it sells," Sarah told him.

"If it sells, it sells," Chuck told her. "I can find other land."

"But that's the land that you want," Sarah argued.

"I'm more concerned about my friend," Chuck countered.

"Well, I'm concerned about my friend," Sarah shot back.

"That friend, is me, correct?" he asked, pointing at himself. She nodded. "Well, if that's the case, then you should be worried about yourself, because that is what I'm worried about."

"That is the worst logic I've ever heard," Sarah told him.

"I'm sorry?"

She had been sitting on the bed, but now she moved to where she was on her knees on the bed, looking him in the eye. They were less than a few feet apart. There was a smile on her face as she talked, but the tone was serious. Deadly serious.

"Obviously, as a wife, I have to make sure you take care of yourself and have a home, or I will be destitute," Sarah told him. Chuck started to laugh. "Oh, you think it's funny to leave me destitute."

"Sarah," Chuck began.

"Sarah Bartowski," she corrected.

Chuck narrowed his eyes at her. "Sarah… Bartowski," he said. He swore he saw her swallow. "We both know, if one of us was to be incapacitated and had to take care of the other, you would be in a better spot to care for me than I for you."

"Why, because you don't care for me?" she asked, an eyebrow raised.

"I would think by now, you know better than that," Chuck said, his voice soft, but intense.

"I thought I did, but when your wife was sick, you did everything you could to save her," Sarah said.

"And you are hellbent on taking out a whole gang," Chuck pointed out.

"I am, but I am also hellbent on you getting the life you want," Sarah told him.

"And I you," Chuck said, moving closer.

"Then you agree, we should go to Beecher's Hope after this," Sarah said.

"I said no such thing," Chuck retorted.

"Charles Bartowski," she said in a low voice. He swallowed. "We are going to Beecher's Hope when we finish with the Shaw gang here."

"Yes ma'am," he managed, slightly nodding his head.

"Good," she chirped, backing away, and sitting back down on her side of the bed. "Now," she continued as she patted the bed beside her. "Get into bed, and we can figure out everything else tomorrow."

"Everything?" Chuck asked.

"Anything you want to figure out, we can," she told him. She grinned, and she swore she saw him smile.

"Guess I'll get into bed then," Chuck said. She smiled happily. "Gotta keep the little lady happy." She turned to him slowly, giving him a look, but smiling. He shrugged, a grin on his face. She shook her head, turning out the lamp.

The two were asleep in seconds.

}o{

"Look, that's one of them," Sarah said quietly, as she and Chuck stood in the general store the next morning. Chuck causally turned his head as if to look at something on the wall, and then turned back to the catalog he was looking though. "Would it be easier to take one out away from camp?"

"Don't know," Chuck admitted. "Does that raise the alarm when one of them doesn't come back?"

"Chuck, he's buying liquor," Sarah told him. "What if we could pour some of your chemical into it?"

"We'd have to be pretty sneaky," Chuck told her.

"I can do it," Sarah said. "Is the bottle in the box in the wagon?"

"Yes," Chuck said.

"I got this," Sarah told him. With that, she left the store, heading outside.

Chuck waited until the gang member walked outside, putting the huge bottle of moonshine in the back of the wagon, before he walked out of the store. He didn't even have to strike up a conversation with the man, because as soon as he saw Chuck, he snorted derisively at him.

"Something wrong friend?" Chuck asked. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Sarah at the back of the man's cart.

"Yeah… you," the gang member said. "Your woman is wearing trousers?"

"She finds them comfortable," Chuck told the gang member.

He shook his head and looked at Chuck with disgust. "Next thing you're gonna tell me is you believe she can vote."

"She'd probably make better decisions than some men I know," Chuck replied, shrugging.

The man stiffened at those words, and his right hand began to dip toward his pistol.

"Hey, baby," Sarah said, coming up to Chuck, grabbing him by both cheeks and kissing him. People everywhere were looking. Women looked offended, so did some men. However, some looked on with envy. The gang member shook his head and headed off, knowing he didn't need to shoot the man with so many watching. The wagon drove off, and Sarah waved to it. "I'm going to enjoy killing him tonight," she said softly.

"Listen, if you would, don't shoot them in the male area," Chuck said just as softly. "I know you want to, but it might lower the bounty if that part is mutilated. I mean I don't know that, but it might be." He grinned at her. "You know, do it for your loving husband that's trying to save money."

She rolled her eyes. "Only for you, Dear," she said as sweetly as possible.

}o{

He didn't like it, but he understood what she was doing. She had told him to stay there, to not be a part of it, but he kept wondering what would happen if one of them hadn't consumed enough tainted moonshine. "Oh, the hell with it," he muttered, and headed after her. He heard a shot go off, and no one moved in the camp. He heard a second shot, then a third. He took another step, then froze when he heard, "If you take one more step, I will blow your head off, and for your sake you better hope you're part of the gang and not Chuck Bartowski."

"Is that any way to speak to your husband?" Chuck asked. She came towards him, out of the darkness. "Hi, dear."

"Chuck, what are you doing? You don't want to be any part of this," Sarah said.

"And if one of these yahoos aren't out, they could hurt you," Chuck retorted. "Then I'd be alone and desolate."

She studied him for a moment. "Fine, I get it."

"I'm glad you understand," Chuck said.

"You can't live without me," Sarah continued.

"Wait, what?"

"After this is over, you're afraid I'll leave, and you'll be all alone," she said. "Fine, I'll stay."

"I'm not saying that," Chuck told her.

"So, you don't want me to stay," Sarah said.

"I didn't say that either," Chuck said. "I can absolutely understand why you would want to leave."

"What does that mean?" Sarah asked.

"It means, I am a mess, and trying to rebuild my life," Chuck told her. "Your life is in front of you, the life you want to live with the person you want to live it with. You are proving every day, not that you needed proof or validation, that you are your own person. I get how this society works. I get that you, as a woman, don't have a lot of personal freedoms, but when it comes to me, you get your freedom. You get to do what you want to do, be who you want to be. I may have made a huge mistake with Bryce, but I'm not doing that with you. I want you to have the life you want." She stared at him. "And while this is an important conversation, there are three gang members still alive."

"Go get the wagon," she said, staring into his eyes. "Go, now." He nodded, heading back toward the wagon. He heard one gunshot, then a second, and then a third. They were dead. It was time to load them up, take them to town, and head toward Beecher's Hope. There were at least twenty-four more gang members out there, and he was going to help her get them. And then he was going to help her live her life.

}o{

"I've been thinking about what you said a few nights ago," she said, a few days later as they were traveling along the road. They were several days away from the city of Blackwater, where Chuck would try and buy Beecher's Hope.

"I apologize," Chuck began.

"Please, never apologize," Sarah said. "Everything you said…" She paused for a second. "What if I wanted to vote?"

"Then I think you should vote," Chuck said. "Is that something you want to do?" She looked over at him. "Join the suffrage movement?"

"I don't know," Sarah said, shaking her head. "That's something you'd be okay with?"

"I don't reckon it's any of my business," Chuck told her.

"But you're my husband," Sarah retorted. Chuck started to reply, but he saw the scared look on her face, and he paused for a moment, thinking.

"Sarah, if was lucky enough to be married to you, I would be an absolute fool to try and tell you what to do, or who to be. And if voting is what you want to do, then you should do it. And I would help you, because as I told you, we'd be partners."

She stared at him for a moment, then turned back to the road. "Do you think we could afford one of those new prefabricated houses I saw in the catalog?"

"Probably," Chuck said.

"Of course, we need to make sure that they are sturdy enough to last," Sarah continued.

"Of course," Chuck answered.

He wasn't sure what was going on, but he was smart enough to let it be, for the time being.


A/N: Getting' late. Grab some shut eye, and we'll meet back by the fire tomorrow.