Author's Note: Trying a non-angsty Charah fic for a change. In canon, Chuck took a long time to mature to a man he can be proud of. This time, he achieves that earlier, way too earlier. A very mature Chuck then meets a still not-so-jaded Sarah. Stuff, shenanigans and love happens. Enjoy!

7:30 PM

July 1, 2006

New York City

Chuck tugged his bowtie uncomfortably as he further looked down in to the veritable sea of women down on the center floor eagerly staring at the line of men filed along the lit platform in this blasted hotel. Had this ridiculous excuse of feminine shenanigans not been for the benefit of children with terminal illnesses, he would have not even given his sister the chance of talking him into this, this, argghhh! However, for the sake of the children, he had to make sacrifices, even though this was definitely not the type of sacrifice he would normally be alright taking on without batting an eye. God, he preferred getting captured and tortured by damn Islamists jihadists in a cold underground cell in Afghanistan than in this!

Scanning the gaggle of women unabashedly eye them like they were some sort of delicious dessert in limited edition – he shuddered violently at the thought – a shock of bright, blonde hair made him stiffen. The next moment, deep cerulean eyes met his own amber-colored orbs, and it was as if the time and space stood still just for the two of them.

'What is she doing here?!'

He was about to break line and step down from the stage and go to the woman when the host of this event finally strode in and went into the pulpit.

"Good evening to all of the ladies and sponsors present in the annual Northside Medical Hospital Auction for Charity: Giving Hope and Chances to Children event! As you can see, for our evening, we are honored to be presented with 12 good-looking, well-educated and delightfully behaved gentlemen for the viewing and bidding pleasure of everyone!"

As she droned on what a great event this was – he wasn't sure if she was sober when she said that – and on how enjoyable and delightful the evening will be for the men and their winners – yeah more like delightful for these spinsters and pimps, while nightmarish for me and my colleagues – Chuck only gave partial attention. He just wanted for this to be all over. He still has to report back to base and finish all the damn paperwork that seemed to never end no matter how diligent he was in dealing with it every time he was in his office.

"Without further ado, ladies, and dates, let the night, and the bidding begin!"

The first poor soul, or brave idiot, that got fed mercilessly to these sharks was some doctor from host hospital itself, apparently participating in some sort of notion of being an example for his male colleagues. Duh, this wasn't some goody purely charity event – it is clear that the ladies are unfortunately quite ready to squeeze out every drop of blood and sweat from their unfortunate prizes to get their money's worth. Meh, he could have just donated directly to the charity funds and thus escape this unholy torture, but no, Ellie just had to glare at him and remind him that participating will be more helpful than just outright donating. He didn't quite get the logic – everyone knows women were so confusing – but he had relented at the end.

The doctor set a good bidding war, starting from $300 that ultimately topped at $3,000 after 19 more bids, and the winning female was a woman in her late 30's who eagerly dragged her prize away for God – and Chuck – already knows what but doesn't want to be proven right.

The pony show dragged on for several more minutes – the to-beat winning bid is now at $24,000 – until the sound of his name being called and a brief introduction given pulled him from whatever dreamland he was into.

"And now, for the main dish of the evening, we had saved the best for last! Here comes a dashing gentleman hailing from Boston, Massachusetts, a legend both in school and in the field; tall, dark and handsome, I present to you, the hero, the man, the date! Captain Charles Bartowski, US Army! Let the bidding begin! Any pitches?"

"$10,000!"

Chuck turned to the source of the voice, and to his horror, a 50s looking brunette woman was grinning evilly at him, lightly licking her lips as she sized him up, most probably already thinking how best to use him for the night. Shocked, there was only one thought running through his head.

'May the Force save me!'

Sarah was close to shooting someone, preferably a few people, as she barely held onto her temper.

14 bids on, and her she was, already inwardly crying a river of tears after offering $120,000, and still Chuck Bartowski remained on the market! Grinding her teeth angrily, she glared back at the brunette skank that had dared to bid $110,000 on the dashing Green Beret special forces operator, and the bitch had the temerity to smirk back at her. She was damn near into just putting a bullet in between her eyes, see how much money she still can spend to steal her charge after she spends it on herself! - okay that didn't sound right, but still! She should know to never challenge Sarah Walker! Her! She who knew 200 different ways to choke the life out of this useless, waste of oxygen and space bitch – and wouldn't that be a sight!

To be fair, she had no intention at attending this event, at least initially. Ellie had begged her to, worried as she was that a male friend of hers would get embarrassed by getting bid and won by an old woman. Sarah relented and thought, why not, she trusted Ellie after all that this guy was a decent one, thereby at least giving her a chance to have a good date to enjoy at the minimum.

But as soon as she got into the hotel, she lost sight of Ellie and had never caught her again, and she was forced to uncomfortably mingle with the other women in the crowd. She was honestly surprised at the size of the crowd; there must be more than four dozen women here, and most of them, judging by the dress and the jewelry they were adorned with, were clearly of a status that spending tens of thousands of dollars to get a date would just equate to a small change. She grimaced. She had not been long in the spy business, but she already had secured a comfortable nest egg for herself. She was after all very frugal, and all the necessities she requires – food, clothing, accommodations – were all paid for the company. The only thing she really spent for luxuriously was her baby, her Porsche. She also had been on several missions where she had needed to enter a casino, and with her experience from conning back in her teen years definitely helped her some. She had considerable money yes, but she is no typical multi-millionaire who can afford to throw it all around like used pieces of paper.

Still, the moment she saw Chuck, and his quite unusual "a-deer-caught-in-the-headlights" look made her instantly decide to spend what she had at all costs and save him from these skanks. She owed Ellie after all, and she just knew Maggie and Tori would not like it that their precious big brother was taken advantage of by women old enough to be their grandmother. Ned, Ned would surely be terrified, as terrified as his elder brother now appeared to be.

And this also provides her a good chance to get back on the man, for his boorish behavior a few months ago, when he and his men saved her, Carina and Zondra from Gaez and their traitorous former teammate Amy. She was not ignorant of the long-held bad rep that the CIA have, and especially the thinly-veiled disgust and hostility that the military had for them, but still, she and her teammates, save that bitch Amy, were good people, loyal American people doing their jobs and serving their country. Most of Chuck's team, Operational Detachment "A" 7311, Alpha Company, 3rd Battalion of the 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne) may well have behaved civilly during the rescue operation – whatever opinions they may have of the three agents, good or bad, they kept to themselves – but 2 or 3 operators were pretty much vocal of their perspectives and were grumbling – they still did their jobs when their captain looked at them – but grumbling still. Sarah didn't know why she bothered to look at the tall soldier and attempted to have him explained and correct his men's behavior, and reassure the female spies, but the jerk just freaking looked at her like she was some ignorant child and was asking stupid questions, like she was being a bother, as if he wasted his and his unit's time in dealing with their adversaries and captors.

What a bastard!

She was still so angry and out of sorts about it as the three of them made it to Langley and reported back to Graham. Though the director was extremely happy that the mole had been identified and apprehended as well as one of the most notorious cartel leaders in the Western Hemisphere, he was significantly rattled by the intervention of the military. There was some sort of high-profile joint clandestine project that the two sides had cooperated on nearly a decade ago that was discontinued because some major disagreement between the two parties, essentially leaving the CIA with even more of a black mark than the one they already got. Already, the DIA were on the process of creating their very own special operations and espionage unit to eradicate their reliance on the CIA.

Sarah Walker honestly could not fathom how a man as boorish, standoffish and cold as him could be the beloved and idolized elder sibling and de facto patriarch of the Bartowski family. She adored Ellie; the woman was practically a force of nature, very successful in her career and very caring of not only her siblings, colleagues and patients, but also any stranger. The neurosurgeon was basically the only non-spy friend she had, but already, it feels as if she had known her for the longest time, and considers him the elder sister she never had. Maggie and Tori were also very sweet and kind, the younger sisters she would very much likely to bond with. And then there was Ned, the literal baby of the family, shy and cute and kind, and Sarah was very fond of raffling his hair and patting his cheek, and he would literally stammer and blush.

Nevertheless, she could see why someone such as him is well-beloved and adored. Having to stand up as the man of the family at 12 and go to college the next year, simultaneously handling his studies, taking care of younger siblings and helping Ellie make ends meet was literally a superman's job unceremoniously thrusted upon a preteen's shoulders by accursed, good-for-nothing parents. And he did so well, ensured that not only Maggie, Tori and Ned grew up as upstanding American citizens with bright futures ahead of them, but also made sure Ellie could reach her dream of being a neurosurgeon. Ellie was right that he took care of the five of them, more than she did. And to choose to serve his country, when he too practically could get a high-profile, gold-paying job anywhere at Silicon Valley, or perhaps founding his own successful company? He was really a one-in-a-million kind of a man. The siblings had impressed on Sarah the legend that was Charles Bartowski, and man, she was hooked from the start. She had wished for several times for the chance to meet him, to take good measure of him, to snag him for her own. Because she knew right then and there that a man with such talents and skills such as him, with such character his family had assured her he had, that she would most probably have only one chance at getting this right. And she definitely wanted to get this right.

And what a meeting that was, their second first meeting.

In those first few seconds on laying gaze on him, Sarah was basically stupefied, and stopped for a moment in her struggles to get out of her bindings. He had a pair of soulful, penetrating and powerful amber orbs that glinted just ever so slightly at the right angle in the dimmed lights of the cell they were in. She had never seen such glorious and captivating eyes before, and at that instant was outright hooked in. The confidence and the aura he brought with him, the complete belief that this mission they were carrying out – rescuing them, that is – was just another walk-in-the-park mission, the type he was so accustomed with he and his men can complete it with blindfolds and one of their hands tied and one of their legs bleeding. For the first time in her life, she felt those weird rumblings in her stomach, and the temperature of the room begin to rapidly increase, across to her. When he deigned to glance at her in those few precious seconds, Sarah was convinced that the world had completely stopped to ensure that their moment together would be monumental, consequential, enduring.

And then his damn minion had to open his foul mouth.

"$185,000 on the cutie!", hollered the skank, successfully getting Sarah's mind from reminiscing, and unfortunately letting her anger increased to dangerous levels.

Why is it always brunettes?

"$200,000!" she shouted.

"$245,000!"

"$300,000!"

"$400,000!"

"The fuck is your problem?!" she rounded on the woman. Seriously, this was getting ridiculous. She had no right to spend that amount of money on Chuck! She doesn't even know him! She had not been graced of his ethereal presence until just moments ago! She was not friends with his siblings! She had nothing in common with him! She had, she had -

Argghhhhh!

The bitch had the arrogance to look as if she was not making the greatest mistake in her life – Sarah was just ever so slightly close from getting completely fed up and showing her exactly why – and pointed at herself as if she was talking with someone else.

"Oh, me?" she shrugged, "I have no problem, but I think you do."

"What the hell did you say?!" She was now sliding her hand against the side slit of her gown to reach for one of her trusty toys.

"Well, I'm just here to donate to a good cause and get myself a date in exchange for it. I have the money for that, so I am spending it the way I like it. I think the hottie would certainly like it if I win, don't you think?" she said while throwing a smirk on the blonde, and licking her lips after turning back to stare at Chuck.

Okay that's it! This bitch has a date with a certain empty grave! Sarah completely slid her hand at the inside of her gown and grasped the handle of the knife.

"Stop!" Chuck hollered, surprising Sarah as with everyone else in the room, "can you just get on with it, please?" he asked in a bored tone.

She frowned at him. Only moments ago, he was apparently in a nervous state over this entire affair, and now he was just so flippant with it? What the hell is his problem?! Is he seriously considering being won- being taken off by this harlot of a woman?! Was that it?! To think that she was doing him a favor here by not getting bid upon by some pretentious, self-centered, good-for-nothing slut, and he was just carrying on like her efforts were the greatest of nuisances in the world, like her being in here was the cause of the problem in the first place! How dare he! What the hell can he see in these cheap, third-rate brunette bimbos anyway! They could never be a third of the woman she was! She, Sarah Walker, one of the best rising stars in the CIA! Hell, their faces caked with so much make-up doesn't even hold a candle to her early-morning visage! She was the epitome of a femme fatale, cultured, learned, confident, gorgeous, datable!

"You're right cutie," cooed the soon-to-be-dead tramp, "girls needed to leave this to the adults and go back to playing dolls or something," she riposted while looking at her Sarah, who was grinding her teeth for the nth time, and eyes flashing red, with her ears steaming invisible wisps of smoke, and hands shaking in her barely-restrained rage, "$600,000 and let's end this farce, so that we can finally enjoy the night!"

Oh hell no!

"$600,000!" shouted the host, "Going once, going twice, alright we have a win-"

"$700,000!"

Everybody was just astounded at the incredulity of the situation. The two women were really going at it, very determined to never let go of the chance to bag the admittedly extremely handsome tall gentleman in the stage. But to reach six figures in the raise to a million, just to spend a single night with him? One thing was for sure, whoever between the two crouching alpha females gets to drag him out of here, they'll gonna be squeezing him tight to get their money's worth. The guys were already green with envy at the incredible luck of this man, while the girls were having disappointed thoughts of not having enough money to bid on him like these two crazy bidding catfighters were doing.

"$1 million! That should be it, I won him fair and square!"

"The hell you did," Sarah shouted in anger "$1.4 million!"

"$2 million! Stop this, you're getting ridiculous and pathetic!"

"$3 million! Bring it on bitch! I have bucks to fill your wrinkly, overdone ass!"

"$5 million! I'm warning you, you're not going to like it!" threatened the brunette.

"Oh, I'm shivering already," the blonde returned, "$6.5 million!"

"$8.4 million! You're getting on my nerves, bitch!"

"Oh I'm so glad to be of service, bimbo escort! $10 million!"

"What the hell is your problem! $15 mi-" just before completing her new bid, a frantic bald assistant approached the woman and hurriedly whispered into her in panic. Her visage suddenly turned to a shade of red that was not uncommon in those dealing with problems with a status of 'fucked-up' in neon sign, and promptly glared Sarah her own version of death glares. The CIA agent smirked arrogantly at her rival, well aware of the fact that she won their contest, and was rubbing it oh so smugly at her. The brunette let loose a scream of anger and frustration before hurriedly making out of the hall and out of the hotel.

After a moment, the stunned host finally gathered her wits and announced the winner.

Victory was ever so sweet, Sarah thought!

"For a record-breaking bid of $10 million, our darling star of the night is paired to the drop-dead gorgeous blonde in that side of the hall! Congratulations! May the two of you enjoy your night! Thank you!"

An event organizer pushed a still stupefied Chuck towards a still grinning Sarah. Sure, she just spent practically her entire safety net to get a date out of this guy, but she was not thinking about that at the moment. All she can focused on to was that she won the bidding war over that bitch – good thing too, or the floor's gonna be stained with her innards had she opted to leave a second later – and therefore had all the rights to spend a night with Charles Bartowski. Finally, he's gonna get what's coming to him, she's making sure of that. She will make sure this night is going to be worth every single penny of that $10 million she so haphazardly threw away. She's gonna en-

"Why did you do that? That was unnecessary, and pretty wasteful of money."

She blinked.

"I'm sorry?"

"I said you didn't have to do that; it was wasteful to spend $10 million to bid on me," he repeated. Before she could bite him off with an angry retort, he continued, "but you ended up saving me from spending a night with any of them. For that, I am very grateful, so thank you, Ms. Walker," he said, giving off an uncomfortable, but genuine half-smile.

And suddenly, every angry remark she was compiling in her head to put on him disappeared like bubbles, and all she could focused, and stare at, was his smile.

He smiled at me! He smiled at me!

Her stomach was doing those weirdly flipping sensations, and she could just feel her knees buckling just a little bit. Damn! She had never received quite a smile like that from any man before. Arrogant, sexist smiles, sure, but shy, unsure, but definitely genuine smiles? Why can't he smile like that every hour of the day? Would he smile like that at her again? She was feeling so lightheaded, and hot. She was pretty much sure she was embarrassing herself in front of him, but damn, that smile.

"So, in order for you not to spend that way too much of money, and to repay you for your kindness, I'll be taking on the bidding amount, so you don't have to worry. I can spare it anyway, since I already committed to donating until my sister got me mixed up with this circus show. Rest assured, you won't have to waste so much of your money for something so trivial as getting a date from a man; and I'm pretty sure you didn't even plan to join here with the intention of bidding on me. Once again, thank you Ms. Walker, and I also would like to apologize for my and my men's behavior when we rescued your team; that was unbecoming of us being men and being soldiers, and for that I am sorry," he offered her a slight bow of the head, "I must be going, and have a good night and be safe on the drive home, Ma'am. Excuse me," he turned to walk away, presumably to talk with the event organizers about the money they were now owed to.

It took only a few seconds for Sarah's brain to reboot in from the mess it turned into after taking in Chuck's gratitude and apology, but the moment it did, she lunged and grabbed his hand, stopping him in his tracks.

"Chuck, no!" she hissed, and as he turned to regard her with a frown, she blushed – damn him – and lowered her voice, "I-I-I w-w-wanttohaveadatewithyoubadlytonightcouldwe?" she murmured, unable to look at him in the eye. Arrgghhhh! Why is it so hard to ask him out? Why was she even bothering to ask him out? She won him for the night, didn't she?

"I'm sorry, what's that?"

She sighed.

"Chuck, I want to have a date with y-you tonight, if you like?" she asked shyly.

For a moment or two, he just looked at her. He wasn't rejecting her, was he? If he was, why would he refuse to have dinner with her? Did he prefer brunettes more, preferred that has been skank? What did she lack that she was being passed over for those damn bitches? Was she too tall? Too blonde? Too skinny? Too manly? What would she have to do to get him to date her? What would she have to do to -

"We'll have dinner then, Ms. Walker,"

"Sarah. Call me Sarah, Chuck."

"Okay, Sarah. We'll have dinner, on one condition."

She nodded perhaps too eagerly, but she could care less, this was her chance!

"You'll still let me pay the amount you owed the organizers. You don't have to pay someone to get a date, that's just preposterous and ungentlemanly. Besides, I'd feel I'm being relegated to be a merchandise for far longer than I need and wanted to be."

"But Chuck,"

"Sarah, let's just agree on this so we could have our date, okay?"

She sighed.

"Fine, as long as you're letting me pay for dinner. I asked you out after all."

"I don't think that's proper at-"

She didn't know what impulse made her do so, but she placed her right index finger on his lips and made a soft shushing sound. Damn, his lips feel so soft and so full and so kiss-focus Sarah!

"Chuck, let's just agree on this one, okay?" she asked while smiling at him. And holy of holies, he smiled back at her, a full-smile this time! God! She was feeling the tingles all over!

"Very well, let me just talk to them to transfer the mo-" he was turning once again, and she was simply tired of him doing that. It was like he was not excited at all for this.

"Chuck, whether you wire them the money tonight or tomorrow, it's going be the same. Let's have our dinner date now, alright?"

He looked at her for just a second before sighing and smiling.

Smile #3!

"Okay, Sarah. Let's go have our date."

She grinned as she began dragging him along towards the entrance of the hotel.

This night's going to be memorable, I'm sure of it.

The pair were so into each of their own thought processes that they haven't noticed they had linked hands the way a normal couple would. It wouldn't matter in the end, as they probably would not even separate even after realizing that, so focus were they on the upcoming date and the night of enjoyment that was eagerly waiting to welcome them. Let any worries be of concern of tomorrow's.