A/N: Thanks so much for being so chill about this fic, guys. Just kidding, y'all are not chill at all. Hahaha! And I appreciate it, but... You aren't chill at all. Let's just be real. Hope this is worth all the waiting. :)

Disclaimer: I don't own CHUCK or its characters. And I'm not making any money from this story.

"SIXteen men and a dead man's che-eessst. YO-ho-ho and a bottle of rum…"

"Chuck."

"Sorry."

She sent a smirk over her shoulder as she led him through the dark front office of the Scuba Shack. Her flashlight flickered and she smacked it a few times. "This fuggin' thing…" It flared back to life again. "There."

"Why, exactly, are we sneaking again?" he whispered. "Not that I'm complaining. I feel like a a super sneaky pirate or something. Are we stealing doubloons? Are we lookin' fer an X wut marrrrrrks the spot, Cap'n Walk-arrrrr?" he growled in his best rendition of a pirate.

"Okay, this is getting to be too much, even for me," she teased in a low voice, sending him an amused look.

"Sorry. I'll drop the pirate shtick. But seriously, I'm curious. Why can't we just turn on the lights so we can actually see what we're grabbing for our late night cruise?"

She sighed, entering the break room and heading for the closet in the corner. "Here, hold this and point it in the closet for me, huh?" She handed him the flashlight and he did as she asked, watching as she popped the closet door open and began to rummage. "Because you know how Alexei is with his state of the art tech?" He hummed in the affirmative. "Well, he's alerted on his phone when the lights go on at the Scuba Shack. There's no alarm on the doors or windows, of course. But he wants to know when the lights go on."

Chuck blinked. "Why?"

Grabbing a duffel and hoisting it over her shoulder, turning, and slamming it down on top of the nearby counter, Sarah snorted. "The guy is very serious about energy and water conservation. And don't get me wrong, our planet is dying and it's extremely important we each take individual action to undo the damage we've done… but Alexei is serious about not using the lights in this building when we don't have to."

"But it's nighttime, so we have to. There's no natural sunlight coming in," Chuck answer with a shrug.

"Yeah, well…maybe I also don't want Alexei to know we're here. And if his phone tells him someone's turned on the lights in the Scuba Shack, he'll call every single one of us until he finds out who's here. And that means every Scuba Shack employee gets clued in on the fact that Sarah is taking the boat out for a night ride with the California boy she's trying to impress, and I'll be mocked for a whole century by these assholes." She huffed in frustration, making a quiet, "A-ha" sound and pulling what looked like a portable speaker out.

"What's th—" He stopped then. Because what she just said a moment earlier finally hit him. "Wait. You're trying to impress me?"

"Naaah." She shrugged, an innocent look on her face as she neglected to meet his eyes. "Some other boy from California that I met. I took him down for a dive and he decided to ask me to dinner afterwards. He's a little green but he's really cute." She sent him a teasing look as his jaw dropped.

"Green? Damn, Sarah. Okay. Take it easy on the guy. Sounds like he just needs a little experience. Sheesh."

"Exactly, that's why I'm taking him out on the boat again. He was resistant, though…"

Chuck pursed his lips and stuck his hands in his suit pocket jauntily. "Man. He kinda sounds like a dick. You sure you wanna hang out with him?"

She laughed and faux-punched his arm, causing him to dodge her fist. "Shut up, he isn't a dick. He went through some real shit and it gave him legitimate fear, and I don't blame him for it at all." Sarah gave him a long look then, and he thought their little game was over as she sidled up close, tilting her head back and eyeing him warmly. "In fact, I think he's incredibly brave and inspiring, the way he's been facing his fear head-on, not once, not even twice, but three times."

His heart rammed hard against his ribcage and he gave her a crooked smile, his insides melting. "This is exactly what I meant about you building up my self-confidence more than anybody else has, like…ever."

"Good." She leaned up to peck his lips, then gave him an almost haughty look. "And I hope I keep doing it, too."

"I wouldn't be upset about it."

Giggling, she went back to the duffel and zipped it back up, moving to shove it in the closet again. "Okay, just need the handheld GPS and another thing that I genuinely don't want you to freak out over, okay?"

Chuck raised his eyebrows and pursed his lips. "Hmmm. That's definitely the best way to introduce a thing you're about to take onto a boat to a guy who has a deep-seated PTSD-status fear of the ocean. Telling him 'don't freak out'…"

She half-glared, smirking still, and yanked open a cupboard, waving him over so that he could shine the flashlight inside. "There it is." She grabbed what looked like a clunky old cell phone from the late 'nineties out of a the cupboard and popped the back off. "Knew it. Nobody ever freaking replaces the batteries in these things. I swear, I always have to do it."

"Oh God, does it take super fancy batteries that you can't find at a regular ol' CVS?"

Grinning, she shook her head, then reached into a bucket on the bottom shelf, pulling two small batteries out of it. "Two Double-A batteries. The rest of us like to keep it simple, even if Alexei has his high-tech contraptions he spends a fortune on."

"Rad." He chuckled. "So…what's the thing you think I might freak out about?"

She winced, handing him the GPS and slipping the batteries into his fingers. "Can you put those in there for me, please? I'll hold the flashlight. Gotta find some good PFDs. We replaced them on all the other boats but nobody ever got to the True Love II, I don't think."

Chuck frowned, slipping the batteries into the handheld GPS and shutting the back of it again, twisting the screw to shut it properly. "PFDs, huh? Wait. Let me see if I can guess what the letters stand for." He twisted up his face in thought, narrowing his eyes as she went to a large chest in the corner. "PFD. Well, let's use context. You said I was gonna freak out about it. So what's something that freaks me out? Clowns."

"That's fair, but it isn't that. No fucking way is a clown ever getting on one of my boats."

"You'd get back to shore. 'Hey, what happened to the clown, Sarah?' 'The saddest thing. It fell overboard. Tragic. Such a tragedy. Rest In Peace Clown.'"

Sarah looked like she was just barely keeping a laugh in. "Yeah right. More like, 'It tripped over its giant fuckin' shoes and the damn things made it sink all the way to the seafloor. It's fish food now.'"

Chuck cracked up. "Poor fish. Worst meal ever." Snorting, she shook her head. "So if PFDs aren't something to do with clowns, I'm kinda stumped. Hmm." He thought for a few seconds, then held up a finger, the GPS in that hand. "Ah. Got it. Pandemonium Fear Demons."

"Pandemonium Fear Demons…" She lowered her chin and gave him a long look. "That's what you've got? Really?"

"Sound scary to me. You'd need to bring an old priest and a young priest on board. Maybe some holy water."

She giggled and shook her head at him. "You're a mess." And then she reached into the chest and pulled out what looked like bright blue, puffy vests with buckles on them. "PFD, Chuck. A personal flotation device."

"Oh, is that a life jacket? Why didn't you just say life jacket?"

"Oh Godddd," she groaned, throwing one across the room to him. "Because that's not what we call them. We call them PFDs. And it's what REI called them when Liz got us really good deals at her work for these."

Chuck looked down at the PFD in his hand and gulped. "Is-is there, um, a reason for needing to, um…t-take these?" He could only remember the last time he wore one of these. How he'd almost died. How someone else had died. Right in front of his eyes. Just like that. Chuck broke out in a cold sweat all over.

"Because it's the law. And the ones we've been using aren't as good as these. Still good, but not as good." She eyed him and crept closer, flashlight in one hand, life jacket in the other. "I thought maybe you'd freak out a little once you saw these. But I want to make sure they're onboard just in case."

"Oh. Well." He cleared his throat. "No, I just… What's the over under for how often you've had to use these since you started working at Scuba Shack, I-I mean running th-the dives? Like, are there people who've had to…put them on…ahem, before?"

"Not for emergency reasons, no. But we have young kids and anyone who feels safer with it on wear them when we take people out on the boats. Just in case they fall overboard or something." She bit her lip. "I'm sorry. Maybe I should've replaced these later. This wasn't a great idea."

"No, it's-it's fine. I'm fine. Gotta be safe, right? I'm just glad I'll have the super good REI ones in case fate decides to knock me off the True Love II and tries to drown me. I'd like the best PFD at my disposal." He ran his hand down his suit. "So… the odds of me having to use it are…?"

"You won't have to use it tonight, Chuck, okay?" She was so sincere, though, approaching him and pressing her chest against his. "Like I keep saying to you, you can trust me to keep you safe. I won't let anything bad happen to you. Remember?"

"Because we have these?" He held up the PFD in one hand and the GPS in the other.

"We aren't going to need those. But we have them because it's safe, and because it's literally the law. Like seatbelts in a car. How often have you actually needed your seatbelt? But I bet you're really glad it's there if you get into an accident."

Chuck tilted his head and shrugged. "You make a very good point."

"I know I do. I do this for a living, Chuck. It's how I keep a roof over my head, it's how I'm making my car payments, how I buy food and necessities. I take it seriously." She reached over and thunked him on the arm with the flashlight lightly. "So when I say I'm not gonna let anything happen to you, I mean it."

He let his head fall back and he blinked at the dark ceiling, groaning. "Gah, I'm sorry." He lowered his head again and winced. "It isn't that I don't have faith in you. The ocean is this very alive, unpredictable beast and I don't know if I'll ever not feel like it wants to kill me."

"I'm not judging you, Chuck, and you don't owe me any apologies for being scared. People should be scared when they go out there. I mean…not this scared." She wrinkled her nose. "But they should have a healthy amount of fear so they act with safety at the forefront of their minds, because you're right that she's an unpredictable beast. I don't think she's trying to kill you in particular, though, Chuck. She has a lot on her plate, millions upon millions upon millions of ecosystems she's harboring and protecting, a gazillion creatures, plant life, et cetera." She sighed then, frowning. "All while dealing with a human-made menopause where she's always hotter than she's used to being."

Chuck made a face, puffing out his cheeks and widening his eyes. "Never heard anyone describe global warming like that, but it's very apt."

"Thanks. Now c'mon, let's get out there."

He nodded and followed her back out of the Scuba Shack, going ahead as she locked up, taking the stairs carefully with nothing but a sliver of moonlight to light his way. He really didn't want to break his neck tonight.

Glancing up, he saw Sarah following him, her heels in hand. He hadn't even thought about the shoe situation. Of course she had, though. She thought of everything.

Including that the Scuba Shack crew might eventually all learn that she was taking a boat out tonight for a date if she turned on the lights in the building.

"So, um…" He cleared his throat and turned back around to step onto the dock at the bottom of the stairs. "Out of curiosity, what would be so bad about them knowing you took the boat out with me? Would Alexei be pissed at you? I mean, using a boat for something that isn't a dive? For something that isn't gonna bring in money?"

"It's not that," she said, joining him on the dock. She nudged him towards the boat, pressing her shoes against his back. "Alexei lets us take these boats out whenever, as long as we don't deplete the fuel without refilling and then someone gets stuck having to do it before a trip out when customers are here waiting. We keep it professional in front of our guests." Then she sent him a saucy look as he glanced at her over his shoulder. "Except sometimes when we flirt with one of said guests and end up letting 'em wine and dine us. Probably less than professional."

"What if the guest doesn't give a shit whether it's professional or not because it ended up being wooorrrth iiiiiiit," he sang, grinning hard.

She giggled. "Well, that, my good sir, is what we call a win-win." He felt her poke him in the ass with one of her heels and he gasped, scandalized as she let out more of a mischievous snicker this time, stepping around him to lead the way onto the True Love II. "C'mon, Curls. Chop chop."

Chuck needed a second, and to her credit, if she noticed him pausing at the dock, she let him have that second. He watched her bustle around the deck, starting to prep things for them to go, hiking up the skirt of her dress as she did so, and he found he was so distracted by how radical and awesome and capable she was, handling the ropes and prepping in the wheelhouse, that he stepped onto the boat without even realizing it.

"Oh." Sarah poked out of the wheelhouse and winced. "Would you mind doing me a favor?"

"Anything."

She smiled warmly. "Sometimes you make me believe that." She seemed to shake herself then. "Can you untie her from the dock? Just toss the rope onto the deck and hop back on. And we can get going."

"Uh, sure. Y-Yeah." His shoes definitely didn't have the grip they needed, and he felt them slipping a bit more than made him feel comfortable.

"Whoa, hold—Wait. Hold up." She hurried out to him, grabbing his arm in a tight and secure grip. "Mind going barefoot? I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking about how bad your nice dress shoes might be for this situation." She reached over and set her heels down on the dock. "We can leave our shoes here."

He gave her a look and she smirked.

"Don't worry. They'll be here when we get back. I promise."

"No shoes at all? For a whole trip?"

"We're not going to the Antarctic, cutie. Just a few hours bobbing out there where we can see the lights on the shore, and then we'll come right back. We do entire trips out for dives and whale watching and we go totally barefoot all the time. Trust me. Your feet have better grips than shoes."

"Oh. Okay. I'm not gonna step on, like, a fishing hook or some terrifying thing like that, right? That's a good way to get Tetanus." Sarah watched him for a bit longer than made him comfortable and he cleared his throat. "You know what? I'm just gonna take off my shoes and socks and call it a day, and maybe stop embarrassing myself."

She laughed. "You're not embarrassing yourself," she tried, helping him back onto the deck. He knelt down and started taking off his footwear. "Those are genuine concerns. But we sweep and wash our decks after a dive, and Kai took this out today which means it was all washed down. Also, nobody's fished on here for a while. There aren't any hooks, I promise. Just a nice, clean deck. Your feetsies will be perfectly safe."

"Okay. I trust you."

"Good. You should." She sent him a flirty look, smirked, and left him behind. "I'll tell you when to untie."

"Got it."

A minute later, she gave him the go ahead, he lifted the rope away from the giant bolt thingy, tossed it onto the boat's deck like she said, and he safely leapt back on. He stood to his full height and thrusted his arms out like he'd just done an acrobatic trick. "Ha HA!"

Laughing, she revved the engine and sent him an appraising look. "Hold onto something, nerd." He did and they were off.

He watched the shore as they pulled away from it, Sarah heading out and pulling a U-Turn to make them go in the other direction, and he found himself wondering if she did this before and that was how she got the idea. Was she with someone else? Another guy? Or did she sometimes do this alone? Maybe with the other Shack employees?

Looking up at her, the one light in the wheelhouse shining down on her golden hair, the way the wind whipped it out of the updo she'd had it in, how it fluttered over her face, not fazing her even a bit, Chuck found himself almost overwhelmed by how much he wanted this woman in his life. In literally any capacity.

As hot and heavy as things ended up being with them, the passion and the deep, strong connection, the way this trip felt like it had bound him to her in a way nothing else ever had with any other person, he thought he'd be okay with even just being her friend across an ocean, someone she could call whenever. Even if a full-fledged relationships didn't—couldn't—come from this.

As long as she was in his life. Driving boats in stunning Argentine tango gowns, right after she gently and tenderly coaxed a man with PTSD onto a boat he was terrified to get onto by being sweet and capable.

He needed her.

And that was the first time he'd thought that in non-sexual terms, he realized.

It made him carefully pick his way across the deck to slide into the wheelhouse with her. She smiled and let her weight fall back into his chest. It felt like an invitation, so he tenderly rounded her waist with his arm from behind and hugged her, dropping his chin on her shoulder.

"See? Not so bad, is it?" she asked.

"Um, currently it's feeling pretty good," he mumbled, turning his face to kiss her neck.

She giggled. "Uh, agreed. But don't get too handsy, I still have to make sure this thing gets us to where we wanna be." She laid one hand on top of his where it rested low on her stomach. "Later, though, all bets are off."

Chuck raised his eyebrows. "Oh, really?" He cleared his throat. "So, uh, how, um, long is this trip exactly? Ahem."

Sarah threw her head back with a laugh and craned her neck a little to kiss his jaw. "You're adorable."

"I guess what I mean is, are we there yet?"

"Nope, that killed it."

Chuck snorted. "Went too far with that, huh? I never know when to stop. It's a curse."

She gently elbowed him in the gut teasingly and he made an "Oof!" sound and hunched over, groaning, making her laugh again.

After a few minutes of comfortable silence, just standing together in the wheelhouse with Sarah's back pressed to his chest, her hands on the wheel and controls, doing things he really didn't understand and figured he wouldn't ever understand, Sarah slowed their speed a little, then took her hand off of the lever thingy and pointed towards the shore. "Do you see that? It's kind of hard to see at night, but there's a hill there and you can kind of see that blinking red light at the top…"

"Yeah," he breathed, squinting through the glass to eye the gentle silhouette of the hill against the inky black sky dotted with stars. There were two red blinking lights stacked on top of one another, almost looking like two eerie UFOs hovering there above the hill. "I see the two red lights."

"When I first flew into Kauai to make a life here, it was the first time I'd ever been to Hawaii, after this…" She chuckled lightly. "…nuts decision to cross an entire country and half an ocean to start fresh in a place I'd never even seen before besides in movies and TV shows." Her hand landed on his on her stomach and he felt her thumb stroke over his knuckles. "I'd fallen asleep on the flight, so I missed pretty much all of the beautiful sights coming in, the islands in the distance, the gorgeous green of the mountains against the blue Pacific Ocean with the sun glittering and dancing on its surface… I missed all of it."

"Oh." He had seen all of that, unable to sleep for his whole trip, which meant seeing the islands as the sun rose in the east, behind the plane. "I came in while the sun was rising. God. It was beautiful."

"I'm sure," she said wistfully. "But I woke up as we were coming in, and that hill, with the tower and the lights there? That was the first piece of Hawaii I ever saw in person. I opened my eyes and there it was. Covered in green, greener than anything I'd ever seen in my life. And I'll remember that hill forever. For the rest of my life. It was…" She sighed. "I don't know, one of those turning point moments. When things…changed." He could see her cheeks pink in the wheelhouse lights. "I don't know what I'm saying. I guess I just wanted you to see my special hill." She giggled self-deprecatingly.

He hugged her to his front tighter and shook his head. "No, come on. That's really beautiful." Something about her opening up, telling him that, felt important. It felt special. It made him feel like he was special. To her. "And I get what you mean about turning point moments. You just feel it, in that moment, that it's…important. Sometimes without even realizing it, you're putting what your life has been before that point behind you and you're stepping onto another path. Or something like that."

She snuggled back against him and sighed, letting her head fall back onto his shoulder and turning her face against his jaw. "Yeah. That was what it felt like."

Chuck wondered, then—not for the first time—what her life had been before she made the decision to move to Kauai. Coming here had been her turning point, the thing that changed her life, and he understood it at a cosmetic level because this was the most beautiful place he'd ever seen in his entire life. And the culture felt so different, so calming. Not just because he was here on vacation, but because the people were welcoming, more connected with the ground under their feet and the nature surrounding them.

They observed the world around them in a way people on the mainland didn't. He loved LA, he loved Southern California in general, but the people there had trouble not having blinders on. Sitting in traffic on the way to work, then on the way back from work. Always going, going, going, going. Never stopping to take things in.

He'd been like that before he was shoved out of the office and onto vacation by his sister, his best friend, and his employees.

"What are you thinking about?" Sarah asked, increasing the pace of the boat again.

"Huh?"

"I can feel you thinking hard about something."

He chuckled. "Jesus, you don't even have to look at me to know now? I have a serious issue with transparency around you."

"What if I told you I don't see it as an issue? You're the most honest person I've ever met, Chuck Bartowski, and fuck anyone who tells you that's a bad thing." Her hand came up behind her and she pushed her fingers through his hair. It felt good, especially with how he wasn't expecting it, and he hummed happily, earning a giggle. "My question stands, though."

"Okay, well here comes more honesty," he mumbled. "I was thinking about how one-track-mind I was, you know, with BarTech and trying to make a real go of this company, trying to keep it on track to stay successful, making sure my employees are taken care of, and how grateful I am that Ellie and Awesome and Morgan and those employees, especially my assistant and the other folks I saw almost every single day in the conference rooms and offices… Well they basically sat me down, intervention-styles, and told me I needed to take a vacation." He saw the corner of her smirk on her profile as she kept her eyes on the dark waters ahead of them. "They were right but I was so annoyed, like I couldn't freaking figure out when I needed a damn vacation for myself? Like, I'm handling it, guys, thanks," he groused. "I needed a smack upside the head. Like, my work was suffering, my mental health… It took almost fucking up big time with a sponsor meeting for me to realize they were absolutely right and I was being stubborn to the point of stupidity. So I booked this extra long vacation, on a small island surrounded by thousands of miles of the thing that scares me the most," she giggled at that, shaking her head, "and I went. Bam."

"I'm glad," she said in the silence between them, save for the rumble of the boat's engine under their feet. "I should send them all, like, gifts or something. Hawaiian chocolate. Maybe I'll send them each cases of Kona. That's a Hawaiian beer."

"I know what Kona is," he snapped with a laugh, and she laughed with him. "And are you kidding me? I've got the gifts covered. Those people at my company are gonna get so many paid vacation days, oh my God."

Giggling, she shook her head. "Yeah well…sign my name on the thank you cards too then." And then she ducked her head and he saw the blush on her face again. "I'm also pretty grateful to them for making you take a vacation."

He turned his face into her hair and pressed a kiss to her head, grinning. He grinned hard, knowing she couldn't see it, and he let his eyes drift shut.

And they stayed shut for a while, as he let the sensations of this moment overwhelm him; the boat under his feet, the shifting of the water beneath that, Sarah Walker in his embrace, the slight tickle of her soft blond hair against his nose, how alive she was against his hands, the heat of her body warming his palms, the dampness in the air around them.

Chuck felt the boat slow again.

"Okay, this is the spot. Look towards the shore, Curls."

And he blinked his eyes open as she gently pulled his arms from around her torso and stepped around him and out of the wheelhouse. He turned to watch her as she worked to drop the True Love II anchor, and he stepped up to try to help. "Need me to…?" She sent him a flat look, and he stepped back, marking it as a slight win that she at least looked amused. "Right. You got it. I'll—"

But as he turned to take in the shore, he halted dead in his tracks, his tongue stopped working, and his jaw fell open.

"Oh. God, that's beautiful."

He could see the darkness of the Kauai mountains against the even darker sky, but if he let his vision blur just slightly, it looked like there was nothing but sky in front of him, the lights of the shore seemingly reflecting the stars in the sky.

"Isn't it? I thought you'd like this. I mean, I hoped it was worth it at least. Coming out here on a boat. I know that part isn't ideal…for you in particular."

"No, it isn't, but…" He took a deep breath, silently cursing himself for choosing that moment to look down at the dark, fathomless water churning past the railing of the boat. He shook off the chill that wracked through him. "I'm just realizing it now, but every time I force myself to face my fear enough to climb onto a boat with you, it ends up being so worth it." He turned to give her a crooked smile. "More than worth it. Which is probably why I keep doing it."

Sarah straightened up then, the anchor dropped, and she brushed her hands off then tugged at her gown to straighten it again, blowing some of the hair that escaped her updo out of her face.

Then she just smiled back. "There you go with th—eep!"

A swell smacked into the side of the boat, and he just barely grabbed onto the doorframe of the wheelhouse to keep himself standing, but Sarah was uncharacteristically caught off guard as she staggered forward. Chuck acted fast, reaching over to wrap her up in his free arm and tug her in against his chest.

"Oh. Shit," she breathed against his lapel, bracing a hand on his bicep, "Thanks."

He gave her a teasing smirk. "Aren't you s'posed to have really good sea legs or somethin'?" he muttered, looking down into her face.

Sarah glared up at him and pushed out of his embrace. "I retract the thank you, you butthead."

Chuck laughed, holding fast to her hand and pulling her back in against him. The amused, teasing look on her face transformed into something warmer, quieter, softer even. And then she wound her arms around his neck and rose onto her tiptoes, kissing him with an immediate passion that was almost more effective at knocking him on his ass than the swell that smacked the side of the boat a moment earlier.

He got his bearings enough to kiss her back as a gust of wind beat at their clothes and hair, leaving them behind again, their lips still locked. Chuck wanted to hold her in both of his arms, feel her under his hands, pull her closer and cling… but even with how lost he was in her kiss, he knew if he loosened his grip on the wheelhouse, they'd both fall over. And it would have nothing to do with her sea legs and everything to do with his.

Sarah finally broke the kiss and buried her face in his chest. And Chuck sucked in deep, calming breaths of sea air. She turned her head so her cheek rested against his tie, and she watched the shore. He followed her gaze, and they stood in silence, with the quiet sound of the water lapping at the hull of the True Love II.

He heard her voice drift up to his ears after he didn't know how many minutes.

"So how'd I do? What's the verdict?"

"Oh, nothing but the highest of praise," he said immediately, smiling. "You were right about it being romantic. Not as many lights as you see if you take a boat out from Long Beach at night, I'm sure. But the landscape is different, all the hills and the mountains. And there are way, way more stars out here."

"Less light pollution," she murmured, hugging him tighter. She was so warm against his front. And not for the first time, he felt safe like this, secure in her arms. Like nothing could touch him here. Nothing could hurt him.

And his treacherous brain reminded him that there was probably no one in the world capable of hurting him as much as this woman was. For some reason, that made him hold onto her even harder. Sarah Walker could destroy him worse than anyone else ever had, and that included the one person who'd come so close to derailing his entire life after Stanford, the person who'd nearly led to him tossing his whole future in the dumpster.

As much as it would hurt walking away from this, the memory of it wouldn't blister the way memories of Jill had. This was so different from what that had been. No matter what happened when he got onto that plane in three days and some change, this trip and Sarah Walker would leave a mark on his existence that would feel entirely disparate from the one Jill Roberts had left. Instead of stinging, blistering, and painful, it would bring him joy. It would make him warm. It would make him smile.

That, in and of itself, was what made him want to continue this no matter where it led, or when it ended. He lifted a hand to gently tuck her hair behind her ear and he kept his fingers there, stroking along her jawline. Now wasn't the time to say what he was feeling, when she was trapped on this boat with him, when she had nowhere to escape to.

So he bit his tongue.

And he nearly actually bit his tongue when she pulled her face back from his chest and looked up into his gaze, her blue eyes churning with something he recognized well by now. She didn't have to say anything. She just caught his hand with hers and stepped back, pulling him to the hatch that led down into the cabins below.

}o{

He focused on the rise and fall of her chest under his, the way she pressed against him as he lowered himself onto her and dove in to taste her neck.

She pulled her leg up to curl it around his body and he felt the smooth skin of her calf against his bare backside, her toe tracing a pattern up the back of his thigh. He clamped his hand down on her thigh and squeezed, tracing a pattern of his own along the crook of her neck with his tongue.

She shivered, her grip on him tightening as she panted his name into his hair.

Sarah felt so good, he almost didn't hear the thunk of a glass bottle against wooden floorboards, or the following rumble of it rolling first one way, then the other, and then back again, over and over as the trawler swayed in the water.

But she groaned then and reached down, her arm jerking against him as she tried to slap at the bottle that had apparently tipped over, trying to make it stop rolling back and forth.

He giggled into the underside of her jaw, nipping at her teasingly with his teeth. "Just leave it," he panted. "It's empty anyway."

"I know," she drawled, dragging her other hand down his back, her fingers drifting in and out of the peaks and valleys of his muscles.

Chuck knew too.

And he'd better know, considering how much of it he'd lapped up off of her body. He had no idea what had come over him once they'd locked themselves in the cabin with the bed for the second time in as many weeks, but in his defense, she'd been the first one to do it. The way she'd tilted her glass just enough for a little bit to dribble onto his abdomen as they lie stretched out on the bed together, the innocent look on her face as she mumbled, "Oops", and then they'd both lost control.

The bottle was empty now, rolling, rolling…rolling.

He reached down then, his fingers grappling with hers as they both giggled, and he snagged the bottle. He lifted it with a "Hahaaa," making her laugh, and he scooted up her body, earning a salacious and wanton look from her as he snuggled the base of the bottle into the circle of his boxers he'd left on the floor near the head of the bed. "There. A nice little makeshift holder ala cotton boxers."

Sarah snorted out a laugh.

Chuck lowered himself so their faces lined up again and he smiled down at her. She pushed her fingers through his curls and then ruffled them teasingly, giggling up at him as he growled happily. "You know, the plan was to sit up on deck and drink that champagne with the view and all that," she informed him.

He narrowed his eyes and tilted his head. "It was a good plan, Sarah, but this ended up being, uh, well…better."

Sarah moaned, a wide, satisfied smile stretching over her lips as she thrashed her head back and forth. "I am not complaining." She cupped his face in both hands and lunged up to kiss him hungrily. Before he was ready for it to end, she broke the kiss and pressed her lips against his ear. "And I've never enjoyed a bottle of champagne more."

God, neither had he. He shivered, a thread of need cascading through him. He poised his toes of one foot at the end of the bed, meaning to continue things again, ready for more, but then his toes slipped against the sheet and his foot slid off the end of the too-short mattress, causing all of his weight to land hard on top of her.

She let out a rough breath and a groan, cracking up, sounding breathless even as she laughed, throwing her head back.

"Shit, sorry!" he rushed out, hurriedly bracing his elbows on either side of her and lifting his weight off of her. "Didn't mean to crush ya. This bed is…uh…short."

"The bed is fine, you're just long." He gave her a look and she rolled her eyes. "Oh God."

Chuckling, he dove back in, and even with the champagne gone, things continued for quite a while as they found ways to make the too-short bed work just fine.

A long time later, she'd draped herself back against his chest as he sat propped with the one flat pillow between his back and the wall, the threadbare sheet pulled up and tucked under her armpits in some semblance of modesty.

"That view out there is getting totally wasted," Chuck finally muttered against her temple.

Sarah lifted a weak, limp arm and yanked at the curtain covering the porthole. If the light in the room wasn't on, he imagined moonlight might spill in. "There. Happy?"

He chuckled. "The angle is making it hard to see much else but, like, two stars."

"Two stars are better than none."

He knew it wouldn't be the last time he realized just how crazy he was about this woman. He pulled his legs in, trapping hers between them and he hugged her tight against him. "Can we just stay out here? If we get hungry, we can call GrubHub or something. UberEats maybe."

Sarah laughed. "I don't think they deliver to boats floating offshore."

"It's called DoorDash. And we have a door." He pointed to it. Sarah had shut it securely when they first stumbled into the cabin with the cot. What felt like it had to be hours ago now.

"Not sure they'd dash to this door."

"Well, that's a market they're missing out on," he said huffily, making her laugh harder.

There was a seriousness to her voice then, a quietude, when she spoke again half a minute later. "Anyway, we can't. You have a plane to catch in a few days."

Chuck sighed heavily and let his forehead fall forward to crash into her shoulder. "I know. Whenever I remember that, it feels…not great."

"Well, that time isn't here yet. So I think we can stay out here for a little while longer." And she turned around, pressing her chest against his and kissing him languidly, her arms wrapping around his shoulders.

Chuck held her, kissing her back, enjoying her soft, warm skin under his hands. But this time when she pulled back, she made a reluctant little sound. "There's a shower down here and as, uh, thorough of a job as you did…" She sent him a significant look, her blue eyes sparkling. "I still feel like I have remnants of champagne on me."

He did too, and he winced. "Uh yeah. Same."

She kissed him again, moving her lips against his slowly, humming. "It's a small shower, but come with me anyway."

Chuck didn't have to be asked twice.

And when they locked themselves up in the shower with the water cascading down over them, her touch becoming heated again, he didn't have to be asked twice then either.

}o{

It wasn't until he sat in the passenger seat of her convertible, the nighttime wind whipping at his curls as Sarah drove them back to her house, that Chuck spotted the text from Ellie from hours earlier.

He knew she'd put two and two together and wouldn't worry about him not answering until the next morning, but the contents of the text made his stomach flip over anyway.

Hey let me know if things fall through getting rideshare back to your apt from the airport. Patient doesn't need an op after all thank God so I'm off when you're coming home! I can pick you up and bring you dinner.

Chuck frowned and pocketed his phone again, turning to squint out at the water in the distance. Everywhere he looked, it felt like he was reminded that he was leaving soon and it made him want to scream.

If he called Ellie right now—he wouldn't as she was definitely very asleep—what kind of advice would she have? Would it be different from the advice she'd had the first time he talked to her about Sarah? Now that the days were feeling shorter and shorter, his vacation's end getting closer and closer?

He was feeling like maybe things had gotten more serious since that last phone call he'd had with his sister. More serious even than sharing a harrowing hurricane experience together had made things. This morning alone, their talk out on the beach, had put things into stark contrast for the tech nerd. And he thought that conversation had done the same for the scuba instructor too. Maybe not in the same way, but still…

Things had been fluctuating and growing between them, in a way he hadn't been able to convey in his responses to Ellie's texts asking how Sarah was. He thought So so freaking good wasn't enough to get the reality of this whole thing across.

But then he had to wonder if he'd be able to lay it out in any sort of clear way for Ellie if he talked to her on the phone even.

This was so far gone from anything he could've ever imagined happening to him. He caught himself before he let his thoughts stray towards wondering if he was dreaming this whole vacation up. That was maybe a little too close to what had upset her so much this morning.

Sarah Walker wasn't a dream. She wasn't a figment of his wildest imagination. She was real. He was awake, she was real, and she was right here next to him, driving her car, pushing her hair out of her face with one hand as she nearly ran a red light. (He winced at that, glad she wasn't looking at him. In fact, he'd prefer she kept her eyes on the road. Yeesh.)

"What?" She glanced at him momentarily, furrowing her brow in curiosity.

"What?"

"Don't what me. You're the one staring at me like a creep and I can feel it," she teased with a smirk. "And don't even think about tossing one of those meltingly sincere 'you're so pretty' lines at me while I'm trying to drive."

He blushed at the way she phrased that, and he chuckled to try to cover it up, sinking lower in his seat to just peer at her warmly. "Damn. So I can't say anything about how wild and unbridled and free you look in that dress driving this convertible in the moonlight, and how extra sexy it is?"

A beaming grin crossed her face, her eyes bright, and she waited until she stopped at a stop sign in her neighborhood to look at him. "I told you not to do that, you stinker."

He just smiled mischievously back at her. "Oops."

Giggling, she shook her head and laid a hand on his thigh, squeezing. "No, really, what were you thinking about?"

"This again?"

"Yes, this again."

He decided to drum something up that had nothing to do with what he was actually thinking. "I was wondering if you'd want to toss your bathing suit and a few other things in a bag, we could throw said bag and my suitcase into your backseat, and head for my hotel. And when we wake up late tomorrow morning, we can have a late breakfast and swim in the pool and have fruity alcoholic beverages with the little…umbrellas." He had to congratulate himself on the quick thinking because he saw interest pique in her features as she mulled it over. "I know it's late." He glanced at his watch and saw that it was nearing one in the morning. "And I understand if you wanna sleep in your own bed…"

"Yes. Yes to the plan I mean. But on one condition," she said, guiding her convertible into the driveway of her house.

"Anything. Name it."

"Give me a few minutes to use my actual shower and put something on that isn't quite this fancy…?"

"Condition granted. That was easy."

"I try," she chirped.

It took less than twenty minutes for them to get back in the car, Chuck allowing her the space to shower by herself this time, and she soon guided her car past his hotel's roundabout in front to park in the lot near the side entrance.

As he crawled out of the passenger seat, Chuck thought back to that night when he raced down way too many flights of stairs to catch her, huffing and puffing, barely able to get his words out as he asked her to stay. That felt like so long ago, and still…not long enough ago.

He lugged his suitcase up with him, Sarah and her bag strung over her shoulder joining him in the elevator. And they stood there, just peering at each other across the the elevator, a comfortable silence between them.

"Want a drink or somethin'?" he finally asked as the doors slid open.

Chuck put his hand against the frame to keep the doors from shutting while she walked through, smirking at him over her shoulder.

"You asking me to your room for a nightcap?"

"Hell yeah I am."

She giggled, leading the way to his hotel suite. "What've ya got?"

"Still have a bottle of whiskey. I'll have to get us some ice from the machine but that's no biggie."

"Deal."

"Man, I do need to rinse off, even after the True Love II shower. And I need to hang up this poor suit," he chuckled. She grinned at him.

He meant to put his bags down, get the ice, pour the whiskey, and then take a quick shower, but Sarah stopped him before he could grab the ice bucket. She looked at her phone with a bit of a stricken look even as she took the bucket instead. "I'll get the ice and pour the drinks. Um, why-why don't you take your shower? Get comfy."

Her smile was forced and she held onto the phone in a tight grip.

"S-sure. Yeah. You—"

"Take your shower," she admonished, her smile clearer now, like the look he'd seen before was just a figment of his imagination. "You'll feel a lot better. I did. I'll get the drinks."

"Oh. Okay. Um. Wait, here's my key." He went in his pocket and took his wallet out, handing her the key.

"Thanks. Have a good shower."

And she ducked out of the room, leaving him staring after her, an uncomfortable feeling stirring in his chest.

He took a fast shower, all the while struggling with whether to ask her if she was okay or not, wondering if what she saw on her phone was related to the call she'd gotten this morning. Did she need help? Was it even something he could help her with? Was he totally overstepping if he offered to help her with whatever it was?

But then he stepped out of his bedroom, clad in his grey cotton drawstring sweatpants and a black T-shirt, scrubbing his hair with a hand towel to dry it, and she hadn't come back from getting ice yet. He hadn't taken that quick of a shower, he thought. And the ice bucket was still gone.

He didn't want to go following her, checking up on her, making her think he was some kind of weirdo worrywart. Or that he feared she wouldn't be able to find the ice room on the floor.

But then he spotted some dishes he'd accidentally left on top of the table by the patio door from a meal he'd had room service deliver. Sure, it was gross, as he'd been at Sarah's for a few days now, but this was as good a reason as any to poke his head out into the hallway to look for Sarah without seeming like that was what he was doing.

Gathering it all up in a stack, he hurried to the suite door and opened it precariously, slowly swinging it open enough with his foot so that he could sneak through.

But as he bent to set the plates on the hallway floor outside of his door, he glanced down the hallway and saw that Sarah was sitting against the wall to the left of his door, her phone pressed to her ear, the bucket at her feet empty.

She looked up at him with wide eyes, but she was too shocked by his appearance to be able to cover up the genuine upset in her features. She finally did, sending him a weak smile and hitting a button on her phone, lowering it again. "Oh."

"Oh."

They stared at one another blankly, and he felt a bad feeling in his gut.

A/N: For someone who really doesn't jive with boats, Charles Irving Bartowski sure is having a lot of situations in which he jives with a certain individual...on a boat.

...I'm gonna go sit down and eat my dinner. Please review! Thanks for reading!

-SC