Chapter 5
A/N: The pace of the updates is slowing and let me say why. I’m having eye issues. Nothing major but about this time every year I need new glasses. (Getting old…okay, older) It’s getting uncomfortable to read, watch TV, or anything that’s not at a larger resolution. Hopefully by the end of the month I’ll have my new noline trifocals that will do away with the strain, until then, I’ll do what I can. Thanks for your patience.
A/N 2: I’m not going to lie, I just don’t like the first part of this chapter, but I struggled with it long enough. It had to be written, so I did and got on to the parts to move the overall story along. I’m sorry, I hope you like it, but it’s not my favorite. That being said, we are moving out of Tom Sawyer, and into the Jill episodes. Put your Stan Bush on boys and girls, its Ch 5 You’ve Got The Touch.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Chuck or Transformers the Movie from the 80s, which I think about each time I hear that song…’Cause you’ve got the touch it turns me on and on You light the fire in me that keeps burning strong….
“Are you okay?” Sarah asked.
“I don’t know,” Chuck said.
“I know he meant a lot to you,” Sarah said.
“He was responsible for so many games I love, and now I find out the kill screen is hidden in Missile Command.” Chuck said. “We’ve got to get Jeff to that kill screen.”
“You want to trust that burn out?” Casey asked. Sarah stared at Casey.
“I trust Chuck,” she said, taking him upstairs as Casey prepared to take out the satellite.
Morimoto was dead after a bomb went off at Atari, Jeff was their possible only hope to stop the loss of life, and Chuck was trying to figure out how they were going to get Jeff to beat the game. He had already made several demands, and Chuck and Morgan were working to meet them all.
“How bad?” Sarah asked.
“I had Morgan get Anna to dress up in the Nerd Herd uniform,” Chuck said, holding his head in his hands. “I just glad he didn’t see you earlier.”
“We survive this I’m going to sneak that uniform to our new apartment,” she said with a smirk. Chuck turned to her slowly.
“As much as I’d love that, I’m going to need you not to talk about you in that outfit, I need to concentrate,” he said. Sarah whispered into his ear.
“Just consider it incentive,” she said. Chuck couldn’t breathe, and he thought he was blacking out as he watched the tv’s blink off. That’s when he realized what was going on.
“They’re at the TV studio,” Chuck said, looking at Sarah.
“I’m on it, you get me that code,” she said. She started off. “Chuck, after we take care of this, we talk,” she said winking.
“Again, not helping!”
}o{
“Chuck!” Morgan said. “The natives are getting reckless!” Chuck had been trying to talk Jeff into playing the game, but to no avail. He tried to convince Ellie to leave the area, but she refused, since he wouldn’t. Chuck was running out of ideas. “Dude, you’re going to have to play.”
Chuck began to play but didn’t last long. He stared at the end screen, and wondered how had Jeff done this. That’s when he heard it, someone was listening to Rush, and he began to remember what Morimoto had said…
“Morgan, do we carry, Rush?” Chuck asked. “I need Tom Sawyer.”
“I got it, Dude,” Morgan said, and started to play the music. Chuck timed the music up to the game and quickly got in the zone. He made it to the kill screen to the cheers of the crowd. He grabbed his phone and called Sarah. She answered the phone having just taken out the terrorists.
“Sarah, I did it! I beat the game just like Mr. Morimoto said!” He yelled into the phone.
“Chuck, that’s great, what’s the code?”
“Oscar Zelda Penguin Gamma Sector Bob,” he said, as she input the code. The satellite shut down, Casey confirmed, and Armageddon was dodged. Chuck looked around at the madness. “I’ve got to get out of the Buy More,” he said, and walked out.
}o{
Chuck walked into Ellie’s and Awesome’s apartment. Ellie squealed and Awesome caught him in a bear hug.
“Dude! You saved LA!” Awesome said. Ellie squealed as she pulled him in.
“I knew you could do it!” Ellie said. “And, there’s another surprise for you.” Chuck’s eyebrows went up. “Sarah has it. She’s out back.” Ellie pulled him aside. “When she talks to you, you need to listen. Quit trying to figure out what you think she should feel and actually listen to her.” Chuck nodded. Awesome high fived him as he went outside. Sarah was standing there looking up at the night sky.
“If it wasn’t for you, we might not have this,” Sarah said, never turning around. Chuck walked up behind her, still a little unsure of himself. Sarah grabbed his hands and pulled them around her waist. “So, I have some news. In light of everything that has been going on, and with you having a new job soon,” she reached over and picked up a box. “Stanford has awarded you your diploma.” Chuck opened the box and looked at it. He put it back in the box, put it on the table, and pulled her in tighter.
“Thank you,” he said. “I don’t know what I would do without you.”
“Well, you’re not finding out for the rest of your life,” she said, grinning. She could tell he wasn’t returning the grin. “Chuck, did you not hear me when I said I want this.”
“Sarah, I am invading your life, your personal space, and you have absolutely no say,” Chuck said.
“For a smart guy, you’re an idiot,” Sarah replied. Chuck was still holding her from behind, his breath kept hitting her ear as he talked and Sarah felt her knees give just a little each time. “I signed that deal so I could get exactly what I want. You, Chuck Bartowski, you are what I want. And, even when we figure out how to get the Intersect out, I will be assigned to you, not because I have to be, but because I want to be. So, we can take it slow, but all your doing is delaying the inevitable. Chuck, I’m not leaving. I’m in your life forever, so you better not screw this up.”
“Beckman doesn’t scare me that much,” Chuck said.
“Yes, she does, Chuck, but I was talking about Ellie,” she replied, grinning. Chuck did look a little terrified. “Chuck, we suck at communicating.”
“I don’t want to hurt your feelings, and you don’t like words,” Chuck replied.
“It’s not that I don’t like words, I’m just more of an action-oriented person,” she replied, shrugging. “See that bright light up there,” she said, pointing to it. “That’s the satellite. Make a wish Chuck.” She was quiet for a moment. “What did you wish for?”
“Am I allowed to tell you, then it won’t come true,” Chuck said.
“Chuck I’m your handler, no secrets, no lies,” she said.
“Yes, but I’m your analyst now, so no secrets, no lies from you either,” he replied.
“Okay,” she said.
“Okay?” she nodded. “Then, okay.”
“Answer me,” she said looking up at him.
“There were two,” Chuck said. “The second wish was for me to get all the leftover gummy bears from the Orange Orange.”
“How are you so skinny?” she asked.
“My metabolism,” Chuck replied, shrugging. “I mean I know why you don’t eat them. They are pure sugar and calories.”
“Are you implying that I’m fat?” she asked.
“Nope,” Chuck replied quickly. “You know 3,495,102 ways to kill me. You could weight 800 lbs and I would never call you fat.” She gave him the stink eye. “I guess it’s probably time I tell you what the first wish was.” He swallowed. “To be the partner you need, however you need, defined by you.” Sarah stared at him. Chuck looked around, hearing something. “I hear it again, but your mouth isn’t moving.”
“Chuck Bartowski,” she said, having trouble getting her breath. “I think we need to go check out the new apartment.”
“Why?” Chuck asked.
“Because I’m going to bet you don’t want your sister to hear what is about to happen,” Sarah replied.
“Sarah,” he said, “What about taking it slow?”
“I have the nerd herd uniform,” she said, with an arched eyebrow.
“Oh, boy,” Chuck said.
}o{
The next morning Chuck opened the door to Ellie’s and Awesome’s his hair was disheveled, his shirt misbuttoned, and his eyes glazed over.
“So you’ve got your own apartment now,” Ellie said. Chuck looked at them grinning stupidly.
“Yep,” he said. “My clothes are over here, and Sarah’s using the shower over there. She already has her stuff moved in.” Ellie and Devon exchanged a look. She sighed and nodded. Awesome threw up his hand.
“Awesome!” Devon said, and Chuck high fived him and shuffled off. “He’s not walking that well.” Ellie just looked at him. The door opened again and Sarah came in with the biggest smile on her face.
“Sarah, I know you’re trained to take in all your surroundings, did you hear any strange growling last night?” Ellie asked smirking. Sarah returned her smirk.
“Yep,” she said popping the “p”. “We don’t have any food, can I make breakfast here, and we have dinner at our place when we get everything moved in?”
“Of course,” Ellie replied. “You never have to ask, you’re always at home here.”
“Thanks, Ellie,” Sarah said.
“I can make you something,” Ellie offered.
“That’s okay,” Sarah said. “I think I’m gonna make Chuck breakfast.”
“Still taking it slow?” she asked as Sarah was making bacon and omelets.
“Nope,” Sarah said, popping the “p” again.
“Take care of that weird growling noise Chuck kept hearing?”
“Yep,” she said, popping the “p” again, while smiling so big she didn’t know how she didn’t break her face. Ellie squealed. Devon shut the eye closest to her as she did and made a wincing face.
“Do I need to check him out for that limp?” Devon said. “I wouldn’t want him to not be up to par.”
“Thanks, Devon,” Sarah said sincerely. “But, I can figure something out if I need to.” Ellie sprung up, raced into the kitchen and hugged her.
“Finally,” she said, holding Sarah tight, and Sarah returned the hug. They pulled away and tears were in both of their eyes. “Finally you can quit the act.”
“He wasn’t very good, was he?” Sarah said. Ellie grinned, looked over at Devon who was grinning and shaking his head. “What?”
“He wasn’t very good?” Ellie asked, her eyes dancing. “Sarah, sweetie, I love you dearly, but you were AWFUL at trying to be a ‘cover girlfriend.’”
“What?”
“Sarah, you would hold his hand and cuddle into him and give him looks when he wasn’t paying attention that NO one would, unless they had feelings for someone,” Ellie said. “Every once in a while, sure, but all the time like you did…nope…not buying it for a second.” Sarah looked down.
“Somewhere between him fixing my phone and him disarming a bomb with a porn virus, don’t ask, I fell…..for him,” she said. Ellie nodded, grinning.
“Have you told him that, and is that what you really mean?” Ellie asked. Sarah smiled.
“No, and no.”
“This is what I’m talking about, you two are crap at communicating,” Ellie said. Chuck came out of the bathroom and saw his girlfriend and his sister talking in the kitchen. He took one look and kept walking. “Scared?”
“Terrified,” Chuck said. “But, I’m totally okay with it, it’s just part of my new life.” Ellie’s eyes got wide and looked at Sarah. Sarah just smiled.
“I can’t thank you enough,” Ellie said, hugging Sarah again.
“You raised him,” Sarah said. “Thank you for making him into the wonderful guy he is.”
“I need to record this and play it back when one or both are mad at me,” Chuck said to Devon. Devon shook his head.
“That will be sometime next week,” Devon said. Chuck thought for a minute, decided he was right, and just shrugged. “So, what’s the plan, Chuckster.”
“One more day at the Buy More. One more install, it’s at a BioScience Conference. What could go wrong?” Chuck said, shrugging. Sarah looked at him. “I just screwed it up, didn’t I?” Sarah continued to stare, and even Ellie was giving him the sideeye. “A terrorist is going to unleash a biochemical weapon while I’m there aren’t they?” Sarah pulled out her phone.
“Casey, I’m going with Chuck to the install today. Yes, Casey right in the middle of the conference, I’m going to mix all my peanut butter with his chocolate. I’ll make sure it’s on camera so I can play it for you over and over. Hello? Casey?” She hung up grinning.
“You enjoy tormenting him just as much as I do,” he said ginning. Sarah’s phone rang. She picked it up.
“Because I have a bad feeling about this,” she replied. She hung up and Chuck was staring at her, his mouth agape. Devon leaned over.
“Is this how you want to do this?” he whispered where Sarah couldn’t hear him…he thought. Sarah gave Chuck a challenging look.
“You mean tell the woman I care about more than anything in this world how I feel about her?” Chuck asked, looking directly at Sarah. “Is there a wrong way to do that?”
“Eat you breakfast, Chuck,” Sarah said, winking at him. “You’re going to need your strength later.”
“That install is going to take a while,” Devon asked. Everyone turned to look at him. He thought about it for a moment. “It would have been better if I’d meant it that way.”
}o{
“You had this done ten minutes ago, didn’t you?” Sarah asked, watching Chuck work.
“Yep,” Chuck answered. “But, I had to make sure everything was done right. Better to spend ten extra minutes now, than five hours later trying to chase down a problem,” he said coming out from under the table. He turned to the conference employee. “Networks all set up, ten-based Ethernet connecting all the servers with a firewall in place.” Chuck’s eyes looked over the man’s shoulders, and he turned to Sarah. “Tell me, is there a female brunette over there, slightly egg-headed, brown eyes and someone that some guys would call attractive?”
“Yes, why, did you flash on her?” Sarah whispered, getting a good look at her.
“No, I didn’t flash,” Chuck said, taking a deep breath. “Remember when I said, what could go wrong?” She nodded. “That’s Jill.” Sarah looked at him, then back over his shoulder and then back up at Chuck again. She got an evil grin on her face.
“Oh, really,” she said.
“Yep,” he said, popping the “p”.
“Trust me?” she asked, the evil grin growing. Chuck could only return the grin and nodded.
“I need you to stay here, talk to her, tell her the truth about everything, except, you know,” Chuck nodded. “I promise you, I’ll make it worth it, okay?” Chuck nodded and she vanished into the crowd. Chuck turned around and made himself busy with paperwork.
“Hi, Dr. Jill Roberts,” she said to the event employee. “Chuck?”
“Hi, Jill,” Chuck said.
“How are you, it’s so good to see you,” Jill said.
“I’m good,” Chuck replied.
“How long has it been?” she asked.
“Five years or so, I can’t keep up,” Chuck said, trying to find Sarah, where was she? What was she up to? “What have you been up to?”
“Well, after Stanford, I got my PhD in biomedical engineering,” she began. Chuck nodded, an impressed look on his face. “I’m giving a presentation today on infectious diseases. What about you?”
“Oh, you know,” he said, shrugging.
“Last I saw you, you were at the Buy More,” she said. Chuck pointed to the ID badge.
“Still, there, saving the world, one computer virus at a time,” he said. Jill’s face fell a little.
“Oh, Chuck,” she said softly, with pity. Chuck shrugged, really smiling.
“It’s fine, I’ve learned a lot there, and grown up,” he said. Jill started to speak, but was cut off.
“Hey, babe,” Sarah said, bringing him a coffee. “Sorry it took so long,” and with that, she gave him a kiss. Not just a kiss…but a kiss so passionate that the one in front of the “bomb” at the pier looked like something friends would give each other. When they separated, Chuck’s mind needed another reboot. “Hi,” she said, noticing Jill. “I’m Sarah, Chuck’s girlfriend, well, we’re living together, so I guess that works,” she said, grinning. Jill’s mouth could have caught flies.
“Dr. Jill Roberts,” she said. “I know Chuck from Stanford.”
“Oh, you’re Jill,” Sarah said, her smile growing. “I’m really surprised our paths never crossed. Like when Harvard would play Stanford.”
“You,” she almost sputtered, but caught herself. “You, went to Harvard?”
“Yeah,” she said shrugging like it was no big deal. “Chuck and I are about to start our own security company. I have some contacts in the government, and Chuck is going to handle our cyber security. I can’t wait to be around him all day. Well, you know,” she said, winking. Jill looked sick. Chuck’s brain had rebooted enough, that he was having to stop himself from professing his love for Sarah right then and there. She looked up at him and gave him his smile. Not the “cover” smile, not the “it’s okay, Chuck” smile, not the “those curls make me want to run my hands through you hair” smile, but the “you and me are in this forever, and you are mine” smile. Chuck had no qualms about her possessiveness, in fact, he loved it.
“Today’s technically my last day at the Buy More,” Chuck said shrugging. “It was what I needed, and helped me be ready for my future. It’s where we met and I’ll always be grateful for it.” Jill started to walk away, when a man walked up, and Chuck began to flash. Sarah saw, and kissed him, for two reasons. The first to stop it from being noticed, but the second to see how he reacted to a kiss while flashing. “That’s Guy LeFleur,” he mumbled. She turned.
“Hey, Jill,” Sarah said. “We should get coffee, and let you two catch up sometime.” Jill looked like she wanted to rip Sarah’s heart out, but she smiled, nodded, and gave Sarah her card.
“That would be lovely,” Jill said. “I have to run.” The two walked away.
“If one of us ever says what could go wrong again…” Chuck trailed off. “You know this is going to be bad.” Sarah just smiled. “You just want an excuse to kick my ex-girlfriend’s ass.” Sarah looked at him.
“See, I’m torn, because if she didn’t do to you what she did, we’d never met, but she hurt my Chuck, so I am honor bound to kick her ass,” Sarah said.
“One, that was really kinda nerdy and hot. Two, does that make you my Sarah?” Sarah grabbed his tie and kissed him until he thought steam would roll out his ears. She let him, go, turned, and walked away. “So, was that a yes?”
A/N: David, the way you wrote that means Chuck and Jill can’t get back together…..if you’re shocked, you obviously haven’t read a lot of my stuff. Sorry for the shortness of length, that’s about all I can handle. Should have new glasses by the end of the month…The longer I’m with you the deeper and deeper in love I fall…Til next time!
DC