Chapter 7

A/N: I know, you’re mad at me for making Bryce a good guy. Well…get madder. :)

Disclaimer: I don’t own Chuck

Chuck found himself sitting in the parking lot. He had checked the address twice to make sure this was the place the two had agreed on. He had gotten there thirty minutes early. He normally wasn’t like this, but today…today it seemed to matter. He sat in the car for ten minutes, gave up, and went inside. He had watched another video from Bryce before he left and it had left Chuck…bothered.

}o{

Bryce was still in the green walled apartment, this time there was a sadness on his face that tore at Chuck’s heart.

“She was forced into the CIA,” Bryce said. He looked away for a second, and when he turned back his jaw was set. “They made her into a weapon, Chuck. She was an assassin for Graham. She did the jobs that no one should do, alone. She took out terrible people, and lived, when many others didn’t.”

He was quiet for a second. “There was a night…we were lying in bed…after.”

“Didn’t need to know that,” Chuck muttered.

“And she asked me something,” Bryce continued. “Something…something that broke something inside of me. She asked me why was she the one that survived every mission. She asked me how could anyone love her after the things she had done.”

“Bryce,” Chuck said softly, a wince on his face.

“I loved her…I did…but…I couldn’t say it,” Bryce admitted. “I should have, but…she knew…she knew we weren’t forever.” He blew out a breath. “She had no one and I was…I won’t say convenient but I will say I was a human teether…as well as a CIA agent can be one.”

Chuck didn’t say anything, but he hurt for both of them.

“She made the world we lived in safer, and she thought she was the bad person?” Bryce said, shaking his head. “So, I tried to make her feel better, and I don’t know if I did. I told her, ‘It’s not fair some of us don’t come out of this job alive. All we can do is pay that debt for those that lost their lives by living a well lived life.’”

“That’s kinda deep,” Chuck muttered to himself.

“I’m pretty sure that’s the night I decided to help her. To stop Graham,” Bryce explained. “She deserved so much better. I loved her, I did, but…I don’t know if she loved me, or if she did, it was the kind of love that was necessary to overcome everything she had been through.” Bryce looked into the camera. “Chuck…if you find her.” He paused. “Please, make sure she’s at least trying to live.”

“I will, Buddy, I will,” Chuck said softly.

}o{

She pulled up fifteen minutes early, checked herself in the mirror, got out, and found herself scouting the perimeter. She stopped herself. She was no longer a con-artist. She was no longer a CIA agent. She was a civilian…and she wasn’t sure if she was ever going to figure out how to be JUST a civilian, but tonight, tonight was about trying to be one. That’s why she was wearing the purple dress. So far, she liked Chuck Bartowski. She had pushed aside the urge to do a deep dive background check on him, but the urge did still remain.

She also had to admit to herself putting on the purple dress wasn’t just because she liked him. It was something he had said. And I see them trying. I see them trying something that is clearly out of their wheelhouse…and yet…isn’t.

Her and her father were trying and the fact Chuck could see they were trying…that wasn’t what most men would have seen. Because they wouldn’t have been looking at that. They wouldn’t have been looking at two people trying to make something work that they both had previously thought had been unfixable. In the time she spent with Chuck Bartowski it had become clear to Sarah that he was different than just about anyone she had ever met. And if she had met anyone like him, they hadn’t affected her the way he had.

He was good looking. She had seen many good looking men before. If she were honest, some that were better looking. He was tall. She wasn’t aware of how she felt about anyone being tall. Maybe it was him being tall that she noticed. His hair…she was pretty sure she had never seen anyone with hair just doing whatever the hell it had wanted to like that.

She felt herself giggle and wondered if she had since that day her father had been arrested.

She looked at the front door of the restaurant and knew she was early. Agent Walker was never early. She was either right on time or fashionably late. Sarah Walker, the woman…she was nervous, and she was going through those doors, being early, because she didn’t want to wait outside anymore. She wanted to see him walk in. She pushed open the door.

}o{

She couldn’t help but grin as she walked in and saw him talking to the host. “Right, table for two, but some place private, not romantic private, but private so we can talk. It’s about business. A farm.”

“Okay,” the host said, a little wide-eyed.

“And I’m guessing she’s not here,” Chuck continued, oblivious she was behind him.

“Why would you say that?” the host asked.

“Man, if you saw her…you’d know her,” Chuck told him. Sarah couldn’t help but smile. The host saw her, looked at Chuck, and then back at her. “She’s…beautiful doesn’t begin to describe her.”

“Do you know what she’s wearing?” the host asked, unable to believe the woman behind the man he was talking to was his date.

“No idea,” Chuck admitted. “When I saw her earlier today she had been dressed to be on the farm.”

“Well, okay,” the host said, nodding. There was no way the woman in purple behind this guy worked on a farm.

“Chuck,” Sarah said.

Chuck spun around and she watch his eyes widen and his jaw go slack. She heard him utter a word, and she don’t know if she had felt more complimented in her entire life. “Wow,” he muttered. She watched him as he tried to form sentences. “It’s her,” he said, pointing to her. The host looked impressed. “Wow, Sarah…I’m so sorry,” he said, as it appeared his mind finally quit locking up and he found the ability to use his words. “I feel terribly under dressed.”

“You look perfect,” Sarah said with a shrug. She felt her eyes go wide. What in the hell? Agent Walker would never say something like that. Never. Sarah Walker apparently didn’t have a filter. Who knew?

“If you two will follow me, so you can have your…business dinner,” the host said, wondering if these two thought they were fooling anyone.

“You ready?” Chuck asked. Sarah nodded, and Chuck offered her his arm. She took it, grinning at him. “Her and her father are running a farm,” Chuck told the host as they followed him. “They’re trying to help people get back on their feet.”

“How would a farm do that?” the host asked, not really that curious, but also puzzled how a farm would do that.

“It’s a halfway house,” Sarah told him. The host nearly stopped walking, and stumbled, trying to imagine a woman that looked like her, working in a halfway house.

“Okay,” the host said, guiding them to their booth. Chuck motioned to the near side for her to sit, and Chuck sat across from her. “Your waiter will be here in a second.” He looked as though he wanted to say more but decided that he already knew too much and left.

“I’m sorry about earlier,” Chuck blurted out. “You look stunning, and I look like-”

“No,” Sarah cut him off. “We’re not going to do that.” Chuck’s eyes were wide. “We’re not going to put ourselves down, Chuck. That’s not how you’re going to do if you work with dad and I. He and I have worked very hard not to do that anymore.”

“Sounds like there’s a story there,” Chuck said softly. “Not that it’s any of my business.”

“We have both done things we’re not proud of,” Sarah told him. “Carrying all of…that…it doesn’t accomplish anything.”

“Sounds like you don’t want to be a baggage handler,” Chuck said with a grin. It was at that moment the server showed up with water, chips, complementary salsa, and menus. Chuck thanked the waiter, opened his menu as Sarah took a chip.

“I have no problem be a baggage handler to necessary baggage,” Sarah said, pausing before dipping her chip into the salsa. She dipped it as Chuck looked up from the menu and to her. “Life is hard enough without things that don’t matter, you know?”

“Personal popshots?” Chuck asked, grinning.

“Exactly,” Sarah told him. “I truly appreciate the compliment about the dress, it seemed genuine.”

“Well, genuine is something I do,” Chuck told her. “Hell, it’s all I do.” Chuck quickly held his hands up in defense. “And that’s not a popshot at me, it’s just the absolute truth.”

“That is something I believe,” Sarah told him, grinning. She was quiet for a moment. “Do you know why you want to be a part of the farm?”

“I think,” Chuck told her. “You two are doing meaningful work.” He paused a second. “It’s not saving the world, but it’s changing someone’s life and maybe their family’s.”

“I hope so,” Sarah said, nodding. “I lost my family.” Chuck sat there, not sure what to say. “What my father did…it cost us everything.”

“My mom left us,” Chuck said softly. Sarah didn’t say a word, she just sat there, actively listening. “She left, and dad…dad physically stayed and then…then he left.” Sarah’s mouth dropped. “My sister, Ellie…she had to raise me in the end.” He looked her right in the eye. “Ellie was seventeen, and….” Chuck shook his head. It was then, he thought he saw someone…watching them. He was tall, well built, and if pressed, Chuck would say he had a jaw made of granite. Chuck also found the man…familiar but couldn’t place him.

“The one I talked to about avocados, right?” Sarah asked. Chuck nodded, looking back at Sarah. Sarah shook her head. “There were times I practically had to raise myself, but a younger sibling on top of it.” There was a look on her face that Chuck couldn’t place. One of….sorrow? Shame?

He started to say something when he again noticed the big man…closer.

“That’s baggage that is necessary,” Sarah said to him. He looked up at her, a grin on his face.

“Did you just offer to be my baggage handler?” Chuck asked. She snorted at that, and Chuck found himself wondering did Bryce ever hear her snort. He was again distracted by the large man, and at that point, he remembered what Sarah had done in the past for a living. His mind wondered if maybe this was someone…looking to right a perceived wrong? He had to warn her. “Sarah, do you know a man…six foot twoish? Solidly built, and a chin…some might say is like granite?”

“That’s oddly specific,” Sarah said, confused.

“There’s a guy watching us that-” Chuck began, when Sarah suddenly picked up a spoon with her far hand and started messing with her hair with her near hand. “Your hair is perfect,” he blurted out. She grinned, and laid down the spoon. “I mean-”

“I was using it to see who it was behind us,” Sarah said. “Old trick I learned.” Her grin grew. “Perfect huh?” She glanced at his hair.

“Oh, so, you’re going to use what my hair does, against me, to say I can’t recognize perfection when I see it?” Chuck teased.

“I need you to hold that thought, because I’m pretty sure that guy is on his way over here to talk to me, I’m assuming,” Sarah said.

“Are you in danger?” Chuck asked. She grinned. “Why do I feel that was a stupid question?”“Not a stupid question, just one that you don’t have all the facts on yet,” Sarah told him. She turned as the man approached her.

“Sarah Walker,” the tall man asked, but it wasn’t really a question. It was clearly a statement.

“I am,” she told him. “And you are?”

“John Casey, NSA,” he said. “May I have a moment of your time?”

“I am having dinner,” Sarah told him.

“I apologize for interrupting your date,” Casey began.

“Not a date,” Chuck rushed out. “It’s…a business dinner,” he said, faltering a bit as the big man glared at him. Casey made a grunting noise. “Not that it’s any of your business.” Casey raised an eyebrow. “Sorry, Sarah,” he said to her. “Wasn’t my place to butt in.”

She sat there, an amused look on her face. “As I said, I’m having dinner, and when my date and I are through.” She didn’t dare look at Chuck’s eyes bugging out of his head, or she wouldn’t be able to finish what she was saying. “We might go elsewhere, so I might have time to see you tomorrow.”

“I have important business of the United States government to conduct,” Casey said.“Why don’t you sit down and talk to her,” Chuck said, scooting over. “People are beginning to stare.”

“It’s need to know,” Casey said, glaring at Chuck.

“Well, right now I’m at dinner, so if my date can’t know.” Again, she refused to look at Chuck as she said that. “Then I guess we are through.”“I just wanted pancakes,” Casey muttered. Chuck gave him a confused look. “Once I finish this I was going to go have pancakes.”

“So sit,” Chuck said, gesturing again. Casey rolled his eyes and sat down. “This is comfy,” Chuck said, the two men sitting beside each other. Casey glared at Chuck and then turned to Sarah.

“As you know the CIA director was removed,” Casey told Sarah.“I’ve heard,” Sarah said.

“You know, this doesn’t concern me,” Chuck said. “I could leave.”“Stay,” Sarah said, never taking her eyes off of Casey. Casey raised an eyebrow. He said nothing, but the eyebrow remained raised.

“There were some improprieties found,” Casey continued, and slid a folder across the table to her.

“Will you be joining the couple?” The waiter said, coming up to the three. Chuck wondered if the waiter lacked the ability to read the room, or knew exactly what chaos he was adding to.

“I would like the chicken chimichanga,” Sarah said, grinning at the waiter. “Chuck?” she asked, turning to him.

“What do you recommend?” Chuck asked.

“It’s too spicy, you won’t like it,” the waiter said to him.

“He’ll probably cry if you make it too spicy,” Casey muttered.

“Do you have a mild version of it?” Chuck asked. The waiter shook his head and Casey snorted. “Then I’ll just have the same as Sarah.”The waiter nodded, and headed off. “Doing great on your date,” Casey muttered.

“Yeah, he is,” Sarah said. She wasn’t sure who looked more shocked, Chuck or Casey. “He’s being completely honest and who he is,” she told Casey. “Now, why are you here?” Casey nodded to the folder. Sarah opened it and looked at the contents. Her eyes went wide and she leaned forward, like she was reading something closely for the second time. “Are you serious?”

“If you agree to sign some non-disclosure agreements,” Casey told her. Sarah looked up at him. “You of course will have to do that with the lawyers.”

“When?” Sarah asked.

“Should I really be here?” Chuck asked Sarah.

“Yes, you should,” Sarah told him. “Because now, I can hire you with no worries.”

“To do what?” Casey blurted out. “Fix your computer?”

“Help me fix the farm,” Sarah told him.

“That string bean?” Casey asked, laughing.

Sarah leaned forward. “I’ve heard what you had to say, you can go.” Casey looked from Chuck to Sarah. “Go. I’ll make contact. I’ll sign their stupid papers. No one would believe me if I told the truth anyway.” Casey grimaced at that. He stood.

“Ethel’s Kitchen,” Chuck said. Casey looked at Chuck. “They have the best pancakes.” He paused and then turned to Sarah. “That’s where dad was going. To get pancakes. From Ethel’s Kitchen.”

“And you still recommend them?” Sarah asked.

“They’re really good pancakes,” Chuck told her.

Sarah turned to Casey. “I don’t think there’s a better recommendation you could get,” she said. Casey nodded, started to say something. Thought better of it, and walked off. Sarah sat there a second, and that’s when he heard her mutter it to herself. “All we can do is pay that debt for those that lost their lives by living a well lived life.”

It was in that moment, Chuck Bartowski knew what was about to happen. He was going to go work on a farm. He didn’t know how. He did have YouTube, and he was sure he was going to have to figure some things out.

What he did know was Sarah had stood up for him when she didn’t have to, and she still thought she wasn’t worthy of having a happy life. She was still scared by what had happened. He couldn’t let her believe she wasn’t special. That she wasn’t worth it. Chuck was positive she was the best person he knew, and he wasn’t going to let her spend another moment thinking she wasn’t. A/N: Life is still a mess and this will come out very sporadically. Thank you all for your support.