Never Enough

I don’t own Chuck

He was going through the file, the unredacted file. Chuck was near tears reading what had happened to his mother. She was sent after an enemy, and if she didn’t go, her husband would have been executed for unleashing the worst criminal on the world. He found her report that had all the protests, letters, and other documents pleading not to go forward with the project. Project Volkoff. The flash began and tears came with it. Not from the pain of the flash, but from the pain in his soul.

His family had been torn apart by one man, Langston Graham. Chuck was sure at this point that if Wayne Tisdale ever existed, he was dead inside, or he had morphed into Langston. This was the motherloade. This was what they had came for. There was so much more work to be done back at the bunker, to piece it all together, but this file….these files, were the smoking guns. So many missions that had went wrong, had gone sideways, because of one man’s greed.

To find out the Volkoff was put into place to kill an arms dealer that had double crossed Graham…to find out his mother was sent to keep tabs on Volkoff to keep him docile. To find out that Graham had the ability to remove the Volkoff personality, but hadn’t because….well, Chuck didn’t officially know why, but he suspected it was because Graham wanted control. Because he wanted the ability to do whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted.

He heard a grunt from the other room that sounded like Sarah and rushed to her. She looked up at him as he entered. She had a pair of pliers in her hand, blood around her lips. He stared at the end of the pliers. “What did you do?” he asked softly.

“When I first began to train, I got a tooth knocked out,” Sarah told Chuck. She took the tooth from the pliers and held it up. “He had this tooth made for me. It’s a type of alloy he never told me about, but it was symbolic. He was going to rebuild me where no one could recognize me as the person I used to be.”

Chuck was silent, not sure what to say. “I’m taking me back,” she told him, holding his gaze. “I found out I’d rather be someone other people cared about.” She took the tooth and headed to the bathroom. He heard the faucet turn on and the water run, she walked out a little later. “We need to destroy all DNA on it, but this is proof to him I’m dead.”

“How?” Chuck asked.

“Because of his hubris,” she said, smiling at him. “He can’t imagine I’d turn on him. I’m a lose end. He can’t imagine I’d remove this. He can’t imagine that he’s been outplayed. Zondra told me he wanted this.”

“So give him that tooth, dad switching the DNA in the computerized files…” Sarah nodded, grinning. “What about your tooth? Can we get you a new one?”

“We can, but it’s not really on the list of my priorities,” Sarah told him.

“But, it might hurt more later, having to cut into skin and stuff…I guess, I’m not sure how that works,” Chuck admitted. She walked over to him, laid her hand on his cheek and kissed his lips gently.

“I know you don’t,” Sarah told him. “I know.”

}o{

It was weeks later, Sarah Walker, CIA Agent declared dead. Zondra was on vacation, and she suddenly disappeared. Chuck watched Zondra, General Beckman and four men in tactical gear, looking ready for a war, get out of the vehicle that had just pulled into the secret entranceway of their compound.

“What do you have?” Beckman asked.

“A lot,” Chuck answered.

“Is it everything?” Beckman asked.

“I don’t know if two lifetimes is enough to figure out everything,” Chuck admitted. “But it’s enough.” Sarah stood beside him, and threaded her fingers through his.

“Then let’s begin,” Beckman said. Chuck and Sarah nodded, turned and led her to a presentation that would sicken her to her core, and force her to meet secretly with the President of the United States.

}o{

Sarah's finger felt the trigger, all she'd have to do is squeeze it, and end this. She had had enough. She made her decision.

“You don't have to do this, you know.”

Her grip tightened around the trigger "I'm tired. I'm tired of doing what power hungry men tell me to do. I'm tired of being on an autopilot someone else programmed, doing what I'm told without a second though." Her face tightened in determination "Enough is enough. I can't go on. I can't go on no more. No. It has to end and I have to end it."

"But …. and I'm just asking here …. does this end it?"

Her frustration was growing as she spit out "Death ends everything."

"But it won't end for you. You'll remember. It'll haunt you, like all the others. It won't be the perfect answer you've dreamed of, it'll be just another nightmare – just like all the others."

She bit her lip as she answered in a softer, somehow younger more innocent sounding voice "I don't have nightmares."

Chuck walked up behind her, gently wrapping his arms around her waist, careful not to jostle her or the loaded gun she had pointed at Langston Graham. "Sarah, I hold you at night when you have them. I hold you and rub your back, letting you know I am here. That I'll always be here. That I'll protect you. And I'll keep doing that as long as you need me to – as long as you want me. And I'm doing that now too, trying to stop the nightmare before it happens."

"Trust me" he said, softly kissing the top of her head.

Sarah stared straight ahead at the man who had used her all these years. The great and powerful Langston Graham didn't look so great and powerful bound, gagged and quivering in fear in the corner. Blood was trickling down from a nasty gash above his eye, a gash that Sarah took great pleasure causing. His lower leg was bent in a grotesque manner going in two separate directions at the same time, thanks to the Kyokushin Wheel Kick Sarah landed. He was in pain. And he was scared.

He should be scared she thought. For the past year she and Chuck had searched for and found every dirty secret Graham had. The assassinations of rivals and political enemies. The missions done without sanction. The many slush funds hidden away that bankrolled his ambitions. Yes, they had found them all, each seemingly more horrible than the last. Chuck didn't think it could get any worse.

Chuck. A year ago, her gun at his forehead, she made the decision that changed her life. She knew in her heart that Chuck would never be involved with Bryce F-ing Larkin. She knew he didn't know why he was sent the Intersect. And she knew it wouldn't help anybody if he did and she killed him. What she didn't know was how much Chuck would help her, how important he would become.

He saved her.

He protected her.

He told her that Graham's sins were not hers. He argued that what he had done, he had done to others. Bringing him to justice was the right thing to do.

Until he found her file. Her full, unredacted file. That's when it became personal.

Chuck found out that Sarah had been recruited at the age of 16. That she had been given her first seduction mission at 17. That she was partnered with misogynistic, power hungry men – partners she had to defend herself against too many times to count.

And then.

And then he was horrified when he read about her red test, hurting for her in a way that no other man ever had.

Sarah was afraid that would be too much for him. The last straw. But that was when Chuck redoubled his efforts. He reached out to protect her and help her heal. He loved her like no other man could. It was then that Sarah knew that her fairytale dream of finding the perfect lover could come true. Chuck certainly was not like every other man she knew. And she loved him, not just for who he was, but also for who she was when she was with him.

Now they had Graham. They had enough evidence to put him away in a deep dark cell for the rest of his life. That was the plan.

Chuck kissed the top of her head again "He's not worth the nightmares." He said softly, gently.

Sarah sighed. She had enough of the killing. She didn't think – no, she knew – she should not pull the trigger.

Sarah took her finger off the trigger and brought the gun down.

Enough is enough.

This can't go on.

Chuck gently, carefully took the gun out of her hand while a strike team swarmed in, surrounding, securing and dragging the erstwhile director off. As they did, General Beckman walked up to them, her face a mixture of concern and satisfaction.

"Are you ok?" She asked Sarah, placing her hand on her forearm in an almost motherly way.

Sarah turned and snuggled deeply into Chuck and nodded, a single tear rolling down her cheek.

"I was worried about you for a minute there. No doubt Graham deserved whatever fate you chose for him, but alive he is worth far more than dead. I'm glad you made the choice you did."

Sarah took a deep breath before responding. "When I looked at him I knew I had enough, that I didn't have to put up with his stuff. I had my fill of all the horrible things he taught me and had me do. Killing him wouldn't have paid the bill. Enough is enough."

"Well, you don't have to worry about Lanston Graham anymore. Where he is going, there is no sunshine, no moonlight. He doesn't stand a chance of seeing them ever again." with that, she squeezed Sarah's arm one more time and looked up at Chuck. "Take good care of her" she said and turned to walk away.

"I will." Chuck said looking down at Sarah. "I'll hold you and protect you through all the nightmares until they are gone."

"No more tears." Chuck said, pulling her in tighter.

Enough, is enough, is enough, is enough, is enough, is enough, is enough.

}o{

He turned his head, cracking his neck. He stood, stretched, his back popping deliciously, and he sighed.

“How’s it going?” he heard her ask just before her hand snaked around him from behind, her fingertips trailing up his stomach toward his chest.

“Good,” Chuck admitted. “I started the last row of files.”

“I guess it didn’t take two life times like you thought,” Sarah teased him.

“Well, I had help,” Chuck said, looking across the way at his father, asleep at his desk. “But, no, it didn’t take two lifetimes.”

“So at this rate, a couple of more months?” Sarah asked him. Chuck nodded. “Then what?”

“I have no idea, but it’s the US Government, I’m sure they’ll find something we could help them with,” Chuck told her, shrugging. “We’ve taken down so many bad guys, just using information from here, I’m sure there’s other files we could work through.”

“Yeah,” Sarah said with a shrug.

“Do you want to leave here?” Chuck asked her.

“Why would I ever want to leave here?” Sarah asked. “I have my friends, my family-”

“It’s mostly my family,” Chuck reminded her. She gave him a level look, but the grin fought through. “Right, our family, I mean, you are a Bartowski.”

“Got the bling to prove it,” she said, holding up her hand where the engagement and wedding ring were. They heard a cry. “And the child.”

“I got her,” Chuck said. “I’ve had enough of this for today.”

“I hope you don’t say that about me,” she muttered. Chuck spun, gathered her up in his arms, gingerly, so as not to jostle the next Bartowski that was due any week.

“Baby, with you, it’s never enough,” Chuck told her, giving her a kiss.

“Promise?” she asked, grinning.

“Promise,” he told her. “You deserve everything, and I just hope I can give you everything you want.”

“You have, Chuck Bartowski, you have.”