Chapter 3
A/N: Uh, wow! You guys seem to really like this one, so thanks! Thank Steampunk. Chuckster, she told me to post it! For those wondering, there may be angst, but not much, and you never have to worry about Bryce, Lou, Shaw, Hannah, Cole, Forrest, or any other random. This is meant to be pure family fluff, with some romance, maybe a lot of romance, and I’m not sure how good I am at it. I hope you continue to enjoy
Disclaimer: I don’t own Chuck, nor my house, but I do own my car….
Sarah walked into the apartment a little before 5:30. She saw the curtain flicker in the living room as she got to the fountain. She was tired, but a happy tired. She had found a small lead on Piranha, and she was looking forward to tomorrow morning. She wanted to roll her eyes at herself. She had gotten along fine for the last five years without Chuck Bartowski, she was sure she could get along fine now without him. Can you really? She shook off the thoughts and looked at the two co-conspirators in the kitchen, apparently making dinner.
“Miss Molly,” she said, trying to sound stern, but failing. Molly and Emma turned toward her. “I thought we agreed this morning that you wouldn’t talk to Mr. Chuck about ordering from the stork.”
“We did,” Molly agreed. “I told him that you were going to talk to him about that. Did you?” Sarah went pale, while Emma tried to find anyway she could to hold the laughter inside of her.
“We may have talked about Jerry being a problem,” she got out, not sure how in twelve hours she had lost control of her social life. Because you don’t have one. Emma went back to working on dinner and tried to get Molly to do the same, but she was grinning ear to ear. She went over, got her mother a cup of coffee and brought it to her. “Thank you,” Sarah said, hugging her and kissing her cheek. She sat down to enjoy her coffee, knowing Molly wasn’t going anywhere for a few minutes until she found out what she wanted to know. Molly had a future as an interrogator one day if she chose to.
“Soooo,” Molly said, looking at her mother expectantly.
“Soooo what?”
“You like him, don’t you?” she said quickly, grinning. Sarah couldn’t help but smile at her daughter’s infectious enthusiasm.
“Maybe,” she said shrugging, going back to her coffee.
“I know you do,” Molly said smugly. Sarah turned toward Molly, drawing herself up, smiling, and trying to battle wits with the five year old, but knowing she was losing. “First,” she said holding up one finger. Emma and Sarah both barked a laugh at the sight. “You didn’t tell me we couldn’t talk about him anymore, which you said we wouldn’t if you didn’t like him.”
“I did say that,” Sarah admitted. She looked over at her daughter who had a gleam in her eye. Sarah was now curious. “If there’s a first, then there has to be a second.”
“Second,” she said, and gave a dramatic pause. “He gave me a note to give you,” she said quietly. Sarah reached for her daughter, but Molly scampered away laughing. Sarah looked at Emma.
“You’re in on this!” she accused, a smile covering her face. Emma held her hands up innocently, but her smile gave her away. Molly held a piece of paper up. Sarah shrugged, leaned back in her chair, and enjoyed her coffee.
“It has his phone number on it,” Molly said. Sarah sat there, not caring, fighting to keep the grin off of her face.
“You should probably give that to her soon, Molly,” Emma said. Sarah shrugged.
“Whatever,” she said, trying to appear that she didn’t care. Emma watched her daughter as she spoke.
“Well, it could be kind of hard to explain to Mr. Chuck when he gets here in a few minutes.” Sarah shot up out her chair, nearly spilling her coffee.
“What!? He’s coming here!? Tonight!?”
“Molly’s Wii isn’t working right, and we had his number, so…” Emma decided it was pointless talking, because Sarah had dashed through the house to her bedroom. Emma turned to Molly. “Did we make a mistake on this one?” Molly shook her head, grinning.
“Nope, Mom needs a friend,” and with that, she skipped into her mother’s room, laid the note on the desk, and skipped back to the room she shared with her grandmother. Emma walked into Sarah’s bedroom where she held the note. Sarah looked up.
“I’ve not been this nervous to open a note since Billy Tompkins gave me one in 4th grade. Mom, I used to be a CIA agent. I’m sweating, the last time I was sweating there was gunplay involved!”
“Calm down, Sweetie,” Emma said hugging her. She looked at her daughter. “It’s those eyes isn’t it?” Sarah nearly slumped.
“Ugh! And, the curls making the animal shapes, and the smile,” she turned to her mom. “Mom that smile…I am gushing. I don’t gush.” Emma laughed…not just laughed, but belly laughed, as if she had been told the greatest joke in the world.
“I used to be upset that I never got to go through this with you in high school, but this…this has made it all worthwhile.” Sarah came over and sat down beside her.
“Mom,” she nearly whined. “He told me he had a lot of baggage. I told him I could be his baggage handler,” and with that she put her head in her hands, embarrassed. Emma laughed again.
“He’s good with kids,” Emma said. Sarah jerked her head up.
“You knew about him and Molly,” she said, not asked. Emma smiled and nodded. “You set me up this morning because of that.” Emma nodded. Sarah sighed. “I told him I was bringing Molly to school each morning to spend more time with her.” Emma put her arm around her daughter.
“You met him for what, five minutes?” Sarah nodded. “And, you’re that far gone?” Sarah nodded again. “Read the note, wear the white floral dress and the tan sweater, and calm down. He’s probably just as nervous as you are.” Sarah gave her a pointed look and started to chuckle. “Well, maybe he’s not,” and with that she left Sarah alone. Sarah picked open the note and read it.
Sarah,
I realized I never got your number this morning. You’ll find mine at the bottom. You’re right, I could use a friend, the problem is I’m not sure how to be a good one right now, but if you need to talk, about anything, feel free to call, text, or…I guess that’s all that you can do. I didn’t say it this morning, but as a kid who got left by his parents, what you’re doing for Molly can’t be put into words. It will mean more to her than you’ll ever know.
Chuck
Sarah smiled after she read the letter, picked up her phone, and added Chuck to her contacts. She then paused, and typed out a quick message. I hear I’m going to see you in a little while, looking forward to it, Sarah. She pressed send, nodded, and hurried to change clothes. Her phone went off, and she picked it up. I feel like you may have gotten bamboozled by those two…again…I can call your mom and tell her Clara’s being fussy and we can do it another night. Sarah smiled. Watching out for her, and they weren’t even a couple, this guy, was he for real… I may have gotten bamboozled…again…but I AM looking forward to it. Sarah smiled, and less than a minute later she heard a knock on the door. She came out of her room, and saw him in the doorway, Molly beaming up at him. He looked her way for confirmation that it was okay to come in. She smiled, and tilted her head to come in.
“Hey, Chuck,” she said. “Glad you could make it.” Chuck smiled at her.
“Thanks for having me.”
“Anytime,” she heard herself say. What am I doing? She started to say something else when there was another knock. Molly opened the door and there stood Carina and John. “Casey, Carina, why are you here?”
“I saw him and wondered if Grimes was with him,” Casey said.
“I think they went out dancing tonight, Big Guy. You know Morgan is a little scared of you.” Casey grunted.
“Only a little?” he asked. Chuck laughed.
“Terrified is the word I would use, but he’s trying to be cool in front of you,” Chuck said. Carina was all sorts of confused, and suddenly understanding dawned on Casey’s face.
“Does someone want to tell me how everyone knows each other?” Carina asked. John turned toward Carina.
“Not now, Carina,” John whispered. Carina was a little surprised. Chuck ran his fingers through his hair.
“Well, John is Alex’s dad, who is dating Morgan, and he came by the offices one day, and that’s how we met,” Chuck began. “My niece, Clara goes to the same preschool as Sarah’s daughter, Molly, and I’m here to fix the Wii and have dinner.” Chuck paused for a second and saw the pain on John’s face. He turned to Sarah. “You know, John, my bad, Casey, is a really good guy. He had a talk with me that day.” Sarah turned to Casey.
“He was in a bad place, who wouldn’t be,” Casey said. Chuck looked around, realizing where he was, in his old apartment, where he and his sister had lived for years. Emotion started to get the best of him.
“Maybe this isn’t a good idea,” Chuck said to Sarah. “I told you I had a lot of baggage.” Sarah looked at Carina. Carina nodded toward him. Emma and Molly were in the kitchen watching, they had no idea what to do. Sarah stepped towards Chuck, and gently took his hand. He looked at her, tears in his eyes, his heart breaking. His eyes that looked into her soul that morning were clouded with pain that she hadn’t seen in a long time, and when she had they were in the mirror looking back at her.
“I told you I could be your baggage handler,” she said softly. “So, let’s have it.” Chuck barked a laugh, and it broke the tension in the room. “We’re all friends here.”
“I mean what I said that day, Bartowski,” Casey said. Sarah shook her head, when did this washed out NSA kill machine become the epitome of lady feeling? “She’d be proud of you. You didn’t quit, and you could have. Not only that, you’ve taken on the biggest responsibility in the world.” He paused and looked at Sarah. “Walker understands that.”
“It’s more than that, Casey,” Sarah said softly. “This used to be Chuck and his sister’s apartment.”
“Oh, hell,” Casey muttered. “Maybe-”
“No, it’s okay,” Chuck said. “I had a lot of great memories here, and Ellie would be proud of the family that’s here now. Besides I live in the house the two of them bought, it’s just there’s more memories here, you know.” Chuck felt someone hugging his leg and looked down and saw Molly. He ruffled her hair and smiled at him.
“When did you two meet, Casey?” Carina asked softly. Clara started fussing, and Chuck picked her up.
“About three months ago,” Casey replied.
“They had only died a few weeks earlier,” Chuck said. “I wasn’t in the best place. Clara was only 8 months old, Morgan had to run the company for a while, while I tried to figure out how to be a guardian and grieve over the loss of the rest of my family. This gal,” who he blew a raspberry on her belly, making her giggle, “Probably saved my life, because I had to, as someone so eloquently put it, ‘Pull my head out of my ass,’ and raise her.”
“Casey, the charmer,” Sarah said. She held her hands out and Chuck passed Clara off to Sarah. As Sarah held her, she watched Molly to see if she was jealous.
“I’m going to be Clara’s big sister,” Molly said to Casey and Carina. The two looked at Chuck and he shrugged.
“She decided to adopt her,” he said with a grin. “I think Molly knows more about family not being blood related than anyone.” Molly grinned up at him.
“I have an Uncle Casey and an Aunt Carina who aren’t blood related, and a mommy and a granny and a little sister who aren’t blood related.” She paused for a second, and then as she headed back to the kitchen threw in. “One day, I’ll have a daddy who isn’t blood related.”
“Sweetie, I have to meet someone, fall in love, all of that,” Sarah said patiently.
“Well, Mr. Chuck is right there, so get to it, and I really want a little brother,” she said as she walked out of the room. Emma nearly dropped the food, and the other four went quiet. Sarah couldn’t look at Chuck.
“Well then,” Chuck began. “I’m going to look at the Wii,” and with that he walked over to the TV. Carina held her hands out and took Clara. John tickled her stomach and she laughed. Carina gave Sarah a head nod toward Chuck and Sarah nodded. She walked over to him. “Sarah, I can show you how to fix this, but it’s going to be a lot of technobabble.” He looked at her, grinning. Sarah grinned back, with an eyebrow raised. “See this black cord plugged into the surge protector.” She nodded. “We call that the power cord.”
“Shouldn’t it be plugged into the machine?” she asked. Chuck’s jaw dropped, and she swatted him on the shoulder when she realized he was messing with her. “I really did get bamboozled again,” she said softly. “I’m glad.” Chuck looked up, surprised. “Are you okay?”
“Oh, yeah,” he said shrugging. “Younger girls like me a lot,” he paused and thought about what he said. “That sounded so much better in my head.” Sarah laughed, knowing what he was trying to say.
“No, I meant, earlier. This place, it must be hard,” Sarah said. Chuck looked around, and shook his head.
“I mean, I’m okay, but sometimes…” he paused and collected himself. “The only family I have is an 11 month old child, who’s my sister, who raised me. Seriously, I have baggage.” Sarah took his hand again.
“Seriously, I can handle it.” She grinned. “Any old girlfriends?” Chuck dropped his head.
“I’ve not had any real relationship in nearly 9 years. My girlfriend dumped me for Bryce Larkin, my roommate-”
“Bryce Larkin?” Sarah asked, her mouth opened. Chuck turned toward Sarah
“You know him?” Sarah couldn’t say anything. “You dated him?” Sarah nodded.
“It was a while ago,” she began.
“I need to step outside a second, get some air,” Chuck said. Sarah nodded. He spoke very softly. “Will you come with me?” She looked up at him, and saw those eyes again that were so hurt. She nodded. Casey and Carina had Clara over in the kitchen with Emma and Molly.
“We’ll be right back,” Sarah said. Chuck walked over to the fountain and sat down. Sarah looked at the spot beside him and Chuck nodded.
“Sorry,” he began. “When she dumped me, I sat in that apartment for five years, working at the Buy-More, watching life go by, not living, just watching. Then Morgan and I made a game, and we turned life around. I thought, maybe, just maybe I was about to move on and get my personal life together. Ellie and Awesome got married. I threw my everything into the company, the game was coming along great, they had their baby, and just when I got to where the company was manageable, they die in that horrible accident, and I’m her guardian.”
“Father,” Sarah said softly. “You’re her father, Chuck. I get calling yourself Uncle Chuck so she won’t forget her parents, but you’re her father. I also understand not getting out there. I haven’t dated in over five years.” She chuckled. “Bryce actually dumped me because of Molly. What he didn’t know is I had kinda realized I didn’t really care for him, and I had started to already move on.”
“Casey was right, you really do get a lot of this,” he said looking at her. She smiled and nodded. Chuck looked down and then back at her, grinning. “I used to have a lot of important conversations with Ellie here,” he said softly.
“Have you really grieved over them?” she asked. Chuck shrugged, his eyes full of tears. She scooted closer and put her arm around him.
“Sarah, I know I’ve said it a few times, but I’m gonna say it one more time to give you the chance to get away.” Chuck looked at her, and she sat there smiling at him, rubbing her hand up and down his arm. “I have a lot of baggage.” She knew she shouldn’t, but she leaned in and pecked him on the lips.
“I got it,” she said. Chuck’s eyes had all the thanks she needed.
“I could really use a friend,” he said softly.
“I’ve got it,” she said. “What’s the rest of your baggage?” He looked at her confused. “That’s it?” she asked, honestly shocked. She looked out at the apartment, grinning.
“Isn’t that enough?”
“I’m going to tell you something that you can’t tell anyone else. I only tell my friends, okay?” Chuck nodded. “I used to be in the CIA.” Chuck shook his head chuckling, and then he realized she was telling the truth. It struck him. Here he was, with the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, who had a heart of gold, and she was a former CIA agent. “Wetwork,” she said softly. Chuck’s eyes got wide. He took his thumb and slid it across his throat as a question. She nodded. “It gets worse, my dad was, is, a con artist.” Chuck nodded, slowly.
“Okay, maybe I don’t have the baggage I thought.” Sarah laughed. No matter how bad things were with him, he seemed to make her laugh. She liked that…a lot.
“Chuck, your past doesn’t define you, your past is your past. Everyone deserves a second chance.”
“Didn’t I already get my second chance?” She turned, looked at him, and leaned in very close.
“Maybe it’s a very long second chance, or maybe it’s a third chance,” she said very softly, her lips inches from his. He swallowed. “Whatever it is, maybe you should just take it.”
“If only I had a friend who could help me out,” Chuck said just as softly. Sarah nodded.
“I got you.”
“Are you two kissing yet?” Molly yelled from the door.
“Well, if we were we’re not now,” Sarah yelled back. Molly squeed and ran back inside. Sarah laid her head on Chuck’s shoulder. “Perhaps we should go eat dinner.”
“Casey and Carina staying?”
“Do you mind?” Chuck grinned.
“The more the merrier,” Chuck replied. “Besides they’re your friends, excuse me family, and since I don’t have any…”
“Uh, go find your own friends,” she said, giving him a playfull shove.
“Okay,” he said moping. Sarah laughed, and pushed him inside.
“We were about to leave,” Carina said as they entered. Sarah shook her head.
“Stay, everything’s fine, it’s just a little emotionally overwhelming for Chuck, and the fact someone keeps bamboozling him,” Sarah said, looking at Molly. Chuck walked over and picked Molly up.
“You do know if you want me to come over, all you have to do is ask?” Chuck said. Molly giggled.
“I was worried Mommy might say no,” Molly replied.
“She might, and sometimes I might, but not because I don’t want to see you, but because I can’t because of Clara, or I have to work, or…” Chuck trailed off.
“You have a hot date?” Carina offered. Chuck turned to her, laughing.
“On that one, it’s probably a no.” Carina looked over at Sarah, who was fighting a grin.
“Maybe you can come over and have a hot date.” Chuck’s eyes got wide.
“You’re getting as bad as this one,” he said, and raspberried her cheek. Molly squealed. Chuck sat her down and they all sat down and started eating.
“Sarah, did you ever find a computer expert?” Chuck asked.
“Nope, still looking for a geek,” Casey answered.
“Nerds,” Chuck corrected. Casey looked up at him. “We, prefer the term, nerd.” Sarah laughed. “What happens if you don’t find one?” The three members of Burton Industries looked at each other and shrugged.
“It wouldn’t be ideal,” Sarah started.
“We could go under,” Carina corrected. Sarah tried to shush her. “Look blondie if your friend who is a boy can ask the question we can answer it.” Sarah gave her a look, and then one to Chuck as if to say, ‘sorry.’ Chuck grinned at her. Carina looked at him seriously. “Everything these days is cyber security, and we don’t have anyone like we need. The problem is the kind we need, costs way too much. If we were to find a former hacker we could leverage them into a better deal on our terms.”
“That sounds like blackmail,” Chuck said. Casey shrugged.
“We’re keeping someone out of jail who deserves to go there, like that Piranha guy.” Chuck nearly choked on his food.
“Who?” he asked, his voice going a bit high.
“Piranha,” Sarah answered. “He’s a world class hacker.”
“I’ve heard of him,” Chuck said cautiously. Everyone turned toward him. “I’m a computer guy, I hear stuff. I hear he’s a good dude, retired.”
“Not for long,” Casey said chuckling. Sarah noticed Chuck being uncomfortable.
“Chuck, he broke the law, we need help fixing things that other hackers are doing. We’re keeping him out of jail,” she explained, hoping she wasn’t frightening him off. In the past she would keep things like this to herself, but by being open she had learned she was much happier.
“What if I worked for you?” Chuck asked softly. Sarah put her fork down, smiling.
“Is that what this is about?” Sarah looked at her two teammates and then back to Chuck. “We have plenty of time to find this guy. It’s not like we’re going to shut down tomorrow.”
“But you will, right?” Chuck asked. “If you don’t find him, you’ll close down.” Sarah shrugged.
“I don’t know,” she answered honestly. “Don’t worry about it, we’re really good at what we do.”
“We’ll find him Bartowski,” Casey said, tearing the meat off of his fork and chewing. “There’s nowhere he can hide.”
“That’s very comforting,” Chuck said, feeling queasy. The conversation turned to other topics, but Chuck kept very quiet. After the meal, it was time for Molly to go to bed. Chuck started to pack up his things. Sarah walked up close to him.
“Can you stay awhile?” Chuck turned toward her and gave her a smile.
“I would love to, but it’s been a lot tonight, for the both of us,” he said, opening and arm and giving her a hug. He pulled away. “I didn’t realize how much this place meant to me.”
“I hope it’s not a problem,” she said worried. Chuck gave her his biggest smile. What just happened to my knees?
“Are you kidding me, this is great,” he said. “As long as I can bring Clara by to tell her the great things that happened here to her mom and dad…”
“Anytime,” Sarah said. “You too. You’re welcomed anytime.”
“Might want to keep window locked,” Chuck said leaning forward and whispering in her ear. “I used to call it the Morgan door, back in the day.”
“It’s now the Carina door,” Sarah said with her own wry smile. “See you tomorrow?” Chuck had a confused look on his face.
“I thought the dinner and games was tonight…Sorry, you meant in the morning at preschool, my bad,” Chuck said with a grin. I can’t believe I’m about to do this.
“Why not both?” she asked. Chuck nodded slowly.
“Okay, I guess I owe Molly some games anyway.”
“And if you want to stay later your welcome to,” Sarah said. What am I doing!?!
“Careful Agent Walker, I just might,” Chuck said, and headed out the door. He got to the fountain, turned, waved goodnight, and headed to his car. He got there, blew out a breath and muttered to himself. “Don’t. Freak. Out.”