Chuck vs Season Three and the Songs AKA Dancing in the Dark

A/N: I’ve been going through IT. Like….I want to disappear from the world going through it. And yet….I keep finding myself coming back to these two idiots (said with all the love in the world). I haven’t felt like writing much at all. I have ideas but no drive, no want to, but this fic kept whispering to me. It was a one shot. I’ve had many people tell me I don’t understand the concept of a one shot. Once again, you’re right. My daughter once threatened, at 4, to make me go back to preschool because I couldn’t count. She’s starting her doctorate, and also she’s right. So, chapter 2 of what was a one shot. Will there be more? I have no idea. But I wouldn’t count against it….see what I did? I wouldn’t COUNT against it….I’ll show myself out.

Disclaimer: I don’t own Chuck

Sarah stood in her apartment, looking at the mirror. She looked at the woman looking back at her, and she wasn’t the same woman. She was…happy. Not to say Sarah Walker had never been happy in moments. No, there were always small moments of happiness but BEING happy…that was new. All from a kiss.

No. That wasn’t true.

She was happy because she could be with Chuck. The best man she knew.

Chuck Bartowski wanted to take her to dinner, to romance her. She had to shut that down, because, unfortunately, for the greater good…and one day she was going to have to think about how the greater good was affecting her personal good….he had training the next morning. He had done…okay.

The Intersect worked fine. The problem was…well…Chuck was a nerd. He worked at the Buy More. He had been on missions, but even though he did NOT stay in the car, he hadn’t trained like Casey and Sarah.

He wasn’t anywhere near the physical shape he should be for a CIA field agent…especially one that was to be used the way he was.

Sarah had no idea what the flashing did to his muscles. What the cost was to the muscle memory that was instantly implanted within him.

But she knew he was tired. He was hurting. He was sore. But he was persevering. At least…she thought he was.

She hadn’t seen him, except for training, for the last week.

He was either training, or sleeping in Castle. He hadn’t gone back to his apartment. Ellie and Awesome wasn’t there, and he said it was just easier to stay at Castle.

Sarah missed him…missed…them.

GAH!

Sarah Walker looked in the mirror and saw the small satisfied smirk on her face. God, she hated smirkers and that thought…that thought alone, made the smirk grow. She was with Chuck and he was affecting her.

He always had.She was just allowed to admit that out loud now.

A knock on her door pulled her out of her thoughts. She knew that knock. It wasn’t Chuck.

She walked over and opened the door. Casey stood there, a look on his face that was indescribable.

“Take this,” he said, thrusting it toward her. It was a flash drive.

“Ooookay,” Sarah replied, taking it. Casey turned to leave. “What’s on here?”

Casey grunted with such a disgusted tone, Sarah couldn’t help but laugh.

She went back inside, and stuck the flash drive into her computer, and what she saw shocked her.

}o{

“Better,” Sarah said, watching Chuck complete the course.

“But not good enough,” Chuck answered, wiping his face with a towel, sweat dripping from his face.

“Chuck,” Sarah began.

“Hey, it’s not a shot at me,” Chuck said. “I know. I know that if I’m to have your and Casey’s back I have to be a certain place to use the skills I’ve been give. The cheat code I got came with a cost.” He got a look on his face, like he was thinking.

“What?” she asked.

“Sorry,” he said, shaking his head, chuckling. “Thinking that would be a cool video game idea.” Sarah gave him a confused look. “So, I get this ability, but it’s at a cost. So that’s the game, as you get powers, you get them at a cost to your character.”

“Nerd,” she said shaking her head, laughing at him.

“Guilty,” he said with a shrug. “What’s next?”

“A break,” Sarah told him. Chuck started to protest. “Chuck, your body needs recovery time.” Chuck looked at her. “What?”

“Shit,” he muttered. “I didn’t think…”

“Didn’t think what?” Sarah asked.

“Nothing,” Chuck said. Sarah nodded, got up, walked over to his phone that was sitting on the counter. Sarah picked it up and looked at him. “I have nothing on there that I am hiding from you.”

Sarah gave him an amused grin, opened his phone and hit a button. The speakers began to play a song. “Left the bluetooth connected,” Sarah told him.

Like a small boat on the ocean

Sending big waves into motion

Like how a single word

Can make a heart open

I might only have one match

But I can make an explosion

Sarah studied him as the music played. This was Chuck Bartowski.

He might be one person, but he had changed her life, the CIA, the NSA, and he had managed to open her heart. Something she thought was absolutely impossible. This man had done more damage to things she thought personally and processionally could never be touched.

Beckman had been affected. Casey had been affected. But none of them had been affected more than Sarah.

“I like Rachel Platten,” he said, like he was trying to defend himself.

“Who doesn’t,” Sarah said with a shrug. Chuck grinned at her, and gave a little fist pump. “Calm down, music guru,” she said, grinning.

And all those things I didn′t say

Wrecking balls inside my brain

I will scream them loud tonight

Can you hear my voice?

She listened and remembered the video of Chuck working out after hours in Castle, thinking no one could see him, singing this song, trying to motivate himself.

This time this is my fight song

Take back my life song

Prove I'm alright song

My power′s turned on

Starting right now I'll be strong

I'll play my fight song

And I don′t really care

If nobody else believes

′Cause I've still got

A lot of fight left in me

Casey had basically made a montage video for her. Apparently Chuck had been texting his brother-in-law. He was drinking protein drinks…and making faces while doing so, making Sarah fight herself not to giggle at it.

He was working out more than Casey or Sarah had realized, and the whole time, he was playing this song…on repeat.

And then, when no one was around, he would run the course again.

She thought about him, talking to himself in the video. “Again,” he would say. And when he was absolutely exhausted, he would say something different.

“For Sarah. To protect her.”

She had felt her heart leap and break at the same time. He was pushing himself not just for himself, but for her…and Casey…but more for her. Not to prove himself for her, in some macho way, but to protect her, the way he believed a partner should be protected.

Losing friends and I′m chasing sleep

Everybody's worried about me

In too deep they say I′m in too deep

And it's been two years

I miss my home

But there′s a fire burning in my bones

I still believe, yeah I still believe

He believed in her. He believed in them, and he wasn’t going to let their professional life ruin their personal one.

“It’s inspirational,” Sarah said, holding his gaze the entire time she spoke. Chuck nodded. “Chuck, you’re doing an amazing job.”

“You’d do better,” Chuck countered.

“I was at the farm for months getting physically in shape,” Sarah reminded him, pushing off the counter, walking towards him. “Stand up,” she said.

“Sarah, I’m really sweaty,” he told her.

“Stand. Up,” she told him. He stood, and looked nervous. She couldn’t help but enjoy that just a bit. She wrapped her arms around his neck. “You’re doing a fantastic job, but if you push yourself too far in your training, you’ll hurt yourself.”

“If I don’t you and Casey could get hurt,” Chuck told her softly.

“Casey can take care of himself,” Sarah said, pulling him in.

“So can you,” Chuck replied, unable to stop himself from licking his lips, as she pulled him closer, oh so slowly.

“Yeah, but let’s be honest, you like protecting me,” Sarah said, a grin on her face. And with that, she kissed him.

And all those things I didn't say

Wrecking balls inside my brain

I will scream them loud tonight

Can you hear my voice?

This time this is my fight song

Take back my life song

Prove I'm alright song

My power′s turned on

Starting right now I′ll be strong

I'll play my fight song

And I don′t really care

If nobody else believes

'Cause I′ve still got

A lot of fight left in me

Like a small boat on the ocean

Sending big waves into motion

Like how a single word

Can make a heart open

I might only have one match

But I can make an explosion

This is my fight song

Take back my life song

Prove I'm alright song

My power′s turned on

Starting right now I'll be strong

(I'll be strong)

I′ll play my fight song

And I don′t really care

If nobody else believes

'Cause I′ve still got

A lot of fight left in me

Now I've still got a lot of fight left in me

He pulled away, and looked down at her. “Casey,” he said simply.

“Wow, I must be a terrible kisser, if after that, you talk about him,” she said, a grin on her face, letting him know she was kidding him.

He sighed, a grin on his tired face. “Woman,” he said deeply and softly, making her giggle. “He…he recorded everything didn’t he.”

“You know, he’d be really good at making one of those video montage things,” Sarah told him.

“The hidden talents of John Casey,” Chuck mused.

“Tell me something, how are those protein drinks?”

Chuck barked a laugh. “I don’t know what’s worse, the taste of them, or Awesome constantly telling me about another drink that’s, and I quote, ‘Good for my wang’.”

Sarah put her head against his chest she was laughing so hard. “Okay,” she said, patting his chest. “Go shower, you’re taking me out tonight,” she told him.

“Sarah,” he began. “It’s not that I don’t want to…”

“Chuck, you need a break, and…I miss you,” Sarah told him. The grin that spread on his face….Sarah needed that in a way she didn’t know. “You are doing an amazing job. That’s not your girlfriend talking, that’s your trainer.” Chuck’s eyes went wide. “I know, Casey only grunts so I have to make sure and use my words to tell you how you did.”

He tried to speak, but his jaw seemed unable to move.

“You having a stroke?”

“Girl…girlfriend?” Chuck stuttered out.

“Yes,” she said. Her eyes narrowed. “Wait, do you not want to be my boyfriend?”

“What? No! Yes! I mean…GAH!”

“Chuck,” she said taking his hands. “Breathe. Talk to me.”

“I didn’t want to assume,” Chuck said. “Yes, I’m thrilled to be your boyfriend.”“Assume?” Sarah asked. “Barstow. The two bed in jail comment. Us running away together. How would you be assuming anything? I thought I was very direct in what I was saying.”

The soft smile on his face soothed any fear she had. “You were,” Chuck said.“I guess I’ve never actually said it, have I?” Sarah said, blowing out a breath, and looking down.

“But,” Chuck said, gently cupping her chin with the crook of his finger and lifting her head so she could look at him. “You told me in your language.”

“Chuck, I am fluent in many languages,” Sarah said, a grin on her face. “But if you don’t understand the language, what good does it do?”

“I’m learning Sarahese,” Chuck said.

Sarah barked out a laugh. “Take a shower you goof, and then take your girlfriend out to dinner.”

“Okay,” he said. He turned to leave.

“And I’m paying,” she yelled after him.

“Then, are you taking me out?” Chuck asked.

“You know what,” she said. “I am.”“I’m a very modern man,” he said. He paused at the doorway. “Thank you, Sarah.”

She waved at him, like it was nothing. He grinned and walked off. She blew out a breath. “And at dinner…or after…we’re going to talk,” she said. “Actual words.” She closed her eyes. “Jesus,” she muttered. “I think I’d rather attack a nation with a spoon.”

A/N: DAVID! I thought you said we couldn’t count on another chapter????

Wellll, I’m not saying I’m doing it, but there is a third chapter title. Stand By Me/Lean On Me. We’ll see. Take care fam. Life is hard out there.