Never Enough

I don’t own Chuck

Chuck found himself in the passenger seat, watching the miles passed by. As the vehicle made its way down the road, the silence seemed to grow louder and louder. He felt her shoulders shake more than heard her. He swallowed, he had made her cry. “Sarah,” he began turning to her. She was laughing and trying to hold it in.

“Were you really going to walk fifty miles to see your father?” she asked him. “I mean, Chuck at the rate you were going it would take around fifteen hours!”

“To figure this out to help you…yeah, I would” he told her, shaking his head. She sighed, shook her head, and reached over to take his hand. “That’s what it means when Chuck Bartowski loves you.”

“Okay,” she said. There was silence for a minute. “Do you want to know what it means when Sarah Walker loves you?”

“Yeah, I do,” Chuck said turning to her.

“It mean you tell her when you have some stupid-ass plan and she helps you!”

“I thought you weren’t going to yell until we got back,” Chuck reminded her. She glared at him. “Or, maybe you didn’t answer and I just assumed you wouldn’t.” Chuck swallowed.

“What the hell were you thinking?” she asked. “Why didn’t you tell me? Well?” It was going to be a long thirty minutes.

}o{

Sarah got out of the car, and looked at Chuck, puzzled. He seemed to be limping. “What did you do?” Concern was in her voice.

“Nothing, just got one of my ass cheeks chewed off,” Chuck said, fighting back the grin as he walked up to the RV. He saw her trying to hold back the laughter. He turned to her. “Listen, he’s a little…out there.”

“Okay,” Sarah said, taking his hands. “Well, whatever he is, we do this, together, right?”

“Absolutely, although, I am kinda lopsided now.” Sarah did not look amused. “Huh, it’s a miracle, I suddenly feel whole.”

“I had to fall in love with a nerd,” she said, shaking her head and walking to the door. “I’m guessing pulling my gun isn’t the best idea?”

“No,” Chuck said, reaching past her and knocking. The door whipped open.

“Get in,” Stephen said. “They might be watching.”

“Who?” Sarah asked.

“Them,” Stephen said, walking back through the RV. Sarah turned to Chuck.

“I warned you.”

}o{

The two went inside, and Chuck laid out everything to Stephen, who nodded the whole time. “I tried to keep you out of it,” Stephen told him. “But….” He looked away and shook his head.

“Dad, is mom Agent Frost?” Chuck asked him. Stephen nodded. “Can we save her?”

“Only if you can find the records that sent her on her mission,” Stephen said. “The unredacted records.”

“And where are those?” Sarah asked. Stephen looked at her. “Mr. Bartowski-”

“Stephen, please,” Stephen said.

“Stephen,” Sarah said, smiling at him. “I don’t know if you know this about Chuck but when family can be saved, he does it.”

“To do that, you’ll have to go to his place, his-his safe-house,” Stephen told them.

“Where is it?” Sarah asked.

“Texas,” Stephen told them. He looked from one to the other and sighed, seeing the determination on both of their faces. “Fine, I’ll get the address, but I’m not following you.”

“Wait,” Chuck said, playing over what Stephen had said. “You’ve been following us?”

“Of course I have,” Stephen told them. “But not to close.” Stephen got up, and headed toward the back. He began to search, presumably for the address.

“Casey isn’t going to like this,” Chuck told Sarah.

“I’ll take care of Casey,” Sarah told him.

“Who’s taking care of you?” Chuck asked.

“I thought you were,” Sarah said. Chuck grinned at that.

}o{

They were riding back to the base, Chuck thinking about what his father had said to him after Sarah had left the RV.

“Charles, they have sent someone after her, your handler.”

“She’s not my handler,” Chuck told him.

“Well, whatever she is, they have a kill order on her.”

“I know dad,” Chuck replied. “What can I do though?”

“She needs to know the truth, the assassin that is,” Stephen told him. “Gabriella Mercedes.” The flash hit him like a freight train. He shook his head, trying to get his bearings.

“You ready?” Sarah asked, sticking her head back inside.

“Just telling him good-bye,” Chuck told her. Sarah nodded and headed back out. “Dad,” he began.

“Tell her the truth,” Stephen insisted.

“Yeah, but if she doesn’t believe me, Sarah could die,” Chuck pointed out.

“Then make sure she believes you,” Stephen said with a shrug.

“You okay?” Sarah asked. Chuck nodded. “It’s gotta be hard not seeing your dad and then seeing him like that.”

“Yeah,” Chuck agreed. He needed to address the problem they were sure to have. “Sarah, do you want to talk about Zondra.”

“No,” Sarah told him.

“The CAT Squad?”

“No,” Sarah repeated.

“Are you just gonna ignore it all?”

She sighed, and looked over at him. “What happened, happened, and I can’t change it. Zondra is good at what she does.”

“Yeah,” Chuck agreed. “But what if-”

“Chuck, you can what if all day long in this life, doing this job…that I used to do,” she clarified. “But, eventually you come to the point where you have to take what intel you have and move forward.”

“And that’s what you’re doing?” Chuck asked.

She reached over and squeezed his hand. “I thought so,” she said. “Am I doing it badly?”

“No, it’s just been a minute since I’ve moved forward and I wasn’t sure what it looked like,” Chuck admitted.

“Well, this is us, moving forward.”

“One of us missing an asscheek from the chewing out I just took,” Chuck added. She gave him a look and shook her head. “You know you love me.”

“Yeah, I do,” she said, blowing out a breath. “God help me, I do.”