Chapter 19
I don’t own Chuck
Chuck Bartowski had been through a lot in his life. Mom leaving. Dad basically leaving. Kicked out of college. Downloaded the Intersect. But none of that….NONE of it, compared to how floored he was right now. Sarah Walker had told him she loved him. He was trying to get this right. He had to get this right…for her…hell, for him.
He now knew her past…will, some of it. He couldn’t be the one to hurt her. He had to make sure he did this right, and he wasn’t sure what the next course of action would be.
“Did I chop the tomatoes wrong?” Sarah asked, sitting in the chair across from him, eating her taco salad, an amused grin on her face.
“No-no, they’re great,” Chuck told her.
“You know what I like about a taco salad, when it’s done right?” Sarah continued. Chuck shook his head, stunned that she was talking about taco salads right now.
“You have this contrast,” she continued. “The coolness and crispness of the lettuce, and then the warm beef and taco shells.” Chuck nodded. “When I was a kid, I used to make myself taco salads sometimes. We didn’t have taco shells.” Chuck sat there, silent. She chuckled. “We used Doritos, they were really good in a pinch.”
“I bet,” Chuck replied. What was going on?
“Chuck, are you okay?”
“Why would you ask that?” Chuck asked.
“Oh, I don’t know,” Sarah said, taking a sip of her drink. “You have gone deathly quiet, and in the past, you have mentioned that you didn’t think you were good enough for me. You knew I liked you, and cared about you…but loved you? And given how you feel people who you believed loved you treated you…” She reached across the table and took both her hands in his. “I just think maybe you need a moment or two to process.”
“What about you?” Chuck asked.
“See, I know what you’re doing here,” she told him.
“You do?”
“I do,” she replied, sitting back in her chair, grinning. “One, you are being Chuck, which means making sure others are okay. Two, you are deflecting a little to not deal with pain of the past. Chuck, it’s okay to feel however you are, all I ask, going forward, is that we are honest with each other.”
He was silent for a few seconds. “You’re not going to see your friend, are you?”
“Nicely played,” Sarah told him.
“Well you said we should be honest,” Chuck pointed out.
“Why is it so important for you that I go to see her?”
“Because you have lost so much of your former life,” Chuck began. “Hell, Sarah, I don’t think I’m being egotistical here when I say you’ve had more fun with me on this mission the past two years than you have in your entire life.”
“It’s not egotistical,” she replied. “I have had fun, but not…consistently. That team I was with that Carina was on…we had our moments.” She was silent for a moment. “But I couldn’t trust them the way I do you.” She sat there and a smile began to grow on her face. “I need to show you something.”
“Okay,” he said, and followed her as she got up.
}o{
Chuck found himself out in the garage. “Now, I want you to know I didn’t show this to you earlier because I didn’t need you panicking and really worrying about your safety.” Chuck looked concern. “Listen, I had this installed before we met, okay?” Chuck nodded. She blew out a breath.
“What? I promise I won’t freak out about what you’re going to show me,” Chuck promised.
“Oh, you will freak out,” Sarah told him, grinning. She led him over to the far corner of the garage. There was a small TV sitting there, and a small tarp over something. She gave him a look, shook her head, and picked it up.
“OH MY GOD!” Chuck yelled, his eyes wide. He turned to her. “Does it work?” She tilted her head to the side. “My bad,” he said. He looked back at it, and his eyes went wide again. “OF COURSE!”
“We’re gonna do this?”
“Oh, Sarah Mae Walker,” Chuck began.
“It’s not Mae,” she said, but was ignored. She shook her head, amused.
“I’m not gonna lie, if you forced me, I’d of had you down for a Double Dragon or Ninja Gaiden type of girl, but of course, it’s Contra,” Chuck said, a look of pride on his face. “I mean…you do play it, right?”
“I do,” Sarah told him. “But, there’s something you need to know, this one, it has a secret.”
“I know the code, Sarah,” Chuck told her. “Every nerd is given the code at birth.” She continued to look amused. “Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, Start.”
“That will get you thirty extra men,” Sarah replied. “Now, when I first made this, I worried that someone would have to be with me, and I’d have to protect them as well.”
“Okay,” Chuck said, not sure where this was going.
“So, you see there is only one controller here.” She paused and turned to him. “Don’t worry, the NES inside has two controllers.”
“Oh my God,” he said, bitting into his knuckle of his fist.
“You do know the two-player code, right?” She asked. Chuck scoffed. She handed him the controller.
“Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, SELECT, Start,” Chuck said, looking at her the whole time as he punched in the code into the controller. There was a noise and Chuck turned his head, to see the work bench that had been up against the wall swing out, and a set of stairs appear.
“Not bad,” she said, patting his cheek as she walked past him, and down the stairs.
“That wasn’t necessary,” he muttered.
She poked her head back up from the stairs. “You liked it.”
“I did,” he admitted, and quickly followed her down.