Chapter 22
I don’t own Chuck
Three weeks ago
“If you’re right, we need to run,” Sarah said, after thinking about everything.
“That seems to be your go to option,” Chuck teased. She swatted him on the arm good-naturedly.
“Fine, what is your idea then, Nerd?”
“You know I don’t take it as an insult.”
“You know damn good and well I didn’t mean it as one.”
“You really want a nerd as your boyfriend?”
“I mean, I didn’t have much say in it,” Sarah said with a shrug. “You love who you love.”
“Funny you say that,” Chuck said softly. “I was thinking about someone who I really respected and what he said.”
“Tell me,” she said.
“Love isn’t a state of perfect caring. It is an active noun like struggle. To love someone is to strive to accept that person exactly the way he or she is, right here and now.” Chuck quoted.
“That’s beautiful,” Sarah said. “And it’s true.” She looked down and then back up at him. “I have a hard time believing anyone would active strive to accept me, I’m a mess.”
“We’re all a mess, Sarah,” Chuck said softly.
“Who said that? The love quote, not what you just said.”
Chuck smiled at her. “Mister Rogers,” he told her.
“Of course he did,” Sarah replied. “Okay, you have an idea, what is it?”
“We need to stop running and hiding. This may be the place where we can do it. The place where we can take a stand and end this.”
Today
“I don’t understand,” Susan said, looking from one to the other.
“Well, I always kind of liked keeping him off-balance, because it amused me, and we weren’t really off a lot, just a little bit,” Sarah began.
“But now,” Chuck said taking her hand and squeezing it. “We realize with everything we’re facing in this world, we have to be on the same page.”
“Are you two about to do something?” Susan asked, surprised.
“No,” Chuck said, shaking his head. “We’re just talking about how hard it is to be together. You know, you’re married.” He saw it in her eye for a brief second.
“Yeah, I do,” she said, nodding. “I do.”
Three weeks ago.
“Okay, what do we do?” Sarah asked him.
“What they’re trying to do, verify,” Chuck told her. She walked over to the table she had been near earlier, flipped a switch and Chuck heard the gears churning behind him. He turned and saw the opening.
“You can do this and not get caught?” Sarah asked.
“The same way you can pick a lock and no one would know that you’re there,” Chuck told her. She pulled her chin back, impressed. “Sorry.”
“No, I like confident Chuck.” Sarah said, walking up to him, taking his hand and leading him upstairs.
“Uh, about confident Chuck,” he said as they got to the top of the stairs. “I need you to know it’s not your fault I’m not exactly acting confident when it comes to us. It’s just…there’s been…”“A lot that has gone sideways?” Sarah offered. Chuck nodded. “Do you love me?”
“God, yes,” Chuck told her, making her giggle.
“Do you believe that I love you?”
“I do,” he answered. “But you need to know, through no fault of your own, sometimes I wonder if that is enough, and I think we’ve been down that road of my issues with that at least forty-seven times.”
“Don’t do that,” she told him, confusing him. “Don’t act like I’m not to blame for some of this. Chuck, you have to know everything we go through, we go through together.”
“So, if we were to figure this out, then what with us, job and being on the run that is?”
“I have no idea,” Sarah said, shrugging. “I know I’m a special NSA consultant, and you are not of the CIA, but you do have the Intersect.”
“I do…not that it’s doing a lot of good right now,” Chuck added.
“We’ve never needed the Intersect, Chuck. It’s always been you.” Chuck smiled at her. “There he is,” she said softly. “Now, go do you, Nerd boy.” She leaned in and gave him a peck on the lips.
“Yes, ma’am,” he told her.
}o{
Now
“How long do you think you’ll be here?” Susan asked.
“Oh, probably for a while,” Chuck said, sighing. “I mean, I miss my friends, but I have Sarah.”
“You do,” she said, squeezing his hand.
}o{
Three weeks ago.
“Okay, Susan Jane Dubois. Cannot find a marriage certificate or a birth certificate where she is named the mother, anywhere.”
Sarah blew out a breath. Chuck had spent that night and the next day, scrubbing the Internet trying to find anything. “Now, what?” she asked.
“Now, it’s time to verify,” Chuck told her. “And you’re not going to like it.” The look she gave him, made him gulp.
}o{
The next day found her sitting in one of the vehicles, she had stashed around the property. Sarah was sure Susan had never seen it. She was low in her car seat, a brunette wig on, sunglasses, and the hood of her hoodie over her head. Luckily it was a cool day. She saw Susan leave the pharmacy with Chuck’s prescription that Ellie had called in. Chuck was right, Sarah didn’t like this one bit. He was currently behind her, on the floorboard, a blanket over him.
“Do you see her?” he whispered.
She chuckled. “Yeah, get ready.” Susan pulled off, and Sarah followed. After a few minutes of driving, Susan pulled into a driveway. It matched the records Chuck had found online with where she currently lived. “You were right about the address.”
“We needed to verify though,” Chuck told her. “Okay, let’s get out of here.”
“Wait, someone is pulling up,” Sarah told him. She fished out her cellphone and snapped a picture of the man, and then snapped a second picture when the man pulled a baby out of the car, that looked like the child Susan had the last time she had dropped off something to Sarah. Sarah put the car in drive, hurrying home.
“Something wrong?” Chuck asked.
“Yeah, my friend is more than likely a Fulcrum agent,” Sarah told him, putting her foot on the gas to get home before Susan got there.