Never Gonna

A/N1: I've been feeling kinda guilty. My last update to this site some two months ago, Say Something, hurt. A lot. I don't like to leave these two in such a dark place for that long. I can make the excuse that I lost ALL my writing stored on one of my portable drives, but still….

The idea for this came while talking to David Carner. I joked that the only way to get them out of this funk was to Rick-roll them – and the more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea. So, I humbly submit this bit of fluffy silliness for your enjoyment. You don't have to read Say Something, but ...

I'm not making any money off this and I don't own Never Gonna Give You Up or Chuck but if I did, I'd never let you down.

Previously in Say Something…..

"Bye, Chuck." Sarah whispered.

Her smile faltered as he turned and walked away, her heart was screaming at her to say something - to do something to make him stop.

But she didn't.

She did nothing.

Meanwhile, in Castle's Control Room…..

Casey shook his head and grunted as he watched the two of them turn their back on each other.

He didn't feel the least bit guilty watching them on Castles security feed. It was in place for their protection and since they weren't going to protect each other, it was all up to him.

Two idiots! They need each other but aren't going to do anything he thought.

"Semper fi" he grunted and with a grin that he knew would make the Joker proud – Wait. Did I just think that? Damn Nerd! – he pulled the lever.

Two thick metal walls came crashing to the floor on either side of Chuck and Sarah, scaring the living beegebus out of them and sealing them off from their personal exit routes.

They were trapped. Together.

Automatically and unconsciously they moved to each other, standing back-to-back, weapons drawn, scanning the halls of Castle, both searching for the threat.

Their immediate reaction was to come together.

Good sign Casey thought.

Chuck scanned the hall in front of him, sensing Sarah's presence behind him. It was the closest he had felt to her in months. "What the hell is going on?" he said to no one in particular.

Sarah was already in protective mode. Her spy mask securely into place as she felt Chuck at her back. It was the safest she had felt in months.

"Don't freak out Chuck" she said more out of habit than anything. "Castle's containment protocol has been deployed. Somethings wrong."

That's when the music blasted throughout Castle's speakers, filling the space with its opening drum fill and synthesized strings that defined schlocky 80's synth-pop. Whoever or whatever this was had a warped sense of humor.

We're no strangers to love
You know the rules and so do I

"What - the – hell – is - that?" Chuck asked in disbelief.

A full commitment's what I'm thinking of
You wouldn't get this from any other guy

I just wanna tell you how I'm feeling
Gotta make you understand

The first words of the song, sung in a voice filtered through so many levels of doubling and modification, gave him his answer.

They slowly turned towards each other wide eyed and mouths open

"I think … I think we're being Rickrolled." Sarah said shaking her head, her mouth open in disbelief.

"Not yet you're not!" Casey's voice growled over the blare of the music. With a flick of a switch, all four walls around them lit up with the video, subjecting them to the most horrible dance moves in music video history.

"Now you're being Rickrolled!" Casey proclaimed, the smirk working it's way through his cigar clamped teeth.

Never gonna give you up
Never gonna let you down
Never gonna run around and desert you

"Wha –what?" was all Chuck could manage. Sarah was a little more blunt.

"Casey, what the hell is this? Let us out. Now."

The answer was simple and direct.

"No"

There was so much heat in Sarah's words, they should have been able to melt the doors into molten puddles "What. Do. You. Mean. No"

Casey's answer was blunt and direct.

"Just what I said. No. Not until you two actually talk to each other and fix it."

"I don't know what you're talking about. There's nothing to fix Casey." Sarah heard the defensiveness in her own voice and she edged further away from Chuck not wanting him to feel her unease.

It was too late. Chuck did feel it and it shook him out of his Big '80's stupor.

"Wait a minute Casey, don't you think this "trapped together" troupe" making air quotes with his hands "is over doing it a bit? I mean really, this isn't necessary."

Casey just grunted in response, a grunt that Chuck had never heard before. It was …. different. It sounded …. pleased. Like he was taking great pleasure in orchestrating the delicious tension of forced proximity romances.

"I've been watching the two of you and you are making me sick with all these bottled up lady feelings." Casey spat at them "It's like the two of you are constipated." making Chuck and Sarah makes faces like they were, well, constipated.

"If my primary objective wasn't to protect you, I'd kill you both. I don't want to kill the two best partners I ever had. So, you two are going to fix it. The damn words to the song tell you exactly what to do and you're gonna hear them over and over again until you get it right."

Chuck's eyes popped open so wide he looked like ET. "You.. you're gonna keep playing this … this music over and over again?" the realization making him shiver involuntarily.

"And playing the video. You're gonna have to watch that spastic jerk wiggle his arms around like he's wiping someone's ass with a towel in what passes for dancing until you fix it. So. Fix. It!"

"Oh yeah, and don't get any bright ideas about trying to make a call from your cell. I jammed all the signals, in and out."

"Fix. It!"

That's when Chuck noticed that Sarah was white as a sheet.

And the music got louder.

"Don't freak out" Chuck said, mostly to himself.

We've known each other for so long
Your heart's been aching but you're too shy to say it

The song had played through three times without a word being said between the two of them. They had moved to opposite ends of their MTV prison lost in the ridiculousness of the situation. Chuck glanced a look at Sarah who was sitting in the far corner, her knees up in front of her, her head buried in her hands. He knew this relentless sensory attach was not going to stop unless they at least tried to fix it so he cleared his throat and said

"So, you know what Rickrolled is?"

Sarah's eye roll was as big as the thumping boots-and-pants beat that blasted from the speakers. "Really Chuck? That's what you're going to start with?" shaking her head before bringing it back down to her knees.

"Well, yeah. I mean, you never seemed to be much into music and I was surprised."

"Everyone knows about this … this …. whatever it is." she shot back with a fair amount of sarcasm. "I mean really, this is '80's pop taken to it's limit. Listen to the guy with that weirdly robust croon and his romantic-wooing-as-used-car-salesman pitch. Uuuggghhhh" a shiver running through Sarah's entire body as she listened to the song. "And the words. God, how cheesy can you be."

Inside we both know what's been going on
We know the game and we're gonna play it

Chuck got a look on his face as he listened to the words, like he was hearing them for the first time and was about to object when Sarah groaned loudly, in what sounded like a staggered croon of repulsion.

"And the video makes it unbearable. How the hell did Casey get these walls to project video anyway?" Sarah whined, head in her hands to shield her eyes from the unrelenting onslaught.

Chuck shrank further back into his corner "Uhmmm. Yeah wellllll about that….."

Sarah's head snapped up. She knew that tone.

"Chuck" she hissed "What. Did. You. Do?" Each word snapped like a stick being broken over her knee. Chuck just hoped it wouldn't be his neck next.

"Well, I uh – I kinda read Castles operating manual."

"Wait. You read a 1,000 page manual?" Sarah asked in disbelief

"Uhh actually it's 1,924 pages and … you know never mind. "

Sarah's eyes were closed tighter than a hermetically sealed jar and she slowly shook her head. "Of course you read it. So let me repeat -

What. Did. You. Do?"

"Yeah …. well …. so I found out that all the walls in Castle are designed with a polymer that can withstand an RPG while being able to conduct and display a video signal, effectively making them all impenetrable LCD walls. Our very own Fortress of Solitude."

"Wait, so your trying to tell me that Castle is built with some futuristic technology that rivals a cartoon super hero?"

"Uhhh yeah. Yup"

"That's unbelievable."

"Hello" Chuck sing-songed pointing at his head "Computer in my brain!"

"Ok. I'll give you that one." Sarah groused "But that doesn't explain how Casey knew about the walls. Or why he picked this stupid song to play over and over and over again."

"Uhmmm. Yeah wellllll about that….."

And if you ask me how I'm feeling
Don't tell me you're too blind to see

Sarah slowly raised her eyes until they were boring into Chucks and said only one word.

"Chuck."

But through gritted teeth it sounded more like

I'm going to kill you, bring you back to life using electroshock technology like Frankenstein's monster in that stupid movie you made me watch, show you a video of me killing you the first time while I slowly kill you again and feed you to the seagulls to Chuck.

"I … I maybe showed him?" Chuck squeaked out pushing himself further back into the corner.

Sarah's spy mask changed drastically. Instead of the unreadable blank look that hid all emotion, her face took on a hard, icy look he had only seen once before. He knew in that instant that he was looking at Graham's wild card enforcer.

This was the Ice Queen.

There was no more corner to squeeze into.

He was trapped.

Never gonna give you up
Never gonna let you down
Never gonna run around and desert you

Fear and desperation are powerful stimuli. They can cause a man to react in irrational, unfathomable ways that totally contradict a person's normal behavior patterns. Chuck proved that time and again each time he ignored the command to stay in the car. At those times it was fear of losing his partners – his friends – and a desperation to save them.

This time was different, but it wasn't.

He was going to lose Sarah, probably forever, to a guy who looked like Superman – hmph, fitting for the Fortress of Solitude – and had the emotional depth of a slug.

That realization hit Chuck like five tasers striking simultaneously. The shock that went through him was the catalyst that turned Chuck's desperation into determination.

Pulling himself out of the corner, standing at full height, shoulders back he looked at Sarah with a face that projected the determined confidence he wasn't sure he knew he could have, he addressed her question again.

"I showed him the technology and the video. I was planning on using it and didn't want him thinking that Castle was being stormed by the Ring trying to Rick-roll us out."

Sarah was taken aback by the change in Chuck, and a little dumbstruck by his admission.

"What were you planning to use this for?"

Sarah swore Chuck stood a couple of inches taller as he took carefully measured steps out of the corner, moving purposefully towards her.

"I didn't know how to tell you. I didn't know what to say and I needed a way to tell you, to show you how much you mean to me."

"You?" Sarah asked incredulously "You didn't know what to say? The man who never met a word he didn't like to say or a phrase he didn't try to turn?"

Chuck's resolve never faltered. "I was struggling with how to express the depth of my love for you. I needed you to know that I would fight for you every day, that I would prove it to you over and over again. Words …. words alone … they weren't enough. They weren't going to cut it."

Sarah stared at him like he had grown horns and sprouted a nose ring.

"What were you going to do? Play it until I fell into a coma so you could manipulate my mind and make me forget everything that has happened in the last six and one half months? As you can see…. Not. Working!" shouting the last words with a fury she didn't realize she was keeping inside.

If Sarah wanted the words to push him away, she was startled that they had the opposite effect. Taking another step forward with a calm that belied the whirlwind of emotions going on inside of him, Chuck shook his head.

"No. I wanted to show you how sincere I am.

I was going to sing it to you."

Never gonna make you cry
Never gonna say goodbye
Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you
Never gonna give you up
Never gonna let you down
Never gonna run around and desert you

The shock and disbelief were written all over Sarah's face.

"Wait. What? Seriously? You were going to … what? …. serenade me? And with … with this?" gesturing wildly at the four walls showing two blond women moving stiffly to the music. "Why would you choose this?"

"I don't know," Chuck shrugged "I don't think you can match his sincerity. I mean really, I believe him when he says that."

"What? Believe him when he says what" Sarah snapped back

"When he sings 'You wouldn't get this from any other guy'" singing the words in a voice that was pure and undistorted by the electronics on the record. "I mean, he demonstrates a ton of vocal charisma, and manages to sound sincere and earnest. I believe him." Under his breath, Chuck whispered "I wanted you to see me as that sincere."

"I wanted you to see me as that guy" while turning away, defeat showing in the slump of his shoulders.

"But you did."

It came out as barely a whisper, luckily during the couple of seconds of silence as the video ended and right before it started up again. If it hadn't, Chuck never would have heard it. He was pretty sure it wasn't meant to be heard. He turned and looked at her. She has slid down the far wall, her knees up to her chin again and looking for all the world like a hurt little girl. His heart sprang to life and he moved quickly to her, kneeling in front of her, wanting to hold her and afraid to touch her at the same time.

Sarah looked up at him and he noticed the tears building up in her eyes.

"In Prague. You gave me up. You let me down. You deserted me."

The tears were streaming down her face now, the anger and frustration that had hidden her tremendous hurt, her pain of loss she desperately tried to push down these past months flew away like shattered glass. Sarah knew it was impossible to keep the pain hidden any longer and she let it pour out of her, like water flowing over a damn after a heavy rainstorm.

"At the train station, that was goodbye and it hurt. You made me cry. All because you wanted to be a spy more than you wanted to be with me."

The words kept tumbling out. She thought that admitting all this would deepen the hurt, bring it bubbling to the surface and make it harder, more painful.

It didn't.

It brought her clarity. It forced her to ask the question she didn't think she wanted to know the answer to.

"Why? Why did you do that?"

"Sarah, I know. I know that you're very hurt that I didn't run away with you in Prague. I did that and I'm sorry. You have to know that you are everything that I ever wanted."

The sincerity in his words triggered something in Sarah. She had heard these words before. She just hadn't listened. She stopped Chuck before he could go any further, gently putting her finger over his lips. The move startled Chuck, so much that again, he was at a loss for words. Searching Sarah's eyes for a clue, Chuck saw something he thought he had lost forever.

Hope.

Never gonna make you cry
Never gonna say goodbye
Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you

Never gonna give, never gonna give

"You didn't think you could run away with me knowing what you'd turn your back on. "

Sighing deeply, Sarah continued "Knowing that what you had in your head could help a lot of people. You couldn't run away with me knowing that. It would have eaten at you every day."

Chucks eyebrows shot up so high Sarah swore he had become Roger Rabbit – wait! what? did I just think that – and he struggled to find the right words to say, but Sarah continued before he could.

"I've heard this. How I taught you that being a spy is about choosing something bigger. About putting aside your own personal feelings for the greater good. That's what you chose."

"How….?" was all Chuck could get out. His heart beating in his throat made it impossible to say anymore.

"Carina. She gave me a thumb drive with your little speech on it. It's pretty eloquent."

"I didn't think you'd heard it. You never said anything."

"What could I say Chuck? That I had turned my back on being a spy to be with you? That you taught me there was something bigger, something greater than the so-called greater good? That I choose to be with you?"

Sarah realized that they had both leaned in while she was talking and their foreheads were comfortably resting against each other. It was the most comfortable Sarah had been in months.

"I wish you would have." Chuck sighed softly.

It was Sarah's turn to sigh.

"I couldn't. It was so, I don't know, so selfish. And I got angry at myself for being so selfish, then angry at you for making me angry with myself. I … I didn't know how I felt. I didn't know what to do."

"I still don't"

Chuck leaned back, taking her face in his hands.

"There was one more thing I said that night. Something …. important."

Sarah knew where he was going and wanted to look away, but she couldn't. She couldn't break the stare if she wanted to.

She didn't want to.

"I told you that I love you." Chuck said softly, the sincerity evident in every single word. "Now I know I haven't made some great decisions lately and my suggestions may be a little … questionable. But how about this? How about instead of wondering what you're gonna do – how about you just let me love you."

The music stopped. The video morphed into something …. different.

Pictures.

Pictures of them.

Candid moments where one of them was looking at the other without them knowing.

Candid moments that showed the love and devotion the two had for each other. Candid moments that both tried to hide for too long.

Sarah stared at the pictures on the walls. Stared at the story they were telling her. The story her heart had been trying to tell her for so long.

The music started again, but it was different. Instead of the relentless techno beat, it was a piano, playing softly.

Sarah realized that they had gotten to their feet, not knowing how or exactly when that happened. Chuck still had her face in her hands, looking at her with a love she could not deny.

And he began to sing.
"We've known each other for so long
Your heart's been aching but you're too shy to say it
Inside we both know what's been going on
We know the game and we're gonna play it"

Sarah was completely overwhelmed with emotion.

Somehow she found the words she needed to say.

"What are you trying to say to me Chuck?"

Chuck smiled at her, really smiled at her. The one that made her warm and gooey and weak in the knees. The smile she didn't realize she had missed so much.

And he kept singing.

"I just wanna tell you how I'm feeling
Gotta make you understand

Never gonna give you up
Never gonna let you down
Never gonna run around and desert you"

She believed him. God help her, she believed him. The burden she had been carrying for the past months was gone. In its place was a determination. A determination to make this work.

She looked at Chuck. Really looked at him. Her heart knew he would never knowingly hurt her ever again. Her head needed to hear the words.

And as if he had read her mind, the music stopped. Chuck looked at her and said with far more sincerity then Rick Astley could ever muster

"I'm never gonna make you cry. Never gonna say goodbye. Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you."

Taking her hands in his, he gently stroked them with his thumbs
"I'm never gonna give you up. Never gonna let you down. Never gonna run around and desert you."

"Never?" she breathed

"Never ever." he replied.

They crashed together, their lips saying all the unspoken words of apology, passion, forgiveness, longing and love that had not yet been said.

It was proof that actions speak louder than words because when they parted, hug smile of relief on their faces, Sarah began to sing.

"Never gonna make you cry
Never gonna say goodbye
Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you"

Chuck joined in, the two of them continuing the refrain without any background music.

None was necessary.

To their surprise, the far wall of their little tomb slid open and arm in arm, the two of them walked out into a suddenly much brighter world, still singing their promises to each other.
"Never gonna give you up
Never gonna let you down
Never gonna run around and desert you
Never gonna make you cry"

Meanwhile, in Castle's Control Room…..

Casey nodded his head and grunted a smile as he watched the two of them walk out of Castle, arm in arm.

Took them long enough!

19 times! He had played that damn video 19 times – one hour and seven minutes of '80's hell. Chuck's idea to serenade Sarah to get her to listen to him sounded terrible when the Nerd first told him. He couldn't believe how soft – I mean warped – how warped he had become to come up with this idea.

They were worth it though. They were the two best partners he had ever had and he was glad he was able to pull their heads out of their asses.

Casey made sure to disengaged all the Tech. He was glad Chuck had described the lock down procedure that brought those walls down. If not he wouldn't have known that every door in Castle, every entrance, every office would lock out. If Shaw had been in Castle, Casey would have some serious explaining to do.

Taking his earplugs out he wondered how they held out that long without them. He was just glad that he had seen Shaw leave Castle and that no one else was there. He was sure that it would have done some serious brain damage if you weren't prepared for it.

Earlier

Daniel Shaw came back into Castle having forgot his phone. He hurried in a back way, wanting to avoid anyone seeing him and realizing he wasn't perfect all the time. He walked into his office to get his phone and the door slammed and bolted shut. Reaching for the door, he realized that he was locked in. That's when the music started! He shook his head at the immaturity of his team and pulled out his cell to call for backup.

Jammed! Someone was jamming the signal.

Nothing worked. Not his cell. Not his desk phone. Not his computer. Not his SAT phone.

He was trapped. Trapped in his own personal hell.

By the third time through the song, he was getting desperate. He thought he was hallucinating when the video image appeared on his walls.

By the eighth time, he was talking to the video, yelling at it, bargaining with it, pleading with it.

By the twelfth he was staring blankly at it, drool in the corner of his mouth.

I'm going to die by Rick-roll.

Never gonna make you cry
Never gonna say goodbye
Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you

Back in the Control Room….

Casey let the song play out one last time as he packed up to leave. He was taking a couple days for himself figuring he earned it – and those two idiots wouldn't be leaving Sarah's hotel room for at least a week. Just as he was about to turn the music off, he heard it.

Shuffling of feet back and forth. Snapping of fingers in time with the music. Drawing his weapon Casey moved cautiously through Castle. The noise was coming from Shaw's office. After a moment of mental preparation, Casey positioned himself with his back against the office wall, both hands on his gun in the ready position. Counting to himself

One-Two-Three

Casey threw the door open gun leading the way.

It took a moment to come to grips with what he saw.

It was Shaw.

He was swinging his arms back and forth in front of him while shuffling side to side in time to the music, his face slack, his eyes in a deep glaze.

He looked like a zombie having a seizure.

Oh my God, he's doing the Carlton.

Casey stepped in front of him, snapping his fingers in front of Shaw, slapping him in the face. Nothing worked. The music had long stopped, but he kept going, back and forth, side to side, dancing to the rhythm in his head.

Sighing, Casey pulled out his cell and hit speed dial.

"General? We have a situation."

Never gonna give you up
Never gonna let you down
Never gonna run around and desert you

Much, much later ….

Maison 23

Chuck and Sarah were in bed, wound tightly around each other, neither willing to let too big a gap come between them.

Been there, did that, had the emotional scars to prove it.

Sarah was lightly stroking Chucks chest, playing with the soft hair under her fingertips.

"Not that I want to break the mood, but we still have a lot to talk about and a lot to work out."

"I know" Chuck said "I don't think Shaw's going to be too happy about this. Pretty sure he thinks he's getting some."

Sarah playfully slapped him "No, that's not what I meant – although yeah there is that too."

Pulling herself off his chest onto her elbows, she looked down at him seriously.

"We have a lot to talk about. About us. About how we communicate with each other. We have a lot to work out."

Chuck smiled up at her "I know, and we will. But we have time."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I figure that

Together forever and never to part
Together forever we two
And don't you know
I would move heaven and earth
To be together forever with you"**

Sarah stopped giggling long enough to smack him again

"You goof.

Shut up and kiss me!"

Fini

*"Never Gonna Give you Up" – released July 27, 1987 – Written and produced by Stock, Aitken & Waterman – The first single released from the album Whenever You Need Somebody. The song was a worldwide number-one hit, initially in United Kingdom in 1987, where it stayed at the top of the chart for five weeks and was the best-selling single of that year. It eventually topped the charts in 25 countries, including the United States and West Germany. The music video for the song has become the basis for the "Rickrolling" Internet meme, leading the song to also be referred to as "The Rickroll Song".

*"Together Forever" - released January 12, 1988 – Written and produced by Stock, Aitken & Waterman – Astley's second and final U.S. chart-topper.

A/N2: How the hell can you not love this song? It all adds up to three-and-a-half of the most effervescent minutes in the '80s canon. Want to see a cool version of this? Search for Rick Astley with Choir! Choir! Choir! - Never Gonna Give You Up! on that popular video website and you will be in for a treat. I don't think I'll try to recreate the stuff I had started and lost – it didn't get finished for a reason so why frustrate myself. I do have a couple of new ideas – one silly, one serious. We'll see which one sees the light of day first.

Thank you David for the encouragement. I hope you enjoyed this as much as I enjoyed writing it!