Published December 9, 2019

A/N: This is another season 1 AU. Things are different than my other season 1 AUs. I mentioned this story idea at the end chapter six of "Chuck & Sarah vs the Email." In a way, it's similar to that one, but with different circumstances and with the relationship progressing a little more cautiously. If you want to read about Chuck and Sarah unable to keep their lips apart less than a day after they meet, read that story. This story will have two people who just met, learning to trust each other after their worlds unexpectedly collide.

The following quote is from a different show, but it's related because Chuck and Sarah are both in this story, so there's no getting in the way of the inevitable.

Farscape 4.11, "Unrealized Reality": The elasticity of time allows for unrealized realities to remain so. Events are matched closely enough to course they have a way of restructuring themselves to familiar outcomes. If matched closely enough to course, events have a way of restructuring themselves.

Reading that from a fanfic perspective, it means that if a certain two characters are in a story, the inevitable will happen (even if the memories of one are erased, which doesn't happen here.)

Disclaimer: Nobody else owns anything here, so why would I?

Disclaimer 2: No beta. Why would I sucker/obligate/subject anyone into reading this when they didn't want to? However, if you PM me corrections, I'll fix them.

October 1, 2007

Standing nervously with his hands in his pockets, Chuck waited on the sidewalk for his "date" to pick him up. Even with the mental quotes around "date," the situation was surreal. Gorgeous, phenomenal Sarah Walker was actually picking him up for the evening. He just hoped he didn't make too much of a fool of himself, realizing it would be easier for everyone to lock him away.

Sure, it wasn't a real date. Sarah was taking Chuck to have the Intersect in his brain tested. However, it's not like he had any recent experience with second dates, not to mention any experience with a second date with the hottest and most bad-ass woman on the planet. He would happily let government scientists run whatever tests on the Intersect in his head so Sarah wouldn't have to go through the same thing. She's the valuable one. He just worked a low-level supervisory job at an electronics store. Her job was to save the world. This was how he could save her.

The first date was memorable, because she was there. That had nothing to do with them dancing while she took out NSA goons. It was amazing even before he disabled a bomb with a computer virus. Simply being in Sarah's presence made it his best date since Stanford. Technically, it wasn't a date either. In many ways it was less of a date than this one. That time, he and Sarah were just getting dinner, getting to know each other, and passing time until they could explain the dual-human Intersect situation to NSA Agent Major John Casey. It didn't lessen the evening, though. The brightness that shined from Sarah's grin and the light in her eyes made him feel like it was the best date ever—if it could be called a date—which it couldn't.

The fact that she could fake something like that really demonstrated her greatness as a spy. They were each simply just getting to know the other human Intersect. Lucky was the guy who got to date her for real.

The morning of their second "date," he discovered that Sarah had a new cover job at the Wienerlicious and that she was his new "cover girlfriend." He felt sorry for her a little. Instead of jumping out of planes, she was stuck spending time with a nerd like him. He liked being a nerd, but that didn't mean it attracted the ladies. The faster he helped the scientists figure out this Intersect computer that was in each of their heads, the faster she could go back to making the world a safer place.

At least until then, he got to spend time with her. From the way she acted, she seemed to genuinely like spending time with him. She had also promised to protect him, including from anything risky that the scientists did to test his brain. His sister, Ellie, would be the expert on brain experiments, but she'd be too protective and would probably freak out if she knew about the computer in his head. Sarah seemed a good protector and advocate for someone who wasn't a brain doctor.

At the end of that second night—their first non-date—when Chuck and Sarah spent the night together on the beach watching the tide, she asked him to trust her. He knew he needed an ally in the spy world, where he was completely out of his element, despite watching all of the Bond films. He didn't think he could have picked a better ally than the other human Intersect.

A black Porsche pulled up. Chuck couldn't believe it. That was not the car of someone working at a food chain that served hot dogs on a stick, but it did seem appropriate for the awesomeness of the driver. Devon would even say so. It did make Chuck feel a twinge of guilt for taking Sarah in a Nerd Herder on their "first date." He supposed it was better that the Buy More company car was destroyed that night, rather than the fine automobile that Sarah was driving.

In the car, Chuck managed to keep himself from staring or babbling. Sarah seemed happy to see him, but he needed to stop reading too much into that.

He was probably more nervous about being close to her than he was on their "first date." That time, he was more nervous about the NSA assassin that was coming to get him than he was being on a date with an unbelievably beautiful woman—not that it was really a date. She said she'd take care of Casey, so he tried to enjoy the evening. He supposed knowing it was not a real date took some pressure off.

Despite the lack of pressure, he kept having to tell himself it wasn't a real date. The dinner and dancing weren't enough to make it feel like a real date. Part of it was his fault. Even though it wasn't a date, he made it more date-like by finding a way to pay, saying the bill and tip were "on his tab." He was the local, so he thought he could try that story. Considering he never had the chance to buy a woman dinner since college, he didn't want to be deprived of the chance, even on a fake date.

He didn't have a tab. Really, he slipped cash to waiter before they ordered. He discreetly told the waiter that if a bill didn't come, he could keep the change as a tip. It ended up being a large tip. From Sarah's narrow-eyed look, he was certain he didn't fool her. She told him that she could put the entire evening on a CIA expense report. With the CIA and the NSA embedded into his life, he was sure they would be paying a lot. That, or they'd leave. This might be his only chance.

This night, his and Sarah's "second date" had less of the stereotypical date elements, so on the surface it seemed even less like a date. Oh the other hand, it was more planned than last time. Also, Sarah had dressed up, though maybe she always looked fantastic. She was all smiles when she saw him.

Of course, she seemed happy to see him because she was a great spy and could project a cover. That wasn't true of all spies. Casey was the NSA's best, and he never seemed happy to see him like Sarah did. Once again, he told himself to stop thinking along those lines. Thoughts like that were going to get him into trouble.

The "second date" was at the Buy More, which reinforced the reality that it wasn't a real date. His workplace was about as unromantic as it could get. Casey was also there, which sucked out any romance that was stuck in the corners.

It was time for Chuck to do his part to get the secrets out of his head, helping Sarah. He hoped there wouldn't be probing.

Sarah dropped off Chuck at his apartment after the mission/date. The events of the entire night were unexpected. She was planning on carefully avoiding the Intersect test images so she wouldn't flash. She wasn't expecting to flash anyway. That unexpected flash was the second she had ever experienced.

Still sitting in the car, Chuck asked, "And this doctor guy, he can fix me?"

Sarah put on a pleasant face and tried to sound upbeat, even though the message was not. "No. I think they don't understand what happened to us."

Sarah could fathom someone who had been pulled into the spy world wanting to get out. Unlike when she joined, he wasn't a step away from going to prison instead of finishing high school. Sarah didn't really have a choice about being a spy, so she wouldn't call getting the Intersect out of her head "fixing it." It was just a strange consequence of her job. Chuck's words were clearly the words of someone not trying to make a buck off of this situation and of someone not trying to use the situation to his advantage with her.

Chuck started to get out of the car. "Tonight was probably the best/only second date I've been on in years."

Hmm. Sarah was surprised he said that because it hadn't been anything resembling a date. Still, Chuck was a gentleman the whole night. He made her laugh, at least on the inside. She didn't want to lead him on when he wouldn't really want to be with someone like her. Despite that, she was ready for him to make a pass. The pass would have been complete. She figured they'd have to start kissing in greetings and goodbyes for the cover. The idea wasn't unappealing. It wouldn't hurt to start practicing to strengthen their cover in the future.

Chuck squatted at the closed door between them and said through the open window, "Oh, uh, I almost forgot. Dinner tomorrow night with my sister and her boyfriend: Captain Awesome. She really wants to meet you."

Did he just ask her on a real date—one without a mission? Maybe it'd be for the cover, but still… "Oh, ok. Well, that's a good idea."

"Meeting the family's kind of a big step, if our relationship were remotely real."

There was that low self-confidence she was starting to see over and over. Sarah was determined to fix that for the hero of the Burbank Buy More.

Then she realized that dinner at Chuck's would be her first date outside of a mission with someone who wasn't in the CIA. In high school, before her CIA make-over, she wasn't attracting guys. She had grown up breaking the law. She didn't really want anyone to get to know her. Always moving around, she never established relationships, or even friendships. She supposed she had a few dates with marks, but that was for work and some of those men ended up dead hours later. Chuck was under her protection, not a mark. Their relationship was her job. That made this dinner with the sister not a real date either, but it was close. Dinner with Chuck's sister didn't have a mission objective like meeting an NSA agent or having a brain test. That was as close to a real date as she could expect. She thought maybe she should count the first two.

"Since this examination thing didn't work out, it looks like you're not getting rid of me easily," Chuck lightly joked.

"Uh, yeah," Sarah managed to say, without expressing too much disappointment and without conveying any happiness that she would see him again at their next almost-date. She wanted to tell him about the rush of the flash, even with the subsequent headache, because he was the only person that could understand. But she didn't want to scare him that there were traitors around. Her job was to keep him out of it, at least for the night.

"Ok. Drive safe." He tapped on the door again in goodbye and left with a smile. Sarah couldn't believe it, but once again, she wanted a goodbye kiss, even on the cheek.

Sarah drove away, heading back to her long-stay hotel. It was nicer than some of the places she had had to stay on missions in the past. It was too green, though.

Early in the evening, before Zarnow started testing Chuck, Sarah flashed on him. Like the first time, she got an almost debilitating headache. She was able to cover, since Zarnow didn't know what a flash reaction looked like. She excused herself to the restroom, and she heard Casey make some sexist comment about it being her time of the month. It worked, though. When the test on Chuck concluded, they handcuffed the scientist who had been selling secrets to the North Koreans. Casey stayed behind for processing.

Chuck performed incredibly well on the test. He flashed a couple dozen times. He complained at the end that he wanted a couple Ibuprofen, only a mild reaction by Sarah's judgement. She wasn't sure she could do what he did. After she flashed on Zarnow, she didn't actually get sick enough that she had to go to the restroom. She could have flashed a few more times, but not nearly as many times as Chuck. She left mainly so Zarnow would have an excuse for her visible reaction. Back at the Farm, she went through torture training. Seeing that many Intersect images would have been worse.

The whole situation really brought home one of the main things that was bothering her about the entire situation. She could tell Graham and Beckman were practically salivating at the prospect of having a trained agent with the Intersect in her brain. They were only held back by theoretical security risks. If she went on a mission and flashed, and that flash debilitated her for a few seconds, it could blow her cover and leave her vulnerable. That would put all of the nation's secrets in jeopardy. They wanted to understand the risks before sending her out on her own.

To them, Chuck presented a fortunate opportunity. They could run experiments on him and see how they affected him before messing with their pristine human Intersect agent.

In Sarah's opinion, Chuck wasn't a good comparison. The tests that they let Zarnow finish proved Chuck's ability to flash was beyond all believed possibility—a lot better than hers. When she flashed on Zarnow, she had to fake being sick so he wouldn't notice. She wasn't that sick, but it was clear that something had happened to anyone paying attention. She couldn't do something like that when at a ball at an embassy. It would blow her cover while Chuck, the untrained civilian, would be fine. He wasn't a good baseline for measuring her.

Sarah had only flashed once all night, and hours later she still had a splitting headache. Chuck flashed around forty times, and while he said he was starting to have a headache, he was still flirting with her in the car on the way home—well, his version of flirting. No bad pick-up lines, slightly self-deprecating humor, and compliments that seemed genuine and made her stomach flip. He wasn't trying to flirt, but it was working—while he was supposedly not feeling well.

Sarah pulled into her hotel's parking area. One of the most surprising things about the evening was not Chuck's flashing ability, but Chuck himself. Thoughts of her curly-haired, cover-boyfriend wouldn't be leaving her as she was trying to go to sleep. Maybe she'd have some good dreams.

Sarah's most used skills were infiltration and neutralization, but looking like she did, she had her fair share of working as a lure. She was very familiar with heavy gazes and pawing from marks. Those marks were the worst people from around the world.

Chuck was not like them. For one thing, he was no longer a mark as he was when they first met. She still found herself a little disappointed there was no goodnight kiss. Their cover was boyfriend and girlfriend. She fully expected him to take advantage of the situation, at least a little. When she went to get him in the home theater room after his test, he didn't even use the opportunity to look at her chest, even though he was sitting eye-level with it, and that was the perfect opportunity.

When she originally tried to take Chuck's computer, wearing an all-black disguise, she easily dispatched both him and Morgan. The way the two of them ended up, she almost thought… No. Chuck wasn't constantly checking her out, but at dinner the other night, he blushed a little whenever she stared into his eyes. He acted differently than every other man who was suddenly dating a beautiful woman. That didn't mean he wasn't interested.

If they were going to be cover-dating a while, she was going to have to work with Chuck and let him know he was allowed to fake some affection. It wouldn't be a lot, but if he kept acting like she was out of his league, it wouldn't be a convincing cover.

Sarah was a little disappointed it was only a cover. Then again, if not for the cover, she wouldn't get to see him at all. She didn't dwell on what that thought meant.

She never cover-dated the same person for any length of time. She'd only had to get close to marks on missions. Chuck was so much more appealing than those people. He was tall, cute, funny, and very smart. If she was honest with herself, whenever she saw him, she wanted to run her fingers through his curls. He genuinely seemed to be a nice guy, and that was the opinion of someone who was great at reading people, if she had to say so herself.

Chuck was very open and honest with her. At one point a few days before, she was a little concerned his openness might make him a security threat, but at the slightest mention that he couldn't tell anyone about the Intersect, he was almost shocked at the suggestion that he would think of not keeping it a secret. He said he was frightened what his overprotective sister would do if she found out. If anything, Chuck probably considered the secrecy of Sarah's human Intersect status to be more important than she did.

Chuck just had to get used to having a girlfriend again. "Tonight was probably the best/only second date he'd been on in years?" That made her feel sorry for him. He was a catch, despite how much he belittled his job. He was already the closest thing she had ever had to a friend who wasn't a spy…maybe ever. There wasn't a lot of competition; she wanted a friend like Chuck. She was positive she wouldn't mind spending more time with him. She'd have to break him of his attitude and make him realize that he could be better when she was gone.

Back in her room, she started getting ready for bed. Her thoughts remained on the other human Intersect.

If she helped Chuck realize he was a catch, he could more easily get some woman after she left. Lucky girl. For now, he was just Sarah's assignment.

One thing the night proved was that the higher-ups at the NSA and CIA had no idea what they were doing with respect to the Intersect. The person who in their opinion had the best chance at figuring out how to get the Intersect out Chuck's head had been selling secrets to North Korea? And they just sent him to Chuck? She was really glad she also had an Intersect and could prevent the traitor from getting close to her protectee. Zarnow never found out she had an Intersect. It wouldn't always be that easy.

Chuck might consider her more valuable to protect because she's a human Intersect spy, but he's a civilian, and she's the one who's supposed to protect him. He's not just any civilian. In the brief time she's known him, he saved a marriage, boosted the self-esteem of a little girl, and prevent a bomb from killing dozens of people.

A little part of her was glad Zarnow wouldn't be taking the Intersect out of his head. The fact that someone with no training was handling it so well made her a little less scared of it herself. Since Chuck would have the Intersect in his head for the foreseeable future, she'd remain in LA, protecting him. He'd give her confidence she needed from a friend, a friend who had the same thing in his head as she did in hers.

He definitely should not be put at risk to protect her because the entire situation was caused by Bryce and because an Intersect being in her head was her own fault.

A/N: Oh, no. What did Sarah do? Stay tuned.

In the meantime, Chuck isn't the only one who is spiraling.