Chuck and Sarah Ch. 03

This is the third part of my series about the lovely and loving spy-couple, we all grew to like.

The story takes place right after episode 4.01 ("Chuck vs. the Anniversary") and shows, that failure isn't an option for "Team Bartowski".

I've dedicated this story to my hometown Belgrade – A city that once had quite an illustrious spy-history.

Being a trading place between east and west in the past, I wondered, how it might be sending our spy-friends to this beautiful town.

I hope, you will enjoy my ideas and the story.

Feedback is – as usual – fully appreciated.

I'd like to thank meanblackjack for editing this story, like he did the previous two. I'm getting better in the process, don't I?

Even on a rather quiet Sunday noon, the traffic around the central station of Belgrade was a catastrophe. Convoys of honking and partly stinking and smoking cars and buses circled the streets and polluted the warm autumnal air with their exhaust fumes. The yelling and cursing of both, drivers – no matter if car, motorcycle or cab – and pedestrian, filled the air with a dissonant music, sounding like the performers tried to feature different pieces of music with the same intensity. Still the warm and sunny weather had lured countless residents, tourists, visitors and others out of their houses and into the streets and parks of Belgrade.

Kenneth (never ever to be called Ken at all) Richardson the third, proud graduate of the Harvard Law School, and fledgling MBA of the Harvard Business School from Hartford, Conneticut, was one of these tourists, and just enjoyed his Turska Kafa at the terrace of a – due to the weather and hour surprisingly empty – little Café at the corner of Ulica Karađorđeva and Milovana Milovanovića. In fact, beside him there were only two other guests – and despite the beautiful weather they were already sitting inside at a corner table in the back of the Café, when he took a seat at the terrace.

The reason for Kenneth's good mood were the pretty girls and young women, Belgrade was even known for in the states. A huge number of them promenaded through the metropolis at the rivers Danube and Sava, and therefore through the parks across from the central station. Kenneth imagined how many of them would have wet panties, if they saw him in his double-breasted Boss-suit, with his golden Rolex Mariner and in his brand-new Lexus LFA.

Back at his condo at Beacon Hill in Boston, many young female attorneys had been crawling into his bed, incredibly turned on by his wealth and connections – at least he thought so. It aroused him that in his opinion this women's career depended on his good will... He was convinced, he had the power.

'But all this scheming sluts, that had abused my good nature, where nothing compared to the women of Belgrade.' he mused.

'Next to them even the girls in Señora Hurons establishment in Cabo have to fade.' went through his mind, and he thought back at his spring break in Cabo San Luca, two years ago. Back then, as a student, supplied with his fathers platinum card, he thought, he could have every women he wanted... And this wasn't supposed to change ever... That's what he was working for.

The next moment, his attention was drawn back to the present reality. What he saw, made all memories of the sex and fun in Cabo vanish.

In the reflecting window of a parked car he observed a stunning blonde, he had subconsciously already registered before.

Her long slender legs really caught his attention, and when he scanned her luscious legs from the flat ballerinas upwards, he witnessed the hot blonde stashing two guns beneath her vest in her skirt's waistband behind her back, and entering the Café through the backdoor, without noticing him watching.

'Wait a minute! This was a waitress! A damn armed waitress? What's going on here?'

Was he supposed to be the innocent victim of an assassination by the organized crime? He knew plenty of stories about the crime scene and lawlessness in Belgrade and he was right in the city's heart.

'What the devil made me come here in the first place?' a whining voice inside his head lamented. 'They're crazy here! They were killing each other and don't give a shit about innocent bystanders.'

Kenneth remembered, they had even killed their own president in a drive-by-shooting on bright daylight.

He spotted a waiter next to the counter, a little shorter and bearded... undoubtedly a Serb, and most likely also a mobster, but Kenneth was willing to take the risk. He just had to tell someone about his observation. Especially because the fake waitress just stepped from behind the counter and with a tablet in her hand approached the table the two men in dark clothes sat on and apparently were seriously discussing something.

"Konobare! Razumete engleski?" he called the bearded man.

The waiter almost reluctantly and with a annoyed face approached his table and approved his question about his language skills with a nod.

'For Heaven's sake... I just try to save him and his countries reputation, and he acts like a sleeping pill... At least he understands English.' Kenneth cursed inwardly. 'I should just get out of here and let him die! Why can't this illiterate morons just understand, we only want to protect their unprogressive asses.'

"American?" the waiter asked slightly irritated, when he reached the table, showing an accent, Kenneth registered but couldn't sort in yet.

"Yes, damn right, but that's not the point. I've just seen this blonde entering the Café through the backdoor. She is armed and approaching the two men at the corner table there – most likely criminals or even worse. They could be her accomplices."

To Kenneth's utter astonishment the waiter just turned to the table in question, watched, shared a glance with the woman and turned back to him with an exerted smile. What he saw now, made him tremble in his pants and feeling his blood rushing to his feet.

As an upright Republican and inhabitant of New England, he of course had recognized the 16-pointed compass rose and the bald eagles head being what it was. Being faced with this signs together with the three capitalized letters on the badge made him so stunned, he almost had missed the little bearded man's whispered words.

"Shut the fuck up, keep drinking you coffee like a good boy and stay calm."

The bearded stretched his hand, demanding his passport.

"All right, Ken... I believe, you're an upright American citizen, who loves his country and trusts his government. Stand up and leave this place like nothing had happened, and you will not be harmed in any way. And now let me do my job... Sir!"

After this words, the waiter – 'the CIA-agent' Kenneth corrected himself inwardly – turned away, put the passport on the table and, while leaving, provided the young republican attorney with the view on a scene, he would be the center of attention for, if he ever reports his experience at a coffee break at "Wolfram & Hart" back in Boston.

Suddenly the taller of the two men at the corner table jumped up and grabbed the other one. Kenneth decided to betake himself to flight, and when he ran away, he could have sworn feeling the burning gaze of the CIA-assassin on his back. His mind raced and the clearest thought was: 'I'll be the hero of every lunch break and meeting, if I tell this story to my colleagues.'

Then the thought hit him:

'If I manage to survive...'

"That's almost unbelievable, Morgan! You really did it? You have restored the data?"

Sarah could have jubilated of joy, when she watched over Morgan's shoulder how one window after another sprang to life on the display, and Mary Elizabeth Bartowski's alias "Frost" appeared in several documents.

"Believe me, Sarah... I'm surprised myself. In fact I've just been hoping to recover fragments of the data. This is a surprise even to me."

Morgan was unusually humble, what, taken for itself, already clearly indicated, how important and meaningful this success was.

Only a few days ago, Chuck and Morgan had, unbeknownst to Casey and Sarah, followed a trace of Chuck's mom to Moscow. In a former KGB-facility, now belonging to a mysterious arms dealer named Volkoff, they discovered a wast amount of data. Among this data was also a large dossier about Mary Elizabeth Bartowski, Chuck's long lost mother, they tried to download.

By chance, Casey and Sarah, on their part searching for Volkoff without even sensing there might be a connection to Chuck's mom, also were at this facility – as prisoners.

Chuck had to choose between his search for his mother and saving Sarah and Casey, when it came to have to initiate an "EMP" – an electromagnetic pulse – to cover their pullback.

At this point all of them were convinced, Chuck's chances to find his mother were irretrievable lost, when the "EMP" destroyed the mainframe before the download was completed.

It was only due to Morgan's fondness of experimenting and Sarah's confidence, both of them took a second look at the portable hard drive, Chuck had used for the download, and that somehow had survived the shooting, tucked deep down in Chuck's pocket. It was almost a miracle, even so much data were secured on the storage medium, before the pulse had broiled all electronics. The mission wasn't a total failure.

"We have to tell Chuck! He'll freak out when he hears this."

Morgan was almost as exited as Sarah... Chuck meant a lot to both of them.

When Mary Elizabeth had left her family, it was up to Elli and Morgan – each of them in their own way – to take care of Chuck. While Elli became a sort of replacement mom, Morgan was his best friend forever and playmate, and helped Chuck with a lot of distraction to cope with the hard and bad times that followed. Their friendship was now still as close as it had been two decades ago.

"It would be good for him to learn we have found a trace. It already was a relief for him, when he realized his mother didn't leave them behind on purpose but was captured."

Although it sounded crazy, she really understood, what Morgan meant. To know, his mother was alive and could be found, was indeed a great relief for him, after his father got killed.

Morgan looked at Sarah for a while and finally smiled.

"Tell him... I think, he should get the good news from you."

She knew exactly how much this bearded kid in a grown man's body wanted to tell his friend the good news himself and fully understood what a concession it was granting her this privilege. Any word would have been redundant, so she just nodded at him, smiled and whispered a silent, but sincere "Thank you" his way before she left "The Castle" – their secret command center beneath the Buy More – and searched for Chuck.

After Morgan, Chuck and Sarah had analyzed the data for several hours, to their frustration they had to face the fact that they did not have suffice intelligence about the whereabouts of Elli's and Chuck's mother. But they found hints that pointed to another facility of Volkoff, where maybe a backup of the missing data could be found.

The facility was southeastern of Belgrade in Serbia.

"I have to go there!"

Chuck looked around with a determined expression on his face – but inwardly hoping for Sarah's unrestrained approval.

Although she supported him completely, he also knew her deep inside being afraid of him getting hurt on his search for his mother – emotionally or physically.

"She's my mom, Sarah."

He looked at her, full with hope, conviction and trust.

"Will you help me?" he whispered.

"I'll always be at your side, Chuck... You know that." she promised, and – again – pushed her fear for him aside.

No matter how often he would be a hero, to her he also would always be a bit of the nerd, he was when he just had got the "Intersect". She was a enough of a realist to know that, during the time since Mary Elizabeth had disappeared, Chuck's mother could have changed – and of this change, Sarah was afraid of. Would the woman, they'll find, still be the woman that used to tuck her kids in and read them bedtime-stories? Her experiences with her own father, Jack Burton, were still a warning to her.

"Count me in, buddy!" suddenly Morgan's voice sounded, startling Sarah out of her musing.

She thought loudly. "Now we just have to come up with any ideas how to bypass Gen. Beckmann. She wouldn't allow us this mission, just on a vague suspicion... And we can't tell her about Mary Elizabeth."

"Just leave Beckmann up to me, Walker... I already have some ideas, how we could manage this."

Casey entered the living room, Chuck, Morgan and Sarah were sitting in. Obviously he had overheard at least the last part of the conversation and planed his effective entry. The four of them looked at each other, and a familiar feeling caught them.

"Team Bartowski" was reunited.

"Do you have even an idea, how we could enter this facility at all? Neither NSA nor NRO have sufficient information about this facility near Belgrade."

Sarah, as much as she loved and understood him, wasn't ready to let him storm head over heels into action, unless they knew how to handle the mission.

"Especially when Serbia is concerned, our recon is still very sketchy."

"And the Chinese still mad at us." Chuck added, sort of absentminded.

Sarah sat in the armchair across the bed and intently looked at Chuck, who, sitting on the bed, had dug his head into his fathers old files. He had answered totally deadpan, and nothing indicated him being joking.

Nevertheless she couldn't stifle a chuckle because his comment, although the destruction of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade wasn't a bright spot in the history of the US-intelligence services. Actually they had expected the former Serbian secret service's headquarter to be located there. Unfortunately the headquarter was at the opposite end of the metropolis – and had never ever been located there, but the Chinese embassy was located there since the early 60s.

China was still very displeased because of this "mishap"

Eventually Chuck's head rose from the file, and he smiled.

"I don't know, but I know who could tell us. My dad had someone with the SUP (Savez unutrašnjih poslova) – the Serbian equivalent to our FBI – and he seems to have trusted him... With my dad, this really means something serious."

Sarah looked tenderly at her boyfriend and partner.

"You should take a break, darling. It's getting late, and we're finally on our own."

She rose from the armchair and softly stroked his shoulders.

"You work to much... That's usually my part."

Sighing he leaned his cheek on her hand, and just murmured absentminded.

"Just a second... I just want to double-check something." and with that he again dived into the file.

"The file ain't going to run away... Don't cha wanna take a break... Darling?"

Her voice had turned into a seductive purr, and from somewhere music sounded softly and delicate.

Chuck recognized the music, even before he really heard it, and he knew very well what it meant, when Sarah was playing "Nina Simone – Feelin' good".

It was their song, since they had returned from their "little trip" – although Gen. Beckmann rather called it going AWOL – to Switzerland, and Chuck had presented this song to Sarah.

He looked at her, and there she was, his Sarah, smiling seductively and asking in a luring tone: "Are you really sure, you can't double-check it in the morning?"

Sarah loved to dress classy, sexy and elegant, but also being a couch potato, she enjoyed wearing baggy shirts and sweatpants and make herself comfortable. But no matter, what she wore, Chuck longed for her... Like he did now.

She stood before him, barefoot, ready for bed, clad in his old basketball shorts and a skimpy tank top, her silky hair loose and untamed, and pushed back the switch of the dimmer with her foot to soften the light.

For the last six month they had hardly been seeing each other, because she and Casey were on an official mission searching for Volkoff, while Chuck – who had retired from the CIA like he had promised to Elli – and Morgan were on their unofficial mission to find Mary Elizabeth. Therefore a lot had been piled up between them. A sexual tension they couldn't have released by only "sexting".

In no time, he had closed the file, thrown it on the desk, was on his feet, pushed her against the shelf, the hi-fi system stood on and was kissing her passionately.

"You know very well, I can't resist you... I even don't want to resist you."

His tongue darted into her mouth and played with hers, while his hands pushed her top up and caressed her breast. He enjoyed the feeling of her nipples beneath his fingers and gently squeezed them, while he pressed himself against her and let her feel, how much she excited him. Her moaning proved her enjoying it too.

Her hands slid behind his boxer's waistband, and she dug her nails into his buttocks.

"Why would you want to resist me, anyway? You have fallen for me, haven't you?"

She teased him breathlessly and excitedly, as he came up for air, and dragged her nails over the skin of his but.

"I want you, Chuck!"

Her gaze speared into his eyes, and she seemed to be glowing in the dark. Way too long they hadn't had touched and loved each other. They had been to much involved and engaged into their obligations and duties. Only spies and no lovers.

So much the better understandable was it, that they went down on each other now, and Chuck had to struggle to get rid of the blanket on the bed, before Sarah pulled her top off, pushed herself on him and they dropped on the bed. Wild and covetous they kissed and bit, explored each others body with hands, lips and tongue – determined to erase the past six month from their memory, driven by the desire to hold and feel each other.

When the trombone solo set in, Sarah had also stripped Chuck's shirt off and kissed his neck. Her lips caressed his skin and she enjoyed it very much, when his strong fingers fondled her pussy through the fabric of the shorts... She enjoyed the promise of much more intense pleasures, his fondling, caressing and groping fingers gave her.

Her naked boobs brushed his skin and she pushed him further with gentle but intense bites, while his hands pulled down her shorts and she started grinding against his crotch. His erection was right beneath her lap and she moaned every time she slid over it.

How much she had missed his strength and warmth... How much she had missed his presence, his smell... His smile, warming her heart... She had missed all of this, but most of all she had missed the feeling of laying in his arms.

When she sat on his lap, and he easily slid inside, they looked into each other's eyes and wordlessly assured each other how much they had missed the other. Slow rocking turned into demanding riding, then again into covetous grinding and sensual embraces. None of them said a word, but they knew each other's wishes.

For the rest of the night, neither of them thought about anything else then pleasure, passion and devotion. When they finally rested, exhausted but happy, and the morning started to dawn outside, Chuck whispered into Sarah's ear while she laid in his arms, relaxed and smiling.

"Happy anniversary, darling."

Her reaction was to hug him, to pull him close, to kiss him and eventually to start silently snoring in his ear, when she fell asleep.