Sarah vs. the Third

"Oh, and Sarah," called Shaw as Sarah reached the end of the hallway leading to the Buy More entrance of the base.

Sarah stopped grudgingly. She knew that what Shaw needed to say had to be important, or he wouldn't have used her first name. She turned around reluctantly, really wanting to leave but knowing she had to stay a few seconds longer. "Yes, sir," she said with a forced smile.

"I meant what I said. I really don't care," said Shaw with a smile, the first genuine show of emotion Sarah had seen from him all night.

The implications of what Shaw just said were obvious. He was almost blatantly telling Sarah that he doesn't care that she likes women, that he still cares for her and any feeling that were there last night haven't changed because of this abrupt discovery. Sarah felt an equally genuine smile spread on her face at Shaw's reassuring words. She might not know what kind of future, if any, she wants with the stoic CIA agent, but she was glad to know she hadn't ruined things with him completely. The next few mission briefings might be a bit awkward, but that would fade away eventually and hopefully everything would be back to normal in a few days.

Sarah walked the familiar path down the pathway the CIA installed underneath the Buy More. She ascended the stairs that would eventually lead to the exit. It was unusual for them to use the Buy More entrance this late, when everyone in the store was gone and the store closed, but it was their only option at the moment. The other passage way that led to the secure NSA planted Orange Orange was usually their primary mode of entering and exiting Castle, but the door seemed to be on the fritz at the moment. It only seemed for some reason it only acknowledged Shaw. Every time her, Casey and Chuck tried to enter through it locked down the entire base. Luckily Shaw lived in the base and was there 24 hours a day so he was able to shut it off before it call any unnecessary agents arrived, but it was still a pain in the ass.

It was easy to pass off why Chuck and Casey would be coming and going from the Buy More staff room: they work there. But Sarah was just seen as Chuck's ex-girlfriend. She didn't have any reason now to be in the Buy More when Chuck wasn't unless she was buying something. And Sarah didn't want to have to buy some electronic device she would never use just to do her job. But Sarah had seen Morgan, the current Buy More manager, lock up and leave earlier, so the store was currently empty. Reaching the door that led into the Buy More, Sarah typed in her security code in the console next to the door.

"Recognized: Sarah Walker." the computerized voice said as the door slowly opened, revealing the all to familiar bland staff room with its green and yellow boarders along the floor and ceiling. Sarah exited the pathway into the room and pushed the door shut, which from this side was made to look like a section of lockers.

Then, just as the door started to slide into place in its spot in the wall, Sarah heard it. The all too familiar click-clack of heels on tile floor. The sound was close, coming from the front door, meaning whoever this woman was she wasn't that far from entering. Sarah had three, maybe five seconds top to decide what to do.

She looked at the door she had just entered the room through. It was now firmly secured in place and looked like a plain old wall of lockers, indistinguishable from the rest of it's metal brothers. There wasn't enough time to open it, slip inside and close it without whoever this late worker was. Sarah looked around the room at the two other normal doors that entered into the room. No, once again she didn't have time to get to either door, open it, slip through and close it with out being detected. Could she hide on top of the vending machines? Their was enough space up their and she was small enough to completely hide herself if she scrunched up enough. But again, she just didn't have time to climb up there, whether she used the tables of just scaled the machine herself, without making too much noise. This left her with one option.

When the door finally swung open, the mystery woman found Sarah crouching under one of the tables in the room.

"What are you doing here?" asked a very surprised Hannah with an accusatory tone in her voice. Sarah was just as surprised to see Hannah as the girl was to see her, but she ignored her own curiosity for at the moment.

"I'm sorry! I know I'm not supposed to be here, but I forgot my gym gear," explained Sarah holding up the bag she had just picked up, after throwing it under the table so she could feign picking it up in the first place.

"Yeah, you're right, you aren't supposed to be here," shot Hannah, arms crossed in front of her chest and not at all happy to see Sarah. "How did you get in here?"

Sarah gulped. She wasn't worried, but she needed to act it to fool the angry woman who honestly caught her red handed somewhere Sarah wasn't supposed to be.

"Well, you see," began Sarah, adding a nervous tone to her voice to add to the effect, "I used to date Chuck and they haven't changed the security in the back since then and - "

Hannah cut Sarah off with bitter laugh. "Yes, Sarah, I know the history between you and Chuck very well, thanks. It's one of the things we have in common now," she added harshly.

"Yeah, I heard about that,' said Sarah with true pity in her voice. She had honestly felt bad for both Chuck and Hannah when she heard today how he ended it with her the night before. "Look Hannah, I know you probably don't want to hear this from me but I'm sor-"

"Yeah, you're right, I don't want to hear it from you Sarah!" spat Hannah, looking much angrier than Sarah had ever seen her in the weeks that she and Chuck were together. "Now please, just leave. I'm not going to call the police on you because that would mean I have to stay here longer when I just want to leave."

Sarah was surprised. Hannah seemed to really be pissed. 'What happened between them' she wondered to herself, not for the first time today. She had never seen a woman so pissed because of Chuck who wasn't in handcuffs. 'It must have been bad' she thought as she nodded at Hannah's request and moved to walk past her.

The back room of the Buy More wasn't that large of a place. So there wasn't that much space separating Sarah and the pretty and pissed brunette standing by the door, but it felt to Sarah much longer than the six steps it took to reach the other woman. She took her time looking at Hannah. Really look at her. Sarah hadn't had too many opportunities to see Hannah in the brief weeks the olive skinned beauty had been in Chuck's life. There was the time in the museum, but both her and Hannah were just recovering from near death so Sarah couldn't get a real impression of her. But other than that, Sarah didn't really want to be around Hannah.

It was very petty, she knew it, but she had been jealous. This girl just shows up randomly on a plane to Paris, follows Chuck back to Burbank, and just like that they're dating. It couldn't have been that easy for Sarah and Chuck. No, that would be too fair. So Sarah had kept her distance and watched Chuck try to juggle his budding relationship with a girl he really cared for and keep his life as spy a secret. She felt sympathy for both as they equally suffered as the mounting responsibilities Chuck gained kept him from her.

Now it was over and the woman Sarah barely knew, the woman she had burned with jealousy over, had fantasized about stealing Chuck from, stood before her with an mask contempt that was surely hiding the pain and hurt she was feeling, staring right at Sarah.

When Sarah moved past Hannah to exit the room, she stopped. She knew she should just continue on her way, that Hannah was literally nothing to her. She was the now former ex-girlfriend of the CIA/NSA asset and spy-in-training who just so happened to be the man Sarah herself fell for and got hurt by. She owed Hannah nothing and could leave this building to never think of her again.

But Sarah had been Hannah only a few months ago. Her heart had been shattered and she had been angry beyond belief. She took her anger out on Chuck by being cold and distant to him because her job was to be around him, but Hannah couldn't do that. She was just going to be angry and sad for a time. And while Sarah was sure that was how most break-ups went, this wasn't most break-ups. This was breaking up with Chuck Bartowski, one of the most sincerely sweet and kind men Sarah had ever known.

"Hannah," said Sarah, turning to the other woman as her resolve to do this solidified, "do you want to talk?"

Hannah's eyebrows rose and her eyes widened in confusion. She quickly got over the suddenness of the question however and let out a small laugh, "Do I want to talk? With you?" she asked with unrestrained disdain.

"With me, yes," answered Sarah, ignoring the harshness in Hannah's voice.

"Why would I want to talk with you?!" snapped Hannah, her eyes slits of anger.

Hannah must have realized how rude she was acting, because her eyes widened in horror and she turned away from Sarah. "Oh god, Sarah, I'm so sorry!" Hannah apologized, putting a hand over her mouth and sounding like she was about to cry. "I don't mean to be so rude. I don't know what's come over me." Hannah sat down in a close by chair and just... gave up. She didn't do anything other than slump her shoulders in despair, but Sarah could tell. Hannah simply looked defeated, broken.

Sarah moved cautiously moved over to the table, not sure if Hannah would want her to join her. But Sarah decided to risk it and sat down in a chair next to the upset woman.

"You're upset and hurt. Believe me, I know what you're going through," sympathized Sarah, putting her bag down on a chair next to her. "I've been where you are."

Hannah looked up at the blonde next to her and gave her a small smile. "Yeah, I guess you have."

Sarah returned Hannah's smile. "Would you mind telling me what happened between the two of you? I only know that the two of you broke up last night," she asked.

"What does it matter what happened?" asked Hannah harshly. "It happened, it's over! It's done!"

"It doesn't matter, not really," claimed Sarah, backing off defensively. She hadn't expected such a heated response, but wasn't that surprised. "I just wanted to help. Sometime's it helps to just talk, to tell your story. Sometimes it can take some pain off your shoulders. It doesn't always help, I know, but..." Sarah paused, trying to think of what she was trying to say. She had never done this before, comforting a woman with a broken heart.

Hannah looked away from Sarah, staring off into the corner of the room, but Sarah knew she wasn't seeing anything. She then said closing her eyes with a heavy sigh, "I just want to forget it ever happened." As she said this a few tears slipped from her closed eye, trailing down her smooth cheek.

Sarah reached over to her gym bag, unzipped it half way and, with out looking, reached in and grabbed the top towel she felt. Pulling it out, she reached over and gently cupped Hannah's chin in her free hand.

Surprised at the unexpected gentle touch, Hannah gasped. She didn't fight, though, as Sarah held up her towel and gestured to Hannah's tear streaked face, indicating what she wanted to do. Hannah nodded in agreement as Sarah ever so gently wiped the salty tears from Hannah's lovely skin with the towel.

Hannah closed her eyes as Sarah applied such gentle pressure to her cheeks, clearing her face away of any upset blemishes. She had never expected to feel such softness and gentleness from someone who she had thought of as competition up until last night. She was surprised to find how much she liked it and was sad when Sarah pulled her hands away.

"No you don't," said Sarah finally.

Hannah snapped her eyes open, all pleasantness from Sarah's tender hands gone as she absorbed what Sarah had just said to her. How dare Sarah be so presumptive to tell me what I should feel!

Before Hannah could tell her off for being so insensitive, however, Sarah beat her to it by explaining herself, "You don't want to forget because, even though this may hurt now, and I'm sure it will hurt for some time, you don't want to forget because I wanted to forget."

"What do you mean," Hannah asked, anger in her voice, but there was also curiosity in there as well.

'She really wants to know what I have to say,' an amazed Sarah said to herself. She never had a girl friend who sought out her advice before. Chuck's sister, Ellie, may come to her from time to time to talk about Chuck or Awsome, but she also had other friends at work and from school who had much better advice to give.

"I mean, when Chuck ended our relationship, all I wanted to do was forget it ever happened," explained Sarah. Now she was the one who was turning away from Hannah, not wanting to look at her while she explained the details of the end of her relationship with their mutual ex-boyfriend. "Not just the break-up, but everything that led up to it: all the love I felt that seemed insignificant; how he made me laugh; the future I thought the two of us might have had."

She felt her throat begin to clench up. Not wanting to get weepy when she was trying to cheer up an all ready crying girl, Sarah forced herself to continue. "But after a few days of wishing that I had never known Chuck Bartowski, I realized that if I forgot Chuck because of how her hurt me, than I would also be forgetting all the great times we had together: How he made me laugh at the stupidest things; the times we would stay up watching movies, talking about how silly they were or listening him talk so passionately about Star Wars; how I felt more alive with him than I had ever felt with anyone else. And it was those thoughts that allowed me to move on and live my life. Because as much as he hurt me, Chuck also helped. And I thank he helped you too."

Hannah listened to Sarah's emotional explanation, fully taking in what she was telling her. 'Chuck helped me?' she thought to herself.

"How?" Hannah asked with a small voice, but Sarah heard her perfectly. "I mean, I move out here thinking that I met the greatest guy and that I finally found something. In return he avoids me half the time and than sleeps with me before dumping me the next night. While I'm having dinner with my parents. How is any of that good for me?" she demanded Sarah to answer.

"He did what?" Sarah asked in shock. "That doesn't sound like Chuck," she added, looking away trying to process this new information and figure out why Chuck would act so out of character.

Remembering what she was supposed to be doing here, Sarah forgot about trying to figure out the strange decisions of Chuck. She turned back to Hannah and said, "I can't tell you why he did that, and I'm not going to excuse it or give you some bullshit excuse, but think about how brave you've been."

This cause Hannah to scoff harshly. "Brave, yeah right," she mocked, anger back on her face as her lips twisted into another scowl. "More like how big of an idiot I am."

Sarah shook her head in defiance. She took one of Hannah's hands into hers and tried to clarify. "Just think about it Hannah, think about what you did. You meet a guy on a plane and hit it off with him. You want to start something with him, but you have to leave each other almost instantly. Instead of spending the rest of you life wondering about what could have been, you hop on another plane and track him down, because you know that this guy is special. When things are a little rocky at first, you are determined to make it work, because you know the two of you have something. You refused to let your relationship die because of superficial reasons. You fought for it instead and only now that the decision has been made for you are you giving up on it. And now you are you hating yourself. But the truth is Hannah, and this is important," Sarah emphasized, looking deep into Hannah's eyes, which hadn't wavered from Sarah's since she started talking, "the truth is that you are one of the bravest people I know. I never would have done what you did for a guy I barely knew. And if Chuck made you do this, than I say your time with him was damn well worth it, despite all the tears now. Because the next guy won't stand a chance."

She said as she reached up and wiped off more tears, this time her towel left forgotten, instead using her thumb to wipe away the falling tears.

Hannah hitched a breath as Sarah wiped her cheek and her eyes fluttered shut. She never expected to feel so safe and comforted by Chuck's ex-girlfriend. Hannah had felt nothing but contempt and jealousy for the blonde from the moment she saw her. She was the type of woman that men cheat on their girlfriends for: a statuesque blonde with curves galore and a penchant for clingy and/or short pants and low cut, revealing tops. Then she found out that Chuck had actually dated this mini-goddess and she hated Sarah even more. Hannah always secretly hated when the two would interact, but she barely said anything because she didn't want to upset Chuck, who clearly still wanted Sarah to be a friend. Plus Sarah seemed to be moving onto the Superman-wannabe Hannah had seen her with a few times.

But now Sarah was sitting with her in the back room of the Buy More, comforting her and telling her such amazing things. Hannah couldn't help but feel guilty about her earlier negative thoughts about this woman, who clearly was a nice, loving person.

"Thank you, Sarah," Hannah said, reaching up and placing her hand over Sarah's stopping her from wiping away now non-existing tears. The two sat there for a few seconds, hands clasping each others, before Hannah moved Sarah's hand off of her face. "You've really been a big help. And you were right."

"About what," asked Sarah, not wanting to pull her hands away but fearing the all to familiar sparks she was feeling in her chest, deciding that it would be for the best. As gently as she could with out coming off as rude, Sarah disentangled her hands from Hannah's resting them on her lap, but not leaning away from Hannah, silently telling her that she was still listening to whatever Hannah had to say.

Hannah was slightly disappointed when Sarah pulled her hands away, but tried to mask it by running one hand through her hair. "It did help to talk about it," she said with a smile.

"Now there's what I wanted to see," beamed Sarah, pointing at Hannah's lovely smile. "Smiling, cheery Hannah is much better than frowning, grumpy Hannah."

Hannah mock bowed in response and said through her smile, "Okay but only because you asked. The moment you leave my sight, I'm going to go back to grumpy, angry mode."

"Well then, I just won't have to leave you," said Sarah with a smile, but also slightly serious. She didn't want Hannah to slip back into her sad self when they leave tonight. "Speaking of leaving, how are you getting home. You don't have access to the Nerd Herder cars anymore, right?"

"No, I had to give the keys back with my resignation," admitted Hannah with a shrug. "And Morgan was going to give me a ride home, but as completely nice as he has been to me, I didn't want to have to listen to him try to change my mind or have him hound me about Chuck."

"But your okay with talking about him to me?" Sarah asked curiously.

"I guess so," said Hannah. She took a few minutes to think before she then said, "I guess that you are more comforting to me than Morgan. Also, there's less of a chance of you hitting on me than him," she added with a laugh.

Sarah forced a laugh of her own, and said "Yeah, he wasn't being very subtle was he?" to cover up the nerves she was feeling. Truth be told, Sarah was much better with women than Morgan ever was. She had certainly been with more of them than he had, that she was sure of.