Welcome to the fourth chapter in my 'Sarah vs.' series. It's been a much longer time since my last update than I planned, but that's life, isn't it. It just keeps getting in the way of all the fun. I promise to get the next story up faster.
This time the girls in question are, as always, Yvonne Strahovki as the titular Sarah and guest star Kristen Kreuk as Hannah. It takes place after the episode 'Chuck vs. the Fake Name' for those of you interested.
Have fun now.
*****
"Walker, can I have a word with you?"
Sarah looked up from the report she was determined to finish up before the night was over. Standing in the archway leading to the hallway stood Daniel Shaw, the temporary leader of Team Bartowski.
"Sure. I'll be right there," said Sarah before turning her attention back to her report. She quickly scrawled out her signature at the bottom of the file before flipping the folder closed. Standing up Sarah allowed herself a few seconds to stretch out her muscles and work out a crick in her neck before joining Shaw in his makeshift office. She had been catching up on the one thing a CIA agent has in common with actual employees of a real Orange Orange: paperwork. It came as no surprise to Sarah to discover the amount of reports she had to file once she actually sat down to do this tedious work. Her annoyingly constant busy life always kept her from doing the grunt work she was supposed to do. She had only completed about 1/3 of the work when Shaw approached her.
Sarah still didn't know how to feel about being alone with Shaw. Casey had left about half an hour ago leaving her and Shaw by themselves in the Castle base. It had only been yesterday that Sarah had kissed her team leader and she still didn't know what to do about it or what Shaw wanted.
What she did know for sure was that she needed to talk to Shaw about this, but she was scared. Not scared of Shaw, but scared of putting herself out there again.
Sarah had entrusted her heart to three men in her life and each time it ended in too much pain for Sarah to stand: first her father, then Bryce and of course Chuck. And while she had no idea if she even wanted to get as close to Shaw as she had those other men, the idea of even attempting to was frightening. But still, Sarah always strove to remain as professional as possible. Sometimes she failed and allowed her emotions to take control (she tried everything she could to not think about Prague, but of course failed miserably) but she swore that today, at the very least, she would be at her utmost.
So, putting her worries about yesterdays kiss and all their many possible implications that might have stemmed from it aside, Sarah strode away from the table, crossed the main room and entered the small room that used to be just storage for weapons but now also contained a desk and a computer, all the things a commander of a secret joint CIA/NSA operation needs to do his job. Behind the desk sat Shaw, his hands folded neatly over his lap, eyes closed in what looked like some sort of meditation.
Sarah, not believing Shaw to be a believer in the ancient practice, simply knocked on the archway, rousing him from his stupor.
"You wanted to see me, Shaw," reminded Sarah, entering the room and approaching the desk.
Shaw's brown eyes traveled up to meets Sarah's blue ones. With the growing familiarity the two have been sharing these past few weeks, Sarah expected some kind of sign that he was happy to see her, but there was no trace of happiness on his face. But he also didn't look angry. He didn't have any sign of emotion on his face. He was just Shaw.
"Yes, thank you Walker. I know I interrupted you from important work, and I apologize for that. Once were done here, you are more than welcome to pick up where you left off," said Shaw, still not giving away any feeling.
"Thanks, but it's just paper work. It will always be there for me to pick up from," explained Sarah, still not sure what this was about.
"Be that as it may, it is still important work. But I didn't call you in here to talk about paperwork," said Shaw, still not giving away any emotion even after that small attempt at a joke.
"I figured as much," said Sarah.
"Right," remarked Shaw with as little of a laugh in his voice that was humanly possible, but it was nice for Sarah to see. It most likely meant that whatever reason Sarah was here for it wasn't serious.
"Now, Walker, as you know I have been here for many weeks now and have been given, by order of general Beckman, full access to everything related to Chuck Bartowski, the Intersect and this entire operation," started Shaw.
"Yes, I know," said Sarah, not sure why Shaw was telling her stuff he is well aware she knows, but not about to interrupt just yet.
"Then you also know that part of my responsibility as leader of this team is that I need to make a thorough inspection of this entire facility. I need to know every inch of this place, every nook, every cranny, every secret hiding spot so I can prepare for any and every circumstance that might possibly occur," continued Shaw.
"Right," agreed Sarah, still not seeing where this was going.
"But you can understand how, considering how consistently busy we are around here with all of our missions and time spent on the more important aspects of our job, that a simple inventory of Castle might have fallen to the back burner on my list of priorities," said Shaw, continuing his long explanation.
"I can understand that, yeah," agreed Sarah, who was starting to get a bit annoyed at Shaw's round about way of getting to the point.
"Good. Well I've been slowly going around here when I have the time. Just checking each room, all the spots I know of and using the technology I have available to me to sniff out the hidden rooms and compartments that bases such as this tend to come with" said Shaw.
"That's actually really smart," complemented Sarah, hoping that Shaw would get to the point so she could finish her work and get some sleep.
