A/N:

This story is an AU which explores what may have happened if Sarah's reassignment had gone through in Chuck Vs the Broken Heart. My first attempt at Fan Fiction so please be gentle.

The first part is a direct quote from Chuck Vs The Broken Heart, but I don't own Chuck. What a shame.

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As Chuck ran into the Home theatre room of the Buy More there wasn't any doubt as to what had happened, the dart sticking out of Awesome's chest and the tranquilizer gun in Forrest's hands being a fairly large clue.

"Woah, have I no rights? You can't just around willy-nilly knocking out my family members" Chuck exclaimed, thankful that Devon was unconscious at this point.

Forrest looked down at Devon's body before she answered flippantly, "Looks like we can".

"Sarah never would have done this, you've gone too far", Chuck said as he reached for his phone.

"Back off Bartowski", said Casey, trying to make the kid see reason. Forrest on the other hand was akin to a school bully, almost taunting Chuck.

"What're you gonna do about it?" she said squaring up to Chuck, as despite his height advantage his file indicated a lack of any combat ability whatsoever. "I'm calling the General, that's what" answered Chuck.

"Is that so?"

"No-one's calling anyone" said Casey

"Listen, this 49-B stuff is over. From now on, the only person I work with is Sarah" said Chuck, beginning to get annoyed with how little respect he appeared to have.

"Walker's gone, she's been dismissed" said Forrest.

"What? What are you talking about?" whispered Chuck, praying he hadn't heard correctly. He knew that Sarah was the only reason he had managed to survive this long, he didn't know how he'd cope without her.

"I'm your new handler" said Forrest, and at that moment Chuck's world seemed to stop. He had to see Sarah before she left, she had to know how he felt, especially if he would never see her again. This was his last chance. As he walked towards the door Casey's voice stopped him.

"Where d'you think you're going Bartowski?"

"Where do you think I'm going, Casey? I'm gonna say goodbye to Sarah. Don't even try to stop me"

"Don't even think about it, you're my asset now and you'll play by my rules. If I have to tranq you then so help me I will," interjected Forrest as she moved to intercept Chuck, but she was stopped by Casey's arm on hers.

"Let him go, these next few weeks are going to be hard enough on him as it is, at least let him get some closure."

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On the drive over, Chuck's head was spinning. Sarah was leaving. His rock in this scary world was just being cast aside because she dared to form an attachment. Hell, even Casey seemed to at least tolerate him, which was more than could be said for most of the other people he came into contact with. Of course, most of the people Casey came into contact with got shot, but Chuck figured he was pretty safe from that at least.

He ran over what he was going to say to her again and again, he wanted this to be perfect, it would probably be his last chance unless by some miracle their paths crossed again, maybe in an elevator in Boston or something else just as unlikely. He was going to make the most of it, and even if she couldn't reciprocate, he wasn't going to die wondering what might have been. Before he knew it he was outside Sarah's hotel door. As he knocked he could barely hear it since his heart was beating so hard in his chest. This was what he had been waiting for, for so long he had wondered what it would be like, but he never expected it would be while Sarah packed to leave him. The irony was that they hadn't even had anything remotely approaching a compromising position since that bomb which wasn't actually a bomb last year, and yet here Sarah was, being shipped off to Jakarta or to quell a revolution in Paraguay with a fork. Was there even a revolution going on in Paraguay? That's not important, but what is, is that Sarah has just opened her door, eyes red from crying and most of a box of tissues piled up next to her bed. Yet despite all that, she was still the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.

"Chuck... What are you doing here?"

"I couldn't let you leave without saying goodbye."

"But Forrest said that I wasn't to have any further contact with you..."

"It's not like you'll get into more trouble. Besides, Casey seemed to approve. At least, he stopped Forrest from coming after me."

"How did you find out?"

"Well... um... I kinda told Forrest and Casey that I would only work with you and then she sorta blurted it out. What matters is that I'm here and I needed to tell you something before you left"

"What is it?" she asked softly, although she had a pretty good idea of what it would be, and she also had a pretty good idea of what she'd say back.

Chuck's heart rate and breathing rate increased exponentially as he tried to form the words he had wanted to say for months.

"I... I love you Sarah, I know you probably know that and if you can't say it back then I can accept that, I mean, why would a girl like you ever fall in love wi-"

"Shut up Chuck, let me get a word in for once" Ok, here goes, you've written it down for him, what's the difference between doing that and saying it? "I love you too, I'm sorry it had to happen in a situation like this, and I wish things were different and I could protect you and love you at the same time, and if I had a choice then I'd stay here, with you, forever. This is the only place which has ever felt like home to me, but I have no choice, you have to accept that. I'm sorry Chuck"

"Will I ever see you again Sarah?"

"As much as I'd like that, probably not. At least as long as you're the Intersect. Even if I quit then I'd still have to avoid your handlers, especially Forrest as she'd be your new cover girlfriend and I don't think she'd be too happy with me screwing up her cover life. What I can promise is that I will find a way to contact you, but Casey can't know. I'd be putting my career and probably my life on the line by doing it, but it'd be worse never hearing from you again."

"How often would that be, I think I'd be able to handle it if I knew that I'd be able to talk to you at least at some point in the near future."

"I'll try to call once a month and before each new assignment. If I don't call for more than 2 months then you'd have to assume the worst had happened. I really wish I could call more often but I'd be undercover, and any more often could compromise my cover."

"Wait, you said that Casey couldn't know. How would I do that if you called me while I was at home or in a bugged area? Does my phone have a bug in it?"

"We'd have to work out a code to keep it secret. As far as your phone goes I have no idea, but Casey's NSA. It's their job to eavesdrop so I assume there would be."

"What do you mean by code? Don't you think it might be a little obvious if I start talking gibberish?"

"Not that sort of code, stupid", she said with a laugh, "I meant that we should come up with a cover story which would allow us to talk fairly freely. It would still have to be vague; I mean you can't exactly talk about the spy stuff if you're meant to be talking to a civilian."

"What about if you were one of my high school friends who I lost touch with but then bumped into on a Nerd Herd install. She could have just been transferred abroad which would give her, I mean, you a chance to call early in the morning if you're on a foreign assignment because of the time difference. I could make it so it's one of the ones who hated Morgan so he wouldn't know if we'd met if Casey asked him, and Bryce wouldn't know them because I never told him about any of my high school friends."

"Impressive Chuck, did you have anybody in mind?"

"Um, how about Zoe Taylor? Morgan knows about her because he had a huge crush on her but I think she filed a restraining order against him. We were best friends when Morgan was living in New York for a year, but when him and his mom came back after the divorce we all pretty much became good friends, until the whole crush thing"

"Best friend or girlfriend?"

"Jealous, Sarah? I never thought I'd see the day" he said as he managed to break through his slightly sombre mood when he realised why they were even having this discussion. "We were just friends really. Sure she was pretty hot, but I never saw her that way. We just hung out and played video games, maybe watched a couple movies. Y'know, friend stuff."

"I wasn't jealous" Sarah pouted.

"Anyway, I remember that once she graduated she started working for a multinational corporation, so I guess it's feasible that she could end up working abroad. We could say that she had to leave her boyfriend behind for this job, so we can "connect" on that level. I assume you'll have to act in cover and not mention any spy stuff too, you never know who's listening."

"Yeah probably, I'll be vague but I'll make sure to let you know of anything important, such as if I find something out which might directly affect you."

"I forgot to ask you, how much time do we have?" he asked, bringing down the light mood which had developed, but he had to know.

"I have to catch a flight tomorrow morning" sniffled Sarah, as her carefully wrought defences began to break.

"Well I think you deserve one night of romance before you start your superspy life again" Chuck said as he leaned in to kiss her, and he almost leapt out of his chair for joy when she met him halfway.

Even though tomorrow would probably be the worst day of his life, for today at least, life was good.