A/N: This story may end, but Sarah's idea to fill part of Chuck and Sarah's life together regular life together doesn't end.

Posted 28 April 2019

After 45: The direction by train line movie

As the movie concluded, Sarah snuggled tighter into Chuck and let out a little sound that was almost like a purr.

Chuck ventured to say, "I think you liked that movie."

"I like sleeper cars on trains."

"Yes. There is a fight sequence on a train in a sleeper car in the James Bond movie From Russia, With Love. When we get around to Bond movies, sometime in the future, we should make sure that one is at the top of the list. It was the second movie but was based on the first book. None of those movies have to be seen in order. A couple have a little continuity, more so in the recent movies. Did the spy-stuff in this movie annoy you?"

"Not really. It was a big mix-up, and Eve Kendall was a female asset in the 50s. That's all she could do back then since they didn't have female attack squads. She got out, though, and lived happily ever after, starting with a train ride. UN security is tougher than what was in this movie, but who knows back then. I liked her a lot better in this than as the mom of that weird Superman movie."

Sarah stretched out a bit, grinding herself into the nook she had made for herself to the side of her husband's chest. She didn't seem to be in a hurry to go to bed like some nights. Left alone, she seemed to be willing to fall asleep on Chuck, right there on the couch.

"It definitely seems you like Alfred Hitchcock movies," Chuck observed.

"I guess. I've seen a few, all a long time ago, but I think there's a lot I haven't seen. Are they 'nerdy' enough?"

"Movies don't have to be 'nerdy enough.' We just had another nice evening at home. That movie happens to be my favorite movie of the movies that were made before we were born and before Star Wars. Hitchcock made other good movies too. I used to have a poster of North by Northwest on my wall before I took it down after a break-in… I should say, after you broke in.

"I what!?" That jarred Sarah out of her comfort spot.

"Don't worry about it. We had met only once, you didn't know I had downloaded the Intersect, I didn't know you were disguised as a hooded ninja when I interrupted you stealing my computer, and we hadn't even set up our first date yet." Chuck pulled her back close, running a hand back and forth on her arm.

When she seemed settled again, he said, "Back to the movies. Maybe you've seen Hitchcock's Vertigo? I know that movie because of a scene in a time travel movie: Twelve Monkeys with Bruce Willis, who you know from Die Hard. Twelve Monkeys has a scene in movie theater playing an old classic. I know time travel isn't your thing, so we can skip that."

Sarah ignored the sci-fi movie reference and said, "Of course I've seen Vertigo. That's a classic. Wasn't there a con in that one? Or a fake identity? Or something? It obviously didn't stay with me, so we can watch it someday. It don't remember what else Hitchcock made except for that shower movie, but I had to have seen something else."

"Jimmy Stewart from Vertigo was also in Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much."

Sarah let out an abrupt laugh. "Are you supposed to be the man who knew too much?"

"He accidentally came upon some information and had to prevent an assassination attempt."

"Did he use the Irene Demova virus?" Sarah asked, looking serious. After a moment of Chuck's inquisitive stare, Sarah cracked a little smile. This wasn't something worth holding a bluff for, because he couldn't break her.

Chuck titled his head and gave his wife a look to tell her he fell for it, but didn't appreciate being kidded with. "No. You know she wasn't born yet, and computers weren't a common tool of the trade back then. He had to do in the old fashioned way."

"Well, I don't think you know too much. I like your brain with all it holds, even ignoring the Intersect stuff in there. What else?"

"There's a lot of good ones. Jimmy Stewart is in Rear Window too. Oh, I know: To Catch a Thief."

Sarah frowned, but her expression meant she wanted an explanation.

"It's about a retired cat burglar, played by Cary Grant from this movie, who is framed, so he's trying to clear his name by catching the real cat burglar in the act."

"Hmm. Maybe. We have other movies to watch first." Sarah got up and held out her hand to Chuck to lead them to a proper bed.

Before Movie 46: Something about spell casters

Chuck fiddled with his phone to stream the movie, not from a DVD or BluRay, and this time. Before starting the movie, he asked, "Are you sure about this? I thought you didn't like fantasy. This series has dragons and magic."

"I don't like fantasy as much as sci-fi, but I like it better than time travel movies and most spy movies. I've seen the first three several times because Amy played them a lot when we were in the C.A.T.S. I like that the bullies are in one school house so they're easy to identify."

"You haven't seen this one, though."

"Yes, I've see Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Maybe I should read the books. I know there are seven books, but for some reason eight movies. They are all out now, so I'd like to know how it ends. You even named He-who-should-not-be-named after the one from these movies."

"Really. You haven't seen this one. You'll see."

Less than a minute into the movie. Sarah took Chuck's phone from the coffee table and stopped the playback. "What is this?" she asked. "This isn't a Harry Potter movie. Not really."

"Since you've seen this before, I decided we could watch Wizard People, Dear Reader. It's the first movie with the film sound down and a narrator making up what he thinks is happening, recorded on an alternative soundtrack. It's hilarious."

"The real movie was on the the room several times, but normally I was reviewing mission files in the same room, Zondra was sharpening knives and cleaning weapons on a different table, Carina was off with who knows doing what we all knew, and Amy was the one sitting in front of the TV. I was hoping I'd like it better with you. Real one, please?"

Chuck understood the implicit order and they started the original movie on disc.

After Movie 48: HP3

As the movie ended, Sarah said, "I did know Dumbledore was a different guy."

"You caught that? I didn't want to sabotage it."

"It's ok. I remember Amy talking about how the first one died. That's unfortunate, but it's as good of a reason as any to recast the part. It's not like he was the title character, like Batman."

"Look at you—already knowing details about what was going on with the cast."

Sarah didn't say anything but just smiled as she put the movie back in its case.

After Movie 50: HP5

"I'm glad we're not breaking into that office building until next week," Sarah said. "That gives us time to watch the last three movies tomorrow night and this weekend. I've finished the books and want to watch the rest. I remember only the first five were out before I came to Burbank, but now I don't have to wait years."

"Are you sure you don't want to stay up all night?" Chuck lightly teased, knowing that while Sarah wanted to see the rest, an all-nighter of movie watching would be pushing it.

"It's probably not a good idea with tomorrow being a work day. I assume that's something a true nerd would do."

"Maybe one younger than 25 who didn't realize that life has to be dealt with, too. However, all ages of nerds want to finish a series as soon as is reasonable."

"I can't believe no one realized You-know-who was still alive. If someone like that might be back, you take the threat seriously."

"I agree, but it happens to everyone," Chuck said absently.

Sarah picked up on the fact that this conversation was no longer about Voldemort. "Wait, is this about the other You-know-who? I remember seeing something in the mission reports I reviewed about him not really being dead. Oh. I get the avoidance of the name. Ok. That makes a little more sense."

After Movie 53: HP7 pt. 2

Sarah was glued to the movie the entire night. At the end, she said, "I don't believe Harry just broke the wand of power in half. It's like the Intersect. The bad guy wanted it, but a good guy had it, not telling anyone. You didn't just break the Intersect glasses in half. It came in useful. Even if Harry doesn't have the wand, bad guys might think he has it and come after him anyway. Harry isn't practical enough to be a good spy."

"Sure thing, Sarah. We don't want somebody like Harry Potter working for Carmichael Industries. Being fictional is kind of a problem too."

"Did you just short-circuit a potential nerd debate with me?" Sarah asked raising a single eyebrow in disbelief.

"Maybe so, but other nerds aren't about to go to bed with a beautiful wife, so I'm making a priority call."

"Good call."

During Movie 54: Wall-E

The movie continued to play as Sarah said, "Do you really think you can get away with this? Not only is this movie animated, but I know what you are doing. That's supposed to be you and me as robots in the future."

"Whaaattt?" Chuck's exaggerated question was a sure tell that Sarah was on the right track.

"Sometimes it's hard to believe the CIA actually made you a spy because you are horrible at bluffing to me."

"There's a lot of good Pixar computer-animated movies. You even probably know Toy Story."

"Of course. It was a big deal when it came out when we were in high school. I saw it when my dad and I hid out in a theater before moving to San Diego. The movie was ok, but I didn't see the big deal about computer animation. It was just another animated movie."

"I admit some of the novelty was it was animated a different way, but it was still good anyway. We never saw Toy Story 3, but I've heard it was fantastic. Almost all of the Pixar movies are good."

"Such as."

"The Incredibles is one of my favorites. It has superheros."

"Why aren't we watching that instead of a movie about one robot toiling away at his under-appreciated job when another robot whisks in while seeming more focused on her mission? It even has a Buy'More'-n-Large. I know that we got past the fact that I had to balance being your protector, being just your cover girlfriend, and being completely in love with you. Obviously it didn't always work because I given a 49-B. The 49-B was supposed to be redacted, but in those files you gave me was one actually stamped with 'redacted' which doesn't seem very redacted to me."

"I'm a little mad at Pixar because it looks like they'll never make an Incredibles 2. You've seen how they like making superhero sequels and Pixar does it too, but for some reason, not for that movie. WALL-E is really good too, but it doesn't have a cliffhanger at the end, so I don't expect a WALL-E 2."

"Doesn't watching animated movies destroy your 'nerd-cred?'"

"Some of them actually help. Anime movies, for example. We might try a couple of those someday. There's a lot of other great movies to watch first that happen to be animated. Outside of the Pixar movies, I like Tangled a lot. It's a Disney movie that came out a few years ago about Rapunzel. I watched it with Ellie and Awesome. You can ask Ellie what she thought of it some time. It has signing like most traditional Disney animated movies, but I liked that part too."

"We'll see."

During Movie 55: A movie about trying to sleep on a tree street
A few days before July 13, 2012, because that would have resulted in a different movie

Part way into the night's movie, Sarah sat up, paused the movie with the remote and turned to look a Chuck squarely.

"What's this?" she asked pointing at the paused TV.

"What do you mean?" Chuck answered, not bluffing well, again.

"This isn't a nerd movie. This is a bigger stretch than any animated movie. I actually liked WALL-E, and it had robots and space. This is a horror movie. Why are we watching this? It's not even October."

"Ok, maybe this isn't a 'nerd movie' but it has a lot of die hard fans."

"Being a nerdy fan isn't he same thing as being a die hard fan I've learned the difference between being nerdy and geeking out. In high school, boys took their girlfriends to these types of movies so they would sit closer for protection. One, I can handle myself. Two, I want to be close with you and don't need to be scared into doing it. Three, this guy is weird and maybe a little creepy, but not scary. I didn't watch the Halloween, Friday the 13th, or Nightmare on Elm Street movies growing up, but I know them by reputation. We should stop this now and go on to the next movie."

"I'm just so happy you can tell the difference. You get to preapprove all future picks."

After Movie 58: Rocky 3

Chuck and Sarah walked through the courtyard, hand-in-hand. Chuck let go to unlock the door, but Sarah stayed behind, looking over the scene.

Morgan was yelling up to his balcony, "Alexandra!" trying (badly) to use a deep, tough guy, Italian accent. He'd was prancing around a little, making a fool of himself.

Sarah asked, "Morgan, why are you acting like Rocky?"

Morgan turned towards her and dropped his mouth in shock. Chuck dropped his keys at the front door, equally surprised. Sarah was a little happy they had been watching the Rocky movies because she actually figured out who he was supposed to be, instead of thinking it was just Morgan being Morgan. Well, it was that too, but at least she understood the reference.

With Morgan not being forthcoming, Sarah looked up to the balcony and asked Alex what her boyfriend was doing.

"It's not important. I think it's a little cute that he's carrying on like that. I was going to come down and get him in a minute. First though, how are you liking the Rocky movies?"

Sarah answered, "They're ok, I guess. I liked the Star Wars movies better. I'm not a big fan of boxing, in general. When you're in a fight, rules go out the window."

"Yeah. My dad told me he was concerned that his recommendation was too much the type of movie he would like. He wasn't sure about Chuck but figured he'd get through it. Morgan told me Chuck doesn't own them, but likes them."

Sarah said, "The movies have got to be better than your dad's initial war movie suggestions. I thought we'd try them because there's a series like a lot of these movies, which is sign that people wanted multiple sequels. Your dad said Rocky IV was the best, and that's even though the first won Best Picture. We're actually just back from dinner and will be watching the fourth one tonight, so carry-on. At least Morgan isn't calling you Adrian."

After Movie 59: Rocky IV

"I see why Casey liked that. It was a very cold-war/eighties movie. Even the Russian boxer was a caricature. It does show why I don't like boxing, though. If he can use chemicals to break the rules, why can't other martial arts styles be used?"

"He wasn't supposed to do that. Maybe you'd like MMA, though that's probably too tame for you too."

"On to Rocky V?"

"I thought we'd stop with this one. They've get progressively worse. I don't think there's a point of watching five or six. I doubt there will ever be a decent Rocky movie again. You understand Rocky references now. We ought to watch the Indiana Jones movies next."

"I've never seen those, but I know they're not in space either."

"Trust me. Nerds love those movies, and non-nerds like them too."

"Ok. I trust you."

Before Movie 60: The movie that should have won Best Picture of 1981

Sarah disappeared after dinner, saying she had to change before the movie. Chuck figured she wanted to get into sleepwear early. With Sarah's legs, that was something he was all for. All night, she had seemed excited about starting a new series. Chuck wasn't too worried about her expectations being too high. Some people preferred Star Wars movies over Star Trek movies, or vice versa, but everyone generally liked the Indy movies. The expectation bar couldn't be too high.

Sarah called from the hall, "Eyes closed. No peeking."

Chuck complied. There was no point of spying on a spy. She'd figure it out if he tried. Sarah might not like surprises, but he was always happy with hers.

"I heard you pick up something from the coffee table," Chuck said. She was in the room, but he didn't know what was going on.

"Just give me a second."

A moment later, music came from the speakers. There was no mistaking that music: The Raiders March. Sarah must have been using her phone from the coffee table to play the song through the speakers.

"You may open your eyes now."

Sarah's outfit did surprise Chuck, especially since he had initially figured new lingerie. With the music in the background, Sarah choice was possibly better.

She wore an all light beige button down shirt, a third unbuttoned and tucked into light brown cargo pants. On her feat, she had brown work boots. She also wore a brown, distressed, leather jacket and was belted with a pistol holster that held a revolver.

Seeing Sarah armed didn't alarm Chuck at all, and though the weapon choice was a little old-school, it fit. Chuck didn't say anything, but his face held something that could be called a smile if he closed his mouth, which had dropped open in delight.

Sarah asked him, "Do you like?" Chuck silently nodded.

Sarah said, "The hat seemed overkill inside, so I left it in our room. I found the Colt in our armory at Castle. I don't want to know if Casey acquired it or Alex was exhibiting too much enthusiasm. I didn't get a whip, partly because I didn't want you to get the wrong idea. I searched for a local place to buy a whip, but… Let's just say I'm glad that by working at a computer security company, I know how to clear out the browser's cache and search history."

Sarah cocked her head as if to listen more closely. "Is this music from the same composer who did Star Wars?"

Chuck managed to stutter out a yes.

"That makes sense considering George Lucas was involved in both movies. I mentioned our next series to Morgan, and he got really excited. I figured I should read more online, not for spoilers, but to see what the fuss was about. Morgan said there were three movies, but there are actually four and a TV series set when Indiana Jones was younger. I figured out Casey hid the fourth from Morgan, and he never remembered that one."

Chuck finally found his voice as his archaeologist/adventure-hero/better-than-a-good-dream wife joined him on the couch. "Yeah, a lot of people wish they could forget the fourth, so we didn't break it to Morgan. He remembered some stuff he didn't re-watch, but we figured he was lucky to block out that one. The fourth is actually not that bad, but Morgan hated it."

"Well, unless I can't stand the first one, we're watching it.'

"Yes, ma'am."

"The movies are from Lucas and have the same actor that played Han Solo." She pointed at the stereo and said, "The music is even from the same person as Star Wars."

Chuck added, "One of the secondary characters in the first and third movies played Gimli the dwarf in the Lord of the Rings movies."

"I've even heard of Steven Spielberg from E.T., a movie I saw growing up. Alex walked by when I found out he directed the movies and made some joke about not feeding Morgan after midnight. Are all Spielberg and Lucas movies good?"

"Maybe not all of them, but close. The midnight joke was from a different Spielberg movie. Lucas did make Howard the Duck, which is generally considered his worst, and we are not seeing it. I don't think Spielberg's Close Encounters is as good as E.T. or Star Wars but we could watch that sometime. He produced the Back to the Future movies, but those are have time travel with a Delorean, so I don't know. You don't remember my dad, but some of the crazy sounding-but-true stuff he said was because he was Orion. He also did some extreme things to evade capture because people were actually after him. The scientist in those movies, Emmett Brown, was even crazier, asking for trouble by stealing plutonium from Libyans. He was shot like Emmett Milbarge."

"Didn't Morgan used to own a broken down Delorean we used to capture the guy who kidnapped my dad? I read that in a report."

"Yeah, that car didn't come close to the 88 MPH need to fictionally travel back in time, even though it had a fake flux capacitor. Part of me is really glad he didn't insist on us taking it to the next Comic Con, although I guess I was in Intersect 2.0 training that year."

Sarah said, "Comic Con is in a couple weeks. We'll finish this series this weekend, just in time. I graduated from high school in San Diego, but I never went."

"Did you ask Morgan how many times I went with him? If he ever tells you, don't believe what he says. I'll will admit I've been a lot, but he has a weird way of counting them. I really don't want to get into another argument about the actual number of times I've been. It got worse when he discovered the picture that the CIA faked of the two of us at Comic Con. He counts that, even though you couldn't have been there. He knows I was wearing a different costume that year. Even after he learned it was a CIA prop, he still counts it extra because to him a picture with someone who looks like you in a Comic Con costume counts even though we were not actually there. The reality is if you had been there wearing that Princess Leia outfit, the rescue squad would have had to take away a bunch of people who would've had heart attacks. You're not allowed to dress like that this year for that reason. As much as I'd like to show you off, too many people would think you were hired by a movie studio to make an appearance, and it wouldn't be safe for a few others."

"That's ok. I saw the Yori and Tron costumes where you stashed them at Castle. You're not putting me in a sandworm, having me wear body paint, or covering me with a huge suit of fur. Your costume doesn't hide me as a stormtrooper either. What I saw will do. Going by your reaction tonight, I hope it's ok that I'm not wearing this. I saw how excited Morgan got at the mere mention of the movie, and Alex said the movie choice was 'fantastic,' so I decided to go all-in. I hope this is ok."

"This is more than ok," Chuck said and he quickly kissed her. That wasn't enough, and they started a deeper kiss as the music ended.

Several minutes later, they started the movie.

After movie 62: The movie in which the man chose wisely

Sarah solemnly said, "I don't want to talk about it more because the situation still doesn't make sense to me, but thank you for not calling me 'Indiana.' You've said we didn't watch any of these movies together, so I have no idea why I picked my dog's name."

Chuck gave her a one-armed squeeze but didn't comment.

Sarah said, "We're watching the fourth one tomorrow afternoon. It might not be as popular as the others, but that's a really high standard. The next one has aliens. I want to see it. What's after that?"

"I was thinking we'll take a break from movies because I don't want to be in the middle of anything, and we might see something at the Con that gives us an idea of what's next on the agenda."

"Ok. I'm fine with a short break as long as it doesn't become an excuse for you to have video game marathons. I'm fully into the idea of getting my 'nerd on,' but with a movie I get to be with you, while with those games I have to stay out of your way. You won't even let me play that shooting game when you have the Intersect, so I'm out of it completely."

"We both know you're a good enough shot on your own. It's not just you. Morgan doesn't trust me, and Casey offered to play me a couple years ago, but I declined playing with a sniper with a grudge who would gloat or ban me from playing every again."

Sarah laughed. After a moment, she said, "Have you figured it out yet?"

"Figured out what?"

"Why I want to watch these movies with you?"

"You said you wanted to spend time with me and want to understand some of this stuff. I'm loving it, and you seem to like it most of the time, but you make it known what isn't your taste. There's enough to see, that it's barely noticeable. I want you to like what we watch together. Is there something else you haven't told me?"

"I get my nerd whenever I want. It's great for me. You just get me."

"Trust me. You're more than I ever could have dreamed."

"But you weren't getting 'a nerd' whenever you wanted. The best way to fix that would be for me to become just a little bit of a nerd. I don't like it all of these shows. I don't think even life-long nerds do. However, some of the movies are actually pretty good. Now when I go to Comic Con with you, you're more likely to know which places to go that I'd like better. You also won't feel like you need to leave me out whenever you need to scratch your 'nerd itch.' I'm your partner for the rest of our lives in all things."

"Just when I thought my life couldn't get any better, I find out I'm married to the most beautiful woman on the planet who also sometimes has nerd-ish tendencies."

It was a good thing they no longer were assigned sudden missions to save the world and they didn't plan on watching another movie that night.

Songs:

"Overture (Main Title)" from North By Northwest by Bernard Herrmann
"Hedwig's Theme" from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by John Williams
"The Quidditch World Cup" from Harry Potter and the Goblet for Fire by Patrick Doyle
"The Room of Requirements"from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by Nicholas Hopper
"Harry & Hermione" from Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince by Nicholas Hopper
"Define Dancing" from WALL-E by Thomas Newman
"Gonna Fly Now" from Rocky
"Eye of the Tiger" from Rocky III by Survivor, but since we had that in Chapter 26, this time it's from the Chuck Season 5 Comic Con 2011 video by Jeffster
"The Raiders March" from Raiders of the Lost Ark by John Williams (Very similar to the song for Chapter 17.)
"Desert Chase" from Raiders of the Lost Ark by John Williams

A/N: That's it. Finally. 2454 days after that first hiatus started. That was almost time for seven more seasons. The 2012 and 2019 reviews were fun. Thank you both to the people who returned after so much time and to the new people who are still hanging around reading Chuck stories.

To follow-up the A/Ns in chapters 20 and 24, life can be an adventure. It includes making a home with someone you love, dealing with your past, if necessary, making your life more comfortable by surrounding yourself with family and friends, doing your job, taking a vacation every so often, and finding something to do during the time in-between.

What now?

Well, there's a lot of great Chuck fanfic out there. Have fun reading. I've mostly avoided reading Chuck fanfic for almost seven years, so I've got a lot of stuff to read and already have ten longer stories and series picked out.

What else? As you may have read me say when I took breaks on this story…

Check out "mynameisjeffnimlost tumblr com/tagged/CaSvTNA" for screencap collections for each chapter of this story. The last five chapters have a lot of movie poster pictures and YouTube links for the many songs.

If you liked Castle at all, I recommend my five story, Chuck/Castle "Law of Averages" crossover series. It takes place well before the mess that was the Castle finale. The first story in the series was an Awesome Award winner as the year's best Chuck crossover story (the Bryce Larkin Memorial Award). After a one-shot set in Chuck season 4 and Castle season 3, Caskett vs Dr Morgan, the one-shot third story, Beckett vs the Linchpin, takes place during the Tuesday morning meeting that Sarah set up with Alex at the end of part 2 (chapter 13) of this story. It has its own continuity within that universe or could be read stand-alone. I just decided to make the stories compatible. Linchpin includes even more Charah domestic fluff and CI in the middle of someone else's mission. The fourth in that series is a longer one-shot, Chuck vs 3XK, and the fifth, Chuck vs the Hunt, is a full 12-chapter story of fun. They both take place months after this story ends.

Finally, check out the Chuck This! blog (chuckthisblog. wordpress. com). With the show off-the-air a few years, it's quieter now. Even in the archive, the analysis is insightful, and the comments are filled with lively, but respectful debate. The show may be over, but the old posts and comment sections are good. It includes a series of rewatch posts and a lot of interesting comments. Periodically, the blog is still updated with posts about what's new in Chuck fanfic, even seven years after the finale.