AN: Well this chapter was sitting in my document manager unpublished for like two weeks and then I thought: "It's Sunday, before I go back to hell (school), I'll post this for you guys to see. "

After exams, you'll never believe this, I got sick (again) and have been trying to recover ever since. Plus, I have houseguests arriving tomorrow and had to rearrange half my living room. If you leave a review, it may just cheer me up.

Note that this chapter time skips a lot, so watch those times. This was barely proof-read so I apologize for any mistakes in this chapter.

Thanks for reading and please, please review.

Chapter 19: The Advantages of Sick Leave

Burbank, California
Bartowski/Woodcombe Residence, Echo Park
8:25AM

Chuck had finished his breakfast rather quickly (it was Ellie's cooking so it wasn't surprising) and proceeded to finish up his cup of coffee before planning the day ahead of him. Being a spy didn't stop him from liking to plan everything ahead of time, in fact, being a spy kind of enhanced it.

"Chuck?" Sarah asked.

"Yeah?"

"We don't have to leave immediately do we?...I mean no rush?"

"No," he shook his head. "No rush. Why?"

Without further warning, she moved towards him and pulled him in for a searing kiss. Taken aback, slightly by the suddenness of it, Chuck quickly regained his edge, cupping her cheek with one hand and kissing her deeper.

When they finally pulled away (out of need for oxygen more than anything, which they bother cursed about silently). The couple shared a gaze that indicated they intended on the same thing. No words were involved.

Bedroom.

They hurried off into Chuck's former bedroom and their current sleeping arrangement. The door slammed shut behind them.

An hour or so later, the two spies were tangled up in the sheets, with only skin separating them.

"Mmm," Sarah moaned. "That was fun."

"You're telling me," Chuck smiled as she snuggled closer to him.

The two basked in the afterglow of their particular morning activity. Chuck's mind, couldn't help drifting off. He couldn't help but think what if circumstances were different? He couldn't really imagine not meeting her, not being here with Sarah. Not having this kind of relationship.

"Whatcha thinking about?" she asked.

"Nothing, really. Just happy I'm here with you."

"I love you, I'm not going anywhere," Sarah assured him.

"I know. And I don't want you to, either. It's just..." he trailed off slightly. "I can't imagine not being here with you right now, like this. Not having met you."

"You don't have to."

"I know. I just feel lucky, that's all. I mean I can't imagine us meeting any other way. I mean, imagine if you were my handler and I was your asset or something. Like I was a civilian who just got dragged into this world by mistake."

"Super nerd becomes a spy," she chuckled musing at the thought of it. "Make one hell of a TV show."

"I'd definitely watch it," Chuck added with a big smile.

"It'd probably would be on the air for like ten years," Sarah jumped in.

"If the network isn't stupid enough to cancel it," Chuck interjected. "Or the writers screw up."

Their laughter died down after a few moments and an air of seriousness seemed to replace the easygoing atmosphere just minutes ago.

"I love you," he whispered.

"I love you too," she said back. "And I don't want anything to happen to you."

"I don't want anything to happen to you either. Why else do you think I protected you from the grenade?"

There was a pause. Silence filled the room once again.

"Promise me something," Sarah said, breaking the silence.

"What?"

"If it ever happens...if it's between my life and yours...choose yourself Chuck."

"Sarah-"

"I'm serious. You have friends and family who love you and need you... I love you and I couldn't handle it if something happened to you because of me."

"Hey," he propped himself up a little bit and gently lifted her chin with his fist. "Nothing's gonna happen to me. Or to you. I'll make sure of it, I promise."

"You can't promise that."

"Well you can't make me promise to do that. Sarah, I love you. Okay? That means I can't do what you're asking," he frowned for a moment, contemplating everything that they had just exchanged in words over the last few minutes. "Where is this coming from, anyway?"

"I just never had much stability in my life. And I just have this..." she paused, trying to gather her thoughts. Sarah Walker wasn't great at being open and honest and vulnerable, but she was learning. And she was very slowly learning that if kept out of the field, it wasn't a weakness.

"...This feeling. I mean, everything is so perfect now. But I feel as if something bad is going to happen."

"Why?"

"Because every time something good has happened to me, it hasn't lasted. Something always happens to screw it up."

Chuck was speechless for a moment. What could he do? What could he say to convince her that nothing would happen? True, their line of work was a dangerous one, but was she actually so scared of something happening. Honestly, Chuck couldn't even begin to think of his life a different way, without being a spy, without Sarah. He could do away with all the lying and the uglier parts of the job that weren't shown in movies, but the life he had now; it was one he wanted to have for a long time.

"I know that you're scared of something happening. I am too. But we have to have faith. Nothing in this life is a guarantee but we have to have faith, Sarah. Nothing is gonna happen to you or to me."

She gave him a small smile. "How do you do it? How do you just keep believing, having faith that nothing's going to happen? Not being afraid of something bad happening?"

"I do get scared about it sometimes," he admitted. "But I have you and I believe that you and me...that we can get through anything. Together." He took her hand in his own and kissed it softly.

"I love you."

"I love you too. And I promise, nothing could ever stop me from coming back to you."

Burbank, California
Bartowski/Woodcombe Residence, Echo Park
10:40 PM

Chuck and Sarah's day had gone well. Chuck had shown her the old house in Encino, the Pier, past a few sites that would only mean something to him and Ellie and to the beach. At first he'd been concerned that he would bore her out of her mind, but she was interested enough. At lunch they went to Chuck's favorite Chinese place where he insisted she try sizzling shrimp. Best thing she'd ever taste, he swore.

He wasn't far off the truth. It was pretty damn good.

The couple had dinner with Ellie and Awesome, but very early shifts the next morning made it hard for them to stay up for too long, so they said their good nights to Chuck and Sarah and headed off to bed.

At this point, Chuck told Sarah that she just had to watch the Indiana Jones Trilogy. Personally Temple of Doom, nor Kingdom of the Crystal Skull were really to his liking. But they watched the movie on the couch. Sarah had her head laying on his shoulder, while Chuck was stretched out on the sofa.

There was a loud thump. Not coming from the screen.

"Sarah? Did you hear-"

"Yeah." Another thump. "I think it's coming from your room."

Sarah leaped off the couch and retrieved her gun from her purse, Chuck, not currently armed, made sure to position himself in the attacking stance in kung fu as they carefully opened the door with a squeak. Darkness. Lights were still out.

Just as they were going to go further in, a figure jumped out and tried to get a hold on Chuck, who promptly blocked to shove him off, get a strike in, twisted the assailants arm behind his back and wrapping his free arm around the neck.

*Cough, cough* "Chuck," the voice rasped.

Sarah flipped on the light switch. Upon realizing who the assailant had been, she swiftly tucked her gun into the side table drawer by Chuck's bed and closed it, without anyone noticing.

"Morgan?"

"Buddy? Could you get me out of this please?" the bearded man rasped.

"Oh God, sorry!" Chuck apologized letting him go. "I thought you were a burglar or something."

"Dude! Where did you learn how to do that?" Morgan asked eagerly. "I mean I jumped on you and you were like wham! Wa-pah!"

Morgan then tried to re-interpret what Chuck did in the air with a combination or imperfectly done move sets from Bruce Lee films. His foot flailed in the air and he hit a lamp on Chuck's side table. Which Sarah quickly caught before it could hit the floor and break.

"Morgan, I think you'd better stop before something breaks," Chuck said.

"Oh, you're right, totally," Morgan said. "Oh hi, Sarah," he added, apparently, just realizing she was in the room.

"Hello Morgan."

"Buddy, what were you doing trying to attack me when I went to my room?"

"Well I figured we could get a few rounds of Call Of Duty in since we like never place when you're working. I thought it would be a nice surprise."

"How did you know I was in town?"

"Well I stopped over at the apartment to..." he trailed off. "Nothing, it's not important."

"Morgan..."

"It isn't!"

"This isn't like the time Ellie caught you with her underwear in your hand is it?"

"What?" Sarah couldn't help but ask.

"That was not what it looked like!" Morgan quickly jumped to his own defense. "I am not a pervert! You want pervert? Try Jeff and Lester."

"Well what were you doing?" Sarah asked, vaguely amused.

"Awesome ran this heart CPR thing at the Buy More. And since I no longer have a viable source to...retrieve my test information from, I thought that I'd...compare some answers to my own. But then when I went to get them, Awesome's bag was underneath this laundry basket. And then all the clothes spilled out and I was trying to put them back in..."

"So you'll admit to being a thief, but not a pervert?" Chuck asked, highly amused.

"You sound exactly like Ellie. Anyways, I figured we could snag some quality game time," he held up a game in his hand. "Call of Duty, Chuck. Call of Duty."

"Morgan, listen. I'd love to, but we were going to-"

"Play. It's fine," Sarah cut him off.

"What? Seriously?" Chuck asked, confused. Most girlfriends hated it when their boyfriends sacrificed quality time with them to play games with their friends. Then again, Chuck reminded himself. Most girls weren't Sarah Walker.

"You sure?"

"Yeah. Go, play your game. I have some work to finish up anyway," she gave him a small smile.

"Um, alright then. Set it up, buddy."

"Yes!" Morgan exclaimed rather loudly, pumping his fist in the air and then heading off to go set up the game.

"Keep the volume down and remember to be quiet," Chuck reminded. "Ellie and Awesome are sleeping."

"Right."

With Morgan out of the room, Chuck reverted his attention back to Sarah.

"Seriously? You're okay with me playing games with Morgan, which if history has any indication, could be all night?"

"He's your friend," she said understandingly. "And I guess you never do get to play with him while we're working. Besides, I can tell you do want some quality game time with him. You deserve it."

"Chuck!" Morgan called from the living room. "Come on!"

"Inside voices, Morg," he replied. "Remember, people are sleeping."

"Yeah, whatever," Morgan lowered his voice a little. "Come on."

Chuck turned back to Sarah. "You're sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure."

"I love you, you know that?"

"Mhmm, yeah, I do. Love you too."

He gave her a quick kiss. "I swear, I will make this up to you."

"Chuck! Before it's morning!"

"Go," Sarah smiled.

"Coming buddy."

The next morning, Chuck woke in a bit of a shock when Ellie dragged him out of bed, admittedly as quietly as possible, apologizing to Sarah when she accidentally woke up.

After Morgan's surprise visit, the two had played games for about two and a bit hours. By that time, Morgan insisted on staying because it wasn't safe to pedal home at that time of night. After calling his mom and ensuring that he kept his clothes on, Chuck made sure Morgan remembered that this was not his house, it was Ellie and Devon's before agreeing to let him sleep on the couch.

"Chuck! Why is Morgan on my couch?" Ellie asked, rather angrily. Morgan's childhood crush on her made her not very fond of him.

"Because, Ellie. Chuck is my best friend. Of course he'd let me crash here, he tells me all of his deep, dark secrets. You could too," Morgan answered for him and Chuck fought back the need to facepalm as his sister glared at Morgan's comment.

"Chuck. Explain, now!"

So he did explain now. Ellie let him off easy, but that was probably because she and Awesome would be late for work if this was discussed much further in.

Burbank, California
Buy More
9:30 AM

Morgan had talked Chuck into driving him to work. Well it wasn't so much of a talking into as much as it was a chance to spend time with his friend and save an argument from happening. Chuck had asked Sarah if she wanted to come but she declined and had decided to sleep in that day after finishing her mission reports last night.

Walking into the old Buy More brought back a lot of memories. Working during summers at Stanford for extra cash. Watching Morgan play Mystery Crisper with the other employees. The vast amount of work that didn't get done.

"Charles."

Chuck turned around to see Jeff and Lester heading his way. Apparently they were still working here which wasn't much a surprise.

"Jeff, Lester, hey," Chuck greeted casually.

"So...guess you a messed up your big job in DC and had to come back here, huh?" Lester said.

"Okay, Lester that is-" Morgan tried to interject.

"Actually my boss just gave me leave for a couple days in LA," Chuck replied. "I just dropped Morgan off."

Lester shrugged. "Yeah, whatever. Don't you miss it though?"

"Miss what?"

"The Buy More," Jeff stated. "I mean getting to go to work drunk, sleeping under the nerd herd desk," he paused before his eyes widened and looking staright at Chuck. "Playing Mystery Crisper. Seriously,yesterday I ate something in a paper bag that was in the fridge since before I worked here! After that the vending machine started to dance!"

"It's true buddy," Morgan patted Chuck on the shoulder. "You should've seen it it was awesome."

"What? The dancing vending machine?"

"No. Jeff eating that thing that was probably like 25 years old."

"I think I'm okay having not."

"So, Chuck. Morgan tells us that you have a...lady friend," Lester said. "What's that like?"

Chuck furrowed his brow. What was going on here? "Excuse me?"

"I mean are you guys, you know...Are you getting some of that female friction action?"

Chuck raised a brow. "What does that even mean?"

"Sex," he answered obviously.

"Can't you just say that?"

Lester considered it for a moment. "Yeah, I mean, I could. It just lacks flavor."

The brown haired spy looked incredulous for a second before shaking his head and deciding not to spend anymore time here.

"Look buddy, it was nice seeing you but I should get going," he was about to go off before being interrupted by a booming voice.

"BARTOWSKI!"

It was Big Mike. With donut in hand, he went over to where Chuck was standing.

"I cannot catch a break in this place, can I?" he muttered to himself.

"I knew it," Big Mike spoke as he neared Chuck. "Sweet heavens, I knew that everything would be okay," he sounded so grateful. "You're coming back, aren't you? You're back to get in touch with the roots of where you started. Well, son, you just slap on that Nerd Herd uniform and you got your old job as supervisor back."

"Sorry to disappoint, Big Mike," Chuck said with a half smile. "But I just came in here to drop off Morgan. I was just leaving."

"No! Bartowski, you don't know what it's like to be stuck with these..." he shot a once over glance at Jeff, Lester and Morgan before lowering his voice. "People. I mean nobody is taking responsibility. How am I supposed to go fishing?"

"I'm sorry Big Mike," Chuck felt the nervousness and the tension in the area go up. "But I should get going," he said. Chuck gave a wave before practically running out of the store and getting into his car.

Burbank, California
Bartowski/Woodcombe Residence
Echo Park
10:00 AM

"Sarah!" he called her name as he entered the apartment.

"Hey," she smiled, greeting him from the table.

Chuck gave a her a quick peck on the lips and laid a paper bag and a cup of coffee in front of her.

"I come bearing breakfast. Coffee and..."

"Chocolate croissants," she finished, taking one out of the bag. "You are the best, thank you."

He shrugged. "It's what boyfriends do."

"Well you are the best boyfriend, ever."

Chuck smiled as she took a bite of the pastry and then a sip of coffee and proceeded to fill her in about what had happened at the Buy More, causing her to laugh. It was one of the most beautiful things he ever heard. Her laughter. And the fact that he was behind it made him feel like he could conquer the world.

"The place must be falling apart without you," she remarked, taking a sip of her coffee.

"I wouldn't go that far. I mean, the Buy More hasn't blown up yet."

"That's true."

"Hey, by the way, Ellie called me on my way over here. She wants to know if she can meet you for lunch at the hospital later."

"Just me?"

"Yeah," Chuck nodded. "She probably likes you more than she likes me. Right now anyway."

Sarah just smiled and shook her head. "That can't be right. You're her brother."

"Yeah, but you didn't let her childhood stalker sleep on her couch without letting her know ahead of time."

"That's also true. I didn't hear all that much after she practically dragged you out of bed this morning. Seriously, Chuck. I think the agency missed out on a great agent in your sister."

"Well she was pretty mad that Morgan was here. Apparently Devon almost sat on him. But after I explained what happened, she sorta let me off. Or what looked like letting me off," he explained. "As much as she dislikes Morgan I don't think she actually wants him to get mugged, pedaling home in the middle of the night."

Burbank, California
Café near Westdie Medical Hospital
12:00PM

"So any plans for the wedding?" Sarah asked Ellie. Honestly, they didn't have all that much in common,besides Chuck, but Ellie was one of the nicest people she'd ever met and while they had only met a few times, she was really starting to see Ellie as a friend.

"Great. If only I could get Devon's mom to stop weighing in on every decision."

"So you've met Devon's parents before?" she asked.

"Just a few times. Every time they come to visit I get really freaked out. I think it's better to avoid it, really."

Sarah nodded understandingly. "Weighing in on everything?"

"Devon's the first of their sons to get married. They're so overly excited. When Devon told them we got engaged, they were calling like every other night."

"That's pretty intense."

"Yeah."

"So, Devon's got brothers?"

"Two," Ellie emphasized her point by using two fingers like she was counting. "And they're both doctors."

"Wow," Sarah said. "So three doctor sons..."

"Raised by two doctors."

"Wow."

"Mmhmm," Ellie nodded. "Oh, I'm getting distracted. Actually, the real reason I wanted to have lunch with you is to ask you something."

"Sure."

"Would you like to be one of my bridesmaids?"

'Okay, Wow. Was not expecting that. Sarah thought, taken aback. Bridesmaids were like your best friends that you'd known for a long time or family. She liked Ellie, but adding up the first time they visited, this time and the time Ellie and Devon surprised Chuck in DC, they'd only known each other for about two weeks!

"Wow," she breathed. "Ellie, I'm flattered, but...I mean, your wedding is a really big deal... are you sure?"

"Okay, yes, Sarah, I know that we really haven't known each other for very long. But I do consider you a friend and you make my brother really happy. I can see the way his face lights up when you walk into the room. And I can see the way yours does too. When I see you guys together I see two people who are in love."

'Wow' Sarah thought. 'She hit the nail right on the head. CIA really did miss out'

"His past girlfriend...well it wasn't the same. You love each other and anyone who can make my brother that happy is someone that I want as a friend and someone that I want to be one of my bridesmaids."

"Ellie, I uh, don't know what to say."

"Say you'll do it."

"...Okay." Sarah smiled. "Okay, I'll do it."

AN: Sorry bout the wait. Hope you enjoyed that. Next chapter, we will have the last bit of Chuck and Sarah's stay in Burbank and then back to the spy world.

Please leave a review, review's make me smile which is something I haven't been able to do too much of recently (courtesy of exams, work and my crappy immune system).