AN: Thank you so much for reading! I was not expecting this to become what it is; I've gotten pretty attached to these two, and I'm sad to see it end! I'll probably write the occasional oneshot for them, it's not goodbye forever!

Dear Chuck,

Not a whole lot has happened since my last letter. I go to class and I come home and I do homework, it's a pretty boring existence. I'm getting ready for finals soon, I can't believe I've been here for two semesters already! I had perfect marks last semester, I'm hoping I can keep that up. Next year I'm going to start taking some general education classes. Raleigh said he'd pay for it so I figured why not? At least if the nursing thing doesn't work out I'll have something besides my criminal history to put on a resume.

I hope you're doing all right, I talked to your dad on the phone a couple of weeks ago and he said you've been having a tough time of it lately. I just wanted you to know that you can call me if you need me. I told you that I wanted to be there for you and that hasn't changed.

Still thinking of you,

Jazmine

She wrote him letters - it felt safer than trying to call, and seemed more meaningful than sending an email. Herc had given her a mailing address and said he'd pass them along. Jazmine knew he probably wasn't reading them, a belief that was reinforced by the lack of any response whatsoever, but she felt no reply was better than an angry reply so she kept sending them. Once a week at first, then once a month, then once every couple of months as time passed.

It was easier to settle into her new life than she'd expected. Her fellow students were friendly enough, and although Jazmine wasn't very interested in making friends it didn't take long before she had a regular study group and a handful of people she went to clubs with.

Dating, though, was still off the table. She wasn't quite ready for that yet.

Dear Chuck,

Just finished my last class before the winter break, I'm free! Raleigh said he and Mako would probably visit for Christmas, I'm really looking forward to seeing them. Don't tell Mako, I think he's getting ready to propose. Although she probably knows that already, the way they read each other's minds. It's not going to be much of a surprise but I know she'll be thrilled.

The last time I talked to your dad he said you were doing a lot better. I was really glad to hear that. You might not believe me but I want nothing but happiness for you. We met at a weird time in both our lives, and it ended so badly but I'm in such a good place right now, and you were a big part of that. I'm always going to be grateful to you.

I hope someday we can talk again. It won't be the same, but maybe it will be better.

Miss you,

Jazmine

The first time she saw Chuck on the news she almost fell off the sofa. She'd seen pictures of him occasionally, paparazzi-style shots when he was still punching reporters for trying to talk to him in public, and he'd looked awful in the first few - underweight, dark circles under his eyes. But there he was, sitting straight in his chair, microphone clipped to his button-down shirt. He looked much healthier, if nervous, talking about the anniversary of Operation Pitfall and the memorials happening all week.

Jazmine could only watch for a few minutes. She shut off the tv when he started talking about what he'd been doing. It felt like she shouldn't know if he couldn't tell her himself.

"Hey, Raleigh, what's up?" Her brother called just as she was walking out of her last final.

"Hi Jaz, we just landed in Tokyo." He sounded unusually perky for someone who had just gotten off a 16 hour flight, but Raleigh's sleep schedule didn't seem to be that of a normal human being.

"Ohhhh, awesome! I bought my dress last week! Don't worry, it's totally daytime wedding appropriate." She balanced the phone between her ear and shoulder as she adjusted her bag.

"I'm sure it is," Raleigh said drily. "At this point, I don't care if you come in a trash bag as long as you show up. Our caterers bailed at the last minute, and one of the musicians might have the flu. And I think it's supposed to rain on Saturday."

"It is, but everybody keeps telling me that's good luck, so you should feel lucky!"

"Oh, I do, but our guests aren't going to feel very lucky if we can't get some tents in time." Jazmine could feel Raleigh's sigh over the phone. "I know, this shouldn't be that big of a deal."

"Getting married is still a big deal," she reminded him. "Come on, I know you've been planning this in your head since you met her. Everything will work out fine, and if you need me to do anything just tell me."

"Thanks, Jaz. I'm going to go, our car is here. See you for brunch tomorrow?"

BWAHHHHHHHHHHHH

The familiar sound of an air horn rang out over the campus, and Jazmine looked around for the source. "Jaz? What was that?" Raleigh asked her, and before she could answer she saw a familiar figure at the other end of the grassy quad between the buildings, beneath some trees.

"Uh..I have to go, I'll see you tomorrow," she stammered, hanging up before her brother could even say goodbye. Or he might have, but another blare of the air horn kept her from hearing anything else.

Jazmine bolted towards him, more interested in keeping him from continuing to shatter the relative peace of the campus than having an emotional reunion. She was mere yards away when Chuck raised the air horn again.

"Are you crazy?" she yelled as she came to a stop several feet in front of him, and his arm dropped.

"Yes," he replied, and grinned at her. He didn't look that different from the last time she'd seen him in the flesh, with the exception that his fatigue pants had been traded for a pair of jeans, messenger bag slung across his chest as he leaned on a cane.

"Okay, but you still have to knock that off. Campus security gets pissy about stuff like that." she crossed her arms and glared at him.

He seemed a little bewildered. "What, you haven't seen me in two years and I don't even get a 'hello'?" he asked, shoving the air horn into his bag.

"I didn't get a goodbye when you left," she fired back.

"Ouch." He pursed his lips and nodded. "I deserved that."

Jazmine was surprised at how angry she felt. "Damn right you deserved that. I haven't heard a single word from you since you went storming out of my room two years ago, and you just show up out of the blue..." Her voice trembled a little. "I wrote you letters…?" It came out as more of a question than a statement.

"I got them all." His head dropped a little, but he kept his eyes fixed on her. "I didn't read them until last month, but...I got them." He reached into his bag and pulled out a stack of envelopes bound with a rubber band, holding them up sheepishly. "Congrats on acing your finals. For the last three semesters."

She stared at him for a long minute before ditching her bag and launching herself into his arms, almost knocking both of them to the ground. He staggered back a step, dropping the letters so he could return her embrace.

"I fucking missed you, asshole," she mumbled into his chest, and he rested his cheek against the top of her head. "I thought I was never going to see you again."

"I missed you too," he murmured, reaching up to stroke her hair. "Just spent too much time trying to pretend I didn't."

She pulled away to compose herself, sniffling and rubbing the tears away from her eyes with her fingers. "So what have you been doing for the last two years?" she asked, bending over to pick up the letters he'd dropped.

"Hitting rock bottom, and then clawing my way back up again," he answered, taking the letters back. "That's the abridged version, anyway."

"Jesus, Chuck, how bad was it?"

He paused for a moment before answering. "Really bad," he said finally. "I was a mess. Don't be upset, it wasn't your fault," he protested as her eyes filled with tears again. "I was completely fucked up long before I met you, okay? Let's be 100% clear on that."

"Your dad just said you were going through a tough time, I had no idea," she said. "Why didn't he tell me?"

He chuckled under his breath. "I can imagine how that conversation would have gone," he said. "'Hi Jazmine, I just got into a fist fight with my son because he wouldn't leave the bar, do you want to talk to him?'"

"You started a bar fight with your own father?" She laughed in shock, then clamped a hand over her mouth. "I'm sorry, that's not funny," she mumbled through her hand.

"S'ok, it's kind of funny," Chuck said with a sheepish smile. "He ended it, pretty quickly at that. Must've taken a page from your brother's book." He looked down at the ground, then back up at her. "That was when he put his foot down. Said he almost lost me once, and he wasn't going to go through that again."

"You're better now, though?"

"Much. Haven't touched a drink in fourteen months," he said proudly.

"Congratulations! I'm so happy to hear that," she told him, stepping in to hug him again. "Why are you here?"

"Nice to see you're just as direct as I remember you," he teased. "Actually...I'm here to see if you would do me the honor of escorting me to your brother's wedding this weekend."

"I didn't know you were invited," she blurted, making a mental note to yell at Raleigh later.

"I, ah, I asked them not to tell you when I found out you didn't know," he said, wincing with guilt. "I wasn't even sure if I was going to make it, until a couple of weeks ago. But I wanted to reconcile with you in person, not through your brother."

"Well, how do you know I don't already have a date?" she sputtered indignantly.

He smirked. "Because Mako told me you don't have a plus one."

She wasn't deterred. "How do you know I'm not seeing someone and just not bringing them with me?"

"Then you still have no excuse not to go with a friend," he retorted. "Also Raleigh said you told him you weren't seeing anyone."

Add that to the list of things to yell at Raleigh about. "Maybe I just didn't want to tell him about it."

"Jazmine," Chuck said patiently. "If you don't want to go with me, that's fine. I understand."

She shook her head, exasperated. "Of course I want to go with you. I'll go with you. It's a date."

"Well, don't get too excited or anything." He cocked his head at her. "Are you seeing someone?"

"No. I'm not seeing anybody." She crossed her arms again.

His smirk got bigger. "I knew you wouldn't get over me that easily."

"Glad to see you haven't lost your arrogance."

He laughed. "It's not arrogance if it's true. I told you, I read all your letters."

They stared at each other, not quite sure what to do next, until Jazmine finally spoke up. "So...what now?"

"Well, I suppose I'll see you on Saturday. Do you have to be there early to help out?" he asked, but she was already shaking her head.

"Don't be stupid." She picked up her bag. "We're going to go have some lunch, and then catch up on the last twenty-six months." Jazmine started walking away, then turned back. "Are you coming?"

Smiling, Chuck followed her across the quad.

"Are you still in there?" Chuck yelled at the bathroom door. "You're not the only one who's got to get ready, you know."

"Yes, I'm almost done," Jazmine yelled back. Lunch on Thursday had turned into dinner, which turned into ice cream, which turned into Chuck spending the night and Jazmine missing family brunch on Friday morning. Now it was Saturday, three hours before the wedding, and they were still joined at the hip.

The craziest part was how it didn't feel crazy at all. It felt like the most natural thing in the world.

"Okay, bathroom's open," Jazmine said as she walked out, clutching her sandals. Chuck heaved an exaggerated sigh, turned around, and stopped cold at the sight of her. "Oh god, what? Is my skirt too short? Did I mess up my makeup?" Her dress was pale pink lace, with spaghetti straps and a skirt that fell in two layers and hit just under her knees. She'd pulled her hair up in a high, loose bun, with curls that fell gently around her face.

He gaped at her for a moment longer before pulling himself together. "No, you look incredible. I've never seen you all dressed up before."

"Oh." She blushed a little, then realized he was still only wearing his pants and an undershirt. "Go get ready! We have to leave in forty-five minutes!"

"I'm working on it," he snapped, pulling his shirt on and buttoning it in a hurry. "Will you come help me with my tie?"

"I don't know how to tie a tie," she snapped back, and her eyes went wide in horror. "Do you really not know how to tie a tie? Oh no." She grabbed her phone, scrolling madly through her contacts.

"Jazmine."

"I'll call your dad, maybe we can catch him outside and he can help you before the ceremony…"

"Jazmine." She hadn't noticed him walk over to her until he took the phone from her hand. She looked up at him. "I know how to tie a tie, okay? It was a clever ruse to get you to come touch me. Here, I'll show you."

As he walked her through the steps of making a double Windsor knot, Jazmine realized her breathing had slowed and her nerves were soothed. She guided the end of the tie through the last loop, and he showed her how to tighten it.

"There, see?" His face was inches away from hers, and she gave him a quick peck on the lips. "I was hoping for a little more than that," he complained.

"If you get a little more than that, we're going to miss the wedding," she chided him. "Go comb your hair, Hansen." He grumbled, but complied.

It did rain, but only in the morning, and the sky was a vivid blue overhead as everyone slowly filed into the garden venue and took their seats on either side of the aisle. Some stopped at the table by the flower-covered arbor that held candles and framed pictures of Stacker and Yancy to pay their respects.

The ceremony was planned to be simple and straightforward; there were no groomsmen or bridesmaids, no endless procession of bridal party members. It began with just Raleigh and Mako, hand in hand, walking down the aisle together towards their future as a string quartet played "All You Need is Love". Mako wore a tea-length dress with a full skirt in light blue brocade; Raleigh was in dress slacks and a button down shirt, sleeves rolled up to his elbows.

Jazmine sat with Chuck in the front row, fielding his twenty hundred questions about weddings. "Isn't the bride supposed to wear white?" he whispered to her as they happy couple took their positions in front of the small arbor at the end of the aisle.

"Yeah, but the bride can wear whatever she wants," Jazmine whispered back. "It's not like it matters if she's a virgin."

"Wait, what?" He forgot to whisper that time, and she elbowed him.

"That's why the bride used to wear white, to show she was still a virgin. It's stupid and old fashioned," she hissed at him between her teeth.

Chuck still had his eyebrows raised, contemplating this new bit of information when Tendo started the ceremony.

"We're gathered here today to celebrate the love between Raleigh and Mako, as they take this step forward to be not only friends, not only co-pilots -" mild laughter from the guests - "-but husband and wife."

"But a lot of women still wear white dresses?" Chuck whispered.

"I told you, it's stupid and doesn't matter and they can wear whatever color they want," Jazmine growled out of the side of her mouth. Herc gave them a sideways glance from the other side of Chuck.

"...and now, the bride and groom will be exchanging vows they have written for one another," Tendo finished, stepping back.

Jazmine couldn't even remember what was said - she was too busy watching their faces, noticing how they only had eyes for each other as they spoke, as though everyone else had disappeared.

And then suddenly all the talking was over, and they were sliding rings onto each other's fingers and Tendo yelled "I pronounce you husband and wife, now kiss!" and everyone stood to shower them with birdseed, Raleigh catching her eye and winking as they flew back down the aisle with their clasped hands held high.

The reception was even more informal than the ceremony had been - the venue had managed to find a caterer that could handle a dinner buffet on the shortest of short notice. Jazmine spotted Raleigh getting emotional with the woman who seemed to be running things, and moved to intercept.

"...so, so grateful, you have no idea. I thought we were going to have to get fast food," she could hear him saying in Japanese, and he had pressed a tip envelope into her hand but hadn't let go yet.

"Hey there, buddy, you're speaking her language but your crazy American is showing," she said, taking him by the arm. The woman slipped the envelope into her apron and bowed, scurrying away. "Are you still freaking out? You did it! The hard part's over!"

Raleigh took a deep breath and grinned. "Sorry. The last two days have been so insane, I don't know if I can turn it off again."

"Hey, I told you I would help out however I could and you told me everything was under control," she teased.

"It was under control," he argued. "I figured when you missed brunch yesterday that you were still wiped out from finals. I wanted to give you a break."

"Yeah, sorry about that. We overslept," she admitted, not realizing what she'd said until Raleigh raised an eyebrow at her. "I mean, uh, I overslept…?" Both of them instinctively looked over to where Chuck was sitting with Mako and Tendo, and when he spotted them he smiled and gave a cheery wave. Jazmine's cheeks burned.

"Jaz," Raleigh looked back over at her, "I never thought I'd be saying this to my own sister, but it's about time."

She laughed. "You're telling me. Come on, you need to go dance with your wife."

They made their way over to the table to collect their respective partners, Tendo disappearing when he heard them mention dancing.

"I don't know how to dance," Chuck protested as she pulled him up out of his chair.

"Just hug me, and sway back and forth a little," she pleaded, and he acquiesced.

Before they could get to the dance floor, the band stopped playing the song they were in the middle of, and Tendo's voice rang out from the PA system. "Ladies and gentlemen, I'm gonna need everybody on the dance floor - Mr. and Mrs. Mori-Becket, or is it Becket-Mori? Anyway, they've opted not to have a first dance by themselves, and they're getting ready to dance together for the first time this evening. So let's all grab a partner and join them! Becket boy, Mako - this one's for you!"

"I know where you live, Tendo!" Raleigh yelled across the floor, drawing laughter from everyone who was standing to join them, and Tendo beat a quick retreat as the bandleader counted them off.

Chuck turned to face her as they stepped onto the dance floor, positioning himself awkwardly. "Is this - I'm not sure where to put my hands," he confessed, and she smiled at him.

"Here." She placed his right hand on her waist, and moved the hand holding his cane over to her right side so he could continue to support himself, then wrapped her arms around his neck. "This is fine, just let me know if you need to go sit down."

L is for the way you look at me, O is for the only one I see… "I'm supposed to fly back out to Sydney on Tuesday," he said softly, and she dropped her head to rest her cheek against his shoulder.

"I know," she said. "I wish you didn't have to go."

"You've got a year left of school, yeah?" V is very very extraordinary, E is even more than anyone that you adore...

"Yeah, but I was thinking - I might see if I can get into pre med," she told him, a bit hesitantly. "Maybe be a doctor, like I always wanted."

"If that's what you want to do, you definitely should," he said, kissing the top of her head. "I'll just have to move to Japan, it looks like."

Love is all that I can give to you, love is more than just a game for two… "What are you going to do about your job?" she asked, looking up at him. "I thought you wanted to keep working for them."

"I do." He gave her a guilty smile. "Did I not mention that they're starting a branch in Tokyo?"

"No, you neglected to mention that during the last 48 hours we've spent together." She shook her head at him. "So what was all that about? 'I don't want to go, I want to move out here, boo.' That was your plan from the start, wasn't it?"

Two in love can make it, take my heart but please don't break it… "This is your turf. I didn't want to come barging into your life if you didn't want me to." He slid his hand to the small of her back to pull her in close, and she stood on her tiptoes to kiss him.

"I'm ready for this." The words surprised both of them, but she kept going. "Chuck, I still don't really know what I'm doing with my life, but I want you in it." Love was made for me and you!

"You really mean that." His smile was infectious, and he lifted her off her feet with the arm he had around her waist in a tight embrace.

"Yes! Put me down!" They were both laughing. "I want to see your stupid face every day, okay? If you can put up with mine."

"Jazmine, your face is the only face I want to put up with. For as long as you'll have me." He brought his hand up to cup her face, and kissed her gently.

"Can I have you forever?" It was supposed to be a joke, but as soon as she said it she realized she meant it.

He grinned. "If that's what you want."

Everyone around them disappeared

Love was made for me and you!