A/N: Okay…This is my first story ever… Constructive criticism is appreciated. Flaming, on the other hand, is not. So please don't. One more thing, I don't own anything except for my own characters.

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'It's been a while' thought Sarah Walker as she walked into the apartment complex in Echo Park, Los Angeles. She stood there a minute looking around, reminiscing about times long gone. She walked past that familiar window that she, Casey, and Chuck used, not often but enough. Through the window she could hear music playing but the sound was muffled by the closed window. She didn't know what to expect as she stepped up to that very familiar door that she had been a frequent user of three and half years ago.

"Here goes nothing," she muttered and knocked on the door.

"Hold on one second," Sarah heard someone shout from behind the door.

After what seemed like forever, the door finally opened.

"I thought I told you girls that we didn't want any cook…" the women who opened the door began to say but stopped as she saw who was at the door.

"Sarah?"

"Yeah Ellie it's me." Sarah said, somewhat awkwardly.

"What…Why are you… Wow, ya know I never thought I'd see you around here again," Ellie said rather coldly.

Sarah backed away a little and looked down, feeling a bit awkward. She didn't remember what her cover was for leaving until just now.

"Ellie, I…"

Sarah was about to say something but was interrupted by a small child, no more the three years old. The boy had short brown hair and was wearing pajamas with cartoon animals all over them.

"Mommy!! Can I have my juice now?" the little boy pouted. He turned his head to look at who his mom had been talking to. "Mommy, who's that?"

"Not now Jerry. Sarah why are you back here? More specifically, why are you here on my doorstep?" Ellie asked apparently very suspicious.

"What? Can't I visit old friends without having an agenda?" Sarah asked with a bit of ice mixed in.

"Sarah? Mommy isn't that the name of the girl Uncle Chuck really liked but then went away leaving Uncle Chuck really, really sad?" Jerry asked his mother.

"Yes this is the girl who crushed your uncle's heart." Ellie turned back to Sarah, "So why are you here?" with the same iciness as before.

'Crushed Chuck's heart? What happened after I left? What did he tell them? I thought he was okay with what had to happen.' Sarah thought.

"Work. I resigned from my last job and decided to come back out west. Ya know, to see if I could find a job," she said. "I also wanted to see you guys again. No matter what happened before, I still wanted to be friends."

Another voice joined them, "Hey babe who's at the door?" It was Captain Awesome. If he was surprised to see Sarah, he sure did hide it well. "Oh, hey Sarah," was all he said.

"Hey Devon," Sarah said.

Awesome nodded acknowledging that he heard her. "Why don't you come in and we can talk without air-conditioning the entire complex. Ellie, honey do you mind?"

Ellie didn't look happy. Sarah stepped in and started walking towards the living room. Jerry grabbed her hand and started talking to her, clearly very excited to meet someone new.

"Even though you hurt Uncle Chuck pretty bad before, he still says nice things about you. He said that the time he spent with you was the most fun he'd had since umm…. Uhhh…" Jerry said. "Mommy, Daddy, where did Uncle Chuck say he'd had the most fun before Sarah?"

Ellie answered. "Stanford."

"Right, thank you Mommy! He said his fun ended there for a while because his 'roomy;' Uncle Chuck called him that; got him kicked out for cheating. But my uncle doesn't cheat on anything! He's the best! He's 'awesome!'"

Sarah, whose lips curved into a goofy smile, looked up at Devon. He was standing there smiling at his son, whether it was because he was talking so much to a new person or because he said "awesome" Sarah couldn't guess.

Sarah looked back down at Jerry "And where might your 'awesome' uncle be?"

"Oh!" Jerry started. "He's at work. Do you want to see him?" Jerry asked.

"Yes I would very much like to see him," she smiled at the child.

"Okay cool. When you go get him, tell him to pick up Emily and bring her over."

"Emily?" Sarah asked, looking up at Ellie and Devon.

"Jereko Tyler Woodcomb! It's late! I'll talk to your uncle and see if he can bring Emily over tomorrow." Eliie said to her son then turned to Sarah. "Sarah go talk to Chuck, he'll explain everything."

"Oh okay umm…. Where is Chuck anyway?" Sarah asked.

"He moved out a month or so after you left for your more exciting life." Ellie's iciness returned.

Sarah was slightly taken aback. "Where is he then?"

"He's where all this started. That is if you even remember that far back." Ellie said coldly.

"Okay, I'll go see him then. It was nice to see you again, no matter what you might think." Sarah gave Ellie a sad smile and turned to Jerry, "It was very nice to meet you, Jerry."

"Bye, bye. I hope to see you again." He said with a big smile.

"See ya around sometime Sarah," Devon said.

Ellie just stood there and didn't say a word to Sarah as she walked out.

"Ellie I really hope we can be friends again," Sarah said, meaning every word of it.

"Mhm, we'll see," was Ellie's response.

As Sarah walked back to her car she kept thinking about what Jerry had said. Who was Emily? A girlfriend? Wife? These thoughts kept rushing through her head. She arrived at her car and got into it. It was a new car. A Nissan 350z. She decided that her Porsche wasn't economically efficient. The 350z was a short step down but had better mileage. She started the car and drove off. As she did, the roads became more familiar as she drove to "the place this all started." She got on the expressway and headed toward the Buy More.

--

Sarah entered the Buy More and started to look for Chuck. Typically he was at the Nerd Herd station with his head down. As she approached she could hear him muttering something about how this was the worst night ever.

"Hi! My phone is giving me trouble, could you please help me?" she said to him as enthusiastically and as dramatically as she could.

Chuck tensed up a bit and sat up not looking at Sarah. "Morgan I thought I told you to stop that when Sar…" He turned his head to look at his customer and jumped straight up. "Sarah!?"

She laughed out loud at his reaction. "Yeah Chuck, it's me," she said, laughing.

"Wha…Wha…What are you doing here?" his voice shocked and suspicious.

"What a friend can't visit her friend when she wants to? And here I thought we were living in a free country." Sarah said in a mock hurt tone.

"Well considering our history I'm gonna have to go with no." Chuck said, clearly not amused.

"Can we go somewhere private to talk?" Sarah asked.

"Sure, follow me."

Sarah followed Chuck into the manager's office. When he sat down at the desk, she gave him a confused look.

"Oh I got promoted! Big Mike left for Large-Mart a little over a year ago." Chuck clarified. "So what bring you back? Is something wrong? Am I in danger? Why would I be in danger? I'm no longer the Intersect anymore…" Chuck kept on babbling.

Sarah smiled inwardly to herself, the more things changed, the more they stay the same I guess. "Chuck calm down! It's nothing like that!" she laughed.

"Oh well then… Why?"

"Short story is I was suspended indefinitely pending a performance review that will determine my fate in the CIA." Sarah breathed.

"And the long version?"

"I don't want to talk about that right now, please. Let's do something, get reacquainted."

"Like a date? Sarah I can't tonight I have plans at home. These plans are nowhere near negotiable."

Sarah's face had visibly fallen. 'With this Emily person no doubt.' "Okay, I shouldn't have assumed you didn't have plans. I guess I just expected to find this place just like when I left it. Wishful thinking maybe. I don't know."

"Do you have a place to stay?" Chuck asked sincerely.

"Not yet, but I think I should go out and look for a hotel. It is getting pretty late."

Chuck looked thoughtful for a few moments then said: "Why don't you crash at my place for the night? Sarah gave him a look clearly said 'Are you kidding?' "Don't give me that look. I'm serious it's no problem I have an extra bedroom."

"I don't know Chuck, I don't want to intrude on anything special planned you have for tonight." Sarah said, appearing crest-fallen for a split second.

"No I insist. Stay at my place tonight and when you're all rested up you can go out and look for a place to stay until your "fate" is decided."

Sarah smiled a little. 'Always looking out for people' she thought. "All right then, when do you get off work?"

Chuck's smile broadened as he looked at his watch. "I got off ten minutes ago right after you walked in. Lester will handle closing."

"Lester?" Sarah looked at Chuck wondering what Lester had to do with anything.

"Yeah, when I got promoted to manager, he got promoted to Ass. Man." Chuck's smile grew bigger at that comment.

Sarah gave him a funny look and smiled at his immaturity. "Lester? Assistant manager? Really? Wow."

"Yeah I was a little surprised too. So we gonna get moving?" Chuck asked.

"Yep, let's go." Sarah said, somewhat uncharacteristically over excited.

As they walked out Chuck realized something. "How did you know I still worked here? I mean it's been what? Three and a half years now? Have you been spying on me?" Chuck joked flirtatiously, waggling his eyebrows as he asked.

Sarah looked at him incredulously. "Chuck Bartowski, what possible reason could I have for spying on you?" she played along.

"Oh I don't know. Just to see if your fake ex-boyfriend was doing fine after it all ended." Chuck said, smirking.

"As much as I'd have liked to spend resources keeping tabs on you, I had bigger fish to fry."

"Wait! So you would have spent them if you could have! Oh this is great!" he said poking fun at her.

She narrowed her eyes at him, playfully glaring. "You led me into that one. I can count on one hand the people who cornered me like you just did."

Chuck gulped and became nervous all of a sudden but became relieved when he saw her grinning goofily back at him.

When they made it to his car, a Toyota Prius, Sarah and Chuck agreed that she would follow him.

"You still have that Porsche?"

"No I sold it and got a Nissan 350z."

"Always gotta have the sports cars huh?"

She just smiled at him and left for her car.

--

The drive to his place was about ten to fifteen minutes long. When she got out of her car she looked at his house in surprise. It was two floors tall with a decently sized front lawn and had a driveway leading into a garage that looked big enough to fit two cars. Chuck opened it up and motioned for her to follow him in. The garage fit their cars perfectly. Chuck closed the garage door and then motioned for Sarah to follow him into his home.

"Home sweet home." He smiled at Sarah.

All of a sudden, Sarah heard light footsteps dashing from somewhere in the house coming towards them. Sarah was ready for some sort of attack. It was dark in the room and she was waiting for something to happen. All of a sudden the lights turned on and a figure was jumping at Chuck.

"Daddy!!" the little girl shouted.