A/N: This is the prologue to my second multi-chapter fic. I've decided to bash out a prologue and continue the story after I'm done with the Intersect project. More A/N after the story, I recommend you read it.

Prologue

2028

"Bryce, dinner will be ready in around ten minutes," Sarah called out into the hallway.

"I'll be right out," he shouted back.

Sarah glanced around the kitchen. It was a gesture she found herself repeating over and over. As if to reinforce her belief that what she saw was real. The marble was polished to a brilliant shine, and it reflected Sarah's face perfectly. The smile that was adorning her face was almost as brilliant.

The house was situated in a nice suburban area. It was for all intents and purposes, the American dream. She even had a white picket fence, and an SUV. Of course, she also had the Porsche. It was ancient, but she still loved the car. It reminded her of how things could've been so much worse. It was ironic. A beautiful piece of engineering being the prime reminder of how bad her life had been. Of course, back in the day she never thought there was anything wrong. It wasn't until she took a step back from it all and had casted a critical eye over her own life that she saw how utterly despondent it was. At that point, the decision had been the easiest anything had ever been. She hadn't regretted it once.

"How the mighty have fallen," Graham had muttered when she told him of her intentions to quit the C.I.A. She simply laughed at him. Still clutching on to the job to give him some form of personal fulfillment. Sarah was glad that she had left that worthless life behind her. Still, it did sting a tiny bit to see someone who she had looked up to as a father figure, dismiss her so coldly. Couldn't he see that this was what she truly wanted? He hadn't bothered showing up to the wedding either.

Thinking it through, the resentment towards Graham kept growing. She marched to the kitchen, and began stirring in the sauce. Her aptitude with the kitchen had increased since she started living together, and cooking was oddly cathartic. She made a mean pasta. Sure, it wasn't the most challenging dish in the world, but one needs to control the basics before moving on to the more challenging stuff. And she had. Sarah had never failed a mission in her life. Well, that's not entirely true. She had failed one mission. The ramifications for failing it were the biggest in her life. It was the best failure she had ever experienced.

A blonde mop came bounding through the quiet suburban house. "Mom, I'm home!" it shouted. Sarah's smile grew even wider.

"Lisa, you're back! How was school?"

Lisa was fifteen years old. She could pass for Sarah's twin. Her build was long, athletic and drop-dead gorgeous. There was nary a trace of her father. Sarah found it to be a shame.

Lisa shrugged. "You know how it is. Same old, same old. P.E. was interesting though. I totally kicked butt."

"And have you done your homework?"

Lisa rolled her eyes. "Sure, mom. I've done my homework."

"Can I see it?"

"God, mom. Is it 'Grill Your Daughter' day or something? Jeez, you'd think you were an interrogator or something."

Sarah walked up to her daughter, and gave her a hug. "Don't worry, sweetie. I'll stop asking those questions."

"Ugh, can you please stop calling me… Hey!"

Sarah had several of Lisa's books in her hands, flipping through them. She stopped at the point where the last written notes were. "Look here, Lisa. This ink has dried for a period of over twenty-four hours. It's impossible that you've done your homework, seeing as how you haven't even bothered writing anything."

Lisa snatched the books away and gave her mother the stink-eye. "Yeah, you could be a detective, or a spy or something."

Sarah laughed. "Don't worry. I'm not a spy."

Lisa rolled her eyes and put the books back in her backpack. She ran up the stairs to her room. Sarah simply shook her head, and went for a taste of the sauce. "Needs more salt." As she absentmindedly added the seasoning, she let her mind drift back to the dinner tonight. It would be huge. The announcement that she was pregnant. Bryce and Lisa didn't know yet. She only found out a few days ago and had kept a tight lid on it. She could only imagine Bryce's reaction. He had always been in favor of Sarah having another child.

As she gathered the pot for the noodles, she thought about the people in her life. One name kept popping up. Chuck. God, she missed him. Her first true love. He had shown her the definition of what it was to love without reservations. It allowed her the strength to grow in her own convictions. She actually teared up a little thinking about him. It was through his guidance that she had grown to love other people, like Bryce for example. At first she didn't think she could. It scared her. The entire idea of being so vulnerable with someone else was a terrifying thought, courtesy of a messed up childhood and a less than stellar social life during high school. Then of course, there was Graham and his recruitment program from Hell.

But Chuck had saved her. Had shown her that it wasn't so scary to share. He started out taking it slow on her. Little tidbits of information would slip through her carefully constructed walls, fortifying the way to her heart. Every time she'd catch herself on letting something slip, she had mentally berated herself. But it kept happening. She was spellbound by the man. His disarming personality and charms that simply sneaked up on you left you wanting more. Sure, they had some really bad times, and some really great times. But she wouldn't trade them for the world.

And it was through him that she had learned to love others. It had started with him. He was the catalyst to the downfall of agent Walker and the rebirth of Sarah Walker. And when she had expressed interest in learning to love Bryce, in the knowledge that she didn't know if she could, he hadn't laughed at her. He hadn't gotten upset. He simply helped her like he always did. She never once regretted it. God, she missed him.

She picked out a string of noodle from the boiling water, and tasted it. It had only a slight bite left in it. Perfect. Tonight would be perfect.

"Bryce, dinner is ready. Are you coming?"

"Coming," he called back. She heard the door opening and the feet flying down the stairs. Bryce had always been a fan of pasta. As he came sprinting in, the curly brown hair that he had inherited from his father was bouncing wildly on his forehead. It only served for Sarah to miss Chuck even more. She glanced at her watch. Where was he? He should've been home already.

As if on cue, the key was entered into the lock, and Sarah's face lit up for the umpteenth time that day. Finally!

She all but dashed to the front door to meet him. He had only just opened the door when his hands were full with Sarah Bartowski. He didn't particularly seem to care.

"Hey baby, missed me?" he said, in between being mauled by Sarah.

"More than you think," she replied, still busy trying to find a way to fuse their tongues together. She heard a loud throat clearing from behind her. She turned to see Lisa and Bryce standing in the hallway. Their expressions were a mixture between disgust, mirth and awkward. Sadly, this hadn't even been the worst of it. There was a time where Chuck went on a business trip for three days. They had practically gotten naked in the doorway. Bryce's friends didn't really seem to mind the view. Sarah had kept particularly fit and she insisted that Chuck at least worked out. He didn't have to adhere to the ridiculous schedule that was Sarah's training regime, which frankly put most twenty-something kick boxers' schedules to shame, but she did like her man to remain fit. Sarah's physique was something that 30 year olds would probably go on a multi-state killing spree to attain. As a matter of fact, as she was pushing fifty, she still looked better than just about everyone they saw. Chuck would've been biased, but it was a pretty known fact. He was one of the luckiest S.O.B's on the face of the planet.

Of course, Sarah would always be quite quick to point out that if there was but one person lucky in their relationship, it was her. He had quite literally saved her from herself. And for that she would be eternally grateful. Chuck quite liked how she repaid her gratitude. And it had led to two beautiful children and another on the way. Chuck had always wanted normalcy. And there was a point in his life where he had truly feared the woman next to him. And there was a small but still discernable point in their history where he had loathed her existence. But standing flush against her, looking in her crystalline eyes, there was nowhere he would rather be. He started unconsciously twisting the ring on Sarah's finger.

"What are you doing?" she asked, with amusement coloring her tone, as Bryce and Lisa went to sit at the table.

Chuck heaved a deep sigh. "Just checking whether or not it's still all real."

"It's still real, Chuck. It'll always be real."

Chuck nodded. "Thank God. Now, let's go break the news, shall we?"

"Lead the way."

They walked back to the table where Bryce had started handing out plates of noodles. Sarah's brow furrowed in amusement at seeing Bryce so eager to start. She sat down and they began eating. During dinner, Sarah continuously sent glances towards Chuck. But every time she did, he subtly shook his head. Not yet.

Finally, as Bryce had gone for a third plate, Chuck's head gave a curt nod. She cleared her throat. "Guys, we've got an announcement."

Chuck jumped in. "Your mother and I, we're having another baby."

"Eww!" both kids shouted out. Sarah stood slackjawed. That wasn't really the reaction that she was expecting.

"Ehh, want to try that one again?" Chuck asked.

"Dad, Mom, that's disgusting. We really don't need to know you guys still have… sex." Bryce started.

Sarah's confusion turned into a sly grin. "Oh? I thought we made it quite obvious. I see, apparently we've not been doing our part Chuck. We'll have to up the ante from now on."

"Eww!" was shouted in unison. Chuck joined in with his children.

"Sarah, it's one thing to show you how much I love you in private, but I think I agree with the kids here. I'd much rather it be kept exactly that… private."

Sarah threw on a mock pout. "Oh, alright, if you insist."

Chuck stood up and gave her a quick peck. Bryce intervened before it would turn passionate. "No, but seriously mom, that's great news. I'm really happy for you."

"Oh? I distinctly remember you being quite enthusiastic about the prospect of a little brother or sister not a few years ago."

Bryce shrugged. "I may or may not have a couple of detailed blueprints on how to mold my little sibling into the ultimate baby-brother or sister."

Chuck laughed. "Atta boy! But anyway, that's not everything. Tonight, we're going to tell you how your mother and I met."

Lisa groaned. "Sorry mom, dad, I know you think family time is important and to an extent, I agree. But that's just ridiculous."

Chuck shrugged. "If it were anything but the story we're going to tell you, I'd agree. But trust me baby girl, you're going to want to hear this story. It'll give you a whole new sense of respect for your amazing mother."

"So uh, how long is that going to take?" Bryce asked.

"A while. It's a long story."

"So, can we get started then?"

Chuck looked at Sarah, who nodded. "Alright then. Sarah will grab some stuff to help animate the story, and I'll fetch the drinks. You two get comfortable on the couch."

Sarah ran upstairs, and grabbed the box with spy gear they still had lying around. Old, doctored pictures; Sarah's old black, ops outfit; and even her trusty Smith and Wesson. She walked back downstairs, as Chuck had just put down the drinks. She dropped the box on the floor. The kids started rummaging through the stuff, whispering among each other. Finally, they had satisfied their curiosity, and sat back on the couch.

"So what is all that?" Bryce asked, gesticulating towards the box.

"Well, I'll explain what everything is in due time. Let's start at the beginning…" Sarah started, before taking a sip of her water. "We're going back to 2004. Your father was in his final year at Stanford. His life was going quite well. He was close to graduating, he had a fantastic best friend named Bryce Larkin and he had a girlfriend whom he loved. Her name was Jill." Sarah spat out her name.

"So uh, this Bryce Larkin… Am I named after him?"

Chuck nodded. "You'll find out why later on in the story."

Sarah took over once again. "As I said, the year was 2004 and your father was about to graduate from Stanford…"

A/N 2: Okay, a few notes about this story. The way that the Intersect project is currently heading is to a strong reliance of fluff. That's fine, and it seems that a lot of you like reading it. But it wasn't what I originally set out to write. I wanted a fic that was darker in tone. But the story wouldn't work with will they won't they or even more than the current amount of angst that I'm throwing in it, so I opted to not put it in. However, we're going back to the spy world in this one, which unlocks a barrage of potential.

The reason for the prologue is simple. It's to set a clear ending. It means that I'll be able to unleash a torrent of abuse on Chuck and a similar onslaught on Sarah. "But wait, if you're already writing them together, how can there possibly be any angst left?" Don't worry. I've got some stuff up my sleeve.

As for the Charah in this story. It'll be there. For the sake of the story, it'll start out with Chuck and Jill together. Deal with it. When the Charah begins, I can't with 100% guarantee say that everyone will like it. People might find the way I write Sarah to be distasteful or disrespectful. All I'm saying is that I'm just peddling in the gray area that the show so graciously provided for us. It'll probably end up being overly dramatic rambling on my part, but I'm just saying what I'm planning at the moment. And of course, I'm guaranteeing a happy end, what with this prologue.

Having said that, I can't wait to start on it. I truly am excited for this story. It was my first idea (Intersect Project was actually my second, but somehow I started with that.) to write and the way it's heading, I'm expecting at least 200.000 words. As I'm hoping this will be my best work (which isn't really hard when it's between two works.) I've decided that I would like to enlist the help of a beta reader. I've no idea on how to go about contacting someone, but I'm just putting the word out there.

So anyway, that was my rambling done, I hope you enjoyed this little prologue and I definitely hope you stick around for when I can get around to actively writing for this story. Thank you for reading.