Disclaimer: I don't own Chuck…and for once, that is going to be something Shippers are sad about, hehe.

A/N: Alright, everyone asked for it (okay, one or two asked for it), and here it is, the sequel to Chuck vs. The Power Hour. This will serve as the day after or day two, if you will, of the time that Sarah and Chuck have been secluded to Castle while Casey is away. Just to refresh your memory, Casey had business to handle out of country, and during a trying time during the Intersect project, it was decided that Castle was the safest place for Chuck. To prevent anyone discovering their location, all surveillance had to be cut off. The previous night, to keep themselves entertained, Chuck and Sarah decided to play a drinking game. They both got really drunk, admitted some secrets, and ended up sleeping together. That is where this story picks up. Oh, and if you haven't read Power Hour, I suggest giving it a read. It was nominated for an Awesome Award on the TWoP Kicked Us Out But We Still Love Chuck forum here on FF after all, hahaha. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this fic, and please review and let me know what you thought. Here's Charah vs. After Hours.

Well I woke up Sunday morning,
With no way to hold my head that didn't hurt.
And the beer I had for breakfast wasn't bad,
So I had one more for dessert.

Chuck awoke with a start. He was in an unfamiliar bed, in an unfamiliar place, with an all too familiar headache. Other than the throbbing in his head, the only other perception of his senses that registered for him at all was a smell. A very, very intoxicating smell. Lavender and vanilla. That was Sarah's smell. But why would he smell…

Then the memory of the previous night started to take hold. The drinking, the laughter, the sharing of secrets, and finally, the extra-curricular activity. He looked around the empty Castle main room in a feeble attempt to find Sarah. She had fallen asleep with him last night. That much he remembered. So where was she now? Had she freaked out? Did she think that he had taken advantage of her? Was she pissed off?

He stood up to go find Sarah to make sure everything was alright, which turned out to be a bad idea. The first thing he noticed was that upon standing, his head began to hurt even worse than before. The pain was nearly blinding, and in his dizziness, he had to fight to keep his balance. The second thing that he noticed was that he was very naked.

Quickly falling back to the bed to take cover under the sheets, he looked around quickly for his discarded clothes. Finding his boxers right where Sarah had left them -thrown haphazardly over the bedpost- he slipped them on followed by a fresh t-shirt from his bag before setting out on his search for the blonde in earnest.

Then I fumbled through my closet for my clothes,
And found my cleanest dirty shirt.
An' I shaved my face and combed my hair,
An' stumbled down the stairs to meet the day.

Left. Right. Front kick. Left. Side kick. Spin kick. Right.

Sarah wailed away at the body opponent bag she'd just placed in Castle the previous week. She was at a loss for what she should be thinking, or feeling for that matter. On so many levels she didn't regret her actions from the previous night at all. I love Chuck. Fine, I said it, I love Chuck. Last night was amazing to finally open up and act like a real couple. I couldn't have asked for anything more. Well, I guess it would have been nice had we been sober, but if it took getting wasted to make that happen, then it was worth it.

But as much as she wanted to focus on all of the positive aspects of the previous night, she was brought back to the ramifications of what their union meant. There was no going back at this point. By making love to Chuck, she'd made a decision. What that decision was she was still trying to figure out.

She had been unsuccessful at breaking down their relationship scientifically. That bothered her, as Sarah had always been a very scientific thinker. One plus one would always equal two, and that was the way she liked things. But with Chuck, one plus one might equal three, or eleven, or yellow. She threw one more resounding punch into her inanimate target, allowing a frustrated cry to accompany the blow.

Sarah accepted when she made her decision to sleep with Chuck that she would have to change, but she wasn't comfortable having to change this much, this quickly. This was the part of relationships that she sucked at the worst. If she were even a little normal, she would be able to voice her concerns and her fears to her lover, but she wasn't even close to normal. That added another note to the growing list of concerns she had about this thing she had with the man she'd be underground with all week. Chuck had always voiced his desire to have a "normal" life with a "normal" girl, and Sarah was anything but normal.

Suddenly, her senses began to alert her to movement out in the Castle hall. Seeing as the doors were sealed to the outside world, and the monitor in Castle hadn't come to life with the image of General Beckman to alert them of their release, she knew it had to be the object of her musings. He was really the last person she wanted to see right now, even if he was the person she needed to talk with more than anyone. Briefly, she considered trying to hide from him. Noticing the obvious lack of cover in the room, and feeling that such actions would be juvenile, and largely ineffective, she took a deep breath to try to calm her emotions before he would inevitably find her.

Chuck, dressed in his boxers and t-shirt, came upon the small gym where he instinctively knew Sarah would be. Sure enough, she was standing in the middle of the room dressed in her typical tight workout attire and sporting the sweat of an obviously spirited morning exercise.

Right away, he could sense her inner turmoil. It was what he'd feared the most since they'd first began to venture down the road to consummation of their relationship the previous night. He had learned to deal with Sarah's rejections of his advances and learned to write them off as her simply being confused. But if she regretted what happened between them, Chuck knew he would be crushed beyond repair. He'd dreamed for so long about the first time he would make love to Sarah, and the experience had been everything he'd ever hoped for and more. Being with her made him feel more alive than he'd ever felt.

But if she wanted to take it all back and pretend that what happened hadn't really happened, Chuck didn't know that he'd have the will to go on. No, he wouldn't be suicidal or anything, but if it really was possible to die of a broken heart he was quite sure that he'd drop dead right here in Castle upon her dismissal.

Chuck and Sarah stared one another down. Emotion filled the vacant space between them, its cloud seemingly to thick tow allow the passage of words. Several moments passed as both fought an unspoken battle to not be the first to break the silence. As was generally the case with the couple, they both acquiesced at the same time.

"Sarah, I-"

"Chuck, I-"

Despite the magnitude of the impending discussion, and the impact it would have on their future together, neither of them were able to contain a smile at the familiar awkwardness. Taking a moment to collect themselves, Sarah was surprisingly the first to speak up.

"Chuck, what we did last night…what happened…" she lost the ability to meet his gaze and suddenly found her throat too dry to swallow. Finding the right words seemed to be an insurmountable challenge. Fortunately, as he usually did, Chuck came to her rescue.

"I'm sorry." Her head shot up to look at him, befuddled at what he'd be sorry for. Was he sorry that he'd been with her? She didn't think she could handle it if he felt regret for their union. "I'm sorry that I was too weak to say no." Oh God, he does regret being with me. I think I'm going to be sick. "I've dreamed about holding you like that for so long, Sarah. About the first time we'd be together. But I let it be cheapened by taking advantage of you while you were drunk."

Sarah suddenly felt better and worse all at the same time. She was beyond relieved that Chuck really had wanted what happened between them, but she felt horrible that he felt guilty about how it had happened. Pushing her own personal hang-ups and baggage aside, she was at the moment compelled to relieve the fears and self resentment harbored by the man she…yes, dammit, the man I love!

"Chuck, you didn't take advantage of me," she said. Chuck looked as though he was going to try to retort, so she quickly continued before he could interject. "I wanted that Chuck…I wanted you. I have for a long time. And I still want you Chuck. I…I lo…" Why am I having such trouble saying this? Why won't my stupid mouth cooperate?

Luckily for Sarah, Chuck was there to bail her out again. He was always there for her, which made her love him even more. "I love you, Sarah," he said.

"Me too," she answered. She looked at him apologetically, guilt at her inability to completely express her true feelings clearly visible on her face. Her heart was warmed however when she didn't see his face fall in disappointment or express judgment upon her. He was secure in knowing how she felt even if she couldn't say it out loud. He'd waited nearly two years for her to get to this point. Waiting a little longer for her to say those three words wouldn't be so bad.

Chuck quickly crossed the room to envelope her in his arms. Sarah felt a little self conscious at first having just completed her workout. She didn't want such an important moment in their relationship to be tainted by her ragged and sweat covered appearance. Any fears she had about all of that quickly dissipated however as his lips descended to her own.

After only a slight moment of hesitation, she began returning the kiss with fervor. Their lips continued to bond to one another for what seemed like hours as their tongues delighted in the exploration of one another. It was a kiss not wrought out of desperation like the time on the docks, or frustration as it had been in front of Roan Montgomery, or even intoxication as everything had been the previous night; this osculation was more of a confirmation. It was a cementing of their feelings for one another and their need for them.

The kiss finally broke. Her hands were still both tangled in his curly hair, his left pressed to her back holding her against him and his right cupping her face gently. Upon pulling back, just enough to breathe, their eyes met. It was then that Sarah's breath hitched in her throat. What she saw in his eyes was wanting to be sure; but it wasn't a wanting for a moment. His deep brown orbs didn't tell of carnal desires. The gaze he cast on her told of his longing for something much more than that. His eyes spoke of a future together; of many nights together; of a family and a life and a partner to grow old with.

It was in that moment that Sarah realized two things very clearly. The first was that she had just experienced the most real kiss of her life. The second was that for the first time in her life, she wanted all of those things Chuck had silently spoke of more than she wanted anything else. She wanted a life filled with love. And she only wanted it with Chuck.

In the park I saw a daddy,
With a laughin' little girl who he was swingin'.
And I stopped beside a Sunday school,
And listened to the song they were singin'.
Then I headed back for home,
And somewhere far away a lonely bell was ringin'.
And it echoed through the canyons,
Like the disappearing dreams of yesterday.

Time had seemed to stop, as once again Chuck and Sarah were joined; this time without the preamble of intense binge drinking or any intoxication other than what they provided one another. Their conference may have lasted seconds, or minutes, or hours, or days. Neither of them was sure at all how long it had taken. And as they lay spent on the exercise mat in the castle gym, clothes strewn all over the room, bodies intertwined with one another, they both realized that for the first time in their lives, they were both complete.

"I love you, Chuck," Sarah said softly into his chest as she drifted off to sleep.

Fin