A/N: I don't own Chuck. This continues in the same Chuck-verse as Chuck vs. The Cardboard Box and the others in the series.

Chuck walked through the courtyard in front of the apartment he and Sarah lived in. It's been several months since they started living together and now have settled into a nice groove. Casey was still the same as always; he still lived near Ellie and Devon just in case anything leaked out about Chuck being the intersect, he would be there to protect them. Missions, as always, popped up unexpectedly but both found that the craziness of the espionage world much easier to handle knowing they have each other to come home to at the end of the day. As he was asked by Beckman and Graham, Sarah brought Chuck to a secret CIA facility in Long Beach in order to have the intersect updated regularly. Sarah wasn't there when Chuck first uploaded the intersect and was shocked to see the after effects after the first update. Chuck always waved her off and told her not to worry.

As for outside of the espionage world, Chuck and Sarah couldn't be happier. Sarah never had a semi-normal life and found it all exciting since it was the first time for her. For Chuck it was equally exciting since he was now independent, well sort of if you forget that the CIA was paying for the place and all the bills. It was agreed upon that cooking duties would be evenly split between both of them, much to Chuck's dismay early on. At the start of the deal Sarah had yet to take Ellie up on the offer for cooking lessons which made for some interesting meals at dinner. Combine that with the fact that Chuck was still learning hand to hand combat and was no where near Sarah's level, he ended up being forced to eat a lot of food that shouldn't be eaten by humans. Or animals for that matter.

Luckily Sarah did start taking lessons from Ellie and now was at the point where Chuck could eat in relative peace of mind knowing that he wasn't going to die. One thing that helped him through the torture was seeing how close Sarah and Ellie were now; they were best friends and neither one could go through a whole day without a phone call from the other. Chuck made the unfortunate choice one night to comment that maybe Ellie should marry Sarah instead of Devon. Of course Devon had a laugh but the daggers being shot at him by his girlfriend and sister were more than he could handle.

Despite being so close Sarah wasn't able to share much of her past with Ellie but instead of outright lying about it, she always steered their conversations elsewhere. Ellie sensed this early on and never asked unless Sarah was the one who brought it up. She knew that Sarah was a shy, secretive type of person and never pushed her beyond what was comfortable. But despite that, both women did truly consider the other their best friend and maybe their sister.

As for Chuck, he had more drastic changes in his life to deal with. Since having his named cleared in Stanford and afforded the opportunity to complete his electrical engineering degree, Chuck had used his summer to complete the general education courses that he had left to finish. He had two more classes for his major to go and then he'd have his degree by December. This morning as he walked into his class he saw a poster on the bulletin board announcing a special seminar called Psychology in Symbolism by Professor Fleming, the same professor who tried to recruit him for the CIA and aided Bryce in having him kicked out of Stanford. Chuck smiled and thought that it might be something to look into.

As Chuck stepped up to his front door, he could hear the sounds of giggling and two women chatting. He opened up the door to see Sarah and Ellie looking through bridal magazines on the sofa in the living room and Devon, head down sitting on a dining room chair. Poor man. Even Casey wouldn't be able to stand up to this type of torture.

"Hello everyone" Chuck called out.

"Hey Chuck" answered Ellie.

"Chuck! My man. Great to see you!" exclaimed Devon.

Chuck laughed as he saw the desperation in his eyes. "You too Devon."

"Hey there sweetie" said Sarah as she gave him a kiss. "Good day at school?"

"Yeah. Strangely enough, school the second time around doesn't seem as hard" answered Chuck. "My turn for dinner right?"

"Yeah but I was thinking we all go out. Consider it your day off for good behavior."

"But you always give me something else for good behavior" whined Chuck with a sinister grin. "Things that should only be mentioned behind closed doors."

"Ewww. I don't want to ever hear anything like that coming from my baby brother" shouted Ellie.

Chuck laughed. "You mean you don't want to hear the ways I caress Sarah's body and how she always knows where to...." Suddenly a pillow came flying out and hit him in the face.

"Stop it right there. Don't break my image of you as my sweet innocent brother."

Sarah joined in the teasing and added "Innocent? He's far from innocent Ellie. I made sure of that." She gave her an evil smile. Counting on her fingers, Sarah continued "Then I made double sure, triple sure, quadruple sure..."

"Not you too." Ellie put her hands over her ears and started shaking her head. "Darn you Chuck. Now you have Sarah messing with me too!"

Sarah and Chuck laughed as they watched his sister try to forget the previous conversation. Sarah forgot what it was like to joke around with loved ones but luckily she met Chuck and he was able to help her remember that part of herself. It wasn't that she had no sense of humor; it just had to be suppressed due to the seriousness of her job. She remembered making her little sister laugh on the way home from school as well as pulling pranks on her best friend Stacy. Sarah sighed as the memories of her childhood crept to the front of her mind. She'll have to let Chuck know about her history so that he can make an honest assessment of her. That can wait till later.

Sarah turned to Chuck, "Great to have you home."

Heading into the kitchen, Chuck replied "Always great to come home to you." He continued on, noticing Devon shadowing him in.

"Dude, I'm soo happy you're here. Do you know what I just went through?" Devon sighed.

Chuck laughed. "Hey don't complain. I had to go with Sarah and Ellie wedding dress shopping since the groom can't see the bride in it before the wedding. Do you know what it's like to see seemingly ten of the exact same dress in a row and have to give a different opinion on each one?"

Devon shook his head. "Whatever. At least there's another male presence here" stated Devon as he pulled out two beers. Handing one to Chuck, he asked "Hey I haven't asked in a while but how are things with you and Sarah? You guys have been living together for a while now."

"It's going great. At first I was a little apprehensive moving in together but now I can't remember what it was like before we lived together. We get into the occasional fight but it's nothing that we can't work out by bedtime. I must say that we couldn't be happier."

"That's great Chuck. I know I wasn't as vocal as Ellie was but I always thought you two would be great together. Something about the way you look at each other told me that you two could handle any situation." Devon paused before adding "You know that I'm a cardiothoracic surgeon..."

Chuck interrupted and finished his sentence. "I know, I know. Which means you're an expert in matters of the heart. I got that the first time." Chuck smiled as he thought of the "siutations" they had to handle: bombs, deadly gas, terrorists, gun smugglers. "Anyways, thanks Devon."

"No problem. With you finishing up your degree, I'm proud to see you're onto fulfilling your great plans."

"Well I couldn't have done it if not for a certain over-protective sister and her awesome fiancee putting up with me for 5 years."

"Seriously it was no problem. Speaking of great plans, have you thought of what happens next with Sarah?"

Chuck had a confused look on his face. "Next? What's next?"

"Chuck, Chuck. You know what's next. The big plunge? Getting fitted for the ol' ball and chain. The next right step in the relationship? Marriage dude."

Chuck went into a vicious coughing fit as the beer he was drinking went down the wrong pipe. He never thought that far ahead when it came to him and Sarah. He enjoyed being with her in the moment that he didn't think of what the future held. "Marriage? Isn't it a bit soon for that?"

"Soon? You guys have been going out for a year now and been living together for half of that. I swear you two are attached at the hip even though I said before that that's not where you should be attached." Chuckling, Devon continued "I don't think it's too soon."

With a hint of concern in his voice, Chuck asked "Really? Do you think Sarah's thought about it?"

"Chuck, look into the living room. I'm sure she's thought about it. It would be hard not to."

Chuck looked out into the other room and saw Ellie and Sarah commenting on what dress looked good and what kind of flowers they wanted in their ceremonies. "I see." Chuck's eyes focused out onto the distance.

"Hey. Don't need to sweat it bro. It's an easy decision that you probably already have made but just didn't realize it."

Chuck looked over at Devon, waiting to hear what he had to say next.

"You love Sarah right?"

Chuck nodded.

"She loves you?"

Again Chuck nodded.

"Do you see yourself with anyone else or do you see anyone else making you as happy as she has?"

"No" Chuck replied as he shook his head.

"So there you go. Not as hard as a decision as you thought huh. When you find the right girl, the decision to get married is surprisingly an easy one."

Chuck let it sink in for a moment. He knew Devon was right and that he couldn't see himself with anyone else in the future. The thought of proposing to Sarah was indeed a scary one, but a piece of advice he gave to her a while back popped into his head. Whenever Sarah was amazed at something he did for her, his reply was always "It's actually relatively easy to do for someone I love." Maybe I should take Devon's and my own advice.

Chuck was curious about one thing. "So what about you and Ellie then? You waited for more than a year to ask her to marry you. Don't tell me that you didn't know you wanted to marry her until last year."

"No, of course not. I knew pretty early on that Ellie was the one for me."

"Then why the wait?"

"The wait was because I wanted to get to know her little brother a bit better."

Chuck looked shocked. "Me? Why?"

"If you didn't know you're a big part of Ellie's life, just as she's a big part of your's. It didn't feel right to ask her to include me in it if I didn't get to know you a bit better. So that's what I've been doing."

Chuck was obviously touched by the gesture. He had to admit that he was a bit intimidated by Devon early on since he came off as the typical jock. But getting to know him better Chuck saw that he was much more than what he portrayed. Also thinking back, Chuck realized that Devon was just as much supportive of him as Ellie was.

"I appreciate it Devon. Just to let you know, you'll be an awesome addition to the family."

Devon smiled, "Thanks bro. Hah! Now bro actually means bro."

"I guess it does, bro."

As Devon and Chuck laughed, they failed to notice two women leaning on the counter listening to the last part of their heartfelt exchange. Luckily for Chuck they came into the conversation after the mention of him proposing to Sarah.

"Are we interrupting something boys?" Ellie asked.

The men quickly jumped around and saw the smile on their significant others' faces. "Uh, no. Just shooting the breeze with Chuck" answer Devon.

"Yup, I was actually thinking of joining Devon on his weekend morning bike rides" added Chuck. He knew that Devon loved bicycling and maybe he should open himself up a bit and hang out with him a bit more.

Devon's eyes lit up. "Really? Cool. I know this 150 mile route through the city."

"Baby steps Devon. Baby Steps" replied Chuck.

Ellie laughed at the exchange. She had heard the conversation between the two and was happy that the two important men in her life were becoming so close. She was always protective of Chuck ever since they lost their parents but she started to worry about what Devon would think when she invited him to live with them after the whole debacle at Stanford. Of course Devon was all for it and told her that there's no way that they could let Chuck be alone. Seeing Devon slowly become protective of Chuck like she was just increased her love of him.

"So Chuck. Remember what I said. The decision is surprisingly easy." Devon gave him a wink.

Sarah saw a contemplative look come over Chuck's face before a smile broke out. Curious she asked "What decision is easy Chuck?"

Chuck was caught off guard and was stammering for words. "What? Oh nothing. About working out. The decision is surprisingly easy to start working out once you weigh out the benefits of being toned and lean. Heh heh." Chuck wiped his brow. "Well I better get cleaned up before we head out for dinner."

Sarah could see something was up since Chuck was so nervous. But in the interest of having a peaceful evening, she was going to let Chuck slide for now.

A/N: Yeah I know. Things might be jumping forward quickly for Chuck and Sarah but living with your life constantly in danger tends to speed things up for you. I hope you enjoyed it and please review.