Disclaimer: I don't own Chuck.

A/N: This is my first fanfic, so be nice please! Um…I guess you guys should get a little background to this story:

This is a season 3 AU, but many of the events from season 3 transferred into the story. The main difference is that Chuck and Sarah got together, and Shaw didn't happen….yet. I mean, what?

Without spoiling my story, let's say that if Shaw does happen to come along, there won't be any lame love triangles, because, like I said, they're lame. :)

November, 2011

Sarah Walker used to be a very guarded woman. When you've spent your whole life under different aliases, moving from town to town, lying to too many people to even count, you always had to keep your guard up. In her senior year of high school, her life had changed: her father had been arrested, and she had been recruited by the CIA. Before, she had been able to put her guard down every once in awhile, which had allowed her to, for a lack of a better word, relax. But after years of training, years of learning how to lie to make others believe truly believe that she was the person she said she was. After years of training, she was able to completely shut off her emotions.

When Sarah met Chuck Bartowski, the tall, lanky man with curly brown hair, light brown eyes, and a warm smile, she couldn't help but feel a sense of warmth; a sense of comfort. When she had been assigned by the CIA to become Chuck's handler, the longer she got to know Chuck, the harder it was to keep her emotions in check.

It wasn't entirely Chuck's fault. The man is, in his own way, charming. Not only that, but he was incredibly funny, and sweet, and extremely caring. Nearly every morning, when they began their cover relationship, Sarah used to drive to Chuck's older sister, Ellie's apartment. At first, she would tell herself that it was to brief Chuck on an upcoming mission, or to fill him in on findings of a current mission. She would always fix his necktie, as to not raise suspicion from Ellie, but as the weeks turned into months, and the months turned into years, Sarah would just fix Chuck's tie just because she wanted to.

Okay, maybe she liked how Chuck would always smile lovingly at her, or how his breath would always catch whenever she reached up to straighten his tie. Maybe she liked how the second that Chuck saw her waiting in the courtyard, his eyes would glow at the sight of her.

But the point is, the longer that Sarah spent time with Chuck, the more difficult it was for her to keep her guard up. She used to become angry at herself. After all, she was a bad ass CIA agent who could snap a man's neck with her pinky if she wanted to. Sarah was the bad ass CIA agent that could manipulate any man into giving her pertinent information just by showing a little leg and a flashing a wink. Most importantly, Sarah was the bad ass, cold hearted CIA agent who could keep her emotions in check, and live her life one mission to another. But when she met this guy…this Chuck Bartowski, it was just damn ridiculous at how he was able to make her feel, truly feel, emotions again. For the first time in her life, she was truly in love with the computer nerd.

In fact, she was so in love, and so comfortable around Chuck, that as Chuck stepped out of their bathroom, wearing a tuxedo, she didn't notice the slight outline of a velvet box, containing a diamond ring, in Chuck's pocket. If it were anyone else, she would have noticed the outline, but instead, with Chuck, she just focused on how handsome he was. Instead of feeling weary, she felt excitement. She didn't know why…she's been on plenty of dates with Chuck before. They've been dating for two years, after all. Never in Sarah's life had she felt so…giddy.

Chuck's grin widened as he stepped into the living room, seeing Sarah in a light blue dress. Sarah felt her cheeks becoming hot. Oh god, she was blushing…

"Wow," Chuck smiled, bringing his warm hand up to Sarah's cheek. "You look beautiful."

"Thank you," Sarah said shyly, covering Chuck's hand with her own. "You look very dapper. Handsome."

"Aw, shucks," Chuck said in a joking tone, but his cheeks turning slightly red. "Why thank you, Agent Walker. So shall we proceed with our night o' fun?"

Sarah giggled as Chuck performed the, as he liked to call it, the old Bartowski eyebrow dance.

"Yes we should, Agent Bartowski," Sarah said, blushing. "So what do you have planned?"

As Chuck flashed another warm smile, and took her hand in his own, Sarah couldn't help but feel as if she was the luckiest woman in the world."It's a surprise," Chuck laughed, as they walked out of their apartment.

Two Years Earlier: May, 2009

Location: Intersect 2.0 Training Facility: Prague

Chuck was walking down the construction site of the brand new training facility between a tall, square jawed man, Colonel John Casey, and a redheaded, stern faced woman, General Diane Beckman. There were a countless number of men welding beams together, or laying the foundation of several buildings, but Chuck wasn't paying attention to them. Nor was he really paying attention to General Beckman as she was explaining the functions of the new Intersect 2.0 and the agendas of Chuck's training of how to use the new Intersect. He got the general gist of it: he would now be able to access multiple combat abilities, along with other skills such as dancing, gymnastics, and a lot of other skills to get out of hotspots as long as he was able to keep his emotions in check.

However, all of the other words coming out of the General's mouth went in one ear and out of the other. Chuck's mind was elsewhere: the beautiful, electric blue eyed CIA agent who was still in Burbank, California to finish reports of the enemy agency: The Ring. He recalled the last time they had spoken, just after he had downloaded Intersect 2.0:

"We could…" Chuck remembered Sarah hesitating.

"We could what?" Chuck had asked.

"We could run," Sarah finished, quickly gazing around the base of operations, Castle. "Together. You and me. We go now, and we never look back."

Chuck hesitated before saying, "Are you serious?" He could hardly believe those words coming out of Sarah's mouth. Wasn't it hours before that she was ready to pack up everything, and leave for the new Intersect project with Bryce Larkin? And now she wants to run away with him, as in, Chuck? Sarah had chosen Chuck?

"I have some money saved up," Sarah continued, looking intently into Chuck's eyes. "I'd have to get us some new identities. For now, go to the training facility in Prague. Meet me at the Nadrazi train station in three weeks time at 7:00, and I could figure the rest out later."

Chuck still couldn't believe his ears.

"What are you saying?" he asked.

Sarah swallowed.

"I'm saying that I want to be a real person again," she admitted. "With you. This is what you want, right? I mean, this is it, Chuck. Will you run away with me?"

"Bartowski! Pay attention!" Casey barked, snapping Chuck out of his revelry.

"I'm sorry, I was just…" Chuck looked around at the construction site. "I was just distracted by…all of this."

Chuck held his arms out, indicating the construction site.

"I mean, wow! This is going slightly overboard, isn't it?"

General Beckman sighed, and shook her head. She craned her neck to look up at Chuck. There was a part of him that considered bending his knees down, just so she wouldn't have to look up at him as if he were some skyscraper. It was the nice thing to do, wasn't it?

"Chuck," the General began in her stern voice. "We're building all of this because you had never received proper training. We considered sending you to a CIA training camp, but we need Intersect 2.0 up and running as soon as possible, and at the camp, you would be training for over two years. Like I said—"

"—the Intersect was meant for a real spy," Chuck finished, feeling slightly ashamed. "For Bryce Larkin."

"Precisely," Beckman nodded.

Chuck heard Casey grunting. It was grunt number 231: the skeptical grunt.

"The US government is spending millions of dollars for you to be the ultimate spy, Bartowski," Casey said. "You better not screw the pooch."

"I won't," Chuck insisted.

"Good," Beckman said. "The Ring is growing stronger as we speak. We need you to be fully trained as soon as possible. It's up to you to properly identify Ring agents and take them down as we took down Fulcrum. Do you understand? We're depending on you."

"Yes, ma'am," Chuck said. "I'll try not to let you down…"

Three weeks later

Nadrazi Train Station

Chuck felt the eagerness of Sarah's kiss. He felt her fingers in his hair as they trailed down to cheek. He felt the slight tickle as her fingers traced his jaw line before resting gently around his neck, pulling him deeper into the kiss. If it were any other time, he would have felt elated. But now, he felt conflicted.

Chuck heard General Beckman's voice ringing in his head, which, to be honest, was an absolute mood killer. He was the CIA and NSA's only chance to defeat the Ring—their only advantage in put a stop to the rogue group. He would be letting them down if he ran. Not only will he let the agencies down, but he would let his sister, Ellie, her husband, Devon, and his best friend, Morgan down by not protecting them when it was he who could help prevent the Ring from threatening their lives.

If he didn't run away with Sarah, however, he'd be letting her down, and he wouldn't know if he'd be able to take her disappointment. Sarah wanted a normal life. She of all people deserved to have a normal life. From what Chuck gathered, she never had the opportunity, and if he ran away with her, he'd be able to show her what it would be like.

Sarah slowly broke the kiss and Chuck saw that she was looking up at him with slight fear (or disappointment?) in her eyes.

"…that wasn't the kiss I was expecting," Sarah said softly, trying not to let Chuck hear the fear or disappointment in her voice.

Chuck gave Sarah a half smile. Screw it, he thought, looking into the love of his life's eyes. I can't leave you behind…

"Sorry," Chuck said, leaning down to peck Sarah's lips. "I'm just tired. Casey and Beckman have been making me run all these training exercises and you know me. Athleticism isn't one of my strong points."

Sarah beamed up at Chuck and he saw her breathing a slight sigh of relief.

"Well, looks like I'm going to have to take extra special care of you," Sarah teased, taking Chuck's hand. "We should get on the train."

"Yeah," he agreed. "Let's do this."

Chuck stared out of their compartment window as the train sped along the tracks. He looked upon the Russian landscape. Never in a million years did he think that he would ever see such a thing in real life.

Sarah rested her head on Chuck's shoulder, as she softly ran her fingers along Chuck's. Chuck desperately wanted to be happy. He should be happy, damn it! There was no one in the world that Chuck wanted to be with more than he wanted to be with Sarah. To him, she is the most perfect woman in the universe. She's tough, caring, and smart, she always laughed at his stupid jokes, she's beautiful, and she's the greatest thing to ever happen to him.

Chuck had ran this scenario millions of times in his head. In all of those millions of times, he always knew that he would be ecstatic when he finally got the chance to really, truly be with Sarah. But it wasn't ecstasy that he was feeling; it was a bittersweet feeling.

"Chuck?" Sarah asked, lifting her head up off of Chuck's shoulder. "Is everything okay?"

Chuck gave Sarah a reassuring smile.

"I thought my name was Hector now," he reminded, smiling.

"Oh," Sarah chuckled. "Sorry, I forgot. Hector is everything okay?"

"Yeah, why wouldn't they be?" Chuck asked. He felt Sarah's eyes scanning him as if she were some sort of human lie detector.

"Hey," she said, squeezing his hand. "I know something's up. You can be honest with me. What's wrong?"

Chuck shook his head and sighed.

"It's just…" He saw Sarah's body tensing up before he continued. "There's an entire training facility here to train me; to turn me into Intersect 2.0. And…they told me that I was their only…advantage in taking the Ring down. I can help them. I can do something that really matters."

"It's not that simple," Sarah said. "Nothing is real. This," she took both of Chuck's hands in her own, grasping them tightly, "This is simple. This is a real life."

"I know that, but—"

"They'll change you," she continued, her eyes showing another glimpse of fear. "They'll change you into a completely different person. If you go back; if you become a spy, you won't be…"

"I won't be what?"

"You won't be the guy that I met two years ago," Sarah said. "You'll be cold, constantly conflicted, and unfeeling. You won't be…my Chuck."

Chuck gently wiped a stray tear off of Sarah's cheeks.

"What happens if I flash on someone? Like a terrorist? What happens if I ignore it, and later, they kill hundreds or thousands of people? I can't live with myself, knowing that I could have done something to prevent something like that from happening, but not doing a thing," Chuck said, feeling his heart breaking as he saw Sarah's beautiful eyes filling with more tears. "I think that would change me more than being a spy would…"

"You're going to…leave me?" Sarah asked, wiping her eyes.

"I don't want to," Chuck said honestly, as Sarah looked away from him. "I can't hurt you, Sarah. You're everything that I've ever wanted, but…how could I just turn my back knowing that what I have in my head could help a lot of people? I could help protect the people I love…I could protect you."

"Please…" Sarah begged. "Don't do this. I know where you're coming from, but…"

"Sarah," he began, bringing her head up to face him. "I won't change."

"You can't promise that," she retorted.

"Yes I can. I promise you that I won't change," Chuck said. "No matter what happens, as long as I know that you're with me, I'll still be…" Chuck hesitated before he smiled, "Your Chuck. Besides, I'm no longer an asset, and we can be together."

Chuck looked expectantly at Sarah for her to say something. After what seemed like hours, Sarah finally sighed before breaking into a smile.

"You promise that we can go through this?" she asked. "That you won't change?"

"Yes," Chuck beamed, as Sarah leaned over to kiss him. When they broke off their kiss, Chuck finished, "I promise you. I've been in love with you pretty much since the moment we met, and I'm never going to let anything get in the way…anymore."

Sarah laughed.

"And also—"

"Chuck," Sarah interrupted. "Shut up, and kiss me."

November, 2011

"So," Chuck laughed as they walked out of the laser tag arena, ignoring the onlookers gaping at him and Sarah. It was understandable: they were two grown adults, dressed in a tuxedo and an elegant dress that had just played an intense round of laser tag. "Did you have fun?"

"I can't believe you made us get all dressed up for laser tag," Sarah said, trying hard not to laugh at the absurdity of it.

"Oh, you know you had fun," Chuck smiled, as Sarah bumped her shoulder into him. "I mean, you were sniping all those little ten year olds. To be honest, I was starting to get really scared. You had this crazy look in your eyes! You reminded me of Casey, taking something that's supposed to be fun way too seriously!"

Sarah playfully smacked Chuck's shoulder.

"Okay," she said sarcastically, "Says the guy that probably flashed to shoot out those guys that tried to look up my dress? If you really think about it, it was your fault that they looked up my dress."

"How was that my fault? And I didn't flash, for your information."

"Oh, let me think," Sarah said, bringing crossing her arms, and looking up with a thoughtful expression, pretending to think, but unable to hide her playful grin. "Who's the one that said, 'Sarah, I have this amazing night planned. You need to wear a nice dress, and I'll get a tux, and we'll go on the best date ever?'"

"I didn't expect you to take laser tag so seriously," Chuck explained, laughing. "I mean, you were rolling around and diving like we were in a warzone! I mean, you freaking tore off the bottom frills of your dress just to climb the bird's nest! I never told you to do that, so it's totally your fault!"

"Can you blame them?" Sarah teased, smiling up at Chuck as she wrapped her arms around him. Chuck lowered his head so that their faces were less than a centimeter apart.

"No," he chuckled, kissing his girlfriend. "I can't say that I do."

"But I wish you would have given me a heads up on the laser tag thing. Then I would have put some panties on…"

Chuck's eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets.

"What?" he exclaimed loudly.

"I was kidding, Chuck!" Sarah cried, laughing.

"Do I really need to tell you the story of the neighborhood bicycle that I used to go to school with, Chastity—?"

"Harris," Sarah finished for him. "The girl that didn't wear panties to prom, and she ended up getting an infection, because she sat in a dirty chair…"

"Exactly," Chuck nodded.

"Well, with a name like Chastity, I'm pretty sure that the infection didn't come from a chair," Sarah joked. "But Chuck, you should know by now that I always wear panties."

"I know, but…your…faux confession took me off guard," Chuck nodded, as Sarah stood up on her tiptoes to give him a kiss.

"So what's next?" Sarah asked eagerly, as they walked hand in hand back to Chuck's car; a gun metal Honda Accord. Chuck pulled open the Sarah's door, as she sat in the passenger seat.

"You hungry?"

"Indeed, I am, Mr. Bartowski," she replied.

"You want to go to the pier, and grab some cheeseburgers with—"

"Extra pickles?" they asked together. Sarah giggled, and nodded up Chuck. She stopped him before he shut her car door.

"Hey, Chuck?"

"Yeah?"

"I love you."

"I love you too, Sarah," Chuck smiled.

The young couple walked along the beach, their stomachs filled from the French Fries and cheeseburger that they had eaten thirty minutes earlier. The man hand an arm wrapped around the woman's shoulders, and the woman leaned against the man. When they reached a certain spot, about a mile away from the pier, Sarah stopped. Chuck looked at her curiously.

"You remember this spot?" Sarah asked.

"How could I forget?" Chuck replied, grinning widely. "This is where you told me to trust you for the first time."

"You remembered…"

"Of course! That was the moment I knew that you were something special," Chuck explained, giving Sarah a wink before he looked up to the sky. Sarah looked up as well, and she saw a full moon. The moon, combined with the relaxing sound of the waves crashing, and the warmness radiating off of Chuck was intoxicating. She was so lost in the comfort that she didn't even notice Chuck reaching into his pocket, his fingers wrapping around a velvet box.

"Sarah," he whispered into her ear. Sarah smiled back to Chuck, and saw him taking a deep breath. He didn't return the smile as he exhaled. Instead, he had an extremely serious expression on his face. "I've been thinking a lot…about our future."

Sarah gulped. Oh, Jesus, Sarah thought, I thought things were going well between us! Like extremely well! If things were any better than this, then it would be illegal…Wait, why are you automatically assuming that he's going to break up with you? Hell, why are you talking to yourself? I'm not! Yeah, you are!

"Sarah? Are you okay?"

Sarah shook her head.

"Yeah, sorry…I just…um…"

"Sorry, I just have to say this before I start freaking out. You really have no idea how much I want to freak out right now, and you know what happens when I freak out, I tend to babble, and look! I'm babbling right now, and I'm sorry that I'm babbling, but sometimes I can't help it, and I'm also sorry that my palms are sweaty, you could let go of my hand if you want," Chuck rambled.

Sarah looked up at Chuck, confused. Chuck took another deep breath.

"Anyway, I love—"

RING! RING! RING!

BZZT! BZZT! BZZT!

Both Sarah's and Chuck's phones began to vibrate and ring. They both silently cursed as they pulled their phones out. Sarah read the text message from Casey: "New mission. Report to Castle immediately. Just sent Bartowski an image from a surveillance camera of a potential Ring agent with David Santucci. See if your girlfriend flashes on the agent."

David Santucci? Sarah wondered. He's the CEO of Treadstone Industries, the largest provider of weapons for the military. If the Ring's got him…

Sarah turned back to Chuck, getting ready to tell him that they needed to get back to their base of operations, but stopped when she saw that he was on the ground on his knees, his head in his hands down, and breathing heavily.

"Chuck!" Sarah gasped, bending down, placing her hand on his back. "Are you okay? What's wrong?"

"I flashed," Chuck said with his head down and holding a hand up to indicate to Sarah that he was fine. "Sometimes I get these headaches when I flash. I'm fine. The guy next to Santucci is definitely a Ring agent. His codename's Stonewall."

Chuck finally lifted his head to meet Sarah's gaze. She could tell that he was trying to hide his pain by smiling, but she could tell that his head was hurting him. Before she could suggest sitting this mission out, she noticed blood trickling down his nose.

"Chuck? Did you accidentally hit your nose with your hand?" Sarah asked.

"No. I don't think I did," Chuck replied, as Sarah helped him get on his feet. "Why?"

"You have a bloody nose," Sarah pulled her handkerchief out of her purse, and wiped the blood off of Chuck's face while he resisted. "C'mon. We need to get you cleaned up, and I'll call Casey to let him know that you're not feeling well. We'll send in another team."

"No, I'm fine!" Chuck insisted. "Really. The migraine's gone. It's only a quick flash, and then it goes away. Plus, I get nosebleeds like two times a year. It's no big deal."

"Are you sure?"

Chuck nodded. "I'm gonna go to the little boy's room to clean this blood off, and I'll meet you at the car, okay?"

"Okay…" she replied, unsurely, as she watched Chuck jogging over to the rest room. Before he went through the door, Sarah could have sworn that she saw his hands shooting up to his head again, as he stumbled through the door. "Damn it!"

Without hesitating, Sarah sprinted across the sand to the restroom that Chuck had just stumbled into. She burst through the door to see Chuck leaning against a stall, holding wadded up paper towels to his nose with one hand, the other hand kneading his temple.

"Sarah!" Chuck cried, startled by her sudden appearance. "This is the men's room!"

"I don't care," Sarah said, rushing over to Chuck, and placing her hand over his hand that was holding the paper towels to his nose. "You're in pain, Chuck!"

"No, I'm not!" Chuck said quickly, shifting away from Sarah.

"Yes, you are!" Sarah insisted, noticing that Chuck's body was beginning to tremble. Whether it was from anger or pain, Sarah didn't know. Either way, she felt a twinge of pain in her chest from seeing the man that she loved this way.

"This will pass in a couple of minutes," Chuck said, tossing the bloody paper towel into a trash can, and examining himself in the mirror to see if his nose had stopped bleeding. He was still trembling, and his voice was shaky as he said, "See? My nose stopped bleeding. My headache's gone. It happens sometimes after a flash. I'm fine."

Before Sarah could say anything, Chuck's eyes rolled to the back of his head, and he collapsed onto the floor.

Yay? Nay? Let me know if you guys liked or hated it! I have most of the second chapter written, so that should be up in a couple of days! Thank you for reading!