A/N: Happy Valentines Day to my beautiful wife and my baby girl. both of whom are the light of my life. Also Happy Valentines Day to all the female fans and writers of Chuck, without you some of the best fic's out there would not be written. And special mention to Seajay28, NickyR, Jomarch, and all the others.

The Past - June, 2010

For two years they danced around each other. Each in their own way trying to show their love for one another. Then when they were so close to getting everything they wanted he had to ruin it. He downloaded the newest version of The Intersect to save them. To save her and he uttered the words that she would never forget for the rest of her life. They meant that everything had changed again. Guys, I know kung fu. Almost ten months ago now Sarah had told Chuck to meet her in Prague and they would run away together. It was their chance to be happy forever.

Then the unthinkable happened. Chuck gave her up for the greater good as Casey would call it. Five months later after abandoning her at the train station he would flunk out of spy school.

It would take him almost a month trying to get off of his sisters couch, and then another few weeks to get back into Beckman's good graces so he could rejoin his team. He was now to be trained by Casey and Sarah and some new guy named Shaw. After a few days of not speaking to Chuck, Sarah finally relented and they both decided to try and remain friends and forget about anything romantic between them.

Shaw is there now constantly hovering around Walker and constantly flirting with her. For his part Chuck had tried dating Hannah the sexy new Nerd Herder but that didn't work out. When Chuck finally put the pieces together and discovered with Casey's help that Shaw sent her to see if Chuck could seduce someone other than Walker. He got angry and that's when he realized it was also to drive a wedge further between him and Sarah.

Just as he was trying to come up with a plan to win Sarah back and to find away around Shaw another obstacle was presented to him. Shaw pushed and pushed Beckman to give Chuck more responsibility so Chuck had been assigned his own asset to handle Manoosh. Both Casey and Sarah disagreed with both Shaw and the General saying that Chuck wasn't ready to handle an asset of his own yet. But Chuck as usual took it on anyway insisting that he was ready. In the end he betrayed Manoosh to protect him from himself. Chuck knew full well that life would never be safe for Manoosh on the outside of the world again. Sarah saw the dejected look on Chuck's face but stayed back from comforting him when she saw and heard Chuck go up to ask Casey a question.

"Hey Casey?"

Casey taking a little bit of pity on Chuck answered him, "What is it Bartowski?"

"How do you get over this? How do you get used to it?"

As she was listening Sarah remembered a time when Chuck would have asked her that question. When he would have confided in her. It sent a shiver own her spine to think how far apart they had become.

"Listen, burning people is never easy but it gets easier over time. But to answer your question, Johnny Walker Black." Casey turned away and looked at Sarah and whispered "Maybe he is ready to be a spy after all."

Later that night Sarah was outside Chuck's living room window that he shared with Morgan. She watched him fight to take the first shot of whisky, but when she saw him down his third shot in a row she decided to act. She would not lose her beloved nerd to this world. She was determined to keep him as innocent as possible and there was only one way to do it but she needed a plan first.

The next day gave her, her best chance. She was working in the Castle working on some reports when she went to grab some paperwork off the table behind her. As she turned around Shaw had come up behind her, spun her around and kissed her hard. Neither of them realized that Chuck had just walked in from the Orange, Orange and saw it happen. Sarah had been taken by complete surprise till she heard a sound coming from the top of the steps. She looked up just in time to see Chuck's eyes well up and he ran out.

She immediately turned back to Shaw and slapped him as hard as she could and told him in no uncertain terms to never touch her again. She dashed up the stairs and ran as fast a she could after Chuck. She finally caught up with him by the beach just a few blocks away. He was sitting in their spot just drifting away with his eyes shut. She walked up behind him as quietly as she could to not startle him, when his eyes sprang open as if he sensed her presence.

Damn he is getting good she thought to herself.

"I know, I know that we are just supposed to be friends Sarah, but really HIM!"

"Chuck stop it's really not what you think."

"He's like that actor who tried to take up the mantel of Superman from Christopher Reeve, but failed in the end. Guy couldn't act his way out of a wet paper bag." Chuck murmured to himself. Sarah let him finish his rant while thinking of what she should do.

Finally she took his face in her hands and tilted is head up so she could look in his eyes. As soon as their eyes met she brought their lips together and kissed him as deeply and as passionately as she could.

After they separated for a lack of air in their lungs Sarah took the next step. "Chuck all I want is you, but you have to do something for me."

"Sarah back in Prague, you have to understand…" Chuck tried to explain, but was stopped by Sarah's hand to his lips.

"Chuck it doesn't matter anymore, Just please I need you to do something for me."

"Anything" Chuck answered with his megawatt Bartowski smile beaming in full glory.

"Don't let this job change you. I mean it, don't end up like Casey and bottle up your emotions with alcohol."

"As long as I have you then I promise."

"Good" She kissed him again and began to pull him up.

"Where are we going?" he asked.

"To talk to Beckman, I want to be with you and I intend to let her know that I love you and that with us together you are safer than with us apart."

The talk had gone well to their surprise. General Beckman's response to their news was unexpected to say the least. It's about time.

However she warned them that if Chuck did not shape up, listen, and follow orders given then there would be dire consequences. She also did not know about Shaw's techniques as she referred to them. She made sue that he was reassigned right away to a place far, far away from them. Which is good because Sarah told her that if she ever saw him again she'd put a bullet in between his eyes.

The Present - February, 2011

Chuck was giving the third in a series of guest lectures to a group of kindergartners about respect, safety, and responsibilities. He had ignored Sarah's and Casey's direct orders on their last mission. He was in the van watching the buildings cameras when he saw them engaged in a fire fight on the 4th floor. It wasn't that Chuck was relegated to stay in the van anymore, since he was a full fledged Agent now. But he still wouldn't carry anything but his tranq gun and they needed someone to watch the monitors to watch their six.

But what he saw in the camera with the point of view behind Casey and Sarah was a little boy walking directly behind them like he was lost. He had his hands over his ears and was trying to find a place to hide but there was no were for him to go. Chuck had tried to warn them over the radios but either the comms were down or the shooting was so intense that they could not hear him over it. Chuck launched himself out of the van and ran up the 4 flights of steps in no time. He had entered the hallway in between the FULCRUM agents and Sarah and Casey. The boy had just walked up and was standing just behind Casey. Just as the enemy agent had Casey in his sights Chuck ran thru just as the Agent pulled the trigger Chuck dove forward grabbing the boy and rolling to the corner as the shot hit him in the shoulder. Casey shot the enemy Agent while the other gave up. Sarah ran over to see if Chuck was ok and called for backup.

"Dammit! Chuck, why can't you ever just follow orders for once." Sarah muttered under her breath as she bending down seeing the blood flooding Chuck's nerd herd uniform.

She was about to yell at Chuck some more when she saw the boy underneath of him and pulled him out from under him. She made sure Chuck would be ok, and then motioned for Casey to stay by his side while she tended to the boy. Even though it tore her up that Chuck was hurt, and she wanted to be by his side, the injury wasn't life threatening and she needed him to understand why they have orders and why as Agents they must follow them. Then something else dawned in her mind. Beckman's warning!

While the paramedics tended to Chuck and were putting him on the stretcher Sarah stayed absent from his side and returned the boy to his parents apparently the boy had a habit of sleep walking when he does he is completely out. Once Chuck was out of the hospital they reported to Beckman. Even thought the mission was a success Chuck had been injured taking a bullet for Casey. Beckman had yelled at him and reminded him that she said there would be consequences. Sarah, who was already not talking to him, was ordered to only speak to him when necessary however she could only talk to him about work nothing personal. Also Chuck had to give the aforementioned kindergarten class the guest lectures since he himself had to learn how to listen. Three consecutive Fridays unless there was a mission.

It was two weeks away from Valentines Day and Sarah was still not talking to him. He had to talk with the kids once a week for three weeks. This was his second to last one. Even though she wasn't speaking to him, he had coerced Sarah into helping him last week with the demonstration about safety. He gave the class a simple phrase for them and their parents to learn. It was to help identify someone they know from someone they don't. If the wrong phrase was given then they were to turn and run away or back to the school immediately. The question was simple.

"What is today's fruit?"

The class answered "Pineapple"

After the class had given the correct word, Chuck had Sarah come in and pose as a stranger.

Chuck tried to catch her eyes and show her that he missed her but she walked right by him. For her part Sarah missed Chuck desperately, but unless she wanted to be shipped out in the middle of the night she was going to follow Beckman's letter as closely as she could.

Chuck had given her instructions prior to their arrival at the school, so she knew what to do as soon as she was had her go up the children and ask them to go with her. She had gone up to a child named Bryan. She asked him to go to the movies with her. Bryan then asked her the fruit of the day.

She answered "It's an apple come on I have one in my car"

Bryan then yelled "Stranger, someone help me, call the police"

All of the parents noticed how Sarah reacted to this news and saw how Bryan ran away from Sarah back towards a safe place.

Chuck was just congratulating Bryan and had asked Sarah to explain more about what kind of safe places for the children to look for and to identify as a safe place for them to run to if the situation ever occurred.

However during the demonstration his cell phone rang and he noticed it was Casey. He asked Sarah to watch the class while he went outside to answer it. What he didn't know however was that she had asked Casey to call him but he didn't know why. Sarah took the opportunity to ask the class to help her next week with a Valentine's Day present for Chuck. She told them that she was his girlfriend and wanted to do something special for him. She just asked the class that if they saw anything strange next week not to alert Chuck for it was a surprise. She then approached a little girl and asked her name.

"Hey sweetie what's your name?" Sarah asked.

"Siena"

Nice to meet you Siena I am Sarah would you like to help me surprise Chuck?"

Just as Chuck walked in Sarah said thank you to the class and left without saying a word to Chuck.

The next week was hard on Sarah she hadn't spoken to Chuck personally in close to three weeks. She really wanted to show him that she was proud of him and that she forgave him, but she needed him to be safe. She hoped the surprise that she had for him would explain everything perfectly, in a way that he could not misread the situation.

The following Friday was February 12th and it was just two days till Valentine's Day. Chuck had a gift for Sarah but she was still not talking to him yet. He entered the classroom and was ready to start talking to the class about responsibility. The kids had noticed a ceiling tile start to move away from behind the desk Chuck was leaning against while he was talking. Then they saw two long legs swing down as if dangling from the ceiling. They all remembered their promise to Sarah the week prior. They all tried to not let Chuck notice what was going on. So one of the boys named Kevin raised his hand and asked a question. While Chuck was answering the question Sarah dropped out of the ceiling and knelt down on one knee on the floor. She then gave a prearranged signal to the little girl named Siena. Siena then got Chucks attention by waving her hand. When he called on her she shyly pointed behind him.

When Chuck turned around and was shocked as he saw Sarah knelt down on one knee.

"Charles Irving Bartowski I can't live another day knowing that it could be our last and I want to make sure that we spend every day knowing how we exactly feel about each other. That said will you do me the honor of becoming my husband and marry me?"

Chuck said with a big smile "YES."

fin.