Sorry for the long wait. RL interfered with writing opportunities a bit. Hope not to make you wait this long again, but I wouldn't count on it never happening.

As sad as it is to admit, I don't own Chuck

As Chuck strode up to the hospital carrying a picnic basket, he reflected on what he was about to do. It had been two weeks since he had returned from spy camp. With Ellie and Devon spending so much of their free time working on moving into their new apartment, and Chuck being swamped with a couple of minor missions, he hadn't had any time to have the conversation with Ellie that he had promised Rommie.

Admittedly, this was not one of the biggest disappointments of his life.

Chuck was very much not looking forward to this. He was finally going to reveal to Ellie that he'd been lying to her for two years, and while he'd dreamed of telling her the truth for all of that time, he still cringed every time he thought of the reaction of the woman who had pretty much raised him.

Chuck stood in front of the door of the hospital for several minutes waiting. He was not surprised; in fact he had expected it. Every time Chuck had ever visited Ellie at work, even with advance notice, she had gotten delayed. The life of a doctor. It had never really bothered him, but this time it left him more time to stew in his own worries, and he was really starting to fidget. Finally, after ten minutes that felt like an hour each (he'd looked at his watch after each one), Ellie came through the door.

"Hey, Chuck!" his sister greeted him with a hug and a kiss.

"Hey, sis. Where's Awesome?" Chuck replied, looking behind his sister.

"He got swamped. He had a high priority emergency surgery and apparently the guy was some big shot, so he needs to talk to the press." Oh, not good. He had been hoping that having her husband here to help keep her calm would help his life expectancy since Devon was already in the know. Without him Chuck felt like a sitting duck. Apparently his reaction was visible too.

"Chuck? You okay?" Ellie asked him as the two walked over to a secluded bench behind the hospital.

"What? Oh, yeah, I'm fine."

Ellie raised an eyebrow in disbelief but said nothing as they sat down. The two siblings shared an enjoyable meal of sushi and light conversation before Ellie decided to take the bull by the horns.

"Alright Chuck, what's wrong?"

"Wrong? What makes you think something's wrong, El?" He cringed at the false note in his voice. If those were the skills he had in the field he might as well shoot himself in the head right now.

"Charles." Ellie just said his name in that way, telling Chuck that she wasn't buying it and he might as well quit now.

"Ok." Chuck lifted both of his hands and rubbed them over his eyes before looking at her again. "El, there's something I need to tell you, and I cannot describe how hard it's going to be for me. So I need you to save what you're thinking for later, because once I stop I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to start again."

Ellie was quite clearly getting a little freaked out by the way Chuck was talking, but she took a deep, fortifying breath and nodded at her brother to continue.

"Well, it all started with my twenty-sixth birthday. I got an email from Bryce Larkin…."

For the next half an hour Chuck spoke, telling Ellie all about the Intersect, how the government had hijacked his life, and all of the pain and heartache that they'd brought with them. The expression on her face ran the entire emotional spectrum, from outrage to thrill, from groans to laughter. By the end she was nearly speechless.

"Two years? This has been going on under my nose for two years?"

"I'm so sorry, Ellie. I wanted to tell you so many times-"

Ellie stretched over and laid a hand on Chuck's. "I know, Chuck. I could see so many times when you looked at me, you had this desperate, forlorn look on your face. I thought it was my trying to make you face being stuck in the rut at the Buy More, but it was this, wasn't it."

Chuck nodded solemnly.

"And Sarah- she really left with Bryce Larkin of all people?"

Chuck winced and nodded.

Ellie moved from her own seat over to Chuck and engulfed him in a bear hug. "I'm so sorry, Chuck. All those times I went on about the problems the two of you had… I know you loved her so much. I really thought she did too."

Chuck smiled sadly. "Sarah doesn't have many friends, so she cares for the ones she does have fiercely, deeply. I think she does love me, in that way, but not the way I do her. I'd like to think if I'd gotten a chance with her without Bryce in the way…."

Ellie pushed off of him and grabbed his face in both hands, staring right into his eyes.

"You are a better catch than Bryce Larkin, Charles Irving Bartowski. And if Sarah Walker couldn't see that, than she's a fool."

"No, El," Chuck replied, shaking his head. "Sarah is no fool. She was willing to give up everything for me even though she just saw me as a friend. I have to be grateful for that, right?"

His sister just smiled sadly at him. "You still really love her, don't you?"

He sighed. "I think I always will. I always thought the idea of saying a piece of my heart will always belong to her, even if I eventually get over her, was just something they used to make the movies sound romantic. Now I finally get it. I just wish it made the pain go away. Right now the idea that I'll ever get over her seems insane. With Jill it wasn't just losing her, it was losing her on the cusp of everything else, all of the work of my life being destroyed by my best friend. This is just the girl and it still hurts so much worse El. So, so much."

Chuck's voice was breaking at the end as he struggled against the tears. Ellie's lips twitched against her own tears at the state her brother was in.

"I'm so sorry, Chuck. For all of what this world of spying has done to you-"

"Charles." A throaty voice whispered from behind the two siblings. They spun to see their father standing there, his expression horrified. "What have you done, Charles?"

"Dad-"

"No! How could you? How could you drag your sister into this mess?!"

Ellie opened her mouth for a sharp retort before Chuck placed a calming hand on her shoulder.

"Dad, I needed to tell Ellie the truth. For a bunch of reasons. But I asked you here because I need to tell you the truth too."

Steven looked shocked at the statement. What truth was he not aware of?

"Please, Dad. Take a seat."

Once the three Bartowskis were seated Chuck took a deep breath and launched into his tale.

"El, everything I've told you up to now is classified. State secrets. As in lock you up and throw away the key. What I'm about to tell you is worse."

Both members of Chuck's family started at the bald statement.

"Worse how, Charles?"

"Because Dad, what I'm about to tell you is something the government doesn't even know. El, you remember how I told you that during the takedown of Fulcrum, Dad managed to get the Intersect out of my brain?"

Ellie nodded while their father looked on questioningly.

"Well, that wasn't quite true."

Both sets of eyes watching him widened dramatically. Chuck proceeded to tell them about waking up in his room on the day of the wedding to meet Rommie. When he finished, his sister began shaking her head.

"Chuck- please tell me you have some way to convince me not to take you in for a psych eval at this point, although I'm not sure if I'd prefer if this was a delusion or not."

"Charles, you have to admit, this is a bit farfetched. I can't imagine any way the Intersect could behave the way you're saying, and now to believe you have an independent entity in your brain?"

Chuck smiled grimly. "Believe me guys, I wish I had just made this whole thing up. But the thing is, I can prove it." That drew interested, questioning looks at Chuck as he pulled out his phone. "With Rommie's help, I was able to set up a way to get him out of my head, and now- well, say hi, Rommie."

"Hello Eleanor, Mr. Bartowski. It's an honor to finally speak to you directly." Came the electronic voice out of his phone.

"Chuck- is that…."

Chuck nodded. "The intelligence which grew in my brain out of the Intersect, otherwise known as Rommie."

His family stared at him, open-mouthed, their eyes making it clear just how far this revelation had sent them reeling. Several moments passed, before Ellie finally managed to speak up, her voice shaky.

"Uh-h-hi, Rommie. It's nice to, um, meet you."

"You too, Eleanor. You should know just how deeply Chuck loves and respects you. You are one of the first people he goes to when he looks for a template on how to react to a given situation."

Chuck blushed heavily while Ellie looked touched.

"And Mr. Bartowski. I must say, it is odd not to call you dad. Not only was it the way you were referred to in Chuck's mind, but in some ways it applies to me as well. You are, after all, the one who created the initial program that resulted in me."

Steven Bartowski just continued staring at the phone generating the voice, too shell-shocked to speak.

"I understand this must come as a great shock to both of you, but please understand. I mean you no harm. I persuaded Chuck to speak to Eleanor because I believe we need help from both of you. Chuck's brain is very complex, and the effects of the Intersect are unpredictable. I want to be certain there is no physiological downside to it's presence."

"Thank you, Rommie!" Ellie perked up, looking just a little bit smug.

"Oh great, now I'm going to have both of you going all mother hen on me. I knew this was a bad idea."

"Tough."

Ellie chuckled while Chuck rolled his eyes. Steven was still in shock.

"Dad?"

The eldest Bartowski seemed to snap out of his trance a little at his son's voice. "I'm okay, Charles. It's just- I created the Intersect as a teaching tool. It was perverted by the government into a weapon, and now it's given birth to a life. It's running back and forth across the spectrum of right and wrong so fast I'm getting a little dizzy.

"Then- you think my creation was on the side of right?" For the first time Chuck could remember, Rommie's voice sounded tentative, unsure even in the electronic tone he had adopted. Steven gave a gentle smile as he seemed to consider his answer.

"I think the creation of life is one of the greatest abilities humankind was bestowed with. Even if it wasn't the normal way, you are still a life, and whether your creation was intended or not I could never bring myself to regret it."

There was a long pause before a simple reply.

"Thank you."

Somehow it seemed to everyone there that there was a great deal encompassed in those two words. As though sensing a need to change the mood of the discussion Ellie spoke up.

"So what exactly is it you need from us, Rommie?"

"I need an experienced and trustworthy neurologist to examine Chuck, make sure the Intersect is not causing any undue strain. The neurons in his brain have been firing in ways they were never designed to, and I am worried about what it might do to Chuck in the long run-"

Rommie's answer was interrupted by a beep from the cell phone generating his voice. Chuck grabbed it and checked the screen.

"Beckman has a briefing for us. I need to go." Chuck stated as he read the message and rose from the table. Before he could take two steps, he felt a firm hand clasp his arm.

"Chuck."

"Yeah, Ellie."

Chuck had never seen his sister so hesitant.

"I understand what this is, what it means, and that right now you don't have a choice in the matter. Just- please be careful?"

Chuck gave his worried sister a smile, not his usual full-blown grin, but a smile which held so many of the pent up feelings he had released just now, good and bad.

"I promise."

Chuck strode into Castle to find Casey and Amy already present and waiting on Beckman. Chuck sent a silent thanks to Casey for taking the seat at the end of the table, allowing him to sit opposite Amy rather than next to her. The blond agent had been consistently hitting on Chuck for the past two weeks and it was grating on Chuck's nerves something fierce. He was nowhere near ready to start getting over Sarah, especially not with someone who looked so remarkably similar to her. Yet despite all of his attempts to explain that to her, she continued flirting with him aggressively. It was making Chuck more than a little uncomfortable.

Just as Chuck took his seat, the screen lit up with the perpetually scowling visage of General Beckman.

"Good afternoon, team." Beckman pressed a button on her keyboard, bringing up an image of a middle-aged man in a foreign military man. Chuck heard a grunt of annoyed recognition from Casey.

"This is Premier Alejandro Goya, the military ruler of Costa Gravas. He arrived in California three days ago. Yesterday he was hospitalized for a cardiac incident. He has been treated and is expected to make a full recovery. However, we have reason to believe this may not have been a simple health incident, rather an attempt on the Premier's life."

Casey grunted in amusement. "Let me guess. You want us to finish the job, General?"

Chuck's surprised look was matched by Casey's at the General's response. "Not this time, Colonel. In fact, I want you to protect him."

"Ma'am?" Casey grunted in apparent confusion.

"Um, I take it you and this guy are old not-so-much friends, Casey?" Chuck voiced his confusion to the big man, although it was Beckman who ended up answering it.

"Premier Goya is one on a very short list of people Colonel Casey has been assigned a termination order against who are still alive. In fact, if memory serves, it was three separate termination orders," Beckman explained, an uncharacteristic hint of exasperated amusement in her voice.

"Stubborn Commie bastard just refused to die, General. I almost had him. But why the hell would we want to protect him now?"

"Goya is here in the US to announce the opening of democratic elections in his country-"

Casey snorted, earning him the glare from Beckman for once.

"If he were to die, having been assassinated on this particular mission and on US soil, it would set the progressive party in Costa Gravas back decades, if not destroy it altogether. That cannot happen. Understood?"

The team nodded swiftly.

"General," Amy spoke up for the first time, "how do you want us to proceed with protecting the Premier, particularly considering that it's unlikely he'll be thrilled to see Colonel Casey?"

"Your first step is to determine if this actually was an attempt on the Premier's life. To that end, you'll need to question the doctor who saved him. Fortunately, getting him to talk shouldn't be a problem," the general noted, hitting another button pulling up a video of a press conference with a man in scrubs that Chuck recognized instantly answering questions being thrown at him as cameras flashed behind the image.

"NO!" Chuck shouted. "No way, General. We are not bringing Awesome into this. I'm not mixing him up in one of our missions-"

"The matter, Agent Bartowski," The general gritted out, her anger quite visible, "is not open for debate. You will question Dr. Woodcomb about the Premier's health crisis. End of discussion."

The general stabbed at her keyboard, severing the link and ending any further debate.

Chuck stared at the blank monitor, doing his utmost to convince himself that if he lunged forward he'd smash into a blank screen and not a red-headed pain in his rear….

When he finally had a handle on his anger he turned to regard his partners, looking for some kind of support. What he found was a sympathetic smile that was just a little too wide from Amy and an only slightly less steely than usual glare from Casey. G-D he missed Sarah….

Sarah sat alone in the passenger seat of a CIA-issue Toyota with a pair of binoculars in her hands, keeping her eyes peeled to the ring agent she and Bryce had been shadowing for several days. She hoped desperately that he would make some kind, any kind of move. Anything that would keep her mind off the fact that she was in California, so very close to Chuck, and unable to see him.

Sarah had been working steadily for the past two weeks on building a case to take to her superiors on getting reassigned back to Burbank, but as she and Bryce had been having a fairly steady success record, and Beckman had always been uncomfortable at best about how close Sarah and Chuck had been, she was having a tough time putting her arguments together.

One thing she did know, she needed to do something soon. The tears were coming less and less readily.

About a week after Chuck had left for spy training, a week of crying herself to sleep, Sarah had found the tears would not come. The memories got fuzzier, duller. The pain was getting number, farther from the surface. Sarah was horrified. She had failed Chuck; she had let him get swept back into the spy business, she'd let him go off believing she didn't care for him, that she chose Bryce of all people over him, and now she was starting to forget? To feel better? What right did she have to not feel the pain?

And so Sarah had gotten out the pictures of Chuck she had hidden in her suitcase, as well as the T-shirt she'd swiped from his closet that still smelled faintly of him, sat down on her bed for an hour before going to sleep, and remembered. She would think of her lovable nerd, her Chuck. Everything he had done for her, risking his life time and time again despite getting admonished against it. His goofy grin, the way he looked at her as though she was everything good in the world, the way he constantly wanted to care for her. And the pain would come rushing back, and she would cry herself to sleep once more.

As the months dragged on she would perform this ritual whenever she'd find herself starting to feel better. During the day she would be Agent Walker, the consummate professional; late at night, alone in her room, she was just Sarah, the woman who had failed the man she loved and didn't know how to make it better. But she had started to become alarmed in recent weeks as she had noticed the need for the ritual becoming more frequent. She hated the idea that the wound might be scabbing over, that it might be less painful to her in any way.

It felt like another betrayal of Chuck.

Sarah was snapped from her thoughts as the car door opened and Bryce got in, the excited look on his face telling her his reconnaissance had paid off.

"I managed to get a look at the card Artman received from his contact before he went inside. It's a high level Costa Gravan military ID." Bryce said without preamble.

Sarah looked over at the building their mark had entered. "That explains how he got into the embassy so easily, but why would a Ring assassin want to get inside the Costa Gravan embassy?"

"Correction," Bryce said with the grin that always said he had figured something out in advance, holding out his hand. Sarah looked down, seeing an entry pass for a party being held at the Costa Gravan embassy that evening, "why would he want to get in today?"

"He's been sent to assassinate someone at the party." Sarah stated, not having the patience she used to have for the contest of one-upsmanship spies frequently took part in.

"Yup. Which is why we have to get in after him." Bryce returned his smirk deepening.

Narrowing her eyes, Sarah stared him down. "Since there is no way you could've called the boss and gotten the work done this fast, do I want to know how you got this entry pass?"

Bryce's grin just got wider. "I'm the Intersect," he stated as if that should be answer enough.

Sarah rolled her eyes. She was really starting to get fed up with Bryce's newfound cockiness at his new abilities. She understood that it must be exciting, but Bryce had always been a good agent, and his bluster had never gotten anywhere near as out of control as it was now. If Bryce noticed her annoyance, it didn't impact his attitude.

"Up for a party, Mrs. Anderson?"

Chuck stood in front of a mirror, straightening his bowtie in frustration. He could never get the thing to stay on quite right. Sarah had always-

Okay, SO not the thought he needed right now. He was deeply frustrated as it was, he didn't need more melancholy thrown into the mix.

Awesome had been way too eager to help Chuck when he had asked his brother in-law about the condition of Premier Goya. Now thanks to the gratitude of the Premier towards the man who had saved his life Devon and Ellie were going to be present while Chuck and Amy were on a mission. And their mission was to deal with an assassin- not something Chuck wanted his family anywhere near.

As if that weren't bad enough, Casey wouldn't be able to come in on this one. His history with the Costa Gravans and with the Premier in particular meant that his presence would only exacerbate the situation, leaving Chuck stuck protecting his family and the leader of a nation with a partner he wasn't quite willing to trust yet.

It wasn't that he had anything against Amy per se, but he hadn't had the time to get used to her yet, not to mention that her overt flirting was starting to get on his nerves. Her uncanny resemblance to Sarah both physically and in some ways professionally didn't help the situation either.

The one thing he could be thankful for was that although his partners didn't know it, he wouldn't have to worry about Ellie finding out about his spy identity. If he'd had that worry on top of everything else he might have lost it.

He was snapped out of his reverie by the knock on the door announcing the arrival of his partner. Coming out of his room, he saw Devon opening the door to the sight of Amy looking resplendent in a beautiful silver dress.

"Hey, Chuck," Amy greeted with a small seductive edge to her voice. Chuck hid a wince.

"Hey, Amy. You look great."

Amy raised an eyebrow flirtatiously, her eyes inviting Chuck to look down. "You think so?"

His sister, bless her soul, chose that moment to come out of her room, saving Chuck the need to think of a way to answer.

Devon gave a quiet whistle when he saw Ellie. "Hey, babe. You look awesome!"

Ellie gave her husband a wide grin and a peck on the lips before turning to her brother.

"You ready to go, Chuck?"

Chuck fought the urge to sigh with everything he had. "As ready as I'll ever be."

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