Posted 11 Aug 2012

Maybe this isn't their spot.

A few minutes later

Chuck and Sarah walked through the arch leading to the courtyard, hand-in-hand. It was dark in the sky, but the courtyard's twinkle lights were on. Sarah was moving quickly, almost urgently, pulling Chuck along. Chuck stopped, surprising Sarah as their linked hands caused her to be pulled back sharply.

Sarah turned back and glared, "What is it, Chuck? We're almost there." Behind that fierce expression, she sounded desperate.

Chuck sighed. This was going to be tough. "It's not going anywhere. I just think we should talk a few more minutes." This had been on his mind in the car. She wasn't ready, but she didn't know it.

Sarah dropped his hand and placed hers at her hips. She initially looked confused, but that soon switched to a mix of impatient and annoyed. Yes, this was going to be really hard. Chuck was horrible at resisting her when she was determined, but he had to do it. He could tell Sarah was still uncomfortable with the entire situation and was covering her uncertainty with a race to the bedroom. She might not realize it, but she needed a Bartowski fix. She needed to talk about it. Not the small talk from the car, but a serious discussion. Maybe something else too.

Chuck stepped over to the fountain and sat at its edge. He patted the spot next to him and said, "Come here, Honey. Have a seat."

Sarah didn't budge. Her eyes darted from Chuck's eyes, to where he was patting, to the fountain, and back to Chuck. Her impatience dissolved to apprehension. "Let's just go inside."

"Not yet. I know I'm simply irresistible," he joked, "but I also know you well enough to know you're covering and are not really ready yet."

"I must have lost my touch if I can't get you to the bedroom. Either that or the honeymoon is long over." Chuck saw Sarah's eyes dart back to the top of the fountain again.

Chuck groaned. "Trust me. The honeymoon will never be over. You have no idea how much this is killing me. I just want to take the pressure off."

"That's what I want to do, too." Sarah had fully deployed her seduction voice.

Chuck couldn't hold back a snorting chuckle. "I wasn't talking about that kind of pressure. Come on. Just sit by me a few more minutes. I know you need this."

Sarah switched back to annoyed. "Is my psych profile in the Intersect?"

"I don't know about that, but I know about you from five years of intense study, and because I'm your husband."

Sarah's eyes widened at the assertion. Chuck knew he had her. She trusted him. She remembered their attraction to each other. She was even wearing her rings. But it still hadn't completely sunken in that they were husband and wife. She wasn't pulling a boyfriend or lover to a bed. She was pulling her husband to their bed. Chuck gave Sarah a gentle smile as she realized what Chuck had instinctively known.

"Ok, Chuck. We can talk a little bit more. But can we do it someplace else?"

Chuck crinkled his eyes. "What's wrong with the fountain? This is our spot."

"I thought the beach was our spot."

"It is, sort of for special occasions. But this is our other spot. This is where I was sitting earlier today when I realized where you would be. We have a lot of great memories here."

"I don't think so. When I look at the fountain, my stomach..." Sarah hesitated, reluctant to admit a weakness. "It just makes me uneasy."

"Come on, Sarah. We have a lot of great memories here."

"I remember lying to you here."

Chuck didn't know what to say. He couldn't remember that. Was this another time he forgot something?

"I felt it."

Oh. That.

"I felt it before I left," Sarah continued. She looked so sorry. "You had to know," she almost pleaded. Chuck could tell she was trying not to cry. "I wouldn't come here and apologize and say goodbye..." Sarah ducked her head in shame. After a few seconds she looked up and saw what Chuck couldn't hide on his face. He hadn't known. "I'm sorry I lied. I didn't know how to deal with... how to deal with us. I had to stop Quinn, and I didn't remember that you could keep up and help. I didn't remember you felt it and would do anything for me. I can see I hurt you. I'm so sorry. I—"

"Sarah. It's ok." Chuck gave her a crooked smile. He lifted his hand towards her, and she instinctively took it. He pulled her sharply down next to her, so she was finally sitting at his side by the fountain. "I was in shock at the time, but I understand." This is what they had to hash out before going inside. "You're not allowed to do that anymore," Chuck explained. "We have a no-lying-to-each-other rule, even if it's for the other's protection. You didn't remember, so you get a free pass for that time. But now you know. Your version of the rule is actually a little simpler: No Secrets, No Lies."

Sarah raised her eyebrows in surprise. "It was your rule," Chuck answered her surprise. "It's actually a little point of contention, because I'd like to keep things like gifts and romantic gestures in a special surprise-slash-secret category, but you always figure out I'm hiding something and get it out of me, usually with some technique that involves very little clothing."

"I don't like secrets." Sarah bit her lip. "It's good to know I have some power over you."

"You have all the power."

"It doesn't seem to be working at the moment."

"Yes it is." Chuck put his arm around her back and pulled her close. "Here we are, snuggled together, in our other spot."

Chuck could feel Sarah finally relax a little as she tilted her head onto his shoulder. "Chuck, tell me our story about this fountain."

Chuck smiled. She was trusting him again, wanting to know more. "Where to begin," he repeated from earlier. "Early in our relationship—when it was still a cover relationship—I'd walk you to your car right by this fountain. You had a Porsche back then."

"So I did have a Porsche. Why did I get the Lotus?"

"Carina blew up the Porsche. Actually, Amy blew it up, but Carina accidentally set off the bomb."

"Why would Amy—no wait. You know Carina and Amy?"

"Ellie, Carina, and Zondra were your bridesmaids. Amy, not Zondra, was the mole. But we digress, when we walked by—"

"No. Wait. I have to know. If you know Carina, did you and she ever..."

"What? Oh. No. Um, well… She kinda came on to me once, when she realized you were interested, you know, in me. It was shortly after we met, and I didn't even know you were interested. Like really interested, not fake, cover interested. But, no, nothing happened with me. She kind of freaked me out."

Sarah giggled and covered her mouth.

"Now Morgan on the other hand..."

Sarah dropped her hand and grabbed Chuck's arm. "You're kidding. Wait, I'm not really surprised."

"It was before Morgan and Alex. Carina came back later, but Morgan stuck by his girl."

"Alex is Casey's daughter, right?"

Alex was one of the first things Sarah had forgotten. That was a good sign. "Yes. She just moved in with Morgan, right over there." Chuck pointed to Casey's old apartment.

Sarah thought for a second, processing. "Ok, so back to the fountain."

"What was I saying? Oh yeah. After a cover date of dinner, closely guarded words, and some sorta fake but not really fake cuddling, we'd have a few moments of what I thought was unmonitored time to actually talk."

"You thought?"

"Casey was normally watching through the window, but I didn't know everything in the courtyard was also recorded."

"Ah." Chuck could tell Sarah wasn't surprised.

"And by talk, I meant I'd feebly try to flirt with you."

"I'm sure you did well enough. We did get married."

"I guess so. What can I say? I am adorable." Chuck bumped his shoulder into hers. "I'd say something like if we were really dating, I'd be forced to kiss you." Chuck quickly pecked Sarah on the top of her head. "You'd ask if it'd be that bad, I'd say I could suffer through it, and you'd agree."

Sarah looked as if she was trying to work through what Chuck had just said. After a moment, she asked, "We were cover dating at the time?"

"Yes, I said this was after a cover date."

"So I assume we kissed for the cover."

"Sometimes. We didn't too often because it was kind of confusing for me, what with the real feelings and everything."

"And I had those feelings too. So while you thought you were flirting, you were rubbing in the fact that we really shouldn't be kissing."

"I never thought of it that way," Chuck admitted.

"At least we can do this now." Sarah leaned in for a quick kiss. As she started to pull away, he couldn't help but lean in to deepen the kiss. After half a minute they separated again. "That can't be the only problem I have with this fountain. It's obvious how cute you can be when you start rambling, so that doesn't explain this feeling in my gut. Did something else happen here?"

Chuck covered his eyes with is free hand, not sure if he liked being cute or was embarrassed by the rambling comment.

Sarah asked again, "Did you break up with me here or something like that?"

Chuck dropped the hand from his eyes, revealing them completely wide.

"Well, um—"

"Chuck, no secrets, no lies." She caught on quickly.

"Right. Our second break-up was here."

"Second break-up? How many times did we break up?"

"That's a little hard to count."

"That many times?"

"No. Yes. I don't know. See there were break-ups of our cover relationship. There was a huge misunderstanding in Prague where I didn't go on the run with you so I could complete my spy training and we could be together."

"How was that a break up?"

"Running away was your idea, and I didn't exactly explain my reasoning to you. But I really didn't want to break up, per se." Sarah was quiet, so Chuck pulled her closer to his side. Sarah's head returned to its place on his shoulder. "We're together now so it doesn't matter." He kissed the top of her head again.

"You said this was our second break-up. When was our first?"

Chuck detected something in her voice, almost as if she remembered it. She was asking, though, so he decided to answer without asking about her memory. "A few months after we met, I asked you, while you were under the influence of truth serum, if there was any hope for us, with our thing under the undercover thing."

"And I said no because as a spy I'm trained to resist the effects of truth serum," Sarah stated matter-of-factly.

"I didn't know that at the time."

"You really were naïve about being a spy."

"You have no idea... Sorry... That just kind of slipped out." Chuck knew he should do a better job at watching the memory references.

"That's ok." Sarah turned her head to look into Chuck's eyes with no reproach. "It's your job now to give me an idea."

"I can do that." Chuck leaned in and gave Sarah a soft, gentle kiss.

"So tell be about the second time you broke my heart." Chuck's mouth opened to protest, but Sarah shut it with a more forceful kiss. When she pulled back, she batted her eyes, still waiting for the story. She was playing with him.

"It was Bryce's fault." Sarah had said she had read his file, so she probably knew some of the Bryce backstory. Chuck didn't really want to talk about exes too much. "He told me something about you being compromised and getting killed because of our 'thing.' So I made up a story about wanting a normal life and you'd never be normal."

"Do you?"

"Do I want normal?"

"Yeah. You said we were planning some kind of normal life. You took me to that house."

Chuck noticed how Sarah called it 'that' house. They'd have to talk about it eventually. "Sarah, I don't care about normal. I only care about a life with you, in whatever way you'll let me."

Sarah and Chuck quietly stared at each other for a few moments. Sarah was serious but the corners of her lips were moving up slightly. Finally Sarah spoke, "So the first two times we broke up were because of Bryce and truth serum. What about the other times? Were they Ellie's fault or Morgan's?"

Chuck detected a hint of sarcasm, but brushed if off. "Morgan, no. He was always rooting for Charah."

"Charah?" Sarah crinkled her brow.

"Chuck and Sarah—Charah. That's not important. One of the times was sort of Ellie's fault, although I probably wouldn't have worked up the nerve to break up our cover relationship again if you hadn't been listening to Ellie and me talk through surveillance bugs in a cereal box. You preempted the whole thing."

"How did we ever get married?"

"It helped that we had a lot of good memories at this fountain."

"Tell me about these good memories." Sarah bumped Chuck's side before placing her head on his shoulder again. She had found one thing she liked about this spot.

"Let's see... There's the time I told you I'd get the Intersect out of my head and spend the rest of my life with the woman that I love."

"Who was that?"

Chuck lightly elbowed her, but Sarah didn't jump. She was expecting it. "You, of course."

"Are you sure I knew that?" She was still playing with him.

"Of course you did. At least I think you did."

"I assume this is when you were just an asset, right."

"Yes."

"So you realize that by getting the Intersect out of your head, I'd be reassigned and probably never see you again."

"I hadn't quite worked that out at the time. My brain always went a little fuzzy when thinking about you. Still does sometimes." Chuck kissed her on the top of the head, again. He realized he'd been doing that a lot. Her hair smelled good, though. He'd missed it. He'd missed her. Something of ocean mixed with her normal scent. He tried to remember what he was talking about. She still made his brain fuzzy. "Ok, maybe in retrospect, that wasn't the best memory. Let's see, on the way to the Ellie and Devon's rehearsal dinner, this is where you first told me that we are real."

"Then what happened?"

"We rode with Casey to the dinner."

"And after?"

"We went home."

"I didn't stay over?"

"Well, we hadn't... you know... yet. "

Sarah hummed in disappointment. "Kind of like now."

"And my dad was staying in my room, so I was on the couch."

"We could have gone back to my hotel room."

"I was a little concerned that we might miss the wedding. When we finally did, you know, it took a while before we were in the right condition to be around other people." As much as Chuck talked, he still had trouble talking about this kind of thing, so he quickly moved to the next memory. "The reception after their wedding was here. We had a slow dance."

"And then?"

"We were interrupted by my dad, and we had to go save Bryce from being killed."

"That's when you got the 2.0."

"You remember."

"Just a little. That just came to me. I don't remember the details around it."

"But that's great!"

"Don't sound too excited. You still haven't found a good memory here that ended well."

"Our engagement party was here."

"Did that end well?"

"Ellie agreed to be your maid of honor. The guests had a great time and left late."

"Great. I almost killed my maid of honor. So afterward we didn't..."

"No, we were exhausted and just collapsed."

"We did consummate our marriage, right?" Chuck was surprised he didn't detect any sarcasm this time.

"Oh course we did. Many, many... many, many times."

Sarah poked Chuck, and he jumped. He quickly grabbed her extended figure for his protection.

"Our last Christmas Party was here," Chuck recalled.

"And after..."

"Actually, I don't know. You talked to Beckman about the whole cover kiss thing, and then you disappeared."

"What cover kiss? We were married then, weren't we? That was just a couple months ago."

"Well, um, it was a cover kiss, um, between Beckman and Santa Claus."

Sarah twisted her mouth and saw through Chuck's evasion. "You were dressed as Santa Claus."

"Yes, but she started it. I still have occasional nightmares."

Sarah laughed and rocked forward. It wasn't just the beach. It felt so good to see Sarah laugh, Chuck was going to do everything he could to keep her laughing, even if it meant continually embarrassing himself.

"Since you don't know where I disappeared to, try another memory," Sarah suggested.

"Our rehearsal dinner was here. Wait. That definitely didn't end well."

"Was the dinner at least good?"

"I guess so. My mom finally held out an olive branch to you. Jeff created a video of highlights our courtship—"

"That creepy keytar player from the concert hall?"

"You know what a keytar is? I didn't know you knew what that was called before. Never mind. Yes. Jeff is creepy, but he can occasionally be kind of sweet. Ellie kissed him for his efforts. Quite disturbing."

"I'll have to see that video. It might fill in some blanks. What happened at the end to ruin the evening?"

"You were poisoned by a female Harry Osborn wanna-be."

"Whatever that means. This fountain has a lot of memories for us, but most of them aren't good. I wonder..." Sarah stood up and contemplated the fountain. She looked into the water and lightly touched it with her fingers. "This is where I found your watch." She stepped around it slowly. Chuck turned to watch her move. "Not that watch... A CIA issued tracker. You were kidnapped."

"That's right. You had been reassigned because we were getting too close. You came back against orders, discovered I was missing, and rescued me."

Sarah smiled briefly, but then she frowned as she stopped her survey of the fountain. She tilted her head as she stared at the top of the fountain for a few seconds.

"What is it, Sarah?"

She didn't answer immediately. Instead, she slipped off her shoes and stepped up on the fountain's edge.

"Sarah!"

She ignored his protest and jumped into the fountain splashing water on Chuck before he could stand up and get out of the way.

"What are you doing?"

Sarah smiled mischievously at Chuck. She kicked in his direction, splashing him. Not caring about how wet her pant legs were getting, she leaned in and inspected the bottom bowl, running her hands along the inside edge. She disregarded the fake, floating flowers, and waded through. When she completed a circle around the entire fountain, she reached up and traced the inside edge of the top bowl. Chuck couldn't figure out what she was doing. Suddenly she stopped, looked up at Chuck and smiled. With her hand still in the bowl, she lifted up. Chuck thought he heard a click. Sarah then leaned against the bottom bowl, her sweater now getting wet.

"Chuck, give me a hand."

Never one to resist Sarah anything she wanted, Chuck ignored that this fountain had once been peed in by a rock star. He quickly pulled off his shoes and socks and joined her in the fountain. It was cold! Sarah was trying to move the top of the fountain. Chuck joined her, and with his extra height, he was able to lift the top straight off. They returned to the sitting on the edge of the fountain, this time with their wet feet and pants on the inside.

"So why are we disassembling the fountain and exposing ourselves to whatever might be floating in the water?"

"Flip it over."

Chuck rotated the piece in his hands and looked at the bottom. A thin cylinder was carved into the stone, possibly with some kind of laser cutter. Stuffed into that cylinder was something that looked like—

"Sarah! Is that C-4?" Chuck whispered strongly.

"Looks like it to me," Sarah casually replied

"What are plastic explosives doing in our fountain?"

"I probably got upset about all of our 'great' moments here, and decided to retaliate."

"By blowing it up!" Chuck was still whispering, but not calmly or quietly.

"Calm down, Chuck. I didn't blow it up."

"You normally shoot things to feel better, or pummel them with your fists."

"Neither would work on a piece of stone. Don't worry. It doesn't look like there's a fuse or something to trigger a remote detonation. Maybe I removed it. C-4 is stable, so it's safe. It was just something to level the playing field."

"With a fountain?"

Sarah shrugged.

"You remembered this?" Chuck asked, still harsher than he meant to.

"No. After your stories, it just seemed like something I'd do."

"We're lucky the entire apartment complex didn't blow sky high. When Morgan moved in, he hosted a housewarming party. Jeff filled the fountain with his jail juice. Carina and her fiancé stopped by to retrieve a case that Morgan was supposed to hand off to me. There was this big showdown, and I sort of explained Prague while saving Carina."

"Carina got engaged?"

"No he was a mark-slash-weapons dealer."

"Of course. What was I thinking?" Sarah said under her breath.

"Anyway, I distracted the weapons dealer's thugs by throwing a torch into a fountain filled with highly flammable alcohol, and oh yeah, C4!"

"We didn't blow up, so what are you worried about?"

Chuck leaned back and looked at Sarah like he had no idea who she was.

Sarah yanked him back to her side and kissed him on the cheek. "Chuck, I know what I'm doing. It wasn't going to go off by accident. You said the courtyard was under surveillance, so Casey would have seen me do this. If I were to guess, I made up some story about placing a small charge here to serve as diversion. Casey would have inspected the entire charge for safety. The explosives would've made me feel like I had a way to retaliate."

Chuck nodded his head down. "You're right. He was probably mumbling about lady feelings the entire time. Maybe I shouldn't be surprised. I've seen how you retaliate against other inanimate objects, like cell phones and alarm clocks, when we weren't in a dark period."

Sarah looked confused. "I'm a little mixed up on the timeline. When do you think I installed in explosives?"

"After Prague."

"No. I would have done it after you broke up with me here. What was that? The second time."

"This has been here for four years!?"

"It's safe. You can probably just put it back on top."

Chuck stood up and stepped out of the fountain. "Nope. I'm going to place it carefully over here."

"And do what with it?"

Chuck looked at the cushioned lounge chair he was targeting. His wife had a point. "Ok, I'll put it back for now, but we're getting it replaced." Chuck stepped carefully back into the fountain, holding the explosive-laden fountain top. Sarah stood up and helped him balance as he replaced the top.

"Can we go in now?" Sarah was batting her eyelids again. Chuck held back a groan. This plan hadn't worked. Maybe he needed a new approach.

"Not yet. Since we don't have as many good memories at this fountain as I thought, we're going to make a new one. Right now."

"In the open? Ok. I thought you wanted some privacy," Sarah said. She looked serious.

"Not that!" Chuck looked at Sarah scandalously, and then saw the smirk on her face. She might not have all her memories back, but she remembered how to wind him up. Shaking his head, Chuck held out his hand and helped Sarah out of the fountain. "Wait here."

Chuck hurried over to the Morgan Door and climbed inside. He raced over to his desk, pulled up the desired playlist, and cranked up the volume so it could be heard in the courtyard. A few second later he was back out the window, face-to-face with the woman he loved. She looked genuinely curious. As the vocals for 3 Rounds and a Sound started, she tilted her head as if she recognized the song. That is what Chuck was hoping for. "I think it's time we properly finished one of our good memories." He held out his hand and asked, "You wanna dance?"

"You know I do," she automatically replied.

Chuck led her a couple steps away from the fountain where they started to dance. Without shoes, their height difference was more pronounced than last time they danced to this song. After a few bars, she laid the side of her head on his shoulder. They were close enough they weren't really dancing. It was more of swaying in a peaceful embrace. After a few more moments, Chuck finally felt what he was waiting for. Sarah completely relaxed. She wasn't pushing to a destination she thought she needed. She was just being who she was. She found herself, and the place she found herself was in his loving arms.

The song ended, making way for another. Neither Chuck nor Sarah changed their pace to match the new song. They continued to sway to their own private beat.

After two or three more songs, Feeling Good started playing. The instant the first line started, Sarah pulled back, stopped, and grinned. "I remember this."

"It's your favorite song."

"You picked it for me." Chuck's teeth showed brightly at her memory. The instruments kicked in leading Sarah to say, "I understand why this is our spot now, but it's time to go inside."

This time, Chuck didn't disagree. Sarah was ready.

As Sarah pulled Chuck to the Morgan Door, Chuck glanced over to Morgan and Alex's apartment. The curtains were pulled open and Alex's head was tilted on her boyfriend's shoulder. Chuck figured he was lucky they hadn't set up camp in a couple of chairs eating popcorn. Morgan saluted Chuck, and Alex gave a small wave before pulling the curtains shut.

Sarah yanked on Chuck's hand pulling him to the threshold of the window opening. Sarah released his hand, turned quickly and was almost through the doorway to the hall when her sweater dropped the floor. "Come on, Chuck. We need to help each other wash the sand out of our hair."

Chuck was going to have to remind Sarah about not tracking water... and about not leaving sand filled clothes everywhere. But that discussion was for later. He had to hurry and catch up with his wife, who was likely almost naked in the bathroom.

Song: Chapter 4 – "Tongue Tied" by Grouplove – before they dance; "3 Rounds and a Sound" by Blind Pilot – their song; "Feeling Good" by Nina Simone – Sarah's favorite

A/N: I know it's a little ridiculous, but even Chuck has moved past the C-4 in the fountain. Of course Sarah leaving a trail of clothes between the Morgan Door and the shower might have something to do with that.