Author's note: Okay, so I realized something as I was reviewing chapter 3, and that is that I have Sarah Walker as the DD(I) of the CIA, still using her Sarah Walker cover. As has been established in canon, that is not her real name; however, for simplicity's sake, I will continue to use that. I am going to explain it away this way:

Chuck was Sarah's last field assignment before getting promoted into an office position. At that point, she had spent so much time in the Sarah Walker identity that she had become Sarah Walker, and her real identity was unfamiliar to her. As such, she chose to remain in the Sarah Walker identity.

Rock on.

7:30 P.M.

July 6th, 2018

Rancho Palos Verdes, California

As Chuck pulled up in front of his house, he realized that he hadn't been home since the morning of the 4th. He suddenly found himself exhausted and feeling in desperate need of a shower.

However, he had the feeling it was going to be a while before he showered or slept.

"Is this where you live?" little Chuck gasped, his eyes growing wide. His reaction to the Aston Martin had been one of shock, but it was nothing compared to this.

"Well, actually, my sister and her family live here," Chuck replied. "I own the house, but there's a little house out back that I live in, because this is too big for just me."

As Chuck walked up the path of the mansion with little Chuck in his wake, he asked himself yet again why he'd bought the place. It was far too big for him, too big even for Ellie and Awesome's family.

He thought about the path that had led him there. In 2014, when General Beckman, then the director of the NSA, had suggested that perhaps Chuck would like to become the director of the Omaha Project, Chuck had had some thoughts. After confirming that if he were to take this position, the CIA and the NSA would have to publicly recognize Chuck as a CIA asset and acknowledge the existence of the Intersect, Chuck sat down one night with Casey and Sarah for a very long talk.

Two days later, Chuck filed suit in the Los Angeles district federal court against the United States government for mental and emotional trauma and use of his brain without his consent. Sarah, Casey, and Bryce all testified, and in the end, the case went to the Supreme Court, which judged that the United States government was, in fact, liable for Chuck's "pain and suffering", and awarded him a settlement of one hundred eighty-three million dollars.

Afterwards, journalists and members of the bar were surprised to see Chuck speaking pleasantly with General Beckman and CIA Director Graham. What the "experts" didn't know – and what, in fact, only a handful of people, including Chuck, Sarah, Casey, and Bryce knew – was that the whole lawsuit had been a ploy to strip away layers of protective corruption built up over many years at the CIA, and finally exposing and destroying the roots of Fulcrum. In fact, the settlement had been paid out of Fulcrum's "black" budget.

And so, Chuck was $183,000,000 richer, and Fulcrum was history. Chuck, flush with wealth, had driven down to RPV, and purchased the first house he saw with a for sale sign.

Now, Chuck shook his head at his lack of reason. He stood on the stoop, and pressed the doorbell, despite having a key in his pocket.

Devin answered the door. "Yo, Chuckster!" he said, hand in the air for a high five. Then he took in Chuck's appearance. "Wow," he said. "You definitely do not look awesome."

"Yeah, thanks," Chuck replied wryly.

"Who's the little dude?" Devin asked as he shut the door.

"About that…" Chuck hesitated. "I need to talk to you and Ellie about some stuff."

"Not a problem!" Devin replied. "Sweetheart, can you come out here for a moment?" he called toward the kitchen.

As he called to Ellie, two small children came out of seemingly nowhere and started running around Devin's legs. "Whoa, whoa, munchkins," he said. "Jordan, why don't you run upstairs and play. Mike, uh, go upstairs and keep your little sister company, okay?"

Chuck rolled his eyes, remembering seven years earlier, the joy when Michael had been born, and then the dismay two years later when Devin and Ellie had a daughter, Devin had insisted on naming her Jordan, and Ellie had been totally clueless.

"What is it, babe – hi, Chuck!" Ellie said, coming up to her brother and wrapping him in a hug. "What's up?"

"My blood pressure," muttered Chuck, plopping down on the loveseat. Little Chuck clambered up next to him.

"Really?" Ellie asked with concern. "If that's true, you need to get that checked out, like tomorrow. Hypertension is no joking matter, Chuck."

Then, noticing the little boy on the couch with Chuck, she said, "And who is that little boy?"

Chuck put his hand to his face, closed his eyes, and rubbed them for a moment. Opening them, he tiredly looked at Ellie and Devin.

"Guys," he started, "I'd like you to meet Charles Irving Frye, age six.

"He's my son."

7:38 P.M.

Somewhere over the San Joaquin Valley, California

There was a small pop, and a flash of silvery light. A small aircraft, no bigger than a fighter, popped into being – and simply hovered.

The pilot took a moment to get his bearings. "Ah, that way," he rasped, an almost metallic voice coming out of his mouth.

He could see the crash site from forty miles away. Kern County Sheriff's Department and the CIA San Joaquin Valley team had it lit up bright as the sun. Coming in quietly and slowly, he did a quick flyby. That was enough for him to see that Serenity had not been destroyed.

"Shit," he muttered. This made things infinitely more difficult.

7:39 P.M.

Rancho Palos Verdes, California

"Your son?!" Ellie and Devin said nearly in unison.

"It's a long, long story," Chuck replied wearily.

"We got all KINDS of time," Ellie grumped, a look of determination settling itself on her face.

Oh, joy, Chuck thought. But there was no getting out of this one.

"Well… where to start," he said, trying to stall.

"How 'bout the beginning, Mr. Bartowski?" Ellie said impatiently.

Chuck looked at the ceiling and sighed. "Oookay. Do you remember Christmas 2007?"

"How could I forget Christmas 2007?" Ellie asked. "You were in a coma in Northridge."

"Yeah, about that," Chuck replied. "I wasn't actually in a coma."

Ellie gave him a look of disbelief. "Are you kidding me?" Her eyes grew dark like they always did when she was angry, and a vein began to stand out on her forehead. "Was this another one of those goddamn CIA things?!"

"Ellie, please calm down," Chuck said, trying to speak in a soothing tone. "And please don't swear in front of my son."

"But Daddy, you said fu-"

"Not now, Chuck," Chuck said, looking down at his son and making what he hoped would come across as an "I'll explain later" face.

Ellie had pressed her hands together as if she was praying and held them against the center of her face. She breathed deeply as Devin rubbed her back and sent Chuck a "Glad I'm not in your shoes" look.

Finally, she looked up at him. "Fine. I won't swear in front of him. But you better start explaining."

"Okay," Chuck said. "This is going to sound really wild and unbelievable, but I guarantee you every last bit is true. Anything you don't believe, Sarah or Casey will verify."

"Ah, those two bastions of trustworthiness," Ellie snarked.

Chuck was nearing the last fray of his last nerve. "Look," he snapped, "do you want to hear the fu- uh, friggin' story or not?"

Ellie just looked at him. "Go ahead," she said simply.

Reaching into his memory, Chuck began his narrative.

"Early on the morning of Christmas Eve 2007, I got a call for a Nerd Herd fix. It turned out the call was actually placed by a member of Fulcrum.

"Using a device they had stolen from Area 51, they managed to send me 500 years into the future – the year 2518, to be exact. My Herder crashed in the cargo bay of a spaceship called Serenity.

"Back here, it didn't take Sarah and Casey very long to figure out what had happened. They used…um…"

Chuck took a moment to think of the proper term. "Um… extraordinary renditions to determine what had happened. As soon as they figured it out, the NSA put together a rescue mission using a ship and a device that will be classified for at least the next forty years still.

"So, Sarah and Casey came forward in time to where I was. However, they had to search for me, and it took them nearly two months to find me.

"During that time, I had begun a relationship with one of the crew of Serenity, named Kaylee Frye."

"That's my mommy!" little Chuck piped up.

"Yes, it is," Chuck said. "Now, as silly as it may sound, we connected and fell in love. Obviously, we had sex," he said, gesturing toward little Chuck with his left hand, "though I didn't know she was pregnant when Sarah and Casey found me and we left.

"We arrived back on Earth on January 3rd, 2008. I was debriefed for a little over a week, and then, on January 14th, as you probably remember quite well, I was sent back home – just not from the hospital.

"Two days ago, there was an airplane crash north of the city."

"Yeah," Devin said. "I saw that on the news – they said it was a military plane, and that the site was sealed off so they could investigate it."

"That's what they said, all right," Chuck replied. "But what it really was was the spaceship – Serenity. Somehow, it got thrown into our time, and it was already heavily damaged when it entered our atmosphere, which is why it crashed.

"I was the first person there. I found this little guy when I arrived. I didn't realize then who he was. However, I did find the crew of the ship alive, although they were all pretty badly beat up. The captain, the first mate, the doctor, and their, well, security guy were all hurt, but not too severely. Their pilot was catatonic from crashing the ship, and Kaylee – well, she was the engineer, and she was really badly hurt.

"She's at Cedars-Sinai right now. She woke up a few hours ago, and that was when I found out that little Chuck is my son."

He paused. Ellie was staring at him with her jaw open, her eyes wide as saucers. Devin, on the other hand, sat back on the couch, and crossed his arms.

"Awesome."

Ellie closed her eyes, put her face in her hands, and shook her head. "Okay, wait a minute, wait a minute," she said. "As wild and far-fetched as the whole time travel bit sounds, I actually think you're telling me the truth."

She looked up and stared Chuck in the eye. "What I do not believe, though, is that Chuck Bartowski would finally truly fall in love and then leave the girl behind."

"What would you have liked me to do?" Chuck asked angrily. "Stay? Let you and Devin and Morgan and everybody else think I was DEAD? I came back for all of you! It tore me apart to leave! I begged her to come with me, but she stayed for the same reason I left – FAMILY."

Without even thinking about it, Chuck had risen to his feet. Now he started pacing the floor. His face and neck were bright red, and veins were standing out along the sides of his neck.

"Chuck, sit down," Ellie said softly.

"I don't want to sit down," Chuck snapped.

"Dude, you should really sit down," Devin said quietly.

Chuck turned to look at him, and saw that Devin was being completely serious. Taking a deep breath, he sat back down.

As soon as he sat down, Ellie came and sat down on the armrest beside him. "Roll the cuff of your shirt sleeve back," she ordered. Chuck obeyed.

Placing her index and middle fingertips on the veins in Chuck's wrist, she kept her fingers there for a moment. "I thought you were joking about high blood pressure," she said, removing her fingers from his wrist.

"I was," Chuck replied, confused. "What… what are you talking about?"

"Are you going back to Cedars-Sinai tomorrow to see this, uh…"

"Kaylee," little Chuck chimed in.

"Kaylee?"

"Yeah," Chuck said. "Of course."

"Okay," Ellie replied. "While you're there, I want you to go to their cardiology department and see Dr. Donald Russell. Your blood pressure is way, way up, and you need to do something about it. Dr. Russell and I go a ways back, he'll be happy to help you out, and he's way better than any of those government doctors the CIA will send you to."

"Alright," Chuck relented. "Listen… can little Chuck stay with you guys for a few nights, until we get everything figured out?"

"Absolutely," Ellie said quickly.

"Okay, then, I'm gonna grab a Coke and head to bed," Chuck said tiredly.

"No you're not," Ellie replied firmly.

"I can't go to sleep?" Chuck asked.

"No, you can't have a Coke," Ellie said. "Sixty milligrams of sodium in a can. Not with your blood pressure the way it is, no way. Have some juice, or some water or something. But no soda, and no coffee."

"Next you'll be telling me no beer," Chuck grumbled as he headed for the door.

"AND DEFINITELY NO ALCOHOL!"