Hello.

This is long overdue. I'm sorry. It's ridiculous how long it's been. I know a lot of you were even wondering if I was continuing this. I love this story and you readers too much to ever just let it stay dormant. So it has been staying dormant for a bit. It all began with my lack of accurately determining the amount of time I had allotted to me. I started back in college about a week after the last update. I am an idiot who signed up for classes, but then changed them all the week later, getting myself behind quickly. Also, I signed myself up for five classes. And going to a school with trimesters, five classes is like over full time. Only rare kids do it. I used to make fun of those kids, but I thought I could do it. It definitely can be done, but it means that there is little time for anything leisurely. I also live at home now. I used to live at school, but my parents are making me live at home, because I went too crazy (going out, drinking, having parties, getting strikes against me, almost getting on probation and having my scholarship taken away from me). You know, the college thing. Therefore, I have to commute to Chicago, just like Chuck in my story. Though, my trek is longer considering I live a few stops away from the stop Chuck takes in the story. I also have to then walk around the city, take the EL, then walk to my classes. It's exhausting. Then a couple weeks ago, I got some PMs saying where the update was. It got me thinking. I started working on the story on the train. I redid the entire chapter. And I was going to finish it up for you guys for last week, but then I got sick. The doctors thought I had the swine flu. It was embarrassing going around the hospital with a mask on, and have everyone back away like you were a part of a leper colony. lol. Turns out that I just had an upper respiratory infection. Then I had to catch up on all the work I missed from being sick. I can't stress enough how these past six weeks have been the most stressful of my life.

But I also can't stress enough at how much I hate how I've made you guys wait this long. It makes me think that I shouldn't have put so many obligations on myself if I couldn't comply with them, but I think I can. I have to. Even though this story technically doesn't provide me with a grade or anything substantial like that, I love what a story can do for a reader. That's why I'm eventually going to be a writer (but a screenwriter). Stories have the power to evoke a whole set of emotions. You know, they can put a smile on someone's face. That's what I love most. Though this chapter does not have a happy ending (but some happy parts), I can guarantee that the story as a whole will. I don't write tragedies, and I don't think I ever will. So bear with me. I've got some crazy stuff planned.

On that note, please keep reading. I sincerely hope you like it.

"Mrs. Herman!" yelled Andy when he opened the door to his familiar classroom.

The woman in her late thirties turned around and smiled as another one of her students arrived for back to school night. Chuck tried to get the attention Sarah while in the hallway between the two rooms, but she had her back to the door of the classroom while talking to some parents. He decided to just try again later, and followed Andy through to his classroom.

"This is my dad, Chuck," proudly said Andy to his teacher.

"The infamous Mr. Bartowski. Finally great to meet you."

"You too. Hey Andy, go talk to Finn over there. We adults have to talk. You know, probably about you."

"But Dad..." said Andy, in an annoying tone.

"I thought you guys were past the whole pool thing?"

"We are...But..."

Andy motioned Chuck to crouch down to his height. Chuck apologetically smiled at Mrs. Herman, and then followed Andy's order.

"It's just," whispered Andy, "He's so primitive."

"Andy," sternly mumbled Chuck, "He's just a little odd. His dad said that he's had a hard time making friends."

"Maybe because he wants to kill them."

"The pool incident was halfway your fault. You know better than trying to prove someone wrong."

Andy admitted, "Yeah, I guess. Fine. What do you want me to do?"

"Try to get him to play with you and your other friends. Can you do that for me, little guy?"

"Whatever."

Andy slung his shoulders low as he walked towards the back of the room with all the other kids. Chuck stood back up and shrugged.

"I don't think he likes me too much anymore," joked Chuck.

"No. He adores you. Occasionally he'll bring up his Uncle Casey, but it seems like all he ever talks about are you and Sarah. I mean, all kids are attached to their parents, but he definitely looks up to both of you and I don't just mean literally."

"Really?"

"Of course. Here, I want to show you something."

Mrs. Herman led them over to the side of the wall with wall art from the students. Chuck glanced over them. The assignment was to draw your parents, give a physical description, write about what they do for a living, and what about them do you hope to be like in the future. The drawings of stick figured parents were expected from first graders. Most of the kids wrote pretty comical physical descriptions of their parents about being around four feet and weighed "a lot" or "a little", because Chuck was sure all the kids' parents weren't midgets. Then the kids also wrote vague descriptions of what their parents do for a living: make money, take care of me, bring me to soccer practice, cook dinner, etc. The final statements of what you hope to take after from your parents were normal as well. A lot said to just be as tall as them, if not taller. Others said to have a car like them. Basically, nothing seemed remotely unique out of all the papers hanging up. That is, until Mrs. Herman pointed out Andy's.

"Wow, 'Charles Irving Bartowski: could be anywhere from 6'2" to 6'4". Athletic build.' Pretty intricate."

"Keep reading."

Chuck did so, and the detailing went even further. For the description of what they did for a living, Andy put both Sarah and Chuck's exact cover jobs. Chuck now understood why Andy had one of his business cards on his dresser the other day when he had put him to bed, but also wondered why other kids didn't do the same. Andy's one of a kind, concluded Chuck. The last part was probably the most intricate, and also the most heartwarming.

Taking after their good looks would be one thing, but it's their compassion and loving demeanor that I would most like to emulate. My parents are the best people I know.

Chuck's emotional side to him was working on overdrive after reading just those two sentences. Unsure of what to say, Chuck blurted out, "There he goes again with those big words."

"He's such a great writer. You should be very proud of him, Mr. Bartowski."

"Oh, I am...He continues to surprise me."

Andy had turned around from playing in the back of the room, and stared at Chuck. Chuck smiled, pointed to Andy's piece of paper, and then gave a proud thumbs up to the little boy. Being the modest kid that he was, Andy smirked then rolled his eyes before continuing to play.

Back in that same hallway, Chuck stood against the wall alongside of Sarah's door of her classroom, waiting for the last parents to leave. As soon as they did, he casually said 'goodbye' as he held the door open for them and then walked inside. Sarah looked at him while sorting through some papers, but didn't smile like she usually did when seeing him after a long day. If anything, she did the opposite, but turned away before Chuck could fully notice the stern face.

"Hey."

"Hi," muttered Sarah, "Where's Andy?"

"Andy is being watched by Bob while everyone's drinking refreshments and watching the Bears game in the cafeteria. I guess back to school night can't stand in the way of Bears fans and Monday night football."

"He's with Bob?" said Sarah, shocked.

"Sarah, we've never been able to find anything on Bob in the two plus months we've been here," said Chuck in hushed tones even though the room was soundproof and bug proofed constantly, "So I don't think he's a threat. He's my friend. I thought it was fine."

"No, Chuck, it's not fine. You have to be more careful with Andy. I could only imagine how you'd be with our kids in the future when you're willing to leave one of them with a potential member of an underground terrorist group of spies."

"Are you being serious?"

Sarah swallowed and bit her lip before turning her attention abruptly back towards the papers on her desk.

"Our kids? I didn't know I proposed," joked Chuck.

"Forget it."

"No," said Chuck, starting a slow stride toward her, "I can't."

"Can you just go get Andy?"

"In a sec."

Chuck used his right hand to rest along her neck, instinctively guiding her to turn towards him. As soon as she did, he gripped his left hand along her side- a signature Chuck Bartowski move that Roan never taught him.

"Andy's safe. Trust me. I wouldn't just leave him with anyone. Bob's not dangerous. He's like an inappropriate teddy bear."

Sarah giggled and felt her guard slipping away.

"And besides, I am the intersect. If anything were to happen, I'd just probably give Bob another black eye."

"And some people like to think that cockiness is attractive."

"And what do you think?"

"I think I missed you," said Sarah, very matter of fact-ly.

"Well," replied Chuck, his smile diminishing, "I know I missed you."

And usually as it did with the both of them, their joking would dissolve away, leaving only serious tones. In that second right before Chuck pushed his lips upon hers, Sarah had decided that she would tell Chuck what was wrong. Sure, she was good at hiding it. Are you kidding? It was a part of the job description. Though, she didn't want to. This idea quickly became blurred with the thought of subtly sucking Chuck's lower lip, considering he loved it. She never got the chance though on both, because Chuck suddenly moved his head back away from hers.

"Don't you think it's a little too early to be talking about kids?"

"What?"

"I mean, I want to have kids with you, but right now? Worst time."

"Chuck-"

"And I mean the worst time. Could you imagine? The General would probably kill us. Not to mention the dangerous organization we're trying to infiltrate if they ever found out what we really were doing here-"

"Stop."

"Okay. You're the one who brought it up though."

"I didn't mean it that way. This would be the worst time to get pregnant. I get that. I know that. Not to mention, we've only been seeing each other for two months."

"Two years and two months."

She shot him a look.

"I know what you meant," answered Chuck.

"And I only said that, because I wanted to convince you to go get Andy. So can you go get Andy? I'll be done here soon, and meet you guys at home."

"We could wait."

"No, it's already late and it's your turn to get Andy in bed anyway."

"Well, you shouldn't be here late- I thought you said you were sick."

"I'm not sick. I feel fine."

"That's good news considering I'm pretty sure you slipped me the tongue earlier."

She rolled her eyes even while her lips curled upwards.

"I'll see you later, huh?"

"Of course, Chuck."

Chuck cupped and kissed her cheek, before walking out. Whenever he had to walk away from Sarah for whatever reason, he had to force himself to not look back at her, or stay longer than he should've. He couldn't explain why, but he just always came back to the rationale that it was a ramification of being in love with someone. Sarah technically told him the truth, but also lied. Granted, she wasn't necessarily sick, but she didn't feel fine: physically or mentally. She felt dizzy; however, most importantly, she felt stressed in a way that made a situation of being arrested under a hostile foreign government without any papers seem easy. She didn't know what to do. The right thing to do at this time would have been maybe to take a pregnancy test, but Sarah decided against it. She knew that once it would come back positive, she'd have to do something; and again, she didn't know what to do. Delaying the inevitable, she thought.

The night and morning had been of the usual kind. She made sure she came home late, with Chuck already in bed and hopefully asleep. As soon as she got in bed, Chuck in his half sleepy state grabbed her and held her as close as he could against him. It comforted and scared her. She was able to let Chuck in completely and quite literally to end up becoming pregnant. The common camaraderie continued on into the morning with their fake family (that didn't feel so fake anymore).

The small change in this usual morning happened when Chuck called Sarah on his way to work. She was hurriedly getting ready to leave with Andy when her cell rang.

"Chuck? What's wrong?"

"Huh? Why do you think something's wrong?"

"You never call on your way to work. Did you forget something?"

"No. Well, yeah. I mean, I wanted to ask you something."

Sarah slowed down, and stopped trying to put on her other riding boot. She took the phone off from between her ear and shoulder and held it closer to her ear.

"Sarah, I know that last night I was kind of joking about...you know."

With just the sound of his tone, Sarah could tell what kind of face he was making. The I'm-afraid-of-the-response-but-I-can't-hold-it-in and serious voice went along with the contorted face of the same nature.

"But I was only trying to joke about it, because I was nervous. I do that. I ramble and sometimes and pretend things are funny when I'm afraid of hearing something I won't like, because that'd be embarrassing. But I have to know now: do you want to have a kid?"

"What? Chuck. Chuck?"

Silence was on the other line of the phone.

Casey shot up from hearing the last line and knocked his bowl of cereal all over the equipment, figuring the disconnect had to do with that.

"Sarah? Hey, I'm back. I get no reception under tunnels."

"Oh. Wait, what are you saying?"

"I'm saying, do you want to have a kid or kids? Like eventually. Once we get out of this-"

"Chuck, this sounds like a proposal."

"Well, what if it was?"

"On a phone call?"

"You're right. This was stupid. Just forget I ever said any of this. I'll see you later-"

"Chuck, wait-"

Though Chuck had already taken the phone off his ear before he could hear Sarah's last line to plead with him to not get off the phone. He gripped his phone tightly for just a second, scowled at himself, and then tossed it to the seat next to him.

If a lower degree of embarrassment had overtaken him instead of the extreme one Chuck was experiencing, he would've heard what he wanted to.

...Chuck, wait, I do want to have kids with you.

And in that thought, Sarah's worries escaped her for the first time since realizing that she was pregnant. All cons of having a baby right now aside, the one pro remained: it was going to have a kid with Chuck. A kid that would never be abandoned like Chuck's parents and her Dad had done to them. A kid who would have the best father, a man capable with an enormous amount of compassion and love unnatural for most people.

The rational thing to do would be to tell Chuck everything, and have both of them figure out what to do. It was what Sarah had thought about all day during school, and prepared to do just that as soon as Chuck got home. She would sit him down at the kitchen table, and lay it all out for him. What she didn't expect was Casey to be already sitting at the kitchen table when they got home. Even more so, she didn't think it'd be Casey who would be hearing all she had intended for Chuck.

"Casey!" yelled Andy, dropping his backpack on the bench by the shoes in the laundry room separating the kitchen and garage.

"Hey kid."

"What are you doing here?"

"I need to talk to Sarah."

"Hey Andy, do you want to go up to your room and do your homework?" asked Sarah.

"I guess I could do that."

"Thank you. You should close the door too."

"I know," responded Andy already halfway upstairs.

Sarah, turning her attention back to Casey once she heard the door shut, sternly said, "What do you want, Casey?"

"We've got a de-briefing in a few minutes."

"Okay."

"And as your partner, it's only right that I debrief with you beforehand with certain matters."

"What certain matters?"

"Bang up job, Walker. You managed to let Chuck plant his seed in you."

"If you're referring to the conversation Chuck and I had-"

"I'm not. I'm referring to the urine sample."

"What urine sample?"

"Well, after hearing the conversation, I decided to play janitor at the elementary school today. You drank a lot of water today, and I put a temporary block on the plumbing."

"I think you've seriously lost it, Casey."

"I set out to get some information on pressing matters, and I did it. We're spies. It's what we do."

"To just find out if I was pregnant or not? Oh yeah, important to our national security, Casey."

"Maybe it is. I just need to know what you're going to do."

"I don't know."

"Well, what does Bartowski say?"

"He doesn't know. He was asking earlier if I wanted to have kids with him when all of this was over."

"What, are you guys engaged or something?"

"No!"

"Baby out of wedlock," said Casey.

"This isn't a joke."

"I was being serious. Though, you guys are technically married. Either the forgery department made the marriage certificate look real or it really is."

"Shut up. You better not say any of this in the briefing."

"Calm down, sister. If I was going to, I wouldn't have told you. I would've just blurted it out in the middle of the briefing, or I probably would've already told the General."

"Then why aren't you? I'm going to be honest, this doesn't seem like you, John."

Casey glared and spoke up, "Sure, I probably wouldn't be doing this. God knows I shouldn't be doing this. But as I've said before, the choice we made to protect something bigger than ourselves is the right choice. So you've got this innocent little kid inside of you that never chose to be born into this kind of world with danger everywhere. That is bigger than ourselves. That, is the right choice."

"Thank you, Casey," whispered Sarah, completely at awe.

He grunted and then went down to the basement where Sarah followed.

Casey wasn't her first choice as someone to confide in, but he was surprisingly a viable one. They sat in silence at the steel table in the castle awaiting the General, but never got her. That is because two minutes into their sitting, a guy that looked only maybe in his early thirties came up on the screen.

"Colonel Casey. Agent Walker. Nice to see you, in a surprisingly clear picture, if I do say so myself."

"Who are you?" yelled Casey.

"Oh, I'm Shaw. I'm your new case officer."

"As if this day couldn't get any worse," thought Sarah.

"The General didn't tell you? I'll be overseeing this operation from now on from here at Langley. The General was promoted to Director of Intelligence, and let's just say you guys are too low key for her now."

Casey growled and turned away from the screen, annoyed with the idea of taking orders from someone like him.

"What are you talking about 'low key'? You do know what we're doing here-" barked Sarah.

"Intersect 2.0. The Ring. I was de-briefed by the General. I know what's going on."

"Then why is she passing this along...to you?"

"The Ring is a threat; I know that. What we don't know is what kind of threat it is. We don't really know anything about it. You guys are working. I get that. But in other parts of the world, we have other threats that we actually know about. For example, Al Queda. Still there, guys. By me taking this operation under my wing, it doesn't mean it's not as important anymore. As a matter of fact, we put together a new team full of members from the CIA, NSA, and a few FBI agents as well."

"FBI?!" barked Casey.

"Casey-" warned Sarah.

"Calm down, killer. Don't you remember why the intersect was created in the first place? For better communication between agencies. Considering you guys are operating here in the U.S., the FBI has jurisdiction in case we need to make arrests. This team is great. The team is awesome. Which leads me to the point of this briefing besides just getting to know you two rays of sunshine. Beams of light-"

"Forget the sarcasm and get to the point."

"Okay, Agent Walker. Thanks to the team and NSA super computers, the encoding on Peter Hollingsworth's hard drive has finally been decoded."

"After two months?"

"New team figured it out in two weeks."

"We'll be sure to send them a thank you card," muttered Casey.

"First thing we figured out is that he's definitely in the Ring. Nothing popped out like 'bomb the capitol', but he does have some interesting typed up letters to all the people that the intersect took down almost three months ago. We're still trying to figure out what they letters mean though."

"Okay. So that's good news."

"I have even better, Walker," replied Shaw after sipping coffee out of a mug, "We found a set of pictures on his hard drive. Now, these were especially hard to decode, but we got them. They're all of his daughter. Emma Hollingsworth, but she goes by her mother's maiden name after a nasty divorce when she was three."

"Emma Holden."

"That's right. Are you sure you weren't meant to be an analyst, Colonel Casey? Because you sure can put together the clues."

Before Casey could start shouting from an increase in blood pressure, Sarah put some other clues together herself.

"Wait, so she's Chuck's secretary. Does that mean she knows about Chuck?"

"The team has no inclination that Emma Holden knows anything about Chuck. The real stuff, I mean. But I will tell you, whether she knows or she doesn't, Chuck still has to get close to her. Friends close, enemies closer. Intelligence communities can't stress this enough. And I don't want to break any rules here. When I mean close, I'm not actually authorized to suggest, you know, getting close. I'm only at liberty to say that Chuck should charm her. But we all know what I really mean, right?"

"Sure," said Sarah, disgusted.

"Hey- if we get the information we need, they all get sent to prison for treason, and you guys get to go home or I guess to another mission. Mission accomplished. That's what we're here for, guys. So sleep tight. I hope to hear from you all in the next few days about the progress, and to meet the infamous intersect."

As soon as the screen went black, Sarah shoved her seat out, and bolted out of the room. Casey took a little longer to swallow his anger towards the new guy; but as soon as he did, he realized Sarah's meaning behind her anger, and set out to find her. He was not too far behind, and reached her within a couple minutes as Sarah was taking chicken breasts out of the fridge. Casey looked at her boldly, at a loss for words.

"Are you staying for dinner?" sternly asked Sarah, breaking the silence.

"Do you want to tell Chuck or should I tell him?"

"I don't know."

"You know he has to do this."

"I doubt he's going to."

"You have to make him. Be creative."

"It won't matter what I say to him. He'll see it as cheating."

"Just tell him the faster we get the info, the faster you guys go home. And then you can have the one in your oven in a proper environment."

"Are you joking? If he knew that I was pregnant, he would definitely not do that, Casey. He'd see it as especially wrong. He'd probably say something to the effect of it being too Jerry Springer for him. You know him. I know him. He would go against orders. And we both know that they wouldn't just make a compromise. They wouldn't just say, "Alright, Chuck, just go back to try to gain the trust of Peter." Besides, that could take forever if it's even possible. It's already been two months. In a couple more, I'm probably going to start showing. And also, if we tell the General the truth that I'm pregnant, she'll shut the entire thing down. But that doesn't mean she'll be having a baby shower for us in LA. Chuck will be sent to an underground bunker regardless, or sent out on missions because the government practically owns him, or what's in his head. If we finish this mission and uncover the huge terrorist organization such as a ring, the General will gladly let him lay low in LA until they work on getting it out of his head. So I can't tell him. He won't get the mission done if I do, and we need this mission done as soon as possible. I don't want him any distractions as in me and the baby. He needs to do this. As much as I don't want him to, I'm not going to have this baby grow up in anything less than normal. I don't have a choice."

"Okay. Is your soliloquy done?"

Sarah answered his question and ignored it, returning her attention to prepare dinner. She washed her hands and then put saran wrap over the cutting board. While she began butterflying the chicken, she spoke once more to Casey, feeling horrible and guilty even though she hadn't even had the talk with Chuck yet. She figured out what to do, or rather what to say to Chuck.

"You need to take Andy to your place. Chuck will be home soon, and I'll talk to him. Listen in and come back with Andy when we're done. Tomorrow morning, you'll take him to the train. Explain what he has to do. Don't tell him that I know, but that you'll brief me on it later. "

"Okay," said Casey. Before he turned around to go get Andy, he continued one last time, "...All that trust he has in you- the kind that will run away with you at the drop of a hat, no questions asked, he's not going to have it once he finds out."

"I know. One mission at a time.

So I usually put in cliffhangers...I don't know if this one really counts as one. Technically this chapter was originally written with an extra 2,500 words. I still have the other 2,500 words, but I'm putting another 2,000 on it to make for a good chapter 11. I don't want to say that I think it'll be done soon, because we all know how bad I am at saying when something will be done soon and then it isn't.

All I am going to say is the truth, and something I've said before. Knowing that you are excited/passionate about this story makes me even more excited/passionate than I already am to keep writing and put up the next chapter. Even these PMs that I've gotten have given me such motivation, I can't tell you how valuable they were to this chapter. Ultimately, any response is valuable. So let me know.