A/N: All my thanks to Altonish who helped me make Ellie a little less gullible and a little more neurotic.

And thanks mxpw for approving this chapter as "not too depressing". That works for me.

Chapter 10:

Devon finishes regaling them with a tale of how him and Ellie were chased out of a zoo in Johannesburg by a flock of territorial flamingos and everyone laughs.

"I don't think I can ever step inside a zoo again," Ellie adds.

Sarah smiles as if it were second-nature even though muscle-memory has forgotten the expression years ago.

"I hope you at least got a refund," she teases. Without meaning to, her eyes instinctively seek the approval of the man sitting on the other side of the coffee table.

Chuck's smiling too, but his smile fades when he realizes he's being watched.

They fall into a lapse.

"Well, it's getting late," Chuck says with an exaggerated yawn. It's the words Sarah's waited all evening to hear, but it seems too cruel to leave now. They were finally starting to catch up; she'd finally loosened up after the third glass of wine.

"Yeah, well big day tomorrow..." she says with some reluctance.

Ellie looks crushed. She clings to Sarah as she laments: "But it's only ten! Come on, we're all adults here. What's your hurry?"

Sarah looks to Chuck for help but he's kept himself physically distant from her this whole evening.

Devon rises from the armchair and places his arms around his wife. "Honey, they're going to be in town all week. If you keep this up they'll never want to visit again."

It's the only way Ellie lets them go.

"You promise you'll come again?" she asks as everyone gets to their feet. "I have this great recipe for spiced chicken. You have to come try it.

"And we haven't even shown you the photos from our adventures! Oh, and I kept some postcards I never ended up sending to you because we couldn't find the stamps." Ellie keeps trying to find some excuse for them to visit again, as if either of them really needed one.

"Ellie, we're just half an hour's drive away," Chuck reminds. "Relax."

Ellie places her hands over her belly, reminded of the very reason she needed to remain calm.

"But you will be coming back, right?"

"Yes, Ellie, of course." Sarah feels guilty for making the woman beg but she doesn't like to make promises. Even the simple ones are hard to keep.

"Take care, you guys." Chuck hugs his sister, claps his brother in law on the back and then unexpectedly takes Sarah's hand in his.

Sarah nearly gasps when she feels his fingers thread between the spaces of her own.

Damn it. She shouldn't have had that last glass of wine.

"See you soon," Sarah echoes. They step outside and wave again to the happy couple. Divided by the threshold, Sarah feels like she's standing, watching all that could have been. Then the door shuts, and the cold reality sets in.

Sarah unwittingly squeezes his hand and they both look down at the anomaly; the way their hands clasped together so perfectly.

If we were really a couple, this would be the part where you'd be forced to kiss me good night.

He lets go of her hand and the way his eyes fail to meet hers says it all.

Luckily we're not really a couple, seems to be his reply.

"Shall we go?" he asks, though it's not a question when he's already walked off without waiting.

Sarah follows slowly behind him, giving him the space he needs. Her heels drag along the stone path as they pass the complex's fountain. Chuck walks around it completely unaffected, but the path is a little more difficult for Sarah.

She stares at the vacant spot where they'd once sat down together and it's as if the ground has taken a hold of her, refusing to let her pass. Her eyes drift down to the rings on her hand and then at the fountain again.

The week rushes by like a ticking time bomb. One second she's lying in Chuck's arms, just another day in sunny LA, and in the next, her time is up and she's sleeping alone back at her old hotel room.

Things had become progressively awkward between the two of them. Suddenly Chuck wants answers; has started asking for things she thought they'd agreed not to define.

Like their relationship.

Their cover.

Their feelings.

It just never ended, and all the evasive tactics she'd been trained in couldn't help her. Chuck was infuriatingly persistent and she thought she'd finally met her match.

And now they weren't speaking to one another.

Sarah stares into the mirror as she reapplies another coat of mascara. It feels like a waste for them to spend what could very well be their last week together—apart.

And all because she couldn't say the handful of words he needed to hear.

Sarah jams the wand back into the mascara tube a little too forcibly. In all things except for this, she was at the top of her game, the head of the class. And this one blinding flaw made her feel like a complete failure.

Chuck has gotten close enough; he's the exception to all the rules she's set out for herself. But marriage?

It was the promise to end all promises. That she would depend on one person and one person alone to be the source of all her happiness and strength and love?

Preposterous.

Nothing was forever.

Even with all the best of intentions, there was nothing to say everything she loved and held dear wouldn't be taken from her in one fell swoop.

Sarah took gambles all the time but no sane person bets their entire future on the roll of a dice.

Looking at the time, she grabs her keys and prepares to head over to Chuck's. At least they'll have this one last evening together before tomorrow and the end of everything that once was.

Beckman's not likely to give them an extension. Chuck, out of principle, isn't likely to do something simply because he's been told. And Sarah has already made it clear. She'll give Chuck everything, but her heart.

Isn't it a little late for that?

Chuck's sitting by the fountain, staring at his laces. When he hears her heels click against the pathway, his ears perk up and he grins at her, his whole face radiant with joy.

It's like the ultimatum never occurred.

God. How she's missed that smile.

"Hey. Can we talk out here?" His eyes dart nervously to the closed door of the complex. "Ellie and Devon are home."

Sarah stiffens. That kind of talk.

"Sure," she says, trying not to look so disappointed. The conversation was inevitable, she knew that, but he's had four days to accumulate enough fodder to fill the next few hours and all she really wants is to be with him and forget the fact that this was going to be the end.

"Sarah." Chuck sighs. Despite only having said one word and syllable, he's already set the tone for the rest of the words to come. "I've had a lot of time to think about what Beckman's said. And as much as I hate having to make a decision, it's exactly that."

Sarah tries to keep her expression neutral by propping her chin on one rested hand, but the second Chuck turns to look at her, her heart races and she has to look away.

"Beckman isn't telling us to do this. She's giving us the choice."

It's a pity Chuck can't see the difference between a real choice and blackmail, but there's no use in pointing that out to him, he'll never see her side of things.

They were fighting a system infinitely more intimidating than they could ever truly comprehend. What were they to them but two individual grains of sand dropped in an Olympic sized swimming pool? To the heartless at the top of the food chain, their lives must seem so utterly insignificant.

"Sarah, the last thing I want you to feel is obligated. I don't want you to do this for me, because you feel it's your duty to protect me. Beckman will make sure there's someone to do that."

"Chuck!" she utters, genuinely surprised. "What are you saying?"

He looks at her like a doomed man. "I don't want you to do this for me. You'll regret it—" He puts his hands out and stops her before she can defend herself. "Maybe not today, maybe not in a year, but someday you will. And we'll fight and be miserable and you'll pin all of it back to this day. To a decision you never wanted to make."

All his courage crumbles as he lets his feelings finally show through.

"Look, we both know how I feel about you, so I'm going to shoot straight," he says, staring down at the ground. Suddenly she was the one trying to catch his attention and he was the one refusing to meet her gaze.

"Sarah, you're the greatest thing that's ever happened to me."

Chuck wasn't the first to say it to her, but he was the first who said it with such conviction she truly believed him.

"You're beautiful, you're smart—"

Don't forget coward!

"You laugh at all my stupid jokes and you have this horrible habit of constantly saving my life." He smiled hopefully at her and she had to laugh at that. Chuck was the only person alive who could nicely sentence a person to their death.

"The truth..." And now Chuck begins to struggle. Sarah's heart plummets and she feels he's rehearsed this at least a dozen times until he's found the best way to let her down easy. "Sarah..."

He wipes his hands on his jeans a few dozen times and Sarah wonders what he has to be so nervous about. It's her life that will be ruined.

"The truth is you are everything I thought I ever wanted and more. And for the last few days all I can think about is our future together..." Sarah didn't realize she was holding her breath until she felt hypoxic. Everything Chuck said was leading up to the ultimatum. She could see it coming and it took every fibre of her being to fight the urge to just bolt from the fountain and keep running

"I'm crazy about you and I've always been but you know, having a fake relationship—that's one thing, but a marriage...I mean every day..."

Living the lie.

Sarah completely understood. It always goes back to that point. Sarah's entire life has been one giant fabrication and Chuck just wants something real.

Couldn't he see that they were fundamentally too different for each other?

Had he forgotten that she would never be normal?

But opposites attract...

The thought of leaving Chuck was too painful to dwell on for any longer than a few seconds at a time. That someone else would take her place here and in his heart, that she would have to say goodbye to all this forever and close the door on the hope of something she hadn't dared to dream of until—

She wasn't ready. How could she abandon her partner? They were a team.

"If we're going to get married, it has to be real. I don't want you to do it for me or for Beckman or for anyone else. I want you to want to be with me on your own free will."

Sarah sat up straight, acutely aware that Chuck had suddenly stopped talking.

"Chuck..." She didn't understand. Was that all he had to say? A great big confession and then some talk about setting her free? Wanting her to make her own choices?

He swallowed nervously, and when he took her hand in his, they felt warm and slick against hers.

Sarah didn't know what to say. Did he honestly expect her to be the one to say goodbye first?

"Sarah..." Chuck slid off the fountain and went down onto the ground.

She didn't realize it at first, but when Chuck produced a small velvet box from his jacket pocket, she saw that he was on bended knee.

"Will you marry me?"