A/N: And so it comes to an end. It's been fun. Can't wait until the next adventure. Also, for any of you guys that are also Psych fans. Be on the look-out. I just finished writing two Psych FF's... Just waiting for my Beta to go over them, and then I'll start posting them. So keep an eye open for them. Also, one last giant thank you to Creedog for being awesome. I seriously never would have finished them if it wasn't for him. Without Further Ado... Chapter Fourteen.

Chapter Fourteen: Epilogue

Dusk was settling in as the sun started to touch the horizon. Orange covered the surface of the lake water. Though it had been six months since Kaitlin had pulled out the heroics and saved the day, Chuck and Sarah were still on suspension. In Chuck's case, it was more medical leave than suspension, mostly due to the nightmares that still plagued him at night; all of the battle wounds on his face had healed up quite well. Just a few scars remained... one on his temple and one from his broken nose. Of course, his nose had lost its familiar shape. Now it sat slightly crooked and just a little wider than it had before. Ellie, had explained to him that it was due to scar tissue that formed from the actual break. Either way, it made him feel as if at least a part of him had changed. However, there were other scars that he kept hidden, which he didn't even like Sarah seeing. They were all rather small in size, but covered at least half of his body.

Clutching her hand in his, Chuck looked over toward Sarah. Aside from his random returns to the past, though mostly at night, their vacation was going rather well. Then again, they had only been on the lake-side cabin for a full day so far. Sarah had another two weeks on her suspension, and Chuck couldn't return until he was cleared by the psychiatrist, who had promised him that he wouldn't be in the field until his nightmares ceased altogether. Since he still had a stray one, once or twice a week, it meant that he still had to attend his appointments.

"Hey... where's your mind at?" Her voice deceived her question. He knew that she knew his mind was hovering in the past. It wasn't his fault; it's not like he wanted to relive the entire attack. The torture and pain. That was what made the dreams worse, since they occasionally liked to play around with the truth. Sometimes they didn't get to him in time, and he died without telling Sarah how he felt. Other times, she came to his rescue just for him to watch her die. Those were the worst, the ones that sat him bolt upright, a sheen of cold sweat on his face, and much of the time, with tears in his eyes. There was no more sleep to be gotten those nights. He'd shower, and down enough caffeine to keep him up until the next night.

He smiled, trying to use his Bartowski charm on her. "Just...thinkin'." The look on her face spoke volumes. Mostly, she wasn't buying it.

She sighed heavily, as she took her hand from his. He watched in stunned silence as she stood up and walked away, her shoulders slumped slightly and her head bowed forward. He knew he was hurting her, living in a past that she couldn't stop from happening. She blamed herself for what happened, and the fact that he lingered there as if stuck in some sort of weird purgatory made it all worse. Everything that happened to him, according to Sarah, was her fault. He couldn't make her see different and it broke his heart.

He stood up carefully, stretching the soreness from his underused muscles before walking toward the front of the cabin. He heard the distance sound of gravel crunching and flying around. The further he walked, the louder the noise got. Finally, in the distance he spotted Morgan's car flying down the small gravel lane. Definitely wasn't a road, far too small to even be considered a road. The gravel and dust flew above the small automobile as it continued to barrel down the lane, before stopping just beside Sarah's car. Once the engine was turned off, Chuck watched as Morgan emerged from the car. He stretched his short frame for a moment, before shutting the door. Walking stiffly to the other side of the car, he opened the door to allow Kaitlin to emerge. She followed suit, by stretching out her bunched up muscles.

Unable to hold it in any longer, Chuck let a smile cross his lips. "Morgan!" He ran up to his best friend's side and hugged him tightly for a moment.

"Seriously, dude? Just saw you yesterday... Uh, Chuck... Morgan can't breathe!" Morgan used his fingers that had been clutched around his friend only a moment earlier to poke him in the ribs until he released him. "Gah! Were you trying to kill me?" He eyed Chuck carefully for a moment, as his breath finally returned to him.

"Sorry, buddy... I just... yeah." Chuck dipped his head, so that Morgan couldn't read his features. Before turning toward Kaitlin. His face blushed as he realized that he had been ignoring her.

"Hey, Kaitlin..." He still wasn't one hundred percent comfortable around her. Especially knowing that she was Sarah's sister...

"Hey, Chuck! What's the good word?" Her eyebrow quirked.

He watched her carefully as she slung her bag over her shoulder to walk the short distance to stand in front of Chuck. By the time she reached him, a sheen of sweat had formed on her brow, and she was nearly panting. From exhaustion or pain, he wasn't entirely for sure. Her injury hadn't been as easy to heal from as Chuck's had been. That had more to due to her stubborn ways—one of the many things she had in common with Sarah—than it did the initial injury.

In fact, because of her stubbornness she had two additional stays in the hospital. The first had occurred her first week from being released from the hospital. She had refused to eat her lunch, which Sarah had prepared for her, before taking her pain medication. Chuck could understand somewhat; she had been nauseous because the pain was too intense. However, the outcome was far worse: her bout of vomiting had split her stitches open. The bleeding wasn't too heavy, but it caused Sarah to have a flashback to when she had been shot. In fact, that night had been horrible for everyone involved.

Even though Chuck would have loved to have said she learned her lesson from that small hiccup... well, he would have been lying, considering she thought it would be awesome,as she put it, to return to work. It probably wouldn't have hurt anything for her to have waited longer than a month. She had fooled General Beckman, but not any of the actual team. No matter how much they all tried to talk her out of it, she had insisted on a mission. Luckily, Casey had gone with her, so when that giant tower of a bad guy had kicked her in the stomach, the other giant tower had been able to get her safely to a hospital before she bled out internally. It had been that injury that effectively ended her career. Even if it was technically her idea to step down, she really hadn't been given a choice. The doctor had told her if she continued in her line of work and sustained another injury to that particular part of her body, it could very well kill her.

Chuck smiled at her, trying to bring himself back to the present. She smiled back, and couldn't believe how in instances like this that she looked so much like Sarah. The fact that neither of them had even seen the resemblance was remarkable to him. It had to have been the hair color, because slap blonde hair on her and it was Sarah... more or less. He could see the slight differences. There weren't many, but the ones that were there did stick out to him. Then again he had spent the better part of three and a half years studying Sarah Walker.

"Oh, you know, beautiful lakeside sunsets. It's kinda awesome, really."

"So... is Sarah...?"

Chuck and Morgan laughed lightly together, at the look on Kaitlin's face. Neither woman seemed to know how to react around to the other. It was like they lived on a thin sheet of ice; one wrong move would send them plummeting through.

"Yeah, she's inside... I was... umm-hmmm." His eyebrows shot up. Hmmm... that was a weird noise that emanated from his throat.

"Yeah, I understand. You were stuck..."

He simply shook his head. Chuck knew that if anyone understood what he was going through—really understood—it was Kaitlin. Though hearing the story third-hand from Sarah probably didn't make him the best judge on that, but seeing at the pain hidden in Kaitlin's eyes, he knew... she understood.

"Let's head inside. I'm cooking dinner tonight... my specialty, Chicken Pepperoni!"

Morgan's eyebrow's shot up. "Dear God, save us all please..."

Chuck chuckled as he led them toward the cabin. The smile on his lips was one of his first real ones since he was released from the hospital.

Sarah sat back and watched as the other three in her company started to bark laughter. How cliché was it that she felt all warm and fuzzy having at least half of her family here with her? Ellie and Devon had wanted to join them, but a doctor's life was not one that involved lengthy vacations... and unfortunately bad guys don't take vacations, and for that matter, neither did Casey.

Then Sarah noticed the small hitch in Kaitlin's laugh and the way her arm curled protectively around her damaged torso.

"You okay?" Sarah's brow pinched together in concern.

"Yeah. Still a bit sore... but laughter is good medicine, right?" Kaitlin smiled softly.

"Yeah unless your recovering..."

"That'd be my fault. I said I was making dinner... I didn't, however, say that the dinner wouldn't require a nice recovery time..."

Sarah eyed Chuck carefully, as he squeezed her hand, and laughed lightly. "My sister always told me to stop cooking, and that in order to call something your specialty, it had be special... something to set it apart from any other dish. Well, now I know what sets it apart from everything else..."

Morgan barked a rather high-pitched laugh, and eyed everyone carefully when they stared at him. "Yeah... I am not entirely sure it came from my mouth..."

Shaking her head, Kaitlin looked at Sarah. She wanted to say something, anything to her, to converse with her without feeling like she might step on a land mine. Those days looking for Chuck hadn't done anything for their relationship, and she feared that if she said the wrong thing that Sarah might get angry with her. She had seen that side of Sarah and really would rather not be on the receiving end anytime soon. Then again, Chuck had always said that dealing with Sarah sometimes involved ripping the band-aid off really fast. She decided she was just going to go for it.

"You know... you never asked me how exactly it is that we're sisters..."

Kaitlin could tell that the comment had shocked Sarah. Mostly it was the deer caught in the headlights look that was in her eyes. That in the way that Chuck grasped hold of her hand in a reassuring way. From the look on Chuck's face, it seemed that this had been something they discussed.

"Okay... how?"

"Well, after your mom and dad separated..." Kaitlin felt her face pinch up, and from the expression on everyone's face, it was look of actual pain. Sighing, she decided to shorten the story. No need to bring up bad memories. "Long story short... Jenny is my mom. She remarried... my dad. Noah..."

"Uhmmm...wow. I don't think I was expecting that, you know... my mom marrying someone else. I mean... obviously she'd have had to been with someone else..." Sarah huffed out a breath, frustration written on her features. "So... I have a step-dad?" There that was a simple enough question.

Kaitlin smiled, and seemed to relax only a little bit. "Yeah. He's great..." She thought about what she said, and slapped a hand over her mouth to stop anything else from slipping out.

"No, it's fine. I know my dad is anything but perfect. In fact, he is so far from perfect it's not even on the same speculum... but I'd love to hear more about...your father... Noah, you said?"

Kaitlin's face lit up from the smile that crossed her features. She became animated as she shared details of her childhood. The smile never left her face. Chuck's hand still clutched hers, as Morgan nabbed a hold of Kaitlin's. Sarah had never felt so... at home before, never felt like she belonged somewhere so badly before, but now she felt like she was home. It might not be perfect, but it was her own. She knew it wouldn't always be perfect, and that there would always be someone else. A new day in her life, typically meant a new bad guy to find and fight. Not right now though, right now she could simply sit and enjoy her vacation. The bad guys could wait for now.