This is not an original story. In fact it is one of my first. It was written at the beginning of season 2. The story was inspired by a series of discussions between BrickRoad and me talking through different storyline ideas.

Warning: There is some adult content in this. Nothing major but please use discretion. I still don't own Chuck.

If you enjoyed this or any of the stories on this site, please take a second and send the author a review. It only takes a second – and it really, really makes a difference. That's probably more important than ever now that the series has ended. If you want to keep the Chuck fandom alive and continue to read about these characters, you really need to think about rewarding the people whose hard work make that possible.

Urban Legend

x-x-x-x-x

When Joy received the message from Ellie with the picture of Chuck and Sarah sleeping, for some strange reason she felt the tears fill her eyes. They simply looked so peaceful. It was the most adorable story she had ever heard. So she immediately downloaded the picture to her computer. Using the hospital's email system, she composed a message to her friend Amy who worked in Pediatrics.

This is Dr. Bartowski's brother and his girlfriend. I'm sure you've heard the story of Chuck and Sarah. Aren't they just adorable? I hope Sarah is going to be okay after her head injury.

As soon as Joy sent the message, she sat and thought about Chuck. Even though she had known him for years, she had always just thought of him as Dr. Bartowski's geeky little brother. As a matter of fact, Ellie had offered to set her up with him on more than one occasion, but she had always declined. Seeing him in the picture with Sarah changed her perspective totally. "Wow, is he cute," Joy whispered to herself wistfully as the blush crept up her neck and into her face. But the way they were holding each other was plain. He was now off the market.

When Amy received the message she immediately forwarded the message to her friends Marge and Holly.

Here is a picture of Chuck and Sarah. Aren't they the perfect couple? I'm sure you have heard their story. Isn't it a shame about Sarah's brain injury?

Marge forwarded the picture to several of her friends.

Here is a picture of the famous Chuck and Sarah this morning. Isn't this the cutest thing you've ever seen? Too bad. It doesn't sound like Sarah is going to make it.

Each time the message got forwarded to another set of recipients, Sarah's prognoses became worse. Finally it became common knowledge that she had an inoperable brain tumor and only had six weeks to live. Thus the urban legend of the star struck love story of Chuck and Sarah was born.

x-x-x-x-x

Sarah was the first to wake. That was not surprising since she had gotten a lot more sleep last night than Chuck had. She was very surprised at how much better she felt. The pain medication that Ellie had given her was really doing a good job. She could still feel some tenderness in her ankle but everything else felt fine. Since her head was lying on Chuck's chest, she could feel every breath that he took. She had never felt so comfortable in her life. Slowly, so as not to wake him, Sarah shifted her head so that she could look at Chuck's face. It looked so peaceful. By the smile on his face, Sarah could tell that he was as content as she was. Wanting the moment to last forever, she snuggled into Chuck as closely as she could. How great would it be to wake up like this every morning?

"I love you so much that it scares me," Sarah whispered as she waited for Chuck to wake up. "As soon as you wake up, I'll show you. I'm so, so sorry that I've waited so long."

x-x-x-x-x

Ellie finally found a few minutes in her somewhat crazy morning to get to her office. She really hadn't had a chance all day to check her emails. So she was surprised to see that she had seventy-three unread messages.

Ellie opened the first message. It was from an RN in the cardiac unit that she barely knew. It was a sympathy note telling Ellie how sorry she was about Sarah and how the story made her cry.

Confused, Ellie opened the next message. It was from a doctor in pediatrics. She included a link to a web site that talked about an experimental new treatment for brain tumors.

The next message was an offer to start a memorial fund in Chuck and Sarah's name.

"Oh dear," Ellie whispered to herself with a smile. "Only seventy more to go."

Ellie was about half way through reading her messages when her phone rang. She could tell from the caller ID that it was Devon.

"Hi, sweetie," Ellie answered.

"Hi, babe," said Devon in a concerned voice. "Is there something wrong with Sarah?"

x-x-x-x-x

When Chuck opened his eyes, it took him a long moment to remember where he was. All he knew was that he was holding an angel in his arms.

"Please," he whispered to himself as he took the hand that was behind Sarah and squeezed her shoulder gently. "Don't let this be a dream."

"It's not a dream," Sarah said with a soft smile as she lifted her head to look into Chuck's eyes. "At least not one that you wake up from."

"How are you feeling?" Chuck asked softly as he returned Sarah's smile.

"Words aren't my strength," Sarah said as she slowly lowered her head to touch her lips to his. "Let me show you."

Chuck and Sarah's very first truly romantic kiss started off very gently. Chuck was very willing to let Sarah dictate the pace since he wasn't sure how much she was still hurting. But after a moment the kiss grew decidedly more intense with Sarah reaching her hand behind Chuck's head to draw him closer. Chuck, at first, was still being very careful not to hurt her. But when he felt Sarah's tongue pass his lips, he figured it was okay to be a little more physical.

Still trying to be careful of her head, he wrapped his hands around Sarah's shoulders and pulled her close. As their tongues danced, Chuck rubbed Sarah's bare back where her gown had come open. Hospital gowns were mostly worthless anyway. And this one was currently so bunched up that it wasn't covering much. If not for the single sheet that was covering them, she would have been naked, at least from a practical point of view. Not that she was complaining at all.

Sarah knew all about her earlier promise to Ellie, but the necking was rapidly getting her motor running hotter than it had ever been. Chuck was so cute. His hands were drifting but he was clearly hesitant to move to her chest.

Finally Sarah decided to hell with it. If Ellie did happen to walk in on something, she would understand. After all, she was rooting for them harder than anybody. That's when Sarah gently broke the kiss. "Don't misunderstand me," she said with a smile. "I'm not trying to stop you in any way. In fact I don't want you to stop. If you want our first time to be right here, right now, I'm all for that. But this isn't a very private place. Ellie could come back at any minute. And here is the one word of caution that I would say to you. Don't start anything here that you're not willing to finish here. I'm going to be on a mission to make sure our first time is something that we never forget for the rest of our lives, and I'm not stopping just because Ellie is standing there watching us."

"We'd better slow down," Chuck said reluctantly with a huge grin. "I'm hoping that our first time is unforgettable for an entirely different reason than because Ellie watched it happen. That might just scar me for life. Besides, you're in a hospital bed connected to an IV. There must be some sort of rule against that."

Sarah ran her hand up Chuck's leg playfully. "Are you sure?" she asked with her own grin. She paused for a long moment before moving to tease him by beginning to unfasten his belt. "Your, umm… body language seems to be saying something else."

"I'd say you are feeling better." Chuck said with an equally large grin as he rolled out of the bed and out of her reach. "I know for sure that I'm feeling better. A whole lot better."

"I'm starving," Sarah said with a laugh as she sat up. She took full measure of his embarrassed look as he turned away from the sight of her trying to resituate her gown. "I haven't eaten in a whole day. I've been too worried about you."

"Do you want me to go down to the cafeteria and get you something?" Chuck asked as he redid his belt.

"I can't tell you what I'd give you for a cheeseburger and fries," Sarah said with a grin. "But it looks like you're going to have to wait until we get home to collect."

x-x-x-x-x

Chuck walked down the corridor of the hospital on his way to the cafeteria. Naturally he had been there many times with Ellie so he was very comfortable knowing the way. Chuck knew most of the ER staff by name. Many of them had even been to the house at one time or another. Ellie was quite the hostess, after all. So Chuck wasn't surprised at all when Dawn, one of the nurses approached him. He was very surprised however when she threw her arms around him.

"That is the most romantic story I've ever heard," Dawn said in a rush as she buried her face in Chuck's chest.

Chuck had no clue what to do with his hands. He knew Dawn. But certainly not well enough to be hugging her. "Umm, thanks," he replied in a confused voice.

"I hope you're able to make Sarah comfortable," Dawn said, her voice muffled by his shirt.

Chuck still didn't know what to do. So he settled for standing there like an idiot and resting his hands softly on her back. "Sure," he said, still confused. "She has a bit of a headache."

"I know, honey," said Dawn softly. "It's hard. Are you still hoping to get married? Before, well, you know."

Chuck had no clue what Dawn was talking about. So he was honest. "I don't know," he said with a smile. "We haven't had time…"

At that Dawn burst into tears. "I'm so sorry," she said as she ran off down the hallway sobbing.

"But she's starting to feel better…" Chuck called after Dawn as she was running away.

"Wow," Chuck said, more to himself as his mouth fell open. "That was odd."

x-x-x-x-x

Ellie had finally just finished reading all of her emails when Chuck knocked on her office door.

"Hi, sis," he said sadly. "Got a minute?"

"Sure," Ellie said with a sideways glance. "What's wrong?"

"I'm hoping you'll tell me," Chuck said. "On my way to the cafeteria I was stopped by five different women. All of them told me some variation of they were praying for Sarah to get better. Two of them ran off crying. Is there something about Sarah that you're not telling me?"

Ellie couldn't hold in the laugh. "I guess there is," she said.

"Don't worry, sweetie," she quickly said as she noticed Chuck's look. "It's nothing bad. I promise. It's just that you two kid's story has sort of taken the hospital by storm. And like all urban legends it has sort of taken a life of its own. Some of the facts have gotten a little distorted."

"Distorted," Chuck asked. "In what way?"

"Well," Ellie said hesitantly. "Everybody sort of thinks that Sarah has an inoperable brain tumor and not much time left to live."

"And that's not true?" Chuck asked quickly.

"Sweetie," said Ellie soothingly. "Of course not. You know how rumors are. Every time another person tells the story, they add a little. Until eventually, it gets out of control. Sarah is fine. I promise."

"But how do they even know about Chuck and Sarah?" Chuck asked. "Until yesterday, I didn't even know about Chuck and Sarah."

"Well, actually," Ellie said as her face turned red. "That might be my fault. I might have told some people. The story was just so romantic. I couldn't help it. I hope you're not upset."

"I'm not upset," Chuck quickly reassured his sister with a laugh as he left her office. "But good luck explaining it to Sarah. She's a known hothead."

x-x-x-x-x

Chuck watched Sarah wolf down her burger with an amused grin. Not that he was all that experienced with beautiful women, but he assumed that most were very dainty when they were eating. Not Sarah, she attacked her food like she would attack a bad guy with a knife. It was cute.

"Umm," Sarah said, her words mumbled because her mouth was full of food. "This is the best burger I've ever had. And I thought hospital food was supposed to be bad."

Sarah was sitting up in her hospital bed with her food on her tray table. Chuck sat next to her in the chair.

"Well," said Chuck with a laugh as he ate his own burger. "For one thing I think you're really hungry. For another, once they found out it is was for Sarah they specially cooked one. They were pushing each other out of the way to cook it."

"They must know that you're Ellie's brother," Sarah said with a smile. "That's really sweet."

There was no way that Chuck was going to take the spear for Ellie on the hospital urban legend thing. He wasn't sure how Sarah would take that. She really didn't like publicity. And he wasn't all that eager to find out. "Something like that," he replied with a grin.

"That reminds me," Sarah said as she picked up a fry and popped it into her mouth. "I need some clothes. Do you think you could run to your place and grab the emergency bag that I keep there? The CIA doctor just brought me my gun and knives. I can't wear the mission clothes that I was wearing last night. That would look to weird. And there's no place to hide them in this gown."

"That's for sure," Chuck said teasing her with a laugh. "You can barely hide you in that thing. There sure is not enough room for anything else."

Sarah wasn't sure why she was blushing. She was pretty much naked with him just an hour ago. And she was more than willing to get a lot more naked than just pretty much. But she clearly was blushing. It felt kinda nice, like the lovesick schoolgirl Casey accused her of being. "Stop," she said playfully.

"Is there anything else that you need?" Chuck asked as he got ready to leave. "I'll borrow Ellie's car. I'll be back in about an hour."

"Yes, Chuck," Sarah said. "Come here and let me tell you."

Thinking that Sarah had some sensitive spy issue to tell him, he leaned his head close to Sarah's. Sarah wrapped her arms around his neck and crushed her lips to his. After a long moment she broke the kiss.

"You've had to wait far too long for this," Sarah sighed as she kissed him again. "I'm not much with words. But you deserve to know how very much I love you."

"I know," Chuck said softly with a grin when the kiss finally broke. "It's a great feeling."

As Sarah watched Chuck disappear down the hallway of the hospital, she could feel the disappointment wash over her. "Then why won't you say it back?" she said to herself. "I guess it's time for our talk."

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