Previously: "Sarah, it's buried, it's in the past." He says sincerely looking into her eyes.

Suddenly, she's trying to leave his grip, she doesn't deserve him, she can't be around him, she's toxic, she doesn't want him anywhere near her, she's trying to fight with him.

"Sarah, please, stop it." He begs her to stop trying to violently fight him as she continues to hate herself.

"Chuck, let me go, please!" Sarah continues to try to fight him, but he wont let her go and she buries her head into his chest once more as he strokes her long flowing blonde hair as she cries herself into an oblivion just like six years previously..

Chapter Fourteen

I Need Time

"Hey Sarah, you hit like a girl, you know that right?"

"Ow, what was that for?" Chuck says as he winces from the elbow he just took from Sarah.

"For being a douche." Sarah laughed as she landed a soft blow to Chuck's chest for probably the hundredth time since leaping into his arms. Sarah had calmed down a lot now, and had managed to regain a significant portion of her composure after her earlier outburst that involved trying to fight her way out of Chuck's grip and the tears which had very much ran dry. Sarah was still in the arms of the man she has spent the last six years thinking about, and to be honest, she never wants to leave them ever again, for fear of if she does she will be back to being alone and suffering once more. Sarah has no fight left in her, she's emotionally spent and has tried to fight a losing battle for so many years and can't go another day living like that again, not now she's found him again, she never wants to leave him ever again.

Chuck was still chastising himself inside for his earlier choice of words to an already extremely fragile Sarah. Chuck has done some pretty stupid things throughout his life, but what he did earlier was up there with the worst of them, he doesn't know what the hell he was thinking, adding fuel to an already explosive situation. As for forgiving Sarah for leaving him, he forgave her the second she leapt into his arms, how could he not? The emotional state that Sarah is in right now is so much more extreme than Chuck could have ever imagined possible. Chuck has never seen her like this ever in all the time he had known her. It's so unbelievably evident that Sarah breaking up with Chuck has affected her FAR more than he had previously thought all for all these years, as these are not the actions of somebody who didn't love you, these are the actions of somebody who has probably spent the past six years a broken mess. Chuck had spent the past six years thinking that Sarah was a monster who never cared about him and oh how wrong he was... It's evidently clear to Chuck that Sarah still loves him, but Chuck doesn't even know how he feels any more, he doesn't even know who he is any more... They definitely cannot just go back to how they were before, and Chuck knows that Sarah and himself need to have a serious conversation in regards to where they go from here, as both himself and Sarah are broken messes. Chuck knows that the future is pretty clouded right now, and he doesn't even know what the present holds, he can't think straight. But for now, Chuck is content with where he is right now, because Sarah needs him, and no matter how much she had hurt him in the past, as far Chuck is concerned, it's all water under the bridge... He is however going to need to learn how to trust her again.

"Sarah, you're so damn heavy, you're squashing me here."

"Ow." Says Chuck as he once more gets a blow to his chest. Chuck is pretty sure that when he next looks at himself in a mirror, he's going to have a significant number of bruises from the battering his body had took from Sarah when she tried to fight her way free from him. Chuck had forgotten how deadly this woman could be when she was angry.

"Just be thankful you're a girl and I cant fight back." Chuck jokes which once more lands him another elbow to the chest.

"Okay, now you're pushing it, you're lucky I'm nice."

Another elbow connects from Sarah, as her head continues to stay buried into his chest.

"Okay, stop I surrender. Don't hurt me any more." Chuck pleads.

Another elbow to the same spot

"Hey stop I surrendered." Chuck protests

"Shut up." Sarah replied as she grins into his chest as she readjusts her head onto a different part of his torso...

"It's time to call it a night." Says Chuck mid yawn as he is getting very tired and is emotionally spent and all of his body feels dead from where Sarah had been laying for at least an hour and the bashing it had took.

"I'm not moving." Says Sarah, adamant that she's never leaving his arms again as she reaffirms her grip on him once more.

"Sarah I'm exhausted and I can't think straight." Chuck begins to plead with her.

"Tough, you should have let me go earlier." Sarah says sleepily into his chest.

"Don't make me carry you." Chuck warns.

"Do what you have to do Chuck but I'm not moving voluntarily." Sarah says drowsily, unwilling to leave the arms of the man she should never have left in the first place.

Suddenly, Sarah was being disturbed from her drowsiness and comfort as she moans at the intrusion as Chuck had picked her up.

"Put me down." Sarah commands sleepily.

"Nope, you asked for it." Chuck says as he walks in the direction of the bedroom, kicking the door open further as he then attempts to put Sarah down who was still clinging onto him as he attempts to remove Sarah's grip on him but she's still resistant. "Please Chuck, I don't want to be alone tonight." Sarah says as she looked into his eyes while speaking with the same vulnerable tone as their previous conversations earlier in the night.

Chuck sighs to himself as thoughts race through his mind as he weighs up the risk of getting into bed with Sarah.

"Just hold me Chuck, nothing else." Sarah says while still having hold of the upper part of his shirt as he continues to lean over her.

"Okay, but nothing else, yeah?" Chuck warns.

"I promise Chuck." Sarah says as she leads him onto the bed infront of her and she quickly melts into him as he puts his arm around her and she interlocks her hand with his as the pair quickly fall into a serious slumber emotionally and physically exhausted.

Sarah was disturbed from her sleep from a sudden movement behind her. Turning her head slowly, she was so happy to actually see Chuck still in bed with her and it wasn't just another one of her many dreams that she had, had of him over the years. Her happiness soon turned to sorrow however, as she watched the man she never stopped loving experiencing some sort of nightmare. His pupils were moving rapidly and his body was jerking. "Bryce, no!" She hears him say, as a lone tear forms in her eye. Sarah had heard the name Bryce before, when she was invited along to Chief Miller's homecoming. She lay for the next few minutes, as she watched her world that she should never have left all those years ago battle through the distress he was experiencing as she ran her hand through his hair soothingly. His nightmare had stopped now, and Sarah runs her hand through his hair a final time before kissing him on his cheek lovingly before turning to snuggle into him once more as she falls into a peaceful sleep again for the first time in nearly seven years...

August 30th

Dam Neck Annex

Virginia Beach

Virginia

United States

It had been four days since Chuck and Sarah's emotional reunion. And the past four days had been pretty uneventful, at least in the sense that Chuck and Sarah hadn't shared the same bed again. They haven't been able to spend much time together either, because of the hectic responsibilities that Chuck's job entails, as Gold Squadron enter the final week before they deploy to the Middle East. It was pretty awkward however when they woke up in the same bed together, until Chuck made a joke that Sarah still snores as loud as ever, which caused yet another elbow into the already tender chest of Chuck from the previous night. They talked over breakfast and agreed that they should take a few days to figure things out, and not attempt to rush back into something they might regret, as their emotions were quite literally all over the place.

Chuck was just finishing his usual morning run as he bumped into Sarah outside of her quarters. "Hi Sarah." He says as he comes to a stop near her as he works on regulating his breathing after a pretty intense session.

"Hi yourself." Sarah says with a beaming smile as her mind fills up with thoughts about Chuck.

"Sleep well?" Chuck asks as he takes a drink of water from his bottle.

'Eh, would be much better if you were next to me again.' Sarah thinks to herself.

"Not so bad, could be better, I guess." Sarah says a tad bit mischievously.

Chuck looks at the floor pretty awkwardly briefly before looking back at her.

"How about you?" She asks.

"Me too, could be better." Chuck decides to reply in the same mischievous tone Sarah had used.

'Is he teasing me?' Sarah asks herself as they look into the eyes of one another pretty lustfully as she contemplates dragging Chuck back into her quarters until she realizes they aren't together any more and tries to snap out of those thoughts which is pretty hard to do as Sarah is looking at Chuck in his running gear with his huge thighs on display and his shirt tightly sticking to his torso. 'dammit Sarah stop, you agreed to take things slowly...'

"Hey Chuck I was just heading to get breakfast. Would you like to join me?" Sarah asks as she tries to shake off her lustful thoughts about her ex boyfriend? Sarah isn't even sure what they are any more, everything is so messed up right now.

"You know what, that actually sounds pretty good right now, if you'll give me a few minutes to change?" He asks.

"Great idea!" Sarah suddenly says as she's still deep in thoughts over Chuck's present outfit.

"Huh?" Chuck asks bemused.

"Oh sorry, I'm in a world of my own this morning Chuck." Sarah replies laughing, as she tries to avoid looking at Chuck much more, before she does something she absolutely wouldn't regret, but it wouldn't do much to help their situation. 'Baby steps Sarah.' She tells herself.

"Okay." Chuck says as he pauses to laugh weirdly before continuing, "I wont be long, I'll meet you there."

Chuck had now changed into his working uniform and had met up with Sarah at the mess hall, which went a long way to help restore Sarah's self control.

Whenever Chuck and Sarah had been together in recent days, it had always been met by whistles from the men of Chuck's unit as Chuck and Sarah have been the talk of base ever since they were spotted heading out together.

"Sarah, I just wanted to apologize. I haven't been able to spend much time with you this week." Chuck says as he chats with Sarah over breakfast.

"Chuck you don't have to apologize you have responsibilities."

"All the same, I'll make it up to you, I promise." Chuck says sincerely.

'Oh, how?' Sarah thinks to herself as she looks into his eyes as she thinks a kiss or two or ten would be pretty nice right about now before snapping out of it.

"Honestly Chuck, there really is no need. I'm just happy to be spending time with you now." Sarah says sincerely.

"How about a date, tonight?" Chuck suddenly asks rather nervously as he makes eye contact with her again.

Sarah stopped dead in her tracks as a smile began to form on her face.

"What, like a real one, without Morgan and Carina showing up this time?" Sarah replied as she began to laugh as she recalled how the last one which wasn't very funny at all went.

"heh. Yeah, one of those?" Chuck asks with the same nervous tone once more as he looked into her eyes as they both forget about all of the background noise going on around them.

"I'd like that Chuck." Sarah says while smiling at him as they continue to gaze at each other.

They continue to hold their gaze forgetting about everything around them as Sarah can't help but wait to be kissed once more before Chuck suddenly snaps out of the gaze and reaches into his pocket to get something.

"Oh, one more thing, here is my personal number. Call me anytime you need anything at all." He says as he hands Sarah his number. "I should probably get back to work. I'll see you tonight?" Chuck says as he gets up, waiting for a reply before he departs.

"Bye Chuck." Sarah says smiling, as she watches every step he walks away until he had disappeared from sight...

Later that evening

Chuck had just arrived to pick Sarah up so they could head out on their first official date since being reunited. And on receiving an answer Chuck quickly became lost in the beauty that is Sarah Walker as she was stood infront of him wearing an ocean blue blouse.

"Sarah, wow I have seen some beautiful sights on the edge of an Aircraft Carrier but I have to say, nothing comes close to when I look at you."

Sarah stood dumb founded, oh how she's missed hearing his compliments. Screw the date, Sarah was so tempted to just pull this man back inside her quarters right now.

"I've missed your compliments. You look great too." Great being a 'slightly' toned down version of a list of adjectives currently running through Sarah's mind.

Sarah's response, coupled with the present look she was giving him, which was a mixture of love and lust caused Chuck to laugh nervously as he quickly led her to his car, as they weren't quite on kissing terms yet.

Sarah and Chuck were now in the middle of their date and thankfully, they hadn't been interrupted this time by Morgan or Carina and the mood was so much better as the couple of four years attempted to continue to reconcile.

"Sarah, I would be lying if I said I had a plan for how all of this is going to play out." Chuck admitted truthfully as he sat opposite Sarah in the restaurant they were at together.

"Wow, I thought you had a plan for everything." Sarah replies flirtatiously while beaming a bright smile at him.

"Ha, funny. But seriously, I don't even know how I feel right now Sarah. I need time to think things through. We should probably take this slowly." Chuck says honestly while he is talking and eating noodles.

Sarah takes hold of one of Chuck's hands and looks longingly into his eyes.

"Chuck, we'll take this as slow as you need, okay?" She says as she rubs his hand affectionately before continuing, "Take as much time as you want. I don't have a plan for this either. All I know is that there hasn't been a single day that has gone by where I have not regretted what I did to you that day. So for us to just be here right now, I'm extremely thankful for that alone." She says sincerely and they share affectionate smiles as they play around with each others hand whilst gazing into the eyes of one another purposely for the billionth time since setting eyes upon one another at Stanford...

Chuck and Sarah were now back on base and Chuck was saying good night to Sarah after a wonderful evening.

"I really enjoyed tonight Sarah. Thank you." Chuck says sincerely as he walks Sarah to the door of her quarters to say goodnight to her.

"Me too Chuck." Sarah says as she turns around to gaze lustfully into Chuck's eyes.

Chuck is caught in two minds whether it's appropriate or not to kiss Sarah good night. Hell, he doesn't even know right from wrong any more. 'Screw it.' He thinks, as he leans in to kiss Sarah who had quickly met him half way as they both get lost in time for what felt like an eternity as they kissed each other for the first time in nearly seven years as their hands ran affectionately over each others face and they closed their eyes to take in the breathtaking touch and taste of each other which is infinitely more powerful than they both remembered it to be.

And no sooner than it had begun, it was over as Chuck decided to break the kiss when Sarah had attempted to deepen the kiss and introduce passionate tongue play with him, leaving Sarah stood rooted to the spot, love struck and yearning for more as Chuck said his farewells "Goodnight Sarah." He says, as they now remove their arms from each others waist.

"Bye." Is all Sarah can say, as her mind is busy elsewhere as it begins to replay what just happened in vivid detail over and over for the rest of the night...

End of Chapter

A/N Not a whole lot here but I'm presently suffering a touch of the good old writer's block at the minute. Two more scenes upcoming over the next few days; A double date with Morgan and Carina (Watch out for a Morgan/Sarah conversation) and a final team gathering before they ship out, which gets pretty heated for Charah, so watch out for that one. The second arc to the story will then begin, and we will have our first live mission.