I don't own Chuck

His head felt lighter than it had….well, in a long time. Like something was missing from it he had grown accustomed to. He wanted to open his eyes, but he felt like he couldn't, or maybe it was that he shouldn't. When was the last time he had opened them?

What was it Han said? Oh yeah, Instead of a big dark blur, I see a big light blur. He opened his eyes and quickly shut them.

"Chuck?" he heard a familiar voice say beside him. "Oh my God! Chuck!?"

He opened his mouth but words wouldn't come out. His throat hurt even trying to talk.

"Don't try and talk, you've been out for a very long time." That was Ellie's voice, he would know Ellie's voice anywhere. He tried to open his eyes and pain shot through his head. Wait, he had been captured by…he couldn't remember.

"Ellie, give him some room." That voice, it was the booming voice of Awesome. He had been rescued. Where was Sarah? Where was Casey? Where was Rye? Wait, Rye…Rye was dead.

"Mr. Bartowski?" What the hell. That voice, it sounded…he tried to open his eyes, and it felt too bright, but he saw the beard, the face. It was blurry, but it was him.

"R..e?" he croaked out.

"Yes, Chuck, Dr. Rye." There was surprise on the man's face, and happiness. He wasn't dead. That was good, really good. Chuck wasn't sure how he survived the gunshot, the fall, and became a doctor but… "Chuck? Can you move you hand?" Chuck willed himself to lift his hand. "That's good!"

"S…rah," he gasped.

"Who?" Dr Rey asked.

Chuck wanted to groan. The woman who's massage you had interrupted. The love of his live. Where was Sarah?

"I swore he said Sarah," Awesome muttered, so basically it sounded like a person speaking normally.

"Bryce's ex-girlfriend?" he heard Ellie reply. Well, sure, but not really. He had never really pressed Sarah on what exactly Bryce and Sarah were. Chuck and Sarah were together now, and that was all that mattered.

"Were they broken up when he….you know?" Awesome asked. What, when Bryce died? The first time, or the second? Chuck really wished he could talk, or properly see even.

"No," he heard Ellie reply. "The accident is what ultimately broke them up." Ellie said the last part very softly. But what Chuck couldn't understand was how she was calling Bryce's death an accident. Casey had clearly shot him. Maybe she meant him not really dying…but he did…but he didn't. Chuck was confusing himself.

"Wh…e…wh….ere's S…rah?" he managed to get out.

"Buddy, Sarah and Bryce broke up," Awesome began.

"Mr and Mrs Woodcomb, a moment," Rye said to them. Chuck felt them leave the bedside. He heard low voices, but still heard Rye. "We do not know what has been going on in his head since the accident. Given the nature of what they were experimenting on…he may have lived a life in there…in his mind…for the past seven years."

Chuck tried to process what he heard. Were they saying…were they saying he had been capture for seven years? That didn't really make sense. He began to say something when a new voice caught his attention.

"Charles?"

That voice belonged to one man and one man only.

"D..dad?" he managed to get out. There was a weight against him as he felt his father hug him.

"Chuck?"

He knew that voice as well. It was what had lead him down this road. The voice of his mother, the voice of the woman who had taken the Intersect away from him. How was he here? Why was she here? And were they both hugging him?

He managed to open his eyes and see both his parents, sobbing, holding him while Ellie and Awesome stood behind them. Ellie was sobbing into Devon's chest, his arm around her.

"M…mom? Dad?" he managed to get out.

"Son," Stephen said. "I thought we'd lost you."

"Oh, honey," Mary added.

"Yo…ou're dead though," Chuck muttered. Stephen and Mary looked at him in shock. "You…you were shot."

"Okay, everyone take a breath," Rye said gently. Where the hell was this normal, calm, guy during everything Chuck had gone through. The Rye he knew was amped up on mountain dew and caffeine pills. "As I told your daughter and son-in-law, he may have memories from when he was…" Rye trailed off, seeing Chuck eyeing him.

Chuck turned to Ellie. "Wh..what happ..penned?"

"Why are you asking her?" Rye asked him gently.

"She's…she's a doctor," Chuck managed to get out, as he tried to sit up.

"What?" Ellie said laughing. The entire family began to laugh. "Little brother, I am a fifth grade teacher."

"So's..so's Awesome," Chuck insisted.

"Bro, I work as a fitness instructor," Devon said, chuckling. "Your sister, is a teacher, like your parents, remember."

"That's not exactly true," Ellie said, shaking her head. "They teach at UCLA, remember, the college you refused to go to?"

Chuck started to protest, when he saw a face in the doorway. "Bryce?"

"Chuck, you're awake," Bryce said, tears in his eyes. "You're awake."

"How…how…" he couldn't get anymore out.

"Seven years, Charles," Stephen said gently. "You've been unconscious seven years. Ever since the accident at Stanford."

"It's all my fault," Bryce said, walking over to the bed. "I never should have let you be in the halo."

"Enough," Dr Reys said gently. "He's just waking up. You're welcome to stay, but we need to let him process today. He needs time. We also need him to tell us what he thinks has happened."

"Sarah?" Chuck managed to ask.

"We broke up buddy," Bryce told him. "But all that matters is you're okay." It wasn't what mattered. Something was wrong, but Chuck didn't know what.