A/N: Last chapter, Sarah got injured and knocked unconscious. Chuck is contacted and sees his wife again after so long. Hopefully, she'll come round in this chapter.

Thanks for all the reviews.

Many asked about the shooter. I'll answer that here. Someone spotted her at the gas station. Someone from her past, who saw her drop and assumed she was dead. This drive-by will never be never solved. Blame the author.

No beta, but a willingness to correct any mistakes you spot.

Disclaimer: I don't own Chuck or the lyrics I have used. Back to the amazing Peter Gabriel, and one of his best tracks.

Chuck – After You

Chapter 14 - In Your Eyes

And all my instincts, they return
And the grand facade, so soon will burn
Without a noise, without my pride
I reach out from the inside

In your eyes
The light the heat
In your eyes
I am complete
In your eyes
I see the doorway to a thousand churches
In your eyes
The resolution of all the fruitless searches
In your eyes
I see the light and the heat
In your eyes
Oh, I want to be that complete
I want to touch the light,
The heat I see in your eyes

In your eyes

"In Your Eyes"
Peter Gabriel

She gradually, starts to surface from the depths of darkness. Through her eye lids, she can see brightness. She doesn't want to open her eyes to that. It will hurt.

She is already hurting. Her left shoulder is very painful. Her right shoulder and back hurt a bit, but the main pain is above her shoulders. Her head hurts like hell. Both sides and behind her eyes. God, what has happened to her?

She then remembers being shot and nothing after. She must have blacked out. She seems to do that a lot these days.

She must be in a hospital where they have treated her wounds.

She can feel something on the back of her right hand. Probably an intravenous drip attached there. That would make sense if she was unconscious.

How long had she been out?

She is going to have to open her eyes and can for someone to come to her. She doesn't want to.

She opens one eye and immediately shuts it. So bright!

She opens it again, but only a bit. When her pupil has shrunk enough, she opens it more and starts the same with the other eye.

It is bright. The blinds are open letting in the sunlight.

She groans and looks the other way.

"Sarah…" That voice. She recognizes it. Chuck!

She twists her head pointing her eyes in the direction she had heard his voice. Twisting suddenly, makes her head hurt so much more. She closes her eye tightly and groans louder.

She hears footsteps. He is leaving her.

"Chuck..." she croaks. Pain in her dry throat too. Shit!

She senses him come back to her. "I'm going to get someone, Sarah."

Then footsteps again.

By the time he returns, with a nurse, she has managed to open her eyes again and propped herself up using her elbows.

"Let's check you, Mrs Bartowski."

The nurse is checking her, but she doesn't even notice. Mrs Bartowski. That sounds so good to her ears. She smiles dreamily.

Then the woman says, "Drink this. Slowly."

She feels a straw pushing against her lips. She takes a drink. Her throat feels better. She manages to say, clearly, "Thanks."

The nurse lifts the board at the bottom of the bed, jots something on it and then puts it back. "I'll be back later, but I'll leave you with your husband for a while." She then turns and walks out of the room.

Sarah, slowly, turns to look at Chuck, smiling at him. "Chuck."

There is so much warmth in the way she says it, he instantly smiles back. "Oh, Sarah."

He sounds wonderful. He sounds like he is relieved to see her awake.

With her left hand she reaches for him. He moves forward and takes that hand in his right hand. He squeezes it while sitting down in the chair next to her bed.

They stay silent for a minute just looking at each other. Smiling at each other.

Sarah breaks the silence. "So good to see you."

"Really?"

She can't nod, that would hurt, so she just says, "I've missed you."

He can't help thinking, she should have contacted him if that was true, but he knows he has to keep that in until she is recovered, so he just says, "I've missed you too, Sarah."

She looks sad and quietly says, "I know."

He can't stop himself and just blurts out, "How?" It wasn't angry, just confused.

"I talked to Casey yesterday. I was coming to you."

That cheered him up, but he still frowned. "That won't have been yesterday, Sarah." She frowns, so he has to continue. "You've been here for three days."

"Oh."

Then she thinks about where she must be and frowns again. ""We're in Dallas?"

"Yes, Sarah."

"How did you know how to find me?"

He smiles and grips her hand again. "You had my card in your purse. They contacted me."

Sarah doesn't remember a card. She's not seen it in her purse. God, if she had, she would have called him a long time ago, but certainly when she was at Carina's. She frowns and asks, "Card?"

He looks a bit embarrassed. "One of our Carmichael Industries cards. I wrote my name on it and put it in the side of your purse before you left."

If only she'd found it before! Thank goodness she brought that purse with her. All she can say is, "Good. I'm glad you're here."

Chuck then says, "I came here as fast as I could, Sarah. I wanted to drive, not trust others to get me here, but that would have taken too long, so I got a flight. I did drive as fast as I could to the airport, though, and at DFW, I hired a car drove as fast as possible again." He smiles slightly. "You would've been proud of me."

She smiles at that.

His smile drops. "I was surprised you still had the card, Sarah." He looks away briefly. "I thought you would have found it and destroyed it. I thought you never wanted to see me."

She tightens her grip on his hand. "Oh, Chuck."

He looks back at her. He sees the tears running down her face.

She looks at him with such sorrow in her eyes. It brings tears to his. He hates her being upset. He always has done. He starts to speak, but she cuts him off.

"Chuck. I've gotten memories back. More memories. Not all, but enough. The memories match my feelings for you."

"Feelings?"

"I love you, Chuck." She looks tentative. Nervous.

He doesn't really believe this. How could she think that and not contact him, but he replies, "I love you too, Sarah."

She can see that he is holding back. She smiles and sighs. "Kiss me, Chuck."

He leans forward and gives her a tender kiss. She kisses back, equally tender. For her, it is a loving, caring kiss. Not passionate, as she still needs to recover, but she tries to convey how she is feeling about him.

As he pulls away, she is smirking at him. He is puzzled by that. "What?"

She grins. "I remember saying that to you in a hotel room in Paris. You had your wicked way with me!"

He shakes his head. "No. You had your wicked way with me!"

She laughs.

He almost smiles and says, "I've missed your laugh, Sarah. The laugh of an angel."

She laughs again and then says, "I wasn't thinking angelic thoughts, Chuck!"

The look of despair hasn't completely disappeared, but he says, "Maybe when you've recovered."

She doesn't want to push him. She decides to deflect to other things, rather than worry about him not wanting her. "So, you live by a beach?"

He smiles. "Yes, by a beach. Miami Beach."

She smiles at him. "I love it already, but mainly because you'll be there."

Then he remembers the letter and how much it had hurt. He says nothing and just looks at her. Her bottom lip quivers. "I'm so sorry about that letter, Chuck."

"Really?"

She gulps and grips his hand again. "I have to tell you more than just about the letter, so you understand my state of mind when I wrote it."

He then thinks about where they are and the fact she has only just come out of a coma. He shakes his head. "Not now, Sarah. You need to recover first."

He starts to pull his hand away from hers, but she tightens her grip. "No, Chuck. I have to tell you now."

The look in her eyes clearly shows her determination. Those glorious ocean blue eyes that he could stare at for hours, falling in and never wanting to return, but he has to control himself. He just nods and sits down.

"I re-joined the CIA, Chuck." She pauses, bracing herself for his reaction, but he just nods. She gasps, "You knew?"

His cheeks redden. "I tracked you there."

She shakes her head, admonishing herself. She smiles, "Of course you did, fishy!"

Chuck smiles slightly, then gnashes his teeth twice.

That makes her laugh out loud, but then she winces at the pain. "No more belly laughs until I'm better!"

He looks down. "Sorry."

"The CIA took ages putting me through tests, but eventually I met the new Director."

Chuck interrupts again, "Director Bentley?"

Sarah frowns. "No. Director Wilson. Late fifties. Graying hair. He was as terse as Graham."

"I don't know him. I-"

Sarah cuts him off. "Chuck. Please just let me talk. This is hard for me."

He nods.

"It didn't go well for me," she admits.

Chuck frowns, wanting to ask, but holds off.

Sarah smiles and nods, acknowledging his restraint. "He sent me on an assassination mission. Apparently the only thing they thought I could do."

He can't stop himself. "Oh God, Sarah!"

She pauses for a few seconds, then continues, "I couldn't do it, Chuck."

He makes the wrong assumption. "You refused."

"No. I went, I was lined up ready and I just passed out." She looks at him. "You changed me, Chuck. I couldn't do assassination missions anymore."

A tentative smile is forming on his lips, but she doesn't want to see that, yet. "I had my first memories return. Some after, when I was recovering."

He desperately wanted to ask her, but let her continue, at her pace.

"I remembered shooting a man. I now remember his name was Mouser." She gulps. "I remember lying to you about it and a third memory of you telling me how you saw it and you knew I lied. I'm sorry, Chuck."

He nods. "You had to do it, Sarah."

"I know, but it made you lose faith in me. The lying as well as the shooting."

He looks down. "Only for a bit."

She nods and continues her story. "The Director told me I couldn't do any missions on my own and no other agent would work with me. They couldn't trust me."

He grips her hand. She smiles slightly at that.

"Then I remembered a mission where I trusted another agent and shouldn't have." She looks at him. "It was before you, Chuck, so you wouldn't know about it."

He only knows of one before him. "Ryker?"

She gasps. "How did you know?"

He smiles at her, even though his eyes don't match it. "So, you've not remembered everything yet?" She shakes her head, still looking panicky. "You told me about him. About Molly. He's dead, Sarah. You killed him."

"Oh God!" She feels such overwhelming relief and starts crying. "Mom's safe? And the baby is called Molly? Have you met them?"

"Many times, Sarah. I last saw them both just before I left Burbank." He didn't want to say more about that visit, so rushes on. "They're completely safe, Sarah."

She reaches out her unfettered arm to him and he moves forward and wraps his arm around her, giving her a gentle hug. He could feel her softly crying. Tears of happiness. He wishes he could be happy too.

After a couple of minutes, she pushes him away, knowing she has to talk about the worst thing she has ever done.

"After that, Chuck, I was put on six months sick leave. Early in that, I had three memories come back to me. I now know I didn't have the full picture of what was happening. I jumped to the wrong conclusions." She can't look at him while talking about this. "I felt so hurt, Chuck. I have issues about abandonment, Chuck. And I have learnt that trusting people is not a good idea, both from training and experience. You probably know that about me. These memories brought that back. I felt like I had trusted you and I shouldn't have. I felt like I kept accepting you back as a boyfriend and you kept hurting me."

He opens his mouth to say something, but she places her hand on his arm and speaks first. "I now have more memories and know that wasn't the case. Well, not with Lou and the train station. We weren't in a real relationship."

She then gives him a look of disappointment. "Not even when you had sex with Jill, but that still hurt. Still does. Seeing that. She had dumped you, Chuck, and you just took her back and had sex with her. As if nothing had happened!"

Chuck looks down. "I just wanted something real, Sarah."

"I know, but her?"

In a very quiet voice, he replies, "It felt real. I wanted you, but she was there and wanted me. You didn't."

Her look softened. "Oh, I did, but the rules and fear of being sent away stopped me."

He nods. "I know that now, but I didn't then. You kept rejecting me."

Sadly, she replies, "I know."

They sit in silence for a couple of minutes, then she starts again. "I resigned from the CIA at the same time as sending that horrible letter and I moved away from DC."

"I know you left."

That surprises her. "How?" Then she smiles, "Fishing again?"

He nods.

She nods back, "After that, I kept getting memories back. I still don't have them all, obviously, but, after a while, I got enough to build a picture of our time together."

"So, why –" Chuck starts.

She knows what he is going to ask. "I was afraid, Chuck. Afraid you'd hate me. Afraid you had found someone better. Afraid you'd reject me. I couldn't bear that, Chuck, so I stayed away." She looks down.

Then she asks the most important questions. Ones that may bring joy or complete heartbreak. "Will you forgive me? Take me back?"

A/N: Together and fully awake! Will he take her back? Sorry about the cliffhanger.

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