Posted August 26, 2021

A/N: Did I really do that before the end? Take a breath. What this time?

Last chapter.

The Charah Beach
November 8, 2014

Sarah pulled Chuck by his moist hand to "Their Spot" on "Their Beach." Why were his hands sweating? What did he have to be nervous about? He didn't remember Sarah. That meant he didn't remember her asking him on that first date. He probably didn't remember being the target of a lot of women. So Sarah dragging him there probably made him nervous. He had nothing to be nervous about with her.

Sarah had shot all of the other women who put Chuck in their sights. Well… she did actually shoot Hannah. She "shot her down" at a job interview. Or it didn't get that far. Same difference. Sarah only shot at Jill. She shot Lou with a tranq gun, though. If she had remembered who those women were at the time, she would have shot all of them. She was Chuck's wife, and it was her job to protect him from anybody. Chuck never needed to sweat.

Chuck didn't nervously ramble the entire drive from DARPA to the beach. That wasn't like him. It didn't matter. Chuck had nothing to be scared about. Not from her.

When they got to Their Spot, Chuck nonchalantly said, "This is nice." His face was filled with wonder, and Sarah just wanted to kiss him, but there was something to do first. Sarah needed him to remember about them. He was her guide to being a real person. When she came here, without her memories, trying to "find herself," she barely remembered any parts of the first time she fell in love with Chuck. She remembered enough to "feel it," even though she didn't trust it. She remembered every second from the next time they cemented their love. She wasn't sure he could lead him to fall in love a third time. She wasn't good at that type of thing, but it had to go right.

Chuck said he liked the place, but didn't seem to remember it. When she went to this spot after her memory problem, she knew it was important, even not knowing why. Chuck helped her by being exactly what she needed. Now she needed to be what Chuck needed.

She pulled them down and put on a pleasant, but admittedly tentative, smile as she looked at Chuck sitting at her left. Them being together at this place "felt right," but something wasn't right. Why wasn't he remembering the place was important, like she did?

Sarah suddenly thought of something. She said to Chuck, "When you found me here two and a half years ago and you asked me to trust you, you sat like we are now, with you on my left. When we first came here, seven years ago, when I asked you to trust me, I was where you are and you were where I am, so I was on your left." She stood up, practically yanked Chuck up to stand, put her hands on each side of Chuck, moved them to trade places so she was the one on the left again. Then she pulled him down so they plopped down on the sand. She was again on the left. Maybe that would help.

"This is all my fault because of what I said last night," Sarah acknowledged. "Now, having you with me is more important than ever. Even though you don't know me, I'm going to tell you again to trust me. I'm begging you to trust me. I'm your wife. You're the most important thing in the world to me. You can trust me."

She paused and searched Chuck's face, trying to see if it had sunken in. It was hard with those cursed glasses on his face. "Now we kiss."

Before Sarah could lean in, Chuck finally reacted and said something. "You want to kiss me?" Chuck smiled at the prospect.

"Of course I want to kiss you. Trust me. You'll like it. I know how wonderful that is." Then she realized she was jumping ahead. "But not yet." Chuck's smile dropped, presumably because she was not going to kiss him, yet.

"First, I need to get rid of these." Sarah pulled the sunglasses off Chuck's face. They were lighter than she expected. They must have made the lens-screens lighter weight. She broke them in half and flung them into the ocean.

Sarah and Chuck both looked where the glasses hit the water. They were light-weight so they floated. Her throw got them out far enough that they probably wouldn't come back in with the tide. It wasn't the best place to dispose of them, but she didn't want those anywhere near Chuck.

"Second, I need to tell you about how we met, fell in love, started a life together, and fell in love a second time. You have to know these things so you'll know our lives were wonderful and are going to continue being wonderful."

That wasn't completely true. Chuck didn't have to remember everything. She didn't remember everything. He only had to remember enough to be happy, like she did. She corrected herself, "Actually, our lives will be wonderful, even if you don't remember, as long as we are together. They will be wonderful because of you and me and our family…" Sarah briefly paused and put a hand on her stomach. "…are together." Sarah grabbed one of Chuck's hands and put it under hers, on her belly. Chuck gave Sarah a curious look. What else should she expect from him when some crazy lady he doesn't know kidnaps him, takes him to the beach, and tells him they are going to have a future together?

Sarah charged ahead, telling Chuck the plan. "After our story, that's when we can finally kiss. Morgan said last time it was a magical kiss because I stayed. The truth is there was no magic because that's not real. I simply trusted how I felt, and I trusted you. That's why I stayed. The fact you are a good kisser was icing on the cake.

"Step two… How did you put it…" She didn't need to pause to remember what Chuck said. Everything Chuck said that day was seared into her memory. Chuck was in charge of this part of their marriage, not her. She just had to get ready to tell their story. "It started with a guy who worked at Buy More. And then, one day, an old college friend of his sent him an email that was filled with secrets. And then, the next day, his life really changed when he met a spy named Sarah, and he fell in love."

Chuck looked enthralled with the story, but it might not be enough. He probably was surprised that some woman he didn't remember said he was in love with her. Maybe that was the problem. She was the one telling the story, so she needed to say what she felt.

"Let's try that again. It started with a cold-hearted spy, who was trying to clear her name after her cocky ex-boyfriend and traitorous partner stole government secrets and emailed them to someone in college that he called a friend, even after he'd betrayed him. She approached this innocent hero at the Nerd Herd to find out what he knew, and she was completely blown away. She didn't fall in love at first sight, but it was close. It took no more than ten minutes for her to fall in love. That's when she saw this Chuck save a man's marriage and boost the confidence of a little girl by saying, 'Real ballerinas are tall.'"

She stopped to gauge Chuck's reaction. Next, she was going to talk about their first date, and how he saved dozens of lives. Back then, she didn't even know her own feelings well enough to know she was already in love with him. According to her mission report video log, she kissed him only a couple months after they met. That wasn't a cover-kiss. That was an I-don't-want-to-die-without-kissing-you, non-cover kiss. Afterwards, she didn't acknowledge she loved Chuck for another year and a half. Despite her memory problems, she had remembered enough to know that she loved him a lot earlier than that. The problem was she didn't know what love was. Chuck taught her.

As Sarah was thinking, she was frowning because it wasn't going well. Chuck caught her. "What's wrong?"

She thought, I can't fake this. Not with you. I was trained to fake being happy for a mission, even when the world around me was falling apart. This is different, though. This isn't a CIA mission or one of my dad's cons. This is more important. My world's shattering. Hopefully, you wouldn't take more than a year and a half like I did. We have less than half that time. I really need you before the beginning of our next adventure together.

"Why before that?"

Why before… oh, she had said that out loud. At the prospect of doing this without Chuck, she was losing it. This time, she deliberately spoke out loud. "This might take a while, but you're worth it. I don't even know if you feel it. A couple years ago, I said I didn't feel it, but I'm a spy. I was saying whatever I thought I had to say to finish the mission, and I wrongly thought that meant doing it without you. Then, I said I had to find myself, but I didn't know the best place to find myself is always in your arms. I don't think you feel it, yet, so when I brought you here, you're behind where I was. You didn't even drive here on your own. Maybe it doesn't matter who's on the left and who's on the right. Maybe you need to leave and drive back here yourself. Or maybe you should take a cab. That's what you did the first time. Actually, that's also what you did the second time, when you found me here. I need to take you somewhere to get a cab, and then I can follow you and find you here." She briefly paused, but charged on. "This is more complicated than I thought, but I'm willing to wait. I'm not letting you go. I—"

Chuck interrupted and said, "Sarah, take a breath." Sarah inhaled and exhaled a couple times, staving off a panic attack. She didn't have panic attacks. Nothing like this had ever happened before. Chuck continued, "You were spiraling. That's my thing."

Sarah let out a laugh. "I got it from you. I don't know. Maybe this is the next phase of me becoming a nerd. I've been asking you to 'nerdify' me for a couple years. I need to be ready for little Irving." Sarah put her hand over her belly again. "Sorry, you're sure we're going to have a girl and name her Katie. We have a little over seven months to figure it out."

Chuck's brow wrinkled up in confusion. "Seven? Don't you mean nine?"

"No. Seven. I thought we were done a couple months ago, so I didn't update my Depo shot. Why else would I not go on a mission with you? I want to protect you, but you're smart and would figure out the timeline. You'd never forgive me for taking our baby into danger. You never stayed in the car, so if it came to that, I didn't have to stay in the car if you were in trouble. I didn't think of something like this."

"You're already pregnant? I thought that would happen sometime after today. That's why I was so happy last night."

Already? Why was Chuck implying that he knew they were going to be trying? He remembered last night? "Ye—"

Sarah didn't have the chance to finish that single word before Chuck launched himself and tackled her. Sarah's defensive instincts almost took over, but she was able to stop them because of how Chuck was kissing her. He held her tight, and she did the same.

Something wasn't right, though. As much as she didn't want to let go of him, she did and rolled away a little so she could look at him and talk. It was difficult staring at his beautiful brown orbs, but it had to be done. "You're happy that we're going to have a baby, even though you forgot—"

Chuck placed a finger over Sarah's mouth. With the other hand, he squirmed into his pocket and pulled out a broken pair of sunglasses. He handed them to Sarah. Why did Chuck have a second pair of sunglasses? Did he find two pairs back at the lab?

Chuck helped Sarah up so they sat next to each other again. Because of how they had rolled, when they were kissing, Chuck was now on the left, and Sarah was on the right. "I can see you're confused. I'm sorry. If I had known, I never would have done this. I just thought you needed to learn that it doesn't matter if it's a 'job' or 'mission.' You never say that."

Sarah looked at the broken sunglasses in her hands and flipped them around. They were heavier than the pair she threw into the ocean. She looked at Chuck, hoping he could explain.

"When you said what you said last night, I thought you might not have understood the gravity of the jinx, so I took a cheap pair with me on the mission. That's what I was wearing when you found me."

"How could an ordinary pair of sunglasses erase your memories?"

"They couldn't. I was pretending so you would understand you don't say those words every again. Those words have power to cause bad things to happen. Last time, it's like someone went back in time and freed Quinn to ruin our lives. I was going to tell you after two minutes, but it was so cute seeing you spiral like I do, I had to let it happen. Sometimes you are so adorable, I can't help myself. I wanted to see what you'd do."

After being upset earlier, Sarah found it hard to hold back a smile. Chuck seemed ok. Now he was acting all nerdy and cute. She should be mad, but wasn't.

Chuck rambled on. "You brought us to this magical place. I would never leave you. I thought we would have plenty of time the next week or ten to follow through on our years of 'practice,' giving me plenty of time to make it up to you. Two minutes for ten weeks seemed like a fair trade to teach a lesson. Do you realize how hard it was to walk by the car and not get in with you inviting me to go home with you and celebrate? I'm going to pamper you so much, you're going to think I took a class that Devon created."

Was it really true? Was Chuck still her Chuck, with all of his memories? The idea of things going back to how they were last night, before she said what she said, was almost too good to be true. At DARPA, they let him walk right out the front door. Although, he was leaving, not entering. That could be sloppy security, so that really didn't surprise her. It didn't make sense for Chuck to have put on the glasses. It's not like they would have given him Intersect powers to save himself, like she did to save him. They were a different kind of glasses. Even if they did something like that, he already knew Kung Fu. All the glasses would've done was erase Chuck's memories.

Sarah was spiraling about a good thing. She needed to stop that. Chuck didn't lose his memories! Sarah was so happy, she couldn't be mad about the ruse. She didn't like the idea of Chuck being like Devon and talking to her stomach when the baby inside her couldn't hear, but she'd use her lips to stop Chuck from doing that. Sarah's smile grew to where it was almost big enough to split her face in half.

Chuck's teeth shined, and he asked her, "How long have you known?"

She answered, "I don't know 100%. I didn't take a pregnancy test this time because it didn't seem necessary. I have an appointment for us to go to see the doctor the day after tomorrow, to make sure. I didn't set it up through Ellie because our ears would still be ringing. I started suspecting when I missed my time of the month. With no shot update and what we do, it had to be that. I knew something was different when I was in Alex and Morgan's kitchen yesterday and the black olives looked good. When they weren't looking, I took the entire jar and ate everything in it, even drinking the juice. Afterwards, I was still hungry. Then, I weighed myself. The seven ounce jar was less than half full, and I had put on more weight than that. Our 'celebration' wasn't just celebrating what you did. I'm really horny, so expect it to be longer than the next ten weeks. The 'game' was 'practiced' for has already happened, but who says you ever have to stop?"

Sarah put her hands on each side of Chuck's face and smashed their lips together. She only stopped after a minute to tease Chuck because he had "gotten her" so well. "That was not funny. You can spend the ten to thirty weeks earning your forgiveness for lying. You broke the Rule: No secrets. No lies. If you think that's too long for that one infraction, think of part of the time as congratulating me for staying in the car. You wouldn't believe how hard that was when you went radio silent."

Chuck said, "Sorry about that. Staying in the car is hard, so I believe it. You deserve a reward. As for my 'punishment,' I'm sure I can 'suffer' through it." They practically mauled each other as they resumed kissing. Sarah didn't really give him the chance to speak, but he spoke as much as he could with their lips scarcely apart. "Of… all… the… things… to… remember…" That was all he could get out. If she had to watch what she said, he had to follow the Rule and say everything.

After about a few minutes, Chuck asserted himself and stopped them. "We shouldn't do this again," he said. "Someone might see."

"Stop being a prude. I want to make out with my husband, who remembers me and still loves me. I once tore up half of a country in Southeast Asia because of that. Who cares about someone around here? This is Our Spot and we have some celebrating to do."

"Last time, someone reported us to the police."

"I'll defend you, just like last time."

"That didn't go well either. SWAT was called. If we stop here, we can go to a bed where we can do other things without destroying the minds of small children and getting arrested."

Sarah was convinced. She stood up and hurried up the beach, pulling Chuck with her. "I'll drive fast. No dancing in the courtyard this time."

A/N: Whew. Chuck and Sarah are happy, a superhero baby who can fly around in a cape is on the way (Chuck said so in his vows), and Sarah didn't kill Chuck after his stunt that had poor taste. And they lived happily ever after… although, the "adventure" of life is never over.

For this story's genre, I didn't use "Family" because that was a spoiler for Sarah's reveal. I didn't set "Humor" because Chuck was trying to teach a lesson, not be funny. (I thought it was really funny when I started this story, kind of like Chuck sticking to his guns in Seduction Impossible and First Fight, but I knew the ending.) For Sarah, it was definitely not funny. For her there was some angst that caused her to spiral, like she "learned" from Chuck. For Chuck, there never was any angst. Knowing my stories, was there ever a doubt?

No guarantee about this story universe, but after the callback to the first few chapters of "Chuck & Sarah vs Their Next Adventure" and after the fact this story ended where that story began, the series might actually be done.

I thought it was done after the first Chuck/Castle crossover, "Castle vs the Law of Average." Then came the crossover, "Caskett vs Dr. Morgan." Then the post-Chuck finale crossover, "Beckett vs the Linchpin." Then the first thirteen chapters of "Chuck & Sarah vs Their Next Adventure", ending with Sarah asking Alex to the Carmichael Industries planning breakfast in "Linchpin." After that one, the crossovers and Chuck-only stories were optionally linked.

Over six years… Not done yet: two more crossovers ("Chuck vs 3XK" and "Chuck vs the Hunt") and the last sixteen chapters of "Chuck & Sarah vs Their Next Adventure."

Finally over? Nope: three Chuck-only one-shots for New Year's, Clara's birthday, and Chuck "swearing" in a language Sarah didn't know ("Sarah vs The Twilight Zone Marathon", "The Grandparents vs the Birthday Party", and "Sarah vs Another Frelling Show").

Done now? No again: two more crossovers ("Beckett vs Lazarus" and "Castle vs the Lost Memories") and this Chuck-only finale for the series. I called this story "Chuck & Sarah vs One Last Mission" to end the series. You know how well the multiple "last missions" worked in season 5 of Chuck.

But I mean it this time.

Song: "Lost in My Mind" by The Head and The Heart
(Who else is supposed to sing a song at the Charah Beach? It had to be them or The Shins, but there are no comets appearing as Chuck starts being Sarah's asset again.)