I do not own Chuck

Epilogue

The rush into consciousness caught Sarah by surprise. The last thing she remembered was Chuck's concerned eyes as he massaged her head as she slipped into unconsciousness.

Poor Chuck. He had worked so hard to get her and the rest of the agents back to their bodies. 14-16 h-units a day, only four h-units of sleep. She'd had to step in and force him to sleep. But it had been difficult. It was much more difficult to project her wishes in dog form than in human. In human form she could do many things that she had quite frankly taken for granted throughout her life. If Chuck was successful, she'd never take them for granted again!

The first thing she'd do would be to give her great big nerd the biggest, sloppiest kiss ever. He'd forbidden mouth to mouth kissing while she was in her dog form, which she guessed she could understand, even if it was painful. She'd managed quite a few licks, but she missed his kisses. She guessed she might be inclined to give him a hug as well. She knew he'd missed her hugs because he'd told her so one day when he was feeling particularly low. Not that she'd been a big hugger before this, but she'd damn well be one now! They'd managed a proxy hug where she placed her paws on his shoulders but it certainly wasn't anything like the real thing.

And God knew, there'd been days when they'd both felt pretty low. For her, it hadn't been so bad. He was generous with his hugs and she thought he kind of enjoyed wrapping her up, and she loved it too; feeling his whole body surrounding hers was totally relaxing. It made her feel so loved, particularly when he buried his face in her fur.

She heard the sound of a door opening, as if from afar. The sound was muffled, much quieter than normal.

"Sarah?" It wasn't Chuck's voice. A woman's, she thought. Could it be Ellie's? She'd never met Chuck's sister as a human, but she'd grown to like and respect the woman throughout this ordeal. She always treated Sarah and the rest of the dog-agents as people, certainly more so than many of their erstwhile colleagues did. Plus, the woman had a vicious sense of humour and clearly enjoyed teasing her brother, even though she obviously loved him very much.

Sarah would've loved to have been a fly on the wall when Chuck revealed he'd been working for AIA. She was sure that Ellie must have been distinctly dischuffed! She'd need to get that story. Early on in their interactions Ellie had thanked Sarah for saving her brother's life, clearly having got the story from Chuck. One of the first things she'd tell Ellie was that Chuck had also saved her life, both then and on many occasions since. And she'd thank the woman who Chuck credited with effectively bringing him up for the fantastic job she'd done.

"Sarah?" the question came again, "Can you hear me?"

Deciding that there wasn't any point in faking unconsciousness, Sarah opened her eyes. At least she tried to. The light level in the room was way too high and she flinched away, yelping aloud.

"Sorry," Ellie's quiet voice came again, and there was a pause. "Try it now."

She cracked open an eye. The light in the room was much dimmer.

"How am I?" she asked. At least she tried to. Her voice came out slurred and totally non-understandable and she wondered what was wrong.

"Take it slow hun," Ellie replied. "You've forgotten how to enunciate clearly. You're speaking half dog and half English."

"How am I?" she tried again, trying to enunciate each word. It felt strange to move her lips and she had to force her tongue to move as well. This time what she said was kind of understandable.

There was pleasure in the older woman's voice. "Well, why don't you tell me? Is everything working?" She gestured towards Sarah and it was only then that she realised she was bigger than she'd been before. As she shifted in the bed her limbs felt different as well; knees and elbows flexing in different directions.

"Feels strange," she tried. It was an effort, but it sounded mostly understandable although still quiet. "Can't hear well," she added. She couldn't smell too well either. It was one of the things she'd noticed early on as a dog that was so different from when she was human. How she could almost pick out people's moods from their smells. She could smell when people started to sweat, which she guessed would have proved helpful if she'd had to do more missions as a dog. But the sense was good for other things as well. The first time she'd seen Chuck as a Chow Chow, in Orion's compound, when his familiar smell had washed over her, it had almost been a transcendental experience.

The brunette smiled at her. She could just make it out in the dim light. "That's normal. Canine ears are much better than human ones," she explained, "It'll take you a while to get used to normal human ranges again, although your ears are a bit more souped up than mine." Which was true. Everything about SOAs was a bit better than normal humans. But obviously not as good as dogs! Maybe it was something for the AIA to look into? Maybe they could train up dogs to work on the teams? It might also alleviate the loneliness for agents. Certainly Chuck seemed to find dogs relaxing. Or maybe it was just her that he enjoyed stroking! Luckily loneliness wasn't something she had to worry about on the job any more; She'd never realised what being part of a team was like before. Their team worked for all three of them and she was grateful for that since she didn't think she could go back to working alone now she knew what it was like to have partners, friends and even a boyfriend. She'd never seen that coming. Speaking of…

"Chuck?" she asked, wondering where her boyfriend was.

"He'll be through in a minute," Ellie explained. "There have been a few complications, so he asked me to come and keep you company."

"Complications?" she asked, wondering if she'd left some part of her brain behind. She was the first dog-agent being changed. Chuck had wanted to start with one of the others but she'd nixed that as an idea. She'd trusted her nerd. She just hoped she'd been right!

"Nothing to worry about, I don't think," Ellie reassured her. "We'll obviously give you a full neurological and medical work up once you've recovered a bit, but there were some unexpected issues which I'll let Chuck explain when he gets back."

Sarah regarded the doctor with disfavour. It was clear she knew more than she was telling. Her expression had the same I've got a seeeeeeeecret look that Chuck's often sported when he was about to tease her with something.

Just as she was about to ask more, Ellie's playful expression changed to an all-business one. "While we wait, why don't we do some checks to make sure everything's working OK?"

"Sarah!" Ellie had only just finished doing her bank of tests when Chuck arrived. They'd done lots – touch, taste, smell, memory, and some of her motor movements, although those had been a complete disaster. It was almost like she'd forgotten how to function as a human.

"Chuck!" talking was getting easier the more she did. Her voice still sounded ridiculously slurred to her ears and oh so quiet, but she didn't mind as her boyfriend barrelled into the room and swept her up into a gentle hug.

"Oh thank God," he murmured, gently kissing her cheek.

"Lips," she told him, pulling his head around to present them to him. He didn't need a second invitation and soon lips and tongues were intertwined. She barely heard Ellie's embarrassed farewell as she fled the room.

Eventually they came up for air. "Oh God, I've missed that," her boyfriend gasped.

"Me too," she managed, "Lots." She pulled Chuck towards her and they started kissing again.

All too soon he was pushing back. "What?" she asked, "Enjoying that." Fewer words were easier for her to enunciate and, anyway, seemed to get the point across.

"Yeah, but you don't have to walk around, do you?" he enquired, looking a little embarrassed. She looked down and noticed his excitement was showing. "Gonna do something about that!" she exclaimed, lunging towards him.

He jumped away from her. "Later!" he exclaimed, "This is not a private room! We may be being observed!"

That was not the answer she wanted. "When can I get out of here?" she asked, slightly desperately. Seeing Chuck again, kissing him, feeling him, being back in her own body had awakened a desperation in her. She needed him. She needed him inside her now.

"A few more hours," he told her disappointedly. "We have to monitor you to make sure everything is working OK."

"Oh," she sighed equally disappointed. "What went wrong?" she asked, remembering that he'd been delayed.

"Oh," he gasped, looking at his time piece, "I forgot." He glanced down and she grinned as she realised he was checking to make sure he was no longer showing his excitement. He headed for the door. "I'll be right back," he grinned at her as he turned to leave.

He was back in 30 seconds, but he wasn't alone.

"Sarah, meet Sarah," he introduced her to the Chow Chow trailing along behind him.

"What?" she gasped, staggered. "How?"

He settled next to her on the bed, grasping her hand as the Chow Chow jumped up on the seat beside the bed and looked at her. The dog's eyes were blue, just like hers, and there was something familiar about her.

"Near as we can tell, you left a ghost of your personality in there when we transferred you. I was expecting the mind to be blank or just revert to normal doggy behaviour but she's somewhere in between. She recognises me and other members of the team but she's more dog with some human traits than human with some dog traits. But it obviously took a while to work that out and it gave me a Hell of a shock. I thought you hadn't transferred correctly. I was nearly in tears."

She could imagine that. "I'm sorry for the shock," she told him, wrapping her arm around him. The Chow Chow made a sound of satisfaction and pressed herself against Chuck's other side. The dog looked into her eyes and again she swore she could feel something there.

"What is it?" asked Chuck, looking at her in with a puzzled expression. Obviously she'd made some sound.

"I feel something from her," she explained, repeating herself when it came out slurred again in her excitement.

"Great, another mystery to figure out," Chuck murmured, interested but clearly flagging a bit.

"Commander Bartowski!" she exclaimed.

"Agent Walker?" he smirked at her.

"Your job is to get us all out of here as soon as possible," she all but ordered, speaking as clearly as she could, and adding, "otherwise I may not be responsible for my actions!"

"Yes ma'am," he replied facetiously, snapping a salute and scrambling off the bed. She exchanged glances with the Chow Chow which huffed what could only have been a laugh.

"Oh God, not both of you," Chuck moaned, heading for the door.

He'd managed to get her out of there within two hours, during which time Sarah had been slowly climbing the wall. It was made even worse because she couldn't even get up and pace. Ellie had been back in and explained that it would take her brain time to adapt back to her body. While she wouldn't need to totally re-learn her bodily functions again, she would be badly-coordinated for a good few days.

Hence, when Chuck came to get her, he'd brought a wheelchair. She had not been pleased with being wheeled around by him although the Chow Chow had huffed in amusement at her predicament. While Sarah had glared at her namesake she had simply given another huff of amusement and cutely wagged her tail. Sarah found that she couldn't stay pissed with the fur bag for long! Particularly when she laid her head on Sarah's thigh for a stroke. Now Sarah understood why people liked dogs so much. She was comforting and made Sarah feel better about her predicament.

They had made the trip back from the Med centre to his quarters in triple quick time. Despite their rapprochement, the Chow Chow had been ejected to the kitchen before he carried her to the bed, after which they'd spent many hours getting reacquainted with each other's bodies. Breaking only for much-needed food and a shower (during which he'd helped her to and from and seemed to enjoy cleaning her), they'd re-embarked on their sex marathon. At the beginning he'd been doing most of the driving, but as she'd got more practiced again she'd been able to take the lead a few times which pleased her enormously.

Eventually they'd fallen asleep in each other's arms and, when they'd awoken, there'd been a third presence in their bed. She would normally have been on edge, but somehow the Chow Chow didn't feel alien to her at all.

"Well?" Three days after the procedure she'd finally started sounding less like a drunken hick, although she ached all over. Still, it was a good ache! For the first two days they hadn't done much talking, focusing instead on renewing their physical relationship, but eventually their lovemaking had calmed and they'd started to talk to each other more, revelling in the chance to do so once again.

After the first night, the Chow Chow had remained with them. It was like a bit of Sarah was missing when she wasn't there, and the dog herself was clearly unhappy with extended separation from one or either of them. She slept next to them but otherwise behaved entirely like a dog, never trying to get involved with sex but often, once it was over, craving attention and petting. Sometimes during the times they'd made love, Sarah could have sworn she'd seen herself as if through someone else's eyes. It was a bit disconcerting.

"It's like you're linked," Ellie explained, "It's like there's a bit of you still in her. Do you ever feel a link?"

"Sometimes I see myself or Chuck as though I were another person," she allowed, hoping against hope that Ellie didn't ask for more detail.

"When does that happen?" the doctor asked.

Sarah looked down. She wasn't quite ready to discuss her sex life with her boyfriend's sister.

"Oh," the doctor gasped. "Well let's not go into that! But can you force it at other times?" she asked.

Sarah didn't know and she told Ellie that.

"Sounds like we'd better do some tests," she offered as Sarah groaned. She'd started to hate tests.

"Well, it sounds like we're a five-agent team now," Chuck observed. It had been proven that Sarah and the Chow Chow, which they'd renamed Gemini or Gem for short, were linked and, when Chuck's procedure had been performed on the other dog-agents, their counterparts had also been left with a shadow of the agents' personalities. Some of the agents had kept their dogs, others had been happy to be separated. The need to be close to one another seemed to ameliorate after the first week and agents and dogs were able to operate separately after that, even though there was still a link between them. Bryce Larkin had been desperate to get away from his alter ego and there had been no persuading him otherwise, but Casey and Sarah had both resolved to keep theirs around; the fact that Gemini was very attached to and protective of Chuck was certainly a consideration in their decision.

The fact that both agents could link to their respective canines, and vice versa, meant that the dogs might very well be extremely useful for future intelligence-gathering operations and the team had spent a lot of time thinking about that and deciding how to integrate the dogs into their unit.

"Six," General Beckman replied.

"Six, General?" Casey asked.

"Yes indeed, Agent Casey," the General replied, "Ms Verbanski has offered to work for the AIA and she'll be attached to your team."

Casey's gasp was audible, and Chuck and Sarah shared a grin. There may also have been a grin on the General's face too but, if so, it was gone before Chuck could confirm it was there.

Verbanski was a surprise, but not a big one. Who knew that Casey was a such a playboy in his past? It seemed that Carina was not the only skeleton in his closet and Chuck and Sarah had managed to prise some information out of Verbanski, even if Casey had chosen to remain silent on the subject. The two had apparently had something of a love-hate relationship many years ago when competing against one another on a string of missions. On finding out that it was Casey that saved her life, the ex-Core Systems agent had melted a little bit and confessed to the two that she had had feelings for Casey in the past.

When Casey was finally freed from his canine form (several days after Sarah, who had volunteered to be the canary in the cage), he and Verbanski had vanished to his quarters (her pushing his wheelchair) and not re-emerged for several days.

Chuck knew all about that; he and Sarah had had a similar experience. Being able to have conversations with his girlfriend again was frankly wonderful. Sarah didn't talk a lot, but when she did speak, it was important. Chuck thought she'd been more loquacious since she recovered. Almost as though she was making the best of it. Chuck was delighted about the physical aspects of their relationship as well. Sure, they'd had sex, and lots of it. But it was the hugs, the kisses, even the small touches that Sarah had started giving him that he was really enjoying. And having Gemini was great as well. He'd found Sarah soothing in her canine form and he still found Gemini soothing and, as more of a dog than a human, she really enjoyed being petted. She'd been needy at the beginning, but now she was better, and the on-station veterinarian had suggested that now she was exhibiting much more dog-like behaviour and seemed to be happy. She'd slotted right into their small family well and he enjoyed the fact she was there when Sarah was off having "girls time" with Ellie.

His girlfriend and his sister seemed to get on like a house on fire and he was happy about that though a little wary. He was happy that Sarah now had a proper female friend who wasn't an agent, but the potential for the two most important women in his life to gang up on him was there and he knew he'd be helpless against them!

The former dog-agents had been very different in their behaviour towards him. Some had been effusive in their thanks, others had practically ignored him. Bryce and Graham had been two that had fallen into the latter category. Bryce had asked for, and been granted, permission to head out to his next mission almost immediately. He had sent Chuck an email to say thanks but hadn't interacted with him any more than that. Graham hadn't even done that. Mind you, he wasn't going back to his job. Once he'd found out that Chuck's Mum was alive, he'd seemingly made a run for it.

Chuck didn't know what was in his parents' past with Graham, but at the end of the day he didn't really care. His parents had opted out of a relationship with him and Ellie when they were young, and it seemed that his Mum had again. She'd disappeared shortly after Graham. They'd only met once, on the day she'd been woken. She'd been very disoriented to start and, seeing Chuck and Ellie, had looked sad for a moment and mouthed "sorry". She had insisted on seeing General Beckman almost immediately. And the next Chuck knew, she'd been gone.

But his interactions with the other agents had been more positive. Carina Miller, a lithe red head, had flirted outrageously with him but, on receiving a glare from Sarah and finger drawn across her throat, she'd reigned it in, hugged him and told him, "If you're ever in trouble, give me a call. I'll be there." She'd then gone on to hug Sarah and breeze out. She was already on her way back to the frontier with her Shih Tzu, Red, as her sole companion.

Greta Harris had proved to be as steady as Chuck had thought. The pretty brunette had also hugged Chuck, but not at all in a sexual way. Sarah had seemingly not been threatened in the least by Greta's attentions and the younger agent had thanked him profusely. She was staying around with her counterpart, interestingly called Galoshes. Greta had revealed in her quiet voice, when asked, that she'd had a pet dog called Galoshes when she was young. Unfortunately, Galoshes had not survived the pirate attack on her home world which had killed Greta's whole family and thousands of others. She'd spent years grafting in refugee camps before winning a scholarship to the Fleet Academy and being snapped up by the AIA.

Greta's posting to the base had allowed her to renew the interest in Morgan which had seemed so obvious to Chuck previously. Despite the fact that Morgan was mooning after Lieutenant McHugh, the quiet SOA had simply waited to be passed fit and then, on being discharged from the medical wing, had marched up to Chuck's friend and told him she was taking him out for dinner. Morgan had worn a stunned expression all day and an even more stunned expression the next day. But that hadn't been the end of it. Lieutenant McHugh, obviously done with playing it cool and realising that there was competition, had also moved in. It now seemed that Morgan was stuck in a love triangle. Who would've expected that? Certainly Chuck wouldn't have! He was looking forward to seeing what the situation would be like between the three of them when his team returned from their mission.

"Bartowski, did you have anything to share with the team?" General Beckman enquired acerbically, bringing Chuck back to the present with a thud.

"Uh, no General," he stammered, embarrassed to have been caught daydreaming by the boss. Sarah and Casey were no help, both grinning at him while Ronald, Casey's counterpart, huffed a laugh. Gem took pity on him, placing her head on his thigh in a comforting way and he reached down to run his hand gratefully through the soft fur on her neck.

The General watched the interplay with what might have been a small grin on her face. It was on the tip of Chuck's tongue to ask how things were going with Agent Montgomery, but even he wasn't so stupid. Agent Montgomery, or Roan as he'd requested Chuck to call him, had been one of the most effusive in his thanks for Chuck. Unfortunately, he was also one of those that hadn't stayed on base for long, and also one of those who hadn't taken his counterpart with him. Aunt Di seemed happy being left with the dog, who she'd apparently decided to call Trouble. Rumour had it that Agent Montgomery had been sent out on a rescue mission. Who he was rescuing was a mystery, but the scuttlebutt was that it had something to do with Graham's disappearance.

Chuck again became aware that Aunt Di was looking at him with raised eyebrows. He shook his head and was sure he sure a momentary grin on the woman's face.

"OK," she stated, "If there are no more questions, good luck to all of you and God Speed."

"Thank you General," they all murmured, rising to their feet and starting to head back to their ship. It was time to get moving on the next mission.

Fin

A/N This is for all those that asked for the epilogue. I hope you enjoyed it. I set quite a lot of things up in this universe and certainly had some plans. I don't rule out coming back to it, but I get the impression there's more interest in the Green Feet universe for now. Please review and tell me if I'm right or if I'm wrong! Thanks to all those who have reviewed.