Bear with me through the introduction of a new character...she'll slip back to being a side character and you'll like her...probably.
Chapter 2
March 12, 2013
Sarah paced nervously in the Bartowski living room, alternating between checking the watch on her right wrist, while her left hand cradled her very pregnant belly, and pulling the curtains back on a nearby window to peer outside. Chuck sat on the couch with Morgan, playing video games while Alex, Casey, and Verbanski watched (all but one of them with complete and total disinterest). Other family members were scattered around the house, waiting to meet the newest addition to their clan; Ellie and Devon sat at the kitchen table while Mary and Clara prepared a batch of cookies to put into the oven.
Once news of Sarah's pregnancy was shared, Ellie moved her family back to Burbank and into a house in the same neighborhood as Chuck and Sarah's since she couldn't imagine raising Clara, and the baby she was six months pregnant with, so far from their future cousin(s). Actually, Casey and Gertrude also had a house on the same street and so did newlyweds Alex and Morgan...heck, even Mary had place next to Ellie's that was full of guest rooms for all the future grandkid sleepovers she planned to have when their parents were called in to work at the hospital or sent to Spain to recover secret plans for a weapon of mass destruction from a Basque terrorist.
"Sarah," Chuck said, aware of his wife's anxious behavior but still unwilling to leave the Mortal Combat match he was winning against Morgan. He was on the cusp of ripping out the little guy's spine to thrust triumphantly over his head and just couldn't bring himself to walk away from the rush supplied by that Flawless Victory. When she didn't look, he repeated, "Sarah, Sweetheart, why don't you sit down? You're making our yet-to be born baby dizzy with all of the back and forth."
"I can't. She'll be here any minute," Sarah answered then looked out the window again.
Ellie intervened. "Chuck's right. You should get off your feet for a little while. You've been pacing for an hour."
"I agree with the Missus," Captain Awesome stated. "Why don't you sit and I'll make our two moms-to-be some leafy green smoothies."
"No, thank you, Devon," Sarah said politely but with a cringe, remembering the last leafy green smoothy he made for her that she gagged on. "I want to know right when she gets here."
"I don't know how you could not know," Chuck pointed out then shot his arms up in the air after defeating Morgan. With the conclusion to their game, he stood and handed his remote to Verbanski (who had been anxiously waiting for her turn), then took a detour to the kitchen to get a chair from the table. After carrying it across the house, he placed it directly in front of the window so his wife could monitor the front yard while sitting down. "How about a compromise?"
"Cookies in eight," Mary announced, familiar with all of Sarah's pregnancy cravings.
While Ellie found herself wanting nothing more than an energizing smoothy or a kale muffin when she became pregnant with her second child, Sarah leaned more toward cookies and fried carbs. Mary was certain Sarah would take a moment to relax with a plate of cookies in front of her, especially if it was delivered by her favorite niece who specifically requested a Tea Party to go along with it. The grandmother smiled knowingly and was in the process of preparing the child sized tea set, that Sarah kept in her kitchen for such occasions, when a faint but thunderous rumble came from outside, growing louder each second.
"She's here!" Sarah exclaimed with a wide grin then sprinted for the door.
"I don't think I've ever seen her giddy before," Ellie noted.
Devon added, "Kind of feels weird and unnatural...but in a definite good way."
As Chuck prepared to follow his wife out the door to meet his sister-in-law for the first time, Morgan appeared at his side and requested, "Tell me again, why didn't we know Sarah has a sister?"
"Well," Chuck explained for the fifth time, "I knew...you know...eventually..." he paused then tacked on, "...like a week ago. For everyone else, it just fell under the, 'don't ask, don't tell,' policy on Sarah's past."
"We knew," Ellie added, "she told us herself that she had a sister." When everyone looked at her quizzically, she reminded matter-of-factly, "Back when she and Chuck first started pretend dating, we played that game and she said the most dangerous situation she'd ever been in was when she and her sister put on baby oil instead of sunscreen and ended up looking like lobsters."
"Way to lock down the fun facts about your brother's fake girlfriend, Babe," Captain Awesome noted with a high five to his wife. "Superior brain function at its finest right there."
"But, that whole story could have been a lie to protect her cover," Chuck pointed out, still new to even knowing that his wife had a sister while his own sister knew for six years.
"No," Ellie argued. "Not with the way she told it and not with the look in her eyes. It's the exact look I have when I tell anyone a story from when we grew up together."
They could hear the end to the loud rumble followed by excited screeching from the front yard that was so high-pitched, it made a few of them wince.
"Dogs couldn't even hear that," Casey grumbled.
Verbanski leaned toward him and asked, "Why did we need to be here for this?"
Significantly less emotionally evolved than, literally, everyone else in the house (with the exception of Gertrude), Casey could still manage to scrape together enough empathy to recognize the significance of the invitation they received to attend the event and said, "It was important to Walker that we meet her sister..." he stood and extended his hand to help Verbanski to her feet then finished, "...because we're family."
"That's right," she replied. "I tend to try to forget that." At the conclusion of her statement, the pair shared a quick kiss then walked to the yard where everyone else had gathered, waiting to meet Sarah's sister who had, apparently, rode in on a motorcycle.
Finally, after a chunk of time spent speaking rapidly with the woman in front of her (who was pretty much the physical opposite of Sarah with brown hair and brown eyes), Sarah remembered their audience and began introductions. She took her sister by the hand to guide her toward the group.
"K.D.," Sarah announced with a proud smile and an excessive amount of love in her eyes for the man, "This is Chuck."
The woman smiled in a way that said she was completely familiar with all of the stories about him and greeted, "Sam's Chuck. I've heard so much about you. It's nice to finally meet you."
Since he'd recently gotten an information dump about Sarah's sister, he was able to say, in all honesty, "Same here. I'm glad you finally made it. This one was wearing a hole in our living room floor."
They continued with the introductions which, for any newcomer, should have been overwhelming but K.D. fell into the group easily and showed signs of knowing all there was to know about everyone present.
Later, after they finished dinner and were seated around the large dining room table, eating Mary and Clara's chocolate chip cookies, Morgan finally asked the question that had plagued him from their initial introduction, "I just want to get this out there and clarify now so I don't have that awkward moment, nine months from now, when I write the wrong name on your Christmas card. Is it K-D or Katie?"
"K-D," Sarah answered, "Like K.D. Lang."
"Not completely like K.D. Lang," her sister argued. "I can't sing."
"But, you can pull off a three-piece suit."
"In more ways than one," she joked with a wink.
With their brief side conversation complete, Ellie asked, "Is that short for something?"
"Nope," K.D. answered, trying to stifle an embarrassed smile, then gave her sister a light-hearted glare of warning. "Don't do it, Sam."
"I have to." Sarah smiled like the cat who ate the canary and amended with an accent, "Konstantina Demitria."
Once the chorus of amused surprise from everyone died down, Mary noted, "That's beautiful. Is it a family name?"
"Kind of," K.D. explained. "When our mom was pregnant with me, Dad started a long con on a Greek shipping tycoon by claiming to be his long-lost son."
Sarah interjected with a laugh, "I was too young to remember but I've seen the pictures. Dad dyed his hair black and wore a layer of bronzer. It was super offensive."
"When Mom went into labor, she called Dad but his mark was with him and was so overjoyed to welcome his new grandchild into the world that he insisted on going to the hospital too."
"At this point," Sarah added, "Mom just thought Dad got a legitimate job working for the guy. She had no idea why he was in the room, holding her hand through contractions, and coaching her through breathing exercises until she saw the birth certificate."
"As Dad was filling it out at the nurses' station, his 'father'..." K.D. said with air quotes around the word, "...walked up to him with actual tears in his eyes and said it would mean the world to him if his granddaughter could be named Konstantina after his dear mother-"
"And Demetria as a nod to his name, Demitrius," Sarah finished with a fond smile then turned to Chuck, who had his arm over her shoulders while listening to the story with interest and amusement. "He's the one who got us the pinball machine that you registered for as a joke when we got married."
"That was definitely not a joke," Chuck corrected. "It was just me having super, unrealistically, high hopes."
"If he got you something off your wedding registry," Ellie questioned with a hint of confusion in her eyes, "then does that mean he still thinks he's your grandfather?"
"No," Sarah said. "Mom couldn't take the guilt from the con anymore and finally ended up telling him everything. He was heartbroken. For three years, we were his family."
K.D. added, "And we didn't know better so we always thought he really was our grandpa. He didn't want to lose his only chance to have grandkids and Mom knew it would have been just as hard on us, so they agreed he'd always be Papu Demi."
"Yia-Yia Konnie still sends us birthday cards," Sarah noted.
"Wait." Chuck questioned with alarm, "Is that the little old woman I met when we went to Greece who kept squeezing my cheeks and yelling, 'Too skinny! Eat!' at me?"
"Yes," Sarah revealed with a laugh. "She really liked you."
"Well, what's not to like?" He leaned forward and gave her a slightly-longer-than-what-is-considered-to-be-socially-acceptable kiss then shared a momentary gaze with her.
When they returned to the conversation, K.D. was smiling at them and noted, "Look at you in a normal, functional, relationship despite our questionable upbringing. I'm really happy for you, Sam."
Again, Sarah and Chuck shared a loving stare followed by a kiss.
"What about you, K.D.?" Devon asked. "Is there a Mister K.D. somewhere?"
She laughed and replied, "Oh, I can honestly say, I've never been in a normal, functional, relationship," then switched gears, "So what names are we thinking about for my future niece or nephew?"
After another moment of eye contact between Chuck and Sarah, he continued to smile at her as he answered, "I think we're going to let it be a surprise."
2022
They'd taken a quick three-day trip to Rome and were home in time for the weekend. That was one of the stipulations made to General Beckman for their continued employment with the US Government when they decided to return; they would never work a single weekend...unless it was, maybe, to somewhere tropical. Another was that they would only do short trips away and preferred to limit them to twice a month. There was also the rare family vacation thrown in when missions coincided with non-war-zone destinations. Once they realized all they needed was boundaries to have the best of both worlds, Chuck and Sarah managed to balance spy and family life perfectly...as everyone expected they would.
While in Rome, they attended a gala at The Quirinal Palace where they dined, danced, and stopped an assassination attempt against the Italian President all before dessert was served. In the middle of a tango (that made the dance Sarah shared with Bryce Larkin look tame and darn-near family friendly in comparison) the couple surveyed the room, identified the would-be assassins, planned a discrete arrest that wouldn't put a damper on the remainder of the evening, and laid down a moderate amount of foreplay...for themselves and a majority of the observers. After their targets were turned over to local authorities, they spent what remained of their time in Italy dancing as close together as two clothed people could possibly get, and were on a plane to return home before the sun came up.
Exhausted, the couple paused a few steps from their front door and smiled at the loud music coming from inside.
Chuck extended his hand to Sarah and requested, "Shall we?"
She accepted his gesture by placing her hand in his but, as he took a step forward to lead her to the door, she pulled him back to her then wrapped her arms around his neck and planted a lingering kiss on his lips.
"What was that for?" he asked when they separated.
"Do I need a reason?"
"Never."
She smiled and revealed, "As excited as I am to see everyone in that house, I know that it will be a while before we can do that again because of how excited they'll be to see us."
"One to hold us over while we hear about everything we missed in the last seventy-two hours?" he surmised.
"Exactly," she answered then released him to resume their journey.
"When you put it that way..." Chuck replied just as she got far enough away that another half-step would have taken her out of his reach entirely, then grabbed her hand to jerk her back to him. When her body crashed into his, he placed one hand on her lower back and the other on her neck then kissed her in a way that was reminiscent of their first desperate, looming death, inspired kiss.
She held firm to his shirt collar to steady herself then, after rekindling the show of affection several times, it naturally cooled and they both took a moment to ready themselves for the separation.
"Let's get in there," Chuck suggested.
Sarah cleared her throat, smoothed the front of his shirt, then nodded in agreement. "Act natural."
"Be cool," he concurred.
They entered the home hand in hand and were immediately hit with the intriguing aroma that assaulted their nostrils from whatever dinner option awaited them.
Chuck noted, "That smells...interesting. I wonder what she made this time."
"It's definitely never a dull culinary moment with her," Sarah agreed.
They took the few steps necessary to make it to the kitchen and he announced their presence by declaring over the loud music, "What is that odious stench?" The family had watched the decades old Power Rangers movie together and that was one of the lines that stuck with them and was repeated regularly.
There were excited shouts of "Mommy!" and "Daddy!" as two small children, a young boy and an even younger girl (both blondes like their mother), attached themselves to Chuck and Sarah.
Standing at the stove, K.D. smiled at the pair, turned the music off, and notified, "You're just in time. Dinner is ready."
With his six-year-old son, Demi (short for Demitrius), mounted on his back, Chuck made his way over to the stove and peered into the pot with a scowl of disgust. "What is it?"
"Spaghetti...kind of," she answered. "I'm going to head out and let you guys catch up." She looked at Sarah and requested, "Tell me all about your trip tomorrow?"
"I will," Sarah agreed then one armed hugged her as she passed since she was using her other arm to support their three-year-old daughter who was on her hip.
As fate would have it, history unintentionally repeated itself as it is prone to do. Sarah and Chuck were undercover in Russia when their third child was born. Having briefly taken over the lives of Irina and Maksim Petrov, two married scientists hired to create a pock-sized nuclear weapon, Sarah went into labor when they reported for their first day of work...two weeks early and two days after claiming, "One last mission before the baby is born."
She was rushed to the hospital and their boss, one of the many wannabe Alexei Volkoffs who emerged in the original's absence, followed them and stayed outside of the delivery room like he was part of the family. Then, he stood behind Chuck when a nurse asked what his daughter's name would be and suggested in broken English, "You name her Olga. Is good name. Means blessed."
Unfortunately, something was lost in the translation and instead of interpreting it as the suggestion it was intended to be, Chuck saw it as a command from a very dangerous man. Unable to break his cover, since they had yet to gather any information on how close the Russians were to having an actual design, Chuck simply smiled, nodded, repeated the name to the nurse, and hoped Sarah would appreciate the humor of the coincidence that mirrored the naming of her sister. (To Note: Olga Eleanor Bartowski was not their only child birthed abroad because there was always believed to be time for, "One last mission before the baby is born.")
"Mom! Dad!" their oldest daughter exclaimed, having just entered the room, and ran to her parents for a hug from each of them.
"There's my girl!" Chuck exclaimed. "Did you miss your old man?"
"Hey," Sarah admonished with a smile and a light smack to his arm. "No more than she missed her mother."
Chuck leaned down and whispered playfully, "It's okay. You can tell me which one of us you missed more later," then shared the secret, incredibly intricate, handshake with her that they'd worked years to perfect.
The parents then stared at her expectantly and she understood why but stayed quiet to build the anticipation.
"Well," Sarah said, "are you going to tell us how you did in the science fair or are we going to have to turn you upside down and shake it out of you?" She tickled the girl's sides to show she meant business.
The event was held just before Sarah and Chuck left for their trip, which they actually pushed back a day in order to stay for the presentation but had to leave before awards were handed out. It was suggested by their daughter, and agreed upon by the parents, that they didn't want to find out over the phone and would wait until they got back to hear how she did.
There was a long pause, as the child's smile grew with every passing second before she revealed, "First place!"
"Yeah!" Chuck exclaimed with a high-five to his oldest daughter, who also looked the most like his side of the family. With a smile of pride, he commended with what all the Bartowski children knew to be the highest compliment from their father, "Aces, Stevie."