Inspiration struck again, haha. This isn't the Jill conversation, but I'll probably do that for a chapter in here at some point. These chapters won't necessarily be chronological or anything.

This one refers to Chuck vs the Truth, where Ellie gets poisoned with the truth serum. It's time for her to find out the 'truth' of that day. xD

~cosette141

"You hungry, sis?"

Ellie looked at Chuck, who was walking hand-in-hand with Sarah next to her. The three of them were walking down the sidewalk of a plaza after helping Ellie find something for Devon for their anniversary. Devon was out working a double shift tonight, and Ellie, not for the first time, felt like a third-wheel to the "fake" relationship between Chuck and Sarah. Something Ellie didn't mind.

And however much they wanted to call it fake, Ellie knew it wasn't.

It was still strange. Even after over a month of knowing that Sarah was a spy and Chuck was her asset, that she was protecting him, with guns and with Casey of all people, it was still something she couldn't quite grasp.

But above all, it would never stop being weird to know that their relationship all this time had never been completely genuine.

It certainly explained so much of Chuck's doubts in his and Sarah's relationship, how he never seemed completely happy with her. Something that Ellie had wanted to understand for so long, and now that she did, she only wanted to help bring them closer together.

Whenever it was the three of them these days, when Devon was working or simply got up to leave the room for any reason, Chuck and Sarah didn't stop holding hands, or sitting so closely together. It made Ellie happy to know they still felt comfortable enough to do so even when they didn't have to for their "cover".

They also did their best to not talk about spy things around her, probably to "protect her", or whatever. But sometimes they did, and it was always a shock, like being hit with ice water out of nowhere to hear about missions or meeting Casey for something or seeing more clearly that Sarah would have bruises or cuts.

But as strange as it all still was, making Ellie wonder how Chuck kept the secret for so long and not lost his mind, she also… understood. Sarah and Casey worked hard to keep the normal part of Chuck's life alive, protecting it as much as they protected Chuck from physical harm.

And if Ellie wasn't mistaken, it looked like Sarah was getting more and more comfortable with the non-spy part of Chuck's life.

Ellie will be happiest when the inter-whatever was out of her brother's head—something that made her wish she had instead become a brain surgeon so she could maybe find that cure herself—but she also hoped that maybe Sarah would reconsider her own career, because she fit into their lives more comfortably than the spy realized.

"Ellie?"

Ellie snapped out of the reverie, and looked at Chuck and Sarah, who had stopped walking and were looking at her expectantly. Ellie shook herself a little, recalling Chuck's question. "Oh," she said. "Yeah, dinner sounds good."

Chuck smiled, looking around the plaza, and saying, "The Japanese place that I can never pronounce?"

Ellie felt a chill sweep down her spine. "Uh," she said, wincing a little. "What about Luigi's instead?"

"I thought you loved that Japanese place," said Chuck with furrowed brows.

Ellie bit her lip. "I… do," she said slowly, "but… that was the place we went to before I got that sickness." Her heart beat a little faster at the very thought. "Ever since, I just couldn't bring myself to eat their food again, just in case that's what caused it."

Ellie remembered it all too well; the day she and Devon went on a double date with Chuck and Sarah. Just the next day, she had gotten horribly sick. Some sort of virus or some strange reaction that had rendered her in a coma-like state for nearly a full day and could have killed her. None of the doctors at the hospital knew what it had been, and just considered her recovery a miracle.

Ellie, ever the doctor, had wracked her brain for an explanation, but the only different thing she'd done beforehand was eat at this restaurant, and helped the emergency patient that they'd found collapsed on the sidewalk. However, nothing in the patient's tests came back as a virus or contagious. It was some sort of posioning or something, and considering the fact that they found him outside of the Japanese restaurant as well, Ellie hadn't wanted to take the chance.

Whether or not it was rational, Ellie simply avoided the restaurant.

But the moment the explanation left her lips, confusion etched into both Chuck and Sarah's faces, until Chuck suddenly froze. He then looked at Sarah. "The sweaty nuclear guy and the tiny gymnast," he said in one breath.

Ellie blinked. "The what?"

Something dawned in Sarah's face, too, and she looked at Ellie with a pitying wince.

Ellie felt her brow raise. She's seen this look from both Sarah and Chuck before.

"Don't tell me that had something to do with spy stuff!" she said exasperatedly, whispering the last two words.

Chuck opened his mouth, closed it, then forced a tight smile. "...It didn't have to do with spy stuff?" he said very un-convincingly.

Ellie gaped at him, then grabbed Chuck's wrist and pulled him away from the crowds of people to a more secluded area. "You tell me right now, Charles Irving Bartowski!"

Chuck looked truly intimidated at her Big Sister tone, and Sarah followed, both with that pitying look and a bit of amusement at Chuck's reaction to Ellie.

"The good news," said Chuck, forcing a smile, "is that you can eat at your favorite restaurant again!"

Ellie didn't smile. She crossed her arms. "Chuck, I spent weeks after that happened wondering what happened to me! I threw out all the food in the house and replaced it, I cleaned everything—"

"I know," said Chuck with a wince, foregoing the attempt at a smile. "It started with the sweaty guy."

"The man we tried to save?" asked Ellie.

"He was this bad guy who had all these nuclear—" began Chuck, but stopped at Sarah clearing her throat. Chuck adjusted, "Right. Pertinent information only. Uh, he was a bad guy involved in bad stuff, and a different bad guy poisoned him with this stuff that made him tell the truth so he could get information from him."

Tell the truth.

Ellie's eyes widened. She didn't remember a lot from the night she collapsed, but Devon had told her she wouldn't stop being so "uncomfortably" honest with everyone.

"The guy who poisoned the sweaty guy," said Chuck, "pretended to be a police officer and he came to see you because he thought you knew something." There was a tight furrow in Chuck's brows, like the fact that someone from the spy world had gotten to her terrified him.

But Ellie was flashing back to that day, remembering the cop. "You're saying… I was poisoned?" she whispered.

Chuck swallowed hard, but nodded.

A chill swept down Ellie's spine.

"Ellie, I'm so sorry," said Chuck, eyes holding every ounce of pain he felt about it.

"We had no idea he'd go after you," added Sarah, that sad look in her eyes only deeper. "We should have protected you. I'm sorry, too," she added, quieter, like she wasn't always used to saying the words, but it was something that was getting easier for her.

Ellie looked between them. "But… we tried everything to save that man," she whispered. "If I was poisoned with the same thing… how am I still here?"

But this time, Sarah smiled something warm and proud, looking at Chuck before telling Ellie, "Because of Chuck." An uncomfortable smile jumped at Chuck's lips, like he didn't know how to take the credit. Sarah looked at Ellie. "Chuck saved your life, Ellie."

Ellie looked at Chuck, awe in her chest. "You did?"

"There was an antidote to the poison," said Sarah, when Chuck looked too uncomfortable to speak. "The… bad guy," she said , using Chuck's phrase, "had it. Chuck managed to get it, and even though Casey and I tried to get him to take it, he ran that antidote to you and saved you." She smiled, taking Chuck's hand again, making Chuck smile, though a bit of color touched his cheeks.

Ellie began to smile, but felt herself stop, replaying what Sarah had just said.

Ellie's smile fell as another cold chill slipped down her spine. "Why would Chuck have needed to take it?" she asked slowly.

Both Sarah and Chuck froze then, Sarah's expression turning into one that screamed oops and Chuck's winced smile was back. He smiled, though it was no less a wince. "Okay, so, I might have gotten us all poisoned, but it was an accident, I swear." He looked at Sarah. "I really should stay in the car…"

"You were poisoned?" exclaimed Ellie, barely managing to keep her voice in a whisper.

Chuck's wince fading, that pain back in his eyes, he said, "If there was only one antidote and it was between you and me, it will always be you, El."

Ellie couldn't speak.

All this time, she had no idea how brave her brother was. And no idea how devoted he was to her. The past year, she'd thought he'd been pulling away from her, that their relationship was fading away. But he'd been there for her more than ever, and he couldn't even tell her.

Ellie looked at Chuck, who was still watching her with something unsure in his eyes. But she pulled him into a hug. "Thank you," she said with a smile.

She pulled back, and Chuck smiled too. "So… dinner at the Japanese place? On me?"

Ellie smiled, shaking her head. "I really have missed eating there…"

"Then it's settled!" said Chuck, and they started back toward the restaurant. "Oh," he said. "And I also recall something else from that night…" He looked at Ellie, something jokingly sly in his eyes. "Something about someone stealing money from me to buy herself a New Kids fanny pack?"

Ellie's eyes shot wide. How did he know that?! That was a secret she had planned to take to the grave.

But she suddenly remembered—the poison was a truth serum.

She sighed.

With her own wince, she said, "Dinner on me?"

Chuck grinned.