A/N: For about a year, I had an idea running through head, that was tentatively titled, Oh Brother. When I was trying to figure out what to do for Christmas this year, that idea kept coming back to me. So, if you've read, Life's A Beach, you know in that fic, I took several ideas, and merged them into one. That is what this fic is. Now, all you have to do is imagine me, doing a Christmas fic. What are the odds? A/U. Present day.

Disclaimer: I don't own Chuck

"Miss Walker, Mr. Graham will meet you in the conference room, if that's okay," Gail said as Sarah came off the elevator.

"I'll be there waiting for him," Sarah answered, and Gail nodded to her. Sarah walked down the hallway, her heels clicking on the marble floor, passing the opulent tinted glass walls. The tint controlled in each individual office.

She had only just returned to New York the night before, coming off her latest acquisition trip. She wasn't exactly sure when the last time she had physically sat down in her office.

She pushed the door open to the conference room and looked up at all the clocks on the wall, realizing why her internal clock was a little off. After a week in Dubai, the cooler weather was something of a blessing. She took a seat at the conference table and waited.

Rarely did Sarah Walker wait for anyone, but this wasn't just anyone she was waiting on. She was waiting on Langston Graham, of Langston Graham Enterprises.

She glanced around the room and thought back to she had sat here nine years ago, and how much had changed. She was sixteen then, scared out of her mind, wondering what was going to happen to her.

}o{

Then

Sarah sat in the chair, frightened. She had been pulled out of school and brought down to LGE, not told what was going on. She knew it had to be big to be taken to her father's place of work… she rarely came here. The door opened, and she sprung to her feet as she saw her father's boss, Langston, walk in the door.

"Sarah," he said gently. "You should sit down."

"Is my father okay?" Sarah asked, worried.

Graham was silent a second, studying her. "Sarah, he's been arrested." Sarah plopped down in the seat behind her, fighting the tears that fought to come to the surface. "He was embezzling, Sarah," Graham told her gently.

"Why?" Sarah asked. Graham remained silent, knowing it was a rhetorical question. Jack was one that always wanted more money, that always needed more money. "Why wasn't I enough?"

"I don't know," Graham admitted. "I'm going to help you, Sarah. I'm going to find somewhere for you to live."

"Let me live with you," Sarah blurted out. "Let me live with you, and I can start interning here. I have no one, Mr. Graham. No one."

Graham walked over to her, and squatted down, taking her hand in his. "Sarah, you have people, but I'm no good for you." He gestured around him. "This is my life. Work, is my life. Good or bad, it is, and for me to try and take care of you… raise you…" He shook his head.

"I'm sixteen, I don't need anyone to raise me," Sarah protested. "What I need to do is learn how to make money and take care of me, because it's obvious no one else wants to."

"Sarah, that's not true," Graham told her. "I know a family. They have sons, but no daughters. They are amazing people that will help you. Teach you. Help you grow the way you should, the way Jack should have parented you."

"Let me stay here, and work here," Sarah insisted.

"I'll make you a deal; you go live with them, graduate high school, and then college, and then… then you can come work for me," Graham promised. "But you have to finish before I will do that."

"Okay," Sarah said, nodding. Graham gave her a skeptical look. "I will, and when I have completed my degree, you better keep your promise."

"I will, Sarah," Graham told her.

He nodded definitively. "I will."

}o{

Now

The door opened, and Graham smiled, seeing her. "Sarah, how are you?"

"Richer than I was a week ago," she told Graham, smirking. Langston gave her a tight smile, and walked over to her. Sarah stood, giving Graham a reluctant hug. "How are you?"

Langston was silent for a second. "Do you really want to know?" Sarah didn't answer. "I'm good. I thought you'd spend some time in ,and enjoy yourself." He sat down in the chair across from her.

"Thought I'd get back here, and see if we can find another company to buy before the end of the year," Sarah said, pleased with herself. She pulled a folder out of her briefcase and laid it in front of Langston. "Here is every paper, properly signed, witnessed, notarized, and executed. I think this is one of our best deals yet."

"Your report said that we need to put some money into the expansion of the plant," Graham said, not looking at the report.

"Yes. If we do that, we can increase production, and that should give us a better than forty percent profit margin when we sell the plant, even factoring in the construction costs of the expansion," Sarah told him.

"Sarah… that company… it's been…" he trailed off, seeing the look on her face. She didn't look worried… more confused than worried.

"Have I done something wrong?" Sarah asked. "Isn't my job to find businesses we can buy, fix, and sell?"

"You don't have to sell everything," Graham told her. "You know part of the business is also us having a reliable source of income."

"You know what a reliable source of income is?" Sarah asked Graham. He sighed, knowing what was coming. "Cash in hand."

"Those are your father's words," Graham pointed out.

"They are, and they are one of the few things he taught me in this life that was good. That, and look out for yourself. Because everyone else is looking out for their selves. And, if you don't look out for you, no one else will."

Graham sat there quietly for a second, looking like he was struggling with something. "Is the board mad at something I've done, Langston?" Sarah asked, trying to figure out what was going on.

"No, nothing like that," Graham assured her, shaking his head. "In fact, they love the money you're making them." Sarah beamed. "I just… I didn't get into this business to constantly rip companies apart."

Sarah's brows furrowed and she leaned forward. "You hired me to be your enforcer," she said. Graham nodded, not looking at her, staring at the floor. "You hired me to be your fixer, and I have done that."

"Too well," Graham said softly. "Maybe you're not right for this next project."

"No, you can't bench me, Langston," Sarah protested.

"Listen, you need a break," Graham told her. "Why don't you and Bryce take a vacation?"

Sarah snorted a laugh as she sat back in her chair. "He broke up with me." Langston stared at her. "I took him to Paris, and he broke up with me."

Graham's mouth opened and closed, as he attempted to form words. After a second, he closed his jaw, and when he spoke, he was fighting from sputtering in his consternation. "Took him to Paris? When the hell did you do that? When have you taken a day off?"

"I went to Paris last month for the huge clothing line deal," Sarah reminded him.

"You worked every day for twelve plus hours while you were there!" Graham replied. "And if I know you – and I'm pretty sure I do – you spent what free time you had studying whatever you could to get an advantage!"

"I did," Sarah said proudly. "He told me that if I wanted to be with him that I had to spend more time with him." She made a pffth sound. "I was there for business, not to see the Eiffel Tower, not to tour the place. My job was to go and secure that deal, and he got mad about it."

Graham sat there, looking stunned. She couldn't understand the look on Graham's face. "I'm sorry," she said genuinely. "I thought you'd be happy with me, making us this money."

"Sarah, there is more to life than money," Graham told her.

"Well, apparently not for me and my bloodline," Sarah replied. Graham seemed to deflate with that. "My father was wealthy, Langston. Wealthy! And what did he do? He embezzled. So, my family is cursed. My father got a divorce from Mom because he worked all the time. When she died, he didn't even go to her funeral. I decided a long time ago, in this very chair, that I was going to do the right thing, and worry about one person. Me."

"And the people you now call Mom and Dad and your brothers?" Langston asked. Sarah twisted her lips, looking away. He felt relieved that he saw a bit of shame cross her face. He was worried there was nothing left under the hard exterior she projected. "You do care about them."

"I do," Sarah admitted. "And that's why I stay away from them." Graham shook his head. "It's to protect them. I'm no good for them."

"I don't know if I should give you this assignment," Graham muttered. He sat there, drumming his fingers on the table, looking at her, contemplating what to do.

"Graham, don't do this to me," Sarah pleaded. "I will do whatever it takes to get this assignment."

"You won't like it," Graham told her.

"I'm telling you, whatever it takes, I will do," Sarah promised.

"Fine. You have to stay, until this deal is complete," Graham began.

"So, a week, tops," Sarah said, smirking. Graham shook his head, and gave her a look. "Okay, okay, I'll stay until it's done." She paused for a second and grinned. "But don't be shocked if it's a week."

"Fair enough," Graham conceded. "Second, you have to go to Thanksgiving."

"But I'll be… crap… it's in Los Angeles, isn't it?" Sarah asked, realizing now what Graham meant by she wouldn't like it. Graham nodded. "You know what, it's fine. I need to meet my brother's fiancée, and this will be as good a reason as any to go."

"You haven't met her?" Graham asked.

"We've Zoomed a couple of times and I saw her, but face-to-face, no," Sarah said with a shrug. "I mean I'm either here, or I'm off working… I haven't had time."

"We do have things like vacation time, and I know you have a ton of airline miles," Graham reminded her.

"Langston, they're good people. I don't want to bother them," Sarah told him. "I am who I am, and all they would do is get hurt."

"Fine," Graham said. "I have secured you a room, at Maison 23, it should have everything you need."

"So, not high end because we're paying for it?" Sarah said with a smirk. Graham shook his head. "No big deal, I'll only be there a week."

"This is the last job you do this year," Graham told her. She started to protest. "If you don't like that, you can begin your year-end vacation now." Sarah clamped her lips shut. "Also, if you're still there by Christmas, you will have Christmas with you family."

"Fine," Sarah replied, rolling her eyes. "What horrible thing did the Woodcombs do to you that you'd inflict me upon them?" Graham couldn't help but chuckle at that. "But, the joke's on you. I do love them, and that's why I'll be done early, and out of there."

"Sarah," Graham began.

"Langston, don't," Sarah said, holding up her hand. He saw the honesty and intensity in her face, and he knew she believed what she was saying. "They are wonderful people and I am glad you made me stay with them. But I am damaged, Langston. I am my father's daughter."

"You've been hurt deeply, and you're still lashing out," Graham countered.

Sarah was silent for a second and then shrugged. "And, you could be right," she admitted, making Langston chuckle. "Is that all the requirements?"

"It is. I do have one suggestion that I want you to seriously consider," Langston replied. He was quiet, thinking of the best way to say this, without upsetting her. "Sarah, I've been doing this a long time."

"Are you dying?" Sarah asked. Langston looked startled by that.

"Why would you ask that?"

"Well, some of the things you are saying makes me wonder if something is wrong," Sarah told him. "Honestly, you're acting a little like someone who's trying to right some wrongs in the last moments of his life."

"No," Graham said, shaking his head. "But I will tell you I have been taking stock of my life, and there comes a point where you wonder: what value have I truly added in this world?" Sarah was silent. "I want you to consider this time, buying this company, but not to do what you normally do. I want you to think about buying it so that we can support it, help it grow, and expand."

"And then sell it?" Sarah asked.

"No, Sarah," Graham told her. "Just this one time, think about us doing something to better others. The employees, the product, the customer's lives."

"Okaaayyyy," Sarah replied. Graham sighed, grabbed the folder he had brought in with him, and slid it across to her. She opened the folder. "Constellation Electronics?" She looked up at Graham.

"Yes, there are several different divisions," Graham explained. "They cover everything from software, to video games, to Internet security." Sarah grinned. "Please, think about what I asked.

"I will," Sarah promised him. "Anything else?"

"No," Graham told her. She stood. "It was good to see you, have a good trip."

"I will," Sarah said. "I'll tell Honey and Woody you said hello." Graham nodded, and Sarah walked out of the conference room.

Graham blew out a breath. He had no idea what she was going to do. He shook his head. It was his fault. They didn't call her Graham's Wildcard Enforcer because it was a catchy title. He had helped sharpen her. He only hoped this project would help her see that there was more to life than her job.

The door to the conference room opened back up. "Any chance I can take Carina?"

Graham chuckled. "I'm assuming you'll want separate rooms?"

"I'm too young to know some of the stuff she will do while we're there," Sarah replied. Graham laughed. "I know, I'm cutting into our profit."

"Her mom lives on the west coast, doesn't she?" Graham asked. Sarah looked away. "You know it doesn't make you weak to do things for others?"

"I know," Sarah replied. "And, in my personal life, I do." Graham gave her a look. "Langston, let's not kid ourselves about me and Bryce." He chuckled, and nodded, understanding. "But business…" she trailed off and shrugged.

"Fine," Langston said, waving his hand in acknowledgment.

"Great. I'll get this deal wrapped up in no time," Sarah said, grinning.

"You know, there are other competitors, and you might not win," Graham replied. Sarah gave him a flat look. "I'm serious."

"I think you hit your head," Sarah told him. "Me, not get a deal done? Please."

"Sarah," he began, and then he just shook his head. "Try and enjoy yourself."

"I always do, when I pull off a deal," she told him, and with that she was gone.

Graham pulled out his phone and texted his old friend, Woody Woodcomb.

Your daughter is coming for Thanksgiving.

He put his phone away, got up, and walked to his office. On his desk was a letter from the New York Department of Corrections. He grabbed the letter, and glared at it.

In three weeks, Jack Walker was to appear before the parole board. Langston laid down the letter and stared off into space. His phone buzzed. Grabbing it, he looked at the message he had received.

Did you tell her about her dad?

Langston stood there a moment, and then text the reply.

No.

Langston set down his phone, then sat in his seat, feeling defeated. He had tried to do everything he could to save Sarah from a lifetime of misery, but he was afraid Jack had ruined any chance of that. His phone buzzed again, and he grabbed it.

I'll take care of it. Thank you for getting her here.

Langston laid down his phone, opened his bottom desk drawer, and pulled out a bottle and a glass. He poured two fingers, and knocked it down quickly. Picking up his phone again, he typed.

Why do I feel like we're gonna need a miracle to keep her from getting hurt?

He put his phone back down, poured another two fingers, and this time drank it slower, but he did finish it in one gulp. His phone buzzed again. Langston picked it up and looked at it.

Hey, it is getting close to Christmas. Maybe we'll get a Christmas miracle. Don't beat yourself up, Langston. You did all you could do.

Langston blew out a harsh breath. He knew he had done all he could.

He just wished he could have done more.

A/N: We're just getting started. I have seven chapters done, and…what's that? You want a preview….*shakes head*. Fiiiiiinnnnneeee.

"No, not at all," Devon said. "Listen, I'm already in good with her… if you know what I mean." Sarah groaned at that. "What I'm saying is, I've had a really lucky life. A privileged one, even. I've had two parents who love me and were always there for me. I had older brothers who protected me because… well, they're my brothers. And now… now I'm your older brother, and… and I want to be there for you… if you want. Nothing creepy."

Sarah laughed at that. "Thanks, Devon, but… well… trust me, I'm not worth the effort."

"On that front, you're wrong," Devon told her. "And, you have sealed your fate as well." Sarah raised an eyebrow. "I have now decided that you are my sister, my younger sister, and I'm going to be there for you whether you like it or not. It's the big bro code."

Guys, this one is unlike anything I've ever done.