The Monday following the trip to Napa, Ellie was scheduled for an early shift, and Devon was working his monthly hours at the free clinic which was on the other side of town. Sarah also had an early day as Gladys was taking a sick day to get some dental work done, which meant she was on her own with teaching that day. Luckily Chuck worked for himself and had already let Morgan know he would be a little late coming into the office so he could drop both Molly and Clara off at childcare.
At five in the morning, there was a knock on Chuck and Sarah's door. Since Sarah was upstairs getting ready, Chuck went to answer. Devon was standing there in his scrubs and a tan jacket, holding a sleeping Molly in one arm, her head balanced on his shoulder, and holding her backpack and a small tote in his other hand.
"'Morning, Devon," Chuck smiled sleepily at his brother-in-law, taking the bags from him and setting them to the side before holding his hands out to receive his niece. "Hand Sleeping Beauty over here, I'll lay her down in Molly's room." Shortly after Christmas, Devon and Chuck had put together a twin bed in the room in case the girls ever had a sleepover.
"So, did you do it?" Devon asked conspiratorially as he handed his daughter over.
"Did I do what, Dev?" Chuck quirked an eyebrow at the older man.
"Did you pop the big Q?" Devon pressed, "I mean I didn't see any new bling before we drove home, but I know how private you are with that kind of stuff."
Chuck smiled at the man who knew him so well, "Yeah, last night after we put Molly to bed. I was just watching her sing to Molly and I just couldn't wait any more."
"Dude!" Devon's enthusiasm was clear even through his whispered exclamation, "That's awesome!"
"Thanks," Chuck beamed, "We're pretty happy about it, but we don't want to make a big deal out of it."
"Why the heck not?" Devon looked at him like he was crazy.
"We don't want to steal Morgan and Alex's thunder with their wedding coming up in a couple months." Chuck shrugged.
"Don't be stupid, bro," Devon chastised him, "You know your little buddy will be over the moon when you tell him, and you know he's gonna ask. He was there when you got the ring."
"Who was there?" Sarah asked, coming down the stairs. Chuck couldn't help the loving awe that crossed his face as he took her in from head to toe. She had curled her hair into soft waves and was wearing a lilac blouse, a modest grey pencil skirt and kitten heels in deference to the fact she was going to be on her feet more than she usually was that day.
"Wow," Chuck sighed and leaned down to press a soft kiss to her lips when she walked over, "Good morning, Beautiful."
"Good morning," She smiled up at him, "So, who was where?"
"Morgan was there when your guy here picked out your ring," Devon explained.
"He was?" Sarah arched an eyebrow at her fiancé.
"Yeah, it was when you and Ellie were out with Alex and the girls were out dress shopping." Chuck shrugged, "Morgan and I went to the arcade at the pier. We got to talking and I mentioned that I was thinking about proposing. He shared some advice that Major Casey gave him and suggested…" He heard Devon snort and gave him the stink eye before continuing, "That I find a ring and carry it with me in case the right moment presented itself."
"Ah," Sarah nodded knowingly, "That explains why you were acting so weird this weekend."
"Weird?" Chuck scoffed, "I was not acting weird."
"Yeah you were, Bro," Devon smirked, "I even told you that you were. Ellie noticed too, I'm a little surprised she didn't say anything."
"Actually, she did," Sarah snickered, "She asked me if you were up to something, I told her no… little did I know." She patted his cheek lovingly with her left hand.
"Okay, okay," Chuck gave in, "I get it, I'm the worst covert planner in the world."
"It's okay, Sweetie," Sarah cooed, "I think it was really sweet what you were trying to do. I would have said yes to you regardless of if it had been in Napa or with you kneeling on the floor of our daughter's room. I love you and can't wait to be your wife."
"I love you too," Chuck smiled down at her, "And I can't wait until you are my wife."
"If you have any hope of getting to that point without my wife, your sister, murdering you for not talking to her about this first, you might want to let he know," Devon suggested, "And you might want to stand back so as to not be bowled over by the planning frenzy that will likely ensue."
"Don't you have clinic hours to get to?" Chuck smirked at his brother-in-law.
"I can take a hint," Devon chuckled, hands up in mock surrender, "I'll see you later, Bro."
"See ya later, Man," Chuck smiled, "Doctor good and what not."
"They don't call me Captain Awesome for nothing," Devon joked before kissing his daughter's head, congratulating the newly engaged couple, and heading out the door.
"I should get going too," Sarah gave him a soft smile, "I have lesson plans to review before first period starts."
"I wish we could have spent more time celebrating," Chuck sighed, giving her a warm kiss over their niece's shoulder.
"Me too," Sarah nodded, "But there's always tonight, and maybe if you have time, you can swing by for lunch, we have some rooms upstairs that are partially emptied out since the kids have their uniforms for parade season." She gave him a salacious wink. "And if you're really lucky, I'll show you how I get this skirt to fit so well."
"Hey-oh," Chuck gasped, a blush rising up his cheeks, "I-I think I might be able to clear my schedule… hey will you look at that, I'm free for lunch!"
"I thought you would be," Sarah grinned and pulled her jacket from the closet, shrugging it on. "I'll see you then," She slung her purse over her shoulder, grabbed her violin case, gave Chuck one last kiss and headed out the door.
Chuck stood staring at the door a few moments and shook his head, "You're aunt is gonna be the death of me," He whispered to the still sleeping Clara before carrying her upstairs to let her sleep a couple more hours before dropping her off at school and Molly at daycare.
When Chuck arrived at work, he ducked into Morgan's office to see him sitting and chatting with a young Indian man. The two looked up at his knock before the Indian man let out a sigh and reluctantly withdrew a few bills from his wallet to hand over to Morgan.
"Do I even want to know?" Chuck arched an eyebrow.
"Oh, like you don't know," Morgan scoffed, "It's practically written all over your face! You did it didn't you?"
"I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about," Chuck tried to brush his best friend off, "And even if I did, don't you think that all the dogs in a five mile radius would be going crazy from the squeal my sister would have released?"
The other two men rolled their eyes and shook their heads. "Chuck, my dude," The Indian man laughed, "The only reason that hasn't happened is because your sister must have not seen you since it happened."
"And what exactly do you think happened, Manoosh?" Chuck gave the graphic designer an incredulous look.
"Aside from a weekend filled with wine and the sweet, sweet, lovin' of your lady love?" Manoosh smirked, "You proposed, and she said yes. There's no other explanation for the lack of the ring box that has been present in your right pocket for the past couple weeks. …Unless you eloped, please tell me you didn't elope."
"He didn't elope," Morgan scoffed, "He wouldn't elope without calling Ellie and me first."
"You two are worse that two old biddies at a quilting bee," Chuck rolled his eyes, "Okay, yes, I proposed to Sarah, yes we are officially engaged. Just please, please, don't tell Ellie? We're going over there tonight to tell her."
"Oh my God!" Morgan's eyes widened, "Are you telling me that everyone, but Ellie, knows?"
"Not everyone," Chuck protested, "We haven't told Alex."
"No, man, Alex knows," Morgan shook his head, "She's known since you got the rings, she approves by the way. But seriously, Dude, Ellie is going to straight up murder you for not being the first you told."
"No, she's not," Chuck huffed, "I asked the woman I love to marry me, something Ellie has been hinting that I do since Thanksgiving, by the way. She'll be happy for us, we're getting married, not running away to join the CIA…"
"CIA, good one," Morgan chuckled, "When you tell her, leave me out of it. I don't want to deal with an eruption from Mount St. Eleanor."
"And on that cheerful note, I'm going to head to my office to get some work done," Chuck rolled his eyes at his best friend's dramatics, "I suggest you two gossiping biddies do that same."
As he walked off, he overheard Manoosh's last remark to Morgan, "We're the gossiping biddies in that scenario, right?"
By midway through the advanced orchestra's warm-ups, Sarah was already frustrated over the attention her new jewelry had caused. It seemed they couldn't move on from one scale to the next without random whispers flickering throughout the room. It finally got to the point that she couldn't take it anymore. She brought the band to a rest and huffed, "Alright, I've had enough, the whispering between sets has got to stop, so let's have it. What is going on with you?"
"Miss Walker," Julie, a senior in the French horn section raised her hand, "We just couldn't help but notice you have some new jewelry."
"That is what all this is all about?" She rolled her eyes, "Seriously? You didn't make this much of a commotion when I came in after Thanksgiving wearing my charm bracelet. Or wearing my new earrings after Christmas…"
"Those are nice and all," Bridgett, a junior violinist spoke up, "But you gotta admit a ring, especially one worn on your left ring finger is a big deal."
Sarah couldn't help but smile, "Okay, okay, I know you all know I've been seeing the man in the beach video from just before school started. If you must know, yes, he proposed to me this weekend, last night, if you want to get technical; clearly, I said yes. No, we don't know when we are going to get married."
"You're gonna be hella rich, though, right?" Luke, one of the boys in the trombones spoke up.
"Now where did you come up with that idea?" Sarah arched an eyebrow at the impudent question.
"Isn't your boyfriend some big wig game developer?" Luke asked.
"Dude, he owns Orion Games," Nate, who was sitting next to Luke corrected, "She's dating Chuck Bartowski."
"I heard they had a kid together," A female voice came from the percussion section.
"No, that can't be right," Another girl protested, "They only started dating in September, there's no way they could have had a kid already."
The gossip in the room began to swell once more, causing Sarah to groan and give the 'finish' signal with her hands and baton. "You are all way too invested in my private life! You wouldn't do this to Mrs. Tucker."
"Mr. Tucker isn't a total hottie like your fiancé is," Macy, the first chair clarinet pointed out, "Plus Mrs. Tucker is like, really old."
"Okay, fine," Sarah groaned, "I'm going to give you this run down once, and only once, and never -ever- again, am I understood?" The class nodded, "My fiancé is Chuck Bartowski, the owner of Orion Games. Whether or not I'm going to be 'hella rich,'" She used air quotes, "After the wedding is frankly none of your business. I do have a daughter; she is going to be two in a little over two weeks, Mr. Bartowski is not her biological father, but he treats her as if he was and plans to adopt her. We have not set a date yet as he only has just asked me. Did I miss anything?"
"Are we invited to the wedding?" Shelby, the young woman who played bassoon, inquired
"Surely you must be joking," Sarah smirked.
"She's not joking and don't call her Shirley," One of the percussionists shouted out causing most of the band to chuckle.
Sarah rolled her eyes, "Look, if I invite one of you, I have to invite all of you... and your plus ones and there is no way I'm going to be able to convince anyone, not my fiancé, not his sister, and definitely not my mom, to let me invite upwards of 430 students at least not to the reception. I'm sorry, maybe, and I stress maybe, you can come to the wedding if the venue is big enough. Now, I'm not answering any more of your questions about this, so butt out!" She smirked at them, "Pull out 'Variations in D' we have to get some real work done today before Mrs. Tucker comes after my hide for letting you get away with fooling around all period."
The second period orchestra was much the same, but Sarah was expecting it and nipped it in the bud addressing the matter up front before even attempting to start the warm-up exercises. This, however, did not prevent her students from hooting and cat calling Chuck when he arrived, a take-out bag from Lou's deli in one hand and a couple bottles of water in the other. He arched an eyebrow at her over the reaction from her students.
"They know," She shrugged in explanation.
"Good, now they know the nerd can get the hottest girl, or guy, in school," He smirked.
"You heard it here, folks, the band nerd is marrying the hottest guy at school," She winked at them, "Maybe not my school, but the prettiest boy from his school, at least."
"Does Alex know?" Chuck joked, "Because I'm pretty sure she pretty much has Morgan locked down."
"You know that's not who I meant," She arched a brow at him.
"Oh, so you're the nerd in this scenario?" Chuck teased.
"You better believe it, Bub," She grinned as her students laughed at their banter. Upon hearing the bell go off, she dismissed her class. Both she and Chuck received congratulations from the students as they made their way out to their next class or their lunch period. Some even stopped and complimented Chuck on the ring he'd picked out. Once the students had all left, she locked the doors to the room and gave her fiancé a kiss. "I see you brought lunch."
"I figured we might be a little hungry after inventorying the storage rooms upstairs." He gave her the patented Bartowski eyebrow dance.
"Then I had better show you where we hide the good stuff." She smiled up at him, taking his arm and leading him up the staircase in the corner of the room.
"I have to say I'm glad that podium of yours isn't higher… or that a stray subway breeze can't lead to you pulling a Marilyn Monroe in that skirt," Chuck teased as they straightened their clothes in order to go back downstairs to Sarah's office to enjoy their lunch, "But as your fiancé and future husband, I appreciate the easier access."
"That was dirty, Mr. Bartowski," Sarah laughed as they made their way down the stairs.
"Like you didn't choose that outfit with what just happened in mind," Chuck teased, following her into her office.
Sarah blushed, "Shut up and feed me, lover boy."
"As you wish," Chuck pressed a kiss to her cheek and opened the paper bag that he'd left on her desk, pulling out two wrapped sandwiches, handing one to her. "I was going to get soup, too, but after your little comment this morning, I figured I'd better not."
"Good choice," Sarah nodded, unwrapping her sandwich and taking a bite, "Mmm, I love the taste of a Chuck in my mouth."
"Now who's being dirty?" Chuck arched an eyebrow at her.
"You like it," She teased.
"I can't deny that," He grinned at her as they continued to enjoy their sandwiches. They had just finished cleaning up after their meal when the bell rang. "Ooh, nice timing."
"No kidding," Sarah stood and gave him a quick kiss, "You might want to slip out through the theater and out the backstage door."
Chuck nodded and watched as Sarah exited the small room and made her way into the band classroom. Through the poster-covered window, he could see Sarah greeting her students as they entered and took their seats. More than a few had noticed her ring and were pointing it out to their fellow students. He had intended to follow her advice and slip out the back, but in the end, he couldn't help himself. A few moments after the final bell rang, and while the last of the students were assembling their instruments, he headed through the hallway that ran between the office and the rehearsal rooms and into the classroom.
If the amused looks of her students hadn't gotten her attention, the incessant giggling would have. She slowly turned to see what her students were looking at only to find her fiancé, leaned up against the door frame of the hallway, smiling lovingly at her. She gave him a look as if to ask what he was up to when he pushed off of the door frame and strolled up to her, before she could utter a word, his hands were on her cheeks and his lips were pressed against hers in a chaste but passionate kiss.
This, of course, provoked cat calls and whistles from the underclassmen watching the interaction. When he pulled back, leaving her slightly daze, he gave her a puckish grin, "See you at home, future Mrs. Bartowski." He didn't wait for a response before he sauntered out the door and exited the classroom, leaving his fiancée glued to her spot staring at the closing door.
It took a moment for Sarah to come back to herself. "Ahem," She cleared her throat, "B-flat scale, please," She announced raising her hands to lead the warm-up.
"Did you get engaged over the break, Miss Walker?" Chelsea, one of the cello players asked, raising her bow in the air to catch her teacher's attention.
"He is so gonna get it when I get home," Sarah muttered, not at the least upset with her fiancé's antics before addressing the class, "Yes, Mr. Bartowski asked me to marry him over the weekend, and that's all I'm going to say on the matter. Now, instruments up, B-flat scale." She smiled as her students raised their instruments in the ready position and began to play through their warm-ups.
