A/N1:

I hope you are enjoying this version of Chuck's adventure. I am catching up this story, and soon will have them to the same point, and will try to post a chapter of each, on a weekly schedule.

Not sure what else to say, busy writing and discovering where the stories are going.

I appreciate any feedback, as these are my first fan fiction attempts, and there is quite a bit for me to learn. Your feedback can actually shape the story. MarkeyDeSad, Nevr, and AwesomeCasey have all influenced my writing.

A/N 2:

Don't own Chuck, and make my money other ways. You need a shoe shine?

Charina – Salvation – Reunion

Mary is kept sedated for a few days. Stephen stays by her side. Casey and Carina return to normal activities. Chuck gets an obligatory scolding from General Beckman and Director Hawthorne, but since they don't know what to make of everything yet, either, the reprimand is perfunctory.

Chuck was still in a bit of a haze. The circumstance of the reunion with his not dead mom, hadn't allowed him to prepare himself in any emotional manner, and he had yet to wrap his head around how all this came about.

His dad finally pulled him into his mom's room, now that she was awake. He understood that they needed to bring Chuck back to reality and out of shock.

My mom? WTF, he stared at her and simply spoke that powerful word, that word with all of its deep meaning, "Mom?" His eyes frantically searched her face, trying to capture and memorize a decade's lack, in an instant. "You're okay?" and fresh tears were shed for a much older tragedy.

When everyone was able to compose themselves, to some level of calmness, Stephen spoke up, "There is a lot that I am going to share with you, Charles, but first I need to tell your mom something."

Steven turned to his wife, reached out and covered her hands with his and said, "Mary, you know how I've been telling you that the Intersect is in play?" She studied his face and nodded he continued, "What I hadn't told you, is that it is Charles."

Mary drew back and gasped, wide-eyed she stared at Chuck. After a moment her jaw began trembling and she started mumbling' "My baby, my baby", as tears formed in her eyes.

Steven quickly reached out and grabbed her arms, slightly shaking them and started reassuring Mary, "He's okay. Mary, he's okay."

Mary stared incredulously into Steven's eyes, so he kept reassuring her, "Mary, Charles is having no ill effects. Charles is doing fine. Charles is healthy. Everything's going to be okay. This isn't Hartley."

With his words Mary's expression softened and the immediate emotional response gave way to more rational thought. Steven reinforced, "This isn't Hartley."

Mary took several deep breaths, looked down and shook her shoulders a little bit, cleared her throat, and in a moment had regained her composure. She looked up analyzing Chuck, looking him over with a critical eye, taking him in, and then looked to Steven and said, "Okay, so Charles is the Intersect? And, I guess that's how he became a spy?"

Steven looked down and shook his head, hurt, and then he slowly nodded his head and look back up , with pleading eyes seeking understanding. He explained, "The first upload wasn't planned. A whole bunch of shit went down in the intelligence community, and I'll have to fill you in on that later, but Charles got caught up in it and uploaded the intersect 1.0. You should speak with Charles on your own and let him tell his story. I'm sure he has a lot to share with you about what you've missed and over the past years. But, please understand that I never intended things to work out this way."

He turned to his son, "Charles, now you need to understand why she missed all those years. And, know that this also is a consequence of the Intersect, so to speak. What do you know about Alexei Volkoff?"

"Like I said, he was on the Intersect's big list of bad guys, but he wasn't anyone that they had me focusing on, specifically. Obviously, he showed up connected to lots of the bad stuff I was dealing with. But, he wasn't ever the focus of one of my missions."

"Well I hate to admit it," Steven said, "but, it is one of my greatest sins, which I will carry to my grave, that I created Volkoff."

Chuck looked at his father with bewilderment; this made no sense. Dad isn't a criminal mastermind? Is he? Chuck stammered out, "Wh…wh…what do you mean, Dad?"

Steven explained, "Volkoff was essentially a beta version of the Intersect. A couple of the pieces that we were experimenting with, pieces that I decided to abandon. Volkoff used to be a fellow agency scientist, named Hartley Winterbottom. He was a neuroscientist and we were working together on ways to use technology to imprint or implant knowledge. His area of expertise involved personality and we had developed a program, which would attempt to overwrite someone's personality with a different personality, temporarily, allowing an agent to truly be their cover."

Stephen's eyes dimmed and his shoulder's sagged as the story brought back the memories, "We had done brief controlled tests, with Hartley taking on the Volkoff persona, so we could check his responses."

Chuck stared at his Dad in amazement; there is so much about my life that I have no clue about! He looked over at his Mom and saw that she was starting into space, focused on a spot on the floor, despondently reliving the story, on her own.

He turned his attention back to his father, who was recalling, "A meeting of Russian crime leaders was due to occur at a hotel here in Los Angeles, and Hartley wanted to be inserted with the surveillance team, so he could mingle and see how the personality would work, under pressure, in a real world situation. We thought we could keep it semi-controlled. But, something went wrong. Maybe it was multiple imprints from our testing, maybe it was some kind of stress response, due to the truly life and death situation he was in, but the full imprint took and never released."

He looked at Chuck, with pain in his eyes, "Hartley had permanently become Volkoff. Mary was one of the agents on the surveillance team that night, and had been assigned to be Volkoff's date for the evening, allowing her to keep close tabs on Hartley. However when Volkoff personality didn't turn off, and he insinuated himself more deeply with the criminal leaders there, Mary couldn't easily extract herself. Also, being uncertain as to what exactly was going on, she felt she should stay with him to see how she could rectify the situation."

Chuck looked over again, at his mother, who was now softly sobbing. He moved to her and sat at her bedside, wrapped his arm around her and placed soft kisses on the top of her head. With wet eyes, Chuck nodded at his father to continue.

He quickly did, picking up the pace of the story, "Well, the whole thing ended up being a mess, and next thing we knew Mary was at Volkoff side in Russia. She'd managed to finesse things, so that she became his trusted lieutenant and not his romantic partner." Stephen looked sheepish, and Mary's ears flushed red and a slight shudder passed through her body.

"So, for all these years, Mary has been working alongside Volkoff, mitigating the worst of his nature as she could, and feeding me intelligence about his activity, while I continued searching for a way to remove the personality, as I continued my work, on what you know as the Intersect."

Stephen's shoulder slumped, as if all of his life had drained out of him, as he finished the story. In a deep, gravelly, wet voice he said, "I'll never be able to make that right. I hurt Mary, I hurt you kids, I essentially hurt the world," he ended with a sob.

"Oh Stephen," Mary beckoned for him, so he stepped to the other side of the bed, and she took his hands in hers. "Stephen, it was Hartley's decision. You can't keep blaming yourself for that. You never intended for things to turn out this way, and the fact that you've worked so hard to try to rectify it should be some balm for your conscience. I wish the past decade would have been different, but you know we can't predict the future and we can only do the best we can on the journey."

Chuck just stood there dumbfounded; the shock of this unexpected and bizarre family reunion had more twists and turns than his brain could handle. His body and mind went numb for a moment.

Charles Carmichael stepped into the void, Charles need to be in charge. He let a single, slow breath out, turned to his father and his mother, his newly found mother, his newly re-found mother, and said, "That's a whole lot to take in Dad." He turned to his mother and said, "Mom, I don't understand all of it but I am so happy that you're back in my life."

He reached out his hand; Mary took it and grasped it firmly, as tears pooled in her eyes.

"I've missed you and Ellie so, so much" she softly sobbed.

He turned to his Dad and said, "That's a hell of a story. What do we do now?"

His dad replied, "We heal your Mom, and we try to figure out how to create a good future for you."

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Over the next two weeks, Chuck would have dinner with his mom and dad, and they would talk about life. Chuck shared his experiences as a spy, and his mother and father expressed concern about that. They shared stories of how dehumanizing the life of an agent could be, stories both of those they knew, as well as stories of their own.

Chuck acknowledged all of it, but didn't share how deeply and painfully he understood the truth of that. But, he also pushed back and talked about the ways he felt he was helping to save the world, and that the responsibilities and obligations he felt he had, due to his abilities as the Intersect.

Mary and Steven felt both the pride and the fear that every parent of a soldier knows.

Over dinner, Chuck would share with them the stories of his missions and his spy life. He also shared with them the stories of Burbank, the stories of Sarah. The stories of his youth, of he and Ellie missing them, came out between sobs.

As Chuck shared with them his stories of the Ring War, as well as his newer missions of strategic importance, Stephen was struck by the transition of purpose, and an idea started forming in his head. His appreciation for the true brilliance of his son grew with every story. Mary just lost herself in the happiness of being with her family again.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

A/N 3:

Like all authors, appreciate reviews, as they confirm you are reading and enjoying the story. BTW, have I managed to write anything that made you laugh, or at least smile?