Ch. 13 The New Job
A/N: We're getting close to the end. This is the final chapter proper, although the two epilogues are close to being done. I plan on keep posting on a weekly basis. Enjoy.
Sarah leaned back into the cushions of the sofa in Chuck's living room. It had only been three months since she moved to California, but Chuck's apartment already felt like home ought to feel. Although she had rented a townhouse tucked into the foothills of the San Gabriel mountains, Sarah spent all of her free time in Echo Park. With Ellie and Awesome (not that she called Devon that when Ellie was around) just across the courtyard, Sarah felt as though she had a home for the first time she she had left for college.
She never complained about being raised by a single parent. But she had also longed to be part of a bigger family with siblings. Ellie had jokingly introduced Sarah to one of her co-workers as her sister in law. Sarah had been somewhat shocked, but mostly thrilled at Ellie's blatant endorsement and stamp of approval. Sarah had also noted how the other woman's smile never reached her eyes. She suspected that the sister-in-law title wasn't just to show how highly Ellie thought of her, but also to send a message that Chuck was off the market. Too right he was.
Sarah took a sip of her wine and checked the time. She was a little nervous about the upcoming dinner for several reasons. Chuck had assured her that it was safe for Emma to visit with Molly, and Sarah was trusting Chuck even though this was her most closely guarded secret. Sarah was also a little nervous as she was introducing her mom to Chuck, who she was still amazed loved her for her, and Ellie, who had quickly become both a close friend and confidant. She rather suspected that Ellie was keeping a careful eye on the courtyard as Emma was due any moment.
Just as the realization occurred to her that it was time, Sarah heard a knock at the front door. Sarah opened the door to be engulfed in a hug from her mom. Emma looked pleased as she looked around Chuck's apartment, noting the comfortable ambiance, although she was somewhat confused with the large amount of sci-fi memorabilia. Emma also looked warmly at the apartment's occupant and the love interest to her daughter, at least her older daughter. Sarah had been vague about how it was that things had changed to make it safe for Sarah to associate with them. Noting the way that Chuck looked at Sarah as though she was the most incredible person on Earth, Emma suspected that Chuck may have had something to do with it.
Emma looked at the young man in question, noting to Sarah how handsome he looked in the black button down shirt with epaulettes, which gave him an almost military bearing. Sarah had done a full belly laugh at that comment, causing Emma to raise an eyebrow in response. Her girl was so much more open now, it was like looking at an entirely new woman. A new woman that Emma was inordinately proud of.
"What, pray tell, is so funny?"
"Sorry mom," Sarah said as she struggled to contain her giggles and catch her breath. "It's just the thought of Chuck in the military." Another fit of giggles briefly consumed Sarah. "They would kick him out within a week. I swear, his favorite question is 'why". They would tell him he had to follow a strict procedure, and he would come up with a better, faster way to do it. They would then order him to follow their procedure, regardless of whether or not his system was faster and better. And he would just sit there saying, 'But why?' until they gave up and shipped him out."
"Hey, I resemble that remark," Chuck added, with an adoring grin sent Sarah's way, that slowly shifted to something slightly apprehensive. Sarah wasn't sure what was going on, but Chuck had been acting slightly off for the last couple of days. She had thought that the was nervous about getting to meet Emma and Molly, even though she had assured him that the two women in Sarah's life would come to love Chuck just as much as she did. But then when her mom and Molly had arrived, Chuck had been his usual outgoing, funny, warm self. Yet, when he looked at Sarah, she could swear he would shift from his usual loving gaze to something with a nervous edge to it. In fact, his hands had been clammy when she had gone into the kitchen to help him put out appetizers before the start of the party.
Chuck had once told her that his hands get moist when he freaked out, but the party was a massive success. Molly was in hysterics at Awesome's story telling, while Ellie beamed at the antics of the two. As expected, Emma would have approved of any man who put her little girl on a pedestal. But Chuck, being Chuck, had quickly won her over in his own right and Emma was thrilled with the outstanding young man who was so clearly in love with her daughter. So, what was Chuck worried about? She watched as he absentmindedly patted his shirt pocket, then wiped both hands nervously on his pants. Sarah hoped that Chuck would be able to relax a little more and just be himself around her mom and sister. There was no need to be nervous.
She led Emma around Chuck's apartment as Ellie and Devon kept Molly entertained in the living room. Emma paused for a moment by a pair of photographs in a hinged frame. The photo on the left was a candid shot of Chuck and Sarah on the beach with the Santa Monica pier off in the distance. Chuck had his arm around Sarah's shoulders and she was leaning in and resting her head on his shoulder. Both were looking out over the ocean, with matching contented smiles on their faces.
The second photograph was taken by an obliging lifeguard on the same section of beach. This picture showed Sarah and Ellie standing together laughing at the antics of Chuck and Devon who were goofing off in the foreground. Emma struggled to keep back tears of joy at seeing her little girl looking both so open and so happy in life. For nothing else, Emma would have loved Chuck for giving her daughter that precious gift that had been missing from her whole life. As it was, she thought that Chuck was absolutely perfect for Sarah, and was so happy to see how his family had accepted Sarah into their fold. She had already seen a couple of occasions where Sarah and Ellie had shared a look and an inside joke, proof of a close friendship independent of Chuck.
Emma had been thrilled, but a bit shocked, when Sarah had proposed this "family" dinner, especially with Sarah's express instructions to bring Molly. It hadn't been that many months earlier when Sarah had dropped off the toddler, and warned that she would have to stay far away from both Emma and the little girl in order to keep them safe.
"Sarah, as wonderful as this is to meet Chuck and your friends, I have to wonder, what changed? Don't get me wrong, I couldn't be any more happy to be here. But how is it that Molly and I get to be part of your life now?"
"Well, mom, we owe that to Chuck," she said as she looped her arm through his elbow as he went to walk past. "He didn't give me any details, but he assured me that there is no way for anyone to possibly connect Molly to Prague."
"Chuck," Emma hesitantly started, "I can't thank you enough for making Sarah so happy, and for having us all together here, but the people hunting for Molly are very dangerous and very determined, not to mention very connected. Are you sure that our tracks are completely covered?"
"Emma," Chuck replied earnestly, "I wouldn't take the chance if I thought that there was any risk to Molly, or to you for that matter. But, as it turns out, San Diego General Hospital has all the records of your pregnancy-check-ups, blood tests, sonograms, ultrasounds. You name it." Ellie shot Sarah a discreet wink as she walked past to refill her wine glass in the kitchen.
Sarah, however, was stunned at the revelation. "You hacked the obstetrician's office? And Ellie was in on it?" With Ellie's medical background it would have been easy for her to educate Chuck on what types of records were needed.
"Umm, yes-kind of," Chuck said as he nervously looked away from Sarah. Emma suspected that Sarah didn't even know how much he had done for her family.
Sarah, however, narrowed her eyes, "Spill." Emma suspected that Sarah had intended her tone to be gruff, but it wound up coming out more awed.
Chuck spat out so fast that Emma had trouble keeping up, "I also hacked into the medical records for the hospital to show the room where Emma stayed, as well as the doctor and nurses in the delivery suite. Then I 'accessed' the billing department records and generated invoices to Emma's healthcare insurance provider for all the pre- and post-natal check-ups and delivery. I then showed payments from the insurance company to the hospital reflecting that there was no outstanding balance."
Chuck paused before once again focusing his attention on the toes of his sneakers, "I also ma-ay have hacked into CalHealth to note the birth certificate for Molly as well as all necessary check-ups and immunizations from birth to present."
Emma and Sarah were stunned at the thoroughness that Chuck had showed. Chuck, however, was oblivious to their reaction as he considered another facet of Molly's "birth". "Do you think that I should access the insurance company records to show receipt of the invoices and payments of the charges? I'd also need to avoid the risk of an audit by creating an offset so that the account balances evened out."
Chuck looked as though he was done with the revelations before perking up again, "Oh, and I went into the school system records to make sure that all the information there tracked with the Health Department records. What else? What else? Oh yeah! Molly also has a legitimate Social Security number now. Well, an illegitimate, legitimate Social Security number. But it's on the official rolls, and no one can tell that it wasn't generated when she was 'born' at San Diego General. Don't worry, Sarah, I back dated all the logs so that the system is convinced that the number was generated at the request of the hospital on the date of her birth. No one will be able to tell that she wasn't born in San Diego, or that the birth certificate isn't correct, or that the Social Security number wasn't created when she was born. I went over everything backwards and forwards, repeatedly. It's all tight."
"How can you do all of that? How could you get into any of those systems without tripping all sorts of alarms? That shouldn't be possible," Sarah practically whispered. Her new job with Lockheed gave her daily exposure to how secure those type of systems were.
"Tell her Chuck," Ellie ordered. "No secrets, no lies."
"Tell me what you're not telling me," Sarah says, almost fearful for what Chuck will say.
"Back in college, I may have done a little hacking. All white hat stuff. I didn't take any money or crash any power grids. More like, I accessed systems kind of like this, then sent the SysAdmin an anonymous note regarding holes in their security. No one got hurt, and no one knew it was me. The Piranha was a bit of a legend among hackers. He came back to life to help out Molly."
Sarah's mind reeled at the information she was hearing. Chuck was casually discussing not only hacking into some seriously secure systems, but altering those systems at the operating level without leaving any trace. If Homeland Security found out about what he did with Social Security, there would be hell for him to pay. If Casey found out, he would conscript Chuck into the NSA in a heartbeat. There were less than a handful of people in the world who could do what Chuck had done, yet he was acting as though it was no bigger a deal than ordering a vegetarian pizza with no olives.
The spy in Sarah was screaming that she had to tell the government about Chuck's skills. If he was that good at penetrating secure US sites, hacking most foreign governments would be child's play for him. He could be a game changer in the world of espionage. But then he would no longer be Chuck, her Chuck. A life-saving game changer in the world of Sarah Walker.
Sarah knew without looking that Ellie was watching her closely, anticipating this intense internal debate. Ellie had likely assisted with the medical records manipulation, directing Chuck in where to go, what to write. She would be implicated too, only she wouldn't hold value to the intelligence community. She would merely be a bargaining chip used to get Chuck to do exactly what they wanted him to do. The implication of that stunned Sarah. Ellie had an amazing career laid out before her, a not ironically awesome husband who was devoted to her. Yet Ellie had risked all of this for Sarah's "sister".
"This conversation never happened. Molly is and always has been my sister," Sarah practically whispered. Her voice might have wavered, but her expression was set. These people had just risked everything for her family. They were now family too. And she would protect them with everything that she had.
With an awkward lull in the conversation, Emma attempted to steer the conversation into safer grounds. She grabbed a small framed photo towards the back of the shelf of a bookcase in the living room. The pre-teen version of Chuck in the picture had mounds of distinctively curly hair atop his head. Ellie was nearby, and seated behind the children were an attractive couple.
"Were these your parents Chuck?" Emma asked, waving the picture in her hands. "I'm guessing from the lack of recent pictures that they are no longer with you? Your mother was a beautiful woman."
Sarah quickly snatched the photo out of her mother's hands, as she hadn't seen the new addition to the collection of pictures spread throughout the apartment. She was eager to learn any details about Chuck and Ellie's parents-especially given the paucity of information in the Secret Service bio on Chuck. Her eyes were drawn to Mary Bartowski, a distant memory trying to warn her of something. The woman in the pictures seemed slightly familiar, but that should be impossible.
"Ah, yes. Ellie was going through some old boxes and came across that. The fact is, Emma, we don't really know if our parents are still living or not. Mom disappeared not long after that picture was taken. That's actually the only photograph we still have of her. She always said that she preferred to be behind the camera instead of out front," Chuck noted as he shared a sad smile with Ellie over the reminiscent detail from their childhood. "Anyway, she disappeared a few days later. Dad was there for several more months before he didn't come home one day either. Ellie and I celebrated our own Mother's Day on the anniversary of the day our mom left us, thinking that we're all we've got and all we need. When Devon came along, we realized that we weren't really all that we've either got or need. We still celebrate the day, but now as a way to remember what family truly is."
Ellie paused while walking over to share a one armed hug with her brother, the still lingering pain of their parents disappearance was always muted with a brother-sister hug. She then looked at Emma with a slightly impish grin, "Emma, is it ok if Molly has a cupcake? And I should tell you that even if you say no, by the look on her face she's going to steal one anyway."
Emma let out a carefee laugh, "Of course it's ok. Although don't be offended if she doesn't eat the whole thing. While I have no doubt that your baking skills are as good as your amazing cooking skills, that little monster likes to just lick off the icing. We're still working on her learning not to put the cupcake back on the tray after she's consumed the frosting, but it's a work in progress."
Everyone laughed, except for Sarah, who frowned as she continued to stare at the picture frame in her hands. Sarah murmured, "Frosting…no…Frost! That's it. Chuck, I met your mom once when I was just starting out at the CIA. I was at Langley to meet with Graham, who was the Director of Operations at the time. He was meeting with your mom when I showed up. He joked with her that I had broken some of her records from the Farm. Frost is legendary at the Agency. Chuck, your mom is a spy!"
Chuck took the picture from her, staring at his parents (normally he did his level best to avoid looking at the picture). "I remember when we were little kids, Mom used to tell us bedtime stories about the adventures of the Frost Queen. I just assumed she was making the stories up in order to get us to agree to get into bed." Chuck went silent for a moment longer, slightly shaking his head. "Mom may have been a spy. But, spy or not, she left us. She may have had her reasons to leave, but in the end she chose job over family."
"It doesn't matter what my parents were, or even the reasons why they left us. The fact is, family sticks together. Ellie and Devon are my family, as is Morgan in his own Morgan-esque way." Chuck paused to wipe his hands quickly along the front of his pants before looking back at Sarah. "And I'm hoping that you, and Emma and Molly by extension, will be part of that family too."
"Sarah, while it's interesting to learn about my mother's past, Ellie and I have always been more focused on the present and the future when it comes to family. Ellie and Awesome are family. As much as Ellie tries to deny it, Morgan is for all intents and purposes family. We have been all we have, and all we need."
"But recently, that has changed. I know that we've only known each other a couple of months, but you have become family too. Ellie totally agrees with me by the way. Before the debate, I was worried because I already knew that I needed you in my life, however much you were willing to be. One of the happiest moments in my life was when you said you were coming to California to work.
"I know that thanks to the Secret Service, you knew all about Jill before you and I even met. What scared me by the time our cheesesteak lunch was over was that I had already realized that when I thought that I was in love with Jill, it was really a pale imitation of love. Back then, I think I was more in love with the idea of being in love than any real feelings I might have had for Jill. I didn't date much in high school, so my heart was pretty inexperienced in these matters.
"But my feelings for you came on so quickly that it was nearly overwhelming. The fact that you reciprocated those feelings seemed unreal, like I must be having a super long, amazingly lucid dream. A woman with your intelligence, dedication, bravery, general badassery not to mention looks having feelings for me still seems like some fairy tale come to life."
"The thing that convinced me that this was real was actually Ellie. She is an amazing judge of character, and before we left Delaware, she told me not to screw this up. She already thought of you as a close friend, and said that she would likely side with you if the two of us broke up, because she's convinced that I'm a bit of an idiot when it comes to women."
Sarah let out a nervous laugh at this, glancing over at Ellie whom she thought of as a close friend as well. The nervousness was over the one sided conversation she was having with Chuck. She had an inkling where the conversation was headed, but couldn't, wouldn't, allow her hopes to get too high, as she still found it amazing that the lanky nerd before her could fall for her-especially after she had told him about her work as Graham's enforcer, without going into specifics on the wheres and whens. If his heart had been inexperienced, hers had been a complete novice.
"I'm going to ask you a question now Sarah," Chuck said as he stood next to the dining room table. He could hear the squeal that Ellie was trying hard to keep in, but kept his focus on Sarah. He was aware of Emma watching them with rapt attention, wondering if he should have checked with her first even though they had literally just met. "I know that it has only been three months since we first met, but any time I think about my future, I see you with me. I've never been happier than I have during these three months, but you will make me even happier if you will be my wife."
Chuck took his rather damp right hand off of hers, while still clutching her hand rather tightly with his left as though he was worried that she might leave. He quickly wiped his hand on his pants before reaching into the chest pocket of his shirt and pulling out a diamond ring. The ring wasn't overly large, or ostentatious, but the diamond was flawless and was surrounded by a ring of dark blue sapphires. Sarah had never seen anything more perfect in her life, until her vision began to blur from unshed tears in her eyes.
"Sarah Lisa Walker, will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?" Chuck's voice waivered at the end, whether from the depth of his love for her or his nerves at the chance that she might say no.
Sarah opened her mouth to answer, but no sound would come out. She had been to a few weddings (while undercover on missions) and had seen tv shows and movies with women obsessing about being married and their weddings. She had never imagined her own wedding, the ugly duckling from high school and college always having been ignored by boys, and the beautiful woman being scarred by the number of kills she quickly racked up as her CIA career took off.
Sarah was completely caught off guard by the proposal. She knew that she loved Chuck with every part of her being, as he loved her. They worked so well together, and she couldn't have imagined anyone becoming such an integral part of her life. But outside of some random daydreams here or there, she hadn't thought about whether or when Chuck would propose for real. She saw Chuck's hand holding out the ring waver a little bit, and realized that she had been silent for a beat too long.
Sarah saw the panic enter Chuck's eyes as she stayed quiet, hating the fact that she was causing him pain by her inability to speak. Since she was always better with action than words, she decided to play to her strengths. She snatched the ring out of Chuck's hand and crushed him to her in a hug as her tears started flowing and she nodded as hard and as fast as she could. It seemed that her tears were linked to her vocal cords, because as soon as the tears started flowing she got her voice back, "Yes. Yes, a thousand times yes." She choked out as she started laughing in joy. She saw her mother covering her mouth with her hands as tears of joy ran down her mother's cheeks.
A moment later, Sarah heard a piercing squeal as she was quickly enveloped in a bone crushing hug from behind by Ellie. Apparently Awesome, Morgan and Molly had been oblivious to the event taking place just a few feet away until Ellie's shriek of joy. Before long, everyone was wrapped up in a huge group (family?) hug as the celebration began. Molly was thrilled that the big sister who she had rarely seen until recently was so happy. But Molly just about lost her mind when Ellie informed her that when Chuck and Sarah were married that would make Chuck and Ellie Molly's new brother and sister. Molly then let out a shriek of joy that nearly rivaled that of Ellie.
"Bartowski." Chuck's eyebrows wrinkled in confusion. "The name is going to be Sarah Bartowski."
After the celebration settled down somewhat, Ellie bumped shoulders with Chuck, "Third time's the charm, eh baby brother?"
Emma, while still on cloud nine between the news about Molly's safety and then being present for her daughter's engagement, was confused, "Third time? What am I missing here?"
Chuck tilted his head back and laughed out loud, "The first two weren't really under my control. First Sarah quoted Star Wars, and then Marvel Comics. The nerd in me couldn't help but beg her to marry me on the spot."
Sarah looked very pleased with herself for having playfully tormented Chuck at the beginning of their relationship. Then something dawned on her, "Hey, didn't I warn you that the next time you were supposed to get down on one knee to propose? Disobeying your fiancé already?" Man it feels good to call myself Chuck's fiancé.
Chuck got a glint in his eyes, "You are right. Here, you just take off the ring and give it back to me and I'll propose properly."
"No," Sarah practically shouted. "My ring. Mine. Not giving it back."
"Just wait, next thing you know she'll start referring to it as 'my precious.'" Chuck said as he smirked.
Sarah was confused. She assumed that this was another of Chuck's pop culture references that she rarely recognized, but she had no clue as to the context. Ellie, however, looked furious.
"Charles Bartowski," Ellie shouted through clenched teeth as Chuck seemed to shrink into himself. "Tell me that you did not just compare your future wife and my future sister to Gollum!"
"Oh crap," Chuck yelped as he jumped over the sofa to get some room between himself and an irate Ellie.
"Don't worry Sarah. I'll make sure Chuck treats you properly. Sisters have each other's backs. And you, Ms. Molly, this means that we are sisters now too," Ellie said in a much more calm tone.
"Yay," called out Molly, causing everyone to start laughing.
"Damn, bro," Awesome murmured to Chuck. "I thought that you were going to make Sarah a widow before the wedding." He then slapped Chuck on the back as he walked to refill his wine.
Sarah waited until everyone had settled down, until the last congratulations was uttered, before sitting Chuck down on the sofa and taking his hands in hers-still stunned to see the diamond on her left hand. She thought back to what Ellie had said earlier about no secrets and no lies. "Even before you put this ring on my finger, you were my guy. You're my Chuck. Because you are my Chuck, I can tell that there is more to the Piranha story than you shared with everyone out there. I know there is."
Chuck looked stunned for a moment, before ruefully shaking his head as if remembering that his fiancé used to be one of the top spies the US had fielded. Then he started to get fidgety, which made Sarah's nerves ramp up, even though she kept up a calm façade. Finally, he spoke while staring at a spot on the floor. "I saw how shocked you were at the systems I was able to penetrate and manipulate. And I know that you are very reluctant to discuss your CIA career in any detail. And I get that. I don't know all the things that you have done, nor do I need to. I know who you are today, and everything that you did leading up to today shaped who you have become. I just hate the fact that Graham turned you into an elite assassin."
"But the fact that you have had to do so many hard things in your life, and still managed to become such an incredible person amazes me. I'm in awe of you much of the time, and honestly I don't think that I'm worthy of you. But I love you, and as you seem happy to have me, I'm here. And when you are ready to talk, I am here ready to hear. Not to judge, just to understand you better. But I know who Sarah Walker is. And, every day since our breakfast fundraiser in Philadelphia I keep telling myself that I couldn't possibly love you any more than I already do, and yet every day you prove me wrong by getting me to fall even farther in love with you."
"Which is why I did a little more than I told everyone at dinner. I also access your CIA records. I didn't look at any of your reports, or details on any of your missions. I meant what I said when I said that I'm ready to listen when you are ready to tell me. Until you are ready to tell me, I don't need to know. What I did was get into your personnel file and modified some of the data on your mom. Nothing too obvious, just little details that could seem like transcription errors that were just never caught. Flipping around the dates in her date of birth, and changing the social security number listed for her by one digit. People have become overly reliant on computers-ironic that a tech guy is saying that- and don't double check the data used on searches. By tweaking her details in your folder, it would make it significantly harder for someone like Ryker to track her down. If he's still got access to the CIA database, it won't lead a trail of breadcrumbs straight to your mom and Molly."
Sarah was shocked, and more than a little frightened, that an outsider could penetrate into CIA systems presumed to be sacrosanct. But she wasn't scared that Chuck had read her reports or watched her mission logs. The fact that Chuck had said that he didn't do so was enough for her. She trusted Chuck. She didn't need proof, and even if she did, the fact that he wasn't running away from her in terror was a good sign that he had stayed out. This ability to have blind faith in another was so foreign, yet so exciting. She had never placed blind trust in another before Chuck, but then again she had never fallen in love either. It was fitting that she would experience both with her Chuck.
It was more proof to her how epic an event it had been that Ron Butterfield placed her on Chuck's detail and asked her to be his cover girlfriend. Her life seemed to have a clear dividing point: pre-meeting Chuck and post-meeting Chuck. She vastly preferred her life since she met and fell for the big nerd. She was also amazed at the lengths Chuck had gone in order to protect a woman and a toddler who he hadn't even met at the time. Chuck had done it for her, and it was a clear signal that he felt as strongly for her as she did for Chuck.
Chuck continued, "While I was in the CIA systems, I may have also looked into Ryker. Graham did put a burn notice out on Ryker, but just on his proper name. I accessed Ryker's file and got a list of his known aliases and the passports associated with those aliases. I didn't modify the burn notice. I'm not sure that I'd be able to hack that far into the system. Even if I could, and as much as I despise a man I've never met, I don't think that I could be responsible for issuing a death warrant like a burn notice. I know that Graham already issued one, but if I made it more effective, more likely to lead to Ryker's death, the responsibility would lie with me too."
"Instead, I issued a BOLO through Interpol with a photo of Ryker, and all of his names and passport details. There was already a hit with one of the passports being used recently to gain entry into Thailand. His file indicated that he had a contact named 'The Belgian' who operated deep in the heart of the jungle there. I fed the info on The Belgian and some stolen arms that he has into the system for the Thai Federal Police."
"I would prefer for Ryker to be arrested and face justice for what he did to Molly's birth parents. But if he was comfortable taking shelter with an evil guy who the Thai Police are after, then that is on Ryker if something bad were to happen to him," Chuck concluded.
Sarah took in a deep breath, trying to calm herself before speaking, "Chuck, I'm not going to tell you that you can't go into the CIA database to search for your mom. If you were to make one minor mistake everybody would be hunting for you. The number of layers of security on the systems you've already gone into is staggering. The risk that you could already be in danger terrifies me. The NSA has conscripted hundreds of hackers who were sure they wouldn't get caught. I couldn't count the number of young men and women who walk through the doors each morning at Ft. Meade, punching a clock until their indentured servitude is over."
"You are different. You are doing things those hackers would claim is impossible. Chuck, if the NSA were to catch you, they would dump you in some underground secure bunker in the middle of nowhere and wouldn't let you leave. Best case scenario- you'd never get to see Ellie and Devon, never get to meet your future either niece or nephew that Ellie hasn't told you about," Ellie gasped, causing Sarah to turn and face her. "Really Ellie? Did you forget that your soon to be sister in law was, until recently, a spy? That 'wine' in your glass is sparkling apple cider. And that book that you stashed away in your purse when we went out to dinner last night was a book of baby names."
"Chuck, it is likely, probable even, that the NSA or CIA would hold Ellie's involvement over your head to force you to do their bidding, while coming up with some cover story about your disappearance so that Ellie and Devon would never know where you went."
Chuck was torn. The prospect of finally finding out why their mom left them versus the incredible news that he would be an uncle. And a husband. Then he looked at Sarah, silently gazing into her eyes before sweeping his eyes from person to person before ending with a long look and a grin at Ellie's belly.
"We're all we've got," Chuck said, spreading his arms to gesture to the entire room, including Emma and Molly. "We're all we need."
Chuck was sitting on the edge of their bed, still marveling over the fact that Sarah Walker had agreed to marry him. He knew, without any doubt, that he loved her and that she loved him. But he still felt luckier than any man had a right to be when she had agreed to be his wife.
"Chuck," Sarah called out from the hallway through the closed bedroom door. He was fairly sure that he heard and "awesome" from Devon followed quickly by a shushing from Ellie and the sound of the front door closing. "I know that you said earlier that we are all that we need, but there is something that I think you need…or at least want."
"Is this one of those show me don't tell me kind of things?" Chuck asked, mostly kidding.
"Hmm, that's a good idea," Sarah replied, still on the other side of the closed door. Chuck was feeling a bit lost at exactly what was going on. "I had picked up a little something for a special occasion," Sarah continued. "And I can't think of anything more special than you proposing to me."
A broad grin spread over Chuck as he tried, once again, to wrap his head around the concept that Sarah was just as excited to marry him as he was to marry her. But her comments made him curious, confused yes, but more curious as to just what she had picked up and why she was talking to him through a closed door.
Just as he was wondering about the closed door, it quickly opened and Sarah stepped into the doorway. At that moment, Chuck died.
I must be dead. After all, there is no way that Sarah is standing in the doorway to my bedroom in a full Supergirl outfit unless I have died and gone to heaven. Plus, if I wasn't in heaven, there is no way that she would get her hair and the cape to ripple in the breeze like that when the Morgan door is closed (bolted shut after Sarah started spending the night and before any potentially awkward moment that could have resulted in her ending Morgan's very existence).
When Chuck and Morgan had been teenagers, they had solemnly taken an oath: no one but Margot Kidder could be Lois Lane; no one but Carrie Fisher could be Princess Leia; no one but Harrison Ford could be Han Solo or Indiana Jones (Morgan had wanted to add Dr. Richard Kimble, but Chuck was a purist); and no one, but no one, could be Supergirl other than Helen Slater.
Guess I'm going to have to break the oath on that last one, little buddy, Chuck thought to himself. Sarah Walker is now, and will forever be, the greatest Supergirl to ever wear the uniform. And she is most definitely both super and a hero, no matter what she is wearing. But especially when she's wearing that outfit, with those boots.
With a look of awe on his face, Chuck's brain to mouth filter malfunctioned, much to his embarrassment, "Am I to be the damsel in distress that needs to be saved?"
"Well," Sarah drawled out sexily as she slowly strutted into the room and crawled up from the foot of the bed causing Chuck's eyes to bulge in disbelief. "I know for a fact that you are no damsel." Sarah then reached over to run her fingers through his curls, "Although you do appear to be in distress. Let's see if there's anything I can do to save you."
Oh boy.