A/N: In writing this, I reread the original Sarah vs the Life Unexpected and it's sequels. In one of the very first author notes I said the following, " I don't know how good I am at fluff" Think I should tell me? Get your Kleenex. Ch 5, The Party

Disclaimer: I don't own Chuck

Sarah sat in bed, waiting for Chuck to join her. She had avoided him most of the day. It's not that she wanted to. She knew if she tried to talk to him, it would all come pouring out, and she wasn't sure how he would react. He walked into the bedroom and saw her sitting there, under the covers. She smiled at him and his brow furrowed.

"I've had the weirdest feeling you've been avoiding me all day," Chuck began and then saw the guilty look on her face. "Sarah, what have I done?"

She shook her head, a warm smile covering her face. "Nothing, it's just I needed to tell you something from my past and it's important, and I needed us to be alone when I did."

"Hey, you don't have to, in fact, if it's gonna upset you-"

"Chuck, it's not going to upset me as much as, I need to tell you this so you can help me with something, okay?" Chuck nodded. She patted the bed beside her. "Sit. I think you'll like this story."

"Oooo, oooo, are there robots or aliens, or is this a spy story?"

"Calm down, you goof," she said, jostling his hair as he clamored into the bed. "It's a story of my childhood." The look on his face was priceless. There were so few stories she had told him as a kid that he knew what it meant for her to tell him one.

"When I was eleven, Dad had been lying low for a while, because of a bank job in Montana. However he decided it was time to run a big con. A huge one. We had been traveling and saw everywhere we went collections being taken up for sick kids, and dad decided to hold a huge party on an abandoned farm."

Chuck gave her a look, and sat up. "What year was this?"

"1994, Chuck," Sarah replied. Chuck nodded. "So we had this party, and we charged $20 a person, and no one said anything because the money was going for a kid with cancer. The DJ even played for free. We got food and refreshment's donated, all because Dad was a smooth talker.

"Dad had found pictures of a little girl that actually had cancer and had posted pictures everywhere. It was horrible, Chuck. It was one of the first times I really knew Dad was doing bad things, and I was in a bad place that night. We had been running all over the country, changing our names all the. At that time, I was calling myself Jenny Burton, a name I would go back to later."

"I'm so sorry, Sarah, but I don't understand," he admitted. She rubbed her hand against his face.

"Of course you don't, but you will." He nodded. She took a deep breath. "So I was to take the money, but as the night went on, fewer and fewer people were coming in. I noticed there was a brother and sister there. The sister seemed to be relaxing, and the brother…something was bothering him. Something was wrong."

"Sarah?"

"Let me finish, Chuck." Her eyes plead with him, and he nodded. "I walked over to him. He was about my age, maybe a year old. Tall, like he had hit a growth spurt and his body wasn't quite sure how it was supposed to look yet." Chuck blushed and looked away. She was silent until he looked back. "And then I saw those eyes. They were soft chocolate, and they held pain. Pain that he didn't deserve. I still don't know how I knew that, but I did. I asked him a question, one that changed my life, I just didn't know it at the time. I asked him why he was so down."

"My mom left, and my dad keeps leaving," Chuck said softly. Sarah nodded, tears in her eyes. "The only person I have is my sister."

"Does your sister have to stay with you?" Chuck shook his head. "Do you have any friends?"

"Morgan," Chuck answered softly. "He's the one that's been with me ever since my mom left."

"Then I'd say you're pretty lucky," Sarah said, looking into his eyes. "Because someone chose to love you and chose to care for you."

"I guess you're right," Chuck replied. He shook his head. "Oh my God, Sarah. That's the exact thing I said to Molly in daycare!"

Sarah nodded. "But that's not the whole story. I held out my hand and said, 'Hi, my name is Jenny.' But Chuck, that was the cover name I used at that time, and again later."

"Damn it! Jenny Burton! I should have gotten that. How could I have forgotten?"

"Your dad left a few months later is how," Sarah gently reminded him. Chuck nodded. "You remember we talked most of the night and you said you had to go find your sister?" He nodded again. "She had been watching us. I went over to the register and got out $40 and was going to give it to you, when she walked up to me. She looked me right in the eye, scared the crap out of me, and she HUGGED me, Chuck. I mean she HUGGED ME!"

Chuck began to laugh. "That's Ellie."

"She said she could never thank me enough for what I had done. I had given her her brother back. I told her that I was sorry we had to meet like this, and she said, why, it's for a good cause." Sarah took a deep breath. "I told her the truth and gave her back the $40. She just looked at me for a minute, and said that I owed her, and I was gonna pay up right then. She said she deserved to know the name of the girl that made her little brother so happy."

Sarah was quiet a second, and when she spoke it was very soft. "I could have told her so many things Chuck. So many. She wouldn't have known. But I told her my name. I told her I was called Sam."

Chuck's eyes shot open wide. "What?"

"Sam, Chuck. My birth name was Samantha Lisa Burton."

"Sarah, are you saying…are you saying my sister always thought that we belonged together?" Sarah shrugged. "Sarah?"

"Don't you find it weird that what cheered you up, cheered Molly up all those years later?" She was looking into his eyes, smiling at him. "Don't you find it weird our entire relationship, crazy? In a good way?"

"Wow," Chuck said, lying back. "Just, wow."

"Chuck, I need to take tomorrow off, for me, this has been a lot."

"No problem, Baby," he said, pulling her into him arms. She lay there, content, but thinking about those last lines of the letter.

Follow your heart.

Answer honestly.

Love him.

Swallow your pride.

Even when you want to throttle him.

Be there for each other.

Or else face the consequences.

Time is fleeting.

Tomorrow isn't promised.

Or any other moment.

Memories are everything.

Say what's in your heart.

And he'll love you for it.

Make every second count.

FALSEBOTTOMSAM were the letters the first letter of each sentence, broken up it read FALSE BOTTOM SAM. There was a false bottom in the box that held the letters. What was there? Did she dare look? How could she not?

"Tomorrow, Ellie. Tomorrow I'm going to talk to my sister," she thought to herself.

A/N: Am I doing this right? Reviews and PMs, always welcomed. Take care, until next time.

DC