A/N: Christmas in October. And this from a guy who becomes totally annoyed by anything Christmas-related before Thanksgiving. Sorry, guys. The problem is that this is just where this chapter fell and I didn't want to hold it or rearrange things. So, for any readers who agree that it is unacceptable that Christmas is becoming a 13 month long holiday, please believe me that my heart, at least, is in the right place. Oh, and I do not expect to receive ownership of Chuck in my Christmas stocking.
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Some part of Chuck's sleeping brain was able to keep track of whether Sarah was in bed with him. Her movement and the slight lifting of the mattress would register deep in his subconscious. Asleep as he was, he knew she was still in bed, but there was something different. She wasn't snuggled up to him, keeping herself and her feet warm. Experimentally, he opened a single eye just a little bit. Sarah was sitting on her side of the bed crosslegged and just watching him sleep. Her hair was mussed from sleep, but her blue eyes were sparkling. She had a fun, warm, expectant, impatient look on her face.
"Oh, so you're finally up," she said with a happy smile. "Merry Christmas."
"What time is it?" he asked.
"6:35. I was going to wait until 7 to wake you, sleepy-head. Don't you want to know what Santa brought you? What's under the tree?"
"You're like a little kid," he said, smiling at her warmly. He loved her so much.
"I can't remember the last time I had Christmas...a Christmas celebration. I normally really hate Christmas. Hate it. I've flat out ignored it most years. And before that...well, let's just say I have no happy memories to fall back on. But this time, I'm really excited for some reason," she bubbled and bounced a little on the bed.
Chuck started laughing softly. "I can tell. I told you a Bartowski Christmas was heartwarming."
"So?" She ran a soft hand through his curls, one of her absolute favorite things to do. "Presents?"
He smiled at her, happier than he could ever remember being. Just a few short months ago he had been wallowing in his post-Stanford, post-Jill funk, and now ...now...he was really, really happy. He was a graduate (with distinction) from Stanford. He was doing something with his life that was incredibly satisfying, really helping people. And he was in the most wonderful loving relationship with the world's most amazing person. It boggled his mind how much had changed in just a few short months to leave behind five years of suck. He smiled broadly and laid a gentle hand on the inside of her thigh and said, "Well, I think I have an idea what my very first Christmas present of the day is going to be..."
She grinned down at him and giggled, "Oh, you do, do you? Hmmmm. What if that's actually my first Christmas present of the day? Huh?" She bent over and kissed him, still grinning.
It was after 7:30 by the time they made it out of bed.
She pulled on long flannel jumper pajamas, ones complete with little feeties. He just pulled a tee shirt over his PJ bottoms. Sarah immediately went to the Christmas tree and plugged it in, marveling at how nice it looked and how much fun she'd had decorating it with the Bartowskis.
Next, they went to the kitchen and started a big pot of coffee. Sarah said, with an impatient pout, "When do I get my presents?"
"After breakfast, my impatient but adorable girlfriend."
She giggled again. Rumpled, sleep tossed, without any make-up at all, and wearing her silly pajamas, Chuck thought she was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen. He smiled at her and said, "I love you so much right now."
"More than a little while ago?" she asked with a salacious grin, cocking an eyebrow.
"I don't know. Maybe," he said.
She leaned over and gave him a quick kiss. "If I have to wait til breakfast is over, then let's get cracking."
"Kay."
She took out grapefruit, blood oranges, ruby red grapefruit, tangerines, and meyer lemons, peeled them and began to slice them into rounds while the oven pre-heated. Once they were ready, she put them aside and began to mix the dry ingredients for the Dutch Baby, a giant sweet puffy pancake cooked in a single pan. By the time the oven was hot enough, Chuck had finished mixing the ingredients for a bacon, egg, and cheese casserole.
Devon came out of his room and said, "Morning, guys. Do I smell coffee?"
"You do, Dr. Woodcomb. Merry Christmas. Breakfast in ten," said Sarah, pouring him a cup of coffee. "That work for you guys?"
"Awesome. I'll let Ellie know," he took his coffee and meandered back to his bedroom.
Ellie came out and squealed when she saw Sarah's cute PJ's. Chuck and Sarah laid out the breakfast as Ellie and Devon sat at the table. Bacon, egg and cheese casserole. Dutch Baby. Citrus Salad with a little prosecco and some blanched almonds on top. Ellie and Devon oohhhh'ed and ahhhh'ed at the meal. Ellie attributing all of Chuck's newfound cooking skill to Sarah's beneficial influence.
After the table had been cleared, it was time for presents.
Ellie said, "You two go first."
"Ok. Chuck, you first," said Sarah. She reached under the tree and took out a small box. "This is for you." She handed it to him.
He shook it and said, "Ok. Not a basketball." He opened it to find a small red jewelry case. Opening the case, he found a pair of silver cufflinks with actual circuit boards as the design. "Oh, my God. These are so cool. Circuit board cufflinks. That's great. I love them."
Sarah looked like she would pop from happiness. "Really?"
"Yeah. They're fantastic. Thank you, sweetie." He reached for her and gave her a kiss.
"Well, I have a boyfriend who's an electrical engineer, I thought he should have cufflinks that show that off. We'll go shopping for shirts with French cuffs."
"That's awesome, Sarah," said Devon, with his typical enthusiasm.
Chuck said, "Ok. Your turn." He picked up a small gift bag and handed it to her. She reached inside and found a small black cloth drawstring bag.
She opened the little black bag and spilled a silver charm bracelet onto her palm. Ellie made a small strangled sound and put her hand to her mouth. Her eyes began to fill. Sarah glanced at her, a little confused. Holding it up, she said, softly, "Oh, Chuck, it's lovely."
Chuck said, with a small smile, his eyes warm and loving, "I'm glad you like it. It's good luck. It was my mother's. My father gave it to her when Ellie was born."
Ellie began to cry, all the while smiling a happy smile.
Looking back and forth between brother and sister, Sarah said, "Oh. Oh, my God." Sarah immediately understood that the significance of the gift dwarfed its value as a mere piece of jewelry. She started to cry a little herself. "Thank you. Thank you, Chuck." She pulled him into a hug and kissed him. She got up and went to Ellie, "Can you help me put it on?" Ellie, still crying, put the bracelet on Sarah's wrist, then immediately wrapped her in a crushing bear hug.
"Sister," she whispered to Sarah.
"Sister," Sarah whispered back. Both women pulled apart a little and grinned at each other, then went back to hugging. Sarah pulled back and said, "I'm leaving Chuck out of the hugging and he's the one who gave it to me."
Ellie separated and shoo'ed Sarah with the back of her hand, "Go."
Sarah launched herself back at Chuck and kissed him soundly. Tears in her eyes, she said, "I love it. Thank you so much." She perched herself in his lap, waggling her new bracelet in his face, kicking her pajama clad feet in the air and said, gleefully, "Ellie, your turn."
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Langston Graham was sitting in his easy chair eating caramel popcorn with his grandson, Jimmy, while they watched It's a Wonderful Life. Kevin might be grumpy about his spot at the Pentagon, but Graham was happy to have him in DC and close to home. It was a joy to see his grandkids regularly. His cell phone rang and he smiled as he answered it, putting the TV on pause. "Hi, Sarah."
"Hi. Merry Christmas."
"Merry Christmas. What are you up to?"
"I'm at Chuck's. We exchanged presents this morning. We're cooking for dinner tonight. Casey is baking some pies for dessert. And we're about to start a Twilight Zone marathon. How about you?"
"Watching TV with Jimmy."
"It's a Wonderful Life?"
"Of course. Want to say hello to him?"
"Sure. Put him on."
Graham turned to his grandson and said, "It's your Aunt Sarah. She wants to say Merry Christmas."
Jimmy looked up with big eyes and said, a little hesitantly, "Aunt Sarah?"
"Yeah," said Graham. "Say hi."
He took the phone from the older man and said, "Hi." He listened for a moment and, laughing and looking at his grandfather, said "Yeah, he is." Jimmy dissolved into a fit of giggles. Graham stuck his tongue out at the boy, which just made him giggle more.
From the other room, Anna called out, "Who is it?"
Graham responded, "Sarah."
Anna rushed in, wiping her hands on a dish towel, "I get her next, Jimmy."
Graham thought about Team Bartowski and smiled to himself. Sarah and her team had had another huge success, wrapping up Kirk, who had proven to be a very bad man, and taking Chen out of play. Taiwan was going be a lot calmer with that rabble-rouser off the gameboard. He'd have to call his opposite number at the MSS to thank him again for the lead. He chuckled a little. Major Casey had certainly been more than satisfied when he had overruled Diane (it was CIA stake money after all) and told the Major to use Chuck's winnings at the blackjack table to buy himself a new car. It might have been one of the reasons Casey had called him directly, without his teammates or Beckman on the phone, with his proposed solution to the problem of Sarah running seduction missions in the future. Graham had thought it a perfectly fine idea and told the Major that he would put the wheels in motion.
It was almost two hours later that Graham got the phone back. Sarah had talked to Anna, tried to talk to the baby, spent a long time with Kevin talking about flying (as usual), some time with Kevin's wife, Mickey, and almost a full hour with Karen. She had apparently promised, multiple times, to bring Chuck to the house for a visit the next time they were back east.
By the time he got to talk to her again, she had to run off the phone to help the Bartowski clan prepare dinner. But...as she was signing off she said, "Umm... uh... Merry Christmas." She never could say 'love you,' but he knew she did.
He responded, "Love you. Merry Christmas, Sarah. Thanks for calling."
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Devon, Ellie, Chuck, Sarah, and Casey raised their glasses. Devon said, "Merry Christmas." They all repeated, "Merry Christmas," and clicked their glasses together. Sarah's new bracelet glittered in the candlelight.
Dinner was a big affair. A shaved brusels sprout salad (with apple and walnuts), glazed ham, cheesy hasselback potatoes, creamed spinach, roasted radishes (with anchovies), and popovers. For dessert, Casey had made a ginger/mixed berry pie and his ever-popular apple pie. Chuck had remembered the cheddar cheese this time.
Morgan was with Lou and some friends of hers, but told Chuck that they would try to come by after dinner to exchange gifts. He said he couldn't possibly miss the Bartowski eggnog.
After a while, the conversation drifted to politics. Devon said, "I don't see how it can't hurt Romney. I mean, he was a big donor. There are pictures of the two of them grinning at the camera with their arms around each other. I'm sure he'll lose some of the women's vote as a result. And all Kirk's other political friends are running for the hills as fast as their feet can carry them. Claiming they barely knew the guy."
"Maybe Romney will lose some votes," said Ellie. "But he did take all the money Kirk contributed to his campaign and donate it to battered women's shelters around the country. That was a lot of money."
"You don't think it's too little too late? I mean he'd have been happy to keep the money when Kirk hadn't been caught."
"Oh, I don't think that's true, honey. It's not like anyone knew this guy was bad. Your question sort of supposes that people were perfectly happy to keep working with him while knowing he was a murderer. I don't think anyone knew."
"Did any news channels air that tape of the murder in Taipei?" asked Chuck.
"I don't think so," said Casey. "They all decided it was too graphic. I'm sure it will end up online someplace, though."
"I'm not sure I would say nobody knew he was bad," said Sarah. "I heard he had a pretty unsavory rep in Vegas. They are saying that he was so well-connected in town that everyone just ignored the signs. There's talk that the DOJ is going to begin a corruption investigation of the Vegas city government."
"Probably because the local government is Democratic," said Casey, with no small amount of cynicism.
"Yeah," said Devon. "You guys were just in Vegas for that Buy More thing. Did you hear anything about this while it was going down? I mean it must have been a huge deal there. Shoot out in the desert. A Taiwanese politician counterfeiter using real currency paper. Two Secret Service agents killed. It sounds like it's right out of a movie."
"No," said Chuck. "It all happened the night before we left. By the time it would have been news, we were already on the road."
"Oh, yeah, the road. Sorry about your car, John," said Ellie. "Will the insurance pay to replace it? The accident wasn't your fault."
"Yeah. Full replacement value. I'm going car shopping next week," he said. "Another Crown Vic, of course."
"Well, thank God your injuries weren't too bad," said Ellie. "Just bumps and bruises." She looked at the fading bruises on his face.
"Yeah, well, I bounce pretty well," he said, taking another sip of a particularly delicious Grgich Chardonnay.
"I'll have to get you all out white water rafting, then," said Awesome, laughing. "That's got a lot of bouncing."
"But back to Kirk for a second," said Ellie. "Do we really think they'll extradite him to Taiwan for the murder of that poor woman? Won't we want to keep him here?"
Casey said, "My guess is they'll try him here for the counterfeiting and the murder of the agents and, once he's convicted, only then hand him over to the Taiwanese for trial."
"I thought the murder of the agents was Chen's people," said Devon.
"One conspiracy. They are all tagged with all the crimes of all the conspirators. Even the paper guy from Massachusetts," said Casey.
"Either way," said Chuck. "Either here or in Taiwan, that asshole Kirk is going to end up in a small gray cell for the rest of his life." He spoke with uncharacteristic venom.
"Damn right," said Casey.
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A/N2: So that's that. Next up is a non-canon arc set in Hungary. This will be my first time trying a totally non-canon story, so I hope you guys like it. Remember, I can't respond to reviews or PM's yet, so please be patient with me.