A/N1 The final chapter-cum-epilogue. I've enjoyed this comic book extravaganza. Thanks so much for reading and reviewing and PMing. You folks are great!
Don't own Chuck.
Too Old For This
CHAPTER TWELVE
Yarn's End
Back in Bozeman, life was quickly returning to normal. Beckman and Roan were staying at the safe house. She had taken a few weeks of vacation. They had been over last night for BBQ. Roan and Rider had always liked each other, but they'd never spent much time together, really. It was clear that they were going to be buddies. Beckman had come over wearing jeans and sneakers. Sarah had barely recognized her.
Casey had headed back to Gertrude. He said she really wanted that copy of Garden and Gun he had bought her, but it was past obvious he was missing her. He promised that he and Gertrude would both visit at Thanksgiving, with Morgan and Alex in tow.
Dr. Dreyfus had arrived last night, but late. Chuck had stayed up to make sure he got settled. Sarah and Chuck were sitting out on the deck, sipping coffee and tandem staring at the mountains. Sarah loved quiet moments with her husband, moments where she could revel in him and the life they had, the love they shared, but in which she did not feel any need to speak. She felt especially like just sitting this morning because after Chuck had gotten Dr. Dreyfus squared away, he woke Sarah for some noiseless but super-intense love-making. She was still loose-limbed and jointless this morning, disembodied.
Dr. Dreyfus had come to see Rider. They were supposed to start sessions this morning. So far, Sarah had seen no serious change in Rider, except perhaps for a touch of anxiety that she had not noticed before.
ooOoo
A few days later
Sarah saw Rider and Dr. Dreyfus get out of his rental car in the driveway. The two of them had been having sessions out of doors, hiking trails together in the mountains. Dr. Dreyfus, now certainly old, was far from infirm and he turned out to be a serious walker. He and Rider came in the house and Rider headed to the tv room and turned it on. He looked tired and happy. Sarah felt a lot better about Rider.
She had sandwiches and salads out on the deck, ready for lunch, and Dr. Dreyfus went out and sat down. Chuck was already out there, tinkering on the table with some gadgets Sarah did not recognize. She came out, a pitcher of lemonade in hand.
She sat it on the table and then took her seat beside Chuck. She felt a twinge of nerves. Dr. Dreyfus had not revealed anything yet about his talks with Rider.
"So, Doctor, how is he?" Chuck asked the question and Sarah reached out to take his hand in thanks.
Dr. Dreyfus smiled. "He's one of a kind, so far." He gave Chuck and Sarah a knowing look. "I believe he is going to be fine. Like you, Chuck, he can take a punch, if you will pardon that way of putting it. And like you, Sarah, he has internalized a remarkable amount of self-discipline. That's a powerful combination, although, like each of its contributing parts, it can create problems. But in this case, I don't think it has. He's handling it all. Oh, and I've seen zero evidence that the Intersect has left any traces in him."
Sarah exhaled. She realized she'd been holding that breath, in a way, since the jungle. "So, he's not...afraid of me?"
"Oh no, Sarah. Your son not only loves you, he deeply admires you. Both of you. No, he's not afraid of you, Sarah, or bothered by your Intersect, Chuck. But there has been a change: he is now afraid for both of you. Even though he figured out that Chuck's bedtime spy stories were edited versions of your stories, he never really confronted the life and death danger that the two of you lived in for so long, and have lived in again recently. That's all real to him now, and he has some sense-more than most children his age do-of how fragile his life is."
Sarah dropped her head. "He's lost his innocence."
"No, not exactly, Sarah," Dr. Dreyfus responded quickly, holding up one hand, palm out, and shaking it a little. "No, he's just come to understand that his innocence is a gift, not a right. He trusts you two. He believes you will keep him safe. He's willing, as we know, to do whatever it takes (that was his phrase I believe, he said Aunt Ellie liked to use it) to keep you two safe. He hasn't lost his innocence, he is just aware in a way that he wasn't before that he is innocent. It's a strange state for a little boy, but not a bad one, I think, and he is remarkably balanced. But then again, he is the offspring of two remarkable people." Dr. Dreyfus poured himself some lemonade as he finished, and grabbed a sandwich from the platter.
Sarah sat back. She looked at Chuck with a smile and he returned it, squeezing her had, still in his. Dr. Dreyfus was watching them when she turned back around. He finished the bite of the sandwich and then sharpened his glance.
"So, how are you two?"
Sarah was not sure how to answer the question. She wasn't sure how much Beckman had told him about...things.
Dr. Dreyfus solved the problem. "I know that Chuck kept the fact that he still had the Intersect from you, Sarah. Beckman explained that to me, and Chuck's reasons, as she understood them. How do you feel about all that?"
Sarah felt Chuck's fingers twitch. She gave his hand a squeeze, a hard one, and trapped it in hers. "I guess I understand it, even if it makes me...angry."
"What do you mean 'understand', Sarah?"
"I guess Chuck and I are still carrying vestiges of our earlier lives. Everyone does, I know, but ours are particularly...fraught. I carry Agent Walker with me as Chuck carries the early Intersect. And Chuck is afraid that Agent Walker will re-assert herself and that she will one day...leave." She glanced at Chuck. His eyes were damp. Hers became so too.
"Why does he fear that, Sarah?" Dr. Dreyfus was careful, kind.
"Because she still does re-assert herself sometimes, in moments where I am weak or overwhelmed."
"So, could she re-assert herself and cause you to leave?"
Sarah shook her head hard. "No. Absolutely not."
Chuck's head snapped as he turned it. Dr. Dreyfus grinned.
"And why is that?"
"Because she is in love with Chuck. She has been since almost the first moment she saw him. And my love for him is the...descendent of her love for him. I share it with her, like a family resemblance. We both...I don't like this way of talking, but I don't know how else to make it clear...we both love Chuck. Desperately. Exclusively." She giggled at Chuck, and he nodded, remembering. "Oh, and non-competitively." Sarah saw the adoration on Chuck's face. She should have made herself figure this out a long time ago.
"And you, Chuck, how are you adjusting to your new understanding of the Intersect? Do you still treat it as your...romantic rival?" Dr. Dreyfus chuckled. "Sorry," he said, catching himself, "that was unprofessional."
"But deserved," Chuck commented sadly. "No, I honestly think I am past that. I always believed the Intersect was a software parasite, this alien thing trying to change me, control me, that it deserved the credit for my life. That it was what mattered, not me." He glanced at Sarah. "But now I realize that although some of that was true of the later uploads, at least to a degree, it is not true of the first, decisive upload. The Intersect was made in my image. It is not a parasite, not alien, it's just more...me."
Sarah lifted Chuck's hand to her lips and kissed it. "And there can never be enough of you, sweetie, not for me. I love you."
Chuck blushed a little. "I love you too."
"And your anger, Sarah?"
"It's going, Dr. Dreyfus. It'll soon be gone. Maybe it already is. Thanks."
Dr. Dreyfus nodded in satisfaction. "Just talk to each other. Make it a ritual. Every night or every morning, take a few minutes together to talk. Sarah, when you feel things deeply, you fear them and so fear to put words to them. And you tend to be quiet, internal, anyway. And you, Chuck, well, you talk articulately and a lot, but you almost always avoid saying the hard things. Talk to each other. Chuck, help Sarah with the words. Sarah, force Chuck to face what matters. You two belong together, but that doesn't mean you get to be together, and happy, for free."
The three of them sat in increasingly comfortable silence for a few minutes, letting the conversation filter through them.
"Oh, Chuck," Dr. Dreyfus said suddenly, "any more bad dreams, dreams of spiders?"
Chuck shuddered and smiled simultaneously. "No, no spider dreams. Web free."
"And after Ellie's procedures to prevent anything like what Wheelwright did from happening again, any physical changes, mood changes? Headache? Depression?"
"No," Chuck said, "I've been fine."
"Very good." Dr. Dreyfus picked up his sandwich and began to eat again. He looked out at the mountains as he ate. "It's an amazing place. The sky. The blue just never ends. It embraces the horizons. Makes me feel like anything is possible…"
Chuck leaned close to Sarah, "That's what I feel every time I look in your eyes…"
She turned and kissed him hungrily. PDA-ban be damned!
ooOoo
Weeks later
As fall settled blanketed Montana in changing colors, Sarah found out she was pregnant.
Later that same day, Carina called with the news.
She was pregnant. For a few minutes, neither could stop laughing. To think that the two of them were pregnant simultaneously! Sarah was still laughing when she told Chuck. She knew how much fun this would be. Carina would be a great mother, no doubt; she already was to Simon. But she would be a miserable pregnant woman.
Sarah was looking forward to the banter getting started.
ooOoo
Still Later
Dr. Dreyfus came to visit once more early in November. He gave Rider a clean bill of health.
They were all in the living room, Chuck, Sarah, Rider, and Dr. Dreyfus. The day was cool. A fire was crackling in the fireplace.
Chuck was staring out the window, at a spider on a web that had taken up residence in a sheltered corner of the deck ceiling. Chuck seemed transfixed.
"What is it, Chuck?" Sarah asked.
"It's an Orb-Weaver spider, mom."
Sarah smiled. "Thanks, Rider. But I was asking your Dad what he was thinking about."
Chuck broke his stare and turned to the room. "Well, spiders, I guess. Everything that happened seems so unreal now, especially the...spidery...part. Only to me, I guess."
Sarah laughed with Rider and Dr. Dreyfus. "Yes, only to you, Chuck."
He sent her a mischievous glance and spoke in a creepy voice. "It's the curse of the Bartowskis."
"There is no curse, Chuck."
"That is exactly what She would say."
"And I am not Ayesha." She gave him the flattest look she could.
"I tell you," Chuck said, his face now in a wide smile as he looked at Sarah. "It is the curse of the Bartowskis!"
Sarah made a face, picked up a pillow from her chair, and even though she was getting a little older, she threw it at Chuck with perfect aim, hitting him right in his smile. She smirked at him as he blinked. Older, not old.
He reached out to the top of the couch and grabbed the navy blanket Sarah kept there for snuggling on cold Montana nights. He stood, swinging it behind him and holding it above his head, like a shroud or a cape. "The curse of the Bartowskis!"
Sarah made a face of mock-terror and got up from her chair, moving quickly behind it, away from Chuck. She squealed a little. He came stalking her, blanket billowing behind him, making haunting sounds.
"There is no curse, Chuck." He came closer. She backed up. He gave her his evil villain laugh. She backed up again. He started chasing her as she dashed from the room. "The curse, the curse!" On the couch, Dr. Dreyfus and Rider were laughing at the antics.
"You'll never catch me!" Sarah cried from the next room.
Chuck laughed again as he gave chase. "I know you are fast, Mrs. Bartowski, but you know that I always catch you in the end."
The End
Happy Halloween!
A/N2 I hope folks got some pleasure from this, my silly little Halloween tale. Thanks for reading. Final thoughts? Leave me a review, please!
