A/N: Sarah is back together with her family, but there are still loose ends to be taken care of. For now though, this is all about family and friends. There will be more intrigue and action later, but first our heroes need to unwind a little.
Naturally, I can't find words to sufficiently convey my thanks for your comments, insights and general support. Every little bit helps me improve the story.
Sarah was sitting on the couch, her parents on either side of her, all three huddled together, arms around each other and talking so quietly, that Chuck, sitting on the rug in the middle of the living room having been tasked with keeping Molly entertained, couldn't hear anything other than a low murmur of voices. His eyes had widened in terror the second Sarah thrust the baby into his arms and told him to keep her company while she talked to her parents. It must have showed, considering the chuckles it caused. Fortunately, the little girl was easy. He kept talking to her in funny voices and making silly faces, causing her to laugh, squeal and giggle.
"That boy's good for you, kiddo," said Jack, following his daughter gaze to the middle of the room. "Is he a colleague of yours?"
"He must have gone through hell while you were missing," her mother added. She and Jack now knew all about Sarah's real job, and she'd confirmed about having participated in the Philippines mission, but she was careful not to mention anything classified, like the Unit's secrets or the Omaha Project.
"Um, no, he's not a colleague. If you hadn't interrupted my story… Chuck is the one who spotted me on the beach in Palos Verdes the morning after the plane crash. He was taking a stroll around the local athletic club and I was lucky enough that he just happened to glance in my direction. The doctors said that another hour or two and I wouldn't have made it, but he saw me." She looked at her parents in turn and continued. "I know it sounds like a cheesy romance novel, but I owe a lot more than my life to Chuck. When I got out of the hospital, he got a lawyer pal of his to help me get provisional identification documents, asked around and helped me find a job, a place to stay and… and he was there for me no matter what. He became my best friend in no time at all. After that, it was easy to fall for him, just as easily as he fell for me, I suppose. In a way, losing my memory was a good thing. Before that, all I had to look forward to was another day at work. Now…"
"It doesn't hurt that he's really handsome either," remarked Emma.
"He's also great with Molly. Just look at them."
"She likes him too," said Emma, hearing the baby shriek happily when Chuck lightly tickled her sock-clad feet.
"She kind of took a liking to me when we first met, too. Remember when I called you for advice? I had faced hardened terrorists, but that tiny little thing terrified me. I was afraid I'd let her down and I was the only one she had."
Emma rubbed Sarah's back. "You two are going to make great parents someday."
"What?" Sarah screeched, taken completely by surprise.
"Hold on a second there, honey," said Jack. "First, I need to know more about this boy. For example, what does he do for a living?"
"He's an internet millionaire," replied Sarah. "He owns a company running several online gaming sites and has personally developed most of the games in them."
"Smart. I like that in a guy, especially one involved with my big baby girl. I guess he went to a pretty good school then."
"Yeah, Stanford," confirmed Sarah. "His sister and I are trying to get him to find the time to go back and finish his degree, though. He took a sabbatical to launch his company, but Ellie thinks he's put it off long enough as it is and I agree with her."
Jack leaned back and took a closer look at Chuck. Even though he'd just met the young man, he liked him well enough already. "Tell me something, Sarah. You've known him for a while now. How is he at work?"
"I've been to his office enough to know he's really good at his job. Why are you asking?"
"That boy's no schnook, sweetheart. He may surprise you and everyone else," Jack replied vaguely. He was sure he'd read the young man correctly. There was definitely more to him than it met the eye.
"He is surprising me, every day." She cast another fond look at her boyfriend, a wide smile appearing on her face when he blew a raspberry on Molly's tummy, making the little one shriek with laughter. She then got up and walked unsteadily over to her big sister.
"Tawah!" She grabbed two tiny fistfuls of Sarah's pant legs, making her understand she wanted to be picked up.
"I'm here, sweetie," she said, picking up her sister and placing her on her lap. "Did you have a good time with Chuck?"
"Tuck!" The giggles left Sarah with no doubt as to how much fun the little girl had been having in her boyfriend's company.
"You two are staying for dinner, I hope?" It wasn't exactly a question, even though it was phrased like one. Her tone, for one, brooked no argument.
"We're most definitely staying, Mrs. Walker," said Chuck, getting up from the rug. "I wouldn't dream of taking Sarah away from her much needed family time."
"Besides, I missed your cooking, Mom, even though I followed your recipes a few times. You see, even back when I was still trying to figure out who I was, I found your blog on the web completely by chance and bookmarked it," said Sarah.
"We had no idea at the time the blog belonged to you," added Chuck.
"Good. You two stay with Molly. Jack, come help me in the kitchen."
-o-
Molly crashed minutes later, so Sarah picked her up and laid her for a nap in her pack n' play. She turned to find Chuck staring adoringly at her and she realized that she had yet to tell him the story of how Molly ended up being adopted by her parents. So, she sat on his lap and told him. "I was terrified," she admitted towards the end of the narrative. "I am an experienced agent, but I had no clue of what to do with her and I was all she had," she said, repeating what she'd told Emma earlier. "So I called my Mom. She gave me heaps of advice over the phone, but I was relieved when I finally got to give Molly to her, because she was finally in good hands."
"No, Sarah," he objected. "She's been in good hands from the moment you first picked her up. Of course, your mother is a hell of a lot more experienced. But I guessed you were relieved not to have to change another diaper."
She scrunched up her nose and shuddered at the memory of the dirty diapers she'd had to deal with, but in the end laughed along with him.
Meanwhile, Emma was cooking with her husband's help, both of them occasionally stealing glances at the couple in the living room. "Look at them," she said. "I'm so happy for our big girl."
"Me too," he agreed. "She got lucky with Charlie." He smiled and leaned conspiratorially closer to his wife. "You know, I looked him up online when I went to the bathroom earlier. He's a stand up guy by all accounts."
"You must tell me sometime how you got to be so tech-savvy in your old age."
"Says the woman who decided to become a blogger out of the blue," he teased her back. "Ten to one Molly will be running digital rings around the both of us by the time she goes to preschool."
She nudged him playfully with her hip. "Just go set the table. I've got this."
-o-
Sarah forked another huge bite of her food into her mouth and chewed, humming in pleasure as her taste buds once more took a first class flight to gourmet heaven. She washed it down with a generous sip of her mother's homemade milkshake and speared another forkful of gargantuan proportions.
"It's not going anywhere, you know," said her father, grinning at her antics.
"Sorry Dad. I didn't realize I was so hungry." Of course, the reason why she was so hungry even after having pizza for a late lunch was sitting right next to her (they'd gone at it again – and again – after his parents left). She toed off a shoe and ran her bare foot up and down Chuck's calf. Other than a momentary stiffening of his back, he gave no outward indication of surprise.
"To be fair, I'm just like her every time either my mother or my sister cooks," he merely said. "This is fantastic, Mrs. Walker. I'm adding your blog to the favorites of my kitchen tablet the moment I get home."
"Chuck, just call me Emma. And you've got a tablet solely for your kitchen?"
"It's more convenient to have one there all the time," he replied in all seriousness.
"Chuck is such a nerd," laughed Sarah. "But he's right. It's convenient, especially since he has a big screen, heatproof, waterproof model mounted on a swing arm above the counter right next to the stove. I've used it myself a couple of times. It's better than fumbling around with cookbooks or printouts of recipes."
"You could use one, Emma," Chuck piped up. "Think about it. You can use it to take videos or still shots of your cooking and post them in your blog, among other things."
Emma thought about it for a moment. "This might actually be more convenient than having to either juggle both cooking utensils and a camera or shanghaiing you to help." Her husband never complained when he was assigned camera duty. In fact, he always looked forward to helping her work on entries for her blog when he had time, since it meant that a fantastic meal would inevitably follow.
"I'll take care of everything," Chuck promised her. A burst of laughter from Jack made them turn to look at him. In turn, he pointed to Molly and Sarah. Both looked like blonde hamsters with their cheeks puffed out, Sarah's from being stuffed with food and Molly's with air as she tried to imitate her sister's look. The little one's high chair was placed between her parents' own chairs, who took turns feeding her.
-o-
Shaw's nose wrinkled in disgust. Laszlo's lair appeared to be in an even worse state than the last time he'd been there. Seriously, the kid seemed to have no concept of tidiness. "We've got a serious problem," he announced without preamble.
Despite the seriousness of the situation, Laszlo appeared to be taking it lightly. "I know. Your buddy and most of his underlings ended up in the morgue. This can't be good."
"We'll talk about that in a minute. How much progress have you made so far?"
"You still want to go ahead with it?"
"There's more money in it for us, now that Decker is out of the picture. You see a setback. I see something we can turn into an opportunity. Besides, there's no way to tie Decker and his team to our project. Is there?"
"No," Laszlo shook his head. "I've managed to cover our tracks well. There's no mention of you being in California, for example. Hell, if anyone checks, you were and still are in Vegas."
"Las Vegas is still close to LA," Shaw pointed out.
"I took the liberty of manipulating your credit card records to show a reservation at the Bellagio, et cetera. It's your birthday tomorrow, isn't it? If anyone checks, you just wanted to celebrate in style, so you took a trip to Sin City on your vacation."
"You did what?" But the more Shaw thought about it, the more it made sense. He was supposed to be a man about town, after all, especially following his divorce.
"Moving on to more technical matters," said Laszlo, resting his feet on the edge of the desk, "I was able to write most of the code we need to add to the program, but with no access to the source codes I don't know how long the effects will last and if they'll be effective from the start."
"That might be a problem. Do you have any suggestions?"
"Running some tests would be nice. I need you to find me a few volunteers and a facility to test the upload and the function of the program. Can you do it?"
"I believe I can arrange something. You just keep on refining it. Oh, and did you come across any mention of this Walker broad?"
"Um, no, and it may not even be her real name. Someone, and I'm guessing the order came straight from the top, the Director himself no less, upped the security level for everything and redacted all reports of the Big Bear Lake incident. I did manage to access personnel databases though, and there's no active agent named Sarah Walker in them, so it's probably an alias."
Shaw nodded it made sense to him. Agents liked to use aliases all the time. Hell, he used a few all the time and the Agency had no idea about some of them. "From time to time, check to see if our secret is still safe. With any luck, Decker took it to his grave, but we can't afford any slip-ups, not at this stage, understand?"
"I know my job, Shaw. You just keep your end of the bargain."
-o-
"Don't be a stranger, you hear?" Emma told Sarah while saying goodbye to her daughter and Chuck. "She'll want to see you again," she added, nodding towards the sleeping girl in her arms.
"I'm not going anywhere. In fact, I was ordered to stay in LA for a while, so I'll be seeing you three frequently."
"We're also available for babysitting duties should you need us," added Chuck.
"Thank you, Chuck. We do have a regular babysitter, but we'll call you if necessary."
"Yes," said Jack. "Carina even insisted on running a background check on her and the other candidates and was right here with us for the babysitter interviews. She likes the Munchkin and spoils her every time she comes to visit."
"Crap!" Sarah exclaimed, slapping a hand on her forehead. "I totally forgot to call her!"
"Call her," her mother encouraged. "If anything, she'll tell you all about the memorial service at Langley and you can have a good laugh over it. She went there with your father, you know."
Sarah checked her watch. "It's kind of late now, but I'll call her tomorrow. Goodnight." She hugged her parents again and placed a gentle kiss on the sleeping baby's head.
"So, are you going to tell me who this Carina is?" Chuck asked as she drove them back to his place.
"She's my best friend," replied Sarah. "No, friend is not good enough to describe our relationship. She's practically my sister. We lived right next to each other growing up and we were practically joined at the hip, since neither of us had siblings. She's a couple of years older than me, but it didn't matter. To her I was the little sister she'd never had and she was always trying to be a proper big sister for me."
"And the fact that she gets along with your new sister must make you very happy."
"Immensely," she agreed. "Now, I want you to promise me something." She didn't let him speak before continuing. "I don't want Ellie to freak out more than she already has, so you won't mention anything about what happened at the lake, OK?"
"Sure, but we've got to tell her something."
"Just leave everything to me." She patted his knee reassuringly.
-o-
The moment the two set foot in the courtyard, they were intercepted by Ellie. "Finally, you two are back," she said, pulling them both into one of her big hugs.
"Ellie, all we did was take a road trip," said Sarah, keeping her voice normal.
"Yeah, but then Casey said you were a spy and that your identity may not be real and…"
"It's real," Sarah interrupted her. "Sarah Walker is my name, has been since I was born. I also have some good news to share with you. I remember everything. My memory came back this morning."
"I'm so happy for you!" Ellie squealed and hugged Sarah tighter.
"Hey guys, welcome back," said Devon, coming out of his and Ellie's apartment.
"Thank you, Captain," said Chuck. "So, Casey told you about Sarah, huh? Well, it was a surprise for me too and a nice one at that. I have the coolest girlfriend in the world, don't you agree?"
"I, um, I plead the Fifth?" After all, Ellie was all kinds of cool, not the same as Sarah Walker, but really cool nonetheless. "But you're right; Sarah is cool."
"Good answer," grinned Ellie and nudged her boyfriend with her elbow. "I've saved some dinner for you."
"Sis, there's no need. We had dinner with Sarah's family."
"You have a family? Then why didn't they report you missing? It would have saved you a lot of hassle," commented Ellie.
"Actually, it's kind of complicated. And this is not the place to talk about it, so let's take it inside," suggested Sarah, taking Ellie's arm and leading her towards Chuck's apartment.
She and Devon followed obediently, but the moment Chuck closed the door behind the four of them, they leaned forward in unison, eager to hear Sarah's story. "We're listening," said Ellie.
"No one reported me missing, because everyone thought I was already dead," she said. "You see, I was in the plane that crashed into the ocean the night before Chuck found me. It happened far enough from shore to be considered impossible to survive a night in the water, but I was lucky. I climbed on some floating debris and got close enough to the coast to swim the rest of the way on my own. Frankly, it's still a blur and I don't remember exactly when I hit my head, but this is about as much as I can tell you. I hope you understand, because a lot of classified stuff is involved here."
Ellie and Devon looked at each other before turning to Sarah and nodding in understanding. "I believe it's enough," said Devon. "Your folks must be relieved, too."
"My Mom almost dropped my sister when she saw me in front of her alive and well."
"You have a sister?" Ellie and Devon asked in unison.
"She's adopted. She needed a home and I entrusted her to my Mom. My Dad was also eager to help." Sarah fished in her pockets for her phone and proudly showed Ellie and Devon the pictures of Molly she'd taken. "Her name is Molly."
Ellie oohed and aahed over the photos of the baby girl. "She's so cute. She looks a lot like you and your Mom, too."
"Thank you. By the way, I met your parents today." She blushed as she remembered the circumstances of the meeting.
"Did my Dad say or do something embarrassing?"
"Um, no, actually Chuck and I had been… you know… celebrating… just before they came to visit. But I recognized them immediately. You and Chuck clearly took after them."
"That must have been awkward," mused Devon.
"Awkward doesn't even begin to cover it, Captain," Chuck piped up.
"I can imagine," he said sympathetically, patting Chuck on the back. "My parents almost caught Ellie and me in the act once, so I know the feeling too well."
"What's going to happen now?" Ellie pressed on. "Are you going back to the CIA?"
"About that… My boss asked me to stay in town in case my help is needed for some things I can't talk about, so no, I won't be heading back to Langley anytime soon." Truth be told, Sarah wasn't sure she wanted to stay with the CIA. She was certain of one thing though: She needed to help Casey unravel the full conspiracy Ryker, Delgado, Decker and the Shaw character had been part of. In doing so, she would also ensure her family's safety, because the last mentioned rogue agent now knew her.
"Good," said Ellie approvingly. "But if you decide to go back to work, try not to let anything happen to you again. We all love you and we want you to keep being an important part of our lives, understand?"
Tears welled up in Sarah's eyes and she hugged Ellie tightly. "I promise," she said simply.