A/N: Thank you again for all the wonderful reviews. I am new to writing and have really enjoyed the process. All help is greatly appreciated. Please read and review. As always I do not own Chuck
Ellie pulled up in front of Echo Park. She couldn't believe that she was back so soon. She was just starting her new life in Chicago, and just like that she was back. Not that she minded she would do anything for her brother. A sense of fear crept over her as she approached the apartment. She was afraid of what all of this might bring. What if she couldn't help, or if she found something worse. She couldn't stand the thought of breaking Chuck's heart. She remembered him just weeks ago lying on her and Devin's couch and the heartbreak written across his face. She remembered how bad things were for Chuck when Jill broke his heart, but she knew this would be so much worse. Sarah was everything to Chuck. Ellie took a deep breath she was going to help any way she could. Chuck and Sarah deserved that much. She took another deep breath to calm her nerves and gave the door a knock.
Ellie was pleasantly surprised when Chuck opened the door with a gigantic smile on his face. "Ellie, I am so glad to see you. Thank you for coming it means so much to Sarah and I." Chuck said as he took his sister into his arms.
"Chuck you know us Bartowski's we do anything for family." Ellie said with a smile. Ellie couldn't help but look at Chuck with amazement. This was such a different person than five years ago. Yes he needed a little push to go after Sarah, but once he got the push he jumped right in and didn't look back. When Ellie and Chuck had spoken on the phone she figured Chuck was giving her a false since of how good everything was going, but now seeing him she could tell he was filled with hope. "So where is Sarah?" Ellie asked looking around for her sister-in-law.
"She went to run a few errands and should be back any moment." Chuck responded as he grabbed Ellie's stuff. Chuck ushered Ellie in and closed the door behind her. He was so glad to have his sister here to help. He knew she would stop at nothing to do what was best for him and his wife. "I almost have dinner ready would you like a glass of wine while we wait for Sarah?" Chuck asked.
"Sure that would be great." Ellie walked over to the couch and had a seat. She was glad to have a moment alone with Chuck. She figured that would be the best way for her to truly gage how Chuck felt and what was going on. She knew her brother and protecting Sarah was always going to be his first priority. "So how is everything going?" Ellie stated as she took her glass of wine from Chuck.
"Really well all things considered. Sarah is remembering some things here and there, and more importantly she is willing to stay here and work on them." Chuck looked at his sister and could since she wanted to ask more. "What is it Ell? I know that look and you want to dig deeper don't you."
"Not really Chuck I just worry about you. I am your big sister it is part of the job. I want you and Sarah to be happy and I can only imagine how difficult this has all been. I just want to help prepare you for everything. I have seen people go through similar things, all be it not caused by a secret government super computer, but it can be a long road." Ellie looked at Chuck trying to gauge his reaction to her comments.
"Actually it is funny you say that. Morgan and I talked about that this morning. I will admit that I am ecstatic that Sarah is back and that she is willing to work on things, but it is hard having your wife right next to you yet feel like she is so far away." Chuck looked at Ellie hoping that her words of wisdom could shine through like they had so many times throughout his life.
"Chuck that is perfectly normal, and don't beat yourself up about having those feelings. It's like I have said before Sarah is special. You and I both know that, and she is worth fighting for." Ellie just smiled at Chuck and took his hand. "So how has the memory recovery been working so far?"
Chuck started telling Ellie about all the instances where Sarah had regained her memories. Talking about the moment at the dream house, Irene Demova, the beach, and all the other moments since they left the beach. Ellie just listened intently taking mental notes. She wanted to ask Sarah the same question and compare their answers. Obviously Sarah's answer carried the most weight since it was all happening to her, but Chuck's answer also helped. It gave Ellie an outside view of the process. Chuck could relay the looks on Sarah's face and the emotions she seemed to be showing. When Chuck finished talking Ellie took a moment to process everything.
"It seems to me that her emotions are the key. In most instances she had a feeling come over her first and then a memory that was attached to that emotion came back to her. I have a theory about a couple things, but I want to wait until Sarah is here so we can all discuss them together. I will want to run some tests and see what we find."
"What kind of tests?" Sarah asked as she closed the door behind her.
"Hi Sarah it is so good to see you." Ellie closed the gap between them and took Sarah in a bone crushing embrace.
Sarah was a little shocked by the overwhelming affection that Ellie was showing. It hadn't been that long ago when she had held this woman at gun point, and now here she was dropping everything in her life to help her. Sarah just smiled wondering…no knowing this is what it was like to be part of the Bartowski clan. They loved and forgave their family almost instantly. Sarah returned the hug and slowly broke the embrace. After Ellie returned to her seat Sarah was able to see Chuck for the first time since her revelation. She looked at him differently she just couldn't help but smile. She loved this man and she was going to do whatever it took to convince him of that fact. She walked over to him and gave him a passionate kiss. "Dinner smells amazing." Sarah said as she broke their embrace.
Chuck, still in a little shock from the kiss, "ya….ya….it's almost ready." He finally stammered out.
Sarah just laughed at Chuck's tongue tie moment and went to the kitchen to get herself a glass of wine. "So Ellie what is your plan of action on this whole memory front?" Sarah asked
"First we need to verify if the interest was removed or just suppressed. Obviously Quinn did one of the two because he would not have wanted to risk you flashing while on your mission. Second I want to verify that there was no damage caused by the faulty intersect. Thirdly I want to see why your memory loss was different than Morgan's." Ellie paused for a moment to allow Chuck and Sarah to take that in.
"Different?" Chuck and Sarah replied in unison.
"Yes different. Yes Morgan lost memories, but his were random things that seemed to bounce all over the place. Sarah yours were more specific. Quinn somehow targeted your time with Chuck. Just think if you would have remembered just one thing about Chuck Quinn's plan wouldn't had worked. Also if Quinn would have gone back to far it could have jeopardized his plans as well."
Chuck and Sarah just sat in silence thinking about what Ellie had just said. It made since. For Quinn's plan to work there had to be away for him to target specific memories, or at least a specific time frame. No respectable agent would leave something so major up to chance. He would at the very minimum hedge his bets to give him the best possible outcome. "Hey lets go eat. I am starving." Ellie said breaking the silence.
As the three adults sat around the table eating they laughed and joked about so many things. Sarah felt comfortable and safe. She couldn't believe that she had been blessed with such amazing people in her life. She was a spy, an assassin, and so many other bad things. In her line of work you don't get the happy ever after or the loving family. The best you hope for is an early retirement to somewhere quiet where no one knows who you are. Yet here right in front of her was a couple of the most amazing people she had ever met, and this was only a small part of their group. She just smiled and intently listened to Ellie tell stories about Chuck and her childhood. She knew she had probably heard most of these stories before, but in this moment it didn't matter. Her memory loss wasn't going to define her she could make new memories and hopefully in the process regain some of the old ones. "So Ellie when do you want to start some of these test?" Sarah stated wanting to get the process started and completed as fast as possible.
"I called in some favors at the hospital and have a four hour window blocked off tomorrow morning. I figured we could get the scans, blood work, and basic vital stuff out of the way first. I hopefully will be able to get some basic answers pretty quickly. Once we figure out what Quinn did with the intersect we might have to call General Beckman to help with that part, but we can cross that bridge when we get there." Ellie looked over at Chuck and Sarah. They were holding hands and looked so in love. It reminded her of all the times she had seen them together in the past even when their relationship was a cover. She always knew there was something there, and seeing it now gave her hope that no matter what she found things were going to be ok. "Chuck can you go get us some dessert at the store?" Ellie asked.
"Ellie I am sure we have something here. I think we have some ice cream in the freezer or….."Chuck's voice started to fade as he looked at his sister and finally put two and two together. "Are you trying to get rid of me?" Chuck asked with a sheepish grin plastered across his face.
"Maybe. I just think it would be nice to have a little bit of girl talk with my sister." Ellie said with a hint of begging in her voice.
"Ok ok. I will go get some pie or something. It should take me about an hour…." Chuck said more as a question than a statement.
"I think about an hour sounds right, so get out of here Chuck." Ellie laughed while she pushed her brother towards the door.
Sarah could feel the tension building in the room. This was the first time that her and Ellie had been in a room together since everything had happened. What do you say to someone that you threatened to kill? Sarah just looked at Ellie waiting for the ax to fall. Was everything from before a show for Chuck's sake? The hug, the laughing, the conversation could it all of been a show. Sarah calmed herself laughing inside she was spiraling like Chuck. "So Ellie what would you like to talk about?" Sarah said cautiously.
"Sarah…I want you to know I forgive you for everything that has happened. I know Quinn manipulated you and you were just doing what you thought was right at the time. Even with that I need you to know something. I practically raised Chuck. I don't know what you do or don't remember about our family, but I have been there for him through a lot and this situation is no different. I need to know that you are going to be here for him no matter what I find. That no matter rather or not we can get your memories back you are going to try. Chuck loves you more than anything in this world. So Sarah I just have one question do you love my brother?"
Sarah sat in shock. Where was this coming from? Her she was just realizing this fact herself and Ellie was throwing the thought around like it was nothing. Sarah didn't know how to respond. Yes she did love him, and wanted nothing more than to be with him. Was she ready to put it out there for the world? Could she finally burry years of spy training and let someone in. As she starred at Ellie more and more questions ran through her head. Finally in a moment she blurted out the words "Yes…Ellie I do." Sarah sat and looked at Ellie. Chuck's sister just starred at her with no emotion. She could feel her eyes piercing down to her very soul. In all her years of espionage she had been interrogated, tortured, and none of those times compared to right now. This was the first time where she really had something to lose.
Finally Ellie broke the stair with an intense shriek and another bone crushing hug. Sarah not knowing what to think of everything just hugged her back waiting for the Ellie to speak. "Sarah I am so glad to hear that. I know it is crazy to ask so soon, but I could just tell by the way you looked at him when you walked into the apartment. Sorry for the intense moment I tried to channel my inner spy and see what you would say." Ellie said.
"It's ok Ellie, and I have to say you ha me sweating bullets. If the doctor gig doesn't work out maybe interrogation could be your next calling." Sarah said with a smirk.
"Oh no you and Chuck can have the spy world I will stick to medicine." Ellie joked
"Ok now that we have that out of the way I wanted to ask you a few questions. First what if anything do you recall from your time with Quinn? Secondly when your memories come back what happens and how does it feel?" Sarah could tell that Ellie had removed her sister hat and was now strictly in doctor mode. Sarah began to lay out everything she remembered about the time before she returned to the apartment. Which to be honest wasn't much. Sarah also explained the calming feeling that seemed to accompany when her memories came back to her. Sarah was thankful to have Ellie to talk to about all of this. She knew she could talk to Chuck, but this way she could say everything. She still wanted to protect Chuck and she knew that telling him some of this would be hard.
"Sarah obviously your memories are still there. We just need to figure out why you can't access them. I think the reason your emotions are triggering your memory recovery is because your brain is trying to place these memories and when you have similar feelings or see a something that is directly attached to a memory your brain finally knows what to do. Think of it like a giant jig saw puzzle with all the pieces spread out on the table. Your brain doesn't know what is what. When you feel or see something familiar your brain is able to put some of the pieces back together. Does that make any sense?" Ellie said pausing to give Sarah a moment to gather her thoughts.
Sarah nodded in agreement. "The brain scans we do tomorrow will help up figure out what is causing the issues. It could be physical damage caused by the intersect, or it could be a host of other things. I really won't know anything until we get the scans done."
"Ellie I can't thank you enough for everything you are doing. I just wanted to tell you one last thing before Chuck gets back. Today I went on a fact finding mission so to speak. I went to all the places Chuck told me about hoping to knock loose some memories. Nothing really came to me and I got pretty upset. I was hoping to be able to come back to Chuck with all these memories and there was nothing. But then it hit me. I don't have to continue to dwell on my memory issue. Yes I want them back but it doesn't have to be my driving force. I love Chuck and that is what matters. Together we can make new memories and hopefully get some old ones back in the process. I want to do these tests to make sure nothing is wrong, but after that I am going to focus on a life with Chuck." Sarah felt a weight lift off of her as she spoke these words. She felt like she could finally be free. She was no longer a slave to her job, or her fear. For the first time in a long time she was taking control of her life. She knew she had probably had the same inner dilemma before when it came to Chuck, but none of that mattered because she was ending it now.
The smile that was on Ellie's face could probably be seen from space. In that brief moment she had heard everything she wanted and needed to hear from Sarah. This wasn't just about getting her memories back any more this was about living her life, and having a future with Chuck. Ellie could finally relax she no longer had to be her brothers protector he had a pretty good one sitting right in front of her. "That is great Sarah now you just need to tell Chuck."
"Tell Chuck what?" Chuck said startling both women in the process. "Sorry didn't mean to scare you guys I just came back with some chocolate croissants. "
"Oh nothing just that Sarah is ready for her tests in the morning." Ellie blurted out quickly hoping to cover the emotional conversation that had just happened.
"That's good news. I will set these on the kitchen table, and we can discuss the plan for tomorrow. "Chuck commented as he walked towards the kitchen.
"Ellie. I am going to tell Chuck everything tomorrow after the tests. I want him to know no matter what the results that I am here to stay." Sarah whispered.
Ellie stood up and gave Sarah a quick hug and the walked to Chuck. "I am beat I am going across the court yard to get some sleep. Devin and I haven't gotten rid of the apartment yet so I figured I could crash there until I leave. I need to get some rest before our big day tomorrow." Ellie said as she released Chuck from one last hug.
"Ok sis. We will see you in the morning."
As Ellie closed the door behind her just let out a deep breath. She knew that no matter what happened tomorrow Chuck and Sarah were going to be ok, and that is all a big sister can ask for.