A/N: Normal disclaimer. I do not own any of the characters portrayed in this story.
As Chuck was walking Ellie to the apartment all Sarah could do was wonder around the apartment taking everything in. All the collection of items and photographs came together nicely. She wondered back to the bedroom. Walking around to her dresser and opening the top drawer. Inside was a small box. She opened the box and slowly withdrew the contents. In her hand she held her wedding rings. She just looked at them. During the mission she had come so close to getting rid of them. She almost treated them like trash, but now as she looked at them they represented everything in her life that was important. She knew it didn't make rational sense, but she wanted to put these rings on she wanted to be Sarah Bartowski. She was only now beginning to regain a sense of herself and in this moment putting her rings back on seemed like the next step rational or not. As she slid them on her finger she felt a sense of relieve come over her. In that moment a memory came crashing down. She was on a balcony in Paris. Chuck was down on one knee when an extraction team came crashing in. She looked down at her rings and remembered the balcony. She couldn't quite remember why their moment had gotten broken up but she knew Chuck had succeeded eventually in proposing to her. As she started to shut the drawer something caught her eye. Sitting there was a charm bracelet. It wasn't anything fancy or even anything she would normally see herself wearing. As she pulled it out another memory hit her. They were in the Buy More and Chuck was placing the bracelet on her wrist. The memory hit Sarah hard as the events of that particular evening came flooding back.
As Sarah was able to regain herself and look at the bracelet again she just smiled. It was a memory of a time before they were together, and even though that was a hard time it showed her that maybe her brain was able to save a good majority of her memories. These were the first big memories to hit her in the last day or so. She knew that this could take a while to know just how many of her memories she would regain, but gaining two more had to be a good start. She placed the bracelet on her wrist and slowly closed the door. She wanted to tell Chuck what she remembered and how she felt. She walked out of the bedroom and looked back. This was their bedroom again. No more sleeping in separate rooms or even taking it slow. It was time to take her life back, and nothing was going to stand in her way.
Chuck came walking in the front door looking for Sarah. As he saw Sarah coming out of the bedroom he again caught himself in a daze. There was just something about this woman that he couldn't help but stare. He was always amazed by her. Yes she was beautiful, brave, strong, and just plain amazing but that wasn't it. It was the fact that when he was with her he felt like there was nothing he couldn't do. "Um…Chuck your staring again." Sarah said with a slight giggle.
"Oh…ya…sorry Sarah I just can't help myself." Chuck replied
"It's ok. I think it is rather cute." Sarah said as she closed the distance between them. "I just had a couple memories come back to me. I remembered when you gave me this." Sarah said showing Chuck the bracelet. "I also remembered when you tried to give me these the first time." Sarah began to smile as she showed Chuck her rings.
Chuck just stared again. She was wearing her wedding rings. "Sarah you have your rings on. Are you sure you are ready for that? What I mean is don't do it for me do it for you. I want you to do what feels comfortable and what you are ready for. You didn't put them on for me did you?" Chuck asked.
"No Chuck. I know it doesn't make sense, because I am just now starting to remember things but you are my husband. Everything inside me tells me that this is the truth, and we are going to get through this together." As Chuck started to talk again Sarah quickly pounced and locked Chuck in a deep and passionate kiss. Sarah slowly decided to break the kiss "I have a better idea of something we can do and it doesn't require any talking." Sarah said as she began to drag Chuck to the bedroom.
"Oh do you now." Chuck replied with a sneaky grin. "I said no more talking mister." Sarah pulled Chuck into another kiss and led him to the bedroom slowly closing the door behind them.
As Sarah lay with her head on Chuck's chest she thought about everything again. It seemed like the thousandth time she had all these thoughts running through her head. Ever since all this began it was the same thing running through her head. How they had got there. What they would do know. It was all just constantly running through her mind. She propped herself up on her elbow to look into Chuck's eyes. "So what's next?"
"I was thinking about getting a drink. I can grab you one if you like?" Chuck replied. Sarah gave Chuck a quick jab to the side. "Ouch what was that for?"
Sarah just rolled her eyes at him and placed her head back on his chest. "You know what I mean Chuck what about jobs, money, and all the stuff that goes with it?"
Chuck then began to explain their plans for CI and all the things that they had already put in motion. He told her about the sale of the Buy More, but how they still owned Castle and the Orange Orange. He told her how they had gotten the money unfrozen from the Decker fiasco and that financially they were in pretty good shape. Heck they were really to a point if they never wanted to work again they could.
Sarah just listened as Chuck explained everything to her. It all seemed so unreal that they had all this money. She reminded herself to ask Chuck later where it all came from in the first place. The whole plan sounded pretty good, and if they were the bosses they could at least do their best to keep themselves out of harm's way. "I think I am going to go get that drink you mentioned. Would you like one?" Sarah asked
"Sure I will take whatever you are having?" Chuck responded with a grin.
As Sarah got up she saw a folded up piece of paper sitting next to Chuck's pants. "What's this?" Sarah asked as she bent down to pick it up.
"That is nothing." Chuck said with a panic as he tried to get up and grab it from her. He knew he wanted to show it to her, but not right now after what they had just finished doing. Chuck tried to take it from Sarah, but she wasn't having it. She kept her body between him and the paper.
"It is obviously something since you are trying so hard to keep it from me. Is it a letter from your girlfriend?" Sarah said jokingly. Sarah was finally able to put enough distance between her and Chuck to get the paper open. As she unfolded the last fold she just stopped and stared at the image in front of her. She saw her and Chuck in front of their dream house holding a baby.
"Sarah don't freak out. It is just something I held onto. I know it is going to take time to get back to wanting that, and I am ok with that. I just wanted to hold onto it and show you that I am here for the long haul no matter what." Chuck finished his words and just looked at Sarah. She was locked on the picture. He wasn't even sure that she had just heard anything he said. "Sarah….Sarah….Sarah…" Chuck kept saying her name with no response. He almost wanted to wave his hand in front of her eyes to see if she was still in there or if shock had set in. Chuck placed his hands on Sarah's shoulders. "Sarah please say something. I am sorry I wanted to show you in better way maybe after a romantic dinner or something." Chuck stopped talking as he saw two small tears start to trickle down her face.
Sarah looked at the image and felt a wave role over her. All this information coming rushing back, Vicky Vale, their first kiss, save you later, Prague, Sarah do you love me, their real proposal, and finally their wedding. It was so much information all at once that it almost caused her to shut down. As she continued to stare at the image her surroundings slowly came back into focus. She could feel Chuck holding her, and she thought she could hear him talking. Everything she had lost came flooding back in a perfect storm. All she could finally muster to get out was "I remember."
"What do your remember Sarah?" Chuck asked with hesitation in his voice. Sarah broke her gaze from the picture and looked up at Chuck. She placed her hands on both sides of his face and kissed him. As she continued to kiss him she only broke their embrace to say one word at a time "I…..remember…..everything." Sarah was finally able to get out. Chuck pulled away from their kiss and lost himself in Sarah's eyes. Then his trademark Bartowski smile gleamed across his face. He swept Sarah up and through her onto their bed. Now in this moment everything was perfect.
As Chuck lay there with Sarah in his arms he just couldn't believe it. Had she really gained everything back? "I should have showed you that picture a lot sooner." Chuck said with a laugh. Sarah thought about what Chuck had just said.
"No Chuck I think you showed it to me at the perfect time. Any sooner and it would have scared me and who knows what would have happened. Right before I showed you my wedding rings I thought to myself that I was through taking things slow that I wanted this and nothing was going to stop me. I think it took everything we did up before that moment to get me ready. I had already accepted a future with you and with whatever else we decided, so when you showed me the picture it allowed all that to come free."
"Well I think we make a pretty good team Mrs. Bartowski." Chuck said.
"I would have to agree there Mr. Walker." Sarah joked as she reached up for a kiss.
The rest of the night was spent in each other's arms just enjoying each other's company. As the hour became late and sleep began to take over they both looked at each other. "I love you Sarah."
"I love you Chuck." With those words they both fell asleep in each other's arms.
As Chuck woke up the next morning he was surprised to see that he was alone in bed. He hoped everything from last night wasn't a dream, but judging from the mess of cloths strung out all over the place it wasn't. He just laid there for a moment to take it all in again. Here he was with his wife and she had regained everything. His smile could light the room. He jumped out of bed and quickly got dressed and went in search of his wife. He walked into the kitchen to see Sarah on a lap top with the picture from last night sitting next to her. "Good morning beautiful." Chuck said as he planted a kiss on top of her head.
"Good morning to you too." Sarah didn't break from her work.
"What are you looking at?" Chuck said before he grabbed a quick bite of Sarah's breakfast.
"Hey that is mine, and if you must know I am looking at houses. I figured since we have all this money now we can live somewhere nice." Sarah replied as she moved her breakfast out of Chuck's grasp.
"What about our dream home Sarah. I know for a fact it is still on the market."
Sarah sat in silence and finally turned to look at Chuck. "After everything that happened in that house and what I almost did to you how could we ever go back there?"
Chuck wrapped his arms around Sarah and kissed the top of her head again. "Sarah I don't want to allow Quinn to take anything from us. He came so close to taking it all and now that we have each other again I want you to be happy. Yes some bad things happened in that house, but I also look at it that house saved my life. Think about it if you didn't see that carving and start to remember you might have gone through with your mission. If you want a different house I completely understand, but let's at least go look at the dream house one last time before we make a decision." Chuck pleaded
Sarah sighed and knew that Chuck was right. She didn't want to let everything that had happened rip there future away from them. She looked at the hand drawn image one more time and knew she had to at least go look at the house.
Chuck and Sarah had run by the apartment to tell Ellie what had happened the night before. The screech she let out alerted the entire court yard to the news. Morgan and Alex shortly joined the festivities and everyone in the group was so happy for Chuck and Sarah. Ellie said her goodbyes one last time and Alex and Morgan offered to take her to the airport, so Chuck and Sarah could make their appointment to see the house. As they pulled in front of the little white house, with the white picket fence, and the bright red door they took each other's hands and walked towards the door.
They slowly entered the house and saw that all the damage had been fixed. The CIA had made quick work to repair the house and show no sign of anyone being there. They walked around the house and took in all the rooms. Sarah finally walked over to the carving in the door frame. She was surprised it was still there. She remembered the night they had carved it and the promise they had made to each other. "Chuck I think you were right. I said I always wanted to remember this moment when we carved our names in the door frame. I can't imagine living anywhere else." Sarah said with a smile.
"Good. I can't either." Chuck replied.
They both looked around the house one last time and new that their future started here. They were ready for whatever would come next, because they would have each other. As they stood in front of their future home holding each other everything seemed perfect. Right here in this moment everything was perfect. Little did they know that everything was about to change. "Beep Beep" Chuck's phone went off. "Hey I have a text from Casey. I bet Morgan and Alex told him the good news." The text was made up of two words and these were two words that were never good CASTLE NOW. "Maybe he wants to congratulate us in person." Chuck laughed.
Sarah just rolled her eyes at Chuck. They both knew something was up and if they wanted their normal life they were going to have to face it head on together.
Sorry for the cliff hanger just wanted to set up the new bad guy. I have had a fun idea about it for a while and would like to explore it. I felt like Chuck and Sarah deserved to find each other first. Hope you enjoyed everything so far and will keep reading. Please review and let me know what you think. I really enjoy and appreciate all the reviews thus far.