For notes and disclaimer, please see part one.

Here's a couple things you might need to know or maybe you just forgot: Sarah is back—or is she?—and Ellie gets a job offer she wasn't expecting.

Off

Everything was different. The morning sunshine felt oppressive. The courtyard, once one of her favorite hangouts, seemed cold and foreign. Westside was more like a battlefield and less like a hospital. Worst of all, Sunday dinner just wasn't right.

Alex and Morgan sat beside each other, quietly picking at her pot roast.

While, normally, Sarah would sit beside Chuck, they were on opposite sides of the table that night, meaning that her view of the family table was altered, shifted. While she appreciated sitting beside Casey, it hardly made things right.

She missed the laughter, the stories that grew taller with each retelling. It just wasn't family dinner. As she cleared the table, making silent trips to the sink, she wondered if it was all too late to fix.

Tempering all of her thoughts, Chicago continued to weigh heavily in her heart, in her mind. Time was running out for her to make her decision, to accept the offer or to decline. She felt trapped, shoved into a corner and like each way out was just as dangerous, as unpleasant as the next.

As she struggled with the plastic wrap to put the leftovers away, she felt warm, strong arms encircle her waist, pulling her against a solid body. Even Casey's embrace couldn't save her from herself. "John…"

"You all right?"

She realized he always knew when she was off. She pondered the white lie—that he would clearly see through—or coming clean. Unfortunately, the answer hadn't come quickly enough.

Easing the wrap from her hands, he spun her gently.

She was helpless to resist his baby blues, and, worst of all, he knew that. "It's like, a month ago, we went to sleep, and everything was fine, but today…" She drifted off, shrugging.

"It isn't the same as it used to be," he agreed.

"We can't go back, can we?"

Casey realized just how deeply the changes of the past few weeks had affected her. Carmichael Industries was gone, as was the Buy More. Sarah's memory was sketchy at best. Chuck wasn't himself yet, because his other half, his better half, wasn't yet back. He wasn't even sure what he was doing. He'd been a soldier, a spy, an assassin his entire adult life. Being a civilian was hard enough the few brief times he had to endure that before, that now that he was, without a doubt, a regular Joe, it had been an adjustment. "We may not be able to go back, but we can go forward."

But, did forward count as eastward? "About that…" She toyed with the heart-shaped locket that hung around her neck. Her mouth went instantly dry. Why, she wasn't sure, because it was just Casey—just her John—and she'd never been afraid of him before. She wasn't afraid of him, per se, but of what his answer would be. It had the potential to be a huge change, even more than the peculiarities of the past month. When she licked her lips, in the hopes that the words might slip out easier, she glanced at his eyes, his knowing eyes. Realization dawned on her in an instant. "You know, don't you?"

"I was wondering when you were finally going to get around to telling me about Chicago."

"It's been…" She let the sentence hang. It hurt, to think that their lives had changed so drastically, because of forces that were beyond their control.

"I know," he said quietly, saving her the pain of admitting it out loud. "Do you want to go?"

She looked past him, at Morgan, who was doing some odd little dance, making Alex and Sarah both chuckle. At Chuck, who was holding Downy in his arms, giving Sarah space still, all the space she needed, but he was still there, just in case. "Chuck and Sarah are…"

"They're perfectly capable of taking care of themselves," he said gently.

"Just, how can I add to the turmoil, y'know?" she asked, looking back at him. "Chuck lost his wife. He could think I'm abandoning him, too, and that…" She shook her head vehemently. "After Mom, after Dad, after this, I cannot do that to him."

"There's a difference, though, Ellie. You aren't leaving him, never to be seen or heard from again. You're just moving. You're taking a job, you're looking forward. And you'll never be more than a phone call away. Chuck needs you, Walker wants to talk… It takes two seconds to pull up your contact information on their cells."

"What about you, though?" she asked, looking up at him.

He shrugged a shoulder innocently. "Seems my calendar's pretty open. I could pencil in packing up, organizing a move..."

"You'd come with me?"

"Haven't you figured it out by now, Ellie? I can't let you go."

She smiled brightly for the first time in… she couldn't remember when.

Even he hadn't realized that he'd been missing out until she graced him with the most beautiful expression he'd ever seen in his life. After all of the horribleness, after all the anguish and the pain and the struggle, there was still hope.

There was still love.

Not everything was different.

Stay tuned…