A/N: It's been a minute, hasn't it. Let's check in our friends.

Disclaimer: I don't own Chuck

"So, how do we fix Zondra and her mom?" Chuck asked Sarah. He and Zondra had returned to the hotel and when Sarah came into the room, she could tell he was buzzing with energy. He told her everything; how the reunion had gone amazing between the Zondra and her father. While she was thrilled for her sister and Zondra, she knew what this meant; Chuck was determined to get the whole family on the same page.

"Chuck, baby," Sarah began. She didn't seem to know what to say to him.

"I'm sorry, how'd your meeting go?" Chuck asked.

Sarah hated herself for what she was about to do, but Chuck had given her the out, and she was going to take it. "Really good," she said, smiling. He sat there, waiting to hear more, and she told him, but deep down, she knew she had just avoided a much tougher topic, and only temporarily. She just didn't have the heart to tell him knowing what it would do to him.

}o{

Chuck found himself staring at a computer the next day, having trouble processing anything. Zondra's situation hurt him. As messed up as his relationship had been with his dad, at the end of the day, they loved each other, unconditionally. Chuck wasn't sure that's how Zondra's mother felt about her, and that was something he was having trouble wrapping his head around.

Casey cleared his throat, making Chuck jerk his head up. "Uh, Carina has told me about Zondra and her family," Casey began.

"Do you think it's wise telling me about your pillow talk with Carina?" Chuck asked the bigger man. Casey glared at him. "Sorry," Chuck quickly added, wincing.

"What I was trying to say, numbnuts, is family, while important, is sometimes extremely fucked up," Casey continued.

"You really should write greeting cards," Chuck muttered. Casey's glare returned. "Sorry-sorry," Chuck quickly said.

"If you're done?" Chuck nodded, and Casey's glare lessened as he seemed to struggle to find the right words. Casey was silent for a few seconds and then continued. "No family member starts out with the intent to hurt another." He paused a second. "But people are stupid…strike that, people are scared and they do things they think are right to protect the ones they love."

"I'm not following that at all," Chuck admitted.

"I figured," Casey groused. He looked like he was constipated. Chuck imagined he was, with his feelings, but he thought better than to voice that to Casey. "Zondra's mother believes what Zondra's mother believes, wrong or right." Chuck nodded to indicate he understood. "In Zondra's mom's mind, her pulling away from Zondra is what is necessary. In her mind, with her beliefs, something awful is going to happen to Zondra, and the only way for Zondra to understand that is for her mother to go to these extreme lengths."

Chuck was silent for a moment thinking about that. "But that doesn't make it right, right?"

"Absolutely not," Casey agreed. He looked pained for a moment, like he was about to have gas, and then continued. "My mom…she forbade me from entering this life, because she was scared what it would do to me. She told me that I could not, and that if I did, we were finished."

"Uhhh," Chuck began.

"Obviously after it happened, she realized that I loved what I loved and she wanted me to be happy." Casey was silent for a moment. "And there were other extenuating circumstances," he added. Chuck didn't say anything, watching Casey squirm. "My dad had just died."

"I'm sorry, what?" Chuck asked, his eyes bulging out of his sockets.

Casey gave him a disgusted look. "I know my dad's Russian. Why in the blue hell my mom keeps it from me…" Casey trailed off and shook his head. "Anyway, he died in service to his country, and mom freaked out a little, and said stuff from a place of hurt." He was silent for a moment. "She keeps telling people that she didn't know his name…he was a spy, so she felt like she didn't know him. Mom was afraid I was too much like him and I would lose myself in that world."

"But Casey, that's…that's awful," Chuck insisted. "Told you to quit or…what? She was never going to talk to you again?"

"Yeah," Casey said with a shrug. "But here's the thing, I know people want to blame her, but she had lost a part of her life, not a huge part, but a part, and seeing me go down the same path…it scared the shit out of her, and she said something she shouldn't have. But there's a bigger part."

"What's that?" Chuck asked.

"I'm a grown ass man, and at the end of the day, I have to live with my decisions," Casey said with a shrug. "I have to trust that the love I have for my family will work through whatever drama comes up. Families fight. They fight like cats and dogs, but at the end of the day, when the chips are down, you have to trust that the unconditional love you have for family is just that, unconditional. That means I have to forgive what mom did to me, and she has to forgive what I did."

"Casey….how long have you had that bottled up?" Chuck asked sincerely.

Casey sighed, looking tired. "Years, Bartowski…years."

}o{

"We need to talk," Sarah told him when he entered the room that night.

"Did I leave the toilet seat up, because sometimes I forget, and it's not intentional," Chuck began.

"Baby, no, you did not," Sarah told him.

"Good, because I know that lead to problems in a relationship, and I don't want to be that guy," Chuck continued.

"Chuck," she said, giving him a pleading look.

"Right," he said, making a zipping motion with her lips. He sat down, waiting to hear what she had to say.

Sarah took a deep breath and steadied herself. "Baby, we have to talk about this, and it's important."

"To be clear, more important than leaving the toilet seat up?" Sarah gave him a look. "Right, not the time for levity. I'm sorry, continue."

"Chuck, you can't fix everyone else's life. You have to let this family stuff with Zondra and her mom go. I know you have repaired your family, but sometimes…sometimes…" She huffed and ran a hand through her hair. "You can't fix Zondra, her mom, and her dad." Chuck just stared at her. "Did you hear me?"

"I did, but why do you think we can't?" he asked. "Sarah, in the past few months, we've helped so many, understand each other-"

"Chuck, this isn't business," Sarah reminded him. "These are people, who have deep-seated beliefs, some of which no matter what you say, they are going to hold onto those beliefs, and until they decide that they have a reason to change…to accept people where they are…Chuck, no one can change someone that isn't willing to, and Zondra's mom isn't willing to right now," Sarah told him.

She gave him a pained look. "Baby, Zondra isn't even a part of her mom's family and it's not enough to make her change her mind. Chuck, you can't save everyone."

"But, Sarah," Chuck began. He stopped. He knew. Deep down, he knew. He had his family back, and he had wanted it so bad for Zondra, he wanted her to be accepted as who she was. His dad had accepted him for who he was, and while he knew it wasn't even close to the same thing, there was a thread of similarity there. For a parent to see you as who you are, instead of who they imagined you to be.

"Chuck?"

"It's not fair, Sarah," Chuck told her. He was right, but there was nothing either of them could do to change things.

"I know baby, I know," she said, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and pulling him tight. "I know." A pounding on their door pulled them out of their embrace. "I know that knock anywhere," Sarah muttered, grinning.

Chuck placed a kiss on her forehead, and pulled away to answer the door. "Why is she still aggressive-agressive?" Chuck asked, walking to the door.

"You think Zondra knows what the word passive means?" Sarah replied, grinning at him. Chuck smiled at her, and opened the door. A finger met him in the chest and he began to walk backwards. "Molly! What are you doing to my Chuck?"

"He's no longer your Chuck, Sarah, he's now our Chuck," Molly said, looking past Chuck.

"I am right here," Chuck protested.

"Can it, Curls," Zondra said, grinning.

"Do you know what HE did?" Molly asked.

"There are so many things that I don't know if I have time to list them all, and that's just the stuff that See Three Pee Oh didn't power down during."

"Powering down! Powering down!" Three Pee Oh yelled.

"Wait a minute," Chuck began again. He quit talking because Molly had grabbed his lips and now had them pinched shut.

"Hey! Those are my lips!" Sarah yelled. "Be gentle with them!"

"I would say you're whipped but I know damn well you like it," Zondra muttered to Chuck.

"He gave my fiancée her father back, Sarah," Molly said softly. She turned to Chuck, tears in her eyes. "How in the hell am I ever supposed to repay that?"

Chuck mumbled something that sounded like, "You can remove your fingers from my lips."

"I think he'd like to talk," Zondra said to Molly. "I recommend don't doing it." Molly gave her a look. "He'll say things that will make you feel even more gooey."

"I like it when he makes me feel gooey," Sarah said with a shrug.

"Not the same kind of gooey," Zondra replied with a pointed look at Sarah.

"I'm going to release your lips…I'm sorry, Sarah's lips," Molly began.

"Thank you," Sarah replied, grinning.

"But know, if you use them the wrong way, you will have to pay the consequences," Molly warned him. She removed her hand and Chuck just stood there, looking from one woman to the next. "Well, aren't you going to say anything."

"I don't want to say the wrong thing," Chuck admitted.

"Just say it, Chuck," Zondra said, trying not to laugh.

"I'm sorry, Zondra," Chuck said, surprising Molly and Zondra. Sarah blew out a breath, knowing what was coming. "I thought maybe I could help you get your whole family back. I thought your wedding could be the magical occasion that you deserved. I thought I could fix things."

"You can't fix everything, Chuck," Zondra told him, walking over to him and rubbing his arm. "And I don't need you to fix things, I just need you to be my friend, and be there for me."

"I'm always here for you, and you," Chuck said, turning to Molly. "And you," Chuck said turning to Sarah. "One thing I've learned recently, is family…they aren't always blood."

"They aren't," Molly agreed.

}o{

"I guess I got a little carried away," Chuck admitted some time later. The four were sitting down in the hotel bar, having dessert. "I got a little irrational."

"We all get a little irrational," Sarah told him. "It happens to the best of us."

"Really?" Chuck asked, grinning at her. "What do you get irrational about, except it being irrational how adorable you can be?"

"Why is he?" Molly asked Zondra, who was shaking her head.

"I don't know, but I'm glad he is," Zondra replied.

"You don't think I can be irrational?" Sarah asked, ignoring the other two women, grinning at her fiancée.

"No, not really." He took a bite of his dessert and chewed as he thought about how to put his thoughts into words. "I mean almost everything you do is thought out, and calculated, and I don't mean for that to sound like you're a robot or cold, but you are very rational about everything," Chuck countered.

"Let someone hit on you and see how rational she is, Curls," Zondra muttered, grinning the whole time.

"I'll tell you what makes me irrational," Sarah said, pointing her fork she had been eating with at Chuck. Chuck raised his hands in surrender. She put it down and gave him an amused look. "You know those emails you get that someone has marked with a red exclamation point that says high importance?"

"Yeah," Chuck replied, not seeing at all where this was going.

"Those things make me CRAZY!" Chuck's eyes widened. "I mean…I have many things to do, and I respond to everything in a timely manner, but some wingnut, who has no idea what I'm going through-"

"Wingnut?" Chuck mouthed to Molly. Molly just shrugged.

"Or what I'm working on," Sarah continued, pointedly ignoring Chuck. "Decides that because THEY need something, now it is high importance? Oh, honey." She shook her head, a look of disgust on her face. "I don't think so."

Chuck, Zondra, and Molly burst out laughing.

"We stand corrected," Molly said to her sister. "You are highly irrational." The smile fell off of Molly's face and Chuck saw that Zondra reacted the same way.

"What's wrong?" Chuck asked.

"Zondra? Zondra Rizzo?" Came a feminine voice behind them. "Molly and Sarah Burton?"

"It's Walker," Molly said in a tone Chuck had never heard before.

"Oh my God, you three are here for the reunion, aren't you? I mean, you two are, and brought along the little sister," the woman said. Chuck turned around to see who was causing his friends this grief. "And who are you?"

"This is my fiancée, Chuck," Sarah said proudly, giving the woman a look to keep away from him. "And I'm sorry, Heather, we had no idea the reunion was this weekend. We're here for work, that's all."

"Pity," Heather said. "I do hope you'll reconsider. I gotta run." With that, she walked over to the bar, said something to the bartender, who handed her a bag in what everyone assumed was a to-go order. "Bye!" she said to them as she left.

"Of all the weekends we pick this one to be here?" Molly said.

"I need…" Zondra shook her head, got up, and left.

"I got this, you explain, cause I know he has questions, and before he starts, let this go, Chuck," Molly told him. Chuck just sat there as he watched Molly power walk out of the bar, chasing her fiancée. Sarah pushed away the dessert.

"What in the hell?" Chuck asked. "I've never seen anyone rattle you three."

"High school," Sarah said, shaking her head. "Come one, get the rest of that to go and we'll go upstairs and talk. I need to cuddle while I tell you this one."

}o{

"So, you know Burton Consultants was originally my grandfather's business," Sarah began, snuggled against Chuck. Both were ready for bed, and they lay under the covers. Chuck thought he could listen to her tell him a story like this every night for the rest of his his life. "We lived here in San Diego, and this was the home base for everything. We had someone manage the Los Angeles branch, and any potential clients we got there, Dad or my grandfather met with them.

"Everyone lived here. Me, Carina, Zondra, and Molly," Sarah continued. "This was home…until more and more business was coming out of Los Angeles and it just made sense for Dad to go up there and run things from there. It has become the main branch now, with the one here, managed by one of my cousins. Should we shut it down? Probably, but it's like part of the family, you know?"

"I get it," Chuck said, nodding. "So, Heather?"

"Right, Heather," Sarah said, a slight growl in her voice. "Here's a shocker, Zondra wasn't the most…girly, of us." Chuck snorted. "Heather was a cheerleader, worried about prom, and was the most popular girl in school…and she had one target."

"No, you're telling me Zondra didn't stand up for herself?"

"Zondra didn't know who she was in high school," Sarah began and then she frowned. "Correction, she did, she just didn't feel like she had the support to be who she was in high school."

Chuck looked away, his heart breaking. "I wish I had known her then, I'd insisted on being her friend."

"She'd of threatened to beat you up every day," Sarah told him.

"And how is that different than now?" Chuck asked, making Sarah laugh.

"Point," Sarah conceded. "This trip has been tough on her. It was one thing about her dad and her mom, that she was ready for, but seeing Heather…that's one she wasn't ready for."

"What do I need to do, because you know me," Chuck began. Sarah chuckled and snuggled up against him.

"Just be you, Chuck," Sarah told him. "Just be you."

"But how much me?"

She lifted up and looked him in the eye. "Be you," she said softly. "Now, let's talk about something else, the lack of attention I have been paid."

"Oh? Do I have some making up to do in the attention category?"

"POWERING DOWN! POWERING DOWN!" See Three Pee Oh shouted.

}o{

"Last group of employees," Casey said, nearly gleefully. "Then we can get the hell out of here, and away from Roan."

"Something wrong with Roan?" Chuck asked, getting ready to look over the last of the files.

"He's gathering the courage to approach me about him marrying Mom," Casey admitted. Chuck slowly turned to Casey. "I don't want to talk about it."

"There they are!" came a voice neither of them recognized. They both turned and saw a man, about Chuck's age, dressed quite dapperly. He had on a watch that both of them couldn't help but see with it's shininess. He gave off the appearance of someone who had money, and wanted you to know it. "I've heard about all the good work you two have done, and I'm wondering why we are wasting your time?"

"I'm sorry, I have no idea who you are," Chuck admitted.

"Me," the man said, looking slightly offended, but smiling the whole time. "I'm Mark Ratner."

A/N: San Diego…Mark Ratner….Heather…huh…it almost sounds familiar…I can't give you a preview because nothing else is written. Hopefully soon. This one is nearing the end, but I promise I'm not going to rush it. Thanks for reading fam. See you soon.