A/N: Review thanks to those that left them. I know everything is happening fast, and will continue to do so.

Beta done by Captainrick944, again. Thanks, my friend.

Therapy underway, and significant other changes, too. Let's explore some of those in this chapter…

Shot
Chapter 8: Shopping

Sarah was reeling.

She had never bought any jewelry. The CIA always provided everything she would need to wear, including a wedding ring when she and Bryce had been in their Andersons cover. Selecting her engagement ring was quite an experience. However, she wanted to do it. She could've let Chuck choose. He would probably do a great job, but for some reason being the one in charge of this felt important.

The choice was stunning. Mind-blowing, in fact.

Chuck was fantastic, though, offering her help narrowing the choice for this challenge, "You need to decide if you want a single stone or more," he said as she stared blankly at the array in the window of the store. She was determined to keep it to one store rather than spend the day trailing around from store to store. Her knee wasn't up to that, but surely she could find something in this one?

She took him to a coffee shop to sit and think this through. As she sipped her coffee, she marshaled her thoughts.

"I think I want a single diamond," she said. "A solitaire. One stone to represent our relationship. How we have become one."

He looked at her adoringly. Then, he said, "You still have to choose the ring color, style, setting and the stone style and size. Probably more."

She growled at him. "Do you want to be engaged or not?"

He grinned. "Already am. My fiancée told me we didn't need a ring for that."

She had said that but had also wanted a ring. She wasn't really upset with him, but this choosing for yourself thing was hard!

She thought about what he had mentioned. She already knew the ring color she wanted. She preferred white gold. The setting and the stone would have to be seen to decide.

She finished her coffee, got him to finish his, and then stood. She took hold of his hand and pulled him out of his seat. "Come on, Fiancé."

The shop assistant was very patient. Sarah was sure that she wouldn't have experienced such a novice with jewelry before. Sarah wasn't going to explain how she had reached twenty-seven without knowing more about rings.

"So, you prefer white to yellow or red gold," the woman, Anita, said. "But would you prefer white gold or platinum?"

"White gold," Sarah replied assertively. She knew this. "I don't need platinum."

"And what carat?" the woman asked.

Sarah looked at her, clueless. Anita explained, and Sarah still wasn't sure but agreed with Anita to have the same carat as her wedding ring.

Sarah said, "We want to buy them together." She thumbed at Chuck. "His too."

Anita smiled. "Very well." Sarah knew that increased the woman's commission, so she would smile.

Anita showed her a tray of white gold solitaire engagement rings of varying thicknesses, styles, settings, and stone designs and sizes. It was bewildering to Sarah. "Maybe I should have left this to you, Chuck," she said.

"Try some on," he said.

Anita took her ring measurements and Sarah selected three rings. Anita helped her try each on. Two looked completely wrong on her slender finger and hand. The third was alright, but still not perfect.

"Would you like my advice?" Anita asked.

Sarah looked at the woman, using her innate ability to read people. Anita wasn't trying to con her out of her money. She seemed to genuinely want to help Sarah get the right ring. "Please," she replied.

With Anita's help and a further half hour, Sarah finally had the engagement ring selected. She looked at it on her finger. It did look gorgeous. She turned to her fiancé. "What do you think, Chuck?"

"It looks gorgeous on your gorgeous finger. The perfect ring for the perfect woman."

Her heart melted hearing that.

"Ooh, he's a catch," Anita said.

Sarah looked her way. "I know."

Selecting the wedding rings was a quicker process, but it still took half an hour or so. However, by the end, they had three rings that they were very happy with.

"You're both lucky they are the right sizes for you," Anita told them. "We have a large backlog offsite, so it would have been a couple of months to adjust them if that had been needed."

Sarah was a bit annoyed that the woman hadn't mentioned this before, but then they hadn't mentioned the urgency, either, so she couldn't complain.

Chuck gulped a bit at the combined price of their purchases. Sarah hadn't asked him for a price range and now felt guilty. "I have savings we can dip into," she said.

He shook his head. "No, no. I can afford it. I just hadn't expected that."

Sarah held his gaze and saw only truth there.

As they walked out of the store, she teased, "Only your sister holding us up now."

He grinned. "Yeah. But I've booked the venue and reserved three rooms at the hotel for Saturday night."

Sarah knew one of those rooms would be for his best friend, Morgan.

She sighed. Everything was coming together nicely.

They spent the whole day on Sunday talking about her career options.

She had decided to focus on using her languages in some way. She had business management training and had used that on a number of assignments, but, for her, it was boring. She didn't want to do something that would bore her.

There were also her analytical skills. The CIA had wanted to use those in a field office, but even outside the agency, it would feel too close to her previous job as a CIA operative, and she wanted something very different.

Teaching children to learn languages appealed. She hadn't any experience of that but relished the idea of helping such youngsters.

She may not be able to do that, however, if there was something, like training, that she was missing. Of course, she could enroll in such training.

Any job she applied for would question her age and what she'd been doing since graduation. The CIA would, of course, prove her with whatever resume she required. She just had to decide what that was.

The idea of training immigrants in English was less appealing. There was always a chance that some lowlife from her past would try to get in that way, or they may have relatives doing it. Once identified, any number of dire scenarios could kick in, but the worst thought was Chuck or his family getting hurt because of it. Or taken captive and tortured. She had to stop herself from continuing down that path.

Tutoring to get through exams was an alternative to being a full-time teacher. Those kids, or their parents, would most likely be desperate, but either way, the parents would probably pay well.

Working within a company was another option. That may pay the best. However, it depended on the type of work required. She thought that document translation would be dull. Software data creation and maintenance were slightly better. The best would be actual translation, as an interpreter, in meetings or conference calls, but that took her back to the possibility that she would be recognized by someone and her family would be put at risk.

The same went for being an interpreter in local government, the police, or at a hospital like Ellie's. She could see herself making a significant difference, and then a gun being thrust into her side or being told that Chuck, Ellie, or Devon were being held until she got something that she or someone else had taken from the lowlife. That wasn't a sensible option either.

She decided she would investigate each of the viable options in preference order, so teaching first.

Chuck agreed that sounded like a good plan and that they could do some research about that online.

By this time, it was late afternoon. Sarah declared she needed a break. So, they headed to their bed and made love for the next hour and a half. Her knee and shoulder were sufficiently recovered that what they could do was less limited, so each time, they tried something different.

Sarah could hardly believe how flexible Chuck was and how strong, sometimes having to stand and bear their combined weight while still being the one driving.

On Monday morning, Sarah made a few phone calls. These felt like a form of shopping, as well.

It seemed that the Education system had a few teaching positions that still needed filling, even part-way through the academic year.

She explained that she hadn't been a teacher in the States, but had helped do that abroad. She noted that she would need to get this recorded via the CIA.

She was told that lack of training would prevent her from becoming a teacher until she had gotten the relevant qualifications, but with her skills, she could assist one of the teachers currently struggling due to less specific language experience.

She was also told that she should consider supplementing income with English training for foreign students, either to help them during time in the States or after moving there to stay.

One final option may already be possible. If parents were worried their children wouldn't pass exams, they often sought private tuition. She would be able to offer that online or at whichever school she ended up.

Sarah felt she now had a way forward.

She called her CIA contact to get her records updated and suitable "evidence" provided. She then planned to create a resume from it all. She had decided to do that herself rather than have one created for her by the CIA. That way, she could adapt it for each application.

After that call, she felt wonderful. A future was almost within her grasp.

By the time she got to her physiotherapy session that afternoon, she was positively buzzing.

At the end of that session, where she'd had no problems, she got some further good news. "I think you are just about recovered," Pam said. "Much quicker than I'd expected. You can drop consultations down to weekly after those this week. And after a couple of weeks, we'll review it. It's likely that you'll be able to stop all together."

When Chuck arrived to collect her, she virtually launched herself at him as he walked around his car to open the passenger door.

After an intense kiss, he asked, "So, did this session go well?"

"I'll tell you in the car," she said as she climbed in.

She told him what she'd been told at the end of the afternoon session.

"And not only that, the job hunt looks positive too." She then told him about her morning.

"Wow. Quite a day!" he said.

She grinned. "Sure was."

He gave her a sly look. "Does this mean you can try more positions in bed?"

She laughed. "I don't think that's something they'll cover in teacher training."

He laughed as well. "You know I mean the state of your body now."

She actually loved what he was suggesting. "Maybe. Depends on what you want to try."

His immediate response made her smile. "Oh, so me kneeling?"

"Yep," he responded.

"Let's try tonight," she said, giving him a salacious look.

That night, they did exactly that, and her knee hardly complained at all. The rest of her body loved it.

Friday evening, over a wonderful dinner Ellie had prepared, Sarah was happy to tell Ellie and Devon that she was dropping to weekly physiotherapy sessions and they may not last long.

"I'm so happy for you, Sarah," Ellie said.

"Awesome," Devon said. "When will you start running with me?"

Ellie glared at Devon, as Sarah looked sadly at him. "My knee may never be up to the type of running I used to do."

"Besides, she has an old slowcoach like me with her now," Chuck chipped in.

Sarah beamed at him. "I might still be able to outrun you."

"Well, I'm just glad you recovered so quickly," Ellie said, partly to take the conversation away from running.

Sarah smiled. "Me too." She wasn't going to mention how the CIA would have probably gotten her back in the field much quicker. She'd talked to Chuck about this, but wasn't sharing with these two.

Chuck wanted to talk about the weekend's event. "The service is booked for four in the afternoon tomorrow. We're planning to set off around nine. We'll take Morgan, but can you bring him back?"

Ellie shook her head. "I still can't believe you're getting married tomorrow."

Sarah grinned. "I can't wait!"

"We'll go straight to the hotel and check into our rooms," Chuck said.

Sarah added, "After getting changed there, we'll get taxis to the venue."

"So organized!" Ellie said. She looked at Sarah. "Is that you?"

Sarah shook her head. "No. All Chuck." She smirked at him. "He wants to make sure it happens."

He grinned. "I do."

"I do, too," she replied.

"Not sure how happy I am about having Morgan in the back of our car on the way back, though," Ellie said.

Chuck was aware of her concerns and had mentioned to Sarah about his sister's antipathy for his friend. He was also aware that the journey there would probably be difficult, with Morgan unhappy that Ellie and Devon knew about their relationship before he did.

After the dinner, they retired to their apartment and completed packing for the trip.

"I can't believe that tomorrow I become Sarah Bartowski," she said.

"I could change my name," he offered.

She grinned at him, loving that he would offer. "No. The name Sarah Walker still has connections with the CIA. I want a fresh start with my new name." She gazed at him. "I never want to change my name again after that."

Then, they headed to bed for one last night of passion as an engaged couple.

A/N: A short chapter because I want the trip to Las Vegas to be in the next one.

So, therapy is nearly finished and she will be applying for jobs in the Los Angeles area after getting married.

I know everything is moving fast, deliberately so.