A/N: Guess who doesn't own Chuck? That's right. You win.

A/N2: This is the start of the fourteenth arc of our story. I'm calling it the Rosetti arc. It is non-canon. Seems to me that we never knew too much about Lou Palone. She owns a deli in Burbank and is dating Morgan (not Chuck!), but she vacationed in the Greek Isles with the playboy son of a Greek shipping magnate/smuggler. Huh? What's her story? Where's she from? How'd she meet Stavros? Well, let's find out, huh? We've got a lot of Morgan and Lou coming up in this arc, so I hope you like them at least a little bit.

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"Hi, Ellie," said Chuck.

"Hey, little brother," said Ellie, with a bit of laughter in her voice.

"You seem to be in a good mood. How are things in DC?" he asked.

"Good. Great even. The work is fascinating. This tech has real possibilities to help a lot of people. It's truly groundbreaking. And I'm excited about the progress we're making. Weather here sucks for a California girl, but whatever. I can't stay forever, though. I have to get back to Westside. Probably another couple of weeks and I'll head back. They've been really good about giving me the time. Devon too."

"Devon must be bored as hell," said Chuck.

"Naw, not at all. It's amazing what can happen when two of the top intelligence community honchoes are on your side. He got certified to practice in DC almost overnight and he's now volunteering at Walter Reed. Seems the Director of the hospital is an old friend of Director Graham's. It's only part-time, but the alternative is all day at the hotel gym."

"He'd probably love that," said Chuck.

"Maybe for the first week. It gets old after that, even for him. What's new with you?"

"Bunch of stuff happening. First off, Morgan quit the Buy More and is going to work for Jackie."

"No way. He's been at the Buy More since he was a kid. How'd this happen?"

"Well, he really wanted to work in a restaurant."

"He used to talk about Benihana," said Ellie.

"Yeah, but he's done with that now. You know how he loves to cook...well, he wants to get his life in order. So, he asked Jackie," said Chuck.

"Chuck...I'm worried about this. Jackie isn't going to put up with any nonsense from him. He's going to have to really work. Like a grown up. This has disaster written all over it," she said. "It's Morgan, for godsakes."

"I know. He swears he will step up, though. Casey and I have both talked to him and he says all the right things. He's really excited about it. Eventually, he wants to be a cook, but he's ready to start at the bottom. He told Jackie he'll clean toilets."

"No way..." she said.

"Yup," said Chuck.

"But, will he follow through, though? It's easy to say it."

"Well, that's the question, isn't it? Guess we'll find out," said Chuck. "He gave his two week notice to Big Mike immediately, so it seems to be happening."

"Well, tell him I said good luck. If it works, it's terrific. It's about time he grew up," she said.

"I'll tell him. Jackie told him to take two weeks off after he leaves the Buy More, so he's going to take a vacation. Lou is taking him to Rome to meet her family."

"I didn't know she was from Rome. She has no accent."

"I know. American mother. She spent summers in Virginia or someplace. She has dual citizenship and no accent."

"How'd she end up in LA?"

"Dunno."

"So, the trip for Morgan to meet her parents. That's a big deal. Meeting her family. Wow. Is he nervous?"

"Terrified. That's why he asked Sarah and me to go along. Lend some moral support. Maybe step in the way if her parents try to shoot him or something."

"A mission?" she asked.

Chuck laughed. "No. A real vacation. We asked Graham and Beckman for two weeks off. It's gonna be a legit vacation to Italy, to Rome" he said.

"Oh, that's great. You could use a vacay. From what I've heard, you guys have been working nonstop since September. And Italy will be fun. You've never been," said Ellie.

"Yup, but Sarah's been there a bunch of times and is fluent in Italian. Should be a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to it," said Chuck.

"You're leaving John and Amy home alone? No telling the trouble they can get up to," said Ellie with a laugh.

"Naw, they're taking vacations at the same time. Amy is heading down to Paracuru in Brazil. It's a beachfront place. Seems her mom was a Peace Corps volunteer in Brazil and Amy has an affinity for the country."

"Oh. And John's going with her? I didn't think they were a couple," she said, surprised.

"No. They aren't and he's not. He ran into a French spy he used to know when we were in Switzerland. He's going to see her. She was on a long term assignment and they gave her a ton of leave from work. She's taken a house outside of Nice in the South of France. She's going to be hanging out there for a while, getting her head back together. He's going to visit her."

"Topless beaches and good wine?" asked Ellie.

"Not so much the beaches. It's still in the 40's and 50's there now. Little cold for the beach. But wine? That you can bet on, for sure."

"Hah. Now that sounds like he'll enjoy it. Does he like her?" asked Ellie.

"Well, enough to fly to Europe to hang out with her, I guess." Chuck didn't see any particular need to mention Eileen, from O'Malley's, and how Casey's date with her had gone.

"Good. He deserves it. When do you leave?"

"Casey left this morning. Amy on Monday. Sarah and I are leaving with Lou and Morgan on Saturday morning. His last day at the Buy More is Friday. Glad Sarah made me get my passport."

"For sure. Have fun. You'll keep in touch, right?"

"Of course, big sis."

"And you'll remember to do my questionnaire every day, right?"

"Yes, Ellie. Love you."

"Love you too, little brother. Be safe in Italy."

"Oh, come on, El. We're just going on vacation. What could possibly go wrong?"

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Long day. The flight from Los Angeles to Rome's Fiumicino Airport, with a single stop in Boston, was almost fifteen hours. When added to the nine-hour time difference between the two cities, it seemed to the weary travelers that they had been moving non-stop for an entire day.

Nevertheless, Morgan was overflowing with excitement about his first trip to Europe, having studied multiple travel guides on the flight. They were making their way out of the Customs and Immigration areas, pushing a couple of carts of luggage. Morgan said, "Want to hear something interesting about the airport?"

Laughing, Lou said, "I've been through this airport dozens of times. I don't think you'll surprise me, Honey."

Chuck said, "Sure, little buddy. What you got for us?"

"When they were building it, they found the remains of Caligula's Giant Ship. A huge barge. Six decks high and with a crew of seven hundred."

Lou laughed and gave him a squeeze. "Ok, you got me. I didn't know that."

It was early Sunday morning in Rome. The airport was busy, but not too busy. There were a number of hired drivers holding cards with the name of their expected passengers and scanning the crowd of arrivals. A well-dressed man without a card stepped forward and said, "Signorina Louisa, benvenuta. Ci sei mancato." [Miss Louisa, welcome. We have missed you.]

She smiled and reached up to kiss his cheek. Speaking in English she said, "Thank you, Pietro. I missed you too. Please speak English. Not all of my friends speak Italian."

Pietro was in his fifties, with hair just beginning to go gray, but with a straight back and alert eyes. Given Chuck's training from Sarah and Casey, he thought the man might have been a cop at some point in his life. Chuck looked closely but could not spot a concealed weapon.

With a smile of his own, Pietro said, "Certainly. Welcome to Rome, my friends." He had a strong Italian accent but was perfectly understandable.

Lou said, "Guys, this is Pietro Caron. He works for my family. Pietro, this is Morgan, Sarah and Chuck."

Handshakes were exchanged and they began to walk through the terminal towards the parking lot, but only after the men assured Pietro that they were fine wheeling their own luggage carts. Lou asked Pietro about the well-being of someone named Ginevra, presumably his wife, and was happy to learn that she was well.

The car was a black Mercedes R350 minivan with plenty of room for the bags and for the passengers to sit comfortably. In deference to his long legs, Chuck was given the front passenger seat while the other three sat behind him.

The drive began unexceptionally with the scenery of mostly fields on either side of the roadway, a small divided highway. Chuck was mentally comparing it to the other highways he'd driven on in Europe a few weeks ago while on the Selenica and Federov assignments. (Damn, that seemed like a long time ago.) This was as good as most of those roads, but maybe not quite as good as the German roads had been.

Chuck saw they were headed east, towards Rome, but then they turned north at a highway interchange.

He said to Pietro, next to him, "Where're we going? The signs were still Rome to the east."

"Yes, the Villa Palone is on the north of the city in an area called Labaro. Not quite as crowded as the city center. Little more room to move your elbows, as you Americans say."

"So, we will avoid city traffic?" asked Chuck.

"Well, at this hour on a Sunday, there won't be much of that, but it's faster on the highway in any event. City streets are much tighter. They were built for horses and pedestrians, you understand?"

Speaking from the backseat, Morgan said, "Think we'll get to see Rome today, Pietro?"

"The villa is in the City, but I know you are asking about the city center. Well, I guess you can if you want to, but we're not going to be driving through it this morning. I'd imagine you are pretty tired though. Up to you, but if I were you, I'd get some sleep and visit the city tomorrow. It's been here thousands of years and will be here in the morning."

Morgan chuckled, "Yeah. I know you are right. I'm just excited. Seems both Sarah and Lou are calmer about the whole thing. They're sound asleep." Lou was sitting next to Morgan, in the middle seat, and was nestled against him snoring softly.

Sarah murmured, "Not sound." Chuck gave a tiny smile. He didn't know why the sound of her "almost-asleep-voice" was so adorable to him, but it was. He thought for a moment about just how much he loved her and concluded that it was off the charts. Sometime on this vacation, some romantic moment in Italy, he was going to take the ring out and do it. He was going to ask her. He was going to ask her to be his wife. To ...well, do it. Marriage. Forever and ever and ever. He allowed himself a little smile at that thought. Romantic Italy. Rome, Italy. He suddenly wondered if the English word "romantic" came from the name of the city he was visiting. That would be perfect.

Getting back to the conversation among the three still conscious people in the car, Chuck said, "Well, Morg, let's get to the house, settle in and then figure out what we are doing next. We've been on the road for a while now."

"Ok, buddy. You have it down. Let's do that," Morgan said. "But this is pretty cool." His head was on a swivel, looking around Europe for the first time.

"Yeah, it is. Enjoy it."

The road progressed around a turn to the east, as Chuck found out later it was a ring road circling the denser inner city of Rome. Labaro was a wide open area of vast green fields. Chuck was surprised that it was still the city of Rome, but Pietro assured him that that was indeed the case.

They came upon a high wall with tall narrow Italian cypress trees running down the side like soldiers on parade and turned through a gate. Inside the wall was a long driveway through a green lawn leading up to a beautiful villa. Chuck wasn't too sure how big a home had to be to qualify as a palazzo rather than a villa, but this house was mighty big. Three stories tall and at least sixty meters wide. It might double as a small hotel, just by the number of windows. There were a couple of semicircular steps leading up to the tall double front doors.

Wow. This was Lou's home. It was no wonder she insisted that they all stay with her at her family's house. Each couple could probably have its own wing of the building. Chuck was surprised she came from such opulence. She was so unpretentious and down to earth. She ran a sandwich shop, for goodness sake.

It suddenly occurred to him that Morgan would be totally freaking out to see that Lou came, not just from money, but from a lot of money. Chuck knew that Morgan would see his own modest circumstances in contrast. His little buddy was nervous enough to meet Lou's parents, this would only multiply his issues. Oh, boy. Chuck wished he could talk to Morgan and reassure his friend, but he couldn't really do so in front of Lou.

The car pulled up in front of the massive doors and Pietro moved around to open Morgan's door behind him. Chuck got out and opened Sarah's door on his side. She was just coming out from her nap and stood up outside the car. She whispered to Chuck, her eyes wide, "Holy shit."

"Yeah," he whispered back. "That about sums it up."

A couple of men came out the front door and greeted Lou in Italian. She greeted them back with a grin, and they began to unload the bags from the car.

Through the door came an attractive smiling woman in her fifties wearing jeans and an open neck red silk blouse. She was a bit heavier than Lou and her hair was streaked with some gray, but otherwise she could have passed for Lou's older sister.

Throwing her arms wide she said, in English, "Welcome home, Louisa." The woman wrapped Lou in her arms and returned the hug.

"Hi, Mom," she said. They pulled back as Lou's mother wanted to get a good look at her.

"I'm so happy to see you, Sweetie," she said.

"You too. I want you to meet my friends," Lou said.

"Oh, you know I can't wait," said her mom. She turned to look at Morgan, Chuck and Sarah. With a huge smile she went right to Chuck and gave him a hug. "You must be Morgan. Louisa told me how handsome you were."

"Mom," said Lou.

"Umm, actually, Mrs. Palone, I'm Chuck," he said.

"Umm, yeah. Umm. I'm Morgan," said Morgan.

Mrs. Palone pulled back from Chuck and looked back and forth between the two men in confusion. Then released Chuck and moved to Morgan to give him a hug. "Welcome, Morgan. Sorry about that."

"Oh, no, no, no. I understand. I mean handsome..." he waived his hands towards Chuck. "I get it." Morgan looked particularly miserable.

"You are handsome, Sweetie," said Lou taking his arm, with a glare at her mother. That didn't seem to cheer Morgan up too much.

"Well, even I can figure out you must be Sarah. Process of elimination and all that," she gave Sarah a happy smile and shook her hand.

"Hello, Mrs. Palone. Thanks for having us," said Sarah with a smile of her own.

"You are very welcome, all of you. And please call me Megan," she said.

"Thank you, Megan," said Sarah.

"Come on, let's get inside. You know your dad wants to see you," Megan said to Lou, taking her hand and leading her in through the massive doors.

The marble entry way was two stories high with a prominent staircase front and center. There was chandelier the size of a church bell over their heads.

Coming down the stairs was a man with slicked back black hair with a prominent widow's peak over intelligent brown eyes and a winning smile. He was late fifties, maybe early sixties, and appeared fit and trim. He was darker complexioned than his wife and daughter, but you could see the resemblance to Lou in his eyes. He wore slacks and a polo shirt, loafers and no socks.

"La mia bambina," he said as he reached Lou. [My baby.]

"Papa," said Lou, folding herself into his hug.

He kissed her on the top of the head and whispered something to her. She nodded her head against his chest in response. Pulling away, she said, in English, "Want you to meet my friends." She led him by the hand to Morgan and said, "This is Morgan, my boyfriend." Clearly, she was leaving no doubt or confusion this time.

"How do you do, Sir," said Morgan with his hand extended.

"Please to meet you, Morgan. Welcome. Louisa has told us so many wonderful things about you. We've been looking forward to it. And please call me Tony. It's Antonio, but Tony is easier for a lot of people I find. So, I answer to either." His English was fluent, but with an Italian accent.

"Thank you so much, Tony. And thank you for inviting us into your home," said Morgan with barely a stammer or a pause. Chuck thought his little buddy had probably been practicing that line. Chuck could tell that his friend was very nervous though.

"You are most welcome. And these are the rest of your friends, Louisa." Tony Palone turned to Chuck and Sarah and extended his hand. "Welcome. Friends of my daughter are always family to us."

"Thank you, Tony. I'm Sarah Walker," she said.

"Pleasure to meet you Sarah. I would have guessed that you weren't Chuck Bartowski, but It's nice to have confirmation." Everyone laughed.

"Pleased to meet you, Tony. Thanks for the hospitality," said Chuck, shaking hands.

"Hospitality is what I do for a living, it's the least I can do for my daughter's friends," he said. When he saw the look on their faces he said, with a laugh, "Ha. She didn't tell you, did she?" He gave his daughter a mock scowl. She kind of shrugged and looked away, perhaps a little bit embarrassed. Turning back to Morgan, Chuck and Sarah he said, "It's the family business. We own the Mercurian Hotel chain."

"The Mercurian Hotels? I stayed in one of your hotels in Palermo once. It was lovely," said Sarah.

"Oh, good. I like that one too. The view of the harbor is delightful," he said with a smile. "I hope you got a harbor view."

"I remember," said Sarah, nodding. "They are named after the Roman god Mercury. He and Jupiter would arrive at a town in disguise and bless the households that would take them in. One basis for the western tradition of hospitality. Ospitalità."

"Superb accent. Do you speak Italian, Sarah?" he asked.

"Yes, I do," she replied.

"Well, this is going to be a wonderful visit," he said, with a grin.

"Antonio," said Megan. "They have been on the road from Los Angeles since yesterday. I think we should feed them and put them to bed."

"You are right, of course, Meg. Are you and your friends hungry? Can Ginevra get you something?"

"I'm not. You guys want anything to eat?" Chuck, Sarah and Morgan all declined food. "Ok, I'm going to say hi to Ginni and then take a nap. Why don't you guys head up and I'll see you in a bit?"

One of the men who had brought in the bags took them up the stairs to their rooms. It seemed that, while Chuck and Sarah were given a room of their own, Morgan was placed in a guest room rather than Lou's room. 'Well,' thought Chuck, 'be pretty weird to be sleeping with your girlfriend in her parents' house, I guess.' But he did feel sort of sorry for his buddy.

Chuck and Sarah's room was as large as a hotel suite with their own bathroom and as luxurious as any hotel they had visited. The bed alone was enormous, which, given their sleeping habits, was an enormous waste of bed. Sarah was looking out the window at the wide green lawn with ornamental gardens, mostly shrubbery at this time of the year, that stretched away hundreds of meters behind the house. Chuck slid up to her and put his arm around her waist. She leaned into him and said, quietly, "Wow."

"Yup," he replied.

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A/N3: "Romance" does, in fact, derive from the name of the city of Rome. At least according to the Internet.

A/N4: Well I, for one, am surprised. I never would have thought that Lou, the sandwich girl, could be the progeny of the owners of the vast Mercurian Hotel chain. As "normal" as she is, I can only imagine that Megan and Tony raised her well, without the attitude of a girl born to money.

A/N5: Not going to stop beating this drum, my friends. Wash your hands. Wear a mask. Socially distance. Listen to the scientists. Countries can beat this thing, but we have to hang together and look out for each other. Please.