A/N 1:

OK, whew! We finally made it to Chuck and Sarah's (first?) big talk. They haven't had more than small talk about little things in life, comments about the weather, or dinner, and such. They are ready to move things forward. Again, it has been a few weeks since Sarah was rescued. This and the prior 2 chapters, all take place over 3 days. Night 1 - Chuck and Carina's talk. Day 2 - Sarah and Carina's talk. NIght 2 - Carina and Casey Interludes. We are now at Day 3.

I thought a reviewer explained things well, "In the first part of this story, I recoiled at the thought of "Bryce" Bartowski as Chuck engaged in very casual and meaningless sex. It seemed to go against Chuck's character as we've come to know it. But as I thought about it, this behavior was in response to a Sarah rejection. Would it be out of character for Chuck to mope around on his couch for weeks and eat cheese balls? No. Or would it have been out of character for Chuck to start drinking heavily to forget? No. So why would it be out of character for Chuck to hide behind a new personality that lets him try to forget Sarah? A personality that is based on avoiding deep feelings or the possibility of getting hurt again. So I've come to buy into Chuck the playboy. Until Sarah came back into his life."

Chuck and Sarah are humans. Humans rarely do things perfectly, and emotions have to be worked through, they don't move at the speed of logic.

I hope someone is still enjoying this. I had no idea about the passions I was going to stir in writing this.

I'm loving it!

BTW, in the last chapter, Carina goes to look for Casey, but, and I quote "Did he end up going out tonight?" And the answer, she would have discovered, was Yes. He was out at the hotel.

A/N 2:

Still don't own Chuck. If I did, we would get a movie, before they were living in a retirement community. I would probably make some money if I did own it, in the meantime, my pockets are empty.

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Salvation – The Talk

Sarah was aware that when Chuck denied himself whatever wonderful things might have come from continuing to chat with Sarah, in order to help the wounded soul of a young ballerina, it scratched her record and her heart took notice.

When he then turned that pure unconditional love on her, and offered, no strings attached, to be her personal baggage handler, it broke her. Chuck broke me in the best way possible. He broke down the walls I had built around my feelings. He shattered the calcification that surrounded my heart, from years of abuse. He completely destroyed my belief that Hallmark moments were dreams of suckers, or at least a reality beyond my grasp.

As she sits there, reflecting on his empathy, Chuck walks into the room.

Sarah abruptly announces, "Chuck we have to stop doing this".

His heart goes cold from their shared, congenital habit of saying the right thing, the wrong way, typically at the wrong time. So, the circumstances, and his huge self-doubt makes him jump to the conclusion that she didn't want him to visit anymore. And of course, that wasn't it.

She explains, "We've got to stop walking on eggshells around each other. Attentive, but terrified that any misstep will shatter this, us, into a million pieces."

"We need to talk," he stiffens. She smiles and adds, "In a good way."

She reaches for his hands, and he takes hers, and sits next to her on her bed.

"I need to finally share with you how I really feel about you, but there is a lot to unpack. Please just hear me out." She implores, her head ducked and her eyes peering up through her eyelashes.

"When I met you, I was a mess. Lost and confused. The situation with Molly had shaken my foundations. My life had been built around the CIA, and I no longer had confidence in them. After all the abuse that my soul had endured, I was broken and unmoored.

The odds were astronomical that I, with my battered soul, could meet an admittedly imperfect man," she squeezes his hand and gives him a broken smile, to soften the fact, "who somehow had sufficient strength of character to handle the amount of my baggage, and sufficient stores of love to actually revive my withered heart."

"I know that was dramatic," she admits, "but it was like calling the finishing order and time of every horse running in the Kentucky Derby. The odds should be beyond possible. But it happened. And then, it almost didn't." She looks down, dejected. "If it hadn't been for my damn job, I could have been a regular girl falling for a wonderful guy. But no, I had to fight it, keep it from running its natural course, which would allow me to be happy."

"No, I had to bat away the hand that was reaching out to pull me from that quicksand."

Her head snaps up, her eyes seeking his, "It was madness. It was making me crazy" she vents, "I couldn't stop our situation from being wrong. And Chuck, I didn't know what to do to make it right," she explains, searching his eyes for understanding, for forgiveness of her inadequacy.

"We were doomed, yet somehow got one more chance." She pulls his hands to her chest, clasping them close to her body. She has a sad smile as she notes, "It would have been nice to not have had to be blown up. But still, we got this chance, and I am committed to making it happen this time. Please, please, please tell me that you are committed too."

Chuck sits for a moment, gathering his thoughts. He smiles at her, and takes his hand to stroke her cheek, answering her question with a caress, as he considers his words.

"Sarah, I have been willing to commit to you since I told you I would be your baggage handler" he says, bending forward to kiss her forehead.

He pulls back and looks lovingly into her eyes. "I can't deny that your movie star beauty made me feel like a leading man, but when I looked into your eyes, somehow I saw you, a real person that I could share real experiences with, and felt like I had known you forever. Everything I have done was to try to find a path to bring us together, to bring me back to you. I know, in hindsight that much of it was dumb, and not really well thought out, but I was hurt too." His sad eyes mirroring her own.

"I was hurt and feeling like crap, drinking to not feel anything, and then partying to see if I could still feel something." Tears pool in his eyes, and hers soon follow. "I was lost without you. I am lost without you." he admits.

"And when I thought I had lost you to Shaw, I just tried to become someone who was both worthy of you, and also indifferent to you." He sniffled and with a bemused grin, acknowledged, "You can see how well that turned out for Chuck Bartowski."

Always laughing through the pain. That's my Chuck. Sarah thinks.

She twists on the bed, so she is facing him and can reach both of his shoulders, and rub them. She is pleasantly reminded that he had been working out for over a year, as her hands cup the firm muscle. She enjoys the moment, but quickly gets her head back to where it needs to be, for them.

"Chuck, I need you to be patient with me. I know I want you in my future. But I need to finally have some say in what that future looks like. I've always been told what to do, so I never planned for a future that wouldn't be mine to determine anyway."

"I need to understand who I am. I need to understand what I want. I need to understand how I want to be in the future." She reassuringly rubs his thigh, "While I'm at your side."

"Can you do that for me? Can you be that patient for me?" she implores, hope infusing her expression and words.

Chuck nods his head and smiles a sad smile, "Of course Sarah. I would do anything for you. I will accept however much of you that you can give."

Chuck takes her hands again, kissing the knuckles on each. He smiles and looks up, into her eyes. "Sarah, you have to understand, I love you."

"God it feels so good to say that. I love you, Sarah Walker." "

Let me say it again, for all the times that I never said it in Burbank, because I was afraid and unsure. I love you, Sarah Walker."

"Let me say it again, for all the times in the past 2 years that I've tried to deny that it is the truth. I love you, Sarah Walker."

"And, let me say it again, to try to help you fully understand how deep my feelings are for you. I love you, Sarah Walker."

"That's unconditional. That requires nothing from you. That is my gift to you."

"And, if somehow, someway, someday, you feel the same way about me? Then, I will have a happiness that I never before believed was possible."

He takes her in his arms and hugs her deeply, as she quietly sobs into his shoulder.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Now that their intentions have been made clear to each other, and their Declarations of Love have been stated, they need to learn how to live it.

Before, in Burbank, trying to get an admission and declaration of love had been an end goal; now it was just the starting point.

Now. they knew that they were going to work through this together, but they still had to discover how.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Two days later, Chuck and Sarah had decided to have a movie night, so Chuck is juggling a big bowl of popcorn and a couple of beers, as he enters the living room where Sarah had brought up the online movie Library.

"I'm in the mood for something silly." she declares, smiling.

Chuck replies, "Well, I'm here." laughing.

Sarah titters, replying, "You goof. I mean some kind of silly, fun movie."

She continues to flip through the different selections, and she stops on "The Muppet Movie".

"The Muppets", she says wistfully, obviously in recollection, the comment having a deeper meaning.

Chuck says, "Yeah, I love the Muppets," and taking on the character's voice, imitates, "Hello, this is Kermit the Frog, reporting."

Sarah laughs, "Yeah they have a special place in my heart, from back when I was a kid."

This draws Chuck's attention, as he is always looking to learn more about her past, cherishing anytime she decided to share a story. He sits down on the couch next to her, looks gently at her and says, "Oh yeah?" encouraging her to continue.

"Yeah," Sarah shares, "lots of days alone in motel rooms, that at least usually had a crappy TV, and one of the channels I could usually get would be the local PBS station. So when Sesame Street came on, it was an escape into a different world."

Chuck recalls, "Yeah I always thought I'd be funny to be Cookie Monster. Which character did you want to be?"

Sarah cocks her head, reflecting back on being little Samira, and answers, "You know, I never really thought about being one of them. I just wanted to be with them. I wanted to have friends, someone to hang out with, someone to play with. And they were as close as I got, with all the other people on Sesame Street." She sadly recalls, frowning, with wet eyes.

Chuck reaches a hand out, and softly rubs her back, saying, "Wow, I really like that story. They were a special part of my life as well."

After giving the moment a chance to settle. Sarah gets the movie started, while Chuck pulls the popcorn bowl into his lap, and grabs the beers. Sarah took her beer, and snuggled into his side. Relaxing, they spent the evening with their childhood friends.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Chuck sits his energy drink down on the coffee table, and plops down on the living room couch, next to where Sarah had set up the gaming console. The past week, he had been introducing her to Mario Kart.

Sarah, sits up, from reclining in the corner, to sit more upright next to him, and she teasingly scolds him, "If you were any later, I was going to run the race without you."

"Oh now, don't be that way." Chuck pouts, pursing out his lower lip, and unleashing his big, brown, puppy dog eyes. "You know my meetings sometimes seem endless. It's not like it's fun for me."

Sarah grins at him, enjoying the show.

He holds her eyes, and softening his expression, he professes, "And you know there is no place I would rather be, than by your side."

Sarah feels her insides melt. This is her Chuck, with a heart as big as the world, and not afraid to use it. A huge grin spreads on her face, and looking up at him, she agrees, "Yeah I'm not going anywhere either."

She leans over, bumping his shoulder, "But I still want to kick your butt, so let's get this race going."

Chuck looks up at the Mario Kart screen and says "Hey! You switched from Princess Preach?" She was now Toadette.

Sarah thinks, Yeah, too many Princesses in the game, thinking of Carina's avatar, but she just smiles, says "Shroom", then she giggles.

They start the race. Chuck was Funky Kong, of course, because fundamentally Kong just wanted to protect the damsel in distress. But now Sarah's character was the mushroom headed character Toadette.

Chuck said. "What does that mean?"

"Shroom" Sarah replies, and giggles again

Chuck glances over at her, confused and asks, "Okay is this like some secret thing?"

His eyes widen and he gasps, "Are you on Shrooms?"

Sarah falls over laughing heartily.

Chuck grows even more concerned.

Sarah pulls herself together and sits up, wiping her eyes, and laughingly replies, "No, no, no." and she chuckles heartily again.

Chuck's brow furrows, trying to make sense of Sarah's actions.

"Well, Did you eat mushrooms in the past?" He questions "Are you having a flashback?" Chuck gasps again.

Sarah laughs, answering, "No, no flashback. She swallows to clear her throat and get her voice back. "Well the CIA had us try just about everything so we would recognize its effect, in case we were ever dosed with something in the field. So, yeah, you know, I've eaten mushrooms years and years ago. But, that's not why I'm this character."

"Shroom" she says again, and giggles.

Chuck laughs, shakes his head, and admits, "Okay, I still don't get it."

Sarah's expression softens. She explains, "I'm just having fun."

"You see," She reaches out and bumps his hand, so he temporarily loses control of his controller, slowing his car down and allowing her to pass him. "Shroom" she giggles. She continues, "I just like saying it'" and she giggles again.

Chuck loved playful Sarah. It was something that he just got an inkling of, back in Burbank. But now, playful Sarah seems to be coming out more and more.

Sarah explains further, "Chuck, you're now going to see more different sides of me. For so long I've been completely repressed and forced to do what everyone else wanted."

"I never really had a childhood. Never went through my tweens, never had those personality building experiences. I never got to be silly. So now, I'm letting those parts of me come out. I'm trying to accept whatever emotion I'm feeling and fully embrace it, express it. So, right now, I just feel like I'm like 13 or something. And I just want to have fun. I just want to play.

"Sometimes, when I want to cuddle with you, I'm sure that's like, 9-year-old Sam, who would be scared and lonely in the motel room, wishing that she could crawl into Mommy and Daddy's bed. Sam, me, is finally getting a chance to experience that kind of love and caring."

"So, I hope you don't mind that I'm going to be me, in all my different aspects, some of them pretty silly, but I hope you'll accept all of me." She sticks her tongue out at him, turns back to the game, accelerating her car, and says "Shroom", giggling.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

After another week of getting used to talking about life, and sharing their experiences from the past year, Sarah is ready to take another step in their renewed relationship.

As they sit in the garden after lunch, she says "Chuck, I'm ready to tell you about my past now. I need to tell you about my past."

He scoots closer and puts his arm around her, creating a safe space for her to tell her story, Samira's story.

She tells of a childhood where a mother is left behind.

She tells of a childhood where words never became deeds, where promises were never intended to be kept.

A childhood where the harsh slap of reality is ever present, yet the dreams of the future never materialize.

A childhood where the mother's love is absent, and the father's love is conditional.

Then came the years of awkward, adolescent loneliness.

She was no longer the apple of her father's eye, because she refused to participate in his cons.

She was socially awkward, and therefore isolated, in an ocean of her peers. She found some solace playing music, becoming competent, but not having the time to truly excel.

Her friends, such as they are, were a handful of elderly shut-ins. Ladies who needed her help with light housekeeping and running errands, which provided her a little spending money. It was a good fit for her, as she didn't have to deal with a lot of different people, and their mothering instinct soothed a huge hole in her heart, even if it was temporary. The biggest challenge was keeping her dad away, preventing him from looking around to see what they may have forgotten that they owned.

And then she became the property of Langston Graham.

And, she explains that she is sick of it all. She is her own property, her own person. She owes nothing to no one. She wants to stand independent.

As she finishes her story, she wipes tears from her eyes and reaches for Chuck.

He closes the small distance between them and takes her in his arms, pulling her into her place, held tightly in his arms, her head buried in the crook of his neck.

Sarah whispers in his ear, firmly and lovingly, "I want to stand independent, with you at my side."

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Chuck reflects, laying in bed that night, It is interesting how our roles are reversing. In Burbank, I talked and shared everything about my life and everything that I was feeling, while Sarah kept everything bottled inside.

Now I am staying quiet, since I've already told most of my stories. I like that if I give Sarah quiet space to tell her stories, she is now willing to share. He smiles, as he turns and cuddles into his pillow. I am finally 'with' Sarah.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

In Burbank, Sarah had been the guardian of his body, and the protector of his innocence. Now, Chuck was the guardian of her heart, and the liberator of her innocence.

They talked, and healed, and renewed their pure affection.

Courting isn't a word of this century, it was barely of the last century. In a world of near instant gratification and hookups, it was truly anachronistic.

However, for Chuck and Sarah it seemed right. They weren't looking for a hookup, and while what they were doing might be termed dating, dating seemed just to be an activity.

Courting carries an intention. Chuck and Sarah intended to be together. They knew they were destined to be together. But life's challenges require that they work towards being together.

Both their souls were a bit raw, but that rawness engendered a compassion that they both sought and needed from each other. So, courting was their path to building a strong and lasting relationship.

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A/N 3:

So, there is The Talk. They are working on both healing themselves and their relationship. They love each other, but there's still some hurt to work through. Even so, things are going to be more upbeat moving forward.

I need to take a break from this story, as I need to expand on my earlier vision. So, it's going to be a couple of weeks before I post the next chapter, but know it is going to be courting and canoodling.

So I am going to offer this suggestion and encouragement. Think of your dream date for them, and that is what they are doing during this hiatus. I am going to have them at a fancy dinner and at the beach.

So, here is your scenario. The villa is on the outskirts of Rome, in a wealthy enclave. There are multiple buildings in the compound, including office space, in addition to the shared residence.

So, they can be lounging around the villa, out on the town, or at one of the many beaches.

So, have fun!

Feel free to share your dream date, in the reviews.

Pester me on the Chuck Fanfiction Fbook page. (You can also pester other authors there, but don't let them know I told you that.)

Continued thanks to Awesome Casey for being a sounding board. The good parts of the story were probably his ideas.