A/N: Thanks to the few that left reviews of the last chapter. Interest in this story has definitely dropped off, so maybe it's just as well that this is the final chapter.
Thanks to Writesalott for the beta again. She also read the first draft of the whole story and suggested changes back then, too. She, and Captainrick944 who stepped in when she was too sick to beta, helped me enormously. Much appreciated.
A longer final chapter to wrap up the story, including a small amount of time with Morgan, and another visit to that far off planet, so let's get going…
Chuck vs The Triangle
Chapter 10: Next Steps
Meeting Morgan that evening was interesting for Sarah. Chuck had told her about him, a friend since they were six years old. The shorter, bearded man was more childish than his friend, but when they were together, he brought out the kid in Chuck.
Beforehand, Chuck had told her, "He's going to be blown away by you, Sarah. Just warning."
Morgan was less surprised than Chuck had expected. "You're more beautiful than you looked on the tv," he commented.
"You saw our press conference?" she asked.
"Yeah, it got on the national channels," Morgan replied.
"You're stars!" the young brunette with Morgan said. "Hi, I'm Alex, Morgan's girlfriend."
Chuck's jaw dropped. "You got together while I've been away?"
Morgan gave him a flat look. "You virtually disappeared after selling the business, Chuck. That was two years ago! It's not like Alex and I had a whirlwind romance."
Alex wrapped her arm through Morgan's. "Pretty whirlwind. He started coming to our café for lunch three months ago. Every day for two weeks. I could tell he was interested in me, but hadn't the nerve to ask me out. I found it endearing."
"Endearing," Morgan huffed.
"I had to ask him out," Alex concluded.
Sarah grinned at her. "Well done."
Chuck finally managed to talk. "Morgan, I'm not coming back to LA. Just here to sell the condo."
"I guessed that," his friend replied.
"How've you been doing since I 'disappeared?'" Chuck asked.
"The new people took on virtually all the staff. I'm now the CEO," Morgan replied, puffing out his chest.
"Wow!" Chuck replied. "Well done, buddy."
"Will you come in and see everyone before you go again?" Morgan asked.
"I'm not sure that's a good idea," Chuck replied.
"Why not? They all got a huge settlement from you and then, almost immediately, got their jobs back. They're all happy and will be pleased to see you."
"Do it, Chuck," Sarah said.
He thought about it for a few moments, then said, "Okay. It'll have to be tomorrow morning as we'll be leaving in the afternoon."
"Great!" Morgan replied.
Sarah turned to Alex. "So, is it your café?"
Alex shook her head. "No, I'm just working there to pay my way through college. Business management."
"Maybe you can work with Morgan after you qualify," Chuck suggested.
"Maybe," Alex said, and looked at her boyfriend.
After a night of passion, Sarah was feeling tired but happy when they got the taxi to his old offices. She spotted a café over the road from it, so headed there as Chuck went in after promising to join her later.
"Yeah. We'll get the paperwork done while I'm there," Chuck replied.
"You will have made a lot of women over there upset," the woman behind the counter said after Sarah had ordered.
"You know me?" Sarah asked, surprised.
"Sarah Walker, girlfriend of Chuck Bartowski," the brunette answered. "Hi, I'm Lou Palone. I own this place."
"And you know this because…"
"I saw you and Chuck on the news… and then I've been hearing everyone who comes in here talking about you since then. Mostly people from over there." She pointed at Chuck's office. "As I say, women aren't all that happy."
Sarah looked up at her. "Do tell."
It was quiet, so Lou came and sat down with her. "Quite a few single women in the office would have liked the boss to go out with them when he was there. Some apparently weren't subtle. He was totally oblivious."
Sarah snorted. "I can imagine."
"I once thought he might ask me out, but that never happened," Lou said.
"Should I be worried?" Sarah asked.
Lou gave her an 'are you serious?' look. "Even on that press release, it was obvious how he looked at you. I don't think he's ever looked at another woman like that."
Sarah blushed. "We are in love," she admitted.
"Good for you," Lou responded. "He'd never admit it, but he'd needed someone for some time."
"I guess I have too," Sarah thought out loud.
"When he left, the women were unhappy, but I think some hoped he'd come back for them at some time," Lou said.
That brought Sarah back to the conversation. "He's NOT available," Sarah said and Lou laughed out loud.
It took an hour for Chuck to get away. Then, he wandered over to Lou's to find Sarah.
He was pleased to find her in deep conversation with Lou and they were just laughing as he walked in.
Both women looked up.
"Hi, Chuck," Lou said. "I was just telling Sarah about some of the idiots you had working for you."
He rolled his eyes. "Let me guess. Jeff and Lester?"
Lou nodded. "I never understood why you took them on when the Buy More closed down."
"They were good at IT support, at least when motivated," he replied.
Lou laughed. "I guess their boss, Anna Wu motivated them."
He grinned. "Yeah. They were terrified of her."
"So, are you done over there?" Sarah asked, feeling out of the conversation.
He nodded, but also blushed. "Some of the girls wanted to give me kisses."
Sarah didn't like to hear that. "I hope you didn't kiss them back!"
"No, no, no!"
Lou laughed at the two of them. "I told you, Sarah. You don't have to worry about him." Then she quietly commented, "Glad the new owners kept it going."
Chuck smiled. "Your custom from over there still good, Lou?"
"Yup."
Chuck held his hand out to Sarah. "Well, let's head to the airport." He briefly looked at the other woman. "Nice seeing you again, Lou."
Setting up a company in Bermuda was something Sarah had already studied and she'd gone through the process for her own. This one with Chuck was different. A different sort of business, for one, but also one based permanently on the island.
Once the officials understood what they were proposing, they were only too happy to accommodate.
They bought a house in Hamilton, the capital of Bermuda, and settled in there.
Matt and Janine were now running her old business, although she was still the owner.
Chuck had sold his business some time before, so the only thing he missed from Los Angeles was his friend Morgan.
They selected the office they were going to use out of the offices they were shown, and recruited local people to work for them. That had been part of why they had secured permission to operate from there. The international interest in Chuck's offering also played a part.
They weren't building ships there, nor even the engines, they were selling the designs for the engines and the fuel converters.
Chuck had secured patents in the United States, Canada, Britain, India, China, Japan, Russia, Australia and European Patent covering 39 nations.
That had taken quite some time and effort. Interestingly, the US government actually helped with this whole process, assigning a legal expert to assist.
Of course, this didn't preclude intellectual property theft, but Chuck was careful not to sell all the design work, some he held back in case it would subsequently be needed.
Chuck built a few of the designs up into prototypes of a small engine and a fuel converter that could be used in demonstrations.
Three months after they moved to Bermuda, Chuck took Sarah out for dinner at their favorite restaurant in Hamilton. They had ordered their meal and the drinks had just been brought to their table.
Sarah loved sitting at the balcony looking out over the harbor and was gazing out.
"Sarah," Chuck said, and she turned to look at him. He was down on one knee. She gasped. "Will you make me even happier than I already am and marry me?"
Tears were now running down her cheeks. He had a ring box open with a beautiful ring in it. "Yes!" she said, kneeling down with him. "Oh, god, YES!" She wrapped her arms around him, crashing her lips to his.
When they separated, Chuck said, "Can I put the ring on your finger?"
She eagerly pushed her left hand forward and he slipped the ring onto her ring finger. It fit perfectly. "Where did you get it?" she asked as she admired it.
He blushed, "It's mom's ring. She gave it to me at Ellie's."
Sarah remembered Mary had taken him into the bedroom his parents were using. "She doesn't want it?"
"She says their rings don't fit with their life on Ktaxtu," he replied. "If you don't like it, we can get another."
"It's perfect and it fits!" she said, looking fondly at it.
"I cheated and measured your finger when you were asleep one night. Your fingers are slimmer than mom's so I had it adjusted," he said, looking embarrassed again.
"I love it, and I love you even more for doing all that," she said, pulling him into another kiss.
They ate their dinner with her stopping occasionally to look at her hand.
That night, they contacted both his sister and his parents with the news.
It took nine months in total to get everything set up for their new business based in Bermuda.
Before they opened for business, however, there was an event they planned.
They had set the date for the wedding. They would stay on the island and have the wedding at the Southampton Princess hotel. The guests would stay at the hotel and all rooms would be paid for by Chuck and Sarah. It wasn't going to be a large wedding, certainly for that hotel, just their close friends and relatives.
Morgan would be Chuck's best man and Janine, Sarah's bridesmaid.
Morgan arrived a week before the wedding. The company left in the hands of the scary Anna Wu.
"To be honest, Chuck, I think she runs the place better than me," Morgan confessed.
Morgan brought his girlfriend, Alex, of course. If she'd had time to come over before the wedding, to get a dress made, Sarah would have liked her to be a second bridesmaid, but that wasn't to be.
Ellie and Devon brought their beautiful baby girl, Clara, who also stole the show.
Matt was there, obviously and helped with the preparations.
The wedding would be down on the pink sandy beach, part that was owned by the hotel. It was to be exclusively there for the day. Anyone interested could go swimming with the dolphins there. Sarah would encourage that; she'd been before and loved it. Of course, she also swam with them out in the ocean itself.
Chuck explained to Morgan and Alex that there would be two older guests coming that Morgan wouldn't recognize.
Sarah wasn't sure that telling them was a good idea.
"You cannot tell anyone that they were here or who they really are," Chuck emphasized. "For their safety and ours."
That last bit got Morgan's attention. He would do anything for his friend. "So, who are they?"
"My parents, but they'll be disguised."
Chuck then had to explain the whole story. The other couple were dumbfounded. Alex was dubious too.
"It's all true," Sarah said. "They'll be brought here and then return to that far off planet."
"We'll be going there for our honeymoon," Chuck told them.
The conversation then turned to talking about that planet, with Morgan being told he couldn't tell anyone about it.
"If he does, he'll have to answer to me," Alex said, giving her boyfriend a stern look.
The look on his face made it very clear who was boss in the relationship.
As Chuck stood next to Morgan waiting for his bride-to-be, he could hardly believe it was happening.
In less than a year, he'd met the woman of his dreams and was now marrying her!
Of course, a lot more had happened in that time too. Finding his parents along with Xspotl and Zxtarl, going with them to the planet Ktaxtu, the whole Intersect, CIA and NSA fiasco, Volkoff, and the new company.
However, for Chuck, the most significant thing was meeting and falling in love with Sarah Walker, soon to be Sarah Bartowski, his wife.
She had managed to track down her mother, Emma, who was going to walk her down the aisle. That had been an emotional reunion, in itself.
The people there included his own parents, disguised. His mom looked tearful as she sat next to her daughter.
If he looked carefully, he could see the outlines of the two aliens that they now regarded as friends, standing at the back. They would take the four humans back to their planet after the wedding was over.
He noticed movement out of the corner of his eye and looked that way.
A cart was bringing the final two attendees. The most important ones, Sarah and her mom.
Even at a distance, Sarah looked stunning and her beaming smile was dazzling.
The cart drove onto the sand and stopped where Sarah and Emma could get out and walk toward him. He had to fight back the tear of joy that was threatening. My god! Sarah looks like an angel, he thought.
The two women walked slowly, both with their eyes on the bridegroom. For Sarah, Chuck had never looked as handsome as he did, standing there waiting for her.
When she finally stood in front of him, they clasped hands and the service started.
Neither had wanted to say personalized vows. Sarah wasn't a big speaker anyway, but even Chuck thought he'd be tongue tied, so they just repeated the vows they were told to say.
They both had tears running down their cheeks as each placed the wedding ring on the other's finger.
The married couple embraced and kissed passionately in front of everyone.
There wasn't a dry face there. Even little Clara joined in.
The five carts that were waiting for them took everyone back to the hotel in convoy. Apart from the two aliens who returned to their spaceship.
After food, speeches and a lot of dancing, it was time for the happy couple to leave on their honeymoon. They kissed everyone goodbye and went to their room to change, but it took a little while as they decided to consummate their marriage there.
Then, they joined his parents. The two aliens joined them, they all held hands and they were off.
They spent the first week on Ktaxtu with Xspotl being trained how to communicate with their minds.
Stephen and Mary offered to help, and after five days, Sarah used her mother-in-law to test communicating with someone other than her husband. Before that, she and Chuck had started to communicate with each other by thought.
They knew it would only work on this planet, but the experience was amazing. Getting in the head of your partner was not something either of them would have expected. Sarah found Chuck to be a completely open book. She had things in her past that she was worried about him finding out, but that, she found was foolish. He loved everything about her, both the good things and the not so good. She loved him even more after that.
They did learn how to block some thoughts away, though, which both felt necessary when his parents offered to help. Neither wanted their sex life to be known by them.
Xspotl was surprised at how quickly they had managed to learn. They requested their own food and drink as the first test and after the first couple of mistakes, found themselves drinking coffees, much to Stephen and Mary's amusement.
On their seventh day there, Xspotl took them to the Wlearl sea where the plakt swam. A small home was created for them and they stayed there for the next six days.
On the first day in the water, she was nervous, even though she knew she was perfectly safe. Chuck went in with her.
They had decided that clothing was pointless, so the two of them stepped naked into the water. It was quite warm.
They swam together for half-an-hour, enjoying just being able to do so. They were surprised to find that they could hold their breath for longer so they stayed underwater for lengthier periods.
For Sarah, the warm water and the love of her life swimming with her were almost all she wanted from life. They swam as often as they could in Bermuda and even swam with dolphins who responded so well to their presence. However, she knew at some point the plakt would come to them and that would be an even better experience than with the dolphins.
Chuk had just swum up to her and they were kissing and holding each other.
Her desire for him spiked and she wanted to make love while still swimming. Would that be possible? She wondered.
'It's how we do it.'
The thought hit her, startling her. Her eyes darted around and spotted the large porpoise-like creature swimming toward them. The main difference being the eyes on pods and the two sets of flippers instead of just one. Its skin color was a light gray with a hint of purple.
Sarah and Chuck had separated and were watching the plakt. It approached them and its snout brushed against Sarah's. On Earth she would have been frightened, but here she just loved the almost intimate contact. It did the same with Chuck as she watched. His smile matched hers.
'I am Flowkt. My mate will join us soon.'
Sarah attempted to communicate.
'I am Sarah. This is my husband Chuck.'
She was overjoyed when Flowkt replied,
'I know. I read it in your mind. Welcome to our sea.'
She clapped her hands together.
'You can hear and understand me!'
Flowkt seemed to nod his head, almost like a human would.
'I can.'
Chuck joined in then.
'Hello, Flowkt. We are so glad to see you.'
As always, Sarah loved that she and Chuck could 'hear' each other, but doing so underwater, made it even more special.
Flowkt replied,
'Hello, Chuck. I am pleased to finally meet the humans we hear so much about.'
Sarah had to surface to catch her breath before lowering back down.
Another plakt had swum up to them. It was a similar size to Flowkt, but its skin was a slightly darker purple.
'If you take water in, you will still be able to breathe.'
The thoughts 'sounded' slightly different in Sarah's head.
'Hello, I'm Sarah.'
'I know. I'm Tlakt. Flowkt's mate.'
Chuck thought,
'I'm going to try breathing underwater, Sarah.'
She was going to urge caution, but as she turned to him, he opened his mouth. His eyes widened as the water entered his lungs. He gagged slightly and then she saw water rush out of his mouth.
She was about to grab him to pull him to the surface to force the water out, when he smiled at her.
'I can breathe! Try it.'
Sarah opened her mouth and breathed in. As her lungs filled, her body instinctively tried to force it out, but then she stopped that. She was breathing normally!
'Come with us. The rest of our community would like to see you.'
Flowkt turned and started swimming away. Tlakt stayed with them, waiting for them to start to swim.
'Come on, Chuck,'
Sarah urged her husband, and started to swim after Flowkt.
Sarah and Chuck were soon swimming together, slowly submerging further and further. They grinned at each other.
Sarah still wanted to make love to Chuck in the sea, but this was what they'd originally come here for.
As the seabed dropped lower, they saw a group of plakt ahead. The group parted and the two Plakt led Chuck and Sarah into the midst of them.
It didn't feel in any way threatening.
Swimming with the plakt, who were fascinated by the two humans, was like a dream come true for Sarah, especially when questions were fired at them.
'What do you think of our planet?'
'How do you feel swimming here?'
'Are your Earth seas like this?'
'We like you. Do you like us?'
It was all a bit overwhelming, but so wonderful at the same time. The last question seemed to come from a smaller plakt, which Sarah assumed was a younger one.
She attempted to answer all the questions. Chuck knew she wanted this so much, so he kept 'quiet'.
'We love your planet.'
'Swimming here is the best experience of my life!'
'Our seas are much colder and less welcoming.'
'I love you all!'
The last comment was so true!
They swam with their new friends for about two hours before needing to eat.
'We have to go and eat now,'
Sarah told Flowkt and Tlakt who had stayed with them.
'You can eat here.'
Flowkt swam swiftly down to the sea bed which was covered in the same planet life as the trees. Swimming back up, with plants in its mouth.
'It made something you should like.'
Sarah and Chuck both took some and chewed on a bit.
It tasted like tofu which had been marinated in a teriyaki glaze. Both their eyes lit up.
They stayed with their new friends for the afternoon as well, before tiring and needing to go back and rest. Sarah had to ask,
'Can we see you again tomorrow?'
'We can take you deeper. See some of the other species?'
Sarah looked at Chuck and then back.
'Yes, please.'
Before they left the water, Sarah grabbed her husband.
'Make love to me in here, Chuck.'
Their underwater love making was a wonderful new experience for them both.
Over the next three days, they 'met' several underwater species, large and small.
Sarah wasn't surprised that the very small fish were unable to communicate with her, although they were as interested as the larger ones.
The Plakt were very different to all the rest, though. Their intelligence and ability to communicate with the two humans surpassed all the others by a long way.
The huge Sprane were probably the second best at communication and apparent intelligence. They met those on the fourth day there. These massive creatures were longer than the blue whales of Earth at around one-hundred and twenty feet. They were also forty feet wide. It was almost as if someone had taken one of those blue whales and blown them up like a balloon. Of course, they also had the pair of fins and eyes on stalks that were so common on this planet.
They had swum out for a mile to reach the Spane, so that day they had needed to leave and rest sooner.
As they lay next to each other in the bed that had been molded for them, Sarah looked over at Chuck. "It's going to be hard getting used to being on Earth again."
He gazed into her eyes with those hazel orbs that she loved so much.
'I'll miss being able to communicate like this, Sarah.'
"God, yes!" she replied and rolled onto him and kissed him for all she was worth. That led to them taking it further.
As had happened every time since learning to communicate that way, when they started to make love, their walls all dropped and being in each other's minds made the whole experience so much better. Achieving and sharing their climaxes was something they hadn't expected and was mind blowing.
Leaving the Wlearl sea and their new friends was very difficult, but Xspotl came to collect them as arranged. Sarah felt tearful as she swam with them one last time.
'Goodbye Flowkt and Tlakt. We'll miss you so much.'
Flowkt swam close and she felt his snout pressed against her nose.
'We will miss you too, Sarah.'
Her tears did escape then, as Chuck guided her out of the water to prepare to leave.
They held onto each other for the whole of the return to where his parents would see them before they returned to Earth.
Neither wanted to leave this amazing place. For Chuck, it made him understand his parents being happy staying here.
They spent the last day with the older Bartowskis, telling them about their experience over the last week.
Mary held both of them as much as possible, knowing this was her last time with them for some time.
Xspotl promised to bring them back again in the future, but nothing was planned. Chuck and Sarah would be so focused on their business, so would have no time.
Mary took Sarah to one side at one point. "You must let us know when we're going to be grandparents again, Sarah. We will want to come to you."
Before she met Chuck Bartowski, the thought of ever wanting to be a mom never occurred to Sarah, but the thought of bringing children up with him, although scary, appealed so much. She gripped her mother-in-law's hands. "We will."
After another tearful parting, Chuck and Sarah were taken back to Earth and to their home in Bermuda.
They both felt the loss of their mental connection, but that night, they found that making love without it was still wonderful.
They would now start their new life here on this beautiful island, both so glad that he'd arrived in Miami needing help before she moved here with her old business.
A/N: My wife and I were taken to the Southampton Princess hotel back in the 90s as part of an annual award process at the company I then worked for. It was an amazing place to stay and we loved Bermuda. The hotel is now called the Fairmont Southampton hotel, as it was sold off.
This ends the story. I had wondered about writing a further chapter or an epilogue covering how they fared with their new business, but decided it would be rather dry.
I hope you enjoyed this totally AU Charah story. Thanks again to all those that took the time to leave reviews and PMs. It seems that taking our favorite couple off-planet puts some people off, but I enjoyed it and I'm glad that some of you did too. Other than my Eco story, which is still continuing, I'll keep them on Earth for now, until I think up a new one elsewhere.
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Glossary:
Like in my Exo story, I'm recording the alien names here for reference:
Flowkt - member of the Plakt species that befriends Chuck and Sarah
Ktaxtu - living planet, home of the Xnaxa species
Plakt - intelligent sea creatures on planet Ktaxtu
Sprane - huge whale-like sea creatures on planet Ktaxtu
Sxtrtztar - some effect detected by the alien sensor arrays when the Intersect cube is used.
Tlakt - member of the Plakt species. Mate of Flowkt
Wlearl - sea planet Ktaxtu where the Plakt swim.
Xnaxa - name of the alien species that the Bartowski family encounter
Xspotl - one of the first pair of aliens encountered by Chuck and Sarah. A member of the Xnaxa species
Zxtarl - one of the first pair of aliens encountered by Chuck and Sarah. A member of the Xnaxa species