Author's Review: To settle any ongoing doubts, yes, Chuck is indeed Chase, which as I understand is another nickname for Charles. And if it isn't already clear, Cate is another woman in Chuck's life, who he met in the turbulent period after his original Red Test. As implied in the previous chapter, Cate was pregnant with Chuck's child when she died on a mission. This particular tragic event will be the final push towards Chuck actually becoming what he feared the most when he was initially training to be a spy: a killer. Now, as so many others pointed out, canon Chuck seems to really hate guns, or more specifically guns with live rounds and aiming and firing them on living beings, innocent or not. That was emphasized throughout the show, and certainly, his only 'kill' was that wooden piece of prick Shaw, if you even can call it that (in my opinion, they should have just let the rotten furniture decompose in the riverbed of the Seine, instead of pulling another Larkin). You have to understand that in this story, a loved one dying in someone's arms would really break a person. It happens. PTSD. A psychological shift so drastic you can hardly recognize the person anymore. Every criminal, or killer specifically in this case, has a backstory, and not everyone of them kills, steals or does crimes for fun. It doesn't make any of their wrongdoings any less evil, but it does provide some angle to understanding why they did what they did. Now, Chuck/Chase is no criminal, but you get the idea. And if you really paid close attention to several breadcrumbs of details in the previous two chapters, it is clear that despite alluding to Chuck already killing dozens of criminals (see Chapter 1), there are clues that he wasn't totally desensitized by it, at least not yet. And he didn't immediately kill anyone as soon as he left Burbank and the team after the Red Test, he would go on to be a bloodless agent until Cate's death, that I assure you. Chuck's psychological struggle between Cate's death and the completion of his revenge, as well as how he will proceed moving forward, will be the center plot of the first third of the story. I am aiming to really turn on the angst in the first third of the story, with Chuck on the limelight specifically, along with snippets of the struggles of the other supporting characters (guess who?). The story will be dark, yes, and gloomy; the Charah fans will probably be shaking their fists in frustration and anger in this part, and believe me, I understand, as I am a fracking CHARAHOLIC myself. The first half of Season 3 was, well…full of crap, at least with regards to the romance department. Character development for Chuck and Sarah was atrocious, as if they haven't really taken note of the previous two seasons. In my opinion, the sudden shift of their relationship from well, questionable soon-to-be-on-again couple (?) in Episode 13 "The Other Guy" to practically enthusiastic honeymooners (pardon the pun) in Episode 14 "The Honeymooners" gave me a whiplash. The "Sam" issue was left unanswered, and damn, what is with their obsession with trains? And don't even get me started on the "Sarah wearing her traitorous-ex-who-tried-to-kill-her's earrings". Man, they really love to emasculate Chuck seven weeks to Sunday, don't they?
Anyway, as I've promised before, THIS IS A CHARAH FANFIC, though THE Charah moment will not happen until a lot has…well, happened. All I'm asking is for you to be patient and enjoy the ride, so to speak. Their journey towards being back together will be extremely bumpy and angsty, but that's the way I really plan it to be. They will be there, guys, I promised you. When I read other stories that has the same template – their relationship (fake and/or not, God they were really as confused as we are) terminated, they get separated, they met and date and f*ck other people, they met again, and voila, they were TOGETHER again – I just don't think it fits, really. It's like canon Season 3 again, band-aid solutions with plenty of retconning and ignoring details. Chuck and Sarah will be put through the ringers in terms of emotional recovery (Sarah too will have her own demons to conquer), and they will be healed first, before they will be together.
To provide more context for the story, I'll be laying down a timeline of events, which is LOOSELY based from the one you can refer to on Chuck Wiki Fandom. More milestones of events will be added as we progress into the tale and more details are revealed, whether in flashbacks or in the present time. Chapters 3 and 4 will be posted before this week ends, and depending on my free time (as I am now completing my thesis paper), also Chapter 5. Spoiler Alert: Chuck and Sarah, with Casey tagging along, will have their first talk together in more than 2 years. They'll talk, but don't expect it to be a SIGNIFICANT talk. That's all I'm saying. There'll be plenty more of talking in the succeeding chapters after that.
Timeline
March 15, 2010 (Ides of March) – Chuck in his Red Test (the one where the target is Hunter Perry)
March 17, 2010 – Chuck leaves for Rome in his new assignment
September 27, 2011 – Cate dies on a mission, held by Chuck/Chase, who does not know (at the time) that she was pregnant
September 2011 to July 2012 – Chuck pursues revenge as the Black Orchid, taking down the Ring by his lonesome
July 21, 2012 – Chuck kills the last known top lieutenant of the Ring in Verona, Italy; DNI director Major-General Dianne Beckman orders him home