A/N: As promised, a little interlude at the end of Season 3. This is actually a whole chapter set in between Sarah and Chuck's hug and the memorial dinner at Chuck's place the next night. Conversations that I'm sure would have been had. Next chapter is another sort of interlude, as the beginning of Anniversary implies that the scene we see where Chuck and Sarah say goodbye happened right away, and the three months gap that was in actuality the summer of 2010 occurs at the beginning of S4E1. For Sarah, that's all Volkoff mission with Casey. She does not see Chuck at any point in between the kiss goodbye and the shute in the new Buy More. I'll check for length. Maybe all of Anniversary with that, maybe two chapters. Enjoy.

Controlled chaos. That was the Buy More.

Casey took care of intercepting the actual fire department and instead CIA cleaners showed up. To the outside world, they were securing the building for an all clear. What they were in fact doing was looking for the detonator for the explosive devices Shaw had planted as it had gotten lost in the debris caused by Chuck and Shaw's fight.

The medics were taking care of Chuck and I sat with him, a strong sense of not wanting to let him out of my sight, ever, taking over. They gave him an ice pack and I took over tending to his wounds.

"Sarah, I told Ellie that I'd quit after we stop the Ring and I meant it. I can't lie to her." He was sincere, holding me in his gaze.

Now wasn't the time or place to talk about everything we needed to talk about. He was telling me now like I didn't know, because he'd blurted it out when he was in distress. His words cut into me. He'd been lying to me for months, but he couldn't lie to Ellie anymore? He should have talked to me before he gave her his word. I'm his partner. Or I was. It was a lot to take in and I was still dealing with it.

"You think you could love a regular guy?" he asked.

It was so complicated now. But I loved him. More than anything, ever in my life. He was everything to me. Nothing would ever get in the way of that. Nothing.

"Well, I fell in love with a regular guy." He smiled. I wanted to make sure I was reminding him who I loved, precisely. Not the spy, not the Intersect. Him. My Chuck.

While we were talking, Morgan found the detonator and then, because both his thumbs were broken, dropped it and it armed. We had to run for our lives and just made it out of the building before it exploded.

We were still in shock, reeling from the loss of the store and Castle, when we got home.

Ellie was waiting for us at the door, pacing with her arms crossed. "We need to talk. All of us."

She was still looking at me like she was afraid of me, like I was a total stranger. Chuck invited her into our apartment. I appreciated the fact that Chuck sat next to me, with his arm around my shoulders. He was there, with me, supporting me, no matter what. I felt so much better.

Ellie sat forward, her hands clasped between her knees. "Devon told me what he knew, and then Morgan told me what he knew, and then Chuck told me the rest. But I want to hear from you, Sarah." Her eyes were like ice and went straight through me. Chuck squeezed my shoulder, steadfast in his support.

I wondered what "the rest" actually was, considering Chuck did tell me neither Ellie nor Devon knew about the Intersect. I don't think she was really looking for the whole story again to make sure that my story matched everyone else's. She just wanted an explanation, a reason for being lied to by someone she thought of as a close friend.

"I will, Ellie. But before I do, I have to say how sorry I am that I lied to you all this time. But you have to know, I didn't have a choice. Reading you into our lives would have put you in terrible danger. You almost died because of that when you were poisoned and you didn't even know about us. My primary task for a long time was protecting Chuck, and his family, and I took that very seriously."

"I understand that, Sarah. I do. But…it doesn't change how I feel now."

Ellie was the only one who, when she found out about Chuck, wasn't happy and excited for him. She hated the life he lived. Did she blame me for dragging him into it? Oh, I wish I knew everything Chuck told her.

"I told Chuck this, a long time ago. When you're undercover, you're still you. The details of your life might be a lie, but you're still you. The person that you talked to, the person who was a bridesmaid at your wedding…that was me, Sarah. Not the spy, not Chuck's handler. Me. I wasn't really a food service worker, but nothing about our friendship was a lie."

She gazed at me silently, like she wanted so much to believe me, but she wasn't sure.

Chuck was listening, but I took a chance, and went for broke. He knew what I was going to say, but I had never said it the way I was going to tell Ellie. "When the CIA sent me here to protect Chuck, my cover was his girlfriend. But I was still me. And I fell in love with Chuck almost from the beginning. It was wrong, because I was his handler, so I could never do anything about it. We went on pretend dates, but in my heart, those dates were real. How I felt about him was real."

Ellie had tears in her eyes and her gaze shifted between Chuck and me, and back again.

"I was willing to let him go back to his normal life, because I loved him. But he chose to become a spy, not just my asset any longer. And all those feelings we could finally act on, embrace. We love each other, Ellie. We always have, even when we weren't together." I felt Chuck's lips in my hair on the side of my head, my words touching him.

Ellie sniffled before she spoke. "You know, that was what I was most worried about." She looked straight at me. "I saw the way you looked at Chuck, even from the beginning. No one had ever looked at him like that. I knew you really loved him, no matter what. When Morgan explained who you really were, I thought everything I had ever believed was false, if you could act that convincingly. And then how would I ever be able to trust anything ever again?"

I had to make her see the truth. "I am a very good liar, because I'm a spy. And unfortunately, so is Chuck now. He had to learn that. It's part of the job. But I'm asking you to trust me, trust your brother, that you don't have to worry about being lied to again."

Ellie wiped her cheeks with her index fingers quickly, a twisted smile on her face. "You kept him safe, Sarah. That's the only thing that ever really mattered to me." She sat forward, stretching out her arms to me.

I sank into her embrace, relaxing as the tension I'd been holding in my muscles released. She squeezed tight, an Ellie hug. I knew then that we were ok. "I love your brother with all my heart."

"I know, Sarah. I know." I felt her reach for Chuck's hand behind my back. Oh, thank God, I breathed inside.

But I still had to talk to Chuck.

It was late and to say we were exhausted was an understatement. I was so fatigued I felt nauseous. But I didn't want to fall asleep without clearing the air. I told him to get ready for bed, that we could talk under the covers.

He pulled me into his arms and I rested my head on his shoulder, but angled so I could see his face.

"I'm sorry, Sarah. I know that's not enough, but I have to start there. I never meant to hurt you in any way."

"I know you weren't malicious in intent, Chuck. I know why you lied to me. You were trying to protect me." He nodded. "But we're together. A team, a couple. What happens to you happens to me. We work best as a team, remember?"

A call back to the past, the nostalgia washed over us as we realized how far we'd come since I said that to him that second Thanksgiving.

"Everything was just so new and uncertain and…I didn't want anything to interfere."

Because he was so anxious about me not telling him I loved him. About me balking at the idea of moving in with him. All the consequences of my own fear.

I pushed myself up on my arms to really look at him. "Nothing is uncertain. I love you. I know my being afraid to say it made all that worse. I know it did. But I'd never said it to anyone, ever, but you. I love you, no matter what. We're here for each other from now on. Ok?"

"I promise. No more lies."

I believed him.

I kissed him softly and told him goodnight. He stayed stiff, staring at the ceiling.

"What's wrong, Chuck?"

"I can't believe he's gone, Sarah." His father. The hushed agony in his voice tore into me. "We were so occupied and…"

"You didn't have time to grieve at all. You compartmentalized it, like you were taught. But you have to let it out, Chuck. It will eat you alive if you don't."

He started crying. I could see the tears glistening on his cheeks in the moonlight. "I hated him for so many years of my life, wasted time that I didn't know hurt him as much as it hurt us. I just wish that he knew how much he meant to me…and now I can never tell him…" He completely broke down.

I pulled him into my arms and held him. He cried in my arms for almost an hour. I was worried at first I wouldn't know how to help, how to comfort him. But all he needed was my love and my support, to know he wasn't alone. When Chuck finally quieted, I told him, "He knew how much you loved him, Chuck. He wanted you to know how much he loved you and Ellie. Because he did, Chuck."

Chuck fell asleep with his head resting on my chest, my arms securely around him.

I woke up to the sensation of his lips on mine. I stretched, saying, "That's my favorite way to start the day."

"Second favorite," he said softly with a soft smile.

"Mmm," I hummed as I felt his hands slide inside my pajamas. The chaos of the past few days made me realize how long it had been since Chuck and I had made love. Not a ridiculously long stretch of time, but long for us. I was more than eager as I helped him out of his pajamas.

I held his erection in my hand, stroking him, as he gently probed into me with his fingers, testing my readiness for him. I was dripping wet in no time, hungry for him.

"Oh, Chuck," I sighed as he nestled between my legs.

He sighed with pleasure as he slipped inside me. I wrapped my legs around him, pulling him deeper inside me. Nothing ever felt as good as feeling full of him, fused to him.

Morning lovemaking was always sort of quick, less foreplay than usual, but Chuck could always satisfy me quickly, almost effortlessly. Each thrust was angled for perfection stimulation. I came quick and hard, arching my back off the bed in the throes of pleasure. My legs spasmed around him. Not long after he brought me to climax again, at the same time that I felt him release inside me. It had been a long time, I thought with a soft giggle, as he filled me with his seed. We cuddled for a few minutes before getting up and starting the day.

We had touched on so much last night, and had a good, productive talk. I felt better. There was still the topic of him no longer being a spy that we needed to discuss. But that needed to wait.

Today we were planning Stephen Bartowski's memorial. The CIA had reported that his body was never found, not in the Subway and not in the Ring base. It was possible they had buried him at a dump site. His DNA was on file and the CIA would never stop looking, but any hopes of having remains to bury was slim to none. That happened more often than not with spies.

Knowing all that, Ellie and Chuck planned a simple gathering to honor their father. It was small, just family. Which meant Casey, Morgan, Devon and me. Alex, Casey's daughter, came as well. Now that Ellie knew the truth about Casey, she embraced him the same way she embraced me. She was thankful that he had been there to protect Chuck.

Casey had come such a long way from when we'd first met him. I was proud to call him my friend. Seeing him with Alex warmed my heart. None of that would have been possible without Chuck.

Right before dinner, I heard Ellie ask Chuck if he was done for real. Chuck looked over Ellie's shoulder at me. We still needed to talk more, but he had contacted Beckman and explained and she had agreed to release him. It was extraordinarily unusual, considering he still had the Intersect, but as he put it, he got her her job back and simultaneously saved multiple branches of the US government, so she agreed.

Everyone sat down to eat dinner. I noticed that Chuck took a long time to sit down. He came from our bedroom, and I never noticed that he'd left the living room. He had a strange look on his face. When I asked him if everything was ok, he said yes.

He promised me the day before, no more lies. But he lied when he answered me then. It took almost six months before I realized it.