7A/N 1: This is not based on Taylor Swift's song The Story of Us. I was trying to think of a title for this story and it came to me. Dedicated to a new friend: Angéline. Hope you enjoy! Thank you, Friend, for being an awesome beta and looking this over even if you're not in the Chuck fandom. That's dedication, folks.
Disclaimer: I own nothing. I am not affiliated with NBC or Chuck or anything with this wonderful show. I'm merely giving my two cents to a 'what happened afterwards' story.
Looking back, Sarah can't vocalize what made her tell Chuck to kiss her. Sometimes she thought it was a suppressed memory or just the insane notion of wanting a "magical kiss", but she said it. It wasn't as magical as she wished it to be but she learned something—Chuck was safe. It wasn't a memory but a feeling, something clicked and slid into place, like a gear in a car or the slide on her gun: Chuck was safe. Something within her knew him and responded in kind.
"I know you," she breathed, pulling away from him enough to talk. Her lips brushed against his at her revelation with her eyes still closed, holding onto the feeling of everything being right in the world. After a moment of silence, she opened her eyes to see him sitting in front of her, unshed tears gleaming in his eyes. He wore a smile that outshone the setting sun and it touched her for reasons she couldn't understand but felt in the core of her being.
"Yeah," he softly replied, nodding his head, "yeah, you do."
xXx
In the days, and months, to come, memories returned and she began to feel more comfortable in this life she created. A welcoming family, which surprisingly included John Casey, helped— people who didn't push her to remember but loved her through missteps, was foreign to her. Sometimes it felt like too much; the urge to run away from it all and collect herself, to start over, overwhelmed her but something niggled in the back of her mind and the pit of her stomach kept her planted in Echo Park. For the first time in her life, she trusted someone other than herself—she trusted Chuck.
Almost three months afterwards, Chuck approached her and told her of a project he and Ellie had been working on. The Intersect glasses, though fried, remained more or less in one piece and all of the late night work at Castle (Charmichael Industries, she reminded herself), the packages back and forth, and the hours he spent coding before falling into bed exhausted had resulted in the gift in her hands. Ellie and Chuck had reprogrammed the Intersect glasses to, hopefully, erase some of the damage Quinn and the faulty Intersect had done. This design, he explained as she took the glasses out of the case and examined them in her hands, was based on Intersect 3.0—the one in his head. The plans were based on Ellie's tinkering to allow for a more natural upload.
"They're more like memories now," he told her, "instead of accessing a computer file. This," he gestured open-handedly to the glasses in her hand, "is Ellie's design but I programmed it. It should help trigger a few memories at a time. The glasses can be reprogrammed for different moments and maybe undo some of the damage."
"Thank you," she whispered, curling her fingers carefully around the glasses. He smiled softly before he stood and began to make his way to the bedroom. "What's on here?" she called out after a moment. He turned, both hands shoved deep into his pockets and that niggling in the back of her mind started again.
"We wanted to start small," he explained. "It's just a few…escapades that were caught on camera." She watched as he turned to the bedroom, loosening his tie along the way. She sat there and stared at the black frames in her hand for a while before making up her mind. The beeping of the glasses broke the silence in the room and within moments, she was surrounded by images of…flowers and statues? No, she reminded herself, that's how the Intersect worked. Images within images—layers of information encoded for easy access. After the screen went black, she pulled them off and looked around the room. She didn't feel different and there wasn't a headache but when her gaze fell on a picture the resulting memory caused her to gasp.
"I can't believe I'm here," she says, looking around at the pandemonium. Thousands of people were swarming around her, the noise assaulting her on all sides but she's grinning like a maniac.
"You have to attend Comic Con at least once in your life," Chuck tells her from behind, wrapping an arm around her waist, "especially if you're planning on marrying me," he whispers in her ear. Her smile grows and she turns in his arms, pulling him down to her. Her lips find his and she wraps her arms around his neck, pulling him closer. A bright flash interrupts them and for a moment she's in spy-mode before she spots Morgan with a camera and a sappy grin on his face. She also notices other's milling around them, taking pictures of their unguarded moment with a smile.
"If you're going to be making out, don't do it dressed like that," Morgan advises, motioning to their costumes. They were Chuck's idea and even though she'd seen the series, Doctor Who wasn't her favorite. It seemed odd but dressing as Rose Tyler and the Doctor allowed them to blend in rather than stick out.
Sarah jumped off the sofa and turned to the bedroom before following Chuck's footsteps to the threshold. He was sprawled out on one side of the bed, her side untouched. She hadn't been in his room—their room—except to gather her clothes and take them to the spare bedroom. She hadn't been in this domain before but it wasn't as intimidating as before, there was a slight familiarity she never noticed. She quietly walked around to her side of the bed and climbed in; Chuck rolled over in his sleep and wrapped his arm around her unconsciously. She tensed, wanting to jump from the vulnerable position, but the moment passed and she sank deeper into his embrace without a second thought.
"Sarah?" he asked after a moment, his voice thick with sleep and confusion. "Is everything okay?"
"I remembered something," she told him and his eyes brightened sleepily at the words, and waited for her to continue. "We were at…Comic Con and we were dressed in costumes. We were engaged and we kissed."
"Is that all you remember?" he pushed softly.
"You mean the hotel later that night?" she asked as innocently as possible and a grin exploded on his face. "I remember that weekend but not much else," she admitted, curling closer to him. This was new, sleeping in a bed without an ulterior motive. But with Chuck, it was nice.
"The glasses worked exactly how we wanted them to work," he told her, moving his hand slowly and brushing the hair from her face. "There were a few more pictures and video embedded in that upload so we'll see if you remember anything else soon."
They lay in silence for several moments and Sarah listened to his deep breathing as his hand worked through her hair in a relaxing and comforting manner. She was almost asleep, the words heavy on her tongue, wanting to pull her down, but she fought through the haze. "Chuck?" she asked.
"Mmm?" he hummed, his hand stilling on her back.
"Tell me our story," she said.
"Of course," he began. He wove a tale of a genius but lost nerd who stumbled upon government secrets and the brilliant but ruthless spy sent to handle him and how they fell in love. She fell asleep to the sound of his voice as it washed over her—she was safe.
xXx
It becomes a habit after a while, Chuck would climb into bed and Sarah would follow. She'd curl up into him and ask him to tell her their story. She never regained her full memory; there were pockets she stumbled into but after a while, they became few and far between. Her family helped her fill in the holes they could, and she moved forward. Their story grew and sometimes she took over telling the story—telling it from her point of view: a spy who thought she had everything she ever wanted was tasked to protect a nerd who held government secrets in his brain but found a life better than she could possibly imagine. A life that included a red door and a white picket fence, a little boy with her hair and Chuck's eyes, and more happiness than she ever thought possible.
She climbed into bed, rolling into his arms and settling into the crook of his shoulder. He threw the blanket over them and pulled her closer. The question had barely left her mouth before he began in a low voice and started their story at his beginning; she smiled as the familiar words encompassed her.
"Chuck?" she asked when he finished, looking up at her husband. His eyebrows rose in question and she smiled. "Kiss me."
A/N 2: Yes, hello! I am still alive! I fell in love with the show Chuck and had to write something. I really loved the ending to Chuck so I didn't want to change too much. I do believe the Bartowski siblings got the Intersect glasses up and working again (because it's Chuck and Ellie, how could they not?) but Sarah never regained her full memory. They're still Chuck and Sarah, so their story continues.
As to my other stories...we'll play it by ear. I recently graduated (yay!) but now I get to look for a job. They, unfortunately, don't fall out of the sky and into your lap. I stopped writing my last semester in school but I'm picking it up again. Hopefully, after I'm situated in a job, I can take a good, long look at my stories and decide what I'm doing from there. If I do post anything, it will be a one-shot or two-shot or something I've written previously. If you want a more up-to-date look on where I am writing-wise, head on over to my tumblr. Link is in my profile.
Hope you all enjoyed and comments are appreciated. If you feel the need to flame, please flame responsibly.
