The Love Boat

A/N: Do we feel sorry for Graham? No. Good.

Also, big thanks to KaulfrStonemason for betaing. The suggestions he made…*chef’s kiss*. BTW, if you were hoping this calmed down….well, sir, this is a Wendy’s….

Disclaimer: I don’t own Chuck

He didn’t say anything. His mind was trying to reboot.

“I also asked him about us getting married.”

“I’m sorry,” she said softly. He looked over at her.

“I just…I forget sometimes about…” she trailed off. He surprised her when he gently took her hand and led her over to a restaurant on the deck. They sat down at one of the tables overlooking the ocean.

“Talk to me,” he told her, his mind suddenly working just fine.

“I forget people haven’t lived how I’ve lived and that….” She trailed off, frustrated.

“So, when someone talks about Q, you don’t get confused about Star Trek or Bond,” he gently teased. She looked up at him and gave a small smile and said, “I’m starting to understand that you have a reference for almost everything.”

“Sarah, we all have the lives we live, and we're used to them. But at the end of the day, we're all the same people. We all have things we are scared of, things we wished we could do better. I’m never going to judge you for what you have to do on this job. I was just a little stunned that someone like you would ask about marrying someone like me. And I don’t mean real you, marrying real me.”

“What do you mean,” Sarah asked, curious.

“Without going too deep into my past, because as Ellie says I ramble and run people off,” Chuck began. Sarah fought back the smile of the irony of Chuck nearly spiraling right there. “I find it hard to believe anyone would ever want to be with me, given how past relationships have gone, especially someone like you.”

“Someone like me?” Sarah asked. “Why, because I’m attractive?”

“No,” Chuck said. “Wait, you are attractive, but…gah. You are attractive, but…and don’t get me wrong, very attractive, but it’s not just your looks that make you attractive.” She tilted her head.

“You’re so kind.” For some reason, that one landed harder than all the others. Attractive, beautiful, dangerous—she had heard those words before. Kind was an entirely different thing, one she wasn’t prepared for.

It took every second of every bit of training she'd ever had not to react to that.She had been called many things in her life, but kind….

“Here you are, literally running for your life.” he paused and grinned. “If you are who you say you are and Sarah Walker is your real name.”

She didn’t smile, in fact, she looked a little sad. Chuck realized he had messed up, started to open his mouth when she spoke. “My legal name is Sarah Walker. I’ve had many names over the years. I don’t even remember them all.” He sat there quietly. She looked up at him. “But I consider it my name now.”

Chuck nodded. “Okay. Sarah Walker it is.”

No questions. No curiosity about the other names. Just acceptance.

“Right,” Chuck said nodding. “Was going for a joke about you being the bad guy…girl…you know what, that sounds bad, and I’m just making it worse.”

“Sounds like you want me to be a bad girl,” Sarah said, showing no emotion. His eyes went wide, and she couldn’t help but grin. She hadn’t expected that to be funny. More importantly, she hadn’t expected to enjoy watching him react to it.

“See, that right there, you’re funny,” he told her.

The smile that appeared on her face was smaller than the one she felt inside.

“I’m not,” Sarah said, shaking her head. “I have been told, at length, that I am not funny.”

The answer came too quickly for him to know how much the question meant to her. “What idiot told you that?”

“My ex-boyfriend,” Sarah said. “He said I’m not funny and I don’t do feelings.”

“My ex-roommate in college said I had too many feelings,” Chuck said, shaking his head.

“Bryce always said I guarded everything,” Sarah told him. He looked at her. “My ex-boyfriend.”

“Funny, my ex-roommate, Bryce, said I let everyone in,” Chuck told her.

She stared at him.

“Bryce?”

Chuck stopped. “Yeah.”

Sarah's expression changed.

“Your Bryce?” he asked.

“My Bryce.”

She was silent for a moment. “Chuck, I’m going to ask this, because it cannot be any worse than me just telling you that I asked the captain about us getting married,” she began.

“I don’t know,” Chuck said. “If his name is Bryce Larkin…” he trailed off, seeing the look on her face. “It can’t be….little shorter than me, good-looking… really good-looking… some might say pretty?”

“Thought he knew what was best for everyone?” Sarah asked. Chuck just sat back in his chair, his mind blown. Sarah blew out a breath.

}o{

They were lying on the bed, side by side, both staring at the ceiling. “Got you kicked out of college,” Sarah said, shaking her head.

“Cheated on you,” Chuck said, shaking his head. They had spent the last half hour explaining their relationship with Bryce to each other.

“What a small world,” she said, still in disbelief.

Chuck looked at her. “I don't think that's how small worlds are supposed to work; I think Bryce is more like a plot twist with good hair.”

She couldn’t help but snort a laugh at that.

“Well, now I have to know something,” Chuck said. She turned on her side towards him. He turned on his, and they laid there just looking at each other. “Why did you mention us getting married?”

“It’s silly,” Sarah said.

“Hey, I’m not him,” Chuck told her.

“No,” she said softly, shaking her head and smiling. “You’re not.”

“Listen, if you don’t want to-”

“They are looking for a single, lonely spy on the run,” Sarah said softly. “And if they search this boat, and they will, all they will find are all the passengers and one happily married Sarah Bartowski, who is enjoying her time with her new husband.”

“Okay, wait, how can they be on the boat?” Chuck asked.

“Chuck, maybe not all of them, but some of them have to be,” Sarah told him. “They run [redacted] and if they tell the captain they are getting on the boat and searching it, then they are.”

Chuck sat there a moment, thinking. “What are you thinking?”

“How mad Ellie is going to be that I got married and she didn’t get to come,” Chuck told her.

Sarah blinked. Of everything she had told him, apparently Ellie missing the wedding was the emergency Chuck's brain had chosen to focus on.

“Chuck,” Sarah began.

“Sarah, either you and Bryce are running the most elaborate trick on me in the book, and I don’t think that for a second, or everything you’ve told me is the absolute truth,” Chuck told her.

“No, you might get hurt,” Sarah said. “That’s unacceptable.”

“If you don't, you will get hurt, and that's unacceptable,” Chuck told her.

“Chuck you don’t know me,” Sarah insisted.

“Wrong. I know you; I just haven’t known you long, and you haven’t known me long,” Chuck told her. “You are my friend now, and that comes with the Chuck Bartowski friendship experience.” Sarah smiled. She suspected there was no brochure, no instruction manual, and absolutely no return policy, and apparently she did not care about it.

“Well, that sounds fun,” Sarah said, grinning.

“Eh, it’s not for everyone,” Chuck said. “Let me marry you to protect you.”

“Then you should know that if I'm taking your last name, I'll have to protect you,” Sarah told him.

“Okay,” he said nodding. A quote came to her, and she let it.

“Her heart was a secret garden and the walls were very high.”

}o{

She looked over at Chuck while Graham was trying to calm his nausea.

“Good thing you’re really tall and good at climbing walls,” Sarah said softly.

“I’m really not,” Chuck told her.

“Shh,” she said, smiling and patting his hand.

A/N: Ah, trauma bonding over the ex. The ANnnnNNNGGGgggSSSSTtttTTT