The Love Boat

A/N: I think I have a chicken and egg situation. Like in Lights Camera Action, they are married at the beginning of the fic, but I then showed you how they got there, so, are they married in Ch 1 or Ch 7. Hmmm? What’s that? Do the typity typity? FINE

Note: Guys, I cannot recommend Charah’s work enough, but The Crown’s Gamble…I. AM. SWOOOOOOONING. Do yourself a favor and check it out if you haven’t.

Disclaimer: I don’t own Chuck

Then, still [redacted]

Sarah could feel the nerves radiating off of him. She didn’t know why she found it both adorable and so enjoyable that this man…this nerd…this tall nerd that was so sweet and adorable…was so nervous about a fake wedding. She reached over to take his hand.

“They’re really sweaty,” she found herself saying, looking up at him. She squeezed the hand…if it really was a hand and not a water-making device. She smiled. She couldn't remember the last time someone being nervous around her had made her feel this good; actually, this was the first time that something like that had happened in her life.

“My hands sweat when I get nervous,” Chuck admitted. “I knew I’d be nervous on my wedding day but…” he trailed off, giving her a knowing look.

“But this is good,” Sarah told him, smiling. “It means you’re taking this seriously.”

“Oh, I am, because if it’s unbelievable…” he gave her a look. It said so many things. It acknowledged that if he messed this up she could die…or worse. It said he didn’t want to let her down. It said…it said something else…a bit of regret, like…like he wished it was real. And she was sure, given what little he had told her of his love life, he did wish it was real. The thought should have frightened her. Instead, something warm and fuzzy moved through her chest.

Chuck Bartowski seemed like the man who wanted the real-life wedding, the fairy tale love story. Like The Princess Bride.

Love is many things, none of them logical.

She thought of Buttercup’s long profession of love to Wesley, and in that moment, she made two decisions. The first, the one of the agent, was that she was going to show Chuck Bartowski what it was like to be married to someone who loved him. The agent decided this, knowing it was what would keep her safe and that she could trust this man.

The second decision was what startled her.

Somewhere, deep inside her, the lanky eight-year-old with pigtails, braces, and a tattered copy of The Princess Bride overruled her. She had spent years teaching herself not to want things she couldn't have. Apparently, eight-year-old Sarah had never received that particular training. She told Sarah Walker she definitely had it wrong.

She was going to let Chuck Bartowski show her what it was like to be loved.

The thought terrified her.

The eight-year-old Sarah, naturally, thought this was the best idea anyone had ever had.

The agent, the trained con woman, every defense ever built said in unison that she could not. She wouldn’t survive it. She wouldn’t make it out.

Her agent brain objected immediately.

“We’ll never survive!”

“Nonsense. You’re only saying that because no one ever has.”

The agent made one final plea.

I won’t be the same.

And the eight-year old, the one wise beyond her years who hadn’t been hurt, trained, and told how to shut off her feelings, she destroyed them.

I’m not supposed to be.

And then, because Sarah had forgotten how much of a planner even eight-year old her was, got her world rocked.

“Cynics are simply thwarted romantics.”

Sarah Walker had absolutely no idea how her childhood copy of The Princess Bride had become a hostile witness against her.

She found herself staring at his lips, and the line came to her. Not the one from the movie, which was good, but the one from the book, which was better.

“There have been five great kisses since 1642 B.C…(before then couples hooked thumbs.) And the precise rating of kisses is a terribly difficult thing, often leading to great controversy…. Well, this one left them all behind.”

In her heart. Deep in Sarah Walker’s heart. She knew when she kissed this man…not a performance in front of a ship’s captain…not a performance in front of others to sell a cover…but when she kissed him…and in that moment…there was nothing more certain in her life than that she was going to kiss him…that line was true.

Sarah Walker was going to have the greatest kiss in all of history, and no one was stopping her…well, Chuck could, but she was just about positive that not only would he not stop her, but he also wanted to kiss her. Her eight-year-old self was already preparing the acceptance speech.

“I need to tell you something, just so you’re prepared,” Sarah said. Chuck looked at her. “When the captain says you can kiss me, I need you to do so, because if I kiss you…after everything you’ve done for me…the sacrifice you’re making…the danger you’re putting yourself in…the awkwardness that you’re going to sit in because, like you said, I know you, just not long.” She watched him grin at that. “If I kiss you like that because of how thankful I am to you…I may lose control and kiss you every remaining second of this trip, and then I will be extremely cranky because not sleeping for fifteen days would be very hard on me, and I have no idea how I kiss while that cranky.”

Chuck stared at her like someone had handed him a computer attached to a bomb inside a hotel full of people and told him it was probably fine.

She watched a series of emotions play across his face, and she found deep inside of her that she wanted to watch the emotions come to his face and him have no ability to control them for the rest of her life.

“Sarah,” he said, gaining control of his faculties surprisingly quickly. “The only reason I’m awkward is I don’t want to mess up and put you in danger. There is no sacrifice. I’m helping a friend. You don’t owe me anything.”

“I already said I wanted to kiss your face off, and now you do this? How the hell are you single, Chuck?” She genuinely wanted to know. The fact that he was blushing so hard made the question even more confusing. She watched the smile on his face. “Now, let’s go get married.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he said. “One question, if this were real….” She turned to him one eyebrow raised. “Would you expect me to change my last name? Because I would.”

“Never change, Chuck,” she blurted out before she could stop herself, and honestly, she didn’t want to stop herself.

For once, Sarah Walker wasn't asking someone to become someone else for the sake of a mission, a con, or both.

“It’s who I am,” he said with a shrug, offering her his arm. The two walked arm in arm to the door of the cabin, and then realized that there was no way the two of them would fit through the door. Chuck stepped back, and gestured ladies first. Sarah Walker stepped out the door, never to return.

}o{

Now

“He chose me, Langston,” Sarah said softly. Langston watched her, and she watched the realization settle in that she was done. “And I chose him.” She threaded her fingers through his, never looking at him.

“And I’d do it all again in a minute,” Chuck added.

“Him,” Langston said in a totally different tone from earlier. One of….almost understanding.“Him,” Sarah said softly, smiling and nodding. She lifted their locked hands and kissed the back of his hand. “Always. Him.”

A/N: I know, I need everyone to hold it together. We’ll get through this together. I think they’ll make it. We’ll find out together. *insert eyeroll here*

And, if you’d like to leave a review I do enjoy them. Take care fam.