The way it should be part 2
Walking to the door of their apartment, Chuck and Sarah look up and enjoy the beautiful night sky. It was such a lovely evening it was a shame to not sit out and enjoy it, maybe sit by their fountain as they have so many times in the past, a comfortable safe space where they have used to talk so so many times, but they both knew they were very tired and also have a lot of things to discuss.
As Chuck reaches out to unlock the door, Sarah notices his hand is shaking and there is a nervousness to his demeanor. Sarah asks, “Is something wrong, Chuck?”
They walk into the apartment. Chuck closes the door and lets out a big sigh.
Sarah grabs him by the hand and leads him to the couch. She pushes him down on to the couch and sits next to him. The setting is almost romantic, as there are only a couple of small table lamps on. Sarah keeps holding Chucks hand and again asks, “What’s wrong, Chuck…. Talk to me, Chuck. I can’t help if you won’t tell me what’s going on in that big brain of yours.”
Chuck looks her in the eyes, those beautiful amazing blue eyes, and suddenly finds himself getting lost in them again. He wills himself to pull himself together and use his words. Chuck finally opens his mouth to speak and at that moment Sarah reaches over and kisses him. It is a deep loving kiss that they hold for just a moment. Sarah looks at Chuck and says, “I hope that helps you, umm, relax. Well, that isn’t the right word, but you know what I mean; you always do.”
Chuck shakes himself and gathers his thoughts. “Well, what are the sleeping plans tonight? I mean we have 2 bedrooms, if that makes you more comfortable. It’s, ummm, just a thought, ya know. I don’t want to make assumptions about these things. I want you to feel safe and not nervous and …. and … oh heck, I don’t know what I am saying. I am so happy that you are actually here that I just don’t know what I am saying.”
Sarah grabs his face and turns him to look at her. “Chuck, don’t freak out… ok? We can deal with all this if we talk about it and trust each other.”
Chuck goes silent and listens to Sarah, trying to not make a fool of himself in front of the woman he loves more than life itself. Chuck blinks and looks at Sarah. “Ok. I’m sorry. I am such a spaz tonight. It’s just so important that I don’t want to screw up and it makes me so nervous… I mean worse than usual. So, please, please just forgive me when I get this way.”
Sarah chuckles and thinks, “I knew there were so many reason I could love this man. This has to be one of my favorite things about him. He is genuinely so, ummm, cute when he gets this way. It’s hard to believe someone else hadn’t grab him up before me. I must be the luckiest woman on the planet that I was able to find him.”
This realization shocks Sarah to her core. “Wow, did this feel like I want to protect him from the other women; like I would be jealous if he found someone else?“
This is an earth-shattering realization for Sarah. She has never FELT this before and, while she doesn’t understand it, she basks in the thought that he did it, Chuck made her a Real girl, as he called it; he was responsible for her being able to feel things she had never felt before. He was the reason she has become a better person, in so many ways.
It’s like he is the miracle she needed to change from the Ice Queen, who never showed emotions or feelings, ever. She used to think showing those things was a weakness, but thanks to Chuck, her Chuck, she was able to show and react to things like a real girl would. An unknown dream fulfilled and unspoken prayer answered, all on account of a tall, lanky, sexy nerd named Chuck Bartowski.
She says a silent prayer of thanks. This thought has helped her to be more determined than ever to work things out with Chuck, no matter where it leads. She has made up her mind. She will never ever leave this man, unless he forces her to leave, but that doesn’t seem likely.
Now, how to say all this in words to him is the next challenge the super spy/real girl Sarah faces. She knows it will be hard, but that with her new found determination, she will find a way.
Sarah contemplates the sleeping situation and asks, “Chuck, would it be alright if I slept in the spare room tonight? I know we are married and I slept in your bed when I was last here, but at that time I thought you were an assignment and this is very different. I hope you understand, I need a little time with this part of things.”
Chuck’s response is pure Chuck. “Absolutely, whatever you need, baby. I will make this as easy and comfortable as I can for you. I love you so much, I will do anything for you. I hope you know that?” Sarah responds with a big bright face-splitting smile, the type that makes Chuck melt like a marshmallow over an open flame; he suddenly gets all gooey inside and revels in the feeling. Sarah is home, she really is home!!!
Chuck stands up. “I’ll make sure the room is ready for you. As much as I hate to leave your side for even the smallest of moments, I want things to be perfect for you, sweety, absolutely perfect.”
As he walks down the hallway he casually remarks, “Ummmm, you might get Morgan stopping by tomorrow. I have to go into work for a bit tomorrow and he wanted to spend time with you. I’m not sure why, but he does care about you, A LOT.” Chuck lets out a chuckle at hearing himself say this and heads into the spare room to make things perfect for the best thing to ever happen to him.
After he returns to the living room, Sarah asks, “Do I really need to talk to Morgan tomorrow? I know he is your best friend and he and I get along, but I don’t know.”
Chuck sits next to her and starts to tell her a few things about her and Morgan that he left out of their story.
“Well, you most likely won’t remember, but Morgan died once saving us.”
Sarah gasps “What?”
Chuck continues, “Yep. You and I had been captured by Casey’s old team and held in a bunker in Iraq. Well, Casey and Morgan show up to rescue us and Casey gets taken and chained to the pipes in the bunker with us. Morgan finally comes down into the bunker and almost gives up but, seeing the water on the floor and an electrical cable hanging near the floor, he tells Casey, “couch lock” and Casey tells us to lift our feet off the floor. Then, of all things, without thinking about it, Morgan grabs the cable and pulls it, along with himself, into the water and electrocutes the bad guys, along with himself. When the circuit finally shorted out and the power died, we had to fight to bring Morgan back to life. He was dead and needed to be revived, which we obviously did.”
Sarah looks like she is in shock. She swallows hard and says, “What!!! He did that? Oh my god, he really did that? He … he … that’s crazy.”
Chuck smiles. “He did it without a second thought. He said later his team and friends were in trouble and needed help, so he did what he had to do to save them. I was so proud of him. I will never forget what he did that day.”
“Something else I didn’t include in our story was when you were shot with the Norseman virus. It used iridium to poison a specific D.N.A. type. While I was in Moscow, begging for your life, he sat with you the whole time. He didn’t want you to be alone. He knew you could hear things and feel things, so he sat on your bedside and held your hand the whole time I was gone and he talked to you, so you could hear a friendly voice and feel someone holding your hand. That way, you would feel safe and not be scared. Truth be told, he is a pretty amazing friend to all of us. We may think of him as goofy, silly and not very serious, but the real Morgan is a rock star when it comes to helping his friends. He doesn’t get near enough credit for being a really great guy.”
Sarah is sitting there wide eyed and dumbstruck. She likes Morgan, but she obviously underestimated him and his resolve to help friends. Sarah gets a very warm feeling in her heart when she thinks about Morgan now. How she has changed is so amazing. She has friends that will do anything for her, even risk their life for her, for a reason other than … it’s for the mission. These friends do it because they really care about her and maybe if she is lucky enough they love her also.
Sarah stands and kisses Chuck and wraps him in a big hug, holding on tight and whispers in his ear, “I love you, Chuck Bartowski, I love you and that’s not going to change.”
Sarah pulls out of the hug and Chuck reluctantly lets go as they head for bed in separate rooms for the night.
Several hours later, Chuck is awakened by a loud scream that sounds like something from a horror movie.
He jumps out of bed and runs to the other bedroom, bursting into the room and sees Sarah sitting up in bed screaming loudly with the look of absolute terror on her face.
Suddenly, the front door snaps open and Morgan comes running into the apartment yelling, “Chuck, is everything ok?”
Chuck yells, “In here, Buddy, the spare room.”
Morgan enters and sees Chuck trying to comfort Sarah.
Chuck hugs Sarah and says, “Sarah, hey Sarah, its ok, I’m right here. You’re safe, Baby. It’s ok. Hey, talk to me, Sarah. What’s wrong? What can I do?”
Sarah calms a bit and chokes out, “I was on a train and Quinn was there and … and… The pain, oh god, the pain! It was unbearable. Then I was in a warehouse of some sort and he had these cards and every time he showed one, I flashed. The pain was more than I could stand and I eventually passed out. Oh god, Chuck, it was so horrible. I was so scared, but I remember thinking, ‘Chuck will find me, my team will find me and save me.’ It was the thought of you saving me that gave me the strength to hold out as long as I did before I finally was overwhelmed.”
Chuck pulls Sarah into a great big bear hug. When Morgan sees the scene, he is so overwhelmed that it takes a minute for him to think clearly. Then, he moves to the other side and hugs her as well. Morgan breaks the momentary silence. “We got ya, Sarah, we got ya.”
Chuck smiles at both Sarah and Morgan and nods in agreement.
Sarah suddenly feels safe, cocooned between Chuck and Morgan, like nothing can hurt her and she softly sobs, as tears fall freely from her eyes.
After a few minutes, Sarah starts to relax a bit. Morgan lets go and whispers, “I’ll be back tomorrow, Sarah, and I can hang and relax with you. I need my second bestie to not be alone while Chuck is at work, for however long it takes him. I’ll see ya tomorrow, Sarah. Remember we got ya. If you need anything, and Chuck’s not here, Alex and I are right next door. Love ya both. Now, I am off to bed. Night, you two.”
Chuck strokes Sarah’s hair and, trying to get her to relax, helps her lay back down on the bed.
Sarah relaxes a bit, but still trembles as she tries to fall back to sleep. She looks up at Chuck and stares into his eyes. Relief floods through her. As she drifts off to sleep, Chuck holds her hand and sits on the edge of the bed for an hour as Sarah sleeps a fitful sleep.
Eventually, Sarah settles down. Chuck heads back to his room and crawls into his bed for a restless night of worried sleep.
As morning approaches, Chuck starts to awaken and feels a warmth that catches him slightly off guard. He is on his left side and his arm is draped across a warm body with oh so soft skin and his feet seem to be intertwined with someone else’s feet. Chuck slowly opens one eye and peeks over to see his wife, Sarah Bartowski, the little spoon, sleeping soundly and peacefully with her back to him, her fingers inter mingled with his.
Chuck moves his hand and Sarah tightens her hand into a near death grip on his and slowly turns to look at him.
Sarah looks into Chuck’s golden brown eyes and sighs. “I’m sorry. Chuck. I fell asleep and kept waking up after you left the room. While you were there, it was relaxing and peaceful and I was able to actually rest, but when you left, I was awake and there was no way I could get back to sleep….. Besides, my feet got so cold without my foot warmer next to me. I hope you are ok with me sleeping in your bed. I know I asked to go slow and not rush things, but I just couldn’t get to sleep alone knowing you were so close and yet so far away. I needed to be near you and touch you and as soon as I crawled in here, I was so relaxed and at ease, I fell right to sleep and slept straight through the night. It’s … it’s ok with you, I hope. I know it might make things difficult for you, my being in the same bed. I know intimacy will come eventually, but right now I just need to be close to you when I sleep. I don’t know why, but I think I should…. shouldn’t I? I mean, did we always sleep like that before? It just seemed so natural, like it was the way it should be. I hope you can maybe explain it to me before I spiral farther down the rabbit hole.”
Chuck blinks several times and says, “Ummm, hey, good morning to you too, Sweetie. I, ummm ,well, ya see we, ummm, we used to sleep like this all the time. It was the only way either of us could get a good night’s sleep. Umm, I think it will be fine if we sleep like this; no pressure or, um, well, you know, it is not implied, umm, that, well, ok, now I am spiraling, so I’ll just shut up now for a minute.”
Sarah chuckles. “Chuck, it’s ok. I think we both found the same rabbit hole to go down.”
Chuck lets out a big chuckle and tell her, ”I can honestly can say we both do sleep better when we are wrapped into one another like that. It feels relaxing and sooooooo comfortable; it’s kinda our nightly thing. No matter where we start out when we get to bed, we always end up spooning like that by morning. It’s like we are drawn to one another by some unstoppable force.”