A/N1 The beginning of a new story.

Don't own Chuck.

Table of Contents

Prelude: Blue and Empty

First Arc, Grace Abandoned, Chapters 1-5

Second Arc, Look Homeward, Angel, Chapters 6-13

Third Arc, Heaven-Fallen, 14-22

Postlude: Brave New World

Sarah vs. Omaha

PRELUDE

Blue and Empty

"Your bourbon, Mrs. Anderson."

The flight attendant held the clear plastic cup out, the brown liquid filling it trembling because of the vibrations of the engines. Sarah reached out to take it, hoping the attendant did not see the trembling of her hand, trembling because of the vibrations of her heart.

She was on her way to Bryce; she'd done as he 'invited' her to do when he mentioned Omaha. As Sarah took the proferred cup with her left hand, she saw the dull shine of the wedding ring on her finger. Her heart blanked. She took a gulp of the drink and gazed out the window. She was as blue and empty as the sky.

Graham had not been entirely happy about her choice when she called him shortly after she answered Bryce's call. Graham was glad enough to have the Anderson's back together, his best team back together, and back in the field against Fulcrum. But that meant surrendering the Intersect to the NSA, at least temporarily. Of course, he'd send another Company agent, but it would take time to make the right choice and get him or her briefed and on the way to Burbank. Graham never said it, but he clearly expected Beckman to move to secure complete control of the Intersect in the interim.

Sarah knew that Graham and Beckman were a more antagonistic pair than she and Casey were. Graham and Beckman were eternal rivals; she and Casey had been temporary rivals. In fact, she and Casey had become partners, a team: there was a real, if uneasy, unspoken understanding and respect, each acknowledging the skills and commitment of the other. Casey was, all things considered, a better, more predictable partner than Bryce. Casey did what saw as his duty. Bryce imagined he was in the movies.

One of the things Sarah hated about leaving was losing Casey as a partner. That was one of the things she hated about leaving; there were others. And one of the others was the one she hated leaving much more, hated leaving the most...

She took another gulp of her drink, desperate to change the direction of her thoughts and feelings or stop them moving at all. She had no interest in getting drunk, but she would welcome a little numbness. The plane would land in New Orleans in the late afternoon, local time. Bryce would be at the airport to meet her. Once off the plane, Burbank would be gone. A memory, nothing more. She looked at the remains of her drink. Bourbon for Burbank. She resisted the sudden urge to make a sardonic toast to herself, to indulge in self-torment, self-laceration.

"Are you traveling for business or pleasure, Mrs. Anderson?" The attendant again, a little too friendly. Sarah was annoyed but hid it from the woman. Part of the annoyance was that she was unsure how that question would be answered. She forced a smile that she knew did not look forced. "Business."

She recollected Bryce's kiss...in Chuck's room. Bryce would be expecting more of that. Mixing business with pleasure. After all, she'd told him he still had it. She hadn't meant he'd still had her. But he took it that way, she knew. His tone on the phone made it clear that he expected the full re-institution of the cover marriage, the return of his 'conjugal rights', so to speak. Sarah refused to contemplate that. She'd face it once she was on the ground. Once it was all real. Once Burbank was gone.

Once Burbank was gone, she would decide what to do about Bryce and his expectations. Once Burbank was gone.

But she wasn't going to surrender Burbank until she was finally on the ground, until she landed. In the sky, she could still pretend she hadn't made the decision she'd made. She could pretend that she hadn't chosen the lesser of the two kisses she had experienced in the past few days, the decidedly lesser kiss. She could pretend that she hadn't left Burbank because of the greater kiss, the decidedly greater kiss. She could pretend that she wasn't pretending.

She was good at it. At pretending. Pretending in layers. Always pretending. She was no longer sure she knew when she was pretending and when she wasn't. The covers and the cons and the lies had gone so deep, so wide. What margin of reality was left? But she could pretend that she knew the difference between when she was pretending and when she wasn't. When I said that I was lying I might have been lying…

She looked out again at the blue and empty sky.

She opened her phone and thumbed through recent pictures. She was in some of them, smiling a happy smile. Was that smile a pretense? Was she pretending? C'mon, Sarah, answer the question, yes or no. But she refused to answer herself. Each answer terrified her. She shut the phone.

"May I get you another bourbon, Mrs. Anderson?"

"Yes, please." Another bourbon for Burbank. Another bourbon for...Burbank.

All-too-soon, she'd be in the Big Easy. With Bryce. Mr. Anderson.

A/N2 Watch for Chapter 1, "Departures and Arrivals". It'll be along eventually.