A/N: I finally got around to this, then. I'll try to get as many chapters out as possible, but be warned, I'm leaving in six days to travel round Europe for a week and a half. Thanks to Wepdiggy for the beta and for the discussion on the overall plan for this story. Thanks also to alexg over at Strahotski for another discussion on the plan. Much appreciated, guys.

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"Chuck..."began Sarah, "I have something to tell you..."

"Huh?" said Chuck, who was beginning to nod off a little.

"I said I have something to tell you, Chuck," said Sarah a little more determinedly.

"Oh, okay. Shoot," responded Chuck.

"Well..." began Sarah a little nervously. She took a deep breath to calm herself before continuing, "we're gonna have a baby," she spat out quickly before her nerves could stop her.

"We're gonna have a WHAT?" said Chuck rather loudly, and Sarah took this as a negative reaction.

"I thought you'd be happy," said Sarah sadly.

"What? No, I am happy. That was just a bit of a shock," said Chuck, as the realisation seemed to sink in and a huge smile spread across his face, "We're gonna be parents?" he said almost in awe.

"Yes, Chuck," responded Sarah in the affirmative, sporting almost as wide a smile as Chuck.

"Wow..."said Chuck breathlessly, before standing up and shouting to the whole plane, "I'm gonna be a dad!"

"Chuck," hissed Sarah, "we're meant to be inconspicuous, not announcing our presence to the whole damn plane! Now, would you sit down and be my pillow again before I drag you down?"

Wow, thought Chuck, cute and threatening at the same time. Only Sarah could pull that combo off.

There were various people coming up to Chuck and shaking his hand, while hugging Sarah in congratulations for the entire rest of the flight. In between congratulations Sarah rested her head on Chuck's shoulder and relaxed totally for the first time in years.

She had nearly everything she'd always wanted; she'd found the missing part of her, she was going to be in a proper family for the first time since her very early childhood and there was virtually no danger to Chuck on the horizon save for the mundane stuff like bathroom falls. Her final mission was at last complete and she could get that real life she'd always wanted.

Sarah had a feeling that it wouldn't be very easy to adjust from a deep cover lifestyle to not having to worry about anything to do with national security and the like, and she wondered whether she'd miss it or not. If the opportunity presented itself (and Chuck was supportive, of course, thought Sarah) then she'd jump at the chance to work for the government in some way.

It wouldn't be easy to let go totally at once, so any sort of compromise where they could get a relatively normal life while still being able to do the spy stuff would be perfect for Sarah. Espionage was too deeply ingrained in her for Sarah to ever totally let it go, at least not without some serious help or a better reason. Chuck was probably the only person she would ever listen to, so if he wanted her to give it up she would, and he was the only person she could trust totally; not even Bryce had ever once successfully changed her mind once it was set on something.

Chuck was struggling to keep calm in his excitement over finding out about his upcoming parenthood; he was sure there would be many joys of it in store over the coming years. He was hard pressed to find a time where he had ever felt such a sense of happiness. Sure, when Sarah had come back was pretty close, but that was more of a sense of relief that she was even there; and when he had proposed was a fairly close second, but what he was feeling now was just pure bliss. He had escaped from almost certain death, thanks to the love of the woman currently using his shoulder as a pillow, and now said woman was around 9 months from starting a family with him. What could be better?

"Sarah?" asked Chuck, gently jostling her awake. "When did you take the pregnancy test? I wouldn't have thought you'd have had time while we were in Mexico."

"I found out just before we left the house in San Diego," said Sarah sleepily. "I didn't tell you before now because I didn't want you to have any more incentive to save me and get yourself killed while things were still so dangerous."

"You should know by now that I don't need any incentive to try and save you. I would have taken a bullet for you before, now I guess I'd just have to take an extra one to save the baby."

"And that's why I didn't tell you; you would have tipped off the guards even more by worrying about me and the baby. At least we're safe now."

"That we are, Sarah. Besides, it's my job to worry about you. Who else does? The government didn't care if you were happy, just that you were in a fit enough mental state to put a bullet in some random bad guy when necessary. Now just get some sleep and let me take care of you for once, okay?"

"Fine," said Sarah in a mock pout, and she settled her head back on Chuck's shoulder to get some sleep for the rest of the flight. Chuck spent the rest of the flight watching as a serene smile crossed her features every so often, and the rest of the time she looked more peaceful and relaxed than Chuck had ever seen her. It was a good look for her, in his opinion. She seemed to be content to just lie with some point of her in contact with him.

This woman's going to be my wife, thought Chuck happily.

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The plane landed at Heathrow pretty much on time, and Chuck gently shook Sarah awake as soon as the plane stopped moving. He had to smile at how adorable she looked just after she woke up, her eyes heavy yet still alert, and she had managed to break through the agent training which led her to attack anyone in the vicinity of her when she woke up unexpectedly. It was a testament to the trust she had in him that her instincts had been overridden by her love for him and she felt secure enough around him that he could actually wake her without breaking a bone, an injury he had come close to suffering on numerous occasions in their brief period in the Florida safe house.

They got out of the airport with no issues, again counting on the fact that the NSA wouldn't be searching for their real names because there was no way a fake passport was going to make it through Heathrow's notoriously tough security with all of the terrorism alerts going around.

They hailed a cab just outside the terminal, and ordered the cabbie to head for one of the hotels in the centre of London. Sarah thought that it would be an easier way to figure out where to go with their new life if they were based, at least temporarily, in the capital, if only because it would be easier to sort out new documents. Sarah also had a contact in the Fulham area where they could get new identities; something that would be essential for them to remain under the radar long term.

The hotel, located just outside Hyde Park, on Nevern Place in Earls Court, seemed to be a fair place to stay at least temporarily considering the funds they still had at their disposal. After leaving the cab just outside the hotel, with a generous tip, they were grateful to escape the cabbie and his various rants.

These ranged from the fact that an idiot was apparently in charge of running the city, a sentiment Chuck agreed with after reading the mayor's Wikipedia page on his iPhone, to the state of the economy and the irony that the current Prime Minister had been Chancellor of the Exchequer for ten years previous, yet the country was still in one of the worst economic crises since the Thatcher years. If nothing else, thought Chuck, the taxi drivers in London are educational.

Sarah managed to get the two of them a room extraordinarily easily, although Chuck got some explanation when he saw the teenage boy currently manning the reception desk. Chuck offered to carry Sarah's bags up to her room, which was met with a glare which seemed to say what? You don't think I can carry my own bags just because I happen to also be carrying your child?

Chuck didn't know what to say to Sarah's withering glare which seemed to be all too open when it came to her sentiments at that point in time. He put it down to the hormones and went to standard plan B for any male in a relationship with a hormonal woman: avoid until the worst is over. It then hit him that it might make things somewhat worse if he avoided Sarah until she gave birth, so he'd have to deal with the occasional craziness and just go with it.

It also occurred to him that it might not be the best time to bring up something he'd been ruminating over during the flight, but he reasoned that it was probably better to get it out of the way.

"So, Sarah, I've been thinking..." began Chuck before he was cut off by Sarah.

"What?! What have you been thinking about?!" she snapped.

Oookkaayyy, she's not dealing well with the hormones

"Well, I was thinking that maybe we should start working for the British Government in some way..." he finished tentatively.

"Why would we want that?" asked Sarah, "after we went through so much to get away from the last government we worked for."

"Well, I know how much you miss your spy career. I saw the sadness in your eyes when you were talking to Ellie about it back in Daytona. I can't ask you to give up something you love so much?"

"What do you mean by that? I can't go on deep cover operations again, not now that I have you. You're more important to me than any career, and now with the baby on its way, I don't see how I could do it anyway."

"I wasn't asking you to go back to that. What if we could get a somewhat normal life but you still get the excitement from your spy work? I know you miss it more than you let on."

"Sometimes you know me better than I know myself," said Sarah with a sparkling of tears, "damn! Why do I keep crying so much?"

"That would be the hormones, Sarah. So, what do you think of that idea then?"

"I don't see how that would work. I mean, how can the life of a spy be in any way connected to a normal life?"

"It wouldn't be totally normal, I admit, but if we joined say, a domestic government agency you'd be able to do what you love and still get some semblance of normality. It's kinda the best of both worlds for you."

"So, let's say I admit that I miss working for the government a little. Even if I wanted to go back to it, it's safer for us to remain under the radar."

"Don't you think that the NSA is going to check our names at major airports around the world? The government can protect us, Sarah. I wouldn't be an asset, just a tech guy or something while you do all the superspy work you do so well. Sarah, I think we need their help."

"You're probably right," said Sarah with a sigh, "but I don't want to put you into that life again. We tried so hard to get out of it, and I don't want it to change you."

"What's going to change? I still have the Intersect, and you know what I'm like. How could I forgive myself if I flash on a terrorist while we're walking down the street and I can't report it, then something terrible happens? Besides, I'll still be staying in the car with a computer to keep me company."

"Okay, Chuck, but I doubt that SIS is going to take us in willingly. We are fugitives, after all."

"I thought you spies had to know the agencies well? We wouldn't be working for SIS if we wanted to stay domestic, which I think we should. I mean, you can't fly too often in your conditi-"

"If you ever, ever, say the words 'in your condition' then you'll be on the couch so fast you won't know what happened. Got that?" said Sarah threateningly.

"Yes ma'am," squeaked Chuck.

Damn, I'm marrying a crazy person, thought Chuck.

"Good. Now, who would we work for then, Mr. 'I know every intelligence agency on the planet'?"

"The Security Service, of course."

"Who?"

"You really haven't heard of them? I guess you probably haven't worked with them too often in fairness, but anyway, you'd probably know then better as MI5."

"Why didn't you say that? It would have been so much easier."

"I guess I assumed you would have a decent idea what I was going on about. I can't believe I actually out-spied Sarah Walker. Wow, this is a really great day for me. I find out I'm gonna be a dad, then I get to teach the world's greatest spy something."

"World's greatest spy?"

"Of course, not even Bond is a patch on you. In fact, Bond's probably the worst spy in history. No aliases, tons of destruction, everyone seems to recognise him. No, you're definitely better. Do you want a mug with that on it?"

Sarah stuck her tongue out at him playfully.

"Real mature, Sarah, real mature."

"I'll show you mature," said Sarah as she leapt at Chuck, who was sitting on the edge of the bed, forcing him down with her hands already trying to prise open the buttons on his shirt. Chuck recovered eventually, flipping her over so he was staring down at her.

"Feeling frisky today are we, Miss Walker?" he asked, smiling.

"Blame your kid, it's messing with my hormones," answered Sarah.

"I ain't complaining."

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A/N: I'll cut it there, so we have a fairly cute ending to the first chapter of this fic. More should be on the way fairly soon I hope. Please review, I know you're out there, even you people who aren't signed in. You can still review, you know, just press the button in the centre of the screen below this A/N. Just think, the more reviews I get, the more motivation I have to write, so the more chapters you get before I leave. Leave a review. You know you want to...