Hello all! I know I have other stories to work on, but this is where my muse is at right now, and I can only fight him so hard. Plus the response from you guys to my last Chuck story was so spectacular I simply had to do another. You guys are the greatest! By the way, I'm taking some creative license and assuming that Chuck and Casey's goodbye was the day before wedding #1.

Chuck blinked his eyes open and looked around his room for a moment before closing them again with a contented sigh. Things finally seemed to be looking up for him over the past few days. Fulcrum was dead and gone, his father having been safely recovered shortly after removing the Intersect from his head. The intervention of the spy world into his life seemed to be coming to an end, and now maybe he could come out the other side in good shape. He had a good amount of money to fall back on from the government's back pay. That combined with his relatively new Stanford degree meant he might have a shot at opening that software company he'd always dreamed about. He'd finally quit the Buy More yesterday, said goodbye to Casey (that part wasn't quite as positive; gruff exterior or not, the big man was a friend), and best of all today his big sister was getting married!

Well, Chuck reflected, maybe that wasn't quite the best thing in his life. He thought back a couple of nights to the rehearsal dinner, seeing Sarah in that blue dress looking so exquisite and actually, genuinely flirting with him! Given everything that had happened between them recently, Chuck couldn't help but entertain the hope that maybe, just maybe, now that his role in the spy business was done with, she might be willing to give the two of them a shot. The mere thought was pure bliss.

Yeah, this is as good as it gets.

'I really hope you still feel that way in a few minutes, Chuck.'

Chuck sat up swiftly at the voice, his eyes casting back and forth around the room for the speaker. However, he saw no one.

"Who said that?"

Upon hearing the answer, Chuck promptly fainted.

(Timeskip)

Chuck sat in the car with Sarah and Casey hurtling off toward the facility where Bryce, along with several other agents were about to be downloaded the new Intersect. After receiving the warning from his father about the agent who'd showed up to escort Bryce, Chuck had been forced to make a choice. Well, technically make a choice, although it was really a no-brainer. Sarah was the love of his life. That didn't change just because she'd rejected him to go off with Bryce. If his love for her meant anything, it wouldn't vanish immediately simply because she didn't feel the same. And after all this time, everything they'd been through, he refused to believe that his love for her meant nothing. He wasn't letting her head into danger without trying to help.

Normally at this point Chuck would be sitting in the back seat twiddling his thumbs, waiting anxiously for the ensuing battle, but thanks to his father's handy wrist computer and his new… friend, he had managed to hack into the building's security systems remotely. Chuck saw Bryce and several others being held at gunpoint near the Intersect room, and promptly did the only thing he could think of. He crashed the lighting in that part of the building hoping to create a diversion they could use to their advantage. Chuck had no idea if it would help, but it was all he had.

(Timeskip)

Chuck stood in the vast white expanse of the Intersect room with Bryce and half a dozen men. Bryce had told Chuck that several of the other agents hadn't made it in despite the distraction, and Chuck could feel the knowledge gnawing on the back of his mind, but he pushed past those thoughts and focused on the current crisis.

"Bryce, we've got to get out there! Sarah and Casey are outnumbered and outgunned!"

Bryce shook his head in frustration. "One problem with that, Chuck. None of us are armed at all."

"What!?" Chuck almost swallowed his own tongue at Bryce's statement. He tore his gaze around the room at the other suit-wearing men, hoping against hope for one of them to refute Bryce's crazy statement. None of them did.

"Seven spies here and not one of them has a gun!"

"We had to surrender all weapons at the entrance. Standard protocol, so none of us were suspicious about it," remarked one of the other spies, his frustration evident in his voice.

"Okay, okay," Chuck ground out, trying to keep the panic from rising as the sound of gunfire echoed through the door. "So what do we do?"

Bryce looked at the console in the middle of the room and then back at the door before settling his gaze on Chuck, grimacing.

Chuck did not at all like the regretful look on his old friend/nemesis's face. "Bryce?"

"I'm sorry, Chuck."

With that, Bryce slapped his hand on the panel. The lights in the room dimmed, and the walls began to fill with thousands of pictures.

(Timeskip)

Chuck was standing in Castle, barely able to comprehend what was happening. Was it only this morning that he'd woken up thinking this was as good as life ever got? And in one day, the day of his sister's wedding no less, life had crept up and kicked him in the teeth yet again. His new friend was one thing, that he could handle, but it just wasn't enough, was it? Things just had to spiral further out of control?

Sarah was leaving with Bryce. Ellie's wedding had been crashed by the not quite so dead Ted Roark. A new threat, something called the Ring, had come out of nowhere before the dust could even settle on Fulcrum's downfall, heck apparently Fulcrum was subservient to them! And now Bryce Freaking Larkin had screwed him over once more.

Admittedly it had been kind of neat using the skills of the new Intersect to take down the Ring agents along with Bryce, who was the only one of the agents aside from Chuck who hadn't passed out from the download. But now Chuck was back as the Intersect officially once more, and even worse, he was only one of several of them. Chuck knew how this would end, so when General Beckman had looked like her head was about to explode at the news that Chuck had also been uploaded with the Intersect, he'd taken the only way out of the bunker that he could see. Now he was committed, and it was taking everything he had to try and find the good in his situation. It was the only way he could think of to avoid breaking down right here and now in front of all of these agents.

"Chuck, can we talk for a minute?"

Sarah's voice snapped Chuck out of his reverie. He turned to look at his (Bryce's!) blond angel, who hadn't given him enough time to answer before clasping his arm and dragging him off to a corner of the unusually crowded Castle.

"Run away with me."

He didn't just hear that. He could've sworn he'd seen her lips move, but there's no way he heard that correctly.

"What?" he croaked.

"Chuck you've sacrificed too much for this government already. You just got the Intersect out of your head and now it got put back in! We have to run, I won't let them turn you into one of their cold killers. I won't."

He hated seeing the anguish on her face. He wanted nothing more than to take her in his arms and promise her it would all be okay, that he would hold the rest of the world at bay and not let anything hurt her. At the same time the thought that she cared enough about him to sacrifice everything so he didn't have to become a spy made him want to weep with joy. But still… she'd be sacrificing everything. Sarah had already done that for him once, and were it not for Casey's loyalty it would've cost her dearly. He wasn't going to let that happen to her again. Not when she was about to be happy, about to be reunited with the man she… okay, he wasn't touching that thought. But he wasn't going to let that happen to her. Not when there was anything he could do about it.

He opened his mouth to refuse, to tell her he couldn't when he was interrupted.

'Don't just refuse, Chuck. She's willing to do something like that, you have to at least explain why you won't, if nothing else so as not to offend her.'

Chuck acknowledged the thought and closed his eyes for a long moment before delivering one of the hardest short speeches he'd ever had to give.

"Sarah, I can't tell you how much what you're offering means to me. But you've already given up so much for me. I can't let you ruin your life. Not now. Now that you have your chance. Your chance to get back into the real action, with a real spy. With… Bryce.

And besides," Chuck went on as it looked like Sarah was going to interrupt. "I have the Intersect anyway. At the very least if they train me to be a spy, maybe I can get out there and do some good in the world. And maybe when I'm done I'll come back and be…"

Chuck cut himself off as he realized what he was about to say but he was already too far into it so he swallowed hard and mustered all of his will to keep the bitterness out of his voice.

"… someone worthy of… a woman like you." Chuck realized how that must sound to a woman going off to be with the love of her life and quickly went on.

"And then maybe you have a… friend or something you think might like me and you can set me up and we can double date and hang out and I'm just gonna stop rambling before I end up saying something even more stupid." Chuck finished lamely, looking down at the ground as he felt his face heat up.

"Mr. Carmichael?"

Chuck and Sarah both turned to look at the agent standing a few feet behind Sarah who'd called Chuck's cover name.

"We need to get going so you can pack up and we can leave to the training facility."

"Oh… we're leaving tonight? I, uh, I didn't realize that. Okey-dokey then." Chuck turned and looked back at Sarah, who turned back to him looking so… Oh no, he hadn't wanted to make her sad. Damn him and his feelings anyway. He hated the thought that she felt bad for him, but he had no more time to say anything.

"Bye, Sarah. I'll see you around. Stay safe." And before he could lose the will to do so, he moved past the woman he loved and walked out towards the doors to Castle, expressing his earnest thanks for the thought to tell Sarah exactly why he wouldn't accept. It hurt terribly, but it felt like… not closure, because there would never be any closure from Sarah Walker, but it felt like the right thing to say under the circumstances. Right thing or not, though, he couldn't look back. He couldn't.

And even if he had been able to muster the strength to do so, the blond agent still had her back to him, so he wouldn't have caught the silent tears cascading down her face.

And as it turned out, he was to have another distraction anyway, as the sounds of a small scuffle from the doors to Castle broke out. Looking up he saw his father pushing his way past an agent at the door, looking wildly around the room.

"Dad!"

Hearing his son's voice, Steven Bartowski turned and ran down the stairs and over to Chuck, engulfing him in a hug.

"Charles… I can't believe this happened to you again… I'm so sorry…." He mumbled before stiffening, apparently having caught sight of something past Chuck's shoulder.

"Dammit, Bryce! You were supposed to keep him safe!" Steven said, his voice cracking on the last word before he pushed past his son and began stalking over to the younger man, but Chuck caught his arm.

"Dad… it wasn't Bryce's fault. If he hadn't done what he did… we'd all be dead right now." Everyone in Castle turned to look sharply at Chuck upon hearing his words, most of them surprised that Chuck would let the cause of his current and so many of his past dilemmas at least somewhat off the hook like that. Although Bryce himself looked rather relieved.

Steven looked like he was struggling to hold onto the anger, as though on some deep level he needed to hold on to it. But finally, it appeared to die and the infamous Orion sagged, the fight drained out of him.

"I'll find a way to make this right, son. I didn't spend all that time working on a way to get the first Intersect out of you just to lose you to the second one. I promise you Charles, I'll find a way to get it out!"

Chuck opened his mouth to reply, but his voice caught in his throat, so many thoughts intermixing with each other that he simply didn't have a clue what to say.

After a few moments, the agent that was supposed to be escorting Chuck cleared his throat. Chuck nodded and turned back to his father, deciding that at the moment and in present company he had to keep things simple.

"Thanks, Dad."

His father nodded at his son who was walking off to an uncertain future, calling out to his retreating figure.

"Aces, Charles. You're aces."

Chuck turned and smiled before walking out the door. As he passed through the freezer and into the Orang Orange, Chuck felt a tinge of worry combined with a great deal of relief that he hadn't had the chance to speak to his father in private.

After all, considering everything the man had gone through to get the 1.0 out of Chuck's brain, how was Chuck supposed to tell him that the device he'd built, instead of removing the Intersect, had given it the final push it needed to become an independent sentient entity?