Just finished the show for the first time and went looking for a good fanfic to resolve the ending. Very glad I found this one. Thank you for giving our favorite couple a happy life!

so beautiful this story.
thanks so much

Just an absolutely awesome story. My favorite post finale story. So real to the characters, plenty of Charah, and even a little action. Thank you

So fun. A great trip down Chuck memory lane. All the fluffy stuff matched the show.

The best post finale story. Having read more than a few post finale stories, this is the only one that I felt was completely in sync with the canon. Some are fluffy. Some angsty and a few with no hopes. This one is simply perfect. If we look at the narrative structure and the way this story progressed from S1, it's through conflicts and a positive resolution to the conflict.

Quinn brings the conflict with the challenge that a nerd like Chuck won't get a beautiful spy like Sarah without the Intersect. Many spies who didn't know Chuck or Sarah have raised similar questions or expressed disbelief at their relationship. Such as Zondra ridiculing Chuck in S4, Roan doing the same in S2, Cole in S2, and even Bryce to an extent in S2. But none of them ever got to know the real Sarah Walker or what she saw in Chuck. But we the viewers saw what made Chuck special, and why she fell for him in just under two days. And we know she loves him because he is Chuck. Not because of Intersect. But does Chuck feel that? That he can "get" (not stay) a woman like her to fall for him without the Intersect? Sure he knows she will stay with him without the Intersect. But without the memories and in a situation when Sarah Walker the deadly spy, is out to kill him, the stakes are higher than ever. That makes the challenge a lot more difficult. Will this Chuck of S5 be able to win Sarah back without the Intersect when she thinks he is the enemy? That was the setup. And the answer is YES. Yes, he will. By winning her Head and Heart (the band for Rivers and Roads song which played in the final beach scene).

She believed him first (Head), but didn't feel it. And the finale was all about Heart. Little by little, she understands what kind of spy and man he is - he doesn't like to kill, but is a HERO (her true type), when he chooses to selflessly save others rather than use the glasses to restore her memory. He is a hero, but a different one to Bryce and any other spy she has known in her life, because he puts people first, ahead of missions and ahead of his own desires. He doesn't do it for orders. He does it because he is wired that way.

And then in the beach, she is once again met by his best version. He is composed, emotional but not messy or demanding or clinging, and once again shows his best trait of being selfless - he will always be there for her, someone she can call. He is her anchor to the real life. Reliable and solid. Something she can't say about anyone else in her life. That's how he wins her over once again. When she asks him to kiss her, it's because she is FEELING it (The Heart). That's how the conflict is resolved and Chuck proved that he will be able to "get" Sarah with or without the Intersect. Just like she fell for him in under two days in the pilot and they ended up at the beach, she falls for him once again in a short during their mission in the finale, and they end up kissing in the beach. And like Ellie gave the hint to getting her memories back, as she lets these emotions flow through her, she will start to get her memories back.

And this story shows this all throughout the chapters which were written beautifully and fit with the amazing finale in canon. This is a masterpiece. Thanks a lot for writing and sharing this.

THANK YOU for this extraordinary gift! I just discovered this delightful show and wasn’t ready to say goodbye. This was beautifully written and perfectly imagined. It was exactly what I was looking for! I hope you have written more stories! You have an incredible talent!

I'm sorry. But its not possible to rebuild the depth of the Charah relationship each of them fought for years to obtain through personal growth. Either Sarah gets her memories back of her trials by fire with Chuck to be soulmates...or whatever love this new Charah builds will be superficial compared to what it could have been.

The story Emma heard didn't mention Bryce's critical but shitastic role in Charah. In person or spirit, Bryce was there until nearly the bitter end...thanks to Quinn. What about Sarah's 'hypocritical/nonsensical' period with Daniel? We already met Chuck's brunette trifecta. Everything was grand with them.

Surely Bryce and Daniel were/are just as happy? Cole, too. Daniel should have been proud. He was the only man to tap Sarah after she fell in love with Chuck. Boy, did Shaw turn out to be a creep, or what. Poor Bryce, he tried and tried right up until he died. I'm not sorry I made that rhyme...

This is a highly satisfying and entertaining AU of how the series should have ended...with new action to boot! A few thoughts below:

(Part of an explanation to Emma in this chapterChuck and I fell in love, but government constraints on handler/asset relationships made things very .. complicated. After Chuck became an agent, we dated..."

That narrative skips over where Chuck was crushed by his own hubris in Prague. How because of Prague, Sarah couldn't accept and love a Spy Chuck...even though Chuck had already accepted and loved assassin, spy, conwoman Sarah. These two couldn't talk their way out of a 'Wet Paper Bag'. And that led to unnecessary fuck buddies on both sides. Live and learn...but that might be a bit meaty for a story blurb to Mom anyway. lol

Thank god at least Bryce is dead, right?...Right?

I guess if we're going to rehab Jill's legacy...Shaw is next?

Why wouldn't the corrupt DEA agents put a bullet in Chuck and Sarah's head before leaving. Then blow up the boat to get rid of the fingerprints. Leave a couple of kilos behind to confirm the couple just got caught up in cartel violence? Beckman's "hold cover" BS should have gotten Charah dead...of course, we all know Stormtroopers can't shoot worth shit, right.

I love the unexpected plot in this story of Sarah rediscovering her love for Chuck after her memory wipe. But, I don't believe that Bryce and Sarah had the same undying relationship as Roan and Diane. And it was portrayed as such in the series. Roan and Diane may have been mostly apart, but were always each other's 'person' underneath.. regardless of Roan's...roaming...or Diane's cold, detached, calculations. What they had was odd, but deeply rooted.

Bryce and Sarah's relationship was primarily a matter of convenience and Sarah's wishful thinking. Bryce cared about nothing but himself and his "James Bond" persona. Sarah was more, 'This is safe. More fucky...less talky'. There was zero emotional connection between the two. Yes, Sarah did plan to leave with Bryce, and into his bed after the douchecanoe was found alive and things were "complicated" with Chuck. But, she held out...for Shaw. Lol.

This is a wonderful, touching story...so, so much better than how the series ended. Fuck those guys for how they treated the loyal fans that kept the show going. I only watched S5 once. After the way the show creators ended the series...I don't recognize the existence of that season. The last episode of S4 is what fans deserved as a series finale.

I say all the above because I'm confident you correctedly quoted Sarah from the show in this chapter about 'her giving up family and friends to be in the CIA, and was the right thing to do at the time' I don't remember that dialogue the one time I probably watched that episode. But, that is totally retcon BS by the show creators...just like Chuck's alter ego, Piranha. Sarah had no friends and only her father as family at the time. She was blackmailed into the CIA as a teenager. She didn't choose to join...she chose to agree to becoming Graham's personal assassin to help protect her scumbag father and stay out of prison herself. Sarah loathed how being in the CIA changed her. When Chuck embraced being a spy, she hated herself even more for being a part of his decision to be a spy and continued rejecting Chuck long after his 'Waterloo' in Prague.

One of the best Chuck stories especially post S5 finale. This is exactly how I felt things would go for Chuck and Sarah. It's always emotions and feelings that were key to their relationship and getting her memories back. The writers posed a question if Chuck would be able to get Sarah back without the Intersect and when put under most difficult circumstances. Yes, they would like it happened in the finale. And you've done a terrific jib in showing that. Fantastic story. Thanks for writing this and sharing it here.