Buffy the Bachelorette

Week 6--Part 3

Location: Definitely the same beach, The Bahamas

One-on-One: Chuck

As Buffy and Chuck round a corner of the beach, they come across a cabana that serves drinks and is adjacent to a dancing floor. A sizeable group of people are dancing elegantly as a band plays to the side.

Chuck stares at the dancers wide-eyed.

Buffy grins up at him. "Well, Chuck, know how to tango?"

"Only the girl's part."

"Perfect."

Buffy pulls him toward the dance floor and they begin to tango, Buffy leading. Chuck, while not particularly graceful, is also not terrible and is able to follow along for the most part. After they've been dancing for some time, they take a break and move over to the cabana for refreshments.

As the bartender makes their drinks, Buffy looks at him intently and narrows her eyes. "You look somehow familiar... Have we met?"

The man grunts and hands her the drink.

"So, uh, Buffy," Chuck interjects. "What did you think of my smooth dancing skills?"

"They could use a little work but, not gonna lie, you were a better dancer than I expected. What made you decide to learn the follow's part?"

"It's...kind of a long story involving my brother-in-law in a bathrobe that we don't really need to get into." Chuck blushes.

There suddenly seems to be a commotion from the center of the dancers. A cluster of people gather before Buffy and Chuck with their backs turned facing the dance floor. Buffy and Chuck strain to see what's going on, and are just barely able to catch hints of a woman in a flowing purple dress elegantly dancing in the middle of the crowd. Chuck and Buffy make their way through the crowd until they have a full view of the woman. She is blond.

Chuck catches his breath.

The woman continues her dance as Chuck stares intently. Buffy looks back and forth between the two of them. The music comes to a crescendo and breaks, and the woman ends her dance, two feet away from Chuck and staring directly into his eyes.

"Sarah," Chuck whispers.

"Hey, Chuck," she says with a smile. "I'm back."

"Back as in...?"

"I'm back back."

Tears spring to both of their eyes and they envelope each other in a tightly-wound embrace.

Buffy clears her throat.

Chuck and Sarah break apart and Chuck turns to look at her. He has the grace to look slightly guilty and awkward, but his joy shines through.

Buffy puts a hand on her hip. "Mind introducing me to your friend here?"

"Buffy, this...is Sarah."

Buffy shakes her head in disbelief. "The Sarah? Your ex-wife?"

"Well, technically we never got divorced because I refused to recognize that I was actually married in the first place and..." Sarah interjects awkwardly, then steps back. "I'll just let you two talk things out." She walks a few paces away, but is still clearly within earshot and her eyes lovingly linger on Chuck.

Buffy's eyes are also on Chuck, but they aren't loving. "Okay, so your current wife? What, are you trying to play me for some kind of fool? Because that's really rich coming from someone who only works at a second-rate Best Buy."

"Now Buffy, I know you're mad, but there's no reason to bring Best Buy into this," Chuck half-heartedly jokes, then grows more serious as he takes in Buffy's glare. He pauses, then says, "I honestly don't have the words to try and make you understand. I thought I had lost Sarah forever. She—she had amnesia, you see, and she basically forgot our whole relationship ever happened and barely wanted anything to do with me."

"Amnesia? What is this, some kind of soap opera?"

For a moment, it seems as though Chuck is looking at someone behind Buffy. He stares intently, then gives a small shake of the head and turns back to Buffy.

"I know this is a to take in right now, but, well, yeah, essentially. She didn't know me. And I kept trying to make her, but eventually it just got too hard on the both of us. That's why I came here, to get over her and meet someone amazing. And I did," Chuck tries a small smile but Buffy rolls her eyes. "I've enjoyed every moment with you and I really was developing real feelings for you. But now that she's back, and she remembers me and we have another chance, I can't lose her again. Haven't you ever felt that way about someone? That if there were only a way it could work you'd do everything you can to make it happen."

Buffy's face softens a little. "I might know something about that. But I still get to be mad and call you mean names."

"I hope you do. Goodbye, Buffy."

"Goodbye, Chuck."

Chuck turns and walks over to Sarah and puts his arm around her, and she leans her head on his shoulder. The two walk away together as the band plays a tender love ballad.

Buffy shrugs her shoulders and sighs. "Well, there goes someone else with their true love. And here I was thinking that this show was my turn. I need a drink."

She turns back to the cabana, but the bartender is gone.

Side Interview: Sarah (while Chuck and Buffy were talking)

"How did I recover from my, er, amnesia? I don't fully know... Chuck and I had taken some space before he left to come here, but before that I was trying to remember the things that apparently happened and the person that I was told I was, but I just couldn't. Chuck and I spent some time together, but his expectations and my resistance didn't mix. But then when he left...I realized that I actually missed him. And that when I was around him I had felt something which I couldn't identify, which was, well, love. And remembering that just seemed to somehow deprogram m—cure my amnesia. So here I am."

Just after Chuck and Sarah walked away, a little farther down the beach

Chuck and Sarah continue to walk closely together, the cameras trailing in the distance so as not to disturb the moment. Within the vegetation on the side of the beach, a hand shoots out and grabs Chuck by the arm. Chuck instantaneously assumes a fighting stance.

"Calm down, Bartowski," says a gruff voice coming from the side. The cameras can just barely pick out the shadowy form of a man.

"Casey? What are you doing here?" Sarah exclaims.

"A lot's been going on since you were last yourself, Walker. Which, by the way, welcome back. Wish you could have made a little less of an entrance, though. You may have blown our mission."

"Mission?" Sarah turns to Chuck. "I thought you came here to forget about me."

Chuck hunches his shoulders awkwardly. "Well, I did. But when I met Buffy on night one I actually flashed when I saw her. And no, she's not some secret arms dealer or undercover Russian spy. She's who she says she is. But we think she might be in danger."

"I hardly think the slayer needs your protection," Sarah says with a joking smile.

"While that's without a doubt true," Casey says, "her level of importance to the, well, world, is so great that we thought it best to monitor the situation as closely as we could just to be safe. Especially that wizard kid. Something about him just doesn't sit right with me. Anyway, the small one and I have been trading off watches for the past several weeks. But without Bartowski on the inside, we're without our main point of contact."

"But we'll figure it out," Chuck interjects. "What's important is that we have Sarah back, right Casey?"

"Well, it's good to have another person on the team—did you hear that?"

Chuck and Sarah turn back and spot the cameras, and the other man steps out of the shadows.

It's the bartender.

"You're going to want to lose those cameras," Casey says as he approaches.