Disclaimer: Nope, still not mine... That's a shame.
A/N: Finally, the second chapter! Hope you'll like it :D
SPECIAL ASSIGNMENT
Chapter two: Wrestling with yourself
„You're Chunkie, yes?" The massive man asked him, sitting on the chair. The unfortunate piece of furniture nearly broke under the weight.
"That's what my friends call me." Charlie replied, taking money in his hands. He smiled a little. "This is enough for me to accept you as my friend. How do I call you? And what do you got for me?"
"Mike." The man seemed to think very hard. Charlie got the distinct impression that Mike wasn't very bright and had some troubles with speaking in English. "I have job for you."
"Well, can you tell me about it?" It was quite funny to observe the hulky man. Mike clearly didn't know what to say and not reveal the most important things. Finally it seemed that he made his decision.
"You will talk to boss about it." It wasn't question. It was clearly an order, but Charlie wasn't moved by that.
"It depends on the kind of job, Mike… As well as the kind of money." He was calm and methodical. He knew that he needed to be close to that mysterious 'boss', but he mustn't seem too eager about that. A lot depended on this.
"Big money… Good job. Boss will tell more."
"Okay, Mike. When do I meet him?" Charlie asked casually.
"Tomorrow, you be here. I show you where." Mike must have memorized that information, Charlie realized. It was the first time when he spoke with absolute certainty.
"Very well. I'll be here, as always." The mathematician smiled and bowed his head a little. The hulky man left without another word, sitting back at his previous place, with his companions. Charlie noticed that the almost immediately started talking with hushed voices, but it didn't seem to be in English.
Although he decided earlier he wanted to leave, he stayed a few minutes more. He didn't want to make an impression that the talk with the representative of the mysterious 'boss' was all he wanted and what he was waiting for. After about fifteen minutes he started to casually gather his things and walked out of the bar.
While he was passing near the table where Mike and his buddies were still sitting, he managed to hear some of their talk, but, as he suspected earlier, the were talking in some other language. Knowing, what he was dealing with, Charlie suspected it was Russian. His suspicions were confirmed as he heard one of the guys, tall and skinny man talk to the man Charlie knew as Mike.
He called him 'Mikhail'.
Charlie smiled to himself smugly. Everything went perfect.
Of course it wasn't so nice at the beginning…
They were still wrestling with the Kevin Oliver case – the fist one that Charlie could work on rightfully, since he lost his security clearance – and Don asked him for help with connecting the kid to any Eastern European syndicate. Charlie was more then eager to help and promised Don to get on it as fast as possible. When he was leaving the living room, something made him stop for a while and he overheard the short exchange between Don and Dad.
"So, I guess you must feel good, FBI ruling in your favor."
"Yeah, I wish I knew why."
"You're overthinking it. You won, be happy."
Charlie froze, but then resumed his walking and when he entered the garage, he was almost running.
What was he thinking? How could he kept that hidden from everyone around him, especially Don, who seemed to be a bit conspicuous about the way they both won with the FBI? It was going to be too hard.
Charlie walked up to the blackboard, trying to focus on belief propagation and all the clues that might help him discover Oliver's connections, but he couldn't think straight.
And what if Don will discover that Charlie's been lying to him about working to NSA? It wasn't consulting now, it was hard and dangerous field work, that may put him and his loved ones in danger…
Charlie felt a bit sick. He never actually thought of that when he accepted Bob's offer. He didn't took time to think that through, really. He acted recklessly and there was no turning back. He couldn't call Bob now and tell him, he now decided not to take part in this operation. Too much depended on his abilities.
Charlie sat heavily on the couch, his unseeing eyes fixed on the blackboard. He analyzed everything, every word, every piece of information he got from Bob and came up with unarguable result: he had no other choice than to accept the offer.
Charlie stood up, griping the chalk in his hand. He held it so hard that it almost shattered to dust.
Next time he'll see Bob or someone else connected to the case, he'll ask them for a protection for his loved ones. He suspected he deserved that much.
And as for Don... He'll deal with it when it'll happen. It makes no sense to borrow trouble. He's got enough on his plate right now.
Making up his mind cleared him off the unwanted thoughts. He could finally work on the case.
Up until now he didn't realized how much he actually missed that.
Quick visit at home, showing up to Dad, pretending that he just came from Amita's just to take some forgotten papers he needed for class, checking up on his voicemail and the presence of an agent, constantly watching over Alan – and Charlie was on his way to campus. He had some early classes and then a few spare hours, so he could catch a nap in his office and then work some more on one of Don's cases.
He was really thankful to Amita, who has been thoughtful enough to get him a cup of coffee as soon as he entered his office.
"Thank you and hi." He smiled, kissing her. "What would I do without you?"
"You'd be totally lost, Charlie." She returned the kiss. "How'd it go?"
"Good, I had some success today." Charlie looked apologetically at her. She nodded her head, understanding that he couldn't share more with her.
Amita was actually the only person Charlie trusted enough to share some information about his assignment. She didn't know everything, she didn't even know what exactly was Charlie doing. But she discovered very early Charlie's disappearances, while the others didn't, which was quite understandable. Larry wouldn't notice something suspicious even if it was straight under his nose, and as for others, Charlie pretended that he spent time with Amita or needed to do something work-related. Of course that cover was quickly blown up by his girlfriend who could without problems prove that any of this excuses was untrue.
That's why Charlie explained to her his working with the NSA and asked her to keep it in secret. He knew he could trust her and she proved to him that his faith in her wasn't misplaced.
Of course, Charlie mused, holding her close to him and kissing before parting and going to their respective classes, she deserved that much after my edgy behavior towards her.
Yeah, the first weeks of his work for the NSA weren't a good ones. To say the truth, they were catastrophic.
It was hard enough to try and 'climb back on the horse' as he put it, while explaining himself to Amita and Larry, during the Scan Man case. He was really on edge during this case and only contact with Emerson gave him some sense of equilibrium, which he needed since his training started.
It began directly after his decision to work with NSA. Ha quite quickly got from 'awful' to 'acceptable', in acting and disguising his personality as his trainer, Agent Ladden put it, but the martial arts training was a total disaster. He couldn't defend himself properly, he just wasn't able to understand what he's supposed to do. Which, in turn, caused him to lose his patience and be on the edge at all times.
Fortunately his acting classes allowed him to hide most of his frustrations from his friends and family, but he couldn't contain some of his outbursts, which made his contact with people around him a bit uneasy.
The true breaking point, both for the case and for Charlie's attitude, was that very dangerous situation he and David got themselves into, while escorting Emerson to his house. Two people ambushed them and wanted to abduct Emerson, while killing all the witnesses. Charlie was actually forced to shoot in the general direction of a man and that made him realize something.
He wasn't totally incapable of defending himself. There were some things that he was quite good at: for example, shooting. And although he may never be really good at self-defense, he could improve at that.
That change of attitude was a most successful turn: his trainer was never so glad to see the improvements in his student as he saw Charlie in their next training session. Not to mention that Charlie's newly discovered belief in his abilities made it possible for him to make up with everyone.
Everyone, including Amita.
Napping in his office began to be Charlie's almost daily routine. Even if he wasn't spending all the night in the bar, waiting for Russians to contact him, he usually spend his nights working on the cases or was busy doing other things. Like being with Amita.
As soon as Charlie woke up from his nap, he wrote quickly a note about what happened this night, then encoded it and wrote the final version on a scrap of paper. Then he burned the original over the sink and headed to the campus' cafeteria to grab some lunch. On the way there, he met the man who officially was a visiting professor from some other country. Casually, while greeting, Charlie slid the encrypted message to the man's hand. Agent Faulkner winked at him and walked away.
Smiling, he went through the campus, answering the students' greetings.
Life was good.
A/N: So, how was it? Let me know, you know how!
Oh, and... Happy New Year everyone! Hope it'll be good for all of you.
