Chpt. 3 "No Escaping-Part 2"
As faculty meetings went, it was the standard hour of each professor reporting how he or she was meeting the guidelines set forth by the various departments. It was also the hour where Millie outlined her agenda and informed the staff of the various committees to which they were assigned. Charlie never liked this part; somehow, no matter how much she swore she understood and accepted the work he did for the FBI, Millie still managed to place him where he knew it would interfere.
"Well, that's all I have to say," Millie said, bringing the meeting to a close. "Does anyone have anything they wish to add?" Her gaze drifted around and settled on Charlie.
He did not notice.
"Professor Eppes?" Amita nudged Charlie to get his attention as Millie addressed him. "Weren't you telling me earlier that you had something you wanted to share?"
Charlie swallowed nervously. He had hoped she would forget, give him more time, but once again the woman proved she had a mind like a steel trap.
"Professor Eppes?" she said again.
"Yes. I did have something I wanted to share," Charlie said. Great. Everyone was looking at him now, including Professor Stanley Novich who recently "skunked" Charlie's office. Of course Charlie had his revenge by making it appear as if Novich's office had been walled in and no longer existed.
"Um…the other day…" Charlie was not about to say night; only Amita and Larry knew of Millie's relationship with his father and he wanted it to stay that way for as long as possible. "The other day I made a wager with our Dr. Finch and I lost."
"Do you have to dress up for a week as a skunk?" Professor Novich teased.
Oh if only!
"No. Dr. Finch said I had to attend this year's Moon Amtrak event." Charlie already looked the event up online the day before thinking it would help him get more comfortable with the idea of what he, Don, and their father promised to do. It did, but only a little.
Still it was interesting to see how the event originated. Apparently some guy offered to buy a drink for all his buddies who ran out to the tracks and mooned the next train. Many apparently did, thus a fun, crazy tradition was born. Now it had escalated in to something that went from morning to night.
And that was Millie's wager.
"And you are invited to attend to watch if you wish. And you can also participate if you want to." Charlie finished what he had to say, fulfilling the first part of the wager.
Looking around, his colleagues had the same expression as he and his family did upon hearing Millie's terms. Perhaps that was an added bonus—at least now everyone would be careful if entering a bet with Dr. Mildred Finch. Then, as Charlie had expected, a few started to laugh. Especially Professor Novich.
"This is even better than having to dress as a skunk for a week! Count me and my camcorder in!" he crowed. Then before Charlie fully realized what he said, the man was gone and the others were getting up to leave.
"Now there's an idea," Millie said getting to her feet. Charlie did not miss the mischievous twinkle in her eyes. "We should make sure there is some record for posterity." Then like Novich, she was gone.
Amita was the last to get up to leave. She came up next to Charlie and gently pushed his lower jaw back in place.
"So, this wager. Is it just you or are your father and Don joining you in the mooning line?" She said it casually so Charlie knew she understood.
"Still Eppes men zero," he muttered. Then, "You'll come, won't you? I think I could bear it more knowing you were there."
Amita grinned. "Sure, I'll be there."
"Thanks. Now I just have to be sure Don can't flake out."
"Do you think he would?"
Charlie snorted. "I think he'd rather be shot at than bare his butt for passing strangers."
"I'm sure Don would consider mooning safer than facing bullets, Charlie."
Charlie wasn't convinced. Leaving the meeting room he headed back to his office. Amita followed before reaching her own.
When he reached his office Charlie found a group of students standing there. They were whispering to each other and two of them held colored flyers in their hands.
"Professor Eppes, have you seen this?"
One of the students shoved a flyer in front of his face. For the umpteenth time in two days his jaw dropped and his eyes widened. How in the world…?
"Jessica was apparently standing outside the meeting and heard you talking about it. Is it true? Are you really doing this?"
Charlie managed to pull his eyes away from the flyer and to the girl who had been talking. Melissa. The professor nodded. "Yes, Melissa. On said date your professor with many others will be mooning Amtrak trains. And as it also says you are invited to watch. Or," Charlie added since Jessica left an important detail out, "you can also participate. Check out the website. Sounds fun."
The students eyed him skeptically.
"What? You think I won't do it?"
"You've never struck us as being the kind who'd be willing to publicly bare any part of his anatomy." That came from one of the male students; one who was apparently mixing his math and bio classes this term.
"Well, I am definitely going to be mooning trains as I said and I hope you will consider attending." Then, getting an idea he asked, "Could I keep that?"
"Sure." The student gave him his flyer.
Charlie took it and went in to his office and pulled out his cell phone. Laying the flyer on the desk he took a picture. Then he sent the picture with a text to Megan Reeves, one of his brother's agents. As an afterthought he decided sending a fax and e-mail would also be a good thing to do. Back-ups. Besides it was the safer way of letting Don's team know of the wager and making sure his big brother couldn't back out.
"Don't you have classes you need to get to?" Charlie said, seeing the cluster of students still standing there at the door. They did not need to hear anything else. In a moment his doorway was empty.
Charlie smiled.
God bless sneaky college students!
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When Megan received Charlie's text she was surprised. Then when she saw what it said and had to put her hand over her mouth to stifle her laughter. The best part, however, was when she received Charlie's e-mail and the fax of the actual flyer came through.
Colby had been the one to find the fax. "Megan, look at this." He brought her the fax figuring she was the safest bet for the moment. If the Whiz Kid was being blackmailed or something, then preparing for the reaction he knew Don would have was the best thing he could do. "What do you think?"
"I think the Eppes lost a wager." At Colby's confused expression she gestured to Charlie's e-mail that was still open on her screen.
Colby leaned down a bit so he could read Charlie's message. After a moment he was howling with laughter. "Aww, man! Glad she's not dating anyone in my family!"
"Or that she's your boss. Charlie must have thought Don would neglect to tell us of their wager, or try to weasel out of it because of the job we have. Charlie doesn't have that option."
Colby understood. "Well, I think we can help Charlie out, don't you? Don has to learn sooner or later that the FBI won't fall apart if he happens to miss a day for 'family obligations.'"
Megan laughed. Then, glancing back at Charlie's e-mail, she saw something she hadn't noticed before.
"Hey, what's got you grinnin' like the cat that ate the canary, Granger?" Megan turned and Colby looked to see David approaching them. The other agents glanced at each other, both relieved it was David and not Don.
"You ever hear of 'Moon Amtrak'?"
"Yeah." David was suspicious. Colby passed him the flyer and Megan pointed to her computer since he hadn't had the chance to check his e-mail recently. "Oh man!"
"That's what I said," Colby informed his partner.
"I think it was more of an 'aww'," Megan corrected.
"Hey, what's going on? Shouldn't you guys be working?"
The three agents had been facing the side of Megan's cubicle so they had not seen Don returning from a briefing with their director. David and Colby quickly returned to their desks and Megan closed Charlie's message. From the speed the agents moved, Don immediately knew they were hiding something. Glancing at each of them, he learned the most from Colby. Colby had his Cheshire cat grin expression and Don knew he only had that expression when he was thinking about sex or that he knew something that would get to him or one of the others.
Oh, he wouldn't! Wait, of course he would!
"Charlie!" He knew he should have spoken sooner!
At Don's outburst his team looked up from the work they were, for the moment at least, pretending to do.
"Is something wrong, Don?" David asked after a moment.
Don rubbed his forehead. "All right, guys. What did Charlie send to you?" He looked at each agent again. The look on his face said they better "cough it up" as it were.
After a moment David produced the fax. Don took it and from the messy block letters written in what appeared to be marker, he knew he was reading a flyer. And, knowing how many flyers students made when wanting to get the word out about something, he knew these were plastered by now on every inch possible on the CalSci campus.
Don chuckled. Poor Charlie! Almost, anyway. Of the three Eppes, his brother would most likely have the bigger audience. "Anything else?" He hoped not, but then this was Charlie.
"He sent an e-mail detailing the terms of the wager," Megan answered.
Don nodded. It made sense Charlie would want to clarify the terms of the wager for the team, especially since said flyer neglected to mention why his brother would be mooning.
Megan, David, and Colby correctly interpreted his look. "Um, Don. He didn't just send it to us," Megan said.
"What do you mean?" Don already knew from the way her shoulders stiffened he was not going to like the answer.
"Looks like he sent it to the entire office." That was Colby.
"Not just the office, Colby," David said. "The entire FBI."
That's when Colby noticed to whom the e-mail was sent. Oh man. Colby looked at David and they both looked at Megan. A thumping sound let them know Don was finally at his desk and checking his e-mail. Then they heard a hissing sound. Slowly the three agents looked over at Don.
He was seething and they could see his teeth were clenched together. All the color had drained from his face. Then before they knew what their boss was about, Don sprang from his chair, grabbed his jacket and stormed out of the office. Don was seeing red.
"Do you think we should warn Charlie?" David asked.
"Nah. I'm sure that by the time Don and Charlie run in to each other Don will have calmed down," Megan said. But she did not sound sure.
Colby said nothing. He was still looking towards the hall Don stormed down to leave.
"Did you guys see his nostrils flare?"
