As far as I can see I'm down to one person interested in this story, if that, so it appears that it's bombed. If no-one's bothering to read it, it looks like it's time to give up, say 'sayonara Joe' and just leave the sheep to the type of crap that they rave about.
Oh joy, Stalker Boi/M/Marc/Not Mark is back, still hiding behind 'anonymous reviews', of course. I find it amazing that this troll has the time to go through the stories of all the writers who he doesn't agree with and attack them, because we don't agree with him. Let's try this again, shall we Ma..? What you post as an anonymous coward will be deleted, if you want to say something, man up and identify yourself, but I'm betting you'll never say those things when people can see who you are.
Parts of this are less pleasant.
Usual disclaimers, no rights to any characters portrayed, this isn't the real world and it's not a Disney Princess story.
Pasadena - August 2008
They were getting sick of dealing with politicians, because the bastards always had agendas. Even with how catastrophic it would have been if Fulcrum had gotten their hands on the decrypted versions of those files because Gordon had sat on the fact that they'd managed to steal the encrypted chip in an attempt to stop anyone else moving into what he saw as his territory, and with the DNI's VERY strong recommendations to get rid of him before the trouble he caused became even more serious, the politicians wouldn't vote to remove him. Because the President was a politician himself, he wasn't prepared to go out on a limb and use his power to force the issue, even though he knew that the DNI was right on this matter.
At least they didn't have to actually deal with Gordon though, as he WAS at least bright enough to know that he wasn't likely to get away with going head to head with the DNI too many times. He knew that someone had pulled his chestnuts out of the fire that time for some reason, but he didn't know whether they'd do it again, so he kept his head down and had the Director of the National Clandestine Service deal with the Intersect team if they had anything that was critical enough to need their assistance. Gordon did wish that he could afford to get rid of Bentley, though he doubted whether he could, because the woman didn't make much of an attempt to cover up her opinion of him and his competence for the job, but she was possibly the most effective Director that they'd ever had for the operational side of the CIA, and she was pretty much the main thing that was keeping the CIA working as an effective organisation.
Carina was enjoying her Lamborghini, which all the records now showed had been hers for years, and in addition to the intel that they took from the vault at the party, the cash and negotiable assets that they'd collected were worth over forty million, which was enough to fund the entire team's operations for a while, at least. They'd also transferred ownership of the man's G550 and most of his ill gotten gains over to Carmichael Industries, as he wouldn't be needing them in whatever black site that he'd be languishing in for the rest of his life and it wasn't as if he'd earned his money legitimately anyway, that was why he was in a federal black site. Having exclusive use of a G550 made it easier for them to get around the country and do things as well (to get around the world for that matter), so as soon as they'd transferred the ownership (with a couple of untraceable previous owners in there to hide the back trail) and changed the livery, they started putting it to use. One of the first trips was for Chuck and Sarah to go to D.C. to have that talk to the DNI, with Auntie Di along.
Washington - September 2008
The meeting started off a little shaky, as the DNI was understandably angry about being lied to about, well, pretty much everything, but they answered his questions and he slowly came around. Things were going well towards the end of the meeting, until Chuck introduced another twist, having over a pile of paperwork and informing the DNI that they wished to add another member to the core Intersect team, "Air Force Captain Fiona Daria Rodya Sir, we'd like to transfer her in from the Defense Intelligence Agency under the same terms and conditions as the other agents have been transferred in."
The DNI knew Diane well enough to catch her flash of emotion when the woman's name was mentioned. He decided to take the direct approach "Can you tell me why Mister Bartowski hasn't come through you with this request Diane?" The look she shot at Chuck confused him, as it was almost equal parts anger and gratitude. "Because I have a conflict of interest here Mike, you see Captain Rodya is my daughter."
He just stared at her when she said that, and then he remembered something "This was why you needed that six month remote posting back at the end of eighty, wasn't it?" She nodded "I had to get out of sight for the later months of the pregnancy and the first couple of months after she was born. I had some friends who wanted to adopt her, and who I knew would care for her and raise her well, but I needed to be out of the public eye until after she was born."
He looked down at the name "Rodya?" She nodded again, "Yes, her father was a Russian agent, he defected to us when the KGB dissolved as well." She turned to look at Chuck "I don't know how Chuck found out about her though?"
He looked a little guilty "It was that deep cover agent database that we recovered Auntie Di, she was in there because she's DCS. When I saw her name I started getting flashes of additional information, and they showed me who her parents were. Then when I saw her picture, I remembered seeing the two of you together a few times, so I figured that she knew about you. We haven't approached her at all, but I thought if we could get it approved you could ask her if she wanted to come over. I felt that you'd be happier having her in the safer environment of our team, and her record says that she's good enough to be able to fit into the team and contribute."
The DNI smiled when he saw Diane's anger dissipate and she leant in to kiss Chuck on the cheek, saying "Yes, thank you Honey" with a grateful smile. She turned back to the DNI "So, Mike, do you think that you could see your way clear to get the President to approve having my daughter transferred into the Intersect team under the same conditions as the rest of the team?"
He started going through the paperwork in front of him and nodded "Yes, as Mister Bartowski has said, Captain Rodya's record is good enough to support her being part of the Intersect team, and his justification here explaining how adding a DIA agent to the team would be a benefit makes quite a valid case, he looked at the other paperwork and smiled. "He's even got reports of the times that she's worked with the team and how well she fitted in…." He suddenly frowned and looked sharply at Chuck.
Chuck shook his head "No Sir, I haven't altered her records, you can check with her superiors if you need confirmation that she's done what's recorded for her." The DNI shook his head at that "No, Chuck, I am prepared to take your word on that, but while it's very impressive what you can do with records, I really wish that you weren't so cavalier with the government's records."
He looked at Diane "Do you want to find out whether Fiona wants to join the team Diane?" She nodded with a smile and pulled out her phone. "Dasha, it's Mom Honey, can you talk? Good, an opportunity to join the Intersect team has come up and we were wondering whether you'd be interested?" She glanced at Chuck and Sarah "Yes, you'd be working with Chuck, but please don't try to flirt with him Honey, because his wife is a very dangerous woman…. Oh, I'm sorry Honey, It's just that, well you know that I worry that you're a bit too much like your father sometimes….. Oh that's wonderful, we'll get moving on it then, I'm in the DNI's office now….. No, it was Chuck actually, he found out who you were and put together the case to get you added to the team….Yes, but just remember what I said about Sarah! OK Honey, I'll talk to you soon, hopefully it won't take too long to get this through, bye."
She looked at the DNI and said "Yes please Mike, can we see if we can get this through please?" He nodded with a strange smile on his face, after a while she said "What?"
He shook his head "I'm sorry, it's just that of all the things that I could see Diane Beckman as, a mother was never one of them." She glared at him, then sighed in resignation "No, I didn't see myself as a mother either Mike, but while her father was, is, the most infuriating man I've ever met, I was madly in love with him, I still am unfortunately" Of the people in the room, only Chuck really understood what she was saying, as he was the only one who really knew Uncle Roan, and he gave her a sympathetic smile. She reached over to squeeze his hand gratefully and continued "I could never consider giving up the baby when I was pregnant, and when Dasha was born, I felt complete. My friends always made sure she knew who her mother was, even though they were the ones who were raising her, and I saw her as often as I could, we both did. I'm afraid that I wasn't very supportive when she decided to follow me into an intelligence career, but my friends made me see that she just wanted to be like me, so I tried to help her along her chosen path then." She looked at Sarah with a smile "She's better than I ever was though, she may not be up to your level but she's more than a match for most agents, and working with you, I can only see her getting better."
Chuck and Sarah decided to stay another day or two in D.C. to see how this panned out, so they arranged to visit with Stephen and Leslie and do a few touristy things. The President signed off the order the next morning, and as Dasha was currently between assignments, she packed her bags to go back to L.A. with them. Diane had decided to come to L.A. to get a few things sorted out as well, but before they left, she pulled Chuck aside and told him that they'd never got around to telling her about what they were before, and she wanted to do that in the safer environment of the Castle. Chuck nodded and quietly told Sarah.
On the flight home, they agreed that Dasha's cover job would be as the executive assistant for Carmichael Industries, assisting Sarah, Chuck and Anna. She'd also be staying in one of the guest rooms in the Keep until they sorted out her accommodation.
The talk with Dasha about the fact that both of her parents were ex-KGB agents, as were most of the people around them, went as well as could expected at first, but as her questions were answered, she slowly came around. The fact that Fiona had only been chosen to make her name sound more western also irritated her at first, but she was touched by the fact that most of her name was actually made up of her parents' real first names, and at least she knew why they'd always called her Dasha now.
The fact that she came to L.A. so she could talk to Dasha in a safe environment was the reason that Diane was there when Sarah got the call from her father.
Pasadena - September 2008
Sarah was talking to Chuck (as usual) when her mobile phone rang, coming up with an unknown number. She frowned as she looked up at Chuck, as he'd made sure that that phone was the epitome of unlisted numbers, he'd used his prodigious abilities to ensure that any record of it had been scrubbed from any and every on-line system in the world. What that meant was that there were only a handful of people outside of the family who should have that number, and neither of them could think of any reason for any of them to be using an unknown number, so she answered it on speaker "Hello?"
They both recognised the voice saying "Hello Darlin', how are ya?" and Sarah froze, so Chuck leant over to hit the button to secure the office, then squeezed her shoulders and kissed her on the cheek to bring her back. She looked up at him gratefully and pulled him in for a kiss for strength before she answered "Dad, how did you get this number?"
"That's the greeting I get after ten years? After everything I've done for you? I'm disappointed Darlin', I thought I raised you better than that."
"You didn't raise me, you just spent eight years dragging me through the cesspits of the country, using me to help you! Now, for the last time before I hang up and never speak to you again, how did you get this number?"
"That's no way to speak to your father!"
"Goodbye Dad!"
"No, wait! The man who came to see me when I was released gave it to me."
"Who was it, and why would he do that?"
"I don't know, it was that FBI agent who arrested me in San Diego, he said that he gave it to me so I could talk to you as I'm not supposed to see you, or anyone else I know from the business, but I have to see you Darlin', it's been ten years since I've seen my little girl."
"Describe him!"
"About six and a half feet tall, black, a bit older than me but in good shape."
Sarah and Chuck looked at each other, that had to be Graham. Chuck hit the 'Mute' button on Sarah's phone "Why would Graham spring your father and give him your number?" She frowned "It must have been some plan to try and get me back under his control, let us have a father and daughter reunion in hope that I'd forgive him and we'd bond, then arrest him again and hold him over my head to try and make me do what he wanted."
Chuck nodded and smiled, impressed yet again as the woman he loved put that together faster than he could. Sarah saw what was going through his head and smiled up at him. She knew that Chuck loved her as much for her intelligence as he did for her beauty, but seeing yet another confirmation of that made her love him all the more. Sarah dragged him down for a searing kiss to show him just how much she loved him at that moment, but also because she needed it to give her the strength to deal the bastard who was on the phone at the moment, and who was interrupting their kiss by trying to get her attention.
"Darlin'? Darlin'? Are you there?"
She gave a frustrated sigh as she hit the 'Mute' button again and snapped "What, Dad?"
"I thought you'd gone."
"Not yet, unfortunately! Why did you call me Dad?"
"It's been ten years, I've missed you and I need to see you, I need to make things right."
Sarah looked up at Chuck with a raised eyebrow, but he waved to her to say that it was her choice, he'd support whatever she decided to do. She smiled at him and kissed his hand, which she was still holding, he always knew and gave her what she needed. She reached a decision.
"Alright Dad, I'll see you, when and where do you want to meet me?"
"How about dinner, tonight, the Marriot at seven?"
"OK, but my boyfriend will be coming with me."
"No Darlin', I need to talk to you alone!"
"If you want to see me, that's my terms, we're a package deal!"
"But I need to speak to you alone Darlin'."
"What part of 'that's my terms' don't you understand? I'm not negotiating with you, I'm telling you, it's the two of us or nothing!"
"I guess I'll have to let you bring your schnook then, but I DO need to talk to you in private Darlin', there are things that can't be said in front of other people."
"You'll LET me? Didn't I just tell you that this wasn't a negotiation? Forget it Dad, I'm not going to make Charlie wait around while I go off and have some private conversation with you!"
She drew a breath to compose herself. "You know what? This was a bad idea, goodbye Dad, don't call me again!"
"No! Wait! Wait, I'm sorry Darlin', I guess I'm still thinking of you as my little girl who was happy when it was just you and me. I'll do it on your terms, OK? I just need to see my little girl!"
She looked at Chuck, knowing that his position would still be that it was purely her choice, but she really just had to draw strength from looking at her wonderful husband "OK, we'll see you there at seven."
He'd obviously fooled himself into thinking that he had the situation under control, because his next words were "So, who is this 'Charlie' anyway Darlin'? Some schnook that you're working?"
Even he could recognise that he was on thin ice from her tone when she replied "No, he's my BOYFRIEND, I gave the game away after you got yourself arrested. I put everything associated with you behind me as soon as I got away from you. Look, forget it, you're just going to aggravate me more if I see you."
"No, please Darlin'? I need see you!"
"We'll see you at seven, if you piss me off we're gone. And Dad, YOU'RE paying! Charlie will insist on paying for us but you won't let him, do you understand?"
"Yes Darlin', I'm paying."
"Right, we'll see you then. Wait! What name are you using?"
"Jack Burton"
"Well I suppose it's a good thing that I'm still going by Jenny Burton then isn't it? Goodbye Dad." And with that she cut the link.
She shook her head "That idiot is going to try to get me to help him work you! I'm betting that Graham told him that you're some rich mark that I'm working, arrgghhh!"
Sarah stood up and wrapped her arms around Chuck's neck "I need to get him, them, out of my head, take me to bed and lose me forever Honey!"
He gave her a squeeze and kissed her, but the nerd in him couldn't let that go "Baby, that's not the way that quote…."
"I know Chuck! Shut up, please? I just need you to make me forget all this shit at the moment."
He just kissed her and led her into the bathroom shared between their offices, where the small private elevator up to the Keep was.
Mostly, what they did upstairs was just hold each other as Chuck kissed Sarah's cares away, but she was feeling much better when they came back down to call a meeting with everyone a couple of hours later.
When she heard that Jack was back and he was trying to interfere in Sarah's, and Chuck's, lives again, Mary's immediate response was to jump up, preparing to rush down there and end the miserable bastard once and for all. Carina and Zondra were also on their feet, ready to join her, because Sarah had told them enough stories about her father that they were determined to make sure that that bastard wasn't going to hurt their girl any more either. Chuck had been prepared for this though, and he'd sealed the room so that only he could unlock it, to make them all listen to what they had planned.
When they'd settled down a little, they started listening. The others were set aback when Chuck brought up the issue that they didn't know for sure that this wasn't still a CIA operation, and therefore they had to be prepared in case this was an attempt to grab Sarah, as they hadn't considered that possibility. A few of the others were commenting that surely he wouldn't be involved in setting up his own daughter like that, but they were shocked and chilled by Emma's response, in a cold, hard, hateful voice that none of them would have ever expected to come from sweet, kind Emma.
"Yes, he would! He never wanted her, as far as he was concerned she was just an unwanted by-product of the sex that was all he was after when he talked me into having a baby. From the day she was born, Samanta was nothing more than something to be used to get what he wanted, so if he could see any benefit to himself in selling my baby out to the CIA or anyone else, he'd do it without a second thought!"
She started crying then and Chuck immediately pushed Sarah to go to her, she shot him a look of love and devotion and quickly stretched up on tiptoe to kiss him on the cheek before rushing to her mother's side, thinking 'That's my man!' Chuck followed a little behind, enfolding the two of them in an embrace, and Emma stretched up on tiptoe to gratefully kiss her son in law on the cheek too, as she'd caught his immediate reaction when she broke down.
When she'd recovered herself a little, Chuck kissed both of them on the head and laid out the plan, the restaurant was only lightly booked that night, or it was before he inserted bookings for three couples, one table of four and one table of three. Anna had insisted on being part of the action here because she was part of this family and people she loved were at risk, so she, Diane and Dasha were on one table. Diane was the only one of the original team that Jack wouldn't recognise, it was even risky having Ellie there, but she was even more adamant than Anna about being there to do her part if necessary.
They agreed all the details, everyone inside would be there, armed and wearing as much body armour as they could hide under their clothes. Mary and Emma would be outside in the vans with Jeff and Skip for technical support and the rest of the Shadow Security team in case backup was needed, and they'd quietly arranged for an FBI strike team to be there as well, just in case.
When they were getting ready in the Keep, Sarah picked up Chuck's long barrel Glock 20 to hand to him and stopped "That's something I've been meaning to ask you about for a while now, why do you and Casey always carry these cannons? You use the ten millimetre Auto versions of the MP fives too."
He kissed her cheek as he took the pistol and tucked it into the back of the waistband of his trousers, slipping the spare magazines into his pocket before picking up the Glock 29 in its ankle holster to strap it on as he explained. "Casey and I have been working with the FBI's HRT and SWAT teams on and off for most of the time we've been working together, and they've been using ten millimetre Auto for twenty years now. The ten millimetre gives us much more stopping power, penetration and range than the nine millimetre does, and as it was usually just the two of us on operations against god knows how many, we decided a long time ago to go with whatever gave us the best advantage. If we can get away with it, we'll go with the AS VAL over the MP five ten for the same reason. The ten millimetre Auto cartridges can be loaded for anything from light rifle rounds down to subsonic rounds like the forty S and W that you often go with can, so it gives us a lot of flexibility too. Actually the forty S and W was a development of the ten millimetre Auto lite load that they came up with for the FBI's people who were finding the ten millimetre Auto too powerful."
He could see that he had her intrigued now, and smiled as he knew that she'd be trying out the Glock 20s etc down in urban combat range in the near future. She grinned and punched him in the shoulder when she saw that smile because she knew that he'd picked up on what she had in mind.
They took what most would have considered a convoluted path to get the the garage, but it was actually the quickest way to get there, as they took their private elevator down to the Dungeon, then walked down to the lift at the other end to bring them back up to the ground floor. In the garage they looked at the cars as they discussed their options "Your father's bound to be watching to see what we arrive in to try and measure me up." Sarah nodded "So, limo or something flashy?"
Sarah grinned "I'm in the mood for something flashy!" then she frowned "But if I WAS working you, I'd be the passenger, cooing at you and stroking your ego, so you'd be driving." She wasn't at all happy about that, because she loved to drive fast cars, and the collection they had there was like candy to someone like her. Once again, Chuck knew what was going through her head and whispered "Sorry" as he leant in to kiss her. He decided on the SL 65 AMG again, as that was one of his favourites, and grabbing the keys, led her over to open her door and hand her into the car.
They both saw Jack scuttling away as they pulled up to the front doors of the Marriot. He would have recognised Sarah as soon as he saw her because there was no mistaking that she was Emma's daughter. Chuck jumped out and stopped the doorman from opening Sarah's door with a look as he came around to do it and hand her out of the car himself. Sarah smiled and kissed him on the cheek, knowing that that wouldn't have been for Jack even if he'd still been there watching, that was just Chuck. Chuck fixed the valet with a look much like the one he'd used the night they took Sasha Banacheck down, making sure he understood what would happen to him if there was a single scratch on this car when he got it back.
Downtown L.A. - September 2008
As they were walking in arm in arm, they quietly asked the ones in the van whether they were hearing anything to indicate that this might be a trap, and were relieved to hear them say 'no'. They both snorted at Emma's disgusted tone when she muttered "You've GOT to be kidding me!" as she watched the image of Jack hustling up in an Armani suit, pretending that he was late because he was coming straight from a meeting, on the feed from the cameras and mics that the two of them were wearing in the van.
Jack obviously still lived by the same 'fake it until you make it' rules he always had, and he'd obviously pulled some cons before he got there to get the money for that suit. Sarah smiled to herself as she thought that he didn't wear it anywhere near as naturally as Chuck wore his, but then Chuck wore this type of thing most of the time as Charles Carmichael and his was just part of his normal workaday wardrobe, whereas she had to fight the urge to check whether her father's still had the tags in it.
Emma showed just how well she knew her daughter when she said "Samanta! Behave!" in an amused voice and Chuck bent down to kiss Sarah, to both cover up their laughter and whisper into the mic "Stop it you two, we need to pull this off!" as Mary was laughing with Emma in the van. They only just managed to keep straight faces as Jack came out with the expected line "I thought I was going to have to call you and tell you I'd be late because my last meeting ran over!"
Sarah had to rein herself in when Jack tried the power move of pretending to get the name they gave him for Chuck, 'Charlie Hunter', wrong and called him 'Harry', as if he were too important to remember it. She smiled to herself though when Chuck turned it back on him and called him 'Jock', because her father didn't like that at all! They heard their mothers snickering about that, but they didn't say anything this time.
When they reached the restaurant, Chuck and Sarah's eyes surreptitiously swept the tables and they picked up the minuscule head shakes from Casey, Carina, Zondra and the others to say that they hadn't picked up on anything untoward in the restaurant. Feeling a little more comfortable about that, Chuck pulled Sarah's chair out to seat her, manoeuvring things to ensure that they could both watch the entrances, while Jack sat himself down without waiting.
It was amusing to Sarah and the watchers (both in the van and in the restaurant) as Chuck kept subtly correcting Jack's choices of wine and the like, telling the waiter that he and Sarah would prefer something other than the most expensive choices that Jack kept going for. Jack wasn't an entirely incompetent conman and he picked up the respect being shown in the responses of the waiters at 'Charlie's corrections, so he backed off on the power moves a little as he decided that that Feeb had been right, this guy obviously WAS rich and powerful, so trying to one up him in his world would be a fool's game.
Jack changed tacks then, launching into a series of stories about what a wonderful and exciting time 'Jenny' had had as she grew up on the road, but he wasn't paying attention to his daughter, so he missed the fact that this wasn't working either. Chuck was pretending to enjoy the stories and build a rapport with Jack, but he was watching Sarah getting more and more upset until she threw her cutlery down and spat out.
"Yeah Dad, it was a wonderful time! I really enjoyed having dirty old men trying to get their hands into my panties from before I was eight, squeezing my bottom, and my breasts too as soon as they started to become noticeable. And I loved the way they kept trying to get me to come back to their rooms with them to give me a present! The only one who was having a great time back then was YOU, so stop playing around and tell me what you're here for!"
He did a fairly credible job of pretending to look shocked "Darlin' you should have told me, I never would have let that happen to you if I'd known!"
"Don't you fucking dare pretend that you didn't know, the only reason you took me to those places was use me to try and entice those perverts to get them to work with you on your cons, you knew EXACTLY what they were doing and you encouraged it! In fact a few of them told me just what you'd promised them after I damaged them for what they were trying to do to me!"
They could hear a chorus of growls over their earwigs, and the sounds of a scuffle from the van as the others tried to restrain Mary from coming up there to kill the bastard. They also heard Emma's heartbroken sobbing as she heard what had been done to her baby. Chuck's glass shattered as his hand clenched while he tried to restrain himself, but he just dropped the remains on the table and wiped his hand off with a napkin. He held up a hand to stop the others as he tried to comfort Sarah. When she had control of herself she kissed him again, whispering "I love you!" before she turned to her father.
The look of love and wonder she'd directed at Chuck was replaced with rage and revulsion as she addressed her father "I told you to tell me what you're here for!"
Jack realised that it was a waste of time to try and play the game any more so he leant forward and spoke to his daughter harshly in Polish 'You want to know why I am here? I am here to get what you owe me! I spent ten years in prison, getting terrible things done to me! YOU caused this when you insisted on stopping in one place to finish school, because you had some stupid idea about going to university! I need money to get set up to work again, you will get that money for me from HIM, two million may be enough to start but five million would be better, and then you will come with me and work with me again. This new look you have, that will make it easy to separate many men from their money. Do not look at me like that! You will do as I say or I will tell him things about you that will make him wish that he never saw you!'
He froze and stopped talking at that point because Chuck drove a steak knife through the table, between his fingers. At first he didn't realise that Chuck was also speaking in Polish, possibly because he was frantically checking to see whether he still had all of his fingers. 'You really are stupid Uncle Jack! You were so tied up in your pathetic scheme to play me that you didn't recognise me! Even when we used a name as obvious as Charlie Hunter! Maybe I should tell them to let Mom go and let her come up here to do what she's been wanting to do ever since she heard that you'd called Samanta. You will remember her, I am sure, Mary, the Frost Queen, do you remember her Uncle Jack?'
Jack looked horrified, and gasped "Królowa Mrózu?" Chuck nodded as he smiled grimly "I knew that you would remember her!" Then he went on in Polish again 'Samanta does not owe you anything! She deserves the right to kill you slowly and painfully because of what she was forced to endure because of your stupidity and greed!' Jack banged angrily on the table at that and shouted 'You do not know the shameful and disgusting things that were done to me in prison, because SHE wanted to go to university!"
Chuck leant over the table and shouted in his face 'I don't care what happened to you, you pathetic bastard! Anything you may have endured was nothing but than a tiny fraction of what Samanta was forced to go through! And it WASN'T because of her that you got caught, you got caught because you were too arrogant and stupid to honour your promise to stop running cons for one year. She asked you for just one year so that she could get herself prepared for a decent life and you fucking promised to give her that much! But it wasn't even half of that before you started trying to run cons again, was it? What's more you did it all behind her back and led the fucking CIA straight to her, just like you led the FBI to Auntie Em! YOU are the cause of all the pain and horror that my Samanta has gone through and I desperately want to kill you for that, slowly and painfully, but I will not take away her right to extract justice from you for what you have done to her!'
Jack just sat there, paralysed in fear as he looked into Chuck's eyes, as he'd seen eyes like that before, both in and out of prison, and he'd seen the sort of things that happened to the ones that the people with those eyes were looking at, they invariably died, or wished they had. Oh yes, this was Królowa Mrózu's son, he could see that now!
Chuck saw out of the corner of his eye that Casey and Ellie had stopped the ones who'd been coming over to try and break up the screaming match in some foreign language. He drew a breath and went on more quietly.
'This is what is going to happen Uncle Jack, when we leave here, you will forget Samanta's number and you will never attempt to contact Samanta or anyone else in the family ever again. Furthermore, you will never say a single word about anyone in the family to anyone. You will also give up the con game, which you are obviously too stupid for, and you will try to make an honest living with a normal job. In fact you will never do anything illegal ever again, do you know why Uncle Jack? You will do exactly as I say because as soon as I get home tonight I will be linking every single alias and image that has ever been associated with you in every law enforcement database around the world, I will link in every con and other thing that you've ever done, and I may add in others that are similar. On top of that though, I will be expanding your records to show all of the disgusting things that you have been doing to innocent children over the past forty years or more. As you've proven that you are far from the sharpest tool in the shed, I'll explain this to you more simply.'
'If you do ANYTHING at all to make the Police look at you, speed, run a red light, park in the wrong place, anything, no matter where you are, you will be arrested. When you are arrested, they'll find out what a disgusting child molester you are and you will be thrown straight into prison to protect the children from you. But when you go to prison this time, you'll be remembering what happened to you before as the good times, because they do not like animals who do nasty things to little children in prison. I have a theory about why that is the case, you see I believe that most men, no matter how bad they are, care for their children, present company excluded of course! That's why the men in prison do whatever they can to ensure that monsters like your records will say that you are NEVER get out of prison, they do this to protect their children, and possibly other children, from monsters like you.'
'Do you understand me Uncle Jack?' Jack nodded frantically. It was getting to be quite unpleasant to be close to him now because he'd voided his bowels while Chuck was shouting at him, and the smell was turning their stomachs. Chuck tried to get Sarah to wait for him at the door but she wouldn't leave until he did, so he wound this up quickly.
'So this is what will happen Uncle Jack, you will NEVER try to contact or say anything about Samanta or anyone else in the family EVER again. You will go straight and make sure you never give the Police any reason to look at you, and you will do absolutely everything in your power to ensure that Samanta and I never have any reason to think about you ever again. If you fail to meet any one of these requirements, I will come after you, and I can assure you that I will find you. When I do, no matter how far you run or where you hide, even if you're in the most secure prison in the world, I will get to you, and I will end you, so slowly and painfully that you're begging to die. Do you understand?'
Jack just responded with a gasping, horrified 'YES!'
Chuck looked at Sarah to ask if she wanted to add anything and she smiled grimly 'One more thing DADDY, I know that you're afraid of Auntie Mary?' He nodded frantically again 'Well you should know that Charlie and I? We're much better than Auntie Mary ever was, so don't think for a minute that Charlie wouldn't be able to do what he's promised you, because I can assure you, that wasn't a threat, that was a promise!'
With that, Chuck put his arm around her and led her from the restaurant, the others threw cash on the tables that would more than cover the cost of their meals and tips as they left on Chuck and Sarah's heels. When they saw Chuck heading for the door, the valets scrambled to get his SL and bring it up as quickly as they could without risking scratching it, as he looked even more imposing now than he had when he arrived.
Jack was still sitting at the table, shaking, after the last of them had left the hotel, but he was firmly asked to leave, because the smell was being noticed by others. He'd hardly had a chance to get back to his room and clean himself up before he saw police cars pulling up to the front of the hotel. Knowing that it would be about the incident at the restaurant and that they'd be sent straight to his room in a moment, he scrabbled to throw his things (including the befouled Armani suit) into his bags and ran down the back stairway to the hotel's parking level where he threw everything in the car and drove off as quickly as he could without attracting attention.
By the time they got back to the Castle, Sarah was feeling a little bit better, and as soon as she got out of the car she was being hugged by Emma, Mary, Ellie, Diane, Carina, Zondra and Anna. Chuck was being hugged by everyone, male and female, as the ones who spoke Polish had translated what he and Jack had said for the others. Mary and Casey told him how proud they were of him, while Emma couldn't stop thanking him.
It would take them a while to get the distasteful thought of Jack Burton from their minds, but at least he was behind them.
A/N: If people need an image in their mind's eye for Dasha, it's Summer Glau, the angry assassin Greta from Chuck and River from Firefly in my mind. And BTW yes, Zoe IS Zoe from Firefly, that was supposedly her maiden name from the stories.
A/N 2: The quote was, of course, Meg Ryan's line from Top Gun 'take me to bed or lose me forever'.
A/N3: The Jack segment may have been too dark for some, but that's the way it came out and I believe that it's in context.