Chapter 35

Mozzie realised he had been tricked when he entered the Burke residence. The air was too still. El was too happy to guide him to the table and sit him there with some food from caterers she needed tested.

That was his story and he was sticking to it. Even if he didn't fully realise he had been tricked until spies blocked the exits and entered the room.

Mozzie stared down Damian and Chuck while keeping another eye on Peter in one doorway and Sarah in the other.

"If you think I'm going to reveal anything while she's pointing a gun at me, you're mistaken."

Chuck and Damian turned in shock.

"Sarah!" Chuck said in a high voice.

Damian sighed. "We said 'no guns'."

Mozzie was surprised and pleased to see that his old friend actually stepped between Mozzie and Sarah, effectively into the firing line.

It was nice to see he wasn't 'all spy'.

Damian disappeared and then returned to work like nothing had happened. Everyone was just settling down when he disappeared again. And not a moment too soon as Bruce Wayne came back.

"He's not here Mr Wayne," Jones tried to say. However, Bruce would only listen to Peter.

"Where is my son?"

"He's in Gotham," Peter responded straightforwardly.

"Why?"

"Because Chuck asked him to go with him?"

Bruce turned on his heal and stormed out. The agents who had been watching exhaled as one, no longer holding their breath.

"That man seems more terrifying than he has any right to be," Jones muttered to himself, although Peter overheard and smiled to himself. If only Jones knew.

Chuck got out of the plane and looked at the sky. It was dark and cloudy. If someone had told him it was 5 in the evening and not 10 in the morning, he would have believed them.

"Thanks for the assistance," Alfred sighed from behind him as Damian helped him down the steps.

Chuck quickly set up the wheelchair he had carried out and held it still as the old man sat down.

"I hate feeling so useless."

"Nonsense," Chuck said before Damian could. "You told us where my father might be."

"Especially since all we got from Mozzie was that he was in contact with an 'Orion' working for Batman in Gotham, an address is much more helpful," Damian commented.

"And I'm sure bringing me back to Gotham fills you with joy at the chance to anger your father for being kept out of the loop," Alfred said with a smile. "Even if I did request it."

"Don't worry Grandpa Alfie!" Mar'i said as she took over pushing the chair from Chuck. "I'll take good care of you."

"Is someone with skin tougher than a human really the best choice for a nurse?" Chuck whispered to Damian.

"I'm sure Alfred will be fine. Besides, we all know first aid."

Chuck refrained from saying that wasn't much help in caring for patients long term. Especially since Damian's older brother was following behind him. Jason stalked behind them like a man out for blood. He seemed to take great joy in unnerving Chuck.

"There's the car!" Mar'i said, bouncing into the air. She hovered there as she waved. "Hi, Uncle Tim!"

"He only left a couple of minutes ago," Jason muttered.

"You're just jealous that she's happy to see him," Damian said.

"What was that?" Chuck said, looking around frantically.

"What?"

"That!"

The group tried to listen but there wasn't anything out of the ordinary.

"If you're referring to the rumbling noise, it is most likely the sound of incoming planes," Alfred said. "If it isn't the rumble of thunder in the sky."

"Or it could be the sound of water rushing through the sewers," Jason pointed out as it clicked. Chuck was talking about the low rumbling noise.

"I think that's just the traffic," Damian said. "There's always a lot of it."

"It's just the way Gotham sounds," Mar'i said to Chuck.

Chuck and Damian said goodbye to everyone at the manor. Damian grabbed a bike and tossed Chuck a helmet and a set of keys.

"You take the blue one," he said as he mounted a red bike.

Chuck looked at the three blue bikes stacked in between two cars that were so fancy, it hurt to stare at them too long.

"Which blue one?" And he really didn't want to think about how much these bikes must have cost.

"The one in the middle. The intersect should help you if you have trouble riding a motorbike."

Chuck mounted the bike, wondering if he would. It wasn't the first bike he was going to ride but it was the first time he would be following someone to a known destination.

Damian was frustratingly right. The intersect actually did help him. Chuck's intersect flashed a couple of times; to keep the bike going, to weave the bike through traffic and even to keep balance after Damian had him bounce the bike over a spike trap.

Why was there a spike trap in the middle of this back road?

They eventually arrived at a large apartment building. It looked like every other apartment building, even if it was a darker version of something they could find in New York.

"The elevator's broken," Chuck noticed as they walked in. The sign was large and the whole elevator was taped up.

"Probably has been for years," Damian commented as he started up the stairs.

Chuck was tired by the fourth floor and very glad that this was their stop.

"Apartment 406," Damian said. He looked to Chuck. "Ready?"

"Nice of you to ask," Chuck said, knocking on the door. "But I'm beginning to get used to things like this."

The man who opened the door was thin and a little shorter than them. Both of them had met him at different times in their lives but they both recognised the thinning hairline of light brown hair and almost beady eyes which looked up to something. Or crazy. It could honestly be both.

Stephen Bartowski stared at them in shock, looking back and forth between Damian and Chuck.

"Hi Dad," Chuck said.

Damian waved. "Nice to see you again, Orion."

"How did you find me?" Stephen asked as he moved through the apartment, picking up magazines and computer components as he went.

"Mozzie and Agent A," Damian responded.

"What were you thinking, Dad? Mum thinks you're dead! So does Ellie! So did I!"

"I-I had to, Charles. They weren't going to stop coming, don't you see? Surely you see now?"

"He's happily married to Sarah and we missed it," Damian pointed out.

Stephen's mouth was open as he stared at Chuck.

"Yes, and we're quite happy." Chuck sighed. "Also Dad, I've never understood it. I've stayed with my family and friends. Morgan knows now and we work together in spying and at the Buy More."

"You're still at the Buy More?"

"Chuck does the impossible," Damian pointed out. He certainly hadn't expected Chuck to be able to stay in his low-income job. Either the CIA would have forced him out or he would have given it up for the 'glamorous' life of a spy. But it seemed that Chuck surprised them both in doing what they hadn't thought possible.

"...I think I'm beginning to see that." Stephen moved over to the kitchen and started boiling a kettle of water. "You mentioned your mother. I would like to know more. Would you like a tea?"

It turned out that Stephen Bartowski had been out of the loop of CIA affairs for a while. After joining forces with Mozzie and Agent A, he started working for Batman a while before meeting up with Chuck again. Then, after he had 'died'; some of Mozzie's best work, he started working for Batman full time. Which came complete with a position at Wayne Tech.

"Of course, I'm working under the name 'Jon Carmichael'. Your father's idea of a joke, I guess," Stephen said to Damian.

Damian shrugged. It could have been. Or it could have been a connection to Stephen's past, although a rather indirect one.

After Stephen told his side, Chuck caught his father up on everything which had been happening in his life while Damian sat there drinking tea.

Author's note: For those who might not have seen 'Chuck', the joke is that Chuck created the spy name 'Charles Carmichael' while spying. Morgan joined in later on, calling himself 'Michael Carmichael'. 'Jon' could be 'Charles' father (possibly 'Michael's' as well. Too bad Ellie never made herself a Carmichael name).