"Frost is here?" Chuck looked at the couple in shock, "Your dad was the operative she was sent after?"
"I suppose so," Vivian shrugged, "Why? Does the fact she's here make any difference?"
"I guess we'll find out," Chuck sighed, grateful for Sarah's free hand rubbing his forearm soothingly. "Can you arrange a way for us to meet, one that won't make Volkoff suspicious?"
"Our rehearsal dinner is tomorrow," Cole offered, "You could come as an old mate of mine from University. We can just tell people that we met when you came to Oxford on exchange. I doubt two more guests will make much of a difference."
"That could work," Chuck nodded, "What time and where is the rehearsal?"
"The rehearsal dinner starts at 7pm tomorrow night in the Restaurant downstairs," Cole informed them, "Just let them know you are with the wedding party and they will direct you to the private room."
"Dress code?" Sarah inquired.
"Cocktail attire," Vivian supplied, "Something along the lines of what you are wearing now should be fine, the wedding itself will be formal. You are, of course, invited. After all, how could I deny my childhood playmate an invitation? I'll make sure a formal invitation is delivered to you tomorrow."
"We appreciate that," Sarah nodded, "We'll just go ahead and RSVP in advance for three. Our partner John Casey is with us as well."
"I thought I saw him chatting up that DGSE fox earlier," Cole mused only to be elbowed by his fiancée. "Now Viv, she's nowhere near as attractive as you."
"Nice save," Vivian rolled her eyes as Chuck and Sarah fought to suppress their grins. "Is there anything else you are needing from us? We have a busy couple days ahead of us and I'd like to get a little sleep while I still can."
"Brilliant idea," Cole murmured to Vivian, "Since I don't plan on sleeping once the wedding is over."
"No, I think we can take care of the rest from here," Chuck shook his head ignoring Cole's statement. He then stood and gestured toward the door to walk their guests out. He kissed Vivian's cheek and shook Cole's hand. "Congratulations, by the way."
"Thanks, Mate," Cole nodded, "You just make sure to phone when you two finally decide the cover isn't good enough anymore. Sarah knows how to reach me."
"We will," Chuck nodded and began to open the door, "Oh, one more thing use the Carmichael cover until after you introduce us to Frost."
"Is there bad blood between you two and her?" Cole arched an eyebrow.
"You might say that," Chuck gave a half-shrug, "I'm just not entirely sure she'd come if she knew it was Sarah and me that she was meeting."
"Roger that," Cole clapped him on the shoulder before placing his hand on his fiancée's lower back and guiding her out. "Tomorrow then?"
"Yes, until tomorrow," Chuck nodded and closed the door behind them before returning to the sitting area where Sarah was waiting for him.
"What's our next step?" Sarah asked him, "Because last I checked, the Intersect glasses we have are just for updates, not overwriting a previously existing Intersect."
"That's a fairly simple fix," Chuck assured her, "The trick is to get the override program from Orion, especially since Volkoff's Intersect is a different program from mine."
"Well before you get too far gone into that," Sarah stepped up to him and wrapped her arms around his waist under his jacket and rested her head in his shoulder, "Might as well get comfy. I know you, whether or not you are able to get a hold of Orion tonight, you are going to be up for hours working on reencoding those glasses."
"Probably a good idea," Chuck nodded with a sigh and leaned down to press a kiss to her head.
"You go change, I'll order some brain food," Sarah stepped back and gave him a light push toward the bedroom.
"Make sure to see if they have…" Chuck started.
"Rombauer, I know," Sarah gave him a soft smile, "Just who do you think you're talking to?"
"My mistake," He chuckled and ducked into the bedroom as Sarah lifted the room phone and dialed the extension for room service.
By the time Chuck returned, wearing comfortable grey sweats and his old Quantum Leap t-shirt that was fitting a little tighter - although not uncomfortably so - these days, their order had been delivered. Sarah had placed the various items on one side of the dining table. At a glance he saw at least two bottles of Rombauer, several bottles of flat and sparkling water, granola bars, snack cakes, and some cut and whole fruit. He picked up his laptop from the coffee table and brought it over to the table to set up for what he anticipated to be a long coding session as Sarah ducked into the room to change herself.
It didn't take long for Chuck to set up his personal encryption network and establish his server protocol which routed his IP address through multiple servers at random and at a rate that not even the CIA or NSA were ever able to track him, even now that he outed himself to them, not that they much cared anymore. Opening a communication channel, he began initializing the connection protocol to contact Orion. Once he'd found out that Orion was his father, it had been easier to locate the older engineer's network, something that the analysts and IT specialists of the CIA and NSA had failed to accomplish in the 14-some-odd years since the man disappeared.
The connection established, the only thing to do was wait, which wasn't long. Orion must have been close to his computer or heard the alert of an inbound communication. The bank screen of the video call changed to show the outline of a humanoid figure created by scrolling alphanumeric code in a purple-ish hue. "Who is this?" A digitized voice demanded.
"Someone who realizes the irony of you going off grid," Chuck responded, knowing that Orion was receiving a similarly digitized voice and pixilated image, "Only in your case you don't seem to have a CLU."
The digitized image on the screen looked confused, if that were even possible, before Orion spoke again, "Identify yourself."
"I go by many names," Chuck responded vaguely, "You may have heard of the Piranha." Orion did not respond, but Chuck was able to see a slight tick of recognition behind the scrolling code obfuscating his father's face, "But you probably know me better as your son, Chuck."
"Charles?" The digitized voice's confused amazement was clear over the transmission.
Chuck pressed a few buttons on his computer, disengaging the audio and visual encoding that had been obscuring his identity from his father. "Hi Dad."
Orion likewise disengaged his transmission protocols; Chuck could see that his father had aged significantly since he last saw him. His bright eyes had dimmed a bit, the crow's feet around his eyes were more pronounced, and he was clearly worn down. "Charles! My God, it's good to see that face."
"It's good to be seen," Chuck gave him a small smile.
"How did you find me?" Stephen questioned.
"I'm the Piranha," Chuck shrugged, "I probably could have found you years ago, I was tempted, believe me, I was tempted. When Ellie was accepted to UCLA, when I was accepted to Stanford, and especially after Ellie graduated medical school at the top of her class…" Chuck sighed, "I figured that there must have been a damned good reason for you to leave us like that and stay away, but I still wish you had told us something. Anything would have been better than promising pancakes and then never coming back."
"I'm sorry, Charles," Stephen dropped his head.
"Did you even stop to consider that you leaving would have put Ellie and me in danger?" Chuck frowned sadly, "I mean thank God we had the Admiral and Mrs. Calavicci, Agents Turner, and Agent Montgomery looking out for us, but what if we didn't? What if they were called away?"
Orion's head shot up, "Wait, what did you call them?"
"Navy Admiral Al Calavicci and his wife Beth, CIA Agents Craig and Laura Turner, and Agent Roan Montgomery – or as we called him back then Tony Lewis, also of the CIA," Chuck repeated.
"God damn it!" Stephen growled, "How did you find out?"
"Roan told me a few weeks ago," Chuck explained.
"But he's been…" Stephen started then looked at his eyes, "What the hell were you doing in DC?"
"Working," Chuck stated simply, "Did you really think Bryce accusing me of cheating on Fleming's imagery retention test would stick? I know you had something to do with it, although I don't think you expected to play out the way it did." He sighed, "But that's not important right now. I didn't call to rehash the past. We need your help."
"'We?'" Stephen repeated hesitantly.
"Yes, 'we,'" Sarah spoke up from behind Chuck, neither man had noticed her approach.
Chuck turned to see his girlfriend wearing a brown shirt, that was clearly his as it swamped her slender frame, with the words 'I aim to misbehave' printed over the outline of Serenity, and a pair of his boxers which were barely visible under the hem of the shirt. "My God, Jen," He sighed into her ear as she casual seated herself in his lap, "Do you have any idea what you are doing to me?"
"I have an idea," She gave him an impish smile.
"You are making it very hard…"
"I noticed," She teased, adjusting her position in his lap.
"…to focus right now," Chuck finished with a groan.
"You like it," She giggled, giving him a quick peck.
The sound of Stephen clearing is throat interrupted their little tête-à-tête, and the couple blushed. "Sorry Dad," Chuck shrugged sheepishly hoping his father hadn't heard too much.
"Are you going to introduce us?" Stephen prompted.
"Sorry, Dad," Chuck gave him a small smile, "Allow me to introduce my girlfriend, Jenny."
Stephen turned a stern gaze to the female spy, "Really, is that the name she gave you?"
"Yes, it is." Chuck stated firmly, "That was her name, ten years ago when we first met in high school. She may be Sarah to the rest of the world, but she's my Jenny."
"Well technically speaking, it is my cover right now," Sarah gave a small shrug.
"Charles," Stephen pleaded with his son, "You don't know who she really is, what she's done."
"That's where you're wrong," Chuck shook his head, "I am one of the very few people who truly know who she is beneath the persona of Sarah Walker CIA Agent. And as for the other thing, she has done her job. No more, no less, with few exceptions when doing the right thing made it necessary to deviate from her orders. And in that particular instance the order was unlawful and given by a rogue agent."
Stephen closed his eyes as if praying for strength. "Where are you?"
"Debrecen," Chuck stated, "We're here for Vivian's wedding."
"You're WHERE?!" Stephen shouted, "Charles, do you have any idea how dangerous that is?! Who her father is?"
"I am aware of what, or should I say who, Uncle Hartley has become," Chuck spoke calmly, "And when we first arrived, we had no idea that he was going to be here. We didn't even know it was Vivy's wedding, we were tracking Victor Federov in hopes of learning more about his connections and how we might shut down his weapons pipeline. Finding out whose wedding he was attending was a happy accident and since Vivy and I are childhood friends, and Jen knows her fiancé, they invited us. Which leads to why we need your help. We want to try to deactivate Volkoff's Intersect."
"Can't be done," Stephen shook his head, "Maybe we could deactivate yours, provided we had the right equipment, but his is a lost cause."
"Just because the deactivation code you programed in didn't take?" Chuck challenged, "Or the in-person backup that Mom attempted failed? And before you try to deny it, Vivian and Cole have already confirmed she's here."
"Charles, you have no idea what you are asking," Stephen shook his head.
"I have Intersect glasses with me," Chuck informed him, "All I have to do is reprogram them to override rather than update. You're not the only engineer in the family, and not to toot my own horn, but I'm pretty damned good at this kind of thing. If you don't want to be too involved, fine, send me the packet you uploaded him with. Maybe I can figure out how to override it."
"I've spent years trying to figure it out, what makes you think you can figure it out in a matter of what, weeks? Days?" Stephen challenged.
"I can at least try," Chuck insisted, "I mean if it brings Uncle Hartley back and frees up Mom and potentially you to come home, that's worth it to me."
Stephen sighed, "Charles, I don't know."
"Please Dad," Chuck pressed, "I want nothing more than for my family to be together again."
"I must be insane for doing this," Stephen sighed, "Fine, I'll send you the program, just don't be too disappointed when it fails."
Chuck hit a few keys, opening a new window on his screen, and with arms bracketing Sarah, who was still seated comfortably on his lap, he typed in a few commands. "I've sent you a link to an anonymous server of my own design, it's secure and hack-proof. Thank you."
"I really hope this all works out for you," Stephen gave him a sad smile, "I want you to have a better life than I've had the past decade and a half."
"If I succeed, maybe you can have a little of that good life back," Chuck replied softly before the call was disconnected. He wrapped his arms securely around Sarah's waist and rested his head on her shoulder, pressing a kiss to her neck, "Now all there is to do is to wait."
"Not all," Sarah turned until she was seated sideways across his lap, "I can think of ways to pass the time."
"Why Mrs. Carmichael," Chuck teased, "What exactly are you suggesting."
"Well Mr. Carmichael," She cooed pressing a soft kiss to his lips, "I know you noticed when I came out of the bedroom, 'I aim to misbehave.'"
"Mmm," Chuck dropped his head and hummed into her neck, "Well then, let's misbehave." He sang the last two words to her before lifting her in his arms as he stood and carried his giggling girlfriend into their bedroom.