Chapter Four

Later…

The Craftsman..

Alan was busy prepping the kitchen, reflecting, not for the first time, on how much his family has changed over the years. While he still missed Margaret, he was so happy to see the grandchildren his sons have given him, with little Maggie and Mark playing with Robin, who had the day off, which made him smile bigger.

'If only you were here Margaret.' He began to think before being interrupted with Don arriving with some groceries, and being bombarded with hugs from Maggie and Mark before Robin got a chance to hug him.

"Hey, Donnie, got everything I needed." Alan asked, happy to see his oldest.

"Yep, I was able to get everything, don't worry." Don said with a wry smile.

"Know when the others will get here?" Alan asked, "Because Millie will get here in a few minutes or so."

"Charlie, Amita, and Larry just left CalSci, and Megan, Colby, and Liz are on their way right now." Don answered.

"Too bad Ian and Nikki couldn't make it."

"Well, Nikki is going to be in council meetings for the rest of the day and Ian is out of state right now, so they wouldn't have been able to." Don said.

"Nikki's turning out to be doing well on city council." Alan commented as he continued to cut vegetables.

"Yeah, I was sad when Nikki left the Bureau but I'm glad she has been able to do work in politics and she and Ian seem to be doing well together."

"That they are." Alan said with a smile, when he heard the door open up again and smiled when he saw that Charlie and Amita had come in with Larry in tow.

"Glad to see you three, dinner will be done in a half an hour, so just wait and relax when the others get here." Alan said when the door opened again, this time with Millie entering the room.

"Hi, everyone, hope I'm not too early." Millie said with her sheepish smile directed at Charlie, who smiled back, trying to be polite.

"Nope, you can just hang out with everyone while we wait for the others to come in." Alan said, as he went back to cooking.

"Great, as I wanted to talk to Charlie for a minute, if he's okay with it." Millie said, looking a little nervous.

"Sure, Millie, we can go by the Koi pond if you want." Charlie said, wondering why Millie was nervous, though he had an idea.

After they went out to the Koi pond, they stood in silence for several minutes before Millie spoke.

"Charlie, I just wanted to let you know that I'm sorry about the emails and that it wasn't me that was sending them." She said

This came as a surprise to Charlie, and he almost couldn't believe it but decided to hear her out about it.

"Go on." Charlie said

"For the past week, I have been having some strange computer issues and I had to go to several different IT people to figure it out and I had just found out this morning that I have been hacked and I saw the emails being sent to you and to several people and I have had to make several phone calls to apologize for the harm I have caused." She said.

"Any ideas as to who could it be." Charlie asked, now mad at himself for thinking that Millie really would do that in email and wondering who would have something to gain from that kind of thing.

"No, and I don't know anyone who would resort to that sort of thing." She admitted before saying, "Charlie, I'm so sorry about the emails you got…"

"Millie, don't worry, I will help you figure this out and hopefully get this resolved." Charlie said with an apologetic smile of his own towards her.

"Thanks, do you want to go back in now?" She asked

"Sure, I think the rest of the people are almost here now and I look forward to catching up on everything with everyone here."