Chuck and Sarah awoke on their second day in Napa, wrapped in each other's arms, and basking in the silence of the morning. "Does it make me a terrible mother that I sent my child off to stay with her grandmother so that I can have as much uninterrupted sex as I want without having to sensor myself or my volume. Not to mention that I'm really enjoying being able to take my time waking up because I don't have a toddler that I have to free from her crib to change?" Sarah pondered softly, not even wanting to expend the energy to lift her head to meet her boyfriend's eyes.
"No," Chuck assured her, "And last I checked your mother more or less demanded we relinquish our daughter to her to take this mini vacation where I'm sure she's aware on some level we are indulging in unrestrained, passionate, lovemaking."
"Are you sure you're not just saying that to make me feel better?" Sarah pouted.
"Yes, Ellie went through the same thing the first time she and Devon left Clara with the Very Awesomes to take a weekend to themselves." Chuck kissed her on her head, running his hand up and down her arm in comforting circles. "Would it make you feel better if we called your mom so you can talk to her and Molly?"
"Maybe," Sarah sighed.
Sarah felt Chuck shift a little beneath her, but much to her delight, did not fully relinquish his hold on her. She heard the soft click indicating he'd unlocked his phone and the long tone of him activating a speed dial number before handing the phone to her. Sarah gave him a soft smile as she sat up in bed, pulling the covers up over her chest, it somehow felt wrong to speak to her mother while not covered by at least something.
"I was wondering how long it was going to take before you broke down and called," Her mother greeted her. "I admit you lasted at least 12 hours longer than I thought you would."
She saw Chuck sit up and felt him press a soft kiss to the back of her shoulder before getting out of the bed and walking stark naked to the bathroom. "I was a little… distracted," Sarah hummed.
"I just bet you were," Emma chuckled wryly, "I don't want details about what was so distracting you couldn't call your mother over the needless guilt you are undoubtedly feeling right now, but are you having a good time?"
"Yeah, I am," Sarah sighed, "It's beautiful up here, despite it still being a little chilly and I'm really liking getting to know a new side to Ellie. She's really getting to be one of my best girlfriends. I'm kinda looking forward to our spa day today."
"I'm glad to hear it," Sarah could hear her mother's smile over the phone line, "Are you wanting to speak with Molly?"
Sarah's eyes lit up, "Yes." She heard her mother's soft chuckle and movement over the phone line.
"Molly, your mommy's on the phone," Emma's voice could be heard followed by the sound of the phone being partly handed over to someone else, "Say hi."
"Hi mama," Sarah heard the sweet voice of her daughter.
"Hi baby," She held back tears as she realized how much she'd been missing that little voice, "Are you being good for Granny?"
"Yeah, Granny show 'olly Cuzzy big kitty ROAR!"
"Did you see the lions when Granny took you to the zoo yesterday?" Sarah smiled. "Are you and Clara having fun playing together?"
As Sarah spoke with her daughter, listening to the little girl's somewhat disjointed report of what all she had been up to with her granny and cousin, Chuck returned from the bathroom and climbed back in bed, wrapping his arms around her and nuzzling her neck. "Is that Molly?" He whispered in her free ear. When she nodded her confirmation, he gave her his puppy dog look that clearly meant he wanted to talk to Molly too.
Sara smiled up at him and put the phone on speaker, "…sammish an' juice." They heard through the speaker.
"Sounds like Granny is spoiling you," Sarah chuckled, "Hey Daddy is here too."
"Hey Sweet Pea," Chuck's grin was infectious as he spoke to the nearly two-year-old, who continued to prattle on after pausing to acknowledge her father's greeting. She was telling them about watching Dora with her cousin when they heard Emma tell her it was time to say goodbye.
"Hey sorry about that, but Ellie just texted me to give me a heads up she was going to be calling to speak to Clara before you ladies head off to the spa," Emma explained.
"That's okay, Mom," Sarah assured her, "Thanks for letting us speak to her."
"Yeah, thanks, Em," Chuck grinned.
"You're welcome," Emma responded, "Now you two kids go have fun and stop worrying that you're bad parents for letting me have a weekend with my favorite grandbabies."
"They're your only grandbabies," Sarah pointed out.
"Hopefully not for long, if I get my way," It was clearly meant to sound like an aside, but they recognized the not so subtle hint Emma was dropping.
"Mom!" Sarah huffed.
"Bye, Sweetheart, bye Chuck," Emma sing-songed.
"Bye Mom," "Bye Em," Sarah and Chuck rolled their eyes as the call disconnected.
"That woman is as subtle as a freight train," Sarah groaned good naturedly, "I don't know if it would have been worse or better if she'd dropped hints about what a lovely setting Napa is for a proposal or a wedding."
Thankfully, she didn't notice the uncomfortable look that flashed over her boyfriend's face before he relaxed once more. "Maybe she figures we're already living together…" He trailed off. 'Good thing I remembered to get the ring out of my pants pocket before she found it,' Chuck thought.
"Yeah, maybe." Sarah shrugged. "Hey, I'm gonna go get in the shower before we head to breakfast."
"Alright," Chuck nodded, watching Sarah head off to the bathroom only to have her pause at the door separating the two rooms.
"Well?" She gave him an expectant look, "You coming? The shower's really big, a girl could get lonely in there."
Chuck beamed at her, scrambling out of bed and practically running toward her as she disappeared into the bathroom with a squeal.
"So, how was your night?" Elle gave them a knowing look as they sat down for breakfast.
"It was fine," Chuck nodded, trying to look nonchalant as he took a bite of his omelet.
"Bro, you are the man! Awesome!" Devon enthused, sitting next to his wife after returning from getting a second helping of fruit and yogurt and noticing the omelet his brother-in-law was eating, "Filling up on the protein, huh? You know if we were home, I'd make you up one of my ginseng smoothies, they're great for your wang energy."
Chuck choked on his bite of egg as Ellie looked at her husband in shock.
"Believe me, he doesn't need help in that department," Sarah blushed.
"Well after what I heard last night, he discharged quite a bit of energy," Devon speculated, "Couldn't hurt to get a bit of a recharge."
"Devon!" Ellie scolded.
"What?" Devon looked genuinely mystified at his wife's reaction, "I know you heard them too."
"Can we please put a pin in this conversation and renew it like… never?" Chuck pleaded, his blush growing deeper on his neck and cheeks.
"It's nothing to be ashamed of," Devon protested, "More power to ya… or to Sarah as the case may be."
"Oh my God," Chuck groaned, dropping his face in his hands as Ellie and Sarah apologized to the guests around them who had overheard the conversation to varying levels of amusement and disapproval.
"Devon," Ellie rounded on her husband, her tone firm, "Outside. Now."
Chuck and Sarah saw Ellie practically drag her husband outside and could see them through the bay windows. Devon was trying to defend himself while Ellie lectured him on what is and is not appropriate topics of conversation in public. Had the man been shorter, they could almost see her dragging him out by his ear like a misbehaving child. When the older couple returned, Chuck and Sarah did their best to ignore the sheepish look on Devon's face.
They finished up their meals and headed out toward Chuck's car to see the girls off. Chuck and Devon held the doors for their ladies as Sarah slid behind the wheel and Ellie took the passenger seat. Soon the top was down, and the girls were kicking up dust as they left the rural property to head for the spa as Devon and Chuck meandered back to their cabins to grab their rucksacks.
Since they had some time to kill before any of the breweries and distilleries on their tour were set to open, they'd gotten some suggestions on things to do in the area. Kayaking was out since they didn't do rentals this early in the year, and the guys didn't golf or play tennis. Luckily there was a hiking trail not too far away. They had donned boots, sturdy pants, t-shirts and sweatshirts in preparation of their hike and went to meet the SUV that would serve as their transportation for the day. Their driver was a great resource and took them to one of the best trails, one he, himself enjoyed taking. When he found out the guys were fathers, he began to regale them with stories of his own children and the adventures he and his wife would take them on.
"I assume you're here with your wives?" The driver, Rick, asked, "Napa is not usually first on the list for a guys' weekend."
"Yeah," Chuck nodded, not bothering to correct the man, "We received this trip as a gift from a family member, but I think she was just wanting to get our girls all to herself this weekend."
"Whose mom?" Rick chuckled.
"My mother-in-law," Chuck shrugged, "She's been after us to relinquish the girls for longer than a day for a while now."
"Wanted to get her 'Granny time' with the girls," Devon added, "Not to mention we all have busy jobs so it's nice to get away from the city and decompress, you know?"
"What city?"
"Los Angeles."
"Busy city," Rick observed.
"You have no idea," Devon shook his head, "Sometimes it seems like every traffic accident gets routed to our ER."
"Doctors, impressive," Rick nodded.
"My wife and I met in medical school," Devon smiled, "I'm a cardiothoracic surgeon and she's a neurologist."
"What about you Chuck?" Rick glanced at him through the rearview mirror, "You a doctor too?"
"Um, no," Chuck shook his head, "I really don't do blood beyond fixing a skinned knee. I create and design video games."
"Don't downplay yourself, Bro," Devon rolled his eyes, "My bro-in-law here is the owner and CEO of Orion Games."
"Wait, what?" They saw Rick's eyes widened, "You're that Chuck? Chuck Bartowski?"
"Guilty," Chuck shrugged.
"Oh man, my sons love your games!" Rick enthused, "Especially that one… oh what was it? Oh, right, 'Code Name Carmichael.' They didn't even realize they were learning STEM stuff until they'd been at it for a while. I mean how'd you come up with that concept?"
"Well, that one was kind of a prototype to see if we could produce and sell educational software with any degree of success." Chuck smiled, "I've always been a nerd, I mean comics, video games, SpyFi, Sci-Fi, you name it, I guarantee I geeked out over it at some point, and so much of it, tied back to STEM. I mean even James Bond had Q. Growing up I wanted to be a spy and get to play with all those cool gadgets. But I was just some skinny kid from Burbank so that was out the window."
The guys chuckled. "So, I figured I'd do the next best thing and like all good gamers, live out my fantasies inside of a game. I knew there had to be more to spy craft than gadgets, guns, and pretty girls so I did some research, like any self-respecting nerd would, and found there was a lot of STEM-related work involved like encryption and encoding, government-sanctioned hacking, chemistry, and more. I also wanted to make it educational and age-appropriate."
"I'd noticed that your game required age and grade level when creating the avatar." Rick nodded. "My wife, Vicky, caught on pretty quickly that when our sons play, despite doing the same missions, at the same difficulty level, that the content is slightly different. She said she really appreciated that the content was age appropriate while challenging the player to improve."
"Have your sons ever gone back after acing one of the missions to play again?" Chuck inquired.
Rick gave him a knowing look, "Yeah, Bryan did, a couple times, he eventually skilled up a grade level in the game."
"Which meant he completed all the skills in that section at the highest difficulty for his age and grade level." Chuck smiled, "Must be a smart kid."
"He really is," Rick nodded, "But he didn't realize it until he started getting more challenging math and science class work than some of his classmates. The school has even suggested having him test for the accelerated program because he has advanced so much. I'm sure he would have wanted to eventually take more challenging classes once he hit junior high or high school, but until recently he tested on the higher side of normal for his age bracket."
"I have an education specialist on my R&D team. He spent a lot of time looking over what the standard curriculum for each grade level is and helping myself and the rest of the developers with tailoring the mini-games and puzzles to support and compliment that curriculum."
"I don't need to know how the sausage is made," Rick chuckled, "Whatever you're doing, keep it up. You're doing great work. My kids are learning, and advancing, and they don't even realize it's due in part to a video game. Tom is in junior high and just started on the coding and encryption levels. He's been talking about what he might want to do when he's older and video game or software development are on the list."
"I'll have to keep an eye out for him in about eight to ten years," Chuck pulled his wallet out of his pocket and extracted a business card, handing it to Rick, who was pulling into the parking area for the hiking trailhead. "If you and yours ever find yourselves in Los Angeles, give me a call. I'd love to show your family around, especially Tom and Bryan."
"That's really cool of you, Mr. Bartowski."
"Chuck, please," He corrected.
"Chuck," Rick nodded, "Thank you."
"Hey, gotta encourage the next generation of STEM superstars," Chuck shrugged then looked toward the trailhead, "So this is it, eh?"
"Yep," Rick nodded, putting the SUV in gear and hopping out to open the tailgate where Chuck and Devon had stowed their gear, "It's a relatively short hike, shouldn't take more than an hour or two round trip, and the view from the Vista is amazing."
"Awesome," Devon smiled, "Are you sure you don't want to join us? Maybe pick the Chuckster's brain a bit more?" He teased.
"Wish I could, but I left my hiking gear at home," Rick sighed, "If I'd known I'd be driving around with a couple of really cool dudes, showing them some of my favorite trails, I would have dressed more appropriately."
"Tell ya what," Devon grinned getting a great idea, "When you bring the fam down to nerd it up with my bro here, we'll take you out to Angeles National Forest to show you our favorite hiking trails, since you were awesome enough to show us one of yours. We'd make it a family thing. I'm sure Ellie and Sarah would love to meet your Vicki."
"That sounds really cool," Rick clapped Devon on the back, "We may just take you, both of you, up on your offers. For now though, you might want to head out or else you'll be late for the real reason you'd hired me to drive your eventually buzzed asses around."
"You sure you'll be okay down here?" Chuck checked, shrugging on his ruck sack.
"I'll be fine," Rick nodded, "Got a book to read, snacks and water, and my phone to talk to Vicki when she gets Holly down for her nap."
"Alright, see ya in a bit, man," Devon nodded before joining his brother-in-law up the marked trail.
