"Hey, Sis, thanks for picking Molly up for us," Chuck gave his sister a kiss on the cheek as he entered his sister's condo, Sarah's left hand held firmly in his right. "With the work I had to catch up on and Sarah's rehearsal, we never would have made it to Anne's before six."
"It's really no problem," Ellie assured him, "What are aunties for? The girls are playing in Clara's bedroom, if you want to go peek in on them. Dinner should be ready in a few minutes, just waiting for the garlic bread to bake up a bit more."
"I knew I smelled something delicious," Chuck smiled, "Would you like us to get the girls washed up for dinner while we peek in on them?"
"That would be great," Ellie nodded, "It'll give me time to put a salad together."
"Be back in a bit then," Chuck smiled and, after opening the baby gate, headed upstairs, his fiancée in tow to get the girls.
Devon and Ellie had finished setting the table and were pouring wine and lighting candles when Sarah and Chuck emerged once more, Molly in Sarah's arms, and Clara right beside her uncle. As soon as the ladies were clear of the last step, Chuck quickly secured the baby gate once more and headed to the table. Once everyone was seated, the adults began passing the bowls and serving dishes until everyone had been served.
Sarah was a little surprised that Ellie hadn't noticed her new jewelry at the start of dinner and lasted about halfway through before taking a rather obvious drink of wine, deliberately lifting it with her left hand. The sound of flatware hitting the table made her grin behind the lip of her glass, it's about time she noticed, Sarah thought.
When she put down her glass, she saw Ellie staring at her hand wide eyed, and both of the men trying to cover their amusement by shoveling more pasta into their mouths.
Slowly Ellie's head turned until she was facing her brother, "Chuck, is there something you neglected to mention?" She arched an eyebrow at her younger brother. "Perhaps regarding a recent major purchase?"
"Are we really playing this game, Ellie?" He challenged, a smirk on his face, "I think we both know the answer to that question."
Ellie's eyes narrowed, "Charles Irving Bartowski," She growled.
"Uh oh," Clara gave her uncle a sympathetic look, "Uncle Chuck I think you're in trouble. Mommy only uses middle names when she's really mad."
"It's okay, Clare-Bear, it's not like she's going to kill me," Chuck shrugged only to be met with a sharp glare from his sister, "Then again…."
"Ellie," Sarah interjected, not wanting to have to worry about bloodshed tainting the marinara, "He only just proposed last night after we got home. That's the whole reason we wanted to have dinner together, to tell you. I also wanted to know if you would be my Matron of Honor, and Clara to be a flower girl?"
Clara's eyes lit up at the prospect of getting to wear another pretty dress, "Yes! Mommy, please, please, please say I can!"
"Nice save," Ellie rolled her eyes, her anger subsiding, "I would be honored to be your Matron of Honor, and yes Clara, you can be a flower girl."
"Yay!" The girl cheered, "Can I pick out my princess dress?"
"I don't see why not," Sarah shrugged.
The thrilled look on Clara's face, and the excited squeal she let out, caused the adults to chuckle at her enthusiasm.
Later in the evening, while the girls were back upstairs playing in Clara's room, the adults were sitting back in the living room.
"I am so happy for you two," Ellie grinned, taking a sip of her wine, "I'm a little surprised you didn't ask me along to help find a ring for Sarah."
Chuck blushed, "It was kind of a spur of the moment decision," He shrugged, "Morgan and I were just talking, a few weeks back, and he said some things that made a lot of sense."
"Translation, he told Chuck to get his head out of his ass and propose to me already," Sarah gave her fiancé a smug look, "Then dragged him off to a jewelry store near the Santa Monica Pier."
Ellie's eyes widened, "Are you telling me Morgan knew before I did?" She demanded.
"Well, you see, the way it happened was…" Chuck sighed, "Yes, he was the first to know that I was planning to pop the question, see as he was the one to knock some sense into me."
"Well, I guess that makes sense," Ellie acknowledged, "Then I suppose you spoke with Emma?"
"You talked to my mom?" Sarah gave him a surprised look.
"Yeah," Chuck gave a slight shrug and squeezed Sarah's hand, "I know it's a little old fashioned, and I know you are your own person, able to make your own choices without the influences of the patriarchy… or in the case of our respective families, the matriarchy… but I figured it wouldn't hurt to get her blessing. Please don't be upset."
"I'm not upset," Sarah gave him a soft smile, "I think it was sweet."
"'Sweet?'" Chuck's eyebrows shot up, "Golly gee, thanks for making me feel eight."
"Oh please, you're a ten and you know it," Sarah teased him.
"I'm guessing you had some elaborate proposal plan," Ellie smirked at her brother, "I remember you and Morgan at like 11 or 12 making up some rather elaborate plans for the days you might find someone to settle down with… Although, I do have to say I never expected him to get engaged before you."
"Well that was all timing," Chuck admitted, "Sarah and I had been separated for so long and only just found each other again six months ago. Morgs and Alex have been dating pretty steadily for something like three or four years now. If Sarah and I had been able to keep in contact maybe it would have turned out differently, but there's no point dwelling on what might have happened if things had been different. Hell, who knows, she could have wound up a spy and I could have gotten kicked out of college only to meet again when I got a computer program stuck in my head. Only that would suck because we wouldn't really be able to be together on account of her having to protect me."
Ellie snorted, "Oh please, this is real life, not a comic book," She rolled her eyes.
"True," Chuck nodded, "But in answer to your question, no, there wasn't some elaborate proposal plan. Morgan actually told me to ask me when the timing felt right, so I wound up carrying the ring around with me for a couple weeks. I thought I was going to propose in Napa, but never really got around to it until after we got home."
"I still say you should have done it during your date, Bro," Devon interjected.
"Hold on, you told Devon before me too?" Ellie's eyes narrowed.
"Danger, danger, Will Robinson," Chuck muttered.
"Don't blame him, Babe," Devon tried to smooth things over, "I kinda called him out on it when we were having our guy time up there. Then I saw Sarah's ring when I dropped Clara off this morning."
"Fine," Ellie rolled her eyes, "At least I'm not the last to know."
Chuck and Sarah looked guilty, "Well?"
"Oh my God, are you two serious?!" Ellie huffed.
"Well Manoosh guessed and Morgan basically confirmed it," Chuck gave her a look like what can you do?
"And well, this ring isn't exactly inconspicuous," Sarah gave Ellie a smile, "My students noticed and called me on it."
"Would it help if I said we haven't told Dad?" Chuck gave her a hopeful look.
"Dad?" Ellie gave him a sardonic look, "As in the man who ran out on us 15 years ago with no explanation, never to be seen again? That Dad?"
"About that," Chuck rubbed the back of his neck nervously, "I kinda found him… or well, he found me. Remember how I told you the Piranha did a little digging to find Molly's biological father?"
Ellie didn't know how to respond to the bomb her brother had just dropped. She didn't know if she should be furious with him, sad, concerned, or any number of reactions a sane person would have at finding out their parent who had abandoned them as a teen or young adult had reached out to one of them after a decade and a half. She stayed silent, staring at her brother in disbelief. Chuck took this as his queue to continue.
"This is going to get worse before it gets better," Chuck sighed, "Okay, here goes. My search into Molly's biological father led me to a series of shell companies which I eventually tracked back to our nation's intelligence services, specifically the CIA."
"Chuck, please tell me you didn't?" Ellie begged, knowing the answer before her brother's name had even crossed her lips.
"I kinda did," Chuck gave her a sheepish look, "I went after the servers in short bursts, each time being able to get in a little further than the time before. They never knew I was there."
"Chuck!" Ellie groaned, "They're the CIA! Of course, they knew you were in their system; they've got to have security on top of security to catch and counteract hackers."
"Even if they had caught on, I routed my signal through so many servers it would take them years, if not decades to track it back to me." Chuck shrugged, "Turns out I didn't even need to do all that, another hacker named Orion protected me and shielded me from their security protocols. I had gotten far enough in that my next hack would have likely produced the information I was looking for. That morning you came over to gank my coffee and found me looking - how did you put it? Oh right - like I'd stuck my finger in an electrical socket, I was stopped from making my final breach. Before I could get started, I was contacted by Orion. He said that he would give me the information I was looking for, but I had to stop my search because he couldn't keep shielding my activity. He gave me a set of set of direction on where to find him and told me that if I came, he would give me the information I was looking for."
"Chuck, are you stupid? That's really dangerous!" Ellie chastised her brother.
"Not really," Chuck shook his head, "Orion is Dad. He doesn't live too far from us, maybe an hour or so, near Hermit Falls. I've been in contact with him off and on ever since, although not in the last month or so, which is why he doesn't know about Sarah's and my engagement. Here's the part you're not going to like."
"You mean it gets worse?!"
"Yeah, Molly's dad is a CIA agent," Chuck started slowly, "He didn't leave to avoid being a father, although escaping that particular responsibility was a benefit for him, at least from his perspective. Not that it surprises me."
"You act as if you know him," Ellie gave her brother a quizzical look.
"I thought I did," Chuck sighed, "Up until he slept with my fiancée and tried to get me kicked out of Stanford. Elle, Bryce Larkin is Molly's biological father."
"You have got to be shitting me!" She cried, "Bryce Fucking Larkin is that poor girl's father?! Is his only goal in life to screw you over… no pun intended."
"He had no idea that I knew Chuck," Sarah shook her head, "And I didn't know he knew Chuck, nor did I know who he worked for. We hadn't been seeing each other for very long and only slept together the one time, but that was enough to give me Molly, if nothing else." She added the last bit under her breath, but Chuck caught it and tried to suppress his snicker. "He left the day after I told him I was pregnant, and I didn't see him again until after my concert back in October."
"I thought you went to Chuck's after the concert," Ellie gave her sister-in-law a questioning look.
"This happened before we went back to my place," Chuck pointed out.
"I'd called Bryce after Chuck got his number from your dad," Sarah sighed, "I was just wanting him to call be back to give me a good mailing address to send the paperwork for him to waive his parental rights. Instead, he thought it would be a good idea to show up in person after three years of no contact and had the audacity to ask to meet Molly."
"He didn't take too kindly to being told 'No,' not that that was much of a surprise," Chuck rolled his eyes."
"Oh no, what happened?" Ellie looked between them worriedly.
"Chuck laid him out," Sarah practically crowed with pride, beaming up at her fiancé.
"I won't repeat what he said," Chuck shook his head, "Let's just say he deserved more than the left hook I gave him."
"My hero," Sarah cooed, causing Chuck to blush. "I think it goes without saying that he wound up leaving without any progress being made on getting him to sign the parental rights waiver. Technically I don't need it, since he was never listed as Molly's father on her birth certificate, but I would prefer to have one on file incase he later tries to challenge any adoption orders. I have an attorney working on it."
"Chuck told me," Ellie nodded, "And considering Bryce's long history of douche-baggery, I don't blame you. Do you think you'll be able to have that taken care of before the wedding?"
"Yeah, probably," Sarah shrugged, "The lawyer has been working on it for a few months now, he warned me that it might take several months to sever Bryce's parental rights if he refuses to respond, which is what is looking like may happen."
Chuck's phone beeped indicating an incoming email message. Pulling out his phone he saw it was an email from Bryce with a rather large attachment, too large to be the legal documents that were the only thing he wanted to see from his former friend. He immediately moved the message to his trash folder and put the phone back into his pocket.
"What's wrong?" Sarah asked, seeing Chuck scowl at this phone.
"Nothing, just junk mail," Chuck gave her a reassuring smile before turning back to his sister, "The information on Bryce wasn't the only thing Dad told me. I know why he and Mom left."
"What?" Ellie's eyes widened.
"Yeah, and it's kind of a long story," Chuck sighed and began to relay what his father had told him about their parents involvement with the CIA and some secret project that went a little ca-ca which led to their mother disappearing when they were little and contributing to their father's absence which followed.
Ellie listened to the story in amazement, "So, Mom's a spy and Dad is too?"
"Yes and no," Chuck shrugged, "Mom is a spy, dad was more a contractor, but it is how they met."
"Is nothing in our lives normal?" Ellie groaned.
Chuck gestured around the living room, "I think this is as normal as it gets for us. At least this generation of Bartowskis are relatively normal. You're happily married, I will be soon, we both have happy, healthy daughters who are as close as cousins can get. I'd say we're doing pretty good in the 'normal life' category, I think they only thing that would seal the deal of normalcy would be houses in the 'burbs."
"Your bro's got a point, Babe," Devon agreed, "From what he told us, it sounds like your parents have worked hard to keep you two away from the spy life craziness, you know, outside of leaving you, but even then your pops left a support system to protect you when he wasn't able to."
"I guess," Ellie sighed, "I still would have preferred to have them there while we were growing up."
"Me too, Elle," Chuck nodded, "But there's nothing we can do about it now. Maybe someday Dad can find a way to bring Mom home, but until then we still have each other. The four of us and our present and future children, not to mention Emma and the Very Awesomes, are family enough."
"You're right," Ellie gave him a small smile as both Sarah's and Chuck's phones went off.
The newly engaged couples gave each other a curious look before grabbing their phones and checking the caller ID.
"This is Clavo," Sarah explained, standing and stepping into the kitchen to take the call.
"And I'm pretty sure this is Dad," Chuck showed his sister his screen which showed no number but identified the caller as 'Clu.' Swiping to accept the call, he stepped into the courtyard, "Hello?"
Chuck came back inside to find an ecstatic Sarah on his sister's couch. Letting out a soft sigh, he made his way back to sit next to her.
"Chuck, I just got some great news!" Sarah beamed then noticed his troubled look, "What's wrong?"
"I'll tell you in a sec, I want to hear your news first," Chuck looked at her expectantly. "Well, Clavo just heard back from his contact in DC. Turns out he met a JAG lawyer, I think he said his name was Bud Roberts, who was presenting at some seminar he attended during law school, turns out the guys former commanding officer resigned his commission some years back but is still practicing law in the DC area. Apparently, this Chegwidden guy still has the ear of a lot of the intelligence and military community out there. Long story short, he was able to reach out to the CIA, even going as far as to contact the Deputy Director of Operations trying to track Bryce down. Turns out Bryce went AWOL and is suspected of being rogue, so Chegwidden got the judge to sever Bryce's rights in absentia. You could adopt Molly tomorrow if you wanted free and clear of any drama Bryce may try to throw our way!"
"I would be able to do that anyway," Chuck gave her a sad smile, "My dad just called; Bryce broke into some facility back East and stole some data for an above top-secret project. He was shot an hour ago trying to make his escape. Sarah, I'm sorry, but Bryce is dead."
