A/N: Told from Charli's POV directly after after Charles walks into find her home early.

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Chapter 3

Charlotte Anita Brooks held Charles' eye as Liza tried unsuccessfully to pull Diana out of the conference room. Diana was not leaving without a final word.

"Charles! It can be so hard to stay away, huh?" Sympathy oozed from her as she reached out to him clearly wanting to say so much more, but Liza was practically carrying her out at that point. Diana managed to break free and turned back to Charli. "Don't be a stranger young lady. Your interview with Katie Couric was sublime by the way. " Charli tried not to make the face she always made when people referred to her as a "young lady". Her mother would often explain away Charli's curt candor when she was a child as Charli just being "born an old soul", with a personality that was often compared to Walter Matthau circa "Bad News Bears" minus the alcoholism. She also objected to being called a "lady" it had been the bane of her mothers existence that she couldn't get her Charlotte to stop acting like a Charli. 12 years she pushed her mother's patience and resisted her attempts to make Charli a sweet well mannered "young lady". 12 years she'd rolled her eyes and made snarky comments under breath her at her mothers expense. 12 years...12 years was too young to be without a mother, without a father. Charli swallowed the familiar pain of being an orphan for the past 15 years...it never got easier. Charles had been a young man of 30 when he'd been orphaned, inherited Empirical, and became the legal guardian to a bossy-too smart for her own good preteen Charli. There had been no way he could ever have prepared himself to take on the challenges of an average preteen girl let alone one as opinionated and clever as Charli. He'd done okay enough she thought...fine he'd exceed her own expectations. She may be no lady but she was a decent human being thanks to Chucky. Diana grabbed her and pulled her in for a second hug, forcing her to snap out of the past and return to the drama of the present. She hugged Di back and promised she have a drink with her soon. Diana turned and this time she was the one pulling Liza out of the room tearing Liza's gaze from Chucky's. Charli noted that his infatuation had only grown since Belinda's funeral, it also seemed that Liza was mirroring his puppy dog eyes back in return? In fact by the looks of it they were way passed infatuation? Chucky hadn't said anything about a new love interest, but the likely hood of him telling her anything like that was slim to none. The missing pieces were beginning to fall into place. She honed her attention onto Charles refusing to let him drop her gaze. Finally they had the room to themselves, she waited expectantly for Chucky to explain himself.

"Charlotte." He said monotonically, his voice filling the room.

"Chucky." She matched his tone.

"You're home early." Charli was not going to let him deflect she just nodded and remained silent. "Right, so things have changed around here. Just know that I made these decisions without duress and of sound mind and body." his lame attempt at charm again fell on deaf ears she continued to stonewall him. Charles proceeded telling her everything Diana had told her while also filling in the parts that she'd left out. It was a lot to swallow and honestly she was too damned hungry to focus beyond comprehending the basics. The highlights included: Kelsey was the new head honcho, Liza was her number two, Empirical was now the Imprint, Millennial the publishing house, and for the first time in it's 92 year history her family's company wasn't being ran by a privileged white male member of the Brooks clan. Not to fret though, Chucky was still involved as the Chairman to the Board. Which was just a fancy way of saying he was the liaison between the Board, Kelsey and her employees. A glorified messenger. Something else she thought she heard him say as her stomach growled and gurgled painfully loud, was that he and Liza were together? Maybe he'd said Ibiza was happily in weather or maybe he'd bought leather with his Visa? She shook her head to clear the fuzziness and smiled at Charles. In spite of everything he'd just dumped on her, she couldn't ignore her shear glee at just being in his presence, and really it wasn't her place to have an opinion about Empirical. Charli had chosen lady justice over editing and selling books. She reached out and punched him in the shoulder to ease the tension, he instinctively threw up his own fist to block her. Their father had boxed in college and Marshal Brooks had taught both of his children the art and glory of the sport. She smiled and rose to her feet. "Come on, you can buy me brunch. I haven't eaten since last night. Let's get out of here Chuck Butt." Charles stood and regarded her in his familiar Chucky way, full of angst, optimism, and confusion as if he wasn't quite sure how to take her. Nothing new, he'd looked at her like that for as far back as she could remember even long before he'd been charged as her guardian.

"Okay, then let's get you fed." He drops his hands and holds his arm out to allowing her to go ahead of him. Their mother probably never had to explain away his behavior or make excuses as to why Charles wasn't a perfect "young gentleman"...kiss ass she thought unfairly. "We should probably get out of here anyway, we have no claim to this room. Not anymore."

"Enemy territory, huh? Who's fault is that Chuckles?" She flashed him her patented jury winning smile and jabbed at him again, as she floated passed him out of the conference room. "C'mon, I'm only teasing wipe that look off your face." He was on the verge of sulking as he responded from behind her.

" 's no look, just my face." He stopped abruptly and said "Hey hold on, I forgot something." He leaves her side and ambles through the office into his old office (Kelsey's new office) he enters and reemerges toting a familiar baseball in his hand. As he makes his way back towards her he stops in front of Liza (who had been watching with idle curiosity from the doorway of Diana's office as he'd made his lap) gently he grabs her waist and pulls her in for a tender, very non-platonic kiss there in front of everyone and god herself. Okay well that cleared up the whole "weather-Ibiza/leather-Visa v.s. Liza/together confusion from earlier. Good for him, Liza was cute and the complete opposite of lady Dame Pauline Tunner-Brooks Charli thought. "Let's get out of here, Rocky" His grin encompassed his entire face, it kinda creeped her out; yep happy Chuck was creepy. And Charli was all for it. They enter the elevator and began their descent to the lobby. Chucky was tossing the ball in the air and catching it, that stupid goofy grin still plastered on his face. On the third toss Charli reached out and plucked from mid air examining the relic up close before tossing it back it him.

"That was very un-Chucky like, I've never been prouder. But I'm starving, please tell me your taking me to an all you can eat buffet?"

"I was thinking, if you could hold out for another hour we could go surprise the girls at their school and have lunch with them?" Charli's face contorted into her first genuine unfiltered smile of the day. She'd already planned on just showing up on Pauline's doorstep tonight and hijacking dinner time with the girls, but this seemed easier and had the added benefit of not having to deflect Pauline's unabashed disdain for her.

"Absolutely!" She exclaimed happily but her stomach portrayed her and groaned loudly in protest. Charles raised an eyebrow questioning her easy acceptance of postponing her meal time by another hour.

"We can hit a hotdog stand on the way." he said knowingly.

"Oh thank god!" She exhaled in relief. "Maybe we can also stop at Abercrombie or American Outfitters and get you a shirt-some pants, you know complete the whole frat boy image you've adopted?" Charli gestures to his running clothes. "Don't get me wrong I'm glad to not see your customary three piece monkey suit, but uh maybe you've over corrected? We'll go to J Crew sometime, it's not like you have anything to do and I don't go back to work till next week." She locks arms with him and encourages him to skip with her as they exit the building. While she was unsuccessful at getting him to skip, she was still the undefeated champ in getting Charles Brooks to laugh.

There's no place like home she thought as they strolled through the streets of New York together.

end chapter