-1When Charlie met Maggie part 2
No sooner had Mariana and Maggie gotten out of the room than Don turned to Charlie.
"Daddy?"
"Yeah."
"How did this happen?" Don asked.
"I thought Dad explained about the birds and the bees." Charlie smirked.
"You know what I mean," Don snapped, "How are you so sure she's even yours?"
At this, Megan snorted. "Did you look at her, Don? There's no way that kid is not an Eppes!"
"Point taken," Don growled, "Why didn't you tell us about this? Where did you meet her?"
"Where I met Mariana is classified. I was trying to figure out how to tell you," Charlie insisted.
"You've had four years, Charlie!"
That did it. It took a lot for Charlie to loose his temper but Don could usually pull it off.
"You think I've kept this from you for four years? I've only known about Maggie for 3 weeks!"
"Three weeks? And what do you mean classified?"
"He means that where he was is classified." Colby supplied while Megan and David looked at him as if he was nuts for venturing into the middle of this particular mess.
"And you know this how, Granger?" Don growled in his direction.
"I may not be the resident genius but I can add two plus two and get four. In this case, I know where I was when I met Mariana. I know how she avoided a court martial. That's enough to tell me Charlie's location really was classified."
"You can't say anything?" Don asked again.
"I was consulting for Bob Tompkins at the time." Charlie knew if Don did some digging he'd be able to figure out where Maggie was conceived, but he hoped he wouldn't. It had nothing to do with shame or embarrassment, and everything to do with Don and Alan's reaction to the fact that Charlie had spent time in a war zone.
"Enough said." Don told him.
Charlie breathed a sigh of relief and took that as a sign Don wasn't going to dig deeper.
Don sat down in a nearby chair with a sigh. "When are you going to tell Dad?"
"Tell Dad what?" Came a voice from the doorway.
Everyone in the room heard Charlie's head go thunk on the whiteboard but only Colby was close enough to hear the muttered, "why me?"
It didn't take a math genius to know Charlie was in big trouble.
Charlie could only hope he'd be granted a last meal before Alan killed him.
"You know as entertaining as this is, and believe me when I say it is entertaining, maybe we should leave the three of you alone," Megan grabbed David and Colby and starts to head out of the room.
"Don't bother, Megan. We'll leave that way you guys can get back to work," Don motioned for Charlie and Alan to follow him to his office. Once in there he closed the door and took a seat. He gestured to Charlie. Charlie took a deep breath and Alan beat him to the punch.
"So what's going on? Does this have anything to do with your new girlfriend?"
Charlie was sure he was going to have a bruise on his chin that's how hard and how far his jaw dropped.
"New girlfriend?" Charlie stuttered while Don just chuckled.
"Amita said something about you being gone all the time and she was pretty sure you had a new girlfriend. I told her she was crazy of course but now I'm not so sure."
"Well if you think about it, Charlie, she's right," Don observed with a wry smile.
"You're not helping, Don." Charlie growled in his general direction before turning to Alan.
"Dad, I've been spending the past couple of weeks getting to know my daughter," Charlie decided it was like ripping a band-aid off, best done quickly.
Alan started to say something but Charlie didn't let him, "Before you ask, her name is Maggie. She'll be four in a couple of weeks. Her mom's name is Mariana and she works here. We met on one of my overseas trips and I didn't know about her until a couple of weeks ago. I was planning on telling everyone as soon as I figured out how," Charlie trailed off and just looked at Alan trying to figure out what he was thinking.
Alan's eyes narrowed and he glared at Don, "You knew about this?"
"Not until she came running into the room yelling Daddy."
Alan shot Charlie a look, "She's here in the building."
"She's in her mom's office having dinner. Mariana figured Don and I could use some time." Charlie hoped he didn't sound as sheepish as he felt.
"So when do I get to meet my granddaughter?"
"Well now might be good since she's going to stay with you this weekend," Don volunteered.
"She's staying with you this weekend?" Alan exclaimed. "You don't have anything ready for her!"
"She's want to help. I'm taking her shopping Saturday. Want to come with, Grandpa?"
"Of course I do! But right now I want to meet my granddaughter."
Charlie looked at Alan, "Well let's go. Then I need to get back to work so I can spend the weekend with her."
Don watched them go before heading back to join his team. Maybe Maggie's existence would get Alan off his back about getting married and having kids.
Then again, with his luck it would just make matters worse with Alan want more grandchildren now.
A/N: More soon and Charlie still needs to tell Amita, Millie and Larry.