Dinner with the family
Chuck walks into the kitchen after taking a shower.
"Mmm," He says, smelling Ellie's cooking. "something smells delicious."
"Mom's secret lasagna recipe." Ellie says cutting cucumber rounds.
"And you can't make mama's secret recipe without mama."
Chuck turns around to see his mother standing behind him. He quickly embraces her.
"Mom! What are you doing here?"
"Great to see you too, honey."
"I mean, yeah, it's great to see you, but I didn't expect you this evening!" Chuck looks at his mother with a slightly confused yet happy smile as he opens his arms for a hug.
"Ellie called me this morning to tell me that you met a wonderful woman and that she was coming over for dinner. I had to come and meet her" as she gave Chuck a big motherly hug.
Chuck pulled back with a smile on his face, "I'm so glad you came. You're going to love Sarah and Travis."
"When are they getting here?" Catherine asks Chuck.
Chuck looks at his watch. "In about 30 minute's maybe."
"Good, that gives you enough time to go get dressed."
"I'm already dressed mom." Chuck says looking down at his blue shirt and blue jean shorts and then back at his mom with question marks in his eyes.
"Maybe for a walk in the park my boy, but not to impress a woman! Go put on a nice pair of pants and a dress shirt."
Chuck sighs. "Okay mom."
"And fix your hair, it's making animal shapes." Chuck's mom and Ellie say.
"Okay, Okay." Chuck says as he walks to his room.
30 minutes later, the door bell rings and Chuck runs out of his room to go answer it.
"I got it!" He tells Ellie and his mom. He opens the door. "Hi Sarah, Travis, Carina…John?"
"I hope its okay; John wanted to come along too." Carina says.
John grunts.
"Sure, my sister loves big dinners." Chuck says.
Chuck gives Sarah a kiss on the cheek and they all walk to the dining area.
"Sarah, Carina, John, this is my mom, Catherine and my big sister Ellie."
"It's great to meet you, Mrs. Bartowski." Sarah says.
"Actually it's Carmichael. I divorced Chucks dad a couple years back."
"I'm sorry to hear that."
"I'm not. He's a stubborn, arrogant man."
"Mom." Ellie says.
"Well it's true, Eleanor."
Devon walks into the room with Natty. "Mama Carmichael!"
"Devon!" Catherine walks over to them. "Natty!"
Natty giggles happily and reaches for her grandmother which picks her up.
"How's my favorite granddaughter?"
Natty giggles.
"She's your only granddaughter." Chuck states.
"Hopefully not for long."
Chuck claps his hands together. "Okay who wants wine?"
Moments later, Morgan and Anna arrive, everyone greets each other. Morgan pulls Chuck off to the side.
"Look, I want to apologize for what I said." Morgan says. "I was drunk and you know how I get when I'm drunk."
Chuck nods. "Yeah, I do, Morgan. But it wasn't your entire fault, it was mine too. I should have…"
"No, buddy, it was my entire fault. You don't need to feel guilty for anything."
"No Morgan, it wasn't…"
"Chuck, I'm trying to say I'm sorry and like always you have turn it into you being the good guy and me being the jerk!"
"Because you are!"
Catherine walks over to them. "Boys let's not argue. Ellie and I made a delicious meal that we'd like to eat at some point. Now both of you apologize."
"But…" Both men say.
"No buts. I want apologizes being said."
"Sorry." Both men say.
"For what?"
"For arguing." Both men say again.
"Good, much better." Catherine kisses both men on the forehead. "Now let's go sit down."
Everyone sits down. Catherine and Ellie go get the lasagna and salad.
Travis looks at Natty who is sitting in a high chair next to him. Natty looks over at Travis. She starts talking to him in her baby talk.
"Looks like their becoming fast friends." Chuck says.
Sarah and Ellie smile at their children.
"So what do you do for a living, Sarah?" Catherina asks as she lays a slice of lasagna on everyone's plate.
"I'm an account…" Sarah is interrupted by the door bell.
"I'll get it." Ellie says.
Ellie answers the door. "Dad?" She says softly.
"Hi honey." Stephen Bartowski says happily.
"This really isn't a good time."
Stephen lets himself in. "Looks like a hell of a good time to me!"
Chuck stands up from his seat.
"I see you're having a family dinner without me." Stephen says looking at his ex wife then at Chuck. "Oh please don't get up on my account."
"What are you doing here?" Chuck asks angrily.
Stephen makes his way to the dinner table and sits in Ellie's seat. "Lasagna, my favorite." He looks at Sarah and Carina. "Gorgeous women, also my favorite. Hi, Stephen Bartowski." He extends his hand to Sarah but Chuck grabs it and pulls it away. "Is she yours?"
"You need to leave."
"This is Ellie's home, only she can tell when to leave."
"Well this is my home too and I'm telling you when to leave."
Stephen chuckles. "You live with your sister?"
"Stephen leave the boy alone." Catherine says.
"Boy? He's a grown ass man living with his sister." Stephen laughs.
Everyone watches Chucks face turn dark red and his hands ball up.
"Stephen I'm warning you."
Stephen looks at Chuck. "Are you made? Do you want to hit me? Go ahead, hit me, I won't stop you."
Sarah rests her hand on Chucks arm. Chuck calms down.
Stephen smiles at the scene. "So she is your girl."
"What does it matter to you?" Chuck says.
"Well I've just been curious as to who'd be the next woman to take all your money, or rather, MY money." Stephen looks at Sarah. "Sorry to tell you this sweetheart but if you divorce my son you're not getting any of my money. I suspended all transactions into Chucks bank account from mine after his last divorce."
"I don't want you or Chuck's money." Sarah says.
"I don't want your money." Chuck tells his father.
"Stephen, leave." Catherine says.
"Now why would I want to do that? We're all just getting to know each other…."
Everyone was really starting to agree with Catherine. Stephen Bartowski was a stubborn arrogant man.
"I guess he can stay." Ellie says. "As long as you behave yourself, dad."
Stephen kisses his daughter on the cheek. "Anything for you baby."
Devon gets Ellie a chair and everyone tries to go back to how they were before Stephen arrived. Chuck sits down next to Sarah and Travis.
"So Sarah what'd you say you worked as?" Catherine asks.
"An accountant. I work independently at home so I can take care of my son." Sarah touches Travis' hand.
"What happen to his father?" Stephen asks.
"He's not with us."
"I can see that. Where is he?"
"It's none of your business." Chuck answers for Sarah.
"Chuck tells me you moved here from Washington, correct?" Catherine asks.
"Yes. I use to work for my father's accountant firm until I moved here."
"Interesting." Stephen says while talking a bite of lasagna.
"What is?" Sarah asked as she tries to figure out what Stephen Bartowski is trying to uncover.
"That you work for your father. Some ungrateful kids don't like to work for the family business."
Chuck threw a discussed look towards his father and lashed back, "I'd say the parents, or rather, the father was the ungrateful one. He expects his kids to do what he wants and the kids, trying to make their father happy, do whatever their father tells them to do without a complaint and without a single thank you from their father. Then one day the father decides to fire his own son."
Stephen smiled at his son and decided to throw a pointed volley of his own back at his son, "Maybe if the son wouldn't have divorced his wife a month of marriage and lost his entire trust fund his father gave him in the divorce, the father wouldn't have had to fire his son!"
"Maybe if the son had had a better role model he wouldn't have gotten divorced."
"Maybe if the son would have pleased his wife properly she wouldn't have had to go looking for his best friend to please her and get her pregnant!" Stephen stood up from his seat as he shouted at his son...
Chuck stood up as well.
"Maybe we should all sit down please." Ellie says as she noticed both Chuck and Stephen have lost their cool.
Chuck throws a napkin he was holding on his plate. "I'm done with this."
Everyone watches Chuck walk out of the house, stunned at hatred between father and son.
Catherine walks over to Stephen and slaps him. "How could you do this?!" She turns to everyone at the table, "I'm sorry you all had to see this."
Catherine grabs Stephen by the collar and drags him away.
Sarah stands up. "I should go look for Chuck."
"I'll watch Travis." Carina says.
Sarah walks out of the house and sees Chuck walking towards the beach which is in to back of the house.
Chuck sits down in the sand and minutes later Sarah sits next to him.
"I'm sorry you had to see that."
"It's alright. You'll probably see it again when you meet my parents."
"You still want to date me after that?"
"Yeah. I mean, yeah, your dad's crazy but so is mine…not as crazy but…well your moms great." Sarah giggles as Chuck bumps her on the shoulder. "Her lasagna is awesome so I'll have to keep dating you until I get the recipe."
"I figured you were just using me to get something."
"Of course. Why else would I want you?" Sarah regretted saying those words when she saw Chuck's face fall. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean it that way."
"I know but it's something I just haven't been able to move past what happened and it still hurts."
"Was it true what your father said? About your wife getting pregnant by your best friend?"
Chuck nods. "She was eight weeks pregnant when we got married. I hadn't noticed. No one had. Not even on our honeymoon."
"Are you sure it wasn't yours?"
"My mother is a very religious person. She had me promise to save myself until marriage."
Sarah stays silent. She wishes her mother had had her promise that. She probably wouldn't have followed it anyways but still, it's the thought that counts.
"How'd you find out?"
"I found them in bed together. In my bed together. They told me everything. That they had been seeing each other for months and that she was pregnant, that the baby wasn't mine." Chuck takes a deep breath and lets it out. "I left the house and drove to a bar and got drunk. I did something unforgivable that night."
Sarah put her hand on Chucks. "Whatever it is I don't need to know about it right now."
They sat in silence for a while until Sarah decided to talk.
"When my ex boyfriend found out I was pregnant he got really mad and told me to 'fix the problem'. I told him I was going to keep it and to deal with it. He said he couldn't deal with a child at this point in his life. He was about to become VP out my father's company and didn't want me or the baby to get in the way of his success." Sarah looks out into the water. "He told me once that he loved me but when he said we would get in the way I knew he never meant them." Sarah looks at Chuck. "To me love meant something completely different when I was with him then it does now that I'm with you."
Chuck smiles, thinking the exact same thing about him and Jill and him and Sarah. He leans over and kisses Sarah softly.
"You want to get out of here, go away with me for a couple days just to clear our heads?" Chuck asks.
"What about Travis?" Sarah asks always thinking of her son first.
"Well of course we'll come with us. He's my responsibly now too."
Chuck stands up and holds his hand out for Sarah. Sarah takes it with no hesitation.
They walk back to the house to get Travis.
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Thanks for reading. Please review.
Also, I've changed Travis and Natty's ages to 1 years old. I did it for the next chapter.