J is for Jaguar
Author: Jelsemium
Dedication: To Jaguar, the Southern Kitty
Rating: T for Potty Mouths
Disclaimer: The characters are not mine, not even Frank
Warnings: Um, well, I am trying for humor here, so you might want to put down that drink.
Chapter 2 of 4
Larry eyed Charlie suspiciously, but Charlie just smiled.
"You're serious about building shelves for me?" Megan said before any kind of squabble could start.
"Of course," Charlie said. "You saw the shelves I put in my house when you dropped by last week. And Larry did the majority of the refurbishing of his Victorian by himself."
Megan nodded. "I believe you can do it," she said. "I just didn't know if you were serious about doing it. I don't want to impose."
They both smiled at her. "No trouble, dear lady," Larry asserted, blandly ignoring the complaint he had just hurled at Charlie.
"Glad to help," Charlie said.
"Don't look at me, Megan," Don said in an attempt to regain his grumpy demeanor. "I'm only here because I don't want to have to hire a new profiler. I hate interviewing job applicants."
Megan nodded. "Right, gotcha."
They took turns carrying Megan's belongings up stairs. That way they didn't have to keep locking and unlocking doors. It also ensured that there were no collisions. They piled the cartons up in the spare bedroom, so there would be room to put furniture in the living room.
When they finished, Charlie and Larry poked their heads in the master bedroom. There was a queen sized bed with a bookcase headboard, a comfortable looking chair next to a reading lamp and an end table with a television on it.
"This came out nicely," Larry said admiring the Wedgwood blue and Navajo white paint job.
"Nice furniture," Charlie added. "I could build you an entertainment center in the corner."
Megan beamed. "That would be great, Charlie."
"What else do you need…?" Larry murmured studying the room. "Anything besides the bookcases? And how many bookcases do you want?"
They went through the condo making notes of where they could build in more storage space.
"Guys," Don said. "You're getting way too ambitious here. You're not going to finish this all today."
Megan shrugged. "That'll spread the cost out over several months, then."
"Right, well, you mind if I check the news while you measure? I'd only be in the way, anyhow."
Charlie opened his mouth, but whatever he intended to say went unsaid as Don glared at him. So he just grinned at his older brother instead.
"Sure," Megan said, waving at the master bedroom. "Help yourself."
Don vanished.
"Nice of you two to come back here after your last bad experience," Megan said to Larry and Charlie.
"Well, it couldn't happen twice, could it?" Charlie said.
"Yes, actually, it could," Megan said.
At the same time, Don yelled from the master bedroom. "Hellyah!"
"We'll be more careful from now on," Charlie promised.
"You'd better be!" Don yelled.
"You're not nervous about your belongings?" Larry asked.
Megan shrugged. "I don't own that much," she said. "And who's going to break in to steal my collection of classic Nancy Drew books, anyway?"
She almost bit her tongue when she said that. But instead of raking her over the coals, the boys looked impressed.
Don appeared in the doorway. "You have Nancy Drew? Mom loved that series." He looked at Charlie. "Do we still have those?"
"How often do we actually throw things away?" Charlie asked dryly. "They're boxed up in the garage behind my Princeton textbooks, Dad's Dodger media guides and the other classic books… Hardy Boys, Three Investigators, Rick Brant..."
"Ah, yes," Larry sighed. "The books of my youth… Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden, Tom Swift." He ran his hands through his hair. "The Tom Swift series was interesting. They had the original series back in the twenties and thirties, then they did a continuation of them in the sixties… Tom Swift, Jr…. which contained many references to the original series. Much better than the more recent attempts to update them."
"So, I see what inspired your career choices," Don said cheerfully.
Megan laughed. "You might have a point. Who knows, I might have been a famous mathematician if Nancy had been interested in math!"
"I doubt that I would have ever become a detective," Larry said. "I don't think I have the temperament for it."
"Yeah, but you've got the brains," Don said.
Larry flashed him a pleased smile.
"By the way, guys, have you heard of the Abel Prize?" Don asked. He looked back into the bedroom.
"Of course," Larry said. "Norway's response to the lack of a Nobel prize for Mathematics."
"Named after the famous Norwegian mathematician…" Charlie said.
"Sir Prize?" Megan guessed.
Charlie rolled his eyes at her.
"Yeah," Don interrupted. "There's a bit coming up on the news. Some guy back east just won it… a Marshall Pen something."
There was a brief, shocked silence after Don made his announcement.
"Marshall Penfield?" Charlie blurted, breaking the brief silence. He almost bowled Don over in his haste to get to the television. "What could that jerk have done to earn the Abel?"
Don shrugged. "Dunno, Buddy. Math, maybe?"
Charlie shot him a disgusted look.
There was a commercial on, which was followed by another commercial. Then the news came back and the anchors spoke about several crimes and natural disasters. Then they promised a segment on the Abel prize before cutting away to yet another commercial.
Charlie had to sit… well, pace while wringing his hands and muttering to himself… through several more cycles of news, gossip and commercials. He was all but frothing at the mouth before the news correspondent in Oslo came on and interviewed…
Lennart Carleson, a professor emeritus from UCLA.
Charlie sat down abruptly on the floor and stared at the television.
"Ah, Professor Carleson was an excellent choice," Larry said. He rubbed his cheeks and nodded. "He's made many contributions over a very long career."
Charlie looked up at him. "You… the two of you!" he blurted. He pointed at Don and Larry.
Don and Larry burst out laughing.
"You… you're…" Charlie was getting red in the face and apparently lost the ability to speak coherently.
"You knew that segment was going to be on today?" Megan asked.
Don and Larry nodded.
"Lennart called me last night to tell me about it," Larry said.
"And the Marshall Penfield guy…?"
"Is someone the British would call a 'guy', " Charlie said sulkily. "I'm going to check on lumber prices at Home Depot. I think they'll cut it to specifications for free."
He stalked out of the room.
Larry and Don exchanged amused looks.
Megan followed Charlie. She'd wanted to talk to him about something that had been bothering her for a week. "So, about last week, Charlie…" she said. "You and Larry aren't going to argue about me again, are you?"
Charlie blushed. "Um, Megan, we weren't…"
Megan raised an eyebrow.
"Well, not in the typical… Um. We won't, I'm not, well, it's not that you aren't … Y'know… Oh, crap," red-faced, Charlie sputtered to a halt.
Megan let him off the hook with a friendly chuckle and a pat on the arm. "Charlie, I know I'm no raving beauty…"
Now it was Charlie's turn to raise his eyebrow. "You need new mirrors, I see."
Megan laughed. "Thanks, anyway, I'm just concerned because I don't want to come between you and Larry."
Charlie smiled wryly. "Megan, our friendship has lasted over half of my life, nearly one third of Larry's life. Not to mention that it's survived my adolescence, Larry's middle age crisis, Larry's eccentricity, my ego, professional disputes and …" he glared back at the bedroom door. "Practical jokes." Charlie sighed. "I doubt that we're through with each other just yet."
Megan smiled sunnily. "Glad to hear it, kid," she said. "Speaking of practical jokes, are you going to let him get away with that Penfield thing? Or parking your car on the roof of the engineering building?"
Charlie smiled sweetly. "No."