ChuckParis12

A/N: Picking up the pace. Ya'll better do the same.

Chapter 13 – Hannah Meets Ellie and Other Stuff

Burbank Airpark

The ambulance pulled up as close to the boarding steps as possible. Chuck carried Hannah gingerly down the steps and passed her to one of the attendants and then followed them into the ambulance.

Ellie was already doing the basics and was on the phone calling for an ER operating room to be prepared for a sexual assault victim. Chuck just sat as close as he could to Hannah without getting in anyone's way. She was clutching his hand and was obviously terrified.

"Hannah, this is my sister, Ellie. Ellie, this is the woman I'm going to marry. She's my special girl, Ellie, so take good care of her and don't tell her any tall tales. I'll explain things as best I can after I know she's going to be OK."

Ellie asked the hard question first. "What happened to her? When and how many times?"

"I don't know but the last time was right before I called you. He's dead so I can't ask and I…I don't want to ask her, Ellie, please?"

"What happened to her?"

"She was being held hostage in a big political game and I went in with a team and got her out. I had to, Ellie. She's my life."

She didn't ask any more questions. The look on his face said it all. The girl hadn't even noticed what was going on. She just hung on to Chuck and never broke eye contact unless it was necessary.

Burbank Hospital

"Ok, little brother, she's got some tearing and the OB/Gyn guy is fixing her up. She'll be sore for a week or so and no fooling around until she initiates it. STD tests came back clean but it'll be a few days until we get clear HIV profile. We've also given her an injection of the 'Morning After' drug. Now can I let go?"

Chuck took a step back and prepared for the onslaught. He was surprised when all she did was walk up and hug him but not surprised by her tears. He had some serious explaining to do.

"Ellie, I have to call her father, my boss. He's worried sick about her and the stress isn't good for him. He's got Parkinson's and it's stage 2 moving on stage 3. Let me call him."

He called Jacques on his Ring phone and spoke so rapidly in French that Ellie could barely catch a word here or there and she considered herself fluent.

"I will be home when she's well enough to travel. Have you asked the council for a replacement for Dill?"

"How would you feel about taking the job, Chuck?"

"No. Absolutely not. Besides, Hannah needs her papa for a while. You need someone you can control and who will share our ideologies. Not me. God, no. Besides, I intend to marry, with your permission, and a new job will take up too much Hannah-time."

Hannah would be in recovery for an hour and would sleep for at least 3 – 4 hours so Ellie dragged Chuck out for dinner and an explanation.

"Before you say a word, Chuck, I know about you and the CIA and the NSA and all that crap. A scary woman came to visit me and filled me in after you were reported dead. She's kept me in the loop on your status but said I couldn't contact you or you might be killed."

"Yeah. That pretty much sums it up until now. Things are changing and I won't need to be dead much longer. So how's Devon? I figured he'd be wondering where you were."

"He couldn't keep it in his pants. He knocked up an OR nurse and then he got caught with a married resident and I just threw him out. I wasn't enough for him apparently. He'd been cheating even before we were married."

"Want me to kill him?" She didn't know if he was serious or not but didn't want to run the risk.

"No! We're getting a divorce and his parents are going to write me a big check if they want their precious Devon to keep his position and his license. That's good enough for me."

"Ellie, I'll be staying with her as much as I can. I'll talk to you later but I want to be there when she wakes up. I don't want her thinking I've abandoned her. She's got the same issues we have so I think you understand."

"At least she has a father, Chuck. That's more than we can say."

"She only met him 6 months ago. Her mother married an American and he adopted her when she was a kid. I love her. That's all that matters now. We'll sort out the crap as it comes. You will come to France for the wedding, Eleanor. I'll foot the bill. Hell, I'm rich!"

"So, this Hannah. What does she do when she's not a hostage?"

"There's nothing she can't do. She's smarter than I am and she's an accomplished portrait painter. She does what I did at the Buy More but for a big international corporation."

She smiled at the pride she heard in his voice. This one was different. He was different. He'd grown up when she wasn't looking.

The doctor discharged Hannah 3 days later, cautioning her to be patient and to wait at least 2 weeks before having 'relations'. Ellie had bought her a few outfits 'for the trip home' and Jacques had again sent a plane for them.

Hannah promised to make Chuck call at least once a week and of course she'd email her regularly. Chuck just bit his tongue. He'd do what he damned well pleased. The woman was turning into a controlling nag. He was happy for the first time since…since he could remember.

Dubois wanted Chuck and Hannah out of America because the Far Eastern Ring had put a bounty on Chuck's head and a bonus if Hannah could be captured alive again. Commercial air travel was ruled out and thus the Gulf Stream flew them to New York and then to Paris. Hannah slept most of the time and Chuck worked on his 'marketing plan' for Beckman and the Combine.

The Ring Executor for North America remained vacant until Jacques was forced to promote a Director from within the ranks. The focus of the Ring changed from disruption to enhanced intelligence acquisitions. There were always buyers for their intelligence data. Only the Far Eastern Region remained outside the 'Circle'.

The Ring created a new financial entity, Circus Systems, as the 'operating arm' of the new Ring. It's director general was a young American with connections and competence. The new arrangement blossomed as more and more governmental agencies saw the wisdom of a 'disinterested third party' delivering data on areas of interest. The quality and accuracy of the intel cemented many relationships but drove the Far Eastern Region farther away.

Sarah Walker was taken out of the field and given a temporary assignment as the CIA Deputy Director of Operations for the South American region. She replaced Howard Dill, a man she knew from joint operations with Larkin. She had admired and respected him for the agent he was. His assassin was never found. Another Ring victim.

Beckman saw no reason to inform her of Bartowski's survival. Casey and Forrest remained his case officers but tensions were high because of Forrest's practical joke. Periodically, Chuck would drive into Paris, lose his tails, disappear into the bowels of the embassy and emerge with a headache and a new pair of sunglasses. Beckman wanted him 'current'.

He also had regular sessions with 'Dr. Forrest', his therapist at her office in Paris. Henri had become suspicious when Chuck would seem to slip away from the Chateau and disappear in Paris but after following him once to Forrest's office, he relaxed. He knew his young boss had 'issues' and it seemed a harmless way for him to seek counsel. He noted the times and even placed a bug in Chuck's shoe and recorded a session, all very boring, all very professional and all very heart-breaking for there was trouble in paradise.

The couple planned on a spring wedding with a honeymoon in Italy. Chuck had formed a close friendship with Savatore Ricci, the Director of the Italian and Mediterranean areas. They would stay at his villa near Rome.

All they had to do was survive the 6 months until the wedding.

Ellie and Hannah became BFFs on email and the almost weekly video chat. Chuck just nodded his head at the right times and shook it at others when she brought out her 'wedding planner'. The Allied invasion of Europe was not as well planned or choreographed.

Things were going well. Jacques' condition seemed to stabilize and he agreed to undergo an experimental procedure that would identify parts of his brain that were causing his trembling and weakness and devices would be inserted to counter their influence. He wanted to walk his daughter down the aisle, as a father should, not wheel her down.

Chuck was busy running a fingernail around her left nipple. Her body never ceased to fascinate him. She was incredible and she was his. He nibbled on her ear and whispered that he loved her and she purred. The large garden tub was well used.

"Chuck, do you want children?" She'd been afraid that he'd reject her as 'damaged goods' after her rape but he couldn't be more attentive and she was as responsive as ever.

He repositioned her on his lap so that he could whisper in her ear and still enjoy playing with her nipples. "Do you know what these little bumps around the nipple are called, sweetheart? And do you know what they inspired?"

She shivered and knew he would respond to her question when it pleased him. He wasn't ignoring her, he was loving her.

"No, Charles, what are the bumps on my areolas called?" She shivered again when he lightly pinched her nipple. She loved his extended foreplay. They had the most unusual conversations during this play period.

"Montgomery's Bodies, sometimes Montgomery's Glands. They serve no purpose whatsoever and yet they inspired a Frenchman to create something that opened up an entire world to some who never could escape their own dark little worlds."

"Mmmm, what's that, lover?" She wiggled her butt against him and giggled. She giggled a lot lately and she knew he loved it when she did. He said it made him happy so she found every possible excuse to make and keep him happy.

"Braille. He was fondling his mistress's boobs and figured it out. He named the system after himself and modeled the letters after the positioning of her Bodies. Not all women's are in the same place but in Braille they spell out 'suck here'." The story was pure crap but it appealed to his warped sense of humor.

She whirled around and faced him. "Answer me, Chuck. Do you want children?"

"Yes. If you do."

"I do. Two at least. Maybe more. It all depends."

"Depends on what?" He was curious. The distribution of sex? Was she afraid of childbirth?

"On how long we stay in this tub when we have a bed and I have a craving. Knock me up, Chuck. I don't care what people think. I want a baby. Your baby. I need this, sweetheart, to feel complete."

They tried a lot. She read books and did research on the internet but…no knock-up. She dragged him to a fertility specialist, terrified that she couldn't conceive because of the rapes. She could. There was nothing wrong with her.

It was him. His swimmers didn't. When everyone else's were swimming like mad, his few just seemed to tread water...and then apparently give up and drown.

He was crushed by the news. He couldn't give her the gift of motherhood, the completeness she craved, and it became the elephant in the relationship. He started traveling for the Ring, running operations way below his station, finding excuses to stay away.

He couldn't face her disappointment. He was broken, useless. He hated himself for not being the man she needed. When they got in bed there was an invisible wall between them. She quietly cried herself to sleep the first night and woke up to find herself alone in their bed, his side empty and cold.

There were no more long baths together, no long walks through the Chateau's fields and orchards, and definitely no sex. He was driving her away by withdrawing emotionally and physically. He would force her to find someone else to complete her little package. It was only a matter of time.

He'd spent an hour with Alex, meeting her in the park across from her office talking about the problem with his inability to have children. He was surprised at how compassionate her response had been and how insightful her comments were.

"Chuck, Hannah will adjust. You're more important to her than children. There are other ways. Explore them. You're running away from the problem just as she is walling herself away from the hurt."

He told her he wouldn't be in to see her for a while due to a business trip and she'd hugged him and kissed him on both cheeks in the Gallic fashion and left him sitting on the bench.

Henri had followed Chuck as ordered. He'd put a bug in his shoe. There was something off with the young American and Hannah and the Director General had ordered surveillance. He was concerned about the relationship between Chuck and his therapist being 'more' and how he would deal with it. The parabolic mike had captured the entire session from his greeting to her departure.

He was not having an affair with his therapist. He was having a personal crisis and seeking solutions anywhere he might find them. He was faithful to Hannah, loving her even to the point of 'leaving' her to make her leave him. He'd said he was broken and couldn't give her 'the gift she required for completion'. He was driving her to someone else so that she might have children. It was a Beau Geste, a gallant gesture, but totally unnecessary if those two could just stop and think without all the emotional baggage.

He was packing for another trip. He'd already told Casey through his 'therapy session'. He had an assignment in Argentina and he didn't know who long he'd be, but he'd be gone at least a month. There were quality problems with the intel the unit was providing and that was Chuck's focus.

"Chuck, we have to talk before you go. Please, stop packing and sit with me for just a few minutes, sweetheart."

Hannah needed to get this out in the open and dealt with. She could see the affect it was having on Chuck. Their relationship was withering away since the discovery of his sterility. Her behavior towards him the first night disgusted her and she knew it had been like a rejection, a refusal, a condemnation of him, when she'd turned her back on him and cried herself to sleep.

It was the same rejection he'd gotten from his spy girlfriend when he'd returned from spy school a failure. She knew he thought he'd failed her, too. And what did she do…turned her back on him and cried when she should have held him and explained that she was crying for him.

He threw the rest of his clothes haphazardly into the suitcase. 'Here it comes. The great breakup scene. It's a wonder she's held off this long.'

"Fine. Whatever. I have an hour or so before Panzer takes us to the airport."

They walked out onto the covered terrace and sat at the small breakfast table. They sat across from one another; before the 'revelation', they'd sat side by side. "Go ahead, Hannah. You've got the floor."

"I don't want a child at the cost of a husband. I have you. That's enough. You're all I need to be complete. I was selfish and I hurt you and I'm sorry and I'm begging for your forgiveness."

"I wish it were that simple, Hannah, but it's not and you damned well know it. It's not enough. We've never lied to one another, ever. Don't start now."

"I've never lied to you, Chuck. Never. You are enough for me. If I lose you, life will be empty and meaningless. Please understand and forgive me. I was stupid and I put enormous strain on our relationship. I don't want to lose you, Chuck. I couldn't bear it."

"I saw the raw emotions in your eyes when you talked about wanting a baby, my baby. Were you lying then or are you lying to me now?"

"Damn it, Chuck! I'm not lying. I can't help my emotions but my truth is as I've said. You are enough, baby. I've been hurtful and I know turning my back on you the first night was like…like blaming you but I was crushed. I wanted to give you a son or daughter, someone you could love as much as you loved me."

"Love."

"What?"

"You said 'loved', past tense. It's not. The verb is never in the past tense. Not with me. It's always present tense and future tense and subjunctive and…never the conditional tense."

"Call Hugo. Tell him you'll be late. Better still, tell him to reschedule your flight for tomorrow. Then come and love me, Chuck. That's not too much to ask? We'll conjugate verbs the old fashioned way." She smiled her special smile and walked to the carriage house, leaving a trail of clothing for him to follow.

Panzer hung up the phone and turned to Henri, a huge grin on his face and handed him a 50 Euro note. "Apparently I was wrong. Let's open a few more bottles of wine and get drunk and tell each other tall tales. We don't leave until tomorrow night."