ChuckParis17b
Chateau Almandine
Chuck took the Mercedes to Paris. It was nearly midnight but he couldn't spend another second at the Chateau or on its grounds. She'd told him to leave and there was little hope in his mind that he'd ever see her again, except if she appeared in divorce court or if she wanted to witness his execution by one of the Ring enforcers he was sure would soon be on his trail.
He wasn't running. He had things to do and the least important of them was his personal security.
He drove into the Circus Information Systems offices and parked in the underground garage. He'd take a cab to the meeting on the embassy steps in the morning. He took the lift to the top floor and unlocked the office that was keyed to his retina pattern. It was where he did his thinking.
Two hours later and he was done 'thinking' and ready to act. First, he would destroy every link between himself and the Combine. Then he would eradicate any record of the existence of Charles Windsor and lastly, he would resurrect Chuck Bartowski and go deep and lose himself in some septic tank of a third world country and wait for the inevitable.
It was all automatic. The program he'd set in place would activate itself at 4pm on the following day and he'd cease to exist. He would keep his appointment on the embassy steps and honor the threat to his family. He had no choice.
He tidied up his office and left, retracing his steps to the underground parking garage. As he approached his Mercedes he noticed a dark shape lurking just outside the pool of light created by the overhead fluorescents. She hadn't wasted much time in spilling her guts to her precious 'papa' and he'd done exactly as he'd anticipated, sending a liquidation team to deal with the threat to his family.
Chuck reached into his suit coat and pulled out his 9mm. No point in using a silencer. He had no intention of running. He'd been 'on the run' for nearly 3 years and it was time to stop and make his stand – nothing heroic, just a final meting out of some form of weird justice.
Hugo and Henri had been sent by the Old Man to bring his son-in-law home. There had been a terrible misunderstanding between his daughter and her husband and he wanted Chuck back where he belonged, in charge of the Ring and with his family. He was dealing with his daughter and giving her a long overdue lesson in real politik.
His instructions had been very clear: "Bring Charles home and be quick and sudden about it. Use tranquilizer guns with low-dosage darts. He still has a meeting to attend in the morning and I want him coherent when my daughter apologizes to him."
Hugo stepped from behind the support column. "Chuck, come home with us. There is no problem that can't be worked out. Your wife was upset and said things she didn't mean. Please, don't let it end here. There is still a lot to be done, Chuck, and we can't do it without you."
Chuck smiled and put himself in Hugo's shoes. Kill him here and they'd rob his father-in-law of his 'moment'. Well, tough. He aimed his pistol and put two rounds into the column, nowhere near Hugo but forcing him to seek cover. Chuck whirled and dashed between two parked maintenance vehicles. He's said '…come home with us.'
He quietly walked behind the parked vehicles, trying to flank his friend. He couldn't shoot him or Henri. He had to escape the garage somehow. He made his way back to the elevator bank and called for a car, not the one he'd come down on. He wanted a delay, to allow his opponents to get into position while he flanked them and made his way to his car.
Henri watched as Chuck made his way carefully back to the elevators and called for a car. Such a shame. He holstered his tranquilizer pistol and drew out his MAT 47 machine pistol. It was obvious that the Director General had no intention of surrendering himself probably figuring that they were here to kill him. Well, he would support that assumption and force him to reveal his position to Hugo with his tranquilizer pistol. He fired a burst at the elevator doors just as Chuck ran from concealment and stepped into the arriving car and into the line of fire.
Hugo yelled for Henri to hold his fire and rushed to the elevators and called another car, the one Chuck had come down in. He'd seen at least two bullets strike his friend in the back just as the elevator door closed on his car.
"Henri, you were supposed to drive him away from the elevators and to me, not shoot him down like a dog! What were you thinking?"
"I was trying to close off the lifts to him. I didn't know he was hiding awaiting a car. Damn it. Hannah will cut my nuts off if her precious Chuck is scratched."
"I saw two rounds impact his back. I just hope he's not dead! Maybe you're getting too old for this game, Henri. Maybe it's time to marry one of the girls you spend so much time with at Madam Rosa's and open a wine shop or something. He was not to be harmed! What a mess!"
The force of the bullets striking his back threw him headlong into the elevator car's rear wall, almost knocking him out. He lay there for a minute, dazed and out of breath, but congratulating himself on having the foresight to wear a lightweight vest. He'd almost carried it with him but decided at the last minute to actually wear it and make sure it didn't restrict his movements too much and still allow him to have his hands free.
He wiped his hand across his bloody nose that he'd probably broken when he slammed face first into the car wall. Shit! Well, he had a complete change of clothes in his office and at Hannah's old apartment he'd purchased as a surprise wedding gift. He'd have to remember to send her the paperwork. It would give her a place to unwind when the kids got too much for her or an overnight refuge if she an Ellie 'shopped 'til they dropped' in Paris.
He left a bloody handprint on the elevator wall when he pushed himself up and out of the car when it arrived at his floor. He quickly punched each of the remaining buttons including the parking garage and got off the elevator into the corridor of the operations center. He ran across the floor space and down the emergency stairs to the garage. Hopefully they'd follow the elevator car and not him.
Chuck grinned when he opened the door and saw a deserted parking level. He sprinted to his Mercedes and drove out of the garage and into a rainy Paris night. He'd hole up at the apartment. He hadn't told anyone he'd bought it. It was a surprise for Hannah and now it would be his safe house for the near future until he figured out what to do after meeting with Stuart.
Hugo had run up the stairs when he saw that every floor light was lit on Chuck's car. The bastard hoped we'd get on a car and go right to his office. He waited on the third floor and swore when the car door opened and he saw the bloody handprint on the car wall. He radioed Henri that Chuck had slipped out onto a lower floor and to meet him back in the garage at their car.
A few minutes later Henri arrived at their car, huffing and puffing. "Henri, you should start exercising. Listen to you. You can't even catch your breath. Chuck is hurt. There's a bloody handprint on the elevator and I think the canny bastard hit all the floor buttons hoping we'd follow them to the office level and give him time to get free. Well, we found him here via the Lo-Jack and we'll just follow him around until he either passes out or stops. You better hope nothing happens to him or Hannah will be furious and you'll be…in a bad way."
They followed his signal and parked a block away from where the car was stopped. They approached on foot, not wanting to catch a bullet from their boss. He had no idea they were sent to bring him home, not kill him.
His wife had accused him of infidelity 'in his heart' and thrown him out on his ass. What did she expect him to do, sit around and wait for her to come to her senses? Her father had called her a simple fool and sent Hugo and Henri to bring him home, tranked, if necessary. They both knew Chuck would see any pursuit in the worst possible light and Henri's machine pistol burst had cemented that idea in his mind.
"Hugo, I think I know where he's gone. Their old apartment is just a few blocks from here. I'll bet he goes there. No one is living there. It's been vacant for a while."
Chuck arrived at the apartment, used his key that Hannah had given him in the very beginning and secured the door and set the external alarms. His back was killing him and he needed to tend to his damned nose that wouldn't quit bleeding. It felt like he had a damned turnip on his face. He just hoped that his eyes wouldn't turn black. He needed to make an impression the next day at his meeting and two black eyes would not convey the impression he wished.
He stripped off his suit coat, the vest and then his shirt. He had several changes of clothes already here. He'd snuck out several changes of clothes for the both of them since he was planning on surprising her and staying for a weekend.
'Tonight sure changed those plans. I'll be lucky to get out of France alive. I suppose I could ask Casey for help but first I have to find out what Stuart knows and intends to do with that knowledge. I have to protect my family. Then I'll worry about good ol' Chuck.'
Hugo called Hannah and told her they'd found Chuck but that there might be a problem with bringing him home.
"We want you to come here, Hannah, to your old apartment. That's where he's gone to ground. I know he doesn't know we Lo-Jacked his car otherwise he'd have left it in the parking garage."
"Why do I need to come there? His home is here."
"He…he might be…unwilling to come with us. There was an incident in the parking garage at Circus Information and he lost us and then came here. There was blood in the elevator, Hannah. So you better come. He won't shoot you on sight like he might Henri or I. Ellie would not appreciate it if her brother killed her lover, would she? Please, Hannah, you're wasting time. You know how he thinks. He's up there planning on killing us if we show our faces. You're the only one who can reach him."
"Twenty-five minutes at our old apartment. Be out front and make sure he doesn't leave, understand me, boys? No more mistakes. No more 'misunderstandings' and definitely no more damned 'incidents'. Apologizing to the big dork is going to be hard enough for me to do when he's healthy so he better not have so much as a scratch on him, understand?"
"Um, Hannah, it might be a little late for that but we'll keep him in place." She sounded more and more like her father on one of his bad days.
Chuck finished cleaning himself up and then rummaged through the closet to find something easy to slip on and off. His back was killing him and he thanked the Fates that he'd decided to wear the vest. He twisted around in the mirror and saw the two black and blue impact points. Henri might be old but he was accurate.
Checking the alarm and setting it for 7am, he collapsed into bed, hoping that 5 hours sleep would be enough to get him through the next day.
Forty minutes later the internal alarm signified that someone had opened the front (and only) door to the apartment. He rolled off the bed with his pistol in hand and waited to see who would be his next would-be assassin.
"Chuck, it's Hannah. Please don't shoot me. I just want to talk to you. I'm coming up, Chuck, and I'm not armed. I just want to talk to you and explain – I want to beg you to come home, baby. I was wrong and I know that now. You told my father everything the first day and I was too shocked to understand. Chuck? Chuck, please answer me!"
She held the trank pistol behind her back hoping she wouldn't have to use it. She'd screwed up and forgotten whom she was married to. He would never betray her. He never lied to her, only by omission and she knew that the Sarah woman was in the past. Now all she had to do was convince him of her sincerity.
He walked silently to a corner near the head of the staircase, not trusting her for one minute. Women. They all turned on him eventually. He was so tired of all the damned drama in his life.
"Hannah, go home to papa. You have your kids and your father and that should be enough. Go home and take those two bumbling idiots with you. I'll make the meeting tomorrow, weigh any threats and handle them. After that, I'll just disappear. Go home. I'll have my lawyers send you the papers for the apartment and the surrounding block. It was supposed to be a surprise gift to you. Well, surprise, surprise. Now go home!"
"Home is where the heart is and my heart is here with you, so I am home, Chuck. I'm coming upstairs now. Please, don't be mad, sweetheart. My father already took me to task and called me a stupid fool for doubting you and he was right."
She was almost to the top of the stairs. In the dark he could smell her essence, the slightest hint of perfume that she sometimes wore to bed.
"Please, honey, give me a chance to apologize. I was wrong and I was brutal with you and it's because I was crushed that you hadn't been honest with me from the first. I wanted to hurt you for hurting me so I accused you of the one thing you couldn't defend yourself from – that damned blonde spy bitch who tore your heart out."
He wanted to believe her. He needed to believe her because without her he had no reason to live.
She reached the top of the stairs and stepped into the bedroom, unaware that Chuck was behind her and had seen the trank pistol in the dim light from the first floor landing.
He was going to snatch the pistol from her hand but she dropped it and unfastened her raincoat and let it drop to the floor, too. She was naked and shivering slightly in the dampness as she made her way slowly towards where she thought he was.
"Chuck, please. Don't leave us. I need you like air. Please," and in a very small voice, "please, I'm sorry. I hurt you and I'm sorry. Please, Chuck? Please?"
She was hugging herself and trembling but it wasn't from the cold. She'd done all she could, said all she could, and now she was waiting for him to decide their fate.
He slipped up behind her and wrapped her up in his arms and whispered that he was the one who should be apologizing. She turned around and looked up at him and smiled. Everything was going to be all right.
"Take me to bed, husband, and love me even though I hurt you terribly. This is where we started and this is where we should start again. It's late and I'm cold and I really screwed this up bad. Call the idiots and tell them to go home. We're fine now."
"You call them. I don't think they'll believe me. Go ahead. Call them. We're wasting time here, Hannah, and I'm tired. I'm not as young as I used to be."
Front steps of the American Embassy
Paris, France
Congressman Michael Stuart smiled at the Marine guard and retrieved his briefcase and walked across the broad lobby towards the doors. His meeting had been 'interesting' and he valued the opportunities he was being given. He just didn't know if his fiancé would view his decision not to run for governor but rather to accept an ambassadorship as a 'cop out'.
His meeting with the current ambassador had been a fact-finding one for Mike. He asked hard questions and got honest answers, even if he didn't always like the answers. He and Sarah would have a lot to talk about when he got back the following evening. The investing developers' meetings had gone very well and it looked like he'd be able to give his district a farewell gift of 200 jobs and more as the business grew.
He walked down the steps and glanced at his watch. 10:59pm. At least he was punctual. He walked down and stopped on the same step as his 'guest' and turned and offered him his hand.
"Agent Bartowski, Mike Stuart. Thank you for meeting with me. Our limo will be here momentarily and I'd like to buy you a drink." The man beside him ignored his hand and stared straight ahead, his tone was hard and carried the message 'I will be obeyed'. This was not the 'Chuck' in the photographs he'd kept for the past 18 months in his personal safe.
"Congressman, keep your hands out of your pockets and set down the briefcase when we enter my limo. Someone will retrieve it and leave it at your hotel. Are you wearing a wire or any recording equipment? Don't lie to me."
"Nope. This is purely personal, Ag…"
"Windsor, Charles Windsor. Bartowski was murdered a few blocks from here. I'll take you there and we can have our drink. Our talk will be in the limo." He held a jammer in the palm of his hand. He was taking no chances.