ChuckParis

One more chapter. Sorry it's taken so long. I'm still not certain just how to end it. It'll be a surprise to both of us, assuming there is one reader remaining. It's been a while.

Oldest Man

Chapter 26

Korat, Thailand

"You are too old to be running around the planet getting into trouble. Look at you! Look at you hands! You can't even hold a spoon today. Give me the spoon and I will massage your hands for you. Honestly, you're not 35 any more. You're too old for this and…and…and I want to grow old with you."

"Quit nagging at me. This was a fluke, a random act led by the remnants of the Old Far Eastern Division of the Ring. Now, tell me all about this announcement of Su-Fi's. She wants to marry Chai? No! She's too young for marriage. She's just a child. No. I forbid it!"

He threw down the spoon and tried to get out of bed. If Su-Fi would not come to him, then he would find her and drag her onto the plane and send her back to France.

He had no problem at all with Chai. If fact, he was toying with the idea of asking the young Asian man if he might consider an operational role in the Paris headquarters. Chuck and the others could see if he was ready for the Directorship in a few years.

Hannah placed the palm of her hand in the middle of Chuck's chest and easily kept him from getting out of bed. The doctors had already warned her of his concussion and the effects on his balance and mood. He was on a tear and the nurses wouldn't enter unless Hannah or Yve were present.

"Chuck, if you try to get out of this bed again I will have you restrained. You are endangering our lives with these childish actions. You have a severe concussion and if you add up all the times you've been knocked around, you're pushing the envelope on early dementia. Is that what you want for me? A husband who won't recognize his wife or children? A husband who won't be able to handle his own affairs? A widow by 45? Is it?"

He saw the tears and immediately calmed down. No, he didn't want any of that. What he wanted was his youth, his health and his vitality back. They'd been stolen from him by the damned thing in his head. He wasn't even 40 yet and he looked and felt much older.

"Jeb, look at me, please, mon cher. These are my parents and I love them. They live in a world far removed from yours and I am part of that world. Someday I hope to have my father's position with Circus Information Systems and that will mean living in France…"

"Your father almost dies in an assassination attempt and you want to be him someday? No. If we marry, you will work in the US. We have career plans, Yve, plans we made together. You never said anything about living in France."

"If we marry? We are engaged, Jeb, and we love each other…or are there limits to your love for me? Conditions? Your mother was once part of this life!"

"Step-mother. And she's out of the life. Sure, she's still carried on the CIA's books but she was an administrator…" He'd been shocked to learn that Sarah had been a CIA agent before becoming an administrator. He still didn't know that she 'administered' covert field operations.

Yve snorted and then quashed a laugh. Her Jeb was so innocent. Perhaps that was why she loved him. His naiveté was something she had encouraged until now. Now it was time to see the world as it really was.

"Get dressed and meet me in the restaurant. We are meeting Su-Fi and her boyfriend for breakfast. He's Thai but I don't hold it against him. He loves her and she loves him. The heart is a strange organ, Jeb. It finds its mate in the strangest people."

She caressed his cheek with her palm, smiling. He was all she had ever wanted in a man. The only thing he lacked was something she hoped he'd never find in himself: the killer instinct.

"After breakfast we'll go to the hospital and see my father. I'm surprised he isn't standing outside the door, banging on it with a fist, with Uncles Hugo and Casey backing him up."

Breakfast started out strained but everyone quickly found an equilibrium of sorts and soon they were all chattering away in either English or French as suited the mood of the speaker. Su-Fi and Yve went to the buffet for more fruit leaving the two men alone.

"So, Jeb, you and Yve are marrying in the US? That may be difficult for the director but I'm sure they've already thought it through. What do you think of the 'Windsor Women'? I don't know how Chuck keeps his sanity."

"All three are very beautiful and although they're adopted, Hannah seems to be a real mother to them. They take after their mother. Strong willed and beautiful."

Chai choked on his coffee. "Their mother? Oh, Jeb, you couldn't be more mistaken. Chuck is iron whereas Hannah is stainless steel in velvet. They all take after the Director although he wanted them to be 'ladies first' and to be far removed from the business."

Jeb stared at Chai as if he were speaking a foreign language. He continued on about the 'Windsor Women'.

"Su-Fi was his bodyguard while Yve pretended to be a bubble-head, is that the term? A bubblehead only interested in shoes and cars and clothes. She and Hannah were 'shopping buddies' although I don't think, to this day, that Hannah knew that Yve was always armed with a pistol or her knives. They all are experts in martial arts and firearms. Especially Su-Fi."

"Have you met the brother, Paul, Chai? Yve is very closed mouthed about her brother."

"Paul is a pilot and flies for the Circus Militia. He trained with the Legion Étagère in Lyon and with the US Army Aviation School. He is quite the accomplished helicopter pilot. Chuck is very proud of him although he worries because he flies instead of settling down with a good woman."

The sisters came back and the conversation switched to less personal topics until Su-Fi announced that, convention be damned, she and Chai were marrying the day Chuck was out of the hospital and could 'walk her down the aisle without falling on his butt'.

Jeb looked at Chai and mouthed 'I see what you meant,' while the two sisters prattled on about the wedding.

"Does Daddy know, Sophie? He thinks you're still a kid. He won't agree and he'll fight you tooth and nail over it. No offense, Chai, but my father still thinks of us all as the scrawny frightened children he and Hannah rescued from the slave pens, as you well know."

"My mind is made up. There is nothing he can do to change it." Su-Fi crossed her arms under her breasts, a defensive posture that no one could mistake for anything else.

"Ha! He can have Chai killed or worse. He is ruthless where we are concerned." She was kidding about Chai and watched Jeb's face for a reaction. It wasn't long in coming.

"Slave pens? Ruthless? No man can be considered 'ruthless' where the safety and well being of his family is concerned."

He turned to Su-Fi. "I have never met your father but my parents spoke of him often and not always in our presence, if you know what I mean. I was just a kid but I heard stories that made spy movies seem tame and boring. He's ruthless, yes, but more importantly, he's…a man who honors his commitments and puts family above all else. There is much to admire in him."

Chuck had dressed and was wandering around the hospital gardens until he found a nice bench to sit at. He leaned back and put his arms across the bench seat and soaked up the sun. He felt better already. Now if he could just maintain an inner calm when he met Jeb Stuart and then confronted Su-Fi.

"…don't care what you heard, Dad, I'm staying here with Yve. What kind of man runs from his responsibilities because he's on the fringe of possible danger? I'm staying here with Yve as long as she stays, period. Tell Mom to just 'get a grip'. I can hear her very clearly in the background. I'll be careful but I won't leave Yve and that's final!"

It was hard not to overhear the tall man's conversation. He was less than 3 meters away, screened from view by some tropic plants. So that's Jeb? I think Yve's made a wonderful choice. Tell 'mom to get a grip'! How many times did I want to yell that in her face?

The young man walked around the edge of the floral screen and was surprised to see a tall man with a bandage on the side of his head sitting in the sun. He gave a quick smile and a wave of the hand. Chuck waved him over to sit and introduced himself.

"Hello, I'm Charles and I'm hiding from my keepers. My family is wandering around here someplace trying to find me, most likely. My wife thinks I'm suffering from 'early onset of dementia' and will probably put me in one of those 'leash things' you see kids wearing in the malls."

"Jeb Stuart. I'm sure it's not that bad. It's nice to meet a fellow American this far from home. Accident?" he gestured towards Chuck's bandage.

Chuck hesitated before answering. He decided that the truth would tell him more about the young man than any investigative report he'd read.

"Someone tried to kill me. Blew up our SUV on the way to the airport in an ambush. My friend and associate dragged me out before the truck exploded and got us out alive. Since you two are going to be in-laws, you should also know that I'm considering appointing him as my deputy and probable successor."

Jeb's jaw dropped but then his protective instincts kicked in. This was Yve's father!

"But that's the job Yve wants. It's all she talks about – taking your place when you retire. She's worked so hard to get where she is and you just can't dash her hopes like that. She's not some 'bubblehead' who's only interested in shoes and shopping! She's beautiful and smart and she's a Windsor Woman and will do a better job than anyone else!"

"Got you wrapped around her little finger, huh? Well, she could have done a lot worse. At least you're smart enough not to get in her way. She's a lot like Hannah, steel under all that softness. I suppose your parents think she's a, what did you call her? A 'bubblehead'?"

"Oh, no. That's just what Chai called her at breakfast…I mean, said that people thought of her as that because she only cared about being her mom's shopping buddy."

Chuck snorted a laugh. "Yeah, that's her cover, all right. I doubt that anyone who tried to mess with Hannah would have survived long enough to wonder how the airhead transformed into Conan the Barbarian. Oh, Jeb, the look on your face! I've known about Yve's alter-ego for years; she thinks she's so cool…"

They both looked for the source of the voice calling 'Chuck'. Chuck looked over at Jeb and said, "Our secret." He got up and walked rapidly away, farther into the garden and away from the hospital.

'So that's the famous 'Chuck'. Man, Dad's sure got a funny way of picking out friends.' He tried to imagine the former 2-term governor of Virginia mixing it up socially with Chuck. He laughed but the sobered up quickly at the sight of a worried Hannah.

"Jeb, Chuck's gone for a walk, damn him! Have you seen a tall man with a bandage on his temple?"

"Yeah, he's down there somewhere. He seemed okay when we talked. He never told me who he was and I didn't know he was a patient. He was wearing street clothes not a gown…"

"We had words and the next thing I knew he was gone. Damn him. He goes into one of his famous funks and walks around. No doubt I'll find him on a bench in the sun. It's where he does his best thinking. Yve and her sister are waiting in the room. She's probably thinking that your phone call has you upset. Go find her, Jeb. She's a bundle of nerves."

She found him exactly where she thought he'd be, sitting on a bench in the sun, his arms stretched out over the back and his legs sprawled out in front of him. She was quiet in her approach, not wanting to startle him if he was deep in thought or waken him if he was dozing.

Then she remembered why she was in the garden in the first place and she decided 'to hell with it' and walked quietly behind the bench and then stuck her tongue in his ear and wrapped her arms around his neck.

He didn't twitch or even startle…for a moment she thought he might be dead but suddenly she found herself flying over him and landing in his lap where he clutched her struggling body to him, pinning her arms against him.

He proceeded to suck hard on her neck and give her a hickey she'd later beat him for and then worked at her ear, knowing full well that she'd respond to him as if someone had thrown her 'horny switch'.

"Damn you, Chuck, you're in no condition to have the kind of sex you've made me want – hot, hard and fast, right here, right now."

He whispered in her ear, between nips and nibbles, "there's a bench in that glade right behind us. No one will see us and if you can refrain from screaming when I make you come, no one will hear us, either."

They got back to the hospital room 45 minutes later. Yve eyed her mother and covered a smirk with her hand but no one else seemed to notice that her skirt was wrinkled and that the left-side zipper was not on the right or that she had a look on her face that fairly shouted "I just had the most fabulous..." The look on Chuck's face wouldn't have fooled anyone.