10C: Growth
When he next visited Neal, Chuck found the little agent beside himself with worry. Observing the activity of agents around the place and how anxious Elizabeth was, he assumed something was happening with Peter.
Getting permission to talk to Neal alone, Chuck pulled him to the guest room upstairs where he'd been staying. "Alright, what's going on with Peter?"
"He's been taken, his cover was blown!" Trying not to lose control, Neal was battling his panic. "We don't even know if he's alive!" His eyes filled with tears and his face crumpled with the admittance.
Taking the kid into a hug, Chuck felt odd doing so but knew it was a good way to help. "Why didn't you say anything?"
"It's FBI, you're CIA," Neal found himself crying into his shoulder despite his efforts.
"So, we're all supposed to work together. What do you know?" Chuck thought they might be able to help.
Telling what he'd learned and what he knew of procedure, Neal gave him a dark picture.
"Okay, this could be worse. Until we have proof of the contrary, we're going to assume Peter is alive. Don't give up hope, Neal." Chuck gave him an earpiece so that he could transmit what he heard while also asking Neal to communicate through his brothers when he couldn't talk.
Wiping his tears away, Neal felt better with renewed home, "My brothers can't go into the field."
Ruffling his hair, Chuck reassured him, "No, but I can, and so can some of the others. We'll see what we can do."
Elizabeth seemed rather surprised to see him leave after such a short conversation, but she also seemed relieved to go up and see the kid for herself.
With a carefully dropped bug to monitor the agents downstairs even when Neal wasn't able to, Chuck left to begin tackling his self-assigned mission.
Returning to the safe house, Chuck asked Bryce to begin looking into what was happening through the official channels.
Then he called agent Winters, "Can you use your connection to Burke's team to see if your street contacts will help us find anything?"
He was relieved to hear that Winters was already on it. "Junior is monitoring from my safe house and keeping me plugged into the official chatter. Have Bryce connect with him to open the loop."
Following the instructions, Chuck then joined Bryce to gather the information and run it through his intersect.
They were companionable as they hacked and looked into the information together, but Chuck could still sense the distance Bryce was keeping by making it strictly professional. Fortunately, a painful flash helped him connect the group in question to a location that would be ideal for holding an FBI agent hostage. If they were lucky, they were holding Peter as leverage against the pursuing agency.
Calling Winters back, Chuck had him scout the location while he and the team suited up.
Morgan stayed behind to help man communications if something happened due to the triplets' shrunken state, but they acted as his support to assist as best they could under the circumstances.
The rest of the team took off in the van and headed to the site.
When they pulled up, Chuck put a mask over his face to avoid blowing his cover since Peter had seen him, and the others followed suit as this wasn't exactly sanctioned. The general knew they were helping, but the FBI wasn't supposed to.
Using stealth, the team approached the building and entered through the ventilation shafts or upper windows. Casey was too big for the shafts, so he was their feet on the ground through the windows. Chuck and Sarah took separate ventilation shafts to cover more ground quickly.
Being fortunate enough to find Peter himself, Chuck popped down through the room's vent to tranquilize everyone in the room but the intended victim.
Checking Peter, he found that the agent had been beaten and hurt, but he was still alive.
Radioing the others, he reassured them that Peter was alive and safe, but requested an ambulance to have his injuries tended.
With Winters notifying the FBI and his team handling the rest of the building's occupants, the situation was quickly resolved.
Pulling out just before the FBI and ambulance arrived, Chuck was glad to see Peter hauled away on a stretcher while his team took care of the henchmen.
Since the FBI had been taken care of, Chuck suggested dinner at his place. He collected the stack of pizzas and drinks while the others headed for his temporary residence.
Most of them were able to resolve their tasks easily enough, but Winters had a side trip to retrieve Junior from his safe house before he could catch up.
Setting up a pile of New York pizzas, Chuck encouraged everyone to help themselves.
While most of the group was eating and entertaining themselves, Chuck sat Bryce down with a plate. "Do you really think I don't want you around?"
Caught off guard, Bryce didn't have a response, but his stiffening posture and hurt expression were enough.
"I do, I want my other best friend around," Chuck told him while encouraging him to eat. "You and I both knew I had my issues with you in the past. Then this operation was totally unexpected, for so many reasons. However, now that I've had time to learn why you got me expelled, sent me dad's stuff, since I know Sarah loves me too, and now that I better understand your general situation, you can't use any of those as reasons for me not to want you around. I can understand if you don't want to be around me, but I want to know you're okay and hope for visits or online gaming sessions. Despite everything, I've missed you."
"Why? You've got Morgan to be nerdy with, Sarah does love you, even Casey trusts and respects you, and your family is back together. You're even a super spy in your own right, so you have no need for my help," Bryce said while picking at his toppings.
"Doesn't mean I don't need my other best friend; you don't replace Morgan, but Morgan doesn't replace you either." Chuck put an arm across his shoulders. "Do you remember when we reprogrammed the entire computer lab to play Batman's theme song at random?" He tried to initiate some reminiscing, a step towards achieving their old conversations.
Chuckling despite himself, Bryce remembered, "We got in so much trouble when it was traced back to us, but our teacher gave us a warning because it was 'an admirable show of using his lessons, but we'd better not do it again!'"
"No one else can share in those memories, don't forget that." Then he passed Bryce the contact card he'd made. It had his work and personal contact information along with information for several online gaming means for them to interact and keep in touch. "If you don't use at least one of those methods to reach out as often as you can, I will hunt your brothers down and have them help me hunt you down. That is only if I'm unable to hunt you down directly!"
Taking the card and looking it over, Bryce seemed at a loss for words, but whether he was surprised or communicating with his bothers, Chuck could only guess.
After a few minutes, Bryce softly asked, "You've forgiven me?"
Hugging him sideways, Chuck realized that no one did that often enough with Bryce. "Yes, I've forgiven you, and I thank you for always looking out for me!"
Trying to look away, Bryce attempted to hide the mist in his eyes; he probably thought he was too tough for tears.
Seeing what he was doing, Chuck used his lack of attention to turn Bryce for a full hug. "I should have told you that a long time ago, but I wasn't ready until after you'd died again."
Bryce was definitely surprised, but he allowed the hug and even returned it after a moment.
Enjoying the peace he finally felt on the subject, Chuck realized that the conversation was beneficial to both of them; to officially forgive and be forgiven. When he released his little friend, Chuck decided to add another tease, "Right now, you're my smallest friend. You know, you might even be able to play Yoda if you're still small for the next costume party."
Frowning at him, Bryce didn't want to be small long term, "If you're throwing a party soon, maybe, but I'd rather be someone taller, like Lando or Luke, since I'm sure you'd rather be Han to Sarah's Leia."
Dissolving into a discussion on nerdy costumes, Chuck took Bryce back closer to the main group to get everyone involved.
Waking up in the morning, Chuck was relieved to see a normal-sized Bryce and Junior curled up beside each other on the floor. Morgan was in his position on the couch while Winters was in the chair. Obviously, the transformation had occurred in the night, but both agents had been aware enough to change into proper-sized clothing.
Smiling, Chuck used his phone to take a picture before realizing that Neal had likely grown as well!
Sure enough, his phone started ringing with Peter showing on the caller ID.
Moving away from the sleepers, Chuck answered the call, "Hello, I'm on my way."
Peter was panicked and confused, "How do you know why I'm calling, what is going on?"
"I've got the other two asleep at my place so I assume the same thing happened to Danny. I will explain the rest when I get there." Chuck said as he pulled his keys and settled into the SUV he'd been loaned for the operation.
When he arrived at the Burkes, Peter let him in since he was home on leave after being picked up at the hospital that morning. Because of this, his wife was sitting staring at Neal who looked sheepish and a bit uncomfortable in his suit.
"Your brothers haven't woken up yet, but they're back to normal too. How do you feel, Neal?" Chuck didn't bother keeping the charade anymore.
Shrugging, Neal was still watching the Burkes as Peter sat down. "Normal, I woke up when I started growing back to normal and got dressed when I was big enough to fit my clothes again. Other than hurting a lot through the process, I don't seem to have any side effects."
Nodding, Chuck didn't know how else to take it, but in stride. Turning to the Burkes, it was time to start explaining. "My name is Charles Carmichael, and I'm a CIA agent. My team was brought in to work the operation with Neal and his brothers since Bryce and I are old friends. Things went fairly normal until the triplets were doused with something that shrunk them. Due to the stress they were going through, we sent each of them to their best friends, someone they'd feel more comfortable being small around. Neal chose you, but as the only one who was not aware of the other brothers and what was going on, it was decided by the bosses to do the foster care charade to hide him. Now that he's big, he can help you through your recovery to make certain he has no side effects before he can go back into the field too."
They weren't getting over their shock quickly, but the Burkes were eventually able to relax and each gave Neal a big hug.
Turning down their offer to join them, Chuck had his own group to return to. Then, as the Burkes walked him to the door, Chuck was relieved to hear Peter make some connections so that Neal wouldn't have to lie.
"Chuck, you and your team didn't happen to disrupt my torturers yesterday, did you?" Peter was looking at him with a calculating glance.
Twitching, Chuck knew he was found out, "It was our pleasure to help."
Reaching out to shake his hand, Peter was grateful for their assistance, "Thank you and I hope you'll pass that on, including to James and Bryce?"
No wonder Neal liked him, Peter was smart! "I'd be glad to, but I think the other two already know. How did you figure them out?"
Putting an arm around Neal and holding his wife's hand, Peter smiled happily, "I talked about Danny at the office and how given time, El and I might look into adopting him and his brothers." Neal looked at Peter in surprise so Peter squeezed his shoulders in a hug but kept going. "The talk digressed to the legends of identical triplet agents James, Danny, and Bryce. With everything else, it makes sense that we had a little agent Daniel Brooks as our guest for the last week."
"The brothers like to work with agents who can keep up so I see why Neal respects you so much. However, I think you'll enjoy having your best friend back in the office. I know I prefer Bryce full-sized and capable of defending himself if needed."
With a final goodbye, Chuck left the makeshift family to talk through the reveals. He had his own makeshift family to return to.
Later, once he was settled back home in California, Chuck reflected on the mission and realized that his family had grown through it.
Bryce was back in his life through online gaming and he'd even stopped by once to crash on the couch before an early flight to his next mission. James and Neal both emailed him once in a while if they had a question, or just to send him an update on Bryce when he couldn't reach out himself.
Even agents Burke and Winters had also been in contact in connection to Bryce's brothers along with the other friends of the triplets making them a large makeshift family.
Smiling as he saw an invite to a party in New York enter his email, Chuck was sure another get-together could be looked forward to along with more in the future.
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