A/N1: Yeah. Ownership of Chuck. Ok, then.
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Ellie had just started the water to boil for the pasta when she heard a knock on the door. Wiping her hands on a dish towel, she went to the door and looked through the peephole. Chuck.
"Hey, little brother," she greeted him with a smile and a kiss. "What's up? I'm just starting dinner. Want a glass of wine?"
"No thanks, El. I've got some good news. The detectives we had dinner with the other night found the Fulcrum base where they were testing their fucked up intersect. Where Fulcrum was killing the homeless. We hit it this afternoon and shut it down."
Ellie grinned in delight. "That's great. I'm so relieved," she said. "Such a nightmare for all those poor people...the victims. Was anyone hurt in the raid?"
"Casey lost a toe in the gunfight, but otherwise the good guys are ok."
"Well, people can get along fine missing a toe. How about the Fulcrum agents?" she asked.
"Only two survived. Couple of dozen casualties on their side of the ledger," he said.
Ellie stared, shocked, "Couple of dozen? So many? Jesus."
"I know," her brother said, "Almost all from a download of the faulty intersect."
"What? How did that happen?"
Chuck spent a few minutes explaining to her how it had worked out that the Fulcrum people had died by their own creation.
"Ok, then. Nice. I'm good with how that all worked out, I think. Will I get the bodies to check out their brains?"
"Yeah. They are being sent to Doctors and Nurses. You can do the autopsies. At least the important part."
"Great. I'll get MRI's ordered in the morning before there's too much degradation. Not that I expect much new from the tests, but still. Anyway, it's good to hope the threat to the homeless is over," she said.
"Well, at least for the time being, I hope. Who can say they are done with their testing? But at least they had a setback."
"Yeah. Slow them down somewhat."
"I have the data from their computers. Tell us what they were up to and what they got wrong about the intersect. Where should I send it?"
"I'll text you the name of the right guy back east. You're sending it by messenger, right? Because we are still offline and airgapped because of the Orion threat."
"Yeah. I am. And that Orion thing. I haven't forgotten and I'm coming up with a trap for him, but it's got to be pretty subtle. He's a computer genius. I have to be really smart to lure him out."
"I trust you. I know you'll come up with something brilliant," she said.
"I'd be happy with something dumb, but effective," he said with a laugh, but then his mien became serious. "But speaking of luring someone out...dad showed up this morning."
"Showed up? What's that mean?" she asked, more than a little stunned by the news.
"Showed up." He jerked a thumb over his shoulder at the fountain. "Just wandered in this morning. Sat on the edge of the fountain and waited for us to notice him. Sarah and I are having dinner with him tonight at Jackie's. He said he wants to reconnect with us."
As he was talking Ellie's mood had darkened. "With you, you mean."
"Well, I don't know. I guess so. You were pretty clear about your feelings when we saw him."
"Are you going to do it? Are you going to reconnect?" Her voice was hard, but Chuck knew her anger wasn't directed at him.
Chuck said, "Yeah. I mean I guess I'll try. Who knows how that will go, but .. well...we'll have dinner with him and see what happens next."
She turned back to the kitchen and moved to the stove. "Have fun." She didn't sound like she meant it.
"Unlikely, but thanks, I guess. I wanted to tell you. I knew you wouldn't be happy, but I wasn't going to go behind your back."
She turned off the heat under the water and turned back to him with a softer expression. Softer than iron, but softer. "Thanks. I understand. I understand you want to have your dad back and who could blame you? Good luck."
Chuck made a face and said, "El..."
She interrupted with a raised hand and said, "No. I'm serious. Good luck. I hope you find what you are looking for. Look, you and I, although we were together the whole time, we had very different experiences." Ellie moved to the fridge and took out a bottle of wine, pouring herself a large glass. "What works for you does not necessarily work for me. I really do wish you the best... you and him, I guess. I hope it works for you both. But I don't want to be around him. I don't." She took a large swallow of wine.
"I understand, El. I do. I won't get him in your face."
Still looking hard, she drank some more wine and said, "Thanks. Have fun tonight."
"Thanks."
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Morgan was behind the bar making a Boulevardier, a Negroni but made with bourbon rather than gin, when Chuck and Sarah came in with a somewhat older man.
He froze where he was standing, holding the bottle in his hand as if he'd seen a ghost. "Mr. B," he whispered to himself in shock. "Holy shit."
Eileen saw him standing there and followed his gaze. "Who's that?"
"Chuck's dad," he said.
"The guy who bailed on them when they were kids?"
"Yeah," Morgan said, still in shock. "I haven't seen him in over fifteen years."
"No, shit," she said, looking at the threesome curiously. "You going to go say hello?"
"Maybe later. For now, I'll just stay behind the bar and watch. Safer here."
"Seems like a smart decision," she said, giving him a pat on the back.
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The place was packed with customers, as it had been almost every night since Morgan's spectacular review in the Times, but Jackie would always find a spot for Chuck and Sarah, reservations or not.
Once the three were seated there was an awkward silence. Stephen was looking around the restaurant and, as much as possible, seemed to be avoiding looking directly at Chuck and Sarah. Chuck broke the silence by saying, "Dad, we're extremely grateful to have you home."
Stephen gave a soft smile and said, "Thanks, Charles. It's good to see you too. And nice to meet you too, Sarah." She smiled at him. "So," he continued, "tell me about your company. Your cybersecurity company."
Chuck launched into the unclassified version of what the company did. Told him the government organizations they didn't really do any work for. How many employees they had and where they had their offices. Told his dad, with some unfeigned pride, about the interest Microsoft had shown in acquiring them.
"Oh, that's just great, Charles. I knew you'd be a success. You've always been the smartest one in the family."
"What do you do, Stephen?" asked Sarah.
"Chuck didn't tell you?" he asked.
"No. You showed up unexpectedly this morning and then we were a bit busy today. Didn't get much of a chance to talk," she said with a smile.
"Busy. Yes, busy. Oh, well, I sort of do what Chuck does. Computers. Electronics. Technology."
"That's interesting. Like what?" Sarah asked.
"Oh, well, like that TV over there," he pointed over the bar. "I invented that."
"What?" Sarah asked, surprised.
Chuck had a bad feeling his dad was wandering off into some kind of dreamland again.
"Yeah. The helix shaped plasma crystals in the display. I invented those," said Stephen.
"No kidding?" said Sarah. "That's great." She saw Chuck's expression and understood to take Stephen's statements with a grain of salt.
"Yes. In high school," said Stephen. "Never saw a dime from it. And touch screen technology. That was one of mine too. Ted Roark and I came up with it back in grad school."
"You went to school with Ted Roark?" asked Chuck, with a bit of surprise. "I never knew that."
"From Roark Instruments?" asked Sarah.
"Yeah. I did. He's a lying thief. He took all my ideas and stole them. I never got anything," complained Stephen. "I still have the original touch screen schematics someplace."
'Oh, boy,' thought Chuck. 'Dad is just as nutty as I remember. This was going to be a pretty uncomfortable dinner.'
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Later, at home, Sarah had reassured Chuck that dinner hadn't really been as bad as he'd thought. That for all his dad's kookiness, he was a nice man and clearly loved his son. So, he fantasized about inventing the modern world and harbored a half-baked grudge against Ted Roark. It wasn't a big deal.
In any event, Chuck had gone to bed as soon as they got back from dinner, tired from the long day and the earlier attack on the Greene Center. Sarah had read in bed for a while next to him and just come out to the kitchen for a glass of water before she turned out the light to sleep. Looking out the kitchen window, she saw Ellie sitting on the edge of the fountain, alone, elbows on her knees, staring at nothing.
Sarah drank her water and watched Ellie for a moment or two, then pulled on a robe and quietly went out to the fountain.
She didn't say anything, just sat down silently next to her friend.
They sat for a while until Ellie said, "I can't forgive him. I'm not as charitable as Chuck is. I just can't." She sounded sad, almost resigned.
"I understand. He hurt you. He hurt you a lot. You're allowed to be angry. No one will judge you for it. No one. Especially not Chuck."
"I know he won't. It's just that...I'm judging myself. Why aren't I a better person? Why can't I forgive? What's wrong with me?" she said.
Sarah pondered for a while, thinking about how she should answer that. "You are who you are. I happen to think you are a wonderful person. Kind, loyal, brilliant, funny, loving, wise, strong. I think you're pretty terrific, Ellie."
With a smirk, Ellie leaned over and gave Sarah a bump with her shoulder. "Yeah, but you're biased. You're my pal."
"I am. And I always will be. You have every right in the world to hold on to your anger at your dad. Or to let it go and forgive him. Whichever you may choose. It's not up to anyone but you."
"Thanks," said Ellie quietly.
Sarah said, "Maybe you shouldn't force it, girlfriend. He only showed back up this morning. Maybe it's not like a light switch. On and off. Maybe it's a process. Maybe it happens over time. Gradually. I don't know." She shrugged a little helplessly.
They sat silently for a while longer and then Ellie asked, "How was dinner?"
"Um. Nice. It was nice," Sarah said.
"Nice, huh? He's still nuts, isn't he?" asked Ellie.
"I think eccentric is the polite term nowadays, but you're the doctor," said Sarah with a small smile.
"Yeah, that figures," Ellie said. "Crazy old dad. Lucky me."
"Well, my dad is a career criminal and ex-con. In the grand lottery of life, I don't know. A little eccentric doesn't sound so bad to me to be honest."
Ellie gave a quiet snort of laughter. "How did you do it, Sarah? How did you forgive your dad for all the bullshit he put you through?"
"Because despite all the bullshit, I love him, Ellie. I love my dad. I know that sounds too simple, but it's the truth."
"I suppose I love my dad too. But I don't know that it's enough," said Ellie.
"But, El, that's the wrong question. My dad didn't leave me. Not voluntarily, anyway. It's the wrong analogy." Sarah's voice caught in her throat as her own emotions began to overwhelm her.
"Right, of course not," said Ellie.
"No, you don't understand. I'm not being clear. You want a better analogy, think about me and my mom."
"You're right, I don't understand," said Ellie.
"Your dad left you and you can't forgive him. Ok. I left my mom and she's forgiven me. I left her for twenty years. Years we'll never get back. But we started again." Sarah was crying now and Ellie put her arm around the younger woman's shoulders. "She forgave me, Ellie. I didn't deserve it. I certainly didn't earn it. I can barely even believe she did it to tell you the truth. But she did. Whatever anger at me she harbored...justified anger for sure...she's let go. And although we can't make up the time we lost, we can do our best to pick up from where we are today. I can't explain it, but I am grateful...I …. I can't even put into words how incredibly grateful I am. And I will be grateful every single day for the rest of my life. It's a gift that my life has given to me that I will do everything I can to … well, to make her happy with her choice. Her choice to forgive me and to allow me back into her life."
"She loves you, Sarah," said Ellie.
"She does. The love of a parent for their child," said Sarah, still sniffling a bit from her emotional release.
"And...and the love of a child for her parent," said Ellie in a whisper, her own eyes glassy.
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Sam Ingram opened the doors a little before 10AM to the People's Care facility for the homeless. On his way inside, he picked up the mail from the box by the door. Moving through the space, he turned on the lights.
Beth would be in within a few minutes. She was on time, but he was early. He had just sat down at his ancient desk when she came in with Starbucks coffee for him in a paper cup.
"Thanks, kiddo," he said.
"Sure thing, boss," she replied, heading over to the back area to begin to pull out some of their supplies for the men and women they would have visiting today.
Using a ballpoint pen as a letter opener, Ingram began to go through the mail. Bills, bills, and more bills. A letter from a state agency asking for more information for a grant application. Information he'd sent them twice already.
The last letter was from a return address he didn't recognize. He opened it and stared dumbfounded at the contents. He realized his hands were shaking and his vision had gotten blurry. With a somewhat strangled voice, he called for Beth.
She came running to his office, thinking there was something wrong.
Wordlessly, he handed her the contents of the envelope. It was a letter from the Carmichael Foundation signed by a woman named Rachel Bernstein. And a check for $100,000. Beth started to cry.
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A/N2: And that's a wrap. The Mauser arc is done. Happy ending? Eh. Homelessness is such a huge, pervasive, and enduring problem that the Carmichael Foundation contribution is a mere drop in the bucket. But it's at least appreciated by the good people at Peoples Care (the real-life institution is The People Concern). And as for our favorite couple, none of the "will they/won't they" angst from the endings of both Suburbs and Santa Claus. Just friendship and love.
A/N3: I don't know if anyone's been keeping track, but to finish up season 2 we are getting into a run of arcs which will all be devoted to the war against Fulcrum. We'll have a slight distraction when the famous British rockstar Tyler Martin needs saving, but otherwise Team B will be fighting Fulcrum for a long stretch. Right up to the wedding in December, to tell the truth. Orion. Jill. The return of Vincent Smith (who has Rasputin-like survival skills). Ted Roark. Good guys. Bad guys. Shooting. Explosions. Charah. You know, stuff. Hope you guys approve as New Day rolls on and on.