Chuck vs. The Courtyard Bench
Well, in the previous chapter: Morgan, Devon, and Ellie give their advice on what he should or be for that matter in regards his non date with Sarah. Yet it would be Ellie who has the heart to heart conversation with her brother at a place that has great significance to him...The Santa Monica Beach. So what's in store for this chapter? Who will they be introduced to during their dining experience? What name is associated with the kitchen utensils that the owner of the restaurant uses? Where did Ellie find her bother hanging with when she was able to bring him to work? Read and find out! Anyways, hope you enjoy the read and leave a comment to share your own thoughts on this particular chapters. As always, reviews are awesome.
Again, if you enjoyed reading my stories and left a comment I truly appreciate it. Please continue to do so as it gives me the incentive to write more chapters.
I don't own Chuck
C3
XXX
Sarah didn't know where Ellie would be taking her for a night of being welcomed into the Westside Medical Center family. She knew one thing though and that food would most definitely be part of the conversation they would be having together. Fortunately for her, she would be right as both of them would be sitting at a seemingly exclusively upscale restaurant named C3. So exclusive reservations are booked months ahead of time, which was surprising to her since Ellie was able to get a table just by showing a card to the hostess and they were immediately whisked away to a private table. After being seated, they find themselves being greeted by their waitress who takes their drink orders but doesn't take their orders, which partly confused her. Thankfully, Ellie reassured her blonde compadre that they would be eating the Chef's special personally prepared for them.
While they were waiting, they started up a conversation to where Sarah is in the middle of discussing her unfortunate first impression of introducing herself to Ellie's brother and best friend in the courtyard the previous day.
"And that's when I walked up and Chuck is rapping a name referencing Batman. Vicky Vale.' she suddenly recalled pointing her right finger slightly up. "For a second, he was totally oblivious to me standing there lost within the rap until he glanced up. The costumes in his hands are dropped and the rest is history." she softly smiled expressed with a faint chuckle.
"I so wish I was there to witness that whole thing go down."
In that instance, she chimes in happily adding on to what believes made it such a memorable moment for her. "What he didn't realize while standing there for a few frozen with a deer in headlights look..."
"I know that look very well..." interjected Ellie faintly laughed. "...go on." urged the eldest Bartowski sibling.
"He suddenly noticed the sorting hat from Harry Potter sitting on top of his head. He quickly takes it off and hands it to Morgan."
"No way. Now I wish I had of been there just for the pic alone of him wearing it. Use it as blackmail to do my bidding like back when we were kids." Ellie shared tickled with laughter.
The mere mental image of Chuck wearing the sorting hat from Harry Potter is something she would kill to get her hands on if anyone at the hospital was able to snap a pic and saved it on their phone. While sitting there, she briefly makes a mental note to at least go to make a visit to the children's wing and talk to any of the nurses concerning said moment before the YouTube show started. Her thoughts concerning that particular matter would be set aside as she hears Sarah continue leading her to refocus and give her full attention to the new Chief Operating Officer.
"The look on his face. It spoke volumes." she retorted expressing a bit of laughter on her part. "It was cute." she breathed out. A faint but seemingly soft smile leading to a brief reflection of that particular moment that stood out to her.
Of course, it that brief moment Sarah is having that doesn't go unnoticed by Ellie as she can't help but feel a sense of growing warmth within her own heart. She reads that faint, soft smile as sign that Chuck unknowingly made a somewhat small but significant impact on her that she can vividly describe Chuck's deer in headlights expression and the fact that she accurately named what type of hat was sitting on top of his head. For her, it signifies 2 things she thinks to herself. In her mind, she's quite possibly a Harry Potter fan or Potterhead as the fandom passionately call themselves. How big of a fan is she, which also begs the question what house does she belong to. Slytherin? No. Gryffindor. She sets that thought aside until she does some further investigation on her part.
As for the 2nd, it says to her that Sarah is a nerd herself despite not outwardly showing it or referencing any nerdy pop culture references for the matter. I'll make sure to remind myself to pass potential piece of info along to Chuck when I see him or in fact text him, she thinks to herself. In that instance, big sister senses are most definitely tingling causing a rush of giddy excitement to build up within her so much so she has to force herself to break the stare she has had locked on her inordinate amount of time. Thankfully, it was a long enough stare that her new found blonde friend to notice since she was lost in thought as takes the opportunity in, somewhat pretending to peruse the wine list placed in the middle of their table. She is about to reach for it when she along with Sarah suddenly see a number of people setting up an hibachi grill in front of their table.
From their point of view, it's a set up with such precision timing it would be compared to the likes of a NASCAR pit crew changing a tire or tires during a race. In any case, within a blink of an eye they're done to where they immediately scatter disappearing out of site. It wouldn't be long before an individual dressed in a suit appears on the other side of their table. He's somewhat husky in both body and face, which rests black wire rim glasses. Glasses that for the most part take the attention away from his receding short length, light brown hairline He exudes a welcoming smile to greet the 2 women sitting down before him.
"Welcome to C3. Colt's Culinary Cuisine. Thank you for choosing my restaurant for your dining experiencing." he announced to both women. A courteous and pilot nod added on as well.
"Hi. I'm Ellie. This is my friend Sarah." she responded smiling up at the man.
A quick wave and nod is provided by Sarah as she speaks up. "This place is extraordinary." stated Sarah take a moment once again briefly the restaurant itself. "I'm sure the food will be exceptionally worthwhile Mr. Colt."
The man in question raises his up slightly and shakes his head. "Oh no. I'm Brad. Brad White. I'm his business partner. He... "His attention is then directed forward as he point to the ladies' right. "...is Mr. Colt."
Both women turn their heads back to where the hibachi grill is set up to find a large, bald African American man seemingly with no neck and arms that can easily bench press Morgan with ease tower over them. The sheer size of the massive man causes Sarah's eyes to widen as she slightly leans back while leaving her relatively speechless. She continues to sit there considerably flabbergasted as she suddenly sees the man in question remove his suit coat with just a dork short sleeve shirt that looks as if it was just painted on him. He then hands said suit coat off to a completely unknown individual. Her focus is totally locked on him to even bother looking or at least make an attempt to look. She continues to watch as Mr. Colt begins to stretch his neck in a somewhat slow counter clockwise fashion. The sound of cracking faintly heard while doing so.
The new Chief Operating Officer then witnesses the hulking mass of humanity extend his left arm in order to stretch with the use of his right arm. After a few seconds, he switches arms signifying he's limbering up. For what purpose she has no earthly idea. To eat the both of them is the main answer that's swirling within her mind right now. Afterwards, Sarah's eyes would grow even wider as his eyes drift down and eventually zero in to the point where they lock on to hers much to her horror. As much as she wants to grab a hold of Ellie's hand right now for support of any kind, she doesn't dare move or break eye contact for fear of what could possibly happen if she actually does. The consequences of her actions would be detrimental to her young life.
Sarah's thoughts concerning a life full of unfortunate past mistakes would be abruptly end when Mr. Colt speaks. "Can I ask you a question?" Mr. Colt's deep bass of a voice is equally as scary as Sarah responds the only way the she can right now. She nods leading him to continue on. "Do you find me imposing?" he added intently eyeing her. "I assume you find me imposing. I'm going for imposing."
XXX
The menacing star that's directed down towards a clearly unsettled Sarah suddenly soften to where the man's demeanor gradually breaks leading the blonde to quirk her right brow. A sense of confused bewilderment occurs as she notices Mr. Colt cracking a faint grin that turns into a wide smile. It's his smile that would end up morphing the sound of deeply expressive laughter. A sound that in her considerably perplexed state of mind resembles Jabba The Hutt's laugh and the reason she knows that is because she in the gym earlier in the day located in the condo she lives at. While standing on, the treadmill preparing herself to do some light running, the tv was on just off to her right, and it was showing Star Wars set with subtitles. It was early in the movie where the guy named Luke enters the big slug's house and he basically threatens him to release his friends. She hears the big slug laughs and that was pretty much the extent of her viewing. She ended up putting her earbuds to listen to her personalized playlist on her Zune and proceed to being her workout consisting of some light running.
Although Sarah went mentally off course briefly, she would instantly return back to the confusingly perplexing sight of Mr. Colt now belly laughing in front of her. It's at that point, she hears another set of laughter but this time the source of the sound being heard is sitting across from her...Ellie. Upon seeing Ellie now laughing causing to momentarily look back and forth from Mr. Colt to Ellie. After for what seems like forever of being rendered speechless, she finally speaks up. "Ellie..." The brunette's name stumbling out of her mouth. "...what's going on?" she asked shaking her head in disbelief. "Am I being Punk'd?
In that instance, the laughter subsides leading Ellie to fess up. "Sarah Walker..." she said motioning up to Mr. Colt. "...meet Colter Biggs. Head chef and the owner of C3."
"Half owner." All 3 turn their attention to the man standing on the other side of the table. "We're business partners remember."
"40% stake as I recall and yes..." nodded Colt. "...I do."
"Still.." shrugged Brad. His smile never wavering from his lips. "...part owner." he added with a bit of chuckle.
The short conversation between Brad and Mr. Colt would subsequently be over as Ellie stands up. In doing so, Sarah watches as Mr. Colt and Ellie exchange hugs then direct their attention back to completely befuddled Sarah who at this point is waiting for answers. She doesn't have to wait long.
"My apologize Sarah. A couple of years ago I suffered a heart attack here and by a stroke of good luck..." Mr. Colt briefly glances at Ellie standing next to him. "...she was in the restaurant."
"Anniversary dinner with Devon.." chimed in Ellie. "I sprang into action with Devon assisting me. Our quick action saved his life. Called an ambulance and took him to Westside Medical Center for precautionary measures."
"I ended up having surgery to get a pacemaker inserted." Colt shared reaching up to place his baseball mitt of a hand against his chest. "I owe my life to Ellie and her husband." He said pointing to her taking a moment to wrap his seemingly enormous right arm around her. A soft side squeeze applied. He continues on catching up with the woman who saved his life. "How is he by the way? Baby girl?"
"Devon is doing great. Clara's not a baby anymore. She's 6 now."
Colt flashed a gleeful smile. "Man. Growing up fast." He continues on. "And what about Charles Carmichael?"
"Who?" wondered Ellie, slightly arching her right brow.
Instantly, Colt corrects himself. "Sorry. I mean Chuck. It's another name I know him by. Inside joke between the two of us. He calls me Kingpin. Some comic book character I reminded him of and would make for an awesome live movie version villain. His words not mine." he said raising both hands in front of him. A faint hint of a chuckle breathed out. "Don't know much about that stuff." he shared once again shrugging his shoulder. "What I do know is food."
It's at that point, the mention of Chuck's name warranted a reaction from her. It's another point of interest that in all likelihood will be added to her mission objectives into finding out the meaning behind the name Charles Carmichael. This leads her to immediately interject her voice into the mix. "How do you know Chuck?" she blurted out without even thinking.
"Well..." responded Mr. Colt. "...Chuck along with 2 other guys he personally recommended to help create a program for and engineer a cipher. It's the artificial brain for my computerized kitchen that I refer to as The Chamber. State of the art." Colt humbly shrugs his massive shoulders then changes the subject back to the unfortunate aftermath of what happened to him. "Anyways, a couple days after my heart attack, Ellie checked up on me as I was recovering in my hospital room. We got to talking and the rest is history. This woman right here and her family will always be given special consideration. They're family to me. No question asked. "
Sarah is momentarily silent as she takes in all the information being shared by Ellie and Mr. Colt. After briefly mulling it over. "Does it apply to friends too?" she inquired raising both eyebrows. A growing smile shooting up towards the now perceived gentle giant of a man. Speaking of the gentle giant, he momentarily stares at Sarah who suddenly winks up at him then turns his attention to Ellie who can't help but express laughter leading Mr. Colt to bust out laughing. His reaction causes Sarah to do the same as well with Brad White simply expressing a slight chuckle. In any case, it would lead to Mr. Colt motioning for Ellie to have a seat as he is then assisted in putting on his white head chef smock and matching hat. As for Brad white, he tends to the other patrons within the restaurant his business partner of C3 with Ellie and Sarah.
Speaking of the 2 ladies in question, a tray of already pre prepared and uncooked cuisine ready to cook is wheel in from his left. The head chef and 60% owner of C3 is then handed a significantly large kitchen knife and honing steel sharper. Kitchen utensils that he endorses and sold in countless retail stores across United States, as well as overseas. He inked a deal with the company called Fulcrum, which would most definitely be considered a lucrative partnership between for Colt. Of course, it's a partnership that been making a killing, so to speak, in regards to financial profit. In any case, after taking a moment to sharpen said kitchen knife, he tilts his head to the right where a covered tray appears. The cover would be immediately removed to find one of the main dishes sitting there. Roasted duck. It's then at Mr. Colt begins to work his magic as the waiter assisting him places the uncooked cuisine on top off the hibachi grill to cook. The sound of sizzling is music to both women's ears as they are in for a truly worthwhile dining experience.
XXX
Sarah's assumptions were certainly spot on concerning Mr. Colt's culinary cuisine being exceptionally worthwhile. For most of their dinner, the two hardly spoke as they enjoyed, with absolute pleasure, eating their food they were privileged enough to literally have a front row seat in being cooked. Both women pampered with food and wine along with refills to their heart's content all thanks to one Mr. Colt by way of the truly heroic efforts of Dr. Ellie Woodcomb. During a momentarily lull of their dining experience, both women would take the opportunity to take a breather allowing the 2 colleagues to talk more. It would be Ellie who break the silence out of sheer curiosity after the conversation she had with her little brother earlier today at Casa Bartowski.
"So, do you know where you and Chuck are going on your da..." Ellie quickly stops mid word then corrects herself. "...non date? Sorry. It's just that it's been so long that my brother has hung out with any girl since..." Once again Ellie stops not wanting to say the name that will never be uttered by her lips.
"It's ok." responded Sarah giving a slight shrug. She can clearly notice the uncomfortable awkwardness coming over Ellie after she nearly said a name that would forever symbolism the movie reference of Mount Dome. So, she decides to initiate the conversation in a very cautious and not to mention tactful way. "I know it's a sore subject, but how long were she and Chuck together?"
"She?"
"Jill. I had a talk with Devon yesterday. I was having a rough 2nd day mentally. I asked him if he had time to talk with me."
"Did you?"
A slight nod is given in response. "He shared most but not everything. He pretty much said to leave the rest up to you since you know your brother inside and out. Those are his exact words."
Ellie sit there letting her words sink in on her request to share the ins and outs pertaining to Chuck. That along with the good, bad, ugly and incredibly nasty details involving a name that will always leave a bad taste in her mouth. After taking a moment to look away she takes a deep breath and briefly closes her eyes to mentally prepare herself. It's not long before she slowly opens them directing her attention back to Sarah. "Jill Roberts. They were together for 3 years."
"Until she cheated on him." she chimed in. Sarah's full attention on her. "The summer of Mount Doom. That I do know. What I don't know and I'm leaving this up to you for your own indiscretion involving the details of how he found out. Her and Bryce. Chuck's ex best friend and former roommate at Stanford."
"It's not something I care to discuss..." Ellie struggled to say but forges on the best she can. "...but I have an awesome feeling about you."
"Really? It's just that you hardly know me. It's how I feel at least. No offense."
A soft smile is expressed as Ellie shakes her head and locks eyes with Sarah. "None taken. Honestly, I get a totally opposite feeling from you. It's as if you may be the key to unlocking what Chuck has buried deep within himself for years. He's never bothered to dig it back up since."
"I'm the key?" Sarah retorted with disbelief. Both eyebrows raising high. "Feeling the pressure now."
"Sorry. I'm not saying you are, it's just that..." Ellie stops in order to reshuffle her thoughts. Afterwards, she begins again. "My brother buried a part of himself in what his best friend refers to as his Dead Man's Chest. Not something I would have called but it fits. It's a reference to the 2nd Pirates of the Caribbean movie."
"I've seen it..." nodded Sarah. "...mainly for Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom." A cheeky smile expressed after revealing that tidbit to her colleague.
Ellie expressively eyes Sarah agreeing with her cheeky assessment on the male leads of the 2nd blockbuster movie. Afterwards, she continues on with a sense of seriousness as she refocuses her thoughts. "Listen..." softly stated Ellie leaning forward. "...even if it turns out you're not the key to all this for Chuck, at least you're the one who at least helped him dig out that chest he buried deep within himself."
"And I may be the right key?"
"It's a possibility. If not, then at least he gets you as friend out of this whole thing who is able to genuinely understand the sheer complexity and not to mention utter simplicity of who he really is. Ying and the yang of what makes Chuck...Chuck."
It's at the point, Sarah has her way in pertaining to her overall mission objective. In that instance, she gives a nod and proceeds with her mission. "Okay. Give me a better understanding of who he is then. Starting with how he found out."
"Are you sure?" Ellie responded with a mixture of hesitance and hopeful optimism.
After reaching for a taking a sip of wine. She looks directly at Ellie with willful determination. "I have nowhere to go. Plus, you drove me here." the Eldest Walker grinned.
"Okay then." Before sharing all things Chuck, she too takes a sip of win and afterwards reveals the details of the cause of the break up. Sarah sitting across from her there giving her full and direction attention to her while enjoying the rest of what remains of their pleasurable meal thanks to Mr. Colt.
XXX
"Wait..." Sarah said shaking her head. "...so, Chuck had a feeling that one his frat brothers was stealing stuff. So, he set up hidden cameras through his frat house to nab the culprit and turn him into the Dean?" she added with absolute disbelief.
"Yup. It's wasn't just him who suspected it but a few of his other frat brother too. They were missing some of their possession as well. It went on for at least a month and half." she explained. "Of course, Chuck didn't tell any of them about him setting up the hidden cameras. He would program an algorithm and utilizing facial recognition inputting the faces of everyone living in the frat house to accurately know who was taking their stuff."
"So, did he catch the thief?"
"He did. The kid got kicked out of Stanford. Turns out one of his brothers Jake. He was in deep and owed big time with a bookie." nodded Ellie raising both eyebrows. "However, in the process of going through the video footage. He saw Bryce and a female stumbling into their room and onto a bed. He looked at the time stamp and not to mention the date of when it happened."
"What did he find out?"
"Ellie takes a deep breath before continuing on. "Chuck remembered 2 days prior before finding out that he and Bryce were having a shoot out in the Stanford Library."
"Shoot out?"
"Nerf guns." she retorted rolling her eyes. A faint chuckled expressed by Sarah in response. "Anyways, Bryce won and before parting ways he received a call. It looked very secretive from what Chuck gather but didn't much pay attention to it. In his mind, it was probably another booty call because according to Chuck Bryce "always got the great girls." she explained further in air quotes.
"So, he was able to tell it was Jill right away on the at video."
"Not at first. It wasn't until Jill made a call in the room that things started to click. During that time, he knew Jill was supposed to be at her computer programming class as they were ending their nerf war. Chuck headed off for a lunch later at the cafeteria while Bryce supposedly head off to practice."
"Bryce never did actually go to track practice, did he?"
"Nope. He confirmed it was Jill when she texted him asking what he was up to. Of course, he texted back that's heading over to the college cafeteria for a late lunch, which was located on the other side of campus. Plus the fact, she was the only girl in that house that entered during that specified time and made the call that Bryce received. Plus the fact, he saw them on video doing it."
"That bitch." breathed out Sarah. Her sudden realization of the words slipping out from her own mouth.
Fortunately for Sarah, Ellie agreed with her. "Indeed she is." nodded the good doctor. "May 13, 2003. He confronted them both but they adamantly denied it until he showed them the evidence to prove it."
"Did that get them to fess up."
"Eventually. Instead of a reason why, he got a slap in the face. The relationship would be over. For him, the pain of being cheated on was far greater than the pain of being slapped in the face." shared Ellie with a sense of sadness in her voice. "Chuck was never the same after that. Bryce's argument was that Jill came on to him."
"Did he believe him?"
"He didn't. Neither did I, Devon, or Morgan for that matter."
Sarah shakes his head in disbelief of it all. "So how long before he was about to become himself again? Devon told me that it wasn't until the start of his Senior year at Stanford that there was a sign of some initial hope. I'm just paraphrasing what he said."
"He was right. One day I forced him to come with me to work just to get him out of the house. Thankfully he showered that night because the smell..." Ellie could express a momentary gagging reflex showing Sarah how truly bad it was. "As you know I'm a doctor."
"Yes, I'm well aware of that." smiled Sarah expressing a bit of amusement.
Ellie expresses a chuckle of her own but quickly continues on. "My specialty is neurology. Well, on the day of July 20th, 2003, I took Chuck to work with me. I was called to the children's wing of the hospital. One of the kids was recovering from brain surgery after being diagnosed with a rare brain disorder called Batten Disease."
"Is it fatal?" wondered Sarah.
"It is. Typically begins in childhood and the onset of symptoms is usually kids between 5 to 10 years of age."
"How old was the child." she asked taking a sip of wine.
"She was 7. Clara was 1 at the time. Anyways..." Ellie takes a moment to clear her throat then takes a sip of wine in quench her thirst. Afterwards, she continues on. "...her name was Makenna Gould. Sweet kid. Somewhat shy. She unfortunately passed away at the age of 14."
"That's so sad to hear." Sarah pauses a moment due to the impact of the news of Makenna's death. She's experienced hearing the news in the past while working at Memorial Medical and nobody is ever fully prepared to take the news of any child's death. Not even a woman whose nickname was the Wildcard Enforcer. She shakes that particular thought out of her head and refocuses. "Where was Chuck?"
"While I went over her results of her cat scan with her parents Chuck was left to himself. He went roaming around like a zombie in his sweatpants, Chuck Taylor high tops, and wearing his Stanford sweatshirt with the hoodie covering his head. At least he was outside somewhere rather than wasting himself away in his room." she further shared with Sarah. "I lost track of time and ended up searching for him."
"Where did you find him?"
"He was sitting with one of the kids. I would find out later from Alex that his name is Joshua Rush. 9 years old. He was battling a very form of Retinoblastoma. It's eye cancer that begins in the back of the eye or both eyes, located mainly in the retina area." she explained pointing to her own eyes. "Though it has only a few symptoms, the main way to spot it is by seeing if the pupils appear white when light is shined into the eyes by way of using flash photography."
"What does that do?"
"It helps indicate if the eyes are looking in different directions. Joshua's did certainly that, which would cause him to miss out being able to see what most of us tend to take for granted. Instead of feeling sorry for him, he helped in a very heart-warming way."
"What did he do?"
"Joshua's favorite video game to play before his eyesight got bad was Call of Duty. From what Alex shared with me, he hadn't played that game in months because his eyes were bothering him so much. So, he gave up on the game he loved to play. It provided escapism for him from all the chemotherapy, radiation, and laser therapy treatments. So, he played the game with Josh and instead of playing it himself, he handed the X-Box controller to him while he described out loud what he was doing. At first, he didn't want to, but since my brother is a gamer himself, it took a tremendous amount of encouragement on his part until Joshua started playing." Ellie pauses reflecting back on the particular moment in time. A soft, warm smile is expressed as she speaks up continuing to share with Sarah how Chuck went above and beyond to help bring some much needed joy into the young man's life. "He went even so far as being patient enough to help him figure out what buttons to press, which any kid would remember without really looking given time. However, from what Chuck told me all gamers tend to forget muscle memory in their fingers when they haven't played in a long time. My brother actually took the time to help Joshua regain that muscle memory in his fingers that he gradually lost."
"How is Joshua now?"
"Unfortunately, Joshua lost the use of his eyes. On the bright side though, he's happy at home with a new found sense of insightful perspective. He's 16 now and a very active gamer playing the game he loves Call of Duty thanks to Chuck. Granted, the games have changed over the years since 2003. Fortunately for him, Chuck takes the newest games that come out like Call of Duty to take over and play with him whenever he gets a chance to, Even when he's busy he finds the time to make room for kids like Joshua. Plus, since technological advances have progressed each year new potential inventions ideas like the Electric Eye are being considered for production."
"Yeah. I've actually read an article online from Time and their picks for the best new gadgets and breakthrough for the next decade. This was some time last year in 2009 back while I was still in D.C. MIT researchers have been in the developmental stages of creating a microchip that could help blind people regain partial sight. Though, it wouldn't completely restore normal vision. it would however enable a blind person to at least recognize faces, navigate a room without assistance..."
"Play video games with a certain nerd we both know." A wide, exuberant smile is given after hearing that piece of news regarding Joshua's prognosis. "That's such awesome news about Joshua. Brings a smile to my heart since I was part of the Board of Directors for the Children's Miracle Network back when I worked for Langley Memorial Medical."
"That's awesome. It's something in common you sort of both share." Inwardly, Ellie is completely composed with all her faculties remaining absolutely calm and in control. Inside however, she screaming her head off with joy and doing a happy dance while bouncing off the walls as well with absolute pure elation. Unfortunately, she would have to continue to outwardly keep herself together. "Sadly though, it's still in the conceptual idea stage. Human trial testing won't happen for another few years much to Chuck's disappointment after reading the article that I showed him." Ellie shakes her head after that particular though then refocuses back with a soft smile once again. "You want to know the best part?"
"Please." she responded with eagerness.
"They still get together from time to time to play Call of Duty. Joshua beats him every time and Chuck doesn't even mind. Brings along Morgan every now and then.
"Wow..." Sarah said in disbelief. "...and Chuck doesn't talk about this stuff to anyone?"
"He considers it something personal that nobody needs to know about. He's that kind of guy. Humble. Not at all braggadocios. Keeps a level head about himself. Puts the focus on others before ever putting focus on him. Though I do have to knock some sense into him every now and then when he's being a butthead. I am his older sister after all. It's my job."
"Is that when his YouTube show started?"
"Pretty much."
"The kids should have him as their overall choice of Rockstar Rebel. He is deserving of it. A truly great, sweet..."
It's at the point Ellie notices Sarah once again momentarily get lost within her own thoughts. It's during her brief time of zoning out, she can keenly tell the mere thought of Chuck is having an effect on her in an absolutely positive way. In her mind, maybe her sister's intuition is right and Sarah is the key to unlocking Chuck's metaphorical dead man's chest that been deeply buried within himself. Her thoughts concerning of potentially being right about Sarah abrupt end when she notices her come out of her momentary zone out, leading her to speak up.
"Anything else you want to know?"
"Yeah..." Sarah knows this line of questioning will be incredibly tough so she proceeds with caution once again. "...your parents leaving. How has it affected him...and you growing up?"
Ellie doesn't answer right away. She turns away briefly and peers down but a few seconds later returns her attention back to Sarah. She takes a deep breath like she's done previously and then gives her response. "We're gonna need another bottle wine if you we're going to discuss that subject." she stated holding her finger up in the air. She signals a nearby waiter and points to the wine. Afterwards, she does several nods then prepares herself what she considers an immensely difficult part of her and Chuck's childhood.
XXX
NOTE: ONCE AGAIN, I TRULY APPRECIATE THE COMMENTS AS THEY DRIVE ME TO WRITE MORE CHAPTERS! I HOPE YOU ABSOLUTELY ENJOY THIS CHAPTER! PLEASE LEAVE A REVIEW LIKE ALWAYS! WHAT I'LL SAY ABOUT CHUCKS NON DATE WITH SARAH IS GOING TO SOMETHING TOTALLY OUTSIDE THE BOX THAT IS COMPLETELY VEERS OFF TO WHAT HAPPENED IN THE SERIES WITH THEIR DATE AT THE MEXICAN RESTAURANT. STAY TUNED FOR CHAPTER 7 WHICH I WILL BE WORKING IN DUE TIME.