2:47 A.M.
July 11th, 2018
Bob Richter’s phone jarred him from his sleep. “Uhm-mggah,” he groaned, rolling over to grab his phone.
Number blocked, it said. “Thhell?” he slurred.
“’llo?” he said, pressing the talk button.
“Hello, Bob,” came a voice he hadn’t heard in years.
Richter sat bolt upright in bed. “You’re DEAD! YOU’RE FUCKING DEAD!” he screamed into his phone. Pressing the end button, he heaved the phone across the room.
A moment later, it rang again. Reluctantly, Bob got out of his bed, crept across the room, and picked the phone up. “Hello?”
“That was rude, Bob. Screaming at me and then hanging up.”
“I read the report. NSA officially listed you as deader than a tree.”
“Well, I’m not,” the voice replied testily. “And guess what, Bob? It’s time to start the game again.”
“No WAY,” Richter replied. “I barely escaped when that jackass Bartowski ripped Fulcrum open and spread us out for the whole country to see.”
“Well, good news, Bob. That’s who we’re going for!”
“Look, I can’t.”
“Yes you can, Bob.”
“And if I don’t?”
“Then I will kill you. I will rape your wife and your sixteen year old daughter and then kill them. I will burn your house to the ground with you in it. I will smear your name from one side of this continent to the other.”
“Like you even know where I live.”
“I’m standing outside your house, Bob.”
1:32 P.M.
Chuck wheeled Kaylee out the front door of Cedars-Sinai. The right side of her body was sore, and she would have to have bandaging on her upper right arm for at least a month, but she was intact and in good health.
“Where’s little Chuck at?” she had asked when Chuck entered her room.
“I asked him if he wanted to go, but he decided he wanted to go to
“
“It’s an amusement park,” Chuck said. “All kinds of crazy rides and… well, stuff. I’ll take you there at some point.”
As Chuck wheeled her outside into the sunlight, Kaylee slipped on a pair of sunglasses to protect her still-sensitive right eye. Peering across the parking lot, she pointed at the hundred foot monolith on the other side of
“What is that thing?” she asked.
“That’s the
“Oh my God,” Kaylee said with glee, turning to Chuck. “Can we go?”
“Uh, sure, we can go there… there’s a bunch of other malls we can go to, too.”
“No, I mean right now!” Kaylee responded.
“Seriously?”
“Dead serious,” Kaylee shot back. “I haven’t been shopping… God, in forever.”
“Well, let’s get to the car first, shall we?”
When they reached Chuck’s Aston Martin, Kaylee’s eyes went wide again. “Wow, that is a fancy set of wheels you got there, Mr. Bartowski!”
Then she examined it more closely. “And it’s red… with white and silver trim… Chuck, you painted that car in the same colors as your Herder.”
“That’s right, Kaylee,” Chuck said with a little bit of nerdish pride. “I own the Nerd Herd now.”
Then he had a thought. “Speaking of which, how is the Herder?”
“Still running,” Kaylee replied. “I keep fixing her up, and she’s got over 400,000 miles on her now. I don’t know if she survived the crash, though.”
Then she paused. “You’re just trying to distract me from wanting to go shopping, aren’t you?”
“Blast!” Chuck intoned, doing his best imitation of an evil villain. “You have foiled my evil plan.”
“I know you too well, Charles Bartowski!” Kaylee replied impishly.
“So, you want to try standing up?” Chuck asked.
“Alright, here goes nothing.”
The Cedars-Sinai attendant who had silently accompanied them held the handles of the wheelchair. Kaylee stood up slowly, and when she had reached a fully standing position, thrust her good arm up in victory.
Then her eyes went wide, and her face pale. She wobbled a bit, and threw her arms out in front of her to try to stabilize herself. Chuck quickly reached out and grabbed her. “Gotcha,” he said, catching her before she could fall.
He realized at that point just what a position he was in. He was holding Kaylee very close to himself, she had her arms around his neck, and their faces were just inches apart. It oddly felt just like the first time he’d caught her – and he’d even said “Gotcha,” then, too. He looked into her eyes, and she looked back into his, and then –
“Have a good day,” said the Cedars-Sinai attendant as he wheeled the chair away. That broke the mood, and Chuck helped Kaylee back to a standing position.
He helped her into the Aston Martin, and then got in on his side. It took only a few minutes to drive across the street to the
Kaylee was still a little weak on her feet, so Chuck helped her up the pathway from the valet to the elevator into the mall. They were the only two in the elevator, and as the doors shut, a disembodied voice said, “Chuck Bartowski and Kaylee Frye, welcome to the
Kaylee’s eyes went wide. “How’d it do that?” she asked. “How’d it know who I am?”
“Personal identification microchips in your I.D. card,” Chuck said. “Everybody has them, and they can be read by any approved device.”
“But how did it know who I am?” Kaylee insisted. “I’m not from this time!”
“The CIA took care of it, believe me,” Chuck said. “Check your wallet.”
Kaylee opened her purse, pulled out her wallet – and there was a
“Uh… that’s my address,” Chuck said.
“Oh.”
There was a moment of awkward silence, which was thankfully broken by the elevator doors opening on the seventh floor. Kaylee stepped out, and when she looked around at the mall, she looked like a kid on Christmas.
“Oh my God,” she breathed. “Oh my God, it’s a real Louis Vuitton store!”
Chuck shook his head. “Five hundred years of difference and she still spots Louis Vuitton first,” he muttered with a chuckle.
Kaylee didn’t hear him. She had turned and seen
As she was about to enter the underwear store of doom, she stopped and turned to Chuck. “Wait… I don’t have any money,” she said.
Taking a deep breath, Chuck reached in his pocket. Opening his wallet, he removed his American Express Black card. Showing it to Kaylee, he said, “Courtesy of the
When they finally pulled out of the Beverly Center onto La Cienega Blvd. four hours later, Chuck muttered, “Sarah’s gonna have my head.”
Several hundred dollars at
All this sat in the back of the Aston Martin, and one very tired but very happy time-traveling space mechanic had fallen asleep in the shotgun seat of Chuck’s car. As he headed south on La Cienega, he stole a look at her.
She looked almost the same as he remembered her. A little older, perhaps, but he’d still peg her under thirty if he saw her out and about.
Chuck, though, looked almost ten years older than her. In reality, he was only three years older – a concept which he was still having a hard time dealing with, given that they’d been the same age when last he saw her – but the strains of being a program director for the CIA had made much of his hair go gray by his 35th birthday. Worry lines marred his forehead, and he had very noticeable crow’s feet by his eyes.
Anna Grimes had suggested on more than one occasion that he try Botox. “After all, this is
Chuck was quiet for the whole drive home, waking Kaylee only when they reached the mansion. As she looked out from bleary eyes, she saw the house, and said, “Wow, is this where you live?”
“I actually live out back,” Chuck replied. “This is my sister’s house. Well, it’s mine, but she lives here.”
As Chuck helped her inside, Devin came into the front room. “Howdy, Chuckster,” he said. “And you must be Kaylee!”
“That’s me,” she said with a sleepy smile.
“Pleased to meet you,” Devin said. “I’m Devin, Chuck’s brother-in-law. Sometimes people call me Captain Awesome, though.”
“Speaking of which,” Chuck said, “could you do me an awesome favor? There’s a truckload of shopping bags in the back of the DB7. Could you and Ellie bring those in?”
“No problem,” Devin replied. “It was nice to meet you, Kaylee!”
“You too,” she said.
By the time Chuck had gotten her into bed and back downstairs, Ellie and Devin had brought all of Kaylee’s bags inside. “Jesus Christ,” Ellie said, “you let her loose at the
“With my American Express Black, no less,” Chuck replied ruefully. “Taxpayer dollars at work and all.”
Ellie shook her head. Then, remembering something, she held a finger up in the air.
“You know how you’ve been drinking a lot of orange juice and apple juice at night, to replace your soda?” she asked.
“Yeah,” Chuck replied.
“Stop. It causes too much production of stomach acid, and stomach pain can cause your blood pressure to rise. Grape juice or milk only after eight o’clock.”
“Are you kidding?” Chuck asked.
Ellie was not kidding.
So, at 10:30, Chuck sat at his desk, working on a report, drinking a glass of grape juice. He was surprised to hear a knock on his front door.
He answered it – and it was Kaylee. “What are you doing up?” he asked. “You really should be in bed.”
“You’re not my mother,” she replied, tiredly but firmly. “I wanted to talk to you.”
“Okay,” Chuck said. “What’s up?”
Kaylee sat down on the couched, sighed, and seemed to deflate. “You know, it’s been seven years since I saw you in person, but since little Chuck was born, it’s like I see you every day. He’s just like you – he looks like you, he talks like you, his mind picks up on everything – just like you. And then, I get thrown back here, and you’re the first – well, the second person I see when I wake up.
“I was so happy to see you. As pathetic as it may seem, one of the first things that went through my head was, ‘I wonder if he still feels the same way about me that I do about him.’ But it seems like you’ve been… well, distant. That moment in the parking garage earlier – I almost expected you to kiss me. But then you pulled back.”
With a sigh, Chuck closed his laptop and turned to face her. “A lot has happened in my life in the last ten years,” he said. “I have far more responsibility now than I did then. I… well…”
He stopped. “Ummm… I had an affair with Sarah. It went on for about two years.”
Kaylee’s eyes opened a little wider, and for a moment, Chuck was afraid she was about to start crying. But, the moment passed, and he went on.
“We ended it because as good friends as we were, we just couldn’t bring ourselves to be any more than that. And the thing is… for the last ten years, even when Sarah and I were together, there’s always been a picture that I’ve had with me – a picture of you, in my wallet, and in my glovebox.
“Whenever something was going wrong at work, or when I was feeling sad, lonely, discouraged, I would take out that picture, think of you, and how happy, and energetic, and fun you always were. And it would always make me feel better.
“I don’t think I ever stopped loving you, Kaylee,” Chuck finished. “I just need some time to get used to it again, that’s all.”
“Okay,” said Kaylee, and then she was quiet for a minute. When she spoke again, she said, “Well, I should let you go back to working then.”
She stood up, and turned to head for the door, when Chuck called her back. “Come here… just for a minute,” he said.
She met him halfway between them, and he wrapped her in a hug. “I told you a long time ago not to ever let me hurt you again,” he said. “I don’t intend to start trying now.”
“I didn’t think you would,” she said. He could hear a smile in her voice. “Especially since I threatened to crush your balls with a pair of pliers. That threat still stands, mister.”
He pulled back, a smile on his face, and looked her in the eyes. “Oh, come on, you wouldn’t do that to me.”
“That’s what you think,” she replied, smiling impishly.
Chuck looked at her for a very long moment, and then…
“Oh, the hell with it,” he said, and kissed her.
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