(no subject)

[samecgh]

Part one

The alarm that went off wasn't the alarm he set last night.

Chuck all but bolted out of bed that was too small for the one that he went to sleep in. The king he was used to sleeping in had turned into a twin that had a mattress pad hidden under navy blue sheets that he hadn't used in ages.

Since Stanford.

He began hurrying around, looking at everything to find out what exactly is going on. The room was decorated with a mix of movies and bands. His Tron poster was over his desk, which was cluttered with the old computer he had brought up and notebooks for classes. His textbooks were stacked haphazardly on a corner and by straightening them, he also read the titles. Calculus, Physics, couple of lit books. Shit. He collapsed after carefully putting the pieces together. It was sometime early second semester, freshman year.

The sickening crack of a broken bone down on the grass told him the exact date. February second, John DeLake just broke his arm trying to impress Georgina Tall. He gets up to start looking for his schedule because he doesn't remember his classes for freshman(!) year when the door starts opening to the room.

His first reaction was to grab something as a weapon, but there's nothing that would make an adequate weapon for throwing and bludgeoning would only work if he was closer to the door. Instead, he waited for the door to open.

“Chuck, did you hear that crack?”

Bryce.

He just stood there while the details were rattled off. The shock made him stand still. The last time he had seen his former friend, he had been dragged out by Ring agents. It was three years ago, for him.

This Bryce was younger, no burden on his shoulders, no dark look in his eye. No scar from bullets, no pain from another.

“Chuck?” He jolted out of his thoughts when Bryce called his name. “Something wrong?”

He did it before he even registered it. Wrapping Bryce in a hug, he said, “Nothing is wrong; absolutely nothing is wrong.” Except he figured his friend isn't buying that since he's hugging him when he usually would never do that.

He also never would do the next thing.

Sometimes he would glance over, usually when he heard a chair squeak or someone downstairs would be yelling as it would grab his attention. Bryce would be reading his textbook, or working on an essay, but he could, would, swear that he had been looking at him. Staring at him, and not in the fashion that friends would.

Sarah had confirmed it in the weirdest, off-handed comment he could think of. “I could see why he was in love with you,” she said, before turning back to the computer where they were tracking someone that had been part of the stealing Bryce's body brigade.

“What?!” he squeaked.

“Bryce. He never used your name, but he used to talk about you when we needed to pass time. He sounded happy, but...”

“But? That can't be a good but, can it?”

“He never had the chance to act on it. He thought you wouldn't like him in that way.”

“Oh.”

Better late than never. He only pulled back enough to bend down without having to twist his neck violently. The first kiss was tentative, lasting only a couple of seconds before he pulled back. Before he even registered if there had been a response. Then, he thought, screw it. He dropped back down again, closing the door to their room before anyone came around.

Part two

He had to get his Dads attention.

Chuck found out he still had the Intersect from his little trip through time when he ended up flashing on a move to snap the wrist of someone holding a gun on them. It was only a mugger, but he still didn't like guns being held on him or Bryce.

There was a small spike of pain, but it was enough to worry him.

So when Bryce ended up going back home for spring break to help out his family, he figured it was the perfect time. He took out a small ad in the Burbank paper.

I'm looking for someone that can
help me with a telescope problem.
I can't find Orion.

A week later, there's an ad in answer.

The best place to see it would
be at Granger Park. Tonight should
be clear for perfect seeing.

Has to be him. Chuck sighed in partial relief and partial tension. He didn't know how he was going to explain this to his father. There wasn't time to waste. He didn't want to know what would happen with this Intersect in his head without a governor. It may not have been faulty, but could act like 2.0.

He couldn't afford that. Not after what happened to others around him.

[][][][][][][][][]

Nine at night and the sky was mostly dark. He sat at the bench that was right under a lamp, and near a trash bin. He kept his hands on his knees and didn't wear a jacket, even if it was getting a bit chilly.

There was a rustle of bushes behind him, but he didn't jump up to face the person, just waited until the barrel of a gun was positioned just below his hairline. “Get up, slowly, and turn around,” the person told him. He did what he was told, keeping his hands from his body as a bonus. “Charles?”

“Hi, Dad,” he grinned, then stopped when he saw the look on his fathers face.

“What are you doing here?” he asked, angry that his own son possibly knew about him.

“I kinda need to talk to you,” he commented, “Maybe we should get someplace less open.”

“Good idea.” He put away his gun and walked in the direction he just came from, Chuck following behind.

The trailer was the same, understated that the man that lived there wasn't crazy or knew anything of importance. He opened a beer and gave his son a pop, drinking a large gulp of his before sitting down. “Charles, how do you know about Orion?” he questioned.

“I ended up learning it when I went to find you for … something.” He diverted, sipping on his coke when he almost mentioned Ellies wedding. His father only glared at him. “I can't explain. I don't want to change the universe because of what happened to me.”

“What did happen?”

“I, I somehow traveled in time,” he blurted. There was a blank look on Stephens face at the answer. “I remember going to sleep on January twenty-seventh, two-thousand twelve. I woke up on February second, back in Stanford, back in my old dorm room.”

“You traveled back in time?”

“Yeah, I know about your codename. Orion. I know Moms also. Frost. You created the first Intersect with Doctors Busgang and Zarnow and tested one of the first version on yourself. Mom's off trying to bring down Volokoff Industries because Volokoff is actually an old friend of yours.”

“Stop,” he halted, holding up a hand to his proof. “How did you find all of this out?”

“Uncovered it, when I was with the CIA and NSA,” he downplayed, sipping on his drink.

“You were recruited?!”

“I wasn't, well, I would have been, but there's a interesting story behind that.”

“Charles.”

“I ended up becoming a spy. Yes, I know you wanted Ellie and me clear from that. But the Intersect would have haunted us anyway. We're your children and we have your brains. Well, you and Moms.”

He sighed before taking another sip. He got up under the pretense of getting another drink, or something to eat. Chuck saw him slip a knife and knew what was coming. In perfect sync, his father threw it like he remember two years before and he caught it by the handle before it came close to his face.

“You have one.”

“I have the highest upgraded one that the CIA and NSA had in two-thousand twelve.” The spike of pain might have been a bit bigger than he remembered from last time, but he really didn't want to analyze that too closely.

“I also need a governor.” The look Stephen gave him almost withered him. “In my defense, if I hadn't downloaded it, a building would have blown up and several people would have died,” Chuck said.

“How?”

Chuck tilted his head at the question. “How...”

“How did you get wrapped up in the CIA? How did they find out about you?”

“You know that whole 'I don't want to change the universe' could actually be 'I don't want to destroy anything and everything,'” he mentioned.

“It's not the knowing that would change everything. It would be our actions in changing it,” Stephen claimed.

“Oh, you've done this before.”

“Charles,” he frowned, “I doubt you just telling me would change anything.”

“But if I told you, you may feel compelled to change the event somehow. Like Back to the Future, when Doc told Marty about the future of his kids and Marty ended up changing what happened that day.”

“Doc didn't just tell him; he gave him the necessary equipment and pushed him to change it.”

Chuck groaned, trying to come up with an example. And was unable to figure out one. “Look, I don't know what will happen if you or I do anything different. I could tell you how to stop Volokoff right now, and Mom could possibly come home, but I don't know what would happen to other people,” Vivian “whether it would change them or not.” She could become evil much earlier and I wouldn't be able to stop some of her acts now.

“You're not sure if, or how, it would change things.”

“Exactly. It may look great, ending or stopping so many things,” Fulcrum, the Ring, Quinn, “but stopping one may accelerate another.” Stop Fulcrum, but the Ring finds out earlier, Shaw turns with his wife and Sarah can't take both out as her red test.

“You think things have to go the way they did before. The way you remember.”

“Yeah. Which means,” he faltered. Bryce. They had just starting getting together well. It was a bond almost like Sarah and he had.

Had being the tense.

He wasn't sure she was fully back to him, even with their time on the beach and the reminiscing after. And the Sarah he would meet, re-meet, would insist on professionalism. I could always win her back; almost exactly like last time. Even possibly stop the Intersect debacle.

But Bryce and him were great. Their shared interests were already there. They connected on everything, from games to movies to pizza toppings. He had come to love the small touches during class breaks, the dates they went on where they talked about nothing, the times in bed. It felt natural, being with Bryce. Almost exactly like with Sarah. Maybe because it is natural. No secrets, no fake-dating, no spying or someone trying to kill us. It's not built upon a web of lies that Sarah and I then turned into truth; we started out with it.

I would have to lose Bryce. Getting expelled would have to happen exactly the same.

“Charles?”

He shook his head at his in-depth thinking and finished his almost warm drink. “Sorry. Took a detour in my thoughts.”

He nodded and passed a glass of water to complement his own. “I can't promise I will keep completely out of it,” he started, “But if I'm better informed of what happened in the timeline you remember, I may be able to help out.”

“No changing.”

“Not unless the change is one that will have little impact.”

“Nothing has little impact.”

“All right, fine, insignificant impact.” Chuck thought it over for a minute. He nodded in agreement to what his father was proposing. “Finally. First, how did you get wrapped up in the CIA?”

He smiled, “It started when I was sent the only copy of the Intersect....”

Part four then

He kept in contact with Dad.

Chuck didn't give him his email, but he checked one day to find an update sitting in his inbox. He was able to track down several of the people Chuck mentioned and decided to pass on their current status to make sure nothing changed around them.

Sophomore year flew by. Jill remained a friend, abet one he watched closely, because he didn't know when she officially became part of Fulcrum. He enjoyed the last year of uninterrupted spy time with Bryce by being together with him for most breaks. Thanksgiving was with Bryces parents, who didn't blink an eye at his choice and said he was better than several of the dates he brought home in high school.

Bringing him home for Christmas was interesting. Ellie was ecstatic, flustering Bryce with more attention than he was used to from a lot of people. Morgan showed up in the middle of the week, sporting the green shirt of the BuyMore. He took one look at Bryce and declared him an intruder on best friend rights (when Bryce wasn't around because he already got slapped by Ellie for trying). Chuck told him he wasn't taking best friend status (and you can have more than one best friend, Morgan) since he was his boyfriend. He did feel a little better, his best friend place was safe, but not that someone else had nudged their way above him in Chucks heart.

“He's not above or below you, Morgan. My heart's more like a Round Table set up. Everyone has an equal seat.”

“Yeah, but some are seated closer than others.”

“Morgan....”

Junior year started and he knew it was only a couple of months before Flemming would be recruiting. He made the most of their nights, memorizing as many of the places as he could to make Bryce squirm or moan.

The day of recruitment came and went. The change in him started after. He pulled away, started distancing himself. Chuck didn't remember doing it like this in the original timeline, but they weren't together in the original one. He's letting us fall apart to make it easier. It was hard not to split open, to tell him what he knew, but things had to stay the way they were going. No matter how much he hated it.

Semester break had Bryce claiming his parents wanted him home for an emergency and it wouldn't be a good idea for him to bring Chuck along. He just nodded, smiled and told him he couldn't wait for him to get back. Ellie noticed his loneliness and only mentioned the meeting of Devon in passing. He prompted her to talk about him more, annoying Morgan but making her happy.

Chuck ended up at Stanford first and waited for Bryce. He didn't show up until Sunday afternoon, duffel in his right hand because he was favoring his left side. He pulled him into bed and didn't let go until his first class the next day.

Senior year started and Chuck walked into Flemmings class with resignation. This was the year everything went bad. Only he didn't know how bad it was going to turn out this time.

And this would be Part five

The day Flemming called went quietly. Bryce was a little tense; Chuck offered to help him relax and he shrugged off his offer. They hadn't gone out in months and their last 'date' was a pizza that resulted in a small fight and sleeping in their own beds. Bryce didn't want to try and make up and Chuck knew it would be pointless anyway.

November eleven was seared into his head the last time. Somehow, it was much worse this time. The betrayal was tempted, the interview video replaying in his head, but the hurt increased no matter what he thought to stop it. It was like a Chuck from another timeline, one that didn't know about the recruitment, was tossing thoughts in his head. Why didn't he come to me first? Is this why we've been so distant, so different from sophomore year?

News also spread quicker around campus. He thought it was Jill, who might have been tempered the last time because she loved him enough for a quiet time moving out. She might have been motivated to hurt Bryce this time. He wasn't sure.

He hid one of their pictures with a letter in Bryces pillowcase before packing up the rest of his stuff and making one last check for stragglers. Then he shut the door and walked down with his last box.

“Why, Bryce? Why did you do it?”

“You did this to yourself.”

Chuck had to pull off into a rest stop just before he hit Burbank. He stopped the car before hitting the wheel a few times while shuttering. It is so much worse this time.

MasterPost    Next