Chapter 133: Agent Eight - Elite of the Elite?
"Am I just the wingwoman here?"
Susan felt a headache coming on.
The next morning.
Jane emerged from the guest bedroom.
"Finally awake?"
Susan, fiddling with the TV remote in the living room, asked without turning around.
"Yeah," Jane could only respond awkwardly.
"Apology accepted," Susan glanced back at her. "And you're welcome."
Jane immediately understood the first part, her face flushing red. She managed to stammer, "What do you mean, 'you're welcome'?"
"Wasn't it because of me that you finally made your move?" Susan said pointedly. "Can't I say 'you're welcome'?"
"..." Jane was speechless.
It seemed her boldness last night had indeed been triggered by Susan's provocations, but she couldn't bring herself to say thank you.
However, compared to last night when she'd felt Susan was manipulative and hard to read, now that she had a clear head, she was no longer emotionally reactive and could think rationally about both the positives and negatives.
In a way, Susan's words had made sense. Even the somewhat mocking "Take my advice, Chuck's too cold for you to handle," when taken at face value, wasn't entirely wrong.
Her face flushed even deeper as she thought about this.
The door opened, and Chuck emerged, completely composed.
"Well, well," Susan's expression turned less charitable, giving him a scornful look. "I thought you wouldn't be getting up today."
"Why?" Chuck looked at her.
"Because..." Susan opened her mouth to explain, but seeing Chuck's overly calm and collected expression, she suddenly realized that teasing and mocking about such matters would only end up embarrassing herself.
But thinking back to the disturbing, sleep-disrupting sounds from last night, she felt irritated.
"Never mind," Susan finally said, her voice sullen, changing the subject. "The target flew back to New York this morning, and we're going with him."
"Fine," Chuck agreed.
"What about me?" Jane asked anxiously.
"You?" Susan said with a smile, "There are FBI New York field office agents to coordinate in New York. When we return to Vegas, we'll notify Agent Eight to work with you on the case."
"What do you mean, Agent Eight?" Jane's face flushed as she protested indignantly.
"Sorry, did I misspeak?" Susan teased. "Oh, I think I said it wrong. It should be 'agent.' I said 'eight.' Sorry, sorry. I heard cats fighting last night and didn't get enough sleep. My mind's a little foggy. I meant 'agent,' not 'eight.'"
Jane knew Susan was talking nonsense. "Agent" and "eight" weren't even close in pronunciation. How could she confuse them?
Moreover, when they'd met yesterday, she and Chuck had clearly discussed the 777 reference, and Chuck had even pointed out that she could only count to 888. Susan had been there and heard everything.
So she didn't believe Susan had confused "agent" with "eight" by mistake. It was clearly deliberate teasing.
"Dr. Wolfe, what do you think?" Susan's mood brightened as she looked at Jane's delicate, flushed face, and she couldn't help but flirt with Chuck.
"Agent Eight isn't bad," Chuck said calmly.
"..." Susan and Jane were speechless.
In large law enforcement agencies like the FBI, agents with numerical designations are the elite of the elite.
Although in some TV shows, these elite operatives get taken down when they encounter protagonists with plot armor...
Susan and the others didn't realize that according to Chuck's logic, if Jane truly became a numbered agent in the FBI, it would actually be a compliment.
Jane, however, didn't want to be Agent Eight. She'd rather be Agent One, or if Eight had to be the highest number, that would be acceptable to her.
Clearly, Chuck wasn't thinking along those lines.
In his view, 8 was no different from 9, 10, or any other number.
"Alright, let's get ready to go," Susan decided it was best to stop her banter with Chuck, or she'd be the only one left embarrassed.
"Fine," Chuck agreed.
"Be careful," Jane knew she wasn't suited to go with them, but she felt like a newlywed who couldn't bear to be separated.
"Don't worry about us. It's the other guy who should be careful," Chuck said matter-of-factly.
At the airport.
Chuck and Susan, carrying their luggage, walked in under the attentive gaze of the casino's courtesy driver.
They encountered a familiar group of people.
"Hi, Chuck!"
Missy, the social butterfly, spotted Chuck immediately and greeted him enthusiastically.
Chuck nodded.
Young Sheldon opened his mouth and stared at him with deep resentment and indignation.
"Me again!" Chuck looked at young Sheldon and nodded.
Young Sheldon's promise not to speak to Chuck was instantly broken, and he cried out in frustration, "I didn't say anything!"
"I know what you were going to say," Chuck stated bluntly.
"..." Young Sheldon glared at Chuck with bulging eyes, his thousand thoughts condensing into one: "You again!"
Indeed.
He also had a touch of OCD, and had previously managed to hold back from saying this to maintain his composure, but now that his intention had been exposed, how could he contain himself?
"Haha!" Missy laughed delightedly.
"Missy!" Young Sheldon's mother, Mary, felt sorry for her son and looked at Chuck disapprovingly. "Dr. Wolfe, you always pick on the vulnerable. Is that entertaining?"
"Yes," Chuck said honestly. "And it serves a purpose."
The doubled increase on his system panel was proof of that.
"What purpose could it possibly serve?" Mary's eyes widened.
Hmm.
Because young Sheldon and his uncle had promised to keep it secret, Mary had inevitably discovered what happened the previous night. Furious, she'd confronted Sheldon's uncle and given him a piece of her mind. If it hadn't been so late and everyone hadn't been exhausted from travel and activities, she would have taken the whole family away from this den of iniquity immediately.
Despite objections from her daughter Missy, son Georgie, her husband, and her mother-in-law, she'd insisted on booking a morning flight to take the family home.
"Spare the rod, spoil the child," Chuck said bluntly. "Without my intervention, Cooper would have ended up on a criminal path and likely institutionalized by now."
"What did you just say?!" Mary exploded, her eyes bulging, her voice echoing throughout the terminal and drawing everyone's attention.
"Are you sure you want me to elaborate?" Chuck looked at her.
"No, no!" George Sr., startled, quickly stepped forward with a placating smile. "Dr. Wolfe was Sheldon's classmate. He's both mentor and friend. Everything he does benefits Sheldon. I absolutely believe that!"
"George!" Mary stared at her husband in disbelief.
"Isn't it true?" Seeing his wife's confusion, George Sr. said with a serious expression, "Think about it—if it weren't for Dr. Wolfe, what would Sheldon have done? Being institutionalized would be the best-case scenario."
Mary was stunned by her husband's solemn and serious demeanor. Thinking it through, she first learned about Chuck when their family was audited by the IRS. This time, her son was frightened because he was suspected of involvement in gambling. Technically, these were all illegal activities, and Chuck had let them slide. Glancing at Susan, who was watching the drama unfold, and remembering her FBI credentials, Mary felt like cold water had been poured over her head. Her anger on behalf of her son evaporated.
"And don't you think Sheldon has become more like a normal kid since meeting Dr. Wolfe?" Seeing that his wife understood, George's expression softened.
"Absolutely," Missy couldn't agree more. "Ever since meeting Chuck, every time Chuck is mentioned, I feel like Sheldon isn't a robot or a Martian, but just a regular human being like the rest of us. I love that feeling."
"You just enjoy seeing your brother get picked on," Mary agreed with this assessment in her heart, but she was still somewhat irritated. She glared at her daughter, then turned on her husband. "This is all your fault! If it weren't for your brother Danny, Sheldon wouldn't have gotten involved in this mess!"
"Blame me?" George Sr. couldn't take it and shot back directly, "As if your mother doesn't gamble!"
"Hey!" Sheldon's grandmother, a gambling enthusiast and regular player, was offended. "Don't drag me into this."
"Sorry, it's all our fault," Sheldon's aunt, who had been silent throughout, finally spoke up apologetically.
"Of course it's your fault!" Mary bristled at the thought. "What were you thinking? You and your husband conspired to convince us, then sent us away just so you could exploit my eleven-year-old son? How dare you!"
"I'm sorry, I tried to talk Danny out of it too..." Sheldon's aunt blamed herself, tears welling up in her eyes.
The argument quieted down, and Mary, feeling somewhat embarrassed, realized her sister-in-law was fundamentally a good person. She changed her tone and offered some advice: "Look, I'm not trying to be harsh, but you're just too accommodating. You always go along with whatever Danny says. Someone who didn't know better would think you married into money. That's not right."
"Because I love him," Sheldon's aunt suddenly broke down, covering her face and bursting into tears.
Chuck couldn't help but glance at her.
"The Cooper men are all trouble," Sheldon's grandmother couldn't help but grumble.
"Hey!" Georgie glared at his grandmother with disapproval.
"Including you!" Sheldon's grandmother stared back defiantly at her grandson.
"Grandma," young Sheldon called out somewhat unhappily.
"Including you too," young Sheldon's grandmother touched her beloved grandson's head and said lovingly. "You're grandma's little troublemaker."
"That's right," young Sheldon basked in his grandmother's affection and said confidently. "I'll always be your little troublemaker, Grandma."
"Ugh!" Missy shuddered with disgust and jealousy.
The harmony and warmth between grandparent and grandchild finally diluted the usual tension in this family. Mary comforted her sister-in-law for a long while before taking the family to catch their flight.
She liked her sister-in-law, but she despised her husband's gambling brother who was too cowardly to show his face after causing trouble.
She would never come to Las Vegas again, nor would she let her family return!
(End of Chapter)
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