Holes 2: Both Sides of the Wall, Part 14: Riding the Wave
Title: Holes 2: Both Sides of the Wall (14/?)
Chapter List
Fandom: NUMB3RS
Pairing/characters: Charlie Eppes/OMC
Rating: NC-17
Summary: Charlie has very particular needs - and unexpectedly finds someone who meets them. He has no idea that the other man has dark motives of his own.
[ Direct sequel to Holes]
Part 14: Riding the Wave
Charlie makes the most of his huge breakthrough.
Word Count: 1039
Notes/Warnings: Anonymous sex, rough sex, BDSM
Beta: Yes, thanks.
Part 14: Riding the Wave -
Charlie wrote furiously until his small paper was filled with tiny equations. He then rolled over and began writing on his arms and any other skin he could reach. When the pen stopped working, he climbed off the bed and wiped bodily fluids off himself as fast as he could. He yanked his clothes on and raced out of the room. He got a little turned around in the hallway and growled in frustration before he finally found the front desk. The receptionist was startled by his urgency and asked him if everything was okay. He didn't know what he replied, but grabbed his phone and rushed out to his car. There he found the pencils and empty notebooks he always kept there and began writing as fast as he could, trying to capture the breakthrough before it got away.
It was several hours before he left the parking lot.
For the next three days, he hardly ate or slept. He didn't leave the garage and his chalkboards except to use the bathroom and throw away his blood-stained shirt. He occasionally wiped a crusty residue of cum from his skin and had to yank his brain back from remembering that room. All that mattered for the moment was the numbers.
Distantly he was aware of people coming into the garage, talking to him or trying to take care of him. He might have talked with some of them and might have eaten some food.
Finally, he stepped back from his chalkboards, utterly happy and exhausted. He found the camera and carefully took pictures of all of his work. Then he sat down in the big chair and fell asleep.
He woke up many hours later with a blanket over him. Don was standing, looking at the chalkboards.
"Is this P vs. NP?" Don asked.
"Oh no," Charlie said with a smile. "It's something much more."
As Don stared at him, Charlie stretched, stood up, and said, "I know how to find the missing boy."
Don's face lit up. "The Nevada kidnapping case?"
"Yes," Charlie said. "Let me get a shower and I'll explain it all to you."
The next few days involved a great deal of talking. He spent many hours in the FBI office, trying to explain his math to them. They weren't able to understand what an amazing breakthrough it was, but they appreciated that it brought home a scared, lost little boy. He spent many more hours in the math department, explaining his equations to other mathematicians, who recognized what a breakthrough it was, but had to be convinced that it was real. Then at the end of the week, he published a preprint - a non-peer-reviewed preliminary paper designed to elicit feedback - and the phone calls came pouring in.
It was almost two weeks before he thought to return to the club. He didn't feel the old driving need to, but he wanted to see Brown again, to thank him. Brown wasn't there. Charlie wasn't too surprised. Their experience had been seminal - Charlie smiled at his own pun - and it didn't feel like it could be repeated. Charlie sucked off one man, without particularly enjoying it or getting off himself, and left the booth.
He asked the receptionist, "Is he not here today?"
The receptionist eyed him and said, "I guess not." She continued with, "Did you have a positive experience with the room you rented a few weeks ago?"
"Oh, yes," Charlie said with fervor.
The receptionist laughed and gave him back his phone. He didn't tell her that he probably wouldn't be back for a long time.
Two more months passed from that fateful night. He broke up with Amita when she tried to insist on an honorary authorship credit on his paper. No amount of comfortable patterns was worth that. His paper was tentatively accepted for publication in Acta Mathematica and his standing in the math community increased tenfold. For symmetry, he called it The Eppes Divergence, though the name only vaguely fit. He had to hire a grad student to deal with all the letters and speech requests he started getting. Not all of the attention was positive, that was to be expected, but his math held up. In fact, it led to so much other math until he had little time to consult for any agency or teach his classes.
Finally, four months after that night, he lifted his head, stepped back from the chalkboard, and took a deep breath. The numbers were calming back down now, but he had captured so much. That one moment of perfect orgasmic beauty had been mostly preserved and Charlie could rest at long last.
He went into the house, told his surprised dad he was talking a trip and packed a bag. He ended up in Angeles National Forest for three days of leisurely hiking. For the first time, he let himself dwell on Brown. He remembered every word, every touch. He grew aroused again, just thinking about it, and he jerked off in the woods, his free hand digging into the rough bark of a tree.
Also for the first time, he began to wonder about Brown outside of the booth. What was his job at the club? Was he intelligent or just a creature of brute force? Charlie's instincts said that Brown was quite intelligent, though he couldn't pin down why he thought so. Brown must be driving his cock into another man's mouth or ass right now. Charlie frowned as he analyzed the feeling that gave him. It wasn't jealousy or envy, but more of a wistfulness for pre-Eppes-Divergence days when the moment of perfect beauty was still on the horizon. He had gotten two of those moments in his lifetime, and odds were he'd never get another. Still, it wasn't a certainty that he was done, he might eventually get another, and he wondered if Brown was a necessary element of that possible future breakthrough. Maybe he should use his law enforcement contracts to track him down - or just walk into the club and hope he was still working there.
As it was, he walked into a very different sort of place to find him.