Fanfiction: Numb3rs (G)
Title: First Meeting
Pairing/Characters: Special Agent Megan Reeves, Professor Charlie Eppes, Professor Larry Fleinhardt, Amita Ramanujan; None (yet)
Rating: G
Fandom: Numb3rs
Word Count: 1,359
Spoilers: For Judgement Call
Summary: Megan meets Larry and his dæmon.
Notes/Warnings: Dæmon!AU. If you don't know what a dæmon is, go here. Expanding my dæmon!AU with a slight re-writing of Megan and Larry's first meeting. There will probably be more. Beta by umbralillium.
First Meeting
Special Agent Megan Reeves stood back as Amita Ramanujan typed away on the computer, her Indian Gray mongoose dæmon, Chiranjivi, perched on the back of her chair as she typed, his head constantly moving, his eyes darting inquisitively around the room. Megan's Abyssinian cat dæmon, Gabriel, perched primly on the desk where Amita was working, copper eyes focused intently on the screen, even though the information was inscrutable to both him and Megan. While Charlie perched on his desk, his Capuchin monkey dæmon, Sophia, hung from the rafters by her tail, also watching Amita work. As she typed, Amita commented, "You know what? It's fun to be doing a little bit of combinatorics again."
"Combina-what?" Gabriel voiced Megan's question, tilting his head to gaze up at the graduate student.
Chiranjivi peered around Amita's head at the cat dæmon as he explained, "Combinatorics. It's a branch of computer science."
"Mmm. Amita's not satisfied with just one measly Ph. D," Charlie put in, smiling proudly as he watched her work. "She's now moved on to astrophysics."
Megan laughed lightly, musing that Charlie reminded her of a father describing his daughter's achievements. "Well, a girl's gotta have skills."
"And yet, somehow, we still get stuck with the typing," Amita added as Chiranjivi chittered up at Sophia.
The Capuchin monkey dropped lightly to the desk, briefly tugging on Amita's hair. "You know he's not familiar with the program like you are."
"Thank you, Sophia." Amita smiled and the dæmon scampered over to perch by Charlie on his desk.
The door opened at that moment, admitting an older man with curly sandy blond hair and a cinnamon-colored ferret dæmon perched on his shoulder. He was carrying a tray of food in his hands. "Well, this is where all the fun is, huh?"
"Professor Fleinhardt, Estelle," Charlie greeted the man, reaching over to pat his unoccupied shoulder.
Chiranjivi straightened up to his full height and called, "Hey, Larry, hey Estelle."
"This is Megan Reeves, she's working with Don," Charlie introduced her. "Gabriel is over there by Amita's computer."
Larry glanced at Megan with a distracted smile, gesturing with his loaded fork. "Oh, hi, I hope you don't mind."
"Oh, no, not at all," she assured him with a smile, glancing down at his tray. "You realize all your food is white?"
Since Larry's mouth was full, Estelle answered for him, gripping his shirt with all four paws. "Mm-hmm, yes, we prefer white food."
"Why is that?" Gabriel asked, sitting up straight as Larry made his way to the seat behind Charlie's desk, clearing it of the stacks of folders and papers.
Larry took over the explanation as Estelle jumped onto one of the stacks on the desk while he sat down in the chair he'd cleared. "Super symmetry. It's a theory that describes the nature of connectivity in complex, multi-dimensional space."
"You know, symmetry is also a term we use in the behavioral science to explain obsessive behavior." She smirked at him as Gabriel dropped into the 'meatloaf' position so he could watch the computer screen and Larry at the same time.
Estelle settled into a comfortable crouch on the stack of folders as Larry answered Megan. "Oh ho, is it now?"
"I have a two-year-old nephew who won't eat anything but pasta with butter," she reported with a quirk of her eyebrows. "We're a little worried that he might be a budding scientist."
Larry smiled, amused, and Charlie hastened to explain with a fond smile, "Larry has a tendency to live out his theories."
"Oh." She nodded, laughing softly.
The next moment, Charlie was all business as he asked, "Amita, are you ready to show us a 3D scatterplot distribution of all the relevant cases?"
"Sure," Chiranjivi answered for her, his head bobbing.
Gabriel peered at the graphic that appeared on the computer screen and glanced back at Megan. "It looks like a random buckshot of points."
"Except for a small number of cases that stand out," Sophia volunteered as Amita pressed a few keys and the graphic changed to show the cases that the Capuchin monkey had meant.
Megan was impressed. "Wow. That' a lot less files than I originally gave you."
"Yeah, and we're not even done yet." Charlie picked up a pad of paper and scribbled something on it. "Amita, do you think you can filter the rest through something like this?"
Charlie handed the paper to Sophia, who carried it over to Amita. She took it and examined whatever Charlie had written onto it, eventually beginning to type it into the computer program. "It looks something like decision theory."
"It's reverse decision theory, actually," Charlie replied.
When Megan glanced at him curiously, Sophia elaborated for him, "In decision theory, options are evaluated by risk and reward."
"Corporations use it to weigh business plans, what products to develop, which companies to do business with," Larry added, gesticulating with his plastic fork.
When Charlie took over the explanation, Megan turned her attention back to him. "Like a hunter, searching for food. He's constantly evaluating his terrain, his available prey, rival predators, weighing them against his own appetite, his own strength, his needs, until he makes what he considers an optimal decision. However, with reverse decision theory--"
"You take the optimal goal and you reverse the process," Estelle was the one who finished the explanation, leaving her pile of folders to jump to Amita's desk so she could see the laptop screen, too.
Gabriel voiced Megan's comprehension of what they'd been explaining, "In other words, you start with the final decision?"
"The murder of Allison Trelane," Chiranjivi volunteered since Amita was busy typing.
Charlie nodded, his expression serious. "That's right. And then determine which predator was most likely, by inclination, by opportunity, to have made that decision."
At that moment, Amita finished typing in the equation and the scatterplot changed once again, this time showing only two points above the others. "Wow, that's definitely a lot fewer files to look at more closely. Thanks, guys."
"No problem, Megan." Charlie smiled bashfully as Megan wrote down the files so she could look at them more closely back at her desk. "I'm happy to help Don."
She nodded as Gabriel delicately wove around the laptop and Estelle to jump down to the floor. "Well, this will certainly be a big help in cracking the case."
"Let us know if there's anything else we can do to help," Sophia told her as she scooped up Gabriel and settled him across her shoulders to better avoid the foot traffic in the corridors.
Gabriel answered for both of them as she opened the door. "We certainly will. See you later!"
With that, they left the office and headed out to the parking lot. "I saw that, you know."
"Saw what?" Gabriel asked, trying to sound as innocent as he could.
Megan nodded and smiled to the passing students. "The way you brushed against Estelle. We just met them."
"You do realize you were flirting with Larry, right?" Gabriel asked, jumping down from her shoulders once they'd exited the building. "And don't try to tell me it's like teasing the brother we never had. That's Colby and you acted nothing like that with him."
She glanced down at her dæmon with an amused smile. "It was just harmless flirting. There's nothing wrong with that."
"Right. You keep telling yourself that." Gabriel fell silent as they continued on towards the car.
Megan sighed and shook her head. She waited until they'd reached the car and she'd unlocked the door. "He's not exactly my type."
"You haven't been very successful with your 'type' before now," Gabriel pointed out, jumping up onto the driver's seat and gracefully stepped across to the passenger seat. "Maybe it's time to change your 'type'."
She slid behind the wheel and closed her door. "Let's get a bit more settled in the area first, okay?"
"Whatever." Gabriel settled into the meatloaf position as Megan started the car.
Megan smiled fondly, reaching over to stroke him before backing out of the parking space. She couldn't imagine being without him. He always helped her put things into perspective.
End
Pairing/Characters: Special Agent Megan Reeves, Professor Charlie Eppes, Professor Larry Fleinhardt, Amita Ramanujan; None (yet)
Rating: G
Fandom: Numb3rs
Word Count: 1,359
Spoilers: For Judgement Call
Summary: Megan meets Larry and his dæmon.
Notes/Warnings: Dæmon!AU. If you don't know what a dæmon is, go here. Expanding my dæmon!AU with a slight re-writing of Megan and Larry's first meeting. There will probably be more. Beta by umbralillium.
First Meeting
Special Agent Megan Reeves stood back as Amita Ramanujan typed away on the computer, her Indian Gray mongoose dæmon, Chiranjivi, perched on the back of her chair as she typed, his head constantly moving, his eyes darting inquisitively around the room. Megan's Abyssinian cat dæmon, Gabriel, perched primly on the desk where Amita was working, copper eyes focused intently on the screen, even though the information was inscrutable to both him and Megan. While Charlie perched on his desk, his Capuchin monkey dæmon, Sophia, hung from the rafters by her tail, also watching Amita work. As she typed, Amita commented, "You know what? It's fun to be doing a little bit of combinatorics again."
"Combina-what?" Gabriel voiced Megan's question, tilting his head to gaze up at the graduate student.
Chiranjivi peered around Amita's head at the cat dæmon as he explained, "Combinatorics. It's a branch of computer science."
"Mmm. Amita's not satisfied with just one measly Ph. D," Charlie put in, smiling proudly as he watched her work. "She's now moved on to astrophysics."
Megan laughed lightly, musing that Charlie reminded her of a father describing his daughter's achievements. "Well, a girl's gotta have skills."
"And yet, somehow, we still get stuck with the typing," Amita added as Chiranjivi chittered up at Sophia.
The Capuchin monkey dropped lightly to the desk, briefly tugging on Amita's hair. "You know he's not familiar with the program like you are."
"Thank you, Sophia." Amita smiled and the dæmon scampered over to perch by Charlie on his desk.
The door opened at that moment, admitting an older man with curly sandy blond hair and a cinnamon-colored ferret dæmon perched on his shoulder. He was carrying a tray of food in his hands. "Well, this is where all the fun is, huh?"
"Professor Fleinhardt, Estelle," Charlie greeted the man, reaching over to pat his unoccupied shoulder.
Chiranjivi straightened up to his full height and called, "Hey, Larry, hey Estelle."
"This is Megan Reeves, she's working with Don," Charlie introduced her. "Gabriel is over there by Amita's computer."
Larry glanced at Megan with a distracted smile, gesturing with his loaded fork. "Oh, hi, I hope you don't mind."
"Oh, no, not at all," she assured him with a smile, glancing down at his tray. "You realize all your food is white?"
Since Larry's mouth was full, Estelle answered for him, gripping his shirt with all four paws. "Mm-hmm, yes, we prefer white food."
"Why is that?" Gabriel asked, sitting up straight as Larry made his way to the seat behind Charlie's desk, clearing it of the stacks of folders and papers.
Larry took over the explanation as Estelle jumped onto one of the stacks on the desk while he sat down in the chair he'd cleared. "Super symmetry. It's a theory that describes the nature of connectivity in complex, multi-dimensional space."
"You know, symmetry is also a term we use in the behavioral science to explain obsessive behavior." She smirked at him as Gabriel dropped into the 'meatloaf' position so he could watch the computer screen and Larry at the same time.
Estelle settled into a comfortable crouch on the stack of folders as Larry answered Megan. "Oh ho, is it now?"
"I have a two-year-old nephew who won't eat anything but pasta with butter," she reported with a quirk of her eyebrows. "We're a little worried that he might be a budding scientist."
Larry smiled, amused, and Charlie hastened to explain with a fond smile, "Larry has a tendency to live out his theories."
"Oh." She nodded, laughing softly.
The next moment, Charlie was all business as he asked, "Amita, are you ready to show us a 3D scatterplot distribution of all the relevant cases?"
"Sure," Chiranjivi answered for her, his head bobbing.
Gabriel peered at the graphic that appeared on the computer screen and glanced back at Megan. "It looks like a random buckshot of points."
"Except for a small number of cases that stand out," Sophia volunteered as Amita pressed a few keys and the graphic changed to show the cases that the Capuchin monkey had meant.
Megan was impressed. "Wow. That' a lot less files than I originally gave you."
"Yeah, and we're not even done yet." Charlie picked up a pad of paper and scribbled something on it. "Amita, do you think you can filter the rest through something like this?"
Charlie handed the paper to Sophia, who carried it over to Amita. She took it and examined whatever Charlie had written onto it, eventually beginning to type it into the computer program. "It looks something like decision theory."
"It's reverse decision theory, actually," Charlie replied.
When Megan glanced at him curiously, Sophia elaborated for him, "In decision theory, options are evaluated by risk and reward."
"Corporations use it to weigh business plans, what products to develop, which companies to do business with," Larry added, gesticulating with his plastic fork.
When Charlie took over the explanation, Megan turned her attention back to him. "Like a hunter, searching for food. He's constantly evaluating his terrain, his available prey, rival predators, weighing them against his own appetite, his own strength, his needs, until he makes what he considers an optimal decision. However, with reverse decision theory--"
"You take the optimal goal and you reverse the process," Estelle was the one who finished the explanation, leaving her pile of folders to jump to Amita's desk so she could see the laptop screen, too.
Gabriel voiced Megan's comprehension of what they'd been explaining, "In other words, you start with the final decision?"
"The murder of Allison Trelane," Chiranjivi volunteered since Amita was busy typing.
Charlie nodded, his expression serious. "That's right. And then determine which predator was most likely, by inclination, by opportunity, to have made that decision."
At that moment, Amita finished typing in the equation and the scatterplot changed once again, this time showing only two points above the others. "Wow, that's definitely a lot fewer files to look at more closely. Thanks, guys."
"No problem, Megan." Charlie smiled bashfully as Megan wrote down the files so she could look at them more closely back at her desk. "I'm happy to help Don."
She nodded as Gabriel delicately wove around the laptop and Estelle to jump down to the floor. "Well, this will certainly be a big help in cracking the case."
"Let us know if there's anything else we can do to help," Sophia told her as she scooped up Gabriel and settled him across her shoulders to better avoid the foot traffic in the corridors.
Gabriel answered for both of them as she opened the door. "We certainly will. See you later!"
With that, they left the office and headed out to the parking lot. "I saw that, you know."
"Saw what?" Gabriel asked, trying to sound as innocent as he could.
Megan nodded and smiled to the passing students. "The way you brushed against Estelle. We just met them."
"You do realize you were flirting with Larry, right?" Gabriel asked, jumping down from her shoulders once they'd exited the building. "And don't try to tell me it's like teasing the brother we never had. That's Colby and you acted nothing like that with him."
She glanced down at her dæmon with an amused smile. "It was just harmless flirting. There's nothing wrong with that."
"Right. You keep telling yourself that." Gabriel fell silent as they continued on towards the car.
Megan sighed and shook her head. She waited until they'd reached the car and she'd unlocked the door. "He's not exactly my type."
"You haven't been very successful with your 'type' before now," Gabriel pointed out, jumping up onto the driver's seat and gracefully stepped across to the passenger seat. "Maybe it's time to change your 'type'."
She slid behind the wheel and closed her door. "Let's get a bit more settled in the area first, okay?"
"Whatever." Gabriel settled into the meatloaf position as Megan started the car.
Megan smiled fondly, reaching over to stroke him before backing out of the parking space. She couldn't imagine being without him. He always helped her put things into perspective.
End