Fic: Necessity, Chapter 3 (Numb3rs, Charlie Eppes / Colby Granger, David Sinclair / Ian Edgerton)
Title: Necessity, Chapter 3
Fandom: Numb3rs
Pair: Charlie Eppes / Colby Granger
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Not mine, etc.
Feedback: Always Welcome
NUMB3RS Main List
Necessity, Chapter 1
Necessity, Chapter 2
“How long have we been here?” Megan groaned and tried to get comfortable.
“My butt is black and blue.”
They had been stored to a van with blackened windows. That had been several
hours ago. Megan leaned against David to stay still. Every time the van hit a
bump on the road, they jumped three feet up.
“No, idea.” Don shrugged and sighed in frustration. Their cell phones had been
confiscated and it was too dark to see his watch.
Finally the van stopped. Somebody opened the backdoor and the inside was
flooded with bright light. The sunset was getting near and the sharp rays of
sun were turning slightly orange.
“We’re here.” The nameless agent from Special Operations announced. “Follow
me.” They stumbled clumsily out of the van. Bright sunlight after long darkness
was playing merry Hell with their eyes. They blinked and looked around. It was a
large log cabin in the middle of the mountainside. Few men were on guard on
both sides of the property. They were guided into a comfy living room.
That was when they saw it. On the couch was Charlie, with Helen sleeping against
his shoulder. Next to him was Ian.
Colby rushed to Charlie and pulled him into a hug as tightly as he could with the
baby still between them. After seeing they were okay, Don focused his aggression
on Ian.
“Is this your doing? What the hell were you thinking-”
“Eppes. Sit down and shut up.” Ian stated. Don did as he was told. Ian gave Colby
an expecting look. He still hadn’t let go of Charlie. “Granger.”
Charlie and Colby sat down on the couch, while Ian pulled David to sit next to him.
Megan and Don took the seat opposite the couch.
“Anyone remember John Nerretti?” Charlie started.
“The mafia leader?” Megan frowned.
“That’s the one. He was sentenced to life in prison last year.”
“And several of his right-hand men were convicted too." The full figured woman they
had met in the office sat down on the armrest. "His whole organisation collapsed.”
“And?” Don demanded.
“And doctor Eppes consulted with the white collar crimes, to find the crooks
and nooks that finally got the conviction. Most of his organisation is history,
but there’s still few autonomous branches. One of our inside sources told us
they were planning a retaliation. And they knew about doctor Eppes`s involve-
ment.”
“You mean they were…” Colby looked stunned.
“Exactly. We just didn’t know when. I called doctor Eppes to warn him that we
may have to take action. Then few hours later we heard the operation had been
started. So we took him and his daughter here.” At this point the agent gave Don
an accusing glance. “We were going to pick up his family members after that,
but somebody called the police. We had to hush things down, before we could
take you away. All of you have worked close to him, so we took you all here just
in case. ”
“What about our father?” Don asked.
“Dad’s still in Minneapolis.” Charlie informed him. “The locals are keeping an
eye on him.
"Any more questions?” The agent interrupted.
“Yeah, how come Edgerton knew about this before any of us?”
Charlie giggled. Ian gave him an mischievous glance.
“Agent Edgerton has friends in our department.” The female agent stated and her
icy tone made it clear she was not very happy about it. “He heard about this and
bullied his way in.”
“Can we talk in private?” Charlie turned to Colby. He nodded and followed
Charlie to one of the small bedrooms.
Don buried his head to his hands. “How long are supposed to stay here?”
“Hard to say. Our teams are preparing a pre-emptive strike.”
“Meaning what?”
“Meaning that we’re attempting to take down the three remaining branches all
at once with simultaneous hits. If they succeed, this should be over tomorrow.”
“Can we get our phones back?”
“Not yet. We don’t want to take chances of somebody locating any of you
that way.”
“Great, just great….” Don leaned back on the couch.
“We’ll get you some fresh clothes, sanitary things, and so on. Make yourself
comfortable, because none of you is going anywhere right now.” The agent
nodded her head as if to mark an exclamation point. She got up and walked
out.
“Quit whining, Eppes.” Ian groaned and pulled David up the couch.
“It’s easy for you to say, David’s here! I don’t have my phone, Martin’s gonna
fly to Philadelphia tomorrow, and he must be wondering what’s going on.”
“Let him wonder.” Ian grinned and dragged David upstairs.
----------------------------------------
“Are you mad?” Charlie asked carefully. Colby was sitting on the bed, holding
Helen against his chest.
“Mad about what?”
“That left like that. An that I let you worry about us.”
“Charlie, you didn’t leave, they took you. And I get it. You wanted to make
sure that the baby was safe. I get it.”
“Good.” Charlie let out a relieved chuckle. “I think she liked the car ride
here. She kept dozing off with that happy smile on her face.”
“Sounds familiar. She inherited that from you.”
----------------------------------------
“Dean?” Sam hollered.
“What?” His brother’s voice sounded faint, muffled by the running water
of the shower.
“How long are you gonna stay there?”
“As long as there’s hot water.”
“I know what you’re doing there, and it’s not very cleansing. Get over here.”
“Wait.... just a sec.... wait....” Dean’s voice disappeared for few minu-
tes. “Okay, I’m done.”
“I didn’t ask for report….” Sam groaned.
“Did you say something?” Dean came from the bathroom wearing a towel
around his waist, drying his hair with another one.
“I asked if you remember that I guy I met in L.A.” Sam said, tapping the key-
board of his laptop.
“That professor whatever?”
“Professor Eppes. I got an e-mail from a guy I know. He’s a student at CalSci.”
“So?”
“He was supposed to go to his house to talk about his course work, but when he
got there, the whole place was full of cops. They didn’t tell him anything but
he heard some of the uniforms talking.”
“Get to the point.”
“He’s missing. You get the point?”
“Nope.”
“When I was there his brother dropped by. He’s a fed.”
“Did you talk to him?”
“No, but think about it. The guy’s missing and I’m one of the last persons he
met. And the brother probably saw the car too.”
“Crap….”
“That’s right. We’re done here, right?”
“Yeah. This was almost too easy. We found the right cemetery on the first
try. We found the grave under ten minutes. With our luck that’s really weird.”
“Anyway… I wanna go back to L.A.”
“Are you kidding?”
“It’s not like we have another job going on.”
“But we just checked in!”
“I didn’t mean now. We’ll leave in the morning.”
“Okay…” Dean pouted like a grumpy kid. “You got any quarters?”
“Yep.”
“Gimme.”
“Nope.”
“Come on!”
“I’ve told you before, I’m not gonna be the enabler for your habit.”
“Sammy!”
“As long as we stay in a motel with massaging beds, I’m keeping your wallet.”
“Unfair!”
“Yep.”
“Bitch.”
“Jerk.”
TBC