FIC: In the Arms of the Wicked, 28 (Charlie, Don, Megan, Larry, Liz, McGowan, David, Colby, PG-13)
Title: "Decoded"
Series: In the Arms of the Wicked, Part 28/36
Characters: Charlie, Don, Megan, Larry, Liz, McGowan, David, Colby, mention of Charlie/Colby
Rating: PG-13.
Spoilers: Season 5.
Warnings: None.
Summary: Charlie tries to make Don understand that fixing what he shouldn’t will bring him serious trouble into his life.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything (characters, situations, etcetera) except my OCs.
Beta: The fantastic twins_m0m and the great lillyg.
Previous chapters: Click here.
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28: Decoded
“What?” Charlie muttered, entering the room where Don was. The last few words spoken by McGowan had had a terrible effect on him. “Don, what’s going on? Why is he saying you’ll get suspended?” Just asking made him tremble. He couldn’t have missed so much while he was at Farrow’s house.
His brother held his gaze, but suddenly he shook his head, got up from his chair and left. It wasn’t the response Charlie expected.
Carl turned to him, arranging his jacket. “What you heard, Professor. EAD Cameron made the decision,” he said before leaving with a serious look on his face.
Astonished, Charlie found his closest friend’s eyes. Megan cocked her head, advising him to follow Don. Larry seemed to agree, and Charlie didn’t waste one more minute.
He went through the door, ready to demand honest answers and even start a fight. However, once he located Don in an empty office, the urge to shout went away. One hand against the doorframe, he watched his brother lean on the table. He had bags under his eyes because of all the hard work, but that obviously wasn’t the reason why he’d made such bad decisions. “Don’t tell me that you went and…” As there was no response, Charlie took a deep breath and put his hand down. “I can’t believe it.”
Megan stood at the door, too - one hand on the doorframe, the other one on her hip. “What happened?”
When Charlie turned to her, he noticed how worried she was. But he had to sit down before giving her a proper explanation. He sat down beside the door, far from Don. “He… He had a face-to-face with Noah Cameron.”
“But we have nothing on him with our security clearance level, the only person who could have information about where to find him would be…” Megan stopped in the middle of the sentence and bit her bottom lip. She’d obviously got it. “McGowan.”
Charlie nodded, rubbing his eyes. “Exactly.”
She came into the room and asked Don, “So what did you do? You stole classified data from him? A location, a telephone number?”
“He broke into his computer,” Liz’s voice said. When Charlie looked up, he saw her body against the doorframe, her arms folded, right beside Larry. “I tried to stop him, but you know he’s kind of stubborn.” Her words could be taken as a joke, but her face said otherwise.
“This is about the tapes?” Megan asked.
And that broke Don’s silence. “Yeah, because he can’t handle it!” he yelled, breathing hard but not looking at anyone in particular. Charlie was about to respond when McGowan appeared again.
“Reeves, please come with me,” he asked. She looked around then walked away.
Larry’s eyes followed her but he didn’t move from his place. “I honestly think that a mature conversation could solve…”
“You want maturity, Larry, then ask Charlie for it,” Don interrupted him. In front of Charlie’s eyes, a thoughtful Larry fixed his eyes on the floor and slowly walked out the door. Liz had to answer her cell phone and she left, too.
Don licked his lips and sat at the table. He grabbed his head and said, “Jesus.”
Watching him curse, Charlie’s rage returned. Why had his brother done something like this, something that could potentially risk his career? Why had he made such bad decisions, why had he acted like this? He didn’t even want to think of the answer. Flashes of their last fight made him shiver.
“Why, Don?” he ended up saying, holding himself back from yelling. “Why did you do it? Just… Just tell me.”
“You know why,” was Don’s response.
Charlie swallowed as his brother’s words triggered his anger. “What’s wrong with you? How could you do that? That’s completely crazy, not to mention that I specifically told that I didn’t need your help!”
With that, Don got up and turned to him. “Well, if you weren’t going to handle it, then I had to make sure you and Colby were okay! And don’t forget that David’s involved, too!”
Charlie got up as well, facing his brother. “So that’s the excuse. You don’t give people enough time to react, and you take care of everything by yourself.”
“Yes. This wasn’t the moment to take days to come up with a math theory about the probability of the tapes coming out or not!”
That comment hit Charlie’s heart hard. Math was his life, but he was trying to set it aside in order to be with Colby. It wasn’t going to be easy if he was always reminded that his brain had always relied on calculations. “Well, guess what?” he said, standing still and lowering his voice. “If you had waited for a few more hours, you would have found out that Colby and I made a decision.”
Immediately, Don started to calm down and he raised one hand. “Hold on, hold on… What do you mean?”
Charlie was very careful when he muttered, “I mean that… Colby and I have decided that we don’t care if people know about us.” As Don hid his face under his palms, he continued, “We know it’s highly probable that we’ll keep our jobs, and the truth is that we don’t really want to hide anymore. It’s only caused trouble so far.”
Stumbling, Don fell back onto his chair. With absent eyes, he looked up. “You’ve got to be kidding me. So I did all that for nothing?”
It was hard to answer that question, even if the answer was implied. “If you would have asked…”
“Stop it, Charlie… I get it.”
“You have to understand that I feel like I need to say it one more time, since you didn’t listen to the first one.”
Don raised his voice again. “Well, message decoded, all right? Now stop treating me like I’m five. You say I’m not Dad, well guess what? You aren’t him either, so don’t try to protect me. I broke the rules, no matter the reasons, and now I gotta deal with the consequences.” As Charlie remained silent, Don grabbed his head. “You know what? Even if I did it wrong, I would expect some understanding from you. I don’t know, maybe a ‘Thank you.’”
Was that a joke? “A ‘thank you.’ You were expecting a ‘thank you,’” Charlie repeated, and he joined his palms. “Don, I can’t thank you when you’re going to lose your job because of me.”
“It’s only temporary, they won’t find anything to keep me out. This wasn’t your fault, Charlie. I took the risk.” Don took a deep breath. “Anyway… We still have a case, so…”
“Yeah.” Watching the desperation pass through his brother’s eyes, Charlie put a hand on his shoulder and patted it. “C’mon, let’s go.” He and Don got out of the office only to find Megan and Larry already waiting for them outside. As they walked towards the war room, Charlie asked, “What did McGowan want with you?”
“He says that I’m going to be in charge when Don gets suspended… I don’t know… I really don’t know.” Judging from the way she rubbed her palms, it seemed that she didn’t want to take the lead.
Charlie was a bit relieved. He knew that his brother wouldn’t have chosen anyone else to fill his spot, if he’d been given the chance. “Okay… We gotta take care of our first priorities. Where are David and Colby?”
“We told them to get to Farrow’s house in Arizona, where we lost contact with Ian,” Don muttered, obviously trying to hold himself together for the rest of the case.
Worried about him, Charlie continued, “Okay, so that’s done. There’s nothing we can do but wait for any leads they can find.”
Megan had her own analysis, too. “It makes perfect sense that Sergio’s the intruder, as he’s the closest person to Farrow that we know of. Now, I’m impressed that he hasn’t developed any kind of bond between Farrow and him. He’s got to be completely detached to ruin the life of someone who’s given him a job, food and all kinds of privileges for years.”
“You think he could turn his back on the cult?”
She shook her head. “I think we could still have a chance, but it’d be a very small one, considering he’s come this far.”
“And we still have no clue where Farrow’s friend, Lillian Fisher, is,” Don concluded.
When they entered the war room, Charlie noticed how Megan caressed Larry’s shoulder and realized that he was in much pain. “Larry…”
But Don spoke first. “I’m sorry, Larry… for everything I’ve said so far about Farrow. You were right.” He walked over to the physicist and put a hand on his other shoulder. “Are you okay?”
Thoughtful, Larry had the same look on his face he’d had when Megan had been kidnapped by Crystal Hoyle two years ago. “To be honest, I’m not. Given the state of Richard Peyton when we got to that house, I think we have enough evidence to be very encouraging.”
“We’ll bring him home, I promise…” Don assured him. After Larry nodded, he turned to the main computer and sat down at its desk. “What do we have that we can work on?”
“A new and more detailed psychological profile,” Megan said. “I’m gonna get the files,” she added, and she left. But before she did, Charlie noticed the sweet, comforting smile she gave to Larry.
Trying to focus, Charlie sat down and took out his laptop from his bag. He connected to the main computer and saw his previous analysis appear on the big screens. He’d been studying the code Dr. Farrow had used to write a note to the owner of a house where the antiques had been buried. According to him, the cult communicated through it, as it was based on Egyptian hieroglyphics, but Charlie hadn’t been able to break it yet. “Okay, I gotta try a new algorithm I came up with when we arrived…” He entered his new code and leaned back in the chair. “And now we wait... Not for long, I hope.”
Larry remained silent, but rose and started walking in circles around the room. Charlie immediately realized that the wait would seem endless. Everyone was nervous and dealing with their own problems, and even if he had some himself, he had to stay strong.
His cell phone vibrated inside his pocket and he picked up the incoming call. “Hello, this is Charles Eppes…”
“Good morning, Mr. Eppes, this is Dr. Sheridan…”
The rest of the call was almost a monologue. The doctor explained the situation, the date and the time, and the people who should attend. The only thing Charlie could say was “Thank you,” and then he hung up. Charlie's entire world had just shattered into pieces.
He layed his cell phone on the desk, beside his laptop, and stared at it for a minute. Don seemed to notice, as he asked, “Charlie, is everything okay?”
Charlie couldn’t take his eyes off the little device that had brought more disturbing news. “Dr. Sheridan called. She wants me and David and to attend an appointment to see the lab results… from the paternity test.”
“When?”
“In a few days.”
The silence that followed only provoked Charlie to sink into the darkness of his own soul. There was an answer, an outcome, written in a piece of paper, or locked inside a doctor’s mind. He didn’t know how he’d react. He couldn’t even define how he felt right now.
“Buddy…” Don said, “It’ll be fine.”
“You always tell me that.”
“That’s because I mean it. And I’m usually right, so I think you should listen.”
When Charlie lifted his gaze to see him, he found an honest smile on his brother’s face. That was all he needed to soothe his aching heart.
Suddenly, the computer beeped and a message appeared on the screen. “I broke the code,” Charlie announced, and his fingers danced over the keyboard, demanding the final result to show.
He wasn’t expecting this kind of response.
“What?” Don muttered, obviously shocked.
“Oh, my goodness… That can’t be true,” Larry added.
The decoded message appeared on the screen.
This is not what we agreed. Tell your bosses I’m doing my part.
“I’m sorry, Larry, but it seems that someone has been keeping a big secret from you… from everyone,” Charlie said.
Now that it was obvious that Dr. Farrow was as linked to the cult as Sergio, there were new factors and variables to take into account, so a new analysis would be needed. He and Don got up as Liz appeared at the door.
“Guys, I’ve got news,” she informed. The missing woman, Lillian Fisher, just called 911.”
“She… Okay,” Don said before going towards the door. Larry followed him, and he almost ran like his limping was the last thing he cared about.
Swallowing, Charlie turned to the big screen and read the secret message once again. It reminded him of the one Amita had written for him to find her when she was kidnapped by her old boyfriend. That had been the beginning of everything - of their break-up, of life beside Colby.
But now it all could fall apart.
Determined to hold on, Charlie’s eyes landed on his cell phone. He reached for it and put it in his pocket again. For now, panicking about the results could wait.
Series: In the Arms of the Wicked, Part 28/36
Characters: Charlie, Don, Megan, Larry, Liz, McGowan, David, Colby, mention of Charlie/Colby
Rating: PG-13.
Spoilers: Season 5.
Warnings: None.
Summary: Charlie tries to make Don understand that fixing what he shouldn’t will bring him serious trouble into his life.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything (characters, situations, etcetera) except my OCs.
Beta: The fantastic twins_m0m and the great lillyg.
Previous chapters: Click here.
Previous chapter
Next chapter
28: Decoded
“What?” Charlie muttered, entering the room where Don was. The last few words spoken by McGowan had had a terrible effect on him. “Don, what’s going on? Why is he saying you’ll get suspended?” Just asking made him tremble. He couldn’t have missed so much while he was at Farrow’s house.
His brother held his gaze, but suddenly he shook his head, got up from his chair and left. It wasn’t the response Charlie expected.
Carl turned to him, arranging his jacket. “What you heard, Professor. EAD Cameron made the decision,” he said before leaving with a serious look on his face.
Astonished, Charlie found his closest friend’s eyes. Megan cocked her head, advising him to follow Don. Larry seemed to agree, and Charlie didn’t waste one more minute.
He went through the door, ready to demand honest answers and even start a fight. However, once he located Don in an empty office, the urge to shout went away. One hand against the doorframe, he watched his brother lean on the table. He had bags under his eyes because of all the hard work, but that obviously wasn’t the reason why he’d made such bad decisions. “Don’t tell me that you went and…” As there was no response, Charlie took a deep breath and put his hand down. “I can’t believe it.”
Megan stood at the door, too - one hand on the doorframe, the other one on her hip. “What happened?”
When Charlie turned to her, he noticed how worried she was. But he had to sit down before giving her a proper explanation. He sat down beside the door, far from Don. “He… He had a face-to-face with Noah Cameron.”
“But we have nothing on him with our security clearance level, the only person who could have information about where to find him would be…” Megan stopped in the middle of the sentence and bit her bottom lip. She’d obviously got it. “McGowan.”
Charlie nodded, rubbing his eyes. “Exactly.”
She came into the room and asked Don, “So what did you do? You stole classified data from him? A location, a telephone number?”
“He broke into his computer,” Liz’s voice said. When Charlie looked up, he saw her body against the doorframe, her arms folded, right beside Larry. “I tried to stop him, but you know he’s kind of stubborn.” Her words could be taken as a joke, but her face said otherwise.
“This is about the tapes?” Megan asked.
And that broke Don’s silence. “Yeah, because he can’t handle it!” he yelled, breathing hard but not looking at anyone in particular. Charlie was about to respond when McGowan appeared again.
“Reeves, please come with me,” he asked. She looked around then walked away.
Larry’s eyes followed her but he didn’t move from his place. “I honestly think that a mature conversation could solve…”
“You want maturity, Larry, then ask Charlie for it,” Don interrupted him. In front of Charlie’s eyes, a thoughtful Larry fixed his eyes on the floor and slowly walked out the door. Liz had to answer her cell phone and she left, too.
Don licked his lips and sat at the table. He grabbed his head and said, “Jesus.”
Watching him curse, Charlie’s rage returned. Why had his brother done something like this, something that could potentially risk his career? Why had he made such bad decisions, why had he acted like this? He didn’t even want to think of the answer. Flashes of their last fight made him shiver.
“Why, Don?” he ended up saying, holding himself back from yelling. “Why did you do it? Just… Just tell me.”
“You know why,” was Don’s response.
Charlie swallowed as his brother’s words triggered his anger. “What’s wrong with you? How could you do that? That’s completely crazy, not to mention that I specifically told that I didn’t need your help!”
With that, Don got up and turned to him. “Well, if you weren’t going to handle it, then I had to make sure you and Colby were okay! And don’t forget that David’s involved, too!”
Charlie got up as well, facing his brother. “So that’s the excuse. You don’t give people enough time to react, and you take care of everything by yourself.”
“Yes. This wasn’t the moment to take days to come up with a math theory about the probability of the tapes coming out or not!”
That comment hit Charlie’s heart hard. Math was his life, but he was trying to set it aside in order to be with Colby. It wasn’t going to be easy if he was always reminded that his brain had always relied on calculations. “Well, guess what?” he said, standing still and lowering his voice. “If you had waited for a few more hours, you would have found out that Colby and I made a decision.”
Immediately, Don started to calm down and he raised one hand. “Hold on, hold on… What do you mean?”
Charlie was very careful when he muttered, “I mean that… Colby and I have decided that we don’t care if people know about us.” As Don hid his face under his palms, he continued, “We know it’s highly probable that we’ll keep our jobs, and the truth is that we don’t really want to hide anymore. It’s only caused trouble so far.”
Stumbling, Don fell back onto his chair. With absent eyes, he looked up. “You’ve got to be kidding me. So I did all that for nothing?”
It was hard to answer that question, even if the answer was implied. “If you would have asked…”
“Stop it, Charlie… I get it.”
“You have to understand that I feel like I need to say it one more time, since you didn’t listen to the first one.”
Don raised his voice again. “Well, message decoded, all right? Now stop treating me like I’m five. You say I’m not Dad, well guess what? You aren’t him either, so don’t try to protect me. I broke the rules, no matter the reasons, and now I gotta deal with the consequences.” As Charlie remained silent, Don grabbed his head. “You know what? Even if I did it wrong, I would expect some understanding from you. I don’t know, maybe a ‘Thank you.’”
Was that a joke? “A ‘thank you.’ You were expecting a ‘thank you,’” Charlie repeated, and he joined his palms. “Don, I can’t thank you when you’re going to lose your job because of me.”
“It’s only temporary, they won’t find anything to keep me out. This wasn’t your fault, Charlie. I took the risk.” Don took a deep breath. “Anyway… We still have a case, so…”
“Yeah.” Watching the desperation pass through his brother’s eyes, Charlie put a hand on his shoulder and patted it. “C’mon, let’s go.” He and Don got out of the office only to find Megan and Larry already waiting for them outside. As they walked towards the war room, Charlie asked, “What did McGowan want with you?”
“He says that I’m going to be in charge when Don gets suspended… I don’t know… I really don’t know.” Judging from the way she rubbed her palms, it seemed that she didn’t want to take the lead.
Charlie was a bit relieved. He knew that his brother wouldn’t have chosen anyone else to fill his spot, if he’d been given the chance. “Okay… We gotta take care of our first priorities. Where are David and Colby?”
“We told them to get to Farrow’s house in Arizona, where we lost contact with Ian,” Don muttered, obviously trying to hold himself together for the rest of the case.
Worried about him, Charlie continued, “Okay, so that’s done. There’s nothing we can do but wait for any leads they can find.”
Megan had her own analysis, too. “It makes perfect sense that Sergio’s the intruder, as he’s the closest person to Farrow that we know of. Now, I’m impressed that he hasn’t developed any kind of bond between Farrow and him. He’s got to be completely detached to ruin the life of someone who’s given him a job, food and all kinds of privileges for years.”
“You think he could turn his back on the cult?”
She shook her head. “I think we could still have a chance, but it’d be a very small one, considering he’s come this far.”
“And we still have no clue where Farrow’s friend, Lillian Fisher, is,” Don concluded.
When they entered the war room, Charlie noticed how Megan caressed Larry’s shoulder and realized that he was in much pain. “Larry…”
But Don spoke first. “I’m sorry, Larry… for everything I’ve said so far about Farrow. You were right.” He walked over to the physicist and put a hand on his other shoulder. “Are you okay?”
Thoughtful, Larry had the same look on his face he’d had when Megan had been kidnapped by Crystal Hoyle two years ago. “To be honest, I’m not. Given the state of Richard Peyton when we got to that house, I think we have enough evidence to be very encouraging.”
“We’ll bring him home, I promise…” Don assured him. After Larry nodded, he turned to the main computer and sat down at its desk. “What do we have that we can work on?”
“A new and more detailed psychological profile,” Megan said. “I’m gonna get the files,” she added, and she left. But before she did, Charlie noticed the sweet, comforting smile she gave to Larry.
Trying to focus, Charlie sat down and took out his laptop from his bag. He connected to the main computer and saw his previous analysis appear on the big screens. He’d been studying the code Dr. Farrow had used to write a note to the owner of a house where the antiques had been buried. According to him, the cult communicated through it, as it was based on Egyptian hieroglyphics, but Charlie hadn’t been able to break it yet. “Okay, I gotta try a new algorithm I came up with when we arrived…” He entered his new code and leaned back in the chair. “And now we wait... Not for long, I hope.”
Larry remained silent, but rose and started walking in circles around the room. Charlie immediately realized that the wait would seem endless. Everyone was nervous and dealing with their own problems, and even if he had some himself, he had to stay strong.
His cell phone vibrated inside his pocket and he picked up the incoming call. “Hello, this is Charles Eppes…”
“Good morning, Mr. Eppes, this is Dr. Sheridan…”
The rest of the call was almost a monologue. The doctor explained the situation, the date and the time, and the people who should attend. The only thing Charlie could say was “Thank you,” and then he hung up. Charlie's entire world had just shattered into pieces.
He layed his cell phone on the desk, beside his laptop, and stared at it for a minute. Don seemed to notice, as he asked, “Charlie, is everything okay?”
Charlie couldn’t take his eyes off the little device that had brought more disturbing news. “Dr. Sheridan called. She wants me and David and to attend an appointment to see the lab results… from the paternity test.”
“When?”
“In a few days.”
The silence that followed only provoked Charlie to sink into the darkness of his own soul. There was an answer, an outcome, written in a piece of paper, or locked inside a doctor’s mind. He didn’t know how he’d react. He couldn’t even define how he felt right now.
“Buddy…” Don said, “It’ll be fine.”
“You always tell me that.”
“That’s because I mean it. And I’m usually right, so I think you should listen.”
When Charlie lifted his gaze to see him, he found an honest smile on his brother’s face. That was all he needed to soothe his aching heart.
Suddenly, the computer beeped and a message appeared on the screen. “I broke the code,” Charlie announced, and his fingers danced over the keyboard, demanding the final result to show.
He wasn’t expecting this kind of response.
“What?” Don muttered, obviously shocked.
“Oh, my goodness… That can’t be true,” Larry added.
The decoded message appeared on the screen.
This is not what we agreed. Tell your bosses I’m doing my part.
“I’m sorry, Larry, but it seems that someone has been keeping a big secret from you… from everyone,” Charlie said.
Now that it was obvious that Dr. Farrow was as linked to the cult as Sergio, there were new factors and variables to take into account, so a new analysis would be needed. He and Don got up as Liz appeared at the door.
“Guys, I’ve got news,” she informed. The missing woman, Lillian Fisher, just called 911.”
“She… Okay,” Don said before going towards the door. Larry followed him, and he almost ran like his limping was the last thing he cared about.
Swallowing, Charlie turned to the big screen and read the secret message once again. It reminded him of the one Amita had written for him to find her when she was kidnapped by her old boyfriend. That had been the beginning of everything - of their break-up, of life beside Colby.
But now it all could fall apart.
Determined to hold on, Charlie’s eyes landed on his cell phone. He reached for it and put it in his pocket again. For now, panicking about the results could wait.