Numb3rs fic: "Reasonable Charlie" (Charlie-centric)
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Title: Reasonable Charlie.
Author: Keenir.
Proofreader: Sororcula.
Characters: Amita Ramanujan, Don Eppes, Larry Fleinhart, Interviewer; Charles Eppes in the background.
Team: Angst.
Category: Charlie
Word: Assent.
Word Count: 1,045 words.
Rating/Category: PG Gen.
Spoilers: Harvest, the going-into-orbit arc, the brief mentions of the late Mrs. Eppes.
Summary: It has been said that everyone remembers us differently. Four people give witness to what they know of Charlie Eppes.
Notes: In the episode Harvest, Charlie gets a very distinctive look on his face when Amita is saying “When I was little, you know, kids used to make fun of me because I was different. But I didn’t want to be different. […] I wanted to push away that part of who I am,” and Charlie says “You wanted to fit in here,” with the voice of someone who knows from painful experience how it is to be on the outside and not wanting to be there.
…so, in this, I engaged in a little wish-fufilment - I gave Charlie the opportunity to have a normal life. but, like everything else, this has a cost, a catch.
Warnings: This is not deathfic…this is post-deathfic (is there a word for that?). And AU - not massively, but significantly.
Disclaimer: None of the canon characters are mine; they belong to the creators of NUMB3RS. I am making no profit in writing this; this is purely for fun.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
”The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself.” --George Bernard Shaw.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
the following is drawn from a transcription of Part One of the documentary ‘Common Genius: the Charles Eppes Story’ filmed for NOVA and the BBC
* * *
INTERVIEWER: Professor Amita Ramanujan, as the Dean here at CalSci, did you ever meet Charles Eppes before?
AMITA: I’m afraid not. Though I may have seen him once or twice.
INT.: How so?
AMITA: This photograph you brought of Mr. Eppes in his youth…[pauses]…the photograph does look a lot like a particularly attentive man who once came in off the street to sit in on one of my classes,
INT.: He was that distinctive even then?
AMITA: [smiles fondly] He corrected my math. Mind you, he was very polite about it, but he was right. I nearly asked him to stay after class so I could talk to him.
INT.: Why?
AMITA: You mean why didn’t I?
INT.: Yes.
AMITA: He looked so awkward, out of his element in my classroom. At the time, I put that down to all the other students looking at him.
INT.: Do you think anything might’ve been different, had you asked him to stay behind?
AMITA: I like to think so. Of course, I like to think that of all my students.
INT.: Well, you definitely left a mark, Professor. Some of your mathematical shorthand for the more complex formulae has been found in Mr. Eppes’ solution to P-vs-NP.
AMITA: [a little bit stunned] Wow.
INT.: Just ‘wow’?
AMITA: I’m flattered that I could help solve that problem. But as I’ve already said, I missed my opportunity to know him.
INT.: Do you think he would have assisted you in your consulting work for the FBI?
AMITA: I think so. Of course, wasn’t he something of a recluse?
INT.: So are you saying you think he did the wrong thing, trying to be normal?
AMITA: [affronted] No. No that’s not what I was saying at all. I’m in no position to say that Mr. Eppes took the wrong path in his life; I was simply saying that he might not have wanted to be a consultant.
* * * * *
INTERVIEWER: Once again, I’d like to thank you, Director Eppes, for permitting me this interview.
FBI DIRECTOR DON EPPES: No problem.
INT.: Were you and your brother close?
DON: I don’t think anybody was ever close to Charlie.
INT.: What about your mother?
DON: She tried. God knows she tried.
INT.: What happened?
DON: Best anyone can figure it, a year into college, Charlie decided that he wanted a normal life.
INT.: Is that so unusual?
DON: For Charlie, it was. He’d known his whole life how smart he was - and suddenly he tried to act like he wasn’t head-and-shoulders above the likes of you and me.
INT.: This new resolution of Mr. Eppes, did it cause any problems at home?
DON: Not as much as you’d think. We all tried to go along with his decision - I figured Charlie couldn’t keep away from math forever.
INT.: Well, you were right.
DON: Yeah, a bunch of notebooks. Rather have my brother.
INT.: Do you feel he’d have been willing to work with you on cases?
DON: I doubt it. But if he’d expressed an interest, hey I’ve got no problem with one more consultant.
INT.: If you don’t mind my asking, when was the last time you saw your brother?
DON: You mean before his funeral last week.
INT.: Yes.
DON: At the hospital when our mom was dying. I thought I saw Charlie at her funeral, but I couldn’t be sure.
INT.: Your record says you were demoted twice because you went looking for your brother.
DON: I looked for Charlie more than just twice. But those two were when I hadn’t finished dotting all the I’s and crossing all the t’s on a case in an area where there’d been a report of someone matching Charlie’s description.
INT.: If you had the opportunity, what would you say to your brother?
DON: As in he’s right here right now?
INT.: Alive and well.
DON: I’d say, welcome back, bro.
INT.: Do you think he made the wrong decision?
DON: That’s not a question.
INT.: Sure it is.
DON: No, I mean there’s no pat answer for it - do I wish Charlie’d stayed and helped at home, hell yeah. But I know that, once my brother makes up his mind about something, nothing can change. So if I have to answer that question of yours, then no, I don’t think he picked the wrong life to lead.
* * * * *
INTERVIEWER: Mr. Fleinhart, we have time for one more question before the Warden comes to escort us back to the front gate and yourself back to your cell.
LARRY FLEINHART: Ask away, please.
INT.: Based on your year of teaching Mr. Eppes, do you think that he would have taken your place as a candidate to walk in space?
LARRY: I’ll correct your fallacy there, it’s nothing personal, but he would not have replaced me. He might have succeeded where I failed - [shrugs] I simply didn’t want it enough to try again. I was one of the last to be winnowed out by the selection programe, and Mr. Eppes might have been driven to either pull through or try again; I didn’t.
LARRY: And one other thing.
INT.: Yes?
LARRY: My time in here…it’s proven constructive, in the sense that it helps me focus my mind.
LARRY: I have to say… we all have walls, limitations that we set on ourselves consciously just as our body and mind set limits, and society does the same thing. In here, my walls are visible. In here, I’ve come to realize that there are three kinds of people in the world: people who stay inside their cell, others who break out of the cell, and then there are those who work with the walls and accept the limitations in much the same way that you or I accept that we have to breathe to stay alive.
INT.: And which would you say Charles Eppes was?
LARRY: Based on what little I saw of him, I’d say he could very easily have become that rare third type. But… [breath]...he chose.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The End
Title: Reasonable Charlie.
Author: Keenir.
Proofreader: Sororcula.
Characters: Amita Ramanujan, Don Eppes, Larry Fleinhart, Interviewer; Charles Eppes in the background.
Team: Angst.
Category: Charlie
Word: Assent.
Word Count: 1,045 words.
Rating/Category: PG Gen.
Spoilers: Harvest, the going-into-orbit arc, the brief mentions of the late Mrs. Eppes.
Summary: It has been said that everyone remembers us differently. Four people give witness to what they know of Charlie Eppes.
Notes: In the episode Harvest, Charlie gets a very distinctive look on his face when Amita is saying “When I was little, you know, kids used to make fun of me because I was different. But I didn’t want to be different. […] I wanted to push away that part of who I am,” and Charlie says “You wanted to fit in here,” with the voice of someone who knows from painful experience how it is to be on the outside and not wanting to be there.
…so, in this, I engaged in a little wish-fufilment - I gave Charlie the opportunity to have a normal life. but, like everything else, this has a cost, a catch.
Warnings: This is not deathfic…this is post-deathfic (is there a word for that?). And AU - not massively, but significantly.
Disclaimer: None of the canon characters are mine; they belong to the creators of NUMB3RS. I am making no profit in writing this; this is purely for fun.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
”The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself.” --George Bernard Shaw.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
the following is drawn from a transcription of Part One of the documentary ‘Common Genius: the Charles Eppes Story’ filmed for NOVA and the BBC
* * *
INTERVIEWER: Professor Amita Ramanujan, as the Dean here at CalSci, did you ever meet Charles Eppes before?
AMITA: I’m afraid not. Though I may have seen him once or twice.
INT.: How so?
AMITA: This photograph you brought of Mr. Eppes in his youth…[pauses]…the photograph does look a lot like a particularly attentive man who once came in off the street to sit in on one of my classes,
INT.: He was that distinctive even then?
AMITA: [smiles fondly] He corrected my math. Mind you, he was very polite about it, but he was right. I nearly asked him to stay after class so I could talk to him.
INT.: Why?
AMITA: You mean why didn’t I?
INT.: Yes.
AMITA: He looked so awkward, out of his element in my classroom. At the time, I put that down to all the other students looking at him.
INT.: Do you think anything might’ve been different, had you asked him to stay behind?
AMITA: I like to think so. Of course, I like to think that of all my students.
INT.: Well, you definitely left a mark, Professor. Some of your mathematical shorthand for the more complex formulae has been found in Mr. Eppes’ solution to P-vs-NP.
AMITA: [a little bit stunned] Wow.
INT.: Just ‘wow’?
AMITA: I’m flattered that I could help solve that problem. But as I’ve already said, I missed my opportunity to know him.
INT.: Do you think he would have assisted you in your consulting work for the FBI?
AMITA: I think so. Of course, wasn’t he something of a recluse?
INT.: So are you saying you think he did the wrong thing, trying to be normal?
AMITA: [affronted] No. No that’s not what I was saying at all. I’m in no position to say that Mr. Eppes took the wrong path in his life; I was simply saying that he might not have wanted to be a consultant.
* * * * *
INTERVIEWER: Once again, I’d like to thank you, Director Eppes, for permitting me this interview.
FBI DIRECTOR DON EPPES: No problem.
INT.: Were you and your brother close?
DON: I don’t think anybody was ever close to Charlie.
INT.: What about your mother?
DON: She tried. God knows she tried.
INT.: What happened?
DON: Best anyone can figure it, a year into college, Charlie decided that he wanted a normal life.
INT.: Is that so unusual?
DON: For Charlie, it was. He’d known his whole life how smart he was - and suddenly he tried to act like he wasn’t head-and-shoulders above the likes of you and me.
INT.: This new resolution of Mr. Eppes, did it cause any problems at home?
DON: Not as much as you’d think. We all tried to go along with his decision - I figured Charlie couldn’t keep away from math forever.
INT.: Well, you were right.
DON: Yeah, a bunch of notebooks. Rather have my brother.
INT.: Do you feel he’d have been willing to work with you on cases?
DON: I doubt it. But if he’d expressed an interest, hey I’ve got no problem with one more consultant.
INT.: If you don’t mind my asking, when was the last time you saw your brother?
DON: You mean before his funeral last week.
INT.: Yes.
DON: At the hospital when our mom was dying. I thought I saw Charlie at her funeral, but I couldn’t be sure.
INT.: Your record says you were demoted twice because you went looking for your brother.
DON: I looked for Charlie more than just twice. But those two were when I hadn’t finished dotting all the I’s and crossing all the t’s on a case in an area where there’d been a report of someone matching Charlie’s description.
INT.: If you had the opportunity, what would you say to your brother?
DON: As in he’s right here right now?
INT.: Alive and well.
DON: I’d say, welcome back, bro.
INT.: Do you think he made the wrong decision?
DON: That’s not a question.
INT.: Sure it is.
DON: No, I mean there’s no pat answer for it - do I wish Charlie’d stayed and helped at home, hell yeah. But I know that, once my brother makes up his mind about something, nothing can change. So if I have to answer that question of yours, then no, I don’t think he picked the wrong life to lead.
* * * * *
INTERVIEWER: Mr. Fleinhart, we have time for one more question before the Warden comes to escort us back to the front gate and yourself back to your cell.
LARRY FLEINHART: Ask away, please.
INT.: Based on your year of teaching Mr. Eppes, do you think that he would have taken your place as a candidate to walk in space?
LARRY: I’ll correct your fallacy there, it’s nothing personal, but he would not have replaced me. He might have succeeded where I failed - [shrugs] I simply didn’t want it enough to try again. I was one of the last to be winnowed out by the selection programe, and Mr. Eppes might have been driven to either pull through or try again; I didn’t.
LARRY: And one other thing.
INT.: Yes?
LARRY: My time in here…it’s proven constructive, in the sense that it helps me focus my mind.
LARRY: I have to say… we all have walls, limitations that we set on ourselves consciously just as our body and mind set limits, and society does the same thing. In here, my walls are visible. In here, I’ve come to realize that there are three kinds of people in the world: people who stay inside their cell, others who break out of the cell, and then there are those who work with the walls and accept the limitations in much the same way that you or I accept that we have to breathe to stay alive.
INT.: And which would you say Charles Eppes was?
LARRY: Based on what little I saw of him, I’d say he could very easily have become that rare third type. But… [breath]...he chose.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The End