FIC: In a Mirror, Darkly: Chapter 9/?
Title: In a Mirror, Darkly: Chapter 9
Author: Valerie Vancollie (valeriev84 [at] hotmail.com)
Characters: Don, Charlie, Alan, David, Colby, Nikki, (surprise)
Pairings: brief canon mentions of Charlie/Amita & Don/Robin
Rating: 15
Summary: There was a certain irony to the situation, that the brother who was a federal agent had been abducted to be used as leverage against the brother who was an applied mathematics professor at a highly respected college. Don Whump, Charlie Angst!
Betas: aleo_70 & fredbassett
Spoilers: Uncertainty Principle, Vector, Man Hunt, Dark Matter, Spree, Two Daughters, Brutus, Finders Keepers, One Hour, The Janus List, Breaking Point, Black Swan, When Worlds Collide, The Decoy Effect, Jack of All Trades, Arrow of Time, The Fifth Man, Greatest Hits, Angels and Devils
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Numb3rs characters, items or situations. I only lay claim to the original aspects of the fic.
Part III: Charlie: CalSci
Chapter 9:
Monday, 09:56
Dr. Charles Eppes' Office, CalSci
Charlie was focusing so deeply on the problem that the loud ringing of his cell caused him to jump. He'd specially altered the ring tone last night and upped the volume as high as it could go so that there would be no way he could miss a call. Much as he'd like to put it off, he did not want to be unreachable when someone from Don's team finally called. He didn't want to risk David coming over or sending one of the others to speak to him; it was simply easier to deal with the matter over the phone. The other reason he wanted to know the instant someone wanted to talk to him was because, against all odds, he feared he might miss a call from his brother. Either to say that he was fine and it was all some terrible scheme concocted by a group of criminals or to let him know that he'd escaped.
Charlie nearly laughed hysterically at the thought. Even now, despite everything that had happened recently or the photos depicting the grim and impossible situation Don now found himself in, he still expected his brother to be able to get out of it on his own. On some level, he still saw him as able to do anything, even if he no longer thought of him as being invincible.
His eyes darted automatically to the now empty spot where he'd taped the photos last night and looked at them throughout the evening. He had taken them down several hours ago in order to prevent anyone from seeing them should they catch him by surprise. So far no one had, but it wasn't a risk he was willing to take, not with Don's life at stake.
"Hello?" Charlie said as he answered the phone, impossible hope swelling within him despite his best efforts to quell it.
"Charlie, it's David."
The disappointment was so bad Charlie could almost taste it and he had a flash of the same despair he'd felt when Banner had shown him the first photo. It was as if this call was confirmation that the past few hours weren't simply part of some horrible nightmare he'd soon wake from.
Don!
"Hey, David," Charlie said, hoping he didn't sound as disappointed as he thought he did. "What can I do for you? If you guys need help with a case, then I don't think I can do that just now, I'm working on something else that's extremely urgent."
Despite wanting to concentrate solely on the problem, Charlie had spent a bit of time around dawn figuring out what he was going to say to Don's team when they called. In the end, he'd decided that, if he could, he'd get this information in before they could inform him about Don's disappearance. That way he could pretend that the stress and anguish were driving him deeper into it as a P vs. NP substitute.
"No, no, nothing like that," David responded, hesitating slightly. "It's just- have you heard from Don today?"
"Don?" Charlie tried for surprise, but it came out more distracted than anything else, which he hoped would also work. "No, I've been working on this problem since the end of last week. I haven't seen Don since he stopped by Friday evening. Why?"
"He came by CalSci Friday evening?"
"Yeah, he dropped off a file around seven that he wants me to look at for Howard," Charlie explained, not missing how David was not quite telling him that Don was a no show for work and that it was starting to worry people.
Normally he'd be angry at the lack of direct communication, but now he was thankful for it. If David and the others wanted to hold off informing him that his brother was officially missing and they suspected foul play, then he'd use that precious time to his advantage. It meant more time for him to work on the problem without needing to worry what they were thinking about his seeming lack of worry about Don or his inability to help them search for him. Still, he couldn't appear to be too unconcerned either and if he could give David something to work with, just in case he couldn't get this problem solved fast enough, then so much the better.
"Why? Is he running late?" Charlie teased. "Maybe you should call Robin, see if they actually came back from their little weekend trip. Who knows? Maybe they eloped together, Dad would really love that."
"Don was going on a trip?" David questioned, clearly surprised.
"Yeah, at least I think so. It's the impression I got from what he said."
"Can you remember exactly what that was?"
"Just that he had plans but that I wasn't supposed to tell Robin that as he wanted to surprise her."
"Ah, okay, thanks," David stated. "I think I'll do as you say and give Robin a call."
"No problem," Charlie did his best to sound lighthearted, he really did. "Besides, it gives me something to bring up next time Don complains about me being late."
Did David's laugh really sound forced or was that merely his imagination? Charlie wasn't sure and it was with relief that he said his goodbyes and hung up, slumping into his chair. Almost against his will, his hands reached for the drawer where he'd put the photos of Don and opened it. He picked up the two Polaroids with shaking hands and studied them once more, though he'd long since memorized them. Somehow holding them, being able to feel them in his hands, made a difference. It made it more real, especially now that he knew David and the others were also aware that something was amiss. He wasn't sure how seriously they were taking it just yet, after all, Don had been late before, but it meant the situation was real.
Until just now, Charlie hadn't realized how much he'd held onto the crazy hope that this whole thing was somehow a bizarre nightmare concocted by his exhausted and traumatized mind. It had been a bad few months and he wouldn't put it past his mind to start playing tricks on him. He'd already had enough nightmares about what had happened to first Don and then Amita, so it was only a matter of time before the two started merging and creating new material for his subconscious to play with. If it weren't so personal and bad, he'd be leaping to analyze it all for his Cognitive Emergence work, but he'd found he couldn't concentrate on the math. Not when his mind kept wanting to delve into 'what if' territory which he really didn't want to explore.
Charlie forced himself to put the photos back into the drawer and close it. He'd wasted enough time already staring at them, time that was far better spent on working on the problem whose successful cracking would get his brother free.
/
Monday, 14:09
Dr. Charles Eppes' Office, CalSci
"Dad," Charlie said in surprise as he returned to his office to find his father inside.
He'd left for just a few minutes to go to the bathroom and get a drink, so his father couldn't have been here long. Definitely not long enough to start snooping about and discover the photos he'd so foolishly left in his desk drawer. He wouldn't be making that mistake again, most people wouldn't start looking through his things, but it was a risk he was unwilling to take given the stakes. Even a glimpse of those photos would be enough to raise some uncomfortable questions that he'd have no way of answering without endangering his brother's life. That was if they didn't kill Don outright for his carelessness.
Instead of snooping about, his father seemed to have collapsed into the small area of his couch that wasn't completely covered in papers. Charlie swallowed as he realized that one of the folders Banner had given him was closed, clearly displaying the NSA logo on the front for the world to see. If it had been David, Colby or Nikki stopping by instead of his father...
"Charlie," Alan said hoarsely as he looked up.
Charlie nearly gasped as he got a good look at his father's face. He suddenly looked far older than normal and his face was lined with worry and grief. Knowing where this was going to go, he forced himself to turn away and approach his desk instead. There was no way he'd be able to lie to his father; he had trouble doing it with innocuous stuff, with something like this it would be completely impossible. Therefore he had to avoid a confrontation altogether, luckily he knew exactly how to do that.
"Charlie."
What he'd been trying before had reached a clear dead end, so he had to go back and figure out where he'd gone wrong. Once he knew that, Charlie knew he'd be able to do it right this time. In doing it wrong, though, he'd actually noticed something important about the algorithm that he hadn't been aware of before, so the time he'd spent chasing a false lead wasn't totally wasted. It would have been better if he hadn't gone as far as he had, but still, it was better than nothing.
"Charlie, we need to talk."
"Later, I'm busy right now."
For the first time in a long time, Charlie found his mind had suddenly gone completely blank of numbers. He stood in front of the board with his chalk poised just millimeters above the slate but there was nothing to write. His thought from seconds ago had vanished like mist in sunlight at his father's voice. Where he could normally tune out other people quite easily, even subconsciously, when on a roll, now he was hyperaware of his father's presence in the room and it was all he could think of. Well, that and what would be done to his brother if anyone learned what had happened to him. The image of the gun pressed so viciously against Don's head that the skin around it blossomed white, flashed before his eyes and his fingers tightened on the chalk, nearly crushing it in his grip.
With a concentrated effort, Charlie forced his fingers loose again and started writing nonsense on the board. Oh the numbers and symbols were all math related, but the equations meant absolutely nothing, mixing algebra with geometry and calculus in a hopeless jumble of figures. Not only did it give his hand something to do, but it would help convince his father that he was in another of his mathematics zone outs as he'd once heard Don refer to them.
"It's about Don."
The words stopped Charlie dead in his tracks and he swallowed hard, closing his eyes and bending his head forwards as the urge to turn around and tell his father everything rose within him. He struggled desperately to fight it down, though it was difficult to do so when all he wanted was to share this burden with someone. To have someone tell him that it would be okay and that Don was going to fine.
'If we even suspect that you've been talking with anyone about what you know, or that you've shown the photos to any of your dear brother's colleagues, he will be the one to suffer the consequences.'
Banner's words echoed in his mind and Charlie nearly flinched at the thought of what those consequences might be. No matter how much it would help him to know that he wasn't alone in this, that others knew exactly what was going on and were working to save Don, he wouldn't risk his brother's life like that. If he was correct in thinking that Banner and those he worked with were monitoring his office, then it was a potential death sentence to inform his father of what was going on even if he could convince him not to tell anyone else.
Besides, in this case Charlie wasn't sure that knowing the truth wasn't worse than not knowing anything at all. He didn't think Dad would react well to knowing that Don was currently being tortured and there was nothing he could do about it as he didn't possess the right math skills. Even with the necessary knowledge and skills, it felt like he wasn't really able to help his brother any. It sure seemed like was getting nowhere and that was when he was actually able to focus on the damn problem.
What had his line of thought been again?
"Charlie!" Alan said sharply when Charlie continued writing nonsense on the board.
"Sorry, I'm gonna loose this line of thought if I don't follow it now."
"This is more important than that. It's about your brother!"
His father's hurt and anger cut into Charlie like a knife, but he forced himself to continue scribbling away on the board. He wasn't even sure what he was writing now, trusting his subconscious to make it look math related so his father wouldn't get suspicious. This was a hundred times more difficult that he'd thought it would be, but he literally had no choice. He had to do it, he had to hurt their father in order to save his brother. He was sure that Dad would understand and even accept it if only he knew the truth. Both of them would do anything for the chance to help protect Don if it was within their power to do so. He'd just never thought it could involve hurting his father.
"Charlie!"
Suddenly Charlie felt hands on his arms and he was spun around, the chalk in his outstretched hand nearly poking his father in the face. He could only stare, wide-eyed and flabbergasted, at the completely unexpected and unprecedented move. Well, at least coming from his father. His face crumpled as he recalled Don trying the same thing as a last ditch attempt to reach him during their mother's illness. That was before he'd given up and stopped trying...
"Charlie," Alan said softly, pleadingly, bringing his hands up to his son's face.
"I- I can't," Charlie whispered, not meeting his father's eyes, hating how small and broken his voice sounded. "I need to... I have to... the numbers, the math-"
"Charlie, no, please. I need you, Don needs you. Please."
The words stabbed at Charlie like knives and he desperately gasped for air, a strangled moan escaping him as his eyes tracked involuntarily back to the drawer.
'I am doing what Don needs me to do!' Charlie silently screamed at his father, willing him to understand.
The whine that escaped him next was so entirely unexpected, to him as much as his father, that Charlie was released, his father stepping back a pace in response. Not able to stand facing the older man's reaction or emotions, he turned around once more, his hand taking on a life of its own. It took a few moments for Charlie to realize that the compulsive scribbling wasn't as random and meaningless as it had been before.
All at once his mind was swamped with numbers, as if his brain had been dunked into a vat filled with them. They were all around him, a thick miasma of expressions, equations and algorithms, flashing by at impossible speed and spurring him on. He suddenly recalled exactly what he'd planned to do and knew where he'd gone wrong. It was simple really, a stupid mistake he never should have made to begin with. If he just went back and took z to be a zero instead of a variable with a real value, then it would change everything.
Charlie was so engrossed in the math that his father's pleas and other attempts to return his attention to the present went completely unnoticed, nor did he hear the slamming of his office door when Alan finally threw in the towel and stormed out, furious and distraught.
Chapter 10