Black and White

Summary: The Brothers' Eppes learn that sometimes good people make bad decisions for the wrong reasons when Charlie is in the wrong place at the wrong time. Sometimes the world isn't just black and white.

Dedication: To all those who have a chequered past and to all those who've made mistakes in their lives. Most of all my uncle. We all make mistakes, even though yours were larger than most. I still love you and I always will. I hold onto the good memories.

Disclaimer: I do not and most likely will never own Numb3rs or anything affiliated. Numb3rs belongs to CBS and Cheryl Heuton and Nicolas Falacci. I am only borrowing the characters for a short while. I do however own the plot and the original characters of Brennan Rays, Peter MacDonnell and Mark the med student.

A/N: The banks mentioned are actual banks in Los Angeles, however I made up the information on their security measures as I live no where close to L.A.

The familiar staccato of chalk on a chalkboard caused a small grin to grow on the lips of Agent Don Eppes. "Charlie?" He spoke up, garnering his younger brother's attention, "Got a minute?"

Charlie put the worn down piece of chalk on the table, "Sure Don. What do you need?"

"Serial bank robbery," his brother told him, a more serious look on his face now. He handed over the file, "No casualties yet, but it looks like they're escalating.

Charlie flipped open the file and thumbed through it quickly, "Only two guys?"

"By the looks of it yeah," Don nodded, "Security camera footage seems to confirm it. They act kind of erratically. Almost unorganized, but not quite; it's like their planning is flawless going in, but once their inside they're all over the place until they leave."

"Hmm... Well I can analyze the data and maybe determine the next target. It seems like a fairly straightforward pattern. I should have something for you by tonight."

"Thanks Buddy," Don clasped a hand on his brother's shoulder before turning to leave, "I'll leave you to it. Give me a call when you have something."

Charlie nodded his head, looking down at the files his brother had given him. He picked up his piece of chalk immediately and began working; his laptop open for when he refined the data a little more.

Don stepped into the most recent crime scene and surveyed the area. It was his third time at the Wells Fargo Bank, but something about the whole case seemed odd to him. It was an uneasy feeling that was churning in his gut and he wasn't quite sure what to make of it. That feeling was partially the reason he was glad Charlie was working on it at the house, minimal exposure.

No one had gotten hurt, only frightened and it always seemed to happen slightly before the bank was about to close. In that sense the two man team seemed organized. However once they got inside they'd erratically decide where to get the money from. One robbery they stole all the money from the drawers and ignored the vault, the next was vice versa. The one after that they stole every single patrons wallet and smashed up the ATM machines.

The erratic behaviour was what was giving him that uneasy feeling. It felt like the stakes were about to get raised in ways he couldn't even foresee. He just hoped that he and his team could catch them before any lives were lost.

"Don?" David stepped up next to him, "Something wrong?"

"I don't know yet," Don told his agent and friend, thinking deeply, "I just have this feeling."

"I get what you mean," David told his boss honestly, "I have the feeling some serious shit is about to go down… and I have no clue why. Their behaviour is… strange. No one can seem to tell if they're organized or disorganized or just trying to make us think they're disorganized."

Don looked at the mess that was the Wells Fargo Bank, "It's dangerous."

"Huh?"

"This lack of information. It's dangerous. We need to know what to expect."

"We can expect to catch them," David said firmly, "It's what we do and if I remember correctly Charlie's pretty good at helping us get the information we need."

Don nodded his head. David was right, Charlie did tend to come through for them and they did have an extraordinary solve right. Somehow though, it didn't ease that churning, uneasy feeling in his stomach, rather it caused it to grow.

"Something's not right," Charlie murmured to himself as his eyes flitted over the read out. He couldn't quite place what it was, but there was something off in his analysis. "More information," he added with a quick mutter.

He collected up a clipboard with some blank paper and a pen before grabbing the keys to his Prius. He needed more information. His brother probably wouldn't approve of what he intended, but the next robbery wasn't due for a few days anyway. He was going to the bank.

When Charlie stepped into the bank nothing seemed to jump out at him. Nothing that told him what was wrong with his data. He let his eyes roam over the banks security measure and found they correlated exactly with the previous robberies. After a short shake of his head he started to leave the bank, apparently it was the location that was wrong.

A frightening thought popped into his head, 'what of it was the timeline that was wrong?' These two guys were acting pretty erratically according to his brother.

His hand reached for the door handle, but it opened before he touched it. What happened next was so fast he barely comprehended that he'd been right about his miscalculation.

A hand grabbed his wrist, whirled him around and twisted his arm behind his back and immediately caused his clipboard to clatter out of his hands. A cold piece of metal rested against his ear, causing him to freeze up stiffly. "Everyone on the floor," a loud voice boomed straight into his ear, forcing him forward back into the bank. The few customers in the bank immediately dropped to the floor along with the employees.

"B, get the money," the voice behind him ordered again. The man kept a firm grip on his wrist and twisted it painfully, "Don't even think about moving. This'll all be over before you know it. It's up to you how it ends, got that?"

Charlie swallowed the breath that had caught in his throat and nodded slowly, "Yeah." He managed to force his eyes on the second robber since he couldn't see the one behind him. He wanted to give Don a good description of the robbers and their tactics... if he could.

This wasn't the first hand experience he'd been hoping for, or even expecting at all. Even while he knew no one had been killed in any of the previous robberies, it wasn't very comforting considering the weapon resting close to his skull. He hoped this experience wouldn't be his last one.

The second robber, B, was waving his gun around, forcing the teller to empty the drawers. All the money was being shoved into a large brown backpack.

B seemed to sense the stare and looked straight at Charlie. Recognition lit up in the man's eyes, "Git him outta here!"

"What? Man... Are you high?" The robber who was currently holding him as a hostage asked his friend exasperatedly, "You promised you'd be sober this time."

That seemed to explain the erratic behaviour.

"No!" Although the strength of his protest proved just the opposite, "I saw him on the news months ago," B announced, "He helps the feds. One of them's his brother. Git him outta here."

"Man you're kidding," the first one laughed and tightened his painful grip even more. "That true Buddy?" He questioned Charlie harshly.

Charlie winced at the nickname before uttering a quiet, "Yes."

"Then he's staying here," the first guy let out another chuckle, "He's our ticket to safety if anything goes wrong."

"No he's our ticket to pissed off feds," B snapped, zipping up the one backpack and grabbing the other. He shoved it at the manager, "Fill it up and quick." He turned back to his partner, "We keep him until were done and leave him with the rest of them, okay?"

"I still think..."

"Look man, we take him with us and we'll have to kill him. You promised no one would get hurt if we could help it. We can help it. And I AIN'T killing no brother of a fed, got it?"

"Fine," the first man grumbled, his anger causing him to put more pressure on the arm he was holding. It caused Charlie to let out a small gasp of pain.

"Lighten up on the grip too," B muttered at his partner, "They ain't going to be too happy if you hurt him either."

"Since when do you care so much about how the feds are feeling?" The first guy raised an eyebrow and allowed his mouth to curve upward slightly on one side.

"'Cause I've been caught before and when the feds are feeling kind they can help you avoid a harsh sentence. It's bad enough we even got him here, they're going to hate us. I'd rather not want his brother wantin' me dead, kay?"

"I agree with him," Charlie spoke up, "Actually I bet if you surrendered now you'd avoid a bad sentence."

"Shut up," the first robber snapped, yanking up his arm harshly and everyone in the room heard the pop that followed, especially Charlie.

His knees bent as he leaned forward, eyes shut tight in pain, but the robber yanked him back into an upright position almost immediately.

"What the hell did you do that for?" B shouted, "You idiot. Let go of him. I'll take him, you get the money. Obviously I can't trust you with the hostages. You don't 'member the plan or somethin'? He didn't try to escape or call no one." He slapped his partner's gun away from the mathematician's forehead and pulled him away from the more violent robber.

"Guess I just don't have the same morals you do," the first robber shrugged his shoulders, before moving forward to harass the manager to hurry up filling up the backpack with money.

"It's alright, it's probably just dislocated," B told Charlie quietly. He took the mathematician's injured arm in his hands, "Don't move now. This is gonna hurt." With that said he shoved the shoulder back into its socket and Charlie groaned as the pain in his shoulder was exacerbated.

"Thanks, I guess," Charlie muttered, cradling his injured arm in his good one.

"Don't thank me," B rolled his eyes at the hostage, "You're still in here ain't you? You're still the hostage," He shook his head as he said the words with an almost regretful tone and wrapped his arm lightly around Charlie's neck before pressing the gun into his ribs gently, "And I'm still the bad guy. Don't forget that."

"Done B, let's go," the first robber announced after a second.

"Give him the backpack," B told him partner, gesturing at Charlie.

The first robber shoved the backpack at Charlie, forcing him to catch it with his good arm. "No one move or it's gonna be more than his arm popping, you got it?" There was a smattering of nods from the other people in the bank. The two robbers marched their initial hostage towards the doors of the bank, checked quickly for the cops, before B released the hold he had on Charlie's neck.

He grabbed the pack from the mathematician's arms with very little resistance, before giving him one last look and leaving the back calmly.

Charlie immediately sank to the floor as the others in the bank finally stood up. A young man approached him while the others stood back and the manager called the police, "Are you alright?" The young man asked.

"I think so," Charlie muttered, "I'm Charlie by the way."

"Mark," he told him, helping him back onto his feet; "I'm a med student and a first aider. Do you mind if I take a look at your arm?"

"Go ahead," Charlie told him with a pained smile.

Mark gently took the professor's arm in his hands and noticed bruising and swelling in his wrist, as well as up around his shoulder. "I think your arm might be broken, but your shoulder seems to have been put back into place alright. You should probably get a second opinion from a licensed doctor though." He looked up towards one of the tellers, "You must have a first aid kit right? Can you grab it for me? I want to put his arm in a sling."

"I should call my brother; the federal agent they were talking about," Charlie reached for his cell phone, but it wasn't there, "Guess our friends took my phone. I didn't even notice."

"Your mind was on other things," Mark assured him and pulled out his own cell phone, "Here you can use mine."

"Thanks." Charlie took the phone in his good hand and dialled the number, before waiting for an answer.

"Agent Eppes speaking."

"Don, it's me, Charlie," Charlie told his brother quickly, "Did you get the call about the Wachovia Bank on Westwood Boulevard yet?"

"Yeah, was that in your analysis?"

"Yes, but it wasn't due for five days," Charlie murmured to his brother.

"Then how did you know," Don's voice darkened at the context Charlie was inserting into the conversation, "Charlie?"

"Don I was there," Charlie told him quickly before diving into the rest of it, "I knew something was wrong with my analysis and I went to figure it out. Just it wasn't the location; it was the timeline that was off."

"Just hang on Buddy-"

"Don don't," Charlie cut him off, "I'm sorry, just don't call me that for awhile, okay?"

"Charlie, are you alright?" His brother asked him, worry permeating his voice.

"I'll survive," Charlie muttered, hissing in pain as Mark accidentally jostled his arm, "Are you on your way?"

"I was on my way when you called, Colby's driving," Don explained quickly, not liking the sound of pain coming from his brother one bit, "I'll be there soon, okay Charlie?"

"OK, bye then," Charlie hung up the phone and looked at the med student who throughout the conversation had been wrapping his arm and setting it in a triangular bandage sling. "He's on his way," he told Mark while handing the phone back to him.

"So's the police," the manager spoke up quietly. He shook his head, "I thought we were ready for anything, but something was wrong. Our silent alarms must have been shut down... I had to have pressed it at least three times. He looked at the man he assumed had just been another customer who happened to have a FBI agent for a brother, "Are you alright Sir?"

"I'll be fine," Charlie told the manager and forced a smile, "I actually came here to make sure my analysis was right. I was working for my brother and I just found out a half hour ago the next robbery would be here, but it wasn't supposed to be for almost a week. I was just going to check up on my findings..." He trailed off and shook his head, "I never should have come."

Sirens announced the imminent presence of the police and hopefully his brother. A man pushed into the bank and quickly scanned the room with his gun out, "They're all gone you said?"

Everyone in the bank quickly nodded and the police officer waved in some of his buddies so they could clear the room. It took a few more minutes, but he FBI quickly moved into the room. The lead agent quickly zeroed in on Charlie and hugged him gently, "You okay?"

"I'll be fine Don," Charlie told his older brother quietly, "Just need a ride to the hospital to make sure my arm isn't broken."

"Tell me how of all the people in the bank it's you who manage to get their arm broken?"

"I was leaving just as they came in and one of them recognized me," Charlie explained quietly. "He wanted me out of here, the one who recognized me. His partner called him B. He didn't want to make things worse than they already were by getting the FBI angry. The other guy had a different opinion..."

"Bud-" Don stopped, "Sorry Charlie. What did the other guy want?"

"He wanted to take me with them. He figured I'd be their ticket to safety if anything went wrong. B talked him out of it," Charlie explained quietly. "That'll be taken into account when you catch them, right? That he tried to get me out of there?"

"Charlie..." Don shook his head, "Look let's just get you to the hospital okay?" He started to lead his brother towards the doors of the bank. He turned back at the med student picking up the excesses of the first aid kit used to treat his brother, "Thank you," he told the kid quietly.

"No problem," Mark replied back to the FBI agent softly.

"Come on," he murmured to his brother, escorting him out the doors of the bank and outside into the night air.

"You okay man?" Colby asked Charlie when he laid eyes on his injured friend.

"Fine, just fine," Charlie told him quietly, getting into the SUV when his brother opened the passenger's side door for him.

"I'm going to take him to the hospital," Don told his agent quietly as he shut the door, "I'll be back later. David's in charge until then."

"Okay."

Don rounded the vehicle and climbed into the driver's seat. As he started up the car he looked over at his brother, "You know Charlie. This B guy... he didn't help you out in there, not really."

"Don he talked his partner out of taking me with them. If that had happened, I would probably have ended up dead. He popped my shoulder back into place and stopped the guy from hurting me anymore. I consider that help... at least to some degree."

"Charlie you're forgetting that he robbed the bank and used you as a potential hostage," Don shook his head, "You're forgetting he's the bad guy."

"Yeah that's what he said," Charlie murmured.

"We caught them Charlie ," Don told his brother, clamping a hand on his brother's good shoulder. "You think you can confirm it was them?"

"Yeah sure," Charlie murmured and allowed his brother to lead him into the viewing room. He immediately recognized the two men who'd held him at gunpoint, "That's them Don. Who are they?"

"Brennan Rays and Peter McDonnell," Don told his brother quietly. He watched as Charlie stared at Peter McDonnell with a mix of fear, anger and hatred. "You okay Charlie?"

"He was willing to kill me Don," Charlie told his brother softly, "For no reason than he thought it would guarantee him safety beforehand. He was just going to take me and when he was done get rid of me like a piece of trash. I just don't get how people turn out that way."

"Sometimes it just happens Budd-" he stopped again, "Sorry."

"It's alright," Charlie told his older brother calmly, "I don't mind anymore. He just called me that at one point and... I don't know."

"You know Charlie," Don said slowly, "You were right about Brennan Rays. I talked to his niece. He's raised her since she was eleven. She told me the reasons why he agreed to work with McDonnell in the first place."

"Yeah?"

"She was sexually assaulted by a classmate awhile ago and the prosecution dropped the case," Don explained quietly. "He couldn't handle seeing her in so much pain and turned to drugs after being clean for three years. All their money went to the drugs and he wanted to get some high priced lawyers to bring up the charges again in a civil suit, but with his problems and his record... he couldn't get a good enough job. The LAPD wouldn't listen to him either. McDonnell approached him and offered a solution and he accepted it as long as no one got hurt." Don paused, "She also brought to light that when he was younger he was assaulted himself and that was the initial reason for his drug abuse. Despite all of that, he loved his niece and took good care of her."

"What happens to her now?" Charlie asked quietly.

"She's eighteen," Don told him softly, "She's graduated high school. She got accepted to CalSci from what I heard, for a double major in mathematics and science... that doesn't bother you does it; his niece in your classes?"

"No," Charlie answered softly, even though he was truthfully unsure about how he felt about it. He was sure she was a nice enough person and he knew for certain now that her uncle had never truly meant him any harm, but… it would probably take some getting used to. "I'm just wondering what would have happened if Brennan Rays had found some other way to help his niece."

"That's something we'll never know."

"I guess not," Charlie agreed, still looking in on the two men. There was so much emotion written all over the face of Brennan Rays. Fear, shame and agony seemed to linger deep in those gray eyes and in his facial expression. "I guess nothing is ever really just black and white huh?"

Don put a hand on his brother's uninjured shoulder and gave it a short squeeze. "No Buddy, it isn't."

A/N: I know Charlie's not usually one to make mistakes, especially involving math, but the point of this story was that no one's perfect and that we all make mistakes. I hope you enjoyed this story as it's one really close to my heart. My uncle is currently in prison for robbing a bank due to an increased dependency on drugs and drug money. His drug use stems from an unfortunate incident that happened when he was a child. No matter what I'll never stop loving him and I won't forget the good memories of my families visits when I was a young child.

Please be kind and leave a positive and/or constructive review.