Summary: People look at Don and Charlie Eppes, and see only what they want to see. If they ever looked deeper, though... they might not like what they find.
Disclaimer: As much as I wish I owned them, all these lovely characters are part of Numb3rs, and are therefore owned by CBS. Thankfully, that doesn't mean that I can't submit them to the tortures of my own twisted fantasies...
WARNING: This story is a Don/Charlie pairing, and is therefore Slash, Incest and Eppescest.

CHAPTER ONE

I AM CHARLIE EPPES

The first time he'd killed, he'd been nine and in his freshman year at senior high. It'd been an accident, and he still can't really remember what'd happened. Something about velocity, impact, and the mathematics of aerodynamics... He'd always known that he was different – genius they called him – but when he had looked at that dead chick, feeling only disappointment that his hypothesis had been incorrect, it'd been the first time he'd wondered if different was wrong.

He hadn't thought about that chick again until five years later. He and his brother were graduating – and everyone was so proud. His parents were so obsessed with taking pictures of their young genius; they hadn't noticed when their eldest son had slipped away. But he had. Charlie loved his brother. Even though they were never that close, Donnie had always been there when he really needed him. He protected against bullies, and held him through the nightmares. And hugs... hugs were precious – precious because they came from his brother, and they came very, very rarely. Yes, he loved his older brother very much, and he knew him very well... so when he saw Donnie slip away, Charlie knew that his older sibling was unhappy at being left out again.

It wasn't difficult to distract his parents. Soon enough they were in deep conversation with a college professor who wanted to 'recruit' him for their program, and he was out hunting Don down. Today was a hug day. His brother, Charlie found out, had the same thought. Only, Don wasn't hugging him today. Instead he was hugging a strange girl, hidden in a dark corner far away from the crowd. He'd seen her before... She was a cruel girl, often making fun of him and his math, looking down on everyone around her... and now she was stealing his hug! But it wasn't just the hug. He could hear them moaning as he crept closer, watching with wide eyes when he realised just what Donnie was doing with the girl...

Two days later, as he watched the blond corpse sink into the depths, Charlie realized something interesting. The numbers were quiet. Not silent, never silent, but instead of being a near blinding chorus in his mind, they had become a pleasurable, comfortable hum... but he also realised something else. She was never going to touch Don again, because Don was his Don, and maybe, just maybe, he loved Donnie a little more than he technically should.

When Donnie had left, he'd thought it might just be a good thing, even if he almost hated him for it.

The next few years, Charlie threw himself into his work. He threw himself into several other things as well, but they always had dark hair and dark eyes and he never knew their names. He didn't want to know their names. But it wasn't until the trip to give a lecture on his Eppes Convergence in New York when one of his faceless, nameless Don's thought he could break the rules. He heard something on the news when they got back two days later, but he already knew the cops weren't going to find anything. Just like he knew that he liked carving the bastard up.

He'd had to face the truth after that. He thought he cared about them. About dad and Amita and Larry... and mom. But when mom was dying, and his dad yelled at him almost every day to go and say his goodbyes... he still couldn't leave the garage. They would all believe that he'd lost himself in the unsolvable P vs. NP because he couldn't deal with his mother's death. It was a lie he let them believe. He didn't work at the millennium problem because he wanted to ignore his mother's illness, but because he just couldn't understand why the thought of it didn't frighten him, or make him sad. He knew it should...

The truth was, he worked on P vs. NP because maybe, just maybe, solving someone else's unsolvable problem would help him solve his own.

Heartless. That's the word he'd ascribed himself during those months. Emotionless. His father had certainly told him that more than enough times – and Charlie almost believed it, too. Until Donnie came back. So different... and so the same. The same dark hair and dark eyes, the same voice, same rough hands and powerful body... and when those hands jerked him away from his blackboards, shaking him in anger, Charlie knew it was time to leave the garage. He wasn't heartless or emotionless. He'd found the solution to his problem, the other side of the emotional equation. He wasn't too surprised by it either.

The answer could only ever have been Don.

Very slowly, their lives began to settle into a pattern. Don was still Don, and Charlie still turned to faceless shadows. Sometimes he even thought it was funny, how no one could see him for what he was. They all thought he was sweet and funny and so intelligent, if a little socially awkward. Professor Charlie Eppes, who can't see the way Amita looks at him, who's probably still a virgin, and who could never hurt a fly. If only they knew...

Then, one day, everything changes and suddenly Charlie is involved with the FBI, helping them on their cases. No, not helping them... helping Don. He'd walked into the building, expecting to feel a certain... fear. There were, after all, still cold cases in this very building that related to things he'd done. But when he stepped off the elevator, there was nothing but excitement to see and help his brother. And did they ever work well together, just like Charlie had always known they would.

He allowed himself to get a little... closer, every now and then. Like after the shooting. He'd practically folded himself into Donnie then. It wasn't so much because of the shooting itself, but when Don had rushed forward and held him, he took advantage. Life went on, but sometimes Charlie could almost believe that Donnie felt something for him, too. A look that lingered, a touch or a squeeze that lasted just a second longer than it should between siblings...

And then came Kim Hall.

When he'd found the box and the ring inside it, Charlie had stared at it for a good, long while. Someone had come very close to stealing his Don away... Three days later, Charlie showed up at Don's door with the box. He'd settled in on the couch with him, a happy little smile on his face. Don had chosen to stay here, with him, even if there had been a woman waiting for him. And Charlie knew that Don would always be his.

Thirty eight hours later, Don and his team were informed that Kim Hall had mysteriously disappeared. His brother had nearly killed himself in an attempt to find her – but Charlie knew he never would. She would be just another cold case... Instead, when Don finally broke two months later, it was Charlie that sat with him in the dark of the apartment. Charlie who made sure that Donnie didn't drink too much, that he ate and took his showers while they waited for him to be approved for active duty again. It was Charlie who comforted him, running his fingers through his brother's soft hair as Don lay on his lap while they watched Gulliver's Travels together.

And he knew that, if anyone was ever going to catch him...

...it was going to be his Don.

TO BE CONTINUED...

And so it begins. The next chapter will give you a little bit more insight into the life of Don Eppes... Please let me know what you think!