Hi there. Author here. Well, this is my first Numb3rs story... REVISED! I hope that you all like it. The idea just came to me and I thought that I'd go with it... This is just a taste of what's to come! So, enjoy! And if you have any comments and/or suggestions, review! (They're much appreciated!) :)
It was a cold December night in California (well, as cold as California could ever get). Amita Ramanajan stood in the kitchen of her boyfriend's house, barefoot, but dressed warmly in a white sweater, green camisole, and blue jeans. Her dark hair was curled a bit and hung loose on her shoulders. Amita, thinking an orange was more festive and more interesting than an apple, set the orange on the cutting board and proceeded to cut it into small pieces. As she cut into the orange, the enticing scent wafted around the kitchen and made her a bit happier than she had been moments before.
She slowly walked over to the stereo in the living room with intent to find a radio station with holiday music playing.
Over the past six months, Amita found that she was happier. She'd surprisingly been spending more time at Charlie's house; it was a place that she found had harbored her most thorough and best thoughts: astrophysics, theoretical physics, mathematics... Amita continually wondered why she was so happy around his house, and why everything just made sense when she was staring at all of his work for his Cognitive Emergence Theory... Charlie—that's why... Her thoughts always seemed to drift towards him. He was important to her... More than either of us would admit, she thought, laughing a small laugh.
Flipping through digital radio stations, Amita finally found one that was playing what she was looking for. She loved the holidays, and so did Charlie, or at least she thought that he did. A few days previous, Amita had walked into Charlie's office and caught him in mid-thought...
Amita walked into Charlie's office with her laptop in hand. She paused in the doorway for a moment and tilted her head watching him move around back and forth to each end of his chalkboard. Larry, who'd returned two days beforehand, was busy talking to him about the stars and such that he had seen while in orbit. Charlie just nodded in response.
Slowly she walked in and set her computer on top of a sturdy stack of papers on his desk next to his origami. "Hey," Amita simply said.
Charlie turned around very quickly, like he wasn't expecting her. "Why Amita, what brings you to this humble abode at this current moment?" asked Larry surprised to see her too.
"I just had a question, but it can wait... Whatcha working on Charlie?" She walked around the desk and sat a few feet from where he was standing. He immediately pulled down a different board to cover what he was working on, thinking that she hadn't seen.
"N-Nothing... just class stuff..."
"So you're teaching algebra applied to food again?"
"I uh... yeah... I guess so... is this what was on this board?" Charlie grabbed an eraser and started to erase the chalk profusely.
"What were you working on, other than algebra applied to food?"
"Uh... sit right there... um..." He walked around a bit and looked for something. Charlie shuffled some papers and after clearing about fifty sheets, he pulled out a red Santa hat. "A student said I should buy one because I was a Scrooge," he joked a bit, putting it onto her head, "bah-Humbug." Amita rolled her eyes and took off the hat. "Guys, I'm still here... But I can make my presence disappear if you'd like..." Larry said sheepishly.
"No Larry, stay. I wanted to show you this too... I've finally come up with the perfect answer."
"Answer to what, Charlie?" asked Amita curiously, hesitating. He pushed the top chalkboard up to reveal what he had been originally working on.
"Christmas trees." Charlie smiled a great big, some what dopey, grin as he said the two words. Larry and Amita looked at each other and laughed a bit. "What? I can't find the perfect tree by using my analysis?"
"Charles, can't you just go out and enjoy the majesty of nature and choose a tree that, I know this might sound silly—makes you happy? Take Amita with you, I'm sure that she'd want to go."
"Yeah, but this helps you find the perfect tree..."
"There is no such thing as perfect in the cosmos..." Larry got up slowly and started walking out, throwing his hands into the air, "You know there's no such phenomenon as perfect in the cosmos... You know a..."
"Bye Larry." Charlie called after him. He turned to Amita, dropped the hat on her head, and kissed her lightly on the lips (causing female students whom were passing by to giggle,) and said, "Merry Christmas."
Charlie had taken her to get the tree, granted it most likely was not the perfect tree, and to a POPS concert at the LA Philharmonic. Amita loved hearing Handel's Messiah; it had a concrete mathematical pattern, which was fun, but it also was beautiful to listen to.
Amita walked back into the kitchen and hummed the melody of "Baby It's Cold Outside." She returned to her orange enjoyed the time to think. Her humming resounded throughout the entire empty house; Don was working at the FBI, Alan was out with Mildred, and Charlie was at CalSci or at the FBI with Don, so Amita was alone. Charlie had insisted that she stay there while her apartment was being wired and worked on.
Once again, Amita let her thoughts wander, and all of her attention with it. The presence of anyone else in the house went unnoticed... Then, unexpectedly, she felt two arms wrapped around her waist, snapping her back to reality. It wasn't threatening, but loving and comforting, reassuring. A head looked over her shoulder as a smile found its way onto Amita's face. Charlie... "Hey," the stranger said. Amita turned her head to reply, but Charlie took the words out of her mouth; he gave her a sweet kiss and then brought her around to face him.
Turning around, Amita put down the knife and followed his gesture; she hardly ever got to see this side of Charlie. His hair was a bit more disheveled than usual and his jeans, black t-shirt, blue pinstripe button down, and black suit jacket had wrinkles in them meaning that he probably tried to catch a few moments of sleep after she'd left at 5 o'clock. He looked tired, if not exhausted. "Charlie, I don't have to stay here; that's why there are hotels," she said, feeling like she was imposing on him and his family.
Charlie's hands tensed, "Nah. You're not... it's no problem." Amita nodded in reply. Charlie kissed her lightly on the head and walked into the kitchen and sat down, rubbing his temples. He was obviously thinking about one of Don's problems. She finished slicing the orange and brought it out to the living room to share with Charlie. Taking a seat next to him, she asked, "What are you doing home? I thought that you were working on something for Don's case..."
"When am I not?" The clock chimed that it was 9:30 loudly and died away. "It's just... I have to have more information. My results keep coming back inconclusive; there's seemingly no connection between the two victims. There's just too few occurrences... n-not that I want any more to happen. I've done all that I can do..."
"Can I take a look?" Amita asked. Charlie gestured to the stacks of paper that were lying on the table.
"I have to meet Don in," he looked at his watch, "an hour."
"That's 11 PM. Isn't that late? Even for the FBI?"
"They've been working on this case day in and day out. One woman dead, the other missing, no apparent connection, and there's a good chance there'll be more."
"Advanced behavioral game theory?"
"Yep. I thought that I'd maybe grab something to eat, drop by, and work on my Emergence Theory a bit." He got up, sighed, gave Amita a quick kiss, and hurried out to the garage.
Amita picked up part of the stack of papers and started to peruse them. She looked at the first folder, the top paper being a coroners report. The dead woman. Name... Walters, Rebecca. She shrugged it off, and turned to the next stack of photos, this has to be the missing woman... Chelsea McDaniel... That name seems extraordinarily familiar…
Following a hunch, Amita flipped to the information about Chelsea McDaniel; Occupation: FBI Agent.
A spark went off in Amita's head. She'd seen Chelsea before. In the past six months, Don had brought her home with him six or so times. They were friendly towards each other and looked as if they could have been more serious…A shrug followed her thought.
She flipped to the coroner's report and searched for Rebecca Walter's job. Lawyer. No connection. Amita sighed. Following a hunch, Amita turned to Rebecca Walter's coroner report again and looked for a spouse and his job. John Walters—FBI agent. Amita gasped; she'd figured it out, They're all connected in some way to the FBI.
Suddenly, Amita heard a door open, and saw Charlie rush through. "Charlie?"
He stopped and came back to the living room. "Where are you going? Is everything alright?"
"I…I forgot something at CalSci. I have to go get it before I see Don. Network theory; maybe a new connection." Charlie said hurriedly.
"Speaking of which, I…" Amita started. He gave her a kiss on the lips and said goodbye, running out the door. "Bye," she said after he left.
Well, I hope that you enjoyed it! Review please! (They are much wanted and appreciated!) Stay tuned for more...