Title: Brothers and old friends
Author: Chymom
Beta: Helen
Disclaimer: I don't have any rights to the numb3rs cast and or crew.
Spoolers: Any part of numb3rs maybe talked about.
Summary: This is set in the first two seasons of numb3rs mostly. Don finds out something surprising about his younger brother and an old friend.
Word count: 2049
Rating: PG-13 for a bad word or two.
A/N: this is my challenge line story for the March Challenge line Challenge at Numb3rsallday.
The lines are from Counterfeit Reality
Charlie: I agree were from two different worlds.
Don: Not so much anymore
Brothers and Old friends
Charlie knew he had an eye for men as well as women. He had spent as much time with men as he had women in the past few years and he couldn't say if he liked one gender over the other. That all changed for him the moment he got his first real look at his brother's old partner. Billy Cooper was not the kind of man that you would find on the cover of GQ. He was a little rough around the edges; Charlie assumed that was due to his time in the field.
Billy had a way to make Charlie want to prove that he could be just as good with his math as he himself could be with his knowledge of the bad guys. It wasn't as if when Charlie first started working with Don that he didn't have to prove himself over and over again to Don and his team. However this was different, he didn't only want to prove that he could do it, he wanted to be noticed. He wanted to make sure that Billy saw that he could help. That he was not some math geek that's along for the ride with his big brother.
Charlie had taken his time and re-looked and re-looked at every detail of the case. It wasn't that he never did this; he just took a closer look this time. When the guy was once again behind bars and the team was heading out for drinks Don had shocked himself and his brother.
"Charlie were heading out for a drink do you want to come?" Charlie was speechless for a moment. His brother had asked him a few times in the past for drinks but not yet with the team. He thought about heading home instead and letting Don not have to play the big brother. Then a movement to his left caught his eye. Billy Cooper was standing there talking to the rest of Don's team.
"Can you give me a lift home afterwards?" Don had watched his brother and noticed when he had changed his mind. A thought was quickly working its way into his mind.
"Sure buddy."
"What are we waiting on? Come on lets head out I want to enjoy one night before I have to head back out." Cooper voice showed Don two things. One his former partner had not changed since he had left. Two that his mind had not been playing tricks on him. From time to time when Billy and he had been around Charlie he would see one or the other size them up. At the time he had dismissed it as just competition for his attention or the math over work thing. Now watching his younger brother's reaction to Billy's voice he knew what it was.
"Nothing Coop. Lets head out." Once at the bar the table was filled with jokes and stories from Don's rookie days. Terry and Billy were comparing the way Don was then with the way he is now. David was sitting back just listing to tells of a younger version of the man he was starting to call his friend instead of boss.
"Then he came running out of the dorm waving his hand yelling I got it, I got it." Don could hear the talking around him as he watched his old partners' reaction to his younger brother. They definitely wanted each other but were it just a lust thing or were there more to it? Billy's eyes were once again sizing up Charlie. If something didn't change soon Don had a feeling that Billy would bend Charlie over the table and get it over with.
Part of Don's mind wanted that to happen. Then his big brother instincts came out to play. No way was he going to let someone hurt Charlie the way Coop would when he left. Charlie is a great math teacher but as far as feelings and emotions went he was still a child in so many ways, at least in Don's mind.
"I've got to call it a night. Charlie, you ready?" Charlie had wanted to stay but seeing as Don was his ride home, his eye contact with Agent Cooper broke and he joined his brother.
"What Donnie got a hot date tomorrow?" Billy was the only one brave enough to ask a question like that.
"Only with the mountain of paperwork that you're leaving me on my desk tomorrow." Don remarked as he and Charlie headed out the door.
"Charlie, be careful about who you openly eye in the office." They were half way to the Eppes home when Don floored him.
"I don't know what you mean?" Thinking that his brother couldn't mean what he thought he meant. Charlie played it off.
"You know exactly what I mean. Charlie he's an Agent and he works in Fugitive Recovery. " Don's eyes not leaving the road ahead of him as he spoke.
"It's not what you think."
"Not what I think? Then tell me what it is. From where I'm sitting it looks like you want to hook up with him."
"Okay it is what it looks like Don. But I guess you're right. Things wouldn't work out." Charlie was staring out the window at the cars passing by.
The months that followed saw more and more of Charlie's time being spent at the FBI with Don and his team. Colby and Megan had now come on the team and Terry had moved to DC. Colby was easy on the eyes but off limits to Charlie. Colby was a member of Don's team and that meant no touch.
It wasn't until a case brought Agent Cooper back that Don saw Charlie giddy again. Amita was no longer one of his students so he was now free to date her. From what his dad had said they had had a date but it hadn't worked out. In fact Charlie himself had said that all they had in common was work.
As this case went on Don found himself sizing up Billy. Not in the normal way but as a brother looking to see if the other person is good enough for his brother. He had to laugh at the thought. He never thought he would be seeing if men were good enough for Charlie let alone an Agent. The more he saw the way they were together the more Don wanted Billy to stay.
Charlie wasn't as pushy this time. The team knew that his math helped and so did Billy. In fact Billy had come to Charlie first with the case this time for his help. Colby had even started calling Charlie the whiz kid. For some reason it stuck.
Don thought that since the last time Billy was here that Charlie had let go of his fantasy. Since he had yet to hit on any of the other agents that worked for him that he knew of at least. They were two days in when Billy had told him that he was going to check on the data he had given Charlie. That was the day that things changed.
Billy had come to check on the data along with surprising Charlie with a bone shattering kiss.
"Whiz kid is it now?"
"Not you too?"
"I hear you can do great things with those numb3rs of yours. Did they find my man for me yet?" Billy closed the small office door as he walked towards the black board the other man was working on,
"No, I'm almost there. I only.." That was as far as he got. Billy quickly turned him around and kissed him. It had started off as lips pressed together but quickly changed when Charlie opened his mouth allowing Billy to merely deepen the kiss. They both gave as well as they received and by the end of that kiss they both knew trouble lay ahead.
"I will call Don as soon as I have the results for you." Charlie commented once he found his voice.
"Why don't you call me? Here's my number." Billy wrote some numbers beside his work on the board then walked out the door. Don watched from his brothers' window as his thoughts were confirmed in front of him. A plan quickly came to his mind and he was soon walking into his brothers' office.
Soon after Don had come in to Charlie's office the answer popped out. Charlie had called Billy as Don headed out to join his team in the hunt. Once the paperwork was done and things were starting to slow back down, Don saw the perfect time to start his plan.
"Hey Coop. Could you run this to Charlie for me. He's at the house and I have to get these done before I can head out." Don knew that the work in front of him could wait but Coop had no idea.
"Wait is your dad home?" Billy knew that Alan hadn't liked him from when Don was working with him.
"No, dad's out of town this week. It's just Charlie." Billy took the file and headed out the door. After arriving at the house, Billy found that watching Charlie work was starting to turn him on.
"Your brother asked me to bring you this?" Hearing Agent Coopers voice from his doorway stopped Charlie mid number.
"Thanks, would you like something to drink?" Charlie quickly finished the numbers before turning around.
"Sure I could use a cold one." Billy said. Charlie retrieved the beers and handed one to him. The small touch of hand was enough to send the sparks into over drive. Charlie pushed Billy towards the nearest wall in the living room. Enjoying what the other man was giving him Billy made no move to stop him. That all changed when Charlie's growing hard on made its way to his. The feel of both their cocks rubbing together showed Billy just how far things had gotten away from him.
"Charlie this has to stop." Pushing him away, Billy took a few cooling breaths. That's what they were supposed to be. The sight of Charlie's flushed checks. His deep red kiss swollen lips along with the clear outline of his hard on in his jeans made Billy want to bend the man over the closest hard surface he could find.
"Why?" Charlie's soft whimper drifted into the room.
"Two reasons. One your Don's little brother. If that's not enough, Charlie, we are from two different worlds, you have your math and I hunt down the bad guys." Billy's words hit home with both of them and the viewer that they didn't know had walked in the door.
"I agree were from two different worlds." Charlie's small voice again filled the room.
"Not so much anymore." The sound of another voice made the two others in the room stop.
"Don, you of all people should see the truth in that statement." Billy turned to go but was stopped by a strong hand on his arm.
"I do see the truth and the lie. Over time Charlie has become an important member of my team. He has helped us solve more cases in less time." Don's words bought a tear to Charlie's eyes as he blinked them back.
"Don, what are you saying?" Billy knew that Don was to the point on most things but when his personal life was involved he could be vague about things.
"If the only two things holding you two back are that he's my brother and that you think you're from two different worlds then you better get over it and admit you like each other. At the very least you want to fuck each other. Let it go and do something. If anything, this time has shown us that no matter what we want fate has a way of doing what it wants." Don let go of his arm and was walking out the door but stopped before truly leaving the house.
"Oh and Billy you might be good at hiding but if you hurt him there's no place you can hide from me." With that he closed the door and left them to find out if it was a quick fuck or something more that fate had in store for them.