A/N: I have completely rewritten this story and hence have deleted the original. I hope you enjoy. Any characters you recognize are property of Numb3rs and CBS. Any you don't recognize are mine. Reviews are always welcome.

Two Lonely Souls

Chapter 1

The Bank Robbery

It was 9:30 on a Friday morning at the downtown branch of the Bank of California. All the teller lines were long and the weary frustration of the clients was reflected in their impatient movements. Watching people was her favorite pastime when waiting. And here she was, waiting and waiting, seems like she was forever waiting for something or someone. This time she was waiting on her appointment with the bank manager so she just sat on one of the marble benches and watched the people. There was a woman who was about to have a baby any day now. Over on the right was a kid carrying a skateboard. Lots of men and women in suits, and most interestingly, a really cute man with a gun barely concealed under his shirt, probably a cop or G-man. She supposed they had to bank too. And then there was the gorilla of a man in the Armani suit sitting beside her, her body guard Bobby. Bobby had watched over her for years, in and out of country for the last four years. Given that she was extremely capable of taking care of herself, she found it a little embarrassing to have to have a body guard at all. But there were others beyond herself that overruled her in such matters. She thought it had to be the most boring job in the world. A very well paid armed babysitter for a very wealthy and dangerous teacher. It was almost comical bordering on the absurd.

Leland the bank manager headed towards the waiting woman, and she started to stand moving forward, but at the same time the woman felt Bobby tense, push the bench over and drag her behind it all simultaneously.

"What the hell Bobby?"

And then sure enough, all hell did break loose. Five gunmen, dressed completely in black with black ski masks on ran into the bank, firing automatic weapons, taking out the tellers before they could hit the silent alarm and then just shooting randomly. Within seconds almost everyone was on the ground, wounded or dead. The woman peaked around the corner of the bench to find the cop who was on his stomach hiding his badge and gun for the right time. The man in charge ordered one of the others to head to the back to get the safety deposit boxes. She didn't know how they thought they were going to get in there, until she saw the guy rip the keys from Leland's belt loop. Leland was dead. Then everyone left alive in the bank heard the explosions opening the boxes.

Bobby's 250 pound body lay on top of her, shielding her from the shooters. "I'm sorry Isa. I'm not gonna make it. Here's my gun, safety is off. Shoot to kill baby. I always loved you." He had caused his body to fall on top of hers offering additional protection to the marble bench. She could feel his breath stop, and she held her tears and words back. We had to get out of here alive. Bobby was dead along with almost everyone else in the bank lobby.

She could see the cop or G-man looking at options. There were a lot of dead or wounded, plus of course the 5 bad guys. The odds weren't looking good. His eyes finally passed by the woman he had noticed earlier and she moved slightly so he could see the Glock in her hand. He nodded and started pointing out which bad guys she needed to take out. She was amazed at the level of trust he was putting in her shooting ability. She could just be one of the weekend shooters with minimal skills. She watched from her unseen position and saw his fingers barely moving in a countdown. Man, if we got through this she was going to do something really nice for him. Her eyes were drilled on his fingers and when he hit zero, she raised herself into a protected shooting position and hit the lead guy in the head and he went down.

Her next target was the guy over by the pregnant lady—no hostages here. She watched as the two bad guys to the right fell, and saw the explosives guy on the other side of the counter come running into the lobby. As soon as he hit the teller window and leaped up on it she shot him dead center in the head. The woman wiggled out from under Bobby and started quickly checking bad guys to make sure they were dead, then started triaging everyone left.

"Hey kid! You, with the skateboard. I need your help. What is your name?"

"Oswald"

"Ok, Oswald. I need you to go behind the counter and see if any tellers survived, ok?" She was bloody and carrying a Glock, and she figured he would do what he was told. While shaken up, the kid clearly had his wits about him.

Her first stop on the triage walk was the pregnant woman and she assessed what was going on with her. She was being really brave and told her that. "I don't see any gunshots, but I do see a lot of fluid. Did your water break?"

"I think so. Contractions are about 7 minutes apart."

"Ok, well that's good. I'm not going to be delivering your baby on the floor of the California Bank building. The ambulances are almost here." She hoped.

The mysterious woman who shot like a pro walked over to the cop and saw the gaping wound in his stomach. He was losing a lot of blood and she had to find some way to stop it. He was on his phone telling someone the scene was secure, but there were a lot of wounded. Then he handed the phone to her. "Who am I talking with? Agent Eppes? Good. Are you the SAC? You are the man I need to talk to. I have a lot of information to relay so get something to write with."

"Who are you, m'am? What happened to Agent Granger?" The disembodied voice interrupted. She ignored the man on the other end and continued with her triage information. First things first. Stay focused. She had trained with the best and she would not forget that now back on US soil.

"To begin with, we've got about 3 people left unharmed, several injured, and most dead. There is a rough estimate of 25 people inside, including employees, all of whom are dead. Your agent has a stomach wound that looks really bad, but I've seen worse. We have a pregnant woman at term whose water broke and contractions are at 7 minutes. Two people who don't look injured. I'm shot, I think it is a through and through, but I'm losing a lot of blood and running on adrenaline. Gotta go save your agent now. My name is Isabella Worthington. I need you to call the Director of the FBI, he is my uncle. Use my name and they will put you right through. There is to be no mention of me or my role here. No press. Denny can explain it to you. Call him before you have to start identifying people. Get ambulances, several coroners, and forensics out NOW. I'm carrying a Glock, so tell your people not to shoot me. Gotta go, your agent needs my help." She left the line open in case she needed it, but started focusing on the Agent.

She looked down at his beautiful face with cornflower blue eyes. Another time he probably could have taken her breath away. She whispered to him in her silkiest voice. "I can hear the sirens now, so I need you to hang on. Talk to me. You must be a Fed, since I was just talking to the SAC? "

"I'm a special agent with the FBI. Isabella Worthington? Your code name was Natasha. I remember from Afghanistan. You are a legend. What the hell are you doing here?"

"I'm no legend, Agent. I was just lucky. Afghanistan was a long time ago. We can talk about that later. Right now I'm trying to save your life and hoping I don't die here. We both survived that Godforsaken land, we are not going to die now on a marbled floor in a bank building. The irony would be too much. What is your name Agent?" While she talked to him, she tore her blouse off to use as a pressure tourniquet to slow the blood loss from his stomach wound. She realized that left her exposed down to her bra. At least it was lacy and red.

"My name is Colby, Colby Granger. And I really wish you would wait to get undressed for a time I could do something about it."

"Special Agent Granger, you hold onto that thought and stay alive and you just might get that chance. But you gotta stay alive. I don't do dead people, no matter how cute they are." I smirked at him. "Now, while your thinking of me without my clothes on, I'm going to let Oswald here keep the pressure on to slow the bleeding. Oswald? I need you to hold the pressure on Agent Granger's stomach wound, ok?"

"Hey Granger, long time no see."

"You two know each other?"

" Yeah. We'll just sit here and talk about how hot you look until the ambulance gets here."

"Whatever it takes to keep Granger alive, Oswald."

She was getting weak and cold. The remaining survivor was left counting contractions for the pregnant lady. She lay down beside the agent while Oswald got her a jacket off a dead guy. She was pretty sure she was dying. She would bleed out before they could get her to the hospital. She kept both her and the agent awake by talking until the ambulances came.

"So, what should we expect? Is SWAT going to storm the building, guns blazing and kill those of us remaining?"

"No, it won't happen like that. I already let them know the scene was secure. Paramedics should come in along with my FBI team. I wouldn't go brandishing that gun of yours, though. They are bound to be a bit touchy."

"When they get here I will be happy to turn it over to you for safe keeping, assuming I'm still conscious."

"They'll take our guns and run ballistics on them—see who killed who." Colby looked at her face which had gone totally white and realized there was a lot of blood coming from her side. "Oswald! Take off your shirt and find the injury on Ms. Worthington, then hold your shirt to stop the blood flow. You'll have to keep the pressure on both of us."

"I think I'll just lie down here," and she promptly passed out alongside Colby.