Title: Julia

Authors: Rabid Raccoons

Disclaimer: This disclaimer applicable to entire story. All things Eppes are owned by CBS et al. "Julia" and other extraneous characters are figments of two sick imaginations. We started writing this story before the Janus List episode, so Colby is one of the characters.

Please note: Beginning with chapter 2, this story will be upgraded to an "M" rating. There is a lot talk about sex and rape - no graphic or explicit sex scenes, but several are implied, and there is a lot of conversation about the darker practices, by virtue of the villian we chose. Fans of either FraidyCat and/or Serialgal who want to follow the Rabid Raccoons should be prepared for that. And now without further ado, we bring you Julia, the woman you'll love to hate.

Chapter 1: Head Over Heels

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Don pushed the front door open and poked his head into the opening. "Dad?" Getting no reply, he pushed his way in, making his way toward the kitchen. "Dad?" Still nothing. Don ran a hand over his head. His dad's car was there, but Charlie's wasn't. Maybe they were out running errands. So much the better. The game wasn't going to start for an hour, but a little pre-game vegetation wouldn't hurt.

He'd been looking forward to Sunday all week. They'd been buried at work the last few weeks; he hadn't had a Saturday off in a month, and he was anticipating a couple of beers, the sofa, a ballgame, and hopefully dinner. With any luck, his father and Charlie were at the grocery store. He turned and headed for the refrigerator, opened the door and examined the contents. He glanced at his watch. Eleven in the morning. Maybe a little too early for beer yet. Iced tea looked good. He turned as the kitchen door burst open and his father stomped in from the back yard.

"Oh Donnie, great," beamed Alan. "Grab me a bottle of water and come outside for a minute, will you?"

"Sure," murmured Don, casting a longing glance at the sofa through the doorway.

The back yard looked like a category two tornado had struck the landscaping. Piles of sheared branches from the shrubs and mounds of weeds unearthed from the beds littered the lawn. Alan eyed it with satisfaction. "Grab a lawn bag, and help me pick this stuff up," he commanded.

Don scowled. "Where's Charlie? The last time I checked, this yard belonged to him."

Alan quirked an eyebrow at him. "Your brother's out on a date."

"A date," repeated Don, skeptically. "At eleven on a Sunday morning?"

Alan pursed his lips. "I believe the date started sometime last night." He stifled a grin at his older son's expression. Alan did feel that Charlie was pushing it just a bit by not coming home last night – he had only known the young lady for three weeks, but he had to admit, the look on Donnie's face was priceless. "Hold that bag open."

Don held the plastic bag open mechanically, his mind obviously still on his father's last statement. He hadn't even known his brother was dating anyone. "Who is she? How long have they been going out?"

"Haven't met her yet. Three weeks," grunted Alan, pushing branches into the opening.

"Three weeks, huh?" Don tried to look noncommittal. It had taken Charlie months to get to the point where he had spent a night with Amita. As the reality sunk in, a slow grin started on Don's face. This would earn his brother a little teasing, or a least a round of merciless questions. It was the least he could do. After all, he was doing his brother's yard work for him.

An hour later, he stomped into the kitchen, wiping sweat off of his brow, no longer smiling. Doing Charlie's chores for him had grown irksome after the first few bags. Sighing, he grabbed a beer, headed into the living room and plunked down on the sofa. Alan followed him in, water bottle in hand, and made for his easy chair. As Don reached for the remote, he heard his brother's car door slam. He flicked on the television, and glanced at his father, then looked at the door as it flew open.

Charlie breezed in. Don could think of no other way to describe the movement. His brother's suit was disheveled, his curls were tousled, and he had a huge smile on his face. His eyes were shining, focused on some distant nirvana that Don could only guess at, and he looked like he was walking on a cloud. "Hey guys," he said, beaming.

Alan raised his eyebrows and shot a quick glance at Don, then looked back at his younger son. "Charlie. How was your date?"

"Great," sighed Charlie, his face still wreathed in a dreamy smile. "Just –," he paused, looking for words, "great." He headed for the stairs, bounding up them with a spring in his step, and called back over his shoulder. "I'll be back down in a minute."

Don sat there, his beer forgotten, staring after him, and suddenly realized his mouth was hanging open. He shut it and glanced sideways at Alan, hoping he hadn't noticed his obviously dumbfounded expression. From the smirk on his father's face, he was sure he had.

A half hour later, Charlie was downstairs, showered and changed. He headed immediately for the dining room table and started sorting through papers. Don had gotten engrossed in the game, but curiosity pulled his attention away, and he jerked a glance over his shoulder. "Hey bro – come over and sit with us. Tell us about this date."

Charlie threw them a quick absent look that barely made contact. "Oh, sorry, can't. I've got to get up to school and get some work done. I have papers to grade, something to do for Millie, I am so far behind -," While he talked, he stuffed papers into his briefcase hastily, and closed it.

"Whoa – wait for just a second," protested Don, to his brother's retreating back. "Do you have time to come into the office tomorrow? I've got something I want you take a look at."

"Yeah, sure, whatever," Charlie tossed back over his shoulder, on his way out of the door.

Don sat back and looked at his father, as if he was expecting an explanation. All he got was a shrug.

"Don't look at me," said Alan. "That's the way it's been around here for the past two weeks. I hope you're staying for dinner. I really don't want to eat alone again."

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"The mayor's called us in on this one," Don stated. He was standing in front of the screen in the conference room and his team's eyes were glued to him. Everyone's, that was, but Charlie's. His brother was sitting with his elbow on the table in front of him, playing with a pencil. His arm propped up his head, which was decidedly not pointed in Don's direction. Charlie's laptop was open in front of him, but he wasn't focused on that either; he was staring absently at his pencil, which was performing gyrations in his fingers.

Don frowned and continued. "Several neighborhoods have been experiencing rashes of armed robberies, far above the usual number. It looks like several different perpetrators might be involved, so on the surface, they seem to be unrelated. There have been so many more of them, so suddenly; however, that the D.A. is conjecturing that there might be a connection between them. The first thing we need to determine is whether or not there is really a significant difference here – is it just coincidence or is there a definite increase with a definite reason?"

He paused and looked at Charlie meaningfully. Ordinarily, his brother would have jumped into the conversation by now. Certainly the last question was something that his brother would normally have viewed as his cue. "Charlie."

"Huh?" Charlie looked up as if surprised, his face still attached to his hand. "Oh, right. There are a number of tests we can do to determine if there is a statistical significance. We can check to see if this normal random variation, or if this is specific variation due to some outside cause." He straightened in his seat, gathering his composure. "Get me the data, I can run the numbers."

Colby had been watching Charlie with a smirk on his face. Charlie had reminded him of himself in school, slouched in a desk with his mind on something else. To see the normally attentive professor acting like a bored student was refreshing. Pretty funny, actually. He leaned over to Megan and spoke quietly. "I think the Whiz Kid is getting bored by this lecture."

"Oh, his mind is elsewhere," smiled Megan, mischievously, speaking under her breath. "I hear he has a girlfriend. Don said they don't know who she is yet. In fact, Larry hasn't even met her; but he said Charlie glides around campus as if he's not even there, half the time! Charlie has a mystery woman."

"Reeves, do you have a comment?" barked Don.

Megan pursed her lips and segued smoothly into the conversation. "What if we compile all of the available video from the robberies and run it through the face recognition data base?" She raised her eyebrows at Don, innocently.

He grudgingly wiped the scowl from his face. "That's a start. You and Colby can get all of the video from LAPD and run that. David, you and I can round up reports for Charlie. We don't really have a deadline on this one, in fact, if we find an angle, LAPD may very well want to follow it up. The sooner we find that angle, though, the sooner we can get this one off of our backs. Everyone note – this is additional activity – it is not to interfere with the cases we have going already."

As he finished talking, he saw Colby raise his eyebrows and grin at Charlie. Charlie, not sure what was generating Colby's expression, looked away, disconcerted, rubbing the back of his head. Megan was smiling at both of them. David sat behind them all, watching the looks. Don suddenly had a rush of sympathy for his brother, for any teacher, for that matter. Granted this case was a bit more mundane than most, but his team was behaving like a bunch of school kids with attention deficit disorder. He glared at his agents, who quickly sobered. "Class dismissed," he said wryly. "Get to work."

He stood as they filed out, and as he watched Charlie pack up his computer, he glanced at his watch. 11:45. Curiosity was killing him. "Hey, Charlie. How about some lunch?"

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Charlie sat slouched in the booth, the menu in front of him. The place reminded him of her. He had met her in a deli near campus. It was funny, he thought. He went there fairly often, but he had never seen her there before. She had caught his eye almost immediately – she was absolutely the most beautiful woman he had ever seen; he was sure of it.

Not that he typically went for looks – to be certain, Amita and Susan, the only other women he that he'd had serious relationships with, were beautiful, but he had been attracted first by their minds. Not that this woman didn't have a mind – it had turned out that she was clever, insightful, and fun. And gorgeous. Unbelievably gorgeous. He straightened, trying to focus on the menu, and caught his brother's eyes on him.

"So," said Don, "I never got a chance to talk to you yesterday. What's this about a new girlfriend?"

"Yeah." Charlie looked down at his menu with a smile, his eyes unfocused, seeing instead the vision in his mind. "We met about three weeks ago, at the deli near campus."

Don grinned at Charlie's expression. His brother had taken it hard when his relationship with Amita had ended – how long ago? It had to be at least seven months. It was good to see him dating again. "So what's she like?"

Charlie looked up, his face radiant. "Oh she's, wow, she's just --- wow. She's incredible." He looked down, with a hint of a blush, and then back up, his eyes finding his brother's. When he spoke he had a bit of amazement in his voice. "I don't think I've ever felt this way before. She's just ----," He shook his head, at a loss for words. "Wow."

Don couldn't stifle a grin; his brother looked so - smitten. With the thought came a twinge of concern. Charlie had been devastated after the breakup with Amita. This relationship had just gotten off the ground, and his brother already seemed head over heels. He decided to push a little further. "Seems pretty serious."

Charlie sighed. "I know it's only been three weeks, and we really don't know each other yet. The attraction though, it's amazing. It's so strong. There's a chemistry between us – there really is." He blushed and rubbed the back of his neck. "We – she- it's incredible, if you know what I mean. Unbelievable. Mind-blowing-,"

"Okay, okay, I get the picture," Don said hastily. "So what else does she like to do?"

Charlie blushed even harder, if such a thing were possible. "I, uh, I'm still trying to figure that out." He added quickly, as if it was an afterthought. "Concerts. We both like music. We went to a concert one night, went to dinner one night, watched the sunset from the pier…"

Charlie faded off, a smile on his face, and Don's expression softened. "Well, she sounds great, Chuck. What's her name?"

"Julia," said Charlie dreamily. "Her name is Julia."

End Chapter One