Meek Little Wives

A/N: My first splash into the Numb3rs fanfic-dom! I've loved Numb3rs for awhile, but haven't got up the...uh....courage, I guess, to write a story yet. I've been reading a lot of other peoples, and they're all really good, and I hope I can measure up!

This is just a little one-shot-turned-two-shot that popped into my head. It's kinda weird, but whatever. Had to break in with something. It's been forever since I've written any fanfiction. My goal was to get this out like a month ago, but when that didn't work out I decided I needed to get it out before the season 6 premiere. How'd I do? Anywho, enjoy, and please review at the end!

Disclaimer: I own no one. Or nothing. Or whatever. Don't sue, ya won't end up with much cause I ain't got nothing. I did, however, take a few creative licenses with the setting of this first chapter, because I've never been to southern California and I don't know anything about it. It all comes from a quick Google search.


August 15, 2009
4:35 PM
Santa Rosa Mountains, CA

Up, down, up, down. Curve right, curve left, straight ahead. Repeat as necessary until results are shown. But at this rate, it would be the year 2020 before that happened. FBI Special Agent David Sinclair stole a quick glance at his boss, Special Agent Don Eppes. The man's sweaty face and labored breathing surely matched his own. Even in the mountains, shaded by forest, it was still sunny southern California in the summer, meaning it was entirely too hot for this intense of a hike.

But this isn't a hike, David had to remind himself. No, the reason the two men were trekking through the forest was hardly as innocent and relzxing as a simple hike.

Jacob Richard Lucas was a fugitive. He was a member of a known polygamist group. Although insignificant, with only fifteen wives instead of the sixty or so that the major players had, Lucas had murdered twelve of his wives. It was in attempt to stop the other three from following similar fates that David now found himself maneuvering through the forest's thick vegetation and mountainous slopes.

A county sheriff had located a vehicle at the base of the trail. A quick check with dispatch had told the sheriff that the green Jeep had been stolen. It was upon finding a photo of one of the three remaining wives, Rebecca Saunders, that the FBI was contacted. Now, David and Don had been out here for three hours with no sign of their quarry.

"You smell that?" Don suddenly inquired, piercing through David's thoughts. David sniffed the air, detecting a faint whiff of something familiar and unmistakable.

"Smoke," he said. "Could be Lucas, sheltering out somewhere."

Don nodded his agreement, but stayed silent. David followed suit. Surprise was their biggest weapon in this sitation. The two men were working under the assumption that Lucas was unaware of his mistake. Until now, the fugitive had proven too smart and devious to have knowingly leave such an obvious trail of evidence as the photo of Rebecca Saunders was. Hence the body count adding up to twelve.

David sank back into his thoughts, reflecting on how tough this case had been. Even Charlie had trouble finding a pattern in Lucas' movements before inspiration struck. Instead, the mathematician had begun focusing on the movements of the wives to try and get to them before Lucas did. The concept reminded David very much of the dog-chasing-the-cat-chasing-the-mouse pursuit curve thing they had used to find Crystal Hoyle three years before.

But still, the three wives--Rebecca Saunders along with Rachel Kelson and Leah Meyers--had proved difficult to track. Days of interviewing other men and women in the polygamist group, pouring through anything to do with Jacob Lucas, and other fruitless jobs had proved exhausting to the whole team. David watched his boss nearly have a meltdown of frustration before convincing him to take a day off. As primary relief supervisor, David promised to oversee everything that went on. He knew a year ago, Don never would have agreed. But David had proved himself more than capable in the days following Don's stabbing.

However, nothing eventful happened during Don's day off. By the end, David himself was so frustrated, it led him to one question which he voiced aloud:

Where was Ian Edgerton when they needed him? This was his area of expertise, was it not?

Nikki mentioned something about a fugitive chase through Montana, but David decided he didn't even want to know why she knew that.

But finally, Lucas slipped up and left that photo in the stolen vehicle, right after Charlie flagged Rebecca as the next wife to be murdered. David felt bad for the three wives. They must have known by now what had happened to the other twelve, and he could only imagine what had happened to the other twelve, and he could only imagine they were terrified.

Ouch. David shrugged off his thoughts as his face met with a tree branch. He looked over to see Don grinning at him. He shot a glare at his boss.

David was in the front of the two as they meandered single file through the narrow path. They walked for another five minutes or so, when suddenly David heard a twig snap. His senses heightened, he threw his arm out behind him to warn Don of his impending stop. Once motionless, David glanced back to see his boss's level of alertness mirroring his own.

Don nodded to David, signaling for him to keep on the trail. The senior agent would cut to the left through the trees. It was a basic plan David had worked out with his boss in anticipation before the excursion began. Don would now head left toward the direction of the twig snap, to search for the cause of the sound, and hopefully flush woever was there out towards the trail. David would continue on silently, also scanning the woods for their quarry; simultaneously making sure he was prepared to capture him.

David watched Don dart stealthily into the forest. He woldiered on, watching carefully for further signs of Lucas. A couple more minutes passed with no results. Then David found himself entering into a small clearing and a big world of trouble. What happened next, he and Don had not previously anticipated.

Several things happened at once. The first one David noticed was Don screaming at him.

"David! He's coming your way!" The older agent shouted, although David couldn't see him yet.

Almost instantaneously, a man came tearing through the woods into David's clearing. David recognized him right away as Jacob Lucas. THe younger agent broke into a run as he saw Don sprinting into the clearing behind Lucas.

Off to his right somewhere, David suddenly heard another noise. It was a voice--more specifically a female voice, and it was yelling.

"Hey!" The mysterious female called. "Jacob! Stop right there!"

David looked toward the voice, but kept running toward Lucas. Entering the clearing from David's right were two very familiar women. He quickly realized they were Rachel Kelson and Leah Meyers, two of the three of Lucas' remaining wives.

For a moment, David wondered how long it would take for the divorce papers to come through. Yep, and times that number by the three wives and we have the answer. It occured to him that he had listened to Charlie lecture about math too much.

What happened next made David realize he needn't have worried at all about divorce math.

With his main focus being Lucas, David returned his sights to the fugitive. He ran towards the man for another second or two before he realized the two women were going to beat him to Lucas. Next, David realized the wives would beat Don as well. Lucas was like a trapped animal, with no direction to run to. He stopped, looking very much like a deer caught in the headlights.

Rachel Kelson reached Lucas first, hitting him with a tackle that stunned all three men. Milliseconds later, Leah Meyers reached Lucas, and started screaming as she and Rachel began beating him, much to David's surprise.

"You are a sinner against God!" Leah screamed. "You have broken His commandment; you are a murderer! May you burn in the fires of Hell!"

At the same time, while David noted how very old-fashioned all of these polygamy groups seemed to be, he and Don both drew their guns on the women. They were still a good fifty yards away each.

"Ladies!" Don called authoritatively. "Step away from him, we're FBI!"

But the women did not relent. The sheer unexpectedness of the attack was their most effectively used weapon. It held Lucas down better than their physical strength. The fact that they were supposedly the victims also kept David and Don at bay, as they didn't want to shoot at the victims. Just as Don issued his command, David saw that Lucas was beginning to fight back. The younger agent believed Lucas would have overpowered his wives, had it not been for Rachel's flawlessly delivered kick to her husband's temple, which knocked him out.

Suddenly, it was as if Rachel and Leah noticed Don and David for the first time. They ran away from their husband's broken, bloodied body, back the direction they came from.

"Secure the prisoner!" Don ordered, as he changed course to follow Rachel and Leah. David obeyed and flung himself down on the grass next to Lucas.

The whole encounter lasted maybe twenty or thirty seconds from when David entered the clearing. As he breathed hard and watched Don's retreating form dart into the forest, David was left with one burning question.

What the hell just happened?

He put two fingers to Lucas' neck, but found no pulse. He was dead, beaten to death by two meek little women whom David thought would be incapable of such actions. Well, obviously, they just expressed their terror through a way I never thought possible.

Shaking his head in disbelief, David stood up once more. There was nothing anyone could do for Lucas. He broke into a jog, intending to assist his boss in the apprehension of the two women who were potential targets a minute ago but now were classified as murderers.

There was a small hill at the edge of the clearing, which David rose and looked down to the other side to assess the situation. The women had split up, and Don had gone after Rachel, who was clearly the faster of the two ladies.

David broke from the trail, running through the forest growth after Leah. His gun raised, David quickly gained speed and with it, easily was catching up to his quarry.

"FBI!" David shouted. "Freeze, or I will be forced to shoot!"

The threat had the desired result. Leah stopped dead in her tracks. Slowly, she turned around, her long blond hair whipping her pale face with a sudden, hot breeze. David saw the fear in her eyes and wondered again if this small, scared young woman could really have just murdered her six-foot-whatever bear of a husband.

"I'm going to need you to put your hands behind your head," David ordered gently. She complied, her hands shaking. He carefully fastened the handcuffs around her wrists, and the two made their way back to the trail.

Conveniently enough, as David and Leah emerged from the forest, Don was similarily guiding Rachel from the other side.

"Called for backup," Don informed his second-in-command. "Crime scene techs are on their way. They'll deal with Lucas. I'm assuming since you're here and not with him, that means he's dead?"

David nodded, and the two agents led their prisoners in silence along the trail for a couple minutes. The trail was now on the side of a steep hill, which rose sharply up on David's side and dropped drastically downwards mere inches away from Don's foot.

Snap.

David stopped, but Don didn't seem to notice.

"You here that?" David asked his boss, while looking wildly to his left, up the mountain.

"No, what?" said Don, following David's gaze through the trees.

Snap.

"That," David replied. Glancing at his boss, David saw that Don was now on high alert.

Don, with Rachel right in front of him, was slightly ahead and to the right of Leah, who was directly in front of David. This left all four people completely exposed to the upward mountain face when suddenly, someone came lunging down from the trees directly towards Don. David could just make out a blur of wild, dirty blond hair over Leah's head. David realized it was a girl.

The girl had a tree branch raised above her head. David saw Don raise his left arm instinctively to block the impending blow.

It was like watching a slow-motion movie that David was watching frame-by-frame. Don's arm was up. The branch came down. The branch hit Don.

Don lost his balance.

Don fell.

Dragging Leah to the edge, David looked over to see his bosss tumbling a good forty feet down the mountain before his flight was interrupted by a tree.

"Don!" David called before turning to look at Don's female assailant. He recognized her as one Rebecca Saunders, the third missing wife of Jacob Lucas. And she had her branch poised, ready for a second attack on David.

He realized he had no time to grab his Glock. All he had time to do was realize that with a fall like that, there was a possibility of Don being dead. And David was likely about to join his boss.

Bang!

The branch in Becky's hands fell and hit the ground with a soft thud. Then Becky herself hit the ground with an even louder thud, and Rachel and Leah screamed.

Damn, David thought. Shooter must have been in the trees. Only one person could have made a shot like that.

"Hey! Sinclair!" came a male voice from the forest. Slowly, the voice's owner became visible.

Yep. That's him.

"Ian," David addressed the sniper. "We need to get to Don. He's--"

Ian cut him off. "I know. I saw the whole thing."

David nodded. Ian Edgerton had a knack for not being seen until he wanted to be seen.

The two men went to work. Edgerton let David go down to rescue his boss while he stayed on the trail with Rachel, Leah, and a very dead Becky.

As David reached the base of the tree where Don lay motionless, the second-in-command began to fear the worst. A heavily bleeding gash marred the left side of Don's otherwise ghostly pale face. His left leg was twisted at an odd angle that made David cringe. Kneeling beside his boss, David felt for Don's pulse and was relieved to find a fairly steady one.

"Oh, Don," David breathed as he touched Don's shoulder. He shook it lightly. "Come on, man. Wake up. Can't stay here forever."

He was rewarded shortly by Don's soft groan of pain.

"Ouch," the older agent muttered. "Guess I fell down the mountain?"

David laughed with relief. "Yeah. Looks like it. I actually almost joined you. Would have, had it not been for this tracker-dude who also happens to be the third best shot in the country."

Don weakly snorted. "Thank God for small mercies and Ian Edgerton."

TBC


So, this isn't the end, there's another chapter. I had it all as one originally but I decided it was too long and that I should break it up. Personally, I like the second chapter better; I've never been great at writing action scenes.

Please feel free to review, it feeds the self-esteem!