Don and Charlie were talking in the conference room about the case that was just handed to Don. He told Charlie that he was going to have to bring in a few new agents to help work this case and what he needed Charlie to do for the case. Charlie excitedly agreed sitting at his laptop going over different ideas while Don called everyone in the room to go over the case.
As the team was walking in Ralph Romero the new agent from the other team asked David who the curly headed guy in the conference room was and why he rated a briefing before his team.
David chuckled, "That is Charlie, he is Don's baby brother. He is a certified Math genius and Don always briefs him first so he can have data ready for us when we get there. Charlie is one of us. He is a little challenging to work with at first but he is so worth it. With Charlie's help we have managed to close almost everyone of our cases."
Romero looked at him strangely, "Don uses math to solve his cases? For real?"
David patted him on the back and said, "Yes for real and save yourself the effort of doubting him in the 3 years I have known him I have yet to see him make a mistake. So what he says just roll with it."
The team took their places at the conference table and Don began the meeting, "Okay team we are dealing what we are dealing with today is a group of modern day pirates. These people are going along ocean front homes and yachts and they are breaking in and stealing every kind of valuable they were getting their hands on. LAPD was trying to run this case but the last robbery ended up with a Mother and a set of newborn babies being murdered. As you can imagine that is when then asked for us to come into the case with them so that we can bring these creeps to justice sooner than later and hopefully stop anyone else from getting hurt. I brought Charlie in on this from the beginning he is going to begin with a vector analysis of the crime scenes and see what he can come up with and hopefully tell us when and where they may strike again and I also brought Agent Romero here in on the tem because we are going to have a lot of leg work on this case and with Megan 7 months pregnant we are down an agent."
Charlie stopped Don, "Don I inputted the attacks and sightings that we have so far and it looks like to me that all the attacks are situated around this three mile area of coast line. There is only one public marina in this area and one private marina. I think if we can spread the sketches of our pirates out over this area it may help us gather more leads and maybe some answers to who these guys are."
Don smiled a little half smile at his baby brother, "Good job Chuck, Okay David you and Colby take the ladies and head out with copies of the sketches and canvas the area and see if you can turn up any new information. Megan I need you to start gathering a comprehensive list of all the items stolen and start putting feelers out into the antiquates community and lets see if we can get anywhere that way. Romero, I want you to take Charlie and go over the files the coast guard sent us on the unsolved attacks and see if you can link them with what is going on now and if they have any real leads that we might have missed. Okay everyone has their jobs lets go find us some pirates."
After the meeting Romero went up to Charlie and introduced himself to the young genius and told him to come with him. The files are in a small-unused closet on the floor above them. Charlie smiled and gathered his things and followed Romero.
On the way out Charlie waved at Don, "See you later Bro after we get done with the files I am going to head to my other job. In case you were wondering Dad is making steak tonight,
hint -hint."
Don looked up and smiled, "Did you say steak? Hmm okay I guess I will see you guys for dinner."
Charlie laughed and caught up to Romero at the elevators. Charlie smiled and apologized for lagging behind. Romero waved him off, "It is good to see brothers who are so close."
Charlie smiled as he got on the elevator and agreed.
Romero entered the small room first and pulled the string on the bare bulb hanging from the ceiling. Charlie sat his things down and began to go through the files. Charlie in true Charlie form was so engrossed in his work that he didn't notice Romero shut the door to the closet and lock the doors.
Charlie barely had time to register what happened when he felt the butt of a gun smash up against the side of his head and no matter how hard he fought it his world faded to black. Romero stood over an unconscious Charlie he began to viciously kick and punch Charlie on his lower half and on his torso. He was careful not to leave any marks on his face.
He roughly pulled Charlie's limp body over a tack of boxes and stripped his pants off of him leaving them to dangle around his ankles. He let himself free from his trousers and began to forcefully have his way with Charlie's unconscious form. When he was done Romero tucked himself back into his pants and pulled Charlie's pants up leaving them unbuckled he pulled Charlie off the stack of boxes and let him fall onto the floor with a sickening thud.
Romero took some of the water from his water bottle and splashed it on Charlie's face to wake him up. When Charlie was awake he hurt everywhere. He looked at Romero asking what happened? Romero looked at Charlie and said, "You forget what happened or the next time your brother gets into a fire fight he just might get hit with friendly fire. (Slapping Charlie's face) You get my drift their genius."
Romero left the room and shut the door behind him. When he rounded the corner he physically ran into Don. Don asked, "Hey Romero, have you seen my brother?"
Romero looked a little nervous and said, "No boss, I was actually coming down to ask where they stored the files at. The room they sent me to first was empty. When that happened I told Charlie to go home and I would find the files and let him know when we can work on them."
Something didn't sit right in his explanation but then he asked Romero to clarify what time Charlie left. Romero got defensive and said, "Geez Eppes what are you, your brothers keeper? I don't know it has been a little while ago now okay?" When he was done yelling at Don he stormed away as Colby came up behind them.
Colby looked at his boss and asked, "What the hell is wrong with that dude?" Don shook his head and said, "I dunno but it has something to do with Charlie. So you all are back what did you find?"
Colby and Don headed back down to the bull pin as Charlie was just managing to gather the strength to stand to his feet. The first impulse he had was to go running to Don to tell him what Romero had done to him but the shame of what happened and the threat of harm to Don stopped him. He buckled his pants and painfully stooped to gather his belongings and began his painful journey home.
Once he got home he laid his belongings on the table by the door and went upstairs without a word. He wanted to go and stand in the shower for hours but he didn't have the strength. He pulled back his covers and slipped into bed fully clothed.
Later Don came in the door and Alan asked if Charlie was with him? Don looked surprised and then looked at the table and said, "No Pops it looks like Charlie is home all ready."
Alan looked at Don worried, "I just came from doing laundry in the garage he isn't there he must be up in his room."
Don smiled and said, "You worry about cooking those steaks Pop and I will go check on Charlie."
Don bounded up the stairs taking them two by two until he got to Charlie's room. Charlie was asleep under his covers and Don came over and sat next to his brother on the bed. He gently rubbed the loose curls from Charlie's face and then noticed that his brother went to bed fully clothed.
Don laughed and then went and got a t-shirt and sweat pants from his dresser and came over to help Charlie change into something more comfortable.
Don began to slap Charlie's cheeks gently to try and wake him up but he wouldn't wake up. Don not thinking anything about not waking him up pulled Charlie to a semi sitting position and began to take his jacket and dress shirt off. The last thing to get off was Charlie's white t-shirt. When Don pulled the T-shirt off he accidently let Charlie fall to the bed from the shock of what he saw.
Don sat on the side of the bed starring at Charlie's black and blue torso, all he could say was, "Dear God Charlie who did this to you?"
Charlie started to regain some consciousness and he noticed Don sitting over him and that his shirt was off, Charlie instinctively pulled the cover up over his bare torso
Don, with more force than he intended said, "Who the HELL did this to you Charlie?"
Charlie cowered from his brother on the other side of his bed and whispered, "Please don't hurt me."
Don felt instantly sorry for yelling at his brother and tried to pull Charlie into a hug but Charlie refused. Don looked at his brother and apologized and in a calmer voice asked, "Buddy, who hurt you? I need you to tell me who hurt you so I can protect you."
Charlie started to stand up to get away from his brother but when he stood by the bed he instantly collapsed onto the floor. Don raced around to the other side of the bed and gently put Charlie back into his bed and covered him up. Don ran his fingers through Charlie's curls and pleaded with him to tell him what happened. All Charlie could do was cry and tell him that he couldn't tell him and not to worry he would be all right.
Don turned the lamp off and said, "Ok buddy I will let this slip for right now. Get some sleep and I will come and check on you after dinner, okay?" Charlie whispered "m-kay." and fell back into sleep.
Don sat next to Charlie for a few minutes and rubbing his hands in his hair and he bent down and kissed his baby brother on the forehead and whispered, "I am going to figure out who did this to you and he will pay for it. I am the big brother it is my job to protect my little brother."
He got up and went downstairs and saw his Father. He told his Dad, Charlie was under the weather and sleeping, he told the worried old man not to stress. He would go up after dinner and make him eat some soup. Alan smiled and went back into the kitchen to prepare dinner. Don sent Colby and David a text to come over and that it was important. Don went into the kitchen and asked it he had enough for Colby and David to come to dinner? Don said they needed to work on a new case he just got that is top secret.
Alan looked at his oldest son suspiciously but told him that Colby and David are always welcome.
