Title: All Alone

Author: Numb3rsfan

Rating: PG-13

Warnings: None

Author's Notes: After a long break, I'm back with the first chapter to a new Numb3rs fic!

Disclaimer: I don't own Numb3rs. Never have and never will.

Summary: Don must solve the case alone when Charlie is shot.

Five thousand dollers. Forty Eight hours. Two Brothers. One bullet.

Chapter One.

The clapping from all around the office of Don's FBI unit pulled Professor Charles Edward Eppes from his subsequent musings on his work on the see through blackboard that was in a small, inclosed room on the far side of the office.

This last case, while it had been hard on Don and his team, it had also been very hard for the resident math genius from CalSci.

Girls, woman, mothers, daughters...they had all been brutely raped, murdered, tortured and mutilated. Seeing the 'tame' pictures in the folder had made Charlie's stomach churn and he had to fight the instinct to go get sick in the bathroom while his big brother had been at the house. But the moment Don had left the house on that Monday night, Charlie had made a beeline for the bathroom and toilet where he subsequently brought up everything he had chowed down on earlier at CalSci.

Now it was over, finished, put to rest. The criminals which had turned out to be two nineteen year old American boys had been arrested and put in to jail.

Now all that was left was the clean up and the horrible pictures of the victims still hooked to the board on the wall.

As quickly and quietly as he could, Charlie gathered up his things, which consisted of a wind breaker, computer and some computer analysis' that he had printed out for the case.

With those objects, minus the wind breaker, now stored in his little pack, Charlie was now ready to leave the office...hopefully without no one stopping him to congradulate him because Charlie didn't think he could stomach that for to long...not with those pictures still very fresh in his mind.

Smoothly Charlie put on his wind breaker and grabbed his pack before he headed out. Exiting the room, Charlie squeezed past several FBI agents and took the back route to the office exit and the elevators, praying that Don wouldn't see him leave.

Glancing around, Charlie saw his big brother Don having a conversation with Megan and Colby.

'Good. Megan and Colby can keep Don distracted long enough for me to leave.' Charlie thought as he tightened his grip on his pack and left the office.

Sighing slightly, Charlie swallowed painfully and headed for the elevators which were just down the hall.

Charlie tried to smile and act casual when people waved at him as he walked by, but in all actuality, Charlie wanted to find a hole to crawl in to.

Normally when this happened Charlie would lose himself in his numbers, or more specifically the P vrs NP problem. But not anymore. That problem had lost it's charm for Charlie and now he had nothing left to fall back on to help take his mind off of the case. Oh sure he could find some math problem to occupy his time but he knew that the minute Don came to the house and saw him frantically working on a math problem, he would pepper Charlie with statements like 'are you alright?', 'why are you doing this?' and 'try snapping out of your precious bubble just for once!'

Charlie knew that he wasn't ready to talk about this last case. He probably never would be.

Blinking away the tears that threatened to fall, Charlie stopped at the elevator call button and pressed the down arrow.

"Charlie?"

Hearing his name, Charlie turned his head to see David Sinclair standing there.

David was a friend of both Don and Charlie, plus he was an excellent FBI agent and a member of Don's unit.

"David, hi." Charlie greeted with a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes.

"Aren't you gonna stay? Everyone's going to the Hostel for drinks tonight. Colby's payin' for it which is a first!" David said as he studied Charlie closely.

He could see the pain in Charlie's eyes and all over his face.

The once clear, shiny eyes were now dim and withdrawn, and it was something that David had thought he would never see.

"Um..not this time David. I uh...have stuff to work on at home." Charlie lied as he continued to wait for the elevator.

"Well um...if you change your mind just give me or Don a call and we'll gladly pick you up." David said as he gave Charlie a pat on the back.

Charlie nodded his head and nearly sighed in relief with the elevator finally pinged and the doors of the elevator car opened.

Swiftly Charlie walked in and all but attacked the buttons on the inside of the car as he pressed the button for the lobby.

David watched as the doors of the car closed, before he turned and headed for the office.

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"So...it starts in 11:30?" Don asked Colby who nodded his head in agreement.

"Yeah, a good show, food half price...drinks on the house. What could be better?" Colby asked casually as he glanced towards the exit and saw his friend, David Sinclair enter the room.

"Oh, I know why you suggested we go. Half price food and free drinks, huh?" Don asked with a smile on his face.

Colby shrugged his shoulders, not knowing what to say to that.

Shaking his head, Don turned away from Colby and was about to head to the smaller 'office' where Charlie was supposed to be.

"Let me grab Charlie and then..." Don began, not knowing that his little brother had already left.

"Charlie just left, Don." David said as he stopped right beside Megan and Don.

"What? He didn't wait?" Don asked as he scrunched up his eyebrows and put his famous confused look on his face.

"He looked exhausted. Plus he said he had stuff to do at home." David said.

"This latest case really took a lot out of Charlie." Megan said, as if that was the obvious answer for Charlie's behavior.

"Yeah. It's not every day you have to be at the scene when we issue the takedown." Don agreed as he thought back to earlier today.

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Charlie sat in the backseat of his brother's car as they passed CalSci.

Ever since the threat of the kidnappers/murderors became apparent, Don had become very protective of Charlie and was now 'escorting' his little brother back to his home.

They had just passed Wilkins Street when the call came in over the police radio channel, "Suspected rapest located. All additional units needed for pursuit." And then it gave a brief run down of the person in question. After learning that this person was the same one that Don and his team were looking for, Don wasted no time in pouring on the speed and racing to the address of the residence the rapest was cornered in. Never once thinking of his brother and his safety.

After seven minutes, Don pulled to a stop and put the car in to park. Quickly he took out his gun and opened the door as he said, "Stay in the car, and stay down, Charlie."

He didn't see Charlie nod as Don ran over to Megan, David and Colby who were wearing bullet proof vests and had automatic rifles in their hands.

"The man isn't coming out Don. We tried to reason with him, and that's the result." Megan said as she pointed to the front lawn were a mutilated and shot up body lay, covered in blood.

Don looked at the body with a practiced eye before he turned and grabbed a bullet proof vest and quickly put it on before grabbing an automatic rifle for himself.

"He doesn't want to do things the easy way, then we'll just have to do it the hard way." Don said as he positioned his ear piece in his ear before motioning to a police man to fire in several cans of tear gas.

The police man nodded and seconds later two canisters of tear gas were shot through the windows of the home.

The gas filled the home and came seeping out the windows, but nothing else ever came out.

Sighing, Don motioned for his team to take up positions outside the front door of the house.

Once everyone was in position, Don gave the three second countdown and then nodded to Megan who kicked open the door and leapt back as Don charged in to the room, with David and Colby following. Megan came last as she looked around the gas filled room through her airmask, she saw her teammates going from room to room as the echoing words, "FBI!" resounded throughout the house.

In short order they had rounded up two nineteen year olds who had blood stained shirts and tattoos all over their bodies.

Also, they had found their latest victim lying motionless on a small, bloody mattress. With knives, needles, drugs and a hand held burner beside her.

Quickly Don turned away from the grusome sight and helped to escort the two 'boys' out of the house and to the waiting police cars.

Charlie on the other hand, being ever curious, entered the house and got a front row seat of the body. Both the one in the yard and the one in the house, before Megan saw him and ushered him back out of the house so he wouldn't have to see anymore.

To Charlie, seeing the dead body was alot worse than the pictures he had been allowed to see. It was like a million times worse. But his mistake and those images would forever be imprinted on his brain. Always lingering in his mind to pop up at the most inoppertune times.

Turning, Charlie walked back to Don's car and got in, never once making eye contact with his brother, who had been watching him while a local police officer was reading the two boys their Meranda rights.

----------

Don sighed and rubbed the back of his neck as he thought about what to do.

He had never meant for Charlie to go inside that house, but when he had escorted the two boys out, he had never noticed that Charlie had been out of the car by then!

"Maybe you should talk to him, Don. Try and help him get past this." Megan suggested when she saw Don's face.

Don nodded a little as he lowered his hand.

"Yeah, maybe you're right." He said as he grabbed his jacket and slipped in to it.

As one group, Don, Megan, David and Colby left the office and headed for the elevators.

They took the elevator down to the lobby and were walking down the long hallway when one sound made them all stop and look up, to the darkened streets outside.

BANG!

To Don and everyone else, it sounded like a single gunshot. Spurring in to action, they took out their guns and ran outside in time to see a vehicle turning a corner, but getting any I.D. from the vehicle would have been impossible because every surface, weither it was the lights, back or front, or it's license plate. It was spray painted black.

Turning his attention away from the dissipearing vehicle, he looked in the opposite direction and saw a small crowd forming around something that was lying on the ground.

Curious, Don and his team approached and parted the crowd to find Charlie lying on the street with a crimson stain growing on his chest.

Paling, Don dropped down beside his brother and yanked off of his jacket. Using it to try and stop the bleeding.

"Charlie...Charlie!" Don said with worry clearly etched in his voice.

A small moan and gasp made Don smile a little because it told him that his little brother was still alive.

Slowly Charlie opened his eyes, which were partly glazed over.

"D..Don?" He said weakly as his tired eyes searched the crowd around him.

Don squeezed Charlie's hand as he blinked back the tears that threatened to fall.

"I'm right here buddy...I'm right here." Don said.

He studied Charlie's face and with dismay saw that blood was now starting to stain Charlie's teeth and was threatening to start dripping out of his mouth.

'Internal bleeding.' Don thought sadly as he tore his gaze away from his wounded brother long enough to see David putting his cellphone back in his pocket.

"Ambulance is on the way, Don." David said as he also knelt down next to Charlie and used his strong hands to help hold Charlie's head off of the ground.

Megan and Colby were busy keeping the crowds back, which was getting harder and harder as more and more people came, wanting to gawk at Charlie's bloody body.

"Charlie listen to me, you're gonna be fine. You're gonna be alright." Don said, trying to reassure his brother, who was so obviously in pain.

"So dark...cold." Charlie muttered, before he starting spouting different math equations that made Don scrunch up his eyebrows.

When he tried to get Charlie's attention, Charlie only closed his eyes and kept muttering to himself.

Looking up and down the street, Don hoped and prayed that the ambulance would get there soon, before his brother died in his arms.