Summary: Charlie feels threatened and decides to buy a gun. What happens next could cost Charlie and Don their lives.

Disclaimer: I do not own Numb3rs or any of the characters they belong to CBS.

A/N: Thanks once again to my friend June for helping edit this story. Honest reviews are welcome.

What do you mean you bought a gun?

By wenwalke

Chapter One

Charlie lay there with only a flashlight to illuminate the small area in which he and Don were trapped. There was nothing else he could do for Don but wait for help to arrive. There was a very real possibility that Don could die from his wound before they were dug out of here. Charlie had no idea how bad the wound was, just that he'd caused it. Looking at Don in the dim light, Charlie thought back to the other evening when he'd told his family about buying the gun.

Don was having similar thoughts to Charlie. Maybe if he'd handled things differently when Charlie had told them about the gun none of this would have happened. Then they wouldn't be trapped here waiting for a rescue that may be too late, judging by the tons of concrete hanging above them.

They'd been having a quiet family dinner when suddenly Charlie made his announcement about buying a gun.

"What do you mean you bought a gun? Charlie, guns are dangerous, you know that." Don was astounded.

"Charlie, I don't want you bringing a gun in this house. You know how I feel about violence of any kind." Even Alan seemed to be mad at Charlie.

"Don brings a gun into the house Dad, you don't stop him. And this is my house." This was going about as well as Charlie had thought it would go. He had to admit that he'd had doubts himself about buying the gun. But under the circumstances it had seemed like a good idea.

"That's different Charlie and you know it. Don is an FBI agent. He carries a gun as part of his job." Charlie had to allow his dad that point. Carrying a gun was definitely part of Don's job.

"Dad, you know someone's been threatening me," Charlie replied in evident frustration but wanting to reason with his dad. "Don doesn't seem at all concerned about it, so I decided to get a gun for my own protection."

"Of course I'm concerned Charlie. But it's been a week and there's just no real evidence. I've done everything I can, and my team have cases they should be working. I had to pull them off you and back to FBI business."

Don leaned back in his chair looking at Charlie. I can't believe he did that, going out and buying a gun is a big step. Christ he doesn't even know how to use a gun properly. Okay, so he's had a two day FBI course, but that doesn't qualify him to own a gun. If he's serious about carrying a gun I'd better take him out to the FBI training course and teach him how to use it properly. Then again, maybe I'll just be the overbearing big brother and take it away from him.

Before Don could voice any of his thoughts, Alan was speaking again.

"So where's this gun Charlie? Show it to us."

"It's in the garage in the gun safe I bought to keep it in." Charlie looked at his dad, his eyes pleading with him to understand. "Dad, I know how you feel about guns and violence, but I feel I need the reassurance of a gun."

Getting up with a sigh, Charlie headed out to the garage. "If you really want to see it I'll show it to you."

Don and Alan looked at each other, then quickly got up and followed Charlie out to the garage.

Charlie had attached the gun safe to one of the selves in the garage and was just opening it as they came in. "Here, it's not loaded." Charlie said as he held the gun out towards his father.

"I don't want to hold it," Alan said as he stepped back putting his hands up in front of him.

"Here let me see it," Don said stepping forward and taking the gun from Charlie's hand to examine it.

"I have all the permits necessary to store and carry a gun Don. I even took a course at a gun range on how to handle and shoot it. Lot's of people have guns, Dad." Charlie was looking at his dad again now, still hoping for understanding.

"This is a shock Charlie. I never thought I'd have to worry about you carrying a gun." Alan sank into the couch running his hands through his hair and sighing.

"I still don't understand why you'd even think of getting a gun Charlie. Who put the idea in your head? It better not have been anyone on my team." Don had finished checking the gun and was putting it back in the gun safe. He knew someone must have suggested the gun to Charlie. No way Charlie would just go out and buy a gun. If it had been one of his team then that someone was in for it.

"Actually it was Professor Fletcher who suggested it to me. He knows about the problems I've been having, and suggested that if you weren't going to help me anymore, I should look out for myself."

"Charlie, I told you. There is no one threatening you. Everything you think has happened has just been you blowing things out of proportion, or a coincidence. Stop being paranoid." This whole thing had Don frustrated. He and his team could find nothing to support Charlie's claim of being threatened. As much as he wanted to believe his brother, it was looking more and more like Charlie was imagining things.

"Okay, I've had enough. I want the two of you to leave me alone. Go back in the house I have work to do out here." With that Charlie went over to one of his white boards and picked up a marker, effectively dismissing both Don and his dad.

With a sigh, Alan got up from the couch and pulled Don out of the garage before he could continue arguing with Charlie. Alan knew that at this point leaving Charlie alone was the best thing to do. Both his sons needed time to cool off.

After they left, Charlie sank onto the couch. He didn't believe in coincidences and no way was he imagining things. He knew that something was going on. The only person who seemed to believe him was Professor Fletcher who'd joined the physics department after Larry left for his sabbatical. Even Amita was sceptical. She'd not witnessed any of the incidents. Actually no one had. Frowning now Charlie started to wonder about why everything seemed to happen when no one else was around.

As Don helped Alan clean up the dinner dishes, he started thinking back over the last week trying to figure out if he could be wrong. He didn't see how he or David and Colby could have missed any obvious threatening signs, unless it was someone inside CalSci, but that didn't make any sense. Reaching a decision Don turned to Alan.

"Dad, I'm going to head into the office for a while. I think I owe it to Charlie to take another look at this seeing as he's so convinced he's right. I'll talk to you tomorrow."

Don headed out to his SUV already going over the events of the last week. Once he got to the office he knew he'd have all the details he needed as they'd compiled a lot of information. They'd been treating this as a potential threat against a high level government consultant until Don had pulled the plug. Now he was wondering if maybe he'd let the fact that Charlie was his little brother influence his judgement instead of treating him as the consultant he was.

Don arrived at the FBI office and found the file he needed in the closed case cabinet. Getting himself a cup of coffee, he went into a conference room and sat down to go over the file.

The first incident had happened six days ago and Charlie hadn't reported it at the time. He'd returned to his office from presenting a lecture to find all his markers in the middle of his desk ruined. The insides had been pulled out and cut into small pieces. Thinking that it was just an inappropriate student prank, he'd removed and disposed of the markers without reporting it to anyone.

The next day he'd come back to his office from lunch with Amita and found a message on the black board. "Just think. Those markers could've been your insides pulled out. Maybe next time it will be." This time he'd called Don. But by the time Don had arrived the message was gone. Charlie had claimed he'd only left his office for a few minutes to go to the bathroom and when he'd come back the message had been erased. Don had believed him but without evidence could do nothing.

The third incident had been an almost hit and run out in the parking lot. Charlie had been working late on an equation with Professor Fletcher and as he walked to his car he'd almost been run down by a speeding vehicle. No one had been around that late at night, and Professor Fletcher was still in his office and didn't see or hear anything. There were no tire marks and no camera footage. The fact that the camera had been vandalized two days prior and not yet fixed meant that it couldn't be a deliberate act so the incident wouldn't be caught on tape.

Don had David and Colby check things out anyway, but they'd turned up nothing.

The next day Charlie's car had broken down on the I10 and his cell phone was nowhere to be found. Luckily Amita was not far behind him and picked him up. When the tow truck arrived to pick up the car it'd been sideswiped by a transport and was a write off. After seeing the car Don was glad Charlie hadn't been sitting in it waiting for the tow truck. The last two incidents had concerned Don a lot more than any of the others. But he still wasn't sure that Charlie was right in thinking he was being threatened. David and Colby had been unable to find the truck and no one had come forward as witnesses to the incident. Charlie's car had been examined but was too badly damaged to find the original cause of it's breaking down.

Yesterday Charlie had arrived home to find that all his work in the garage had been erased. Don figured it was kids from the neighbourhood and reminded Charlie that he should lock the doors whenever his was not home. Charlie was adamant that he'd locked the doors and someone had broken in. There was absolutely no evidence that anyone had broken into the garage and Charlie had admitted that the door was unlocked when he'd arrived home. Alan hadn't been out to the garage that day so couldn't confirm whether the doors were locked or not. Don had tried to talk to Charlie and explain that these things were all coincidences but Charlie wouldn't listen to him.

Today Charlie had claimed someone was following him from the time he left home until he reached CalSci and then when he left CalSci to go to the FBI. Amita had been with Charlie and admitted that she hadn't seen anything out of the ordinary. Don had already reassigned David and Colby and told Charlie that he needed to stop worrying he was probably just having a bad week.

Now he knew that Charlie had not listened to him and taken matters into his own hands. He still couldn't believe that Charlie had gone out and bought a gun. Obviously he was around the FBI too much if he felt he could carry a gun as if he were an agent.

With a sigh, Don put down the file and ran his fingers through his hair, then rubbed the back of his neck. There was still nothing in the file that screamed at him. The one thing that did strike him was that this new Professor Fletcher was around for two of the incidents but saw nothing. Don had met him and didn't really like him, but that was no reason to think he was involved in any of this. No, Charlie had to be blowing this all out of proportion. If someone was out to get Charlie, going about it this way made no sense.

Getting up Don decided to go home and get some sleep. It was now well past midnight. Maybe in the morning he'd have David review the file and see if he could come up with anything different. Also he'd run a check on this Professor Fletcher just to be on the safe side. Grabbing his jacket off the back of his chair Don put the file in his desk and headed home.

The next morning Don got in early and was reviewing the file again when David walked in. "Hey David, can you do me a favour? Go over this file on Charlie and let me know what you think. Look at it as if it's someone other than Charlie."

"Okay Don, I'll read it and let you know what I come up with." Taking the file from Don, David headed over to his own desk.

While David was reading the file, Don started a background check on Professor Fletcher. He was not expecting to find anything, but felt that he owed it the Charlie to at least check something out. Besides he was starting to get a bad feeling about all this. He'd woken up in a cold sweat after dreaming about Charlie in a shoot out with an unknown assailant.

An hour later David walked back to Don's desk with a frown on his face. "Don, while I see nothing in the file that confirms Charlie's belief that someone's threatening him. I have a feeling that something doesn't add up. What do you want to do?"

"I'm not sure there is anything we can do David. According to Charlie something has happened every day for the past six days. I'm going to drop in at CalSci and see if anything else has happened today."

"Okay, well Colby and I can drop in later this afternoon as we'll be in that area. I think you should check out this Professor Fletcher. He's new, and seems to be around a lot."

"Yeah David, I've already got that underway." Taking the file back, Don placed it in his desk drawer. Standing up he turned to leave, then turned back to David, "Look, when the background check comes back on Professor Fletcher call me. I'm going over to see Charlie now. I want to make sure everything's alright."

David acknowledged Don's request with a wave of the hand as he turned and headed back to his desk. As he took his seat Colby leaned over, "What's going on? Something's up with Charlie?"

"Don's worried that Charlie could be right about being threatened even with no real evidence. He's on his way over the CalSci to make sure everything's okay this morning."

"You think someone is really after the wiz kid?" Colby asked.

"It looks like it's a possibility. But right now we've work to do on our own case."

TBC

A/N: This is a complete story with seven chapters. I hope to be able to post a chapter every day.