Title: Lost and
Found
Pairing/Characters: Charlie, Don. No pairings.
Rating:
G
Word Count: 400
Spoilers: Uncertainty Principle.
Disclaimer:
I own nothing here. Just playing.
A/N: A huge thanks to
apgeeksout on LJ for the awesome and speedy beta. Written using
numb3rs100's past prompts: In another world, fish, surface and
lessons.
Summary: The numbers are familiar and it's so easy for Charlie to lose himself in them. Four connected drabbles exploring Charlie's POV during Uncertainty Principle.
In another World
Numbers are familiar.
Safe.
He can use them to do whatever he wants. He knows their limitations, and he knows when he applies a specific function exactly what the outcome will be.
Life isn't like that.
And the numbers make so much sense that sometimes the real world is incomprehensible in comparison. When it threatens to overwhelms him, he lines his defenses with equations and loses himself in a problem. Seeing numbers and routes to possible solutions rather than bullet casings and blood.
He doesn't mean to, but shutting the world out means he can cope. Or at least pretend.
Fish
The fish are uncomplicated, moving in random swirls in the water. They may not be P vs. NP, but he's spent enough time analyzing their patterns that he might as well be seeing the math; it's that ingrained in his mind.
Don doesn't understand him.
He can't understand, just like Charlie can't understand Don. They're from two different worlds and the overlap is at times so tenuously thin.
No matter how many times Don grabs him, shakes him, shouts at him to leave his bubble, it won't work, and Don doesn't understand.
Charlie has to find his own way back.
Surface
As Don's words burn through the thin film of his bubble and saturate his mind, the numbers slowly fall back.
His world broadens and the searing intensity of his pinpoint focus fades. It feels like waking up as he becomes aware of his senses. The weight of the chalk in his hand, the cool draft of air wafting in from the door, the song of the birds outside.
He breaks through the surface of his bubble like a swimmer coming up from a deep dive.
He starts writing again.
He knows what he needs to do, and finally, he can.
Lessons
Some of the greatest lessons Charlie's ever learned have also been the hardest. They're the ones that you just can't find in a textbook or through an equation.
The lessons of life are the one thing Charlie doesn't think he'll ever finish learning.
Today, he learned a pretty important one.
He wipes the boards clean and tidies his notes into a box, putting it into the furthest corner of the garage. There's a similar box in the furthest corner of his mind.
This is a chapter closed.
This is choosing to deal with life head on, not behind his math.
Reviews much loved and concrit is appreciated. It'd be great to know what you all think of this. :)
