Acknowledgements:

Omi as always
The BTN8rs - with apologies
The BTN Chatters - for their support

Disclaimers:

"A vague disclaimer is nobody's friend" - Willow, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
I do not own any Numb3rs characters nor do I have any rights to
anything related to the TV show Numb3rs. I plead fair use and claim
only my own writing and characters.

Amita had her head down over the computer terminal, chasing the final version of the new program she'd written. She'd lobbied long and hard to get extra time on the supercomputer, rare already for an undergrad, and in the end she'd gotten approval for it - only it fell in the middle of the night.

That was fine for running jobs unattended, but debugging meant trial and error and that meant in person tweaking, even at 1:30AM.

She glanced longingly into the bottom of her empty coffee mug, but when the code returned 'Invalid array: data table not found' she grumbled and dove back into the code to fix the remote server data table call subroutine.

One more run, then she could get more coffee.

'Invalid query: syntax error'

Exhausted, she almost pounded her head into the keyboard.

"Someone's up late..."

Amita looked over her shoulder to find Professor Eppes entering the computer room with a paper cup of coffee in his hand.

As attractive as the young professor all the undergrad girls were buzzing over was, Amita wasn't sure what looked better right now: Charlie Eppes or the coffee.

"Professor! Oh, I'm just sneaking some extra runs in on the supercomputer. I promise I have permission, if that's what you were going to ask."

"Actually, it's not." He came up and sat down on the edge of the table, holding the cup out to her. "Would you like some coffee?" he asked. "You looked like you were working really hard and I figured you could use some."

"Thank you!" Amita enthused, taking the cup. "You're a lifesaver!" She took a sip and found it sweet and creamy with plenty of milk and sugar, just the way she liked it.

The professor was almost entirely out the door before she called back to halt him.

"How did you know how I take my coffee?"

He just gave her a crooked grin in return.

"Just call it a side benefit of being a genius..."

With a wink he was gone.

Three quarters of a cup of coffee later the program ran perfectly.

And Amita had a crush.