Disclaimer: Nothing from Chuck, or Numb3rs is owned by me. Sadly it all is owned by someone other than me..., I just borrowed the chara's for a moment.

I just know the first season of both series and parts of the other seasons, so it isn't exactly canon^^

Curiosity and Brother Duties

Charlie looked up from the papers he was correcting towards Don, who sat on the chair opposite him, looking through their recent case-files. It had been quite a gruesome case, Charlie suspected, because his brother only brought the files, after a case was solved, when he was really disturbed about it. It was in moments like these that Charlie worried about his older brother, wondering if he would ever open up to someone other than his family. If he would ever trust someone with his worries and doubts and thoughts, and just maybe find happiness with this person.

Charlie sighed inwardly and suppressed the urge to roll his eyes at himself. Just because he had found that person didn't mean he had to ensure that everyone around him would find it as well. He heard that it was normal for people in steady relationships to goad their loved ones into one as well. And he had seen the attempts of Amita, after her official out-coming with Colby Granger. He never would have counted himself to those people, though. He rarely did something normal, even his relationship wasn't, considering who he was dating quite frequently. And that was probably the reason why he sprung that question on his unsuspecting brother.

"You ever think about falling in love again?" Charlie could practically see how his brothers braincells all came to a stop, just to work double when springing back to life again.

"What brought this on?" Don asked confused. The youngest Eppes just shrugged.

"Don't know, just curious I think." He said, looking back down to his papers trying to be inconspicuous. His brother didn't believe it for a second.

"Hhm." he grunted and got back to his files, knowing it would drive Charlie insane. It wasn't two minutes later that he saw his reserves crumbling.

"Just, you know, maybe you should go and accept one of Amita's invitations to meet one of their friends?" Don smiled.

"Oh, you just want to turn her attentions to me so you don't have to go." he was surprised when his little brother didn't start to protest but instead got this conflicted expression, before nodding with a smile.

"You got me there.", Charlie answered, obviously lying. Don frowned at his brother who was now frantically scribbling away at his papers and cursing himself in his mind because he started this conversation.

"No, I didn't." the middle Eppes said slowly, mostly mumbling to himself, but Charlie heard it nevertheless, closing his eyes to hide the slight guilt for being caught while lying. He looked up and looked questioningly at his big brother.

"Mhh?", he hummed in question. Don narrowed his eyes, and Charlie knew that he couldn't avoid this interrogation, and somehow he was a little bit relieved to have this off his chest, even if it was only his brother that needed to know in his books. Maybe his father, but that would require more time. He knew that his lover would agree.

"Haven't I told you that you are the worst liar I've ever met?" this time he got a serious look from those doe eyes.

"Just with the ones I care about."

"Beg you pardon?"

"You heard right. Did you really think I would get a level one security clearance from the NSA if I couldn't lie my ass off?" Charlie asked attempting to joke.

"Has this something to do with your helping the NSA out a few times?" Don asked because one, Charlie never brought that up since Don had found out about his security clearance, and two, because this conversation seamed to have turned into some kind of revelation.

"In a way." Charlie sighed and rubbed his eyes. "I don't think there is a right way to say this so I just come out with this." Don watched emotions fly across his brother's face that he couldn't begin to try to divide into categories.

"Okay."

"I'm in a regular relationship for two years now." he looked down on his papers again trying to avoid Don's penetrating gaze. Don on the other hand couldn't believe his ears. He hadn't once noticed anything that would point to that conclusion.

"Who?" he asked dumbfounded.

"An NSA Agent I met on some of their cases, we kept in touch." Charlie answered his breath unsteady as he waited for this to sink in. Waiting for the explosion to happen. Surprised to see warm eyes and a smile as he looked up.

"Are you happy?" That question threw him off, his genius mind hadn't seen this coming. And the brilliant smile he received was answer enough for Don, but he couldn't resist asking.

"When are you going to bring her to dinner?"

"Him." Charlie corrected immediately, which got him another asking look from his big brother before it was replaced with acceptance.

"Okay, when am I going to meet him?", Don asked really curious as to what person could make his brother practically glow with love. He got a slightly sad expression back. He didn't seem miffed though.

"Well, he's got an assignment at the moment, taking most of his time but I'll ask next time I see him." Charlie answered. Don nodded and then smiled brightly continuing to tease his little brother.

"So, do I get a name, so that I can look him up to threaten him that, if he ever hurts you, I'll kill him?", that actually got a laugh out of his genius brother.

"Well, I don't know if you even had a chance getting a hit on him." he giggled, while his brothers eyebrows wandered upwards.

"So the 'assassination and spy' kind of Agent?", he got a nod and a smile. Wow, he really never would have thought. Especially with his brother in the equation. "Nevertheless. Name?" A warm smile was his answer as Charlie fiddled with his watch, activating the white-noise device that would disturb all possible bugs that might have been smuggled into his house. You could never be too cautious. Never stopping to smile he answered with the kind of content voice that lovers got when they talked about the other.

"Major John Casey."

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Chuck wouldn't say that he ever expected to flash on anything, but it was the regularity of it that made it seem nearly normal, and the fact that he never really ever had flashed on something that Casey had said, done or worn, was probably the reason why it had caught him more off guard than usual. Normally snapping out of it in seconds he couldn't help but stare dumbly at the pin on Casey's jacket that proudly showed of some kind of math equation.

"Hey, Bartowski!", came the rude awakening from the man that sometimes scared him shitless, shaking him from the flashing pictures of a man with wavy brown hair and equally dark chocolate eyes, smiling brightly at the person behind the camera, the pictures of his files and a short video of him shooting at a shooting-range, every bullet hitting their target dead on. What it didn't contain was how Casey had any connection with the man.

"Bartowski!", finally startling his asset out of his sudden trance John Casey looked him in the eye. "You flashed on something?" gray-blue eyes searched his face for lies as Chuck answered.

"Yeah..., well nothing serious, just a personnel file I think. Strange, never had that before. You know, normally I have to duck for cover every time I get a flash.", he grinned and received an annoyed and impatient glare for his explanation.

"Well, whose file did you see?" Casey growled. Sometimes Chuck thought that Casey maybe was only capable of grunting and growling sounds, but he would never say this out loud because he would be dead the next minute. Protecting the asset or not. But what he had said was right. Normally he really was promptly shoved into a rescue the United States, rescue the world or rescue the intersect mission after he flashed, so it was unusual to only receive information on a person that seemed to have no intention of destroying or/and ruling the world.

"Professor Charles Eppes of the CalSci university. Adviser for several top-secret missions of the NSA, receiving top-clearance at the age of 18, math-genius." Chuck stopped as he saw the flash of shock on Casey's face. But the next split-second the inexpressive mask was back on, so he couldn't be sure. And he still hadn't a clue in what way this flash was related to Casey, if it was related to him. His curiosity grew into dangerous proportions. Maybe Sarah could help. Because all he got from Casey was a dismissive grunt and a shrug as he left the backroom of the Buy More.

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And that was why Chuck found himself in the secret headquarters beneath the Orange Orange, researching Charles Eppes and finding nothing unusual, except for the math-genius thing.

"You still haven't told me what it is that got you so interested.", he heard Sarah say from beside him, as she too, was looking for clues of something illegal. He thought about it for a moment.

"I don't really know. I'm just curious I think, about how this guy and Casey fit together, because there must be some connection to have me flash on something that belongs to him but is in Casey's possession. On the other hand there was no hint of Casey in that flash. It's just puzzling me, I think." he turned to Sarah to see her frown, looking at the picture of the young man in his early thirties.

"You know what? Casey is on leave for a fortnight in a week and this math-character seems to live not that far from here, we could check him out."

"He's what?", Chuck asked perplexed. Sarah just looked back at him with a 'duh' look.

"On leave. You know, vacation in your vocabulary. Despite of what you think, we might be spies, but we are still people.", she threw him an slightly annoyed look. "We need a break from time to time, and as the situation with you has calmed down a bit in the last months, our superiors have scheduled our 'vacation'. Casey got the next two weeks and I got the following two."

"Okay, okay. Sorry if I have unintentionally hurt your human-spy-pride. It just comes as a surprise, that's all." Sarah sighed and pushed her hair back. She nodded.

"Yeah, it's alright. So what do you say, still on for our little curiosity mission?" Chucks face lit up with a smile.

"Well, of course."

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Well, for once, Chuck wasn't the only one staying in the car. For two and a half hours they'd lain in wait and nothing unusual had happened, but at least he had Sarah. They had talked, mostly about normal things, and had breakfast in the car. In his eyes it was the closest he would ever get to a real date with her, so he wasn't complaining.

"Ah, there he is.", Sarah said suddenly, and she was right. The man from the files left the house and got on his bicycle. Sarah waited until he was nearly out of sight before she ignited the engine and followed him with a good distance between them. He was quite fast for a biker. He stopped at a pretty cozy and normal looking house that was surrounded by sunflowers and neatly cut grass. He leaned his bike against the railing of the veranda and took the steps to the door. What happened next nearly shocked both spies into a coronary attack.

A tall, well built and very familiar man opened the door before the professor had the chance to knock. With a bright smile on both their faces they talked some sentences, while they stood very close together and the younger man stroked the older behind his ear. Then they kissed. First a peck on the lips, then slightly longer and in the next moment the legs of Charles Eppes were wrapped around Casey's waist, who got one arm holding the other man up and the other tangled in his lovers hair. They stumbled inside, closing the door behind them. There was a long silence in the car before Chuck exploded.

"OH. MY. GOD!" he stared at the house trying to get his thoughts under control. "Have you seen that?" he turned to Sarah who just nodded dumbly. "I mean, I never would have thought, but John Casey is actually capable of human emotion! I'm so proud." that earned him a shocked glance from Sarah that turned into a scowl after a few seconds.

"What do you mean with that?" she asked slightly perturbed. But Chuck didn't notice and just smiled genuinely back at her.

"I mean he looked so happy, I never seen him smile that way, he was a totally different person." Sarah thought about this and looked back to the house. Chuck was right. The Casey they knew was the Agent, Major John Casey of the NSA. The man they just saw was the man beneath the surface, and a little sting in her stomach made her realize that she was sad to never have met that person before.

"You're right." she admitted softly and started the engine. "How about we go and eat brunch, we can make it a date.", she suggested, suddenly having the feeling that she needed something normal and ordinary, something everyday-people did when feeling like she did now. And the bright smile that she received from Chuck for this suggestion was already brightening her mood.

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Casey took a deep breath as he buried his nose in his lovers mop of hair and held him close closing his eyes and relishing in the smell of earth and chalk and something that was uniquely Charles Eppes. They laid entangled on the bed, sticky and sedated, enjoying the closeness of the other and coming down from their previous high.

"I told my brother about us." Charlie interrupted the silence softly, his head laying on Casey's chest while his fingers stroked his lovers abs. A smile stole itself on Casey's face, knowing how important this was for his love.

"Really? What did he say?" Charlie lifted his head and deep brown met startling blue. Charlie always wondered about John's eyes, they seemed to change color depending on a lot of factors. Sometimes he liked to try to calculate the exact angle the light has to fall to make John's eyes appear blue, or gray, but never seemed to be successful in the end. Probably the mood of his lover played a big role, too.

"He wants to meet you. You know, wants to threaten you with pain and death if you ever hurt me, and all that overprotective brother things.", he said trying to disguise his nervousness in humor, but Casey noticed nevertheless. His eyes took on a more grayish tone as he responded, laying one hand over the side of Charlies head, stroking his cheek with his thump.

"If I ever should hurt you I would probably welcome pain and death." he paused a moment before relaxing again and smiling slightly. "And yes, I would love to meet your brother." that got him a smile in response and Charlie lent up to kiss him tenderly, a kiss that turned into passionate desire in mere moments.

Charlies hands wandered bringing Casey's starting erection to life and lifted himself to place his still tingling entrance above the pulsing shaft. He slowly let himself down swallowing both their moans in the kiss. Big hands encircled his waist, lifting him without effort until he was barely penetrated and then they let go and he fell back. Casey's hips bucked up and Charlie threw his head back in pleasure as his prostrate was hit with full force, leaving no breath for the scream that wanted to escape. His hands held on to Casey's shoulders as he lifted himself and met his lovers thrusts halfway, while big, rough hands wandered and caressed his thighs and back and lips and teeth teased his neck, until their mouths crushed together again, tongues imitating the act they were doing.

Pressure and heat was building up, together with pleasure and lust striking and tingling through their bodies. John wrapped his skilled fingers around Charlies leaking erection, starting to match his strokes with their thrusts, bringing them both over the edge in mere minutes.

Riding out the after-waves of his second orgasm that morning Charlie collapsed back into Johns arms. After regaining some strength Charlie went back to his former position, their legs entangled his ear over Johns heart. He took one of the big hands in his own and entwined their fingers. He studied this hands not for the first time, and not for the first time he thought about what this hands did for a living.

Scars, some small, some not so small, covered some fingers, evidence of injuries from fights and torture. The body of his love was like a map of his life, of all the pain he had to endure. This hands had killed their fair share of men, and they wouldn't stop anytime soon. And he knew that his fears of never holding those warm, big, calloused hands again whenever John left on one of his missions weren't without cause. He just had to look at the two star-like scars just beside his heart, evidence of the two bullets that nearly took his lover from him.

"I should probably tell Dad, too." Charlie sighed against Casey's chest hearing a purred grumble vibrate against his ear in agreement. Smiling he closed his eyes and drifted into a light sleep.

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It was three weeks after the strange but revealing and slightly shocking conversation that Don got a call from his brother, who had been nowhere to be found in the last two days, only leaving a note that he was on a short vacation, inviting him to dinner that evening, saying he was going to meet the mysterious man that had captured his baby-brothers heart.

Knowing that his brother wasn't the worlds best cook, he didn't know if he should have been surprised that when he arrived early through the backdoor, he found a stranger in their kitchen. And suspecting who this stranger was he couldn't hold back his surprised staring. The man was huge! Not dumb, fat huge, but muscled huge with a spark of shining calculating intelligence in his eyes. It wasn't difficult to imagine that this man could break your neck with his pinky. The apron and the big smile on the guys face though dimmed the killer vibes enough that Don could suppress the urge to reach for his gun. That his little brother was standing between him and the stove, one hand on his neck, caressing the nape of his hair, the other waving around to probably describe one of his math theories while being fondly smiled upon by the man that was stirring something that smelled delicious, was helping to drown the reflex.

"Don! You're early!" exclaimed Charlie as his gaze fell upon the door and so on him. He smiled tentatively back.

"Yeah, I thought I'd help out with setting the table." he smiled and looked to the man and to his brother, and after his brother got a thump in his side, his smile widened and he took the hand of the man in his own leading him to Don.

"Don, this is John, John, that's Don."

"Nice to meet you." Don said shaking hands with John who looked at him like he was reading his mind before smirking slightly and nodding.

"Nice to meet you too, hope you've brought enough appetite for dinner." the mans voice was a deep grumble, but warm and Don began to understand that yes, John Casey was a dangerous man, that hid his humanity most of the time, but had never forgotten what it meant to be human. He could see it every-time the man looked at his brother, the way they touched and shared their smiles.

He would nevertheless threaten him that if he ever broke his little brothers heart, he would kill him. He looked to the man. As soon as he got a minute alone with him. It was his duty as big brother, after all.

FIN

hope you liked it, don't forget to review, or else I just have to think that you didn't find the button ^^