A/N: Had a lot of trouble deciding where to actually kick the story off, so here's a finished attempt (finally). This is probably not flawless grammatically but I try my best. If I missed something feel free to point it out so I can fix it! Feed back is appreciated~ Though I feel like this concept probably won't appeal to a large audience...

~Steps~

Charlie was admittedly egotistical about his friendship with Larry. It was true, their endeavors always seemed to center about Charlie or his latest conflict. So Charlie had determined to step up to the plate when Larry's crisis hit him. Caroline Fleinhardt had died in a car crash with her husband. She was Larry's cousin, almost a sister apparently.

Of course, Charlie had never been exposed to her, partly from his own lack of a sense to become more involved in the rest of Larry's world, and partly because Larry had compartmentalized Charlie and Caroline into different realms, and kept them separate through his own organization of life quite sub consciously.

So now Charlie sat in his good black suit next to Larry as another relative was giving a teary speech remembering the deceased couple's wedding. He had been surprised when Larry turned up at his garage a complete panicked train wreck and had been by Larry's side throughout the experience since then.

Charlie knew that because of this he actually owed Don an apology, he had been completely ignoring his brother's hounding and bothering calls about some new case and potential murder of a man 20 years into a witness protection program… Okay, so perhaps he would have given anything to be working on the case with Don instead of sitting there amongst the bereaved. It was hard for him, he didn't like to see people unhappy, or crying.

Charlie didn't do well with death, it was sort of a known fact. His management of his own mother's passing proved it. If it weren't for the almost childlike need Larry had expressed he would probably have run away from the whole affair. It was a big deal for Larry. Not only was he burying a relative but he was also adopting her daughter; a teenager named Everest.

Charlie had yet to meet the girl. While Larry and others close to Caroline and Erik spent hours and days setting up the funeral, their own daughter had become a recluse through the entire affair. Charlie couldn't blame her for it. He himself had disappeared into an insolvable math problem while his own mother died. As the saying goes; people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

Larry said his soon to be legal daughter was going to show up today at the

funeral. Looking at his friend as the speech drew to a close he realized what the empty seat on the other side of Larry was for. She wasn't there. He glanced at Larry's face which was taught and strained, staring straight ahead at the podium.

In his clenched hands he held a single sheet of paper. It was Larry's tribute to Caroline; well prepared and over-edited. As people began clapping for the speaker who was going back to her pew, Charlie leaned over to Larry.

"Isn't the most important speaker missing?" the young mathematician questioned in a voice that he tried to keep calm and centered. Larry visibly swallowed and gave a short jerky nod.

"I left her outside the church when she said she need a minute… She's like an electron Charlie! Always moving and orbiting, never actually sitting down where she should…" Larry murmured back glancing towards the back of the church.

Behind them the large, ornate and stoic doors stood closed, stained glass windows on either side of them. Charlie turned to glance back at them while running a hand through a few untamed curls.

"You should go get her." he told Larry, his voice still low.

"I can't! I go up next and soon she does too…" Larry replied sounding much like a lost child. Letting out an internal groan Charlie pinched the bridge of his nose as he quietly stood up, knowing what he had to do.

"Go up, I'll go get her." He then quietly assured a surprised Larry, patting his shoulder. Charlie then slipped out of their bench and walked along the wall of the church, trying to avoid notice as he stealthily moved towards the back of the church.

Not wanting the almost definite loud creaks and groans of the fancy official doors, he saw a small back door and stepped out into a parking lot that bordered the front entrance and lawn. Blinking in the brightness of the afternoon, he then started walking onto the grass, glancing about for the missing mourner.

His task wasn't difficult. The girl was sitting on the steps leading up the oak doors he had avoided opening. She was wearing an all black formal dress with long sleeves that looked like it would cause heat stroke in the current weather. As he started to jog towards her he noticed three very distinguishing factors.

The first was that peeking out from the bottom of her dress was a pair of dirty grey converse shoes, the left foot's laces almost untied. The second was that she had her eyes closed and was rolling her shoulders and tapping her conversed feet in a meditative rhythm. Only as he noticed the third factor of a pair of white ear buds discreetly tucked into her ears did he register her behavior as one who was enjoying music.

"Everest?" He then said ten feet away, and got no response. From his distance he could hear the groaning melody of deep bass and winced thinking of the damage her poor eardrums suffered through her volume-abuse.

"Everest?" he then tried again walking up to her and putting his hand on her shoulder lightly. As soon as the contact happened she responded with impeccable reflexes. The hand connected to the shoulder he touched swung up, smacking his own hand away, as the other pulled the mini speakers out of her ears. She had stood turning to face him as well, her stance a little defensive.

The change Charlie had been paying attention to during the incredibly brief event was that her eyes opened. When they did he found himself facing a startled and surprisingly intense hetero-chromic gaze. The eye on the left was a light grey, the one on the right was a dark green you saw on American soldiers. Charlie found himself thrown off, her look arresting his mind and keeping forcing it into an unproductive stand by.

"What?" the girl then demanded, her eyes narrowing slightly at him as she turned off her iPod, not looking down or away from him. She blinked, thank goodness, which gave him just enough of a chance to 'wake up', so to speak. He looked over the rest of her face, an oval shape with dark make up around her eyes that had made them stand out so fiercely.

"Everest right?" Charlie then confirmed, taken aback at her accusatory expression, but determined to handle the situation with an adult's grace. She nodded and a piece of dirty blonde hair fell into her face. Charlie opened his mouth to tell her that Larry was waiting for her inside.

As he formed the words in his mind though, he noticed a change in her expression. Her eyes flickered down before rising back up to meet his gaze, her toe scuffing the ground. Guilt, knowing what was to come, shame but raw unapologetic fear…

…These were the things he read in the girl and as he registered them, his empathy shut down his patronizing-adult plans of telling her that she should go into the church. So instead he gave a sigh and sat down on the steps of the church resting his elbows on his knees, looking out towards the street in front of the church.

"Are they good?" He then asked her casually, nodding his head towards her ipod. She looked at him blankly so he continued,

"Whomever you were listening to. Are they good?" The girl quietly stared at him, expression calculating before nodding her head.

"Yeah. She's good. Screwed up and depressive but good." Everest spoke, a slight tint of dark amusement in her voice. Slowly she lowered herself down so she was sitting where she was before, now next to Charlie. There was a small quirk to her mouth that wasn't an actual smile, but he still saw it as a success. Letting out a low chuckle Charlie then asked,

"So, are you gonna tell me her name?" He was looking out at the lawn, stealing side-glances at her not wanting to scare her off.

"Tori Amos. The Beekeeper. It came out last year." She said, looking down at her Ipod before slipping it into an excessive sleeve. Charlie noticed inside her sleeve the ipod was nestled next to a piece of wrinkled folded paper. Her own prepared words to bury her parents with. He could see scratches and smudges of mess ballpoint pen. She tucked both objects out of sight as she adjusted her sleeve before looking back at him.

"So, are you gonna tell me your name?" Her question threw his phrase back at him and he couldn't help but smirk appreciatively as he turned his body to face her again.

"Charlie, Larry's friend and temporary errand boy." Charlie then replied with a small flourish, offering his hand to shake. Her eyes showed recognition of his name, and she slowly stuck her hand in his to shake, as if unsure if she wanted to be won over to friendliness that easily.

"It's a sad world when a genius is lowered to being sent outside to fetch people." Ever pointed out dryly as she took her hand back to scratch at her converse.

"Ah, true, but not just "people." I'd say a very important person for the whole affair." Charlie then said, tentatively seeking a positive response from coaxing.

He had the feeling this was a girl who wouldn't do anything she didn't want to, and if she honestly had no intention of entering the building he wasn't going to get her to. So he clung to the hope of her behavior up till then being the actions of her simply being skittish and seeking an escape before taking the plunge.

She frowned after he spoke, looking down and away, yanking harshly on her shoe laces as she began to retie them.

"Yeah well I'm not one of the people who wanted this whole 'affair.' It's stupid. We managed to get to church once a month tops. And everyone's pretending that this place is exactly where they belong." She spoke bitterly, gesturing behind them at the church, and over towards the rolling hills of the connected graveyard. Charlie pursed his lips, watching as she seamlessly switched any pain out for frustration or anger instead.

"I don't think it really matters where this takes place. I think it matters who is there, and what is said. Seems like you've got some words to share." Charlie spoke gently, watching her face as she stared at the ground. "Come on, people need you in there." He paused again as she scoffed at that, looking away. Charlie frowned a little, running out of ideas before offering,

"You could stand up in there and just call bullshit on everyone." His kept his tone quite serious as he suggested it, and the almost-joke seemed to strike a chord in her. Her lips twitched into a smirk as she glanced back at him. She seemed to be relenting and looked genuinely apologetic as she asked,

"Is Uncle Larry freaking out?" Charlie gave a small knowing smile and said,

"Nothing you can't fix by going in there." At this she gave a sigh and pinched the bridge of her nose. Charlie was bemused at the similarity to his own actions earlier in the church before he had come outside to "fetch" her.

"Fine. Don't twist the knife, I'll fricken go in there." She stood, brushing off her lap and smoothing the long skirt of her dress. Charlie stood up as well, and noted that the top of her head barely reached his nose. When she stood her hair fell down her back instead of being scrunched at her shoulder how she had twisted it.

As she walked up the stairs and started pulling on the handle of the heavy door, her hair glimmered in the afternoon sun, the dirty blonde almost looking like spun gold, except for a tiny bit that he noticed was decidedly an unnatural teal. He blinked in surprise, the streak of color was discreet and almost impossible to see with her hair down like it was.

He didn't have time to realize anything more as the girl wrenched the grand entrance open and walked in with her head held high. The entire audience of the church turned to look back at the two of them, silhouettes against the afternoon sun that spilled in. Larry was up at the podium, obviously startled to silence in the middle of his speech. Charlie raised his hand and gave an awkward and apologetic smile to his friend up at the front of the church as he let the door close behind him.

The church remained silent as he followed Everest up to their seats in the front. She seemed immune to the stares of the people around them and settled in the pew with apparent grace and self-control. Charlie followed her into the pew, feeling clumsy and embarrassed.

Larry coughed a little before starting to speak again, his voice seeming stronger then before, as if reassured at the presence of the girl he hoped to reach out to most in the world. Charlie folded his arms and tried to slump into hiding. He glanced over at the teenager now sitting next to him and noticed a small, obviously amused smile on her lips.

The kid had done that to him on purpose! Gone was the vulnerable little girl outside the church, now she was smirking and pleased with herself for causing an entrance that put everyone on the spot. After surprise and initial annoyance Charlie found himself tempted to laugh. It had been good; She was good.

As time and the service went on, even as they all stood outside and the caskets were buried, Charlie couldn't keep himself from being distracted from anyone's words by glittering pieces of golden hair.