Agent Billy Cooper may be mostly nomadic due to his job, but he was still based in Quantico. So it was really no surprise to Don when he learned during one of his conversations with his friend that he also knew FBI Sniper Ian Edgerton.
What would have surprised him, though, was that whenever the two were in the same place at the same time they traded notes about the Eppes brothers and the team over a beer and possibly a steak. They were both rather similar after all, both were nomads in their own country and both were excellent trackers—the only difference was their approaches to getting a criminal. Cooper hunted them down, Ian was called in to kill them.
Two months had passed since Cooper had seen the Eppes brothers, he finally had a chance to sit down and have a friendly dinner with the "Sniper God" and relate to him this little story.
Charles Edward Eppes, Ph D. Ph D., had filched another mans wallet from underneath his brothers own nose.
Ian Edgerton choked on his baked potato due to laughter, thinking Cooper was making it up.
When Cooper outlined the entire lift along with a description of the man Charlie had stolen from, Ian started to believe him, if only barely. This was not what he'd expect from the younger Eppes, in fact it seemed too out of character from all that he'd seen of him.
He pointed it out to Cooper, but the red head pointed out in response that did either of them really know Charlie?
All that they knew was what they saw of him when he helped, that he had scarily high clearance, and some stories Don had shared from his childhood. And Don was still learning things about his brother because of their stint of no communication.
There was more to the genius than just being a genius.
It was something they would both investigate further the next time they saw the Brothers.
Charlie scowled and chewed his lip as he corrected his undergraduates assignments.
His father, Don, and Don's team had been walking on eggshells around him for weeks.
The reason?
The five year anniversary of his mothers funeral.
It was driving him nuts.
He had a break down when she passed, he knew that.
He left to be with people who understood his ability to allow his mind to vacate the here and now after it had happened—they helped him cope and helped him find alternate means of grounding his mind.
So his main reaction to her death was taken care of, he would not react the same way to the fifth anniversary of it.
He wouldn't allow himself too and he was sure Mama Ro and the rest wouldn't allow him to either.
Now, just how to explain it to Don and Dad? How to explain these people who were family to both him and his mother?
Or maybe, he'd let them find out on their own.
Charlie owned the house now, he could have people over without having to tell his father.
Charlie's grin would have scared his father, Don, and Don's team if they saw it—it was down right predatory.
Charlie was finishing up some equations for Don about a serial murderer when he got a call from Uncle Ron.
David Sinclair, who had been notified about what was coming, was there to coordinate the tips and information they received from the LAPD and to keep an eye on him and make sure he was still responsive to the outside world.
David was left confused as Charlie started to make what sounded like arrangements over the phone.
What confused him more was what he called some of them.
David was sure Don didn't know his younger called another person "Mama Ro."
Charlie had learned long ago that giving only half the information would often times confuse the people trying to listen in on his conversations, especially when only a first, code, or nickname was used.
So, aware that Agent David Sinclair—a good friend of both Don and him—was in the room, he spoke not using anyone's full name and calling Rona "Mama Ro," as he would have any way.
It would confuse him and when Agent Sinclair reported back to his brother it would piss Don off exponentially. Charlie's grin became shark like, knocking his brother down a few pegs would be fun—hopefully he wouldn't underestimate him anymore.
It wasn't his fault Don decided to disappear out of his life for years on end until their mother was dying.
It wasn't his fault that his father never really tried to learn more about the people that he had become friends with while he was at college. The only reason he knew Larry was because the man was here in California with him.
He had people he considered family on the other side of the country.
People his mother had decided were family, too.
He would make sure they were here this time to celebrate her life and honor her death.
Don was angry.
How could Charlie do something like this?
How could he replace their mother?
Was that why he never fell into the trap that was his mind anymore?
He had another person he called Mother?
Don was scowling when they caught the serial killer, his anger just not at the creep but at his own brother, too.
That was why when he got to his childhood home he slammed the door open and closed, heedless if his father was there to hear what he had to say to his younger sibling.
"Charlie!"
The slammed door had made their father jump and come to see what the problem with his oldest was, especially worried when he roared for his youngest.
"What did he do, Donny?"
Don growled.
"You know how we've been cautious lately about Charlie, afraid he may slip into his number crazed haze again?"
Alan nodded.
"Well I found out the reason he hasn't slipped into it again is because of someone he calls 'Mama Ro!' Apparently he's replaced Mom with someone new, probably someone who's just as much of a math geek as he is."
Through out Don's entire rant, neither he nor his father noticed Charlie standing at the entrance to the garage, lounging against the frame, eyebrow raised high as he listened to his blood brother rant.
So when he spoke, his voice smooth and bland, both jumped and turned to him, Don glaring and his father with an unreadable expression on his face.
"You know, Don, you should never make assumptions when you don't have all the intel on it, it leads to mistakes and they could blow up in you face later."
Charlie stared at them both, his face blank, contemplating if he should tell them what's going on or if he should just keep it all to himself and let them stew over all of this. And though they couldn't see much emotion on his face his eyes were a different story—his eyes seemed to smolder with anger, the already dark brown meshing with his pupil to become a furious ebony.
It wasn't his fault if they never tried to understand him as more than their genius child/brother. Sure, they had all gotten closer, but they learned as he revealed things to them, they never actively tried to unbury his secrets.
"Mom and I met Mama Ro, Damien, Angelica, Ryan, Adina, and Ron while I was at Princeton. They were there looking at schools for them to register at, Adina and Ryan, whom are both just a few years shy of myself, were going to be going to College after they finished their final year of high school. Adina bumped into me and we all became friends. Mom told you over the phone, Dad, so you can't say mom never told you she made some friends while in Jersey with me."
Charlie turned his furious eyes from his father to Don, pinning them both with his words and his eyes.
"In fact Don, if you had tried to keep up communications with me and mom while we were both in school you would have met them, liked them even.
"Damien is a neurosurgeon at John Hopkins in Maryland , Angelica is a reputable and upcoming fashion designer in New York, Adina is the best computer programmer in the states and Ryan is a top notch chemist as well as a damn good CSI, both of whom are in Miami.
"Neither of you tried to visit us, and the reason we stayed there is because we had friends—Family—there and they needed to be with us as much as we needed you to want to be with us. I know you were pissed at Mom deciding that I could go to a school far away because you wanted her here.
"They are my family. They were Mom's family. They never got the chance to say goodbye because I lost my anchor, lost the one person who I felt could always tie me to reality when it was needed. I get that you were pissed before she died because I zoned out, but she understood.
"In those last days when I could just feel her slipping—even in my hazy mind— while you slept I went and saw her a few last times. She knew I didn't mean it, didn't mean to abandon her. She understood; she was the one who told me that after she went, I had to go where she knew I would be able to get my head out of 'Numbersville.' She, out of the two of you, understood me and what I go through the most.
"So don't either of you dare tell me what I can and cannot call other people. I've called Mama Ro that since shortly after I met her almost 2 decades ago. Just like I call Ron 'Uncle Ron' and how I consider Anastasia and Remington my niece and nephew. Even if you never consider them family, they always will be to Mom and I."
Alan and Don stared at Charlie as he glowered at them.
"Goddamnit, I'm not made of glass, I may be a bit absent minded but I can take of myself and I have my own life—I'm not just a Math Genius, I'm Me. They're coming for the anniversary of Mom's death—Mama Ro, Ryan, and Anya are staying here. I don't care if either of you have problems with them, I bought this house from Dad so it's mine now and they are my family as much as you two are, I want them here and if you don't, then you guys can find other places to be while they're here."
They watched as the youngest and most troubled of them walked away.
It was usually something mathematical that he spoke of so passionately, yet here he was talking of people this way.
Alan looked to the ground, he knew that what Charlie said was true, he and Margaret had fought over the distance of Charlie's schooling. That anger made it easy for him to ignore what she told him about their time there.
Don stared at his brother, shock and a bit of residual anger coloring how he currently saw his brother. Nonetheless, what he saw stunned him.
Whenever Don looked at Charlie he saw the math genius who everyone fought over or gave praise to, the annoying little brother who would always try to follow him and do as he did. Despite all that had happened between them, Don still saw that young, shy, annoyingly brilliant Boy his brother had been—not the Man he had grown up to be.
The man before him—the same man who now looked at crime scene photos with him, withheld information from him—was who his brother had become.
It just hadn't sunken in until now—until Charlie had come out and spelled it out for them who exactly he was, who had helped him to become that person.
It ticked him off that his brother had hidden this part of himself away from him, despite how close they had worked with each other, for how long they had been really working together.
But, as what was left of the anger drained away, he saw his brother as the man he was for the first time since their mother had gotten sick and they were reunited, since he had abandoned all of them to get away from Charlie and his overbearing brilliance.
He was strong but he was also angry—and more than likely hurt—because of he and their fathers oblivious treatment of him.
It made him wonder if Larry knew about this side of his brother? If the rest of his team saw the absent minded genius boy or the strong and amazingly brilliant man that boy had become.