Jag
This is set at some point in the year leading up to the Pilot of Numb3rs so before Charlie started consulting for the FBI, I have taken liberty slightly with details if I couldn't find information to back it up.
Charlie had just finished off marking his junior year advanced calculus class (which he was covering for this year for a teacher who was off on maternity leave); when his phone rang, he was surprised that his brother was calling him, his brother never called him unless he needed help on a case and as far Charlie knew Don was in New York.
"Don, I thought you were away in New York on a course and weren't allowed to use your cell phone during it."
"Yeah Buddy, but the course finished early, the lectures wife just went into labour. He needed to fly back to LA to be with her. So I have until Monday off, I was wondering if you wanted to go hiking in the woods maybe camp out for a few days. Only if you are free of course, if you are doing something with Larry or have a lot of marking to do that's fine. I just thought it might be nice if we caught up and just hung out..."
"Woh Don! Yeah I would love to go with you, so when are you getting back from New York. I am almost finished here so whenever you get back we can leave almost straight away."
Charlie heard a scuffling outside and then his office door burst open and Don exploded in; closing his cell phone as he came in. "Well I am glad you agreed to go with me otherwise I rushed home for nothing,"
Embracing his brother, "Nice surprise, do you want to leave now or tomorrow morning? We could leave in about an hour I suppose that should be enough time to pack and buy enough food for the weekend."
"If we leave within the hour, we should be able to set up camp before it gets dark. I'll get the provisions; if you pack the two packs. I think mine might still be under my old bed at home. There are still jeans, shirts and stuff in the wardrobe from Christmas, so just shove a few off them into the bag and I'll bring the food to the house. We can put them in before we leave"
"OK, let's get to it. The quicker we get going the quicker we'll get there,"
Charlie was getting slightly too excited to be going camping with his brother though the last time Charlie could remember them going camping had been Don's 13th birthday where his parents had forced Don to take Charlie with him and his friends. That time had ended up with Charlie trying to walk home and his extremely worried parents picking him up and scolding him for being so stupid.
Charlie and Don reached the campsite just after 7:15, and set up camp shortly after. They build up a fire from the wood they found lying around; Charlie emptied out the food which Don had bought, he realised that he had not actually looked at the food which Don had bought. He laughed when he found gram crackers, chocolate spread and marshmallows; he had not had smores since he was a little kid. He was touched that Don remembered he liked his Smores with chocolate spread rather than actual blocks of chocolate.
He found pre-boiled potatoes ready to be fried and boil in the bag noodles and a bottle of soy sauce. All Charlie's favourite camping foods. They got out the pots and pans and set about making tea for themselves, then sat back to watch the sunset eating their plates of quick cook foods. After Dinner they talked about life, Charlie told Don about this new student at Cal Sci from Delhi, she was apparently the most beautiful woman Charlie had ever seen. Don thought this was hilarious as Charlie had rarely had contact with woman of his own age so it wouldn't be hard for this girl to be the most gorgeous woman in Charlie's estimation. Don loved the fact that they were having the real brotherly chats which they had missed growing up due to the turbulent life Charlie had had of maths and more maths from the age of 3.
They talked late into the night about what had happened at the conference and realised that the agent who had had to fly back to see the birth of his child was the husband of the professor Charlie had been covering on maternity leave, odd how small the world was. Don built up the fire before they settled down to sleep, Charlie cuddled down to sleep staring up at the stars which are invisible in the middle of Pasadena but clear as day up in the hills. He remembered an old tradition a student of his told him about that they used to choose a star every time his family went camping, then named it that star becoming that member's lucky star for the duration of the trip.
They were both surprised how quickly they fell asleep after they stopped talking, the fire started sputtering, a bit of discarded wood caught fire (they had decided to discard it due to it having nails in it and they didn't want hot metal in their fire). Charlie woke up at the noise and afraid that the forest around them or their sleeping bags might catch fire, he tried to put the bit of wood out by jumping up and down on it (having put his boots back on). One of the nails from the bit of wood pierces Charlie's foot. The pain causes him to hop around and look like a complete idiot.
"Charlie, what are you doing Buddy?" said Don trying not to laugh at Charlie not realising that there was something seriously wrong with Charlie.
"Don! I have a bit of wood stuck in my foot! It ******* hurts!" replied Charlie still hopping around "It's not funny, can u please help me here!"
Getting up out of his sleeping bag Don helps Charlie to sit down and pours cold water on the bit of wood to try to cool the foot down, then gets a dressing out of the First Aid bag. He removes the piece of wood, and then takes off Charlie's boot and sock and puts the dressing on his foot to stop the bleeding. Don doesn't like the fact that the skin looks quite charred/burned and there is already pus coming out of the wound.
Don packs up the sleeping bags and the rest of the equipment; he then wonders how he is going to get all the stuff and Charlie back to the car. Don puts a supportive bandage to hold the dressing more firmly in place and then Don helps Charlie load his backpack onto his back and then Don helped him up and they hobble their way back to parking lot, stopping every so often to regroup and recover. It was a slow process but they managed to make it back despite the lack of light and without any further incident.
Don drives Charlie to the hospital to get his foot checked out, obviously a charred foot isn't high priority in a busy hospital at 4am, they have to wait for quite a while before a nurse come to get Charlie. Nurse Andy examines his foot and doesn't like the look of it, he orders some x-rays and says that likely outcome will be surgery to remove the dead tissue and investigate if any tendons or nerves have been damaged. He also gives Charlie a tetanus jag as nails are certainly not the cleanest of things and it is better to be safe than sorry. Charlie doesn't think he has ever seen such a huge needle but he has to appear like it doesn't bother him, he can't have his big brother think he is scared of a little needle (even if it is a huge). The X-ray shows that the nail has caused the bone to shatter, so it is not good news, Charlie is scheduled for surgery later that day. They say they are not sure how long Charlie will be incapacitated for until they get in and have a look around.
The surgeons remove all the dead fatty tissue and are pleased that the nerves look more bruised rather than burned and they manage to repair the damaged tendons. They remove the bone shards and put a pin in to stabilise the bone back in alignment. When Charlie wakes up they tell him it will be 3 weeks in a wheelchair to give the nerves and tendons a chance to recover and then a further 2 weeks in a walking cast to get the mobility back whilst still providing protection to the damaged bone, ligaments and nerves.
Charlie gets out on the Tuesday morning and is very glad to be home though wishes he could work, he knows he will go stir crazy being confined to a chair for 3 weeks. Alan says he will move one of Charlie's blackboards lower so that Charlie can write on it whilst he is stuck in the chair. Charlie phones Cal Sci to tell them that it will be 3 weeks before he is back at work but he will get Larry to bring all his marking home and will write plans for all the classes so they can be easily covered by anyone, not necessarily a mathematician.
Don calls Larry and asks him to come over so that they can start planning Charlie's Birthday; it has to be extra special now due to how bummed Charlie is about being stuck in the house for 3 weeks. Larry comes over and suggests they play some friendly Texas Hold-em, not for money, jelly beans maybe. Charlie finds it hilarious when Larry produces a huge jar of jelly beans, they decide
Green beans are $5
Yellow beans are $10
Pink beans are $25
Purple beans are $50
Black are $100
And White beans are $500
They sit through in the garage; Charlie is surprised that his Dad actually has moved one of his chalk boards lower down so he can work on it from his chair. They start the game and Larry is surprised that Charlie is giving him a real game of it; you would think the 3 time Cal Sci Poker Champion would be able to beat someone who has never played before. Charlie is surprised how much fun he is having; he has found another game where his mathematical skills might just give him an advantage. As he once said to his dad when he was 10, when Alan had questioned how important maths was, "We all use math every day, to predict weather, tell time, handle money. Math is more than formulas and equations, its logic, its rationality; it is using your mind to solve the biggest mysteries we know."
Don and Alan set about phoning all of Charlie's friends and inviting them to his party, they were trying to plan the best party, originally they were going to just go out to a little pizza place that they all loved, then maybe come back to the house and have a couple beers and watch the game. Larry said they were going to have a small party at school with a couple of his colloquies, maybe a few grad students. Larry had the idea yesterday why didn't they throw Charlie a like the ones you have when you are a little kid, with cake, ice-cream and jelly, party games and even maybe party hats and balloons. Alan and Don thought this would be great especially as Charlie hadn't really had that many birthday parties growing up due to him not having many friends as he was from a young age in classes with kids 3, 4 even 5 years older than him.
They decided to make the party a surprise; they are going to tell Charlie that the 3 of them are going to have a nice quiet family dinner. Larry said he would make sure that all his friends knew that it was a surprise and to not let it slip to Charlie what they were planning. They phone everyone and are pleasantly surprised when the great majority of the people they phone are able to come on such short notice, Larry had suggested they invited Amita the new Grad-student from Delhi, who Larry had heard had asked if Charlie could be her thesis advisor.
Charlie comes through with his "winning" lying on his lap and Larry behind who seems to be teasing Charlie about the way he got injured. Don and Alan are surprised they have never seen Larry tease anyone let alone Charlie. They continue this playful banter, Don tells Charlie about his and Alan's plan to have a nice quiet dinner.
On the day of the party, (as Don has taken the day of to send time with Charlie on his birthday), he invites Charlie over for a couple of beers and to watch last night's game. Which Don knows Charlie missed due to having to visit the emergency room yesterday as his foot had got infected, which wasn't that surprising due to the injury being caused by a nail, not the cleanest of objects. They had kept Charlie in over night to monitor how well the infection was clearing up. Don knew how annoyed Charlie would be to having to go back to the hospital particularly the day before his birthday. Charlie does beg the question why can't they just watch the game here they have beers in the fridge and Alan did record the game as he knew how much Charlie had wanted to watch it to test a theory he was working on for an article. Don has to think on his feet as it was true why make a mobily challenged man cross town to a cramped apartment. Don goes with the excuse that needs help choosing which of the 3 paints he likes to paint his living room walls with. Charlie is suspicious but gives Don the benefit of the doubt, he asks Don to come pick him up and then hangs up and goes to tell Alan that he is going out for a couple of hours to Don's.
Don buys three cans of paint n his way to pick Charlie up, Don is surprised how difficult a wheelchair is to fold up to put in a car and is so glad that in a couple of weeks Charlie will be fairly mobile again. Charlie asks him if they can stop off at the store to buy some pizza and stuff for lunch, though he does love beer as much as the next guy it isn't a very healthy to have for lunch without having anything else. Don battles to get the wheelchair unfolded again, they get some pizza and popcorn to have while watching the game.
Charlie is so glad that his theory work, he manages to finalise his equations and now only has to write up the expatiation part which should take too long particularly as he has so much free time at the moment. Don tries to slyly keep an eye on the time knowing he needs to get back to Alan's house around 5 as everyone is meant to be getting there about 4:30/4:45 so by 5, everyone should be there. They decide that the pale yellow will be the best for the wall out of the 3 paints; Don suggests they get back to Alan's so that Charlie can get ready for their meal tonight.
Don goes in first to alert everyone that Charlie is coming, they all hide like you do at childhood surprise parties, Charlie wheels in and is surprised that it is all dark in the house as he knows Don went inside only a few minutes ago and would have presumably turned the lights on when he inside. He is even more surprised when all his friends jump out from their hiding places. It's nice to think that so many people care enough to come to his party. He looks around and can't help but laugh at the fact that this looks exactly like a kid's party complete with a piñata and jelly and ice-cream.
They put some music on and Charlie mills around talking to everyone and thanking them for coming to his party. Don goes to speak to Larry and is introduced to Amita, he asks him when she came over from Delhi, to which Amita replies that she has never been to Delhi, her family are from Southern India but she was born over here and has not been to India. Don asks Charlie is he deliberately set him up to look like a fool in front of Amita to which Charlie replies he honestly thought that Amita was from Delhi, he can't remember who told him that detail but he was sure it was true. Charlie goes over and a nice long chat with Larry and Amita and finds out that everyone just assumed that she was from India, that she never told anyone that she was.
Alan tells everyone since this is his "little boy's" party they are going to play some party games they start with pin the tail on the donkey, Don and Charlie get into an argument over who's "tail" is closer to the X. Alan says they will settle it by a simple case of short straws, which Don wins, winning instead of the usual childhood prize, a bottle good quality beer. They tackle the piñata next; inside as well the bits of chocolate there are bits of paper with parts of an equation on them, which everyone has to piece together to solve the equation. The equation's answer when converted using a simple hexadecimal code spells Happy 29th birthday Charlie!
The party is overall a success and everyone thinks it is terribly quaint it having the innocent and childlike theme which everyone loses to a greater or lesser extend as they get older but which Charlie still seems to have. Don sits that night with the beer he won and thinks how much he resented Charlie over the years and how hopefully now they are living in the same city again they can possibly put the past behind them and start a fresh.