Chapter 26: August 26, 2014 – Math

Challenge: for the livejournal 2014 August Fic-a-Day Challenge.

Timeline: mid-series-ish for Numb3rs.

Disclaimer: BtVS/AtS characters belong to Joss Whedon/Mutant Enemy. I don't own Numb3s characters. I claim no rights to any copyrighted material. Please do not copy or take this story without my permission.

CalSci cafe

Buffy took another sip of her mocha latte and continued her rant to Willow over the phone, "I'm telling you, Willow, I've sat in on this Charlie Epps guy's class, and while he is like you-and-Giles-combined brilliant, that also could be a reason to remove him from the list. On top of that, I overheard a conversation that happened to include our other criteria," she stressed, knowing that she was in public and needed to speak in euphemisms, "And trust me, he wouldn't accept our truths; his mind would be blow into tiny pieces. Tweak the search engine and try again."

After she hung up, a shadow stopped behind her, looming like a sign of danger. Praying that it wasn't a daytime monster – or worse, one of those lawyer weenies from Wolfram & Hart – she twisted in her seat…only to find a rather angry-looking man in a suit breathing heavy while he glared at her.

"Sorry, is this your favorite table or something?" she quipped. What the hell was his problem?

"You need to come with me," he ordered.

Buffy snorted, "Yeah…I don't think so. See, I went to school when we learned all about 'Stranger Danger' and everything, so go away."

"That wasn't a request," he insisted. "My name is Agent Don Eppes of the FBI, and I'm taking you in for questioning."

"Really? On what charges?" she inquired. So far this talent search trip had been light on the slaying, so she doubted that anyone saw her with somebody that later 'disappeared' or whatever.

"Stalking," he growled.

"And just who is it that I'm stalking?" she asked.

He pointed across the café to where the genius she just checked out was sitting with his TA. And if they weren't dating, she'd eat her stake. "Dr. Charles Eppes."

"I take it there's a relation, or is the name Eppes more common than I thought?" Buffy wondered aloud, still not moving, which pissed him off even more.

"Please stand up," he bit out, refusing to give her any more ammunition for whatever sick fantasy/cult she had in mind for his little brother.

"Wow, CalSci really must hate headhunters if they call in the FBI every time somebody comes to check out their professors for a job," Buffy muttered softly, but not softly enough to be unheard by Don.

"Headhunter?" he asked in a less threatening tone.

"Yeah. It's not totally unheard of in most of the world. In fact, I've hired a couple dozen teachers for a boarding school overseas and this is the first time I've ever gotten this reception," Buffy explained, handing Don her Muggle business card, which showed the name of Hogwarts' new alias in the Muggle world so their students could give an actual name when asked where they went.

Don stared at her as if to judge her honesty, then waved at his brother before sitting down across from her. "So the sitting in on his classes and following him to this café, not to mention that conversation I just overheard…was about a job?"

Buffy ticked off her supposed crimes as she explained them, "Sitting in on his classes…kinda need to do that to see if he can teach our kids. By the way, I don't think so because we need middle/high school math teachers and he's…not. 'Following him' to this café…it's the café closest to the class that just ended; kinda was planning to come here whether he did or not. My conversation with our talent search committee? They should have known better to pick a 'beautiful mind' candidate for me to look at. I'm sure he's awesome at the math stuff, but some of our classes require a more…open mind when it comes to the universe as a whole and sadly, I just don't see him having one. What I saw was a guy who couldn't accept something if it couldn't be explained by his numbers or science."

"Religious school?" Don asked, knowing full well that she pretty much had his brother pegged.

"Mmm, more…spiritual, I'd say," Buffy hedged. Her phone chirped and it was Willow texting her another name. "Will I get in trouble if I go check out a Dr. Lawrence Fleinhardt? Or is it only people interested in your brother that get the FBI welcome?"

"Sorry about that, he had a problem awhile back and so he's a little on edge about people showing too much interest in him," Don apologized, ignoring the fact that he also jumped on her for her interest. "As a way of making it up to you, I'll walk you to Larry's office. And just so you know, he has a much more open mind about spirituality and stuff than Charlie."

After she talked to Dr. Fleinhardt – Larry, he insisted during their introduction – Buffy was cautiously optimistic about the guy. He was also scary brilliant, but he also had the ability to break down the subject into terms that were so basic that she thought she might have understood a thing or two he was saying.

She'd still have to broach the whole 'magic is real' issue with him, but he admitted that he was feeling out of place at the university and wouldn't mind a change of pace…even if it meant teaching middle and/or high school students.

But first, she needed to get a witch to join her to handle that part of the demonstration.

A/N: Sorry this was so short, I was up against the clock again. Tuesdays suck this year.

Tomorrow…Not sure. Ideas?