Special thanks to ancientmaverick for beta reading! Thank you very much! All remaining mistakes are my own.

Thank you for reading and dear guest(s): thank you very much for your reviews! I'm glad that it wasn't a surprise how Don acted. But he isn't the only one with a plan ...


TWO-WAY STREET


Fri, Sept 25 - 16:35 - Craftsman's House, Los Angeles

"What do we do now?" Amita looked from Charlie to Alan.

"Why would he call Flynn Logistics? I told him that he was the one behind everything!" Charlie stared at the spot where he had last seen his brother. "Why?"

"Maybe-"

"That doesn't matter now." Alan wrestled himself up. "We need to find him, and then we can ask him." He walked toward the kitchen. "I'll look outside. Amita, you search upstairs, and you, Charlie, you look around here."

Alan marched off to the garage.

Charlie still held the file in his hands. It could be the break that they needed, and now he couldn't work on it because he could only think about Don. Calling Flynn was counter intuitive and stupid. Why would Don do this?

He knew in his heart Don was long gone; he had told them often enough that he should go, he probably just figured to slip away this time.

Charlie wandered through the kitchen, the living room, checked the bathroom and storage. Charlie even climbed down the stairs into the cellar.

"Nothing." Amita waited at the top of the stairs leading to the cellar.

"I know."

Still holding the file, he sat on the nearest chair. He paged through the file and let the numbers comfort him. They made sense, contrary to his brother.

"I think he has a plan," his girlfriend whispered.

He sighed at the broken escape as he concentrated on her. "What plan?"

"Don wants to protect everybody. I don't think he took it well that you all are threatened by Joe Flynn. He wants to protect you. And the best way to stop a chase is to confront the hunter."

"So he called Flynn." With a pale face, Alan entered the room and conversation. "He's using his Fugitive Recovery training in reverse."

Charlie jumped up. "But it's bad advice if you're the good guy trying to bring down a criminal."

"Hiding may not be the best solution, but it's the one that will keep him alive." Alan shook his head and smiled ruefully. "I never thought that I would call the FBI on my own son."

He started to walk to the door.

"Where are you going?"

"He hasn't been gone long. I am going to talk to Agent Andrew and tell him to go looking for him."

Charlie grabbed Alan's arm and stopped him. "Dad, you can't." He shook his head. "They will take him away. You don't know Agent Paul as well as I do. She already threatened to throw him in a cell, and now she will probably carry it out." He rushed the words out.

"I know. But I want Don to live. I can't protect him. He needs to be alive to remember, he needs to be alive to come back. As long as he's alive, he can fight this. But you can't have a conversation with a grave." Alan turned and went out of the house.

Charlie wanted to stop him again, to point out everything he had done to prevent this, all the personal effort. But he knew the safest place for Don was around a lot of agents. Time was all he needed to heal. If something bad happened, they wouldn't have the time.

Charlie startled as a hand touched his arm. Amita gave him a teary smile. "You should go with him. This family can't take more separation."

He gave her a short peck on the cheek and then hurried after his father.

But Alan was faster and met him halfway.

"Dad, I came to support you and -" Charlie stopped at the look on his father's face. "Dad?"

"They know." His voice was almost toneless.

Charlie heaved a relived sigh. "We knew that, they probably saw him-"

"No," Alan interrupted him, "They saw him leave and didn't stop him. Agent Andrew didn't stop my son from walking into danger by direct order from Agent Paul. Don sauntered down that street without anyone bothering to stop him or follow him." He gazed at his green front garden and down the street as if he could see the shadow of Don.

Charlie narrowed his eyes. "Why would she do that? She -" he broke off.

Sick to his stomach, Charlie realized something was horribly wrong. "I'm calling David. This isn't right." He turned on his heels, marched back to the house and grabbed his father's phone.


Fri, Sept 25 - 16:40 - FBI Office, Los Angeles

"Colby? Have you seen Paul?" David asked as his partner-slash-team member put his phone down. He had run down ideas he and Liz had come up with.

"What? We have another missing agent? How do we keep losing them?" He smiled a forced smile as he rubbed his tired eyes. "No, I haven't seen her. But I also haven't missed her. Do you need something?"

"No. It's just strange that she isn't around and hasn't told anyone where she would be." David grabbed a chair, rolled it over and lowered himself down into it right next to Colby. "Do you have something?"

Colby leaned forward. "You know I would inform my team leader first before I informed the agent in charge of the investigation. Then my team leader would decide what to do with any information."

David clapped his friend on the shoulder. "I know. But I am really only interested in the answer. This isn't like Charlie. Sometimes I don't understand Don even when he doesn't have a brain injury."

"Like the Buck Winter thing."

"Yes. But Charlie is pretty straightforward and easily understood. He has a goal, he makes an equation, he gets a result and reworks the formula. But nothing has prepared him to evade the FBI. So either we aren't searching well enough or something is wrong."

"I know man. But I doubt that it is the Flynn kind of wrong. Because I can definitely tell you that they are also looking for him. The word on the street is that he's paying good money for Don's location."

"Agent Granger?" One of the technicians called. "We have the video tapes." He pointed to the technician room.

"Thanks. Coming." Colby heaved himself up, gave David a smile and went back to his job.

David returned his focus to his own work. After reactivating his computer, he read reports and sent requests for a status report.

The ringing of his cell phone interrupted his work process. He glanced at the display for the caller ID.

"Alan?"

"No, this is Charlie," the voice at the other end of the line answered. "I had to borrow Dad's phone."

"Charlie." David breathed a sigh of relief. "Where are you? Is Don with you?"

"We went home-"

"Wait, home, as in your house?" David couldn't believe what he had heard. Actually, he could believe, but he expected that his agents would check even the most obvious place.

"Yes," Charlie hesitated. "Don called Flynn."

"What?" The relief he just had felt was replaced by an ice-cold fear. "Why?"

"I told him about everything. I thought it was safe-"

"You told him that Flynn was the man after him and then he called him? And what would be safe-" David interrupted himself. "Where is Don right now? We need to stop him!"

"That's the thing," now Charlie sounded angry, "Agent Andrew doesn't agree with you. He let him leave the house and didn't even follow him."

David raised his eyebrows in confusion. "Agent Andrew? What is he doing there?"

After a long moment of pause, Charlie replied. "Didn't you send an agent for dad to the house? You knew the whole time we were here."

"No, Agent Paul sent a -" David's heart clenched painfully in his chest as he suddenly realized what was going on.

"Charlie, when did Don leave the house and when did he call Flynn?" He scrawled down Charlie's answers.

"David, what is going on?" Alan asked. Either they were on speaker or he had taken the phone. "Why did you let him leave? Don is not himself, just hours ago he had such bad headaches that he even allowed me to bring him a cool cloth. He shouldn't be out and playing bait!"

"Alan, I assure you that whatever is going on, it isn't my plan." Somehow it was more important to tell this to Don's father than running out of the office. "I am going after him."

David didn't dare to breathe as silence reigned the other end of the line.

After what felt like an eternity, Alan answered. "Okay, I believe you. Just," his voice broke, "just bring my boy home. I can't lose him moments after I've found him. Whatever you have to do to save his life, do it. Please. Just bring him home."

David straightened his shoulders. "I will, Mr. Eppes, I will." If he swore an oath, he couldn't be more serious. The line clicked dead.

He dialed Agent Andrew to get his account. After he had finished, he put down the handhold, rubbed at his eyes and sighed a weary sigh.

But he had a job to do. He grabbed his jacket and keys and hurried to the elevators.

"Colby!" A blond head appeared above the separator. "Let's go!"

In times like these, David rejoiced in the renewed partnership he had found with Colby. Because his friend and partner didn't even pause to question him or to demand answers. He had heard the urgency in his voice, dropped everything and reached him with his jacket in his hand just as the elevator arrived on their floor.

David flipped his cell open, signaled Colby to wait and then pressed the button to the garage.

"Dispatch?" he asked as the call connected. After introducing himself, he asked for the location of Agent Paul.

"I though you didn't want to know where she is, and that you just were-"

David interrupted his friend. "She knew the whole time where Don was."

"What?" Colby stared at him with wide open eyes. "Say again."

"Do you remember she sent Agent Andrew after Alan so that the third Eppes wouldn't also disappear?"

"Not really, but Liz checked in with him."

"Right, you were sleeping. Anyway, she did, and I called Alan to warn him and to explain it to him."

"He reported nothing out of the ordinary."

"Maybe, but fact is that Charlie and Don were there. They went home."

Colby paused in his motion to put on his jacket. "I am worried about the past tense."

"As you should be." The elevator door opened and they hurried out to the nearest gray Sedan. Just as David opened the door, Liz drove past them.

"Liz!"

She stopped and wound down her window. "What's going on?"

"Follow us."

He entered the car, started the engine and backed out of the parking space. Again, he was pleased with how well his team worked. He knew that he had just taken Don's team and made it his own, or maybe was just keeping it together until Don could return. But he was sure that Don would be really proud at how easily they all followed his lead without unnecessary discussion and arguments.

"Call Liz," he ordered, but Colby had already dialed.

"What's going on?" Liz repeated her question through the tiny speakers.

"Paul knew the whole time where Don was. We are on our way to her location. Don had been at home with his father and Charlie." Colby recounted the entire conversation in three simple sentences.

"Andrew didn't report anything." It wasn't difficult to hear the disappointment and defense in her voice.

"I believe you." He didn't want to get into a team building exercise, but just minutes ago he had felt the same relief because Alan had believed him. Liz deserved the same. "Agent Paul ordered him to only report to her. He had to lie."

"It gets worse." He paused as he concentrated at the cross way. "Charlie told Don about Flynn in an attempt to earn his trust. He was thinking about the agents around the house and that they were essentially safe except without the difficult environment."

"Sounds like Charlie," Colby added with a shrug.

"Yeah, but Don called Flynn."

"What?" Colby and Liz simultaneously exclaimed. "Is he crazy?"

"I don't know," David answered honestly because he had had the same thought. "But he went out and Agent Andrew was under orders to let him leave without bothering him."

"And now you think that she's using him as bait or what?"

"I think more along the lines that Don would do anything to stop the threat so his new-found family is safe and he can return to his life." David's hands clenched the steering wheel.

"And I think," Colby turned his head sideways, "that Agent Paul would agree to any plan that would hand her Flynn."

"Do you really think that in this case Paul would give dispatch her location?" Liz asked.

David checked his rear mirror, she kept up with him.

"She would never lie to dispatch, for her own safety, for the safety of her team, and because she believes she's doing the right thing."

"So we're her backup?" Liz asked.

"No," Colby answered for him with a determined expression. "We're Don's."

"Any plan that needs to be discussed and executed behind our back can't be a plan that put Don's safety first." David added.

"Like I said: we're going to back up Don."


TBC