Disclaimer: Numb3rs and its characters don't belong to me. This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, places or events is coincidental or used fictitiously.
Rating: T
Timeline: This is set in late March and early April 2020, ten years after the events portrayed in the series.
A/N: For a brief period of time, I considered the title for the ABC, but I already have a real story for that one coming soon. Please don't expect much of this. Today, writing is simply a coping mechanism for my pent-up anger.

V for Virus

Charlie watched the ambulance drive away, trying hard to breathe past the emotions tightening his chest. He was worried, very worried, but whether or not he liked to admit it to himself, he was also experiencing a damn lot of anger.

He turned back to the house and stopped for the fracture of a second when he saw Amita standing there on the porch, their youngest on her arm, and Pete and Emily fearfully keeping close to her.

He stepped towards them, squatting down so that he was now actually looking up at them. "Grandpa just needs to get his strength back, and that's what they're gonna help him to do. They're gonna take good care of him," he tried to soothe his kids without his voice breaking. He knew the paramedics and the doctors at the hospital would do their best, but he also knew that these were times when it was harder than usual to do one's best, and when, additionally, doing one's best often wasn't enough.

He stood, ruffling Pete's hair, and put a kiss on Amita's cheek. "I'm going to call Don," he told her as he stepped into the house, making his way into his office.

He closed the door behind him and took a deep breath, trying to stay calm, especially now that he needed to inform his brother. Keeping calm was difficult though, especially here, where every wall was plastered with information about the virus and Charlie's calculations concerning its spreading.

"Charlie, hey, how's it going?" Don asked, unsuspecting. Their dad's decline had been quick, the news had to hit him out of the blue.

"Dad's sick," Charlie said and swallowed down the lump that had formed in his throat and that was rendering his voice a little husky, despite his best intentions.

"Sick as in –" Don started, the concern evident in his voice, but didn't finish the sentence.

"We think it's the virus. They just took him to the hospital. I don't…" He broke off, then started anew, trying to put a little more optimism in his voice. "His fever wasn't very high, but he had a little trouble breathing, so, you know, we just wanted to play it safe."

His words were met with silence.

"Is there anything I can do?" Don then asked, and Charlie could tell that he too was highly disturbed by the news.

A sad smile spread across Charlie's face. "I'm not even sure what I can do. You know we're not even allowed to visit him."

"Yeah, I know," Don sighed and was silent for a minute before he went on. "It just feels wrong not to do anything, in general, I mean. You're doing it right, you know, you're actually doing something that might stop this, or slow it down, or… anyway, something."

Charlie laughed bitterly. "Yeah, that's what I thought as well."

He could practically hear Don frown on the other end. "I thought you were trying to make predictions about the further spread of the disease? So that the government can take proper actions?"

"I am," Charlie agreed, "but what does it matter? I mean, yeah, the government has finally started taking somewhat appropriate measures in California, but that's not enough to stop this virus, we need a nationwide solution, in fact, we need a worldwide solution in such a globalized world we're living in. And when I look at what's been done nationwide – I mean, this is a full-blown disaster!"

"Okay, Charlie, slow down," Don said a little sternly, and Charlie had to realize he had been talking himself into a rage. "I mean, true, this thing is getting bigger than we all expected, but now that we can see the whole extent of this pandemic, appropriate measures are being taken."

"Are you listening to yourself?" Charlie exclaimed, failing miserably to follow through with his plan of quieting down his temper. "The President has done absolutely nothing so far to slow the pandemic down, it has taken him weeks to even recognize that this pandemic is real! For weeks he's been doing nothing but playing things down when the effects could already be seen clearly all over the world, and now that the facts have become too hard to ignore even for him, he blames everyone else he can point his finger at! I mean what kind of president does that, trying to shift the blame while all the rest are trying to somehow work through this crisis? That's not the proper conduct for a president, that's not even proper conduct for a regular adult, that's a conduct that would much rather fit a defiant toddler!"

"Listen, Charlie – I understand you're upset about Dad, but –"

"You know he might have gotten it from me?" Charlie interrupted him, unable to stop himself.

"You have it, too?" Don asked, a tinge of panic in his voice now.

Charlie closed his eyes, annoyed with himself. He hadn't planned to upset Don. On the other hand, he didn't really have a reason to give the all-clear signal either. "I don't know, I might have it, after all, many people in our age group don't show symptoms. And that's exactly the problem, there's not nearly enough testing being done. You know that for my analysis, I've been getting most of my data from colleagues overseas, from China and Europe? And you know why? Because they've been testing even those who only came in contact with an infected person, so using that data, we could understand the general spread of this virus. But as long as there still aren't enough tests being done in the US, I can't properly do my job, I can't properly make predictions about how this is going to spread, it's like painting a picture in pitch-black darkness. But what we do know is that we're still far from our goal, namely reducing the basis reproduction number below one, and we also know that we're only gonna make that if people finally understand how serious this is."

"But I thought the situation was under control –"

"Says a president who doesn't have the slightest idea of what he's talking about. Or who just doesn't want to admit how serious this is. All I know is that he doesn't listen to his experts, the ones who have been telling him for weeks how serious this is. And of course he claims to have everything under control, all he's worried about are his poll ratings, and the worst thing of all is that they've been going up. I just don't get it! This man has done nothing right in this crisis so far, how can people still think he's doing a good job?"

"Well, they think he'll do a good job of leading them through this."

"But he hasn't done anything so far to justify the trust they're putting in him! Don't you see that every information about the virus that he's declared to be fake news has turned out to be true? And now he acts as though he'd been the only one to have seen this coming, and they believe him, I mean, it doesn't make any sense! And all his talk about having control over the situation… I mean, doesn't he realize what exponential growth means? This thing isn't going to just blow over in a couple of days or even weeks, either he's going for herd immunity, which means that about two thirds of the population will get sick and millions of people will die, especially given the strain it'll put on our our health care system if we don't slow the spread down, or we do slow the spread down, which means we'll have to finally take measures to make this work on the long run, I mean over the next couple of months, and make sure our economy won't collapse completely."

There was some silence on the other end. "Geez, thanks so much for making the time to give me a private lecture, buddy," Don then said. "You really know how to cheer a guy up."

Charlie felt his throat close up, his anger morphing into despair. Bringing his brother down wasn't what he'd intended, but what was the use in denying the facts? "I'm sorry, Don, but this is serious, and we should finally start acting this way."

"We are," Don reminded him. "All across the country, people are doing a bang-up job to get through this crisis the best they can. Especially in the hospitals."

Suddenly, there was moisture in Charlie's eyes as he was reminded of his father's gray face on the gurney, and he impatiently wiped it away. "What if it's not enough?"

"Then we still fight," Don said with a conviction in his voice that wasn't wavering, never had and never would. Charlie tensed his jaw and looked at the walls that only a couple of minutes ago had seemed to crush him with their maps and data and statistics. Now, however, he felt he could work with that again, because he had to. Don was right, no matter what happened, they needed to get going, they needed to do what they could for as long as they could.

"We won't give up, buddy, and you know it," Don continued. "Face it, you wouldn't know how to give up even if you wanted to."

Two weeks later

Don hastened to get to his phone after the first ring and was even more eager to answer it when he read the caller ID.

"Charlie, hey, any news?"

"Yeah," Charlie replied with a sigh whose meaning Don couldn't immediately decipher, not for sure. In his current state, even the few fractures of a second that his brother took to elaborate seemed far too long. "They say he's going to be fine. The fever went down and he's been breathing on his own again, so they're planning on releasing him in a couple of days."

Don sighed with relief. Finally some good news. His gaze went out through the patio door to the lawn, where Robin was playing with their two boys, and it hit him that they were still so young, far too young to lose their grandfather. Especially Alex, their oldest, reminded Don a lot of pictures he'd seen of his dad when he was a boy. It somehow made sense that the two of them got along remarkably well, and Don wasn't fooled: Alex would have been devastated if his grandpa hadn't made it.

And not only him.

"Thanks for telling me, buddy, that really puts my mind at rest. And he's immune now, isn't he?"

"Yes, at least judging from what we currently know about the virus."

Don breathed another, deeper sigh of relief. "I'm so glad this is finally over."

"It's not," Charlie contradicted. "It's only just begun."

- finis -