Urban Legends: Chapter Two
Title: Urban Legends
Author: krisdae
Pairing: None, although it may seem like Charlie/Amita to some. They are intended to just be friends.
Rating: PG-13
Beta: A big thanks to marvinetta for being a wonderful, fast beta. You rock!
Summary: The latest "Urban Legend" hits close to home when Amita is attacked. Can Charlie and Don find out the truth?
Disclaimer: Sadly I own nothing that revolves around the world of Numb3rs.
Warning: This story does contain situations involving possible date rape. Although not depicted in detail, this may bother some.

Chapter Two

Charlie arrived home, disappointed that Don's car was not in outside. Don stopped by so often that Charlie almost expected him to be there every day. But, knowing Don, he was probably in his office, even on a Sunday.

Alan was reading a book in the living room when Charlie entered. "Everything okay, Charlie? You left rather early this morning."

"Yeah, dad. I had to help Amita with… a problem."

Alan put his book down and regarded his son. "Well, I hope it wasn't anything serious."

Charlie shrugged in reply, not wanting to discuss anything. His father often seemed to know what Charlie carefully didn't say. "Dad, do you know if Don's coming over for dinner?"

"I don't know. He didn't say. But you know your brother, he's more likely to show up than not once he finally pulls himself away from work."

Normally, numbers consumed Charlie completely. He would get wrapped up in the way that equations balanced and completed and the beauty behind the process was always present in front of Charlie's mind. Rarely did he pull himself completely away from the safety of numbers to fully focus on the world around him.

But tonight he found he was having trouble focusing on numbers. Every few minutes, Charlie glanced at the clock, willing Don to come over for dinner, not even knowing if he would be coming. He was working on his lecture notes for the morning and he couldn't keep the numbers in front of him. Instead his mind was filled with Amita's face as she told Charlie she had been attacked the night before.

Amita answered the door, looking very tired and ragged. Charlie's half asleep mind jolted awake at the uncharacteristic sadness that he could see in her face.

"Thanks for coming over so early, Charlie." She lead him into her apartment.

"It's fine, really." They sat on the couch and Charlie waited for Amita to tell him why she had called. Charlie wasn't sure if he was supposed to comment on how Amita looked this morning or politely ignore it.

"Charlie," Amita began. "I think I may have been raped last night." Charlie put his hand over Amita's as she struggled to continue. "You know I told you that Sharon had thought she was date raped a few weeks ago, but she hadn't felt any of the symptoms of Rohypnol in her system."

"I remember. You said that she had been acting abnormally that night and you didn't think it was just the alcohol."

Amita nodded, "Well, I only had 1 drink last night and it was pretty early in the evening. I don't really know what happened, but I couldn't control myself. I was completely different than I ever remember being. All I know is I somehow ended up going home with this guy…God, I can't even remember his name…I woke up this morning about 5 at his apartment. And the crazy thing is, I didn't even think anything odd about it until I got home. Then it slowly started sinking in just what happened and I…"

Charlie's hand tightened on Amita's, "What is it?"

"I didn't want it, Charlie. I'm not like that, I don't usually even give out my last name to people I meet, much less go home with them. I wasn't drinking and the only thing I can think is that I must have been drugged."

Charlie had managed to convince Amita to go to the hospital. Rohypnol only stayed in the system for so long and if they wanted to find out if she had been drugged, they needed to go right away. He had gone with Amita that morning, wanting to give her as much support as he could. But truthfully, Charlie was afraid what he was able to do would be very little. And right now, what he was supposed to be doing was preparing for class.

Charlie glanced up from his lecture notes to see that the clock hadn't changed much since the last time he looked. Where was his brother when he needed him? Alan called from the other room, "You know, there was this amazing invention from a guy by the name of Alexander Graham Bell. It allows people to communicate when they're not in the same place."

Charlie turned his head, not quite understanding what his father was trying to say. Alan indicated the phone. "Call your brother. It's obvious you want to talk to him, and it would be nice to have his company for dinner."

Charlie picked up the phone and dialed Don's cell number. He picked up on the second ring, "Eppes."

"Don, it's Charlie."

"Hey Charlie. How's it going?"

Charlie could hear someone talking in the background and knew Don was in the office. "All right. Look, I just wanted to know if you could stop by for dinner."

"I don't know if I'm going to make it out of here in time, Charlie."

"Oh," Well, there went his chance to ask for Don's input.

"Look, Charlie. Why don't I stop by on my way home? I don't know when I'll actually get to leave, but I can swing by the house."

"Ok. That'd be good."

Charlie hung up the phone and turned back to his lecture notes. He became so lost in his world of numbers he was startled to feel a hand on his shoulder. It was Don. Charlie glanced at the clock, surprised that less than an hour had gone by since he'd hung up the phone.

"Don. I didn't expect you this early."

Don shrugged, "I figured you must need to talk about something. I usually don't get calls from you asking me about dinner."

Charlie nodded. "Yeah, there is something I wanted to run by you." He glanced towards the kitchen where Alan was working on dinner. "Can we go talk outside?"

Charlie led the way to the fishpond and squatted down to watch the swirling colors. "I've been hearing some disturbing things around campus lately. There have been rumors of people getting attacked."

"Attacked?"

"Yeah. They go out on the weekends, they have a couple of drinks, and when they wake up the next day, they find out that…" Charlie trailed off, not sure how to put this so that Don would believe that something sinister was happening.

"Wait, Charlie. Tell me this isn't the story about how college kids wake up in a tub full of ice with their kidneys missing."

"I'm being serious!"

"Okay, I'm sorry. Tell me exactly what's going on."

"I've been hearing about girls going out on the weekends and finding out the next day that they've been…taken advantage of."

"You mean like date rape?" Charlie nodded. "I hate to tell you this, buddy, but it's an unfortunate part of life. It's pretty common and people don't always watch their drinks as well as they should. Even with companies trying to make Rohypnol more detectable in drinks, it's still too easy for someone to slip it to someone. The best thing for these girls to do is go get checked out at the hospital as soon as it happens. Then they can file a report with the police."

"But, there's nothing there."

"What?"

"There's nothing there when the girls go into the hospital to get checked out. Nothing in their system to show they were drugged, no symptoms that are usually associated with date rape drugs."

"Wait a minute, Charlie. Are you trying to tell me that girls are saying they've been a victim of date rape, but there are no symptoms and no evidence of drugs in their system?"

"Yeah."

"Charlie, that doesn't make any sense. Are you sure that you're hearing things right? It's kind of hard to believe that someone would say they've been assaulted when there are no factors that point to it. No symptoms, no evidence in their bloodstream. What makes them think something has happened?"

Charlie began to pace and wave his hands as he tried to explain, "Because it's completely out of nature for them. They start acting strangely and unlike themselves and do things they normally wouldn't dream of doing."

"Are you sure these girls just didn't have too much to drink? Maybe they realized they did something stupid and are trying to explain why. And rumors aren't always true, Charlie. You probably just heard something that got blown out of proportion."

"No, Don. That's not it. These girls, they didn't drink too much, they didn't just try to explain away a stupid night. She's not… they're not like that. There's something else going on."

Don put his hands on Charlie's shoulders, causing Charlie to stop his pacing. "Just who are we talking about here, Charlie? Who got hurt?"

Charlie closed his eyes. Amita would skin him alive for this. "It's Amita. She was attacked last night. And she's the third one I know of in the last 6 weeks."

Don's hands dropped from Charlie's shoulders. "Amita. Is she okay?"

Charlie glared at his older brother, "What do you think?"

"Right. Look, Charlie. I can't promise anything, but I will go and talk to Amita, see what I can find out. Right now that's all I can do."

"Thank you"

"Boys!" Alan shouted from the doorway. "Come on inside to eat."

Don and Charlie walked back to the house and Don slug his arm around Charlie's shoulders. "After dinner, Charlie. We'll go over and talk to Amita."

TBC