A/N: Hey, sorry it took me a while to get this written. The muse wasn't cooperating. Still isn't. This section may not be as great as I might want it, but it'll do. Enjoy.

Chapter Five:

Geniuses are annoying.

Particularly little geniuses.

Particularly when they find out a close elder knows a bigger genius.

Especially when said bigger genius makes wild ass accusations against accepted mathematical theory.

In fact, now, said bigger genius wasn't much more appealing to said close elder, because one would think genius has an ego, and the big genius would want to talk about said wild ass accusations.

Explain them, perhaps.

But according to Einstein, and now big genius, genius doesn't have an ego.

"I'm sorry, Ali, really. If I'd known it'd be vital to this kid's mental health, I'd have explained." Charlie laughed.

Alice had called him to explain why she'd ran out this morning. Currently she was barricaded in a bathroom, the only place inside the house where she could get away from Derick. She'd made the mistake of calling Charlie by name while in the living room. Derick, who'd been on the computer looking for more of Charlie's theories to debate her on, came bursting from the study. She'd managed to shoo him away, but since then he'd developed the unfortunate habit of popping up around corners and from behind sofas. After this afternoon, her nerves couldn't handle many more unexpected assaults.

"This is all your fault, you realize that, right?" she jabbed. "If you hadn't been such a brain, I'd have gone into nice, normal psychiatry, with bipolars and schizophrenics, not twelve-year-olds debating String Theory!"

"Oh come on, we're not that bad," Charlie said, still laughing. Years ago Mrs. Eppes had commented to Alice about how unself-conscious Charlie was about his genius around her. Even Ryan, as close as he was to Charlie, was likely to inspire squirms with the pointed jabs like Ali used. But with her, Charlie laughed and leaned back.

"Damn it, Charlie, the kid hadn't left me alone for the last four hours! And I know for a fact that this mother would love to sit and have a nice, semi-normal conversation with him." Especially after I laid that bombshell about Michael on her.

But Charlie didn't know this. " 'Semi-normal'? "

"Yes, 'semi-normal'. You forget, I work with the likes of you people all day."

" 'You people'? "

"What, is there an echo in here, Charlie?"

"Can I talk to him yet?" Derick asked, bursting through the door, it's flimsy lock having given way.

"Derick!" Alice screamed. "Is this how you behave with your mother?"

"You're not using it!"

"Out!"

All of this took place on a decibel level that, had Charlie hung up the phone and stuck his head out of the window, he'd still have heard the exchange clearly.

"I do hope you know that if I discover a sudden loss of hearing in one ear, I'm sending you the medical bills," Charlie said, facetiously. "And dare I even ask what he meant by 'you're not using it'? "

Alice sighed. There were only three options: one, tell him and get teased for a few minutes; two, refuse to tell him and be bombarded by an endless assault of good-natured and highly pointed questions for the next hour; or three, change the subject. She knew changing the subject would by ineffective, and it would show Charlie a topic she'd rather not discuss; which would only lead to further questioning. So she decided to bite the bullet.

"First sign of teasing, I hand the phone over to the kid," she warned.

"Agreed."

"I had to barricade myself in the bathroom to get away from him."

Alice could practically hear the debate going on in Charlie's head.

"If you'd like some privacy I can hang up," he finally said, straining to keep his voice level.

"Charlie," Alice warned.

"No, no I understand. A lot of people find my conversation stimulating. I just didn't realize I had this effect on you."

Alice opened the door. "Derick?"

"Hey, wait, Ali," she heard Charlie say, but she was already handing over the phone.

"Yeah?" the boy said, he'd been laying on the floor, his ear to the crack beneath the door, hoping to hear the conversation.

"Here. Charlie wants to talk to you. Said he could explain things better than I could."

"Really?" Derick's eyes lit up as he grabbed the cell. "Hello?"

"Hi, is this Derick?" Ali heard Charlie say as she walked past the boy.

Oh yes, these minutes were definitely going to be worth it.

Alice found Emily in the kitchen, her hands burning with a nervous energy at her task. Currently it was chopping carrots for dinner. So fast. Too fast. She was going to cut herself if she wasn't careful. Alice stepped into the kitchen, and took the knife from her.

"Why don't I do that for a while," Alice said, a weak command rather than a question.

"I'm perfectly fine," Emily said, a little too fast. She turned away from the carrots, abandoning them, choosing instead to start washing dishes. Again, nervous energy fell off her in waves. "I'm just making dinner, Dr. Guinyard."

"Yes, of course you are. But you only call me 'Dr. Guinyard' when you're nervous."

"And I have every right to be nervous!" Emily snapped, glaring at Ali with fury. "I have every right to worried, and scared out of my mind, and to jump at every little sound on the street. I'm allowed to do that!" Emily's voice broke and she started crying. The only sound her crying made was the hissing in of breath every few second. Other than that, Emily was silent as the tears fell. Alice abandoned the carrots and made her way to Emily's side, wanting to wrap the woman in a hug, let her cry on a shoulder for a while.

But no sooner had Alice touched Emily that the young mother, stood upright, wiping the tears away. "I shouldn't be doing this. If one of the boys came in..." her voice trailed off. She paused a moment, then spoke. "I'd have to explain. And I can't explain." She chuckled angrily. "But if I don't explain, then they'll think it's because of Derick. I don't think either of them can handle that right now."

"No, no they couldn't." Alice hated to say it, but Emily was right. "But that doesn't mean you shouldn't cry."

Emily smiled, understanding what Alice was saying. "No. Don't worry. I'll let it out, I will. Just not now. I need to be a mother first."

"Just so long as you take care of yourself."

Emily nodded and smiled. In the silence they could hear Derick talk to Charlie.

"I still can't believe you know someone like Charles Eppes. From the way Derick's been talking about him all afternoon, it's like the man solves problems in his sleep."

"He wasn't always Dr. Eppes. When I first met him, he was younger than Derick. His family sort of adopted me."

"Oh?"

"My home," Alice said slowly, not caring to relive the memory. "It wasn't happy. My parents, they probably loved each other dearly, but they weren't the sort of people who should be together. Too fiery. Too unpredictable. Not the sort to just let a matter go; they always had to fight it to death. Our neighbors used to call them the hellions across the street.

"But the Eppes were ... stable. Not normal, not with Charlie, but considering what I came from, it was heavenly. I mean, I was used to being woken up by the sound of breaking furniture, but instead of it being used to punctuated sentences, it was Charlie accidentally upending his desk while searching for a book. By the end of freshman year I was spending a night a week at their place, and by the end of senior year, I had moved in."

"What did your parents think of that?"

"Well, nothing. They died in a car accident in January of my senior year. I'd already been accepted to UCLA at that point, so the Eppes' let me stay with them until school started. That should give you a pretty good idea of the character of the family, when they start taking in strays."

"All who wander aren't lost, Alice."

"Except when they're lost in thought," Ali chuckled. "At which point, they are lost, and will probably be calling in a few minutes for directions."

Emily laughed as Derick came in.

"Hey, kiddo, have a nice chat?" Alice asked, smiling.

"Oh, yeah," Derick sighed as he sank into a chair, grinning from ear to ear contentedly in a can-the-world-get-any-better way. "But your battery died. Sorry."

He handed her the guilty object.

"No problem at all. Did you get to finish your conversation, though?" Ali asked, looking over at Emily, who was smiling at her son. No traces of the fear and apprehension of a moment ago. No, Emily knew now not to discount the moments of quiet joy, the way that most people do. Oh, she knew the reasons for worry were still there, but, right now, her child was happy and safe.

"Yeah." Derick perked up after a few minutes. "Charlie told me to tell you that he has classes from three o'clock to four forty-five, and then from six-twenty to eight-fifteen."

"He did?" Alice asked, not liking the sound of where this conversation was heading.

"Yeah. 'Cause that's when you're gonna take me to meet him, right? He said you and he talked about it."

It didn't matter that, in fact, Alice and Charlie hadn't spoken about it. Derick and Charlie had spoken about it, and Charlie knew that Alice wouldn't back down now.

And the games continued.

Damn him, Alice thought, smiling at Derick. "Of course we talked about it," Alice lied. "And if it's okay with your mom, I'll take you."

"Yes!" Derick said, jumping up from his seat. "Can I go, Mom?"

"If you get your make-up homework done tonight, sure." Emily said, adding quickly. "And so long as you're back for dinner. You'd probably spend the night in his classroom, if you could."

No sooner were the words out of Emily's mouth than the boy was out of the kitchen and running to his room.

"You sure about this?" Emily asked. "I mean, you know how Derick gets when he's excited."

Alice nodded, the memory clear in her mind of a day at Central Park with the family last summer. She'd gotten all of her patients and their families to come on the outing, getting the kids to interact with other like them, parents given a chance to exchange notes and phone numbers, letting them all be normal for a day.

Derick had gotten excited. Manic, even. And he'd overturned a picnic table, destroyed a Slip 'n' Slide, and fractured his arm before Walt was able to grab him. It took the better part of an hour to calm him down.

"I know the signs, I'll keep a close eye on him."

"And you're okay with it? You didn't sound too sure."

"It just a game Charlie and I have playing for years," Alice said, waving her concern off. "Derick and I will be just fine."

"And you said that Ryan will be coming in tomorrow? What time?"

"He's got a 5:45 flight out of JFK, but there's a snow storm that's supposed to be coming in tomorrow evening. He said that he'll give me a call when he lands, or if flights change. And are you certain you want us staying here? I mean, Alan, that is, Mr. Eppes, Charlie's dad, would be more than happy to let Ryan and I stay in the guest room." Though technically I should be asking Charlie. Hmm.

"No, no, no," Emily said, shaking her head. "It's fine. Besides, you're still having nightly talks with Derick, I've been hearing you. If he needs you, I don't want to turn you away. That is, unless you want to leave, then you have every right."

Alice smiled but shook her head, having her answer.

"Well," Emily said, putting the finishing touches on dinner. "If you'll call the boys, I'll get this on the table.

That evening, as Alice was laying down to bed, she took a look at her text messages. There was one.

CHECK MATE.