A/N: Hello to everyone. Just a little note. There is no BBR theorem, just a random title I came up with.

Chapter Six:

Three blocks from the campus, Alice glanced in the mirror as she slowed and pulled off to the side of the road. Behind her a burgundy truck turned off onto a side road. She'd been paying closer attention to where ever she went, whatever was around her, since she left the house with Derick that afternoon. Her head was on straighter today, but Michael Seed's threats still echoed in her mind. If he was going to make a move, he'd have to come in close, Alice reasoned. And she wanted to catch him before he got close enough to hurt Derick.

"Last chance to back out," Alice said. The smart ass in her wondered if she was offering a way out to the boy, or to herself.

"No! No. No," Derick shook his head. "I want to meet him."

Alice nodded, keeping an eye on him. Since he'd gotten home from school, Derick had spiked between hyperactive and sedentary, alternately excited and terrified. Considering he was about to meet one of his idols, Alice didn't blame him. If someone offered to introduce her to Kevin Costner, Alice doubted she'd be able to pour a cup of coffee, hold a decently intellectual conversation, or pass a field sobriety test.

"Okay, rules." Alice said. When Derick nodded she continued. "First, when I say it time to leave, we go. No questions asked."

"Uh huh."

"Second, if I tell you it's time to take a break, we do. You drop whatever it is you're working on, and do what I say."

"Okay."

"Third, if one of Charlie's students asks him for help, he helps them. You do not interrupt, and you only look at the material if the student says it okay. Fourth. You are not to touch the blackboard, white board, erasers, chalk, markers, paper, pens, pencils, textbooks, or computers unless Charlie says it's okay. Did I miss anything?"

"Overhead projectors," Derick laughed.

"Okay, all of it. Good?"

"Good." Derick nodded.

"Fifth. If you break anything, you'll replace it. And if you break any of these rules, I will drag you out of there so fast..."

"I know, I know. Mom threatens the same thing. I guess all you mothers are the same."

A painful knot twisted in Alice's heart at those words. "I'm not a mom, Derick."

"Yeah, but you treat us like you're our mom." Derick looked over and saw the darkness in Alice's eyes. He got scared. "That's a good thing, isn't it?"

She laughed a little, for his sake, and smiled, ruffling his hair. "Of course it is. Now what do you say, are we going or what?"

"Yeah," Derick nodded.

Alice glanced over her shoulder, checking for traffic, and saw the burgundy truck waiting to pull out of a side street. As they continued towards the Cal Sci campus, Alice kept looking back in the rear view mirror, watching the progression of the truck. It never pulled out of the side street, and Alice calmed herself down. How many times had she herself pulled onto a residential street to fish something out of her purse, answer a phone call, pull her hair into a pony tail? It was irrational to think that every car behind hers was Michael's.

Alice still kept an eye on it, though.

When they pulled into the Cal Sci parking lot, Alice saw the students filing out onto the lawn, and she knew that Charlie's class had just ended.

"Okay, squirt, you ready?" Derick took a deep breath, staring out the window at the students, and Alice noticed his hands shaking. "We can take a few minutes to walk around the campus, if you want."

Derick shook his head, but didn't make a move towards the door.

"Derick?" Alice asked, and when he didn't answer, she pulled out her cell. "If you want, I can call Charlie right now and you can talk to him for a few minutes before we go in."

"No, I'm okay," he said softly.

Alice wondered if this was the right thing, maybe it was moving too fast, but she stopped herself. She'd run over this a hundred times last night, while she spoke to Derick after his family had gone to bed, during his late-night wanderings. Each time she came back to the understanding that this was a good thing. Derick needed to learn how to get over his fears, or at least, move past them.

She decided then that the straight forward approach was best.

"Good," Alice climbed out of the rental car, threw her bag over her shoulder, walked around the car, and opened Derick's door. Holding out her hand to him, she said, "Coming?"

Derick smiled at her, and took her hand. She could still feel his shaking, but as they walked to the door, his grip got tighter. Finally, when her bones started protesting at the squeeze, she said. "Derick, I do hope you understand there are bones in here."

He looked confused for a moment, stopping in his tracks, trying to decrypt her saying. Alice was struck, once again, at how much like Charlie Derick was. She remembered back to high school, coming across Charlie standing in the middle of a hallway during passing period, eyes glazed over as he pondered some sticking point in his brain. Alice did this with every patient, even when she knew she shouldn't; it wasn't fair to Charlie, or to her patients, but occasionally her mind just brought forth these parallels.

Alice lifted her hand into Derick's sight, and the boy laughed, dropping his hand. He skipped a few steps ahead of her, and started jumping back and forth while Alice caught back up. Glancing around her, Alice saw a few students turn their heads, but most ignored this intrusion upon their hall of learning.

And she didn't see any indication of the burgundy truck.

When they got to Charlie's classroom, Derick skipped ahead a few steps, but when he didn't hear Alice following, he turned to see Alice standing next to a door. She could hear Charlie stop writing on the chalkboard for a moment, and then start again. He knew they were here, but he and Alice had spoken about this earlier today. If Charlie acted nervous and formal about the encounter, Derick would get nervous and might shut down. If Charlie acted normal, Derick would follow suit. Ali took heart to know that Charlie was making a genuine effort for this kid.

Derick's eyes grew wide when he looked at the name plack on the door. He raised his eyebrows and pointed to the door.

Alice nodded at the unspoken question.

Derick took a few steps forward , stopping on the other side of the door, and peeked in. Seeing Charlie he jumped back a step, with a muffled yelp. Out of the corner of her eye, Ali saw Charlie smother a smile. It wasn't often that he was considered to intimidating.

"He's not gonna bite," Alice whispered, smiling at Derick. When the boy still didn't make a move, Ali knew she was going to have to. "Fine," she said aloud, turning into the room. "Hey ya, Charlie."

"Hi, Ali," Charlie said, looking up at her. Even though he'd heard the exchange in the hallway, he played dumb. "I thought you said you were bringing Derick along."

"I'm here," Derick said, running into the room. "Just had to tie my shoe lace."

"Ah, well, hello, Derick, I'm Charlie." Charlie shook Derick's hand, causing the boy to grin.

Suddenly tongue tied, Derick said nothing, and Charlie shot a glance to Alice, who took the hint. Walking over to the chalk board, she looked at the problem. "So, what're you working on?"

"Oh, it's just a proof for some of my students. Testing the BBR theorem."

Alice didn't know much about math, but Charlie had explained to her the BBR theorem once, when they were in high school. It was a simple theorem, one that she understood abstractly, though she didn't see the beauty in it that Charlie did. She doubted that she'd be able to work with it, but it was familiar. And Ali also figured that for a student to get into Cal Sci, to be in Charlie's advanced mathematics classes, they'd have already encountered BBR, well beyond the proof stage. This was entirely for Derick's benefit.

"BBR theorem?" Derick asked, confused, looking at the blackboard.

"Yeah," Charlie said, smiling. He looked back to Alice, who nodded almost imperceptibly, a fencers' nod, as her father would have said. He turned away and started to explain. Soon enough chalk was out, and the blackboard chirped every once in a while. Ali watched, as fascinated by Derick and Charlie as they were by the problem. It was a rare chance for her, to compare the actions of two geniuses, to contrast the differences brought with age and experience.

They acted in opposition to each other. Whenever Charlie moved towards the board, Derick took a step back. When Derick moved in, Charlie stepped back. Alice doubted this was merely to make room for the other at the chalkboard.

Charlie was calm, collected, even-toned and simple in his explanations. Derick bounced with a nervous energy, his voice changed pitch and speed when he spoke, and over-clarified Charlie's answers as he explained them to himself.

Charlie broke eye contact with the board occasionally, glancing down at Derick often, but the boy kept focused on the board.

Both of them ignored Alice.

At least, right up until she turned away from them, and walked to the window, her high heels echoing off the walls. Then they both jumped and turned, looking at her sharply for breaking their concentration.

Ali chuckled. "Sorry," she said, sitting down in a chair by the window. Figures, she thought. When ever you want their attention, it's like convincing a dog to give up it's bone. When you don't want, all you have to do is walk.

But whatever humor she had fell away when she looked out the window.

He was there.

Michael.

Standing behind a row of cars, hidden from the street by a line of tall bushes, looking up and down the campus.

Searching.

Without a thought, Alice stood up, and walked to Charlie, taking a hold of his elbow. "Charlie," she said, softly, pulling him towards the door. She prayed Derick didn't hear the fear in her voice.

"Hey!" the boy said, realizing his teacher was being pulled away.

"I knew him first," Alice snapped as she kept dragging Charlie away from Derick.

"What's wrong?" Charlie whispered, knowing immediately that something wasn't right. Far, far from right. Alice had planned this meeting with him for almost an hour this morning, she wouldn't break the game plan unless it was something important. That was what logic told him.

Then there was the way she looked. Her features pinched; the thin line of her lips, the slight furrowing of her eyebrows, the way her eyes kept going back to the window. And she'd grabbed his elbow, like she used to do when they were in school and things were about to get bad. To this day no one could touch his elbow without him shuddering at the memory.

"Listen, lock the door, and don't anyone in. Not even if they say that they're Derick's father."

Alice made to leave, but this time it was Charlie who grabbed her arm.

"Alice, what's going on? Don't do that."

Alice took a deep breath, closing her eyes for a moment. He'd called her "Alice," he only did that when he was scared or worried, and that hadn't been for years. Don't do that. Alice knew what that meant. Don't hide things from me. Don't be like everyone else and try to protect me. It was unfair for her to, she knew that as well, but a part of her still saw Charlie as a an eight-year old freshman, a twelve-year old senior, someone who needed to be protected.

Letting out the breath, she opened her eyes and explained, "Um, Derick's father doesn't custody of him, okay? In New York, there's a restraining order against him, but there's not one here in California. If Michael gets a chance to take Derick, Charlie, he'll take him."

"Okay, why are you telling me this?"

"He's here, now, outside. I just saw him in the parking lot."

Charlie, to his credit, didn't dwell on this for more than a second "So, what, do we call the police?"

Alice shook her head. She'd talked to Don yesterday afternoon, asking his professional opinion on the situation. "There's been nothing overt to constitute him as a threat. There's no such charge as attempted custodial interference. The most that can be done is the police telling him to move along."

"Then I'll call Don."

"Charlie, he can't do anything." Had Derick not been there, Alice didn't doubt that she'd be shouting now. But he was, so she kept her voice to a whisper.

"I know, but he's still a badge. It might be enough to scare him off."

Alice saw the determination in Charlie's eye and knew it'd be useless to try and dissuade him of the idea. The man was nothing if not stubborn. "Fine, but wait about five minutes, let me try to talk to him, get him to go away. It's worked before," she added, hoping Charlie chose not to question her on it. Charlie could be gullible, but he knew when he was being lied to.

"Okay," Charlie said, nodding as he looked at the clock. It was five seventeen and forty two second. He'd give her five minutes. Well, probably more like four and a half, but that was splitting hairs. "Clock's ticking."

"I'm just going to step outside for a minute, Derick," Alice said to the young man staring at the blackboard. "You okay in here?"

"Mm-hmm," he hummed, not looking away from the board.

Alice gave Charlie one last look and stepped outside.