A/N: Just a bit of a warning folks, this chapter gets a bit graphic.

Chapter Seven: Don

Don sighed and threw the file he was working on onto his desk. He was getting no where, not with this case or any other; he just couldn't concentrate. His mind kept replaying the conversation he'd had with Alice last night. It wasn't hard for him to believe that Alice had managed to get herself so deeply involved with a custody dispute that she needed a restraining order against one party. Don would probably have been surprised if this was her first. She was a crusader, both personally and professionally, especially when those she was crusading for worked their way under her skin.

Just like the way she kept an eye on Charlie when they were in high school. Don had resented her at first, that she got so close to Charlie, becoming his hero in ways that only Don had been before. But, at the same time, she let Don be normal for the first time in a lot of ways. Alice took care of Charlie, Don trusted her to do that, and he didn't feel as if he needed to watch his little brother so closely while Alice was there.

He envied the relationship between them, in a lot of ways. Alice understood Charlie in ways that Don wasn't able to, ways only his mother had. She could get Charlie to relax in a way Don never was, calm his fears and anxieties with just a few words. Alice was even able to get Charlie to shut up without snapping or otherwise hurting Charlie. Around her Charlie seemed, well, normal, comfortable in his own skin. Any attempt Don made to copy her relationship with his little brother seemed to fall flat, a fraction of the response Alice was able to get.

Maybe it was that ease with the organized chaos that was Charlie's life that led her to be the doctor she was now. Helped lend itself to the crusader she was, and thus, got her into this situation.

Rubbing his face, Don leaned forward and pulled a folder from the stack on his desk and started flipping through it. It was Michael Seed's file. Don had already been through it twice, but he kept coming back, hoping there was something in it he'd missed, something he'd be able to bring the guy in for.

He was violent, Don could see that. There were half a dozen domestic disturbance calls, a few drunken assaults, resisting arrest, but there was nothing more current than three years ago. If Don hadn't known any better he'd have said Michael Seed was getting his life together.

Don was so focused on the file in his hands, lost in his thoughts, he didn't hear Terry come up until she spoke.

"Michael Seed?" she asked, reading over his shoulder. "Never heard of him, is that for our case?"

Don shook his head. "Nah, just looking into this for a friend."

Terry's eyebrow quirked. "What, you don't have enough work to do?" she teased.

"Charlie's best friend from high school, she's a child psychiatrist involved in a custodial kidnapping thing with one of her patients. The father confronted her, threatened to kill her if she didn't walk away from it..."

"And I take it she won't?"

Don shook his head. This is what was concerning him; Alice wasn't going to back down now, when her life was threatened, what would happen if Michael Seed was serious? Could she end up dead because of it?

"No, Alice is a pit bull disguised as a poodle."

Terry smirked at the thought; Don could practically hear her thoughts.

Charlie? Poodle

He chuckled softly. "Maybe not a poodle. A Lab, then, but you get what I'm saying. Any ways, she called me last night, I said I'd take a look at Seed."

"Anything we can do?" she asked, taking the file from him.

"Nah," Don groaned, rubbing his neck, hoping to work out the knots threatening to grow. "Not until he makes a move, anyway." Don's phone rang, and he grabbed it quickly. "Yeah? Eppes."

"Hi, Don, it's me," Charlie's voice came through the line. "Um, I need your help. Actually, it's Ali, she needs your help."

Don's hand dropped from his neck, and he caught Terry's eye. He motioned for her to pick up the other line, and she nodded, heading for her desk.

"What's wrong, Charlie? Is it Michael Seed?"

"Uh, yeah. She talked to you about it?" Don could hear the confusion and concern in his voice. No, not just concern, fear?

"Called me last night, said the guy had threatened to kill her, kidnap his son."

"Wha... Wait, kill her? Um, where? When?"

Don knew he shouldn't have told Charlie that, but it barely factored into his mind. Right now he was still tumbling over the fact that Alice was in trouble, and somehow Charlie knew about Michael Seed. The seasoned investigator in Don told him that they were connected.

"Yesterday, when she was at the kid's school, um, what's his name..." Don trailed off as he flipped through the pages in Seed's file, but Charlie supplied the name first.

"Derick."

"Yeah, she used to have a restraining order against him, but it lapsed a few years ago," Don said. "Charlie, what's going on?"

When Charlie spoke again, there was a pinch to his voice, as though he was trying to control himself. "He's here Don. At Cal Sci. Alice went out to confront him. I didn't know everything. I didn't know he threatened to kill her!"

Don glanced over at Terry, whose face was a mask, but there was a look in her eye. The look of a detached professional keenly aware that the situation was going to hell.

"Hold on, Michael Seed is there, now?"

"Yeah, Alice brought Derick here today, and when she looked out the window, he was here."

Don stood and grabbed his blazer off the back of his chair and began to slip it on. "Okay, I'm coming over there. Keep an eye on Derick. he's as much a target as Alice is. I'll be there soon."

As he dropped the phone into the receiver, Don heard Charlie reply, but it was gone before Don could put any thought to it. As he pulled the car keys from his desk drawer, Terry made a move to grab them from him.

"Terry," he warned as he slipped passed her to grab Michael Seed's photo from his file. He motioned for David, who was on the phone at his desk, to follow.

But Terry didn't give up, Don would have been surprised if she had.

"You're emotionally involved, Don. I'm driving."

They stepped into the elevator, holding it open as David caught up.

"With me or behind me, Lake, your call," he said, ending the discussion.

Don explained the situation as they rode down the elevator and into the garage below the FBI building. It wasn't a long discussion, he didn't know very much, but at the moment he was wishing he'd asked more questions, any one of the million that were popping into his head at this moment. As he drove, Don replayed his conversations with Alice and with Charlie over in his head, wondering if Alice hadn't told him everything. She'd withheld from Charlie, and they were closer than he and Alice were. But he could make a case for it to go either way.

His thoughts were broken when Don heard the police dispatcher on the scanner.

"Rescue one-six, respond to one-nine-one-five West Glazure Road, reports of a stabbing."

"Cal Sci," David said from the back seat.

Don felt Terry look at him, but he didn't turn towards her. Instead he eased onto the accelerator and felt the car's speed pick up, the traffic already splitting out of his way as the siren screamed.

When they pulled up to the university, it was a scene of chaos. Don was used to the disorder of crime scenes, but he hadn't been among the first responders in a very long time. By the time he got there local law enforcement usually had the scene secure, fire and rescue were already there, crime scene photographers out with their cameras and tape. This, this was different. There were students everywhere, apparently hearing of the attack, milling around. A steady stream of people turned a corner, going to and coming from. Off to the side, a student was throwing up at the base of a tree.

Don pulled into a parking space, and leapt out of the car, leaving it to idle. "David, go to Charlie's classroom, he's going to be with Derick Seed, the kid. Keep them there, and don't let anyone get to them." Don and Terry started towards the corner, following the line of students until they found a crowd of people standing around.

"FBI, out the way!" Terry shouted, her badge out, parting the students as best she could. Don, for his part, didn't have his badge out, he just shouldered his way through the crowd.

"Terry!" Don heard Charlie call as he broke through the final students. "Is the ambulance here?

"Charlie!" Don said, stumbling the last few feet towards his brother. "Oh Jesus," he muttered when he saw the sight, his stomach knotting.

Alice was laying on the ground, unconscious and on her back, arms and legs sprawled out in the dead man's pose. Her lip was split open and bruises were already showing on her neck. Charlie's body hid Alice's torso from view, but Don could see the blood, all over Charlie's hands, as his little brother pressed his button-down shirt into Alice's side as a makeshift bandage to stop the blood flow.

"Don!" Charlie said, twisting around, trying to see Don, his voice pinched with fear. "Don!"

Don dropped to his knees, feeling for Alice's neck, for a pulse. When he found one he said a quick prayer while he checked her breathing, grateful for FBI first aid training taking over. "Just keep pressure on it, Charlie, an ambulance is on it's way. Where's Derick? Where's Seed?"

"Derick's with Larry, he took Derick back to his classroom," Charlie said, looking at Don. "I... I don't know what his father looks like."

Terry, who had been calling over the radio for a rush on the ambulance, heard this. She switch channels and called to David, telling him to get to the new classroom.

Don took off his jacket and put it over Alice's body; if he kept her warm, then it'd keep shock from setting in. He just needed to get her feet up. "Hey, you, kid," he said, pointing to one of the students in the group. "Give me your backpack."

"What?"

"Now!" That was all it took, and the bag was in Don's hands. He wedged it under Alice's feet, praying that it bought them enough time. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the photo of Michael Seed he'd grabbed from the man's file.

Charlie looked at it, but shook his head. "I... I never saw him."

"Rescue's here, get out of the way!" Terry said, as the crowd parted to let the paramedics through.

One of the paramedics dropped to Charlie's side, and tried to lift the wadded up shirt away, but Charlie kept pressure on it. Don put a hand on his brother's shoulder, gently pulling him away. "You gotta let them work, Charlie. You did good, but you gotta let them do their job."

As the paramedics were loading Alice onto the stretcher David's voice came through the radio.

"Don, we have a problem."

"Yeah, David? What's wrong?" Don asked, softly, glancing over at Charlie. He doubted his brother could take much more of a shock today.

"I'm at Professor Fleinhardt's classroom. Derick's not here. The professor said his father came by and took the boy."

"Does he know which way they went?"

There was a brief pause and then David's voice came back. "No, but apparently the father said his car was nearby. He says that the boy was pretty withdrawn, acted like some kind of robot."

"Okay, David, get LAPD out here and secure the scene. Put out an APB on Michael Seed, wanted for kidnapping. Get them to put up road blocks, paying special attention to men alone with a young boy and men driving alone. He could have put Derick in the trunk. Terry?"

"Yeah?" Terry asked, glancing over her shoulder at Don.

"You ride with Alice, if she wakes up get what you can from her."

"I want to go with her, Don," Charlie said, breaking his gaze from Alice and the paramedics to look at his brother.

"I need Terry to go with her right now, but I'll get someone to drive you soon. Why don't you go inside and get cleaned up? Then I'll get someone to take you to the hospital."

This was the part of the job Don was familiar with. There were things to be done, evidence to be collected, a search to be mounted. He was in his element now, as at home here as Charlie was in a world of numbers and chalkboards. As the first LAPD officers pulled into the Cal Sci parking lot, Don fell into the task of coordinating the search efforts, one thought echoing through his mind.

Michael Seed had made his move.