Coming Home

Four days later, Terry was deplaning in LA. She'd managed to secure a temporary transfer to help track Charlie down and on another case of bank issues. Her heels clicked softly on the linoleum that made up the floor of LAX and grimaced at the long walk to baggage claims. Finally, she made it to the outskirts where David was waiting for her.

"Don at the office?" David nodded.

"Has he eaten?" This time he smiled when he shook his head, relief in his eyes.

"Hellow to you too." Terry gave him a small smile.

"I'm sorry, David, you just sounded so worried on the phone."

"We are worried."

"We?"

"The team. Agents Reeves and Colby. He's…" Terry nodded, understanding all that David didn't say. Don had changed and it was grating on the team.

Generally they made the ride to the bureau in silence and it gave Terry the time to think about what was going to happen. She hadn't told Don she was coming from Washington and had only told Heather the real reason she'd pushed for the TAD. David's hand on her arm notified her of their arrival. She looked at him.

"Did you tell him I was coming?"

"No." Terry smiled in relief. They rode up in the elevator and Terry almost jumped when it dinged. She carefully stepped onto the floor. It wasn't hard for her to navigate, she'd only been gone two months, and Don's desk hadn't moved. It certainly looked like he hadn't either. People smiled and waved as she passed and the woman at the desk beside him looked relieved to see her.

"You didn't get their hopes up, did you?" Terry asked out of the corner of her mouth, even as she was holding out her hand for the woman.

"Terry Lake," she introduced softly, acutely aware of the man with his head bent over his files. She'd never been more thankful for the regular hustle and bustle of a bullpen.

"Megan Reeves. Colby's out chasing down leads." The latter half of the words were directed towards David.

"Charlie?" Terry asked, her eyes on Don's bent head.

"We've been looking for three weeks with nothing. We've had case up on case, but nothing truly productive and nothing we can link a mathematician to. We don't tell Don when something comes up anymore, just in case there's nothing to it," Megan explained. Terry nodded.

"We're going to find him," she responded, "I'm just going to clear things with Merrick, then I'm taking him home." David and Megan nodded as she walked away.

Terry knocked on the door to Director Merrick's office with less worry than her brain told her she should be feeling. He called her in and she smiled.

"Agent Lake, welcome back."

"Thank you, sir." Terry looked at her old boss and resisted the urge to hit someone. She could read the relief on his face and wondered how bad Don had really gotten.

"You've been transferred."

"Temporarily," she agreed.

"To the Eppes case. Are you sure that's a good idea?" This is what Terry had been worried about. She'd been personally connected to Charlie when he'd come and work with Don and worried that it would mean she couldn't be assigned the case.

"With all due respect, sir, I need to do this," she began. On the flight she'd put together a speech on why she wanted to help find Charlie and was now prepared to launch into it. However, Merrick only nodded his head, against everything she'd imagined he'd do.

"We need new eyes on the case. You have another one?"

"Banks. Nothing extremely worth while." Merrick nodded looking down at the information in front of him.

"Townsend is working the Eppes case. Tell him you're the new eyes. He can take a break for a bit." Terry was stunned.

"Sir, you're letting me run the investigation?"

"For a while, anyway. Three weeks on a missing person's case has given many of us doubts of finding him alive." Terry winced at the thought of a dead Charlie and Don's reaction.

"Thank you, sir."

"That'll be all." Terry stood and moved to leave, but paused as she opened the door.

"If it's okay, I'd like to take Agent Eppes home," she requested. Merrick nodded, today being uncharacteristically kind.

"I expect him back tomorrow." Terry nodded, closing the door and returning to the bullpen, a satisfied grin on her face. Don hadn't moved, but both David and Megan were sitting at their respective desks. She moved past them and settled her hands on Don's shoulders.

"I hear sleep and food are good for you," she teased into his ear. Don looked up sharply at her voice.

"Terry? What are you doing here?" The happiness in his tone was obvious, even if the pain was still in his eyes.

"They called in the cavalry," she joked. He seemed slightly out of it and Terry was extremely worried.

"Cavalry?" She shook her head as he looked at her blankly.

"Come on. I'm taking you home."

"I can't, Terry…"

"Don't argue with me. We're getting you some food and then you're going to sleep."

"I'm working…"

"You're overworking. You can do this the easy way, or the hard way, but you're leaving and not coming back until you've eaten something half decent and gotten twelve hours of sleep. I will frog march you out of here, if I have to." Her tone left no room for argument and Don knew she'd follow through on her threats. She stopped him when he moved to pick up some of his files.

"No files for you. Out." Most of the bullpen was watching now, all of them aware that Don had taken his missing brother extremely hard. He'd been snappish and short with all of them, no tolerance for anything. Terry was a welcome breath of fresh air, if only because she was one of the few that would be able to keep Don in line until they found the younger brother.

She followed him to the elevator, keeping a hand on his arm as they waited. Once they were in the elevator, Don leaning heavily against the wall. She took the chance to look at him carefully.

"You're a mess, Don," she said softly. Had it come from anyone else, Don probably would have been angry, but Terry could get away with murder when it came to him. Instead, it made him actually think about what he'd done over the last three weeks.

Had he known Terry was coming, he would have cleaned up, at least tried to be presentable and not look as exhausted as he felt. Or as pained. Charlie's disappearance had taken a toll on him and it was showing, apparently. Of course, Terry knew him better than almost anyone else, so it wasn't surprising that she saw how hopeless he was becoming.

They stepped off the elevator together and Terry held out her hand. Don stared at it bewildered. She cleared her throat and look at him expectantly as they walked into the parking lot. Then he understood and dug the keys out from his pocket, handing them to her.

"Alright, any particular place you want to go?" she asked. He smiled… sort of.

"You're the guest." Terry rolled her eyes as she turned the corner at a green light.

"It's your funeral then," she said playfully. Finally she pulled into a burger joint not far from his apartment.

"Let's go. The faster we eat, the faster you sleep," she stated as she climbed out of the truck. Don took a moment, realizing there was some fault in her logic but much to tired to question it. He climbed out and followed her into the building. They ordered and sat on the plastic benches as they dug in.

"Terry, why are you here?" The question took her by surprise and she really wasn't prepared to answer. However, his question wasn't finished.

"Why did you come?" She took a few minutes to formulate her answer, debating whether or not she should be telling him that she was there to find Charlie.

"I've been temporarily reassigned," she started carefully. "There's few cases that carried over down here." As she finished, she knew it wasn't the answer he'd wanted to hear. She would drag herself down to California on TAD if there wasn't another, more solid reason behind it.

"Terry…" she held up a hand.

"I know it's not the answer you want to hear, Don, but right now, it's all I'm going to give you." She expected him to argue, to put up some resistance, but he didn't. His entire body sang with his exhaustion. Suddenly, she was worried if he was going to make it home.

"Hey, done?" she asked softly, knowing full well that the half a burger in front of him said he wasn't. However, she was sure he was going to fall asleep in said burger if he didn't get him home soon. In fact, she didn't give him time to agree or disagree, just wrapped up the food and walked closely beside him to the car. He'd fallen asleep before she'd turned the first corner. She smiled at his sleeping face when she stopped at a red light. She was pretty sure it was the first time he'd slept at least in the last week. She decided on his apartment, worried that Charlie's house would bring too many memories to his mind. She sat in the parking lot of his apartment for a few moments before she shook him gently, waking him up.

"Don, come on. We're home." She made sure to tuck him into bed before she settled on his couch, going through the files from Charlie's case and the bank one. It was, after all, late afternoon. There was still a few hours before she'd be tired…