Chapter 10

Ideas

A/N: Hey everyone, I'm sorry again it took so long, but I still don't have my comp fixed and my tech teacher has us doing like a new assignment a day, so I haven't really got much time to type this up. Anyway I don't own Numb3rs (in case I hadn't clarified that earlier) or anything affiliated with Numb3rs. I only own Lexo, Todd, Walt, Alex, Jordan, Tommy and the guys Todd killed in the cage. I haven't mentioned Amita or Larry at all, but there will be mention of them. And there should be a little of Alan in this chapter as well.

Charlie still lay face down on one of the mattresses as Jordan sat beside him, dutifully rubbing his neck to relieve some of his agony. He still let out a moan of pain every once and awhile, but it seemed to be subsiding little by little. They carried on a small conversation to pass the time and to take Charlie's mind off the painful spasms coursing through his weak and tired body.

Jordan's whispers comforted him and he was glad to have her for company. Without her, he'd be alone in his agony; agony that would be even worse if she wasn't there with her soft massages.

Charlie's voice, when he answered her, was always filled with pain and she wished she could ease it more than she already was doing.

Jordan grew tired from the repetitive motion, but couldn't let him go through as much pain as he would if she stopped.

"You're going to have to do it, Charlie," she told him sorrowfully, "They'll up the dosage if you don't and I won't be able to help you if they do.

"I can't do it Jordan. I can't let them kill my brother with that stuff," Charlie whispered through the pain.

"I know, but what else can you do?" Jordan pondered to him.

"What else can I do, but not do what they want me too? I may be the younger brother, but I still have a responsibility to protect Don if I can help it," Charlie explained, "I can't let him get hurt let alone killed."

"I know, but... DAMN IT! They aren't giving you much of a choice!" She felt like screaming, but knew it would only gain their captors unwanted attention, instead she said it in the angriest voice she could muster.

"Well that's the point isn't it," Charlie said contemptuously of Todd's attempts to make him help create something that would kill those close to him.

"Yeah, it is. But where do they get off doing this? This isn't condonable by any cause; killing and torturing the innocent," Jordan didn't know what drove the terrorists forward from her months as their captives, but she knew their brutality.

"I don't know," Charlie said in a voice that barely rose over a whisper, "but I can't let them hurt my brother. I can't let them kill him.

Jordan knew that he couldn't let his family get hurt. She already knew the pain that would cause him, "They killed my family to get me; my parents, my husband and my 2 year old son and that was six years ago. I won't let them hurt your family. Charlie," she said in a low whisper, "I have an idea."

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"Hey Don! I'm back from my leave!" Megan Reeves called happily into the office, totally unaware of the tense situation.

Heads turned to stare at her, wondering how the hell she could be so happy, hadn't she heard?

"Megan…" Colby went up to her quietly and whispered, "Charlie's been kidnapped."

She stopped abruptly in her tracks, "You're joking," she said disbelievingly.

"No, he's not," she heard Don's voice from behind her. She whipped her head around to see his weary, worried face. He looked haggard and there was a hurt in his eyes that was very prominent.

"What can I do to help?" She asked quietly.

"You're job," Don answered simply before Terry ran in, interrupting the conversation.

"Don! One of the sketches matches the description of Lawrence Nevence! Someone's seen him!" She yelled excitedly to him. She stopped in front of him panting and out of breath.

"Give the address to Megan and Colby. They'll go," he told her.

"But I thought you'd want to go," Terry said furrowing her brow in a confused expression.

"He doesn't have Charlie anymore and if I see him right now…" Don trailed off for a moment, "I'll probably kill him before he can tell us where he is."

"Okay," she answered quietly and handed off the information to the other agents.

After Megan and Colby left, Don led Terry to an area where he thought they wouldn't be disturbed.

"Terry… I don't think I can take this," he confided. She could see the intense pain in his eyes, "all this wondering, and not being sure if I'll ever find my baby brother alive."

"You have to be strong," she whispered, "for Charlie."

"I'm glad you came back from D.C." he told her, "I know I wouldn't be able to handle this without you."

"Don, I… I don't know what to say," Terry told him truthfully.

"That's okay," Don felt the tears he'd been struggling to hold in for the past couple of days sliding down his cheeks in torrents, "It's all my fault," he confessed and to him it was the truth.

"No, it's not," she'd never seen him this way, but he'd never been in this situation before. All she wanted to do was ease his pain. Tentatively she brushed her lips softly against his, "Don't worry, we'll find him."

Don rubbed the tears out of his eyes and for the first time in what seemed like years, gave Terry a tiny smile.

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Tommy walked shyly into the unfamiliar house after David.

"Hey David," he heard an older man say wearily, "find him?"

"Not yet," the agent answered in a voice equally as weary.

"Who's this?" The man questioned lightly, smiling for the boy's sake, but it was obviously forced.

"I'm Tommy," the teenager spoke up in a whisper that was barely audible.

"Don asked me to bring him over. He's a witness to the case" David explained briefly, darting around the topic of Charlie's kidnapping.

"Alright," the man nodded to the agent, "I'm Alan, Don's father."

"I've got to go," David announced, "in case they need me."

Alan and Tommy both nodded solemnly and watched him leave.

"So…Tommy," Alan began, "You wanna watch some t.v.?"

The boy shrugged and plopped down on the couch, "I dunno what kind of shows they have on now. Haven't watched t.v. in at least a year."

"Whaddya say we get you some chicken soup instead?" Alan offered.

He was surprised to see the boy's eyes light up and Tommy asked incredulously, "Really?"

"Really," Alan answered, "why don't you help me out in the kitchen?"

Tommy wasn't quite ready to smile, but Alan could see the happiness in the teenager's eyes.

I'm free, I'm really free! Tommy thought to himself as he followed Don's father into the kitchen.

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Megan unholstered her gun as she creeped stealthily around the warehouse where Lawrence Nevence had been seen last. She saw the man out of the corner on her eye, "Colby… I got a visual, northeast corner," she whispered into the radio.

"Got it, I'm on my way," he answered quietly and a minute later the both of them were closing in on their suspect.

Megan gave Colby a small nod and he yelled, "FBI! Hands on your head and on your knees, now!"

Their suspect turned to them raising his hands. He kneeled down on the floor and they saw a huge smile on his face, "Too bad you didn't find me earlier," he taunted.

"You bxxxxxd," Megan swore angrily at him as she cuffed him hands securely behind his back and hefted him to his feet.

"That's me," he laughed, "but Charlie knew me as Lexo. You should've seen his face when I told him I was going to sell him."

"You have the right to remain silent…" Megan read him his rights, but he ignored her and turned to Colby, "You and your friend Don should've found my sister! You let them make her kill herself," he screamed, tears were now flowing down his face, but he found no sympathy in the faces of the agents.

"And what did you do about it. You forced the ordeal on an innocent man," Colby stared at him stonily.