A/N: Sorry it is moving a little slow here - Charlie needs a life in DC. But Don and Alan will be back soon
I don't own the Numb3rs characters, Just borrowing them
Chapter 7
After Brian dropped Charlie off, he went back to his apartment. Before he did anything else, he knew he should eat something and went to check on what Diane thought his diet should consist of. There was a lot of fruits and veggies and he was pretty sure most of it would spoil before he could eat it. He made a fruit salad and had a bottle of water while he started looking through the papers for the training class.
The over all size of the class was large at usual amounts of 60 - 80 agent recruits. For the most part this group would be split up into very small groups for most of the classes, other than the physical fitness training.
Some of those classes, Charlie knew he would not need or have any interest in. He was surprised at the amount of classes that fell under the category of math, but he knew he was staying away from those. He was mainly interested in the physical classes. Even though he had not done much physical activity in his life, he had enjoyed them when he had. He had not taken any organized physical class since high school. Don taught him to play basketball when he were really young and he always enjoyed a game when they had time together. He took to hiking trails whenever he could get away long enough and of course he biked everyday. So, he was not completely out of shape.
There was weight training and he knew he would attend that one. One that he was giving serious thought to was the gun training. He did not know if he would ever need it but it might be a good idea to check into it as well. The Martial Arts class was one he was also interested in. The rest of the classes just did not apply to a civilian for the most part. There were prisoner handling classes and terrorist training, and plenty of classes that dealt with the legal and courthouse procedures that an agent would need but not a professor.
Charlie slept in the next day and he woke up feeling rested. The first thing he did was make himself eat. After he at he washed up the few dishes, showered, dressed in his faded blue jeans, a Cal Sci t-shirt, his hiking boots and grabbed a long sleeve shirt and a bottle of water and set off for the park to check out the trails.
While on his hike, Charlie considered the thought that came to him yesterday in Bob's office. Charlie had finally figured out what he had been searching for. It was not a particularly satisfying knowledge, but at least he found the answer. Charlie did not know if he was looking for the acceptance from himself that he had been unable to earn from his brother for nearly all of his life. Charlie thought it was possible he needed to build up his self esteem so that that lack of acceptance from Don would in no way impact his life. He knew that it had brought his own world crashing down too many times before. When he had thought back to that one night that he decided that he needed to grow up and get away from the hold that Don had over him, he realized now that the hold was Charlie's dire need for acceptance from not just anyone, but from the one person that Charlie had admitted to himself, was the most important person in his life. Don.
Charlie was proud of what he had accomplished in his life. He was happy that he was able to use his gift to help others, mainly his students, but the government as well. A lot of people go through life just hoping that they had made a difference and Charlie knew that he had. Some on smaller scales than others, but a difference just the same. Self-acceptance itself was not the issue, maybe even self esteem was not the real issue. Charlie knew that he needed to shift that power from Don. He needed to face the fact that maybe Don would never be proud of him, but Charlie needed to get to a point where that was not the top priority of his life that he had made it.
Would time away do that? Could being more active take up too much of his time to even think about it? Could making a few changes in his personal life make up for that need? Would Charlie have to stay on the opposite side of the country to take that power from Don? Charlie didn't have the answers to this so he made the firm decision that doing other things with his life that did not involve numbers would at least give his brain another direction and another direction right now seemed the perfect place to find some answers.
He spent most of the day on the trails and he although he usually liked steeper terrain, he knew he would be spending a lot of time hiking in this park. When he got back to his apartment he made a sandwhich and called Diane. Much as he did not want to take advantage of her good nature, the fact was he could not buy or rent a car without a license and he could not get a license without a car.
Diane was only too willing to help out. She said that she would come over first thing in the morning and they could go to the DMV and get his license.
After hanging up Charlie changed and headed up to the roof to check out the pool. It was surprisingly large and completely deserted. He dived in and started on some laps. He was not sure if it was his loss of weight, weak upper body strength or inactivity on his part but three laps was all he could manage. It was probably a little bit of all three and he decided that he would try to work on that everyday if there was time.
When he was back into the apartment and had changed, he stated reading over the file that Bob had given him. There was going to be a lot of changes made to the security system. He knew that the present system had only been in place since the 911 attacks but Charlie was surprised at how lacking the system really was.
He took out some paper and started working some equations. It would take longer than he originally thought just to design the new system. The training of it to the agents on the team would take longer as well. He worked late into the night and finally had some definite ideas for when he met with Bob on Monday.
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Diane was there early as promised.
On the way to the DMV Charlie took the time to catch up on Diane's family. "How is your daughter doing? I haven't seen her since last year."
She's doing great Charlie and grandchild number two is due around Labor Day."
"That's great. Bet you are hoping for a boy this time?"
"As of you have to ask."
"I would really like to see her while I'm here and that cute little granddaughter too. Kylie must be about three now?"
"She turns three first part of July. Just a bit on the spoiled side so I'm not sure how well she will handle a new baby."
"She'll be fine, adapting is easy when you're a kid."
"Charlie, how come you didn't get your license years ago?"
"There are a few reasons for that Diane, It did not do too well with just my permit and Dad and Don seemed a little reluctant to let me try again after a few minor problems."
At Diane's worried look, Charlie told her that he does know how to drive and really does very well as long as Don or his Dad were not yelling at him to pay attention.
Charlie aced the test, not that he was surprised by this. He was used to acing tests.
Diane said that he knew a car dealer that would probably give him a good deal. Charlie would not be financing so he did not expect a big problem with the dealers.
While Charlie saw some great sport cars he would have loved to buy he settled on the Mitsubishi Eclipse.
Diane told Charlie to enjoy his new car, gave him a map so that he could find his way back to the apartment and the office and told him to enjoy his day getting used to his new car. She also warned he should avoid the outskirts of town during rush hour wherever possible.
That night after Charlie struggled through four laps of the pool, he sat with his cell phone in his hand. He was missing home and just wanted to hear either his dad's or even Don's voice. He opted for calling home, but hung up when the answering machine came on.
Charlie got a glass of orange juice and headed back up to the pool to just sit by the side and enjoy the night air.
He leaned his head back and gazed up at the stars, he knew having too much time on his hands was a bad idea. He wished that Don was sitting in the chair next to him and it was like it had been prior the case, that they could talk.
He regretted that he had left without talking to Don. At the very least to apologize for the busted lip. Charlie did not think he had it in him to ever hit anyone, much less his older brother. At the time, he did not think he had any choice and he had felt backed into a corner. As he felt the sadness rush over him, he knew he had to do something to stay active. He went back to the apartment and got some sweats on and went looking for that gym with that 'top of the line equipment'.
With a little help from another resident that was rushing past, Charlie found the work out room off the pool on the first floor. It was huge. There were a few people working on the various equipment. It was a little overwhelming and he had to admit he did not know how to use half of it. He decided on the treadmill and set it at a decent incline and a fairy slow pace.
Once he stepped on, he felt some relief from his stress. He walked and then changed the speed to a bit faster and the incline slightly more and it was soon going at a pretty good pace. Charlie was on the treadmill for more than a half hour without even knowing that the time had been passing by. He set it for higher incline, but now he was running. This workout more than had the perfect results. He found the strenuous run to be soothing to his body and his nerves. He thought this to be the perfect exercise for him. His mind did not have the energy to wander. He felt in tuned with his body and not at all in tuned with numbers or even the time.
Once he slowed himself to a walk and then stepped off the machine, he felt better than he had physically and mentally since he couldn't remember when.
He looked around and was surprised to see that nearly everyone had left and the only other person in the room was a woman who was working with some small weights near the back of the room.
Charlie thought another swim sounded good but just decided that a shower would work as well. As he headed to the door, the woman from the back of the room said "aren't you going to do some cooling down exercises?" Charlie really had no idea what she was talking about.
She was looking at him as though he were a high school kid who had just been caught skipping school.
"Sorry, I am not sure what cooling down exercises are."
"Well, trust me if you don't figure it out soon, you're going to be unable to walk after those kind of workouts."At his confused look, she said "here, let me show you". The woman showed him stretches for his lower body and soon they were both stretching out muscles.
"You will find that you are a lot less sore if you stretch out the muscles when you finish with any workout."
"Thanks, I probably would not have even thought of that on my own. I'm Charlie." He reached out his hand to her.
"Leslie, nice to meet you Charlie. You must be new in the building, I've never seen you here before."
"I've only been here for three days and this is my first time in this room. I had to check out the top of the line equipment and I really do have to agree with Aaron, at least about that particular treadmill."
"You're a runner than?"
"Not before tonight, but I believe I have been converted."
She smiled at him suddenly, "believe me, it can all be addicting. I've worked on most of this equipment and I come in here at least five nights a week for my fix."
"So, what do you do when you are not working out Leslie?"
"As little as possible but I am an agent in my professional life."
Charlie was a little surprised, small world he thought. "FBI?"
"CIA" she answered.
Not as small as he first feared.
"What about you, new to town then?"
"Yes, I am a consultant with the NSA and live in LA. I am here for a long-term project."
"Well good; then I expect we will be seeing more of each other. No strings attached, but would you like to come to my apartment for a blended smoothie?"
"Sounds perfect Leslie"
Leslie's apartment was on the third floor and it was tidy and had a county home feel to it.
"You a country girl?"
"Born and bred in Texas, but I left there years ago. My stepfather was in the Navy and I moved around a lot. But, Texas still feels like home whenever I can get down there. What do you do when you are not consulting?" Leslie took strawberries out of the refrigerator to clean.
"I am a Math Professor at Cal Sci in Pasadena. I came out just as soon as finals were graded."
Charlie watched as Leslie added bananas and some soy milk to the blender and turned it on. She poured him one and waited expectedly while he tried it. It was good and it had been a long time since he had drank any kind of smoothie.
"This is great."
"Thanks, I usually drink something blended after I come back home from the gym.
"So you have family back in Texas then?"
"Just my grandparents and an uncle now. The others are scattered all over. My mother and step father are retired now and living not too far away in Maryland. I have two brothers, one is in Florida, he's coast guard and the other is in Chicago."
"What about you Charlie, what family do you have?"
"My mother died two years ago. My father's retired and I have a brother. We're all in the LA area. Leslie, have you checked out the hiking trails in the park?"
"I love those trails Maybe we can go this weekend. I only have to report in one weekend a month under normal conditions and this is not my weekend for that."
"I was there yesterday and the trails are great." Charlie finished up his drink.
"Thanks Leslie, I'm in apartment 602. I look forward to tackling the trails with you Saturday?"
"Saturday will be fine Charlie. Good night."
Charlie rode the elevator back up to his room. He felt a lot more relaxed than he had earlier.