A/N Thanks for the nice reviews and the pointers with the story.

I don't own the Numb3rs characters.

Chapter 10

The run had left Charlie in a much better frame of mind. After he did the cool downs, he headed back to the apartment and into the shower. He dressed in jeans and a t-shirt and went to decide what he wanted to eat for dinner. There were a package of hamburger patties in the freezer and he put one in a skillet and cut up a salad. He also blended a smoothie with blueberries and the last of the very ripe bananas.

After he ate, Charlie went up to the roof with his smoothie. The sun was sinking low in the sky. Charlie felt so very far from home while he was watching the sun disappear. He knew there was a three hour time difference, but he could picture his dad in the kitchen making dinner, and the front door opening and Don walking in. Don would call out a 'Hi Dad', turn on ESPN and go grab a beer and sit down to watch whatever baseball team was playing tonight.

'Okay sitting up here on the roof alone is completely out'. With a frustrated sigh he grabbed his drink and headed back down to the apartment. Charlie got his cell phone and just looked at it. "No not yet."

He went and changed back into his sweats. Charlie had purposely not kept track of the numbers on the treadmill that would calculate miles. He was running a lot of miles these days, but not watching the numbers let him run until he wanted to stop.

After more than an hour, he decided he could probably sleep now. Leslie came in when he was just finishing up. They arranged another hiking trip to the park for Saturday.

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Don was drunk. He knew he would be and he wanted to be home alone when he was. He had taken time to think and he just did not like what he'd come up with. What he had done to Charlie was inexcusable. How had he ever even expected Charlie to forgive him? Unforgivable. His sins toward his brother were unforgivable.

Megan has said that this situation was fixable, but what if it was too late? What if Charlie did not come back to LA? Worse, what if his brother would not forgive him?

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Charlie's morning started with some time walking on that piece of equipment that was fast becoming his best friend. Every time he felt homesick or regret he was back in the gym running. He ran until he felt good again, until he could make the thoughts stop. He ran and it relaxed him as nothing except a peice of chalk could do in the past. He woke up that morning with an overwhelming sadness that he knew had to do with Don. Running helped him get past that.

He showered and dressed professionally with a tie and black dress shoes for today's meeting and lunch. He had his workout bag with both sweats and jeans so that he was prepared for classes that he would hopefully be attending later today. Charlie drove to the NSA building where he had a new office to prepare. He spent some time working on equations. Charlie had not been up to see Bob. So he did not know for sure if there was a team assignment yet. He wanted to be sure he had a good start to his train of thought. One thing he was sure of, he would not be able to treat these agents like students out for a math credit. This needed to be more like working with Don's team.

At 10:00 Bob came into the room followed by six official looking male agents and one very small woman.

"Good morning Charlie. Allow me to introduce you to your team." Bob indicated to the nearest man, who was at least 6'4 and built somewhat like Colby. "This is Agent Ken Riggle, next to him is Agent John Robinson" who was also tall but somewhat on the lean side and he was African American, "Agent Scott Linden" more of a average height man and he was older than the others, probably late 40's, "Agent Bill McKee" also tall, young but prematurely balding, "Agent Jeff Pitts" tall, piercing blue eyes and "Agent Russ Foley" on the shorter side, early 40's and red hair. Charlie made all these mental notes to keep track of who was who. "But every single one of these men will answer to Agent so you do not have to worry about remembering their names right away. 'Oh and Bob reads minds too'. This young lady is Agent Kristen Westwood and we had to borrow her from our Legal Department."

"Agents, I am honored to present, my very good friend, Dr. Charles Eppes, Professor, Mathematician extraordinaire and bar none the world's top military security expert. Dr. Eppes is a certified genius, who holds several Doctorates and we are honored to have him design our newest security project for the military bases stateside. Your assignment is to learn the security system that Dr. Eppes is currently designing and you, in turn, will be teaching how this system works at your field assignments that Dr. Eppes will be deciding on. You will be following any and all orders from Dr. Eppes and without exception, he calls all of the shots with this project, overruled only by me."

"Charlie, I wish you luck. I have already informed the agents that they are to report here from 11 am until 4 pm every weekday and whatever schedule you deem necessary in the future. You only get them for an hour today because as I recall you have a lunch appointment to keep and a rather busy afternoon planned."

"Thank you, I look forward to working with this team."

Once Bob left the room, Charlie asked that the agents all take a seat at the table. Charlie talked in depth about the security in place now and then what the new system would be able to do. He explained that in the past the military bases would send one officer to learn the system and those officers would then go back to their respective bases and not only program the system but also teach the system to enlisted personnel on those bases. Charlie told them that that method was flawed and explained why it was better in this case to cut out a middle man and be sure the personnel were learning the program from the experts.

By the time the agents left an hour later, Charlie had a pretty good feel about the team as a whole. They were all very bright and all computer experts in their own rights. He had no doubt this project would go smoothly.

When Charlie arrived at Bob's office Bob was waiting for him and they left to meet the driver. Brian held the back door open for them.

Bob informed Charlie "it is a military secret that Italian food before a weigh in can add up to five pounds on the scale. So Italian it is."

Charlie laughed and agreed that five pounds would not hurt. He knows he has gained some weight since he arrived, but he feared all of the time on the treadmill may be stealing it back.

Brian pulled up to a classy looking Italian restaurant that was only about two miles from the NSA grounds.

After they were seated Bob asked "So what do you think of your team?"

"I think this program is headed for success. It looks like you chose the best. Do they all have the correct clearance, I know you were concerned about finding just the right assistant."

"They do have clearance for military security yes, Kristin is just barely in range, but that was enough. She's a sharp one too Charlie, I've worked with her and her legal group before and I think you will find that she has good instincts and will probably anticipate the team's needs before any of the team do."

A waiter came and poured water and asked if they were ready to order. Charlie had the opened menu in front of him and said "that the shrimp dish looks good." Bob snatched up the menu from Charlie.

"My friend will be having the lasagna with extra garlic bread and whatever dressing he asks for, so long as it's a creamy dressing."

Bob laughed out loud when Charlie looked up at him like a small child who had just been told he could not have ice cream.

"Ranch dressing is fine." Charlie mumbled.

The waiter looked at Bob. "And you sir?"

Bob said with as straight a face as he could manage. "That shrimp dish does look good. I'll have that."

By the time Charlie walked out of the restaurant he was feeling like he had to have gained ten pounds easy. It was the first time he had been nagged to clean his plate in at least ten years.

After returning to Bob's office, Charlie went into Bob's private bath and changed into his jeans and t- shirt.Charlie told him he would be back if there was good news and he would be at the local bar if there was not.

He was early for his physical. There were two agent recruits waiting their turn as well. The overall class was majority male but the two recruits in the waiting room with him were both female.

This was not your normal doctor waiting room. There was no TV, no magazines, no insurance paper information on the walls, just some chairs and one slightly crooked picture of what Charlie guessed was some offical Government building somewhere.

Charlie crossed his left ankle over his right knee, slid down in the chair, tipped his head over the back of said chair, closed his eyes and wondered why in the world he had had hurried up so that he could sit and wait.

Charlie woke from his doze to find that someone was calling his name. He sat up and noticed that the two women were gone and there was now three male recruits sharing the waiting room and looking at him.

He walked through the door with what he assumed was a nurse to the exam room. The first thing that Charlie noticed about the room was that the air conditioner was on full blast. The 'nurse' closed the door and told Charlie to remove his shirt and shoes and socks. First stop, cold scale after walking across cold floor with bare feet. The 'nurse' weighed Charlie and after a small Tsk, wrote in the chart that had appeared in her hand. Second stop, cold bathroom after walking across cold floor in bare feet to pee in a rather small container.

Thankfully, she asked him to next sit on the exam table. She excused herself, saying she would be right back. She took the small container through the next door and came right back. She checked all of the usuals, heart, lungs, pulse, bp, temp, ears, throat. She'd barely said a word during all of this but again, she said she would be right back. She again went though the next door again and a minute later she returned.

"Well Dr. Eppes, I have to tell you that while you are considerably underweight by any standards for a man your age and height, you do seem remarkably healthy." You would not quality for an agent recruit without some added weight but you are healthy enough to participate in the physical training. I would like to suggest that a milk shake everyday could go a long way to adding some quick weight."

"Then I'm cleared to start today?"

"Yes, I will see that Agent Belmont gets the correct authorizations immediately."

"Thank you very much for your time... sorry, I didn't catch your name."

"I'm Dr. Shilling."

He should have known she was a doctor, but she really did not look like one.

"Thank you Dr. Shilling and I really am not normally this thin."

"Good, I hope that means you will be putting on some weight."