Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Numb3rs or the characters therein. All characters are fictional and should not be associated with any other person, real or imagined.

Author's note: I asked my teenage niece (who is a longtime user of this site) and she believes this chapter clearly falls within the category of teen. It's suggestive, but definitely not explicit. I guess made-for-tv movie teen. The subject matter is pretty serious, though- but this story has been that way for quite a few chapters. My niece suggested that if I'm nervous (always am) that I put up a disclaimer. So, here it is. If the subject makes you uncomfortable, I suggest reading the last section of the chapter, past the last dotted line. The incident does have its purpose.

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Perceival (call me Percy) Jackson sat up in his car, peering over the edge to see if the old man had gone. He licked his lips when he saw the guy heading to the back door of the institute- alone. The kid must still be in the car, he thought, starting up his engine and heading towards the entrance to the parking lot, his license plate already masked by a piece of black cardboard that he had taped over it more than an hour before; his cheap handiwork had been hidden from prying eyes because he had been parked bumper-to-bumper with the car behind his own. When he saw the old man step into the institute, he pulled alongside his car, Percy's little Geo hidden by the much-larger model in which the kid sat.

At forty-five, Percy was an attractive older man. He wore business suits tailored to fit his slim and muscular body. His neat brown hair was trimmed like a soldier's, the close-crop look and clothing giving him the overall appearance of a business man. Most people would assume he held a respectable job and position in society, and that assumption was true. The local branch of a well-known national brand had just hired him as a consultant. But if one was observant and looked beyond the attire and successful career, Percy's favorite vocation was easily detected in the wolf-like hunger that possessed his eyes.

Percy was a sexual predator.

And his favorite prey was found in the back parking lots of outpatient mental care facilities- just like the one in which he currently sat. He had been casing the place for the last hour, hoping that at least one kid would appear and offer him the opportunity to snatch him. Percy found it to be the perfect setup. Though he had always preferred male children, Percy did not like the risk that came along with the sexual kinks he enjoyed. A friend had hooked him up with his current prey. He had been told that, unlike minors, most adults with mental deficiencies had the right to consent to a sexual relationship. And they often behaved like children, so he could pretend he had a child in his possession, and could legally enjoy doing anything to them he wanted to … None of his previous prey had even understood what had happened to them. When he sent them off with a prize, they were actually happy about the time they had spent with him.

Even forgetting the pain he inflicted.

Well, a couple had remembered. But they were incapable of vocalizing it to the authorities. Still, two sets of angry parents had been enough to send him fleeing across country to California.

And so far, it had been easy hunting.

Too many caretakers had full-time jobs and could not spend every moment watching their adult children. And by the time they realized what had happened, it was too late. Hell, he mused, he'd even used the same hunting grounds more than once, remembering how he had picked up an outpatient from this same institute six months prior. But though he liked the challenge a higher-end institute like this one presented, Percy considered himself smart; he knew not to mess with anyone coming from the front of the institute, where all the well-to-do clients with high-priced attorneys and connections were entertained. Where the security was so strict the hunting became more than a challenge; it was impossible. No, Percy kept to the back parking lot, watching for the few stragglers that would often come out after hours, when nobody was around and the security detail was at a minimum. And the outpatients were sometimes from upper middle-class families, well enough off to afford the extra payments the place required, but not so wealthy they didn't have to work. With their acclimatization to the safe suburban life, they never suspected a thing.

Percy was certain it would be the same this time, as luck seemed to be on his side. He had been about to call it a night when he noticed the three men leave the exit door. Percy hadn't thought much of the trio, as none of them appeared to meet the requirements of his particular prey. But then curly-head had taken the hand of the kid and was obviously walking him to their car. And Percy had seen the stuffed rabbit, and the thumb sucking. Just like a little kid, he had noted, shutting his engine back off to see if there would be a break in the protective wall that was currently surrounding the kid. To his delight, a break came when curly-head took off, leaving the prey with one old man.

And then Percy had started his car again, pouncing on the opportunity to pull next to the old man's car when it presented itself.

Percy looked across the lot at the old man, watching as he came out of the building and said something to a woman; then the guy pulled out his cell phone, leaning his left shoulder against the wall of the building as if he would be a while. It was the perfect opening for Percy.

Leaving his car door open, Percy knocked on the window of the other car. It only took a moment for the kid to wake up and look out at him, his eyes squinting, obviously trying to decide if he recognized the person who was peering through the door. Percy put a small upward tilt to the ends of his lips and pointed to the lock.

"Open the door. It's locked," he said, as if it was the most natural thing for the kid to do. Two eyes stared back at him, uncomprehending. "Poke the button. See, that one right there. Come on- be a good boy." Percy noted the last phrase got a reaction from the kid. After making sure the old man was still busy on the phone, he prodded his prey with the words, "A good boy would press that button."

Don looked out the window again. He was not sure if he knew the man or not- he had met too many new people that day. But then the man said to push the same button that Charlie had, and that doing so would make him a good boy; the image of his brother and the familiar words made a connection in Don's mind that allowed him to mistakenly believe that the man was not a stranger. Maybe he was another doctor. Remembering what Jim had taught him earlier, he used his left index finger, imitating Charlie by poking the button with its tip. He smiled when he saw that the button went in, and he heard the same click that had sounded when Charlie did it. However, Don was not ready to have the door yanked open, and he started to cry when the man outside the window was suddenly kneeling in front of him. He was beginning to think he did not know this man and remembered that Mommy had said he should not talk to strangers.

Percy knelt in front of the kid, keeping his head low enough so it would not be seen through the driver's side window. Seeing the night creeping across the parking lot towards their cars, he tried to work as quickly as he could, knowing the interior lights of the cars would be dead giveaways to his presence once they were encompassed within the darkness. Percy unbuckled the crying kid, despite the tears streaming down his face. When he was finished, he realized it might be difficult to drag his prey from the car. He had not realized how big the kid was. Deciding he needed to coax the kid, Percy began to speak softly.

"Now, this is a nice car. It sure is. But I think my car is better. Would you like to take a ride and see?" Seeing more tears start to pour, Percy pulled out a handkerchief and gently wiped away the dampness, his thumb sliding over the soft skin around the kid's eyes. He mentally took in the overall appearance of his intended victim: thick black hair, soft brown eyes, and strong, healthy body. Confirming that the father was still occupied, Percy was determined to get his prey; though the kid was older than he preferred, he was certain he had never taken anyone so beautiful. He looked the kid over, trying to find a way to convince him to get out of the car, when he noticed the stars sticking out of his pants pocket.

"Hey, pumpkin, did you get those stickers for being a good boy?" Bingo! he thought, noting how the kid straightened in his seat and rubbed his fingertips over them. "Would you like to earn some more stars?"

Don was scared. He couldn't see his daddy and Charlie had gone away. But then the man asked him about his stars and he remembered how proud Charlie had been each time he got one. After all the stars and praise that Jim had given him, Don had been sure that Charlie had decided to keep him. He unconsciously rubbed the chalk in his pocket. Now, here was another man who said he would give him stars. And he had a nice big smile and was saying nice things, just like Jim. Don was sure that Charlie would be even prouder of him if he earned more stars. Bravely, Don tried to ignore the fear and anxiety he was feeling as he was overwhelmed with the desire to please his brother, making him forget everything his Mommy had warned him about strangers and the bad things that could happen.

"That's a nice rabbit you have there, beautiful. What's his name?"

"Bbbb-uuu-dddy."

"He's a beautiful rabbit. Would he like to earn some stars, too?"

Don slowly nodded his head.

"Let's get in my car and we'll go earn some. I have lots and lots of them at my house."

Don hesitated when the man tried to help him out of his seat. He looked around for his daddy.

"Are you looking for curly-head? He's going to meet us at my house."

Don's face showed surprise. Is that where Charlie went? Don remembered how Jim sent Olivia ahead with Daddy to get everything ready so he could practice eating. This man must have sent Charlie and Daddy ahead to get things ready so he could earn more stars.

"Charlie?" he asked.

"Right- Charlie. And your daddy, too. They'll both be there. They're going to be so happy when they see how many stars you earned for doing everything I teach you."

Knowing from experience that he had made a convincing plea, Percy wrapped his arm around the kid, helping him out of the old man's car and into his own, keeping his body in a position so that it was blocking the kid's line of sight to his dad. He checked one more time to make sure the old man was not looking, snickering when he saw that he was still busy on the phone. When he finally had his prey all buckled into his passenger seat, Percy took one last moment to look him over. He momentarily cupped Don's face softly in his hands.

"Beautiful, I'm positive you're going to be my prize pupil."

Don smiled back at him innocently, stars in his eyes.

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Olivia was leaving the back exit when she ran into Jim. They stood to the left of the door, talking about different patients, the institute, stupid rules made by owners who were not present, and various end-of-the-day topics. After a while, they began to discuss their new patient.

"He really is the sweetest thing," Olivia said, enjoying the glint of jealousy that glittered at the corners of Jim's eyes.

"For now. He used to be an F.B.I. agent. Don't think it'll be long before that mean streak appears again." Jim tried to make the remark impersonal. However, he failed, becoming angry with himself for both sounding jealous and for talking badly about a patient.

"I don't know. Don has the softest brown eyes I have ever seen. You can tell by his physique that he was tough. But mean- never."

Despite himself, Jim ran his eyes over his own body, taking inventory. Too thin, he thought. He looked up to see the bemused smile of Olivia, and he blushed in response, turning his gaze to the floor. That's when he saw one of the forks that had been in Don's package. It had rolled against the far wall. Picking it up, he showed it to Olivia and asked, "Isn't this one of Don's utensils?"

"Uh, oh. His dad dropped the bag when I handed it to him. I thought he picked everything up, but somehow, he must have missed this. Nothing we can do about it now- they must have left a while ago."

Jim looked at the exit door and caught sight of Alan bending over to pick something up from the ground. "No, Mr. Eppes is still here. He's standing near the door."

Surprised, Olivia took the fork from Jim and went back to the exit. She opened the door and saw Alan stepping away from the building; she was about to walk after him when she looked beyond him across the parking lot to his car, noticing a man lowering himself on its other side, as if into a smaller car. The breath caught in her throat, because she recognized him. Olivia had seen him driving back and forth behind the institute on more than one occasion. She had notified an administrator, who admonished her to keep her suppositions to herself, their clients didn't need any more stress; and security, who had stated that they could not do anything about people innocently driving on public streets,

But Olivia was not oblivious to the darker side of life, and she knew that there was nothing innocent about this man, or the reasons for him driving on those particular public streets. This man was a predator, he was hunting, and their institute contained the prey.

When she first got the feeling, she asked herself why she felt so positive about it. The answer was simple. It was because her woman's instinct told her so. Hadn't she seen the same look on letches who stared at her as if she were a glass of water- and they had been in the desert for days? Always, their tongues practically hung from their mouths as they crudely ran their eyes up and down her body.

Olivia had pointed the man out to a female friend of hers, and her friend had instantly shuddered. That guy, she had told Olivia, is evil. Her womanly intuition thus sustained, Olivia had taken it upon herself to keep an eye out for the clean-cut businessman. But, she thought guiltily, she hadn't seen him in over a month, and had let her guard down, leaving open an undefended path that led straight to her new favorite patient: Don Eppes.

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Percy couldn't help but grin at the old man.

It was the old man's fault for talking on the phone so long.

And for being old, Percy laughed to himself, starting to push on his gas pedal.

Suddenly, a young body appeared in front of his car and he had to slam on his breaks. Damn! He didn't need the cops called in for a hit and run that he'd no defense against; no one consented to being ripped in two by a car. He shoved the gear on his steering wheel towards reverse, pressing the gas pedal with all of his strength.

But he didn't go anywhere.

What the hell?

Percy realized his mistake too late. He had pushed the gear all the way to park. Before he could make the correction, his door was wrenched open and two strong arms tore him from his seat, throwing him to the ground, where he lay on his back. His attempt to rise was vanquished by the harsh thrust of a foot to his crotch, making the torso of the very unlucky man bend inwards and flop onto its left side. The only vocalizations Percy was capable of making were soft grunts of pain as he held himself.

Olivia stood above Percy, hands on hips. Jim rushed over and stood behind her, making sloppy karate chops in the air with his hands and feet, the general direction of his movements down toward the rocking body of Percy.

"My hero," Olivia said to Jim, rolling her eyes because she knew he could not see the motion from his position in back of her.

"Anytime, anywhere- I'm your fighting soldier," he said proudly, reaching around Olivia and tapping Percy on a foot with one of his own, then jumping back a yard when the aching man glared at him.

"Where's Don?" Jim asked, looking at Percy's empty car and the passenger door that sat ajar. They looked over the hood and noticed Alan had already confiscated his son. Alan had a firm grip on the arm of a crying Don, and was dragging him around the front of Percy's car, where he left him against the front grill, demanding that he not move.

"Mr. Eppes," Olivia tried to talk to Alan, but he ignored her. Instead, he got into the driver seat of his car and carefully pulled it forward, keeping his eyes on Don. When he had driven up past Percy's car, he got out and went to get Don, helping him back into the passenger seat and seatbelt of his car. Jim went to Alan, "I called the police. You have to wait until they get here." Alan's eyes flamed, making Jim flee to the protection that Olivia afforded. After getting into his car, Alan locked the doors and sped off, streaks of rubber imprinted into the asphalt.

A security guard came running across the lot towards Olivia and Jim.

"We were checking out a complaint on the other side of the building. I came when the main office saw you pull that guy from the car and reported it to us." The guard looked at the man curled up on the ground. "Looks like you have it all under control."

Olivia did not feel like she was under control. She was still steaming with the thoughts of what she was positive this man- this thing- had planned to do to her patient.

"Yes," she said hollowly, "We do. Maybe you can go check and see if the police went to the front lot by mistake."

"Fine, I'll be right back."

Jim stood next to Olivia, nervously bouncing on his heels, his hands starting to rub together. "Don't you think we should have asked him to wait with us? You never know what might happen while we're all alone with this guy."

Olivia smiled at him, her teeth the focal point of the protective expression on her face, a look that was indicative of a grizzly bear saving her cub while in the process of tearing the flesh from whatever had threatened it. Jim was frightened, and had to step three feet away from her.

"Do you think they can see us on the security cameras all the way to our feet?" Olivia calmly asked. Jim looked at her shoes, not understanding the purpose of her question. "And on the other side of this car door?" she said, stepping around so that she was leaning on the interior of the still-open driver's door, facing Percy, who was attentive to her maneuvers but unable to move from his fetal position. Before Jim could answer either of her two questions, Olivia lay forward against the opening of the car door, gaining leverage, and kicked Percy in the lower chest. She swung her foot with short, hard strokes, not stopping until she heard the distinct crunch of at least one rib breaking.

As Percy shuddered and gasped for air, Olivia turned to Jim, her smile gone and an angelically serene look on her face.

I was right, Jim thought with a newfound fear and admiration for his coworker, I would never have known this would happen while we were alone with this guy.

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Alan drove all the way home without looking at his son, the only sound in the car the sobbing that Don continued to do. Alan's mind was long gone, lost in the agony of the mistaken belief that he had almost allowed Dr. Thompson to take his son a second time. He knew his son was crying out of control next to him, but he couldn't do anything about it. Alan was trying to get himself under control, knowing he could not offer any comfort to Don until he stopped shaking, but he was finding his attempts to calm down utter failures. He just drove and drove, trying to put distance between Don and the man who he believed was a dangerous threat to his son.

When they pulled into their driveway, Alan shut off the engine to the car and found himself unable to leave the safety the metal box seemed to give them. He was still trembling, but he reached for Don anyway, knowing that he had probably scared Don more than the strange man. He hadn't meant to. Alan had just responded as any parent would. He had tried to get his son as fast and far away from a known danger as he could, not wanting to take the time that would have been necessary to offer an explanation to his confused son. Taking off both of their seatbelts, Alan tried soothing Don, but found that his words were ineffective- to his ears as well.

Don did not understand what had happened. Olivia had taken the man out of the car and hurt him really bad. Then, Daddy was hurting his arm, pulling him out and making him lean against the hard front of the car. I must have been really bad, Don thought, for his daddy to be so mean to him. He tried to stop crying, but he couldn't seem to control the tears. They came and came. When his daddy finally put his arms around him, Don could feel how they were shaking, scaring him even more. He was sure something bad had happened. Something so bad that even his daddy couldn't help being afraid. And if daddy couldn't protect him, who could? Now Don was crying for Charlie… and his mommy.

It took a long time and a lot of soft apologies, but Alan was able to get Don to stop crying and got him safely into the house. Don sniffled all the way up the stairs, and then practically fell on his bed from the emotional and physical exertions of the day. When Alan unsnapped and unzipped Don's jeans, he remembered the diuretic.

"Let's use the bathroom before you go to sleep, Donny." He gave up on the thought, though, as Don had slipped onto his side, his thumb and Buddy in place for a good night's sleep. Alan decided to let his son rest a while. He knew Charlie would eventually be home and he could help him manipulate Don to the rest room. After tucking Don under the blankets, Alan went downstairs and checked all the doors and windows in the house, locking all of them tightly. The last one he locked led to the garage. He checked inside to see if Charlie happened to have beat them home and was working in there. Finding no one, he shut the door, locking it tight.

Alan walked to the bottom of the stairs leading to the second floor and his son's room, collapsing on the first four steps, a guardian against the evils of the world.

Then he dropped his head into his hands, sobbing, allowing himself the release because he mistakenly thought his son was in a safe place, and he could finally take the time to focus on his own emotional needs.

But Alan had locked the doors and windows much too late.

Because the predator he was trying to keep from hurting Don had been patiently waiting upstairs for hours.

And she was currently stepping from her hiding place and heading down the hall towards the room of his sleeping son, ready to pounce.