Numb3rs: Family Ties

Brothers

Disclaimer: I don't have anything to do with the creation or use of the wonderful TV show called Numb3rs.

A/N: I've gotten so many great reviews and encouragements for this story that I have to send out a heart-felt thank-you to all of my readers out there. I hope the story continues to meet up to your standards. I just wanted to let everyone know that we're on the second-to-last chapter. I intended this story to be short and conclude quickly in five chapters and for once, my plans actually worked out. I hope you enjoy this chapter and remember, review!

Summary: The Eppes brothers have been through thick and thin, but when the stakes change, will they be able to pull through for each other?

"Don?"

Ron glared at Charlie and kicked him hard in the ribs, throwing him back onto the lumpy mattress. Matt, who was holding his bleeding brother up by his hair, shoved him inside the small room. Don staggered in, barely cognizant, and tripped over the dripping faucet, sprawling onto the mattress on top of Charlie. Charlie groaned in pain as Don's weight crushed his bloated kneecap and barely noticed the two men entering the room after Don with a bucket of water and furiously scrubbing down the walls.

Charlie agonizingly shifted his weight out from under Don. "Your older brother's smarter than we thought." Ron said calmly, making sure no traces of chalk equations remained.

Charlie smiled weakly, "I knew he'd figure it out."

Matt growled in annoyance. "And look where it got him."

Charlie felt a surge of guilt hit him with the culmination of a tsunami. If these men hadn't been after him, then Don wouldn't even be in this mess. He wouldn't be hurt or worried. Charlie sighed. It seemed as if he always needed his older brother to save him from something or the other. When he was younger, it was bullies, and now…Charlie shook his head against invading memories, his dark curls bouncing. He was an adult now, twenty-nine years old and a mathematics professor. He was better than this.

As the two men left, Charlie stroked his brother's bloody hair, feeling carefully for the cut. Thankfully, it didn't seem very deep. Charlie eased off the bed and scooted towards the faucet on his bottom, scraping his bound feet on the ground. Charlie cupped his tied hands together and collected a small amount of water. Holding it tightly, he shuffled back towards Don and let the water trickle down his face in rivulets, mixing unattractively with congealing blood.

Don groaned and touching his head gingerly as the cool water woke him up. "Char…Charlie?"

"Hey Don, you alright?" Charlie whispered, leaning in close.

Don looked at him blearily, before suddenly leaping into action. He jerked upwards, nearly knocking heads with Charlie, before swinging his legs over the mattress, and examining Charlie's face.

"What did those bastards do to you?" he breathed, tilting Charlie's face in the dim light.

"Nothing." Charlie said defensively.

"Charlie, they broke your nose." Don snapped, touching it delicately.

Charlie let Don probe his nose and the area around it gently, before jumping away painfully when Don pressed against both sides of it painfully.

"What are you doing!" he yelped, clutching his nose, from which a thin stream of blood was once again flowing.

"Charlie, let me set it or you'll be breathing into your ear for the rest of your life." Don said, dragging him closer.

Charlie compiled, inching closer. "How…how did you get here?"

Don winced as he touched Charlie's nose, trying to find the break. "I figured out your code. Very quaint, using telephone numbers."

"I thought so." Charlie's breathing became increasingly labored as Don pressed his nose, "Aren't…aren't you supposed to wait for the swelling to go down?"

Don raised a brow. "Where'd you learn that?"

"Larry told me once that- OUCH! Just let go, let go! I'll take care of it later!" Charlie knocked Don's hands away, eyes watering, "Lets…lets just focus on getting out of here."

Don sighed in annoyance. "Fine. Shove over; I'll untie you."

"Thanks." Charlie said gratefully, holding his bound hands up.

Don quickly unknotted the ropes and while Charlie stretched his rope-worn arms and legs, he examined the door. "You find any way out?" he questioned, knocked lightly on the door.

Charlie shook his head. "I dismantled the bed and tried to use one of the poles as a weapon, but it only got me as far as the hallway."

Don blinked at him. "You got past them?" he asked incredulously.

Charlie blushed; so much for his pride. "Yes, but when that didn't work, I had to revert back to my math."

"You did great, Buddy." Don said ruffling Charlie's curls, "I'm here now; I'll take care of you."

Charlie smiled thinly. "I knew you would."

Staggering suddenly, Don placed his hand on the cleaned wall for support. Suddenly his face clenched, tightening as dizziness from the hit from the hammer caught up with him, causing the last meal in his stomach to try and regurgitate itself in a very disgusting way.

"Oh God…" Don bent over, face white.

"Don!" Charlie jumped to his feet and awkwardly patted his back, trying to soothe him, "Are…are you alright?"

"Yeah…Yeah…" almost collapsing, Don sank back onto the make shift bed, "What a day…" he muttered.

"You're telling me." Charlie quipped dryly.

Reaching up, Don grabbed Charlie and dragged him onto the bed. "You look like shit." he informed his younger brother.

"You should take a look in the mirror, pal." Charlie muttered.

Don grinned and stretched out on the bed, pulling his brother down with him. "No sense in wearing ourselves out when there's no way to get out. We'll rest for a while and then figure out what to do." Yawning tiredly, Don threw an arm protectively over Charlie and closed his eyes.

"Who are you and what have you done with my brother?" Charlie questioned, before being lulled to sleep himself, by his brother's rhythmic breathing.

…

"Mommy?"

The world tilted and spun before finally righting itself to reveal Charlie, dazed and confused, standing next to his eight-year-old self. Blinking, Charlie assessed the scene; his younger self was walking through hallways of his home, but something was different. Charlie looked around. The edges of the hall were blurred and soft, dark and gloomy. Was this how he remembered his childhood home?

"Mommy?" his younger shadow called out, "Mommy, where-"

The younger Charlie abruptly scrunched up his face, his pale complexion mirroring his older double. Quietly, he crept forward and leaned around the corridor like a sprinter ready to run the hundred-yard dash. Curiously, Charlie leaned with him, almost stumbling forward when his younger self walked forward, nervousness radiating from every pore of his body.

Moving quickly, Charlie followed himself towards a cracked open door. As he walked closer he started to hear soft music drifting out of the room. Peeking in along with his double, he caught sight of his mother, ageless and beautiful, and his father, smiling and completely in love. Together, they were swaying slowly to the swirling music wrapping around them. The lit candles around them illuminated and darkened them at the same time, casting lifeless shadows around their bodies, but highlighting the identically rapture in their faces. Charlie smiled wistfully; he had always known that his parents had been in love, but…how much…it was indefinable. Leaning forward, Charlie strained forward to catch the whispered murmurs of his parents.

"Love you," Alan suddenly whispered into Margaret's hair, blowing stray strands out of her face.

His mother laughed, her voice a soft tinkle reverberating in her throat. "I love you too." she breathed, leaning her smooth forehead against his.

"Nope," Alan said, suddenly twirling her around the room as the music cascaded upwards, "There's no possible way you could love me as much as I love you; sometimes I feel as though my heart would explode if I as much as let my eyes dwell on you for too long." he sighed as he slowed their dance until it was nothing more than a leisurely rocking between two bodies., "At least I'd die happy."

Margaret frowned, her pretty face darkening. "Don't say that," she admonished, "Who'd take care of the boys?"

Alan laughed. "Are you planning on dying soon?" he asked jokingly.

Margaret shook her head, the frown still marring her pretty face. "No, but someone needs to be there for the boy's…Charlie-" She stopped moving suddenly and pulled away from Alan, as if distancing herself, not only physically, but also mentally.

From the sidelines Charlie watched tensely; looking down, he could see the knots forming in his younger counterpart's shoulders.

"You'll take care of the boys, if…if something happened to me, wouldn't you?

Alan shook his head in denial. "I'd follow you," he said fervently, with all the passion of a young man under true love's spell, with all the faith of a father…with all the naivety of someone who had never really lost someone close. "Not even the Devil himself would stop me." he swore.

Margaret looked at him concernedly. "So…so don't you go off and do something silly." Alan warned jokingly, though his returning smile was strained.

The mood, it seemed, had changed dramatically.

"You can't Alan," Margaret said desperately, as if foreseeing the future, "Promise me you'll be here for the boys…always."

Alan hesitated. "Only if you promise me first. Promise me that you'll never leave me for as long as it's in your power to do so, because…because without you I don't make sense. I wouldn't be able to get up in the morning, or go to work, or even…I'd be hollow, hollow inside."

Margaret smiled, and suddenly, Charlie's world began to blur. She stepped back into Alan's welcoming embrace and hugged him close. "I promise."

Then, as Charlie's world faded away, he indistinctly heard his father whisper, "then…I promise too."

Fleeing back into the darkness from with he had arrived, all Charlie was left with were faint strains of music to lull him back to sleep.

…

Charlie's eyes snapped open; he knew he did who did it! Rolling over on the lumpy mattress, Charlie reached out an arm to shake Don awake, but…but…

Don was gone.

To Be Concluded…