Thank you for all the great reviews, guys.

The beta'ing process is taking forever, but I promise I'll update soon.

I know there's a lot of Don in these chapters but I promise more of Charlie soon.

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Time seemed to have no meaning when working the night shift. There were no people around, no one to tell you it was time for a break or a meal. Data seemed to make more sense when the stars were out. When Charlie heard the birds outside his garage, he knew morning was just around the corner. For a while he just ignored it, but he knew some things couldn't be ignored forever. He got out of his chair, rubbing his tired eyes. He was planning on a good shower and a hot cup of coffee, thinking that he just might fool his brother into believing he'd gotten some sleep.

He was almost finished with this batch of data and he would be happy to make this morning phone call to Lorelei because they had made some significant progress with their work. Maybe after giving her the new algorithms, he would sleep for a few hours. His vision was getting blurry enough for him to consider it.

Everyone was awake by the time Charlie got out of the shower. Alan was cooking breakfast while Don was reading the morning paper. Charlie headed for his room to make his call. Breakfast, and Don's third degree, could wait until he was done.

Charlie was surprised when a man's voice answered in Lorelei's office.

"Hello, is Lorelei there?"

"Charlie?"

"Colonel Harrison?"

Thomas Harrison was in charge of the project both Charlie and Lorelei were consulting for. He wasn't supposed to be in Lorelei's civilian office.

"Charlie, you need to come in. Lorelei's been killed." Colonel Harrison spoke slowly.

Silence.

"Charlie?"

Charlie didn't know what to say. He and Lorelei had often worked together; she was the one that had recommended him for this job. Now, he wished he had never heard about it. They were friends and Charlie didn't have many friends that understood him. Lorelei, dead? That didn't seem to make any sense. He had seen her two days ago, when he had decided to drop off some data himself instead of using the AF Sergeants as his delivery guys. An image of her from two days ago surfaced in his mind, almost making him gasp.

"What? How?" Charlie's voice reflected his shock.

"I'm sending someone to pick you up. Are you calling from home?"

"Yeah." Charlie didn't trust himself with too many words.

"I need you to listen to me. Because Lorelei was a civilian computer expert and her office was on federal property, the military will not be investigating this. The FBI will. If you see them before we talk, I need you to say nothing until we make sure they have clearance, ok? Charlie?"

"Yeah. I'll see you later." Charlie hung up the phone, barely aware of his own actions as he sat on the bed behind him. He knew shock had a tendency to grab hold of him and send his mind to terrible places.

It had happened when his mother was sick.

It had happened when Don was shot.

He could feel it happening now. P vs NP seemed to give him comfort that he couldn't explain to anyone. Math was the only thing that could switch his thoughts to something else for a second or two, and he grabbed hold of those seconds like a lifeline. It was the only thing that kept him sane at times, the only thing that calmed him down. All the other seconds in the day were spent on trying to distract himself from whatever had caused the initial shock.

Charlie kept sitting on his bed, staring into space.

He didn't remember there was breakfast waiting downstairs.

He didn't remember he was hungry.

He didn't remember his family waiting downstairs for him to eat with them.

He kept staring, waging his own battle against P vs NP.

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Don was just about to take his first bite of his breakfast when his cell phone rang. Phone calls in annoying times were an occupational hazard that Alan understood but still hated.

"Eppes." Don stepped away from the table.

"Don, we have a new case. A Dr. Lorelei Roberts was killed in her office. She provides some computer services to the LA Federal bank so we were asked to intervene. Her sister also said she had some big government consulting job on developing some kind of a new computer algorithm, so we think her work might be the reason she died." Don heard the slight hesitation in David's voice before he continued, "Maybe you should bring Charlie with you; her work might make sense to him."

"Right."

Don was already up the stairs to his brother's room when David gave him the address for Lorelei's office. He hung up the phone as he entered his younger brother's room.

"I need your help, Charlie." Don hated saying those words. He hated asking his little brother for help with his own job. Whenever those feelings crept up on him, he would tell himself the case was all that mattered. Finding the killer was the most important thing.

It had taken him a while to understand two things. One was that Charlie was gifted and that no one else that worked for the FBI could do the things he did. He always knew his brother was special, but he didn't quite understand it until he had seen its effects on his own work.

The second thing he had realized was that there was no cockiness in the way his brother agreed to help. There was no self importance or a feeling of superiority. His brother simply liked helping him with a job that mattered.

But he still hated asking him for help.

"Charlie?" It took Don a second to realize his brother was staring into space and didn't seem to hear a word he was saying.

"What?" Charlie seemed to stir back into the real world when his brother stopped right in his line of sight.

"Are you ok?"

"I'm a little busy these days, Don. Don't think I have time for something new." Charlie avoided answering Don's question simply because he didn't know the answer to it.

"Maybe you should get some sleep." Don eyed his brother carefully, trying to decide if this behavior was because of his lack of sleep, or if something else was going on.

"Yeah, maybe."

Charlie made no attempt to move.

"I'm going to go to work, and you are going to sleep. I'll come back if there's anything you can do."

No comment.

Don quietly exited the room, hoping his brother would indeed go to sleep. Charlie used to drift away like this on a regular basis when they were younger, but Don hadn't seen him staring into space quite like this in a while, and it didn't sit well with him.

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Please R&R