A/N: Do you like so far? I hope you do…all I have to say is that I'm big on Whumping Don and Charlie equally and there will be lots in this story…R&R
Don parked the car in his brother's driveway. He knew it was late but he knew his brother would be up…he was always up this late. He quietly let himself into the house not wanting to wake anybody that might be sleeping. Silently he walked into the kitchen and grabbed a beer. He noticed the note on the table from his Dad, feeling silly about being so quiet when his father had obviously been gone due to the lack of car in the driveway and that Charlie was awake seeing the beam of light emanating from the bottom of the garage door. He was surprised that he didn't hear the vigorous tapping of chalk on a blackboard or the faint echo of music blaring from an i-pod. He faintly smiled at himself, Charlie must be stumped on something.
He opened the garage wandering deeper in to see his brother. He was shocked to see it empty. Charlie's i-pod was tossed carelessly to the floor the desk had been slipped back at one corner a good foot, and one of the blackboards hanging from the was had fallen to the floor. Confused at the odd status of the garage Don took a closer look finding a pool of blood collected at the corner of the board. Alarms bells fired up crazily and the gut feeling kicked in full force as he went hurriedly through the house calling his brother, searching each room. In the end he found himself back in the garage, still without his brother, staring at the sickly pool of blood. It wasn't a tremendous amount of blood, but it was enough to scare him. The first person he called was Megan.
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Charlie woke with a start, pain erupting around his head he cried out. Collapsing back down to the ground he hit his forehead on the ground unable to hold back a whimper. I'm lying on the ground…Why am I on the ground? For that matter where am I? Charlie took a moment to assess himself. He was lying on the ground stomach down, head splitting in two in complete darkness. Slowly, ever so slowly he rolled onto his back being mindful of not touching his head to anything. For the moment he was content to simply stay propped up on his elbows. Ok, wait for the room to stop spinning, then sit up…wait, how do I know the room is spinning when everything is pitch black? Now think…What do I remember last? Ummmm…I was working on that equation…someone came into the garage...that's right he attacked me. That must be why my head hurts so much, he must have won
Easing himself onto his knees he crawled in one direction, although he didn't know which, until he reached a wall. Carefully he followed the wall until he reached a corner and followed the next wall. The third wall showed him to be in a rectangular room which so far had no door. At the third corner he stopped to catch his breath and wait for the room, which had begun rocking like a boat, to still again. After who knew how long he started following the fourth wall. About half way along a door he was about to come across flew open landing a solid blow on the side of his face. The force of the blow knocked him away from the door rolling twice like a hot dog before coming to a stop. Cradling his head he couldn't stop the groans and grunts as waves of agony coursed through his head, the world spinning and rocking, his blurring and clearing. The entering person grimaced.
"Oops, she's not gonna like that." Sighing the person walked into the room, lifting Charlie to his feet, half walking, half carrying him out of the room. Charlie didn't bother struggling, still dizzy with pain and completely blinded by the sudden burst of light. He was led into another room with just as irritatingly bright light. The door closed behind him and he reminded himself not to sit in front of that one. His escort sat him down in a chair and he stayed there. He didn't want to move. His eyes finally adjusted to the bright light. Before him sat a woman in jeans and burgundy t-shirt elbows on her knees and chin resting on her fingertips, the posture reminded him a little of Larry. Her long black hair was pulled into a loose ponytail and she had an angular face, pale white skin, and sharp blue eyes.
"Hello professor"
"Where am I?"
"You're in one of my facilities"
"How long have I been unconscious?"
"Almost two days, but no more questions, I have a proposition for you professor."
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Don slammed his head down against the desk ignoring the throb it sent through his skull. He didn't bother bringing it back up, he knew he would just slam it back down again. The frustration was reaching the boiling point and slamming his head against the desk had seemed to be the only way to vent without hurting innocent bystanders. It had been two days since Charlie disappeared.
"Making progress huh?" Don lifted his head to see Megan leaning against the entrance to his cubicle with a forced smile. Don just let his head fall back to the desk with a loud thud.
"It's been two days, Megan, two days without leads, without contact, absolutely no sign of him. All we know is that he disappeared in the garage, a desk was moved, a blackboard fell from the wall, and a pool of blood that was matched to Charlie…that's all." Don let the frustrations vent a little bit more with yet another head bang on the desk. Megan gave him a sad, sympathetic smile.
"We all want him back Don, he's part of the team. Colby and David are out right now interrogating neighbors in case they saw anything."
"At least they're out doing something, but, me his own brother can only sit here, doing nothing. Just shows how good of a brother I am."
"Don stop it. We're all frustrated at the lack of leads, but there is something you can do," Don looked at his partner hopefully, "go home, be with your father, he needs you right now. He shouldn't be left alone with one son missing like this." Don knew she was right, he should go home. His father was home worried sick about Charlie, as well as him most likely, but every time he thought about going home to his father without the ability to say that he'd found Charlie, that everything was going to be okay, it killed him because he knew he would see the disappointment, the sadness in his father's eyes, and he just couldn't do it.
He nodded faintly at Megan hoping she would leave him in his misery. She turned to leave, looked back at him as if looking to see if he would really go home, and then she left. Don just stared at the clock, watching the seconds turn into minutes, trying to build the strength to face his father. Finally after half and hour of staring hopelessly at the clock, hoping Charlie would just walk through the door, he rose wearily from his chair and went home, hoping he had the strength for his father, for him, but most of all, for Charlie.
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"Let me get this straight, you want me to improve the existing weapons you already have, making them deadlier than ever before so you can what? Take on the police, gangs, or how about the F.B.I? Why on earth would I do that?" Charlie stared at his captor disbelieving.
"Perhaps because you don't have a choice, perhaps because I have the power to make you, or perhaps because I hold your life in my hands, take your pick." Charlie thought for a moment, looking for the loop hole in all of this. He couldn't help her develop new deadlier weapons, but he also knew she was right, she did have the power to make him cooperate and she did hold his life in her hands.
"It doesn't matter, my brother will find me, he's always come through for me in the past and he'll come through for me this time." Charlie grinned with a conqueror's pride at the statement, he knew he was right.
"Oh really, so you think he'll come through for you eh. Did he come through for you in high school when you needed your big brother to protect you from the older kids who bullied you?" Charlie's face dropped. "Or the time when he took the girl you'd asked out to prom instead of you, did he come through for you then?" Charlie desperately tried to block out her words as she mercilessly tore open old wounds. "Oh and I'm sure he came through for you the time you needed him the most," she paused for a moment letting her words sink deep, "oh yeah, he came through for you all right, when your mother was dying in the hospital from cancer, and you were so devastated that you didn't know where to turn. So devastated that when you looked for somewhere to turn for comfort the only thing you found was an unsolvable equation. You lost yourself to P vs. NP because big brother wasn't there to comfort you. Oh and don't forget that your brother came through for you when you were being kidnapped." She waited watching her victim. His eyes were glued to the floor. "I'll let you think about that while we wait for your savior brother to come through for you, after all, we can clearly see that he always came through for you before." With that she nodded to his escort to take him back.
"He'll find me" Charlie whispered…barely.
A/N: oooh, aren't I mean…let's all say it together…POOR CHARLIE! I just love being evil. Well I hope you liked it…stayed tuned for more Charlie whumping to come!
