Disclaimer: I don't own the characters; they belong to Cheryl Heuton and Nicolas Falacci.
Los Angeles Field Office
0100 Hours PST
Agent Liz Warner had to take a few steps backwards past the war room to make sure she was seeing what she was actually seeing. Frowning, Liz stepped inside and looked at Charlie Eppes with interest. The professor was sitting cross-legged on top of one of the tables, absentmindedly tapping a marker against his knee.
Staring at a blank markerboard. There was not a single mark anywhere on the board.
Someone placed a hand on her shoulder. She turned to see Don standing behind her. One arm was in a sling, and with his good hand, he let it drift to his lips, and then motioned for her to step outside.
Liz nodded, moving out into the hall to where Colby and David were leaning against Don's cubicle. "I….I don't even know if I can process Charlie just sitting there doing nothing," she told the two men.
"Yeah, well, he's had a rough night," Colby ground out.
Everyone on the team saw Charlie Eppes as a little brother figure, even if he was smarter than the four of them combined. Along with that, they all had an understanding that even if he didn't carry a gun and work in the same office, Charlie Eppes was part of their squad.
But he wasn't an FBI agent. And as such, there was an unspoken rule between everybody on the Violent Crimes squad that there were certain things Charlie didn't need to know. If it couldn't help him map data, or create an equation, then he didn't need to see it.
Daryl Langager's case files contained data he needed. But there were things in there that an outsider, someone who didn't see this stuff on a daily basis, didn't need to be corrupted by. It would be simple enough just to remove that information to give the mathematician what he needed. But Charlie was curious by nature, and if there was even a thin thought in his mind that some of that retracted information might be crucial, he'd go looking for it.
Which was why the casefiles were in Don's desk drawer, the one that locked.
None of Don's team had been thrilled about keeping the Langager case from Charlie, but all three had been on explicit orders from their boss not to say anything. They understood it. But it didn't mean they liked it.
It was going to be a long night. The entire team saw Alan Eppes as a father figure, a pillar of strength and encouragement, an open door, and an open ear. The fact that he was in the hands of someone like Langager, the fact that someone in their own ranks might have been helping Langager from the inside, pissed them off.
It was going to be hard to keep this one from getting personal.
"Anything from Langager yet?" Liz asked.
David shook his head. "He's makin' Don sweat a little. When he does finally make contact, it'll be nice and showy."
"Hopefully not too showy," Liz muttered.
"I hate sitting on my thumbs like this," Colby said. "We should be doing something."
"What if we run it from square one?" Liz offered. Off David's interested look, she continued, "Let's pull the case files, let's start at the beginning. Maybe something will pop- a safe house, a motive-"
"A name as to who might be helping Langager from inside our own building?" David's eyes narrowed. "I'd like to nail that guy to the wall."
"Nicer than me," Colby told him. "I'd rather put him through the wall."
"Well, it's something. Let's, ah-" David nodded in the direction of the war room, where Don had just opened the door, "-let's give those two a minute, huh?"
Charlie Eppes had heard his brother come in the room. He waited until he was pretty sure his brother was standing behind him, and then he said, "You know, at this point, I'd probably have a pursuit curve or a Markov chain for you guys to be running down leads. If I had any clue as to where to start."
"Yeah, buddy, I know," Don said softly.
"Why are you keeping this from me?" Charlie asked him, finally turning to look at his older brother. The stress of the night was getting to him, Don could see it etched in his face. "We've dealt with worse guys before."
Don shook his head. "I have," he amended Charlie's statement. "You have not. Charlie, what this guy did to his victims…you haven't seen anything like that before. And I wanted to keep it that way." Don sat down on the edge of the table. He debated putting a hand on Charlie's arm, or shoulder, but chose to give him his space. "Not every case needs your expertise. We had caught this guy once without your help, I didn't think we'd need you the second time around."
Charlie looked at him. "And yet, clearly, you do," he said pointedly.
"Charlie, I don't have any data for you to work with," Don countered. "I'm not showing you the casefiles, okay?"
"Oh come on!" Charlie exploded. "You know there's other data sets I can work with-locations, dates, times, past movements. I don't need to see the stupid casefiles, Don!" He stepped away from his brother and moved over to the board, his fingers deftly mapping out an x-y graph. "We can assess Langager's past behavior and track his movements, we can add in your pursuit of him and knowledge of how he works-"
"Give it a rest, Charlie!" Don fired back. "It's not happening, okay? Look, you're not going anywhere near this case, and that's the end of it!"
"He's got our dad!"
"I know, Charlie, I was there!" Don slammed his free hand down on the table. "And I don't want him getting near anybody else!" He glared at his brother. "I already sent Robin up to her parents' place to keep her away from this nutjob-"
"And you didn't think to put protection on your family?" Charlie cut in bitterly.
"Get out." Don's voice was dead calm.
Charlie blinked once. "What?" he asked, convinced that he hadn't heard Don clearly the first time.
"Get out and go home. I'll send David or Colby with you. Get out." Inwardly, he cursed the fact that he'd put that look on his brother's face. It was the same look Charlie'd used to get when Don would ditch him to play baseball with his friends when they were kids.
"Don-"
"Don't make me revoke your security clearance. It takes me one phone call."
Charlie stared at him. Then, he nodded, swallowing hard. Don watched him walk out of the bullpen and head for the elevators, the Violent Crimes squad looking stunned as he trudged past. Don shot David a Look. David nodded, reaching for his jacket and keys.
He waited until the elevator door chimed. Then, Don finally allowed himself to sit down, pinching the bridge of his nose.
Call, Langager. 'Cause I don't know how much more of this I can handle.
Colby Granger slipped into the stairwell and dialed a number. "Hey. It's Colby. Yeah, Charlie just left the office. Don's not letting him touch this case, but I don't think that's gonna stop him. He's probably gonna be headed your way soon, wanted to give you a heads up."
