A/N Thank you very much for your reviews for Mistaken Part One. I appreciate your support.

After careful consideration, I have decided to add the aftermath (Mistaken Part Two) directly to the story. Like in real life, it takes longer to deal with the aftermath than with the actual incident. Part two of Mistaken is five chapters long, posting every weekday until complete.

Mistaken Part Two

The Aftermath 1/5

Don walked along the CalSci steam tunnels. They seemed longer than he remembered them. A cold breeze made him shiver, but didn't help against the sticky air. Wasn't it supposed to be warm in the tunnels? Another shiver ran down his spine. Trudging on through the cold and damp air, his destination seemed out of reach in the semi-darkness. A destination he didn't even know yet. Straight and without any corners, the tunnel stretched endlessly.

All of a sudden, a bright light blinded him. Tears sprung to his eyes, as he tried to blink through the mist in front of his eyes. After he had gotten used to the brightness, Don marched towards the lights. He finally had recognized them as spotlights. Spotlights like the FBI used to floodlight a crime scene. His steps faltered as he realized that his destination was a crime scene. Wearily, he continued in small steps.

Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw shadowy people moving outside of the circle of light, probably some technicians. Don heard the clicking of their cameras. The smell of suffering and death wafted across and Don had to suppress his urge to gag. Still, he couldn't see any other persons. Nobody seemed to be present. Then the sounds and smells vanished as fast as they had come. Cautiously, he stepped into the circle of light. Only a single door was caught in the light. Without other options, Don went to it and grabbed the doorknob. Hopefully some of his team would be waiting behind the door, and he would finally get some answer.

Pushing the door open, Don seemed to be the first to let light into the room. Nobody except the victim was in the room. Don's heart started to beat faster and the adrenaline sharpened his senses. He knew without a doubt that something was wrong. The victim had been to tied to one of the pipes and covered with a sheet. A half-empty bottle was tucked away between the body and the wall. Telling himself not to hesitate, Don grouched down and slowly pulled at the sheet. Slowly, he pulled down the sheet from the head revealing dark hair and a few bruises on a forehead. Then the sheet fell completely away, revealing the face. Dead eyes stared at Don. Dead eyes of a well-known face – his own. He jumped back and -

- with a scream on his lips, Don woke up. Scrambling out of the bed, he finished the motion he had started in his nightmare. His heart beat as if it wanted to burst his chest open, and he couldn't recover his breath, no matter how hard he tried.

Behind him, Robin shifted in the bed as she woke up. "Hey, hey, you're fine. Everything is all right," she said soothingly. She was awake, but her voice was still groggy and not as strong as usually. "Hey, it's all right."

The moonlight coming through the window provided enough light to dimly illuminate the room. Don leaned forward until his face touched the cool glass. Swallowing hard, he tried in vain to calm down his racing heart. Every night, he dreamed variations of the same dream. It never ended pleasantly. His mind was trying to make up for what he couldn't remember and coming up with increasingly terrifying situations.

Robin switched on her bedside lamp. "Do you want to talk about it?" she asked. With every word she seemed to wake up more, and the guilt Don felt increased. He was stealing her her much-needed sleep.

Still breathing hard, he turned around and tried to force a smile on his face. "Go back to sleep. I'm fine."

Robin had sat up in their bed, leaning against the head of the bed. "You're not fine. Come back here." She patted on the sheets next to her. "But it was just a nightmare," she continued as he couldn't find words to answer her. "The doc said it was normal and could happen." That much the doc at the hospital had said. Including that it could take months to go away. He was already done with it after two weeks. Glancing down at his wrists, he could still see the shadows of the marks of the zip-ties. "I'm fine. You said as much yourself." Don tucked away his hands. He didn't want to see the marks anymore.

"You're alive, but not fine." Robin raised her voice slightly, finally allowing the frustration to bleed through her iron control. "You know the difference. Don't twist my words."

Don turned away and grabbed his work-out clothes. "I'm going for a run," he announced and left the room without looking back, but Robin scrambled after with. She was still throwing on her dressing gown, as Don pulled on his running shoes. "Don't," she pleaded with him.

"Why not?" Don asked and continued to tie his shoes.

"Did you look at the clock? It's two in the morning." Robin crossed her arms and shuffled over. She came near enough that Don could smell her shampoo, the same one she had used yesterday evening in the shower. But she still kept her distance. "It's not a good time to go for a run."

"I need to." Standing up, Don grabbed his keys.

"You can also do push-ups if you need the physical activity." Her voice changed from frustrated to desperate. "You don't need to go for a run. Please, just stay."

"Robin."

"Trust me. You either look like a mugging victim or a thug and it won't go down well if you go for a run now."

Don jerked at word victim. Most of his bruises had faded already. The swelling had gone down, but the missed sleep and nightmares that plagued him, still left him looking sick. The dark circles beneath his eyes, the stubbly beard he had yet to shave off, all of that gave him a rough look. He knew as much. Until now, Don had avoided the pain of shaving regularly with a swollen and painful face. Maybe today, he needed to shave again.

Robin approached him directly, finally feeling safe to do so. Forcing himself to stay still, he shivered beneath her soft touch. Her cool fingers felt like rods digging into his skin as she stroked along his upper arms. And yet, her touch was careful and soothing. Don leaned into it until he could rest his head on her shoulder, just for a moment. "All right." He gave in, not wanting to hurt her again. The marks on her arms, after she had tried to wake him from a nightmare were already bad enough. Not matter how easily Robin had forgiven him.

Slipping out of her tender embrace, Don pulled off his shoes. But instead of going back to bed, Don aimed for the kitchen. He went to the table and grabbed his laptop. "Maybe Charlie has something for me. He wanted to take a look at the new data."

Robin sighed. Crossing her arms again, she followed him and turned on the lights, something Don had intentionally skipped. "Megan is an excellent agent."

"I know." The laptop needed a long time to boot up. Don wished he could speed it up.

"And yet you still search for a conspiracy? For other members of the same group?" Robin had made it more than clear what she thought about his attempts to find instigators and supporters of the three students that had drugged and abducted him as she had refused to help him to get a court order for CalSci's locked student records.

"Do you really believe that three students can do this all alone?" Don challenged her.

"Yes, I do. I believe what an agent writes down in a report. And Megan did her investigation with great care and didn't leave any stone untouched. You cannot find something that's not there."

"Charlie has done more with less," Don replied, refusing to listen. Instead, he checked his emails, but his inbox was empty. Charlie hadn't pulled a rabbit out of his hat yet. So he brought up the interrogation tapes again, knowing well that he was bending the rules hard by having this interrogation tapes on his laptop. He wasn't even allowed to participate in the investigation. Pushing boundaries now was a dangerous move considering that he was still under investigation for the shooting of their serial rapist. But he needed to know. He needed to understand. No matter what the rules said.

"What do you think you're going to find on these tapes?" Robin fixed him with a challenging glare on her own. He had seen a few of them in the last days. " You have seen them already a thousand times over."

"Answers."

The anger seemed to leave Robin, and she let her arms drop down to her sides. Then she sighed and went back to the bedroom. "Last question," she said, looking over her shoulder while her left hand rested on the door frame. "Do you even know to what question you are looking for answers?"

Don looked up but didn't reply. He just wanted answers, simple as that.

Alan polished his golf clubs with a white cloth. Don had agreed to go golfing on the weekend with him. All right, agreeing to it was pushing it but at least he hadn't flat out said no like the last three times he had asked.

The ringing of the doorbell interrupted his preparations. "Coming," Alan called out, put down his golf club and hurried over to the door before Larry and Amita would be distracted. He had after all offered his house, or better Charlie's house, for them to work on Amita's thesis because of the silence it provided in contrast to the chaos that still reigned CalSci.

As he opened his door, Alan found Dr. Finch waiting for him with a smile on her face. "Millie, I didn't expect you," Alan greeted the head of the math department. A woman he had dated and maybe even had fallen a little for. But nothing of that feeling had survived her actions after three of her students had attacked his sons. She had hesitated.

"Alan, nice to see you. Is your phone broken? You didn't answer any of my calls. So, I thought I come over," Millie said and thrust past him.

Maybe he wasn't over her as well as he had thought as he hadn't had it in his heart to stop her from coming in. "I was busy. Busy with the house and with - " He didn't say Don because he hadn't been spent much time with his son. Don had tried to go on with his life as if nothing happened. Only Alan seemed to see the widening of the hairline cracks in Don's armor, scaring him. Charlie seemed to deal better with the situation, he continued his teaching and office hours on campus. Apart from that, he worked in the garage on different calculations for Don.

"Oh, I understand," Millie said while she wrung her hands. "But I thought maybe we could talk?"

For the first time, Alan saw how nervous Millie really was. Usually, she could be jittery but always on the grounds of ironclad confidence. Now, she really seemed unsure about herself and about the conversation. "It's a bad time right now. I -"

"Yo?" Don called out as he came in from the garage. Alan sighed. Apparently, his son had found a new way to avoid him while still being able to talk to Charlie by circling around the house and entering the garage directly.

Don stumbled to a halt as he saw Millie, but recovered fast and plastered a bright smile on his face. "Hi Dad, Millie. Did either of you have seen Charlie? I've got some new stuff for his analysis." In his hand he held a thick folder. Going by the dark shadows on his face, Don had spent the better part of the night going over of the tapes and files again, trying to pick up new clues and information Charlie could use in his private network analysis. On the bright side, Alan noted, he had shaved again.

"He's already at CalSci before he meets -" Alan said before he could stop himself. "He's at CalSci," Alan stated again, trying to fix his mistake. Charlie hadn't wanted to know about the planned visit. Wearily, Alan glanced to his son, trying to see if Don had noticed his slip-up, but Don was distracted because he had finally spotted Larry and Amita sitting on the sofa. Don greeted the professors with a nod before he stared back at Alan. "All right," he said with a frown on his face as if he could look right through Alan's attempt to cover up his mistake, "then I'll just drop them off there."

"Don? I'm about to go there. I could take it with me, so you don't have to ..." Amita trailed off. Don still went to CalSci as if nothing had happened, pretending to be fine but apparently even Amita had seen how much such a visit costed Don and offered him a way out. Maybe Alan wasn't the only one seeing the cracks.

Don narrowed his eyes, obviously fighting with himself. "If it's no trouble for you," he started; it was a preamble for giving in.

"No trouble at all," Amita assured him.

"Fine. Thanks!" Don went over to the professors and dropped the thick file on the table in front of Amita. "Say thanks to Charlie and I'll expect his call." Having finished for what he came in, Don turned and went to the front door. But to leave the house he had to pass Millie. Alan sent her a warning glare.

"Oh, Don, while you're here, can I speak to you for a minute?" she asked ignoring Alan's warning. "It's about Serena Dillions," she continued without pause, without giving Don the chance to say no. "What happened is terrible and on behalf of CalSci I want to apologize for what you had to endure on our campus." Don narrowed his eyes. "As you probably know," Millie continued without taking a breath, "all three students are prosecuted on the same charges. But I thought that you maybe could put in a good word -"

Alan's jaw dropped. For a moment, he couldn't believe his ears. How did she dare!

"Serena is not a bad person, she's misguided and made a big mistake, but she shouldn't receive the same sentence as Horatio and Ron," Millie went on. "In return, I offer to stop our lawyers from contesting every single of your requests and your agents can take a look at all files, lists and records they want to as long as their requests remain reasonable."

Don had frozen on the spot, his whole body tense like a tightly coiled spring.

"After all, she had recognized her mistake and tried to fix it. Without her help this wouldn't have turned out as well as it had," Millie continued as if she couldn't see Don's reaction "She doesn't deserve the same treatment as the two others and -"

Finally, Alan found his voice again. "Millie," he snarled.

"I know, I know," she said while she held up her hand to stop a protest and glanced to Alan, "what she did was wrong and I'm not making excuses for her or asking for much but Don," she faced Don again, "you also don't ask for innocuous files. That's highly sensitive data you want to take a look at. And I'm just saying that she doesn't deserve the same punishment."

Don balled his hands into fists and breathed deeply in and out as if he tried to keep in a volcano.

"If you could demonstrate that not all FBI agents are -" she broke off not using the word that was clearly on her tongue. "Well, it would certainly help to mend the pieces on campus. Currently, a lot of people are reminded of other times when protesting had led to police violence."

An icy silence settled on the room and like taking a deep breath in freezing air it hurt Alan deep inside. "Don," he mouthed and started to reach out with his hand but stopped himself short of touching his son.

Finally, Don seemed to have wrestled down whatever he had fought with. "Well, me and my thugs, we'll just get going and leave you happy-protesting people alone," he spat out and marched forward to the door, forcing Millie to clear the path.

"Donnie!"

"It's all right dad." He said without turning around. "I know, I know. We had this discussion like a three thousand times. I get it."

"Donnie!" Alan repeated desperately. This hadn't been his intention. He hadn't even thought about his own past and his involvement with protests on campus. This wasn't - the door banged shut behind Don.

Alan felt his anger rising and finding its target. He shot Millie a glare that was supposed to melt iron on the spot.

"What!" Millie asked. "Do you have any idea what has been going on the last two weeks on campus? The FBI is everywhere, want to take a look at everything and poke their head into businesses they have no right to. They search everywhere for drugs or meth labs as if our students were all drug dealer. It's a fair offer to get back some peace. In face of injustice you won't get peace. I tried to help Serena without asking Don. I have hired a lawyer for her and all of it. But the lawyer says that Don's injuries were too severe to even get anything less than twenty years. Twenty years. The best she can hope for is twenty years. This isn't fair and -"

"Millie," Alan interrupted her, staring at her as if he had never seen her before. "I think it's better if you go now."

"Alan, you of all the people should know that these kids are not bad people. Serena isn't bad person." Millie argued despite that she had to see just how serious Alan was.

"No, I do not know such a thing," Alan said. "I only know what it means to sit bedside your son's hospital bed and to see the damage your students did. You should go now."

Millie opened her mouth but then thought better about it. Nodding, she turned and left the room without another word. The resulting silence was almost worse than the icy atmosphere. Before it became unbearable, Larry sighed loudly.

"What?" Alan swirled around. "Do you agree with her?"

Larry strolled over to the window and looked out before he turned back to the room. "I am comfortable with my knowledge that if you're young you're going to do foolish things. Foolish things that have unintended consequences. But right now, I am more worried about me doing foolish things."

"What are you talking about Larry?" Amita asked. She was the only one still sitting, having chosen to stay silent in this fight.

"I have the strange urge to ball my hand into a fist and smash it into the faces of these three students. They took everything I stand for and made a mess of it. Instead of achieving victory for their side with rational arguments, arguments they have plenty to chose from, they destroyed the willingness of people to listen." He lowered his hand and shook it, trying to loosen his fingers balled into a fist. "But how can I be a teacher and reach my students if my hand is balled into a fist and not offered as a helping hand? I'm not young enough anymore to be allowed such foolish behavior."

Alan's fury started to fizzle out, and he sat down in his chair. Suddenly, he seemed to feel all his years in his bones and on his shoulders, dragging him down.

"What did Don mean?" Amita asked, breaking the awkward silence. "I mean with his comment about -"

"As a young man," Alan explained, "I was a dedicated member of Californians for Peace. I was engaged in the antiwar movement and -" he shrugged "I even got arrested at one of the sit-ins. Since these days, we, my wife and I, haven't been friends of the FBI. Too much had happened back then. Millie shares this same background."

"Oh. And Don?"

"Don was even present as I was arrested. I don't think he remembers. As far as I know he was first confronted with my file as he applied for a job at the FBI." Alan credited his wife's hard work and the stubborn refusal to lose that both Don and himself displayed, with keeping the family together even as Don joined the FBI.

"The ever conflict between the generations," Larry said.

"But this time there is no conflict. What these students did -"

"Ron Silar, Horatio Cruz and Serena Dillons," Amita added, repeating the names to not forget that real persons had done this, had drugged, beat up and abducted Don.

"What they did is inexcusable," Alan finished his sentence. "I have no sympathy for them at all. And if the FBI is coming after them and everybody who had helped them, then I consider this justice."

"I kind of understand them," Amita blurted out.

Alan gasped at her. Before he could say something, Amita hurriedly explained. "No not like that. It's just, we have some form of protest on the campus daily, and everybody agrees and draw diagrams and prepares data for campaigns. We have research groups and discussions. And yet nothing ever changes. If you go across the campus, you'll find garbage everywhere. We drink coffee out of disposable cups, and we don't do the things we know that we should do. I can understand why they wanted to do something different, something that made the world listen."

Crossing his arms, Alan fought down the anger. Amita had a right to voice her opinion even if he disagreed. "Well, all they achieved was that I hardened my heart. I'll never think about these issues again without thinking about Don."

"And Charlie," Amita added in a heavy voice. "The real target."

Alan shivered. "And Charlie," he agreed.

TBC

A/N Thank you for reading. Next chapter on Monday.