A/N Thank you for reading!

Mistaken Part Two

The Aftermath 4/5

Don walked along the CalSci steam tunnels. They seemed longer than he remembered them. Fog had filled up the tunnels and Don couldn't see his hand in front of his eyes. Slowly, he moved along the wall. The fog invaded his lungs, squeezing out the air he needed to breath.

Shivering, Don marched on. Somewhere in the distance, he could see a light. Moving forward, Don listened for any voice or movements, but he was all alone.

Finally, the fog lifted and Don could see a crime scene in front of him. The light was a spotlight used to illuminate the surrounding area. Spotting Megan, Don ambled over to her. Nobody seemed in too much of a hurry. Whatever had happened here seemed to have left them all silent.

A faceless agent stepped in front of him, holding his hand up, but Don just walked through him. He could see Megan's lips moving, but he couldn't hear any voices. She stood in front of the victim but before he could order her away, she vanished into the fog that had caught up to him.

Crouching down, Don saw the dead body of a young man, tied to a pipe. His head was tilted back and his mouth opened in a silent stream. He wanted to ask the cause of death as Don detected a small detail. The dark and wet hairs started to curl where they were longer. He knew a guy with dark curly hair. Fighting against the nausea, he tilted the victims head forward, so he could look at the face - the face of his little brother. Charlie!

Don awoke with a start. Fighting against the sheets that trapped him in bed, he scrambled out of the bed. His heart thumped fast. Shaking all over, Don had to force himself to take deep breaths. He closed his eyes, but there the dead eyes of his brother were waiting for him, and he snapped them open again.

Robin was still sleeping. Somehow, he had been silent enough, or maybe she was tired enough. On tiptoes, Don left the bedroom. After changing clothes, he put on his running shoes. He glanced back to bedroom almost as if he expected to see Robin standing there, staring at him in disappointment. But there was nobody. Don grabbed his cell and left the apartment to go running.

A city never truly slept but still most people were sleeping. Sleeping again without dreaming seemed like a distant memory. Don easily found his rhythm for his feet and his breath. Step by step, the images from his dream vanished.

Out of the corner of his eyes, Don saw another runner joining him. "Thanks for calling," David said between two breaths.

"Robin worries too much," Don replied before he returned his focus on the rhythm of his steps.

"So does your dad."

Don acknowledged David's statement with a slight nod. But the reminder costed him his focus and Don started to speed up, running faster and faster. With a sprint, David reached him again. Touching Don's shoulder, David managed to slow Don down. "You need to forgive."

Don lost his rhythm, stumbled and then stopped abruptly.

Breathing hard, David also came to a halt. "After Colby was revealed to be a double agent, I was just angry. You know that. Not even the knowledge that Colby actually was a triple agent could appease my anger." Starting with stretching, David waited a few moments before he continued. "You offered me some advice back then - to let go."

"That's different. Colby -"

"Yes, it's different but anger won't simply go away, you know that Don," David said. "You can't outrun your anger. You can't outrun your powerlessness. Yes, you can run until you don't have the energy to be angry anymore but you can not truly outrun your anger."

Don crossed his arms, ignoring the knowledge that he shouldn't go from running to standing still. "Forgive? Who?"

"For starter, how about yourself?" David turned and started to run again.

What David had done was actually Don's preferred method, saying what he wanted to say and then vanishing. Don could either let David run away or following him. In the end, his legs started to move before he had reached a conscious decision.

"And then?" Don asked after he had caught up with David, and they both had considerably slowed down again.

"You forgive Serena Dillons, Horatio Cruz and Ron Silar."

"And why should I?"

"To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you. Or my personal favorite quote: Always forgive your enemies – nothing annoys them so much."

Don smirked and shook his head. "When you'd learned that?"

"After the Colby debacle." David said and slowed down further to have enough breath to explain. "As Colby was still in prison, my anger didn't hurt anybody except me. You and Megan have taught me that lesson."

Don started to sped up again. It was time to finish the conversation. There was a reason he wanted to run alone. "They wanted to kidnap my brother. That's unforgivable."

"Then at least stop thinking about it. Stop going over every report you can find with a fine comb time and time again. Stop going over the interrogation tapes. Give yourself time to cool down," David said.

"Why?"

"Because the more you think about it, the angrier you will become."

Don growled before he focused on the road ahead, running faster and faster until he finally couldn't hear David's steps beside him anymore. In his anger, he didn't turn around to see David's worried expression. He just continued on his path, running faster.

"If I'd know we had the fed, I would have killed him. Next time I won't be so stupid again."

Charlie almost dropped the receiver as he heard the harshly spoken words. With difficulty, he managed to stay and not run away. Raising his head, he looked at Ron Silar. Charlie hoped for a sign that the words were just a form of blustering but Ron's expressions underlined how seriously he was.

Looking over to David, Charlie drew strength from David's unswerving attitude. Charlie wet his lips before he managed to speak. "Ron, what happened to the student who came from Fresno to learn how to build robots and solar collectors, two years ago?" Even his own father had been drawn back to campus because of robots. It may have not been the sole reason or Ron Silar wouldn't have picked biomechanics but it was usually part of the reasoning.

Ron snorted. "He got a wake up call. We don't have time to do it the classic way with sit-ins and so on. The antiwar movement had thought they had succeeded but thirty years later, we're back at war, killing innocents and destroying nature by producing and using weapons. Do you call this success?"

Charlie swallowed hard. From the other two, Serena and Horatio, he had learned about the effects of seeing just the now and betting survival against humanity. But he didn't know what he could learn from this hard and cold man sitting in front of him, just separated by a glass. "How would the death of my brother have changed that?"

"Somebody has to make them feel the urgency. Nothing changes, if we don't change it."

"And you wanted to go all the way including to kill another human being?" Charlie asked falling back into the routine of a teacher asking questions. "I thought you wanted to save the planet."

"You don't understand, do you? It's not the time to think about yourself. We all have to make sacrifices," Ron snarled.

"My brother Don is not a sacrifice." Charlie slammed the receiver down and stood up.

"You will see. One day you will understand that this is the only way. Waiting won't change anything. We're all going to die if we don't do something now. By the time the government and your brother comes around it will be too late. You'll see," Ron shouted, wanting and needing to be heard through the glass.

Charlie shivered as he caught Ron's intensive glare. Ron would have stopped at nothing. As long as he thought he was saving the planet, he would not slow down to consider his options, to consider the consequences. Turning on his heel, Charlie fled the room before the guards even reached Ron to take him back to his cell. Charlie just wanted to leave this place and the thousands of locks couldn't be opened fast enough for his taste.

Only after he had reached the outside and stepped into the bright and hot California sun, Charlie allowed himself to take a deep breath and release his tensed muscles again. He leaned forward and stemmed his hands on his knees, letting the sun warming up his back.

"Are you all right?" David asked and patted him on the back.

Nodding, Charlie slowly straightened back up. He looked to David, hoping that he could provide the missing answers. "Charlie," David said, apparently sensing his distress. "We call this radicalization. Take an issue and focus on it until it fills your entire horizon. In the end, they can't see anything else except that."

"And what can we do against this? It's a waste of talent," Charlie said. "A waste of life."

David put on his sun glasses. "Wasn't this one of your selling points in why you needed to talk to them? To develop an algorithm that spots the point of no return when passion turns into single-mindedness, when seeking justice turns into vigilantism?"

Charlie shrugged but couldn't come up with words to explain his thoughts. He wasn't even sure anymore if such an algorithm was possible. If he assumed that none of the three students had wanted to kill him or Don at first, then why did all of them deal so differently with what happened? It had to be something in their life, something that had been different. "I need my laptop."

"It's in the car," David said and smiled as if he had expected Charlie's request.

Frowning, Megan watched together with Colby as James Edward and his lawyer disappeared into the elevator. Edward's simple shirt and jeans didn't match the highly expensive suit his lawyer wore. The young man had been the only one of Horatio Cruz' high-school friends that had been worth to take a closer look. But Edwards had satisfied them that he had no longer any connection to Horatio nor any knowledge of the plan.

Megan took a deep breath after the elevator doors had closed. Now she had to explain this to Don. As he had no official say in the matter, it shouldn't be too hard, and yet she wanted to convince him. She still held onto the hope that if she could just convince him, Don would be able to let it go and go on with his life and not getting stuck forever in four hours on campus.

"You know Megan," Colby said, "it's a good thing that I'm just a low level agent and don't have to tell this Don."

Megan snorted and rolled her eyes. Turning around, she caught Don's glare. Of course, he would have watched them. "Good luck," Colby murmured and started in the opposite direction. With a sigh and a plastic smile, Megan went over to Don.

"And?" Don asked, his arms crossed.

"Nothing. He made it clear that he had changed his views."

"But he is working in the oil industry, right?"

"Yes. He followed his father's footstep a year after he finished high school and is taking now classes in his spare time to earn his degree."

"And what did he do that year after high school?"

"Campaigning for climate protection." Megan had to give it to Charlie and Colby, they really had found the needle in the stack.

"What's with the lawyer?" Don asked and indicated with his chin to the elevator where the lawyer and Edward had disappeared.

"You can still make a lot of money in this business. And Edward apparently knows when to go to his boss."

"Should we warn his employer?"

"Don, he's chosen to make money to make a living over any ideals he has expressed in his senior year in high school and afterwards. His employer knows about his past. He was actually hired because of it." Megan had recognized it right away, how the people behind James Edwards were building him up. If they continued on this path, they had him ready to be their face whenever a group of protesters would beleaguer them, a pleasant and understanding guy representing them.

Don nodded again. He pressed his fingertips so tightly against his upper arms that they were white, probably leaving marks on his arms.

"There were only three," Megan repeated her conclusion. Again, she tried to convince him, hoping to help him to draw a line under the events. "Nobody except Ron Silar, Horatio Cruz and Serena Dillons planned this. Nobody else was brought into the loop. Nobody had helped them with the execution of the plan."

"I know," Don snarled with so much fury, Megan took a step back at the unexpected words and emotion. "I know!"

Pushing away from his desk, Don rubbed at his eyes and stalked off before Megan could more than gape at him.

Megan bit her lip, contemplating if she should follow him or leave him alone but as she looked after Don, she saw Colby changing direction and following Don. Swallowing hard, Megan pinched the bridge of her nose. She had wanted that Don could leave this behind him. She just wished it wouldn't hurt so much.

Charlie sat next to the pond and watch the koi. Their behavior at least made sense. They changed direction based on temperature, current, food supply and contact with the enemy. Mapping out the behavior of koi seemed far easier than doing the same thing for the human brain.

A long shadow fell across the pond. Charlie looked up. "Didn't see you coming," he said to Amita.

"And?" she asked and grouched down beside him.

The open-ended question could be answered in a lot of ways, but Charlie had a good inkling what Amita really wanted to know. "Serena is really sorry. Horatio has his regrets, but Ron is just angry." The emotions of the last few days still clung to his skin, never letting him forget what had happened and what almost had happened.

"And you?"

"I still don't know what to think." Charlie held out his hand for Amita who took it without hesitation. "Or how I can help Don."

"Your network analysis is done?"

Charlie nodded. "There's no network, no group, no nothing. There's no bigger conspiracy and no mastermind behind all of it."

"Isn't this a good thing?" Amita moved her hair out of her face with her free hand but the wind just pushed it back.

"Not for Don," Charlie mumbled. "Don had wanted so badly to find something. It was the first thing he asked for."

"I think I can understand him. You can't fight an enemy you can't see. If you can't find an enemy you can't protect yourself or your brother from another attack."

"It's not only that but also the powerlessness. In this game, we, Don and I, are just a pawn in the big ocean, trashed around. If there had been a bigger group, a network or anything, then we could have navigated the ocean. But this ..." Charlie trailed off.

"How did Don take your result?"

"He knew it already. My work was just the confirmation."

"Or maybe his last hope."

"Or his last hope," Charlie agreed.

"And now?"

"I'm a teacher and have faced three students who would have been willing to hurt or kill me because they assumed to be able to make a point with that."

Amita shivered beside him. "Since that day, I wished I had a Kevlar vest like Don to protect me whenever I'm on campus. I know this is stupid but -"

"It's not stupid," Charlie said and turned to his girlfriend. Carefully taking her chin into his hands he pulled her near. "That's not stupid." He leaned forward and kissed her.

As they separated again, Amita wiped away a small tear from her eye. "I'm so thankful that they hadn't grabbed you. I know that Don hasn't deserved this, but he's so -"

"Strong?" Charlie suggested. "I still think it's unfair. It should have been me."

"Why? What would have been better?" Amita asked and another tear found its way down her cheek.

"Because Don would have made them pay in a way I'm unable to do." Charlie kissed Amita hand he still held. "I could feel safe at home and I wouldn't have to worry about anything."

"Well, this time Charlie I have to disagree with you. You visited all three of them behind bars. You confronted them with their mistake and you asked them questions that maybe will be the key to unlock their mindset. You did make them pay, subtle but not less effective. You hit them, where it hurt and it won't fade like a bruise."

Charlie leaned forward until he could rest his head on her shoulder. One of Amita's tears dropped onto his head and run down his head.

"I have another idea," Amita said sniffling. "Let just grow your hair back. I liked the curls."

"Hey," Charlie straightened up. "That had been an accident!" he exclaimed. But then he saw Amita's smile and also started to smile.

"By the way, Millie has offered me a new role at CalSci."

"Yeah, as what?"

Amita wiped away the last tears. "She wants to me to offer hours to reach out to the students who are desperate. Millie is also asking others to do so, so we can cover as many groups as possible." She blew her nose.

Charlie frowned. He hadn't been asked yet. Maybe Millie didn't dare to come near him as long as she hadn't apologized to Don. "And what does Millie want you to do?"

"Well, desperation happens if your ability to deal with or endure your circumstances isn't sufficient for your problem anymore."

"Dr. Finch is still thinking like a mathematician, using math to get back everything into a balance."

"Yes. Millie thinks that if we had caught the desperation of the Ron, Horatio and Serena, we could have helped them."

Charlie snorted. "Funny, I never took Millie for so overly idealistic. How would you have help them? Seriously, Amita, how? I've just talked to them and I don't think rational arguments can reach them anymore."

"That's the reason I haven't said yes yet; because I don't know how. But I want to help. I don't want to see ever something like this happen again."

Charlie looked back to the pond. "Questions," he mumbled. "You need to ask questions. Don't let them run with a plan without thinking about how their plan is supposed to end and if the end is worth it." He looked back to his girlfriend. "Think like a mathematician. Warn them to consider the cost. Ask them if the cost is worth the price. Ask them if their solution actually helps with the balance or if it's just an act of desperation."

Maybe Larry had always been right. Neither answers nor understanding were important, but the questions you asked. If you don't like an answer, then you have to ask a different question. Charlie hadn't found an answer, but he had found good questions.

Amita leaned her head against Charlie's shoulder. Together they watched the koi.

TBC