Dislcaimer: Everything you recognize isn't mine. Everything that you don't is. Simple as that.

Sadly, I don't own anything NUMB3RS - related, save for my undying love for certian sexy mathematician, and equally sexy FBI agent.

BROKEN INNOCENCE

Chapter two

Molly was bored.

It wasn't like she was in a boring place. There were so many interesting things in Professor Charlie's office! She found some really funny-shaped things, that mom said were cones, cylinders, cubes and many others. Then she found really interesting thing with flat base and a gold something that was sticking out of it. It was so pretty, and Professor Larry said it was called sundial, and that you could say what hour was just by looking how the shadow of sun was travelling on that base. He also said a lot of things, but she couldn't understand most of it.

But now grown-ups were talking about their stuff and she knew she weren't supposed to interrupt adults when they were busy. But she was so curious about everything around here! She wanted to see more, learn more. So she decided to go for a little expedition. Molly looked at the grown-ups, they weren't looking at her, so she quietly opened the door and got out.

There were so many people! They were walking in every direction and Molly felt a little afraid, but she kept on walking and tried to avoid them, which was quite difficult. Some of those people noticed her and smiled and let her pass, but most of them were looking somewhere higher than she was, or they had their noses in books or they were so lost in their thoughts, that they wouldn't notice a pink elephant, not to mention a little girl. Molly giggled as she imagined a big, really pink elephant trying to fit into this rather crowded corridor. In this moment she saw a lady. She smiled as she saw her, then stopped walking and crouched beside her.

"What's so funny, my dear?" She asked. That lady had a very nice voice, Molly decided, she have to be a nice person.

"I think it would be funny if someone tried to fit here a pink elephant," She said resolutely and observed with pleasure how the lady bursted into laughter. It was nice, too.

"Why would elephant be here, angel? It's rather tight in here isn't it?"

"Maybe it got bored being in circus. Maybe it wanted to learn something in here? I bet some of this people," Molly indicated a student who nearly walked into wall, he was so lost in a book, "Wouldn't notice an elephant, even if he was here."

"You're completely right. And smart, I bet," The lady smiled. "But what are you doing here? Are you lost?"

"No, I'm here with my mom and she's busy talking with her friends and I wanted to…"

"Explore a little? And does your mom know about that?" She asked, a little twinkle in her eyes.

"Well… sort of... maybe…"

"Sounds like a "no" for me," Said lady, getting up and talking Molly's hand. "Let's get you to your mom and if she'll let we'll explore a bit more, okay?"

"Yeah! Thank you!" Molly smiled brightly. "What is you name, lady? I'd like to call you something in my head when I'm thinking about you…"

"Ditto, little angel. I'm Amita. What's your name?"

"Miss Amita… It's pretty! I'm Molly."

"Nice to meet you, Molly," Miss Amita was really, really nice, Molly decided. They were now going back to office. "Where is your mom, Molly?"

"In Professor Charlie's office. They are friends," Molly explained. She was a little startled to see a big smile on Miss Amita's face.

"Charlie Eppes?"

"Hm… Yes, that was his name. Do you know him, Miss Amita?"

The woman laughed out loud, walking hand in hand with a little girl. Some of the students looked at her with puzzled expressions. It wasn't every day that one of the professors was behaving so openly at the CalTech corridor. Even if it was Professor Amita Ramanujan.

"Yes, Molly, you could very well say that I know Charlie Eppes."

FBI headquarters were unnaturally quiet at this hour. Of course there was a sound of talks, ringing of the phones, and there was faint buzz of electronic coming from everywhere, but you would expect more from an ongoing investigation in such a case, thought Don, exiting the Assistant Director's office, where he filled his boss in about that investigation. Don sighed. It wasn't nice talk, but it was nearly impossible for the talk with AD to be nice, especially when he didn't have any real leads about this guy.

Don sat by his desk, browsing through his files, finding the photos of all the victims. Parents and little girls… All of them were leading their happy lives, and then suddenly this monster came out of nowhere and hurt them so much and then killed them all. What terrified Don most was the fact, established by a coroner after the third murder: this sorry bastard killed some of the parents after he was done with child. He bound them with rope and made them look at their child while he…

Don shook his head, trying to throw those images out of his head. It was really hard. Even his years of dealing with situations like that weren't enough.

The ringing of his cell shook him out of his reverie.

"Eppes."

"Don, you were right, no one saw anything out of ordinary around the house, Colby is looking into shops near here, Nikki talked to neighbors. No luck yet."

"Damn… How's Nikki doing?"

"A bit down, I'll say but she's holding up. We didn't let her into house until coroner took the bodies, and techs are entering just this minute."

"Very good, I'm gonna be with you in a few minutes. Charlie hasn't shown up, right?"

"Nope, he still have some classes, I think."

"Right, I'll get him later to headquarters. See you, David."

"See ya, boss."

Don hung up and looked at the files before him. In one, harsh move he threw all of them to the drawer, picked up his cell phone, took his jacket and walked to the lifts.

He had work to do.

It took Monica almost five minutes to notice that Molly had skipped out. She was so engrossed into that dispute with two of the greatest minds she's ever known, that she might have been oblivious to the fact that her daughter left the office, but their talk changed its course onto education of little children. When Monica, looked at the back of the office Molly wasn't there.

"Molly!" She exclaimed. "She's gone! How could I…"

"Relax, Mon," Charlie soothed her. "She couldn't have gotten far away. Besides, someone will notice a child walking alone around here, they'll bring her back."

"Unless they'll be on the other realm of consciousness, Charles. Don't forget we are in the Math Department, people here are known for their absence of mind," Interjected Larry, while Monica frantically got up and almost ran to the doors.

"Pot calling keetle," Muttered Charlie following Monica to the doors, which just opened and showed Molly and Amita, holding hands and smiling brightly.

"I believe you're looking for someone," Said Amita releasing Molly's hand and letting her run to Monica, who embraced her quickly and started scolding her.

"Where have you been? I've been worried sick! You could have lost, you could…"

"But I didn't, mommy. I just wanted to look around a little. And I met a very nice lady who said, that if you'll let me, she'll show me everything here!" Molly almost jumped with excitement.

"Not everything, Molly. It would take a lot of time," Said Amita, coming into the office and giving Charlie quick peck on the lips. "Hi, I'm Amita Ramanujan," She greeted Monica.

"Hello, I'm Monica Dawson," She returned the greeting, curiously looking from Amita to Charlie. She smiled brightly. "Thank you so much for helping me with that little scamp here," Monica indicated her daughter.

"I'm not a scamp!" Molly pouted. Amita smiled.

"No problem, we had wonderful time together, Molly is really sweet girl…"

Charlie and Larry looked at each other when women began talk at a very fast pace about Molly, children in general, then the moved onto their behavior and upbringing. Charlie tried several times to discreetly interrupt them with a cough, but he soon realized that nothing short of earthquake will stop them.

After some odd ten minutes, when Monica was telling Amita the story of her friendship with Charlie, Larry pried his fascinated eyes from the two women and looked again at his equally stunned colleague with expression of astonishment, admiration and fear on his face.

"We're doomed."

Scene looked as typical as any other would. Truthfully, if it wasn't for the police and FBI agents hanging around the detached house, no one would have guessed something terrible happened here. Yet, it have so Don and his team had to find out who did this, and, more importantly, keep him from doing it again.

"We're wrapped up here, Don," Colby came up to him. "Techs are moving all the evidence to the headquarters, and they're already cleaning up the place."

"All right, let's move it." Don took a last look around the house. Nothing out of ordinary, perfectly typical home with perfectly typical backyard and perfectly typical resident. Why them? Come to think of it, why anyone at all? Things like that shouldn't happen… Don ran a hand through his hair. Cases like this were messing up with his head. He had to be strong and hard, if he wanted to catch that guy.

Suddenly something caught his eye. On the other side of the road, there was some squashed grass and, when he looked closer, he found several butts, partially hidden under the grass and dirt.

"Colby!" He called the agent that was closest to him.

"What is it, Don?" Granger asked and soon realized what his boss was observing. He saw Don's eyebrows raising in question, but he shook his head. "I don't think it was anyone of ours and the onlookers were standing out there, closer to the house," Colby indicated the direction with a wave of his hand. "You think…"

"Yep, I think. We've got ourselves a rapist, who stalked his victims for at least several hours."

"Maybe even more," Added Colby. "Maybe he was following them around to work or kindergarten…"

"Could be. Come on, lets get techs into it. Maybe they'll even give us a footprint. And we're going back to headquarters."

"Are you getting Charlie?"

"Yep, it's high time for him to show up and give us another math lesson."

"To think that after high school I vowed to avoid math for the rest of my life…" Sighed Colby resigned.

"Didn't worked out for ya, did it?" Put in David, as they all met by the car. "All right, I'll shut up now," He raised his hands in defeat after seeing murderous look Colby was giving him.

"Would you please shut it? I'm trying to call now…" Don dialed his brother's number. "I so hope he'll have some ingenious idea we won't be even able to understand…"

After another ten, or twenty minutes, while the women somehow managed to change their topics to houses, then to recent movies, then to (completely abstract) dresses and sales in the markets, and the men's thoughts changed their topics from homicidal to suicidal, the phone rang. Charlie almost broke a leg getting to his desk, where he left his cell phone. Somehow, the ringing of the phone broke up the women's chatter and they were watching him curiously.

"Hello?... Yeah, hey Don… Sure, Colby talked to me about that, it's really good that she escaped… Well, yeah, I can come and look at the data, maybe I'll find some factors that'll help me to narrow down next possible targets… Okay, I'll be there in, like, twenty minutes… Bye."

"What happened, Charlie?" Amita looked at him with worried eyes. She knew about the case he was working on for several weeks now, and she didn't liked it at all. It made Charlie remember very bad things – he wasn't really sleeping, he was obsessed with finding this monster.

"Another attack. But this time the girl survived," Charlie smiled sadly. "Don wants me too look at the data he collected at the crime scene… I'll have to leave soon." He threw an apologetic look to Monica. "I'm sorry that we'll have to cut our reunion short, but it's really important."

"All right, I understand…" Monica shook her head. "No, I don't understand. What are you doing? I thought you…"

"I'm an FBI consultant," Charlie explained, while collecting his things. "My brother is an agent and we've worked together on many various cases. But this one…" He looked disgusted. "It's terrible. I want it to end as soon as possible, so that guy wouldn't hurt people…" He indicated Molly with a nod of his head. Monica paled, as if she saw a ghost. "…anymore than he already had."

Monica just nodded her head and looked at her daughter, who was at the other end of the office, with a fright in her eyes.

"Don't worry Mon. Nothing will happen, I promise," Charlie walked up to her, hugged her and smiled a little. "Cheer up, this is a happy occasion, now that we've met." She smiled an unsteady smile.

"You'll have to visit me and Matt sometime. You too," She turned to Amita and Larry. "He'll be delighted to meet you, as well as Molly," Real smile this time. "She certainly likes you all."

"That's good, because we like her too," Said Amita.

"We most certainly will, Monica," Interjected Larry, as Charlie gave Amita a kiss, shook Molly's hand and started walking towards door. "Hey, Charles, wait up! I'll come with you! Don't you leave me for such a gruesome fate of being deafened again!"

All three women giggled.

End of chapter two.

A/N: Aw... that's so sweet to have reviews! I'm really glad you liked this, and I hope, you'll stay around to read more. Thank you!