Disclaimer: sadly, I don't own NUMB3RS. I'm just having fun with those fabulous characters. Please, don't sue me!

A/N: Finally, the next chapter. Sorry for the delay. Here you go:

BROKEN INNOCENCE

Chapter four

Charlie nervously drove through the city to Monica's house. At first he wasn't thinking about anything else than getting there and checking if she and Molly were safe. But after ten minutes, as he was stuck in the traffic jam, he realized that he had to consider his possibilities. He'll get there and then what? What he'll tell them? That they are in danger? Or he will just pretend that he came over just to loan her that book he took specially for that purpose? And if so wouldn't it be convenient for them to know he's coming over?

Charlie smiled a little. He was previously so engrossed in his work that he forgot about the common politeness. He took his cell phone to call Monica and let her know he was coming over. But then he saw something unsettling: his battery was dead.

"Darn," He shook his head. It seemed he forgot to load his phone, he was way too busy for that. Charlie decided he'll go there uninvited and will check on them. Maybe he will call Don from their place, just to see if his brother found anything.

He drove on, as the traffic slowly moved forward.

Something was wrong, Don could clearly feel it.

When he realized that Charlie couldn't pick up his phone he immediately decided to call Amita, but was interrupted, as someone bursted into the room.

"We've got him!" Agent Romero from Crimes Against Children Office shouted, waving a file he had in his hand. "We know who he is, his name is Nicolas Sandler. And there's possibly been a sighting…"

"What? Where?" Don demanded.

"Somewhere in Silver Lake, here, there's an address," Romero showed Don his files. On the top of them there was an address. Don sighed, frustrated.

"What is it, Don?" Asked concerned Nikki.

"Not far from Dawsons' home… Are there any other possible targets in the area?"

Don's team rushed to check their notes.

"Nope, nothing from Silver Lake," Colby threw all his papers back at the desk.

"Same here, Don."

"Nothing," Nikki shook her head. "Looks like he won't wait much now…"

"I know…" He noticed Romero's confused look. "My brother's been working on a possible list of his next targets and it looks like he's just going to attack again."

"I see. Then we'd better move it," Romero looked serious. "In these files you've got all the information on the guy."

Don took a look at the files as his team rushed to call backup and organize the action.

"Good, thank you… How did you find him, anyways? It's been killing us for a long time to get anything on him."

"I guess we've been lucky," Romero smiled. "One of our youngest agents got an idea that this guy could have been a victim of an abuse, since it's been happening that a victim followed the steps of the molestor. So, we cross-referenced the photos of the victims, with our descriptions of that guy and… we found a match, confirmed by witness."

"So, that mean, this man has been abused too?" Don looked quite shocked. "Why on earth would he do that to other children?"

"Could be many reasons. Psychologist may have a better idea, so I suggest you talk to them about it."

"Right," He looked back at his team. "Are we ready?"

"Yeah, Don, everything is set," David ended his call. "The team should be there in fifteen minutes, so we can go right now."

"Great, let's move."

Don patted Romero's shoulder who gave him thumbs up.

"Good luck, guys."

"We'll certainly need it," Don muttered as he ran to the lift.

Finally, he was taking some action.

I just hope Charlie is safe…

"Hi, how can I help you?" Charlie was welcomed by the door by a young woman in her twenties.

"Hi, I'm Charlie Eppes, I'm a friend of Monica's. Is she home?"

The girl shook her head.

"No, she and Matt are gone. They're making some trip to the mountains. I'm babysitting their daughter right now."

"All right…" Charlie wondered what should he do now. Enter the house? Stay outside and probably keep an eye on Molly? He really had no idea. But luckily his problem was solved by Molly, who showed up and smiled brightly at him.

"Professor Charlie! Hi!" She swung herself at him and hugged him tightly.

"Hi, Molly, how are you?" Charlie hugged her back, happy to see her all good.

"I'm great! Are you going to come in? I'd like to talk to you about so many things… "

"If it's all right with your babysitter."

"Debbie, and I think it's okay, Molly seems to like you" The girl intersected.

"Great. Thank you, Debbie," Charlie shook her hand. "Come on, little math guy, show me what do you have for me."

Molly beamed at him and led him to the living room, where she had some books. Soon they were engrossed in their talk and Debbie, who watched them could barely keep herself from laughing as the professor and the little girl talked about math and its application to real life.

After about half an hour Molly decided to go up to her room to get some books she wanted to show Charlie. When she left Charlie and Debbie talked a little about this little girl and about Debbie's personal interactions with math.

"I was never really good at it, but I wasn't really terrible. It's just math isn't really fascinating for a girl in her teens when the lecturer is boring, old man, and there are loads of pretty boys around."

"True enough," Charlie smiled and looked at his watch. He frowned and looked up, where Molly disappeared. Debbie noticed his look.

"Right, she's been gone for almost ten minutes. I wonder, what is taking her so long…"

"I'll go check up on her. I bet she's just engrossed in one of her books."

Debbie smiled.

"She's really is a smart girl. I sometimes even envy her brains…"

They both laughed.

While Charlie was walking up the stairs, he heard someone knocking on the doors. Suddenly, an unexplained fear gripped him and he almost ran the rest of the way to Molly's room. He spotted her sitting on bed with a book on her lap and motioned to her to stay quiet. Then he listened carefully. He heard someone talking with Debbie and then a quiet, but unmistakable sound – a gunshot.

I didn't call Don, was the only thing on his mind.

Colby drove the SUV, for what Don was very grateful. He couldn't imagine himself driving in such a state he was in: all nervous and itchy. After the short talk with Amita, who told him that Charlie has gone to Monica's house, he couldn't wait to get there. He hoped that somehow it will all resolve as a big mistake and his brother wouldn't be in danger anymore.

"Calm down, Don," Nikki observed him, as he tapped his fingers nervously. "Everything will be okay."

"Yeah, Don, Charlie will be all right."

"I hope so, David."

Don looked at his team: Nikki's concerned look, David's supporting smile and Colby's slightly amused grimace, as he looked away from the road.

"Whiz Kid isn't the one to get blown away, Don. If he'll have to face something unexpected he'll hold it up… to the moment we'll arrive to help him."

Don smiled a little. His team was really incredible.

But it didn't loosen the tight knot in his stomach.

It took Charlie almost a minute to come to senses, overcome the shock and start thinking about the best strategy to come out of this home with Molly safe and sound. His mind whirled as he thought about possibilities…

Meanwhile, he signaled to Molly to come closer to him and to be quiet. She closed her book and silently tiptoed to Charlie, fear written all over her face. She clearly didn't know what was going on, but the sudden silence and the seriousness of Charlie's behavior caused her to be afraid.

Professor crouched down beside Molly and whispered:

"Molly I need you to be brave now, okay?"

He waited for the girl to shook her head.

"You need to be as silent as possible. Is there any attic in this house?"

Molly shook her head yes again.

"Okay, hide there and try to keep quiet. Don't go out unless I come for you, you got it?"

Charlie's face softened as the little girl shook from fear.

"What is going on, pfessor?" She whispered.

"I'll tell you later, little math guy," He managed to make her smile. "Now, go."

She escaped. Charlie observed her, all the while listening to the sound coming from the floor below. It seemed that the intruder was searching for the girl in the kitchen now, but he'll soon move up. He needed another plan.

Sending Molly to the attic was a simple move, but it could buy them some time. Charlie assumed that this guy had witnessed a lot of the children escaping from him. The child's bedroom was the most likely place for them to hide, since they felt safe in there. As far as Charlie knew, the attic was the least likely one, because most children were afraid of it. Of course, it got them away from the front doors, but Charlie was beginning to understand there wasn't much chance for them to get away and avoid the confrontation.

For now, he moved to the Monica and Matt's bedroom. He assumed the guy would check Molly's bedroom first. It still bought him some time.

Charlie looked around. He could clearly hear the footsteps now, the intruder was walking up the stairs. It took him a while to realize that he began shaking and sweating: the first signs of the panic.

You can't let Molly down. You have to stay strong for her. Think of some way to save her! He started to repeat those words in his head over and over. He calmed himself down a little, but still was fairly nervous. Charlie tried to think about his next move, which was hard because he knew, that there was a murderer just a few feet away from him, looking through Molly's bedroom. Then he heard the footsteps again. They're coming closer to the place where he was hiding. He looked frantically around, then an idea popped in his mind.

The window.

Charlie rushed to the window and saw what he already suspected: the roof wasn't sheer, he could stand on it without much of a danger of falling down. He climbed out the window and closed it behind him, leaving it ajar. As soon as he hid on the one side of the window, the man entered the bedroom.

He was never so scared in his entire life. He hold his breath, but was sure that his heartbeat was so loud, that everyone could hear it. It took several minutes for Charlie to get his guts and dare to look inside the room. It was now empty, looked like the guy has moved to the other rooms.

Charlie got into the room in a instant. Had he waited few seconds more he would notice the familiar black SUV…

"What was that?"

"What, Nikki?" Don snatched his head. Nikki was looking outside the window of the SUV, as they parked by the Dawson's house.

"There, on the roof… I think I saw something…" Nikki shook her head. "Nevermind, I must have seen wrong."

"Okay. Let's have spotters keep an eye on the house, if the family is here, we'll organize for them to get moved…"

Unfortunately there was no phone in the bedroom, but Charlie clearly remembered that there was a phone downstairs. He needed to call Don, let him know what was going on here. He peeked out through the doors and he saw nothing. So he ran to the stairs, trying to be as quiet as possible. But when he was halfway down the stairs he heard the muffled voice, coming from the attic.

"Here you are, little one… It looks like there's just you and me."

Charlie's blood ran cold. His jaw tightened. His fists curled up. He found Molly!

Without even a conscious decision he ran up, not even bothering about staying quiet. He bursted into the attic, took a quick look around and what he saw made him more angry than he's ever been: The man was holding Molly, her dress was ripped, as she tried to escape him. Charlie attacked the man with his bare hands, running into him andknocking him out of balance.

The man fell, dropped Molly, who quickly ran to the corner, but quickly got up. He looked much more brawny than Charlie and presented his muscles as he gripped the slim mathematician by his arm.

"And what do we have here? A noble protector?" His laugh was harsh, as he aimed his fist and swung it at Charlie's head. He, however dodged, kicked him in the knee. Then in a split second he remembered an advice he was given by Don: "Just kick him in the nuts." So he did just that.

As the murderer was recovering from the pain, Charlie took a look around. Molly was hidden behind some furniture, and a few boards, but he couldn't get to them without passing by the guy, who was now standing, albeit quite unsteady.

"That's all you're capable of, whimpy?" He snarled and looked the way Charlie was. "Oh, no… Thought you could hit me in a head? You're not getting that chance."

As the guy came closer, Charlie spotted something that could be his only chance: there's been a gun lying on the floor, quite near Charlie, covered by one of the boards. This man must have had dropped it when the mathematician attacked him.

How do I get here? Charlie tried to think of some way to save themselves from the seemingly inevitable: while Charlie tried to get away, the man gripped him by neck and started to strangle him.

It was never so hard to think before: the cloud of pure panic filled Charlie's mind, as he fell down on the floor, the man following him and kneeling over him to finish his job. Nevertheless, the professor had an idea: although it was harder and harder to breathe, he tried to move near the stack of boards. Somehow, he managed to move about a feet away from the boards, concealing his movements by ineffective efforts to get away from the murderer. Doing it, he felt that he harmed himself: there was a pain in his shoulder and in his chest and in the back of his head, which pained him particularly hard when he bounced his head on the floor. All the while, he couldn't breathe at all.

He tried to reach to the gun, but unfortunately, he couldn't move anymore. The power that kept him going was gone and he couldn't help but surrender to the other man's force. The only thing he could see now was his murderer's face with a big, toothy smile on it, as he strangled him harder and harder.

Suddenly the grip on his neck vanished. Charlie's hazy mind managed to register that and made the quickest possible decision: take advantage of that situation. Despite the horrible pain, Charlie dashed himself to the stack of boards, found and picked up the gun. He whirled, spotted the man, who stood still, holding his head, seemingly confused. In the split of second Charlie noticed Molly, who must have thrown something at the murderer.

And then, Charlie fired.

End of chapter four.

A/N: And? Good enough? I hope this was worth waiting a while... If it was, let me know!

It was probably the most complicated scene I've ever wrote. I kept playing it over and over in my head, and this is the final effect. I'm still not very happy with the outcome, but I guess it's the best I could manage...