Disclaimer: NUMB3RS belong to CBS, not me. Please, don't sue me.

A/N: This one really took me a while, but well.. that's reality. I hope you'll like it :D

BROKEN INNOCENCE

Chapter five

It took spotters quite a while to notice anything: the house seemed to be deserted. But after a few minutes, Don heard one of them, talking through the walkie-talkie.

"I think we've got something, boss."

"What is it, Davidson?"

"There's woman lying quite near front door, probably dead."

"Anything else?"

"Mick noticed some movement in the attic window, but said it could be a mistake, cause it's small and dirty…"

"Right, I suppose it's high time for us to go in," Don looked at his team. "Get ready."

They responded in unison:

"Yes, sir."

But suddenly something happened that changed everything. They heard two shots coming directly from the house they were standing in front of. Don yelled frantically:

"Shots fired! Into the house, now! Execute!"

He ran.

Before his mind registered what had just happened, Charlie had his lap full of scared six years-old girl. He hugged her tightly, while she began to cry softly.

"Who's that, professor Charlie?" She asked through the sobs.

"Bad guy, Molly," Charlie couldn't quite take in everything that was around him right now. He had to console a little girl, he heard some shouting inside the house, and the most important he needed to understand what he just did.

I killed a man.

Never in his life he suspected that anything like would happen to him: it was Don's life, shooting and being shot at. He never accepted the possibility of him killing a man as a probable one, he didn't even thought much about Don killing on the line of his job. Charlie couldn't really understand what happened and what ramifications it will have on him.

"Professor Charlie?" Molly was watching him, while he broke out of his reverie. "There's somebody in here…"

"Yeah, I hear them," Charlie could now clearly hear all the shouts 'clear!' beneath them. They were quite comforting: somehow Charlie understood that his brother was here. "Come on, let's meet them."

Charlie stood up shakily with Molly still in his arms. Although he was really weak and everything hurt him, he couldn't let Molly go – not until he'll be sure that she is completely safe and taken care of. He slowly made it to the door and began weakly descend the stairs. Then, he saw a bunch of FBI agents: some of them raised their guns when they noticed him, but they quickly recognized him and smiled in greeting.

"Boss! They're here!" One of them shouted and soon Don came up to meet them.

Charlie walked slowly to him, as Don nearly ran.

"Are you okay, buddy?" He asked nervously.

Charlie just nodded. He couldn't articulate a word. He used all his strength to block away the pain, but couldn't help but twitch a little when Don tried to support him: unfortunately his brother touched his hurt arm. Almost inaudible whine escaped his mouth.

"Yeah, I can see, you're really okay," Don said sardonically. "Let me take her, okay?" He indicated Molly.

Charlie slowly nodded his head and whispered something to little girl. She clung to him tighter, but after a while she loosened her grip on Charlie's neck and allowed Don to lift her.

"Hi, Molly, I'm Don," He greeted her with small smile.

"Hi" She whispered.

Charlie was relieved to see that Molly could trust other man after what nearly happened to her before. Confident now, that his little protégée was safe in his brother's arms he finally let all the tiredness and pain took the tool on him. Up until now he was blocking all his feeling for Molly's sake: he needed to bring her to safety. But after accomplishing that mission, Charlie gave up.

Darkness overwhelmed him.

Although Don imagined all the possible outcomes of the situation, he wasn't ready to accept what he was seeing at the moment. His little brother, pain clearly written all over his face, his eyes haunted with visions Don didn't even wanted to understand, hold the little girl in his arms, protecting her as if his life depended on it. It wasn't until he saw his older brother that his expression softened, and only when Molly was safely in Don's arms he relaxed completely and fainted.

"Charlie!" Don shouted, seeing his brother collapse. He couldn't help him having arms full of girl, but fortunately it was the moment when rest of Don's team showed up. They rushed to Charlie at once and Colby managed to catch his head before it bumped into floor.

"I've gotcha, man," He whispered, then looked at Don. "What's happened, Don?"

"I've got no idea… He just collapsed."

"Probably gone through a lot," David interjected. "Have you found this Sandler guy? And who was shooting?"

"No idea, again," Don heaved a sigh. "Okay, Dave, you and Nikki go check on the attic, that's where Charlie came from, you two," Don indicated two of agents who roamed through house, "Go, bring paramedics. At once!"

"Yes, sir," They saluted him. Nikki and David also left, carefully ascending the stairs.

"How is he, Colb?" Don crouched beside his brother, Molly still in his arms.

"Still unconscious. Has some blood on him, probably broken arm, and this," Colby indicated Charlie's neck. "Will look ugly in a few minutes."

"What do you mean?" Don couldn't really see what his agent meant.

"Seen this many times in combat. Someone tried to choke him, but hopefully, all he'll be left with will be lots of ugly bruises," Colby looked at his boss, startled to hear him gasping.

"Some… Son of a… Tried to kill him?"

Colby nodded.

Don couldn't believe his ears. This man, this monster wanted to kill his brother? For what? For being here? Defending a little girl?

This brought his thought to Molly, who was sitting in his lap, staring disbelieving at Charlie. She looked at him and whispered:

"Will professor Charlie be all right?"

"I hope so, Molly," He answered. "He's very stubborn, so I guess he'll come out of it."

She nodded her head and hugged him tight. Colby stared at him a bit incredulously, but the smiled and shifted his attention back to Charlie, protecting him from any movement, so he wasn't hurt any more than he already was.

Very stubborn indeed. Seems like it runs in family… Hang on, mate… The help is on it's way and then everything will be alright… However Colby knew, he couldn't be sure about it. He looked up, in direction of attic. What the hell happened up here?

Colby met Don's eyes and recognized the same question in them.

He felt the answer wasn't a good one.

David lead the way, feeling Nikki right behind him. They slowly ascended the stairs, reached the doorsand then carefully Nikki opened them, while David burst into room, seeking any source of movement, anything that could present any danger to them.

"Look!"

At first David didn't realized what Nikki has been pointing out. Then he saw it: the man was lying on the floor, in the pool of blood, presumably his own. Even from their spot they could see the man was dead – it looked like he was shot directly to the heart.

They both advanced, amazed, trying to figure out what had happened here.

"I.D.?" Nikki managed to whisper.

David took a look at the dead man. His face was visible, even though a menacing expression distorted it.

"Positive. It's that guy."

Nikki sighed with relief.

"It's over…"

"Yeah…" David could sympathize. He saw how Nikki was shaken by this case. Then something hit him. "Though it's not really the end. You understand what must have happened here?"

It took Nikki a while to get what her partner meant.

"Charlie?"

"Charlie."

"Damn."

Everything was a bit blurred for Don. He knew that medics arrived and that they took Charlie with them to ambulance. He knew that he ordered them to check up on Molly, who seemed unhurt, but he needed to be sure. He knew he must have called Amita and Dad to tell them what happened and to which hospital Charlie was brought. He also knew he must have called Molly's parents.

He couldn't really remember doing all those things. He felt as if he observed himself from far away, all his real self focused on one piece of news, brought by David and Nikki.

Charlie killed a man.

I should have prevented it.

Even knowing there was no way he could have done that didn't eased his mind. He felt responsible for what happened. And he could only guess how responsible his brother will feel when he'll wake up. Probably a lot.

Don had no doubt about it, he knew Charlie.

A/N: How did ya like it?

Sorry for the delay, real life has its funny way of interrupting... Only now, during Christmas I've got a little time.

By the way, Merry Christmas for everyone celebrating it! Or Hannukah, or what else you're celebrating. I hope you've got good holidays :D