Whew, didn't think I was going to make it. I forgot that my boss at my second job was on vacation this week, so I've been putting in extended hours. There are only three short parts left after this one. :)

Oh, and I figured out how I ended up nudging toward ship. I suffer from Mustincludeallcharactersitis. Seriously, whatever I write, I always feel like I have to include everyone to some degree, which makes it difficult when I don't particularly care for characters (eg, Jo, Ellen or Ash in Supernatural fandom). In hindsight, my preference would have been to up Colby's participation and lessen Amita's. Nothing against her, per se, I just...like Colby more. Anyway. Enough blathering from me.

Thanks so much for reading!

"So, what?" Don said. "You're saying you just forgot to post a sign notifying students of Professor Eppes' unexpected absence?"

Don wanted nothing more than to reach across the desk and manhandle the guy sitting on the other side of it as much as he'd wanted to strangle skinny stubborn little Kenny what seemed like forever ago. Charlie was no slouch in the ego department, at least when it came to math, but this guy was a total ass and Don was in no mood to deal with it. He had no choice.

"The students who attend CalSci are not stupid, Agent Eppes. If a professor doesn't show up, they figure out there isn't going to be class. I'm sorry I can't be of more assistance."

Yeah, Don bet he was sorry. The jerk didn't even appear all that upset to hear Charlie had, in fact, gone missing and wasn't dealing with a family emergency. Charlie didn't deal with family emergencies. Anyone who knew him the way a department head should know his staff knew that if the emergency had been real and big enough, Charlie would probably have been in no state to make a phone call to his employer. This guy sitting across from him, smug and unsmiling, raised his hackles.

"Doctor Beam, you don't seem concerned about your colleague's disappearance," Megan said. She laid her left hand out flat and waved it for only Don to see. Oh, he was calm, he thought. He clenched his jaw and nodded slightly. "Any reason why not?"

"I'm not happy, if that's what you're trying to get at," Beam said. "I'm the sort who keeps emotion on the inside. I can assure you, I find this all to be very alarming."

Megan nodded. Don kept glaring. It was increasingly difficult to contain the calm. His emotions were off the charts. Maybe he shouldn't be so annoyed by Beam's detached state so much as emulate it. Damnit, his kid brother was out there in the hands of someone he just knew wasn't firing on all cylinders. And even if they were, his brother was out there in someone else's hands and for purposes that could not be good and there was no way he could not be affected by that.

"Doctor Beam, how often do you see Professor Eppes through the course of any given day?" he said, no one more surprised than himself that he managed to sound professional.

"We see each other quite often."

"Ever notice anyone paying unusual attention to him? A student, another professor? A janitor?"

"No, I'm sorry. Until the dean told me to have someone hang the notification, everything was normal as far as I could tell." Beam finally had the heart to show a bit of emotion, his face softening just a touch. It didn't make Don feel any more relaxed. "I really am sorry."

"Thank you for your time," Megan said. She took out a business card and slid it toward Beam. "If you remember anything that might be useful, or just anything at all, please let us know right away. Time is rather of the essence."

"Of course."

The interview, such that it was, was over. Don rose to his feet, out the door before another word could be spoken. They were spending too much time getting too little information. He hoped at least David was coming up with something, even if it was whisper thin. As if on cue, his phone rang.

"Eppes."

"Donnie, it's me." Dad was probably going nuts at home and was looking for information himself. Don hadn't called to keep him in the loop. Not that there was a loop. "Listen, I think I might have an idea."

Don didn't really pay attention, suddenly spouted a long list of frustrations as if he couldn't stop himself. He understood his dad's need for reassurance, but he didn't have much to give and he didn't have much time to give it. Dad rambled into his ear, something about a secret admirer who might actually be a stalker.

"Yeah, Dad, I know you want to help, but I've got a lot of people to interview here."

"Listen to me," Dad ordered. Don knew the tone of voice very well. It was like he was ten years old again. He straightened his shoulders and listened. "About that same time, Charlie got a note from a secret admirer. Ask Larry, he'll tell you. Don, what if this person had something to do with this?"

"What, you mean like someone might be obsessed?" Don's mind raced.

That would actually explain some things, but this was a big campus. It could still be anyone, though Don thought they could start with Charlie's department and work outward. He looked up and down the hall, staring at passing students. The task was going to be daunting regardless, and his gut told him it would take too damned long. Call waiting clicked into his ear.

"It's possible, right? You can look into that. Find Larry. Ask Larry."

"Yeah, Dad. Thanks, that's good…worth checking out," Don said. It was and he hated brushing his father off, but like so many other things lately, he had to do it. "I've got to go, I've got another call coming in. Could be important, about Charlie. I'll call you when I know more."

Megan stepped out of Doctor Beam's office. He raised his left pointer finger as he disconnected Dad to pick up the next incoming call.

"Eppes."

"Don, it's David."

"What have you got?"

"Not much. The manager remembers seeing a girl seemed to linger around the front of the store sometime on Wednesday, but said that happens a lot. He didn't notice anything specific about her appearance – average height, average weight, average length brown hair. He had no recollection of Charlie."

"Okay," Don said. "We figured that was probably a dead end."

"No, no. The salon manager didn't remember anything, but the guy who cut Charlie's hair remembered him, called him the guy with the numbers. He also caught someone at his station right after Charlie had a trim. Get this, the person was collecting hair."

"What?" Okay, that was creepy. It looked like Dad's secret admirer tip might be pretty valuable after all. The little bit of luck was just what he needed. "As in taking tokens?"

"Yeah," David said. "It sounded real creepy to me. The guy said he got a good look at her. Average height, average weight, average brown hair in desperate need of a style."

"That's…not very helpful." He glanced at Megan, who was watching him intently. "But it's something. We've got a lead here that actually might fit with it. If you're done there, you might as well join us."

"I'll be there as soon as I can."

He clicked his phone shut and put it away. Megan looked at him, but didn't prompt him like he knew she wanted to. The pieces seemed to be coming together pretty quickly. He wasn't about to complain about that. Forty-some hours was a long time for anyone to be missing, let alone Charlie. Don clenched his jaw together tightly at the thought of some stupid, obsessed girl being the cause of all this. No, he thought, he was wrong. A young girl with a fixation couldn't possibly cause nearly as much hurt as criminals intent on getting whatever information they wanted out of his brother. There was a good chance they'd find Charlie and he'd be just fine. He tried not to think about what Dean Kozelek had said about Charlie sounding out of it when he'd called.

"You caught most of that?"

"Yeah," Megan told him. "I think so. Possible stalker?"

"My father called while you were still in there, mentioned Charlie had received some kind of weird love notes a while back. Could be the same person the folks at the hair place saw. It's not much, but it's something."

"I have Charlie's class rosters and the keys to his office. Doctor Beam was kind enough to give them to me."

"Great." He took the files from her. "Do you know where Larry's office is?"

"Yes."

"Go see if he's there and if he can join us. Dad said he knows something about this secret admirer slash stalker. I'll go to Charlie's office. I don't know if there'll be anything there, but…"

"I'll meet you there with Doctor Fleinhardt."

Megan took off immediately, her strides long and fast. He followed suit, heading straight for Charlie's office. He took a look over the list as he walked. Charlie's classes were popular, and the ratio of male students to female was about 60/40. For now, he thought they could ignore the males on the list. He remembered Larry mentioning staff photos for ID cards, thought there might be something similar for students. If he could weed out the average looking girls with brown hair, they'd really get somewhere.

The office door was closed, and it was dark inside. Don took a deep breath and reached for the key Beam had handed over. He let himself in, flicking the light on. Charlie never cleaned up his office, which drove Don nuts even if he never said anything; he didn't like to leave the office without tidying up his desk. Not so with his brother. Scraps of paper littered the entire surface of the desk. Problems with numbers, letters and funky symbols covered the blackboard and files sat in stacks on various flat surfaces. Several framed certificates and awards of Charlie's accomplishments hung crookedly on the wall.

Don smiled sadly. He'd missed all of this, he realized. It was his brother epitomized, and it was actually Charlie he'd missed. Damnit. He shook his head. This was no time to wallow. He circled around the desk and started opening drawers. He didn't know why he expected them to be orderly. The drawers were simply smaller microcosms of the office itself – complete chaos. He picked up an unwrapped stick of gum, fuzzy with chalk dust and lint, wrinkling his nose at it. He didn't recall Charlie ever chewing gum, so who know how long that had been in there. Finding nothing of use, he closed all the drawers and headed for the nearest filing cabinet.

"Don." He turned and saw Larry enter, Megan right behind him. The normally twitchy man was no different now, except perhaps even twitchier. "Agent Reeves informed me about the possibility Charles' secret admirer could be behind these events. I wish now that he had followed my suggestion of fingerprinting the note then."

"Oh?" Don tapped his fingers on the metal cabinet. "Why didn't he?"

"He wanted to respect her privacy," Larry said. "And I think he wanted to keep the mystery a mystery."

"I wonder what would have happened if he had found out who it was," Megan said. "If he had said something to her, maybe that would have been enough to allay her…further fascination with him."

Truthfully, Don didn't care. That wasn't important because it was something they couldn't change. What was important was finding that girl and determining whether or not she was responsible. And then finding Charlie, changing whatever was going on now. He held up a hand.

"Did he keep the note?"

"Yes, he filed it."

"Any idea where?"

"You're certainly in the right spot." Larry walked over to stand next to him. "Unless he moved it, it's in this filing cabinet. Top drawer."

Unfortunately for them, Charlie's filing system wasn't really a system so much as it was a bunch of papers stuffed in folders. Don split the overflowing papers up into groups and handed off two of them to Megan and to Larry. He slipped on a pair of latex gloves and started sifting through the remainder of the files, standing next to the cabinet, while the other two shared desk space.

"It would help if we knew what we were looking for," he commented.

"If I remember correctly, it was pink. The note was relatively small in size."

"Standard love note stalker fare," Megan said with an amused tone he knew she didn't really mean to be funny. "Do you really think one of Charlie's students would be capable of just taking him off the street?"

"A determined person can overcome many obstacles, Megan," Larry said. "Look at Stephen Hawking."

"Yeah, but…" Megan stopped. Don hadn't been paying attention to the conversation, but he noticed when the chatter ended. He looked up. "I've got it."

Larry leaned toward Megan, squinting slightly. He nodded and glanced over at him. Don needed no further prompting. He abandoned his files and joined them.

"Or rather…them," Larry said. "Charles didn't mention he'd received other notes."

Damn. There were ten of them, identical in shape, size and color. Megan pulled the rest of them, breezing through the contents. Don didn't think he really wanted to know what they said. He could tell from her facial expression that he didn't.

"It's not something Charlie would have probably picked up on, but whoever wrote these became increasingly disconnected from reality. Don, in her mind she and Charlie were probably a couple. She could be seriously unstable at this point."

"Now we only have to hope we find someone's fingerprints on one of these, besides Charlie's," Don said. He took the first note from Larry, read the note quickly. It wasn't that bad. He ignored the rest of them. "Low dimensional topology and his lovely dark locks, huh?"

"There is no accounting for attraction," Larry said softly. He cleared his throat. "I swear I will never tease Charles about his hair again."

"She mentions his hair in…three other notes. Something as simple as Charlie getting a haircut might have set her off," Megan mused.

"Yeah, but that means she followed him. How else would she know about it and grab him on the same day?"

"Am I the only one who finds that prospect worrying?" Larry said.

"No, you're not."

Don knew in his gut this was the person they were looking for. He pictured Charlie carrying on with his daily life, unknowingly being watched every step of the way. He didn't know how someone like that wouldn't be noticed, if not by Charlie, then by Larry or Amita. They were the ones who saw Charlie the most often, and while Larry was as scattered as his brother, Amita was very observant. She would have noticed if another girl had been paying Charlie a lot of attention, even if it was subtle.

"Average height, average weight, average brown hair," Don said. "He probably didn't notice her."

"I know Charlie isn't a big guy, but how likely do you think it would be for an average woman to take him out?" Megan said.

His stomach did that flippy, turny knot thing. He sounded distracted, his voice a little stilted and almost drunk. He already didn't buy Charlie as a drinker, but now he knew for sure. Charlie wouldn't drink in the middle of the afternoon, especially not if he was supposed to teach a class later in the evening.

"Charlie's an easy mark. He wouldn't want to be rude, so if someone approached him looking for, say, help with an assignment he'd given out, he'd go along," Don said. "This girl probably knocked on his damned front door and he went with her without a thought."

"So how did she get Charlie to make up a story and call the dean?" Megan shook her head, eyebrows furrowed. "By that point, he would have known something was wrong."

"Ever smoke pot, Megan?"

"I'm not sure I should answer that."

"I think I understand where Don is going with this," Larry said. "Just as determined people have been known to do amazing things, people on drugs have been known to respond very well to suggestions and do some very stupid things."

"It might have been stupid, but it was also pretty damn smart. As susceptible as Charlie was to suggestion, he could have realized that the instant we heard about it we'd know something was going on."

"Whatever the case, I'll gladly take this to see if we can get any prints off of it. We can run it against the school's records right here, " Larry said. "In fact, I think I had already reached this conclusion before you arrived."

Don spared Larry a small smile. Procedure dictated the chain of evidence go through the FBI, but if the evidence was already processed… Megan shook her head at him, a slight frown on her face. He'd pay for breaking protocol later. Right now, his primary concern was finding his brother.

"Don, I don't know about this."

"Don't worry, this is all me. I'll make sure you don't take any heat for it. The sooner we can get a name and address, the sooner we can track this person down and ask her a few very specific questions."

He'd missed out on the chance to take out his ire on Kenny and again with Doctor Beam. This girl wouldn't be so lucky. If she turned out to be the real deal, he was going to have words. He did not care if she was a woman. Anyone who messed with his family had to deal with him. Screw being detached and professional. Megan caught his arm as he started to brush past her.

"Hey," she said. "You really going to be okay with this?"

"Yeah, just great." He slammed his palm against the doorframe. "I'm pretty sure someone, if not this girl, grabbed my brother and drugged him. Who knows what else they might have done in the meantime while I've been sitting around getting nowhere? So, yeah, I'm fantastic."

He followed Larry down the corridor, feeling Megan's eyes on his back. She'd do her best to keep him distanced from the suspect once they found her, Don knew. As she should, especially if something had happened to Charlie. He heard her begin to follow as well. They were close. Larry seemed confident that it shouldn't take his friends in the lab long to dust the note, and definitely a matter of minutes to compare it to the school's database. They were working with a much smaller sample than anything the Bureau would. Larry trotted down the stairs and headed for the exit, jumping when the door opened just before he pushed on it.

"Doctor Fleinhardt." David squeezed into the building, sliding against the wall when Larry didn't stop moving. He looked up the stairs in confusion. "Whoa, what's going on?"

"Possible suspect," he heard Megan say. "Doctor Fleinhardt can help us print a note Charlie received some time ago from someone who apparently has a bit of a crush on him. Might be our person."

"Shouldn't we take it back to our lab?"

"Charlie's been gone almost forty-five hours," Don called back. "I'd say time was of the essence. Besides, Larry here beat us to the punch."

No more was said. David would catch up. If Don had to retrace his own steps, he'd have no idea where Larry had taken them, only that the lab they eventually ended up in had state of the art equipment in it, and was occupied by several people who looked like they knew what they were doing. He let Larry take charge, standing out of the way while activity flurried through the room. Don already knew that the person who matched the print would be a woman of average height, weight and features, a girl who was apparently invisible but always there. But the invisible girl had to have a name.

"Thank you, Doctor Stokes," Larry said. "We've got something!"

Don moved closer, peering at the computer screen. The girl staring back at him didn't seem capable of anything as sinister as stalking and kidnapping. Her eyes were soft, pained, even in a still photograph.

"Who is she?"

"Alisen Lancaster. She's in several of Charles' classes, was last semester as well. Her grades are –"

"I'll wager a guess. They're average," Don said. "What's this girl's phone number, her address?"

Doctor Stokes started clattering away at the keyboard. Don's cell rang. He contemplated not getting it. He withdrew it from his jacket pocket and stared at it for a second. He sighed and flipped the phone open.

"Eppes."

"Don, it's Colby."

"What? I thought you were handling this DelMarco thing."

"I am, but Don, I just got a phone call…from Charlie. He was actually looking for you." Over the phone, Colby's voice came across as agitated. "He sounded bad, man. I couldn't keep him talking, but the line didn't disconnect. I had the call traced."

Charlie. Bad. Those words rattled around his head for a few seconds before the rest of Colby's message made it through.

"Give me the address," he said sharply.

"4867 Lariat Road," Colby and Doctor Stokes answered him in unison.