EPILOGUE

Charlie stared up at the ceiling and watched the lights of the cars that passed his hotel. His room was on the second floor, and he had left the curtains slightly open. It was 3:30 in the morning, and he was wide awake for some reason. His restless mind couldn't help trying to calculate the speed of the cars by the light that crossed the ceiling, and Charlie rolled over and buried his head under his pillow in frustration. He was never going to get to sleep this way.

It had been a month and a half since the house had been shot up, and things between Alan, Don and himself had improved a great deal. They had worked together to fix up the house, and the hours spent fixing the walls and furniture had meant a lot of time for conversation, from serious topics like some of the things Charlie had done with the IIC, to the latest baseball games. Charlie had come to realize that he had been at fault for a lot of the tension in the house, despite Alan's insistence that it had been his fault. If he had only been truthful with Alan in the first place, it wouldn't have escalated to the point it had. And if he'd only called Don or Alan at some point when he'd been away for those eight months, it wouldn't have escalated to any point at all.

At the time he thought he'd done the right thing, that it would be safer if he just completely disappeared, for himself as well as Don and Alan.

Many of Alan and Don's problems with Anna stemmed from the same place; she had just randomly showed up one day, and Alan at least never got a proper explanation of who she was, how she and Charlie knew each other, and what she did for a living, except that she was a hacker. Anna in turn didn't always feel very comfortable around the two of them, and that had only made things worse. She was naturally shy, and it took her time to open up to anyone and have a conversation with them, and she confessed to Charlie that she had probably often been unintentionally rude to both Alan and Don. It hadn't helped that she and Charlie had taken to speaking French a lot. Now they consciously spoke English in the house, unless they were discussing something that really couldn't be talked about in front of anyone else, then they switched to French. Lately, however, Anna and Alan had started spending some time together. Anna was a pretty good cook, and often she and Alan could be found in the kitchen together, experimenting with recipes, or off on a trip to the local market.

Charlie had been in Berlin for three days, and would be flying back home the next day. It had been three days of endless meetings and discussion, and he had made sure to take at least 10 minutes out of the day to call home and let everyone know he was ok.

Anna was in Belgium visiting family, and Charlie found himself missing her beside him at night. He hadn't slept properly since she'd left two weeks ago, and he probably wouldn't sleep properly until she came back two weeks from now. He debated for a few moments cancelling his flight home and taking the train to Belgium to see her for a day or two, but knew she would not appreciate that. They had both decided to spend a little bit of time apart, just because they had spent nearly every moment together for the past year, ever since their time in South Africa. Time apart would be good for them both, and Charlie knew that was right, but he couldn't help wanting her with him. And that was frustrating, because he hated being clingy. He'd been working very hard to become more independent, and this was not helping.

With a sigh, Charlie sat up and grabbed his laptop. If he wasn't going to sleep, he was at least going to beat his Minesweeper record.

Before he could get his laptop turned on, however, his cell rang, and he picked it up in relief. "Hello?"

"Charlie? Hey, it's Don." Don sounded cheerful and relaxed on the other end, and Charlie looked at the clock in confusion. It really was 3:45am, wasn't it?

"Don? What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Don said, sounding surprised. There was a moment of silence. "Oh, dammit, the time difference. Sorry Charlie."

"That's alright," Charlie said in relief. "I just thought something was wrong for you to be calling me now. I wasn't sleeping anyway."

"You're sure? I can call back…"

"No, no. It's fine."

"You're still coming home tomorrow, right?" Don asked.

"That's the plan," Charlie confirmed. "You're still picking me up at the airport?"

"Yep, that's the plan," Don said cheerfully. "So, guess what? We solved the case."

"The kidnapping case?" Charlie asked. Don and his team had been working non-stop on the case of a 5-year-old boy who had been kidnapped by his non-custodial father. His mother was a federal judge, which was why the FBI had been involved.

"Yeah, found him in Florida."

"That's great!" Charlie exclaimed. "Everyone is fine then?"

"Yep, dropped the kid of with his mother and hauled the father off to jail. No injuries, no visible trauma. The kid just thought he was on vacation."

"That's great."

"Yeah, I just thought I'd let you know since you helped us out with the location algorithm and all."

Charlie laughed. "I'm pretty sure my algorithm was no where near Florida."

Don couldn't help but laugh as well. "No, I guess not. Completely wrong, actually, but we were missing some pretty crucial information."

"Like what?"

"He has a brother in Florida."

"Oh. Well, that'll do it, I guess."

"So, I wanted to talk to you about something."

"Ok?"

"There's a house a few streets down that's just come up for sale. It's a bit of a fixer-upper, needs lots of work, but I should be able to get it at a good price. Lauren and I were thinking of buying it."

"That's… that's a great idea," Charlie said excitedly.

"You think so? You won't mind if we move out? It might be a bit short-notice, so I wasn't sure…"

"Don't worry about me," Charlie said with a laugh. "You'll still be close enough if I need help fixing something."

"Good. Excellent." Don sounded relieved, and Charlie couldn't help but wonder why his brother was so worried about his reaction to him moving out.

"Why were you so worried about that?" Charlie asked.

"I just thought…things have been pretty great lately. I didn't want you to think that I didn't want to be around anymore, y'know? I do, it's just, it's a bit crowded in the house with the five of us, and I thought I should take the chance while I have it. Houses don't come up for sale in this neighbourhood very often, and if they do they'd probably be way outside my price-range."

"Have you put a bid on it yet?" Charlie asked.

"Yeah," Don said excitedly. "And they've accepted it, so it's a go, pending the usual. Closing date is in three weeks."

"That's quick," Charlie said in surprise. "But I guess it doesn't really matter."

"Yeah, I think I might not move in right away, though," Don said. "I want to do a lot of the fixing first. The floors need to be replaced. It's got this horrible carpet from like, the sixties, and the walls need to be redone. It'll be a lot of work."

"I can help," Charlie offered.

Don snorted in laughter. "Yeah, I've been witness to your carpentry skills, buddy."

"Hey," Charlie exclaimed in mock anger.

"I'm kidding," Don said. "I would appreciate your help. Which reminds me. Jane MacRooney emailed you something she'd like you to look at."

"Yeah, I saw it. I just haven't opened it yet. It's been hectic around here. I'll try to look at it on the plane. I've already downloaded the attachment to my computer, so… I'll have a few hours to kill anyway."

"Great, I'll let her know. Anna still in Belgium?"

"Yeah."

"Still resisting the urge to go see her?"

"Barely," Charlie muttered. "This is so stupid."

Don laughed. "Anything else come up since yesterday?"

"No," Charlie said. "Nothing you'd want to know about anyway. I just had an endless meeting with people from the World Bank. Talking about loans, food supplies and climate. And I'm probably going to come back in a month or so for more meetings. Zurich, this time."

"Is there any country you haven't been to yet?" Don teased.

Charlie shrugged. "Trust me, much as I love Europe, I would rather do this from home. There is such a thing as too much travel, you know."

"I guess I can understand," Don said. "When I was in fugitive recovery, we'd often spend a lot of time on the road, and after a while I'd want nothing more than to just go home to my own place, my own bed, my own shower…"

"Exactly."

"Anyway, so plane lands at 6?"

"Yeah."

"Good, I'll see you then. Call me if anything changes."

"Will do. See you tomorrow."

The End

Ok, ok, you've wrangled an epilogue out of me. Enjoy. : )