Title: The Fury of the Wind
Author: Windimere Wellen
Part: 4 of?
Disclaimer: I don't own Numb3ers and I'm not particularly rich (actually I'm horribly poor), so don't sue me.
Authors Note: So here is where I say a couple of things – the first is I guess I should tell everyone my story is going to be officially AU from now on, partially because of the pairing I'm going to be using, and partially to cover any cannon mistakes I make, and to give myself a little of author leeway to characterize in the way that I understand the characters. Second, THANK YOU so much for all of the reviews, you guys are awesome! Third is the pairing I'm using, hehe. I'm paring Don and Amita together for this story. The reason is to go along with the theme of the story – roll reversal, but it's really only going to be an undercurrent, not a huge part of the story, and that said, I'm not planning on exploring any Charlie/OC further than brief mention, more of a passing thing, so please don't flame me if you're a Charlie/Amita fan.
All that said, thanks so much for reading! Hope you'll enjoy this chapter…
Happy Memorial Day
Lady Winter
David Sinclair stared disdainfully at the pile of files sitting on his desk. The stack, about four inches thick, represented hours worth of work. He rubbed one hand over the top of his head, then glanced over to the desk that belonged to his partner.
A similar scene met his eyes, but his partner, Colby Granger, was leaning over one of the said files, scribbling furiously. At least Colby was actually doing work. That was certainly more than David was doing.
David shifted in his chair for the tenth time and glanced up at the clock, which read two pm, only seventeen minutes after the last time he'd looked. Still three hours before he could justify putting the case files away and heading home.
He sighed aloud. It was days like these that made being and FBI agent completely devoid of all glamour.
Colby glanced up at him when he sighed, a grin twitching at the corners of his mouth.
"You know, it's usually me who's distracted," he said, as the grin spread across his handsome face. David rolled his eyes, but he knew it was true. Colby was the junior agent, and more often than not, David found himself corralling Colby, especially when it came to the mundane aspects of the job.
"I just don't see why I couldn't have gone with Don and Charlie. These are Megan's case files after all," David muttered, knowing he sounded a bit childish. Colby's grin grew even wider.
"This is like the twighlight zone. It's like we reversed rolls. You're in my body, and I'm in yours," Colby prattled, and David couldn't help but smile a little. "Besides, you already answered your own question an hour ago. Megan is Don's partner. She had to go."
"She should have had to finish her paperwork," David grumbled, shifting again in his chair. He glanced longingly towards Don's desk, and past its severe organization to the extremely nice desk chair that simply screamed 'Special Agent Team Leader Chair Only.' "Think Don would mind if I borrowed his chair?"
"Bet you fifty bucks that if he gets back and sees you sitting in it, he'll just kill you here," Colby said, his eyes already back on the ballistics report he was correcting. "And if he doesn't kill you, you'll just get one of his lectures. And then you'll feel like a bad agent and you'll wonder just how Don makes it all look so easy." There, in the last sentence, David caught a bit of envy and a bit of hero worship. It wasn't the first time he'd heard that tone of voice from Colby.
For that matter, he'd heard that tone of voice from more than a few agents that Don had worked with. The truth behind the longing was that Don was an exceptionally good FBI agent.
He was focused, intelligent, and dedicated. Law enforcement came easy to him. He practically breathed it and it was like he had been born to go out and catch the bad guys. He was cold enough to be able to work through hard cases, but had enough humanity in him to feel guilt when he'd been forced to kill a man, even if he'd had no choice.
Don was well respected in the beaurea. He was a natural and practically everyone liked him. His bosses had always been receptive, they had appreciated his communication skills and he was a natural leader. He had the most closed cases in the history of the LA office, but he was incredibly humble about it, to the point of always feeling like he hadn't done enough.
David reflected that Don's natural ability for the job also had it's downsides. Don was almost too dedicated – during some cases he wouldn't rest and barely slept until the job was done, no matter how long it took. The job had taken him away from his family, though David knew there was more to Don's distance than just the job. The job ruled his life, kept him from pursuing any sort of romantic relationship, and frequently put him at odds with his brother and father.
But it was the job as an FBI agent that had actually significantly closed the gap between Don and his genius mathematician brother, Charlie. David enjoyed working with Don and he enjoyed working with Don and Charlie together. He knew that they both thought they were complete opposites, but David thought they were more similar than they would ever admit. Perhaps they would never see it.
"You're probably right," David grumbled to Colby, who had a point about Don not being fond of sharing the comfy chair.
"I'm always right…" Colby was saying when they were interrupted by a tentative knock on the edge of the cubicle wall. Both agents looked up to find Amita Ramanujan, Charlie's thesis advisee who often assisted Charlie with his consultations for the FBI, standing there, a file in one hand.
David smiled at her and stood up. "Amita, how are you?" he asked her quickly, and Colby and he both caught her eyes dart to Don's empty desk.
"I'm good, how are you?" she asked, her voice sounding a little distracted as she focused her eyes back on David.
"We're just doing some paperwork," Colby interjected, staring at the beautiful young woman with curiosity. "I hope that isn't more you're bringing."
Amita laughed a little, her voice musical in their ears, the smile on her face making her that much prettier. "No, this is actually something to do with a current case that Don… Agent Eppes, I mean, was working on. Charlie left it with me to see I had any more luck. I didn't really…just came to the same conclusion that Charlie did… Uh, is Don, I mean Agent Eppes, here?"
The two FBI agents stared at her as she rambled on and David fought back a smile. He'd noticed that lately Amita had been finding her way to the FBI office more and more lately. At first when she'd helped with cases, it had only been because she'd been around when Don had dropped off a case, or Charlie had occasionally asked for her input. Over the past few months, she had been getting more involved, as much as Charlie would let her. Then, recently, she'd been showing up more often at the office, trailing along on Charlie's shirt tails, or volunteering to drop off information on a whim. And all the while she seemed to gravitate closer and closer to Don.
David was slightly worried about the situation. He knew from watching Charlie, and from a few things Don had said, that Charlie had been interested in Amita for some time. For a while, David had also been sure that Amita had returned the feelings, but they'd been kept from a relationship by CalSci's rules.
However, things had seemed to change close to two months ago when an old friend of Charlie's, a young woman named Olivia, had come to town during a math convention being held downtown. The two of them had attended Princeton together. David had no idea about the particulars of what had happened, but after that, things between Amita and Charlie had seemed to be different.
Charlie seemed to have lost interest and Amita had apparently turned her eye sight on Don. Don had mentioned Olivia once or twice in reference to Charlie, even going so far as to tell the team that she would be in town for the Eppes' annual fourth of July clambake.
David wondered where that left Amita. She didn't seemed fazed by Charlie's lack of interest, and she obviously hadn't told Don that she was nearly stalking him, and even more amusing was the fact that David knew that Don, for all of his agent skills, had not noticed her interest. It was either that or Don was avoiding it – avoiding the complications that the concept would inevitably raise between his and Charlie's sometimes delicate relationship. But, David had seen Don look at Amita, and it certainly wasn't a look of disinterest of neutral admiration. His boss clearly thought something about Amita – but what, David wasn't sure.
"Don's not here," Colby said, obviously confused at her intent to find Don. "Charlie went with him and Megan to go interview the bank manager for the Cal Mutual case. That's what you have there, right?" Colby asked.
Amita looked disappointed. "Yeah. Charlie and I think it's an inside job," she offered. David looked at her sharply.
"What?" he asked.
"Don mentioned that he and Megan thought that too," Colby said slowly. "But they weren't sure."
Amita opened the file, and in a way that Charlie had never mastered, explained to them the first time in non-mathematics why they thought it was an inside job. "You're not worried about them, are you?" Amita asked, suddenly worried. David was about to respond when his phone rang.
"Sinclair," he said swiftly as he answered. Colby and Amita watched him, waiting for the call to be over, but what David was hearing was sure to make the phone call longer. It was the director of operations, and he was relaying a call that the dispatcher had just taken. An emergency call for help from Don. "You're sure?" he asked quietly when the director told him simply that neither Don nor Megan were answering their phones.
"Sinclair, we're going to move on this right away because this screams that something went down wrong, and we have to take into account that there was a civilian involved. Agent Eppes logged that he took a consultant with him to the interview."
"Not just any consultant, sir," David said, swallowing hard, watching both Amita and Colby look at him worriedly, catching the tone of his voice. "The consultant was Charles Eppes sir, Agent Eppes' brother."
"I was afraid of that," the director said with a sigh. "Sinclair, I'm putting you in charge. Be ready to roll in ten. I have a tactical team mobilizing now. You should be on your way as soon as possible. I want those agents and the consultant out safe."
"We'll take care of it sir," David promised and hung up the phone. "Colby, we've gotta roll. Amita…" he said, suddenly realizing she was still there. Her face was white.
"Something's happened, hasn't it? Is… Are they…?" she stuttered.
"We don't know anything," he told her gently. David realized it might be against policy, but Amita was already involved in the case, so he might as well fill her in while he filled Colby in. "Don called into to the emergency dispatcher and all she got from him was a yelled address – the address of the Cal Mutual office they went to, then the line went dead. The dispatcher raised the file and tried to contact both Don and Megan, but neither answered. Don's GPS tracker disappeared a few moments after she tried, but they still have a lock on Megan's. They're still in the bank, but the director figures that something is seriously wrong."
Amita looked ill, but she nodded, and Colby was already moving, his flak vest already on, checking his gun. David scooped up his own vest and turned to Amita.
"Don't worry, we'll get them out of there. You can't tell anyone, but maybe you could…" he trailed off.
"I'll go to the Eppes' house. This could reach the media, right?" she asked numbly, and David nodded, wondering if she'd read his mind. "I'll make sure Alan doesn't watch the TV," she promised. "But… You'll call, won't you?" she was practically begging now.
"As soon as we know anything, we'll let you know," David promised her with as much conviction in his voice as he could. He knew it was a lie. She would only hear from him whenever the situation was over. Until then, she would have to wait like everyone else.
"Let's go," Colby urged, and David could see the strain and worry on his face. They were a close team. They were all friends. And this was hard to swallow. David nodded, squeezed Amita's hand, then hurried past her, leaving her in the nearly empty office.
Colby jogged ahead of them, and when they got downstairs, the tactical team was already waiting and they quickly got underway. David let Colby drive and he pulled out his cell phone, first trying Don's cell, which went straight to voice mail. He figured it had been destroyed. He didn't want to risk the same thing happening to Megan's, especially if it could potentially give them a clue to where the agents were, so he left off calling her. Next he tried Charlie's cell. He figured there might be a chance that if things went south, Charlie had gotten out. He knew Don would do anything to protect his younger brother.
The phone rang and rang and finally went to voicemail, and David's heart sank a little.
While they made the twenty minute drive to the other side of the city, David went through all of the motions numbly, checking his gun to make sure it was loaded, attaching his sleeve radio, checking to make sure his vest was tight. He couldn't believe he was doing this without Don and Megan. He couldn't believe he was doing this for Don and Megan
David swallowed hard. He could only hope there was some mistake. He could only hope this wasn't going to be as bad as he was afraid it was. He could only hope this wasn't about to become a nightmare that would forever haunt him.