Title: The best for me
Series: The Connections Series, part 5/?
Characters: Charlie/Colby, Amita
Rating: M
Spoilers: Seasons 1, 2, 3, 4
Summary: Amita is trying to make her life go back to normal, but she can't keep her concerns to herself forever. Even if she is at the FBI, in the middle of a case.
Disclaimer: I do not own Numb3rs or anything related to it.
Beta:Thanks to my beta, who helped me so much with this.

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The Connections Series

Part 5: "The best for me"

Amita's wounds healed very fast, so fast that three weeks after she had returned home, she was continuing with her classes at CalSci and helping Charlie to solve the FBI cases.

However, all of the stress she had been through the kidnapping seemed to have an echo in the present. Charlie had been great since he had seen her safe again, since he had held her in his arms that night at the hospital. They had spent a lot of time together and they had argued for days about Amita going back to work. Charlie didn't want her to put herself in danger again, after all that had happened. He had asked her, begged her that she stopped trying to be a hero, because someday he or the team might not be able to save her from a crazy person again.

Amita had answered Charlie that he was in the same situation as her. He consulted for the FBI almost every week, and even ended up in the middle of a violent scenario every once in a while. So that was it. His boyfriend couldn't convince her to do something as crazy as stop helping people to get away from rapists, stalkers and more. What she needed the most at the moment was to feel in touch with her normal environment, her normal life, and try to forget about the incident so she could concentrate in her relationship with Charlie.

It hasn't been easy at all. She could feel something was lost. Even worse, she could see it. It was in front of her eyes, even at the FBI. She had gone there with Charlie because Don needed someone to enhance the quality of some photos so some criminal's face could be matched to a profile, or at least to a name and an address. And all the time she was typing codes in her laptop, trying to figure out some weapons thief's identity because that was the only lead the team had, she had to listen to his boyfriend talking to the man he had been obviously dreaming about.

The bond between Charlie and Colby had been growing even more during the past three weeks. Everybody at the office, and even Larry, joked or make comments about how close they had become. No one could see what she saw, no one could know what she knew. No one could make connections between what both men were saying and what they really meant with those smiles.

She could hear them behind her, they sited in front of each other, at Colby and David's desks.

"So… what did you do this weekend? Did you go to that trip you talked to me about?" Colby asked.

Charlie tensed a little, remembering the dream he had had a few weeks ago. Colby had appeared in the middle of it, made him confess the awkward attraction he felt towards him and he had tried to give him a kiss.

But you fixed it. You made your confessions, your mind relaxed because of that release. You haven't thought about him like that since then. Amita's the only person you care about that way. This is just a good friendship.

"Hum… no, I actually didn't. I'm waiting for the right time to ask, when that special someone is able to go for it," he quickly answered, and that sounded very smooth, like he wanted to surprise Amita with the invitation.

"I understand. Just for the record, I still think it's a great idea," Colby reminded him, and then smiled when he remembered the Pi shape that Charlie was so worried about.

As a reflection of this gesture, the mathematician laughed a little, and it felt like he was glowing. Charlie didn't notice the spark in his own eyes, or the one in Colby's. It felt very natural for them to just talk like this, while they waited for Amita's results on the enhanced photos.

"You know, maybe you could come home and have dinner with me sometime." Charlie said, leaning towards him a little, his lips still curved up.

It's fine to invite friends to dinner. I like having long conversations with him, after all. It's nothing weird.

He didn't shift his position when Colby leaned towards him, looking at him with warm eyes, just like he always did, and muttered softly. "I would like that."

Charlie held to that sweet voice in his head one more second and asked. "Ok. Is Friday night ok?"

"More than ok. It's absolutely perfect."

"I'm glad…"

"Me too…"

During the whole conversation there had been a tone in their voices that made Amita more and more nervous and unable to work properly on the images. But this, this fluffy words, and that invitation, and the way they were leaning towards each other, trying to look like friends at the office when they obviously weren't going in that direction, was too much for her.

She suddenly got up and turned around, taking the laptop with her. Charlie and Colby separated and stared at her like they thought she had discovered each one's intentions and fantasies. She stared at them in return, unable to say anything that made sense.

"Is something wrong?" Charlie asked, but she didn't answer. "Amita, are you ok?"

When Amita got out of that room and entered the closest empty one, he was truly worried about her. He got up, glancing at Colby, letting him know he would take care of this, and went to meet her.

He put a hand on her shoulder and tossed aside her hair so he could see her face. She removed his hand without saying a word.

"What's going on? Please, tell me. You're scaring me". He still didn't receive any answer. "I'm serious. Are you still mad at me because I don't want you to work for the FBI anymore?"

That was all Amita needed to explode like a bomb when the time is up. Charlie's innocent questions. Like he didn't know what was happening, what he was doing. "Oh, c'mon, Charlie. You know this has nothing to do with that." she said, and she sounded really angry.

The mathematician noticed the office's door was open and he went to close it. He wished the building didn't have only transparent glasses as walls and that everyone could see them in a public fight. "Are we going to have a fight?"

"I think we've already started one thirty seconds ago."

"Could we go some place else? Anyone can see us here, and no one really needs to know about our personal problems."

"Well, maybe you should have thought about it before you decided to put a show in the middle of the office."

"What?"Charlie's eyes were wide open, and he looked like he wasn't identifying Amita's point at all. This just made her get even more pissed off.

"Don't try to act like it wasn't on purpose."

"What. did. I. do? If you could just tell me what at you talking about, maybe I could…"

"You were there flirting with Colby, in front of me!"

Completely astonished, Charlie stared at her, his hands frozen in the air in the middle of a gesture he had been repeating since the discussion had started.

How can she know? How? It's just not possible. Please, don't let it be possible.

She crossed her arms and waited for him to say something. But when he froze, she just shook her head, annoyed at his attitude, and started to pick up her bag, her laptop and her other things.

"What are you doing?" Charlie finally asked when he was able to react to that.

"Leaving."

The mathematician took a breath and tried to stay calm. "Amita, how can you think I could want something with Colby? He's my friend, my work colleague, and besides, I'm not into guys."

"Well, maybe you weren't, but you are definitely now."

"What you're saying doesn't make any sense."

"Oh. My. God. Why do you keep denying it? Why can't you just be honest with me?"

Amita got closer to him, and her angry tone suddenly became so sad it made Charlie's head burst. "I heard you speak in your dreams, the first night at the hospital."

Charlie's eyes were focused on her, and he was once more left out of words. Now he was also left out of air.

Oh no. No, no, no, no.

He stared at Amita again in silence, and watched tears appear in her sweet eyes.

"It's fine, I don't judge you about it. We can fall in love with anyone around us, no matter what gender they are. Because after all, they are all people. I just wished you have told me what you felt for him. To find out this way that you cared more about him than you cared about me was just… horrible. It broke my heart."

He had tears in his eyes too. He wanted to make everything ok again, before it was too late. Charlie started speaking like crazy, desperate to end this fight. "Ok, maybe I'm a little confused. But we can work it out, we can spend more time together, do whatever you think it will help…"

"It won't work, Charlie. I see the way you look at him. It's the same way you used to look at me when we started this relationship. But I can't take it anymore, it's been three weeks and I have realized that you won't be happy with me."

"Amita, please… I don't want to lose you. Just tell me what to do, and I'll do it. Anything you say."

Amita wiped away her tears with her hand, taking her eyes off Charlie for a second, but then she looked at him again and put her palms on each side of his chest. "It wouldn't be fair for any of us. I don't want to be the one to stay between you two. It's more than obvious that you're very close and will become closer as time goes by. So I have to leave. I'll call some of my relatives in India. I'm going to spend some time there."

"You don't have to move to another country because of this."

"Yes, I need to. It's the best thing to do for me. I couldn't stand to see you with him, not right now, after all this mess."

"Are you coming back?"

"I can't tell you that for sure. But right now, I don't think so."

This was the moment when Charlie knew it was over, and that there was no turning back. "So this is a goodbye," he muttered.

"Yeah. It's a goodbye." she said, while he caressed her long hair. Amita continued speaking. "I wish you to be happy. Even if I'm not the one person… to be by your side."

So she stepped aside, took her stuff and got out the room. Charlie watched her abandon the FBI through the window, with tears falling down his flushed cheeks. He knew she had seen everything right, and that this relationship couldn't work if he was paying attention to someone else. There was a new person that had stolen a big part of his heart, and that very special man named Colby was now opening the door, leaning against its frame.

"I saw Amita leave. She looked angry. Is everything ok?"

Colby was sincerely worried about him. But Charlie couldn't deal with his feelings for him right now. He was too sad that Amita had left, maybe forever, because he still cared about her as a friend.

"No. Everything's not ok," the mathematician answered, and left the room knowing that he would need some time to decide what to do about the Colby situation.