Hi! Thank you so, so much for your reviews, I really appreciate them.
I hope you like the 2. chapter as well...just let me know.
Disclaimer: I don´t own ´Numb3rs
The stalker
by elessar 73
Let the game start
Mary Clark dashed into her apartment, breathless and panting.
`How could he do that? How could Charlie allow someone to throw her roses away-they were meant for him.´
Her apartment was seated in a residental building only a few minutes away from the CalSci-campus.
To be honest, the apartment was way too expensive for her, she spent a good part of her gain for the stack and incidental expenses.
In the middle of each month she was literally running out of money. But she didn´t care, she worked as a cook at the commons of Cal Sci and her superior, Paul Hold, who really adored her, allowed her to take the leftovers back she wouldn´t die of hunger and she didn´t need much more.
The view outside her bedroom window was reward enough for all her renunciation and it was worth it.
From there she had the perfect outlook on the CalSci-parking lot.
She could stand there for hours, just staring at Charlie´s blue Prius and waiting motionless for her love to appear, hoping to catch the faintest sight of Charles Eppes.
But right now she had to take care of her arm. She rushed into the bathroom, opened a mirrow cabinet and grabbed a first aid packet.
Drops of her blood fell to the ground and formed a pattern,which Dr. Eppes with certainty would have liked to analyse.
Mary frowned by the view of it,hate sweept over her, she was bleeding because of him. ´Damned Eppes, he ruined everything!´
`You must calm down.´she told herself,´you need to think straight and figure out what to do.´
She inhaled deep and when she was composed enough she began to clean her wound.
She hold her wrist under cold,running water and winced, when a stabbing pain radiated through the arm.
Mary squeezed her green eyes shut, the room started to spin a little.
When it stopped, she opened her eyes again and perceived her reflected image, a mask of hate with an insanity smirk on her lips.
´He will feel the pain, too!´
She warded off , teared the packet open and dressed her wrist tightly.
After she was content with her work, she cleaned up the bathroom and made it to her outlook, in the hope to catch a glimpse of her love.
Mary gazed through the window, reflecting the first time she caught sight of Charlie.
He strolled into the commons, his dark curls whipped with every step he made, his dark brown eyes spread out excitement and his cheek flushed while he explained something to his company.
Now and then, he pointed with his index finger in the air, describing circels or whatever.
By the look of it, he seemed to be a student,dressed in jeans and a plain blue t-shirt, engrossed in a debate with his teacher.
Mary recognized the ´teacher´as Larry Fleinhardt, one of CalSci´s tenured professors for astro-physics.
So she came to the assumption, that the young man must be his grade student.
Her eyes were fixed on him and when the two men reached the counter, she strained her ears, to get as much informations as possilble.
" Okay Larry, I´ve got it, I´ll do the calculation tomorrow after office hours." The young man smiled genuine at the professor.
Mary felt her heart contract,the smile was so much alike the one of her little brother Mickey and those curls.
This was an omen.... this was the man she had waited for.
The sound of Fleinhardt´s repley brought her back to reality.
"Well Charles, do you really think this will be early enough." He raised one hand to his ear and rubbed it, a little absent-minded.
Charles pattered the shoulder of the older man. " Don´t worry Larry, everything will turn out fine."
The professor nodded.
First Mary was a little irritate by the familiarity of their talk, but it didn´t bother her too much, maybe this was the way teachers talked to their students,who knew?
After they had ordered a coffee and a glass of milk, they were gone.
Mary needed a while to progress what just had happened. She had fallen in love.
After work she began to do some research about the man, who had just stepped into her life.
She was astoud,when she spotted, that the guy wasn´t a student, but a professor for applied mathematics.
His name was Charles Eppes, a genius by the word and he belonged to her, Mary Clark.
She couldn´t believe it, her mother would be so proud of her.
´Mother,´ Mary´s thoughts grew dark,´now you will see, I´m worth to be loved, and this time you will not take this love away from me....you can´t, he belongs to me!´
In the following days, Mary attempted to find out as much as possible about the professor.
She googled him, found several articels and books he had already published and tried to get familiar with it.
But the math stuff was to much for her, all the numbers and equations didn´t do her not well. She understood almost nothing and began to doubt, if she could hold up with him.
´But math isn´t everything and even a genius is human.´ she calmed herself down.
So she turned her attention to the human side of Charles Eppes.
She figured out, that he loved turkey sandwich and a cup of coffee for lunch and sometimes he picked up some strawberry icecream.
To her distress she came across that Charlie was dating a girl, Amita Ramanujan.
She watched them, walking through the halls or across campus, holding hands and kissing each other from time to time.
Charlie´s face beamed evertime he looked at Amita, his brown eyes sparkling.
Mary would have done everything to be the one Charlie adored.
But she did a good job pretending to be the one, in her mind she was the girl, who hold his felt his hand caress her body gentle, a shudder ran through her, when she imagined his lips on hers....´I will make him forget Amita soon!´
And then she got lucky, the female threat to her luck left for a vacation to India and she took her chance, brought him red roses, but he just threw them away.
The painful memory dragged her out of her dreams, her body was shaking and silent tears rolled down her face,´why had he done this?´
Through eyes full of tears she spied upon two people approaching the parking lot, one with unruly hairs, whipping in the breeze, engrossed in a discussion with an other man,´Charlie´,Mary´s heart skipped a beat.
Sometimes she had seen the other man at CalSci and after she had listen to a talk between the two she knew, that he was Charlie´s brother Don, a FBI-agent and that Charlie consulted for him on cases.
The two brothers got to a black SUV, and both climbed blue Prius remained in the parking lot.
Maybe that would be her chance to adduce Charlie his lesson.
Long after the SUV had bialed, Mary still stood at her window, considering what to do.
It was well after dark,when Mary left her apartment, dressed in black, in the hope to be almost invisible. Diffrent kind of screwdrivers stuffed in the waisteband of her jeans.
The parking lot was deserted and silent.
Just a few cars had stayed, apparent teachers and students, who were still working in their offices and labs.
Maybe she should skip her plan and wait for a better chance. She stopped in her movement, thinking, but just a moment, she had to do it right now, maybe there won´t be a better chance.
Slowy she crept toward the blue car, trying to hide in the shadow of the trees, enclosing the parking lot. Every now and then she hold on and listened into the darkness. When she felt save enough, she continued her walk.
To play safe was of an essence and so she was startled, when she heard the sound of an opening door.
She cowered beneath a shrub and hoped that she remained unnoticed.
She peered at the source of the noise and made out the shiloutte of two people standing in front of the mainentrance, ready to leave.
Before they said good-bye, they embrassed.
Mary´s pulse began to increase, she closed her eyes when an image of Charlie and her imbued her mind, she could even feel Charlie´s hand on her cheek, his soft lips pressed tight on hers and his tongue forced its way inside.
A moan escaped her mouth, she wrapped her arms around her shoulders, in an attempt to embrasse herself.
Mary´s eyes popped open, reality stroke, she had to the skip that wishful thinking.
She checked upon the people, but found that they had already left, it was time to move on.
Finally she reached Charlie´s car, she bent down at the front wheel on the driver´s side and pulled her tools out of her waisteband and laid them silently on the asphalt.
Using a srewdriver as a lever she removed the hupcab of the front wheel.
In a moment of inattention the cab crashed to the floor with a bang.
Mary froze immediately, hold her breath and eavesdropped into the darkness...but it stayed silent, and after a while she proceeded with her work.
She eased the four bolts, holding the wheel in place and put the cap back on the wheel.
A devilish smile displayed on her face, a visible sign of the madness pierced her mind.
She came to a standing position and caressed the car slightly, before she turned away she placed a kiss onto the driver´s window.
That would work out fine, she would watch Charlie,and when he would drive away and she would follow and when the car would crash, she would be there to rescue him....the scene was clearly visible in her head ´I will approach the car wreck, will find him hurt and will comfort him...and then he will see clear, will realize that he loves me...I love you., too...Charlie, but you have to understand not to despise me, not like my brother.´
By the thought of her brother Mary felt pressure rising inside her, she needed a valve, she needed to hurt somebody.
Mary closed her eyes, trying to compose herself, but it didn´t work. Repressed pictures of her brother´s face framed with dark curls infected her mind. He laughed at her,´I only love mommy, mommy says you are nothing just like your dad., who had left you behind...and mommy only loves me!´
Mary couldn´t endure more, she just wanted to be loved by her brother and gave him all her love, but Mickey just mocked her- she felt the force of punshing the hateful grin out of Mickey´s face, wanted to see him bleed.
Someone would bleed tonight.
And so Mary had gone on a hunt. She had spotted an appropriate victim soon after she entered the bar in downtown L.A.. Though she was still dressed in her black outfit, it was easy for her to trap the blond curly hair guy, with the promise of some real good fun and made him follow her to a warehouse willingly.
Maybe she could even use the tools still stuck in her waisteband.
The next day, Mary stood at her observation spot before sunrise,she had come home a half hour ago and hadn´t bother to change her clothes yet. The bloody screwdrivers and the victim´s wallet laid on a table. With a cup of coffee in her hand she waited for Charlie to arrive.
Today was Wendesday, which meant that Charlie had an early class at 8.00 a. after that free time till 12.30 p.m., which gave him the possibility to show up at the common and got a usually did so. By now Mary was pretty well familiar with his schedule and habits. Mary relaxed by the thought of it.
Absorbed in her thoughts Mary missed the arrival of Charles Eppes.
The black SUV pulled onto the curb and Charlie got off, he leant back in again and thanked his brother for bringing him in so early.
Don waved a hand to stop him." No problem, at least it was my idea to give you a ride home and leave your car here yesterday."
" But I could have taken the bike."
By the look of his brother Charlie had to stifle a grin,Don looked nothing but rested, dark circels under his eyes told the story of a long evening spent with to much beer and embarrassing talk.
´You deserve it, ´Charlie thought, but that was a diffrent story,´ later Charlie would find a way for revenge´.
" Yeah,you could." Don nodded slightly, his head was killing him, he needed an asprin.
" But I promised." He tried a smile on his own. " See you later, buddy...when I remember right, dad said something about leftovers this evening."
The thought of food made Don´s stomach crunch.
´There was enough time to recover till the evening.´,he assured himself.
" Okay,bye..." Charlie threw the car door shut and waved one last time at Don, before he turned and headed for his office.
The noise of a starting engine infused Mary´s bewildered state.
´Oh no, she had missed Charlie´s arrival. Why hadn´t she paid attention?´
She only saw his back,´no, this wasn´t good enough.´
Her blood began to boil, provoked a wave of hate rushing through her body-hate against herself, her lack of attention.
´She was a failure, a looser, her mother was right after all.´
Maria Sophia Clark had done her best to procure her daughter that she was a worthless bitch.
And with every punsh her mother applied on her body Mary believed it more and more.
Mary had tried to find inclination in the relation to her brother Mickey, but he, young as he was had declined her as well, had send her away.
But that was a long time ago, almost an other life.
After she had literally destroyed her past and left her hometown, Mary had gained back parts of her self confidence.
She had hoped to leave her past behind but she was could hear her mother´s hateful voice again and the refusal from her brother, cutting her heart in pieces.
´Looser, Mary the worthless...´
It was too much to bear, she tightened her grip around the cup and increased the pressure till it broke.
The potshreds cut through the skin.
A mixture of coffee and blood dropped on the floor, stained it in an odd colour.
Mary didn´t pay attention, the past had reached out their evil hands to drag her deeper into madness.
When the memory faded, sanity found its way back to the surface.
Mary starred at her hands, shocked she opend them and the remains of the cup crashed to the floor.
She felt nausea rising, her vision faded, with the last bit of strength she had left,Mary made it to the bathroom and vomitted into the sink, distributing bloody
prints all over the hand-basin.
So she missed her chance of looking into Charlie´s face, when he turned around, searching for the one who looked at him.
Mary cried.
´She was a nobody, torn into pieces and only Charlie could save her.´
Charlie walked across campus, he was in a good temper, the memory of the ´roses incident´ had faded and he thought about how he could get even with his brother. Don´s behaviour yesterday evening shouted literally for revenge.
Suddenly he felt his hair rising in his neck, he felt like being observed.
He turned on his heels, was already gone and only a few students strolled along, but didn´t even look his way.
He shook his head, ´ I´m getting paranoid.´
There it is, like it? I hope so...look forward to the next chapters to find out, what Don had done and which way Mary had chose to get rid of her memory and what will happen, when Charlie drive home?