A/N: A huge thank you to everyone who´s reading this. Thanks for all the reviews.

Thank you to starfishyeti for your beta-skills!

The stalker

by elessar73

***23. chapter : Chance hit ***

Don held Charlie's sweat-sheeted face in his hands to try to steady and comfort him when Charlie´s body trembled as waves of pain coursed through him. He'd overseen Larry in his task to secure the evidence and had sighed in relief when the professor finally had waved the bag in front of him.

Don felt like he´d been sitting hours beside his brother and still no help was in sight. He had watched as Larry walked back over to Charlie's desk to place the evidence there. Then he had focused back on Charlie and how his younger brother looked had made him hold his breath in shock. Charlie's face was white as a sheet and felt hot as fire at the same time. In a desperate attempt to get some sort of reaction from him he'd slapped Charlie's cheek, but it was in vain. Charlie hadn´t responded; not even moaned. Don had felt helpless. His eyes had searched Larry who had just put the bag on the table when all of a sudden Charlie's body went limp and he stopped breathing.

"Charlie?" Panicking, Don stared at his brother. He couldn't move, he couldn't think, he couldn't react at all. ´Damn! I'm an agent. I know what to do in such situations. But what? I can't remember!` Don's mind was reeling. Helplessly he slapped his brother´s cheeks, getting more frantic with every tap, and prayed that it would be enough to bring Charlie back.

"Larry," he heard himself yelling. "Get help. Charlie´s had stopped breathing!"

Out of the corner of his eyes he saw the professor moving.

"Charlie, Charlie!" He pleaded. The repetition of his brother's name was like a mantra for Don. It helped him to keep his focus on his brother. "Charlie, you can't leave me like this. Listen, Charlie don't give up. Charlie!" Don was running out of breath. His vision became blurry and the agent closed his eyes. 'Please God, help me!' he begged silently. Suddenly his dark eyes flew open, his right hand was clenched into a fist. He raised it up and let it crash down on Charlie's chest. "Fight," He screamed at his brother. " You will not leave me like this. You listen?"

A howl of pain escaped from the limp body and a pair of dark brown eyes flew open.

"Aaauuu!" Charlie screamed out in pain, something had hit his broken collarbone. He tried to focus on his surroundings but the pain made it pretty hard. He took in a deep breath and tried to locate where the pain came from. His whole body was hurting, but the worst parts were his stomach and his chest. 'I must be in hell.'

"Charlie." The young professor noticed a familiar voice penetrating his dazed mind. He found himself staring into the worried face of his brother. "Thank God you're alive. Just hold tight, the medics are on their way."

"D-D-Don," the young man stammered weakly. "What happened?"

"Shhhh, easy Buddy everything'll be alright." Don caressed Charlie's face slightly wiping away the tears that ran freely down his cheeks.

"It hurts," Charlie muttered.

"I know, but you'll feel better soon."

Don turned towards the door in the hope that the long awaited help had finally arrived. It was just then that two medics stepped in and took control over Charlie's wellbeing. Don was briskly pulled away from his brother's side. He didn't want to lose the connection to Charlie, but the medics needed their space. Reluctantly, Don let go of his brother. Larry took his arm and guided the agent on his wobbly legs over to Charlie's desk. There Don sat down but never let Charlie out of his sight.

The medics did a quick check on Charlie's vitals and inserted an IV. When they were ready to move Charlie onto the stretcher Don was on his feet again and right by their side to help.

He looked with blank eyes at his brother when he was touched on his shoulder.

"Don," Megan's voice was low and full of concern. The scene in front of her eyes really scared the hell out of her. "How's he doing?"

The question was pure reflex. Megan could see that Charlie was more dead than alive, so it really surprised her that Don answered at all.

"Just look at him. The kid´s a mess." With the back of his hands Don swept away his remaining tears but couldn't prevent the single tear that slid down his cheek.

Megan tried her best to encourage him." He'll be okay Don."

Don faced the female agent and Megan shuddered by the look in Don's eyes. The dark pools displayed helplessness and resignation. She had never seen her SAC that way.

"What can I do, Megan? I can't protect him because I don't know what's going on. And you tell me everything´ll be okay." The agony in Don's words nearly broke her heart.

"We'll find the predator come what may." Megan put all the confidence in her words that she could marshal and it worked. A smile formed at the corners of Don's mouth.

"Sure," he sighed and glanced around to see the other members of his team observing the action in silent horror. Larry joined them. He cleared his throat and handed the folder Don had dropped back to him.

"Here, you may need it?"

Don looked stunned at the folder and accepted it wordlessly. But his shaking hands made it impossible to hold the folder tight enough; it slipped through his hands and fell to the ground. Its contents fanned out all over the floor.

Four people immediately dropped to their knees to pick the photos up.

"Sorry," Don muttered

"Not a problem," Colby assured him. "We got it."

Larry had already collected a few of the pictures when he got a closer look at one of them. He frowned. The woman seemed familiar to him but he couldn't immediately put his say why. The professor tried to remember; his hand rubbed absent-mindedly across his forehead and suddenly it was all clear.

"I know this woman," he announced from his position on the floor." She works in the refectory." Larry kept rubbing his temples, somehow it helped him to straighten his thoughts. "As a cook I suppose."

The agents looked at him with wide eyes.

"What?" Don had regained his composure and was back in FBI-mode.

But before Larry could explain further, Don's attention was drawn back to Charlie. The medics were still trying to stabilize his brother's vitals, but their actions had become more frantic.

"His pulse is 160 but his blood pressure is too low," one of the medics informed his colleague.

The other just nodded and injected a fluid through the IV-line. Don watched the men with concern, holding his breath.

"It´s working. We´re ready to move," the medic finally announced and Don blew out a breath.

The stretcher, with its precious load, was lifted up. Don was torn between being a brother and an agent; the brother won.

"I´m going with him," Don stated. "Larry," Don locked eyes with Charlie's best friend, "we need to know everything you know about her. Work with Megan and try to remember everything."

The professor nodded. "Of course, I will do anything I can to assist."

Don clapped him with affection on the shoulder. "I know."

"Okay, you three process the scene. Get CSI here, Charlie drank out of this cup," Don pointed to the desk. "Forensic should test the liquid for possible poison and as soon as we have a name I want an APB on that woman and a complete background check. Everything - family, friends, the whole program."

"Don't worry Don, she won't slip through our fingers. And god help her if she's the one hurting Charlie." Colby clenched his fists in determination and locked eyes with Don. Silently they understand each other. 'Nobody hurts a family member unpunished.'

Don nodded and followed the medics towards the door. In three large steps he was at Charlie's side and grabbed his hand again. The crowd in front of the door made room by dividing like the red sea. Now and then Don heard a whispered "Oh my god." or "Is he dead?" He tried to ignore the voices and focused totally on his brother. They had just reached the first bend in the corridor when an exited voice sounded behind them.

"Don, Don wait!" Larry Fleinhardt's voice brought the parade to a halt. The agent turned around. Anger and impatience about the delay was clearly visible in his face.

"What, Larry?"

"What about Alan?" The physicist asked while he gasped for breath.

Don squeezed his eyes and finally realization hit him. 'Damn it, Dad.'

"Larry do me a favor, when you're done with your statement go get Alan and bring him to..." Not knowing to which hospital they were taking his brother he turned to the medics.

"Which hospital?"

"UCLA Medical Center."

"Okay," Don nodded slightly. "Bring him to UCLA then. I don't wanna tell him on the phone what´s happened and most of all I don't want him driving on his own."

"Yes, certainly Don. I can do that," Larry had just enough time left to answer before the men turned around the next corner.

Larry stood for a while frozen in place. He wondered if all that had really happened or if he was caught in a nightmare or in another dimension. From far away he heard someone calling his name. Unwillingly, he turned around and saw Megan leaning on the doorframe leading to Charlie's office smiling at him encouragingly and asking him to give his statement.

'Not a dream or other dimension then,´he mused and with heavy legs he sneaked back.

Megan led him to a corner of the room where they had a little privacy for the questioning. By now the whole office was swarming with agents processing the crime scene.

"You alright?"

The professor sighed quietly. " I think so, but Charles... I - I can't believe what´s happened."

"I know it's hard, but we have to go on. So what do you know about the woman?"

Megan pulled her notebook out of her jacket and waited for Larry to begin.

Larry reported precisely the search for the letter, getting the coffee and their conversation up to the moment Charlie collapsed on the couch. He remembered the incident in the cafeteria when the woman dropped the spoon. Megan wrote desperately and her head came up when it came to the 'spoon-incident'.

"Maybe that was the moment she poisoned Charlie's coffee," the female agent mused rubbing her temple with her pencil.

Larry looked shell shocked and sighed. "I was so close, but didn´t realize a thing."

"Don't blame yourself, Larry." Megan had noticed the change in Fleinhardt's demeanor. "We're not even sure she is responsible and..."

Colby Granger's entrance interrupted her speech. "We have her name. She's Mary Clark, a cook here at CalSci. But she left her work without an excuse an hour ago and hasn't shown up since," Colby explained. "She lives in an apartment block just across campus. David and I are going to check it out."

"Okay," Megan agreed. "I´ll get a search warrant and initiate the search."

Megan had just finished her sentence when Colby turned on his heels and headed out.

Megan shook her head. Looking back at Larry she said, "That's typical Colby, always in a rush."

She wrote the information she had got from Colby down in her notebook.

Larry cleared his throat. "If you´ve finished with me, I'd like to go and pick up Alan. He must be worried sick."

Megan looked up. "Oh yeah, of course, you're free to go."

The physicist turned to leave.

"Hey Larry," Megan laid a hand on the professor's shoulder, "please inform me if something shows up. I guess Don´s not in any condition to deal with at the moment."

Larry nodded silently, his lips tightly pressed together.

Megan watched as he left the crime scene. She looked up at the ceiling. 'Please let Charlie be all right.' A single tear ran down her cheek. She felt helpless for the first time since she started working forr the FBI. She took a deep breath banishing the moment of weakness and went back to work-,determined to find the predator.

TBC