Protected-

Charlie was in the middle of his graduate Harmonic Analysis seminar when Colby appeared at the door to his office. That wasn't that unusual. What was unusual was the serious expression on Colby's face … and the fact that he didn't stop at the door but came all the way into the office. He looked grim.

Charlie's heart did a sideways lurch and he blurted, "Is Don okay?"

"Don's fine, everybody's fine," Colby said quickly, "But you need to come with me now."

"We're almost done—"

"Now, Charlie," Colby said in a voice that sent a shiver of apprension through Charlie.

"Okay," Charlie said, set his chalk down, and turned to his class. "Gotta cut this short. Next time we're going to focus on eigenvalues and eigenvectors of the Laplace operator on domains and manifolds. We'll talk about actually being able to hear the shape of a drum, as first described by Hermann Weyl in—"

"Charlie," Colby snapped.

Charlie jumped and began stuffing things into his bag. "Okay, next week then."

Charlie had barely finished putting his laptop into his bag when Colby snatched the bag from him and grabbed hold of Charlie's arm. Colby slung the bag over his own shoulder and pulled out his gun.

"Hey, hey," Charlie protested. "Not at school!"

"It's just a precaution," Colby said and looked out into the hallway. He pulled Charlie towards the door. "Stay right behind me. And follow directions."

Charlie gulped and nodded. Settling Charlie's bag on his shoulder and gripping his gun, Colby stepped out into the hall. He looked both ways again then nodded to Charlie.

Sticking close to one wall of the hallway, Colby began walking quickly. Charlie scrambled to keep up. Colby eyed everyone that came close and people moved hastily away.

Professor Small got caught in Colby's glare and Charlie slowed down and gave her an apologetic shrug.

"Charlie!" Colby snapped. "Put your hand on my back and keep it there!"

Charlie flushed at being caught not 'keeping up' and put his hand lightly on Colby's back. Colby began to walk quickly again and Charlie had to lurch to keep connected. Feeling his face flush even darker at the ridiculous picture he must make, Charlie concentrated his gaze on the back of Colby's neck and pushed his hand more firmly against Colby's back.

It was like pushing against a brick wall. Okay, a warm, muscular brick wall. A brick wall that flexed and moved under his hand.

Charlie got so absorbed in his touch on Colby's back that he ran into Colby before he noticed he'd stopped. Running into Colby was like smacking face first into a brick wall. A warm, muscular—

"Hang here for a second," Colby said and cautiously pushed open the door to the outside. Colby looked around and up then stepped out the door. As soon as Colby disappeared, a campus security officer hurried down the hall towards Charlie. Someone must have told security that a crazed man with a gun had taken Charlie hostage.

"Dr. Eppes?" the officer called.

"It's okay," Charlie called back quickly, waving his hands to show he wasn't cuffed or anything. "He works with my brother, with the FBI."

"What's going on?"

Charlie shrugged. "I don't know, but it's okay. Thanks."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, yes," Charlie said firmly. "I'm fine." He didn't want Colby in his current hyper-vigilant mode to meet up with this officer.

Charlie opened the outside door a crack and looked outside – then stared. A black FBI SUV was parked on the sidewalk in the middle of campus. Pedestrians were giving it a wide berth and Colby seemed to be checking it over. For bombs, maybe? It had to have been parked there less that five minutes … Colby was definitely making Charlie nervous. Charlie shut the door quickly, in case Colby looked his way and saw Charlie disobeying orders.

After another tense minute, Colby opened the door again and stepped inside.

"Okay," he said, "This is a very vulnerable spot. The door on the passenger side is open and I'm gonna count to three and you will run from here into the SUV and sit on the floor below the seat and put your hands over your head."

"On the floor?"

"Yes," Colby said then added hastily, "It's just a precaution."

Charlie frowned but nodded. He was far too familiar with assassination target zones and this was indeed a vulnerable spot. This was the only commonly used exit from this building and someone could have staked out this door. As to why someone would be waiting to kill him, only Colby could tell him.

Colby counted to three and Charlie took off running, feeling like a complete idiot but following Colby's instructions to the letter. Colby was right behind him, and the SUV door slammed shut before Charlie even had his hands halfway to covering his head.

"Stay down!" Colby yelled, then faster than Charlie could believe, Colby was in the driver's side and the SUV was put into gear. It lurched forward and Charlie could only hope that students got out of the way fast enough.

Colby drove with intense concentration, using his horn a few times. Charlie tried to picture the path that Colby had to be taking through campus, with the factors of wide sideways, pedestrian density, and angry campus security, but he kept getting distracted with worry about what was going on.

After a long seven minutes – Charlie checked his watch – the SUV jolted over a curb and drove onto regular pavement. Colby slowed down, looked around, then stopped.

"Okay," Colby said, with a slight easing of tension. "You can get up into the seat now."

Charlie climbed out of the footwell and into the seat. He looked around. They were in a CalSci parking lot on the other side of the campus from his office. Colby must have crossed most of the campus in the effort to avoid Charlie's normal routes.

"Is this all necessary?" Charlie asked while buckling his seat belt.

"It's just a precaution," Colby said for the third time. "You're not really in any danger."

Charlie glared at Colby. He wished that Colby would stop saying that, especially when he obviously didn't believe it himself. Charlie wasn't a child who needed false reassurances.

Colby pulled out his phone and pressed a button. Charlie heard a voice answer that had to be Megan's.

"Got Charlie," Colby said. "You're sure he'll strike today?"

Colby obviously didn't like the answer because he muttered under his breath and hung up. He looked over at Charlie, and Charlie couldn't help but see the tightness around Colby's eyes. He didn't often see the ex-army man this tense.

"Bad news?" Charlie asked.

"Don't worry," Colby said firmly. "I won't let anything happen to you."

That's only if you can do anything about it, whatever it is … Charlie asked, "Where are we going?"

"A place I know."

Charlie eyed him and made an abrupt decision. Colby needed to concentrate on what he was doing and Charlie didn't really need answers immediately.

"Okay," he said.

"Okay?" Colby said, his eyes narrowing with obvious uncertainty. "No questions?"

"You'll tell me when you can," Charlie shrugged, proud of his own calm. "You did grab my bag, didn't you?"

"Yeah …"

"Good. We gonna be driving long?"

Colby checked his watch then said, "About a half-hour."

Charlie's mind immediately began to map out how far he could get in a half-hour. To distract himself, he asked, "Can I put on some music?"

"Uh, sure."

Charlie reached into the back seat and pulled his mp3 player out of his bag. He started to plug it in, then hesitated, realizing that he had no idea what kind of music Colby would want to listen to. "Um, what kind of music do you like?"

"Anything," Colby said but quickly added. "Classic rock."

Charlie mentally flipped through his collection and decided that Queen probably qualified. He put it on and was pleased to see Colby nod in approval. He sat back into his seat and Colby went into full losing-a-tail mode.

As they drove through the back alleys and parking lots, Charlie mused on how little he actually knew about Agent Colby Granger. He knew that Colby'd been in the Army CID and that he was from Idaho. That was about it. Charlie concentrated, trying to remember any food preferences that Colby had stated. He did like coffee, but the FBI seemed to run on it. Did he like sports? Movies? Colby's conversations with Charlie were usually about a case or Charlie's family. Charlie was being taken who knows where by a man that he knew basically nothing about. He wondered why he wasn't more concerned.

Well, he was concerned. Charlie snuck a peak over at Colby's profile. It was a classic profile, something worthy of one of those old Greek artists who worked in marble. There was something about Agent Granger that inspired confidence, at least in Charlie. Charlie was startled to realize that, if he needed to protected by just one agent on Don's team, his preference would be Colby. He liked them all, but David was a little too cool, Megan a little too insightful, Liz just abrasive. Not even Don himself – Charlie was sure that he and Don would be arguing at the moment.

He probably trusted Colby because Colby had a classic profile – something ingrained in the human psyche when confronted with perfect proportions. Charlie grimaced. He'd been hanging around Megan too much if was thinking along Jungian lines.

Fiddling with the cord to the mp3 player, Charlie turned his thoughts back to trying to remember something personal about Agent Granger. He knew that Colby played basketball, though that wasn't much of a revelation. It seemed like every American male played basketball. What did they play in Idaho? Colby'd probably been a football player in high school and college, with his size. Wait … Wrestling! Charlie remembered David making a wrestling joke about Colby. Something about wrestling in college. Charlie smiled to himself, pleased that he'd been able to come up with that. Although the image of Colby in a wrestling uniform was oddly disturbing. Probably something Jungian again.

The SUV had turned into an industrial area, full of generic warehouses and delivery trucks. Colby slowed and came to a stop. With an unpleasant jolt, Charlie realized that the front of the SUV was pointed down a steep concrete ramp into an flood-control culvert.

Colby was talking into his phone. "I might go inaccessible by cell phone. Any news?"

Whatever the news was, it wasn't good. "Shit," Colby said. Charlie watched Colby's face turn pale and his own stomach knotted. He didn't want to think about what could make Colby Granger frightened.

"You, too," Colby said to some unheard comment and ended the call.

"Bad news?" Charlie asked for the second time in an hour.

"Just another minute," Colby said.

Charlie nodded and let Colby concentrate on driving the SUV seemingly straight down into the concrete canyon. The SUV reached the bottom of the canyon then turned right and drove into a long tunnel. The tunnel was perhaps thirty feet wide, twenty feet tall and two hundred feet long. They got to the center of the tunnel then Colby stopped and turned off the car. Freddy Mercury's singing was cut off mid-note and the sudden silence was shocking to Charlie's ears.

Colby held up a hand for Charlie to stay put and Charlie realized he was holding his breath. He let it out with a whoosh as Colby climbed out of the SUV. He lost the last bit of his breath at the sudden fear that Colby was going to leave him there, but Colby was just looking around. Charlie nervously unconnected his mp3 player and put it in his bag.

Colby went over to a metal door set in the concrete wall and, with one hand and seemingly with little effort, broke the padlock off. Charlie stared as Colby looked into the door then shut it again. Just how strong were his hands?

Brushing off his hands, Colby came back to the SUV and got out his phone. Charlie could see that it still had signal, which was surprising but reassuring.

"Okay," Colby said, turning fully towards Charlie. "Thanks for being patient."

"What's going on?" Charlie asked quickly.

"A number of years ago, when Don was in Fugitive Retrival, he and his partner caught a man named Jose Soto. Soto went to jail, his wife left him, and Soto blamed Don, of course, instead of his own stupidity in being a crook. Well, Soto blamed Don and Billy Cooper, Don's partner, but Don's a lot easier to find these days.

"So Soto just got out of jail, and came out here and started stalking Don's family. We didn't know that until this morning, when a fat envelope of surveillance photos showed up on Don's desk. He had pictures of you and your dad everywhere – golf course, home, work, even the FBI office. With the pictures was a note saying that one of you was going to die today."

Charlie swallowed, gripping his bag tightly.

"Don knows this Soto and he decided to go small – one agent for you and one for David. Damn stupid in my opinion."

Even in his anxiety, Charlie felt some surprise. He'd never heard Colby question Don like that before.

But the important question for Charlie – "My dad is going to be okay?" he asked.

"David's got him," Colby said. "He'll keep him safe. My job is to keep you safe."

Charlie nodded, imagining his father hustled to safety in the same way that he'd been. Where would his father have been this time of day? At home? He wondered if his father had argued or just followed David's instructions without question.

"Okay," Colby said. "Let's get you into a vest."

Charlie felt a rush of sudden fear. "You really think that's necessary?"

"I'm not gonna let anything happen to you," Colby said. This statement Charlie believed. Colby continued, "But the more precautions we take, the better."

Charlie grimaced and nodded agreement. That made sense, though it was also doing a good job of bringing home to Charlie the danger he must be in.

"Wait," Colby said, then got out of the SUV and looked around some more. Finally, he gestured for Charlie to get out and follow him to the back of the SUV. He pulled out two Kevlar vests and tossed one to Charlie. Charlie caught it, barely, surprised by how heavy it was.

He watched as Colby put on his vest as easily as putting on a shirt. He must do this daily. Charlie wondered if Colby had his vest specially tailored. It sure fit him well.

Colby turned to see that Charlie hadn't even started putting on his vest. "Let me help you," he said, sounding annoyed.

Colby took the vest from Charlie's grip and began to strap him into it. His hands were just as strong as they appeared and he manipulated Charlie like a doll. It was a shocking sensation and unexpectedly arousing. Charlie put himself entirely into Colby's hands, exploring the unanticipated feeling while, admittedly, hampering Colby's effort to get him into the vest.

Colby made a frustrated sound and abruptly turned Charlie around and pressed him, face first into the SUV with one hand. The warm arousal that Charlie had been feeling exploded into a full-blown incindiary sensation. He felt his groin tighten, his heart pouding, blood rushing to his cock. He held onto the SUV as Colby finished tightening the vest around him. He wondered if Colby could feel him trembling with shock and arousal.

Finished with the vest, Colby moved back, but still kept Charlie pressed against the car with one strong hand.

Colby groaned and Charlie wondered if there was any way that Colby was turned on as he was. Then he wondered if he wanted Colby to be or not. And if he wanted Colby to be, then what?

The agony of the moment stretched out and Charlie heard Colby's labored breathing. It could be due to adrenaline or frustration or …

Colby abruptly stepped back and released Charlie's shoulder. Charlie slowly put his weight back on his own feet then turned around.

Colby was standing several feet away, his grey-green eyes wide, his face flushed. Charlie looked at him, wishing, like he had so many times in his life, that he could understand what was going on in someone else's head. Had something almost happened there? Or was it all in Charlie's imagination? He had no reason to believe that Colby would be attracted to him. No reason to believe that Colby saw him as anything other than a walking computer, an asset to be protected, a liability to be secured.

"Get in the back," Colby said and he didn't sound agitated at all. "And lie down, keep out of sight."

Charlie looked at Colby for a moment longer, frustrated by the mixed signals. For a brief instant, he thought about looking at Colby's crotch to check for signs of arousal then sanity returned.

With an effort, Charlie turned around and climbed into the back of the SUV. He shifted bags around with his body until he find a reasonably comfortable position. He looked back to see Colby strapping on thigh holsters and getting out a second handgun and an automatic rifle. Colby seemed very comfortable with the gear, the gun resting in his hand like Charlie might hold a piece of chalk.

That's gotta be it, Charlie thought with relief. I find competance sexy, always have.

Colby shut the back door and disappeared from sight. After a moment, he reappeared in the second row of seats and handed Charlie his bag. Charlie took it gratefully.

Colby fixed him with a stern stare. "If I tell you to run, you don't ask questions, you don't try to help me. You open the back door – see the handle by your foot?—and you get out of the car and go through that door in the wall there and climb down and don't stop running until you hear complete silence. Then you hide until we find you."

"But …" You expect me to actually run away and leave you to die? Charlie wanted to argue, but he knew that debating battle orders was the best way to get both of them killed. He would run away and hide – he'd hate himself for it, but he'd do it. He slowly nodded. "Alright."

"Now we wait," Colby said, settling into his seat. Charlie couldn't see anything but Colby's head, but he knew that Colby had serious firepower at hand and knew how to use it.

Charlie opened up his bag and pulled out a notebook and pencil. "How long?"

"Hard to say, but probably a few hours."

"I'm kinda hungry." As soon as the words were out of his mouth, Charlie wanted to take them back. Colby was smiling at him and Charlie felt like a foolish child, whining about wanting candy while bombs were falling.

Colby pointed to a bag near Charlie's leg. "That green bag has some bottled water and some energy bars."

"Okay," Charlie said reluctantly. He hated energy bars, particularly the kind that federal agents tended to have, the kind that would last through a nuclear war. But, since he'd asked, he sat up and got a bar and a bottle of water. The vest felt tight and heavy around his chest. He lay back down and tried to settle himself.

He opened the notebook to a fresh page and stared at it for a moment. Numbers buzzed about in his head like they always did, but they didn't have a focus. He didn't feel like working on his current path in Cognitive Emergence, rather something more personal. Can one quantify Jungian impulses?

Charlie started scratching down expressions – mathematical doodling, really – and opened up his energy bar and water. He took a distracted bite of the resin-like bar and returned to his doodling. Colby was silent in the seat nearby, his eyes scanning the area for attackers.

Charlie began to doodle Colby into his equations. Knowing that Colby was there for the express purpose of keeping Charlie alive, that he was prepared to sacrifice himself for that purpose, made Charlie feel … odd. He imagined that people with bodyguards regularly felt this strangeness, but it was even more. Colby was a familiar co-worker, a … friend? No, more of an acquaintance. A person knew more about his friends than he did about Colby. However, there had been times that had been the reverse of the current situation – when Charlie had Colby's life in his hands, when Colby was going into danger based on Charlie's math-based hypothesis.

With those thoughts, Charlie's doodles wandered into dynamics of team structure, wondering where he fit into the FBI team, wondering what sort of connections there were between him and Colby.

Charlie fell into the world of numbers, forgetting all around him. He tried to keep a small portion of his brain listening for any commands from Colby, but he kept losing the connection to the outside world. Eventually, he gave up and let the numbers take him. An unmeasured amount of time passed.

A sharp ring from Colby's phone shattered Charlie's concentration, making his pencil skid across the paper.

"Granger," Colby barked into his phone and Charlie looked up.

Colby frowned. "Soto? You sure?"

Colby's face darkened at the response. "A ploy?" he snapped. "You knew?"

Charlie gasped. This whole thing had been a charade?

"You're damn right I believed in my role," Colby growled.

Well, at least it hadn't been Colby that had tricked Charlie, rather both of them tricked together.

Colby growled again and ended the call with a jab of his finger.

"It was a ploy?" Charlie asked angrily.

"Yeah, to get us watching you and your dad and leave Don clear."

Fear shot through Charlie. "Don okay?"

"Yeah, no problem," Colby said quickly. "He was expecting this."

"Oh," Charlie said.

Charlie struggled with emotions, not really sure if he was angry or relieved, or perhaps both. Is it possible to experience two opposite emotions simultaneously? Though true simultanaity was just an illusion. Which emotion came first? Or was it more important which emotion was stronger? What unit of measure could he use for measuring emotions?

"Well," Colby said, with an obvious attempt at cheerfulness, "Let's get you to the office. I'm afraid that you've missed any classes or office hours you had today."

"Yeah," Charlie said, still struggling to adjust his thoughts. He looked down at his recent math, wondering if there were any truths to be gleaned from it. "Could you just drop me off at CalSci? My car's there."

"Office first," Colby said.

Charlie shrugged his confusion off and opened the back door with his foot. He squirmed gracelessly out of the car and got to his feet. He looked back to see Colby watching him. Not for the first time, he wondered what Colby saw when he looked at him.

Colby got out the SUV and came around the back. Charlie watched as Colby put away his guns and took off his thigh holsters and vest, like an FBI strip-tease.

When Colby was finished, Charlie just stood and waited for Colby to take off Charlie's vest. He wanted those strong hands on him again.

Once Colby took hold of Charlie's vest, Charlie let his body relax into Colby's hands. Again, Colby manipulated him easily, as if he was as light as a feather. It wasn't too surprising since those hands were attached to arms that were thicker around than Charlie's legs.

Abruptly, Colby snapped, "Stand up straight!"

Charlie's body reacted and his muscles were abruptly rigid. Wow, Charlie thought in amazement. His body had never responded without conscious thought before. Say something else, Charlie thought, though had no idea what he wanted Colby to order him to do. He just wanted to explore this phenomenon further.

Instead, Colby yanked off the vest the rest of the way and threw it in the back of the SUV. Not looking at Charlie, Colby shut the door and went over to the door in the side of the culvert. Charlie watched as Colby re-secured the metal door then went to the driver's side of the SUV. Charlie hurried to get in the other side.

They shut their respective doors then sat there for a moment. Charlie felt frustrated and confused. He'd already determined that Colby wasn't attracted to him, so why was there this weird tension? Why was he afraid to turn and look at Colby at that precise moment? What could possibly make this moment different than any other moment?

Then Colby started the car and the moment passed. Charlie felt again that confusing mix of anger and relief. To cover his fluster, he plugged in his mp3 player and set it to play a Queen song that had been running through his mind.

Colby drove the SUV out of the tunnel and it was like emerging from a dream.

Suddenly, Charlie didn't want to go back to the rest of the team. Charlie wasn't sure he'd ever spent much time with just Colby before. There had always been other people around. His time with Colby – tense as it had been – had also been oddly pleasant. Colby made him feel …what would be the right word … secure?

Before Colby could turn the SUV to go up the ramp, Charlie said, "That energy bar is sitting like a lump in my stomach. Think we could stop somewhere to eat before we go into the office?"

"Sure," Colby said, with a speediness that made Charlie think that maybe he wasn't the only one who liked the present company. "I'll just call Don to let them know."

"Okay," Charlie said, but there was more that he needed to say. He reached out and put his hand on Colby's arm. With the feel of Colby's iron forearm under his hand, he almost forgot what he was going to say, then recovered. "Thanks."

"Thanks for what?" Colby said, giving him an odd look. "We were just a diversion."

"Yeah," Charlie said, remembering the tension on Colby's face and the knot in his own stomach. "But we didn't know that. I felt like …" Charlie struggled to put into words how protected Colby had made him feel. " I felt like you would take on an army for me."

"I would," Colby said with his trademark smirk, "Unless it's an army wielding calculus and trigonometry, then I'd let you handle it."

Even Charlie could recognize such an obvious deflection of emotion, but he had to chuckle, "Sounds reasonable." Then he realized he was still holding on to Colby's arm and took his hand away.

"Okay," Colby said as he turned the SUV to drive up the steep ramp out of the concrete riverbed. "Where do we want to get dinner? It's on the FBI, because … because you missed your class."

"I didn't mind," Charlie had to admit. "Would have been a dull day otherwise."

Colby smiled and Charlie vowed to learn more about Colby over dinner. Even if it meant revealing a little of himself as well.