Disclaimer: Don't own Numb3rs or the characters.

A/N: OK so my writing went quicker than I thought allowing another chapter to be posted before I have no internet access for a few days! Hope it's to your liking.

Chapter Sixteen – Quarter.

Colby had been back at work for two weeks, the team had spent most of that time trying to catch the convenience store robbers. Whilst on restricted duty Colby had gone through the footage of all six robberies but hadn't managed to find any evidence to indicate who was carrying them out. The rest of the team had been interviewing all the witnesses but had come up empty as well. Charlie had marked out the next possible target and they had been watching it every night without success, the robbers seemed to have gone underground. He walked into the war room where the team, including Charlie, had gathered to go through the files yet again, hoping that they would find something they had missed. Everyone looked up expectantly as he walked in.

After an interminable silence, David broke it. "How did it go?" he asked.

"The doctor wouldn't sign me back to field duty…" he paused.

"Oh, Colb, I'm sorry man." Don got up and approached him, ready to commiserate.

"That is until tomorrow when I can collect my gun from the AD." His face broke into a wide grin.

"Dude, that is great news." David walked over to him and slapped him on the back. The next few minutes were spent congratulating him.

"Why don't we get out of here and go grab some dinner?" asked Megan.

"That sounds like a plan." Agreed Liz.

The team packed up the files and happily left the building together, Charlie called Amita and she, along with Larry, agreed to meet them.

Colby was delighted to be going back to field work, he knew that his body had needed the time to heal, but he was more than ready to get out from behind his desk and team up with David again. He had one more thing that he needed to do, though knowing how the others were going to react he wasn't looking forward to it. He waited till everyone was seated and the food ordered.

"There's something I need to speak to you about." The conversation stopped as they all turned to look at him. "Please let me say what I need to before you say anything." They all looked worried now. "I want you to know how much your support has meant to me over the last 4 or so months, I really appreciate everything you have all done, but I need to get back to a more normal life. I'm going to move back into my apartment. I can't keep hiding away and now I'm going to be out in the field again I feel like the time is right to get back the rest of my life."

The others exchanged glances, they knew this was coming, even if it was a little sooner than they'd hoped, and everyone had agreed that when he raised the subject they would back his decision, but there would be a few compromises on Colby's part if he wanted their whole hearted agreement. Megan had been elected their representative, not wanting to appear like they were ganging up on him but needing the calmest most rational person to voice their concerns.

"We've been expecting this Colby. We talked about it and how we could help you when the time was right. If you think that time is now we are behind you 100%, though you have to understand that we have some concerns around your safety."

"I know, but I have thought it through and am prepared to take the chance. There have been no more threats and it's been nearly 6 weeks since the letter bomb."

"That's true, but we're going to have to insist on some precautions." Megan raised her hand to silence Colby's protest that she could instinctively tell was coming. "We're not going to want to follow you, or have someone stay with you, but we would like it if you would agree to have a panic button installed in your apartment and one attached to your car keys. It's for our peace of mind." She had carefully planned how she could make him think that this was for their benefit not his, but still leaving him the independence that he was so desperately craving after having to rely on them for so long.

"Alright, I'll agree to that." He knew when Megan was pulling her psychological stuff on him, but he was quite happy for her to believe that he wasn't aware of it on this occasion.

The rest of the team breathed a sigh of relief. "I'll arrange it with the AD tomorrow, a team of techs can go in during the day whilst you're at work." Said Don. That settled they got down to the business of demolishing the plates of food that were just being put in front of them.

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Colby couldn't be happier, he had just got his gun back from the AD, who seemed pleased to have him return to full duty. The techs had his keys and were heading over to his apartment to fit a couple of panic buttons, one in the bedroom and one in the hallway, which meant the rest of the team were happy. He looked at his car keys and the small remote device with a panic button that the techs had also just given him, it was a small price to pay to be allowed to return to his apartment once more. The rest of the day was spent going through the video footage of the robberies for the second time, to no avail.

"Hey Colb, why don't you call it a night? You've barely moved all day, it will still be here tomorrow." Don said sticking his head round the door of the room that Colby was working in.

Stretching he turned to his boss. "OK, that's probably not a bad idea, starting to go a bit cross eyed!"

"Finding anything new?"

"Nope, but I have this feeling that I'm missing something."

"You'll figure it out, go home and get some rest. I'll see you in the morning."

"Night Don." Said Colby as he watched his boss walk away. He switched off the video equipment, turned out the lights and walked into the bull pen. Looking around he realised that the rest of the team, apart from Don, had already gone home, he hadn't realised how late it was, the office was almost empty. He grabbed his jacket and headed out. Reaching home he unlocked his door and turned on some lights, the techs had been in and installed the panic buttons, he could see the one that they had put by the door. He turned and locked the door behind him. Going into the bedroom he put his bag on the bed, checked the location of the panic button in the room and then unpacked, relieved to finally be back in his own place. He made himself some dinner, had a shower and climbed into his own bed, sighing contentedly he closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.

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The next morning found Colby back in the office going through the rest of the video footage. He was convinced that he was missing something, he just couldn't figure out what it was. He knew that even the smallest detail could be the break they needed. There may not have been any further robberies but these perps had caused injuries to their victims and needed to be caught.

"Morning Colby, how was your first night back in your own place?" asked David.

"Hey man, good thanks, slept like a baby."

"Good to hear. Don wants you to come with me to interview the victim from the last robbery, see if he's remembered anything."

"OK, let's go." Leaving the video equipment on so that he could resume his task when he returned he followed his partner out. Once in the car David used the time to tell Colby about the man they were going to interview.

"John Prentice, aged 26, been working at the convenience store for a year. Manager says he's extremely reliable and trustworthy. One of the robbers hit him with the butt of his gun, causing a major concussion. When Liz and I interviewed him, John couldn't remember anything, but the doctors thought it might be temporary." They pulled up outside a large apartment building and got out. "He's on the fifth floor, flat 9." They reached the apartment and knocked at the door. "John, it's Agent Sinclair." After a short pause the door was opened. "This is Agent Granger, would it be alright to come in and talk to you?"

"Yes, I suppose so." John Prentice stood back and allowed the two agents to enter his apartment.

"How are you feeling?" asked David.

"I've felt better, I still can't quite believe it happened."

"Have you remembered anything?"

"I keep having flashbacks, but nothing is clear, it's all out of focus."

"Did you notice anything prior to the robbery? Someone hanging around outside, maybe?"

"No, it had been quite busy so I hadn't really been paying much attention. I wish that I could be of more help to you guys."

"Hey, it's OK. If you remember anything, no matter how small, then just give us a call." Said Colby.

"I will." John showed them out and the two agents heard the door lock behind them.

Once back in the car Colby turned to his partner. "Do you think he's telling the whole truth?"

"I think so, why?"

"I just felt like there was something bothering him."
"You mean other than the fact that he doesn't remember what happened?"

"I guess you're right, I'm just looking for something that isn't there. Lets get back to the office, I want to start going through that footage again."

David grinned and drove off, knowing that his friend was not going to let it go until he was 100% sure that he hadn't missed a thing on the footage. As soon as they got back to the office Colby disappeared to carry on with his task whilst David went to let Don know that their latest victim and witness had not recalled anything, then he returned to the files in the war room. Sometime later Colby appeared in the doorway. "Charlie, have you got a minute?" he asked.

"Sure, what's up?" he followed the agent out of the room, leaving the others looking puzzled.

"I think I've figured out what was bothering me, but I need confirmation."

"You think math will help somehow?"

"Let me show you." He sat back at the desk and brought up two different bits of footage. "I think these two, that carried out robbery number one, are different from these two that carried out number two." He pointed out what he was seeing. "They look different heights, but I can't be sure."

"OK, yes, we can help you to see if you're right. We can take something we know the height of and use an algorithm to estimate the height of the robbers."

"That sounds good, will it take long?"

"Not if I call Amita." Replied Charlie as he pulled out his phone and called her, after a short conversation he hung up. "She's on her way." They went to the war room to let the rest of the team know that they might have a break in the case. When Amita arrived she and Charlie disappeared, the others sat and drank coffee waiting to see what they came up with. At last the pair returned to the war room.

"We've got something."

"Show us Chuck." Stated Don.

Charlie plugged the laptop into the large screen and turned to Amita. "You tell them."

"Colby was right. It's two different pairs of robbers. Look." She tapped a few keys on the laptop. "We know the height of these shelves from each of the crime scene reports, using that information we compared the height of each pair of robbers. The first pair are 5 foot 9 and 6 foot." She pointed at the individuals on the screen. "The second pair are 5 foot 8 and 5 foot 6."

"Well spotted Colb." Said Don.

"I don't get it, other than telling you that there are four people involved how does that narrow your search?"

"It doesn't, but you can. We have a list of suspects, these four must know each other, my bet is at least one of them is on our list."

"OK, give me the files of those suspects and I'll run them, I should be able to tell you if any of them match." Charlie took the files from Colby and sat down, getting to work straight away. A couple of hours later he had a short list of three, which he handed to the team.

Knowing that when they found their suspect they would need more than what they had Colby returned to the video footage, he started to look for anything that might prove they had committed the robberies once they had them in custody. Twenty minutes later he found what he was looking for. One of the suspects Charlie had identified had a tattoo on his neck, which was shown in a photo in his arrest jacket. In front of him on the screen he could just make out some skin between the robber's jacket and balaclava, there was part of the tattoo that was in the photograph.

"I've got him!" He yelled, dashing out of the room and into the bull pen. The rest of the team glanced up at the excitement in his voice. "It's Dave Chalmers. I have his unique tattoo, clear as can be, on the video footage."

"How can you be sure?" enquired Megan.

"The tattoo is a number, a cell block number, followed by his initials. It's identical to the one I can see on the video." He handed the file over to her.

"Yeah, that is unique. Don, we need to get SWAT, this guy has a history of weapons possession."

Don was already picking up the phone and contacting Tim King to request his team. Everyone else was grabbing their gear ready to go, before long they were all standing down the road from Dave Chalmers' house. Don, Liz and Megan were going in the front with half of Tim's team, David and Colby were covering the back with the rest. Minutes later as they broke down the front door half a dozen men made a dash out of the back, only to find themselves confronted with some serious weaponry. One of the men was quicker than the others and pushed another into the line of fire and made a run for it, Colby and David were hot on his heels. Running down the street, shouts of "Freeze FBI." Could be heard, a couple of blocks went by and the suspect started to flag, Colby increased his pace and finally caught up with him, bringing him down in a flying tackle. Mere seconds behind, David handed his partner some handcuffs and helped him pull the man, who it transpired was in fact Dave Chalmers, to his feet and they read him his rights, then turned and marched him back to the house where the others were waiting. Chalmers was put unceremoniously into the back of an FBI car for transport back to headquarters to be interviewed. The team stayed long enough to find out what was stashed in the house. There was a cache of semi-automatic weapons as well as a large amount of cash. All in all it had been a good bust. David and Colby drove back to headquarters together, but instead of their usual post arrest banter there was silence, he wasn't sure what was going on, but David sensed that Colby was not in the mood for talking. They arrived back at the office and Colby headed to the locker room, whilst David went to check in with their boss. The others had already arrived back, Don and Liz were in the interview room with Chalmers. As he walked into the room next to where the interview was being held Megan immediately sensed something was bothering the other agent. "What is it?" she asked.

"Something's up with Colby. He hasn't said two words since we got in the car to come back here."

"Well it's his first serious foray back in the field since he came back on duty. Perhaps he just needs some time to process that."

"I'm sure you're right, I'm just a bit worried, after all that he's been through…"
"Worried about what?" asked Don, entering the room.

"Colby." David quickly repeated what he had told Megan.

"OK, Megan, why don't you have a crack at this guy." He indicated Chalmers. "I am sure that we have all four robbers in the guys we rounded up tonight, but he's not talking to me, perhaps you'll have better luck. I'll go and see if I can find out what's eating Colby." Megan nodded and entered the interview room to join Liz, whilst David continued to watch.

"He was heading into the locker room the last time I saw him."

Nodding Don went in search of the youngest team member. He was exactly where David had said. "Hey Colb."

Startled out of his reverie, he turned to his boss. "Hey man."

"What's bothering you? Don't say nothing either, I won't buy it."

Sighing he knew that there was no way out, he had to tell the truth. "You know I was more than ready to be out in the field, the doctor cleared me and everything…"
"But?" Prompted Don, sitting down on the bench next to Colby.

"I struggled to catch that guy tonight."
"Is that all? Look, I don't mean to diminish how you're feeling, but did you really expect to just get up one morning and be back to full fitness? It's going to take some time."

"If I can't keep up though, what good am I? What if next time the guy is faster?"

"That's why you have a partner, even at full fitness you can't always catch the bad guy on foot. You know that. You're putting far too much emphasis on this. You have more skills than just chasing suspects." Don paused, and looked at Colby. His agent looked tired, he seemed to have conveniently forgotten that he was in the office until late last night and then back at the crack of dawn this morning, any one of them would have been tired and therefore not so fleet of foot under those circumstances, not to mention that he did actually catch the guy. "If it hadn't been for your determination we would never have realised that there were four people involved. I want you to go home and get some rest. If you still feel in the morning that you're not ready for chasing suspects then we'll talk about this again, if, however, you realise that you were just physically tired, the subject will be considered closed. Alright?"

Colby nodded in agreement, perhaps Don was right, it had been a long few days. "OK, I'll see you tomorrow." He got up and walked out. Getting to his car he sat and closed his eyes for a few minutes, drawing in deep breaths. Feeling somewhat calmer he started the car. He had to stop at a store on his way home, he needed to restock his empty cupboards and fridge, he debated about letting it wait until tomorrow, but knew he couldn't keep putting it off. At least they had caught the convenience store robbers, that was something to be pleased about. There was a store a block from his apartment, he pulled into a parking space out front and went in. He nodded to the cashier and picked up a basket. He put his hand in his pocket and pulled out the list he had written a couple of days ago, this had been the first chance he'd had to get to a store. As he pulled the piece of paper out something else fell from his pocket, bending down to pick it up he saw that it was a quarter. No sooner had he bent down than the sound of a bullet rushing passed registered. He looked up as a can of soup exploded with the impact. If he hadn't bent to pick up that quarter it would have been his head that the bullet impacted. He just had time to think about how lucky that quarter was and that he wouldn't be spending it, when another bullet flew over his head.