Only a Phone Call Away

Summary: A nice brotherly moment where Don gets a phone call from England.
Disclaimer: I do not own Numb3rs or any of the characters that appear on the show. Ben however is mine.
Spoilers: Minor spoilers for Growing Up and Cause and Effect
A/N: This takes place after Shadow of the Day but can stand alone, just know that Robin is expecting another child and was in a car accident that put her on bed rest.

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Charlie and Amita had been in England for about a month and a half. He was really enjoying his visiting professorship so far. He and Amita each had a couple of summer seminars that they taught and he was prepping for the fall term. Charlie had four classes in the fall and Amita had three. He and Amita would spend their weekends sight seeing in England or else enjoying each others company in the small cottage they rented near the campus.

It was Saturday night and Charlie was bored and slightly homesick. He missed his father, brother, Larry, the familiarity of CalSci, and the gang at the FBI office.

Amita had gone to bed a while ago, she had come down with a sinus infection earlier in the week and had resorted to spending the weekend in bed recuperating.

Charlie sighed as he looked at the clock, it was 3 p.m in Los Angeles. Don should be home, he hadn't been spending as much time at work since Robin was on bed rest. Charlie picked up the phone and dialed the numbers for his calling card then punched in his brothers cell phone number.

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Don was changing Ben who was crying incessantly, the baby had been crabby all day due to a new tooth that was coming in. Don was attempting to get the crying, squirming baby back into his clothes when his cell phone rang. Without looking at the caller ID Don flipped the phone open and cradled it between his head and shoulder, "Eppes."

"Hey Bro!" Charlie greeted his older brother.

"Charlie! How are you?" Don greeted happily as he managed to get Ben to stop squirming long enough to get both legs into the little gray sweatpants.

"I'm good. How are you? Sounds like someone is having a rough day."

"Yeah, Ben's got a new tooth coming in and isn't feeling all that great, he has four already. But other than that we are all doing okay." Don said as he picked up his son, Ben calmed down somewhat as he rested his head on Don's shoulder. "How is everything in England?"

"Good. Amita and I went to London last weekend to do some sight seeing. We went to the Tower of London and Buckingham Palace. It was great! But now Amita has been fighting a cold all week so we are just spending the weekend at home. How is Robin doing?"

"She's doing alright. She is pretty sick of being on bed rest but she has had some more bleeding so the doctor won't take her off it but everything looks okay with the baby. For the most part her injuries from the accident have healed up nicely. Her ribs still give her trouble sometimes, but that's not surprising."

"That's good. How's dad doing? I tried calling him first but he didn't pick up."

"Oh I see how I rate, second on the list." Don joked, "Dad is in Palm Springs golfing with Art and Stan. They left yesterday and won't be back until Monday. He's doing good though, he has been a huge help with taking care of Ben when the nanny can't and I'm at work. It's good that he is taking this little vacation to golf, give him a break from helping out."

"That's great, he deserves a vacation." Charlie was silent for a moment, "It's so weird being away from Los Angeles and away from you guys for so long."

"I know, its not the same without you here Buddy. The house seems much quieter now whenever I am over there to see dad."

"Yeah, I miss the house and hanging out with you and dad to watch a game or have a beer after a case. I'm really missing working with you and your team too."

"I miss that too, both hanging out with you and working together. Everyone at the office misses you and Amita. My team says hello. They miss having you around to cut back on their leg work." Don kidded him.

Charlie laughed, "I'm sure they do. How are you liking your promotion so far?"

"It's alright. I have slightly more regular hours now unless we are working a major case but I get to spend more time with Robin and Ben which is always great. And I'm not in the field as much but that's okay, I don't miss it as much as I thought I would but it's nice to go out every once in a while. It's a nice break from paperwork and reading reports."

"Yeah, I'm sure. I know how much you hated desk duty. You sound like you're happy with it though."

"Yeah, yeah I am."

"That's good Bro." they were silent for a moment before Charlie spoke again, "Well its getting late here so I'll let you go. I should head to bed soon."

"Alright I'll talk to you later Charlie. Tell Amita I said hi and hopes she gets well soon."

"I will. Send Robin my best. Bye Don, I miss you."

"I miss you too Charlie. Bye." Don smiled as he hung up and looked at a picture of him, Charlie, and Ben from the day Ben was born that was sitting on the bookshelf. He knew he would miss his brother but he was surprised at how much he missed his brother.

Don's gentle rocking has lulled Ben to sleep, the baby hadn't slept at all since he woke up this morning. Don was afraid he would wake his son if he stood up to put Ben in the crib so he just settled in and drifted off thinking that he couldn't wait for December to roll around so he could see Charlie again.