AN: It's finally here, sorry about the wait. Between work and writing 98% of this on a tablet with no keyboard it took a while. The support has been wonderful, you guys are awesome. By the way this is the longest and final chapter. Sorry about any grammar or spelling mistakes (I have no beta)

Warning: Minor cussing

Don

Dr. Charles Eppes is currently cursing his luck and regretting his life choices.

For the past few months, nearly ALL of his close friends have discovered one aspect of his life or another that he was trying to keep secret. First it was Colby and the shooting, then David and the self-defense, then Megan and the NSA, then Amita and his multilingual skills. Even, his father found out something, the fact that his on a first name basis with a CIA bodyguard. The hours worth of document signing now mean nothing. All those non-disclosure agreements going to waste and that's not even the most fustrating part.

No, the worst part is the look. They all gave Charlie the same look when he asked them not to tell Don. It's the look that reminds him he can still be dense despite the high IQ and PHDs. It's a look that's one half amusement and one half fond exasperation. They all seem to be under the impression Charlie's not nearly as stealthy as he thinks, ignoring the fact that he had them fooled until recently. Which brings the mathematician back to the current issue.

Charlie is sitting, tied down to ensure he can't get up, on an immensely uncomfortable metal chair. While he isn't in pain, his normally sharp mind is feeling a bit sluggish, probably from chloroform. To make matters a few hundred times worse, a cursory scan of the room shows one exit and Don, hence cursing his luck and life choices, sitting in an identical chair also tied down.

At the sight of his restrained and slumped over brother, Charlie feels the beginnings of panic trying to ebb it's way into his mind. He tries not to give in to the dismal thoughts, but if Don's here he must be hurt because there's no way anyone would be able to take his older brother with a simple dose of chloroform. Charlie rips his gaze from his brother and begins to study the room in earnest.

It's a very basic layout. The walls appear to be concrete and, given the poor lighting, there's no windows. A musty smell fills the room giving the notion the brothers are underground. The only furniture are the two metal chairs, sitting in the middle of the room, and a small desk, pushed up against the wall to Charlie's left. It's hard to see around Don's prone form, but he can just make out a manila folder laying on the desk. Charlie can't see anything else and curses his inability of rotating his next 180°. Instead of trying to twist his neck anymore, he turns his gaze to the door. It's larger than a typically door, metal, and looks reinforced. There's a small slot at the top, allowing someone to peer in from the outside, and, given the looks of hinges, the door opens outward. The curly haired brunette sighs. Even if they manage to unlock the door it can still be barred from the outside, hindering their escape.

A groan cause Charlie's head to snap to the left at Don. The FBI agent slowly lifts his head from it's rested position on his chest. He shakes his head a bit then tries to stand. With a muttered curse at the resistance, Don finally looks around and sees Charlie.

"Shit."

The older brother runs his gaze up and down Charlie's form. He takes in the rumpled appearance, no surprise there, and the restraints. Not only are the brothers' hands bound together with rope behind the chair, there's also thick ropes binding their upper torsos and arms to the metal edges of the chair, A quick downwards glance shows more rope trapping each leg apart to their respective chair leg.

While Don checks over the younger, Charlie is also checking Don for injures. The restraints are the same, as the mathematician noted earlier, as well as the metal chair. Blood running down the left side of Don's face is the only difference between the two.

Charlie let's out a gasp, though he expected Don to be injured. "What happened? How did they even get you? I don't remember anything after being surrounded on my way home."

His older brother frowns and begins to struggle against the ropes. "Well, I was coming to get you, but then..."

The few students milling around the parking lot of Cal Sci pay little attention as a government issued SUV pulls up. The car draws a few glances, but the students seem to be in a hurry and lose interest when they see the driver. Don Eppes, an FBI agent and brother to one of the most loved professors on campus, showing up is not exactly a shock. The agent often shows up unannounced to ask his little brother for help or to just hang out. The only cause of concern for what would seem to be a lunch visit, is the solemn look on the agent's face.

Don parks quickly,completely unaware of the ominous expression he's wearing, and heads straight to the Maths and Science Department. He decided to make a surprise lunch stop as a guise of grilling his younger brother about his shady behavior. Charlie has been acting jumpy for the last few days. Whenever Don asks everyone, including the mathematician, says he's fine. The agent knows his team would not lie to him about a topic as important as Charlie, so they must have been sworn to secrecy if they know anything, which Don believes they do. Either way, Don marches across campus to find out what's going on.

Agent Eppes rounds the corner into the hallway that leads to Charlie's office. He enters the unfortunately vacant room, hopes the younger hasn't already had lunch, and decides to check Larry's office next. The two professors never have class at noon on Fridays and can often be found eating or experimenting together. Just as the elder is leaving the office, he's nearly run over by a young woman.

"Hey, what's the rush?"

The young woman, a brown-eyed blonde, falters a bit. "Dr. Green is coming to Cal Sci today. " She looks absolutely frantic and speaks almost too quickly for Don to catch.

''Who's Dr. Green?"

"A world renown physicist, he was even up for a noble peace prize last year. Look, I have to get going. Pretty much everyone's going to the lecture, so I need to hurry if I want a seat."

Don's lips tilt up slightly in the corners. Dr. Green must be why the outside of the campus is oddly vacant at 12pm, only at Cal Sci will students skip lunch to go to a lecture. "Wait, have you seen Professor Eppes around?"

"Uhh, I saw him walking to the staff parking lot not even a minute ago."

''All right, thanks." The blonde waves goodbye and they both begin to jog to their destinations.

By the time the agent sees Charlie the brunette has entered the designated professor parking lot. Don slows into a light jog as he begins to call out to Charlie. The words catch in his throat as three young men appear from between the parked cars and begin to menacingly approach his younger brother. Don breaks out into a run at the sight.

The older brother enters the parking lot two seconds too late and watches as one man , who's about the size of Colby, covers Charlie's mouth with a rag. His brother begins to flail, fearing for his life, but the kidnapper is larger and and knows exactly where to stand to decrease the risk of Charlie slipping away. The other two kidnappers are glancing around the parking lot, keeping an eye out. Just as the shortest one is about to turn around, Don reaches them and punches him in the jaw.. The agent uses the surprise attack to sucker punch the other kidnapper. He keeps up a bit of momentum, fighting the two kidnappers as the third handles his brother, but it's short lived. After a few more seconds, it's obvious Charlie fell victim to whatever was on the rag and the huge kidnapper taps his ear twice.

Suddenly, a black van pulls into the parking lot at a near leisurely pace. The van's door opens immediately, revealing a driver in the front and another man in the back, prompting the behemoth to pass Charlie over to the man inside the back of the van. The sight draws Don's attention leaving him open to the two other kidnappers. The last thing he's aware of is a sharp pain to the side of his head.

'You saw?" Charlie bites his lower lip, knowing how worried Don must have been while watching him get kidnapped.

"Yeah, I-"

They're interrupted by footsteps resonating outside of the door. A scraping sound ominously fills the room as the window slot on the door is pushed open. Neither brother can make out who is behind the door though. The only identifying feature is brown eyes, and neither payed enough attention during the kidnapping to identify one of the kidnappers on their eyes alone.

There's an audible click as the door is unlocked. The kidnapper, who they can now identity thanks to the bruised jaw, enters the room and stares at the two brothers. The man has a short stature but broad shoulders. He looks to be of American descent and has brown hair to match his brown eyes. Neither brother says anything, choosing to wait for the kidnapper to reveal something.

The man simply stands there for a good minute, letting the brothers sweat, before opening his mouth to speak. "Food in an hour, water in two, interrogation in three." With that the brunette turns, leaves, and locks the door on the way.

"Do you still have that knife I gave you?"

" Yes, you told me to always keep it on my belt."

Don nods his head in approval. "Good. Where exactly is it?"

"It's on my right side."

"Alright, we have to get out soon, preferably before interrogation."

"Why are they even waiting? Why not just do it now?" Charlie's wide eyed and obviously nervous about the prospect of whatever form of interrogation the kidnappers will pick.

"It's an interrogation technique in itself." At the mathematician's skeptical stare Don continues. "I mean, if we're so worried about the interrogation we lose focus and won't be thinking as clearly on escaping, right?"

"Right."

"They're going to check on us in-between too, and there's no good way to keep track of time in here so we need to move now."

"Alright, what do I need to do?"

The agent takes a moment to shoot Charlie a proud look after hearing the determination in the younger's voice. "Nothing right now. I'm going to shift my chair so I can grab your knife. Then we both shift in the middle so I can pass it to you. After that, you'll start sawing through the ropes."

The brothers get to work immediately. It takes Don about ten minutes to get to Charlie's belt. The agent nearly falls while scooting his chair to the right causing the two to have mini heart attacks and spark laughter at the same time. Luckily, he only moves halfway back and Charlie moves halfway there so their hands can meet and pass along the knife.

"Wait, don't start yet." As soon Charlie gets the knife he tries to start sawing at the ropes on his wrists.

"Why not? I thought getting out of here quickly was a top priority?"

"The ropes are too thick. They may have said an hour until food, but someones going to come back before then to check on us. If you they look in the window and your chairs not turned back, we can kiss our escape goodbye."

Without another word, the young mathematician stars moving his chair back to it's original position. He begins sawing at the thick ropes around his wrist, knowing the sooner they're off the faster getting the other ropes off will be. Charlie freezes ten minutes later, and well into getting the ropes around his torso off, as the sound of footsteps echo in the hall again. The curly headed brunette looks at Don in fear for a moment before the elder shakes his head indicating they'll be find and to just not move.

The slot opens up revealing a different pair of eyes than the previous short brown eyed kidnapper. Whoever it is simply gives the brothers and room a once over before closing the slot and leaving. The Eppes brothers let out simultaneous sighs of relief before Don gestures for Charlie to get back to work.

Don keeps up a litany of words over the next twenty minutes or so to keep Charlie calm and focused. The younger is nearly finished with the ropes around his torso when they hear clear sounds of someone outside the door. The brunette panics for a minute before realizing Don was right to tell him not to saw completely through the ropes. Due to the ropes not being fully broken, it gives the illusion Charlie is still tied up. Whoever is at the door gives the same check as the last time. The kidnapper must not be able to Charlie's nearly free, because he leaves after the quick check.

Five more minutes of sawing pass before Charlie finishes with the ropes on his feet. He stands with a grin, stretching and rubbing his wrists.

"Do my hands, give me the knife, then hide behind the door."

"What why?" All semblance of a smile leaves the younger's face.

"There's only a few minutes left before they come back with the food. It's nearing the first hour mark and they must have sent the last guy to check to make sure we were behaving. When they see you out of the ropes they're going to come in. When that happens you need to run out of the room and close the door behind you. "

"What?! I'm not leaving you here, Donnie!"

"Yes, you are! You don't have a choice. Once they see you're free they'll bump up the interrogation time, or worse. Just slip out the room, close the door, and run. Try to get out of the building, but if you can't find a phone and call David." Charlie nods, but still looks hesitant. "Get behind the door now Charlie! They're going to come soon,"

The mathematician gets into position, takes a deep breath, and steels himself he's about to do. The idea of hurting someone isn't the nerve wracking part, it's the I'm-about-to-out-one-of-my-secrets- to-my-older-brother part that is stressing him out, because there's no way he's leaving Don here. The only outward sign is Charlie's sweating palms, which hopefully Don attributes to nerves about leaving the elder behind. With any luck the smaller of their two guards will enter the room instead of the behemoth.

The wait is short, only a minute or so as Don predicted, before there's a clear crunching sound of someone approaching the door. The slot moves into the open position and a coarse "shit" can be heard before the door is unlocked. The brown eyed, brunette kidnapper, Charlie's luck must not be all bad, enters the room. In a swift movement, the mathematician jumps on the kidnappers back, closing the door with a kick, and wraps his arms around the kidnappers neck causing him to drop the tray of food. He pulls as tight as he can and holds on, much like a bull riding competition, as the man begins to claw at the mathematician's arms and jerk wildly. The only sounds that can be heard are Don cutting through the ropes, Charlie panting in exertion, and the kidnapper gasping for air. It takes nearly another minute before the kidnapper finally slumps to the ground successfully knocked out.

Don wastes no time, "Check him for weapons." A thorough check reveals a large military knife and a gun. "Great. Drag him to where you were standing before then get over here and help me get out of these ropes."

Between the two of them, and the heavy duty knife, Don is comptely untied in a matter of minutes.

"Something must be going on." The agent checks the chamber of the gun, relived to find it full, then takes the safety off.

"Why?"

Don gestures to the unconscious kidnapper, "He's been here for over five minutes." Then he points to the mess on the ground. "Judging by the lack of silverware, they didn't intend on actually feeding us. Which means one of their own has been missing for over five minutes and they haven't come for him yet, or us."

No sooner than Don finishes speaking, shouts are heard coming from somewhere outside the room. The yelling stops abruptly at the clear sound of a silence assault rifle.

Don passes Charlie the larger knife, "Here get behind me. You may be the better shot, but I've killed people before and I'd do it again to get out of here." The younger's mouth drops open in shock, but he has not time to ask questions as someone approaches the door.

Fortunately, or unfortunately for Charlie, Nathan opens the door with a raised assault riffle. The CIA bodyguard lowers the weapon upon seeing Don and Charlie and Don, much to Charlie's surprise, lowers his weapon as well.

"Nice to see you again Nate." A smile tugs at the corner of Don's lips as Charlie nearly falls over in shock.

"Wait,you two know each other?!"

Don turns partially away from the door to give Charlie an exasperated look. "Of course, like I was going to let some newbie CIA dog watch over my brother."

"Is that why Alex suddenly left?" He shots his older brother an accusatory look. Alex may have been a new agent, but he was nice and friendly.

"I have a few contacts in the CIA who I asked to look out for you. When I found out some fresh agent was assigned to you I had them change it." Charlie opens his mouth to speak, but Don cuts him off. "Before you ask, no I won't tell you who my contacts are, yes I do know about your self defense training and marksmanship skills, but from an NSA contact." Don and Nathan offer a shrug to Charlie's look of bewilderment. "Your my little brother, of course I kept tabs on you. You're self defense and marksmanship training was my idea when I found how dangerous consulting could be."

The younger brother literally sags into the chair in relief. Don keeps an eye on the door, and Nathan, with an amused expression on his face. "So they were right. You knew everything this whole time. Do you know how hard it it was to keep everything hidden? The marksmanship, the self defense training, the CIA, Bob, and the languages." He shoots an annoyed look at his brother, but is met with a look of confusion. "Uhh,..."

"Wait, what? '' Don fully turns his attention on Charlie, trusting the CIA agent to do his job. "What are you talking about? What languages and who's Bob?"

"Shit, you didn't know about those two?" He turns his brown eyes to Nathan looking for help. The agent simply ignores him and continues guarding the door.

"What languages, Chuck?" Don wants answers before Charlie can think of a good deflection.

"The uh languages I speak."

"You're bilingual." There's only slight surprise on the older's face. ''How many languages?"

''Seven."

''Well, I mean it's a little bit of a shock, but you're a genius. This stuff is typical for geniuses, right?"

Charlie just shrugs, "Maybe, I guess."

"And who's Bob? Wait, do you mean NSA Director Robert Tompkins?! You're on a nickname basis with the Director of the NSA? My contact told me you two were friendly, but not that friendly. "

Charlie sighs and runs his hand down his face. "That's a story for another time. Let's just go home."

Don shakes his head in fond exasperation, "Alright, let's go home."

AN: So what do you guys think? I may do an epilogue chapter, possibly as a stand alone, but I make no promises. I'm not too fond of the ending so I may edit this later.