Disclaimer: I do not have any affiliation with the television show Numb3rs. I do not profit from this work.

A/N: This piece began easily, but once the prologue was down, my muse left. Packed its bag and skipped town, as it were. I cannot say with any certainty that this will be completed soon, although I will finish it. I have no idea when. Perhaps one of my enigmatic title faeries will message me with some suggestions?

Chapter 1:

"So what happened?"

Special Agent Don Eppes sat unmoving, his expression stony. Nothing showed in his dark eyes. His hands rested lightly on the table in front of him, fingers laced together as he gazed dispassionately at the two men seated opposite. Nothing showed of his true feelings. There were no tremors in his long, elegant fingers, no restlessness in his movements. There was only numbing cold, spread throughout his body, inuring him to the onslaught of emotions that threatened to overwhelm him. If he could have moved, he would be yelling at these men. Throwing the chair he was sitting on. Overturning the table. Instead, he sat in silence and waited.

The tension in the room was palpable, like humidity. It hung in the air threatening to suffocate the unwary. Neither faction spoke, each waiting for a response from the other. If it wasn't broken, the silence could last forever. Don allowed his thoughts to turn inward, to the events of that morning. Going over the situation detail by detail, forcing himself to relive the events that brought him to this point.

The whole thing had been cursed from the very beginning, in his line of thinking. Not enough sleep the night before due to too many questions and not enough answers. Rising early, he found his morning shower had to be skipped because his building's heating system had failed. He made a mental note to see the building manager about the quality of maintenance. It had been going sharply downhill of late. He'd had to go to his brother's house to shower, shave and dress in record time so as not to be late. Once he'd pulled into his parking spot at work, however, a fellow agent wanting advice on a cold case had delayed him even further. Finally getting into the office, Don had been inundated by reports, phone calls and follow-ups until they received a tip on a kidnapping case. The result was a flurry of planning. A quick consultation with the tactical team commander, and the plan was set. It looked like things were starting to come together…

And now this. After several hours of careful planning, and a precisely executed raid, four good agents were dead, and two more were in hospital. Don had yet to discover the severity of their injuries.

The numbness had now spread throughout his entire body. He no longer felt cold, just… surreal. In a far corner of his mind, he registered the idea that his current physiological state might not be a good thing. He knew that he, too, had been injured in some fashion, but the numbing sensation kept it at bay. For now.

First, he needed to get to the bottom of this.

What happened? A very good question, in his opinion. Don Eppes would like nothing better than to have the answer, and right now it lay in the hands of the two professional-looking men seated across the table. Don had never had occasion to meet with them before, and he would have given just about anything to not have to be here with them now.

The dark-haired one on the left leaned in and rested his elbows on the table.

"Agent Eppes," he began, "Would you be so kind as to explain how you managed to fire upon your own people?"