Series: Numb3rs
Season: 2
Part: 1/7
Rating: K+

Disclaimer: Numb3rs and its lovely characters don't belong to me. They do to CBS. Unknown OC are mine, however. We all know the drill…

A/N: Hi, First, I'd like to mentioned that English is not my primary language, French is. Please be nice about my English and join me in THANKING EFF for helping me with the plot, grammar, and finding some of those words I keep forgetting to write in.

Second, SPOILER WARNING: this story takes place right after the episode "DARK MATTER".

Summary: Charlie has come to a point where he believes he has gathered enough data to make correct decisions when dealing with his older brother. But when a case starts to take over Don's life, things might never be the same again.

Don't Stay Away From Home For Too Long

Chapter 1: Conclusions and New Data.

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Charlie observed his older brother with a critical eye. They were sitting across from each other at a table at D'Amico's. The pizza they had shared was long gone and so was the friendly chatter they had exchanged over dinner. Don was now wearing that far away look that often clouded his eyes when he was troubled by one thing or another.

When Charlie had come home earlier that evening, he had found Don sitting alone in the living room. His brother had been reading a newspaper article about the last case they had solved.

"You can't get enough?" Charlie had asked, a bit cynically.

"What do you want from me? I liked to see the way they spin it," the FBI agent had replied, referring to the media.

To Charlie's question about their father's whereabouts, Don had informed him that their Dad was on another date with the Caterer. Apparently, Don had been waiting for his brother to come home so he could have dinner in his company.

Despite the fact that he would have preferred to stay in and enjoy a quiet evening in his own house, Charlie had accepted Don's invitation for a pizza. Not only was his brother paying for once, it had to be better than the one-week-old pot roast that was still sitting in his kitchen's refrigerator.

Once in Don's SUV, Charlie had told his brother that a pizza was a good idea, but he had also insisted that they go to a decent restaurant. All Charlie had wanted at that point had been to relax in a quiet place where the food was good.

"Let's go to D'Amico's," he had suggested.

Don had given him a quick sideways look. "D'Amico's?"

"You mind?"

"No, not at all, Buddy," Don had assured him.

D'Amico's was nice Italian restaurant with a lot more style than the local pizza joint where his brother tended to hang out. However, Charlie knew that as long as Don could have a beer with his pizza – which he had – the place would be fine by him.

Charlie had taken a glass of Chianti along with his meal and was now sipping some coffee. He watched Don in silence. Charlie was disappointed to notice that his brother's cheerful demeanour had dissipated. Could Don have been bothered by Charlie's earlier comments about wanting to do him some real damage back in high school? It was just the sort of thing that Don would acknowledge, even joke about, but also dwell upon silently.

Soon, Charlie found himself facing a dilemma. Should he pry into his brother's thoughts or should he redirect the conversation elsewhere altogether? Either way, he had to do something. Seeing Don look so sad, he decided, was just not sitting well with him.

What could make Don sad? Could it be his prior comments about high school? Could it be the case they had just closed? The later was also a valid possibility.

The case had been a troubling one about high school kids killing other kids over rage and revenge. Charlie had visited the school where the shooting had taken place. He had walked its halls in order to verify his data. He had done so after the body's of the eight victims had been removed – seven kids and a teacher.

Don, on the other hand, had walked those same halls while the bodies were still there – laying on the floor. Charlie could only imagine how difficult it must have been, even for his brother. That said, Don might appear tough and emotionally detached when working on a case, he still had feelings. Having him open up and talk about those feelings, however, was another matter entirely.

"It would be easier for me to launch myself into space, then to have Don talk about his feelings," he had once told his friends Larry and Amita.

What if it wasn't about feelings? What if it was about another one of those gruesome cases that were readily falling on his brother's desk?

Charlie figured that he would never know unless he asked. Why not? After all, the worst thing that could happen would be that Don dismissed the issue; that they would get up and leave. Thus, he made up his mind. Hypothesizing that his brother may react negatively to a direct line of questioning, Charlie opted for a general invitation.

"A penny for your thoughts," he said, trying to sound casual.

"Huh?" came the distracted response. "Sorry, Charlie. What did you say?"

"I said 'a penny for your thoughts'. You seemed lost in one of Larry's far away galaxies," Charlie said with a small grin.

Don returned his smile. It was partially hidden behind the hand that he had brought to his month in a pensive gesture.

"I wasn't thinking as far as another galaxy. I don't think I could ever do that," he said, moving his hand to his coffee cup. Don sighed. "No. I was just thinking as far as Washington." He took of sip of coffee. He was clearly weighting his next words. "Charlie, I'm afraid I've got some bad news. I'm being temporarily reassigned out of L.A.," he finally cut to the chase.

"You're being transferred to D.C?" Don nodded. "For how long?"

"Could be three weeks. Could be six months. Could be a year."

"A year?" Charlie echoed.

"Don't panic, Buddy. As I said, it could be shorter than that," Don pointed out.

"Does Dad know?"

"No, not yet. I didn't want to ruin his date by dropping that bomb shell on him. He isn't going to take this well, Charlie. He's still not over the fact that I worked away from L.A. for so many years."

"True. He still holds a grudge about the fact that you didn't stay in touch. He missed you a lot, back then. And, he was worried about you," Charlie added.

Don simply nodded.

They fell silent as a waitress came over their table and refilled their cups.

"You said it could be as short as three weeks," Charlie continued once they were alone again. "There's quite a range between three weeks and one year. What's that all about?"

"I just don't know how long it's gonna take. As you say: 'too many unpredictable variables'."

Charlie sighed despite himself. "Does this have anything to do with you work with the Office of International Operations? I noticed that it's been taking a lot of your time lately. You're hardly ever in the field anymore."

"Yeah. It does. I'll be joining the team over there for awhile."

"You never took the time to tell me how you ended up working on an international task force against the Sex Trade."

"And you want to know, now?" Don asked. He sighed with mock resignation.

Charlie waited for his brother to Continue.

"It all started for me with what seemed to be a simple case way back when I was working Fugitive Recovery. Coop and I were asked to find an escape serial killer. This guy had a thing for murdering porn stars after viewing their movies. The way this S.O.B. was tracking down his victims made our techniques looks like amateur stuff at times. I actually learned a few things from this guy. Anyway, we eventually caught him. But, by that time, the case had turned into something much bigger as we got entangled into an international network of people kidnapping Asian women and selling them as sex slaves here in the U.S. and Canada. I worked for over a year on these cases alone before I decided to call it quit. It was either that or loose my sanity.

"Or your life?"

Don nodded. "It came pretty close that," he admitted.

A shiver ran up Charlie's spine. "I suppose that's part of the reason Dad hated it so much when your were working Fugitive Recovery. The other part being the fact that you weren't keeping in touch."

"Sounds about right," Don agreed. "Keeping in touch was tough. It wasn't fun for me either. So, when the opportunity for Albuquerque came up, I jumped on it. Best career moved I've ever made." He probably noticed Charlie's sudden sadness for he added quickly: "Best personal move I've made was to come home."

Charlie returned his grin with a small smile. "But you never stopped working with that Task Force, did you?"

"I kept a consulting position as Subject Matter Expert while I was in Albuquerque, but my involvement was minimal. Running my own office was keeping me busy enough. I became active again on the Task Force last year . Eventually, I assigned Terry to it. She became my direct liaison in Washington. Her temporary assignment became a permanent one after a couple of months. After she left, I requested two new agents instead of one so that the team could keep up with the workload while I was working on other cases."

Charlie watched his brother bring his hand to his mouth as he considered his next words. The hand moved to his forehead, which he rubbed, then came back to his lips.

"Anyways, we're finally ready to make a significant move. We figured that it would be easier for everyone involved if I was to get closer to the current hot zone."

"And that's in Washington?"

"Not exactly. Washington, New York, Montreal, Toronto and Western Europe. The cases also have strong ties to L.A. and other major cities on the West Cost, but my presence here isn't crucial at this time."

"You can manage your cases remotely," Charlie remarked.

"Exactly," Don said. "To tell you the truth, Charlie, I'm looking forward to that change. I passed the last few months constantly keeping track of where people were in five different countries with multiple time zones. When I wasn't on a conference call with Washington, I was on one with Montreal or London. Man, I have been attached to the phone like a dog on a leash. I'm so sick of it! There's times I could throw the cell phone at the wall."

"But you have to content yourself with simply turning it off," Charlie remarked with a small grin.

"Yeah, when I can."

"Well, if you've been keeping track of people in five different countries with multiple time zones that may explain why you've been checking your watch every five minutes," Charlie said.

"I don't check the time every five minutes," Don defended.

"Five is a bit much, I agree. Fifteen is closer to the average. Sometimes, Dad and I wonder if you do it in your sleep." Don stared back at him. "You do, don't you?"

"What?" Don asked innocently.

"Wake up in the middle of the night just to check the time."

"It might have happened. Tell you what, if I do it again, I'll record my observations and you can do a nice little statistical analysis to pass the time."

"It could make an interesting case study," the mathematician replied with a smile.

Don shook his head. "Nah. Forget I mentioned that, Buddy. I've got enough to do already."

"So, when are you leaving for Washington?" he asked, dreading the answer more than he cared to admit.

"Next Tuesday," Don replied. "I've got a few more things to set up concerning my current cases and the way I'll keep working with my team here in L.A. Megan, David, and Colby are still gonna be reporting to me, for now. And… And, I have to tell Dad…"

"Yeah… Now that's going to be tough," Charlie agreed.

"I'm gonna invite him for lunch tomorrow and I'll tell him, then," Don said.

"Better do it sooner rather than later," Charlie encouraged him.

They fell silent for a few minutes.

"You okay, Buddy", Don asked, concerned clouding his eyes.

"I'm going to miss working with you," Charlie confessed, meeting his brother's gaze. "Don't suppose you'll need some math consultations wherever you're going to be?"

"I might," his brother replied. "Besides, you already worked on a few of those cases."

"I guess that I did." Charlie said remembering some data. "You just didn't give you the full background."

"I thought it was better this way. You don't handle this kind of stuff too well. Nor should you," Don pointed out.

Charlie simply nodded, unsure of how to respond to that.

"Don't worry, Chuck," Don said on a lighter tone. "We're still gonna be working together. If we don't work on the Task Force's cases, we'll do on others. I'll still be around," Don assured him. "I'll be coming home a few times per month."

"You better be!" Charlie warned him. "And, don't call me Chuck."

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TBC…

A/N: I Hope that you enjoyed Chapter 1. More parts are in the works.