Disclaimer: I own nuffin to do wiv Numb3rs! I just borrowed 'em guv, honest!

This follows on from my previous story Oblivion, you don't have to have read that one, but it may help in the long run.

Prologue

Don looked at his watch, the team were sitting in the war room discussing their latest case, a series of home invasions. That is most of the team were there, one was conspicuous in his absence.

"Anyone spoken to Colby this morning?"

Liz, Megan and David all shook their heads. Everyone was aware that Colby had been late in every morning for the last few weeks, ever since he had returned to work after his long recovery from being hit by a car and buried in a box, something that prior to this was unheard of. Usually he was the first in and last out. Don was angry and worried, but he really didn't have time for this, the investigation was reaching a critical point, they had pictures of the unsubs, but there was no record of them in any database. Don was just about to start without his junior agent when he saw him casually walking through the bull pen. Unbelievably he didn't seem to be in any hurry considering he was 30 minutes late.

"Morning, sorry I'm late." Colby sat down and gave a sheepish smile.

"We'll talk about that later Colby, in the meantime we have some photos of our home invaders taken by a CCTV camera that one of the home owners had installed." Don handed him a file holding the pictures of the 3 unsubs. "I want you and David to go back to the neighbourhood currently being targeted and see if anyone recognises them."

David nodded and got up to leave, indicating to his partner that he should follow. They walked to the elevators and down to the parking garage, neither said a word. As soon as they were in the car David turned to him.

"What's up with you man, you've been late every morning for days?"

"Nothing. Traffic in LA is a bitch."

"Oh come on, don't give me that crap, something is going on with you. Don isn't going to let you get away with this much longer."

"Get away with what, exactly, David? So I've been late, it makes up for all those mornings I got in before all of you. Lets just do our jobs shall we?"

David looked at his partner, his mouth hanging open in surprise. He and Colby had disagreed before, but never had his friend been so curt with him. Turning in his seat he started the car and they drove in silence, not their usual comfortable silence, the air could have been cut with a knife.

On the way to the area in which the home invasions had been carried out Colby finally opened the file Don had handed him. He flipped through the photos, when he got to the last one he almost swore, but just managed to stop himself. He didn't want David to know he recognised the man in the picture. This was Carter all over again, except this guy had been a high school friend, Steve Jones, they hadn't seen each other since Colby had gone into the army. He had to track him down and see what the hell he thought he was doing, he had always been a good guy, he had obviously got in with the wrong crowd. He couldn't exactly speak to the team about this, he was already in enough trouble with them, he would track the man down, speak to him and then bring him in, try to help if he could.

David and Colby spent the day walking the streets surrounding the last home invasion. They showed the pictures of the 3 men to anyone they met, but nobody had seen them. After a fruitless day out in the heat the 2 men returned to the car and drove back to the office, again in total silence. When Colby got back to his desk he logged on to his computer and started trying to track his high school buddy down. He was still searching when the others got up to leave. Don seeing that Colby was still working away sighed with relief thinking that finally the old Colby was back.

"Don't stay too late Colby, see you 08:00 sharp tomorrow morning."

Colby waved a hand in response. Little did Don know that he would be seeing his youngest team member earlier than that.

Colby ended up calling home to get the information he needed, his Mom put him in touch with Steve's who in turn gave him her son's address in LA. Picking up his jacket and securing his gun at his back he left the office and went to the address he had been given. He knocked and waited, when it opened Steve smiled.

"Colby Granger? Is that really you?"

"Yeah, hey man. Can I come in?"

"Sure, sure. How'd you know I was in LA?"

"That's what I need to talk to you about. You know I'm an FBI agent right?"

"Yeah, Mom told me."

"Your picture came up in an investigation. I want to hear your side of things before I decide what to do about it."

"Wow, you don't say." Steve tried to feign ignorance.

"Steve, I know you're part of these home invasions, just tell me how you managed to get mixed up in it and maybe I can help."

Before Steve could respond there was a loud bang and the room suddenly filled with armed men. "LAPD, hands on your head."

Oh shit, this was bad, Don was gonna kill him. Well he knew something like this was going to have to happen sooner or later, but he really had hoped he'd have more time. Sighing he put his hands on his head.

"I'm an FBI Agent."

One of the SWAT officers moved forward to check his credentials and nodded to his team leader, who in turn indicated he should lower his hands.

"What are you doing here Agent…?"

"Agent Granger. Steve is an old school friend. What's he done?"

"He is suspected of being involved with a gang of armed robbers."
Colby turned to look at Steve and shook his head, raising an eyebrow in surprise, at least that reaction was genuine, he didn't know about the armed robberies. "That's news to me Lieutenant."

"That may be, but I'm going to need you to come down the station with us."

"Sure, no problem." Colby followed the Lieutenant out and was shown to a patrol car in which he was driven to LAPD headquarters. He was then shown to an interview room.

"Going to need to contact your supervisor Agent Granger. Can we have a name?"

"Agent Don Eppes." Oh man, not even ten at night and Don was going to get called back out. Not good.

Colby co-operated with LAPD, and after Don came to the station and verified who he was they released him with a word of caution that they would need to speak to him again. Colby followed Don out to his SUV, he hadn't said two words to him, it was worse than getting shouted at.

Taking a deep breath Don said. "I don't want to talk about this tonight, we will go and collect your car, you will come into work for 08:00 tomorrow morning, not a minute later, and we will talk about this then. Am I clear?"
"Crystal."

The rest of the journey was made in silence. Colby knew he was going to have to get used to not talking to Don, but it was going to be hard. He retrieved his car and went back to his apartment, filled with trepidation about what would await him in the morning.

The next morning Colby was in with five minutes to spare, he knew that his life was about to get more complicated, so was Don's.

Don was already sitting at his desk and when he saw Colby coming out of the elevator he stood up and motioned for him to follow as he walked to a conference room. Colby followed without question, as he always had until a few weeks ago. He walked passed Megan, Liz and David, he didn't look at them, he couldn't. If he did then he wouldn't go through with what he needed to, entering the conference room he gently closed the door behind him.

"What the fuck is going on with you?" Before Colby could respond Don continued, he was livid. "How could you not tell us that you recognised one of the men in the photos? Do you have any idea of what a tight spot you have put me in?"

"He's an old high school friend Don, I wanted to help him."

"The same way you helped Carter? Didn't you learn anything?" Don was shouting at him. Colby knew it was justified, but he kept pushing Don's buttons.

"Hang on a minute, don't throw that back in my face! You can't bring that up every time you disagree with something I have done." Colby started to raise his voice.

"Disagree? I don't just disagree Colby, you've crossed the line and this time there is no undercover operation to cover your arse! You had no god damn right to mess with our case."

"I wasn't messing with it."

"You have compromised weeks of investigation, not just for us but for LAPD. I told you if you messed up again you'd be in jail, well you haven't done anything to warrant that, we can't arrest you for criminally poor judgement." Don took a breath, unable to quite believe what he was about to say. "You're fired. Get your stuff and get out."

Colby knew it was coming, he deserved it, but his heart still stopped for a second and then sank, but he knew what he had to do. "Fired? Oh that's great, I put my life on hold for 2 years for this god damn job and now you're firing me? Do you know what Don, you can stick you're job, I've had it with duty, honour and following orders." He left his gun, badge and credentials on the table and walked out of the conference room. He had some stuff in a locker but he couldn't face going through the office to get it so he headed straight to the elevators, he could feel the eyes of all the other agents in the office boring into his back, you could hear a pin drop in the normally noisy office.

He got on the elevator and turned. As he glanced back into the office for the last time he saw Don, David, Megan and Liz standing in a group, their eyes filled with confusion.

"I'm sorry." He mouthed as the doors closed.