Disclaimer: I do not own Numb3rs or any of the characters.

"What about Charlie?"

Charlie looked up from his notes at the sound of his name. "What about me?"

Charlie was sitting at an empty desk in Don's office, reviewing the FBI's work on a fraud case for Don. It was evening and most of the staff was gone. He'd heard an agent walk in and start talking to Don, but he hadn't paid much attention to their conversation until he heard Don's comment.

Looking over at Charlie, Don explained, "Charlie, this is Alex Russert. He's organizing a couple basketball games for the department. Maybe see if there's enough interest to start a league."

Charlie rubbed his hands together, liking the idea immediately. "So? What about me? Do I get to play?"

Turning back to Don, Alex Russert crossed his arms over his chest and challenged, "Is he good?"

"Am I good?" Charlie repeated incredulously. "I'm like, the king of basketball."

Alex looked at Don for confirmation.

Don stated simply, "He can play. On my team."

Inwardly, Charlie groaned at Don's less than enthusiastic support. Well, if his brother wasn't going to talk him up, Charlie would have to do it for himself. He waved his hand dismissively. "Oh, don't listen to him. I'm really good!" Charlie insisted.

Instead of responding to Charlie, Alex addressed Don again. "Are we letting consultants play?"

Don replied, "Your team has Garber."

Charlie pointed at Don. "There you go, Garber's playing." After a moment, he added, "Who's Garber?"

Don prompted, "Leon Garber. Forensics."

"Oh." Charlie nodded, remembering the man.

Alex continued to ignore Charlie. "Garber is our center." The unspoken implication was there was a good reason for making an exception in Garber's case.

After quietly processing that for a moment, Charlie acknowledged, "He is kind of tall."

Don shot his brother an amused glance. "Yeah, Charlie. He's 6' 5". He's kinda tall."

Charlie joked with his brother, "Think I could take him?"

"Garber?" Don chuckled. "Yeah, to lunch, maybe."

Charlie threw a wad of paper at him.

As the brothers exchanged taunts and grins, it was Alex's turn to be ignored for a moment. A role reversal Charlie took more than a little pleasure in after listening to Alex talk about him as if he wasn't there.

Apparently, Alex didn't find the change so enjoyable. He inserted himself back into the conversation by petulantly declaring, "Hey, put whoever you want on your team. I just think the game would be a little more interesting if it wasn't a total blowout."

Knowing how competitive Don could be, Charlie expected that comment to get a reaction. But instead of getting angry, Don simply looked intrigued. "And you think it will be?"

"With the team you've got? First Terry and now the math geek?"

Don lifted his eyebrows a little. "You got a problem with Terry?"

"No, just… you know."

Don fixed Alex with an expectant gaze. "What?"

"She's… she's…" Not knowing how to phrase his objection, Alex settled for, "…not tall."

Don grinned, clearly amused by his verbal fumbling. "I'm telling her you said that."

Alex sneered, "Whatever," and stalked off.

After watching Alex depart, Charlie got up and walked over to lean against Don's desk. "Terry?"

Don nodded. "Actually, she was my first pick. No offense."

Charlie feigned hurt by slapping his hand against his chest as if wounded.

Don shrugged. "I've learned to play with Terry rather than against her, okay? Can we just leave it at that?"

Sensing there was a story behind that comment, Charlie adopted an expectant expression.

"She plays dirty!" Don complained. He started ticking off a list on his fingers. "She throws elbows, she steps on my feet, she trash talks endlessly, if I complain about any of it she calls me a girl…"

"Don, come on." Charlie laughed, "I have a little trouble believing…"

"Look, the last time I made the mistake of playing against her she pantsed me. I haven't been pantsed in the middle of a game since the fourth grade! Picking Terry for my team is a defensive strategy. It keeps me out of harm's way and she scares the other team."

"She scares them?" Charlie questioned. "How scary can Terry be?"

A voice directly behind him purred, "How scary do you want me to be?"