Charlie walked across the bullpen to the familiar set of desks. Don had his feet up on his desk, a file propped on his stomach.

"Hey, Don."

"Hi, buddy," Don returned.

"Hey, Charlie," Colby said. "Are you in on this case or have you been poached by some other team?"

"He'd better not have been," Don said.

"I had to be downtown anyway," Charlie said, leaning his arms on the glass partition, "and I thought I'd call in and see if you had time for lunch."

"Yeah," Don said. "Give me a minute."

Charlie tipped his head to look at the third occupant of the cube. "I didn't know you could play chess, David."

Colby laughed. "He can't."

YOU LOSE flashed up across the screen of David's computer.

"No kidding," Charlie said.

"Yeah, if you could average out you and Dave, you'd have two decent players," Don remarked, swinging his feet to the floor. "Where'd I put my jacket?"

"Charlie's that good?" Colby said, at the same time as Charlie's "He's really that bad?"

"Oh yeah." Don nodded.

Colby looked like he was about to start mocking David again, but instead he stood up and walked past Charlie, calling, "Hey, Liz!"

Charlie looked round to check it was that Liz, and then looked back at Don and David. "Have I missed something?"

David was laughing. "Colby Granger: all the subtlety of a brick. Nah, Charlie, I got nothing."

Charlie looked at Don, who was on his feet, shrugging into his jacket. "Nobody knows," he said, and shoved Charlie between the shoulder blades. "You wrote the book, you tell me."

"Not enough data," Charlie said quickly. "Um, lunch?"

"If you're paying."

In the elevator, Charlie asked, "So, Liz and Colby, if they are, uh, I mean, would you be okay with that?"

Don put his eyebrows up. "Sure."

Which probably translated to Back off, baby brother. Or hopefully I'm getting too serious with Robin again to be bothered. Either way a change of subject was called for.

"So, what's up with Megan?"

"Once again, we all got nothing. Except your boy Larry, and he isn't spilling." Don gave Charlie a speculative look. "Did he say anything to you?"

"Nope."

"Probably knew you'd never withstand my brotherly interrogation."

"Hey, I can keep secrets. Even from you."

"Can't."

"Can too."

"Stop it. How old are we, kindergarten?"

"Can," Charlie said quietly. Don shook his head at the ceiling, amused. Hah, made Don grin and got the last word.