Hi, this is my fanfic. As you will notice, English is not my language and I am looking for a Beta, so I apologize for any mistakes.

I hope you'll enjoy this story. It happens at the end of Season 4, after Charlie lost his clearance.

Comments are always welcome.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

A killer is after AD Wright. Don and his team are racing against the clock to find who it is. But helping Wright is not the only objective Don has in mind.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-

"Dad?" Don called out as he entered the Craftsman house.

"In the kitchen!"

Where else? Don thought with a little smirk. He headed to the kitchen and found his father staring thoughtfully at a huge cake placed on a tray on the table. Don's face lit up right away.

"Wow! That looks good. You made it?" he asked, taking some of the cream with his index.

Alan slapped his hand. "No, it's from the caterer. And don't touch, it's not for you."

"Caterer?" he asked surprised, as he licked the cream from his finger. "You're back with her? Dad, what about Millie?"

"This is for Millie. It's her birthday. I haven't had time to bake anything so I ordered this cake from a caterer, whose name's John and he wears a beard… not my type; as you know I prefer moustache," Alan replied, sarcastic. "And since when do you interfere in my private life, by the way?"

"Hey, who's always giving me the third degree on my love life, hmm? See how it feels."

"I'm the father, you're the son. It's normal that I look after you, kid."

"I haven't been a kid for a long time, Dad."

"Hmm, sometimes, I wonder," muttered Alan, glancing sideways at his son.

Feeling it was time to change the conversation, Don asked, "Charlie's here?"

"Yeah, in the garage I guess. He came back about ten minutes ago. "

Don frowned and looked at his father. "How is he?"

Alan made a face. "I don't know what's harder for him: loosing his clearance, not being able to work with you or his wounded pride. A mix of all I guess. Of course, he's doing his best to pretend everything's alright… but he's not doing a great job at it."

Don frowned even more. "That bad, hmm? I thought we could have lunch together. That would take his mind off… you know."

Alan nodded. He was about to reply when the kitchen door burst open suddenly and the curly professor entered like a rocket. As soon as he saw Don, Charlie put on his best smile. "Hey Don, I didn't know you were here." He went to fridge and helped himself with a bottle of water. "Want a beer?"

"Uh, no thanks, I'm on duty. Listen, I was thinking that, maybe, we could…" He stopped as he felt his cell phone vibrating in his pocket. He flipped it open. "Eppes…" He glanced at his watch. "Okay, I'll be there in 20 minutes." He clipped his cell back at his hip and started to motion towards the door. "Sorry guys, I gotta go."

"That seems serious," noted Charlie.

"Yeah."

Alan looked at Charlie who looked at Don expectantly. Don looked down. "I've gotta go," he repeated, ill-at-ease.

Charlie winced. He knew he couldn't go with his brother and that Don wasn't allowed to talk about his cases with him anymore. It had been two months since he had lost his clearance and it was his entire fault, due to his own decision. It seemed right at the time. Still did in fact but God, how he missed working with his brother, being there for him, knowing that he was part of his life somehow. Now, they only saw each other when Don stopped by for dinner twice a week, sometimes less if he was too busy – which had been the case these last past three weeks.

He followed his brother to his car to say bye. Don rolled down the window of his SUV and said, "I call you tonight. If I don't finish too late, we could have dinner... outside."

"Dad has a date with Millie. It's her bir..."

Don nodded, remembering. "Birthday, right. Well just you and me then, if that's okay with you."

Don didn't wait for Charlie's reply. The smile on his little brother's face said it all.

David saw Don's car arriving and he walked up to him.

"What do we have?" asked the lead agent, as he got out of the SUV.

"Homicide. A couple shot in their car."

Don frowned, puzzled. "Why call the FBI?" He noticed Lt Walker amongst the LAPD gathered in front of a house with a car parked in the alleyway. The perimeters had been secured with a yellow tape, preventing the onlookers to enter the zone of the crime scene.

The two FBI agents crossed the road, lifted the tape to walk under it. "Hi, Walker. What's going on?"

"Hi Eppes, Couple shot between the eyes."

Don put his rubber gloves on and opened the door of the car carefully. He leant inside and looked at the windscreen: it was intact. The car was clean: no blood, no dirt or sand on the floor, nothing but the bodies.

"They were killed somewhere else then placed in the car?"

Walker nodded.

"You have an ID?"

Walker nodded again. "Mike and Mary Davenport, from LA, married for 2 years. The car has been cleaned and I mean thoroughly cleaned. Whoever did that was a pro."

"A hitman?" David enquired.

Walker made a face. "Maybe."

"Why did you call us? I mean, LAPD can handle this, right?" asked Don.

"Sure but I thought you might be interested to see that."

He gestured at one of the policemen. The man brought a plastic bag containing a piece of paper and gave it to Don who took it delicately and read. "AD Wright: 3".

He stared at Walker. "3? Does that mean there 's been two killings before?"

Walker nodded.

"How come we weren't told?"

"Because the LAPD teams thought that A.D. were initials and not a title. And to be honest, if I hadn't worked with you guys, I probably wouldn't have made the connection either."

Don passed the bag to David. "Okay. So who were the others victims?"

"First one, a young kid -17- coming back from baseball training. A bullet in the forehead. He was found in his back garden but was obviously killed somewhere else. That was 5 days ago. The second murder happened 3 days ago. An old couple, shot between the eyes. Found in their home, but again, no trace of blood. They weren't killed in their house."

"Could be a spree killer," suggested David.

Don shook his head, unconvinced. "Looks more like an execution than an improvised shooting to me. The MO is the same and the murders were obviously carefully planned. He probably stalked his victims to know their routines. Not to mention that a spree killer wouldn't bother to move the bodies and stage the deaths." The lead agent turned to Walker "Have you told Wright yet?"

"No," admitted Walker sheepishly. "I thought, you know... " He shook his head from side to side. "Coming from you it'd sound less..."

Don ran his hand in his hair. "Yeah well, thanks for the thought but frankly, I could've done without it."

"I bet. Sorry Eppes."

Don held his hand to sweep the excuse. He looked at David and took a deep breath. "Okay. Let's go give the good news to the boss, then."

"How did he take it?" Colby asked, raising his head from his computer at Don's approach.

"What do you think? Five people are dead apparently because of him and we don't even know why." Don took his jacket off and rolled his sleeves.

Colby bit his lower lip. Yeah, stupid question, Granger.

"So what does he want us to do now?" David inquired.

"We're on the case. We keep it low-key. No talking to the press, at least until we know who's behind it."

"LAPD's on it too?" Liz tilting her head towards the elevators as Walker walked out.

"Yeah they've got the reports on the first two murders. Well three actually, " replied Don.

Walker reached their cubicle and placed a folder on Don's desk. "Everything's in there, Eppes."

Don took the folder and thumbed towards the briefing room. His team and Walker followed him and he closed the door carefully behind them. He didn't want anyone to overhear their conversation - his job and his team's were on the line.

Don leant his back against a wall while Walker pinned the picture of a boy on a board before announcing, "Joshua Sully, 17, shot at close range, a bullet right between the eyes. He was found in the tools shelter in his parents' back garden but the evidences show that the boy wasn't killed there. Furthermore, it's a residential area and a gun shot wouldn't have gone unnoticed."

"The perp could've used a silencer?" offered Colby.

"True but the blood patterns on the floor weren't consistent with a shot in the head. We didn't find any gun powder, DNA or footprints either, nothing except this note." He handed a copy of the note to Don. "AD Wright: 1."

Don looked at it and passed it to David who gave it to Colby.

Walker carried on, "Second vics: John and Debra Manfield – 70 and 72. Again shot in the forehead. Found in their living room but not killed in their house. We found the second note: "AD Wright: 2". He handed a copy to Don who gave it to Liz.

Don screwed his eyes and absently scratched the back of his neck.

"Something on your mind, Eppes?" asked Walker.

"A lot's on my mind, Walker. Carry on."

The Lieutenant looked at Don for a second but said nothing and pinned the pictures of the young couple. "And today, Mike and Mary Davenport –27 years old. Found in their car, a bullet between the eyes. The vehicle was parked in their alleyway, engine on. That's what alerted the neighbours. The killing wasn't perpetrated at their house, not even in the car. The note "AD Wright: 3" was placed on the dashboard. The three murders happened in different areas of LA. So far, we haven't found anything that would link them together."

"And we're sure that the victims had no connection with AD Wright?" asked Liz.

"According to him, no," Don replied, sullenly.

Colby looked closely at his boss. "Come on, Don. What's bugging you?"

The lead agent shook his head, got up and stood in front of the board, staring at the pictures. "I don't know… Something's... not right. We're missing something... I... I don't know."

He stared at the pictures a few more seconds before turning his attention back to his team. "Okay, we need to dig deeper in the victims' past. If the killer's after Wright, why did he choose those people? The murders were very well planned. He took a lot of risks to stage them. Why? There must be a clue there. Gary, could you check if a similar MO was used in previous shootings? That guy's too good to be a beginner. We might have a record on him. In the meantime, I want a man with Wright all the time. And his phones surveillance under: landlines and mobiles, at work and home."

"You're gonna tap his phones?" David's eyebrows shot up.

"He already knows about it. He's not very happy but I didn't exactly give him the choice. If we don't respond the way the perp expects us to, he'll eventually call him."

"So what? We stay put until he calls?" Liz couldn't believe it.

"That's not what I said. But since we don't know yet what he or they have in mind, we must cover all eventualities."

Walker and Colby nodded their approval.

"And Wright really has no idea who it could be," Liz Insisted.

"He said he didn't. We need to check the cases he worked on before becoming AD."

"I take care of that," Liz replied quickly

"Okay. David, Colby, you check the victims. They might have something in common. Anything... I still think they weren't chosen randomly."

Walker nodded. "By the way, Eppes. I've emailed you the files on the 5 murders. Maybe your brother could find a pattern and cal..." Walker stopped dead and closed his eyes in embarrassment. Shit. "Listen I'm sorry Don... I forgot. I didn't mean to..."

Don raised his hand to stop Walker, his face showing no emotion. "It's okay... really. Sure he would've been helpful but we'll have to do without him. So let's go everybody."

The agents quickly glanced at each other. They knew their boss was upset but also angry at the whole situation. In a way, Don was sorry and sad, really sad for Charlie. He had the feeling that his little brother hadn't expected things to go that far... that he would lose his clearance and be forbidden to work with the FIB again. As it had happened before, he had dismissed his older brother's advice and it had backfired on him. At that thought, Don clenched his jaw. He couldn't count the number of times it had happened before: when Charlie carried on working on the Russian mafia case and some of their men turned up at CalSci. When he spoke to the media about a case and almost got killed in return, when he showed up at a scene without warning and got shot at by a sniper. Every time Don had told him to stay away and every time Charlie had ignored him. What was wrong with him? With them? Was their relationship still that fragile that Charlie felt the need to challenge Don's authority? Or was it a lack of trust? Surely Charlie knew by now that Don cared for him and felt responsible for his safety.

Anyway, Charlie now had to face the consequences of his actions and there was nothing Don could do to help him. And that was probably what bothered him most: not being able to help his brother. First, it was his duty as his elder brother but also he loved him -never mind how annoying the mathematician could be sometimes- he was his family.

Don suddenly realised he was sitting on the edge of his desk, holding his phone. Man, I don't remember walking back to my desk. He quickly glanced at his team a little worried that the others might have noticed it but they all seemed busy and minding their own business. He sighed .Yeah, that'd be nice to have you here Buddy... Especially since Megan's gone. He shook his head.

Right now if he could remember why he had picked up the phone in the first place, that'd be good. He put it back... to pick it up again. "Oh yeah, Wright's lines," he muttered to himself.

Liz glanced at Don sideways. He had been a bit off his game lately, quite understandingly but to see him so... unfocused made them all a bit nervous. It was so unlike him. She realised that David was also watching him and smiled, amused. The whole team had gone into a mother hen mode toward their boss; discreetly checking up on him, watching him, making sure he was eating and resting. It wasn't just because they had promised Alan to keep an eye on his son. Don, in addition to being their boss, was their friend and they genuinely cared about him.

Don opened the email sent by Walker and read through until he found what he was looking for. He followed the line on his PC screen with his index and wrote down: "ToD: 9pm". He opened the next file, wrote the time of death down and again with the 3rd murder. Then he took the piece of paper and handed it to David over the partition of the cubicle.

"David, Colby, go interrogate the neighbours. These are the ToDs. Somebody must've seen or heard something: a van, a car, something."

David took the paper and left with Colby.

He went through a newspaper, then another and another. Nothing, no mention of the murders. Not even in the small sections. Furious, he clenched his hands into fist, tearing the paper in the process. He got up and started to pace in the small room, knocking angrily a chair that was in his way. They wouldn't acknowledge his work... his work! He did everything he was told. He knew the bodies had been found. He had seen the FBI guys on the site of his last job... and he did a good, no a fantastic job!. How come it wasn't in the news?

Couldn't stand it anymore, he took his jacket and left his apartment to walk to the nearest phone box. He knew he wasn't supposed to call but he had to be reassured. It wasn't the end, was it? Someone picked up at the other end but said nothing, so he started, "There's nothing in the newspapers. They're not taking us seriously."

"I know. It was expected," a voice finally replied.

"What do you intend to do? You're not giving up, are you?" he asked anxiously.

"Oh no! I don't. The Feds probably kept the news from the press."

"How to be sure? I mean, maybe he still doesn't know."

"Oh Wright knows alright. But you're right, the Feds need a little incentive here. Stay put. You'll hear from me soon. In the meantime stay low... and don't call me ever again. Got it?"

The line went dead before he could reply. He hung up, unable to suppress a shudder. He knew the other man could kill him anytime but he also needed him. He started to smile as he walked back to his place. Yeah, he needs me! Because I'm the best. He told me so. Taking a deep breath, he looked at the passers-by. If those people knew who I am, they'd be scared. His smile broadened. Yeah, they'd be scared... And they will... soon!

Tbc...