Simulacrum

by Valerie Vancollie

valeriev84 at hotmail dot com

Note: Well, here's the last part. I hope you all enjoyed the fic and sorry it couldn't be longer, but I had the Write-Off deadline to meet!

Don and Megan hadn't gotten more than a few steps away from the elevator when Charlie spotted them. Or he spotted her, because when he got close, he froze in his tracks with a shocked expression on his face. With the ambush and everything else that had happened at the house, Don had completely forgotten about his appearance and neither she nor the others had thought it necessary to remind him of it. Something they'd be paying for later if the scowl he threw at her was anything to go by. The expressions on the faces around them, however, more than made up for whatever Don would do. Not only had Alan and Amita joined Charlie in stunned shock, but agents all along the office were peering curiously in their direction.

Not to mention that this gave her the opportunity to bribe a member of the security staff for a printout. You never knew when something like that could come in handy.

"Donny!" Alan cried, recovering before the others and moving to hug his son. "You're all right? We were so worried!"

"Dad, I'm fine, we're both fine," Don replied, quickly pulling back. "You might want to close your mouth Chuck before you start collecting flies."

"Don't call me that!" Charlie replied automatically and Megan smiled at how well ingrained the response was. "What- what happened to you?"

"Huh?"

"I think he's talking about the chalk," Alan offered as he ran a hand over his eldest's forearm, coming away with a fine layer of white on his palm.

"Oh, that, I was using the blackboards."

"Blackboards?" Charlie questioned, lost.

"They wanted him to come up with an algorithm to crack a security system," Megan explained.

"You were writing math equations on a board?" Amita questioned, eyes widening even further.

"No, I was writing what looked like math equations on blackboards," Don corrected, a smile crossing his face as he looked sideways at his brother. "And generally trying to imitate Chuck's ability to get the dust everywhere."

"Hey!" Charlie protested as his father and girlfriend laughed. "I don't get it everywhere!"

"Well, that explains the chalk marks on your face," Alan said.

"Chalk marks on my face," Don repeated before rounding on Megan, eyes narrowing.

"Larry!" Megan called out, grateful for his miraculous timing.

"Megan," Larry replied, his face lighting up as he saw her and he pulled her close for a rare public hug. "Are you uninjured? David said no, but I admit that I can't quite believe it."

"I'm fine," Megan assured him, savoring the feel of finally having him with her again. "I've missed you."

"Me too. Oh my."

Megan pulled back enough to see that her boyfriend had caught sight of Don. "Amazing how similar they look right now, isn't it?"

"Indeed, I confess I had never noticed the resemblance was so striking. Did you know his hair was curly?"

"No and I think he's quite upset his secret's out," Megan laughed.

"Oh dear," Larry said, but Megan could hear the laughter in his voice as they rejoined the group as they moved towards the war room.

"Charlie, do you know an Elaine at CalSci?" Don asked.

"Elaine? Yes, of course, Dr. Elaine Caldicott, she's the newest professor of education. Why?"

"She may be involved. How new is she?"

"Uh, three, four months now, something like that," Charlie looked to Amita for verification and she nodded. "Do you really think she's involved?"

"Wesley, one of the men, mentioned an Elaine," Megan explained. "They also knew what you said to your students in class."

"Elaine sat in on one of Charlie's lectures at the beginning of the semester," Amita said, eyes widening.

"She did?" Charlie questioned.

"Yes, I remember thinking it was a little odd as I hadn't heard she was into advanced math, but I just assumed she was curious."

"You couldn't have known," Megan stated, seeing the guilt enter her eyes. "You can't question every action people take. But it's good to know as it gives us a starting point."

"Are those the men who took you?" Alan suddenly demanded, looking back towards the elevators.

Megan and Don turned to see Wesley and the others being escorted towards the interrogation rooms.

"Yes," Don confirmed just as Charlie took in a sharp breath, his eyes widening. "What?"

"The last man, I've seen him before, on campus."

"Me too," Amita said, swallowing. "Caldicott said he was her younger brother."

"And she came to California to be with her brother," Charlie added.

Since she was still watching them, Megan saw the moment Wesley looked in their direction and caught sight of them. The sudden sharp widening of his eyes marking the moment he got a good look at Charlie. Then the agent escorting him noticed where his charge's attention had drifted and stepped into his line of sight even as he escorted him into the nearest available interrogation room.

"Beer, David?" Alan asked from the kitchen as Don let him inside.

"Yes, please," David replied as he looked about. "I'm the last one?"

"Only just," Don informed him as they moved to the table where everyone else was sitting with a drink and nibbling on chips and an assortment of nuts.

"Don't eat too much of these," Alan warned as he came out of the kitchen with David's beer. "The lasagna is almost done."

"Thanks," David said as he took the bottle and looked at everyone else. "Did I miss anything?"

"Nah, not really," Colby stated before he looked sideways at Charlie and Amita. "Though those two have been looking at the photocopies you made them."

"Photocopies?" Megan asked, not really having paid them much attention now that she was finally able to relax with Larry.

"Yeah, he wanted to see what Don had written on the boards."

"What? Oh, no, Charlie," Don complained, leaning forwards and trying to grab the papers, but failing as the younger man pulled them away. "What do you want with those?"

"I just wanted to see what you thought a good expression consisted of," Charlie explained, a huge smile on his face. "These have been very enlightening."

"Let me see," Alan said, walking around behind his youngest to see. "Huh, that actually looks real."

The surprise in his tone caused the others to laugh even as Don dropped his into his hands and made an inarticulate noise at the back of his throat.

"He did a brilliant job," Megan stated, feeling she should help her partner out. "I was nearly convinced and Caldicott's men definitely thought it was the real deal."

"That's 'cause he created proper equations," Amita explained. "All of the symbols used are ones that can be used in math, they don't normally get used together like this, but they are used. He mixed algebra with calculus and game theory, but there is nothing in here that isn't used in some branch of the field."

"And not just that," Charlie added. "There's actually something interesting in here."

"Very funny," Don growled.

"No, Don, I'm serious. See, this part right here," Charlie insisted and Amita nodded her agreement.

"Wait, wait," Colby interrupted, incredulous. "Are you saying Don actually stumbled his way onto something real?"

"Well, it's not fully polished or workable as it is, but it definitely could become something."

Megan simply looked between Charlie's earnest face and Don's disbelieving one for a few seconds, thinking of Shakespeare and monkeys with typewriters, before she threw her head back and laughed.

The End. I hope everyone enjoyed it and thanks again to anyone who reviewed.
For those of you who are interested, the title is Latin for for likeness or similarity and was used to describe a representation of another thing. It also has a more recent additional meaning of being lessor than the original, as in not possessing all of the qualities or traits of the original. I thought it appropriate given how the bad guys think Don is Charlie and how Don imitates Charlie's math but without any of the substance thereof. Info comes from Wikipedia.