Disclaimer: Nevyn's mine, nothing else is.

A/N: I've only seen season one and halfway through season two, but I love the idea of Edgerton and Charlie together. Hence, I'm writing it.

The cast of CSI: Miami will make brief appearances, as Nevyn, my OC from those fics, decided that she was friends with Edgerton and wanted to be in this as well. But they'll only be around the peripherals. If you want to know more about Nevyn and her approach to problem solving, go read Double Trouble and Exchange Program.

-SE-

"Hey Edgerton," Agent Reissler called out. "You got a minute?"

"Sure," Ian Edgerton came to a halt. He waited for Geoff to catch up and tell him what he wanted.

"You remember Don Eppes at all?"

"Eppes… FBI Eppes? Albequerque?

"That's the one. He's in L.A. now, and his team's up against a serial sniper. He called, wanted to get a sniper's perspective of the killings. You up for a road trip?"

"Sure," Edgerton shrugged. He was between assignments at the moment, and secretly eager to have a target again.

"Great, because I told him you'd be there tomorrow."

Son of a… Ian growled softly. Geoff really had no concept of the time it took to get between places. He'd have to leave right now, and push the speed limit as well, in order to get to Los Angeles at a respectable hour.

Good thing he kept his life in his truck then.

-SE-

The first time Ian Edgerton saw Charlie Eppes, he was talking to his brother. Ian had met Don a few times before and got along fairly well with him. He knew, of course, that Don had a genius mathematician for a younger brother, and that the professor helped the FBI sometimes with number-related cases.

He hadn't expected him to be this cute, though.

Ian bit back a laugh at the first words out of Charlie's mouth. A challenge to his sniping abilities. He decided to indulge the young man and explained his reasoning for placing the sniper's location. He couldn't keep the smile away as he was challenged again, and knew that he was probably unnerving Don a little.

It seemed okay though, as Charlie backed off a little. It seemed he wasn't about to admit that he'd been wrong, but he'd acknowledge that the sniper-trainer was probably right. Ian slipped his sunglasses back on as he surveyed the crime scene, reflexively calculating the best weapon and angle to eliminate each of the exposed officers on the street below.

-SE-

Charlie leaned against the wall and looked out of the window, scribbling notes while barely looking at the paper.

"Hello there, Professor. Still figuring the angles?" Edgerton. Something about the man set Charlie's teeth on edge. Maybe it was something to do with being proven wrong earlier.

"What I'm figuring," Charlie started in as even a voice as he could muster, "is the reason why he missed. This shot is way closer than any of the others."

"Well, closer doesn't mean easier," Ian sighed, and Charlie looked up at him. He knew that the agent was also a sniper trainer, and figured that he was about to receive a lesson that many men had heard over the years. "He ran a higher risk of being seen here."

"Well that wouldn't affect the shot itself, would it?" Charlie honestly couldn't get his head around all of the variables involved in firing a gun at someone, but surely visibility wasn't one of them?

"Edgerton gave him a look then, one that Charlie couldn't decipher, though he thought that there was a hint of a smile.

"Forget about the math for a second," he beckoned Charlie closer with one hand. "Just look." He opened the window, and Charlie decided to humour the man.

He stepped up to the open window and felt Edgerton standing just outside of his peripheral vision. It was more than a little uncomfortable, until the older man held up a laser-pointer level with Charlie's head, and clearly visible.

"Try to think like he does. Invisibility is a sniper's greatest strength." He was playing the laser over the crowd below as he talked. "If he starts to worry about losing it, his heart rate increases." He replaced the pointer in his jacket, but continued to stand close. "He doesn't know how to handle it, his breathing gets thrown off."

It must have been the fact that he was standing next to an open window, with a man he didn't know right behind him, Charlie reasoned. But as Edgerton spoke, in that low, calm voice, Charlie could feel his own heart rate speed up, and his breathing became unsteady. He mentally shook himself and tried to remember that this was a conversation. He was meant to have some input as well.

"Breathing rhythm," he managed to get out, and turned to face the other man. Edgerton was looking at him with a mixture of tolerance and amusement. He'd seen that look on Don's face often enough, but seeing it on someone else felt odd. For he could almost swear that there was affection in there as well.

"You've really never fired a gun before." It was halfway between a question and a statement.

"I don't really believe in them," Charlie threw Edgerton a smug smile. As the window closed, he felt much more in control of himself.

"Believe in them? It's not like they're ghosts." Edgerton's gaze told him to continue, that he was interested, and Charlie paused for a second. Not many people actually tried to understand how his mind worked, and it was just as unsettling as his continued close presence.

"Obviously that's not what I meant," he muttered, and Edgerton pushed forward.

"So you don't take into account sweat getting into his eyes, or his hands cramping up, or adrenaline twitching the barrel." Charlie looked away for a moment, thinking. "That's the difference between an expert marksman, and a man who aims at white meat but goes home with a wing."

"A woman got shot today," Charlie pointed out. He wasn't entirely comfortable with the older man's terminology. "Not some… animal."

Edgerton smiled and ducked his head, clearly holding back a laugh.

"I see. So when I regard her as a technical problem I'm a sick bastard, but when you plug her into an equation, you're a scientist." Charlie could hear the edge of annoyance in Edgerton's voice, but chose to ignore it.

"It just seems like it's all some kind of sport to you."

The two men stood looking at each other for a moment, and when the older man spoke again, his voice was as cold and calm as Charlie had ever heard it.

"It's my job to put my head inside the mind of a killer." Charlie's eyes flicked down as he processed the new information. "Your brother's, too," and he looked a little sad as he turned to walk away. Charlie assumed that he was being left to think about his position.

"You coming?" Edgerton called out without slowing or turning. Okay, apparently not. Charlie rubbed his head and followed the older agent back to the crime scene, where Don would be waiting.

The two men continued talking on the way down, and Charlie discovered that he was enjoying himself. Edgerton continually pushed at his views of the world, causing him to rethink several of them, before talk returned to the case. Terry showed up just as they were leaving the building and broke the news about Osborn.

Ian and Charlie shared a look, and it clicked with both at the same time. There were two snipers.

-SE-

Charlie was talking about math again.

Edgerton was leaning back in his chair, hands clasped behind his head. The sniper was only paying attention to the words with part of his brain. The rest was watching the way Professor Eppes moved. The way he used his hands to talk. The way he couldn't stay still. The way his eyes darted all around the room, but always returned to his brother, as if needing his approval to show that he was on the right track.

The entire team was now weighing in, and Edgerton figured he'd best pretend that he was paying attention, when all he really wanted to do was go out, find the sniper and put a round or two into him.

"Are you seriously comparing these shootings to, what, some kind of fad?"

"One that's growing," Charlie confirmed ominously before going to the notebook and adjusting the graph. Ian hid a smirk. The professor had a definite sense of the dramatic.

-SE-

"I need to learn how to shoot a rifle."

Ian paused outside the door as he heard Charlie say the magic sentence. He was about to enter and offer his services, when he saw the look of pure horror flash across Don's face, before it was quickly smothered. Don sent David out of the room before turning back to his brother, but Ian decided to stick around and eavesdrop.

"You gotta teach me," Charlie started again.

"Why? Because of what Edgerton said?" Ian blinked. He'd never heard someone spit out his name with such venom before. "No, you don't. You don't have to prove yourself to anyone. Please, just do what you do." This was a side of Don that he hadn't seen before – apparently there were some issues between the two brothers.

"It has nothing to do with that," Charlie was trying to convince his big brother. "I'm telling you, Edgerton was right." Wow, he'd never expected to hear those words from the young professor. "Well, he was a little right." Ian smirked. That was more like it. "Okay, the weight of the gun, the noise of the shot, the effects of the recoil, there's no way I have of understanding that because I don't know what it is to shoot a gun."

"Exactly, which is why I brought him in to begin with."

Ian listened as the brothers continued to argue. He could understand Don wanting to protect Charlie, understood all of his reasoning. But Charlie, it seemed, was nothing if not determined. He smiled as the young man brought up something he himself had said earlier.

"Edgerton said it was your job to get into the mind of a shooter? Well maybe it's my job to understand his mechanics."

Ian nodded. There was no arguing with that, really. And Don seemed to agree, if the resigned sigh from inside the room was any indication.

-SE-

"You're flinching. You're closing your eyes, anticipating a loud noise."

"It's a loud noise. It's a perfectly natural physiological response to what I'm doing."

"Charlie, that's not gonna help you hit the target!"

Ian couldn't help but smile. He hadn't been able to resist following the Eppes brothers to the gun range. He knew that Don was a fair shot, and wanted to see what he was like as a teacher.

So far, he really couldn't recommend the guy's method.

"Look…"

"What?"

"You fired the rifle, how about we get out of here. Come on."

"No! I need to learn this. All right? Come on."

"All right. We'll try what's called an empty lung technique." Ian kept his eyes on Charlie as Don explained, and tried to think about how he'd help the mathematician improve his shots.

He hung back as the brothers finished up, deciding to stick around a while. The last thing he heard from Charlie was something about 'regression to the mean', whatever the hell that meant.

-SE-

The team, plus Charlie and Ian, strode into the conference room. Everyone was sipping from coffee mugs, except for Charlie. Ian figured that the equations the young professor had been running were enough to energise him.

"According to you," Charlie spoke to Ian as he walked sideways through the door, "our sniper or snipers have shown no exceptional amount of skill."

"There was one shooting that showed proficiency."

"The homeless guy," David pointed at the man's photograph.

"Yeah, but he was killed by the two frat boys," Terry pointed out. "Working together gave them a clear advantage."

"Yeah, so that explains the increased skill level in that one case," Don stood at the front of the room as his agents sat down. Charlie remained standing at the whiteboard. "But yet…" Don prompted his brother to continue.

"Yet five of the shootings have resulted in a fatal wound from one single shot. How do you explain that?" He sounded questioning, not accusatory, and Ian shrugged.

"A little ability, a lotta luck."

"You know what?" Charlie asked. "You're actually exactly right."

Ian raised his eyebrows, but nodded and smiled in appreciation of the acknowledgement.

"I told Don, it's called 'regression to the mean'." Charlie screwed up a sheet of paper into a ball. "I am an exceptional basketball player." He tossed the ball at the bin and it bounced out. "But let's say for the sake of this argument, that I'm… that I'm not."

"Yeah," Don was smiling fondly at his little brother as he missed another shot. "I think you could argue that side a little better, Charlie." Charlie smiled back sarcastically.

"Let's say I could only hit half of me shots." He aimed again as Ian smirked and David stifled a laugh. "I am…" the shot went in. "One for three." Another three shots went in, in rapid succession.

"Woah," David grinned appreciatively. Apparently, Charlie hadn't just been bragging before.

"Okay," he started again. "I'm four for six. Right? I went from a three-thirty-three average to a six-sixty-six average in three shots. Now, if I just kept shooting baskets all day long, eventually my hits and misses will even out to about five hundred."

"Right," David seemed to be catching on. "We have hot and cold streaks, but over time you're gonna find your level."

Charlie went back to talking about numbers and graphs, but this time Edgerton was focussed entirely on what he said.

-SE-

Ian watched as Don gave out the orders, and silently slipped away. He knew what his job was, and didn't need anyone to tell him to do it.

He took up position, knowing instinctively where the sniper was likely to shoot from. A few minutes later, he watched from the corner of his eye as a car pulled up – then swallowed hard as Charlie got out and started wandering around without cover.

He heard Don's shout come a mere second before the shot, and quickly turned back to the building. He could see where there was an open window, and a rifle sticking out of it, aimed this time at David who was protecting Charlie. Ian calmly adjusted the rifle a little and squeezed the trigger. He nodded in satisfaction before making his way over to where Don was likely tearing his brother a new one.

"Shooter's down," Ian told them. "Is he okay?" He couldn't keep the hint of concern from his voice.

"Are you crazy?!" Don was yelling. "You could have got yourself killed!"

"I was just, ah…" Charlie gulped for breath. "I was just working on some probabilities as to where Cramer might position himself." Don hung his head in frustration as Charlie passed his notes to Ian. The sniper looked over them, then looked to Don with a slight smile.

"Actually, he was pretty close."

"Don glared at Edgerton. That was all Charlie needed – encouragement.

"C'mon, I'll get you out of here," Don pulled his little brother up and started leading him back to the car. "You all right?"

"I'm sorry."

"It's all right. Just… next time, use a phone, okay?"

Ian smiled as he caressed his beloved rifle. There were definitely some unresolved issues between the brothers, but it was a lot of fun watching them interact.

-SE-

Ian sighed as he sat in his truck. It was time for him to move on, but he didn't want to. He wanted to stay and get to know Charlie better… a lot better. He was intrigued by how the young man's mind worked, and found it refreshing that Charlie was willing to challenge him and have verbal sparring matches. Most men were too afraid of or intimidated by him to do so.

He pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. Normally if he wanted something, he went after it and didn't stop until either it was his, or he no longer wanted it. The same held true for the people in his life.

Something held him back this time though. Perhaps it was his working relationship with Don. Maybe it was the naivete which the professor displayed. Either way, he knew that he wanted Charlie, but also knew that he'd have to change his tactics this time.

Suddenly his phone rang, startling Ian out of his reverie. He glanced at the caller ID and smiled, then answered it.

"Hi, Nevyn."

"Howdy, Charmer," the girl's thick Scottish accent was a welcome change. "So, I have something that I need your help with," she said without preamble.

"Oh?" Ian glanced at the rifle case on the seat next to him. There were very few problems that Nevyn would call him about, and all would end up resolved using his best friend. He liked it when she called with a problem.

"Yeah. There's this judge causing problems for Lupus' boss. Wanna come help me… remove the problems?"

"Absolutely," Ian smiled his predatory smile. "I'll be there in a couple of days."

"No rush," Nevyn assured him before hanging up. Ian tossed the phone onto the seat and reached for his keys. Looked like he was headed to Miami. And maybe Nevyn could give him some ideas about what to do with Charlie.