love equations -- charlie eppes x reader - numb3rs

ch ;; seven

''what was the kid doing there?'' don asked, walking up to the crime scene, ciara and terry following hot on his trail. ''homework assignment on dad's job.'' terry said. ciara scoffed a small laugh. ''the day you take your kid to work, you get in a wreck.'' she said in disbelief. after a while longer of looking around, they collected their data and headed back to the station. ciara and terry drove together while don took his own car.

''so, ciara. we don't get to talk to much. makes me sad, you and i would be great friends.'' terry said, starting her car. ''we can be! we are!'' ciara laughed. terry smiled, looking over at the young agent. ''i remember when i was first starting in this agency. these weirdos for work partners. it was nice. it is nice. i love working with everyone. don and i also really hit it off. the new girl and the eldest eppes' brother...'' she trailed off. ''sounds like it was nice.'' ciara said, smiling at her friend.

''i mean, you're going through something like that too, you know. you and charlie.'' she teased, elbowing ciara. ''wh- charlie? no, no he and i are, uh, we're just friends. that's all.'' ciara explained, looking down at her lap. ''if you say so..'' terry pushed. ''i do! we're just friends, co-workers, acquaintances.'' ciara listed. terry laughed, ''you're getting further and further with each explanation..''

~~''~~~''~~

''i want to speak to the agent in charge of the train accident. you got him. who's this?'' don asked, holding a phone to his ear.  ''do you have my note? save yourself time and effort. everything you need is in that note.'' don hauls the phone away from his ear. david looked over at him. ''hung up? male or female?''

''male.'' he said. ''what have you got from these?'' he walked over to david, who was sitting on ciara's desk, and passed him the note. ''well, our cryptographers have gone over it. if it is a code, it's unbreakable.'' he explained. ciara chuckled, ''wouldn't count on it. don, call charlie.''

don had called in charlie, going on alone to meet up with an investigator. ciara had located charlie and brought him up to where don was. knocking on the door, the pair stepped into the room. ''hey.'' charlie said softly, looking at his brother. ''oh, good. charlie, uh, this is my brother, he's, uh, a consultant with the bureau. this is Inspector sutter, with the national transportation safety board.'' don explained.

charlie nodded to sutter before gesturing to the woman standing besides him. ''this is, uh, agent matthews.'' he introduced. she smiled and waved slightly. ''you're a consultant as well?'' investigator sutter asked. ''oh! no, i'm actually in the fbi. charlie works a lot of cases with us, so sometimes I work with him on cases.'' she explained.

''hey, can I take a look at the code?'' charlie asked his brother, to which don nodded in agreement. charlie sat down in front of the desk, reading off the code. ''so, uh, how long have you studied cryptography?'' sutter asked. ''i haven't, really. i work in applied mathematics, professor at calsci.'' 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

''what we're dealing with here is a saboteur who staged a series of train wrecks that have two things in common. one: he leaves the same note at every scene. two: he's re-creating accidents that are supposedly based on railroad negligence.'' don explained to the group.  ''so you-- wait, you're saying that it's exactly the same note every time?'' david asked, don nodded. ''that's right. and he says everything that we need to know is in the notes.'' don said.