love equations -- charlie eppes x reader - numb3rs

ch ;; seventeen

''gabriel, is it possible that, uh, whoever killed them, would think that you are a threat now?'' charlie asked gently. ''how? i'm a third-year film student. i own a small cafe.. and besides.. their country is not mine anymore.

''i told my father about schooling in america, and my dreams of doing it.. he did tell me that.. america could make you lose memories of your home town, home country. that night i landed in los angeles, i prayed. i prayed that he would be right.''

~''~~''~

''charlie, hey! you still up for lunch?'' i asked, running into charlie's office at calsci, nearly taking out a student in the process. ''hey, yeah. let me just put this all away..'' he said, rolling his chair over to his desk and placing things back into the proper drawers. 

''charlie, you've been a really big help with all of these cases. like, how you managed the notes and their abbreviations and things?'' i complimented, looking at charlie. ''well, if he wanted to do an open murder, he'd have to take all that into consideration, and if he needed to make it look like an accidental death, that rules out a lot of weapons and methods he could use.'' charlie explained.

i looked at him, eyes slightly widened. ''where did you learn all this stuff about assassination, charlie?'' i asked, picking up henry's notebook. charlie reached out his hand, gesturing to the book. i handed it to him, and he slipped it into the inside of his coat.

''if i told you that, i'd have to kill you.'' he said, his face blank. i slightly laughed a little bit. ''okay, but seriously..'' i pushed a bit further, my smile dropping as charlie's face remained serious. ''seriously.''

~~'''~~'''~~

''charlie! we do strongly believe that gabriel's death is going to be made look like an accident.'' don confirmed, walking up to his brother. david and i trailed behind don. ''good, that gives us a better chance of winning this game.'' charlie said thoughtfully, nodding his head.

''what game?'' david asked, confused. ''hide and seek.'' charlie said shortly. ''like- the kids game?'' don asked, tilting his head slightly. ''a mathematical approach to it, yes. see, the assassin must hide in order to accomplish his goal. we must seek and find the assassin before he achieves that goal. the goal, of course, killing our lovely gabriel.'' charlie explained.

colby had joined into the conversation, entering the room maybe 15 seconds ago. ''ah, yeah. we studied that at quantico.'' colby said, sitting down next to me. ''yeah, well, i doubt you studied it the way that rubinstein, tversky and heller studied the two-person, constant sum, hide and seek.'' charlie said, looking at colby.

colby awkwardly laughed. ''yeah, uh, can't -- can't say we did.'' he stood up to leave and i rolled my eyes, grabbing his wrist and hauling him back down. ''just, stay with him for a second.'' i said, looking back to charlie. charlie softly smiled at me, before getting up and grabbing a piece of paper and a pen.

''imagine the game battleship. okay, it's essentially a hide-and-seek game. except, uh, let's say the ships can be moved. ciara, can you, uh, come here for a second.'' he requested. i jumped up, walking towards him. charlie quickly moved me to where he wanted me to stand, quickly grabbing don as well, positioning him.