IM BACK.
if you cant tell the filler chapters are currently substituting for the episodes that i did not enjoy that much (like 4 and 11). but its okay. also, we're almost done with season 1!! i started watching season two on sunday, so the chapters should be flowing more regularly now.
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''how long it take to pass by?'' don asked the man standing in front of him. the fbi were currently investigating a case of... something flying in the air. no one was quite sure what it was, yet. ''uhh, five, ten seconds, maybe? not very fast...'' he explained. ''how high you think it was?'' ciara questioned.
''few hundred feet.'' he said simply. ''yeah? what did it look like?'' don asked, trying to get more answers out of this guy. ''dark, lights all around. I have a video. my wife shot it.'' he said blankly ''you have a video?'' don asked, holding back a scoff due to how long it took to get to this point. ''it's not great.''
''we still need to see it.'' ciara said, folding her arms across her chest. ''sure. we'll get it back to you.'' after leaving the witness's house, don and ciara made their way back to the agency, talking along the way.
''man, I was hoping it was some idiot in a cessna getting his pilot's license, you know?'' don asked, throwing his arms up.
''altitude, speed, path toward downtown. could have been the practice run for a terror strike. test your responses?'' charlie said, looking up at the video that the witness provided. ''all right, wait... just freeze it. yeah, he was right. it's not great.'' don said, leaning back into his chair. ''uh-uh. i don't know...''
''agent eppes?'' a new voice rung out through the office. ''hi. erica weston. national transportation safety board.'' the woman introduced herself. ''oh, hey erica. don.'' erica and don shook hands as they greeted each other. ''david sinclair.'' david said, standing up to greet her himself. ''david.'' she smiled. ''thanks for coming.'' don said, leading her into the office and offering her a chair to sit down on. ''not a problem.''
erica looked over at ciara, who was talking to charlie about the video. ''are they also in the fbi?'' she asked, pointing to them. ''ciara is, but charlie, my brother, he's a consultant.'' don explained. ''matthews!'' he called out to her. ciara quickly turned around, seeing don and erica. her eyes widened as she walked over to them. ''hi! sorry, i- i didn't hear anyone else come in.. i'm ciara matthews.'' she said, shaking erica's hand. ''erica weston.'' she smiled.
~''~~''~
for some reason, since she had nothing better to do, ciara found herself being dragged along to golf with alan and charlie. ''c'mon, ciara! you're-- i, i see you as a part of the family by now, i mean, you're always hanging around the house and everything! you're best friends with don and charlie, we need to have some bonding time or somethin'.'' alan said, convincing ciara to go with them.
''you know, my dad was always out golfing, too. when he wasn't working a case, he'd be out in out backyard with his own little golf course he made.'' ciara said, reminiscing her father. ''what happened to your dad? if-- if it isn't too personal, of course.'' alan asked, looking at the girl.
''well, you know.. he was a police officer. they were working a case one day of a... bank robbery or something along those lines and my dad.. did not come back from the case. we went three days without knowing where he was until the nypd made their 'official' memorial post that said my father had died.'' ciara explained, hitting the ground with her golf club.
after a few more moments of conversation and a hug from alan, they all got started on their golf. ''now all you have to do is just trust your instincts and let me watch for the ball.'' alan explained to his son. ''go ahead.... all right, that was... better.'' alan said hesitantly. charlie's face dropped into one of annoyment ''i stink.'' he said, blankly.
''charlie, do you always have to excel at what you do?'' alan asked half-sarcastically, picking up his own golf club. ''this shouldn't be happening. i've worked these numbers.'' charlie said, rubbing his eyes. ''hey, come on, this is what is known as fun. out here together in the... in the fresh air. isn't that enough?'' alan asked, putting a hand on his sons shoulder.
''yeah i mean, c'mon, charlie. it's just... where did you learn to hit the ball like that, man? your poor posture with that hit.'' she laughed. charlie sighed. ''don't get me wrong. it's not like I'm not enjoying myself, it's just, I'm just surprised the math isn't giving me an edge.'' he said, emphasizing the word edge.
''yeah. all right, now you just... watch and learn. now you sit down like you're on a stick, hmm? and let your hands work together. draw the club back slowly...'' and with that, alan smacked the ball out. shortly after, ciara excused herself to get back to work, telling charlie he may be needed shortly.
~~~'~~~'~~~
''hey, sorry I'm late. dad wanted to walk. took us a little longer to get back to the clubhouse than I'd estimated.'' charlie said, walking into the office. ''it's okay. charlie, this is erica weston from the ntsb. she specializes in what they call unidentified aerial events.'' don introduced the woman.
''hi.'' she said, shaking his hand. ''pleasure. nice meeting you.'' charlie said politely, taking her hand and shaking it. ''likewise. you're right on time. your friend just finished loading our radar images.'' erica said, pointing to ciara on the computer. charlie came down, his chin hovering over ciara's shoulder. ''this is civilian air traffic control?'' he asked, glancing over at erica.
''right. these blips are commercial airliners. the others are small planes, but over here, where our bogey was, there's nothing.'' erica explained, pointing to the areas on the computer as she spoke. ''hmm. what do you think?'' charlie asked, turning to look at ciara.
''well,'' she started slowly, ''there's a lot of noise in the system.'' she said, looking up at charlie, who was still hovering over her shoulder. ''hmm. what about trying the noisy edge?'' charlie suggested. ''what's that?'' don asked, coming over to the two of them.
''well, there's random noise in every radar system. and sometimes the signals the radar's designed to pick up are so weak, they're obscured by the noise. here. listen.'' ciara turned up the radio, and all that came through was hissing. ''that noise you're hearing is really the noise of the system. without a signal, all we're hearing is random energy.'' charlie explained, looking at don.
''how do you find signals that faint?''erica asked, looking at ciara. ciara hesitated, looking up at charlie for the answer. ''it's called squish/squash. it's a technique that was developed by a mathematician from the university of alberta in canada. looks for anything that looks like a- a weak signal, and then mathematically squishes and squashes that data to guess at its speed and at its direction.'' charlie explained. ''how is that possible?''
''okay, imagine a... imagine a room full of- of 20 or, um, or 30 people clapping. now some people clap loud, some soft. most generally at the same pace. now imagine a woman in that audience clapping much, much slower, clapping at a very specific rhythm. her rhythmic clap is the signal we want to track. but we can't. we can't hear it amongst the random clapping. the signal's lost in the noise.'' charlie explained, looking around at the people near him.
''however, squish/squash allows us to isolate the rhythmic clap and track it.'' he finished. ''so with that, you can pinpoint the flight path? where it started and where it ended?'' don asked, raising an eyebrow. ''probably, yes. how long it will take, though, it's hard to say right now.'' charlie said, looking down at his hands. ''well, I mean, if we're dealing with terrorists, and they make another run, charlie...''
''right. well, larry has time booked in the computer lab. I mean, that could help us run this program much faster.'' charlie remembered, looking at his brother. ''call larry.'' ciara said, tapping charlie's arm.
~~~'''~~~'''~~~
''lane gosnell. two years ago, at a conference on air traffic safety in seattle, he gives a presentation in which he claims the 9/11 hijackers would someday be viewed as pioneers in aviation.'' don said, walking into the office.
''he what?'' david asked, walking over. ''he said the flights into the towers proved that the average person was capable of piloting an aircraft with a minimal amount of training.'' don elaborated. ''that's twisted.''
''twice he flew a cessna into restricted military airspace. twice he had to be escorted out by u.s. warplanes. claimed he did this in protest of news blackouts of returning casualties from iraq.'' don said, sighing and sitting down at his desk. ''don, why haven't we locked this guy up?'' ciara asked, looking over at the older man. ''oh, we did. he was held for observation for three weeks, and he was supposed to undergo psychiatric counseling.'' don nodded, rubbing his face.
''what happened?'' david asked, leaning on ciara's desk, facing don. '''he didn't show. we got us an emotionally disturbed man trying to make aviation history.''
~~~~~~~~''~~~~~
''still can't find it?'' ciara called out to charlie, walking slightly behind him. ''no.'' he said, looking at the ground and walking further ahead. ciara rolled her eyes, running slightly to keep up with his pace.
''why don't we just drop another ball?'' she asked, grabbing his arm and turning his around. ''cause it has to be here.'' charlie said, shaking his head. ''the ball was traveling on a trajectory whose endpoint would put it in this immediate area.'' he said looking at the girl, pointing around them. ''char, there's one thing you got to learn about this game. golf balls don't always do what you expect them to.'' ciara reasoned, laughing slightly.
''y-- yeah, well, golf balls have to follow the rules of physics! just like any other object.'' (i found that scene so funny. ''bc they have to follow the rules of PHYSICS ):<<<'' it was so uncalled for) ''then why do people keep losing so many of them?'' ciara asked, slightly smiling at charlie's behavior. ''chaos.'' suddenly, one of the other golfer's yelled out to them.
''we don't have all day!'' he said, annoyed. charlie quickly slipped away, walking further into the field. ''charlie! now where you going?'' ciara groaned, chasing after him. ''well, there's no reason to think the ball landed here. so it's where I'm looking, because it doesn't make sense. it's where I don't expect it. aha!... here it is.'' charlie picked up a ball, smiling at ciara, proud. ciara took the ball out of charlie's fingers, dropping it back onto the ground and grabbing charlie's arm, leading him away from it.
''ciara, what are you--'' she shook her head. ''that's not your ball. come on, before they noticed you touched it and you get your ass beat.'' ciara exaggerated. then again, with how annoyed the other golfers are with charlie, it wouldn't surprise her if he did get beat up.
~~~~''~~~~
''hey. what's up?'' don walked into charlie's office in calsci, sitting down at the chair across from his desk. ''just grading tests for my nonlinear dynamics class.'' he explained, not looking up. don nodded, ''glad to see you're taking my advice and having some fun.'' he said sarcastically. ''well... you don't look like you've been having too much fun.'' charlie teased lightly, looking up to his brother.
''oh, man... this gosnell case... i spent all that time trying to figure out where the plane went. turns out the pilot didn't even know, because the rudder was busted. see, that's the thing -- I got to find out where he was headed, 'cause I think that's why he was killed. you got any ideas? anything at all?'' don asked his brother, desperation prominent in his voice.
it was no surprise that don, and all the other fbi agents, just wanted to give up this case. it had been dragging for some time now, and they weren't any closer than when they started. the only thing they got out of gosnell's son was finding out that the man and his aircraft was gone.
''could I, uh... could I get some data off the flight recorder?'' charlie asked, moving onto grading the next test. ''yeah, I mean, I can see if, uh, erica can drop some by. maybe ciara can help you out. dad said she's sticking around.'' don said. ciara had gotten an offer to another agency, and, after a week of procrastination, she finally wrote back to them, thanking them for the offer, but deciding to stay at her current location.
''did he?'' charlie said, looking up. ''well, you happy about that?'' don asked, leaning forwards a bit. ''um... are you asking me as her work partner or...?'' charlie asked don. don chuckled a bit. ''you tell me.'' he teased. charlie laughed a bit, then smiled. ''yeah, I'm happy.'' charlie said, sighing.
''hey, what's the deal? i thought you were playing golf today.'' don furrowed his eyebrows at his younger brother. ''oh, no. you know, I'm really no use on the golf course.'' charlie laughed slightly. ''charlie... you know why he likes playing with you, don't you?'' don asked, as if the answer was obvious.
''you know, no i dont. i have no idea, because I- I've got to be the worst golfer in the history of the game.'' charlie said, frustrated with himself. ''no. it's the one time he gets to teach you something. you understand? that's the one time.'' with that, don got a call on his phone, walking out of the room.
~~~''~~~
''and you wanted to show him that you were good enough to carry on his work, carry on his legacy?'' don asked, looking down at the dead man's son. ''he wanted to be the first. he wanted to be the next henry ford. you know what I mean?'' he looked at don. ''yeah, I think I follow you.''
''do you have any idea what it's like to live like that? to know that your father cares more for his accomplishments than he does for his own son? I mean, I wonder if for one second, I entered his mind that night. I wonder if he thought that... that I might want to be there... to share that moment with him. guess I'll never know.'' the son said, half sadly.
after they left the case, and arrested the son, don, charlie, alan, and ciara were back on the golfing course.
''where's chuck and his girl?'' don asked, looking around for his little brother. ''i don't know. last I looked, they were right behind us.'' alan said. ''ah! there they are.'' looking over, seeing it taking both ciara and charlie to successfully carry the bag of clubs, don couldn't help but laugh.
''hey, dad. your clubs weigh a ton.'' charlie complained as he let go of them, not realizing ciara was still holding them. ''owhp--'' ciara quickly went forward, not letting go of the clubs. ''oh!'' charlie quickly wrapped his arm around the bag again, trapping ciara's arms under his own. ''are you kidding? I've used those clubs for ten years. there's nothing wrong with them.'' alan said, patting the bag.
''dad, they're older than the both of them, probably combined. i don't even think they make wood clubs anymore.'' don joked. ''yeah, I know, but each one of 'em's got a great sweet spot.'' alan said, smiling. ''we'll put 'em in a museum.'' don joked.
''okay, uh, let go of the bag, cia.'' charlie directed. ''kinda can't, my arms are stuck under yours..'' she reminded him. ''okay uh... here,'' charlie quickly removed his arms, and placed them lower onto the bag.after ciara and charlie finally got the bag put down, they walked back over to don and alan.
''eh, when charlie gets better, I'll buy him a set of his own. come on, charlie, maybe this is the day you'll par a hole.'' alan said, confident in his son. ''i'd just like to get the ball in the hole. that's all.'' charlie said sarcastically. alan walked closer to his son. ''hey, charlie. charlie, maybe, uh, if you're getting that frustrated, there's always something else we could do together, you know.'' alan offered, placing a hand on the shoulder of his youngest.
''actually, you know what? I love golf. you see, huh?'' charlie said, getting up and grabbing a club. ''knew it would grow on you once you gave it a chance.'' alan smiled. ''well, what can I say? you're a great teacher.'' charlie complimented, sitting next to ciara.
''all right, alan. show us how it's done.'' ciara called out, laughing. after alan smacked at the ball, the three on the bench cheered. ''oh yeah!'' alan shouted, walking back over to the trio. don and alan decided to have a match together, leaving ciara and charlie on the bench.
''you know,'' charlie started, ''i'm really glad you're staying, ciara.'' he said honestly, turning his body to look at her. ciara smiled, nodding. ''i'm glad i am, too. it would be nice to be able to see my biological family more, but, you know, as long as i'm here in the agency with all of you, i know i have my found family to always see.''