love equations -- charlie eppes x reader - numb3rs

ch ;; fifteen

ciara's pov// first person

'~~~~~~''

''hey, hey. don't get all fleinhardt on me. it's just the physics department paper airplane contest.'' charlie defends, larry throwing another airplane he made into the air, only for it to fall flat. ''flein... fleinhardt? since when did my last name become a predicate adjective?'' larry asked confused all over his face. i chuckled a bit at his expression. ''since your students started using it that way.'' charlie answered, causing larry to drop his jaw in shock.

''here's a different design.'' i said, quickly folding paper into a plane. ''uh-huh. and it's much more forgiving in the build phase.'' larry said sarcastically. ''try that. try that.'' charlie said excitedly, passing the airplane to larry for me, and then leaning onto the chair i was sat in. ''let me try this.'' as larry threw the plane, it went to the door as don walked in.

''hey, don!'' i called from my chair, slightly spinning in it from where charlie was leaning on it. ''what's going on?'' don asked as i stopped myself from spinning back onto him. ''just work..'' charlie lazily lied. ''who made this?'' don asked, examining my airplane. i raised my hand slightly. ''me, why?'' i asked, furrowing my eyebrows. don walked over, putting the plane in front of my face while talking. ''the wings are a little thin here, honey.'' he said, fixing them to be out more.

''hey, wait, wait. let me see this.'' i said, reaching for the plane that don held in his hands, away from my range of reach. i jokingly scoff, smacking don on his back. ''i'm sorry if my, obviously thorough planning of that plane wasn't up to your standards, donald.'' i joked. ''yeah, well, you'll forgive me if all my years of high school detention say i'm right.'' don smiled at me. ''you go ahead. you make those wings wider, it'll fly.'' don said, handing me back the airplane.

~~''~~

''what's going on?'' don asked, running onto the scene. ''some idiot tried to run over one of my agents this morning over what we thought were fake passports. he left this. so be careful. it's a transposition cipher.'' the man explained to don. don passed the cipher onto me. i quickly turned to look up to charlie, who was standing behind me.

''can you break it?'' i asked, passing the cipher up to him. ''yeah. I'll need some time,'' he answered, taking the slip out of my hands. ''well, how long? 'cause something's not sitting right about it to me.'' don asked, walking over to us, the man he was talking to was walking off the scene.

''well, I can already tell you the basic context of this and it's not about passports.'' charlie sighed, looking at his brother. ''what's it about?'' i asked, turning to be side by side with don, and that i could properly face charlie. ''there are letter groupings here that I've seen before when I consulted for the nsa.'' he answered. don's face screwed up into one of confusion. ''what?''

~~''~~

''standard code references for a very specific type of operation though, doesn't it?'' i asked, resulting in a nod from charlie. ''what kind of operation?'' don asked, looking between us. charlie's lips parted, something that is often charlie's body language of something is wrong here. looking at his brother, he sighed. ''don, it's a plan for an assassination.'' charlie said, shaking his head in disbelief. ''an assassination on u.s. soil?''

''yeah.'' charlie breathed. david, who showed up to the office not even 5 minutes ago, quickly hopped into the conversation, wrapping his arm around my shoulders, slightly dragging my face into his chest. ''david!'' i complained, smacking his shoulder. over the past year that david and i have been here, since we started on the same case, we quickly developed a sibling bond. i know that i can rely on, confide in, and trust david with pretty much anything, and he can do the same with me. ''charlie, how can you be sure if you haven't decoded the rest of korfelt's book yet?'' david asked, dragging his arm down on my shoulder, causing me to go forward slightly.