Define Consulting.

Author: Alicia

Genre: AU

Rating: Call it T for language

Summary: Charlie's out of town on a consulting job and Alan's about to find out just what that means.

A/N: A warning for those of you that think you know how this story will play out: I never go for the obvious.

Disclaimer: I don't own Numb3rs or any of its characters. I'm making no money. There's a brief mention of a character from another show and I don't own that one either. (Bonus points if you recognize the show.)

Ring

Don rolled over in bedand slapped at the phone.

"It's 3 in the morning. This had better be good!" He growled into the receiver.

"Unfortunately it's not but you still need to hear it."

Well, the sound of that voice did the trick. Don was wide-awake now. He sat up in bed and switched on the light.

"What's wrong Jessie?" Jessie was a friend of Charlie's and one of the few people, besides Don, who knew where Charlie was.

"The morning news is reporting there was a coup in the Maldives."

"Oh, crap. Did you try to call Charlie?"

Charlie had been traveling through the tsunami region for the past 3 weeks. He was working with a group of engineers and others researching the structural integrity of buildings left standing and how to reinforce them when needed. At least that's what Don thought Charlie was doing, based on Charlie's explanation.

"Yeah, no luck."

"Shit. Okay thanks for letting me know. I'll see what I can find out from here." Don got up and headed for the kitchen to make some coffee. He was going to need it.

Don ignored the looks he got on the way to his office. It was unusual for him to be in the office before 7, especially on a Wednesday, but with the time difference he couldn't afford to wait.

He'd tried calling the State Department but there were apparently several groups of Americans doing the same kind of work in the region right now so without knowing what group Charlie was traveling with the State couldn't tell him anything.

It was now after 7PM in the Maldives and even later in some of the other parts of the region so there really wasn't anything he could do. Unfortunately that included going back to sleep, so he figured he might as well get some paperwork done.

Don sat staring at the phone trying to will it to ring. He still hadn't heard from Charlie. He now knew that Charlie had been in the Maldives when the coup happened. The State had been able to tell him that much but nothing else.

Don had tried calling Charlie's cell but had no luck. He had called an old academy friend for advice and suggestions. Sam currently worked in New York and had given Don some ideas for trying to find Charlie without buying a plane ticket to the Maldives.

After that conversation he'd ended up doing some research on hospitals, hotels, and even mosques so that he could start contacting people over there and asking if they'd seen Charlie. All he needed to do is get a picture of Charlie off his digital camera so that he could fax or email it when he made contact with people. Unfortunately it was too late in the day in LA and too early in the Maldives for Don to be able to accomplish much.

He'd also talked to a contact of Sam's at Visa, if Charlie's credit card was used Don would be called almost immediately.

Don decided he'd give it another half hour and then go home and crash. He was getting to old to operate on little to no sleep for very long.

Don sat down at his desk and thought about his next move. It was now late Thursday afternoon and there was still no word from Charlie. He'd talked to the State and they couldn't tell him anything. Apparently it was chaos over there. The State Department told him it was organized chaos but to Don chaos was chaos.

Don closed his eyes and leaned back in his chair. While he would admit it was probably time to let his dad know what was going on, it didn't mean he was looking forward to the conversation.

He also wasn't looking forward to the conversation that he'd end up having with Charlie once they found him.

"Dad?" Don called as he opened the front door.

"In the kitchen, Donnie."

Don made his way into the kitchen and found Alan cooking dinner.

"Hi, dad."

"What's wrong?"

"What makes you think anything's wrong?" Don was convinced he'd walked into the room with his blank face on, the one he used during interrogations when he didn't want to clue the suspect in on anything.

"I'm your father."

Don had to admit it was a good point. Alan was the expert on Don and his moods while Margaret had been the expert on Charlie and his moods.

"Where did Charlie tell you he was going?"

"You know where he went, a conference in Hong Kong."

Don bit back the urge to chuckle. Charlie had been in Hong Kong, the layover was about 40 minutes. Charlie didn't outright lie about what he was doing, it was more like omitting the information.

"Dad, you might want to sit down."

"Why?" Alan asked the question even while he was doing as Don suggested.

"Charlie didn't go to a conference, he went on a consulting job."

"What kind of consulting is he doing?" Alan was confused.

"This time he's working with a group that's checking the structural stability of buildings left standing after the tsunami."

"Why would Charlie be doing something like that?"

"Because he can. He's one of the top people in his field and this was a humanitarian trip. They're working on hospitals and buildings like that."

"Why didn't he tell me?"

"He didn't want you to worry. In the past two weeks he's been in Indonesia, Somalia, India, Bangladesh, and the Maldives."

"Was he in the Maldives when the coup happened?"

"Yeah he was."

"Is he okay?"

"I don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know!" Alan yelled.

"Dad, Charlie's not answering his cell phone and I've talked to people at the State Department but things are just too chaotic over there for them to be able to tell me much."

"Oh my god." Alan just sat there.

"Why didn't he tell me?"

"He didn't want you to worry."

"Does he do this often?"

"Not really."

"Do you know that for sure?"

"No."

"What do you mean no?"

"I've known about this part of Charlie's work for less than a year."

"Why'd he tell you?"

"He didn't tell me. I found out on my own."

"How?"

Damn, Don had been hoping this wouldn't come up.

"Remember when he went to DC?" Alan nodded so Don continued, "He'd actually been in Afghanistan consulting with the military."

"Why would he be consulting with the military? I'm confused, Charlie's a Math teacher."

"Actually he does a lot more than that. He was doing something related to cryptography and sending secure messages. Charlie tried to explain it to me once but it was far too technical for me. He got hurt by some flying glass and decided to stay in DC to recuperate. He ran into an agent during one of his doctor visits. I happened to talk to the agent later and he mentioned seeing Charlie, so I flew to DC and confronted him."

"And you didn't feel a need to mention it to me?"

"No."

"Why not?" Alan got up and stood looking into Don's eyes?

"Because Charlie and I made a deal, he'd tell me where he was really going and I wouldn't mention it to you unless I had to. He's been doing consulting jobs for years. Charlie said mom knew about them and suggested that you not be told so that you didn't worry."

"What?"

"Mom knew. Apparently mom suggested he not tell you because of how much you were worrying about me on the fugitive squad."

Alan sat back down and just stared at Don.

"Dad? Are you okay?"

"Not really. I've just discovered that the son; who I thought had a safe job that wouldn't cause me to worry doesn't; my wife knew this and never told me; and now nobody knows where he is."

Alan abruptly stood up and headed into the backyard.

Don just watched him go.

Ring, ring

Don woke up with a start. He wasn't in his bed. Then he remembered he stayed with his Dad just in case he wanted to talk more. He'd ended up falling asleep on the couch.

Ring, ring

Why wasn't his Dad answering the phone? And why was it ringing at 1:30 in the morning?

Ring, ring

Because it wasn't the home phone ringing it was his cell.

"Eppes."

"Don?"

Don sat up in shock.

"Charlie! Where are you?"

"Jakarta."

"How did you get to Jakarta?"

"Boat. Some locals got us on a fishing boat and out of there shortly after the coup happened. It took us two days just to get to land."

"Are you okay?"

Don looked up to see Alan come into the room.

"I'm fine, I promise. Some bumps and bruises and I could probably eat a horse but nothing else is wrong."

"Good."

Don shot Alan a questioning look and got a nod in response.

"You got a minute to talk to Dad?"

"Does he know?"

"Yeah. When it'd been two days with no word from you, and the State department couldn't tell me anything and you weren't answering your cell, I didn't think I had a choice."

"My cell is probably somewhere off the coast of India by now. I understand why you told him. I just wanted to know what he knew. Yeah I've got time to talk to him. I'm at the embassy and they're still working on getting me a flight home."

"Okay. Give me just a minute." Don put his hand over the phone and looked at Alan.

"He's fine Dad. He's at the embassy in Jakarta and they're working on finding him a flight. You okay to talk to him?"

''I'm fine. I just want to talk to him."

Don handed over his cell phone.

"Charlie?"

"Hi Dad. Are you okay?"

"I should be asking you that. I'm okay but when you get back we need to have a talk. I want to know just what you do with those degrees of yours."

"Okay."

"I mean it Charlie."

"I know you do. We'll talk. I promise."

Don got up and headed for his old bedroom. He figured he could maybe get some more sleep while Charlie talked to Dad.

THE END

A/N2: I don't know if the work I have Charlie in the tsunami region doing would even be needed but it sounded plausible so I sent him. No disrespect was intended to the victims of the disaster. I chose the Maldives for the location of the coup because it's a country in the region that doesn't make a lot of news.