A/N: Here's a surprise for you! "Howling Thunder" is actually two of us, both with our own fan fic histories: The Silent Rumble and FraidyCat! (We figured if dHall & AliceI were our heroes, we should try to emulate their success.) Fans approaching a state of panic should relax. We both intend to continue writing under our own names, as well. But hey. This sounds like fun, too! Enjoy!

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Author: Howling Thunder

Summary: Charlie finds a protégé, and enjoys being the "Big Brother" for once. Until he finds out first-hand the kind of trouble Little Brothers can drag a person into.

Disclaimer: It causes us a great deal of distress, but Howling Thunder admits that CBS et al got to Don and Charlie before we did. This disclaimer is active for the duration of this fan fiction. Please refer to it whenever you are confused.

A/N: This fic was started BEFORE the recent epi in which Oswald decides to apply to CalSci. So, pretend it happens this way. (More importantly, please don't e-mail us telling us that it didn't.) Finally, please note that we bear no grudges against the Chicago Police Department; we had to pick somewhere!

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Chapter 1: The Discovery

Oswald Kittner was still buttoning the fly of his jeans as he raced down the hallway to Charlie's hotel room. The housekeeper seemed to find it quite entertaining. He just tossed her a goofy look. "What?" he asked, hurrying past.

To be honest, if he had suspected that she lurked just outside his own hotel room, he would have finished dressing inside. But when he rolled over and focused on the digital bedside clock, and figured out that they were late already for the first session this morning, an odd sense of panic propelled Oswald into the fastest exit of his life.

The sense of panic was odd, because he wasn't used to caring about things like schedules, and math symposiums. His father had never wanted him, and his mother had died in an automobile accident when he was only four. Finally, his paternal grandmother had taken him in, but she didn't want to be raising another child at this stage of her life, either. It seemed like all they ever did was fight. It was not a stage either of them grew out of, and when he was 16, he gave up. He had become involved in fantasy sports teams, and made a decent amount of money betting on them. He dropped out of school, dropped out of life, and made his own way.

He started pounding on Charlie's door. He was surprised that Dr. Eppes had not dragged him out of bed hours ago. They had missed breakfast, and part of a presentation he had believed the man was looking forward to – maybe he didn't know this guy as well as he thought.

Not that Oswald thought they were suddenly best buds, or anything. But a few months ago, when his fantasy baseball stat theories had turned into a nightmare and almost gotten him killed, Charlie was really nice to him. He defended him to the FBI until his brother, an agent, started listening. He had let Oswald stay in his garage a few days. Even when the case was over, he continued to check on Oswald and encourage him to develop his natural gifts in mathematics. Early in their relationship, Oswald had "Googled" him, and figured out the guy knew what he was talking about. There were still frequent moments, caught up in a discussion with Charlie, when Oswald would suddenly think, "I'm a high school dropout discussing emergence theory with the full-fledged genius who is currently developing a concept that will change education forever. This is insane."

It was hard for Oswald to believe the things Charlie told him. The professor insisted that Oswald could walk right into classes in a place like CalSci, where he taught, and hold his own. Oswald just didn't think he had the discipline for that kind of life. Still, Charlie had invited him to Chicago, to this freaky math symposium. Oswald hadn't even known what a symposium was. Charlie was scheduled to introduce his cognitive emergence theory, though, and he kind-of wanted to hear it. Besides, it wasn't like he had a real job to worry about right now, anyway. So Oswald had tagged along, hoping to somehow convince Charlie, while they were in Chicago, that there was more to life than math.

He intended to have some fun.

Which Charlie had let him do, last night. The Doctor's presentation had gone well earlier that day. Oswald had been impressed. Charlie spoke in such a way that, even largely uneducated, he was able to follow the idea. Yet the room full of other doctors and mathematicians did not seem bored. That must be a fine line to trod. Charlie had invited Oswald to join him, when some of the other teacher-people wanted to take him out for drinks and dinner to celebrate. Now that he was 21, Oswald was old enough to join them, but he had a couple of problems. One, he honestly felt that the guy deserved some time…doing whatever he did, with his peers. He really seemed to feed off that, and he didn't need to be worry about including Oswald. Two, while he was cool with the idea that the evening he was describing would be fun for Charlie – Oswald thought he would have a lot more fun at Hardrock Café. So the two had gone their separate ways.

Oswald banged harder on Charlie's door, and called his name. He didn't know what time Charlie got back to his room, but he had not fallen into his own hotel bed until almost 4 a.m. Even then, he hadn't fallen in alone…. So it was no wonder he overslept. Maybe the dude was angry. He had seemed okay with Oswald not going to his dinner thing last night, but maybe he was just pretending, or something. He might have decided to punish him by letting him miss the morning sessions, even though he had earlier told Oswald that he would find them especially interesting.

Oswald hesitated, and almost turned to go back to his own room. It just didn't fit, though. Charlie had been really decent to him, and while he did not know him very well yet, Oswald had never seen anything that might suggest he could hold a grudge like that. At the last second, he decided to try the door. They were staying in an older hotel, because the one next door where the math thing was had been full. This one still had old-fashioned doorknob access to the rooms, rather than key card admission.

Oswald swallowed in a sudden and chilling apprehension, when the door swung inward. It was unlocked. He felt goosebumps rise on his arms as he called out one more time. "Charlie? Dr. Eppes, I'm coming in, okay?"

He pushed the door open farther, and stood in silent shock. The room was empty of Charlie, and trashed. Completely trashed. The desk and chairs had been upturned. The sheets and blankets had been dragged off the bed, and the mattress was flipped onto its side. The bathroom door stood open, and Oswald could see broken glass on the floor in there. He took one tentative half-step inside, and got a better view of the bathroom. When he did, he saw more than broken glass.

He was pretty sure that was a pool of blood.