Dumbstruck by Dira Sudis (rated NC-17)

[jmtorres.livejournal.com]

Here, have a proper rec (if not a collision):

Fandom: NUMB3RS
Pairing: Don/Charlie
Author on LJ: dsudis
Author Website: Words, Words, Words
Why this must be read:

I love all of dsudis's Numb3rs fic (and there's a lot of it! and not all incest, E-chan!) but this is one of my favorites. I love it for treating Charlie as special, because he's not like everyone else, you know? Charlie's a pretty well-socialized genius, but smart people often have odd coping mechanisms, and in this story, one of his is that under enough stress, he can't talk.

Don had never suspected Charlie of faking it, if only because Charlie had never been able to lie to him. He'd known it for sure ever since the fourth or fifth time, when Charlie ran into his room in the middle of the night, a few days into one of his episodes, with tears streaming down his face: he'd had a bad dream, and been unable even to scream. In the morning, Don had asked Charlie what he'd dreamed, and Charlie had written, in his staggering five-year-old letters, i cudnt tak + then i wok up + i cudnt tak. Charlie had slept in Don's bed for two weeks after that, even after he could talk again.

Also, Don is quite possibly the best big brother anyone could ever have. *squishes him*

Dumbstruck.