Author:DreamBrother
Summary:(Summer Alphabet Challenge 2007) Read, and you shall find out.
Disclaimer:I deny ownership of anything you might accuse me of owning… except perhaps a collection of CD's and books, which you can't have.
Author's Note:Trust me, I don't mean to sound self-obsessed, naming a story after my pen-name. It was supposed to be a joke, but inspiration struck, the muse was amused with the title. If this story turns out nice then it's this is for Jelsemium, who's doing an awesome job managing the Summer Alphabet Challenge this year, and for Shaolingrrl, my writer buddy. If it doesn't, I have never heard of these people and they are guilty of nothing ;)
Oh, and the story dividers are just the last verse from a Robert Frost poem, nothing fancy and not really related to the story but I needed something…
Oh, and some references to Hot Shot and… I think that's it.
D is for Dreams, Brother
Charlie walked into his office after giving a lecture to find his brother, tilted back in a chair with his feet on Charlie's desk, asleep. Surprised, but giving no indication of his presence in the room, Charlie took a pencil from a holder on his desk and moved towards his brother, aiming the back of the pencil towards his brother's right ear. He was just a few inches away when…
"Come any closer with that and die," spoke up Don, not bothering to open his eyes.
"Drat. But I felt like taking a walk on the wild side today," grinned Charlie. Another day, another attempt. He was going to be successful one day, the math proved it.
Don opened his eyes and let the chair fall back on all four legs. Giving Charlie's clothes a once-over, he commented, "Dressed like that, you probably are."
"Hey, I was in a rush, I grabbed whatever I could lay my hands on. Leave my fashion sense out of this," protested Charlie.
"I would love to. How come you were in a rush?" asked Don.
"Slept through the alarm and then I remembered that I had an early morning faculty meeting. What are you doing here? Got a new case for me to consult on?" inquired Charlie.
"Well, not exactly. I'm here because this certain math professor I know, you've probably heard of him, said 2 o'clock this Wednesday would be a good time for us to have lunch," said Don dryly.
Charlie's eyes widened comically as he remembered the conversation during which he and his brother had set up a time for lunch, "That's today? I completely forgot, I'm sorry. Just let me grab my backpack and we'll go. You can pick the place."
"How very gracious of you, Chuck" replied Don, shaking his head before standing up and leaving the office, his brother trailing behind him.
THEWOODSARELOVELYDARKANDDEEP
Don eyed his brother over the table, noticing the hint of dark circles under his eyes and the slight slump of his shoulders. Normally, Don would have teased his brother's scatter brain tendencies but the body language ignited Don's concern.
"You alright, buddy? You look worn out," asked Don.
Charlie jerked his head up from the piece of cheesecake he had silently been eating, "Huh? What? No Don, I'm feeling fine. Just been sleeping weird the past few days,"
"Elaborate," said Don simply, taking a sip of his coffee.
"Not much to say. Been having some weird dreams that leave me feeling as though I've barely slept," shrugged Charlie.
"Mum again?" asked Don, referencing to the time last year when Charlie, as well as his Dad, had vivid dreams involving his mother.
"Nope,"
"Dad getting shot in a grocery store?" continued Don,
"No,"
"Amita telling you to get a hair cut or else she'll break up with you?" asked Don teasingly.
"No! Like I said, they were weird. As in, they're strange but I don't remember much. Bits and flashes, that's it, and the remnants of the emotions I felt in them," explained Charlie, giving his brother a look at the Amita suggestion which Don only grinned at.
Don sipped at his coffee, considering the next question carefully before asking, "You're not worried about me, are you? Dreaming something along the lines of something happening on the job…?"
Without lifting his head from its position bent over the cheesecake, Charlie answered, "No, those dreams are on hiatus at the moment, I'm appreciating the lull, even if the gap has to be weird dreams,"
Don nodded. It was normal to dream about losing your loved ones, he had had his fair share even before Charlie had started working alongside him. It would be natural for Charlie to dream the same, and as long as they didn't too deeply affect his little brother, he could live with it. Looking at the time, he said, "You done, Chuck? I have to be getting back to the office; I'll drop you off on the way back."
BUTIHAVEPROMISESTOKEEP
It was well past dinner-time when Don arrived at his father's and brother's house in Pasadena, two days after the lunch with Charlie, but the lights were still on in the living room when he opened the door and walked in. His father was sitting at the dining room table doing the cross-word and a quick look around revealed his little brother to be asleep, sitting up on the sofa, head leaned back, with a notebook on his chest.
"Hey dad, how long has Charlie been like that?" inquired Don, shrugging out of his jacket.
"For the last hour, I think. Are you hungry? I can heat up some leftover lasagne for you, if you'd like," offered Alan.
"No, thanks, it's alright. I'll just grab a beer, there's a hockey game on TV I want to watch, and since I have to be at the office early in the morning, I thought I'd crash here," said Don and before going into the kitchen to grab a beer, he asked, "Should I be a good brother and slide a cube of ice down his shirt?"
"How is that being a good brother?" inquired Alan, giving his son a bemused look.
"I'm saving him from waking up with a really bad crick in the neck," grinned Don.
"I think it's best if you forgo that tonight, he's still the owner of the house, not only will he kick you out, he will kick me out as well, on the basis of being a co-conspirator," said Alan wryly.
"Alright, I'll be a good son and listen to my father,"
"How nice. I'm going to complete this little cross-word upstairs, I think I left my thesaurus there; I'll wake you up for breakfast. Good night," said Alan.
"Ok, 'night Dad," and twisting the cap off the beer bottle, Don made his way towards the sofa where his brother slept, opposite the TV. Don shook his head at the sight off his brother snoozing right in the middle of the sofa, thereby barely leaving any space on either side for another person. Gingerly prying the notebook from Charlie's hands, he set it on the table in front before grabbing an afghan and lightly spreading it on Charlie. Thinking that he'd let Charlie sleep until the end of the game before waking him up to make him sleep in his room, Don eased himself in the cramped space between the arm rest and Charlie, careful not to disturb his brother too much.
Don had only been watching the game for a few minutes before Charlie turned his head in his sleep and leaned it against his brother's shoulder, oblivious to his movement. Smirking and shaking his head at the thought of what anyone on his team might remark of the position their boss and math consultant were in; Don took another sip of his beer and immersed himself in the game.
However, Don didn't have to wait for the end of the hockey game to have to wake up Charlie; Charlie woke up on his own with a sudden jerk, his lifting off Don's shoulders as he blinked, and jerked again when he noticed his brother sitting so close to him. Remembering the conversation from two day's before, Don again reacted with concern, forgoing his brotherly right to tease:
"Charlie? You alright?" asked Don, a frown crossing his features.
"What? Yeah, I'm fine. When did you get here? And how long was I asleep?" asked Charlie, rubbing his fingers across his eyes.
"You've been asleep almost 2 hours. I've been here for about half of that. You want to talk about your sudden little wake from the dead thing? What were you dreaming about?" prodded Don.
"I'm not sure. I think I was at CalSci and there was a war going on in the gardens there. And I think our side was about to execute you because you killed two of the enemy soldiers a few days before schedule," said Charlie, "which is crazy and doesn't make a bit of sense. I don't dream normal, that's fine, but I wouldn't mind a bit of logic."
Biting back a smile at his brother's weird dream, Don asked, "Do you think it's the cases you've been working on lately? Or tension from your own work? Any other agencies asking you to consult on something?"
Charlie peered at his brother and said, "Easy with the questions, Don, it's just a phase, it'll pass. I'm not even bothering to run a mathematical analysis on it like I did last time." Twisting his neck side to side and groaning at the resulting cracks, he asked, "You couldn't have woken me up before and saved me a sore neck?"
"Hey, don't blame me; I was all for putting an ice cube down your shirt but Dad pulled rank. Blame him," defended Don.
Lifting an eyebrow at his brother's proposed method of waking him up, Charlie said, "I'm not sure if I want to blame him or thank him."
"Where were you when they were handing gratitude out? I was only trying to save you some pain, the ice cube would have only been a little bit unpleasant and it's not as if your own method of waking was any better," said Don, "And would you go to bed already? I like having a brother who doesn't look like a combination of a fashion disaster from the '80s and an extra from Night of the Living Dead."
Shaking his head at his brother's strange way of disguising his concern, Charlie said, "Your wish is my command, bro, good night."
"'Night," said Don, for the second time that night, listening to his brother walk up the stairs before turning his attention back to the tail end of the game.
ANDMILESTOGOBEFOREISLEEP
It was another two days after that night when Don walked into his brother's office with a paper bag in hand. Charlie was working away on his blackboard, his writing speed slower than usual and the bags under his eyes deeper than before, oblivious to his visitor. Calmly strolling towards his brother, standing behind him, Don took his arms and wrapped them around Charlie, hence fixing Charlie's arms to his sides.
Shocked, Charlie exclaimed and after his assailant let him go he whirled around and seeing that it was his brother, he gave him a shove, "Don! How old are you! You nearly gave me a heart attack!"
Grinning and holding his hands up in defence, Don said, "You should learn to be more vigilant, buddy, I'm only doing you a favour."
"Well, here's some advice, don't!" glared Charlie and noticing what was in his brother's hand he asked, "What's in the bag?"
"Just a little something for your current predicament, it won't hurt to try, yea of little faith," said Don, handing over the bag.
Charlie placed his chalk-holder down before taking the bag and opening it and peering inside before putting his hand in and drawing out a-
"Is this what I think it is, Don?" asked Charlie, eyeing the object in his hand.
"Maybe. It's a dream-catcher. Thought you could use a little help. And in any case, you can use it as a decoration piece if you'd like. There are two. One for your office and one for home. Considering all the stuff you have everywhere, it'll barely be noticeable,"
Charlie eyed the dream-catcher which was in his hand. It was quite a beautiful one, consisting of earth colours accentuated by a few red and blue feathers hanging from the circle with the woven thread inside. He was touched by his brother's gesture, knowing that Don had taken time out of his busy schedule to look for these, even though California had the largest population of Native Americans but these weren't something you could find at Wal-Mart. Swallowing the lump that had formed in his throat, he responded:
"Is my brother a sentimentalist? Or maybe Martha Stewart in disguise? I know you have secrets, Don, but this really takes the cake."
"Dream on, brother, you're still the pansy of the family. And knowing you, you can probably find Phi in the webbing," said Don, "Anyway; I better get going, see you around alright?"
"Alright," said Charlie but before his brother could leave, he called out, "Don!"
Stopping in his tracks, Don looked over his shoulder and asked, "Yeah?"
"Thanks for these," said Charlie sincerely.
A small smile lit up Don's face and before leaving he said, "Anytime, bro."
Khatum (The End)
The Brothers Eppes are safe in this story, but be warned, if I get my hands on another D, I cannot guarentee their safety. Have a title in mind but Jelsemium might want to protect our guys by keeping me far, far away from another 'D'.
And there you have it. You ask why I just didn't name the story D is for Dream-catcher? The answer: I don't really know. But dream-catchers were the whole point of the story, I wanted to put them in somehow. They've always interested me as I have lots of weird, freaky dreams. I didn't specify whether they worked on Charlie because I haven't got my hands on any yet and I always test a product before advertising it. Info on dream-catchers can be found on Wikipedia, go look it up, it's interesting.
Hope you liked. I have a small ficlet in mind for tomorrow night, let's see how that turns out.
Reviews welcomed and appreciated. And it would be wise to listen to Dream Brother by Jeff Buckley, it's an awesome song ;)