Title: Don't Kill your Brother!
Author: Mystery
Summary: Don has a bad day and it's made worse by a pesky younger brother. But all Charlie wants to do is play ball? So why is Don trying to kill him?
Rating: PG (Just in case)
Disclaimer: Don't own the characters. I am not making money off them either. I'm just playing with them. I promise I'll give them back.
Don Eppes ran a hand through his brown hair in frustration as he waited outside the school's science lab for his kid brother to emerge so they could go home. He had not had a good day. Actually it had been hell. First, he had utterly failed the biology exam which would probably get him grounded. Then he'd had a visit to the principal's office for defending his brother from another set of bullies who had wanted his brother to do their homework for them.
So yeah, if the failing the exam didn't get him grounded punching somebody's lights out would. Not that he would have much of a social life with all the homework he was toting around in his backpack, but that wasn't the point.
Did teachers not realize that their students had lives out side of school? Honestly, every teacher acted like he was only taking one class a year. Hearing a bell ring he turned his eyes to the door. Where the hell was Charlie? If he had to go in there and drag him away from another set of equations…..
Luckily for the younger Eppes he appeared before his older brother could finish that thought. A big goofy grin was on his face as he practically bounded up to his older brother. Seeming unaware to his brother's crabby mood the curly headed Eppes asked, "Hey Don, when we get home will you play ball with me? Huh?"
Don slung his bag further onto his shoulder and started walking just ignoring his little brother. However, the kid just wouldn't shut-up about playing ball! He was so not in the mood for this today. But snapping at him would probably make the kid cry. Then Dad would yell at him about that too. So instead of getting himself in more hot water Don answered, "Look Chuck. I can't play ball with you when we get home. I've got homework to finish. But hey, tell ya what, if I finish before dark I'll play with you then okay?" Not.
This seemed to appease Charlie and he nodded happily. He then started blabbing about some new math thing. Don just tuned him out. Checking his watch, Don wondered if he could get a snack before he started in on all this crap his teachers wanted him to do. Yeah he could probably swing it. As the two finally reached home, Don saw Alan standing in front of the garage looking none to pleased. Yep, his dad knew about the fight. Great!
An hour later after a snack and a talk about fights, Don was in his room working on his assignments. He'd surprisingly not been grounded for fighting or failing the test. He'd gotten a serious talking to, but apparently that was going to be the end of it. The elder Eppes wasn't really sure how he'd gotten out of getting grounded, but he wasn't going to stick around to ask a million questions. He'd just accept the small grace that he'd gotten off the hook and leave it at that. He thought maybe the rest of his day would be less stressful No such luck. His homework assignments turned out to not only be as boring as he had feared, but also harder than he had originally imagined. To top it off, Charlie apparently wasn't going to let that whole play ball with me thing go.
He'd already explained he had homework that probably wouldn't get done before dark to the kid. Of course, even if he did finish the mountain of homework before dark, Don still had no intention of playing with his kid brother.
Perhaps, the kid knew that and was intentionally pushing his buttons to get him to finally cave in and swear to play with him. It worked. After the fourth time of Charlie coming in the room after being gone maybe 10 minutes whining , "Can we play ball now?" Don swiveled around in his chair and let out a heavy sigh.
"Alright Charlie. Look I'll play ball with you when I'm done. Even if it's dark I'll still play ball with you. Mom and Dad will probably be so thrilled that I'm playing with you they'll let us get away with it. But you have to leave me alone so I can finish my homework." He even spelled it out more clearly just in case the kid didn't get the clue he was serious about being left alone, "That means no more coming back in here to ask me if I'm done. I'll let you know when I'm done. And no I won't forget."
Getting up out of his chair Don pushed his brother out into the hall and then closed the door to his bedroom in the wide-eyed boy's face. Slumping back down again Don tried to finish. He actually got through everything except the math. He was on the last problem and he'd double and triple checked it. But he still couldn't find what was wrong with it. Maybe if he took a quick break and then looked at it again that would help? So he stood up and headed for the bathroom. Not much of a break, but that way Charlie wouldn't bug him about not finishing. Upon returning, he groaned when he noticed Charlie sitting on the edge of his bed munching an apple his eyes up at the ceiling.
Clearing his throat he pointed for Charlie to leave the room. The kid whined, but finally moped out of the room. Sitting back down he started to work on the math again. After a few minutes, Don heard the shuffling of feet on his carpet and felt eyes staring over his shoulder. He hated it when someone looked over his shoulder. "Charlie…" there was a clear warning in his voice that his little brother was pushing his luck. Charlie sighed and then proceeded to plop down on Don's bed again. He could hear the kid sighing heavily in the background. Don ground out never looking up from his math problem, "I get it your bored. So am I. Now get out or I won't play with you."
Charlie got off the bed and headed toward the door. "Okay," he said in his most pathetic voice. He was trying to get Don to feel sorry for him, but his older brother was in no mood to pass out sympathy. As he worked, Don realized Charlie had stopped at the door and had not actually left the room.
"Charlie why are you still here? I'm trying to finish my math homework. I thought I made myself pretty clear that I was to be left alone until I was done."
"Yeah, but you're taking forever Don! I was done with my homework an hour ago."
Well not all of us are geniuses, Don thought. "Just get out."
"But Don, you're never gonna be done with that homework!" Charlie continued to whine. He was bored and he really wanted to play ball with Don. He was doing some really interesting math with baseball and he needed someone who was good at it for his research! And his brother wasn't gonna finish tonight before bed…"Look Charlie, I'll have you know that I'm working as fast as I can. Now leave me alone."
Don checked his watch and saw it was 8:00. Why won't he just go away? Charlie finally turned to leave the room. But he really wanted to play ball! So in a last ditch effort to get what he wanted he called. "Don, you forgot to carry the one on that last problem I noticed it when you were gone. I know you don't like it when I look at your stuff, but if you'd just carry it you'd be able to…"
Don slammed the pencil down. "That's it! I'm GOING TO KILL YOU." Jumping out of his chair he leapt over his bed and chased after a now screaming Charlie.
"Mom! Dad! Don's trying to kill me!"
Book in hand, Margaret sighed from her place on the couch. Her husband was sitting across from her reading the paper. He glanced up over his glasses , as Charlie made a dash across the room headed for the garage with Don close behind. She and her husband called out in a unified plea which had obviously been uttered countless times before "Donnie, don't kill your brother!"