All Alone Chapter Two

Charlie had just exited the FBI building.

He shifted his pack, before placing the strap on his shoulder and starting to walk down the street.

Only for a second did he contemplate going back and talk with Don, but that idea was almost immediatly shot down.

"How can I talk to Don, when I can't even discuss the problem in my own head?" Charlie whispered to himself as he walked past a DO NOT LITTER sign that stood a few feet away from the entrance to the Federal building.

So entranced was Charlie's gaze on the road ahead that he didn't notice the vehicle approaching, nor did he see the vehicle turn off it's lights and it's passenger window roll down.

What he did register was the sound of a gunshot, and the fiery pain as his legs gave out and he fell down to the unforgiving concrete.

All Charlie knew was the pain in his chest and the roaring in his ears. He wasn't aware of anything else. Not the crowd forming, not his brother parting the crowd and yelling his name.

When the pain in his chest worsened, Charlie guessed that someone had come to his aid, and his thinking was confirmed when through the roaring in his ears, he heard his brother's voice. It was like a light, guiding him home, back to the world of consciousness.

For once, Charlie was in to much pain to talk for long, but he did whisper Don's name ever so softly.

Charlie could clearly taste the blood on his tongue as it filled his mouth and threatened to pour out on to his cheek and on to the ground.

Dimly Charlie heard his brother's false words of comfort and knew that his big brother was trying really hard not to lose his cool.

"So dark..cold." Charlie muttered as his world faded around him to be replaced with darkness. A darkness filled with numbers.

Charlie parted bloody lips and started to mutter the numbers he saw, thinking that was what he was supposed to do.

Meanwhile, Don was still holding his jacket over Charlie's wound, while still glancing down the road, waiting and watching for the ambulance.

"Damn it David, where is that ambulance?" Don asked as he looked across at his friend who was still holding Charlie's head in the palms of his hands.

David looked up at Don and saw not the calm, cool face of his boss, Don Eppes. Instead he saw the worried, slightly aggitated and close to losing it, face of big brother Don Eppes.

"I called them, they should be on their way." David replied smoothly as he glanced down at Charlie's bloody form.

Don grimaced as he once again glanced down at his brother, and the fact that he was still losing so much blood. Perhaps to much, and there was nothing that Don could do to stop it.

'How did it come to this? My baby brother dieing right here in my arms, when I should have been there to protect him. Charlie shouldn't have been here, he should have been at home...or at Calsci with his numbers...where he belongs. Oh God, this is my fault...it's almost as bad as if I had pulled the trigger myself. It's my fault that Charlie got shot...my fault.'

Don was pulled out of his thoughts when Megan touched his shoulder and pointed to the ambulance just pulling to a stop.

Looking up, Don watched as the two paramedics lept out of the ambulance and pulled out the stretcher and a bag of supplies before rushing over to Don's side.

Not saying a word, Don moved out of the way and watched as the paramedics moved the blood stained coat out of the way before taking a look at the wound itself.

"Lost alot of blood." One paramedic said.

"Need's IV's and a tranfusion." The other said.

Different names of different IV's and drugs went over Don's head. All he could do and think about was his baby brother lying there, looking so helpless, frail and...dead.

'dead.'

With a look on his face that would have ripped your heart out, or would have melted steel, Don watched as the paramedics placed Charlie's body on the stretcher before loading him up in to the ambulance.

'If Charlie dies it'll be my fault. God, why'd I get him involved? Why?Why?Why?' Don thought as the ambulance pulled away.

Suddenly Don's cellphone rang, nearly scaring the man out of his skin.

Glancing down, Don grabbed his cellphone and made to throw it down, but Megan grabbed it out of his hands and said, "Government issue. You can't just destroy it."

Don didn't say anything. He just turned away, not listening as Megan answered the phone.

"Hello, Agent Reeves here. Uh no this is his phone but he's unavalible at the moment. I see, well yes, sir I'll tell him. Sir um, Agent Eppes has some serious family problems at the moment, I don't think...ah, yes sir. Goodbye."

Megan closed up the phone and looked at Don.

"That was Deputy Director Vernon. It seems that a bank, jewelry store and supermarket were just robbed." Megan said.

"So? Let the police handle it." Don replied as he glanced down at his brother's blood that stained the pavement.

"Director Vernon wants you to handle it." Megan replied casually.

"Why? I can't right now, I gotta think about Charlie." Don said.

Megan sighed before saying, "I told him that but it seems that the perps who robbed the bank, jewelry store and supermarket are part of the same group, and that they're out to get you."

"What?" Don asked.

"Reports from police officers on the scene say that painted on the back walls of each robbery were the words 'Death and Distruction, Agent Eppes.' So, Vernon wants you to handle it. He did make it an order." Megan said.

Don ran a semi bloody hand through his hair.

He knew that he should screw the order and follow the ambulance, but if the robbery's and Charlie's shooting were done by the same hand, then Don wanted very much to take them down.

"Alright, let's move it!" Don said as he took back his cellphone and clipped it to his belt.

As one, Don, Megan, David and Colby ran for the parking lot and jumped in to two seperate vehicles.

Don and Megan in one, and David and Colby in the other.

As Don pulled out, David who was driving the other FBI Chevy Suburban shook his head and said, "I've never seen Don so worked up before."

"Well, his kid brother did just get shot." Colby replied.

David nodded his head and thought back to finding Charlie lying on the ground.

"Out of all the people on our team that could get shot, I never thought it'd be Charlie." David said.

"Yeah," Colby agreed, "And right when we'd need him the most."

"I know it." David said as he followed Don up the street and towards the scene of he first robbery.