Chapter Six

Don looked up at the nurse and told her that he wanted to bring someone else in; someone that Charlie needed to see. When she nodded her approval, he stood up silently and left for the waiting room where he found Amita, Larry and his whole team waiting. As soon as Amita saw Don and the look on his face, she felt her heart drop. As he approached her she felt the urge to back away, fearing what he was about to say. He stopped in front of her and took her arm gently, pulling her aside.

"Amita, Charlie needs to see you."

That sounded to her like a pronouncement of his doom and she could not stop the tears that started falling. "Do you know how much he loves you?" he asked quietly, and she nodded through her tears, with pain and gratitude mingling on her face.

Without another word, Don led her to the ICU room. Charlie had drifted back to sleep again and Don shook him to rouse him. Don had allowed Amita to sit down on Charlie's left side so that he would be able to see her more easily, while he moved to his right. When Charlie opened his eyes, he had an almost crazed look in them, as if he didn't recognize where he was or who was around him. "Hey, Buddy. It's okay, I'm right here."

Charlie tried to raise his right hand and reach for Don but he seemed too uncoordinated to accomplish that simple task and his arm dropped like lead to the mattress. Charlie became panicked by this inability to function and started rambling in a frightened voice. "The drag coefficient is all wrong. If I'm submerged, where's the water? I'm not wet; how come I'm not wet? Don, where'd the water go?"

Don saw the panic engulfing his brother so he leaned over and held his face between his hands looking directly into his eyes. "Charlie stop! You are all right. Just look at me and listen to my voice. There's no water, Charlie. You're in the hospital and there is someone here to see you."

Don looked up at Amita who wore an expression of horror on her face. Don continued to speak to Charlie but looked at Amita, trying to get her to school her expression before she made Charlie any more frantic. "Amita has come to see you, Charlie so you need to focus." His gaze moved back to Charlie's face as he continued. "Can you do that for me, Buddy?"

The nearly feral look receded from Charlie's eyes when Don said that Amita was there. Her name registered somewhere in his mind that was deeper or stronger than the pressure-induced dementia. After a moment, Charlie looked much more in control and he croaked "Don?" His eyes opened wider as recognition seemed to flood him. "Don, you're here. They need you to do something... sign something, I think."

Don felt the knife of fear twist in his gut as his brother echoed the words that he had spoken only fifteen minutes ago. Charlie didn't even remember him being there. He looked up at the nurse and wasn't surprised to see her writing in the chart. This couldn't be good, but at this moment in time, Charlie seemed lucid, although he knew that could change in a heartbeat.

"Charlie, Amita is here."

Don had let go of Charlie's face and he turned his head to the left. By this time, Amita had wiped her tears and smiled lovingly at him. A smile, that reached his eyes, graced Charlie's lips when he saw her and that smile turned to an expression of pure joy when she leaned over and kissed him lightly.

"You look like an angel," he whispered.

Charlie turned back to Don and gave him a look of gratitude before he stepped out quietly. Heading back to the waiting room Don felt more drained than he ever thought would be possible. He knew that he had to make a decision soon and that Charlie was counting on him; he just wished that his father were there, so that he could allow Alan to sign the consent that might take his brother's life away.

Don didn't usually seek assistance or opinions when he had to make a decision. As the SAC of the Violent Crimes Squad, it was his job to make command decisions even when they involved people he cared about, like Liz, but this was different. He was sailing in uncharted waters without a compass here. He knew, though, that Larry and the rest of his team were all there because they loved Charlie and wanted to support him, so he decided to tell them about the decision he had been forced to make. Don sat down and explained everything that Doctor Bill had told him about Charlie's aneurysm and about the radical idea of lowering Charlie's body temperature for the surgery. Larry nodded his head as Don finished, earning him a questioning stare.

"Induced hypothermia; it makes sense. With a lowered core temperature, the metabolism of the body as well as the brain decreases dramatically. If the blood flow to Charlie's brain is interrupted while his core temperature is lowered he has a better chance of avoiding a cascade ischemic failure."

Don had to smile at that. "So, Larry, when did you branch out from cosmology to medicine?"

Larry looked back at the agent utterly nonplussed and replied, "Part of my training before I went up in the space station dealt with hypothermic situations due to the intrinsic nature of space and its ambient temperature... or lack thereof." The look on Don's face prompted Larry to continue. "Please don't misunderstand me, Don. I am fully aware of how dangerous this situation is for Charles, and I am aptly concerned for his recovery but what the neuro surgeon is suggesting may give him his best chance of surviving this aneurysm."

Don didn't need to hear any more. Charlie had to have this surgery or he would die for sure. There was no reason for him to be waffling about this decision any longer so he stood and told the others that he need to go and speak with Charlie's doctor and contact his father.

For a moment after Don left; Colby, David, Megan and Larry just stood there, somewhat shell-shocked. The notion that Charlie could be gone in an instant seemed to reverberate with each of them on some level. Larry wondered for a moment why he seemed to be handling this news better than the others were as he took in their expressions. Charlie was his student, his prodigy and his best friend, but he did not seem to fear losing him the same way the others did. He understood all too well how precarious his young friend's situation was but he found that he had complete faith that he would come out of this experience well and whole. Looking into Megan's eyes, he could clearly see her fear and distress in the shimmering tears she tried to hide. Taking her hand gently, he quietly suggested that they go down to the cafeteria to get coffee for everyone and she was more than happy to go along. She needed something to do even if it was something as trivial as buying half a dozen cups of coffee.

When Larry and Megan left the lounge, David and Colby found themselves alone. An awkward silence fell over them for neither was willing to leave, yet they had barely spoken two words to each other since Colby's return. David watched as his former partner took a seat at the far end of one of the long sofas in the lounge, wondering how he should approach Colby; Charlie's words echoing in his mind.

'David's an idiot! He is throwing away his best friend over what; pride?'

David stepped over to the glass wall that separated the lounge from short hallway leading to the nursing station in the ICU. He couldn't see Charlie's room from this vantage point but he pictured the young man lying in that bed in his mind's eye. Charlie's disjointed words about pride hammered at him like castigation for his stubborn refusal to forgive his best friend. He could feel tears of anger and regret stinging the back of his eyes as he tried to remember a time when he didn't feel betrayed by Colby. One thing he wouldn't do was to allow those tears to fall. He vowed to himself that he would never allow Colby Granger or anyone else, for that matter, to elicit that reaction from him again, after the night his partner was arrested and confessed to being a spy for the Chinese.

David realized that this was a big part of his problem. He had not discussed this with the department psychiatrist yet. He had only seen him once and that session was more about information gathering and feeling each other out than anything else. Don and Megan were right about his anger. He had been angry for months. It had cost him his relationship with Claudia, it had interfered with his objectivity on the job; it had changed the type of man that he was, the type of agent he was. He had an appointment the next day with the psychologist and he now knew what they would be talking about. David refocused his eyes so that rather than looking down the hallway to the ICU he was looking at the reflection of Colby in the glass. With a resigned sigh, he turned and approached his former partner.

The last thing Colby expected when he took a seat was for David to sit down next to him, especially given the fact that they were the only two people in the ICU lounge and there were plenty of seats on the other side of the room. When David actually initiated conversation with him, Colby felt a twinge of suspicion, which surprised him.

"This is so unbelievable, huh?"

Colby just looked at David as though he were growing horns out of his ears for a moment. "Yeah, it sucks royally. Charlie's a good man; he doesn't deserve this."

Colby sounded almost defensive toward David, as if he would disagree that Charlie was a good man. David knew in his heart that the tone had nothing to do with Charlie and everything to do with their destroyed relationship. Not knowing what else to say David asked, "So what are you gonna do about D.C.?"

Colby was no longer feeling suspicious, just angry and resentful. After the shit attitude that David had thrown at him since his return he was feeling less than inclined to engage in idle small talk. He knew that his former partner had reason to be upset; they all did, but everyone else had moved on, everyone except David. Colby stood up abruptly and glared down at him.

"Charlie is my friend, David. He is in serious trouble right now and he asked me to stay, which I have every intention of doing. Whether you feel like believing it or not, I am loyal to my friends! And, David, I always have been!"

Colby didn't wait for an answer and stalked out of the lounge nearly running into Larry and Megan as they returned with the coffee. Megan saw immediately that David looked both shocked and embarrassed. She couldn't help remembering what she had said to him only a week ago about his behavior where Colby was concerned.

'Look, this has been hard on all of us, David. And your attitude is starting to piss me off just a little. I don't like the fact that Colby lied to us for the last two years, but what exactly did he lie about? He had a job to do; he was working undercover trying to ferret out the mole and had to protect that cover. But that doesn't mean that every moment of every day was a lie or that his friendship was a lie. Maybe you just need to get over yourself long enough to see the big picture!'

But she also realized that confronting him again would be useless and could cause more harm than good especially now that they were all faced with the prospect of losing someone so close to all of them, so she simply decided to ignore it and handed one of the cups to David. She was thankful that Larry took his cue from her and refrained from mentioning anything about Colby's abrupt departure to David.

By the time Don came back Colby had returned, though he stood rather than sat and positioned himself as far from David as he could, and still be physically present. Don was pleased to find that Larry had also gone in to see Charlie, and that he reported that the mathematician was still fairly coherent, although given the fact that there were times that Don had no idea what the cosmologist was saying he wasn't entirely sure how comforting that was. They all looked up expectantly at Don wanting to know what the next step was.

"I have signed consent for the surgery. Dad is flying in, he'll be here in three hours, I need someone..."

"I'll go." Colby said without preamble and though Colby didn't see it because his back was turned, Don saw David's head snap up.

Deciding to ignore the silent battle that obviously was still going on between the two of them, Don placed a hand on Colby's shoulder and nodded. "Thanks, Colby; really, thank you for everything, for taking care of Charlie and getting him here. From what I've been told, you may have saved his life. If he had been alone... if he had been driving..." Don had to stop and collect himself a little. Getting emotional right now would do no one any good. "Look I know you missed your flight to D.C. Tomorrow, I'll make a call and explain..."

"Don't worry about it, Don. You have your hands full here. I can take care of D.C."

No more words needed to be exchanged between them so Don turned to the others. "They are going to start to lower Charlie's body temperature now. The surgery will take place in two to three hours. I'm hoping that my father will be here before they start but by then Charlie won't be able to respond to him at all. They are going to sedate him heavily when they force him into hypothermia so that he doesn't start to shiver, which would be counter-productive. The surgery itself will take at least four to six hours so I suggest that everyone take off and get some rest and get something to eat."

Larry turned to put an arm around Amita, who was reluctant to go anywhere, to guide her to the door when Don stepped over to them. "Amita, I... look I don't know how with-it Charlie is right now but I really think that he should see you one more time. Would you stay with me here until they put him under?"

The gratitude in her eyes was answer enough for Don. While the others filed out of the ICU lounge, Don and Amita turned and headed back to Charlie's room. They sat with him for a few minutes before the sedation was administered. Don wanted to back off and give them some privacy but both Charlie and Amita wanted him to stay. Charlie seemed more lucid now than he had when Don first saw him, which seemed somehow encouraging to him

While Don was explaining everything out in the lounge, they had removed all of Charlie's clothes and covered him in a large puffy white plastic blanket -like sheet that cold air was being pumped into. It looked almost like something you might see on a space ship. As the sedation was administered and he began to drift off, Don and Amita sat and watching him toss and turn, as he became more and more agitated. The nurse explained that it was not uncommon for this sort of restlessness to manifest, since the hemorrhage was essentially an insult to his brain, and that was what was causing his behavior. She assured them that once the sedation completely took effect he would simply look as though he were sleeping.

After only a few minutes Charlie lay utterly still, just as Don had first seen him in that bed. The thought that he might never see his brother whole and sound again almost made him change his mind about the whole thing, but he knew that this had to be done. Holding Amita's hand more tightly than he realized, he sat there and stared at his younger brother until the only sound that filled his ears was the hum of the air pump being used to fill the cooling blanket with freezing air.

Don was so focused on Charlie as he slowly lost color in his face and lips that he never noticed the tear that dropped down his face or the warmth of the petite hand he was holding. He didn't need to fear that Amita would see his weakness, however; her vision was also blurred with emotion. They sat there together, joined by a common fear, the same desperate prayer in both of their hearts.

A/N - Well I hope that this chapter six met with your expectations. I am a lot happier with it now, than when I posted chapter five and took a quick look at six. My impression at that point in time was:

"Oh my God, this sucks!"

Now I must warn you to be ready. Chapter seven will leave you a little mad at me, but then again that's half the fun of reading these stories isn't it?

Thank you to all of my unregistered reviewers. I have been trying to keep up with replies to reviews but there are some of you I can't reply to directly; so I'll do that here. Thank you again for your great comments and impressions. It actually helps me to know what to delete and what to add when I am looking at a chapter and saying to myself "Oh my God, this sucks!" LOL