When he woke up the next day, he was surprised to find himself alone in his room. He turned around in his bed, finding that his head ached a bit, he felt tired, as if he'd run 20 miles, and his hands hurt.

He looked at his hands, seeing for the first time all the little scratches, the bandage over his right palm and his bruised knuckles.

"Crap" That brought back the memories of his little scene the night before. So much for keeping it cool.

Wearily, he made his way out of his bed, he moved to his door, intending to survey the damage on his living room. As he opened his bedroom door, he heard the voices of Sam and Danny coming from the kitchen.

"It's not like I was pouring me some scotch, Danny!" Don immediately tensed, Sam sounded panicked.

Danny, on the other hand, sounded calm, a little too calm. "I'm not asking you for an explanation, Sam."

"I just took a beer out of the fridge! I was going to take just one sip, maybe a few, but that was it! I wasn't going to get drunk at my brother's place, for chrissake!"

There was silence, and after a beat, Danny spoke. "Sam, you are free to do whatever you wish to do, I'm just saying that if you feel like this whole thing is too much, you don't need a bottle to keep you company, you can talk to me, to Linds, even Adam would be happy to lend an ear if you gave him a call. You're not alone on this…"

Sam sounded a little calmer now "I know, Dan, it's just… I've never seen him so broken… He-he's my big brother… He's always been the strong one, and now… It feels like nothing I do is enough… I can't help him, and it breaks my heart…" Her voice cracked, and don could hear her little sister's muffled sobs.

Don moved back to his room, closing the door silently and sitting on his bed. He leaned forward, holding his head with his hands. He was breaking his little sister's heart. He couldn't go on like this, she needed his help, needed her brother, not a weeping-whining shadow of him.

Sure, the pain was still there, as strong as the first day, and it probably wouldn't go away for a long time, but he could deal with it by himself, he didn't have to burden his family, his friends, with something that he could handle when he had the time, something he could keep inside, as he did after the bomb, he was good at holding the pain inside, and working through it.

He heard footsteps coming towards his door, and turned around to see Sam peeking though it. She looked surprised to see him up and about.

"Donnie! You're awake!" She moved to sit by his side, kissing him on the cheek. "How are you feeling?"

He shrugged, looking down. "I'm alright." He looked at her. "Listen, Sam, I'm sorry about last night… I… I don't know what happened, I didn't mean to-"

He was interrupted by Sam. "No, Don, you don't have to apologize for anything!"

"But I scared you! I could have hurt you!" Just then, Danny peeked into the room. Don could see a faint bruise on his jaw. He stood on shaky legs, taking a few steps away from Danny. "Damn, I hurt you, didn't I?"

Danny shrugged, coming closer to Don. "Don't worry about it, man, it's nothin'!"

"It's not nothing, Dan! I hit you in the face!"

Danny sat to the other side of Don. "Flack, man, it's not a big deal, I know you didn't mean it! Let's just forget it happened, alright?"

Don sighed, running a hand over his face. "It's just… I don't know what happened last night. I'm sorry! I- It won't happen again…" He looked from Danny to Sam.

"Hey, hey, you have nothing to apologize for, yesterday was a crappy day, and we get it… You don't have to apologize to us, ok?" Danny patted him on the knee.

"Alright..." Don nodded, not too convinced.

Sam stood up from the bed, looking a bit nervous. Don noted for the first time that she was carrying her purse. "Listen, Donnie, I have to run an errand, and I'll be back in a couple of hours, ok?" She sounded nervous too, like she was afraid to get caught doing something bad.

After hearing her conversation with Danny, Don could imagine where she was heading, and he couldn't resent that. "Sam, go, I'll be fine here! 'sides, you probably didn't get much sleep last night, you can go home, I promise I won't trash the place again today." He tried to give her an encouraging smile, not sure how successful he was at it.

Sam looked a bit relieved. "Alright, I'll stop by tomorrow. Eat something and call me if you need anything, ok?" She kissed Don on the cheek and turned to Danny. "You're staying here?"

"Yeah, there's cold pizza in the kitchen, we could watch the movie we didn't watch last night… Where else would I go?"

Sam laughed, and with a last wave, left. Don turned to Danny. "Dan, you don't have to stay here, you could go check on Lucy, or something…"

"Nah, a movie, a couple of beers and some pizza don't sound too bad, I'll check on my screeching bundle of joy in a couple of hours."

That made Don chuckle. "She that bad?"

They both stood, heading to the living room. "You've no idea how loud she can get…"

A week later, Don was exhausted. He had decided that his grieving was hurting those around him, so he had bottled it up, not allowing himself to show more emotion than necessary.

He was trying to show them that he was moving on, that he was healing, so he accepted every invitation, listened to all the advices, returned all the hugs with a grateful smile. He was thankful, they were trying to help, and he felt he had no right to burst that bubble. He was the problem, so he'd deal with it when he could.

They kept him busy during the days. Danny would invite him over to visit Lucy or to have dinner with him and Lindsay, Stella and Mac showed up at his apartment always willing to listen, but he never had much to say, Adam invited him to play videogames, and sometimes he came over with his console, Hawkes kept checking if he was eating well, taking care of his head, and the rest of the crime lab stopped by or sent their love more than once. Sam, was staying over every other night, mothering him as if she was the big sister, and he let her.

The nights were a completely different story. Once he was left alone with his thoughts, they would unerringly go to that day, to the blood, to the look on her face. The few hours of sleep he got during that week were plagued by nightmares of that day, so coffee became his best friend.

He had kept this mask for a whole week, sleeping one hour at most every night, and pretending that nothing was wrong the next day, but the armor was cracking by now. His temper was short, and he hated the look of hurt on his friends' faces when he let it show.

The last straw came at the worst possible place.

He was at Danny and Lindsay's house, they had invited him for dinner, and while Danny was setting the table, and Lindsay was busy at the kitchen, he had gone to check on Lucy, looking at her big blue eyes and the look on her face as she blew tiny bubbles with her mouth.

For some reason, he started thinking on Jess, on how the dream of having a family with her had been shattered, and he took a step away from Lucy's crib. Danny seemed to notice the change on his friend, and moved to put a hand on his shoulder. "Flack, are you alright?"

Don shrugged his hand off and moved further away from Danny. "Don't worry about it man, I'm fine."

Danny didn't buy it for a second. "That's a load of crap, Don. Talk to me, man."

"There's nothing to talk about, just leave me alone."

"Don! We're just trying to help!"

Don had had enough, so he moved to the door. "You wanna help? Just mind your own business, take care of your family and back the hell off! Just leave me alone!" With that, he left.

Two hours later, Danny was parking outside of Don's building. He had been trying for at least an hour to get in touch with Don, but he wasn't answering either his mobile or his home line. He had called Sam a while back, and she wasn't very successful either, so they had agreed to check on him and deal with the damage.

They met at his door, and Danny used his spare key. As they entered, they were surprised to find the apartment far too quiet, and it looked like there was no sign of Don. Since he didn't seem to be at home, Danny tried to reach him on his mobile one more time, only to hear it ringing in the kitchen.

Don had left it there, but he was nowhere to be found.

TBC…

A/N: Well, I hope you're still enjoying this story, and I thank all of you who keep reading and supporting this weird tale.

Please review, and I'll see you around!!