Disclaimer: See part Prologue.

A/N1: Thank you Celadon for proofing this chapter. I really appreciate it..

A/NII: I'm so sorry to keep you waiting. RL happened… Xavier Rudd is an artist my roommate suggested when I asked her "To what kind of music an English Canadian flight attendant could be listening while cooking in the middle of the afternoon?" Thanks Vikie.

800 Miles to Remember

Part 4: Present day

Chapter 9: Laurie.

I rested my kitchen knife back on the cutting board by the second knock on the door. I had barely heard it over the loud music that was playing in the living room. I glanced at the micro wave's digital clock. It was 2:33 P.M. I wondered who it might be in the middle of the afternoon. Most of my neighbours were out at work. Still, I figured it had to be one of them for no one had used to exterior inter-com to announce his or her arrival and being let in the building. Maybe the landlord had let those two colleagues of Don's back in so they could have more answers to their questions. Hey! Maybe it was D.D. himself coming to let me know that he was all right. On that happy prospect, I hurried to the door. I lowered Xavier Rudd's voice on my way through the living room.

I quickly took a peek through the peep hole. I was disappointment to note that the man standing on the other side of the door was not Don Eppes. In fact, I almost failed to recognize my unexpected visitor. I sucked in a breath when I did. It was not in my nature to anticipate the worse out of events, but this time I could not help myself. Why would this man come to the apartment I was sharing with my husband, Marc, if it was not to deliver bad news? I opened the door with a composure I did not felt.

"Mr. Eppes, please come in." I greeted the elder man

"I'm sorry, I don't want to bother you-" he apologized.

"Don't be silly. It's no bother," I assured him as I led us both to the kitchen. "Please, have a seat." I quickly busied myself with the kettle then retrieved some rooibos tea I had imported from Africa.

"I was passing by Donnie's- Don's apartment to get a few things when I heard the music," Mr. Eppes began.

"Yes, I believe it's hard to miss from the hallway. I try to go easy on the volume when I know Don's at his place since he only uses it to catch some sleep and change clothes," I put two cups on the dining table in front of my friend's father. I took it upon myself to bring up the unavoidable question. "Don?" I asked softly. "Have they found him? Is he-?"

"He's alive," Alan Eppes reassured me with a gentle smile. "They found him a few hours ago. I can't say that he's fine, but he's alive and doing relatively well."

I dropped in a chair beside my visitor. I allowed myself a sigh of relief. "Thank God."

"I apologize, Laurie. I didn't know you were that worried. I should have told you sooner."

"That's okay, Mr. Eppes. I'm just very relieved that he's alive," I told him sincerely. "You said that he's not fine. What happened to him?"

"That's a question that remains to be answered," he replied as I stood up in order to remove the kettle off the stove. As I fixed us some tea, he related the little he knew about his older son showing up at a crime scene, injured and with amnesia.

"Amnesia?" I repeated baffled. "You mean, he has no idea who he is?"

"Neither could he remember Charlie or Megan. According to him, all he could recall was numbers."

"Obviously," I could not help myself from pointing out. My visitor gave me a dubious look. "Leave it to Don to find a way – even unconsciously – to keep communicating with his brother and looking out for his feelings. It seems to be very important to him."

"Hum…" Mr. Eppes considered for a moment. He finally nodded, agreeing with my observation. "I didn't think about it that way, but you may be right. Even at times when they were at odds with each other and/or miles apart, Don always made sure Charlie was all right – not only physically but emotionally as well. Like his mother and me, Don always protected his younger brother the best he could."

"Older brother's first responsibility," I said sympathetically.

Alan Eppes returned my smile. "Charlie said that, not only was Don sole remembering numbers, he has been coming up with equations of his own. You should have heard Charlie over the phone. He was so thrilled and amazed by the level of math his brother has been using; he was speaking a mile a minute. Donnie's an intelligent man. He never showed such an aptitude for arithmetic and statistics before, but he always scored very high on information processing and reasoning tasks. I wouldn't be too surprised to find out that he understands math better than the average person."

"And probably more than he always wanted to let on," I added. "After all, it's in the nature of siblings to try to be as different as possible from each other – or very much alike."

"You sound like someone who speaks from experience," my friend's father noted.

"Don't get me started on my relationship with my younger sister – if you could call that a relationship. Things are a lot smoother with my younger brother. Anyway…" I strategically brought the discussion back to my neighbour and friend. "Based on the little I know from Don's work – he doesn't talk much about it – he has been relying a lot on Charlie's expertise to solve cases over the last few years. He had to retain some of the principles his brother taught him. Well, I know he did. I heard him refer to them on occasion."

"In truth, Donnie has been exposed to high level math ever since Charlie was three. He's aware of what makes his brother's tick and how to communicate with him. On the other hand, my youngest son has never been too good in emotionally strong situations, although he's has come great ways in coping and caring for others ever since Don came back to L.A. and exposed him to what he does. They've been learning a lot from each other."

"I think you can trust them to care of each other."

"I believe you're right. Thank you, Laurie. I now feel a lot better about Charlie being alone – well, without me – over there in New Mexico"

"You're welcome, Mr. Eppes."

He took a sip of tea then looked back up at me a bit sheepishly. "You must be wondering why I came to see you."

"There's a reason other than to tell me that Don's been found alive?" I asked a bit teasingly.

"David Sinclair told me that you and your husband were in New Mexico with Don."

"And you're wondering why." My companion gave me a guilty smile. I leaned forward as if I would be telling him a secret. "Our band needed a piano player for a gig we did one night in Santa Fe."

Alan Eppes' eyes rounded in surprise. I cherished seeing disbelief creep upon his face. "You convinced Donnie to play piano in public?"

"Well, it took some doing and it was in fact a team effort, but yeah – we did."

"What else did you convince my son to do?"

I grinned. "Among other things, we talked him into bringing his new girlfriend along."

"Robin."

"You mean, Erin," I corrected him. "Robin has been past history for weeks now."

"Really?" Mr. Eppes questioned, taken aback once again.

"D.D. didn't tell you that she dumped him, did he?"

"He indeed failed to mention that," Don's father said as he reached for his cup of tea. "She dumped him, huh? I guess he's making some progress after all."

"You call that progress?" I asked. It was my turned to be dubious.

"Definitely," the older man replied.

"Well, I'm interested in knowing what's behind that affirmation," I told him.

"It will be my pleasure to elaborate on that matter if you tell me about this Erin."

"Deal," I agreed with a wicked grin. "Would you like more tea?"

"Yes, please. Oh, and Laurie, what does D.D. stands for?"

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TBC

A/N: Again thank you for reading. I hope you liked it and that it was worth the wait.