When it Rains Chapter 10
Don sat in the uncomfortable hospital chair watching his brother. He had never left Charlie's side from the instant the doctor had come and told him and his father how close Charlie had actually come to dying.
He remembered first stepping in to the room and gasping at Charlie's deathly ill features. Almost immediately Don had found himself by his brother's side, fighting the tears that threatened to come.
That had been five days ago, almost to the minute, and Charlie still showed no sign of waking up.
Tearing his gaze away from his brother, Don looked over at his father, who was snoozing away in the other hospital chair.
A blanket was draped around his form and a pillow was tucked up under his head, courtesy of a passing nurse during the previous night.
Sighing softly, Don sniffled a little before he turned his attention back to Charlie.
"I know what you must be thinking, Charlie. That I hate you, but buddy, I don't. Believe me, I don't. When I said that to you I was just mad, jealous and tired of being in your shadow. Tired of being known as 'Charlie's brother'. But now that the years have passed, and I've lived my own life, I have come to realize that I had nothing to be jealous about.
"In fact, I have every reason to be proud of you, because you have helped me through many difficult times, and all I did to thank you for it was bite your head off. But..no more buddy. We're a family, and I think it's time that I started acting like it. I know that it'll be hard to forgive and forget the past, but I hope that we can finally start to get over it." Don whispered softly to his little brother as he continued to hold on to the lax hand.
Gazing down at the fine fingers that were usually moving non stop, gave Don pause, because they were so still..so lax.
"You just gotta wake up buddy." Don begged as he closed his eyes, bowed his head and allowed a few tears to fall on to his brother's hand.
While Don's head was bowed, he missed the flinch of Charlie's eyelids as Don's tears hit Charlie's hand. Slowly, Charlie opened his eyes and looked over at his brother with compassion written all over his face.
Opening his mouth, Charlie said just four words. "I forgive you, Donnie."
Quickly Don's head shot up and his mouth dropped open in shock at seeing his little brother awake.
"Charlie..? Charlie!" Don said as he leaned over and carefully hugged his brother.
At hearing Don's exclamation, Alan Eppes awoke, dropped the pillow and rushed over to Charlie's side when he saw Charlie's calm, brown eyes looking back at him.
"Oh my son..Charlie." Alan said as he took his son in his arms and hugged him for all he was worth.
While this was going on, Don was just sitting in the chair smiling.
Charlie was back. His little brother was back. But more importantly, Don had been forgiven. At that was something he was always going to cherish.
"Oh Charlie, you had no idea how worried we all were." Alan said.
"I know dad. I saw you and Donnie crying. That's why I came back. I can't stand to see two grown men crying." Charlie said with a slight chuckle.
Alan and Don joined in and soon all three Eppes men were enjoying a good laugh.
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Slowly one week passed since Charlie had first been admitted. And slowly Charlie's vitals went back to normal. Doctors kept coming in to check up on him, and every time Charlie would start to complain.
Finally, though, he was allowed to go back home.
As the car pulled to a stop outside the house, Don leapt out of the front seat, went around to the back, popped the trunk, pulled out the wheelchair and opened it up while Alan went around to the other side and opened the backseat door.
"Um, you know I can walk." Charlie said, looking at the wheelchair with disgust.
"We know you can walk, but the doctor said you need to stay off of your feet for the next several days." Don replied as he, with the help of his father, settled Charlie in to the wheelchair.
"But I..!"
"No buts Charlie!" Don shot back, giving his brother a stern glare which made Charlie shut up.
Straitening, Don and Alan shared a look before they pushed Charlie towards the house.
As they got closer towards the house, Don began to wonder just how Charlie was going to take the sudden set of events that would happen within the next ten seconds.
First Alan got the door and held it open while Don pushed his brother into the darkened house.
Not two seconds later the lights came on and the loud exclamation, "WELCOME HOME, CHARLIE!" rang throughout the house.
Charlie paled considerably as his heart rate increased, but when he saw who all was there, he forced himself to calm down.
In the living room, with smiles on all their faces, stood Megan, David, Colby, Larry and Amita.
"It's great to see you out of the hospital, Charlie." Amita said as she walked over to him and patted him on the shoulder.
"Yeah Charlie. We were all beginning to wonder if you were going to take up permanent residence in that place." Colby joked.
"After spending three days there, I was ready to come home." Charlie replied truthfully as he was wheeled into the living room and helped on to the couch.
While everyone took up chairs and began to talk about this and that, Charlie's attention kept diverting to the closed door leading to the garage…and his chalkboards.
To him it seemed like forever since he had stood before those boards and worked on any math problem, and he was just dying to get back to it.
Amita, catching Charlie's semi lost look, said, "Math will still be there when you're stronger, Charlie."
"I know it's just…"
"You miss it so much that you feel the need to return to it." Amita said.
Slowly Charlie nodded his head as he looked at her.
"Just wait a little longer Charlie. It'll still be there." Amita replied as she hooked one arm around Charlie's arm.
Charlie looked down at their now intertwined hands and slowly he smiled.
He was now just getting comfortable with the thought and idea of dating Amita, and that was her first step of agreement as well.
Looking back up, Charlie saw that Amita was smiling at him as well.
"I'll just..wait a little longer." Charlie agreed as he settled back against the couch and turned his attention to the conversation between Don and David.