Charlie was mostly out of it all night, having trouble staying awake.

But he vaguely remembered, waking up a few times in the night. Having a coughing fit or throwing up.

There were voices and people there helping him, trying to assure him it was going to be ok.

He could have sworn a couple of them sounded like his dad and Don. But that didn't seem right.

Nothing seemed right. Everything was wrong. Just wrong.

"Charlie?" A voice was calling to him, and through his foggy haze he fought to hang onto that voice. It was familiar, and comforting.

"Chuck? Hey buddy? You hear me?"

"Don't call me chuck." Charlie grumbled, blinking his eyes open, coming face to face with Don's smiling face, as he was sitting in a chair by his bedside.

"Whatever you say buddy." Don chuckled, looking at something the other side of him.

"Charlie?"

Charlie shifted his head and smiled when he saw his dad.

"Hi dad."

"Hey Charlie. How are you feeling?"

Charlie paused for a moment considering that. His head still hurt, but it wasn't as bad. Mostly he just felt...

"Hungry."

Don scoffed and Charlie turned to him frowning.

"That's good buddy." Don patted his arm; "Let me get your doctor, see what we can get you."

He went to stand but Alan straightened up knowing Don and Charlie needed to have a talk; "No Don it's alright I'll go. I need to talk to the doctor anyway." As he left he sent Don a look, and Don nodded in thanks.

"What time is it?" Charlie said squinting as he craned his head to look outside seeing it was dark.

"Late." Don said with a sigh before he straightened up; "Oh and I just wanted to tell you. We caught those robbers. Thanks to that algorithm of yours."

"Really?" Charlie brightened; "Oh good. I'm glad I could help."

"Yeah and the doctor says you're doing better. The infections cleared up, and we can take you home in the morning. That's great right?"

"Oh yeah great."

There was a moment of silence between them and Don tried to wrack his brain for what he was going to say. He wasn't good at this whole talking thing, especially with Charlie.

"Listen Charlie about what you said earlier."

"What I said?" Charlie repeated looking confused.

Don paused tilting his head wondering if Charlie even remembered; "Oh um well when we spoke last you said you didn't want to tell me about the bike crash because you thought you'd disappoint me."

"Oh."

"What did you mean?"

"Oh I dunno. I don't really remember..." Charlie lied.

"Charlie." Don said in that tone, that said he knew he was lying and he wasn't letting up.

Charlie turned to him and sighed turning to look at the ceiling.

"I know that dad came to you saying I was sick. That's why you came to check on me at lunch, and why you were so insistent on driving me home from CalSci."

"Ok yeah so what if I was going to drive you home? I've done it before."

"I'm not a kid anymore Don. I don't need you to baby sit me, or drive me home from school."

"Well clearly you do if you're going to pull crap like that." Don snapped before instantly regretting it, seeing Charlie's face.

Sighing, Don rubbed his face; "Ok look Charlie. What do you want from me? I'm your brother, and I'm going to worry about you. I'm going to protect you. So is dad."

"I just..."

"What?"

Charlie turned to look at him a pained expression; "Can I ask you a question?"

"Of course Charlie. You can ask me anything."

"Do you like working with me?"

"What kind of question is that? Of course I do buddy. You're a great help."

Charlie looked saddened by that and Don didn't know why.

"Come on Charlie talk to me. I can't read minds you know. What is it?"

"Do you ever wonder where we would be if I didn't help you on cases?"

"What? No, I can't say I have Charlie. Why?"

"I just do sometimes." Charlie turned to look down at the blanket as he played with the hem.

Don's head was spinning. Had Charlie been hiding this all this time? It was now he really wished he could know what was going on in Charlie's head.

"You know what Charlie. I don't care where we might have been, I just care where we are now. And I hate all that time we lost out on when we drifted apart. I don't ever want to go back to that. You are an important part of my life now, maybe one of the most important person's. Ok?"

Charlie was left dumbstruck, Don was speaking so fierce Charlie knew Don meant every word. And it was so not what he expected.

"Ok." Charlie said finally. There were still lots of thoughts going on in his head, but that one made Charlie feel a bit better.

"Ok good." Don sighed in relief, taking a chance and reaching out to take Charlie's hand.

Charlie looked down at their hands before at Don. For a moment seeing pure worry and fear on his face, it made him pause.

"You know I love you right buddy?"

Charlie hesitated, seeing this was really important to Don. And he was surprised. He knew Don loved him, and he loved Don, but they never really said it.

"I know Don. I love you too."

Don smiled, squeezing his hand.

It was then their dad walked in with a plate of food and Dr Williams.

"Hello Charlie. I hear you're feeling better. You ready to see if you can eat something?"

Charlie just nodded eyeing the plate as his dad set it down on a table and spun it to him so it rested above his legs.

Sitting up, Charlie winced at the movement before looking at the doctor.

"So I can go home soon?"

"Well you are doing better so it's looking like it. But let's see if you can keep this down shall we?"

Charlie was certainly willing to try, he was starving. And the idea of going home sounded great. He hated hospitals.

0o0o0oNumb3rs0o0o0o0o

Charlie was fuming as he was sitting in a wheelchair in his room, drumming his fingers impatiently.

"Is this really necessary?" Charlie snapped, glaring up at his brother and Dr Williams; "I can walk you know."

"It's policy." Dr Williams shrugged with a smile; "Atleast until you get outside. Then it's up to your brother."

"Don." Charlie whined, but Don just shook his head as he moved to behind the wheelchair.

"Sorry buddy. No walking for you. Doctor's order for rest."

"Fine." Charlie glowered sinking in the chair crossing his arms.

Don thanked the doctors for their care of Charlie, and once Charlie got over his little tantrum he did too.

Dr Williams even gave Don his phone number in case he needed to call with any questions or worries about Charlie, which Don thought was really useful.

As they got outside, Charlie seemed to brighten about the prospect of finally going home, which pleased Don.

When the doctors told Charlie he couldn't go to work for the next week or two, Charlie had gotten really upset. Don knew Charlie's work was everything to him.

As they got to Don's car, Charlie started to get up.

"Need a hand buddy." Don quickly moved to take Charlie's arm, but he waved him off.

"Jeez Don, I only have a concussion and the flu. I can walk."

Don raised an eyebrow at the snippy tone, trying to remember the doctor's warned him one of the symptoms of the concussion was irritability and personality changes. He hoped it wasn't permanent.

"Alright. Just trying to help buddy. You do have stitches remember. Have to be careful not to rip them."

"Oh right." Charlie forgot about them, relenting and letting Don help him into the passenger side of the car.

When he was finally settled, Charlie took a moment to close his eyes, feeling suddenly exhausted, and his head was pounding bad.

"You ok Charlie?" Don asked as he got in the car, eyeing his brother closely.

"Tired. Wow when did it get so hard to get into a car?"

Don nodded in sympathy; "The doctors said just because they're releasing you doesn't mean you're back to normal. You're still sick and injured. You need rest."

"Yeah yeah." Charlie sighed as Don started driving, focusing on looking out the window.

But for some reason the blurs of cars and landscape outside the window were making him nauseas. He rolled his head to watch Don instead.

"Atleast I can get some of my cognitive emergence theory work done whilst I'm recovering."

"Nuh uh Charlie." Don said simply shaking his head; "No work. You heard the doctors."

"Yeah I know no FBI cases or going to CalSci."

"No Charlie. No work period." Don looked at Charlie to make sure the message was clear; "Your mind needs rest, and having to concentrate on any kind of work will just aggravate your symptoms. Make your headaches worse. So no math work of any kind, no TV or cellphones, no electronics at all."

Charlie glowered; "So what am I supposed to do?"

"Rest."

This was going to be a difficult few weeks.

"That's all I've been doing Don." Charlie whined, feeling really agitated and tired. His head was starting to pound again, and he felt nausea all of a sudden.

Don looked at him a couple of times; "Charlie? You ok? Do you want me to pull over?"

Unable to speak knowing he would throw up if he did, Charlie just shook his head closing his eyes.

"Alright buddy. Just take is easy. We're nearly home. But if you think you're going to be sick, you let me know ok?"

There was no response again.

"Charlie?" Don paused to look at Charlie quickly, and was surprised to see he was fast asleep. His skin was still too pale and clammy.

The doctors had given a very lengthy discussion to Don and his father, telling them that although Charlie's fever had gone down from serious levels, it was still rather high and that was going to make Charlie a little out of it for a while. He was still suffering from the flu, and those symptoms could be worsened by his concussion. They warned Charlie may seem worse before he gets better, and that was to be expected. Don had to say he wasn't sure he could be prepared for that. He hated seeing Charlie hurt or sick, and being unable to help him feel better, it sucked. Especially, knowing he was responsible.

But he was going to make sure Charlie didn't get worse.

He'd taken the rest of the week off as personal days, warning Megan not to call him under any circumstance. Charlie was his focus right now.

Nothing else mattered.