"I'm telling you Charlie, anomaly only has one O." Don said chuckling as he took a sip of his beer, watching as Charlie glared down at the scrabble board between them.

After their intense conversation to clear the air, Don and Charlie agreed to just hang out like brothers. No talking about work, no talking about math.

And well Scrabble seemed like a good idea.

Now Charlie wasn't so sure.

"I used that word every day at work!" Charlie challenged; "I know how it's spelt."

"Clearly not buddy." Don leant back down to rest his forearms on his legs as he stared at his tiles and the board; "Now come on just pick another word so I can take my go."

"No I want to check a dictionary. I know this is how it's spelt."

Sighing amused, Don just leant back and waved his hands; "Go ahead buddy. Five bucks says I'm right."

"You're on!" Charlie pointed at him jumping up and racing to the bookshelf. Just after the front door opened.

"Dad hey!" Don said cheerfully smiling at him as he readjusted his letters; "How was the date?"

"Good. Fine." Alan replied hesitantly refusing to give away any answers. Then he walked further into the room eyeing the scrabbled board and Charlie and Don; "Oh you're playing Scrabble."

"Well trying to, but Charlie's cheating." Don teased and Charlie glared at him.

"I am not cheating. Dad!" He turned to him pleadingly gesturing at the board; "Tell Don that is how you spell anomaly right?"

Alan peered at the board and shook his head; "Sorry Charlie. There's only one O in anomaly."

"What? No I know how to spell..." Charlie trailed off as he found the right page and then the word.

Seeing Charlie's face, Don grinned clapping his hands together; "That's five bucks you owe me Chuck."

Snapping the book closed, Charlie rolled his eyes; "Yeah yeah whatever." He turned back to the board pulling back his letters.

Alan watched them amused as he sat down between the two of them watching.

"Hey dad you want to play?" Don said leaving Charlie to spew for a minute.

"Yeah sure." Alan slipped off his jacket and pulled out a scrabble tray and picked some letters.

Charlie lay down some new letters spelling HOT.

"Really Charlie? Hot." Don scoffed.

"Hey that's on a triple word tile so that's 27 points thank you very much."

"Alright hey way to go buddy." Don said grinning.

Alan smirked and Don turned to him amused.

"Hey what's so funny?"

"Nothing it's just well I mean here are my two sons, home on a Friday night playing scrabble, and their father just came home from a date. It's just funny."

"I think that was a subtle hint to hurry up and get married already." Charlie murmured to Don, who made a sound of agreement.

"Well I'm not getting married anytime soon but I do alright." Don reasoned and Charlie raised an eyebrow; "Hey I do."

"Yeah well so do I." Charlie defended.

"You mean your one date with Amita?"

Charlie glared at Don; "It's your go and I'm going to be checking the spelling.""

"Alright alright here we go would you look at that!" Don cheered as he put down letters to make up the Zoology. And the Y was on the triple word tile; "That's 60 points."

Alan whistled and even Charlie looked impressed.

"Well done Don." Charlie murmured looking at him with a small smile.

"Thanks Chuck."

Charlie didn't complain at him calling him Chuck, just merely smiled which made Don smile. He may have grumbled about the whole anomaly thing, but truthfully this was the most fun Charlie had had in a long time. He may love his work, but he loved hanging out with his family more. Maybe the whole taking breaks thing wasn't so bad.

"Alright dad your go." Don said patting his arm before reaching for his beer.

He couldn't help the grin that formed as he watched Charlie trying to read through the dictionary and look at his letters, and then at his father as he was talking to Charlie.

He loved them both more than anything, and couldn't imagine a better way to spend his evening. Yeah he could be out dating some woman, but this was way more fun. And now he'd cleared the air with Charlie, it was nice to hang out with his brother again.

He planned on doing it a lot more in the future.

He may have told Charlie that locking away all his emotions was how he coped with the horrors of his job, but it was actually this. Coming home to his family is what kept him going. Kept him grounded. And that's all he needed.

THE END.