THE LAST ONE!
Disclaimer: Not mine. Never will be :(
Rating:Pg-13
Beta: infomarvinetta Thank you for being such a wonderful beta!
A/N: This is it, folks. The end of the road. You know the drill. R&R
Urban Legends
Chapter Eight
Don paced as he waited for news on Charlie. He hated hospitals, had hated them since long before he got called back from Albuquerque because of his mother's illness. The white walls, the echoing corridor, the sterile feel of the waiting room put a strain on Don's nerves. Hearing the constant pages for doctors, listening to children cry, some from exhaustion, some from pain, knowing that everyone in that room waited to hear about a loved one… and he was sure the old man in the corner was praying in Yiddish. Who in LA prayed in Yiddish anyway? Don stopped his pacing as he realized he sounded a lot like Charlie would in this situation. The thought almost made him smile…almost.
At least Dr. Reeves had been available when Charlie had gotten here. And knowing what was probably in Charlie's system could do nothing but help. He felt a hand on his shoulder, but didn't turn, knowing it was Amita since Terry had offered to go back to the office in order to help find out who had done this to Charlie.
"I'm sorry, Don," Amita said softly.
Don's emotions warred within him. He was scared and tired, but he was also mad at himself. He should have been able to protect his little brother from the harsh realities of the world. But there was no real way to accomplish that. Don wanted to be mad at Amita, he really did, but he knew that what had happened wasn't really her fault. Even if going to the club without telling Don wasn't exactly stupid. Well, it was because Charlie was trying to find out where the drug was coming from, but it shouldn't have been dangerous just to hang out on a Friday night.
He turned towards Amita and led her back to the chairs along the wall. "You don't have to apologize, Amita. You didn't do anything wrong."
Before Amita could respond, Alan came running in. He saw Don and Amita and rushed over. "Donny! Where's Charlie? Is he all right?"
Don stood and put a hand on his father's shoulder. "Charlie's in with the doctors right now. He was drugged—"
"Drugged?" Alan exclaimed.
"Dad, listen. Charlie was slipped something while he was out tonight. The doctors know what it was and they're with him now."
"Is he all right? How could this happen?"
"I'm sure Charlie's going to be fine," Don assured Alan, trying to convince himself of that very thing. "We just need to wait for the doctor to come out." He half supported, half dragged his father over to the chairs and sat him down. "Let me go see if I can find someone who knows something," he offered. Don headed over to the nurse's station, hoping someone could find out what was happening with Charlie.
&&&&&&&
Terry walked into the office and over to David's desk. "Charlie's in with the doctors now, they're trying to get his system under control," Terry started, answering the unasked question in David's eyes. "They're treating him for a drug overdose of that TX147 compound they've been researching, but it will be a few hours before they really know anything."
"Is Don all right?"
"He will be, as long as nothing happens to Charlie. Amita's at the hospital with him and his father's probably there by now, so he's not alone." Terry sat in her chair and rolled it up to David's desk. "The best thing we can do right now is find out who did this to Charlie. It's what Don would want."
David pulled out his notes. "I've made a list of all the Beta Omega Gamma members from the last few years. I took the list from Forbidden Sights and there are currently 2 bartenders that are members of the fraternity, dating back 5 years. And one waiter who joined the fraternity this year."
"What about XTC employees?"
"Well, currently there are not any Beta Omega Gamma members working there, but there was a waiter that had been in the fraternity that worked there from August through November."
"That co-insides with the attack on Carol. He could have been working the night of the attack."
"Yes. He moved out of state after he graduated this past winter. I also looked over the schedule and, although there was no one person who worked every night we know an attack happened, at least one of these boys was working during every attack."
"Well," Terry thought. "Fraternities are close. These boys probably would rely on each other for alibis and what better way than to make sure none of you are a common factor…" She paused as she thought. "We have a pretty good idea that Wohlmer is supplying the drugs, but he's not going to talk. You've been looking over the lists, who do you think we should contact?"
David looked over his lists. "I think we should talk to Sam White. He just joined the fraternity this year and may be more willing to talk to us."
Terry nodded. "Or less scared. If he hasn't been in with the others for very long than he may not feel as much of the loyalty that the others would."
David looked at his watch. "It will have to wait until morning. Sam White is not scheduled to work tonight and even if someone's used to working late hours, calling them at 2:00am is not a good idea."
Terry nodded, knowing that David was right. "Okay. We can stop by his apartment in the morning. I'm going to call Don and see how Charlie's doing and then head home."
"Good night, Terry," David said as he gathered his files.
&&&&&&&
Don stood up as Dr. Reeves came over to the waiting area. Alan approached them and Don took a moment for introductions. "Dr. Reeves, this is our father, Alan. Dad, Dr. Reeves has been taking care of Charlie."
"How is he?" Alan asked desperately.
Dr. Reeves addressed both of them. "Well, he managed to ingest quite a bit of the TX147, and his body was reacting to it. But, since the young woman told us what was in Charlie's system, we were able to counteract the overdose fairly easily."
"So he's okay?"
Dr. Reeves nodded. "He'll be just fine." Don felt relief rush through him and almost missed the rest of Dr. Reeves's statement. "…so he may be in and out a bit for the next few hours. Yes, you may visit him," Dr. reeves supplied with a twinkle, obviously anticipating the question. "And he's been asking for you, Don, but let him rest as much as possible. And as long as everything looks good tomorrow, we'll be able to send him home."
"Thank you, Doctor," Don said as Alan went to fill Amita in on the news.
Dr. Reeves just smiled. "I just wish we could have found out more about who is doing this, Agent."
"We're working on it, Dr. Reeves. And I think we're getting close, now."
"Well, I hope you find out before someone else ingests too much of this stuff." Dr. Reeves beckoned a young nurse over. "Stacy here will show you to your brother's room."
Don thanked the doctor once more and followed the young lady to see Charlie.
&&&&&&&
The first thing Charlie did when he saw Don walk in the room was apologize. "Don, I'm so sorry. I know I shouldn't have gone out on my own without telling you. I should have just waited for you to figure out what was going on, but I just couldn't—"
"Hey, Buddy," Don said gently, sitting next to the bed. "Don't worry about it. It's not like you went there to be bait or anything, Amita said you were just checking the place out to see if we had missed anything."
Charlie looked over towards the wall, not feeling worthy of Don's forgiveness and fearing the look of disappointment he would see. He felt Don touch his shoulder and looked back, seeing only worry and pain in his eyes.
Charlie watched Don for a few minutes and then remembered why he'd insisted on the nurses letting him see Don. "Don," Charlie struggled to sit up, but Don held him down. "I have to tell you what happened."
Don held Charlie down with a hand on his shoulder. "Don't sit up, Charlie, you can tell me what you need to from there."
Charlie lay back and began to fill Don in on his strange conversation with the bartender. He watched Don's eyes go cold and hard as he finished. "Don? Everything okay?"
Don patted Charlie's shoulder, "Yeah, Charlie. Everything's going to be fine. Are you sure the other guy called him Justin?"
"I think so. Why? Is that a name you know?"
"Not yet," Don answered, "But if Terry and David have been working on this case tonight, they may have come across the name by now."
Charlie struggled to sit up, Don's preoccupation allowing him. "You think he's the one who's been attacking people? The one who got Amita last weekend? But why would he have drugged me?"
"I don't have all the answers yet, Charlie. But I know I'm getting close," Don reassured Charlie. "But right now, you need to get some rest. Dad will want to see you and probably Amita as well, but you need to get some rest."
Charlie nodded, knowing Don was right. He settled himself against the pillows more comfortably as Don let his father and Amita in. There was little else he could do until he was out of the hospital.
&&&&&&&
David and Terry met at the office Saturday morning before heading over to Sam White's apartment. Terry hoped that the young man hadn't been a part of the fraternity long enough to feel the bonds of loyalty that she was sure older members would feel. Maybe Sam would be willing to help them. And David had suggested focusing on the young man who had died instead of the other attacks. After all, a guy may look the other way for some things, but killing another person was a very serious matter.
Terry rang the bell and waited for an answer. After a couple of minutes, a boy of about 19 answered. He took one look at the agents and paled. Terry supposed that was a good sign. He obviously knew something. And from the slightly frightened look he was wearing, it wouldn't be too hard to get it from him.
They followed him inside and sat down. "Mr. White," Terry began. "We need to ask you some questions."
"What about?" the young man asked nervously.
"About a guy who died at Forbidden Sights this week," David supplied.
"I heard it was some sort of freak accident," Sam said, not sounding very convinced.
"I'm afraid not," David explained. "We have reason to believe that he was drugged."
"Aw man. I knew something was up."
"What do you mean?" asked Terry.
"I was working Monday when that guy came in."
"Can you tell us what happened?"
"Well, I was waiting tables and I had this girl who was waiting. She told me someone was meeting her and when he got there he'd want a drink, so I tried to check back every few minutes. It's pretty common and usually means better tips for me. But when she ordered her second drink she told me I shouldn't bother looking to see if he had arrived anymore because he obviously wasn't coming.
"Justin was working the bar when I came up for the second drink and he asked me if I was going to try hitting on the girl. We know each other from school and he's always picking on me about getting dates. I told him that she had been stood up by her boyfriend, and that's when Justin started acting a little weird."
"Weird how?" asked Terry.
"Well, he told me that her being stood up was a perfect opportunity to take my chances. He told me to take the drink back and wait for her to finish it. Then, I should ask her to dance and the rest would be easy."
"And that was strange?" Terry asked.
"Well, it's how he said it. It wasn't like the normal pep talk I get from the guys. And I'm pretty sure some of the guys have been slipping things into girl's drinks." Sam seemed to realize what he said and hastily added, "Not that I know anything for sure, it's just that when I joined my fraternity, some of the guys were making jokes about drugging girls and stuff. I told them I didn't think that was cool and they have said anything since. But every now and then I think maybe…"
"But you weren't a part of that?" questioned David.
"No way, man!" Sam sounded outraged and Terry was inclined to believe him. He showed no signs of lying.
Terry knew they were on the right track, but still needed something more from Sam White in order to secure any kind of warrant. "Sam, I know these guys are your friends, but if you think they are in any way responsible to what happened to Jake Timmons this past week, you have to let us know."
Sam was quiet for a few minutes. Then he nodded, "I don't know anything for certain, but I heard Justin and Mark talking yesterday at the club. I'd left my Chem. lab in the back the night before so I had to go in and get it. I didn't hear the whole conversation, but I did hear them say something about getting rid of the stuff last night. That someone was worried about the cops."
&&&&&&&
As Terry and David left Sam White's house, Terry called Don for an update. His input from Charlie was also helpful.
After she hung up David asked, "So, what does Don think?"
"He thinks we have enough for a warrant to search the club. And Charlie had a similar conversation with this Justin last night before he passed out, so I'm sure he's one of the people that's giving out the drugged drinks."
"So we get a warrant?" David asked.
"Don's calling it in now." Terry smiled to herself. Don had wanted a way to stay involved, but didn't want to have to leave the hospital. "All we need to do is wait."
&&&&&&&
Charlie was feeling better. After getting a good night's sleep and having a nice talk with his father and with Amita, he felt better about what had happened. And Don wasn't mad at him. He'd been afraid that Don would hold this against him for a while, but it looked as if he had underestimated his brother again.
Don had stayed in the hospital all night and through the morning, even though Charlie knew that a lot was happening on the case. He had even told Charlie and Amita that morning that they were getting a warrant for searching the club for the TX147 that had ended up in Charlie's system.
Now, he was just ready to go home. He loved his father and Don for the fact that he hadn't really been left alone. And Amita had called Larry that morning and he had wasted no time in getting to the hospital to see how Charlie was doing.
Larry had spent a couple of hours expounding on the philosophy of putting oneself out of their normal environment. He was about to go into the tragic tale of a previous mathematician when Don's phone rang yet again. Don was trying to keep a handle on the investigation, but had let Charlie know that by staying out of the middle of things, there couldn't be any question about personal involvement and the bad guys were more likely to stay in jail once they were there.
A few more hours and Charlie could go home. He let the voices of his friends and family wash over him as he began to drift off. If he couldn't go home yet, at least he could get some sleep.
&&&&&&&
Don was glad that he had such efficient partners. They had called to tell him they had found some traces of the TX147 at Forbidden Sights. And one Justin Evans had been on the scene at the time. They took him into custody and it wasn't long before he was telling them everything. They had several boys in the fraternity and some who had already graduated. And more importantly, they had Wohlmer. Confessions meant no trials and that was good for all parties involved, especially the victims.
And the best part of it all was, he didn't have to do any of the paperwork. He didn't even have to go into the office until Monday. He was just about to enter Charlie's room again when he heard him speaking quietly with Amita.
"I'm glad it's all over," Amita was saying. "And I'm glad that no one else is going to be hurt by this."
"I'm just sorry you got hurt, Amita," Charlie answered. "And I wish I had been able to help. I feel like all I did was stumble around and cause more trouble. What good is all the math in the world if I can't help my friends?"
Don's heart clenched as he heard the distress in Charlie's voice. Charlie, who was always so exuberant and carefree about most of life. He wasn't supposed to feel so bad about himself, especially not for something he had little control over. And it was often the older brother's job to make it right.
Don stepped into the room, "I'm just here to tell you that Wohlmer's been taken into custody and has confessed to distributing the drug. Timmon's overdose was an accident. Seems they were sometimes randomly distributing the drug so that it couldn't be traced back to any specific people. When Timmon's drank his girlfriend's drink, he ended up with way too much of it in his system because of his involvement with the hospital's trial. Needless to say, the project has been put on hold until they find out if the death was unusual or if the drug is more dangerous than they had first believed."
"Thank you, Don," Amita said. "I really appreciate what you've done."
"Don't thank me, thank Charlie," Don replied smiling. "He's the one who actually got this case moving. We wouldn't have been able to even find out what had caused Jake Timmon's death if we hadn't been poking around the hospital the day before." He was glad to see Charlie perk up a little bit at that.
"Well, thank you both, then." Amita amended as she rose from her seat next to Charlie. "I'm going to go. Take care Charlie and I'll see you on Monday."
"Bye, Amita." Charlie called as she left. Don watched him for a few minutes until Charlie sighed dramatically. "When do I get out of here?"
Don grinned. "What, you don't like having people wait on you hand and foot?"
"If I wanted room service, I certainly wouldn't start here. The food's bad, the noise is way too loud and the décor leaves much to be desired."
"Oh, I don't know, Charlie. There's always the chance of finding a nurse to keep you company."
Charlie grinned back. "Believe me, Steve is not my type."
Don chuckled along with Charlie, glad that everything would be going back to normal.
The End
