Disclaimer: I don't own Don and Charlie Eppes. But I think you knew that.

Constants

Chapter 2

"But…Charlie…we're counting on you."

Charlie turned away and stared at the nearest chalkboard, fingers resting on his temples. Don stared at the back of his head and wondered what was going on inside it. He looked so small and vulnerable…Don remembered seeing him as a little boy, barely nine years old, sitting in a high school classroom. The sight stirred the same emotions in him then as he was feeling now—concern, a deep paternal instinct, and a persistent but often-ignored twinge of jealousy.

"I know you're afraid, Charlie," Don said soothingly, moving a few steps closer, "But if you help us you won't have to be." He placed a hand on his brother's shoulder and followed his gaze up towards the blackboard. All he saw was indecipherable gibberish, but he knew what was behind it.

"I don't know if I can do it, Don. It's highly improbable…" Charlie looked up at Don, and once again Don saw the little boy. All Don wanted to do was protect that innocence…but there were other things he had to protect as well.

"Charlie…buddy…" Don moved closer to his brother and slipped an arm around his shoulders. Charlie stared listlessly at his shoes, curls falling into his wet dark eyes. "…I know that when it comes to numbers there is nothing you can't do. I remember when we were in high school…there you were, nine years old and acing calculus while I barely scraped by with C's in basic geometry…." Don smiled in spite of himself at those memories, ignoring the all-too-familiar twinge of jealousy that always accompanied such thoughts. He loved his brother more than anything, but he could not help being jealous. It was hard, having a brother like Charlie. Despite doing the best he could, Don could never hold a candle to is brother. Perhaps this was why he felt so incredibly protective of him.

"It's not beyond your ability, buddy. Nothing is beyond your ability. Something else is holding you back. Are you going to tell me what it is?"

Charlie looked up at don from behind his rumpled curls and smiled slightly. A feeling of warmth spread through Don's whole body at the sight. He was getting through. Even if it was just a crack in the mortar, the wall to Charlie's world was coming slowly down.

"I don't know how you do it, Don."

"Do what?"

"What you do. Your job. I'm not as strong as you, Don. I'm not an FBI guy like you. I can't pretend that I'm not afraid."

Don led his brother to a chair, shifted a stack of books and Charlie's laptop, and sat him down.

"Do you think I'm not afraid?" Don said with a chuckle. "Sometimes I go out on an assignment and I'm scared to death. But I remind myself that there are people who need me. Charlie, I wish I could protect you forever. Let you stay locked away in your ivory tower with your books and your equations until you had solved all of the mysteries of the universe, but…buddy…you have to understand. I need you now. I wish I could do this on my own, but Charlie, I can't. I need your help."

It hurt every time he said that. Don had asked his brother for help so many times he thought the pain would have dulled by now, but it didn't. And it probably never would. But Don was pretty good at ignoring his own pain when he knew there were others who were hurting more. He was worried about Charlie, and he was worried about the lives he felt slipping away every second Charlie hesitated.

If Don didn't know his brother so well he would think Charlie was being selfish for refusing to help him. But while Charlie's mind was a perpetual enigma, Charlie's heart was an open book. Don knew his brother's emotions; simple, strong, and rarely controllable. It was not selfishness that movitated him now. It was a deep, genuine concern for his family.