Tangential Planes 6/9
Chapter Six:
Friday Midday
"Okay, let's get you settled in!" Alan ushered Charlie into the living room and all but pushed him down on the couch.
"Dad!" Charlie tried to complain but his father silenced him with a glare.
"Don't you give me that face, my little boy. I swear if you give me a hard time I'll call Dr. Karol and tell him I'm sending you back in for a seventy-two hour psych eval."
"You wouldn't." If he wasn't already so pale, Alan might have noticed Charlie blanching at the idea.
"I had half a mind to let him do it in the first place, Charlie!" Alan said while walking back to the kitchen to make lunch. "I mean, what were you thinking." His voice floated back from the kitchen. "Well, obviously you weren't thinking or else you wouldn't have lost seventeen pounds!"
"He told you about that, huh?"
Alan walked back out of the kitchen, a can of soup in his hand. "Yes, Charlie, Dr. Karol told me everything. I'd warrant he told me quite a bit more than he told you since I actually bothered to ask him questions!"
"Dad, I'm fine. I just need some rest, that's all."
"And some food... Lots of it! Soup and sandwiches and fruit coming up."
"Can't I just have the sandwich?"
"No!" The answer came both from Alan and from Don who'd just walked in.
"Good to have some backup," Alan said to Don, sticking his head out of the kitchen long enough to greet his elder son.
"Don, I thought you had big meetings today," Charlie looked at his brother in surprise. "I didn't expect to see you until dinner tonight."
Don glanced back towards his father in the kitchen then turned back to answer Charlie. "Well I cut my morning meeting short so I could come over for lunch to make sure you made it home okay. I still have to go back for the afternoon one though."
Charlie merely nodded but Don could tell he was pleased that he'd come.
"Charlie, what do you want to drink with your lunch? Water?"
Charlie winced slightly but Don noticed it. "Don't we have any juice? The real stuff, not that from concentrate stuff."
"Sure, we've got real O.J."
"And that soup, is that condensed too?"
"What did you go from starving yourself to connoisseur overnight?" Alan laughed. "It's Anderson's Pea Soup, the kind you like, and it's heat-and-eat."
"Thanks, Pop."
Alan disappeared back into the kitchen. Don sat down next to Charlie on the couch and spoke to him in a low voice so Alan wouldn't hear them.
"Charlie, I want to talk to you about this project."
"Don, you know I can't..."
Don interrupted him. "You can't tell me any of the project details and that's fine. I understand that. What I want to hear is how this project affected you. That's not classified and you can certainly tell me that."
"I'm not sure how..."
"Charlie, I have faith that you can find a way. Please, just try.''
Charlie thought for a moment then nodded.
"When they first came to me..." he began slowly, "I... I freaked out. It was just so massive I guess and so critically important... I just felt like there was too much pressure on me. But they managed to convince me that if they gave the project to anyone else the odds were that they wouldn't do as good a job with it and the margin of error... I mean even a small mistake could mean..."
"I know the stakes, Charlie. Mistakes mean people's lives. Sometimes thousands of innocent people's lives."
Charlie nodded, his throat tight.
"So they convinced you you were the best man for the job and you took it on. I can understand the pressure you were under. What happened once you got started?"
"The time table... it, umm... escalated," Charlie could barely get the words out. "They thought I'd have plenty of time to, you know, figure out the answers. But suddenly I didn't and there was so much at stake..."
Don put a calming hand on Charlie's shoulder. Charlie dropped his head and let it hang, his curls obscuring Don's view of his troubled expression. Don noticed Alan coming out of the kitchen with the soup and Don waved him off out of Charlie's sight. Alan quickly figured out that the two brothers were talking and nodded his understanding to Don before disappearing back into the kitchen.
"What happened next?"
"I think I kind of got lost..." Charlie's voice could barely be heard with his head down and Don had to lean in closer to be sure to hear him. "I was so wrapped up in the project I just couldn't bring myself to take time out to sleep or eat. It felt like whenever I took a break... I could, I mean people could..."
"You were afraid any delay might result in more innocent lives lost. Charlie, I get that. Don't you think I feel that way in my work? You saw how bad that L.A. rapist case was for me! Whenever I wasn't out trying to catch that bastard, I imagined him kidnapping another woman. But Charlie, you can't feel that way. Bad things happen constantly in this world and working non-stop just exhausts you to the point where you can't be useful in the fight any longer. If anything, I would think you'd have learned that from your collapse!"
"I know... I just..."
Don shook his head. "If you had it all to do again you'd do it the same. I know, Charlie, I know."
"I just couldn't let all those people down, Don. I couldn't do it." Charlie looked up at Don, almost in tears.
Don pulled his brother into a strong embrace. "It's okay. I understand. And I'm going to help. Dad and I will help. You don't have to tell us anything okay? Just tell us you need our support and we'll take care of you while you take care of the world okay?"
"Okay," the small voice in his arms answered.