Chapter 11
Alan shook his head hard as if trying to shake the worry out of it. He had returned from the garage with one of the many sandwiches currently in the garage, all but one of them touched (and even that one had only one bite and was the one Larry had left for him for brunch on yesterday). He was so involved with his thoughts he didn't hear Don call to him
"Dad?" Don said as he walked into the kitchen "Are you ok? I called for you about five times before looking around"
"I'm ok Donnie. Just went out to the garage to see him. He's barely eaten. He's taken one bite of the sandwich that Larry left for him yesterday and that's the only trace of him eating anything since his date"
"Its ok dad" Don said giving his dad a reassuring glance and squeezed is shoulders "I've brought in reinforcements"
"What?" Alan asked. Reinforcements? What could he mean by…"Hi Terry" Alan greeted his thoughts being answered
"Hello Mr. Eppes" Terry greeted "How are you fairing?"
"I'm ok. I wouldn't be so worried if I didn't already know what this could do to him" Alan said sitting down the full weight of the situation dragging him down again
"Don't worry we'll talk to him dad" Don said give his father's shoulder another squeeze as he and Terry walked into the garage
As Terry followed Don into the garage she saw for the first time the mess of work that P vs. NP was. She knew that Charlie wasn't a neat person. The times she's seen his office and the work he did at the office wasn't the neatest arrangement of papers she had seen but this…this was Charlie using every surface available. As Don and Terry approached Charlie they both took careful measures to not step heavily on anything, for fear of erasing it.
"Hey buddy" Don said before he gently placed a hand on Charlie's shoulder. In that moment he didn't know what scared him more the fact that Charlie didn't give ANY sign of recognition (if he's in the middle of something he normally will say hold on a second or hold up a hand) or that Charlie didn't jump, which when he's snuck up on he normally does
"Don…" Terry started knowing why Don hadn't gone farther in the conversation
"Charlie, buddy, you ok?" Don asked. Charlie mumbled something. Don let go of a breath he had been holding. At least he was still conscience.
"Hey Charlie, its Terry. This is amazing, how long did it take you to write all of this?" Terry said attempting to start a conversation
"Three days…maybe the fifth board…" Charlie answered unexpectedly, then returning to his work
Don raised he eyebrows and signaled Terry to continue "Wow three days, I don't think I could do this much math in three weeks" Charlie just managed a weak smile
I wonder if this will work "Charlie what does P vs. NP mean? What is the purpose of P vs. NP?" Don asked
Did Don just ask…Charlie turned and truly looked at someone for the first time in three days "Um…its to determine whether every language accepted by some nondeterministic algorithm in polynomial time is also accepted by some deterministic algorithm in polynomial time"
"That's interesting. What do some of the symbols stand for?" Terry asked understanding what her partner was getting at (distracting him to the point where the days catch up with him and they can bring him inside the house again)
"Well each of the letters stands for a equation that have been previously solved and just needed to be plugged in. It's…its easier then um then writing them all out" Charlie said sitting down. Their plan had worked; the days were catching up to him
"Are you ok buddy?' Don asked rushing to his brother's side
"Yeah just a little ti-" and with that Charlie had passed out. Don wanted to smile and cry at the same time. Smile because Charlie had come out of the P vs. NP world long enough for the real world to catch up. He didn't even do that when Charlie first started to help Don. Though he wanted to cry because he saw his brother work himself to the point of sheer exhaustion.
"Terry can you get the door for me?" Don asked as he picked up his little brother. He looked down at him and saw DARK circles under his eyes and noticed that he looked thinner and felt lighter then the last time he had picked up Charlie (they had been wrestling for the remote)
"Sure" Terry said opening the garage door and then running to the house's back door
"Back so soo-" Alan started as he saw Terry open the door but stopped when he saw his Don carrying his little brother back into the house just he used to when they were kids and Charlie fell asleep in the garage
"Be right back dad" Don said and he and Terry walked up the stairs and laid Charlie down in his bed
"How did you two do it?" Alan asked, his mouth hanging open
"Well first Terry got him to talk by asking him how long he had been working and then joked about how she wouldn't be able to get all of it done in three weeks. Charlie broke a smile-" Don said
"-And then Don asked what the equation meant. I asked what the symbols stood for and it guess it was enough of a break from P vs. NP that the days of not sleeping or eating caught up to him and he fell asleep in the middle of his sentence" Terry finished
"Thank you. Now maybe we can find out what made Charlie so upset"
"Amita has a boyfriend or she doesn't like him, and considering the looks I've seen her give him I think it's the former"
"Poor Charlie…let's let him rest for a few days. Don, here go pad lock the door to the garage and then come back in I made enough food for the three of us" Alan said as he handed Don a lock and took out three bowls feeling the stress of the past few days melting away
I don't remember if Terry saw the garage when Charlie worked on P vs. NP before so I wrote it that way. Sorry if getting him out of the garage seemed abrupt and too easy but I couldn't stand keeping him in there any longer.