Chapter Six

. . . beep . . . beep . . . beep . . . beep . . .

A gentle, rhythmic beeping filled the otherwise silent hospital room. Don wearily scrubbed his face with his hands, shifting in the chair he had claimed by Charlie's bed. He had been sitting there for about an hour, and the time was beginning to make itself known in uncomfortable ways.

On the other side of Charlie's bed, Alan glanced briefly up at Don before returning his gaze to the still face of his youngest son. His hand firmly clutched Charlie's, gently massaging the younger man's knuckles with his thumb.

Since being admitted the day before, Charlie hadn't regained consciousness. According to the doctors, the overdose had been a very near thing. They had managed to flush most of the drug out of his system before irreversible damage could be done, but Charlie was by no means out of the woods yet. He had ingested large amounts of Blaze, and according to the experts who worked on getting the drug's addicts clean, the hardest part was yet to come.

A fresh wave of anger stole over Don as he thought about the severe withdrawal that Charlie would be going through within the next day or two. He had seen some of the addicts in his investigation, had seen some of the users go through the withdrawal. It was not a pretty thing to witness, and the fact that his little brother would soon be going through the same thing made Don angry. Charlie had done nothing to deserve this. Nothing but try and help him solve this case.

"You need to calm down, Donnie, or you won't be able to help your brother."

Don looked up sharply at his father, who was still staring at Charlie. "What?"

"You heard me." Alan finally tore his gaze away from his younger son. "I know you, Donnie. I know you're going to go back out there and track down the madman who put Charlie here in the first place. But I'm telling you, when it comes to your brother, you tend to act first and think later. You won't help Charlie if you let your anger rule your head."

Don scoffed. "I haven't exactly been doing a great job of looking out for Charlie lately, have I?"

"So you mean to tell me that you knew Charlie was going to be drugged and did nothing to stop it from happening?" Alan asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Of course not!" Don exclaimed. He sighed. "Charlie wouldn't even be working on this case if I hadn't convinced him to stay."

"Yes, well, something tells me that Charlie would have found some way to help you out, whether or not you asked him," Alan replied wisely. "He can be pretty tenacious that way."

Don let out a small laugh and stood.

"Where are you going?" Alan asked.

"Back to the office," Don replied, pulling on his jacket. "My team should have some more information for me by now." He paused and laid a hand on Charlie's forehead.

"Hey, Buddy," he said softly. "I gotta get going, but I'll be back soon. I swear to you, I'm going to find whoever did this, and I'll make them sorry."

Don straightened and, deftly avoiding his father's eyes, strode out of the room.

The Next Day

Colby glared at his computer screen, his eyes not really seeing the words in front of him. His mind kept casting back over the events of the past several days. Memories from Don's DEA buddy appearing on the scene, to Danny's assault on Charlie, and to Charlie's near-overdose on Blaze flashed through Colby's mind in some sort of torturous slide show. The worst of it was that he was beginning to reach some very nasty conclusions that he didn't want to draw about the whole situation.

Colby felt more than saw Megan seat herself in the chair nearest him and turn to face him. He could feel her eyes study his profile as he studiously ignored her.

Megan was not the least bit put off by his rude behavior. "I know what you're thinking."

Colby's jaw tightened. "What, you're going psychic on us?"

Megan's expression didn't change. "Who needs to be psychic when your thoughts are written as plain as day all over your face?"

Colby pointedly ignored her.

"I think we should tell Don."

That caught Colby's attention. He spun around. "What?"

Megan shrugged. Her face was expressionless, but her eyes burned with a determined fire that cooled some of Colby's own anger. "I think he needs to know, Colby."

Colby snorted. "Yeah, sure. Let's go tell Don that not only did his best friend from years ago harass his brother, but that we watched it happen and did absolutely nothing about it."

"He needs to know," Megan said again. "I know you're starting to think that Danny had something to do with Charlie's drugging, and I agree with you. His behavior has been too suspicious to just ignore. At the very least, we owe it to Don to tell him the truth."

Colby glowered back at the screen. "Fine. But you're the one who's going to do it."

Megan lifted an eyebrow. "Me? Why me?"

"I sure as hell am not going to do it!" Colby exclaimed.

Megan smiled slyly. "I had no idea you were so intimidated by Don. That's interesting."

Colby immediately took offense to her statement. "That's ridiculous! I am not intimidated by him!"

Megan shrugged. "If you say so." She stood. "Don't worry, I'll take care of it."

Colby stood as well. "Just a damn minute, Reeves. I'm not intimidated by him."

Megan nodded. "No, I believe you," she said earnestly. "My mistake. Excuse me, I think Don's in the conference room."

Colby watched her walk away. He knew what Megan was doing, but for some reason he couldn't help himself. Cursing under his breath, he jogged to catch up with her. "You don't play fair."

Megan smiled faintly. "Who said anything about fair?"

Colby sighed heavily, but walked into the conference room with Megan. The two paused just inside the door and simply observed their team leader. Don was sitting at the table, going over several reports. David was speaking softly into his cell phone on the other side of the room. Upon Megan clearing her throat, both men turned to the newcomers.

"What is it?" Don demanded, barely concealing the anxiousness in his voice. "Have you found something?"

Megan and Colby exchanged glances, then turned back to the other two men. Colby stepped forward and cleared his throat.

"Don, we think we might know who was behind drugging Charlie," he began, tension building in his stomach.

Don stood and advanced on him, giving the younger agent his entire, unwavering focus. The stress and anger over Charlie's near-overdose and subsequent hospital stay was nearing a breaking point, and he desperately needed an outlet. Colby hoped he was doing the right thing.

"What are you talking about?" Don demanded.

Megan moved closer, standing beside Colby. "We don't know for sure. It's only speculation at this point, but a lot of things are pointing to one answer."

"When you feel like actually sharing that answer with me sometime, let me know," Don snapped.

Colby braced himself. Best to just get it over with. "Don, we think Danny's involved."

Dead silence met those words. Colby held Don's eyes, watching the shock, then disbelief, and finally denial that flared there.

"Danny?" he echoed, his voice strangely even. "That's . . . that's impossible . . ."

"Don, I know this sounds wrong, but hear us out," Megan insisted.

"Danny's my friend," Don replied, ignoring Megan. "We've known each other for years. He's my best friend!He would never . . . he wouldn't . . ."

"The other day, we went to Charlie's office to see how his equations were coming," Megan told him. "When we got there, Danny was holding Charlie against the wall by the front of his shirt. He looked furious at something."

Don shook his head. He couldn't believe what his agents were telling him. "That's ridiculous. Danny would never do something like that!"

"Charlie didn't want us to tell you, but it's been obvious," Colby spoke up. "Danny's been giving the kid a hard time ever since he got here. I'm telling you, Don, the guy isn't what he appears to be."

Don ran a hand through his dark hair, staring down at the floor. He still couldn't believe it.

Unbidden, a memory from nearly a week before popped into his mind. It was from his discussion with Charlie's participation in this case after Danny arrived. Charlie had wanted to back out of the investigation, claiming he'd only be in the way, and it had only been through Don's gentle insistence that he had agreed to continue on. Strangely enough, though it didn't register at the time, Don had spoken with Danny just hours later about Charlie's involvement. Danny had tried to convince Don to drop Charlie from the team. It all seemed so clear now.

Don's head snapped up. His agents could see the tempest beginning to rage behind his dark eyes. "Megan, I want you to backtrack through all of the work Danny's done since he got here. Look for anything suspect. Colby, David, go track Danny down and stick to him like glue. If he's doing something illegal, I want to know about it."

"What are you going to do?" David asked.

Don snagged his jacket from the back of his chair. "I'm going to go see how Charlie's doing."

Don could hear the sound of his brother's frantic voice from down the hall. He recognized the pleading tones instantly and broke into a jog, hurrying to Charlie's hospital room, almost afraid of what he would find.

Charlie was twisting around on his bed, dodging the hands that tried to grab him and hold him still. The only things that kept him from falling off of the bed were the restraints around his wrists and ankles.

"Charlie!" Alan was saying. "Please, son, be still! They're only trying to help you!"

Charlie shook his head, tears streaming down his cheeks. "No! No! Leave me alone! It hurts! Make it stop! Please, make it stop!"

"We're trying, Charlie, we're trying!" Alan was nearly beside himself, unable to comfort his baby boy. "You have to let the doctor do his job."

Charlie let out a frightened cry and twisted away from the doctor's hands yet again.

Don moved into the room and pushed past the nurses, insinuating himself at Charlie's side. "Dad?"

"Donnie!" Alan's face showed his relief. "Help me calm him down so the doctor can look at him."

Don reached down and grasped Charlie's face. Charlie tried to turn away, but Don tightened his grip and forced Charlie to look at him. He was stunned at the condition of his little brother, shocked at the red-rimmed eyes and ashen complexion. He pushed that feeling down and focused on Charlie.

"Hey! Buddy! Look at me!" Don ordered. "Look at me. Can you hear me?"

Charlie was still tense, but his eyes were alert as they searched his brother's face. "D-Donnie?"

Don smiled and nodded, but didn't release his brother. "That's right, it's Donnie. Dad's here, too."

Charlie's dark eyes swam behind unshed tears. "Donnie, it hurts. Please make it stop. Make it go away. I don't want to hurt anymore, please."

The plaintive tone in Charlie's voice nearly crumbled Don's resolve, but he held firm. "I know, buddy, I know. Believe me, I don't want you to hurt anymore, either. But you have to let the doctor do his job. He knows how to help you. Can you calm down and let him look at you?"

Panic flashed in Charlie's eyes. "W-Will you stay wi-with me?"

Don nodded. "Yeah, buddy, I'll stay with you."

Charlie stared at Don for a long moment, then nodded slightly. "O-Okay, then."

Don gently patted Charlie's cheek, then released Charlie's face. One of his hands moved down to grasp Charlie's tightly, letting the younger man know that he was still there.

The medical personnel in the room let out a collective sigh of relief. Charlie flinched and tensed as the doctor approached him, but Don merely tightened his grip on Charlie's hand, and Charlie allowed the doctor to examine him.

"Donnie?" Charlie asked softly once the doctor had finished peering into Charlie's eyes.

"Yeah, buddy?" Don replied.

"Wh-What's happening?" Charlie stammered. "Why does it hurt so much? I-I don't remember anything."

Don sighed heavily and exchanged a glance with his father. Alan tipped his head towards Charlie, clearly indicating that Don take the lead in the explanation. "Well, buddy, someone slipped something nasty into your coffee, and you've had a pretty bad reaction to it."

"Why would someone do that?" Charlie asked. "Do you know who's responsible?"

Don felt his father's eyes, but he continued to look at his brother. "Not yet, buddy, but I've got the whole office working on it right now. None of us are going to rest until the guy who did this is behind bars."

Charlie nodded. Don could still see the pain in his brother's eyes, and he wished that he knew how to take it away. According to the addicts who went through rehabilitation, Charlie would be feeling that pain and high anxiety until the drug was completely through his bloodstream, which was still another eight or so hours. The only thing the doctors could do in the meantime to regulate the horrible experience for Charlie was to carefully monitor the young man, administering small doses of pain medication that wouldn't exacerbate his condition. Even though, intellectually, Don knew the doctor was doing everything he could, the emotional side of the agent felt it wasn't enough.

The doctor smiled comfortingly down at Charlie. "You're doing just fine, son. I know you're feeling miserable right now, but it'll get a lot better in a few hours. I'm going to go ahead and authorize another dosage of some pain medicine, see if we can't take the edge off a little. If you have any other troubles, buzz the nurse and they'll beep me."

He nodded to the nurse that had remained with him during the exam, and the two moved out of the room. Alan let out a sigh and sank back into his chair.

"I gotta get back to the office," Don announced. "Colby and Megan were running down a lead, and I want to see if they got anything out of it." He paused, regarding his brother. "Charlie . . . has Danny ever given you a hard time? Maybe pushed you around or something?"

Charlie hesitated. That alone sent a wave of unease washing through Don. "Um . . . did Colby and Megan tell you that?"

Don nodded. "They weren't going to, Charlie, but something came up. Charlie, why didn't you tell me?"

Charlie's eyes shifted to a point over Don's shoulder. "Danny's your best friend. Besides, he didn't do anything bad. And it's not like it's new or anything. I can look after myself."

Don didn't like the sound of that. "Charlie, regardless, nothing gives him the right to bully you. You don't deserve to be treated that way. If someone starts to push you around again, I want you to promise me that you'll come tell me. Promise me."

Charlie rolled his eyes. "Don-."

"Charlie, promise," Don ordered gently.

Charlie sighed wearily. "Fine. I promise. Happy?"

"Deliriously." Don squeezed his hand and released it. "I'll be back later, all right?"

"Be careful, Donnie," Alan warned as Don headed out the door.

Don waved his hand in response.