Chapter 24

'You turned on me Don'

He awoke with a start. He didn't think that he had had a nightmare again. He could just hear Charlie talking. Don looked to his left side where Charlie still lay. He was still sleeping, lying curled on his right side but now both of them had blankets over them. He also noticed that while he had slept, his father had attached an ice pack to his right wrist and propped his hand again.

Betrayal. That was a hard hurt to get over. It was one that could cut to the very heart and destroy a lifetime of trust. One senseless action could destroy something so important. Had Don really betrayed Charlie? If he had he may have lost Charlie's trust and Don wasn't so sure that he would be able to earn it back in his lifetime. The night of the fight when his brother had walked away from him, he knew something had died in Charlie. He could not put a name on it at the time but he knew what it was now.

When he called his brother about the case that he had needed help with after the child killer was jailed, it was a fraud case. It was not a life and death case. Why had Don allowed such a minor case to destroy what he and Charlie had been building on for more than two years? Why had he not seen then that Charlie was already too overworked to help? Why had he not seen the hurt that he had caused with his actions at that time and stopped it before it got out of hand?

When Don told Charlie that he was proud to be his brother and that he was also his friend, these were not newfound realizations. Charlie had been just as important to him before the child killer case as he was now. Certainly Don could see more clearly now just how important, but the feelings were there before the case just the same. So why did it seem that Charlie's feelings, his job, his well being no longer mattered. Somehow during the last case they worked on together, Don had completely lost sight of Charlie.

He thought back to what he had discussed with Megan. Was it that he felt Charlie owed him something back for that case? If anything Don had always been harder on himself than anyone, it just wasn't like him to dump the blame on anyone else when a case was tough. One thing Don had to face, for whatever reason he had carried those thoughts from the last case over to not only that next case but to his own relationship with his brother. For whatever reason Don had decided to punish Charlie for something that was completely out of Charlie's control.

Earlier today Charlie had thought Don was mad at him over that foul ball, again something completely out of Charlie's control. Don had never even considered blaming anyone for the accident, much less Charlie. Why would his brother even consider that he would do such a thing? Had Don destroyed the very trust that was so vital to their relationship?

Charlie shifted his head and moved slightly onto his back before again settling on his side. His little brother was a mess. All of the bruises were darker than they had been earlier and were likely going to be darker still by morning. Sure enough that was a black eye. 'Did we fight again?' Charlie remembered nearly nothing between talking and waking up in an ambulance. It wasn't like Charlie was used to fighting with anyone, it wasn't like Don and he had ever had a physical fight before that night in his classroom. They'd had plenty of arguments over the years but never had either of them used violence toward each other. It wasn't a natural conclusion to jump to when you woke up injured that someone that was supposed to care about you was the cause of your injuries.

Between Charlie thinking Don would be mad at him for his hand injuries and Charlie's first words in the ambulance, Don had to accept that Charlie no longer trusted him and that was a painful blow. 'Buddy, how am I going to fix this?'

Don heard his father come back into the room. He had a crossword puzzle book in his hand and had probably been sitting in the kitchen so he did not disturb his patients.

"You're not the son that I am supposed to be waking up every few hours. How does your hand feel?"

"It's feels cold Dad. The ice has me a little numbed."

"Do you want that sandwich now?" Alan asked. "It's wrapped up in the refrigerator."

"No, I'll wait for a little while. I don't want to disturb Charlie just yet."

"I could hold the pillow while you move away and if I slip another pillow under there, he won't even notice. You know how he is when he sleeps. Besides we're going to have to wake him soon anyway."

"Okay, I am hungry."

Alan held the pillow while Don eased out from under his brother's head. He had the other pillow ready and slid it under. Charlie hadn't moved.

His dad set the turkey sandwich and a soda out on the table for Don.

While Don ate Alan talked. "Don, we need to discuss changing our travel plans. I would like to change the tickets until next Sunday. I hate the thought of leaving Charlie alone when he needs us."

Don had already been thinking about that. He had plenty of vacation time built up at work and he was in no rush to return to work only to be put on desk duty.

"I'm waiting to hear what your thoughts are on the subject before I change anything. By this time next week he'll be fine but you have eight weeks of recovery ahead of you and I won't abandon you in LA alone."

Don was not sure how his brother would react to them staying longer. It's true that Charlie had taken care of himself pretty good on his own but that was before the multiple injuries that he now had. If they had left as planned Don knew that both he and his dad would feel they were abandoning Charlie.

"I agree that we should stay another week Dad, but Charlie may have his own thoughts on that."

"Well, there are two things I know for sure about your brother. The first is that Charlie will not admit that he wants us to stay, and second, I know that he would not be the least bit surprised that I'm changing the date without notice to him."

Don laughed.

"After I call the airline to change my ticket, you can talk to them and change yours. Then we have to go in there and ONE of us has to wake your little brother up. Get him talking, give him his medications and then let him go back to sleep before he gets too cranky."

Alan placed the call and after changing his tickets, he handed the phone to Don. Don walked into the bedroom to talk. His father was getting ready to try to wake Charlie and Don did not want to be overheard.

When he came back out of the bedroom, Alan was sitting on the chair in the living room. He was watching Charlie sleep. Don sat is the other chair. "What are you waiting for?"

"Poor Charlie, his entire face is battered."

"He'll heal up fine Dad; we'll take care of him. He was in a lot of pain earlier with that jaw though."

Don pushed the coffee table back and sat right in front of Charlie. "Hey Buddy, wake up." He was afraid to jostle him unless he had to in order to get him awake. "Time to get up." No reaction. "Hey, Dad wants to see those big brown eyes Charlie, wake up."

Don put his hand on Charlie's forehead. "He's really hot. Charlie, time to wake up now." Don turned toward his dad. "Maybe you better try it Dad, you usually have better luck."

Don was not prepared for it. When his Dad yelled "Charlie", both he and Charlie jumped. His dad had not even moved from the chair. Charlie's reaction after he jumped was to slowly come around.

"The doctor said to expect fever for the first twenty four hours." Alan got up and put his hand on Charlie's forehead. "He's a lot warmer than when I left, but I don't think it's all that high. I should have picked up a thermometer."

Before he opened his eyes, Charlie knew that his dad was standing somewhere close but he was unprepared for Don to be sitting less than a foot in front of his face and he jumped and scooted back. "dom Don ew therd the hell otta e." He noticed pretty quickly that it still hurt to move his jaw.

Don moved back to give his brother some space. Charlie took the pillow that he had been laying on and moved it back to the arm of the couch and he laid back down. He really did not want to talk but no one else was saying anything. "Ded ew eed zoben Dad?"

Don and Alan looked at each other. Alan was clearly waiting for a translation from Don.

"Don't look at me, he asked you."

"Think he's asking for something to eat?" Alan asked in a low voice. Don shrugged.

Charlie was getting a little irritated that they were acting like he was a monkey on display and they were talking about him.

"We were supposed to find out if he was coherent when we woke him to check on him. How do we know?" Don asked his dad.

"How many fingers Charlie?" Don held up both hands.

Charlie rolled his eyes. "Tat demons do the broook wues cout ath od or do."

"Close enough" Alan decided. "Charlie, just shake your head yes or no. Are you hungry?"

Charlie shook his head.

"I'll get you more medicine and you'll need to eat something before you go back to sleep."

Charlie had a lot to say to that. He decided that now was probably not the time to say it though. "I wath leepin"

Alan went to get medications for both sons.

Don could not resist commenting on Charlie's nose. "Charlie you would be shocked to know that while you slept you morphed into an Alan Eppes clone. You should see your nose."

Charlie's eyes narrowed. Don probably thought he was pretty funny.

"Eye's black too, Buddy."

Charlie had already decided that he would save the pain in his jaw by not talking and he would be less amusing to his family. He decided to avoid any more than one word answers. Charlie got up and reached for his crutches. He hobbled into the bathroom and closed the door. Charlie was surprised at just how bad his face looked. Certainly looked worse than it felt, except his jaw.

Don had not really been exaggerating about his nose though. It did look like it belonged to their dad. He really should hide out for a while. The black around Charlie's eye was just that, black. This one did not have the red to break it up.

Charlie hobbled back out into the living room. Don was again back in the recliner with the pillows and now ice pack on his wrist. After laying down Charlie's cell phone rang.

Charlie reached for it and tossed it to Don. It was an awkward left hand catch.

Don answered "Hello? Hello Director Thompkins, its Don Eppes."

"Charlie has a cracked jaw and his nose is pretty swollen. It's really hard and painful for him to speak very clearly. But he's going to be fine in a few days."

Charlie looked happy with that explanation and nodded.

"Yes sir, just a minute" Don got up and handed the phone to Charlie. "He said don't talk, just listen."

Charlie took the phone. "Charlie, I just wanted to let you know that I want you to take all the recovery time you need. Agent Belmont said you were pretty messed up by that near miss."

Charlie really did not want any time off but he knew he would not be able to say so clearly. Charlie tried to say the one word. E-mol Bob.

"Okay Charlie, I'll watch for it. You take care and let me know if you need anything."

"Taks"

Charlie hung up the phone and right away started on that email.

Bob,

I can come to work on Monday. I want to work.

I can't talk well but I can still write fine. I plan to be there Monday and intend to make it to all of the classes except running.

Charlie

"Charlie!"

Charlie nearly jumped out of his skin when his dad had come up behind his shoulder and let that one word loose. He swung around and looked at this father was a questioning glance.

"You can just change that to Tuesday. The doctor said at least 72 hours and I'm holding you to that timeframe."

Charlie looked around for something to write with and not seeing anything, he cleared the email and typed for his father to read. 'I will be fine by Monday.'

"Tuesday Charlie and I am standing here until you change that and send the email."

Charlie typed again. 'It just looks painful. I can work just fine. I need to get back to work'.

"And you will, on Tuesday. This is not even open to discussion. And I doubt very much a doctor would agree that you can participate in the training classes that you're referring to so you might as well leave that line out."

'Not the running class, but I can do the rest'

"Charlie, unless you are sitting at a desk in a classroom during those training classes, you will not participate. You might be an adult but I am still your father and if I have to contact Director Thompkins to get some cooperation out of you, I certainly will."

Charlie rolled his eyes. He retyped the email message.

Bob,

I will be fine to return to work by Tuesday. Dr. Dad thinks Monday is too soon.

Charlie

"Thank you. Now, here are your medications and another bottle of water."

Charlie slid all four pills into his mouth and used the smallest sip of water out of the straw as he could to swallow them. He was too afraid to have anything else in his stomach. "I'll be back soon with some soup."

After his dad walked out of the room, Charlie looked over to see that Don had his eyes closed but from his breathing he was not asleep yet. Charlie got up in search of a pen to write with. He located one in the night stand in the bedroom. He wrote a short note and then took the paper back into the living room. By the time he had done all this Don was fast asleep. Charlie propped the page on the end table faced so Don could see it when he woke up.