Epilogue

Months later Don was still having horrible, terrible nightmares of that night. That's how he referred to it now, that night and if ever a more horrible night existed he was sure he had never heard of it.

He had come to his childhood home to visit and relax after a hard week. Surprisingly, nobody had been home when he had arrived, so he had laid out on the couch and turned the TV on, happy to just vegetate for a little while. After such a busy week with little time to rest he had, in his unfortunate opinion, fallen asleep.

So now here he was, trying to get his breathing under control and silently thanking whatever it was that had woken him from his nightmare. It took him a moment to realize that the TV had been turned off, the lights had been dimmed, and someone had laid a blanket over him, signifying that someone was home. He strained his hearing to try and figure out where the noise that had woken him had come from and after a moment he could hear someone rattling around in the kitchen.

Don slowly sat up and rubbed his hands over his face to erase any lasting signs that his nightmare might have left behind. After a quick stretch he stood up and quietly made his way toward the kitchen.

He stopped in the doorway and watched for a moment. Charlie had his back to him and was making a sandwich; occasionally he would stop and jot something down in a notebook that was on the counter crammed in-between the things Charlie was using to make his late night snack. He still had a soft cast on his right arm and Don wondered how he could manage to write anything legible enough to read while wearing something so constricting. As soon as the hard cast had come off, Charlie had insisted on using his right hand to write with again and Don could tell it had been fairly painful at first.

Don was still counting his blessings even though it had been a few months since that night. Sometimes after a particularly bad nightmare, he would have to take a moment and remember what truly happened, because his nightmares were sometimes worse than reality.

In the really bad nightmares, Charlie was already long dead by the time he got to him, or sometimes he had just died and no amount of life resuscitating techniques would bring him back.

In reality, when Don had finally found his little brother, Charlie had been barely breathing and was unconscious. He knew that at some point on the way to the hospital or perhaps once Charlie had arrived at the hospital he had stopped breathing, but Don had been reluctant to ask for exact details concerning that moment in time. Besides, he had been in law enforcement long enough to have seen, firsthand, someone stop breathing, but they had not been fortunate enough to start again and he didn't want to picture Charlie that way.

Seeing as how his brother had yet to realize that someone was watching him, Don walked up behind Charlie and gently tapped him on the shoulder. Charlie spun around, clearly startled, and Don saw him briefly grit his teeth, no doubt in reaction to a twinge of pain in his ribs. Even though Charlie's broken ribs had mostly healed, any sudden or sharp movements often caused him a small amount of pain and knowing this, Don felt a small pang of guilt that he had been the cause of it this time.

Charlie leaned against the counter, his left hand on his chest as he took in a deep breath and slowly let it out, waiting for the adrenaline rush to fade.

"Don, what in the heck is wrong with you, don't you know better than to sneak up on people and then nearly scare them to death."

Don shrugged sheepishly, trying to hide his flinch at Charlie's mention of death, none of which was lost on Charlie. He immediately softened his tone and smiled at his brother instead.

"Hey, I thought you were asleep, I didn't wake you did I? I was trying to be quiet, but you know how clumsy I can be sometimes, sorry."

Don just shook his head and took a step back from Charlie, afraid to get to close in case he somehow hurt his brother again.

Charlie frowned when he saw this, it was time he and his brother had a little talk. He took a moment to gather his thoughts and plan his course of action; he and his brother would resolve this issue tonight or at the very least start on the road to recovery.

"Don, do you remember a week after the accident happened, I was awake enough to talk to you and dad, and you asked me something about a phone call that I made to you right after I wrecked my car and I told you that I didn't know what you were talking about; that I couldn't remember anything leading up to the accident?"

Don hesitated, not entirely sure where Charlie was going with this. "Yes, I remember, what about it?"

"Well, I didn't really think too much about your reaction at the time, I was a little preoccupied, but I've been thinking about it since I got out of the hospital and since then I have slowly begun to remember more of what happened and yesterday I remembered that phone call."

"Really?" Don's eyebrows raised in surprise.

"Well, bits and parts of it, I still can't remember the small details, but now I understand your reaction a little bit better."

Don knew that Charlie was staring at him intently, but he couldn't bring himself to look Charlie in the eyes, he chose to study his shoes instead.

Knowing that he wasn't going to get anything out of Don, he continued. "I can clearly remember how hurt you looked that I couldn't remember that phone call and now that I can remember it, I have to tell you Don, I never meant for that call to turn out the way it did. At the time, my thoughts were really fuzzy because of the head injury, so I wasn't thinking clearly and that fact alone had me kind of scared and more than a little worried, so I did what I always do when I feel overwhelmed by something I don't understand, I look to someone else for a clue and who better to give me a clue than an FBI agent."

Charlie smiled fondly at his brother for a moment and was a little relieved to see Don sneak a quick glance at his face before returning his gaze to the floor. Maybe he was finally getting through to his thick-headed brother.

"Don, when I first called you, it really was just to hear your voice and I believe that's what I told you when you asked why I was calling, but by the end of the conversation I felt so tired and weak, and I was a little afraid that I might really be dying, that I didn't want to miss the chance to tell you how I really felt, just in case I never got that chance again."

Charlie stayed silent until his brother finally looked up at him; he had to be sure that Don understood what he was about to say.

"Don, I never intended to make you feel like it was your job to save me..."

"Charlie…"

"No Don, let me finish. I didn't mean to put that kind of pressure on you and I'm so very sorry that you had to go through that by yourself. I can't even begin to imagine what it was like for you to receive a phone call like that. I know what this whole incident is doing to you, I know about the nightmares, and I feel guilty because I know it's my fault and I can't do anything to magically fix it and make it better."

Charlie turned away from his brother, he hadn't meant to get so upset, and he most certainly had not meant to tell Don about his feelings of guilt, but everything had just sort of spilled out once he started talking. Don had enough of his own issues to deal with; he didn't need Charlie's issues piled on top.

Don quickly closed the distance between them, forgetting his earlier worries about accidently hurting his brother, and pulled Charlie around to face him. Charlie's eyes were bright with unshed tears and Don could tell the he was struggling to get his emotions under control.

"Buddy, I'm not looking for you to fix my problems, I don't want you to even feel like you have to; it's not like you wrecked on purpose. And as far as calling me goes, I am so glad that you did and any resulting nightmares are nothing compared to the alternative. Believe me, someone calling to tell me that they had found your dead body in your car on a back road somewhere would have been a million times worse. Charlie, I want you to call me when you need help, that's what big brothers are for and I don't take that duty lightly."

Charlie still looked unsure though, so Don drew him in for a quick hug then pulled him back far enough that he could see his face.

"Charlie, we both need to heal, we just have to be patient and give it some time. It will get better though, I promise."

Charlie smiled a little and Don was even further relieved to hear him chuckle.

"How is it that I try and resolve your problems and you turn around and help me instead?"

Don just grinned, "I'm just good like that; people call me Mr. Fix-it"

"What people are these? The ones in your head?" Charlie laughed out loud when Don gave him a playful glare and he easily sidestepped the punch that had been aimed at his arm.

They both stopped when they heard someone cough to get their attention. Alan was standing in the door way.

"What's going on down here, it's two o'clock in the morning for goodness sakes and you're playing around in the kitchen when you should be in bed." He tried to sound stern, but he couldn't keep the smile from forming on his face, it was good to see his boys acting normal again.

The guilty party looked at each other and smiled; their issues might not have been magically fixed, but talking about it had helped and they knew that in time the nightmares and guilty feelings would ease up and eventually fade.

Alan moved further into the room and took a seat at the table, he had only heard the end of the conversation, but it was enough to know what the topic was and it felt good to know that his boys were close enough now as adults to be able to talk through their problems. He reached for the forgotten sandwich sitting on the counter and took a bite, his youngest was no cook, but he could make a mean roast beef sandwich.

"Is there anything to drink?" he asked when his sons looked back to him.

"Hey, that's my sandwich you're eating, get your own" Charlie tried to grab the sandwich from his father's hands, but Alan was quicker and moved it out of reach.

"Well next time don't leave your food unattended..."

Don watched his brother and father bicker, it was a comforting scene and it helped chip away some of the tension that had been hanging around his family since the accident. He was really glad that he had come to his brother's house tonight and he knew that the next time he had a nightmare he could remember this moment fondly and it would help chase away his demons. Yep, everything was going to be alright.

----------------------------------

Author's Note:

Ok guys, I hope this gives you the closer you were asking for. I just couldn't bring myself to kill Charlie, but I have no problems with hurting him or making him feel sad. ;)

Sorry it took so long to get this last chapter up, I have been working on this story and another one that just recently popped into my head. I apologize for any grammar mistakes or typos, I do the writing and the editing myself, which makes it a little harder to catch things, because I already know what it is suppose to say. So if you catch anything feel free to tell me about it so I can correct it, I just ask that it be constructive criticism and polite.

Thanks to everybody who has reviewed, you'll never know how much I appreciated all your comments. :)