"My son is injured. In the line of duty. And this is how he is treated?" Alan was fuming red with anger.

"You're not helping Don by getting angry," Megan tried to calm him. She was angry too but this had to be the way it was.

"Helping. Wha…help? I'm not even allowed to see him!"

"OK. Ignoring the fact he wasn't actually injured while officially on duty, ignoring the drugs in his system, heck ignoring the fact we all want to clear his name, ignoring all that. You are still going to have to calm down before you see him. He'll need your support. You and Charlie are the only 2 people right now who are not concerned about this case in his eyes. We have to do this. We have to do this right, clear him, the sooner the better. Don knows this. You need to understand he knows this, better than any of us."

Alan relented and collapsed on to the seat again. Understanding and agreeing were 2 different things.

David and Colby had gone back to the office to continue with the case. It had taken a couple of hours for Don to come out of recovery, the drugs again. 'Drugs' Charlie thought What the hell happened to him this time.

Megan intended to take her own statement after the Eppes' had seen Don but she wasn't going to tell them that. McAdams and Rogers had been in with him for over half an hour already and Charlie, well Charlie just didn't look right. Megan suspected if they didn't get to see Don soon Charlie would walk out of there.

A nurse quietly brushed through the room and whispered something in Megan's ear.

"Ok you can go in now."

Charlie and Alan both looked up at Megan with disbelief in their faces. Charlie even said "Really."

"Really. Now go, while he's still awake. They want to settle him soon."

ooOoo

A faint glow. A soft hum. A loud constant beep.

Don's face seemed devoid of blood. He looked like his mother. Dead. Alan quickly shook that thought from his mind.

He lay there, still with a myriad of tubes feeding blood, drugs and saline in to his system. More tubes fed information to the monitors.

His left hand was tucked under the blanket, his right was bandaged and connected to the IV drip.

Was he asleep? Maybe they wore him out?

"Ah Don."

Alan said it but didn't hear it himself. If he had he would have realised he sounded like a beaten man.

"Hey" came a faint reply from the bed. Don's eyes were barely open but he was awake. Charlie hung back behind his dad while Alan touched Don on the shoulder.

"You Ok?"

Don sort of smirked at his dad's question. It was so hard to talk and McAdams and Rogers had taken every word he felt he could ever say.

"Yeah, you're OK." Alan answered for himself.

Charlie decided Alan would have composed himself from his initial reaction and felt able to join the bed, and the family. He walked around to the other side of the bed.

"Hey bro. Guess I should have known something was up when you didn't return my call for pizza. You not wanting pizza is definitely an anomaly."

Don wanted to laugh but he was exhausted. Why hadn't they come in the morning, when he'd had a rest, maybe he'd be better then. Give him a chance to digest what was going on.

The last thing he remembered, he thought, was speaking to Robyn. Maybe Megan and Charlie at the office? It was a little blurry. So when the agents fired off those questions he couldn't be sure they weren't right. Maybe he was bad. Maybe he was going crazy. Certainly felt like it.

Alan sensed Don's thoughts. "You know it doesn't matter what they say. Charlie knows. I know, your team knows," he gulped before he continued, "your mother knew. You fight every day for good, for others. We know this is all baloney."

"Thanks Dad."

Don had only just managed to get that out. He flicked his eyes over to Charlie after seeing Alan look that way. Charlie's face was weird. Strange. He couldn't stop staring straight down. Alan was worried Charlie wasn't coping. Not coping, mom has cancer style not coping.

Don knew.

"Yeah." Don drew in more breath to finish. "Robyn Brooks. Think I need a lawyer." Don tried to smile. He'd told Charlie he had a girlfriend and was in trouble in one foul swoop.

Charlie was glad he'd finally shared but he couldn't stop staring at the handcuffs that connected Don's left hand under the blanket to the bar on the hospital bed.

He was a prisoner.