Chapter 12

Don still felt as if he were in a dream. Had any of that just happened? Did his father really just stand there and say he was marrying Rosa? Refuse to come to them? Maybe this had all been some sort of late-night-pizza nightmare. Could be that Don wasn't here, either. He was pretty sure it was real, though, and he had to pull himself together. Not looking at his brother yet, he paced, replaying what his father had said. He turned toward Charlie, suddenly, shouted, "David Granger!"

Charlie wasn't looking at him, so Don went over to the mattress and sat down. He remembered that they were being listened to, then, and was afraid he'd given away too much with his excited shout. "Charlie," he said, desperately trying to cover, "isn't that the guy who married Larry and Amita last year?"

Charlie raised his head and met his eyes. Confusion was soon replaced with understanding. "Right," he rasped, voice getting hoarse again. "Right."

Don wasn't sure what to do. By mixing Colby Granger and David Sinclair into one name, his father had sent a message: the FBI was on the case, Don's team was looking for them. Alan was obviously doing what he could to stall Rosa, placate her. Don would have to trust them all — trust Megan, Colby and David, trust his father — and yet do nothing himself. "I hate this," he growled, realized he had spoken aloud when Charlie asked, "What?"

"Losing to you in Scrabble," answered Don. "Even when you cheat. So what's the score? If you win, tonight I'll ask the camera for paper and pencil for you — or would you prefer white board and dry eraser?"

Charlie smiled tiredly, rubbed his head. "Don't remember the score. Can I just forfeit?"

Don frowned, took a better look at Charlie. He reached out to put a hand on his forehead, easily brushed aside Charlie's own hand when he attempted to stop him.

"Think you're heating up again, Buddy."

Charlie tilted his head back against the wall and closed his eyes. "Yeah," he agreed, almost conversationally. "Arm kind-of hurts."

Don dropped his eyes to Charlie's right arm, then rummaged around in the treasures gleaned from their daily bucket earlier. "There's more stuff here. Alcohol wipes and gauze. We should clean it again." Without waiting for a response, Don grabbed Charlie's arm, almost dropped it again when he felt the heat. Dreading what was coming, he removed the old bandage. He looked with dismay at the wound, which still had angry, red, ragged edges, was still oozing. The thin yellow pus was back, and now Don was afraid he also saw faint lines of red leading out toward the uninjured part of Charlie's arm. "I knew the sheet was a mistake," he thought, and ripped open an alcohol pad. He looked at Charlie's face. He was still leaning back, still had his eyes closed. "Ready or not…", he said, and let loose with the pad on Charlie's arm.

Charlie immediately jerked his head up, tried to pull his arm back, but Don held on until he was done, using several more pads. He checked Charlie's face again. His brother was definitely greener than usual. "Almost done, now", he said, and reached for the roll of gauze. A small tube fell out of it, and Don almost wept with joy. "Hey! Antibiotic cream."

As he opened the tube he heard Charlie say quietly, "Yeah. Rosa's a good mother."

Don looked up quickly, saw the tease in Charlie's eye, gave him a secret grin. Soon he was finished rebandaging the arm, and moved his attention to his brother's foot. "This looks better," he said, looked through the supplies again. "There's an ace bandage here. I could wrap it."

Charlie raised his left hand. "No, not now, please. Maybe later."

"Yeah, we have to save something for later," Don murmured, and pushed the curls off Charlie's forehead. "Still bruised here," he noted, "but the lump is smaller."

"I'll take your word for that," Charlie said, and started to slide down the wall to lie on the mattress again. "Don't look at my nose."

Don smiled at him fondly. "Going to sleep again? What am I going to do?"

Charlie opened his eyes, started to push himself up. "I'm sorry…"

Don managed to push him back down with hardly any effort. "No, I'm just kidding. Get some sleep." He glanced up at the camera. "Maybe Mom will have some more surprises for us later."