Don slowly walked into his father's room. Looking at the unconscious man, he felt ashamed. He slumped down into the chair that Charlie had occupied earlier.
He rubbed his face with his hands. He sighed but couldn't bring himself to look at Alan's face. He just stared at his hands.
"I have a confession to make. I left you. Earlier, I just got scared I guess. I really don't want to admit this but I don't even know if you can hear me. Charlie's mad at me. I don't blame him. We fought. I know you hate that and I'm sorry. I haven't done a thing right tonight. But Charlie, well you'd be proud of him."
Don wondered where his brother had run off to.
"You can't do this now, okay? Everyone thinks I'm so strong and I try to be but I don't know what I'm doing right now except for making a bad situation worse."
Don rested a hand on his father's. He looked at Alan's face and gasped when he saw two eyes staring back at him.
"Dad? Can you hear me?"
Alan softly chuckled, "of course I can hear you."
Don's joy turned to embarrassment, "well how much did you hear?"
"Something about making a bad situation worse."
"Yeah, I was just rambling."
For the first time Alan looked around, "what happened? I heard gunshots. I saw you and Charlie--. Oh, God are you all right? Where's Charlie? Is he okay?"
Don calmly reassured his dad, "I'm fine. Charlie's fine, and now you're fine."
Alan relaxed, "good, where is Charlie?"
Don didn't answer right away. He stood up, "uh, I'm going to go find him but I'm gonna get a doctor in here first. Just…"
Don hesitated at the door.
"Like you said I'm fine now." Don nodded and headed off to find Charlie.
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Charlie was circling the hospital from the outside. He tuned out the thunder and the wind. He let the rain hit him and made no reaction.
He walked angrily and forcefully. He was soaked and shivering. He wanted to go back inside but refused to give Don that satisfaction. He refused to prove his brother right. Prove that he was a coward. He sneezed.
'This is stupid. I should really go back inside.' Charlie reasoned but the anger still lingered and wouldn't allow him to be rational.
'Think of your father. I can't!' Charlie scoffed at himself. "And here I thought I was being the strong one."
He stopped walking. He ran his hands through his soaked dark hair. The icy rain was at least somewhat soothing his nose.
He heard a familiar tone and reached into his pocket for his phone.
Don.
His immediate reaction was to just ignore it but then he thought it could be about their father, so reluctantly he picked up.
"What?"
"Charlie where are you? I've been looking all over for you."
"Did something change with dad?"
Don noted the fact that Charlie had ignored his question but had more important things to deal with right now than a fight with his brother.
"Yeah," Don couldn't keep the smile out of his voice, "he's awake."
Thunder clapped. It was getting close. "Don I can't hear you. What did you say?"
"I said dad's awake!"
Charlie wasn't sure he had heard him right. "Awake? You're saying that he's all right?"
Don's smile broadened, "that's exactly what I'm saying. Come back. He wants to see you."
Charlie's eyes welled up in utter joy. He didn't know how to really express it.
"I'm coming right now. Tell him I'm coming, all right?"
"Of course I will. Just hurry."
"Okay," Charlie was about to hang up when he heard Don's voice again.
"And Charlie?" Charlie put the phone back to his ear. "Yeah Don?"
Don paused, "we need to talk later. This isn't going to go away."
Charlie didn't answer. He knew Don was right. He wasn't exactly looking forward to the conversation but at the moment he just wanted to see his dad. Without answering Don he hung up and started sprinting back inside.
TBC
Author's Note: Well that was kind of short and not a lot happened but I pretty much scribbled this out in a half an hour. I hope you still enjoyed it though. R&R please. Thanx buds!