Charlie's POV

I went down the stairs and saw Dad standing at the stove. I tried slipping out, but my father was too quick for that.

"Charlie! Get in here. I need to talk to you about last night."

"Dad, I don't have time. I have a class in twenty minutes."

"It can wait. Sit down."

For once, I disobeyed my father.

"Dad, I've got a lot of stuff to catch up on, I probably won't be around much in the next few days, okay? I'll be at school if you need me."

"Charlie! Get back here!" Dad called from behind me.

"Bye!" I called back.

I felt bad for doing something like that to Dad, but I had to.

Don's POV

I sat at my desk, feeling the guilt really sink in. I had hit Charlie. I had hit my brother. What kind of brother am I?

Just then my cell phone rang and I picked it up.

"Eppes." I spoke into the receiver.

"Don, this is your father. Do you know what happened to Charlie last night?" He asked hurriedly.

"What has he told you?" I asked, hesitant to give away any information.

"Nothing. He came home soaking wet and bloody and this morning he left before I could say much to him. He wouldn't tell me anything. I assume you know what's going on?"

"Yeah, Dad. Remember the meth bust we were planning?"

"Yes."

"Well, Charlie found some new information about where the meth lab was located at the last minute and he rode his bike to our stakeout point and put himself in danger."

"God, I thought Charlie knew better than that." Alan breathed.

"Yeah, I know. Anyway, he came and told me about it. I got mad and yelled at him, and he got so upset he ran off and put himself in danger again."

"What!"

"Yeah, I know. Anyway, he got caught by the man who was standing guard for the meth lab and he tried to drown Charlie in the fountain at the park across the street from the meth lab."

"My, gosh. Was he okay?"

"Yeah, he was fine. He was drenched to the bone, and he had a few scraped and a gash in his forehead, but, other than that, he seemed okay."

"So why is he not planning on coming home for the next couple of days? He says he's busy."

"I don't know, Dad. I just don't know."

Charlie's POV

I stepped into my office and laid down my backpack and my notebook. I had to write. I had to work. I had to think.

I quickly went to the secretary's office and told her to cancel any appointments I had and not to let anyone in my office except for Amita and Larry.

"What about your family?" She had asked.

"No." I said firmly, and then went back to my office.

I sat down at my desk, feeling a little dizzy. My head throbbed with pain and I felt unusually cold.

In my first class, I almost fell over twice. I felt fatigued, but I continued to push on.

Unusual for me, I let my class out forty minutes early. Usually, I would keep them to the last minute, but I couldn't find the strength.

I went back to my office and slumped in a chair.

I took out my cell phone and called Amita.

"Hello?" Amita's voice spoke.

"Hey, Amita. This is Charlie. I have a big favor to ask of you."

"What's that?" She asked, sounding intrigued.

"I need you to take over my afternoon class, if you can."

"Sure, but why? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. I'm just swamped right now. You sure you don't mind?"

"No, not at all. But Charlie-"

"Thanks. I owe you one." I said and quickly hung up.

I turned to my chalkboard and got so into solving one problem for the FBI, that I forgot to come to my next class. If I hadn't stopped when I dropped my piece of chalk, I may never have.

I rushed to my class room, pausing outside the door to look like this was normal.

"Good afternoon, class." I said as I stepped inside.

In the hour that I spent in my class teaching, I dropped my piece of chalk ten times and had to sit down three. It was getting on my nerves and so I dismissed the class...an hour early.

I returned to my office where I got caught up in my work once more. It wasn't until Larry scared me half to death that I came back to reality.

"Charles, is something wrong?" Larry asked after I calmed my racing heart.

"No, nothing. Why do you ask?"

"I can't help but notice that you let two of your three classes out early and one of them you have Amita covering for you. Besides that, the writing on the chalkboard makes no sense what so ever."

I looked at the chalkboard. I noticed it, too, but I couldn't let on. What was wrong with me?

"Isn't it always messy?" I asked, forcing a smile.

"Charles, your messy is not like that. What's going on with you? You look like you got beat up or something. You're all pale and you've got scrapes and bruises all over."

"It's nothing, Larry. If you'll excuse me, I need to get back to work."

"But, Charles-"

"Good day, Larry."

Larry turned and walked out the room, but I knew I hadn't heard the last from him.

Alan's POV

The phone rang and I got up to get it. I had been reading the newspaper, or at least trying to anyway.

"Hello?"

"Mr. Eppes? This is Larry."

"Hello, Larry. How are you?"

"I'm fine, thank you. I need to talk to you about Charles, though."

"Charlie? Is he okay?"

"Not that I can tell. He's been kind of off today, which is not like him in the least. He let out his classes early, which he never does, and he has Amita covering one of his classes this afternoon."

"That's not like him. Thank you, Larry. I'll call Don and see if he can think of something to do."

"If there's anything I can do to help, you know where I am."

"Yes, I know. Thank you, Larry."

I hung up the phone and dialed Don's cell phone.

Don's POV

I picked up my cell phone.

"Eppes."

"Don, this is your father again. Larry just called and told me some things about Charlie. I'm worried, Don. This isn't like your brother."

"What sort of things did he tell you?"

"He said he let his classes out early and he has Amita covering one of his later classes. I know your brother wouldn't do that unless something was seriously wrong. I need you to go to his office when you're done with work."

Fear ran through me. I couldn't talk to Charlie...not after what I did to him.

"Dad, I'm pretty swamped here-"

"And I'm your father and he's your brother. Do it."

And with that, Dad hung up.

After work, I went down to CalSci and walked up to the secretary's office.

"Hi, is Charles Eppes busy right now?"

"Yes. He's been busy all day. He said not to take any visitors. I'm sorry, sir. You'll have to come back some other time."

Like hell I will

"Thank you."

I walked down the hall, heading straight for Charlie's office.

I found him struggling to wrap his hands in bandages. I noticed that they were read from being scraped from last night. I hadn't seen those.

He used his teeth to cut off a strip and then struggled to wrap it around his palm.

He finally got the one done and he took out, not tape, but his stapler and got the bandage together.

I just stood there in the door, watching him. When he got the other hand wrapped, he moved on to go back to his chalkboard.

He stood there, staring at it for several minutes. I looked at it, and couldn't make out anything. Some of the writing didn't even look human.

After a few more minutes, he pounded his fist against the chalkboard. I noticed that that was a similar habit that I had.

"Charlie?" I said as I stepped into the room.

He turned, startled into jumping.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to scare you. Are you okay? You've got a lot of us worried."

"By 'a lot of us' you mean Larry, Amita, and Dad." He said, chuckling without humor.

"No, I'm worried, too."

"Yeah, right. Look, Don, I'm busy right now and I don't have time to chat."

"What are you working on?"

"None of your business."

I took another step forward.

"What's all that mean?" I asked, gesturing to the chalkboard as I took one more step closer.

I saw him getting nervous; I heard the tremble in his voice.

"It's nothing. Just some equations I'm working on for homework for my classes-" He stopped, yelping out when I had reached out to touch his shoulder. He jumped backwards, hitting the back of his head on the chalkboard.

"Charlie!" I gasped as I saw him hit the floor.

"I'm fine, Don." He said from the ground, though I could tell he was shaken.

I reached out to help him up, but he shrugged me off.

"You're not okay. What's the matter? You look so pale. Are you feeling all right?"

"I'm feeling fine." He said as he took a step away from me. I noticed the way he swayed when he walked.

He stood behind his desk for a minute, getting his bearings. Suddenly, he reached out and grabbed the edges of his desk, like it was falling.

He blinked rapidly a few times and then came to the realization that nothing was wrong with it at all.

"I-I need to get back to work." He said, turning back to the chalkboard. He swayed a little too much this time and he fell face first in to the chalkboard. He reached out to grab hold of it, only to knock the chalkboard down on top of him.

"Charlie!" I exclaimed.

I rushed to his side, taking the chalkboard off him. He lay there, crumpled on the floor, shivering.

I reached out to touch his forehead. He was oddly cold.

I took out my cell phone and dialed 9-1-1.

"Charlie, hang in there. There's an ambulance on the way." I said as he laid there on the floor. He began to shake more violently and I began to panic.

I reached out to grab his hand, but when he winced in pain, I let go.

The ambulance arrived soon after. They took him away and I followed close behind in my car.

I called Dad on the way to the hospital. He said he'd be there as soon as he could, and I was grateful. I didn't want to be there alone.

I paced the waiting room floors, trying to think of what was wrong with Charlie. Nothing came to mind.

"Don!" I heard Dad's voice call.

I turned and saw him running up to me.

"Where is he? Where's Charlie?"

"They took him back. I haven't heard from him since. I don't know what's wrong, Dad." I said, trying to keep my voice from breaking.

Dad must have noticed this because he enveloped me in a hug.

"It's all right, Donny. Charlie will be fine." He said to reassure me.

"Are you with Charles Eppes?" A doctor asked.

"Yes. Where is he? Is he all right?" I said hurriedly.

"He's doing much better now. Please sit and I'll tell you what's going on."

The three of us sat down and the doctor began to explain what was going on.

"Charles was suffering from hypothermia. His body temperature was dangerously low the normal temperature, and we had to help his temperature to go up. The hypothermia caused him to shiver and his lack of coordination. He also suffered from mild dehydration and he has a mild respiratory infection and we found a few broken ribs. We have him on fluids right now and he has been responding well. He's been given some antibiotics for the infection, but he'll be good as new in a week or so."

"Thank you, doctor. Can we see him now?" Dad asked.

"Certainly." The doctor showed us the way and then left us to talk to Charlie.

Charlie was lying in the bed, covered with the hospital sheet and a few extra warming blankets.

"Oh, my boy. My poor Charlie boy." Dad said as he brushed Charlie's hair away from his face.

I sat down in the chair beside Charlie's bed and Dad took the one across from me.

Dad continued to stroke Charlie's hair and soon he woke up.

"D-Dad?" Charlie's weak voice called.

"Sh. I'm here, son. You're okay." Dad said reassuringly.

"W-What happened?"

"You're sick, that's all. You're going to be fine, though."

Charlie's eyes rolled back into his head and he lost consciousness.

"That didn't take long." I said.

"My poor boy." Dad said once again, and took Charlie's hand in his much larger one.

I would have done the same for Charlie, but I knew he wouldn't want it.