2005
"Do you think mom wanted to abort me?" Charlie suddenly asked darkly.
"Charlie! Mom loved you!" Don raised his voice slightly
"Maybe she just hoped that your dad was my dad" the professor brooded.
"Charlie, we do have the same dad! He took care of the both of us! And that's what it means to be a dad!" Don argued. "Who paid for your tutors? Who taught you how to ride a bike? To drive? Who was there for you?"
2003
Don got a call from his mother at the office.
"Eppes?"
"I'd like someone to find my son. He didn't come to dinner last night." Margaret teased.
"I'm sorry mom, it's this case...I had to stay at work"
"You could have called!"
"Sorry"
"Do I have to almost die again to get you to visit more often?" she joked. Her sense of humor had become more morbid sense her bout with cancer.
"Mom!"
"What good is if for you to be in L.A if we hardly see you?"
"I'll come to dinner, tonight, mom"
"Great! Your father's making a ribeye!"
"Sounds good" Don smiled.
2005
"I wish that I had never found that drawing!" Charlie's voice started to quiver as pent up emotion started to get out more and more.
"Charlie..."
"You were right! I shouldn't have over thought it!" he roughly pushed a glass to the floor, causing it to shatter in many pieces. An annoyed bus boy got a broom to sweep the mess.
"Easy buddy..." Don vainly tried to calm him.
2003
The Family went out to dinner one summer evening, happy that Margaret had survived to see another birthday.
"I hope you like it mom!" Don said, as he presented her with a small box.
"How lovely!" Margaret beamed as she opened it to find a gold bracelet.
"Open mine!" Charlie said with a gleam in his eye. It was a bigger box. She unwrapped it to find two tickets for a Caribbean cruise.
"Charlie! You shouldn't have!"
"I know you and dad were thinking of taking a cruise, but ..got delayed."
"I guess living at home really pays off" Don teased, but a part of him was jealous that his brother seemed to have gotten the better present.
"I also got first class tickets to Miami, from where the ship will be leaving."
"It's a three week cruise!" Alan exclaimed as he examined the tickets "And we've got a suite with a balcony"
"You can wear the bracelet Don gave you during your dinner with the captain" Charlie added. Gift giving sometimes became a part of thesibling rivalry, though of course, both brothers gave from the heart.
Alan was just happy to see his family in one piece. He truly hoped that that would never change.
2005
" My whole life has been a lie!" Charlie snapped.
"We're brothers, Charlie. That much is true!" Don said.
"I had a right to know my other brother!" the professor said emphatically. "Not to mention my sister and my grandfather! He was a mathematician! Don't you realize how much that explains? How much it could've helped? Mom should have realized this!" Anger started to brew again.
2003
"The bracelet is beautiful!" Margaret told Don. She sensed that he felt jealous, and wished he wouldn't. What mattered to her was the love behind the gift.
"I couldn't have chosen it better, myself" Alan added, to support what his wife was doing.
"I glad you like it, mom" Don said with a smile, and tried toremind himself that he worked for a the government, and lived on his own, so there was no way he could buy the kind of gifts Charlie often did.
2005
"Charlie..."
"She did nothing but lie to me!"
"We've got to focus on the future. Dwelling on the past isn't going to help!"
"That's easy for you to say!" Charlie retorted. "You're not a product of an affair!" People started to stare, as the professor's voice grew louder.
2005
"Charlie..."
"My own mother lied to me!" The professor yelled even louder
"Charlie..."
"Is there a problem?" A uniformed officer, a regular and a friend of the owner came up to them and asked. She heard the noise of the noticed the growing disagreement between the two men and it seemed to be escalating given how one of them seemed to be getting more and more upset,as could be seen from his screaming . "Perhaps you two can work things out elsewhere?"
Don carefully flashed his badge and whispered."We're sorry. My brother works with me as a consultant, and a recent case kinda hit home.
"Perhaps you two would be better off talking about this somewhere more private?" The officer suggested diplomatically and with some more sympathy than before.
2003
"I'm so glad you came see Charlie teach!" Margaret beamed as she and Don walked in the Cal Sci campus towards where Charlie had one of his seminars.
"No problem mom." Don had mostly done it to please her and stop the constant nagging.
Soon they were there. Charlie saw them right away and his faced lit up.
Don found his brother to be an energetic teacher. Afterwards the professor met with them.
"Hey! Thanks for coming!" Charlie smiled from ear to ear. Don's coming meant approval, something he always wanted. "Were you bored?"
"No no..." Don said truthfully. He had understood some of the math since it was a first year class.
"Why don't we have some lunch?" Margaret suggested.
"I've got a little time" Don shrugged.
"My next class isn't for another hour!" Charlie said.
While the trio ate,Margaret thought about how, cancer or not, it would eventually just be the two of them. Alan and her weren't immortal after all. She truly hoped that they could eventually grow closer.
2003
Two nights later, Margaret had a nightmare.
She and Charlie were in the living room, and he, having found out the truth somehow, was furious with her.
"Why did you lie!" he demanded angrily and with tears in his eyes. "I should have been told!"
"Charlie..." she had tried to get in a word edgewise, seeing Charlie like this hurt her to the soul.
"You're a liar! You've never told me the truth!" he accused. "Everything has been a lie!"
"It's true that I love you!"
"Then why did you lie?"
Then, Don joined the melee, yelling "How could you have done this to Dad?"
"Don..."
"Was it worth it mom?" Don asked with his meanest, cruelest scowl.
She woke up with a start, and tears in her eyes. Unable to sleep she went to the kitchen to make some tea. Sometime later, Alan came to the kitchen as well.
"I noticed you were gone, and thought I'd join you" he said softy.
"I woke up and couldn't go to sleep" Margaret said.
"You had a nightmare about Don?" Alan asked. Sometimes she dreamt about their eldest getting injured on the job.
"Yes I did, actually" she said as Alan put his hand on hers.
"I'll get you one of my sleeping pills" He gently got up, got one from the medicine cabinet, and gave it to her.
She took it and eventually they both went back to bed.
2005
"Actually, that's not a bad idea. Come on buddy, let' s go" Don said. The professor, however, just sat there, in deep thought. "Charlie!"
It took the professor a minute or two to finally, and reluctantly get up.
"Let me drive you home, buddy" Don suggested as they left the place.
"I need to meet my biological father" Charlie said suddenly.
"Oh?" Don wondered if Charlie was ready for that step.
"That was the whole point of finding out who he was" the professor told him with slight annoyance. "Right?"
"Of course, Buddy." The agent worried that Charlie would expect too much from his biological father and be disappointed.
"The question is, how should I approach him?" Charlie wondered. What if David no longer wanted to meet him? How could and would they relate? Any connection was from mere genetics.
"I don't know what you tell ya, buddy" Don said softly.
"I mean, he knows of my existence, yet he hasn't come forward, even after mom died."
"He figured that without her backup, you'd never believe him." Don said.
"Maybe..." Charlie mused. "Or his wife didn't want him to contact me?"
"It's possible"
"Why do you think mom cheated on dad to be with him?" Charlie wondered aloud.
"Charlie...people cheat for all kinds of reasons..." Don answered evasivly, though he theorized that his mother perhaps found the artist to bea nice break from her suburban life, or maybe like the two brothers, Alan worked too much.
"Like what?" Charlie pushed.
"Look, the reality is that mom cheated and I don't want to dwell on why!" Don had gotten uncomfortable with the subject and so his tone grew sharp.
Charlie sighed as they got into Don's black SUV. As the car hummed along,The professor thought about what he would ask his biological father, while Don worried about how Charlie would react to answers of the questions he knew his brother would have for David.
2005
"Mom alway wore her wedding ring. He must have known she was married." the professor commented after some thought.
"I suppose" the agent did not want to have this discussion.
"Why do you think someone would get involved with a married person?" Charlie mused aloud.
"The unavailable seems more attractive I guess" Don shrugged, not liking where the conversation was going.
"I'm going to ask my biological father about that" Charlie said.
"Okay..."
"He's the mystery donor!" Charlie exclaimed.
"Mystery donor?.. oh yeah..." Don remembered.
"It was the one time he could help me without mom interfering." the professor mused.
"Mom worried about how you would take the news" Don commented.
"No! she worried about my finding out about how much she lied!" Charlie's anger got wound up again.
"Charlie..." Don put on his soothing big brother voice, which the professor hated.
"How would you feel if everything you thought you knew was a lie!" Charlie felt frustrated at how Don seemed to always be trying to calm him and be on their mother's side.
"This isn't about me!" Don snapped, though realizing how angry, and hurt he'd be if their places had been reversed.
"I would have told my kid the truth!" Charlie argued irrationally.
"Yeah I'm sure!" Don scoffed.
2003
The December morning seemed even colder, as Alan and Margaret sadly, and in shock left the clinic, where she had gone to get her periodical checkup: the cancer was back.
"Let's not tell the boys until after New Year's" she told him.
"Okay" Alan nodded numbly.
At dinner, they both tried to seem cheerful for the sake of appearances, but Don wasn't fooled. He could see the sad, hidden look in his father's eyes. However, for Charlie's sake, he didn't bring it up.
"I got another project funded thanks to that mysterious donor!" Charle beamed.
Everyone congratulated him.
Alan noticed that Margaret looked uncomfortable.
"How do you know it's the same person?" Don asked.
"Not very many people care alot about what I'm into researching. Even less have the money to fund it." Charlie said.
"I'd like someone to fund the get-Don Eppes - a new-car-project"the agent joked. He had his eye on buying a black SUV.
"How much do you need? You could pay me back anytime, no interest" Charlie offered with true concern and love for his brother.
"Thanks Buddy!" Don said with a smile. "But it's fine. I'll manage somehow."
"Why don't we all do something tomorrow?" Margaret suggested
"I've got..." Don began.
"To spend time with your family!" Alan finished. Given the day's events, he decided to give his son a push.
"I'll go" Don now was sure that something was amiss.
TBC