Don was staring up at the ceiling of his 'prison', wondering just how much longer he was going to have to be here. He hated hospitals and every memory they brought to mind with a passion. He gritted his teeth as a sharp pain from his shoulder jarred him from his thoughts. As someone who prided himself on being stalwart, Don was surprised to find himself praying that the nurse would bring his pain medication soon.

"Donny," his father called softly as he pushed the door open. "Are you awake?"

"Yeah," he replied as he turned his head and smiled. "And bored out of my wits."

"I can believe that," Alan laughed as he stepped inside, dragging someone through the door behind him. "Look who I brought."

"Charlie!" Don cried gleefully, stretching out his hand toward his little brother. "Come here."

Charlie smiled at his brother's positive attitude and quickly moved to his side, taking Don's hand in his. "How are you, Don?"

"I'm feeling much better now that my family's here." He squeezed Charlie's hand and lowered his voice so that Alan couldn't hear them "How are you?"

"I'm hanging in there," Charlie sighed.

"If you want to talk-"

"I don't," Charlie cut him off. "But thanks for the offer."

Don pulled him down to his chest and wrapped his left arm around him, wincing as he tugged at the stitches in the knife wound. "I'm here when you're ready," he whispered firmly, not letting go until Charlie nodded.

"Hey," a lighthearted male voice sounded from the doorway. "Be careful with my patient."

The three Eppes men looked up at an older man wearing surgical scrubs. "I was just..." Charlie fumbled.

"He's fine," Don growled at the man in the doorway.

"I'm kidding," the scrub-clad man smiled and threw up his hands in surrender. "That right there is some of the best medicine money can't buy. I love to see my patients with strong familial support. It makes their recovery go so much easier and faster." He walked up to Alan and stuck out his hand. "I'm Doctor Martinez."

"Alan Eppes, Don's father."

"Pleasure to meet you, sir." He released Alan's hand and took Charlie's, giving him a firm, reassuring handshake. "And you must be Don's brother."

"Charlie," he nodded, his expression surprised. "How'd you know?"

"Are you kidding? The family resemblance is incredible! Well," he added with a twinkle in his eye, "That, and my nurse told me his father and brother were visiting with him right now."

Don smiled as Martinez gripped his hand and squeezed. The doctor's cheerful demeanor was really welcome, especially as he saw the tension draining from the faces of his family. "Nice to meet you, Doc."

"I must apologize for my attire, but I only had about an hour between surgeries to pop in and meet you. I do clean up nice, I assure you." His deep laughter echoed around the room as he gestured for Alan and Charlie to have a seat in the room's two chairs. He turned his attention back to Don. "So, I've been over your x-rays and your chart from the ER. That's a lot of damage in your shoulder there. Now, I know Doctor Jackson was keeping you sedated so you could rest up and get your strength back, but did anyone go over the details of your injury or the prognosis for your recovery?"

"No," Don answered.

"And you, Mr. Eppes?"

Alan nodded faintly. "One of the ER doctors mentioned it to me. Doctor Jackson said it wasn't his specialty and wouldn't go into any details."

"And by the look on your face I can determine what the ER doctor must have told you. Well, first of all I want you to forget whatever he said. Doctor Jackson was right in that only a specialist – like myself – can give you an accurate diagnosis. Okay?" Smiling as Alan nodded, he continued. "Secondly, my diagnosis will be an educated guess until I get in there..." he gestured to Don's bandaged right shoulder. "...And start looking around."

"What's your educated guess?" Don inquired with some degree of dread.

"Your chart says you're an FBI agent, right?" Don nodded. "I suspect you like the facts and just the facts."

"Good assumption," Don told him.

"Well then I won't beat around the bush. The x-rays show two fractures to your scapula, an incomplete fracture at the neck of the scapula where it connects to your humerous and a complete fracture in the lower body of the scapula." Martinez paused while he gestured to the places he spoke of on his own shoulder.

"What's the difference between incomplete and complete?" Charlie asked.

"It's just like it sounds, actually. Incomplete means the two pieces of bone are still sitting next to each other, while a complete means we have complete separation of the bone. In a case involving so much trauma – like Don's – we perform surgery to set the bones." Seeing that all three men were following him, he nodded and picked up where he left off. "Now, the x-rays also show some musculature and soft tissue damage. In particular, your pectoralis major and deltoid, although I suspect there will be some damage to your teres minor once I get a closer look." Again, Martinez pointed out the locations of the three muscles on his own body. "Everybody with me so far?"

The Eppes men nodded, although each one was looking decidedly glummer than before Martinez's talk.

"Okay. Then we all need to listen very carefully to the next thing I'm about to say. Don, this is a lot of damage and there is more than a slight chance that it's just too severe for you to be able to recover full use of your arm. In fact, until I perform the surgery and start to repair your shoulder, I'd have to say you're chances are fifty-fifty at best. But remember: I won't know for sure until after the surgery and I've got to warn you, I am the world's biggest optimist. The hard part that goes along with that is that I expect my patients and their families to share my optimism, okay?"

"But you just said-" Charlie began.

"That I wouldn't know for sure until after the surgery. I am very hopeful that I'll discover the damage isn't that severe after all and that Don will come through this whole situation with flying colors."

"You'll have to excuse him, Doc," Don said, attempting to keep his tone light. "He's a first class mathematician and everything is about the numbers to him."

"Oh." Martinez smiled at the youngest Eppes. "Believe me, son. In my field there's a lot of stats and numbers but I've learned not to buy into them." He winked at Charlie and gave him a huge, bright smile. "Would you like to know why?"

"Why?" Charlie sighed, reluctantly playing along with his brother's surgeon.

"Because there is no way to quantify the things that really count – the patient's will and desire to recover and the amount of support from his family."

Don saw Charlie's eyes light up and knew he was thinking back to the case with Nikki Davis. "Actually," his younger brother suddenly grinned at Martinez. "You can quantify that. And, that being said, I am feeling very optimistic."

"Good," Martinez moved across the room and clapped the young professor on the shoulder. "Now I hate to do this, but I do need you two to step outside for me while I take a closer look at Don's shoulder. It won't be for long, I promise."

Alan and Charlie reluctantly obeyed, assuring Don they would be back as soon as Martinez was finished. After they were gone the doctor paged a nurse into the room to help with his examination. "I'm afraid this is going to hurt quite a bit but I need to know what we're working with."

"Do what you have to do," Don told him.

Martinez lightly patted his arm. "That's a fine attitude, Don. Keep it up and you'll be on your road to recovery in no time."

The next ten minutes were pure hell for Don as the bandaging from his shoulder was removed and the injured joint was flexed and prodded. He clenched his eyes shut against the agony and tried to take deep breaths.

"You're doing great," Martinez spoke softly as he placed a fatherly hand on Don's forehead. "Just a few more minutes and I'll be done."

Don nodded silently as he focused all of his effort on not crying out at the intense, throbbing pain. He felt a soft, cool hand replace the doctor's and cracked his eyes open to find the nurse smiling down at him. "I've injected something for it into your IV. Hang on and you'll feel better very soon." He nodded and closed his eyes again as she started to replace the bandage his shoulder.

"Okay, Don. You did great," Martinez's voice floated over him, warm and comforting. "No signs of the infection from earlier and you seem to have a lot of your strength back. I'm going to schedule your surgery for tomorrow morning and, if all goes well, you should be out of here and back home within forty-eight to seventy-two hours after that."

"Good," Don smiled wearily. "Thanks, Doc."

"My pleasure. Now hold tight and I'll get your family back in here."

Don closed his eyes and a few minutes later he felt his father's hand on his forehead. "I'm okay, Dad."

"You don't look it," Alan informed him. "You look like you're in a lot of pain."

"Nurse gave me something for it. It's starting to work."

"Not fast enough," Alan countered.

"Where's Charlie?"

"Right here, bro." Don felt his little brother's hand squeeze his.

"You're awfully quiet," Don said as he yawned.

"Just happy to know you're okay," Charlie replied as he rubbed soft circles on the back of his brother's hand.

"I'm a little tired," Don whispered, prompting his father to start stroking his hair.

"Go to sleep then, Donny," the older man's voice rumbled in Don's ear. "We'll stay here until you do."

"Surgery's..." he trailed off in a big yawn.

"Tomorrow morning," Alan finished. "Doctor Martinez told us. We'll be back then to wish you luck."

"'Kay."

"Shh, just go to sleep."

"Charlie?" Don mumbled again as he started to drift off.

"I'm right here, Don."

"You did good," Don's words were barely audible as sleep pulled him under.

TBC