Deceit Chapter 5

"Hello?" Michelle said inquisitively, peeking her head into Professor Eppes' office. "Still trying to detect something in those pictures? Charlie? Charlie—hello?

"Oh hey Michelle, when did you get here?" he said as he removed his headphones and flipped through a stack of case files and images.

"Just a few minutes ago, I was just stopping in to see if those new enhanced images I gave you yielded and data and to see if you would maybe like to go and grab a little lunch?" the young woman said, smiling at Charlie.

Looking up at the clock, he replied, " You know what? Sure. I mean I am not getting anything from these data points anyway. Besides, it's not often that the both of us have the entire afternoon off to you know, converse, just the two of us." Clearing his throat and running his hands through his curly locks in nervousness, he subconsciously thought to himself, "I hope that sounded alright, no no no it was fine, it's just lunch, no serious feelings towards her right?"

"Here let me just pack up my computer and then we—" Charlie said before he was interrupted

"No Charlie, no laptop, no case files, nothing, this is just going to be a completely work free lunch. Don's case will just have to get over it, for just an hour, come on, you really need it and so do I., we have both been working so hard lately." Michelle said, nudging the mathematician out of his office before he could have a chance to say any more.

"Here let me just grab my cell phone, you know, just in case." the younger Eppes responded. Michelle simply sighed and gave him a friendly glare.

"Hey!" he said chuckling, " You never know, Dad may call with some sort of earth shattering news. You wouldn't want me to miss that right? And you cannot honestly tell me that there is no work in that purse of yours, come on I know you too well."

"Fine, your right." Michelle said smiling up at him. Charlie quickly looked up his office, and the two headed towards the big glass doors leading out of the math building, when his phone went off. He looked down at the screen and saw that it had pulled up Colby's number. The professor almost didn't answer his phone, seeing that it was more than likely about his brother's case and he had promised to just relax for a little while, but something just felt urgent.

"Hello." Charlie said, signaling to Michelle that he would be really fast. "Wait what? Colby slow down; I cannot understand you." Charlie said with great anxiety. Then he heard them, the sounds of emergency sirens, and in that instant, he knew something was very wrong.

Michelle could tell something was wrong with her friend by how shaky his voice had become. The two immediately stopped walking and she began to ask what was happening. "Charlie, what's going on, what happened, what's wrong?" she asked.

"Hang on Colby, Michelle shhhh." he said with a twinge of anger and frustration in his voice, causing her to recoil away. "Oh my god, how did this happen? Ok, yeah, I understand, I'll be right there." And with that Charlie knew just exactly what had happened to his brother and Megan at that crime scene. Incapable of even comprehending any kind of emotion, Charlie dropped his phone to the ground.

"Charlie, Charlie, Charlie, what's wrong, please talk to me!" she said placing her hand upon his shoulder to try and comfort him.

"Megan, my brother—my brother—they've been shot." the mathematician said very quietly with his voice trembling even more than before.

"Oh my god, where, how bad, how are they, where are they taking them to, which hospital?" Michelle asked, speaking faster than she ever imagined she could.

"Don got hit. Tw-tw-twice. Once in the thigh and once in the chest. Megan was hit in the arm, she isn't critical though. God damnit. This was just supposed to be another crime scene, why did this have to happen?" the professor said to himself as the realization began to hit. " He's in critical condition right now. Basically now we just have to wait now to see if he makes it through or not."

With tears beginning to roll down her cheeks, the young woman turned to Charlie and comforted him before picking up his phone. After a long silence, the two headed towards her car. "Charlie, it's going to be ok, I promise. Your brother is the strongest guy I've ever met. He'll make it through this." she said, getting into the car with the professor and speeding away to the hospital.

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"Yes, his name is Don Eppes. HUH yes, he's 35 years old. No he is not allergic to any medication. Can I please just see him now." Charlie said to the Emergency Room nurses with a bit of frustration and sense of impatience in his voice. "Please, yes I am his brother, Charles Eppes; I really just want to see my brother now!"

"I know, I understand, and you are going to be able to see him very soon, they just need to get him down to the operating room immediately to get the bullet out. But I promise, that just as soon as they get him stabilized, I will call you in right away." the nurse responded, trying to get the mathematician to calm down. "In the mean time here are his things." Charlie looked down seeing his brother's badge and wallet sitting in his hands and bit his bottom lip trying not to break down and cry.

Knowing that he could not see his brother any time soon anyway, Charlie let out a big sigh, rubbed his tired eyes, and went over to sit down in the waiting room next to Michelle and David. "Well of course they won't let me see him now anyway, just trying to evaluate his wounds, and umm---stabilize him. He'll be in surgery for a while to remove the bullet, but they promised to let me know if anything changed. I still just can't believe this happened. I mean this was just such a common thing, how it could get so out of control like that so fast, I still just don't understand."

"Hey Colby, how's Megan doing? Any better?" Michelle asked, seeing the agent enter the waiting area.

"Well, she's going to need quite a few stitches, but luckily the bullet went straight through her arm. So nothing critical, it's just going to be awfully painful while she heals. She was really lucky, had she even turned the slightest bit, that bullet would have gone right through her chest and more than likely hit her heart." Colby replied, informing his friends of everything that the doctors had told him. Hearing that, Charlie shot up out of his chair and began pacing the room, continually running his hands through his hair and staring up at the clock.

"Charlie, pacing and staring at the clock is not going to make time pass any faster." Michelle said, tugging on the back of his shirt in hopes of getting him to just sit back down. "The more you pace, the more nervous you make me. I'm afraid too—we all are. Come on, let's go take a little walk, that'll help make things seem like they are going faster." Listening to his friend, the professor stopped pacing and started to walk down the hall with Michelle.

"So how is Don?" Colby asked David. "I really didn't want to ask when Charlie was here---you know didn't want to make him tell it all over again."

"Yeah." David replied letting out a sigh. " Well, the bullet is still in his chest, and he's in surgery right now to try and stop the internal bleeding and remove the bullet. They did say that they'd let us see him when he got out and was a little more stable, but really at this point, we are just really going to have to wait. The doctor said these next 48 hours are going to be critical."

"That's basically what I was expecting. God David, how did things turn out like this? We have all been trained for these types of things, but man, when it really happens, everything just feels entirely different." Colby said tired, saddened, and still shocked.

"I know what you mean. I mean I was just returning fire as fasts as I possibly could, but I mean with all those bullets flying around, I couldn't even really tell where any of them were coming from. Those bastards that did this to them." David said as he sighed and looked down at his phone. He noticed the number as Emma's and quickly answered. "Hello. Yeah, well he's in surgery now and Megan is getting stitched up. Nah, she's going to be ok. Don? Well we don't know yet, you know how these things are. No one actually tells you anything around here. We won't be able to see him until they get him comfortable in a room, but yeah if you want to come down here. Wait how are you feeling? Ok that's good, I'm glad you are better. Ok see you soon."

"Emma?" Colby said, sounding a bit annoyed and irritated.

"Yep, she's on her way down." the agent responded.

" You know, she is one weird woman. I mean I like her and everything, we get along just fine. It's just the way she gets when Don is around and when he isn't. You know what I mean. Like the other day with all those blueprints?" Granger said. Before David had a chance to answer, Charlie and Michelle walked back into the room with sodas and a few magazines to read.

"Emma's going to be here soon." Colby said to the professor. "Charlie? Hello?"

"Hmm, what yeah, ok, sure that's fine, whatever. Just got what time is it." he said quickly. "It's only been a half an hour, god, how fast is time moving today?"

"Well actually---" Michelle chimed in just trying to make him laugh. "Ok, I'm sorry, I guess this isn't time for this. Isn't that Emma?"

"Hey everyone." Emma said looking at her saddened co-workers. "Hi." they all said in a very bleak manner. The woman went and sat down next to David and asked, "So how's he holding up?" motioning to Charlie.

"Well, other than initial shock, he seems to actually be holding up alright. But you can imagine, he just keeps looking at the clock, pacing around, the usual." he said.

"You're looking better." Colby said, trying to strike up a pleasant conversation with the agent. "Yeah, I think I am over whatever I had."

Two hours passed and everyone had fallen asleep except for Charlie, whose shoulder was acting as a pillow for Michelle's head. Just then he heard the nurses' voice.

"Charles Eppes?" she asked. "Yes?" he said. "You can go in and see your brother now." the woman told him.

"Michelle—Michelle," the professor said, nudging her awake. "We can go see Don now."

"Huh? what? what time is it," she replied groggily.

"It's 11:00 , here come on, let's go see him." he replied "Don't you want to wake the others?" she wondered, but didn't bother to say anything.

As the two approached room 1217, it was apparent that they were overly tired and extremely scared of what they were about to walk into. Without even realizing it, Charlie grasped Michelle's hand as he grew closer to Don's room. "Well, here we are." she said sighing and gazing at the wooden door. "Its going to be ok."

When both of them entered the room, they saw Don hooked up to a resperator and many other unidentifialbe machines. "God just look at him. I mean I always knew that there was a lot of risk involved with his job, but to see it up close like this," Charlie said as he sighed and looked at the tube in his brother's mouth with great sadness and disbelief. There were moniters everywhere, beeping, buzzing, the entire thing seemed like a horrible dream to the mathematcian. "It's like I just keep waiting to wake up from all of this you know?" he said as he turned to Michelle and grabbed onto her, holding onto her, crying in her arms.

"Yeah I know what you mean Charlie," she said finally moving her face away from the young man's chest. "He'll be allright. I mean he's got some pretty amazing doctors looking after him, and I mean he's out of surgery just fine. Afterall, the doctor said that was the most trying part of this whole thing, and he came through this just fine. Don is one of the stronget people I know, he'll be able to fight through all of this." Michelle tried to reassure him that his brother would be just fine, but even she had some doubts, but could never let Charlie sense her hesitations.

"Hey Don," the man said as he reached over and clasped his brother's hand. Charlie could not appear strong any longer and broke down crying as Michelle stood behind the young man rubbing his shoulder. "Come on Charlie, let's go wake up the others." Michelle said trying to nudge the young man out of his seat.