a/n: I've revised it so that the break ins took place on Sunday night.

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At home, I feed Nat's 'kids', I postponed the meeting until the next day, slept for a while, and started to clean up the house. It looked worse than Donnie's old college dorm room!

Sometime later, I called Nat to see how she was doing and Don came to see me.

"Stan told me that you decided to stay home" Donnie said as he came in.

"I wanted to clean up the mess" I told him. Having my home broken into had been traumatic. In a way, my trying to clean seemed like a good way to gain control again.

"Natalie stayed at work?"

"Yeah...she needed to get her mind off this." I explained.

"So...are you guys staying at a hotel?"

"I'll need to talk that over with her about that when she returns from work" I told him. It seemed best to return to our routine as soon as possible. Sleeping at the house was a good step towards that. Maybe if the house is in the cleaner state, I could get Nat to relent and agree to sleep at home.'

"Sure..." He looked around. "Need help?"

"If you've got time"

"For you Dad, always."

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"A Megan Reeves would like to see you, Dr. Core" one of the vet assistants told me, as I left a patient room after a routine appointment that involved a checkup and some shots for a Scottish terrier puppy. Work had helped somewhat in that I could go a good while without thinking about what happened

"Have her come to my office" I said, as I went into it myself. Soon, Megan joined me.

"I thought I'd see how you were..." Megan told me. I guess, as my teacher, she was concerned, and probably heard about it from Don. It was easy to talk to her.

"Okay...though I'd rather spend the night at a hotel" I said as she sat down. "But Alan doesn't want to"

"Oh?"

"He says that we can't let whoever vandalized our house to take over our lives" I explained. "As we speak, he's probably cleaning up the house to get me to change my mind."

"Sounds like Alan's trying to take charge of the situation by facing it" she remarked.

"Yeah...Alan had the same attitude when I was afraid to go into the parking lot of the clinic for a while after I got shot..."

"What about Don?"

"He uh...just wants to make sure we're protected, wherever we are." I didn't want to go into the most recent disagreement I had with him, especially since Megan and he worked together.

"You two don't seem to see eye to eye on a lot of things..." Megan said, leaning back on the chair.

"We've had our disagreements." I said with a shrug, as I found myself twiddling my stethoscope.

"He told me and Charlie that last night's incidents were done by someone who had a 'beef' with you"

"Really?" I made myself sound casual.

"What did he mean?" she persisted. Looks like Megan hadn't forgotten about that day, when she and Don saw me snooping at that house.

I explained about my inquiries.

"Whoever did this knows a great deal about you...attacking your home and place of business."

"And Alan wonders why I want to stay at a hotel" I now worried even more. Will the protection Alan has be enough? What if whoever broke into the house and clinic decided to hurt Alan?

"Don said that he was going to leave work early to stay with Alan"

"That's great!" I said. It was good that Alan would have Don's company, but I worried how things would play out between me and him.

Too soon, Megan was called back to work. Several appointments later, it was time to go home. As I walked towards my car, I saw a sheet of paper. Scared and fearing it was a written threat, I ran towards the vehicle, and didn't touch the paper. To my relief, it was just a flyer for some car washing fundraiser. Happy, tore up the paper, went into my car, and went home only to find Alan asleep on the couch. Carefully, I put a blanket over him .The poor man had gone on very little sleep between last night's events, and cleaning the house.

"Hey Natalie..." Don used his most businesslike voice. "How was work?"

"Fine...How's your father been?

"Busy...trying to clean the house for you" Why did I sense an accusing tone? "Anyway, I got a pizza. Half of it's got your favorite toppings."

"Thank you and I appreciate you looking after Alan" We were talking like two people who just saw each other on the elevator, once in a while.

"I'm staying the night" If nothing else, Don was a good son to Alan. He deeply cared.

"That's great of you, but your father and I might go to a hotel."

"Dad's spending hours cleaning up this place tells me that he disagrees" Of course he would side with Alan. That I understand, but he really shouldn't butt in. "Besides, is it fair to wake him?"

"I wasn't going to wake him, Don" I tried to be patient. "Your father doesn't sleep for that many hours at a time."

"Would it kill you to humor him for once?"

"Let's not go there, Don" For a while now, we've gone through same arguments that consisted of him , as well as Charlie saying that I wasn't good nor old enough for Alan, and me countering them.

He played the fool and gave me a hard look. "Go where?"

Why uh...don't I go eat some pizza..." I lamely suggested and went to the kitchen before the sparks of tension turned into flames.

TBC