Chapter Seven

Kitchen…

Alan was still a little bewildered that Amita had come to see him, so he decided to be a good host and make a snack and drink for the both of them. He knew he would find out soon enough what she wanted and he hoped it was something better than his own current situation at the moment.

Amita thanked him when he came into the dining room, and they shared a few moments of quiet before she started to say anything.

"Is Margaret home?" Amita asked, deciding to start with simpler questions before she got into the more complicated ones.

"No, she is at the office today, as she had a meeting that she couldn't get out of, though she will be back in a little while." Alan said, as he was actually glad she was there, as he needed to collect his thoughts for a while but he had the sense that Amita might have suspected that but kept that to himself.

"So… the reason that I came was because… There's been some things that I have been wondering about for a while now." Amita started

"Like what, may I ask?" Alan answered, dreading whatever questions that she may have and he wasn't sure what he could say

"I am not sure if this is my business, but… Can you tell me what your older son, Don, is like, because it seems like other than Charlie, you don't talk about him that much." Amita said, hoping it was not too insulting to ask.

Alan shuddered, as he didn't know how to answer the question, though he supposed that he did owe an explanation for his situation.

"No… It's alright to ask…I just need to find the right words to explain." Alan said, as he couldn't believe what he was about to say to someone he barely knew.

"Let's first say that, well, things weren't the best between me and Donnie, as we had some disagreements about his choice of employment but before that, it was complicated." Alan started before pausing.

After Amita nodded, he continued, "Charlie's genius required a lot of attention, more than we were prepared for and Donnie was forced to grow up quickly, and we had him look for Charlie when they went to the same high school, which caused problems for Donnie." Alan said, with guilt creeping up in his voice.

"Go on…" Amita said as gently as she could

"When he went to college he somewhat stayed on in contact, same when he was in the Stockton Rangers, but when he decided to join the FBI, things really started to go downhill, as he didn't tell us about it until he got into the academy, which I guess he didn't want to talk to us about it, which I guess I now understand." Alan said, now feeling more shame before continuing;

"He then decided to join fugitive recovery, which meant the already sporadic contact became even more so, which caused much frustration for Margaret and myself, as we were also worried about his safety, which I don't think we communicated that last part quite well." Alan said, as he looked down to his drink.

"What happened next?" Amita asked, knowing where this was going from what Charlie had told her.

"Well the last few months that we actually saw him, things had become increasingly tense, culminating in a very tense awards night that he had to leave early, which me and Margaret didn't take very well and a couple months later I got into an argument with him and I haven't seen him since." Alan managed to say before taking a breath and trying to keep tears from leaving his eyes.

Amita herself was keeping tears from coming out, as she was saddened by what was going on in this family and felt slightly disgusted for the same reason.

"Alan… do you mind if I wait around until Margaret gets back? I want to get her side of the story if that's alright with you?" Amita asked, not sure how the man would respond to her request but she wanted to do this to both help her advisor but also a family that needs some kind of intervention.

"Sure, I don't mind." Alan said, as he was wondering if she could stay, as he found that he'd rather not be alone at the moment.

"Thanks." Amita said as she went to go wait in the living room, thinking Charlie's plan of trying to mend things might actually work, though she will have to wait and see.