"Charlie, where was this?" Don asked his younger brother gently, realizing that Charlie was still very frightened.
"O-over there." Charlie pointed to his bed. It had just been laying there, casually. What made Jake do these things? Why must he be tortured? The idea of Jake pointing a gun at his brother and father sent chills down Charlie's spine. He could not let that happen! He would rather die. The picture was always there in his mind. He could see it every time he blinked, which was why he was trying to avoid doing just that. Still, Don held the actual photos in his hands. If he wasn't careful, the photo would be face up and he'd have to see it once more. The smile on Jake's face terrified him. It made Charlie know that Jake really was insane. He was sadistic. He was enjoying himself.
Charlie had managed to stop crying, but the fear seemed to sit in his stomach. Even swallowing the spit in his mouth seemed to make his stomach as heavy as an anvil. His heart still beat at an irregular speed, but he had gained some control over his appearance.
"Come on, Buddy. I'll help you up." Don held out his hands to his brother, but Charlie stood up on his own. Still, Don grabbed his elbow to support him, which was good because Charlie's legs felt too weak to hold himself upright for long. He had lost energy from losing what food he had eaten that day. He was thankful for his bed being so close. When he reached it, he laid down quickly.
"You want me to get Dad?" Don asked.
Charlie shook his head. "No."
Don nodded, understanding that to mean he wanted to be alone. But when he stood, Charlie reached out to him.
"Don't go... please."
So instead Don moved to the other side of the bed and gently eased onto it. Charlie smiled shyly at his brother, thankful that Don had stayed. He wasn't sure if he could handle being alone right now. It was hard enough on him. Obviously Jake had been here, or else he had sent someone. There had to be a way to get him away. Perhaps they should move. Even at just the thought, Charlie knew he could never do it. When his father had first planned of selling his childhood home, Charlie had panicked. It was the last thing he had of his mother. Most would say it was only a house, but he needed everything he could of his mother's. He could sometimes smell her baking cinnamon bread and hear her sweet humming as she cleaned the house. If they moved, Charlie was afraid he'd lose that. The most time he had spent without contact from his mother was during her last three months of life. He had been in the garage. It was his reminder never to let that happen again. He couldn't miss out on precious time. He hoped he'd never be in that situation again, but if he did, he couldn't forget what a mistake he had made by not going to his mother for three months.
Don watched his brother closely. He could see his brother get lost in his thoughts, but not the way he did when he was having one of his brilliant moments. The look seemed familiar, but he wasn't sure exactly what his brother was thinking about. Whatever it was, it had put a frown on his face and a sadness in his eyes. Wanting to take his brother's mind off that, Don gently touched his brother's arm. "Are you okay?"
Charlie turned to his brother and saw the worry in his eyes.
"No." He smiled. "But I'll be all right."
"Charlie, you know you can talk to me. If there's something on your mind... You didn't exactly have the best day today."
"I haven't had the best year."
Don smiled. "I know, Buddy."
Charlie looked across from him at the off-white wall. There was nothing but an award he had won for some of the work he'd done during college. It was nothing really. Don hadn't even come.
"It's not getting any easier on me, Don. I can't stand how you and Dad always seem to get tossed into these situations, too. If it was just me, I would handle it better. I'd still be terrified, but it would be my life. I could deal with
getting hurt if it meant you and Dad would be okay. But with Carl, and now Jake, you two were always at risk. It scared me to death what he planned to do to you two, just to get to me. And I know that the reasons they've done it is because they want to make me suffer, which means it's my fault. Thank God Carl never actually got a chance to get to you, but do you realize how close he came? Before I..." Charlie paused, hating the word he was about to use. "Before I killed him, Carl was going to take me into the house. He knew Dad was there. I fought him off, but he grabbed me and kept twisting my arm. He wanted me to scream so Dad would hear and come out there. If I had screamed loud enough, Dad would have been there and Carl would have hurt him, maybe even killed him, in front of me. And you came shortly after, Don. You know you would have gone in there. What if he had managed to stop you, too? He could have killed you and Dad right in front of me."
Charlie began violently shaking as he worked himself up. Don grabbed onto his right forearm in a tight grip. "Buddy, calm down."
Charlie looked up at Don and the horror shown plainly in his eyes. "I could have lost you both, Donny. What would I have done then? How would I live knowing that I was the cause of the death of the two most important people in my life? How would I go on? I-I... I would have killed myself. That's the only thing I could have done. I would have killed myself." Charlie's words began to come out faster as he felt panicky again. Don put his arms around his brother and squeezed him tightly against his chest. Charlie's talk of suicide scared him. He couldn't imagine his brother taking his own life. As though that were a threat now, Don held on tighter.
"Sh. It didn't happen, Buddy... and it's not going to happen now." Don rested his chin on top of his brother's head and stared bleakly in front of him. He whispered, "I promise."
Charlie shivered. There had been promises made before, but how could anyone really know for sure? Who was he to trust someone who couldn't predict the future? There was no way Don knew that for sure because Jake was still loose. The FBI wasn't successful in catching him yet, and who knew if they would be? Charlie had faith in the people who worked for the FBI, but he wasn't sure there was anyone who could stop Jake.
"Buddy, can we talk?" Don asked as his brother moved out of his arms. He could feel Charlie's fear, as though it radiated off his body. He needed to let his brother talk about what had happened. Maybe he could get Charlie to
understand that it was not his fault that he got shot. Charlie nodded, looking suspiciously at Don. He didn't want to be lied to. He didn't want to mess around. He knew the truth. There was nothing that could change that, so he didn't want Don trying to confuse him with his version of the truth.
"It never was your fault that I got shot the other day, understand? Yes, I admit I was thinking about you when I got hit, but that doesn't mean it was your fault. I made a bad call. I'm an experienced agent. We're trained to be in a certain mindset when we're out in the field. I shouldn't have been thinking about you. It was just... still fresh in my mind."
As Charlie watched his brother talk about it, he could see there was more to it than just that. Maybe Don was lying. He wasn't sure. "What aren't you telling me?"
Don looked at Charlie quickly. How did he pick up on that? What was he going to tell him? Oh, yeah, and Charlie, I was giving up when I got in the line of fire. It was intentional, so of course it wasn't your fault. It was mine! How was he supposed to tell his brother that?
"It's nothing, Buddy." Don smiled at Charlie, trying to reassure him that it was okay. He knew Charlie could see through it, but, thankfully, he left it alone.
Charlie burrowed into his mattress and laid lightly on his side to avoid any extra pain. He hugged the pillow to his cheek and stared across the room at nothing in particular. He could feel Don's eyes on him and he shivered.
Don gently placed a hand on his brother's shoulder and tilted his head so he could see Charlie's face. "Are you okay, Buddy?"
Charlie nodded, though he didn't believe it. He wanted to be okay. He was beginning to forget what that felt like. He closed his eyes, having exhausted himself once more. Don watched his brother until Charlie's breathing evened out. He smiled and stood and left his little brother's room, hoping Charlie could sleep peacefully. He hoped he had succeeded in giving his brother some comfort while he was with him. While he was relaxing in the arm chair downstairs, his calm was broken when he heard his brother cry out.
Wishing for his gun, Don made his way back up the stairs. Alan came out of his room, still wet from a shower. Don pushed forward, wanting to enter first in case they had anything else to worry about.
Charlie was tossing on his bed in the tangled mess of blankets. Don let his father get to him first and shake him awake. When Charlie's panic-filled eyes opened, he searched the room for something that wasn't there.
"He's here! Oh, God, he can see me!" Charlie struggled to hide himself by covering up in the heap of blankets. Knowing it was not enough, he ran to the bathroom and closed the door behind him, even going so far as to lock it. Don followed after him, trying the door. When he found it was locked, he looked behind him to check where his father. He began to lift his foot, but Alan stopped him with a scream.
"Donald Eppes! Don't even think about it!" He realized that his son was going to try to kick the door down, but with his son's current injuries, he knew that would be a foolish decision. Though it hurt his old body, Alan did it instead with a hard body-slam to the door. Don watched, impressed, as the door came open.
Charlie was in the bathtub, worthlessly covering himself up with water. The tub was filling up fast and he was lying face-down in the water. Realizing that his son couldn't breathe, Alan moved quickly to pull Charlie above the water.
"No! He'll see me!" Don could see that Charlie was still in the nightmare he'd been having. Hardly sure his little brother was still awake, he watched as Charlie covered up with the shower curtain.
"Charlie, stop!" Alan demanded in a stern voice, hoping his parental tone would break through to him.
"No! He'll see me. Oh, God, he can see me now! Stop looking at me!" Charlie screamed.
Don lightly nudged his father so he would make room for him by the bathtub. Charlie was sitting in the water with his eyes tightly shut. Don framed his brother's face with his hands and forced it steady.
"Charlie, look at me." Don started out speaking calmly, not sure what tone would have the best effect on his brother.
"No, no," Charlie whispered quietly. He tried to shake his head against his brother's strong hands, but he wasn't able to.
"Charlie, you need to look at me. Open your eyes."
"No!" Charlie shouted.
In response, Don yelled back. "Charlie, open your eyes!"
With a jolt, Charlie awoke. He grabbed onto the wrists that connected to the hands holding his face. Blinking several times, his eyes focused on his brother.
"Donny?"
"Yeah, it's Donny. You with me now, Buddy?"
Charlie shook all over, but managed to nod his head. Realizing he was sitting in a tub of icy cold water, he stood quickly, surprising Don. Alan steadied Don before he tipped over backwards and laid a hand on each of his sons' shoulders.
"Let's take it easy, okay?"
Don smiled at his father and nodded. He looked at his younger brother, expecting a smile there too, but he found Charlie looking all around him in paranoia. As the three exited the bathroom, Don reached out and touched Charlie's arm, only to have his brother jerk back in response.
"Sorry," Don said softly, not meaning to scare his brother. Charlie didn't respond, just turned toward his dresser drawer. He pulled out clean clothes and Don left his brother's room with the full intention of returning later.
Charlie locked the door behind his family, and not for privacy sake. He shut his curtains so those outside couldn't see him either... or at least so Jake couldn't see him. The nightmare had been all-too-real. Eyes surrounded him, yet each pair belonged to one man. Jake. No matter where he hid, the eyes followed him. He wanted to be free from them, but it was impossible... until Don's shout had brought him back to safety. The feeling of being watched didn't leave, though. He could feel eyes on him as he changed his clothes, as he laid down under the covers to ward off the chill of the icy water.
Charlie was almost asleep when the door began to slowly creak open. He fearfully looked up from the covers and soon he saw his brother's face appear around the side of the door. Sighing with relief he sat up as Don entered.
"Hey, Buddy. You okay?"
Charlie smiled and nodded. "I'm all right."
Don smiled back. "Good."
"Did you need something?" Charlie asked after an awkward pause.
"No, no. I was just checking on you." Don walked over to his brother's bed and sat by Charlie's feet.
"Oh."
Don looked from his brother to the other side of the room. He wasn't sure what he was supposed to say. Maybe he didn't have to say anything at all.
"Don?"
"Yeah, Buddy?" Don's focus returned to his brother's face.
"Could you stay here? Until I fall asleep?"
Don smiled broadly, thankful he was still able to protect his brother in some ways. "Sure thing."
Don got comfortable by positioning his back to the end of his brother's bed. They were positioned so that their feet were by each other heads and they were facing each other. Charlie smiled at his brother before laying down again and getting comfortable. Don started wishing for a beer about twenty minutes into it, though his father wouldn't let him drink any with his pain killers. Still, he was feeling awfully thirsty for one.
His brother's jerk brought Don's thoughts away from beer. He got up and moved toward his brother. "Charlie?"
"Yeah?"
Don was surprised he was awake. "Something wrong?"
"No." He pulled the cover closer to himself as he felt a chill run down his spine. He knew it wasn't Don's gaze that was bothering him. It was Jake's.
Ignoring his brother's denial, Don reached out a placed a comforting hand on his brother's arm. "It's okay, Buddy."
"I know," Charlie whispered.
"Then what are you scared of?"
Charlie paused for a long time before he spoke so quietly it was barely audible.
"Him."
Don sat down beside his brother and wrapped an arm around him. He pulled Charlie close to his side and felt him shiver again. "Stop. It's all right. Nothing's going to happen while I'm here. Okay?"
Charlie nodded as he leaned his head against Don's upper arm. He had to believe that, or he'd never sleep again. He had to know that his brother would be able to protect him. Nothing had happened when Don was around, right? He would be safe here. He would. But he still felt so afraid.
"We're all going to get through this. I promise."
Another promise. How could Don be so sure? Was he really certain that they would all get through this? Charlie hadn't been as worried when Jake kept with hurting him. But when he added his family to the mix, he was completely terrified. Why couldn't things have been different? Why couldn't Jake just leave Don and Alan alone? He'd give anything to be the only one affected by this.
"Sh," Don soothed, knowing that Charlie was exhausted, but unable to sleep. Hearing the soothing tone of his brother's voice, Charlie was able to close his eyes, and, for a moment, forget that he wasn't safe. He longed for the day where he didn't have to just forget, but just know he was okay. That day seemed like a far off dream, miles away from his reach.
Ooh, I could have been so devilish and given you guys the worst cliffhanger ever! But lucky for you, I didn't. That just means that next chapter is going to be awesome times a million! LOL Seriously, it'll be one of the most intense chapters I've ever written. I am officially out of school, but I have graduation tomorrow and a party Saturday. But, hopefully, that won't interfere too much. I also need to talk to the great dHALL because she's gonna help me with this next chapter. It'll be AWESOME! Are you anxious yet? LOL Hopefully I can update soon! See you then and sorry if this chapter was too short. It's the calm before the storm! Bwahahahahaha!