STOP! Well, you don't have to, but you may want to reread chapter six... Did you read it? Okay, continue.
Don was happy to be back to a regular routine. It had been a hard month, even though he'd been back home for it. There had been many hours of talking, crying, laughing, and just getting to know each other better spent with his family. He truly believed his brother was okay with his eye. Sure, he had found Charlie getting frustrated by his limitations, but it was nothing like Don had expected. Charlie made him proud every day. It was hard to believe how different Charlie had become. There was a maturity and strength to him that hadn't been there before. It was a good change, though, not that Charlie hadn't been fine before.
And now his brother was on the headset with him and his team. Charlie was directing them through an old school building. Someone had made a map to a bomb written in a complex number code that only Charlie could clearly understand. Along with the map was a time limit. Right now, they should have eleven hours and twenty-three minutes.
"All right, Charlie, where to now?" Don asked. They'd come to a number of hallways. Charlie was tracking their location with a map of the building.
"The map ends here."
"But, Charlie, there are four different hallways. Which do you think we should go to?"
"Don, I told you, the map ends here. How many agents do you have?"
"Seven, including me." Don stopped talking into the mouth piece and turned to address the other agents.
"We need to split up in pairs. Reeves, you're with Miller. Granger with Sinclair. Thompson, go with Hudson. Take your pick on hallways."
Charlie, having overheard, commented to Don, "That leaves you alone. Is that safe?"
Don smiled. "Yeah, Charlie, I'm a 36-year-old top federal agent walking an empty hall. I should be real worried."
"Just be careful."
"I will. Don't worry so much."
Don walked down the hall and stopped in a classroom. He couldn't find anything there so he moved back into the hall.
"Reeves, you got anything?" he asked through the head set.
"Nothing yet."
"Granger?"
"Nothing, Don."
"How about you, Hudson?"
"No, sir."
"Well, keep looking, guys. It's gotta be here."
Don had full faith in his brother. If Charlie said it was there, he believed it was.
When all the classrooms had turned up empty, Don moved on to the lockers. After searching for a while, he came upon one that had a lock.
"Got any extra numbers left over on that map, Charlie?" Don asked.
Charlie was surprised with his brother's question. He had just been trying to figure out what a leftover number had meant and hoped it would give them more directions.
"Yes. Why? Do you have something?"
"What number is it?"
"41514. Why, Don? What's going on?"
Don didn't answer as he tried the numbers to open the lock. As he had expected, the numbers worked and inside was the bomb, waiting on him. He had been trained to dismantle a bomb, but an unexpected surprise awaited him.
"All units, get down and out! Clear the building!"
Don turned and began to run, hearing his brother's panicked voice until an explosion sounded from behind him. He was lifted off the ground and thrown into the wall in front of him. He hit his head hard enough to knock him unconscious, leaving him defenseless to the fast-growing fire around him.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Don. Don. Don!" Charlie screamed into the mouth piece, waiting for an answer. He felt panic rise in his throat with every second that passed without answer.
"Charlie, it's Megan. We got to clear out."
"Where's Don?"
"I don't know. Which hall did he take?"
"I don't know! Get him out of there!"
"We took the first."
"We took the third."
"We took the fourth."
Suddenly he heard Megan shriek. "What? What is it?"
"Charlie, there's a fire. We can't stay in here. We got to get out."
"What about Don?"
"I don't know. If he's not up, I don't think we can get to him."
"Damn it!" Charlie threw off his headset and left his office at CalSci. He ran out of the school and got in his car and sped away. He knew exactly where it was and even had a good grasp of how to get around the building. Of course, it'd be different being there in person.
Halfway there, he was stopped in traffic due to a car wreck. He got out of his car to see if he could get around it fast enough to get to Don in time. Seeing that the ambulance was still there, he knew it'd be too long for him to get to Don.
He pulled his car to the side of the road and got back out, only this time he started running. Fear and adrenaline drove him to a faster speed than he'd usually move at. He had to get to his brother. He had to know he was all right.
It took him twenty long minutes to get there and due to the heavy traffic, the firemen had not arrived yet.
Charlie saw Megan and Colby and rushed to them.
"Where's Don?" he asked even before he had reached them.
"Charlie! What are you doing here?" Colby asked, shocked that the professor had gotten there so quickly.
"Where is he?" Charlie asked again.
"He's not responding, Charlie. We'll have to wait for the firemen to arrive," Megan explained.
"Like hell we will. My brother is in there! He needs help. Someone has to do something!"
Charlie moved to run into the building. "Charlie! You can't go in there, man!" Colby stopped him by grabbing him by the shoulders. However, he wasn't prepared for the solid hit Charlie made with his elbow to Colby's stomach. He dropped to his knees and Charlie ran on, with Megan yelling at him from behind.
Charlie felt the heat of the knob of the door as he threw it open, trying his best to let go of it as fast as he could. He'd be surprised if any pain registered, though. One thing filled his thoughts. One fear scared the hell out of him. One mission drove him to run.
Don. Could he really lose him now when he had just gotten him back? He'd always had him, his brother had explained, but Charlie knew different. He had lost his brother after Don got out of college. Then he had him back after their mother got sick. But then, after Charlie had betrayed Don's trust, he had lost him yet again. If he lost Don again now, it would be the last time and that thought frightened him.
The fire wasn't really bad until he got to the choice of the four hallways. He remembered that Don had taken the second, judging by what the other agents said. He wanted to run down it to get to his brother, but the fire was too high and wide for him to get through without taking some precautions.
Charlie slid along the wall to avoid the flames, but a few times it came close enough to hit him. He felt tiny stings in his legs and sometimes his arms, but he didn't care. He ignored the pain as he quickly moved along the wall. When he was able to step away from the wall, he found a wall of fire, and at the end of it was his brother.
Charlie felt a scream build in his throat at the sight, but he didn't let it out. This time he did run and this time felt no pain at all. It would have been there in other circumstances, but there was a brotherly strength now. He had to reach Don and reach Don fast.
Don was safe from the flames except for his lower right leg. Charlie dragged his brother's body away from the fire and quickly used his body to suffocate the flames. He was more pained by the shrieks Don gave from the pain than he was by the flames that threatened to burn him.
When the fire was out, Charlie stripped his jacket off and wrapped it around his brother's face, hoping that it would provide some protection. He stooped down low so he could lift his brother. Then he noticed the blood at the back of Don's head. He hated to see that. Don was already in enough pain.
What was the best way out? The wall of fire would be too hard to get past, so it would probably mean he'd have to go back the way he'd come in. It would seem so much longer now with the weight of another person. He'd come in running but would have to take his time getting out.
Don groaned in his arms and Charlie gave him a squeeze. "It's okay, Donnie. I'm here. We'll be okay. You'll see."
At the moment, Charlie wasn't so sure. The fires would surely have spread much more in the time he'd been inside. Would they find a way out?
Charlie kept moving his head back and forth so he'd be sure not to miss an area. It frustrated him that he couldn't keep his head straight ahead and still see what he needed to. He felt a strange feeling of de ja vu settle in him, but he disregarded it. There was no way he'd lived this before.
Soon Don became heavy and Charlie choked from all the smoke. His lungs longed for clear air, not that he usually found it in the polluted air of Los Angeles, but it was better than this.
When Charlie found a small area that was not surrounded in flames, he laid Don down and was frightened to find his own pant leg on fire. He quickly beat it against the wall, attempting to put it out. He succeeded with minimal damage. His pulse raced, though, at the thought that he hadn't even noticed until he'd looked down.
Don was in fair condition, considering he was in a burning building. Charlie found his brother's breathing strong still, but his leg did concern him. The pant leg had been burned off at the calf, leaving behind angry red burns.
After a brief coughing fit, Charlie lifted his brother again, wrapping his arms around Don's shoulders to hold him up against him. He tried to hoist Don up higher so that his foot wouldn't drag, but he was too much shorter than his older brother for that. He hoped the damage wouldn't be much worse because of him.
Dragging along his unconscious brother, Charlie searched for a way out. His eyes watered as he strained to see through the thick smoke. Lack of oxygen made him feel weak, making his brother seem all the heavier. He had to get Don out, though. He had to. Nothing could stand in his way.
With another wave of strength, Charlie pulled him and Don along. He came to the stairs and was horrified when he saw that the bottom steps were on fire. He'd have to find another way.
He searched the halls and his memory for a second stair case. He thought of a place that seemed familiar on the map and found his way down. There wasn't a large amount of flames there. Charlie could hardly believe how far it had spread. The firemen would have to get there soon if they were going to save this building and the surrounding ones.
Risking himself before his brother, Charlie moved his brother's body away from the flames and had his back to it. He could see the emergency exit close beside the stairs and breathed a sigh of relief. He held Don with his right arm as he pushed the door open with his left. They were out.
By then a team of firemen and an ambulance had arrived. Charlie was surprised he hadn't passed them in the building. He coughed as fresh air reached his lungs and also heard Don cough along with him.
"Charlie!" Megan screamed when she saw him and Don. She honestly didn't think they'd come out of it in one piece. But she saw something terrible and it scared her.
"Charlie! Your arm!"
Charlie didn't hear her. He kept walking with his brother toward the ambulance. A team of paramedics came rushing for them.
"Sir, let me take him."
"Sir, we have him. Let go."
"Sir? Sir?"
The voices were all there. He should have heard them, but he didn't. His arms suddenly became cold and empty as they pulled his brother out of his grasp. He sank down, exhausted, and someone helped push him the rest of the way down. Charlie screamed out when a sudden pain seared at his left arm as someone smothered it with a blanket. What had happened to it? Why were they covering it up when it felt so hot?
"You're going to be okay, sir. We'll take care of you."
Someone will take care of him? That's nice. But it wasn't Don or his father. Who then? Charlie wondered this as suddenly the bright light of the sun turned into nothing but a peaceful, dark nothingness.
Title comes from Sarah McLachlan's "Answer."