Chapter Title: The Waiting Game (part 1)

Author: DreamBrother

Summary: Acompanion piece to Sensory Deprivation; Charlie's POV. It can be read as a stand alone.

Disclaimer: I'm fine with not owning them. Honestly.

Author's Note: Although I updated SD first, I have to make up for the lost time and this is where the lost time is found. When Don wakes up here, I'll start to update SD. That's the plan, in any case. This one was a toughie to write, the whole timeline etc was a pain. I'm pretty sure I wrote a better version in my sleep (I am not kidding, I don't think I slept before my Lit exam, I was dreaming up this chapter. Wish sleeping-me could have typed it out for me, saved me a lot of trouble). But I'll try to do my best, capiche?

The Waiting Game (part 1)

A human possesses more than five senses. The five senses that even a grade-school kid knew of were the ''classical'' senses: sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch. But those weren't all. There was Thermoception, the sense of heat and the absence of it; Equilibrioception, which was the perception of balance or acceleration; and then there was Proprioception, which was the perception of body awareness, unconsciously knowing where your body parts are, when you're waving your hand around or closing an eyelid.

Charlie's senses, the classical ones, as well as the lesser-known ones, were all skewed. On the way to the hospital, in the SUV, his sense of taste and smell had diminished as his sense of touch, sight and his hearing went on overdrive. Now, he sat in the surgical waiting room, alone. His proprioception was on the fritz. He didn't realize that he was shaking his right leg up and down, constantly, in a nervous motion that had been with him since he was a kid. It always drove Don crazy, who would try to tolerate it for a little while before finally clamping his hand down on Charlie's knee and holding it steady for a few seconds, until Charlie realized what he was up to and sent a grin of apology Don's way, the action repeated on both their parts until Charlie finally stopped or Don moved to sit elsewhere. Watching TV or reading a newspaper with a jittery brother next to you was not Don's idea of fun. It wasn't always nervousness that made Charlie do it. It was just something he unconsciously did when sitting still for too long, or when his mind was off in the stratosphere, but never when he was working away on his laptop on his lap. Even a dazed Charlie would realize that the laptop was bouncing constantly. As he sat in the waiting room, no-one was there to put a stop to his actions, and his mind went over the events that happened immediately after his unresponsive brother was whisked away from sight. Megan had pulled Charlie out of the SUV and both had followed the doctors inside, before being made to wait in the ER waiting room. David had stayed in the car seeing as how he just couldn't leave the SUV in the front of the emergency entrance as it would be a hindrance to other emergency vehicles, those that came equipped with EMT's and medical paraphernalia. After he had parked the car, David had come in to inform Megan and Charlie that he was going to take a cab to Pasadena and inform and pick up Alan from the house. No way was he going to take the man to the hospital in a car whose backseat was covered in his son's blood.

Charlie wasn't sure how long he had been sitting in the ER waiting room before he felt Megan put a hand on his shoulder and say something about getting out of his clothes. Confused as to why Megan would want him to strip, that too at such a moment in time, he looked at his clothes to see what was wrong with them and noticed for the first time that his previously blue jeans were rapidly turning black due to the darkening blood covering them and his shirt wasn't in a much better condition. The sleeves of his jacket, let alone his hands, were also sporting the same stains. It occurred to Charlie that all the blood that covered him was blood his brother couldn't afford to lose, but he had done it all for Charlie, while Charlie could do nothing for him. Even being asked to donate some blood would have been helpful but all that the nurse who stood behind Megan wanted him to do was to follow her to a bathroom where she gave him a set of scrubs to change into and left him there. Charlie did as he was told, mechanically going through the motions of stripping down and changing into the starchy set of blue scrubs before going to the sink to wash off the blood covering his hands. His sense of temperature, thermoception, seemed to have gone on leave as well as he didn't notice the temperature of water he washed his hands under, concentrating simply on rubbing away every little bit of evidence on his hands, under his fingernails, around his wrists. His enthusiasm backfired on him as the rough scrubbing left his hands pink, even though he got rid of all the blood. Today isn't a good day. I should have just stayed in bed, saved a lot of people a lot of trouble, prevented Don from…, Charlie thought, observing his raw hands.

He walked out of the bathroom to find Megan standing outside, by the glass doors, talking on the phone. Mindlessly, Charlie made his way back to the chair he had inhabited a little while ago to wait for news. He could wait. The longer it took, for now, the better. If the doctors came out too quickly that would mean Don was… No, waiting was good. Charlie could wait for as long as necessary. No news was good news, just like his Dad always said, right?

It was while Charlie was thinking that the longer it took the better, a doctor came out of the ER and called out, ''Family of Don Eppes?''. Charlie was getting tired of the ironies. With dread in every single movement, Charlie stood up to answer the doctor, who made her way to him.

''My brother… is he… is he?'' Charlie asked, unable to fully formulate the question.

''Your brother is still alive, for now. I won't lie to you, it's not looking very good but we're going to do the best we can. He's stable for now, we're taking him into surgery to remove the bullet and repair the damage done. We're going to take it one step at a time, so right now he just has to make it through the operation. A nurse will take you to the surgical waiting room. We'll do the best we can, alright?'' the doctor informed. She hated giving such a guarded and somewhat hopeless prognosis, but the fact of the matter was, most people didn't walk away from a point blank bullet wound to the chest. After a nod from her patient's brother, the doctor turned on her heels and set to do whatever she could to make sure her patient saw his brother again.

Charlie heard every word, every syllable with clear precision, benefits of some senses going on overdrive. He didn't know how, but he managed to nod when he realized the doctor was waiting for a response. He was still rooted to the spot and didn't notice Megan come up behind him and put a hand on his shoulder. It was only when Megan repeated his name a few times did Charlie notice her close presence and he jumped. His sense of hearing was very finicky, it seemed.

''Charlie? We don't have to wait here. Let's go up to the surgical waiting room. David will bring your dad there, alright? Charlie? You listening to me?''

TBC

I have a feeling I jumbled up the tenses mid-way. Hope it wasn't too confusing.

Let me know what you think. And if you have any suggestions etc. Time to sleep. My friend will kill me if I sleep through lunch tomm...5 30 am right now..sheesh.