Landslide

By Hemel Lass(ie)

Chapter Six: A Long Night's Journey Toward Daybreak

Sorry, it has taken me so long to update, but the week got a little crazy. If you like 'brother time', you might like this chapter...or not. Enjoy! Smb 6162007

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Don jerked awake, cursing the fact he had dozed off again. "Charlie? Hey, bro…how are you doing?"

"Still hanging in there. Or should I say, out here?" The professor's voice was definitely weaker and he broke off into a spasm of coughing that left him gasping for air afterwards. It was several moments before he spoke again. "Wow, that really hurt."

"Sorry, I keep nodding off on you."

"Just so long as you wake up every couple of hours, it's a good thing, if you get some rest, Don." Charlie replied, seriously.

"What time do you think it is?"

"I don't just think, I know. It's 0245 Hours, military time, Don."

"How can you be so sure? Have you been checking your watch to see how long I sleep each time?"

"No, nothing like that. The position of the stars, Don. That's the way our ancestors told time at night and it is very accurate. While you dozed, I have been enjoying the show."

"What show?"

"Meteor shower. Lean back and look straight up, big brother."

"Is this one of those regularly scheduled ones?"

Charlie half laughed/half snorted, in response to that remark from his brother. "Regularly scheduled? What, like a TV show? No, brother mine, this is NOT a 'regularly scheduled' meteor shower. There are actually a lot of meteor showers you can see up at this elevation, that are never visible in the valley, where light pollution obscures so much of the night sky. I just noticed a while ago that we were having a bit of a meteor shower."

Don's eyes opened wider as a particularly large meteor streaked across the sky above them. 'Hey, Charlie, did you…?"

"That was a big one, wasn't it? That was very, very cool."

"Yeah. Almost like those fireworks that imitate them? You know?"

"I know. You always loved fireworks when we were kids."

"Still do. Hey, don't make it sound like that was JUST me. I seem to recall you liked them pretty good too, brother."

"As you said…I still do, as well." Charlie coughed. It had a wetter sound than Don had heard before.

"Hey, how are you doing, brother?" Don's heart thudded painfully against his chest as he waited for his brother to respond.

"Oh, I've been better." His guide replied, eventually. "It's been getting harder to breath. "

"Are you bringing up anything when you cough?"

"Who do you think you are, Doctor Donald, now? The answer is no, not really. There is fluid in my chest. I can feel it move around some when I cough, but it doesn't come up. At least not so far. Even if it did, it's too dark for me to tell you what color my 'sputum' is, Doc!" The retort had no bite, just stated fact.

"Pain in your legs come back?"

"Nope. Nothing below my lower back."

Don frowned. He hoped that didn't indicate permanent damage had been done. His younger brother loved walking. In fact, he called it 'his sport'.

Now, the FBI agent had never considered WALKING a sport, but, if his brother thought it was, it was.

To Don, walking was something you did to get from one place to another, not a 'sport'. Most Southern Californians didn't indulge in a whole lot of walking. Los Angeles and the greater metropolitan area of the same was a car driver's dream, but not really public transportation, nor walker friendly. Most neighborhoods didn't even have sidewalks!

Charlie had always enjoyed going for long walks. Even as a child, Charlie would disappear from the time he was old enough to be allowed out of the back yard. More than once, as a young boy, Charlie had driven his parents and older brother frantic with worry when he vanished from the immediate neighborhood, until Alan figured out that before anyone panicked, he should get out his car and drive around the blocks of the neighborhood in an ever larger search pattern looking for the young wanderer. The boy was never lost…he was 'just out walking' when his parents demanded an explanation. Finally, a frustrated Margaret had put an end to the walkabouts unless Charlie was accompanied by one of his parents or his older brother. Young Charles had not been happy, but he was a well-behaved child, so he followed his parents' edict, from that day on.

Don remembered wishing his parents hadn't curbed that wandering instinct, because the already bookish youngster had spent less time outside after the 'no alone walking' rule was issued. It got to the point where, unless his parents forced him, or his older brother cajoled him, Charlie would stay engrossed in his mathematical pursuits, generally indoors to boot. Some of the impulsiveness and exuberance of the call outdoors was taken away from the youngest Eppes, when his exploration impulse was restrained by the rule. The spontaneity he had enjoyed before was gone…and did not reappear for many years.

To his older brother's thinking, it was another part of just being a kid that was stolen from Charlie too soon. That was when Don had taken it upon himself to begin teaching Charlie physical sports like basketball. He had to find some way to get his brother out of the house and working up a sweat. It just wasn't natural for a kid to study all the time. It wasn't right. It wasn't really a childhood.

"Hey, brother….did you fall back asleep on me?" Charlie's voice came through the darkness.

"No. I was just remembering how you drove Mom and Dad crazy, for a while, when you discovered there was a world outside our front and back yard."

"Ah! My 'walk about' phase. That didn't last very long. Mom put her foot down and said I couldn't go walking without you or one of them."

"That's because you scared us half to death those first few times, Charlie. One minute you are right there, in the yard, safe and sound; the next, you were gone! We would call and search all the neighbors' yards, but no Charlie. You were just a kid, Chuck! You had already made news, by that point, with your 'gifts'; and, we were afraid somebody had kidnapped you or something."

"Really? Is that why Mom and Dad were always so upset? I just wanted to explore, on my own. I was never even lost or anything. I just went for a walk. It never made sense to me, why every one was so upset. You could go play ball or just hang out with friends, but, if I went for a walk, it was like the end of the world. Mom and Dad never told me why they were so upset. If they had told me that…"

"They didn't want to make you afraid, Charlie. It was our job to look out for you, not the other way around."

"It shouldn't have been your job, Don." There was regret in his younger brother's voice. "I really screwed up your childhood, didn't I?"

"Oh, come on. That's bunk, Charlie. Older brothers always have to look out for their younger sisters or brothers. It goes with the territory of being an older sibling. I mean, thank heaven that you weren't a girl, kid! That brings a whole 'nother layer of responsibility to being the oldest one."

"And to being the parent, as well, I imagine. Do you think Mom and Dad would have preferred me to be a girl? You know, one of each? One boy and one girl. Do you think they wanted that?"

"Hey, I was there, Charlie. The only hope Mom and Dad expressed about you once they told me I was going to have a brother or a sister was that you would be healthy. Mom and Dad weren't real into the whole 'one of each' thing."

"You think?"

"No, brother, this I know. They were delighted when you made your somewhat premature appearance, Charlie. Mom was scared when she went into labor early. She was afraid it was too soon."

"Really? I didn't know I was early enough being born for it to be a concern."

"Yeah. Well, you were."

"How did you take it, when they told you that you were going to have a brother or sister?"

"Oh, I suppose I reacted pretty typically. At first, I wasn't sure what to think. Part of me thought it was pretty cool, that there would be someone else around the house. You know, maybe I could get away with more…plus the idea of having a built in playmate to pal around with was appealing. At the same time, it was going to steal some of my thunder, you know? Probably I was a mixed bag of feelings." Don admitted.

"Unfortunately I stole way more of your thunder than any one anticipated." Charlie had barely gotten those words out before he started coughing hard, repeatedly.

Don cringed at the sound. "Buddy, buddy, easy…try and take it easy. Easy, bro." It seemed forever before the coughing spell eased up. Charlie was silent, which just worried his brother more. "Charlie? Are you okay?"

"Give me….a minute." Was the response.

This was becoming the longest night of his life, Don found himself thinking. The journey towards daylight was taking too much time. Time his younger brother could not afford to lose. "Charlie…?"

"I'm….still here, bro." Effort was obvious in each pause and break in his speaking. "It's just…harder to keep talking. I think I will try and get some sleep."

"I'm not so sure that is a good idea." Don felt frantic at the thought of not hearing his brother's voice.

"Hey, did I keep….you from….resting?" Charlie responded.

Somehow Don Eppes didn't think him dozing off was going to be an issue the rest of this long night through. Problem was…Charlie was far enough away, if he dozed off…or slipped into unconsciousness or shock, Don wouldn't be able to hear that. The coughing he could hear well enough to scare him witless. Silence was the enemy. He shifted position, thinking if he moved closer at least he could hear if Charlie was in acute distress.

"Don, don't." The younger man spoke up, immediately. "Don't even think of moving closer, please. I'm telling you. It could be a serious problem. You don't want to make things worse, do you?"

"Of course not. It's just…I can hear the coughing well enough, but…"

"Listen to me, Don. I may not be an architectural engineer like Dad," Silence as Charlie struggled to get enough air to continue his explanation to his brother, "but I do know a thing or two about load balances, movement dynamics and things like that." Again, silence except for clearly painful gasps for air that WERE audible to Don. "I'll…I won't go to sleep. Okay? Just don't try to come closer. Promise me that, Donnie. Please?"

"No, look. Charlie, if you need to grab some rest and you can, do it. I'll stay put until daybreak…than I will head out to get help. The last thing I want to do is make things worse for you."

Daybreak was not going to come soon enough for one impatient older brother/FBI agent.