Merry Christmas to one and all.
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Curls covered Alan's red engineering manual.
"You should be careful, soon as Don's better Alan's gonna be looking for that again," Amita said as she tapped the book Charlie's head was resting on.
Charlie didn't respond instantly. He was still staring back up at his chalkboard, thinking. Amita cocked her head, realized that Charlie was in the middle of a problem and looked at the markings on the board.
"So this is the problem huh?" she said as she pointed to an expression dusted onto a corner of the board. Charlie shook his head from the book and stood up.
"I just can't work it out. I don't know if it's not enough data or what but it…well you can see, it's not exactly going to solve itself and I haven't got any more."
Amita pulled Charlie in towards herself and stared into his eyes. "It may not solve itself but you'll definitely solve it." Tenderly, she kissed him and then released him, walking over to some of his files to see if she could help. "So, this is the beginning? When Don left the office on Friday night. That's where you think it starts?"
"Yes and no. Obviously it started before then but that's the only time I have data for." Charlie pulled out a file Megan had handed Charlie before he'd left the office earlier that day. "CCTV has him in the elevators at 9:03pm, in the car park at 9:06pm and driving out of the FBI at 9:12pm. After that I've got nothing. Without knowing any timeframes from there out I can't equate his destination or even guess where he's off to." Charlie threw the file back on to a pile of stuff. "Why'd he have to react so badly to that last case, if he'd just come here after work, like he used to, just…I dunno, I thought we'd moved on from…."
Amita pulled Charlie in to another embrace to subdue the anger he felt. "This isn't your fault Charlie. You can solve any math problem and math may be life, but people just aren't that easy to exlain. So how 'bout we do something useful instead of this 'if only' scenario you're letting take over. Do we know anything like how much gas Don had in his car?"
Charlie looked at Amita amazed. "My god, I hadn't even…you're right." He kissed Amita quickly and then proceeded to pack up a couple of files into his knapsack. He stopped and kissed her again before his cell trilled at him. "Dad, hey, how is he? What? Thank…yeah, Amita and I will come down now."
Amita stared back at Charlie, whose mood was getting better and better by the second.
"Don's awake. Don's awake!"
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"Just…leave it. Ok."
"Look who woke up like a bear with a sore head."
That's exactly how he felt. A sad, tired, sore bear. Cranky as hell and just wanting the prodding and questioning to cease and desist so he could go back to hibernating.
"Sorry Agent Eppes, but you will have to stay alert for a few more questions." The brunette he'd seen earlier through an opaque haze had cleared up. She wasn't half bad looking and wore a cheeky grin. He didn't want to like her but he did.
"Define a few."
"Don." Alan's reprimand made the bear growl. "I doubt Dr Erskin is particularly happy about dealing with you either, but just get it over and done with."
The doctor, a mean looking middle aged man with greying temples sternly looked back towards the patient and continued his line of questioning. Don suspected he was checking for something more than the physical but he was damned if he was going to give the guy any fodder.
"Agent Eppes, as a man of procedure I would hope you would respect ours, even though you are still feeling considerable pain. I appreciate your patience but I do have a few more questions for you and then we can try and get you something for that pain."
Don grimaced, just hearing the word pain made it intensify, particularly his head. A hand reached up instinctually to ease the ache but Alan caught his hand before it reached even half way. He felt so weak it was embarrassing and he tried to hide it.
"…the last thing you remember?"
Huh? The doctor had been talking but Don had managed to block him out. Luckily the tail end gave him enough to work out the question.
Don thought, leaned his head to the side that didn't hurt so much and tried to sift through a haze to actually think. It was quite tiresome.
"Don?" Alan prodded and caused Don to turn to look at Alan, sending another pulse of pain through his body.
"Ok, ok. Look, um. Not sure. Give me a sec." A few images flashed through his mind, but he couldn't place them in any logical timeframe.
"Anything that comes to mind, I know it's probably difficult to string any meaning to them at the moment." The doctor's voice was calm and supposedly reassuring but Don couldn't help but dislike the guy.
"Donnie? Anything." Don looked into Alan's eyes. There was something he was hoping…no, waiting…for Don to say. More images flashed to mind. Liz naked in his bed…yeah, not sure that would be helpful but I'm enjoying that...Eppes, your dad….
"Remember dinner with you guys. Dad and Charlie." Don clarified for the doctor. "Talked 'bout playing a game of golf. Yeah. Golf. When the case was over." Don thought about the case he was on. A drug ring they were working with another team on. He really concentrated to think about it. They were waiting out at a…a flash of red, heat, extreme heat. "An explosion? Was anyone else hurt?"
Alan and the doctor looked at each other.
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"Dad." Charlie nearly knocked Alan over. He hadn't expected to see him outside in the waiting area. "What's wrong, why aren't you in with Don?"
"Calm down Charlie, he's alright. Hello Amita." Alan caught himself, shook his head and looked at Charlie and Amita. "Well, sort of."
"Whaddya mean? Sort of?"
"I've just been talking to the doctor. Apparently it's normal but I thought I better warn you."
"Warn me? What, about what? What's normal. Dad?"
"Sorry, sorry. He doesn't remember. He doesn't even remember the end of the last case. He remembers an explosion and he thinks that's how he was hurt. He's now worried about everyone else on the team. Typical."
Charlie frowned at the last comment.
"Sorry, I'm just frustrated. He's back, we have him back, I can live with a few week's missing from his memory but why can't he just think about himself for a change. He's in hospital, and still…he's worried about everyone else."
"Dad. A few week's? That's normal?"
"Yeah. Actually no. It's not atypical though. The drugs he's been on, the trauma he may or may not have been through. Dr Erskin says it's normal at any rate. I think I work it out to be about only 10 days anyway."
"Can I see him?"
Charlie began to walk towards the door when Alan grabbed his arm. "Wait, just. Look, he doesn't remember about Liz and Colby ok. I don't know if that's a good or a bad thing but at this stage I think it's best if we don't mention it. Do you know if Liz has any plans to visit?" Alan's voice cracked at the end but he tried to ignore it.
"I dunno Dad. I hope so." And with that Charlie walked in to see his brother for the first time in over a week, leaving Amita to wait with Alan.
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"They think what?" Colby's face was one of incredulity. "No way."
"They said it's a possibility." Megan corrected whilst maintaining the speed limit for the vehicle she was commanding. Liz sat in the back seat next to David, looking out the window and trying not to get included in the conversation.
"Pretty unbelievable huh," David said.
"What's going on eh, it's like our whole department is slowly being picked apart. These last few weeks have been crazy for sure, still, never in a million years would I think that anything could happen to Don. I mean ever."
Megan sighed, "Yeah it's pretty unreal. But, he's on the mend, so it's gonna be cool."
"Yeah." Colby said and then straightened his leg with both hands.
"You ok?" Megan asked looking away from the road for a second to the greying cast on Colby's leg.
"Yeah, gets kinda itchy underneath sometimes that's all." Colby finished adjusting his leg and rested his head back against the seat as Megan pulled the car into the hospital.
"Showtime." David said as he climbed out of the back.
"Yeah, showtime." Liz repeated to herself quietly.
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"Well, just glad you're gonna be ok. You are gonna be ok aren'tcha?"
"Course Charlie. Fine. Best drugs money can buy they say." Don closed his eyes and licked his lips. Within seconds Charlie had offered Don some water to quench his throat. "Thanks."
"You know that there's about 10 days or so you can't remember right?"
"What, no hours, minutes or seconds? Poor show Professor. Thought you could have calculated it for me by now."
Charlie frowned, looked at his watch and offered, "10 days, 16 hours, 33 minutes and 15 seconds….14 seconds."
Don laughed then winced at the pain it caused to his ribs. Charlie cocked his head in bemusement. "Either you want to know or you don't?"
"Thanks Charlie. Either way I doubt I'm gonna remember that either, sorry. Dad seemed pretty upset about it. Thought he said I'd been in here a day so clearly, the explosion…wasn't it? Right?"
A silence hung in the air for a second and Don drank in the brief reprise from having to talk or justify what he could or couldn't remember. He had an uneasy feeling about not being able to remember almost two weeks of his life and he wasn't particularly interested on dwelling on it if he didn't have to. So why does Charlie have to?
Don finally broke the silence. "So you gonna tell me what happened then?"
"Do you want to know?" Charlie asked, suspecting his brother was only asking to get him out of the room and not through curiosity. He couldn't believe Don didn't really want to know but it certainly seemed that way.
"Yeah sure. Just tell me ok. How'd I end up here?"
That silence again. Charlie was acting as if he was going to be breaking the law if he spilled the beans.
"If you're not supposed to. It's ok. I don't need to know."
"What? What's wrong with you?"
Don almost laughed till he remembered his ribs. At least I remember the important things... "Um, sore ribs, sore head, hospital bed. Do you want me to write you a list?"
"I'm serious Don. There's almost two week's of your life missing and you aren't in the slight bit interested. In those days something happened that meant you ended up in here. Not to mention how many years you took off Dad's life…and mine. We were worried about you. It's not a joke to us so don't disrespect us by…by…being flippant."
"Woah, slow down there buddy. I want to know ok. I'm tired. I'm sore. I'm confused and I just don't have the energy to fight you right now. You telling me what happened isn't going to make it any more real for me, but give it your best shot."
Charlie sat there, upset and confused. He'd argued himself into this corner and realized that he couldn't tell Don anything. There was that whole other case before Don's…Don's case. He gulped and composed himself. He had no idea what he could tell Don. But what scared him more was that he had no idea what he could ever tell Don. The data was simply missing.
"So?" Don prodded Charlie's arm with his own tube-laden appendage.
"Nothing."
"Whaddya mean nothing. Are you going to tell me or what?"
"We don't know Don. We thought you were going to be able to tell us."
Charlie wasn't sure but for a second, a brief second, he thought he saw fear in Don's eyes. Then it was gone, replaced by a grimace of pain as Don laughed.
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Charlie walked out of Don's room exhausted, confused and scared. He saw Amita and Alan talking to Don's team and he walked over.
"Hey guys."
"Hey Charlie."
"Colby? What the…how the hell are you?" Charlie felt bad he hadn't recognized Colby instantly.
"Look kinda different with this outfit on." He tapped his cast with his crutches and smiled. "I'm fine."
"How was he Charlie?" Megan asked.
Charlie looked at Alan and then across to Don's team. "He's a little tired I think, but the same bratty older brother I remember. In fact he's annoyingly in good spirits."
"Glad to hear it." David said through a suppressed laugh.
"What does he remember?" Liz stepped forward and avoided eye contact with Alan.
"Ah, hard to tell. Looks like he remembers that drug house exploding in the Field case but nothing after that. His memory of that's sketchy at best."
"The doctor said it'll take him a while to orientate himself a cohesive timescale of events but anything after that explosion is unlikely to ever be clear." Alan offered the group.
"Ten days?" Megan queried.
"Seems like a lifetime ago though." Colby suggested.
"Can I see him?" Liz asked. She'd been holding back the question. Afraid of asking it because she was afraid they'd say yes.
"Of course. He'd love it." Alan pointed towards the door to Don's room.
"Don't know about that." Liz said as she slowly walked towards the door.
"Liz, just…" Alan cleared his throat sheepishly, not certain it was his place to tell Liz this but wanting to protect his son more, "he doesn't remember… y'know… maybe that's a good thing."
"Don't know 'bout that either," and Liz was through the door.
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Don's eyes were closed and he seemed peaceful as Liz walked through the door. Ah Don.
The broken shuffling of her feet as she considered whether to stay or go stirred Don and his eyes cracked open a little.
"Liz."
"Don."
She sat in the chair next to him and looked at him for the first time in a while. So much had happened and he didn't remember it? Would he sense it? Would he acknowledge it?
"Hey, what's up?" Don asked quietly. His voice soft and obviously tired.
"Hey what's up yourself?"
"Remember an explosion. Glad you're ok. Was worried for a bit."
"An explosion huh. Do you remember about me and Colby?"
"You and Colby? What're you talking about?"
"Don we haven't spoken since…well, since the day of that explosion."
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A/N – next chapter hopefully will begin to answer at least some of the questions you may or may not have…