A/N: Thanks again for sticking with me and for the great feedback.

Thank you to the wonderful starfishyeti!

The stalker

by elessar73

*** 24. chapter : Standing at the abyss ***

The ride to the hospital was pure torture for Don. He held his brother's hand as tight as possible and watched every one of Charlie's movements with suspicion. Charlie seemed to be asleep or unconscious, Don couldn't say for sure. Despite a few painful moans, which had the power to send Don nearly over the edge, Charlie didn´t respond. Don wasn't sure yet if that was good or bad. He was glad that Charlie´d, at least, found some peace. On the other hand, Don really wanted to talk to him or just listen to his voice reciting numbers. But right now the agent had to be satisfied with just holding his brother's hand and staring at his pale and deeply afflicted face.

They arrived at the hospital and Don finally had to let go of his brother. An orderly had violently dragged him away from Charlie and now Don was pacing the aisle in front of the entrance to the ER. He rubbed his hands nervously together just to let them drop to the side in the next moment.

"Agent Eppes."

Don heard someone with a familiar voice greet him. First he thought it must be an illusion, since he´d told no-one who he was or what he did for living. 'It's just my brain playing tricks on me'. But when the greeting was repeated accompanied with a touch on his shoulder Don turned around frowning. He stared in the face of a somehow familiar person. Don squeezed his eyes his confusion clearly visible on his face. The man dressed in scrubs finally took pity on him.

"I see you don't remember me. I'm Dr. Osbourne."

"Oh yes," Don slapped a hand to his forehead. " Sorry , I´m just so messed up." Don reached out to shake the doctor´s hand. The doctor smiled in return.

"No need to be sorry. Well, I heard that Charlie´s been brought in again and since he was my patient just a week ago..." The doctor shrugged his shoulders making further explanation needless. "So what happened?" Dr. Osbourne was curious to find out.

" Actually I have no idea. Maybe a poisoning. Charlie collapsed after or more accurately, while drinking some coffee."

The doctor looked questioningly at Don but asked in a professional manner, "Do we have a sample of what he drank?"

The question brought back the FBI-agent in Don. "Yes," he declared in his best cool manner. "It's already in the forensic laboratory at the FBI. As soon as they have a result, you get it."

Dr. Osbourne nodded impressed by the change of mood in the man in front of him. But he could clearly recall Don's behavior from their last incident; a man torn between being a big brother and an FBI-agent. He preferred dealing with the more emotionally stable agent. The brother was much more unfathomable and much harder to handle.

"I´ll go check on Charlie and see what I can find out," he said to Don while opening the door to the ER. " Meanwhile take a seat in the waiting-room. It may take some time." The doctor offered before he slipped through the door.

Stunned, Don stared at the spot on the white door where the doctor had disappeared. He closed his eyes for a brief moment. The presence of Dr. Osbourne had calmed him down a little. He had great faith in the doctor. Dr. Osbourne had saved Charlie's life before and he could do it again.

Don sat in the ER waiting room staring numbly at the floor. Mindlessly he counted the black spots in the grey linoleum just to kill time. The agent sighed and rubbed his hands cross his face. 'This is ridiculous.' He checked his watch- almost one and a half hours had passed and still no news. 'This can't be good.'

"Don," Alan's call banished Don's sinister thoughts and he was glad for it. He jumped to his feet and reached for his father.

"Dad, I'm glad you here." Don looked into the frightened eyes of his father seeing his own fear mirrored there and finally dragged Alan into a tight hug.

Alan returned the embrace and rubbed soothingly across his son's back feeling him trembling in his arms when tears began to moisten Alan's shirt.

"Don," Alan whispered in Don's ears. " How is Charlie? What happened?" He loosened his grip to give his son more space and be able to look him in the eyes. Seeing his elder son's face wet from tears made Alan cry too.

"I don't know, Dad," Don murmured. " He's still in the ER. It looks like he´s been poisoned, but…"

"Poisoned ?" Alan couldn't believe that someone would poison his little boy. He shook his head viogrously. "I can't believe it."

In that moment Larry stepped closer. The physicist had stayed at the door giving them a little privacy but his curiosity took over. He cleared his throat making Don look at him.

"Oh hey Larry, thanks for bringing Dad." Don let go of his father and concentrated on Larry.

"Not a problem. So is there any news on Charles yet?"

"No, we have to wait." And with that he led his father to a seat and helped him sit down. Alan looked pale and exhausted.

"You okay Dad?" He asked taking a seat beside him. It was a stupid question but Don couldn't think of anything else to say.

"Yeah Donnie I'm fine." Alan laid a hand on Don's knee pressing it tight.

Don leaned against Alan's shoulder, feeling safe and cherished in having his father near.

Alan wiped away the tears from Don's face. "Everything´ll be alright, Donnie. Charlie is strong." Alan wasn´t too sure whether he was trying to soothe Don or himself. He couldn't bear the thought that he may lose his little boy.

"I hope you're right, Dad," Don sighed, "but it looked really bad."

A shudder ran through Don's body at his thoughts of Charlie and Alan pressed his eyes shut to banish the images of his son possibly dying.

A slightly cough from the entrance brought Don immediately to his feet.

"Dr. Osbourne," Don tried to sound as confident as possible. "How's Charlie?"

The doctor couldn't help but grin by the impatience of his patient´s brother, but well brought up as he was he reached out his hand and greeted the man he remembered to be Charlie's father. "Mr. Eppes, sorry to meet again under these circumstances."

"Dr. Osbourne," Alan shook the doctor´s hand nervously. "How's Charlie?"

"Let's take a seat." The doctor pointed to some chairs standing a little away from the others offering some privacy.

The Eppes followed and sat down. Don glanced unfocused around the room searching for a spot to concentrate upon afraid of what was to come when his gaze fell on Larry. He waved the physicist to come join them; Larry was a part of the family, but he refused the offer. He shook his head slightly and stayed on his seat at the far end of the room. Don shrugged his shoulders and turned his attention back to the doctor.

"Well, " Dr. Osbourne began his report glancing at the patient file he held in his hands. "Charlie is stable."

Don let out a sigh of relief, at least some good news. He felt Alan grab his hand tightly.

"Charlie´s still in a lot of pain. His symptoms, seizures, cold sweats, difficultly in breathing and so on, certainly, pointed to a poisoning."

Alan's body tensed at that announcement. This must be a nightmare; why would anyone want to poison his son? He clenched his fingers even tighter around Don's hand; he needed the assurance that he wasn't dreaming. He felt his son's skin under his fingers and Alan knew that this wasn't a nightmare, it was real. He closed his eyes and focused back on the doctor´s words.

"For the moment, we have no clue of what kind of poison we are dealing with. We had to pump out Charlie's stomach."

Father and son flinched simultaneously sharing the same image.

"Don't worry," Dr. Osbourne calmed their fears. "Charlie didn´t notice much, he was completely under. We´ve taken a few blood samples. The results aren´t in yet." The doctor studied his notes for further information. " His blood pressure was very low, so we gave him adrenaline to bring it up again. Right now he's doing well, his blood pressure´s back to normal, but we´re going to monitor him for the next forty-eight hours. He also developed a high fever. This is very unusual for a poisoning. We have to run some more tests to find out the reason. Till then we have Charlie on a high dosed antibiotic-cocktail to avoid further complications."

The doctor closed the file. He looked up and looked into four dark eyes full of concern and fear. He tried an encouraging smile but somehow failed.

"B-but h-he w-will make it," Alan stammered. He reached out and grabbed the physician´s hands. "Doctor, please tell me that my son will be fine ." Alan was pleading. Tears ran freely down his face dropping of his chin and falling down on his hands, but Alan didn't care. Don laid a comforting arm around his father´s shoulder. He felt the same desperate need to know the truth, but he was so afraid of the answer. Don closed his eyes and sent a silent prayer to the sky.

"Well," Dr. Osbourne cleared his throat, this wasn't his favorite part but he owed them the truth, "I can't say for sure, nobody can, but Charlie's prognosis is good. He´s strong and has been healthy so far. We just have to wait for the results. I'm sorry." He rose to his feet. "Would you like to see him?"

Don's eyes flew open. "Of course."

"A nurse will get you as soon as he´s been settled in his room."

The doctor turned and walked away. Alan and Don sat stiffly on their seats. Carefully, Larry approached them and knelt down in front of Alan.

"I'm so sorry Alan." He didn't know what else to say. He bowed his head. "I'll call Megan and inform her."

Alan nodded unable to find a word. The news had hit him hard and had dragged all the power out of him. He glanced at Don seeing the same numbness there.

An orderly finally led them to Charlie's room.

...

Megan was on her way to Mary Clark´s appartment when her phone rang.

"Reeves," She said in her best FBI-voice trying to sound professional although her mind was full of concern for Charlie and his family.

"Megan," Larry answered in a low voice making Megan stop her movement.

"What is it, Larry?"

"It doesn't look so good."

"Oh my God," Megan whispered. She felt tears in her eyes. She tried to control herself, the last thing she needed was to break down in front of all the other agents. "What does that mean ?"

"Well, Charles's stable, but as long as they don't know what had caused the collapse they can't treat him properly. They can treat the symptoms but if he's really been poisoned, time if of the essence."

"I´ll call forensics." The female agent was back in charge. "I´ll urge them to work faster. We'll get those results, don't worry."

Larry sighed. "Okay, I´ll go back to Alan and Don, see if I can do something to help them."

"OK, Larry and please call me as soon as something changes."

"Of course." Larry was just about to end the conversation when he heard Megan's voice again.

"Oh and tell Don we'll find Clark, no matter what it takes."

Larry hung up without an answer. What did it matter to him if they found that woman or not? If Charles didn't survive nothing would matter anymore. He stood in the lobby of the hospital and felt lost; no way of escaping into another dimension or universe. Larry was caught in the real world without a chance of saving his best friend. 'Dear Lord, please save Charles, I'm lost without him.'

TBC