A/N: Thanks go to Separatrix for beta reading this chapter. Any errors remaining are my own. See other A/N at the bottom for possible spoilers to this chapter.


Unavoidable Truths - Chapter 13

"So, which terminal at the airport are we going to?" the driver asked as he looked back at Charlie from his rear view mirror.

For several seconds, Charlie didn't even register the question being asked of him. So lost in the thought of his running away from Don and Don's questions. He hated himself that he wasn't brave enough to face the conflicting emotions head on and discussing them with his brother, but he just couldn't. It was only when the cabbie asked the question again and snapped his fingers in the vicinity of Charlie's face did Charlie come back into focus. "I'm going out on US Airways, locally. And you don't have to rush, I've got 2 hours before my flight leaves. So make sure we have a safe drive, please."

"Will do then. You want a scenic route to get to the airport?"

"No, I don't care which path you take as long as it's not any longer than the usual direct route you normally would."

Charlie lost himself into his thoughts after that. All he saw before him were the two men from the restaurant, and the love they had shared and not the homes and streets of Los Angeles. The words running through his mind was the silent mantra he chanted to himself, 'I want what they have, but it's wrong to want it with Don.'

Why was life so difficult and what were the chances that two brothers would fall in... want one another. Charlie couldn't say the word love to himself. Love had so many different connotations. He loved Don, he'd always loved Don, even when his brother was being a schmuck and was giving Charlie a hard time about being a young, gifted mathematician. It wasn't so much like that these days, but growing up, Charlie had been aware of the jealousy and bitter feelings Don had had towards him. He hadn't been totally blind and absorbed with his studies. But this love -- this lustful, needy love -- was something entirely else. Foreign, and yet not. He'd been in love before, but with women like Susan. Never with a man. Never. So, he couldn't be in love with Don. He shouldn't even be attracted to him.

Charlie shook his head to clear it of all thoughts of Don. He was on his way to Vegas and he would gamble and have fun. All thoughts of Don would stay hidden and buried, and if he was aware of his denial, he thought nothing of it. Denial was the only proper thing to have.

Alan swallowed the water down that David had gotten him as if the sudden weight of the truth he'd avoided telling all these years had driven every ounce of moisture from his body. He slowly lowered the glass down and looked from his son to his son's co-worker and friend.

"Boys have a seat, because I have a story to tell that I've been carrying around for thirty some odds years. I wish Charlie were here to hear this story as well, but it's best I tell it now while I have the courage and the strength to do so." Alan watched as Don settled himself back down onto the couch, placing his leg up on the ottoman and David sat down in the chair kitty corner to the couch. The intent and questioning look on David's face and the weary and forbidding one on Don's was almost enough to make Alan wish he could swallow his tongue and keep the story forever hidden from the spoken word. Alan gave a heavy sigh.

"The DNA tests weren't in error David." Alan was going to say more, but Don interrupted him with a sharp exclamation of surprise.

"Pop! What?!"

"Donnie, please. Just be quiet for a few minutes and let me get the entire story out. All right?" Alan asked his eldest son.

Don's face showed bewilderment and sadness, with a mixture of disbelief and hurt. Alan hoped that the family would survive with the telling of the tale.

"I think I should start at the very beginning, before you ever came into the picture Don.

"I had a cousin by the name of Michael who lived down south close to the border, where he'd lived with my Uncle Hiram and Aunt Judy. We weren't very close, and were the only children of the Eppes family in our generation. Michael, as far as I know, had lost touch with his parents and the rest of the family for a few years. Until one day I'd gotten a letter from Aunt Judy saying that Michael had gotten married and his wife and their son, Donald would be coming home to California to settle down. Apparently Michael's new wife, Danielle, didn't have any family of her own and wanted to have a chance of one through Michael's."

Alan saw Don give a start when he mentioned the name of his cousin's child and he could tell that Don was putting the pieces together in his head. His son didn't say anything however, and Alan continued on with his story.

"Margaret and I made the trip down to meet Michael and Danielle and their son, Don." Alan smiled in fond remembrance to that day so long ago.

"Don, you were the happiest toddler I could ever remember meeting. So energetic and giggly. Bouncing up and down and holding on to Danielle's hands as she helped you walk along in the grass. You stole a bit of our heart that day and so we stayed in touch with Michael and Danielle through pictures they'd send of you via letters. Then about four months later, after our first meeting, tragedy struck. Michael, Danielle, Aunt Judy and Uncle Hiram had decided to go out for the evening, while you were being looked after by a young woman in the neighborhood. They never made it home because of a drunk driver. Sounds so cliché doesn't it. You hear about it all the time, and never think it could ever really happen to your family. Margaret and I were called, after my parents had been contacted. Margaret and I took you in and made your ours, Don, since you were two years old. So you are family Don, but you and Charlie are not brothers, except at heart."

Alan waited at the end, expecting the blow up he was sure would come. Thirty-six years of silence and hiding of the truth would certainly lead to a lot of heartache and feelings of distrust.

"Wait a minute. Back up. How is that possible? I've seen my birth certificate, it states that you and Mom are my parents, not Michael and Danielle Eppes."

"When Margaret and I took possession of their home and guardianship of you, we looked high and low for a birth certificate, but we couldn't find any documentation to do with your birth. The courts, when they gave you to us when the adoption was finalized, re-issued a birth certificate for identification purposes with our names on it. Your adoption papers along with everything we have from your birth parents are up in the attic."

Don was stunned into silence. The entire truth of his existence as he knew it had been a lie. The knowledge of who defined his family was erroneous and he wasn't sure how to even handle that information. It was like he was on overload. He looked from his 'father' to his co-worker and the stunned look on David's face was in some way reassuring. Don hadn't been hallucinating and the truth was just as hard to take in for David as it was for him.

Charlie didn't want to spend the entire cab ride to the airport just sitting and doing nothing so he rummaged through his book bag and pulled out a fresh tablet of yellow lined paper and a black ballpoint pen. The ride would be just long enough that he could spend some serious time doing a calculation that he'd been thinking on since the disastrous date of last night. He held the pad of paper close to his body and gripped the pen in his right hand. It was the only comfortable way he could write, without having to resort to using his left hand. He could mark and correct well enough with his left, but for any serious work, he thought and worked best with his right.

With the few variables he had to go on and the rough estimations he had stored in his head on the population of the U.S. and the world at large, he'd started calculating the percentages of incest in all its myriad possibilities from those pertaining to siblings and those of parent and child that were likely to occur in this day and age. It wasn't an exact equation, but any number was better than none. He just needed to know that perhaps it wasn't as rare as he thought, or maybe he needed to know that the love he did have was very rare indeed.

"I think perhaps I should take my leave, Don. Let you and your dad discuss this without my being in the way." David got up and reached out and squeezed Don's shoulder in support and sympathy. He did the same for Alan as he walked by the older man.

"Thanks, David. I appreciate your staying and listening. Tell the labs that no further tests need to be run. If they question you, just have them call me here." Don looked up and his gaze skated right over his father and fell straight onto David as he spoke.

"Sure thing. I really am sorry that something so... mundane... would have opened such a large can of worms. Take care man. You too Mr. Eppes." With that, David left.

Both men who remained sat in silence. Alan looked at the man he'd called son for more than thirty years, and hoped that he'd be allowed to do so for many, many more. "Don... I know we should have told you years ago, soon as you and Charlie were in high school together and you were old enough to handle the knowledge, but things between you and Charlie were already so strained, I didn't want the knowledge that you weren't actually brothers to destroy what little relationship you did have. Or maybe, maybe, now that I think on it, if you had known, maybe you would have been more forgiving of Charlie."

Don looked up then and looked straight into Alan's eyes. The pain and misery there was great. "Did you ever stop to think that if I had known, I wouldn't have been as jealous of the time you spent with Charlie, because Charlie was your biological son and that I wasn't? That it might have lessened the feeling of abandonment I suffered for years as you and Mom gave him so much of your time and attention to him."

"Don, you are our son in all ways but by blood, and even then, you still are family. Margaret and I loved you from the moment we saw you. It might not have been the love of a parent, but you were precious to us. And when the accident happened, we didn't hesitate one moment to claim you for our own. Donnie, we loved you then, and if your mother were here now she would say as I would, that we love you now. You are our son. Trust us in knowing, that even with the mistakes we made as you grew up and we let our focus reside on Charlie more than you, it would have happened whether you were born to us or not, because Charlie needed the attention. Even now, he needs attention. You've seen how he gets.

"I just hope this doesn't affect how you deal with Charlie. You will still treat him like your brother, won't you? He shouldn't be the one to suffer for your mother's and my hesitance in sharing your birth information with you."

Don sat there stunned once more. The thought that he wasn't in love with his brother after all struck him as if hit by a brick. He was in love with a distant cousin, not his brother. Not my brother! I'm in love and he's not my brother! But we're still family, it's still not right. Perhaps he could let his...his father know what was happening. Maybe having someone know outside of the two younger men would help.

"Dad, there's something you should know."

TBC

A/N: I had no clue of any other family members within the Eppes tree, and if there has been mention of Aunts or Uncles in the episodes I can't recall, so I've made up my own Eppes family beyond that of Alan, Margaret, Don and Charlie.