Chapter 4
AN: A slightly less long wait! Yay! Cue the trumpets! Now enters Alan Eppes! Cha cha cha…
Big thanks to both M.Marchland and Cerisereve for beta-ing this chapter! YOU BOTH ROCK! If my first born are twins, you may each have one. If I have only one, well, I guess M can have him/her/it on weekdays and Ceris can have the child on weekends and holidays.
Thanks reviewers: Tasuki, D. Lerious, Piccolo Chic, shoey, pkw, and erica2004. This chapter is for all of you. 'Cause if you weren't hitting that delicious little purple button at the bottom of my story, I would be sitting in a shivering, sobbing mass of gross at the foot of my bed wondering aloud why nobody loved me.-
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Alan Eppes' arms were loaded with bags of groceries as he ambled through the doorway. He muttered under his breath as he felt one of the bags begin to slip out his grasp. Alan grappled with the bag and gave the door a solid kick closed.
"Charlie? A little help here?" he called out but got no response. Which meant Charlie either wasn't here or he was here working on one of his equations and couldn't hear him. Both were plausible answers, he realized, and neither would help him save the groceries that were threatening to fall to the floor from his arms.
He moved as quickly as possible to the hallway table, dropping the sliding bag with a heavy thud against the hard wood surface. The sound made him wince and he belatedly hoped it wasn't the bag with the eggs in it.
He sighed and threw his keys into the bowl on the table. "Charlie?" he tried again but still received no response. He really hoped Charlie was home. Ever since he started working with Don and the FBI it seemed like he hardly saw him anymore. Alan paused for a moment and admitted to himself with chagrin that that wasn't entirely true, he saw him plenty. Just not as much as he used to.
Charlie was the baby of the family. So along with the fact that he had been a child genius, he had always been the main focus of Alan and Margaret's attentions. Don had been a typical boy growing up. He had wanted nothing more than be outside, play sports and he had groaned when the weekend was over and he had to go to school come Mondays. Charlie of course had been anything but typical. And as such, Don had always kept his distance. Not wanting to be a part of his little brother's mathematical world.
But now with Charlie working with the FBI, Alan for the first time in his life was sharing him with Don. He realized now that he was a little envious of his sons' newfound relationship.
Since Charlie had become a consultant for Don and the FBI he had watched with increasing pride as they grew closer and closer. When they had been younger, Charlie's genius had been the largest factor in the split between the two boys. It was also one of the reasons Don was so independent.
With Alan and his wife so focused on Charlie's upbringing they had often overlooked Don. And Alan knew that despite his outward appearance of being self-sufficient, Don had resented that from time to time. But now, Don was beginning to get to know his brother in a whole new way. A way in which Charlie wasn't just the annoying kid brother who would get all the attention when guests came over for dinner. He was beginning to understand Charlie and in doing so, he was seeing him as a man and an equal for the first time. Charlie's genius had driven them apart through out childhood and now it was the reason they were brought together as adults.
He caught the sight of a soft smile from his late wife in a photograph on the wall; she would be so proud of her boys right now.
He made his way to the kitchen with the groceries. Though the house was no longer his, he was certain if he left it up to Charlie the cupboards would remain bare. Food, Alan had realized a long time ago, was one of those things that Charlie always seemed to need to be reminded about. It was right there on the list along with sleep.
As he stacked the recently purchased cans of soup in the kitchen pantry and placed the thankfully unharmed eggs in the fridge, Alan caught sight of a curly head of hair in the backyard.
Charlie was standing at the edge of the koi pond, hands deep in his pockets, his backpack was dropped at his feet. Apparently, he hadn't been inside since arriving home; he had gone straight to the pond. Alan bit his lip and contemplated Charlie's still form. Charlie with the koi was never a good sign.
Alan regarded Charlie with mounting apprehension as he moved silently across the plush and well-manicured lawn. The young man was deep in his thoughts and oblivious to his approaching father.
"Hey, Charlie!"
Charlie continued his study of the fish and gave no indication that he had heard Alan.
Alan now stood beside Charlie whose face was troubled. "Charlie?" Alan tried again, more softly this time.
Charlie looked up briefly, it seemed like he attempted to give his father a smile but it was completely masked by his anxious eyes. Alan's worried gaze moved from the pond to Charlie's brooding face. "What's wrong Charlie?"
Charlie took a few steps away from his father and intensified his study of the fish. "Why would you say something's wrong?" He was trying to be offhand, but Alan was long immune to Charlie's attempts at hiding his emotions.
His father chuckled. "Because the only time you come out here and attempt to burn holes through the koi pond with your eyes is when something is bothering you."
Charlie shot a slightly annoyed glance at his father. "Nothing is wrong. Everything is perfect in fact. Just ask Don."
Charlie said his brothers name like it tasted bad in his mouth and Alan was taken aback. "Why, what happened to Don? Is he all right?"
Alan watched as anger seeped into Charlie's features and tainted his words. "If you were listening, you'd have heard me say everything is perfect! Therefore, obviously, Don is encompassed in that perfection."
Alan looked at his son in surprise. Anger was not an emotion his youngest displayed often. He had seen him agitated and tense, snapping when his patience wore thin, but rarely angry. Alan took a breath. "Therefore, obviously I can assume that this perfection that your brother is experiencing is the root of your problem."
Charlie averted his gaze and crossed his arms across his chest.
"What did Don do?" Alan asked patiently.
Charlie looked up at his father; he was clearly struggling with whatever was bothering him. He faltered a moment before saying with a voice strained with anger and disbelief, "Don asked Amita out." He paused a moment, "…on a date."
Alan was dumbfounded for a moment. "Charlie, are you sure…"
Charlie cut him off with a bitter voice. "Amita. She told me today after class that Don asked her out." Charlie then wavered and Alan could see his hostility being replaced by bewilderment.
He gnawed on his lip for a moment before looking up at his father. Charlie's eyes were now full of distress and his words sounded dazed. "And she said yes."
Alan stood dumbly for a moment; he wasn't quite sure what to say. "Charlie…" He reached out but his son withdrew from the contact.
"She said yes! Why would she say that? I mean…I thought…" Charlie ran a hand through his hair. Charlie had now had stumbled into something that his father hated seeing even more than anger on him: confusion. The kind of confusion in which Charlie would tear him self down and apart as he strove to figure out how things had gone so wrong.
He would turn this conflict into one of his calculations, retracing his steps to see what he could have done differently to get the correct outcome. Alan hated to see this conflict over take Charlie because he knew there was usually nothing his son could have done differently.
But this new equation was one regarding his heart. And emotions were something that Charlie had always struggled with. Alan knew with building concern that, this time around, there was in fact something Charlie could have done differently.
"Charlie?" He spoke softly. He waited till Charlie drew his troubled gaze up to his. "Did you ever tell Amita how you felt?"
Charlie opened and closed his mouth several times and the confusion in his eyes became more adamant. "But I thought…I…" He ground the palms of his hands into his eyes. "I'm her thesis advisor. I'm not suppose to... We're not…" He groaned in frustration.
Alan looked sympathetically at his son. "Charlie, the rules were there, yes. But that didn't stop the feelings from being there as well. Maybe you wanted to wait until she was done her studies, but did you give her any indication that you'd be interested when she was done?"
Charlie's shoulders sagged but he said nothing.
Alan closed his eyes for a few seconds. "Amita is a beautiful, intelligent and caring woman. How long did you expect others to not notice that in her? How long did you think she would wait for you if you gave her nothing to wait for?"
Anger flashed in Charlie's eyes again. "Don said something like that just a while ago."
Alan winced. "Charlie, your brother…"
Charlie interrupted vehemently, "Right, my brother!." His face contorted as he tried to sort out the emotions in him. "Even if Amita didn't know about how I felt…he did." He glared furiously at Alan. "I know he did."
Alan had nothing to say in Don's defense; he also knew that Don had been aware of Charlie's feelings for Amita. He ran a hand over his face as Charlie shrugged his backpack onto his shoulder and quickly made his way to the house. For his sons' entire lives he had been patching up the cracks in their relationship. He was used to the spats and rifts that occurred between them periodically. But for once, he wasn't sure how he could help fix this. He realized, with apprehension, that they were going to be on their own.
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Next: The date…