Stress
Title: Stress
Collection: The Long and Short of It
Rating: T
Characters/Pairings: Charlie, Don, Colby, David, Megan, Alan
Warnings: language, brotherly schmoop out the wahoo, excessively hot men being hot, PWP without the pr0n (Plot What Plot?)
Genres: Drama, Family, Gen, Friendship, Pr0nless PWP (Plot? What Plot?)
Chapters: 1
Completed: Yes
Word count: 2044
Disclaimer: See Master Post.
Notes: See Master Post.
Summary: When Charlie is stressed and overworked, he gets headaches. But not the kind you'd expect.
Colby joined Don at the section of the cube farm reserved for their team and sipped his coffee.
"He's going to go bald if he keeps pulling on his hair like that," he observed.
Don glanced over, then looked back, his brow furrowing as he watched his brother.
"Nah." He considered. "You think?"
Colby snorted. "Yeah, I do, Don. Kid's been in here how many hours a day working on this one?"
Don sighed and dug his fingers into his eye sockets. "Yeah, I know. I keep telling him to go home, but he just goes to the garage and keeps working." He shrugged in frustration and gulped some coffee. It wasn't really helping at this point, his body having adjusted to the regular caffeine infusion over the last week.
"But what can I do, Colby? It's a missing kid. You know how those are for trained agents. Charlie's . . ."
"Yeah. I know," he agreed grimly. "I'm not saying I don't understand. But if
he stays at this level for much longer, I can't help but think that when he crashes it's gonna be bad. And I want to find the kid, I do, but . . ."
Don sighed again. "Yeah. I know." He stood and stretched, twisting his back until it popped like bubble wrap.
"I think we all need to take a break. Pizza at Charlie's place?"
Colby nodded. "I'll get Megan and David."
Don nodded and then downed the last of his cooled coffee and headed into the War Room to collect his little brother.
"Charlie."
Muttering continued uninterrupted indicating Charlie was deep in Mathland.
"Charlie," he repeated louder.
A flicker of eyes, but the mumbles didn't stop or even slow.
Don walked over and pushed the lid of the laptop down, nearly catching Charlie's fingers
"Huh?" Charlie blinked and then squinted his bloodshot eyes at Don. "Oh. Hey, Don."
He acted like he was aware, but the fact that his hands were trying to pry the computer back open betrayed the fact that that was not actually the case.
"Charlie," Don said, enunciating and holding onto Charlie's chin to make sure his eyes stayed focused on him.
Charlie blinked rapidly, then sagged slightly, his body finally recognizing it was exhausted now that the train of numbers had been momentarily derailed.
"Don?" he said, mildly confused.
He looked around and, since he seemed to actually be present and accounted for, Don let him go and straightened.
"What . . . what's up?"
Even his voice was ragged and Don frowned. How burned out was he that he hadn't notcied until now that Charlie was riding the fine line between wired alertness and a zombie-like stupor?
"Come on, Buddy. Let's go home." He got a hand wrapped around Charlie's arm and tugged him to his feet.
"What? Did-" he coughed, clearing his throat, then said, "Did we find her?"
"Not yet, Charlie."
"Nononono," Charlie said, turning and trying to break free. "I have to- If I can just-" He manged to get the lid up and his fingers flew over the keyboard before Don pulled him away again.
That didn't stop his fingers from continuing to type on the air.
A whimper escaped Charlie's throat and Don's chest tightened.
He should never have let it get this bad. He shouldn't have let Charlie get this involved.
"We'll come back, Buddy. But we need to take a break."
"A b-break? A break?"
He went from confused and desperate to angry in the space between words.
"Some little girl is out there, away from her home and her family and with some- some psycho doing who knows what to her and- and you want to take a break?!"
Don pushed his own exhaustion down and kept his voice calm.
"Charlie-"
But Charlie wasn't having this. He yanked his arm free and glared at his brother. "You go take a break if you need to, Don. I have work to do."
Don's temper snapped at that, the condescending tone that said Don needed to go and leave Charlie alone because Charlie had important things to do.
It was rare, but when it came out it had a single response from Don.
He grabbed Charlie and slammed him against the wall, their noses separated by a bare inch.
"Don't give me that bullshit, Charlie."
"What bullshit?" Charlie demanded. "I'm sorry, I thought this was your job. I wasn't aware that saving a little girl's life was just a hobby for you!"
"Fuck that," Don said, pulling his brother forward by the fistfuls of his shirt held in white-knuckled grips, then slamming him back into the wall. "Fuck you and your superior 'I can save the fucking world if you idiots would leave me alone' attitude.
"You're right. This is my job, Charlie. It's my job. It's not yours. You are the one that has made this a fucking hobby." And I'm sorry if your
damn numbers haven't give you the fucking answer. But sometimes that's how it works."
Don released him, stepping back and running a hand through his hair.
There weren't many left in the office this time of day and everyone but his team was working on quietly.
David, Colby, and Megan were watching, wary, tensed for an escalation.
Charlie stayed against the wall, hands splayed as if for balance, head bowed.
Don paced a few steps away and back, trying to reign in his temper and finding it harder to do than he liked.
When he was sure he could speak without yelling again, he said, "I know how you're feeling, Charlie."
"Do you?"
"Hell yeah. Hell fucking yeah. You think this is my first missing child case? It's not easy, Charlie. It's not supposed to be. It never gets easier, knowing it's a kid out there, missing, probably terrified and hoping someone will come save the day like damn Superman.
"But if you let that be your focus-"
"That's not it."
The quiet admission stopped Don in his tracks.
"What?"
Charlie's hand came up, his splayed fingers pressing into his forehead.
"It's- That's not what has me so . . ." He waved a hand wildly by his head.
"Then what is it?"
Charlie's eyes closed. "You're going to think it's stupid." He winced. "And it probably will sound a lot like that 'superior attitude' you mentioned."
"Yeah, well, I'm used to that by now."
Charlie's eyes flicked up and a tiny smile curved one side of his lips.
"Mostly," Don amended. "Now what's the problem?"
Charlie sighed again. "It's just . . ." Frustration twisted his face. "I'm not used to not having the answers."
Don wasn't the only one that snorted and Charlie glanced over at the others, flushing when he realized he had an audience.
"No, I mean . . ."
"You're too damned smart," Don said. "That's what you mean."
Annoyance was the look Charlie shot him at that. It made Don grin a little.
"It's okay, Buddy," he said, squeezing Charlie's shoulder. "It happens to everyone. Even geniuses like you."
Annoyance became pure poison.
Don grinned. "Now come on. We're going to go eat some pizza and talk about something not related to work for a few hours and maybe sleep if we can and then int he morning we'll try again."
Charlie's gaze strayed to the War Room where his laptop waited. He bit his lip wistfully.
Don pulled him away from the wall and forcefully turned Charlie toward the elevator.
"Nope. If it comes home you won't be able to do anything but want to work on it."
"But-"
"Charlie. Trust me on this. Fresh eyes will help. We're not doing anything worth doing here right now. We need this."
Charlie sighed and gave in.
Of course, they were already in the elevator so it was sort of a moot point by then.
"A few hours," he muttered.
"Yeah, Buddy," Don said, patting his shoulder. "Just a few hours and you can come back."
o.o
They weren't home ten minutes and Charlie was passed out on the couch.
He didn't even stay awake long enough to eat.
"You going to wake him?" David asked.
"Nah," Don said, taking a slice of the hot pie. "He can eat in the morning. If I wake him now he won't sleep again for days."
They ate their pizza and quietly discussed mundane things until everyone was blinking and yawning.
It seemed harsh, but they all knew it was a necessary disconnect. They had to find a way to shut off or they'd burn out too fast.
"Go home, everyone," Don said when he was beginning to doubt their ability to get home safely. "We'll start fresh in the morning."
Nods and mumbled agreements followed, but no one stood.
"You're driving," Colby said, blinking heavily.
"Only if you want to get in an accident," David countered, leaning his head back.
Colby grunted, but it was obviously not the coherent response it was supposed to be.
Don glanced at Megan to see she'd fallen asleep already, her head balanced on her propped fist.
He snorted, then looked back at the other two.
David was snoring lightly through his open mouth and if Colby's blinks got much longer they would no longer fit that classification.
"Stop fighting it, Granger," Don said.
Colby frowned and tried to focus on him.
"Give up. Go to sleep."
Colby blinked twice more, then shrugged slightly and laid his head back.
He was snoring within a breath.
Don smiled slightly, then let his own head fall back and let exhaustion claim him.
o.o
Alan was up early the next morning to find his youngest working on a laptop at the kitchen table, which wasn't unusual.
The four FBI agents passed out in various uncomfortable positions in his living room were slightly more so.
Charlie glanced up. "Morning, Dad," he said and drank from his mug.
"Charlie?"
"Don was right. Fresh eyes." He grinned, face lighting up. "I figured it out."
"I'm so happy. What did you figure out?"
"Where she is. I found her!"
"That little girl that went missing?"
Charlie grinned and nodded. "Yeah."
"Well that's wonderful!" His smiled faded. "What aren't you waking up your brother?"
Charlie waved it off. "I called it in. Director Merrick said he would handle it."
"You don't think your brother would want to be in on the, uh, raid or whatever they call it?"
Charlie shrugged. "Probably. But they're finally sleeping. I'm not sure the-" He checked his watch. "Two and a half hours of sleep they've gotten this week would really be enough."
Alan gave him a Look.
Charlie shrugged and smiled sheepishly. "Actually, Director Merrick said not to wake them. He said they wouldn't be allowed to go anyway."
"Ah," Alan said. "All right then." He looked at them again, sprawled over chairs and on the floor and shook his head.
"They're going to hurt when they wake up."
"Yeah," Charlie agreed absently, already back to work. "Probably."
Alan grunted and reached out to ruffle Charlie's hair.
Charlie jerked and hissed, hunching away from his hand.
"Are you okay?" Alan asked, concerned.
"Yeah, uh . . ." Charlie gave a sheepish grin.
"Headache?" Alan said gently.
"Uh, no, actually."
Alan frowned. "What's wrong?"
"He's been pulling his hair out over this case," Don said, padding into the room. "Literally."
Alan sighed. "Donnie, you're supposed to watch out for your brother. Even if that means protecting him from himself."
Both of them scowled at that.
"We're not in high school anymore, Dad!" Charlie protested
"Yeah," Don said, taking a seat at the table. "Exactly. In high school I could do this job by myself. Now it takes four of us and sometimes that's not even enough." He waved at the living room where the other three were still sleeping.
"What about Larry and Amita?" Alan said. "He needs two separate teams to keep up with him."
Don flicked a hand. "Exactly." He reached out toward Charlie's head but a flinch and raised hands warded him off.
Don withdrew his hand and shrugged. "I rest my case."
Charlie let his head drop into his hands with a groan, then whimpered at the contact. "Ow."