DON

(sequel to TRIXIE- a little girl Don met in the hospital while recovering from a job related injury.)

This story could be read on its own.

Don and his team started tracking the elusive, dangerous Logan who was out to get his prize-Trixie.

Don had been home for three days and he was bored stiffed. He has visited Trixie daily as he had promised and had tried calling his team for any leads on Logon. However his team seemed to be busy on a new case and had no time to talk to him.

Initially David or Megan would talk to him for a while and then they had excused themselves, stating that they were on another case that Merrick had assigned them.
Two calls later he gave up as he couldn't even get Colby on his line.

The first day, when Charlie got back from CalSci, he used his laptop to do his own investigating. He managed to use it for one night, after that Charlie seemed to be hogging it. Well he should as it was his laptop anyway.

Like now while Charlie was off to CalSci he was moping around the house. He couldn't locate his father's laptop; maybe he had left it at his office.
Maybe now was the time to get one for himself, but it would end up being a white elephant. He hardly had anytime for himself, and if he did, he would like to spend it flat on his back in his own bed, eyes upward or preferably closed in sleep and not staring at a laptop screen.

Earlier when they got back from the hospital, Alan had secretly pulled David aside when he came in with the pizza. Alan told him not to call Don or answer Don's calls for the next three days.
Alan said he wanted Don to have as much rest as possible. He knew that Don was eager to get to the Logan case and wanted to be in touch with his team as soon as he could.
David told Alan that he would warn Megan and Colby and said that they would come up with something to avoid talking about Logan to Don should he call.
Alan said they'd better have something ready for he was sure that Don would call them as soon as his back was turned.

When Don started using Charlie's laptop on the first day, he was so into it that he kept it up till the wee hours of the next morning.
Don gave Charlie a pointed look and Charlie understood.

On the third day, his father was feeling rather sorry for him.
He'd been liked a caged tiger on the second day, even an outing to visit Trixie was no help.
Alan looked his son and took pity on him and asked, "Do you want to go to the shelter with me today? I'm helping out with in the kitchen, my turn this week."

"Er... No thanks dad, I'll just sit here and…and... do nothing."
Alan smiled to himself, he didn't have many opportunities to see Don this way, and it amused him to no end.

"Come on, you might even enjoy it." Alan said, tugging at his arm, his good arm.
Don was still favoring his other arm even though Alan had seen that the injured shoulder was healing nicely when he changed the bandages for him earlier on. Well, he had four more days to heal and then get his last checkup.

In the end grudgingly, Don followed his father to the Shelter.

The Shelter was originally an old warehouse, donated by the owner to be turned it into a sort of a sanctuary, a place where the homeless could have shelter.
Before the shelter came about, the good people around that area used to cook and distributed food to the poor and the homeless by using part of the parking space which was available to them.

Since the Shelter opened up, the car park space would turn into a flea market of all sorts on every 1st Sunday of the month. The stall owners pay a nominal sum to the shelter for a space to display their wares on that day.

The Shelter kitchen was big and airy, built and then renovated by a philanthropist who also donated about thirty beds situated in furthest corner of the big warehouse separated by some wooden screens.
In the middle were mainly tables and chairs scattered all over for the people to sit and eat. On one side there was a row of eight sinks and the other side some big bins now lined with black plastic bags.
Further down the other end were three washrooms for the men and three ladies washroom of which two of them were situated nearer the kitchen for the female helpers and workers.

The shelter mainly fed the poor and the homeless people roaming on the streets. They came in daily for lunch dished out by volunteers.
The food was mainly donated weekly by the big supermarkets and storekeepers nearby. They had a large storeroom to keep the canned and tinned stuff and a huge cold room for the perishables. The permanent workers were paid nominal wages to help to keep the Shelter running. They were paid by a state run program to return people to the workforce.
A number of people volunteered as temporary workers for the shelter and there were so many of them that they were given allotted times to help.

Alan was one of the volunteers. He opted to go there to help during lunch hours for 3 times a month and this was one of his allotted days.

The rules in the Shelter were: wash before eat, empty plates to be placed on the bins lined on one side of the hall. Anyone can come and have a free meal. No questions asked and no one will be turned away unless they misbehaved or came in to do some dastardly act.

Every week on this day, there would be two doctors who would volunteer on their free day and a few nurses to give medical aid to the sick and to those who needed follow-up treatment. The clinic was not at the centre but a short distance from the shelter.

Alan was greeted cheerfully by the helpers inside the kitchen; it seemed like his dad was very popular amongst the people there.

Don felt like a fish out of water. He followed his dad into the kitchen area where some men and women were working. Many of the women ogled him when Alan introduced him to them.
He put on his charming smile and the ladies smiled very nicely at him.

"Lucky you came to help, young Don, these women have been coming after us with suggestions that we cannot keep up with." One old man said winking at Don. Raucous laughter followed his statement.

Don rolled his eyes at his father who smiled indulgently.
He was the only young man there, the rest were much older than he. There were some young ladies but definitely married young ladies and two of them were pregnant.

Alan saw him looking at the pregnant ladies, said, "That's Winnie and Mabel, they're sisters-in law, and both married twin brothers at the same time and became pregnant at the same time. Their husbands are truck drivers and so they decided to come here and help during the lunch hour."

Don looked at his father thinking, 'I really am not interested in their life history.'
He said, "Oh yeah? Their parents must be ecstatic." he shook his head.
Alan came back with, "Yeah, yeah, three sets of proud parents, the boys' parents are here today. Hey! Ronnie, Hazel, you've met my son?"

"Yeah, yeah, hiya there Don." Ronnie answered and Hazel waved her hand while the other hand was stirring the pot.

Don put on a smile on his face and Alan quickly led him to another part of the kitchen and had him help wipe the plates before serving the food.

More banter came from the old men and old ladies. Don took their banter with a forced smile on his face but he looked at his father like saying, 'this is the first and last time I'll come with you here.'

His father looked at him indulgently and nodded his head.

'Meaning what?' Don seemed to ask him with his eyes then a familiar voice came to him.

Don was near the big open window where the plates of food were to be placed. Someone came up and knocked on the counter.

"Hi there young man, I see that you're out of the joint already?" Dr. Chandra asked innocently.

"They didn't keep you too long inside there, isn't it? Good that you are out now, hope you don't need to go back inside."
Dr. Chandra kept prattling on oblivious of the insinuation his words had caused.

Silence, the kitchen helpers all stopped talking and laughing and some of them looked at Don suspiciously.

Tbc

Thanks to my beta, Mikiss