these stories are meant to be all one story, charlie isn't likely to have 26 different accidents or illnesses in such a short space of time, thus if details don't follow on between stories they aren't meant to, some will follow on but others are in a slightly different universe.

Thanx to my beta turnipchick who did a wonderful job of turning my story from ok to well better than ok

please read and review

Chapter 1

"Professor Eppes can I ask you a favour?" asked one of the students who was in one of his classes but who was quite quiet and didn't answer very much.

"Sure what is it?" he replied

"Well we need another teacher for the teacher vs. student football game; it's for charity by the way. It's at 3:30, we had Professor Fleetwood but he has to go to Maine to pick up his daughter from school or something. So will you do it?"

"I haven't played football in ermmm a very long time, is there going to be a practice before the game or anything?" replied Charlie looking slight aghast at the prospect.

"No just the warm-up, all the practices have been over the last couple of weeks but don't worry it's just for fun and no-one is taking it seriously.

"Ok I'll do it"

The first 3 quarters past without much comments, the students were winning 32-21, Charlie was playing for some reason as Running back, but had been playing ok especially since the last time he had played had been in a similar type of game 10 years previous (apart from a family muck-a-about at thanksgiving, where Don's team always won). The play was called meaning the ¼ back was going to faint a run then pass it to Charlie, Charlie caught the ball and could see a giant of a player come hurdling towards him, he tried to dodge but the player dodged with him and landed on him still, pulling him to the ground. Pain erupted in Charlie's knee and he knew something wasn't right.

"Ok Sir, lie as still as possible while we get this leg immobilised, are you in any pain? Thanks Bella. We shall try to get you to the hospital ASAP." Said the paramedic who didn't allow Charlie to get a word in edge ways nor answer the questions which he asked.

But before Charlie could ask what was going on; he was on the way to the hospital his leg now strapped up and immobile, having had an injection of morphine to reduce any pain he might be feeling. He was a lot calmer about the whole thing. He was wheeled through the ER and placed in a cubicle.

Charlie sat there wondering whether he would ever see a doctor or whether he would have to sit by himself forever when there was a flutter in the curtain which had been drawn round his bed. It was not a doctor but Larry who looked very flustered.

"Charles in what possible variation of this universe gave you the idea that it would be a good idea to play football." Asked Larry

"Well I got asked and I could hardly say no, the guy cornered me. Could you call Don and tell him what has happened I need a lift home since in all probability I won't be allowed to drive." Reposted Charlie

As Larry left to phone Don, the long awaited doctor arrived.

"Don Eppes, FBI. What can I do for you?"

"Its Larry, well Charles had an accident, he's ok" he tried to reassure Don that Charlie was in fact not too badly hurt "We are at the hospital and the doctor is looking at Charlie now..."

"What kind of accident? Does he need me to come down?" asked Don trying to hide the anxiety in his voice

"He was playing football against some of the students in a charity game. Yeah he asked if you could pick him up and take him home." Replied Larry relaying the bare facts to Don.

"Tell him I will be there as soon as I can get away, it's a bit hectic around here just now but I'll try to get away soon.

Don walked through the hospital till he reached the ER (he had gone in the wrong entrance) he hated hospitals, his dad had once had to almost physically drag him to the hospital to get his broken wrist fixed after a little league accident also when Charlie had been in the hospital a couple of years ago after having a appendicitis he had said he was really sorry but was too busy to visit when really it was due to his phobia of hospitals. Don entered the cubicle just as the doctor began telling Charlie the results of the scans and x-rays.

"Don Eppes, I'm Charlie's brother." Announced Don

"As I was just telling Charlie, he has a tear of his ACL and a dislocated patella which unfortunately means he will be laid-up for about 11 weeks and I am prescribing full bed rest for the next 10 days as that knee is very swollen and we need that swelling to reduce and we don't want any further damage to be done."

"What do you mean 'full bed rest'" asked Charlie who was hoping it wasn't as bad as it sounded; he had work to do and things.

"Apart from the toilet and a couple of very short spells up and about possibly in conjunction with meals, either on a couch or in bed with your knee propped up. That means no work or anything else." Replied the doctor he could see Charlie's face drop, this looked as if it was going to be torture for the young professor.

"So do you want to see me again?" asked Charlie trying to sound more positive than he felt.

"Yes in 10 days I would like to review this and hopefully the swelling will have gone down and then you can get out and about though obviously you will still have to use crutches" replied the doctor.

"So will I need crutches just now or just once I come back."

"No, you will need crutches just now but they are to be used sparingly you have to rest that knee as much as possible. Do you have any more questions?"

"Are you going to relocate my knee now?" asked Charlie

"Yeah we'll give you some gas and air then put it back in" replied the doctor signalling for the nurse to bring the necessary items for the job.

Don could tell that the next 11 weeks and particularly the following 10 days were going to be very difficult, to get his exuberant brother to take it easy for a few minutes let alone nearly two months was going to be Nye on impossible. Charlie would already be thinking of ways to get around what he was suppose to be doing. Don could see the pain in Charlie's eyes and couldn't decide whether it was due to the pain of relocating his patella or whether it was due to the thought of 10 days laid-up instead of living his life.

Chapter 2

Charlie hobbled into the house having been very quiet on the way home, his knee which was now strapped up, resembled an elephant leg due to the amount of swelling and the colour of the bruising.

Alan, who had been making dinner, came out at the sound of the door opening and was startled to see Charlie being helped to the couch by his brother with what looked like a badly damaged knee.

"What happened, Charlie?"

"Football, Tank powered into me, torn ACL, dislocated patella," said Charlie neither wanted his dad to worry about him nor did he really want to explain what had happened. He was very tired and would much rather the whole situation wasn't happening to him.

"Ah, how long is it going to take to heal?"

"11 weeks the doctor said"

"Well, I am glad I made your favourite then, you look like you need some cheering up" he said trying to put a smile on his face and lighten the situation.

"So, Don you staying for Dinner then?"Charlie said more a request than a question.

"If you want buddy, I've got most of the work I needed done anyway." Said Don who followed his dad into the kitchen leaving Charlie sulking on the couch,

"What are we going to do to keep him occupied and resting that knee, he'll never last that long." Asked Don

"I know, he doesn't really have a hobby, I suppose we could get him a book of puzzles or could you get him the notes for your cases and he could do the equations for them at home.

"Yeah I suppose I could ask him if he can help us with the cases using his maths and tell him I'll pick them up when I come over for dinner. Me coming over is ok with you isn't it?"

"Of course you are always welcome. I'll phone Larry and Amita and get them to bring over any marking he needs to do. That will keep him busy for a bit as well." Replied Alan,

"Yeah I need to phone Amita anyway, to tell her about Charlie and ask her for the number for whoever is in-charge, of finding cover for Charlie's classes for the next 10 days."

"Yeah well Plan Charlie Rest is a go, starting from tomorrow." Alan replied; while he served up the Dinner of Chilli Con Carne.

The first two days were ok and Charlie stayed where he was meant to be in bed with pages and pages of equations around him. He had managed to complete the entire 501 Puzzle Mania book that Don had bought him and had set to work on the case which Don had given him at dinner the previous night. Charlie was finding (since he nothing else to do or distract him) the equation was quite easy to do, though it would have been better if he could have used his blackboards as he liked to "think on his feet" but he was trying to make the best of it.

On the morning of the third day, Alan had to go to his golf game (he had asked Charlie if he wanted him to stay but Charlie said it was fine). Charlie finished the last bit of the equation and decided that since Don wouldn't be able to collect it until tonight he would do him a favour and give it to his team so they could finish the case quicker. He phoned David as he had feeling that Don had said something about being away from the office today.

"Hey FBI Agent Sinclaire speaking, who is it?"

"Hey David, it is Charlie"

"Oh hey, how's your knee?"

"Getting better I hope, anyway is Don there?"

"No do you want me to give him a message?"

"No I was hoping he wasn't, I was going to bring that equation by for your case and I thought he would tell me to go home, I'll get a cab and I'll be there in 20 minutes hopefully."

"Charlie I thought Don said you were on ..." he stopped as he heard the dialling tone signalling Charlie had hung up and was unfortunately on his way. Don was going to have his head for this.

Charlie picked up his crutches found his shoes which were for some reason hidden in the cupboard under a pile of coats when he knew he had left them next to the door when he took them off 2 nights ago. He searched for a long time to find his keys which seemed to have mysteriously disappeared from their usual spot in the bowl next to the phone. He was now starting to wonder whether someone was deliberately hiding his stuff so he couldn't go out. He found everything having already wasted 20 minutes. He then noticed he was still wearing a faded Cal-Sci t-shirt and baggy pyjamas shorts and thought he would need to get changed before going to the FBI.

Now completely ready he phoned for a cab and was on his way, when he arrived at the FBI office he made his way to the lift it took a lot longer than usual and was glad that the lobby was not too busy so he didn't have to move to avoid people too much. He finally got up to the bull-pen 40 minutes later than he said he was going to be and was met by stares from all of Don's team. Colby brought him a chair over and helped Charlie to sit down.

"You do know Don is going to kill us if he finds out you've been here." Said Megan looking at Charlie with a mixture of pity and annoyance,

"That's why he isn't going to find out." Replied Charlie with his usual cheeky smile reaching into his backpack which was now sitting by his feet, retrieving the equation which he had perfected;

"Is that the equation?"

"Yeah, would you like me to explain my thinking?"

"Well you had better do it quickly Don could be back at any moment" replied David constantly looking over his shoulder to see whether his boss was about to appear around the corner.

Charlie explained his thinking and the equation which he had drawn up and told them that if they gave the specifics of time, date and contents of the robberies that he would get Amita to put them into her computer along with the equation and come up with some results for them. They told Charlie they would do that and motioned to him to get out of the office.

Charlie pressed the button for the lift and waited for the lift to reach his floor from the 2nd floor, Don had decided instead of taking the stairs today that he would take the elevator to his office as he had a lot of files to carry. He had been on the 2nd Floor giving files to one of the other offices from the meeting he had just come from and now was going up to his office. The lift doors opened and Charlie's cheeks turned bright scarlet as he saw who it was coming out of the lift.

"Charlie, what are you doing here?" asked Don fuming you could almost see the steam coming out of his ears.

"Erm, stretching my legs?" he said trying to sound sincere,

"We will talk about this at home; I am taking you home now." He said dumping the files on his desk then shooed Charlie into the lift and followed suit. He drove Charlie home in stony silence. Charlie got out the car and forgetting for a moment about his knee put his full weight through his injured leg crying out in pain. He hobbled with his crutches to the couch his knee now in more pain. His leg had been sorer when he had been at Don's office than when he had been at home "resting" maybe there was a reason for the bed rest.

Don could see from his brother's movements that he was in a lot of pain but he couldn't help but feel this might teach him to abide by the rules in this case anyway.

"Charlie what were you thinking?"

"That I could speed up the catching of this guy by giving you the equations quicker. I also was incredibly bored, daytime TV really sucks."

"Remind me again how long the doc said you were to rest for and how long it's been?"

"Ok Don I messed up, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have gone to your office."

Don got a flashback to when they were kids and Don had measles and Charlie was told by their dad to not have any contact with Don and then he wouldn't get sick. But Charlie didn't heed the warning and got the measles and got really sick and missed the science fair, which he had been looking forward to for weeks. Charlie had never been very good at doing what he was told and this was no exception, he just hoped that maybe he would for once take this as a learning experience and do the right thing for once.

"Do you want a soda before I leave?"

"No, I'm fine." Don turned to leave, "Wait, could you maybe drop by the movie rental place and pick me up a couple of movies on your way home, if I am going to be stuck here then I might as well have something to do."

"Yeah sure, I'll get you some baseball ones, very statistical game, I remember you saying."

Charlie gave a faint smirk of laughter as Don left, he knew Amita didn't have any classes for the rest of the day and thought maybe she could come over and he could always help her with something or maybe just talk. He had never told her that he loved her, when he had been her theses advisor them dating had been a big no-no but now well maybe that would be a good idea.

He leant over to get the phone and dialled her office number, after the 3rd ring she picked up.

"Hey, Can I ask you a favour?"

"Yeah sure, what is it?"

"Well do you need help with anything or can you just come over?"

"Yeah sure I'll be over in a couple of minutes, I have some marking for my classes you can help me do it if you want then we can watch a movie or something."

"Sure, sounds great." With that they hung up and Charlie picked up his crutches and hobbled into the kitchen to get a glass of water his knee now looked more swollen than it had 3 days ago rather than less. If he was going to get allowed back to work in 7 days then he was going to have to rest his knee.

Amita arrived and saw Charlie lying fast asleep on the sofa with a notebook open across his stomach. He looked so peaceful she thought she better leave him till he woke up and went into the kitchen to get herself a drink and found some biscuits open on the counter and as she thought the Eppes family wouldn't mind and she helped herself to a few.

Charlie woke up as Amita settled down on the chair next to the sofa he pulled himself up and looked over to where Amita sat, her hair looking particularly nice tied up with a blue stripy ribbon. They set to work marking the term papers of some of Amita's sophomore students, Charlie started laughing after finishing marking one of the papers of a Mr. James McAllister.

"What's so funny?"

"He got all of the hard things right and his theory is correct but he can't do 2 + 2 he got 5." Said Charlie, Amita came over and looking at the paper agreed it was quite funny.

When they had finished Amita put a movie in to the DVD player and with the angle of the TV you could only see the TV from the couch so Amita sat next to Charlie. Charlie put his leg up so it was resting on the coffee table instead of the couch, for some reason Charlie couldn't discern why he was getting fluttery feelings in his stomach which didn't seem to be duty to the lack of food he had had today but something else. The movie which was A Knight's Tale was surprisingly witty with lots of great acting and Charlie really enjoyed it and the fact that Amita was sitting this close to him did wonders for his mood.

When Alan came home around 6:00pm Amita said she had to go and that if he needed anything then just to call. Alan set about making dinner, Charlie decided that him going into the kitchen and talking to his dad would be a good idea as he could sit on one stool and prop his knee up on another.

"Hey Charlie, Stir-fry ok for dinner"

"Yeah sounds great. How was your game?"

"Well it was great; with my handicap I finished only 2 over par which was pretty good. Oh and well Stan asked me as he needs a consultant for his new project if I would like to help out, I thought that it would be a good idea what with Don and you out the house so much normally and it would give me something to fill my days with, I told Stan I would discuss it with you and Don then tell him tomorrow. He asked if I could start straight away but I said that could we give it 2 weeks if I did decide to take it then you would be back at work and wouldn't get into mischief." He said with a sly smile.

"I have been being a model patient, whatever gave you the idea that I couldn't be trusted to stay in the house by myself."

"Well apart from the fact that the first day you are on your own you end up at the FBI and by the looks of it set back your progress, that knee has certainly got much more swollen since this morning."

"I will be good, I think you should take it and start right away I am not going to do anything bad now, I have realised the error of my ways and don't want to set back my progress any further. You joining in the Poker game tonight with Don, David, Colby and me?"

"Don't know depends what's on the TV, when they coming over?"

"7:30 I think, Don said he would be over for dinner and hopefully be here at 6:30" just as Don walked in the door, he looked around to see where his brother and dad were then heard voices coming from the kitchen.

Seeing Don coming in Charlie said, "Yeah by the way did you hide my keys and stuff, so I wouldn't be able to leave?"

"Yeah but it didn't work though; I suppose it slowed you down enough that I caught you at the office though, which made it worthwhile."

Charlie started to look hurt that his brother hadn't trusted him enough to hide his things in an effort to stop him from sneaking out. When the dinner was ready Don carried his and Charlie through and the 3 men settled down to dinner, Alan and Don with beers and Charlie with a soda as his pain meds were not meant to be taken with alcohol. They had just finished up and tided away the dishes when David and Colby arrived accompanied by another FBI agent who Charlie vaguely recognised. Don got the card table out and the 5 men settled down Alan saying he was going to watch the Dolphin vs. Packers game in the other room.

By about 5 hands in Charlie had a large pile of chips in front of him and the other 4's piles had steadily decreased by varying amounts. The other FBI agent who Charlie discovered was called Paul asked him if he played this game often.

"No this is only the 3rd time I have played poker though it is a very interesting and Maths based game..." he continued on with some statics on how likely it was for him to get a flush and to get a full house, Paul wished he hadn't bother to say anything as obviously this guy was obsessed with Maths.

"There is only one other game I can think of that has more to do with Maths and that is baseball. I used to do Stats on Don so I could predict the likelihood that he was going to have a good game of not and which balls he should hit."

"You used to play?" asked Paul who was the captain of the FBI team.

"Yeah but I wasn't that good," replied Don

"Don went to College on a baseball scholarship; he taught me how to play."

"Yeah teaching you how to play only caused me and you (I suppose) pain and anguish." Don replied with a slight grimace.

"Was he that bad" asked Paul,

"No, it wasn't that exactly. Once he hit a ball into my face which broke my jaw, needed to be wired not pretty, in an attempt to catch a ball which I had hit, he fell over a ball already on the ground and broke his arm; he was in plaster for the whole of summer vacation. He also broke two windows with what would have been very good homeruns if the house wasn't in the way, there were other accidents too. Yeah Charlie was fairly good at baseball but very accident prone."

"He is still pretty accident-prone from what David and Colby have said and very stubborn when it comes to admitting he is hurt." Said Paul

"I am not, I always admit straight away when something hurts," replied Charlie indignantly.

"Remind me Charlie how long did you walk around with that ingrown toenail before you got it seen to ... so long that it got infected and you ended up in hospital." Don laughed looking at his brother's face which was turning redder by the minute.

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