Too Late [4/6] (Colby/OFC-Callie, Don, David, PG-13)
Title: Too Late, Part IV of VI
Characters/Pairings: Don, David, Colby/OFC-Callie
Rating: PG-13 (implied adult situations)
Word Count: 1,232
Summary: She had done what she could and now it was out of her hands…
Spoilers: 3.24 - The Janus List and 4.01 - Trust Metric
Notes/Warnings: This is 4/6 for the alternate ending to Broken. I wrote this alternate ending after the Numb3rs Season 4 premiere. Again, I've taken the canon story from the mentioned spoiler episode(s) and I've woven Callie into the mix. I'd ask for forgiveness, but Callie made me do it...blame her.
Disclaimer: If you recognize it, regrettably - it's not mine.
As FBI agents, there were rules. They found the ship. Technically it was just out of range to board freely. They needed a search warrant. If it went past the 24 mile mark, even a search warrant wouldn’t get them on the boat. But a warrant could take any where between 2 hours and 3 days. And Callie argued that Colby didn’t have that kind of time. Don posed the question because it really all boiled down to one thing…did they or did they not think Colby was a traitor? Charlie had looked around the room to the unknowing faces, and from his jacket pocket he produced his trust metric on one Colby Granger. He’d boiled down the life of this soldier, agent, friend, lover to a few pages…and in the end, what did it tell them?
“Nothing,” he answered. “Nothing we don’t already know in our hearts.”
Megan smiled. “I’m in.” David brooded. “I don’t really know what to believe, but I’d like to go find out.” And Callie simply gave Don a look and he saw in her eyes every thing he needed to know. His response? “We roll in ten.”
And suddenly the four were rushing about gathering gear and organizing an all out rescue mission. Boats, helicopters, SWAT…within minutes, they had a tactical response unlike Callie had yet seen in her time with the FBI.
The rapid response left them no time for idle communication and even as the boats sped over the waves, there didn’t seem to be any words left to say. Each was lost in thought…wondering what they would find, what answers they’d finally have, and would they be in time? Callie swallowed hard against the last thought. They had to find him in time. They just had to, she thought as her hand went to her chest, where under the bullet proof vest - the engagement ring he’d given her hung from her neck on a chain that she’d had since she was a kid…a surfing charm dangling in harmony with the band. She’d not been able to put the ring back on…not yet. She wanted him to do it…she wanted him to ask her again. She knew her answer would be yes. But only if she got him home…only if he still wanted her after every thing was said and done.
The siren sounded as the boat nearly crashed into the large freighter. No more time for thinking…time for responding, she reasoned and then followed the fury of people finding their way up the ladder and onto the boat.
Instantly there were gun shots and men yelling in a foreign language. Signals from SWAT indicated a direction for Don and his team to follow to find their missing teammate while cover fire was laid down. Don found his way through the door first…confusion and panic filling the room. He saw Dwayne shoot a man with glasses standing next to Colby. His body crumpled to the floor a fraction of a second before Dwayne’s own form fell to the ground…dead from an enemies round - and then that enemy was taken out by Don’s own rapid response.
Colby’s body was slumped forward in the chair, a syringe sticking out of his chest. He wasn’t moving…he wasn’t responding at all to the chaos around him. David saw him first…and then Callie rushed in behind. Everything seemed to move in slow motion then as she looked to his seemingly lifeless form bound to the chair where he sat. Please, God…no…she nearly cried aloud as she followed David instinctively to Colby’s side.
The syringe was removed and David read the label. It didn’t take an advanced degree in chemistry to know that potassium chloride was lethal. The plunger had not been fully deployed…but Colby still needed immediate attention. Without thought, David cut the bonds that held Colby where he sat and then he was lowered to the floor. He wasn’t breathing.
Whether or not David still believed he was a traitor…whether or not he would be able to trust his partner again after everything that happened, there was not a moment of hesitation as he began compressions against Colby’s chest. Callie followed his lead, crashing to her knees beside Colby and taking his face into her hands as she heard Don calling for the paramedics.
“Colby…Colby!” she called. “Stay with us! Please, stay with us!” she cried as she smacked at his cheek - trying to stimulate a response from him all while David worked to restart Colby’s heart.
Holding his face in her hands, looking down at him and seeing his expressionless features - she prayed…she prayed it wouldn’t end like this even as a flood of memories washed before her eyes. She saw the first time he walked into the break room…the first date they’d shared, surfing in the ocean behind her house. She remembered the first taste of his kiss, and the first time he said he loved her. She remembered being tangled with him in the sheets of her bed - a sunny afternoon, a rainy night. She saw him down on one knee in front of her friends and family, asking her to share this life with him. She saw him waiting for her at the end of a long aisle, the ocean breeze gently tossing his hair about as she walked toward him in a gown of white. She saw it as plainly as if it were a memory instead of a glimpse of hope for the future.
Every smile he’d ever given seemed to come back to her now as she looked at him, praying…praying that at least one more time she’d see that smile cast in her direction.
If he didn’t make it…if he didn’t come back - it would be too late to apologize. And she desperately wanted to say she was sorry. She was sorry she hadn’t trusted him…that she hadn’t trusted what the two of them shared. She needed him to know she loved him…that she was still his, if he’d have her.
“Please, Colby. Please don’t leave me. Not again. Not like this,” she whispered through a voice that was choked with fear and tears she still couldn’t cry before David stopped compressions and she knelt lower, her lips to his - breathing her breath into him…closing her eyes and praying again that he’d come back to her. Another series of compressions to his chest, another round of her air into his lungs, again David’s hands thumping over Colby’s chest…and then a gasp from him. It was small. It was weak…but he was breathing. He was unconscious, but breathing. He was hanging on by a thread…but he was there and the paramedics were landing.
“Stay with me, baby…please, stay with me,” she breathed, her thumbs lovingly stroking his cheeks as she cradled his face in her hands. “Breathe, Colby…just breathe,” she sighed again before she was being pulled away from him, shoved by the paramedic first to respond. She started to fight against her absence from him but David’s arms around her held her back and his words soothed her. She needed to let the paramedics work. She had done what she could…and now it was out of her hands…
<< Too Late, Part 3 Too Late, Part 5>>
Characters/Pairings: Don, David, Colby/OFC-Callie
Rating: PG-13 (implied adult situations)
Word Count: 1,232
Summary: She had done what she could and now it was out of her hands…
Spoilers: 3.24 - The Janus List and 4.01 - Trust Metric
Notes/Warnings: This is 4/6 for the alternate ending to Broken. I wrote this alternate ending after the Numb3rs Season 4 premiere. Again, I've taken the canon story from the mentioned spoiler episode(s) and I've woven Callie into the mix. I'd ask for forgiveness, but Callie made me do it...blame her.
Disclaimer: If you recognize it, regrettably - it's not mine.
As FBI agents, there were rules. They found the ship. Technically it was just out of range to board freely. They needed a search warrant. If it went past the 24 mile mark, even a search warrant wouldn’t get them on the boat. But a warrant could take any where between 2 hours and 3 days. And Callie argued that Colby didn’t have that kind of time. Don posed the question because it really all boiled down to one thing…did they or did they not think Colby was a traitor? Charlie had looked around the room to the unknowing faces, and from his jacket pocket he produced his trust metric on one Colby Granger. He’d boiled down the life of this soldier, agent, friend, lover to a few pages…and in the end, what did it tell them?
“Nothing,” he answered. “Nothing we don’t already know in our hearts.”
Megan smiled. “I’m in.” David brooded. “I don’t really know what to believe, but I’d like to go find out.” And Callie simply gave Don a look and he saw in her eyes every thing he needed to know. His response? “We roll in ten.”
And suddenly the four were rushing about gathering gear and organizing an all out rescue mission. Boats, helicopters, SWAT…within minutes, they had a tactical response unlike Callie had yet seen in her time with the FBI.
The rapid response left them no time for idle communication and even as the boats sped over the waves, there didn’t seem to be any words left to say. Each was lost in thought…wondering what they would find, what answers they’d finally have, and would they be in time? Callie swallowed hard against the last thought. They had to find him in time. They just had to, she thought as her hand went to her chest, where under the bullet proof vest - the engagement ring he’d given her hung from her neck on a chain that she’d had since she was a kid…a surfing charm dangling in harmony with the band. She’d not been able to put the ring back on…not yet. She wanted him to do it…she wanted him to ask her again. She knew her answer would be yes. But only if she got him home…only if he still wanted her after every thing was said and done.
The siren sounded as the boat nearly crashed into the large freighter. No more time for thinking…time for responding, she reasoned and then followed the fury of people finding their way up the ladder and onto the boat.
Instantly there were gun shots and men yelling in a foreign language. Signals from SWAT indicated a direction for Don and his team to follow to find their missing teammate while cover fire was laid down. Don found his way through the door first…confusion and panic filling the room. He saw Dwayne shoot a man with glasses standing next to Colby. His body crumpled to the floor a fraction of a second before Dwayne’s own form fell to the ground…dead from an enemies round - and then that enemy was taken out by Don’s own rapid response.
Colby’s body was slumped forward in the chair, a syringe sticking out of his chest. He wasn’t moving…he wasn’t responding at all to the chaos around him. David saw him first…and then Callie rushed in behind. Everything seemed to move in slow motion then as she looked to his seemingly lifeless form bound to the chair where he sat. Please, God…no…she nearly cried aloud as she followed David instinctively to Colby’s side.
The syringe was removed and David read the label. It didn’t take an advanced degree in chemistry to know that potassium chloride was lethal. The plunger had not been fully deployed…but Colby still needed immediate attention. Without thought, David cut the bonds that held Colby where he sat and then he was lowered to the floor. He wasn’t breathing.
Whether or not David still believed he was a traitor…whether or not he would be able to trust his partner again after everything that happened, there was not a moment of hesitation as he began compressions against Colby’s chest. Callie followed his lead, crashing to her knees beside Colby and taking his face into her hands as she heard Don calling for the paramedics.
“Colby…Colby!” she called. “Stay with us! Please, stay with us!” she cried as she smacked at his cheek - trying to stimulate a response from him all while David worked to restart Colby’s heart.
Holding his face in her hands, looking down at him and seeing his expressionless features - she prayed…she prayed it wouldn’t end like this even as a flood of memories washed before her eyes. She saw the first time he walked into the break room…the first date they’d shared, surfing in the ocean behind her house. She remembered the first taste of his kiss, and the first time he said he loved her. She remembered being tangled with him in the sheets of her bed - a sunny afternoon, a rainy night. She saw him down on one knee in front of her friends and family, asking her to share this life with him. She saw him waiting for her at the end of a long aisle, the ocean breeze gently tossing his hair about as she walked toward him in a gown of white. She saw it as plainly as if it were a memory instead of a glimpse of hope for the future.
Every smile he’d ever given seemed to come back to her now as she looked at him, praying…praying that at least one more time she’d see that smile cast in her direction.
If he didn’t make it…if he didn’t come back - it would be too late to apologize. And she desperately wanted to say she was sorry. She was sorry she hadn’t trusted him…that she hadn’t trusted what the two of them shared. She needed him to know she loved him…that she was still his, if he’d have her.
“Please, Colby. Please don’t leave me. Not again. Not like this,” she whispered through a voice that was choked with fear and tears she still couldn’t cry before David stopped compressions and she knelt lower, her lips to his - breathing her breath into him…closing her eyes and praying again that he’d come back to her. Another series of compressions to his chest, another round of her air into his lungs, again David’s hands thumping over Colby’s chest…and then a gasp from him. It was small. It was weak…but he was breathing. He was unconscious, but breathing. He was hanging on by a thread…but he was there and the paramedics were landing.
“Stay with me, baby…please, stay with me,” she breathed, her thumbs lovingly stroking his cheeks as she cradled his face in her hands. “Breathe, Colby…just breathe,” she sighed again before she was being pulled away from him, shoved by the paramedic first to respond. She started to fight against her absence from him but David’s arms around her held her back and his words soothed her. She needed to let the paramedics work. She had done what she could…and now it was out of her hands…
<< Too Late, Part 3 Too Late, Part 5>>