Fic: Another Regular Customer, Chapter 3/3 (Numb3rs, Colby Granger/ Charlie Eppes)
Title: Another Regular Customer (Chapter 3/3)
Author: FinnishSphinx
Rating: PG
Fandom: Numb3rs
Pairings: Colby Granger/ Charlie Eppes
Spoilers: None really
Disclaimer: They are not mine, just using them for
amusement...
Don stopped his car on the driveway and shut down the engine.After a promising
start his evening had gone downhill fast. It was supposed to be a relaxing Friday
evening with an old lady friend. No co-workers, no fathers, no little brothers. First,
the lady was half an hour late, than Don was called back to the office to correct a
report that couldn`t wait till Monday. Understandably, his date called off the date
and warned that she had no interest in trying again another time.
He got up from the car sighed. Dad was out of town for the weekend, but at least
Charlie was home. This definitely wasn`t how he had planned to spend his
evening, but it was better than going back to his place alone. Don headed to the
garage, but found it empty. The blackboards were filled with Charlie`s scribbles
and everything was just like always, but something was wrong. Don couldn`t say
exactly what it was, but his instinct`s were telling him something was going on.
Charlie had said he planned to spend the night working from home. Charlie always
told openly about his plans, but he hadn`t said anything going somewhere.
Don stepped from the garage to the hall and took a look around.
The house was completely quiet. The lights were off, but a narrow ray of light was
coming from the half open kitchen door. Don pulled his gun from the holster, walked
slowly to the door and carefully shoved it open. The lights were on in the kitchen, but
the thing that caught Don`s attention was a pair of legs. Somebody was raiding the
fridge and only parts of him that were visible behind the fridge door were his legs and
his boxers. Don had to blink. Boxers with tiny hearts all over and the text `Heart Me`
written over the rear section.
The guy closed the fridge and turned. Both men just stood there staring each others,
trying to come up with something to say.
"Colby?" Don managed to get out, even though his voice was higher than normally.
"What the hell are you doing here?"
His eyes moved lower from Colby`s face, and got fixed on the items he was clutching
against his chest. "And what are you doing with a can of whipped cream and a lemon
quiche?"
Another long, uncomfortable silence followed. Silence came to an end when Charlie
bursted through the door in his old, black bathrobe.
"Col, what took so long, I-" He saw Colby`s panic look and Don`s dumbstruck
expression and paused. "Don, I thought you had a date tonight... I mean ...."
"Something came up.... Charlie, is this what it looks like?" Don tried to keep his voice
as steady and calm as he could. There had to be a rational explanation to all of this.
Charlie looked back and forth between Don and Colby and looked ready to run away
as fast as he could. "Would you believe me if I told you Colby just dropped in for a
late night snack?"
"I probably wouldn`t." Don took a deep breath. "Correct me if I`m wrong. You and
Colby were..." His mind was suddenly flooded with a list of lewd descriptions and
he had to stop.
"Together?" Charlie suggested carefully. Don sighed with a sense of relief.
"That wasn`t the word I was thinking, but thanks for that."
"Maybe we should take a seat and.. talk this through." Charlie`s face made it obvious
he wans`t thrilled by the situation, but it was now unavoidable. Charlie led Don to the
living room couch and they sat down. Colby followed them to the living room, but
stayed on the doorway.
"I`m not sure where to start... Since when have you even liked men? You`ve never
gone that way before." Don saw the look on Charlie`s face. "Or have you?"
"I have actually. I just haven`t done that since I moved back to L.A. Mom even met
some of my boyfriends back East."
"Your boyfriends! How many exactly- No, don`t answer that... Does Dad know?"
"We`ve never really talked about it, but I think Mom told him."
Don leaned forward and rested his head against his knees. This was just too much to
take at once. "Okay, okay, I can deal with that... But Colby.. How long?"
Charlie kept looking down. "Since the weekend before Colby started working with
the team."
Don mouth hanged open. "You mean, when you worked with us on the Hagen case,
you two were already-"
"Yeah."
For a moment Don sat there, letting all the information sink in. Then he leaped
up and started pacing back and forth from one end of the room to the other.
Finally he stopped and pressed his palms against his temples. "Charlie, I`m not...
I mean I`m not mad at you. I guess I can understand why you were anxious to tell
me, but-"
"But?"
"But why Colby? You two have nothing in common! You two are the exact opposites!
And you work together all the time!"
Charlie got up and took a step closer to him. His face had gone from worried to angry,
and Don was now slightly scared. "Listen to me, Don. You of all people should know
that similarities don`t make relationships work. Think about Terry and Kim, and
whoever co-workers you have dated. You had a lot in common with them, but it didn`t
work. Those similarities did more harm than good."
Don couldn`t say anything. He just listened.
"And working together has gone just fine. You didn`t even notice anything was going
on! I`m not asking you to be happy for me if your not, but I want you to accept it."
Don sniffed and turned to look at Charlie in the eye. "I`m not happy for you. Yet.
But I`ll get there. I just need time to get used to this. And I meant it when I said I
wasn`t mad at you." Don stopped for a moment to clear out what he wanted to say.
"So, please don`t me mad at me."
"I`m not." Charlie gave him a little smile.
"I guess I should leave you two alone."
"Well, the night is still young." Charlie looked at Colby for encouragement.
"We could still catch the last hour of the game on TV."
"As long as you don`t try to serve me whipped cream or lemon quiche." Don grinned
and slumped down on the couch again. Colby grabbed some beers from the kitchen
and turned on the TV.
"Before we move on to other topics..." Don started. "There`s something I need to get
off my chest."
"Is this going to be the `get him pregnant and you`ll marry him` speech?" Colby asked.
Now that the situation had calmed down, he was almost happy that things were out in
the open.
"Chuck here is a genius, he`ll know how to avoid that scenario. I want to ask
you a question."
"What question?"
"I think you are a nice guy, and good at your job and all that, but..."
"But what?"
"But seriously....`Heart Me` boxers?" Don smirked and took a sip from his beer.
"I think I should step in and defend my man." Charlie laughed. "It`s not about the
boxers, it`s about how well you fill them."