Fic: Old Foes, Chapter 3 (Numb3rs, Charlie Eppes / Colby Granger, Don Eppes / Martin)
Title: Old Foes, Chapter 3
Fandom: Numb3rs
Pair: Charlie Eppes / Colby Granger
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Not mine, etc.
Feedback: Always Welcome
NUMB3RS Main List
Old Foes, Chapter 1
Old Foes, Chapter 2
Old Foes, Interlude
“Hello.”
“Hello, this is agent Sinclair from the L.A. office. Is this Mitch Calamari?”
“Calatori.”
“Sorry. We talked couple days ago on the phone, remember?”
“Yeah, I remember.”
“You were asking for Don Eppes, and I said he wouldn’t be back until next week.”
“Right.”
“Apparently plans changed and he flew back this morning.”
“Great.”
“But that wasn’t the only thing I wanted to talk about. I don’t know how to say this…. Can you drop by at the office?”
“Sure. When?”
“Now?
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David was waiting by the elevators when Mitch finally arrived, clutching his visitor pass. David guided him to the break room.
“So, what do you want to talk about?”
“Don. And Charlie. They are pretty close nowadays.”
“So what?”
“If you’re going to stay here I think I should warn you.”
“About what?”
“Charlie. He’s a little bit…. eccentric.”
“That’s nothing new.”
“No, I don’t mean the math hazes….. He has these episodes.”
“Episodes?”
“Yeah. Normally he’s friendly and sweet but if somebody says something wrong….. It’s pretty ugly.”
Mitch gave him a suspicious glance. David took a file from the table and pulled out few pictures. He gave them to the visitor and waited for a response.
“What the hell….” Mitch stares at the scene pictures, where Cooper was laying down on the floor, his head twisted almost to meet his backside.
“That guy rubbed him the wrong way and that’s what happened. That was the second time he was on the receiving end.”
“The second time?”
“The first time Charlie just shot him with a handgun. That was never reported.”
“Why not?”
“Charlie’s an important asset, he works for a lot of agencies. People just covered up for him.”
“Ho-ho-how often does he have those episodes?” Mitch stammered. His eyes were still fixed to the photos.
“I don’t know, because people don’t talk about it but…. Can I say something just between us? Totally unofficially and off the records?”
“Shoot.”
“Have you met Granger? Charlie’s boyfriend?”
“Yeah. Why?”
“He works in my team, and I’ve been worried about him for some time. You wouldn’t believe how many times he’s come here in the morning with a black eye. And it’s always the same story: He walked into a door or something like that.”
“You mean….. Come on, that guy is huge.”
“When Charlie has one of his episodes he’s unstoppable. And when it’s over he can just snap back and be sweet and sunny like nothing happened.”
Mitch practically jumped when his phone started ringing. He checked the caller ID, but the number was unknown.
“Hello?”
“Mitchie?” Charlie greeted. “Listen, Don came back this morning and since you were so eager to meet him, I was thinking you could join us for a little barbeque.”
“When?” He asked carefully.
“An hour from now? Wonderful, I’ll see you then.” Charlie hung up before Mitch could answer.
“Charlie?” David asked.
“Yeah….”
“Just remember one thing. Be careful. Be very, very careful.”
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Mitch couldn’t take his eyes away from Colby’s face. He had seen the mark as soon as Colby had let him in. A large dark bruise that went from the end of his eyebrow to his cheekbone.
“What happened to you?”
“Nothing. I was careless and I walked into a door.”
“A door?”
“A really sneaky door.”
“Colby, I told you told clean that puddle!” Charlie’s voice boomed from the kitchen. He marched out to the living room, looking like a human thunderstorm. He spotted Mitch and a wide smile showed up on his face. “Oh, you’re here already. You wouldn’t believe the day I’ve had. Have you ever tried to wash blood stains from a carped?”
“No….”
“It just doesn’t come out.”
“Yeah, that can be really……” Mitch couldn’t continue. He stared at the butcher’s knife Charlie was still holding in his hand. Something dark red was dripping down the blade.
“I know.” Charlie turned to Colby. “And I told you to put your sunglasses on. I don’t want you to scare guests.”
Colby lifted his hand to cover the bruise and rushed upstairs.
“Training that ape is a constant struggle.” Charlie sighed. “Anyway, we didn’t really get started on the right foot, but I was thinking we could get to know each other better. After all, if you’ll stay in L.A. and hang out with Don we’ll be seeing a lot of each other.” He was wearing his most innocent smile. The red substance was still dripping to the floor from the knife.
“I…. I think my phone’s ringing.” Mitch took a step back.
“I didn’t hear anything.”
“It on vibration. I… I gotta go.” He leaped to the door and rushed to his car.
“You can come back now!” Charlie hollered upstairs. Colby bounced down the stairs and grinned.
“Did he buy it?”
“Yeah, I think so. He looked pretty horrified.” He brought the knife to his lips and licked away the red liquid. “I gotta admit, you make a really good marinade.”
“Now what?”
“Now you’ll fire up the grill, I’m getting hungry. And wipe away that make-up, that looks pretty gross…..”
“Hey, I spend half an hour painting it.” Colby chuckled and started wiping off the dark make-up from his face with a paper napkin. The bruise turned into a dark make-up stain on the napkin.
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“How was SeaWorld?” Charlie asked, prodding the phone more securely between his ear and his shoulder.
“Wet. I got you a T-shirt.”
“I already got one.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, Martin bought it for me, when we went to visit his parents.”
“You just love to remind me about that…..”Don groaned.
“Sometimes. So are you kids having fun?”
“Yeah.”
“Good. I gotta go now, we`re gonna eat soon.”
“Okay, Bye.”
“Bye.”
Charlie hung up and went to open the door. David walked in with a big grin.
“I just confirmed it. Calatori checked out of his motell half an hour ago. Apparently he was in a big hurry.”
“So it worked.”
“Yeah, and don’t forget you promised me a good steak as a reward.”
“Colby`s heating up the grill.”
“Does he still have that black eye?”
“No, he wiped it off.”
“Too bad, I really wanted to see it.”
“I gotta thank Martin later for the idea." Charlie smirked. "It sounded weird but it did wonders.”