Fic: Reasons & Consequences, Chapter 7 (Numb3rs, Charlie / Colby, Don / Martin, Ian /David)
Title: Reasons & Consequences, Chapter 7
Fandom: Numb3rs
Pair: Charlie Eppes / Colby Granger,
Don Eppes / Martin Fridegord,
David Sinclair / Ian Edgerton
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Not mine, etc.
Feedback: Always Welcome
NUMB3RS Main List
Reasons & Consequences, Chapter 1
Reasons & Consequences, Chapter 2
Reasons & Consequences, Chapter 3
Reasons & Consequences, Chapter 4
Reasons & Consequences, Chapter 5
Reasons & Consequences, Chapter 6
“Mr. Granger?” An elderly man in a white coat called from the door of his office and waited until Colby followed him inside. “Have a seat.”
“How is he?”
“He’s resting. The seizure passed and his test results are returning to normal.”
“So he’s going to be fine?”
“Yes. Now I need some information from you. Has he had these episodes before?”
“Nothing this bad, but… with Charlie it’s sometimes hard to know. He had this weird spacing-out episode last night.”
“Spacing-out episode? What was it like?”
“He suddenly just stopped talking and stared, like he couldn’t see or hear anything. And then he snapped back and didn’t remember any of it.”
“That supports my theory. Mr. Eppes is perfectly healthy, so my guess would be that all of this is stress based. What does he do for living?”
“He’s a math professor at CalSci, and he does a lot of consulting work for different agencies.”
“Do you have children?”
“One, Charlie cut down his classes because of that, and he does most of his consulting stuff from home.”
“So he has a lot on his plate.”
“That’s putting it mildly.”
“Has he had some unusual stress lately?”
“Are you kidding? The last few years have been a real rollercoaster.”
“More specifically?”
“Well….. His father died, one of our co-workers turned out to be a raving psycho, who kidnapped David and tried to kill him so he could get Ian. Then Don’s old buddy broke into his house twice and during the second time he got killed. Then Martin was in a plane that crashed in the middle of nothing and-”
“Wait. Who is Don?”
“His brother. And my boss.”
“And who’s David?”
“My team mate, who lives with Ian.”
“And Martin?”
“Charlie’s ex and Don’s current.”
The doctor had turned bright red. He looked absolutely insulted.
“Mr. Granger, when I ask you questions I expect to get answers. Making jokes about things at this situation shows extremely bad taste.”
“I wasn’t making jokes! It’s all true.”
-------------------------------------------
When Ian came home with Caroline and Helen, David was sitting on the couch. He looked like a human furnace, fuming and waiting to explode. He got up and gave Caroline a forced smile.
“Honey, would you go play in your room for a while? Daddy and I need to talk.”
Little girl gave him long look. Then she just shrugged and went to her room.
“What’s this about?” Ian left the baby carrier on the couch. Helen was in deep sleep, clutching a stuffed monkey.
“I’ll show you.” David pulled Ian’s phone out of his pocket and flipped open one of the pictures. In it a young man was grinning widely for the photographer and sitting on the beach without his shirt. “This. Is this all part of your forty-something crisis?”
“What the hell are you doing with my phone?”
“Looking for evidence. Not that I really needed to see that, I already saw the live version on the doorstep. He came bearing gifts.” David tossed a rewrapped package to Ian.
“And why did you open it? Did you really think I wouldn’t notice?” Ian commented dryly and observed the rewrapped paper. “Could you get to the point?”
“Fine, here’s the point. If you suddenly discovered that you can’t resist young flesh, than at least be honest about it. How long have you been screwing that-” David paused to take a deep breath. “I can’t even say man. That boy-toy!”
“Are you done?” Ian gave him a murderous glance. “You’re acting like a paranoid housewife.”
“Paranoid! He was here!”
“Keep your voice down.” Ian grabbed his ringing cell phone from David and flicked it open. “Edgerton. What? Okay, where are you now? I’ll be there in half an hour.”
David kept tapping his fingers on the backrest of the couch, waiting for him to end the call. Finally Ian hung up.
“I’m leaving again. Granger called, he and Charlie need a ride back from the hospital.”
“From Denver?”
“They got back today. Charlie had some kind of a episode and Granger went with the ambulance.”
“Is he okay now?”
“I guess. They wouldn’t release him if he wasn’t.”
David didn’t say anything, but he looked very uncomfortable. He seemed to have lost all his anger. He wasn’t quite sure why, but the news had ruined his big rant.
“I’m going now, you got something more to say?”
“No, I….” David lifted his gaze from his own feet to meet Ian’s. “Was I wrong?”
“Yeah. You were.” Ian went to the door, pulled it open, but hesitated. “He’s not my lover, he’s my kid.”
-------------------------------------------
“I’m fine, I just wanna go home.” Charlie groaned. Colby had grabbed him some clothes when the paramedics were loading him to the ambulance, but he had forgotten shoes. Charlie’s bare feet wiggled over the edge of the bed.
“We’re going home, Ian’s picking us up. Would you sit down and be still for one minute?”
Charlie gave up and leaned back on the hospital bed.
“You know what the doctor said, and I agree with him. He said the whole thing is stress related.”
“Colby-”
“You’ve been working too much and you try to solve everyone’s problems for them.”
“I don’t-”
“I know you love your work and I love that you care so much about other people, but you have to calm down. You’re always coming and going. The doctor said you should cut down on your workload, but right now you need to take a sick leave and just rest.”
“I don’t have time for that.”
“At least two weeks, and if I hear any more protests, I’ll tie you to the bed for two weeks.”
Chapter 8