Fic: Out of the Box 1/1 (Numb3rs, Charlie Eppes/ Colby Granger)
Title: Out of the Box 1/1
Fandom:Numb3rs
Rating: PG
Pairing: Charlie Eppes / Colby Granger
Disclaimer: Not mine, just playing with them.
“Don, how was the training?”
Don looked at Carlie, who was waiting at Don’s workstation with Megan and
Colby. The bullpen was almost empty, and most of the staff had gone home.
“Charlie, what are you doing at this hour?” He turned to look at Megan.
“Did you get a case while I was gone?”
“In five days? Yes, we did. But that’s not why Charlie’s here.”
“Than why is he here?”
“Don, I’m right here. You can ask it straight from me.”
“Okay, why did you wait for me here at this hour on Friday? I would have come to the
house to see you and dad tomorrow anyway.”
“That’s exactly what I wanted to talk to you about. You remember Robinson?”
“Yeah… Dad’s buddy, who was building that apartment building.”
“Right. One of his apartment buyers backed out at the last minute. Long story short…
he offered it to dad and he bought it.”
“Wait, wait, wait…” Don rubbed his own temples and tried to digest Charlie’s
message. “You mean dad’s moving out?”
“Yep. The apartment’s great, nice location and all.”
“Tennis court?”
“No, but it’s pretty close to a golf course. Anyway, he wants to get the move done
before that mall project starts, so we’ll get most of the stuff going tomorrow.
We’re gonna go through those things he wants to take with him. You are expected
to be there at ten in the morning.”
“What, just you me and dad?”
“Of course not. I recruited Colby David, and Megan for it.”
“That’s all? Why couldn’t you ask anyone from CalSci to help?”
“I thought about asking Larry, but then I thought… Larry doing heave lifting…
Can you imagine it?”
“Not really…”
“Exactly. And Don…”
“Yeah?”
“I need to talk to you about something else too.”
“Is it important?”
“Well… it is.”
“Can it wait?”
“I really don’t think-”
“Chuck, I just got back after five days of training. I just came here to drop off my
papers for Monday. If it isn’t anything life threatening, I wanna go home, have
a beer and a good night sleep. We can talk about it tomorrow.”
“Don, would you just-”
“I`ll see you tomorrow. Good night.” Don gave the rest of the team a wave
and marched to the elevators.
Charlie let out a deep sigh. “Why does he always do that, and then complains
that nobody told him…”
“Well, there’s two main theories about men who do that." Megan responded "First
one is that it is a subconscious reaction. They anticipate they are about to hear
something that doesn’t match with their previous base of experience or knowledge
and they shut it out of their minds. They also fear that the new information might cut
or limit their chances for self actualization and the maintenance of their self image.”
“What’s the second theory?”
“Men are pigs.”
“Thank you for that completely unbiased analysis.” Charlie deadpanned.
“You`re welcome.”
-------------------------------------------------------------------
“Your late.”
“Just half an hour!” Don groaned and got out of his car. The driveway was filled
with cardboard boxes in various sizes. “Dad’s really taking all this with him?”
“No.” Charlie answered. “Some of them are going out and some are going in.
Those boxes are yours, by the way.”
“Mine?” Don tore open one of the boxes Charlie had pointed out. He stared at
the content for a minute with his mouth open. “My baseball trophies! You tore
down my old room!”
“Don, think about it! When you stay here, you sleep on the couch. And what am
I supposed to do with a teenage boys room? Mom kept it as a shrine for you
ever since you moved out, but I need the space.”
“But you have your bedroom!”
“Actually, I’m moving into mom and dad’s old bedroom. It’s almost twice the size
of my old room. Garage is getting pretty crowded, so I’ll be using my old room
for storage.”
“Then why do you need my room?!”
Charlie blushed and his eyes started to wonder. “I… I think it’s better if you see it
yourself.” He lead Don inside the house, but Don froze on the doorstep. David and
Colby were carrying a enormous mirror up the stairs.
“What the hell are you doing with that?”
“It’s for my new bedroom.” Charlie was trying to control a wide smirk which was
trying to take over his face.
“Chuck, I don’t think that thing is gonna fit the wall.”
“It’s for the ceiling.”
Don buried his face with his hands. “I walked right into that, didn’t I?”
“Yep.”
Don shook his head and headed up the stairs. “I wanna see what you did to my
room.”
“Don, before you go there-”
“I don’t care how traumatizing it is, I wanna see it.” He leaped through the stairs
three at a time and fiddled his way through the moving boxes to the door of his
old room. Don pushed it open.
“Charlie, it’s gone!” The whole room was empty. The only thing in the room was
a large cardboard box. “You already packed everything!” He sat down and started
opening the box.
“Don, that’s not one of yours. That’s actually coming not going…” Charlie was
already late. The box was now open.
“Weights? Since when do you-” Don paused, and Charlie could see the slow
comprehension on his face. “Oh…”
“Yeah. Colby’s moving in.”
“Okay…” Don said slowly. “I just wish someone would inform me about things
like this !”
In the corridor David slipped Megan a twenty.