Fic: In Love & War, Chapter 8 (Numb3rs, Don / Martin)
Title: In Love & War, Chapter 8
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
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
“Remind me to get some new razors.” Martin closed the bathroom cabinet and walked into the bedroom. “And shaving cream.”
“Just let it grow.” Don pulled on his pyjama bottoms. “You look good with a beard.”
“You’ve never seen me with a beard. It looks good as long it’s just a long stubble, but if it gets longer I’ll look like a deranged mountain man in a suit.”
“Can’t you pack your bags later? You’re not leaving till Monday.”
“I like to have everything ready. I keep my travelling clothes separate from my normal clothes, but I still need to fold them.”
“I’ve been wanting to ask this for a log time…”
“You want to know why I got separate travelling clothes. They’re the kind of stuff that that doesn’t get too wrinkly if it spends a week in my bag. You know what a cotton suit looks like after a cross Atlantic flight?”
“Nope, but if it looks like I feel after a long flight, I wouldn’t go to a meeting in it.”
“Yeah. I’ve been travelling so long, I know what to pack and what to leave.” Martin shoved his electric razor to the side pocket of his bag and propped it to lean against the wall. “I’ll finish this tomorrow. Did you feed the cat?”
“Cat is well fed and asleep.” Don assured. He leaped onto the bed and spread his arms invitingly. “Wanna play Perry Mason?”
“I hated that show.”
“You don’t want to do long speeches in front of a jury?”
“No.” Martin pulled off his T-shirt and joined Don on the bed. “And I wouldn’t want his customers. What are the changes he would get so many clients who have been framed for murder?” He slipped his hand under the waistline of Don’s pyjama bottoms. “And I got a lot prettier assistant than he did.”
He placed his other hand on Don’s shoulder and pressed him down against the mattress. Just as Don pulled him down for a kiss, a shrieking sound interrupted him.
“Tell me that’s not what I think it is.” Don groaned. The sound of the doorbell echoed from downstairs. “Ignore it, let them think we’re not home.”
“The lights are on, whoever it is must know we’re home.”
“You can’t go yet, I’m not even-”
“Don, people don’t make house calls at this hour without a reason. You can hold on for five minutes.”
“You’d rather go downstairs to open the door than go to my downstairs and-”
“Do not finish that sentence if you want to get some when I come back.”
------------------------------------------
After the first five minutes Don was frustrated and anxious. Five more minutes and he had progressed to annoyed and desperate. Two minutes later he was ready to march downstairs and molest Martin on the driveway.
“It was Gleeson.” Martin walked in carrying his laptop in one hand and a kitten in the other. “She had some new information.”
“Don’t you people know regular hours? It’s almost eleven!”
“You got called to a murder scene at three in the morning, so you’re really not qualified to talk about regular hours.” He sat down on the edge of the bed and Misse nuzzled against his thigh. “She couldn’t wait to tell me about this.”
“And that’s better than making me moan?”
“You’re moaning right now.”
“I’m not moaning, I’m complaining!”
“I just had an argument downstairs, I don’t want to start arguing with you too.”
“What were you arguing about?”
“Our investigator dug up the dirt about Caroline’s mother.” Martin sighed. “We had a little disagreement about how to handle it.”
“What kinda dirt?”
“She claims she has been sober for the last fourteen months. Got her life in order, got a job and went to night school.”
“And she didn’t?”
“She did, but it wasn’t the whole truth. In the case papers she claims she was employed by a company called Sparkly-Stars Productions as a secretary, till she found a new job three months ago.”
“What’s the catch?”
“The work description.”
“She wasn’t a secretary?”
“She did handle some secretarial duties… in suspenders and crotchless panties, under the name Monique.” Martin inserted a disc into the laptop and selected a file from the menu. “See for yourself.”
Don leaned closer to watch the screen. The movie clip started rolling and his mouth fell open.
“What the hell is she doing?”
“Taking a memo I think.” Martin commented.
“And taking off her… wow…”
“Hard little worker.”
“Are you talking about her or that guy?”
“Both.”
“Can you really do that…?” Don stammered. “Is she double-jointed or something?”
“Not the point here, Don.”
“Sorry.”
“I think you’ve seen enough for one night.” Martin snapped the film off.
“She did porn?” Don’s grin turned into a chuckle. “Little Miss I’ve-changed-my-ways got down and dirty in front a camera. You got any more of those?”
“Yeah.” Martin scrolled down the list of files. “That one’s called Swing that Bat. It was Gleeson’s personal favourite.”
“Is there a plot or is it just swinging the bat?”
“According to her, it’s about an socialite who inherits a baseball team and decides to train the players personally.” He snapped few keys and another movie clips started playing.
“We never did that in the locker-room.”
“I hope so.”
“And we never used baseball bat like that…” Don stared at the screen with his eyes wide. “I can’t believe it… that’s gotta be a camera trick or something.”
“Calm down, it’s just a movie.”
“Calm down?! She just shoved half a baseball bat up her-”
“Don, not in front of the cat.”
“Sorry.” Don stroked the cat behind her ears. “But this is great!”
Martin shut down the movie file and closed the laptop.
“Isn’t it?”
“Of course it is, but we didn’t exactly agree on how to handle this.”
“You’ll bring it up in the hearing. David and Edgerton are doing well anyway, this is just the final straw.”
“Actually, we’ll try to set up a meeting with Bergen and her lawyer and try to pressure her to drop the case. That way we don’t need to go through the whole process. If this goes to court and we’ll bring this up, her backers are not going to be too happy. They’re all for traditional family values and they’re trying to regain parental right for an ex-pornographer and an addict, their benefactors will be furious. They’ll revoke their support and there’s no way Bergen could afford her lawyer by herself. And if Principled Parenting takes away the financial baits, I don’t think she’ll even want to continue the process.
“So what’s the problem?”
“Gleeson. Principled Parenting has been offering their version to every single paper there is, and now she wants to shoot back at them.”
“You mean she wants to give the information to the press.”
“Yeah.”
“Well, it can’t effect the hearing. Or can it?”
“No, that’s not it. We can handle this quietly, there’s no reason to turn this any more public than it already is.”
“Why not?” Don exclaimed. “She’s made her bed, and there was a camera watching. Now she’s gotta lay in it.”
“She has a new job now, and she’s stayed away from drugs. No matter what we may think about her, there’s no reason to destroy what she’s accomplished. We just want her to drop the case, that’s all.”
“We’re in L.A." Don reminded. "Most of the waiters here are wannabe actresses, who have showed some skin to get showbiz exposure. When this whole thing is over, she can go back to her own life.”
“There’s a good reason why people do porn under false names. Something like this can label you for life, and not in a positive way.”
“Unbelievable…” Don laughed and slumped down on the bed. “Only you can play hardball and then turn it into a moral dilemma.”
“It’s not a dilemma. We can do this without causing more damage than we have to, so we should.”
“Legal eagle with a conscience… That’s a real rarity.”
Martin leaned back, resting his head against Don`s shoulder and petted Misse.
“I’m starting to remember why I went into corporate law. No matter who wins this kind of things, someone always looses.”
Chapter 9