Fic: Larger and Smaller Decisions, Chapter 6 (Numb3rs, Don / Martin)
Title: Larger and Smaller Decisions, Chapter 6
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
Follows: Lost Cause
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Don reached across the bed to slam off the beeping alarm clock. The shrieking noise grew and he forced his eyes open to locate the right button. He noticed the time as soon as the annoying sound was gone.
He was already four hours late from work.
While that notion hit home, he realised there was a small note placed on the nightstand, next to the clock. He picked it up and checked the familiar scribbling.
Don
You looked like you needed your sleep, so I talked with Colby, and told him you won`t be at the office until later. Come downstairs when you wake up.
M.
Don crawled up and searched for the clothes he had left on the floor when he had gone to bed. They were now neatly folded on top of the drawer. He pulled the clothes on and headed downstairs. Misse was napping in her regular spot in the middle of the stairs and Don had to carefully step over the cat. The living room was empty, so he walked into the next likely place: The kitchen.
The radio on the counter was booming out the perky voice of the morning show host, followed by some equally peppy pop song Don had never heard before. He stepped into the kitchen and tried to interpret the mood of the man sitting by the counter. Martin had a cup of coffee and a mountain of papers in front of him and he seemed fully emerged in it. His feet kept kicking back and forth under the counter in the rhythm of the music.
Don sneaked closer and snapped the radio off. Martin looked up and a smile appeared on his face.
“Morning.” He leaned over the counter to give Don a good morning kiss. “Sleep well?”
“Yeah. When did you get home?”
“Maybe five hours ago. You looked like you needed the sleep, so I didn’t wake you up. Colby said your team doesn’t have a case to work on, so you haven’t missed anything except paperwork.”
“But…” Don tried to rewind his memory. “Wasn’t your flight supposed to land at eight o’clock?”
“Eight AM. I would have reminded you, but you didn’t answer your phone.”
“I didn’t really wanna talk to anyone last night.” Don poured himself some of the coffee from the pot and sat down on the other side of the counter. “After I talked to that friend of your, things got a little ugly with Chuck.”
“I heard. What were you thinking?”
“What do you mean what was I thinking? Charlie and his little fan club lead that bitter hag practically to our front door.”
“Charlie didn’t have anything to do with it, besides that woman could have gotten your address from other places. If she wanted to lash out, she would have found a way to do that one way or another. The fact that it happened this way was just a coincidence.”
“That’s not a coincidence, that’s what Charlie always does. He loves the attention.”
“And you don’t?”
“When was the last time I got asked to do an interview? Oh yeah… it was when I cuffed a three time murderer too tightly and the next day the guy’s mother, sister and the whole frigging PETA was after me and whining that he was just a confused and harmless man and he was being cruelly mistreated.”
“PETA?” Martin stated flatly and raised his eyebrows slightly. “That’s for animal activists.”
“Something similar. Bunch of whiners, who have nothing better to do than to bug people and don’t know anything about real life. I do my job and a gray haired old crow tries to kick me, and when Chuck writes a book no one really understands, he’s on Larry King.”
“You know promotion is part of his publishing deal. I should know, I oversaw some of those deals. That woman could have seen Charlie in the news and realise you two are brothers, or she could have looked up your name on-line. No one’s really that hard to track down anymore. Basically, it could have been any of us.”
“What does that mean?”
“I’ll show you.” Martin got up and went to the large pile of old newspapers Don had meant to take over to recycling. “Remember this one?”
Don took the open paper Martin handed to him and checked the headlines. It was the society page, and the main story was the fundraising event for a paediatric clinic. In one of the smaller pictures he saw himself standing behind Martin, who was about to pass a check from his employer to the chairwoman of the charity committee. All three people were frozen in mid-motion so the photographer could take his picture. Both men and Martin’s employer were named in the caption.
“She could have seen that, or she could have seen all those headlines about David and Ian’s custody battle. She just happened to find that website and used it to write few vicious letters. In the big picture it’s not that big of a deal, and based on Colby told me about yesterday, you were out of line accusing Charlie for that.”
“Of course you’re taking his side, you already took him to bed….” Don muttered, covering most of his face behind his coffee cup.
“Excuse me?” Martin’s face froze. He set his own coffee on the counter and nailed a strict glare at Don. “Where did that come from?”
“Well it’s true.”
“Don, let me make this absolutely clear. We share a bed, but if I think you’re wrong, I don’t tell you otherwise. I don’t do that with you, I don’t do that with Charlie or anyone else I’ve slept with.”
“So you’re saying I was wrong and Charlie was right? He lead her straight in the middle of our lives-”
“Don, this isn’t about who was right or who was wrong.”
“Yeah, it’s not about that, you just think I was wrong.”
“You have any idea how childish you sound right now?” Martin rubbed his temples and dumped the rest of his coffee into the sink.
“Don’t think I don’t know what you’re gonna do.” Don groaned. “You’re gonna do that whole disappointed look and say you’re not gonna talk about this until I can talk about it like a grown-up and then you walk out.”
“That was pretty good guess.” Martin turned to leave. “I’ve told you before, I don’t wanna fight with you, and that’s where this is going right now.” He walked out of the kitchen. Don turned his head to glare daggers at the empty chair, but didn’t make a move to follow him.
The pace of the soft footsteps suddenly changed. Don heard a high meow of the cat and after that a heavy thump. For few seconds he considered ignoring it, but finally guilt won. He rushed to the stairs, where Martin was lifting himself up, cradling his arm against his chest. Misse had leaped up to the higher step and glared at both of them, obviously insulted by the sudden end of his nap.
Don crouched down on the lower step. Martin rolled the sleeve of his shirt higher to get a look at the injury. The skin was already beginning to turn darker.
“What happened?”
“The cat happened.” Martin stretched his wrist and fingers carefully. “I forgot it was there, and I tripped. I think I just banged it against the stairs.”
“We should go to the hospital, get an x-ray. That’s the same arm you broke…” Don swallowed the next words, that would have been "in the plane crash". “And take the cat to the vet.”
“She’s fine, I didn’t actually step on her, I just didn’t see her there. She hissed and I missed the step.” He looked down at his arm. The bruise covered most of the skin between the wrist and the elbow. He moved his hand gingerly. “Nothing’s broken, just bruised.”
“I’ll get you an icepack.”
“I think I’ll go to bed for a while, I spent half the night at the airport.”
“Okay, I’ll get it and bring it up. You got any-”
“I got some painkillers in the bathroom.” Martin pushed himself up and grabbed the railing for support. “Don?”
“Yeah?”
“I wasn’t really that angry.”
“Me neither.”
“But you really should know I don’t always agree with you.” Martin hissed and cradled his arm again. “And I don’t expect you to always agree with me.”
“Yeah. And that wasn`t the first time I`ve been called childish. Dad called me that quite a few times.” Don agreed. “I’ll get the icepack.”
“Speaking of childish…” Martin lifted his bruised arm a bit. “Are gonna kiss it and make it better?”
“I can do that.” Don smirked and placed a light kiss on the bruise, then headed up for the man’s lips. The little kiss lingered for a while, until they had to pull away to breathe. “Better?”
“Yeah, and even better when you get me that icepack.”
Epilogue