FIC: Holding on to a lie, Part 15 (Colby/Charlie, Amita, Alan, Larry, David, Don, PG-13)
Title: "Under control?"
Series: Holding on to a lie, Part 15/?
Characters: Colby/Charlie, Amita, Alan, Larry, David, Don.
Rating: PG-13.
Spoilers: None.
Warnings: None.
Summary: When Alan tries to save his son from Amita, there is a problem.
Feedback: I love feedback. Every comment is a cup of coffee that keeps me posting. :)
Disclaimer: I do not own Numb3rs or anything related to it. But I do own any OCs.
Beta: The wonderful fredbassett.
Previous chapter: Part 14/? - "Not ok" (Charlie/Colby, Amita, Alan, Larry, PG-13)
Author's note: I'm so sorry that this is not behind an LJ-cut. The system hasn't been working well lately. *bangs head against desk*
Holding on to a lie
Part 15: “Under control?”
When David got into the office and noticed Megan’s eyes on him, he knew Colby had told her about their fight. He shook his head, annoyed by his friend’s attitude, but at the same time he was aware that he couldn’t really blame him.
In fact, he regretted having picked up his internal fight with him. Colby was partner, his friend. How could he do that to him?
He remembered very well the moment Colby had come into the room of his apartment and taken the bottle of vodka from his hand. David remembered knowing that he was there, by the bed, while he slept to make the effects of the alcohol go away.
And he also remembered how he had denied everything. He just couldn’t tell Colby “I was abused by Amita,” or “She pointed a gun at me and made me have sex with her.” David was a strong man, and besides knowing that the situation was embarrassing, he was sure that no one would believe him. Amita was a nice, sweet, fragile lady who had never done anything bad in her entire life.
But he was also human. And no matter how many cases he had had, no matter how many excuses he could find in his past experience to convince himself that telling someone what had happened wasn’t pointless, he couldn’t let his secret out.
Walking around the office, he stopped in his tracks. Don was inside one of the offices and looked very worried. Soon he was coming out, yelling at his cell phone. “What? How the hell did those get to the bottle Amita bought him?” David had a weird, bad feeling, but he kept listening. “Charlie! Charlie, wait a second, what are you going to d-!”
Don stopped talking and looked at his phone; Charlie had obviously ended the call. When David thought about what his boss’ words could mean, a horrible answer hit him.
“Don!” he said, walking towards him. “What was that? What did Amita do?”
“The bottle she gave to my father had sleeping pills in it,” Don muttered, as if he couldn’t believe what he was saying.
David took a deep breath. “Where is she now?”
“I don’t know, but Charlie said that he’s taking care of it, and he’s at the house now. Maybe she’s there with him.”
“Don, we have to go there. That’s not going to end well.”
Looking at David, Don glanced at his cell phone again and licked his lips. “Yeah, you’re right. We should go there. I just can’t… I can’t believe… Could it be possible that she had changed the pills?”
The question made David get really nervous. He could have told Don about his own experience, he could have told him that Amita was definitely not ok, but he didn’t. “I don’t know.”
“I mean, that therapist we assigned her, Bob Berenson, could be a rapist or something. Colby did some research and found some very nasty stuff about him.”
“Really?” David muttered. He had wondered why that therapist had let Amita go back to work if she was performing such disturbing behavior, something he should be able to see. Now, he had his answer - the guy was a sex offender and matched her just fine, which only made things more complicated and dangerous.
Don ran a hand over his forehead and finally reacted, too. “Yeah. C’mon, let’s go. All this is really weird, but my father’s health is involved and I’m going to dig in until I find if she was actually the one who messed with it.”
He knows. Oh my god, he knows. Amita couldn’t hold Charlie’s gaze anymore, she couldn’t stand looking at him in the eyes as he spoke to Don through his cell phone and told him that Alan had been taking sleeping pills.
Shocked, in panic and embarrassed, she covered her face with her hands. And he knows who did it. After all, who could have done it but me?
“Did you replace my father’s cold meditation with sleeping pills?” Charlie had yelled at her, not being able to control himself. “What were you thinking? Why did you do it? Why! Is Bob the one who’s messing with your mind? Is he?”
No, no. Bob came into my life long after I had started feeling like this. Long after my stupid mind had taken over…
“Charlie, what’s going on?” Colby’s voice said.
Amita held her breath. Oh god, Colby… She went towards the stairs, but stopped when she heard Charlie again.
“Don’t you run away from me now!”
No, no, no, no… Trembling, she held her bag, as if it was some kind of shield.
“She… she gave my father sleeping pills. No wonder he’s feeling so tired and needs to rest so much! No wonder he’s lost his memory sometimes! Those are really dangerous if you don’t have a genuine condition!”
“What? You…” Colby muttered, and Amita could hear his steps.
“I can’t believe… I don’t get it! Amita, answer to me! What the hell is wrong with you? Are you ok or are you crazy?!”
Maybe I’m crazy, but you’re guilty… I’m not going to pay for this. You need to know what you’ve done. She sneaked a hand inside her bag and took the knife she had brought with her.
“No, Charlie. I’m not ok,” she whispered.
“Then wh-?”
As she had expected, Charlie stopped yelling at her when she turned around and held the knife towards him. “I’m not ok.”
“Amita… what the hell are you doing?” he muttered with his eyes fixed on the weapon, and she couldn’t stand his scared, distant face anymore.
So she reached for him, grabbed his arms, turned him around and put the knife against his neck. She knew that besides not being able to read people’s feelings, Charlie was easily-influenced during violent situations. Now, it hadn’t been difficult for her to take control, knowing that he was shocked because of her actions and as a result, couldn’t react to defend himself.
But Colby knew how to handle things. When Amita lifted her gaze, the agent was already pointing at her with his gun, while Larry stood behind him as if he was his shield. “I know you’re not ok. But this doesn’t have to happen, Amita. Why are you doing this? It’s not worthy.”
As Alan asked what was going on from inside of the room, Amita answered, “What do you know about what’s worthy or not, Colby?” She held Charlie closer to her body, pressing the knife a little bit onto her ex-boyfriend neck. When a tiny drop of blood came out of the wound and Charlie gasped in pain, Colby immediately put his gun down. “That’s very wise… Now put it on the floor.”
Colby obeyed her and when she said, “Your cell phone, too,” he placed the little device on the floor, right beside the gun.
“Why? Why this, why now?” he said, anyway.
Because what you two did was not fair. “Get in the bedroom.” The agent didn’t move, even though Larry arrived in the room in a second, looking horrified. “I said, get in the bedroom! Do you want more of this or what?” she yelled as she made a little bit more blood slide down Charlie’s neck.
“Wait!” Colby immediately said, putting his hands up. “Ok… ok… I’m going inside. Just don’t hurt him.”
She watched him go into Alan’s bedroom, and once he was inside, she could hear Alan ask again why they were yelling and mentioning sleeping pills.
“Ask your son and his little affair, Alan,” Amita muttered, standing by the door. “I’m so sorry.” Then she went away, taking Charlie with her.
“Why did she have a knife against Charlie’s neck?” Alan muttered in shock. “My God, she’s got my son…”
Colby held his breath, his heart pounding hard inside his chest. He looked at Alan and glanced at Larry, who was walking around in circles, sweating heavily and trembling. “Mr. Eppes… She’s not alright, she’s probably going to take us hostages…” He took a step forward and bit his bottom lip. “But we have everything under control, don’t worry…” No matter what, he didn’t want to disturb Alan. He had enough with the effect of the sleeping pills. Considering the time he had been taking them, more than two weeks now, his system had to be very fragile.
Alan’s eyes became big and his cheeks flushed. Colby should have known that even if the cold pills made him tired and sleepy, he was anything but stupid. “Under control?! She’s out there with my son and a knife and we’ve got it under control?” Charlie’s father yelled, as he messily tried to get up from the bed.
“Mr. Eppes, what are you doing? You’re not ok…” Colby said. He noticed that Larry had approached Alan and was nervously mumbling something no one could hear.
“I don’t give a damn about me, Colby, I care about Charlie, and as his partner, you should care about him, too!”
“Yes, I do care about him, and I’m trying to do something, but I can’t let you…!”
“Listen to me - not you, not anyone is going to keep me away from stopping this insani-!”
All of a sudden, Alan’s entire body jerked; he whined, put his hand on his chest, stumbled and fell onto the floor.
“No!” Larry yelled in a little whine and he ran towards him. He knelt beside him in shock, obviously not knowing what to do in this kind of situation.
In a second, Colby had knelt by his side and was checking Alan’s eyes. Nothing. He listened to his breathing… Too slow...
He wanted to help Charlie but this was even more urgent. He finally rested his ear on Alan’s chest, trying to hear his heart. One beat. Two beats… There wasn’t a third one. There was silence.
“Oh my goodness, Alan…” Larry’s voice faded.
Colby heard Larry cry in desperation as Charlie and Amita started a new discussion outside the room, then he started giving Alan CPR. He put the man’s head back a little way and listened to his breathing first. Then he checked his pulse. They were both gone. “Mr. Eppes…” he whispered, then he covered Alan’s mouth with his in order to give him rescue breathing. Nothing happened. “Damn it!” The next thing he did was compress Alan’s chest, trying to restart his heart. He did it several times, ventilating his lungs at the same time, but nothing seemed to work. “No, don’t do this to me, don’t you do this to Charlie now, Alan, you can’t!”
He continued giving CPR. “C’mon, Alan, c’mon! You’re stronger than this!” Larry’s cries and Amita and Charlie’s yells made him tremble, as his training for this kind of situation seemed to be useless. “Alan, please…” he said, and he couldn’t avoid starting crying, too.
He cried for Charlie, for Alan, for Larry, for Don, for his friends, for everyone. And he couldn’t understand Amita. Why Alan?
And then, just after one more hit, Alan’s heart started to function again.
“Oh,” Larry muttered, as Colby cried from happiness. The agent checked Alan once again; feeling exhausted and angry as he sat on the floor, trying to catch his breath.
Slowly, he wiped away his own tears and covered his face with his hands. Oh, God. Oh, my God. He couldn’t believe what had just happened.
Weird sounds coming from outside made him react again. He got up and desperately left the room. He knew Charlie and Amita had been fighting, and now he had just heard the noise of something going down the stairs.
Something… or someone.
Series: Holding on to a lie, Part 15/?
Characters: Colby/Charlie, Amita, Alan, Larry, David, Don.
Rating: PG-13.
Spoilers: None.
Warnings: None.
Summary: When Alan tries to save his son from Amita, there is a problem.
Feedback: I love feedback. Every comment is a cup of coffee that keeps me posting. :)
Disclaimer: I do not own Numb3rs or anything related to it. But I do own any OCs.
Beta: The wonderful fredbassett.
Previous chapter: Part 14/? - "Not ok" (Charlie/Colby, Amita, Alan, Larry, PG-13)
Author's note: I'm so sorry that this is not behind an LJ-cut. The system hasn't been working well lately. *bangs head against desk*
Holding on to a lie
Part 15: “Under control?”
When David got into the office and noticed Megan’s eyes on him, he knew Colby had told her about their fight. He shook his head, annoyed by his friend’s attitude, but at the same time he was aware that he couldn’t really blame him.
In fact, he regretted having picked up his internal fight with him. Colby was partner, his friend. How could he do that to him?
He remembered very well the moment Colby had come into the room of his apartment and taken the bottle of vodka from his hand. David remembered knowing that he was there, by the bed, while he slept to make the effects of the alcohol go away.
And he also remembered how he had denied everything. He just couldn’t tell Colby “I was abused by Amita,” or “She pointed a gun at me and made me have sex with her.” David was a strong man, and besides knowing that the situation was embarrassing, he was sure that no one would believe him. Amita was a nice, sweet, fragile lady who had never done anything bad in her entire life.
But he was also human. And no matter how many cases he had had, no matter how many excuses he could find in his past experience to convince himself that telling someone what had happened wasn’t pointless, he couldn’t let his secret out.
Walking around the office, he stopped in his tracks. Don was inside one of the offices and looked very worried. Soon he was coming out, yelling at his cell phone. “What? How the hell did those get to the bottle Amita bought him?” David had a weird, bad feeling, but he kept listening. “Charlie! Charlie, wait a second, what are you going to d-!”
Don stopped talking and looked at his phone; Charlie had obviously ended the call. When David thought about what his boss’ words could mean, a horrible answer hit him.
“Don!” he said, walking towards him. “What was that? What did Amita do?”
“The bottle she gave to my father had sleeping pills in it,” Don muttered, as if he couldn’t believe what he was saying.
David took a deep breath. “Where is she now?”
“I don’t know, but Charlie said that he’s taking care of it, and he’s at the house now. Maybe she’s there with him.”
“Don, we have to go there. That’s not going to end well.”
Looking at David, Don glanced at his cell phone again and licked his lips. “Yeah, you’re right. We should go there. I just can’t… I can’t believe… Could it be possible that she had changed the pills?”
The question made David get really nervous. He could have told Don about his own experience, he could have told him that Amita was definitely not ok, but he didn’t. “I don’t know.”
“I mean, that therapist we assigned her, Bob Berenson, could be a rapist or something. Colby did some research and found some very nasty stuff about him.”
“Really?” David muttered. He had wondered why that therapist had let Amita go back to work if she was performing such disturbing behavior, something he should be able to see. Now, he had his answer - the guy was a sex offender and matched her just fine, which only made things more complicated and dangerous.
Don ran a hand over his forehead and finally reacted, too. “Yeah. C’mon, let’s go. All this is really weird, but my father’s health is involved and I’m going to dig in until I find if she was actually the one who messed with it.”
He knows. Oh my god, he knows. Amita couldn’t hold Charlie’s gaze anymore, she couldn’t stand looking at him in the eyes as he spoke to Don through his cell phone and told him that Alan had been taking sleeping pills.
Shocked, in panic and embarrassed, she covered her face with her hands. And he knows who did it. After all, who could have done it but me?
“Did you replace my father’s cold meditation with sleeping pills?” Charlie had yelled at her, not being able to control himself. “What were you thinking? Why did you do it? Why! Is Bob the one who’s messing with your mind? Is he?”
No, no. Bob came into my life long after I had started feeling like this. Long after my stupid mind had taken over…
“Charlie, what’s going on?” Colby’s voice said.
Amita held her breath. Oh god, Colby… She went towards the stairs, but stopped when she heard Charlie again.
“Don’t you run away from me now!”
No, no, no, no… Trembling, she held her bag, as if it was some kind of shield.
“She… she gave my father sleeping pills. No wonder he’s feeling so tired and needs to rest so much! No wonder he’s lost his memory sometimes! Those are really dangerous if you don’t have a genuine condition!”
“What? You…” Colby muttered, and Amita could hear his steps.
“I can’t believe… I don’t get it! Amita, answer to me! What the hell is wrong with you? Are you ok or are you crazy?!”
Maybe I’m crazy, but you’re guilty… I’m not going to pay for this. You need to know what you’ve done. She sneaked a hand inside her bag and took the knife she had brought with her.
“No, Charlie. I’m not ok,” she whispered.
“Then wh-?”
As she had expected, Charlie stopped yelling at her when she turned around and held the knife towards him. “I’m not ok.”
“Amita… what the hell are you doing?” he muttered with his eyes fixed on the weapon, and she couldn’t stand his scared, distant face anymore.
So she reached for him, grabbed his arms, turned him around and put the knife against his neck. She knew that besides not being able to read people’s feelings, Charlie was easily-influenced during violent situations. Now, it hadn’t been difficult for her to take control, knowing that he was shocked because of her actions and as a result, couldn’t react to defend himself.
But Colby knew how to handle things. When Amita lifted her gaze, the agent was already pointing at her with his gun, while Larry stood behind him as if he was his shield. “I know you’re not ok. But this doesn’t have to happen, Amita. Why are you doing this? It’s not worthy.”
As Alan asked what was going on from inside of the room, Amita answered, “What do you know about what’s worthy or not, Colby?” She held Charlie closer to her body, pressing the knife a little bit onto her ex-boyfriend neck. When a tiny drop of blood came out of the wound and Charlie gasped in pain, Colby immediately put his gun down. “That’s very wise… Now put it on the floor.”
Colby obeyed her and when she said, “Your cell phone, too,” he placed the little device on the floor, right beside the gun.
“Why? Why this, why now?” he said, anyway.
Because what you two did was not fair. “Get in the bedroom.” The agent didn’t move, even though Larry arrived in the room in a second, looking horrified. “I said, get in the bedroom! Do you want more of this or what?” she yelled as she made a little bit more blood slide down Charlie’s neck.
“Wait!” Colby immediately said, putting his hands up. “Ok… ok… I’m going inside. Just don’t hurt him.”
She watched him go into Alan’s bedroom, and once he was inside, she could hear Alan ask again why they were yelling and mentioning sleeping pills.
“Ask your son and his little affair, Alan,” Amita muttered, standing by the door. “I’m so sorry.” Then she went away, taking Charlie with her.
“Why did she have a knife against Charlie’s neck?” Alan muttered in shock. “My God, she’s got my son…”
Colby held his breath, his heart pounding hard inside his chest. He looked at Alan and glanced at Larry, who was walking around in circles, sweating heavily and trembling. “Mr. Eppes… She’s not alright, she’s probably going to take us hostages…” He took a step forward and bit his bottom lip. “But we have everything under control, don’t worry…” No matter what, he didn’t want to disturb Alan. He had enough with the effect of the sleeping pills. Considering the time he had been taking them, more than two weeks now, his system had to be very fragile.
Alan’s eyes became big and his cheeks flushed. Colby should have known that even if the cold pills made him tired and sleepy, he was anything but stupid. “Under control?! She’s out there with my son and a knife and we’ve got it under control?” Charlie’s father yelled, as he messily tried to get up from the bed.
“Mr. Eppes, what are you doing? You’re not ok…” Colby said. He noticed that Larry had approached Alan and was nervously mumbling something no one could hear.
“I don’t give a damn about me, Colby, I care about Charlie, and as his partner, you should care about him, too!”
“Yes, I do care about him, and I’m trying to do something, but I can’t let you…!”
“Listen to me - not you, not anyone is going to keep me away from stopping this insani-!”
All of a sudden, Alan’s entire body jerked; he whined, put his hand on his chest, stumbled and fell onto the floor.
“No!” Larry yelled in a little whine and he ran towards him. He knelt beside him in shock, obviously not knowing what to do in this kind of situation.
In a second, Colby had knelt by his side and was checking Alan’s eyes. Nothing. He listened to his breathing… Too slow...
He wanted to help Charlie but this was even more urgent. He finally rested his ear on Alan’s chest, trying to hear his heart. One beat. Two beats… There wasn’t a third one. There was silence.
“Oh my goodness, Alan…” Larry’s voice faded.
Colby heard Larry cry in desperation as Charlie and Amita started a new discussion outside the room, then he started giving Alan CPR. He put the man’s head back a little way and listened to his breathing first. Then he checked his pulse. They were both gone. “Mr. Eppes…” he whispered, then he covered Alan’s mouth with his in order to give him rescue breathing. Nothing happened. “Damn it!” The next thing he did was compress Alan’s chest, trying to restart his heart. He did it several times, ventilating his lungs at the same time, but nothing seemed to work. “No, don’t do this to me, don’t you do this to Charlie now, Alan, you can’t!”
He continued giving CPR. “C’mon, Alan, c’mon! You’re stronger than this!” Larry’s cries and Amita and Charlie’s yells made him tremble, as his training for this kind of situation seemed to be useless. “Alan, please…” he said, and he couldn’t avoid starting crying, too.
He cried for Charlie, for Alan, for Larry, for Don, for his friends, for everyone. And he couldn’t understand Amita. Why Alan?
And then, just after one more hit, Alan’s heart started to function again.
“Oh,” Larry muttered, as Colby cried from happiness. The agent checked Alan once again; feeling exhausted and angry as he sat on the floor, trying to catch his breath.
Slowly, he wiped away his own tears and covered his face with his hands. Oh, God. Oh, my God. He couldn’t believe what had just happened.
Weird sounds coming from outside made him react again. He got up and desperately left the room. He knew Charlie and Amita had been fighting, and now he had just heard the noise of something going down the stairs.
Something… or someone.