Fic - SGA/Numb3rs; Insert Cheesy Christmas Lyric Here
Title: Insert Cheesy Christmas Lyric Here
Author: bergann
Fandom: Numb3rs/Stargate Atlantis
Pairing: Colby Granger/Evan Lorne
Rating: PG
Word Count: 2 185
Summary: "I've listened in on the conversations you've had with your sister - you visit me, not her on your leave. Christmas is the season for guilt. Apparently I have a lot of it."
Disclaimer: fic•tion [fíksh'n]: literary works of imagination
Author's Note: For unrequited-rain's birthday! ILU BB ♥♥
Also for the When You Care Enough to Hit Send fest, for which semirose (who also betad! ♥) helpfully picked out the card that'll appear at the end of the fic.
Evan gets a little over two weeks off for Christmas. He arrives at SGC on the 18th and spends Friday and Saturday debriefing and clearing up questions. He spends Sunday morning with the family of Lieutenant Mikita and late evening with the family of Sergeant Conrad.
He's so exhausted by the end of it; he calls his sister and tells her something's come up and that he'll catch a flight on Tuesday, and gets on a plane to Los Angeles instead. He spends the time on the plane and in the taxi feeling guilty, but when he stumbles into Colby's apartment and buries his face in Colby's neck, he can't help but think he did the right thing.
"Welcome back," Colby murmurs, laughing, and Evan's reply is muffled by Colby's shirt. "I already had dinner. I wasn't expecting you."
"That's okay," Evan says as he moves to pick up his bags and yawns, "I'm too exhausted to eat."
"Knock yourself out," Colby tells him, "I'll be there in a few minutes; I have to finish this thing first."
"Sure," Evan says, already on his way into Colby's bedroom. He dumps his bags by the closet, takes off his clothes and pulls on one of Colby's FBI t-shirts, asleep nearly as soon as he slides under the sheets.
When he wakes up, Colby's in the kitchen with coffee and eggs. Evan feels better than he has in the weeks since two of his team died, just from sleeping in Colby's bed and waking up to finding Colby humming over the frying pan.
Evan pushes him up against the counter and kisses him until the burning eggs can't be ignored any longer. "Hi."
"I'm slightly offended you prioritized sleep over that," Colby tells him as he thrashes the burnt eggs.
"At least you rank over food," Evan answers and moves away before he's tempted to do anything that results in another batched of burnt eggs. "Aren't you supposed to be at work?"
"Don and Nikki've got today." Colby says, "We're trading the days off two and two for the holidays, unless a big case pops up. I figure I'll be your local driver, seeing as how I got the feeling you haven't had time for Christmas shopping yet."
"You mean duty free gifts aren't all the rage with kids these days?" Evan asks and Colby just grins as he pushes eggs onto Evan's plate.
When they get home from the mall, Evan can't help but look at the bags Colby sets down and doubt he'll be able to bring them with him on the plane.
"It's like I've bought presents for the entire ci--" Evan starts and swallows the rest of the word, the pause just a little too long before he finishes, "--base."
Colby gives him a look that clearly says he heard the slip, but all he says is, "Some of those are mine."
"You're an awful person to shop with," Evan says accusingly, "All you did was encourage."
"Hey, they're your nephews." Colby shrugs, unrepentant. "I've listened in on the conversations you've had with your sister - you visit me, not her on your leave. Christmas is the season for guilt. Apparently I have a lot of it."
"I'll remember that while I watch the security at the airport make off with half of this stuff." Evan says with a sigh and thinks that on the bright side, everything is already wrapped.
"You're being dramatic," Colby says as he puts away the groceries they'd bought on the way back, "They'd probably wait until you're gone."
Later, after they've eaten and they're in the car on the way to the airport, Evan says quietly, "It'd be nice, to take you with me one time."
He doesn't try to imagine it - what it would be like spending Christmas with his sister and Colby. Doesn't let himself dwell on it, but if things were different - if the rules weren't what they were, if Erika's husband wasn't a Colonel, Evan wouldn't hesitate.
"I know," Colby says after a moment, and they drive the rest of the way in silence.
*
Erika picks him up at the airport, and hugs him tight right after she hits him on the back of the head. "You said you would write and visit," Erika complains, not letting go. "You only come at Christmas and sending postcards doesn't count as 'writing', Evan. Don't get me wrong, the postcards are beautiful, but I'd like it if I could get a little more than three sentences at a time. There's even this thing called the Internet now, where you can write me stuff with an almost unlimited amount of space."
"Aren't you going to at least wait until I'm settled in your guest bedroom before you start complaining?" Evan asks. "Because I'm fairly certain I can still catch a plane back."
"Oh shut up," Erika laughs. "Mark and Joe are both really excited to have Uncle Evan visiting again. You're like the new Santa Claus."
"The amount of presents I have with me, I could be," Evan admits and she smiles at him, bright and happy.
"I've missed you, little brother." Erika says, "And I love you, but I am dead on my feet today, so let's save the catch-up for the morning, what do you say?"
"Sounds good," Evan agrees and dumps his bags in the back of her car.
*
He gets waken up in the morning by Mark and Joe barreling through the guest room door and leaping onto the bed. "Didn't your mom teach you not to wake up guests at ungodly hours in the morning?"
"Nope," Joe says happily and clings to Evan's right side. Mark wriggles down on the other side and smiles big as he says, "You're not a guest, you're family."
Erika laughs from the doorway. "It's 10am. I could only hold them off for so long."
"Thanks for the effort," Evan tells her and starts tickling Mark's side until the boy is howling with laughter, with Joe hanging off his back, arms thrown around Evan's neck.
*
To Evan's great surprise, Erika waits until it's dark outside, when Mark and Joe are tucked into bed, when Connor has already gone to bed to give them time to catch up, and they're settled down on the couch, before she says with her voice deceptively casual, "So what's in LA?"
"What?" Evan asks, looking away from the television. For a moment the confusion on his face is absolutely real, because he has no idea where the question comes from.
"You flew in from LA," Erika shrugs. "You call from there sometimes too - I recognize the area code. But you're stationed in Colorado, so I figure there's gotta be something in LA since you keep going there."
Evan shifts on the couch and eyes his sister. "You've called the number, haven't you?"
Erika beams at him. "Once or twice, when my sisterly curiosity got out of hand while I happened to be bored. So who's Colby Granger?"
He'd always planned on telling her about Colby, seeing as how it's been five years, but the same year he'd been working up to it, Colby had been arrested and accused of espionage, and it had put things on hold again. "I met him in Afghanistan. He was doing a tour with the Army."
It's probably a good thing Erika had figured out Evan's sexual orientation pretty quick when she'd walked in on him with his tongue down Sean Thomson's throat. It means the corners of her mouth turn up in amusement instead of confusion as she says, "Oh there's definitely more to the story than army-buddies, if you're spending all your leave with him."
"We're together," Evan says and kind of wishes he'd accepted the offer of a beer earlier, since it'd give him something to do with his hands. "He's - we got together a couple of months before I got shipped out."
He isn't entirely sure what reaction he'd been expecting from his sister, but the pillow that connects with his head really isn't one of them. "You've been together for years and you never told me? Evan Lorne, you are my baby brother! You're supposed to tell me about these things!"
"I know!" Evan wrestles the pillow from her grasp before she can hit him with it again. "I was going to, but - it got complicated for a while, I thought we were breaking up but when we didn't, it wasn't really a conversation I wanted to have on the phone. I kept thinking about Connor - if I get a court martial, I'd never be able to go back."
"Oh Evan, I get that. But telling me, that's not telling Connor. And Connor wouldn't court martial you, Evan, he wouldn't." Erika says and wraps her arm around his shoulder. "He still doesn't know you're gay, and I've known that since you were sixteen. I wouldn't have told."
"I know," Evan admits, "I just - I didn't want to lose anything, and it just felt safer to keep things as they were."
Erika makes a small noise and says, "Is he hot? Do you have a picture? Does he have a Facebook? What does he do for a living? Make up for lost time, tell me everything about your dirty little secret."
"Will you stop it," Evan laughs, "Yes, he is and no, he doesn't and he works for the FBI."
"You must have a picture," She wheedles, hooking her chin on his shoulder. "Show me, Evan. Brag about your man."
"Okay, find me my laptop," Evan says, and she shoots up faster than he can blink, disappearing into the kitchen where he'd been double-checking a recipe earlier while he'd helped her cook. She reappears in just seconds, Evan's Dell in hand, and when she drops back down to the couch Evan shifts to better accommodate her. "I don't - I don't really have that many pictures."
"Ten will do," Erika says agreeably and Evan rolls his eyes and shoves her a little, grinning all the while.
*
"Merry Christmas," Colby says warmly when he picks up the phone as Evan hides himself in the guest room for a moment while his sister and her family are distracted downstairs. “You haven't been killed by your nephews yet, right? I mean, I've heard the horror stories about kids that age."
"I think the only people I'm in danger of are my sister and her husband, you made me buy the nephews too much stuff. I've become their favorite." Evan grins. "They don't approve of bribery."
"Too bad," Colby laughs. "Where'd the world be without bribery?"
"I don't know about the world, but I think I'd be dropping in the ranks."
"Hey, you're an awesome uncle."
"So listen," Evan says nervously, "my sister - she kind of suspected, so I told her. About us."
Colby suddenly goes very quiet and slowly asks, "That's -- is it -- what does she think? I mean, I know Connor's Army..."
Evan realizes what his voice must've sounded like - over the phone there's no real way for Colby to know that Evan's nervous about Colby's reaction to Erika knowing, not because he thinks he's about to get a court martial. "No, he doesn't know. Just Erika, and she's known about me since I was sixteen so, it's just you that's new, and I think she's happy. I kind of think she didn't really expect me to find anyone, not with my job and everything, so. She seemed really happy. She says the next time I have leave, she wants to come down to LA."
There's a loud exhale on the other phone and Colby laughs a little breathlessly, "You scared me there, Evan. Shit, I thought you were about to tell me you were expecting a court martial. Fuck, but that's great. Your sister's awesome."
"Yeah," Evan laughs, "I know."
"Tell her half of those gifts are my fault, then," Colby says, "I'd feel bad if I just let you shoulder the blame now."
"I've already told her it's all you," Evan admits, smiling.
They talk for a while about Christmas dinner and the presents, Colby making both of them laugh when he says he bought Charlie a year's supply of chalk, and then when the conversation's winding down and Evan knows he's about to get called back down, Colby says, "So, when you get back, do you - do you want to meet David and the Eppes's?"
Evan doesn't point out that he's already met David and the entire Eppes family, because he knows this is Colby asking if he's okay with Colby's friends knowing.
David and Alan already do, since Evan had forgotten to lock the door once and David had come over unannounced and walked in on them making out on the couch, and because Alan apparently makes Colby spill his secrets with well-prepared dinner dishes.
"Yeah," Evan says and he nods, even though he knows Colby can't see him, "Yeah, I'd like that."
Author: bergann
Fandom: Numb3rs/Stargate Atlantis
Pairing: Colby Granger/Evan Lorne
Rating: PG
Word Count: 2 185
Summary: "I've listened in on the conversations you've had with your sister - you visit me, not her on your leave. Christmas is the season for guilt. Apparently I have a lot of it."
Disclaimer: fic•tion [fíksh'n]: literary works of imagination
Author's Note: For unrequited-rain's birthday! ILU BB ♥♥
Also for the When You Care Enough to Hit Send fest, for which semirose (who also betad! ♥) helpfully picked out the card that'll appear at the end of the fic.
Evan gets a little over two weeks off for Christmas. He arrives at SGC on the 18th and spends Friday and Saturday debriefing and clearing up questions. He spends Sunday morning with the family of Lieutenant Mikita and late evening with the family of Sergeant Conrad.
He's so exhausted by the end of it; he calls his sister and tells her something's come up and that he'll catch a flight on Tuesday, and gets on a plane to Los Angeles instead. He spends the time on the plane and in the taxi feeling guilty, but when he stumbles into Colby's apartment and buries his face in Colby's neck, he can't help but think he did the right thing.
"Welcome back," Colby murmurs, laughing, and Evan's reply is muffled by Colby's shirt. "I already had dinner. I wasn't expecting you."
"That's okay," Evan says as he moves to pick up his bags and yawns, "I'm too exhausted to eat."
"Knock yourself out," Colby tells him, "I'll be there in a few minutes; I have to finish this thing first."
"Sure," Evan says, already on his way into Colby's bedroom. He dumps his bags by the closet, takes off his clothes and pulls on one of Colby's FBI t-shirts, asleep nearly as soon as he slides under the sheets.
When he wakes up, Colby's in the kitchen with coffee and eggs. Evan feels better than he has in the weeks since two of his team died, just from sleeping in Colby's bed and waking up to finding Colby humming over the frying pan.
Evan pushes him up against the counter and kisses him until the burning eggs can't be ignored any longer. "Hi."
"I'm slightly offended you prioritized sleep over that," Colby tells him as he thrashes the burnt eggs.
"At least you rank over food," Evan answers and moves away before he's tempted to do anything that results in another batched of burnt eggs. "Aren't you supposed to be at work?"
"Don and Nikki've got today." Colby says, "We're trading the days off two and two for the holidays, unless a big case pops up. I figure I'll be your local driver, seeing as how I got the feeling you haven't had time for Christmas shopping yet."
"You mean duty free gifts aren't all the rage with kids these days?" Evan asks and Colby just grins as he pushes eggs onto Evan's plate.
When they get home from the mall, Evan can't help but look at the bags Colby sets down and doubt he'll be able to bring them with him on the plane.
"It's like I've bought presents for the entire ci--" Evan starts and swallows the rest of the word, the pause just a little too long before he finishes, "--base."
Colby gives him a look that clearly says he heard the slip, but all he says is, "Some of those are mine."
"You're an awful person to shop with," Evan says accusingly, "All you did was encourage."
"Hey, they're your nephews." Colby shrugs, unrepentant. "I've listened in on the conversations you've had with your sister - you visit me, not her on your leave. Christmas is the season for guilt. Apparently I have a lot of it."
"I'll remember that while I watch the security at the airport make off with half of this stuff." Evan says with a sigh and thinks that on the bright side, everything is already wrapped.
"You're being dramatic," Colby says as he puts away the groceries they'd bought on the way back, "They'd probably wait until you're gone."
Later, after they've eaten and they're in the car on the way to the airport, Evan says quietly, "It'd be nice, to take you with me one time."
He doesn't try to imagine it - what it would be like spending Christmas with his sister and Colby. Doesn't let himself dwell on it, but if things were different - if the rules weren't what they were, if Erika's husband wasn't a Colonel, Evan wouldn't hesitate.
"I know," Colby says after a moment, and they drive the rest of the way in silence.
*
Erika picks him up at the airport, and hugs him tight right after she hits him on the back of the head. "You said you would write and visit," Erika complains, not letting go. "You only come at Christmas and sending postcards doesn't count as 'writing', Evan. Don't get me wrong, the postcards are beautiful, but I'd like it if I could get a little more than three sentences at a time. There's even this thing called the Internet now, where you can write me stuff with an almost unlimited amount of space."
"Aren't you going to at least wait until I'm settled in your guest bedroom before you start complaining?" Evan asks. "Because I'm fairly certain I can still catch a plane back."
"Oh shut up," Erika laughs. "Mark and Joe are both really excited to have Uncle Evan visiting again. You're like the new Santa Claus."
"The amount of presents I have with me, I could be," Evan admits and she smiles at him, bright and happy.
"I've missed you, little brother." Erika says, "And I love you, but I am dead on my feet today, so let's save the catch-up for the morning, what do you say?"
"Sounds good," Evan agrees and dumps his bags in the back of her car.
*
He gets waken up in the morning by Mark and Joe barreling through the guest room door and leaping onto the bed. "Didn't your mom teach you not to wake up guests at ungodly hours in the morning?"
"Nope," Joe says happily and clings to Evan's right side. Mark wriggles down on the other side and smiles big as he says, "You're not a guest, you're family."
Erika laughs from the doorway. "It's 10am. I could only hold them off for so long."
"Thanks for the effort," Evan tells her and starts tickling Mark's side until the boy is howling with laughter, with Joe hanging off his back, arms thrown around Evan's neck.
*
To Evan's great surprise, Erika waits until it's dark outside, when Mark and Joe are tucked into bed, when Connor has already gone to bed to give them time to catch up, and they're settled down on the couch, before she says with her voice deceptively casual, "So what's in LA?"
"What?" Evan asks, looking away from the television. For a moment the confusion on his face is absolutely real, because he has no idea where the question comes from.
"You flew in from LA," Erika shrugs. "You call from there sometimes too - I recognize the area code. But you're stationed in Colorado, so I figure there's gotta be something in LA since you keep going there."
Evan shifts on the couch and eyes his sister. "You've called the number, haven't you?"
Erika beams at him. "Once or twice, when my sisterly curiosity got out of hand while I happened to be bored. So who's Colby Granger?"
He'd always planned on telling her about Colby, seeing as how it's been five years, but the same year he'd been working up to it, Colby had been arrested and accused of espionage, and it had put things on hold again. "I met him in Afghanistan. He was doing a tour with the Army."
It's probably a good thing Erika had figured out Evan's sexual orientation pretty quick when she'd walked in on him with his tongue down Sean Thomson's throat. It means the corners of her mouth turn up in amusement instead of confusion as she says, "Oh there's definitely more to the story than army-buddies, if you're spending all your leave with him."
"We're together," Evan says and kind of wishes he'd accepted the offer of a beer earlier, since it'd give him something to do with his hands. "He's - we got together a couple of months before I got shipped out."
He isn't entirely sure what reaction he'd been expecting from his sister, but the pillow that connects with his head really isn't one of them. "You've been together for years and you never told me? Evan Lorne, you are my baby brother! You're supposed to tell me about these things!"
"I know!" Evan wrestles the pillow from her grasp before she can hit him with it again. "I was going to, but - it got complicated for a while, I thought we were breaking up but when we didn't, it wasn't really a conversation I wanted to have on the phone. I kept thinking about Connor - if I get a court martial, I'd never be able to go back."
"Oh Evan, I get that. But telling me, that's not telling Connor. And Connor wouldn't court martial you, Evan, he wouldn't." Erika says and wraps her arm around his shoulder. "He still doesn't know you're gay, and I've known that since you were sixteen. I wouldn't have told."
"I know," Evan admits, "I just - I didn't want to lose anything, and it just felt safer to keep things as they were."
Erika makes a small noise and says, "Is he hot? Do you have a picture? Does he have a Facebook? What does he do for a living? Make up for lost time, tell me everything about your dirty little secret."
"Will you stop it," Evan laughs, "Yes, he is and no, he doesn't and he works for the FBI."
"You must have a picture," She wheedles, hooking her chin on his shoulder. "Show me, Evan. Brag about your man."
"Okay, find me my laptop," Evan says, and she shoots up faster than he can blink, disappearing into the kitchen where he'd been double-checking a recipe earlier while he'd helped her cook. She reappears in just seconds, Evan's Dell in hand, and when she drops back down to the couch Evan shifts to better accommodate her. "I don't - I don't really have that many pictures."
"Ten will do," Erika says agreeably and Evan rolls his eyes and shoves her a little, grinning all the while.
*
"Merry Christmas," Colby says warmly when he picks up the phone as Evan hides himself in the guest room for a moment while his sister and her family are distracted downstairs. “You haven't been killed by your nephews yet, right? I mean, I've heard the horror stories about kids that age."
"I think the only people I'm in danger of are my sister and her husband, you made me buy the nephews too much stuff. I've become their favorite." Evan grins. "They don't approve of bribery."
"Too bad," Colby laughs. "Where'd the world be without bribery?"
"I don't know about the world, but I think I'd be dropping in the ranks."
"Hey, you're an awesome uncle."
"So listen," Evan says nervously, "my sister - she kind of suspected, so I told her. About us."
Colby suddenly goes very quiet and slowly asks, "That's -- is it -- what does she think? I mean, I know Connor's Army..."
Evan realizes what his voice must've sounded like - over the phone there's no real way for Colby to know that Evan's nervous about Colby's reaction to Erika knowing, not because he thinks he's about to get a court martial. "No, he doesn't know. Just Erika, and she's known about me since I was sixteen so, it's just you that's new, and I think she's happy. I kind of think she didn't really expect me to find anyone, not with my job and everything, so. She seemed really happy. She says the next time I have leave, she wants to come down to LA."
There's a loud exhale on the other phone and Colby laughs a little breathlessly, "You scared me there, Evan. Shit, I thought you were about to tell me you were expecting a court martial. Fuck, but that's great. Your sister's awesome."
"Yeah," Evan laughs, "I know."
"Tell her half of those gifts are my fault, then," Colby says, "I'd feel bad if I just let you shoulder the blame now."
"I've already told her it's all you," Evan admits, smiling.
They talk for a while about Christmas dinner and the presents, Colby making both of them laugh when he says he bought Charlie a year's supply of chalk, and then when the conversation's winding down and Evan knows he's about to get called back down, Colby says, "So, when you get back, do you - do you want to meet David and the Eppes's?"
Evan doesn't point out that he's already met David and the entire Eppes family, because he knows this is Colby asking if he's okay with Colby's friends knowing.
David and Alan already do, since Evan had forgotten to lock the door once and David had come over unannounced and walked in on them making out on the couch, and because Alan apparently makes Colby spill his secrets with well-prepared dinner dishes.
"Yeah," Evan says and he nods, even though he knows Colby can't see him, "Yeah, I'd like that."