Numb3rs Fic: What Was and What Should Never Have Been
Written for numb3rs100 Challenge #205 - Video
Title: What Was and What Should Never Have Been
Pairing/Characters: Don, Colby, David
Rating: PG13
Word Count: 300
Spoilers: Judgment Call
Summary: The video's a little piece of Charlie Don can hold on to
Notes/Warnings: Read the disclaimer on my LJ
There is a video Don watches on his laptop.
Amita shot the footage at one of those inane Cal Sci competitions: Charlie breaking away from the pack of huddling scientists to talk to the camera, his usual cocky self, bragging that with his help Larry's Physics team would surely prevail. Don never really got geek trash talk, but Charlie's natural ebullience brought it to life, as natural as Don had once trash talked his fellow agents or baseball teammates. At work he has to watch with headphones, but at home he puts the video on auto-repeat and turns the volume up. Charlie's voice fills the room and if he closes his eyes, Don can pretend his brother is back with him again.
There is a video Colby watches at the FBI.
A million times Colby thinks of how he could have worded it better: "There's a car waiting to take you to the hospital" or "Your brother's strong, he'll pull through." He watches himself walk into the interrogation room where Don is working alone. The sound's turned off. It's painful enough to watch Don's collapse, wretched agony twisting his features. The unearthly howl of crushing grief already haunts Colby's dreams; he doesn't need to hear it again.
There is a video David watches at home.
It's just a rough thing Colby shot at the office, but he likes to remember when Don was the boss - back when he still wore a gun and did field work, before the quiet desk job management gifted him with after Charlie. David can't help missing the days when they were a team. Some days he visits Don in Forensics, tries to talk him into lunch. Some days, not so many anymore, he visits Charlie. Not that Charlie will ever know he was there.
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Title: What Was and What Should Never Have Been
Pairing/Characters: Don, Colby, David
Rating: PG13
Word Count: 300
Spoilers: Judgment Call
Summary: The video's a little piece of Charlie Don can hold on to
Notes/Warnings: Read the disclaimer on my LJ
There is a video Don watches on his laptop.
Amita shot the footage at one of those inane Cal Sci competitions: Charlie breaking away from the pack of huddling scientists to talk to the camera, his usual cocky self, bragging that with his help Larry's Physics team would surely prevail. Don never really got geek trash talk, but Charlie's natural ebullience brought it to life, as natural as Don had once trash talked his fellow agents or baseball teammates. At work he has to watch with headphones, but at home he puts the video on auto-repeat and turns the volume up. Charlie's voice fills the room and if he closes his eyes, Don can pretend his brother is back with him again.
There is a video Colby watches at the FBI.
A million times Colby thinks of how he could have worded it better: "There's a car waiting to take you to the hospital" or "Your brother's strong, he'll pull through." He watches himself walk into the interrogation room where Don is working alone. The sound's turned off. It's painful enough to watch Don's collapse, wretched agony twisting his features. The unearthly howl of crushing grief already haunts Colby's dreams; he doesn't need to hear it again.
There is a video David watches at home.
It's just a rough thing Colby shot at the office, but he likes to remember when Don was the boss - back when he still wore a gun and did field work, before the quiet desk job management gifted him with after Charlie. David can't help missing the days when they were a team. Some days he visits Don in Forensics, tries to talk him into lunch. Some days, not so many anymore, he visits Charlie. Not that Charlie will ever know he was there.
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