Fic: Reduced Sentence (Numb3rs, Don Eppes / Martin)
Title: Reduced Sentence
Fandom: Numb3rs
Pair: Charlie Eppes / Colby Granger,
Don Eppes / Martin Fridegord
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Not mine, etc.
Feedback: Always Welcome
NUMB3RS Main List
Follows:
Like Old Times (NC-17)
and
Starting From The Basics
“Your turn.” Martin turned and buried his face into the pillow.
“Can’t you…..?” Don groaned.
“No. I’ve handled the last five times, you haven’t done anything. It’s your turn.”
“What if it’s a diaper situation?”
“Then you change her diaper. Go.”
“Okay….” Don crawled out of the bed and headed to the end of the bed where Helen was screaming her head off in her bassinet.
“Martin?”
“What?”
“Can I use rubber gloves?”
----------------------------------------------
“Good morning.” Martin greeted Don from the couch. He was feeding Helen from a bottle and looked more cheerful then anyone had a right to look after being woken up six times in one night.
“Stop that, I’m not in the mood.”
“I can’t stop, she’s still eating.”
“Not that. I’m too starved for sleep to listen someone telling me how good the morning is.”
“You got to sleep more than I did, so stop whining. You wanna feed her?”
“Not now, I’m still half asleep. Coffee?”
“No thanks.”
“I mean do we have coffee?”
“In the cupboard.”
“Do we have any coffee in the pot?”
“No, I haven’t had any coffee yet.”
“Why not? You drink coffee, why didn’t you make coffee?”
“Just because I drink coffee, it doesn’t mean I need to get some before I can do anything else. That’s not how it goes.”
“That is how it goes!” Don leaned against the backrest of the couch. “You know I love you, right?”
“Right.”
“And I love all you’re good qualities.” Don paused. “But sometimes the whole practically perfect in every way -act really gets on my nerves!”
“Don’t yell in front of the baby.”
“And don’t act like a Mary-frigging-Poppins when I’m sleep deprived and ready to kill for a cup of coffee.”
Martin gave him an amused glance and turned back to tickle Helen. “Uncle Don’s pretty grouchy, isn’t he?”
“And there you go again!”
“Don, one more yell like that and you will not get any S-E-X for a week.”
“Why are you spelling like that?”
“We don’t talk about S-E-X in front of a B-A-B-Y, especially when she’s drinking her M-I-L-K. You never know what awful traumas she’ll get from that.”
“She’s not even two months old! She doesn’t even know what we’re doing when we’re talking!”
“One week.”
“You can’t be serious!”
“Two weeks.”
“Two weeks!”
“Three weeks.”
Don stared at him for a minute. Then he started banging his head against the couch backrest.
“Don, stop that.” Martin pulled the empty bottle from Helen, and placed her against his shoulder. “Go make coffee, and calm down. After Colby’s picks up her up, we can work some kind of a settlement to reduce your sentence.”
“Really?”
“And bring me a bagel when you go to the kitchen.”
----------------------------------------------
After ten minutes and two mugs of coffee, the word had miraculously taken a turn for the better. Don filled another cup with coffee, smeared a bagel with cream cheese and took both to the living room. He placed them on the coffee table like a peace offer.
“Is she still awake?”
“About to doze off.” Martin whispered and rocked Helen slowly in his arms.
“Are you mad at me?”
“I wasn’t mad at you. Disciplinary actions don’t mean I’m mad, they give you a platform to observe your actions and their effect to the situation.”
“You sound like Chuck…..”
“Not my fault. My last job yesterday was to go through twenty pages of legal jargon. They always try to explain everything as complicatedly as possible. After a while you do it and don’t even notice it.”
“It’s kinda cute.” Don sat down next to him and leaned his head against the other man’s shoulder. “So….. how do you think I can reduce my sentence?”
Martin chuckled. “I told you we will not talk about that stuff in front of her. But I’ll give you a warning. It may take all weekend to make it up to me.”
“Really?” Don grinned.
“Yep.”