Fic: In Love & War, Chapter 10 (Numb3rs, Don / Martin, David / Ian / Bobby, Megan)
Title: In Love & War, Chapter 10
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
Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5
Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9
Don took a good look at the kitchen. Something was missing, but in his sleepy haze he couldn’t figure out what it was. The coffeemaker was set, but not yet on, few sandwiches were waiting on the table. He heard a faint sound repeating again and again. Don followed it to the garage and pulled the door open.
He blinked and started rubbing his eyes.
“So it was you.”
“What?” Martin didn’t interrupt his rhythm. He aimed few sharp hits at the punching bag, followed by a swift kick that sent the bag swinging as far as the chain allowed.
“There was something weird going on in the kitchen, but I had no idea what it was. You’re usually there when I get up.”
“I was already there. I wanted to loose some aggressions before I go to work.”
“With the bag?” Don’s eyebrows came close to his hairline. “We’ve had that hanging here since we moved in and I’ve never seen you here with it.”
“This level of frustration needs serious cures, so I thought I’d punch them out.” Martin gave the bag one more punch and pulled his gloves off. “I used to be pretty good at this. We could spar a bit when you got time.”
“I…” Don eyed the punching bag. The seam had torn open almost all the way and some of stuffing was trying to escape. “Maybe not.”
“Help me with this.” Martin held out his hand so Don could pull off the clove. The inside was sticking to the sweaty skin and Don had to give it a good yank to get it off.
“When did you get up?”
“Around four, I couldn’t sleep.” Martin gave him a kiss on the cheek and picked up a towel from the shelf to wipe his sweaty face. “I’ll go take a shower, put the coffee on.”
He walked out of the garage and Don waited till he heard the sound of the door closing. He approaching the punching bag and gave it a small poke. The contents of the bag fell to the floor with a thud.
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“…hello…”
“Charlie?”
“Who is this…?”
“David. Sinclair. You remember, the same guy who left your house after midnight with a tipsy sniper and a sleeping kid.”
“This better be important or I’ll send Colby to show you his best interrogation techniques.”
“Did I wake you up?”
“You’re calling me at six in the morning, what do you think?”
“Yeah, I don’t normally get up till six thirty, but I couldn’t sleep. Adrenaline’s still pumping.”
“Good for you, and good night.”
“Don’t hung up! I had a reason to call.”
“What?”
“I was thinking you could send what’s left of the cake to the office with Colby. Don and Megan didn’t show up last night so-”
“They’ll get a slice in few hours when normal people are fully awake.”
“I’m not the only one awake at this hour.”
“Name one other person.”
“Bobby. And he’s glaring at me as we speak.”
“He’s at your place?”
“Yeah, he drove us home.”
“So you’re back in good terms.”
“You could say that.”
“Too early for bragging about three-way man love.”
“Nothing like that! We got a kid here, remember?”
“On second thought I could have deal with something juicy to wake me up. Are you sure you don’t have anything for me?”
“Nothing like that, but… How bout a light comic relief?”
“I’ll take it.”
“I’m pretty sure Ian’s having a midlife crisis.”
“That’s nothing new.”
“Couple weeks ago I caught him checking out his hands.”
“His hands?”
“I said something about how big hands Bobby has, and after that I’ve seen him doing that at least three times.”
“Well, he has those dainty, delicate hands…” Charlie giggled.
“Anyway, he’ll get over it.” David’s voice disappeared. Charlie waited, but it didn’t return.
“David? Are you there?”
“Yeah… Have you seen he news yet?”
“What part of I’m still in bed is so hard to understand?”
“I got the local channel on, that nutty cult is having a press conference at noon.”
“Principled Parenting?”
“Yeah, that. I just caught the end of the story, and… wow.”
“What?”
“Good thing they blurred the sensitive bits…”
“Who blurred what?”
“Sorry, there’s that same morning show that did a piece on the custody case. Looks like they got their hands on wannabe mama’s cheery porn past.”
“I thought they weren’t gonna go public with it.”
“That’s what I though too. This is too funny… Think how embarrassing this gotta be.”
“I can imagine.” Charlie stated. He sounded almost awake. “They preach traditional family values and it turns out they were backing a porn star with a drug problem who deserted her own kid.”
“How do you think they got the story?”
“Press always finds something if there’s something to be found. Especially if someone told them where to look.”
“Who are you talking about?”
“Gleeson.” David stated with certainty. “No question about it.”
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“Morning.” Don walked into the bullpen and paused when he reached Megan’s desk. “You got a… minute?”
“What was that pause?” Megan shot him a spiky glare. “I don’t exactly keep a hairdryer in my desk drawer.”
“Why didn’t you do that before you left home?”
“We were at Matt’s place, his shower drain’s clogged up. If you let any water there, you’ll get a dose of green and grey mush coming back up. I came early so I could use the shower here.”
“Okay…” Don tried to keep his facial expressions in control. A small chuckled escaped and he pressed a hand over his mouth. “Sorry.”
“That’s aright. But one word about drowned dogs and I’ll pull out my gun. What did you want?”
“Just talk. I kinda wanted a shrinks opinion, without going to see a shrink.”
“I’m listening.”
“Martin’s been acting weird.”
“How weird?”
“This morning he got up at four to beat the crap out of our punching bag.”
“Is this one of those “and then we ended up doing it on the floor” stories?”
“I’ve never told you those stories.”
“Right, sorry. I was thinking about your brother… Let’s go get some coffee and I’ll give you my full attention.”
“Thanks.” Don pealed down to unlock his own desk drawers and pulled out a small towel from the bottom drawer, where he kept his gym gear. “Advices for me and a towel for you.”
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“Didn’t your mom ever tell you your face would stay that way?” Bobby asked.
“Nope.” David laughed and the same grin returned to his face once again. “This is the funniest thing I’ve seen on TV for years. I can gloat as much as I want.” He finally looked away from the TV. “Is Ian awake?”
“He left ten minutes ago.”
“I didn’t hear anything.”
“He came here and told you here was going for a jog, you stared the screen with that creepy grin on your face.”
“I don’t remember any of that…”
Suddenly Bobby made a quick leap to grab the remote from the coffee table and snapped the TV off.
“I was watching that!”
“Morning.” Bobby greeted and glanced over David’s shoulder where a small girl was rubbing the remains of her sleep from her eyes. “Sleep well?”
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“It’s a perfectly healthy way to express emotions. Anger, frustration-”
“I don’t think you really get the picture here. We’re talking about the same guy who doesn’t wanna put mousetraps to the basement, because it’s too cruel.”
“That’s not a very good connection.” Megan commented and took a sip from her coffee cup. “One night and one morning is not a long time to digest something he obviously took seriously.”
“It wasn’t his fault! And it wasn’t like it was a big deal, he didn’t know her.”
“I don’t think was the issue. I don’t really know him that well, but…”
“You got something to say, I know that look.”
“Remember this is just a personal opinion.”
“I’ll remember.”
“You said he was disappointed in himself.”
“That’s what he said.”
“Fits the picture. He wants everyone to be happy, but sometimes it’s not possible. And he’s used to doing the right thing, so when something doesn’t end well for someone, he takes it as a personal failure. When you’re used to be able to work things out for everyone, it’s frustrating to know you can’t do anything.”
“It was Gleeson who blew the whistle! And it could have come out even if she hadn’t done that.”
“It doesn’t make it any easier.” Megan stated. “And you said he got news from his family, again related to a small child, that might have made the situation harder. Two mothers, both gave up their kids. One just walks away, the other one has long ago lost all control of her own life and is now reaching a point where she’ll either seek help or self-destruct. The parallels are there.”
“Every time I think I’ve gotten over the whole hatred for psychobabble thing…”
“I’m serious. People can feel guilt or responsibility very easily even when there’s no reason for it.”
“So what do I do about it?”
“Nothing. Let him steam it out. Maybe that weekend with his parents is just what he needs.”
“Yeah… after he spends almost a week on the other side of the Atlantic.” Don groaned. He emptied his mug and got up for a refill. “Maybe I should do what Granger did when Charlie was going overboard.”
“What did he do?”
“Fed him sleeping pills without telling him to get him to rest.”
“Amusing, but probably not very effective.”
“I guess…”
“Don, you can’t control him any more than Colby can control Charlie. It’s just not possible. You can’t do anything except let him work it out on his own.”
Chapter 11/11